Category: Humour

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Stumptown volume 2: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case


By Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, Rico Renzi & various (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-93496-89-7 (HB) 978-1-620104-80-4 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62010-032-5

Plenty of superhero, supernatural and sci fi comics make the jump to TV and movies these days, but not so many crime sagas. One that did came from ever-entertaining, prodigiously prolific, multi award-winning Greg Rucka.

A screenwriter (The Old Guard) and novelist (Atticus Kodiak crime sequence, Jad Bell series and a whole bunch of general thrillers), he also crafts astounding graphic thrillers like Whiteout, Queen & Country, Lazarus or The Old Guard whilst excelling on major properties and characters including Star Wars, Batman, Gotham Central (co-scripted by Ed Brubaker), Superman, Wonder Woman, Grendel, Elektra, The Punisher, Wolverine and Lois Lane. He has been a major contributor to epic events such as 52, No Man’s Land, Infinite Crisis and New Krypton.

To my mind this most engaging original comicbook concept features a non-traditional private eye barely getting by in the writer’s own backyard: Portland Oregon – AKA “Stumptown”…

The series launched in November 2009 as a 6-issue miniseries, with modern day Portland a vibrant and integral character in the story. A huge hit, the series was indefinitely extended and ran until #19. The TV show launched September 25, 2019 and was equally entertaining and initially successful, before dying after one superb season during the worst days of the pandemic.

Fronted by Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Introduction ‘On Stumptown’ and illustrated by Matthew (Savage Dragon, Ares, Infinity Inc.) Southworth and supplemental colourist Rico Renzi, the daily grind resumes with ‘The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case’. Here we meet again Dexadrine Callisto Parios, independent private detective and sole owner/primary operative of Stumptown Investigations.

Professionally, things are on the up. “Dex” now has an actual office to work out of, but still struggles with bills, two mortgages, a gambling problem, impulse control and dangerously implacable ethics. She’s also caring for dependent brother Ansel and ignoring other people’s opinions of her bisexuality – or more likely her attitude to them shoving their noses into problems she doesn’t want to confront yet…

After a missing persons case struck far too close to home made her name, briefly secured her future and brought her to the unwelcome attention of billionaire crime-boss/legit businessman Hector Marenco, Dex hoped life would settle down to regular PI gigs: cheating spouses, lost wills and the like.

In fact, there is a lot of that, like the potentially rewarding work-pilferage job she turns down after learning it would be for one of Marenco’s shady enterprises…

Suddenly, things get complicated and crazy again when a living legend walks through the door of her new office. Miriam “Mim” Bracca is a local legend made good globally and her band Tailhook are the epitome of wild success and excess. The megastar has a unique problem though: someone has stolen her baby…

The sweet child in question is a 1977 Gibson Les Paul, perfectly restored and utterly adored. It’s her favourite guitar: more crucial to her life and wellbeing than all her internal organs combined. The sweet precious vanished during or after the last gig and she doesn’t care if it’s just lost or been stolen. Mim will pay anything to get her true and perfect soulmate back…

Parios is astounded and reminds the star that the police work for free. Bracca however, has just ended an affair with Detective Tracy Hoffman (Dex’s inside pal on the Portland Police Bureau) and resoundingly rules that out…

Swallowing a huge amount of sheer fan froth, Dex gets down to business: checking Mim’s mental state and physical dependencies. Once convinced she’s serious, it’s all about the process, and Dex looks into just how much Mim Bracca’s go-to guitar is worth on the open market before interviewing the other band members, roadies and crew. It all seems silly but straightforward: a simple case of following well-rehearsed steps until the axe is recovered or uncovered, but there are levels of betrayal, criminality and deception in play that will make this job lethally risky business…

Dex gets her first inkling visiting Mim’s personal guitar manager Fabrizio Pullano, who she finds being beaten up by manically violent and remarkably dumb skinheads prepared to torture and kill to find the guitar. Being smart and handy, she soon sends them packing, and learns she’s in the middle of a covert DEA operation. Obnoxiously abrasive agent Cathy Chase and her so-mellow associate Mike Vela try to arrest, implicate and then co-opt her…

No stranger to legal officialdom and blinkered procedures, Dex correctly assesses there’s a lot more going on than a missing instrument, and despite hot Tailhook drummer “Click” Mayes being far more open and forthcoming than he needs to be in his interview, she leaps to an obvious conclusion…

A confrontation with her client convinces her that if drugs are being smuggled on Tailhook tours, the band know nothing about it, but Dex’s notion that she’s now got it all sussed bar some legwork evaporates when she gets home and finds Ansel and neighbour Grey playing with “Baby”.

An unidentified stranger left the hot item at Her House (!) in an obvious attempt to deliver a threat and end her involvement, but a quick examination of the case proves her suspicions and Parios knows this isn’t over at all…

In fact, the return of Baby triggers a rapid spiral of manic events as Tracy Hoffman confronts her old lover, the DEA try to arrest everybody, and viciously stupid skinheads Brad and Mick burst in guns blazing and spark one of the most spectacular car chases in comics…

Insanely, when the dust settles, the mystery remains. No one admits to taking Baby in the first place and Dex has to think again…

Happily, she deduces whoactuallydunnit just in time, and is there when the drug smugglers, their skinhead clients and the enigmatic mystery supplier move to recover their product and seek redress for their trouble. With a fluid and potentially deadly standoff resulting, Parios – as always – hangs tough, thinks fast and exploits her gift for making plans on the fly…

A superbly stylish thriller perfectly exploiting the nature of Oregon myth and culture, this yarn perfectly captures a magical place and its self-appointed shop-soiled white knight. Extras include Artifacts of Stumptown – a feature on Southworth’s art process plus promo posters.

Rucka excels in capturing character in meaningful but believable ways that add to understanding whilst always advancing the plot. Ansel (a superbly positive take on a neuro-atypical character: living with Downs Syndrome but realistically rendered, sensitively realised and fully participatory) is used to great effect and, as always, serves to ground Dex’s more dangerous impulses.

…And it’s all clever, witty fast paced and superbly action-packed. If you love crime drama, detective fiction, strong female role models or just bloody great storytelling, you need to pay a visit to Stumptown.
Stumptown volume 2: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case ™ & © 2013 Greg Rucka & Matthew Southworth. All rights reserved.

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Last of the Mohicans: Ten-Cent Manga Series volume 1


Freely adapted from the novel by James Fenimore Cooper by Shigeru Sugiura, edited & translated by Ryan Holmberg (PictureBox)
ISBN: 978-0-985195-6-6 (HB)

Those of us in the know tend to believe that Japanese comics began with Osamu Tezuka in the years following the end of World War II – and indeed in most ways that assessment is reasonable.

However, as the superbly informative article bolstering this superb tome attests, a thriving manga business has operated in Japan since the 1930s, and one of its greatest proponents was artist and author Shigeru Sugiura.

This superb monochrome hardback volume (sadly no digital delight yet) re-presents one of his greatest triumphs as the initial volume in a proposed series of “Ten-Cent Manga” collections. Translated and edited by Ryan Holmberg, it highlights lost works displaying not simply indigenous Japanese virtuosity but also the influence of cross-cultural contact and pollination with other countries.

