Category: Graphic Novels

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The Phantom – The Complete Series: The Charlton Years Volume Two


By Pat Boyette, Joe Gill, D. J. Arn
eson & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-032-1 (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 on the African coast, 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 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.

Lee Falk created the Jungle Justice dealer 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, and although technically not the first ever costumed hero in comics, The Phantom’s astounding popularity made him the prototype paladin: wearing the later demi-compulsory skintight bodystocking and mask with opaque eye-slits.

He debuted on February 17th 1936 (Yep! Ninety nonstop years!!) in an extended sequence pitting him against a global confederation of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over the illustration side to artist Ray Moore. A hugely successful Sunday feature began in May 1939. However, for such a long-lived and influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic 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 had begun releasing books of 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, but, even if only of historical value (or just printed for Australians), surely the mysterious Mr. Kit Walker was worthy of a definitive chronological compendium series?

Happily, and perhaps because of the tights and mask, his comic book adventures have fared slightly better – especially in recent times. From November 1962 through July 1966, all new adventures were published by West Coast giant Gold Key Comics after which King Features Syndicate dabbled with a comic book line of their biggest stars – including Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake and The Phantom – between 1966 and 1967. When they gave up the ghost (see what I did there?), plucky dependable, cheap Charlton Comics were there to pick up the slack…

The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, having appeared since the Golden Age in titles like Feature Book and Harvey Hits, albeit only as reformatted newspaper strip reprints. Gold Key’s efforts were tailored to a big page and a young readership, a model King Features maintained for their own run, but which was carefully tweaked when Charlton acquired the license. This splendid full-colour tome gathers the contents of The Phantom #39-47 (originally released between August 1970 and December 1971) and opens with an erudite Introduction and appreciation from Don Mangus who reveals everything of the history and involvement of a much-sidelined star in ‘Sworn to the Oath of the Skull – Pat Boyette’.

San Antonio born on 27th July 1923, Aaron P. Boyette was pure mythical Texan: self-taught in everything that mattered and unstoppably confident. A true and tireless entrepreneur, he was a key component of the development of commercial radio in Texas: a journalist who researched, wrote, broadcast, managed, and presented shows. If you’ve read Golden Age Green Lantern, everyman hero Alan Scott – who did all the jobs – could have been patterned on Pat…

Boyette forsook burgeoning stardom to become a cryptographer during WWII. Coming out, he performed the same do-it-all trick with early television and later moved into making movies. After anchoring TV news, he abruptly moved sideways again, and took to comics: writing, editing, lettering, painting and illustrating as Pat Boyette, Sam Swell, Alexander Barnes & Bruce Lovelace.

Working for Charlton, DC, Warren, Archie, Acclaim; a host of eighties indie outfits and as a self-publisher, he produced newspaper strip Captain Flame; drew prestigious DC title Blackhawk; and found a lasting home at Charlton Comics. Here Boyette co-created The Peacemaker and assumed creative duties on Pete (“PAM”) Morisi’s Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. As the superhero boom faded he increasingly output on their anthological lines, crafting hundreds of genre short stories for romance, war, western horror, science fiction, fantasy and other titles. Boyette also handled Charlton’s biggest and most high-profile licensed features including The Six Million Dollar Man; Space: 1999; Korg: 70,000 B.C; Flash Gordon; Jungle Jim and the company’s runaway top seller: The Phantom. Boyette’s work was continually published at Charlton until at least 1986 when the outfit was being wrapped up. He readily adapted to the growing indie market, with his last work appearing in DC/Paradox Press’s The Big Book of the Weird Wild West in 1998.

Pat Boyette died of oesophageal cancer on January 14th, 2000 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The majority of the bi-monthly yarns here are scripted by Boyette, backed up by Joe Gill in #40, 41 & 45 (and also perhaps occasionally by predecessor scripter D.J. Arneson?): utterly workmanlike and hitting all the expected bases, with each issue offering a pictorial Contents Page teaser and terse, spartan, stripped-back action; mystery yarns with themes and plots that readers of newspapers and dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans could appreciate equally. There are plenty of mad scientists, aliens, monsters, war criminals, brutal beasts, sadistic potentates, thieves & pirates and many admiring women, but no costumed villains…

We open with The Phantom #39 as ‘A Small War!’ sees a ruthless filmmaker provoke conflict between old tribal friends until the Ghost-Who-Walks steps in, after which the hero foils thinly-disguised Nazis seeking to recover lost gold from the ‘Canyon of Death!’, and scuppers ‘The Silent Thieves!’ using their U-Boat to raid a river-adjacent diamond mine…

Boyette and his associates often sagely left their time period vague and unconfirmed, allowing creative anachronism to play out in tales that could often be starring earlier Phantoms of the undying dynasty. In #40, following a sample of original art pages, a wryly fond homage to earlier legends sees the masked marvel battle once again a giant warrior with quarterstaffs over a river crossing in ‘The Ritual’, before a vengeful criminal frames the Phantom for multiple murders with a diabolical device leaving his death’s head signature – ‘The False Mark’ – on native victims. The issue closes with a distraught heiress seeking her long-missing father and momentarily gulled by ‘The Second Phantom’ until the true titan turns up…

Scripted by Joe Gill, #41’s opener ‘Slave of Beauty’ sees our hero captured by an immortal queen resurrecting her fallen desert empire through slavery. However, Hegara is not all she seems and the Jungle Juggernaut readily crushes her dream before chasing a stolen Bandar treasure across the world. Savagely seized by murderous white hunter Waldo Brunn, ‘The Idol’ is only ultimately recovered after a bizarre alliance, and is followed by a devious clash with a ‘Deadly Foe’ developing viruses in the wilderness who proves to be anything but…

The Phantom #42 opens with a cruel high-tech attack on elephants perpetrated by plutocratic monster Rama Jahn and requiring all the ingenuity of the Ghost-Who-Walks to save the ‘Keeper of the Herd!’, before a simple good deed generates chaos in ‘Who Needs Enemies?’ Seeking to repay his debt, multi-millionaire E.R. Randall bombards the Bengali villagers with gifts and money that disrupt their lives. Moreover, he’s extremely unhappy when they begin to reject his unwanted largesse…

‘Prey of the Hunter’ then reveals what must be done when hunter Hugo Lusk becomes addicted to killing and the Judge of the Jungle must stop the slaughter, Sadly, that involves first becoming Lusk’s latest trophy…

Up front in #43 ‘Test of an Idol!’, finds fabulously attractive, utterly spoiled screen star Iris Benton attempting – and initially succeeding – in beguiling the hero and making The Phantom her latest conquest. Thus he permits a movie of his exploits and even participates but is tragically unprepared when her allure crosses the species barrier and leads to her abduction by apes!

A clever use of the hero’s historical longevity drives ‘Paid in Full’ when the descendent of a long-dead British victim of jungle larceny (saved by a Ghost who Walked in 1653) demands reparations – and compound interest – on a sum of money that went missing at the time. Happily Edward Cowper-Smythe is reasonable man…

The issue closed with a clash against most modern witchdoctor Medugli, who refused to follow the Phantom’s Peace and returned to torment the Bandari with a technological terror-weapon provided by colonising secret allies. Happily, ‘The Rain Stopper!’ was no mystery to the hero and ecological catastrophe was averted in the nick of time

In #44, ‘To Right a Wrong!’ sees marauding Achmid Raj successfully plunder the fabled Skull Cave only to be hunted down by the Ghost Who Walks, after which ‘Danger in Bengali’ reintroduces the contemporary hero’s true love Diana Palmer who regrettably arrives at the Cave just as a diabolical, piratical impostor is plundering it. Taken hostage she soon learns that her man – and his wolf Devil – are not dead, but in hot pursuit and really, really angry…

When replacement Bandari witch-man Zulanga proves just as nefarious as his predecessor, The Phantom again exiles him, and almost pays a fatal price as the wily rogue covertly returns with serpents and poisons to inflict ‘Death from Far Away!’ Almost…

A rare Phantom failure is rectified after 105 years in #45’s opening saga ‘Return of the Ruby!’ as the descendent of the hero who lost an unparalleled gem to bandits locates the precious prize. Now he must solve the moral dilemma of depriving its current – honest and innocent – owner to restore it to the family of the original ones…

In 1777, as tyrannical Captain Mustaphi ravaged the seas around Tripoli, an alliance to scuttle the slavers’ schemes paired an earlier Ghost Guardian with a Revolutionary War icon in ‘Phantom and John Paul Jones’ before a return to the present sees the death of the Bandar monarch and a vigil in the ‘Cave of Kings’. Happily The Phantom is paying his respects when hostile blood-enemies the Yumyu attempt to slaughter the grieving subjects and steal the incomparable grave goods…

The Phantom and Diana face devilish duplicates and legendary cult terrors the Leopardmen in #46’s lead yarn ‘Last of the Cat’, only to learn that vengeful old enemy Felix Cattmann is out of jail and behind all the Leopard-y jeopardy (sorry not sorry!) after which fantasy blends with larceny as Piranha Men raid the Skull Cave from the lakes and rivers beneath it. Of course, ‘The Vanishing Thieves!’ grievously underestimated the hero’s lung capacity and resolve, and their defeat lonely led to the Ghost Who Walks daring a deadly mountain peak to rescue abducted princess Inja from slave-raider Kruug and the eagles defending the ‘Nest of the Man-Eaters’…

Last issue in this tome of thrills and terrors, The Phantom #47 offered another trio of wild adventures beginning with entry into ‘The False Skull Cave’ constructed after avaricious Busas used government spy-plane systems to map vast “undiscovered” Bengali and ferret out the location of the world’s greatest treasure store. Of course, finding either cave or escaping alive were entirely different matters…

In ‘Soundless Voices!’ another cunning attempt to replace the Ghost with a diabolical doppelganger is foiled by the hero’s ferocious will to live and the long-range communications net of whale song, before the episodes pause after exposure to ‘The Vapors of Vulcan’. When Morpheus Negri, the mostly-dormant volcano in a remote corner of Bengali erupts again, the incredible immortals who live within it again plunder and ravage the land, seeking slave-prospects from the fittest of surface dwellers Who could they possibly pick this millennium?

Undying ruler Brilla has faced a Phantom long before and this one also rejects her offer of eternal “companionship” and escapes her alternate tactic of being consumed to sustain her energies for another century…

Packed and peppered throughout with pages of Boyette original art, this is another riveting, nostalgia-drenched triumph: straightforward, stripped down, nonstop rollicking action-adventure that has always been the staple of comics fiction and the Ghost Who Walks. If that sounds like a good time to you, this is a traditional action-fest you must not miss…
The Phantom® © 1970-1971 and 2013 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Today in 1946 horror story mangaka Hideshi Hino (Hell Baby, Hino Horrors, Panorama of Hell) was born, whilst strip debuts include Russell Myers’ Broom Hilda in 1970 and Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks in 2006. We lost crucial Disney animator Milt Kahl in 1987, DC cartoonist Henry Boltinoff in 2001 and Mexican creator/founder of their Academy of Arts Alberto Beltrán a year later.

