Category: Historical

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DC Finest: Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time


By Bob Haney, Cary Burkett, Martin Pasko, Dave Michelinie, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Steve Englehart, Paul Levitz, Jim Aparo, José Luis García-López, Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Dick Dillin, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, Don Newton, Romeo Tanghal, Frank McLaughlin, Frank Chiaramonte, Dick Giordano, Jack Abel, Bob Smith & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-082-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Here’s another stunning and timely compilation comprising the best of vintage comics; one more astounding and epic DC Finest edition. These weighty, full colour treasure troves are chronologically curated themed tomes highlighting past glories from the company that invented superheroes and so much more. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

As you’ve probably noticed, a big part of superhero fiction involves interacting – if not always uniting – with other costumed stars. Every producer, purveyor and publisher of Fights ‘n’ Tights fare employs and exploits the concept of allied action and chums in conflict, with apparently every consumer insatiably coveting them and more of the same. With The Man of Steel and a whole bunch of super-suited & booted associates happily and profitably cavorting across big screens everywhere now, let’s look at a few of his past collaborations… and while we’re at it, peek at some of his best pal’s other playmates at the same time…

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to observe how the new gaudy gladiator stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the comics industry – and according to DC Comics Presents first editor Julie Schwartz, it was the same with the pulps and dime novels that preceded it – we’ve wanted our idols to meet, associate, battle together (and if you follow the Timely/Marvel model, that means against each other) far more than we want to see them trounce their archenemies in a united front…

The concept of team-up comic books – an established star pairing or battling (usually both) with less well-selling company characters – was far from new when DC awarded their then-biggest gun (it was the publicity-drenched weeks before the release of Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton’s Batman was over a decade away) a regular arena to share adventures with other stars of their firmament, just as Batman had been doing since the middle of the 1960s.

The Brave and the Bold began in 1955 as an anthology adventure comic featuring short tales of period heroes: a format mirroring contemporary movie fascination with historical dramas. Written by Bob Kanigher, issue #1 led with Golden Gladiator, the Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’s now legendary Viking Prince. From #5 the Gladiator was increasingly alternated with Robin Hood, and manly, mainly mainstream romps carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning costumed character revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle like sister publication Showcase.

Brave and the Bold #25 (August/September 1959) debuted Task Force X: Suicide Squad, followed by Justice League of America (#28), Cave Carson (#31) and Hawkman (#34). Since only the JLA hit first time out, there were return engagements for the Squad, Carson and Hawkman. Something truly different appeared in #45-49 with science fictional Strange Sports Stories before B&B #50 triggered a new concept that once again truly caught reader imaginations.

It paired superheroes Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter in a one-off team-up, as did succeeding issues: Aquaman and Hawkman in #51, WWII wonders Sgt. Rock, Captain Cloud, Mme. Marie and the Haunted Tank in #52 and Atom with Flash in #53. The next team-up – Robin, Aqualad & Kid Flash – swiftly evolved into the Teen Titans. After Metal Men/the Atom and Flash/Martian Manhunter, new hero Metamorpho, the Element Man debuted in #57-58. Then it was back to superhero pairings with #59, and although no one realised it at the time this particular conjunction (Batman & Green Lantern) would be particularly significant. Soon the book would become a vehicle for Batman team-ups…

With the 1978 release of Superman The Movie it was time to reward the Man of Tomorrow with a similar dedicated publication, although in truth, the Action Ace had already enjoyed the sharing experience once before, when World’s Finest Comics briefly ejected the Caped Crusader and Superman paired with a coterie of heroes including Flash, Robin, Aquaman, Teen Titans, Vigilante, Dr. Fate and others (i#198-214; cover-dated November 1970 to October/November 1972) before the traditional status quo was re-established.

This superb all action collection intriguingly re-presents the first 14 star-studded monthly DC Comics Presents releases and the equivalent contemporary issues of The Brave and the Bold – #141-155). These together collectively span May/June 1978 through October 1979. We open with B&B and resident creators Bob Haney & Jim Aparo, so before the off here’s some background.

Robert Gilbert Haney, Jr. was born on 15th March 1926, growing up in Philadelphia listening to radio dramas and serials, and reading newspaper strips like Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon. Higher education at Swathmore College led to service in the US Navy. He was one of the lucky ones to survive The Battle of Okinawa relatively unscathed.

Follow up studies at Columbia University led to a Master’s degree, after which Haney began a prolific storytelling career by writing a slew of popular novels under a number of noms de plume. In 1947, he moved sideways into comic books, beginning with racy tale ‘College for Murder’ in Harvey Comics’ Black Cat #9 (cover-dated January 1948). From then until 1955 he freelanced for various publishers like Fawcett, Hillman, Standard and St. John on genre tales packed with action, grit and wit.

When anti-comics witch-hunts in the 1950s led to a bowdlerising, self-inflicted Comics Code, Haney shifted gears and began an almost exclusive position as a scripter at DC/National Comics, initially for the war comic division. His first sale was ‘Frogmen’s Secret’ in All American Men of War #17 (January 1955), and he scripted the very first Sgt Rock story in 1959, and countless more for all the combat titles.

Immensely versatile, he wrote for every genre division from licensed to humour, western to superhero and for titles including Blackhawk, Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog, Sea Devils, Tomahawk, Challengers of the Unknown, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, My Greatest Adventure, Doom Patrol, Aquaman, Hawkman, Space Ranger, Green Arrow, Deadman, The Unknown Soldier, and the very first Batman team-up in The Brave and the Bold #59. For decades the book would be his personal playground and where he delivered his take on most of the company’s vast pantheon…

Haney co-created the Teen Titans, Metamorpho, Eclipso, Enchantress (in Strange Adventures), Aquagirl, Cain of The House of Mystery and the Super-Sons, but ultimately his style began to clash with DC’s changing teen demographic. Happily, he had also been working in animation since the mid-1960s, scripting episodes of The New Adventures of Superman and The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure TV shows; and in the 1980s, DC’s loss was cartoon kids’ gain. Haney worked extensively on new shows including Karate Kat, Silverhawks and ThunderCats, as well as producing books of general fiction and consumer journalism. Ultimately, rapprochement with a new DC management saw Haney return to comics for nostalgia-tinged titles including Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999); Silver Age: The Brave and the Bold #1 (July 2000); and – posthumously published –Teen Titans Lost Annual #1 (March 2008).

Haney died on November 25th 2004, in La Mesa, California.

Taking his cues from news headlines, popular films and proven genre-sources, Haney continually produced gripping yarns that thrilled and enticed, with no need for more than a cursory nod to an ever-more-onerous continuity. Anybody could pick up an issue of B&B and be sucked into a world of wonder. Consequently, these tales are just as fresh and welcoming today, their themes and premises just as immediate now as then. Moreover, Jim Aparo’s magnificent art is still as compelling and engrossing as it always was.

James N. Aparo (August 24th 1932 – July 19th 2005) was a true but quiet giant of comic books. Self-taught, he grew up in New Britain Connecticut, and, after failing to join EC Comics whilst in his 20s, slipped easily into advertising, newspaper and fashion illustration. Even after finally becoming a comics artist he assiduously maintained his links with his first career. For most of his career he was a triple-threat, pencilling, inking and lettering his pages. In 1963 he began drawing Ralph Kanna’s newspaper strip Stern Wheeler, and three years later was working on a wide range of features for go-getting visionary editor Dick Giordano at Charlton Comics. Aparo especially shone on the minor company’s licensed top gun The Phantom. In 1968 when Giordano was lured away to National/DC he brought his top performers (primarily Steve Ditko, Steve Skeates and Aparo) with him. Aparo began a life-long association with the company where legends live illustrating and reinvigorating moribund title Aquaman – although he also continued with The Phantom until his duties grew with the addition of numerous short stories for the monolith’s burgeoning horror anthologies and revived 1950s supernatural champion The Phantom Stranger.

Aparo went on to become a multi award-winning mainstay of DC’s artistic arsenal, with stellar runs on The Spectre, The Outsiders and Green Arrow, but his star was always and forever linked to Batman’s.

In B&B #141’s ‘Pay – Or Die!’ that relationship and the artist’s versatility shines as Black Canary helps Batman quash The Joker’s byzantine extortion scheme.

Fast-paced, straightforward, done-in-one dramas almost by definition, these quick treats were perfect introducer tales and seldom carried over, but in #142, ‘Enigma of the Death-Ship!’ sees Aquaman and wife Mera battle the Dark Knight to suppress a family secret, before the sordid trail of a covert Gotham drug lord leads to the most respected man in America in the next issue, with Cary Burkett collaborating with Haney for conclusion ‘Cast the First Stone’ as manic crime-crusher The Creeper confronts his mentor and finds even the most esteemed hero can have feet of clay…

The brave, bold portion of our entertainment pauses here to allow the Metropolis Marvel his moment to shine with a debut 2-part thriller from DC Comics Presents #1 & 2 (July/August & September/October 1978), featuring Silver Age Flash Barry Allen, who had also been Superman’s first co-star in that aforementioned World’s Finest Comics run. ‘Chase to the End of Time!’ and ‘Race to the End of Time!’ by scripter Marty Pasko & utterly astounding José Luis García-López inked by Dan Adkins, rather reprises that selfsame WF tale. Here warring alien races trick both heroes into speeding relentlessly through the time-stream to prevent Earth’s history from being corrupted and destroyed. As if that isn’t dangerous enough, nobody could predict the deadly intervention of the Scarlet Speedster’s most dangerous foe, Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, but the heroes sort it all out in the end…

In B&B #144 Haney& Aparo deliver a magical mystery tale of ‘The Arrow of Eternity’ as Caped Crusader and Emerald Archer head back in time to Agincourt and foil a wicked plot by time-tamperer the Gargoyle, whilst in DCCP #3, David Michelinie’s tantalising pastiche of classic Adam Strange/Mystery in Space thrillers results in a modern masterpiece for García-López to draw and ink in ‘The Riddle of Little Earth Lost’. Here Man of Two Worlds and Man of Steel foil the diabolical cosmic catastrophe scheme of deranged ex-tyrant Kaskor to transpose, subjugate and/or destroy Earth and light-years distant planet Rann.

