Category: Feminism & Sexual Politics

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Nina Simone in Comics


By Sophie Adriansen; with Antoane, Romain Brun, Domenico Carbone, Gabriele Di Caro, Mademoiselle Caroline, Samuel Figuiére, Dario Formisani, Sandrine Fourrier, François Foyard, Christian Galli, Chadia Loueslati, Walter Pax, Isa Python, Benjamin Reiss, Riccardo Randazzo, Adrien Roche, Anne Royant, Cynthia Thiéry, Mayeul Vigouroux, Lysandre Vanhoutvenne, Sara Colella, François Renaud & various (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-326-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-327-1

Nina Simone was a mighty voice dedicated to freedom of expression and emancipation of body and soul. This powerful collaborative visual investigation probes her troubled life, failures and achievements, and highlights a life-long war between family pressures, her own frustrated desires, search for autonomy and the spurious divide between classical music and The Blues.

Another stunning musical biography, this book was released continentally in 2023 and is certain to appeal to readers all over the English-speaking world. Nina Simone in Comics joins NBM’s superb and sublime graphic narrative sub-strand, probing the history of a globally significant performer and musical phenomenon whose works and deeds shook the planet and changed society…

Following a full ‘Discography’ (mirroring a ‘Further Reading and viewing’ section at the end of the book) we have context-providing, photo-packed prose essays augmenting stylish individual comics snippets. Both educative articles and chronological character-confirming visual vignettes are penned by French author, biographer and journalist Sophie Adriansen (La menace des fantômes & Musiques diaboliques [Scooby-Doo], Grace Kelly – D’Hollywood à Monaco, le roman d’une légende, Le Syndrome de la vitre étoilée) who steers a coterie of cartoonists and illustrators dramatising the history and demystifying the myths for us. Each combined chapter opens with a quote from the star or close associates…

Anne Royant opens the show with ‘Music As Company’ detailing early days of a musical prodigy born into a strict Christian “negro” household in proudly segregated Tryon, North Carolina. It’s 1935 and Eunice Kathleen Waymon is growing up in a blanketing swathe of religious music, and utterly unable to keep her little hands off her mother’s beloved pedal organ. Eunice is barely three and plays it better than her astounded mother Mary Kate…

Textual assessment ‘In the Beginning’ sees how the family moved socially upwards thanks to Eunice’s gifts, before Christian Galli reveals in images how the toddler decided ‘I’m Going To Be A Classical Pianist When I Grow Up’. Prose supplement ‘Two Pivotal Figures in her Life’ reveals the influence of Mary Kate’s employer Mrs Miller – who sponsored music lessons for the maid’s kid and organised a fund fuelled by Eunice’s recitals that made enough money to carry the child to music college. The other founding spirit was English music teacher Muriel “Miz Mazy” Massinovitch who taught the wonder girl poise, erudition and Bach: inculcating a love of “real music” that carried Eunice to the top of the world but also tainted her life with bitter disappointment…

Growing into a teen hampered by ingrained prejudice and restricted by repressive “Jim Crow” laws prompts the question ‘Do You Feel Black?’ (illustrated by Samuel Figuiére) before support feature ‘Eunice Discovers the World’ shows her dream to be a classical performer continually challenged by blinkered society, before Dario Formisani and colourist Lysandre Vanhoutvenne share heartbreaking revelations as the high school graduate’s dream of attending a prestigious music academy founders due to skin colour in ‘Early Setbacks.’ Her transition to Philadelphia and New York is explored through prose and photos in ‘Talent to Develop’…

Mother Mary Kate was a hard, pious woman and when Eunice adopted a stage name to play nightclubs and earn money, her surrender to ‘The Devil’s Music’ (art by Mademoiselle Caroline) sparked years of bitter contention. That transition and its repercussions is covered in ‘Eunice Becomes Nina’ before Adrien Roche draws ‘Pivotal Figures’ and an essay follows Nina ‘Back to Atlantic City’ for a new life of overnight popularity and appreciation but utterly at odds with her childhood aspirations…

A lifetime of poor choices in men and managers is first touched upon in the Antoane-illustrated ‘We Start Recording Tomorrow’ whilst bizarre circumstances leading to ‘The First Album’ are seen, prior to François Foyard’s cartoon crescendo ‘Patience…’ detailing how Nina responded to learning her life and music were controlled by men because she never read contracts: a situation expanded upon in ‘An Underwhelming Success.’

Cynthia Thiéry shows ‘A New Star Is Born!’ after playing a landmark gig at a legendary venue, further explored in text supplement ‘The Town Hall’, after which Chadia Loueslati depicts Nina’s marriage and reasons for staying with an abusive controller whose love manifested in bouts of violence and deep remorse in ‘A Hold On Me’, and ‘A Time of Conflicts’ adds much-needed context to the mystery…

Limned by Riccardo Randazzo and fleshed out by colourist Sara Colella, ‘I’ll Be Back’ and text titbit ‘Marriage and Travel’ follow Nina – a mother with no control of her work or finances – as she visits Africa and becomes even more consumed by civil rights issues, leading to her learning ‘Your Weapon Is Music!’ (Isa Python art) whilst ‘1963’ recapitulates the state of the world. Sandrine Fourrier realises Simone’s progress ‘Towards a Music of Protest’, with a prose precis spotlighting Nina’s ‘Time to Get Involved’…

Romain Brun illustrates the birth and spreading social impact of breakthrough composition ‘Young, Gifted and Black’ (co-created with black poet Weldon Irvine) as historical context comes via support feature ‘The Fight Intensifies’, before Gabriele Di Caro revisits public event ‘Human Kindness Day’ (AKA “The Summer of Soul”, and “Black Woodstock”) as a prose essay asks was that ‘The Moment It All Collapsed?’

A decade of letting men control her life and money left Nina Simone a target of the IRS and international exile, as revealed by Benjamin Reiss who draws her ‘In A Pub In Paris’ with prose synopsis ‘An Eventful Decade’ tracking a tragic decline highlighted by a diagnosis of bi-polar disorder. A monumental reversal began when a forgotten track – added as an afterthought to her very first album – was used in a perfume commercial and set the world aglow. Domenico Carbone & François Renaud light up the comeback trail in ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’, with ‘Nina’s Back’ adding detail to a career resurrection prior to declining mental health triggering a crisis. Limned by Walter Pax & Renaud, ‘That’s Enough!’ with text support ‘Tragedy at Bouc-Bel-Air’ expands on an incident that almost ended Nina’s life…

This compelling journey through oppression and injustice chooses to focus on upbeats at the close, with Nina’s presence at Nelson Mandela’s 80th birthday/third wedding in ‘Happy Birthday, Mister President’ – visualised by Mayeul Vigouroux augmented with essay ‘Swan Song’ – before Royant illustrates the world’s too-late knee-jerk approbation in ‘God Be With You Till We Meet Again’ with a pithy summation ‘Keeping the flame alive’…

In so many ways, Activist Nina Simone was more important than the performer/composer, but whether her actions or her music drew you to her, this book will remind you why and make you miss her all the more. Nina Simone in Comics is an astoundingly readable and beautifully rendered treasure for narrative art and music fans alike: one to resonate with anybody who loves to listen and look. If you love pop history and crave graphic escape, this will truly feed your soul.
© 2023 Editions Petit à Petit. © 2024 NBM for the English translation.

