Fantasy – Page 63 – Now Read This!

August 30, 2013August 29, 2013

Sidney Sime: Master of the Mysterious

By Simon Heneage & Henry Ford (Thames and Hudson)
ISBN: 0-500-27154-2

A little while ago I mentioned with due reverence the wonderful illustrator Sidney Herbert Sime: late Victorian, Edwardian and latterly Georgian master of fantasy art whose stunning and imaginative pictorial forays into the realms of fable, myth and literary romanticism influenced two generations of readers and creators, but who is these days all but forgotten.

Not On My Watchâ€¦

Sime is archetypal of the rag-to-riches-to-obscurity fate which befell so many talented individuals of this period (for instance, do you know who Arthur Machen, William Hope Hodgson or even William Friese-Greene were?). After pulling himself up by his bootstraps, Sime became a celebrated and notable society figure thanks to his unique creations before changing modes and his own uncompromising nature isolated him from rapidly evolving times and tastes.

There aren’t too many tomes celebrating his work (this one is still available through a few internet dealers, though) but you can still see many of his original works if you visit the Sidney Sime Memorial Gallery in Worplesdon, near Guildford in Surrey.

After Acknowledgements and an Introduction, a short, erudite essay – packed with supporting artworks – describes the artist’s beginnings in ‘The Early Years’, disclosing that we don’t really know when he was born (sometime between 1865-1867 in Hulme, Greater Manchester) before going on to describe how the second son of six fathered by a warehouseman worked as a child in coal mines, as a linen draper, in a bakery, barbers and a shoemakers: voraciously self-educating, busking music and creating pictures to sell in his off-hours.

He graduated to sign-writing and found the funds to attend Liverpool School (later College) of Art, then joined the University of Liverpool before moving to London, winning artistic awards and securing commercial commissions in many newspapers and especially ‘The Magazines’ such as Pick-Me-Up, Pall Mall Gazette, Eureka, The Idler (which he eventually purchased thanks to a wealthy relative’s bequest) and others.

As well as the enigmatic fantasy works he loved creating, Sime sold straight illustrations, humorous cartoons, political gags, topical portraits, theatrical sketches and all the other assorted images a picture-hungry public demanded in an era when photography was still in its infancy.

Almost all of Sime’s best works were created in black and white – although he crafted them in a bewildering melange of media which frequently aroused the ire of the printers and plate-makers who had to reproduce his work in the newspapers, magazines and books of the era.

His native brilliance soon found him a place amongst the artistic and intellectual intelligentsia where he moved easily beside the likes of Caran d’Ache, Max Beerbohm, Phil May, Arnold Golsworthy and Raven-Hill as ‘Painter and Clubman’â€¦

Sime is best remembered however for ‘The Illustrated Books’ – providing visual accompaniments for the burgeoning ranks of literary fantasists such as Golworthy (Death and the Woman), William Hope Hodgson (The Ghost Pirates), Machen (House of Souls) and more.

His most famous pieces resulted from a decades-long collaboration with Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany. The young Irish writer and dramatist – who published under the name Lord Dunsany – was a huge fan who sought out Sime in 1904 and together they revolutionised popular literature with such unforgettable fables as The Gods of Pegana, The Book of Wonder, and The King of Elfland’s Daughter.

Changing tastes following the Great War saw a decline in sublimely ethereal fantasy and Sime pursued newspaper work once more in periodicals such as The Illustrated London News, The Sketch, Tattler and The Strand. In his later years he also moved into ‘Theatre Design’ – including a triptych of operas based on the Mabinogion – and even held successful one-man shows as detailed in ‘The Exhibitions of 1924 and 1927’ before gradually fading from public view.

Concentrating on oil painting and illustrating the Gospel of St. John during ‘Later Years at Worplesdon’, he lived quietly in a cottage he purchased for himself and bride Mary Susan Pickett. He died on May 22^nd 1941.

The ‘Conclusion’ and extensive ‘Bibliography’ suitably round things off here as an hors d’oeuvre to the visual main course here as The Plates: a Fantasy Portfolio offers a dozen fully annotated, full page Magazines Illustrations and 46 stunning masterpieces from the Dunsany books similarly presentedâ€¦

Included in this last section are astounding and captivating prints from The Gods of Pegana, Time and the Gods, The Sword of Welleran, A Dreamer’s Tales, The Book of Wonder, Tales of Wonder, The King of Elfland’s Daughter and My Talks with Dean Spanley, covering the period 1905 to 1936, after which a scholarly Index neatly concludes the affair.

Sidney Sime is an astonishing one-of-a-kind creator whose influence is still being felt today, and one who has been overlooked for far too long. Here’s hoping the current trend for spooky wonders tempts some enterprising publisher to produce the kind of laudatory deluxe chronicle his genius truly deservesâ€¦

Â© 1980 Thames and Hudson Ltd, London. All Rights Reserved.
The master of mystery does have his own gallery so please check out The Sidney Sime Gallery and then go see the astounding arts and crafts masterpieces for yourselfâ€¦

August 24, 2013August 23, 2013

Ghosts and Ruins

By Ben Catmull (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-678-2

If you know the works of Sidney Sime and Edward Gorey and the horror comics of Bernie Wrightson and Michael Kaluta or love to peer through your locked fingers at the films of Tim Burton or the creepy backgrounds in Charles Addams cartoons, 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 a new black-&-white coffee-table art book from cartoonist Ben Catmull (Monster Parade, Paper Theater) which 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 darkness!

All that arcane art is wedded to epigrammatic prose snippets to comprise tantalising skeletons of stories best left untold and consequences unimaginableâ€¦

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

A queasy quartet then divulges the doings of the ‘The Disgusting Garden’ after which one peek at ‘The Secluded House’ leads inexorably to a triptych revealing ‘The Woman Outside the Window’ and four frames of ‘Wandering Smoke’. ‘The Order of the Shadowy Finger’ – five in full – gives way to three glimpses of ‘The Lighthouse’, a visit to a domicile all ‘Hair and Earwigs’ and thence to numerous views of the masterpieces hewn by horrific revenant ‘The Sculptor’â€¦

A demonic carpenter once concocted a ‘Labyrinth of Junk’, but that was as nothing compared to the sheer terror of ‘The Crawling House’ and the ghastly practises of a ‘Lonely Old Spinster’â€¦

Mordantly blending bleak, spectral dread and anxious anticipation with classical scary scenarios, this terrifying tease is a sheer delight no lover of Dark Art could conceivably resistâ€¦

Â© 2013 Ben Catmull. This edition Â© 2013 Fantagraphics. All rights reserved.
Ghosts and Ruins will be released on September 12^th 2013.

August 19, 2013August 19, 2013

Usagi Yojimbo Book 5: Lone Goat and Kid

By Stan Sakai (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-088-0

The wandering rabbit bodyguard Miyamoto Usagi began as a background character in Stan Sakai’s anthropomorphic comedy The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper before indomitably carving his own unique path to graphic glory.

