Category: Graphic Novels

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The Phantom – The Complete Series: The Gold Key Years volume 1


By Bill Harris & Bill Lignante with George Wilson (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-005-5 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the 17th century a British sailor survived an attack by pirates, and, washing ashore in Africa, swore on the skull of his murdered father to dedicate his life and that of all his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the jungles of Bengali, and throughout Africa is known as the “Ghost Who Walks…

His unchanging appearance ad unswerving quest for justice have led to him being considered an immortal avenger by the credulous and the wicked. Down the decades one hero after another has fought and died in an unbroken line, and the latest wearer of the mask, indistinguishable from the first, continues the never-ending battle.

Lee Falk created the Jungle Avenger at the request of his syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician. Although technically not the first ever costumed hero in comics, The Phantom was the prototype paladin to wear a skintight bodystocking, and the first to have a mask with opaque eye-slits.

He debuted on February 17th 1936 in an extended sequence pitting him against a global confederation of pirates – the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing artist Ray Moore the illustration side. The Sunday feature began in May 1939. For such a successful, long-lived and influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic novel collections The Phantom has been very poorly served by the English language market. Various small companies have tried to collect the strips – one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history – but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success.

However, even if it were only of historical value (or just printed for Australians, who have long been manic devotees of the implacable champion) surely “Kit Walker” is worthy of a definitive chronological compendium series?

Happily, his comic book adventures have fared slightly better – at least in recent times.

In the 1960’s King Features Syndicate dabbled with a newsstand line of their biggest stars – Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Popeye and The Phantom – but immediately prior to that, the Ghost Who Walks held a solo starring vehicle under the broad and effective aegis of veteran licensed properties publisher Gold Key Comics.

This superb chronological compendium gathers the first eight issues – cover-dates November 1962 through August 1964 – and, as explained in fan/scholar Ed Rhoades’ Introduction ‘The Phantom and the Silver Age’, offers newspaper strip tales originally illustrated by Wilson McCoy that were adapted by original scripter Bill Harris and redrawn in comic book format by Bill Lignante. The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, having appeared since the Golden Age in titles such as Feature Book and Harvey Hits, but only in straight strip reprints. His Gold Key exploits were tailored to a big page and a young readership. The fascinating history lesson is also augmented by pages of original artwork and ends much too soon for my elevated tastes, but if you’re a fan of pictorial adventure there’s plenty more to enjoy.

Each issue was fronted by a stunning painted cover by George Wilson and the excitement kicks off here with ‘The Game’ (The Phantom #1, November 1962) as the international man of mystery encounters Prince Ragon Gil, whose idea of fun is to pit abducted, bought or bribed strangers against ferocious beasts. When an interfering masked man closes down his warped games, the eastern potentate swears vengeance and kidnaps the hero’s fiancée Diana Palmer. His plan is to force the interloper to play his savage game, but it’s his last mistake…

That premiere issue concludes with a single-page recap of the legend of The Phantom before #2 (February 1963) resumes the wildwood wonderment with ‘The Rattle’ as an exploit from The Phantom’s ancestral past flares up again after tiny bird-riding barbarians start stealing from the local tribes. The current ghost must crack the casebooks of his forefathers and penetrate a most inhospitable region to get to the bottom of the mystery and bring peace back to the jungle…

A second story taps into contemporary Flying Saucer interest as our hero encounters aliens intent on conquest. Thankfully, the purple-clad subject of ‘The Test’ proves sufficient to change their inquiring extraterrestrial minds…

History’s greatest treasures are stored in ghost’s fabulous Skull Cave, and the first tale in #3 (May 1963) relates how a rescued white man glimpses ‘The Diamond Cup’ of Alexander the Great and accidentally triggers a greed-fuelled crusade by eager criminals and ambitious chancers before the Ghost Who Walks finally restores peace and order. Rounding out the issue, ‘The Crybaby’ finds frail village boy Cecil given a crash course in confidence and exercise by the enigmatic masked man. The experience is literally life-changing…

For #4 (August) disgraced, fraud-perpetrating witchmen strike back against The Phantom through their manufactured deity ‘Oogooru’, only to be shown what real sleight-of-hand and prestidigitation can achieve, after which ocean voyager Kit Walker solves the enigma of vile vanishing villains the ‘Goggle-Eye Pirates’…

Two centuries previously, The Phantom established a police force dubbed The Jungle Patrol with himself as its titular but anonymous head. In #5 (October) those worthy stalwarts are almost outfoxed by a devious gang of bandits known as ‘The Swamp Rats’ – until the unseen Commander takes personal charge.

The big innovation of the issue is the premiere of a new episodic feature detailing ‘The Phantom’s Boyhood’, as a baby is born in the Skull Cave. Tracing the formative experiences of the current Phantom, the initial yarn follows little Kit from toddler to dawn of adolescence, when his parents regretfully decide it’s time to pack him off to private school in America…

The Phantom #6 (February 1964) leads with ‘The Lady from Nowhere’ as heiress Lydia Land is thrown from a plane and rescued by the masked manhunter. Soon he’s dogging her steps to track down which trusted associate was trying to silence her and steal her fortune…

A life-changing meeting shapes the destiny of the hero-to-be in ‘The Phantom’s Boyhood Part II – Diana’ as Kit falls for the girl next door and makes his mark amongst the cads and bullies of the civilised world.

The peaceful villages of the jungle are thrown into turmoil by the thieving depredations of ‘The Super Apes’ (#7, May) until the Jungle Patrol and The Phantom expose their shocking secret whilst ‘The Phantom’s Boyhood Part III – School’ finds the African émigré making his mark in the classroom, on the playing fields and in the newspapers…

The Phantom #8 (August) closes this initial outing with an epic extra-length tale of vengeance as the current Ghost Who Walks finally tracks down ‘The Belt’ and dispenses the Phantom’s justice to the villain who killed his father and stole it…

Straightforward, captivating rollicking action-adventure has always been the staple of The Phantom. If that sounds like a good time to you, this is a traditional nostalgia-fest you won’t want to miss…

The Phantom® © 1962-1964 and 2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Today in 1908 publishing Svengali and Marvel Comics godfather Martin Goodman was born. Graphic philosopher and storyteller supreme Raymond Briggs arrived today in 1934, as did artistic Mon o’ Mystery “Frank Quitely” in 1968. Sadly he was far too young to ever collaborate with the amazing Bill (Batman, Green Lantern, Wildcat, Robin, Joker, Catwoman, Batgirl, Bat-Mite, Ace, the Bat-Hound, Lana Lang, All Winners Squad) Finger, who passed away today in 1974.

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Popeye Classics volume 1


By Bud Sagendorf, edited and designed by Craig Yoe (Yoe Books/IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-557-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-62302-264-8

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are few comic characters that have entered communal world consciousness, but a grizzled, bluff, uneducated, visually impaired old sailor with a speech impediment is possibly the most well-known of that select bunch.

Elzie Segar had been producing Thimble Theatre since December 19th 1919, but when he introduced a coarse, brusque “sailor man” into the saga of Ham Gravy and Castor Oyl on January 17th 1929, nobody suspected the giddy heights that walk-on would reach…

Happy birthday, Sailor Man!

In 1924 Segar created a second daily strip The 5:15: a surreal domestic comedy featuring weedy commuter and would-be inventor John Sappo and his formidable wife Myrtle which endured – in one form or another – as a topper/footer-feature accompanying the main Sunday page throughout the author’s career. It survived his untimely death, eventually becoming the trainee-playground of Popeye’s second great stylist Bud Sagendorf.

After Segar’s tragic, far too premature death in 1938, Doc Winner, Tom Sims, Ralph Stein and Bela Zambouly all worked on the strip even as animated features brought Popeye to the entire world. Sadly, none of them had the eccentric flair and raw inventiveness that had put Thimble Theatre at the forefront of cartoon entertainments. Nonetheless, the strip continues to this day, with new Sunday episodes written and drawn by R. K. Milholland, whilst daily episodes are reprints by that man Sagendorf.

Born in 1915, Forrest “Bud” Sagendorf was barely 17 when his sister – who worked in the Santa Monica art store where Segar bought his supplies – introduced the kid to the master. Segar became his teacher and employer as well as a father-figure and, in 1958, Sagendorf took over the strip and all merchandise design duties, becoming Popeye’s prime originator…

When Sagendorf took over, his loose, rangy style and breezy inspired scripts brought the strip back to the forefront of popularity. Bud made reading it cool and fun all over again. He wrote and drew Popeye in every graphic arena for 24 years. Sagendorf died in 1994 after which Underground cartoonist Bobby London took over.

Bud had been Segar’s assistant and apprentice, and from 1948 onwards he wrote and drew Popeye’s comic book adventures in a regular monthly title published by America’s king of licensed periodicals, Dell Comics. When Popeye first appeared, he was a rude, crude brawler: a gambling, cheating, uncivilised ne’er-do-well. He was soon exposed as the ultimate working class hero: raw and rough-hewn, practical, but with an innate, unshakable sense of what’s fair and what’s not, a joker who wanted kids to be themselves – but not necessarily Good – and someone who took no guff from anyone. Naturally, as his popularity grew, Popeye mellowed somewhat. He was still ready to defend the weak and had absolutely no pretensions or aspirations to rise above his fellows, but time and popularity eroded that power.

Such was not the case in Sagendorf’s comic book yarns…

Collected in their entirety in this beguiling full-colour hardback or digital edition are the first four 52-page quarterly funnybooks produced by the Young Master, spanning February/April 1948 to November 1948/January 1949.

These stunning, seemingly stream-of-consciousness stories are preceded by an effusively appreciative Introduction – ‘Society of Sagendorks’ – by inspired aficionado, historian and publisher Craig Yoe accompanied by a fabulous collation of candid photos and letters, plus strip proofs, original comicbook art and commissioned paintings, an Activity Book cover and greetings card designs contained in ‘A Bud Sagendorf Scrapbook’.

Popeye‘s fantastic first issue launched in February 1948 with no ads and duo-coloured (black & red) single page strips on the inside front and back covers. The initial instant episode finds mighty muscled, irrepressible “infink” Swee’ Pea enquiring ‘Were There Ever Any Pirates Around Here?’ before doing a bit of digging, after which full-coloured extended fun begins with ‘Shame on You! or Gentlemen Do Not Fight! or You’re a Ruffian, Sir!’