Nina Simone in Comics is scheduled for UK release February 13th 2024 and available for pre-order now. Most NBM books are also available in digital formats. For more information and other wonderful reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/

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Lobo by Keith Giffen & Alan Grant volume 1


By Keith Giffen & Alan Grant with Simon Bisley, Christian Alamy, Denys Cowan, Kevin O’Neill & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7477-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: ’Tis the Season To Be Fragged… 8/10

Lobo is an incredibly powerful, inescapably violent, perpetually drunken thug afflicted with a love of space dolphins, an utter disregard for all other life and an unshakable moral code hard for anyone else to grasp. The obnoxious, overbearing, unsanitary intergalactic bounty hunter was first seen in Omega Men #3, cover-dated June 1983. He then cropped up all over the DC universe, even becoming a mainstay of the popular L.E.G.I.O.N. series: indentured by cunning stunt as a (sort of) peacekeeper to the intergalactic commercial police force run by Vril Dox, “son” of one multiversal iteration of cosmic super-villain Brainiac.

He had his own monthly title for a few years as well as multiple miniseries and specials, and was a popular candidate for inter and cross-company team-ups. He’s even been a repeat offender on screen in both live action and animated iterations. In-world, the name Lobo roughly translates as “he who devours your entrails and enjoys it”. Despite being pretty much a one trick pony and increasingly an exercise in outrageous graphic excess, this unstoppable, anarchic force-of-nature exploded in popularity in the decade following debut. He was exactly what many fans wanted.

This collection reprints Lobo #1-4; The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special; Lobo’s Back #1-4; Lobo: Blazing Chain of Love; Lobo Convention Special and material from Who’s Who in the DC Universe, collectively spanning all of infinity via cover-dates November 1990 to September 1993.

Without any kind of fair warning, this bloodbath of poor taste and shocking excess opens with initial Limited Series Lobo #1-4: ‘The Last Czarnian’. The skeevy brute always prided himself on being the final survivor of his planet, but here finds to his horror and disgust that he missed someone when he slaughtered his entire race. That lucky survivor is his old fourth grade teacher Miss Tribb, who has unbelievably and unwisely written an unauthorized tell-all biography of “the Main Man” who was her least favourite pupil ever…

Forbidden by his own honour-code from killing her, he must instead escort the snippy snarky old baggage to Dox at L.E.G.I.O.N. HQ with every nut-job in the universe pursuing them, hell-bent on killing one or other or preferably both of them. Subdivided into ‘Part One: Portrait of a Psychopath’, ‘Part Two: Lord of the Dance’, ‘Part Three: Spell or Die’ and ‘Part Four: The Last Last Czarnian’, this blistering bonkers baroque barbarity is plotted and laid out by Giffen, scripted by Grant and outrageously limned by hip headbanger Simon Bisley as colourist; Lovern Kindzierski and letterer Todd Klein aid and abet the cartoon carnage. As usual, despite all the forces ranged against him, The Main Man has the last – albeit misspelled – word…

The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special (January 1992) follows with Giffen, Grant, Bisley, Kindzierski and Gaspar Saldino expediting ‘The Lobo Xmas Sanction’ as cash-strapped parents of far-too-many brats look to save on end of year expenses and learn how a certain unsavoury soul and his dog Dawg were hired by The Easter Bunny to take out his biggest rival in the holiday icon game: Santa Claus. The elves were no real problem but old man Kringle was a harder nut to crack and left a surprise Lobo never anticipated…

Beginning in May 1992, and coloured by Danny Vozzo, Lobo’s Back #1-4 comprised ‘The Final Fragdown’, ‘Heaven is… a 4-Letter Word’, ‘If the Jackboot Fits…!’ and ‘The War in Heaven’ then details his return to the private sector after L.E.G.I.O.N. implodes and how he dies trying to bring in the infamous Loo, the most dangerous being in the universe.

What follows is an outrageous, darkly hilarious, blood-soaked spin on a venerable old tale (you’ve probably seen the Bugs Bunny cartoon classic) as Lobo makes himself persona non grata in every aspect of the afterlife. When both Heaven and Hell discover that the Main Man is too much to handle, there’s only one place to go and that’s back here, but nobody said it had to be in his original body…

Fans and the spiritually attuned will want to see what this creative team does with comic guest stars loke The Demon and General Glory and a host of pantheons and holy folk of all denominations…

Behind a cover by Dan Brereton, Lobo: Blazing Chain of Love sees artist Denys Cowan, colourist Noelle Giddings and letterer “Tanya” Klein join Giffen & Grant to explore the Main Man’s other main interest, only to encounter a forced shortage of willing babes of negotiable affection…

You’d think that’s the kind of problem relentless remorseless violence couldn’t fix. You’d be wrong…

This yarn will confound all your expectations as it is in fact a potent, brilliantly-conceived argument for safe sex crafted at the height of the fightback against HIV/AIDS, leading directly into our final furious foray… against Comics fandom itself…

The Lobo Convention Special – with the much-missed Kev O’Neill delivering another inimitable illustration masterclass, and Digital Chameleon adding hues to the queues at ‘Lobo-Con’ – is blackly comedic, ironic, sardonic and manic, as it depicts and cruelly deconstructs the people it depends upon. After skewering the great, good and especially unwashed of the industry, it all ends in carnage but begins with Lobo looking to replace his copy of the Death of Superman and heading to a convention packed with the kind of fanboys we’re all absolutely certain are FAR WORSE than we are…

The carnage concludes with info pages from Who’s Who in the DC Universe…

At the height of his popularity the Main Man of Mayhem was a publisher’s dream. There was actual baying from fans and speculators for more product and a largely new and receptive audience which hadn’t seen the unleashed potential of grown up comics. These tales for (im)Mature readers aren’t to everybody’s taste, but Giffen & Grant’s wickedly sharp scripts gave Bisley (assisted by Christian Alamy) and later artists scope for breathtakingly memorable art sequences, and sometimes just going wild is as rewarding as the most intricately balanced craftwork and plot-building.

All that being said, if you’re in the right mood, his kind of gratuitous mayhem can be wonderfully entertaining and has much to recommend it if vicious, sardonic slapstick pushes your buttons. Comics excess at its finest.
© 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Rugger Boys volumes 1 & 2: Why Are We Here Again? & A Spoonful of Style and a Tonne of Class


By Béka & Poupard: coloured by Sylvain Frecon, Murielle Rousseau & Magali Poli-Rivière & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-33-5 (Album PB/Digital edition v1) 978-1-905460-44-1 (Album PB/Digital 2)

Time to cash in on a global sporting event again. We must do a cricket, ping pong or skateboarding feature one day…

Human beings and – according to the internet – a huge variety of our pets and animal housemates seem obsessed with and revel in chasing balls about. So much so that we/they even apply a range of complex rules to the sheer exhilaration of the process, just to make things more difficult and artificially extend proceedings.

We call it sport and when it’s not hugely thrilling and deadly serious it can be hilariously funny…

Comics over many decades and throughout the world have often mined our obsession with assorted games for secondary entertainment value and these Cinebook tomes detail in dramatically humorous manner stunning strips starring a dedicated amateur team of French gladiators, all painfully enamoured of the manly (and womanly and British-originated, let’s not forget) oddball pastime dubbed Rugby.

Les Rugbymen was created in 2005 by writing partnership Bertrand Escaich & Caroline Roque under their collaborative nom de plume Béka (Studio Danse, Les Fonctionnaires) in conjunction with self-taught illustrator Alexandre Mermin, who generally labours under the pseudonym Poupard (Chez Gaspard, Les Brumes du Miroboland). The resulting flurry of short sharp gags and extra-time yarns have filled 20 albums thus far with another due any day now, and there’s even a junior league spin-off which began in 2010 entitled Les Petits Rugbymen…

On n’est pas venus pour être là! was the third Euro-volume but as Why Are We Here Again? was the first to be translated by Cinebook… probably because it features a brief sporting tour of England. Pithy, gritty and very funny, it perfectly encapsulates the passion, toil and sheer testosterone-fuelled idiocy which can warp normally rational folk.

