Category: Mystery

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Toys in the Basement


By Stéphane Blanquet, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-402-3 (HB)

It’s that special time if you have kids who love the darker, grimmer side of storytelling. Originally published abroad as Chocottes au sous -sol!, this sublime slice of macabre all-ages Euro-whimsy comes courtesy of wildly talented, incredibly prolific animator, auteur and multimedia artist Stéphane Blanquet who has to date over 64 art books, graphic novels, collaborative works and books for kids published since 1994. These include Dungeon: Monstres (volume 2), Kramer’s Ergot, and Zero Zero, as well as the numerous international exhibitions, shows and movies to his name…

Do you remember the heart-wrenching scene in 1964 stop-motion television classic Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer when the runaway ruminant finds the Island of Misfit Toys? Do you recall how all they wanted was children to love them? Hold on to that thought…

Once upon a time at a Halloween fancy-dress party a disgruntled little boy is sulking. In his heart he’s a vicious pirate king, but his cheapskate mother would only pay for a pink bunny costume nobody else wanted…

As the other kids tease and bully him, he retreats to a corner where he meets a geeky kid in a chicken suit. Poultry boy has a broken leg and a raging thirst, but his friend – a girl kitted out as a kitten – has been down in cellar fetching drinks for ages. After some pleading, Pink Bunny, extremely keen to avoid any further embarrassment – or to be seen with a nerd dressed like a chicken – goes after her.

At the bottom of the stairs he finds her paralysed with fear: the basement is filled with maimed and broken toys, alive, angry and determined to wreak bloody vengeance on the cruel children who maltreated and abandoned them. Luckily, because of their stupid outfits, the toys assume the kids are also dolls, because if they were real children…

Playing for time, Catgirl and Bunnyboy follow the malevolent maladjusted playthings into a vast underground cavern where all the world’s broken toys are massing, readying for the day they will rise and take over. The undercover tykes gasp in horror at the artificial army’s secret weapon – a gigantic ravenous Frankensteinian beast named Amelia, cobbled together from thousands of discarded toy fragments, all hungry for righteous slaughter…

It’s at that moment Chicken-boy stumbles upon them and blows their cover…

Dosed with dry, mordant wit and just the right tone of moodily macabre Ghost Train suspense, Toys in the Basement is a simply terrific goose-bumpy thriller rendered magical by the wildly eccentric, brilliantly imaginative and creepily fluid artwork of Blanquet. This dark delight – sadly out of print but still available from the regular online vendors  – also has the perfect moral message for loot-hungry, attention-deprived youngsters; and their kids and grandchildren too.
© 2005 Editions La Joie de Lire SA. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

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Ghost Rider Marvel Masterworks volume 4


By Michael Fleischer, Don Perlin, Carmine Infantino, Ricardo Villamonte & Tom Sutton, with Bob Budiansky, Bob Wiacek, Al Gordon, Jack Abel, Al Milgrom, Bob McLeod, Joe Rubinstein, Gil Kane & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3322-7 (HB), 978-1-3029-4371-4 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

At the end of the 1960s the US comic book industry was in turmoil, much like the youth of the nation. Superheroes had dominated for much of the previous decade, peaking globally before explosively falling to ennui and overkill. Established genres including teen humour, war, science fiction and particularly westerns and horror came back in a big way, presumably stoked by contemporary events and radical trends in movie-making. On that Big Screen, another new(ish) wrinkle had emerged: a post-hippie, pre-Grunge motorcycle chic idolising disenchanted, rebellious, unchained Youth on Wheels singly and in packs seeking a different way forward…

Robin, the Teen Wonder, O’Neil & Adams’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen, Captain America and so many others all followed the Easy Rider option to boost flagging sales (and if you’re interested, the very best of that gang was Mike Sekowsky’s tragically unfinished mini-masterpiece of cool Jason’s Quest in Showcase). Over at Marvel – a company still reeling from Kirby’s defection to DC/National in 1970 – canny Roy Thomas green-lit a new character who combined the freewheeling, adolescent-friendly biker-theme with the all-pervasive supernatural furore gripping the entertainment fields.

Back in 1967, Marvel had published a western-era masked hero dubbed Ghost Rider: a whole-hearted appropriation of the cowboy star creation of Vince Sullivan, Ray Krank & Dick Ayers (for Magazine Enterprises from 1949 to 1955), who utilised magician’s tricks to fight bandits by pretending to be an avenging phantom of justice. Scant years later, with the Comics Code prohibition against horror hastily recently revised – amazing how plunging sales can affect morality – scary comics came back in a big way. A new crop of supernatural superheroes and monsters began to appear on newsstands to supplement the revitalised anthology titles filled with ghosts, ghoulies and goblins (but NOT Zombies!) already slowly infiltrating the once science-only scenarios of the surviving superhero titles. In fact, softening the Code ban resulted in such an avalanche of horror titles (new material and especially reprints from the first fear boom in the 1950s), in response to the industry-wide down-turn in costumed crusaders, that it probably caused an even more venerable mystery man to – albeit temporarily – bite the dust.

Almost overnight, nasty monsters became acceptable fare for four-colour pages and whilst a parade of pre-Code reprints made sound business sense, the creative aspects of the fascination in supernatural themes was catered to by embracing trends as much as adapting popular cultural icons before risking whole new concepts on an untested public. As always in mass entertainment, the watchword was fashion: what was big outside comics was incorporated into the mix as soon as possible. When proto-monster Morbius, the Living Vampire debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover-dated October 1971) and no one too official spoke up, Marvel moved ahead with a line of shocking superstars beginning with classical tropes – a werewolf and a vampire – before broadening the scope with a haunted biker tapping into both Easy Rider’s freewheeling motorcycling chic and a prevailing supernatural zeitgeist.

Preceded by western hero Red Wolf in #1 and the aforementioned Werewolf by Night in #2-4, an all-new Ghost Rider debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5 (August 1972) and took off like a bat out of… well, you know. Soon he was a solidly steadfast part of an all-inclusive Marvel Universe – although admittedly a bit off to one side! This sturdy hardback (or equivalent digital) compendium collects a ferocious fourth helping of his flame-filled early exploits as our haunted outsider hero began his own search for somewhere safe and something special, as specifically seen in Ghost Rider volume 2, #36-50, spanning cover-dates June 1979 to November 1980. As ever the times, tone and context are pre-explained in a forthright essay conveyed here by Jim Salicrup in his Introduction ‘Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself…’

What Has Gone Before: Carnival stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze sold his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father Crash Simpson from cancer. As is the way of such things, Satan follows the letter but not spirit of the contract and Simpson dies anyway. When the Dark Lord later comes for his prize, Blaze’s beloved virginal girlfriend Roxanne Simpson intervenes. Her purity prevents the Devil from claiming his due and, temporarily thwarted, Satan spitefully afflicts Johnny with a skeletal form that burns with the fires of Hell every time the sun goes down…

After dancing with the Devil and assorted demons for months, Johnny headed to Hollywood and worked as a cinematic double and stuntman: a hazardous gig that brought him into a romantic dalliance with starlet Karen Page, and team-ups with many superheroes and even more clashes with supervillains. He even dabbled with team superheroics as one of The Champions, but the regular paying gig trapped Blaze in a slow but pitiless war with aspiring super-mobster The Enforcer. Moreover, the infernal taint of his curse increasingly brought the Rider (who increasingly presented as an entirely different personality to Blaze) into conflict with misguided heroes like Doctor Strange, Doctor Druid, Hawkeye & Two-Gun Kid… so Johnny ultimately dropped everything to hit the road again…

He consistently found trouble – mundane and supernal – everywhere. Battling human thugs, mutants, magical demons. monsters and aliens the ride almost ended after a deadly race against the personification of death, but Blaze rode ever on…

Now primarily crafted by Michael Fleischer (November 1st 1942 – February 2nd 2018) & Don Perlin (August 27th 1929 – May 14th 2024), Blaze’s trail resumes here as we roar at top speed down among the dead men for GR #36’s ‘A Demon in Denver!’ Fleischer (Jonah Hex, The Spectre, Conan, Junker) & Perlin (Werewolf By Night, The Defenders, Bloodshot, Solar Man of the Atom) were consolidating a new kind of storytelling style for their hellbound lone star: a nonstop trouble-finding ride across middle America that affected dissolute cycle-bum Blaze as much as his increasingly uncontrollable arcane alter ego…

It brings aimless, penniless Johnny into the mountain metropolis and to a bar where he catches the approving gaze of waitress/dancer Debbie. Tragically, her kindly attentions trigger the brutal, bullying xenophobic and manically possessive local patrons. When their intended beating/lynching of the stranger arouses a diabolical walking hell-storm, Blaze is hard-pressed to divert it and save his attackers from themselves and the city from the enraged, unleashed Ghost Rider…

With their personalities both at war and apparently merging, the flaming demon is then drawn to a circus where stunt cyclists attempting to smash Johnny Blaze’s world car-jumping record. However, his arrival on the ‘Night of the Flame Cycles!’ is also when mobster Dirk Varden sabotages the attempt to extort money out of show owner Farley. In the aftermath, with both his parents dead, the stunt-bikers’ son Davey is offered a way to resurrect them by a satanic cultist…

The cruel temptation is observed by Blaze, who reveals his spectral alter ego to stop the boy repeating his own mistake. As Ghost Rider races away to inflict vengeance on the guilty, the grief-wracked kid follows, witnessing what hell holds as the baleful biker invades Varden’s palatial estate and destroys dozens of mobsters and hangers-on in his drive to punish a killer, subsequently scaring Davey straight when he seeks to shoot Varden, before delivering his own infernal death sentence…

Ever moving on, Blaze faces motorcycle death worshippers ‘The Cult of Doom’ – a growing force in the region but ones who cannot stop him saving the kidnapped daughter of the state Senator Sterling from their acolytes. This noble act makes him a prime target as the disciples of Death and their secret leader turn their full attentions to the Flaming Menace. Blaze finds a job and new friend in mechanic “Harley” Baggs, even agreeing to participate in his dirt bike rally, but when suicidal cult bikers again try to seize Karen Sterling as she also races across the desert, everything turns sour. Johnny again comes to Karen’s rescue, an act that puts him, Baggs and the Brimstone Biker at the top of the Cult’s hit list…

Their next murderous assault unleashes Ghost Rider’s full fury, but only directs the demon into a lethal ambush as ‘Into the Abyss!’ (GR #39, December 1979) reveals his foes are programmed to die rather than fail, and live close to home.

