Category: Mystery

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Robin Archive Edition volume 1 & 2



By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Win Mortimer, Jim Mooney, Curt Swan, Jack Burnley, Sheldon Moldoff, Charles Paris, John Fischetti, John Giunta, Fred Ray, Don Cameron, David Vern Reed, Jack Schiff & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-4012-0415-0 (HB/vol 1) 978-1-4012-2625-1 (HB/vol 2)

These books include Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38, cover-dated April 1940 and on sale from March 6th of that momentous year. He was created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, introducing a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades (some of which we’ll revisit over the next 12 months) and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.

In chronological DC comics continuity Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student and ultimately leader of a team of fellow sidekicks and young justice seekers: the Teen Titans. He graduated to his own featured solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s, where he alternated and shared space with Batgirl, holding a similar spot throughout the 1970s in Batman, before winning a starring feature in the anthological Batman Family and Giant Detective Comics Dollar Comics. During the 1980s he led a New Teen Titans team, initially in his original costumed identity, but eventually reinvented himself as Nightwing, whilst (re)establishing a turbulent working relationship with his mentor Batman.

Robin’s groundbreaking creation as a junior hero for young readers to identify with inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed kid crusaders, and Grayson continues in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America’s increasingly rebellious contemporary youth cultures. However, his star potential was first realised much earlier in his halcyon career…

From 1947 to 1952 (and issues #65-130), Robin the Boy Wonder carried his own solo series – and regular cover spot – in Star Spangled Comics at a moment when the first superhero boom was fading and being replaced by traditional genres like crime, westerns, war and boys’ adventure stories. His exploits blended in-continuity action capers with more general youth-oriented fare, reducing adults Batman, Alfred and Commissioner Gordon to minor roles or indeed rendering them entirely absent, allowing the kid crusader to display not just his physical skills but also his brains, ingenuity and guts.

Long out of print and crying out for modern reissue in some form as well as completion of the full run, these stellar Archive compilations re-present the first 21 tales from Star Spangled #65-85 (covering February 1947 to October 1948) in volume 1 before adding the exploits from ASC #86-105 (November 1948-June 1950) as a second tome.

Compelling but uncomplicated, these yarns recapture the bold, verve and universal appeal of one of fantasy literature’s greatest youth icons, opening with volume 1’s fascinating Roy Thomas penned Foreword, discussing the origins and merits of boy heroes and history of the venerable anthology title before offering some insightful guesses as to the identity of the generally un-named writers of the Robin strip. Although almost universally unrecorded, most historians consider Batman co-creator Bill Finger to be author of most if not all of the stories and I’m going to happily concur here with that assessment until informed otherwise…

Star Spangled Comics #65 starts the ball rolling with ‘The Teen-Age Terrors’ illustrated by Win Mortimer (with the inking here misattributed to Charles Paris) in which the Caped Crusaders’ faithful butler happens across an unknown trophy and is regaled with Dick’s tale of that time when he infiltrated a Reform School to discover who inside was releasing the incarcerated kids to commit crimes on the outside…

That tale segues seamlessly into ‘The No-Face Crimes’ wherein the Boy Wonder acts as stand-in to a timid young movie star targeted by a ruthless killer, and #67 reveals ‘The Case of the Boy Wonders’ as our hero becomes part of a trio of boy geniuses kidnapped for the craziest of reasons. In #68 an outrageously flamboyant killing results in the pre-teen titan shipping out on a schooner as a cabin boy, spending ‘Four Days Before the Mast’ to catch a murderer, after which modern terror takes hold when Robin is the only one capable of tracking down ‘The Stolen Atom Bomb’ in a bombastically explosive contemporary spy thriller. Star Spangled Comics #70 then introduced an archvillain all his own for the junior crime crusher, as ‘Clocks of Doom’ premiered an anonymous criminal time-&-motion expert forced into the limelight once his face was caught on film. The Clock’s desperate attempts to sabotage the movie Robin is consulting on inevitably leads to hard time in this delightful romp (this one might possibly scripted by Don Cameron)…

Chronal explorer Professor Carter Nichols succumbs to persistent pressure and sends Dick Grayson back to the dawn of history in #71’s ‘Perils of the Stone Age’ – a deliciously anachronistic cavemen & dinosaurs epic with Robin kickstarting freedom and democracy, after which the Boy Wonder crashes the Batplane on a desert island, encountering a boatload of escaped Nazi submariners in ‘Robin Crusoe’ – a full-on thriller illustrated by Curt Swan & John Fischetti. In SSC #73 the so-very-tractable Professor Nichols dispatches Dick to revolutionary France where Robin battled Count Cagliostro, ‘The Black Magician’ in a stirring saga drawn by Jack Burnley & Jim Mooney, after which the Timepiece Terror busts out of jail set on revenge in ‘The Clock Strikes’ as illustrated in full by Mooney – who would soon become the series’ sole artist. Before that Bob Kane & Charles Paris step in to deliver a tense courtroom drama in #75 as ‘Dick Grayson for the Defense’ finds the millionaire’s ward fighting for the rights of a schoolboy unjustly accused of theft. Then cunning career criminal The Fence comes a cropper when trying to steal 25 free bikes given as prizes to Gotham’s city’s best students in ‘A Bicycle Built for Loot’ (Finger & Mooney).

Prodigy and richest kid on Earth, Bert Beem is sheer hell to buy gifts for, but since the lad dreams of being a detective, the offer of a large charitable donation secures the Boy Wonder’s cooperation in a little harmless role play. Sadly, when real bandits replace actors and Santa, ‘The Boy Who Wanted Robin for Christmas’ enjoys the impromptu adventure of a lifetime…

Another rich kid is equally inspired in #78, becoming the Boy Wonder of India, but soon needs the original’s aid when a Thuggee murder-cult decides to destroy ‘Rajah Robin’, after which ‘Zero Hour’ (illustrated by Mooney & John Giunta) sees The Clock strike again with a spate of regularly-scheduled time crimes before Star Spangled #80 reveals Dick Grayson as ‘The Boy Disc Jockey’, only to discover the station is broadcasting coded instructions to commit robberies in its cryptically cunning commercials. Robin is temporarily blinded in #81 whilst investigating the bizarre theft of guide dogs, but quickly adapts to his own canine companion and solves the mystery of ‘The Seeing-Eye Dog Crimes’, but has a far tougher time as a camp counsellor for ghetto kids after meeting ‘The Boy Who Hated Robin’. It takes grit, determination and a couple of escaped convicts before the kids learn to adapt and accept…

A radio contest leads to danger and death before one smart lad earns the prize for discovering who ‘Who is Mr. Mystery?’ (#83), after which Robin investigates the causes of juvenile delinquency by going undercover as new recruit to ‘The Third Street Gang’, before the outing ends on a spectacular high as the Boy Wonder sacrifices himself to save Batman and ends up marooned in the Arctic. Even whilst the distraught Caped Crusader is searching for his partner’s body, Robin must respond to the Call of the Wild, joining Innuits and capturing a fugitive from American justice in #85’s ‘Peril at the Pole’…

The second hardback Archive Edition re-presents more tales from Star Spangled recapturing the dash, verve and universal appeal of one of fantasy literature’s greatest youth icons – albeit with a greater role for Batman – and opens with a Foreword by Bill Schelly adding layers of historical perspective and canny insight to the capers to come.

