Category: Graphic Novels

By Dennis O’Neil, Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-690-0

One of DC’s best comics series of the 1980’s finally makes it into the trade paperback format, due no doubt to the hero’s major role in the ambitious weekly comic maxi-series 52.

The Question, created by Steve Ditko, was Vic Sage, a driven, justice-obsessed journalist who sought out crime and corruption irrespective of the consequences. This Charlton ‘Action-Hero’ was purchased by DC when Charlton folded and was the template for the compulsive Rorschach when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons first drafted the miniseries that would become the groundbreaking Watchmen. The contemporary rumour-mill had it that since the creators couldn’t be persuaded to produce a spin-off Rorschach comic the company went with a reworking of the Ditko original.

An ordinary man pushed to the edge by his obsessions, Vic Sage used his fists and a mask that made him look utterly faceless to get answers (and justice) whenever normal journalistic methods failed. After a few successes around the DC universe Sage got a job in the town where he grew up.

Hub City was a hell-hole, the most corrupt and morally bankrupt municipality in America. Mayor Wesley Fermin was a degenerate drunken sot and the real power was insane cleric Reverend Jeremiah Hatch, whose hand-picked gang of “heavies” are supplemented by the world’s deadliest assassin, Lady Shiva.

Reuniting with Aristotle Rodor, the philosopher-scientist who created his faceless mask and other gimmicks, Sage determines to clean up The Hub, but despite early victories against thugs and grafters, he is easily defeated by Shiva, and left to the mercies of Hatch and his gang. A brutal beating by the gangsters breaks every bone in his body, and after shooting him in the head they throw his body in the freezing waters of the river.

Obviously, he doesn’t die. Rescued by the inscrutable Shiva, but crippled, he is sent into the wilderness to be healed and trained by O’Neil’s other legendary martial arts creation, Richard Dragon. A year passes…

It’s a new type of hero who returns to a Hub City which has degenerated even further. Sage’s girlfriend is now the Mayor’s wife, Reverend Hatch has graduated from thugs to terrorist employees, and his madness has driven him to actually seek the destruction of Humanity. Will the new Question be sufficient answer to the problems of a society so utterly debased that the apocalypse seems like an improvement?

Combating Western dystopia with Eastern Thought and martial arts action is not a new concept but the author’s spotlight on cultural problems rather than super-heroics make this series O’Neil’s most philosophical work, and the quirky, edgy art imbues this darkly adult, powerfully sophisticated thriller with a maturity that is simply breathtaking.

This is a story about dysfunction: Social, societal, political, emotional, familial and even methodological. The normal masked avenger tactics don’t work in a “real”-er world, and some solutions require better Questions…

© 1986, 1987, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Alan Moore, Gene Ha, Todd Klein & Art Lyon (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-1491-6

Diverging from the more of less contemporary adventures of a pan-dimensional police force getting the job done in a city populated entirely of super-beings, gods and monsters: Alan Moore and Gene Ha here take us back to the beginning and incorporate the origin of Neopolis into a memorable tale of political and social upheaval that blends crime-drama, horror movie and period thriller into a seamless love story, an evocation of the very history of the comic book itself.

In 1949 a fresh political philosophy is creating a new America, and all the superheroes, villains, robots, aliens, super-naturals and just plain do-gooders that won the war and kept the home front safe are being compulsorily relocated to a brand new city, far away from normal citizens.

Into this bold new experiment comes a huge variety of extra-special beings: Everything from Nazi mad scientists, vampires, costumed heroes, and especially war heroes. Skywitch was a German aviator who fought with the Allies, and on her first day she meets 16 year old Jetlad, who shot down his first Nazi plane before his tenth birthday.

They strike up an unlikely friendship as they attempt to forge new “normal” lives in the burgeoning social experiment of Neopolis. But even if the World is new, nature is not and soon many inhabitants are returning to their old habits. Perhaps the newly minted police force isn’t such a lousy career path after all…

Although a tight and gripping thriller and a sterling origin tale for an award winning comic series, this is actually a compelling and elegiac expression of reality ending a Golden Age, with beautiful characterisations of extraordinary people rendered real by Gene Ha’s faded documentary-style illustration. Here is a lovely book that any mature reader will enjoy and cherish.

© 2005 America’s Best Comics LLC. All Rights Reserved.

By Alex Raymond (Checker BPG)
ISBN: 1-933160-26-8

The fourth collection of the legendary Sunday comic strip – covering the period from June 12th 1938 to January 21st 1940 – continues the astonishing parade of wonders that bedazzled and captivated the world, with each sabbath instalment somehow topping the last in a seemingly endless progression of drama, excitement and fantasy. Raymond’s faultless blend of classicism and feudal futurism electrified the reading public, and his sagas captured the imagination of generations.