Our stars are a few dedicated souls faithfully enjoying the trials and welcome tribulations of club rugby (and that’s Rugby Union, right?) as played by the stalwarts of fictional south-western French town side Paillar Athletic Club, affectionately known to their frankly obsessive fans as The PAC…

As seen on the introductory page, the usual suspects generally manifest as intellectually compromised “Hooker” Lightbulb, Herculean “Prop” Fatneck, 2nd Row star The Anaesthetist, dashing sex-crazed Back Romeo and Scrumhalf/Captain The Grumpster, all regularly adored and vilified by The Coach who never lets his speech defect get in the way of a good insult to the dozy slackerrrs…

All you need to know is that these guys are bold, sturdy and love food and drink as much as they do smashing each other into the mud…

Their exploits are generally delivered as single page sequences, lavishly, lovingly and outrageously illustrated and jam-packed with snippets of off-kilter slapstick to supplement the main gag and the dramatic material. Content is almost everything you’d expect from such a fixture: big beefy blokes in very small towels, lots of booze-fuelled gaffes, bizarre eating eccentricities, what we Brits refer to as “knob-jokes” and mutual sportsmanlike skulduggery of the sort that has permeated all games Real Men compete in…

However, also on display are a profusion of smartly-planned running gags and truly effective comedic gems such as the well-meaning meatheads’ ongoing efforts to help Lightbulb find “love”, Romeo’s constant comeuppances from husbands, boyfriends and employers unhappy with his off-pitch assignations and The Coach’s eternal battle to whip his doughty but dopey band of idiots into a team he can be proud of…

As previously mentioned, this collection also contains a wry, preconception/prejudice-confirming international excursion when The PAC accept an offer to play a friendly match against British college side Camford. As well as a chance to pummel the despised English, there’s the promise of seeing a Six Nations match to offset the unbearable pain of living on the foreigners’ appalling food and pathetic beer…

 

The Rugger Boys volume 2: A Spoonful of Style and a Tonne of Class

Continentally the fifth outing, On va gagner avec le lard et la manière was the second (and, thus far, last) translated Cinebook tome – once again probably because it features brief sporting excursions to lesser English (sort-of) speaking nations Scotland and New Zealand.

As such it perfectly recapitulates the passion, toil and sheer testosterone-fuelled idiocy which can warp normally rational folk.

The titular Union Rules stars Romeo and The Grumpster are joined by character-expanded players like precocious Centre Hugo – The Engineer – Cap, and 2nd Row veteran Freddy – The Anaesthetist – Bones whilst The Coach now has a name to be cursed by – Bernard Farmer. He still never lets his barrrrbarous accent get in the way of a good insult or pithy instruction to the dozy slackerrrs…

These guys are bolder, funnier and sturdier – because they still love to eat and drink as much as they do spending every weekend in sanctioned unarmed combat. This time however equality reigns and there’s a succinct glimpse of the Paillar Athletic Ladies Team too, and you can share the lads’ first turbulent TV appearance too…

Mostly, however, on display is a profusion of smartly-planned running gags and compact comedy gems like the well-meaning meatheads’ further efforts to help Lightbulb find love, more of Romeo’s confrontations with other people’s significant others, and employers unhappy with his off-pitch Tries, plus the woebegone touchline medic’s miserable life and Coach’s eternal battle to make sporting gold from part-time dross…

This time kick off leads to an extended origin story revealing how the playful imps they once were turned a boring school lesson into a life-changing indoor match: thereby forming sporting bonds that last a lifetime…

As promised, this fixture includes a brief tour of Scotland, offering a broad belt of new experiences from braw brews to fine-foods-&-bonnie lassies, to life-changing injuries, before concluding with a bombastic whistle-stop tour of the Antipodes when The Pac are generously invited to visit the mighty New Zealand All-Blacks at home, after the Rugby World Cup concludes…

Mostly though it’s always about mud, mauling, getting stuffed and getting smashed – in every sense of the term…

Fast, furiously funny and splendidly boisterous, these cartoon antics might even inspire dedicated couch-potatoes to get out of the house… unless they order books and dinner online…
© BAMBOO EDITION, 2006, 2007 by Béka & Poupard. All rights reserved. English translation © 2007 Cinebook Ltd.

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The Philosopher, The Dog and the Wedding


By Barbara Stok, design & colours by Ricky van Duuren: translated by Michele Hutchison (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: (978-1-914224-09-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

It’s long been a truism of the creative arts that the most effective, efficient and economical method of instruction and informational training is the comic strip. If you simply consider the medium’s value as a historical recording and narrative system, the process encompasses cave paintings, hieroglyphs, pictograms, oriental prints, Stations of the Cross, the Bayeux Tapestry and so much more: and pretty succinctly covers the history of humanity…

For well over a century and a half, advertising mavens exploited the easy impact of words wedded to evocative pictures, whilst public information materials frequently used sequential narrative to get hard messages over quickly and simply. In a surprisingly short time, the internet and social media restored and enhanced the full universal might of image narratives to transcend language. Who doesn’t “speak” emoji?

Since World War II, strips have been used as training materials for every aspect of adult life from school careers advice to various disciplines of military service – utilising the talents of comics giants as varied as Milton Caniff, Will Eisner (who spent decades producing reams of comic manuals for the US army and other government departments), Kurt Schaffenberger and Neil Adams. The educational value and merit of comics is a given.

The magnificent Larry Gonick in particular uses the strip medium to stuff learning and entertainment in equal amounts into weary brains of jaded students with his webcomic Raw Materials and such seasoned tomes as The Cartoon History of the Universe, The Cartoon History of the United States and The Cartoon Guide to… series (Genetics, Sex, The Environment et al). That’s not even including his crusading satirical strip Commoners for Common Ground, and educational features Science Classics, Kokopelli & Company and pioneering cartoon work with the National Science Foundation. He never stops: his most recent books are Hypercapitalism: The Modern Economy, Its Values, and How to Change Them and The Cartoon Guide to Biology. Gotta Get ‘Em All…

Japan has employed manga textbooks in schools and universities for decades and even releases government reports, documents and business prospectuses in comics formats to get around the public’s apathy towards reading large dreary volumes of information. So do we and everybody else. I’ve even produced the occasional multi-panel teaching-tract myself. The method has also been frequently used to sublimely and elegantly tackle the greatest and most all-consuming preoccupation and creation of the mind of Man…

Like organised religion, the conceptual discipline dubbed Philosophy has had a tough time relating to modern folk and – just like innumerable vicars in pulpits everywhere – advocates and followers have sought fresh ways to make eternal questions and subjective verities understandable and palatable to us hoi-polloi and average simpletons.

In 2021 award-winning Dutch artist Barbara Stok (Barbaraal Tot Op Het Bot, De Omslag, Vincent) translated her interest in the discipline, history and one particular groundbreaking, revolutionary deep thinker to produce De filosoof, dehond en debruiloft and it was published by Nijgh &Van Ditmas, Amsterdam).

Born in Groningen in 1970, Stok was a journalist who studied at The Hague’s Fotoacademie School of Photography before moving into editorial cartooning and illustration in the 1990s. With Maaike Hartjes and Gerrie Hondius she pioneered a generation of female cartoonists using the art form to speak about their lives. Most of her personal work was amusingly autobiographical, working out her life’s big questions via strips. Inevitably, pondering life & death and right &wrong led her to other older investigators and after taking some formal philosophy courses – five years’ worth – she created a history of the astounding and incredibly bold and brave Hipparchia. Since 2020 Stok has taken on a regular gig: creating the strip Jan, Jans en de Kinderen for women’s weekly Libelle.

