Category: Humour

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Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays “Robin Hood Rides Again” (volume 2)


By Floyd Gottfredson, Ted Osborne, Ted Thwaites, Manual Gonzales, Al Taliaferro, Julius Svensden, Merrill De Maris, Bill Walsh, Roy Williams, Del Connell, Tony Strobl, Bill Wright & Chuck Fuson, Bob Grant & various: edited by David Gerstein & Gary Groth (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-686-7 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

As collaboratively co-created by Walt Disney & Ub Iwerks, Mickey Mouse was first seen – if not heard – in silent cartoon Plane Crazy. The animated short fared poorly in a May 1928 test screening and was promptly shelved. That’s why most people who care cite Steamboat Willie – the fourth Mickey feature to be completed – as the debut of both the mascot mouse and co-star/paramour Minnie Mouse, since it was the first to be nationally distributed, as well as the first animated feature with synchronised sound. The astounding success of the short led to a subsequent and rapid release of fully completed predecessors Plane Crazy, The Gallopin’ Gaucho and The Barn Dance, once they too had been given soundtracks. From those timid beginnings grew an immense fantasy empire, but film was not the only way Disney conquered hearts and minds. With Mickey a certified solid gold sensation, the mighty mouse was considered a hot property and was soon inducted into America’s most powerful and pervasive entertainment medium – comic strips…

Floyd Gottfredson was a cartooning pathfinder who started out as just another warm body in the Disney Studio animation factory. Happily, he slipped sideways into graphic narrative and evolved into a pioneer of pictorial narratives as influential as George Herriman, Winsor McCay and Elzie Segar. Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse entertained millions – if not billions – of eagerly enthralled readers and helped shape the very way comics worked. Via some of the earliest adventure continuities in comics history he took a wildly anarchic animated rodent from slap-stick beginnings and transformed a feisty everyman underdog into a crimebuster, detective, explorer, lover, aviator and cowboy. Mickey was the quintessential two-fisted hero as necessity and locale demanded. In later years, as tastes – and syndicate policy – changed, Gottfredson steered that self-same wandering warrior towards a sedate, gently suburbanised lifestyle, employing crafty and clever sitcom gags suited to a newly middle-class and financially comfortable America: comprising a 50-year career generating some of the most engrossing continuities the comics industry has ever enjoyed.

Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was born in 1905 in Kaysville, Utah, one of eight siblings in a Mormon family of Danish extraction. Injured in a youthful hunting accident, Floyd whiled away a long recuperation drawing and studying cartoon correspondence courses. By the 1920s he had turned professional, selling cartoons and commercial art to local trade magazines and Big City newspaper the Salt Lake City Telegram. In 1928, he and wife Mattie moved to California where, after a shaky start, the compulsive doodler found work as an in-betweener with the burgeoning Walt Disney Studios. That was in April 1929, just before the Great Depression hit. Not long after that Gottfredson was personally asked by Walt to take over the newborn but already ailing Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. He would plot, draw and frequently script the strip across the next five decades: an incredible accomplishment by of one of comics’ most gifted exponents.

Veteran animator Ub Iwerks had initiated the print feature with Disney himself contributing, before artist Win Smith was brought in. The nascent strip was plagued with problems and young Gottfredson was only supposed to pitch in until a qualified regular creator could be found. His first effort saw print on May 5th 1930 (his 25th birthday) and Floyd just kept going for 50 years. On January 17th 1932, Gottfredson crafted the first colour Sunday page, which he also oversaw and often produced until retirement. At first he did everything, but in 1934 Gottfredson relinquished scripting, preferring plotting and illustrating the adventures to playing about with dialogue. Thereafter, collaborating wordsmiths included Ted Osborne, Merrill De Maris, Dick Shaw, Bill Walsh, Roy Williams & Del Connell. At the start and in the manner of a filmic studio system, Floyd briefly used inkers such as Ted Thwaites, Earl Duvall & Al Taliaferro, but by 1943 had taken on full art chores.

This superb archival compendium – part of a magnificently ambitious series collecting the creator’s entire canon – continues with his efforts from his thirties heyday to retirement in 1976. Initially – just like the daily feature – the Sunday strip was treated like an animated feature (and frequently promoted screen stories by adapting or continuing movies on the page) with diverse hands working under a “director” and each episode seen as a full gag with set-up, delivery and a punchline, usually all in service to an umbrella story or theme. Such was the format Gottfredson inherited from Walt Disney, and by the time of the material re-presented here it had evolved into a highly efficient system for delivering fun and adventure thanks to the tireless efforts of master storyteller, who knew how to spin out and embellish a yarn…

Following David Gerstein’s Introduction and a truly massive table of Contents, the show opens with preliminary features Setting the Stage. Unbridled fun and incisive revelations begin with J.B. Kaufman’s model-sheet stuffed Foreword ‘Mickey’s Sunday Best: Moving On’ introducing us to the pressures of this unique graphic world before Tom Neely’s equally image-packed Appreciation ‘Of Blots and Stressed-Out Bodies’ tells us more about Gottfredson himself, prior to the glories of the spoken picture as the comics delights begin with The Sundays: Mickey’s Rival and Helpless Helpers and Gag Strips: subdivided into ‘The Sundays, (Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse Stories)’ and each proudly preceded by Joe Torcivia’s Introductory Notes, starting with ‘Balancing Acts – And When Helpfulness Lacks’.

Then, spanning January 5th – 26th 1936, ‘Mickey’s Rival’ introduces our hero’s dark mirror antithesis in a sequence written by Ted Osborne, pencilled by Gottfredson and inked Ted Thwaites. Here a most manly, not to say thuggish and vulgar, fellow rodent named Mortimer makes major inroads courting Minnie and a month of escalating escapades – and even stern advice from Goofy – are ineffective. Ultimately, low cunning and unsportsmanlike tricks clear the path of true love and Mortimer is sent packing…

Done-in-one ‘Gag Strips’ run from February 2nd to 23rd with Al Taliaferro joining the creative trio mid-month: with Mickey and faithful hound Pluto dodging dog catchers, failing to open cans and bottles, falling foul of ice and snow and even street racing old cars with Donald Duck. Mickey then helps Goofy & Donald catastrophically “fix-up” Minnie’s house in themed sequence ‘Helpless Helpers’ (March 1st to 22nd) in advance of more ‘Gag Strips’ spanning March 29th to April 19th with the Mouse meeting burglars, bandits and floods whilst avoiding the dentist he really needs to see…

Stefano Priarone’s introductory text ‘Postmodern Times’ then ushers readers into compelling extended fantasy romp ‘The Robin Hood Adventure’ (April 19th to October 4th, with plot & pencils by Gottfredson, an Osborne script and Taliaferro inking): a story-within-a-story as ardent gardener Mickey is transported via beanstalk and magic book back to Sherwood Forest to for dashing derring-do, comical capers, swashbuckling swipes and satirical jibes.

Essay ‘Growing Up, Growing Down’ leads to a sequence demonstrating Mickey’s gifts as ‘The Ventriloquist’ (11th October – 8th November) with Gottfredson & Taliaferro limning another Osborne extended script with the rascally rodent exhibiting his voice throwing gifts – and puckish sense of prankery – to Pluto, Goofy, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow before inevitably suffering a major reversal of fortune…

Many, many more ‘Gag Strips’ follow (November 15th 1936 to May 9th 1937) as Osborne, Gottfredson, Thwaites & Taliaferro carry readers into a new year and beyond with slapstick hijinks about injury, infirmity, house, garden and motorcar maintenance, domestic spats, pets, circuses, playing practical jokes, and inescapable retaliation, pickpockets, panhandling, and snow. Bad weather, hunting and jail figure heavily too, as does love, with charmed simpleton Goofy’s unique point of view increasingly making Mickey the straight man in an enduring new relationship.

Halting momentarily to enjoy a Gottfredson private commission of the Mouse in cowboy mode from the 1980s, this compilation then heads west, only pausing to absorb more background and context via Francisco Stajano & Leonardo Gori’s essay ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Sunday’ Then Osborne scripts another gem for sagebrush devotee Gottfredson and inker Taliaferro in ‘Sheriff of Nugget Gulch’, running from May 16th to October27th. Here over-enthusiastic tenderfeet (tenderfoots?) Mickey & Goofy take a holiday of sorts after Minnie informs them of a gold strike near her uncle’s ranch. Sadly en route to Nugget Gulch, their rowdy excitement convinces everyone that they are deadly gunslingers: the toughest desperadoes since the Dalton Gang and both faster on the trigger than Bill Hickock…

The comedy of errors fully unfolds as the utterly unproven reputations of “Big Poison” & “Little Poison” continues to mount, with bandits pre-emptively heading for the hills and a terrified populace making them the new lawmen. Sadly that doesn’t count for much with genuine bad seed Pauncho Malarky, but eventually justice, goodness and blind luck carry the day and the railroad carries our heroes home…

Palate cleansing ‘Gag Strips’ from Osborne, Gottfredson, Thwaites & Taliaferro sustained readers between October 31st 1937 and 27th February 1938, with favoured themes like car trouble, house repairs, fancy dress, fashion, crop harvesting, bug infestation, family illness (Minnie’s nephew Manfred), construction crises and plain old surreal slapstick situations. Thanks to time of year, snow ice and inclement weather proved to timeless and reliable standbys, as were street crime, obnoxious cops and neighbours and household chores, with Minnie’s other rapscallion nephews (Mortimer and Ferdinand – AKA Morty & Ferdie – Fieldmouse) increasingly becoming the voice and faces of wayward youth in sneaky revolt…

Preceded by Gori & Stajano’s lecture ‘With Friends Like These’ continued sequence ‘Service with a Smile’ spans March 6th to April 10th with Merrill De Maris scripting for Gottfredson, Taliaferro, Manuel Gonzales & Thwaites. Her Mickey briefly manages his uncle’s gas service station, and between dealing with the public decides to go after delinquent clients and outstanding bills – with disastrous consequences. That chaos neatly transits to another tranche of stand-alone ‘Gag Strips’ (April 17th – August 21st 1938) by De Maris, Gottfredson, Taliaferro, Gonzales & Thwaites encompassing, bed-making, house cleaning, museum visits with Morty & Ferdie, fence-building with Goofy, hat-hunting with Minnie, more neighbour nonsense, car buying, chore-dodging, aviation antics, pet shenanigans and picnicking. As always many of these result in jail time – especially for Goofy and Mickey…

Another momentary diversion offers a Gottfredson inspired Goofy pinup/poem by Bob Grant from Mickey Mouse Magazine #59 (1940) comes in advance of movie inspired madness and mayhem again preceded by an essay. Thad Komorowski’s ‘Tailoring a Better Mouse’ explores Mickey’s declining film fanbase in lieu of rising stars Donald, Pluto & Goofy and how the Disney Studio remedied that with a new movie epic, suitably tied in and promoted to Gottfredson’s still hale and hearty newspaper strip. Albeit now a feature primarily supervised by Floyd and handled by Manual Gonzales, the strip actually saw print before the cinematic release of Brave Little Tailor.

Running from August 28th to November 27th 1938, ‘The Brave Little Tailor’ began and ended with original framing episodes written by De Maris, who also adapted the film’s script which was realised by Gottfredson & Gonzales & inked by Thwaites. Here actor Mickey Mouse joins an epic in production and the fairy tales immediately becomes utterly real, as out unassuming hero is swept along in a rush to kill a giant, marry a princess and save an embattled kingdom…

De Maris, Gottfredson, Gonzales & Thwaites stuck around to produce more ‘Gag Strips’ spanning December 4th to 25th 1938, involving the film’s premier and Goofy’s growing prominence after which Gottfredson’s involvement was curtailed by his promotion to manager of the prodigious Comic Strip Department, addressed here in Later Years: Gottfredson Fill-Ins (June 17th 1956- September 19th 1976), through essay ‘Mouse Soup’. From the end of 1938, Gottfredson oversaw Gonzales on the Sunday feature until the mid-1940s when he gifted Frank Reilly with his managerial duties and took on “Special Projects”.