Courtesy of Haney & Aparo, The Phantom Stranger and Batman face ‘A Choice of Dooms!’ pursuing voodoo crime lord Kaluu in B&B #145 whilst DCCP #4 welcomed Len Wein to script the superb ‘Sun-Stroke!’ for García-López, as Man of Steel and madly-malleable Metal Men join forces to thwart solar-fuelled genius I.Q. and toxic elemental menace Chemo after an ill-considered plan to enhance Earth’s solar radiation exposure provokes a cataclysmic solar-flare…

Haney and guest artists Romeo Tanghal & Frank McLaughlin switch worlds and times in B&B #146 as the Batman of World War II assists faceless superspy the Unknown Soldier in stopping Nazi assassin Count von Stauffen from murdering America’s top brass and greatest scientists to sabotage the nation’s most secret weapon project, whereas modern day Sea King Aquaman is embroiled in ‘The War of the Undersea Cities’ (by Wein, Paul Levitz & Murphy Anderson) in DCCP #5.

This time, Superman must step in after Aquaman’s subjects in Poseidonis re-open ancient hostilities with the mer-folk of undersea neighbour Tritonis, home of the caped Kryptonian’s college girlfriend Lori Lemaris. Fortunately, cooler heads prevail when the deadly Ocean Master is revealed to be meddling in their sub-sea politics…

Supergirl enjoyed her first ever B&B Bat team-up. She had previously paired with Wonder Woman in #63, in the outrageously-dated and utterly indefensible ‘Revolt of the Super-Chicks!’ but here in #147 however, Burkett & Aparo’s ‘Death-Scream from the Sky!’ sees her and the Gotham Guardian save the world from extermination by satellite and shady surprise super villain Dr. Light…

A DCCP two-parter opens with ‘The Fantastic Fall of Green Lantern’ (Levitz, Curt Swan & Francisco Chiaramonte) in #6 which sees the Man of Steel briefly inherit the awesome power ring after Hal Jordan falls in battle against his female antithesis Star Sapphire. Although triumphant against her, “Green Superman” is subsequently ambushed by warriors from antimatter universe Qward leading to ‘The Paralyzed Planet Peril!’ (#7 by Levitz, Dick Dillin & Chiaramonte) wherein those bellicose aliens seek to colonise Earth… until robotic AI hero Red Tornado swirls in to the rescue.

Back in B&B, Good Cheer mingles with Drama as ‘The Night the Mob Stole X-Mas!’ delivers seasonal fluff by Haney pencilled by Joe Staton, with Aparo applying his overpowering inks to a tale of cigarette smugglers and aging mafioso, with Plastic Man helping to provide a mandatory Christmas miracle. The disbanded Teen Titans briefly reform in #149 for Haney & Aparo’s ‘Look Homeward, Runaway!’ to help Batman hunt and redeem a kid gang moving from petty crime to the big leagues after which in DCCP #8, ‘The Sixty Deaths of Solomon Grundy’ (Steve Englehart & Murphy Anderson) teams Swamp Thing with Action Ace. At this time the bog-beast still believed he was a transformed human and not an enhanced plant, and Alec Holland searches the sewers of Metropolis for a cure to his condition, only to stumble onto a battle between the Man of Steel and the mystic zombie who was “born on a Monday”…

Anniversary event The Brave and the Bold #150 was celebrated with a pairing that was both old hat and never seen before. Haney & Aparo’s ‘Today Gotham… Tomorrow the World!’ commemorates the landmark anniversary with an extended tale of Bruce Wayne’s abduction by terrorists and the undercover superhero who secretly shadows him. No hints here from me…

In that other caped crimebuster’s book, Pasko returns to script Staton & Jack Abel’s ‘Invasion of the Ice People!’ in #9, wherein Wonder Woman assists in repelling an arctic assault by malign disembodied intellects whist in B&B #151, The Flash becomes prey and appetiser for a predatory haunt feeding off patrons at Gotham’s hippest nightspot… and Batman barely breaks the spell at the ‘Disco of Death’ (Haney & Aparo). Another 2-part tale commences with DCCP #10’s ‘The Miracle Man of Easy Company’ (Cary Bates, Staton & Abel), as a super-bomb blasts Superman back to WWII and a momentous if amnesia-tainted meeting with indomitable everyman soldier Sgt. Rock. However before the Caped Kryptonian returns home to battle a brainwashed and power-amplified Hawkman in #11’s ‘Murder by Starlight!’ (Bates, Staton & Chiaramonte) there’s an intriguing interruption. B&B #152 splits the saga as Haney & Aparo reveal ‘Death Has a Golden Grab!’. Here mighty mite The Atom helping the Gotham Gangbuster stop a deadly bullion theft.  Chronologically #153 – courtesy of Burkett, Don Newton & Bob Smith – then sees Red Tornado help Batman survive old school greed and the hi-tech ‘Menace of the Murder Machines’ before DCCP #12 arranged a duel between the Man of Steel and New God Mister Miracle in ‘Winner Take Metropolis’ by Englehart, Richard Buckler & Dick Giordano.


B&B #154 finds Element Man Metamorpho treading ‘The Pathway of Doom…’ to save former girlfriend Sapphire Stagg and help Batman disconnect a middle eastern smuggling pipeline, prior to the brave, bold portion of our entertainment coming to a close with #155’s ‘Fugitive from Two Worlds!’ as Haney & Aparo detail Green Lantern Hal Jordan clashing with the Dark Knight over jurisdiction rights regarding an earthshaking alien criminal.

Closing this perfectly curated portion of comics history is another two-part tale spanning centuries as Levitz scripts an ambitious epic limned by Dillin & Giordano that begins with ‘To Live in Peace… Nevermore!’ When the Legion of Super-Heroes visit the 20th century they must prevent Superman saving a little boy from alien abduction to preserve the integrity of the time-line. It doesn’t help that the lad is Jon Ross, son of Clark Kent’s oldest friend and most trusted confidante. Furious and deranged by loss, Pete Ross risks the destruction of reality itself by enlisting the aid of Superboy to battle his older self in ‘Judge, Jury… and No Justice!’, but achieves only stalemate and a promise from the Man of Tomorrow to somehow make things right…

This titanic tome offers a tantalising snapshot of combined A-lister capers and demonstrates the breadth of DC’s roster of lesser stars in punchy, pithy adventures acting as a perfect shop window and catalogue of legendary fascinating characters – and creators. It also delivers a delightful variety of self-contained, satisfying entertainments ranging from the merely excellent all the way to utterly unmissable. DC Finest: Team-Ups is an ideal introduction to the DC Universe for every kid of any age and passport to Costumed Dramas of a simpler, more inviting time.
© 1978, 1979, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Bogie


By Claude Jean-Philippe & Patrick Lesueur, translated by Wendy Payton (Eclipse Books)
ISBN: 978-0-913035-78-8 (Album TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As well as a far greater appreciation of, and more accommodating definitions for performing and popular arts, the French just seem to instinctively cherish the magnificent ephemera of entertainment; examining and revisiting icons and landmarks of TV, film, modern music and yes, comics in ways English-speakers just don’t seem capable of.

At the beginning of the 1980s artist Patrick Lesueur collaborated with prestigious and prolific actor/director/producer/film critic/historian and occasional author Claude Jean Philippe on Portraits souvenirs des éditions Dargaud, a series of graphic biographies of US movie stars who changed the world. For their purposes that was Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Errol Flynn and the subject of this slim, beautiful chronicle translated for America by pioneering West Coast independent publisher Eclipse.

At best a part-time comics writer, Claude Lucien Nahon (April 20th 1933 – September 11th 2016) AKA Claude-Jean Philippe, was an essayist, diarist, director, documentarian and radio regular who waxed wise and lyrical about all aspects of cinema. This made him an ideal option as writer, whereas comics pro Lesueur began life as a window dresser before moving into bande dessinée in 1972, joining the creative staff of Pilote to illustrate its current affairs pages before moving into fiction with short eco-fables compiled as the album En Attendant le Printemps and limning Laurence Harlé’s, cop thriller Reste-t-il du Miel pour le thé. Latterly, he produced Detroit, Douglas Dunkerk, and many more, before succumbing to his true passion as a petrolhead and classic car collector; devoting his time to comics, histories and other publications about all aspects of motoring, such as classic car feature Enzo Ferrari, l’Homme aux Voitures Rouges.

Bogie (Bogey in the original French) is told in a haunting, conversationally first-person narrative as the moodily realistic yet whimsically refined life of one of the greatest screen gods of all time comes to elegiac life in a peculiarly downbeat and lowkey piece. The voyage is all the more fascinating because our tale unfolds in an engagingly static manner, but actually sounds and looks just like you’d expect – and want – Humphrey Bogart to talk to you if you met him in a bar. The restrained yet powerfully effective images shout “private photo album” in a candid, winningly intimate way that, just like the celluloid origins, leaves you wanting more.

Bogart apparently led an unremarkable life off-screen… or perhaps the creators just didn’t want this apparently hard-drinking, much-married legend to outshine his own cinematic legacy, but in terms of graphic novel entertainment this poetic picture-story is a stunning achievement worthy of your attention. Perhaps someday soon another publisher will re-release it and even translate those other silver screen sagas too…
Contents © 1984 Dargaud Editeur Paris by Claude Jean Philippe and Patrick Lesueur. 1989 This edition © 1989 Eclipse Books.