Creative mastermind Sakai was born in 1953 in Kyoto, Japan before the family moved to Hawaii two years later. After graduating from the University of Hawaii with a BA in Fine Arts, he pursued further studies at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design in California and started in comics as a letterer, most famously for the inimitable Groo the Wanderer.

Eventually the cartoonist within resurfaced: blending his storytelling drive with a love of Japanese history and legend, and hearty interest in the filmic works of Akira Kurosawa and his peers, into one of the most enticing and impressive fantasy sagas of all time.

And it’s still more educational, informative and authentic than any dozen Samurai sagas you can nameâ€¦

The addictive period epic is set in a world of sentient animals (with a few unobtrusive human characters scattered about) but scrupulously mirrors the Feudal Edo Period of Japan – (the 17th century by our reckoning), simultaneously referencing classic contemporary cultural icons from sources as varied as Zatoichi and Godzilla, whilst specifically recounting the life of a peripatetic masterless Samurai eking out an honourable living as a Yojimbo (bodyguard-for-hire).

As such, his fate is to be drawn constantly into a plethora of incredible situations.

And yes, he’s a rabbit – brave, noble, sentimental, gentle, artistic, empathetic, long-suffering, conscientious and devoted to the tenets of Bushido, the heroic everyman bunny simply cannot turn down any request for help or ignore the slightest evidence of injusticeâ€¦

This fantastically funny fifth monochrome masterwork gathers tales from Fantagraphics’ Usagi Yojimbo comicbook volume 1, #19-24 and offers a selection of complete adventures culminating in an unbelievably welcome and long-awaited spoof of Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima’s legendary samurai manga Kozure ÅŒkami, best known in the West as Lone Wolf and Cubâ€¦

Following a fulsome Introduction from Stan Lee, the restless Ronin takes on a paying gig with very little honour attached in ‘Frost and Fire’. On the recommendation of friend and occasional patron Lord Noriyuki, Usagi contracts with the cold and snobbish Lady Koriko to recover the priceless antique swords – but not the body – of her husband; recently expired in a distant village.

On arrival however Usagi finds a thorny dilemma: fallen and shamed samurai Nagao broke all class stricture and protocol by consorting with a peasant girl. Grief-stricken Atsuko wants to keep his family’s blades as the only reminder of the man she loved and who loved her in returnâ€¦

This impossible impasse is only broken when Atsuko’s greedy brother intervenes, more concerned with the blades’ monetary value than their sentimental worthâ€¦

‘A Kite Story’ is an enchanting agglomeration of connected vignettes divided into four visual epigrams beginning with ‘The Kite Maker’s Tale’ in which master craftsman Tatsusaburo describes his process and motivation in building the largest Odako ever to challenge the cloudsâ€¦

Next comes disreputable Hatsu who in ‘The Gambler’s Tale’ discloses how a long-eared Ronin exposed his cheating and ruined his business. Now, Yojimbo has returned and the games-man sees a way to pay him back, but fails in his scurrilous scheme due to the warrior’s ingenuity and the giant kite in ‘The Ronin’s Tale’ after which the elegant micro-saga comes full circle with ‘The Kite Maker’s Tale II’â€¦

Although telling short stories here, everything is a fragment of a greater mosaic. Sakai is gradually constructing a massive overarching history and in the 2-part ‘Blood Wings’ the wanderer stumbles upon a man cut to ribbons by a flying killer. He soon discovers a village plagued by Komori ninja – a clan of bats trained in all the deadly tactics of Chi no Tsubasa – killing silently from above on â€œwings of bloodâ€â€¦

Although Usagi succeeds in helping the desperate villagers he has no way of knowing how the sky killers will affect his future, as the Komori are actually striving to prove themselves worthy replacements for the decimated Neko ninjas who have fallen from the good graces of scheming Lord Hebi since the end of the Dragon Bellows Conspiracyâ€¦

In the next tale the Yojimbo meets martial legend General Oyaneko but is distressed to learn the aged warrior is dying of a wasting disease. He’s even more upset when the General attempts to kill him, wanting to earn a clean end in ‘The Way of the Samurai’â€¦

This volume concludes with ‘Lone Goat and Kid’ wherein former imperial official Yagi – who became an assassin after being framed by underlings of Lord Hirone – is tricked into fighting a certain rabbit Ronin who has no idea he is the latest pawn in a Machiavellian scheme to destroy the noble goat and his capable kid Gorogoroâ€¦

However, even though Usagi is tricked into fighting the doom-laden duo, the guilty impatience of the plotters soon reveals the true state of affairsâ€¦

Despite changing publishers a few times, Usagi Yojimbo has been in continuous publication since 1987, resulting in dozens of graphic novel collections and books to date. The Legendary Lepus has guest-starred in many other series and nearly had his own TV show â€“ there’s still time yet, and fashions can revive as quickly as they die outâ€¦

As well as generating a horde of high-end collectibles, art prints, computer games and RPGs, a spin-off sci-fi series and lots of toys to promote popularity, Sakai and his creation have deservedly won numerous awards both within the Comics community and amongst the greater reading public.

Fast-paced yet lyrical, funny and scary, always moving, astoundingly visceral, ferociously thrilling and simply bursting with veracity and verve, Usagi Yojimbo is a cartoon masterpiece of irresistible appeal that will delight devotees and make converts of the most hardened hater of â€œfunny animalâ€ stories and comics.
Text and illustrations Â© 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 Stan Sakai. Usagi Yojimbo is Â® Stan Sakai. Book editions Â© 1992, 2005 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

August 13, 2013

Flesk Prime

Illustrated by Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar MeseldÅ¾ija, Mark Schultz & William Stout, edited by John Fleskes (Flesk)
ISBN: 978-1-933865-38-6

After everything is said and done the most immediate response to narrative art is through the eyes. The right picture is worth far more than a thousand words and this stunning hardback coffee-table sampler is stuffed with finished works and the far-more-interesting roughs, sketches, pencil stages, works-in-progress and details of a quintet of extremely talented stars who are all masters of communicating through unforgettable imagery.

Selected by art addict and specialist publisher John Fleskes, this superb tome collects a tantalising array of material to captivate all fans of fantasy, horror, comicbook action and even dinosauria, but is in fact a delicious physical ad and endorsement for the company’s even more tempting range of dedicated art-books by the contributors and other such talents as Al Williamson, Bruce Timm, James Bama, Steve Rude, Jim Silke, Harvey Dunn, Joseph Clement Coll and many moreâ€¦

Each entry begins with a brief biography, starting with the incredible career of fine artist, commercial and comicbook painter, animation visual developer (Hercules, Mulan, Monsters vs. Aliens, The Lorax and more) and landscape architect Craig Elliott.

His gallery of 11 stunning fantasy paintings – plus a page detailing his work process – leads into an equally staggering array of works by commercial artist, illustrator and comics aristocrat Gary Gianni, accompanied by sketches, paintings and comic pages from Conan, Solomon Kane, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Indiana Jones, The MonsterMen, Batman, Prince Valiant and much more.

