Category: Kids – All Ages

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Sixty Years: The Beano and The Dandy – Focus on the Fifties


By Many & various (DC Thomson)
ISBN: 978-0-851-16846-3 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Scotland’s Finest Fun Factory Fancies… 9/10

Whenever we’ve faced our worst moments, humans tend to seek out old familiarities and wallow in the nostalgia of better days. Let’s see how this particular foray feels, especially as it’s still unreachable by that there newmfangled electro retrieval widgetry, but still remarkably cheap in assorted emporia and on them there interwebs… 

Released in 2004 as part of the DC Thomson Sixtieth Anniversary celebrations for their children’s periodicals division – which has more than any other shaped the psyche of generations of British kids – this splendidly oversized (299 x 205mm) 144 page hardback compilation rightly glories in the incredible explosion of ebullient creativity that paraded through the flimsy colourful pages of The Beano and The Dandy during a particularly bleak and fraught period in British history. Tragically, neither it nor its companion volumes are available digitally yet, but hope springs ever eternal…

Admittedly this book goes through some rather elaborate editing, design and paste-up permutations to editorial explaining for modern readers the vast changes to the once-commonplace that’s happened in the intervening years. Naturally the process has quietly dodged the more egregious terms and scenarios that wouldn’t sit well with 21st century sensibilities, although to my enlightened sensibilities the concentration on whacking children on the bottom does occur with disturbing frequency – the Bash Street Kids even had their fearfully expectant upraised bums as the strip’s logo for a few years!

However, viewed as a cultural and historical memoire, this is a superb comic commemoration of one of our greatest communal formative forces, with a vast number of strips and stories carefully curated from a hugely transformative period in national history.

They’re also superbly timeless examples of cartoon storytelling at its best…

Until it folded and was briefly reborn as a digital publication on 4th December 2012, The Dandy was the third-longest running comic in the world (behind Italy’s Il Giornalino which launched in 1924 and America’s Detective Comics in March 1937). The Dandy premiered on December 4th 1937: breaking the mould of traditional British predecessors by using word balloons and captions on some strips, rather than just the narrative blocks of text under the sequential picture frames that had been the industry standard.

A huge success, it was followed on July 30th 1938 by The Beano – and in concert they revolutionised the way children’s publications looked and, most importantly, how they were read.

Over the decades the “terrible twins” spawned so many unforgettable and beloved household names who delighted countless avid and devoted readers, and their unmissable end of year celebrations were graced with bumper bonanzas of the comics’ weekly stars in extended stories in magnificent hardback annuals.

During WWII, rationing of paper and ink forced the “children’s papers” into an alternating fortnightly schedule: on September 6th 1941, only The Dandy was published. A week later just The Beano appeared. The rascally rapscallions only returned to normal weekly editions on 30th July 1949, but the restrictions had not hurt sales. In fact, in December 1945, The Beano #272 became the first British comic to sell a million copies, and the post-war period saw more landmarks as the children’s division of DC Thomson blossomed over the next decade, with innovative characters and a profusion of talented cartoonists who would carry it to publishing prominence, even as the story papers died back in advance of more strip anthologies like The Topper (1953) and The Beezer (1956)…

This compilation primarily concentrates via random extracts and selected strips on the development of established 1940s stars – like Biffo the Bear (1948), Lord Snooty (1938), The Smasher (1938, but completely reinvented in 1957), Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan (both 1937), who all survived the winds of change to grow into beloved and long-lived favourites in the new era. They’re highlighted beside the most successful new characters of the fifties, including Dennis the Menace (1951), Minnie the Minx, Roger the Dodger & Little Plum (all 1953) and the Bash Street Kids (1956 or 1954 if you count prototype When the Bell Rings! as the same).

Nevertheless there’s also a wonderful selection of less well known features on view…

This superb celebration of Celtic creativity is packed literally cover-to-cover with brilliant, breakthrough strips with the mirth starting on the inside front with an outrageous 2-colour Frontispiece tableau by Leo Baxendale of When the Bell Rings!

It’s mirrored at the back of the book by a similarly hilarious spread starring Biffo by indisputable cartoonist Dudley D. Watkins …

The main event begins with Focus on the 50’s, as a full-colour Roger the Dodger page by Ken Reid and a Baxendale 2-tone Bash Street Kids strip heralds an editorial introduction, context on soapbox cart building and casting call ‘Fifties Fun-Folk’ before seguing into a tale of Tin Lizzie: a pioneering comedy strip in block-text & pic format about a mechanical housemaid and robot butler Brassribs. Starting in 1953 as a prose serial, it was remodelled as a comic drawn by Jack Prout and  Charles Grigg which presaged later mega-hit Brassneck…

With all these pages playing with the theme of “carties”, snatches of Watkins’ Lord Snooty and the 1957 iteration of The Smasher by Hugh Morren lead to an episode of ‘Charlie the Chimp’.

Limned by Charles Grigg, the feature was another comedy drama in block & pic format starring a smart but strictly realistic simian working as a porter in a boarding house…

A full-colour Korky strip by James Crighton, with the cat using his cart as a taxi, ends this section before ‘A Day in the Life of Dennis’ offers an extended collection of strips and features starring the magnificent Menace, rendered by creator Davey Law. The Bad Boy debuted in The Beano #452 (in shops from March 12th 1951) and begins with prose piece ‘Nursery Crimes – or Dennis Growing Up by Dennis’s Dad’ taken from the first Dennis the Menace Book. Its backed up by 15 strips from the era, including ‘News Boy’, ‘Doctor’s Orders’, ‘Top of the Class’ and ‘Dad in Disgrace’ before literally and figuratively shifting gear to see Korky and Biffo as “Teddy Boys” in individual full-colour fashion yarns…

Assorted snapshot strips from venerable fantasy serial ‘The Iron Fish’, illustrated by Jack Glass, lead to a Watkins moment in ‘50’s Medicine the Desperate Dan Way!’ before Baxendale’s ‘Little Plum’ enjoys his own time in the spotlight via 22 strips culled from both comics and Annuals.

Desperate Dan crops up again in episodes from 1952-1954 before “Strongman’s Daughter” Pansy Potter (by James Clark) outwits a wicked wizard whilst Paddy Brennan exults in full-colour in the debut chapter of fantasy thriller ‘Fighting Forkbeard (The Sea Wolf from Long Ago)’ wherein a dragonship full of Vikings washes up and attacks a modern fishing village…

A Baxendale Bash Street strip guest-starring Minnie the Minx opens a selection of crossovers with Biffo and others, after which Hungry Horace and Shaggy Doggy offer a glimpse at the work of Allan Morley, an old school cartoonist who had been with The Beano since #1 but was now giving way to new style and content…

Created by Ken Reid, Jonah was an accursed sailor who sank every vessel he touched and the splendid sampling of strips here leads to Watkins’ introduction of Desperate Dan’s nephew Danny and niece Katey from February 1957, and is followed by a Biffo strip showing a number of things totally banned from modern comics…

‘Guess the Date!’ and ‘50’s Housing – the Desperate Dan Way!’ plus a Korky clash with his arch enemies – The Mice – lead to examples of strips that didn’t work out with a page each for Jenny Penny (Jimmy Thompson) and Little Angel Face (by Ken Reid) before a Lord Snooty vignette from 1954 opens a section starring a certified superstar – Roger the Dodger…

Realised by Reid, the consummate con artist struts his stuff and takes his retributive punishments in a dozen strips, after which the modern medium of home entertainment is tackled in a colour Korky tale and ‘50’s Tele-Watching – the Desperate Dan Way!’ before a Morley Charlie Chutney cookery classic from 1954 acts as palate cleanser for what follows…

All that spanking endured by wayward kids is especially prevalent in a selection of manic material starring Minnie the Minx: in 28 episodes of conniving, chicanery and clobbering courtesy of Baxendale…

A brilliant blast of Biffo in colour brings us to the Bash Street Kids in all their grubby glory. Accompanied by another mini-editorial providing historical context, a slap-happy selection combines double-page tableaux of When the Bell Rings! with a surfeit of Bash Street strips and reveals how the feature evolved. The Baxendale cover to story paper Wizard #1547 (October 1955) accompanies prose tale ‘Bash Street School’ from the June 4th edition, and discloses how the tableau feature inspired comedic school stories which in turn informed a stripped-down strip version with the 16+ kid cast pared down to the 9 we know today…

The process was applied to a few DCT characters, as seen in text story ‘The Boyhood of Desperate Dan’, preceded by the cover for Wizard #1492 (September 18th 1954) and a page of prose thriller ‘Red Rory of the Eagle’ (September 1951) ranged beside the strip it became with a Jack Glass rendered episode from September 1958…

Bill Holroyd provides a 1954 tale of voracious be-kilted ‘Plum MacDuff – The Highlander Who Never Gets Enough’ and the animal antics of ‘Kat and Kanary’ – created by Grigg but probably illustrated here by Baxendale – introduces ‘50’s Tele-Watching – the Desperate Dan Way!’ and follows up with a Biffo strip from November 1956 that might just be the UK’s first infomercial; a Grigg royal rarity featuring Prince Whoopee and a Reid Roger the Dodger lark that eschews the punitive slipper for a more targeted retribution…

A sampling of fantasy drama series follows: name – and picture – checking ‘The Horse That Jack Built’, Brennan’s ‘The Shipwrecked Circus’ and Glass’ ‘The Bird Boy’ before we hit the final stretch, starting with a 1959 Smasher saga about boots, a quick appearance for ‘Cocky Sue, the Cockatoo – She’s the Brains of the Pirate Crew’ by an artist I should recognise, but don’t, and ‘50’s Transport – the Desperate Dan Way!’

With past and future in mind Lord Snooty then pre-empts the microwave oven in a wild yarn from 1954, whilst ‘Wee Davie and King Willie’ strike an early and unexpected blow for animal rights in a strip from 1957 by Ken Hunter, who also ends our comic capers with a wild & woolly double page bonanza tableau set in ‘Wee Davie’s Zoo’…

Sadly, none of the writers are named and precious few of the artists, but I’ve offered a best guess as to whom we should thank, and of course I would be so very happy if anybody could confirm or deny my supposition…

A marvel of nostalgia and timeless comics wonder, the addictive magic of this collection is the brilliant art and stories by a host of talents that have literally made Britons who they are today. Bravo to DC Thomson for letting them out for a half-day to run amok once again; can we please have more and in digital edition, too?
© DC Thomson & Co. Ltd. 2004

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Super-Friends: Saturday Morning Comics volume 2


By E. Nelson Bridwell, Bob Rozakis, Martin Pasko, Bob Oksner, Ramona Fradon, Kurt Schaffenberger, Romeo Tanghal, Joe Staton, Bob Smith, Vince Colletta & Kim DeMulder with Alex Toth & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0592-7 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Absolute Entertainment Perfection… 9/10

Once upon a time comics were primarily created with kids in mind and, whilst I’d never advocate exclusively going back to those days, the modern industry has for the longest time sinned by not properly addressing the needs and tastes of younger fans these days. Happily, DC has latterly been rectifying the situation with a number of new and – most importantly for old geeks like me – remastered, repackaged age-appropriate gems from their vast back catalogue.

