Category: Historical

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Viking Glory: The Viking Prince


By Lee Marrs & Bo Hampton, lettered by Tracey Hampton-Munsey (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-001-7 (HB) 978-1-56389-007-9 (TPB)

During the intentionally anodyne mid-1950s, when superheroes languished in a seemingly inescapable trough, comic book companies looked to different forms of leading men for their action heroes. Following movie trends, in 1955 writer/editor Robert Kanigher devised an adventure comic entitled The Brave and the Bold featuring historical action strips.

Illustrated by Russ Heath, The Golden Gladiator was set in the declining days of Imperial Rome. Courtesy of veteran draughtsman Irv Novick, Silent Knight fought injustice in post-Norman Invasion Britain and the already-legendary Joe Kubert limned the increasingly astounding and uncanny exploits of a valiant young Norseman dubbed the Viking Prince.

This last strip appeared in all but one issue (#6), before eventually taking over the entire comic, until the burgeoning superhero resurgence of the Silver Age saw B&B metamorphose into a try-out title from its 25th issue.

Those fanciful, “Hollywood-styled” Viking sagas are some of the finest fantasy comics of all time and long overdue for a definitive archival collection of their own. Star character Jon has long been a fan-favourite, regularly returning in DC’s war titles and guest-starring in such varied venues as Sgt. Rock and Justice League of America.

This beautiful, vital and enchanting tale was released to very little fanfare or editorial support in 1991, yet remains a worthy sequel to those early strips and is also long overdue for revival and re-issue…

Scripter Lee Marrs (Pudge: Girl Blimp, Wimmen’s Comix, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Pre-teen, Dirty-Gene Kung Fu Kangaroos, Indiana Jones) took all the advances in our historical knowledge since the 1950s and blended them with the timeless basics of a Classical Edda to entrancing effect. Amidst a culture vibrantly brought to full life by her words and hyper-realist Bo Hampton’s awesome skill with a paintbrush, Marrs took a passionate but reserved traditional archetype and remade him as a fiery young hero of devastating charm, brimming with the boisterous vigour of his mythic breed, before confronting him with his worst nightmare.

In 10th century Scandinavia, Jon Rolloson – heir to Jarl Rollo of Gallund – is an ideal Northman’s son: fast, tough, fearless and irresistible to all the village maidens. However, the greatest horror of his 16 years has finally come for him: an arranged marriage for political advantage. He must leave his home and the Viking life to wed a “Civilised” princess. His joyous days are all done…

Princess Asa of Hedeby is a young beauty every inch his match in vigour and vitality, but also as composed and smart as he is coarse and oafish. Sadly, someone is stealthily seeking to thwart the match, even though Jon’s boorishness is enough to give both fathers cause to reconsider. Following the first meeting, only the Viking Prince’s rash vow to recover a lost rune treasure and slay a fearsome dragon preserves the bargain. The wedding will proceed… once he has found and killed Ansgar, the vilest of all Fire-Wyrms, and not perished in the process…

As well as being a superb scripter of comics, Marrs is an underground cartoonist legend, animator and computer artist who assisted Hal Foster on that other sword-wielding epic Prince Valiant. Her grasp of human character – especially comedically – elevates this classic tale of romantic endeavour into a multi-faceted gem of captivating quality. Hampton has created some of the best drawn or painted comics in the medium (like Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Verdilak, Swamp Thing, Moon Knight, Greylore, Demons of Sherwood, Batman: Castle of the Bat, The Once and Future Tarzan) and this book is probably still the very best of them.

One of the most accomplished and enjoyable historical romances ever produced in comic form, Viking Glory deserves to be on every fan’s bookshelf. Let’s hope that it’s on DC’s shortlist for a swift re-release in both printed parchment and aetheric electrons…
© 1991 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Darkly She Goes


By Hubert & Vincent Mallié, coloured by Bruno Tatti & Clémentine Guivarc’h: translated by L Benson (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-313-4 (HB) eISBN 978-1-68112-314-1

Hubert Boulard was born on January 21st 1971 in Saint-Renan, Brittany. Graduating from the École régionale des beaux-arts d’Angers in 1994, he began his far too short comics career as  artist for seasoned pros such as Éric Ormond, Yoann, Éric Corberyan, Paul Gillon and others. He was also highly regarded as a colourist, and in 2002 became a triple threat by writing for many top artists.

He began with Legs de l’alchimiste – limned by Herve Tanquerelle – followed by Yeaux Verts for long-term collaborator Zanzim and Miss Pas Touche/Miss Don’t Touch Me – rendered by Kerascoët and many more. Awards piled up as he steered 14 internationally renowned and celebrated series, including Les Ogres-Dieux and Monsieur désire?

An activist by nature, in 2013 Hubert helmed and contributed to groundbreaking collective graphic volume Les Gens normaux, paroles lesbiennes gay bi trans: released to coincide with France’s national debate on legalizing same sex marriage and a factor in the proposal becoming law…

His last book was with artist Zanzim: posthumously published in June 2020 soon after his death. Still unavailable in English, Peau d’homme comedically explores gender and sexuality at the height of Europe’s Europe’s medieval religious intolerance and social stratification.

Hubert frequently utilised such eras of “blood and iron” as a backdrop, and Darkly She Goes again confronts modern perceptions and standards via an adventure-based scenario readily recognisable to adults and children alike.

Epic in scope and spectacular in content, the tale is illustrated by Vincent Mallié: a two volume saga entitled Ténébreuse. It was published after the author’s passing and is combined here into one monumental tome.

Born in Paris in 1973, Mallié initially studied economics and history before joining an atelier in 1992 to learn about comics and graphic design. Whilst working as a storyboarder in 1996, he created – with schoolmate Joël Parnotte – a short story that grew into the popular Hong Kong Triad series.

They followed up with sci fi romp Les Aquanautes before Vincent collaborated with Jér?me Félix on L’Arche (2003-2007). Later endeavours include Le Grande Mort with Régis Loisel (2007-2019), reviving and enhancing established serial La Quête de l’Oiseau du Temps (with Loisel & Serge le Tendre) and more.