As everyone knows, the salty swab earns a lucrative living as an occasional prizefighter and here upcoming contender Kid Kabagge and his cunning manager Mr. Tillbox use a barrage of psychological tricks to put Popeye off his game. The key component is electing Olive Oyl President of the deeply bogus Anti-Fisticuff Society to convince her man to stop being a beastly ruffian and abandon violence. That only works until the fiery frail learns she’s been gulled…

Swee’ Pea then stars in ‘Map Back! Or Back Map!’ as sinister unprincipled villain Sam Snagg tattoos an invisible secret diagram onto the baby’s body(!) before falling foul of the boy’s garrulous guardian when trying to reclaim the kid and divine the location of Spinachovia’s hidden treasures. Wrapping up the full-length action is ‘Spinach Revolt’ as Popeye’s perfidious pater Poopdeck Pappy kicks up a fuss about constantly having to eat healthy food…

As the first Superman of comics, Popeye was not a comfortable hero to idolise. A brute who thought with his fists and had no respect for authority, he was uneducated, short-tempered, fickle (when hot tomatoes batted their eyelashes – or thereabouts – at him); an aggressive troublemaker, who wasn’t welcome in polite society… and wouldn’t want to be. Time changed Popeye and made him tamer but the shocking sense of unpredictability, danger and anarchy he initially provided was sorely missed… so in 1936 Segar brought it back again…

A memorable and riotous sequence of Dailies introduced ancient, antisocial crusty reprobate Poopdeck Pappy. The elder mariner was a hard-bitten, grumpy lout quite prepared – even happy – to cheat, steal or smack a woman around if she stepped out of line. He was Popeye’s prodigal dad and once the old goat was firmly established, Segar set Olive and her Sailor Man the Herculean task of “Civilizing Poppa”. Even at the time of this tale that’s still very much a work in progress…

Fed up with eating spinach, Pappy hides his meals and steals the wherewithal to secretly subsist on a diet of candy, cakes and sodas. He even inveigles the lad next door into being the mule in his scurrilous scheme, but cannot evade the digestive consequences of his actions…

The premiere outing ends with a brace of single pagers detailing how Swee’ Pea deals with persistent salesmen and a day’s fishing before issue #2 commences…

Master moocher Wellington J. Wimpy again has cause to declare ‘Sir! You are a cheapskate!’ before Swee’ Pea & Popeye are swept up in a controversial debate. In ‘That’s What I Yam! or ‘I Yam! I Yam’, the sailor believes his baby boy tough enough to wander around town unsupervised but has reasons to revise his opinion after the kid vanishes. Moreover, when he does resurface, the titanic tyke is subject to strange transformations and behaviours. It’s as if a class of trainee hypnotists have all been using the kid as a practise subject but forgot to bring him out of his trance afterward…

Pappy stars in ‘Easy Money’, with the greedy reprobate realising how much cash his sterling son earns for each boxing bout. Determined to get on the gravy train too, the oldster shaves off his beard and impersonates Popeye. By the time his boy catches wise, Pappy has conned Olive and Wimpy into his scheme and set up a punishing bout with a huge purse, so somebody is going to have to fight…

The issue ends with a two-tone short showing the hazards of bathing Swee’Pea and another full colour back cover gag as a bullying neighbour realises the folly of trying to spank Popeye’s boy…

Popeye #3 leads with an epic 32-page spooky maritime epic as the superstitious sailor reluctantly agrees to transport 250 “ghosk” traps to ghastly, radish – and phantom – infested ‘Ghost Island’: a cunning yarn of mystery and over-zealous imagination starring many cast regulars and preceded by a hilarious map of the route replacing the inside-front-cover gag…

Following up is an implausible account of Popeye apparently becoming a violent bully, beating up ordinary citizens in ‘Smash! or You Can Tell She’s My Girl, Because She’s Wearing Two Black Eyes!’ Happily, a doctor at the sailor’s trial is able to diagnose the incredible truth before things go too far, after which Swee’Pea indulges in too much sugar in the red & black bit and learns the manly way to play with dolls on the colour back cover…

The fourth and final inclusion in this outrageous, timelessly wonderful compilation begins with Wimpy up to his old tricks whilst Popeye hunts ducks, before another extended odyssey finds the Sailor Man and hangers-on Swee’Pea, Olive & Wimpy heading West on safari to capture a rare Ipomoea from sagebrush hellhole ‘Dead Valley’…

It’s a grim wilderness Popeye has endured before: an arid inferno no sane man would want to revisit unless a scientist hired him to. Sadly, that’s not the opinion of local bandit boss Dead Valley Joe who assigns all his scurvy gang the task of dissuading or despatching the uppity easterners before they uncover the region’s incredible secret…

Back home again, Olive Oyl receives a surprise ‘Gift from Uncle Ben!’ Sadly, the strange flying beast called a Zoop prefers Swee’Pea’s company, and her warm generosity in donating the beast takes a hard knock when a stranger offers a million bucks for it…

One final brace of Swee’ Pea shorts then sees the wily kid orchestrate free baseball views for his pals before indulging in food politics to win over a stray cat and wrap up in amiable style these jolly, captivating cartoon capers.

There is more than one Popeye. If your first thought on hearing the name is an unintelligible, indomitable white-clad sailor always fighting a great big beardy bloke and mainlining tinned spinach, that’s okay: the animated features have a brilliance and energy of their own (even the later, watered-down anodyne TV versions have some merit) and they are indeed based on the grizzled, crusty, foul-mouthed, bulletproof, golden-hearted old swab who shambled his way into Thimble Theatre and wouldn’t leave. But they are really only the tip of an incredible iceberg of satire, slapstick, virtue, vice and mind-boggling adventure…

There is more than one Popeye. Most of them are pretty good, and some are truly excellent. This book is definitely one of the latter and if you love lunacy, laughter and rollicking adventure you must now read this.
Popeye Classics volume 1 © 2013 Gussoni-Yoe Studio, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Popeye © 2013 King Features Syndicate. ™ & © Heart Holdings Inc.

Today in 1851 pioneering US illustrator A/B. Frost (Br’er Rabbit) was born, and in 1877 Australian artist Cecilia May Gibbs (Gumnut Babies/Bush Babies/Bush Fairies, Bib and Bub, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Tiggy Touchwood).

In 1920 epic UK weekly comic Film Fun began with the first of its 2225 issues. Never appearing therein was erotic cartoonist Georges (Blanche Épiphanie) Pichard who was born in the same year.

One year later Cuban Spy vs Spy/Mad magazine mastermind Antonio Prohias was born. As was Spanish artist Alfonso Azpiri (Black Hawk [UK Tornado], Bethlehem Steele, Lorna) in 1947 and Ann Nocenti in 1957 and the astonishing Genndy Tartakovsky in 1970.

Sadly we lost Belgian Pascal Garray in 2017, a quiet star who worked for years largely unheralded on The Smurfs, and Benoît Brisefer/Steven Sterk/Benny Breakiron.

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DC Finest: Superman – The Invisible Luthor


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Jack Burnley, Paul Lauretta, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley, Paul Cassidy, Ed Dobrotka, Leo Nowak, Fred Ray, John Sikela, Dennis Neville, Don Komisarow, lettered by Frank Shuster, Betty Burnley Bentley, the Superman Studio & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77950-332-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Nearly 90 years ago, Superman rebooted planetary mythology and kickstarted the entire genre of modern fantasy heroes. Outlandish, flamboyant, indomitable, infallible and unconquerable, he also saved a foundering industry by birthing an entirely new genre of storytelling: the Super Hero. Since April 18th 1938 (the generally agreed day copies of Action Comics #1 first went on sale) he has grown into a mighty presence in all aspects of art, culture and commerce, even as his natal comic book universe organically grew and expanded. Within three years of that debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment that had hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown: encompassing crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy. However, once the war in Europe and the East captured America’s communal consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comic book covers, if not interiors.

In comic book terms alone Superman was soon a true master of the world, utterly changing the shape of the fledgling industry as easily as he could a mighty river. There was a popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and as the decade turned, the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Moreover, the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release as the energy and enthusiasm of originators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster went on to inform and infect the burgeoning studio which grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

These tales have been reprinted many times, but this latest compilation might arguably be the best yet, offering the original stories in reading – if not strictly chronological publishing – order and spanning cover-dates July 1940 to September 1941. It features landmark sagas from Action Comics #26-40 and Superman #6-11, plus pivotal appearances in New York’s World Fair No. 2, World’s Best Comics #1 and World’s Finest Comics #2 & 3 (all with eye-catching groundbreaking covers by Jack Burnley). Although most early tales were untitled, here, for everyone’s convenience, they have been given descriptive appellations by the editors, and I should also advise that as far as we know it’s written entirely by Seigel, with the majority of covers by Fred Ray (unless I say otherwise!).

This incredible panorama of torrid tales opens with gangsters attempting to plunder jewels from exhibits at the biggest show on earth. Taken from premium package New York World’s Fair #2, ‘Superman at the 1940 World’s Fair’ is credited to Siegel & Schuster, but actually illustrated by Burnley who also provided the first ever pairing of the Man of Tomorrow with Dynamic Duo Batman and Robin on the cover to drag readers in…

Siegel & Shuster had created a true phenomenon and were struggling to cope with it. As well as monthly and bimonthly comics a new quarterly publication, initially World’s Best and ultimately World’s Finest Comics – springing from the success of the publisher’s New York World’s Fair comic-book tie-ins – would soon debut with their indefatigable hero featuring prominently in it. Superman’s daily newspaper strip began on 16th January 1939 (Yes! Today but back then!), with a separate Sunday strip following from November 5th: garnering millions of new devotees. The need for new material and creators was constant and oppressive, so expansion was the watchword at the Superman and Shuster studios.

On the primary pages though, Action Comics#26 (July 1940) introduced ‘Professor Cobalt’s Clinic’ (limned by Pauls Lauretta & Cassidy with Siegel inking and Frank Shuster lettering) wherein Clark Kent & Lois Lane expose a murderous sham Health Facility with a little Kryptonian help, whilst the following month dealt a similar blow to corrupt orphanage the ‘Brentwood Home for Wayward Youth’. September’s issue found Superman at the circus, solving the mystery of ‘The Strongarm Assaults’, a fast-paced thriller beautifully illustrated by the astonishingly talented and versatile Burnley. Whilst thrilling to all that, kids of the time could also have picked up the sixth issue of Superman (cover-dated September/October 1940). Produced by Siegel and the Superman Studio, with Shuster increasingly overseeing and only drawing key figures and faces, this contained four more lengthy adventures. Behind its Shuster & Cassidy cover, ‘Lois Lane, Murderer’, and ‘Racketeer Terror in Gateston’ by Cassidy had the Man of Action saving his plucky co-worker from a dastardly frame up and rescuing a small town from a mob invasion. An infomercial for the Supermen of America club and the secrets of attaining ‘Super Strength’ as shared by Burnley, Shuster & Cassidy follows. These lead to more adventure and action from Lauretta & Cassidy as ‘Terror Stalks San Caluma’ and ‘The Construction Scam’ sees the Man of Tomorrow foil a blackmailer who’s discovered his secret identity before spectacularly fixing a corrupt company’s shoddy, death-trap buildings.