The period lasted until his retirement in 1976 and is represented here with a selection of delightful oddments beginning with more ‘Gag Strips’ starring a far more sedate and suburban Mouse and traversing June 17th 1956 to September 19th 1976, with stories by Bill Walsh, Roy Williams, & Del Connell, and pencilled and/or inked by Floyd with Tony Strobl. The content is lovely but no longer in any way subversive: detailing swimming pool and gardening woes, ice cream parlor perils, entertaining bored kids, sports, decorating, fashion, camping, pets… and snow…

The remainder of the comics content concerns other Disney stalwarts graced by the master storyteller’s touch. ‘Gottfredson Guest Stars: Donald Duck and Treasury of Classic Tales’ shows stories of other Disney strip features and comes with its own briefing in context confirming ‘Calling All Characters!’ From there it’s a small hop to ‘Donald Duck Gag Strips’ by Osborne, Taliaferro & Gottfredson as seen in the Silly Symphonies feature for October 3rd & 10th 1937. Here the mad as heck mallard goes hunting with Pluto as his gun dog and deeply regrets pranking Goofy with a peashooter…

Walt Disney’s Treasury of Classic Tales extended and adapted other studio screen gems and Gottfredson lustrated many of them, beginning here with Frank Reilly’s interpretation of ‘Lambert the Sheepish Lion’ which ran from August 5th to September 30th 1956. It’s followed by ‘The Seven Dwarfs and the Witch Queen’ (March 2nd – April 27th, 1958) with Gottfredson writing and lettering a saga illustrated by Julius Svensden. The team reunited for the film adaptation of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ from August 3rd to December 28th 1958, and Gottfredson’s last hurrah here was laying out Reilly’s adaptation of ‘101 Dalmatians’ (January 1st to March 26th 1961) for pencillers Bill Wright & Chuck Fuson. The eclectic but buzzy result was inked by Wright & Gonzales.

The joyous cartoon fun is complimented by another mini-moment: this one discussing the rarely seen pre-US Mickey Mouse Sunday strips published in Britain’s Sunday Pictorial from July 13th 1930, and how they never should have been released at all…

Although the comics conclude here there’s still plenty to see and learn as The Gottfredson Archives: Essays and Special Features section follows with a plethora of picture packed articles. Kicking off is ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Mickey’s Rival and Helpless Helpers’ with overseas edition depicting ratty rogue Mortimer as seen in Italy’s Topolino and Germany’s Mickey Maus Mini-Comic Klassiker, with ‘The Cast: Mortimer’ by Gerstein giving a full assessment of the love-rat before segueing into the expert’s review of Otto Englander’s film storyboards of a most influential unfinished epic in ‘Behind the Scenes: Interior Decorators (Again!)’.

A Gottfredson painting offers visual refreshment in ‘Mickey Mouse Adventures with Robin Hood Adventure’ prior to ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: The Robin Hood Adventure’ sharing international interpretations of the tale from Yugoslavia, Italy and Brazil. Then Gerstein appraises recycled Earl Hurd storyboards in ‘Behind the Scenes: Mickey’s Garden’, whilst ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Gags of 1936-1938’ depicts international collections of the auteur’s single page strips published in the US and Italy, before Gerstein deconstructs ‘The Inventive Goof’ and Alberto Becattini & Gerstein share the story of a late arriving collaborator in ‘Sharing the Spotlight: Julius Svensden’.

Fully focused on cowboy fun ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Sheriff of Nugget Gulch’ depicts some of the numerous compilations of the western classic from America and France, whilst six versions from Italy, the US and Yugoslavia illuminate a follow up ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: ‘The Brave Little Tailor’. Then Timo Ronkainen & Gerstein again highlight a Mickey mainstay in ‘The Heirs of Gottfredson: Manuel Gonzales’ before a last dose of strip silliness comes via Gag Strips (A Mickey Supplement): selections from August 25th 1940 to 18th February 1951 by De Maris, Walsh, Gonzales, and Wright.

The glee finally stops with a lovely sketch from Floyd entitled ‘Al [Taliaferro] came into the studio…’, a pertinent cover from California Magazine and biographies of the hard-working editors involved on this splendid tome…

Floyd Gottfredson’s influence on not just Disney’s canon but sequential graphic narrative itself is inestimable: he was among the very first to produce long continuities and “straight” adventures, pioneered team-ups and invented some of the art form’s first “super-villains”.

When Disney killed their continuities in 1955, dictating henceforth strips would only contain one-off gags, Floyd adapted seamlessly, working until retirement in 1975. His last daily appeared on November 15th with the final Sunday included here published on September 19th 1976.

Like all Disney’s creators, Gottfredson worked in utter anonymity, until, in the 1960s, his identity was revealed and the roaring appreciation of previously unsuspected hordes of devotees led to interviews, overviews and public appearances, leading to subsequent his reprinting in books, comics and albums which now all carried a credit for the quiet, reserved master. Floyd Gottfredson died in July 1986.

Thankfully we have these Archives to enjoy, inspiring us and hopefully a whole new generation of inveterate tale-tellers.…

Still, isn’t there more we could find for a third book?
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays volume 2 “Robin Hood Rides Again” © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. Text of “Mickey’s Sunday Best: Moving On” by J.B. Kaufman is © 2013 by J.B. Kaufman. Text of “Of Blots and Stressed-Out Bodies” by Tom Neely is © 2013 by Tom Neely. All contents © 2013 Disney Enterprises unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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Sshhhh!


By Jason (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-497-0 (TBB/Digital edition)

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

Born this day in 1965 in Molde, Norway, John Arne Sæterøy is known globally by his enigmatic, utilitarian nom de plume. The shy & retiring draughts-scribe started on the path to international cartoon superstardom in 1995, once first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) won Norway’s biggest comics prize: the Sproing Award. Prior to that, he had contributed to alternate/indie magazine KonK whilst, from 1987, studying graphic design and illustration at Oslo’s Art Academy, before going on to Norway’s National School of Arts. After graduating in 1994, three years later he founded his own comic book Mjau Mjau, citing Lewis Trondheim, Jim Woodring and Tex Avery as his primary influences and constantly refining his style into a potent form of meaning-laden anthropomorphic minimalism.

Moving to Copenhagen Jason worked at Studio Gimle alongside Ole Comoll Christensen (Excreta, Mar Mysteriet Surn/Mayday Mysteries, Den Anden Praesident, Det Tredje Ojet) and Peter Snejbjerg (Den skjulte protocol/The Hidden Protocol, World War X, Tarzan, Books of Magic, Starman, Batman: Detective 27). His efforts were internationally noticed, making waves in France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Germany and other Scandinavian countries as well as the Americas. He won another Sproing in 2001 – for self-published series Mjau Mjau – and from 2002 turned nigh-exclusively to producing graphic novels, winning even more major awards.

Jason’s breadth of interest is wide and deep: comics, movies, animated cartoons, music, high literature and pulp fiction all feature equally with no sense of rank or hierarchy. This puckish and egalitarian mixing and matching of inspirational sources always and inevitably produces picture-treatises well worth a reader’s time.

Over a succession of tales Jason built and constantly employed a repertory company of stock characters to explore deceptively simplistic milieux based on classic archetypes of movies, childhood entertainments, historical and literary favourites. These all role play in deliciously absurd and surreal sagas centred on his preferred themes of relationships and loneliness. In latter years, Jason returned to such “found” players as he built his own highly esoteric universe, and even has a whole bizarre bunch of them “team-up” or clash…

As always, visual/verbal bon mots unfold in beguiling, sparse-dialogued, or even as here silently pantomimic progressions, with compellingly formal page layouts rendered in a pared back stripped-down interpretation of Hergé’s Claire Ligne style: solid blacks, and thick outlines dominating settings of seductive monochrome simplicity augmented by a beguiling palette of stark pastels and muted primary colours.

The majority of his tales brim with bleak isolation, swamped by a signature surreality: largely populated with cinematically-inspired, darkly comic, charmingly macabre animal people ruminating on those inescapable concerns whilst re-enacting bizarrely cast, bestial movie tributes.

A perfect example of his oeuvre is ‘Sshhhh!’: a deliciously evocative, extended romantic melodrama created without words; the bittersweet tale of boy-bird meeting girl-bird in a world overly populated with spooks and ghouls and skeletons. The archetypes and cartoon critters are similarly afflicted by far more harsh demons: loneliness and regret.

Of course, it’s not just that. It’s also boy-bird loses girl-bird to death, other men, his own inadequacies and the vagaries of parenthood. It’s about how money fixes nothing and how Death is ever at your elbow and can be – quite frankly – a bit of a nuisance. It’s sex and death and discontentment and bloody ungrateful kids; aliens; being invisible; miserable vacations; disappointing locations: guys who are sexier than you and The Devil…

… And birds-nests…

Jason’s work always jumps directly into the reader’s brain and heart, always probing the nature of “human-ness” by visually invoking the beastly and unnatural to ask persistent and pertinent questions. Although clever sight-gags are less prominent here, his repertory company still uncannily display the subtlest emotions with devastating effect, proving again just how good a cartoonist he is.

This comic tale is best suited for adults but makes us all look at the world through wide-open childish eyes. Jason is instantly addictive and a creator every serious fan of the medium should move to the top of the “Must-Have” list. Don’t even wait for a physical copy, buy a digital edition ASAP, just so you can see immediately what all the fuss is about…
All characters, stories and artwork © 1998, 1999, 2008 Jason. All rights reserved.

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Beano and The Dandy: A Celebration of Dudley D. Watkins


By Dudley D. Watkins, R.D. Low & various (DC Thomson)
ISBN: 978-1-84535-818-1 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the physical books I bought to commemorate this occasion still haven’t arrived yet, and none of them are available digitally, I’m celebrating the achievements of one of Britain’s greatest cartoonists with something you might have read before. So if I didn’t convince you then, here’s a another shot at what you see and what should be a compulsory text in Art, Sociology and History classes. Don’t make me repeat myself again…

Unlike any other artform, Comics is uniquely set up to create small gods. Initially low cost, mass-market and appearing with rapidity – occasionally over the course of decades – the works of some creators are instantly recognisable and generally prolific, and come to define the medium for generations of enthralled recipients. All generally defy exact duplication, despite being always heavily imitated by adoring adherents, since they possess an indefinable element that slavish imitation cannot capture: Osamu Tezuka, Hergé, Jack Kirby, Alex Raymond, Moebius, Steve Ditko and Charles Schulz are all instantly known. There are certainly a few others you’d like to add to that list.

Feel free.

My own candidate for ascension is Dudley Dexter Watkins…

A tireless and prolific illustrator equally adept at comedy and drama storytelling, his style more than any other’s shaped the postwar look and form of Scottish publishing giant DC Thompson’s comics output. Watkins (1907-1969) started life in Manchester and Nottingham as an artistic prodigy prior to entering Glasgow College of Art in 1924. Before too long he was advised to get a job at expanding, Dundee-based DCT, where a 6-month trial illustrating prose boys’ stories led to comic strip specials and some original cartoon creations. Percy Vere and His Trying Tricks and Wandering Willie, The Wily Explorer made him the only contender for both lead strips in a bold new project conceived by Robert Duncan Low (1895-1980).

Low began as a journalist for DC Thomson, rising via story scripting to Managing Editor of Children’s Publication and between 1921 and 1933 launched the company’s “Big Five” story papers for boys: Adventure, The Rover, The Wizard, The Skipper and The Hotspur. In 1936, he created the landmark “Fun Section”: an 8-page pull-out comic strip supplement for national newspaper The Sunday Post. This illustrated accessory – prototype and blueprint for every comic the company subsequently released – launched on 8th March. From the outset The Broons and Oor Wullie were the uncontested headliners.

Low’s shrewdest notion was to devise both strips as comedies played out in the charismatic Scottish idiom and broad unforgettable vernacular, supported by features such as Chic Gordon’s Auchentogle, Allan Morley’s Nero and Zero, Nosey Parker and other strips. These pioneering comics then laid the groundwork for the company’s next great leap. After some devious devising, in December 1937 Low launched DC Thomson’s first weekly all-picture strip comic. The Dandy was followed by The Beano Comic in 1938, and early-reading title The Magic Comic in 1939.

Low’s irresistible secret weapon in all of these ventures was Watkins. The indefatigable cartoon stalwart drew the Fun Section signature strips The Broons and Oor Wullie from the outset and – without missing a beat – added Desperate Dan (in The Dandy) to his weekly workload in 1937. Seven months later, placidly outrageous, subtly subversive social satire Lord Snooty became a big draw for freshly launched companion paper The Beano.

This stunning and luxurious hardback commemorative celebration was released to mark 50 years since Watkins’ death and – despite dealing with a rather solemn topic – is exuberantly joyous in tracing the man’s astounding career and output. No one could read this stuff and not smile, if not actually collapse in mirth.

