Category: Mature Reading

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Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days (Artifacts and Bone Fragments)


By Al Columbia (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 9781-60699-304-0 (HB/Digital edition)

This book contains Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

Al Columbia is an incredibly innovative creator who has been pushing the boundaries of what we call narrative art since his earliest days in the industry, and one who has always seemed to generate the wrong kind of press. From the days when he assisted and then succeeded Bill Sienkiewicz on Alan Moore’s experimental and unfinished Big Numbers, through Doghead, From Beyonde and the astonishing The Biologic Show, Columbia sought out new ways to tell stories and never shied away from potentially controversial scenes, imagery and even styles of working. He was equally conversant with highly observed photorealism and the eccentric, economical symbolism of vintage animated film. He has rather unfairly been unable to escape a reputation for not finishing what he’s started.

Later works, especially as seen in this oddly disturbing cartoon collection, are clearly based on the early cinematic imagery that is periodically in vogue with the West Coast art movement known alternatively as Lowbrow or Pop Surrealism, but although the content may appear similar the intent is radically different. The line & design similarities to landmark Fleischer Brothers cartoons here create a subtle sense of trusted familiarity that the antics and situations expressly and terrifyingly contradict and overwhelm.

Just So’s You Know: Pim and Francie are pixy-ish waifs resident in a 1920s jarring yet halcyon neverland – think Rudolph Dirks and the Katzenjammer Kids. They first appeared in the chilling short story ‘Tar Frogs’ (originally published in Britain’s ’90’s lifestyle driven Deadline magazine and were then retooled for The Biologic Show #0 in 1994). They resurfaced in Peloria Part One (The Biologic Show #1 in 1995) and then in comic arts anthology Mome #9 (Fall 2007). You should also urgently seek out ‘I Was Killing When Killing Wasn’t Cool’ (Zero Zero #4) and ‘The Trumpets They Play!’ (Blab! #10 in 1998) and 2018’s Amnesia: The Lost Films of Francis D. Longfellow Supplementary Newsletter No. 1…

In a collection that appears more sketchbook than story, and which calls itself a “broken jigsaw puzzle”, grisly, grotesque images and characters cavort and proceed through a familiar wonderland of fairytale Americana, but look more closely and you can see a story unfolding: a tale of two rascals and perils beyond imagining…

Columbia’s nightmarish, recondite scenario hints at a deeper profundity but his beautiful, clear, dark drawings are open, simple and fiendishly accessible to even the youngest reader; so beware who you expose to these amazing astonishing adventures. Appetising, intriguing and addictively profane, this is a delightful excursion to a very wrong place.

See you there…
© 2009, 2017 Al Columbia. All Rights Reserved.

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Stuff about Sex for Guys Who Are Not Like, Total Idiots


By David Mellon (Top Shelf Productions)
No ISBN ASIN: B01BMV519A (pamphlet)

Utterly unavailable – and how like most men today is THAT? – here’s a tiny treat that’s educational and well worth tracking down. You might even agitate for its revival and expansion and return…

Whilst not actually a graphic novel, I couldn’t resist adding this outrageous little comic book essay to my St. Valentines Day celebrations, and wholeheartedly recommend it to any oldster who likes a gentle, knowing laugh or any young man in need of an understanding non-judgemental pep talk before setting out to find a mate… either for a night, a little while or a lifetime.

In the manner of a relatively non-judgemental older sibling, David Mellon (The Boogieman, Silent) expresses, frankly and in the most simple of terms, how to start having sex. He covers the onset of adult relationships; dispelling myths, addressing if not positively coddling neuroses and especially bestowing actual useful advice (yes, really! Wash often and wear clean clothes!) to help nervous neophytes meet women (or consensual alternatives) and not nauseate them.

Beautifully rendered in accessible monochrome cartoons, Mellon takes us through the initial obstacle of ‘Shame!’, arguing that ‘It’s the Same for Everybody’ and claiming ‘Everybody Wants to Drop that Mask!’…

Nothing is held back as the author sensibly deals with ‘Personal Hygiene’ and tackles issues such as ‘Premature Ejaculation’ and ‘Masturbation’, the pros and cons of ‘Virginity’ and even asks the big question…‘What’s Love Got to Do With It?’

Even the great imponderables get a look in as we examine ‘Normal’ and discuss ‘What Women Want’…

Smart, sensible, unflinching but never harsh or mean, Mellon’s mature approach to an age-old traumatic experience and rite of passage should be mandatory reading in schools (but won’t be because of all the naked men and women he’s drawn here) as a serious and earnest contrition to sex education.
Stuff about Sex™ & © 2012 David Mellon. All rights reserved.

Today in 1865 Henry creator Carl Thomas Anderson was born, and so was civil rights champion/political cartoonist Oliver Harrington in 1912, followed four years later by writer/editor/MLJ and Archie Comics co-founder John Goldwater. In 1967 the world became a better place with the birth of New Zealand’s greatest comic export Roger Langridge.

In 1962 we lost Korky the Cat creator James Crighton, the world bid adieu to comics star turned Hanna-Barbera animator Alex Lovyin 1992 and in 2007 Germany said farewell to artist/animator Willy Moese.

In 1904, Jimmy Swinnerton’s strip Little Jimmy debuted while UK comics changed forever in 1976 when Fleetway’s astoundingly controversial weekly Action launched.

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Escape from Special


By Miss Lasko-Gross (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-804-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

Little Melissa is a very difficult child: smart and constantly questioning her unconventional parents (easy-going hippie-types) as well as the guards and inmates at her elementary school (both intransigent teachers and status-obsessed kids). Even at six years old, she’s a fiercely independent thinker – the kind of kid modern parents usually dope with Ritalin.

She flounders in all the arenas of childhood, consequently being moved from school to school. She has a child-therapist and like many smart, creative kids has problems with reading. Painfully self-aware but ultimately adamantine, Melissa must endure the social horrors of Special Education.

But please don’t think this is a book about the crushing of a spirit. Whether on a tour-bus with her so-very-hip ‘n’ cool folks, fumbling with classmates or fighting off nightmares, this is a series of skits and sketches that affirm Melissa’s vibrant character: one which can adapt but will never buckle. Illustrated in a powerful primitivist – almost naivest – illustrative style and symbology, the little girl endures and overcomes in tales that are charming, sad, funny, reassuring and just plain strange.

Miss (that’s her name now – she changed it) Lasko-Gross has produced graphic narrative for most of her life, editing the Pratt Institute’s Static Fish comic book, working in Mauled, House of Twelve 2.0, Legal Action Comics, Aim and others whilst generally living the kind of life that finds its way onto the pages of fabulous books like this one. This book was followed by notional sequel A Mess of Everything and in 2015 macabre religious funny animal opus Henni which should also be on the must-see list of every thinking comics consumer.