Action Comics #29 (October 1940) again features Burnley art in a gripping tale of murder for profit. Human drama in ‘The Life Insurance Con’ was followed by deadly super-science as the mastermind Zolar created ‘The Midsummer Snowstorm’, allowing Burnley a rare opportunity to display his fantastic imagination as well as his representational acumen and dexterity. Then Superman #7 (November/December1940) marked a creative sea-change as occasional cover artist Wayne Boring became Schuster’s regular inker, whilst seeing the Man of Steel embroiled in local politics when he confronts ‘Metropolis’ Most Savage Racketeers’; quells manmade disasters in ‘The Exploding Citizens’; stamps out City Hall corruption in ‘Superman’s Clean-Up Campaign’ (illustrated fully by Boring) and puts villainous high society bandits ‘The Black Gang’ where they belong… behind iron bars.

For Action # 31 Burnley draws another high-tech crime caper as crooks put an entire city to sleep and only Clark Kent isn’t ‘In the Grip of Morpheus’ after which ‘The Gambling Rackets of Metropolis’ (AC #32) finds Lois almost institutionalised until the Big Guy steps up to crush an illicit High Society operation that has wormed its nefarious way into the loftiest echelons of Government, a typical Siegel social drama magnificently illustrated.

Cover-dated January/February 1941, Superman #8 was another spectacular and wildly varied compendium containing four big adventures ranging from fantastic fantasy in ‘The Giants of Professor Zee’ (Cassidy & Boring); topical suspense in spotlighting ‘The Fifth Column’ (Boring & Komisarow) and common criminality in ‘The Carnival Crooks’ (Cassidy) before concluding with cover-featured ‘Parrone and the Drug Gang’ (Boring), wherein the Metropolis Marvel duels doped-up thugs and corrupt lawyers controlling them.

Action Comics #33 & 34 are both Burnley extravaganzas wherein Superman goes north to discover ‘Something Amiss at the Lumber Camp’, before heading to coal country to save ‘The Beautiful Young Heiress’; both superbly enticing character-plays with plenty of scope for super-stunts to thrill the gasping fans.

Superman #9 (March/April 1941) was another four-star thriller with all art credited to Cassidy. ‘The Phony Pacifists’ is an espionage thriller capitalising on increasing US tensions over “the European War” whilst ‘Joe Gatson, Racketeer’ recounts the sorry end of a hot-shot blackmailer and kidnapper. ‘Mystery in Swasey Swamp’ combines eerie rural events with ruthless spies whilst the self-explanatory ‘Jackson’s Murder Ring’ pits the Caped Kryptonian against an ingenious gang of commercial assassins. The issue also improves health and well-being with another Shuster & Cassidy ‘Supermen of America’ update and exercise feature ‘Super-Strength’ by Shuster.

The success of the annual World’s Fair premium comic books had convinced editors that an over-sized anthology of their characters, with Superman and Batman prominently featured, would be a worthwhile proposition even at the exorbitant price of 15¢ (most 64-page titles retailed for 10¢ and would do so until the 1960s). At 96 pages, World’s Best Comics #1 debuted with a Spring 1941 cover-date and Fred Ray frontage, before transforming into the soon-to-be-venerable World’s Finest Comics from issue #2 onwards. From that landmark one-&-only edition comes gripping disaster thriller ‘Superman vs. the Rainmaker’, illustrated by Boring & Komisarow, after which Action Comics #35 headlines a human-interest tale with startling repercussions in Boring & Leo Nowak’s ‘The Guybart Gold Mine’, before even Superman is mightily stretched to cope with the awesome threat of ‘The Enemy Invasion’ rendered by Boring & Shuster: a canny, foreboding taste of things to come if – or rather, when – America entered World War II.

Superman #10 (May/June 1941) opens with eponymous mystery ‘The Invisible Luthor’ (Nowak), follows with ‘The Talent Agency Fraud’ (Cassidy, Nowak, Siegel & the Studio), steps on the gas in ‘The Spy Ring of Righab Bey’ and closes with ‘The Dukalia Spy Ring’ (both by Boring, Siegel & the Studio): topical and exotic themes of suspense as America was still at this time still officially neutral in the “European War”. Conversely, Action Comics #37 (June 1941) returned to tales of graft, crime and social injustice in ‘Commissioner Kent’ (Cassidy) as the Man of Steel’s timid alter-ego is forced to run for the job of Metropolis’ top cop, before World’s Finest Comics #2 (Summer 1941) unleashes Cassidy & Nowak’s ‘The Unknown X’ – a fast-paced mystery of sinister murder-masterminds, before AC #38 (and Nowak & Ed Dobrotka) provide a spectacular battle bout against a sinister hypnotist committing crimes through ‘Radio Control’…

Other than a Cassidy pinup, Superman #11 (July/August 1941) was an all Nowak affair, beginning with ‘Zimba’s Gold Badge Terrorists’ wherein thinly disguised Nazis “Blitzkrieg” America, after which “giant animals” go on a rampage in ‘The Corinthville Caper’. Seeking a cure for ‘The Yellow Plague’ then takes Superman to the ends of the Earth whilst ‘The Plot of Count Bergac’ brings him back home to crush High Society gangsters. All by Nowak but accompanied by a Cassidy pinup.

Horrific mad science creates ‘The Radioactive Man’ in Action #39 (Nowak & Shuster Studios), whilst #40 featured ‘The Billionaire’s Daughter’ (by John Sikela) wherein the mighty Man of Tomorrow needs all his wits to set straight a spoiled debutante before we closing with ‘The Case of the Death Express’: a tense thriller about train-wreckers illustrated by Nowak from the Fall issue of World’s Finest (#3).

Stories of corruption and social injustice were gradually moving aside for more spectacular fare, and with war in the news and clearly on the horizon, the tone and content of Superman’s adventures changed too: the scale and scope of the stunts became more important than the motive. The raw passion and sly wit still shone through in Siegel’s stories but as the world grew more dangerous the Man of Tomorrow simply had to become stronger and more flamboyant to deal with it all, with Shuster and his team consequently stretching and expanding the iconography for all imitators and successors to follow.

These Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price. My admiration for the stripped-down purity and power of these stories is boundless. Nothing has ever come near them for joyous, child-like perfection. You really should make them part of your life. In fact, how can you possibly resist them?
© 1940, 1941, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1939 Jean Van Hamme (XIII, Thorgal, Largo Winch) was born, which you now know was the same moment – allowing for time zone differentials – that the Superman newspaper strip launched. It ended in 1966 but Van Hamme’s still going…

In 1960 UK comic Judy debuted, and ten years later so did Garth Ennis.

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Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby


By Jack Kirby, Mike Royer, Vince Colletta, Don Heck, D. Bruce Berry, Greg Theakston, Mike Thibodeaux, Dick Giordano, Mike Machlan, Bill Wray, Steve Rude & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7717-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today in 1971 American comic books again changed forever with the third component of a graphic masterpiece. On December 1st 1970 newsstands saw Superman meet counterculture head-on courtesy of Jack Kirby in a title like no other ever before. It was only one strand of a bold experiment that quite honestly failed, but still undid and remade everything. That was Forever People #1 and it was followed on December 22nd with New Gods #1. Then on January 14th 1971 comic books delivered a NEW new world that just kept on changing…

When Jack Kirby returned to the home of Superman in 1970 he was working on one of the most powerful concepts in comic book history. The expansive grandeur of his Fourth World saga grafted a complete new mythology onto and over the existing DC universe and blew the developing minds of a generation of readers. If only there had been a few more of them…

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, where Kirby revived his 1940s kid-team The Newsboy Legion, introduced large-scale cloning in the form of The Project and hinted that the city’s gangsters had extraterrestrial connections. He then moved on to a main course beginning with The Forever People, intersecting where appropriate with New Gods and Mister Miracle to form an interlinked triptych of finite-length titles that together presented an epic mosaic. Those three groundbreaking titles collectively introduced rival races of gods, dark and light, risen from the ashes of a previous Armageddon to battle forever… and then their conflict spreads to Earth…

Kirby’s concepts, as always, fired and inspired contemporaries and successors. Gods of Apokolips & New Genesis became a crucial keystone of DC continuity and integral foundation of that entire fictional universe, surviving the numerous revisions and retcons which periodically bedevil long-lived comics fans. Many major talents dabbled with the concept over decades and a host of titles have come and gone starring Kirby’s creations. That’s happening now even as I type this…

As previously stated, the herald of all this innovation had been Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, which Kirby had used to lay groundwork since taking it over with #133. There readers first met Darkseid, The Evil Project, Intergang and so much more, but it was also used as an emotional setup for a fascinating notion that had seldom if ever previously troubled the mighty, generally satisfied and well situated Man of Tomorrow…

After The Forever People #1, crossovers with DC mainstays were largely sidelined in favour of a tense and relatively isolated new normal. Those kids were Kirby’s way of depicting how conflict affected peripheral players and dragged them in and down, and the next (and most important) component was seeing seasoned soldiers do their work. New Gods would focus on the war itself…

With that all going on, next came something utterly unexpected: a non-hero who reflected a changing world and sought to capture the turbulent era’s zeitgeist by also looking out for himself and breaking loose of expectations and societal shackles…

Cover-dated February/March 1971 and on sale 55 years ago today, the premiere issue of Mister Miracle – Super Escape Artist sprang the last piece of the puzzle on readers by opening with a sedate set of mysteries balanced with emotional tension and explosive action. The star – notoriously based on Jack & Roz Kirby’s friend (comics genius, magician and escapologist) Jim Steranko – was a fugitive and runaway avoiding (perhaps dodging?) his responsibilities and searching for deeper truths. No matter how wild things got, that set-up was pure reportage…

Inked by Vince Colletta with Kirby doing most of the rest, ‘Murder Missile Trap!’ introduces aging entertainer Thaddeus Brown, an old war horse trying to get back in the saddle, and practicing his old escapology act to win an unwise wager with Metropolis’ Intergang boss Steel Hand. A terrifying test run is interrupted by a young stranger who observes with shock Brown’s apparent suicide and the panic of equally aged assistant Oberon before rushing in to help them.

That act of getting involved leads to orphan Scott Free inheriting the identity and stage persona of Mister Miracle after Steel Hand cheats and has Thaddeus shot and killed. Angry, intrigued and ready to settle down at last (or for a while at least), the wanderer – who has an astounding carpet bag of high tech tricks – wins justice for his predecessor by beating a spectacular rocket trap and decides to try something strange but substantial, for a change.

However, the coils of his past prepare to ensnare him…

The prosaic life of a showman was a beguiling setting as Scott and Oberon planned a comeback and the beloved old stagehand learned just how different the new kid really was. His suspicions of a wider, wilder side were confirmed as the orphanage Scott fled came looking for him and vicious Apokolyptian virago Granny Goodness unleashed the techno-terrors of matter-warping monster Overlord before trapping the targets in the insidious, infernal ‘X-Pit!’

Because comics fans were always abstruse, Mister Miracle regularly outsold its companion titles, but Kirby felt no compunction to explain his expanding pantheon and universe – or indeed space to do so. Here, though, please allow me to lay out some groundwork…

Soon after creation began, gods were born, thrived and perished – primarily by warring with each other. When the Old Gods died in a cosmos-shaking conflagration their perfect primal world was split into two. Eventually cooling fragments congealed into two new yet lesser worlds: the dark vicious globe of Apokolips and gleaming noble orb New Genesis. Over millennia, generations of superior beings of might and majesty populated the spinning spheres. Sadly, a tragic trait New Gods shared with their progenitors was the capacity for destruction and taste for conflict. Denizens of both planets always and inevitably found fresh ways to end each other’s immortal lives.