Barely surviving the death riders’ ambush, Johnny joins Senator Sterling’s campaign to end the cult, only to discover vipers at the heart of that project and even more tragedy after briefly growing closer to Karen. In the end, after the demon on wheels confronts the true villains, all Blaze can do is move on and try to forget…

A swift change of pace comes after Johnny reaches the Wichita-Karcinoma Nuclear Plant only to be struck by a hit-&-run driver. Given shelter by disgraced atomic scientist Thurgood Vance and his daughter Angela, Blaze is on hand when gangsters seek to use the boffin’s comeback project – an atom-powered armoured supersuit – to get rich. When their abduction of Angela goes tragically wrong and Thurgood goes berserk, ‘The Menace of the Nuclear Man!’ ultimately pits magical hellfire against atomic fury after Thurgood seeks to assuage his grief by destroying the power plant and everyone in detonation range…

After the Revenant Rider spectacularly foils a truck robbery by notorious bandits The Jackal Gang, exhausted mortal Johnny Blaze hops ‘The Freight Train to Oblivion!’ where fellow freeloaders savagely assault him, thereby stealing not only his wallet and I.D. but also his memories. His befuddled wandering in the desert leads him to an isolated racetrack where race driver Gina Langtree is having car troubles. Whoever the amnesiac is he’s good with engines and soon after she names him Frank Ryder, the wounded wanderer is adopted into the pit crew, provoking an instant attack by pit boss Carl Travis. Thumped by Frank and bollocked by Gina, Travis is put in place and the new couple start some mild canoodling.

Frank ends his very busy day in the bunkhouse. Sadly that’s when the dormant Ghost Rider awakens seeking vengeance on the jackal Gang and roars off into the night of a bike formed from infernal fire…

The lost weekend stops in #42’s ‘The Lonesome Death of Johnny Blaze!’ as Frank awakens in the Langtree Motors bunkhouse, troubled by odd recollections but otherwise unaware of what the Brimstone Biker has done to the robbers he so easily found. Ryder’s second day is his last however as, after saving Gina from a crash, Frank is knocked unconscious by Travis and left to burn in the wreck. Sadly for Carl, Gina sees it all and mourns her new beau even as Travis is arrested. Sadly for what remains of the Jackals, the immolation has reactivated the Ghost Rider who roars off unseen by all to finish what was started the night before. When it is done and humanity returns, a baffled Johnny Blaze is miles from where he last was and taunted by flashes of memories that he can’t explain…

Guest artists Carmine Infantino & Ricardo Villamonte join Fleischer for ‘Night of the Crimson Mage!’ as the Brimstone Biker’s pursuit of robbers traps him into the clutches of scheming sorcerer Azaziah Hornsby. The mystic succeeds in separating the Rider from Blaze, leaving the human to slowly perish whilst the unfettered demon mercilessly rages against all humanity. The tirade one that only pauses after Johnny leaves his deathbed to fight him. In the Tom Sutton inked conclusion ‘Cloak of Crimson – Soul of Dust!’ the unequal contest continues until the unchecked demon notices he also is losing power. The Crimson Mage wants to absorb the hellish force to fuel another thousand years of life, but foiled by Blaze who (despite being hunted by cops) invades the magical citadel and steals paraphernalia to restore the demon to its imprisonment inside him…

Perlin returns for #45 with an overarching plot strand that begins in ‘To Banish a Ghost!’ Downing a beer in Big Herbie’s Tavern, Blaze is infuriated to see swaggering braggart Flagg Fargo on TV, boasting that he will soon take all fabled Johnny Blaze’s stunt records. The clientele soon recognise a star in their midst and drunkenly swear to sponsor him if he will ride against Fargo…

On a new bike with fresh leathers and kit, Johnny starts his comeback duel but his luck runs true and he is hit by a car as he practises. His decline accomplished, his fall comes in ‘The End of a Champion!’ as, despite all his efforts – and in front of the entire world – his boastful opponent proves too much for him. This time even the Ghost Rider cannot help him…

Branding himself a loser, Blaze starts drinking and is targeted by a biker gang, who merciless stalk him. Despite finding some solace with bar server Amy, the relentless bullying and beatings almost break his spirit. In one weak moment he allows ‘The Demon Within!’ to emerge and solve his problems Hell’s way, before finally getting a grip. Blaze recalls his flaming passenger and flees before Amy is harmed, heading into the wastes where more horror awaits. That ride ends as he is attacked by colossal vampire bats in ‘Wind of the Undead!’ before being accused by unfriendly townsfolk of causing trouble and targeted by terrorist Transylvanian émigrés Tabitha Arcanne and Dalton Cartwright. They not only control the winged beasts but also have a medallion that can command the Ghost Rider. It’s not quite enough to save them, though…

As much a lone rider as any cowboy hero, Blaze inevitably met his western cowboy-era prototype predecessor The Night Rider (renamed for convenience and a western reprint title running seven issues from October 1974 to August 1975) as part of his 50th issue celebration. To facilitate that, the modern, devil-tainted Ghost Rider was subject to ‘The Wrath of the Manitou!’ in #49 after failing to stop dam-bombing saboteurs inundating the region and despoiling sacred Indian burial grounds…

The failure hurled the haunted hero back to the 1870s where Bison Bend school teacher Carter Slade battled injustice as Night Rider, blessed by the spirits and employing legerdemain to bamboozle the wicked. Blaze’s arrival converges with a full-scale attack by a masked supervillain/bandit but as ‘Manitou’s Anger… Tarantula’s Sting!’ shows, valour and hellfire are a formidable force that cannot be overcome. Having proved himself to the Spirits and saved history, Johnny is returned to the now just before that bomb detonates and enjoys a second chance to make things right…

To Be Continued…

Big bold bonanza #50 also included a pin-up selection of ‘Ghost Rider’s Gallery of Guest Stars!’ – namely The Son of Satan by Infantino & Wiacek, Incredible Hulk by Gil Kane & Klaus Janson and Phantom Eagle by Herb Trimpe – as well as a comprehensive Index of all his far-flung fearsome appearances. This titanic turbo-charged tome with covers throughout by Bob Budiansky and inkers Bob Wiacek, Al Gordon, Jack Abel, Al Milgrom, Bob McLeod, Joe Rubinstein, then concludes with the original cover art to #50 and a copious Creator Biographies section.

These tales return Ghost Rider to his roaming roots, and imminent threat of the real-deal Infernal Realm: showing a good man struggling to save his soul from the worst of all bargains – as much as the revised Comics Code would allow – so brace yourself, hold steady and accept no supernatural substitutes…
© 2022 MARVEL.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fast ‘n’ Loose Spooky Truths… 8/10

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Another Realm


By Kristyna Baczynski (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-917355-35-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

The basis of all drama is an examination of the human condition – albeit sometimes in extraordinary forms, configurations or circumstances. Somehow, that’s even more true when your characters aren’t human at all – as seen throughout this compelling compendium of past works by author/illustrator Kristyna Baczynski. The author/artist hails from the Pennines of Yorkshire, by way of the Carpathians of the Ukraine. That’s not at all germane here, but does hint at many places visited to get here, with events already witnessed. It also sounds incredibly romantic, conjuring up all manner of deep-seated preconceptions about windy moors, bleak moody peaks, poignant meetings, sudden surprises and perpetually building new homes and friendships.

In a nutshell, preconceptions, aspirations, dreams, realisations and that old devil hope are what this book is about…

The appetising menu consists of Baczynski’s first longform comics work – released in 2018 – adroitly accompanied by a glorious smorgasbord of briefer comics works crafted since 2012. During that period they have built a body of work spanning independent zine culture to mainstream publishing, with major names including 2000 AD, Penguin Random House, Hachette, Carlton and Canongate paying bills whilst self-publishing and small press freedoms renourish their soul, and reinvigorate the speculative whimsy…

The review opens with the main course and a fresh look at Retrograde Orbit.

In a faraway star system, a little girl grows up as refugee and immigrant. Flint finds it hard to adapt to life on mining colony world Tisa. Even though she has no real memories of the place, she feels the call of her long-abandoned homeworld Doma. The exodus was due to a geological or maybe industrial toxic detonation, but no one at school cares or understands, and mother and grandmother never want to talk about it…

Years that are never easy go by anyway, and those feelings of something missing don’t go away. Days pass too and Flint grows up, acting out like any teen. She inevitably graduates into a mining job, but the something-missing still plagues her. Moments pass as she collects memoirs and mementos of her lost world, whilst growing increasingly colder and duller.