His staggeringly potent imagery here is augmented by the painterly gifts of Bruno Tatti and latterly Clémentine Guivarc’h, combining to build a painfully authentic feudal world where blood and mud and steel and sinew believably share space with fantastic beasts, sorcery and deviltry of all kinds…

The story opens as disgraced knight Arzhur drunkenly clashes again with former comrades, before being patched up by his inexplicably faithful squire Youenn. Despite the warrior’s best efforts to destroy himself, his life is about to change radically as he has been singled out by a trio of cunning witches…

They have a quest for Arzhur to fulfil: a noble deed that can’t help but expiate his past sins and redeem his reputation – maybe even restore his fortune too. All he must do is save a captive princess from imprisonment in a dark, dank dungeon. Fame, wealth and honour can be his again…

Sadly, the salvation- and honour-obsessed paladin is being played for a sucker, and after blazing in and butchering a dragon, discovers the fair maiden is very much there of her own free will. In fact, Arzhur has slaughtered Princess Islen’s protector, a noble creature keeping her from being seduced and suborned by three mystic hags. They seek to use the captive exile’s inherent power for their own dark designs…

As the fallen knight escorts his unwilling prize back to her father King Goulvan, her story – couched in grief-stricken tones and fiery terms – reveals how Islen’s supernatural mother Meliren was once the undisputed Queen of Evil. She raised a simple man to the highest estate in the land but his elevation could not offset her dark nature or schemes. The unholy marriage spawned a child, but their warring natures soon drove them apart and war broke out over custody of the princess. Thanks to a magic sword and Islen herself, Meliren was destroyed, but after her defeat, her mystic forces transferred to her child, manifested as a terrifying Butterfly Crown and ability to control beasts.

For the safety of all Islen removed herself from the world but the temptation of her legacy meant that ambition and fear gripped all who knew of her…

When Arzhur brings her home, instead of royal joy and rich rewards, he is cast into a dungeon whilst the King rapidly tries to marry his problem child off – preferably to someone living far, far away. Meanwhile, his second wife – fearing for her own son’s claim to the throne – seeks to convince the populace that the demon child is better off dead…

Faced with such appalling betrayal, the princess angrily taps into her power and the three witches see their dark design falling into place…

With the castle under siege by the animal kingdom, Islen liberates Arzhur and they flee, carrying with them the magic sword and invincible armour Meliren gave Goulvan, blissfully unaware of the tragic human cost of their escape…

With Clémentine Guivarc’h providing colour-art assistance, Part Two begins as the fugitives put as much distance as possible between them and the kingdom, even as the three witches actively seek to push Islen further into anger and depravity. Loathing, passion and duty have already led the princess and fallen knight into a carnal mistake and every close call with pursuers pushes her deeper into the seductive coils of sorcerous forces.

Their shaky plan is to hide in Arzhur’s rural homeland, but all too soon, the burden of the knight’s original failure and disgrace, plus his sordid past with most of the region’s young women, makes them a target of self-righteous paladins ready to believe the salacious slanders of the whispering witches.

Their tenuous sanctuary becomes a death trap when Goulvan’s armies invade and the witches possess Islen to complete their decades long plot. Ultimately, the princess must fight for her soul – and perhaps true love – in a sorcerous duel revealing how little anyone can understand – or trust – parents and learn that in life it’s always a case of devils taking the hindmost…

An epic fantasy and deadly dark fairy tale for adults, Darkly She Goes turns narrative conventions on their heads in a sharp and wry exploration of heroism, honour and self-reliance that is the perfect antidote for anodyne and saccharine bedtime stories.

Ténébreuse © 2021-2022 Dupuis – Mallié/Hubert. All rights reserved. © 2014 NBM For the English translation.

Darkly She Goes will be published on June 14th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

Most NBM books are also available in digital formats so for more information and other great reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/

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Trent volume 6: The Sunless Country


By Rodolphe & Léo, coloured by Marie-Paule Alluard, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-396-3 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Continental audiences adore the mythologised American experience, both in Big Sky Wild Westerns and later eras of crime dramas. They also have a profound historical connection to the northernmost parts of the New World, generating many great graphic extravaganzas…

Born in Rio de Janeiro on December 13th 1944, “Léo” is artist/storyteller Luiz Eduardo de Oliveira Filho. After attaining a degree in mechanical engineering from Puerto Alegre in 1968, he was a government employee for three years until forced to flee the country because of his political views.

Whilst military dictators ran Brazil, he lived in Chile and Argentina before illegally returning to his homeland in 1974. He worked as a designer and graphic artist in Sao Paulo whilst creating his first comics art for O Bicho magazine, and in 1981 migrated to Paris to pursue a career in Bande Dessinée. He found work with Pilote and L’Echo des Savanes as well as more advertising and graphic design jobs, until the big break came and Jean-Claude Forest (Bébé Cyanure, Charlot, Barbarella) invited him to draw stories for Okapi.

This led to regular illustration work for Bayard Presse and, in 1988, Léo began an association with scripter/scenarist Rodolphe D. Jacquette – AKA Rodolphe. The prolific, celebrated writing partner had been a giant of comics since the 1970s: a Literature graduate who left teaching and running libraries to create poetry, criticism, novels, biographies, children’s stories and music journalism.

On meeting Jacques Lob in 1975, Jacquette expanded his portfolio: writing for many artists in magazines ranging from Pilote and Circus to à Suivre and Métal Hurlant. Amongst his most successful endeavours are Raffini (with Ferrandez) and L’Autre Monde (with Florence Magnin), but his triumphs in all genres and age ranges are far too numerous to list here.

In 1991 “Rodolph” began working with Léo on a period adventure of the “far north” starring a duty-driven loner. Taciturn, introspective, bleakly philosophical and pitilessly driven, Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant Philip Trent premiered in L’Homme Mort, forging a lonely path through the 19th century Dominion. He starred in eight moving, hard-bitten, love-benighted, beautifully realised albums until 2000, with the creative collaboration sparking later fantasy classics Kenya, Centaurus and Porte de Brazenac…

Cast very much in the pattern perfected by Jack London and John Buchan, Trent is a man of few words, deep thoughts and unyielding principles who gets the job done whilst stifling the emotional turmoil boiling within him: the very embodiment of “still waters running deep”…

Le Pays sans soleil was the 6th saga, debuting in 1998, offering an arduous, chillingly bleak examination of family and duty with the Mountie going slowly mad amidst the extremes of human existence. Posted to the arctic circle where night lasts for weeks, he’s been left behind by fellow officers Charlie and Vaughan, as they conduct an inspection of the region.

Manning the outpost – a simple log cabin and ever-expanding graveyard – Trent whiles away the relentless, timeless, unending gloom of interminable hours by keeping his journal and wondering when his own sanity will sunder. If he hadn’t been blessed with canine company (he’s called “Dog”) the peacekeeper would be completely crazy by now…

Darkness and unyielding environment call to him like a siren, and as he continually returns to the latest grave – occupied by RCMP officer Sergeant James McBruce – Trent again wonders if he can hold out until daylight or his colleagues come back…

Whenever he feels most embattled Trent recalls the last visit with Agnes when – after years of second-guessing, procrastination and prevarication – he finally declared his love for the widow… and she accepted his proposal of marriage.