Packed with brief commentary and visual extracts, the artist is revealed in excerpts and complete episodes chronologically curated to maximise his artistic development. Beginning with The 1930s, a selection of strips starring Oor Wullie and The Broons from The Fun Section is followed by a vintage full-colour Beano Book cover, before a feature on Desperate Dan leads inevitably to a tranche of wild cowboy antics in the best Dundee tradition. The system then repeats for Lord Snooty – and his Pals – and then forgotten almost-stars Wandering Willie the Wily Explorer and aforementioned Percy Vere and his Trying Tricks who share their brand of whimsy. Up until now, the majority of strips are monochrome, but the sequence starring Smarty Grandpa comes in the nostalgic two-colour style we all remember so fondly…

An introductory essay about The 1940s is followed by more of the same, but different; beginning with lost family favourite adventure series. Jimmy and His Magic Patch (latterly Jimmy’s Magic Patch) share the exploits of a wee nipper whose torn trousers were repaired with a piece of mystical cloth that could thereafter grant wishes and transport the wearer to other times and fantastic realms. Here Watkins got to impress with authentic imagery of pirates and dinosaurs, while a two-tone tale from an annual took Jimmy to Sherwood Forest and a meeting with Robin Hood…

Apparently Watkins could handle anything, as seen by a selection of book covers that follow – The Story of Kidnapped, The Story of Treasure Island and The Story of Robinson Crusoe – and illustrated general knowledge pages Cast Away!, Wolves of the Spanish Main and Soldiers’ Uniforms & Arms 1742-1755 which precede complete Jacobite adventure strip Red Fergie’s “Army”.

Once upon a time, comics offered illustrated prose yarns too, and a literary legend was a fan favourite when Watkins did the pictures. ‘Gulliver – the Paraffin Oil Plot’ has splendidly stood the test of time and neatly segues into a hefty section of strips starring the evergreen Lord Snooty and his Pals and Desperate Dan, before Biffo the Bear debuts in full colour, beginning with his premier on January 24th 1948 and including three more captivating outings. The decade closes with another prose Gulliver treat in ‘Baron Bawler’s Blackout’…

A true golden age, The 1950s section opens with Oor Wullie derivative Ginger (from The Beezer), another full-colour cover-star copiously represented and followed by fellow mischief-maker Mickey the Monkey out of The Topper, after which Lord Snooty and his Pals get the text & picture treatment for an extended (possibly Annual or summer special?) lark, and Desperate Dan & Biffo the Bear star in multi-hued shorts trips, after which ‘The Tricks of Tom Thumb’ – another classical adventure yarn – sets the scene for a veritable flurry of strips starring Biffo & Dan to see the decade out.

Venerable Lord Snooty and his Pals open The 1960s, with Desperate Dan quickly following, before more full-colourful Mickey & Ginger strips lead into what was probably the artist’s preferred material. Watkins was a committed man of faith, creating illustrated Bible tracts in his spare time, and always eager to (decorously) promote his beliefs. Here – in full colour – are a brace of theological adventure strips beginning with ‘David’ and his notorious battle, supplemented by ‘The Road to Calvary’ which lead into a rousing clan romp in the prose-&-picture yarn of English-trouncing Scots rebel Wild Young Dirky…

Ending the festival of fun, with a lump in the throat, is the Biffo strip that formed the cover of Beano #1423 (25th October 1969). Watkins had soldiered on in unassailable triumph for decades, drawing some of the most lavishly lifelike and winningly hilarious strips in comics history, and died at his drawing board on August 20th 1969. The page he was working on was completed by David Sutherland, who adds his own gracious homily to the piece.

For all those astonishingly productive years, Dudley D. Watkins had also unflaggingly crafted a full captivating page each of Oor Wullie and The Broons, as well as his church tracts and periodical commitments. His loss was a colossal blow to the company. DC Thomson reprinted old episodes of both strips in the newspaper and the Annuals for seven years before a replacement was agreed upon, whilst The Dandy reran Watkins’ Desperate Dan stories for twice that length of time.

DCT’s publications have always played a big part in Britain’s Christmas festivities and are still a cornerstone of our cultural bulwarks, so let’s revel in the Good Old Days of comics via this lovingly curated tribute to Scotland’s greatest cartoon artisan.
© DCT Consumer Products (UK) Ltd. 2020.

Hugo Pratt also died today in 1995. If you want to learn about him, our most recent review of his magic can be found here.

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Eagle Classics: Harris Tweed – Extra Special Agent


By John Ryan (Hawk Books -1990)
ISBN: 978-0-94824-822-1 (album TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Happy anniversary Eagle!

The son of a diplomat and irrefutably a died-in-wool True Gent, John Ryan was born in 1921, served in Burma and India during WWII and – after attending the Regent Street Polytechnic (1946-48) – took up a teaching post as assistant Art Master at Harrow School from 1948 to 1955. It was during this time that he began contributing strips to comics such as Girl and a newfangled but soon to be legendary weekly comic…

On April 14th 1950, Britain’s grey, post-war gloom was partially lifted with the first issue of a glossy new comic that literally shone with light and colour. Mesmerised children were soon understandably enraptured with the gloss and dazzle of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, a charismatic star-turn venerated to this day, as well as a plethora of strips illustrating some of their favourite radio shows.

Eagle was a tabloid sized paper with full photogravure colour inserts alternating with text and a range of other comic features. Tabloid is a big page and you can get a lot of material onto each one. Deep within, on the bottom third of a monochrome folio was an 8-panel strip entitled Captain Pugwash, the story of a Bad Buccaneer and the many sticky ends which nearly befell him. Ryan’s quirky, spiky style also lent itself to the numerous spot illustrations required every week. Pugwash, his harridan of a wife and the useless, lazy crew of the Black Pig ran until issue #19 when the feature disappeared. This was no real hardship as Ryan had already begun writing and illustrating new feature Harris Tweed – Extra Special Agent which began as a full page (tabloid, remember – an average of 20 panels a page, per week) since #16 (cover-dated July 28th 1950).

Tweed ran for three years as a full page. Then in 1953 it dropped to a half-page strip and deftly repositioned as a purely comedic venture. For our purposes and those of the book under review, it’s those first three years we’re thinking of even if the only decent illustration I could find comes from the 1959 Eagle Annual…

Harris Tweed was a bluff and blundering caricature of the military “Big Brass” Ryan had encountered during The War. In gentler times, the bumbler with a young, never-to-be-named assistant known only as “Boy” solved mysteries and captured villains to general popular acclaim. Thrilling – and often eerily macabre – adventure blended seamlessly with sly yet cheerful schoolboy low comedy in these strips, since Tweed was in fact that most British of archetypes: a bit of a twit and a bit of a sham stumbling through a world of Thud & Blunder…

His totally undeserved reputation as detective and crime fighter par excellence, and his good-hearted yet smug arrogance – as demonstrated elsewhere by the likes of Bulldog Drummond, Dick Barton – Special Agent, or Sexton Blake – somehow endeared the arrogant, posturing buffoon to a young and impressionable public which would in later years take to its heart Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army and, more pointedly perhaps, Peter Sellers’ numerous film outings as Inspector Clouseau. Maybe most of those enthralled kids had an uncle or dad who buffaloed on about the war in just the same way…

Ryan’s art here is particularly noteworthy. Deep moody blacks and intense, sharp, edgy inking creates a constant mood of fever-dream intensity. There are anachronistic echoes and nuances of underground cartoons of more than a decade later, and much of the inevitable ‘brooding, lurking horror’ atmosphere found in the best works of Basil Wolverton. Ryan knew what kids liked and he delivered it by the cartload.

This too-slim, oversized (324 x 234mm x) paperback compilation is all that’s readily available these days, but surely in the era of electronic publishing, some enterprising fan with a complete Eagle collection can link up with a perspicacious publisher someway, somehow and produce a comprehensive compilation of the nation’s most self-lauded sleuth? I simply KNOW today’s TV crowd and dwindling but still-potent ancient 10-year-olds and their grandchildren would just lap him up….
Harris Tweed © 1990 Fleetway Publications. Compilation © 1990 Hawk Books.

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Prince Valiant volumes 1-3 Gift Box Set


By Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1 68396-072-0 (boxed set)

Individual volume ISBNs: 978-1-60699-141-1 (HB vol. 1), 978-1-60699-348-4 (HB vol. 2), 978-1-60699-407-8 (HB vol. 3)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today, way back in 1892, a god of comics was born. His work will never die.

Rightly reckoned one of the greatest comic strips of all time, the majestic, nigh-mythical saga of a king-in-exile who became one of the greatest warriors in an age of unparalleled heroes is at once fantastically realistic and beautifully, perfectly abstracted – an indisputable paradigm of adventure fiction where anything is possible and justice always prevails. It is the epic we all want to live in. However, on one thing let us be perfectly clear: Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant is not historical. It is far better and more real than that.

Possibly the most successful and evergreen fantasy creation ever conceived, Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur launched on Sunday 13th February 1937, a glorious weekly, full-colour window not onto the past but rather onto a world that should have been. It followed the tempestuous life of a refugee boy driven by invaders from his ancestral homeland of faraway Thule who persevered and, through tenacity, imagination and sheer grit, rose to become one of the mightiest heroes of the age of Camelot.

As depicted by the incomprehensibly gifted Foster, this noble scion would, over decades, grow to mighty manhood in a heady sea of wonderment: roaming the globe and siring a dynasty of equally puissant heroes whilst captivating and influencing generations of readers and thousands of creative types in all the arts. There have been films, cartoon series and all manner of toys, games and collections based on the feature – one of the few newspaper strips to have lasted from the thunderous 1930s to the present day (well over 4600 episodes and STILL counting) and, even in these declining days of newspaper cartooning, it still claims over 300 American papers as its home.

Foster produced the strip, one spectacular page a week until 1971 when, after auditioning such notables as Wally Wood and Gray Morrow, Big Ben Bolt artist John Cullen Murphy was selected to draw the feature. Foster carried on as writer and designer until 1980, after which he fully retired and Murphy’s son took over scripting duties. In 2004 Cullen Murphy also retired (he died a month later on July 2nd) but the strip soldiered on under the extremely talented auspices of artist Gary Gianni and writer Mark Schultz prior to Thomas Yeates settling in and conquering one more exotic land by making it onto the worldwide web.

The first three exquisite oversized hardback volumes (362 x 268mm) are happily still available as a monumental gift set nobody could resist. They reprint, in glorious colour spectacularly restored from Foster’s original printer’s proofs, the princely pristine Sunday pages cumulatively spanning February 1937 to 20th December 1942: six years of formative forays comprising an impressive saga which promised much and delivered so much more than anybody could have suspected during those dim, distant and dangerous days…

Volume 1 opens with editor Brian M. Kane’s informative picture/photo-packed potted history of ‘Harold Rudolf Foster: 1892-1982’, after which Fred Schreiber conducts ‘An Interview with Hal Foster’ as first seen in Nemo: The Classic Comics Magazine (1984). Additionally, after the Arthurian epic exploits of our quintessential swashbuckling hero, this initial tome is rounded off by Kim Thompson’s discourse on the many iterations of reprints over the years and around the world in ‘A History of Valiants’…

The actual action-packed drama commences in distant Scandinavia as the King of Thule, his family and a few faithful retainers dash for a flimsy fishing boat, intent only on escaping the murderous intentions of a usurper’s army. Their voyage carries them to the barbarous coast of Britain and into battle against bands of wild men before they secure a safe point in the gloomy fens of East Anglia. After many hard fights they reach an uneasy détente with the locals and settle into a harsh life as regal exiles. Prince Valiant is but 5 years old when they arrive, and his growing years in a hostile environment toughen the heir, sharpen his wits and give him an insatiable taste for mischief and adventure. He befriends a local shepherd boy and together their escapades include challenging the marauding ancient dinosaurs which infest the swamp, battling a hulking man-brute and bedevilling a local witch. In retaliation the hag Horrit predicts that Val’s life will be long and packed with incredible feats… but always tainted by great sorrow. All that, plus a constant regimen of knightly training and scholarly tuition befitting an exile learning how to reclaim his stolen kingdom, make the lad a veritable hellion…

Everything changes when his mother passes away. After a further year of intense schooling in the arts of battle, Valiant leaves the Fens, and makes his way in the dangerous lands beyond. Whilst sparring with his boyhood companion, he unsuspectingly insults Sir Launcelot who is fortuitously passing by. Although that noble warrior is sanguine about the cheeky lad’s big mouth, his affronted squire attempts to administer a stern punishment… and is rewarded with a thorough drubbing. Indeed, Launcelot has to stop the Scion of Thule from slitting the battered and defeated man’s throat. Moreover, although he has no arms, armour, steed or money, Valiant swears that he too will be a Knight…

Luck is with the Pauper Prince. After spectacularly catching and taming a wild stallion, his journey is interrupted by gregarious paladin Sir Gawain who shares a meal and regales the wide-eyed lad with tales of chivalry and heroism. When their alfresco repast is spoiled by robber knight Sir Negarth – who unfairly strikes the champion of Camelot – Val charges in. Gawain regains consciousness to find the threat ended, with Negarth hogtied and his accomplice skewered…

Taking Val under his wing, wounded Gawain escorts the lad and his prisoner to Camelot, although their journey is delayed by a gigantic dragon. Val kills it too – with the assistance of Negarth – and spends the rest of the trip arguing that the rogue should be freed for his display of gallantry. Val is still stoutly defending the scoundrel at the miscreant’s trial before King Arthur, and is rewarded by being appointed Gawain’s squire. Unfortunately, he responds badly to being teased by the other knights-in-training and soon finds himself locked in a dungeon whilst his tormentors heal and the remaining Knights of the Round Table ride out to deal with an invasion of Northmen…