Every beautiful cover is included – although most of the later ones feature colonial-era frontier sensation Tomahawk – lovingly rendered by Mooney, Mortimer, Paris, Bob Kane and Fred Ray. Although unverified, writers Bill Finger, Don Cameron, David Vern Reed and Jack Schiff are considered by most comics historians to be the authors of these stories. Easier to ascertain is Mooney as penciller of almost all and inker of the majority, with other pencil and penmen credited as relevant.

Action-packed, relatively carefree high jinks recommence with Star Spangled Comics #86 and ‘The Barton Brothers!’ (inked by Mortimer, who remained until #90) as the Boy Wonder seeks lone vengeance, hunting a trio of killers whose crime spree includes gunning down Batman, after which racketeer Benny Broot discovers he’s related to aristocracy and patterns all his subsequent vicious predations on medieval themes as ‘The Sinister Baron!’…

In defiance of his mentor Robin goes AWOL to exonerate the father of a schoolmate in ‘The Man Batman Refused to Help!’, although his good intentions clearing an obviously framed felon almost upset a cunning plan to catch the real culprit, after which SSC #89 has ingenious hoods get hold of ‘The Batman’s Utility Belt!’ and sell customised knock-offs until the Dynamic Duo crush their racket. Then the murder of a geologist sends the partners in peril out west in #90 to solve ‘The Mystery of Rancho Fear!’, acting undercover as itinerant cowboys to deal with a gang of extremely contemporary claim-jumpers.

With Mooney now handling all art chores, #91 sees the Boy Wonder instigating a perplexing puzzle to stump his senior partner in ‘A Birthday for Batman!’ It would have been a perfect gift if not for genuine gangsters who stumble upon the anniversary antics. The crimebusting kid played only a minor role in #92’s ‘Movie Hero No. 1’ wherein Batman surreptitiously replaces and redeems an action film actor who is a secret coward, but resumes star status for ‘The Riddle of the Sphinx!’ when a mute, masked mastermind seemingly murders the Dark Knight and supplants Gotham’s criminal top dog Red Mask.

Entertainment motifs abounded in those days and Star Spangled Comics #94 heralds ‘The End of Batman’ as the Dynamic Duo stumble on a film company crafting movie masterpieces tailored to the unique tastes and needs of America’s underworld, after which greed and terror grip Gotham’s streets when a crook employs an ancient artefact to apparently transform objects – and even the Boy Wonder – to coldly glittering gold in #95’s ‘The Man with the Midas Touch!’

Indication of changing times and tastes came with September 1949 Star Spangled Comics as Fred Ray’s Tomahawk took over the cover-spot with #96. Inside, Robin’s solo saga ‘The Boy Who Could Invent Miracles!’ – pencilled by Sheldon Moldoff with Mooney inks – saw the kid crusader working alone whilst Batman recovers from gunshot wounds, encountering a well-meaning bright spark whose brilliantly conceived conceptions revolutionise the world… prior to almost exposing the masked avenger’s secret identity. With Mooney back on full art, The Clock returns yet again in #97 in ‘The Man Who Stole Time!’: determined to publicly humiliate and crush his juvenile nemesis through a series of suitably-themed crimes

… but with the same degree of success as always. Next, Dick Grayson’s classmate briefly becomes ‘Robin’s Rival!’ after devising a method of travelling on phone lines as Wireboy.

Sadly, his ingenuity is far in excess of his fighting ability or common sense and he’s wisely convinced to retire, after which gambling gangster Sam Ferris breaks jail, turning his obsession with turning circles into a campaign of ‘Crime on Wheels!’ until Robin sets him straight again in advance of SSC #100’s powerfully moving tale of the Boy Wonder giving shelter to ‘The Killer-Dog of Gotham City!’ and proving valiant Duke can shake off his criminal master’s training to become a boon to society. In #101, High School elections are being elaborately suborned by ‘The Campaign Crooks!’ employing a bizarre scheme to make an illicit buck from students, whilst ‘The Boy with Criminal Ears!’ develops super-hearing: making his life hell and ultimately bringing him to the attention of sadistic thugs with an eye to the main chance…

Star Spangled Comics #103 introduces ‘Roberta the Girl Wonder!’ as class polymath Mary Wills follows her heart and tries to catch the ideal boyfriend by becoming Robin’s crimefighting rival, before #104’s ‘Born to Skate’ shows classmate Tommy Wells’ freewheeling passion leading Robin to a gang using a roller-skate factory to mask crimes as varied as smuggling, kidnapping and murder. Then the wholesome adventures end with a rewarding tale blending modelmaking and malfeasance, as guilt-wracked Robin comes to the aid of a police pilot who has been crippled  and worse whilst assisting on a case. As part of his rehabilitation, the Junior Manhunter devises high-tech models for Bill Cooper’s aviation club, but when ‘The Disappearing Batplanes!’ are purloined by cunning air pirates, the scene is set for a terrifying aerial showdown…

Beautifully illustrated, wittily scripted and captivatingly addictive, these rousingly traditional superhero escapades are a perfect antidote to teen angst and the strident, overblown, self-absorbed whining of so many contemporary comic book kids. Fast, furious and ferociously fun, these superb Fights ‘n’ Tights classics are something no Bat-fan, Robin-rooter or fun-fan will want to miss.
© 1947, 1948, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. © 1948, 1949, 1950, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Scorchy Smith: Partners in Danger


By Noel Sickles (Nostalgia Press)
ISBN10: 0-87897-029-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

This is a big year for comics and strip anniversaries. Here’s one of the very best; but good luck and deep pockets to you if you decide to act on my fervent recommendations…

For one of the most influential and well-regarded comics strips of all time, aviation feature Scorchy Smith is also one of the most enigmatic and unreachable. A surprisingly long-lived proposition running in total from March 17th 1930 to December 30th 1961, the strip took off in the heyday of adventure comics and employed a pretty impressive roster of story-makers – officially ten in total including Bert Christman (The Sandman), Frank Robbins (Johnny Hazard) and George Tuska (Buck Rogers). However, it achieved its zenith in the mere three years pioneering cartoon visionary Noel Sickles steered its course.

Noel Douglas Sickles (January 24, 1910-October 3, 1982) had a very short and barely acknowledged career as a newspaper cartoonist. He worked as a jobbing illustrator in the features department of the Associated Press – an organisation that provided top-rated news items but only cheap (if high-quality) filler material such as cartoons, ads, comic strips, recipes, horoscopes, puzzles: All the pages a local newspaper might need but couldn’t afford to produce themselves…

In 1934 Sickles took over the inexplicably popular aviation strip Scorchy Smith from animator & political cartoonist John Terry, after the creator/originator contracted rapid-acting terminal tuberculosis. The publishers required Sickles to emulate Terry’s style, which Sickles diligently did (with his first credited strip on April 2nd 1934) until Terry’s death. At that point he was invited to make the strip his own and – a driven experimenter – he replaced Terry’s scratchy, cross-hatched, intensely feathered methods with a moody impressionism that used volume, solid blacks and a careful manipulation of light sources to tell his tales. He also traded standard proscenium arch layouts for impressionistically styled (if not actually expressionistic), cinematic composition which made backgrounds and scenery an integral part of the story-telling process.

An exceedingly straight action/drama serial about a pilot for hire based on the public persona of Charles Lindbergh, the high-flying exploits of named star Scorchy Smith catalogue the travels of a stout hearted, valiant Knight of the Skies, complete with trusty sidekick, “Heinie”, flying about and Doing Good. That’s it.

