Category: Historical

Posted on

HM Bateman: The Man Who… and Other Drawings


By H.M. Bateman; edited by John Jensen (Methuen 1983)
ISBN: 978-0-41332-360-9 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times but also emphasised for comedic effect.

On February 15th in 1887, Henry Mayo Bateman was born in New South Wales. He was however, raised in England, attending Forest Hill House School and Goldsmith’s College (Institute, as was). He also studied with John Hassall and later at the Charles Van Havenmaet Studio from 1904-07. He was a great fan of Comic Cuts and Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, and his first cartoons were published in 1903 in Scraps. Bateman was skilled and gifted in both illustrative and comedic drawing and agonised over his career path before choosing humour. Mercifully, he was too frail for military service in 1914 and so his gifts were preserved for us all to share. He died in Gozo, Malta on February 11th 1970, having spent his final years in steadfast (often hilarious) battle with the Inland Revenue…

Bateman’s most memorable series of cartoons was ‘The Man Who…’ These were lavish set pieces, published as full colour double-page spreads in The Tatler, perpetually lampooning the English Manner by way of frenzied character reactions to a gaffe or inappropriate action from a blithely oblivious central participant. Bateman’s unique strength came from extending his training as a caricaturist into all his humorous work, a working philosophy that the artist equated with drawing people as they felt rather than how they looked.

He was also a British pioneer of cartoons without text, depending on beautifully rendered yet powerfully energetic and vivacious interpretations of people and environment to make his always funny point. He was a master of presenting a complete narrative in a single image.

In reviewing the 14 collections published during his lifetime and such collections as the volume at hand, or the excellent The Best Of H M Bateman 1922-1926: The Tatler Cartoons (1987), I was particularly struck by the topicality of the work as well as the sheer wonder of the draughtsmanship. Find if you can ‘The Man Who asked for a second helping at a City Company Dinner’, wherein 107 fully realised Diners and waiters, all in full view, have 107 different and recognizable reactions to that gauche request. It is an absolute masterpiece of comic art – as are all the rest. In a world where the next fad is always the most important, it is vital that creators such as Bateman remain unforgettable and unforgotten. I pray to the cartoon gods that somewhere soon some museum retrospective on British culture will rescue this genius from ill-deserved (temporary) obscurity and generate one last curated collection for us to revel in…
Text ©.1983 John Jensen/Methuen. Illustrations © 1982, 2007 Estate of H M Bateman.

For further explorations and illumination please check out HM Bateman – Official Cartoons & Artwork.

Also today, Golden Age comics artist Nina Albright (Miss Victory, Black Venus) was born, as was Belgian star Willy Vandersteen (Spike and Suzy) in 1913 and Disney Duck artist William Van Horn in 1939.

Art Spiegelman was born in 1948, and Marc Hansen (Ralph Snart, Weird Melvin, Doctor Gorpon) in 1963, whilst in 1965, Morrie Turner launched Wee Pals, America’s first strip with a racially diverse cast. In 1987, Walt Disney’s Treasury of Classic Tales ended a run begun in the early 1950s. We also lost today veteran Canadian artist Jack Sparling in 1997, and two Italian Bonelli/Tex Willer stalwarts: Vincenzo Monti in 2002 and Fabrizio Busticchi in 2017.

Posted on

In the Days of The Mob


By Jack Kirby, Vince Colletta, Mike Royer, Sergio Aragonés & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4079-0 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Jack Kirby died today in 1994. This is one of his best and least recognised concept-books. Don’t you think it’s about time it was re-released and available digitally?

There’s a magnificent abundance of Jack Kirby collections around these days (though still not every single thing he ever did, so I remain a partially disgruntled devotee) and this sturdy oversized hardback re-presents the complete “King’s Canon” of one his most personal – yet subsequently misunderstood and mishandled – DC projects.

Famed for his larger than life characters and gigantic, cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual man who had lived through poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II – all grist for his imaginative mill and the basis for this particular publishing project. He saw Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. He was open-minded and utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject.

On returning from World War II, with his long-term creative partner Joe Simon, he created the entire genre of Romance comics for the Crestwood/Prize publishing outfit. Prior to that, however, Joe and Jack plundered history books and the daily papers to craft a raft of edgy, adulted oriented crime thrillers for titles such as Headline Comics, Real Clue Crime Stories and Justice Traps the Guilty. The genre was one they made uniquely their own…

Changing tastes and an anti-crime, anti-horror witch-hunt quashed the comics industry, so under a doctrinaire, self-inflicted conduct code, publishers stopped innovating and moved into more anodyne areas. This established holding pattern persisted until the rebirth of superheroes. Working at a little outfit dubbed Atlas, Jack partnered with Stan Lee and when superheroes were revived, astounded the world with a salvo of new concepts and characters that revitalised if not actually saved the comics business.

Kirby understood the fundamentals of pleasing his audience and always toiled diligently to combat the appalling state of prejudice about the type-and-picture medium – especially from insiders and professionals who despised the “kiddies’ world” they felt trapped in.

However, after a decade or so, costumed characters again began to wane. Public interest in genre topics and the supernatural was building, with books, television and movies all exploring the subjects in gripping and stylish new ways.

The Comics Code Authority was even ready to slacken its censorious choke-hold on horror titles to save the entire industry from implosion as the 1960s superhero boom fizzled out.

Experiencing increasing editorial stonewalling and creative ennui at Marvel, in 1970 Kirby accepted a long-standing offer from arch rival National Periodical Publications AKA DC Comics…

Before he was let loose on DC’s continuity with his epic, controversial, grandiose Fourth World project Kirby looked for other concepts which would stimulate his vast creativity and still appeal to an increasingly fickle market. General interest in the occult was growing, and America was also enjoying a protracted love affair with period gangster yarns thanks to shows like The Untouchables, and books and movies such as The Godfather or Bonnie and Clyde.

Promised freedom to innovate, one of the first projects he tackled was a new magazine format carrying material targeting adult readerships. He devised Spirit World – a supernatural themed, adult-oriented monochrome magazine – and sister title In the Days of the Mob, dedicated to revisiting the heady era when crime ran wild in America.

For the full story of how that worked out, you can read Mark Evanier’s acerbic article in equally neglected companion volume Jack Kirby’s Spirit World. The net result of constant editorial cowardice and backsliding was that Kirby and his small team were left to create magazines that DC didn’t promote or support and casually cancelled even before they hit the newsstands.

After decades of obscurity the work was at last gathered into two glorious and oversized (282 x 212 mm) hardback compilations, each collecting the superb but poorly received and largely undistributed first issues that had nigh-invisibly launched in the summer of 1971. At least the books also re-presented whatever remained of the unpublished second issues.

