Category: LGBTQIA+

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i love this part



By Tillie Walden (Avery Hill)
ISBN: 978-1-91039-532-5(HB) 978-1-91039-517-2 (TPB)

It’s time to remind readers of another imminently impending St. Valentines’ Day. I’m stifling my usual curmudgeonly attitudes for a while and re-recommending a book that’s solidly on the side of being in love, but not so disingenuous as to assure you that it’s all hearts and flowers…

Sweet but never cloying or calorific, i love this part deliciously pictorializes the happy, introspective, contemplative and aspirational moments of two schoolgirls who have found each other. Shared dreams, idle conversations, disputes and landmark first steps, even fights and break-ups are seen, weathered and sorted. Novelty, timidity, apprehension, societal pressure and even some unnecessary shame come into it, but generally this is just how young people learn to love and what that inevitably entails. Somehow the trappings shift all the time but clearly nothing really changes…

Apart from the astoundingly graceful and inviting honesty of the tale, the most engaging factor is author Tillie Walden’s brilliantly cavalier dismissal of visual reality. These interactions are all backdropped by wild changes in dimension and perspective, abrupt shifts in location and landscape and shots of empty spaces all adding a sense of distance and whimsy to very familiar proceedings.

Walden is a great admirer of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo so fellow afficionados will feel at home even if neophytes might experience the odd sensation of disorientation and trepidation. Like being in love, I suppose…

Gloriously celebrating not just the relationships but also in the sheer joy of drawing what you feel, Walden is still a relative newcomer – albeit a prolific and immensely gifted one – who has garnered heaps of acclaim and awards. Whether through her fiction or autobiographical works (frequently combined in the same stories), she always engenders a feeling of absolute wonder, combined with a fresh incisive view and measured, compelling delivery in terms of both story and character. Her artwork is a sheer delight.

Before globally turning heads with such unforgettable, deeply personal tales as On a Sunbeam, A City Inside, Spinning, Mini Meditations on Creativity, and Are You Listening? she followed up on her Ignatz Award-winning debut graphic novel The End of Summer with this fluffy yet barbed coming-of-age tale, and has latterly expanded her oeuvre with gems including Alone in Space, My Parents Won’t Stop Talking and the Clementine series (three books and counting…). In 2023 she became Vermont’s youngest ever Cartoon Laureate, and will hold the post until 2026.

i love this part is charming, moving, sad, funny and lovely. You’d have to be bereft of vision and afflicted with a heart of stone to reject this comic masterpiece; available in hardback, softcover and digital formats: a romantic treat no one should miss.
© Tillie Walden 2016. All rights reserved.

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Judge Anderson PSI Files volume 01


By Alan Grant, John Wagner, Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson, Robin Smith, Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, Mark Farmer, Mick Austin, David A. Roach, Arthur Ranson, Carlos Ezquerra, Kim Raymond & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-90673-522-7 (TPB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

A wellspring of spin-off creativity, Britain’s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD. As such he’s also spawned a rich world where other stars have been born and thrived…

Judge Dredd and the ultra-dystopian environs of Mega-City One were created by a creative committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, with the majority contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and several pseudonymous names.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper and usually more efficient than humans. Jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity and boredom has reached epidemic proportions. Almost everybody is just one askance glance away from mental meltdown. Judges are pot-watching peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs in a vast bubbling cauldron: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

They are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is that the entire milieu is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action. Just keep telling yourself, some situations demand drastic solutions…

In 1980 and Progs (that’s tomorrow-talk for issue number) #149-151 – January 26th-February 9th – with continuity and scenario firmly established, Wagner, writing as John Howard, introduced Judge Death: an undead lawman from an alternate Earth, whose Judges, faced with the same interminable problems as our world, took their creed to its only logical conclusion. If all crime is perpetrated by the living, then to eradicate crime…

After ending all life in his own dimension, the ghostly ghoul extended his mission to ours, wiping out criminals and law-abiding citizens alike, with the Judges – even Dredd – unable to stop him… until the flamboyant and unconventional psychic recruit Judge Cassandra Anderson of PSI Division sacrificed herself to trap the evil spirit forever…

With Wagner clearly on a creative roll, the fans spoke long and loud. Both the Zombie Peacemaker and Anderson returned within a year. Credited to T.B. Grover (still Wagner in Progs #224-228/August 8th to September 5th 1981), ‘Judge Death Lives’ saw a desperate citizen releasing the horror from his eternal tomb at the behest of three more expired Judges: Mortis, Fire and Fear.

Reunited with their leader the Dark Judges went about their lawful occasions, executing vast numbers of Mega-City citizens. It took a trans-dimensional trip to their origin realm – “Deadworld” – before Dredd & Anderson could stop the slayers; and even then, only temporarily. Those magnificent yarns appear often in other collections, and I’ll surely revisit them again soon, but the most important aspect of all that is how both Anderson and Death went on to their own series… which brings us to here, because this book is not about Joe Dredd but rather what can bloom in his honking, big-booted shadow…

Cassandra Anderson, as part of the Judges’ psychic/weird phenomena division is given far more leeway than her straitlaced, buttoned-down street cops colleagues. That made her own exploits far quirkier, outrageous and experimental, thereby guaranteeing her a solo series…

Spanning 1983-1990 and collecting early cases as originally seen in anthological weekly 2000AD #416-427, 468-478, 520-531, 607-609, 612-613, 614-612, 635-644, 645-647, 657-659, 669-670, 712-717 and 758-763, plus self-contained episodes from 2000AD Annual 1984 and 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988, the eerie off-kilter terrors begin with another outing for the ‘Four Dark Judges’ as detailed by new lead scripter Alan Grant and Wagner in Progs #416-427, with illustrators Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson and Robin Smith tag-teaming the art. As with the majority of these yarns, veteran letterer Tom Frame made sense of it all…

The opening tale details how the essences of Death and his subordinate Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis mentally bombard the psychic peacekeeper until she breaks regs and dimension hops to their deceased dimension – “Deadworld” – to sort them out once and for all. However, they quickly overpower her consciousness and use her to unleash themselves on the puling masses of Mega-City One. With another kill-spree in full flow, suspended Anderson breaks a few more rules and finds a way to despatch one Dark Judge and force the remaining trio to retreat. She’s ready for them when they strike again and end up banished to Limbo thanks to fortitude, determination and new Judge tech. It’s the only thing that saves her from her own commanding officers…

