Category: Graphic Novels

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck & various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-1862-4

The concept of putting all your star eggs in one basket was not new when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby took a bunch of the new super-characters of the burgeoning Marvel Universe and combined them as a force for justice and high sales, but seldom has it ever been done with such style and sheer exuberance. Cover dated September 1963 the Avengers #1 launched as an expansion package with two other titles, Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos and the X-Men, but with the advantage of a familiar if not totally successful cast.

‘The Coming of the Avengers’ is one of the cannier origin tales in comics. Instead of starting at a zero point and acting as if the reader knew nothing, creators Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers assumed that they had a least a passing familiarity with Marvel’s other titles, and wasted very little time or energy on introductions.

In Asgard Loki, god of evil, is imprisoned on a dank islet but still craves vengeance on his half brother the Mighty Thor. Observing Earth he finds the monstrous Hulk and engineers a situation wherein the man-brute goes on a rampage, the better to trick the Thunder God into battling the monster. When the Hulk’s sidekick Rick Jones radios the Fantastic Four for assistance Loki diverts the transmission so they cannot hear it and expects his mischief to quickly blossom. However other heroes do pick up the SOS – namely Iron Man, Ant Man and the Wasp.

As the heroes converge to search for the Hulk they realize that something’s amiss…

This terse and compelling yarn is Lee and Kirby at their bombastic best, and one of the greatest stories of the Silver Age (it’s certainly high in my own top ten Marvel Tales of all time!) and is followed by ‘the Space Phantom’ by Lee, Kirby and Paul Reinman, another classic, in which an alien shape-stealer almost destroys the team from within. Ever-changing, the tale ends with the volatile Hulk quitting the team only to return in #3 as the villain in partnership with ‘Sub-Mariner!’ This globe-trotting romp delivered high energy thrills and one of the best battle scenes in comics history.

Avengers #4 was a true landmark as Marvel’s biggest sensation of the Golden Age was revived. ‘Captain America joins the Avengers!’ has everything that made the company’s early tales so fresh and vital. The majesty of a legendary warrior returned in our time of greatest need, stark tragedy in the loss of his boon companion Bucky, aliens, gangsters, Sub-Mariner and even wry social commentary – this one’s on the list too.

‘The Invasion of the Lava Men’ was another brilliant tale as the team battled superhuman subterraneans and an incredible mutating mountain with the unwilling assistance of the Hulk, but it paled before the supreme shift in quality that was #6.

Chic Stone – possibly Kirby’s best Marvel inker – joined the team just as a classic arch–foe debuted. ‘The Masters of Evil!’ called Nazi super-scientist Baron Zemo out of the South American jungles he’d been skulking in to strike at his hated foe Captain America. To this end the villain recruited a gang of super-foes to attack New York and destroy the Avengers. The unforgettable clash between our heroes and Radioactive Man, Black Knight and the Melter is unsurpassed magic to this day!

Issue #7 followed up with two more malevolent recruits as the Enchantress and the Executioner joined Zemo just as Iron Man was suspended from the team due to misconduct occurring in his own series (this was the dawn of the close continuity era where events in one series were referenced and even built upon in others). That may have been ‘Their Darkest Hour!’ but Avengers #8 held the greatest triumph and tragedy as Jack Kirby relinquished his drawing role with the superb invasion-from-time thriller that introduced ‘Kang the Conqueror’ (inked with fitting circularity by Dick Ayers).

The Avengers was an entirely different package when the subtle humanity of Don Heck’s work replaced the larger-than-life bravura of Kirby. The series had rapidly advanced to monthly circulation and even The King could not draw the huge number of pages his workload demanded. Heck was a gifted and trusted artist with a formidable record for meeting deadlines and, under his pencil, sub-plots and character interplay finally got as much space as action and spectacle.

His first outing was the memorable tragedy ‘The Coming of the Wonder Man!’ (inked by Ayers) wherein the Masters of Evil planted a superhuman Trojan Horse within the ranks of the heroes and next issue the master of time Immortus was responsible when ‘The Avengers Break Up!’