In the Days of the Mob #1-and-only was released with no discernible marks or connections to DC/National Comics with a September 1971 cover-date through a subsidiary called Hamilton Distribution. Like a body with “concrete overshoes” it promptly vanished without trace. Here though, historical details plus other contextual treasures are provided in ‘Crime and Punishment Pinball: An Introduction by John Morrow’, wherein the esteemed historian, collector and publisher describes the state of play in the Bad Old Days, before the comics wonderment begins.

New York ghetto-kid Kirby used his own childhood experiences to flavour graphic reconstructions of the explosive careers of legendary gangsters and for this long-awaited revival, In the Days of the Mob forsakes continuity in favour of plot and mood-driven tales related by a sinister narrator-host. Printed in redolent sepia monotones, the premier issue combined comics stories (because DC wouldn’t spring for colour photography) with prose and monochrome “Foto-Features”, all furiously fuelled by the King’s unique perspective.

Inked by Vince Colletta, the stories were journalistic biographs delivered with a supernatural twist as they came direct from the horse’s mouth – and from the Ultimate Big House – as seen in ‘Welcome to Hell!’, which introduced sardonic Warden Fry, gatekeeper of an infernal jail made especially for mobsters and murderers.

The first of Fry’s cautionary tales is ‘Ma’s Boys’, detailing the rise and fall of the infamous Barker bandit clan and their psychopathic domineering mother, after which ‘Bullets for Big Al’ offers just one little snippet from a modern mythology packed with atrocious acts of violence.

Featurette ‘The Breeding Ground’ then provides a word-&-photo snapshot of the era’s poverty and privations whilst text article ‘Funeral for a Florist’ by Mark Evanier & Steve Sherman describes the war between Al Capone and Johnny Torrio for control of Prohibition-era Chicago, after which graphic action resumes with the lowdown on the ‘Kansas City Massacre’ of FBI agents which made Pretty Boy Floyd a legend and Public Enemy No. 1.

Obsessive angler Country Boy is caught by examining his ‘Method of Operation’ before Sergio Aragonés lightens the mood with two pages of gangster gags confirming ‘Killjoy was Here’ prior to the criminal capers concluding with a reproduction of the ‘John Dillinger Wanted Poster’ that came free with the original magazine.

Comics need a huge amount of creative lead-in and preparation and by the time Kirby learned the title was scrubbed, the second issue was all but complete. Here, for the first time fans can now see how the magazine might have developed as – inked by Mike Royer and printed in standard black line – the majority of that unpublished material follows.

Leading off is a salutary moment with Warden Fry and a double-page spread starring Hitler before the bloody vendetta between Brooklyn brothers Meyer, Willie and Irving Shapiro and aspiring mobster Kid Twist led to the creation of organised crime in the form of ‘Murder Inc.’

Devised as a full-length account the story diverts to describe ‘The Ride!’ as Twist orders his pet goons to get rid of a stoolpigeon giving information to up-&-coming lawman Thomas E. Dewey…

Another diversion follows as Kirby details ‘the Colorful, Beautiful, Pragmatic, Inscrutable, Ladies of the Gang!’ revealing how Mrs. Tootsie, Miss Murder Inc., The Kiss of Death Girl and the Decent Kid make the best of life as attendants (willing or otherwise) of men with a price on their heads, before the saga comes to savage end in ‘A Room for Kid Twist!’

Wrapping things up is a rare comedy outing for Kirby as he postulates a variety of technical innovations crooks might benefit from in an outlandish catalogue of ‘Modern Technology and the Getaway Car!’

Kirby always was and remains a unique and uncompromising artistic force of nature: his words and pictures are an unparalleled, hearts-&-minds grabbing delight no comics lover could resist. If you’re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind.

That doesn’t alter the fact that Kirby’s work shaped the entire American scene and indeed the entire comics planet – affecting the lives of billions of readers and thousands of creators in all areas of artistic endeavour for generations. He’s still winning new fans and apostles, from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. Jack’s work is still instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral, deceptively deep whilst simultaneously mythic and human.

Wherever your tastes take you, his creations will be there ready and waiting. So, if cops and robbers are your bag, it would a crime to miss out on these classic treasures.
© 1971, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1949 Comics giant and Kirby lover Rich Buckler was born, as was Yvel Guichet in 1970. In 1970 legendary manga mag Monthly Shonen Jump launched its first issue.

Posted on

Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance of the World


By Marwan Kahil & Ariel Vittori, translated by Montana Kane (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-259-5 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-260-1

Some people are simply so famous that everybody thinks they already know all about them. That’s what makes biographies like this one such a tricky proposition. As always, talent will tell and the narrative gifts of writer Marwan Kahil and illustrator Ariel Vittori are more than sufficient to breathe fresh life into a much-told tale of one of the most accomplished men in world history.

Kahil (A. Einstein – the Poetry of Real) studied at the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris and Simon Boudvin’s prestigious Graphic Art Workshops before deciding to split his time and efforts between comics and film and theatre. Rome-based Ariel Vittori (Quelques pincées de désir) is an artist and designer who numbers Disney, Campari and Monadori amongst her satisfied clients, although her true calling is narrative illustration. She is co-founder and President of Attacapanni Press: an independent publisher matching rising stars with seasoned comics veterans…

Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance of the World opens with a querulous preface from Kahil before the Maestro’s eventful life begins to unfold in glorious colour as the elder reminisces in Rome 1515 anno domini…

It begins in April 1452 with ‘Chapter 1: A Young Man Unlike Any Other’ at the hamlet of Anchiano (near Vinci) with the welcoming of a very observant baby to loving extended family. Time passes and a doting grandfather passes, leaving the special child apprenticed to a painter in Florence…

The present interrupts as the elderly Leonardo falls foul of the Roman clergy and is forced to flee to France…

‘Chapter 2: The Most Handsome Man in Florence’ follows the seemingly blessed teenager as he excels and overtakes mentor Andrea del Verrocchio, roistering his way through Florence and making many friends and far more enemies as he courts rich, powerful and essentially dangerous patrons. Throughout it all he is driven by his unconventional romantic drive and fanatical compulsion to see more and understand everything.

In ‘Chapter 3: The Sforza’s Man’ the itinerant ideas man reaches Milan and works for the powerful duke, even as his older self in 1515 must deal with the so-different responses of his two apprentices Salai and Francesco to their impending arrest and excommunication…

Our saga concludes as the great man finally achieves a measure of peace and security under the patronage of lifelong admirer Francis I, allowing Leonardo to end his days in ‘Chapter 4: In the Service of the King of France’…

Although many scenes and snippets are taken from non-chronological key moments, the overall effect reveals a life both frustrating and frequently dangerous, but lived very much on the scholar’s own terms… and with few regrets. The tale is also liberally dosed with revelatory secrets on the creation of the Master’s greatest artworks and scientific discoveries, adding a degree of enthralling vitality to proceedings.