The tale proper began on joyous, spiritual New Genesis years after the latest all-out war with Apokolips ended. Mighty Orion arrived in paradisical Supertown where deific patriarch Highfather communes with cosmic mystery The Source. The metaphysical conduit despatched the turbulent wolf in their fold to its antithetical hell-world, only to find despot Darkseid gone. Against all treaties, captive humans from Earth had been abducted and probed for signs of the tyrant’s dream.

The lord of Apokolips wanted to do away with free will and rule personally over all that lived, employing an irresistible, intangible ultimate weapon. The “Anti-Life Equation” is a cheat code for totalitarianism: instant negation of choice, and command of all thought. Darkseid’s obsessive search for it led him to Earth where finding it would guarantee total triumph and dispense with his need for Parademons, Dog Cavalry, assorted terror weapons, and his elite inner circle of monstrous minions. Powerful and technologically advanced, for both races the basic tool is Mother Box: sentient circuitry connected to The Source and a lifelong cyber-symbiotic companion, able to communicate, advise and manipulate the physical world…

Mister Miracle #3 opens a bravura double-issue imbroglio as Scott agrees to an honourable duel with dishonourable disembodied robot-wearing intelligence Doctor Bedlam. Darkseid’s war code is strict and binding and finds the escape artist challenged to make his way out of a packed 50-storey skyscraper. The problems comes because the edifice is sealed tight and every person inside it is a raving homicidal maniac thanks to mental murderer Bedlam’s administering of ‘The Paranoid Pill!’…

As Oberon frets back at the Brown mansion, he is visited by an old friend of Scott’s, but master warrior Big Barda is not out to assassinate the runaway. She seems more interested in his wellbeing and fate and teleports to the trap site in time to watch Mister Miracle avoid ‘The Closing Jaws of Death!’  Barda is another abstention from the Apokolips method and a rowdy runaway like no other…

With Mike Royer taking over inking, Kirby’s twin loves – history and movies – are happily exercised and expressed in the next yarn as a manic military martinet (based on James Mason’s Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisoner of Zenda) attempts to humiliate and destroy the rebel in MM #5. Another stiff-necked clash of Codes of Honour, it sees elite Apokolips soldiers rendition and reclaim Barda, making her freedom contingent on Scott surviving the Wile E. Coyote-like inventions of ‘Doctor Vundabar and his Murder Machine!’ Of course he does just that, and the issue continues with the first episode in an occasional backstory featurette. Inked by Colletta, ‘Young Scott Free!!’ shares boyhood exploits of Granny’s appalling orphanage/war college where cadet Free just doesn’t fit in. He complains, he has ideas and, when no one’s looking, has extra lessons from New Genesis in the form of emotionless even-handed God of Scientific Curiosity Metron…

Humour and a heaping pile of unleashed agita underpin the wry tale of a sharp-talking conman seeking to profit off a creative star’s efforts when obnoxious, dissolute ‘Funky Flashman!’ (MM #6) seeks to monetise Scott’s act, only to run full on into “debt-collectors” from Apokolips. Happily settled in with Scott, Barda is targeted by old squadmates Stompa, Lashina, Bernadeth and Mad Harriet who have come to take her home to the Female Furies battalion she used to lead. They don’t like Flashman either and really resent missing her and taking him thanks to some sneaky sleight-of-hand…

Another brief Royer-inked ‘Young Scott Free!!’ episode finds the daily drugged & programmed dissident becoming more brazen and noticeable in his rebellions, prior to #7 opening an ‘Apokolips Trap!!’ Done with constant ambushes Scott resolves to return to the hell planet and win his right to permanent life-long liberty from Granny’s reprisals, but it all goes awry when battle-hungry Barda comes along, forcing the duo to fight the length of the evil kingdom against “Lowlies”, soldiers, war-machines and even Darkseid’s chief assassin Kanto before this duel of honour can even begin…

‘Young Scott Free!!’ adds nuance with the tale of that time the boot camp pariah somehow trashed deadly Parademons in a training exercise, after which the main event concludes in MM#8 as Scott surrenders to his nemeses and becomes a showpiece execution event against an unbeatable psychic horror during ‘The Battle of the Id!’ Unwilling to let her lover languish or die, Big Barda organises a Female Fury foray that rocks the joint, but as always, she needn’t have bothered…

In New Gods #7 Kirby revealed the origins of the current war and how Darkseid’s son Orion was traded for Highfather’s infant to become tokens of intent and hostage princes to assure a ceasefire. Now Mister Miracle #9 concludes the history lesson with the tragic how and why young man Scott Free breaks the truce, escapes the chains of expectation and chooses his own path after meeting outlaw philosopher ‘Himon!’ Cover-dated July 1972, the tale uses the last exploit ‘Young Scott Free!’ to show how, with rising-star soldier/covert rebel Lieutenant Barda, Scott challenged and dodged the system, no matter the cost…

Kirby’s intention for his Fourth World trilogy was three 12-chapter finite series working in tandem, but fate and sale demanded otherwise. Forever People and New Gods both ceased abruptly and without those intended conclusions, but something else happened for the Super Escape Artist…

The entire notion was a huge risk and massive gamble for an industry and company that was a watchword for conservatism. It was probably incredibly tough for editors and publishers to stop themselves interfering, and they often didn’t. With numbers low, and spooky stories proliferating everywhere, Kirby was pressured to drop the weird stuff and concentrate on old standards. Despite promises of support and complete autonomy, the King had already surrendered much to get his dream rolling. Crushing deadlines and ridiculous expected monthly page counts were one thing, but management had no understanding of what he was planning and promotion was non-existent. Thus, inevitably these series failed to find sufficient sales to keep on until that planned and promised conclusion. Nobody in comics argued with numbers so Forever People and New Gods #11 were the last, cancelled before Kirby could complete his grand experiment.

… Except Mister Miracle carried on. Its sales warranted continuation so with a sharp change of emphasis anticipated and accommodated by Kirby and Co, #10 saw Scott, Barda and AWOL ringleader Stompa, Lashina, Bernadeth & Mad Harriet move to Earth in a tense pause and apparent détente. With time on their hands the squad became an entertainment troupe as ‘The Mister Miracle to Be!’ finally explored showbiz and touring. Sadly, they regularly encountered outlandish human-scaled foes, such as high-tech racketeers the World Protective League and their deranged boss The Head, who mistook the wild wonders for international agents sent to derail a bio-weapon blackmail plot…

With Thaddeus’ son Ted and Oberon filling out the roster, #11 promised ‘The Greatest Show Off Earth!’ and delivered once Doctor Bedlam momentarily trapped Scott aboard an exploding spaceship before the extended run carried on with the death-cheaters challenged by an ancient artefact that stacked the odds during a deadly wager. The truth behind ‘Mystevac!’ was cruel, shocking and transient…

Next the hardworking stiffs were hijacked by a deranged fascist sect and dumped in ‘The Dictator’s Dungeon!’ (obviously not for long!) after which the growing horror trend saw them stumble over Satanists with an even more sinister secret in #14’s ‘The Quick and the Dead!’

The tone of those troubled turbulent times was then acknowledged by the introduction of a smart, capable black kid. ‘The Secret Gun!’ found Mister Miracle and friends fostering a witness to murder and eventually hiring him as the next big thing in escapology as seen in follow-up yarn ‘Shilo Norman, Super Trouble!’ as the team clash with invasive “insecto-sapiens” created by Professor Egg – a shrinking savant set on conquest and consumption. Then crime-busting returns with Scott, Barda and Shilo mistaken for hitmen when they inadvertently book in at ‘Murder Lodge!’ and are extravagantly earmarked for execution…

Eventually the encore came to a conclusion as – cover dated March 1974 – Mister Miracle #18 saw all the New God players become ‘Wild, Wild Wedding Guests!’ as Scott and Barda tied the one knot they couldn’t defy before moving in with his dad on New Genesis.

That followed one last all-out assault by Darkseid’s minions which went some way to finally looping readers back to the overarching spectacle as lovers from warring worlds decided to wed in the face of impending doom.

With that the saga was paused but time and changing tastes soon brought sequels and, at long last, Kirby’s return to craft a proper ending… of sorts. We’ll get to those in the fullness of time-space…

Mister Miracle remained a uniquely reusable concept for decades with Scott, Barda and the crew regularly getting guest gigs and new shots at the limelight in Fourth World revivals, DC titles ranging from Action Comics to Brave and the Bold to Justice League, and in solo comeback series.

This cosmic compendium offers bonus ‘Mother Box Files’ material comprising pertinent Kirby characters as revisited by himself, and select inkers from assorted DC Who’s Who fact files. Here a tremendous group treatment of The Female Furies, inked by Greg Theakston, backs up a clutch of solo entries for ‘Mister Miracle’ (Giordano), ‘Big Barda’ and ‘Granny Goodness’ (Theakston), ‘Doctor Bedlam’ (Mike Machlan), ‘Funky Flashman’ (Bill Wray) & ‘Virman Vundabar’ embellished by Steve Rude. Closing the wonderment are more delights in ‘The Art of Jack Kirby’, including an unused cover for MM #7 plus a selection of stunning pencilled pages from the original run.

That metaphor for freedom and a hero who chooses to stop running, to turn and to fight is a fundamental aspect of fiction, and one that will always deliver the goods. You know what to do so what’s holding you back?
© 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1863 Richard F. Outcault was born as were Golden Age artists Vince Alascia in 1914 and John Tartaglione in 1921. Filipino artist Rudy Nebres joined the crowd in 1937.

Fictionally, Elzie Segar’s Thimble Theatre debuted Castor Oyl today in 1920 and British standby Comet launched in our smoggy foggy newsagents today in 1950.

On a sad note, the deeply underappreciated Pat Boyette (Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Peacemaker, Blackhawk) passed on today in 2000.

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Tintin and the Picaros


By Hergé and Studios Hergé, translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-40520-823-9 (album HB) 978-1-405206-35-8 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Georges Prosper Remi, AKA Hergé created an undying masterpiece of graphic literature with his serialised tales of a plucky boy reporter and entourage of iconically odd associates. Singly, and later with assistants including Edgar P. Jacobs, Bob de Moor, Roger Leloup and other supreme stylists comprising the Hergé Studio, he created 23 timeless yarns (initially episodic instalments for a variety of newspaper periodicals) which have since grown beyond their mass-entertainment roots to attain the status of High Art and international cultural icons.

On leaving school in 1925, Remi began working for conservative Catholic newspaper Le Vingtiéme Siècle where he fell under the influence of its Svengali-esque editor Abbot Norbert Wallez. A devoted Boy Scout, one year later the young artist was producing his first strip series – The Adventures of Totor – for monthly Boy Scouts of Belgium magazine. By 1928 Remi was also in charge of producing the contents of the LVS’s weekly children’s supplement Le Petit Vingtiéme.

