Category: Fantasy

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Edifice


By Andrzej Klimowski (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-25-6 (TPB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Christmas treat for Sentimentalists Who Can’t Switch Their Brains Off …9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

Born in London in 1949 of proudly Polish heritage (me too!), Andrzej Klimowski studied at St. Martin’s School of Art in London and the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. A world-renowned designer, poster maker, illustrator, writer, political satirist, filmmaker and graphic novelist (go check out collaborations and adaptations like The Master and Margarita, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robot and Behind the Curtain or solo efforts The Depository, The Secret and Horace Dorlan), he was Head of Illustration at the Royal College of Art until they promoted him to Professor Emeritus. With his wife Danusia Schejbal, Klimowski still produces graphic art and profound works like this book. You probably didn’t see his retrospective at the National Theatre, London, but you really should have.

At least you can compensate by falling in love, in awe and in wonder at this dark wry, twisty exploration of human nature and polite foibles at Christmas…

Set in the iconic and dankly expressionistic city of Engelstadt (City of Angels!), a broad, socially disparate group congregate in and around one certain building. Each has a remote, compartmentalised life, full of secrets and desires, but occasionally the so-civilised residents grudgingly get together. It’s the done thing after all, and who would be so churlish as to decline an invitation from formidable matriarch Lady Dendrite poised at the peak and at the top of this heap?

However, strange events are unfolding in run-up to that much-anticipated soiree. All those isolated, iconic lives (a domestic, her kid, a strange foreigner, clerics, pontificating professor, hero/victim, love interest and a monster… just like some bleak game of Cluedo!) are about to intrude and burst in upon each other… at least if sudden disappearances and odd phenomena outside the tall straight walls don’t upset everyone’s plans…

Comfortingly macabre, and unravelling at its own mesmeric, seductive pace, Edifice is a captivating visual treat, a sinister social comedy of errors if not terrors and a puzzle-game/trick played on and for you. This is a purely pictorial extravaganza you will either love or hate, but should not ignore.

(PS. I loved it.)
© Andrzej Klimowski, 2024. All rights reserved

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Red Moon


By Carlos Trillo & Eduardo Risso, translated by Zeljko Medic (Dark Horse/SAF Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-447-7(HC)  eISBN: 978-1-62115-916-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Marvel’s Most Magical… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

If you like a whiff of tongue in cheek whimsy with your fantastic fairytales you might want to take a look at this superb treat from prolific and much-missed Argentinean journalist and comics writer Carlos Trillo (Topo Gigio, Alvar Mayor, El Loco Chávez, Peter Kampf, Cyber Six, Point de rupture) and terrifyingly versatile illustrator Eduardo Risso (Batman, 100 Bullets, Jonny Double, Parque Chas, Simon, Boy Vampire), starring an affable boy acrobat and a tempestuous little princess.

Los misterios de la Luna roja was originally released as a quartet of comics between 1997 and 1998 by Ervin Rustemagi?’s Balkan publishing powerhouse Strip Art Features and appears here as compiled in a stunning translated tome thanks to Dark Horse Comics. Kicking off with scene-setting epic ‘Bran the Invisible’, the supremely wry, deftly comedic action opens as junior tumbler Antolin and his showbiz mentors Crocker & Theo fetch up their travelling show in the extremely depressed and downhearted land of Burien.

Unable to raise a single smile or any sign approbation, the lad soon learns that the kingdom is in mourning. Burien’s Lord and defender has been stricken with grief since his wife Tyl died. Moreover, their daughter Moon is both bonkers and prone to violence. She also talks to (shouts at and fights with) an invisible friend…

However, after encountering the red-haired daughter of the despondent widower, Antolin is quickly forced to conclude that she’s not crazy at all. His first clue is that unseen Bran apparently predicted the acrobat’s arrival and how the orphan boy would help “Red Moon” save the land. The clincher, though, is that something undetectable keeps hitting him…

There’s no time to waste since the marauding armies of the cruel yet cowardly Lord of Leona are already making their uncontested way over the now-undefended borders…

And thus begins an epic confection with crucial quests, astounding odysseys, barbarically vile villains, fairy queens, witches, dragons and monsters all in attendance as the valiant children – and Bran – flee the invasion, uncover the incredible truth of Tyl’s fate and seek to amass a meagre but prophesied army of incredible individuals to rescue Burien and restore Moon’s father to his previous competence and glory…

The saga concludes as Antolin and Red Moon return to the troubled land of Burien resolutely accompanied by their implausibly unbeatable ‘Attack Circus’ – and a few useful Fairy trinkets – resolved to repel the vile invasion and deliver to the sadistic Leona his just deserts. Controversially, that inevitable prospect provides no Happy Ever After for Antolin, who learns in the throes of triumph for Burian that his beloved mentors Theo & Crocker were sent to certain doom by the invaders…

Thus he sets off again, following their trail into ‘The Never Kingdom’ and is soon delighted to see Moon – and (not see) Bran – following the former partner-in-peril. Braving icy wastes, horrific beasts and a population of magically-mutated monsters, the kids challenge the power of wicked crone Panta and consequently discover that the malevolent sorceress and cannibal might perhaps be the long-lost mother of foundling Antolin…

Family feeling doesn’t count for much in Panta’s world, so there are few regrets after Moon discovers the secret of reversing the witch’s transformation spells and starts putting the Never Kingdom to rights…

The fabulously engaging, deliciously trenchant frolics then wrap up with the introduction of insalubrious junior jester Patapaf – and his ventriloquistic stick Pitipif – who play a critical role in the search for ‘The Book of All Dreams’.

With peace and joy restored to his subjects, the widowed Lord of Burian remarries but his new bride is almost immediately abducted by invulnerable ogre Lamermor de Granf to ensure that her husband will duel him for the right to rule Burien. Outraged Moon can do nothing until she enjoys a fairy-sent dream and learns the smug giant has a hidden weakness. Setting off with Patapaf to find wandering showman Antolin and talking cat Blas Pascual de la Galera the little warriors invade Witch Queen Yaga’s fortress – and subconscious – to ferret out a long-occluded means to destroy Lamermor, accidentally acquiring an unlikely ally who will ensure their victory and a Happy Ending at last…

Fast, funny and filled with family-friendly action and thrills, Red Moon is a delirious double-edged delight, with knowing sophistication for adult readers working side-by-side with gloriously inventive takes on traditional tale-telling, adeptly realised by Risso’s magnificently surreal illustration.

Ideal bedtime reading for anybody and any time.
Red Moon™ & © 2005, 2006, 2014 SAF Comics. All rights reserved.

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Yakari and Nanabozho (volume 11)


By Derib & Job, coloured by Dominque and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-177-8 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Closing what has been an already appalling month for planet Earth, (belated) news came to us yesterday that we have lost two more of comics’ most prodigious and influential talents. You’re all busy and so am I, but we can’t let the events go unremarked. Here’s a quick reminder in review form of what will be so missed, but which we can still enjoy forever…

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A World We All Want … 9/10

In 1964 children’s magazine Le Crapaud à lunettes was founded by Swiss journalist André Jobin (25/10/1927-08/10/2024), who then wrote for it under the pseudonym Job. Three years later, he hired artist and fellow Swiss Franco-phone Claude de Ribaupierre, AKA “Derib”.