Whilst the flowers of chivalry are away, a plot is hatched by scheming Sir Osmond and Baron Baldon. To recoup gambling debts, they capture and ransom Gawain, but have not reckoned on the dauntless devotion and ruthless ingenuity of his semi-feral squire. Easily infiltrating the bleak fortress imprisoning the hero, Valiant liberates his mentor through astounding feats of daring and brings the grievously wounded knight to Winchester Heath and Arthur…

As Gawain recuperates, he is approached by a young maiden. Ilene is in need of a champion and – over his squire’s protests – the still gravely unfit knight dutifully complies. Val’s protests might have been better expressed had he not been so tongue-tied by the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. The quest to rescue Ilene’s parents is delayed when an unscrupulous warrior in scarlet challenges them, intent on himself possessing the lovely maiden. Correctly assessing Gawain to be no threat, the Red Knight does not live long enough to revise his opinion of the wild-eyed boy who then attacks him…

Leaving Ilene and re-injured Gawain with a hermit, Valiant continues on alone to Branwyn Castle, recently captured by an “Ogre” who terrorises the countryside. Through guile, force of arms and diabolical tactics the boy ends that threat forever. This is an astonishing tour de force of graphic bravura no fan could ever forget. Aspiring cartoonist Jack Kirby certainly didn’t: he recycled Val’s outlandish outfit used to terrorise the Ogre’s soldiers into the visual basis for his 1972 horror-hero Etrigan the Demon…

Having successfully routed the invaders and freed Ilene’s family, Val begins earnestly courting the grateful girl, but his prophecy of lifelong misery seems assured, however, when her father regretfully informs him that she is promised to Arn, son and heir of the King of Ord. Even before that shock can sink in, Valiant is called away again. Ailing Gawain has been abducted by sorceress Morgan le Fey, who is enamoured of the knight’s manly charms…

When Val confronts her, le Fey drugs him with a potion and the Prince endures uncounted ages in her dungeon before escaping. Weak and desperate, he makes his way to Camelot and enlists Merlin in a last-ditch ploy to defeat the witch and save his adored mentor. In the meantime, events have progressed, and Val’s bold plans to win Ilene are derailed when invitations to her wedding arrive at Camelot. Initially crushed, the resilient youth determines to travel to Ord and challenge Prince Arn for her hand. Their meeting is nothing like Val imagined but, after much annoying interference, he and the rather admirable Arn finally engage in their oft-delayed death-duel, only to be again distracted when news comes that Ilene has been stolen by Viking raiders…

What follows is another unparalleled moment of comics magnificence as Valiant sacrifices everything for honour, gloriously falls to superior forces, wins possession of Flamberge (the legendary Singing Sword which is brother to Excalibur), is captured and then reunited with Ilene… only to lose her again to the cruellest of fates…

After escaping from the Vikings and covering himself with glory at the Lists in Camelot – although he doesn’t even realise it – the heartsick, weary Prince returns to his father in the melancholy Anglian fens, again encountering ghastly Horrit and nearly succumbing to fever. When he recovers months later, he has a new purpose: he and his faithful countrymen will travel to Thule and rescue the nation from the cruel grip of usurper Sligon. Unfortunately, during the preparations, Valiant discovers his region of Britain has been invaded by Saxons and is compelled by his honour to race to Camelot and warn Arthur first…

To Be Continued…


Volume 2 reprints perfectly-restored Sunday pages from January 1st 1939 to 29th December 1940, following Sir Gawain’s extremely capable squire as he rushes to warn Camelot of invasion by rapacious Saxons via vast Anglian Fens. Here Thule’s Royal Family have hidden since being ousted from their Nordic Island Kingdom by the villainous usurper Sligon. After a breathtaking battle which sees Saxons repulsed and the battle-loving boy-warrior knighted upon the field of victory, Valiant begins a period of globe-trotting. This carries him through the fabled lands of Europe just as the last remnants of the Roman Empire are dying in deceit and intrigue.

Firstly, Val revisits Thule and restores his father to the throne, narrowly escaping the alluring wiles of a conniving beauty with an eye to marrying the Heir Apparent. Quickly bored with palaces, peace and plenty, the roving royal wildcat then encounters a time-twisting pair of mystical perils who show him the eventual fate of all mortals. Sobered but not daunted, he makes his way towards Rome, where he will become unwittingly embroiled in the manic machinations of the Last Emperor, Valentinian. Before that, however, Val is distracted by an epic feat that would have struck stunning resonances for the readership at the time. With episode #118 (14th May 1939) Val joins the doomed knights of mountain fortress Andelkrag, who, alone and unaided, hold back the assembled might of the terrifying hordes of Attila the Hun: a terror who is currently decimating the civilisations of Europe and now marshals his forces to wipe out its last vestige.

With Hitler & Mussolini hogging headlines and Modern European war seemingly inevitable, Val shares the Battle of Decency and Right against untrammelled Barbarism. His epic struggle and sole survival comprise one of the greatest episodes of glorious, doom-fated chivalry in literature…

After the fall of the towers of Andelkrag, Valiant makes his way onward to diminished Rome, picking up a wily sidekick in the form of cutpurse vagabond Slith and is once more distracted and delayed by dastardly Huns. The indomitable lad resolves to pay them back in kind, gathering dispossessed victims of Hunnish depredations and forging them into a resistance army of guerrilla-fighters: the Hun-Hunters. Thereafter he liberates vassal city Pandaris, driving back the invaders and their collaborator allies in one spectacular coup after another.

Valiant eventually reunites with equally action-starved Round Table companions Sir Tristram and Sir Gawain to make further fools of the Hun, who have lost heart after the death of their charismatic leader Attila (nothing to do with Val, just a historical fact). When Slith falls for a warrior princess, the Knights leave him to a life of joyous domesticity and move ever on…

An unexpected encounter with a giant and his unconventional army of freaks leads to the heroes inadvertently helping a band of marshland refugees from Hunnish atrocity, before establishing the nation-state of Venice. Then, at long last – and after a side-trip to the fabulous city of Ravenna – the Courtly trio cross the fabled Rubicon and plunge into a hotbed of political tumult. Unjustly implicated in a web of murder and double-dealing, the knights barely escape with their lives and split up to avoid pursuit. Tristan heads back to England and a star-crossed rendezvous with comely Isolde, Gawain takes ship for some fun in Massilia and Valiant, after an excursion to the rim of fiery Vesuvius, boards a pirate scow for Sicily and further adventure.

To Be Continued…


Volume 3 of the most successful and evergreen fantasy creation ever conceived offers the Sunday pages from January 5th 1941 to 20th December 1942, but only after erudite foreword ‘Modestly, Foster’ by Dan Nadel. The illustrated action opens in the shadow of flaming Vesuvius as Val’s vessel is attacked by self-proclaimed Sea-King Angor Wrack. Even the ferocious warrior-prince’s martial might is insufficient against insurmountable odds and the young Lord is captured and enslaved, his fabled Singing Sword confiscated by the victorious pirate.

Thus begins an astonishingly impressive chapter in the hero’s history. Val becomes a galley slave, escapes and washes up, starving and semi-comatose on the lost shores of the Misty Isles. Delirious, he glimpses his future wife Queen Aleta when she re-provisions his boat before casting him back to the sea’s mercies. The Misty Isles are secure only because of their secret location and the noble girl has broken a great taboo by sparing the shipwrecked lad. Replenished but lost, Val drifts helplessly away but resolves that one day he will discover again the Misty Isles and the enigmatic Aleta…

Eventually he is picked up by more pirates, but overwhelms the captain and takes charge. Finding himself in the island paradise of Tambelaine courting the daughters of the aged King Lamorack, Val encounters Angor Wrack again, but fails to recover the Singing Sword, precipitating an extended saga of maritime warfare and spectacular voyaging across the Holy Land from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The vendetta results in both Angor and Val being taken by Arab slavers, but the Prince nobly allows Wrack to escape whilst he battles Bedouin hordes…

Enslaved in Syria, even Val’s indomitable will and terrifying prowess are insufficient to his need so he seduces his owner’s daughter to effect an escape, only to stumble into a marital spat between the region’s greatest necromancer and his tempestuous bride.

Reaching Jerusalem, Val finally regains his beloved sword and settles his scores with Angor Wrack before determining to return to the hidden Misty Isles, but once again falls afoul of the pirates infesting the region. After incredible hardships, he is reunited with Aleta before fate drags them apart once more. Despondent, he departs alone – but not for long though, as on reaching Athens Val meets far-larger-than-life Viking raider Boltar: a Falstaff-like rogue and “honest pirate”. Together they rove across the oceans to the heart of the African jungles. On securing a huge fortune, their Dragonship reaches Gaul and Val is finally reunited with Gawain, and, after settling a succession of generational feuds between knights and defeating a seductive maniac, the paladins at last return to Britain courtesy of Boltar. This is just in time to be dispatched by Arthur to the far North. The King needs to scout Hadrian’s Wall and see if it can still keep belligerent Picts out. Unfortunately, libidinous Gawain abandons Val and the lad is captured by Caledonian wild-men and their new allies – a far nastier breed of Vikings intent on conquering England…

Tortured nigh unto death, the Prince is saved by the ministrations of Julian – a Roman warrior who has seemingly safeguarded the wall for centuries. And when he is recovered, Prince Valiant begins to inflict a terrible and studied revenge upon his tormentors…

To Be Continued…

Rendered in an astoundingly lovely panorama of glowing images, Prince Valiant is a lyrical juggernaut of stirring action, exotic adventure and grand romance; blending realistic fantasy with sardonic wit, and broad humour with unbelievably dark violence. Here closing text feature ‘Too Violent for American Dog Lovers’ reveals censored panels and changes editors around the world inflicted upon the saga during this period.

Beautiful, captivating and utterly awe-inspiring, Foster’s magnum opus is a World Classic of storytelling, something no adventuresome fan can afford to be without.

Volume 1: All comics material © 2009 King Features Syndicate except Tarzan page, © 2009 ERB Inc. All other content and properties © 2009 their respective creators or holders.
Volume 2: © 2009 King Features Syndicate. All other content and properties © 2009 their respective creators or holders.
Volume 3: © 2011 King Features Syndicate. All other content and properties © 2011 their respective creators or holders. All rights reserved throughout.
Gift Set © 2017 King Features Syndicate. Published by Fantagraphics Books.

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Barefoot Gen volume 10: Never Give Up


By Keiji Nakazawa (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-601-6 (TPB) 978-0-86719-840-9 (HB/School Edition)

Whilst we are all commemorating the 80th anniversary of VJ Day (the Americans hold theirs on September 2nd), it’s only appropriate to remember how that war ended and what victory and defeat meant to a world forever changed after the conclusion. In comics, that means Keiji Nakazawa and Hadashi no Gen. A standby of anti-nuclear movements since first release in 1983, new hardback editions combining two paperback editions per volume are underway and will be on sale from January 15th 2026 – if we manage to live that long. You could wait or even check out our past reviews or simply save your time & energy by buying the still-available 10 tank?bon set right now.

After many years of struggle the entire piecemeal epic semi-autobiographical saga was remastered as an unabridged and uncompromising 10-volume English-language translation by Last Gasp under the auspices of Project Gen: a multinational organisation dedicated to peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. Constantly revised and refined by its creator until his death from lung cancer in December 2012, Barefoot Gen is the quintessential anti-war tract and plea to humanity for peace. The combined volumes are angry and uncompromising, and never forgive those who seek to perpetuate greed, mendacity and bloody-handed stupidity.

Hadashi no Gen was first seen in Japan in 1973, serialised in Gekkan Shōnen Janpu Jampu (Monthly Boys Jump) following an occasional 1972 series of stand-alone stories in various magazines which included Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain) and Aru Hi Totsuzen (One Day, Suddenly).

The scattered tales eventually led Shonen Jump’s editor Tadasu Nagano to commission 45-page Ore wa Mita (I Saw It) for a Monthly Jump special devoted to autobiographical works. Nagano clearly recognised that the author – an actual survivor of the world’s first atomic atrocity – had much more to say which readers needed to see and commissioned the serial which has grown into this stunning landmark epic.

The tale was always controversial in a country which still generally prefers to ignore rather than confront past mistakes and indiscretions and, after 18 months, Hadashi no Gen was removed from Jump, transferring firstly to Shimin (Citizen), then Bunka Hyåron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyåiku Hyåron (Educational Criticism). Just like his indomitable hero, Keiji Nakazawa never gave up and his persistence led to a first Japanese book collection in 1975, translated by the newly-constituted Project Gen team into Russian, English and other languages including Norwegian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Indonesian, Tagalog and Esperanto.