In erudite, lavishly illustrated essay and appreciation ‘Shigeru Sugiura and his Mohicans’ he describes in fascinating and forensic detail the origins of the project, state of play in Japan pre-and-post WWII. The absorbing life and career of an artist who began as a jobbing strip cartoonist only to elevate himself to the status of Psychedelic, Surrealist Pop Art icon is one that is utterly addictive to fans of American movies and comic books.

The treatise is fully supported by documentary excerpts from the 1950s magazines and strips. Sugiura scrupulously “homaged” and swiped from: Jesse Marsh’s Tarzan, Alex Toth’s Johnny Thunder, and particularly Fred Ray’s Tomahawk. These were most commonplace amongst a wealth of graphic treasures synthesised and transformed into something fresh, vibrant and, most crucially, relevant to the entertainment-starved kids of occupied Japan.

Also included is an article by the artist himself, written in 1988 describing his life-long passion for and debt of influence to American cinema – most especially ‘Silent Movies’…

However, although scholarly and revelatory, the text portions of this singular treat pale beside the sheer exuberant energy and B-movie bravura of James Fenimore Cooper’s text…

Shigeru Sugiura (1908-2000) studied painting before becoming an art assistant to comics pioneer Suihō Tagawa (AKA Nakatarō Takamizawa). By 1933, the student was creating his own strips for the gags and Boys’ Own Adventure style comics that proliferated prior to the war.

He returned to the industry when hostilities ended, producing more of the same, but now influenced far more by the ubiquitous comic books of the occupying G.I.s than the silent Westerns and baggy-pants comedies he had voraciously consumed in his youth.

Shigeru Sugiura blended comedy/action stories for children and achieved great success throughout the 1950s, based on well-known characters such as ninja Sasuke Sarutobi or adapted Chinese classics like Journey to the West, furthermore including modern themes like wrestling, science fiction and even movie sensation Gojira/Godzilla to his fun-filled weekly pages in a most prolific and influential career.

…And Westerns; he did lots of rootin’ tootin’ shoot ’em up cowboy stories…

Sugiura (very) loosely adapted Last of the Mohicans in 1953 (when it was already a very familiar tale to Japanese readers) for Omoshiro Manga Bunko – a line of books presenting world classics of literature in comics form – albeit not exactly any form recognisable to literary purists…

He retired in 1958 but returned in 1970, reworking old stories and creating new pieces from the fresh perspective of a fine artist, not a mere mangaka earning a precarious living.

In 1973 he was already refining and releasing his classic tales for paperback reprints when he was approached by publisher Shobunsha to update another. The 1953 Mohicans became their latest re-released tale, slyly reworked as a wry pastiche and kick-starting Sugiura’s second career as a darling of the newborn adult manga market…

One word of warning: This is not your teacher’s Last of the Mohicans, any more than The Shining resembles Stephen King’s actual novel or the way South Pacific could be logically derived from James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific – or how anything Alan Moore wrote could be found in films like From Hell or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen…

Sugiura’s updated 1973-74 iteration forms the majority of this chronicle: a fast-paced riot of non-stop adventure, greed, pride, tragedy and whacky humour wherein both heroic frontiersman Leatherstocking and noble savage Chingachgook are re-imagined as bold young lads in bad times, their desperate quest punctuated with weirdly clashing moments of slapstick, creative anachronism, cross-cultural in-jokes and plain outright peculiarity…

It all works impossibly well, beginning with the introduction of Hawkeye, ‘La Carabine Kid’: a young but doughty colonial scout and spy for the British.

The Empire is at war with the French for possession of the New World, with the Kid and his companions suffering many reverses at the brutal hands of the Mingos – a tribe allied to France. They were also responsible for reducing the mighty Mohicans to two survivors: Chief Chinga and his son Uncas.

The plot thickens when the Mingo Chief and his manic son Magua threaten to abduct Cora and Alice – daughters of British Colonel Munro – in an attempt to force the veteran soldier to surrender his command East Fort to the French. After a savage assault, Hawkeye, the Mohicans and dashing Major Duncan decide to escort the girls to the safety of Fort Henry, with the hostiles close behind…

En route they pick up itinerant preacher Father Gamut, before fighting their way on through wilderness and repeated Mingo attacks, always one step ahead of ‘Magua’s Pursuit’.

The struggle is not one-sided. The wily fugitives contrive to blow up a French fort and even link with a war party of Delas who subsequently reduce the ravening Mingos to scattered remnants – but not before the pursuers carry off ‘The Abducted Sisters’…

The scene is set for the heroes to rescue the girls and end Magua’s threat forever – but the showdown is costly with a high price to pay in ‘The Sad Ending’…

Sheer graphic escapism, spectacular storytelling and a truly different view of a time-honoured masterpiece make this an unmissable treat for all lovers of world comics.

This book is printed in ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.
© 2013 the Estate of Shigeru Sugiura. Translation and essay © 2013 Ryan Holmberg. All rights reserved.

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Rick and Morty: Sometimes Science Is More Art Than Science – The Official Colouring Book


Illustrated by Austin Baechle (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-80336-598-5 (PB)

Multi award-winning Adult Swim (the grown-up after-dark division of Cartoon Network) animated comedy science fiction series Rick and Morty was created by Justin Roiland & Dan Harmon. It was developed from the former’s parody short of Back to The Future in 2006, and with Harmon’s eventual collaboration was unleashed on the universe – arguably all of them – in December 2013. We’re up to Season 7, with 3 more contracted for.

The show combines edgy domestic comedy with outrageous fantasy spread across all of reality, as moral and impressionable Rick Smith is consistently lured into incredible and upsetting situations by his grandfather Morty Sanchez: an alcoholic and extremely brilliant mad scientist who lives with the Smith family. It’s all very funny, wildly imaginative and better read than talked about. (Un)Naturally, there’s a comic book tie-in too, and even a crossover series with the Dungeons & Dragons franchise that you can try too…

This decidedly peculiar and utterly interactive tribute to a strange time all around offers over 60 lusciously large and madly memorable images inspired by the show. Ranging from bizarrely disturbing to profoundly comic, these cartoon confabulations include weird places, odd characters, the Smiths in all their hoary glory, icky, sticky things, dragons, monsters and so much more, all delivered by animator Austin Baechle (Pre Fab), who preloads the magic of the grand parade through time, space, parallel dimensions and the backyard and bedroom in seductive style to delight the already dedicated and entice the uninitiated…

It’s never too soon or too late to unhinge your personal reality and get in touch with your visually expressive side, and the only way this wonderfully whacky experience could be improved is with crayons, paints and pens. Or maybe glue, glitter, fur and precious metals? No digital edition as yet, so if you want to play on a computer, you’ll need to get scanning. However, if you can work a keyboard and acclimatise to Rick and Morty’s many worlds you can surely get by…

Irreverent, subversive and appallingly addictive, the combination of great characters, compelling pictures and mirthful attention-seizing is a welcome way to while away the hours between life and the beyond…

Forget video-games – buy this (renewably resourced) book. If you’re worried about exercise, do the colouring-in standing up and if a mess (or winged dinosaur invasion) ensues, you can boost your cardio rate by cleaning it all up.