The illustrator had launched his own career as an assistant at Studio Peyo (home of Les Schtroumpfs): working on The Smurfs strips for venerable weekly Le Journal de Spirou. Thereafter, together they created the splendid Adventures of the Owl Pythagore before striking pure comics gold a few years later with their next collaboration.

Born in Delémont, Jobin split his time between Bande Dessinées – 39 Yakari albums and 3 for Pythagore – and his other writing editing and publishing briefs: an admirably restrained and outstandingly effective legacy to be proud of.

Derib – equally au fait with enticing, comically dynamic “Marcinelle” cartoon style yarns and devastatingly compelling meta-realistic action illustrated action epics became one of the Continent’s most prolific and revered creators with such groundbreaking strips as Buddy Longway, Celui-qui-est-nà-deux-fois, Jo (first comic to deal with AIDS), Pour toi, Sandra and La Grande Saga Indienne. They haven’t been translated into English yet, but still we patiently wait in hope and anticipation…

Yakari is considered by fans and critics to be the strip which led Derib to his deserved mega-stardom. Debuting in 1969, self-contained episodes trace the eventful, nomadic life of an Oglala Lakota boy on the Great Plains, with stories set sometime after the introduction of horses (by colonising Conquistadores) but before the coming of modern Europeans.

The series – which also generated two separate animated TV series and a movie – has notched up 42 albums thus far: a testament to its evergreen vitality and brilliance of its creators, even though originator Job moved on in 2016, replaced by Frenchman Joris Chamblain.

Abundant with gentle whimsy and heady compassion, Yakari’s life is a largely bucolic and happy existence: at one with nature and generally free from privation or strife. For the sake of dramatic delectation, however, the ever-changing seasons are punctuated with the odd crisis, generally resolved without fuss, fame or fanfare by a little lad who is smart and brave, and who can – thanks to a boon of his totem guide the Great Eagle – converse with animals…

First serialised in 1978, Yakari et Nanabozo was the fourth European album, released as the strip transferred to prestigious magazine Le Journal d Tintin, but was only translated by Cinebook in 2013, making it officially the 11th UK album. That’s not going to be a problem for chronology or continuity addicts as the tale is both stunningly simple and effectively timeless…

It begins one bright sunny day as the little wonder wanders out to the Rock of the Bear to meet his friend Rainbow. When the lad arrives there’s no sign of her, but he does meet a gigantic, extremely voluble desert hare claiming to be Trickster Spirit Nanabozho…

a statement he proves by making some astounding adjustments to the little lad’s own height.

The Great Rabbit claims to be Rainbow’s totem animal, just as Great Eagle watches over and protects Yakari. Moreover, the loopy lepine wants the lad to accompany him on a quest. Ever since a travelling tale-teller arrived in camp, recounting shocking stories of the far north where it’s so cold the bears are snowy white, headstrong Rainbow has wanted to see the amazing creatures for herself and, eager to please his protégée, the Brobdingnagian bunny agrees to help her, even supplying magic walking moccasins to reduce the hardships of the hike.

Unfortunately, the impatient tyke can’t wait for the Trickster and Yakari to join her and puts them on unsupervised. Unable to resist the enchanted slippers, Rainbow starts her trek, not knowing where she’s going or how to stop…

Now, with boy and bunny transforming into giants and tiny mites as circumstances demand, they set out to catch their impetuous friend, following the path of magic talisman ‘the Straight Arrow’ and assisted by such beneficial creatures as a night moose.

… And when they at last find Rainbow, the travellers decide that as they’ve come so far, they might as well complete the journey to the Land of the White Bears, aided by a fabulous flying canoe…

Always visually spectacular, seductively smart and happily heart-warming, Job’s sparse plot here affords Derib an unmissable opportunity to go wild with the illustrations; creating a lush, lavish and eye-popping fantasy wonderland which is breathtaking to behold, and Really Big Sky storytelling with a delicious twist in its colossal fluffy tail…

The exploits of the valiant little voyager who speaks to animals and enjoys a unique place in an exotic world is a decades-long celebration of joyously gentle, marvellously moving and enticingly entertaining adventure, honouring and eulogising an iconic culture with grace, wit, wonder and especially humour. These gentle sagas are true landmarks of comics literature and Yakari is a strip no fan of graphic entertainment should ignore.
Original edition © 1978 Le Lombard/Dargaud by Derib & Job. English translation 2013 © Cinebook Ltd.

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Black Max volume 3


By Frank S. Pepper, Ken Mennell, Alfonso Font & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-102-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Astoundingly Eerie Air Ace Action… 8/10

It’s time for another sortie down memory lane for us oldsters and, hopefully a frolic down a new, untrodden path for fans of the fantastic in search of a traditionally quirky British comics experience. This compelling compilation is another stunning nostalgia-punch from Rebellion’s superb, ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics, concluding the exotic, esoteric episodic exploits of seminal shocker Black Max: another darkly sparkling gem from our crown jewels of weird kids’ comics… and yes, there’s a strong argument that the readers were as wild and whacko as the strips we loved…

This sinister selection delivers the last gasps of the unsavoury war criminal of the skies, and includes rare-for-the-era crossover with another strip star. Black Max debuted in the first issue of Thunder and more than ran the distance: surviving cancelation and merger, soaring on into Lion & Thunder which finally gave up the ghost mid-decade. This third volume carries the last wave of those stories, covering 15th January to October 21st 1972 with the aviation excitement augmented by a brace of longer yarns taken from Thunder Annual 1974.

The series was typical of the manner in which weekly comics functioned back then: devised by screenwriter, veteran editor and prolific scripter Ken Mennell (Cursitor Doom, Steel Claw, The Spider and many more), with the first episode limned by the company’s star turn for mood and mystery, Eric Bradbury (Invasion, The Black Crow, Cursitor Doom, House of Dolman, Hookjaw and dozens more). The whole kit and kaboodle was then handed off to another team to sink or swim with, which they did until 1973: a pretty respectable run for any British comic feature…

In many ways, the attrition rate of British strips bore remarkable similarities to WWI casualty figures, but this serial was well-starred. The assigned follow-up writer was Frank S. Pepper. who began his legendary comics career in 1926. By 1970, he had clocked up many major successes including Dan Dare, Rockfist Rogan, Captain Condor, Jet-Ace Logan and Roy of the Rovers to name but a very, very few. Series illustrator Alfonso Font was a 10-year veteran – mostly for overseas publications – when he succeeded Bradbury. Based in Spain, Font had worked not just for Odhams/Fleetway but on strips for US outfits Warren and Skywald and continental classics such as Historias Negras (Dark Stories), Jon Rohner, Carmen Bond, Bri D’Alban, Tex Willer, Dylan Dog, Clark & Kubrick: Spiritualists Inc., Taxi, Héloise de Montfort and more…

Episodic by nature and generally delivered in sharp, spartan 3-page bursts, by the time of these trench warfare and skyborne tales, the premise and key characters were firmly established and Pepper & Font were growing bolder and more experimental…

In 1917, Germany and her allies were slowly losing the Great War. In the Bavarian schloss of Baron Maximilien von Klorr, the grotesque but brilliant scientist/fighter ace devised a horrific way to tip the scales back in favour of his homeland. His extremely ancient family had, for millennia, enjoyed an almost affinity with bats, and the current scion had bred giant predatory versions he controlled by various means – including magic amulets and telepathy. These flew beside him to terrify and slaughter the hated English. Initially, they had been a secret weapon used sparingly, but by this juncture allied soldiers and aviators knew well this other form of death from the skies…

His schemes were imperilled and countered on a weekly basis by young British pilot Tim Wilson. Originally a performer in a peacetime flying circus, the doughty lad was possibly the best acrobatic aviator on the Western Front and his constant clashes with von Klorr and the colossal chiropterans constantly frustrated the manic monster master…

Now, with Wilson’s superiors fully aware of the fearsome bioweapons, and thanks to the peasant’s constant interference, the Baron devotes an astonishing amount of time and effort to killing the English fighter ace… when not butchering Allied fliers and ground troops in vast numbers.