Years previously, he had saved Agnes St. Yves – but not her beloved brother – and was given a clear invitation from her: one he never acted upon. Eventually, Philip made a his decision and travelled across the country with marriage in mind, only to learn she had stopped waiting and wed someone else.

More time elapsed and they met again when her husband was killed during an horrific murder spree. The ball was again in Philip’s court and once more he fumbled it through timidity, indecision and inaction. He retreated into duty, using work to evade commitment and the risk of rejection…

His dreamlike reverie is suddenly shattered when Dog hears an intruder. In the icy darkness outside Trent finds a dying native whose last words reveal someone else is lost in the wastes, slowly expiring in an igloo…

Fired by duty and threat to life, Mountie and mutt brave the ebony vastness and eventually find the frozen bolthole. At first glance, they’re too late: only the body of a native woman is there. Dog, however keeps worrying the corpse, and Trent finds it is wrapped around a still living baby. A white baby…

Wracked by mystery and with no proper food for the infant, Trent improvises from his cobbled-together stores before setting out to walk back to civilisation with the orphan but his trek due south towards the sun and warmth soon becomes complicated. Dogging his tracks is an enigmatic stranger, maintaining a steady pace yet never stopping. At the moment Trent first sees a sunrise, the stalker strikes, using that moment of joyous release to swoop in and steal the child.

The kidnapper correctly assessed that the weary officer could not catch him, but completely misjudged how Dog would react to a threat to his “family”…

One mystery is solved and an even greater one – fraught with misapprehension and mistake – then unfolds as the baby snatcher – white journalist James Dunwood – explains that the child is his daughter Mary Little Moon and the woman in the igloo must have been his wife Four Rivers…

As they trek south, Dunwood explains how both had been abducted from the camp of Cree chief Old Storm. After a reporting assignment turned personal, James had relinquished his career for love. He joined the First Nations tribe, but his romantic idyl was shattered when white trader Duncan started selling booze to the Indians and fomented war when Old Storm intervened.

In retaliation, Duncan and his renegades abducted Four Rivers and her newborn, heading north with Dunwood in pursuit. He never quite caught up as they pushed ever deeper into polar regions… and now his beloved was gone.

James couldn’t be more wrong, and as his tragic tale closes, Trent is left holding the baby. He is determined to make things right for Mary Little Moon – and this time, there’s a modicum of happy news to ameliorate the horrors and injustice the Mountie usually wades through in pursuit of justice…

Moreover, as he unravels the morass of confusion and solves the crimes, Philip bonds with the child. Worst of all, upon returning her to the proper guardians, he meets someone who makes him briefly forget all about Agnes…

Another beguilingly introspective voyage of internal discovery, where environment and locale are as much lead characters as hero and villain, The Sunless Country delivers action, endeavour, suspense and poignant drama in a compelling epic to delight all fans of widescreen cinematic entertainment.
Original edition © Dargaud Editeur Paris 1998 by Rodolphe & Leo. All rights reserved. English translation © 2017 Cinebook Ltd.

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Lucky Luke volume 31 – Lucky Luke versus the Pinkertons


By Achdé, Daniel Pennac & Tonino Benacquista, in the style of Morris: coloured by Anne-Marie Ducasse, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-098-6 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Doughty, dashing and dependable cowboy “good guy” Lucky Luke is a rangy, implacably even-tempered do-gooder able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around the mythic Old West, enjoying light-hearted adventures on his petulant and rather sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper.

Over nine decades, his exploits have made him one of the top-ranking comic characters in the world, generating upwards of 85 individual albums and many spin-off series, with sales thus far totalling in excess of 300 million in 30 languages. That renown has led to a mountain of merchandise, aforementioned tie-in series like Kid Lucky and Ran-Tan-Plan, plus toys, computer games, animated cartoons, a plethora of TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know…

Originally the brainchild of Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère (“Morris”) and first officially seen in Le Journal de Spirou’s seasonal Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947, Luke actually sprang to laconic life in mid-1946, before inevitably ambling into his first weekly adventure ‘Arizona 1880’ on December 7th 1946.

Working solo until 1955, Morris produced nine albums of affectionate sagebrush spoofery before teaming with old pal and fellow trans-American émigré Rene Goscinny. With Rene as his regular wordsmith, Luke attained dizzying, legendary, heights starting with Des rails sur la Prairie (Rails on the Prairie) which began serialisation on August 25th 1955. In 1967, the six-gun straight-shooter switched sides, joining Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote in La Diligence (The Stagecoach).

Goscinny co-created 45 albums with Morris before his untimely death, whereupon Morris soldiered on both singly and with other collaborators. He died in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar sagebrush sagas crafted with Achdé, Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shot at the venerable vigilante …as in this tale from 2010 which so neatly fits the week’s theme of “detective fiction”…

Lucky Luke has a long history in Britain, having first pseudonymously amused and enthralled young readers during the late 1950s, syndicated to weekly anthology Film Fun. He later rode back into comics-town in 1967 for comedy paper Giggle, using nom de plume Buck Bingo. And that’s not counting the many attempts to establish him as a book star beginning in 1972 with Brockhampton Press, and continuing with Knight Books, Hodder Dargaud UK, Ravette Books and Glo’Worm, until Cinebook finally and thankfully found the way in 2006.

The taciturn trailblazer regularly interacts with historical and legendary figures as well as even odder fictional folk in tales drawn from key themes of classic cowboy films – as well as some uniquely European notions, and interpretations. That’s used to sublime effect in Lucky Luke contre Pinkerton released as Cinebook’s 31st album in 2011, but only latterly added to the official continental cannon.

In France, it had graced Le Journal de Spirou #3779-3784 before being compiled and released as the 4th edition of sub-strand Les Aventures de Lucky Luke d’après Morris.

Since the Europeans take their comics seriously – especially the funny ones – they aren’t afraid to be bold or brave and this riotous romp cheekily plays with established chronology and even employs creative anachronism to carry an edged – if not actually barbed – pop at government oversight, the rise of a surveillance state and arguments pro and con concerning necessary evils and zealous protections versus plain old liberty and equality…

In America, Abraham Lincoln has just been elected President . The world is changing and modernity looms, but the nefarious Daltons think nothing of it until a train robbery goes hideously awry.