The powerfully direct stories in Escape from “Special” are of such a high calibre that they’re far beyond some new or trendy genre and demand to be seen by a greater audience who don’t even care if their reading matter has pictures or not. These tales are in the same category as American Splendor, Maus and Persepolis with words wedded to pictures that you’ll revel in for years to come.
© 2006 Miss Lasko-Gross. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1902 Red Ryder co-creator Fred Harman was born, as was Spirou originator “Rob-Vel” (François Robert Velter) in 1909. In 1928 Frank Frazetta joined the party, with Scots script wizard Alan Grant popping along in 1942, just like Jo Duffy in 1954. Two years later Timothy Truman was born, as was French star David B. in 1959. Somehow all that doesn’t really balance the scales as today in 1989 Osamu Tezuka laid down his pens and brushes for the last time.

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Add Toner – a Cometbus Collection


By Aaron Cometbus (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-753-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Before the advent of computers and the internet gave everybody with a keyboard and an ounce of determination the ability to become writers and publishers (an eternity before AI made all that a complete joke and waste of time), only those truly dedicated, driven or Full-On Compulsive individualists self-published.

…Or those with something to say.

Aaron Cometbus (not his real name: use your search engine if you absolutely must find out about the man, but the best route would be to read his wonderful work) has been a drummer, roadie, author, designer, traveller, author, raconteur, social historian, bookseller and cultural anthropologist of the American Punk movement from long before he began his hugely acclaimed and long-running ‘Zine Cometbus in 1981.

In the decades over which his hand-crafted publication has been released (as photocopy pamphlet, offset magazine and even audio-mag) his writing and art have covered every aspect of the life of the contemporary outsider from self-exploratory introspection, reportage, criticism, oral history, music journalism, philosophical discourse and even unalloyed fiction – from epigram to novella, news bulletin to chatty remembrance – usually in a distinctive hand-lettered style all his own, augmented by cartoons, photo-collage, comics and a dozen other monochrome techniques beloved of today’s art-house cognoscenti.

Cometbus (go read Downtown Local, The Voyeurs and A Punkhouse in the Deep South: The Oral History of 309) tells stories and has been doing so since the first death of the Punk Rock movement at the end of the 1970s, but the material is – and always has been – about real, involved people, not trendy, commercialised bastardisations.

In 2002 Last Gasp released Despite Everything: a 600+ page Omnibus distillation of the best bits from the first 43 issues with this second compilation released in 2011… and this one’s still available.

Add Toner, which samples issues #44-46, 46½, and 47-48, is a far more comprehensive collection with stories, reminiscences, interviews, artworks and added features such as the novella ‘Lanky’ plus a selection of previously withheld and self-censored pieces which simply captivate and enthral.

Particularly informative and moving are the collected illustrated interviews with the “staff” and patrons of punk watering hole and communal meeting space Dead End Café from #46 (gloriously redolent and evocative of my own art-school punk band hang-out The Horn of Plenty in St. Albans) and a fabulous three-chapter oral history examination of the post-hippie “Back to nature” movement divided into interviews with ‘The Kids’, ‘The Adults’ and an appreciation of ‘Back to the Land’: a fascinating period in American history neglected by just about everybody, probably since most of those flower-power Arcadians and disenchanted just-plain-folks grew more pot than potatoes…

With graphic contributions and supplementary interviews from Phil Lollar, Nate Powell, Katie Glicksberg, Idon, Lawrence Livermore & Michael Silverberg, this is a gloriously honest and seditiously entertaining view of life from the trenches: happy, sad, funny and shocking…

Eccentric, eclectic and essentially, magically picayune, Add Toner is a fabulous cultural doctorate from the Kerouac of my g-g-generation…
© Aaron Cometbus. All rights reserved.

Today in 1878 Mary Tourtel was born, originator of UK strip star Rupert Bear

In 1983 Cuban inker Frank Chiaremonte died and in 1996 we lost two true legends, Jerry Siegel and Burne Hogarth. You don’t need me to tell you how they changed everything.

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The Squirrel Machine


By Hans Rickheit (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-646-1 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-1606993019 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in for dramatic effect.

Hans Rickheit was born in 1973 and has been producing skilfully crafted art in different arenas since the 1990s, beginning with self-published minicomics before graduating to full-sized, full-length epics such as Kill, Kill, Kill or The Gloaming. He has also worked in film, music, gallery works and performance art.

A Xeric award beneficiary, he came to broader attention in 2001 with controversial graphic novel Chloe, and has since spread himself wide contributing to numerous anthologies and periodicals such as The Stranger, creating webcomics and instigating the occasional anthology periodical Chrome Fetus.

An avid student observer of dreams, Rickheit has been called obscurantist, and indeed in all his beautifully rendered and realised concoctions meaning is layered, structured and open to wide interpretation. His most approachable and possibly preferred oeuvre is the recondite imagery and sturdily fanciful milieu of Victorian/Edwardian Americana which proved such rich earth for fantasists such as Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and August Derleth, whilst his fine, studied, meticulously clear line is a perfect, incisive counterpoint to the cloud of miasmic mystery and cosmic confusion engendered by the protagonists of his most successful book.

Brothers Edmund and William Torpor abide in an abode in a secluded 19th century New England town but they have never been part of their community. Raised alone by their artist mother, they are quite different from other children, with Edmund especially obsessed with arcane engineering and the assemblage of one-of-a-kind musical instruments from utterly inappropriate components.

Fantastic dream-like journeys and progressions mark their isolated existence, which is far more in tune with a greater metaphysical cosmos, but as puberty gradually moves them to an awareness of base human sexuality, they find the outside world impacting their private one in ways which can only end in tragedy and horror…

Moreover, just where exactly did the plans for the ghastly Squirrel Machine come from¦?

Visually reminiscent of Rick Geary at his most beguiling, this is nevertheless a singularly surreal and mannered design; a highly charged, subtly disturbing delusion that will chill and upset and possibly even outrage many readers.

It is also compelling, seductive, sublimely quirky and nigh-impossible to forget. As long as you’re an adult and braced for the unexpected, expect this to be one of the best books you’ll read this century – or any other…

Out of print for decades, The Squirrel Machine has now been remastered and released in an accessible paperback edition, as well as that futuristic digital doings, just in time to disturb the sleep of a new generation of fear fans just as the winter nights draw in…
© 2013 Fantagraphics Books. Contents © 2009 Hans Rickheit. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1991 Abbie an’Slats illustrator Raeburn van Buren was born; he shares the day with Ted (Metropol) McKeever, Joe (Daredevil) Quesada, Kala (Girl Genius) Foglio, Hans (The Squirrel Machine, Cochlea & Eustachia, Delia, Chloe) Rickheit and, I’m sure, many others.

However in 2001 we lost Italian mega maven Gian Luigi Bonelli, the man who gave the world Tex Willer.