While Remi was illustrating The Adventures of Flup, Nénesse, Poussette and Cochonette – written by the staff sports reporter – Wallez required his compliant creative cash-cow to concoct a new and contemporary adventure series. Perhaps a young reporter who roamed the world, doing good whilst displaying solid Catholic values and virtues?

The rest is history…

Some of that history is quite dark: During the Nazi Occupation of Belgium, Le Vingtiéme Siècle was closed down and Hergé was compelled to move his supremely popular strip to daily newspaper Le Soir (Brussels’ most prominent French-language periodical, and thus appropriated and controlled by the Nazis). He diligently toiled on for the duration, and, following Belgium’s liberation, was accused of collaboration and even of being a Nazi sympathiser. It took the intervention of Belgian Resistance war hero Raymond Leblanc to dispel the cloud over Hergé, which he did by simply vouching for the cartoonist through words and deeds.

Leblanc provided cash to create a new magazine – Le Journal de Tintin – which he published and managed. The anthology comic swiftly achieved a huge weekly circulation, allowing Remi and his studio team to remaster past tales: excising material dictated by the Fascist invaders to ideologically shade the wartime adventures. Post-war modernising exercises also improved and updated the great tales, just in time for Tintin to become a global phenomenon, both in books and as an early star of animated TV adventure.

With the war over and his reputation restored, Hergé entered the most successful period of his artistic career. He had mastered his storytelling craft, possessed a dedicated audience eager for his every effort and was finally able to say exactly what he wanted in his work, free from fear or censure, if not his personal demons and declining health…

The greatest sign of this was not substantially in the comics tales – although Hergé continued to tinker with the form of his efforts – but rather in how long the gaps were between new exploits. The previous (22nd) romp had completed serialisation in 1967 and was duly collected as an album in 1968. It was then eight years before Tintin et les Picaros was simultaneously serialised in Belgium and France in Tintin-l’Hebdoptmiste magazine (from 16th September 1975 to April 13th 1976) but at least the inevitable book collection came out almost immediately upon completion.

Tintin and the Picaros is in all ways the concluding adventure, as many old characters and locales from previous tales make one final appearance. A partial sequel to The Broken Ear (please link to September 15, 2018) it finds operatic phenomenon Bianca Castafiore implausibly arrested for spying in Central American republic San Theodoros, with Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus eventually lured to her rescue.

Insidious Colonel Sponsz – last seen in The Calculus Affair (please link to June 13, 2019) – is Bordurian Military Advisor to the Government of usurper General Tapioca, and has used his position to exact revenge on the intrepid band who humiliated him in his own land. When Tintin & company escape into the jungles during a murder attempt they soon link up with old comrade Alcazar, now leading a band of Picaro guerrillas dedicated to restoring him to power.

Central and South American revolutions were all the rage in the 1970s and Hergé’s cast had been involved with this one on and off since 1935. With the welcome return of anthropologist Doctor Ridgewell and the hysterical Arumbayas, and even an improbable action role (kind of) for obnoxious insurance salesman and comedy foil Jolyon Wagg, the doughty band bring about the final downfall of Tapioca in a thrilling yet bloodless coup during Carnival time, thanks to a hilarious comedy maguffin (initially targeting dipsomaniac Haddock) that turns out to be a brilliant piece of narrative misdirection by the author.

Sly, subtle, thrilling and warmly comforting, this tale was generally slated when first released but with the perspective of intervening decades can be seen as a most fitting place to end The Adventures of Tintin… but only until you pick up another volume and read them again – as you indubitably will.
Tintin and the Picaros: artwork © 1976 by Editions Casterman, Paris & Tournai. Text © 1976 Egmont UK Limited. All rights reserved.

Today in 1887 Betty Boop creator Bud Counihan was born, as was Dixie Dugan creator J.P. McEvoy in 1894. In 1909 DC stalwart Jack Miller (Rip Hunter, Aquaman, Deadman) was born, and as you’ve just seen Tintin debuted today in 1929 in the first episode of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

In 1932 the first Sunday Mickey Mouse page appeared as did UK footie mag Scorcher in 1970. Most momentously, Marvel mainstay John Buscema died today in 2002.

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Jonah Hex: Welcome to Paradise


By John Albano, Michael Fleischer, Tony DeZuñiga, Doug Wildey, Noly Panaligan, George Moliterni, José Luis García-López & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2757-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Western stories are shaped by an odd duality. The genre can almost be sub-divided into two discrete halves: the sparkly, shiny version that dominated kids’ books, comics and television for decades, as typified by Zane Grey stories and heroes such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry… and the other stuff. That kind of cowboy tale – grimy, gritty, excessively dark – was done best for years by Europeans in such strips as Jean-Michel Charlier’s Lieutenant Blueberry or Bonelli & Galleppini’s Tex Willer which gradually made their way into US culture through the films of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone. Jonah Hex is the USA’s greatest example of the latter sort…

DC (or National Periodicals as it then was) had generated a stable of clean-cut gunslingers since the collapse of the super-hero genre in 1949, with such dashing – and highly readable – luminaries as Johnny Thunder, The Trigger Twins, Nighthawk, Matt Savage and dozens of others in a marketplace that seemed insatiable in its voracious hunger for chaps in chaps. However, all things end, and by the early sixties, sagebrush stalwarts had dwindled to a few venerable properties. As the 1960s closed, thematic changes in the cinematic Cowboy filtered through to a comics industry suffering its second superhero sundown in twenty years. Although a critical success, the light-hearted Western series Bat Lash couldn’t garner a solid following, but DC, urgently pursuing a genre readers would warm to, retrenched and revived an old title, gambling once again on heroes who were no longer simply boy scouts with sixguns.

All-Star Western #1 was released with an August/September 1970 cover date, packed with Pow-Wow Smith reprints. It became an all-new anthology with the second bi-monthly issue. The magazine was allocated a large number of creative all-stars, including Robert Kanigher, Neal Adams, Gray Morrow, Al Williamson, Gil Kane, Angelo Torres and Dick Giordano, all working on such strips as Outlaw!, Billy the Kid and cult sleeper hit El Diablo, combining shoot-’em-up shenanigans with supernatural chills, in deference to the real hit genre that saved comics in those dark days: horror comics.

It wasn’t until the tenth issue and introduction of a grotesquely disfigured, irascible bounty hunter created by writer John Albano & Tony DeZuñiga that the company found its greatest and most enduring Western warrior.

This superb collection of the garish gunman’s early appearances has been around for a few years, with no apparent sign of a sequel yet, so consider this another heartfelt attempt to generate a few sales and more interest – especially as the company has recently released a collection of those aforementioned 70s western treats in its DC Finest range…

Our star is the very model of the modern anti-hero. Jonah Hex first appeared in All-Star Comics #10, a coarse and callous bounty hunter clad in shabbily battered Confederate Grey tunic and hat, half his face lost to some hideous past injury; a brutal thug little better than the scum he hunted – and certainly a man to avoid…

Collecting key stories from All-Star Western #10, Weird Western Tales #14, 17, 22, 26, 29, 30 and Jonah Hex #2 & 4 (ranging from March 1972 to September 1977), the grisly gunplay begins with Albano & DeZuñiga’s ‘Welcome to Paradise’ which introduced the character and his world in a powerful action thriller, with a subtle sting of sentimentality that anyone who has seen the classic western Shane cannot fail to appreciate.

From the first bullets blazing, blistering set-up Albano was constantly hinting at the tortured depths hidden behind Hex’s hellishly scarred visage and deadly proficiency. With the next issue the comic had been re-titled Weird Western Tales (aligning it with the company’s highly successful horror/mystery books) and adventures continually plumbed the depths of human malice and depravity…

Even at the very start the series sought to redress some of the most unpalatable motifs of old style cowboy literature and any fan of films like Soldier Blue or Little Big Man or familiar with Dee Brown’s iconoclastic book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee will feel a grim sense of vicarious satisfaction and redress at most of the stories here. There’s also a huge degree of world-weary cynicism that wasn’t to be found in other comics until well past the Watergate Scandal, when America as nation lost its social and political innocence…

From Weird Western #14, ‘Killers Die Alone!’ (Albano & DeZuñiga) is a vicious tear jerker of a tale where Hex’s only friend valiantly dies to save him from the vengeance of killers who blame the bounty hunter for their brother’s death. Then comes a reckoning that is the stuff of nightmares. ‘The Hangin’ Woman’ (WWT #17) is a classy, gripping thriller wherein Hex runs afoul of a sadistic harridan ruling her hometown with hemp and hot lead before meeting an ending both ironic and much-deserved…

It was left to incoming writer Michael Fleisher (assisted at first by Russell Carley) to reveal Hex’s secrets, beginning with Weird Western Tales #22’s ‘Showdown at Hard Times’. A chance meeting in a stagecoach put a cabal of ex-Confederate soldiers on the trail of their ex-comrade for some unspecified earlier betrayal and it inevitably ended in a sixgun bloodbath, whilst creating an ominous returning nemesis for the grizzled gunslinger.

Train-robbers were the bad guys in the superb traditionally-informed caper ‘Face-Off with the Gallagher Boys!’ – scripted by Fleischer and illustrated by the inimitable Doug Wildey – after which further details of Jonah’s chequered past are revealed in #29’s ‘Breakout at Fort Charlotte’, limned by Noly Panaligan. It was the first chapter of a 2-part extravaganza that gorily concluded in #30 with ‘The Trial’ (illustrated by George Moliterni) as a battalion of Confederate veterans and former comrades-in-arms pass judgement on the man they believed to be the worst traitor in the history of the South…

Inevitably, Hex graduated from Weird Western Tales into his own solo title and the final brace of tales in this primal primer are both drawn by the magnificent José Luis García-López. In ‘The Lair of the Parrot!’, Fleischer has the doom-drenched demon-faced desperado sucked into a scheme designed by US Secret Service agent Ned Landon to infiltrate the gang of flamboyant Mexican bandit and border raider El Papagayo. Hex is none too happy when he finally realises Landon is playing both sides for personal gain, leaving the bounty hunter to the brigand’s tender mercies after framing him for murder in Texas…

The tale continues and concludes in ‘The Day of the Chameleon!’ as a disguise artist steals Hex’s identity to perpetrate even more brazen crimes at the behest of a rich and powerful man determined to destroy the bounty hunter at all costs…

Happily, Jonah has unsuspected allies determined to save him from the villain and his own prideful, stubborn nature…

With a cover gallery by DeZuñiga, Luis Dominguez and García-López, this outrageous assemblage of uncanny exploits proves Jonah Hex is the most unique character in cowboy comics: darkly comedic, riotously rowdy, chilling and cathartically satisfying. His saga is a Western for those who despise the form whilst being the perfect modern interpretation of a great storytelling tradition. No matter what your reading preference, this is a collection you don’t want to miss.
© 1972-1975, 1977, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1886 Bud Fisher’s Mutt and Jeff “ghost” Arthur “Bugs” Baer was born, as was Blondie’s originator Chic Young in 1901. In 1908 picture story pioneer Wilhelm Busch, creator of Max and Moritz died. In 1915 the inimitable Dick Breifer was born – and you should go look at Frankenstein: The Mad Science of Dick Briefer – for what you need to know there. Writer-Artist for The Heap, GI Joe and other Golden Age standards, Ernie Schroeder was born in 1916 and in 1938 Raggedy Ann & Raggedy Andy and Mr Twee Deedle creator Johnny Gruelle died.