Challengingly eccentric and modernistically retro wonderment, this is a fun you can’t imagine …but can purchase.

© 2023 Cartoon Network. RICK AND MORTY and all related characters and elements are © & ™ Cartoon Network.  All Rights Reserved.

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The Songs of Michael Flanders & Donald Swann


Lyrics by Michael Flanders & Donald Swann, illustrated by H. M. Bateman, Gerard Hoffnung, Osbert Lancaster, David Low, Gerald Scarfe, Trog (Willy Fawkes), Edward Burra, Ionicus (Joshua Charles Armitage), William Hewison, Michael ffolkes, Ronald Searle and Many & Various (Elm Tree Books/International Music Publications Limited)
ISBN: 978-0-24189-738 6 (HB) 978-1-85909-439-6 (PB)

When music becomes global major news and both a political hot potato and celebration of Gay Pride, I’d be a sucker not to mark the occasion with a cheap shot and hearty paean for my own aspirational dreams. I want new people to recognise some good old days of my own – in words and pictures as well as musically. If you are intrigued, track these down…

I’m stretching my brief again here (and isn’t that a grisly image to conjure with?) to review this superb slice of comedy nostalgia that’s still readily available. Michael Flanders (1922-1975) and Donald Swann (1923-1994) were primarily songwriters who became a huge international success performing their own material and acting as charming social commentators.

All this they did, live on stage in a vibrant, satirical manner that captivated audiences both in theatres across the globe, but also on the increasingly important television variety circuit.

Their brand of gently jibing whimsy (mostly skewering themselves and a rapidly changing Britain and “Englishness”) through mordant sarcasm delighted the folk of many nations, and songs such as “The Hippopotamus” (you may know it as “Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud”) or “The Reluctant Cannibal” are still liable to break out whenever people of a certain age congregate near a piano.

The dapper duo first teamed up in 1948 and were brilliantly funny on stage. Live albums like At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat are classic examples of comedy stand-up that still leave contemporary improv performers agog and breathless. Both of them died far too early.

This brain-blistering book gathers 41 of their funniest, most sarcastic, touching and best songs, with both sheet music and separate lyrics. It’s also augmented by cartoons and illustrations from some of Britain’s greatest humorous illustrators such as H. M. Bateman, Hoffnung, Osbert Lancaster, David Low, Gerald Scarfe, Trog, Edward Burra, Ionicus, Hewison, ffolkes, Ronald Searle and many others.

If you’re a sucker for shopping lists the delicious ditties done here are In The Bath, Design For Living, Misalliance, The Gas-Man Cometh, A Song Of The Weather, Pillar To Post, Rain On The Plage, Motor Perpetuo, Slow Train, A Transport Of Delight (Omnibus), Last Of The Line, Twenty Tons Of TNT, The Reluctant Cannibal, Pee-Po-Belly-Bum-Drawers, Budget Song, Ballad For The Rich, All Gall, Philological Waltz (Tonga), Song Of Patriotic Prejudice, The Lord Chamberlain’s Regulations, The Album, Ill Wind, Guide To Britten, Song Of Reproduction, Bedstead Men, Excelsior, Vanessa, Twice Shy and the rather worrisome-by-modern-standards Madeira, M’dear?

Also included are a selection of their generally child-friendly airs such as The Armadillo, …Hippopotamus, …Ostrich, …Elephant, …Gnu, …Rhinoceros, …Sloth, …Spider, …Wild Boar, The Whale (Mopy Dick), The Warthog and The Wompom, acting in concert to make this grand book a delight to look at as well read. If you ever needed a reason to dust off the old piano lessons…
© 1977, 1996 International Music Publications Limited. Illustrations © 1977 their respective copyright holders.

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Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer, With Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle


By Tom Lehrer & Ronald Searle (Methuen)
ISBN: 978-0-41348-570-0 (HB) 978-0-41374-230-8 (PB)

And we will all go together when we go.
What a comforting fact that is to know.
Universal bereavement – an inspiring achievement,
Yes, we all will go together when we go.
We will all go together when we go.
All suffused with an incandescent glow.
No one will have the endurance – to collect on his insurance
Lloyd’s of London will be loaded when they go.

Are you musical? I already know that you are a lover of graphic narrative excellence and fine art, so the wonderfully dark, sinister, disturbing and utterly brilliant cartoon illustrations of Ronald Searle will delight you.

But the name of mathematician, songwriter, satirist, Intellectual and early proponent of sick and bad taste humour Tom Lehrer is perhaps not so well known, although his achievements are as remarkable and far-reaching. If you already know of him you’ll know why I’m such a fanatical fan. If not, crack open your search engines. It’ll be the most fun you’ve had in ages.

This terrifically terse yet near-terpsichorean tome – often re-issued as a comedy classic (the last time was 1999) – contains the music, lyrics, words, tunes, piano accompaniments, and guitar chords for 34 classics from a frankly staggering oeuvre and back-catalogue comprising decades of educational and comedic songs. From such classics as “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”, the deeply disturbing yet hilarious “I Hold your Hand in Mine”, “The Old Dope Peddler” and “The Masochism Tango” to the lightly spiky “Be Prepared” or “I Got it from Agnes”, Lehrer makes smart people laugh, venal people squirm and all people think.

Also included are edgy examples from his tenure as songwriter for That Was The Week That Was and educational ditties penned for the Electric Company/Children’s Television Workshop (now the Sesame Workshop).

Some songs have been adapted by George Woodbridge in Mad Magazine,

In 2020, aged of 92, Professor Lehrer donated all lyrics and music written by him to the public domain, and on November 1st, followed up with all recording and performing rights of any kind, making all his originally composed or performed confections free for anyone to use. They are available directly from his site for free download (http://tomlehrersongs.com/).

His accompanying statement concluded with: “This website will be shut down at some date in the not-too-distant future, so if you want to download anything, don’t wait too long.”

Just as with Flanders & Swann there’s no substitute for actual performances, but in case you need more to go on, lurking here all snappy and sharp arias including The Irish Ballad, Fight Fiercely Harvard!, Be Prepared, The Old Dope Peddler, The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be, I Wanna Go Back to Dixie, Lobachevsky, The Hunting Song, I Hold Your Hand in Mine, My Home Town, L-Y, When You Are Old and Gray, The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, A Christmas Carol, Bright College Days, In Old Mexico, She’s My Girl, The Elements, The Masochism Tango, National Brotherhood Week, MLF Lullaby, The Folk Song Army, Smut, Send the Marines, New Math, Pollution, So Long Mom, Who’s Next?, The Vatican Rag, Wernher Von Braun, I Got It from Agnes, Silent E and We Will All Go Together When We Go.

Wedded to the razor-wrought drawings of Ronald Searle, this is an astoundingly entertaining book and what every liberal should make the piano teacher use on the kids: a melodic match for EC horror comics. Lehrer’s music and performances are readily available: go avail yourself of them online – or via your favoured news platform or source.