This beguiling dramatised biography is splendidly augmented by educational extras, such as with ‘Leonardo da Vinci – Works’: a commentary on many of his creations supplemented by a crucial illustrated menu of ‘Principal Players’; a fulsome list of further reading in ‘More on Leonardo’ and a copious illustrated collection of ‘Quotes of Leonardo da Vinci’.

Seen here is a visual delight celebrating a unique mind and personality, and one you should reacquaint yourself with as soon as you can.
© 2017 Blue Lotus Prod. © 2019 NBM for the English translation.

For more information and other great reads go to NBMpub.com.

Today in 1912 strip pioneer Sydney Smith launched Old Doc Yak, precursor to The Gumps, and Mexican cartoonist Gabriel Vargas (La Familia Burrón) was born in 1915. Legendary artist George Evans (EC Comics, Terry and the Pirates, Secret Agent X-9) took his first breath in 1920, as did just as fabulous Bruce Timm in 1961.

UK comic Smash! launched today in 1966 and cartoonist Corinna (The Space Between) Bechko was born in 1974, but in 1996 Italian Roberto Raviola (Kriminal, Alan Ford) died.

Posted on

Cravan – Mystery Man of the Twentieth Century


By Mike Richardson & Rick Geary (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-291-9 eISBN: 978-1-62115-198-2

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

The old cliché about truth being stranger than fiction seemingly has a lot more force these days than it used to have. Moreover, everybody is always captivated by an unsolved mystery, aren’t they?

That was clearly the case when occasional writer, producer and full-time publisher (of Dark Horse Comics) Mike Richardson discovered he shared a small obsession with cartoonist and true crime raconteur Rick Geary…

That story is intriguing enough in itself but only constitutes a minor footnote at the back of this fascinating appraisal of one of the most infamous self-aggrandizers of the early 20th century and yet somehow fittingly, a man all but forgotten today. If any of us survive we’ll be saying that about 45/47 one day (soon, I hope…).

Rick Geary is a unique talent in the comics industry, not simply because of his style of drawing but especially because of his method of telling tales. For decades he toiled as an Underground cartoonist and freelance illustrator of strange stories – published in locales as varied as Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated, National Lampoon, RAW and High Times -honing his unique ability to create sublimely understated stories by stringing together seemingly unconnected streams of narrative to compose tales moving, often melancholy and always beguiling.

Discovering his natural oeuvre with works including biographies of J. Edgar Hoover and Trotsky, plus the multi-volumed Treasury of Victorian Murder and Treasury of XXth Century Murder series, Geary has grown into a grand master and unique presence in both comics and True Crime literature.

In this captivating monochrome tome, he and Richardson wove scanty facts, some solid supposition and a bit of bold extrapolation into a mesmerising treatise about a precursor to Jimmy Hoffa and Lord Lucan – with a hefty dose of Shergar, D.B. Cooper, Ronnie Biggs and Forrest Gump thrown in for good measure…

Arthur Cravan was but one of the names used by serial fraudster and inveterate troublemaker Fabian Lloyd, a nephew of Oscar Wilde who, after being expelled from the last of many good schools in 1903, began, at the tender age of 16, a short and sparkling career seeking limelight.

In a scant few years he became a star of the art world: a noted poet, Bohemian, journalist, art critic, painter, publisher, author, performer and pugilist (through a string of uncanny flukes he became Lightweight Champion of France without throwing a punch!) whilst simultaneously admitting to being a thief, forger, deserter, confidence-trickster, political subversive and agitator…

A man of many identities – for most of whom he created impeccably-crafted forged papers – Cravan numbered Jack Johnson, Leon Trotsky, Marcel Duchamp and other stellar luminaries of the Edwardian and pre-Great War era as friends. Even after admitting to manufacturing “undiscovered” works by Manet, Dante and his uncle Oscar – whilst assiduously avoiding any involvement in the global conflagration – he was feted by America’s intellectual elite and simultaneously hounded by the US Secret Service…

In 1918, with the American authorities making his life miserable, he set sail from Mexico to join poet Mina Loy – wife and mother of his unborn daughter – in Buenos Aires, but was lost at sea and never seen again.

That’s the official version. Searches found nothing and eventually he was declared dead and mostly forgotten, but stories and sightings persisted, as they always will…

And here’s where Richardson & Geary boldly imagine and draw some admittedly convincing conclusions about Cravan’s possible fate, linking it to the short but fabled career of reclusive author B. Traven: most well known today as the enigma who penned Death Ship and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre…

Beguilingly speculative and ringing with authenticity if not indisputable veracity, this fictive biography is a superb exercise in historical exploration: one packed with wholehearted fun and mercurial love of life. And don’t we all need some of that now?
© 2005 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1949, comics historian Richard Marschall was born, followed by Gladstone Publishing head honcho Byron Erickson in 1951 and translator/writer Randy Lofficier in 1953. At the same time as Brazilian artist Joe Bennett was being born in 1968, British comic Terrific! was selling its final issue.

In 1969 we lost Donald Duck strip illustrator Al Taliaferro, and in 1999, arguably the most significant man in US comic books, when originating editor Vin Sullivan (Action Comics and Superman) died.

Posted on

Richard Wagner’s THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG


Adapted by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane & Jim Woodring (DC Comics/ExPress Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-006-2 (DC TPB) 978-0-93295-620-0 (TPB ExPress Publishing)

Richard Wagner’s four epic operas Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfreid and Götterdämmerung (or The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods if you’re less pompous than me) is a classic reinterpretation of Germano-Norse myth and classic poems collected as the Icelandic Eddas. Over 26 years the master of German music distilled them into a cycle of staggering power, which people either love or hate. Great tunes, too.

Everybody loves the brilliant animated tribute-come-distillation starring Bugs Bunny entitled “What’s Opera, Doc?” – although they probably refer to it as “Kill the Wabbit!”…

All joking aside, the Ring Cycle is a true masterpiece of Western Culture and an immortal inspiration to purveyors of drama and historic fiction. In 1989 and 1990 long-time fans and comics superstars Roy Thomas (who had already integrated the plot into the canon of Marvel’s Mighty Thor) and the legendary and nearly mythical Gil Kane produced a four part, prestige-format miniseries that adapted the events into comic strip form. Latterly P. Craig Russell also adapted the saga in his own inimitable style.

Alberich the Nibelung is a dwarf shunned by all, but a cunning operator who still manages to charm the three Rhine Maidens. Commanded by the King of the Gods to guard an accursed treasure horde that even they could not tame or master, the river nymphs reveal the secret to the glib intruder. Whoever recasts ‘The Rhinegold’ into a ring will have all the wealth and power of the world, but must forever forswear love and joy. Never having known either, greedy Alberich easily forsakes such unsampled pleasures and seizes the treasure even All-Father Wotan dared not touch.