Born in March 14th 1939 and changed forever on August 6th 1945, the hibakusha (“atom bomb survivor”) author first completed his account in 1985 and his telling testament of survival has since been adapted into live-action & anime films; operas; musicals and live television dramas; each spreading the message across every continent and all generations.

Today we’re looking again at the concluding volume which brings the story of irrepressible, ebullient Gen and his friends to a close. One last time we see the forceful vitality of a select band of bomb survivors pitted against the constant shadow of tragedy which implacably dogs them in the city slowly recovering from nuclear conflagration.

Here the indomitable idealistic individualist, having finally found a way to express his anger and effectively fight back against the idiocies and injustices of a world which lets Atom bombs fall but is seemingly incapable of learning from its mistakes, at last strikes back at the demagogues and monsters who still keep the bad old ways alive… even after their people suffered the most hideous of consequences…

Barefoot Gen: Never Give Up begins following an inspirational ‘Gen’s Message: A Plea for Nuclear Abolition’ by the Translators & Editors and – as previously – the other end of this monochrome paperback balances the essay with a biography of the author and invaluable data ‘About Project Gen’…

The graphic manifesto resumes in March 1953 as Gen prepares for his school graduation ceremony, despite seldom attending that hidebound institution over the past few years. Fellow bomb orphans Ryuta and quietly stolid Musubi – who have shared Gen’s shabby shack for years – are also in high spirits. They have been constantly selling dresses made by radiation-scarred outcast Katsuko on Hiroshima’s rebuilt street corners, diligently saving the proceeds until she has enough money to open a shop. Now the manager of one of the big stores wants to buy all the clothes they can manufacture to sell in his fashionable venues…

At the Graduation Ceremony Gen once again loses his temper when the faculty begin memorialising the past and celebrating the failed regime of the empire. Later, his savage confrontation with teachers and visiting dignitaries sparks a minor student revolution. For many of the juvenile delinquents it’s also an opportunity to inflict some long-delayed retribution on the educational bullies who have oppressed and beaten them for years…

Encouragingly, however, not all parents and attending adults take the teachers’ side, and a potentially murderous confrontation is (rather violently) defused by Gen. The boy’s life then changes forever when he bumps into a young woman and is instantly smitten. His pursuit of Mitsuko will bring him into conflict with her brutal father, former employer and unrepentant war-lover Nakao who is now a highly successful businessman going places in the reconstructed city…

Gen has been studying with elderly artist Seiga Amano, learning the skills his own father would have passed on had he not died in 1945. The mentor/father-figure encourages his protégé to pursue Mitsuko… and it costs them both their jobs. However, the seeming setback is in fact liberating and before long the star-crossed youngsters are in a fevered euphoria of first love. So engaged is Gen that he is not there when stolid Musubi is targeted by a cruel Yakuza honeytrap who addicts him to drugs before fleecing him of all Katsuko’s hard-earned savings…

With a happy ending so close he can touch it, Gen is dragged back down to earth by a trio of tragedies which leave him near-broken and all alone. The legacies of the bombing have again cost him almost everything…

After a horrendous bout of death and vengeance-taking, Gen seems to have nothing to live for, but the despondent young man is saved by aged Amano who rekindles his spirit and wisely advises him to get out of Hiroshima and start his real life in the world beyond it…

Keiji Nakazawa’s broad cartoon art style has often been subject of heated discussion; his simplified Disney-esque rendering felt by some to be at odds with the subject matter, and perhaps diluting the impact of the message. I’d like to categorically refute that.

The style springs from his earliest influence, Osamu Tezuka, Father of Anime & God of Manga who began his career in 1946 and whose works – Shin Takarajima/New Treasure Island, Tetsuwan Atomu/Astro Boy and so many more – assuaged some of the grim realities of being hibakusha, providing escape, hope and even a career path to the young illustrator. Even at its most bleak and traumatic the epic never forgets to shade horror with humour and counterpoint crushing loss with fiery idealism and enthusiasm.

As such the clear line, solid black forms and abstracted visual motifs act as tolerable symbols for much of the horror in this parable. The art defuses but never dilutes the horror of the tragedy and its aftermath. The reader has to be brought through the tale to receive the message and for that purpose drawings are accurate, simplified and effective. The intent is not to repel (and to be honest, even as they are they’re still pretty hard to take) but to inform, to warn.

Shocking. Momentous. Bleak and violent but ultimately astoundingly uplifting, Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen is without peer and its legacy will be pervasive and long-lasting. So now you’ve been warned, buy this old book. Buy the entire series. Buy the new editions as they come out. Tell everyone you know about it. Barefoot Gen is an indisputable classic and should be available to absolutely everyone.
© 2009 Keiji Nakazawa. All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents Our Army At War


By Dave Wood, Robert Kanigher, David Khan, Hal Kantor, John Reed, France “Ed” Herron, William Woolfolk, John Reed, Art Wallace, Nat Barnett, Irv Novick, Carmine Infantino, Gene Colan, Bernie Krigstein, Frank Giacoia, Joe Giella, Bernard Sachs, Irwin Hasen, Bob Lander, Gil Kane, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Jerry Grandenetti, Bob Oksner, Mort Drucker, Sy Barry, Fred Ray, Eugene Hughes, Ray Burnley, Ray Schott & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1401229429 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In America following the demise of EC Comics in the mid-1950’s – and prior to Warren Publishing’s astounding Blazing Combat – the only certain place to find challenging, entertaining and often controversial American war comics was at DC. In fact, even as Archie Goodwin’s stunning yet tragically mis-marketed quartet of classics were waking up a generation, the home of Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman was also a cornucopia of gritty, intriguing, beautifully illustrated battle tales presenting combat on a variety of fronts and from many differing points of view. As the very public Vietnam War escalated, and secret wars in central America festered unseen, 1960s America increasingly endured a Home Front death-struggle pitting deeply-ingrained Establishment social attitudes against a youthful freedom-from-old-values-oriented generation with a radical new sensibility. In response, the military-themed comic books of DC (or rather National Periodical Publishing, as it then was) became ever bolder and more innovative…

That stellar and challenging creative period came to an end as all strip trends do, but some of the more impressive and popular features (Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank, Unknown Soldier, The War That Time Forgot, The Losers, Enemy Ace) survived well into the second – post horror-boom – superhero revival as character not genre vehicles. Currently, English-language fans of war stories are grievously underserved in both print and digital formats, but this magnificent monochrome reprint compendium is still readily available. It collects Our Army At War #1-20, from August 1952 – March 1954. With war comics resurgent, it was a new anthology title that was on sale from June 11th 1952 which ran for 301 issues until March 1977, whereupon it was redesignated Sgt. Rock and soldiered on (sorry, couldn’t stop myself!) until #422 cover dated June 1988. The appeal of that style and genre has largely vanished from comic books but once, these were hugely popular casual entertainments for kids and others.

Pure anthology Our Army At War very much followed Harvey Kurtzman’s EC model for Two-Fisted Tales & Frontline Combat, primarily featuring the proud American fighting man on a variety of historical battlefronts including the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI and Korean War even whilst concentrating the majority of its creative firepower on WWII – in which the target readership’s fathers and older relatives had just fought.

Sans ado or preamble, OAAW #1 opens with ‘Last Performance!’ as Dave Wood, Frank Giacoia & Joe Giella reveal how former acrobats Eddie March & Bert Brown escape a deadly German ambush thanks to their old act and a little common sense, after which Kanigher, Irv Novick & Bernard Sachs take us to the Pacific theatre of war and explain – without dialogue – how an entrenched marine patrol only survive Japanese scare tactics by when they ‘Dig Your Foxhole Deep!’

Fanciful – if not outright whimsical – notions proliferated in this era and David Khan, Irwin Hasen & Bob Lander gleefully kick off the practise as a Kentucky mountain man (and a dog!) unused to combat boots provides invaluable pedal intel at the Kasserine Pass thanks to ‘Radar Feet!’ prior to Dave Wood, Gil Kane & Giella ending the issue with inter service rivalry in the Pacific as ‘SOS Seabees!’ sees US troops and navy engineers forced to cooperate to survive…

In issue #2, Kanigher returned his much-loved boxing-as-combat metaphor in ‘Champ!’ with Carmine Infantino & Giella limning a yarn of sporting rivals meeting again over gunsights and in foxholes, before Dave Wood, Bob Oksner & Sachs depicted a tense moment as a sentry spots what might be Germans disguised as GIs in ‘Second Best!’, after which a soldiers takes drastic action to ensure a little peace and quiet to finish ‘A Letter from Joe!’ (by Hal Kantor, Mort Drucker & Lander). The issue ends on Khan, Novick & Lander’s ‘Survival for Shorty!’ as a sensitive short-tempered pee-wee powerhouse strives to proves he’s as big a man as any of his team as they raid a Japanese stronghold…

Kanigher, Novick & Sachs open #3 with the war deep inside a US Marine’s head as he endures the pressure of another ‘Patrol!’ even as Wood, Kane & Lander offer ‘No Exit!’ for former stunt-bikers Skeets & Wally when the former’s combat-trauma traps them behind enemy lines with crucial knowledge of a forthcoming surprise attack…

Kantor & Eugene Hughes then prove superstitious Roy has no need of his lost ‘Lucky Charm!’, before Kantor, Drucker & Lander complete the issue with the tale of ‘Frightened Hero!’ Perry Walters whose tardiness made him a lifelong mouse… until he hit the D-Day beaches…

The contemporaneous Korean conflict led in OAAW #4 where Kanigher, Novick & Sachs reveal the lonely response – and fate – of the ‘Last Man!’ in a unit wiped out by the pitiless enemy after which Kantor & Bernie Krigstein introduce a soldier hoping to take it easy until his ‘Replacement!’ shows up, before Kantor, Ray Schott & Lander, explore the job similarities of a peacetime mailman once more carrying a ‘Special Delivery!’ through the mud and weather of the 38th Parallel. Kantor, Jerry Grandenetti & Giella then finish the forays with an ironically barbed close look at the ‘Soft Job!’ tank men face every day in modern warfare…

Staying in Korea, #5 opens with Kanigher, Novick & Sachs wryly exploring the perennial problem of keepsakes in ‘Battle Souvenir!’, whilst Kantor, Oksner & Lander cover the other regular misdemeanour of illicit underage enlistment as a seasoned officer must act quickly after finding out the age of new unit replacement ‘Baby Face!’. Combat engineers then get a moment in the spotlight – and mud – blowing a crucial bridge in ‘T.N.T. Bouquet!’  courtesy of John Reed, Gene Colan & Sy Barry, after which Khan & Hughes detail the rocky ride of an elite ‘Ranger!’ in a unit of ordinary dogface… until the shooting starts…

Variety overrules contemporaneity in #6 as Kanigher, Novick & Sachs head back to the American Civil War for ‘Battle Flag!’: the lyrical tale of a grandfather recalling what carrying that bloody banner as boy-soldier cost, and followed by a highly experimental yarn from Kantor, Grandenetti & Ray Burnley that’s tantamount to science fiction, wherein a ‘Killer Sub!’ meets its fate. Robert Bernstein & Hughes take us to Korea next as a GI foils a cunning booby trap and makes a mortal enemy determined to have the ‘Last Laugh!’ at any cost before Kahn, Colan & Giella close the issue with the charming tale of a US soldier and a music (and democracy!) loving Korean boy happy to help out as ‘Kid Private!’…

Cover-dated February 1953 and on sale from December 10th 1952, OAAW #7 closed the first year with a mixed bag of yarns beginning with ‘Dive Bomber!’ by Kanigher, Grandenetti & Giella, wherein the novice team piloting a Curtiss Helldiver in a mass attack against the Japanese Navy are shot down and must survive all perils…

Kahn, Drucker, Lander then upgrade to Korea and trace the perilously peripatetic path of a US service pistol as narrated by ‘I, The Gun!’, prior to Reed, Colan & Lander detailing how lost puppy Tugger saves a doughboy patrol from murderous ‘Counterattack!’ before we close on alpine WWII combat as Wood, Colan & Giella’s ‘Mountain Trooper!’ learns a lesson about glamour jobs before returning to the good old infantry…

In #8, Kanigher & Novick’s ‘One Man Army!’ cogitates on being a cog in a massive war machine before single handedly conquering a communist Korean citadel, whilst Wood & Krigstein spectacularly play with the form in ‘Toy Soldier!’ – the short saga of an amazing inventor in the US trenches of the Great War. Reed & Colan then present ‘Rearguard!’ action as a lonely man holds off an unseen army and ponders his life before a brief cessation of hostilities as Wood, Grandenetti & Giella test argumentative sibling soldiers with roaring rapids, crucial supply deliveries and many, many murderous “commies” chasing then through the ‘Pusan Pocket!’…

