Kids – All Ages – Page 48

April 3, 2015April 2, 2015

Spirou and Fantasio volume 7: The Rhinoceros’ Horn

By AndrÃ© Franquin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-224-9

Spirou (whose name translates as both â€œsquirrelâ€ and â€œmischievousâ€ in the Walloon language) was created by French cartoonist FranÃ§ois Robert Velter under the pen-name Rob-Vel for Belgian publisher Ã‰ditions Dupuis in response to the phenomenal success of HergÃ©’s Tintin for rival outfit Casterman.

The legendary title was launched on April 21^st 1938 with a rival red-headed lad as the lead of an anthology weekly comic which bears his name to this day.

The character began life as a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a reference to publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique) whose improbable adventures with his pet squirrel Spip eventually evolved into high-flying surreal comedy dramas.

Spirou and his associates have spearheaded the magazine for most of its life, with a phalanx of truly impressive creators carrying on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche â€œDavineâ€ Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939.

She was assisted by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943 when Dupuis purchased all rights to the feature, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (â€œJijÃ©â€) took the helm.

In 1946 JijÃ©‘s assistant AndrÃ© Franquin assumed the reins, gradually sidelining the short, gag-like vignettes in favour of longer epic adventure serials, introducing a wide and engaging cast of regulars and eventually creating a phenomenally popular magic animal dubbed Marsupilami to the mix (first seen in Spirou et les hÃ©ritiers in 1952 and now a spin-off star of screen, plush toy store, console games and albums all his own).

He crafted increasingly fantastic tales and absorbing Spirou sagas until he resigned in 1969.

He was succeeded by Jean-Claude Fournier who updated the feature over the course of nine stirring adventures which tapped into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times with tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes.

By the 1980s the series seemed outdated and without direction: three different creative teams alternated on the feature, until it was at last revitalised by Philippe Vandevelde – writing as Tome – and artist Jean-Richard Geurts AKA Janry, who adapted, referenced and in many ways returned to the beloved Franquin era. Their sterling efforts consequently revived the floundering feature’s fortunes and resulted in fourteen wonderful albums between 1984 and 1998.

As the strip diversified into parallel strands (Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and guest-creator specials A Spirou Story Byâ€¦) the team on the main vehicle were succeeded by Jean-David Morvan & JosÃ©-Luis Munuera, and in 2010 Yoann & Vehlmann took over the never-ending procession of amazing adventuresâ€¦

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since October 2009, mainly translating Tome & Janry’s superb pastiche/homages of Franquin, but for the fifth episode (The Marsupilami Thieves), they reached all the way back to 1952 and the second appearance of the adorable wonder-beast by the great man himself.

With that brave experiment clearly having paid dividends they repeated the experiment here, but with times and taste having changed so radically felt the need to issue a heartfelt warning and carefully considered apologia regarding some content of The Rhinoceros’ Hornâ€¦

I’ll prÃ©cis it here: it was sixty years ago and our attitudes to hunting, minorities and especially the modern obscenity of killing for ivory and horn have thankfully changed. Please read this book with that in mind. The publishers, of course, phrased it much betterâ€¦

AndrÃ© Franquin was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3^rd 1924. Drawing from an early age, the lad only began formal art training at Ã‰cole Saint-Luc in 1943. When the war forced the school to close a year later, he found animation work at Compagnie Belge d’Animation in Brussels where he met Maurice de Bevere (Lucky Luke creator â€œMorrisâ€), Pierre Culliford (Peyo, creator of The Smurfs) and Eddy Paape (Valhardi, Luc Orient).

In 1945 all but Peyo signed on with Dupuis, and Franquin began his career as a jobbing cartoonist and illustrator, producing covers for Le Moustique and scouting magazine Plein Jeu.

All during those early days Franquin and Morris were being tutored by JijÃ© who was the main illustrator at Spirou. He turned the youngsters and fellow neophyte Willy Maltaite AKA Will (Tif et Tondu, Isabelle, Le jardin des dÃ©sirs) into a perfect creative bullpen known as the La bande des quatre or â€œGang of Fourâ€ who revolutionised Belgian comics with their prolific and engaging â€œMarcinelle schoolâ€ style of graphic storytelling.

JijÃ© handed Franquin all responsibilities for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison prÃ©fabriquÃ©e, (Spirou #427, June 20^th 1946) and the lad ran with it for two decades, enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own.

Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as comrade and rival Fantasio and crackpot inventor the Count of Champignac. Along the way Spirou and Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, continuing their exploits in unbroken four-colour glory.

The heroes travelled to exotic places, uncovering crimes, revealing the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Zantafio. This particular tale saw the debut of one of the first strong, capable female characters in European comics; rival journalist Seccotine (renamed Cellophine for this translation).

In a splendid example of good practise, Franquin mentored his own band of apprentice cartoonists during the 1950s. These included Jean Roba (La Ribambelle, Boule et Bill), JidÃ©hem (Sophie, Starter, Gaston Lagaffe) and Greg (Bruno Brazil, Bernard Prince, Achille Talon, Zig et Puce), who all worked with him on Spirou et Fantasio.

In 1955 – around the time this story was collected into an album – contractual conflicts with Dupuis forced Franquin to sign up with rival outfit Casterman on Tintin. Here he collaborated with RenÃ© Goscinny and old pal Peyo whilst creating the raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon.

He soon patched things up with Dupuis and returned to Spirou, subsequently co-creating Gaston Lagaffe in 1957, but was obliged to carry on his Tintin work tooâ€¦

From 1959 on, writer Greg and background artist JidÃ©hem assisted Franquin but by 1969 the artist had reached his Spirou limit and resigned, taking his mystic Marsupilami with himâ€¦

His later creations include fantasy series Isabelle, illustration sequence Monsters and bleak adult conceptual series IdÃ©es Noires, but his greatest creation – and one he retained all rights to on his departure – is Marsupilami.

Franquin, plagued in later life by bouts of depression, passed away on January 5^th 1997 but his legacy remains, a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics.

The Rhinoceros’ Horn was originally serialised in two sequences in Spirou: #764-787 (Spirou et la Turbotraction) and #788-797(La corne de rhinocÃ©ros), spanning late 1952 and early 1953 before being united in hardback album La corne de rhinocÃ©ros in 1955.

The story begins with Spirou exulting over the success of Fantasio’s latest enterprise – personal helicopters worn as backpacks – but his pal is rather down in the dumps. He’s just been dressed down by his editor on The Mosquito and warned that the paper has hired a new reporter: a real go-getting hotshotâ€¦

Dejected and desperate Fantasio determines to revive his career by staging a publicity stunt: robbing the Good Bazaar Department Storeâ€¦

As the rattled reporter draws up his plans and sends a warning to the store of his intentions, a colossal explosion shakes the town. Persons unknown have blown up the nearby Turbot car plant. With even more to prove now, Fantasio proceedsâ€¦

Dragged along for the ride to photograph the stunt, Spirou and Spip reluctantly join their pal in the hare-brained venture. Landing on the roof of the emporium courtesy of the petrol-powered â€œFantacoptersâ€, they deftly break in through the fire-door, Spirou recording everything with his gigantic flash camera.

Typically the lead-footed burglars make an appalling clatter and tremendous mess but no night-watchmen confront them. They’ve all been incapacitated and tied up by real robbersâ€¦

Hearing the villains approach, the lads take refuge in a wardrobe in the bedrooms department and discover an old acquaintance already there. Behring works for Turbot and was wounded in the explosion earlier. Moreover, he’s carrying blueprints for the company’s latest advancement and the burglars in the darkened store are actually bandits trying to finish him off to get themâ€¦

Handing the boys an envelope and begging them to get it to his employer Mr. Martin, the troubleshooter loses consciousness just as the nervous heroes are challenged by a shadowy figure demanding the precious prize. It’s not the bad guys however, but Fantasio’s new journalistic nemesisâ€¦

Cellophine is already streets ahead of them: she knows of the plot to steal Turbot’s revolutionary supercar. All she needs is the address Behring muttered to secure an interview with the in-hiding Martin and her next terrific scoopâ€¦

And that’s when the gun-toting bandits make their move, demanding blueprints and rendezvous address. Thankfully Spirou is still holding the camera and super-bright flashgunâ€¦

Hilariously and calamitously fleeing for their lives through the darkened store, the boys eventually make their escape via fantacopters from the top storey, allowing Cellophine to lock the bandits up on the roof before dragging Behring to safety.

The next morning the boys are in Whistleton but Martin has already fled. His note reveals nothing, but later a sinister stranger in a cafÃ© advises them to surrender the blueprints and warns them not to join Martin in Bab-el-bled in North Africa.

Ignoring him and returning home, they encounter the distressingly persistent Cellophine and Spirou clues her in. Sadly the thugs have tracked them down and overhear the plans. When the boys catch a jet liner to Africa, the heavily disguised heavies are in the seats behind themâ€¦

They villains are on their tails all though the streets of Bab-el-bled, but a wig malfunction in the Souk warns Spirou they’re being followed and another hectic chase ensues.