Grant, Wagner, Ewins & Frame catered Anderson’s second solo-starring soirée (#468-478) as ‘The Possessed’ sees Anderson investigating a poltergeist at Ed Poe “hab-block” (big, Big apartment buildings) and inexorably drawn into a war with demons led by child-possessor Gargarax. Even PSI-Division’s exorcists are outgunned when Cassandra’s gifts lead her to block satanists secretly summoning the arcane entities by sacrificing relatively innocent waif Hammy Blish, and the conflict and carnage soon spread far, wide and even deep under the mass-metropolis into its appalling Undercity…

Anderson’s hunt for Gargarax ultimately leads her to its private hell and war against a host of devils, but her escape and the ensured safety of Mega-City One come at a grave cost…

The rich history of the City and Anderson’s precognitive visions fuel the next epic yarn as illustrators Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, John Aldrich, and letterers Frame & Steve Potter join Grant & Wagner for ‘Hour of the Wolf’ (#520-531). As vague, surreal dream portents plague the rule-breaking Judge, seeking to warn her of a deadly plot, Sov-City psychic sleeper agents attempt to wreck her city, kill her and liberate the Judges’ greatest opponent – arch terrorist Orlok the Assassin of East-Meg One…

The campaign almost succeeds and costs many more lives before the mass murderer is (barely) thwarted…

Grant, Mark Farmer & Frame deliver a shorter pace-changing romp in Progs #607-609 as ‘Contact’ sees Anderson sent to the far end of the solar system to scope out a strange alien ship that has ignored all other forms of communication or investigative scanning. Good call too, as what she finds are liars and deeply predatory…

Mick Austin joins Grant & Frame across #612-613 as ‘Beyond the Void’ sees Anderson despatched to handle a transcendental incident at the Mahatma Cote monastery. There she finds a Lama’s spiritual journey has taken him to the gateway of Judge Death’s cosmic cell, and must act accordingly. David A. Roach then assumes control of the vision-making for Grant as ‘Helios’ (#614-622) sees her and occasional partner Judge Corey on the trail of a long-dead, vengeance-crazed killer using mind-control and surgical alteration to carry out his schedule of slaughter.  Grant, Austin & Gordon Robson then sort out a solo saga in 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988. ‘Judge Corey: Leviathan’s Farewell’ finds the empath chasing ruthless sugar smugglers to the toxin-blighted coastal shores, only to have a deep encounter with something old, uncanny and irresistibly tragic…

Arthur Ranson illustrates Grant’s next extended storyline as ‘Triad’ (#635-644) reveals the true nature of an ethereal serial killer with a penchant for baroque monsters and Fortean events hunting in Mega-City One. The connection to an abused boy is not clear at first but as more bodies spectacularly drop, Anderson’s visions become clearer and much more insistent and soon the hand of an old enemy can be seen.

An unhealthy obsession with robots grips a unique spree killer in ‘The Prophet’ (#645-647 by Grant, Roach & Potter) whilst #657-659’s ‘The Random Man’ – illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra – sees Anderson in pursuit of a sex-&-gambling-obsessed perp in the throes of transition, before Roach returns to limn #669-670’s ‘The Screaming Skull’: a deviously twisted macabre mystery of ghosts, assassins and the world’s oldest motive for murder…

One last extended epic brings the psionic shenanigans to a close as Grant, Roach and Potter take two bites of the cherry (Progs #712-717 and 758-763) to explore the meaning of ‘Engram’ in a Shakespearean saga of Cursed Earth witches, a child of destiny and Anderson in hot pursuit of pyrokinetic mass murderer Verona Rom. One threat ended, a bigger one emerges and the Judge-out-of-water must contend with a ghostly stalker only she can see, not-so-slowly driving her insane. After mounting bouts of madness Anderson is sectioned to an Iso-Cube, whilst her colleagues and superiors dig deep to find what really happened in the Cursed Earth, leading to staggering revelations of her own childhood, a game changing reunion with the witches in the scarred wastelands and rebirth of intent in Mega-City One…

To Be Continued…

Rounding out this initial monochrome compendium is ‘Bonus Strip: The Haunting’ by Grant, Kim Raymond & Tony Jacob from 2000AD Annual 1984 with the Judge battling demonic usurper Dahak for the mind and soul of impulsive scholar Dr Levin who should have kept his hands off the treasures of the Mega-City One Museum of Antiquities…

Supplemented by Ewins’ cover for 2000 AD Prog #468, and biographies of the ‘Writers’ and ‘Artists’ involved, these groundbreaking tales are amongst the very best action adventures Apocalypse-obsessed, dystopia driven Britain has ever produced, neatly balancing paranoia with gallows humour and innate anarchic disrespect for authority (any authority) with pulse-pounding thrills, spills and chills.

This is sheer addictive nostalgia for my generation, but the stories hold up against anything made for today’s marketplace. Buy it for the kids or keep it for yourself; this cheap-&cheerful tome is glorious, funny challenging and beautifully realised… and steel yourself for even better yet to come…
© 1983, 1985,1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 & 2012 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved.

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Batman: Harley and Ivy The Deluxe Edition


By Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Ty Templeton, Shane Glines, Dan DeCarlo, Ronnie Del Carmen, Rick Burchett, Stéphane Roux & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6080-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Psychosis and Spice and Everything Nice… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

Created by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm, Batman: The Animated Series aired in the US from September 5th 1992 to September 15th 1995. Ostensibly for kids, the breakthrough TV animation series revolutionised everybody’s image of the Dark Knight and immediately began feeding back into the print iteration, leading to some of the absolute best comicbook tales in the hero’s many decades of existence.