Award-winning Serbian fantasy illustrator Petar MeseldÅ¾ija is represented in an incredible gallery of 20 fantasy paintings, drawing and sketches, many starring the fantastic mythological monsters of his homeland, whilst comics superstar Mark Schultz contributes a dozen pages of working drawings, roughs and sketches from past glories such as Conan and Xenozoic Tales as well as a myriad of high adventure and fantasy scenarios.

This catalogue of wonders concludes with a selection by legendary artist, natural historian and illustrator William Stout, ranging from monster, zombie and dinosaur paintings to luscious animal pictures to comics covers to film posters and previously unseen record covers.

These pictures, ranging from intoxicating barbarian women, valiant sword-wielding warriors, wondrous dinosaurs, Cowboys and Indians, rockets and robots, bold heroes, period drama scenes, cosmic adventurers, beasts and monsters, aliens, action sequences, beguiling nudes and glamour studies, are the bedrock of fantasy illustration and these beautifully intimate glimpses of masters at work, with high quality colour reproduction capturing every nuance of brushstroke, pen line and pencil mark, make this a book a vital primer for anybody dreaming of drawing for a living. Most importantly the astounding breadth and scope of work presented here make me itch to pick up my pencil and draw, draw, draw some more myself.

Enticing, revealing, rewarding and incredibly inspirational, no lover of wonder or art lover can fail to be galvanised by this superb portfolio of excellence.
Â© 2011 Flesk Publications LLC. All Rights Reserved. All artworks and features Â© 2011 the individual creators, owners or copyright holders.

July 26, 2013July 25, 2013

Persia Blues volume 1: Leaving Home

By Dara Naraghi & Brent Bowman (NBM/ComicsLit)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-706-5

We do it for fame, we do it for fortune (or at least to pay bills), we do it for fun but all of us primarily make comics because we absolutely have to. Every story we hear, each pedestrian observation provokes the reaction â€œhow would I break that down into panels? How many to a page?â€â€¦

All real world input â€“ from shopping lists to bad TV – is taken in, screened through an internal grid and then we worry about how we’ll draw the damn thing. One dayâ€¦

All creative people are a little bit chained to their art-form, and Iranian ex-pat Dara Naraghi far more so than most. As well as his own celebrated BigCityBlues comic he keeps busy adapting licensed properties such as Robert Patterson’s Witch & Wizard novels, Terminator: Salvation, It! The Terror From Beyond Space and Ghostbusters into comics form, writing for DC, Image and IDW and running his own publishing house Ferret Press.

His breakthrough graphic anthology Lifelike set new standards for expressive exploratory tale-telling and he was a founding member of comics creators collective PANEL. He also scripts (and occasionally draws) utterly wonderful tales covering every aspect of the human experience from wild fantasy to chilling slice-of-life in a splendid series of webcomics.

Artist and illustrator Brent Bowman has created art for the Age of Empires collector card game and worked at Caliber Press and Image Comics. He too is a member of PANEL, devoted to pushing the envelope (probably after covering it with doodles and sketches) of graphic narrative.

Together they have begun a series of graphic novels implausibly blending real-world reportage with high fantasy in a manner both intriguing and captivating.

Persia Blues: Leaving Home introduces spirited young woman Minoo Shirazi who has a history of troublemaking in two worldsâ€¦

Far away and long ago a bold warrior with an inexplicable magical power is battling beside her lover against brigands and worse to retrieve a holy book in the heyday of the Persian Empire.

Four years ago in Shiraz, Iran, forthright and independent architecture student Minoo meets another rebellious, frustrated young woman and cleverly outwits the Ayatollah’s Morality Police when they accuse the girls of immodesty â€“ a pretty serious crime in a state that appears to hate women and fear individualismâ€¦

In Ancient Persia the war woman returns the sacred Avesta to a venerable cleric at Zoroaster’s Fire Temple and learns about the eternal struggle between the light of Ahura Mazda and dark, evil Ahriman, before somehow lapsing into a bitter argument with the parochial paternalistic priest.

Back in Iran, Minoo gets home safely but word of her brush with the authorities has reached her father. Loving but scared, once-eminent history professor Bijan Shiraz provokes a very similar argument with much the same result. This wise man has reason to fear.

Every day he fights a losing battle as religious fundamentalists slowly destroy his overweening passion, rewriting and revising the grand and glorious history of Persia to suit the self-serving demands of a theocratic, clerical dictatorship. With his wife and son gone, Bijan cannot bear the thought that his wilful daughter might also be lost to himâ€¦

In the days of Zoroaster, the sex-fuelled, shamelessly exhausted slumber of barbarian Minoo and her lover Tyler is shattered when she experiences a horrifying vision. Rushing to the FireTemple, they discover the priest on the verge of expiring, claiming with his last breaths that Ahriman himself was his killer.

He makes her promise to voyage to the distant capital Persepolis and discloses that Minoo’s long-lost mother is there. Although Minoo refuses to believe the dying man’s delusions, when a giant, wingless talking Hippogriff (an Opinicus?) appears she has no choice but to accept the prediction and the questâ€¦

Iran 18 years ago: seven year old Minoo has a furious tantrum on learning that she must now wear a Hijab whenever she goes outside. The government edict applies to all girls starting school, and the child’s explosive reaction prompts a fight between her father and mother Manijeh. Eventually, however, Mum’s pragmatic wisdom and Dad’s gentle humour calm the tense situationâ€¦

In Persia, swordswoman Minoo is equally reluctant to bow to authority but just as susceptible to reason as the Hippogriff decrees that she will play a key part in the battle between good and evil and must accept her fateâ€¦

Now minus six years: teen rebel Minoo is playing fast and loose with a flashy rich punk from Tehran. When her furious father furiously ejects the lecher another row erupts and his daughter throws in his face her lack of choice and opportunity under the Mullahs – a crushing blow to a man who almost lost his life defending personal freedom and intellectual libertyâ€¦

Four days have passed in Ancient Persia and, as Tyler and Minoo dutifully attend the funeral rites of the murdered holy man, appalling Ahriman himself appears and sets a pride of lions on the questersâ€¦

In oppressed Iran 15 years ago, Bijan and Manijeh are having a terrible fight. She wants the family to leave but the scholar refuses to leave the proud history of Persia in the hands of revisionist maniacs. Minoo eavesdrops from outside, terrified hr parents are divorcing, but older brother Ramin soon calms her and assuages her fearsâ€¦

Near death but reluctant to harm innocent beasts, Minoo is astounded when Ahura Mazda manifests and rewards their forbearance with healing light and sage adviceâ€¦

Three years ago in the Shiraz’ Vakil Bazaar, Minoo and her father discuss her recent graduation. Her prospects have long been a brittle bone of contention, and she cannot accept the confirmed intellectual’s argument that she should pursue a Master’s Degree. Not in a country that openly suppresses choice and opportunity for womenâ€¦

She is utterly astounded when her father reveals he has changed his mind and will use all his resources, contacts and waning influence to secure her a University place outside Iran. If the government will let her leave, that isâ€¦

Just outside Persepolis, Tyler and Minoo encounter the legendary Anusiya battling an horrific army of scorpion men. Dashing to join the hard-pressed Persian Royal Guard, their warrior spirits and battle savvy turn the tide and the grateful soldiers escort them to an audience with the Emperorâ€¦