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Rails on the Prairie – Lucky Luke Adventure vol. 32 & The Bluefeet are Coming! – Lucky Luke Adventure vol. 43


Lucky Luke volume 25: Rails on the Prairie
By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-104-4 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Lucky Luke volume 43 – The Bluefeet are Coming!
By Morris, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-173-0 (Album PB/Digital editions)

These books include Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today in 2001 we said “adios!” to one of the true masters of our industry and art form. Happily, his legend lives on in the form of his most significant creation.

A precocious, westerns-addicted, art-mad kid, well off and educated by Jesuits, Maurice de Bevere was born on December 1st 1923 in Kortrijk, Belgium. A far from illustrious or noteworthy scholar – except in all the ways teachers despise – Maurice later sought artistic expression in his early working life via forays into film animation before settling into his true vocation. While working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’Actualitiés) animation studio, “Morris” met future comics superstars Franquin & Peyo, and worked for weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist. Morris quickly became one of la Bande des quatre – The Gang of Four – comprising Jijé, Will and old comrade Franquin: leading proponents of a loose, free-wheeling artistic style known as the “Marcinelle School” which dominated Le journal de Spirou in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style favoured by Hergé, EP Jacobs and other artists in Le Journal de Tintin.

In 1948, said Gang (all but Will) visited America, befriending many US comics creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, meeting fellow traveller René Goscinny, scoring some work from newly-formed EC sensation Mad and making copious notes and countless sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West. That research would resonate on every page of his life’s work.

Working solo, albeit with occaisonal script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere until 1955, Morris produced nine albums of affectionate sagebrush parody and comedic cinematic homage before formally uniting with Goscinny, who became the regular wordsmith as Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with Des rails sur la Prairie which began in weekly  LJd S on August 25th 1955. The collected album was first released for Christmas in 1957, the ninth in the series, and was follewed by Morris’ final solo tale Alerte aux Pieds Bleus/The Bluefeet are Coming! in 1958.

Lucky Luke Rails on the Prairie

Doughty, rangy, and dashingly dependable Lucky Luke is a likable, imperturbable, implacably even-tempered cowboy do-gooder who can “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around a mythic, cinematically informed Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant, stingingly sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. Over nearly nine decades, his exploits in Le Journal de Spirou (and from 1967, in rival periodical Pilote) have made the sharp shooter a legend of stories across all media and monument of merchandising.

His exploits have made him one of the bestselling comic characters in Europe (83 collected albums plus around a dozen spin-offs and specials – totalling over 300 million books in at least 33 languages), with all the spin-off toys, computer games, puzzles, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies that come with that kind of popularity.

The rapid pace and seeming simplicity of these spoof tales means older stories can generally sit quite comfortably alongside newer material crafted for a more modern readership. Here, material from Le Journal de Spirou #906-929 – originally spanning 25th August 1955 to 2nd February 1956 – was collected in November 1957 as ninth album Des rails sur la Prairie: the first epic result of a grand partnership.

Although initially uncredited, it was cowritten by Morris and fellow euro-expat/US tourist Goscinny: auguring an astounding creative partnership to come. Goscinny produced 45 albums with Morris before his death in 1977, from whence Morris continued both singly and with fresh collaborators. Before all that, though, this wild & woolly transitional delight offers a far more boisterous and raw hero than we’re used to, highlighting the sunnier side of a mythic western scenario. Moreover, it ends with the first incidence of Lucky riding into the sunset singing “I’m a poor, lonesome cowboy”…

When track-laying for the Transcontinental Railroad stalls, outraged train moguls demand action. Dead Ox Gulch, Nebraska becomes a crunch point of construction confrontation. Constant hold-ups are actually caused by a traitor at home back East. Although a board-member in good standing, Black Wilson is secretly sabotaging the project to protect his other business: a stage coach company…

He contracts the nefarious Wilson Boys to keep up their bad work, even as a laconic stranger rides into town. Before long, the newcomer is assuredly spearheading the march of progress and civilisation simply by foiling every dirty trick the gang can conceive…

Once renewed efforts have moved beyond town and onto the prairie and the rails inch ever closer to California, a train carries Lucky, passengers and the navvies further westward, negotiating and stymying hostile natives, greedy townships and the still-active Wilson boys’ shady tactics and stratagems.

Ultimately, Black Wilson takes personal charge and boards a stagecoach westward to destiny. Despite his every trick, though, the showdown between spoiler and visionary is a foregone conclusion…

Fast funny, episodic and enthralling, these early exploits are a big old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides Again or Support Your Local Sheriff, superbly set up and laid out by a master storyteller, and make a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for modern kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was.

The Bluefeet are Coming! Lucky Luke volume 43

Au Continent, the populace has a mature relationship with comics, according them academic and scholarly standing as well as nostalgic value and the validation of acceptance as an art form. That even applies to challenging material such as seen in Alerte aux Pieds Bleus: Morris’s final solo effort until Goscinny passing in 1977. A tribute to all the purest western tropes and leitmotifs, it too offers a rowdier, boldly raw hero in transition, just hitting his stride and strutting his stuff, but also relies heavily on the cliches and narrative shortcuts of that earlier era, particularly in the depiction of other cultures and races appearances and customs for comedic intent. I can only apologise for my ancestors and ask that you read with an open mind: after all, Morris was simply exploiting longstanding filmic and comics influences. If I was really desperate, I might also say that his utilsation of comedy in these stereotypes may have helped challenge the status quo…

Lucky Luke debuted in autumn 1946: catapulted sans name or title into rolling gag vignettes in the French edition of multinational publication Le Journal de Spirou, before appearing (with a name) in Christmas Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947. Then his comic serial ‘Arizona 1880’ opened in the December 7th 1946 comic; and no one has ever looked back…

He first appeared in Britain syndicated to weekly comic Film Fun and again in 1967 in Giggle where he was renamed Buck Bingo. In all these venues – as well as numerous attempts to follow the English-language successes of Tintin and Asterix albums – Luke hung a trademark cigarette insouciantly from his lip, before in 1983 Morris, no doubt amidst pained howls and muted mutterings of “political correctness gone mad” (oooh! That’s what “woke” must mean!!) substituted a strand of straw for the dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization…

Morris died in 2001, having drawn 70 Lucky adventures, plus spin-off tales of Rantanplan (“dumbest dog in the West” and a charming spoof of cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin), with a posse of talented creators taking over the franchise.

The most successful attempt to bring Lucky Luke to our shores and shelves comes from Cinebook (who rightly restored the foul weed to his lips on the interior pages if not the covers), but sensibly took their own sweet time bringing the oldest, most potentially controversial tales to market. As serialised in LJdS #938 – #957, Alerte aux Pieds Bleus is certainly one of those…

A procession of linked gags sees Morris pile on and kick hard familiar themes and scenarios as the town of Rattlesnake Valley welcomes wanderer Lucky. The lone rider is just in time to save super-superstitious sheriff Jerry Grindstone from sneaky gambler and professional cheat Pedro Cucaracha whose plans to fleece the old codger result in his painful and shameful eviction from civilisation. Of course, the scoundrel had tried to rob and blow up the bank on his way out…

Chased into the desert, the scurvy Mexican then gulls the alcoholic Great Chief of the local Bluefeet Indians into laying siege to the town, tempting the old warrior with promises of unlimited booze…

Old Parched Bear is happy to oblige, and soon the town is forming a militia, telegraphing for the cavalry and setting up barricades. As food and water grow scarce profiteering proliferates, with Lucky and Jerry battening down the hatches and bolstering morale for a long and dangerous defence of their lives and loved ones…

Against that framework of classic movie moments there are rich slapstick pickings as spies, crossdressers, raids & counter-raids and devious secret weapons all build to a bombastic finale, with Pedro and Parched Bear attempting all manner of nefarious invention to get respectively vengeance and more “firewater”…

… And then, when it’s almost too late, the Cavalry arrive… just after the deployment of late arriving support from the Greenfeet and Yellowfeet branches of the family of First Nations. It can only end in catastrophe unless Lucky can contrive a solution…

Daft and Spectacular in equal amounts, this is perhaps a tale for older kids who have gained a bit of historical perspective and social understanding, although the action and slapstick situations are no more contentious than any old movie…
© Dargaud Edituer Paris 1971 by Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translations © 2011, 2013 Cinebook Ltd.

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The Sky Over the Louvre


By Bernar Yslaire & Jean-Claude Carrière, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM Comics Lit/Louvre: Musée du Louvre Éditions)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-602-0 (HB)

Joyeux 14 juillet! – or if you’re being a leetle pickee – Happy Bastille Day, mes braves!

Well over a decade ago the prestigious Louvre gallery in Paris began an intriguing, extremely rewarding collaboration with the world of comics, resulting in wealth of modern art treasures – translated bande dessinée made available to English readers courtesy of those fine folks at NBM.

The second release was 2012’s Le Ciel Au-Dessus du Louvre which we know as The Sky Over the Louvre – a lush and beautiful, oversized hardback graphic novel exploring the origins and philosophical underpinnings of France’s national art collection, whilst simultaneously peeling back the motivations and ambitions of the twisted visionaries who steered – or maybe simply rode – the human wave of Chaos deemed “the Terror” of the French Revolution: the catalyst for the gallery’s very existence.

These tales were produced in close collaboration with the forward-looking authorities of the Musée du Louvre, but this is no gosh-wow, “Night-at-the-Museum”, or thinly-concealed catalogue of contents from a stuffy edifice of public culture. Rather, here is an intense, informative, insightful and gripping glimpse into the price and power of art as engine of change and agent of obsession.

Jean-Claude Carrière was born on September 17th 1931, studied at the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud and wrote a novel before becoming an actor and one of France’s greatest screen writers. He assisted Jacques Tati and wrote the novelisations of his films, before going on to work with Luis Buñuel (for 19 years), scripting such classics as Diary of a Chambermaid, Belle de Jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, That Obscure Object of Desire and many more. Other notable credits include work with directors such as Milos Forman, Louis Malle, Andrzej Wajda, Nagisa Oshima and others on iconic films like The Tin Drum, Danton, The Return of Martin Guerre, Max, Mon Amour and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, although three generations of British television viewers will probably revere him most for his adaptation of the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (starring Robert Hoffmann and featuring that iconic theme-tune) which ran on BBC 1 at tea time from 1965 to about 20 minutes ago.

