Category: Historical

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I… Vampire!


By J.M. DeMatteis, Bruce Jones, Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, Mike W. Barr, Tom Sutton, Ernie Colon, Adrian Gonzales, Paris Cullins, Dan Day, Jim Aparo, Joe Kubert, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Tatjana Wood, Adrienne Roy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3371-6 (TPB), 978-1-4012-5507-7 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Scary times ahead so let’s ease in to the season of mists mellow fruitfulness and spine sucking terror! with a guaranteed classic grimoire of reasonably family oriented ghoulish gore and wonder…

When superheroes entered their second decline at the end of the 1960s, four of the six surviving newsstand comic book companies (Archie, Charlton, DC, Gold Key, Harvey & Marvel) increasingly turned to horror and suspense anthologies to bolster their flagging sales. Even wholesome Archie briefly produced Red Circle Sorcery/Chillers comics, diverting a portion of their teen-comedy core gently into superb tales of witchcraft, mystery and imagination.

DC’s first generation of mystery titles blossomed at the end of the Golden Heroic Age when most comic book publishers of the era started switching to Crime, Romance, Western, Sci Fi and Horror genre anthologies to recapture an aging readership which was drifting away to other mass-market entertainments like TV and movies. Intriguingly, 1950’s TV also adopted en masse the anthological mystery tale model as seen in a wealth of repertory company anthology shows like The Veil, One Step Beyond, Tales of Tomorrow, and later, better remembered classics like The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.

After a few tenuous attempts with supernatural-themed heroic leads in established titles (Johnny Peril in Comic Cavalcade, All-Star Comics and Sensation Comics; Dr. Terry Thirteen, The Ghostbreaker in Star-Spangled Comics) by 1951 National Comics had bowed to the inevitable and launched a comparatively straight-laced anthology sans recurring lead stars… which nevertheless became one of their longest-running and most influential titles. It all began on October 3rd with the launch of The House of Mystery (cautiously cover-dated December 1951/January 1952).

When a hysterical censorship muck rake led to witch-hunting hearings attacking comic books and newspaper strips (just type Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, April-June 1954 into your search engine at any time), the industry panicked and hurriedly adopted a castrating straitjacket of stringent self-regulatory rules and admonitions. Despite mystery/suspense titles produced under the aegis of the Comics Code Authority being sanitised, anodyne affairs in terms of Shock & Gore, the readership’s appetite for mystery and suspense stayed high, and in 1956 National introduced sister titles Tales of the Unexpected & House of Secrets.

Supernatural thrills and spooky monsters were dialled back into marvellously illustrated, genteel, rationalistic fantasy-adventure vehicles which nonetheless dominated the market until the end of the 1950s when the super-hero returned in force – having begun a renaissance in 1956 after Julius Schwartz reintroduced The Flash in Showcase #4. Revivals of Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom and new costumed cavorters generated a gaudy global bubble of masked myrmidons which even forced these dedicated anthology suspense titles to transform into super-character split-books with J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars and Dial H for Hero in House of Mystery and paranormal investigator Mark Merlin (latterly Prince Ra-Man) sharing space with anti-hero Eclipso in HoS. When caped crusader craziness peaked and popped, Secrets was one of the first casualties, folding with the September/October 1966 issue. House of Mystery carried on with its eccentric costumed cohort until #173, and Tales of the Unexpected endured until #104.

However, nothing combats censorship better than plunging profits, and as the Sixties ended the superhero boom busted again. With once-popular titles promptly perishing and many of the industry’s most prestigious series circling the drain, this real-world Crisis led to surviving publishers agreeing to loosen their self-imposed restraints against horror (and crime) comics. Nobody much cared about gangster titles at the time, but as this liberalisation coincided with another bump in global public interest in all aspects of the Great Unknown, the resurrection of spooky story comics was a foregone conclusion and obvious no-brainer…

Thus, with absolutely no fanfare at all, House of Mystery and Unexpected switched back to tales of magic, mystery and imagination whilst already cancelled House of Secrets rose again with #81, (cover-dated August/September 1969), retooled to feed a seemingly insatiable appetite for terror and suspense…

Before long, an expansive battalion of supernatural thriller titles dominated DC’s – and competitors’ – publishing schedules again. This time, however, although the initial impetus died out by 1978, horror comics had secured a dedicated audience, soldiering on despite declines in sales into the turbulent 1980s. During that period, the venerable periodical experimented with varying formats and became a springboard for many creative careers, but never returned to established, recurring characters until the reign of publishing whiz kid Karen Berger who officially assumed control with HoM #292. Some issues earlier, a new longform miniseries (we used to call them “serials”) had debuted, detailing the exploits of a reluctant monster seeking to atone for past sins…

The full groundbreaking, tragic, idiosyncratic saga was gathered into a chilling chronicle recounting the afterlives of the bloodsucker and his human allies and re-presents here pertinent material from House of Mystery #290-291, 293, 295, 297, 299, 302, 304-319, plus a guest-shot in The Brave and the Bold #195, cumulatively spanning cover-dates March 1980 to August 1983. It opens without fanfare or preamble in ‘I… Vampire’ by co-creators J.M. DeMatteis & Tom Sutton.

In 10 tightly-packed yet smoothly inviting pages we meet English noble Sir Andrew Bennett, who died at the hands of a nosferatu during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Beloved by his fiancée Mary Seward, Bennett succumbed to her desperate pleas to be similarly infected, so that their love might last forever. Only afterwards did he realise that the transformation generally creates soulless monsters, even though, somehow, he has retained his conscience and personality…

Over four centuries, “Bloody Mary” becomes a prestigious leader of massed vampires in an insidious, influential covert global cult dubbed the Blood Red Moon. They sow chaos and destruction whilst working towards the ultimate goal of vampires ruling a world of human cattle. Heartbroken and guilt ridden, Bennett has opposed her schemes for all that time, aided by human allies such as his most recent “daywalkers”: aged Russian warrior Dimitri Mishkin and go-getting “Eighties Woman” Deborah Dancer…

Blessed with all the traditional gifts of the undead (shapeshifting, supernatural vigour, hypnosis, etc) and similarly afflicted by their weaknesses (sunlight, crucifixes, Holy Water, stakes, et al) Bennett staves off his insatiable hunger for blood by sheer willpower and the determination that he will not die until he has ended Mary’s depredations…

The introductory episode covers all that even as Mary’s minions lose another running battle with Bennett’s team but escape to instigate their latest plan…

The adventure concludes in ‘Night of the Living Undead’ as team Bennett expose and end a proposed alliance between the cult and New York’s biggest drug dealer, after which ‘The Burning’ sees the hunters scotch a scheme to infiltrate the White House once Mary affiliates with a race-hate spouting demagogue whose influential links include the KKK and US President. The closure of that case tears open old wounds, as Mishkin subsequently clashes with one of Mary’s lieutenants, only to discover a dreaded family connection in ‘Mother Love/Mother Hate’, leading to a look into how Bennett recruited him as a boy just as the 19th century became the 20th…

DeMatteis moved on after the dark heroes foil Mary’s attempt to destroy an ashram and its spiritual guru in ‘Zen Flesh! Zen Bones!’ after which Bruce Jones moves in, offering a more fanciful approach in ‘The Sun Also Burns’. Here Bennett and his human friends are ambushed and left to die in a mine. As time passes, the valiant vampire – deprived of bottled blood – must battle his irresistible thirst before abandoning them. Resolved never to endanger them again, he sets out on a solo quest for vengeance…

In HoM #302 ‘Blood Ties’ sees that lonely walkabout take him to Eudora, Kansas where odd events culminate in Bennett accidentally causing the deaths of an entire family of innocents before stumbling across a predatory circus abducting innocents for profit, and sponsored by Mary. His war against the ‘Carnival of Souls’ lasts until #304 where – with Ernie Colon substituting for Sutton – Bennett learns ‘The Night Has Eyes’ and proves that he has no pity for child stealers…

Jones then offers a lengthy saga in ‘Blood and Sand’ as the still-solo Bennett tracks Mary’s agents to Egypt in the wake of a global anti-cancer vaccine rollout that has the unexpected side-effect of making human blood toxic to the undead. Meanwhile, and for all this time, Mishkin & Dancer have been hunting for their leader, and are finally closing in…

Made unwilling allies by fate, Andrew and Mary invade a lost tomb, where the cult queen steals the time-travelling Rings of Anubis from a mystic mummy before setting off into the past to undo the creation of the vaccine. In hot pursuit, thanks to a second ring, Bennett arrives in Whitechapel, London at the height of history’s most infamous serial killer spree.

Crafted by Jones and the returned Sutton, ‘A Rip in Time’ sees all Mary’s efforts thwarted, and the ancestor of mysterious vaccine creator Dr. Barr escape unharmed, even as the vampires are hurled back into the time stream. Bennett washes ashore in Maine in November 1964, just in time to save a little girl from drowning. ‘Lovers Living, Lovers Dead’ reveals that in the present Deborah Dancer has developed a psychic link and can “see” vampires’ past actions as they happen. She is suitably horrified to observe Mary attack the child and aghast to realise that the child is herself…

After heroic intervention from Bennett saves the child, the time chase pauses as the undead knight battles a crew of revenant Nazi submariners in ‘Mirrors That Look Back’ before his pursuit resumes, depositing him and his quarry in Elizabethan England mere days before their first deaths. A bewildering succession of time-tossed doubles and mistaken identity switches culminates in a deadly ‘Witch Hunt’ with religiously enflamed peasants running riot before the chronal paradoxes dump them both back in the 20th century where new writers Dan Mishkin (no relation) & Gary Cohn concoct a ‘Manhattan Interlude’ (#310, November 1982) foe penciller Adrian Gonzales and ever-faithful Tom Sutton to render. Here Bennett encounters another vampire who has retained both soul and innocence and regretfully helps her meet her final end on her own terms…

Paris Cullins joins Mishkin & Cohn, Gonzales & Sutton for a dark peek at Deborah Dancer’s teen years in ‘By the Time We Got to Woodstock…’, revealing how she “first” stumbled into the Blood Red Moon’s schemes of conquest after losing all her friends to hippy bloodsuckers at the legendary festival, only surviving thanks to an old Russian and an eerie, red-eyed Englishman…

HoM #312 reunites the trio in time to tackle ‘The Thing in the Tunnel’ (Mishkin, Cohn, Gonzales & Sutton), a predatory beast escaped from the familiar-sounding Barr Research Laboratories and leading to a deadly clash with an enigmatic, extraordinarily long-lived (hint, hint) biologist in ‘Side Effects’, before ‘I.. Edward Trane, I… Vampire’ in #314 (illustrated solely by Sutton) sees a tragic reunion for Bennett with one of his own Victorian acolytes who fell in battle, but never fully died…

Mishkin, Cohn, Cullins & Sutton then detail an untitled exploit wherein the vampire hunters are targeted by sanctimonious religious zealots hunting the unholy. Sadly, their leader’s top aide is not only undead herself, but also Dimitri’s mother, and the Presidency is once more the glittering prize being sought…

Although the plot is foiled, the cost is high, compelling Bennett to turn eastwards, and ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’ he uncovers a KGB program to weaponize vampirism and extend the joys of eternity to the aging Politburo. The result is open warfare between Mary’s cult and a Soviet secret army, ultimately proving in ‘Blood is Thicker…’ that not all military spending is pointless, and not every hero gets to ride off into the sunset…

Despite a long run, changing times and tastes were indicating that the title and, indeed, entire genre were not a viable contemporary comics option. With the series building to climax, #318 offered another untitled yarn (with Dan Day pencilling) wherein a freshly bereaved Andrew Bennett employs stolen Soviet technology to force a final confrontation with Mary and the Blood Red Moon, resulting in his final demise and birth of a new kind of hero in climactic last episode ‘Dreams of Death’ by Mishkin, Cohn & Sutton in House of Mystery #319 (August 1983).