A superb case in point of all-ages comics done right is this massive tome. And don’t stress the title: it may celebrate the joys of past childhood shows but this is definitely a great big Sunday “settle back and luxuriate” treat…

The Super Friends: Saturday Morning Comics gathers comic book tales spun off from a popular Saturday Morning TV Cartoon show of the 1970s: one that – thanks to the canny craftsmanship and loving invention of primary scripter E. Nelson Bridwell – became an integral and unmissable component of the greater DC Universe, as a well a key supplier of fresh fodder to enhance its all-encompassing omniverse. So very many of his supporting characters became superstars in their own right and trappings such as the junior characters, villains and the Hall of Justice are now key components of today’s overarching continuity…

The Super Friends was also one of the most universally thrilling and satisfying superhero titles of the period for older fans: featuring the type of smart and witty, straightforward adventures people my age grew up with, produced during a period when the entire industry was increasingly losing itself in colossal continued storylines and bombastic, convoluted, soap opera melodrama.

It’s something all creators should have tattooed on their foreheads: sometimes all you really want is a smart plot well illustrated, sinister villains well-smacked, a solid resolution and early bed…

Under various guises, the TV show Super Friends ran from 1973 to 1986: a vehicle for established television-alumni Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman and Wonder Woman, supplemented by a succession of studio-originated kids as student crimebusters. The show also offered airtime to occasional guest stars from the DCU on a case by case basis. The animated show made a hugely successful transition to print as part of the publisher’s 1976 foray into “boutiqued” comics which saw titles with television connections cross-marketed as “DC TV Comics”.

Child-friendly Golden Age revival Shazam! – the Original Captain Marvel had been adapted into a popular live action series and its Saturday Morning silver screen stablemate The Secrets of Isis consequently reversed the process by becoming a comic book. With the additions of hit comedy show Welcome Back Kotter and animated blockbuster Super Friends’ four-colour format, DC had a neat little outreach imprimatur tailor-made to draw viewers into the magic word of funnybooks.

At least, that was the plan: with the exception of Super Friends, none of the titles lasted more than 10 issues…

This massive mega-extravaganza (the second of 2) gathers Super Friends #27-47, The Super Friends Special #1, The Best of DC: Blur Ribbon Digest #3, Limited Collectors’ Edition C-41 and Super Friends!: Truth Justice and Peace! (collectively spanning December 1979 to August 1981), ending the initial run whilst sharing material from assorted reprints and one-shots.

The majority of stories were by E. Nelson Bridwell & Ramona Fradon (Aquaman; Batman; Metamorpho the Element Man; The Brave and the Bold; Brenda Starr, Reporter). Bridwell (Secret Six; Inferior Five; Batman; Superman; The Flash; Batman and Robin newspaper strip; Legion of Super-Heroes; Captain Marvel/Shazam!) had been one of the art form’s earliest mega-fans, turning his hobby into a career in the 1950s.

He was justly renowned as DC’s Keeper of Lore and Continuity Cop – thanks to an astoundingly encyclopaedic knowledge of publishing minutiae and ability to instantly recall every damn thing about anything! Thankfully, he was also an ingenious and supremely witty writer. Fradon was a pioneering artist who also got her start in the 1950s, graced with a uniquely smooth and accessible style. She became one of comics’ earliest (acknowledged!) female artists and was a fan-favourite for generations.

Neither Bridwell or Fradon considered working at the junior end of the market as in any way less important or prestigious than the auteur/adult drama sector just starting to manifest in the American industry…

When Super Friends first aired, the costumed champions were mentors to two kids and their pet: tasked with training the next generation of superheroes. Without warning or explanation, Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog were replaced for the second television season by alien shapeshifters Zan and Jayna and their elastic-tailed space monkey Gleek. In the comics – with more room to extrapolate and far more consideration for the fans – Bridwell turned the cast change into an extended epic.

When two siblings from distant planet Exor – a girl able to transform into animals and a boy who can become any form of water from steam to ice – came to Earth with an urgent warning they saved the world and were marooned here.

Their integration became an ongoing plot strand with the adults (and Robin) not only training Zan and Jayna, but also jointly acclimating them and introducing them into human society…

This concluding compilation of thrilling fun resumes with The Super Friends #27 and ‘The Spacemen Who Stole Atlantis!’ (Bridwell, Fradon & inker Bob Smith) sees domed undersea city Poseidonis stolen away by ruthlessly curious alien scientists who had not factored in Earth’s greatest defenders.

Inked by Vince Colletta, the next issue detailed a ‘Masquerade of Madness!’ in a Halloween yarn packed with guest stars (including Etrigan the Demon, Solomon Grundy, Man-Bat, Swamp Thing and Jimmy “wolfboy” Olsen) as mystic malcontent Felix Faust crashes a costume ball, trapping attendees in their outfits until Bruce Wayne hands over a certain magical gem… And that’s when the other – untransformed – Super Friends step in…

Another extraterrestrial invasion by colonising invaders seeking to evict humanity manifests in #29, with the new bosses wielding technology that seems to make all resistance futile. However, Wonder Woman and the Wonder Twins find a work-around meaning the war can be won by the heroes making themselves ‘Invisible Defenders of Earth!’

The issue also offers an adventure of the Wonder Twins, who now have secret identities and live in the home of guardian Professor Carter Nichols – Bruce Wayne’s science advisor/time travel expert who debuted in Batman #24, August 1944.

Here Bridwell, Kurt Schaffenberger & Smith establish the ‘Scholars from the Stars’ as transfer students at Gotham Central High, but John and Joanna Fleming are soon being stalked by curious classmates eager to learn all they can about the strange newcomers…

Nichols plays a major role in #30 as Fradon-illustrated ‘Gorilla Warfare Against the Humans!’ sees the heroes battle super-primate Grodd and his ally Giganta as they deploy their new tech to transform men into apes…

Guest stars were always a big draw and #31’s ‘How to Trap an Orchid!’ (inked by Colletta) saw DC’s most enigmatic hero targeted and framed by a ruthless enemy and helped by the Friends before Schaffenberger pencilled and Smith inked #32’s ‘The Scarecrow Fights with Fear!’ as the Tyrant of Terror afflicts the heroes with crippling weaponised personal phobias that only teamwork and determination can overcome

Fradon & Colletta combine for ‘The Secret of the Stolen Solitaire!’ as obsessive old enemy Menagerie Man returns, still using trained animals to commit spectacular robberies. His schemes are derailed when Jayna becomes a famously extinct creature and is “captured”, leading the heroes and visiting VIP Hawkman to his lair and the Winged Wonder’s captive sidekick Big Red…

With #34, two stories per issue became the norm, leading with Bridwell, Fradon & Colletta’s ‘The Creature That Slept a Million Years!’, in which a hibernating beast awakened on Earth causes inadvertent chaos, balanced by ‘The Boss and the Beast’ as John and Joanna Fleming help their favourite teacher by saving her husband from a crooked boss fitting him up for a life of crime…

Romeo Tanghal & Smith illustrate full-length spectacle ‘Circus of the Super-Stars’ as the Super Friends and their showbiz impersonators trade places to outwit crooks targeting a massive charity event, before #36 bifurcates with a brace of tales limned by Tanghal & Colletta. First up is ‘Warhead Strikes at Gotham’ with Plastic Man and Woozy Winks tracking a war-mongering maniac and overlapping with the Super Friends battle to stop a paramilitary criminal force, after which The Wonder Twins visit a museum in their school personas and discover the shocking truth about ‘The Dinosaur Demon!’

Fradon & Colletta depict #37’s ‘Bad Weather for Supergirl!’ as the Kryptonian Crime-crusher (in her then-current day job as teacher) brings a class to Gotham just as the Weather Wizard goes on a rampage. Kara’s problem is not the villain’s outrages but that her kids seem far more impressed by the late-arriving superteam than their own hometown hero…

Drama is balanced by rampant fantasy in support story ‘The Giant Who Shrunk Ireland!’, with Bridwell’s creation Jack O’Lantern using his magical gifts to save the Celtic fairy realms from an awakened Fomorean Giant.

Jack was one of a number of international heroes Bridwell and Fradon devised, who grew in popularity and were eventually retrofitted into a team dubbed the Global Guardians. Another debuted in a solo spot at the back of #38, after ‘The Fate of the Phantom Super Friends’ (art by Fradon & Colletta), which saw alien tyrant Grax recruit and arm Earth gangsters to take revenge on his enemies. Then Bob Oksner & DeMulder illustrate ‘The Seraph’s Day of Atonement’ as Bridwell relocates his Israeli holy warrior to a new Jewish settlement in disputed territory just in time to save it from bandits pretending to be Arab terrorists. When, in his righteous anger, he goes too far in punishing the evildoers, he faces divine consequences…

Another former foe resurfaces in #39 with a sinister scheme to create hyper-evolved clones of the only being he trusts… himself. However, ‘The ‘Future’ Son of Overlord!’ (Fradon & Colletta) proves insufficient to the demands and the demise of “Futurio” only results in Overlord cruelly retrenching, after which the human-seeming Wonder Twins discover nightclubs are another place crazy crime can occur in ‘The Boogie Mania Will Get You’ (Tanghal & Collett)…

Inked by Kim DeMulder, #40’s lead tale ‘Menace of the Mixed-Up Senses!’ pits the heroes against a vindictive scientist creating disasters by scrambling perceptions, before Jack O’Lantern returns to teach a smooth-talking conman a life lesson in ‘Blarney for Sale!’ (Bridwell, Tanghal & DeMulder)

Bob Rozakis joins Fradon & Colletta in detailing ‘The Toyman’s Tricky Thefts!’ as the veteran villain attacks a Christmas toy convention as prelude to his true diabolical plan, whilst the rear guard of #41 witnesses Oksner write & illustrate ‘Dry Earth… Stolen Waters’ as The Seraph foils an industrial spy stealing the secrets of an experimental desalination device…

In Seasonal Special #42, Bridwell, Tanghal & Colletta debut Brazilian hero Beatriz Da Costa (AKA Green Fury, Green Flame and/or Fire) who joins the Wayne Foundation just in time to help the Super Friends defeat a vegetation-controlling villain in ‘How Green Was My Gotham!’ and still leave room for the Wonder Twins to enjoy ‘A Christmas with Everything!’ in a heartwarming tale of family and little miracles…

Overlord tries again in #43, unleashing ‘Futurio Times Ten!’ to destroy the collegiate heroes, (and Green Fury) but fails when the over-evolved clone develops an unholy fascination with potential mate Wonder Woman, after which Plastic Man bounces back in ‘Mouth-Trap!’ by Pasko, Staton & Smith, taking down thieving shock jock Lou Kwashus – AKA Chatterbox…

Issue #44 leads with Bridwell, Tanghal & Colletta’s ‘Peril of the Forgotten Identities!’ as a menace from the Wonder Twins’ homeworld warps the memories of the team leaving Zan, Jayna & Beatriz to save the day. As counterpoint, Jack O’Lantern then solves a snag in the (super)natural order by ensuring ‘The Death-Cry of the Banshee!’ is heard by the right person…

The “International Heroes” who would become Global Guardians (Rising Sun, Bushmaster, Olympian, Wild Huntsman, Godiva and Little Mermaid) were formally gathered by immortal wizard Doctor Mist in #45 and united with the Super Friends to defeat ‘The Man Who Collected Villains!’

Another classic by Bridwell, Tanghal & Colletta, it pits the merged squads against uber-baddie The Conqueror and his personal Doom Legion – Hector Hammond, Kanjar Ro, Queen Bee, Sinestro, Time Trapper and World-Beater – in a brutal clash that concludes in the next issue.