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Lone Wolf and Cub volume 1: The Assassins Road


By Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima, translated by Dana Lewis (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-56971-502-4 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Best known in the West as Lone Wolf and Cub, the epic Samurai saga created by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima is a global classic of comics literature. An example of the hugely popular Chanbara (“sword-fighting”) genre of print and screen, Kozure Okami was serialised in Weekly Manga Action from September 1970 until April 1976. It was an immense and overwhelming Seinen (“Men’s manga”) hit. Those tales quickly prompted thematic companion series Kubikiri Asa (Samurai Executioner) which ran from 1972-1976, but the major draw and main attraction – at home and, increasingly, abroad – was always the nomadic wanderings of doomed noble Ōgami Ittō and his solemn silent child Daigoro: framed by family rivals, dishonoured by the Shōgun and condemned to death by his peers. Breaching all etiquette, the court executioner refused to suicide quietly and instead opted to vengefully walk the bloody road to Meifumadō: the hell of Buddhist legend…

Revered and influential, Kozure Okami was followed after years of supplication by fans and editors by sequel Shin Lone Wolf & Cub (illustrated by Hideki Mori). The serial even spawned – through Koike’s indirect participation – science fiction homage Lone Wolf 2100 by Mike Kennedy & Francisco Ruiz Velasco.

The original saga has been successfully adapted to most other media, spawning movies, plays, TV series (plural), games and merchandise. The property is notoriously still in pre-production in Hollywood.

The several thousand pages of enthralling, exotic, intoxicating narrative art produced by the legendary creators eventually filled 28 collected volumes, beguiling generations of readers in Japan and, inevitably, the world. More importantly, their philosophically nihilistic odyssey – with its timeless themes and iconic visuals – has influenced hordes of other creators. The many manga, comics, movies, TV and animated versions these stories have inspired around the globe are utterly impossible to count. Frank Miller, who illustrated the cover of this edition, referenced the series in Daredevil, his dystopian opus Ronin, The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City. Max Allan Collins’ Road to Perdition is a proudly unashamed tribute to the masterpiece of vengeance-fiction. Stan Sakai has superbly spoofed, pastiched and celebrated the wanderer’s path in his own epic Usagi Yojimbo, and children’s cartoon shows like Samurai Jack are direct descendants of this astounding achievement of graphic narrative. The material has become part of a shared global culture.

In the West, we first saw the translated tales in 1987 as 45 Prestige Format editions from First Comics. That innovative trailblazer foundered before getting even a third of the way through the vast canon, after which Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights, systematically reprinting and translating the entire epic into 28 tank?bon-style editions of around 300 pages each. Once the entire epic was translated (between September 2000 & December 2002) it was all placed online through the Dark Horse Digital project.

Following a cautionary ‘Note to Readers’ – on stylistic interpretation – this moodily magnificent monochrome missal truly gets underway, retaining many terms and concepts western readers may find unfamiliar. Therefore this lean, mean, martial edition offers at the close a Glossary providing detailed context on the term used in the stories, plus profiles of author Koike Kazuo & illustrator Kojima Goseki and the first instalment of ‘The Ronin Report’: an occasional series of articles offering potted history essays on the period of the Tokugawa Shogunate, with Tim Ervin starting the ball rolling here.

Of course, the true meat is the captivating, grimly compelling combination of revenge fable and action-adventure which opens here with intriguing episodes of stripped-down mystery, gripping intensity and galvanic bloodletting as the first tale introduces a scruffy indigent pushing a homemade bamboo pram with a 3-year-old boy in it. A banner on the contraption proclaims ‘Son for Hire, Sword for Hire’ and, as the man stoically ignores mockery and derision from louts on the road, his promotional ploy attracts the attention of four deadly men who have been warned of an assassin carrying his baby boy with him…

A basic formula informs early episodes: the acceptance of a commission to kill an impossible target necessitates the forging of a cunning plan and relentless determination leads to inevitable success: all underscored with bleak philosophical musings alternately informed by Buddhist teachings in conjunction with or in opposition to the unflinching personal honour code of Bushido…

You won’t learn it until the end of this tome, but the fore-doomed killer-wanderer was once the Shogun’s official executioner: capable of cleaving a man in half with one stroke. An eminent individual of esteemed imperial standing, elevated social position and impeccable honour, Ōgami Ittō lost it all and now roams feudal Japan as a doomed soul, hellbent for the dire, demon-haunted underworld of Meifumadō. When the noble’s wife was murdered and his clan dishonoured due to the machinations of the treacherous and politically ambitious Yagyu Clan, the Emperor ordered Ōgami to commit suicide.

Instead, he rebelled, choosing to become a despised Ronin (masterless samurai) and assassin, pledging to revenge himself on the traitors until they were all dead or Hell claimed him. His son, toddler Daigoro, also chose the way of the sword and together they roam the grim and evocative landscapes of feudal Japan, one step ahead of doom and with death behind and before them. Frequently, the infallible assassin’s best ploy is to allow himself to be captured, endure unimaginable torture and then fight his way out having slaughtered his target…

The tactic is again employed in ‘A Father Knows His Child’s Heart, As Only a Child Can Know His Father’s’, with the wolf despatching willing Daigoro to penetrate the unyielding defences of Takai Han so Papa can kill a dishonourable usurper…

Another aspect of Ōgami’s methodology emerges in ‘From North to South, From West to East’. The assassin always insists on a personal interview with every client, demanding not only who is to die, but why. Perhaps the cautious killer only wants to know the extent of what he’s getting into, but we know he’s judging: seeing whether the target deserves death… or if the client does…

The legend of the Lone Wolf and Cub quickly spreads, and when faithful guards briefly hire Daigoro to help their beloved mistress, it is with full knowledge of what the boy’s father is. In ‘Baby Cart on the River Styx’ that knowledge is crucial to Ōgami’s plan for quashing a gang turf-war before it begins, even whilst bringing down a corrupt yet untouchable lord. Shocking for us may be the accepted conceit that father is fully prepared to sacrifice son to compete the mission, fulfil his promises and uphold his word. ‘Suio School Zanbato’ sees the boy willingly become hostage to fortune so his dad can lure a swords-master – and all his honourless students – into an officially sanctioned duel, killing all without legal ramifications or repercussions.