Delivered in her sublimely accessible child-like primitivist/Niavist style and preferred anecdotal episodic narrative format, The Philosopher, The Dog and the Wedding explores the life and status of women in 4th century (BCE) Greece through the thoughts and experiences of Hipparchia, daughter of a wealthy lumber-merchant in Maroneia, and long overdue to be profitably married off.

As seen in ‘eudaimonia/happiness’, she is given far too much liberty: being able to read, allowed full access to her father’s large library and indulged in her habit of eavesdropping on the philosophical debates of men. Naturally, this leads to her developing a keen mind and opinions of her own, but she can only share them with the house dogs…

After only a few embarrassments, she is bundled off to Athens where her brother Metrocles studies Philosophy with all the greatest thinkers of the Age of Alexander the Great. Wealthy silver mine owner Leandros has a son Kallios who needs a wife, and if she behaves herself and acts like a decent daughter should, she can bind the two families together…

In ‘paracharassein/deface the currency’ her education truly begins. A thrilling and revelatory mental readjustment comes from her apparent resignation to stay in her place, but only after after encountering a homeless tramp who is sublimely content and intellectually brilliant. Crates is the chief proponent of a radical offshoot of the Cynical movement: called by those who don’t mock him and rubbish his teachings as “the new Socrates”…

Distracted but still devout, Hipparchia endures: trying her best to follow family interests and convince Kallios’ family that she is worthy, but the gorgeous glittering prize – an Olympic javelin contender – doesn’t own a single book.

Always accompanied by a male slave, she goes through the traditional motions, buying clothes, learning the secrets of cosmetics and making herself as valuable as she can, but constantly encounters Crates, living his perfect life of poverty and thought. Her distraction proves advantageous, however, when Metrocles almost quits school and she begs Crates to talk him round…

The vagabond is respected by many: a student of the great Diogenes. Its why the Cynic school philosophers are called “Dogs”…

Successfully negotiating Leandros’ conditions, Hipparchia becomes the official fiancée in ‘physis/nature’ and begins learning her expected duties, but chafes at the utter lack of intellectual stimulation. When her brother buys Crates’ book of thoughts, she cannot stop herself reading it. Soon she’s listening in on the students debating in the men-only areas of the house and craving more…

Philosophers at that time could expound anywhere, and men would gather to listen, debate, contend and contribute. On her way to another fitting spree, Hipparchia joins a heated debate despite her social standing (“seen but never heard in public”) and it’s all her slave can do to extricate her from a dangerous situation. It’s worth it though, to hear Crates speak…

Frustrated and guilty as her brother bawls out the negligent slave, a crux moment occurs as she looks over Metrocles’ library and finds a scroll written by a woman. Perictione was Plato’s mother and her thoughts were clearly worth preserving…

Soon she embarks on a dangerous plan, and finds a way to join the male crowds and even openly debate with Crates…

As the marriage proceedings roll on, Hipparchia’s social sins and personal transgressions mount in ‘autarkeia/self-sufficiency’ before culminating in a ‘parrhèsia/freedom of speech’ crisis, the landmark resolution of ‘askêsis/training’ and a new beginning in ‘ataraxia/inner peace’…

This story of a powerful woman defining female empowerment and the fight for personal truth is delivered in a potent and accessible manner that beguiles fully as much as Hipparchia and Cratus’ logic and example convinced and challenged the literally patriarchal system of ancient Greece. Augmented by an impassioned ‘Afterword’ and detailed, copious and comprehensive ‘Notes’ to aid comprehension and provide context, this is a visual delight and telling hammer-blow of reasoned debate which should be compulsory reading for all.
© 2021 Barbara Stok. English translation © 2022 by Michelle Hutchison. All rights reserved.

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A Guest in the House


By Emily Carroll (Faber & Faber)
ISBN: 978-0-571-35545-7 (HB)

It’s perhaps a little odd to be looking at terrifying tales of supernatural darkness at the height of summer, but as Emily Carroll proves here, sunny skies and enticingly gleaming lake waters don’t always equate with idyllic rests and restorative downtimes…

Born in 1983 in London, Ontario, Carroll now hails from Stratford (still Ontario): studying animation before redirecting her talents in 2010. The immediate beneficiaries of the career change are we comics fans and horror devotees, as her webcomic His Face All Red became a hot sensation on Halloween and went – as the kids and their grandparents say – viral.

Since then Carroll has got even better, working her dark magic for video game Gone Home (2013) and assorted publishers whilst contributing to numerous books and anthologies, garnering Ignatz, Eisner and British Fantast Awards among many others for first book Through the Woods – an anthology of scary comics stories.

Throughout she has continued crafting chilling webcomics like The Hole the Fox Did Make, Margot’s Room, Baba Yaga’s Assistant, Speak, When I Arrived at the Castle and Some Other Animal’s Meat (adapted in 2022 as “The Outside” for Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix).

A Guest in the House is her second book and first full novel; and I don’t want to tell you very much about it. Narrated by dowdy, introspective, uninspired Abigail, it plays on the institutionalised uncertainty and self-doubt of women and offers a fantastic, ferocious dreamscape to outline a creepy, uneasy slice of domestic tragedy in what should be an idyllic retreat from care.

Abby lives by a beautiful lake in a sedate town with nice new husband David and Crystal, his daughter by a previous marriage. Abby’s not happy but she is settled, and if her husband seems a bit harsh or intolerant it’s only because he works so hard and his first wife Sheila died so tragically. The biggest bone of contention between them is his extreme reactions to Crystal getting near the lake…

When not working at the Valu-Save, Abby inhabits a rich fantasy life filled with knights, dragons and princesses, but as summer progresses she becomes increasingly concerned about the real-world inconsistencies in David’s stories of vivacious, clever, talented Sheila. Even before one of his work colleagues accidentally reveals how her predecessor really died, Abby starts seeing ghosts and talking to what remains of Sheila…

Whatever you think happens next is probably wrong. Cunning, twisty plotting fuels intense and expressive fantasmagoria blended with powerfully understated, almost documentarian narrative illustration as all concerned – especially the reader – are forced to confront and question everything thus far. Soon the tale heads into unexplored country and comprehension…

In so many ways this story acts as like an inverted take on Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, with an all-powerful past presence not just imprinted but actually working on and communicating with an embattled and distraught protagonist. However, even that’s not what’s really going on in this haunting tale of grief, ghosts, quiet desperation, suspicion and identity – submerged or otherwise. In the end it’s all-beguiling moments clouding the big question: is this materialised internal monologue or actual spiritual infestation?

Chilling and unforgettable, this is a summer storm that demands your full attention.

© Emily Carroll, 2023. All rights reserved.

A Guest in the House is published on August 17th 2023 and available for pre-order now.

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Darkly She Goes


By Hubert & Vincent Mallié, coloured by Bruno Tatti & Clémentine Guivarc’h: translated by L Benson (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-313-4 (HB) eISBN 978-1-68112-314-1

Hubert Boulard was born on January 21st 1971 in Saint-Renan, Brittany. Graduating from the École régionale des beaux-arts d’Angers in 1994, he began his far too short comics career as  artist for seasoned pros such as Éric Ormond, Yoann, Éric Corberyan, Paul Gillon and others. He was also highly regarded as a colourist, and in 2002 became a triple threat by writing for many top artists.

He began with Legs de l’alchimiste – limned by Herve Tanquerelle – followed by Yeaux Verts for long-term collaborator Zanzim and Miss Pas Touche/Miss Don’t Touch Me – rendered by Kerascoët and many more. Awards piled up as he steered 14 internationally renowned and celebrated series, including Les Ogres-Dieux and Monsieur désire?