Instead of their usual duel with Lucky Luke they are ambushed and arrested by an army of detectives employed by iconoclastic, ambitious lawman Allan Pinkerton. The detective then begins a publicity campaign trumpeting that the day of the gifted amateur is done and that Lucky is passe and over the hill…

Untroubled by all the modern foolishness, Luke busies himself hunting a counterfeiting gang but thinks again when Pinkerton pips him to the post and abrasively tells him that from now on, there will be no room for amateurs…

Egotistically sharing his cutting edge crimefighting scheme, Pinkerton unveils modern incarceration, rapid communications, intelligence-led pre-emptive investigation, forensic methodology and ruthless methods of “interrogation” – and operates on the principle that everyone is guilty of something…

He’s compiling incriminating dossiers on everyone, with his legion of detectives building an (analogue) database holding all those dark secrets in one secure office.

Pinkerton’s authority comes from Lincoln, who has made the innovator his chief of security, unaware of the detective’s own vaulting ambition – which includes acting as an agent provocateur and manufacturing threats against PotUS. Lucky sticks to his guns and the old moral ways and battlelines are drawn…

Initially, everything seems to go the way of the moderniser, but his success proves his undoing when a sudden influx of arrests fills all the prisons and the Daltons are given early release to make room. With turmoil gripping the nation and Lincoln’s popularity plunging, Pinkerton seems unassailable until unrepentant recidivist Joe Dalton cherry picks modern ordnance and applies old fashioned predatory behaviour to beat Pinkerton at his own game.

The little monster is particularly impressed by that huge store of files and calculates how much most decent people will pay to keep their secrets unexposed…

Happily Lucky Luke also cherishes the old ways and is ready to set things right his way…

A wickedly wry exploration of the other side of the investigation game, Lucky Luke versus the Pinkertons blends fun and adventure with some salient views of where we’ve been and where we’re going in our ever more urgent quest for safety and security. Nevertheless, the yarn also revels in classic set-piece slapstick and witty wordplay: poking fun at the fundamental components of the genre and successfully embracing tradition with action in another wildly entertaining all-ages confection.
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Goscinny & Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2009 Cinebook Ltd.

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Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe: A Trilogy of Crime


Adapted by Tom DeHaven & Rian Hughes; Jerome Charyn & David Lloyd; James Rose, Lee Moyer & Alfredo Alcala, & various (iBooks)
ISBN: 978-0-7434-7489-4 (HB), 978-1-59687-839-6 (TPB 2016 edition)

If you’re going to adapt classic, evocative crime stories into graphic narrative there really isn’t no better source material than Chandler. This follow-up to the adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe: The Little Sister was last reissued in 2016 as Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe: The Graphic Novel: once again the fruit of comics visionary Byron Preiss.

It adroitly adapts three short tales from the master of hard-boiled fiction. Significantly, they are all rendered in a variety of unique and impressive styles by an international array of top-flight creators…

Opening the show is ‘Goldfish’, first published in 1949 and the writer’s ninth short story sale. It preceded his first Marlowe novel by three years and is here adapted by Tom DeHaven (Green Candles, It’s Superman!) & lettered by Willie Schubert. The stylish illustration comes courtesy of British designer/artist Rian Hughes (Dare, I Am a Number) using muted colour tones that have only the merest hint of hue to them. The effect is powerfully evocative and atmospheric.

When former cop Kathy Horne sidles into the tough guy’s seedy office, she brings a tale of lost pearls, an absconded convict and a huge reward just waiting to be claimed. Dragged far out of his comfort zone and sent up and down the Pacific Seaboard, our world-weary shamus is just steps ahead of sadistic, casually murderous Carol Donovan and her gang of thugs in a superb thriller of double-cross and double-jeopardy…

Next up is ‘The Pencil’, scripted by award-winning mystery novelist Jerome Charyn (Isaac Sidel series, The Magician’s Wife, New York Cannibals), brilliantly rendered by British comics legend David Lloyd (V for Vendetta, Hellblazer, Wasteland, Aces Weekly) in moody, dry-brush black and white, and lettered by long-term collaborator Elitta Fell. This was Chandler’s 21st – and final – Marlowe adventure, published posthumously in 1959, shortly after the author’s death. You might know it as Marlowe Takes on the Syndicate, Wrong Pigeon or even Philip Marlowe’s Last Case.

Hollywood 1955: Ikky Rossen is a bad man, a career gangster and mob leg-breaker. When he crosses his bosses he hopes Marlowe can get him safely out of the City of Angels before The Organization’s East Coast “button men” send him to Hell. Marlowe knows these are people to be avoided at all costs and only one thing is always true: everybody lies…

Closing the casebook – and somewhat ill-considered and misplaced to my mind – is ‘Trouble is My Business’ as interpreted by James Rose (Thundercats, Savage sword of Conan), Lee Moyer (Starstruck, Dungeons & Dragons) & Alfredo Alcala (Voltar, Swamp Thing, Man Thing, Batman, Savage Sword of Conan), with Schubert again filling the word balloons.

This is a weak tale of vengeful Harriet Huntress who intends to destroy two generations of wealthy socialites mixed up in the gambling rackets originated in 1939: a rather tame and straightforward yarn in comparison to the other stories here, not to mention the landmark first full novel The Big Sleep, which was also published in that year.

Moyer and Alcala do a solid job of illustrating the plot (although it’s a little pretty for my tastes) but the cynical edge that is the hallmark of Chandler’s iconic creation is muted if not actually extinguished here.

Despite ending on a sour note, this is still a superb sample of Detective comics any fan can revel in, with the incredible Steranko cover alone well worth the effort of tracking down…
Adaptations and illustrations © 2003 Byron Preiss Visual Publications Inc. Original stories “Goldfish” and “Trouble is my Business” © 2003 Philip Marlowe BV (Estate of Raymond Chandler) All Rights Reserved. “The Pencil” © 1971 Helga Greene, Executrix, Estate of Raymond Chandler. All Rights Reserved.

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Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: The Little Sister


Adapted by Michael Lark (A Byron Preiss Book/Fireside Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59687-535-7 (TPB)

If you’re going to adapt classic, evocative crime novels into graphic narrative you really can’t start from better source material than Raymond Chandler. His fifth novel, The Little Sister, was published in 1949, after nearly a decade of hard living and work as a Hollywood screenwriter, and it is a perfect example of his terse yet poetic hard-boiled style.

All the beloved and iconic imagery is present in Michael (Gotham Central, Legend of Hawkman, Terminal City) Lark’s static snapshot style as prim Orfamay Quest hires the laconic Marlowe to track down her missing brother, a spiritual soul who seems to have gone off the rails since hitting the sin city of Los Angeles.