The previous volume ended with Flash and his fellow rebels hidden beneath Ming’s city when the monstrous despot floods the subterranean tunnels to destroy them, resulting in a massive collapse throughout the metropolis. This book opens with ‘The Tyrant of Mongo’ (which originally ran until March 5th 1939) and sees the surviving rebels strike back and even capture the merciless villain only to lose him due to the traitorous schemes of an ambitious woman.

Betrayed and sore pressed, the rebels escape as Ming gloats, thinking Flash dead at last. The fugitives return to Arboria where Prince Barin hides them once more, but evil never rests and Ming replaces one of the surviving rebels with his best spy. Once again the hero turns the tables, but must leave his sanctuary before Ming destroys it…

On March 12th 1938 ‘Ice Kingdom of Mongo’ began, and proved to be a visual high-point even by the monumentally impressive standards of this feature. Flash, Dale, Zarkov and faithful man-at-arms Ronal fly northwards to the pole but are forced to crash-land when the fierce cold freezes their rocket tubes. At the mercy of hideous snow beasts, they are rescued by Queen Fria of the polar kingdom of Frigia, but the fugitives are no safer in the sumptuous halls of her fabulous home than they were on the icy wastes. A spiteful courtier, Count Malo, attempts to murder Flash, and Dale and Ronal are taken as slaves by ice giants whilst on a hunting trip, with only Flash and the Queen left to rescue them.

After that unforgettable sequence, and with the giants defeated, the refugees settle in Frigia, but it becomes clear that many nobles see Flash as a threat to their ambitions, since the unmarried Fria is obviously smitten by the newcomer. A series of “mishaps” culminate in open assassination attempts and even a coup. Events spiral out of control with spectacular results and personal and political intrigues pale into insignificance when the entire kingdom is imperilled by a huge monster that lives in a glacier…

The never-ending adventure went from one hairsbreadth escape, fight or chase to another, but Checker’s subdivision into the two long epics here is logical and satisfying. It’s hard to grasp that when Raymond and script collaborator Don Moore first created these spellbinding sagas they were only working from the most general of plans, with no conception of their eventual perpetuation in posterity of the periodical drama in these lush and lavish volumes.

Along with Hal Foster (Prince Valiant) and Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates/Steve Canyon), Raymond’s work on Flash Gordon is pivotal to the development of comic art. This strip influenced everybody who followed. If you’ve never seen this work, your comic reading life is tragically incomplete. But it’s never too late…

© 2005 King Features Syndicate Inc. ™ Hearst Holdings, Inc

By Scott Peterson, Kelley Puckett, Damion Scott & Robert Campenella (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-84023-266-8

After Gotham City was devastated in an earthquake (Batman: Cataclysm ISBN13: 978-1-56389-527-2) it was abandoned by the US government in a spookily prescient foretaste of what would happen to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005 (see Batman: No Man’s Land Volumes 1-3, ISBN 13’s: 978-1-56389-564-7, 978-1-56389-599-9, and 978-1-56389-634-7 respectively). In the rubble, a number of heroes struggled to protect the innocent. One of these was a brand new incarnation of Batgirl.

As the crisis ended and a semblance of normality returned to the battered metropolis, the new heroine got her own series and a mentor in the form of Babs Gordon, the wheelchair-bound crime-fighter called Oracle, who was also the first Batgirl.

The current holder of the title is an enigmatic problem. Raised as an experiment by martial arts super-assassin David Cain, she cannot communicate since her language centres have been over-ridden in an experiment to make combat her only communication tool. An apparent runaway, she has been adopted by the Batman as a weapon in his never-ending battle, but the more humane Oracle has become her guardian and teacher.

In this first volume (collecting issues #1-6 of the monthly comic-book) the new Batgirl is trying to find her way, bereft even of the ability to learn, whilst revelling in the role of defender of the helpless, but her development as a human being threatens to diminish her capacity as a weapon, and the mystery of her past would indicate that she is possibly a two-edged sword in Batman’s arsenal…

Spellbinding, overwhelmingly fast-paced and with very little dialogue, these tales are a breakneck, supercharged thrill-ride that concentrates on non-stop action yet still manages to be heavily plot-based with genuine empathy and emotional impact. This is superb comic story-telling and should be on every fan’s wish-list or bookshelf.