After a glorious Kirby Captain America pin-up the wonderment herein contained continues with #11 with ‘The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man!’, a tale inked by Chic Stone and featuring the return of Kang the Conqueror. Kang’s pin-up is by Heck and precedes a cracking end-of-the-world thriller with guest Fantastic Four villains Mole Man and the Red Ghost. ‘This Hostage Earth!‘ is followed by a rare gangster drama that introduced another major bad-guy in #13’s ‘The Castle of Count Nefaria!’– ending on a tragic cliffhanger as the Wasp was left gunshot and dying…

Issue #14 told how ‘Even an Avenger Can Die!’ – although of course she didn’t – in a classy alien invader tale laid out by Kirby and drawn by Heck and Stone which whetted the appetite for a classic climactic confrontation as the team finally dealt with the Masters of Evil and Cap finally laid to rest the ghost of his dead partner.

‘Now by My Hand, Shall Die a Villain!’ and the concluding episode ‘The Old Order Changeth!’ (issues #15 and 16) by Lee, Kirby, Heck, Mike Esposito and Ayers changed the set-up completely as all the big names were replaced by three erstwhile villains: Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Led by the old war-horse Captain America, this relatively powerless group with no outside titles to divide the attention could become another squabbling family of neuroses and sub-plots; a formula that readers of the time could not get enough of.

Acting on advice from the departing Iron Man the neophytes seek to recruit the Hulk to add some raw power to the team, only to encounter the Mole Man in #17’s ‘Four Against the Minotaur!’ by Lee, Heck and Ayers, and fall foul of a dastardly “commie” plot ‘When the Commissar Commands!’ These less than stellar tales are followed by an ever-improving run of mini-masterpieces that begins with a two part gem that provides an origin for Hawkeye and introduces a favourite hero/villain.

‘The Coming of the Swordsman!’ by the regular team of Lee, Heck and Ayers is followed by the superb ‘Vengeance is Ours!’ inked by the one-and-only Wally Wood and featuring the Avengers debut of another unforgettable mastermind.

Without pausing for creative breath, #21 launched another big-name villain in the form of Power Man in ‘The Bitter Dregs of Defeat!’ whose diabolical plan with the evil Enchantress was only narrowly foiled in the concluding ‘The Road Back.’

A two part Kang tale follows as the team is shanghaied into the far-future to battle against and with the Master of Time. Avengers #23 (incidentally, my vote for the best cover Jack Kirby ever drew) ‘Once an Avenger…’ is inked by the wonderful John Romita (senior) and the yarn and this volume concludes with the epic ‘From the Ashes of Defeat!’ by Lee, Heck and Ayers.

Page for page this is one of the best comicbook compilations ever produced. Riveting tales of action and adventure, a charismatic blend of established and new characters and some of the best illustrated narrative in Marvel’s history makes this economical black and white tome one of the best comics collections you could ever buy. So why don’t you?

© 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By John Pham (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56097-946-3

Self-publishing wizard and minicomic genius John Pham has joined with the wonderfully progressive Fantagraphics to release the first volume in a proposed twice-a-year book series dedicated to the sheer joy of pictorial storytelling in our modern, miracle-free world, which any adult fan just won’t be able to resist.

This initial offering, a sublimely designed landscape-format tome printed in quirky two-tone (Magenta and Cyan combined to produce a huge variety of colours welcomingly familiar to anybody who grew up reading Beano or Dandy) features a series of intertwined tales featuring the odd denizens of ‘221 Sycamore St.’

Poignant and surreal by turns, the lives of exhausted ‘Mildred Lee’, dubious stud ‘Vrej Sarkissian’, the tragic and disturbing religious studies teacher ‘Hubie Winters’ and those guys ‘Los Hermanos Macdonald’ are a captivating and laconic examination of the kind of people you probably wouldn’t like or make time for…

The silent, deadly pantomime of the house cat seeking safety outside is worth the price of admission alone, but when the abstract and symbol-stuffed existences on display here shuffle into your head and just sit there twitching, you too will wonder how you ever got on without this creator on your “must-read” list.

© 2008 John Pham. All Rights Reserved.

By Dean Young & Rick Marschall (Arthur Barker Limited)
ISBN: 0-203-16830-8

Blondie was for decades the most popular – for which read most commercially successful – newspaper strip in the world. She and her hapless husband Dagwood celebrated 75 years of publication in 2005 and are still going strong today both in print and online. In 1981 this fabulously inclusive and authoritative anniversary compilation was released, and I’m starting early in my campaign to commemorate their 80th – in autumn 2010 – by agitating for its revision and re-release.

The strip was created by Murat Bernard “Chic” Young and handled by King Features Syndicate. It launched on September 8, 1930, the result of a startling game of one-upmanship between Young and King’s general manager Joe Connolly.