Moreover, I can’t resist ending with a famous quote. Just remember, please, this is not a malicious man, just a keenly observant Wit who claimed he’d stopped doing satire because “Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger made political satire obsolete”…
© 1981, 1999 Tom Lehrer. Illustrations © 1981 Ronald Searle.

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The Newsboy Legion by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby volume Two


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby with Don Cameron, Joe Samachson, Ed Herron, Arturo Cazeneuve, Curt Swan, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7236-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Just as the Golden Age of comics was beginning, two young men with big dreams met up and began a decades-long association that was always intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes. As kids they had both sold newspapers on street-corners to help their families survive the Great Depression…

Joe Simon was a sharp-minded, talented guy with 5 years’ experience in “real” publishing; working from the bottom up to become art director on a succession of small papers – such as the Rochester Journal American, Syracuse Herald and Syracuse Journal American – before moving to New York City to freelance as an art/photo retoucher and illustrator. Recommended by his boss, Simon joined Lloyd Jacquet’s pioneering Funnies Inc. This was a production “shop”: a conveyor belt of eager talent generating strips and characters for numerous publishing houses eager to cash in on the success of Action Comics and its stellar attraction Superman.

Within days, Simon created The Fiery Mask for Martin Goodman of Timely Comics (now Marvel) and met Jacob Kurtzberg, a cartoonist and animator just hitting his stride with the Blue Beetle for the Fox Feature Syndicate.

Together, Simon and Kurtzberg (who went through many pen-names before settling on Jack Kirby) enjoyed a stunning creative empathy and synergy: galvanizing an already electric neo-industry with a vast catalogue of features and even sub-genres.

They produced influential monthly Blue Bolt, rushed out Captain Marvel Adventures #1 for Fawcett and – after Martin Goodman appointed Simon editor at Timely – created a host of iconic characters such as Red Raven, the first Marvel Boy, Hurricane, The Vision, Young Allies and million-selling mega-hit Captain America.

Famed for his larger-than-life characters and colossal cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual hard-working family man who lived through poverty, gangsterism and the Depression. He loved his work, hated chicanery of every sort and saw a big future for the comics industry…

When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to industry leader National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and open chequebook. The pair were initially an uneasy fit, bursting with ideas the staid company were not comfortable with and thus given two strips that were in the doldrums until they found their creative feet…

Turning both around Sandman and Manhunter virtually overnight and – once established and left to their own devices – went on to devise the “Kid Gang” genre (technically, it was “recreating” as the notion was one of the duo’s last innovations for Timely as seen in 1941’s Young Allies). The result was unique and trendsetting juvenile Foreign Legion The Boy Commandos.

The little warriors began by sharing the spotlight with Batman in flagship publication Detective Comics, but before long they won their own accompanying solo title – which promptly became one of the company’s top three sellers. Frequently cited as the biggest-selling US comic book in the world at that time – Boy Commandos was such a success that the editors, painfully aware that the Draft was lurking, green-lit the completion of extra material to lay away for when their star creators were called up.

S&K assembled a creative team that generated so many stories in a phenomenally short time that publisher Jack Liebowitz then suggested they retool some of it into adventures of a second kid gang…

Thus was born The Newsboy Legion and super-heroic mentor The Guardian…

Probably based on the Our Gang/Little Rascals film shorts (1922-1944) and pitched halfway between a surly comedy grotesques and charmingly naive ragamuffins, the Newsboy Legion comprised four ferociously independent orphans living together on the streets of “Suicide Slum” peddling papers to survive. Earnest, good-looking Tommy Tompkins, garrulous genius Big Words, diminutive, hyper-active chatterbox Gabby and feisty, pugnacious Scrapper – whose Brooklyn-based patois and gutsy belligerence usually stole the show – were all headed for a bad end until somebody extraordinary entered their lives…

Their exploits offered a bombastic blend of crime thriller and comedy caper, leavened with dynamic superhero action and usually seen from a kid’s point of view. The series debuted in Star-Spangled Comics #7, forcing Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy off the covers and to the back of the book. The Legion remained lead feature until the end of 1946 when, without fanfare or warning, issue #65 was published without them.

The lads had been ousted and replaced by solo tales of Robin, the Boy Wonder. His own youth-oriented solo series subsequently ran all the way to SSC #130 in 1952, by which time superhero romps had largely been supplanted throughout the industry by general genre tales.

This second superb collection concludes their Golden Age exploits, with tales from Star-Spangled Comics #33-64 (cover-dated June 1944 – January 1947), including every stunning cover by Kirby, Simon, Fred Ray and teenager Gil Kane all inked by Arturo Cazeneuve, John Daly, Steve Brodie, George Roussos & Stan Kaye. There’s also an informative Introduction from The Jack Kirby Collector/Two Morrows’ publishing guru John Morrow setting the scene for the fun that follows…

In the very first tale, rookie cop Jim Harper adopted a superhero alter ego to administer hands-on justice when The Law was not enough. His vigilantism resulted in the capture of an infamous kidnap ring. Newspapers dubbed the mysterious hero the Guardian of Society and sold like hotcakes on all street corners, making money for even the poorest junior entrepreneurs.

Harper initially had no intention of repeating his foray into vigilantism but when he caught Tommy, Big Words, Gabby and Scrapper shoplifting, his life changed forever. The tough little monkeys were headed for reform school, but he made an earnest plea for clemency on their behalf and the judge appointed him their responsible adult: their “guardian”.

“The Newsboy Legion” were set on a righteous path, but their suspicions were aroused. Frustratingly, no matter how hard they tried, the boys could never prove that their two Guardians were the same guy…

With tales of the war declining in popularity, Star Spangled Comics #33 opens this concluding compilation with ‘The Case of the Bashful Bride!’ Regular illustrator Arturo Cazeneuve limns a fast-paced but uncredited yarn as gangster Sloppy Sam seemingly hangs up his gat after marrying into money. The nosy kids simply can’t accept the transformation and their poking around soon uncovers a cunning plot, cruel criminality and just a hint of hilarious hoity-toity crossdressing behind the scheme…

Naturally, by the time they’re in over their heads, Harper has again swapped his badge and gun for golden helmet and shield to wrap up the case…

The boys’ lives were peppered by dozens of get-rich-quick notions that inevitably uncovered crimes and unleashed chaos. In ‘From Rags to Ruin!’ (#34, by Cazeneuve, July 1944), Gabby discovers the power of positive thinking and talks himself into a high-paying executive position at an insurance company. His dream sours after discovering he’s the figurehead – and fall guy – for a protection racket. Time to call in some old pals…

Still calling himself Eli Katz, future superstar Gil Kane illustrated #35’s ‘The Proud Poppas!’ as the Newsboys adopt a homeless orphan fleeing a cruel and repressive institution. Peter wants to be an artist and gleefully moves into the Boys’ orbit – and shack – but his rightful carers desperately want him back and ruthless kidnappers now know who he is and where he’s hiding…