The odds seemed to shift once von Klorr began mass-producing his monsters, but Wilson eventually gained the upper hand: driving “Black Max” out of his castle HQ and into a hidden facility where the vile villain retrenched and made bigger, better terrors…

As lengthy, multi-part serials became the standard, the human fliers’ private duel expanded to include many veteran English Aces, infiltrating traitors into the Royal Flying Corps, brainwashing and torturing prisoners, steering zeppelins on civilian raids, and kidnapping British animal scientist Professor Dutton to improve the strength of his killer beasts…

Always, however, the Baron is foiled by his inability to ignore or avoid Wilson: a mistake that scuttles his grand schemes and costs him dearly…

Down but never out, the Baron returns to successful strategies and familiar killing fields, but suffers another reversal when Wilson discovers his current laboratory base. With only one giant bat left and his resources exhausted, Von Klorr relocates to a deserted aerodrome to consider his options and is shocked to receive a message from his grandfather. The terrifying patriarch of the “bat clan” has knowledge spanning millennia and reveals he has unearthed an ancient potion to recreate the “great Kingbat!”

Thanks to more timely interference from Tim, the killer beast attacks both German and British lines, necessitating an unprecedented alliance of the sworn enemies. Wilson is completely ready for von Klorr to betray him, but is still taken unawares when the moment comes as they kill the rampaging terror…

Here and now, it’s mere weeks after the crisis, and business as usual in the skies over Europe. As brave men shoot at each other, Von Klorr is almost court-martialled by his own leaders, but responds by secretly unleashing his last killer bat in defiance of the generals. It leads to a shocking meeting with another German freak and outcast every bit as nefarious and deranged as the Baron. Doktor Gratz is a towering intellect and supergenius in a warped, stunted body as proved by the mighty mole machine he travels under the earth in and the whirlwind weapon he uses to smash ships from the sky. He hates the British too and knows a fellow fiend when he sees one…

Soon they are attacking the allies and making a real dent, but Herr Doktor is keeping secrets from his partner. Sadly for them, Wilson is dogging their trail and prevents Gratz gaining his true objective, whilst exposing his perfidy to the furious Baron. The upshot is a sundered alliance, but Von Klorr does regain the trust of the generals which he uses – with his grandfather’s aid – to unleash more colossal Kingbats. His scheme is incredible in its audacity: employing the monsters to sink a British naval flotilla, capture an entire experimental battleship and imprison its crew…

Once again, it’s Wilson to the rescue, infiltrating a German internment camp to spring the sailors before leading the cruiser’s recovery in the face of the very worst the Kingbats can do. Von Klorr, meanwhile, has found even more uncanny allies in the form of an ancient race of subterranean bat-men dwelling unsuspected under the French countryside. These he controls with an amulet, but the sentient horrors are more than happy to kill humans…

Nearby, opportunistic Doktor Gratz reemerges and negotiates a truce with the Baron in anticipation of killing more enemy soldiers. Soon the macabre coalition is pushing back the Allied advance and all looks very bleak, but Wilson has a plan…

Defeated again and in retreat, Black Max and Gratz launch a new terror weapon – sinister “ghost planes” – but once more their subtle trickery is exposed, but not before the human devils unleash an assassination plot against French leaders and attack Paris in force with a legion of flying monsters. The build-up of months climaxes with relentless pursuit as the Germans abandon all schemes in a vengeful effort to kill the British flier, but as chaos mounts they reach too far…

In a rare event the series came to a fitting conclusion here and although the Baron was declared dead, Gratz did very well out of these walk-on appearances: he won his own spin-off series once Black Max ended. Uncomfortably entitled Secrets of the Demon Dwarf, it ran in Lion from October 28th 1972 to March 17th 1973 (plus annual and specials) as the mad scientist accidentally stranded himself in the 1970s and sought revenge for losing two World Wars and presumably just the one World Cup. Font did some of most expressive and inventive work on the feature, but I suspect Rebellion won’t be archiving this series any time soon…

As previously stated, this closing collection also includes two complete adventures from Thunder Annual 1974: one in prose and illustrated by an artist unknown and a final furious comics foray. The text tale saw Von Klorr visiting a Serbian castle to bolster failing Austrian forces only to fail due to Tim Wilson, whilst the final flight sees the true Brit following the Baron to Africa in search of ingredients to make a potion that might save his dying Kingbats from a dire disease…

These strip shockers are amongst the most memorable and enjoyable exploits in British comics: smart, scary and beautifully rendered. This a superb example of war horror that deserves to be revived and revered.
© 1972, 1973 & 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. Black Max and all related characters, their distinctive likenesses and related elements are ™ Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Mandrake the Magician: Fred Fredericks Sundays volume 1 – The Meeting of Mandrake and Lothar


By Lee Falk & Fred Fredericks (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-692-6 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Time for another Birthday briefing as we exploit the month of mystery and imagination to celebrate 90 glorious years for another Golden Age stalwart…

Regarded by many as comics’ first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on 11th June 1934 – although creator Lee Falk had sold the strip almost a decade previously. Initially drawing it too, Falk replaced himself as soon as feasible, allowing the early wonderment to materialise through the effective understatement of sublimely solid draughtsman Phil Davis. An instant hit, Mandrake was quickly supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page from February 3rd 1935.

Falk – as 19-year-old college student Leon Harrison Gross – had sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to it full time. Schooling done, the 23-year-old born raconteur settled into his life’s work, entertaining millions with astounding tales. Falk also created the first costumed superhero in moodily magnificent generational manhunter The Phantom, going on to spawn an entire comic book subgenre with his first creation. Most Golden Age publishers boasted at least one (and usually many) nattily attired wizards in their gaudily-garbed pantheons: all roaming the world(s) making miracles and crushing injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actual sorcery.

Characters like Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of  “…the Magician”’s like Zatara, Zanzibar, Kardak proliferated ad infinitum: all borrowing heavily and shamelessly from the uncanny exploits of the elegant, enigmatic man of mystery gracing the world’s newspapers and magazines. In the Antipodes, Mandrake was a suave and stalwart regular of Australian Women’s Weekly and became a cherished icon of adventure in the UK, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and across Scandinavia: a major star of page and screen, pervading every aspect of global consciousness.