Thinking they’ve at last shaken their pursuers our heroes go to Martin’s house only to learn he was ambushed by the banditsâ€¦

Happily the troubled Turbot exec escaped and fled further into North Africa. He’s rushing off to the M’saragba Animal Reservation but as the boys try to follow Cellophine appears and pips them to the last spot on the plane – stowed away in the baggage holdâ€¦

Forced to follow by train, it is eight days later when Fantasio and Spirou finally reach the Reserve and yet again – as the infinitely annoying Cellophine explains – they’ve just missed Martin. He was chased into the bush by the implacable banditsâ€¦

The youngsters go after him and, later that afternoon, find him just after the thugs do. Having shot Martin, the villains are smugly gloating when the sinister stranger from the cafÃ© in Whistleton appears. He’s a cop and finally has enough evidence to arrest them for blowing up the factoryâ€¦

They are all too late. The harassed entrepreneur has already got rid of his portion of the plans, giving them to a native friend to hide.

As Martin is carried to hospital, Spirou and Fantasio volunteer to retrieve the accursed documents but they have not reckoned on the quirky ingenuity of the chief of the Wakukus, the vastness of the reserve and the sheer bloody-mindedness of the local flora and fauna.

After days of unpleasant and painful adventures they finally locate the tribe and, following even more nerve-wracking moments convince the chief that they too are friends of Martin. That’s when the king delivers his bombshell.

Tasked with keeping safe the plans – now contained on a spool of microfilm – the wily Wakuku had his men capture a live rhino before drilling a hole in its horn and sealing the container within. He then released it back into the wild. He has no idea where it is now or even which of the 200 in the park it might beâ€¦

Determined to complete their mission, the lads spend months tracking and capturing the assorted beasts. The task becomes only slightly easier after they find a dipsomaniac white trader who sells them hunting gear and latterly, yellow paint so that they can tell the rhinos they’ve already checked from the ones so cunningly evading themâ€¦

It’s a backbreaking, heartbreaking and increasingly pointless task but only when their resolve crumbles and they brokenly give up and head for home do they find the prize in the very last place they lookedâ€¦

Even the trip back is a tribulation, and eventually they collapse only to awake in a nice clean hospital with Martin and Cellophine offering to fill in the blanks on this baffling caseâ€¦

Six weeks later the lads are recuperating at home when Behring shows up. He’s got a little reward for them from the grateful Turbot Company but, as usual, Cellophine is on hand to spoil it for Fantasioâ€¦

Stuffed with superb slapstick situations, riotous keystone kops chases and gallons of gags, this exuberant yarn is a true celebration of angst-free action, thrills and spills. Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductively wholesome Ã©lan which makes Asterix, Lucky Luke, The Bluecoats and Iznogoud so compelling, this is another enduring comics treat from a long line of superb exploits, certain to be as much a household name as those series – and even that other kid with the white dogâ€¦
Original edition Â© Dupuis, 1955 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation 2014 Â© Cinebook Ltd.

March 29, 2015March 28, 2015

The Moomins and the Great Flood

By Tove Jansson, translated by David McDuff (Sort Of Books)
ISBN: 978-1-90874-513-2

Tove Jansson was one of the greatest literary innovators and narrative pioneers of the 20^th century: equally adept at shaping words and images to create worlds of wonder. She was especially expressive with basic components such as pen and ink, manipulating slim economical lines and patterns to realise sublime realms of fascination, whilst her deeply considered dexterity made simple forms into incredibly expressive and potent symbols.

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and practically bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9^th 1914.

Her father Viktor was a sculptor, her mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson a successful illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars and Per Olov became a cartoonist/writer and photographer respectively. The family and its close intellectual, eccentric circle of friends seems to have been cast rather than born, with a witty play or challenging sitcom – or immortal kids’ fantasy – as the piece they were all destined to act in.

After intensive study from 1930-1938 (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, the Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris) she became a successful exhibiting artist all through the troubled period of the Second World War. She was immensely creative in many fields, and began her first novel as the war clouds began blighting Europe in 1939.

As she recounts in her Preface to the 1991 Scandinavian edition, all too soon it became too much and she laid it aside. Only once the war was over did she acquiesce to the urgings of friends to complete it.

In 1945 the first fantastic Moomins adventure was published: SmÃ¥trollen och den stora Ã¶versvÃ¤mningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood or latterly and more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood), a whimsical epic of gentle, inclusive, accepting, understanding, bohemian, misfit trolls and their strange friends, all searching for something precious that was lost in the aftermath of a terrible calamityâ€¦

A youthful over-achiever, from 1930-1953 Tove worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for Swedish satirical magazine Garm, and achieved some measure of notoriety with an infamous political sketch of Hitler in nappies that lampooned the Appeasement policies of Chamberlain and other European leaders in the build-up to World War II. She was also an in-demand illustrator for many magazines and children’s books, and had started selling comic strips as early as 1929.

Moomintroll was her signature character. Literally.

The lumpy, lanky, gently adventurous big-eyed romantic goof began life as a spindly sigil next to her name in her political works. She called him â€œSnorkâ€ and claimed she had designed him in a fit of pique as a child – the ugliest thing a precocious little girl could imagine – as a response to losing an argument about Immanuel Kant with her brother.

The term â€œMoominâ€ came from her maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop her pilfering food when she visited by warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. Eventually Snork/Moomin filled out, became timidly nicer – if a little clingy and insecure – acting as a placid therapy-tool to counteract the grimness of the post-war world.

The Moomins and the Great Flood didn’t make much of an initial impact but Jansson persisted, probably as much for her own edification as any other reason, and in 1946 her second book Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland) was published. Many critics and commentators have reckoned the terrifying tale a skilfully compelling allegory of Nuclear Armageddon.

When it and her third illustrated novel Trollkarlens hatt (Finn Family Moomintroll or occasionally The Happy Moomins from 1948) were translated into English in 1952 to great acclaim, it prompted British publishing giant Associated Press to commission a newspaper strip about her seductively sweet and sensibly surreal creations.

Jansson had no misgivings or prejudices about strip cartoons and had already adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Mumintrollet och jordens undergÃ¤ng – Moomintrolls and the End of the World – was a popular feature so Jansson readily accepted the chance to extend her eclectic family across the world.

In 1953 The London Evening News began the first of 21 Moomin strip sagas which promptly captivated readers of all ages. Tove’s involvement in the cartoon feature ended in 1959, a casualty of its own success and a punishing publication schedule. So great was the strain that towards the end she had recruited her brother Lars to help. He took over, continuing the feature until its end in 1975, captivating generations of children and adults alike and pushing Jansson’s gentle gang to the forefront of literary universesâ€¦

Eventually after a succession of nine novels, five picture books and that sublime strip, Tove returned to painting, writing and her other creative pursuits, generating plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera as well as thirteen books and short-story collections strictly for grown-ups.

Tove Jansson died on June 27^th 2001 and her awards are too numerous to mention, but consider this: how many modern artists – let alone comics creators – get their faces on the national currency?

Her Moomin comic strips have long been available in Scandinavian volumes and the discerning folk at Drawn & Quarterly have translated these into English for your – and especially my – sheer delight and delectation.

The Moomins and the Great Flood – being slightly more sombre than the later tales – was out of print for years in Europe (until the aforementioned 1991 edition) and never translated into English at all until 2005 – published by Schildts of Finland for the 60^th anniversary of the series.

This resplendent hardback edition hails from 2012, published in Britain by Sort Of Books and a charmingly moving little thing it is. Not strictly a comic strip or a graphic novel, but rather a beautifully illustrated picture book, unafraid to be allegorical or scary or sad yet closing with a message of joy and hope and reconciliationâ€¦

It begins as capable Moominmamma and her nervous little son enter the deepest part of the great Forest one day at the end of August. They are tired and hungry and have been searching for the longest time for Moominpappa. The big gallant fool went off adventuring with the crazy wandering Hattifatteners and they haven’t seen him for yearsâ€¦

Soon they are joined by a nervous Little Creature and after escaping a Great Serpent meet a blue haired girl named Tulippa who used to live in a flowerâ€¦

Travelling together they meet an old gentleman who lives in a tree which contains a huge park full of sweets and treats, traverse a terrific abyss in a railway cart and narrowly escape an ant-lion.

Persevering the hopeful party continue their wandering search until they meet a band of Hattifatteners and join them on their boat just as the skies begin to darken and a vast deluge beginsâ€¦

The tumultuous voyage search takes them through a world turned upside down by calamity but eventually leads to a joyous reunion after all the assorted and individualistic creatures affected by disaster pull together to survive the inundation and its effectsâ€¦

Augmented with 14 stunning sepia-wash illustrations and 34 spot-illos in various styles of pen and ink scattered like cartoon confetti throughout the confection, this is a magical lost masterpiece for the young, laced with the unfettered imagination, keen observation and mature reflection which enhances and elevates only the greatest kid’s stories into classics of literature. Charming, genteel, amazingly imaginative and emotionally intense, this is a masterpiece of fantasy no one could possibly resistâ€¦
Text and illustrations Â© Tove Jansson 1945, 1991. English translation Â© David McDuff 2012.

March 26, 2015March 24, 2015

The Mystery of the Crooked Imp – Tales of Fayt

By Conrad Mason & Neill Cameron (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-910200-42-1

In January 2012 Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at girls and boys between 6 and 12 which 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 offers humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. In the years since its premiere, The Phoenix has gone from strength to strength, winning praise from the Great and the Good, child literacy experts and the only people who really count – the astoundingly engaged kids and parents who read itâ€¦

That same year â€œThe Little Company that Couldâ€ also began publishing a trilogy of excellent children’s fantasy novels starring the strange denizens of a fantastic place called Port Fayt.