Aggravatingly, that big finish isn’t the end here, as there follows a solid but painfully out-of-continuity tale taken from The Brave and the Bold #195 (February 1983). For ‘Night of Blood’ (Mike W. Barr & Jim Aparo) Bennett’s perpetual hunt for Mary brings him to Gotham City after a gangster’s daughter becomes the latest victim of a vampire. Batman is firmly convinced the attacks are fake – and he’s right – until an actual magic-accursed blood drinker shows up. At least this time the standard misunderstanding doesn’t result in pointless battle before reason prevails and the mismatched heroes unite to catch the real culprits…

Graced with staggeringly compelling covers by Joe Kubert, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Aparo, Tatjana Wood & Adrienne Roy, this is a genuine slice of engaging, unorthodox and vastly entertaining horror action that predates – and probably influenced – later hits like Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel. A hugely enjoyable edgy romp, well-scripted, imaginative and gorgeously illustrated I… Vampire is a timeless tome for all lovers of dark delight and one no arcane aficionada can afford to be without.
© 1981, 1982, 1983, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Black Panther: Panther’s Quest


By Don McGregor, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer, with Glynis Oliver, Mike Rockwitz, Gregory Wright, Joe Rosen, Jade Moede & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0803-4 (TPB), 978-1-3025-0149-5 (Digital edition)

Lauded as the first black superhero in American comics and one of the first to carry his own series, The Black Panther‘s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since the 1960s when he first attacked the Fantastic Four (in #52; cover-dated July 1966) as part of an elaborate plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.

There, T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of an incredible vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which that country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which had struck the continent in primeval antiquity – had powered his country’s rapid transformation into a technological wonderland. Moreover, that tribal wealth had long been guarded by a hereditary feline-garbed champion deriving physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious “heart-shaped herb” that ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s warrior Panther Cult.

Lyrical intellectual Don McGregor had already immortalised T’Challa in a stunning 1970s periodical run which produced the revered Panther’s Rage saga and controversial follow-up Panther vs the Klan storyline. Then, after years away from the mainstream, and crafting groundbreaking original graphic novels (OGNs) like Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species and Detectives Inc., as well as series including Ragamuffins & Nathaniel Dusk, McGregor was lured back to his roots to spin a shocking saga of contemporary intolerance and the end-days of South African Apartheid. He was joined by a semi-regular collaborator whose credentials in crafting human-scaled tales of adventure, horror and empathetic emotional drama were second to none. He was also one of the industry’s earliest exponents of strong black characters…

Eugene Jules “Gene” Colan (September 1st 1926 – June 23rd 2011) was one of comics’ greatest talents: a quietly professional artist who valued accuracy and authenticity in his work, whether it was science fiction, horror, war, satirical humour or the vast number of superheroes he brought to life. A devotee of classic adventure strips in the newspapers, Colan studied at the Art Students League of New York, before beginning his own narrative illustration career in 1944 (on Wings Comics) before military service in the Philippines. The war had just ended and Colan had leisure time to draw for local paper The Manilla Times. By 1946 he was a civilian again, and working for Stan Lee’s Atlas on crime and supernatural stories. He illustrated the last Golden Age sighting of Captain America (Captain America’s Weird Tales #75; February 1950), an all-horror issue with no superhero material at all. It was like a sign…

As the industry radically transformed, Colan began freelancing at DC/National Comics whilst remaining a mainstay of Atlas. His assignments increasingly focused on new genres of War Stories and Romance. When Superhero stories returned, he moved exclusively to Marvel (barring some monochrome horror stories done for Archie Goodwin at Warren Magazines), where his dynamic realism offered a powerful alternative to the graphic styles of Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita & Don Heck. Colan became renowned for his long stint on Daredevil (where he created blind black detective Willie Lincoln); Captain America; Doctor Strange; Iron Man; The Avengers; Sub-Mariner & Howard the Duck. During this period he co-created the Guardians of the Galaxy, two Captain Marvels (Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers), drew all of Tomb of Dracula (thereby introducing Blade the Vampire Slayer to the world) and was responsible for another black comic book icon and the nation’s first African American costumed hero, The Falcon.

In the 1980s he moved to DC, working on Batman; Superman; Wonder Woman and The Spectre; co-creating Night Force, Silverblade, Jemm, Son of Saturn and period private eye Nathanial Dusk, before expanding into independent comics at the forefront of innovation marking the rise of the Direct Sales Market. His later career was blighted by health issues, but he continued drawing whenever he could, for various companies. On one of his periodic returns to Marvel he reunited with McGregor for this astounding tale, originally serialised over 25 chapters in fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents (# 13-37, February-December 1989). In this collected tome the entire affair is preceded by ‘To Follow the track of The Great Cat with renewed wonder on his Panther’s Quest (From “Panther’s Rage” to “Panther’s Prey”)’ a typically effulgent yet informative Introduction by author McGregor…

One of the most thought-provoking mainstreaming comics tales ever released, Panther’s Quest added pressure to an ever-expanding Anti-Apartheid movement in comics and western media, by examining not only the condition of racial inequality but also turning a damning eye on sexual oppression and domestic abuse. Whether in his numerous solo series or as part of superteams including The Avengers, Fantastic Four or Ultimates, the Black Panther has always been one of Marvel’s most politically strident and socially-crusading characters. This is a book I’m certain Chadwick Boseman would have admired and supported…

Inked in its entirety by perfect work partner Tom Palmer, coloured by Glynis Oliver, Mike Rockwitz & Gregory Wright with lettering by Joe Rosen & Jade Moede, it begins on a dark night as the Panther infiltrates neighbouring totalitarian nation South Africa. Here a white minority oppresses the millions of blacks living there. T’Challa has heard ‘A Rumour of Life’ and come seeking his stepmother Ramonda. His father’s second spouse had raised the bereaved boy when T’Challa’s birth mother died, but one day when he was only three, she vanished and no one would speak of her. Now, he’s invaded the most dangerous land on Earth – for his kind – in search of answers from unscrupulous information peddler Patrick Slade…

‘Forgotten Corpses’ sees that clandestine meeting abruptly and brutally interrupted by white paramilitaries who seek to kill them – but without alerting the ever-vigilant police or security services…

McGregor has always a fascination with the real effects and consequences of violence, and this tale contains some pretty shocking moments that might make many readers wince. Suffice it to say, I’m staying vague throughout this review, but will confirm that vicious brute Elmer Gore graphically tortures the Panther with barbed wire in ‘Lost Blood in Copper Dust’, leading to our maimed hero staggering into the arms of ‘The Man Who Loved Sunrise’. Oppressed miner and narrative point-man Zanti Chikane is a miner/second class citizen crushed by his intolerable life, but he still overcomes his understandable caution to offer assistance to torn, bleeding T’Challa. That leads to Zanti’s own brush with death as white killers employ what they consider ‘Reasonable Force’ against the suspects, before being trounced by the still fighting cat-man…

The scene changes for ‘Naked Exposures’ as government Magistrate of Communications Anton Pretorius orders his battered, shamed and furious private security minions to capture an invading masked terrorist dubbed Black Panther. Apparently, this invader is a threat to national security but the mercenaries need no other reasons to kill the treacherous “kaffir”. Just to be sure though, Pretorius also uses his position to send out a nationwide TV alert…

‘Battered Artifacts’ sees T’Challa tracking Slade to an impoverished township, unaware that he’s under surveillance and about to step into the other side of deadly politics that wracked South Africa at this time. ‘Hatred under Tears’ sees the Magistrate’s mercenaries attack, uncaring of small children they are endangering. As “the Great Cat” stops to aid a tear-gassed toddler, ‘Justifiable Action’ sees him shot for his efforts and arrested in ‘Personal Risk’ prior to breaking free and escaping…

‘The Official Version’ gives T’Challa a stiff lesson in realpolitik from Slade’s wife even as the State intensifies its hunt for him, with Security Minister Doeke Riebeek officially branding the entire emergency a communist plot…

In the township, ‘Voices Heard, Voices Ignored’ has Zanti pondering the terrifying dangers to his family before returning to aid the Panther, whilst ‘A Right to Kill’ reveals Riebeek beginning to suspect Magistrate Pretorius might have ulterior motives for his actions. Elsewhere, enraged township men are moving against a suspected traitor, determined that ‘Somebody’s Going to Pay’. They’re carrying petrol and tyres needed for the appalling punishment they call “necklacing”. Do not google it or buy this book if you have a weak stomach…

When the Panther acts to save a life, he is horribly burned, even as events escalate to total tragedy when ‘Last Night I Wept for Freedom’ shows how the boy he helped returns the favour and pays the ultimate price, despite his own superhuman efforts and an initially-reluctant intervention by a white doctor in ‘Lost Promises’…

Traumatised and repentant, T’Challa returns to Slade whose ‘Dark Maneuvers’ lead them into a trap laid by Pretorius’ mercenaries in ‘So Many Nameless Enemies’. The battle is brief but results in a crucial clue in the true quest, as the trader reveals how, years ago, he learned of a black woman held in glittering bondage for decades at the home of a high-ranking government official…

‘Chances’ see Riebeek and his forces close in as T’Challa follows his clue to Johannesburg to confront one of the mercs in ‘The Great Cat in the City of Gold’. Now ferociously focused on finding Pretorius, the Panther & Zanti attempt to save his precious Wakandan stealth-ship from being captured by Riebeek in ‘Losing Control’… but at a terrible cost.

After ‘Saying Goodbye’, the Panther’s quest moves into its endgame as T’Challa invades Pretorius’ luxurious citadel, circumventing deadly ‘Barriers’ and crushing human and canine ‘Opponents’ (still more grimly authentic action in need of a strong stomach advisory), to ultimately rescue Ramonda from the luxurious cell she has inhabited ever since Pretorius abducted her decades ago.

The tyrannical hypocrite’s obsessive, abusive passion for her was also his downfall: a secret vice capable of destroying him in a nation and government that decreed interracial mixing immoral and illegal. Ultimately, it’s Ramonda who decrees his fate whilst enjoying a ‘Dawn Reunion’ with her long-lost child…

Available in trade paperback and digital editions and augmented by a full cover gallery and pinups from Marvel Fanfare #47 (by Bill Reinhold & Linda Lessman) and #45 (Steve Rude & Steve Oliff) this is the most important Black Panther tale you’ll ever read. So do.
© 2018 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Shadow volume 1: The Fire of Creation


By Garth Ennis, Aaron Campbell, Carlos Lopez & various (Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-60690-361-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content used for dramatic effect.