Over many decades he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation (as part of series Defenders of the Earth). With that has come the usual merchandising bonanza of games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and more…

Falk worked on Mandrake and “The Ghost who Walks” until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed, he was laying out one last story), but also found a few quiet moments to become a renowned playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller. After drawing those first few strips Falk united with sublimely polished cartoonist Phil Davis, whose sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip, and especially the expansive full-page Sunday pages (collected in companion volume The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers), to unparalleled heights of sophistication. Davis’ steadfast, assured realism was the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of spectacular miracles. Soon the Magician was a major star of page & screen, pervading all aspects of global consciousness as hinted at in a furore of fact features and massed memorabilia treats, beginning with introductory essay ‘The Real Mandrake the Magician’. This discusses real-life stage magician Leon Mandrake – who shared the evocative sobriquet in the mid-20th century – as revealed courtesy of his son Lon. Next on the bill is an appreciation of Davis’ inspired replacement as illustrator, in ‘Fred Fredericks – My Mandrake Artist’ by Andreas Erikson, with incisive exploration of Harold “Fred” Fredericks, who took over art production when Davis died and who ultimately assumed full creative duties when Falk himself passed on in 1999. This briefing covers that his tenure and includes his prodigious pre- and post-Mandrake comics work.

Those in the know are well aware that Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globe-trotting troubleshooter. Always and everywhere he was accompanied by African partner-in-crimefighting Lothar and, from early on, capable companion (eventually, in 1997, bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne. Together they solved mysteries and fought evil. Those exploits took the close-knit team literally everywhere, and the strips section of this luxury monochrome landscape hardback opens on ‘Traveler’s Tale’ which ran from March 21st to August 22nd 1965 and saw the last episodes illustrated by Davis, before his death in 1964 from a heart attack.

The saga sees Mandrake in the arctic, where iceberg-watching leads to the recovery of an apparent alien in a survival capsule. A physical and mental marvel, while slowly awakening Opolo deduces not just the English language but also that he’s been in hibernation for 60,000 years. He goes on to reveal that he’s actually from Earth, albeit part of a space-faring race that preceded Homo Sapiens. He’s also pining for his estranged true love Adrana, and Mandrake is happy to help him find her and the long buried civilisation they both came from and are the last survivors of…

Incredibly, along the way, the magician also solves an ancient murder mystery and plays cupid to the reunited survivors, before seeing them abandon their birthworld for the stars…

Always well in tune with contemporary zeitgeists – like sci fi and spy fi – Falk dipped into the growing well of supervillains monopolizing book shelves and airwaves by next reviving Mandrake’s personal arch-nemesis as ‘The Cobra Returns’ (August 29th 1965 – April 3rd 1966). The sinister savant was once Mandrake’s tutor at The College of Magic and here begins a globally destabilising assassination spree, provoking crime busting agency Inter-Intel to call in the Magician and his crew to consult. Sadly, the ploy only makes the perfidious plotter turn his full murderous attentions on our heroes, in an escalating series of attacks that ultimately end in a spectacular showdown and apparent end of the evil one…

With global stability secured, organised crime goes wild, and the miracle trio are kept busy helping the good guys crack down on mobsters in ‘The Underworld vs. Inter-Intel’ (April 10th – August 7th 1966), after which ‘The Astro Pirates’ (August 14th – December 25th 1966) highlights a modern spin on an old racket…

When bold bandits begin holding up airliners in the stratosphere they foolishly pick a jet carrying Narda, and a fully-engaged Mandrake and Lothar spare no effort to end the sinister sky-jinks, after which – inspired by the “Great Northeast Blackout” of November 5th 1965 – Falk & Fredericks fill us in on ‘The Blackout Caper’ (January 1st – April 23rd 1967), as a mad scientist teams up with mobsters to use darkness and chaos to get rich quick and fulfil even nastier nuclear ambitions but underestimate the power of the mighty magician…

Fredericks was a liberal and civil rights proponent, and had for months been subtly changing the “happy, loyal native” appearance of the African globetrotter to match the acts and character Falk had been crafting for years. The process was completed with a reboot of their first adventure together spanning April 30th – September 24th. ‘The Meeting of Mandrake and Lothar’ relates how the practically superhuman prince of reclusive kingdom “the 12 Nations” joins Mandrake in stopping crazed fugitive Mad Dog Dill, before abdicating all monarchical responsibilities to fight evil everywhere. However, returning to the present, shocks abound as Lothar agrees to helm his people’s transition to democracy by becoming their president, just as Mandrake and Narda are targeted by a manic gambler turned master-villain.

‘The Game of Chance’ (October 1st 1967 – February 11th 1968) soon sees Lothar return to aid in the comeuppance of devious blackmailer, kidnapper and influence-peddler Baron Chance and, prior to a resurgence of full-on fantasy, returns in ‘Invasion of the Babu’ (February 18th – July 21st 1968). No stranger to space adventure, Mandrake and Co are best friends with Magnon and Carola, Emperor and Empress of the Central Galaxy and benign rulers of one million worlds. The humans were there when the potentates had their baby Nardraka, and, as dutiful “godparents”, pull out all the stops when the toddler princess is abducted by barbaric invaders the Baboos.

Sadly for them, the apelike alien aggressors make a string of mistakes, beginning with hiding the hostage on even more barbaric Earth, continuing with trying to outsmart Mandrake and closing with believing Nardraka is “just” a stupid little female…

With one crisis resolved, Mandrake barely survives the renewed attentions of the Baron as ‘Second Chance’ (July 28th – November 3rd 1968) sees the magician and Inter-Intel hunt the murderous malefactor to his hidden island fortress and strike a major blow against organised crime, after which ‘The All or Nothing Hunt’ (November 10th 1968 – March 30th 1969), heralds the arrival of alien gamblers Alpha and Beta, who have made the mage their next obsession. Hiding a planet-eradicating bomb on Earth, the wagerers expect the wonder wizard to traverse the globe, deciphering clues to deactivate it. Of course, the extraterrestrials don’t play fair, but Mandrake isn’t playing at all…

No good deed goes unpunished, however, and ‘The Galactic Rumble’ (April 6th – September 7th 1969) reveals that Alpha and Beta are intergalactic crime lords with millions of thugs now indulging in an intergalactic gang war Magnon’s military and peacekeepers are helpless to stop. Isn’t it time to call in some consultants with the know-how to fight them on their own terms?

Yes it is, and not even exploding stars and marauding star dragons can long slow them down…

Ending the show are ‘The Fred Fredericks Mandrake the Magician Complete Sunday Checklist (1965-2002)’, plus full biographies of Fred Fredericks and Lee Falk. This thrilling tome offers exotic locales, thrilling action, bold belly laughs, cunning crime action and sheer wonder in equal measure. Paramount taleteller Falk instinctively knew from the start that the secret of success was strong and, crucially, recurring villains to test and challenge his heroes, and make Mandrake an unmissable treat for every strip addict. These stories have lost none of their impact and only need you reading them to concoct a perfect cure for the 21st century glums.
Mandrake the Magician © 2018 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. All other material © 2018 the respective authors or owners.