An activist by nature, in 2013 Hubert helmed and contributed to groundbreaking collective graphic volume Les Gens normaux, paroles lesbiennes gay bi trans: released to coincide with France’s national debate on legalizing same sex marriage and a factor in the proposal becoming law…

His last book was with artist Zanzim: posthumously published in June 2020 soon after his death. Still unavailable in English, Peau d’homme comedically explores gender and sexuality at the height of Europe’s Europe’s medieval religious intolerance and social stratification.

Hubert frequently utilised such eras of “blood and iron” as a backdrop, and Darkly She Goes again confronts modern perceptions and standards via an adventure-based scenario readily recognisable to adults and children alike.

Epic in scope and spectacular in content, the tale is illustrated by Vincent Mallié: a two volume saga entitled Ténébreuse. It was published after the author’s passing and is combined here into one monumental tome.

Born in Paris in 1973, Mallié initially studied economics and history before joining an atelier in 1992 to learn about comics and graphic design. Whilst working as a storyboarder in 1996, he created – with schoolmate Joël Parnotte – a short story that grew into the popular Hong Kong Triad series.

They followed up with sci fi romp Les Aquanautes before Vincent collaborated with Jér?me Félix on L’Arche (2003-2007). Later endeavours include Le Grande Mort with Régis Loisel (2007-2019), reviving and enhancing established serial La Quête de l’Oiseau du Temps (with Loisel & Serge le Tendre) and more.

His staggeringly potent imagery here is augmented by the painterly gifts of Bruno Tatti and latterly Clémentine Guivarc’h, combining to build a painfully authentic feudal world where blood and mud and steel and sinew believably share space with fantastic beasts, sorcery and deviltry of all kinds…

The story opens as disgraced knight Arzhur drunkenly clashes again with former comrades, before being patched up by his inexplicably faithful squire Youenn. Despite the warrior’s best efforts to destroy himself, his life is about to change radically as he has been singled out by a trio of cunning witches…

They have a quest for Arzhur to fulfil: a noble deed that can’t help but expiate his past sins and redeem his reputation – maybe even restore his fortune too. All he must do is save a captive princess from imprisonment in a dark, dank dungeon. Fame, wealth and honour can be his again…

Sadly, the salvation- and honour-obsessed paladin is being played for a sucker, and after blazing in and butchering a dragon, discovers the fair maiden is very much there of her own free will. In fact, Arzhur has slaughtered Princess Islen’s protector, a noble creature keeping her from being seduced and suborned by three mystic hags. They seek to use the captive exile’s inherent power for their own dark designs…

As the fallen knight escorts his unwilling prize back to her father King Goulvan, her story – couched in grief-stricken tones and fiery terms – reveals how Islen’s supernatural mother Meliren was once the undisputed Queen of Evil. She raised a simple man to the highest estate in the land but his elevation could not offset her dark nature or schemes. The unholy marriage spawned a child, but their warring natures soon drove them apart and war broke out over custody of the princess. Thanks to a magic sword and Islen herself, Meliren was destroyed, but after her defeat, her mystic forces transferred to her child, manifested as a terrifying Butterfly Crown and ability to control beasts.

For the safety of all Islen removed herself from the world but the temptation of her legacy meant that ambition and fear gripped all who knew of her…

When Arzhur brings her home, instead of royal joy and rich rewards, he is cast into a dungeon whilst the King rapidly tries to marry his problem child off – preferably to someone living far, far away. Meanwhile, his second wife – fearing for her own son’s claim to the throne – seeks to convince the populace that the demon child is better off dead…

Faced with such appalling betrayal, the princess angrily taps into her power and the three witches see their dark design falling into place…

With the castle under siege by the animal kingdom, Islen liberates Arzhur and they flee, carrying with them the magic sword and invincible armour Meliren gave Goulvan, blissfully unaware of the tragic human cost of their escape…

With Clémentine Guivarc’h providing colour-art assistance, Part Two begins as the fugitives put as much distance as possible between them and the kingdom, even as the three witches actively seek to push Islen further into anger and depravity. Loathing, passion and duty have already led the princess and fallen knight into a carnal mistake and every close call with pursuers pushes her deeper into the seductive coils of sorcerous forces.

Their shaky plan is to hide in Arzhur’s rural homeland, but all too soon, the burden of the knight’s original failure and disgrace, plus his sordid past with most of the region’s young women, makes them a target of self-righteous paladins ready to believe the salacious slanders of the whispering witches.

Their tenuous sanctuary becomes a death trap when Goulvan’s armies invade and the witches possess Islen to complete their decades long plot. Ultimately, the princess must fight for her soul – and perhaps true love – in a sorcerous duel revealing how little anyone can understand – or trust – parents and learn that in life it’s always a case of devils taking the hindmost…

An epic fantasy and deadly dark fairy tale for adults, Darkly She Goes turns narrative conventions on their heads in a sharp and wry exploration of heroism, honour and self-reliance that is the perfect antidote for anodyne and saccharine bedtime stories.

Ténébreuse © 2021-2022 Dupuis – Mallié/Hubert. All rights reserved. © 2014 NBM For the English translation.

Darkly She Goes will be published on June 14th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

Most NBM books are also available in digital formats so for more information and other great reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/

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Armed With Madness – The Surreal Leonora Carrington


By Mary M. Talbot & Bryan Talbot (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-0-914224-12-6 (HB/Digital edition)

Mary Leonora Carrington overcame wealth, privilege, entrenched unwanted religion and the repressive straitjackets of her class and gender to follow a dream and be her own self. You may never have heard of her (but should have) and this sublime depiction exploration by Mary M. Talbot and spouse Bryan Talbot – focussing on her most troubled years and humanity’s darkest hours – offers compelling and beautiful arguments for why.

Dr. Mary is an academic, educator, linguist, social theoretician, author and specialist in Critical discourse analysis who in 2012 added graphic novelist to her portfolio of achievements: collaborating with her husband on Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes.

That award-winning memoir/biography of Lucia Joyce was followed by Sally Heathcote: Suffragette (drawn by Kate Charlesworth), The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia and Rain (both with Bryan), all supplementing a glittering educational career and such academic publications as Language and Gender: an Introduction and Fictions at Work: language and social practise in fiction. She is particularly drawn to true stories of gender bias and social injustice…

Bryan has been a fixture of the British comics scene since the late 1960s, moving from Tolkien-fandom to college strips, self-published underground classics like Brainstorm Comix (starring Chester P. Hackenbush – the Psychedelic Alchemist!), early Luther Arkwright and Frank Fazakerly, Space Ace of the Future to paid pro status with Nemesis The Warlock, Judge Dredd, Sláine, Ro-Busters and more in 2000 AD.

Inevitably headhunted by America, he worked on key mature-reading titles for DC Comics (Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man, The Nazz, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Fables, The Dead Boy Detectives and The Sandman) and was a key creative cog in short-lived shared-world project Tekno Comix, before settling into global acclaim via steady relationships with Dark Horse Comics and Jonathan Cape. These unions generated breakthrough masterpieces like The Tale of One Bad Rat and a remastered epic revival of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright.