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The Avengers Marvel Masterworks volume 19


By David Michelinie, Steven Grant, Roger Stern, Mark Gruenwald, Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, Tom DeFalco, John Byrne, George Pérez, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Arvell Jones, Ron Wilson, John Fuller, Dan Green, Ricardo Villamonte, Josef Rubinstein, Jack Abel, Gene Day, Mike Esposito, Brett Breeding, Joe Sinnott, Bruce Patterson & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1637-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Avengers have always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in a single basket pays off big-time: even when all Marvel’s classic all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it merely allows the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly. Of course, all founding stars were regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy, which means that every issue includes somebody’s fave-rave – and the boldly grand-scale impressive stories and artwork are no hindrance either. With the team now global icons, let’s look again at the stories which form the foundation of that pre-eminence.

Re-presenting Avengers #189-202, plus a pertinent tale from Marvel Premier #55 (August 1980) and a lost snippet from Tales to Astonish (vol. 2 #12, November 1980) these sagas encompass cover-dates November 1979 to December 1980. Jim Shooter, having galvanised and steadied the company’s notional flagship moved on, leaving David Michelinie to impress his own ideas and personality upon the team,. However such transitions are always tricky and a few water-treading fill-ins were necessary before progress resumed. For behind the scenes details you can read of his recollections in his fascinating ‘Introduction by David Michelinie’ before diving in to the fabulous action and drama. Another Introduction by latterday editor Tom Brevoort can be found in the book’s Bonus Section, eulogising and appreciating the return of George Pérez to the Avengers before diving in to the fabulous action and drama…

Previously: After defeating the Absorbing Man, apparently resolving the convoluted origins of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, inviting Ultron’s robot bride Jocasta into their midst, defeating vintage murder-mech enigma Arsenal and stopping world conquering sentient elements, the team were ready for a break but would be disappointed…

Avengers #189 reveals how deeply unhappy official reservist Hawkeye takes a day job at (corrupt and EVIL) tech company Cross Technological Enterprises and inadvertently begins his steady march to solo stardom. When the current administration began interfering in Avengers business intrusive and obsessive NSA Agent Henry Peter Gyrich laid down the law and winnowed the army of heroes down to a federally acceptable (and “manageable”) seven-and-a-spare: Captain America, Iron Man, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wasp, Beast and Ms. Marvel. Gyrich had spitefully rejected the in-your-face archer in favour of Falcon – who was parachuted in (against his own wishes!) to conform to government affirmative action quotas…

Feeling rejected by the team and definitely still persona non grata to the obnoxious pencil-pushing Government gadfly, Hawkeye goes corporate in ‘Wings and Arrows!’ (Steven Grant, John Byrne & Dan Green). It’s not too long before he’s earning every penny as the new security chief by battling alien avian interloper Deathbird of the Shi’ar…

As a terrifying horror from space crashes to Earth and rampages through Manhattan, the Avengers ae summoned to tribunal seeking to close down the group. However, with a monster in the streets, Beast sees a way to dent Gyrich’s credibility and win back Avengers autonomy in chilling monster-mash ‘Heart of Stone’. Despatched to stop the thing, their subsequent battle draws in scarlet swashbuckler Daredevil who helps expose an old enemy in disguise…

Scripted by Micheline, concluding chapter ‘Back to the Stone Age!’ sees the assemblage overwhelmed by petrifying space pirate The Grey Gargoyle and the Falcon prove his worth until the team can rally and render the marauder helpless, after which artists Arvell Jones & Ricardo Villagran limn #192’s ‘Steel City Nightmare!’ When former industrialist/inventor and occasional Avenger Simon Wonder Man Williams visits Detroit to finalise selling his old steel mill to Tony Stark, they uncover an old but lasting connection to Thor’s uru hammer and the site’s new covert status as a centre of organised crime activity. When a whistle-blower is murdered only to return as a rampaging vengeance-driven flame monster, the call goes out and the Avengers find ‘Battleground Pittsburgh!’ (illustrated by Sal Buscema & Green) to be almost more than they can handle.

Inked by Josef Rubinstein, George Pérez draws the Micheline-scripted ‘Interlude’ in #194, as roster changes saw the Scarlet Witch (briefly) and Falcon leave and Wonder Man return. With Jocasta destabilizing the Vision’s marriage, tensions are high but the later discovery that wannabe actor Simon Williams is moonlighting as a clown on children’s television takes off a lot of edges. Focus abruptly shifts when an apparent escaped mental patient circumvents Avengers security, breaks into the mansion and begs for help. Returned to his carers at the Solomon Institute, Selbe’s plight remains uppermost in Wasp’s thoughts. When she investigates the facility she exposes an horrific science abomination in progress before vanishing without trace…

New Ant-Man Scott Lang got his first dose of team action in Avengers #195 (May 1980) in Michelinie, Pérez, Jack Abel & Green’s ‘Assault on a Mind Cage!’ When his benefactor Hank Pym/Yellowjacket asks Lang to help infiltrate the suspect Solomon asylum he believes holds the Wasp hostage the miniature marvels uncover illegal cloning for spare parts and a murderous madman also capitalising on the facilities to profitably train better henchmen for major villains and mob bosses…

The climactic clash resulting from ‘The Terrible Toll of the Taskmaster’ (by Michelinie, Pérez & Abel) wrecks the joint but leaves former burglar and convict Lang one step closer to true redemption…

Cold War paranoia fuels Avengers #197’s ‘Prelude to the War-Devil!’ (illustrated by Carmine Infantino, Abel and a horde of helpers) wherein overwrought scientist Dr. Cowan absconds from Stark Detroit facilities inside a super-mecha warrior initially built to destroy the undisputed king of Kaiju (see Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years). Unable to stand the tension any longer, the boffin intends triggering WWIII and ending the anxiety of humankind once and for all, but must first face the deployed and increasingly desperate Avengers in ‘Better Red Than Ronin!’ (art by Pérez, Brett Breeding & Gene Day) and cataclysmic climax ‘Last Stand on Long Island’ (inked by Dan Green).

Away from the mounting carnage, a disturbing subplot played out as a strange, terrifyingly rapid transformation sees Carol Danvers (Ms, and these days Captain Marvel) impossibly pregnant and bringing an unknown baby with no father to term in a matter of days. Reaching out to the Scarlet Witch, the hasty decision is to call in the full resources of the Mighty Avengers…

The mystery is solved in bonanza anniversary issue #200 (October 1980 by plotters, Jim Shooter, Pérez & Bob Layton; scripter Michelinie, and artists Pérez & Green). In ‘The Child is Father To…?’ with almost the entire past roster on hand, the miracle baby is born without incident, but consequently hyper-rapidly matures as time goes wild around the city. With different eras overwriting the present, the unearthly boy begins building a machine to stabilise the chaos despite the profoundly suspicious heroes misunderstanding his motives. Marcus claims to be the son of time-master Immortus, seeking to escape eternal isolation in transdimensional Limbo by implanting his essence in a mortal tough enough to survive the energy required for the transfer.

Literally reborn on Earth, his attempts to complete the process are foiled by the World’s Most Confused Heroes and he is tragically drawn back to his timeless realm. Carol, suddenly declaring her love for Marcus, unexpectedly goes with him. The heroes unquestioning acceptance of the result might well be the greatest failure and betrayal in Avengers history…

The clean-up begins in #201 where ‘The Evil Reborn’ sees Michelinie, Pérez & Green adapt a Jim Shooter short story as Tony Stark succumbs to previous, deep-buried hypnotic programming to reconstruct cybernetic conqueror Ultron…

The tale is cut short as back-up strip ‘Bully!’ by Michelinie, Roger Stern, Pérez & Day explores the off-duty life of butler Edwin Jarvis as he improves his home neighbourhood with a little human-scaled heroism and defiance in the face of insurmountable odds…

The Avenging escapades pause for now with bombastic brutal closing chapter ‘This Evil Undying’ (Micheline, Pérez & Mike Esposito) as the team (Captain America Thor, Wasp, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Jocasta free Iron Man from the metal maniac’s domination and apparently end the threat forever…

Supplementing the main drama are a brace of contemporaneous tales beginning with the first Wonder Man solo saga, as published in Marvel Premiere #55 (August 1980). ‘A Force of Two!’ by Micheline, Layton, Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnott sees Simon Williams return to another of his old factories (in Brooklyn this time) to clean out the criminal trash who took over after his “death” and eventual resurrection as being of ionic energy. Even he isn’t quite enough to oust entrenched Maggia mobsters – and their lawyers – and requires a little offbeat assistance from an old pal who risks everything to atone…

Next comes a six-page vignette starring The Vision, created during a rookie initiative program in 1976 by Tom DeFalco, John Fuller & Bruce Patterson, ‘Double Vision’ sat in the inventory drawer until seen in Tales to Astonish (vol 2 #12, November 1980) and relates how the eerie android saves a diplomat and other caught in a plane hijacking…

With covers by Byrne, Pérez, Frank Miller, Dave Cockrum, Wilson, Sinnott, Green, Bob McLeod, Rubinstein and Terry Austin; original art pages from Byrne, Pérez, Green & Day; the Pérez/Tom Smith painted cover to Avengers Visionaries: George Pérez (1999) and the aforementioned Brevoort appreciation of the artist from that tome, this compelling collection is available in hardback and digital iterations, and a must-read moment of wonder every fan must see.
© 2019 MARVEL.

Today in 1877 Catalan comics creator and pioneer Tomàs Padró died, as did French surrealist cartoonist and multimedia maven Roland Topor in 1997. In 1934 Chilean Disney artist Vicar (Víctor José Arriagada Ríos) was born, as was arch-stylist Paul Rivoche (Mister X, Batman, Exile of the Aeons) in 1959.

On this date in 1990 The Times of India supplement Indrajal Comics published its last issue. Started in 1964 its 805 issues brought The Phantom, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Garth, Rip Kirby, Phil Corrigan, Buz Sawyer, Mike Nomad, Kerry Drake, and others to millions of readers, and in 1976 debuted homegrown Indian hero Bahadur by Aabid Surti.

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The Avengers in the Veracity Trap


By Chip Kidd & Michae Cho & various (Abrams Comic Arts/MARVEL Arts)
ISBN: 978-1-4197-7067-8 (HB) eISBN: 979-8-88707-137-4

Jacob Kurtzberg (AKA Jack Curtiss, Curt Davis, Lance Kirby, Ted Grey, Charles Nicholas, Fred Sande, Teddy, “The King” and others) did lots of stuff but most significantly inspired millions if not billions of people by drawing his ideas. This book is one of the most engaging examples of how that process has become self-sustaining…

After a period of meteoric expansion, in 1963 the blossoming Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the key DC concept that had cemented the legitimacy of the Silver Age of American comics. The notion of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket had made the Justice League of America an instant winner and subsequently inspired the moribund Atlas outfit – primarily Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko – to conceive “super-characters” of their own. The initial result, in 1961, was The Fantastic Four…

After 18 rollercoaster months, the fledgling House of Ideas had generated a small but popular stable of costumed leading men (but still only 2 sidekick women!), allowing Lee & Kirby to at last assemble a select handful of them into an cross-branding squad, moulded into a force for justice and soaring sales.