© 2000, 2001 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Bob Montana & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN 1-879794-00-4

When you mention comic books in conversation most people’s thoughts turn to buff men in garish tights hitting each other and lobbing trees or cars about, and indeed that has been the prolific norm of late. Throughout the years though, other forms and genres have waxed and waned in the comics consumers attention. One that has held its ground over the years is the teen comedy genre begun by and synonymous with a carrot topped, homely (at first just plain ugly) kid named Archie Andrews.

MLJ were a small comics publisher who jumped on the “mystery-man” bandwagon following the debut of Superman. In November 1939 Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John L. Goldwater launched Blue Ribbon Comics, promptly following with Top-Notch and Pep Comics. The content was the common blend of funny-book costumed heroes and two-fisted adventure strips, although Pep did make some history with its lead feature The Shield, who was the industry’s first super-hero to be clad in the flag (see America’s 1st Patriotic Hero: The Shield, ISBN1-879794-08-X).

Although successful enough, the publishers felt that they were missing some markets (most particularly girls) with their thriller fare, so taking a lead from the phenomenally popular teen movies series Andy Hardy, Goldwater developed a wholesome ordinary hero concept, tasking writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana with the job of making it work. Pep Comics #22 (December 1941) had an innocuous six-page tale entitled ‘Archie’ which introduced a big-eared, gap-toothed, freckle-faced, red-headed goof showing off to the pretty blonde girl moving in next door. Betty Cooper and Archie’s unconventional best friend Jughead Jones debuted in that first story as did the small-town utopia of Riverdale.

The strip was an instant hit and by the winter of 1942 had graduated to its own title. Archie Comics #1 was the company’s first non-anthology magazine and with it began the slow transformation of the entire company. With the introduction of rich, black-haired Veronica Lodge, all the pieces were in play for the creation of a phenomenon. In May 1946 the kid had taken over, so the company renamed itself Archie Comics. The company also phased out its heroic characters becoming to all intents and purposes and family comedy publisher.

Archie is a well-meaning boy but lacks common sense. Betty is the pretty, sensible girl next door, with all that entails, and she loves Archie. Veronica is rich, exotic and glamorous; she only settles for our boy if there’s nobody better around. She might actually love him, though. Archie can’t decide who he wants…

This wholesome eternal triangle has been the basis of more than sixty-five years of charming, raucous, gentle, frenetic, chiding and even heart-rending comedy ranging from surreal wit to frantic slapstick, as the kids and an increasing cast of friends grew into an American institution. So pervasive is the imagery that it’s a part of Americana itself. Adapting seamlessly to every trend and fad of the growing youth culture, the battalion of writers and artists who’ve crafted the stories over the decades have made the “everyteen” characters of Riverdale a benchmark for youth and a visual barometer of growing up.

This vast and distinctive back-catalogue is therefore ideal for compilations, as in this series of decade by decade commemorations. This first volume covers the formative work from the 1940s with a criminally insufficient 128 pages of glorious fun and frolicsome mayhem, beginning with that initial appearance, the first meeting with Veronica (from Pep #26) plus 14 other gems, cover reproductions, feature pages and even an introduction from long-time fan Stephen King.

So successful was this genre innovation that within two years every other comic-book publisher had their own coterie of Archie clones and knock-offs. But it’s clear from reading this volume that the original was, and still is, the best. Accept no substitutes…

© 1941-1949, 1991, 2007 Archie Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Geoffrey Chaucer, illustrated by Greg Irons (Bellerophon Books)
ISBN: 0-88388-023-7

I’m just showing off now, but this lost treasure, published in conjunction with a colouring book (The Chaucer Coloring Book, which collected the original woodcut illustrations from Caxton’s 1484 edition of The Canterbury Tales) is a terrific and logical blending of High Art and Our Art and one so very worthy of being republished.

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, as well as being a venerable and lauded landmark of English literature, was a ribald, earthy, popular classic, full of humanity’s every foible and peccadillo. It was rude, crude, action packed, and even had talking animals. Thematically, how much closer can you get to the general opinion and popular conception of the comic book?

Marry that with the art of the irreverent, subversive art and attitude of the San Francisco underground movement of the early 1970’s and you have a brilliant piece of pop-art history that actually has lasting social relevance and educational value.

The text of the Wife of Bath is typeset and in the original continental accentual-syllabic metre which Chaucer used to champion the London-dialect dominance of Middle English. So this will make a lot more sense if read aloud phonetically (the book not my review). Or you could simply look at the stonkingly brilliant and funny, ribald pictures drawn by the astounding Greg Irons.

Some college or publishing house simply has to get this book back into print, ASAP!

Artwork © 1973 Greg Irons. All Rights Reserved.