Since then he’s been an independent Force To Be Reckoned With, doing just what he wants, promoting the art form in general and crafting a variety of fascinating and compelling works, from Alice in Sunderland and Cherubs! (with Mark Stafford), to Metronome (as Véronique Tanaka) and his fabulously wry, beguiling and gallic-ly anthropomorphic Grandville sequence, as well as his mostly biographical/historical collaborations with Mary…

In the interest of propriety, I must fully disclose that I’ve known him since the early 1980s, but other than that shameful lack of taste and judgement on his part, have no vested interest in confidently stating that he’s probably Britain’s greatest living graphic novelist…

Here their vast talents combine to capture and expose the early life of a woman driven by a need to create: a forgotten star who resisted powerful family pressure and rejected social conditioning to run away and become an artist. Her choices – or perhaps compulsion – led to pain, isolation, ostracization, desertion and mental illness, before her innate determination, tenacity and sheer will to overcome won her peace, security, success and the chance to make the world a different, better place for those that followed her…

Leonora Carrington was born on April 6th 1917, daughter of a wealthy northern textiles magnate who inherited control of ICI and moved in Royal circles. An imaginative, wilful child raised Roman Catholic, she loved animals, art and stories, particularly identifying with horses, and – when provoked – hyenas…

After continually frustrating her overbearing father (by – for example – sabotaging the local fox hunt), her education was shifted from private governesses to draconian Catholic boarding schools, two of which were compelled to expel despite all the cash Daddy lavished on them…

Her Irish mother was obsessed with introducing her at (Royal) Court, but Leonora wanted to make art and tell stories. Before long she was packed off to a Finishing School in Florence, affording the rebel with the unintended opportunity of seeing the landmarks of human artistic endeavour first hand.

Eventually, with mother playing peacemaker, Leonora was permitted to study painting, firstly at the Chelsea School of Art and then briefly with iconoclastic French modernist Amédée Ozenfant at his Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts.

Wayward young Carrington had seen her first Surrealist painting in 1927 when she was only ten, and the event marked her deeply. Now able to access more of the works that set her soul afire, she put up with her mother’s ambitions for as long as possible before running away to Paris in 1937: beginning a turbulent affair with the leading light and conceptual leader of the movement. Max Ernest was old, fascinating, selfish, married and German…

Naturally, her father responded by cutting off if not outright disowning her, and an idyllic period – albeit punctuated by moments of violence and terror inflicted on Leonora by the frankly terrifying and justly furious Mrs Ernst – evolved into a retreat.

The “May/November” couple fled south to the rural solitude of Saint Martin d’Ardèche. Here, her writing and art grew wilder and more inspired, but also brought added tension and strain for both of them. Political infighting amongst the male-dominated Surrealist elite and increasing suspicion of the “kraut” Ernst by local neighbours ended the honeymoon period as clouds of war gathered over Europe.

Ultimately, he was arrested as an enemy alien. By the time his friends secured his release, the Nazis had invaded and Ernst was arrested again, this time by the Gestapo who targeted him for his “degenerate” art. On his second bout of freedom, Max bolted to America, supported by friends and eventual next wife millionairess Peggy Guggenheim…

Always nervous, prone to anxiety and now under enormous pressure, Leonora Carrington’s stability took ever-increasing hits as she dwelt alone in her lonely, rustic hostile environment. Upon at last escaping to Madrid with her friend Catherine Yarrow, Leonora arrived in the throes of a full-blown psychotic break and was left to the tender mercies of an asylum.

Here she endured tedium, repression, a brutal drug regimen and electroconvulsive therapy as well as regular sexual assault from her minders. Again controlled by her parents, she was eventually released into the care of a “minder” (these scenes are particularly harrowing – so be warned) preparatory to being bundled off to a sanatorium in distant South Africa.

Instead, she escaped and went to Portugal, linking up with Mexican consular official Renato Leduc. He agreed to a marriage of convenience and – before divorcing her in 1943 – moved her to the safety of his homeland. She thereafter made Mexico home for most of her life.

Many other creative refugees from Europe – especially many old Surrealist friends – had also migrated there and over the succeeding years Leonora prospered, finding acceptance and a new cause. After years of independence and street level activism for gender equality and personal freedom, in the 1970 she co-founded Mexico’s Women’s Liberation Movement. She reunited with old friend and artistic soul mate Remedios Varo who introduced her to her second and last husband. Hungarian photographer/physician Emerico “Chiki” Weisz was her partner in art and practical jokes until his death in 1997.

They had two kids and Leonora grew in stature: making wild and marvellous paintings, murals and sculptures, publishing ten books, starring in numerous gallery and museum shows, confronting Mexico’s totalitarian rulers in the 1960s and always shaping thought and attitudes of, to and about women. She died on May 25th 2011 aged 94, another beloved and revered artistic icon of Mexico who lived life her own way on her own terms.

This epic of creative struggle comes with a full Bibliography and a scrupulously meticulous Notes section, explaining unfamiliar moments or terms and sharing times when the demands of drama superseded the tedious truth of simple documentary fact…

Compellingly scripted with a fine eye for elucidatory minutiae, visually Mary Talbot’s carefully overlaid, chronologically unmoored events ranging from gentle reportage of consensual reality to shocking interpretations of her delusions are realised in soft monochrome tones, interspersed with fiercely dynamic blasts of colour. The technique allows us to share her perpetually overlapping worlds, vacillating visions and hallucinations in a history drenched in narrative symbolism and – naturally – surreal visitations.

Powerful, enraging and uplifting, this mesmerising introduction to yet another forgotten woman of achievement is a sheer delight and will definitely compel all readers to look for more…
Text © 2023 Mary M Talbot. Illustrations © 2023 Bryan Talbot. All rights reserved.

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Hedy Lamarr: An Incredible Life


By William Roy & Sylvain Dorange, translated by Montana Kane (Humanoids/Life Drawn)
ISBN: 978-1-59465-619-4 (PB/Digital edition)

It’s been a man’s world almost from the start, and for so very long, most roles we’ve allowed for women have been ones that benefit us. Just why are so many female heroes young, pretty, buxom and nearly naked?

…And don’t even try to mansplain away why and how we Lords of Creation settle down with a housekeeper/mother who provides fringe benefits, comfort breaks and data storage. “Honey, do I like this?” “Darling, where are my…?”

Happily, despite all our most determined efforts, women keep on being independent, resolute, optimistic, free thinking and autonomous: constantly confounding male expectations and forcing us to gaslight, denigrate, diminish or bully them back into submission… or at least ominous silence…

It doesn’t always work, but at least whenever they achieve triumphant, spectacular highs and enjoy their own lives, it’s on their own terms – at least until some guy finds a way to make them regret it…

Let’s see an example of that as it happened to one of the most important human beings in modern history. Hedy Lamarr: La plus belle femme du monde was released in 2018: a superbly engaging, vividly realised passion project by writer, artist and documentarian William Roy (De Père en FIV, Freud, Le moment venu) and multi-disciplined illustrator Sylvain Dorange (For Justice: The Serge & Beate Klarsfeld Story, Gisèle Halimi – Une jeunesse tunisienne, Un conte de l’Estaque, Les Promeneurs du Temps, Psychotique). It quickly became one of the most important biographies of recent times. You can even read it in English or online…

Delivered in non-sequential snippets and clippings, it all slots together like a puzzle to show how, as a Viennese youngster, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler developed two life-long passions: acting and learning how things worked. The latter obsession came thanks to her beloved father Emil, a progressive, forward-looking banker who shared at every opportunity a profound love of knowledge and tinkering with his beautiful child …

Concerned by the uninvited attention their daughter’s looks were garnering, Hedwig’s parents decided to never comment on her appearance. However, as she grew from pretty child to ravishing young woman, those looks inevitably shaped her world.

As a teenager one passion dominated: so much so that the model student began taking unsanctioned truant days to pursue acting – especially in the burgeoning, high-tech film business. When her parents learned of the school absences, they granted her leeway to explore those options. Hedwig initially sought to become a script girl, but once again her beauty took her to a different destination and one moment as an “extra” opened up a whole new world…

Emil loved how she shared his fascination with how things worked, but primarily he just wanted her to be happy. Thus, Hedwig learned to roll with life’s punches – and in later life there were many – but was generally supported in her wild endeavours. She never realised how the acting lessons her father willingly paid for would lead to her becoming a notorious, global figure of infamy after a highly sexualised nude scene in 1933 drama Extase…

Just as the film was being banned in Austria, neighbouring Germany welcomed a new Chancellor. Adolf Hitler would affect the girl’s life in unimaginable ways…

Retreating from celluloid to a life of stage acting, Hedwig was pursued by astoundingly rich manufacturer and businessman Friedrich “Fritz” Mantel. Dazzled by wealth, rapt attention, and honied words, she eventually married him.