Seldom has it ever been done with such style and sheer exuberance. Cover dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men: all glorying in the full, unfettered  force of imagination unleashed. Each change-packed revolutionary issue by Kirby, Lee and their confederates stirred a pot filled with hyperdynamic characters and layers of compelling world-building.

For the Avengers it had all started in Asgard, where immortal trickster Loki was imprisoned, hungry for vengeance on his noble half-brother Thor. Malevolently observing Earth, the vile divinity had espied the monstrous, misunderstood Hulk and mystically engineered a situation whereby the man-brute seemingly went wild, all with the intention of having the Thunder God fight the monster. When Hulk’s teen sidekick Rick Jones called the FF for help, devious Loki had scrambled and diverted the transmission and awaited the carnage that must follow.

Sadly for the schemer, Iron Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp also caught the redirected SOS. As heroes converged to search for the Jade Giant, they realised something was amiss, leading led their first assembled assault on Loki. It was the beginning of a legend and over the next seven issues (plus guest shots in other titles!) it sparked heroes coming and going, and villains without peer setting new standards for wickedness…

That primordial period of Kirby-limned luminal ideas and escalating inspirational influences is a mini halcyon era: one potently, evocatively addressed and revered in this very special project from two iconic modern award-winners and devout comics lovers. With their “Veracity Trap” designer/author/historian Chip Kidd (Batman: Death by Design, Jack Cole and Plastic Man, The Cheese Monkeys) and designer/author/illustrator Michael Cho (Papercut, Shoplifter, hundreds of DC and Marvel covers) cheerfully knock down all the fourth walls and puckishly inject themselves into the medium and their message to deliver a compelling pastiche of all that too-brief Kirby-spawned early Avengers wonderment.

Suitably packed with stirring tribute moments from eye-bending wonder-machines to stellar landscapes, and packed to the scaly oversized gills with charmingly monstrous “Kirby-Kritters” aiding and abetting the heroes and villains, this rocket-paced epic sees a team that never quite was – Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, The Wasp, Captain America and The Hulk – unite to battle Loki once more, only to be booby-trapped and portentously propelled beyond their home universe into a Greater (albeit still Four-Colour) Reality where godlike cartoonists and pen-pushers casually dictate their fates… until the malevolently malign God of Mischief usurps their elevated position and endangers all layers of existence!

Co-produced by Marvel and Abrams ComicArts, The Avengers in the Veracity Trap is a gleefully witty homage sampling and extrapolating upon all those beloved graphic and narrative landmarks and milestones of early Marvel – even incorporating pages of ‘Mighty Mavel Pin-ups!’ – and sending waves of crushing nostalgia through those of us who were there and curious neophytes alike…

Although this hark-back to halcyon days is literally all about the visual verve, fanboys like me can also be assured that continuity and characterisation are also faithful extrapolations – albeit with the painful Sixties gender stereotyping given a thorough going over – of what has gone before, augmenting a spectacular paean of praise and wishful thinking to those gone but never forgotten glory days…
© 2025 MARVEL.

A date for firebrands and iconoclasts, today in 1925 conspiracy-theorist/ judgemental Christian fundamentalist comics creator Jack Chick was born, as was award-winning French satirist and bane of conservatism Jean-Marc Reiser (Hara-Kiri, Charlie Hebdo) in 1941. Less controversially we also welcomed Argentine comics artist Ricardo Villagran (Tarzan, Evangeline) in 1938, and in 1987 said farewell to mighty Joe Colquhoun (Paddy Payne; Roy of the Rovers; Saber, King of the Jungle; Football Family Robinson; Soldier Sharp, the Rat of the Rifles; Kid Chameleon, Adam Eterno; Charley’s War et al). In 2005 Italo-Argentine art ace Juan Zanotto (War Man, Henga, Bárbara, Falka) died too.

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DC Finest: The Flash – The Fastest Man Dead


By Robert Kanigher, Mike Friedrich, Steve Skeates, Dennis O’Neill, Bob Haney, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Don Heck, Dick Dillin, Bob Brown, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano, Joe Giella, Nick Cardy, Frank McLaughlin, Tex Blaisdell, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Jack Adler, Tatjana Wood, John Costanza & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-77952-836-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Here’s another compelling DC Finest edition: chronologically curated paperback archives (generally around 600 pages) highlighting past glories. Whilst primarily concentrating on the superhero pantheon, there are genre selections including horror, sci fi, western and war books, but sadly none yet available digitally. However, we live in hope…

The Silver Age of US comics is formally and forever tied to Showcase #4 and the rebirth of The Flash. That epochal issue was released in the late summer of 1956 and from it stems all today’s print, animation, games, collector cards, cosplay and TV/movie wonderment. No matter which way you look at it, the renaissance began with The Flash, but it’s an unjust yet true fact that being first is not enough: it also helps to be best and people have to notice. MLJ’s The Shield beat Captain America to the news-stands by over a year yet the former is all but forgotten today. I mention that here as it pertains to this collection, which sees the advent of original Shield co-creator Irv Novick (Bob Phantom; Hangman; Steel Sterling; Silent Knight; Robin Hood, all DC war books, Captain Storm; Sea Devils; Batman, The Joker; Lois Lane; Tomahawk and more) as the Scarlet Speedster’s regular illustrator; a run (oh. Ha-Ha.) spanning Flash #200-270 and close to a full 10-year stretch with him only absent for #205, 213-214 & 264…

For the early trendsetting sagas and situations you should catch DC Finest: The Flash – The Human Thunderbolt and take as read that here the (second) Flash is Barry Allen, a police forensic scientist simultaneously struck by lightning and bathed in exploding chemicals from his lab. Supercharged by the accident, Barry (a lifelong fan of comic books) took his superhero identity from his favourite childhood reading – and eventually his acknowledged alternately Earth predecessor. Once upon a time there was a “fictional” scientist named Jay Garrick who was exposed to the mutagenic fumes of Hard Water and promptly became the “fastest man alive”…

Wearing a sleek, streamlined, tricked-out bodysuit (courtesy of  Carmine Infantino – a major talent approaching his artistic and creative peak), Barry was point man for the spectacular revival of a genre and an entire industry. He also became a renowned intergalactic champion, wholesome family man and paternalistic elder statesman of the superhero set after marrying his longtime fiancée Iris West…

With Infantino safely elevated to DC’s current publisher, this splendidly tempting full colour paperback of Seventies hits displays the glorious work of the last replacement illustrators before the Flash landed in Novick’s hands, just as changing tastes rejected the previously paramount, rationalistic science fiction worlds touched by the Vizier of Velocity. Now high speed action involved issues of social relevance and themes of supernatural horror and makes for some weird moments as this copious compendium covers The Flash #197-229 (May 1970 – October 1974) plus guest shots in World’s Finest Comics #198-199 (November & December 1970) and The Brave and the Bold #99 (December 1971/January 1972).

Gil Kane & Vince Colletta capture all the fun and thrills of Mike Friedrich’s ‘Four-Star Super-Hero’ in the opening yarn of Flash #197 as a sharp cop spots a private communication tic only shared with his lab partner Barry Allen. Attempts to save a secret identity and convince Charlie Conwell otherwise are further hampered by blizzard conditions in Central City, canny crooks with jetpacks and skis, a flu epidemic and Barry’s dedication to Amateur Dramatics, which see him take time out to play every part in the local presentation of Hamlet. All’s well that ends well and after that show goes on, it’s back to cosmic basics with Robert Kanigher’s ‘To the Nth Degree’ showing the Crimson Comet catapulted across the universe to save fire-beings on an exploding planet, courtesy of another wild invention of his father-in-law Professor Ira West…

Kanigher, Kane & Colletta open #198 where ‘No Sad Songs for a Scarlet Speedster!’ has three orphan kids aid a gun-shot and temporarily brain-damaged Flash regain his lost mojo before neophyte superhero Zatanna guests in ‘Call it …Magic’ (by Friedrich, Don Heck & Colletta) and requires swift rescue after being abducted across arcane dimensions by macabre body-snatcher Xarkon…

Kanigher, Kane & Colletta’s ‘Flash? Death Calling!’ in #199 focuses on the ordeals of scientist Dr Hollister who dons the scarlet skin-tights to punish himself after apparently accidentally killing the hero. However that guilt also saves the day and resurrect the speedster – just in time for Flash to meet superspy Colonel K (of US-IN-T Agency) and stop a Chinese energy missile smashing into ‘The Explosive Heart of America!’ (Kanigher, Kane & Colletta)

Novick and inker Murphy Anderson join Kanigher for anniversary celebration ‘Count 200 – and Die!’ as the Monarch of Motion succumbs to mind manipulation and is manoeuvred by sinister siren Dr. Lu into  assassinating the US President. Thankfully our hero (Flash of course, not PotUS!) is faster than his own fired gunshot and is back in all-American action for #201, enduring Kanigher, Novick & Anderson’s ‘Million-Dollar Dream!’ and applying tough love to wheelchair bound sports star Pablo Hernandez. The treatment restores the player but that’s only fair as the hero was responsible for initially crippling the kid…

Many issues offered second stories at this time, and the policy of guest shots for other Flash-family favourites was solidly in place. Here Kanigher, Novick & Anderson take us to Earth Two and swift encore for an old villain as Jay Garrick produces – eventually – the ‘Finale for a Fiddler!’

Although costumed hero capers were waning in general appeal, Flash was still hugely popular. Thus when World’s Finest Comics began a run of Superman team-ups with #198, the Red Runner was the clear first choice and allowed editors to return to a thorny topic which had bedevilled fans for years.

The comic book experience is littered with eternal, unanswerable questions. The most common and most passionately asked always begin “who would win if” or “who’s strongest/smartest/fastest…” Here, crafted by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella, ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and concluding instalment ‘Race to Save Time’ (WFC #198-199) upped the stakes on two previous competitions as our high-speed heroes are conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the entire cosmos at their greatest velocities to reverse the rampage of the mysterious Anachronids: faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout galaxies is actually unwinding time itself and unravelling the fabric of creation. Little does anybody suspect that Superman’s oldest enemies were behind the entire appalling scheme, but the battle was swiftly won and reality saved in the end…

It was a far more grounded but no less chilling situation in Flash #202 where Kanigher, Novick & Anderson despatch reporter Iris Allen to Hollywood where she is kidnapped by murderous cultist creeps ‘The Satan Circle’ and her frantic husband confronts the unknown and the worst aspects of human nature to save her. Kid Flash then endures his own eldritch overload as ‘The Accusation!’ (by Steve Skeates, Dillin & Anderson) finds college-age comet Wally West tormented by visons of impending death that come appallingly true…

With Kanigher, Novick & Anderson at the helm #203 augured a huge change in the cosy domestic set-up as ‘The Flash’s Wife is a Two-Timer!’ reveals that Iris is actually a foundling sent through time to escape atomic armageddon and only the adopted child of scatterbrained super-genius Ira West. When the process reverses itself and she is dragged back to the future – Central City 2970 AD – The Flash follows and is caught up in a war that has been all but won by oppressive East-bloc tyrant Sirik the Supreme. Of course his intervention is enough to reset the scales before he returns baffled bride Iris Russell (née West)-Allen to her immigrant time period.