In Iran the family are gossiping; shocked that Minoo won’t come out of her room to join the Saal. No matter how upset or modern she might be, a dutiful daughter should be present at the one-year anniversary ceremony to commemorate the death of her motherâ€¦

â€¦Or rather Empress. Purandokht is Queen and Protector of the Persian Empire and would know to whom the realm owes thanksâ€¦

This is a tale of interconnected contrasts with the modern flashback scenes rendered in stark black line and the fantastic magical Persian adventure rendered in lush, painterly pencil-grey tones. Moreover, although the general dialogue and idiom is what you’d expect in an historical drama, Tyler and mystic Minoo only speak like American twenty-somethingsâ€¦

Our suspicions are further tweaked by the brace of Epilogues in which the wandering warriors reveal to Purandokht that they are from â€œColumbusâ€â€“ who has her own shocking personal revelation for the woman warrior â€“ whilst in Shiraz two years ago Minoo joyously learns that she will be attending the University of Ohio in Americaâ€¦

Gleefully melding past and present, fact and fiction, this introductory volume revels in exploiting reader expectation and confusion to craft a beguiling multi-layered tale about family, responsibility, guilt, oppression and the hunger for independence that carries the reader along, promoting wonder and second-guessing whilst weaving a tapestry of mystery.

We’ll all have guesses about what’s really happening but Naraghi and Bowman won’t be telling any secrets too soon.

Engaging, rewarding and just plain refreshingly different, Persia Blues looks set to become a classic in years to come.

To Be Continuedâ€¦
Â© 2013 Dara Naraghi and Brent Bowman.

July 25, 2013July 24, 2013

Greek Mythology for Beginners

By Joe Lee (For Beginners Books)
ISBN: 978-1-934389-83-6

The heroic tales and legends of the Hellenic Golden Age have for centuries formed an integral part of educational development and the cultural and philosophical – if no longer spiritual – legacy of these stories permeates every aspect of modern society. What we don’t perhaps fully grasp, though, is how this wealth of thought and fable gripped the souls of the ancient world’s paramount aggregation of deep thinkers.

They’re just stories to you and me, but to the world-changing likes of Aristotle, Archimedes, Anaximander Epicurus, Euclid, Diogenes, Plato, Pythagoras, Sophocles, Socrates and the rest – plus those uncounted millions of ordinary citizens of that loose-knit region linked by only geography, language and of course religion – they were as real and profound as the Koran or Bible today.

All theocratic stories are devised to explain away unsolved questions and unknowable mysteries. The liturgical lessons prÃ©cised here in such engaging prose style and with such effective cartooning were one disparate people’s attempt to rationalise the universe they inhabited.

The For Beginners series of books are heavily illustrated text primers: accessible graphic non-fiction foundation courses in a vast variety of subjects from art to philosophy, politics to history and more, all tackled in a humorous yet readily respectful manner. This particular volume is compiled by Joe Lee, author, cartoonist and historian with degrees from IndianaUniversity (Medieval History) and Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey’s ClownCollegeâ€¦

Following an Introduction describing our debt to the Ancient world, this fun and fascinating invitation to the meat of the myths commences with a catalogue of leading participants and the intriguing creation myths of the Hellenes in Part 1: The Gods Themselves, from Chaos to Christmas – a sort of chronological introduction to the void from which everything sprang.

An explanation of Chaos is followed in close order by the potted histories of Ouranos and Gaea, the original Eros, The Titans, the Children of Heaven and Earth and The Twelve Olympians – each given their own biography and modus operandi.

This extensive listing of the beings and creatures Greeks prayed to and feared is complemented by The Cavalcade of Other Deities in which we learn of the Other (minor) Gods, such as The Muses, The Fates, The Graces, Dionysus, Demeter, Pan, Adonis, Aeolus, Antaeus, Asclepius, Ate, Attis, Boreas, Charon, Chiron, Eos, Eris, The Gorgons, Harmony, The Harpies, Helios, The Horae, Hypnos, Phantasos, Iris, Nemesis, Nike, Pegasus, The Pleiades, Priapus, Proteus, Selene, Silenus, Thanatos, Tyche and Zephrus.

If you battled your way through that odd yet oddly familiar list you might now have some inkling just how much our world is still informed and coloured by theirs…

There are even more surprises when we learn of The Nonhumans: Centaurs, Dryads, Naiads, Nereids, Nymphs, Oceanids, Oreads, Satyrs, Sileni, Sirens and of course that lethally querulous Egyptian immigrant The Sphinxâ€¦

Part II: the Stories that Inform deals with many of the most famous episodes, divided into logical categories for easier assimilation.

The Allegories covers the educationally enriching salutary histories of Pandora, Eros (the second) and Psyche, Orpheus and Eurydice, Pygmalion and Galatea, Narcissus and Echo, tragic Daphne, Persephone, Phaeton, donkey-eared Midas, Atalanta, and the brilliant craftsmen Daedalus and Icarus – all episodes redolent with warnings and punishments we simultaneously find apt and arbitrary.

Overweening Moral: Gods are unpredictable and destiny inescapableâ€¦

Next come the assorted stirring sagas of The Heroes. Mined voraciously by all modern media, the convoluted histories of Perseus, Bellerophon, Theseus, Jason, Oedipus and Heracles (with a complete rundown on those fabled Twelve Labours from slaying the Nemean Lion to stealing the Golden Apples of the Hesperides), these stories are still beloved and retold: just check out the next Percy Jackson film (â€¦Sea of Monsters) or the burgeoning sub-genre spawned by the remade Clash of the Titans.

And just so’s you know: the Kraken was a Norse, not Hellenic, sea-terrorâ€¦

This section concludes with an extensive yet abbreviated tour of The Epics of Homer. The Iliad and The Odyssey are a bedrock source for much contemporary prose, poetry and entertainment and you are the poorer if you have not read one of the many excellent translations of these epicsâ€¦

This engaging appreciation ends with Part III: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Modern World as the incomprehensible influence of Greek thought and spirituality is traced through the rise and fall of Rome, suppressed by Christianity and taken up, shorn of theocratic force and impetus but charged with logical aesthetics by the artists and wise men of The Renaissance.

Thereafter the influence is seen in Neo-Classicism, the philosophical soul-searching of Nietzsche and intellectual probing of Freud (who coined such common if rather inappropriate modern terms as â€œOedipus Complexâ€ and â€œNarcissismâ€).

Fans should be on particularly solid and familiar ground for the last essay as Popular Culture examines Gods and Monsters in ‘Books’, ‘Comics’ and ‘Movies’ before the author wraps things up in his heartfelt and enticing ‘Conclusion’.

Short, sweet, clever and captivating, this is a delicious entrÃ©e into the pervasive, fantastic world of Greek myth and the subtler subtext of our times, and would well suit older kids (who have at least seen cartoon representations of naked men and women before) with an interest in grand stories and amazing adventuresâ€¦
Text and illustrations Â© 2013 Joe Lee. All rights reserved.