…And then a message is received from the supposedly dead, barren planet. Flint now has a purpose and a goal, and nothing will stand in the way of her return…

This lyrical, uplifting yarn offers a beautifully understated, moving glimpse at the power of Place in our lives, employing science fiction themes and trappings to dissect the most primitive and fundamental longings to which humans are subject. It also reminds us that there’s always hope. In a glorious celebration of humanity’s constant follies and greatest assets, this tale is certain to be a beloved touchstone for every lover of aspiration and resolve.

The remainder of this virtuoso graphic dishes consist of tasty and tempting small press tales, self-published unless otherwise noted. Leading off and addressing recurring themes of living alone (and the perniciousness of plants!) is ‘My New Hobby Craves Violence’ wherein lonely bookshop worker Pip, fresh out of a soured relationship, adopts a strange pot plant and – aided by online kibitzers and supporters – nurses it back to life with appalling, life-changing repercussions…

‘Vessel’ then audits the life of a youngster looking to fill herself with vivid experiences before ‘A Measure of Space’ shares the life of one of those who survived the meteor crash that shook the world and changed all life upon it…

First seen in 24×7 (published by Fanfare in 2016) ‘Hand Me Down’ traces the mighty passage of life from great saurids through us to what follows humanity, as recorded by an artefact that survives a cascade of eras and epochs by being precious to those at the top of each food chain, after which ‘Vantage’ similarly follows the progress of assorted life forms who think the world revolves for and around them…

Next comes a selection of pieces appropriately deemed Short and Sweet, beginning with a pictorial proposition (from OffLife #6, 2013) that the brain and mindscape are just a ‘Repository’ of experience, followed by scary yarn ‘Yaga’s Light’ (Bimba #2, 2013) wherein dying, desperate peasants follow a phantom into the woods and beg the evil capricious witch there to save them…

That’s augmented by surreal cautionary vignette ‘Scratcher’ (OffLife #10, 2014) and twinned tales from (The Hic & Hoc Illustrated Journal of Humour, 2013). A witty peek at a bunch of funny bones, ‘Fossil Waffle’ is supplemented by a bargain-boasting going-out-of- business sale after Earth calls in the Receivers and canny ET buyers enjoy ‘Galactic Savings’. Next, The Warriors of Junkfood (2026) unleashes kaiju fast food as rampaging ‘Greasy Bandits’, prior to one woman failing to control her appetite for ‘Dinner at Eight’ (from The Strumpet, 2013) before (from The Stool Pigeon, 2012) a beleaguered broken bunny battles on and broaches ‘Another Year, Another Easter’…

Closing our narrative window, ‘Compliments – A Study’ is a dose of self-analysis latterly confirmed by ‘Bleeding’ and a demonstration that ‘A Drawing is Like a Seed’ before a cruelly funny countdown to ultimate feline mortality is explored in ‘Nine Lives’ (originally self-published before picked up by Fantagraphics for The Treasury of Mini Comics volume 2 in 2015). We then close on an expansive ‘Gallery’ of 11 miasmic scenes all intended to further stretch the mind and heart.

The intoxicating joy of drawing and sheer buzz of creation bursts from every page of this cartoon cavalcade, as a rich cosmopolitan blend of inspirational formative events and an international/intergalactic taste for the unexplored and as yet unreachable stars above. From human depths to stellar heights, Another Realm is a gateway to adventure and home away from home for all dreamers to visit as often as possible.
© Kristyna Baczynski 2026. All rights reserved.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Star-Struck Wonderment… 8/10

Another Realm will be released on October 28th 2026 in Britain and on December 2nd in the USA. It is available for pre-order now.

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In the Pines – 5 Murder Ballads


By Erik Kriek (Fantagraphics/Canongate Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78689-214-0 (HB/Digital edition)

This book contains Discriminatory Content included for historical authenticity.

If you don’t know what a murder ballad is you should start this sublime hardcover anthology by reading Jan Donkers’ superb background essay at the back of the book before treating yourself to the grim graphic glories crafted by Dutch artisan/illustrator Erik Kreik.

In ‘Murder Ballads’ you will learn the history of the ancient musical sub-genre as well as the direct genealogy of the quintet of sordid, sorry sagas adapted from sound to stunning words and pictures here. However – and just because it’s you – the term is generally applied to folk music story-songs from many countries all dealing with love, crime, sex, social transgression and unnatural death…

In 2016 Erik Kriek (creator of silent superhero spoof Gutsman; Little Andy Roid; Het Onzienbare/From Beyond) – adapted a number of vintage and modern Murder Ballads into strip format. A huge fan of all forms of popular Americana, he also covered the songs with his band The Blue Grass Boogiemen on a CD naturally entitled In the Pines – 5 Murder Ballads. The book won Germany’s 2016 Rudolf Dirks Award and the spin-off garnered Album of the Year 2017 from Dutch Comics.

Amsterdam-born Kriek is a graduate of the Rietveld Academy for Art and Design and a hotly in-demand illustrator of books (like Holland’s Tolkien & Harry Potter editions), magazines, apparel, skateboards, et al, and will happily turn his hand to a variety of styles & disciplines. Gutsman was reconceived as a soundless mime ballet in 2006 and his collection of Lovecraft adaptations Het onzienbare, en andere verhalen H. P. Lovecraft has been republished in many languages. He followed up this with his first children’s book Mika, the Little Bear That Didn’t Want to Go To Sleep.

A multi-national phenomenon, In the Pines delivers its moody messages of ill-starred love in dreamy, two-coloured incidents. US fans will recognise the drawing style as echoing the very best EC horror tales by “Ghastly” Graham Ingels or early Bernie Wrightson. The concerto of terror opens with ‘Pretty Polly and the Ship’s Carpenter’, a much-covered traditional ditty (The Byrds; Judy Collins; The Stanley Brothers) rendered here in green & black on crisp white pages. It details the fore-doomed fate of a young man who fled to sea to escape his sins, only to see them resurface in death for his shipmates during a seemingly supernatural storm…

Tinted in sepia, ‘The Long Black Veil’ is a relatively modern song, composed and written by Marijohn Wilkin & Danny Dill in 1959 and most notably recorded by Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Cash, The Band, Mick Jagger, Nick Cave amongst so many others. It reveals how a farmer is faced with a staggering choice: hang for a murder he did not commit or betray the confidence of the adulterous woman who is his only alibi…

Racially-charged and rendered in tones of muddy ochre, ‘Taneytown’ was originally delivered by Steve Earle, a synthesis of so many lynching incidents that shame and blight the history of the (early) 20th century American South. Here a young black man, sick of the life he’s subject to in rural Maryland, takes the knife his negro war hero father used in the trenches of the Great War and heads for trouble in the whitest part of town…

Written by singer Gillian Welch, ‘Caleb Meyer’ is adapted in tones of chilling aquamarine and presents a young wife betrayed, terrorised and assaulted who wins for herself a potent dose of ironic retribution before we close this sinister songbook in tones of watered down blood with ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’.

Possible the most well-known of the perilous pentangle, the strip is based on a dark ditty created by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds for their 1996 album Murder Ballads. Sung as a duet with Kylie Minogue, the song was based on traditional air Down in the Willow Garden. The story seen here presents a complex web of trauma and tension involving a murderous escaped convict, a gang of hidden outlaws, lost treasure, a solitary house in the deep woods and a protective mother most conveniently absent. Tragically, neither the rapidly pursuing posse nor the vile-intentioned villain have any idea what young Elisa is truly capable of, or why her father called her his “wild rose”…

Making something compelling and beautiful from the worst aspects and acts of human behaviour is no mean feat, either in song or pictures, but In the Pines accomplishes the deed with gripping style, vibrant polish and immense charm. This is a book every lover or victim of human foible will adore, potent and evocative with a sly gift to captivate and transport us just as the music intoxicates the mind’s eye through the ears.

One last note: Kriek is reputed to relax in Irish bars – possibly drinking but mostly singing and playing the banjo – so let’s hope that he’s got many more songs yet to draw, once the ambience reaches the appropriate crescendo.
© Erik Kriek, 2016. “Murder Ballads” © Jan Donkers. 2016. All rights reserved.

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Green Lantern Sector 2814 volume 2


By Len Wein, Paul Kupperberg, Steven Englehart, Dave Gibbons, Bill Willingham, Joe Staton, Bruce Patterson, Mark Farmer, Rich Rankin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4078-3 (TPB), 978-1-4012-4812-3 Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

When mortally wounded alien cop Abin Sur crashed on Earth, he commanded his power ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear. Scanning the planet, it selected brash young test pilot Hal Jordan in nearby Coast City, California and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien then bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his professional vocation to the astonished Earthman.

Over many traumatic wonder-packed years, Jordan grew into one of the greatest members of a serried band of indomitable law-enforcers. The Green Lantern Corps protected the cosmos from evil and disaster for billions of years, policing vast numbers of sentient beings under the severe but benevolent auspices of immortal superbeings who appointed and considered themselves Guardians of the Universe. These undying patrons of Order were one of the first races to evolve and dwelt in sublime, emotionless security and tranquillity on the world of Oa at the very centre of creation.