Conrad Mason’s enchanting saga of life’s underbelly in a bustling commercial harbour situated at the other end of the Ebony Ocean is wonderfully redolent of Sir Terry Pratchett’s sublime Discworld – both in tone and scope.

The seething dock community – shared by humans, trolls, elves, fairies, magicians and so many other sorts of fey folk and night people – is revealed though the continuing exploits of The Demon’s Watch – a pan-species band of volunteer police who do what the lackadaisical constables of the official Dockside Militia cannot or will notâ€¦

Trade is king in Port Fayt and the â€œBlackcoatsâ€ mustered by the dominant and immensely powerful Trading Companies are supposed to arrest pickpockets, smugglers and other business-harming riffraff, but the ordinary citizenry have far more faith in the Watch’s shark-tattooed brotherhood of bluecoats who do good because it’s right and not because they’re (badly) paid toâ€¦

Supplementing the prose novels, this superb graphic outing is magically illustrated by David Wyatt (Peter Pan in Scarlet, the Larklight Trilogy, Mortal Engines, assorted tomes of the aforementioned Mr. Pratchett and J.R.R. Tolkien amongst others) and opens with an informative background lecture in ‘Crafty Crocklewick’s Giude to Port Fayt’: a potted history complete with detailed and annotated maps of the region and its more infamous landmarks such as Manticore Playhouse, The Brig and Bootle’s Pie Shop – HQ and front office of the Demon’s Watch.

Their latest case opens one sparkling midnight when a band of desperate fairies hold up a coach and steal a very unusual human baby. It is most odd: fairies are notorious thieves but generally their preferred loot is sugar, not infants with sparkly eyesâ€¦

Next morning the child’s parents enjoy a visit from the Demon’s Watch offering assistance, but the wealthy Rattigans seem more annoyed than upset over little Clarence‘s abduction and, whilst half-ogre Captain Newton, troll brothers Frank and Paddy Bootle, ancient elf Old Jon and young magician Hal quiz them, wise and crafty young apprentice Tabitha gets the impression their maid Joanna knows more than she’s letting onâ€¦

Soon however the Watch are tracking down the carriage driver – a dwarf by the name of Whelk – but there are still a few unanswered questions to ponder. For instance: where was the baby going in a coach at midnight and why weren’t the parents with him?

For that matter why haven’t these wealthy types called in the Militia?

The investigation leads to insalubrious inn the Rusty Anchor but when they arrive the Watch discover Whelk expiring with a cutlass in his guts. Leaving Hal and Tabitha to tend the dying dwarf, they pursue the assailants and Tabs catches Whelk’s dying words: â€œthe crooked impâ€â€¦

In the crowded alleyways below they confront a most motley crew of blackguards and a ferocious battle ensues until late-arriving Tabs joins in and distracts Newton enough so that the killer clowns can escapeâ€¦

As the elder watchmen ponder the mysteries, downhearted Tabs prowls the market, sulking whilst buying the cakes she’s been despatched for until she encounters a frantically fleeing fairy named Spoon. The flighty fool has become the target of an obsessive and hungry seagull and is most grateful for her help in escaping the feathered fiend. She even spends a little precious time getting acquainted with the self-proclaimed â€œFree Fairyâ€â€¦

When they part company Tabs goes back to Pie Shop and Spoon goes home where his formidable mum makes him help feed that appalling human baby they snatched for their human clientâ€¦

Captain Newton meanwhile has taken his team into the seamiest dives in Port Fayt in search of information, but no one knows of a Crooked Imp. Wily old elf Jeb does know something of a band of garish thugs however. They sound like the nasty cutthroats employed by a maniacally bonkers troll gang-boss known as The Actorâ€¦

As Jeb fills them in on the monster’s likely lair – an old abandoned playhouse in the Marlinspike Quarter – the suspect is currently taking a meeting with an extremely dangerous client of his own: one nasty enough to give even a psychopathic troll pause and one who really, really wants the baby he was promisedâ€¦

When the Watch tool up for a serious fight with The Actor’s crew Tabs is furious at being left behind again, but soon finds a new clue when Joanna turns up with a rather dubious ransom note for Clarence. It has been signed by the Free Fairiesâ€¦

Whilst Tabs frantically hunts down Spoon, at the playhouse The Actor and his frankly terrifying employer are still engaged in heated debate when Newt and the lads storm in for a final dust-up. All manner of pointless carnage ensues but when our heroes return, bloodied, unbowed but without either Actor or Clarence, they find that Tabitha has discerned the secret of the Crooked Impâ€¦

The Watch soon rescue Clarence and solve the case of his kidnapping, but it only leads to even greater danger as the role of the Actor and intentions of his eerie employer – as well as the ghastly Rattigans – is finally revealed. However before they can close the case the maniacs turn the tables on our heroes, capturing them all and attempting to make them walk the plank into a nest of artificial sharks. Once again it’s up to Tabs to save the day, so it’s a good thing she has Spoon and that crazy seagull on her sideâ€¦

Topped off with a foreboding promise of Things to Come and a handy set of information pages on the Demon’s Watch, this boisterous blockbuster is bright, breezy and packed with pies and punch-ups: a rip-roaring mystery yarn that’s furious fun for the entire family. Grab this and prose novels The Demon’s Watch, The Goblin’s Gift and The Hero’s Tomb and surrender to Faytâ€¦

Text Â© Conrad Mason 2015. Illustrations Â© David Wyatt 2015.
The Mystery of the Crooked Imp will be released on April 2^nd 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

March 10, 2015March 9, 2015

Jesse James: Lucky Luke volume 4

By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Frederick W. Nolan (CineBook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-14-4

It’s hard to think of one of Europe’s most beloved and long-running comics characters being in any way controversial, but when changing times caught up with the fastest gun in the West (â€œso fast he can outdraw his own shadowâ€) and the planet’s most laconic cowboy moved with them, the news made headlines all over the world.

Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, lightning-fast cowboy who roams the fabulously mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his horse Jolly Jumper and interacting with a host of historical and legendary figures of the genre.

His continued exploits over nearly seventy years have made him one of the best-selling comic characters in Europe (81 collected books and more than 300 million albums in 30 languages thus far), with spin-off toys, computer games, animated cartoons and even a plethora of TV shows and live-action movies.

He was created in 1946 by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de BÃ©vÃ¨re (â€œMorrisâ€) for the 1947 Annual (L’Almanach Spirou 1947) of Le Journal de Spirou, before launching into his first weekly adventure ‘Arizona 1880’on December 7th 1946.

Prior to that, while working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’ActualitiÃ©s) cartoon studio, Morris met future comics super-stars Franquin and Peyo, and worked for weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist – which is probably why (to my eyes at least) his lone star hero looks uncannily like the young Robert Mitchum who graced so many memorable mid-1940s B-movie Westerns.

Morris quickly became one of â€œla Bande des quatreâ€ – The Gang of Four – which comprised creators JijÃ©, Will and his old comrade Franquin: the leading proponents of the loose and free-wheeling artistic style known as the â€œMarcinelle Schoolâ€ which dominated Spirou in aesthetic contention with the â€œLigne Claireâ€ style used by HergÃ©, EP Jacobs and other artists on Tintin Magazine.

In 1948 said Gang (all but Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, meeting fellow traveller RenÃ© Goscinny, scoring some work from the newly-formed EC sensation Mad whilst making copious notes and sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West.

That research would resonate on every page of his life’s work.

Working solo until 1955, Morris produced another nine albums worth of affectionate sagebrush parody before reuniting with Goscinny, who became the regular wordsmith as Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with ‘Des rails sur la Prairie’ (Rails on the Prairie), which began in Spirou on August 25^th 1955.

In 1967 the six-gun straight-shooter switched sides, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with ‘La Diligence’ (The Stagecoach). Goscinny eventually produced 45 albums with Morris before his death, from whence onwards Morris continued both singly and with fresh collaborators.

Morris himself died in 2001 having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus spin-off sagas of Rantanplan (â€œdumbest dog in the Westâ€ and a charming spoof of cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin), with AchdÃ©, Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean LÃ©turgie, Jacques Pessis and others all taking a crack at the evergreen franchiseâ€¦

Moreover, apart from that very first adventure, Lucky (to appropriate a quote applied to the thematically simpatico TV classic Alias Smith and Jones) â€œin all that timeâ€¦ never shot or killed anyoneâ€â€¦

Lucky Luke first appeared in Britain syndicated to weekly comic Film Fun in the late 1950s and again in 1967 in Giggle where he was renamed Buck Bingo. In all these venues – as well as the numerous attempts to follow the English-language successes of Tintin and Asterix albums from Brockhampton and Knight Books – Luke had a trademark cigarette hanging insouciantly from his lip, but in 1983 Morris, no doubt amidst both pained howls and muted mutterings of â€œpolitical correctness gone madâ€, substituted a piece of straw for the much-travelled dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization.

The most recent attempt to bring Lucky Luke to our shores and shelves comes from Cinebook (who have rightly restored the foul weed to his lips on the interior pages if not the coversâ€¦) and Jesse James was the fourth of 50 albums (and counting) currently available both on paper and as e-book editions.

On the continent it was the 35^th comic cowboy chronicle and Goscinny’s 26^th collaboration with Morris, originally appearing in 1969 and featuring an engaging overlapping of real world history and fantastic fiction. You have been warnedâ€¦

After an informative and funny graphic reintroduction to our splendid stars and their impressive capabilities, the saga commences as a recuperating gentleman named Jesse reads a book about Robin Hood and decides that he too is going to rob from the rich and give to the poor.