Throughout the 1930s, The Shadow granted thrill-starved readers measured doses of extraordinary excitement via cheaply produced periodical novels dubbed “pulps” (because of the low-grade paper they were printed on), as well as over the mood-drenched airwaves, via his own radio show. Pulp titles were published in their hundreds every month, ranging from the truly excellent to the pitifully dire, in every style and genre, but for exotic adventure lovers there were two star characters who outshone all others. The Superman of his day was Doc Savage, Man of Bronze, whilst the foremost dark, relentless creature of the night dispensing terrifying grim justice was a mysterious slouch-hatted hero under discussion here. Originally, radio series Detective Story Hour – based on stand-alone yarns from Street & Smith publication Detective Story Magazine – used a spooky voiced narrator (variously Orson Welles, James LaCurto and Frank Readick Jr.) to introduce each tale. He was generically dubbed “the Shadow” and from the very start on July 31st1930, he was far more popular than the stories he introduced.

The Shadow swiftly evolved into a proactive force, solving instead of narrating mysteries and, from April 1st 1931 (Happy 95th anniversary, mystery-man!), starred in his own printed pulp series, written by astoundingly prolific Walter Gibson under house pseudonym Maxwell Grant. On September 26th 1937 the radio show officially became The Shadow, with the eerie slogan/mantra “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Men? The Shadow knows!” ringing out unforgettably over the nation’s airwaves.

Over the next eighteen years 325 novels were published, usually at the rate of two a month. The uncanny crusader spawned comic books, seven movies, a newspaper strip and all the merchandising paraphernalia you’d expect of a superstar brand. The pulp series officially ended in 1949, although Gibson and others added to the canon during the phantasmagorical 1960s as a pulp-fantasy revival gripped America, generating reprinted classic tales and a run of new adventures marketed as paperback novels.

As hinted above, in graphic terms The Shadow was a major player. His national newspaper strip (by Vernon Greene) launched on June 17th 1940 and when comic books took off, the Man of Mystery had his own four-colour title; running from March 1940 to September 1949. Archie Comics published a controversial contemporary comic book (1964-1965, by Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, John Rosenberger & Paul Reinman) under their Radio/Mighty Comics imprint and in 1973, DC acquired the rights to produce a captivating, brief and totally definitive series of classical adventures unlike any other superhero title then on the stands.

DC periodically revived the venerable and vicious vigilante. After the runaway success of Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Dark Knight Returns and Watchman, Howard Chaykin was engaged to utterly overhaul the vintage feature. This led to further, adult-oriented iterations (and even one cracking outing from Marvel) before Dark Horse assumed the license of the quintessential grim avenger for the latter half of the 1990s and beyond. Dynamite Entertainment picked up the option in 2011 and, as well as re-releasing many of those other publishers’ earlier efforts, began a series of new monthly Shadow comics.

Set in the turbulent 1930s & 1940s these were designed as self-contained story arcs, crafted by some of the top writers in the industry, each taking their shot at the immortal legend, and all winningly depicted by a succession of extremely gifted illustrators. First to fire was the incomparable Garth Ennis who muted his signature black humour for a tale screaming of unrequited injustice over six stunningly compelling episodes…

It begins with a précis of Japan’s official invasion of China in 1937 and appalling atrocities inflicted by their forces as they began building their “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere”, jumping a few years and to the docks of New York City, where a dark angel dispenses bloody judgement to a murderous band of crooked dockworkers. A little later abrasive, indolent playboy Lamont Cranston joins Washington insider Mr. Landers and his gung-ho young protégé Pat Finnegan at the Algonquin Hotel. They are meeting to discuss an imminent crisis amidst the ever-worsening situation in the East, and how the massacre at the pier was connected to it. Specifically, two of the bodies dropped at the scene were high-ranking Japanese agents…

Despite Finnegan’s outspoken distaste at involving a civilian dilettante, a tale is shared of a rare mineral that both America and Japan will do anything to obtain. Cranston agrees to lead a small party into China to secure the samples (originally dug up by prospecting American geologists before they vanished) for the Land of the Free. Of great concern is the unspecified part played by Taro Kondo: a formidable and ruthless Major in the Japanese intelligence service with whom Cranston had unsavoury dealings during his younger, less salubrious years in the East…

Cranston prepares his paramour and assistant Margo Lane for the rigours that lie ahead, but she has no conception of how much true horror and mass slaughter The Shadow has foreseen in the years to come. Whilst Finnegan travels by spartan military plane transport, Cranston & Margo escape his juvenile jingoistic fervour by taking a Pacific Clipper. However, their luxurious voyage is abruptly ended when they are attacked by Nazi agents masquerading as rich, indolent vacationers. The resulting bloodbath brings down the plane and our heroes barely survive. They also have far greater problems to worry about…

Ahead of them Kondo leads ambitious Emperor-lover and sexual deviant General Akamatsu on a tawdry trek to meet Chinese bandit Lord Wong Pang-Yan, descriptively and accurately known to all as the Buffalo. The grotesque, greedy barbarian is their only means of acquiring a rare mineral they crave, and Kondo is eager to placate his haughty, nauseated superior. After all, they know The Shadow is coming and have other plans in place to deal with him. To soothe the General’s nerves, Kondo promises he can behead the double-dealing Buffalo, just as soon as they have the enigmatic matter poetically described as the Spirit-Weapon and Fire of Creation…

Since Buffalo Wong originally offered his treasure to many nations, there are a numerous expeditions converging on the region, and when a Japanese fighter plane removes a rival Soviet military force from the game, Kondo gloats at another problem solved before returning to placate his aggravating, arrogant “superior”. It’s only a minor inconvenience to him that Cranston has survived his German allies’ attack and linked up with US agent Finnegan in Shanghai…

As the Yankees’ arrangements to use a British Navy vessel to reach Wong’s stronghold are finalised, Kondo’s assassins strike, but once again are no match for The Shadow’s mesmerism and blistering gunplay. To make a point, the Dark Avenger not only eliminates his attackers but weeds out and ends every Japanese and German agent in the city…

The delay gives Kondo’s party a healthy head start. As their sailing boat (an unpowered Junk) navigates the great river, the former smuggler/crimelord passes the time by sharing all he knows of human monster Kent Allard who was his criminal rival 15 years ago. What he doesn’t know is that the despicable rogue became the man called Cranston, but is certain that he is still the most implacable and remorseless killer on Earth…

Behind them, Finnegan, determined to prove his manhood and authority, pushes the British Commander and crew. Resolved to catch Kondo’s military detachment before they reach their ultimate destination, he sees firsthand atrocities Japanese soldiers casually inflict on “lesser” races, and in his disgust and inexperience leads the gunboat into a lethal trap only he, Margo and the insufferable Cranston survive…

Far ahead of them, Kondo and Akamatsu make their final trade with Wong – miracle mineral for gold – and the inevitable double-crossing and bloodletting begins. What none of the treacherous villains realize is that the angry, vengeful Shadow is already amongst them, cutting down soldiers and bandits like chaff as he methodically, determinedly makes his way to the true cause of all the terror. At last Kondo realises he has only one card left to play, but the monstrous future has already begun and will inevitable end in fire…

Dynamite publish periodicals with a vast array of cover variants and here a copious collected gallery highlights dozens of iconic visions from Alex Ross, Chaykin, John Cassaday, Stephen Segovia, Ryan Sook, Sean Chen, Francesco Francavilla & Jae Lee. Adding to the Bonus Material is Ennis’s script for the first issue, and gloriously gilding the lily is a mountain of powerful pencil studies by Ross and Lee.

Sardonic, brutal and deviously convoluted, The Fire of Creation is a splendid addition to the annals of the ultimate and original Dark Knight, and one no lover of action and mystery can afford to miss.
The Shadow® & © 2012 Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. ™ & © Conde Nast. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1817 trailblazing British cartoonist John Leech (Punch) was born, sharing the day with veteran Disney all-star Al Taliaferro (Donald Duck, Silly Symphonies) in 1905; illustrator Patrick Zircher (Green Hornet, Iron Man, Nightwing) in 1963; Norwegian creator Karine Haaland (Våre venner menneskene, Piray) in 1966 and US all-rounder Jason Pearson (Body Bags, Legion of Super-Heroes) in 1970.

On this day in 1983, Underground commix frontrunner Rory Hayes (Bijou Funnies, Arcade) died.

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Glorious Summers volume 5: The Warrior’s Haven (1980)


By Zidrou & Jordi Lafebre, with additional colour by Mado Peña, translated by Lara Vergnaud (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: Digital edition only

I’ve had this ready for weeks but couldn’t face running it as so many locations mentioned are smoking ruins at the moment. However, as has been pointed out to me, this is a beautiful, sublimely respectful evocation of places and people and so, in anticipation of regrowth and better times that must surely come, here it is. Just squint your eyes a bit, engage your imaginations and please have hope…

Until comparatively recently, comics in the English-speaking world mostly countenanced comedic or numerous adventure sub-genres (crime, superhero, horror, sci fi), with only a small but vital niche of “mundane world” ventures, usually depicted via graphic biographies and autobiographies like They Called Us Enemy, Love on the Isle of Dogs, Wage Slaves or Sour Pickles offering a different feel and flavour. Even historical sagas were treated as extraordinary moments with larger-than-life characters whenever possible.

What we have never had – and still largely don’t -is a comics equivalent to general fiction, drama and melodrama. That’s not so in Japan, South Korea or Europe, where a literal “anything goes” attitude has always accommodated and nurtured human-scaled slice-of-life tales depicting ordinary people in as many quiet as extraordinary moments. Surely it can’t be that hard to tell engaging stories in pedestrian, recognisably ordinary settings? Medical traumas, love stories, school tales and family tragedies about common folk seem to play well on various-sized screens around the world, so why not in English language comics? The closest we seem to get are comedies like John Allison’s superb Giant Days (which I really must review soon) which all operate on the immortal closing line of every pub drawn out conversation or failed dinner party anecdote “well, maybe you had to be there…”

People being people is more than enough for Europeans. There apparently is an insatiable appetite for everyday events aimed at properly “mature readers”, joyfully sans vampires, aliens or men in tights. These even have sub-genres of their own. For example, there’s the wealth of superb comics just about going on holiday. So, since our own Government-in-Absurdia have ensured that it’s now all-but-impossible for any UK-based citizens to pop across and have une petite vacances in Europe, let’s stare & glare covetously at them having a good time. After all, over there holidays are an inalienable right, and they have some simply fabulous tales about a simple break. This one is probably amongst the best you’ll ever see…

An absolute exemplar of fantasy vacations made real, Glorious Summers: Southbound! (1973) was a nostalgia-drenched confection by Zidrou and regular collaborator Jordi Lafebre: a sublime example of idyllic group memory made into graphic sorcery in an everyday account utterly unafraid to temper humorous sweetness and light with real-world tragedy and suspense.

Perhaps some context is in order. Summer holidays – “Midi” – are a big deal in France and Belgium. The French divide into two tribes over the annual rest & recuperation period, which generally lasts an entire month. Juilletistes only vacation in July, wielding dogmatic facts like rapiers to prove why it’s the only way to take a break. They are eternally opposed, heart, soul, and suntan lotion, by majority faction the Aoûtiens, who recharge their batteries in August whilst fully reciprocating the suspicion, disdain and baffled scorn of the early-leavers. Many European sociologists claim the greatest social division today is not race, religion, gender, political affiliation or whether to open boiled eggs from the top or the bottom, but when summer holidays begin and end.