Once there though, repercussions of the revelation continue as a recovered 30th century keepsake turns her into an uncontrollable, secret-exposing blabbermouth in #204’s ‘The Great Secret Identity Exposé!’ with the Justice League understandably irate that Flash talks in his sleep and his wife knows all their civilian identities…

Back up tale ‘The Mind-Trap’ (Skeates, Dillin & Anderson) then sees Kid Flash chasing a body-stealing Egyptian pharaoh’s ghost to end the issue on a lighter note…

The Flash #205 was another hugely popular reprint collection of the era, sporting a cover by Dick Giordano (and included here) before it was back to spooky business in #206 for Kanigher, Novick & Anderson’s ‘24 Hours of Immortality!’ as haughty alien superbeings resurrect a recently killed surgeon and young mother to attend to unfinished business, but for the most mean-spirited motives – until Flash intervenes with a lesson all could benefit from.

With the supernatural now fully unleashed at DC, Flash #207 led with Friedrich, Novick & Anderson’s ‘The Evil Sound of Music!’, as former mystic hero Sargon the Sorcerer exploits his own family and rock ‘n’ roll-loving kids to restore his lost powers, before confronting the Scarlet Speedster, his own inner demons and rapacious external devils on the path back to the light. Grounding that journey to hell, Kid Flash then faces ‘The Phantom of the Cafeteria!’ ending the depredations of a superfast, hyper-hungry alien in a quick but satisfying yarn from Skeates, Dillin & Giordano.

In #208, Kanigher, Novick & Anderson exposed ‘A Kind of Miracle in Central City’ as wayward kids exploited by drug pushers are saved by prayer, the timely intervention of nuns and invisible superspeed before Flash #209 debuted new regular writer Cary Bates. He would run with the Vizier of Velocity for the rest of the series, only missing #213-214, 217, 293, 306 and 313 between 1970 through 1985.

Fresh from the starting blocks, Bates, Novick & Giordano took the speedster into higher, weirder realms ‘Beyond the Speed of Life!’ where Flash and reality shielding Sentinel stopped existence from being devoured. Meanwhile, on mundane Earth old Rogues Trickster, Captain Boomerang and Gorilla Grodd squabbled over bragging rights for who had finally killed the hero. At the back, Kid Flash saved a student troubled by gangsters in ‘Coincidence Can Kill!’ courtesy of Skeates, Dillin, Giordano.

A visit to 2971 came with #210 as Bates, Novick & Giordano expanded the Earth East-Earth West “warm” war in ‘An Earth Divided!’ with Flash seeking to save man-made President Abraham Lincoln (II) from belligerent occidental tyrant Bekor. Science fiction surrendered to spooky tales next as Flash teamed up with Batman in Brave and the Bold #99. Here Bob Haney, Bob Brown, & Nick Cardy revealed how an attempt to resurrect Bruce Wayne’s parents opened the door to the Dark Knight’s possession by an unquiet spirit. ‘The Man Who Murdered the Past!’ almost ensured an invasion of angry ghosts until superspeed and smart thinking saved the day…

Comics were always about popular trends, and in Flash #211 Bates, Novick & Giordano contrived alien invaders who used the fad of rolling derby to fuel the destruction of Earth via constantly ‘Flashing Wheels!’ However, Kid Flash was on far more stable ground as he exposed corrupt officials covering up toxic dumping in ‘Is This Poison Legal?’ by Skeates, Dillin & Giordano. Equally bold and topical the next issue saw ‘The Flash in Cartoon Land!’ with Novick & Giordano depicting how manic 64th century magician Abra Kadabra trapped the hero and a little lad Barry Allen was babysitting in a graphic madhouse where scientific rules did not apply.

The next two issues – #213 & 214 – were reprint specials represented here with the original covers by Neal Adams & Cardy before #215 saw Bates, Novick, Frank McLoughlin & Giordano detail the ‘Death of an Immortal!’ The eons are catching up with undying villain Vandal Savage who attempts to trick Barry Allen and Jay Garrick into remedying the crisis for him. However their mission is intercepted by chronal cop Tempus and the end is not what Savage anticipated…

For Bates at least, Flash was all about his signature Rogues Gallery and in #216 the writer revealed the shocking truth about multiple personality villain Al Desmond/Dr. Alchemy/Mr. Element. Seemingly cured and reformed, Desmond was afflicted by ‘The Curse of the Dragon’s Eye!’ (Novick, Frank McLoughlin & Giordano), astrally connected to an unstable star in the constellation Draco and vacillating between manic and passive, and Good and Evil as it built to cataclysmic detonation. Now that time had come and Flash had to save his friend and hopefully prevent him destroying Earth when his patron star died. Its counterbalanced by Skeates & Dillin’s Kid Flash fable ‘2D?’ as Kid Flash goes after extradimensional slavers abducting workers who stare at certain paintings for too long…

Hard times for superheroes saw Green Lantern take up residence in the anterior pages of The Flash from #217 and shorter tales began with a fill-in from Len Wein for Novick & McLoughlin. ‘The Flash Times Five is Fatal!’ saw the hero attacked by a rogue AI built by Ira West. It preferred sabotage, reality warping and murder to rescinding its categoric statement that no one as fast as the Scarlet Speedster could possibly exist…

Bates and the Pied Piper returned in #218 as a cunning sonic ambush was foiled by speed vibrations generating ‘The Flash of 1,000 Faces!’ whilst in #219 (with Joe Giella inking) ‘The Million Dollar Deathtrap’ saw the hero targeted by wagering rivals Mirror Master and The Top and only triumphing after applying the proven principle of “divide and conquer”…

Flash literally and grotesquely joined protégé Kid Flash in #220 as The Turtle (Barry’s very first super-foe) returned to alter Earth’s internal vibrations and cure ‘The Slowest Man on Earth’ of his unique condition no matter the cost to everyone else. Thankfully two heads proved better than one in this instance and the shaking shakedown was averted.

Co-scripter John Warner joined Bates, Novick & McLoughlin for #221’s ‘Time-Schedule For Disaster!’ as techno-bandit Cipher attempts – and ultimately fails – to harvest Flash’s speed vibrations to power his weapons before #222’s ‘The Heart That Attacked the World!’ (Novick, McLoughlin & Giordano) offers a full-length team up with Green Lantern as Weather Wizard and Sinestro join forces to end their enemies. Sadly, born betrayer Sinestro secretly linked the Speedster’s racing heartbeat to the continued existence of Earth…

In #223, Bates, Novick & Giordano ‘Make Way for the Speed-Demons!’ as another old enemy rigs races between Flash and three mechanical racers of land sea and air, with the expressed intention of humiliating the speedster whilst hiding his true intentions, before #224 introduces ‘The Fastest Man Dead!’ after Barry’s friend and mentor Charlie Conwell is murdered. That doesn’t stop the veteran helping Flash close the last case on his docket and save his pal Barry one last time…

Another Scarlet-Emerald team-up sees Flash again battle Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash before discovering  ‘Green Lantern, Master Criminal of the 25th Century!’ (#225, Bates, Novick & Giordano) is the villain’s unwilling slave. Of course, it all plays out successfully in time, after which Captain Cold and Heatwave embroil Barry Allen in their psycho-drama rivalry, thereby inadvertently subjecting Flash to ‘The Hot-Cold War in Central City!’ (inked by Giordano & McLoughlin). Immediately afterwards (with McLoughlin inking) #227 reveals ‘Flash – This is Your Death!’ as Captain Boomerang ( and his dad!) rerun past fast & furious clashes whilst seeking to end the hero’s career and existence forever, before Tex Blaisdell inks #228’s ‘The Day I saved the Life of the Flash!’ Here Bates injects himself into the story as a comic book writer from Earth-Prime accidentally slips across dimensional divides; arriving on Earth-One in time to aid the “fictional” speedster he scripts in a deadly duel with the Trickster…

This compendium closes with the pertinent original material from 100-Page Spectacular Flash #229 which led with a Golden Age Flash team up as ‘The Rag Doll Runs Wild!’ Here Bates, Novick, Giordano & McLoughlin detail how a seeming resurgent rampage by a 1940s thieving contortionist is merely a mask for a far more sinister scheme perpetrated by a hidden vengeful mastermind. Closing proceedings are two teaser treats from that giant compendium: specifically a ‘Flash Puzzle’ by Bob Rozakis, Infantino & Anderson and an unattributed ‘Flash Trivia Quiz and Answers’…

With covers by Kane, Infantino, Anderson, Neal Adams, Colletta Giordano, Jack Adler, Cardy and Tatjana Wood, this splendid selection is a must-read item for anybody in love with the world of words-in-pictures and fast-paced fantasy fables. Ready. Steady, Go get it!
© 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1906 was the birth date of cartoonist Dale Messick (Brenda Starr, Reporter) followed ten years later by comic book/ad exec Irv Novick, and author Peter O’Donnell (Modesty Blaise, James Bond, Romeo Jones) in 1920. In 1954 Jamie Delano (Captain Britain, Doctor Who, Hellblazer, Animal Man) joined the party as did Matt Kindt (Poppy and the Lost Lagoon, Dept. H, MIND MGMT, BRZRKR) in 1973.

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DC Finest: Justice League of America – Starro the Conqueror


By Gardner F. Fox, Mike Sekowsy, Carmine Infantino, Bernard Sachs, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-773-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – by which we mean the launch of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s progress was to combine individual sales-points into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was irrefutably proven: a number of popular characters could multiply readership by combining forces. Plus, of course, a whole bunch of superheroes is far cooler than just one – or even one and a sidekick…

Thus the Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a true landmark in the development of comic books and – when Julius Schwartz began reviving and revitalising the nigh-defunct superhero genre in 1956 – the next key moment would come a few years with the inevitable teaming of reconfigured mystery men. The League launched in The Brave and the Bold #28 (cover-dated March 1960 but actually on sale from December 29th 1959) and cemented the growth and validity of the revived subgenre, triggering an explosion of new characters at every company producing comic books; even spreading to the rest of the world as the 1960s progressed.