His first foray as a gun-toting social worker goes well except for the moral quandary resulting from giving a poor man all the money he’s just liberated and making him a rich one. Shakespeare-quoting brother Frank has a clever solution: if they keep the money, but keep passing it back and forth to each other, they can take from the rich and give to the poor at the same time and keep it in the family tooâ€¦

To make sure nobody stays rich for too long they bring hulking practical joking cousin Cole Younger into the pact and set about making themselves the most feared and unwelcome bandits in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. After robbing banks and derailing trains throughout the region the gang heads for Texas where events are already unfolding to their eventual detriment.

In sleepy, prosperous Nothing Gulch two of the least undercover detectives ever employed by the Pinkerton Agency approach lean, laconic Luke. Agents Smith and Jones (not their real names) want his aid in apprehending the most wanted men in America, but our hero can only promise that since they’ve committed no crimes in Texas he will watch them and act accordingly if they doâ€¦

Satisfied with the compromise, the very Public Eyes retire to their camp outside town whilst Lucky proceeds to warn the locals of their impending guests. He is greeted with a wave of Texan bombast and bravado but realises the people are not-so-secretly terrified by the prospect of the James Boysâ€¦

The subjects of all that apprehension have just crossed the border into Texas and, after much pleading, foolishly allowed Cole to try his hand at derailing a train. The big lunk simply doesn’t have the knack for it however and soon Main Street is torn up as a runaway locomotive and still-attached carriages – having careened across county without benefit of rails – plough to a halt outside the saloonâ€¦

The spectacular event is the trigger for every citizen to pull their cash out of the town bank before the bandits do and spurs Luke into riding off and intercepting Jesse and Co to deliver a friendly warning.

Unfortunately Jesse is too proud to be told and the gang hit town only to discover the residents have taken even more extreme measures, donating enough cash to the town drunk to make him – comparatively – the richest man in Nothing Gulchâ€¦

With Lucky Luke watching and pickings slim, the James Boys begin a sly charm offensive to put everybody at ease but once the townsfolk calm down enough to put their money back in the bank all bets are off. Luring Luke away Jesse goes to work, raiding the Bank whilst Cole has another go at derailing, unaware that Lucky has second-guessed him and turned the gold-carry train into a trapâ€¦

However, on dragging the owlhoot back to town he finds the citizens so cowed that they organise a quick sham trial just so they can clear Younger of all charges and get him out of the district. Utterly disgusted, our hero and Jolly Jumper abandon the yellow Texans and Cole rides off to tell his cousins that the town is wide open for another raidâ€¦

In the shameful night time the citizens gather and something strange happens. Disgusted with themselves the ordinary folk talk themselves into a froth of righteous indignation and seek out Lucky. They need to redeem themselves and humbly beg the disgusted hero to join them as they prepare for Jesse James’ inevitable returnâ€¦

Fast-paced, seductive slapstick and wry cynical humour colour this splendidly mad ride, making it another grand old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides Again and Support Your Local Sheriff (perhaps Paint Your Wagon, Evil Roy Slade or Cat Ballou are more your style?), superbly executed by master storytellers and a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for today’s kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of an all-pervasive Wild West that never wasâ€¦

And in case you’re worried, even though the interior art still has our hero chawin’ on that ol’ nicotine stick, trust me, there’s very little chance of anyone craving a quick snout – especially since Jolly Jumper is acting like a Greek chorus warning of the hazards of the evil weed – but quite a high probability that they’ll be addicted to Lucky Luke Albumsâ€¦
Â© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1969 by Goscinny & Morris. Â© Lucky Comics.
English translation Â© 2006 Cinebook Ltd.

January 28, 2015January 27, 2015

Captain America & the Korvac Saga

By Ben McCool, Craig Rousseau, Rachelle Rosenberg, with Jim Shooter, George PÃ©rez, Pablo Marcos & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5160-9

Over the decades since its founding, Marvel has published a number of popular and/or critically successful mega-epics which fans always talk about with great fondness. In relatively recent years the company began to reconfigure some of them – such as Avengers & the Infinity Gauntlet and Spider-Man & the Secret Wars for younger readers in the manner of the company’s all-ages Marvel Adventures format: notionally â€œin-continuityâ€ tales offering cosmic thrills, chills and light drama as a (possibly misdirected) way to bring kids in on the House of Ideas’ biggest successes.

This yarn is one of the most intriguing, greatly diverging from its source material as writer Ben McCool, illustrator Craig Rousseau and colourist Rachelle Rosenberg wittily wove an alternate interpretation adding a contemporary tone to the twice time-displaced Sentinel of Liberty.

This highly entertaining digest-sized collection collects the 4-issue miniseries Captain America & the Korvac Saga from February-May 2011 and also re-presents the opening shot in the original epic from Avengers #167 (January 1978) as crafted by Jim Shooter, George PÃ©rez & Pablo Marcos.

The new yarn retells the saga, giving the Star-Spangled Avenger the leading role in an engaging and appealing way, adding contemporary sensibilities and a lighter take to a classic but rather dark and gritty Fights ‘n’ Tights yarn.

I would strongly suggest, however, that if you’ve never seen the original epic, you track it down either in Essential Avengers volume 8, Avengers: the Korvac Saga or elsewhere: it’s not strictly necessary but you will get to read an extremely classy piece of fantasy fiction as it was originally intendedâ€¦

The action here opens in ‘Strange Days’ as Cap leads his avenging comrades Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision, The Beast and Iron Man against a quartet of super-villains inexplicably amped up and retooled into major menaces.

Maelstrom, Quasimodo, Living Laser and Super-Adaptoid are putting up far more resistance than expected and when the android Vision detects unusual emanations he and the Sentinel of Liberty track the signals to a sinister technologist who oddly presents no real threat and is easily subdued.

With his defeat the fearsome foursome also fold, but as Cap hauls him off to jail the mystery man exhibits an unnerving understanding of the Super Soldier’s sense of being a man cut off from his own timeâ€¦

Disturbed without knowing why, the Star-Spangled Avenger later visits the stranger in jail and is on hand when a strange team of super-beings try to break the enigmatic prisoner outâ€¦

‘Souljacker’ finds the aggressive newcomers demanding custody of the stranger, a thing they call â€œKorvacâ€. They also claim it is a cyborg from a thousand years in the futureâ€¦

The smug captive delights in all the commotion; turning to energy and freeing his villainous quartet to attack the newcomers. A time portal is opened but in the melee only the acrobatic alien named Nikki and tempestuous star-warrior Firelord follow Korvac through it. Before it finally snaps shut though, Captain America also hurtles into the stellar unknownâ€¦

On the other side is the year 3003 and a scene of fantastic future warfare where Nikki and Firelord reveal how they and her now-stranded companions Starhawk, Vance Astro and Charlie-27 – AKA The Guardians of the Galaxy – had been hunting Korvac before it could use the â€œPower Cosmicâ€ it stole from space god Galactus to destroy humanityâ€¦

No sooner have the explanations finished than the energy entity attacks them. After valiantly driving the killer off Cap is determined to make things right and enquiring how to stop it learns that the long-gone star deity had a special weapon known as the â€œUltimate Nullifierâ€ which could negate Korvac’s purloined powerâ€¦

As the trio set off for Taa-II, Galactus’ solar-system-sized ship, ‘The Traveler’ takes us back to the year 3001 when the battered fugitive cyborg first encountered the seemingly abandoned starship and tapped into incomprehensible energies which allowed it to became a transcendent new form of lifeâ€¦

Two years later as the determined trio vector in on the incredible vessel, Korvac materialises and ambushes them. With cosmic-powered Firelord taking the brunt of the assault, Cap and Nikki painfully crash into the system-ship and begin a terrifying safari through astounding beasts and terrors in search of the Ultimate Nullifier. They are within sight of their goal when their beaten companion crashes at their feet and the triumphant Korvac comes for themâ€¦

With doom inescapable ‘The Star Lord’ brings the cosmic odyssey to a tremendous conclusion as Captain America’s final indomitable battle against the cyborg God from Tomorrow brings the long vanished Galactus into the fray to set all things arightâ€¦

This star-spanning, time-busting blockbusting little box of delights includes a cover gallery by Rousseau & Chris Sotomayor, as well as one by PÃ©rez & Terry Austin which precedes one final treat as the fresh adventure is capped off by a re-presentation of the original 1970s saga.

In the 1960s Jim Shooter was a child-prodigy of comics scripting writing the Legion of Superheroes and Superman before he’d even finished High School. After college, when he returned to the industry and gravitated to Marvel Comics it seemed natural to find him working on a comic with just as many characters as that fabled future super-team.

His connection to The World’s Mightiest Superheroes, although episodic, was long-lived and produced some of that series’ best tales, and none more so than the cosmic epic begun here: a sprawling tale of time-travel and universal conquest which originally ran in The Avengers issues #167-168 and 170-177.

In previous issues a difference of opinion between Captain America and Iron Man over leadership styles had begun to polarise the team and those submerged tensions started to show in ‘Tomorrow Dies Today!’

In the Gods-&-Monsters filled Marvel Universe there are entrenched and jealous Hierarchies of Power, so when a new player mysteriously materialises in the 20^th century the very Fabric of Reality is threatenedâ€¦

It all kicks off when star-spanning 31^st century Guardians of the Galaxy materialise in Earth orbit, hotly pursuing a cyborg despot named Korvac.