Les Beaux Étés 1: Cap au Sud! was the first in a string of family visits that began in 2015 courtesy of scripter Benoît “Zidrou” Drousie and Spanish illustrator Jordi Lafebre. Drousie is Belgian, Brussels-born in 1962 and was a school teacher prior to quitting marking books in 1990 to instead make them. His main successes include school dunce series L’Elève Ducobu, Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, the revival of Ric Hochet, African Trilogy, Léonardo, Shi and many more. His most celebrated and beloved stories are this memorable sequence and 2010’s Lydie, both illustrated by Lafebre.

That gifted, empathically sensitive illustrator and art teacher was born in Barcelona in 1979 and has created comics professionally since 2001, first for magazines like Mister K, where he limned Toni Font’s El Mundo de Judy. He found regular work at Le Journal de Spirou, creating the romance Always Never and collaborated with Zidrou on La vieille dame qui n’avait jamais joué au tennis et autres nouvelles qui font du bien, Lydie, and La Mondaine.

A combination of feel-good fable and powerful comedy drama, Glorious Summers depicts cherished memories of an aging couple recalling their grandest family moments, beginning with a momentous vacation in 1973 where their four kids nearly lost their parents….

Here, however, final Anglicized volume (so far) The Warrior’s Haven – continentally Les Beaux Étés tome 4: Le Repos du Guerrier – focuses on the close of July 1980, as – just for once – infinitely patient Maddie Faldérault is not waiting for her comic illustrator hubby to finish a late assignment before the brood can head off on holiday! Pierre even has time to complete a little side project and give some life/career advice to studio junior Benoit who has come to the house to pick up the completed pages of latest hit-in-waiting G.I. Girl! (finished almost nine hours ahead of schedule!) and not at all to see oldest daughter Jolie-Julie…

This time the necessary angst and drama are all the preserve of rebellious. acting-out, chain-smoking seventeen year old Nicole who has convinced her folks to bring along her nervous, wealthy, spoiled boyfriend Jean-Emmanuel. All too soon though the parents stop reacting to the horny brats snogging at every opportunity. Now the annual escape from gloomy Brussels for a month in sun-drenched France can start. Even sixteen year old sole Faldérault son Louis is packed and prepared with his books, art supplies and music, and still-precocious nine-year-old wild child Paulette (AKA Peaches) can finally embrace the adventure to come…

And this year offers the beginning of a whole new era and way of life for family Faldérault, as Pierre and his brother Xavier are now proud co-owners of a brand-new, purpose built timeshare house. A fully fitted “turnkey vacation home” is waiting for them in the south of France: clean, fresh, stocked with everything needed and ready for occupation and memory making. No more roughing it in tents and hostels or hotels stuffed with strangers. Now it’s indoor plumbing, a personalised kitchen, a barbeque pit, comfortable sofas and proper beds… a place where they can relax and be themselves. They know exactly what it will be like because Maman picked it all out and designed it from the catalogue and sales brochures. Proud Pierre has already packed the handcrafted shingle for his “Warrior’s Haven”…

As the apparently-expanding family discuss the prospect over one last meal before setting off, the inevitable hammer falls. Pierre’s publisher thinks G.I. Girl! will be a monster hit and has tripled the print run in advance of release! Of course, that will mean the brilliant DILIGENT artist simply must add a giant poster for the promised TV ads, but it shouldn’t take more than a few days if he works flat-out…

The result is Papa stays and faithful transport Mam’zelle Estérel (translated here as Little Miss Esterel) is jam-packed with everybody else for the southbound trek to the sun. Even with Julie now designated driver, the raucous clan rituals (stupid jokes, constant awful singing and barbed off-colour remarks) are in full flow. Not even Nicole and “Jean-Manu”’s constant revolting actions in the backseat – which Louis dubs “vacuum-cleaning faces” – can stop them…

Still in Belgium, having accepted a now staggered vacation start, Pierre sets to and ponders joining them later before suddenly being struck by inspiration. Instead of imparting fatherly advice to impromptu assistant/courier/would-be son-in-law Benoit, he offers ingratiating responsibility to the gifted lad. He can get his big break by finishing the poster for father Faldérault! Crucial decision made, Pierre is soon hurtling south by train…

Near the scenic village of Monpazier, road trek and rail journey fortuitously converge, allowing them all to be reunited on their own doorstep – or at least it would have if they hadn’t been the latest victims of a huge property scam. Sitting under a tree in the vacant lot that should be their second home, the family reel in shock. Gradually, they meet other hopefuls of the utterly fictitious Oasis Turnkey Villas Holiday Complex.

They all bought a dream sight unseen, and soon the sadder, wiser vacationers have banded together. As steps begin to track down the fraudsters and the entrepreneur idiot-brother Xavier recommended, the old warrior spirits return. As they all make the best of it, united with their new notionally-homeless neighbours in not letting bad people take their holiday as well as their money more memories are made…

Of course the youngsters are initially crushed, embarrassed, petulant and indignant, but rich-boy Jean-Manu – who has stayed in penthouses all over the world but never, ever been camping – unexpectedly proffers some wisdom, solace and a little enhanced perspective. Moreover, although the cops might be less than helpful, the local villagers are all sympathetic and kind. With immense grace and no pretensions, they quietly chip in to make the victimised visitors feel welcome and less stupid. When fresh suckers turn up they too are comforted by all, and embraced as another community family forms. Days go by, unforgettable moments are enjoyed and life goes on…

Even return to the real world is graced by warmth, friendships and beloved customs and rituals that serve to reinforce the past and welcome what the future offers. What follows is timeless weeks of wonder and unforgettable explorations on endlessly sunny days, with local villagers and distressed wanderers forgetting woes and overcoming the worst the world can offer: a welcoming lesson in humanity at its best…

This tale is another beautifully rendered, enticingly realised album of happy days stitched seamlessly together. It’s funny, sweet and charming whilst delivering painful blows you never see coming. There aren’t any spectacular events and shocking crises and that’s the whole point…

If you’re British – and old enough – this series (six translated albums thus far, plus a French omnibus edition) will echo revered family sitcoms like Bless This House or Butterflies and generational ads starring the “Oxo Family”. (If that description doesn’t fit you, I pity your browsing history if you look up any of that). The rest of you in need of an opening (but unfair) comparator could break out the Calvin and Hobbes collections and re-examine the bits with his embattled parents when the kid’s out of the picture…

Lyrical, laconic, engagingly demure, and debilitatingly nostalgic, this holiday romance (blessed at the end with Jordi Lafebre’s glorious gallery of pencil sketches) is sheer visual perfection wrapped in sharp dialogue and a superbly anarchic sense of mischief. Vacations and downtimes are built of moments and might-have-beens, such as packaged here in compelling clips to make the mundane marvellous.
© 2019 – DARGAUD BENELUX (Dargaud-Lombard s.a.) – ZIDROU & LEFEBRE, LLC. All rights reserved.

Today in 1932, French artist Jean-Jacques Sempé (Le petit Nicholas, The New Yorker) was born, sharing a birthday with pioneering cartoonist, scholar, feminist and comics historian Trina Robbins (It Ain’t Me, Babe, The Silver Metal Lover, Wimmin’s Commix, Wonder Woman, Friends of Lulu, Dope, Women and the Comics) in 1938; writer Rachel Pollack (Doom Patrol, New Gods, Unquenchable Fire), in1945; artist Alex Saviuk (The Flash, Green Lantern, The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives OGN,  numerous Spider-Man series) in 1952; comic book royalty John Romita Jr. (Superman, Daredevil, Spider-Man, The Eternals, Iron Man, Kick-Ass, Uncanny X-Men, Incredible Hulk) in 1956 and writer/editor Andy Helfer (Justice League of America, The Shadow, Judge Dredd, Justice Inc.) in 1958.

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Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant volume 15: 1965-1966


By Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-025-6 (HB)

These books include Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect

Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur premiered on Sunday February 13th 1937: a fabulous rainbow-hued weekly peek into a world where history met myth to produce something greater than both. Canadian illustrator-turned pioneering comics creator Harold “Hal” Foster developed the feature after a groundbreaking and astoundingly popular run on the Tarzan of the Apes comic strip, seeking something that could be his personal domain.

Prince Valiant offered action, adventure, exoticism, romance and a surprisingly high quota of laughs in its engrossing depiction of noble knights, scheming kings and wicked barbarians played out against a glamorised, dramatized Dark Ages backdrop. The never-ending story traces the eventful life a refugee lad of royal blood, driven from an ancestral Scandinavian homeland – Thule – and who grows up to roam the world, attaining a paramount position amongst the fabled heroes of Camelot.

Foster wove his generational epic romance over decades, tracing the progress of a feral wild boy who became a paragon of chivalric virtue: knight, warrior, saviour, secret agent, avenger and ultimately family patriarch through a constant storm of wild, robust and joyously witty wonderment. The restless champion visited many far-flung lands, siring a dynasty of equally puissant heroes whilst enchanting generations of readers and thousands of creative types in all the arts.

The glorious strip saga spawned films, animated series, comic books and all manner of toys, games, books and collections. Prince Valiant was – and remains – one of the few adventure strips to have run continuously from the thunderous 1930s to the present day (well north of 4000 episodes and still going strong) – and, even here at the end-times of newspaper strips as an art form, it continues in hundreds of papers and via the internet.

Foster soloed on the feature until 1971 when John Cullen Murphy (Big Ben Bolt) succeeded him as illustrator and the originator continued as writer and designer. That ended in 1980, when Foster fully and finally retired. Cullen Murphy’s daughter Mairead took over colouring and lettering whilst her brother John assumed the writer’s role, and in 2004 the senior Cullen Murphy also retired, since when the strip has soldiered on under the aegis of other extremely talented artists such as Gary Gianni, Scott Roberts and latterly Thomas Yeates & Mark Schultz.

This luxuriously oversized (362 x 264 mm) full-colour hardback (tragically, the series is still unavailable digitally) re-presents pages spanning January 3rd 1965 to December 25th 1966, (individual Strips #1456 to 1559) and comes with all the regular bonus trimmings. Preceding two years’ worth of graphic narrative wonderment, historian/editor Brian M. Kane conducts an interview with a veteran comic book artist/comics strips illustrator. Heavily illustrated, the Foreword ‘Sir Robert of Dell: the Prince Valiant Art of Bob (Rip Kirby; Flash Gordon; Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom; Turok, Son of Stone; Lassie) Fujitani’ shares many secrets at the front, and the titanic tome ends with a flurry of illustrated essays and the rear.

These include fabulous King Features promotional material and inducements to newspapers plus Kane’s critical appraisal and discussion of the strip in other media. ‘Not Just For Sundays: Prince Valiant’s Adventures Beyond the Fourth Estate’ details collected editions from around the world; spin-offs and edited collections for the children’s book trade; novelisations (mainly by Max Trell); Hal Foster’s other books and curated compendia that fuelled the global demand for the apparently inexorable knight extant. Heavily illustrated with a wealth of book and comics covers (by Foster, John Cullen Murphy or Mike Grell) and candid photos, the reprint round-up also includes a gallery of covers by Michael Wm. Kaluta that graced the all-new sagas published by Marvel in 1994 (as written by Charles Vess & Elaine Lee and illustrated by the deeply underrated John Ridgway).