Opening #9, uncanny coincidence and the powers of a jinx concern the crew of US submarine Flying Fish after picking up a message in a bottle written by members of their WWI namesake. The eerie tale of the ‘Undersea Raider!’ (by Kahn, Colan & Giella) ends badly and portentously for all before segueing into Wood, Grandenetti & Sachs’ generational saga of US pilots whose glorious deaths in combat overwhelm the latest scion and compel Joey Rickard to become a ‘Runaway Hero’ by joining the infantry in Korea. However, destiny is a harsh mistress…

Bernstein & Hughes test out motor pool instruction theory when novice corporal Jim Terris goes off book to deliver crucial supplies by making a ‘Fatal Choice!’ after which Kahn & Krigstein imaginatively refocus the ‘Eyes of the Artillery’ when a fighter pilot is forced to become a specialist bomber in primitive crate to destroy a deadly North Korean supergun…

Kanigher & Krigstein lead in #10, with Signal Corps veterans Don & Steve adding to their already lethal workload as ‘Soldiers of the High Wire’ when their commanding officer sanctions a broadcast for the folks back home and they have to keep the civilians alive and recording despite attacks from jets, tanks and even Korean guerillas…

‘Deadlock!’ by Wood, Colan & Giella then details how a downed American pilot and his Nazi counterpart are trapped in a standoff on a sinking submarine, each anticipating rescue by their side as time runs out. Next, Kantor, Grandenetti & Giella reveal how ‘Chessmen of War’ decide the course of a battle when captured Red Chinese Major Tao plays a fateful game with his US interrogator, after which we close on Kahn & Krigstein depict the ultimate triumph of a ‘Fighting Mess Sergeant’ taken prisoner by North Koreans…

Our Army At War #11 opens in the sky where Kanigher, Novick & Sachs compare the attitudes of Kamikaze pilots and US swabbies shooting them down in ‘Scratch One Meatball!’, whilst Kahn, Colan & Giella stick with the last days of WWII – specifically Luzon island – for ‘Guerilla Fighters’, where a grizzled yank sergeant and a young Filipino recruit make things hot for the embattled occupiers. Kantor & Hughes stick to same war but head to Europe for a ‘Combat Report’ as embedded war correspondent (albeit for a company newspaper) Davey Brown gets fed up with evasions from GIs and makes his own news before Wood & Krigstein return to Korea and depict how an embarrassing present from home can change a ‘Soldier’s Luck!’

William Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella secure pole position in #12 as ‘Flying Blind’ sees a cynical solitary US Navy pilot learn to trust when he is injured in mid-air even as Kahn, Colan & Giella oversee the reuniting of a team of track & field sportsmen on a Pacific island infested with Japanese killers and forced to endure a ‘Death Relay’ to survive, before Reed, Colan & Sachs define the ‘End of the Line!’ for a publicity-seeking fool who always had to be first in peacetime and paid the price for it in battle-shattered Belgium. Kanigher & Novick pause the fighting for the moment in a tale of performance anxiety as a paratrooper frets over ‘The Big Drop!’ on the night before D-Day…

Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella again lead in OAAW #13 as the torch of mentor/guardian passes from one pilot to another above bomb-shattered Japan in moody yarn ‘Ghost Ace!’, after which Wood, Novick & Sachs describe how ‘Combat Fever!’ chills one hypochondriac GI as his unit establish a beachhead on the ferociously occupied Solomon Islands. Human frailty and pomposity are punctured in Kahn, Colan & Giella’s ‘Phantom Frogman’ as a Navy hero describes the mysterious undersea guardian angel actually responsible for all his feats and medals before the issues closes on ‘Minuteman of Saratoga!’ by Nat Barnett & Krigstein wherein cocky young Roger Holcomb eventually proves his worth to his elders in the proud militia…

The concentration on American servicemen ended in #14 as Woolfolk & Krigstein share the militarily profound and uplifting tale of a boy more steadfast than Napolean himself and known forever after as the ‘Drummer of Waterloo’, before Kahn, Colan & Giella return to quarrelsome GIs in a foxhole inadvertently capture Nazi bigwigs in ‘Double or Nothing!’ Woolfolk, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito then detail the casual heroism of a military doctor who goes all out to save his patients as a ‘Soldier Without Armor’, in advance of the same author – with Grandenetti & Giella – exposing one soldier’s phobia over heavy ordnance… and how he was cured by a ‘Killer Tank’…

Kanigher, Novick & Sy Barry claimed the lead spot in #15 as ‘Thunder in the Skies’ exposed the pressures of night bombing raids over Germany as experienced by the waist gunner of a Flying Fortress, before Art Wallace, Colan & Sachs visit Italy as a history loving GI – one of the US divisions trying to kick out the Nazis – becomes an unwilling ‘Tourist with T.N.T.’ Reed, Colan & Giella then embrace 1918 and the Battle of Chateau Thierry as members of the 4th Marine Brigade take ‘A Sunday Walk’, into utter carnage before a ceasefire of sorts closes the issue with Reed, Grandenetti & Sachs’ ‘The Fifteen-Minute War’ – a brutal, barbaric fug-enshrouded 1942-set battle for Massacre Ridge on Attu in the Aleutians…

Obsessive hunger for vengeance grips hard in OAAW #16’s opener, ‘A Million-to-One Shot!’ as Kanigher, Novick & Giella detail how the lone survivor of a Japanese strafing attack on shipwrecked sailors turns into a quest spanning the entire Pacific war. Nat Barnett, Andru & Esposito cover a typically gung-ho ‘Battle of the Bugles!’ during the Spanish-American War’s attack on San Juan Hill, before Reed, Colan & Giella channel cyclic history for a 1940 ‘Last Stand!’ in the mountains of Greece with eerie echoes of 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. Ending on a lighter note, France “Ed” Herron, Andru & Esposito share the story of a street corner in liberated French city Metz that suddenly comes under Nazi attack with only a ‘Traffic Cop Soldier!’ to save the day…

Kanigher & Novick detail combat on skis to start #17, as ‘The White Death!’ follows an elite snow-skimming team ordered to take a key mountain pass untouchable by bomber raids, whilst Barnett, Colan & Giella draw the ‘Sword for a Statue’: revealing the strangest exploit of the War of 1812 and West Point’s mythology. Then, Wallace, Hughes & Giella recount an aspiring author’s ‘Battle Without Bullets!’ and unbelievable victory over his German captors, prior to Herron, Grandenetti & Sachs showing how a ‘Washed-Out Cadet!’ failure to make pilot officer is the Japanese’s loss after he finds his true killing calling…

Kahn, Colan & Giella open #18 in WWII as a Navy rescue helicopter pilot continually causes trouble in ‘The Duel’ by picking fights with Nazi infantry and even shipping and U-Boats, after which we head back to 1775 where ‘Frontier Fighter’ Mr. Wade casually and most effectively tramples all over the old-fashioned rules of combat held dear by his British employers and their French opponents in a frighteningly belligerent tale of early American exceptionalism from Barnett, Grandenetti & Sy Barry. Reed, Andru & Esposito then wittily address a fluke of combat as a simple corporal is rotated out before ever even seeing a Germen. Happily for him his ‘Delayed Action’ getting back to his lines more than makes up for his previous lack of stories to tell his kids. The issue closes with a more serious yarn from Woolfolk, Colan & Sachs as a sleep-deprived Pacific based Marine is constantly told to ‘Wake Up – And Fight!’

Penultimate inclusion OAAW #19 commences with Kanigher & Novick’s ‘The Big Ditch’ as a fighter pilot shot down by a Focke is picked by a Nazi crash boat and interrogated at a hidden rocket base before escaping and destroying it all. That remarkably low concept yarn is made up for by Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella’s ‘No Rank’ as damaged, isolated lone wolf Jack Randall learns the value and responsibilities of leadership, after which historical specialist/veteran Superman and Tomahawk illustrator Fred Ray delivers a potent paean to the Civil War with his Gettysburg-set ‘Stand-In Soldier’, after which Kahn, Colan & Giella play games as ‘G.I. Tarzan’ sees a former ape-man actor employ what he learned on set to flush out Japanese soldiers hiding in lush island jungles…

Closing this vintage veteran-fest, Our Army At War #20 (cover dated March 1954 and on sale from January 4th) sees Kanigher, Grandenetti & Sachs launch proceedings with the life story of USS Lion from the mustering of its crew to the Captain’s command to ‘Abandon Ship!’, whilst Joseph Daffron, Andru & Esposito more light-heartedly trace the fall and rise of a seemingly cursed B-25 bomber in ‘The Flying Crackerbox’. Herron & Frank Giacoia address the hostility and acrimony of defeated southern soldiers in ‘The Blue and the Gray’, and the epic war stories conclude for now with ‘T.N.T. Mail!’ by Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella wherein contented loner and voluntary outsider Charlet West at long last learns the value of comradeship during a colossal tank engagement…

With covers by Novick, Infantino, Giella, Giacoia, Kane, Colan, Krigstein & Grandenetti this compilation is technically excellent but suffers from many flaws caused by changing tastes and expanded consciousness. Bombastic, triumphalist and frequently overbearingly jingoistic, this mighty black-&-white treasure trove of combat classics also holds thoughtful, clever and even funny yarns of relatively ordinary guys in the worst times of their lives, making it a monument to a type and style (if not ideology) of storytelling we’re all the poorer without. Hopefully the publishers will wise up soon and begin restoring their like to the wide variety of genre sagas currently available in graphic collections…
© 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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1941 – The Illustrated Story


By Stephen Bissette, Rick Veitch & Allan Asherman (Heavy Metal Books/Arrow Books)

ISBN: 978-0- 09922-720-7 (HMB) 978-0-09922-720-5 (Arrow Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

This book includes Discriminatory Content intended for dramatic and satirical effect.

It’s not often that I get to review a graphic adaptation that surpasses the source material, but this odd little item certainly does that. I’ll leave it to your personal tastes to determine if that’s because of the comic creators or simply because the movie under fire here wasn’t all that great to begin with…

Written by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale and John Milius, 1941 was a big budget screwball comedy starring some of the greatest comedy talents of the day. It was also youngish Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster follow-up to Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but did not nearly receive the same kind of accolades and approbation.

The plot, adapted by Allan Asherman, concerns a certain night in December of that year when Hollywood was panicked by some “sightings” and many panicked reports of Japanese planes and submarines. One week after the devastation of Pearl Harbor, much of the USA – particularly its West Coast – was terrified of an invasion by the Imperial Forces of Emperor Hirohito. To be fair so were most of the white colonised Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand…

In this tale, one lone sub, borrowed from the Nazis, actually fetches up on the balmy shores of La-La land, but is largely ignored by the populace. The panic actually starts when gormless “Zoot-Suiters” Wally & Denny use an air-raid siren to distract store patrons and staff so that they can shop-lift new outfits, and inevitably peaks later when these feckless wastrels start a fist-fight at a USO (United Services Organisation) Dance. From there on, chaos and commotion carry this tale to its calamitous conclusion…

For the film that premise and delivery isn’t too successful, burdened as it is by leaden direction and a dire lack of spontaneity. However, all the frenetic energy and mania that was absent on screen is present in overwhelming abundance in the comic art of Steve Bissette (Swamp Thing, Taboo, 1963, Tyrant) & Rick Veitch (Swamp Thing, Army@Love, Heartburst, The One, Can’t Get No, 1963, Miracleman).

Taking their cue from the classic Mad Magazine work of the 1950s, they produced a riot of colour pages for the tie-in album reminiscent of Underground Comix and brimming with extra sight-gags, dripping bad-taste and irony, and combining raw, exciting painted art with collage and found imagery.

It’s not often that I say the story isn’t important in a graphic package, but this is one of those times. 1941 – The Illustrated Story is a visual treat and a fine example of two major creators’ earlier – and decidedly more experimental – days. If you get the chance, it’s a wild ride you should take. You can even shade your late-arriving curiosity in terms of “research” as we head towards the 80th anniversary of VJ Day if it makes you feel better…
© 1979 Universal City Studios, Inc. and Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

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Star Cat – Unicorns in Space


By James Turner & Yasmin Sheikh (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-356-1 (TPB)

Never forget: all the best cats are ginger, and especially so if space is their back yard and litter box…

Way back in January 2012, Oxford-based David Fickling Books made a rather radical move by launching a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at under-12s. It revelled in reviving the good old days of picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content.

Each issue still features humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Since then The Phoenix has established itself a potent source of children’s entertainment as, like The Beano and The Dandy, it is equally at home to boys and girls, and has mastered the magical trick of mixing amazingly action-packed adventure series with hilarious humour strip serials such as this one.