Green Lanterns are chosen for their capacity to overcome fear and are equipped with a ring that creates solid constructs out of emerald light and offers other informational, procedural defensive, communicative and administrative facilities. The miracle weapon is fuelled by the strength of the user’s willpower, making it one of the mightiest tools imaginable.

For eons, a single individual from each of 3600 arbitrary sub-divisions – “sectors” – of known space was selected to patrol his, her or its own beat, but being cautious, methodical and meticulous masters, the Guardians laid contingency plans, such as appointing designated reserve officers.

Jordan’s substitute was a nice quiet (white) PE teacher named Guy Gardner, but when he was critically injured the Oans’ fallback option was a little worrying to staid, by-the-book Hal. In Green Lantern/Green Arrow #87 (December 1971/January 1972) ‘Beware My Power!’ a bold, new and painfully contemporaneous character was introduced to the DCU. Back then John Stewart was an unemployed architect and full-time radical activist: an angry black man always spoiling for a fight and prepared to take guff from no-one.

Jordan was convinced the Guardians had grievously erred when selecting rash, impetuous Stewart as Sector 2814’s official GL stand-in, but after seeing how his proposed pinch-hitter handled a white supremacist US presidential candidate trying to foment race war, the established and entrenched Emerald Gladiator was delighted to change his tune…

As time progressed Stewart popped up occasionally, even as the Guardians’ motives and ineffability increasingly came into question from many of their once-devoted operatives and peacekeepers. All too frequently, the grunts saw their formerly infallible little blue gods exposed as venal, ruthless, doctrinaire and even capricious…

As his repute grew, headstrong Hal enjoyed an extremely tempestuous relationship with his bosses which eventually resulted in them accusing him of neglecting his space sector – 2814 – to concentrate on Earth’s problems and criminals. When he couldn’t reconcile his love for Carol Ferris and duty to the Corps, Jordan quit…

This second stellar Fight’s ‘n’ Tights compilation gathers Green Lantern #182-183 and 185-193, comprising cover-dates November 1984 through October 1985: a period of radical change and increasing cosmic calamity as the DCU counted inexorably down to a reality-altering Crisis on Infinite Earths…

Without preamble, Len Wein, Dave Gibbons & Mark Farmer continue their groundbreaking reshaping of the legend in ‘It’s a Dirty Job, But…’ wherein the now merely mortal Jordan second-guesses his decision as he revisits Abin Sur’s remote resting place. Meanwhile, across the universe, the Guardians moved swiftly, promoting Stewart to the peacekeeping position in his sector. At this time, the architect is working on rebuilding the shattered Ferris Aircraft complex (a regular collateral casualty of Green Lantern’s complex lifestyle) and had no idea that Hal Jordan was the alter ego of his abruptly “retired” predecessor, nor that GL Jordan’s old enemy Major Disaster had returned and was looking for a fight…

Further complicating matters, Dr. Bruce Gordon – currently employed building a solar engine for Ferris – was being stalked and harassed by his own inner demon made manifest. Before Green Lantern Jordan had helped cure him, Gordon was the unwilling host to a demonic hate-filled energy spirit called Eclipso. Now, that monster was apparently back and seeking to steal the almost-completed solar engine for his own dark designs…

Calamitously, when Major Disaster furiously threatens to destroy a massive hydroelectric dam and flood the entire state, the Emerald Gladiator he stridently demands a rematch with is not the one who turns up…

Refusing to accept any substitute, the madman tectonically triggers a ‘Day of Disaster’… and learns to his sorrow that the masked black man is every inch as competent and formidable as his despised archfoe.

Green Lantern #184 reprinted the origin of Guy Gardner from #59 (1968) and was omitted from this collection but Wein & Gibbons (inking himself) return for #185 as ‘In Blackest Day…!’ sees the new ringbearer for Sector 2814 fully acclimate to his responsibilities. An overnight celebrity and media sensation, Stewart is courted by TV reporter Tawny Young but earns her enmity after refusing to divulge the circumstances of his origin and promotion.

On a more mundane level, Hal still frets over his decision and loss of power, even as his supposedly free-&-clear romance with Carol hits a new snag. Unknown to either of them, she has acquired a super-powered stalker determined to protect her from anything he perceives as a threat…

With Eclipso still secretly beleaguering Gordon, Hal prepares to test-fly the prototype Ferris solar jet, but is ambushed by his old pal and mentor Rich Davis. That medically-disqualified pilot wants one last flight of glory and takes Hal’s place, only to become a hostage when Eclipso snatches the jet out of the sky from his fantastic landscape-rending moon satellite…

‘In Brightest Night…!’ Wein & Gibbons (with plotting input from Paul Kupperberg) sees the new GL rush to the rescue as Hal can only look on helplessly. Then, Carol’s mystery suitor The Predator also boards the moon globe and the situation flares beyond control, resulting in victory at a terrible cost…

Kupperberg, Bill Willingham & Rich Rankin provide a rapid fill-in for #187 (April 1985) as ‘A Day in His Life…’ finds Carol confronted by the Predator who declares his amorous intentions by beating up her current boyfriend Hal, even as John Stewart tackles his first space catastrophe and narrowly escapes destroying the malfunctioning space shuttle he was trying to save. Thankfully, the all-wise Guardians have anticipated teething troubles and despatched veteran GL Katma Tui be his training officer…

The next issue heralded a changing of the guard as writer Steve Englehart and illustrators Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson signed on with ‘Decent Exposure’, wherein Tawny Young outs Stewart on national TV, and he – after some early frustration – decides “so what?”

With Predator proving to be far more than a mere abusive, controlling maniac, proud but pounded Hal swears revenge, even as European ultra-nationalist Sonar returns to destroy the new Green Lantern in his obsessive campaign to prove the superiority of his postage-stamp principality Modora…

After Stewart proves his worth with a uniquely elegant solution to the villain’s sound weapons, ‘Echoes!’ sees Sonar bounce back, escaping from custody with enhanced allies Blindside & Throttle, despite the assistance of Katma Tui. Hal and Carol’s search for Predator lead them to a much-delayed visit with practically-braindead shut-in Guy Gardner, which inadvertently starts those long-dormant cogs clicking again…

Even as Stewart at last apprehends his fugitive foes, a new crisis breaks. ‘Time Out of Mind!’ starts with Tawny Young re-entering the picture, touting years-old video-tape interviews she carried out with Green Arrow, Black Canary, the previous GL, Carol and Stewart himself. Disturbingly, nobody on Earth remembers these meetings and if the journalist hadn’t been raiding the archives, never would have…

As she shows the tapes to the astounded superheroes, Predator nonchalantly ambles in to steal the records and is stunned to realise that the gimmick he’s used to make everyone unable to see him doesn’t work on alien Katma…

A back-up tale – ‘Mind Out of Time!’ – focuses on Hal’s hunt for Predator and furious confrontation in a theatre in front of a bizarre alien musical organ. That preliminary bout becomes the main event in GL #191 as ‘Macho!’ sends John & Katma off-earth to work with Dalor of Timron – Green Lantern of neighbouring Sector 2813 – whilst Hal’s final confrontation with Predator reveals an uncanny, impossible connection to Carol which revives her own darkest and most suppressed secret…

Green Lantern #192 sees the separate storylines converge in ‘First Star I See Tonight!’ with the off-world Emerald officers tackling the immortal amazon warriors of Zamaron, whilst on Earth, Carol reverts to sometime-alter ego Star Sapphire, a murderous monster now finally purged of the annoying, pitiful humanity that held her back from operating as the dominating tyrant and chosen queen of those self-same Zamarons…

Utterly dominating powerless Hal, she reveals the decades-long machinations that have led to this moment of terrible triumph… before teleporting home where three furious Green Lanterns are waiting…

This volume concludes with the return of another Hal villain in ‘Dead Ringer’, but where Jordan defeated the tragic alien Replikon through brute force and guile, Stewart proves his worth through innovation and compassion: building a solution which makes friend out of foe and corrects a grave cosmic injustice…

Way back then, many fans and critics felt the substitution of Jordan with John Stewart was little more than a PC stunt, but time and the quality of the stories proved the decision to be a brilliant one. It certainly offered a cruelly under-served portion of the readership another solid role model, but as time progressed and the different personalities and approaches coalesced, the move led to a huge expansion and re-evaluation the nature of being a DC hero.

And the best was still to come…
© 1984, 1985, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Scarecrow Tales


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson & George Roussos, Gardner F. Fox, Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Gerry Conway, Mike W Barr, Peter Milligan, Devin Grayson, Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Giella, Ernie Chan & Dick Giordano, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell, Don Newton & Dan Adkins, Alan Davis & Paul Neary, Duncan Fegredo & Bjarne Hansen, Roger Robinson & John Floyd, with Paul Gulacy, Carmine Infantino, George Pratt, Mike Mignola, Arthur Adams, Dermot Power, Mark Stutzman, Jim Balent & Bill Sienkiewicz & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0443-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As is only sensible, when filmmakers unleash a comic book villain of any vintage, savvy publishers collate, curate and commercialise. Thus in 2007 when The Scarecrow was named a villain du jour on Batman Begins DC dashed out a fine volume of reprints featuring a few key and generally accessible comic book appearances. Although having a much shallower well to draw from, there are some wonderful tales on offer (and the occasional dog, it must be admitted) with various pin-up pages and a cover gallery closeted here in this out of print and begging for resurrection tome…

The obvious kick-off is the first appearance by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson & George Roussos. Alternatively entitled ‘The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow’ or simply ‘The Scarecrow’ from World’s Finest #3 (1941), it spookily introduced rather odd, painfully poor and book-obsessed college psychology professor Dr. Jonathan Crane (no relation to any comedy shrink). His ill-considered classroom antics forced him out of the teaching profession and started him pursuing his nefarious dreams by making his wealthy victims afraid… at least until Batman & Robin stepped in and stepped up…

Crane only appeared once more in the Golden Age and here is reintroduced in the Silver one, after patiently serving his time in jail, in ‘Fright of the Scarecrow’ (Batman #189, cover-dated February 1967) wherein scripter Gardner Fox – despite being rather handcuffed by the overwhelming popularity of the comedic TV show – introduced the Master of Terror’s abiding modern Modus Operandi of chemically or artificially inducing anxiety, fear and screaming heebie-jeebies. This has ever since stayed the way as Crane followed the twisting path of a deranged mad scientist rather the greedy crime bandit style which consisted mostly of shooting at you until you wet yourself and coughed up the valuables…

The spooky sage’s resumed rampage through Gotham was ultimately quashed here by the daredevil Dynamic Duo as fabulously finessed by illustrators Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella.