Employing a timeless visual style dubbed “Dark Deco”, the show mixed elements from all iterations of the character and, without diluting the power, tone or mood of the premise, reshaped the grim avenger and his extended team into a wholly accessible, thematically memorable form that the youngest of readers could enjoy, whilst adding shades of exuberance and panache that only most devout and obsessive Batmaniac could possibly object to. In fact, so many didn’t object over the years that in August 2024 we got a fresh bite of the cherry. If you love Batman, are steeped in the vast mythology of Gotham City and adore stylish animated wonderment, you owe it to yourself to watch the Reinvented-But-Just-As-Good show Batman: Caped Crusader…

Thirty-plus years ago (!) the original TV series offered a superbly innovative retro makeover for many classic supervillains and even added one unexpected candidate to the Rogues Gallery. Harley Quinn wasn’t supposed to be a star – or even an actual comic book character. As soon become apparent, however, the manic minx had her own off-kilter ideas on the matter…

Harley was first seen as the Clown Prince of Crime’s slavishly adoring, abuse-enduring assistant in Joker’s Favor (airing September 11th,1992) where she instantly captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers. From there on she began popping up in the licensed comic book and – always stealing the show – infiltrated mainstream DC comicbook continuity and into her own title. Along the way a flash of inspired brilliance led to her forming a unique relationship with toxic floral siren and plant-manipulating eco-terrorist Poison Ivy – a working partnership that delivered a bounty of fabulously funny-sexy yarns, and has brought the pair film and TV fame as a romantic power couple…

Collecting the eponymous 3-issue miniseries from 2004 plus cool stuff from Batman Adventures Annual #1 (1994), Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1 (1995), Batman and Robin Adventures #8 (July 1996), Batgirl Adventures #1 (1998) and material from Batman: Gotham Knights #14 (April 2001) and Batman Black and White #3 (2014), this spiffy deluxe hardback/eBook is an amazing cornucopia of comic treasures to delight young and old alike, and a perfect reminder why Batman & Co. remain so popular even after 85 years (and counting…).

It begins with a global-spanning romp written by Dini, illustrated by Timm & Shane Glines from Batman: Harley & Ivy #1-3 as the ‘Bosom Buddies’ have a spat that wrecks half of Gotham before escaping to the Amazon together to take over a small country responsible for much of the region’s deforestation and spreading a heady dose of ‘Jungle Fever!’. Once Batman gets involved the story suddenly shifts to Hollywood and the very last word in creative commentary on Superheroes in the movie business. ‘Hooray for Harleywood!’ delivers showbiz a devastating body blow Tinseltown will never recover from…

As we all know, Harley is (certifiably) insanely besotted with killer clown The Joker and next up Dini, Dan DeCarlo & Timm wordlessly expose her profound weakness for that so very bad boy when she’s released from Arkham Asylum only to be seduced back into committing crazy crimes and stuck back in the pokey again, all in just ‘24 Hours’…

‘The Harley and the Ivy’ comes from Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1 wherein Dini & Ronnie Del Carmen depict the larcenous ladies on an illicit shopping spree thanks to a dose of Ivy’s mind-warping kisses and up-close-and-personal close encounter with Bruce Wayne…

‘Harley and Ivy and… Robin’ (Batman and Robin Adventures #8, by Dini, Ty Templeton & illustrator Rick Burchett) features more of the same, except here the bamboozled sidekick becomes an ideal BoyToy Wonder: planning their crimes, giving soothing foot-rubs and bashing Batman until a little moment of green-eyed jealously spoils the perfect set-up…

Batgirl Adventures #1 was the original seasonal setting of ‘Oy to the World’ (Dini & Burchett) as plucky teen Babs Gordon chases thieving, thrill-seeking Harley through Gotham’s festive streets and alleys only to eventually team up with the jaunty jester to save Ivy from murderous Yakuza super-assassins. Next up, Batman: Gotham Knights #14 gifts us brilliantly dark yet saucily amusing tale ‘The Bet’ (Dini & Del Carmen). Incarcerated once more in Arkham, the Joker’s frustrated paramour and irresistible, intoxicatingly lethal Ivy indulge in a small wager to pass the time: namely, who can kiss the most men whilst in custody. This razor-sharp little tale manages to combine “innocent sexiness” with genuine sentiment, and packs a killer punch-line after the Harlequin of Hate unexpectedly pops in…

The madcap glamour-fest finishes with a late arriving moment of monochrome suspense (from Batman Black and White #3, by Dini & Stéphane Roux) as ‘Role Models’ sees a little girl escape her manic kidnapper and find sanctuary of a sort with the pilfering odd couple…

For years DC sat on a goldmine of quality product before finally unleashing a blizzard of all-ages collections and graphic novels such as this one: child-friendly iterations (and others not-so-much) of key characters stemming from the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm Batman series. These adventures are consistently some of the best comics produced of the last four decades and should be eternally permanently in print, if only as a way of attracting new readers to the medium.

Now a bone fide Christmas tradition – just like arguing about Die Hard or pondering what to do with brussels sprouts (eat them if you like them, pass if you don’t?), Batman: Harley and Ivy is a frantic, laugh-packed hoot that manages to be daring and demure by turns. An absolute delight and an irresistible seasonal treasure to be enjoyed over and over again.
© 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2014, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Spinning (New Edition)


By Tillie Walden (Avery Hill Press)
ISBN: 978-1-91039-595-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Modern Classic Everyone Should Read… 10/10

Transitions are important. In fact, they are literally life changing. Here’s another one captured and shared by the amazing Tillie Walden…

We usually attribute wisdom and maturity in the creative arts to having lived a bit of life and getting some emotional grit in our wheels and sand in our faces, but that’s not the case for Texas-raised Tillie, whose incredible canon includes I Love this Part, On a Sunbeam, Are You Listening? and Clementine, not to mention award-winning debut graphic novel The End of Summer… and the revelatory biography we’re featuring today.

If you’re a completist, you’ll also want her picture book My Parents Won’t Stop Talking (created with Emma Hunsinger), Tegan and Sarah: Crush 2 and even her Cosmic Slumber Tarot set.

You don’t need a mask to have an origin story, and it’s a rare person – or perhaps indicative of self-deception or mental illness – who never ponders who they are or how they got to right here, right now. It’s a process that’s infinitely rewarding for creators and their readers. Spinning is a perfect example of an extremely talented person taking a basic human drive, exploiting it and turning it into magic. It’s a very personal origin story, which may have great relevance and meaning for many seeing it – and it’s got costumes too…

As previously stated, Walden has created a bunch of books and they mostly have little bios that say that she’s from Austin, Texas, as if that’s some kind of warning or character reference. Later ones say that she lives in Vermont with her wife and two cats and teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies.

So how did that all happen?

