Category: Graphic Novels

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Sublife volume 2


By John Pham (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60699-309-5

After what feels like far too long, self-publishing wizard/minicomic genius John Pham and Fantagraphics Books have released the second volume of the twice-yearly series dedicated to the sheer expressive joy of pictorial storytelling in this modern, wonder-deprived world, and I must say (grudgingly) that it has been worth the wait.

This offering, once more crafted in an immaculately designed landscape-format tome, printed in quirky two-tone (orange and blue combined to produce a huge variety of colours welcomingly familiar to anybody who grew up reading British comics) features another series of seemingly unconnected tales linked more by sensibility and tone rather than content.

After a faux newspaper strip ‘Mort’ which examines the passions of a failed blogger, the main experience begins with a continuation of ‘Deep Space’ wherein extraordinarily pedestrian star-farers strive to find their way home: a beautifully rendered piece which reminds me of a wistful Philippe Druillet, before resuming the author’s exploration of the frankly peculiar residents of ‘221 Sycamore St.’ This time runaway teen Phineas sees a disturbing side to his cool uncles when they all go dog-training…

This leads into the anti-elegiac autobiographical memoir ‘St. Ambrose 1984-1988’ before the majority of the volume is taken up with ‘The Kid’, a practically wordless post-apocalyptic Science Fiction tale of scavenging and the price of love that is deeply reminiscent of – and respectful to – the movie Mad Max, with just a touch of A Boy and his Dog thrown in, all drawn in a pencil-toned style that is both deeply poignant and powerfully gripping.

The volume closes with the nostalgic one-pager ‘Socko Sarkissian’ a fond memoriam to baseball’s greatest fictional Armenian batsman.

Seductive, quietly compulsive, authentically plebeian and surreal by turns, John Pham’s work is abstract, symbol-stuffed and penetratingly real. He tells strange stories in comfortable ways and makes the bizarre commonplace without ever descending to histrionics: like a cosmic witness to everything you might or might not want to see.

If you’re tired of the comics mainstream but still love it too much to quit, you need to see these stories and refresh your visual palate. In fact, even if not, check out Sublife anyway, in case it’s your horizons not your tastes which need the attention…

© 2009 John Pham. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman Chronicles volume 7


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Leo Nowak, John Sikela (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-338-4

Due to the exigencies of periodical publishing, although the terrific tales collected in this seventh chronological recollection take the Man of Steel to December 1941, they were all prepared well in advance of Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbour.  Even though spies and sabotage plots were already a trusty part of the narrative currency of the times and many in America felt war was inevitable (patriotic covers were beginning to appear on many comic books), they were still a distant problem, impersonal and at one remove from daily life as experienced by the kids who were the perceived audience for these four-colour fantasies. That would change radically in the months to come…

For the meantime then here to enjoy are some of the last pre-war stories of the Man of Tomorrow taken from Action Comics #41-43, the bi-monthly Superman #12-13 and a tale from the quarterly World’s Finest Comics #4. Once again all the stories were scripted by Siegel, and as most stories of the time they were untitled these have been named post-hoc simply to provide differentiation and make my task simpler … As always every comic appearance is preceded by the original cover illustration, all from the increasingly inspired Fred Ray.

Leo Nowak was drawing most of the comic output at this time and is responsible for the lion’s share of these adventures, beginning with the first two from Superman #12 (September-October 1941). ‘Peril on Pogo Island’ found Lois and Clark at the mercy of rampaging tribesmen, although spies from a certain foreign power are at the back of it all, whilst ‘The Suicide Murders’ saw them facing a particularly grisly band of gangsters. John Sikela inked ‘The Grotak Bund’ wherein seditionists attempted to destroy vital US industries, and fully illustrated the final tale as an old foe reared his shiny head once more in ‘The Beasts of Luthor’, accompanied by a spectacular array of giant monsters.

Action Comics #41 (October 1941) ‘The Saboteur’, told a terse tale of a traitor motivated by greed rather than ideology, and ‘City in the Stratosphere’ (Action #42) revealed that a trouble-free paradise floating above Metropolis had been subverted by an old enemy, were both illustrated by Sikela, as Nowak laboured on the contents of Superman #13 (November-December 1941).