Inadvertently setting off planetary incursion alarms, their minor-moon sized ship is swiftly penetrated by an Avengers squad, where, after the customary introductory squabble, the future men – Charlie-27, Yondu, Martinex, Nikki, Vance Astro and enigmatic space God Starhawk – explain the purpose of their missionâ€¦

Cap had previously fought beside them to liberate their home era from Badoon rule and Thor had faced Korvac before so peace soon breaks out, but even with the resources of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes the time travellers are unable to locate their quarryâ€¦

Meanwhile on Earth a new and mysterious being named Michael is lurking in the background. At a fashion show staged by Janet Van Dyne he achieves a psychic communion with model Carina Walters and they both vanish, oblivious to a pitched superhero battle that breaks out involving not only the Wasp and her husband Yellowjacket, but also Nighthawk against the perfidious Porcupineâ€¦

To Be Continued – Elsewhereâ€¦

In 2012 the Marvel Adventures line was superseded by specific comicbook titles tied to Disney XD TV shows designated as â€œMarvel Universe cartoonsâ€, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born often two generations or more away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.

However even though these stories are extremely enjoyable yarns, parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers â€œAll-Ages Super Hero Actionâ€ and might perhaps better suit older kidsâ€¦
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

January 23, 2015January 22, 2015

Neomad Book 1: Space Junk

By Sutu & The Love Punks (Gerstalt Comics/Big hART)
ISBN: 978-1-922023-14-8

I have no first hand experience of the Australian Experience. Most of what I do know comes from movies, TV or Midnight Oil and Men at Work records.

â€¦And comics of course, ranging from the country’s 1950s DC reprints – both flimsy pamphlets and Christmas Annuals â€“ to their lengthy and venerable take on Lee Falk & Ray Moore’s strip icon The Phantom plus some few precious strips such as Southern Squadron and The Jackaroo (from homegrown superhero anthology Cyclone!) during the 1980s and 1990s when American Indie publishers went for hunting quality material from around the world to fill their empty pages.

Things are way better these days with outfits like Gestalt Comics producing superbly original graphic novels like Torn, Eldritch Kid and Vowels for international audiences, many with the unique flavour of the Land Down Under.

Now, in conjunction with Arts and Social Change organisation Big hART, cartoonist, illustrator and computer-designer Stuart â€œSutuâ€ Campbell has joined forces with a talented bunch of kids to produce a multimedia entertainment epic, the barest fraction of which comprises this deliriously engaging and anarchically excellent graphic novel.

The lads are all from Ieramagudu (Roebourne) on the edge of the Pilbara Desert, within the Murujuga National Park and Cultural Heritage Site.

The area is home to approximately one million petroglyphs dating back more than 30,000 years: a place of artistic expression and creativity for almost as long as mankind has existedâ€¦

Far more recently, Sutu and Big hART – as part of the Yijala Yala Project – have been teaching some of the kids growing up there computer-colouring techniques whilst the youngsters have been sharing their imaginations, enthusiasm and ideas. The collective result is Neomad, blending ancient indigenous customs and spirituality with dystopian futurism, eternal verities and the never-ending struggle for survivalâ€¦

Space Junk is the first part of a sci fi trilogy which opens as young Mav relates a fireside interview with his Maali – a paternal grandfather of great sagacity and insight. The oldster was telling the story of the boy’s birth whilst imparting the customs of their people until the night sky was suddenly lit by a falling star.

That’s good luck. Everybody knows that when a star falls at night it brings new lifeâ€¦

Elsewhere but nearby in 2076AD, a tech-smart tribe of youthful extroverts are out illegally tapping the water pipeline when they see a plummeting, blazing rocket booster burn across the heavens.

Jahmal, Edwin, Dan, Jarried, Stanley, Deshawn and the rambunctious rest of the self-appointed Love Punks are more interested in fun than profit and their piratical, good natured squabbling soon sets off an alarm. Panic quickly changes back to cocky determination and bravado so the creepy spybot which races in to determine what’s wrong is soon reduced to spare parts in their accumulated arsenal of recycled, repurposed junkâ€¦

The posse are all far less sanguine when the authoritarian cops dubbed the Segz steam in on hover platforms and give frantic chaseâ€¦

The helter-skelter pursuit careens across the wasteland, past a boy and his Maali sitting at a fire. The rush of wind portentously extinguishes the flames and Mav decides he’d better join his fellow Love Punksâ€¦

The high-speed chase roars deeper into the plains – annoying the heck out of assorted wildlife – and Mav catches up to them just as they reach the foot of a monstrous red rock plateau. Things look grim until someone has the bright idea to shove the power crystal from the sabotaged spybot into their faltering and overloaded hoverquad’s engineâ€¦

Suddenly hurtling up the vertical rock face and leaving the disgusted Segz far below, the Punks hit the plateau top in time to see the booster crash down and, ever curious, head over to explore.

Cooling the surprisingly intact debris with their purloined water the boys quickly realise that what they’ve got is not simple space debris. Etched onto the vehicle’s slowly cooling side is a strangely disturbing petroglyph similar to the thousands of age-old designs which can be found all over Murujugaâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Raucous and riotous, this hell-for-leather rollercoaster of joyous fun is but the beginning of a colossal tale that will take the Love Punks to the ends of the universe to discover the secrets of everythingâ€¦

Crafted by Sutu with Senior Colourist Haw Kong and featuring contributions from Junior Colourists – and actors – Alison Lockyer, Ashton Munda, Brodie Tahi Tahi, Corbyn Munda, Dannette Wilson, Eric Wedge, Jahmal Munda, Jarried Ashburton, Jordan Coppin, Layla Walker, Maverick Eaton, Max Coppin, Nathaniel Edwins, Sidney Eaton, Tonina Smith, Troydan Long, Vynka Parker, William Eaton and Woedin Wilson, the book comes with a section of photo-features including a boisterous introduction to the real Love Punks, some facts about Murujuga National Park, a glossary of words from the Aboriginal Yindjibarndi and Ngarluma languages (which pepper the text) plus plugs for Book 2: The Last Crystal, the award-winning Love Punks interactive video game, the live-action films and documentariesâ€¦

Worthy, impressive and above all else tremendously entertaining, this is a book kids will love and want to be part of for years to come.
Â© 2013 Big hART.

January 15, 2015January 14, 2015

Scared to Death volume 1: The Vampire from the Marshes

By Mauricet & Vanholme, with colours by Laurent Carpentier and translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978- 1-905460-47-2

There’s a grand old tradition of scaring, empowering and entertaining kids through carefully crafted horror stories with junior protagonists, and this occasional series is one of the better modern examples.

Conceived and executed by journalist Virgine Vanholme and youthful yet seasoned illustrator Alain Mauricet, the Mort de Trouille series of albums was launched by Casterman in the year 2000. There have been seven sinister sorties so farâ€¦

Whilst I’ve not been able to find out much about the author, the artist is rather well travelled, having worked for CrossGen, Image and DC in America as well as on a wide variety of features in Europe.

He’s also to be seen in David Lloyd’s magnificently wonderful digital delight Aces Weeklyâ€¦

Born in 1967, Mauricet originally inherited the comic bug from his parents and, after studying at the Academy of Fine Arts under legendary creator Eddy Paape, began his own career aged 20 at Spirou.

From spot cartoons he graduated to strips, creating superhero parody Cosmic Patrouille with Jean-Louis Janssens and Les Rastafioles with Sergio Salma. Following the aforementioned stateside sojourn he resumed his Franco-Belgian efforts with the strip under review here, as well as basketball comedy Basket Dunk (with Christophe Cazanove) and Boulard (with Erroc) and others.

He now lives in Brussels, and also designs for computer games whilst working on a more personal graphic enterprise entitled Une Bien Belle Nuance de Rougeâ€¦

Back in early 2000, though, he was detailing the first of a sequence of spooky yarns starring studious Robin Lavigne and boisterous overly-imaginative Max Mornet, a couple of lads with an infallible instinct for ferreting out the weird and uncannyâ€¦

In 2008 Cinebook picked up Mort de Trouille: Le vampire des Marais and invited British and American kids to solve the mystery of The Vampire from the Marshes, which began when the boys first snuck a peek at forensic scientist Dr. Lavigne‘s locked filesâ€¦

The well-travelled medic has been called in to examine a body found in rural Deadwater Swamp: a corpse stinking of booze, drained of blood and completely covered in hundreds of tiny triangular bite marksâ€¦

His son Robin and especially horror-story obsessed Max are fascinated by the case and the latter envisions all manner of ghastly and vivid vampiric scenarios, despite his more prosaic pal’s protestationsâ€¦

All too soon the lads are invading the (still potential) crime scene, recording their own findings and suppositions. They are quite freaked out when they find a strangely slaughtered bird but completely terrified when they disturb a poacher who chases them off with murderous cursesâ€¦

Unbeknownst to all involved, their prying has also alerted and disturbed a clan of far more dangerous and unnatural creaturesâ€¦

Soon the boys are being constantly shadowed by an uncanny, cloaked figure who even breaks into the Lavigne home as it strives to preserve its anonymity and ancient secrets from the eyes of prying, violent mankind. It is noisily disturbed as it closes in on the boys and they can only thank their lucky stars that the household cat is such a noisy and vicious beast when stepped uponâ€¦

Events peak to a cursed crescendo next day after Max falls into his own hastily dug vampire trap and is taken by the noisome Nosferatu. Whilst Robin anxiously and urgently searches for his missing friend, Max is learning the tragic secret history of the bloodsuckers.