July 24, 2013July 23, 2013

The Twin Knights

By Osamu Tezuka, translated by Maya Rosewood (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-939130-01-3

Osamu Tezuka first rescued and then utterly revolutionised the Japanese comics industry during the 1950s and 1960s. Being a devoted fan of the films of Walt Disney he also performed similar sterling service in the country’s fledgling animation industry.

Many of his earliest works were aimed at children but right from the start his expansive fairytale stylisations – so perfectly seen in this splendid romp – harboured more mature themes and held hidden treasures for older readersâ€¦

Ribon no Kishi or â€œKnight of the Ribbonâ€ was a breakthrough series which Tezuka returned to repeatedly during his life and one that is being continued even in the 21st century by his disciples. The simplistic but engaging fable of a Princess forced by political intrigue and cruel fate to pose as a man – and a warrior knight at that – has been adapted into movie and TV anime seen all over the world (generally known as some variation of â€œChoppy and the Princessâ€ in places as far-flung as Canada, France Australia and Brazil) and in 2006 a stage musical was launched.

The serial was first published in Kodansha’s Shoujo Korabu (ShÅjo Club), running from January 1954 to January 1956, with the generational sequel collected here appearing in Nakayoshi magazine as Futago no Kishi between January 1958 and June 1959.

The series is a perennial favourite and classic of the medium and this complete-in-one-volume yarn continues the saga begun in the two-volume softcover English-language Princess Knight.

Influenced heavily by Disney’s fairytale feature-films, each chapter herein is designated a â€œSceneâ€ and opens with an homage to movie musical set-pieces in a ‘Prologue’ which reveals that the beautiful Queen Sapphire of Silverland has just given birth to a boy and a girlâ€¦

Scene 2 reveals ‘The Twin’s Secret’ as ambitious nobles of the court begin lobbying for one or other of the newborns to be named as heir (apparently, the subject of male primogeniture doesn’t appear to be a hindrance or issue in Silverland), with such vigour that proud father Franz is spending all his time breaking up duelsâ€¦

Depressed and flustered the King gets a helping hand from the angel Tink, and Prince Daisy rather than Princess Violetta is officially nominated Heir Apparent.

However ambitious Duchess Dahlia and her ineffectual husband are unprepared to accept the decision and make treasonous plans. Soon, baby boy Daisy has been abducted and left to die in a wooded wilderness ruled over by the ferocious monster Slobbâ€¦

The people are divided and, in an effort to curtail civil war, Sapphire and Franz devise an insane plan. The twins were identical and now Violetta will play the part of both siblings, for as long as it takes to find her lost brother and preserve the kingdom. The Queen is particularly distraught that, for sake of duty, her daughter must endure the selfsame hardships that forced a young Sapphire to become the turbulent Knight of the Ribbon all those years agoâ€¦

‘In the Forest’ meanwhile, the Prince has been adopted by a fawn whose love and devotion is so great that the Goddess of the Forest grants her the power to become human from dusk till dawn. Papi will raise the boy as her little brother â€œRonnieâ€, but the Goddess warns that her shape-shifting gift comes with some serious provisos and inevitable tragic consequencesâ€¦

A decade passes and Daisy, left alone every day, becomes a headstrong, independent lad and mighty hunter. His greatest dream is to shoot a certain deer that always avoids him with almost human intelligenceâ€¦

At the palace ‘Violetta’s Sadness’ grows as she is one day demure damsel and the next a boy harshly schooled in all the manly arts of war. Eventually she runs off and meets the palace gardener’s boy Tom Tam, but her brief, carefree respite kindles an incredible suspicion in the ever-scheming, always watching Dahliaâ€¦

More time passes and on the separated children’s fifteenth birthday a crisis is reached when only Violetta attends the huge party. Thankfully, the arrival of enigmatic envoys ‘Prince White and Prince Black’ distracts the ever-watching plotters and allows the distraught Princess to change into her masculine mode. The visiting brothers are keen on hunting in the Forest of Slobb, however, and when â€œDaisyâ€ accompanies them Dahlia confirms her suspicions using the keen nose of a savage hunting houndâ€¦

Prince Black is as dark as his name and belligerently picks a fight with â€œDaisyâ€. Although beaten in the ensuing duel he cheats and is admonished by his noble brother, but in his heart hatred blooms and festersâ€¦

Prince White, meanwhile, finds himself impossibly drawn to the beautiful boy Daisy and is delighted to hear that the plucky lad has a sister who is his exact match and equalâ€¦

Dahlia, seeing an opportunity, distracts Prince Black from taking out his ire on the local fauna and offers him an intriguing propositionâ€¦

When White is wounded by Slobb, the hunting party returns to the palace – with Papi in her deer form one of the captured prizes – and as Daisy changes into her girl clothes to meet and minister to the visiting Prince’s injuries the scurrilous Black observes the transformation and discovers the nation’s greatest secretâ€¦

As the sun sets the trussed but living fawn becomes human again and ‘What Papi Saw’ describes how her eavesdropping on Black and Dahlia changes the fate of Silverland foreverâ€¦

Horrifically, however, after escaping the palace and earnest pursuit from Prince Black, she is shot in her own home by the boy she has raised. Reverting to human and on her deathbed she tells heartbroken Ronnie everything she has learned and urges him to fulfil his true destiny â€¦

That begins with a final fateful battle against the terrifying Slobb after which the keen hunter forever forswears his boyhood pursuits and finds all the animals in the forest pay him homage. Meanwhile in the palace Dahlia makes her move, forcing the compromised Royal Family into temporary custody in ‘The North Tower’.

Even her husband is surprised at her plan to ensure that they never leave itâ€¦

Long ago the King of Mice pledged his allegiance to Sapphire, and his successor now informs Violetta of her lost brother’s location and even aids her escape – clad in the legendary guise of Knight Ribbon – but she is too late.

Her brother has vanished. As the disguised Violetta slumps in dejection she is accosted by a saucy wench most taken with the beautiful young man before her. The wild, teasing creature offers aid which is gratefully acceptedâ€¦

Emerald is in fact a ‘Gypsy Queen’ and, promising to aid the Knight, takes â€œhimâ€ to their wizened fortune teller Nara Yama, who reveals the missing brother is alive. She also divines the masquerader’s true identity and gender!

Just then the usurper Duke’s men raid the camp but the gypsies fight them off and fleeâ€¦

At the palace Dahlia’s husband as acting regent gets a double surprise. The first is the corpse of the once-unstoppable Slobb and the other is the youth who dragged it in.

Common woodsman Ronnie is the spitting image of the missing Violetta in her male aspect and might well act as a pliable ‘Substitute Daisy’ when the Royal Family finally succumb to the slow-acting poison secretly being administered to themâ€¦

Things take a magical turn when Emerald and Knight Ribbon stumble upon the hidden ‘Palace of Roses’ and learn the true nature of Princes Black and White. Both are mystical creatures but whilst the good Prince wishes he could lose his powers and wed Violetta, Black is determined to cause her extreme suffering and deathâ€¦

With the faithful, still-oblivious Gypsy Queen’s aid the Ribbon Knight survives Black’s garden of horrors and the pair escape ‘Inundation’ and eldritch ‘Storm’ as they fight their way out of Rose Citadel, but are soon trapped in a ghastly ‘Mirage Forest’ controlled by the witch Begonia until a magical sprite adopts them. However ‘Devoted Tiln’ must pay an awful price for her valiant intercession which only brings the fugitives to the relative safety of a small village.