Then from a far less frightening but more carefully inclusive era come a brace of arguably lesser and decidedly off-kilter efforts. From Batman #262 (April 1975), Denny O’Neil, Ernie Chan & Dick Giordano ‘The Scarecrow’s Trail of Fear!’ finds the hero victim of a fear inducer machine whilst racing to uncover hidden loot squirreled away by a crook literally scared to his death. Then comes a frankly bizarre duel with Gotham’s other contender for Most Scary Villain (not counting Batman!). In The Joker #8 (August 1976). Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror instigates ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ by stealing from his rival and reaping the revolting results in a weird war tale crafted by Elliot S! Maggin, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell…

For Detective #503 (June 1981) Gerry Conway wrote ‘The 6 Days of the Scarecrow’, beautifully illustrated by sorely missed Don Newton, and inked by Dan Adkins, wherein The Deacon of Dread turns Batman into a being who can literally scare those around him to death. However, Crane foolishly discounts the fact that his foe has allies such as Robin & Batgirl willing to do anything to save him… not that the Gotham Gangbuster needs them to…

Then, in a revitalised new world stemming out of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a fresher Dynamic Duo (with young, callow Jason Todd as the second Robin), Mike W. Barr, Alan Davis & Paul Neary pursue lighter, more liberating tales but still convincingly convey the tragedy of ‘Fear For Sale’ in Detective #571 (February 1987), after Scarecrow charges desperate sports stars to remove their caution and ability to fear consequences and triggers a storm of callous carnage…

Next is ‘Mistress of Fear’ by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo from one-shot New Year’s Evil: Scarecrow #1 (February, 1998): a truly exceptional low key, high-octane psychological thriller wherein Crane kidnaps law student Becky Albright. She had previously testified against him and still isn’t afraid, even after he begins the torturous process of converting her into his sidekick and accomplice…

Devin Grayson, Roger Robinson & John Floyd then display ‘Fear of Success’ (Gotham Knights #23, January 2002) to round out these scary stories with a swipe at corporate greed, as Dr. Crane is paroled from Arkham Asylum to lecture Gotham’s Movers & Shakers thanks to the sponsorship of business paragon Mulitigon. Thankfully, Bruce Wayne (and his new bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux) are invited as Scarecrow again unleashes his Fear Toxins just to see what happens. Although Batman quickly ends the threat, he is not quick enough to avoid a potentially deadly dose of the hallucinogenic horrors…

Also on show are a moody cover gallery and bonus material including pages from Who’s Who – The Definitive Directory of The DC Universe #20 (1986) & Who’s Who in the DC Universe #21 (1990) by Art Adams and George Pratt respectively; Mike Mignola’s Saga of the Dark Knight trading card (#51); Batman: Masterpieces (1998) by Dermot Power and an original pin-up by Mark Stutzman.

Some of these scurrilous scare-sagas made it into the 2015 compilation Batman: Arkham – Scarecrow but that book has enough different and darkly desirable material to warrant its own review… possibly even before the month is out…

As a trawl through the changing nature of the industry, Batman: Scarecrow Tales is quite illuminating although one glaring omission is the utter shunning of the numerous exploits featuring the creepy character that appeared in assorted issues of the TV cartoon based Batman Adventures comic book. Now those were thrilling…

Absolutely worth re-issuing with a few of the newer tales (especially those sublime all-ages versions Batman Animated franchise), perhaps DC could award the other, OTHER Dr Crane his own 85-year Celebration album, like all those other A-lister Bat-villains. Now that’s a scarily comforting thought…
© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey Book 12: Day of the Heroes!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras, Paul Duffield & Armin Roshdi (DFB/Phoenix)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-391-2 (HB), 978-1-78845-434-6 (Waterstones Exclusive Edition)

Bunny vs Monkey has been the inspirationally bonkers breakout star of The Phoenix since the premiere issue back in 2012, cataloguing a madcap vendetta gripping animal archenemies set amidst an idyllic arcadia, masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands. Concocted with gleefully gusto – but increasingly with a cerebral cosmic crescendo in mind – by cartoonist/comics artist/novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember, Find Chaffy; Megalomaniacs), these trendsetting, mindbending yarns have been wisely retooled as multi award-winning, bestselling graphic albums available in digest softcover such as this one hardback and sponsored special editions and even as AUDIOBOOKs. Just let that one last one sink in…

All the tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxious little beast plopped down in after a disastrous British space shot. OR DID IT?

Crashlanding in Crinkle Woods – scant miles from his launch site – lab animal Monkey believed himself the rightful owner of a strange new world, despite every effort of genteel, contemplative, reasonably sensible resident Bunny to dissuade him. For all his patience, propriety and refined breeding, the laid-back lepine could not contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape, who to this moment remains a rude, troublemaking, chaos-causing, noise-loving lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” and/or being a robot, with or without the aid of evil supergenius Skunky or useless “henches” Metal Steve & Action Beaver…

All those daily wonders and catastrophes were exacerbated by a mixed melange of mildly unconventional Crinkle creatures, none more so than aforementioned monochrome mad scientist Skunky, whose intellect and cavalier attitude to life and consequences presents as a propensity for building dangerous robots, bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons. He is, at his core, a dangerously inquisitive thinker and tinkerer…

With artistic fiddling about from design deputy Sammy Borras, the unending war of nerves and mega-ordnances assumes a posture of asymmetric – if not arrhythmic and asthmatic – warfare as a series of sequences starring assorted minor artisans sees much of the cast taking a bit of a breather… at least on paper. It all opens with a few fluffy tales of ‘Bunny in… “Home is Where the Heart is”.’ It all begins one not so very ‘Good Morning’ as Monkey’s thoughtlessness and Skunky’s careless use of volcanoes and microwave ovens finally provokes the wracked rabbit to pack up and leave. Still hungry for ‘The Good Life’ our gentle hero seeks an isolated wilderness to be ‘A New Home’ but discovers all the best spots of perfect peacefulness have been previously “bagsied” by enigmatic furry Thoreau Le Fox…

However things turn really odd when Bunny uncovers sacred standing stones and manifests a sentient palatial edifice that floats on air and offers to cater to every whim…

Meanwhile back wherever Crinkle Woods is, Monkey & Skunky are missing their old niceness nemesis and unleash colossal mutant hybrid shark ‘Hammer Honk’ to keep the ADHD-ape amused, even as, far away on “A Day in the Life of Bunny … and his enchanted House!” arachnophobe Bunny adopts an 8-legged housemate in ‘“Brenda”’. Thanks to her passion for digging, before long she has uncovered ‘A New Guest’ who turns out to be the miraculous Grand Spirit of the Woodland… and a bit of a nuisance…

Nothing lasts forever, and the peaceful days end in ‘Underpants!’ when Monkey & Action-Beaver invade the magical kingdom with newly-minted monster Terror-Dactyl in search of entertainment and encounter a very unwelcoming Woodland Spirit…

As if anticipating Bunny’s imminent return, sensible but naïve robot Metal E.V.E. is trying to build him a perfect new home, but the good deed is hijacked by time-warping Skunky who casually turns all involved into ‘Old Folks’ just as disorder is fully restored and the Grand Spirit evicts all the crazy critters and despatches them ‘Home’…

As they all resettle in, focus shifts to superfast sweetheart aye-aye Ai in “Ai’ll Be Back!” – a relay race of rapid-fire adventures that opens with ‘Thants!’ as a REALLY GIANT giant anteater is turned loose during National Ant Day and only Ai can stop the tongue-lashing it begins, after which chaos is unleashed when our misplaced Madagascan finds Skunky’s Graveyard of Failed Scientific Experiments and is bitten by a disembodied undead head, sustaining a nasty ‘Zombiebooboo’…

Whilst Monkey indulges in a spot of robotic ‘Dino-War!’ – and briefly acquires the stern maternal influence he always needed – Squirrel Weenie, Pig Piggerton and Metal E.V.E. become the first of many woodfolk turned ‘Tiny and Whiney’ and stuffed in Skunky’s Jar of Idiots. Sadly one of them is bitey, zombie-contagious Ai and before long the plague of the gambolling dead is everywhere, as seen in apocalyptic vision ‘Guhhhh!’, prompting the evil genius to sideline his attempts to build/grow a superbrain ‘From Scratch’ to sort things out. Of course, said brain ‘Smartypants’ has ideas of its own, and once Monkey meddles some more, the war of Zombies vs Supercomputer! rages out of control until the mighty mind in a jar devises a cure for undead bitey-ness which it then cruelly locks away in ‘The Box’…

However, despite being afflicted with zombie hunger, the aye-aye has enough grit and resolve to step up and sort it, to become ‘Ai, Saviour of the World’…

With what passes for normality restored to the Woods we next pay some attention to ‘Pig + Weenie in “Pig & Weenie Fun Police”’ as after five days of noxious obnoxiousness and Monkey playing with his ‘Fart Face’ chemical weapon, the sweet simpletons found an official vigilante team to stop the horror. However once the job is done it’s hard to stop and soon they are annoying/cheering up Underwater Adventurer Le Fox as he tries to be a ‘Water Grump!’ and unwelcomely refereeing the 563rd Annual ‘Bonk Bonk’ Race, befriending and defending Skunky’s runaway terror ‘Robotron’ before confronting Pig’s potent desire to be a poodle in ‘Arf!’