Despite her Jewish ancestry, as the wife of Mussolini’s best friend and the Third Reich’s favourite arms dealer/munitions supplier, Hedwig spent the early years of Nazism cushioned from a growing horror. Hosting dinner parties for human monsters whilst incessantly, invisibly overhearing fascinating details about the new weapons hubby was pioneering quickly paled, and Mantel’s obsessive possessiveness and controlling behaviour soon made her realise the liaison was a huge mistake.

Whilst displaying his trophy wife like a prize, and bedecking her with jewels and gems, Mantel had spent a fortune buying up and destroying every print of Extase. No man would ever cast lascivious eyes on his property ever again…

Increasingly terrified, Hedwig crafted a plan and escaped her marriage, eventually landing in London in 1937. At that time American movie mogul Louis B. Mayer – supreme dictator of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios – was there to scout out sophisticated European film talent fleeing growing social unrest…

Like so many women and girls maturing in that era, Hedwig learned to be suspicious of authority and men in powerful positions: to keep her secrets to herself whenever possible. She probably always sought assured security and never believed she had it, even at the top of a wildly fluctuating showbiz career. At least inventing kept her grounded and allowed her to find an escape that was purely personal. Mayer was a lifeline, but he too came with conditions…

In 1938, Hedy Lamarr began her tenure as a Screen Goddess with the movie Algiers. Mayer had her billed as “the most beautiful woman in the world” and changed her name to evoke that of deceased silent movie star Barbara La Marr. According to this version of her story, he also never stopped urging her to enhance her bust…

A wash of films followed, of remarkably varying quality, but work, acclaim, marriage and the heady social whirl wasn’t a satisfying existence. When war came, Hedy was eager to help. It coincided with her first meeting engineering marvel/millionaire playboy Howard Hughes. He wasn’t as impressed as others by her looks, but wanted to hear all about her inventions…

Almost as notorious as any role she played, Hedy knew many men, but had few male friends. Foremost of those she did persist with was George Carl Antheil, a “piano prodigy” who had first outraged the musical establishment in 1924 with his Ballet Mechanique score.

The Dadaist work was delivered by player-pianos working in synch with airplane engines, and Antheil had meticulously cut out the player rolls of each instrument personally, in a monumental feat of pre-computer coding and programming…

Antheil was also an acclaimed and published endocrinologist who supported his family by composing Hollywood film music, and first met Hedy Lamarr during another of her fruitless, pointless searches for a safe way to embiggen her boobs…

In the course of their friendship they discussed German torpedoes and – recalling past dinner conversations amongst Nazi bigwigs – Hedy had an idea that would have shortened the war; and did change the way all humanity communicates…

Typically, Lamarr and Antheil’s un-jammable torpedo was poo-poohed and rejected by the US Navy and a congressional committee who were astonished to notice that the project had no actual Male Scientists attached to it. It’s a good thing the inventors had every bit of the work, concept and attendant programming patented…

One admiral did helpfully suggest that she could serve her country best by selling war bonds, so she did, in record-breaking amounts…

Years passed, husbands and families came and went, and Hedy’s career devolved from megastar to TV guest celebrity to self-imposed exile. In 1960 she got her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and six years later an autobiography she maintained she never wrote was released. It pretty much trashed what was left of her reputation.

It all turned around for her in 1996, when her son Anthony Loder was contacted by representatives of the burgeoning telecommunications industry. They really needed to speak to the inventors – and patent-holders – of a frequency-hopping system devised to protect torpedoes from being jammed. It was also the absolute best way to connect multiple electronic devices via radio waves”. We call it wi-fi these days…

This is an emphatic, empathetic dramatisation of a much-told tale and an inevitable, inescapable theme, but Hedy Lamarr: An Incredible Life shows not that resilience pays off, or that it all works out in the end, but that remarkable achievements cannot be buried or diminished…

After all, how many gullible kids tricked into getting their baps out change the entire world, all of human culture and get an asteroid and a quantum telescope named after them, let alone get awarded an anniversary goggle doodle and inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame, and are interred in a National Honorary grave?

Admit it, though, it was the bit about her baps that made you sit up and pay attention, right?

The struggle continues…
© 2018 La Boîte à Bulles. All Rights Reserved. This edition © 2018 Humanoids, Inc., Los Angeles (USA).

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Barbarella volume 1 & Barbarella and the Wrath of the Minute Eater (volume 2)


By Jean-Claude Forest, adapted by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Humanoids)
ISBN: 978-1-59465-533-3 (HB/Digital edition vol. 1) 978-1-59465-104-5 (HB/Digital edition vol. 2): 978-1-64337-883-1 (TPB combined 2 vols)

Europe’s post-war fascination with science fiction and baroque space opera arguably all stems from the innocently raunchy antics of a starry-eyed gamin holding forthright, ultra-modern views on sexual politics. Jean-Claude Forest’s Barbarella stimulated public acceptance of socially-inclusive futuristic themes in an era of Cold War and Atomic Anxiety: one that coincided with a highly publicised “sexual revolution” that was simultaneously beloved of and excoriated by screaming pundits and headline writers.

…And it all occurred just as France was locked into a momentary but absolute obsession with “sex kitten” Brigitte Bardot…

France’s love affair with speculative fiction actually goes back – at least – to the works of Jules Verne and maybe even as far as Cyrano de Bergerac’s posthumously published fantasy stories L’Autre Monde: ou les États et Empires de la Lune (The Other World: or the States and Empires of the Moon) and Les États et Empires du Soleil (The States and Empires of the Sun). They were first released in 1657 and 1662.

Happily for us, European comic iterations have always been groundbreaking, superbly realised and deeply enjoyable…

Proudly Parisian Forest (1930-1998) was a graduate of the Paris School of Design who began selling strips while still a student. His Fleche Noire (Black Arrow) feature opened a career illustrating for newspapers and magazines like France-Soir, Les Nouvelles Littéraires and Fiction throughout the 1950s. This was whilst producing Charlie Chaplin-inspired comic series Charlot and being chief artist for Hachette’s sci fi imprint Le Rayon Fantastique.

For this last client, Forest also produced illustrations and covers for translations of imported authors A. E. Van Vogt, Jack Williamson, and others.

Thus in 1962, with headlines trumpeting liberation and armageddon in the home and for the family, Forrest created Barbarella in V-Magazine. The innocently super-charged sex icon quickly took country and world by storm, generating an explosion of like-minded SF Bandes Dessinées features. Her first collected album was released by Editions Eric Losfeld in 1964, with further tales released until 1982. Those later stories were illustrated by Daniel Billon and the entire canon has never been out of print for long.

Forest never looked back, subsequently creating Baby Cyanide and more serious fare like Hypocrite; the Verne-inspired Mysterious Planet; La Jonque fantôme Vue de l’Orchestre and Enfants, c’est l’Hydragon qui Passe. He also found time to script for other artists: Les Naufrages du Temps (translated as Castaways in Time or Lost in Time) with Paul Gillon in 1964; Ici Meme for Jacques Tardi, and occult detective series Leonid Beaudragon for Didier Savard. These have been inexplicably all-but-ignored by English language publishers since the 1980s. If you read French, however, all are available in print and digitally…

The First Lady of Space sparked a Franco-Belgian fantasy mini-boom – classic series like Méziéres & Christin’s Valérian, Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient and Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane among so many others – thereby triggering the creation of dedicated periodical touchstone Métal hurlant in 1974.