Prince Black leads the Regent’s soldiers to them there and Violetta is exposed. Shocked and angry, Emerald nevertheless helps her escape to ‘Wolf Mountain’ where another tragic sacrifice leads the rebels into one final battle against the plotters, restores order for the just and inflicts well-deserved punishment upon the wicked in the action-packed, wildly romantic – if inappropriately entitled – ‘Epilogue’â€¦

The Twin Knights is a spectacular, riotous, rollicking adventuresome fairytale about desire, destiny and determination which cemented the existence of the Shoujo (â€œLittle Femaleâ€ or young girl’s manga) genre in Japan and can still deliver a powerful punch and wide eyed wonder on a variety of intellectual levels. One of the most beguiling kid’s comics Tezuka ever crafted, it’s a work that all fans and – especially parents – should know, but be warned, although tastefully executed, this tales doesn’t sugar coat the drama and more than one favourite character won’t be alive at the end. If you have sensitive kids read it first and, if you too have a low woe quotient, pack handkerchiefsâ€¦

This black and white book is printed in the traditional ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.
Â© 2013 by Tezuka Productions. Translation Â© 2013 by Vertical, Inc. All rights reserved.

July 19, 2013July 17, 2013

Usagi Yojimbo Book 4: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy

By Stan Sakai (Fantagraphics)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-063-7

Usagi Yojimbo (literally â€œrabbit bodyguardâ€) premiered as a background character in Stan Sakai’s anthropomorphic comedy The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper before indomitably carving his own unique path to graphic glory.

Sakai was born in 1953 in Kyoto, Japan before the family moved to Hawaii two years later. After graduating the University of Hawaii, with a BA in Fine Arts, he pursued further studies at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design in California and started in comics as a letterer, most famously for the inimitable Groo the Wanderer.

Eventually the cartoonist within resurfaced: blending his storytelling drive with a love of Japanese history and legend and hearty interest in the filmic works of Akira Kurosawa and his peers, into one of the most enticing and impressive fantasy sagas of all time.

And it’s still more educational, informative and authentic than any dozen Samurai sagas you can nameâ€¦

The intoxicating period epic is set in a world of sentient animals (with a few unobtrusive human characters scattered about) but scrupulously mirrors the Edo Period of Feudal Japan – the early 17th century by our reckoning, simultaneously sampling classic contemporary cultural icons from sources as varied as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi and even Godzilla, whilst specifically recounting the life of Miyamoto Usagi, a peripatetic masterless Samurai, eking out an honourable living as a Yojimbo (bodyguard-for-hire).

As such, his fate is to be drawn constantly into a plethora of incredible situations.

This fabulous fourth black and white blockbuster gathers tales which originally appeared in Fantagraphics’ Usagi Yojimbo volume 1, #13-18 from 1988-1991, and temporarily sacrifices short stories and vignettes for another grand multi-chapter saga of blood and steel and cloak and dagger.

The drama begins after an illuminating Introduction from the legendary multi-media imagineer Alejandro Jodorowsky before the epic and slowly-brewing Dragon Bellows Conspiracy flares into fulgent fury in a grandiose epic where weather and environment are as much major players as the wide cast of regulars brought together by fate and a brewing tempestâ€¦

In recent days young Lord Noriyuki – new and still politically insecure leader of the prestigious Geishu Clan – had been targeted by various schemes to destabilise his position, and in ‘The Clouds Gather’ his devoted bodyguard Tomoe Ame is despatched to make diplomatic overtures and undertake covert inquiries at the castle of neighbouring Lord Tamakuro, an elder noble of undisclosed loyalties.

What she finds is an abomination: Tamakuro is stockpiling Teppo – forbidden western matchlock muskets and black powder weaponsâ€¦

When she is discovered, her loyal entourage sacrifice themselves, allowing Tomoe time to escape and alert Noriyuki, but in her pell-mell flight she is relentlessly pursuedâ€¦

Elsewhere, blind outlaw swords-pig Zato-Ino is still searching for peace and finding nothing but mercenaries and thugs hungry for the price on his head, with fate inevitably drawing him closer to a clash with money-mad bounty-hunter GennosukÃ©.

As the rains begin to fall, a wandering long-eared Ronin is forced off the road by a party of Samurai dragging the captured Tomoe towards the fortress of Lord Tamakuroâ€¦

The players begin to converge in ‘The Winds Howl’ when sinister imperial plotter Lord Hebi despatches Neko ninja chief Shingen to take command of an operation already underway in Tamakuro’s lands.

That paranoid rebel is keenly aware of official eyes upon him. Hurrying after Tomoe, Usagi wanders into a village laid waste by Tamakuro’s forces and finds himself blamed by Shingen for the slaughter of the inhabitants – every one an undercover Nekoâ€¦

Barely surviving a savage protracted duel with the ninja chief, the weary Yojimbo at last reaches the gates of Tamakuro’s citadel in ‘Downpour’ and defeats many of the rebel warlord’s warriors to win an officer’s post in his new, musket-equipped army.

Even as, in the sodden lands beyond the gates, Gen closes in on Ino, within the fortress Usagi rashly breaks the brutally abused Tomoe free and the pair flee into the tumultuous night with hordes of troops hard on their heels.

At least that’s what the pursuing soldiers believe. In truth the Ronin has fled alone to draw the rebels away and warn Lord Noriyuki, but his rash ride brings him crashing right into another clash with the vengeance-crazed Shingenâ€¦

Awakening from horrific nightmares to ‘Thunder and Lightning’, Usagi realises that the ninja has been ministering to the rabbit’s many wounds. Shingen has realised the truth and now wants to work together to destroy Tamakuro and to that end has marshalled more Neko to attack the fortress.

Tamakuro, meanwhile, is restless. His plans have come undone and he has just learned that the diabolical Tomoe is hiding somewhere in his house, waiting for the right moment to strikeâ€¦

As Usagi and the ninjas move on the castle, the Ronin finds an old friend on the road. Spot is a TokagÃ© lizard (ubiquitous, omnivorous reptiles that populate this world, replacing scavenger species like rats, cats and dogs in the fictitious ecosystem) and was once his faithful companion in his wanderings.

However the pet long ago switched his devotion to Blind Ino. If Spot is here, the blood-spilling porcine brigand – whose incredible olfactory sense more than compensates for his useless eyes – cannot be far awayâ€¦

He isn’t – but Usagi finds him engaged in a furious fight to the death with GennosukÃ© under skies ablaze with electric fire and shattered by booming clamourâ€¦

Grimly determined, the rabbit convinces both of them to join his band in an assault on the castle in ‘The Heart of the Storm’ even as many miles distant a Neko ninja infiltrates Noriyuki’s private chambers with a message from Usagi.