His approximately 80 screenplays, plus essays, fiction, translations and interviews led to countless awards and accolades including two Oscars – in 1963 for Heureux Anniversaire and an Honorary lifetime achievement Academy Award in 2014. Carrière died on February 8th 2021. In his spare time he had also written comics, particularly with legendary clown/gag writer Pierre Étaix and Bernard Yslaire…

Belgian born Bernard Yslaire (AKA Bernard Hislaire, Sylaire) began his career in 1978, drawing kiddie’s strip ‘Bidouille et Violette’ for Le Journal de Spirou before creating historical epic Sambre in 1986. He was one of the first creators to fully embrace the potential of the internet with his online strip Mémoires du XXe ciel / XXe ciel.com (Memories of the XXth Sky). In 2006 he produced the moving doomed romance Sky over Brussels, and since Le Ciel Au-Dessus du Louvre has largely left comics to concentrate on digital projects.

The Sky Over the Louvre compellingly dramatizes history, focussing on revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David and close associate Maximilien de Robespierre (who dubbed himself “The Incorruptible”) as they plan how to replace religion, monarchy and the Old Art with something unique and truly worthy of their revolution. David and his School (Drouais, Greueze, Girodet and students Serangeli and Gérard) have taken residence in the old Louvre Palace, where past kings left their grandiose aggregation of treasures when they vacated Paris for Versailles. Here the Revolutionary council aspires to create a new aesthetic and new thought for their New Society…

Jules Stern is a 13-year-old wanderer from the Black Sea, roaming Paris’ dangerous streets in search of his mother, and claiming to have an appointment with David. On the 15th Fructidor, Year 1 (8th August 1793 for those of us not wedded to the Republic’s new calendar) the angelic lad confronts the artist just as he is inaugurating the Louvre as the first Museum of the Nation: dedicated to public ownership of art and the notion of beauty as a revolutionary ideal. Later, they meet again and Robespierre forms a hostile opinion of the child, although David is clearly fascinated by the headstrong, beautiful boy…

As high-minded idealism of the Revolution’s early days dissolves into factional in-fighting, Robespierre and David become increasingly concerned with the spiritual and aesthetic, determined to excise and replace every vestige of the old regime and society. They seek images and concepts to embody their cause and plan a festival to the concept of Reason, but all across France backsliding and foreign invasion threaten their progress. In September 1793 the Convention (ruling body and parliament of the Republic) decrees “Terror to be the order of the day”…

Blood, betrayal and horror rule the streets as David, from his apartments in the Louvre, begins work on a brace of pivotal works: The Supreme Being and The Death of Joseph Bara. It is difficult to assess which causes him the most grief and triggers his ultimate downfall…

The Incorruptible is becoming increasingly more arrogant and ruthless, desperate for revolutionary images that will fire and inspire the masses. He presses David to produce the ultimate physical representation of the conceptual spirit of the New France – a vision of its Supreme Being – but as time goes by and no image emerges, one too many people whisper that what Robespierre actually requires is a portrait of himself…

Far less troublesome should be The Death of Joseph Bara: a boy who became First Martyr of the Revolution, and one scheduled to become the nation’s uniting icon. However, David’s obsession with Jules Stern brings more trouble, when Robespierre objects to the boy being selected as the model for Bara the Myth…

Nobody baulks The Incorruptible for long, but the obsessive nature of the creative impulse is insurmountable. Eventually Robespierre can only achieve his ends by sending Jules to the guillotine. Incredibly, not even death separates the artist from his model…

Set solidly in the very heart of a moment of epochal historical importance, this is a stunning, utterly compelling tale of humanity at its wildest extremes, when grand ideals wedded themselves to the basest on bestial impulses, yet from that Yslaire & Carrière have crafted a magnificently realised tale laced with staggering detail and addictive emotion.

With extra features including biographies and a listing of the actual artworks woven seamlessly into the narrative, this is a truly magical book no aficionado of the medium, lover of history or student of human nature should miss…
© 2009 Futuropolis/Musée du Louvre Éditions. © 2011 NBM for the English translation by Joe Johnson. All rights reserved.

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Lucky Luke volume 24: The Judge


By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-045-0 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Doughty, rangy, and dashingly dependable cowboy Lucky Luke is an imperturbable, implacably even-tempered do-gooder who can “draw faster than his own shadow”. He roams the mythic, cinematically fuelled Old West in light-hearted adventures astride his petulant, stingingly sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. Over nine decades, his exploits in Le Journal de Spirou (and from 1967, in rival periodical Pilote) have made the sharpshooter a legend across all media… and a monument of merchandising.

Working solo with occasional script assistance from his brother Louis, Morris – AKA Maurice de Bévère – produced 10 albums worth of affectionate and thrilling sagebrush parody before formally uniting with René Goscinny, who became regular wordslinger with Des rails sur la Prairie (Rails on the Prairie) commencing in Le Journal de Spirou on August 25th 1955. Morris & Goscinny literarily rode together on another 44 albums as Luke scaled the dizzying heights of superstardom. The partnership continued after the six-gun straightshooter switched teams in 1968, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with classic comedy thriller La Diligence (The Stagecoach).

Our laconic volunteer lawman’s trailblazing travails often draw on actual western history as much as movie mythology and he regularly interacts with noteworthy figures, as well as even odder fictional folk as his authors incessantly explore and refine key themes of classic cowboy films – plus some uniquely European notions and interpretations. The happy wanderer is not averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire… as in this primal, heavily history-affronting affair…

First published continentally in December 1959, Le Juge was the 13th European album and Morris & Goscinny’s fourth official outing together, opening – after a terse background note on the real Judge Roy Bean – with Lucky as a literal cowboy ferrying a herd of prime steers from Austin, Texas to Silver City, New Mexico. The relatively uneventful cattle conveyance sadly stalls when, ignoring the advice that “there ain’t no law west of the Pecos”, Lucky stops at Langtry: a growing town on that legendary river that is ruled by saloon keeper/self-appointed Judge Roy Bean, who with his trained bear Joe rides roughshod over the citizenry whilst making himself incomprehensibly rich by exploiting an old law book he possesses. Through a system of carefully mis-applied court fines, bribes, indentured servitude and judicious hangings, the charismatic rogue is a virtual king who finally bites off more than he can chaw after impounding Lucky’s herd and subjecting him to a bogus trial (for rustling his own cattle) that ends with the hero sentenced to hang…

Escaping at gunpoint, Luke suddenly hatches a plan after travelling gambler Bad Ticket hits town and decides to set up in opposition to Bean with his own saloon, bad booze, sham trials and crooked scams…

Craftily striving to balance the scales of injustice, Lucky at first aids newcomer Bad Ticket in the war of law and lore. However, as Bad Ticket swiftly proves to be even less honourable and more devious than Bean, Luke switches sides – albeit almost too late – as the new judge turns on him and also sentences the citizens to string him up…

Opting for the devil he knows, Lucky recruits exiled loser Roy Bean – and Joe – to help him reclaim the town for decency and, with the rascally reprobate actually trying to make amends and (in his own way) atone for past sins and misdemeanours, sets Langtry back on the path to peace and progress. Of course that means much fighting, running, shenanigans & hijinks, insane alliances and a unique day in court for all concerned, in a case utterly unique to the annals of jurisprudence…

These youthful forays of an indomitable hero offer grand joys in the wry tradition of Destry Rides Again, Support Your Local Sheriff, or, dare I say it, John Milius & John Huston’s misunderstood 1972 demi-classic The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. Superbly executed by master storytellers, this is a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for modern kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2010 Cinebook Ltd.

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Maroc the Mighty


By an unknown author & Don Lawrence with Alfredo Marculeta (Rebellion Studios/ Treasury of UK Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-517-8 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-1-83786-518-5 (Webshop Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For British, commonwealth and European readers of a certain age and prone to debilitating nostalgia, the comic works of Don Lawrence (17th November 1928 – 29th December 2003) are a treat that never pales and always satisfies. His lavish painted-narrative illustration was only ever about two things: boyish wish-fulfilment and staggeringly beautiful images.

Beginning in the 1950s, Lawrence (Marvelman, Wells Fargo, Billy the Kid, Fireball XL5, Olac the Gladiator, The Adventures of Tarzan, The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, adult comedy strip Carrie and multi-volume Dutch magnum opus Storm), inspired a host of artists like Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons. However, as Lawrence worked into the 1990s, his eyesight was increasingly impaired by cataracts, and he took on and diligently trained apprentices like modern stars Chris Weston and Liam Sharp who collaborated with the venerable mentor on his last Storm stories.

Although magnificent painted fantasies are Don’s everlasting legacy, he was also a supremely gifted master of monochrome illumination and gritty realism. Astoundingly, in Britain most of those pre-colour comics remained unreprinted until relatively recently. Now a regular and recognised wellspring for Rebellion Studios’ Treasury of UK Comics, two volumes of his Karl the Viking have been augmented by a true lost classic: a historical but engagingly daft fantasy that Lawrence was plucked from in midstream to begin the Trigan Empire opus…

The extraordinary adventures of a valiant and benevolent wandering Devonshire yeoman making his way back to England after the Third Crusade never actually carried the hero’s name in the weeklies where it was serialised, but ever since the feature – long mis-attributed to writer Michael Moorcock, but now officially devoid of a credited author – has been called by fans Maroc the Mighty…

This brief but bombastic movie-influenced (particularly Ray Harryhausen) skein of sword & Sorcery sagas was first seen in Lion: a triptych of tales spanning 3rd October 1964 to 6th February 1965 (The Hand of Zar); 13th February – May 1st (The Red Knights of Morda) and then May 8th to 3rd July 1965 (The Gigantos), augmented by a short escapade from Lion Annual 1967 as originally released in the autumn of 1966.