Spanning March 1960 to May 1963, this full-colour paperback collection of timeless classics re-presents The Brave and the Bold #28-30, issues #1-19 of the epochal first series of Justice League of America and a crucial early cross-branding event from Mystery in Space #75, with scripter Gardner Fox and illustrators Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs – with the support of Joe Giella, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson – seemingly able to do no wrong. That moment that changed everything for us baby-boomers came in The Brave and the Bold #28, a classical adventure title that had recently become a try-out magazine like Showcase. Just in time for Christmas 1959 ads began running…

“Just Imagine! The mightiest heroes of our time… have banded together as the Justice League of America to stamp out the forces of evil wherever and whenever they appear!…”

When it came that first tale was written by the indefatigable Gardner Fox and illustrated by quirky, understated virtuoso Mike Sekowsky, and inked by Bernard Sachs, Joe Giella & Murphy Anderson. ‘Starro the Conqueror!’ saw Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, J’onn J’onzz – Manhunter from Mars and recent debutante Green Lantern defeat a marauding alien starfish whilst Superman and Batman stood by as a reserve. In those naive days, editors feared their top characters could be “over-exposed” and consequently lose popularity. The team also picked up an average American kid as a mascot. “Typical teenager” Snapper Carr would prove a focus of fan controversy for decades to come, and the yarn was/is supplanted by fact page ‘The “Starfish” Family!’ crafted by clever persons currently unknown…

Confident of his material and the superhero genre’s fresh appeal, Schwartz had two more thrillers ready for the following issues. B&B #29 saw the team defeat a marauder from the future who apparently had history on his side in ‘The Challenge of the Weapons Master!’ (inks by Sachs and Giella) whilst #30 saw the debut of the team’s first mad-scientist archvillain in the form of Professor Ivo who employed and his super android Amazo in ‘The Case of the Stolen Super Powers’ (Fox, Sekowsky & Sachs) to  end the try-out run. Three months later a new bi-monthly title debuted…

Perhaps somewhat sedate by histrionic modern standards, the JLA was revolutionary in a comics marketplace where less than 10% of all sales featured costumed adventurers. Not only consumer imagination was struck by hero teams either. Stan Lee was apparently given a copy of Justice League by his boss Martin Goodman and told to do something similar for the tottering comics company he ran… and look what came of that…

Justice League of America #1 offered a voyage to ‘The World of No Return’, in the insalubrious company of trans-dimensional tour-guide and tawdry tyrant Despero who bedevilled the World’s Greatest Heroes until, once again, plucky Snapper Carr became the key to defeating the villain and saving the day. As previously mentioned, although Superman and Batman were included in the membership their participation was strictly limited as editorial diktat at the start to avoid possible reader ennui and saturation from over-exposure. That ended from this point forward as they joined the regulars in all their games.

The second issue’s ‘Secret of the Sinister Sorcerers!’ presented an astounding conundrum as the villains of Magic-Land sneakily transposed the location of their dimension with Earth’s, causing the Laws of Science to be replaced with the Lore of Mysticism. The true mettle of the costumed heroes (with Superman & Batman fully participating in the proceedings) was shown when they had to use ingenuity rather than their powers to defeat fearsome foes and set two worlds to rights.

JLA #3 introduced despicable despot and slimy sentient trafficker Kanjar Ro who attempted to turn the team into his personal army in ‘The Slave Ship of Space!’, before the next episode was the first of many to feature a new member joining the team. Green Arrow saved the day in science-fiction thriller ‘Doom of the Star Diamond’, but was almost kicked out in #5 as the insidious evil genius Doctor Destiny inadvertently framed him ‘When Gravity Went Wild!’

The glory days of full-on “costumed crazies” was still in the future and most tales of this period involved extraterrestrial or fringe technology-triggered emergencies such as the mad scientist who encountered them next. ‘The Wheel of Misfortune!’ saw the debut of pernicious and persistent master of wild science Professor Amos Fortune, who weaponised luck to challenge the masked marvels, whilst #7 was another alien invasion plot (Agellaxians this time) who used an amusement park as a live-weapons lab, using humans to beta test their tech and eerily transform the swiftly-investigating heroes infiltrating ‘The Cosmic Fun-House!’

Organised crime then collided with cruel happenstance in January 1962’s JLA #8. ‘For Sale… the Justice League!’ offered a smart gangster caper wherein cheap hood Pete Rickets finds a prototype teaching tool and misuses it as mind-control weapon to enslave the superhero team before simple Snapper once again saves the day.

As often remarked, back then origins and character background were not as important as delivering solid entertaining stories and it was not until Justice League of America #9 (cover-dated February 1962 and on sale from December 21st 1961) that the group shared its motivating first case with enthralled readers via the narrative engine of curious Snapper Carr. Nigh-mythic now and oft-recounted. ‘The Origin of the Justice League’ recounts the circumstances of the team’s birth in an alien invasion saga as mighty space warriors seeking to use Earth as a gladiatorial arena in which to decide the future ruler of their distant world Appellax…

It’s followed by the series’ first continued story. ‘The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust!’ finds the World’s Greatest Superheroes already battling a marauder from the future – the Lord of Time – when they’re spellbound by a vile sorcerer. Faust has awoken three antediluvian demons (Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast) and sold them the world in exchange for 100 years of unlimited power. Although the heroes eventually outwit and defeat Faust they have no idea that the demons are loose…

Although chronologically and sequentially adrift, next up is  Mystery in Space #75 (May 1962), wherein the worlds-beating team guest-star in a full-length thriller in Adam Strange’s ongoing, off-world epic adventures. Strange is an Earth archaeologist who regularly teleports to a planet circling Alpha Centauri where his wits and ingenuity saved the citizens of Rann from all manner of interplanetary threats and menaces. In ‘The Planet that came to a Standstill!’, Kanjar Ro attempts to conquer Strange’s adopted home, and our gallant hero must enlist the aid of the JLA before once again saving the day himself. This classic team-up was written by Fox, and illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson.

Then, back in JLA #11 (also cover-dated May 1962) concluding chronological conundrum ‘One Hour to Doomsday!’ sees the JLA pursue and capture initial target The Lord of Time, before becoming trapped a century from their home-era by the awakened, re-empowered demons. This level of plot complexity hadn’t been seen in comics since the closure of EC Comics, and never before in a superhero tale. It was a profound acknowledgement by the creators that the readership was no longer simply little kids – if indeed it ever had been…

Perennial archvillain Doctor Light debuted in #12, attempting a pre-emptive strike on the team by transporting them to carefully selected sidereal worlds where their abilities would be useless, but ‘The Last Case of the Justice League’ proved to be anything but, and in the next issue the heroes saved our entire reality by solving ‘The Riddle of the Robot Justice League’: sinister simulacra created to stop the champions from halting the theft of our life-energy by agents of another cosmic realm. Then ‘The Menace of the “Atom” Bomb!’ in #14 proved to be  a neat way of introducing latest inductee The Atom whilst showing a fresh side to an old villain masquerading as new nemesis Mister Memory…

‘Challenge of the Untouchable Aliens’ in JLA #15 added some fresh texture to the formulaic plot of extra-dimensional invaders out for our destruction before ‘The Cavern of Deadly Spheres’ delivered a deceptive change-of-pace tale with a narrative technique that just couldn’t be used on today’s oh-so-sophisticated audience, but still has the power to grip a reader. Ever challenging and always universal continuity building, more links between heroes were formed in #17’s ‘Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant!’ Here a sentient cyclone that had once battled indomitable Adam Strange (in Mystery in Space #61) set up housekeeping on an desolate world and ponder the very nature of Good and Evil and even roleplay out its deliberations. It soon realised that it needed the help of the Justice League to reach a survivable conclusion…

Teaser Alert: As well being a cracking yarn, this story is pivotal in the development of the android hero Red Tornado…

JLA #18 found the heroes forcibly summoned to a subatomic universe by three planetary champions whose continued existence now threatened to destroy the very world they were designed to protect. ‘Journey to the Micro-World’ found the JLA compelled to defeat opponents who were literally unbeatable and discovering yet again that Batman’s brains were a super power no force could thwart…

One final perplexing puzzle was posed in ‘The Super-Exiles of Earth’ after unstoppable duplicates of the heroes go on a crime-spree, forcing global governments to banish the League into space. Breaking rules and laws whilst battling undercover in their civilian identities, the team prove too much for the mystery mastermind behind the plot and return to public acclaim in a stellar wrap-up to another fabulous feast of four-colour fun.

With iconic covers by Sekowsky, Infantino and Anderson, these tales are a perfect example of all that was best and purest about US comics’ Silver Age: combining optimism and ingenuity with bonhomie and adventure. This slice of better times also has the benefit of cherishing wonderment whilst actually being historically valid for any fan of our medium. Best of all the stories here are still captivating and enthralling transports of delight.

These classical compendia are a dedicated fan’s delight: an absolute gift for modern fans who desperately need to catch up without going bankrupt. They are also perfect to give to youngsters as an introduction into a fabulous world of adventure and magic…
© 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1883 trailblazing strip creator Frank King (Gasoline Alley) was born, as was trendsetting illustrator Mac Raboy (Captain Marvel Junior, Green Lama, Flash Gordon) in 1914; German comics legend Rolf Kauka (Dagobert, Fix und Foxi) in 1917 and Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol, some music and TV and movies ‘n’ stuff) in 1977.

In 1978, DC’s The World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip premiered.

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Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Marvel Masterworks volume 1


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dennis O’Neil, Roy Thomas, John Severin, Joe Sinnott, Don Heck, Howard Purcell, Ogden Whitney, John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, Jim Steranko & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2686-7 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Veteran war-hero and superspy Nick Fury debuted in Fantastic Four #21 (cover-dated December 1963): a grizzled, world-weary and cunning (but innately Good) CIA Colonel at the periphery of the really big adventures in a fast-changing world.

What was odd about that? Well, the gruff, crudely capable combat everyman was already the star of the reemergent publisher’s only war comic, set twenty years earlier in – depending on whether you were American or European – the beginning or middle of World War II. Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos was an improbable, decidedly over-the-top and raucous combat comics series, similar in tone to later movies such as The Wild Bunch or The Dirty Dozen and had launched in May of that year.

Nevertheless, Fury’s latterday self became a big-name star as espionage yarns continued guiding a global zeitgeist in the wake of popular TV sensations like Danger Man and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Bond movies (and many imitators) so the contemporary iteration was granted a second series. It began in Strange Tales #135 (cover-dated August 1965).

Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. combined Cold War tensions with sinister schemes of World Conquest by a subversive, all-encompassing, hidden enemy organisation. The ever-unfolding saga came with captivating Kirby-designed super-science gadgetry and – eventually – iconic, game-changing imagineering from Jim Steranko, whose visually groundbreaking graphic narratives took the comics art form to a whole new level…

For those few brief years with Steranko in charge, the S.H.I.E.L.D. series was one of the best strips in America (if not the world) but when the writer/artist left just as the global spy-fad was giving way to supernatural mystery and horror stories, the whole concept faded into the fundamental background architecture of the Marvel Universe…

This astounding full-colour compendium (available in hardcover and digital editions) deals with the outrageous, groundbreaking, but still notionally wedded-to-mundane-reality iteration which set the scene.