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Yakari and the Pronghorns (volume 22)


By Derib & Job, coloured by Dominique and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-144-6 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A World We All Want … 9/10

In 1964 children’s magazine Le Crapaud à lunettes was founded by Swiss journalist André Jobin, who then wrote for it under the pseudonym Job. Three years later, he hired Franco-Swiss artist Claude de Ribaupierre AKA “Derib”. The illustrator had launched his own career as an assistant at Studio Peyo (home of Les Schtroumpfs): working on The Smurfs strips for venerable weekly Le Journal de Spirou. Thereafter, together they created the splendid Adventures of the Owl Pythagore before striking pure comics gold a few years later with their next collaboration.

Derib – equally au fait with enticing, comically dynamic “Marcinelle” cartoon style yarns and devastatingly compelling meta-realistic action illustrated action epics – went on to become one of the Continent’s most prolific and revered creators. It’s a crime such groundbreaking strips as Buddy Longway, Celui-qui-est-nà-deux-fois, Jo (first comic to deal with AIDS), Pour toi, Sandra and La Grande Saga Indienne haven’t been translated into English yet, but still we patiently wait in hope and anticipation…

Over decades, much of Derib’s stunning works have featured his beloved Western themes: magnificent geographical backdrops and epic landscapes. Yakari is considered by fans and critics to be the strip which led him to his deserved mega-stardom. Debuting in 1969, self-contained episodes trace the eventful, nomadic life of a young Oglala Lakota boy on the Great Plains, with stories set sometime after the introduction of horses (by colonising Conquistadores) but before the coming of modern Europeans.

The series – which also generated two separate animated TV series and a movie – has notched up 42 albums thus far: a testament to its evergreen vitality and brilliance of its creators, even though originator Job moved on and Frenchman Joris Chamblain took on the writing in 2016.

Abundant with gentle whimsy and heady compassion, Yakari’s life is a largely bucolic and happy existence: at one with nature and generally free from privation or strife. For the sake of dramatic delectation, however, the ever-changing seasons are punctuated with the odd crisis, generally resolved without fuss, fame or fanfare by a little lad who is smart and brave, and who can – thanks to a boon of his totem guide the Great Eagle – converse with animals…

In 1997, Yakari et Les Cornes fourchues became the 23rd European album, but as always, content and set-up are both stunningly simple and sublimely accessible, affording new readers total enjoyment with a minimum of familiarity or foreknowledge required…

It’s spring and everything is vivid and portentous. As Yakari and his pony Little Thunder frolic in the prairie grasses, they see old Quiet Rock fishing. As he’s nowhere near water and using a moccasin as bait, they simply have to know what he’s doing…

And thus begins the boy’s introduction to the wondrous prairie antelope called pronghorns. How different it might have all been if the magnificent curious beast had not spooked when the little human spoke in words a stag could understand?

As the creature bounds away, Yakari stumbles over well-hidden twin fawns – Topii and Tipoo – and meets their extremely protective new mother. By morning his bruises are healed and the deer are convinced Yakari is not a hunter seeking an easy meal, but they can’t afford to relax as wolves and coyotes are always near at this time of year…

With papa keeping vigil, boy and fawns bond, playing lots of reindeer games (sorry, couldn’t stop myself) but things get extremely serious when Yakari sees a plume of smoke. In a flash, everyone is fleeing a terrifying wildfire and the massive stampede racing ahead of it, and that’s when the boy realizes Topii is missing…

When the immediate danger subsides, boy and pony go looking for the kid, but nobody really expects a happy outcome. Thankfully, Topii has made a very useful friend in a sagacious, protective porcupine and Yakari is not the kind of boy to lose hope or stop until a job is done….

Yakari is one of the most unfailingly absorbing and entertaining all-ages strips ever conceived. It should be in every home, right next to Tintin, Uncle Scrooge, Asterix, Calvin and Hobbes and The Moomins. It’s never too late to start reading something wonderful, so why not get back to nature as soon as you can?
Original edition © Derib + Job – Editions du Lombard (Dargaud – Lombard s. a.) – 2000. All rights reserved. English translation 2024 © Cinebook Ltd.

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The Chronicles of Legion volume 1-4: Rise of the Vampires, The Spawn of Dracula, Blood Brothers & The Three Faces of Evil



By Fabien Nury, Mathieu Lauffray, Mario Alberti, Zhang Xiaoyu, Tirso, Eric Henninot & various, translated by Virgine Selavy (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-093-1 (vol. 1), 978-1-78276-094-8 (vol. 2), 978-1-78276-095-5 (vol. 3), 978-1-78276-096-2 (vol. 4) – album HBs/Digital editions.

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

We’ve all been in love with vampires since the golden age of Victorian Gothic and it’s taken the undead in some extremely odd directions (I personally draw the line at sparkly immortal kissy-face boy-toys, but to each his own)…

Thankfully our European cousins have a more sanguine view of such matters and innate respect for tradition even when they reinterpret the old classics. Prolific scribe Fabien Nury (Stalin’s Death: A Real Soviet History, Once Upon a Time in France, The Master of Benson Gate, Necromancy as well as the epic Je Suis Légion with John Cassaday) began in 2011: a generational saga putting a fresh creepy spin on the legend whilst keeping a steady eye on the tone of what has gone before…

Les Chroniques de Legion was illustrated by round-robin art-team Mathieu (Star Wars, Long John Silver) Lauffray, Mario (Nathan Never, Morgana, assorted DC covers) Alberti, the enigmatic Zhang Xiaoyu (Crusades, Savage Highway) & Tirso Cons (Eye of the Devil, Le Manoir murmurs), reflecting the tale’s beguiling skirmishes occurring across a number of evocative eras.

First volume Rise of the Vampires found its English-language voice in 2014, opening in 1476 as barbaric warlord Vlad Tepes finally falls before the overwhelming armies of the invading Moslem horde. His stubborn Transylvania a crushed and broken province, the infamous leader had been dragged from the arms of his favourite concubine and beheaded by exultant general Selim Bey. Working for the invaders, Vlad’s despised and treacherous brother Radu knew that the story was not over yet…

As the victorious Turk ravishes his despised enemy’s beloved, Dracula’s implacable sibling rival is just too late to stop his brother’s malign blood invading the Moslem’s body and eating his devout mind. In an instant, Selim Bey’s is gone, overwritten by the undying Impaler…

Nor can Radu stop the sanguine horror escaping, and after “Selim” murders the Sultan and vanishes, the Transylvanian turncoat endures all the anger and hatred of the Ottomans. Of course, since his blood is just as accursed as Vlad’s, Radu’s story doesn’t end with his body’s destruction either…

In 1521, Vlad is on the move once more, inhabiting the body of Gabriella Del La Fuente. This recent orphan voyages to the New World; contracted to marry audacious conquistador Hernan Torres. A flower of the aristocracy, her perfect beauty is only marred by a strange scarlet mark on the back of her neck… a blemish shared with her recently-departed father Victor and a long-dead Turk named Selim Bey…

She has no idea Radu reached the Americas long ago, and transformed them to a hell of his own devising. The other brother has sustained his own arcane life by equally esoteric means, only in his case the intellect was scattered and diminished by the swarm of rats who consumed him and passed on his essence for the longest time…