Sickles famously never worked to a plan when writing the strip, he just made it up as he went along to avoid boring himself. For an extended exploration of his chimeric art process you should read R C Harvey’s Meanwhile…: a superb biography of Sickles’s friend and studio-mate Milton Caniff, who sat across from the innovator taking notes and making his own inspired style revolutions…

Stories abound that the two frequently collaborated. Certainly, Caniff admitted to helping out with deadlines and story-polishing, but the bold visuals were always the product of a driven and dedicated seeker of artistic truths. The Chiaroscurist style developed by Sickles was adopted by Caniff, although he largely eschewed the lavish use of photomechanical dot-screens Sickles applied to create different flavours of Black in his monochrome masterpieces.

Reprinted in this slim tome are three thrillers from that brief period. ‘Lafarge’s Gold’ (10th October 1935 – January 30th 1936), ‘New York, N. Y.’ (January 31st 1936 – March 18th 1936) and ‘Desert Escape’ (March 19th 1936 – August 14th 1936) all come from the very end of Sickles’ strip career, with a pretty girl swindled out of a goldmine, big-city conmen, and Tuaregs and the Foreign Legion providing admittedly lacklustre narrative maguffins. However, the bravura vivacity and artistic flair employed by Sickles to tell these tales elevate the B-movie plots into breathtaking high art drama by the sheer magnificence of the drawing and design.

Over his tenure, the great experimenter pushed the minor strip’s syndication to over 250 papers, so he asked for a raise. When he was refused, he quit, with his last episode published on October 24th 1936. Noel Sickles left the restricted and drudge-work world of newspaper strips, chasing the greater challenge of higher education. He eventually settled into the more appreciative and challenging magazine illustration field, making new fans in the Saturday Evening Post, Life and Readers Digest. His few months in narrative story-telling changed our entire industry, not so much with what he did, but by the way he did it and who he shared his discoveries with. He is an unsung immortal, and his brief output deserves a commemorative, retrospective collection more than any other creator that I can think of. Until the precious few previous collections are rereleased – and preferably in digitised formats – lost gems like this will have to suffice.
© 1936 The A. P.

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Mac Raboy’s Flash Gordon volume 4


By Mac Raboy & Don Moore, Dan Barry & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-156971-979-9 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

By almost every metric, Flash Gordon is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th 1934 (Happy Birthday Flash!) with equally superb Jungle Jim running as a supplementary “topper” strip, it was a slick, sophisticated answer to Philip Nolan & Dick Calkins’ revolutionary, ideas-packed, inspirational, but quirkily clunky Buck Rogers (which also launched on January 7th – albeit in 1929) with two fresh elements added to the wonderment: Classical Lyricism and Poetic Dynamism. The newcomer became a weekly invitation to stunningly exotic glamour and astonishing beauty.

Where Buck merged traditional adventure with groundbreaking science concepts, Flash reinterpreted fairy tales, hero epics and mythology, draping them in the spectacular trappings of contemporary futurism, with the varying “rays”, “engines” and “motors” of modern pulp sci fi substituting for trusty swords and lances. There were also plenty of those too – and exotic craft and contraptions stood in for galleons, chariots and magic carpets. Look closely, though, and you’ll see cowboys, gangsters and of course, contemporary flying saucer fetishes adding flourish to the fanciful fables. The narrative trick made the far-fetched satisfactorily familiar – and was continued with contemporary trends and innovations by Austin Briggs and Don Moore before Mac Raboy (with Moore and Robert Rogers) took over the Sunday strips for a groundbreakingly modern yet comfortably familiar tenure lasting from 1948 to 1967.

The sheer artistic talent of Raymond, his compositional skills, fine linework, eye for clean, concise detail and just plain genius for drawing beautiful people and things, swiftly made this the strip that all young artists swiped from literally all over the world. When original material comic books began a few years later, many talented kids used Gordon as their model and ticket to future success in the field of adventure strips. Almost all the others went with Raymond’s stylistic polar opposite: emulating Milton Caniff’s expressionist masterwork Terry and the Pirates (and to see one of his better disciples check out Beyond Mars, limned by the wonderful Lee Elias).

Flash Gordon began on present-day Earth (which was 1934, remember?) with a wandering world about to smash into our planet. As global panic ensued, polo player Flash and fellow passenger Dale Arden narrowly escaped disaster when a meteor fragment downed their airliner. They landed on the estate of tormented genius Dr. Hans Zarkov, who imprisoned them in the rocket-ship he had built. His plan? To fly the ship directly at the astral invader and deflect it from Earth by crashing into it! Thus began a decade of sheer escapist magic in a Ruritanian Neverland: a blend of Camelot, Oz, John Carter of Mars and a hundred other fantasy realms promising paradise yet concealing vipers, ogres and demons, all cloaked in a glimmering sheen of sleek scientific speculation. Worthy adversaries such as utterly evil yet magnetic Ming, emperor of the fantastic wandering planet; myriad exotic races and shattering conflicts offered a fantastic alternative to drab and dangerous reality for millions of avid readers around the world.

With Moore handling the bulk of scripts, Alex Raymond’s ‘On the Planet Mongo’ ran every Sunday until 1944, when the artist joined the Marines. On his return, he forsook wild imaginings for sober reality by introducing gentleman gumshoe Rip Kirby. The public’s unmissable weekly appointment with wonderment perforce continued under the artistic auspices of Austin Briggs – who had drawn the monochrome daily instalments since 1940.

In 1948, eight years after beginning his career drawing for the Harry A. Chesler production “shop”, comic book artist Emmanuel “Mac” Raboy took over illustrating the Sunday page. Moore remained as scripter and began co-writing with the new artist. Raboy’s sleek, fine-line brush style – heavily influenced by his idol Raymond – had made his work on Captain Marvel Jr., Kid Eternity and especially Green Lama a pinnacle of artistic quality in the early days of the proliferating superhero genre. His seemingly inevitable assumption of Flash Gordon’s extraordinary exploits led to a renaissance of the strip and in a rapidly evolving post-war world, it became once more a benchmark of timeless, hyper-realistic quality escapism which only Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant could match.

This fourth and final 276-page paperback volume – printed in stark monochrome, landscape format and still criminally out-of-print/long overdue for a fresh edition – spans December 16th 1962 through December 31st 1967 – by which time successor Dan Barry was already adding his artistic contributions to the final chapter (from December 24th). After one last informative appraisal of Raboy in Bruce Jones’ Introduction ‘Walking with Giants’ it’s time for one last blast-off as the adventure resumes with already-in-progress thriller ‘Sons of Saturn’… Sequence SO91 had begun on October 21st 1962 and cliffhangerly closed the previous volume barely weeks in. It resumes here with the episode for December 16th and carries on until January 20th 1963 revealing how the hitherto unsuspected super-civilisation thriving in the clouds of the Sixth Planet is revealed when an Earth probe provokes its current overlord to determine human nature and resource by sending super-criminal outcast Baldr to plague, punish and test them. That results in the indestructible giant breaking into Flash’s ship and going on a rampage, but ultimately alien force proves no match for human – i.e. Flash Gordon’s – ingenuity and the embattled visitors accidentally initiate a sudden and very permanent regime change…

Running from January 27th to April 14th pure cold war paranoia shapes sequence S092. ‘The Force Dome’ sees well-meaning Professor Howe build a perfectly impenetrable protective energy barrier and convince the authorities to let him run a live test by shielding all of Metropole City. When Howe dies suddenly the experiment goes awry and the generators can’t be switched off. Thankfully, Flash and Zarkov are on site and able to avert the crisis before all the air under the city-sized bubble is used up…