Cazeneuve returned for ‘The Cowboy of Suicide Slum!’ as grizzled former western sheriff Hawkeye Hawkins of Howlin’ Gulch comes Back East to see the sights. The Legion are all beguiled by his tall tales and before long hip-deep in trouble after they convince the ornery coot to display his talents by going after local gang boss Little Dodo…

After saving a swell from bullies in the slum, Scrapper is offered an apprenticeship by the city’s top gem cutter in ‘Diamonds in the Rough!’ However, as a business prone to criminality, the benefactor expects the fisty firebrand to protect his hands and quit fighting…

When workmen fixing waterpipes trigger a crude oil gusher in Suicide Slum, everybody wants to cash in whilst the toffs in swanky Doughbilt Apartments don’t want their views ruined by derricks. Into that bubbling cauldron of trouble come opportunists; crooks too, so it’s not long until The Guardian and the Legion discover what’s actually going on in ‘Roll Out the Barrels’…

Steve Brodie begins inking Cazeneuve in #39’s ‘Two Guardians Are a Crowd!’ (December 1944) as a crooked doppelganger plays hob with the hero’s reputation and the boys’ conviction of Harper’s double life – until the inevitable face-off – after which notorious thief Danny the Dip bids ‘Farewell to Crime!’ by writing a tell-all memoir. When the kids get involved, it’s exposed as less a confession and more perjury and blame-shifting, leading to the Guardian getting truth – and justice – his way…

When a criminal set fires and create street accidents to tie up first responders in ‘Time Out for the Guardian!’, cop Harper is among the injured. Mistakenly diagnosed with a broken leg, he uses the mistake to convince his wards that the superhero is another guy when they go after the culprits. However, they are just young, not idiots…

In #42, the Legion discovers ‘The Power of the Press!’ when they produce a grassroots periodical going after crooks at ground level. It’s good enough to get them framed by malign mastermind The Undertaker until good old Jim steps in, before the boys test their musical chops in a (naturally fixed and wildly comedic) barbershop quartet singing competition designed to expose the ‘Trials of a Tenor!’

Misguided philanthropy and unthinking privilege steer Ethelreda Winkle and her nephew Cuthbert when the daft dowager sets up an institute to elevate the poor by teaching them proper manners in ‘Etiquette Comes to Suicide Slum!’ With thieves flocking in to improve their chances of better scores, Harper asks the Newsboys to get with the program and learns all is not as seems, after which ‘Crime Gets Clipped!’ finds the lads setting up a …news-gathering “clipping service” and catching a vain bigshot plundering the city’s banks…

‘Clothes Make the Criminal!’ finds the kids on the trail of crooks using a selection of stolen uniforms and costumes to commit outrages before Jim and the boys again prove they have the right stuff…

With George Roussos inking Cazeneuve, ‘The Triumph of Tommy!’ sees the bold Newsboy gunned down by a robber. To recuperate, he’s carted off to Camp Woko-ni-to (“for underprivileged children of the slums”) by his doctor, and when his comrades visit, it sparks another fight when Tommy spots the thug who shot him laying low. Meanwhile, The Guardian has been following another trail and pops up just when he’s most needed…

‘Booty and the Blizzard!’ is one of the few stories we know the writer of. Don Cameron scripts for Cazeneuve & Roussos as an icy cold snap cuts off Suicide Slum and the industrious boys shovel out a network of tunnels for fellow residents trapped behind ten feet of hard-packed snow. Too bad it’s also an ideal escape route for wily bank bandits, until the Guardian learns to ski…

The same creative team measure out ‘One Ounce to Victory!’ as a scrap paper drive gets hyper-competitive when the Newsboys compete with rival news peddlers the Hawker Street Hawks. As if bitter enmity isn’t enough, the effort is made more dangerous after recently released convict Tightlips Leo hides the map to his stashed loot in one of those collected paper piles and resorts to murderous means to retrieve it…

Cover-dated November 1945, Star Spangled #50 features Joe Samachson, Joe Kubert & Roussos adding a flash of film fantasy in ‘The Leopard Man Changes his Spots!’ Here the boys help a meek movie star specialising in monsters channel his inner hero and escape the clutches of a racketeering mobster.

Another industrious enterprise transforms into a means of corralling crooks when the boys start a second-hand apparel business. Naturally, any way to help poor folk advance draws cunning connivers with a perfidious plan, but ‘The Style Show of Suicide Slum’ (Cameron & Kubert) also triggers a wicked comedy of errors when the ugliest jacket on Earth (concealing a fortune in stolen cash) is inadvertently passed from one ungrateful recipient to the next…

Cameron, Cazeneuve & Brodie reunite for #52’s ‘Rehearsal for a Crime!’ as Gabby breaks into an abandoned theatre and mistakes a practise run for robbery for a new play pre-debut. When he comes back with his pals they are all captured and it’s up to Harper to seek them out, shut them down and save the day…

Kirby returned in the next issue where Gabby won a jingle contest – and $500 – and pursued a career in rhyme as ‘The Poet of Suicide Slum!’ (script by Cameron and inked by Brodie). His delusions and propensity for naming gangsters and their plans in his odes soon made him a target for early immortality… until The Guardian applied his own brand of two-fisted criticism…

Another acknowledgement of the rise in western themes informs ‘Dead-Shot Dade’s Revenge!’ (by an uncredited writer, Kirby & Brodie) as a spiky relic of pioneer days drives his “prairie schooner” into Suicide Slum. He’s come 2000 miles in pursuit of Gaspipe Gosser, who stole Dade’s life savings, and it’s all The Guardian can do to stop the old coot shooting him dead like a dawg just to see him drop…

Happily, Gosser’s guilt triggers a pre-emptive strike that gives the hero all he needs to put the thug away, after which Curt Swan & Jack Farr depict how ‘Gabby Strikes a Gusher!’ He had been tending his vegetable garden when he discovered oil, but just as he looks into setting up a company, the thugs who originally stole the stuff came calling…

Cooking for the Newsboys was done on a strict rota basis, with dealer’s choice the prime consideration. When Gabby accidentally came into possession of oysters dropped by fleet-footed Willy Wetsell, he thought it solved his problem of what the gang would eat that night.