This issue led with ‘The Light’ and featured an old foe in a new super-scientific guise whilst ‘The Archer’ pitted the Man of Steel against his first true costumed villain. ‘Baby on the Doorstep’ took a rare opportunity for fun and the feel-good factor as Clark Kent became a temporary parent in a tale of stolen battle plans before ‘The City Beneath the Earth’ (by Sikela) returned to the serious business of action and spectacle when our hero discovered a subterranean kingdom lost since the Ice Age.

World’s Finest Comics #4 (Winter 1941) ‘The Case of the Crime Crusade’ was another socially relevant racketeering tale and the final story in this volume ‘The Crashing Planes’, from Action #43 (which actually has Superman attacking Nazi paratroopers on the cover) had the Man of Tomorrow smashing a plot to destroy a commercial airline.

Even though war was undeclared DC and many other publishers had struck their colours well before December 7th. When The Japanese attack filtered through to the gaudy pages the patriotic indignation and desire for retribution would generate some of the very best art and stories the budding art-form would ever see.

Stay tuned…

© 1941, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman Chronicles volume 8


By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-447-3

This eighth volume of chronological Batman yarns from the dawn of his career covers Batman #14-15, Detective Comics #71-74 and World’s Finest Comics #8-9, and once again features adventures produced during the scariest days of World War II.

It’s certainly no coincidence that many of these Golden Age treasures are also some of the best and most reprinted tales in the Batman canon, as lead writer Bill Finger was increasingly supplemented by the talents of Don Cameron, Jack Schiff and Joe Samachson and the Dynamic Duo became a hugely successful franchise. The war seemed to stimulate a peak of creativity and production, with everybody on the Home Front keen to do their bit – even if that was simply making kids of all ages forget their troubles for a brief while…

Cameron wrote all four stories in Batman #14 (December 1942-January 1943) which leads off this volume. ‘The Case Batman Failed to Solve’, (illustrated by Jerry Robinson) is a superb example of the sheer decency of the Caped Crusader as he fudges a mystery for the best possible reason, ‘Prescription for Happiness’ (with art by Bob Kane & Robinson), is a classic example of the human interest drama that used to typify Batman tales as a poor doctor discovers his own true worth, and ‘Swastika Over the White House!’ (Jack and Ray Burnley) is typical of the spy-busting action yarns that readers were gratuitously lapping up at the time. The final story ‘Bargains in Banditry!’ – also by the Burnley boys – is another canny crime caper featuring the Penguin.

Detective Comics #71 (January 1943, by Finger, Kane and Robinson) featured ‘A Crime a Day!’, one of the most memorable and thrilling Joker escapades of the period, whilst ‘Brothers in Law’ from the Winter 1942 World’s Finest Comics #8, by Schiff and the Burnleys, pitted Batman and Robin against a Napoleon of Crime and feuding siblings who had radically differing definitions of justice.

Detective Comics #72 by Samachson, Kane & Robinson, found our heroes crushing murderous con-men in ‘License for Larceny’ whilst Batman #15 (February-March 1943) lead with Schiff, Kane & Robinson’s Catwoman romp ‘Your Face is your Fortune!’ whilst Cameron and those Burnley boys introduced plucky homeless boy Bobby Deen ‘The Boy Who Wanted to be Robin!’ The same team created the powerful propaganda tale ‘The Two Futures’, which examined an America under Nazi subjugation and ‘The Loneliest Men in the World’ (Cameron Kane & Robinson) was – and still is – one of the very best Christmas Batman tales ever created; full of pathos, drama, fellow-feeling and action…

Cameron, Kane & Robinson went back to basics in Detective Comics #73 (March 1943) when ‘The Scarecrow Returns’, a moody chiller followed by the introduction of comical criminal psychopaths ‘Tweedledum and Tweedledee!’ in #74, and this volume concludes with the Batman portion of World’s Finest Comics #9 (Spring 1943) as Finger, Robinson & George Roussos recounted the saga of a criminal mastermind who invented the ‘Crime of the Month!’ scheme.

This wonderful series of Golden Age greats is one of my absolute favourite collected formats: paper that feels nostalgically like newsprint, vivid colours applied with a gracious acknowledgement of the power and limitations of the original four-colour printing process and the riotous exuberance of an industry in the first flush of success. These tales from the creators and characters at their absolute peak are even more readable now that I don’t have to worry about damaging an historical treasure simply by turning a page. I’m still praying that other companies with an extensive Golden Age back-catalogue like Marvel and Archie will follow suit.