It’s back to the beyond next as (S093: 21/4/63 – 14/7/63) finds our hero further testing the bounds of Earth’s recently-developed Faster-Than-Light technologies, with Flash despatched to a far star system to discover what happened to an off-line ‘Star Beacon’ that has stopped providing subspace navigation data. That all sounds quite technical, but it’s just a plot device to enable Flash & Co to wryly clash with cunning alien primitives after which it’s back to Earth and the Himalayas to rescue explorer Bill Penrose from fabled monsters (S094: 21/7/63-17/11/63). However, as Flash digs deeper, he learns these ‘Yeti’ are actually robots employed by extraterrestrial resource bandits to steal uranium, resulting in an epic battle beneath the Earth, before returning to space and a new station orbiting Jupiter. Set on Earth’s newly-constructed interstellar transit station, sequence S095 (24/11/63 to 15/3/1964) sees Dale and Flash accidentally in loco parentis to Miki – an extremely impulsive ‘Boy From Another World’ …and his disruptively radioactive pet Zhlubb…

The furore builds as the star waifs suddenly go missing just as interplanetary bandit trio the Breen Brothers invade the station whilst Flash is testing Zarkov’s latest super-ship, triggering a monumental and manic battle beyond the stars. When the shooting stops and with Miki restored to his parents, Flash finally boosts off in the new FTL vessel, destined for a colony world that has called for help by sending back all its women and children. In truth, the castaways’ return is a bid by aliens on a dying world who seek to inveigle tribute and rations for their starving civilisation by holding the male human colonists hostage.

Backed up by colonist Kitty Corum and rash, overconfident Star Patrol Special Service recruit Dino, Flash’s test ride becomes a rescue/diplomatic mission to the ‘Dark Sun of Dragor’ (S096: 22/3/ to 7/19/64): a most unconventional confrontation that culminates in the death of a star system, followed by a brief diversion. Spanning 26th July to November 8th, sequence S097 sees a family of giant, shapeshifting aliens crash on Earth and their colossal child faces typical panic and bigotry until Dale steps in to salve tensions and save ‘The Chameleon’, prior to sheer arrogance almost destroying the world’s hopes of halting chaotic storms caused by solar flares and securing reliable ‘Man-Made Weather’ (S098: 15/11/64 – 2/14/February 65). The problem is a clash of wills between abrasive Dr Franz Graf and Zarkov, but eventually the meteorological fireworks spark a world-saving inspiration…

Another mountaintop yarn finds Flash and junior shuttle pilot Wally Green captive of the ‘Lost Tribe of the Andes’ (S099: February 21st to 13th June), facing the bellicose descendants of Spanish conquistadors shielded from progress for hundreds of years and ultimately duelling dastardly power-hungry despot-in-waiting El Mono, before a return to modern civilisation brings the first Moon’s Fair and a transport nightmare when the best pilot in space gets involved in transporting Michelangelo’s David to the exhibition site. It all results in ‘The Greatest Art Theft’ (SI00: June 20th – October 10th) as petty tyrant/organised crime overlord Baron Borgaz purloins the masterpiece for his private orbital fiefdom and is vain enough to allow Flash entrance to search his sinister, thug-&-monster-stuffed citadel…

Next comes a yarn older British fans might recognise as part of the 1967 digest series World Adventure Library: a line that also included Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Batman. Here Flash plays space cop in pursuit of devious disguise artist/thief Merlyn, who swindles his way across the solar system and even escapes Gordon’s justice… but not his fate or just deserts in year spanning comedic change-of-pace ‘Con Man in Space’ (SI01: 17/10/1965 to 30/01/1966). It’s followed by ‘A Visit From Mercury’ (February 6th to June 5th ’66 and another tale reprinted in the UK) as a trip to erupting volcano Vesuvius allows “impervium”-clad Flash, Dale & Zarkov to enter a undiscovered base deep in the magma, where visitors fleeing the first rock from the sun are hiding. Sheltered from geological upheaval and basking in Earth’s warmth, they’re ultimately restored to their point of origin with Earth’s aid, but only after Gordon deals with flaming recidivist usurper Janj…

Old-style mystery and monster hunting shapes survival saga ‘Death World’ (SI03: 12/06 – 23/10/66) as Flash and a Space Agency Survival Corps squad led by Sikh commander Singh are despatched to learn what caused the disappearance of an entire human colony and rise of a swathe of killer beasts. What they discover changes lives and the annals of bio-science, before Flash tangles with another low-orbit lowlife when ‘The Duke of Naples’ (SI04: 30th October 1966 – April 2nd 1967) reinstitutes privateering, slave-taking and gladiatorial combat on his private space station in his passionately plutocratic desire to return humanity to feudalism, after which big science engineering finds Flash and Zarkov mediating war between grudge-bearing Madame Mimi Duclos and martinet Godfrey Ledge as each attempts to seize control and complete construction of ‘The Moon Launcher’ (April 9th to July 16th). The ion launch platform is an obvious and permanent boon to human space expansion, but the project takes on desperate urgency after explorers on Pluto encounter trouble and the acceleration launcher offers the only possibility of getting a rescue ship to them in time.

The bitter war between the project chiefs sparks industrial strife, worker mutiny and even criminal changes against Flash’s new best pal Pancho, but sooner rather than later the job is done and Gordon (plus fugitive stowaway Pancho) are rocketing into infernal darkness and Raboy’s last adventure.  Sequence SI06 spans 23/7/1967 to 7/1/1968 (with Dan Barry taking over on December 24th) as the voyagers find the lost explorers but are ‘Captured on Pluto’ by super-advanced aliens playing mindgames and conjuring fantastic worlds and beings in a cosmic scaled romp deeply redolent of 1964 Star Trek pilot episode The Cage…

To Be Continued… by other hands

Each week as he toiled on the strip, Raboy produced ever-more expansive artwork filled with distressed damsels, deadly monsters, incredible civilisations, increasingly authentic space hardware and locales, and all sorts of outrageous adventure that continued until the illustrator’s untimely death in 1967. Perhaps it was a kindness. He was the last great Golden Age romanticist illustrator and his lushly lavish, freely-flowing adoration of perfected human form was beginning to stale in popular taste. The Daily feature had already switched to the solid, chunky, He-Manly burly realism of Dan Barry and Frank Frazetta, but here at least the last outpost of ethereally beautiful heroism and pretty perils still prevailed: a dream realm you can visit as easily and often as Flash, Dale & Zarkov popped between planets, just by tracking down this book and the one which preceded it…
© 2003 King Features Syndicate Inc. ™ & © Hearst Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Batman Annuals volume 2 – DC Comics Classic Library


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, Ed France Herron, Jerry Coleman, David Wood, Sheldon Moldoff, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Dick Sprang, Curt Swan, Charles Paris, Stan Kaye, Ray Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2791-3 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There’s a lot of truly splendid 1940s and 1950s comics material around these days in a lot of impressive formats. DC’s Classics Comics Library hardbacks were a remarkably accessible, collectible range of products – inexplicably still not available in digital editions! – and one of the best is this wonderful aggregation of four of the most influential and beloved comic books of the Silver Age of American comic books.