Meanwhile in Heaven, wily Loge has convinced Wotan to promise giants Fasolt and Fafner anything they wish if they will build the great castle Valhalla to house the world’s heroes. Assured that the trickster god can free him from his promise to the giants, Wotan accepts their price, but on completion the giants claim as recompense Freia: Goddess guardian of the Apples of Immortality.

Bound by their Lord’s sworn oath, the gods must surrender her, but malicious Loge suggests that Alberich’s stolen gold – now cast as that dreadfully anticipated ring – can be used by any other possessor without abandoning love. Thus the brothers demand the world-conquering trinket as a replacement fee…

In ‘The Valkyrie’, an unarmed warrior who calls himself Woeful is the sole survivor of a blood-feud. Fleeing, he claims Right of Hospitality from a beautiful woman in a remote cottage, but when her husband returns they all discover that he is a member of the clan Woeful just battled. Secure for the night in the holy bond of Hospitality, Woeful realises he must fight for his life in the morning when the sacred truce expires. Without weapons, he thinks little of his chances… until the woman reveals to him a magic sword embedded in the giant Ash tree that supports the house…

‘Siegfried’ is the child of an illicit union, raised by malicious, cunning Mime, a blacksmith who knows the secrets of the Nibelung. No loving parent, the smith wants the indomitable wild boy to kill the dragon Fafner – who used to be a giant – and steal the magical golden horde the wyrm guards so jealously. However, the young hero has his own heroic dreams and wishes to wake the maiden who slumbers eternally behind a wall of fire…

‘Twilight of the Gods’ reveals how all the machinations, faithlessness and oath-breaking of the Lords of Creation leads to ultimate destruction. Siegfried has won beauteous Brünnhilde from the flames, but their happiness is not to be. False friends drug him to steal his beloved, and wed him all-unknowing to a woman he does not love. A final betrayal by a comrade whose father was the Nibelung Alberich leads to the tormented hero’s death and inevitable consequences…

If you know the operas you know how much more remains to enjoy in this quartet of tales, and the sheer bravura passion of Kane’s art, augmented by the stirring painted palette of Jim Woodring, magnificently captures the grandeur and ferocity of it all. This primal epic is visual poetry and no fan should be without it.

Released by DC in 1991, as a 4 part prestige miniseries before collecting in one titanic tome, the book was re-issued by ExPress Publishing in 2002 and remains not only a high point in the careers of Thomas and Kane (who was particularly passionate about the source material and the debt modern heroic fiction owed to it) but also a landmark in graphic narrative. If you don’t have it already you must make it your life’s quest to get it.
© 1991 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 2000, Gil Kane went to his own heavenly reward. On the other hand, in 1799 Swiss teacher and creator of the modern comics medium Rodolphe Töpffer was born. In 1960 Grant Morrison showed up for the first time, and today is especially momentous as it saw the first appearance of Marsupilami as delivered by André Franquin in Le Journal de Spirou #721.

Posted on

Papyrus volume 2: Imhotep’s Transformation


By Lucien De Gieter, coloured by Colette De Gieter: translated by Luke Spear (Cinebooks)
ISBN: 978-1- 905460-50-2 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

British and European comics have always been happier with historical strips than our cousins across the pond (a pugnacious part of me wants to say that’s because we have so much more past to play with – and yes, I know they can claim Prince Valiant, but it’s an exception, not a rule), and our Franco-Belgian brethren in particular have made an astonishing art form out of days gone by.

The happy combination of past lives and world-changing events blended with drama, action and especially broad humour has generated a genre uniquely suited to beguiling readers of all ages and tastes. Don’t take my word for it – just check out Asterix, Adele Blanc-Sec, The Towers of Bois-Maury, Empress Charlotte, Iznogoud or Thorgal to name the merest few which have made it into English, or even our own much missed classics such as Olac the Gladiator, Dick Turpin, Heros the Spartan or Wrath of the Gods – all long overdue for collection in mass market album form and on the interweb-tubes…

Papyrus is the spectacular magnum opus of Belgian cartoonist Lucien de Gieter. It began in 1974 in the legendary weekly Le Journal de Spirou, running to 36 albums, plus a wealth of merchandise, a television cartoon show and a video game.

The plucky “fellah” (go look it up) was blessed by the gods and gifted with a magic sword courtesy of the daughter of crocodile-headed Sobek. His original brief was to free supreme Horus from imprisonment in the Black Pyramid of Ombos and thereby restore peace to the Two Kingdoms. More immediately however the lad was also charged with protecting Pharaoh’s wilful and high-handed daughter Theti-Cheri – a princess with an unmatchable talent for finding trouble…

De Gieter was born in 1932 and studied at Saint-Luc Art Institute in Brussels before going into industrial design and interior decorating. He made the logical jump into sequential narrative in 1961, first through ‘mini-récits’ inserts (fold-in, half-sized-booklets) for Le Journal de Spirou of his jovial little cowboy Pony, and later by writing for established regular art stars as Kiko, Jem, Eddy Ryssack and Francis.

He then joined Peyo’s studio as inker on Les Schtroumpfs – AKA The Smurfs – and took over the long-running newspaper strip Poussy. In the mid-1960s he created South Seas mermaid fantasy Tôôôt et Puit’, even as Pony was promoted to the full-sized pages of Spirou, so De Gieter deep-sixed his Smurfs gig to expand his horizons, producing work for Le Journal de Tintin and Le Journal de Mickey. From 1972-1974 he assisted cartooning legend Berck on Mischa for Germany’s Primo, whilst putting finishing touches to his new project. This creation would occupy his full attention – and delight millions of fervent fans – for the next 40 years.

The annals of Papyrus encompass a huge range of themes and milieus: blending boys-own adventure with historical fiction and interventionist mythology, gradually evolving from traditionally appealing Bigfoot cartoon content towards a more realistic, dramatic and authentic iteration. Throughout, these light fantasy romps depict a fearless, forthright boy fisherman favoured by the gods as a hero of Egypt and friend to Pharaohs.

Imhotep’s Transformation was the second Cinebook translation (and 8th yarn, originally released in 1985 as La Métamorphose d’Imhotep): opening with our hero and his one-legged friend Imhotep (no relation) paddling a canoe through the marshes of the Nile. The peaceful idyll is wrecked when Theti-Cheri and her handmaidens hurtle by in their flashy boat, but the boys don’t mind as they have a message for the princess and were looking for her…

The new sacred statue of her father has arrived from the Priests of Memphis and the daughter of Heaven is required at the ceremony to install it at the pyramid of Saqqara before the annual Heb Sed King’s Jubilee. As girls and boys race back, an old peasant is attacked by a crocodile and diving after him; Papyrus wrestles the reptile away. He is about to kill it when Sobek appears, beseeching him to spare it.