Here Jack Kirby’s genius for graphic wizardry and gift for dramatic staging mixed with Stan Lee’s manic melodrama to create a tough and tense series which the new writers and veteran artists that followed turned into a non-stop riot of action and suspense, with Steranko’s late arrival only hinting at the magic to come…

These epic early days of spycraft encompass Strange Tales #135-153 and Tales of Suspense #78, collectively covering August 1965 – February 1967 and guaranteeing timeless thrills for lovers of adventure and intrigue. Following a history lesson from Kirby scholar John Morrow in his Introduction, the main event starts in at full pelt in ST #135 as the Human Torch solo feature was summarily replaced by Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which back then stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division). In the rocket-paced first episode, Fury is asked to volunteer for the most dangerous job in the world: leading a new counter-intelligence agency dedicated to stopping secretive subversive super-science organisation Hydra. With assassins dogging his every move, the Take-Charge Guy with the Can-Do Attitude quickly proves he is ‘The Man for the Job!’ in a potent 12-page thriller from Lee, Kirby and inker Dick Ayers.

Even an artist and plotter of Kirby’s calibre couldn’t handle another strip at that busiest of times, so from the next issue “The King” cut back to laying out episodes, allowing a variety of superb draughtsmen to flesh out the adventures. Happily, however, there’s probably a stunning invention or cool concept on almost every page that follows so the Kirby Touch was fully upon the unfolding suspense and intrigue. ‘Find Fury or Die!’ brought veteran draughtsman John Severin back to the company that used to be Atlas. He pencilled and inked Jack’s blueprints as – aided and abetted by full-on patriotic weaponsmith Tony Stark – the new Director of the latest spy-agency becomes the target of incessant assassination attempts as we meet mysterious masked maniac the Supreme Hydra…

The tension ramps up for the next instalment as a number of contenders are introduced – any of whom might be the obscured overlord of evil – even as S.H.I.E.L.D. strives mightily but fails to stop Hydra launching its deadly Betatron Bomb in ‘The Prize is… Earth!’ Despite the restrictions of the Comics Code, these early S.H.I.E.L.D. stories were bleakly grim and frequently carried a heavy body count. Four valiant agents died in quick succession in #137 and the next issue underscored the point in ‘Sometimes the Good Guys Lose!’, with further revelations of Hydra’s inner workings.

Fury and fellow WWII era Howling Commando stalwarts Dum-Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones meanwhile played catch-up after Hydra assassins invade S.H.I.E.L.D., almost eliminating Fury and Stark – the only man capable of destroying an atomic sword of Damocles hanging over the world. Although Fury saves the munitions genius, he is captured in the process…

Tortured by Hydra in #139’s ‘The Brave Die Hard!’ (with Joe Sinnott replacing Severin as finisher), Fury latches on to an unlikely ally in Laura Brown, the Supreme Hydra’s daughter and a young woman bitterly opposed to her father’s megalomaniacal madness. Even with only half a comic book per month to tell a tale, creators didn’t hang around in those halcyon days, and #140 promised ‘The End of Hydra!’ (Don Heck & Sinnott over Kirby) as a S.H.I.E.L.D. squad invades the enemy’s inner sanctum to rescue the already-free-&-making-mayhem Fury. In the meantime, Stark travels into space to remove the orbiting Betatron Bomb with his robotic Braino-Saur system. The end result leaves Hydra temporarily headless…

Strange Tales #141 sees Kirby return to full pencils (inked by pseudonymous Frank Giacoia, moonlighting as Frank Ray) for the mop-up, prior to ‘Operation: Brain Blast!’ introducing Mentallo – a mutant and career criminal renegade from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ESP division. He joins technological savant The Fixer to assail the organisation as their first step in an ambitious scheme to rule Earth. The momentous raid begins in ‘Who Strikes at… S.H.I.E.L.D.?’ (illustrated by Kirby & Mike Demeo – AKA Mike Esposito) with the ruthless rogues hitting hard and fast: seizing and mind-controlling Fury before strapping him to a mini H-bomb. With Howard Purcell & Esposito embellishing Kirby’s layouts, Dum-Dum and the boys come blasting in ‘To Free a Brain Slave’ in #143. A new and deadly threat emerges in #144’s ‘The Day of the Druid!’ as a mystic-seeming charlatan targets Fury and his agents with murderous flying techno-ovoids. Happily, new S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit Jasper Sitwell is on hand to augment the triumphant fightback in ‘Lo! The Eggs Shall Hatch!’ (finished by Heck & Esposito).

As Marvel continuity grew evermore interlinked, ‘Them!’ details a Captain America team-up for Fury in the first of the Star-Spangled Avenger’s many adventures as a (more-or-less) Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Taken from Tales of Suspense #78 (June 1966): scripted by Lee with Kirby on full pencils and Giacoia inking, the story depicts the WWII wonders battling an artificial assassin with incredible chemical capabilities, after which Nick seeks the creature’s mysterious makers in ST #146, ‘When the Unliving Strike!’(Kirby, Heck & Esposito).

Proclaiming themselves a technological Special Interests group, Advanced Idea Mechanics courts S.H.I.E.L.D.’s governmental and military masters (and contracts), promising potent and incredible new weapons if only they would sack that barbaric slob Fury. However, the surly supremo is getting close to exposing A.I.M.’s connection to “Them” …and an old enemy thought long gone.

A concerted whispering campaign and briefing-against seemingly sees Fury ousted in ‘The Enemy Within!’, before being put on trial in ‘Death Before Dishonor!’ (scripted by Kirby with Heck & Esposito finishing his layouts), but it’s all part of a cunning counterplan which delivers a shattering conclusion and ‘The End of A.I.M.!’ (ST #149, dialogued by Denny O’Neil with art by Kirby & Ogden Whitney). Then, revealed by Lee, Kirby, John Buscema & Giacoia, a malign, devilishly subtle plan is finally exposed in Strange Tales #150 as Fury’s team compares clues from all the year’s past clashes to come to one terrifying conclusion… ‘Hydra Lives!’

The shocking secret also hints at great events to come as newcomer Steranko assumes the finisher’s role over Lee & Kirby for ‘Overkill!’ with Fury targeted by the new – true – Supreme Hydra who devises a cunning scheme to infiltrate America’s top security agency and use his enemy as the means of triggering global Armageddon…

Although the Good Guys seemingly thwart that scheme, ‘The Power of S.H.I.E.L.D.!’ is actually helpless to discern the villain’s real intent as this initial dossier of doom pauses on a cliffhanger after ‘The Hiding Place!’ (ST #153, scripted by Roy Thomas) closes with the archvillain comfortably ensconced in Fury’s inner circle and ready to destroy the organisation from within.

To Be Continued…

Although the S.H.I.E.L.D. saga stops here, there’s an added bonus still to enjoy: the aforementioned FF #21. This depicted Fury as a wily CIA agent seeking the team’s aid against a sinister demagogue ‘The Hate-Monger’ (Lee & Kirby, inked by George Roussos, under protective nom-de-plume George Bell) just as the 1960s espionage vogue was taking off. Here Fury craftily manipulates Marvel’s First Family into invading a sovereign nation reeling in the throes of revolution in a yarn crackling with tension and action…

Fast, furious and fantastically entertaining, these high-octane vintage yarns from a time when the US were global Good Guys and “World Police” are a superb snapshot of early Marvel Comics at their creative peak and should be part of every fanboy’s shelf of beloved favourites.

Don’t Yield! Back S.H.I.E.L.D.!

© 1965, 1966, 1967, 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1907, Belgian artist Jacques Laudy (Le Journal de Tintin) was born, as was occasional Green Lantern scripter Henry Kuttner in 1915 and Canadian cartoonist Jacques Boivin (Melody) in 1952. In 2007, B,C. creator Johnny Hart died.

Today in 1935 Dr. Seuss launched his short lived but influential strip Hejji and, in 1992, Art Spiegelman received a Special Pulitzer Prize for Maus.

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Green Lantern: The Silver Age volume 1


By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6348-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today marks the centenary of Eli Katz, who, as Gil Kane, worked from the Golden Age until his death (on January 31st 2000) to make comics the art form it is today. Diligent, resolute and always challenging himself, Kane was a trendsetting pioneer in style, in form and in comics philosophy. He was also a visual architect of the superhero revival in the Silver Age and a key component in the evolution of the Graphic Novel.

Gil Kane worked as an artist, and an ever-more effective and influential one, drawing – and writing – for many companies since his 1940s debut: on superheroes, action, war, mystery, romance, movie adaptations and, perhaps most importantly, Westerns and Science Fiction tales. In the late 1950s Kane was one of editor Julius Schwartz’s go-to artists for regenerating the superhero. Yet by 1968, at the top of his (admittedly much denigrated) profession, this relentlessly revolutionary and creative man felt so confined by juvenile strictures of the industry that he struck out on new ventures, jettisoning editorial and format bounds of comic books for new visions and media.

His Name Is Savage was an adult-oriented monochrome magazine about a cold and ruthless super-spy in the James Bond/Man Called Flint mould, co-written by friend & collaborator Archie Goodwin. It was very much a precursor in tone, treatment and subject matter to many of today’s adventure titles. The other venture, Blackmark (also with Goodwin), not only ushered in an era of comic book Sword & Sorcery, but became one of the first Graphic Novels. Technically, as the series was commissioned by publisher Ballantine as eight volumes, it was also America’s first comic Limited Series. Volume 1 launched in January 1971, with volume 2 just completed when the publisher killed the project. Albeit a generation Kane’s junior, long term seasoned collaborator Roy Thomas reprinted those tales in Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan and Marvel Preview, with artwork rejigged to accommodate a different page format.

In comic books Kane’s milieux included Boy Commandos, Young Allies & Newsboy Legion, Johnny Thunder, Jimmy Wakely, Hopalong Cassidy, Rex the Wonder Dog, The Atom, Plastic Man, Robin, Batgirl, Batman, Superman, Flash, Hawk and Dove, Captain Action, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent, plus hundreds of genre yarns – romance, war, sci fi, western and horror – before landing at Marvel Comics to reinvent Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Ka-Zar and Captain Marvel, co-creating Adam Warlock, Morbius, Iron Fist. He adapted John Carter, Warlord of Mars and other adventure fantasy properties and reinvigorated dozens of horror-hero and superhero stalwarts, all while filling in on seemingly every character and cover going…

Restless and craving what the medium could still achieve, he created newspaper strip Star Hawks (in 1977 with Ron Goulart) and numerous special projects like Jason Drum for Le Journal de Tintin and The Ring of the Nibelung. Also working as Gil Stack, Scott Edward, Stack Til, Stacktil, Pen Star and Phil Martell, Kane was a foundation stone of comics and remains a vivid, vital inspiration to future generations of creators and readers.

With all that in mind let’s revisit a character he co-created and who will be forever associated with Kane: the Silver Age Emerald Gladiator…

After their hugely successful revival and reworking of The Flash, DC (or National Comics as they were) were keen to build on the resurgent superhero trend. Showcase #22 hit the stands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comic book – #108 – and once again the guiding lights were Editor Julie Schwartz & writer John Broome. Assigned as illustrator was action ace Gil Kane, generally inked by Joe Giella.

This fabulous paperback compilation gathers Showcase #22-24 (September/October 1959 to January/February 1960) and Green Lantern #1-9 (July/August 1960-November 1961) and reveals how a Space Age reconfiguration of the Golden-Age superhero with a magic ring replaced mysticism with super-science.