Little Orfamay seems wound up pretty tight for such a run-of the-mill case, but the world-weary detective soon starts to take things a little more seriously after the bodies begin to drop and corpses start showing up in the strangest places…

This taut and twisted compote of mobsters, blackmail and double-dealing is an ideal example of a tale adapted well: underplayed art and direction augmented by controlled pace and a sensitive use of a deliberately limited colour palette.

A cool look at a period classic, this is a crime-fan’s dream book, and what’s truly criminal is that it’s been allowed to remain out-of-print.
© 1997 Byron Preiss Visual Publications Inc. Text of The Little Sister © 1949 Raymond Chandler, © renewed 1976 Mrs Helga Greene. All Rights Reserved.

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Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow (Will Murray Pulp History Series)


By Will Murray, illustrated by Frank Hamilton, Rick Roe, Colton Worley, Joe DeVito, Edd Cartier & various (Odyssey Publications)
ISBN: 979-8-54I38-708-7 (PB/Digital edition)

In the early 1930s, just as the Great Depression hit hardest, a new kind of literary (and ultimately multimedia) hero was born …or more correctly, evolved. The Shadow afforded thrill-starved Americans measured doses of extraordinary excitement via cheaply produced periodical novels and over eerily charged airwaves via an iconic radio show.

Made exceedingly cheaply and published in their hundreds for every style and genre, “Pulps” bridged stand-alone books and periodical magazines. Results ranged from unforgettably excellent to pitifully dire, and amongst originals and knock-offs of every conceivable stripe, for exotic or esoteric adventure-lovers there were two stars who outshone all others in terms of quality and sheer imagination.

The Superman of his day was Doc Savage, whilst the premier relentless creature of the night darkly dispensing grim justice was the enigmatic vigilante/ultimate detective discussed here.

As seen in Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow (successor to this book) the enthralling enigma grew out of a combination of sources: radio show Detective Story Hour and the Street & Smith publication Detective Story Magazine it promoted; a succession of scary voices variously deployed by Orson Welles, James LaCurto and Frank Readick Jr.) but above all a Depression-era populace in dire need of cathartic entertainment.

From the very start on July 31st 1930, that narratorial “Shadow” was more popular than the stories he highlighted…

How that aural phenomenon was translated into an iconic literary/media sensation and exactly who was responsible forms the basis of this compelling testament as prolific author, scripter and historian Will Murray turns his spotlight on those who contributed to the amalgamated marvel of mystery and imagination.

Following his reminiscence-fuelled Introduction, Murray restates the origin of the character in photo-filled feature ‘The Five O’clock Shadow’ and details how the Street & Smith campaign to make a voice and a feeling real and remunerative spawned a landmark of broadcast entertainment, before ‘Out of the Shadows: Walter Gibson’ offers an engaging and revelatory interview with the magician-turned-crime writer conducted by Murray and Jim Steranko at the 1975 New York Comic Art Convention.

That interview was in a public forum, and the transcript omitted a lengthy digression comprising Gibson’s oral history of the Shadow’s signature fire opal ring. Here – in its entirety – it comprises ‘The Purple Girasol’, after which it’s the turn of ‘Heroic Editor: John L. Nanovic’ to be rediscovered and awarded his share of the acclaim.

Prolific and underrated, successor scripter ‘Theodore Tinsley: Maxwell Grant’s Shadow’ is celebrated all his many works after which we concentrate on illustration as cover artist ‘Graves Gladney Speaks’.

‘Walter B. Gibson Revisited’ revisits an interview with the author from PulpCon 5 (Akron Ohio, July 1976) conducted by Murray and Bob Sampson, discussing his working stance and fellow creatives at Street & Smith, whilst his connection to, expertise and excellence in conjuring and legerdemain are celebrated in ‘Walter Gibson’s Magical Journey’…

Back in the realm of visions, an appreciation of a true master of pulp art exploring the mysterious ‘Edd Cartier: Master of Shadows’ is augmented by acknowledgement of the Dark Detective’s most obvious legacy in ‘The Shadowy Roots of Batman’, with ‘Memories of Walter’ synthesizing the emotions stirred up by the author’s passing in December 1985.

Packed with fascinating detail and elucidatory anecdotes, plus plenty of pictures and photos, this beguiling documentary of bygone times and appreciation of the giant shoulders we all stand on, this so readable tome also includes biographies ‘About the Author’ and ultra-fan Tim King, whose crucial role is covered in ‘About our Patron’.

If heroes and history are important to you this Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow is truly unmissable.
© 2021 Will Murray. All rights reserved. Artwork © Condé Nast & used with permission.

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The Wild Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volume Two


By Will Murray, illustrated by Gary Carbon, Joe DeVito, Jason C. Eckhardt (Odyssey Publications)
ISBN: 979-8-379327-44-6 (PB/Digital edition)

I’m always saying it, in fact we all are: Something Strange is Going On. Let’s address that situation with a week of detective-themed reviews…

Way back in the days when even the shabbiest waif or emphysema-riddled ragamuffin could read, story periodicals for young and old ruled. Countless stories recounted the exploits of adventurers, do-gooders and especially detectives. None ever matched the cachet and pulling power of Sherlock Holmes. Even today the meta-real household name continues and thrives, both in countless reworkings and adaptations of canonical classics and in new material by and for devoted and dedicated admirers ever-hungry for more…

Holmes wasn’t the first but he is most assuredly the most popular and well known. His success spawned a storm of imitators and tribute acts – some even going on to immortality of their own. In1893, just as The Strand Magazine published the “last Sherlock Holmes story” (The Adventure of the Final Problem – and it nearly was as Conan Doyle held out against incredible pressure from fans, editors and bankers until 1901 when The Hound of the Baskervilles began serialisation) another profoundly British criminologist was beginning his own spectacular multimedia career: Sexton Blake…

As described by physician Arthur Conan Doyle via the narratives of companion and stalwart factotum Dr. John Watson, Sherlock Holmes’ fictional exploits (54 short stories and 4 novels beginning in 1887) popularised and formulated detective fiction: mythologising the processes of observation, deduction, logical reasoning and forensic science. Britain became a nation of crime fans and Holmes went on to repeat the process for most of the planet…

The first exploit was A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual 1887, with the majority of stories thereafter in The Strand Magazine. Inevitably, the character soon escaped the page to appear in countless, stories, plays, films, television shows, adverts and anything else canny entrepreneurs could think of.