On the surface Theti-Cheri and her attendants are ministering to the aged victim and the princess can’t help noticing how he bears an uncanny resemblance to her dad…

By the time they all reach the pyramid, the monumental task of hauling the statue into place is well under way, but suddenly blood begins pouring out of the monolith’s eyes. Terrified workers panic and the colossal effigy slips, crashing to destruction. The populace are aghast and murmurs of curses and ill omens abound. Rather than running away, Imhotep heads for the rubble and discovers the statue’s head is hollow. Moreover, inside there is a dead dwarf and a smashed flask which had held blood…

Papyrus is in the royal compound where recent events have blighted the anticipation of the court. During Heb Sed, the Pharaoh has to run around the sacred pyramid three times and fire his bow at the four corners of the kingdoms to prove his fitness to rule, but now it appears the gods have turned against their chosen emissary on Earth…

Papyrus is not so sure and when he tries to speak to a royal server the man bolts. Giving chase, the lad is in time to prevent the attendant’s murder, but not his escape. Then a cry goes up: Pharaoh has been poisoned…

Knowing there is no love lost between the Memphis Priests of Ptah and loyal Theban clerics doctoring the fallen king, Papyrus warns of a possible plot, but can offer no proof. What is worse, Chepseska, leader of the Memphis faction, is of royal blood too and will inherit the kingdom if Pharaoh is unable to complete the Heb Sed ritual. As loyal physicians and priests struggle to save their overlord’s life, Theti-Cheri remembers the old man in the swamp. If only the crocodile bite has not left him too weak to run…

The doughty dotard is willing to try and also knows of a wise woman whose knowledge of herbs can cure Pharaoh. However, ruthless Chepseska is on to the kids’ ploy and dispatches a band of killers to stop Papyrus and Imhotep.

The gods, however, are behind the brave kids and after the assassins fall to the ghastly judgement of Sobek, the boys rush an antidote back to Saqqara, only to fall into the lost tomb of Great Imhotep, first Pharaoh, builder-god and divine lord of the Ibis.

With time running out for his distant descendent, the resurrected ruler rouses himself to administer justice for Egypt and inflict the punishment of the gods upon the usurpers…

This is an amazing exploit to thrill and astound fans of fantastic fantasy and bombastic adventure. Papyrus is a brilliant addition to the family-friendly pantheon of continental champions who marry heroism and humour with wit and charm. Anybody who has worn out those Tintin, Lucky Luke or Asterix tomes would be wise beyond their years in acquiring these classic chronicles tales.

… And Cinebook would be smart to resume translating these magical yarns, too…
© Dupuis, 1985 by De Gieter. All rights reserved. English translation © 2008 Cinebook Ltd.

Born today in 1920 was pioneering woman mangaka Machiko Hasegawa (Sazae-san) as was Belgian auteur Jef Nys (Jommeke) in 1927. Writer Dann Thomas (Conan, All-Star Squadron, Young All-Stars, Arak, Son of Thunder, Crimson Avenger, Avengers West Coast) turned up in 1952 with comics cartoonist and satirist Fred Hembeck arriving a year later. It’s also Denys Cowan’s birthday (1961), Rhoda (Pakkin’s Land) Shipman (1968) and Michael Avon-Oeming (1973); and in 1971 we saw the last episode of Abbie an’ Slats.

Posted on

Fallen Words


By Yoshihiro Tatsumi, translated by Jocelyne Allen (Drawn & Quarterly)
ISBN: 978-1-77046-074-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in really really less enlightened times.

After half a century of virtual obscurity, crafting brilliantly incisive and powerfully personal tales of modern humanity on the margins and on the edge, Yoshihiro Tatsumi (10th June 1935 – 7th March 7, 2015) found “overnight success” in 2009 with his glorious autobiographical work A Drifting Life.

To describe his dark, bleak vignettes of raw real life, in 1957 Tatsumi devised the term Gekiga or “dramatic pictures”, practically if not actually inventing the genre of adult, realistic, socially aware and literary comics stories in Japan. He began his career after WWII, at a time when sequential narratives or “manga” literally meant “Irresponsible” or “Foolish Pictures”: a flashy and fanciful form of cheap, escapist entertainment targeted specifically at children (and the simple-minded) in the years immediately following the cessation of hostilities.

His tales continued in a never-ending progression, detailing the minutiae and momentum of Japanese popular culture and, with his star assured in the manga firmament, turned to a far older aspect of his country’s artistic heritage for this project.

The traditional performance art of Rakugo seems to combine many elements British observers would recognise: reverentially combining familiar tales told many times over such as morality or mystery plays with instructive fables and especially shaggy dog stories. Just like Christmas pantomimes, the art derives from how the story is revamped, retold and re-expressed – although the ending (punchline?) is sacrosanct and must always be delivered in its purest, untrammelled form…

Developing out of the far older Karukuchi and Kobanashi shows, Rakugo was first accepted as a discrete performance style accessible to the lower classes around 1780 CE, during the Edo Period, and going on to establish itself as a popular entertainment which still thrives today, regarded as a type of intimate comedy drama act in Vaudeville theatres.

As with all Japanese art-forms and disciplines, Rakuga is highly structured, strictured and codified, with many off-shoots and subgenres abounding, but basically it’s a one-man show where a storyteller (Rakugoka or Hanashika) relates a broad, widely embellished tale of Old Japan, acting all the parts from a sitting position, with only a paper fan (Sensu) and hand-cloth (Tenegui).

Equal parts humorous monologue, sitcom and stand-up act (or more accurately “kneel-down comedy”, since the Rakugoka never rises from the formal Seiza position) the crucial element is always delivery of the traditional ochi or punchline; inviolate, eagerly anticipated and already deeply ingrained in audience members and baffled foreign onlookers…

As is only fitting, these tales are presented in the traditional back to front, right to left Japanese format with a copious section of notes and commentary, plus an ‘Afterword’ from Mr. Tatsumi himself, and I’d be doing potential readers an immense disservice by being too detailed in my plot descriptions, so I’ll be both brief and vague from now on… as if any of you could tell the difference…

‘The Innkeeper’s Fortune’ relates the salutary events following the arrival of an immensely rich man at a lowly hostel, and what happens after – against his express desires – he wins a paltry 1000 Ryo in a lottery, whilst the ‘New Year Festival’ only serves to remind one reluctant father what a noisome burden his rowdy ungrateful son is…

An itinerant young artist cannot pay his inn bill and, as a promissory note, paints a screen with birds so lifelike they fly off the paper every morning. The populace are willing to pay good money to see the daily ‘Escape of the Sparrows’, more than the bill ever came to.