Russia in 1812, and an undying warrior spirit wears French Hussar Armand Malachie. As Napoleon’s broken armies flee vengeful Cossacks after the battle of Berezina, he convinces his faithful subordinates Kholya, Stern, Hartmann and Feraud to desert with him. Detouring to the Wallachian Mountains, they hunt for valuable loot Armand had heard about: the “Lost Treasure of Vlad Dracula Tepes”…

It’s all a lie. The true reason for the diversion is that Dracula sensed far-distant Radu had allowed an unprecedented atrocity to be created and the time has come to end their infinitely extended vendetta forever…

London, 1887: elderly lawyer Morris Webster contacts friendless, antisocial clerk and gambling addict Victor Douglas Thorpe with an offer that will forever liberate the morose wastrel and ne’er-do-well from the drudgery of his impoverished Whitechapel life. For reasons inexplicable, Thorpe has been selected by immensely rich aristocratic recluse Lord Byron Cavendish to inherit all his lands and properties… upon successful conclusion of a personal interview, of course…

To Be Continued…

 

The Chronicles of Legion volume 2: The Spawn of Dracula

The epic war between immortal blood-drenched brothers continues in the second translated volume with a reiteration of the gory facts: Vlad Tepes Dracula and his younger brother Radu possess the power to extend their lives beyond what anyone else would think of as death. Their consciousnesses are carried in their blood, and by transferring the potent ichor to other living beings they can possess and dominate any number of victims infinitely. Both have lived for centuries and for all that time they have hated each other…

Here the story expands across three theatres of war with their unceasing attempts to destroy each other centred in very different eras. However,  rather than disparate clashes over time and space, these duels comprise glimpses of an extended, ceaseless campaign of terror with mere mortals callously disposable tools, weapons and cannon fodder…

The opening act occurs in 1885 as gambling addict and utter swine Victor Douglas Thorpe enters the palatial home of reclusive Lord Byron Cavendish. Should the upcoming interview go well, the impoverished cad will soon be heir to the largest fortune in the Empire…

The conference goes exactly as the unseen benefactor intends. When the successful applicant returns to London, he bears a strange red mark and is no longer quite himself.

Centuries earlier in 1521, Gabriella Del La Fuente bears the same scarlet sigil as she is escorted through the green hell of the New World to a meeting with her powerfully placed future husband. Guided by the conquistador’s enticingly masculine mulatto bastard Martin, the Doña’s party – rough soldier, cloying Spanish priests, avaricious self-important dignitaries and her fanatically loyal bodyguard Carlos – slowly make their way through the jungles until an uncanny sense warns of danger ahead…

Seconds later they are attacked by a horde of screaming barbarian warriors seemingly immune to pain and mortal harm, fighting on after being holed by musket fire or even beheaded.

Moments before her body’s imminent demise, Gabriella recognises her brother’s bloodmark on an attacker’s neck and, even as faithful, steadfast Carlos comes to her rescue, Vlad realises Radu has beaten her to this new continent and made himself at completely home.

Miles away, seeing through the dying eyes of his puppets, the other undying scion of Transylvania screams in fear and fury…

With daylight the much-diminished party struggles on towards Torres’ citadel and half-constructed cathedral, with the bride-to-be increasingly succumbing to lust as she cares for her wounded and septic future son-in-law. Once inside the Mission, she is forced back into the role of diffident contract-bride, but Hernan is no easy man to love. His thoughts are solely of preserving a legacy and creating a legitimate dynasty, and her bringing more grasping priests and fanatical Inquisitors to plague him has not endeared her to the Great Man…

Reduced to the status of closeted brood-mare, Gabriella has Carlos capture a huge eagle and, by allowing it to bite her, gains a mighty avian frame from which to view the world and survey her own inexorable rise to power. As he slowly recovers, Martin too falls under her spell, but this bewitching has nothing to do with her blood…

In late 19th century England an aristocrat’s estate burns in a vast and deliberate conflagration, but the new Lord has no regrets and looks only forward, never back.

In 1812 a band of deserters from Napoleon’s army have reached Targovishte. Armand Malachie has led faithful surviving subordinates Kholya, Stern, Hartmann and Feraud to the Wallachian Mountains in search of the treasure of Dracula, but the long-suffering peasants there, rapidly recognise who the dashing French Hussar is carrying inside him…

When an innkeeper passes on a message from Radu, arrogant Vlad disregards it, but later engages in a pointless clash with a band of Cossacks leading to the death of his mortal host…

As his men abandon his corpse to the snows, the embarrassed immortal marshals his fading strength to reanimate the cadaver and follow in search of a new meat-home…

And in 1887, Victor Douglas Thorpe attends the funeral of his so-suddenly and suspiciously deceased benefactor and is accosted by the woman who carries his unborn child. Her entreaties go unacknowledged and, as he is driven away in his livered carriage, she bitterly damns him…

To Be Continued…

 

The Chronicles of Legion volume 3: Blood Brothers

The unstinting war of immortal sanguinite siblings flows into a third translated volume as here some hint of what caused their enhanced states of being and eternal enmity is at last revealed. Still unfolding, across varied theatres of war, very different aspects of their inhumanity, our saga resumes in 1812 where Transylvanian snows conceal so many creatures which are Radu, collectively awaiting the next move of the Napoleonic deserters lured to this frozen wasteland by dreams of finding Dracula’s gold.

The teller of those tales was Captain Armand Malachi who led his battle-hardened comrades to Wallachia Mountains before dying in battle. At least that’s the way they all saw it. Vlad, riding Malachi, found it expedient to fall down when “killed” but now, with his host form actually ceasing to function in the crippling cold, the eternal warrior is forced to transfer his accommodations to something more welcoming and sustaining. When he catches up to his former friends, however, their understandable reaction leads to more violence and in the end only poor Kholya remains of any real use…

Half a world away and back in 1521, Gabriella, bearing a sign marking all the blood-ridden, stoically endures the vigorous dynastic intentions of future husband Hernan. She had endured the New World to be his comfortable, church-sanctioned brood-mare but is now far more interested in the Conquistador’s bastard son.

Her empire-building is not only imperilled by her treacherous body’s needs, but also by the impossibly powerful, indefatigably hostile natives bearing the taint and preternatural vitality of brother Radu.

When the “Indios” mount a full attack on the half-built compound, the Europeans barely repel the assault, and then only at the cost of the Doña’s steadfast and mystically augmented Carlos, whom she impetuously sacrifices to preserve Martin. In the gory aftermath, Hernan’s son realises what she is and what she’s done, but when they foolishly consummate their overwhelming passion, the constantly spying priests of the Inquisition make their own move. They are of course, no match for the powers of a Dracula…

Soon Hernan is gone too and Gabriella turns her attentions to making the New World her own. All that remains to bar her progress is firmly embedded Radu…

London in 1887 is the centre of the universe and formerly impoverished scoundrel Victor relishes his return to it, even as the latest embodiment of a monster. The new Lord Cavendish takes his place amongst the aristocracy of the Athenaeum Club but cannot escape their haughty disapproval and even outright hostility. No one knows why the immensely wealthy old oligarch settled his title and the largest fortune in the Empire upon such a blatant parvenu blackguard, but they all have suspicions…

When Chief Superintendent Warren of Scotland Yard and solicitor Mr. Morris Webster attempt to extort the new Peer with a fabrication of supposition and innuendo, they are unaware that they are challenging a sadistic absolute monarch carrying centuries of experience in removing threats to his security, but his summary treatment of them is as nothing to the way the next chancer is dealt with…

Soon afterwards the holder of Thorpe’s old gambling debts attempts to reassert his old hold on the former addict and foolishly uses Esther Harrington as leverage. When he was human, Thorpe had left her pregnant and penniless without a second thought, but as new Lord Cavendish is more concerned about making a statement than any sum of money. Before long Whitechapel’s grimy streets first run red with his all-encompassing vengeance and then explosively burn in a furious storm of purging flame.