In 1953, Hugo Pratt & Héctor Germán Oesterheld’s Sergeant Kirk debuted in Argentinian weekly comic Misterix #225.

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Bernet


By Jordi Bernet & various, edited by Manual Auad (Auad Publishing)
ISBN: 978-0-96693-812-8 (HB)

In anticipation of the impending Legend Testers collection from Rebellion Studios expected next week, here’s a glance at a translated treat from a bygone era confirming why you should adore this graphic genius as much as I do. It’s well worth the search and I’ll be cribbing from it heavily when I get around to the turbulent time troubleshooters themselves…

When you’re a life-long thrill-starved kid enchanted by comics, the first stage of development is slavishly absorbing everything good, bad and indifferent. Then comes the moment that you see subtle nuances which inexplicably makes some features favourites whilst others become simply filler.

I first recognised Jordi Bernet’s work on UK thriller serial The Legend Testers… and by “recognised” I mean the very moment I first discerned that somebody actually drew the stuff I was mesmerised by, and that it was better than the stuff either side of it. This was 1966 when British comics were mostly monochrome and never had signatures or credits, so it was years before I knew who had sparked my interest.

Jordi Bernet Cussó was born in Barcelona in 1944, son of a prominent, successful humour cartoonist. When his father died suddenly Jordi, aged 15, took over his father’s strip Doña Urraca (Mrs. Magpie). A huge fan of Alex Raymond, Hal Foster and especially expressionist genius Milton Caniff, Jordi yearned for less restrictive horizons and left Spain in the early 1960s and moved into dramatic storytelling.

He worked for Belgium’s Le Journal de Spirou, and Germany’s Pip and Primo, before finding a home in British weeklies. Bernet worked for UK publishers between 1964 and 1967, and as well as the Odhams/Fleetway/IPC anthologies Smash, Tiger and War Picture Library, also produced superb material for DC Thomson’s Victor and Hornet. He even illustrated a Gardner Fox horror short for Marvel’s Vampire Tales #1 in 1973, but mainstream America was generally denied his mastery (other than a few translated Torpedo volumes and a Batman short story) until the 21st century reincarnation of Jonah Hex which he truly made his own…

His most famous strips include thrillers Dan Lacombe (written by his uncle Miguel Cussó), Paul Foran (scripted by José Larraz) the saucy Wat 69 and spectacular post-apocalyptic barbarian epic Andrax (both with uncle Cussó again). When fascist dictator Franco died, Bernet returned to Spain and began working for Cimoc, Creepy and Metropol, collaborating with Antonio Segura on the sexy adult fantasy Sarvan and the dystopian SF black comedy Kraken, and with Enrique Sánchez Abuli on the gangster and adult themes tales that have made him one of the world’s most honoured artists. These culminated on the incredibly successful crime saga Torpedo 1936.

This magnificent commemoration of his career thus far spans those years when he first echoed his father’s style through to the sleek minimalist, chiaroscuric, emphatic line economy that drills into readers hindbrains like hot lead from a smoking 45. Also on view, as well as the violence there’s ample example of his sly, witty (and just as hot!) sex comedy material. Bernet is an absolute master of the female form and his adult material – created with Carlos Trillo – such as Custer, Clara De Noche and Cicca is truly remarkable and unforgettable.

This glorious deluxe hardback gathers together a vast quantity of covers; book illustrations; sketches; drawings, pin-ups &studies; advertising work and that Batman stuff, with a separate chapter on Bernet’s Beauties, a biography (which could, I must admit, have done with one last proof-read before going to press) and full checklisting of his works and awards. There are heartfelt artistic contributions and tributes from some of his vast legion of fans: Will Eisner, Joe Kubert, Jordi Langaron, Carlos Nine, Josep M. Bea, Luca Biagnini, Al Dellinges, Josep Toutain, Eduardo Risso, Horacio Altuna, Carlos Gimenez, Sergio Aragonés, Carlos Trillo, Juan Gimenez and Hobie MacQuarrie, but the true delights here are the 16 complete stories – Torpedo 1936, Sarvan, Custer, Clara De Noche and Kraken – as well as westerns, war stories, comedies and crime thrillers.

This is an incredible tribute to an incredible creator, and one no artist with professional aspirations can afford to miss, but parents be warned – there’s lots of nudity and violence beautifully depicted here – so be sure to read it yourselves first. Just in case…
All art and characters © 2009 their respective copyright holders. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1955, sleek design master/airbrush aviation nut Ken Steacy was born, and we lost master craftsmen Victor (Redbeard, Buck Danny) Hubinon in 1979 and Bernard Krigstein in 1990. If you read nothing else by “Krig”, go find “Master Race” (Impact Comics #1, April 1955) and learn something important…

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Invincible Iron Man Epic Collection volume 7 (1976-1978): Ten Rings to Rule the World


By Bill Mantlo, Gerry Conway, Herb Trimpe, Roger Stern, George Tuska, Keith Pollard, Keith Giffen, Carmine Infantino, Jeff Aclin, Mike Esposito, Don Perlin, Jack Abel, Fred Kida, Alfredo Alcala, Rudy Nebres, Bruce Patterson, Josef Rubinstein, Bob Wiacek, Pablo Marcos, Don Newton & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-6059-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Tony Stark has changed profile and rebuilt himself many times since debuting in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963). There and then, as a VIP visitor to Vietnam assessing the efficacy of munitions he had designed, the inventor was critically wounded and captured by sinister, savage Communists. Put to work building weapons with the dubious promise of medical assistance upon completion, Stark instead crafted the first of innumerable technologically-augmented protective suits to keep himself alive and deliver him from his oppressors. From there it was a simple – transistor-powered – jump to full time superheroics as a modern Knight in Shining Armour…

Conceived after the Cuban Missile Crisis at a time when Western economies were booming and “Commie-bashing” was America’s obsession, a dashing new Thomas Edison employing Yankee ingenuity, wealth and invention to safeguard the Land of the Free and better the World seemed an obvious development. Combining then-sacrosanct faith that technology and business in unison could solve any problem, with the universal imagery of noble knights battling evil, Stark – the Invincible Iron Man – seemed an infallibly successful proposition.

Of course, whilst he was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism – a glamorous, benevolent, rich, technocratic and all-conquering hero when clad in super-scientific armour – the turbulent tone of the 1970s soon relegated his suave, “can-do” image to the dustbin of history. With ecological disaster and social catastrophe from myriad big business abuses new zeitgeists of the young, the Golden Avenger and Stark International were soon confronting some tricky questions from an increasingly politically savvy readership.

With glamour, money and fancy gadgetry not quite so cool anymore the questing voices of a new generation of writers began posing uncomfortable questions in the pages of a series that was once a bastion of militarised America. Collectively accommodating cover-dates November 1976 to October 1978, this Epic chronological epistle completes that transitional period, reprinting Iron Man #92-114, plus Annual #4 and a guest yarn from Marvel Premiere #44 as Bill Mantlo’s passionate writing triggered a minor renaissance in the Steel Sentinel’s chrome-plated chronicles that resulted in some of the best stories of the Eighties era. It also returned Iron Man to the top-rank of Marvel stars.

If you’re a fan thanks to the movie interpretation, that iteration starts right here, right now…

The mettle majesty opens with manic menace The Melter who soon regrets an ill-advised grudge rematch in ‘Burn, Hero… Burn!’ (Gerry Conway, George Tuska & Jack Abel) before Herb Trimpe returns to plot and pencil Iron Man #93. Pitting Old Shellhead against a British-based modern-day pirate in ‘Kraken Kills’ (Conway script & Abel inks), the self-declared Commander deduces Stark’s secret identity before blackmailing the inventor into building weapons for his super-submarine fleet. Never at a loss, though, Stark turns the tables, sparking ‘Frenzy at Fifty Fathoms!’ to scupper the madman’s plans…

Invincible Iron Man Annual #4 (August 1977) offers an all-action alliance with newly constituted super-team The Champions by Mantlo, Tuska & inker Don Perlin. When psychic assassin M.O.D.O.K. overwhelms the Golden Avenger, Iron Man calls in old allies Black Widow and Hercules (plus teammates Ghost Rider, Iceman, Darkstar and The Angel) to thwart ‘The Doomsday Connection!’

Also from that issue comes an out-of-place martial arts vignette by Roger Stern, Jeff Aclin & Don Newton. ‘Death Lair!’ stars former Master of Kung Fu villain Midnight on a mission of murder against old Iron Man enemy Half-Face…

The regular monthly climb to reclaimed pole position resumes with veteran Iron Man artist Tuska joining plotter Conway, scripter Mantlo and inker Perlin in unleashing giant android ‘Ultimo!’ (IM #95, cover-dated February 1977) against Washington DC. Clad in upgraded armour and in the Capitol to answer congressional questions about his company, Stark is targeted by a vengeful hidden nemesis who activates the mountainous monster for a classic B-movie sci fi rampage in the streets, with the Golden Avenger supplementing hard pressed Army and National Guard units… before falling in ignominious defeat due to sabotage…

Mantlo, Tuska & Abel prove you can’t keep a good Iron Man down as the embattled hero rallies and retaliates in ‘Only a Friend Can Save Him’ as former close ally and dutiful S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell joins the counterattack. Meanwhile, a long-simmering plotline advances as NYPD detective Michael O’Brien – who holds Stark responsible and accountable for the death of his brother Kevin – finally allows his obsession with a cover-up to pull him across legal lines and into collusion with shady PI Harry Key, whose latest client also has nasty plans for the playboy inventor…

Thanks to ingenuity and sheer guts, Stillwell & Iron Man seemingly destroy Ultimo deep below DC, but their triumph is short lived as a return to Stark’s Long Island factory provokes a ‘Showdown with the Guardsman!’ (Conway, Mantlo, Tuska & Perlin). When Mike takes PA Krissy Longfellow hostage, steals the armour suit that drove his brother insane and ambushes the Golden Avenger wearing it, the clash is swift and brutal. Thankfully this time, the blockbusting battle ends before another good man dies…

Whilst subsequently treating O’Brien, another distraction comes when an old frenemy attacks the facility and US interventionist economic practises. ‘Sunfire Strikes Again!’ sees the Japanese ultra-nationalist mutant warrior again seek to derail progress, unaware that he’s a pawn of the lurking presence gunning for Stark. However, the harried hero’s problems start with the fact that his greatest weapon is offline and he’s fighting in borrowed Guardsman armour. When the conflict frees imprisoned Michael O’Brien, the cop seeks to make amends by joining the battle in an obsolete Iron Man outfit, but – even with Mike Esposito inking – the new allies rapidly find themselves ‘At the Mercy of the Mandarin!’