What Has Gone Before: valued vassal and infallible secret asset of King Arthur of Britain, Prince Valiant has travelled the world carrying out missions for his liege lord, embattled Christendom, honour and decency. His greatest comrades are stalwart Knights like Sir Gawain, Sir Kay and Sir Launcelot and barbarous Viking pirate Baltar. Val’s life of duty and action won him a glorious, implacable and equally incomparable wife in Mediterranean monarch Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles. Their first son Arn was born on an unknown continent and since has thrived on a life of constant peril. He stands on the brink of manhood and his own path of Royal service.

Val’s offspring currently number four: Arn, precocious twin girls Karen & Valeta and recent addition Galan, arriving during Aleta’s last peril-packed stay in her Misty Isles homeland. Arn rapidly advanced from Court Page to Novice and began official combat training. He swiftly became a Batchelor-at-Arms and constantly excels. Some battles are purely personal as when vindictive Mordred attempted to traduce Aleta’s honour by orchestrating a vicious scandal involving her and Lancelot, but the plot was foiled by clear thinking and valiant action…

In combination with his father, Arn’s gifts proved invaluable in repelling invasion by Saxon hordes and foiling rebellions in Scotland, Cornwall and Wales, as well as an international insurrection when savage Skogul Oderson united disparate Nordic tribes into a united force to ravage his grandfather’s kingdom of Thule. In the aftermath of that triumph, Valiant’s large family wintered in those chilly climes. While taking their ease, Arn and Boltar’s son Hatha talked much of the lost lands of Arn’s birth, recalling the prophecy that Valiant’s heir (deemed “son of the Sun Woman and the Bringer of Harvests”) would one day return to Vinland (the Americas) and his Niagara birthplace to do great deeds…

It should be noted that Hatha’s mother Tillicum is a princess of the Algonquin folk the Vikings befriended 15 years previously. She accompanied the Sun Woman on her return north and east, becoming Aleta’s bondswoman, royal nursemaid and confidante…

Now, as the year reaches mid-point Arn yearns to fulfil his mother’s promise of his return, not only to prove his manhood, but also to make good his family honour, forge trade alliances, and do mighty deeds. The most import of these goals is the first… receiving his father’s approval and mother’s grudging acquiescence. As winter approaches, Arn and Hatha must ready a ship – the province of Valiant’s old friend and ingenious shipwright Gundar Harl – and recruit a competent crew who can survive the perilous voyage and handle anything they might meet on the other side…

Arn further prepares by learning the Algonquin language from Tillicum and discovers her gift for strategic planning. He is delighted when she invites herself along for the trip – a gesture that convinces many holdouts that mayhap the callow youth might make them all rich after all…

Preparations are geared to a spring embarkation and Arn spends every moment seeking to anticipate problems and solve them. Disbelief and dwindling confidence in his proposed crew is offset by Arn undertaking a perilous midwinter sortie to the chilly home of his grandfather Aguar and convincing the hard-headed businessman to back the venture. That gained, Arn almost dies on the return trip, but survives to recruit even more men from local lads who would rather fight than farm…

Arn’s relentless proselytising (he even recruits a skald to visit outlying homesteads singing of the glorious exploit to come in hopes of boosting support and manpower) pays dividends and the voyage begins with the Prince, Hatha, Tillicum and Gundar leading an untried crew across largely unknown waters. Early upsets are all deftly dealt with by Arn and his nursemaid: pirates, rebellious crewmen, deadly winds, dire doldrums, pack ice and resource shortages, before they make landfall in the chilly climes of Vinland…

Here the real adventure begins as the explorers make their way down from the far north to the more hospitable shores of what will be New England a thousand years hence. Arn manipulates the understandably anxious tribes and stage-manages a charm offensive that sees him accepted as the supernatural “Bringer of Harvests” promised by the Sun Woman, as he introduces new weapons and tactics, farming implements, fresh food production methods, new ways to fight and fish, permanent sustainable dwellings and a staggering haul of trade goods. In the course of an epic exploration of the region via the St Lawrence river and overland, Arn learns the art of ruling and that physical wealth means nothing. Hatha narrowly escapes marriage, Tillicum reunites with her long-abandoned father and Viking knowhow saves the Algonquin from eradication by tribal nemeses the Iroquois, and apparently unkillable (chainmail-clad) Arn raises their status with the so-far neutral Ottowa and Huron. In the aftermath of a colossal tribal war, preparations begin for the return to Thule with their trade items (amber, seeds, furs, pemmican and precious minerals) being constantly computed and weighed against sufficient provisions to sustain them for the entire trip home. However, even readying themselves to leave generates tension and clashes with Mohawk and Mohegan enclaves before Gundar declares his modified dragonship refitted and ready to go…

During this rite of passage and voyage of bloody discovery life continued to present challenges in civilised Thule. As their children endured the return trip, both Valiant and Boltar were at the end of their patience and the Prince unwisely organised a tournament to amuse the warriors and himself. Sadly, unlike Arthur’s knights rowdy reivers have no understanding of ritual combat and the event was called off; barely before the competitors killed each other…

Soon after the debacle their boys triumphantly return, but their exploits and triumphs are not celebrated for long, as a ship from Camelot follows, bidding Valiant back into service. Beyond Hadrian’s Wall, life-long foes the Picts and Caledonians have somehow buried past grievances and are massing to attack England together. Arthur needs his greatest operative to find out how the miracle occurred and how best to counter it. Disguised as a vagabond sell-sword Val infiltrates the alliance and discovers Mordred is the unifying force, and embarks on a rapid but brutal solution. There is no love lost between the factions and less trust even now, so it only takes a few covert – and rather macabre – dirty tricks to set clan against clan. Sadly, Mordred sees his old enemy’s hand in the affair and determines to be revenged…

Arn would have joined the undercover mission, but as the latest Man of the House his job was to escort Aleta and the family back to Arthur’s court. By the time they arrive, Mordred and his half-brothers Agravaine and Gaheris have enacted a scheme to targeting Valiant’s loved one, but which is humiliating foiled by playful romance-obsessed Karen & Valeta and their burly handmaiden Katwin. Upon his return to Court, Valiant seeks out Mordred and lays down the law…

The year and the book close on lighter notes as skinny-dipping Aleta accidentally starts a mermaid panic after taking up bathing in Britain’s chilly seas, before her husband is called upon to apply his diplomatic skills to end a succession crisis. A staunch supporter of Arthur, King Bedwin of Dimore had trained his son Prince Harwick to carry on his wise reign and peaceful policies. Now though, as death approaches the aged monarch, Harwick has vanished and Bedwin’s brothers make ready for civil war should the son not be available to take over. When Val traces the absent heir apparent, he finds an obnoxious layabout dedicated only to fishing and carousing, but still smart enough to trick an oath of non-interference out of Arthur’s agent…

As war clouds gather, Valiant seems utterly stifled by his own honour and beliefs..

To Be Continued…

A mesmerising non-stop panorama of visual passion and precision, Prince Valiant is a tremendous procession of boisterous action, exotic adventure and grand romance; blending epic fantasy with dry wit and broad humour, and soap opera melodrama with dark vividly authentic violence. Lush, lavish and captivatingly lovely, it is an indisputable landmark of comics fiction and something no true fan should miss.
All comics © 2017 King Features Syndicate. All other content and properties © 2016 their respective creators or holders. This edition © 2015 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

Today in 1892 cartoonist and animator Otto Messmer (Fun, Feline Follies, Felix the Cat) was born, sharing the natal celebrations with fellow cartoon gamechanger Hal Foster (Tarzan, Prince Valiant). In 1916 Golden Age art star Paul Gustavson (The Angel, The Human Bomb, A-Man, Alias the Spider, Quicksilver) was born; as was British writer Dick Foreman (Black Orchid, Hellblazer) in 1952; illustrator Brian Stelfreeze (Black Panther, CyCops, Shadow of the Bat, Gun Candy) in 1962 and Italian artist Enrico Marini (Batman: Dark Prince Charming, Gipsy, The Scorpion) in 1969.

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Lucky Luke volume 29: The Bounty Hunter


By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-083-2 (Album PB) 978-1-84918-819-7 (Digital edition)

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

Time for another Anniversary announcement, non?

Created by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist “Morris” (AKA Maurice de Bévère), Lucky Luke debuted in the summer of 1946, initially riding out in Le Journal de Spirou in mid-summer sans title or banner, and only in the French-language edition of the multinational comic. The Lone Rider’s official launch came in (Christmas Annual) L’Almanach Spirou 1947, before beginning his first official serial – ‘Arizona 1880’ – in 1946’s all-regional, multilingual weekly edition for December 7th.

Doughty, dashing, dependable cowboy “good guy” Lucky is a rangy, implacably placid do-gooder able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around the mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant and rather sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. For 80 years his exploits have made Lucky a top-ranking global comic icon, packing more than 90 individual albums and spin-off series like Kid Lucky & Ran-Tan-Plan, with sales well north of 300 million copies in 30 languages. That renown translates into a merch mountain of toys, games, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know…

After a relatively slow start for such a fast gun, Lucky’s global dominance came via a decades-long collaboration with superstar scripter René Goscinny. The official partnership spanned Des rails sur la Prairie/Rails on the Prairie (starting August 25th 1955) to La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires/The Ballad Of The Daltons And Other Stories in 1986, during which time the sixgun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with La Diligenc/The Stagecoach in 1967. Goscinny crafed 45 albums with Morris before his death, after which the artist continued both singly and with other literary pardners, before recruiting a posse of legacy creators including Lo Hartog van Banda, Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Xavier Fauche, Benacquista & Pennac, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shots at the venerable vigilante. Morris continued until his own death in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar and spin-off sagebrush sagas.

His grande idée draws on western history less than movie mythology, but – as here(ish) – our hero regularly met historical figures as well as fictional folk in tales drawn from key themes of classic cowboy lore, lensed through uniquely European notions and interpretations – as also seen here. Our sixgun star is not averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire, as well as spoofing his own antecedents whilst wallowing in movie schtick to trigger delicious drives down memory lane in the eternal game of cowboys and imbeciles…

In the ‘50’s Goscinny began scripting Lucky uncredited. Morris had spent almost a decade filling nine albums with affectionate sagebrush parody, action and Lucky Laughs, but when Goscinny was fully deputised as lead wordsmith, Luke popped up more often and rapidly attained dizzying heights of super swift superstardom. Moreover, the hits just kept coming. The 40th European album Le Grand Duc was first seen serially in weekly Pilote from January 25th to May 24th 1973 (issues #690 to 707). In 2011, as The Grand Duke, it became Cinebook’s 29th English-language tome of scathing sagebrush satire and horsefeather hijinks.