Before that though, courtesy of Pasko, Staton & Smith, Plastic Man & Woozy discover ‘One of Our Barbarians Is Missing!’ and must halt the rampage of a temporarily-deranged movie swordsman being manipulated by devious crooks…

The frantic Fights ‘n’ Tights clash then results in ‘The Conqueror’s Greatest Conquest!’ (Bridwell, Tanghal & Colletta) – and ultimate downfall before The Seraph battles an ‘Echo of Evil’ and the ghosts of Masada (look it up) in an all-Oksner thriller.

The comic book Super Friends ended with #47: a 25-page epic by Bridwell, Tanghal & Colletta detailing the origin of Green Fury, a plane of animal spirits and ‘The Demons from the Green Hell!’ whose actions sought to unmake the world until the team stepped up…

Times and tastes were changing and it would be years until superheroes – and not toy tie-ins – for kids were a viable option again: when once again TV led that march with breakthrough adaptations of Batman, Superman and Justice League Animated Series…

Here and now, this epic collation closes with series designer Alex Toth’s 1976 cover for Limited Collectors’ Edition C-41 and The Best of DC: Blur Ribbon Digest #3 (January-February 1980) cover by José Luis García-López & Bob Smith. Also on view is Ross Andru & Dick Giordano’s cover from The Super Friends Special #1 1981 and Toth’s frontage from the 2003 Super Friends!: Truth Justice and Peace! trade paperback collection.

Sublimely resplendent in the rich flavours and simple joys of DC’s Silver Age boom, and with covers by Fradon, Smith, Schaffenberger, Tanghal, & Colletta, this concluding compendium is superbly entertaining, masterfully crafted and utterly engaging. It offers stories of pure comics gold to delight children and adults in equal proportion. Truly generational in appeal, they are probably the closest thing to an American answer to the magic of Tintin or Asterix and no family home should be without this tome.
© 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981, 2003, 2020 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Sugar and Spike Archives volume 1


By Sheldon Mayer (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3112-5 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utter Entertainment Perfection… 10/10

I actually intended this for a forthcoming week of kid-friendly books in the New Year but on re-reading this gloriously whimsical and hilariously absurdist tome I came to the conclusion that just like its scintillating and ultra-impatient co-star, I am quite impatient and don’t like to share with just anybody, so this is for Right Now …and probably just for the parents, ok?

And just so we’re clear, miss Sugar Plumm predates Miss Piggy by DECADES and is marginally scarier! Okay? Good, now go on, and let the kids see it too if you want…

Sheldon Mayer (April 1, 1917 – December 21, 1991) is arguably the most important man in American comic book history. A writer and cartoonist, he was also the editorial guiding light behinds dozens of major features at All American Publishing, with a hand in the creation of Wonder Woman, The Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Justice Society and many more.

He mentored young creators like Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert and his creative opinions as assistant to Max Gaines and others dictated the way the entire industry unfolded.

Back in 1935, he was a writer, artist and eventually editorial assistant to Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson at embattled and failing outfit National Allied Publications. In 1938, Mayer was credited with rescuing from the trash can a weird strip about a strongman in tights and a cape. He apparently loved the feature – by two kids named Siegel and Shuster – and pushed until Harry Donenfeld put it in his new anthology Action Comics. That worked out pretty well in the end…

Above all else, Mayer was an inveterate and incurable cartoonist. In 1936, at Dell Comics he created semi-autobiographical boy cartoonist Scribbly, and when “Shelly” joined Gaines at AA he brought that comical kid with him. When the superhero craze truly kicked off, Mayer added one to the strip. Ma Hunkel was Scribbly’s fearsome landlady, and when crime and ne’er-do-wells plagued her neighbourhood, she tackled the problem by making a costume from kitchen scraps and pots to patrol her inner city district as the mighty, mysterious Red Tornado…

In 1948, Mayer surrendered his editorial position to devote himself to drawing and storytelling. He had already spearheaded AA/DC’s move into funny animal features four years previously, in new or converted titles Funny Stuff (Summer 1944), Animal Antics (March 1946) and Funny Folks (April 1946). Cover-dated June 1945, Leading Comics (former home of the Seven Soldiers of Victory) was the first to drop superheroes, becoming an anthropomorphic mainstay with #15.

Mayer’s mirth mountain included the return of Scribbly; exploring the burgeoning teen scene in Leave it to Binky and Buzzy, and generating all-ages whimsy and hilarity in dozens of strips like Doodles Duck, Peter Porkchop, Nutsy Squirrel, Dodo and the Frog and The Three Mouseketeers. In 1956, he created the most charming and adorable comics concept ever published… Sugar and Spike.

The series was an all-Mayer affair that ran 98 issues – until his eyesight failed and he stopped drawing. Undaunted, he carried on as a writer: scripting anthological horror tales for Adventure Comics and sundry DC mystery titles like House of Mystery and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. He also created Black Orchid, revived DC’s 1950s iteration of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and – following eye surgery – resumed drawing Sugar and Spike for international syndication.

Some of those stories were reprinted in DC digests The Best of DC, and in 1992, a commemorative 99th issue of Sugar and Spike: released as part of the DC Silver Age Classics series. As usual, I’m revelling in nostalgic joys here whilst whining like a baby and opining for DC to commission a full archival revival in print and digitally…

The concept is beautifully simple and evergreen and as a sign of the regard DC held Mayer in, he was allowed to sign his work: an honour only Siegel & Shuster, Bob Kane and Charles Moulton enjoyed at that time.

In in ordinary domestic America, there are two neighbouring families; each with a toddler. Those little kids get up to all sorts of mischief, much of it quite destructive. These kids are like all baby beings – able to clearly communicate with every other infant in creation – but not adults. The premise constantly generates captivating magic as the bright kids daily discover, categorise and classify their world: posit their own soundly rationalistic explanations for the grown-ups’ weird behaviours and fascinating toys and foods (or anything else they can put in their mouths…). Naturally, the adults think the babytalk babble is cute, but surely it’s nothing but charming nonsense?

Preceded by a revelatory Introduction from Comics historian Bill Schelly the wonderment opens right on the cover which introduces Sugar Plumm and Cecil “Spike” Wilson and sets up a regularly recurring gag: although friends and neighbours, the toddlers’ parents have differing approaches to child rearing. Whenever the kids discuss these discrepancies and attempt to capitalise on the parents’ latest tactic (this was the great era of baby advice gurus like Dr. Benjamin Spock), it’s usually Spike who suffers for it…

That premiere issue opens with ‘Sugar and Spike!’ as the Plumm family move in and quickly introduce themselves and their new daughter to the Wilsons. The kids get on like a house on fire, chatting away like old pals, even though it’s the first baby Spike has ever seen and he can’t form proper words yet…

He’s just discovered a universal truth: although everything has to learn its own language, all babies are born able to communicate with each other…

Soon he’s showing the fascinating new creature with the hair tail all the fun places in his house, like daddy’s basement workshop where all the loud fast toys and paint tins are, and despite the resultant chaos triggering the first of many spats between the adults a friendship for the ages is born…

‘Thumbs Up!’ then builds on the front-cover gag as the infants compare notes on how their parents react to thumb-sucking, unaware that there’s more than one baby-care book and varying opinions can produce wildly varying adult responses…

Mayer was well aware that his young readership needed lots of participatory stimulation and worked hard on activity pages such as ‘Write Your Own Comic Page’, wherein kids could fill in blank word balloons of a strip and colour it in afterwards, before ‘Busy Corners’ introduces Sugar’s Uncle Charley. He’s a motorcycle cop and her favourite adult, partly because he rides that bizarre “put-put” thing and partly because he always brings fun (for which read “inappropriate”) toys, but mostly because Uncle Charley never really grew up. Spike is initially jealous but soon warms to the big guy… just before his antics result in both babies and Charley being sent to stand in the corner again…

‘Free Wheeling’ then sees the tots work out the best – but not correct – way to use a wheelbarrow and invent an indoor sport based on golf that has immense destructive potential in ‘The Big Question’, after which their discovery of ‘The Yak-Yak Box’ leads to telephonic disaster. The debut issue then closes with a back-up starring older kid ‘Littul Snoony’, whose dabbling with a junior chemistry set leads to manic misunderstanding…

Sugar and Spike #2 (cover-dated June/July 1956) opens with mystery yarn ‘Photo Finish’ as the plucky lad attacks another baby photographer hired to snap little miss Plumm. The parents can’t understand why cameras terrify Sugar or why Spike always gallantly attacks the lens-jockeys, but that’s because they can’t understand the little lady’s tale of woe about a snake-ejecting trick box during an earlier photoshoot…

Understandable frustration at big people’s inability to understand baby talk boils over during ‘The Return of Uncle Charley’ who comes bearing a water-spurting fire truck and gets them stuck in the corner again, after which ‘Spike at Home’ and ‘Sugar at Home’ prove that the cooperative kids can cause chaos all on their own, before ‘The Big Toy Mystery’ details their discovery of vehicular fun – and folly – after Spike gets a tricycle…

Mayer was always aware that the newspaper comic strip was a powerful and ubiquitous tool used to raise circulation and promote customer loyalty in the 20th century, and as well as laughs, thrills and escapism creators often added games, cut-out collectibles and paper toys to their output. The common belief was that youngsters – especially girls – loved this kind of “dress-up” play, but I suspect many young men also joined in. One of the most popular and perennially effective was beloved characters in their underwear, plus assorted outfits to clothe them in. Many features took the process further by inviting readers to contribute designs.

This practise graduated from the strips to comic books, and Sugar and Spike employed paper-doll pages for its entire run, beginning with a set of cut-out ‘Pint-Size Pin-ups’ (the kids in diapers and six readers’ ensembles from summer dresses to a Davy Crockett suit), after which the kids go to a swish department store where Sugar teaches her “doll-boy” ‘How to Play Loozum’. This issue closes with a ‘Do It Yourself Comic Page!’ where all the characters are faceless and readers can either draw their own or cut and paste from a selection of expressions graciously provided…

For #3, Spike is given a marble by some older kids, but his love for it triggers calamity when it’s eaten by a vacuum cleaner and Sugar makes the monster give back ‘The Shiny Round Roller’, after which ‘Spike Discovers the Ocean!’ and is quickly convinced that it hates him…

More ‘Pint-Size Pin-ups’ lead to a minor masterpiece as the boy is taken to his first restaurant and befriends the main course in ‘Lobsters Away!’ His screams lead to the Wilsons taking the baby crustacean home, where Spike and Sugar resolve to return “Alice” to her home in the ocean…

Activity page ‘You Be the Editor!!’ presents a scrambled strip to put in order – and colour in – before the issue closes with a “kootchy-coo!” monster invading the Wilson home. Happily, Sugar has encountered a “Nanty” before and her ‘Anti-Aunty’ tactics include roping in Uncle Charley to drive the beast away…

Cover-dated October/November, S&S #4 introduced another major theme and recurring gag: the babies’ gradual capitulation to nature and maturation, as epitomised by learning – to say, if not understand – new grown-up words. ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ sees Spike in the corner when Sugar teaches him a term that makes adults forgive everything. However, when they hear someone apparently abusing the magic term, their vengeance is both fearsome and bizarre…

The tots’ discovery of a ‘New Gadget’ results in utter chaos and necessary redecoration before ‘One Sunday Afternoon’ finds Pa Wilson failing to self-assemble a new garden hammock thanks to their assistance. Staying with recreation, the ‘Water Babies’ are dumped on their dads, and enjoy a fishing trip that borders on the surreal and uncanny…

Sugar and Spike #5 (December 1956-January 1957) opens with the infants attending ‘The Birthday Party’ of an older kid, and utterly misunderstanding the notion of GIVING OTHER PEOPLE presents. This hilarious romp introduced mean bully Clarence: a spoiled older boy continually outwitted by the toddlers over the years.