A success with the flapper strip Beautiful Bab, Young followed up with the hit Dumb Dora in 1924. He was on a fast track to stardom when the stock market crash wiped out his savings in 1929. Broke and with a new bride, he wanted a new contract for a new feature that he owned and controlled.

Understandably the management had other ideas, but when the artist packed up and took ship for Paris Connelly caved and Blondie was born. She was an instant sensation, spawning 28 movies (1938-1950) starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake, who also voiced a radio show (1939-1950) as well as three TV series in 1954, 1958 and 1968-69. The comicbook adventures from Harvey, King and Charlton ran for decades…

In the early days tension was high as the wealthy Dagwood family tried to stop their idiot scion from marrying a low, common blonde, but in 1933, disinherited but happy, they finally wed and the real magic of this everyday family comedy began.

Chic Young drew Blondie until his death in 1973, when his son Dean took over. He has worked with many artists on the strip, including Jim Raymond, Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun and most recently, John Marshall. Through it all, Blondie has remained uncannily popular, appearing in more than 2,300 newspapers in 55 countries, translated into 35 languages. Chic Young won the Reuben Award in 1948 for the strip and in 1995 the strip was honoured as one of twenty selected as part of the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative US Postage Stamps.

This book reprints hundreds of the best strips backed up by wonderfully chatty and informative text-pieces from the junior Young and historian Rick Marschall to provide an enchanting treat for all the family. I don’t know how easy this book is to find and of course other collections are available (most notably 2007’s Blondie: the Complete Family History, published by Thomas Nelson- ISBN-13: 978-1-40160-322-9) but I’ve never found one that featured as broad a spread of strips from this comic landmark’s incredibly long history. Good hunting, and don’t forget to bring a sandwich…

The book was originally published in the US under the title Blondie & Dagwood’s America.

© 1981 King Features Syndicate Inc. World Rights Reserved.

By various (Marvel Comics)
ISBN 0-7851-1482-3

A few years ago the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” were shut down and rebooted in a highly publicised event known as Avengers Disassembled. Of course it was only to replace them with both The New and The Young Avengers. Affiliated comic-books such as the Fantastic Four and Spectacular Spider-Man ran parallel but not necessarily interconnected story-arcs to accompany the Big Show.

Said Big Show consisted of the worst day in the team’s history as a trusted comrade betrayed the World’s Mightiest Superteam resulting in the destruction of everything they held dear and the death of several members, all of which originally appeared in issues #500-503 plus the one-shot Avengers Finale. It is one of the best out and out superhero “Last Battles” ever created, and loses little impact whether this is your five hundredth or first experience with these tragic heroes.

Shocking and beautiful, there is a genuine feeling of an “End of Days” to this epic, and Bendis and the assembled artists David Finch, Danny Miki, Frank D’Armata, Alex Maleev, Steve Epting, Lee Weeks, Brian Reber, Michael Gaydos, Eric Powell, Darick Robertson, Morry Hollowell, Mike Mayhew, Andy Troy, David Mack, Gary Frank. Mike Avon Oeming, Pete Patanzis, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Justin Ponsor, Steve McNiven, George Perez, Mike Perkins, Neal Adams and Laura Martin are on top form to deliver a memorable and worthy Armageddon.

I hope I’ve been vague enough to give away nothing whilst making this intriguing. I hope I’ve convinced new readers to try something they might not have. I hope you’re ready for an incredible reading experience.

© 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2374-3

The Incredible Hulk was Marvel’s second new superhero title, although technically Henry Pym debuted earlier in a one-off yarn in Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962), but he didn’t become a costumed hero until the autumn, by which time Ol’ Greenskin was not-so-firmly established.

The Hulk crashed right into his own bi-monthly comic and after some classic romps by Young Marvel’s finest creators, crashed right out again. After six bi-monthly issues the series was cancelled and Lee retrenched, making the character a perennial guest-star in other Marvel titles (Fantastic Four #12, Amazing Spider-Man #14, The Mighty Avengers from #1 and so forth) until such time as they could restart the drama in their new “Split-Book” format in Tales To Astonish where Ant/Giant-Man was rapidly proving to be a character who had outlived his time.

Cover-dated May 1962 the Incredible Hulk #1 saw puny atomic scientist Bruce Banner, sequestered on a secret military base in the desert, perpetually bullied by the bombastic commander General “Thunderbolt” Ross as the clock counts down to the World’s first Gamma Bomb test. Besotted by Ross’s daughter Betty, Banner endures the General’s constant jibes as the clock ticks on and tension increases.