Instead, each mollusc contained a superb, huge fully processed Arabian pearl and Jim Harper realised that this ‘Treasure of Araby’ (art by Kirby & Ray Burnley) was far more than chance and not in the least lucky…

Kirby & John Daly limned Star Spangled Comics #57’s cunning shocker as mobster Snake Huggins resolved to fix the interfering brats for good. His plan was to hit him at his weakest point and resulted in ‘A Recruit for the Legion!’ but wealthy Timothy Tuck was not what he seemed and proved a far bigger threat that he looked…

Kirby handled exotic diversion ‘Matadors of Suicide Slum!’ as the boys befriend elderly janitor Perez and hear rousing tales of his glory days in the bullrings of Mexico. Coincidentally, Yankee businessmen are trying to bring the bloody sport to Suicide Slum, leading to a decades-delayed concluding duel between the man and his nemesis El Diabolo. Only, it’s not quite as they recalled or any onlooker quite expected…

From sentimental slapstick, we turn to criminal mystery in Kirby’s Daly inked ‘Answers, Inc.!’ (#59, August 1946) wherein Tommy cashes in on an unsuspected gift for solving riddles, puzzles and general knowledge quizzes. Although he’s smart, he’s still a kid though and when a cunning cove poses a pithy conundrum, Tommy hands over a method for a foolproof heist. Happily, jaded, cynical Jim Harper is on hand to ask his own difficult questions whilst The Guardian is ready to answer them…

Ed Herron, Swan and Stan Kaye then detail a whimsical winner as Scrapper seeks to become ‘Steve Brodie Da Second!’ to one-up friendly rivals the Boy Commandos. The Brodie in question is not the inker, but the turn of the century sportsman who claimed to have survived jumping off the East River Bridge. Here, however, Scrapper’s idiotic emulation ends when he jumps right into a gangster’s secret submarine, and silly season stunt escalates to front page crime caper…

Swan & Kaye then continued the new trend for stunts as Guardian’s pursuit of a crook leads to a syndicate dictating the demise of him and the Newsboy Legion under the pretence of sponsoring them in ‘The Great Balloon Race!’ across America, after which ‘Prevue of Tomorrow’ sees a mysterious stranger spark chaos by handing out papers offering news from 24 hours into the future. Of course for our heroes forewarned is simply forearmed…

Brodie inked Swan on penultimate outing ‘Code of the Newsstand!’ as the boys visit Chinatown just as Harper enters the enclave to find escaped convict Stiletto Mike. Of course, they are first to find the felon but it’s The Guardian who has the last word… and punch.

Cover-dated January 1947, Star Spangled Comics #64 closed the Newsboy Legion’s eclectic run with ‘Criminal Cruise!’ wherein Swan & Brodie had the kids literally sailing off into the sunset after winning an all-inclusive holiday to the South Seas. Naturally, trouble followed with lost tickets, stowaways and a gang of jewel thieves spicing up the voyage…

And that was that for almost 25 years, until Kirby brought them back in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 (October 1970), spearheading his mega revitalisation of DC’s continuity – but let’s talk of that another day…

There is a glorious abundance of Jack Kirby material available these days: true testament to his influence and legacy, with this magnificent and compelling collection in collaborations with fellow pioneer Joe Simon being another gigantic box of delights perfectly illustrating the depth, scope and sheer thundering joy of the early days of comics. Funny, thrilling and ideally accessing simpler days, this is a treat every fan should enjoy and share.
© 1944, 1945, 1946, 2017 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Corpse Talk: Queens & Kings and Other Royal Rotters


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Siegel and Shuster’s Funnyman: The First Jewish Superhero


By Jerome Siegel & Joe Shuster with Thomas Andrae, Mel Gordon & various (Feral House)
ISBN: 978-1-932595-78-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

The comics industry owes an irredeemable debt to two talented and ambitious Jewish kids from Cleveland in the right place at the right time who were able to translate their enthusiasm and heartfelt affection for beloved influences and delight in a new medium into a brand-new genre which took the world by storm.

Writer Jerome Siegel and artist Joe Shuster were a jobbing cartoonist team just breaking into the brand-new yet already-ailing comicbook business with strips such as ‘Henri Duval’, Doctor Occult and Slam Bradley. Thanks to editorial visionary Sheldon Mayer, they hastily rejigged a frequently rejected newspaper strip concept for an upcoming new title and manifested the greatest action sensation of the age – if not all time…

Superman captivated depression-era audiences and within a year had become the vanguard of a genre and an industry. In those early days, the feature was both whimsical and bombastic – as much gag strip as adventure serial – and it was clear the utterly inspired whiz kids were wedded to laughs just as much as any wish-fulfilling empowerment fantasies.

As even the most casual scholar knows, Siegel & Shuster were not well-served by their publishers and by 1946 no longer worked for National Periodicals (today’s DC Comics). In fact, they were in acrimonious litigation which led to the originators losing all rights to their creation and suffering years of ill-treatment until an artist-led campaign at the time of the 1978 Superman movie shamed the company into a belated reversal and financial package (consisting mostly of having their names returned to the character’s logo and company medical benefits).

Long before this however, the dynamic duo produced an abortive “Last Hurrah”: another unique character based on early influences, but one who sadly did not catch the public’s attention in those post war years when the first super-heroic age was ending.

Based broadly on performing sensation Danny Kaye, Funnyman was a stand-up comedian dressed as a clown who used comedy gimmicks to battle criminals, super-villains and aliens: initially in 6 issues of his own comic book and thereafter as a Daily/Sunday newspaper strip.

A complete antithesis to the Man of Steel, Larry Davis was a total insider, no orphan or immigrant, but a wealthy, successful man, revered by society, yet one who chose to become a ridiculous outsider, fighting for not the common good but because it gave him a thrill nothing else could match. The series was light, beautifully audacious, tremendous fun and sank like a concrete-filled whoopee cushion.

Here social historians Thomas Andrae and Mel Gordon carefully re-examine the strip in the much broader context of Jewish Identity and racial character, with particular reference as it applies to Jewish-Americans, and make some fascinating observations and postulates.

Following an intriguing preface by author, writer, editor and comics historian Danny Fingeroth, this book assiduously dissects the history and psychology of the Judaic experience in a compelling series of astoundingly illustrated essays gathered under the umbrellas of Gordon’s ‘The Farblondjet Superhero and his Cultural Origins’ and Andrae’s ‘The Jewish Superhero’.

The former (and Farblondjet translates as “mixed up” or “lost”) probes ‘The Mystery of Jewish Humor’, ‘The Construct of Humor in Everyday Jewish Life’, ‘The Old Theories: Laughter-Through-Tears’; ‘A Laughing People’; ‘Outside Observer’ and ‘The Badkhn Theory’ (Badkhn being performers hired to insult, offend and depress guests and celebrants at social gatherings such as weddings or funerals).

‘Characteristics of Modern Jewish Humor’ are subdivided and explored in ‘Aggression’, ‘The Yiddish Language’, ‘Self-Mockery’, ‘Inversion and Skepticism’, ‘Scatology’, ‘Gallows Humor’ and ‘Solipsism and Materialism’ before Gibson’s compelling, contextual potted-history concludes with ‘American-Jewish Comedy Before 1947’ (the year Funnyman debuted), ‘Weber and Fields’, ‘On the Boards’, ‘The Borscht Belt’, ‘Cartoons and Jokebooks’ and ‘Hollywood Talkies and Syndicated Radio’.

Then, in ‘The Jewish Superhero’ Andrae examines Siegel & Shuster’s possible influences; everything from German expressionist cinema masterpiece The Golem: How He Came into This World to real-life strongman Sigmund Breitbart, a Polish Jew who astounded the world with his feats in the early 1920s. On his American tour Sigmund appeared in Cleveland in October 1923. Siegel, a local resident, would have been 9 years old – which as everyone knows is the actual “golden age of comics”…

‘Funnyman, Jewish Masculinity and the Decline of the Superhero’ explores the psychology and landscape of the medium through the careers and treatment of Siegel & Shuster in ‘The Birth of Funnyman’, ‘The Body Politic’, ‘The Schlemiel and the Tough Jew’, ‘The Decline of the Superhero’ and ‘Comic Book Noir’ before going on to recount the story of the newspaper strips in ‘The Funnyman Comic Strip’ and ‘Reggie Van Twerp’ (a last ditch attempt by the creators to resurrect their comic fortunes) before the inevitable axe falls in ‘End Game…

Thus far this engaging tome is a compulsive and hugely informative academic work, but in ‘Funnyman Comic Book Stories’ the resplendently vintage fan fun truly takes hold with a full colour section reproducing a selection of strips from the 6-issue run.