Insomnia informs ‘The Early Birds’ as the tiny tots go walkabout whilst the parents enjoy the sleep of the exhausted, and Spike ponders ‘Grampa’s Problem’ – a sly observation on the indignities of old age – before more ‘Pint-Size Pin-ups’ anticipate ‘The Mystery of the Funny Runner’ with our curious kids questioning how older kids have wheels on their feet…

They seek to imitate firefighters in ‘To the Rescue’ with unwelcome results before the copy closes with a backyard clean-up that reveals ‘A Place for Everything’ isn’t literal when looking for somewhere to put fallen leaves…

Charm manifests in almost lethal amounts in #6 as the veteran infants meet and bring up to speed a newborn in ‘The New Baby’, and another developmental milestone is reached on ‘The Trip’ as both tots stay with Spike’s grandparents for their first Christmas. That witty wonderment is augmented by a ‘How To Make Sugar and Spike Dancing Dolls’ and more gloriously adorable ‘Pint-Size Pin-ups’, before ‘Winter Sunday’ sees the downside of shovelling snow off sidewalks with curious toddlers joining in and ‘Cats? Meowch!’ explores the hazards of finger painting with anchovy paste. This issue then folds with Spike and Sugar addressing consumerism in combat with all the mod cons (that was “Modern Conveniences” if you’re post Millennial) in ‘Baby vs. Machine’…

By #7 (April/May 1957) Mayer was regularly using fashions contributed by readers, as here in opening yarn ‘Mud Mud Mud!’ when the moms try to split up the kids and Mrs Wilson bribes the local older boys to include Spike in their war games. When their messy roughness provokes a tantrum, Sugar comes to his rescue with shocking consequences but not as much as what happens when the misbehaving tots catch their moms consulting ‘The Magic Book’ that seems to dictate what punishments they get…

The mayhem of Spike’s ‘First Haircut’ came from a plot sent in by two readers, one of whom also designed outfits for another ‘Pint-Size Pin-ups’ section, whilst Mayer can claim full credit for Spike’s close encounter with ‘The Don’t-Touch Thing’ and almost sending his dad to jail from the passenger seat in motorcar moment ‘Three-Wheel Driver’…

Issue #8’s mixes crockery carnage and childish misdemeanours with high concept as the kids give the adults ‘Speech Lessons’ in an attempt to make their moms properly communicate in clearcut babytalk and ‘Uncle Charley Strikes Again’ with another magnificently inappropriate toy for Sugar before a double helping of ‘Pint-Size Pin-ups’ leads to another failed experiment when Sugar ensures that ‘The Tick-Tock Won’t Tick-Tock Now!’

Grandpa then finds a way to replace a hobbyhorse in ‘Ride ‘Em Cowboy’, and we close with more animal antics in ‘Trip to the Zoo’…

Sugar and Spike #9 saw the title shift to a monthly frequency: opening with ‘Double Trouble’ as the infants investigate a strangely familiar couple inside the big glass toy, whilst their wear & tear on  toys is tackled by daddy – AKA ‘The Fix-It Machine’, and – after two more ‘Pint-Size Pin-ups’ – ‘Horse Sense’ traces the troubles caused by their first trip to an amusement park where the nippers naturally “liberate” a baby-talking little pony…

Another ‘Write Your Own Comic Page’ then leads to a breakthrough in counting in ‘Spike Learns Big Business’…

This sublime collection concludes with #10 (cover-dated September 1957) beginning with ‘The Big Word Mystery’ as the troublesome toddler parrots a grown-up sound that makes adults go crazy, after which the kids learn that pulling ‘The Magic String’ makes day-time go away.

One last brace of ‘Pint-Size Pin-ups’ leads to another seaside jaunt where the parents go ‘Beach Nuts’ after the kids go AWOL and – once safely home – ‘More Adventures with the Yak-Yak Box’ when Spike tries in vain to rescue the random toddler who answered whilst he was playing with the very-forbidden telephone…

These are wonderful, whimsical stories from a time when comics were a major entertainment medium and the only mass market accessible to kids. Thanks to the gifts of Sheldon Mayer, these yarns remain some of the most beguiling and hilarious ever crafted – just ask the numerous countries the feature was syndicated to – and absolutely MUST be brought back for kids of every vintage to enjoy.
© 1956, 1957, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Marzi volume 1: Little Carp


By Marzena Sowa & Sylvain Savoia, translated by Anjali Singh/Mediatoon Licensing (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: digital edition only ASIN: B07417JCN3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Lyrical, Lovely, Laughter-Laced and Laudable… 10/10

It’s getting close to everyone’s most anticipated and ultimately disappointing festival time, and this year more than any other, the lead-up has been peppered with misery, anxiety, actual tragedy and terror. However, whatever your spiritual or official seasonal leanings – and None at All now officially counts as a denomination in the UK – the season for miracles and wonders always sparks our communal hope for something different and better so I’ve unearthed this lost delight to foster a little hope and joy…

As you’re surely aware by now, our Continental cousins are exceeding adept at exploring humanity’s softer and more introspective sides through the medium of comics, and this first tome in a sequence detailing the life of a little Polish girl growing up in an era of huge social change is a masterclass in emotive, evocative, vibrantly funny and ruthlessly sensitive storytelling to delight our senses by quietly affirming that people everywhere are basically the same…

Originally released in France in 2005 as Marzi, tome 1. Petite carpe this enthralling and charming episodic collation was the first of seven cartoon memoires by writer Marzena Sowa and her work/life partner Sylvain Savoia. They had met when she came to Paris from Poland as an exchange student, and he – a successful cartoonist and graphic novelist – soon realised the potential of her anecdotes as she spoke of growing up in a Soviet satellite nation at the tail end of the Cold War…

Their published collaborations were a hit in Europe and the story was first translated into English in 2011 for DC/Vertigo. At that time, media hype concentrated on the political aspects of her background, but if you can when reading this version, try to ignore that, just as the creators do.

It’s a shaping element and plot point, like boarding at Hogwarts or growing up in the Teen Titans, but never what the stories are about. This a tale of childhood and taking happiness wherever you find it, not a kids adventure like Emil and the Detectives or a historical horror story like The Diary of Anne Frank…

Marzna Sowa was born in Stalowa Wola, Podkarpackia, Poland on April 8th 1979. She grew up mostly ordinary like all her friends and family, but after achieving maturity during some of the most eventful years of the 20th century, in 2001 changed her life path. She left the Jagiellonian University of Krakow for the University of Bordeaux to complete studies in Literature.

On meeting Sylvain Savoia, mutual attraction became a working partnership and the first autobiographical Marzi volume came in 2005. The last to date was released in 2017. Her other award-winning tales include N’embrassez pas qui voulez, (Don’t Kiss Who You Want, 2013, art by Sandrine Revel) and Tej nocy dzika paprotka, (with Berenika Kolomycka).

After further schooling to become a videographer, Sowa has moved into Cinema, writing screenplays and directing documentaries while continuing to script comics such as La Grande Métamorphose de Théo (2022, with Geoffrey Delinte) and La Petite Évasion (2022, with Dorothée de Monfreid).

Her first collaborator Sylvain Savoia was born in 1969 in Reims and initially studied at the Saint Luc Institute in Brussels. In 1993 he co-founded art workshop 510TTC and crafted his first comics – Reflets Perdus – from a script by Jean-David Morvan, before beginning their extended series Nomad. Later successes included Al’Togoat (2003), Les Esclaves oubliés de Tromelin and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Allemagne 1945, supplemented by poster making, advertising art and training manual illustration and design.

Since 2018 he has helmed educational series Le Fil de l’Histoire raconté par Ariane & Nino, and enjoyed further success with Sowa in Les esclaves oubliés de Tromelin and Petit Pays. In 2020 he was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.

It begins as Christmas looms. ‘Communism doesn’t kill your appetite’ introduces 7-year-old Marzi, who’s nervously gearing up for the big day. It’s not about presents, but the fact that very soon every flat in the apartment block everybody she knows live in will have a fish in the bath. There are always shortages and long queues at the housing estate store, but somehow the market always has a carp for every customer to make the season traditional and perfect…

Marzi is smart and observant but perhaps thinks too much. She’s also – to her excitably loud and frequently angry mum’s consternation – a very picky eater, only barely aware of the effort her dad must make to get the fish. Of course the daughter is grateful, but also deeply concerned about once again sharing their toilet/bathroom with the creature until they eat her…

The situation sparks deep thoughts about eating animals. Marzi is luckier than most of her friends as her Aunt Niusia lives on a farm and the family always have access to extra food. However, the child’s visits are always fraught with unnoticed pragmatic brutality. Marzi has met cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens, cats, dogs and other creatures and fully understands why mum says you shouldn’t give animals names, but it doesn’t stop her trying to form a bond with the fish in the bath…

We learn more of her life on ‘The Social Landing’ where Marzi and the other kids in the block congregate. State controlled housing is short on amenities and variety (there are only two kinds of apartment available – small or bigger) and no play facilities, so the kids cluster around the elevator on her floor (the fifth) and play games vertically. Their favourite is messing with the lift buttons so that the carriage stops at every floor and they also like ringing doorbells and running away. Marzi is great at the latter but hampered in the former as she’s afraid of using the grim grey box and will always use the stairs if she can…

She has a strong bond with Andrzej, Magda, both Anias and especially feisty Monika, who always leads at everything, like that time Ania (1) and Andrzej’s mother pierced all their ears (except Andrzej and baby Magda!) and Monika’s mum gave them all their first earrings…

‘A carpet for life’ charmingly reveals the Poles’ utter obsession with ornate rugs and floor coverings and ‘Sun in winter’ details queuing culture and the Kupon (coupon system) dictating the dissemination of goods and foodstuffs, as seen through the eyes of the child stamping her freezing feet beside dad in the never-decreasing line for oranges: offering insights into what Marzi will and won’t eat and what her formidable mother will do to ensure fair shares for all…

Although she’s still young, Marzi spends a goodly part of her day ‘At School’. The cooks there understand her and the hot breakfasts are far more palatable. There are games and books and singing too and only thing she doesn’t like is how the little kids drool all over the toys…

It was always cold in the Soviet Union, and ‘Skowierszyn’ shares the joys of snow and sledding and visiting grandma who gets fashion magazines from cousin Janusz who works abroad. These are supposedly for Niusia – who is also a skilled seamstress – but become a beautiful inspiration for Marzi to stretch her mind and clothe her adored plastic doll…

More queuing – meat this time – is highlighted on ‘The Night of Waiting’ with dad and Uncle Zdzich making military style preparations to ensure success, after which Marzi develops deep shame and some potentially lifelong hang-ups when ordered to join the party to secure toilet paper in ‘Some poetry in rolls’…

Although dictatorial by diktat and “Communist” by command, Poland remained devoutly Catholic under Russian rule and we jump to the second most important event in the religious calendar for ‘A very wet Easter’ as Marzi and her folks head to rural Kamien to enjoy the festival with mum’s family. A hardworking, hard-drinking farming family dad cannot keep up with, their freer attitudes and lifestyle are a revelation to the child – as are the rather scary religious rituals they enjoy – but not as much as Marzi’s miraculous brush with death and subsequent notoriety after falling into a still frozen and exceedingly deep pond…

Dad works with Zdzich in the Huta Stalowa Wola, the city’s only factory, and that has its own perks, as seen in ‘All for one’ when every worker simultaneously takes the opportunity to buy a new fridge from the consignment just delivered, before his attempts at home entertainment give way to national fervour in ‘Our hero, the Pope!’ as Polish Pontiff John-Paul II makes his landmark visit. Of course the captivated adults never expected Marzi and her gang to recreate the event in their own inimitable irreverent manner, combining pomp and circumstance with a new block game involving the garbage chutes…

Although perhaps understandable, in the past many western observers have over-concentrated on the totalitarian regime (which is all but absent in this volume) and placed too heavy an emphasis on Soviet-spawned shortages, to the detriment of the real message here – that kids live in their own world and always try make the best of what they have.