…And then one day another far more experienced artist wishes to see the screen…

When a dutiful merchant succumbs to the temptations of his trade and engages a mistress, she quickly consumes all his attention, leading to his poor neglected wife trying to kill the homewrecker with sorcery. Soon both women are dead and the merchant is plagued by their ‘Fiery Spirits’, after which ‘Making the Rounds’ details one night in a brothel where four clients are growing increasingly impatient: incensed by the non-appearance of the woman they’ve already paid for…

‘The Rooster Crows’ details the fate of a proud and puritanical young man tricked into visiting a brothel by his friends, whilst a poor and untrained man becomes an infallible doctor after entering into a bargain with ‘The God of Death’. This superb book of fables concludes with the sorry story of a lazy fishmonger who loved to drink, but whose life changed when he found a wallet full of money whilst fishing on ‘Shibahama’ beach – or was it just a dream?

With these “Eight Moral Comedies” Tatsumi succeeded – at least to my naive Western eyes – in translating a phenomenon where plot is so familiar as to be an inconvenience, but where an individual performance on the night is paramount, into a beguiling, charming and yes, funny paean to a uniquely egalitarian entertainment. That bit of graphic literary legerdemain proved him to be a true and responsible guardian of Japanese culture, ancient or modern, and begs the question: why is this glorious tome out of print and not available digitally?
Art and stories © 2009, 2012 Yoshihiro Tatsumi. This edition © 2012 Drawn & Quarterly. All rights reserved.

Today in 1874 pioneering Canadian cartoonist animator and comics creator Vital Achille Raoul Barré was born, just like Belgian Spirou editor Thierry Martens in 1942. One year later American scripter Steve Skeates (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Aquaman, Hawk & Dove) arrived, but we had to wait until 1958 for Jeph Loeb (Batman: The Long Halloween, loads of others).

On the debit side today in 1977, we lost Bob Brown (Space Ranger, Challengers of the Unknown, Batman, Daredevil, The Avengers) and in 1982 Henry cartoonist John Liney, who can be properly appreciated by seeing Henry Speaks for Himself.

Posted on

Add Toner – a Cometbus Collection


By Aaron Cometbus (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-753-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Before the advent of computers and the internet gave everybody with a keyboard and an ounce of determination the ability to become writers and publishers (an eternity before AI made all that a complete joke and waste of time), only those truly dedicated, driven or Full-On Compulsive individualists self-published.

…Or those with something to say.

Aaron Cometbus (not his real name: use your search engine if you absolutely must find out about the man, but the best route would be to read his wonderful work) has been a drummer, roadie, author, designer, traveller, author, raconteur, social historian, bookseller and cultural anthropologist of the American Punk movement from long before he began his hugely acclaimed and long-running ‘Zine Cometbus in 1981.

In the decades over which his hand-crafted publication has been released (as photocopy pamphlet, offset magazine and even audio-mag) his writing and art have covered every aspect of the life of the contemporary outsider from self-exploratory introspection, reportage, criticism, oral history, music journalism, philosophical discourse and even unalloyed fiction – from epigram to novella, news bulletin to chatty remembrance – usually in a distinctive hand-lettered style all his own, augmented by cartoons, photo-collage, comics and a dozen other monochrome techniques beloved of today’s art-house cognoscenti.

Cometbus (go read Downtown Local, The Voyeurs and A Punkhouse in the Deep South: The Oral History of 309) tells stories and has been doing so since the first death of the Punk Rock movement at the end of the 1970s, but the material is – and always has been – about real, involved people, not trendy, commercialised bastardisations.

In 2002 Last Gasp released Despite Everything: a 600+ page Omnibus distillation of the best bits from the first 43 issues with this second compilation released in 2011… and this one’s still available.

Add Toner, which samples issues #44-46, 46½, and 47-48, is a far more comprehensive collection with stories, reminiscences, interviews, artworks and added features such as the novella ‘Lanky’ plus a selection of previously withheld and self-censored pieces which simply captivate and enthral.

Particularly informative and moving are the collected illustrated interviews with the “staff” and patrons of punk watering hole and communal meeting space Dead End Café from #46 (gloriously redolent and evocative of my own art-school punk band hang-out The Horn of Plenty in St. Albans) and a fabulous three-chapter oral history examination of the post-hippie “Back to nature” movement divided into interviews with ‘The Kids’, ‘The Adults’ and an appreciation of ‘Back to the Land’: a fascinating period in American history neglected by just about everybody, probably since most of those flower-power Arcadians and disenchanted just-plain-folks grew more pot than potatoes…

With graphic contributions and supplementary interviews from Phil Lollar, Nate Powell, Katie Glicksberg, Idon, Lawrence Livermore & Michael Silverberg, this is a gloriously honest and seditiously entertaining view of life from the trenches: happy, sad, funny and shocking…

Eccentric, eclectic and essentially, magically picayune, Add Toner is a fabulous cultural doctorate from the Kerouac of my g-g-generation…
© Aaron Cometbus. All rights reserved.

Today in 1878 Mary Tourtel was born, originator of UK strip star Rupert Bear

In 1983 Cuban inker Frank Chiaremonte died and in 1996 we lost two true legends, Jerry Siegel and Burne Hogarth. You don’t need me to tell you how they changed everything.

Posted on

Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter


By Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby, Tiernen Trevallion, Jim Campbell & Jerry Brannigan (Renegade Arts Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-0-99215-085-3 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic and comedic effect.

Robert Burns was born in 1759 in Alloway. His father was a farmer who went to great lengths to ensure that his children were properly educated. Robert was schooled in the classics, French and Latin and began his creative writing when he was fifteen.

He led a successful, tempestuous life – particularly favouring boozy carousing and roistering escapades with the ladies – and died in 1796 aged 37. As well as dialectical and vernacular poetry, Burns selflessly preserved a wealth of traditional Scottish songs and folklore – particularly the bizarre arcane bestiary of supernatural entities God-fearing folk of the 18th century knew were out there (sorry, oot there) – and is more popular today than he has ever been.

He is the only poet in history to have his own globally celebrated holiday, with his birth anniversary on January 25th an affair universally honoured by food, drink, recitations and well-loved scary stories…

This stunning re-imagining of the venerable wordsmith by scripters Gordon Rennie (Necronauts, Cabalistics Inc., Judge Dredd) & Emma Beeby (Doctor Who, The Alienist, Judge Dredd), breathtakingly illustrated by Tiernen Trevallion (2000AD, Judge Dredd) and lettered by Jim Campbell, owes as much to the modern fashion for stylish tongue-in-cheek horror comedies as the beguiling and frequently fantastical works of the poet, but the skilful interweaving of Burns’ immortal lines with a diabolically clever but simple idea make this tale an unforgettable treat whether pages or screens float your particular boat.