© 1942, 1943, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman Chronicles volume 6


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Wayne Boring & the Shuster Shop (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-190-8

In comic book terms at least Superman was master of the world, and had already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry by the time of these tales. There was a popular newspaper strip, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio was producing some of the most expensive – and best – animated cartoons ever conceived. Thankfully the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release, and the energy and enthusiasm of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had infected the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

This sixth collection of the Man of Steel’s enthralling adventures – represented in the order they were originally released – takes us from summer to autumn 1941 via his appearances in Action Comics #37-40, the bi-monthly Superman #10-11 and his first two tales in the quarterly World’s Finest Comics #2-3. As always every comic appearance is preceded by the original cover illustration, another fine bunch of graphic masterpieces from Paul Cassidy and Fred Ray.

This volume all the stories are scripted by Siegel, (although like most stories of the time there were no original titles and these have been concocted simply to make my job a little easier…) and first up are four cracking yarns from Superman #10 (May/June 1941) ‘The Invisible Luthor’ (illustrated by Leo Nowak), ‘The Talent Agency Fraud’ (ditto), ‘The Spy Ring of Righab Bey’ and ‘The Dukalia Spy Ring’ (both by Wayne Boring & the shop), topical and exotic themes of suspense as America was still at this time still officially neutral in the “European war.”

Action Comics #37 (June 1941) returned to tales of graft, crime and social injustice in ‘Commissioner Kent’ (with art by Cassidy) as the timid alter-ego of the Man of Steel is forced to run for the job of top cop in Metropolis, and from World’s Finest Comics #2 (Summer 1941) comes Nowak & Cassidy’s ‘The Unknown X’, a fast-paced mystery of sinister murder-masterminds, whilst Action #38 provides ‘Radio Control’ (Nowak & Ed DoBrotka), a spectacular battle against a sinister hypnotist.

Superman #11 (July/August 1941) was an all Nowak affair, beginning with ‘Zimba’s Gold Badge Terrorists’, as thinly disguised Nazis “Blitzkrieg” America, “giant animals” go on a rampage in ‘The Corinthville Caper’, seeking a cure for ‘The Yellow Plague’ takes Superman to the ends of the Earth and ‘The Plot of Count Bergac’ finds him back home crushing High Society gangsters.

Horrific mad science was behind ‘The Radioactive Man’ (Action #39, by Nowak and the shop) whilst issue #40 featured John Sikela’s ‘The Billionaire’s Daughter’ wherein the mighty Man of Tomorrow needed all his wits to set straight a spoiled debutante, and this volume ends with ‘The Case of the Death Express’ a tense thriller about train-wreckers illustrated by Nowak from the Fall issue of World’s Finest Comics (#3).

Stories of corruption and social injustice gradually gave way to 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, and Shuster and his team stretched and expanded the iconography that all others would follow.

These Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price. How can you possibly resist them?

© 1941, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold Batman Team-ups Volume 1


By Bob Haney, Neal Adams & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1209-4

The Brave and the Bold began in 1955 as an anthology adventure comic featuring short complete tales about a variety of period heroes: a format that mirrored the contemporary movie fascination with historical dramas. Written by Bob Kanigher issue #1 led with Golden Gladiator, the Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’s now legendary Viking Prince. From #5 the Gladiator was increasingly alternated with Robin Hood, but the adventure format carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning costumed character revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle like Showcase.

Issue #25 (August-September 1959) featured the debut of Task Force X: the Suicide Squad, followed by Justice League of America (#28), Cave Carson (#31), Hawkman (#34), and since only the JLA hit the first time out, there were return engagements for the Squad, Carson and Hawkman. Something truly different appeared in #45-49 with the science fictional Strange Sports Stories, before Brave and the Bold #50 provided a new concept that once again truly caught the reader’s imagination.

That issue paired two superheroes – Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter – in a one-off team-up, as did succeeding issues: Aquaman and Hawkman in #51, WWII Battle Stars Sgt Rock, Captain Cloud, Mme. Marie and the Haunted Tank in #52 and Atom and Flash in #53. The next team-up, Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash, evolved rapidly into the Teen Titans. After Metal Men/the Atom and Flash/Martian Manhunter a new hero, Metamorpho, the Element Man debuted in #57-58. Then it was back to superhero pairings with #59, and although no one realised it at the time this particular conjunction, Batman with Green Lantern would be particularly significant.