Intimate and revelatory, some of the story is here: snapshots concentrating on her middle school years, back when she was a competitive ice skater, moodily rendered in moody tones of purple and yellow that somehow emphasise the impression of a child under a stark and lonely spotlight, or maybe a chicken in speeding headlights…

There’s something worrisome and uncomfortable about the kind of family that allows – or worse, pushes – a child into a punishing regime of intense training in pursuit of sporting excellence (or any other kind with a monetary benefit attached). I’ve heard all the arguments for and frankly, I don’t care. I was in a choir from age 5 to the end of secondary school, and I know just when it stopped being fun and became a burden…

Tillie back then was a kid who had to get up hours before school, travelling mostly on her own to isolated rinks and push relentlessly just to be one of the few seeking to excel at figure and synchronised skating. There were countless hours of sleep deficit, cruelly screaming or smotheringly solicitous coaches, equally exhausted and brittle girls just as reluctant to be there and always perishing cold. And that’s only how each day started.

… And then the family abruptly upped sticks from New Jersey to resettle in Austin, Texas…

The next few years are revisited with punishing candour and beguiling charm, employing the conceit of specific moves in a skating program as indicators/chapter headings. We open with ‘Waltz Jump’, covering her East Coast life and cross-country transition to a whole new world as soon as 5th grade classes ended…

‘Scratch Spin’ sees scorching August heat as the new kid meets teammates and/or rivals Michaela, Jennifer, Rosalind, Dasha and Little Dasha: as Tillie quickly learns that nothing she knew before applies here. At least coach Caitlin seems supportive and not another screaming harpy…

To supplement the misery, boost her grades and ostensibly offset bullying, Tillie is enrolled in a private girls’ school and sent for private cello lessons, proving her parents knew nothing about girls or school. Even skating has changed. Now she must attend two different rinks at separate times of day, constantly test to qualify and of course, endure more new friends… and otherwise.

Although Carly, Trinity, Sarah and the rest are all nice enough, it somehow only reinforces Tillie’s feelings of isolation and discomfort…

‘Flip Jump’ features first crushes, new bestie Lindsay, scary moments with adored brother John and a creepy old guy, with young Miss Walden triumphantly rejoining the traveling competition circuit, whilst ‘Axel’ celebrates her turning 12 and becoming bogged down in all the complex social interactions she just doesn’t understand, but which increasingly obsess her class and teammates. There’s also a bitterly regretted missed chance to confront the bully who made her life hell for a year…

Increasingly aware that skating is now a chore, not a choice, Tillie begins to ‘Spiral’ after a near fatal accident she refuses to tell anyone about, but which has lasting repercussions. There’s a life changing moment when she realises how much she enjoys drawing and how good she is at it, and a far happier discovery: classmate Rae likes her every bit as much as Tillie likes her – and in just the same way.

‘Spread Eagle’ sees that critical first love brutally end when her girlfriend’s parents find out and take preventative action: something Tillie would have far preferred to the understanding talk her own mother forces upon her, and which leads to the skater coming out to anyone who cares to listen…

As art grows to consume her, skating declines as an interest but paradoxically boosts her ability to win. Nevertheless, a crisis inevitably approaches and ‘Counter’ focuses on her at age 16, simultaneously seeking to bolster her skate ranking and planning on leaving Texas as soon as possible. SATs loom large on everyone’s horizon and Tillie has to endure extra tutoring despite having no intention of going to college. The arrangement almost makes her another crime statistic, but the real result of her narrow escape is realisation that her entire life is all about being tested and narrowly passing or surviving…

Floating days go by in a non-involved haze, before she eventually wakes up and takes charge. ‘Lutz’ addresses all her biggest challenges coming at once, yet another near-death experience, a life-altering unburdening and a decision at last made, leading into the liberating whirl of ‘Twizzle’ to free herself from twelve years a slave to other people’s wishes and the beginning of her own life…

That’s further addressed in the biographical Author’s Note that closes this magnificent and moving memoir. I said earlier that this was a part of Tillie Walden’s story; for more – as much as she’s willing to share – you’ll need to read her other books, both the biographical and fully fictional ones. Get them, read them, tell a friend. Give generously and wisely as the festive season unfolds…
© 2017 Tillie Walden. All rights reserved. This edition published 2024. All rights reserved.

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Dracula Marries Frankenstein! – An Anne of Green Bagels Story


By Susan Schade & Jon Buller (Papercutz)
ISBN: 978-1-62991-815-0 (TPB)

Papercutz are a company committed to publishing comics material for younger readers, combining licensed properties such as Asterix, The Smurfs and Nancy Drew with intriguing and compelling new concepts such as The Wendy Project and this tasty tantalising gem, a tried and true Halloween treat.

In her first adventure – where she found her long-missing dad – Anne Blossom and her family moved to the sleekly antiseptic metropolis and model community of Megatown. It was initially an uncomfortable fit. On her first day at school the other kids dubbed her “Anne of Green Bagels” because of the health-food spirulina lunch her grandmother had baked…

Eventually, however, she settled in, the town grew more human, and she made some friends. In this follow-up tale Anne and one of those pals – Otto Immaculata – decide to make a movie and, being fans of spooky stories, opt for a thriller-feature starring Frankenstein and Dracula.

As is always the way in these ventures, whilst scouting shooting venues, the plot evolves and by the time they have convinced the exceedingly eccentric owner of gothic mansion Herringbone Hall (which actually predates the entire city of Megatown) the project has morphed into a romcom tentatively entitled Dracula Marries Frankenstein…

The project proceeds apace, but when the usually sweet dowager Augusta Herringbone realises the kids are contemplating and condoning “same-sex marriage” she reacts in a most peculiar and astounding manner!

Moreover, when her over-the-top response goes viral, Herringbone Hall suddenly catches fire! Has the kid’s innocent summer-fun project unleashed a wave of hatred and intolerance in Megatown, or is there an even more incredible secret to be exposed? Maybe this ill-starred tale is a horror story after all…

Smart, funny and warmly inclusive whilst tackling adult issues in an accessible manner, Dracula Marries Frankenstein melds mystery, laughs and adventure in the grand style, all delivered by creative – and wedded – couple Susan Schade & Jon Buller in their hybrid graphic novel; alternating illustrated text chapters with cartoon strip episodes, in the manner & format of our own, equally alternatively life-stylish Rupert Bear Annuals.

An excellent and eminently re-readable children’s romp for modern times and forward-thinking families.
© 2017 Susan Schade & Jon Buller.

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Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip volume 1


By Tove Jansson (Drawn & Quarterly)
ISBN: 978-1-89493-780-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and practically Bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914, making today her 110th anniversary, so hyvää vuosipäivää to her and all you fans…

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

After a period of intensive study from 1930-1938 (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, the Graphic School of The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris), Tove became a successful exhibiting artist through the troubled period of the war.