Think of it this way: in all those sterling supernatural sonnets and sagas, Burns wasn’t reinterpreting his elders’ supernatural folk tales or exercising a unique imagination, he was simply quoting from his diary…

The wee drama unfolds one night in Ayrshire in 1779 when rascally young gadabout Robbie finds himself on the wrong end of an angry man’s fist after playing fast and loose with the irate hulk’s intended bride. However, even though all the lassies fall for the blithe blather of the self-proclaimed poet, our battered man himself knows he has not yet found his true muse…

Half-drunk and well-thumped, the farmer’s son heads his horse for home but is drawn to uncanny lights emanating from haunted, drear abandoned old Alloway Kirk. Perilously enthralled, he then espies a scene out of Hell itself as witches and demons cavort in a naked ecstasy of dark worship to the satanic master “Old Clootie”…

The lad’s enrapt attention is only broken by a heavy pistol shoved in his ear by a stealthy pair also watching the shocking ritual. Old Mackay is a daunting figure kitted out like a wrinkled human arsenal, but Robbie’s attention cannot stray from the dangerous codger’s comely companion Meg, the most astounding woman he has ever seen.

Unfortunately the confrontation between the mortal voyeurs has resulted in Burns’ “innocent” blood being spilled and the satanic celebrants have caught wind of it…

Soon all the denizens of Hell are howling after the ‘mazed mortals but things are not as they seem. The outlandish pair are actually Witch Hunters, ferocious and fully skilled in sending all Satan’s minions back to the Inferno and always armed to the teeth with a fantastic array of ingeniously inventive ordnance…

Having fought free of the black Sabbat, the mortals take flight with the screaming witches in pursuit and when one grabs Robbie as he rides pillion on Meg’s horse, the dazed, half-soused lad blasts the beast with one of his companions’ blessed flintlock pistols. Tragically, in the selfsame altercation the pursuing she-devil had opportunity to mark him with her talons and the would-be poet promptly sobers up when he is informed that he has only three days left to live…

With mounting terror he learns most mortals so infected become willing thralls of the hellions, but when a seductive minion of The Pit comes for him the next night, the scribbler somehow fends it off long enough for the suspiciously near-at-hand Meg to spectacularly despatch it back to the brimstone realms.

Concluding that’s there might be something of worth to the Burns boy, Mackay & Meg resolve to teach him how to be a true Witch Hunter so that he can defend himself when the horrors come in full strength to collect the Devil’s due. Of course that’s only three days hence…

Renegade are a publisher who value fact as well as fiction and this superb full-colour hardback comes with a fine selection of factual features beginning with a lavish history and appreciation of Scotland’s greatest poet in Robbie Burns: a Biography’ by author and historian Jerry Brannigan as well as ‘Selected Poems’ which provides a tantalising entrée into the uniquely impassioned, eerie world of the grand imagineer with a sterling sampling of some of his most famous works, all embellished and beguilingly illustrated with a wealth of Trevallion’s pencils sketches of Bogles and Brownies, Spunkies and Sirens and even senior Witch Hunter Mackay.

The rhythmic reveille includes Scots Wha Hae, totally crucial, groundbreaking spooky saga Tam o’ Shanter (A Tale), the evocative A Red, Red Rose, A Man’s A Man For A’ That, the delirious Address To The Deil and most moving lament Ae Fond Kiss, And Then We Sever…

Smart, action packed, skilfully suspenseful, uproariously funny, divinely irreverent and genuinely scary or sad by turn, Robbie Burns Witch Hunter is a gloriously compelling and truly mesmerising romp: a doom-laden, wisecracking rollicking love story no sensitive soul or jaded comics fan could possibly resist. It’s even educational too…

Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter © 2014 Renegade Arts Entertainment, Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby and Tiernen Trevallion.

In 1926, Mad Magazine stalwart Bob Clarke was born today, as was master mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori (Cyborg 009, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider) in 1938. Dutch creator and entrepreneur Kees Kousemaker arrived in 1942 and was – as I’m sure you already know – the first person in Europe to open a comic shop.

Crusading, pioneering Alvin Phillips was born today in 1952, before becoming Turtel Onli and revolutionising the comic reading experience of American readers of colour. Onli died on January 15th 2025, aged 72. Go look him up online, it’s worth it…

In 1962, The Victor began in Britain, running until 1992, which is less long than Dan (Tarzan, Flash Gordon, The Phantom) Barry, who kept on going until 1997. Kudos…

Posted on

The Legend Testers 60th Anniversary Edition


By Graham Baker, Jordi Bernet, with Alf Wallace & various (Rebellon Studios/ treasury of British Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-654-0 (TPB/Digital edition), 978-1-83786-681-6 (Webshop edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

British comics always enjoyed an extended love affair with what can only be described as “unconventional” (for which substitute “bizarre” or “creepy”) stars. So many notional role models we grew up reading were outrageous or just plain “off”: self-righteous voyeur / vigilantes like Jason Hyde, sinister foreign masterminds like The Dwarf or Black Max, affable criminals such as Charley Peace, arrogant ex-criminals like The Spider or outright racist Overmen like manic white ideologue Captain Hurricane…

Prior to game changers Action, 2000AD and Misty, our comics fell into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and/or fantastic preschool fantasy; many, many licensed entertainment properties; action; adventure; war (especially ones “We” were in or had started); school dramas; sports; and straight comedy strands. Closer examination could confirm that there was always a subversive merging, mixing undertone, especially anarchic antiheroes like Dennis the Menace or our rather strained interpretation of costumed crime-busters. Just check out Phantom Viking, Kelly’s Eye or early Steel Claw stories…

Over and again British oddness would combine with or react to long-standing familiarity with soft oppression, leading to sagas of overwhelming, imminent conquest and worse. With our benighted shores existentially threatened, entertainment sources responded with a procession of doughty resistors facing down doom from the deepest depths of perfidy and menace… especially as churned up by the scary results of foolish modern SCIENCE!

That’s not to say we didn’t appreciate less outrageous adventurers as with this notional precursor (or synchronistic zeitgeist?) to TV’s Time Tunnel, with a brace of straightlaced but tough-as-nails He-Men heroes Rollo Stones and Danny Charters who dared the unknown weekly in the name of SCIENCE! – and history of course…

Cover-dated February 5th 1966, Smash! launched as just another standard Odhams anthology weekly until abruptly re-badged as a “Power Comic” at the end of the year. It combined homegrown funnies and British originated thrillers with resized US strips to capitalise on the superhero bubble created by the Batman TV series. Power Comics was a sub-brand used by Odhams to differentiate those periodicals which contained reprinted American superhero material from the company’s regular blend of sports, war, western, adventure and funny strips – like Buster, Valiant, Lion or Tiger. During the Swinging Sixties, Power weeklies did much to popularise budding Marvel Universe characters in this country, which were still poorly served by distribution of the original US imports.