After a return engagement for the Teen Titans in #60, the next two issues highlighted Earth-2 champions Starman and Black Canary, whilst Wonder Woman met Supergirl in #63. Then, in an indication of things to come, and in acknowledgement of the TV induced mania mere months away Batman duelled hero/villain Eclipso in #64. Within two issues, following Flash/Doom Patrol (#65) and Metamorpho/Metal Men (#66) Brave and the Bold #67 saw the Caped Crusader take de facto control of the title, and the lion’s share of the team-ups. With the exception of #72-73 (Spectre/the Flash and Aquaman/Atom) the comic was henceforth to be a place where Batman invited the rest of company’s heroic pantheon to come and play…

This first collection of Batman’s pairing with other luminaries of the DC universe (reprinting B&B #59, 64, 67-71 and 74-87) features the last vestiges of a continuity-reduced DC where individual story needs were seldom submerged into a cohesive overarching scenario, with writer Bob Haney crafting stories that were meant to be read in isolation, and drawn by a huge variety of artists with only one goal: entertainment.

The Brave and the Bold #59 (April-May 1965, illustrated by Ramona Fradon and Charles Paris) found Batman and Green Lantern reliving the plot of the Count of Monte Cristo as they resisted ‘The Tick-Tock Traps of the Time Commander!’ whilst a long-lost romantic interest brought the Caped Crusader into conflict with criminal combine Cyclops in ‘Batman versus Eclipso’ (#64, February-March 1966, illustrated by the great Win Mortimer).

‘The Death of the Flash’ in #67 (August-September 1966) was a terse high-speed thriller drawn with flair by Carmine Infantino and Charles Paris, and the next issue, with visuals from Mikes Sekowsky and Esposito, offered one of the oddest tales in DC’s long history as Metamorpho had to defeat a Gotham Guardian mutated into a vicious monster in ‘Alias the Bat-Hulk!’

Win Mortimer returned to illustrate Batman, Green Lantern and the Time Commander’s fractious reunion in #69’s ‘War of the Cosmic Avenger’ whilst Hawkman’s first Bat team-up ‘Cancelled: 2 Super-heroes!’ pitted the pair against a secret identity collector in a quirky tale with art by Johnny Craig and Chuck Cuidera, and Green Arrow, drawn by his Golden Age illustrator George Papp, helped Batman survive ‘The Wrath of the Thunderbird!’

After the aforementioned hiatus the Caped Crime-crusher took full possession of Brave and the Bold with #74’s fast-paced and funny ‘Rampant Run the Robots’ as the Metal Men tackled prejudice and evil inventors and in #75 The Spectre joined the Dark Knight to free Gotham City’s Chinatown from ‘The Grasp of Shahn-Zi!’ both tales drawn by the new semi-regular art team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.

Drawn by Sekowsky and Jack Abel, Plastic Man helped solve the mystery of The Molder in #76’s ‘Doom, What is Thy Shape?’ Andru and Esposito illustrated the Atom’s exploits in ‘So Thunders the Cannoneer!’ and Bob Brown stepped in to draw ‘In the Coils of the Copperhead’ wherein Wonder Woman found herself vying with the newly-minted Batgirl for Batman’s affections. Of course it was all a cunning plan… wasn’t it?

Neal Adams was a young illustrator who had worked in advertising and ghosted some newspaper strips whilst trying to break into comics. With #75 he had become a cover artist for B&B, and with #79 (August-September 1968) he took over the interior art for a groundbreaking run that rewrote the rulebook for strip illustration. ‘The Track of the Hook’ paired the Dark Knight Detective with the justice-obsessed Deadman: murdered trapeze artist Boston Brand  who was hunting his own killer, and whose earthy, human tragedy elevated the series’ costume theatrics into deeper, more mature realms of drama and action. The stories aged ten years overnight and instantly became every discerning fan’s favourite read.

‘And Hellgrammite is his Name’ found Batman and the Creeper battling an insect-themed super-hitman, and the Flash aided the Caped Crusader defeat an unbeatable thug in ‘But Bork Can Hurt You!’ (both inked by Dick Giordano) whilst Aquaman became ‘The Sleepwalker from the Sea’ in an eerie tale of mind-control and sibling rivalry.