During the melee, Key tries his luck in the Stark vaults once too often and encounters an unexpected problem, thanks to another insidious infiltrator planted by a different scheming mastermind. However, having freed himself, Tony is too now busy rushing to a far-distant, potentially world-ending final battle in anniversary issue #100. Invading China, Iron Man faces horrors, homunculi Death Squads, nuclear armageddon and his most obsessive enemy whose ‘Ten Rings to Rule the World!’ ultimately prove insufficient to the task…

With the tyrant’s countless plots to discredit Stark now exposed, our hero starts a long journey home, even as in Long Island, Harry Key, Sitwell and one of the traitors in Stark’s midst begin a cautious espionage dance…

Iron Man’s trip stalls when he’s shot down over Yugoslavia (just google it) and awakens in a creepy old castle filled with freaks and outcasts safeguarded by a familiar – to elderly or dedicated Marvelites at least – huge and daunting figure. Recovering in ‘Then Came the Monster!’ our weary voyager views Castle Frankenstein and panics: clashing with the gentle “Modern Prometheus” before the real menace emerges.

Inked by Esposito & Pablo Marcos, ‘Dreadknight and the Daughter of Creation!’ channels old Marvel horror tales as a brutal and brutalised escaped experiment of Doctor Doom’s laboratories seeks to compel the great granddaughter of Victor Frankenstein to share with him the secrets of creating life…

This ruthless high-tech paladin’s sadistic efforts are eventually thwarted by Iron Man and the original (good) Monster, after which the Steel-Shod Sentinel at last arrives home in #103’s ‘Run for the Money!’ by Mantlo, Tuska & Esposito. Sadly, it’s just in time for the next domestic crisis as Sitwell exposes the traitor only to be captured by revolting corporate villain Midas, who – patience exhausted – launches a truly hostile takeover using tanks, mercenaries, lawyers and the Stock Market…

He is temporarily checked by itinerant junior hero/innocent bystander Jack of Hearts who – as per standard Marvel protocol – is attacked by weary, late arriving Iron Man who misconstrues events and assaults the well-meaning stranger. Shock follows shock as Midas’ legal chicanery forces Iron Man’s surrender, ceding control of Stark International to his enemy, even as the villain’s agent and top lieutenant Madame Masque quits to ally herself with the defeated hero and his ousted, outmanoeuvred alter ego Tony Stark.

In the aftermath, repercussions of the takeover ripple outwards. With Stark no longer paying her bill, deeply disturbed super-telepath (and former Stark inamorata) Marianne Rodgers is kicked out of the sanatorium that has been keeping her psionic deadly tendencies in check…

The fightback begins in ‘Triad! (Mantlo, Tuska & Esposito) after Stark initially refuses the help of Masque. Thus she instead allies with former lover/patsy Sitwell whilst elsewhere, interested parties Michael O’Brien and Jack of Hearts also seek to stop Midas converting Stark’s purloined resources into a world-conquering armed force. Also heading slowly towards a showdown, Marianne graduates towards Long Island, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake…

With ‘Every Hand Against Him!’ and despite the stakes being so high, Tony has quit forever, preferring to hide in his father’s old house with Madame Masque. Less sanguine over the crisis and National Security threat, many of Iron Man’s allies join a volunteer force recruited by psychic superhero The Wraith and eventually consisting of Police Captain Jean de Wolf, former Iron Man stand-in Eddie March, The Guardsman & Jack of Hearts, covertly backed up by Sitwell and (the first) Nick Fury…

Still short of power, they co-opt through blackmail, Masque’s lethal skills and Tony’s last remaining armour suit to take out Midas. ‘Then There Came a War!’ (#106) sees the squad invade SI to face a legion of automated Iron Men. At the height of battle Marianne Rodgers – in a fugue state – finally reaches her destination. As Keith Pollard & Fred Kida step in to illustrate the catastrophic conclusion, ‘And, in the End…’ sees her power tip the scales, uncovering even more treachery in Tony’s inner circle and inspiring the despondent hero to take back his heritage, his company and his honour…

With most of his allies apparently dead, Iron Man calls in Avenging ally Yellowjacket (AKA original Ant-Man Henry Pym) to help whip up a miracle cure in #108 (Mantlo, Carmine Infantino & Bob Wiacek). This incurs some ‘Growing Pains!’ and a palate-cleansing action-filled monster-bash as the clear-up somehow reactivates Kang the Conqueror’s devastating Growing Man android to add to the wreckage and rubble…

Once the fighting is finished, rebuilding Stark International begins, with Mantlo, Infantino & Kida dictating the pace prior to another crisis after Jack of Hearts traces the Growing Man’s programming commands as emanating from Luna. Thus Iron Man and his superhero apprentice board a Quinjet and experiences a very painful ‘Moonrise!’ when their mission intersects a secret sortie by Soviet Super-soldiers Darkstar, Vanguard & Crimson Dynamo. The Communist cosmonauts are only investigating a bizarre alien artefact, but entrenched political and personal animosities spark a savage clash. Both sides are preoccupied when the silver egg activates, transporting those closest to it – the Americans – to somewhere far, far away…

Mantlo, Pollard & Kida stretch their fantasy muscles in an astral epic as the heroes materialise aboard a vast ship bearing Colonizers of Rigel to their next conquest. Sadly, these ‘Sojourners Through Space!’ have targeted Wundagore II – used by animal-enhancing man-made deity the High Evolutionary to store former experiments – and are soon caught up in a battle against formidable space Knights of Wundagore and two devastating late-arriving, quickly escaping human captives within their colossal Command ship…

When an alliance of humans and hyper-evolved Earth beasts proves too costly, the Rigellian venture is called off in ‘The Man, the Metal, and the Mayhem!’  but this in turn leads to renegade Colonizer subcommander Arcturus spitefully targeting Earth with a robot stolen from Galactus (the original Punisher from Fantastic Four #48-50). Upon its despatch, closing instalment ‘Moon Wars!’ (IM #112, July 1978 by Mantlo, Pollard & Alfredo Alcala) sees a swift, unauthorised Colonizer strike prompt a desperate dash back to Luna and shattering descent to Detroit for Iron Man, resulting in blistering battle with the cosmic weapon of chastisement and a new definition of the word “invincible” for the triumphant Golden Avenger…

With Mantlo scripting, Pollard layout pages and Trimpe’s pencilling for inker Josef Rubinstein, Iron Man #113 trumpeted a fresh beginning for Stark International after defeating the bloody takeover bid of Mr Midas. However, as the new complex opened for business, an old enemy is already infiltrating the company whilst a more brazen assault comes after a dying foe is manipulated into attacking the complex using ‘The Horn of the Unicorn!’

Seeking help for the beaten-and-at-death’s door Unicorn, the Metal Marvel consults The Avengers and inadvertently triggers a second assault by the villain who also activates a long-interred robotic threat that seems agonisingly familiar in ‘The Menace of… Arsenal!’ (Mantlo, Giffen & Bruce D. Patterson) leading to a turning point moment you’ll need the next book or another collection to enjoy…

To Be Continued…

Here, however, one last narrative nubbin comes from Marvel Premiere #44 (October 1978): the one-shot try-out of Stark’s former apprentice, by Mantlo, Giffen & Rudy Nebres). ‘The Jack of Hearts!’ reexamines the origin of trust fund brat Jack Hart, who was inundated in the experimental “zero fluid” invented by his murdered father. Seemingly resurrected and imbued with incredible energy and computational powers, Jack hunts The Corporation who ordered the hit and here – thanks to new connection in S.H.I.E.L.D. – inconclusively clashes with their preferred hitman Hemlock…

With covers throughout by Jack Kirby, Al Milgrom, Abel, Ron Wilson, Dan Adkins, Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum, Sal Buscema, Jim Starlin, Val Mayerik, George Pérez, Terry Austin, Frank Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, Joe Rubinstein, John Byrne, Wiacek, Pollard, John Romta Jr., Ed Hannigan & Frank Giacoia, other extras include house ads, cartoon fan letter ‘Printed Circuits’ (by Fred Hembeck from #112); editorial pages and style sheets from Marvel Premiere #44 and original art covers by Starlin, Mayerik & Cockrum.

From our distant vantage point the polemical energy and impact might be dissipated, but the sheer quality of the comics and cool thrill of the eternal aspiration of man in perfect partnership with magic metal remains. These Fights ‘n’ Tights classics are amongst the most underrated but impressive tales of the period and are well worth your time, consideration and cold hard cash
© 2025 MARVEL.

You’d think we barely have room for a review this time as it’s such an auspicious day for comics…

In 1912 today creepy cartoon colossus Charles Addams was born, and in 1929 both Buck Rogers by Dick Calkins and Hal Foster’s Tarzan strips debuted. In 1934 Alex Raymond & Don Moore launched Jungle Jim and a year later combined it with new idea Flash Gordon.

Underground and Mad magazine artist Jay Lynch was born in 1945 and two years later Milton Caniff premiered his other masterpiece with the launch of Steve Canyon. That ran until 1988.

In 1953, Bob Wiacek joined the party as did Karl Kesel in 1959, and publisher Fabrice Giger (Les Humanoïdes Associés) arrived in 1965. Surely by coincidence, two years after, that nativity was followed by the launch of Greg & Eddie Paape’s Luc Orient in Le Journal de Tintin.

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Spirou and Fantasio volume 9: The Dictator and the Mushroom


By André Franquin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-267-6 (album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Another anniversary I just couldn’t leave unremarked upon. Deal with it. I’m old, morose and accursed with nostalgia.

André Franquin was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd 1924 and died on January 5th 1997. In between there were good times and bad, which he offset by creating the most incredible characters and stories, and by making people laugh and think – but mostly laugh. This is one of the very best you can find translated into English.

Adventure-seeking kid Spirou headlined the magazine he was named for from the first issue (dated April 21st 1938). He was created by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter using his pen-name Rob-Vel for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in direct response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin for rival outfit Casterman. Originally a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a sly reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique), his improbable exploits with pet squirrel Spip gradually grew into high-flying, far-reaching and surreal comedy dramas. That evolution was mainly thanks to Velter’s wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939 and Belgian artist assistant Luc Lafnet… at least until 1943 when Dupuis purchased all rights to the property, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (Jijé) took the helm.

Our interest really begins when Jijé handed his own trainee assistant complete responsibility for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriqué, (Le Journal de Spirou #427, June 20th 1946). Andre Franquin ran with it for two decades; enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as comrade/rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics the Count of Champignac.