Although graphic adaptations are plentiful, original English language comics have not excelled with regard to the Great Detective: a trio of newspapers strips, brief comic book runs by Charlton (1955) and DC Comics (1975) and some few later miniseries by independent publishers such as Caliber and Moonstone. Holmes is, however, an evergreen guest collaborator: popping up to aid everyone from Batman to The Muppets to The Shadow himself.

If you can find them, Scarlet in Gaslight: An Adventure in Terror and A Case of Blind Fear by Martin Powell & Seppo Makinen would provide resolute pictorialist devotees with a rare and worthwhile treat: showing the Master Ratiocinator testing himself against other literary touchstones of the period – specifically Bram Stoker’s Lord of the Undead in alliance with the truly evil Professor Moriarty and then H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man…

He has also faced such contemporary challengers as The Phantom of the Opera and Mr Hyde in the company of Henry Jekyll, Toulouse L’Autrec and Oscar Wilde…

Writers and fans alike share an oddly perverse but clearly overwhelming desire to “mix and match” favourite literary figures: especially from the Victorian Era, that birthplace of so many facets of popular culture. Holmes is so much a household name that his inclusion in any venture is a virtual guarantee of commercial success, but regrettably often no guarantee of quality. Of course, no one can get too much of a good thing and happily Holmes and Watson have thrived under the aegis of many creative stars ever since Doyle’s death. Writers adding to the oeuvre include Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Anthony Burgess, A.A. Milne, P.G. Wodehouse, John Dickson Carr, Anthony Horowitz and so many more, and today I’m sharing the efforts of another with a well-earned reputation in the field….

Will Murray is something of a classic fiction force of nature. Journalist, editor and author, he produces scholarly histories and critiques on cult characters in the Will Murray Pulp History Series (as seen in today’s other posting) and celebrates the pulp experience in general and especially fading genres via new prose stories for the canon of so many landmark literary characters and concepts. Through print, audio and eBooks, Murray has extended the legends and shelf life of The Shadow, Doc Savage (and Pat Savage), The Spider, King Kong, The Green Lama, The Bat, The Avenger, The Destroyer (Remo Williams), Tarzan and The C’thulu mythos, He is especially adept at crafting combinations: teaming individual stars and concepts in team -up tales such as King Kong vs Tarzan…

You’ll probably want to see – or may already enjoy – Murray’s comics too: gems like prose novel Nick Fury, Agent of S.H. I.E.L.D.: Empyre, and visual delights like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (co-created with Steve Ditko), Spider-Man, Hulk, Secret Six, The Destroyer, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Spider, The Gray Seal, Ant-Man, Green Hornet, Zorro, The Phantom and more…

These stories were originally published in magazines and books from MX Publishing, Thrilling Adventure Yarns and Belanger Books, and are set in various periods of the consulting Detective’s long and prestigious career. This tome is the second and latest of two volumes and I’m happy to confide that I enjoyed it so much when my comp copy arrived that I actually paid with my own money to get the first one too…

Following an effusive and informative ‘Introduction’ discussing how this collection concentrates on stories challenging Holmes’ rational mindset and non-rationalistic encounters, the casebook reopens with ‘The Singular Problem of the Extinguished Wicks’ as the investigator reveals his fascination with Spontaneous Human Combustion and its effect on a particularly gruesome demise, after which ‘The Mystery of the Spectral Shelter’ sees Holmes approached by a Hansom cab driver who has had a decidedly close call with a vanishing café used by his professional compatriots…

The irascible ratiocinator’s perennial problem with mind-numbing boredom is highlighted in ‘The Problem of the Surrey Samson’ and assuaged by a theatrical turn whose seemingly miraculous strength does not endure Holmes’ close scrutiny, whilst ‘The Uncanny Adventure of the Hammersmith Wonder’ exposes a body in incredible circumstance and – once properly pondered – sees the detective solve a long-hidden generational crime…

Weird – but still plausible – science and a truly grotesque murder inform ‘The Repulsive Matter of the Bloodless Banker’ before Murray adds his own choice pick to that army of previously established associates.

A ghost story – or is it? – bringing mysteries of ancient Egypt to Edwardian England, ‘The Adventure of the Abominable Adder’ is set in 1903 and introduces the champion of rational thought to his equally estimable but operationally opposite number. This tale sees Algernon Blackwood’s spiritual detective John Silence – Physician Extraordinary also consulted by a terrified client with both valiant advocates needed to solve the mystery.

Silence was among the best of a wave of “ghost-breaker” heroes from that death-obsessed era, appearing in six stories by the prolific Blackwood (1869-1951), beginning with ‘A Psychical Invasion’ (1908).

A genteel and refined war of world-views having been declared, Mind and Soul met again in ‘The Adventure of the Sorrowing Mudlark’ as Dr. Silence asks the esteemed logician to assist a dead woman trapped in an eternal search, before a mythological mystery manifests when a green-hued lad long ago abducted by fairies abruptly returns to a rustic village in ‘The Adventure of the Emerald Urchin’, with Silence again offering unique insights…

With Holmes assuming the narrator’s role, 1908-set conundrum ‘The Adventure of the Expelled Master’ details how he deduced the manner in which a maths teacher was actually murdered despite his body being observed flying up a chimney and rocketing across the heavens, before this embassage into eerie esoterica concludes with Watson’s already crucial role in the stories expanded. It’s 1915 and whilst involved in the war effort the military doctor seeks to drag his old comrade out of retirement to verify the provenance of an unearthed hoard seemingly minted in fabled Atlantis in ‘The Conundrum of the Questionable Coins’…

Wrapping up the investigations are fulsome biographical dossiers on Murray in ‘About the Author’ and artist Gary Carbon in ‘About the Artist’.

Compelling, rewarding and just plain fun to read, these tales are a delight and a must for any Holmesian follower.
© 2023 by Will Murray. All rights reserved. Front cover image & frontispiece © 2023 by Gary Carbon. All rights reserved. Back cover image © 2023 by Joe DeVito. All rights reserved.

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Armed With Madness – The Surreal Leonora Carrington


By Mary M. Talbot & Bryan Talbot (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-0-914224-12-6 (HB/Digital edition)

Mary Leonora Carrington overcame wealth, privilege, entrenched unwanted religion and the repressive straitjackets of her class and gender to follow a dream and be her own self. You may never have heard of her (but should have) and this sublime depiction exploration by Mary M. Talbot and spouse Bryan Talbot – focussing on her most troubled years and humanity’s darkest hours – offers compelling and beautiful arguments for why.