Issue # 83 took a radical turn as the Teen Titans tried to save Bruce Wayne’s latest foster-son from his own inner demons in ‘Punish Not my Evil Son!’ but the next team-up was one that got many fans in a real tizzy in 1969. ‘The Angel, the Rock and the Cowl’ recounted a World War II exploit where Batman and Sgt. Rock of Easy Company hunted Nazi gold together, only closing the case twenty-five years later. Ignoring the kvetching about relative ages and which Earth we’re on, you should focus on the fact that this is a startlingly gripping tale of great intensity, beautifully realised, and one which has been criminally discounted for decades as “non-canonical”.

Brave and the Bold #85 is arguably the best of an incredible run. ‘The Senator’s Been Shot!’ reunited Batman and Green Arrow in a superb multi-layered thriller of politics, corruption and cast-iron integrity, wherein Bruce Wayne became a stand-in for a law-maker and the Emerald Archer got a radical make-over that turned him into the fiery liberal gadfly champion of the relevancy generation.

Boston Brand returned in #86, as Batman found ‘You Can’t Hide from a ‘Deadman!’ in a captivating epic of death, redemption and resurrection that became a cornerstone of Bat-mythology for the next three decades, and this spellbinding black and white collection of classic confrontations concludes with a decidedly different adventure written and drawn by Mike Sekowsky and starring the venerable comics icon he had made fresh and exciting all over again.

Entitled ‘The Widow-Maker’, it tells of the son of one of Batman’s foes who attempts to add to his tally of motoring murders by luring the Caped Crusader into a rigged high performance car race until Diana Prince, once and future Wonder Woman, steps in…

By taking his cues from news headlines, popular films and proven genre-sources, Bob Haney produced gripping adventures that thrilled and enticed with no need for more than a cursory nod to an ever-more onerous continuity. Anybody could pick up one of his concoctions and be sucked into a world of wonder. Consequently those tales are just as fresh and welcoming today, their themes and premises as immediate now as then and the glorious variety of artists involved still proves a constant source of joy and wonder. Here is a Bat-book literally everybody can enjoy.

© 1965-1970, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Justice League of America volume 3: The Injustice League


By Dwayne McDuffie, Ed Benes, Mike McKone, Joe Benitez & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-84576-887-4

The third volume of the latest Justice League of America incarnation (collecting the JLA Wedding Special and issues #13-16 of the monthly comic) starts with a light touch as the heroes prepare various events for the upcoming nuptials of team leader Black Canary and her long time beau (sorry, I simply couldn’t stop myself) Green Arrow, but tragedy and death are lurking as a team of villains ambushes and nearly kills new hero Firestorm…

Following the events of Infinite Crisis, One Year Later and 52, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman convened as a star-chamber to reform the JLA as a force for good, and now in an eerie echo of that event Lex Luthor, the Joker and the Cheetah similarly sift the ranks of bad-guys looking to build a perfect team to destroy the World’s Greatest Superheroes…

One by one the heroes are picked off and of course things look darkest before the dawn but in most of the ways that matter this is a good old fashioned yarn given a shiny gloss of modern angst and sophistication, wrapped in the sort of bombastic action that modern readers thrive on, so you know all will end well and with terrific style.

Writer Dwayne McDuffie and rotating art teams Mike McKone & Andy Lanning, Joe Benitez & Victor Llamas and Ed Benes & Sandra Hope have concocted the kind of fights ‘n’ tights tale that kids of all ages live for, and the book also includes two short pieces to balance the action and drama.

‘A Slight Tangent’ by McDuffie, Benitez & Llamas, is a teaser to a larger, and presumably forthcoming, crossover between the League and their namesakes from the Tangent Universe (for which see also Tangent Comics volumes 1 and 2) and the book closes with the delightful character piece ‘Soup Kitchen’ wherein Red Arrow sees another kind of Christmas cheer courtesy of a sad old villain and creative team Alan Burnett and Allan Jefferson.

It’s always easy to work on a book with loads of media push and high concept momentum, but the real test is to soldier on when the spotlight turns elsewhere. With the quality of solid tale-telling on view here JLA addicts and fans of great reading clearly don’t have too much to worry about.

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Misadventures of Jane


By Norman Pett & J.H.G. (“Don”) Freeman (Titian Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-167-0

Jane is one of the most important and well-regarded comic strips in British, if not World, history. It debuted on December 5th 1932 as Jane’s Journal: or The Diary of a Bright Young Thing, a frothy, frivolous gag-a-day strip in the Daily Mirror, created by (then) freelance cartoonist Norman Pett.