Lyrically twisting the theme of star-crossed lovers, ‘Waiting for the Rains’ sees him befriend a dying woman even as his father stoically anticipates completing his next commission: expunging the man she so patiently awaits…

These stories are deeply metaphorical and work on multiple cultural levels most of us westerners just won’t grasp on first reading – even with contextual aid provided by the bonus features. That only makes them more exotic and fascinating. Also a little unsettling is the even-handed treatment of women in the tales. Within the confines of the notoriously stratified society depicted, women – from servants to courtesans, prostitutes to highborn ladies – are all fully rounded characters, with their own motivations and drives. The wolf’s female allies are valiant and dependable, and his foes, whether targets or mere enemy combatants in his path, are treated with professional respect by Ōgami. He kills them just as if they were men…

In ‘Eight Gates of Deceit’ the indomitable nomad is ambushed by an octet of female assassins hired by his latest client who foolishly chooses to discount the professional honour of his hireling in favour of clearing up loose ends. It’s his last mistake…

‘Wings to the Birds, Fangs to the Beast’ finds the tireless wanderer stumbling into a hot-spa village recently taken over by bandits. To their eternal cost, and despite the newcomer’s every forbearing effort, the human beasts refuse to believe the man with the baby wants no trouble…

This stunning opening collection ends with a few of the answers readers want as the scene shifts to the recent past at the Shogun’s palace in Edo for an origin. There, thanks to political manoeuvrings of ambitious nefarious Lord Yagyu, Shogun’s Executioner Ōgami Ittō has been ousted and his entire clan disgraced. With his wife Asami dead, the austere warrior outwits his opponent – who assumed honourable suicide the only option he’d left his enemy – by opting to travel ‘The Assassin’s Road’ with his baby son momentously choosing to follow him to Meifumadō or victory…

Whichever English transliteration you prefer – Wolf and Baby Carriage is what I was first introduced to – the grandiose, thought-provoking hellbent Samurai tragedy created by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima is without doubt one of those all too rare breakthrough classics of comics literature. A breathtaking tour de force, these are comics you must not miss.
© 1995, 2000 Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima. All other material © 2000 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. Cover art © 2000 Frank Miller. All rights reserved.

Today in 1916 lettering legend Artie Simek was born and in Italy in 1953 Dylan Dog cocreator Angelo Stano arrived, whilst 2000 saw the end of an era as Mad mastermind Don Martin died.

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What I Did


By Jason, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-414-6 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Absurdly Enchanting Comics Capers… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic, comedic and ironic effect.

Born in 1965 in Molde, Norway, John Arne Sæterøy is known by enigmatic, utilitarian nom de plume Jason. The shy & retiring auteur first took the path to cartoon superstardom in 1995, once debut graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) won Norway’s biggest comics prize: the Sproing Award. From 1987 he had contributed to alternate/indie magazine KonK while studying graphic design and illustration at Oslo’s Art Academy.

From there he took on Norway’s National School of Arts and, on graduating in 1994, founded his own comic – Mjau Mjau. Constantly refining his style into a potent form of meaning-mined anthropomorphic minimalism, Jason cited Lewis Trondheim, Jim Woodring & Tex Avery as primary influences. He moved to Copenhagen, working at Studio Gimle alongside Ole Comoll Christensen (Excreta, Mar Mysteriet Surn/Mayday Mysteries, Den Anden Praesident, Det Tredje Ojet) & Peter Snejbjerg (Den skjulte protocol/The Hidden Protocol, World War X, Tarzan, Books of Magic, Batman: Detective 27). Jason’s efforts were internationally recognised, making waves in France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Germany and other Scandinavian countries as well as the Americas. He won another Sproing in 2001 – for self-published series Mjau Mjau – and in 2002 turned nigh-exclusively to producing graphic novels. He won even more major awards.

His breadth of interest is wide & deep: comics, movies, animated cartoons, music, literature art history and pulp fiction all feature equally with no sense of rank or hierarchy. Jason’s puckish, egalitarian mixing & matching of inspirational sources always and inevitably produces picture-treatises well worth a reader’s time. Over a succession of tales he has built and re-employed a repertory company of stock characters to explore deceptively simplistic milieux based on classic archetypes distilled from movies, childhood yarns, historical and literary favourites. These all role-play in deliciously absurd and surreal sagas centred on his preferred themes of relationships and loneliness. Latterly, Jason returned to such “found” players as he built his own highly esoteric universe, and even has a whole bizarre bunch of them “team-up” or clash…

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

A master of short-form illustrated tales, many Jason yarns have been released as snappy little albums perfect for later inclusion in longer anthology collections like this one which gathers a triptych of his very best. The majority of tales brim with bleak isolation, swamped by a signature surreality. They are, as warned, largely populated with cinematically-inspired, darkly comedic, charmingly macabre animal people ruminating on inescapable concerns whilst re-enacting bizarrely cast, bestial movie tributes

This sterling hard cover compilation gathers ‘Hey, Wait…’, ‘Sshhhh!’ and ‘The Iron Wagon’ which first appeared in Mjau Mjau between 1997 & 2001, and if you’re keeping score, the reviews and illustrations are taken from the 2018 second edition…

The volume opens with an eerie and glorious and wildly funny paean to boyhood friendships – in the manner of the movie Stand By Me – as young Bjorn and Jon enjoy a life of perfect childhood until a tragic accident ends the idyll and reshapes them forever. Life, however, goes on, but for one of the lads it’s an existence populated forever onwards with ghosts and visions…

Jason’s work always jumps directly into the reader’s brain and heart, using the beastly and unnatural to gently pose eternal questions about basic human needs in a soft but relentless quest for answers. That you don’t ever notice the deep stuff because of the clever gags and safe, familiar funny-animal characters should indicate just how good a cartoonist he is…

‘Sshhhh!’ is a delightfully evocative romantic melodrama created without words: a bittersweet extended tale of boy-bird meeting girl-bird in a world overly populated with spooks and ghouls and skeletons but afflicted far more harshly by missed chances, loneliness and regret.

These comic tales are strictly for adults but allow us all to look at the world through wide-open young eyes. This is especially true of the final tale in this collection – a slyly beguiling adaptation of a classic detective story from 1909, but enhanced to a macabre degree by the easy cartooning, skilled use of silence and moment and a two-tone colour palette.

As you’d expect of a classic “Scandi-crime drama” ‘The Iron Wagon’ is a clever, enthralling and deeply dark mystery yarn originally written by Stein Riverton, and has the same quality of cold yet harnessed stillness which makes the Swedish television adaptations of Henning Mankell’s Wallander so superior to those English-language interpretations. Here, the stylised artwork is delivered in formalised page layouts; solid blacks, thick lines and settings of seductive simplicity are augmented here by stunning Deep Red overlays to enhance the Hard Black and Genteel White he usually prefers.

In the coastal retreat of Hvalen a desperate author is haunted by ghosts and nightmares. However, the townsfolk are all too engrossed with the death of the game warden on the Gjaernes Estate to notice or care. The family seems cursed with constant troubles. First the old man was lost at sea, now the murder of Warden Blinde just as he was betrothed to Hilde Gjaernes blights the farm. People are talking, saying it’s all the fault of the long dead grandfather who lost his fortune and life dabbling with weird inventions…

Even now, sensitive souls still hear his accursed Iron Wagon roaring through the night, presaging another death in the village…

Luckily there are more sensible folk abroad to summon a detective from Kristiania (Oslo), but Asbjørn Krag is not the kind of policeman anybody was anticipating and as the young writer becomes enmired in the horrific unfolding events, he realises that not only over-imaginative fools hear things.

In the depths of the night’s stillness he too shudders at the roaring din of the Iron Wagon…

Moody, suspenseful and utterly engrossing, this would be a terrific yarn even without Jason’s superbly understated art, but in combination the result is pure dynamite.