Batman Annual #1 was released in June 1961, a year after the phenomenally successful Superman Annual #1. The big, bold anthology format was hugely popular with readers. The Man of Steel’s second Annual was rushed out before Christmas and the third came out a mere year after the first. That same month a Secret Origins compilation and the aforementioned Batman Blockbuster all arrived in shops and on newsstands. It’s probably hard to appreciate now but those huge comics – 80 pages instead of 32 with practically no advertising except other comics – were a magical resource with a colossal impact on kids who loved comics. I don’t mean the ubiquitous scruffs, oiks, scofflaws and scallywags of school days who read casually before chucking them away (most kids were comics consumers in the days before computer games) but rather those quiet, secretive few of us who treasured and kept them, constantly re-reading, listing, discussing, pondering, and even making our own. Only posh kids with wicked parents read no comics at all: those prissy, starchy types who were beaten up by the scruffs, oiks and scallywags even more than us bookworms. But I digress…

For budding collectors the Annuals were a gateway to a fabulous lost past. Just Imagine!: adventures your heroes had from before you were even born…

Those fantastic innovative aggregations in the early 1960s changed comics publishing. Soon Marvel, Charlton, and Archie were also releasing giant books of old stories, then came new ones, crossovers, continued stories. Annuals proved two things to publishers: that there was a dedicated, long-term appetite for more material – and that punters were willing to pay a little bit more for it. This hardback compendium completes a set by gathering Batman Annuals #4-7 (from 1963-1966) in their mythic entirety: 33 terrific complete stories, stunning pin-ups and especially all those magnificently iconic compartmentalized covers. Also included are original publication details and credits (the only bad thing about those big books of magic was never knowing “Who” and “Where”); creator biographies and another reminiscing Introduction from Michael Uslan, putting the entire nostalgic experience into perspective.

Way back then editors sagely packaged Annuals as themed collections, the first here being The Secret Adventures of Batman and Robin (released November 8th 1962) which started the ball rolling with ‘The First Batman’ (by Bill Finger & Sheldon Moldoff as originally seen in Detective Comics #235, September 1956): a key story of this period, introducing a strong psychological component to Batman’s origins by disclosing how, when Bruce Wayne was still a toddler, his father had clashed with gangsters whilst clad in a fancy dress bat costume…

‘Am I Really Batman?’ (Finger, Moldoff & Charles Paris; Batman #112, December 1957) saw bona fide mad scientist Professor Milo poison the hero with a rare plant, forcing Robin and Alfred to put the Masked Manhunter through a baffling psychological ordeal to counteract the toxin…

Today fans are pretty used to a vast battalion of bat-themed champions haunting Gotham City and its troubled environs, but for the longest time it was just Bruce, Dick Grayson and occasionally borrowed dog Ace keeping crime on the run. However, with Detective #233 (July 1956, and 3 months before The Flash’s debut officially ushered in the Silver Age) editorial powers-that-be introduced vivacious heiress Kathy Kane who – for the next eight years – incessantly suited-up in chiropteran red & yellow. Edmond Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris premiered ‘Origin of the Batwoman’ with a former circus acrobat bursting into Batman’s life, challenging him to discover her secret identity at the risk of exposing his own…

The Boy Wonder began very publicly working solo after ‘The Vanished Batman’ (Hamilton, Moldoff & Stan Kaye, (Batman #101, August 1956) saw the Gotham Gangbuster declared dead and presumed gone by the underworld whilst ‘The Phantom of the Bat-Cave’ (Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris, Batman #99, April 1956) offered a genuine mystery as persons unknown began somehow stealing/replacing items from the heroes’ sacrosanct trophy room. ‘Batman’s College Days’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Batman #96, December 1955) saw Bruce Wayne on a sea cruise with three fellow alumni, one of whom planned murder and had deduced his alter ego, after which ‘The Marriage of Batman and Batwoman’ (Finger, Moldoff & Ray Burnley, Batman #122, March 1959) depicted Robin’s nightmares should such a nuptial event occur whereas ‘The Second Boy Wonder’ (France Herron, Moldoff & Burnley, Batman #105, February 1957) was all too real as a stranger apparently infiltrated the Batcave by impersonating the kid crimebuster. The Annual ended with ‘The Man who Ended Batman’s Career’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris; Detective #247, September 1957) presenting a significantly different-looking Professor Milo using psychological warfare and scientific mind-control to attack the Dark Knight by inducing a fear of bats…

The next Annual, released in summer 1963, highlighted The Strange Lives of Batman and Robin, opening with ‘The Power that Doomed Batman’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, DC #268 June 1959) as exposure to a comet gifts the Dark Knight with super-strength. Sadly, the effect is also cumulatively fatal, forcing them into a desperate hunt for a missing man possessing a cure. The same creative team dredged up ‘The Merman Batman’ (Batman #118, September 1958) wherein an lightning strike transforms the Caped Crimebuster into a water-breather, aroused ‘Rip Van Batman’ (Batman #119, October 1958) who fell into a plant-induced coma to seemingly awake in the future and corralled ‘The Zebra Batman’ (Detective Comics #275, January 1960) when the hero becomes an uncontrollable human magnet…

‘The Grown-Up Boy Wonder’ (Finger, Moldoff & Kaye, Batman #107, April 1957) details what happens when space gas turns the likely lad into a strapping young man – but only in body, not mind – after which World’s Finest Comics #109 (May 1960) reveals Robin & Superman’s tense race to save Gotham’s Guardian from an ancient curse in ‘The Bewitched Batman’ by Jerry Coleman, Curt Swan & Moldoff. ‘The Phantom Batman’ (Hamilton, Dick Sprang & Paris, Batman #110, September 1957) shows how an electrical mishap reverses the polarity of the Caped Crusader’s atoms, relegating him to helpless intangibility, before the uncanny yarns end with ‘The Giant Batman’ (DC #243 May 1957, by the same team and originally entitled ‘Batman the Giant!’). Here our hero is exposed to a well-meaning scientist’s “Maximizer” ray and grows too large to catch the thieves who stole it and the antidote…

Six months later Batman Annual #6 (Winter 1963-1964) featured Batman and Robin’s Most Thrilling Mystery Cases, kicking off with ‘Murder at Mystery Castle’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Detective #246 August 1957) as visitors – Batman & Robin included – to a reconstructed medieval fortress witness a devilish remote control killing and must deduce who set the fiendish trap…

‘The Gotham City Safari’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris; Batman #111, October 1957) saw the Dynamic Duo hunting a hidden killer through a fabulous theme-park of exotic locales whilst ‘The Mystery of the Sky Museum’ (Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris; Batman #94, September 1955) finds them at an aviation museum on the trail of sinister smugglers. Next, Hamilton, Sprang & Paris’ ‘The Mystery of the Four Batmen’ (Batman #88, December 1954) is a seagoing enigma with the Partners in Peril seeking a mysterious smuggler with a tenuous connection to bats in one form or another, after which a movie monster makes trouble on location, compelling the crimebusting champions to tackle ‘The Creature from the Green Lagoon’ (David Wood, Moldoff & Paris; D C #252 February 1958)…

A stunning chase to expose a killer searching for a lost golden hoard involved solving ‘The Map of Mystery’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Paris; Batman #91, April 1955), before a disgruntled family member seemingly threatens to kill every member of ‘The Danger Club’ (Hamilton, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Paris; Batman #76, April/May 1953). The astounding sleuthing only ceases after uncovering ‘Doom in Dinosaur Hall’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Detective Comics #255 May 1958) where the curator’s murder at Gotham’s Mechanical Museum of Natural History led to a fantastic chase and a surprise culprit…