At the final moment Banner sees a teenager lollygagging at Ground Zero and frantically rushes to the site to drag the boy away. Unknown to him the assistant he’s entrusted to delay the countdown has an agenda of his own…

Rick Jones is a wayward but good-hearted kid. After initial resistance he lets himself be pushed into a safety trench, but just as Banner is about to join him The Bomb detonates…

Miraculously surviving the blast Banner and the boy are secured by soldiers, but that evening as the sun sets the scientist undergoes a monstrous transformation. He grows larger; his skin turns a stony grey…

In six simple pages that’s how it all starts, and no matter what any number of TV or movie reworkings or comicbook retcons and psycho-babble re-evaluations would have you believe that’s still the best and most primal take on the origin. A good man, an unobtainable girl, a foolish kid, an unknown enemy and the horrible power of destructive science unchecked…

Written by Stan Lee, drawn by Jack Kirby with inking by Paul Reinman, ‘The Coming of the Hulk’ barrels along as the man-monster and Jones are kidnapped by Banner’s Soviet counterpart the Gargoyle for a rousing round of espionage and Commie-busting. In the second issue the plot concerns invading aliens, and the Banner/Jones relationship settles into a traumatic nightly ordeal as the scientist transforms and is locked into an escape-proof cell whilst the boy stands watch helplessly. Neither ever considers telling the government of their predicament…

‘The Terror of the Toad Men’ is formulaic but viscerally and visually captivating as Steve Ditko inks Kirby, imparting a genuinely eerie sense of unease to the artwork. Incidentally, although you won’t see it in this black and white edition, this is the story where the Hulk inexplicably changed to his more accustomed Green persona.

Although back-written years later as a continuing mutation, the plain truth is that the grey tones used to cause all manner of problems for the production colourists so it was arbitrarily changed to the simple and more traditional colour of monsters.

The third issue presented a departure in format as the longer, chaptered epic gave way to complete short stories. Dick Ayers inked Kirby in the transitional ‘Banished to Outer Space’ which radically altered the relationship of Jones and the monster, the story thus far is reprised in the three page vignette ‘The Origin of the Hulk’ and that Marvel mainstay of villainy the Circus of Crime debuts in ‘The Ringmaster’. The Hulk goes on an urban rampage in #4’s first tale ‘The Monster and the Machine’ and aliens and Commies combine with the second adventure ‘The Gladiator from Outer Space!’

The Incredible Hulk #5 is a joyous classic of Kirby action, introducing the immortal Tyrannus and his underworld empire in ‘The Beauty and the Beast!’ whilst those pesky commies are in for another drubbing when our Jolly Green freedom-fighter prevents the invasion of Lhasa in ‘The Hordes of General Fang!’

Despite the sheer verve and bravura of these simplistic classics – some of the greatest, most rewarding comics nonsense ever produced – the series was not doing well, and Kirby moved on to more appreciated arenas. Steve Ditko handled all the art chores for #6, another full-length epic and an extremely engaging one. ‘The Incredible Hulk Vs the Metal Master’ has superb action, sly and subtle sub-plots and a thinking man’s resolution, but nonetheless the title died with this issue.

After shambling around the nascent Marvel universe for a year or so, usually as a misunderstood villain-cum-monster, the Emerald Behemoth got another shot. Following a reprinting of his origin in the giant collection Marvel Tales Annual #1 (the beginning of the company’s brilliant policy of keeping early tales in circulation and which did so much to make new fans out of latecomers) he was given a back-up strip in a failing title.

Giant-Man was the star feature of Tales to Astonish but by mid-1964 the strip was floundering. In issue #59 the Master of Many Sizes was tricked by an old foe into battling the man-monster in ‘Enter: The Hulk’ by Lee, Ayers and Reinman; a great big punch-up that set the scene for the next issue wherein his second series began.

‘The Incredible Hulk’ found Banner still working for General Ross, and still afflicted with uncontrollable transformations into a rampaging, if well-intentioned, engine of destruction. The ten page instalments were uncharacteristically set in the Arizona/New Mexico deserts, not New York and espionage and military themes were the narrative backdrop of these adventures.