Originally a comedic vehicle, it consisted of a series of panels with cursive script embedded within to simulate a diary page. It switched to the more formal strip frames and balloons in late 1938, when scripter Don Freeman came on board and Mirror Group supremo Harry Guy Bartholomew was looking to renovate the serial for a more adventure- and escape-hungry audience. It was also felt that a continuity feature such as Freeman’s other strip Pip, Squeak and Wilfred would keep readers coming back – as if Jane’s inevitable – if usually unplanned – bouts of near nudity wouldn’t…

Jane’s secret was skin. Even before war broke out there were torn skirts and lost blouses aplenty, but once the shooting started and Jane became an operative for British Intelligence her clothes came off with terrifying regularity and machine gun rapidity. She even went topless when the Blitz was at its worst.

Pett drew the strip with verve and style, imparting a uniquely English family feel: a joyous innocence and lack of tawdriness. He worked from models and life, famously using first his wife, his secretary Betty Burton, editorial assistant Doris Keay but most famously actress and model Chrystabel Leighton-Porter until May 1948 when Pett left for another newspaper and another clothing-challenged comic star.

His art assistant Michael Hubbard assumed full control of the feature (prior to that he had drawn backgrounds and male characters), and carried the series, increasingly a safe, flesh-free soap-opera and less a racy glamour strip, to its conclusion on October 10th 1959.

Now Titan Books have added the saucy secret weapon to their growing arsenal of classic British comics and strips, and paid her the respect she deserves with a snappy black and white hardcover collection, complete with colour inserts.

Following a fascinating and informative article taken from Canadian paper The Maple Leaf (which disseminated her adventures to returning ANZAC servicemen), Jane’s last two war stories (running from May 1944 to June 1945) are reprinted in their entirety, beginning with ‘N.A.A.F.I, Say Die!’ wherein the hapless but ever-so-effective intelligence agent is posted to a British Army base where somebody’s wagging tongue is letting pre “D-Day” secrets out and only Jane and her new sidekick and best friend Dinah Tate can stop the rot.

This is promptly followed by ‘Behind the Front’ wherein Jan and Dinah invade the continent tracking down spies, collaborators and boyfriends in Paris before joining a ENSA concert party, accidentally invading Germany just as the Russians arrive.

The comedy is based on musical hall fundamentals and the drama and action are right out of the patriotic and comedy cinema of the day (as you’d expect: but if you’ve ever seen Will Hay, Alistair Sim or Arthur Askey at their peak you’ll know that’s no bad thing) and this book also contains a lot of rare goodies to drool over.

Jane was so popular that there were three glamour/style books called Jane’s Journal for which Pett produced many full-colour pin-ups, paintings and general cheese-cake illustration. From these this book includes ‘The Perfect Model’ a strip “revealing” how the artist met his muse Chrystabel Leighton-Porter, ‘Caravanseraglio!’, an eight page strip starring Jane and erring, recurring boyfriend Georgie Porgie and 15 pages of the very best partially and un-draped Jane pin-ups.

Jane’s war record is frankly astounding. As a morale booster she was reckoned worth more than divisions of infantry and her exploits were cited in Parliament and discussed by Eisenhower and Churchill. Legend has it that TheMirror‘s Editor was among the few who knew the date of “D-Day” so as to co-ordinate her exploits with the Normandy landings. In 1944, on the day she went full frontal, the American Service newspaper Roundup (provided to US soldiers) went with the headline “JANE GIVES ALL” and the sub-heading “YOU CAN ALL GO HOME NOW”. Chrystabel Leighton-Porter toured as Jane in a services revue – she stripped for the boys – during the war and in 1949 starred in the film The Adventures of Jane.

Although the product of simpler, though certainly more hazardous, times, the charming, thrilling, innocently saucy adventures of Jane, patient but dedicated beau Georgie Porgie and especially her intrepid Dachshund Count Fritz Von Pumpernickel are landmarks of the art-form, not simply for their impact but also for the plain and simple reason that they are superbly drawn and huge fun to read.