Summer 1964 spawned Batman Annual #7 and Thrilling Adventures of the Whole Batman Family: beginning by introducing the hero’s most controversial “partner” – a pestiferous, prank-playing extra-dimensional elf – in ‘Batman Meets Bat-Mite’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris; Detective #267 May 1959), after which eponymous masked dog Ace narrates ‘The Secret Life of Bat-Hound’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris; Batman #125, August 1959) and his part in capturing the nefarious Midas Gang. Finger, Moldoff & Paris enlarge the clan in Batman #139 (April 1961), ‘Introducing Bat-Girl’ as Kathy Kane’s niece Betty starts dressing up and acting out as an unwanted assistant, eventually proving adults and boys wrong by taking down the deadly King Cobra and his crew, before Hamilton delivers the only adventure of ‘The Dynamic Trio’ (DC #245 July 1957), with a very old friend donning cape and cowl as Mysteryman to help combat a smuggling ring facilitating the escape of Gotham’s fugitives. Courtesy of Finger, Moldoff & Paris, faithful manservant Alfred personally reveals an early failure and shocking resolution in ‘The Secret of Batman’s Butler’ (Batman #110; September 1957) before ‘The New Team of Superman and Robin’ (Finger, Swan & Moldoff; WFC # 75, March/April 1955) depicts how disabled Batman can only fret and fume as his erstwhile assistant seemingly dumps him for a better man…

When Bat-Mite elects himself ‘Batwoman’s Publicity Agent’ (Finger & Moldoff; Batman #133, August 1960), the result is chaos and unbridled craziness, but not as much as an “Imaginary Story” devised by Alfred debuting ‘The Second Batman and Robin Team’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris: Batman #131, April 1960) which would inevitably emerge after Bruce and Kathy wed and Dick assumes the mantle of the bat…

Moldoff’s unforgettable back page pin-up ‘Greetings from the Batman Family’ wraps up this final glimpse at simpler but wilder times. Strange, addictive and still potently engrossing, these weird wonder tales typify a lost era of gentler danger, more wholesome evil and irresistible fun. They’re also impossibly compelling, incredibly illustrated and undeniably influential. A perfect treat for young and old alike and anyone who came to the characters via Saturday morning cartoons…
© 1962, 1963, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Fantastic Four – Full Circle


By Alex Ross, with Josh Johnson & Ariana Maher (MARVEL Arts)
ISBN: 978-1-4197-6167-6 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-64700-781-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Irresistibly Pure, Primal Pandering Nonsense… 8/10

Jacob Kurtzberg – AKA Jack Curtiss, Curt Davis, Lance Kirby, Ted Grey, Charles Nicholas, Fred Sande, Teddy, The King and others – did lots of stuff but most significantly inspired millions if not billions of people by drawing his ideas. This book is one of the most impressive examples of how that all worked out…

Fantastic Four #1 is the third most important comic book ever, behind Action Comics #1 – which introduced Superman and formalised the subgenre we call superheroes – and All Star Comics #3, which invented superhero teams via the debut of The Justice Society of America. Feel free to disagree.

After a troubled period at DC Comics (National Periodicals as it then was) and a creatively productive but disheartening time on the poisoned chalice of the Sky Masters newspaper strip (see Complete Sky Masters of the Space Force), Kirby settled into a presumed temp job at the dying outfit that was once publishing powerhouse Timely/Atlas Comics. There he churned out high quality mystery, monster, war, romance and western material in a market he feared was ultimately doomed, as always doing the best job possible. That generic fare is regarded as the best of its kind ever seen. His soaring imagination couldn’t be suppressed for long, however, and when the Justice League of America caught the public’s collective attention, it gave him and writer/editor Stan Lee opportunity to change our industry forever by creating an opportunistic cash-in called The Fantastic Four.

The result took those same fans by storm. It wasn’t the powers: they’d all been seen since the beginning of the medium. It wasn’t the costumes because they didn’t have any until the third issue. It was Kirby’s compelling art and the fact that these characters weren’t anodyne cardboard cut-outs. In a real and recognizable location – New York City – imperfect, raw-nerved, touchy outsider people banded together out of tragedy, disaster and necessity to face the incredible. In many ways, The Challengers of the Unknown (Jack’s prototype partners-in-peril for National/DC) had already laid all the groundwork for the wonders to come, but staid, nigh-hidebound editorial strictures of the market leader would never have allowed the undiluted energy of the concept to run all-but-unregulated.

Concocted by “Lee & Kirby”, with inks by George Klein & Christopher Rule, FF #1 (bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961) saw maverick scientist Dr. Reed Richards summon fiancée Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s teenaged brother before heading off on their first mission. They are all survivors of a private space-shot that went horribly wrong when Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and mutated them all. Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and tragic Ben devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. It was crude, rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement unlike anything young fans had ever seen before. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on it and the raw storytelling caught a wave of change starting to build in America. It and succeeding issues changed comic books forever.

So much so that this slim yet epic arts extravaganza by uberfan/creator Alex Ross (Marvels, Kingdom Come, Astro City, Project Superpowers) dipped into one specific issue and the era encompassing it to create his next leap in sequential graphic storytelling.

Co-produced by Marvel and Abrams ComicArts, Fantastic Four: Full Circle is a vividly vibrant pastiche of and thematic sequel to what many fans consider the greatest single FF story ever. Illustrated by Kirby and inked by Joe Sinnott, ‘This Man… This Monster!’ saw Ben Grimm’s grotesque body usurped and stolen by a vengeful, petty-minded scientist harbouring a grudge against Reed. The anonymous boffin subsequently discovered the true measure of his unsuspecting intellectual rival and willingly paid a fateful price for his envy…

By this time the monthly title was the most consistently groundbreaking publication in Marvel’s stable: the indisputable core of its ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation. As the forge for fresh concepts and characters at a time when Kirby was in his conceptual prime and unleashing his vast imagination, Fantastic Four was the most passionate superhero comic series fans had ever seen, and here Ross combines his own response to that: incorporating other milestones of those moments into a visually stunning tale set amidst that marvellous milieu.

Although this hark-back to halcyon days is literally all about the visual verve, fanboys like me can also be assured that continuity and characterisation are also faithful extrapolations – albeit with the painful sixties gender stereotyping given a thorough going over – of what has gone before, augmenting a spectacular tribute to those glory days…

The initial release in a proposed range of high end experimental graphic narratives, Full Circle opens with someone the first family never thought they’d see again almost unleashing an insectile invasion from the Negative Zone. Saddling up, Sue, Reed, Ben and Johnny return to the antimatter universe in search of answers and uncover a deadly plot, a miraculous revelation, an unsuspected new world to explore and a series of shocking surprises, as well as more mischief in the making from former foes Annihilus and Janus the Nega-Man…

As “the first longform work” written and illustrated by Ross, this is an explosion of colour, wild layouts, narrative sallies and retro psychedelia, with additional colour input from Josh Johnson and Ariana Maher putting the words in to get as close to reviving the long gone past as any incurable nostalgic could ever want.
© 2022 MARVEL.

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Christmas Comes to Moominvalley


By Tove Jansson, adapted by Alex Haridi & Cecilia Davidsson, illustrated by Filippa Widlund, translated by A. A. Prime (Macmillan Children’s Books)
ISBN: 978-1-5290-0362-8 (HB) 978-1-5290-0363-5 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-5290-5762-1

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: All the Christmas You Ever Wanted… 9/10

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

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and rather bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914. Patriarch Viktor was a sculptor and mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson a successful illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars – AKA “Lasse” – and Per Olov became – respectively – an author, cartoonist and art photographer. The family and its close intellectual, eccentric circle of friends seems to have been cast rather than born, with a witty play or challenging sitcom as the piece they were all destined to inhabit.