Spirou and Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, travelling to exotic places, uncovering crimes, exploring the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Fantasio’s unsavoury cousin Zantafio. Incidentally, eerily-relevant The Dictator and the Mushroom features the second appearances of Zantafio and strong, capable, female (!) rival journalist Seccotine (renamed Cellophine for these English translations)…

Franquin, plagued in later life by bouts of depression, passed away in 1997 but his legacy remains; a vast body of work which reshaped the landscape of European comics.

Here then as originally serialised in LJdS #801-838, between 1953 and 1954 before subsequently being released on the continent in 1956 as hardcover album Spirou et Fantasio 7 – Le Dictateur et Le Champignon, this epic episode begins as globe-trotting troubleshooter Spirou and his short-tempered reporter pal Fantasio approach the isolated home of eccentric inventor Count Champignac. They are resolved to return the mischievous miracle monkey Marsupilami to its natural habitat in the jungles of Palombia…

Sadly, whilst they discuss their plan with the elderly savant, the mischievous monkey he’s been safeguarding swipes the inventor’s latest mycoprotein marvel and heads for town…

Champignac calls the gaseous form of his newest mushroom extract “metalsoft” and that’s exactly what the stuff does: reduce the solidity of iron, brass, bronze, tin or whatever to the consistency of hot wax. By the time the prankish primate has finished innocently playing with the pump dispenser, locals are in uproar and their village is practically a puddle…

With nobody in Europe objecting, the lads promptly book passage on a South America-bound cruise ship, where once again the elastic-tailed terror causes a cacophony of comedic chaos. Eventually, though, our increasingly irate and exhausted adventurers at last head in-country towards sleepy Palombia where a big surprise is waiting for them…

Thanks to Marsupilami, they are forced to travel the last ten miles to capital city Chiquito on foot and are astonished to observe the sheer number of military vehicles constantly overtaking them. In the city, an altercation with soldiers leads to their arrest and interview with new supreme dictator General Zantas. The meeting is both a huge shock and unhappy reunion…

Fantasio’s cousin Zantafio had been only a little mean and perhaps misguided when they were all first hunting for the Marsupilami, but since then has reinvented himself, graduating into a full-blown murderous megalomaniac. A cheap thug in a flashy uniform, he is determined to carve himself a bloody empire and vast wealth through the conquest of his national neighbours. Moreover, Zantafio/Zantas wants his countrymen and cousin to join him in the campaign of conquest, a horrific demand the reporters initially refuse.

Locked in jail, Spirou & Fantasio ponder how to stop the murderous scheme and realise the perfect counter to Zantas’ burgeoning war machine is Champignac’s Metalsoft. All they have to do is get a message to the inventor and have him send enough of the wonder stuff to destroy the ever-expanding army…

Thus they apparently switch sides and are soon installed as high ranking officers. Of course, Zantafio is no fool and sets his most cunning spy to watch them; just waiting for the moment when they betray themselves.

It’s not our heroes’ first rodeo either and, aware of their shadow, the lads engage in a prolonged and hilarious game of cat-&-mouse with the spook, all the while fretting that D-Day is approaching and they still haven’t been able to smuggle out a message…

A solution presents itself when go-getting journalist Cellophine makes contact. She’s been secretly covering the crisis for ages – without being caught like her mere male rivals – and offers to ferry the request for Metalsoft to Champignac ASAP…

Things aren’t all going Zantafio’s way. Even though weapons dealers are frantically auditioning their death-dealing wares for the General, Colonels Spirou & Fantasio are especially diligent and somehow able to find dangerous faults in everything on offer…

And then one night Cellophine sneaks back into Palombia with the secret weapon which will end Zantas’ dreams of empire…

Following a fantastical fight with the mushroom-gas-wielding trio battling an entire modern military, and a tense yet inconclusive showdown with Zantafio, peace and democracy break out and the boys finally complete their original mission. Having at last safely returned the Marsupilami to his natural wilderness, Spirou & Fantasio wearily head back to civilisation, content in the knowledge that the lovable little perisher is back where he belongs.

Of course, the pestilential primate has his own ideas on the matter…

Stuffed with superb slapstick situations, riotous chases and gallons of gags, but barely concealing a strongly satirical anti-war message, this exuberant yarn is a joyous example of angst-free action, thrills and spills. Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with beguiling style and seductively wholesome élan, this is an enduring comics treat from a long line of superb exploits, deserving to be as much a household name as that other kid reporter and his dog…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1956 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation 2015 © Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1941 mangaka/anime director Hayao Miyazaki (Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind) was born, and two years later so was street level/underground commix crafter Roger (Eerie, Tales of Sex and Death, Yellow Dog) Brand. In 1957 Brick Bradford cartoonist Clarence Gray died, as did André Franquin in 1997, and in 2000, master mangaka Goseki Kojima famed and missed for such wonders as Kozure Okami (Lone Wolf and Cub), Kubikiri Asa (Samurai Executioner) and Hanzo no Mon (Path of the Assassin).

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The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies volume 1 1936-1937


By Lee Falk & Ray Moore: introduction by Ron Goulart (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-932563-41-5 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are plenty of comics-significant anniversaries this year, and this guy is probably right at the top of the birthday cake. As next month sees his 90th anniversary here’s tasty reminder of why he is considered one of our industry’s landmark figures.

For such a long-lived, influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic novel collections, The Phantom has been very poorly served by the English language market (except in Australia where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god). Numerous companies have sought to collect the strips – one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history – but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success. At least the former issue began to be rectified with this initial curated collection from Archival specialists Hermes Press. This particular edition is a lovely large hardback (albeit also available in digital formats), printed in landscape format, displaying two days strip per page in black & white with ancillary features and articles in dazzling colour where required.

Born Leon Harrison Gross, Lee Falk created the Jungle Avenger at the request of his King Features Syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician. Although technically not the first ever costumed champion in comics, The Phantom’s instant popularity made him the prototype paladin as he was the first to wear a skin-tight body-stocking and have a mask with opaque eye-slits…

“The Ghost Who Walks” debuted on February 17th 1936 in an extended sequence pitting him against an ancient global confederation of pirates. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over illustration to artist Ray Moore. A spectacular and hugely influential Sunday feature began in May 1939. In a text feature stuffed with sumptuous visual goodies like movie posters; covers for comics, Feature and Little Big Books plus many kinds of merchandise, Ron Goulart’s eruditely enticing ‘Introduction: Enter the Ghost Who Walks’ tells all you need to know about the character’s creation before the vintage magic begins with ‘Chapter 1: The Singh Brotherhood’.

American adventurer Diane Palmer returns to the USA by sea, carrying a most valuable secret making her the target of mobsters, sleazy society ne’er-do-wells and exotic cultists. Thankfully, she seems to have also attracted an enigmatic guardian angel who calls himself the Phantom…

Successive attacks and assaults endanger the dashing debutante, and she learns an ancient brotherhood of ruthless piratical thieves wants her secret, but that they have been opposed for centuries by one man. Kidnapped and held hostage at the bottom of the sea, Diana is saved by the mystery man who naturally falls in love and eventually shares an incredible history with her…

In the 17th century a British sailor survived an attack by pirates, and – washing ashore on the African coast – swore on the skull of his murdered father to dedicate his life and that of his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the jungles of Bengali, and throughout Africa is known as the Ghost Who Walks. His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice have led to him being considered an immortal avenger by the credulous and the wicked. Down the decades, one hero after another has fought and died in an unbroken family line, and the latest wearer of the mask, indistinguishable from the first, continues the never-ending battle. And he’s looking to extend the line and the legend…

In the meantime, however, there’s the slight problem of Emperor of Evil Kabai Singh and his superstitious armies to deal with…

‘Chapter 2: The Sky Band’ (originally published from 9th November 1936 to April 10th 1937) finds the mystery avenger caught in love’s old game as a potential rival for Diana’s affections materialises in the rather stuffy form of career soldier Captain Meville Horton: a decent, honourable man who sadly knows when he’s outmatched, unwanted and in the way. Mistakenly determined to do the right thing too, our masked mystery man concentrates on destroying a squadron of thieving aviators targeting the burgeoning sky clipper trade: airborne bandits raiding passenger planes and airships throughout the orient. Initial efforts infuriatingly lead to the Phantom’s arrest: implicated in the sky pirates’ crimes, before escaping from police custody with the aid of his devoted “pygmy witch doctor” Guran and faithful Bandar tribe allies, he’s soon hot on the trail of the real mastermind…

Upon infiltrating their base, he discovers the airborne brigands are all women, and that his manly charms have driven a lethal wedge between the deadly commander and her ambitious second in command Sala…

A patient plaything of the manic Baroness, The Phantom eventually turns the tide not by force but by batting his invisible eyes and exerting his masculine wiles upon the hot-blooded – if certifiably psychopathic – harridan, unaware until too late that his own beloved, true-blue Diana is watching. When she then sets a trap for the Sky Band, it triggers civil war in the gang, a brutal clash with the British army and the seeming end of our hero, triggering Diana’s despondent decision to return alone to America…

‘Chapter 3: The Diamond Hunters’ opened on April 12th 1936 and revealed how the best laid plans can go awry. In Llongo territory, white prospectors Smiley and Hill unearth rich diamond fields but cannot convince or induce local tribes to grant them mineral rights to the gems they consider worthless. Like most indigenous Africans, they’re content to live comfortably under the “Phantom’s Peace” and it takes all the miners’ guile – including kidnapping a neighbouring chief’s daughter and framing the Llongo; gunrunning and claiming the Ghost Who Walks has died – to set the contented residents at each other’s throats. Recovering from wounds, the Phantom is slow to act, but when he does his actions are decisive and unforgettable…

With the plot foiled and peace restored, Smiley flees, only to encounter a returned Diana who has acted on news that her man still lives. Seeing a chance for revenge and profit, Smiley kidnaps “the Phantom’s girl”, provoking his being shunned by all who live in the region, a deadly pursuit and spectacular last-minute rescue. Smiley’s biggest and last mistake is reaching the coast and joining up with a band of seagoing pirates…

At least he is the catalyst for Diana and The Ghost finally addressing their romantic issues…

To Be Continued…

‘Afterword: For Those Who Came in Late…’ then sees editor Ed Rhoades offer his own thoughts on the strip’s achievements and accomplishments.

Stuffed with chases, assorted fights, torture, blood & thunder antics, daredevil stunts and many a misapprehension and coincidence – police and government authorities clearly having a hard time believing a pistol-packing masked man with a pet wolf might not be a bad egg – this a pure enthralling excitement that still packs a punch and plenty of sly laughs.
© 2010 King Features Syndicate, Inc.: ® Hearst Holdings, Inc.; reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Today in 1907, astounding illustrator Bruno (Doom Patrol, Teen Titans) Premiani was born, as was artist and inker Chic (Nemesis, Batman, all the best 1960s Thor, X-Men and FF stories) Stone in 1923.

In 1975 Archie co-creator Bob Montana died; and the day is infamous in the UK as the last day Buster was published. Kidding. Nobody noticed because we’d all stopped buying it. We are really sorry now though…