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

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

Moomintroll was literally her signature character. The lumpy, big-eyed goof began life as a spindly sigil beside her signature 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 about Immanuel Kant with her brother.

The term “Moomin” came from maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop Tove pilfering food when she visited by warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. Over childhood years and far beyond Snork/Moomin filled out, became timidly nicer, if a little clingy and insecure: a placid therapy-tool to counteract the grimness of the post-war world.

The Moomins and the Great Flood was relatively unsuccessful but Jansson persisted, as much for her own therapeutic benefit as any other reason, and in 1946 sequel Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland) was published. Many commentators believe this terrifying tale a skilful, compelling allegory of Nuclear destruction, and both it and third illustrated novel Trollkarlens hatt (1948, Finn Family Moomintroll or occasionally The Happy Moomins) were translated into English in 1952. Their success prompted British publishing giant Associated Press to commission a newspaper strip about her seductively sweet, sensibly surreal surrogate family.

Jansson had no prejudices about strip cartoons. Early efforts included Lunkentus (Prickinas och Fabians äventyr, 1929), Vårbrodd (Fotbollen som Flög till Himlen, 1930) and Allas Krönika (Palle och Göran gå till sjöss, 1933). And she had already successfully adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Mumintrollet och jordens undergång – Moomintrolls and the End of the World – was a popular feature and Jansson readily accepted a chance to extend her message across the world.

In 1953 The London Evening News began the first of 21 Moomin sagas which captivated readers of all ages. Tove’s involvement ended in 1959: a casualty of its own success and a punishing publication schedule. So great was the pressure that she had recruited brother Lars to help. He proudly and most effectively continued the feature until its end in 1975.

Free of the strip she returned to painting, writing and her other creative pursuits, generating book illustration, plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera, 9 more Moomin-related picture-books and novels, as well as 13 books and short-story collections more obviously intended for grown-ups.

Her awards are too numerous to mention (literally dozens of international art and literary plaudits), but consider this: how many modern artists – let alone comics creators – get their faces on the national currency or have commemorative coins struck bearing their image?

She died on June 27th 2001… but her timorous little critters and their better, nicer world have proliferated beyond belief.

Tove could deploy slim economical line and pattern to create sublime worlds of fascination, and her dexterity made simple forms into incredibly expressive and potent symbols. In this first volume the miraculous wonderment begins with ‘Moomin and the Brigands’ as our rotund, gracious and deeply empathic hippo-esque troll-ling frets about the sheer volume of freeloading visitors literally eating him out of house and home. Too meek to cause offence and simply send them all packing, he consults his wide-boy, get-rich-quick mate Sniff, but when their increasingly eccentric eviction schemes go awry Moomin simply leaves, undertaking a beachcombing odyssey culminating with him meeting the beauteous Snorkmaiden.

When the jewellery-obsessed young lass (yes, she looks like a hippo too – but a really lovely one with long lashes and such a cute fringe!) is kidnapped by bandits, finally mild-mannered Moomin finds his inner hero…

‘Moomin and Family Life’ then reunites the prodigal Moomin with parents Moominpappa and Moominmamma – a most strange and remarkable couple. Mamma is warm and capable but overly concerned with propriety and appearances, whilst Papa spends all his time trying to rekindle his adventurous youth. Rich Aunt Jane, however, is a far more “acquired” taste.

‘Moomin on the Riviera’ finds flighty Snorkmaiden and drama-starved Moominpappa dragging the extended family and assorted friends on an epic voyage to the sunny southern land of millionaires. On arrival, the Moomins’ small-town idiosyncrasies are mistaken for so-excusable eccentricities of the filthy rich – a delightfully telling satirical comedy of manners and a plot that never gets old – as proved by the fact that the little escapade was expanded to and released as 2015’s animated movie Moomins on the Riviera…

This initial incomparable volume of graphic wonderment concludes with fantastic adventure in ‘Moomin’s Desert Island’, wherein another joint family jaunt leaves the Moomins lost upon an unknown shore where ghostly ancestors roam: wrecking any vessel that might offer rescue. Sadly, the greatest peril in this knowing pastiche of Swiss Family Robinson might well be The Mymble – a serious rival for Moomintroll’s affections. Luckily, Snorkmaiden knows of some wonderfully romantic, bloodthirsty pirates who might be called upon to come to her romantic rescue…

These truly magical timeless tales for the young are laced with incisive observation and mature wit that enhances and elevates only the greatest kids’ stories into classics of literature. These volumes are an international treasure and no fan of the medium – or biped with even a hint of heart and soul – can ever be content or well-read without them.

Tove’s Moomin comic strips were originally collected in seven Scandinavian volumes before the discerning folk at Drawn & Quarterly translated them into English as a series of luxurious oversized (224 x 311 mm) hardback tomes. There some UK editions from SelfMadeHero in the twenteens and now some of these tales have returned in new paperback reprinting, with Moomin Adventures Book 1 (July 2024, ISBN: 978-1-77046-742-2) offering ‘Moomin on the Riviera’ and ‘Moomin’s Desert Island’ plus some later co-productions with Lars.

© 2006 Solo/Bulls. All Rights Reserved.

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John Constantine, Hellblazer volume 1: Original Sins


By Jamie Delano, Rick Veitch, John Ridgway, Alfredo Alcala, Tom Mandrake, Brett Ewins, Jim McCarthy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3006-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Originally created by Alan Moore during his groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing, mercurial modern wizard John Constantine is a dissolute chancer who plays with magic like an addict but on his own terms for his own ends. He is not a hero. He is not a nice person. Sometimes though, he’s all there is between us and the void…

Given his own series by popular demand, Constantine premiered at the height of Thatcherite Barbarism in Britain, during the dying days of Reaganite Atrocity in the US, to become a founding father of DC’s adult-oriented Vertigo imprint. Hard to imagine back then that we’d one day be looking back with any sense of fond nostalgia, but there you go…

This collection collects John Constantine, Hellblazer #1-9 plus crossover chapters from Swamp Thing #76-77; cumulatively spanning January – October 1988 at what was the beginning of a renaissance in comic book horror that continues to this day.

Back in 1987 Creative Arts and Liberal Sentiments were dirty words in many quarters and the readership of Vertigo was pretty easy to profile. British scripter Jamie Delano began the series with a relatively safe horror-comic plot about an escaped hunger demon, introducing us to Constantine’s unpleasant nature and odd acquaintances – such as Papa Midnite – in a tale of infernal possession and modern voodoo, but even then, discriminating fans were aware of a welcome anti-establishment political line and metaphorical underpinnings.