At that time Forest was still finding new worlds for Barbarella to conquer, even though outside the Continent the concept was pretty much hijacked by Roger Vadim’s 1968 movie adaptation.

Here, however, we’re concentrating on Forest’s comics, as re-adapted and translated by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Bitch Planet, Pretty Deadly, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Castle, Avengers). The stories then and now are very much in the manner of every British newspaper strip leading lady since Jane (so, see also Axa, Danielle, Amanda, Scarth, George and Lynn, et al) and follow the plot of classic Flash Gordon strips…

Barbarella volume 1 finds a free, independent young woman, self-willed and over 21, curiously and confidently wandering away from Earth: taking to space to find a new lover, having had more than enough of her old one…

Now she’s having guilt-free relations with any rational and consensual creature, mechanism or being she wants to, but abruptly finds her travels interrupted when her ship breaks up over planet Lothion. The world is divided into a number of autonomous city states where her ever-intimate introduction procedure for new cultures provides moments of baffled bewilderment and deadly danger…

Tumbling into a war between exploitative horticultural aristocrats and their too-slowly expiring, no-longer required serfs, she finds a solution to the crisis and escapes to clash with a cosmic desert jellyfish, before leading space-crash survivors to relative safety before an eerie encounter with deadly beautiful Medusa…

Attrition takes its toll, and ultimately, only Barbarella and hunky stud Dildano make a desert crossing to a bizarre underground forest, where the feudal Olopiades harvest sunlight to battle underground terrors and a hunting-obsessed madmen regards everyone else as potential trophies…

More subterrine voyaging – beside untrustworthy Martian companion Klill – deposits her in Yesteryear, where history-besotted minor royalty take an instant dislike to the free-spirited Earthling libertine – who is almost murdered by spoiled princesses…

Frantic flight brings them to the outskirts of wicked city Sogo, where aging Earth scientist Durand (originally Durand Durand pop trivia fans!) acquaints them with the perils of its lethal defensive labyrinth. Here bizarre outcasts huddle to escape the dread perversion of the vile Black Queen who rules all and courts utter chaos…

Allied to blind angel Pygar and other noncommittal rebels, Barbarella’s innate innocence is key to deposing the debauched tyrannical sovereign and ending her paranoid reign of terror…

 

Second volume Barbarella and the Wrath of the Minute Eater began as 1974’s Les Colères du Mange-Minutes which finds the cosmic nomad voyaging across the void as owner/manager of a travelling show of bizarre beasts and beings: Circus Delirium.

Amongst her exotic menagerie of exhibits is cunning water-breathing humanoid Narval whose revelations regarding a time and space warping device masks his sinister secret agenda.

Despite protestations of faithful clown Bill, Narval’s sly manipulations gradually convince Barbarella to traverse cosmic barriers and take their “astronef” vessel to the interface between the normal cosmos and a region of reality where time itself runs differently. In the heart of that weird destination lies chronally adrift planet Spectra…

It is another world of vastly disparate sectors, where Barbarella makes more friends and lovers, constantly becomes embroiled in political and revolutionary strife, experiences the inexplicable and indescribable and generally wrecks another planet’s cultural identity, replacing it with something new.

Supreme amongst them is Narval himself, who seeks to mutate into a more superior form and subsequently conquer many planets…

On this occasion, sleeping with the enemy is a tactic that finally fails our peace-loving wonder and in the end Barbarella fails her own philosophy, by taking the abhorrent but necessary steps to stop him…

Unquestionably a comics landmark, yet expounding a few questionable swinging Sixties attitudes us folk from the future might take exception to, these wild voyages reshaped our fictions if not our consensual reality, and are a canon of celestial wonders everyone should see at least once.

In 2020, Humanoids released a trade paperback edition combining both albums in one single commemorative volume.

© 2014, 2015, 2022 Humanoids’, Inc., Los Angeles (USA). All rights reserved.

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I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi


By Gina Siciliano (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: ?978-1-68396-211-3 (HB/Digital edition)

A denizen of Seattle, Gina Siciliano studied at Pacific Northwest College of Art and has worked as a musician and bookseller whilst self-publishing highly personal comics such as Summertime. In 2019 she released her first graphic novel, a compelling and comprehensive pictorial biography and sociological reassessment of a figure who has become of late a hard-fought-over darling of art historians and feminists.

In recent years, Artemisia Gentileschi has become the desired property of many factions, all seeking to bend her life and mould her struggles and triumphs to fit their beliefs, opinions, and agendas, almost as much as kings, clerics and merchant princes sought to own her paintings whilst she was alive.

Monumental and scholarly, meticulously researched and refined from what is often too much conflicting information and assumptions, this utterly absorbing account successfully restores some humanity and a portion of muddled, day-by-day dancing to stay alive and ahead of the game desperation that must surely have preoccupied the gifted but generally powerless woman under all those layers of heaped-up symbolism…

I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi is an earnest, incredibly engaging narrative built on (whenever possible) first hand quotes and primary sources, whilst also employing some reasonable speculation, extrapolation, and narrative dramatization, all delivered via ball-point pen illustration deriving from Artemisia’s own great works and other contemporary art sources.

Author’s Preface ‘Making New Worlds Out of Old Worlds’ shares Siciliano’s motivations which sparked the project whilst drawing appropriate parallels between creators as subjects of study and how renaissance Europe strangely resonates with modern #MeToo society. Think of it as “A girl artist in 21st century Seattle writes about a girl artist in 17th century Rome…”

The narrative tracks the life of professional artist Orazio Gentileschi and his extended family of jobbing artisans, paying particular – but not exclusive – attention to his daughter Artemisia. Here we see her immediate ancestors and influences: seeing her grow from anonymous assistant to celebrated painter in her own right in a society where women were property, sex objects, servants, bargaining chips or worthless.

As the 17th century opened, art – especially painting – had matchless force as currency and proof of power, with royalty and even Popes commissioning religious, classical and mythological works. There was an especial value to images incorporating beautiful – usually partially clothed – women. That Artemisia used herself as a model and sold many, many biblical scenes will provide a clue to the other recurring motif in her life; how so many men sought to possess her…

A story equal parts sordid, infuriating, shockingly unjust and ultimately just like so many others is shared in Parts I, II and III as the childhood, working life, constant betrayals and eventual passing of one of Europe’s greatest art makers is unpicked in forensic detail and with an empathy that is simply astounding. It’s not dry history here, it’s life in the raw…

Moreover, you’ll soon grasp how multifarious levels of politicking from family dynamics to the whims of kings shapes the lives of ordinary people, no matter how talented they are or of worth to the wealthy…

The compelling melodrama of Artemisia’s struggles are augmented by a ‘Reference section’ comprising a truly massive prose-&-picture section of ‘Notes’, offering context, commentary, specific factual detail plus clarification or speculation. It also expands on general points of detail brought up by the main illustrated narrative and provides candid guidance to Siciliano’s own interpretations of a life now fully co-opted by history-writers seeking to validate their own viewpoints.

Should you seek further fuel for discourse – and yes, I did deliberately avoid mentioning the infamous, attention-diverting rape (because everyone else hasn’t) – there’s a copious and colossal ‘Bibliography’ to work through on your own time.

Passionate, enlightening, emphatically empathetic and unforgettable, this is a book for all seasons and all humans wanting to learn from the past and form a fitter future.
All characters, stories, and artwork © 2019 Gina Siciliano. This edition of I Know What I Am © Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.