His oddly ambivalent abductor is Janus and seems rather reluctant to bleed him as a proper vampire should. The creature has, however, no problem leaving him – and the freshly captured Robin who stumbles upon them – to drown in a deep wellâ€¦

Next morning Dr. Lavigne and the police are frantically searching the swamp for the missing boys and only find them thanks to some unknown person leaving Max’s camera on the rim of a wellâ€¦

As the frightened boys are pulled to safety, Robin’s dad questions them and goes ballistic when he learns they’ve been looking through his confidential files. He also utterly trashes their ridiculous theory of vampire killers, patiently explaining the true and rational – if exceedingly grim and grisly – cause of death of the drunk in the swampâ€¦

Chastened but undaunted and sharing an incredible secret no adults will ever believe, the boys are taken home whilst deep in the wooded mire an ancient family of incredible beings pulls up stakes and moves restlessly on to who knows whereâ€¦

Deliciously delivered in the manner of Goosebumps and Scooby-Doo, this is a superb slice of all-ages spooky fun in the classic mould that will enthral and enchant everyone who’s suffered from â€œfather knows bestâ€ syndrome and loves tall tales with devilish twists.
Original edition Â© Casterman, 2000 by Mauricet & Vanholme. English translation Â© 2008 by Cinebook Ltd.

January 13, 2015January 12, 2015

The Phoenix Presents: The Pirates of Pangaea Book 1

By Daniel Hartwell & Neill Cameron (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-910200-08-7

Why are pirates so mean? I don’t know, they just AARRRRâ€¦

The Phoenix was voted No.2 in Time Magazine‘s global list of Top Comics and Graphic Novels and is the only strip publication started in the UK in the last forty years to have passed the 100 issue mark. It celebrated its first anniversary by developing a digital edition available globally as an app and is continually expanding its horizons.

It is, most importantly, tremendous fun, offering not just comedic comic capers, but games, puzzles, â€œHow-Toâ€¦â€ pages and even adventure strips.

Crafted by Daniel Hartwell (Urban Beasts) and Neill Cameron (Mo-Bot High, How to Make Awesome Comics), by far the most engaging thriller so far featured is a sublime combination of classic endeavour and enticing fantasy which blends bold buccaneers, boldly brilliant kids, suspenseful swashbuckling escapades and gloriously gigantic dinosaurs.

The alternate-history lesson begins with twelve year old Sophie Delacourt voyaging out from England in 1717 to join her Uncle Silas, the newly appointed Governor of the lost land of Pangaea.

The huge island-continent is reputed to be the oldest land on Earth and a place primarily inhabited by colossal reptiles of the land and air. Master Bosun William takes a paternal interest in the girl, explaining the wondrous nature of the place, but nothing prepares Sophie for the experience of a colossal â€œlong-neckâ€ which dives under their vessel and lifts it bodily into the air.

The interior of Pangaea is a vast shifting ocean of long grass afflicted and infested with fast and deadly predators no man afoot could survive or escape, so all ships are picked up out of blue Caribbean waters then carried upon brobdingnagian beasts’ backs between the rocky high points and plateaux where humanity has built its dwellings and settlements.

The big beasts are kept docile and compliant by the administration of a herb dubbed â€œSnuffâ€ and piloted by the skilful class of inland mariners known as â€œSnuffmenâ€â€¦

Sophie has never seen anything so wonderful in her life but, as Snuffman John guides the magnificent Bessie and her formerly-seagoing burden towards the Governor’s capital city, the amazed girl catches sight of the ever-present peril which besets this latest outpost of empire.

Through the shifting verdure comes a pirate ship strapped atop a terrifying black Land Leviathan and soon the voyagers are fighting for their lives in an ‘Ambush on Pangaea’.

Sophie is locked in her cabin as the corsairs’ devastating attack pillages the vessel and, when the insanely cruel Captain Brookes cries victory, making the crew walk the plank to their deaths, she is the only survivorâ€¦

The second chapter opens with the Governor’s niece imprisoned on Brookes’ land-ship, a potential goldmine in ransom for the greedy maniac. Furious and defiant Sophie is slowly befriended by brute’s cabin boy Timothy Kelsey. The lad is the tormented last survivor of a previous foray which saw the murder of his mentor and master Dr. Shaw; a naturalist who had come to the lost land to catalogue the ‘Indigenous Fauna of the Pangaean Land-Mass’.

After witnessing Brookes’ cruelty, Sophie agrees to join in the boy’s desperate plan for escape but as they make their move to fly off on the ship’s captive â€œGreat Wingâ€ lizard, they stumble over the Captain’s first mate.

Ten Gun Jones is also engaged in fleeing on the â€œRazor Beakâ€, but the noise of their stumbling over each other rouses the ship and the three are forced to flee together into the night amidst a hail of musket fireâ€¦

Soon the trio are hopelessly ‘Lost in the Sea of Green’ as their gravely wounded pterosaur expires just short of a high-projecting stony pinnacle. With deadly â€œLand Sharksâ€ and â€œBelly Rippersâ€ closing in on them all hope seems lost until an even deadlier beast pounces.

The â€œTyrantâ€ makes short work of the circling velociraptors, but its ravening hunger remains unsated. Only sheer terror carries the three fugitives to the relative safety of the rocky islet and, frantically scaling the igneous tower with the horror snapping at their heels, they all tumble into a cave to find themselves inside an abandoned pirate denâ€¦

The dusty lair has weapons, lamps, water, liquor and even brontosaur jerky; everything they might need to outwait the roaring giant outside, but after a sleepless night with Ten Gun less than forthcoming about why he was deserting Captain Brookes, Sophie conceives a dangerous idea.

After feeding the monster chunks of the dried meat liberally doused in the Snuff she found in a barrel, in an act of seeming madness Sophie drops onto the horror’s head and soon has it – or rather her – acting like a very dangerous steedâ€¦

The fearless lass then explains how an elderly servant in England taught her the secrets of horse-whispering before christening her scaly new pet â€œCornflowerâ€. Timothy is elated that they can use the Tyrant to safely cross the lethal Sea of Green to civilisation but Jones has other plansâ€¦

The enigmatic pirate’s guarded directions soon bring them to an active volcano which is in truth the neutral port used as a safe-haven by all the freebooters plying the grassy deeps. In a tavern the children learn the ‘Secrets of Raptor Rock’ and are introduced to bombastic Captain Ford, who previously planted Ten Gun in Brookes’ crew to secretly secure the second half of a disputed treasure mapâ€¦

With both pieces secure the privateer immediately sets to emerald sea, but Ten Gun insists on bringing Sophie and Tim along. They have barely left the rock before Cornflower breaks out of her pen and doggedly followsâ€¦

The children are put to work and Sophie soon makes friends with Iwakian Snuffman Tak: a native Pangaean who steers the buccaneers’ bombastic brontosaur Gertrudeâ€¦

The exploratory voyage comes to a sudden end after crossing the eerie â€œLongnecks Graveyardâ€ when they hove into view of the fantastic plateau known in legend as â€œThe Forbidden Isleâ€â€¦

An expeditionary party is soon driving inland to a ancient temple in ‘Quest for the Golden Skull’ but upon entering, the greedy pirates are astounded to discover that the invaluable artefact they’re hunting is not a gilded human head but actually a full size tyrant’s skull cast in precious metalâ€¦

That’s when ferocious native defenders – the Kron Iwakia – ambush the party, driving them back to the relative safety of Gertrude, but the rapidly retreating raiders have no idea of what’s happened in the meantime.

Young Kelsey, resentful of being enslaved again has – more by accident than design – blown up the ship and stampeded Gertrude off into the Sea of Green just as maniacal Captain Brookes arrives intent on reclaiming his map and slaughtering everyoneâ€¦

Even though the enraged Iwakians vanished when the ship began to burn, Ford’s rattled crew are no match for the nautical newcomers and things look bleak and bloody. Sophie and Kelsey desperately head back to the temple chased by Brookes’ men and death seems imminent until, from nowhere, Cornflower hurtles into action and eagerly despatches the pursuing pirates.

This prompts the Kron Iwakia to emerge from concealment to guide Cornflower and the kids back to the temple. The natives worship Tyrant lizards and after a strange ceremony deem Sophie and her reptile holy. That’s when Tim realises that the Golden Skull is not a mere ornament but battle armour for a tyrannosaur Chosen Oneâ€¦

With the Iwakians in close support the valiant children return to the ongoing pirate war to settle a number of old scores before taking control of their own destiniesâ€¦

Superbly engaging and utterly enthralling, this astounding all-action romp is a riotous delight of astonishing adventure and this fabulous first compilation also includes many maps and crucial fact pages on the assorted dinosaurs from Dr. Shaw’s ‘Indigenous Fauna of the Pangaean Land-Mass’ – specifically ‘Sauropoda’, ‘Pterosauria’, ‘Dromaeosauridae’ and ‘Tyrannosauridae’ – all scrupulously crafted, corrected and annotated by erstwhile cabin boy and greatest living expert Timothy Kelseyâ€¦

January 11, 2015January 10, 2015

Asterix and the Falling Sky

By Uderzo, translated by Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Orion Books)
ISBN: 978-0-7528-7548-4

Asterix began life in the last year of the 1950s and is part of the fabric of French life. His adventures have touched billions of people all around the world over the decades. However when this particular tale was released it was like nothing anybody had ever seen before. It fact it is considered to be the most controversial and least well-regarded by purists. Some even hate itâ€¦

They are all welcome to their opinions. I must admit that I too found it a little unsettling when I first read it. So I read it some more and saw the elements that I’d initially had trouble with weren’t lax or lazy or bad but just not what I was expecting. Soon it became one of my favourites just because it was so different.