‘A Day in the Life of “Pig & Weenie Fun Police!”’ sees the variety of purely existential perils involved in cheering folk up, after which a family visit to Jonty, Monty, Ponty and Big Bertha Piggerton broadens Weenie’s horizons and highlights who is ‘The Wrong Pig’ whilst preceding a genuine rescue mission as the Fun Police save beleaguered Bunny from a House of Nightmares in ‘The Winchester’ and overindulge in one final mission to stop Skunky’s recently-mined ‘Shiny Pebbles’ fuelling an arsenal to techno terrors…

Generally regarded as “The Unluckiest Red Panda in the World!!”, next to shine here is ‘Lucky in “Stay Lucky!”’ with a simple fun session with the gang going awry in ‘Card Luck’, and doubled down on in ‘Statuesque’ as Monkey’s latest Bunny-bothering collaterally lands Lucky in the muck, prior to everything changing after encountering mystic monument ‘The Tablet’ in the really deep, dark woods…

‘Brown Duck’ then details a noisome scatological sidestep, but if we all hold our noses it’s soon over and the fallout of a cosmic change sparked by latrine lunacy and toilet terrorism can be registered as a ‘Lucky Chance’ and heralding a flipping of fortune for the pitiable panda…

As she becomes “the Luckiest Red Panda in the World!”, her ‘Attitude Adjustment’ scuppers a potentially lethal attempt to blow Action Beaver into space. Karmically, her new status doesn’t extend to those around her, so when ‘The Decoy’ finds a duplicate of Monkey making mayhem for all and his acts as Cardboard Samurai Monkey creating a cascade of all-conquering ‘Cardboard Creations’ she steps in to shield them. However, confusion and carnage culminate in a cross-chronological panda pair-up as time-travel allows ‘The Next Lucky’ to come back from the future to warn that her fortunes are about to change again…

The animal assemblage concludes for now with a look at enigmatic sage ‘“Le Fox in “Big ol’ Grump!”’ It opens long ago as an impressionable fox cub meets a crusty hibernating bruin who shapes his mental and philosophical growth in ‘Bearing It’… but not as much as the pesky bees buzzing him…

In the present, perpetually irritable Le Fox is caught in Monkey’s latest attempts to annoy Bunny in ‘Natural Mystery’ and retaliates with devasting aplomb, before ‘Ah, Poop!’ sees Skunky unwisely boast to his partner in perfidy that his poo collection is now perfectly complete even as deep underground, Le Fox shares his views on despondency with sad Metal E.V.E. and demonstrates vengeance as a means of ‘Coping’ when Monkey interrupts their musings…

Eternally anarchic Monkey’s meddling with Skunky’s reality-warping Wishinator leads to Le Fox achieving Godzilla-like size and temperament in ‘Wish Big’ but all his rampaging and ‘Stomping About’ is rightly directed at one small hairy nutcase, before a calamitous event heralds big changes for everybody as eerie, appalling Signalmen invade the wood and all those left free must find ‘A Place to Hide’…

As those few survivors seek ways to make Le Fox ‘Smaller’ desperation forms an alliance of former foes, but no one made them joint pilot the ridiculous mega-mecha Bunny vs Monkey-a-tron in a last-ditch duel of colossi, even if it does somehow save the day and create ‘An Understanding’ and peaceful resolutions not even one last unleashed tentacle monster can disrupt…

Wrapping up these sidereal shenanigans, farty fooffawraws and monster bum gags are a few related activities offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and yourself to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by Jamie Smart and Armin Roshdi. This time the subjects are ‘How to draw the Floating Island’, including tips on The Cosy Cabin, Pond and Sewer Waterfalls before closing with an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website, complete with instant access via QR codes, plus previews of other treats & wonders to be seen in The Phoenix to wind down from all that philosophical fun and Kaiju kerfuffle…

Another book for your kids to explain to you, Bunny vs Monkey – Day of the Heroes! is weird wit, wild invention, potent sentiment and superb cartooning incautiously crammed into one eccentrically excellent package. These tails never fail to deliver jubilant joy for grown-ups of every vintage, even those who claim they only get it for their kids. Is that you?
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Just Trust Me… It’s Beyond Your Control But Worth It … 10/10

Bunny vs Monkey – Day of the Heroes! will be released on October 8th 2026 and is favailable for pre-order now.

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Deadman: Book Three


By Cary Bates, Gerry Conway, Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, Paul Levitz, Martin Pasko, Dick Dillin, Jim Aparo, Fred Carillo, Mike Grell, Kurt Scaffenberger, Romeo Tanghal, Tex Blaisdell, Vince Colletta, Dick Giordano, Bob Layton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3728-8 (TPB), 978-1-4012-4198-8 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Deadman debuted in Strange Adventures #205 cover-dated October 1967 and on sale from August 29th. He heralded a new kind of superhero comic at a time when costumed crusaders were in their second decline in 20 years, and edgy if not actually scary supernatural stories were increasingly attracting the attention of the entire world.

In his wake TV introduced Dark Shadows, sci fi anthologies Outer Limits and Twilight Zone segued into Rod Serling’s Night Gallery whilst movies like Rosemary’s Baby revolutionised scary cinema. In literature, a revival of Gothic romance set pulses racing and hearts fluttering once more. However, in many ways it was business as usual as horror stories had been a top seller since books began and plays, comics, radio, and TV since its earliest incarnations had dwelt heavily upon tales of the unknown…

As the 1960s ended, its colossal superhero boom became a slow but certain bust, with formerly major successes no longer able to find enough readers to keep them alive. The appetite for costumed clowns was paling in favour of a resurgence of more traditional genres, and one rational editorial response was to reshape comic characters to fit evolving contemporary tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly, making masked heroes fit the new landscape. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter The Phantom Stranger and golden age colossus The Spectre, whilst resurgent traditional genres spawned atrocity-faced WWII spy Unknown Soldier and cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, spectral western avenger El Diablo and game-changing monster hero Swamp Thing, spearheading a wave of new formats, anthologies and concepts.

Moreover, supernatural themes and horror-tinged plots were shoehorned into those superhero titles that weathered the trend-storm. Arguably, the moment of surrender and change had already arrived with the creation of Boston Brand in the autumn of 1967, when venerable science fiction anthology Strange Adventures was abruptly retooled as the haunted home of an angry ghost…

This third Deadman collection (of five) again proves that changing times and tastes demand different heroes, with pertinent material from World’s Finest Comics #223 & 227: The Phantom Stranger #33, 39-41; Brave and the Bold #133, Superman Family #183 and DC Super-Stars #18, cumulatively spanning cover-dates May/June 1974 to Winter 1978, and confirming that as tastes vacillate, the valiant dead can keep on going simply by changing a bit of perspective…

High wire acrobat Boston Brand was a rough, tough, jaded performer who had seen everything and masked his decent human heart behind an obnoxious exterior and cynical demeanour. As “Deadman”, Brand had been the star attraction of Hills Circus and lover of its reluctant owner Lorna Carling. He also acted as a secret guardian for the misfits it employed and sheltered. One fateful night, Brand almost missed his cue because he had to stop a local cop harassing circus mystic Vashnu. It would have better if Brand had been late, because as soon as he started his act – 40 feet up and without a net – someone put a rifle slug into his heart. Despite being dead before he hit the ground, Brand was scared and furious. Nobody could see or hear him screaming, and Vashnu kept babbling on that he was the chosen of Rama Kushna – “the spirit of the universe”. The hokum all proved horribly true when that entity astonishingly made contact, telling Boston that he would walk among men until he found his killer.

The gig came with some advantages. He was invisible, untouchable, immune to physical laws and able to take possession of the living and drive them like meat cars. His only clue was witnesses in the audience who claimed that a man with a hook had shot him…

Brand’s hunt brought him into contact with killer mystic The Sensei – a master murderer who has dealt with ghosts before – and helplessly, frustratingly, experienced the end of the Hook. When the Sensei executed Boston’s quarry, Rama Kushna asked if a balance has been struck and capitalised on Brand’s furious negative response. Brand demanded true justice for everyone and inadvertently elected himself the agent of its enactment…

The search had brought him into contact with Batman (and other superheroes) and together they saved a Tibetan spiritual paradise on Earth. Sensei’s League of Assassins deemed benevolent Shangri La Nanda Parbat bad for the business of murder, and Deadman’s efforts to save the city from invasion were coloured by the fact that within its boundaries he becomes a living, breathing person again…

By the time of this outing, and thanks to a rapprochement with his aerialist twin brother Cleveland Brand, Deadman has found his killer, but only uncovered infinitely more injustice and innate rottenness at the heart of the world. Now he roams aimlessly, despondent and nearly mad…

Opening in World’s Finest Comics #223, Superman & Batman recruit Brand to help in their search for a serial killer. Shocks abound when all evidence points to the culprit being the brain-damaged, secretly institutionalised, unsuspected older brother of Bruce Wayne! When the whole truth emerges in ‘Wipe the Blood Off My Name’ (Bob Haney, Dick Dillin & Vince Colletta), the lonely, isolated ghost goes off the rails and decides to keep on possessing mentally vacant Thomas Wayne Jr.