Afterwards Cavendish cannot really explain why he lets Esther live or why he sets her up with a fortune and a new life… in distant India…

And in the cold snows of a dark night, Roma gypsies gather around a campfire where an old man tells the story of two brothers who were held hostage by the Ottoman Sultan to keep their lordly father compliant. The boys dealt with enforced captivity in different ways. Tough, rebellious Vlad bided his time and nursed his hatred whilst softer, weaker sibling Radu quickly capitulated, becoming a favourite plaything of the Sultan.

One day an aged pilgrim came to court carrying a box with two scorpions in it and Vlad discovered the means to fulfil all his dreams, but at such an incredible cost…

To Be Concluded…

 

The Chronicles of Legion volume 4: The Three Faces of Evil

Bleak, thrilling and sumptuously sinister, this last instalment feels a little rushed as the wetware war of brothers escalates across separate eras. With the Carpathian brothers clashing continually, and taking everyone in their proximities to hell with them, the fate of the unborn abomination is undisclosed…

However, as Vlad and Radu exploit their specific advantages and specialities, the physical clashes enter the terrifying realm of 20th century global conflicts and espionage endeavours, with corpses piling high everywhere. However, and as always, throughout their entwined existences, no one gets out alive and at last the bloody chess game and extended proxy wars can only be settled up close and personally: face to face and ichor to ichor…

Ultimately there a victor of sorts, but it doesn’t feel like it…

With illustrator Eric Henninot (Little Jones, Carthago, XIII Mystery) stepping in to limn a portion of the cataclysmic conclusion, the winner appears to be attrition and weariness, but is there one last bite in one of these beasts?

Physically unfolding as a quartet of luxurious oversized (211 x 282mm) full-colour hardbacks, as well as in digital editions, this superbly illustrated and beguiling told serial saga presents an intoxicatingly absorbing jigsaw of terror and tragedy that is a stunning and ambitious treat for all fans of fang and fear…
The Chronicles of Legion and all contents © Editions Glénat 2011-2012. Translated editions © Titan Comics, 2014 & 2015.

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Tosh’s Island

Version 1.0.0

By Linda Sargent, Joe Brady & Leo Marcell, adapted by Kate Brown (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-333-2 (Digest HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Powerful, Moving and Memorable… 9/10

British comics’ triumph The Phoenix has been generating fun, fantasy and wild adventure for kids since 2012, scoring some impressive results – such as Bunny Vs Monkey, Mega Robo Bros and No Country – and generally lifting the standards of comics literature and quality of graphic novels for children.

Now, thanks to writers Linda Sargent (drawing on her own childhood experiences) & Joe Brady, and illustrator Leo Marcell, the comic periodical has developed a far more traditional kind of children’s drama: one that should rank beside such potent “real-world” fantasies as A Dog So Small, The Family from One End Street or The Secret Garden.

Tosh’s Island is set in bucolic Kent hops country in the era between the end of rationing and advent of mobile phones, and follows the decline and resurgence of an indomitable spirit coming to terms with the cruellest and most unjust of circumstances.

It begins as Tosh is getting ready for secondary school: helping dad ready the hops and prepare the Oast House for Autumn and having him tell again the story of her being The Gooseberry Girl found under a bush. It’s much better than the ordinary story of how they adopted her. Tosh is fit and active and great at rounders, loves her bike, climbing with best friend Millie, and making up fantastic tales – especially about mermaids…

And suddenly, one afternoon it all starts to go wrong.

Slowly pain visits her, increasingly wracking her body and sucking all the energy out of her. The doctor thinks it’s nothing, but soon Tosh is constantly, chronically suffering. Not wanting to make a fuss, she soldiers on, but soon, it’s impossible to keep her suffering – and fears – secret. As big school starts, she finds everything harder, and old and new friends soon start talking about and taunting the troublesome attention-seeker.

Thankfully, her parents believe her, moving heaven and earth to get to the bottom of the mystery. There’s always hope of a recovery or at least end to pain, and treats like a visit to the beach. Here she meets a lonely French boy as forlorn as her – and as imaginative. Together they build a mind palace of refuge, an island for mermaids and shark rides and castles in the air. Corresponding with Louis will save Tosh’s sanity, but only after inadvertently causing her immense grief and embarrassment…

The mystery and misery continue until at last the right diagnosis and even treatment is found, but it certainly not all good news…

A forceful and evocative personal history of fortitude and resolve mesmerisingly clad in whimsy, charm and beguiling imagination, Tosh’s Island is a brilliant introduction to real world problems any kid can grasp and be moved by, in exactly the way books like Animal Farm, Tarka the Otter or Lord of the Flies negotiate the transition from sheltered child to understanding proto adult… and all in utterly entrancing pictures.

Do not miss this landmark tale.
Text © Linda Sargent & Joe Brady, 2024. Illustrations © Leo Marcell, 2024. All rights reserved.

Tosh’s Island will be published on October 10th 2024 and is available for pre-order now.

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Ghosts and Ruins


By Ben Catmull (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-678-2 (HB/Digital edition)

If you know the works of Sidney Sime and Edward Gorey, the horror comics of Bernie Wrightson and Michael Kaluta or simply love to peep through your interlocked fingers at the films of Tim Burton or the creepy backgrounds in Charles Addams’ creations, you’re clearly an aficionado of silly, spooky business and know mordant fantasy plays best when played for laughs.

With that in mind, you might be interested in this macabrely monochrome inconceivably un-famous coffee-table art book from cartoonist Ben Catmull (Monster Parade, Paper Theater). It classily celebrates the stuff of nauseating, stomach-churning terror and sinister, creeping suspense in a series of eerie illustrated plates crafted in scratchboard on Masonite – for extra-spooky darkness!

All that audaciously arcane art is wedded to epigrammatic prose snippets to comprise tantalising skeletons of stories best left untold and consequences safely ajudged as unimaginable…

The engrossing landscape hardback (268 x 222mm but digital views may vary!) combines gloomy gothic imagery with wry & witty updates on uncanny situations in a procession of locations best left well enough alone, commencing with six views of the dank domicile of diabolical ‘Drowned Shelley’ and a single ghastly glimpse of ‘The Buried House’.