Morris drew from a deep shared well of visual and cinematic motifs, gilded with historical veracity as Goscinny’s rip-roaring yarn borrowed heavily from an actual Diplomatic “Jolly” enjoyed between 1871 – 1872 by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, the son of Russian Emperor Alexander II. As the new ambassador to the United States, and alongside living legend Buffalo Bill Cody, Alexei felt it vital that he visit the fabled plains and unfolding frontier, sneering at natives and peasants whilst slaughtering any beast crossing his gunsights…

Here, however, it begins with Lucky once more summoned to Washington DC – this time by the Secretary of State, a big man in need of a little favour. Visiting Russian dignitary Grand Duke Leonid is an enthusiastic fan of James Fenimore Cooper and other modern American authors, and wishes to experience all the grandeur and wildness (such as bandits, cattle-towns, owlhoots, prairies, stage robbers, gold rushes, gunslingers, bar room brawls, ghost towns, varmints, prospectors, Indian attacks and all the rest) of the west, as described in his hobby reads. Despite his often fanciful studies he is not particularly eloquent and most of his communication comes via interpreter/attaché/aide-de-camp His Excellency Colonel Fedor Mikhailovich Boulenkov of His Majety the Czar’s Guard. What they really need is an experienced guide who can inconspicuously double as bodyguard and babysitter. A vital trade treaty depends on our hero keeping the visiting VIP safe and sweet, and of course they will all be utterly incognito…

Impatient Leonid demands an immediate start, so they are all aboard a train heading to desperado-plagued cow-town Abilene within the hour, which is bad news for the Russian anarchist/bomber dogging their heels and blowing up all the wrong coaches and vehicles they should have been in…

The tourists have a rather uneventful journey west, but only because they don’t notice Lucky quietly dealing with train robbers, the bomber and even cardsharps set to fleece the coffers of a foreign government. Instead, the Duke in mufti teaches them a game of chance from his homeland… Russian Roulette…

By the time they get to Kansas – on horseback! Not comfortable rail carriage – the voyagers are ready to sample all the hedonistic delights of the bustling flesh exchange (animal and otherwise). Having Americanised his name to “Bob” and still guided by his reading, Grand Duke Leonid is open to all the town offers and heads for the saloon where lovely – albeit rather hardboiled – chanteuse Laura Legs beguiles and breaks hearts. The aristocrat is unaware that Lucky has already vigorously discouraged all the cowboy patrons from taking advantage or making fun of the foreign tenderfoot about to arrive through those swing doors…

Sadly, Laura’s boss, saloon owner Jackson, reads Eastern newspapers and recognises The Duke. He thinks he’s going to be very rich very soon but hasn’t accounted for his target’s low boredom threshold. Finding this Abilene too sedate, Bob insists on a stagecoach ride further into the west, hoping that it might be held up by desperate gunmen. The ever-close anarchist also lays plans and more bombs, but again Luke is anticipating problems and finding solutions. Before anything can happen, the travellers ditch the coach and alter destination, heading off again on horseback and missing anything even remotely resembling action, adventure or attempted assassination…

Cunningly steering his charges to sedate enclave Bellow Springs, Lucky hopes for peace, quiet and a nice bath but is frustrated when Bob finds a newspaper trumpeting a manhunt for deadly desperado Texas Ripper and wants to join the posse combing nearby Sioux Hills. With no way out, Luke leads the trio into the brush where they soon meet the monster… with astonishing results….

Then, after subverting the press in Grassy Junction, Luke believes a faux newspaper will lead Bob to a dull, dead ghost town. Ironically, even fake news spreads fast and soon Nugget Town is born again in the heat of another rumour-fuelled gold rush. Sadly the bored Duke has already moved on. Bob is ready to call it a day and heads back to dreary Bellow Springs… where the anarchist is waiting. It’s again in vain as the Duke changes his mind and demands to experience an Indian war before finally retreating east. Sadly, with no natives – outraged or otherwise – to hand, Lucky must requisition the local US cavalry contingent to play the furious feathered aggressors… and as usual nothing goes as it should…

It would have been so much easier if someone had ridden to the next fort and spread the word of the imaginary “uprising” but as always, when the unnecessary reinforcements arrive Lucky thinks as fast as he draws and saves the day, the jaunt and that treaty…

A cunning conception and sly amalgam of deception and surreal slapstick, The Grand Duke is a rowdy romp and raucous antidote to dark realpolitik dramas and mirthless mood-driven melodramas of the mesas. This engaging comedy thriller is ideal for kids tall-to-small with a smidgen of historical perspective and social understanding The action and set pieces – even the Russian Roulette running gag – are no more contentious than any Laurel and Hardy film (understandable as Morris was a huge fan of the duo) and genuinely hilarious. Such foolish forays are a grand old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides Again or Cat Ballou, superbly executed by master storytellers and a perfect introduction to a unique genre for anyone who might well have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was.
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1973 by Goscinny and Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2011 Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1911 writer/artist Kin Platt (Doc Strange, Happy, The Mask, Captain Future, Mr. & Mrs.) was born, sharing birthdays with British artist Staz Johnson (Catwoman, Rogue Trooper, Robin, Action Force) in 1965; writer Gregg Hurwitz (Foolkiller) in 1973; writer Al Ewing (Judge Dredd, Loki: Agent of Asgard, Ultimates, The Immortal Hulk) in 1977 and editor Alanna Smith in 1990.

Today in 1996 we lost writer/editor Mark Gruenwald (the Omniverse, Captain America, Hawkeye, Squadron Supreme) with Mike Wieringo (Amazing Spider-Man, Impulse, Flash, Tellos, Fantastic Four) passing in 2007 and the irreplaceable Joe Kubert (Sgt Rock, Enemy Ace, Hawkman, Flash, Tarzan, Fax from Sarajevo) in 2012.

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Yoko Tsuno volume 21 – The Celestial Boat


By Roger Leloup, coloured by Studio Leonardo & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-187-3 (PB Album)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

On September 24th 1970, freelance electronics engineer Yoko Tsuno first began her troubleshooting career as an indomitable intellectual adventurer. Her debut in Le Journal de Spirou was initially realised in “Marcinelle style” cartoonish 8 page short ‘Hold-up en hi-fi’ and although she is still delighting readers and making new fans to this day, for a while it looked as if she wasn’t going anywhere soon. Thankfully, her astonishing, astoundingly accessible exploits were revised and she soon evolved into a paragon of peril, helming a highpoint of amazingly authentic pseudo-realistic fantasies numbering amongst the most intoxicating, absorbing and broad-ranging comics thrillers ever created.

Tsuno’s globe-girdling mystery cases and space-&-time-spanning epics are the brainchild of Belgian maestro Roger Leloup who launched his own solo career in 1953 whilst working as studio assistant/technical artist on Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin. Compellingly told, sublimely imaginative and – no matter how implausible the premise of an individual yarn – always firmly grounded in hyper-realistic settings underpinned by solidly-constructed, unshakably believable technology and unswerving scientific principles, Leloup’s illustrated escapades were at the vanguard of a wave of strips revolutionising European comics. Early in the journey, he switched from loose illustration to a mesmerising realism that is the series’ signature. The long-overdue sea-change in gender roles and stereotyping his eastern star heralded led to a torrent of clever, competent, brave and formidable women protagonists taking their rightful places as heroic ideals and not romantic lures. That small revolution consequently elevated Continental comics in the process.

Masterful Miss Tsuno’s first outings are sadly STILL unavailable Hold-up en hi-fi, and co-sequels La belle et la bête and Cap 351, were introductory vignettes prior to epic authenticity taking a firm grip in 1971 when the unflappable problem solver met valiant but lesser (male) pals Pol Paris and Vic Van Steen. Instantly hitting her stride in premier full-length saga Le trio de l’étrange (in LJdS’s May 13th edition), from then on, Tsuno’s exploits encompassed explosive errands in exotic corners of our world, spy-&-crime capers, devastating deep-space sagas and time-travelling jaunts such as this one. There are 32 European bande dessinée albums to date, with 21 translated into English thus far, albeit – and ironically – none are available in digital formats…

Initially serialised in LJdS #3138 to 3148, spanning June 29th – 12th August 1998, La Jonque céleste became Europe’s 22nd collected Yoko Tsuno album at year’s end. It finds our tireless trouble-finder back on Earth and striving to separate history from myth – and legend from harsh political truth – in a cold case of child abuse and apparent mysticism that spans a millennium…

Aboard a commercial jet, Tsuno is flying to China with adopted daughter Morning Dew when an onboard incident involving an ailing archaeologist abruptly leaves “Dew” in accidental possession of an antique doll and mysterious ivory globe. These the afflicted passenger was delivering to an unspecified address. The aged items are apparently clues to a fabulous treasure and the lost location of the “seventh tooth of the dragon” but further information is unavailable after he is seemingly struck down by an invisible force…

Attentive Yoko’s instincts and suspicions are further aroused when they disembark and officials attempt to confiscate the items. Naturally, they are deftly foiled and diverted by Ms. Tsuno’s clever misdirection. With Dew in tow, she tracks down the ailing man’s intended destination and meets fading historical scholar Professor Fung at his riverside residence. Welcomed graciously, she learns of his studies into – and reconstruction of – an ancient multi-lensed “signal device” and the accompanying legend of the lost tomb of The Emperor Zhen-Zong’s Fourth Wife.

That bizarre episode saw said emperor spend years and vast resources seeking to erase the unhappy bride from history…

Fung is delighted when Yoko hands him the ivory sphere that completes his reconstructed contraption, and – after the doll also provides hidden components – deduces that his courier’s mishandling of the “The Spheres of Yin Shi” caused his collapse and continuing malady. With the highly-polished lens in his possession, Fung demonstrates the incredible mirror-gadget to be a weapon Emperor Zhenzong employed back in 11th century Song China…

Dew & Yoko also befriend Fung’s personal doctor Lin Po. Although dedicated, she is clearly at odds with and mistrusts her prestigious patient on many issues, but gradually, cautiously she becomes embroiled in the unfolding adventure after Yoko’s sentimental heartstrings are tugged by the physician’s sharing brushed-over further details of the ancient tale of injustice cruelty and imperial abuse.

With Dew staying at Fung’s house, Yoko and Lin Po voyage by houseboat to an isolated but gloriously beautiful mountain region. Here long ago, ambition and human greed fomented rebellion and tragedy, compelling the august ruler to marry 6-year old Xin Yi for political expediency. Now, Lin Po shows Yoko the hidden tomb she accidentally stumbled upon. It contains the child-bride’s ceremonial barge and a sealed funerary urn resembling the doll of the wife. Shockingly, it somehow generates a steady heartbeat!