One of the wildest rides of the early days was Space Cat by James Turner (Super Animal Adventure Squad, Mameshiba, The Unfeasible Adventures of Beaver and Steve). His yarns entertained us for ages before, eventually Yasmin Sheikh (Luna the Vampire) joined in – a hopefully unendingly collaboration to amuse us all for years to come…

Like an animalistic Red Dwarf, the premise is timeless and instantly engaging, detailing far-out endeavours of spacefaring nincompoops in classic mock-heroic manner. There’s so very far-from-dauntless and possibly neurotic Captain Spaceington; extremely dim and utterly unschooled amoeboid Science Officer Plixx; inarticulate, barely housebroken feral beastie The Pilot and disdainfully arrogant Robot One, who quite erroneously believes itself at the forefront of the cosmos’ smartest thinkers. The colossal, void-busting vessel the Captain and his substandard crew traverse the universe in looks like a gigantic ginger tom, and that’s because that’s what it is: half cat, half spaceship. What more do you need to know?

After briefly reconnecting with the interstellar imbeciles via info spread ‘Welcome Aboard’, the ramshackle roving resumes in ‘Chapter 1: Deity Dishes’ as our stellar sentinels are tasked with testing a breakthrough in cosmic power production and storage. Omega Toroids are so potent and jam-packed with energy that they can’t be used in series or left together, but as the Captain and Plixx install a single unit in the Star Cat’s engine, overconfident know-it-all Robot One’s craving for donuts creates a mix-up of potentially devastating proportions after mistakenly stuffing his metal maw with all the remaining toroids and getting an inadvertent upgrade to all-conquering star-god status. Sadly, despite the boost, he’s still intrinsically him and becomes the cause of his own downfall while ravaging the Pixie planet…

Supervising chicken-on-a-mission The Space Mayor then despatches his top team (no, Spaceington & Co…) on an urgent mission to end a rubber chicken shortage on Clowntopia-8. So desperate is the crisis that, against all advice and common sense, they consider a short cut through the notorious Spooky Quadrant… and literally live to regret it after encountering all the horrors of the damned at sinister Space Castle Spaceferatu in ‘Chapter 2: Nothing to Fear Except Fear Itself’.

Just purely coincidentally, the creepy citadel in space that is reputed to hold the most unimaginably priceless treasure in the universe has no impact on the team making that diversion short cut. However, even with Robot-One’s “Moral Dilemma Mode” activated, they make the wrong decision and it proves as useless as all the rest of R-1’s upgrades in dealing with the terrifying and sneaky Space Vampyr…

Deplorably deranged, terrifying two-dimensional tyrant/archenemy Dark Rectangle reappears in ‘Chapter 3: Flat Out’, when his trusty hench-being Murky Hexagon begs Spaceington’s aid in curing his master’s dose of 3-D Flu. That noble deed demands the idiots invade the 2-D “Flati-verse” Dark Rectangle came from, and leads to odd adjustments, bizarre doings and a very nasty clash with the villain’s ghastly family…

After crashing on an unknown world, the Star Cat crew are accused of cultural sabotage and sundry misdemeanours in ‘Chapter 4: Rhyme Crime’ but soon get the hang of talking for better or verse… all except Robot-One of course…

That mini-armageddon is as nothing when measured against the chaos generated by the Massivitis germs that transform and utterly embiggen the boss of space in ‘Chapter 5: Mega Mayor’. Thankfully, self-identified chicken-biologist (and closet proctologist) Robot-One has a plan, but it does require golden wigs, giant automatons in drag, extremely invasive incursions by medically untrained volunteers and biscuits, Many, many biscuits…

That fantastic voyage successfully concluded, ‘Chapter 6: Crab to the Future’ details how all but The Pilot are flash frozen on the coldest planet in the galaxy and eventually defrosted in the far future. Ten thousand years of progress – and the occasionally case of time-meddling – have created an odd yet ideal utopia, but the Captain, Plixx and especially the annoying Robot soon fix that, prior to returning to their own lethally enthralling era…

Eventually, even the dimmest crewmember realizes the robot is getting more arrogant, nasty and dangerous, but that doesn’t stop the Space Mayor sending him and his comrades to the Lovely Sector to fetch a crystal flower from the most pure and good planet in the galaxy. ‘Chapter 7: Unicorns in Space!’ reveals how Unicornia initially takes the wild rovers to its collective hearts and bosoms, but it’s not long before the abhorrent android taints even this rainbow hued paradise…

As a result of the tragedy he triggered, Robot-One earnestly seeks to change and ‘Chapter 8: A Light Year in Your Shoes’ has the crew indulge in a spot of body-switching and mind transference that only causes more chaos. The Space Mayor gets accidentally involved in ‘Chapter 9: Change of Mind’ when the Chook in Charge pays a visit to the ginger starship just as Robot-One starts editing aspects of his digital personality and memory…

Closing – for now – on an even-more lowered tone, acronym layered ‘Chapter 10: Fair-Weather Friends’ finds the crew supervising the mayor’s new project – a Binary Universal Manipulator constructed for the Federation of Allied Republics and Territories. Uncannily, the freshly modulated, good-as-gold & nice-as-pie Robot-One is no help at all when Dark Rectangle sabotages the test and causes climactic calamities so all that good work must be undone to unleash the old personality if the obnoxious oblong is to be defeated…

Wrapping up the sidereal silliness are a bunch of pages of related activities: a swathe of features offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and you to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by James Turner & Yasmin Shiekh, expounding on how to draw the crew, absorb the basics of page-craft and learn professional terms. With features on lettering, layouts and composition, colouring, example panels/pages and even some page blanks to go wild in, plus an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website complete with instant access via a QR code. What are we all waiting for?

Text and illustrations © The Phoenix Comic 2025. All rights reserved.
Star Cat – Unicorns in Space will be published on August 14th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

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Omaha the Cat Dancer volumes 1-7


By Reed Waller & Kate Worley with James M. Vance (NBM/Amerotic)
Set I ISBN: 978-1-56163-601-3
Vol. 1 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 2 ISBN: 978-1-56163-457-3, vol. 3 ISBN: 978-1-56163-474-3
Set II ISBN: 978-1-56163-601-3
Vol. 4 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 5 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 6 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 7 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4

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

Just for a change I thought I’d celebrate an astounding creator while they’re still alive, and morbid leanings aside, in a world both wide and awash with unique stylists, I can honestly say there has never been anyone like Reed Waller (born today in 1949)…

And in case the covers didn’t give it away…

These books are intended to make adults laugh and think and occasionally feel frisky. If the cover images haven’t clued you in, please be warned that these items contain nudity, images of sexual intimacy – both hetero and homosexual – and language commonly used in the privacy of the bedroom and school playgrounds whenever supervising adults aren’t present. If that sort of thing offends you, read no further and don’t get these books. The rest of us will enjoy one of the best graphic novel experiences ever created without you.

Omaha the Cat Dancer began during the 1970s as an “Underground” venture and over torturous decades grew into a brilliant but controversial drama of human fallibility with all the characters played by funny animals. What most people noticed was a matter-of-fact, constant inclusion of graphic sex acts. Over the years, the series was subject to many obscenity seizures by various muddle-headed stickybeaks, inspiring the formation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. One classic case apparently involved the local defenders of morality raiding a comics store because Omaha promoted bestiality…

As there’s only so much excitement a man of my advanced years and proclivities can endure (and probably only so much me you can stand) I’ll review these in one hit, but if you can locate the whole saucy saga in its original supremely economical shrink-wrapped gift set, you’d  be crazy to not take advantage of that but please, pace yourselves…

Following an introduction by late-coming co-scripter James Vance, and Reed Waller’s original intro from a1987 collected edition, The Complete Omaha the Cat Dancer Volume 1 gathers the short story appearances from a number of Counter-culture Commix as well as some out-of-continuity infilling short pieces so readers can enjoy what can best be described as the official Directors Cut of the tale.

The wicked wonderment begins with the very first ‘Adventures of Omaha’ from Vootie in 1978. Vootie started in 1976 as a self-published fanzine founded by Waller and like-minded artistic friends who bemoaned the loss of anthropomorphic comics – once a mainstay of US comicbooks. When contributors also griped that there wasn’t much sex in comics either, Waller, taking inspiration from R. Crumb’s Fritz the Cat and responding to recent intensification of local “Blue Laws”, created the evocative, erotic dancer and compared her free and easy lifestyle to a typical, un-elected, interfering know-it-all moral guardian busybody. Blue Laws were – and probably still are – particularly odious anti-fun statutes usually instigated by religious factions designed to keep the Sabbath holy by dictating shop-opening hours and generally limiting or banning adult entertainments like clubs and pubs (but not gun clubs!) and their repressive use (in fact and fiction) became a major narrative engine for the series.

‘Why they Call Her Omaha’ introduces young stripper Susie Jensen who hits the metropolis of Mipple City, Minnesota (a barely concealed Minneapolis) and signs up with a modelling agency where she meets fellow dancer Shelley Hine. Over lunch they bond and pick a better stage name for the gorgeous but naive newcomer, whilst ‘Kitten of the Month’ & ‘Omaha centrefold’ reveal the first glorious results of her management’s efforts. No-holds-barred sexual action returns in ‘Shelley and Omaha’ with the girls, now popular erotic dancers, meeting some guys who will play a big part in the unfolding drama to come.

In ‘Chuck and Omaha’, which officially heralded the beginning of scripter Kate Worley’s (16th March, 1958 – 6th June, 2004) stunning and crucial contribution to the series, Jerry – one of those aforementioned pick-up guys – introduces Omaha to Chuck Katt, a shy artist who will become the great love of her life. ‘Adventures of Omaha’ sees a budding relationship progress whilst ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ moves the grander story arc along when Mipple bans nipples in the opening shot of a political power-grab using Christian/Family-morality pressure groups as unwitting, if fervent, patsies…

Although comprising less than 50 pages, all that material took nearly 15 years to produce. For the longest time, Omaha had no fixed abode; peripatetically wandering from magazine to Indie book, and even guest-shots in the occasional mainstream publication. From Kitchen Sink’s Bizarre Sex #9-10 in 1981-2; a pastiche page in E-Man (1983 and included in vol. 2); Dope Comix #5 (1984), she even starred in a story from Munden’s Bar Annual #2 in 1991. Often stalled for creative, when not censorship, reasons Omaha finally won her own title in 1984 thanks to SteelDragon Press, before vanishing again until 1986, when Kitchen Sink Press took over publication. For further details I strongly advise CAUTIOUSLY checking the internet…

Volume 1 switches to high gear and addictive narrative mode with ‘Omaha #0’: a single page recap followed by a powerfully compelling yarn wherein forces of decency make life difficult for the adult entertainment industry. With stripper bars closing, Omaha is recruited to dance for “The Underground”: an exclusive, ultra-secret, high-class bordello catering to the darkest desires of America’s ultra-elite of businessmen and politicians… many of whom are actively leading the Decency campaign. Shelley is involved too, recruiting contacts from her old profession for more hands-on roles. Chuck meanwhile has reapplied for his old advertising job where old girlfriend Joanne makes life uncomfortable. She has other problems too, as powerful forces draw Omaha & Chuck into a far-reaching, sinister scheme…

On opening night all elements for disaster converge as the Movers and Shakers get more debauchery than even they can handle as someone dopes the entire proceedings, leading to a violent, destructive orgy that previously set up cameras record for blackmail purposes. As they flee the club, hitmen try to kill Chuck but shoot Shelley instead. Believing her dead, Omaha & Chuck run for their lives. Heading for Joanne’s house, Chuck reveals he is the son of Charles Tabey: monomaniacal millionaire businessman, undisputed ruler of Mipple City and the probable true target of the assassination…

Narrowly escaping another murder attempt, they find Tabey and Joanne are intimately involved, and are horrified to find Chuck’s pa was behind the whole thing, intending to mould the wastrel into the kind of son he needs. The sire is also clearly stark, raving mad…

Traumatised and terrified, the young lovers jump into their car and head for California in the short ‘Adventures of Omaha’ quickie with the initial volume concluding with the contents of ‘Omaha #1’ as they reach San Francisco tired, hungry and broke. Grateful for the kindness of strangers, they soon discover Joanne waiting for them and find that Tabey is not their only persecutor. During a drunken three-way another hired killer almost ends them all. From a well-intentioned, joyous celebration of open living free-loving modernity Omaha had evolved into a captivating adult soap opera and conspiracy thriller of mesmerising intensity and complexity…

With an introduction by Worley, Volume 2 eases into the enticing adult entertainment with a ‘Hotziss Twonkies’ parody from E-Man #5 prior to Omaha #2-5 enlarging the saga. In the aftermath of another close shave, Chuck & Joanne bitterly spar whilst an increasingly traumatised cat dancer wanders the streets of San Francisco. When Tabey abducts her whilst moving against all his old enemies, Chuck & Joanne fall into bed…