This collection – despite being “merely” early works – resonates with the artist’s signature themes and shines with his visual dexterity. It’s one of Jason’s very best and will warm the cockles of any fan’s heart.
All characters, stories, and artwork © 2010 Jason. All rights reserved.

Today in 1900 cartoonist Otto Soglow was born; he’s most revered for The Little King strip. Someone else utterly neglected by modern comics publishers is wartime patriot and Anglo-Canadian creator Jon Stables AKA Jon St. Ables (get it?) who carried most of the creative workload at Maple Leaf Comics until it closed down in 1946. As he was born in 1912, he had to find other artistic outlets until his death in 1999. And he did.

A year earlier (in 1998, okay?) we lost the astounding Joe Orlando. The editor who saved DC in the late 1960s through his horror comics revival was also a superb illustrator, gag-guy and story-man, as you could see in Judgment Day and Other Stories or any of the superb DC horror comics editions we’ve covered over the decades.

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DC Finest: Green Arrow The Longbow Hunters


By Mike Grell, Sharon Wright, Dennis J. O’Neil, Lurene Haynes & Julia Lacquement, Ed Hannigan, Denys Cowan, Randy DuBurque, Ed Barreto, Tom Artis, Dick Giordano, Frank McLauglin, Rick Magyar, Klaus Janson, Tony DeZuñiga, Tom Dzon, Arne Starr, Gary Martin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77952-991-6 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

It’s been a big year for comic book anniversaries and next year is another one. Let’s get our congratulations in early for a change…

Debuting in More Fun Comics #73 (cover-dated November 1941 and on sale from 19th September), Green Arrow is one of very few costumed heroes to be continuously published (more or less) since the Golden Age of American comic books. On first look, the combination of Batman and Robin Hood seems to have very little going for him, but he has always managed to keep himself in vogue and on view. Probably the most telling of his many, many makeovers came in 1987, when – hot on the heels of The Dark Knight Returns – Mike Grell was given the green light to make the Emerald Archer the star of DC’s second Prestige Format Mini-Series.

Grell was a major league, much celebrated creator at the time, having practically saved the company with his Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired fantasy series Warlord. He had also illustrated many of GA’s most recent and radical tales (in Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Action Comics and elsewhere, and was a confirmed fan-favourite after well-received runs on Legion of Super-Heroes, Aquaman, Phantom Stranger, Batman and others. During the early 1980s, he had worked on the prestigious Tarzan newspaper strip and created successful genre series including Starslayer and Jon Sable, Freelance for pioneering indie publisher First Comics.

By the middle of the grim ‘n’ gritty Eighties, it was certainly time for an overhaul of the Battling Bowman. Exploding arrows yes, maybe even net or rope arrows, but arrows with boxing gloves on them just don’t work (trust me – I know this from experience!).

Moreover, in his 1960s makeover, the hero had evolved into a tempestuous, social reformer using his gifts to battle for the little guy. Now, in a cynical era of corrupt government, secret services with private agendas, drug cartels and serial killers, this emerald survivor adapted again and thrived once more. Thus, sans preamble, the action unfolds, laying a new path that would quickly lead to the hero becoming a major player at long last and, ultimately, a TV sensation.

The plot is astutely logical and still controversial, concerning a superhero midlife crisis. Weary, aging Oliver Queen relocates to Seattle, struggling to come to terms with the fact that since his former sidekick Speedy, is now a dad, he is “technically” a grandfather. With longtime significant other Dinah Lance AKA Black Canary, Ollie starts simplifying his life, but the drive to fight injustice hasn’t dimmed for either of them. As she goes undercover to stamp out a pervasive drug ring, the Arrow becomes embroiled in the hunt for a psycho-killer dubbed “The Seattle Slasher”.

As he tracks a prolific stalker butchering prostitutes, Ollie becomes aware of a second – cross-country – slayer using arrows to murder people. Infuriatingly, this travesty only comes to his attention after the “Robin-Hood Killer” slaughters a gravedigger in his new city…

Eschewing gaudy costume and gimmicks to find such unglamorous hidden monsters, Queen reinvents himself as an urban hunter relentlessly searching Seattle’s darkest corners and soon stumbles into a complex mystery leading back to World War II involving the Yakuza, CIA, corporate America and even the Vietnam war: secrets that converge and will eventually change the course of the Archer’s life…

The intricate plot effortlessly weaves around the destabilized champion and past loves, thereby introducing new character Shado, exploring and echoing themes of vengeance and family in a blending of three stories that are in fact one, yet still delivers a shocking punch even now, through its disturbingly explicit examination of torture. These issues won the miniseries much undeserved negative press when first published. Although possibly tame to modern eyes this was eye-opening stuff at the time, which is a shame, since it diverted attention from the tale’s real achievement. That was narrative quality and sophistication, as this tale is arguably the first truly mature superhero yarn in the DCU.

Across ‘The Hunters’, ‘Dragon Hunt’ and ‘Tracking Snow’ Grell crafts a gripping, action-packed mystery adventure that pushes all the right buttons, all conveyed by artwork – in collaboration with Lurene Haynes & Julia Lacquement – that was and remains a revelation. Beautifully demure yet edgily sharp as required, these painterly visuals and watercolour tones perfectly complement a terse, sparse script, offering a compulsive, compelling ride any prose thriller writer would be proud of.

The saga – weaving themes of age, diminishing potency, vengeance and family – was another major turning point in American comics and led to an ongoing series specifically targeting “Mature Readers”. Latterly, the treatment and tone herein heavily influenced and flavoured TV adaptation Arrow.

Collectively covering February to October 1988, this paperback compilation (no digital edition yet, sadly) gathers the miniseries Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, Green Arrow volume 2, #1-8, The Question #17-18, and a crossover tale told in Detective Comics Annual #1, The Question Annual #1 and Green Arrow Annual #1. Controversy notwithstanding, the comic book retooling swiftly spawned a monthly series which itself evolved into one of the best reads of the 1990s and those monthly events immediately follow…

Scripted by Grell with superbly efficient and powerfully understated art from Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano & Frank McLaughlin, the new series presented grimly realistic yarns ripped from headlines, tailored and honed for maximum impact and relevance. Sparse, spartan and devastatingly compelling, the initial episodes were constructed as two-part dramas, beginning with ‘Hunter’s Moon’ as the hunter (the series was notable in that other than on the cover, the soubriquet “Green Arrow” was never, ever used or uttered) prowls his new home. He deals harshly with thugs, gangbangers and muggers before heading home to his still-traumatised girlfriend.