After years of neglect, don’t let’s waste the opportunity to keep such a historical icon in our lives. You should buy this book, buy your friends this book, and most importantly, agitate to have her entire splendid run reprinted in more books like this one. Do your duty lads and lassies…

Jane © 2009 MGN Ltd/Mirrorpix. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: The Man of Steel volume 3


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0246-2

With John Byrne’s controversial reboot of the world’s first superhero a solid hit, the collaborative teams tasked with ensuring his continued success really hit their stride with the tales collected in this third volume. Re-presenting Superman #4-6, Action #587-589 and Adventures of Superman #427-429 the drama began with an all-out battle against the deranged gunman ‘Bloodsport!’ courtesy of Byrne and Karl Kesel, before Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway concocted a longer yarn taking the Man of Tomorrow on a punishing visit to the rogue state of Qurac and a hidden race of alien telepaths called the Circle, in a visceral and beautiful tale of un-realpolitik.

‘Mind Games’ and ‘Personal Best’ (Adventures of Superman #427-428) combined a much more relevant, realistic slant with lots of character sub-plots featuring the staff of the Daily Planet whilst Byrne in Action Comics concentrated on spectacle and reader appeal. ‘Cityscape!’ in #587, teamed the Metropolis Marvel with Jack Kirby’s Etrigan the Demon as sorceress Morgaine Le Fay attempted to gain immortality by warping time itself.

‘The Mummy Strikes’ and ‘The Last Five Hundred’ (Byrne and Kesel, Superman #5-6) introduced the first hint of a romance between the Man of Steel and Wonder Woman before Lois and Clark became embroiled in an extraterrestrial invasion drama that all started half a million years ago, and in ‘Old Ties’ (Superman #6) Wolfman and Ordway revealed the catastrophic results of the Circle transferring their attentions to Metropolis.

This book concludes with a cosmic saga from Action Comics #588-589 as Byrne and Dick Giordano teamed the Caped Kryptonian with Hawkman and Hawkwoman in ‘All Wars Must End’, an epic battle against Thanagarian invaders before the Green Lantern Corps rescued the star-lost Superman in ‘Green on Green’ just in time to join forces with him to destroy an unstoppable planet-eating beast.

The back-to-basics approach lured many readers to – and back to – the Superman franchise, but the sheer quality of the stories and art are certainly what convinced them to stay. Such cracking superhero tales are a high point in the Man of Tomorrow’s decades-long career, and these chronological-release collections are certainly the easiest way to enjoy this impressive reinvention of the ultimate comic-book icon.

© 1987, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Fantastic Four versus the X-Men


By Chris Claremont, John Bogdanove & Terry Austin (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-650-3

Here’s a good solid yarn from simpler times which serves as the perfect introduction to two fully developed franchises, but still won’t leave you reeling under an avalanche of new names and concepts. Originally released as a four issue miniseries in 1987, this intriguing mystery looks deep into the character of possibly the oldest character in the Marvel universe and turns its most trusted hero into a potential monster.

Everybody knows that Reed Richards is the smartest man on the planet, and how he took his three most trusted companions on a trip into space. Once there the ever-present cosmic rays mutated the quartet into the super-powered freaks now known as the Fantastic Four. How could such a colossal intellect forget something as basic as radiation shielding?

This tale takes place at a time when the mutant heroes and public fugitives called X-Men are being led by Magneto, and is the culmination to a story-arc where young Kitty Pryde is dying: her ability to pass through matter out of control and her body gradually drifting to unconnected atoms.

When Sue Richards finds an old journal belonging to her husband the trust and loyalty that bind the FF together is shattered. The book reveals that the younger Reed had in fact deduced the transformative power of cosmic rays and manufactured the entire incident to create a team of super-warriors. All the years of misery and danger have been a deliberate, calculated scheme by a ruthless mind that could only see life in terms of goals and outcomes.

When the X-Men bring their medical emergency to the FF, Reed, protesting his innocence to a family and team who no longer trust him and with his confidence shattered, falters. He knows that he didn’t plan to mutate his team, but he did make a mistake that altered their lives forever. What if he makes another blunder with Pryde’s cure?

And then Doctor Doom steps in…

This is a superb adventure stuffed with guest-stars that moves beyond gaudy costumes and powers to display the core humanity of Reed Richards and the true depths of evil his greatest enemy can sink to. As an example of sensitive character writing it has few equals and the stylish illustration of Jon Bogdanove is captivating to behold. Long overdue for reprinting this is a tale for all drama lovers, not just the fights ‘n’ tights crowd.
© 1987, 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA: Zatanna’s Search


By Gardner Fox & various (DC Comics/Titan Books)
ISBN: 1-4012-0188-1

With Julius Schwartz and John Broome writer extraordinaire Gardner Fox built the Silver Age of comics and laid the foundations of the modern DC universe. He was also a canny innovator and one of the earliest proponents of extended storylines which have since become so familiar to us as “braided crossovers.”