Batman has other ideas though…

Apparently ignoring these events, Deadman then clashes with The Phantom Stranger (#33, November 1974 by Drake & Mike Grell) during the Man with No Name’s war against spiritual mad scientist Dr Zorn. In ‘Deadman’s Bluff!’, the ghost’s protracted, and apparently obsessively pointless hunt for his own murderer is exploited by the villain. As ever, the chase ends in frustration and fury for Boston, even though Zorn fails to spark war between the ethereal avengers, and instead causes an antagonistic partnership to be formed between them. After months of relentless manhunting, Batman’s search for Thomas Wayne culminates in ‘Death Flaunts its Golden Grin’ (WFC #227, February 1975 by Haney, Dillin & Tex Blaisdell), as the caped crusaders accidentally find the fugitives whilst tracking global smugglers. That moment of triumph is brief and ends in tragedy for all concerned, after which the guy in the hat gets reacquainted with the spectre in skin-tights for Phantom Stranger #39’s ‘Death Calls Twice for a Deadman’: a last-ditch effort to revive dwindling sales as horror stories faced their own decline.

Guest-starring The Sensei, it signalled a belated return to the company’s over-arching continuity, but was too little, too late. Deadman similarly co-starred in PS #40’s ‘In the Kingdom of the Blind’ and #41’s concluding chapter ‘A Time for Endings’(February-March 1976 and both by Paul Levitz & Fred Carillo). Now modern mage Dr Nathan Seine sought to bring Elder Gods to Earth using blind psychic Cassandra Craft as a medium…

With that tale’s finish, his series ended and the Phantom Stranger all-but-vanished until the winter of 1978 and a giant-sized Deadman team-up tale from DC Super-Stars #18 that is happily forthcoming.

First, though, Deadman – by Haney & Jim Aparo – remanifests in Brave and the Bold #133 to deliver ‘Another Kind of Justice!’ to aging rum-runner Turk Bannion when his heir and murderer turns to a more modern form of smuggling with Dark Knight & Wandering Wraith objecting. Uncanny events hit a lighter note next as Cary Bates, Kurt Schaffenberger & Colletta explore inexplicable somnolent excursions on ‘The Day Lois Lane Walked All Over Superman!’ (Superman Family #183, May June 1977). Here, though, Brand invisibly aids all concerned as a monomaniacal psychic messes with mind-control and body-borrowing…

Closing this grimoire of the dead-&-gone is that epic clash from DC Super-Stars #18. Concocted by Gerry Conway, Marty Pasko, Romeo Tanghal, Dick Giordano & Bob Layton, ‘Phantom Stranger and Deadman’ was an extended Halloween extravaganza seeing the moribund supernatural champions – with venerable vintage ghost-breaker Dr. Terrence Thirteen and necromantic nemesis Tala, Goddess of Evil in attendance – attempting to eradicate an infestation of demons lethally infiltrating the comic book Mecca of the season: Rutland, Vermont (long associated in both Marvel and DC titles as the only place to be on the Eve of All Hallows). The war was for humanity’s survival and no-one escaped unscathed…

With covers by Aparo & Neal Adams, this graphic grimoire perfectly captures the echoes of an era in transition through a delirious run of comics classics no ardent art lover or fanatical fear aficionado can do without.
© 1964, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen


By Otto Binder, Alvin Schwartz, Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, Leo Dorfman, E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates, Curt Swan, John Forte, Kurt Schaffenberger, Pete Costanza, Ray Burnley, Creig Flessel, Stan Kaye, George Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1369-5 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Over nearly nine decades, Superman has provided excitement, imagination and fun in more or less equal amounts; albeit admittedly not so much of that last one in recent times! This lost and longed for compilation relies heavily on the last two categories and offers the kind of reading experience we just don’t get enough of these days…

Although unnamed, a red-headed, be-freckled plucky kid worked alongside Clark Kent and Lois Lane from Action Comics #6 (cover-dated November 1938 and on sale from September 26th). He was called by his first name from Superman #13 (November-December 1941) onwards, but only after unlikely input from an even more ubiquitous mass entertainment. That lad was James Bartholemew AKA “Jimmy” Olsen who was a major player in The Adventures of Superman radio show from its debut on April 15th 1940; somebody for the hero to explain stuff to for the listener’s benefit, and the closest thing to a sidekick the Man of Tomorrow ever needed.

When the similarly titled TV show launched in the Fall of 1952 it became a monolithic hit and National Periodicals began cautiously expanding their valuable and precious franchise with new characters and titles. First up were gloriously charming, light-hearted escapades of a rash, capable but naïve photographer and “cub reporter” from the Daily Planet and titular star of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, which launched in 1954 with a September/October cover date. The title was popular for over two decades, blending action, adventure, broad, wacky comedy, fantasy and science fiction in the gentle manner initial scripter Otto Binder had perfected a decade previously at Fawcett Comics on the magnificent Captain Marvel. As the feature progressed, one of the most popular plot-themes (and most fondly remembered and referenced today by most Baby-Boomer fans) was the unlucky lad’s appalling talent for being warped, mutated and physically manipulated by fate, aliens and even his friends.

The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen gathers some of the very best and most iconic tales from the series; as they originally appeared in issues #22, 28, 31-33, 41-42, 44, 49, 53, 59, 65, 72, 77, 80, 85 & 105 of the weirdly popular comic book, plus the lead story from giant-size anthology Superman Family #173, into which SPJO evolved when times got tough for Superhero publishers in the 1970s.

The spellbinding wonderment opens with a selection of beautifully reconfigured covers (from #22, 44, 59 & 105) acting as contents/credit pages, after which the stories commence with Binder, Curt Swan & Ray Burnley’s ‘The Super-Brain of Jimmy Olsen’ wherein resident crackpot inventor Professor Phineas Potter evolves the boy of today into a man from 1,000,000AD. This apparently benevolent being seems to have a hidden agenda, however, and is even capable of bending the Man of Steel to his towering will…

The same creative team crafted ‘The Human Skyscraper’, with another Potter production enlarging Jimmy to monumental size, whilst in ‘The E-L-A-S-T-I-C Lad’ Superman is inadvertently responsible for the boy reporter gaining stretching powers after leaving a chest of alien artefacts with the nosy, accident-prone kid…

Alvin Schwartz, Swan & Burnley’s ‘The Jimmy Olsen from Jupiter’ then sees aliens mutate him into one of their scaly selves, complete with mind reading powers, before Binder’s ‘The Human Flame-Thrower!’ depicts how Potter’s latest experiment causes the worst case of high-octane halitosis in history, after which Robert Bernstein, Swan & John Forte highlight the lad’s negligent idiocy as Jimmy eats alien fruit and becomes ‘The Human Octopus!’

Creig Flessel inked the hilariously ingenious ‘Jimmy the Genie!’ in which boy and magical sprite exchange roles, prior to Binder, Swan & Stan Kaye delivering a gleeful masterpiece. ‘The Wolf-Man of Metropolis!’ is a beloved, oft-reprinted classic blending horror, mystery, romance and heart-warming charm into a cautionary tale impossible to ignore or forget.

Next, Professor Potter is blamed for – but entirely innocent of – turning Jimmy into ‘The Fat Boy of Metropolis!’ – a nonsensical but clever crime caper from Swan & Forte – whilst sheer mischance results in scripter Jerry Siegel’s now-legendary if not culturally significant saga of ‘The Giant Turtle Man!’ and his oddly casualty-free rampage…

Leo Dorfman, Swan & George Klein then contribute a sparkling tale of alien love gone amiss, which results in our boy temporarily becoming ‘Jimmy Olsen, Freak!’, a frequent consequence of Jimmy’s remarkable love life. Thanks to Siegel, Swan & Klein, when Jimmy spurns amorous attentions of surrealistic Fifth Dimensional hottie Miss Gzptlsnz, she quite understandably turns him into ‘The Human Porcupine’ in a wild and possibly thematically influential precursor to vengeance sagas like Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct or What’s Opera, Doc? The self-same creators also crafted intriguing enigma ‘The World of Doomed Olsens!’ wherein the Olsen boy is aggressively confronted by manifestations of his most memorable metamorphoses… a dilemma that was nothing like what it seemed…

‘The Colossus of Metropolis!’ finds Jimmy deliberately and daringly grown to giant size to tackle rampaging Super-Ape Titano before Siegel, Forte & Klein’s ‘Jimmy Olsen, the Bizarro Boy!’ poses a parlous comedy of errors with Potter’s cure for those backwards-living un-beings going painfully awry, resulting in the poor warped lad being ‘Exiled on the Bizarro World!’ The immensely popular Legion of Super-Heroes guest-star in many of these tales and play a pivotal part in ‘The Adventures of Chameleon-Head Olsen!’, a madcap mirth spree as only Siegel, Forte & Klein could make ’em, whilst the far more menacing account of ‘The World of 1,000 Olsens! (Binder, E. Nelson Bridwell & Pete Costanza) was a product of changing times and darker tastes; with an actual archenemy trapping Jimmy on a murderous alien world where everybody looks like yet hates the cub reporter…

This fabulously strange and cruelly out of print brew concludes with a smart thriller set in the Bottled City of Kandor where Jimmy resumes occasional costumed-hero identity Flamebird beside Superman (AKA the original Nightwing), hoping to save the last of Kryptonian civilisation from the ‘Menace of the Micro-Monster!’ This sharp terrorism-tinged action-shocker by Cary Bates & Kurt Schaffenberger satisfyingly closes a magically engaging tome by proving that even the silliest ass can sometimes be the hero and not the goat…

As well as reliving some of the most delightful episodes of DC’s pre-angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic days, these stories also perfectly frame the changing mores and tastes which reshaped comics from the safe 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry: keep them entertained and keep them wanting more.