‘The Kute Knockout!’ (Funnyman #2, March 1948) pits the Hilarious Hero against a streetwalker robot built to seduce and rob Johns after which ‘The Medieval Mirthquake’ (Funnyman #4, May 1948) propels our Comedy Crusader back to the time of Camelot. From the same issue comes ‘Leapin’ Lena’ as Funnyman faces a female bandit who can jump like a kangaroo whilst yarn #5 (July 1948) catches him chasing a worrisome new crime wrinkle in ‘The Peculiar Pacifier’.

Also included are the striking covers of all 6 issues, the origin of Funnyman from #1, lots of splash pages and a selection of Shuster’s Superman art, but the most welcome benefit for fans and collectors is a detailed precis of the entire run’s 20 tales.

The same consideration is offered for the newspaper strips. As well as similar synopses for the Sundays (12 adventures spanning October 31st 1948 to the end of October 1949) and the Dailies (another dozen larks covering October 18th 1948 to September 17th 1949), there are 11 pages of full-colour Sunday sections plus the complete monochrome ‘Adventure in Hollywood’ (December 20th-January 12th 1949) to enjoy and marvel over.

Like Funnyman himself, this book is an odd duck. Whereas I would have loved to see the entire output gathered into one volume, what there is here is completely engrossing: a wonderful assessment and appreciation of genuine world-altering hugely creative comics pioneers enjoying some well-deserved acclaim and compelling cultural contextualization for something other than their mighty Man of Steel. This is a fabulous tome with an appeal extending far beyond its arguably limited funnybook fan audience.
Siegel and Shuster’s Funnyman © 2010 Thomas Andrae and Mel Gordon. All rights reserved.

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Mega Robo Bros: Next Level


By Neill Cameron, with Abby Bulmer (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-294-6 (TPB)

Mighty in metal and potent in plastic, here’s another solid gold all-ages outing from Neill (Tamsin of the Deep, Pirates of Pangea, How to Make Awesome Comics, Freddy) Cameron’s marvellous purpose-built paladins. However, the rambunctious Mega Robo Bros find that even they can’t fight progress adventures and growing pains – in more adventures balancing frantic fun with portents of darker, far more violent days to come…

It’s still the Future!

In a London far cooler than ours, Alex and his younger brother Freddie Sharma are generally typical kids: boisterous, fractious, eternally argumentative yet devoted to each other, and not too bothered that they’re adopted. It’s really no big deal for them that they were meticulously and covertly constructed by the mysterious Dr. Roboticus – before he vanished – and are considered by those in the know as the most powerful – and only fully SENTIENT – robots on Earth.

Dad is just your average old guy who makes lunch and does a bit of writing, but when not being a housewife, Mum is a bit extraordinary, herself – surprisingly famous and renowned robotics boffin Dr. Nita Sharma harbours some shocking secrets of her own…

Life in the Sharma household tries to be pretty normal. Freddie is insufferably exuberant and over-confident, whilst Alex is at the age when self-doubt and anxiety hit hard. Moreover, the household’s other robot rescues can also be problematic…

Programmed as a dog, baby triceratops Trikey is ok, but French-speaking deranged ape Monsieur Gorilla can be mighty confusing, whilst gloomily annoying, existentialist aquatic fowl Stupid Philosophy Penguin hangs around ambushing everyone with quotes from dead philosophers…

The boys have part-time but increasing insistent jobs as super-secret agents, although because they weren’t very good at the clandestine part, almost the entire world knows of them. Generally, however, it’s enough for the digital duo that their parents love them, even though they are a bit more of a handful than most kids. They all live as normal a life as possible: going to human school, playing with human friends and hating homework. It’s all part of their “Mega Robo Routine”, combining dull human activities, actual but rare fun, games-playing, watching TV and constant training in the combat caverns under R.A.I.D. HQ.

Usually, when a situation demands, the boys carry out missions for bossy Baroness Farooq: head of government agency Robotics Analysis Intelligence and Defence. They still believe it’s because they are infinitely smarter and more powerful than the Destroyer Mechs and other man-made minions she usually utilises.

Originally published in UK weekly comic The Phoenix, this revised, retooled and remastered saga opens with the lads feted as global heroes.

After defeating a reject robot rebellion sparked by artificial life activist The Caretaker, the Bros battled monstrous, deadly damaged droid Wolfram and learned that he might be their older brother…

Over the course of that case they learned that fifteen years previously Mum was a young, pretty and brilliant roboticist working under incomparable (but weird) pioneering genius Dr. Leon Robertus. whose astounding advances had earned him the unwelcome nickname Dr. Roboticus. Maybe that was what started pushing him away from humanity…

After months, Robertus to let her repurpose his individually superpowered prototypes into a rapid-response team for global emergencies. Mum used to be a superhero, leading manmade Rapid Response team The Super Robo Six!

While saving lives with them she first met crusading journalist/future husband Michael Mokeme who proudly took her name when they eventually wed…

Robertus was utterly devoid of human empathy but – intrigued by the team’s acclaim and global acceptance – created a new kind of autonomous robot. Wolfram was more powerful than any other construct, and was equipped with certain foundational directives allowing him to make choices and develop his own systems. He could think, just like Alex and Freddy can! Only, as it transpired, not quite…

When Robertus demoted Nita and made Wolfram leader of a new Super Robo Seven, the result was an even more effective unit, until the day Wolfram’s Three Directives clashed during a time-critical mission. Millions of humans paid the price for his confusion and hesitation…

In the aftermath, R.A.I.D. was formed. They tried to shut down Robertus and decommission Wolfram, but the superbot rejected their judgement, leading to a brutal battle, the robot’s apparent destruction and Roboticus escaping…

As the boys absorbed their “Secret Origins”, Wolfram returned attacking polar restoration project Jötunn Base. It covered many miles and was carefully rebalancing the world’s climate, when Wolfram took it over: reversing the chilling process to burn the Earth and drown humanity…

Alex and Freddy were ordered to stay put and not help by Baroness Farooq, but rebelled. By the time the Bros reached Jötunn Base, Wolfram has already ruthlessly crushed a RAID force led by their friend Agent Susie Nichols. After also failing to stop their determined and utterly unreasonable brother, thoughtful, kind contemplative Alex found a way to defeat – and perhaps, destroy – his wayward older brother and save the world…

Here, the boys are seen adapting to a new normal. Their exploit has made them global superstars and whilst immature Freddy is revelling in all the attention Alex is having trouble adjusting: not just to the notoriety and acclaim, but also the horrifying new power levels he achieved to succeed and also the apparent onset of robot puberty…