‘Hunger’ and ‘A Feast of Friends’ also established another vital fact. Anyone who got too close to John Constantine tended to end very badly, very quickly…

‘Going for It’ successfully equated Conservative Britain with Hell (no change there either, obviously), with demons trading souls on their own stock market and Yuppies getting ahead in the rat race by selling short. Set on Election Day 1987, this potent pastiche never loses sight of its goal to entertain, whilst making telling points about humanity, individuality and society.

Constantine’s cousin Gemma and tantalising splinters of his Liverpool childhood are revealed in ‘Waiting for the Man’: a tale of abduction and ghosts introducing disturbing Christian fundamentalists The Resurrection Crusade, and a mysterious woman known only as Zed.

America is once again the focus of terror in ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’ as the Vietnam war breaks out again in rural Iowa, before we pop back to Blighty for ‘Extreme Prejudice’.

Skinheads, racism demons and more abound as Delano cannily joins up lots of previously unconnected dots to reveal a giant storyline in the making. The Damnation Army are up to something, but nobody knows who they are. Now everything’s going bad and somehow Zed and the Resurrection Crusade are at the heart of it all…

Brett Ewins & Jim McCarthy briefly replaced magnificent regular illustrator John Ridgway for the first 3 pages of ‘Ghost in the Machine’, before the beautifully restrained, poignantly humanistic stylism returns with Constantine further unravelling the Damnation plot by catching up with the Coming Thing: the cutting edge mysticism dubbed cyber-shamanism.

In Delano’s world the edges between science and magic aren’t blurred – they simply don’t exist…

Alfredo Alcala signs on as inker with ‘Intensive Care’ and the drama ramps up to a full gallop as the plans of both Crusade and Army are revealed, with the value and purpose of Zed finally exposed. All Constantine can do in response is make the first of many bad bargains with Hell…

We then take a stranger turn due to the nature of periodical publishing. The storyline in Hellblazer #1-8 ran contiguously, before converging with Swamp Thing wherein the wizard reluctantly lends his physical body to the planetary plant elemental so that the monster can impregnate its human girlfriend Abigail Arcane. Thus, in the ninth issue, there’s a kind of dissolute holding pattern in play as the weary wizard confronts ghosts of all the people he’s gotten killed to allow all the pieces to be suitably arranged. ‘Shot to Hell’ (Delano, Ridgway & Alcala) then neatly segues into Swamp Thing #76-77 for the conception of a new messiah. Sort of.

Immediately post-Alan Moore, Swamp Thing comics were sidelined by many fans. However they soon realised successor (writer-artist) Rick Veitch – aided by moody inker Alcala – was producing a stunning sequence of mini-classics well worthy of serious scrutiny. The issues built on Moore’s cerebral, visceral writing as the world’s plant elemental became increasingly involved with ecological matters.

Having decided to “retire”, Swamp Thing (an anthropomorphic plant imprinted with the personality and mind of murdered biologist Alec Holland) was charged by his ephemeral overlords in “The Green” with facilitating the creation of his/its successor. However, the ancient and agonising process was contaminated by consecutive failures and false starts, leading to a horrendous series of abortive creatures and a potentially catastrophic Synchronicity Maelstrom.

Alec, “wife” Abigail and chillingly charismatic Constantine are eventually compelled to combine forces – and some body-fluids – in ‘L’Adoration de la Terre’ (ST #76, by Veitch & Alcala) – to conceive a solution before the resultant chaos-storm destroys the Earth.

The process is not with risk – or embarrassment – but the affair is brought to a successful conclusion in ‘Infernal Tringles’ (Swamp Thing #77, Tom Mandrake pencilling) and with terrestrial order restored, the participants go their separate ways… but events have affected them all in ways that will have terrible repercussions in months and years to come…

Rounding out this so-sophisticated spook-fest is an original covers gallery by Dave McKean and John Totleben, plus an in-world exposé of Constantine in ‘Faces on the Street’ by faux journalist Satchmo Hawkins. Also included are other relics of the antihero’s sordid past such as the lyrics from Venus of the hardsell – a single from John’s aberrant punk band mucous membrane – and extracts from the magician’s medical file whilst he was held in Ravenscar Secure Psychiatric Facility…

Delivered by creators capable and satiric, but still wedded to the basic tenets of their craft, these superb examples of horror fiction – inextricably linking politics, religion, human nature and sheer bloody-mindedness as the root cause of all ills – are still powerfully engaging. Lovingly constructed, they make a truly abominable character seem an admirable force for our survival. The art is clear, understated and subtly subversive while the slyly witty, innovative stories jangle at the subconscious with scratchy edginess.

This is a book no fear-fan should be without.
© 1987, 1988, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Last Gender: When We Are Nameless volume 1 (of 3)


By Rei Taki translated by Rose Padgett (Vertical/Kodansha)
ISBN: 978-1-6472191-4 (Vertical tank?bon PB) Digital edition 978-1-68491-721-1

A woman goes into a bar.

That’s usually shocking enough for Japanese fiction, but in Rei (Tada Ooki na Neko ni Naritai, Love-Kyo: Kateikyoushi ga xx Sugite Benkyou Dokoro ja Nai) Taki’s deft exploration of sexual diversity, it’s merely the start of a well-intentioned, honest appraisal of what infinite variety in human experience and being actually means. The tale is especially extraordinary as it comes from a country and culture currently involved in a (very polite and restrained) war of past and future and tradition vs. change, where gender and gender roles have always been cast in stone and a hot button topic…

After a short stand-alone try-out tale was reworked and developed (which is included at the end of this edition), Last Gender: Nani Mono demo nai Watashi-tachi debuted in 2022. Its brief interlocking vignettes eventually filled three volumes, employing a picaresque format – in many ways thematically similar to US sitcom Cheers – to peruse those people who generally inhabit the margins of society… either through choice or more often than not due to fear and shame.