Dr. Mary is an academic, educator, linguist, social theoretician, author and specialist in Critical discourse analysis who in 2012 added graphic novelist to her portfolio of achievements: collaborating with her husband on Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes.

That award-winning memoir/biography of Lucia Joyce was followed by Sally Heathcote: Suffragette (drawn by Kate Charlesworth), The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia and Rain (both with Bryan), all supplementing a glittering educational career and such academic publications as Language and Gender: an Introduction and Fictions at Work: language and social practise in fiction. She is particularly drawn to true stories of gender bias and social injustice…

Bryan has been a fixture of the British comics scene since the late 1960s, moving from Tolkien-fandom to college strips, self-published underground classics like Brainstorm Comix (starring Chester P. Hackenbush – the Psychedelic Alchemist!), early Luther Arkwright and Frank Fazakerly, Space Ace of the Future to paid pro status with Nemesis The Warlock, Judge Dredd, Sláine, Ro-Busters and more in 2000 AD.

Inevitably headhunted by America, he worked on key mature-reading titles for DC Comics (Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man, The Nazz, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Fables, The Dead Boy Detectives and The Sandman) and was a key creative cog in short-lived shared-world project Tekno Comix, before settling into global acclaim via steady relationships with Dark Horse Comics and Jonathan Cape. These unions generated breakthrough masterpieces like The Tale of One Bad Rat and a remastered epic revival of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright.

Since then he’s been an independent Force To Be Reckoned With, doing just what he wants, promoting the art form in general and crafting a variety of fascinating and compelling works, from Alice in Sunderland and Cherubs! (with Mark Stafford), to Metronome (as Véronique Tanaka) and his fabulously wry, beguiling and gallic-ly anthropomorphic Grandville sequence, as well as his mostly biographical/historical collaborations with Mary…

In the interest of propriety, I must fully disclose that I’ve known him since the early 1980s, but other than that shameful lack of taste and judgement on his part, have no vested interest in confidently stating that he’s probably Britain’s greatest living graphic novelist…

Here their vast talents combine to capture and expose the early life of a woman driven by a need to create: a forgotten star who resisted powerful family pressure and rejected social conditioning to run away and become an artist. Her choices – or perhaps compulsion – led to pain, isolation, ostracization, desertion and mental illness, before her innate determination, tenacity and sheer will to overcome won her peace, security, success and the chance to make the world a different, better place for those that followed her…

Leonora Carrington was born on April 6th 1917, daughter of a wealthy northern textiles magnate who inherited control of ICI and moved in Royal circles. An imaginative, wilful child raised Roman Catholic, she loved animals, art and stories, particularly identifying with horses, and – when provoked – hyenas…

After continually frustrating her overbearing father (by – for example – sabotaging the local fox hunt), her education was shifted from private governesses to draconian Catholic boarding schools, two of which were compelled to expel despite all the cash Daddy lavished on them…

Her Irish mother was obsessed with introducing her at (Royal) Court, but Leonora wanted to make art and tell stories. Before long she was packed off to a Finishing School in Florence, affording the rebel with the unintended opportunity of seeing the landmarks of human artistic endeavour first hand.

Eventually, with mother playing peacemaker, Leonora was permitted to study painting, firstly at the Chelsea School of Art and then briefly with iconoclastic French modernist Amédée Ozenfant at his Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts.

Wayward young Carrington had seen her first Surrealist painting in 1927 when she was only ten, and the event marked her deeply. Now able to access more of the works that set her soul afire, she put up with her mother’s ambitions for as long as possible before running away to Paris in 1937: beginning a turbulent affair with the leading light and conceptual leader of the movement. Max Ernest was old, fascinating, selfish, married and German…

Naturally, her father responded by cutting off if not outright disowning her, and an idyllic period – albeit punctuated by moments of violence and terror inflicted on Leonora by the frankly terrifying and justly furious Mrs Ernst – evolved into a retreat.

The “May/November” couple fled south to the rural solitude of Saint Martin d’Ardèche. Here, her writing and art grew wilder and more inspired, but also brought added tension and strain for both of them. Political infighting amongst the male-dominated Surrealist elite and increasing suspicion of the “kraut” Ernst by local neighbours ended the honeymoon period as clouds of war gathered over Europe.

Ultimately, he was arrested as an enemy alien. By the time his friends secured his release, the Nazis had invaded and Ernst was arrested again, this time by the Gestapo who targeted him for his “degenerate” art. On his second bout of freedom, Max bolted to America, supported by friends and eventual next wife millionairess Peggy Guggenheim…

Always nervous, prone to anxiety and now under enormous pressure, Leonora Carrington’s stability took ever-increasing hits as she dwelt alone in her lonely, rustic hostile environment. Upon at last escaping to Madrid with her friend Catherine Yarrow, Leonora arrived in the throes of a full-blown psychotic break and was left to the tender mercies of an asylum.

Here she endured tedium, repression, a brutal drug regimen and electroconvulsive therapy as well as regular sexual assault from her minders. Again controlled by her parents, she was eventually released into the care of a “minder” (these scenes are particularly harrowing – so be warned) preparatory to being bundled off to a sanatorium in distant South Africa.

Instead, she escaped and went to Portugal, linking up with Mexican consular official Renato Leduc. He agreed to a marriage of convenience and – before divorcing her in 1943 – moved her to the safety of his homeland. She thereafter made Mexico home for most of her life.

Many other creative refugees from Europe – especially many old Surrealist friends – had also migrated there and over the succeeding years Leonora prospered, finding acceptance and a new cause. After years of independence and street level activism for gender equality and personal freedom, in the 1970 she co-founded Mexico’s Women’s Liberation Movement. She reunited with old friend and artistic soul mate Remedios Varo who introduced her to her second and last husband. Hungarian photographer/physician Emerico “Chiki” Weisz was her partner in art and practical jokes until his death in 1997.

They had two kids and Leonora grew in stature: making wild and marvellous paintings, murals and sculptures, publishing ten books, starring in numerous gallery and museum shows, confronting Mexico’s totalitarian rulers in the 1960s and always shaping thought and attitudes of, to and about women. She died on May 25th 2011 aged 94, another beloved and revered artistic icon of Mexico who lived life her own way on her own terms.

This epic of creative struggle comes with a full Bibliography and a scrupulously meticulous Notes section, explaining unfamiliar moments or terms and sharing times when the demands of drama superseded the tedious truth of simple documentary fact…

Compellingly scripted with a fine eye for elucidatory minutiae, visually Mary Talbot’s carefully overlaid, chronologically unmoored events ranging from gentle reportage of consensual reality to shocking interpretations of her delusions are realised in soft monochrome tones, interspersed with fiercely dynamic blasts of colour. The technique allows us to share her perpetually overlapping worlds, vacillating visions and hallucinations in a history drenched in narrative symbolism and – naturally – surreal visitations.