Following an enthusiastic and informative Introduction from historian Steve Holland ‘The Hand of Zar’ introduces John Maroc: a doughty English fighter serving the Lords and Nobles of militant Christendom, who now the defeated Christian warriors flee the Holy Land. Sadly, the term “noble” never really applied to aristocratic leader Sir Guy who uses the retreat to pillage and plunder, and when his depredations threaten a helpless Arab boy, outraged Maroc leaps to his defence and must battle his way out with young Ahmid. Fleeing to the mountains they meet an old man who gives the Englishman a golden wrist bracer. The Hand of Zar originally belonged to an ancient “Sun warrior” who fought for justice, and will make Maroc “a giant among men”. It gets the chance almost immediately as Sir Guy’s men ambush them and overwhelm them… until John discovers he has strength enough to snap chains and topple stone pillars…

Over ensuing weeks Maroc and Ahmid thwart Sir Guy’s schemes despite quickly discovering that although the relict imparts incomprehensible strength – and a little enhanced stamina and durability – it only does so as long as it remains in direct sunlight. If clouds appear or night arrives, Maroc is reduced to his ordinary self…

The clashes eventually attract the attention of Richard the Lionheart, who values and admires the efforts of the peasant warrior, but must follow the codes of chivalry and shun him for fighting against his betters, no matter how scurrilous they might be. To make matters worse, Sir Guy accuses the lowly hero of treason and settles a death sentence upon his head…

Their flight across the middle east brings them into extended conflict with all-conquering Warlord Kalin and his war elephants, wicked mountain wizards and dinosaurs, marine slavers, shark packs and reivers, and embroils Maroc and Ahmid in a deadly quest for a mystic artifact – the Stone of Aolath – fighting antediluvian primitives inhabiting The City of the Clouds. Ultimately the legacy of Zar proves unconquerable and the wandering heroes part ways…

One week later, the Englishman abroad reached Spain as The Red Knights of Morda plunged into more of the episodic same. In mountainous, arid Morda Maroc encounters a band of rogue paladins steadily eroding established rule and bleeding the coffers of true local sovereign Don Miguel Y Cipriano. When Maroc befriends the Baron’s son Carlos and charming scoundrel “Ramon the Gypsy”, it begins a brutal, bloody fightback to restore order and justice. The real enemy is a secret society led by evil genius mastermind Satana, and encompasses defeating his colossal enforcer Khala the Strong and legions of fanatical killers, bad knights, huge swamp lizards and more war elephants…

The final Lawrence exploit began in colour on the cover of Lion’s May 8th 1965 issue, with the wanderer still trudging through Spain and abruptly ambushed by archers. Falling victim to the assault he sees with amazement that none of his attackers are over four feet tall…

Explanations by the Minimas lead to the Englishman enlisting to aid the “dwarf folk” against a determined foe sworn to enslave them for their mines – ‘The Gigantos’. Nominative determinism was a major factor at this time in comics and their oppressors are a tribe of oversized tyrants misusing their strength and exploiting equally prodigious wildlife – like giant eagles and bears – to tyrannise the Minimas, but all their might, diabolical traps and the wiles of their leader Pesado – and the active volcano they live in – are insufficient to deter Maroc when he finds injustice festering…

… And that was it for Lawrence’s most superheroic star since Marvelman. From September 18th 1965 fans were periodically gobsmacked and enthralled by The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire – and never really looked back. Editors, however, are callous pragmatic folk and established name brand Maroc returned via Lion Annual 1967 in another anonymously scripted, done-in-one tale illustrated by UK comics mainstay Alfredo Marculeta. He was a regular of the era’s weeklies probably most recognisable today for The Rubber Man, a superhero knock-off of Jack Cole’s Plastic Man written by Ken Mennell and running in Smash from #15.

I can’t find out much about him, but his work and overall style look remarkably similar to that of Spanish political exile, cartoonist, caricaturist and comics illustrator Edmundo Marculeta (6th April 1923 – 3rd May 1989 and AKA “Marcouleta”, “Marcouletta”, “Marcou”, “Tony Cranach” & “Boris Tunder”) who worked in Europe and the UK in the 1960s & 1970s on everything from all-ages westerns and historical adventures to adult comics.

Here, those gifts are employed depicting how mighty Maroc is tramping through Germany’s Black Forest and attacked. Losing and winning back the armlet of Zar, he joins ousted prince Johann of Grunde, helping him regain his birthright from usurping murderer Baron Grimm, a tyrant obsessed with gladiatorial contests and animal cruelty…

Based in equal part on cinematic Sword & Sandal and Knight & Ladies epics and a long-cherished movie genre of manly blockbusters to construct a vast sprawling serial of heroic vigilantism, two-fisted warriors, wild beasts, deadly monsters and even occasionally the odd female (very, very occasionally in this instance!) Maroc the Mighty is the quintessential 5-minute read, but with visuals every boy I knew spent hours staring at. Some – who shall remain nameless – might even have traced or copied many of the panels and tableaux for art and history projects, Hem Hem…

Incorporating a tantalising teaser for the next volume and creator biographies, this truly spectacular visual triumph is a monument to British Comics creativity, simultaneously pushing memory buttons for old folk whilst offering a light but beautiful straightforward epic readily accessible to the curious and genre inquisitive alike or anyone who actually saw the latest William Tell movie…

Is that you or someone you know?
Maroc the Mighty is ™ Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. © 1964, 1965, 1966 & 2025 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Buck Danny volumes 2 & 3: The Secrets of the Black Sea & Ghost Squadron


By Francis Bergése & Jacques de Douhet; colours by Frédéric Bergése: translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebooks)
ISBN: 987-1-84918-018-4 (Album TPB – Black Sea) 987-1-905460-85-4 (Album TPB – Ghost Squadron)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Buck Danny premiered in Le Journal de Spirou in January 1947 and continues soaring across assorted Wild Blue Yonders to this day. The strip describes the improbably long yet historically significant career of the eponymous Navy pilot and his wing-men Sonny Tuckson and Jerry Tumbler. As one of the world’s last aviation strips the series has always closely wedded itself to current affairs, from the Korean War to Afghanistan, the Balkans to Iran…

The US Naval Aviator was created by Georges Troisfontaines whilst he was Director of Belgian publisher World Press Agency and realised by Victor Hubinon before being handed to multi-talented scripter Jean-Michel Charlier, then working as a junior artist. Charlier’s fascination with human-scale drama and rugged realism had been first seen in such “true-war” strips as L’Agonie du Bismark (The Agony of the Bismarck – published in LJdS in 1946). Charlier and René Goscinny were co-editors of Pistolin magazine from 1955-1958 and subsequently created Pilote in 1959. When they, with fellow creative legend Albert Uderzo, formed the Édifrance Agency to promote the specialised communication benefits of comic strips, Charlier continued scripting Buck Danny and did so until his death. Thereafter his artistic collaborator Francis Bergése (who had replaced Hubinon in 1978) took complete charge of the All-American Air Ace’s exploits, working with other creators like Jacques de Douhet.

Like so many artists involved in aviation storytelling, Bergése (born in 1941) started young with both drawing and flying. He qualified as a pilot whilst still a teenager, enlisted in the French Army and was a reconnaissance flyer by his twenties. At age 23 he began selling strips to L’Étoile and JT Jeunes (1963-1966), after which he produced his first aviation strip – Jacques Renne for Zorro. This was followed by Amigo, Ajax, Cap 7, Les 3 Cascadeurs, Les 3 A, Michel dans la Course and more. Prior to 1983, Bergése was a jobbing artist on comedies, pastiches and WWII strips until he won the coveted job of illustrating globally syndicated Buck Danny with 41st yarn ‘Apocalypse Mission’.

Bergése even found time in the 1990s for episodes of a European interpretation of British icon Biggles before finally retiring in 2008, passing on the reins (control? Joystick? Nope, absolutely not that last one) to illustrators Fabrice Lamy & Francis Winis and scripter Frédéric Zumbiehl. Thus far – with Zumbiehl, Jean-Michel Arroyo & Gil Formosa all taking turns at the helm – the franchise has notched up 60 albums and a further 10 spin-off tomes…

Like all Danny tales, these Cinebook editions are astonishingly authentic: breezily compelling action thrillers. Back in 1994, Buck Danny #45: Les secrets de la mer Noire, delivered a suspenseful, politically-charged action yarn which became the second Cinebook volume, blending mindboggling detail and technical veracity with good old-fashioned blockbuster derring-do.

 

The Secrets of the Black Sea

In-world, it’s 1991 and the dying days of the Soviet Empire. When a submarine incident occurs, the American Chief of Naval Operations dispatches Buck to the newly open Russia of “Glasnost and Perestroika” to ascertain the true state and character of the old Cold War foe. All but ordered to become a spy, Buck is further perturbed by his meeting with ambitious Senator Smight, a US dignitary supposed to be his contact and cover-story on the trip to heart of Communism…

Buck is an old acquaintance and recurring target of the KGB and knows that no matter what the official Party Line might be, many Soviet Cold Warriors have long and unforgiving memories…

No sooner does he make landfall than his greatest fears are realised. Shanghaied to a top secret Russian Naval super-vessel, Buck knows he’s living on borrowed time,: but his death is apparently only a pleasant diversion for the KGB renegade in charge, whose ultimate plans involve turning back the clock and undoing every reform of the Gorbachev administration; gleefully anticipating how the key component to the diabolical scheme will be a conveniently dead American spy in the wrong place at the right time…

Of course, the ever-efficient US Navy swings into action, resolved to rescue their pilot, clean up the mess and deny the Reds any political victory, but there’s only so much Tumbler & Tuckson can do from the wrong side of the recently re-drawn Iron Curtain. Luckily, Buck has some unsuspected friends amongst the renegades too…

Fast-paced, brimming with tension, packed with spectacular air and sea action and delivered like a top-class James Bond thriller, The Secrets of the Black Sea effortlessly catapults the reader into a dizzying riot of intrigue, mystery and suspense in a superb slice of old-world razzle-dazzle that enthrals from the first page to the last panel and shows just why this brilliant strip has lasted for so long.