After extensive intensive study (from 1930-1938 at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, the Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris), Tove became a successful exhibiting artist through the troubled period of the Second World War. Brilliantly creative across many fields, she published the first fantastic Moomins adventure in 1945. Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood or latterly and much more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood) was a whimsical epic of gently inclusive, acceptingly understanding, bohemian misfit trolls and their rather odd friends…

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

Moomintroll was her signature character. Literally.

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

The term “Moomin” originated with her maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop her pilfering food when she visited, by warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. Over time Snork/Moomin plumped up, filled out and became timidly nicer – if a little clingy and insecure. He became a placid therapy-tool to counteract the grimness of the post-war world. The Moomins and the Great Flood didn’t make much of an initial impact but Jansson persisted, probably as much for her own edification as any other reason, and in 1946 published second book Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland).

Many commentators believe the terrifying tale a skilfully compelling allegory of Nuclear Armageddon. In truth, an undercurrent of bleak anxiety and the dangers of imminent unwanted change underpins all of her Moomin tales, subtly addressing the fact that the world is a wonderful but also scary, dangerous place beyond our control, and why we should value friends and family and always welcome the needy and all strangers. You should read it now… while you still can.

When it and third illustrated novel Trollkarlens hatt (1948, Finn Family Moomintroll AKA sometimes The Happy Moomins) were translated – to great acclaim – into English in 1952, it prompted British publishing giant Associated Press to commission a newspaper strip about her seductively sweet and sensibly surreal creations. Jansson had no misgivings or prejudices about strip cartoons and had already adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Mumintrollet och jordens undergäng. Moomintrolls and the End of the World was a popular feature so Jansson readily accepted the chance to extend her eclectic family across the world. In 1953, The London Evening News began the first of 21 Moomin strip sagas which promptly captivated readers of all ages. Jansson’s involvement in the cartoon feature ended in 1959, a casualty of its own success and a punishing publication schedule. So great was the strain that towards the end she recruited brother Lars to help. He took over, continuing the feature until its end in 1975.

Liberated from the strip’s pressures, she returned to painting, writing and her other creative pursuits, generating plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera and nine more Moomin-related picture-books and novels, as well as 13 books and short-story collections strictly for grown-ups. Tove Jansson died on June 27th 2001. Her awards are too numerous to mention, but consider this: how many artists get their faces on the national currency?

Whenever such a creative force passes on, the greatest tragedy is that there will be no more marvels and masterpieces. Happily, so tirelessly prolific was Tove that her apparently endless bounty bequeathed plenty of material for later creators and collaborators to pick over. One such example is this glorious picture book, part of a series using her characters and adapted from her short story The Fir Tree. Like previously recommended picture book The Invisible Guest in Moominvalley, this moving, thought-provoking yarn was a short story in 1962’s Det osynliga barnet (Tales from Moominvalley) and has been reprinted many times in a bunch of varying formats. It’s been adapted to television too, if you have one of those…

Moomintrolls are easy-going free spirits: rounded modern bohemians untroubled by domestic mores and unwelcome or intrusive societal pressures. Moominmama is warm, kindly tolerant and capable, if perhaps too concerned with propriety and appearances, whilst devoted spouse Moominpappa spends most of his time trying to rekindle his adventurous youth or dreaming of fantastic journeys. Their son Moomin is a meek, dreamy boy with confusing ambitions. He adores and moons over permanent houseguest the Snorkmaiden – although that flighty gamin prefers to play things slowly whilst waiting for somebody potentially better…

Heartwarming with a hidden edge and packing plenty of impact to balance the fun and charm, this beguiling picture tale is adapted by Alex Haridi & Cecilia Davidsson with Jansson’s unique imagery translated by prolific comics star/book illustrator Filippa Widlund.

Here the adaptors have sustained the shocking wonder of a close, loving family, who, due to the Moomintroll habit of hibernation, have never heard of Christmas… until a Hemulen digs down to their snowcapped attic to loudly warn them that Christmas is coming…

Awakened, aroused and much afeared, the family frantically canvas the neighbours – and everyone else rushing about – and hear of the bizarre litany of tasks they must accomplish before it’s all too late! With fading hopes of doing all that catching up and tree decorating and tribute wrapping and food finding necessary to appease the clearly savage and utterly unreasonable beast that is Christmas, the family set to and do their very best…

However, as they all pitch in and do as the neighbours do, fear fades a bit and a little miracle happens…

Witty, engaging, sentimental and deeply moving, every youngster’s perfect introduction to sequential narratives, and a beguiling reminder to oldsters why we love them…
© Moomin Characters™. All rights reserved.

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Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years Omnibus volume two


By Gaylord DuBois & Jesse Marsh (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-294-9 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Dynamic Days-Gone-By Derring Do … 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

I don’t know an awful lot about Jesse Marsh, other than that he was born on 27th July 1907 and died far too young: on April 28th 1966 from diabetic complications at the height of a TV Tarzan revival he was in large part responsible for. What I do know, however, is that to my unformed, pre-fanboy, kid’s mentality, his drawings were somehow better than most of the other artists and that every other kid who read comics in my school disagreed with me.

There’s a phrase we used to use at 2000 AD that summed it up: “Artist’s artist”, which usually meant someone whose fan-mail divided equally into fanatical raves and bile-filled hate-mail. It seems there are some makers of comic strips that many readers simply don’t get.

It isn’t about the basic principles or artistic quality or even anything tangible – although you’ll hear some cracking justifications: “I don’t like his feet” (presumably the way he draws them) and “it just creeps me out” being my two favourites. Never forget in the 1980s DC were told by the Comics Code Authority that Kevin O’Neill’s entire style and manner of Drawing was unacceptable to American readers!

I got Jesse Marsh.

Like many Western Publishing stalwarts Jesse Mace Marsh originally worked for Disney Studios (1939-1948) as an animator on projects including Pinocchio and Fantasia. His first comics work appeared in 1945, and he continued as a staff artist until his death in 1966. In addition to his Tarzan contributions, he illustrated Gene Autry, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and more, as well as John Carter of Mars: three 4-Color series issues. In this second compilation, hyper-prolific Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois (August 24th 1899 – October 20th 1993) is scripter as – nourished by a burgeoning movie franchise, radio, newspaper and new novels – the comic book Ape-Man phenomenon grew and steadied for the long haul. The editor/scripter (for ALL the Tarzan titles and spin-offs, Lone Ranger, Lost in Space, Turok, Son of Stone, Brothers of the Spear, Lassie, Andy Panda, Red Ryder, Tom and Jerry, Bonanza and so many more) would be Marsh’s creative collaborator for the next 19 years.

Situated on the West Coast, Western’s Dell/Gold Key imprints rivalled DC and Marvel at the height of their powers, and the licensee famously never capitulated to the wave of anti-comics hysteria that resulted in the crippling self-censorship of the 1950s. No Dell Comics ever displayed a Comics Code Authority symbol on the cover – they never needed to…

Marsh jobbed around adapted movie properties – mostly westerns – until 1948 when Dell introduced the first all-new Tarzan comic book. The newspaper strip had been running since January 1929 and all previous collections and funnybook releases had featured expurgated and modified reprints of those exploits. Everything changed with Dell Four Color Comic #134 (February 1947) which offered a lengthy, captivating tale of the Ape-Man, scripted by Robert P. Thompson. He had also written both the Tarzan radio show and the aforementioned syndicated strip. link to Tarzan and the Adventurers please.