Fascinated, the adventurer and moved mother resolves that neither history nor imperial power will stop her from saving the Fourth Wife. Enlisting faithful pals Vic & Pol (plus the latter’s recently migrated 16th century Flanders-born fiancée Mieke) and cherished comrade Monya – from AD 3872 and possessing a time machine (see The Time Spiral),Yoko and Lin Po ready a factfinding/rescue mission and set out for “the 49th day after the Lantern Festival in the 61st year of the Song Dynasty” (March 29th 1021 CE for short) to thwart fate, cheat history and save a tragic child…

Of course, history is a deceiving liar, and the team are soon embroiled in complex local politics, armed revolt and assassination plots, with their well-intentioned but reality-risking meddling actually shaping the official (but erroneous) account they had studied in the 20th century whilst revealing – and concealing – the truth of the affair. As benevolent Imperial Counsellor Lord Chou and peasant boy Yu war with rioting peasants, bandits, river pirates and corrupt overlord Prince Wang, to save obnoxious brat Xin Yi, everyone seeks to exploit or scapegoat the Fourth Wife for personal advantage, before the crisis erupts into open warfare when Wang attempts to use a black powder and his diabolical mirror weapon to end the conflict and remove potential hostile witnesses. Thankfully, Yoko has a “dragon” of her own and the savage rebellion is quashed in record time and with the happiest ending fate will permit…

As always, the most potent asset of this historical drama is its astonishingly authentic settings, as ever benefitting from Leloup’s diligent research and meticulous attention to detail. The Celestial Boat is a sweeping tale of passion, deception, good intentions and indomitable human spirit: a tense yet action-packed thriller, taut and compelling, and absolutely appealing as much to fans of blockbuster fantasy epics as spectacle-starved comic addicts.
Original edition © Dupuis, 1998 by Roger Leloup. All rights reserved. English translation © 2026 Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1895 French comics star Alain Saint-Ogan (Zig et Puce, Mitou et Toti, Prosper l’ours, Monsieur Poche, Touitoui) was born, sharing birthdays with Belgian maestro Maurice Tillieux (Gil Jourdan, Félix, Marc Lebut, Tif et Tondu, Hultrasson, Yoko Tsuno, Jess Long) in 1921; artist Mark Bagley, (Amazing Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man, New Warriors, Thunderbolts, Venom, Carnage) & writer Paul Dini (Zatanna, Harley Quinn, Jungle Belle, Detective Comics The Batman Adventures, Superman Adventures, Batman: Harley and Ivy, Shazam! The Power of Hope, Krypto the Superdog) both born in 1957 and scripter Dan Jolley (Aliens, Terminator, Micronauts, Purgatori) in 1971.

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Nightmares and Daydreams A.C. 2020


By Mirko Ili? (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-52-2 (Album HB)

This book contains nudity, sexual images, depiction of bodily functions, scenes of distress, oppression and violence, but for Pete’s sake millions died, countless others are still enduring long term debilitating illness and it could all happen again. Grow a sense of proportion or read something else if those are your problems with what’s on show here.

We all respond to stress, horror, terror and slow strangling of hope in different ways. If nothing else, the COVID 19 pandemic (and those many ongoing, still-evolving sequels national governments are so keen to have us ignore at this moment) resulting in global lockdown showed us ourselves in ways we could never have previously imagined. As loved ones vanished from around us, human monsters made money and political capital of the viral winnowing, and forcibly isolated humans turned inward, looked outward from cosy cages and redefined who they were. Many discovered new or long-suppressed gifts and talents. Others just got in much closer touch with what they knew but never had time for, back when the world was “normal”…

Bosnian-born on January 1st 1956, Mirko Ili? is an artist. Living with dyslexia, he especially preferred the visual to the verbal in his formative reading years and made graphic design his area of expertise. Upon achieving success and acclaim he moved to the Big Apple, becoming art director of Time magazine’s international edition and The New York Times Op-Ed section. Before that, though, he was raised in Soviet-era Yugoslavia, absorbing every comic he could find. Shaped, changed and charged-up for life, he entered the magazine marketplace as a creator and storyteller whose efforts were seen far and wide thanks to eye-catching yarns in Métal Hurlant, Heavy Metal, and Marvel’s Epic Illustrated among others, all riding a global fantasy art boom at that time.

Coming to America confirmed his ascent but took him ever further away from personalised graphic narratives. Design pays more than panels & captions, and Ili? prospered from prestigious, high profile works such as posters and book covers for Steven Heller, Milton Glaser and so many more. He crafted film titles, ad designs, album covers and all the rest of those image-potent fillips that command and reward inspired vision-realisers. With time came more acclaim and many examples of his art added to modern collections including MOMA, SFMOMA, the Smithsonian, Die Nueue Sammlung and various other global institutions.

If you need to know more than what the fulsome creator bio at the back of this tome offers, you should track down his 2012 biography (by Dejan Krši?) Mirko Ili?: Fist to Face…

Meanwhile and however, when almost everyone’s career was put on pause in 2020, Ili? the long-neglected comics storymaker reacted to enforced isolation, prolonged separation and the prospect of an actual Apocalypse by unearthing his own roots. Locked in, he reviewed comforting literary influences and artistic inspirations. Deprived of bustling casual human contact – comprising strangers, casual acquaintances and close friends – he sought ways to make sense and apply perspective and proportion to what so many of us regarded as our long anticipated well-earned Armageddon. Ili? started drawing as he wondered and waited for whatever end was coming…

As explained in supporting text pieces – a contextual Foreword from Mark Hellier and Dave McKean’s appraisal in a concluding Afterword – an inward expulsion of ideas was nourished by Ili?’s past via beloved works by favourite creators… not just comic stars like Tomaz Pengov, R. Crumb, Moebius, and especially Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland. Also revisited were craftspeople, artisans, designers, filmmakers, poets and musicians including Magritte, de Chirico and Egon Schiele; Marshall McLuhan, Leonard Cohen, The Velvet Underground and Dylan Thomas. Ili? referenced formative mythology and religious iconography (image 27 references Saint Sebastian – believed in mediaeval times to defend against plague) and his own earliest comics creations and student days at Zagreb’s School of Applied Arts, to feed his art making addiction and when the world’s new normal began as the year closed, the therapy comics became his A.C. (After Covid) 2020 collection…

As inferred already, 2020 began with Mirko Ili? drawing self-contained single-page stories/statements as something to do and to reflect the mood of unprecedented times. He continued that daily visual diary even as world lockdowns gradually lifted, channelling his continuing anxieties, observations and self-evaluations into striking, shocking surreal pantomimes blending bleak, traumatised imagination with personal motifs and inspirations…

Without another word that procession of explicit, scary, sad and evocative moments unfolds here with gregarious overwhelming humanity reduced to spectres and phantoms avoiding other people. One voluntary ghost is a driven aging artist roaming achingly familiar but alien empty streets. Over 70+ individual vignettes rendered in a variety of liberating styles to challenge the notion of confinement and unflinching rigidity a longer narrative forms. Skilfully manipulating self-imposed creative restrictions whilst inhabiting nested boxes/containers/cells of wordless pages & panels, shining through monochrome palettes and singular subject matter a record of loneliness and isolation running wild emerges.. And yet, somehow, each message of and within borders and boundaries is invested in sparking unique examples of freedom of thought, memory, and anticipation… be that better or worsening days or no future at all…

Extremely explicit, complex, challenging, compressed, claustrophobic, and memorably distressing, this somehow still-mightily engaging gallery of isolated incidents is fully annotated and supplemented by a Visual Reference Index, presenting one compulsive creator’s unflinching documentary testament and uncompromising inner monologues: a physical paradigm of processing in response to solitary daily “constitutionals” undertaken through an eerily distanced metropolis in the fervent hope of touching “normal” again and seeking out a better, more crowded tomorrow…

If you can handle it, you must not miss this marvellous, darkly beautiful memento mori to modern fragility and failures…
Nightmares and Daydreams A.C. 2020 © 2026 by Mirko Ili?, Foreword © Steven Heller. Afterword © Dave McKean. All rights reserved.

Nightmares and Daydreams: A.C. 2020 will be released in the UK on September 3rd 2026 and September 29th in the US. It is available for pre-order now and is supported in London by an exhibition running from 1st to 7th September at the Coningsby Gallery, 30 Tottenham Street, London W1T 4RJ.

Today in 1875 pioneering US cartoonist Clare A. Briggs (A. Piker Clerk, When a Feller Needs a Friend, Ain’t It a Grand and Glorious Feeling?, The Days of Real Sport, Mr. and Mrs. and father of pioneering woman cartoonist “Miss” Clare Briggs!) was born, sharing the anniversary with the premiere of Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie strip in 1924; Carl Giles’ eponymous UK family gag panel Giles in 1946; the loutish launch of Reg Smyth’s Andy Capp in 1957 as well as the birth in 1966 of filmmaker/producer/writer James Gunn (Super, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vols 1 2 & 3, The Suicide Squad; the whole honking’ great DC Extended Universe; Creature Commandos, Peacemaker, Scooby-Doo & Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Brightburn, Superman).

Today also marks passing of creator Frank Godwin (Wonder Woman, War on Crime, Connie, Rusty Riley) in 1957 and groundbreaking black American cartoonist, fan art pioneer and underground comix exponent Richard Edward “Grass” Green (Xal-Kor the Human Cat, Holiday Out, Super Soul Comix) in 2002.

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Thorgal volume 0: The Betrayed Sorceress & Almost Paradise: Island of the Frozen Seas


By Grzegorz Rosinski & Van Hamme, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Europe Comics/Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-443-4 (Cinebook PB Album) 978-1-84918-614-8 (Cinebook Digital edition)
No ISBN (Europe Comics digital-only edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times, and imagery made for cultures far less prudish and body conscious than ours or the current US conception of Family Values. As such, there’s also probably far less explicit violence than you might be accustomed to. Sorry, Not Sorry.

One of the very best and most celebrated fantasy adventure series of all time, Thorgal accomplishes the seemingly impossible: pleasing critics and selling in vast quantities.

The prototypical Game of Thrones saga debuted in iconic weekly Le Journal de Tintin in 1977 with album compilations beginning three years later. A far-reaching, expansive generational saga, it has won a monolithic international following in fourteen languages and dozens of countries, generating numerous spin-off series, and thus naturally offers a strong presence in the field of global gaming.

In story-terms, Thorgal offers the best of all weird worlds, with an ostensibly historical milieu of bold Viking adventure seamlessly incorporating science fiction elements, dire magic, horrendous beasts, social satire, political intrigue, soap opera, Atlantean mystique and mythically mystical literary standbys such as gods, monsters and devils. Created by Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme (Domino, XIII, Largo Winch, Blake and Mortimer) and Polish illustrator Grzegorz Rosinski (Kapitan Zbik, Pilot smiglowca, Hans, The Revenge of Count Skarbek), the feature grew into an  unstoppable juggernaut over decades with the creative duo completing 29 albums between 1980 & 2006 when Van Hamme moved on. Thereafter, scripting duties fell to Yves Sente who collaborated on a further five collections until 2013 when Xavier Dorison wrote one before “Yann” AKA Yann Le Pennetier became chief scribe. In 2025, he and Rosi?ski released 36th epic-album Aniel after which Fred Vignaux took over as artist in residence with L’Emite de Skellingar. The current count is 43 tomes, with La vengeance de la déesse Skædhi published in 2025.