In such a strictly formalised society those judgements are most likely to be self-inflicted and imagined, and painfully concrete and condemnatory, as we will see…

Chapter 1 opens with one person’s candid ruminations on what is gender before ‘Welcome to BAR California’ finds nasty, preachy gossip and media scandalmongering hanging in the air as assistant manager Yo prepares to open up for the evening. Checking bottles are full, glasses clean, rooms ready and restocked and all lube, fresh underwear and condom dispensers are full, they are soon distracted by a nervous and curious young woman. She has come in to the venue where “all are welcome” carrying her husband’s membership card and very much wanting to know what it exactly entitles her spouse to…

An explanation of facilities, by-laws, responsibilities, duties and potential rewards – further clarified by a new friend – results in Manami addressing her prior pre- and mis-conceptions, and signing up to discover lots more she didn’t know about herself…

With frequent subtle reminders, asides and dissertations on what staff and patrons consider constitutes gender, sexualities statuses, consent and suitable behaviour, the vignettes continue with ‘An Orchid Blooming in the Fog’. Transgender bisexual Ran shares with Yo early unhappy encounters (incidentally providing us with mindboggling factual detail on insurance cover and finance for gender affirmation surgery in Japan), and happy-go-lucky, persistently pally pansexual Mao adds his own unique perspective and past moments. Ultimately his benign attentions and upbeat manner manifest more revelations of his own unsettled life and its pressures…

The forces of expectation and tradition shaping Mao are more closely monitored in ‘Family of Mannequins’ even as stolid salaryman Sawada Masanori and college girl Amiru debut with their own individual flavours of difference. It’s a risky road to travel but bigender Sawada will only really be content once his wife and child can understand how and why he is also Marie and that will only happen if they can affirm their ‘True Love’, whilst the student still struggles to accept that any boundaries exist…

Amiru steps into the spotlight for closing episode ‘Aromantic Fairy Tale’ delving deeper into her innate belief that sex and love have nothing to do with each other and explaining how all the stories society train us with need to be re-examined if not revoked. Of course, nothing has worked yet to stop her yearning for “the one”, and some of the test candidates have been a bit extreme to say the least. Just look at Yukihiro, with his odd provisos and props… and just what is the secret he shares with only Yo?

To Be Continued…

Filling up this initial tome are ‘Translation Notes’, house ads, a featurette on sex bars and how the clientele adopts aliases in ‘BAR California’s Back Yard #1’ as well as an afterword from Rei Taki, prior to that aforementioned ‘Prototype Story: A Self For All Seasons’ showing how the initial explorations of spousal abuse and similar reasons for such sex bar venues was dialled down for a more subtle and forensic investigation of the people who need them…

There are – even by manga standards – fairly explicit and frequent sex scenes amidst all the character interplay, and the occasionally blunt yet potent evaluations, clarifications and reiterations of gender issues, minorities and status through the lens of Japanese frankness can be a bit breathtaking if we westerners aren’t braced. Nonetheless, Last Gender: When We Are Nameless is a compelling and intriguing foray into gender & sexual diversity, pansexuality, propensities, individuality and autonomy that needs to be seen by anyone still breathing and still dating. Over to you then…
© 2021 Rei Taki. English translation © 2022 Rei Taki. All rights reserved.

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The Case of Alan Turing


By Éric Liberge & Arnaud Delalande, translated by David Homel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
ISBN: 978-1-55152-650-8 (HB/Digital edition)

After decades of cruel injustice and crushing, sidelining silence, British mathematician Alan Turing – one of the greatest intellects in humanity’s history – is finally the household name and revered pioneer of science he always deserved to be. As well as books and films describing the astounding achievements and appalling way this brilliant, misunderstood man – arguably the creator of the modern world we inhabit – was treated by his contemporaries and society in general, there are also graphic novels (so if you’re interested you should also seek out Jim Ottaviani & Leland Purvis’ The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded) delineating the factual stuff whilst trying to get beneath the skin of a most perplexing and unique individual.

This gloriously oversized (231 x 13 x 287 mm) full-colour hardback biography – also available as an e-book – was first released in 2015 as Le Cas Alan Turing: Histoire extraordinaire et tragique d’un genie and employs an emphatic literary approach that is more drama than documentary. The moving script by author Arnaud Delalande (La Piege de Dante) – via award-winning translator David Homel – only touches on Turing’s early, troubled home life and post-war scandals as the genius descended into self-loathing and court-mandated chemical castration to cure his “social deviancy”.

Mere hints and allegations – let alone actual accusations – of homosexuality destroyed many men until officially decriminalised in Britain’s 1967 Sexual Offences Act, and although (after years of passionate campaigning) Turing was posthumously pardoned in 2013, his loss to suicide probably deprived the entire world of a generation of marvels…

The major proportion of this tale concentrates on World War II and Turing’s work as a cryptographer and inventor at British code-breaking centre Bletchley Park, where an insular young man struggled to convince his officious, unimaginative superiors to let him construct a mechanical brain to defeat the Wehrmacht’s presumed-infallible Enigma machines. Turing’s victories cemented his reputation and ensured that the battle against fascism was won…

The key figures are all there: sometime fiancée Joan Clark, Professor Max Newman, and the weak, shady rent-boy who brought about Turing’s eventual downfall and demise, fully complemented by less well known figures: the MI5 operative who was his constant shadow before and after the war, boyhood lost love Christopher Morcom and so many other unsung heroes of the intelligence war…

Played out against a backdrop of global conflict, Turing’s intellectual obsession with Walt Disney’s Snow White and a recurring motif of poisoned apples (the method by which the tormented soul ended his life) loom large in a story which reads like a movie in the making. Moreover, this powerful tale of an outsider’s temporary triumphs and lasting impact is beautifully and compellingly rendered by true master of historical comics Eric Liberge (Monsieur Mardi-Gras Descendres, Le Dernier Marduk, Tonnerre Rampant, Les Corsaires d’Alcibiade), affording proceedings an aura of unavoidable, impending destiny…

Balancing out the tragedy of chances missed is an informative photo-illustrated essay on ‘The Cryptography War’ from historian, educator and government consultant Bruno Fuligni detailing the development and use of different kinds of cipher and codes; how Enigma changed the rules of the spying game and how Turing changed it all again…

This is an astoundingly effective and moving way to engage with a true story of incredible accomplishment, dedication and terrifying naivety, one that ends with horrific loss to us all and forever-unanswered sentiments of “What If?” and “If Only…”
Text © Éditions des Arènes, Paris 2015. Translation © 2016 by David Homel.