Her deed done, she vanishes, leaving the Boy Lord to rouse the families loyal to the Shogun. It is not the last time we shall see the beautiful, deadly sister of Shingenâ€¦

By the time dawn breaks, however, it is all over and the ferocious bloodletting has ended with the deaths of many comrades and valiant souls as well as the explosive destruction of all Tamakuro’s dreamsâ€¦

With the grand design concluded, the Dragon Bellows Conspiracy wraps up with two gentler episodes as, in ‘Storm Clouds Part’, Noriyuki formally offers the wandering Yojimbo the friendship of the Geishu Clan, whilst rough-handed Gen resumes his far more fraternal rivalry with Usagi.

Then ‘The Fate of the Blind Swordspig’ reveals one secret the bounty hunter refused to share with even his greatest friend as, far away, another major player is plagued with a tantalising, impossible choiceâ€¦

Despite changing publishers a few times, Usagi Yojimbo has been in continuous publication since 1987, resulting in dozens of graphic novel collections and books to date. He has guest-starred in many other series and even nearly made it into his own TV show â€“ there’s still time yet, and fashions can revive as quickly as they die outâ€¦

Fast-paced yet lyrical, funny and scary, always moving, ferociously thrilling and simply bursting with veracity and verve, Usagi Yojimbo is a cartoon masterpiece of irresistible appeal that will delight devotees and make converts of the most hardened hater of â€œfunny animalâ€ stories and comics.
Text and illustrations Â© 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 Stan Sakai. Usagi Yojimbo is Â® Stan Sakai. Book editions Â© 1990, 1991, 1998 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

July 4, 2013July 3, 2013

Sleaze Castle – the Directors Cut Part #0

By Dave McKinnon & Terry Wiley with various (Markosia)
ISBN: 978-1-905692-93-4

I’m old, me. I’ve been around for a bit and met a few folks. So, as occurs when I’m reviewing something by people I’ve gone drinking with, I feel compelled to admit to potential conflicts of interest such as here.

The Society of Strip Illustrators/Comics Creators Guild used to meet on the last Thursday of every month in London. There old lags and aspiring talents rubbed scruffy, grimy, dandruffed – occasionally scrofulous – shoulders, talking comics old and new whilst showing off what we were up to.

Always a fun, laid-back evening, those times when the laconic Terry Wiley would turn up from points North with copies of the latest self-published issue of Tales From Sleaze Castle were especially un-memorable – a combination of subsidised booze and the fact that most folks immediately buried their heads in the mesmerising, fundamentally British, trans-dimensional, time-busting kitchen sink comedy/drama/nostalgic fantasy buddy-movie of a comic and lost all power of speech until they’d finished.

It’s just that good â€“ probably the very best home-grown comic saga you’ve never read â€“ and it also holds strong claim to probably the very best and most appalling literary puns in all sequential narrative.

Scripted by the equally demi-mythical Dave McKinnon, the epic adventure is pretty straightforward but also nearly indescribable. The story unfolds in a progression of mini-chapters and vignettes which act as diary and six-month countdown to an inescapable, predestined eventâ€¦

After a rather bemused Foreword from author McKinnon, this latest edition of the monochrome masterpiece of wacky understatement starts with ‘Another Earth, Another Dimension, Another Reason to Go Shopping’ and a brace of ‘Prologues’ in which we meet incomprehensibly ancient Pandadomino Quartile, puissant albino Empress of another Realm of Reality and undisputed dominant resident of the incredible, infinite domicile dubbed Sleaze Castle.

Also brought to our attention are the thoroughly grounded though no less implausible Dribble family of Earth; mother Poppy, younger daughter Petra and her older sister Jocasta, befuddled student and co-star of our showâ€¦

As post-grad Jo returns to college in the Northern wilds of England and her ongoing M.A. in Televisual Studies, in London the Queen (not ours, the other, alien one) goes shopping. It is ‘Sep. ’86: Castaway’ and there’s about to be a small hitchâ€¦

The time/space door malfunctions and Pandadomino is stranded here. Establishing shaky communications with home she is assured that things will be fixed but it will take six months to retrieve her. Moreover the portal will appear in another locationâ€¦

An incoming call then gives further details and instructions.

It’s from herself who has literally just returned to SleazeCastle and she has some advice for her younger, stranded self. It’s quite bizarre, paradoxical and tediously specific instructions on what to do for the next 178 days so she’d better get a pencilâ€¦

Jocasta Dribble is on ‘AutopilotÂ Â 11:23’ as she makes her way from the railway station to her room in the Ethel Merman Hall of Residence at the University of Novocastria.

As usual the trip is fraught with woolgathering and petty weirdnesses but eventually she slumps onto her term-time bed and makes the acquaintance of her new neighbour.

The oddly naive girl with the shock of black hair, exotic face and too much eye makeup is from Thailand.

Sandra â€œcall me Pandaâ€ Castle has absolutely no idea about living in England so Jo takes her under her maternal wing, blithely oblivious that her new friend is an extraterrestrial immigrant, used to commanding vast armies and geniuses of various species, cunningly disguised with dyes and contact lenses. Moreover the strange stranger has used all her wiles to cheat her way into the room next door which will, some months’ distant, very briefly become an inter-dimensional gateway before snapping shut foreverâ€¦

And thus begins the gentle and seductively enchanting story of the relationship between two of the most well-realised women in comics. As geeky outsider Jo at last blossoms into a proper grown-up – she even finds a boyfriend, more than a decade after her precocious schoolgirl sister Petra – her instruction of the oddly sophisticated â€œThaiâ€ into British civilisation and college life is simultaneously heart-warming, painful, hilarious, poignant and irresistibly addictive to watch.

It’s also deliciously inclusive and expansive: packed with what 21^st century consumers now call â€œEaster Eggsâ€. These hidden nuggets of in-jokes, wry observations and oblique cultural and comics references are witty and funny enough in their own right, but if you were in any way part of the comics scene in the late 1980s they are also an instant key into golden times past, packed with outrageous guest-appearances by many of the upcoming stars and characters of the British cartooning and small press movement.

(Whilst the absolutely riveting scenes of Jo and Panda trying out both Novocastria’s Women Cartoonist Society and all-male Komik Klub are timeless slices of shtick to you lot, they were a solid reminder of times past and people I still owe a Christmas cardâ€¦)

Panda spends her first Christmas ever with the Dribbles and their ferociously Italian extended family but, as the days are counting down, the displaced millennia-old queen is beginning to wonder what will happen once she leavesâ€¦

Astoundingly there are people and places and things and people and one person in particularly who is apparently unique and irreplaceable even in the unending pan-cosmic Reality she owns. There’s this friend she’s really can’t bear to loseâ€¦

Beautifully scripted, alluringly paced and exquisitely rendered, this book would be paralysingly evocative for any Brit who went to college between 1975 and 1990, but what makes it all so astonishingly good is the fact that this delightful melange of all the things that contributed to our unique culture are effortlessly squooshed together as mere background in an captivating tale of two outsiders finding friendship through adversity and by perpetually lying to each otherâ€¦

There have been comparisons to Los Bros Hernandez’ Love and Rockets but they’re superficial and unfair to both. I will say though that both are uniquely the product of their own time and regional geographyâ€¦

This collection also includes a cover gallery and pin-ups as well as the additional plus of ‘And Finallyâ€¦ Three Lost Tales’ which features an aspect of the business I really miss.