Uderzo was and is a comics creator par excellence. With Rene Goscinny he created, owned and controlled his intellectual property Asterix and used it to tell the tales he wanted to tell.

It was his right to say and draw whatever he wanted to through his creation and nobody has the right to dictate what he could or could not do with it as long as no laws were broken.

It’s a lesson the whole world needs to learn, now more than everâ€¦

A son of Italian immigrants, Alberto Aleandro Uderzo was born on April 25^th 1927 in Fismes on the Marne. He dreamed of becoming an aircraft mechanic but even as a young child watching Walt Disney cartons and reading Mickey Mouse in Le PÃ©tit Parisien he showed artistic flair.

Albert became a French citizen when he was seven and found employment at thirteen, apprenticed to the Paris Publishing Society, where he learned design, typography, calligraphy and photo retouching. He was brought to that pivotal point by his older brother Bruno (to whom this volume is gratefully and lovingly dedicated for starting the ball rolling) but when World War II reached France he moved to Brittany, spending time with farming relatives and joining his father’s furniture-making business.

The region beguiled and fascinated Uderzo and when a location for Asterix‘s idyllic village was being mooted, that beautiful countryside was the only possible choiceâ€¦

In the post-war rebuilding of France, Uderzo returned to Paris and became a successful artist in the recovering nation’s burgeoning comics industry. His first published work, a pastiche of Aesop’s Fables, appeared in Junior and in 1945 he was introduced to industry giant Edmond-FranÃ§ois Calvo (whose own comic masterpiece The Beast is Dead is far too long overdue for a commemorative reissueâ€¦).

Tireless Uderzo’s subsequent creations included the indomitable eccentric Clopinard, Belloy, l’InvulnÃ©rable, Prince Rollin and Arys Buck. He illustrated Em-RÃ©-Vil’s novel Flamberge, dabbled in animation, worked as a journalist and illustrator for France Dimanche and created the vertical comicstrip ‘Le Crime ne Paie pas’ for France-Soir.

In 1950 he illustrated a few episodes of the franchised European version of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Jr. for Bravo!

An inveterate traveller, the artistic prodigy first met Goscinny in 1951. Soon bosom buddies, they resolved to work together at the new Paris office of Belgian Publishing giant World Press. Their first collaboration was published in November of that year; a feature piece on savoir vivre (gracious living) for women’s weekly Bonnes SoirÃ©e, following which an avalanche of splendid strips and serials poured forth.

Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior were created for La Libre Junior and they resulted in a western starring a â€œRed Indianâ€ who eventually evolved into the delightfully infamous Oumpah-Pah. In 1955, with the formation of Ã‰difrance/Ã‰dipresse, Uderzo drew Bill Blanchart (also for La Libre Junior), replaced Christian Godard on Benjamin et Benjamine and in 1957 added Charlier’s Clairette to his portfolio.

The following year, he made his debut in Tintin, as Oumpah-Pah finally found a home and a rapturous audience. Uderzo also drew Poussin et Poussif, La Famille Moutonet and La Famille Cokalane.

When Pilote launched in 1959 Uderzo was a major creative force for the new enterprise, collaborating with Charlier on Tanguy et Laverdure and devising – with Goscinny – a little something called Asterixâ€¦

Although the gallant Gaul was a monumental hit from the start, Uderzo continued on Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure, but once the first hilarious historical romp was collected in an album as AstÃ©rix le gaulois in 1961 it became clear that the series would demand most of his time – especially since the incredible Goscinny never seemed to require rest or run out of ideas.

By 1967 Asterix occupied all Uderzo’s time and attention, and in 1974 the partners formed IdÃ©fix Studios to fully exploit their inimitable creation. When Goscinny passed away three years later, Uderzo had to be convinced to continue the adventures as both writer and artist, producing a further ten volumes until 2010 when he gracefully retired.

After nearly 15 years as a weekly comic serial subsequently collected into book-length compilations, in 1974 the 21st (Asterix and Caesar’s Gift) was the first published as a complete original album prior to serialisation. Thereafter each new release was an eagerly anticipated, impatiently awaited treat for the strip’s millions of fansâ€¦

More than 325 million copies of 35 Asterix books have sold worldwide, making his joint creators France’s best-selling international authors, and now that torch has been passed and new sagas of the incomparable icon and his bellicose brethren are being created by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conradâ€¦

One of the most popular comics on Earth, the collected chronicles of Asterix the Gaul have been translated into more than 100 languages since his debut, with numerous animated and live-action movies, TV series, games, toys, merchandise and even a theme park outside Paris (Parc AstÃ©rix, naturellement)â€¦

Like all the best stories the narrative premise works on more than one level: read it as an action-packed comedic romp of sneaky and bullying baddies coming a-cropper if you want, or as a punfully sly and witty satire for older, wiser heads. English-speakers are further blessed by the brilliantly light touch of master translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge who played no small part in making the indomitable little Gaul so very palatable to English tongues.

Many of the intoxicating epics are set in various exotic locales throughout the Ancient World, with the Garrulous Gallic Gentlemen reduced to quizzical tourists and bemused commentators in every fantastic land and corner of the civilisations that proliferated in that fabled era. The rest – more than half of the canon – take place in and around Uderzo’s adored Brittany, where, circa 50 B.C., a little hamlet of cantankerous, proudly defiant warriors and their families resisted every effort of the mighty Roman Empire to complete the conquest of Gaul.

The land is divided by the notional conquerors into provinces of Celtica, Aquitania and Amorica, but the very tip of the last named just refuses to be pacifiedâ€¦

Whenever the heroes were playing at home, the Romans, unable to defeat the last bastion of Gallic insouciance, futilely resorted to a policy of absolute containment. Thus the little seaside hamlet was permanently hemmed in by the heavily fortified garrisons of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium.

The Gauls couldn’t care less, daily defying and frustrating the world’s greatest military machine simply by going about their everyday affairs, protected by the miraculous magic potion of resident druid Getafix and the shrewd wits of the diminutive dynamo and his simplistic, supercharged best friend Obelixâ€¦

This particular iconoclasm, Uderzo’s eighth solo outing (and originally entitled Le Ciel lui tombe sur la tÃªte) was released in 2005 as the 31^st volume of an ever-unfolding saga. The English language version was released that same year as Asterix and the Falling Sky. Apart from the unlikely thematic content and quicker pacing, the critics’ main problem seemed to stem from a sleeker, slicker, less busy style of illustration – almost a classical animation look – but that’s actually the point of the tale.

The entire book is a self-admitted tribute to the Walt Disney cartoons of the artist’s formative years, as well as a sneakily good-natured critique of modern comics as then currently typified by American superheroes and Japanese mangaâ€¦

The contentious tale opens with the doughty little Gaul and his affable pal Obelix in the midst of a relaxing boar hunt when they notice that their quarry has frozen into petrified solidity.

Perplexed, they head back through the eerily silent forest to the village, only to discover that all their friends have been similarly stupefied and rendered rigidly inertâ€¦

Only faithful canine companion Dogmatix and the old Druid Getafix have any life in them, but only when Obelix admits to giving the pooch the occasional tipple of Magic Potion does Asterix deduce that it’s because they all have the potent brew currently flowing though their systemsâ€¦

With one mystery solved they debate how to cure everybody else – as well as all the woodland creatures and especially the wild boars – but are soon distracted by the arrival of an immense golden sphere floating above and eclipsing the villageâ€¦

Out of if floats a strange but friendly creature who introduces himself as â€œToonâ€ from the distant star Tadsilweny (it’s an anagram, but don’t expect any help from me). He is accompanied by a mightily powered being in a tight-fitting blue-and-red costume with a cape. Toon calls him Supercloneâ€¦

The mighty minion casually insults Obelix and learns that he’s not completely invulnerable, but otherwise the visitors are generally benevolent. The paralysis plague is an accidental effect of Toon’s vessel, but a quick adjustment by the strange visitor soon brings the surroundings back to frenetic life.

That’s when the trouble really starts as the villagers – and especially Chief Vitalstatistix – see the giant globe floating overhead as a portent that at long last the sky is fallingâ€¦

After another good-spirited, strenuously physical debate, things calm down and Toon explains he’s come from the Galactic Council to confiscate an earthly super-weapon and prevent it falling into the hands of belligerent alien conquerors the Nagmas (that’s another anagram) and there’s nothing the baffled Earthlings can do about itâ€¦

At the Roman camp of Compendium Centurion Polyanthus is especially baffled and quite angry. His men have already had a painful encounter with the Superclone but the commander refuses to believe their wild stories about floating balls and strangers even weirder than the Gauls, but he’s soon forced to change his mind when a gigantic metal totem pole lands in blaze of flame right in his courtyard.