By the time Van Hamme departed, the canon had grown, spawning spin-off series to cover not only the life of the titular hero and his son Jolan, but also other indomitable family members. These include The Worlds of Thorgal – Kriss of Valnor (8 volumes); Thorgal – Wolf (7 volumes) and Thorgal – The Youth of Thorgal (11 books) plus an Homage imprint inviting other creators to tell non-canonical yarns set in the Thorgal universe. There’s five of them thus far since kicking off in 2023, with all additions lumped together under umbrella aegis Les Mondes de Thorgal…

In 1985, US publisher Donning released a brief yet superb series of oversized hardcover translations, but Thorgal never really found an English-speaking audience until Cinebook began its own iteration in 2007. The original Belgian series meandered back and forth through the hero’s life and Cinebook’s translated run began with the 7th and 8th albums combined in a double-length premiere edition (just like the one under view today). By that time the saga of ceaselessly wandering enigma Thorgal Aegirsson had properly gelled, but there were a few books before then, with our hero still finding his literary and graphic feet…

What you’ll learn from later volumes: Thorgal was recovered as a baby from a ferocious storm and raised by Northern Viking chief Leif Haraldson. Nobody could possibly know the fortunate foundling had survived a stellar incident which destroyed a starship full of super-scientific humanoid aliens. Growing to manhood, the strange boy was eventually forced out of his adopted land by ambitious usurper Gandalf the Mad who feared the young warrior threatened his own claim to the throne.

For his entire childhood Thorgal had been inseparable from Gandalf’s daughter Aaricia and, as soon as they were able, they fled together from the toxic atmosphere to live free from her father’s lethal jealousy and obsessive terror of losing his throne. Danger was always close but after many appalling hardships, the lovers and their new son finally found a measure of cautious tranquillity by occupying a small island where they could thrive in safety… or so they thought…

Here, however, in harder-hitting, initial escapades from 1980, the largely unexplained and formulaic Viking warrior is simply a hero in search of a cause. La Magicienne Trahie becomes eponymous debut book The Betrayed Sorceress, opening with a full-grown Thorgal tortured and left to die of exposure and drowning by arch enemy Gandalf before being fortuitously rescued by a red-haired woman who demands he work in her service for a year…

Accompanied by a loyal wild wolf, formidable mystic matron Slive is consumed with a hunger for vengeance and orders her reluctant vassal to undertake an arduous quest and great battles to retrieve a hidden casket and its mystical contents. Only after succeeding does the warrior discover that the target of her ire is Gandalf himself. Her complex scheme almost succeeds but the witch’s plans eventually lead to bloodshed, calamity, unsuspected connections to beloved Aaricia and the exposure of long-hidden secrets.

As the final clash climaxes, Gandalf is near death and the reunited lovers witness the sorceress’ last voyage into the coldest regions on Earth in a dragonship made of ice…

Bridging the first and second volumes, short follow-up exploit ‘Almost Paradise’ continues the saga and completes the first volume with Thorgal living again amongst Gandalf’s band, but only on sufferance and in constant daily hardship. Here, a lone ride through winter snows leads to his being hunted by ravening wolves before plummeting into a fantastic time-lost and timeless enclave at the bottom of an icy crevasse. In a tropical Eden Thorgal finds a trio of mysterious maidens.

Two vie for his attention and argue the seductive benefits of eternal life in a vast garden free of want and danger, but youngest girl Skadia craves the freedom of the outer world and is willing to lead the homesick warrior into horrendous peril to achieve her ends. Desperate to return to his true love, Thorgal escapes with the third immortal, suffering a nightmare journey back to the real world, but not without paying a painful price…

Second collected album L’lle des Mers gelées is included here as The Island of the Frozen Seas, opening in spring as Aaricia prepares to wed Thorgal and abandon Gandalf’s lands forever. Those dreams are shattered when giant eagles fly down and snatch her away. Soon all the warriors are pursuing in Drakkars (dragonships), heading ever northwards.

The pursuit leads to fractious moments aboard ship. Imminent mutiny is only forestalled when the Vikings encounter a fantastic vessel moving without oars or sails and – despite valiant resistance – the barbarians are soon all captive beside Aaricia. All, that is, save for Thorgal and future brother-in-law Bjorn Gandalfson who escaped capture by taking to a lifeboat…

At the top of the world, they meet strange tribes-folk perfectly adapted to arctic life. Thorgal continues hunting his bride-to-be, meeting and defeating her abductor, uncovering an incredible secret citadel and hearing an incredible story about his long-occluded origins before he can bring his beloved back home to her people…

Although lacking the wit and raw humour of later tales these works-in-progress are fierce, inventive and phenomenally gripping: cunningly crafted, astonishingly addictive formative episodes gradually building towards a fully-realised universe of wonder and imagination whilst offering insight into the character of a true, if exceedingly unwilling, hero.

Thorgal is every action fan’s ideal dream of unending adventure. What fanatical fantasy aficionado could possibly resist such barbaric blandishments?

The Europe Comics volume is a digital-only edition from the pan-continental collective imprint which collaborates to bring fresh and classic material to English speaking fans. Many of their selections are picked up by established print publishers like Top Shelf or Cinebook. In fact, this volume joined to Cinebook’s stable of titles at the end of 2018, under special enumeration as Thorgal volume 00: The Betrayed Sorceress. Although currently out of physical print it too is available digitally, so if you’re already a fan you can still add the book to your collection. The past awaits you, only a few keystrokes away…
© Editions du Lombard (Dargaud-Lombard s.a.) 1980 Rozinski & Van Hamme. English translation © 2018 Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1924 Golden Age artist/inker John Belfi (Justice Society of America, Sky Wolf, The Heap, Straight Arrow, Strong Bow, The Saint, Tarzan, Flash Gordon) was born, followed by Filipino illustrator Eufronio Reyes “E. R.” Cruz (The Shadow, Moon Knight, Sherlock Holmes, Eerie, G.I. Combat) in 1934. In 1941 Grzegorz Rosinski arrived, joined by writer Reed Waller (Omaha the Cat Dancer) in 1949, and colourist Dave Stewart (Hellboy, Daytripper, Shaolin Cowboy, The Goon, DC: The New Frontier, Star Wars, The Umbrella Academy) in 1972.

Today in 1991 the last episode of the fourth Batman newspaper strip was published.

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Black Light: The World of L.B. Cole


By Leonard Brandt Cole with an introduction by Bill Schelly (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-762-8 (TPB/ Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The early days of the US comic book industry were a whirlwind of spectacular exuberance and the front covers of the gaudy pamphlets that endlessly proliferated were all crafted to scream “Pick Me! Pick Me!” from within a sea of similar sights. As such, that first visual contact was crucial to success and one of the greatest artists ever to mesmerise kids out of their hard-earned dimes was Leonard Brandt Cole (28th August 1918 – December 5th 1995) who had a master designer’s knack for combining captivating ideas and imagery with eye-popping style and technique.

Although he also illustrated quite a few interior strips (for Holyoke, Ajax, Farrel & Gilberton), Cole’s true gift and passion was devising attention-grabbing cover images rendered in what he called “poster colors”. Whether on Horror, Superhero, Science Fiction, Sports, Humour, Crime, War, Western, Rugged Adventure, Jungle, Romance or even Funny Animal titles, his stellar, absorbing art was instantly recognisable and in great part defines the Golden Age of Comics for us today…

His influence doesn’t end there, however. A shrewd businessman and editor, Cole started his own studio-shop to manufacture stories for assorted companies. parlayed it into a publishing company (initially by buying existing properties from client Novelty Press in 1949) and then diversifying through his Star Comics line into genre novels, prose-pulps, puzzle-books and general magazine periodicals. Frequently he would combine his electric primary colours over a black background adding instant extra punch to his renditions of masked champions, soaring spaceships, macabre monsters and a legion of damsels in love or distress…

Before joining the nascent comics industry in the early 1940s, Cole’s background was in science and printing. He studied veterinary science (and held a doctorate in Anatomy and Physiology from the University of Berlin) but was working as a lithographic Art Director when he made the seemingly sideways transition into illustration and comics.

Incredibly this colossal (272 pages, at 337x235mm), durably Flexibound compendium was his first major retrospective, bringing together a multitude of his most impressive works in one immense, colourful and informative volume/package.

The astounding career of a comic book Renaissance man is covered in fascinating detail in ‘Comics by Design – the Weird Worlds of L.B. Cole’ by pre-eminent historian of the medium Bill Schelly, whose appreciation ‘Fever Dreams in Four-Color Form’ is followed by his erudite biography and timeline of the artist, divided into four discrete periods. Each section is augmented by photos, covers, original artwork and even comics extracts – ranging from panels and splash pages to complete stories (such as Paul Revere Jr. and all on one page!) – covered in lavish detail via ‘Into Comics’ and ‘Cole as Publisher’ whilst ‘Out of Comics’ focuses on his later move into commercial art, education and illustration.

In the 1980s Cole was rediscovered by comics fandom and achieved minor celebrity status through appearances at conventions. ‘Art Among the Junk’ covers this period up until his death when he began recreating his iconic covers as privately commissioned paintings for modern collectors.

The true wonder of this glorious phantasmagorical collection follows in ‘The Comics Covers of L.B. Cole’, showcasing long runs of the artist’s stunning covers – nearly 350 eye-popping poster images – from such evocative titles as 4Most; All-Famous Police Cases; Blue Bolt; Captain Aero; Cat-Man Comics; Classics Illustrated, Contact Comics; Confessions of Love; Criminals on the Run; Dick Tracy; Flight Comics; Frisky Animals; Ghostly Weird Stories; Killers; Jeep Comics; Mask; Popular Teen-Agers; Power Comics; Ship Ahoy; Shocking Mystery Cases; Spook; Sport Thrills; Startling Terror Tales; Suspense Comics; Target Comics; Terrors of the Jungle; Top Love; Toy Town; Western Crime Cases; White Rider and Super Horse and many more…

The pictorial feast doesn’t end there though as ‘Further Works’ gathers a host of his non-comics covers including books like The Greatest Prison Breaks of All Time, Murders I’ve Seen, Raging Passions and Love Hungry, as well as magazine covers for joke periodicals like Wit and Wisdom, Sporting Dogs and World Rod and Gun; “Gentleman’s” publications and “sweat mags” such as Man’s True Action, Man’s Daring Adventures and Epic (Stories of True Action) also feature: augmented by articles, working sketches and original drawings and paintings. There’s even a selection of his superb animal studies, anatomical and medical textbook illustrations, plus private commissions, recreations and unpublished or unfinished works…

Black Light is a vast and stunning treasury of fantastic imagery from a bygone age by a master of visual communication that no fan of popular art could fail to appreciate, but for comics lovers it’s something else too: a seductive gateway to astounding worlds of imagination and breathless nostalgia impossible to resist.
Black Light: The World of L.B. Cole © 2015 Fantagraphics Books. All comics, artwork, photos, illustrations and intellectual properties © 2015 the respective copyright holder. All rights reserved.

Today in 1917 Jack Kirby was born. End Of…

Also on this day in 1917 Italian co-creator of Tex Willer Aurelio Galleppini arrived; followed in by artist Dell Barras in 1957 and French creator Joann Sfar (Dungeon, The Rabbi’s Cat, The Little Vampire) in 1971.

Political commentator and Happy Hooligan creator Frederick Burr Opper (also Alphonse and Gaston, And Her Name Was Maud, Howsan Lott, Our Antediluvian Ancestors) died in 1937, a departure date shared with controversial Belgian cartoonist/author Willy Vandersteen (Spike and Suzy) in 1990 and prolific Dutch fantasy comics creator Bert Bus (Olaf Noord, Skokan, Een Slimmeling Uit Het Jaar Nul, Cliff Rendall, Lance Barton) in 2017.