Just imagine what British kids now will be writing about in 20 years when recalling their so-privileged childhoods of unnecessary privation, cold, and hunger in the soon-to-be nostalgia-ridden years of 2021 to 2024…

A skilfully shaped and gloriously enthralling paean to growing up in interesting times (and aren’t they all?), Little Carp is a celebration of independent thought: blending pranks in lifts and staircases, new fun with familial strangers and with doing the tedious stuff adults tell you to. Making fun where you can as your awareness deepens and a mature world is built by ever-expanding experience, and how we all grow up to be our parent in unbalanced doses of imitation and utter rejection…

The more observant amongst you might have noticed that my extended family is Polish and I have some actual experience of life under the Soviets back then. My many, many cousins experienced lives very like Marzi’s and endured the mixed Christmas delights of a big fish sharing your house before being reluctantly consumed, as well as all the other different but similar minor moments of growing up. If pushed, they might talk of shortages and restrictions, but they’d far rather discuss music or movies or football. And sex. They always want to know who’s doing who, but maybe that’s just my lot…

Everything else was just dull grown up stuff: boring, inescapable but sometimes delayable and just the way things were.

Marzi is definitely about independence and freedom, but it’s personal not national and inherently hopeful: the tale of a fish out of water learning to swim her own way. If you want polemical condemnation and supportive sympathy for your own prejudices, look somewhere else. Better yet, stick around and see how a delightful and unique individual lived her own best life…
© 2017 – DUPUIS – SOWA & SAVOIA. All rights reserved.

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Pete & Pickles


By Berkeley Breathed (Philomel Books/Penguin Young Readers Group)
ISBN: 978-0-399250-82-8 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Because it Ain’t Seasonal Without Cartoon Critters… 10/10

Throughout the 1980s and for half of the 1990s, Berke Breathed dominated the newspaper strip scene with agonisingly funny, edgy-yet-surreal political fantasy Bloom County and, latterly, Sunday-only spin-off Outland. They are all available digitally – so don’t wait for my reviews, just get them now!

At the top of his game and swamped with awards like Pulitzers, Breathed retired to concentrate on books for kids, crafting whimsical wonders like Red Ranger Came Calling, Mars Needs Moms! and Flawed Dogs: The Year End Leftovers at the Piddleton “Last-Chance” Dog Pound (and sequel Flawed Dogs: The Shocking Raid on Westminster), which all rank among the best America has ever produced.

Get them too.

Breathed’s first foray into the field was 1991’s A Wish for Wings That Work: a Christmas parable featuring his signature character, and the most charmingly human one. Between 2003 and 2008, Breathed revived Opus as a Sunday strip, before eventually capitulating to his career-long antipathy for the manic deadline pressures of newspaper production and often-insane, convoluted contradictions of editorial censorship.

It seemed his ludicrous yet appealing cast of misfits – all skilled and deadly exponents of irony and common sense residing in the heartland of American conservatism – were gone for good, until the internet provided a platform for Breathed to resume his role as a gadfly commentator on his own terms.

Since 2015, Bloom County has mocked, exposed and shamed capitalism, celebrities, consumerism, popular culture, politicians, religious leaders and people who act like idiots. Donald Trump figures prominently and often, but that might just be coincidence…

These later efforts, unconstrained by syndicate pressures to not offend advertisers, are also available as book collections. You’ll want those too, and be delighted to learn that all Breathed’s Bloom County work is also available in digital formats – fully annotated to address the history gap, if you didn’t live through events such as Iran-Gate, Live-Aid, Star Wars (both cinematic and military versions), assorted cults, televangelists experiencing less than divine retribution and sundry other tea-cup storms that contributed to all us Baby Boomers beings so obnoxious, rude and defensive…

Not quite as renowned, but every inch as crucial to your enjoyment, is the lost gem on display today: a paean to the power of friendship, all wrapped up in a children’s book about an odd couple thrown together by fate and necessity. And outré noses…

As previously stated, after the all-too-brief, glittering outing as a syndicated strip cartoonist and socio-political commentator (so often the very same hallowed function) Breathed left strips to create children’s picture books.

He lost none of his perception, wit or imagination, and actually got better as an artist. Even so, he never quite abandoned his entrancing cast of characters and always maintained the gently excoriating, crusading passion and inherent bittersweet invective which underscored those earlier narratives.

Moreover, he couldn’t ignore that morally uplifting component of his work that so upset hypocrites, liars, greedy people and others who let us all down while carping on about being unfairly judged and how we don’t really understand complex issues. Trust me, we – and Breathed – understand perfectly…

This crushingly captivating cartoon catechism ruminates on the cost and worth of comradely fraternity.

Pete is a pig: practical, predictable and not in any way a perturbation to normal pedestrian life. He was a pig who didn’t like fuss or surprises and lived alone until the night of the big storm. Aroused from his usual rain-induced nightmare of drowning, Pete gradually became aware that something had broken into his otherwise empty but extremely secure house…

Suddenly accosted, he is all but smothered in the capacious and so strong snoot of escaped circus elephant Pickles, who begs him to shelter her. Of course, pragmatic Pete happily hands her over the moment the clowns hunting her turn up, but can’t forget how she’d smiled at him whilst being dragged away or that she’s left him a posy of dandelions…

The event utterly disrupts his equilibrium and – despite himself – Pete eventually attends the circus. What he sees moves him so greatly that he abandons everything he ever believed and breaks her out.

Hiding her in his house, he soon finds his staid, stolid and secure life shattered by odd adventures and intoxicating fantasies, but no matter how nice it feels, it’s far more than his practical nature can abide. However, the subsequent confrontation jumps quickly from angry words to life-threatening peril when the plumbing breaks and they’re both trapped in a rapidly-filling watery deathtrap…

Combining the potent desolate imagery of Grant Wood’s American Gothic with the paintings of Edward Hopper: channelling the hidden comedic potential of the isolated rural heartland with manic, surreal whimsy in hyper-real fully rendered paintings acting in concert with powerfully simplified line drawings, Pete & Pickles explores loneliness, reticence, compromise and the hunger for companionship in a charming but potent fable. This astounding yarn was inspired by the drawing and razor-sharp perspicacity of Breathed’s (then 5-year-old) daughter Sophie, and can teach us all a thing or two about understanding ourselves and just getting along…

This is a book to trigger personal reflection, audit consciences and promote more honest behaviour, but it will make grown citizens howl and children sit up and pay attention. It’s also wickedly funny and deliciously sad. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll think hard about what you want and who you’d like to share it with…
© 2008 Berkeley Breathed. All rights reserved.

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Billy’s Boots Book 1: The Legacy of ‘Dead-shot’ Keen


By Fred Baker, Colin Page, Mike Western, Bill Lacey, Tom Kerr & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-671-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Classic Comics Fun and Games… 9/10

British kids have always been utterly besotted with sports and comics have continually fed and fuelled their addiction. Even in the days when children’s only exclusive “entertainment” was primarily prose “Story Papers”, tales of playing field rivals, earnest competition, glorious accomplishments, fair play and sporting prodigies dominated. As comic strips took tight hold of kid’s lives during WWII and after, generations of boys grew up wanting to be Wilson, Alf Tupper, His Sporting Lordship, Skid Solo or Roy of the Rovers.

As the 1950s unfolded, football became the undisputed leader of sporting strips: a peculiarly wide field that had found room for speedway, cricket, motor racing, rugby, boxing, wrestling, athletics and fishing among many, many others. In September 1954, Amalgamated Press launched a companion comic to anthological market leader Lion. Edited by Derek Birnage – until 1963, when Barrie Tomlinson took over – Tiger – The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly was cover-dated 11th September and out in time for the new football season. Primarily sports-themed for its entire run (1573 issues until 1985) it merged with or absorbed Champion (1955), Comet (1959), Hurricane (1965), Jag (1969), Scorcher (1974) and Speed (1980) before itself being subsumed by the relaunched Eagle in April 1985.

Among its most memorable treasures was Skid Solo, Johnny Cougar, Rod and Line, Hot Shot Hamish, Nipper, Football Family Robinson, Billy’s Boots and Roy of the Rovers…

As the 1960s segued into a new decade, across the United Kingdom, football was king in comics: everything from straight sporting drama strips to wild comedies with strange teams and odd motivations, and even supernaturally-tinged strips like Raven on the Wing…

Shoot launched in 1969, a junior, comics-heavy version of adult magazine Goal (which it eventually absorbed!) and Striker in January 1970. Its lead strip would graduate to The Sun newspaper.

Scorcher also kicked off on January 10th 1970, with an all football roster of photo-features sports journalism dedicated to the beautiful game and strips including Kangaroo Kid, Royal’s Rangers, Bobby of the Blues, Sub (He’s always on the sidelines!), Paxton’s Powerhouse, Lags Eleven, Jack of United, Jimmy of City, Hotshot Hamish and Nipper, but the breakout feature proved to be a dramatic reimagining of a comedy strip from Tiger: Billy’s Boots…

Scorcher became Scorcher and Score after 77 issues (merging with Score ‘n’ Roar in early July 1971) and finally called “time” with the October 5th 1974 issue – a further 171 outings. Its favourite features were ultimately absorbed into Tiger in 1980, but Annuals and Summer Specials continued to appear until 1984.

The stories here originally played in Scorcher from 10th January 1970 to 9th January 1970. The strip had taken its name from a comedic feature by Frank Purcell that ran in Tiger from 1961-1963. For a fresh new era, it was overhauled by 50-year veteran scripter Fred Baker (Martin’s Marvellous Mini, Skid Kids, Tommy’s Troubles, Hot-Shot Hamish, and much more in titles including Tiger, Buster, Chips, Radio Fun, Film Fun, Valentine and Roy of the Rovers).

He wrote the feature for most of its first 20 years run which was initially illuminated – in this volume at least – by Colin Page (Adam Eterno, Paddy Payne), Bill Lacey (Rick Random, Super Detective Library, Cowboy Comics Library, Mickey Mouse Weekly, Mytek the Mighty, Rat Pack), Mike Western (Lucky Logan, Biggles, No Hiding Place, The Wild Wonders, The Leopard from Lime Street, Darkie’s Mob, HMS Nightshade, Roy of the Rovers) and Tom Kerr (Little Lew, Fay, Monty Carstairs, Kip Kerrigan, Kelly’s Eye, Captain Hurricane, The Steel Claw, Charlie Peace, Kraken, Black Axe, Boy Bandit, Tara King/The Avengers, Peter the Cat, Clarks Commandos et al).