As graphically depicted in Longbow Hunters, Black Canary was tortured for days before Ollie found her and, although the physical wounds have faded, Dinah is still suffering…

She’s not the only one. Police Lieutenant Jim Cameron has just heard that child-torturing sociopath Al Muncie has used his vast beer-dynasty inheritance to buy a retrial after 18 years in prison. The cops couldn’t get him for murdering all those “missing” kids back then, but one lucky 10-year-old, after days of appalling torment, escaped and testified so Muncie’s been locked up for aggravated assault ever since. Now the heartbroken cop has to tell that brave survivor she must do it all over again…

The victim grew up to be Dr. Annie Green and she’s working wonders treating Dinah, but the therapist’s own long-suppressed terrors come flooding back when Muncie – despite being in total lockdown in his palatial house on the family brewery estate – somehow hand-delivers a little souvenir of their time together…

Present when Annie freaks out and flees in panic, Ollie gives chase and finds her once more calm and resigned. On hearing the full story he makes a house-call on the maniac but cannot “dissuade” him from paying Annie another visit that night. The veteran manhunter is waiting as a masked assailant tries to break ino the doctor’s apartment, but when the intruder shrugs off a steel arrow to the chest Ollie realises something’s not right…

Part Two expands the mystery of how Muncie gets past police guards at will, but by the time the Arrow has convinced cops to raid Muncie’s den with the solution to the obsessed sociopath’s disappearing act and apparent invulnerability, the killer has already made his move. Sadly for him, once again Muncie has underestimated Annie, and her defiance buys Ollie time to intercept the hellbent human fiend. After a furious chase back to the brewery, the killer meets his fate in a most ironic manner…

A broad change of pace follows as part one of ‘The Champions’ sees Ollie abducted by US government spooks and pressganged into competing for a deadly prize. A joint space venture with the Chinese has resulted in a deadly “DNA-programmable” virus being created and – following the sudden destruction of the satellite lab where it was propagated – the only surviving sample has crashed onto remote San Juan Island. With political allies turned rivals for sole possession of a bio-agent which can be set to kill anything from wheat harvests to black or yellow or white people, open warfare would only lead to catastrophic publicity, so the political superpowers have agreed to a gladiatorial bout as the method of deciding ownership.

Ollie has his own reasons for accepting the job. For starters he doesn’t trust any government with the DNA-hunting bug, the agents who drafted him are actually Russian, not American and, most urgently, he has no doubt that he’ll be killed if he refuses to compete…

Equipped with a tracking device, Ollie is dumped on the island as a colossal storm kicks off, meeting his arrogant opposite getting off the ferry. Former CIA operative Eddie Fyers is an old foe and one of the sneakiest killers on Earth. Fyers convinces Ollie they should work together before double-crossing and leaving him to bleed out in a blizzard. The archer is saved by an archaeologist who has inadvertently picked up the lost bio-agent pod, but as Ollie argues with his rescuer over the wisdom and morality of his mission, her cabin is peppered with gunfire…

Fyers has the upper hand but suffers a sudden change of attitude when a third team ambushes him and his prisoners. It seems neither Russians nor Chinese trust their champions…

Again forced to join forces, spy and vigilante despatch the hit squad before Ollie has the very last word after finding a way to deprive everybody of the death-sample…

The hunter appeared tangentially in The Question #17-18 (June & July 1988 by Dennis O’Neil, Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar) as ‘A Dream of Rorschach’; tacitly acknowledging the debt owed to the groundbreaking series Watchmen for the revival of Steve Ditko’s obsessive faceless trouble-seeker The Question. Here journalist/crimebuster Vic Sage is chasing murder-obsessed miscreants Butch and Sundance out of Hub City. Catching a plane, he reads the graphic novel and has a vision of and conversation with the iconic sociopath whilst flying to Seattle and a chilling showdown. On arrival he is intercepted by highly suspicious, extremely overprotective and intensely impatient local hero the Arrow before they ally to catch the scum as they seek fresh kill supplies from terrorists in massive clash-concluding chapter ‘Desperate Ground’…

Determined to challenge all manners of social inequity, Grell’s next story in Green Arrow confronted the rise in homosexual prejudice that manifested in the wake of the AIDs crisis. It begins after two customers leaving Dinah’s flower shop are brutally attacked by kids ordered to “gay-bash” as part of their gang initiation. The horrific crime is further compounded when Ollie discovers Dinah’s new assistant Colin is not only a bloody-handed perpetrator but also a victim…

The Warhogs are the most powerful gang in the city, but their latest induction policy is one the Arrow cannot allow to exist any longer. Any kid refusing to join is mercilessly beaten by a ‘Gauntlet’ of thugs. Those who eagerly volunteer suffer the same treatment at their own initiation… and once you’re accepted as a Warhog, you still have to prove your loyalty by beating – and preferably killing – a “queer”…

In the shocking conclusion Ollie, having failed to make a dent through any of his usual tactics, goes straight to the top. Big boss Reggie Mandel has big plans for the Warhogs. He’s already made them a national force to be reckoned with, but when he arrives in Seattle to check on regional deputy Kebo, the Machiavellian schemer is confronted by a nut with a bow challenging him in his own crib…

The Arrow is keen to point out the strictly local Warhog policy of gay hate-crimes is not only bad for business but serves someone else’s private agenda. Reggie actually agrees with the vigilante, but before he’s prepared to take appropriate action he expects his verdant petitioner to undergo the same gauntlet any Warhog must survive before being heard…

Next comes complex collaboration ‘The Powderhorn Trail’ – written by Grell & Sharon Wright who divided the Ollie and Dinah sections between them, with Randy DuBurque illustrating Black Canary pages whilst Ed Barreto pencilled Arrow bits, with Giordano & Arne Starr inking it all. The round-robin episode sees the hunter stumbling upon a clue to drug-smuggling at his local carwash and having to explain to Dinah why he’s taking off for Alaska. Possibly coincidentally, she is approached by a casual acquaintance whose life the Canary once saved, who inadvertently tips Dinah to a string of crimes-in-the-making…

The tempestuous conclusion (by Grell, Paris Cullins, Gary Martin & Giordano) then sees Ollie solo-stalking from Anchorage to deep in the North country on the trail of not just drug dealers and high-end car thieves but also opportunistic Tong smugglers trafficking illegal, poached and utterly pointless Chinese herbal remedies under cover of the infamous Iditarod. Sometimes it’s just good and so satisfying to be a lawless vigilante…

This initial collection concludes with a Denny O’Neil martial arts epic/experimental comic book koan ‘Fables’: a crossover tale encompassing Detective Comics Annual #1, Green Arrow Annual #1 and The Question Annual #1, which will make far more sense if you read Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter: Coming of the Dragon!…

It begins in China during Japan’s invasion prior to the official start of WWII, where a truly honourable bushido warrior is shamed by his own troops and resigns his commission to become a warrior monk: the O-sensei. Years later he and his student (Lady Shiva “the most dangerous woman on Earth”) arrive in America seeking a new hero called The Batman. They have a lesson to impart but first must find him. This overture means working again with an old student named Vic Sage…

Rendered by Klaus Janson & Tony DeZuñiga, ‘The Monkey Trap’ sees the Dark Knight hunt a horrific bio-weapon stolen from arch maniac Ra’s Al Ghul and pursued by money-mad miscreant The Penguin. The quest is only accomplished after the cocky masked manhunter learns a crucial lesson from the warrior sage and incurs a monumental debt of honour…