Powerful, enraging and uplifting, this mesmerising introduction to yet another forgotten woman of achievement is a sheer delight and will definitely compel all readers to look for more…
Text © 2023 Mary M Talbot. Illustrations © 2023 Bryan Talbot. All rights reserved.

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Corpse Talk: Queens & Kings and Other Royal Rotters


By Adam & Lisa Murphy (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-032-4 (PB)

The educational power of comic strips has been long understood and acknowledged: if you can make material memorably enjoyable, there’s nothing that can’t be better taught with pictures. The obverse is also true: comics can make any topic or subject come alive… or at least – as here – outrageously, informatively undead…

The fabulously effective conceit of Corpse Talk is that your cartooning host Adam Murphy (ably abetted off-camera by Lisa Murphy) tracks down (digs up?) famous personages from the past: serially exhumed for a chatty, cheeky This Was Your Life talk-show interview. It also often grosses one out, which is no bad thing for either a kids’ comic or learning experience.

Culled from the annals of The Phoenix, this regally-themed recollection is dedicated to not-so-private audiences with a succession of famous, infamous and utterly unforgettable royal rogues and rapscallions in what would almost certainly not be their own words…

Catching up in date of demise succession, our fact-loving host begins the candid cartoon conferences by digging the dirt with Ramesses II: Pharaoh of Egypt 1303 BCE – 1213 BCE. He preferred to be called ‘Ramesses the Great’ and our intrepid interviewer incisively traces the “accomplishments” and gift for self-promotion of the dusty legend.

As always, each balmy biography is supplemented by a sidebar feature examining a key aspect of their lives, such as here with ‘How to Make a Mummy’, scrupulously and systematically sharing the secrets of interring the definitely departed, after which we refocus on the ancient orient to quiz Qin Shi Huang Di: Chinese Emperor 259 BCE 210 BCE on his reign and once more sifting truth from centuries of post-mortem PR briefings.

Backing up the inquiry ‘The Emperor’s Tomb’ details the layout of the vast City of Death Qin was buried in, as well as the Palace of Shadows, its terracotta army and the treasures it guarded.

Cleopatra: Pharaoh of Egypt 69 BCE – 30 BCE outlines her incredible life, whilst ‘Barging In’ examines her astounding gold sea-craft – and how it brought her to the attention of back-up lover/sponsor Mark Anthony.

A thankfully thoroughly sanitised account of the sordid exploits of Nero: Roman Emperor 37-68 is supported up by a deconstruction of one of his feasts in ‘Cafe Nero’, after which Justinian II: Byzantine Emperor 669-711 personally explains how his determination and guile enabled him to rule, lose, recapture and retake control of the mighty Late Roman Empire. The impenetrable defences of 8th century Constantinople are then dissected in ‘The Walled City’…

As well as a bit about burned cakes, Alfred the Great: King of Wessex 849-689 reveals remarkable military and civilising feats of the learning-obsessed ruler whilst expanding the knowledge base and defining the fractured kingdoms of ‘The Dark Island’ of Britain.

The Norman conquest is unpicked from the (one-eyed) view of the losing contender in Harold Godwinson: English King 1022-1066. The account is accompanied by an extended look at the historical source document in ‘Born on the Bayeaux’ before the first English civil war is remembered by formable Angevin matriarch Empress Matilda: English Queen 1102-1167. This is followed by a detailed deconstruction of the sturdy castle defensive system in ‘The Old Bailey’.

The Crusades are represented by rival legends made real. First up is admirable and noble Saladin: Sultan of Egypt and Syria 1137-1193, bolstered by a catalogue of Moslem contributions to global civilisation in ‘Gifts of Genius’, after which the unhappy truth about Richard the Lionheart: English King 1157-1199 is laid bare. After debunking centuries of self-aggrandising myths, ‘The Siege of Acre’ traces one of the crusaders’ few actual heroic exploits…

Moctezuma II: Aztec Emperor 1456-1520 relates how his timidity and sense of self-preservation led to the destruction of his dominions at the hands of conquistadores before ‘Temple of Doom’ takes us into the deepest inner workings of the bloodstained ziggurats dedicated to human sacrifice on an industrial scale…

The most complex and contentious period in British history is taken apart by those royals at the heart of it all when Henry VIII: English King 1491-1547 tries to give us his spin on events leading to the reformation. Following ‘Full Tilt – a History of Jousting’ – come ‘The Six Wives of Henry VIII’ – consecutively Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), Anne Boleyn (1507-1536), Jane Seymour (1508-1537), Anne of Cleves (1525-1557), Catherine Howard (1523-1542 and Catherine Parr (1512-1548) – offering their side of the arguments and events.

Their raucous riotous revelations are augmented by a breakdown of the duties of a Queen’s faithful attendants in ‘The Waiting Game’.

Charles II: English King 1630-1685 relates how he came to power following the Second Civil War, backing up personal reveries with ‘A Memoir on Monarchy’ running down the changing role of rulers, after which we cross the channel to hear how it all went wrong for France’s final female autocrat in Marie Antoinette: French Queen 1755-1793. Her fall from grace is abutted by a chilling lesson on guillotine mechanics in ‘Decapitation Stations’.

Contemporary cousin Catherine the Great: Russian Empress 1729-1796 managed to run things largely her own way, but as back-up ‘Tsars in their Eyes’ shows, she was plagued by a constant stream of pretenders, all claiming to be true, proper, better qualified and, yes, male contenders for her throne.

South African rebel and strategic genius Shaka Zulu: Zulu King 1787-1828, recounts how he literally created a mighty nation from nothing whilst ‘The Battle of Isandlwana’ covers how his innovations were used to humiliate the overwhelmingly powerful British Army before the procession of pomp and circumstance closes with Queen Victoria: English Queen 1819-1901, accompanied by a phenomenally absorbing family tree, branching out and into every royal bloodline in Europe: a true ‘Game of Thrones’…

Clever, cheeky, outrageously funny and formidably factual throughout, Corpse Talk unyieldingly tackles history’s more tendentious moments whilst personalising the great, the grim and the good for coming generations.

It is also a fabulously fun read no parent or kid could possibly resist. Don’t take my word for it though, just ask any reader, royal-watcher or republican in waiting…
Text and illustrations © Adam & Lisa Murphy 2018. All rights reserved.