Hal Jordan was a young test pilot in California when an alien policeman crashed his spaceship on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear. Scanning the planet it selected Jordan and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his profession to the astonished Earthman.

In six pages ‘S.O.S Green Lantern’ established characters, scenario and narrative thrust of a series that would increasingly become the spine of DC continuity, leaving room for another two adventures in that premiere issue. ‘Secret of the Flaming Spear!’ and ‘Menace of the Runaway Missile!’ were both contemporary thrillers set against the backdrop of the aviation industry at a time when the Cold War was at its height. Unlike Flash’s debut, the publishers were now confident of their ground. The next two issues of Showcase carried the new hero into even greater and more fantastic exploits. ‘Summons from Space’ sent Green Lantern to another world: saving an emerging race from a deadly threat at the behest of the as-yet-unnamed leaders of the Green Lantern Corps, whilst ‘The Invisible Destroyer’ pitted the neophyte Emerald Gladiator against earthbound eerie menace – a psychic marauder that lived on atomic radiation.

Showcase #24 (January/February 1960) featured another spy-ring in ‘The Secret of the Black Museum!’ but Jordan’s complex social life took centre-stage in ‘The Creature That Couldn’t Die!’ when the threat of an unstoppable monster paled before the insufferable stress of being his own rival. Hal’s boss Carol Ferris, controversially left in charge of her father’s aviation company (an utterly radical concept in 1960 when most women were still considered fainting-fodder fluff), won’t date an employee, but is deliriously happy for him to set her up with glamorous, mysterious GL…

Six months later Green Lantern #1 was released. All previous tales had been dynamically drawn by Kane & Giella, in a visually arresting and exciting manner, but the lead tale here, ‘Planet of Doomed Men’ was inked by the astoundingly multi-talented Murphy Anderson, and his fine line-work elevated the tale (more emergent humans in need of rescue from another monster) to the status of a minor classic. Giella returned for the second tale, ‘Menace of the Giant Puppet!’, in which GL fought his first – albeit rather lame – supervillain, the Puppet Master.

The next issue originated a concept that would be pivotal to the future of DC continuity. ‘The Secret of the Golden Thunderbolts!’ featured an Antimatter Universe and the diabolical Weaponers of Qward: a twisted race who worshipped Evil, and whose criminals (i.e. people who wouldn’t lie, cheat, steal or kill) wanted asylum on Earth. Also inked by Anderson, this is an early highpoint of tragic melodrama from an era where emotionalism was actively downplayed in comics. The second story ‘Riddle of the Frozen Ghost Town! is a crime thriller highlighting the developing relationship between the hero and his Inuit (then “Eskimo”) mechanic Tom “Pieface”Kalmaku.

The Qwardians returned in the all-Giella-inked #3, leading with ‘The Amazing Theft of the Power Lamp!’ before Jordan’s love life again spun out of control in ‘The Leap Year Menace!’, whilst GL #4 saw the hero trapped in the antimatter universe in ‘The Diabolical Missile from Qward!’ (Anderson inks) nicely balanced by light-&-frothy mistaken-identity caper ‘Secret of Green Lantern’s Mask!’ This last was apparently crafted by a veritable round-robin raft of pencillers including Kane, Giella, Carmine Infantino, Mike Sekowsky and Ross Andru…

Issue #5 was a full-length thriller introducing Hector Hammond, GL’s second official recurring super-foe in ‘The Power Ring that Vanished!’: a saga of romantic intrigue, mistaken identity and evolution gone wild. This was followed by another pure science fiction puzzler ‘The World of Living Phantoms!’ (Kane & Giella), debuting avian Green Lantern Tomar Re and opening up the entire universe to avid readers.

Having shown us other GLs, Broome immediately excelled himself in the next episode. ‘The Day 100,000 People Vanished!’ brought the Guardians of the Universe into the open to warn of their greatest error: renegade Green Lantern Sinestro who, in league with Qwardians, had become a threat to the entire universe. This taut, tense shocker introduced one of the most charismatic and intriguing villains in the DCU, and the issue still had room for a dryly amusing, whimsical drama introducing Tom Kalmaku’s fiancée Terga in ‘Wings of Destiny’.

In the early 1960s DC production wizard Jack Adler devised a process to add enhancing tone to cover illustrations. The finished result was eye-catching and mind-blowing, but sadly, examples such as the cover of #8 here really don’t work with the glossy pages and digitised colour-tints of modern reproduction. Never mind, though, since contents ‘The Challenge from 5700 AD!’ comprise a fantasy tour de force as the Emerald Gladiator is shanghaied through time to save the future from an invasion of mutant lizards…

Sinestro returned in the next issue – the last in this astounding cosmic collection – with his own super-weapon in ‘The Battle of the Power Rings!’ (with Anderson again substituting for Giella) but the real gold is ‘Green Lantern’s Brother Act’, with the revelation of Hal’s two brothers and a snoopy girl reporter convinced young Jim Jordan is secretly the ring-slinging superhero. This wry poke at DC’s house plot-device shows just how sophisticated Schwartz & Broome believed their audiences to be.

In those long ago days costumed villains were always third choice in a writer’s armoury: clever bad-guys and aliens always seemed more believable to creators back then. If you were doing something naughty would you want to call attention to yourself? Nowadays the visual impact of buff men in tights dictates the type of foe more than the crimes committed, which is why these glorious adventures of simpler yet somehow better days are such an unalloyed delight. These Fights ‘n’ Tights romps are in themselves a great read for most ages, but when also considered as the building blocks of all DC continuity they become vital fare for any fan keen to make sense of the modern superhero experience.

Judged solely on their own merit, these are snappy and awe-inspiring; beautifully illustrated by a rapidly evolving graphic narrative superstar in ascendance: captivatingly clever thrillers that amuse, amaze and enthral both new readers and old devotees. This collection is a must-read item for anybody in love with our art-form and especially for anyone just now encountering the hero for the first time through his TV incarnation.
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1882 Spanish creator Salvador Bartolozzi (weekly Pinocchio) was born, with The New Yorker cartoonist Chon Day arriving in 1907, Levi Katz in 1926 and crusading Filipino cartoonist Pol Medina Jr. (Pugad Baboy) in 1960. In 1980 Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button, New School, The Unclothed Man In the 35th Century A.D., Courier) joined that august grouping.

In 1936 Frank Leonard’s Mickey Finn strip debuted, and ran until 10th September 1977.

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The Phantom – the complete newspaper dailies: volume Five 1943-1944


By Lee Falk & Wilson McCoy: introduction by Ed Rhoades (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-030-7 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born Leon Harrison Gross, Lee Falk created the Ghost Who Walks 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 became the prototype paladin to wear a skin-tight body-stocking and the first wearing a mask with opaque eye-slits…

The undying, generational champion 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. The equally enthralling, hugely influential Sunday feature began on May 28th 1939. Both are still running.

For such a long-lived, influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, “the Ghost Who Walks” was quite poorly served in the English language market (except in the Antipodes, where he’s always been accorded the status of a pop culture god). Lots of companies have sought to collect strips from one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history, but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success. That has been mostly rectified recently by archival specialists Hermes Press who launched curated collections in 2010, making nearly all the various canonical iterations accessible to the devoted.

This fifth landscape Dailies edition is currently only available digitally. Released in 2013, its pages are stuffed with sumptuous visual goodies like panel and logo close-ups, covers and lots of original art, and opens with ‘Introduction: Passing the Torch’: a memories-rich text feature stuffed with sumptuous visual goodies from much-missed uber-fan Ed Rhoades, after which we resume the never-ending story in progress…

Previously – and in a volume STILL agonisingly unavailable: a colossal war campaign in the African jungles catapulted the reclusive do-gooder into global headlines as the “masked commander of Bengali” and the triumphant “Hero of The Oolan”: unwanted attention which made The Phantom an unhappy but extremely well known heroic public figure. During the siege his adored Significant Other Diana Palmer was gravely wounded. As she recuperates in the USA, attended by faithful failed-suitor Captain Byron, the Ghost who walks is being flown to the Land of the (currently) Free for pointless military bombast and tedious morale-boosting backslapping. It’s a situation he plans on escaping ASAP …

The vintage blood-&-thunder fun begins with brooding, tension-packed thriller ‘Bent Beak Broder’ (originally running Mondays to Saturdays, January 11th to May 22nd 1943) wherein Phantom – and faithful wonder-wolf companion Devil – duck the escorts and parades to head for Diana’s home and sickbed. It involves a tedious cross country hitchhiking stint and lands the hero-in-mufti in the middle of a prison break. When ruthless rogue Bent Beak kidnaps a young girl and goes on a rampage, our seasoned crimebuster is duty-bound to postpone his romantic reunion and hunt down the monstrous malcontents in a stunning display of psychological warfare and thundering fists, leaving the convicts mentally scarred for life and marked with the Phantom’s signature Death’s Head ring brand…

Neatly segueing into soap opera romance with a side order of comedy, ‘The Phantom’s Engagement’ (24th May – 24th July) at last finds him at her doorstep and bedside just as Byron makes one more play for her heart. Gently rebuffed and at last accepting that she will never be his, the captain prepares to leave. However, pushed by Diana’s family – and especially her Uncle Dave – the uncharacteristically nervous masked marvel girds himself to propose but is briefly distracted by the arrival of terrifying African emissary Prince Karna of the Ismani and a religious rite that cannot be deferred. Renewal rite wrapped up, The Phantom perseveres and pops the question.

Everything seems fine (and funny to all observing) until Diana, who initially accepts his proposal to extend the Phantom line unto a another generation, abruptly changes her mind and turns him down, saying that she is promised to Byron. Baffled and broken, The Phantom is unaware that Diana mistakenly believes herself unable to walk ever again…

Upon learning that her paralysis was temporary, Diana tries to follow The Phantom back to Africa, with the reluctant but big-hearted help of Byron, but by now “Kit Walker” and Devil are far out at sea and facing the opening gambits of epic yarn ‘High Seas Hijackers’ (26th July 1943 – 26th February 1944). Here the Jungle Judge renews his eternal war on pirates against a wicked band employing a diabolical new gimmick…

Across oceans still wary of submarine attacks, glamorous, eye-catching agent provocateur/fifth columnist Suzie is fascinated by enigmatic never-seen fellow passenger Mr. Walker. Not so much her snooty superior Mrs J who isn’t, but won’t let it stop them preparing the freighter conveying them all – the S.S. Harvey – for capture by sea marauders. Not far away, the sinister General has devised a tactic for scaring away crews and taking ships without a struggle, but this stratagem almost founders when a masked maniac is found haunting the current target. Eventually, The Phantom is captured and the General, a pirate to his core, recognizes the undying nemesis of his kind. As he starts to unravel, Suzie interrogates the prisoner and finds her own merciless worldview shifting, but cannot stop her terrified boss throwing the captive overboard tied to tons of machinery…

His escape and subsequent pursuit brings him to a tropical island nation where the villainous General is actually the richest, most respected and second most powerful man there. However with Suzie switching sides The Phantom and Suzie dismantle his powerbase as Governor, before exposing him to the far distant politically isolated President. This involves a sustained struggle employing a war of nerves, guerilla tactics and sheer fortitude after the villain sets the entire military on their trail… all to no avail. In the end justice is served but the cost is shockingly high and deeply personal…