Then ‘Lesson for a Crab’ – illustrated by Tom Artis & Tom Dzon – finds the former Emerald Archer & Black Canary embroiled in the schemes of English aristocrat Lord Kalesque who wants to be the greatest archer in the world but cannot feel secure in the title until he crushes a certain vigilante in Seattle. As Kalesque is no adherent of fair play, that can be accomplished by perpetrating a string of murders to destabilize the hunter and put him and his woman off their game. Happily, Shiva and the O-Sensei are already on their way with advice and a zen teaching that will be of great service…

The interlinked saga concludes in The Question Annual #1 (Cowan & Magyar art) with explanations and conclusions. The aged sage wants to be buried beside his Japanese wife but her family are opposed to the plan and have moved her body. Star pupil Shiva orchestrates a plan involving western heroes touched by his teachings and owing service to the O-Sensei, and her efforts culminate in ‘The Silent Parable’. Now Batman’s detective skills locate the resting place and the Americans join what seems like a cursed mission to Malaya – one that is beset by an army of assassins and string of natural disasters; and which seems to end in utter failure…

However, in the aftermath The Question deduces that fate and honour have worked their own miracles and made a suitable accommodation with the universe…

Closing the book and capping the fantasy is a linked cover triptych of the Annuals by Janson, Ed Hannigan, Cowan & Bill Sienkiewicz, and rest – both fully painted and line art – are by Grell, Cowan, Sienkiewicz, Giordano, Hannigan & Tatjana Wood and suitably placed throughout…

Terse, sparse scripts, intelligent, flawed human interactions, stunning action delivered through economical and immensely effective illustration and an unfailing eye for engaging controversy make these some of the most powerful comic tales US comics ever produced, an epic of masked mystery saga no lover of the genre will want to miss.
© 1987, 1988, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

In 1911 strip writer Nicholas P. Dallis (Apartment 3-G, Rex Morgan MD) was born. Nine years later so was the fabulous Kurt Scaffenberger (Captain Marvel, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen) with Al Plastino popping in 366 days later. He was a key Superman illustrator who co-created the Legion of Super-Heroes and also drew the Batman newspaper strip (see Batman: Silver Age Dailies and Sundays 1968 – 1969).

In 1953 JM DeMatteis was born, in 1961 Reginald Hudlin arrived and in 1969 Stuart Immonen, but we did lose Abie the Agent illustrator Harry Hershfield in 1974 and Uruguayan Eduardo Barreto who drew many US features including Steel Sterling, Aliens, Teen Titans, Superman, Batman and Judge Parker.

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Zorro: Matanzas


By Don McGregor, Mike Mayhew, Sam Parsons & John Costanza (Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-60690-147-2 (TPB/digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic and literary effect.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Hero Romp in the classic Tradition… 8/10

One the earliest masked heroes and still phenomenally popular all over the world, “El Zorro, The Fox” was originally devised by jobbing writer Johnston McCulley in 1919 for a 5-part prose serial entitled ‘The Curse of Capistrano’. The bold enigma debuted in All-Story Weekly for August 6th, running until 6th September. The part-work was subsequently published by Grossett & Dunlap in 1924 as novel The Mark of Zorro and further reissued in 1959 and 1998 by MacDonald & Co. and Tor respectively. Famously, Hollywood glitterati Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford read the serial in All-Story – while on honeymoon! – and immediately optioned the romp’s first film release from their new production company/studio United Artists.

In 1920 and for years after The Mark of Zorro was a global movie sensation, and New York-based McCulley subsequently re-tailored his creation to match the so-different filmic incarnation. This Caped Crusader aptly fitted a burgeoning genre that would soon be peopled by the likes of The Shadow, Doc Savage and The Spider. Rouben Mamoulian’s 1940 filmic remake of The Mark of Zorro (yes, the one with Tyrone Power & Basil Rathbone) further ingrained the Fox into the world’s psyche and, as prose exploits continued in a variety of publications, Dell began a comic book version in 1949.

When Walt Disney Studios began a hugely popular Zorro TV show in 1957 (78 half-hour episodes and four 60 minute specials before cancellation in 1961), the ongoing comic book series was swiftly redesigned to capitalise on it. The mega-media corporation thus began a decades-long strip incarnation of “their” version of the character in various quarters of the world. This series and later iterations also resulted in comics and strips all over Europe from Disney, and Marvel in the USA.

During the 1990s, Topps Comics spearheaded Zorro’s return courtesy of Don McGregor & Mike Mayhew. It led to a short-lived newspaper strip (illustrated by Thomas Yeates) and also incidentally and memorably introducing a salacious “bad-girl” sidekick in the unwisely inappropriate and inadequately clad form of Lady Rawhide.

… And there were more movies, this time with an actual Hispanic (albeit a Spaniard) playing the lead role: Antonio Banderas, in case you were wondering…

In 2008 Dynamite Entertainment reintroduced the Fox courtesy of new yarns by Matt Wagner (patience, por favor, they’re coming soon…) and as part of the package excavated this lost yarn from the Topps iteration: an unpublished adventure by McGregor & Mayhew with colours by Sam Parsons and letters by industry veteran John Costanza.

Zorro: Mantanzas has a chequered history. Part of a longer storyline begun during the Topps Comic era of the 1990s, it was only completed in 2010 for the Dynamite run and released as 4-issue miniseries before being collected as a trade paperback/eBook. For all that, however, the lost episode offers a passionate, sophisticated portrayal of the quintessential champion risking his own security and happiness to thwart a macabre and complex villain: a struggle rendered even more appealing by the magnificent illustration of Mayhew & Parsons.

However: this is also an uncompromising view of a far different time and ethos. Some scenes of “man vs beast” interaction are explicit and arguably little more than beautifully executed animal cruelty. If such uncompromising scenes are likely to upset, please leave his book alone.

For the uninitiated: Don Diego de la Vega is the foppish son of a grand house in old California back when it was a Spanish Possession. He used the masked persona of señor Zorro to right wrongs, defend the weak and liberate the oppressed – particularly the pitifully maltreated natives and Indians. He thwarted the get-rich-quick schemes of a succession of military leaders and a colonial Governor determined to milk the populace of growing township Los Angeles for all they had.

Whenever Zorro struck he left his mark – a character-defining letter “Z” carved into walls, doors, faces and/or other body parts…

Diego has an entire support structure in place. Although in this iteration his stiff-necked Hildalgo father is unaware of his double life, the secret saviour has numerous assistants who do. The most important is “deaf-mute manservant” Bernardo and Jose of the Cocopahs – a native Indio chieftain who often acts as stableman, decoy and body double for the Masked Avenger. Diego also occasionally employs retired, reformed one-eyed pirate Bardoso to act as his spy amongst townsfolk and outlaws…

The generally-beleaguered settlement is basking in unaccustomed liberty after recent Zorro’s overthrow of the military governor, unaware that their new Regency Administrator Lucien Machete is a sadistic fiend with a nasty line in prosthetic weapons nursing a rabid grudge against Zorro… the man who made his replacement limb necessary.