A collection of shorter, interlinked exploits, Next Level opens with the turbocharged lads attending another Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. Mum has cleverly dodged the affair, leaving Dad and Grandma policing Stupid Philosophy Penguin and Freddy’s increasingly outrageous behaviour in front of the Queen. Anxious and upset, Alex hides in a spectacularly-appointed toilet and finds the Crown Prince doing likewise. Before long, he’s comparing notes on duty and expectation: sharing his feelings of guilt and grief to perhaps the only other kid on Earth who could be expected to comprehend…

Chapter 2 finds the Bros back at R.A.I.D. HQ, breezing through the usual training programs. To stop Wolfram, the boys had to be upgraded with safety protocols rescinded and they are now almost too powerful. That’s proved the moment they let go against the latest droid weapon and reduce it to more budget-busting spare parts in seconds. That’s when Dr. Sharma’s assistant Zahra Abdikarim has a rather brilliant idea, involving force fields and holograms…

Freddy’s dangerous boredom levels are soon decreased via a training regime that resembles a giant video game…

Another day and another first as Freddy foils an actual bank robbery by an actual exo-suited supervillain and stumbles into an even more insidious crime scheme: copyright infringement!

Whilst grandstanding for the crowds after the bust, the little lout sees a street seller hawking extremely sophisticated robot toy knock-offs of him and his brother. Suspicious and worried, Alex and still-recuperating Agent Susie (working from her hospital bed by telemetric tech) trace the toys to Toymakr Industries and clash with a ruthless narcissistic entrepreneur with no respect for law and life. Not only has he stolen their images and reputations, but also weaponised the little dolls and constructed “upgraded” doppelgangers of the real deal…

Cue huge robot-on-robot carnage…

Chapter 4 takes a more introspective tone as Alex’s PTSD trauma manifests as horrific bad dreams and his parents look into therapy and quickly hit a huge biological snag. Although the boys have literally grown from babies and physically change like humans, they are still mechanical not organic and most counselling strategies just won’t work on them. Thankfully Mum is a genius and finds another way to get Alex the help he so badly needs…

Introspection turns to action when the Bros are called in by the Metropolitan Police to help solve a string of impossible robotics/computer company robberies. With Susie in a tricked-out wheelchair, the boys rapidly uncover a cunning, ludicrous yet deadly scheme by an old foe…

A different kind of crisis manifests next as the Mega Robo Bros experience the dubious joys of camping, on and organised kids-only Outbound Adventure trip. It’s the first time away from home – other than for Earth-saving – for both boys and neither is keen to spend time in a strange camp with boys they don’t know. It’s a life-changing experience for all concerned…

After many close calls, Chapter 7 finally hosts the wedding of Susie Nichols and Zahra Abdikarim, but of course the brides’ big day acts as a magnet for chaos and one particular old enemy. Happily, Baroness Farooq is astoundingly adept at anticipating any possible contingency and the Bros are delighted to hand out a hearty hammering to the party crasher in the bombastic feelgood final chapter…

Crafted by Cameron and colouring assistant Abby Bulmer, this rip-roaring riot isn’t quite over yet: offering charming activity pages on ‘How To Draw Cuddle-Bots!’ and ‘How To Panda’ (both Cute and Angry!), as well as delivering a whacky brace of Bonus Comic! capers with ‘Monsieur Gorilla in Les Vacances de M. Gorilla’ before Alex & Freddy play ‘Legend of Heroes’ with catastrophic results…

Exceedingly engaging excitement and hearty hilarity is balanced here with poignant moments of insecurity and introspection, affording g thrills, chills, warmth, wit and incredible verve. Alex and Freddy are utterly authentic kids, irrespective of their origins, and their antics strike exactly the right balance of future shock, family fun and superhero action to capture readers’ hearts and minds. What movies these tales would make!

Text and illustrations © Neill Cameron 2023. All rights reserved.
Mega Robo Bros Next Level will be released on May 4th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

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Shrine of the Morning Mist volume 1


By Hiroki Ugawa, translated & adapted by Jeremiah Bourque & Hope Donovan (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-59816-343-8 (Tank?bon TPB)

Much manga may be characterised by a fast, raucous and even occasionally choppy style and manner of delivery but the first volume of Hiroki Ugawa’s atmospheric supernatural thriller -a moody saga of young love – takes its time to get all the elements in play rather than simply steaming in all guns blazing.

Set in Hiroshima Prefecture (noted for shrines and beautiful mist-draped landscapes) and specifically the city of Miyoshi, Asagiri no Miko or Shrine of the Morning Mist first appeared serialised in monthly periodical Young King OURS between Match 2000 and April 2013: running eventually to 9 volumes of eerie mystery, romance comedy and demonic action.

The saga opens in traditionally portentous manner and carefully unfolds the story of young Yuzu Hieda, one of 3 sisters who are hereditary “Miko” (a combination of shaman, spirit medium and priestess attached to Shinto shrines and temples) who attend to local places of worship. The siblings are particularly gifted with special powers to combat all the supernatural threats menacing the region.

Little more than a teenager herself, schoolgirl Yuzu is troubled by the reappearance of childhood sweetheart – and cousin – Tadahiro Amatsu. After 5 years away, he has come home only to be immediately targeted by evil forces. Despite being teased by sisters Tama and Kurako, Yuzu accompanies them to the railway station just in time to save the prodigal from a sinister, sorcerous old man obsessed with the boy’s blood.

Invited to stay with the Miko in their home, the withdrawn youngster is disquieted by the teasing and references to his past relationship with Yuzu, even though the father of the house proves to be a far-more unforgiving prospect…

Mystic forces are gathering round the introspective, solitary kid – with repercussions felt as far away as Tokyo – and over their dad’s objections Tadahiro is pressured into staying at the Hieda home where he can be properly safeguarded. However, next morning when the girls are at school, a monolithic, cyclopean demon attacks the house. The assault is instantly perceived by Yuzu who dashes back to save him, only to find her long-absent mother already there, having driven off the dark “kami”. Well, one of them, at least…

Typically even Mother Miyuki thinks Tadahiro and Yuzu are a perfect, predestined couple…

With questions swirling about him, such as “why is everybody so interested in my blood?” and “whatever happened to my parents?”, shell-shocked Tadahiro is blissfully unaware that the Miko are forming a protective Council around him, but even he knows something is up when dark newcomer Koma introduces herself and reveals she knew his long-departed father. Intimately…

To Be Continued…

This uncharacteristically slow-paced, contemplative and almost elegiac tale mystery was partially inspired by a classical tale recorded on the historic Inu Mononoke scroll and Hiroki Ugawa’s beautiful illustration perfectly captures a sense of brooding ancient powers at war, even during the most juvenile set-piece moments of awkward young romance and generational embarrassment comedy.

A slightly off-beat but intriguing tale for older readers, this monochrome volume is currently unavailable in digital editions but still readily available through online vendors.
© 2001 Hiroki Ugawa. All rights reserved. English text © 2006 TokyoPop inc.