Out of it flies an incredible, bizarre, insectoid, oriental-seeming warrior demanding the whereabouts of a powerful wonder-weapon. Extremely cowed and slightly charred, Polyanthus tells him about the Magic Potion the Gauls always use to make his life miserableâ€¦

The Nagma immediately hurries off and encounters Obelix, but the rotund terrestrial is immune to all the invader’s armaments and martial arts attacks and responds by demonstrating with devastating efficacy how Gauls fightâ€¦

After zapping Dogmatix the Nagma retreats and when Obelix dashes back to the village follows him. No sooner has Toon cured the wonder mutt than the colossal Nagma robot-ship arrives, forcing the friendly alien to fly off and intercept it in his golden globeâ€¦

The Nagma tries to trade high-tech ordnance for the Gauls’ â€œsecret weaponâ€ but Asterix is having none of it, instead treating the invader to a dose of potion-infused punishment.

Stalemated the Nagma then unleashes an army of automatons dubbed Cyberats and Toon responds by deploying a legion of Superclones. The battle is short and pointless and a truce finds both visitors deciding to share the weaponâ€¦

Vitalstatistix is outraged but Getafix is surprisingly sanguine, opting to let both Toon and Nagma sample the heady brew for themselves. The effects are not what the visitors could have hoped for and the enraged alien oriental unleashes more Cyberats in a sneak attack.

Responding quickly, Asterix and Obelix employ two Superclones to fly them up to the marauding robots, dealing with them in time-honoured Gaulish fashion.

The distraction has unfortunately allowed the Nagma to kidnap Getafix and Toon returns to his globe-ship to engage his robotic foe in a deadly game of brinksmanship whilst a Superclone liberates the incensed Druid. None too soon the furious, frustrated Nagma decides enough is enough and blasts off, determined never to come back to this crazy planetâ€¦

Down below Polyanthus has meanwhile taken advantage of the chaos and confusion to rally his legions for a surprise attack, arriving just as the Gauls are enjoying a victory feast with their new alien ally. The assault goes extremely badly for the Romans, particularly after a delayed effect of the potion transforms affable Toon into something monstrous and uncannyâ€¦

Eventually all ends well and, thanks to technological wizardry, all the earthly participants are returned to their safely uncomplicated lives, once again oblivious to the dangers and wonders of a greater universeâ€¦

Fast, funny, stuffed with action and hilarious, tongue-in-cheek hi-jinks, this is a joyous rocket-paced rollercoaster for lovers of laughs and all open-minded devotees of comics. This still-controversial award-winning(Eagle 2006 winner for Best European Comic) yarn only confirmed Uderzo’s reputation as a storyteller willing to take risks and change things up, whilst his stunning ability to pace a tale was never better demonstrated. Asterix and the Falling Sky proves that the potion-powered paragons of Gallic Pride will never lose their potent punch.
Â© 2005 Les Ã‰ditions Albert RenÃ©, Goscinny-Uderzo. English translation: Â© 2005 Les Ã‰ditions Albert RenÃ©, Goscinny/Uderzo. All rights reserved.

January 4, 2015January 3, 2015

Iznogoud the Infamous

By Goscinny and Tabary (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-074-0

For the greater part of his too-short lifetime (1926-1977) RenÃ© Goscinny was one of the most prolific and most-read writers of comic strips the world has ever seen. He still is.

Among his most popular comic collaborations are Lucky Luke, Le Petit Nicolas and, of course, Asterix the Gaul, but there were so many others, such as the dazzling, dark deeds of a dastardly usurper whose dreams of diabolical skulduggery perpetually proved to be ultimately no more than castles in the sandâ€¦

Scant years after the Suez crisis, the French returned to the hotly contested deserts when Goscinny teamed with sublimely gifted Swedish Ã©migrÃ© Jean Tabary (1930-2011) – who numbered Richard et Charlie, Grabadu et Gabaliouchtou, Totoche, Corinne et Jeannot and Valentin le Vagabond amongst his other hit strips – to detail the innocuous history of imbecilic Arabian (im)potentate Haroun el-Poussah.

However it was the strip’s villainous foil, power-hungry vizier Iznogoud who stole the show – possibly the conniving little imp’s only successful coup.

Les Aventures du Calife Haroun el Poussah was created for Record; with the first episode appearing in the January 15th issue. 1962. A minor hit, it subsequently jumped ship to Pilote – a comics magazine created and edited by Goscinny – where it was artfully refashioned into a starring vehicle for the devious little ratbag who had increasingly been hogging all the laughs and limelight.

Like all great storytelling, Iznogoud works on two levels: for the youngsters it’s a comedic romp with adorably wicked baddies invariably hoisted on their own petards and coming a-cropper, whilst older, wiser heads can revel in pun-filled, witty satires and marvellously accessible episodic comic capers.

This same magic formula made its more famous cousin Asterix a monolithic global success and, just like the saga of the indomitable Gaul, the irresistibly addictive Arabian Nit was originally adapted into English by master translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge who made those Roman Follies so very palatable to British tastes.

As always the deliciously malicious whimsy is heavily dosed with manic absurdity, cleverly contemporary cultural critiques and brilliantly delivered creative anachronisms which serve to keep the assorted escapades bizarrely fresh and hilariously inventive.

Insidious anti-hero Iznogoud is Grand Vizier to affable, easy-going Caliph of Ancient Baghdad Haroun Al Plassid, but the sneaky little toad has loftier ambitions, or as he is always declaiming â€œI want to be Caliph instead of the Caliph!â€â€¦

The retooled series launched in Pilote in 1968, and quickly became a massive European hit, with 29 albums to date (carried on by Tabary’s children StÃ©phane, Muriel and Nicolas), his own solo comic, a computer game, animated film, TV cartoon show and even a live-action movie.

When Goscinny died in 1977 Tabary began scripting his own sublimely stylish tales (from the 13th album onwards), switching to book-length complete adventures, rather than the compilations of short, punchy vignettes which typified the collaborations.

Originally released in 1969, Iznogoud l’infÃ¢me was the fourth Dargaud collection and the second volume published by Methuen in 1977, and here it’s the seventh splendid Cinebook album, offering a wry and raucous quintet of short tales with the Vile Vizier on top form as he schemes to seize power from his sublimely oblivious Lord and Master.

The eternal drama begins with ‘The Sinister Liquidator’, which finds Iznogoud and his bumbling, long-suffering henchman and strong-arm crony Wa’at Alahf making their way through a malodorous swamp in search of a Djinn with the power to reduce all he touches to unliving liquid.

Enduring the evil Ifreet’s ghastly manners and painful punning, the devilish diplomat strikes a bargain which spells doom for the Caliphâ€¦ but first he has to get the demon back to the palace.

Since the Djinn cannot completely leave his fetid fluid environment and glorious bustling Baghdad is beyond the Great Desert, Iznogoud and Wa’at Alahf must Djinngerly transport their secret weapon home. Moreover, as under no circumstances can they afford to be moistened by the monster themselves, a succession of buckets, bowls, bottles and vials inexorably diminish the watery wonder and the Vile Vizier’s chances of success until – as you’d expect – the inevitable occursâ€¦

The pun-punctuated comedy of errors is followed by a sneaky dose of inspired iniquity dubbed ‘The Invisible Menace’ wherein the Vizier learns a magic spell which will banish his imperial impediment from the sight of man. Of course he still has to find and keep his target still long enough for the magic to workâ€¦

Sheer broad slapstick-riddled farce is the secret ingredient of the next craftily convoluted saga. When Iznogoud deliberately accepts a cursed gem which brings catastrophic misfortune in the expectation that he can palm it off on his unsuspecting boss, he greatly underestimates the power of ‘The Unlucky Diamond’.

As soon the ghastly gem latches on to a truly deserving victim and unleashes a succession of punitive calamities, it determines to never let goâ€¦

A state visit by an African potentate allows the Vizier plenty of time to confer with his opposite number in ‘The Magic Doll’. However the bemused Witch Doctor has no idea that his numerous demonstrations of voodoo magic with a clay figurine are Iznogoud’s dry runs for a stab at the throne.

Of course, for the sorcery to work the Vizier has to somehow obtain a lock of Haroun Al Plassid’s closely guarded and held-as-holy hairâ€¦

The manic mirth concludes with a decent into sheer surreal absurdity (granting Tabary license to ascend to M.C. Escher-like heights of graphic invention) as an itinerant magician known as ‘The Mysterious Billposter’ creates a magic advert which can transport people to an idealised paradisiacal holiday destination.

Iznogoud is far more interested in the fact that, once in, no-one can get out againâ€¦

Just for a change the plan succeeds perfectly and the blithely unaware Caliph is trapped in an inescapable, idealised extra-dimensional state. Sadly, due to his extreme eagerness, so is his not-so-faithful Vizierâ€¦

Just such witty, fast-paced hi-jinks and craftily crafted comedy set pieces have made this addictive series a household name in France where â€œIznogoudâ€ is common term for a certain type of politician: over-ambitious, unscrupulous – and frequently a little lacking in height.

When first released in Britain during the late 1970s (and again in 1996 as a periodical comicbook) these tales made little impression, but certainly now this snappy, wonderfully beguiling strip has finally and deservedly found an appreciative audience among today’s more internationally aware, politically jaded comics-and-cartoon savvy Kids Of All Agesâ€¦
Original edition Â© Dargaud Editeur Paris, 1969 by Goscinny & Tabary. All rights reserved. This edition published 2011 by Cinebook Ltd.

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