Lee scripted, Ditko drew and comics veteran George Roussos – under the pseudonym George Bell – provided the ink art. The first tale concerned a spy who stole an unstoppable suit of armour, concluding in the next episode ‘Captured at Last’. The cliffhanger endings such as the Hulk’s imprisonment by Ross’s military units would be instrumental in keeping readers onboard and enthralled. The next tale (Tales to Astonish #62) ‘Enter… the Chameleon’ has plenty of action and suspense but the real stinger is the final panel that hints at the mastermind behind all the spying and skulduggery – the enigmatic Leader – who would become the Hulk’s ultimate and antithetical nemesis.

The Spider-Man villain worked well as a returning foe, his disguise abilities an obvious threat in a series based on a weapons scientist working for the US military during the Cold War. Even the Leader himself had dubious connections to the sinister Soviets – when he wasn’t trying to conquer the world for himself. ‘A Titan Rides the Train!’ provides an origin for the super-intellectual menace as well as setting up a plotline where new cast member Major Glen Talbot begins to suspect Banner of being a traitor. The action comes when the Leader tries to steal Banner’s new anti-H-bomb device from a moving train.

Number #64 ‘the Horde of Humanoids!’ features the return of Rick Jones who obtains a pardon for the incarcerated Banner by letting the President in on the secret of the Hulk! Ah, simpler times!

Free again, Banner joins Talbot on a remote Island to test his device only to be attacked by the Leader’s artificial warriors – providing a fine example of Ditko’s unique manner of staging a super-tussle. The battle continues into the next issue when Dick Ayers assumes the inks and Banner is taken prisoner by those darn commies. ‘On the Rampage against the Reds!’ sees the Hulk go wild behind the Iron Curtain, a satisfyingly gratuitous crusade that spans #66 (‘the Power of Doctor Banner’ inked by Vince Colletta) and #67 (‘Where Strides the Behemoth’ inked by Frank Giacoia) before reverting to human form and being captured by Mongolian bandits.

Jack Kirby returned, supplemented by Mike (“Mickey Demeo”) Esposito in Tales to Astonish #68. ‘Back from the Dead!’ returned the tragic scientist to America, military custody and his Atomic Absorbatron for one last test, once again interrupted by the Leader’s Humanoids. This time the villain succeeds and the Hulk is ‘Trapped in the Lair of the Leader!’ but only until the Army bursts in…

Issue #70 saw Giant-Man replaced by the Sub-Mariner, making Astonish a comicbook of brutal anti-heroes, and increasingly the Hulk stories reflected this shift. ‘To Live Again!’ had the furious Leader launch a giant Humanoid against the local US missile base, with the Jade Giant caught in the middle.

Kirby reduced his input to layouts with #71’s ‘Like a Beast at Bay’, a minor turning point as the Hulk actually joined forces with the Leader. The next episode ‘Within the Monster Dwells a Man!’ saw Major Talbot getting closer to uncovering Banner’s dark secret, whilst ‘Another World, Another Foe!’ (with the great Bob Powell pencilling over Kirby’s layouts) had the Hulk dispatched to the Watcher’s world to steal an ultimate weapon, just as an intergalactic rival arrives.

‘The Wisdom of the Watcher’ was all-out, brutal action with a shocking climax, followed by #75’s return to Earth and to basics as the rampaging Hulk falls victims to one of Banner’s most bizarre atomic devices. ‘Not all my Power Can Save Me!’ hurls the man-monster into a dystopian future, and in #76’s ‘I, Against a World!’ (featuring pencils by Gil Kane moonlighting as “Scott Edward”) the devastation is compounded in a fierce duel with the Asgardian Executioner.

A true milestone occurred in Tales to Astonish #77 when the dread secret was revealed. Magnificently illustrated by John Romita (the elder, and still over Kirby roughs) ‘Bruce Banner is the Hulk!’ concluded the time-lost tale and exposed the tragic horror of the scientist’s condition. It didn’t make him any less hunted or haunted, but at least the military were in an emotional tizzy as they tried to destroy him.

Bill Everett began a short but lovely run as art-man (Kirby remained as layout artist throughout) with #78. The insane scientist Zaxon tried to tap the beast’s bio-energy in ‘The Hulk Must Die!’ and the follow-up ‘The Titan and the Torment!’ featured a bombastic battle with the man-god Hercules. Not-so-immortal Tyrannus returned in ‘They Dwell in the Depths!’, losing a desperate war with fellow subterranean despot the Mole Man and seeing the Hulk as a weapon of last resort, before new villains Boomerang and the insidious Secret Empire debuted in #81’s ‘The Stage is Set!’, a convoluted mini-epic that spread into a number of other Marvel series, especially Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Sub-Mariner.