A few of the self-publishing community cameoed in the Women Cartoonist Society and elsewhere – in a spirit of communal tit-for-tat – collaborated on side-bar stories featuring Panda, Jo and the rest during the comic’s initial run and with commentary from McKinnon are re-presented here, so even after the cliffhanger story-pause you can still have a laugh with ‘The Rules of the Game part I’ by Lee Kennedy, ‘The Rules of the Game part II’ by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood and what I’ll call ‘An Idea in a Book is Worth Two in the Head’ by Jeremy Dennis. You’ll need to buy this book to realise whyâ€¦

This a book by lovers of comics for lovers of comics and now that I’ve read this brand-new edition with its remastered pages and fresh snippets of originalÂ material I’m going to re-read the next three volumes in the Gratuitous Bunny Editions I bought years ago. Unless you have your own temporal retrieval system you’ll just have to wait for the next volumeâ€¦
SleazeCastle is â„¢ & Â© 1992, 2012 Dave McKinnon & Terry Wiley. This edition â„¢ & Â© Dave McKinnon, Terry Wiley and Markosia Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved. Three Lost Tales Â© 1996, 2012 Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, Lee Kennedy and Jeremy Day
This book is available for download on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes. Books must be read on an iOS device.

June 30, 2013June 28, 2013

Dinocorps

By Andy Briggs, Steve Horvath & Robert Molesworth (Markosia)
ISBN: 978-1-905692-80-4

The giant lizards who dominated earth for millions of years are an inescapable component of our culture and a vibrant part of modern story-telling. From Gertie and Barney to The Lost World or Dinotopia, from Calvin and Hobbes, Dinosaurs for Hire or Devil Dinosaur to The War that Time Forgot, Age of Reptiles and Tyrant, rampaging, roaring reptiles have and always will fascinate and captivate us all.

Here’s a rather cool, kid-friendly tweak on such scaly tales from screenwriter and author Andy Briggs (Judge Dredd, Freddy vs. Jason, Tarzan: the Greystoke Legacy) and Steve Horvath, illustrated in effective anime style by Robert Molesworth (Endangered Weapon B) that takes our long-vanished antecedents into rarely seen high-adventure territory.

Geeky Carl Vega is barely awake in his science class. The poor kid is fourteen and struggling to accept the inevitable changes and developments in his life. High school is getting him down and best buddy Winston just keeps obsessing about girls and parties.

Carl isn’t keen and he’s way behind on his science project but Winston doesn’t care. Being noticed by girls is cool and anyway he’s already handled his school chores. He shows off the geode/fossil thing he found near the old abandoned mine to prove it, and urges Carl to get one too before getting a life and joining him at the partyâ€¦

Still fuming, Carl bikes out to the spooky old ruin and begins poking about deep inside, nervous despite himself over all those scary stories adults told him just to keep kids out. However, as he plunges through loose boards into a deep shaft, his last thought is that Winston said he found his rock â€œnearâ€ not â€œinâ€ the mineâ€¦

Miraculously alive after his painful fall, Carl discovers an incredible rock-encrusted machine in a large icy cavern and is irresistibly drawn to a lever he can’t stop himself pullingâ€¦

With a crackle and a splash the device spews out a giant figure in a military uniform, speaking an utterly alien tongue. It’s a two-legged lizard a bit like a T-Rex, and with the flick of a switch it’s suddenly speaking colloquial English. Worse yet the machine is upchucking more of them â€¦

Soon the decanted creatures have settled and explain that they are a crack military unit from a place called Pangea. It was an idyllic civilisation and perfectly integrated society of many reptile species living in harmony – until that is – a sect of separatist terrorists who called themselves â€œTrue-Bloodsâ€ detonated a doomsday weapon to wipe out all the inferior species.

As the bewildered boy continues talking with Sergeant Rex, Lieutenant Kayla, Corporal Dirk, Professor Theodore and high-flying pterosaur Buzz they all reach the grim realisation that Pangea is now Earth, the Saurons’ dreaded Extinction Protocol device worked too well and the dinosaur soldiers have slept for thirty million yearsâ€¦

Marooned an eternity away from everything they have ever known, the Dinocorps accept Carl’s offer of help and emerge into a land completely different from their own. Painful memories of the scientific super-civilisation that once conquered space and privation taunt the sad survivors, but they are blithely unaware that they are not the only relics of that lost world.

In another distant cavern, a very similar bunker activates and the last cadre of Sauron supremacists awaken. Cruel, merciless eyes open and consult their monitoring machines. They are not happy with what they learnâ€¦

Meanwhile Carl has told Winston everything, but his â€œall grown-upâ€ pal refuses to believe a word and the friends have a huge fight. The cynic soon changes his mind however when a rampaging platoon of dinosaurs destroy the local Mall. Commander Jarek, Rayok, Kainor Veeble, Icks and Blix have no worries about being inconspicuous or politeâ€¦

The Saurons eradicated their entire civilisation because they wouldn’t share the world with different types of their own kind: they’re certainly not going to allow a bunch of mammals to live in it. The huge solar cannon that destroyed Pangea is still in orbit and operational. All they have to do is find the trigger control and they can wipe out this latest infestation of inferior lifeâ€¦

When Carl deduces that it’s in the geode Winston found, the heroes rush over to his house only to find the horrifically wicked flesh-hungry Saurons have also tracked it down. A brutal clash between the time-lost angels and devils then results in the first Dinocorps casualty in 30 million yearsâ€¦

In the aftermath, Jarek and his squad retreat with Winston as their hostage and Rex reveals the device has attuned itself to the terrified kid. Unless they can rescue him from the triumphant terror-lizards the end of the world is only days awayâ€¦

Saurons are fanatical but not suicidal and immediately head for an ancient back-up bunker prepared before their world died. Unfortunately we mammals are everywhere and the overland journey is fraught with clashes against the puny humans, allowing Winston an opportunity to phone his friend and give the Dinocorps one last chance to intercept them and stop the countdown.

As the solar clock ticks down events continually frustrate Jarek. Even after reaching the location of the shelter the killer lizard is temporarily stymied because the insufferable mammals have built a city over itâ€¦

When Carl and his valiant dinosaur defenders hit Las Vegas in their recently restored antediluvian dino-jet the scene is set for one last cataclysmic battle to save everythingâ€¦

Reading like a spectacular pilot for an edgy Saturday morning cartoon, Dinocorps is fast-paced and action-packed, with acres of drama and tension in the style of both Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Furious fantastic fun for kids of all ages and constructed with sequels in mind, this collection also sports a section of sketches and designs for the dynamic dinosaur defendersâ€¦

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