Meanwhile Jerry, who also works for Tabey, is busying sorting fallout from the club riot/shooting. In a secluded palatial beach-house Omaha discovers Chuck’s dad has been watching over them for some time and soon discovers another shocking secret…

Omaha was utterly groundbreaking in its mature treatment of gay and disabled relationships: offering the sound, common sense opinion that this is what all people think and do. After all, “it’s just sex”…

Paralysed but not deceased, Shelley is also sequestered in the house. She is a long-term Tabey employee and slowly developing a relationship with her nurse Kurt Huddle, and the manic tycoon has convinced Omaha to stay and help care for her. Back in ’Frisco, Chuck rekindles his old relationship with Joanne, utterly unaware she has film and photos taken at the club on that terrible night. That’s where gay photographer and old friend of Joanne Rob Shaw enters the picture as developer and guardian of the contentious materials…

Chuck misses Omaha and tension leads to his splitting with Joanne and moving in with Rob. The cat dancer too is lonely, finding brief and unsatisfactory solace with Jerry again, so when Tabey goes off his meds Jerry arranges for Chuck & Omaha’s reunion, leading to a dreadful confrontation between father and long-estranged son, the apparent result of which is Tabey taking his own life…

Together again after so long, Omaha & Chuck comfort each other as repercussions of Charles Tabey Sr.’s demise shake the country and the cast. The close-knit group endure loss, guilt and outrageous press scrutiny as the matter of inheritance crops up. Against his wishes, Chuck might be incredibly rich and saddled with unwanted responsibilities, but there are some unspecified problems with the will. The plots thicken when Joanne and Rob have a falling out and as all this is going on, back in Mipple City, a powerful new threat makes his move. Senator Calvin Bonner was one of the patrons at the Underground that fateful night, but now he’s making his move for total power, stirring up a wave of fundamentalist hatred and anti-smut indignation with his “Crusade for Decency”…

Covering issues #6-9, and with an introduction by Trina Robbins, Volume 3 follows the action back to Minnesota, but things are difficult for Chuck & Omaha – who can’t seem to re-establish that earlier, innocent rapport. As they go house-hunting, in San Francisco Rob Shaw is visited by thugs after the photos of The Underground riot. His shop destroyed, the photographer narrowly escapes burning in it…

Mipple City’s Blue Laws are more draconian than ever. When Omaha and Shelley – who has moved into the ground floor of the Cat Dancer’s new house – visit old workplace the Kitty Korner, and discover performers must now dance behind plate glass… which makes taking punter’s tips really tricky…

When old friend Shawn turns up, he warns Chuck & Omaha of the plan to redevelop A Block – the part of town where all the artists, musicians and strip clubs are. Something needs to be done to stop it and now Chuck might just be the richest, most influential degenerate in town…

As the lovers go furniture shopping, Shelley and Kurt look for a suitable physical therapy clinic – preferably a non-religious, non-judgemental un-condescending one – and later, whilst Omaha helps Shelley move in, Chuck and Jerry make plans to fight the A Block development. As ever, there is far more going on than the lovers can imagine…

Omaha wants to get back into dancing and, as Chuck becomes increasingly mired in running his father’s many businesses, Kurt learns (some) of Shelley’s murky history even as Joanne and Jerry compare notes and make plans. Rob turns up in Mipple after more attempts on his life, convinced he needs to find his attackers’ boss before his luck runs out. The book ends on a shocking note for Chuck when he discovers his long-dead mother isn’t…

The stunning, addictive saga of the erotic dancer, her bone-headed boyfriend and animalistic extended ensemble takes a dark and dreadful turn with Volume 4 – re-presenting the Kitchen Sink Omaha #10-13 (plus one-page gag strip ‘Alterations’ from Fire Sale #1, 1988-1989) – as the death of Charles Tabey Sr., increasing violence and oppression of the Campaign for Decency and a seemingly constant stream of personal revelations strain Omaha & Chuck’s relationship to the breaking point.

The story resumes after an introduction from writer James Vance who married Worley after her break-up with Waller. He then worked with the artist to finish the saga from her notes after her untimely death from cancer in 2004. Tense and suspenseful, the drama kicks into high gear as Chuck comes to terms with the shocking knowledge that his mother didn’t die decades ago.

The pressure seems to be affecting him badly – or perhaps the thought of all the wealth and responsibility – and our decent young rebel is becoming as exploitative, abusive and creepy as his manic dad ever was, but even though he’s acting paranoid, it doesn’t mean he’s hasn’t got real and deadly enemies…

The situation isn’t helped by learning that somewhere his beloved Omaha has a husband she hasn’t quite divorced and never ever mentioned…

Slyly sinister Senator Bonner is ratchetting up the pressure of his anti-smut campaign and even close ally Jerry is working to his own agenda, with the assistance of avaricious partner Althea. Confused, lonely and neglected, Omaha devotes her energies to dancing for the upcoming video for Shawn’s band, whilst Rob confronts Shelley – whom he believes ordered the attempt on his life and torching of his studio…

When Tabey’s will is read, Chuck does indeed inherit the bulk of his father’s holdings as well, apparently, as many of Tabey Sr.’s deranged obsessions. Far more intriguing than she seems, Shelley acts on Rob’s misperceived accusations whilst lover/carer Kurt finds part-time employment with mysterious Mr. Lopez – the last major player in an increasingly complex game. Meanwhile, high-powered call-girl, blackmailer and Keeper of Secrets Joanne re-insinuates herself with Jerry – and Chuck… and Bonner(!) in a terrifying confrontation that threatens to destroy Omaha and crush Chuck in his own blackmail scheme…

During the video shoot, Omaha & Joanne compare notes on Bonner, after which the capable callgirl enlists Rob’s aid in a scheme to get the goods on the hypocritical Senator, with whom she shares a highly secret and extremely specialised professional relationship. Sadly, whilst both Joanne and Rob practice their unique personal skills, the senator is murdered in the most compromising of all positions and the story moves effortlessly from passionate drama to dark murder mystery. Abandoned, bewildered, angry and very hurt, Omaha leaves town, unaware that both she and Joanne are suspects in the Bonner murder case…

As she heads for a new life in rural Wisconsin, Chuck relearns some long-forgotten personal history from his mother, but no matter how she disguises her appearance, an increasingly popular video means the cat dancer will never be truly safe or unseen…

Volume 5 is introduced by Neil Gaiman, after which issues #14-17 (1990-1992) find the lovers painfully adapting to life apart, with Omaha’s old friends wondering where she’s gone. Meanwhile in Lawrenceville, Wisconsin, after an abortive stab at office work for an all-too-typical, male-dominated factory, “Susan Johnson” goes back to honest work, dancing in the town’s only strip joint, making reliable new friends and meeting a young man who will become far more…

Back in Mipple, Joanne’s lawyer finally clears her of suspicion in Bonner’s demise, Jerry plans to reopen infamous bordello The Underground as a legitimate nightclub and Chuck is making new friends and intimate acquaintances whilst spending his days trying to save the Bohemian A Block district from redevelopment. However, he inadvertently gets far closer to the heart of all the various intrigues threatening the players in the drama, and Jerry’s business partner Althea reveals her true colours… and allies. At Bonner’s funeral, Lopez reveals an unsuspected connection to the venomous politician…

Shelley has made new friends too – in a scathing, utterly delightful episode exposing unexpected biases held by certain sorts of feminists and do-gooders. Joanne is increasingly at odds with Rob regarding films of Bonner’s last moments and when Jerry invites Chuck to become partner in his nightclub venture Althea seeks to secure the deal by offering herself as a sweetener… Or does she actually have another reason for her bold advances?

Kurt & Shelley’s relationship starts showing signs of strain, but in Lawrenceville Susan is relaxed and happy, with the strength to contact the friends she ran out on. In Mipple, the cops slowly uncover uncomfortable facts about everybody in the Bonner case when the Senator’s private secretary comes forward with new information, and Joanne secures the final weapon necessary to expedite her plans…

The final Kitchen Sink issues – #18-20 (1993-1994) – comprise the major part of Volume 6. Following an introduction from Terry Moore, there’s a brief discourse on the large cast’s other appearances, accompanied by short pieces from diverse places. First, there’s the delightful foray into mainstream comics culled from Munden’s Bar Annual #2 in 1991. ‘A Strip in Time’ sees the exotic kitty visit the legendary pan-dimensional hostelry after which come two short ‘n’ sexy vignettes originally produced for The Erotic Art of Reed Waller: one untitled and the other graced with the subtly informative designation ‘Waking Up Under a Tent’, to somewhat offset the angst and drama of the main event hoving into view…

Here, Rob learns what Shelley’s actual role was in the arson attack on his shop, Joanne takes a live-in position with Mr. Lopez and – after many abortive attempts – Chuck & Omaha finally speak. As Thanksgiving dawns, many of Omaha’s friends gather for a momentous dinner and things start to unravel for the bad guys trying to destroy A Block.

And, back in Wisconsin, just as she’s becoming reconciled with Chuck, her fling with appreciative punter Jack intensifies to a crisis point. Meanwhile elsewhere, someone with an intimate knowledge of her recognises the hot dancer in a rock video and begins making fevered inquiries…

When Shawn’s touring band reaches Lawrenceville and discover Susie is Omaha, the scene is set for her return to Mipple City, where – after being arrested in connection with Bonner’s murder – Chuck’s mother reveals the whole story of her past, the sordid truth of Bonner’s obsessive depravity and Charles Tabey’s bi-polar affliction. In light of horrific revelations, Chuck seems to go completely off the deep end and, far too late, his friends and family realise money and looks might not be the only things the son inherited from the father…

Next, just a smidge out of chronological order, comes ‘Tales of Mipple City: Rob Steps Out’: a charming first date sidebar tale from Gay Comics #22 (1994), after which revelations resume as the cops release Maria Elandos Tabey, and her boy is sectioned. In Lawrenceville, Susie gets an unforgettable farewell from before she returns to her true love… who has never needed her more…

The last volume in this magnificent sequence features the final four issues published by Fantagraphics as Omaha the Cat Dancer volume 2, #1-4 (1994-1995). The series at times seemed truly accursed: plagued by illness, delays and creative problems which took a cruel toll on all the creators. Waller & Worley ended their relationships in spectacular fashion at this time and only began working together again in 2002. Two years later Worley died from cancer and it seemed the saga was destined to remain an unfinished masterpiece, but in 2006 Waller and Worley’s husband James Vance began to finish the job from her notes, with the concluding chapters serialised in the magazine Sizzle. When those final instalments were finally collected the completed Omaha the Cat Dancer became a contender for possibly the finest adult comics tale in history*

Here and now, however, the compulsive obsessive yarn reaches a kind of conclusion as – after an introduction from honorary Mipple City citizen Denis Kitchen, and a stunning cartoon recap – Omaha & Chuck renew their relationship, Jerry & Shelley and Rob & Joanne reach workable détente agreements and that tantalising missing husband tracks the cat dancer to her new home. Set over Christmas and New Year’s period, various plot threads come together during an unforgettable party at Chuck’s palatial new house, although a hung-over aftermath promises there are still stories to be told and loose ends to be knotted off once and for all…

Even if the saga had stopped here, Omaha the Cat Dancer would be an incredible narrative achievement and groundbreaking landmark of comics creation, but with the promise of a final resolution still to come, it’s likely to become an icon of our industry, celebrated forever for moving beyond simple titillation and happy, innocent prurience to become a fully matured work of Art. Captivating, intense, deeply moving and addictively engrossing, Omaha never forgets to be also fun, funny, fabulous and utterly inclusive: full of astonishingly well drawn, folk (admittedly largely furry or feathered folk) happily naked and joyously guilt-free… at least about sex.

Monochrome tomes printed at 220 x 280mm (much larger than the original comic books), these books also contain copious full page illustrations – many taken from companion book The Erotic Art of Reed Waller. This saga is one of those true turning points in comics history – a moment we could all provably say “this is socially relevant, capital ‘A’ Art” – as viable and important as the best play or film or symphony: don’t miss any opportunity to make yourself familiar with the whole marvellous classic…

No cats, dogs, chickens, moose, ferrets or anything else living (well maybe some trees) were harmed, abused, distressed or disagreeably surprised in the making of these stories, so if you’re open-minded, fun-loving and ready for the perfect grown-up adventure please take advantage of this unmissable opportunity. You won’t regret it…
© 1978, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987-1996 Reed Waller & Kate Worley. Contents of these editions © 2005-2007 NBM. All Rights Reserved. © 1987-1996 Reed Waller & Kate Worley. Contents of these editions © 2005-2008 NBM. All Rights Reserved.

*A slight footnote (pawnote?). That eighth volume was finally released in 2013, to complete the saga, and we’ll be tackling that in its own post and on its own merits in the fullness of time. Keep ’em peeled, folks…