I know I certainly do…
© 1957-1965, 1967, 1975, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu


Adapted by Gou Tanabe, with lettering and touch-up by Steve Dutro & translated by Zack Davisson (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-50674-140-6 (Tank?bon TPB), 978-1-50674-644-9 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content used for dramatic effect.

As it’s now officially cold and dark at night… or at least dark if not actually cold… it’s an apposite moment to reflect that this year is technically the 100th anniversary of a world-changing classic of literature. Moreover, if you’re one of those people who’s STILL never read a manga tale, or who’s been tempted but discouraged by the terrifying number of volumes such sagas can run to, here’s a delicious feast of fearsome fantasy exploiting centenary and an unmissable opportunity thanks to the killer pedigree of an astounding adaptation. Complete in one eerie epistle, this displays all that’s best about comics out of the East in one darkly digestible big gulp.

Most manga can be characterised by a fast, raucous, even occasionally choppy style and manner of delivery but this volume of emphatically eerie adaptations is atmospheric, suitably scary and marvellously moody: just as you’d hope when recreating classic tales by the undisputed master of supernal terror…

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was frail, troubled and remarkably ill-starred. Born August 20th 1890, he was truly and tragically afflicted with a drive to write, but only achieved any degree of success after he died (in March 1937) closing a brief life of desperate penury. Other than disappointment and despondency, his end came from complications of intestinal cancer that ate him from inside. Once he was gone, his literary star swiftly ascended, and posthumous publications pushed by his many friends and writing colleagues made him a household name who changed the face of fiction forever.

His stories have deeply – often life-changingly! – affected generations across and around the world. One person particularly moved is international literary specialist Gou Tanabe. He previously adapted works of Maxim Gorky and Anton Chekov to manga form. During a career lull in 2005 he was introduced to the works of Lovecraft and began assiduously adapting them between his regular commitments, with The Outsider completed in 2007.

Perfectly capturing the relentlessly oppressive and inescapably sombre sense of inexorably approaching fatality permeating most of Lovecraft’s potent prose, ‘The Call of Chthulu’ was done in 2019, transforming the legendary novella which written in mid-1926, but first published three years later in the February issue of pulp magazine Weird Tales. The story has become a foundational document of the subgenre and mythopoeia (shared universe) called The Cthulhu Mythos: frequently referenced and added to across a plethora of media from comics to games as well as constantly accessed by dozens of authors.

Accomplished in stark and staggering monochrome tinged with a palette of morbid grey textures and triggered by an explosive bursts of creepy colour, the saga opens in multihued torrent of horror ‘A Foreword…’ before first chapter ‘The Horror in Clay’ traces the progress of dutiful nephew Francis Wayland Thurston as he unpicks the trail of his recently deceased grand-uncle George Gammell Angell. That deceased historian, scholar and linguistics professor had become increasingly obsessed by artefacts and elements of an apparently lost civilisation and was seemingly aware of his impending death, and now his heir is similarly tormented by nightmares and deeply disturbed by an clay tablet.

It was made by modern sculptor H.A. Wilcox, a troubled soul also afflicted by pervasive night terrors, who had sought out Professor Angell after entering fugue states, seeing visions of human blood, dank mountains and towers rising from the sea. He heard bizarre sounds like alien words that stayed with him in the waking world and had created a clay tablet with a monstrous thing and phrases in an unknown language on it, all while sleeping…

Thurston had first become intrigued and ensnared at his grand-uncle’s funeral in Providence, Rhode Island, and by the time his patron’s effects had been shipped to Thurston’s home in Boston, the young man was caught and drawn ever inwards to something impossible…

Angell’s papers described something ancient called the Cthulhu Cult and cited early findings by an anthropologist studying rural natives in Western Greenland, whilst Wilcox’s tablet and its inscription depicted something beyond comprehension yet irresistibly beguiling. The phrases “Cthulhu fhtagn” and “R’Lyeh” were all over the files, but what really seduced the researcher was a 1908 report provided by a New Orleans policeman…

Angell’s researches had been surprisingly fruitful and responses – so many of them – came from his learned colleagues and other interested parties from all over the world. Many concerned old aboriginal outposts and enclaves, or brutal, spontaneous bloodlettings and mob violence, savage outrages or suicides of fringe religious groups. There was a high incidence of madness and death amongst overly-sensitive creative artists. Often the mantra “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’agl fhtagn” – translated as “in his house at R’Lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming” – was connected to such incidents.

The investigations takes a solidly chilling turn when Angell hears ‘The Tale of Inspector Legrasse’ who had survived a manic battle with murder cultists in the Louisiana swamps, uncovered appalling atrocities and confiscated a small greenish-black stone idol of a many eyed tentacled thing…

This raid had utterly crushed the vile ‘Cthulhu Cult’ but in the aftermath, when grilling smug unshakable Castro, the spiritual leader of the killers told Legrasse a fantastic tale of interstellar empires ruled by cosmic gods: beings death could not hold and who – sustained by human sacrificial blood offered by those who worshipped them – waited in the dark cold places of the world for their moment to return. Their lord was a supernal force answering to the name Cthulhu…

The weary cop wanted Professor Angell to help him weed out other instances of the cult but time caught up with them. Now, nearly twenty years later Thurston resolves to follow up and begins by tracking down Wilcox. The artist has become fully immersed in the cult and is clearly an enemy, and may have been the cause of Angell’s sudden death…

Thus Thurston locates and interviews Legrasse himself and, with reports of mass hysteria mounting across the world, takes possession of ‘The Terrible Statue’ the cop has kept all this time. Fired up and now fully obsessed, Thurston follows reports and scours global news outlets and finds a likely case in Australia where a salvaged vessel was found carrying a statue similar to the one Legrasse held, clutched in the arms of sole survivor Gustaf Johansen. He had claimed to have lived through a bizarre sea battle in the South Pacific Gyre….

Piecing events together, Thurston deduces the assault coincided with a recent massive earthquake that shook the world and increased cult incidents, and seeks to interview the repatriated mariner. The journey is convoluted but ultimately lands him in Norway… but too late. From the newly widowed Fru Johansen, Thurston learns that her husband arrived back broken and increasingly raving, only to be recently killed in a unlikely accident…

Thankfully, she has compiled all his papers and log books and wants the shocked scholar to read them…

The tale therein is one of utter insanity, detailing how the tragic complement of schooner Emma succumbed to ‘The Madness from the Sea’ after a monumental storm and maelstrom threw the vessel onto a newly arisen island in the Gyre. Their doom was sealed when Emma was attacked by heavily-fortified steam yacht Alert, manned by piratical barbarians who worshipped a stone idol and screamed the chant “Cthulhu fhtagn”. A protracted battle resulted in the destruction of these maniacs but also the loss of Emma, whose handful of survivors commandeered Alert and washed ashore on the foreboding island.

It was a place of studied horror and ancient terrors, bleak, dark and soul-crushing, where incomprehensibly ancient, uncomfortably warped buildings and structures overwhelmed their senses. This was ‘R’Lyeh’ and their fate was confirmed when vast doors opened to unleash the city’s sleeping guardian. It made short work of the pitiful human wretches and only Second Mate Johansen and Able Seaman William Briden made it back to the barely seaworthy Alert.

However, as seen in Final Chapter ‘Great Old Ones’, some things simply cannot be deterred or avoided, a painful recognition finally accepted by Thurston himself as he closed his investigation and prepared for the inescapable fate remorselessly approaching him…

Tapping into the modern vogue for arcane exploratory adventure (as also favoured and perfected by the likes of literary horrorist brethren Seabury Quinn, Clark Ashton Smith, and latterly August Derleth and Robert E. Howard and popularised by contemporary media from video games to MMORPGs) here Lovecraft delivered what most feel to be his most perfect and potent story. Moreover it has never been better interpreted than by Gou Tanabe – and you can learn more about both through the text feature ‘About the Creators’ that closes this book.

Enthralling, understated and astoundingly effective, this supernatural saga is a milestone of horror fiction, reverently adapted and packaged in manner that will delight avowed aficionados and beguile fear-loving newcomers alike.
CTHULHU NO YOBIGOE LOVECRAFT KESSAKUSHU © 2019 Gou Tanabe. All rights reserved. This English-language edition © 2024 Dark Horse Comics, LLC.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Ideal Dread for Dark Nights… 9/10