 

Ghost Squadron

This third sitting offers more of the same fantasy realpolitik in a contemporary war setting. First published in 1996 as Buck Danny #46 L’escadrille fantôme and still a family affair with Frédéric Bergése adding colours to papa’s pictures. It’s 1995 and, above shattered Sarajevo, Tuckson and pioneer female fighter pilot Cindy McPherson patrol as part of the UN Protection Force. UNProFor is the West’s broad but criminally ineffectual coalition to stop various factions in the region butchering each other, but fails hard, big and often…

The overflight takes a dark turn when Cindy’s plane is hit by Serb rockets in contravention of all the truce rules. Incensed, Tuckson peels off to open up with machine gun fire without obtaining the proper permissions. Subsequently nursing McPherson’s burning plane back to their carrier in the Baltic, Sonny doesn’t care how much trouble he’s in, but rather than facing a Court Martial, the impetuous lad’s punishment is rather unique…

Called to interview with the Admiral, the pensive pilot expects at the very least to be thrown as food to the skipper’s vile dog O’Connor, but instead meets enigmatic Mr. Tenderman before being seconded to a top secret “Air Force/Navy Coordination” mission. Wise confidante Buck, meanwhile, is gone, part of an op to locate an unexplained radar echo in an area supposedly neutral and empty…

After wishing Cindy a fond farewell and hinting at his big CIA secret posting, Sonny ships out by helicopter, landing at Prevesa Airbase in Greece. Bewilderment is replaced with terror and rage once he unpacks and discovers O’Connor has stowed away in his kit. Now stuck with the infernal, nastily nipping mutt, Sonny’s screams draw an old friend into his room: maverick test pilot/old partner in peril Slim Holden. That inveterate rulebreaker also has no idea what they’ve been roped into…

Next day the conundrum continues as they and a small group of pilots – also with no idea of why they’re here or where they’re going – are shipped to a secret base in the mountains. After the military’s usual “hurry up and wait” routine, the wary fliers are greeted by a familiar face…

Buck is introduced as Colonel Y by grimly competent General X, and assigns each pilot a number from 1 to 16. The only thing they know is that all have committed serious breaches of military discipline and will have the record wiped clean once the mission is over. Moreover, as long as they’re here, they will refer to each other only by their code numbers…

Awaiting them are unmarked F-16s without radios. They are to train on the jets in preparation for an unspecified single task under the strictest security conditions, until finally apprised of their specified purpose. Days of exhausting preparation and pointless speculation are almost disrupted when an unidentified MiG-29 buzzes the base at extremely low altitude. Although Buck rapidly pursues, the quarry eludes him, but only after the chase reveals their so-secret base as being covertly observed by a radar station on the Albanian border…

With no viable options, Buck returns and training resumes at full pace. Inevitably, the regimen results in fatality. With the warning of more to come before strafing and low-level bombing runs end, the practicing goes on. Rumours mount over what the actual targets of their illicit ground-attack squadron might be…

Back at the official war zone, tensions mount when US Navy F-18s are shot down over Bosnia – apparently by a flight of unidentified jets. At the hidden base, Buck’s security overflights still register radar tracks from an unknown source. Buck and General X have no idea which of the many warring factions might be operating the MiGs and/or mobile radar unit, but have no choice except to proceed with their original plan. They might be far more concerned if they realised that one of the downed – official – combatants was McPherson…

As the situation worsens, word to go is given and the unofficial spectre squadron finally learn what they’re expected to do: take out the armoured concentrations and artillery emplacements relentlessly bombarding Sarajevo. In the face of increasingly obvious NATO and UN impotence, it has been decided that the Pan-Serbian aggressors must be taught a hard lesson about keeping their word regarding cease-fires…

The Ghost squadron’s mission is unsanctioned on paper, with no radio contact and disabled ejector seats. Moreover, they all have permission to respond in kind to any attack – even by American forces…

As the doomed pilots roar across the Adriatic to their targets, the Navy mission to rescue or recover their downed reconnaissance pilots proceeds, and an ever-vigilant AWACS plane picks up the inexplicable bogeys heading for Sarajevo. Of course, they reach the only conclusion possible…

When Major Tumbler and his Flight are despatched after the mystery jets, an inconclusive dogfight leads him to suspect the nature and identities of some of his targets, but after breaking off hostilities the officially sanctioned Navy planes are ambushed by MiGs from a third faction.

Things look grim until NATO support arrives in the form of French Mirages and British Tornados. As the ghosts fly on to complete their punishment run, in the mad scramble behind them Tumbler tracks a MiG that has had enough, and accidentally exposes a hidden Bosnian hangar housing a phantom flight of their own. Sadly, they see him too…

The CIA covert mission is a success and massive catalyst. In the aftermath, planes from many surrounding nations tear up the skies, and in the confusion, Tumbler makes his way from landing point to the MiG base, discovering old enemy and maniac mercenary Lady X running the show. He also learns that a beloved comrade may well be a traitor in her employ, but resolves to save his friend and let the chips fall where they may…

A stunning all-action riot of righteous revenge that grips from the start and only gets more intense, Ghost Squadron confirms just why this brilliant series has endured for generations. Complex politics, intrigue, personal honour and dastardly schemes all seamlessly blend into a breakneck thriller suitable for older kids of all ages, and especially for boys of all ages and gender, the Adventures of Buck Danny is one long, enchanting tour of duty no comics fan, armchair Top Gunner or couch adrenaline-junkie can afford to miss.

Bon chance, mes braves et Chocks Away!
© Dupuis, 1994, 1996 by Bergése. English translation © 2009, 2012 Cinebook Ltd. All rights reserved.

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War Picture Library: The Iron Fist


By Hugo Pratt, Val Holding, W. Howard Baker, A. Carney Allen & various (Rebellion Studios/Treasury of British Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-200-9 (HB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born in Rimini, Ugo Eugenio Prat, AKA Hugo Pratt (June 15th 1927 – August 20th 1995) spent his early life wandering the world, in the process becoming one of its paramount comics creators. From the start his enthralling graphic inventions like initial hit Ace of Spades (in 1945 whilst still studying at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts) were many and varied. His signature character – based in large part on his exotic formative years – is mercurial soldier (perhaps more accurately sailor) of fortune Corto Maltese.

Pratt was a consummate storyteller with a unique voice and a stark expressionistic graphic style that should not work, but so wonderfully does: combining pared-down, relentlessly modernistic narrative style with memorable characters, always complex whilst bordering on the archetypical. After working in Argentinean and – from 1959 – English comics like UK top gun Battler Briton, and on combat stories for extremely popular digest novels in assorted series such as War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, War at Sea Picture Library and more – Pratt settled in Italy, and later France. In 1967, with Florenzo Ivaldi, he produced a number of series for monthly comic Sgt. Kirk.

In addition to the Western lead star, he created pirate feature Capitan Cormorand, detective feature Lucky Star O’Hara, and moody South Seas saga Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea). When that folded in 1970, Pratt remodelled one of Una Ballata’s characters for French weekly Pif Gadget before eventually settling in with the new guy at legendary Belgian periodical Le Journal de Tintin. Corto Maltese proved as much a Wild Rover in reality as in his historic and eventful career…

In Britain Pratt found rich thematic pickings in the ubiquitous mini-books like Super Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library, Action Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library: half-sized, 64-page monochrome booklets with glossy soft paper covers containing lengthy complete stories of 1-3 panels per page. These were regularly recycled and reformatted, but the stories gathered here – from War Picture Library #25 (September 1959), #62 (August 1960) & #133 (February 1962) – have only appeared once… until now…

Resurrected and repackaged by Rebellion Studios for their Treasury of British Comics imprint, eponymous opener The Iron Fist is a blistering tale of tank combat scripted by Val Holding, who served in the Parachute Regiment before becoming a War Picture Library stalwart. He also wrote air ace Paddy Payne and became Fleetway’s Managing Editor: Juvenile Publications in 1961.

Opening in October 1942 at the Battle of El Alamein, The Iron Fist traces the service of Corporal Johnny Gray, driver Tug Wilson and radio operator Ken Byrne: “tank jockeys” who, after losing their Sherman tank in opening chapter ‘Out of Action’, are ordered to ferry a prototype of the next generation A.F.V. (Armoured Fighting Vehicle) across the desert at the height of the battle.

Commanded by taciturn, draconian Lieutenant Carson, the lads have no idea that they’re also field testing the colossal war chariot in second chapter, ‘Enter Goliath’…

The trek is a shocking ‘Fight for Survival’, with bloody encounters with German troops and fighter planes supplemented by an infinite variety of natural hazards from heat and sheer exhaustion to dry quicksand!

Gradually warming to their bleakly uncommunicative but strategically superior officer, the team eventually discover Carson’s personal stake in the colossal XT-Eight their lives depend upon and once the mission is successfully completed are all despatched to different postings…

All four are reunited in ‘Beach of Death’ as their combined experiences make them the best qualified instructors of a new tank squadron preparing for D-day, and once that balloon goes up, nothing as trivial as rank can stop them from joining the action on the ground, ultimately culminating in a deadly duel with German cavalry counterpart Panzer Tanks in final chapter ‘Battle of Giants’…

Scripted by W. Howard Baker, the blistering motorised military action is supported here by ‘Stronghold’ from WPL #62 (August 1960): a taut tale of personal enmity and potential murder. Author and journalist Arthur Atwill William “Bill” Baker was born in Cork on October 3rd 1925, not long after the partition and foundation of the nation of Ireland. Despite that, he fought for Great Britain in WWII and after becoming a globetrotting freelance foreign correspondent in the immediate aftermath, moved to and settled in London. He became an editor for Panther books, and wrote many Sexton Blake novels (where he created his secretary Paula Dane) before becoming the franchise editor in 1955. As the Controlling Group Editor at Fleetway, he launched the Air Ace Picture Library line whilst continuing to write content and full stories for War Picture Library. When Fleetway axed Sexton Blake in 1963 Baker acquired all rights and continued the series as an independent publisher under his Howard Baker Books imprint until 1969. Whilst writing genre novels under a bunch of pen names he also embarked on the massive task of reprinting the entire run of classic boys story-paper The Magnet (home of Billy Bunter) but died just short of his epic goal in 1991, having published 1520 of the 1683 issues in hardback collections.