The villain has struck up a friendship with Diego’s father Don Alejandro: an increasingly frustrated grandee who finds his son’s unseemly, unmanly behaviour more and more inexplicable and intolerable. Infuriatingly, Machete is not taking advantage of the familial rift as a ploy; he just likes the old man and despises his foppish son, blithely oblivious that the soft poltroon is the black-clad avenger who thwarted his previous malevolent depredations.

Zorro knows – but cannot prove – Machete’s credentials are forged and his claims to act as the Spanish King’s official representative are false. The Fox urgently seeks to expose the impostor before whatever vile plot he fosters can be completed. Thus he cannot let anything distract him…

The drama unfolds after Don Alejandro and Lucien attend the Matanza: an annual festival where young men show off their strength and manhood by ceremonially butchering cattle and other livestock in a gory display of horsemanship and bloodletting. Diego has naturally declined to participate or even attend, preferring to surreptitiously watch Machete. He is wise to do so, for the maniac has malicious plans to sabotage the event with a new addition to his arm’s arsenal…

Taking up position above the killing grounds, Zorro & Bernardo are in perfect position to observe proceedings but their keen surveillance is disrupted by a huge bear attracted to the site by the smell of blood. Its attack is devastating and leaves the secret champions battling for their lives. By the time they can again turn their attention to the Matanza, Lucien has done his dirty work: good men are dead or maimed and an horrific stampede is underway… Moreover, in the chaos, personal tragedy has struck the De La Vega household and Machete seems to be getting away with murder again, whilst El Zorro is painted as the blackest of monsters…

A simple tell well-told and lavishly illustrated, Zorro: Matanzas is packed with spectacular action and diabolical intrigue in the grand manner and incidentally offers a potted origin and discreet peek at the fabulous subterranean citadel covertly crafted by Diego & Bernardo to facilitate the Fox’s war on injustice.

Although more incident than main feature, this is a blistering romp every lover of human-scaled adventure will adore.
Zorro®: Matanzas, Volume One © 2014 Zorro Productions, Inc. All rights Reserved.

Today in 1897 Rudolph Dirks’ strip the Katzenjammer Kids began. It is right now the oldest comic strip still in syndication. In 1919, cartoon comedy superstar Dan (Archie, Sabrina the Teenaged Witch) DeCarlo was born, and one year later Airboy, Heap & Captain Britain illuminator Fred Kida turned up. So did western strip wonder Warren Tufts in 1925. He’s someone you really should see. Perhaps checking out Casey Ruggles: The Marchioness of Grofnek might start something?

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Orient Gateway


By Vittorio Giardino (Catalan Communications/NBM)
ISBN: 978-0-87416-041-3 (Catalan PB Album) 978-1-56163-184-1 (NBM PB Album)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Pure Unobtainable Wonder… 9/10

It’s time again for me to whine about how and why some of humanity’s most impressive comics tales continually languish in English-language limbo as my loutish people seemingly refuse to open themselves to the wonders of the world. This time – AGAIN! – it’s a truly wonderful period spy drama you would think was the height of taste and fashion right now…

Born on Christmas Eve 1946, Vittorio Giardino was an electrician who switched careers at age 30. He initially worked for a number of comics magazines before his first collection – Pax Romana – was released in 1978. Giardino toiled, slowly but consistently, on both feature characters such as detective Sam Pezzo, saucy Winsor McKay homage Little Ego and cold-war drama Jonas Fink, as well as general fiction tales, producing 46 albums to date.

In 1982 he began relating the career of a quiet, bearded fellow recalled by the Deuxieme Bureau (the French Secret Service) to investigate the slaughter of almost every agent in the cosmopolitan paradise of Budapest.

The series ran in four parts in the magazine Orient Express before being collected as Rhapsodie Hongroise – Giardino’s thirteenth book… and one in no way unlucky for him. Reluctant spy Max Fridman (transliterated as Max Friedman for the English-speaking world) was dragged back into the “Great Game” in the years of uneasy peace just before the outbreak of WWII: a metaphor for the nations of Europe. Every day and with every fresh headline that becomes more relevant than ever right now…

Over the course of ten years, the masterful Italian graphic novelist crafted two more individual tales and in 1999 added a stunning triptych of albums. The three volumes of No Pasaràn! detailed a key moment during the on-going conflict in what became Republican Spain and the dying days of the Civil War which revealed many clues into the life of the diffident and unassuming hero. Three further volumes have been added to the canon (Max Fridman: Rio de Sangre in 2002, Max Fridman: Sin ilusión in 2008, and just this year Max Fridman: I cugini Meyer) so I’m declaring they are all now long past due to be revived and revisited, and revered…

Back then though, it took three years for Giardino to resume this subtly addictive pre-war drama with follow-up La Porta d’Oriente… Orient Gateway to you and me…

Summer 1938: All espionage agencies in the world know war is coming and nothing can stop it. Frantically jockeying for the most favourable position, all are seeking any infinitesimal advantage for when the balloon goes up. Recently Soviet engineer Mr. Stern has become just such a preferred asset of far too many rival organisations, so he runs, losing himself in the teeming, mysterious city of Istanbul.

Once again diffident, canny operative Max is drawn into the murky miasma of spycraft, but now, beside exotic, bewitching Magda Witnitz, is he the only one to ask why so many dangerous people want to “acquire” Stern?

…And why are they so willing to kill for him?

Subtle, entrancing and magnificently illustrated, this is a mesmerising, slow-boil thriller with all the beguiling nostalgic panache of Casablanca or Topkapi and labyrinthine twists and turns of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or even Slow Horses, which no fan of the genre, let alone comics aficionado, can afford to miss.

Giardino is a smart and confident writer who makes tone and nuance carry a tale and his art – a more representational derivation of Hergé’s Ligne Claire (clean line) – makes the lovingly rendered locations as much a character as any of the stylish operatives in a dark, doomed world on the brink of holocaust.

Although still largely an agent unknown in the English-speaking world, Max Friedman is one of espionage literature’s greatest characters, and Giardino’s work is like honey for the eyes and mind. This is another graphic novel every fan of comics or the Intelligence Game should know.
© 1986 Vittorio Giardino. All rights reserved.

Today in 1921 veteran Golden Age creator Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski (Blue Beetle and so much more) was born, He shares the date with cartoonist Joe Edwards whom we mostly know for Archie Comics series including Jughead, Betty & Veronica, Super Duck, Captain Sprocket and his private brainchild Li’l Jinx.

In 1929, jack of all trades Frank Spinger joined the party. He drew almost everything, but you must read The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist as well as Dazzler, Nick Fury, Friday Foster, Rex Morgan, M.D. or Secret Six…