Billy’s Boots was initially rendered in 2-page, full colour instalments and survived Scorcher’s merger with Tiger in 1974, and amalgamation with Eagle in 1985. A year later Billy migrated to Roy of The Rovers magazine offering new adventures until 1990. Even then, the lad kept kicking, appearing in reprints, Annuals and Best of Roy of the Rovers Monthly, Striker and Total Football magazine into the 21st century.

He’s also an international star, having been translated into Finnish, Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, Bengali, Turkish and more…

In October 1971, John Gillatt took over the art for a 16-year run which truly defined the strip in readers’ eyes and minds, but that’s a treat for another volume…

Here however, in interlinked serials we meet 12-year-old Billy Dane who is an avid – but rubbish – footballer. His earnest desire is simply to play the game but he’s so bad nobody will let him join even a playground kickabout…

An orphan living with his grandmother, Billy’s life changes forever when he dutifully cleans out her attic and finds a battered old pair of football boots. They were a souvenir his grandad had picked up, and had been used by sporting legend Charles “Dead-Shot” Keene. When Billy wistfully dons them and starts mucking about in the backyard, something miraculous occurs.

Suddenly, he can kick with the force and accuracy of an adult professional and later testing shows that the fabulous footwear sends him subconscious messages, enabling to read a field and almost predict the best place to be in any game situation…

Now bursting with confidence and hungry to play, he rapidly moves from friendly games to school caps, county matches and even international fixtures, with a heaping helping of drama accruing from his eagerness frequently leading him to play for rivals and opposing teams…sometimes on the same day…

Further confusions and concerns arise as he researches the life of Dead-Shot and realises that he’s often reliving actual events that affected the star and shaped his astounding career. The phenomenon doesn’t let up even after Billy finally meets and befriends his idol…

Of course, as this is a drama the most challenging problem Billy constantly faces is losing, mislaying, being deprived of and recovering the ratty, tatty, far-out-of-fashion old boots: prompting many manic moments where the plucky kid must humiliatingly go on without the miracle-making fantastic footwear, but always the lad perseveres and overcomes…

It’s also not as if he doesn’t have other problems too. At one stage he’s forced to move across the country, leaving all his friends: encountering school bullies, and teachers and trainers who think he’s troubled…

After its initial set-up the nature of the stories become rather formulaic, with Billy always seeking to be the best he could: trying to wean himself off ghostly footgear and develop innate natural skills. This was usually a huge disappointment as he always failed unless he was wearing the boots of his hero. Thankfully, the astounding illustration always makes the stories feel fresh and the ongoing mystery of how and why the boots work keeps the tension up…

Such narrative repetition was not deemed a problem at the time, since editors held the firm conviction that readers had a definite shelf-life and would quickly move on to better things… like Chaucer, Len Deighton, or the back pages of The Sun or Daily Mirror…

This astoundingly absorbing classic is another perfect example of purely British comics sensibilities: passionate, idealistic and desperately earnest as it follows the path of a working class hero navigating a treacherous path to glory or dismal defeat. This is a welcome reintroduction: inspirational, warm, beautifully rendered and absolutely unforgettable. Another treasure-trove from Rebellion’s ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics, this tale span generations and demands to be in every family bookcase.
© 1970, 1971, & 2020 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

A thankful tip of the fact hat to footy publications site Soccerbilia – for some of the background recycled here.

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Moomin volume 6: The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip


By Lars Jansson (Drawn & Quarterly)
ISBN: 978-1-77046-042-3 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-77046-553-4

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Enchanting Entertainment… 9/10

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

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and rather bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914. Father Viktor was a sculptor and mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson a successful illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars – AKA “Lasse” – and Per Olov became – respectively – an author/cartoonist and art photographer. 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 as the piece they were all destined to inhabit.

After extensive and intensive study (from 1930-1938 at the 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), Tove became a successful exhibiting artist through the troubled period of the Second World War.

Brilliantly creative across many fields, she published the first fantastic Moomins adventure in 1945. Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood or latterly and more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood) was a whimsical epic of gentle, inclusive, accepting, understanding, bohemian misfit trolls and their strange friends…

A youthful over-achiever, from 1930-1953 Tove had worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for the Swedish satirical magazine Garm: achieving some measure of notoriety with an infamous political sketch of Hitler in nappies that lampooned the Appeasement policies of European leaders in the build-up to WWII. 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, gently adventurous big-eyed romantic goof began life as a spindly sigil next to her name in her political works. She called him “Snork” 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 with her brother about Immanuel Kant.

The term “Moomin” came from her maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop her pilfering food when she visited, warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. 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 second book Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland) was published. Many commentators have reckoned the terrifying tale a skilfully compelling allegory of Nuclear Armageddon. You should read it now… while you still can…

When it and third illustrated novel Trollkarlens hatt (1948, Finn Family Moomintroll or occasionally The Happy Moomins) 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 undergäng – 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. Jansson’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 recruited brother Lars to help. He took over, continuing the feature until its end in 1975. His tenure as sole creator officially starts here…

Liberated from the strip’s pressures, Tove returned to painting, writing and other creative pursuits: generating plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera and 9 more Moomin-related picture-books and novels, as well as 13 books and short-story collections strictly for grown-ups.

Tove Jansson died on June 27th 2001. Her awards are too numerous to mention, but just think: how many modern artists get their faces on the national currency?

Lars Fredrik Jansson (October 8th 1926 – July 31st 2000) was just as amazing as his sister. Born into that astounding clan twelve years after Tove, at 16 he started writing – and selling – his novels (nine in total). He also taught himself English because there weren’t enough Swedish-language translations of books available for his voracious reading appetite.

In 1956, he began co-scripting the Moomin newspaper strip at his sister’s request: injecting his own brand of witty whimsicality to ‘Moomin Goes Wild West’. He had been Tove’s translator from the start, seamlessly converting her Swedish text into English. When her contract with The London Evening News expired in 1959, Lars Jansson officially took over the feature, having spent the interim period learning to draw and perfectly mimic his sister’s cartooning style. He had done so in secret, with the assistance and tutelage of their mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, and from 1961 to the strip’s end in 1974 was sole steersman of the newspaper iteration of trollish tails.

Lasse was also a man of many parts: his other careers including writer, translator, aerial photographer and professional gold miner. He was the basis and model for cool kid Snufkin…

Lars’ Moomins was subtly sharper than his sister’s version and he was far more in tune with the quirky British sense of humour, but his whimsy and wry sense of wonder was every bit as compelling. In 1990, long after the original series, he began a new career, working with Dennis Livson (designer of Finland’s acclaimed theme park Moomin World) as producers of Japanese anime series The Moomins and – in 1993 with daughter Sophia Jansson – on new Moomin strips…

Moomintrolls are easy-going free spirits: modern bohemians untroubled by hidebound domestic mores and most societal pressures. Moominmama is warm, kindly tolerant and capable but perhaps overly concerned with propriety and appearances whilst devoted husband Moominpappa spends most of his time trying to rekindle his adventurous youth or dreaming of fantastic journeys.

Their son Moomin is a meek, dreamy boy with confusing ambitions. He adores their permanent houseguest the Snorkmaiden – although that impressionable, flighty gamin prefers to play things slowly whilst waiting for somebody potentially better…

The 6th oversized (310 x 221 mm) monochrome hardback compilation gathers serial strip sagas #22-25 and is a particular favourite, and opens with Lars firmly in charge and puckishly re-exploring human frailties and foibles via a beloved old plot after a seaside excursion with the Snorkmaiden unearths ‘Moomin’s Lamp’…

Of course, the ancient artefact comes with its own rather lazy and inept genie, and when the glamour-crazed Snorkmaiden foolishly wishes for a diamond diadem despite her beau’s best advice, it triggers a bold theft and a great deal of difficulties with the local constabulary…

Soon, fugitives from the law and justice – definitely two different things here – the young malefactors have compromised the honour of overprotective Moominpapa and gone off to hide in the leafy wooded “Badlands” of Moomin Valley, enduring privation on the run until scurrilous reprobate Stinky “nobly” takes the offending lamp off their hands…

The perils of unrelenting progress and growth then manifest in ‘Moomin and the Railway’ when a bunch of burly but affable and unflappable workmen begin laying railroad tracks through the unspoiled beauty of Moomin Valley. Enraged and outraged, our young hero begins a campaign of resistance that includes persuasion, intimidation and even sabotage. Sadly, many of his initial allies turn at the prospect of increased ease, newfound affluence and plain old indifference, before incorrigible rebel Snufkin takes a hand and salvation suddenly comes in a strange form with the valley saved yet changed forever…

Contemporary Cold War concerns are then lampooned when the patriarch meets up with old school chum in ‘Moominpapa and the Spies’. Lost in a nostalgic haze with old crony Wimsy and hankering to recapture the wild and free, glory days of youth, the happy fantasist embarks on a misguided spree bound to disappoint and stumbles into an actual spy plot involving the worst operatives in the world. Ultimately Moominpapa is shanghaied and lost at sea before regaining his equilibrium and heading home again…

The weird wonderments conclude for now with another wry retort to fads and fashions as ‘Moomin and the Circus’ sees the Finn Family of trolls forced into vegetarianism when animal conservation captivates the entire valley. When Moominpapa is – most reluctantly – elected leader of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, he resolves to lead by example, and his edicts quickly show up the hypocrisy of the fashion-conscious elite who pressganged him. Everybody gets an even more urgent chance to rethink their priorities and intentions after the SPCA forces the closure of a travelling show and then has to deal with the consequences: homing the Lions, horses, elephant, ostrich, monkeys, parrots, and sea-lions who were only really happy in show biz…

This compilation closes with ‘Lars Jansson: Roll Up Your Sleeves and Get to Work’ by family biographer Juhani Tolvanen, extolling his many worthy attributes…

These are truly magical tales for the young, laced with the devastating observation and razor-sharp mature wit which enhances and elevates only the greatest kids’ stories into classics of literature. These volumes – both Tove and Lars’ – are an international treasure trove no fan of the medium – or carbon-based lifeform with even a hint of heart and soul – can afford to be without.
© 2011 Solo/Bulls. “Lars Jansson: Roll Up Your Sleeves and Get to Work” © 2011 Juhani Tolvanen. All rights reserved.

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Batman’s Mystery Casebook


By Sholly Fisch, Christopher A. Uminga & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0586-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Wonderfully Watching What’s What… 9/10

In recent years DC has opened up its shared superhero universe: generating Original Graphic Novels featuring its many stars in stand-alone adventures for the demographic so sadly misnamed Young Adult. To date, results have been rather hit or miss, but when they’re good, they are very good indeed…

Another sublime example of the process at its best is this cheery practical class in crimefighting: picking the brains and capitalising on the experience of Gotham’s greatest gangbusters and delivering details in the form of a comics activity book for all ages…

Author Sholly Fisch is no stranger to comics, having splendidly scripted Scooby Doo in various print incarnations and almost every DC superhero in All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold and other animation-based spin-offs, Superman, Star Wars and so much more. When not doing that, he’s a developmental psychologist consulting for companies who make digital games and toys, with clients including Sesame Street, Cyberchase, The Magic School Bus Rides Again and The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That. If you love fun superheroics and vintage comics trivia, you should seek out his work.