Delivered in pithy, tension-packed chapters ‘First Action’, ‘No-Man’s Land’, ‘Path of Peril’ and ‘The Lucky Coin’, Stronghold is set during the siege of Cassino in 1944, where British Royal Engineers Lance Corporal Tug Wilson (no relation) and sapper Jack Barker fall foul of brutal spiteful Sergeant Burke after a mine sweeping mission goes tragically wrong. As a result, the grudge-bearing thug makes their life hell over succeeding months of bitter fighting even as he terrorises and causes the deaths of his own unit. Increasingly unstable, Burke even “removes” Private Ron Williams after becoming convinced the cheery chap’s good luck piece has made him immune to enemy fire…

The crisis point comes when Burke accidentally leads his remaining troops behind the German lines just as the dramatic end of the siege begins…

Closing accounts here is ‘The Big Arena’ from War Picture Library #133 (February 1962) scripted by A. Carney Allen with Pratt delivering some of his most boldly experimental visuals. Something of an enigma to us today, A. Carney Allen wrote many stories for War Picture Library and Battle Picture Library, and performed similar duties for DC Thomson’s rival line Commando Picture Library – and that’s about all I can tell you about him although as the ripping yarn here concerns Anzac soldiers and feels a little more rowdy that the company’s usual fare, it isn’t hard to speculate that he might have originally come from Oz or New Zealand…

Back in Afrika with Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the crosshairs, The Big Arena features the Second/Ninth Battalion of the Empire, as represented by unruly scamps and veteran killers Lofty Lucas and Chub Doolan. After ‘Over the Hill’ depicts a particularly spectacular clash against Rommel’s tanks and ground troops, the triumphant “Diggers-from-Down-Under” are fully geared up for the leave they’ve been promised, and when again denied it – for the very best of reasons – by platoon commander Lieutenant Brodie, Lucas & Doolan go Absent With Out Leave, determined to find a bar in distant Sidi Barrani and get drunk. Of course the other lads appreciate their feelings and instantly aid and abet their malfeasance…

Things immediately go wrong as ‘Fateful Encounter’ finds the boys bar fighting with other Anzac and Empire soldiers with even military police turning a blind eye until new spit & polish replacement Provost Sergeant Drummond has them arrested and personally drives them to their fate before a military court. That’s when a German counterattack catches them in the open and triggers a ‘Storm in the Desert’. Forced into a broad detour and another campaign-crushing pitched battle, the Diggers unite in a common purpose and find gallantry under fire carries its own rewards…

Packed with powerful, exhilarating action and adventure and exactly what you’d expect from a kids’ comic crafted to sell in the heyday of UK war films commemorating the conflict their parents lived through, this is another bombastic artistic triumph and offers at the end the original eye-catching painted covers: two by Giorgio De Gaspari (War Picture Library #25: September 1959 – ‘The Iron Fist’ & WPL #62: August 1960 –‘Stronghold’) plus one from Biffignandi (War Picture Library #133: February 1962,‘The Big Arena’).

Potent, powerful, genre-blending and irresistibly cathartic, these are brilliant examples of the British Comics experience. If you are a connoisseur of graphic thrills and dramatic tension – utterly unmissable.
© 1959, 1960, 1962, 2021 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Spirou in Berlin


By Flix, coloured by Marvin Clifford with Ralf Marczinczik, & translated by Michael Waaler (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: digital only

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic and humorous effect.

Although I’ve never for a moment considered history dry or dull, I can readily appreciate the constant urge to personalise characters or humanise events and movements, especially when that job is undertaken with care, respect, diligence and a healthy amount of bravado. An excellent case in point is this superb, digital-only (still!) romp from 2018, compellingly riffing on major geopolitical events that still feel relevant right now, through the somewhat suborned antics of two of Europe’s – if not the world’s – biggest comics stars.

In case you were one of those who were asleep, surreptitiously ogling a classmate who wouldn’t even acknowledge your existence, or just carving your name into a desk or body part: on November 9th 1989, a very physical symbol of ideological separation and political gamesmanship was torn down by the “inconsequential” prisoners stuck on either side of it. Now you can be told just how that might have happened, all comfortingly translated into a compelling, lively and lovely digital edition thanks to the benevolence of collective imprint Europe Comics…

For most English-speaking comic fans and collectors, Spirou is probably Europe’s biggest secret. The character is a rough contemporary of – and crassly calculated commercial response to – Hergé’s iconic Tintin, whilst the comic he has headlined for decades is only beaten in sheer longevity and manic creativity by our own Beano and the USA’s Detective Comics.

Conceived at Belgian Printing House by Jean Dupuis in 1936, an anthological magazine targeting a juvenile audience debuted on April 21st 1938; neatly bracketed by DC Thomson’s The Dandy which launched on 4th December 1937 and The Beano on July 30th 1938. Edited by Charles Dupuis (a mere tadpole, only 19 years old, himself) it took its name from the lead feature, recounting improbable adventures of the plucky Bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel – a sly reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique.

Joined from June 8th 1939 by pet squirrel, Spip (the longest running character in the strip after Spirou himself), the series was realised by French artist Robert Velter (who signed himself Rob-Vel). Dutch language edition Robbedoes debuted some weeks later, running more-or-less in tandem with the French parent comic until its cancellation in 2005.

The bulk of the periodical was taken up with cheap US imports (but no tariffs!) like Fred Harman’s Red Ryder, William Ritt & Clarence Gray’s Brick Bradford and Siegel & Shuster’s landmark Superman – although home-grown product crept in too. Most prominent were Tif et Tondu by Fernand Dineur (which ran under assorted creators until the1990s) and L’Epervier Blue by Sirius (Max Mayeu), latterly accompanied by work from comic strip wunderkind Joseph Gillain – AKA Jijé. Legendarily, during World War II Jijé singlehandedly drew the entire comic, including home grown versions of banned US imports, simultaneously assuming production of the Spirou strip and creating current co-star and partner Fantasio.

Except for a brief period when the Nazis closed the comic down (September 1943 – October 1944) Le Journal de Spirou and its boyish star – now a globe-trotting journalist – have continued their exploits in unbroken four-colour glory. Among other major features that began within those hallowed pages are Jean Valhardi (by Jean Doisy & Jije), Blondin et Cirage (Victor Hubinon), Buck Danny, Jerry Spring, Les Schtroumpfs (The Smurfs to you and me), Gaston Lagaffe/Gomer Goof and Lucky Luke.

Spirou the character (whose name translates as both “squirrel” and “mischievous”) has helmed the magazine in perpetuity, evolving under numerous creators into an urbane yet raucous fantasy/adventure hero heavily wedded to light humour. With comrade/rival Fantasio and crackpot inventor the Count of Champignac (created by Andre Franquin) Spirou voyages to exotic locales, foiling crimes, revealing the fantastic and garnering a coterie of exotic arch-enemies.

When Velter went off to fight in WWII, his wife Blanche Dumoulin took over the strip. As “Davine” and assisted by Luc Lafnet she handled everything until publisher Dupuis assumed control of and all rights to the strip in 1943, assigning it to Jijé who handed it to his assistant Franquin in 1946. It was the start of a golden age. Among Franquin’s innovations were archvillains Zorglub and Zantafio, the aforementioned Champignac and one of the first strong female characters in European comics, rival journalist Seccotine (renamed Cellophine for Cinebook’s English translations. However, his greatest creation – and one he retained on his final departure in 1969 – was incredible magic animal Marsupilami. The miracle beast had debuted in Spirou et les héritiers (1952), and is now a star of screen, plush toy store, console and albums.

From 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem assisted Franquin, but by 1969 the artist had reached his Spirou limit and resigned, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him. He was succeeded by Jean-Claude Fournier, who updated the feature over the course of 9 rousing yarns tapping into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times, telling tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes. By the 1980s, the series seemed stalled: three different creative teams alternated on the serial: Raoul Cauvin & Nic Broca, Yves Chaland and Philippe Vandevelde (writing as Tome) and illustrator Jean-Richard Geurts AKA Janry. These last adapted and referenced the still-beloved Franquin era and revived the feature’s fortunes, producing 14 wonderful albums between 1984-1998. Since their departure, Lewis Trondheim and the teams of Jean-Davide Morvan & Jose-Luis Munuera and Fabien Vehlmann & Yoann brought the official album count to 55. In 2022, scripters Sophie Guerrive & Benjamin Abitan united with artist and Olivier Schwartz on La Mort de Spirou). There have also been dozens of specials, spin-offs series and one-shots, official and otherwise. This review concerns one of those…

As heroic Everymen, Spirou & Fantasio inhabit a broad swathe of recent history in tales ranging from wild comedic fantasy to edgy, trenchant satires. In 2018, German publisher Carlsen Verlag sought to celebrate 80 years of Spirou in a new tale by a German creator: one that would be inaugurally released in German before Dupuis published French and Dutch editions. Their choice was beloved and much-admired comics creator/children’s book author Flix (Faust, Don Quijote, Münchhausen – Die Wahrheit übers Lügen, held, Schöne Töchter, Glückskind, Der Swimmingpool des kleinen Mannes, Verflixt!).