A qualified lawyer, Fox began his comics career in the Golden Age on major and minor features, working in every genre and for most companies. One of the B-list strips he scripted was Zatara; a magician-hero in the Mandrake mould who had fought evil and astounded audiences in the pages of Action and World’s Finest Comics for over a decade, beginning with the very first issues (to be completely accurate the latter’s premiere performance was entitled World’s Best Comics #1, but whatever the book’s name, the top-hatted and tailed trickster was there…)

Zatara fell from favour at the end of the 1940s and faded from memory like so many outlandish crime-crushers. In 1956 Editor Schwartz reinvented the superhero genre and reintroduced costumed characters based on the company’s past pantheon. Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom were refitted for the sleek, scientific atomic age, and later their legendary predecessors were reincarnated and returned as denizens of an alternate Earth.

As the experiment became a trend and then inexorable policy, surviving heroes such as Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Aquaman and Wonder Woman were retrofitted to match the new world order. The Superhero was back and the public appetite seemed inexhaustible.

For their next trick Fox and Schwartz turned to the magician and presumably found him wanting. Rather than condemn him to Earth-2 they created the first “legacy hero” by having Zatara vanish from sight and introduced his daughter, set on a far-reaching quest to find him. Zatanna debuted in Hawkman #4 (October-November 1964) illustrated by the great Murphy Anderson in a tale entitled ‘The Girl who Split in Two’.

Following a mystical trail and wearing a variation of Zatara’s garb the plucky but impatient lass had divided her body and travelled simultaneously to Ireland and China, but lapsed into paralysis until Hawkman and Hawkgirl answered her distress call.

Although nobody knew it at the time she appeared next as a villain in Detective Comics #336 (February 1965). ‘Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare’ found a broom-riding old crone attacking the Dynamic Duo at the command of mutant super-threat The Outsider in a stirring yarn drawn by Bob Kane and Joe Giella.

Current opinion is that this wasn’t originally intended as part of the epic, but when the quest was resolved in Justice League of America #51 at the height of TV inspired “Batmania” a very slick piece of back writing was necessary to bring the high-profile Caped Crusader into the storyline.

Gil Kane and Sid Greene illustrated the next two chapters in the saga; firstly in ‘World of the Magic Atom’ (Atom #19, June-July 1965), wherein the Mystic Maid and Tiny Titan battled Zatara’s old nemesis the Druid in the microversal world of Catamoore, and then with Green Lantern in an extra-dimensional realm on ‘The Other Side of the World!’ (Green Lantern #42, January 1966), as the malevolent Warlock of Ys was eventually compelled to reveal further clues in the trail.

The Elongated Man was a long-running back-up feature in Detective Comics, and from #355 (September 1966, pencilled and inked by Carmine Infantino) ‘The Tantalizing Trouble of the Tripod Thieves!’ revealed how the search for a stolen eldritch artefact brought the young sorceress closer to her goal, and the search concluded in spectacular fashion with the aforementioned JLA tale ‘Z – As in Zatanna – and Zero Hour!’ (#51, February 1967).

With art from the unmatchable team of Mike Sekowsky and Sid Greene, all the heroes who aided her are transported to another plane to fight in a classic battle of good versus evil, with plenty of cunning surprises for all and a happy ending at the end. Collected here is a triumphant long-running experiment in continuity that is one of the very best adventures of the Silver Age, featuring some of the period’s greatest creators at the peak of their powers.

This slim volume also has an encore in store: after the cover gallery is a never before reprinted 10 page tale ‘The Secret Spell!’ by Gerry Conway, Romeo Tanghal and Vince Colletta, originally seen in DC Blue Ribbon Digest #5 (November-December 1980) which revealed ‘Secret Origins of Super-Heroes’ and explores the hidden history of both father and daughter in a snappy, informative and inclusive manner.

Although a little hard to find now this is a superlative book for fans of costumed heroes and would also make a wonderful tome to introduce newcomers to the genre.

© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1980, 2004 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.