Cartoonist/designer/visualiser Christopher A. Uminga has worked for many media giants including DC Comics/Warner Bros., Lucasfilm, Foot Locker, Disney’s WonderGround Gallery and more, and is assisted in making this complex and arresting tome work by colourist Silvana Brys and lettering entity Andword Design (Morgan Martinez, Justin Birch & Deron Bennett)…

A quick word to the wise: Although for years DC’s mainstream continuity has depicted the Dark Knight as a driven and tormented borderline sociopath doing good for what seems to be all the wrong reasons, Batman has always been an archetype who works for all ages on vastly differing levels. This version is far more Caped Crimecrusher than Bat out of Hell, and reaffirms his reputation as “the World’s Greatest Detective” in a series of “fair play mystery” vignettes with the reader invited to pay close attention and participate at every moment of each case. Kids can enjoy alone or with the grandparents who watched the 1966 Batman TV phenomenon unfold and the parents who watched the 1990s movies and stunning Batman: The Animated Adventures series they spawned…

It begins in ‘Prologue: Whodunit?’ as Batman, Robin & Batgirl examine a crime scene and talk the readers through the clues left behind that lead to their deduction of the culprit…

With every reader fully briefed ‘Chapter 1: The Case of the Perilous Puzzles’ sees The Riddler running riot, obsessively dropping his verbal hints for us to solve, but don’t get so caught up that you miss the cunning visual clues scattered around since the Dynamic Duo might be too busy escaping death traps to spot them…

Each adventure is augmented by a quick lesson in historical criminology, deduction and data gathering (just like the old Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers feature) beginning with a foundation in forensic science courtesy of ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Crime Scene Investigation’ with Clayface inadvertently assisting enquiries…

Of course Two-Face stars in second chapter ‘The Case of the Dual Identity’ and the hunt offers many chances to study modus operandi before the boom is lowered, after which ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Fingerprints’ reveals the secrets of the ancient system…

World-weary cop Harvey Bullock and Catwoman are involved in third chapter ‘The Case of the Art Attack’ but Batgirl – and the reader! – can’t be rushed to hasty conclusions if they think things through, whilst ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Tracks’ offers a quick refresher on Locard’s Exchange Principle (weren’t you paying attention last chapter?) as we learn to watch where we – and everybody else – steps…

Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth show off their skills in civilian style for ‘The Case of the History Mystery’ which take us back to WWI and an encounter with Enemy Ace Hans von Hammer, augmented by some modern milestones in ‘Batcave Crime Lab: DNA’…

We’re back in supervillain territory for chapter 5 as ‘The Case of the Cold Cash’ seems to prove chilly Mister Freeze is the bad guy… until our heroes take a closer look, complemented by the Terrific Trio taking stock of fraud in ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Fakes and Phonies’…

Batgirl and Robin have their wits truly tested in ‘The Case of the Digital Ghost’ before ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Eyewitness Testimony’ wonderfully tests every reader’s memory and visual acuity – with helpful hints from Commissioner Gordon – as we rush to the conclusion in Chapter 7 as The Joker and Harley Quinn threaten appalling consequences for all in ‘The Case of the Perilous Parade’: a thrilling manhunt that literally demands your full attention…

‘Epilogue’ then provides a summation from Batman and a so-cool poster to declare “Case Closed!” on this vivid and vibrant anticrime primer… for now!

The caseload is done-in-one (hopefully only until we get a sequel and series puh-leeeze!) but this tome also offers a tantalising peek at Sara Farizan & Nicoletta Baldari’s Gotham-set tale of bullying and being the new kid My Buddy Killer Croc that’s also worth some of your time and attention…

Smart, compelling, brilliantly entertaining, astoundingly infectious and deliciously addictive, Batman’s Mystery Casebook is a superbly challenging activity and adventure romp packed with charm and wit to captivate fans and nervous neophytes alike: one introducing a new wondrous world with a rousing reminder that all is never as it seems…
© 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Popeye Classics volume 8: I Hates Bullies and More


By Bud Sagendorf, edited and designed by Craig Yoe (Yoe Books/IDW Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-676-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68406-044-3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Sweet & Sour Salty Sailor Celebrations… 9/10

How many cartoon classics can you think of still going after a century? Here’s one…

There are a few fictional personages to enter communal world consciousness – and fewer still from comics – but this grizzled, bluff, uneducated, visually impaired old tar with a speech impediment is possibly the most well-known of that august bunch.

Elzie Crisler Segar was born in Chester, Illinois on 8th December 1894. His father was a general handyman, and the boy’s early life was filled with the solid, dependable blue-collar jobs that typified the formative years of his generation of cartoonists. Segar was a decorator, house-painter and also played drums; accompanying vaudeville acts at the local theatre.

When the town got a movie-house, Elzie played silent films, absorbing all the staging, timing and narrative tricks from keen observation of the screen. Those lessons would become his greatest assets as a cartoonist. It was while working as the film projectionist, at age 18, that he decided to become a cartoonist and tell his own stories.

Like so many others in those hard times, he studied art via mail – W.L. Evans’ cartooning correspondence course out of Cleveland, Ohio – before gravitating to Chicago where he was “discovered” by Richard F. Outcault: regarded by most in the know today as the inventor of modern newspaper comic strips with The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown. The celebrated pioneer introduced Segar around at the prestigious Chicago Herald. Still wet behind the ears, the kid’s first strip, Charley Chaplin’s Comedy Capers, debuted on 12th March 1916.

In 1918, Segar married Myrtle Johnson and moved to William Randolph Hearst’s Chicago Evening American to create Looping the Loop, where Managing Editor William Curley foresaw a big future for Segar and promptly packed the newlyweds off to New York: HQ of the mighty King Features Syndicate. Within a year Segar was producing Thimble Theatre, (launching December 19th 1919) in the New York Journal: a smart pastiche of cinema and knock-off of movie-inspired features like Hairbreadth Harry and Midget Movies, with a repertory of stock players acting out comedies, melodramas, comedies, crime-stories, chases and especially comedies for vast daily audiences. It didn’t stay that way for long…

The core cartoon cast included parental pillars Nana & Cole Oyl; their lanky, cranky, highly-strung daughter Olive; diminutive-but-pushy son Castor and the homely ingenue’s plain and (so very) simple occasional boyfriend Horace Hamgravy (latterly, plain Ham Gravy).

Thimble Theatre had already run for a decade when, on January 17th 1929, a brusque, vulgar “sailor man” shambled into the daily ongoing saga of hapless halfwits. Nobody dreamed the giddy heights that stubbornly cantankerous walk-on would reach…

In 1924, Segar created a second daily strip. Surreal domestic comedy The 5:15 starred weedy commuter and would-be inventor John Sappo and his formidable spouse Myrtle. This strip endured – in one form or another – as a topper/footer-feature to accompany the main Sunday page throughout the author’s career, and even survived his untimely death, eventually becoming the trainee-playground of Popeye’s second great humour stylist – Bud Sagendorf.

After Segar’s premature passing in 1938, Doc Winner, Tom Sims, Ralph Stein and Bela Zambouly all took on the strip as the Fleischer Studio’s animated features brought Popeye to the entire world, albeit a slightly variant vision of the old salt of the funny pages. Sadly, none had the eccentric flair and raw inventiveness that had put Thimble Theatre at the forefront of cartoon entertainments. And then, finally, Bud arrived…

Born in 1915, Forrest “Bud” Sagendorf was barely 17 when his sister – who worked in the Santa Monica art store where Segar bought his drawing supplies – introduced the kid to the master cartoonist who became his teacher and employer as well as a father-figure. In 1958, after years on the periphery, Sagendorf finally took over the strip and all the merchandise design, becoming Popeye’s prime originator…

With Sagendorf as main man, his loose, rangy style and breezy scripts brought the strip itself back to the forefront of popularity and made reading it cool and fun all over again. Bud wrote and drew Popeye in every graphic arena for 24 years. When he died in 1994, his successor was controversial “Underground” cartoonist Bobby London.

Bud had been Segar’s assistant and apprentice, and in 1948 became exclusive writer/artist of Popeye’s comic book exploits. That venture launched in February of that year: a regular title published by America’s unassailable king of periodical licensing, Dell Comics.

On his debut, Popeye was a rude, crude brawler: a gambling, cheating, uncivilised ne’er-do-well, but was soon revered as the ultimate working-class hero. Raw and rough-hewn, he was also practical, with an innate, unshakable sense of what’s fair and what’s not: a joker who wanted kids to be themselves – but not necessarily “good”. Above all else he was someone who took no guff from anyone…

Naturally, as his popularity grew, Popeye mellowed somewhat. He was still ready to defend the weak and had absolutely no pretensions or aspirations to rise above his fellows, but the shocking sense of dangerous unpredictability and comedic anarchy he initially provided was sorely missed… except not in Sagendorf’s yarns…

Collected in this superb full-colour hardback/digital edition are Popeye #35-39, crafted by irrepressible “Bud”: collectively spanning January-March 1956 to January-March 1957.

Stunning, nigh stream-of-consciousness slapstick sagas are preceded by an effusively appreciative ‘Society of Sagendorks’ briefing by inspired aficionado, historian and publisher Craig Yoe, offering a mirthful mission statement, and enhanced by another tantalising display of ephemera and merchandise in ‘A Bud Sagendorf Scrapbook’. This time we focus on the 1980 Robert Altman movie with candid cast photos, Sagendorf illustrated tie-in magazine articles, and multi-lingual cartoon iterations.

We rejoin the ceaseless parade of laughs, surreal imagination and thrills with quarterly comic book #35, opening with a monochrome inside front cover gag concerning the latest hobby of the sailor’s ward after which ‘Thimble Theatre presents Popeye and Swee’Pea in “Wishing” or Spinach is Still King!”’, wherein the bored “infink” shambles upon an alien incursion and tricks the haughty invaders out of their irresistible, unbeatable Wish-o-Matic machine…

Soon the impressionable kid is king of the world and Popeye is forced into drastic action…

The family is afloat for follow-up bedtime tale ‘I Hates Bullies!’ as the mariner, Olive and Wimpy are lured to an exotic island and seduced into liberating its people from enslaving Boss Black Allen…

Back-up feature Sappo was by now reduced to gullible foil and hapless landlord to the world’s worst lodger. Professor O.G. Wotasnozzle – The Professor with the Atomic Brain would callously inflict the brunt of his genius on the poor schmuck. Here that means inventing super-fast growing redwoods but being too self-absorbed to keep the seeds out of the rain…

The issue ends with an endpaper prose fable about a scientist who regretted getting cats to chase his lab mice and a back cover gag of bath night for Swee’Pea…

Issue #36 (April-June) began with ‘King Popeye of Popilania!’ as the sailor man sets out to create the perfect country, but soon finds kinging it is a lot of work, especially if your friends are all ambitious traitors and other nations think they can push you around…

For a while things look bleak for the Popilania, until the desperate King unleashes secret weapon General Wimpy…

An engaging Micawber-like coward, cad and conman, the insatiably ravenous J. Wellington Wimpy debuted in the newspaper strip on May 3rd 1931 as an unnamed, decidedly partisan referee in one of Popeye’s pugilistic bouts. Scurrilous, aggressively humble and scrupulously polite, the devious oaf struck a chord and Segar made him a fixture. Preternaturally hungry, ever-keen to solicit bribes and a cunning coiner of many immortal catchphrases – such as “I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” and “Let’s you and him fight” – Wimpy was the perfect foil for our straight-shooting action hero and increasingly stole the entire show… and anything else unless it was very heavy or extremely well nailed down. He proved to be the ultimate deterrent in an extended war that depended on keeping troops fed…