A queasy quartet then divulges the doings of the ‘The Disgusting Garden’, after which one sight of ‘The Secluded House’ leads inexorably to a triptych revealing ‘The Woman Outside the Window’…

Four frightful frames of ‘Wandering Smoke’ miasmically meander towards ‘The Order of the Shadowy Finger’ – five in full – before giving way to three glimpses of ‘The Lighthouse’; a visit to a domicile all ‘Hair and Earwigs’ and thence to numerous views of the monstrous masterpieces hewn by horrific revenant ‘The Sculptor’…

On view is the ‘Labyrinth of Junk’ once concocted by a demonic carpenter, but that is as nothing compared to the sheer terror of ‘The Crawling House’ and the ghastly practises of a ‘Lonely Old Spinster’…

Mordantly blending bleak, spectral dread and anxious anticipation with timeless scary scenarios, this terrifying tease – a kind of IKEA Fall Catalogue of the Damned – is a sheer delight no lover of Dark Art could conceivably resist…
© 2013 Ben Catmull. This edition © 2013 Fantagraphics. All rights reserved.

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Bunny vs Monkey Book 10: The Great Big Glitch!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras & Paul Duffield (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-308-0 (Digest HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Because… Just Because… 10/10

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the first issue in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but increasingly with cerebral cosmic crescendo in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember), these trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as best-selling, graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest softcover and hardback editions such as this one. All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT?

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible forest resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and good breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-creating, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or “henches” Metal Steve and Action Beaver…

Daily wonders and catastrophes were exacerbated by a broad band of unconventional Crinkle creatures, none more so than monochrome mad scientist Skunky, whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life presents as a propensity for building dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons. He is, at his core, a dangerously inquisitive thinker and tinkerer…

Here – with artistic assistance from design deputy Sammy Borras – the war of nerves and mega-ordnances resumes and culminates, even though everybody thought all the battles had already ended. We even seemingly explain the odd behaviour of intermittently encroaching Hoo-mans…

Once again divided into seasonal outbursts – OR IS IT? – this tenth magnificent hardback archive asylum of weirdness opens in traditional manner: with our lop-eared protagonist snug at home amidst winter snows as incurable innocent Pig Piggerton comes frantically calling. It appears his woodlouse pet ‘Mister Bum Bum’ is in dire need of it to be warm and summery.

Thankfully, after a recent return from the Puddle of Eternity (thanks to a fluke of the Molecular Stream) Bunny is now completely connected to nature and able to manifest a small patch of magic sunshine. When Monkey turns up in another death-machine, it is Pig who actually saves the day…

The hairy halfwit (I’m being generous here) is mad and manic as ever, unleashing ICBM ‘Wieners!’, and ‘Shark Attack’ cannonades the largely shellshocked populace (superfast Aye-aye Ai, Weenie Squirrel, Metal E.V.E., Lucky the Red Panda, mysterious Le Fox and the rest) all try to ignore, but as ‘Doctor Pig’ seeks to help the hopeless with a brand new therapy recently discovered, deep underground Monkey & Skunky experience something strange and start to suspect every they know might be wrong after feeling the force of ‘The Glitch’…

The skunk knows all about “Simulation Theory” even if you and I don’t, and makes some plans. Elsewhere, Hoo-man Toby and faithful assistant Alice finally admit there’s something deeply wrong in their system and start looking for answers by resetting the year back to January again – OR DO THEY…?

In Crinkle Woods, life manically meanders on with mad inventions and fantastically odd food fomenting foolishness in ‘Un-Lucky’, ‘Pug of Dooom!’, ‘Piggy Pog Pog’, on a culinary ‘Journey for the Wobbleberries’, and in clash of escalating titans ‘Big Me’. Anarchy reigns when Monkey’s ‘Bloblems’ and ravaging ‘Jelly Plops’ threaten, but no one really grasps what it all means until ‘The Second Glitch’…

With Toby now fatally intwined and connected to the Crinkle critters in ways he cannot fathom, and which restarting the year won’t fix, a rash of irrationality – even by Woodland standards – ensues in ‘Roll ‘em Up!’ and ‘Mine’. Toby’s fate is sealed when he inserts himself into the world of ‘Weirdos’ and he gets stuck there – OR DOES HE?

Even sensible, naïve robot Metal E.V.E. doesn’t believe the Hoo-Man is just a park warden and all too soon he is both appalled spectator and collateral casualty in spiralling strangeness as seen in ‘When in Rome’, ‘Extreeeeme!’ (debuting social media manipulator/teen Hyee-Hee-Heena Pootle B. Thunderbum to the menagerie) or ‘And Now, a Special Presentation’. Such ‘Warning Signs’ are useful to Skunky who instinctively understands what’s really going on. As Toby continues searching for his glitch – only stopping for ‘Biscuits’ – our lax lepine steps up as a problem-solving ‘Magic Bunny’, prompting a woodlands ‘Pause!’ as Skunky takes control.

Experiencing rather disturbing ‘Deja Vu’, some sort of truth unfolds in ‘The Story So Far’, delivering revelation and ‘An Escape’ as Skunky crafts a figurative shark just to jump it and enter the fabled ‘Land of the Hoo-Mans’, bringing the rest with him to help and hinder his acquiring ‘Stolen Tech’.

…and then all the critters get ‘Upgrades’…

With Bunny a magical Guardian of the Woodlands, Monkey a robot and his chief hench turned into an Action Cow, ‘Beefy Squirrel’ uses her new physique and superstrength to save Pig as metamorphic ‘Module Madness’ grips the critter cast. She needn’t have fussed, as her pal becomes super-secret agent ‘Codename P.I.G.’ to counter the chaos.

Deep below Crinkle Woods, the King of the Undercreatures craves ‘Yum Yums’ and strikes a shady deal with one stalwart supposed hero, sparking a fearsome clash with terror-beast Boggoth on ‘Fight Night’, and another between upgraded stars in ‘Bunny vs Monkey’. It swiftly draws in Beefy Squirrell for ‘Surf’s Up!’, before cosmically unfortunate red panda Lucky is convinced to try ‘Just One Wish’ on the troublesome upgrade module.

Metal E.V.E. evaluates the merits of change in ‘Transform!’, leading to Skunky’s ascension as ‘The Architect’ of reality and rueful admission ‘That Escalated Quickly’. Finally, magic Bunny and compelling, morally ambiguous outsider refusenik Le Fox unite to confront ‘The Omnipresent Skunky’ and battle beside everyone left ‘All in This Together’, before even greater revelations are exposed and calm(ish) order is restored with all ‘Finally Happy’, despite it being – just for a bit – ‘Metal Steve’s World’ and an ephemeral plane of ‘The Endless’ only truly sorted and made wonderfully again thanks to Bunny in ‘The Release’.

There’s also ‘An Epilogue’ with Le Fox explaining things, but unless you’re as smart and fun-loving as your kids, it won’t do you adults any good…

The agonised, anxiety-addled animal anarchy might have ended for now, but there’s a few more secrets to expose, thanks to detailed instructions on ‘How to Draw Wizard Bunny!’, ‘…Buff Weinie!’ and ‘…Action Cow!’, as well as previews of other treats and wonders available in The Phoenix to wind down from all that cosmic furore…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, the zany zenith of absurdist adventure, Bunny vs Monkey is weird wit, brilliant invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning all crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?

Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.
Bunny vs Monkey: The Great Big Glitch! is published on October 10th 2024 and available for pre-order now.