‘The Battle Cry of the Boomerang’, ‘Less then Monster, More than Man!’, and ‘Rampage in the City!’ wove lots of sub-plots into a gripping whole which indicated to the evolving reader just how close-knit the Marvel Universe was, but obviously such tight coordination between series caused a few problems as art for the final episode is credited to “almost the whole blamed Bullpen” (which looks to my jaded eyes as mostly Kirby, Everett and Jerry Grandinetti). At the climax the Hulk is marauding through the streets of New York City in what I can’t help but feel is a padded, unplanned conclusion…

Everything’s back on track with #85 as John Buscema and John Tartaglione step in to illustrate ‘The Missile and the Monster!’ as yet another spy diverts an experimental rocket onto the city. The obvious discomfort the realism-heavy Buscema experienced with the Hulk’s appearance has mostly faded by the second part, ‘The Birth of the Hulk-Killer!’, and the return of veteran inker Mike Esposito to the strip also helps.

As General Ross releases a weapon designed by the Leader to capture the Grim Green Giant he has no inkling what his rash act will lead to, but by #87’s concluding part ‘The Humanoid and the Hero!’ he’s certainly regretting it… Gil Kane returns for #88 and ‘Boomerang and the Brute’ shows both his and the Hulk’s savage power.

Tales to Astonish #89 once more sees the Hulk become an unwilling weapon as a near-omnipotent alien sets him to purging humanity from the Earth. ‘…Then, There Shall Come a Stranger!’, ‘The Abomination!’ and ‘Whosoever Harms the Hulk…!’ is a taut and evocative thriller which also includes the origin of a malevolent Hulk counterpart who would play such a large part in later tales of the ill-fated Bruce Banner.

This first volume of Hulk adventures is rather hit-and-miss with visceral thrillers and plain dumb nonsense running together, but the enthusiasm and sheer quality of the artistic endeavour should go a long way to mitigating most of the downside. These tales, in raw and gritty black and white, are key to the later, more cohesive adventures, and even at their worst the work of Kirby, Ditko, Everett, Kane, Buscema and the rest in butt-kicking, “breaking-stuff” mode is a thrill to delight the destructive eight-year-old in everyone. Hulk Smash(ing)!

© 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Jeffrey Jones (Dragon’s Dream)
ISBN: 90-6332-681-5

Jeffrey Catherine Jones was born in 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia, and after studying Geology in college drifted into illustration and commercial art in the late 1960s. As well as painting book covers for Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, Andre Norton’s Postmarked the Stars and many others, he illustrated many tales in science fiction and fantasy magazines, and far too few strips for such comics icons as Creepy and Eerie.

The most notable comic strips were Idyl for National Lampoon (1972-1975) and I’m Age in Heavy Metal but other shorts appeared in many disparate places. Deeply intellectual and philosophical, Jones’ drawing style was classicist and fancifully Romantic, with echoes of N.C. Wyeth as well as Roy G. Krenkel and Frank Frazetta, who were his major competitors for book commissions at the time.

The artist was both stylistically and actually associated with other master stylists Barry Windsor-Smith, Bernie Wrightson, and Michael William Kaluta, who together formed the artist’s cooperative known as The Studio. Coming in at the start of the 1960s paperback fantasy boom, Jones was soon developing a unique personal style across a broad spectrum of genres as a painter of covers.

Even at the early stage this book was published Jones was continually searching for something more, something deeper from art, as both the interview and introduction here express, but personal journeys aren’t really the point here.

What is is the phenomenal beauty and power of the three complete strips ‘Luce’, ‘The Bridge’ and ‘Spirit of ’76’ and the 54 pages of drawings (both pencil and inks) and paintings that are the forerunner of the entire painted comics phenomenon of the 1980s.

How much of a direct influence Jones was on the likes of George Pratt, Jon Jay Muth and all the rest is open to debate of course, but it’s clear – to me at least – that this brief time with painted narrative did much to elevate comics to the status of an adult art form, and it’s far past time Jones was a household name in comics circles again. Reprint, Please!

© 1980 Dragon’s Dream Ltd. Illustrations © 1980 Jeffrey Jones. Introduction © 1980 Irma Kurtz. Interview © 1980 Eric Kimball. All Rights Reserved.