Popeye an’ Swee’Pea then turn the tables on villainous reprobate Poopdeck Pappy after the sailor’s crooked father fakes his own death in ‘Pappy’s Spook’, before Professor O.G. Wotasnozzle – The Atomic Brain! conjures fresh chaos with his terrifying reducing pills in advance of another text tale. ‘Canned Nuts’ details the downfall of a prudent squirrel who had a plan (but no tin-opener) in advance of a back cover gag of Popeye and Wimpy fishing…

Cover-dated July-September, Popeye #37 opens with a monochrome inside cover about Swee’Pea’s garden before main event ‘The Search for the Spinach Icebox’ sees our well-travelled hero targeted by secret society WAFPOM (World Association For Prevention Of Muscles) after he buys two million tons of the miraculous mineral rich vegetable. With attacks mounting, he needs someplace safe to store his leafy treasure and on Wimpy’s suggestion heads to Antarctica, where WAFPOM and even stranger foes are waiting…

‘Amateur Inventor!’ Sappo gives O.G. Wotasnozzle a taste of his own medicine next, before ‘The Big Sting’ heralds the end of another issue with the prose history of a bullying bee…

Issue #38 opens with a monochrome pet gag and an extended colour epic as Popeye and The Gang meet ‘The Dog Who Wore A Crown” – or – Going To the Dogs!’ A quick visit with King Blozo finds the scatty ruler absent and his dog ruling in his stead. Most annoyingly, the monarch has appointed Popeye Royal Dog Sitter. As the dutiful sailor surrenders to the inevitable, things get more complicated when the moody pooch – AKA “Birdseed” – decides Swee’Pea should be in charge…

‘Bottle Fish!’ sees the text fixture shift to the comic’s centre with the tale of a mean bully stuck behind glass, after which Wotasnozzle and Sappo both go overboard in a fishing contest augmented by weird science and the chaos concludes with another black-&-white inner cover pet prank, preceding a new year of fun and frolic as #39 (January-March 1957) feature more monochrome madness for Swee’Pea’s pooch…

The gang are rattled in lead story ‘The Mountain that Talked Back!’ as Olive’s deteriorating nerves prompt a vacation on ominously named “Thunder Island” and a badly-timed stay on a volcano in full eruption mode…

Everything changes once Popeye realise the shakes are fakes and a gang of criminals are making them patsies in a plot and our hero breaks out the spinach…

Prose parable ‘Cow?’ reveals how bovine Mildred briefly lived her dream to be a horse, after which Wotasnozzle seeks to improve communication by reinventing words in ‘What Did He Say?’ before Swee’Pea and Birdseed monopolise interior monochrome and exterior color gags with devasting effect.

Outrageous and side-splitting, these universally-appealing yarns are evergreen examples of narrative cartooning at its most surreal and inspirational. Over the last nine decades Thimble Theatre’s most successful son has delighted readers and viewers around the world. This book is simply one of many, but each is sure-fire, top-tier entertainment for all those who love lunacy, laughter, frantic fantasy and rollicking adventure. If that’s you, add this compendium of wonder to your collection.
Popeye Classics volume 8 © 2016 Gussoni-Yoe Studio, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Popeye © 2016 King Features Syndicate. ™ Heart Holdings Inc.

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Bunny vs Monkey: Machine Mayhem!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-285-4 (Digest HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Madcap Mega-Meta Magnificence… 10/10

Bunny vs. Monkey has been a staple of The Phoenix since the very first issue in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal arch-enemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands.

Concocted with gleefully gentle mania by cartoonist, comics artist and novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Flember), his trendsetting, mind-bending yarns have been wisely retooled as graphic albums available in remastered, double-length digest editions such as this one.

All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in the wake of a disastrous British space shot. Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite all efforts from reasonable, sensible, genteel, contemplative forest resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and good breeding, the laid-back lepine just could not contain the incorrigible idiot ape, who was – and is – a rude, noise-loving, chaos-creating loutish troublemaker…

Problems are exacerbated by the other unconventional Crinkle creatures, particularly a skunk called Skunky who has a mad scientist’s attitude to life and a propensity to build extremely dangerous robots and super-weapons…

Here – with artistic assistance from design deputy Sammy Borras – the war of nerves and mega-ordnances appears to be over. The unruly assortment of odd critters cluttering up the bucolic paradise had finally picked sides and the battles ended. They even seemingly forgot the ever-encroaching Hyoomanz…

Following a double-page pin-up of our odd and ever-expanding cast, this magnificent hardback archive of insanity opens in the traditional manner: divided into seasonal outbursts, and starting slowly with a querulous teaser tale as the cold retreats and Spring begins in ‘D.I.Whyyyy?’

As the animals all gather to help Bunny repair his much-abused house, universal innocents Weenie squirrel and Pig Piggerton are more keen than skilled, with no idea that cheese is not a suitable substitute for wallpaper paste, plaster or cement…

Despite the subsequent collapse, times are good and very peaceful since the anarchic ape went away and Ai acts quickly to keep it that way when Bunny feels nostalgic for the old days. Sadly, somebody’s listening and brings in a ‘Makeshift Monkey!’ – until the real deal returns in ‘The Little Monkey Who Cried…’

It isn’t long before Skunky is back too and everyone’s fleeing for their lives from deadly underground tentacles, but life quickly resumes its old pattern until obsolescence rears its ugly head and cyborg gator Metal Steve is pronounced ‘Out of Warranty’ and left to wither on Skunky’s scrapheap…

Back and still bad, Monkey briefly inflicts himself on Bunny and wrecks the joint again in ‘The Housemate’ after which the mercurial monochrome megamind constructs a replacement for the gone gator and triggers a ‘Robot Rampage’ when infinitely superior mechanoid Metal E.V.E. decides to lay down her law…

Falling foul of another near-lethal prank the silly simian is scientifically resurrected and evolved in ‘Curse of the Monkey’ only to trip on his own incompetence and barely escape a fishy final fate in ‘Toilet Run!’

A close call with humans in ‘Bunny vs Monkey Jellybeans!’ precedes Weenie and Pig going on ‘A Dangerous Voyage’ as pirates, before Monkey endures his own Fantastic Voyage. Skunky is “The Most Brilliant Animal in the Woods” and convinces his erstwhile ally to shrink down and explore the inner cerebellum of brain-battered, bewildered former stuntman Action Beaver in search of ‘The Lost Memory’ of a misplaced ultimate weapon, which is what probably inspires him to make his own after entering a competition and prematurely unleashing his ‘Winning Entry’…

Metal E.V.E. is forming her own plans but they have to wait a bit as she’s ‘Keepin’ Busy’ with some domestic chores in Skunky’s lab, but’s not long until Summer begins and the woods are imperilled by subterranean invasion from new menace ‘Roland T. Mole’…

Hijinks in parallel dimensions herald the arrival of doomsayer ‘Skunky?’ whilst the forgotten stuntman stumbles onto his ancestral homeland in ‘Beaverville’ with catastrophic consequences even as Monkey creates unexpected carnage but precious little terror with super-cute kaiju ‘Rofl Axolotl’ before being painfully reminded how dangerous the woods can be in ‘So Beautiful’…

After a brief and deceptive flirtation with ‘The Dark Arts’ the hairy halfwit returns to science and creates little golden minions, but his ‘Gloobs’ prove too smart for servitude, so he instead embraces high fashion in ‘C’est Chic!’ Utterly uncaring, Weenie and Pig go about their business until a ‘A New Friend’ almost breaks up the partnership. The swiftly-developing relationship of ‘Weenie and Winnie’ seems set to end the good old days but another robotic invasion sets the world to rights in ‘Just Checking’…

A reality-altering beast threatens in ‘Wishful Thinking’ and the entire woods go all French just as aliens invade in ‘L’Honk Honk’ before Monkey and Skunky explore artisanal dining in ‘Eat Up!’ with appalling consequences for their customers, after which Ai and Monkey discover uncanny ‘Night Lights’ in the deep dark woods…

The eventful season concludes as Metal E.V.E. gets ahead by installing some crucial ‘Upgrades’ and inadvertently making contact with an unsuspected predecessor just as Autumn opens with ‘Bumblesnatch’ as the pig and squirrel enjoy some super-powers-inducing chewing gum and Crinkle Woods is catapulted into a different kind of chaos when broached by pet dog ‘Fluffy’…

When ‘The Summoning’ invokes some pretty indifferent forest gods, Skunky lodges with over-accommodating Bunny who is soon sucked into unwanted adventure ‘Down Below’ and unearths E.V.E.’s brave new world and hopeless old ally as Metal Steve runs amok with nano-bots and spawns the unlikely armageddon beast ‘Pig-Kira!’

Once that menace vanishes into vapour, the mostly organic animals unite and formulate ‘Some Kind of Plan’ to fight E.V.E. – except ‘Nurse Monkey’ who’s keen to explore other lifestyles – until reenlisting in ‘Roll Up! Roll Up!’ with a barmy spinning machine which has no chance of easing their plight but will probably end their lives before she does…

The crusade pauses for Weenie’s birthday and the hunt for ‘The Best Present in the World’ but starts again when E.V.E. crashes the party with ‘Something to Say’ about the “rise of the machines” and end of all flesh…

Skunky’s obvious response is another monster, but giant mecha-hedgehog ‘Thunderball!’ is easily overcome, and as so-distractable Monkey goes wild among the fallen leaves in ‘Leaf it Alone’, the machine rise begins in ‘Nahhhhh!’ Sadly, Metal E.V.E. makes a big mistake then, spilling Monkey’s drink and kicking the conflict to an unprecedented new level…

Pausing for Weenie, Pig, Ai and Bunny to share some ‘Scary Stories’ around a night time campfire, the crisis enters a new phase when the ghost of local legend Fantastic Le Fox, manifests, even as the manic simian is captured and transformed into E.V.E.’s ‘Metal Monkey’…

Le Fox is ‘An Old Friend’ resolved to help the animals survive, and his strategic advice is welcome, but the turning point comes in ‘Clash of the Robots’ as Metal Monkey and Steve duel, even as their mecha-mistress takes charge, unleashing DNA-altering microbots that put the fleshy freedom fighters to flight in ‘Uh-Oh-Nano!’

Winter sets in and hostilities suddenly cease as all concerned succumb to the temptation of chucking ‘Snowballs’ after which the end gets nigher in a wave of robotic attacks triggered by ‘Metal Mania’. Yet again everything pauses as Christmas gives the heroes a moment to unwrap ‘Presents’ but, drenched in seasonal spirit, ‘An Unlikely Hero’ dares to bring the message of the moment right to the robot queen: unwittingly changing the course of history in the woods, and leaving only some ‘Tidying Up’ to restore everything to what passes for normal in the sylvan glade…

The animal anarchy might have ended for now there’s more secrets to share thanks to detailed instructions on ‘How to Draw Metal Steve’ and ‘How to Draw Metal E.V.E.’ to wind down from all that angsty furore…

The zany zenith of absurdist adventure, Bunny vs Monkey is weird wit, brilliant invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning all crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. This is the kind of comic parents beg kids to read to them. Shouldn’t that be you?
Text and illustrations © Jamie Smart 2022. All rights reserved.