As Felix Görmann, he was born in Münster – about 45 miles from the German-Dutch border – on 16th October 1976. He grew up with the Berlin Wall very much a part of life and reading loads of comics, particularly Franquin, Peyo, Morris and the best of Le Journal de Spirou. Drawn to humour by inclination, he experienced a major system reset at age 16 after seeing Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

Görmann resolved to be a comics creator and to that end studied Communication Design at Saarbrücken’s Saar College of Fine Arts before attending the Escola Massana in Barcelona. His rise was meteoric and his output prolific. Citing influences as diverse as Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), Will Eisner (The Spirit, A Contract With God) and Craig Thompson (Blankets, Ginseng Roots) as well as Euro-stars from Christophe Blain (Socrate le Demi-Chien, Isaac Le Pirate) and Guy Delisle (Inspecteur Moroni, Shenzen, Pyongyang – A journey in North Korea) to countrymen Ralf König (Bullenklöten, The Killer Condom, Down to the Bone) and “Mawil”/Markus Witzel (Teufel & Pistolen, Hitman, Supa-Hasi, Lucky Luke), Flix was ultimately the first German to create new adventures for Spirou & Fantasio. It was such a well-received affair that in 2019 Spirou in Berlin won the Peng! Münchner Comicpreis. In 2022, Flix created a similarly Spirou-inspired notional follow-up. Set in 1930s Berlin, the Das Humboldt-tier sees a little girl befriend a Marsupilami kept at the Museum of Natural History. Hopefully we’ll see that someday soon…

Here however, is a glorious edgy, gleefully barbed take on past events as, at the most precarious and tumultuous moment of the 44-years-long Cold War, East German apparatchiks and master manipulators starved of all resources but putting on a deceptive public show of affluence, activate a desperate last-ditch plan. They have a bizarre scheme to shatter the global economy and gain economic dominance, and one of the West’s craziest villains to build the kit necessary to expedite it, but still need the unique expertise of the Count de Champignac to make it work.

Sadly, their supposedly seamless abduction of the mushroom mage is rumbled by regular house guests Spirou, Fantasio and Spip, who go after their friend and break/sneak/are allowed to enter into the German Democratic Republic (GDR), utterly unaware that their interference is not only anticipated but actively required…

Of course, the machinations of the Stasi – officially the Ministry for State Security (MfS) – are constantly but quietly scotched by decent East Germans like Paul & Paula, Rainier and Momo (and her army of liberated zoo animals), all working to be free from fear, liberated from lies and out from beneath crushingly brutal oppression. The ordinary East Berliners have a crucial need for their truth to be published on the other side of the Wall, but Spirou refuses to go anywhere until Fantasio and the Count are safe (PDQ)…

Wry, thrilling and sublimely whacky, this cartoon romp is a perfect, canny codicil to the comic canon, embracing the best of all Spirou sagas by wrapping the timeless tale up in a fast-paced, rollercoaster ride of subversive messaging. Total fun with verities that have never been more worth reviewing, Spirou in Berlin is a book all grown up kids need to see.
© 2018, 2019 – CARLSSEN/DUPUIS – Flix. All rights reserved.

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A Sailor’s Story


By Sam Glanzman (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-79812-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

Inexplicably, unfairly but inescapably, many truly superb creators who dedicate a lifetime to producing a volume of work are never properly rewarded for their efforts. Probably the most shamefully neglected of these hidden stars – at least in the American comic book industry – was Sam Glanzman (December 5th 1924 – July 12th 2017).

With his solid, uniquely informative and engagingly rough-hewn style, “SJG” worked since the 1940s on a variety of titles for a host of publishers, mostly genre material in war, mystery, fantasy and adventure anthologies, but also occasionally on serial characters such as Willy Schulz (The Private War of Willie Schultz), Hercules and Tarzan for Charlton; the astoundingly cool Kona, King of Monster Island for Dell, The Haunted Tank and most significantly for us here U.S.S. Stevens (DD 479) for DC. It is this last series of guardedly-autobiographical tales, derived from his tour of duty on that self-same US Navy Destroyer during WWII, that formed the basis of this superb compilation.

This criminally neglected talent quietly and resolutely generated comics magic for decades in his underplayed, effective and matter-of-fact manner and in 1987 was still improving, crafting superb narrative art without flash or dazzle, winning fans among the cognoscenti yet largely unnoticed or at least unlauded by mainstream fans when he produced a semi-autobiographical graphic novel that made many waves. Moreover, Marvel editor Larry Hama made the bold decision to publish Glanzman’s understated, unadorned, wryly elegiac account of his days as a young man aboard a Pacific Fleet Destroyer as part of the company’s Original Graphic Novel imprint…

A Sailor’s Story captivatingly related his experiences as a young man aboard the U.S.S. Stevens in a no-nonsense, highly entertaining manner, breaking fresh ground in the progress of the graphic novel as a medium for artistic expression. The book also reached a lot of buyers who wouldn’t be caught dead with a copy of Spider-Man or Conan…

It was a high point in American sequential narrative and spawned a sequel volume – an unprecedented feat for the line at a time when superheroes and licensed properties monopolised the marketplace.

Glanzman was a natural storyteller, with the ability to make dry fact entrancing and everyday events compelling. With his raw, gritty drawing style and powerful sense of colour he wove memory into magic. His depiction of shipboard life is informative and authentic, and his decision to downplay action to concentrate on character is brave and tremendously effective. He also knows how to make a reader laugh and cry… and when.

A Sailor’s Story is a moving and obviously heartfelt paean to lost days: an impassioned tribute to lost friends and comrades; a war story that glorifies life, not death, by a creator who loved the experience and loves his art-form. When you read this superb book you will too.

Utterly devoid of unnecessary melodrama and conniving faux-angst, the history lesson starts as young Sam J. Glanzman enlists one year after Pearl Harbor – as soon as he turns 18. All the orphan leaves behind him in frigid upstate New York is a friendly farmer who promises to look after his devoted dog Beauty…

What follows is a mesmerising succession of snippets and memories and observations; reminiscences pieced together into a mosaic of life afloat during wartime. Back then he learned to speak what amounted to a new language, played pranks and grew up in a pressure cooker. Along the way friends were made, and some enemies, but mostly just acquaintances: people doing the same things at the same time in the same place, but not necessarily for the same reasons and certainly with no dreams except having it all end…

Sam saw the world, the best and worst of life and survived the sailor’s greatest enemies: unseen, distant strangers trying to kill them all, mindless tedium and dire, soul-destroying repetitive routine. Eventually he found his niche – if never a decent place to sleep…

Through brief and terrifying clashes with the enemy, intimate associations and alliances aboard ship, intimate assignations ashore or on the frequent and increasingly bizarre and hilarious “Liberties” (those breaks from active duty us TV-reared landlubbers all mistakenly think of as “shore leave”), the author debunks a myth of the magic of the seas, only to recreate it, recast in terms any modern reader will instantly understand…

Eventually the war ends and long after that, so does the sailor’s service, with only the merest few of his unforgettable arsenal of memories shared…

The sheer overwhelming veracity of the episodes is utterly overwhelming. Raucously funny, ineffably sad – Beauty’s fate will break your heart or you’re not and never have been human – devoutly forgiving, patiently understanding and stunningly authentic.

This long longed-for complete edition (thank you, Dover Books!) also includes that sequel from 1989. Wind, Dreams and Dragons returned to the Pacific at the height of the war, with a specific theme in mind and, by clever use of narrative devices like Ship’s Travel Logs incorporated into the beguiling page designs, or diagrams and cutaways as part of the text, upped the emotional ante. Through astoundingly affecting intimate details (most trenchantly humorous) fondly recalled and seamlessly staged, Glanzman managed to instil an even more documentary atmosphere into his wonderfully human-scaled drama.

This is used to create a foreboding sense of dread as the crew encounter and learn to live with the then-unknown terror weapon of suicide-pilots who would become a household name to us: Kamikaze…

Combining the folksy, informative charm of the first volume with the “hurry-up-and-wait” tensions of modern warfare, delivered in an increasingly bold and innovative graphic style, Wind, Dreams and Dragons is one of the best explorations of sea-combat ever produced, seen through the eyes of an ordinary seaman. It all compellingly communicates the terror, resolve and sheer disbelief that men on both sides could sacrifice so much. This is a fitting and evocative tribute from one who was there to all those who are no longer here…

As if those back-to-back blockbusters were not enough, this oversized (279 x 210mm), fully remastered tome comes with a flotilla of extras beginning with a Foreword by Max (World War Z) Brooks and Introduction from original editor Larry Hama.

Following the colourful comics comes a star-studded ‘Tributes’ section by Glanzman’s contemporaries: moving and frequently awe-struck commemorations, appreciations, shared memories and even art contributions from Alan Barnard, George Pratt, Beau Smith (who shares a personal sketch SJG created for him), Stephen R. Bissette, Chris Claremont, Carl Potts, Denny O’Neil, Kurt Busiek, Stan Lee, Paul Levitz, Joe R. Lansdale, Walter Simonson, Russ Heath, Joe Kubert, Steve Fears, Thomas Yeates, Timothy Truman, Will Franz and Mark Wheatley. There’s even a splendid photo parade entitled ‘Sam’s Scrapbook’ and a warm, impassioned ‘Afterword’ from Chuck Dixon.

Topping everything is a new 10-page hauntingly powerful monochrome USS Stevens yarn entitled ‘Even Dead Birds Have Wings’. Now all we have to do is get everyone to rediscover this lost gem.

Shockingly raw, painfully authentic, staggeringly beautiful, A Sailor’s Story is a magnificent work by one of the very best of “The Greatest Generation”: a sublimely insightful, affecting and rewarding graphic memoir every home, school and library should have.
Artwork and text © 2015 Sam Glanzman. All other material © 2015 its respective creators.