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Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather


By Ron Zimmerman, John Severin, Steve Buccellato, Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Wes Abbott & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4362-8 (HB/Digital edition) 978-0-7851-1069-9 (TPB)

For most of the 1960s nobody did superheroes better than Marvel Comics. However, even fully acknowledging the stringencies of the Comics Code Authority, the company’s style for producing their staple genre titles for War, Romance and especially TV-driven Western fans left a lot to be desired. Any hint of sexuality, venality of authority figures, or using guns the way they were intended to be used capitulated to overwhelming caution and a tone that wouldn’t be amiss in kids’ cartoons or pre-Watershed family TV shows. Eventually, however, the reborn company’s boldness and hunger for innovation overwhelmed practicality and common sense. Mercifully for revivals of pre-superhero veterans like Rawhide Kid, the meagre art-pool consisted of master craftsmen such as Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers and others…

Technically the Kid is one of the company’s older icons, having debuted in his own title with a March 1955 cover-date. A stock-standard sagebrush centurion clad in a buckskin jacket, his first adventures were illustrated by jobbing cartoonists like Bob Brown and Ayers and the book was one of the first casualties when Atlas’ distribution woes forced the company to cut back to 16 titles a month in the autumn of 1957.

With small screen cowboys ubiquitous and youthful rebellion a hot societal concept in 1960, owner/publisher Martin Goodman – via Stan Lee & Jack Kirby – unleashed a brand new six-gun stalwart little more than a moody teenager and launched him in summer of that year, economically continuing the numbering from the failed 50’s original…

Crucial to remember is that those yarns were not trying to be gritty or authentic: they were accessing a vast miasmic morass of wholesome, homogenised Hollywood mythmaking that generations of mainly white preferred to learning of the grim everyday toil and terror of the real Old West: simplistic Black Hats vs. White Hats delivered with all the bombast and bravura Jack Kirby and his stellar successors could so readily muster…

It all (re) began when Lee, Kirby & Ayers introduced adopted teenaged Johnny Bart who showed all and sundry what he was made of after his retired Texas Ranger Uncle Ben was gunned down by a fame-hungry cheat. After very publicly exercising his right to vengeance, the naive kid fled Rawhide before explanations could be offered, resigned to life as an outlaw.

The Kid was a wandering, straight shootin’ action ace for decades, periodically returning and even joining forces with the Avengers to battle Kang the Conqueror before fading into the sunset.

Then he became a perennial revivalist, enjoying an occasional miniseries encore (beginning with Rawhide Kid volume 2 #1-4 in 1985) whenever creators wanted to test genre waters or craft experimental media mash-ups. Maybe it was because a mean teen the size of Wolverine offers some sort of untapped reader interest? A taste of Team appeal saw Rawhide bundled with fellow western stalwarts in 2000’s Blaze of Glory #1-4, 2002’s sequel Apache Skies #1-4 and 2010’s Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven…

However, his most memorable and controversial stint is what we’re covering today. Between April and June 2003, The Kid fell under the aegis of the mature-reader Marvel Max imprint and the result was a smart and sassy spoof featuring a gay cowboy at the peak of his prowess…

Scripted by Ron Zimmerman, Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather was illustrated by the legendary John Severin: an incredibly gifted illustrator who had split his stunning career between gritty action tales (Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat, Nick Fury, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Incredible Hulk, King Kull, The Losers, Semper Fi) and hilarious comedy in parody/lampoon vehicles like Mad, Cracked and Crazy magazines.

His collaborator Zimmerman was a film and TV producer/stand-up comedian and writer who worked on Friday the 13th, Jet Li’s The One and many other shows and movies. His other comic credits included Spider-Man: Get Kraven, Ultimate Adventures, and stints on The Punisher, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel and more.

Here, the partnership resulted in some of funniest moments in Marvel’s genre history…

Following a scene-setting faux edition of the Wells Junction News revealing some life history under the banner headlines ‘Rawhide Kid seen in town’, the daft and deceptive drama begin when an infamous outlaw rides into desolate and isolated Plum Springs one quiet fall day.

Like the movie Shane, this tale is seen through the eyes of a young lad who might not be mature enough to glean the subtext of what’s going on…

Toby Morgan is callow and impressionable so when the notorious gunslinger appears, his paw – farmer turned sheriff Matt Morgan – starts reassessing what it means to be a “real man”. The sheriff is already trying to live down being publicly humiliated – and shot as an afterthought – by Cisco Pike and his gang when they stormed the town. Now he has an unsuspecting – and incredibly glamorous and attractive – rival for his son’s admiration…

Matt is keenly aware that’s he’s lost the manhood stakes. Toby is bullied at school and reveals that he too thinks his pa’s a coward whilst the appalling things the ensconced outlaws call him are even echoed by his own friends. When Mayor Walker Bush demands Matt get rid of the increasingly bold and obnoxious owlhoots, Morgan can’t even find a deputy to die with him…

Rawhide’s reputation keeps the Pike gang cowed, even after he refuses to join their number in a classic confrontation, but no-one expected the fearsome Kid to be so well spoken and prissy: worrying about his clothes and hair and manners and such. Why, what with his moisturizers, bathrobes, provocatively shiny chaps, cigarette holders, Canadian Beaver hats, unsolicited fashion and grooming tips he’s practically swishy…

Learning of the Morgan family problems, the Kid offers to help out: setting young Toby straight and urging his advice on stolid, stoic Matt. The sheriff – despite being regularly shot every time the gang appears – momentarily believes things might work out, but is unaware Pike has recruited extra help for the inevitable showdown. These are all ace killers like Thunderclaw, Red Duck, Le Sabre, Chinese ninjas and lethal man-hating Catastrophe Jen. Of course, they need to move pretty fast now or Jen will kill all the guys she’s riding beside…

And then the inescapable showdown happens and Morgan learns who he really is and who his real friends are…

Challenging stereotypes by combining constant outright hilarity with classic wild west tropes, cartoon action and moments of true pathos, Slap Leather plays the originally moody and po-faced gunfighter as a wittily sharp-tongued, out-&-proud gay man in a vibrant tribute to genre-bending – think The Birdcage or In & Out blended with Blazing Saddles or Zorro: The Gay Blade. It also comes packed with a passel of TV in-jokes (schoolmarm Laura Ingulls, ranchers Haus & Little Jo Cartrite, newspaper publisher Lew Grant) and comics sight gags by the masterful and puckish Severin. With covers by Dave Johnson, Kaare Andrews, Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson, Darwyn Cooke and J. Scott Campbell, this a jolly and uplifting treat for anyone who likes to see old edifices poked…
© 2018 MARVEL.