The increasingly expensive American reprints were dropped in 1969 and Smash! was radically retooled with the traditional mix of action, sport and humour strips. Undergoing a full redesign, it was relaunched on March 15th 1969 with all-UK material (mostly drawn by overseas artists) and finally disappeared into Valiant in April 1971 after 257 issues. Seasonal specials remained a draw until October 1975 when Smash Annual 1976 properly ended the era. From then on, the new Fleetway brand had no room for the old guard – except as re-conditioned reprints in cooler, more modern books…

Thanks to economic vagaries and spiralling costs in publishing, the mid 1960s and early 1970s were particularly wild and desperate for comics: inspiring a wave of innovation most fondly remembered for more of those aforementioned darkly off-kilter heroes, beguiling monsters and charismatic villains.

Gathering serialised episodes from Smash! 2nd April 1966 to 8th July 1967, this complete compilation delivers fantastic threats and menaces in a traditional weekly manner, as a pair of dedicated and competent white blokes diligently push back the boundaries of ignorance. As was usual for these times, what was popular on screens large & small affected what arrived on the picture-packed pages Probably committee created with majority input from supervising editor Alf Wallace (Missing Link, Johnny Future) and sub-editor/scripter Graham Baker with new kid Jordi Bernet involved from the get-go, this series is one of many lost delights crafted by world stars in waiting and the observant will see Bernet improving and pushing himself on every page…

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

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

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

For now though and way back then, following a heartwarming reminiscence and proud career resume from the series illustrator himself, we launch at full pelt with inaugural serial ‘Death Castle’ which ran from 2nd April (Smash! #9) to 25th June 1966.

In that wild innovative era, the creators were looking to be fresh and new so here logos and layout and even the narrative tone changed from week to week as the storytellers shuffled to make something fresh instantly compelling out of old themes and plots. That even included on-again, off-again individual chapter titles like ‘Man into Monster’ and ‘The 5 Faces of Evil!’ before settling down and just opting to tell tense, gripping yarns…

The premise is simple: in the 40th century the Central Knowledge Museum is a vast research and storage repository of all things historical. Now top investigators Rollo Stones and Danny Charters have used its time machine to confirm the veracity of the last artefact and corrected (by first person observation) the mistaken data that has come down with it, their boss Marcson has a new mission for them. It’s June 7th 3900 AD and with no more history mysteries, he asks them to start testing the large collection of unknown and myth-based items in their cupboard.

Apart from the potential death and danger, it’s practically foolproof. The machine only works if the objects the newly-appointed Legend Testers are holding are in some way authentic, as with the supposed werewolf skull that catapults them both back to feudal Europe and an encounter with a magical coalition of diabolical monsters.

In short order Rollo & Danny survive on wits and fists against a citadel of devils comprising sorcerer Necro, vampire Draca, sadistic torturer/inventor Love, Balbin, Prince of Trolls. bodyguard brute Happy (the werewolf in question) and notional leader Count Cadavo. Each in turns tries to break the strangers with their personalised hordes of monster minions but in the end the myths are confirmed at the cost of the vile villains’ unlives…

One of the most complex and trippy exploits of the era, ‘Eterno’ ran in issues between 2nd July and 20th August. This time the suspect object pulled our investigators back beyond humankind to a previous civilisation that was destroyed by a vampiric alien that consumed their planetary life energies. Millions of years later, humankind evolved and developed a very similar existence which drew Eterna back to Earth and the Testers on his heels to that time and place. As the monster and his robots began preparing to absorb a second course of earthlings Rollo & Danny were in the right place and time to end the terror forever…

Channelling the contemporary cinematic trend for Grecian myths and heroes, the boys spend half a year authenticating ‘The Crown of Zeus’ (27th August – 24th December), enduring an avalanche of peril and near-death escapes to categorically verify their chunk of diadem – and by extension the ancient lives of gods and monsters. After facing cyclopes, centaurs, gorgons, Cerberus, the Minotaur, Lernaean ghosts and hydras, man-eating horses, Pegasus, Poseidon, Proteus, Janus, sky-propping Atlas, petty-minded Bacchus, satyrs and earth-shaking Titans the lads learn just how the gods died…

At least demi-gods Hercules and Hermes (AKA “Quicksilver”) were on their side until it was all over and the time machine called them home…

The days of Camelot called when the Testers touched fragments of ‘The Crystal Orb of Merlin’ (December 31st 1966 to 4th March 1967) but sparked chronal catastrophe as the wise wizard’s talisman was stolen by anti-Arthurian despot Black Shield, who used it to arm his troops with 20th century weapons from pistols and hand grenades to tanks and an atomic bomb. The conclusion left everyone gasping and still does today…

Published from 11th March to 15th April, ‘The King of the Beasts’ saw Rollo & Danny divine how an idyllic land of talking animals living in harmony and seclusion was destroyed by greed and ambition, after which aliens are the order of the day when Marcson hands the investigators a piece of metal not of this Earth. A simple touch then takes them to 12th century Europe where ‘The Metal Men’ (22nd April – 3rd June) are seeking to strip-mine the world for life-generating minerals. The Testers’ interference only results in their rendition to embattled, civil war-torn planet Meturn, but too late to do any good as the metalloids descend into mutually assured destruction. Thankfully, the confusion allows the boys to frantically steal the last space bus out of town…

The temporal turbulence terminates rather timidly with ‘The Crown of Kebi’ (10th June to 8th July 1967) as Marcson sends his gone-to guys to an utterly unknown destination where again greed and ambition trigger the end of a fabulous civilisation. Rollo & Danny’s very conspicuous arrival makes them unwitting tools of shady priest Walu on the island kingdom of Kebi, but their scruples mean he soon prefers them dead to alive. After tricking them into a voyage into “the underworld” beneath a mountain, the boys battle beastly apes, demon dwarves and worse, but their refusal to be suitably sainted and sent to heaven ultimately stymies the witch doctor and sinks the island nation…

Closing this epic outing of spookily spectacular saga is a compelling ‘Covers gallery’ of thrilling (albeit limited-colour) clashes courtesy of Bernet and the editorial paste up squad, plus the now traditional creator briefings.

For British, Commonwealth and European readers of a certain age and prone to debilitating nostalgia, the comic works gathered in this titanic tribute gig are an exciting, engaging, done-in-one delight that’s undemanding and rewarding; and a rare treat these days.

If that appeals, go hit this book, it’s how history – and SCIENCE! – should be made.
© 1966, 1967, & 2026 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights reserved.

Today in 1883, French artist, printmaker, illustrator, painter, caricaturist, sculptor and comic dabbler Gustave Doré died. However, one year later comics strip genius George (Jiggs & Maggie, Bringing Up Father) McManus was born. In 1952 Klaus (Daredevil, Batman) Janson joined the party, but probably missed the 1930 debut of Hergé’s Quick & Flupke in Le Petit Vingtième and launch of UK weekly Sparky in 1965.

In 1988, UK icon Battle Picture Weekly shut up shop and in 2001 Makoto Yukimura’s manga masterpiece Planetes began.