Saddened by his loss, The Ghost Who Walks decides on one last (secret) glimpse of Diana before losing himself in the Jungles of Bengali and returns to America just in time to become embroiled in ‘The Spy Game’ (28th February – 20th May). Byron and Diana are “Just good friends” now, and when the Captain is ordered by Uncle Dave (a big deal in US Military Intelligence) to courier a briefcase of secrets to a specific location at a certain time, Diana adds cover as his wife. Unfortunately the couple are under surveillance already, by a deadly ring of spies: a certain masked hero and his wolf who get the wrong idea. When Kit Walker notices their other shadows, he gets involved behind the scenes, safeguarding them on a spectacular and mindbending Hitchcock-like odyssey of peril and intrigue involving planes, trains and automobiles, and non-stop action, that ends with The Phantom and Diana reunited and engaged again. However Byron, already despatched on another mission, has extracted a promise that she will marry no one else until his return…

It’s back to crime and the public’s growing fascination with gangsterism for closing adventure ‘The Crooner’ (22nd May – 26th August 1944). This felonious mastermind’s grand idea is to frame the Phantom by committing brutal crimes all “signed” with his Death’s Head mark, but soon learns the power of that symbol when the hero dismantles his operation with chilling efficiency…

Short on actual jungle tales but stuffed with chases, cruises, air clashes, assorted fights, torture, action antics, daredevil stunts and many a misapprehension in the-then modern milieu of America and a war-torn contemporary world, this is sheer pulp-era excitement that still packs a breathtaking punch and many sly laughs. Rollercoaster thrills delivered at rocket pace, these pared-down, gripping episodes display artist Wilson McCoy developing his craft and honing skills on every panel, making the strip visually his until his untimely death in 1961, after which Carmine Infantino and Bill Lignante filled in until Sy Barry took over.
© 2013 King Features Syndicate, Inc.: ® Hearst Holdings, Inc.; reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Yesterday in 1902 British cartoonist Brian White was born. His greatest contrition to world peace and global morale was Nipper. Just as important – to me at least – are the arrivals of letterer Sam Rosen in 1922, and multitasking comics maestro Joe Orlando in1927. Barely less important, scripter, editor and “DC Answer Man” Bob Rozakis arrived in 1951 as did cover artist Dave Johnson in 1966.

In 1991 we lost legendary EC horror and romance artist Graham Ingels, whilst 1997 saw the passing of trailblazing African American comics creator Billy Graham (Vampirella, Eerie, Creepy, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Sabre).

Today in 1916, writer/artist/editor/publisher Bernard Baily (The Spectre, Hourman, Gilda Gay, Frankenstein) was born, and in 1941 so was Archie Comics mainstay Victor Gorelick. Mangaka Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball) arrived in 1955; cartoonist Dan Perkins – AKA Tom Tomorrow (This Modern World) – in 1961 and “Legend”-ary creator Art Adams (Longshot, X-Men, Superman, Batman, Monkeyman & O’Brien, Gumby and practically everyone else) in 1963.

And also today in 2005 we lost glass-ceiling shattering cartoonist Dale Messick, first woman to create her own syndicated newspaper strip: Brenda Starr, Reporter.

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Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles volume 1


By Max Allan Collins & Rick Fletcher (Checker Books)
ISBN: 978-0-97416-642-1 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

Almost, sort of, Time for another anniversary celebration. Here’s a superb collection crying out for revival in either physical or digital forms. Time to agitate again against the publishing powers-that-be, I think…

Comics have a pretty good track record for creating household names. We could play the game of picking the most well-known fictional characters on Earth – usually topped by Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, Superman, Batman and Tarzan – and supplement the list with Popeye, Charlie Brown, Tintin, Spider-Man and – not so much now, but once definitely – Dick Tracy…

At the height of the Great Depression cartoonist Chester Gould sought fresh strip ideas. The story goes that as a decent guy incensed by the exploits of gangsters like Al Capone – who monopolised the front pages of contemporary newspapers – the callow scribbler settled upon the only way a normal man could fight thugs: Passion and Public Opinion…

Raised in Oklahoma, Gould was a Chicago resident and hated seeing his town in the grip of such wicked men, with far too many honest citizens beguiled by the gangsters’ charisma. He decided to pictorially get it off his chest with a procedural crime thriller that championed the ordinary cops who protected civilisation. He took his proposal – Plainclothes Tracy – to legendary newspaperman and Strips Svengali Captain Joseph Patterson, whose golden touch had already blessed The Gumps, Gasoline Alley, Little Orphan Annie, Winnie Winkle, Smilin’ Jack, Moon Mullins and Terry and the Pirates among others. Casting his gifted eye on the work, Patterson renamed the hero Dick Tracy, also revising his love interest into steady, steadfast girlfriend Tess Truehart.

The series launched on October 4th 1931 (so 95 and counting in mere months as the strip is still running today) as a Sunday addition to the Detroit Mirror, before spreading via Patterson’s Chicago Tribune Syndicate across the USA. It quickly grew into a monumental hit, with all the attendant media and merchandising hoopla that follows. Amidst toys, games, movies, serials, animated features, TV shows et al, the strip soldiered on, influencing generations of creators (like Bill Finger & Bob Kane) and entertaining millions of fans. Gould unfailingly wrote and drew the strip for decades until retirement in 1977.

The legendary lawman was a landmark creation who influenced not simply comics but the entirety of American popular fiction. Its signature use of baroque villains, outrageous crimes and fiendish death-traps pollinated the work of numerous strips (most notably Batman), shows and movies since then, whilst the indomitable Tracy’s studied, measured use – and startlingly accurate predictions – of crimefighting technology and techniques gave the world a taste of cop thrillers, police procedurals and forensic mysteries such as CSI decades before the modern true crime fascination took hold.

As with many creators in it for the long haul, the revolutionary 1960s were a harsh time for established cartoonists. Along with Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon, Gould’s grizzled gang buster especially foundered in a social climate of radical change where popular slogans included “Never trust anybody over 21” and “Smash the Establishment”.

The strip’s momentum faltered, perhaps as much from the move towards science fiction (Tracy shifted jurisdiction into space and the character Moon Maid was introduced) and even more improbable, Bond-movie style villains as any perceived “old-fashioned” attitudes. Even the introduction of more minority and women characters and hippie cop Groovy Groove couldn’t stop the rot. However, the feature soldiered on regardless…

Max Allen Collins is a hugely prolific and best-selling author of both graphic novels (Road to Perdition, CSI, Batman, Mike Mist, Ms. Tree) and prose thriller series featuring crime-creations Nathan Heller, Quarry, Nolan, Mallory, Krista Larson, Mike Hammer and a veritable pantheon of others. When Gould retired from the Tracy strip, the young author (nearly 30!) won the prestigious role as scripter, and promptly took the series back to its roots for a breathtaking 11-year run, ably assisted by Gould as consultant even as his chief artistic assistant Rick Fletcher was promoted to full illustrator.

This criminally scarce but splendidly enthralling monochrome paperback compilation opens with publisher Mark Thompson’s informative Introduction ‘Flatfoot’, and offers a frankly startling ‘Dick Tracy Timeline’ listing series achievements and innovations from 1931 to 1988 even before the captivating Cops-&-Robbers clashes recommence with Collin’s inaugural adventure.

‘Angeltop’s Last Stand’ (3rd January – March 12th 1978) rapidly sidelined fantastical science fiction trappings (Tracy’s adopted son Junior had previously married aforementioned astral princess Moon Maid) whilst reviving grittily ultra-violent suspense as old friend Vitamin Flintheart is targeted for assassination. With the senior detective’s assistants Sam Catchem and Lizz Worthington on the case, it’s soon clear the assault is part of a scheme to make Tracy suffer. Solid investigation turns up two suspects, relatives of old – and expired – enemies Flattop Jones and The Brow confirming familial revenge is the motive…

Sadly, the Police Department’s resources are inadequate to prevent aggrieved daughter Angeltop Jones and the new Brow from abducting Tracy. Tragically for the vengeful felons, the grizzled crimebuster might be old but is still inventive and indomitable, and a cataclysmic confrontation leads to a fatal conflagration at the place of Flattop’s demise…

The next tale features an original Gould villain making a surprise comeback in the ‘Return of Haf-and-Haf’ (March 13th – June 11th) wherein manic murder-fiend Tulza Tuzon – whose left profile had been hideously scarred with acid – is released from the asylum, seemingly rehabilitated by modern psychology and groundbreaking plastic surgery…

Of course, only his face was fixed and the fiend quickly tries to murder ex-fiancée Zelda – who had betrayed him to the cops a decade previously. Tracy is on hand to save her, but unable to prevent Zelda from enacting grisly retribution on her attacker, leaving Tuzon woefully in need of fresh cosmetic repair. Naturally, the unscrupulous surgeon who fixed him on the State’s dime wants a huge amount of clandestine cash to repeat the procedure and the stage is soon set for doom and tragedy on a Shakespearean scale…

This first Collins collection concludes with an epic minor classic harking back to Tracy’s first published case. ‘Big Boy’s Revenge’ – AKA ‘Big Boy’s Open Contract’ – ran from 12th June 1978 to January 2nd 1979, detailing the unexpected return of the thinly-disguised Al Capone analogue Tracy had sent to prison at the very start of his career.

Decades later Big Boy, still a member of the crime syndicate known as The Apparatus, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and wants to take with him the copper who first brought him down. Ignoring and indeed eventually warring with other Apparatus chiefs, the dying Don puts a $1,000,000 contract on Tracy’s head and lies back to watch the fireworks as a horde of hitmen and women zero in on the blithely unaware Senior Detective…

The resulting collateral damage costs the hero one of his nearest and dearest, removes most of the strip’s accumulated sci fi trappings and firmly reset the scenario in the grim and gritty world of contemporary crime. The Good Guys triumph in the end, but the cost is shockingly high for a family strip…

Dick Tracy has always been a fantastically readable feature and this potent return to first principles is a terrific way to ease yourself into his stark, no-nonsense, Tough-Love, Hard Justice world. Comics just don’t get better than this…
© Checker Book Publishing Group 2003, an authorized collection of works © Tribune Media Services, 1978, 1979. All characters and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

Born today in 1888, Canadian cartoonist J.R. Williams (Out Our Way sharing the natal event with iconic European grand master Edgar P. Jacobs (The U Ray, Blake and Mortimer) in 1904, Tex Blaisdell (Superman, Batman, Little Orphan Annie) in 1920 and Raymond Macherot (Clifton, Chlorophylle, Sibylline) in 1924.

In 2008 we lost the ubiquitous and splendid Jim Mooney (Spider-Man, Tommy Tomorrow, Supergirl, Legion of Super-Heroes) whilst in reading matters, today in 1985 saw the 1555th and final issue of UK weekly Tiger come and forever go, as did comedy comic Whoopee! – a prized UK chuckle choice since 1974.