‘Tarzan and the Devil Ogre’ was very much in the Burroughs tradition: John Clayton, Lord Greystoke and his friend Paul D’Arnot aid a young woman in rescuing her lost father from a hidden tribe ruled over by a monster. The engrossing yarn was made magical by the simple, underplayed magic of a heavy brush line and absolutely unmatched design sense. Marsh was unique in the way he positioned characters in space, employing primitivist forms and hidden shapes to augment his backgrounds. He was a fanatical researcher: his trees, rocks, and constructions were 100% accurate. His animals and natives, especially children and women, were all distinct and recognisable; not the badly-shaded stock figures in grass skirts that even the greatest artists so often resorted to.

Marsh also knew when to draw big and draw small: the internal dynamism of his work is spellbinding. His Africa became mine, and as the try-out comic book was an instant hit he stuck around for decades. Dell never messed with something that was already working. Marsh and Thompson’s Tarzan returned with two tales in Dell Four Color Comic #161, cover-dated August 1947. That was remarkable: Four Colour was a catch-all title showcasing literally hundreds of different licensed properties in rotation, often as many as ten separate and stunningly diverse issues per month. So rapid a return engagement meant pretty solid sales figures…

Following a gracious and wondering Foreword by Gilbert Hernandez discussing the sheer ubiquity of Tarzan comics in households – particularly Latino ones – we return to distant days of rampaging fantasy, garnished by yet another warning from me. In past reviews I’ve described how this character comes with lots of inbuilt colonial baggage and an unhealthy side-order of appalling white supremacy for those readers pre-sensitised pro or con. What I haven’t addressed is the sheerly shocking death toll of animals, killed for food, for sport or because someone needs an action scene proving how cruel villains are or how mighty the hero is. This is not a book for vegans or animal activists, okay?

Volume Two gathers the pertinent material from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan #5-10, spanning September/October 1948 through July/August 1949) and includes (line art) covers and back covers by eventual painter/illustrator Morris Gollub. Most issues also include two colour frontispieces and endpieces offering lessons in ‘Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary’, prompting millions of kids everywhere to shout “Kreegah! Bundolo!” and “Tantor, ho!” in the playground and look like complete loons trying to talk to baboons and monkeys every time we visited a zoo…

The dramas resume with Tarzan #5 (September/October 1948) with harsh morality play ‘Tarzan and the Men of Greed’. Here, wife Jane and son Boy (latterly “Korak”) are kidnapped by American gangsters and a bandit sheikh as a means of forcing Tarzan to bring them and their army of African bandits to the lost treasure vaults of Opar. After an arduous trek, and terrifying ascent of an ancient escarpment, the thieves learn to their eternal cost why it’s not healthy to antagonise the legendary Ape-Man…

As well as the epic 33 page saga and the opportunity to practise primate patois “Mangani to Paco” there’s a stunning back cover pinup of the forest family before – cover dated November/December 1948 – we dig deep into the novels’ mythology for #6 as ‘Tarzan and the Outlaws of Pal-ul-don’ sees Jane abducted (again!). This time it’s raiders from a primordial enclave first introduced in eighth novel Tarzan the Terrible (1921), necessitating man and boy chasing the perfidious primitives all the way back to their lost realm. This is a huge oasis of jungles, mountains, dinosaurs and evolutionary dead-ends at the centre of a vast desert and results in reunion with old Waz-don ally Om-At and war with bandit nation Ho-Don, using Triceratops as tanks…

Following another pin-up, Tarzan #7 (January/February 1949) finds the family back home, and bored Tarzan making a hot air balloon. His efforts lead to more trouble when Boy and his Waziri friend Dombie are accidentally caught when it breaks loose and transported to a land of terrors. ‘Tarzan and the Valley of the Monsters’ sees the Jungle Lord and his ally Muviro (Dombie’s dad) give chase in a plane until brought down by Pterodactyls. From there it’s all fight and flight from giant lizard and volcanoes until the humans are reunited and heading home again.

Morris Gollub takes over covers and pin-up duties with #8 (March/April 1949) as the lost quartet continue the trek home. Traversing mountains and deserts, they almost fail until meeting a strange albino tribe in ‘Tarzan and the White Pygmies’, and in return for aid when they need it most teach their benefactors modern warfare by introducing them to archery, and saving them from predation by legions of giant vultures…

Cover-dated May/June 1949, issue #9 returns to Pal-ul-don as ‘Tarzan and the Men of A-lur’ sees King Ja-Don usurped by surly vassal Dak-Lot, propelling Tarzan, Boy and even Jane into a full-scale civil war (with lots of comparatively shocking violence for a Golden Age comic book!) as humans, pre-men, cave bears, dinosaurs and modern elephants clash to decide the fate of the kingdom time forgot…

This second time-wracked voyage to the past pauses with Tarzan #10 (July/August 1949) as the epic page counts drop to allow side stories and a greater range of fun. Main event ‘Tarzan and the Treasure of the Bolgani’ is a pure sci fi romp as the Ape-man and his Waziri subjects are captured by intelligent gorillas who shrink them to half size so that they can mine gems for them. When the process goes awry, Tarzan becomes a hyper-dense (Must you? Really?) tiny titan who leads a revolt and ends a threat to all of Africa, after which DuBois and Marsh begin years of light-hearted backup tales as Boy tries to avoid his chores and learns to regret running off to become ‘The Baboons’ King’…

Although these are tales from a far-off, simpler time they have lost none of their passion, inclusivity and charm, whilst the artistic virtuosity of Marsh looks better than ever. Perhaps this time a few more people will “get” him, especially if the rest of this series finally makes the jump to digital editions as Volume One has…
Edgar Rice Burroughs® Tarzan®: The Jesse Marsh Years Omnibus Volume Two © 1948, 1949, 2009, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. Tarzan ® Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. All rights reserved.

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Roy Rogers King of the Cowboys: The Collected Dailies and Sundays


By Albert Laws Stoffel, Mike Arens, Hy Mankin, Al, Bob, Chuck & Tom McKimson, John Ushler, Pete Alvarado, Alex Toth & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-932563-51-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Classic Holiday Fare & Your Granddad’s Delight … 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

If you live long enough, you will either calcify into a barking reactionary nightmare-to-know or possibly spend your last days wracked with shame and guilt: an apologist for your life and loves. It’s especially true in film and comics, where suspect or devalued prior cultural modes and mores can slap happily-woke, proudly re-informed You right in the face as soon as you start.

A conscience is a wonderful thing but so is the ability to realise how components of your idealised past were not so golden and glorious for everyone. It may be hard to admit, but lots of great old stuff had ethical sell-by dates and now can’t be more than purely historical or aesthetic artefacts but not comprehensively accepted popular entertainment. So BIG NOs to race/ethnic/religious humour, sexist attitudes and exploitation, gender suppression, white/male supremacy, cultural appropriation in all forms, anything claiming to be “just banter”, and everything else I’ve missed. You literally know what I mean.

If you have a fondness or connection to any kind of cross-generational entertainment you are at risk of this phenomenon. Take a good hard listen to almost any pop song lyric from 1956  onwards and think “stalker?” And just how rapey do leading men need to be before they are seen as villains?

As an ancient Briton, I personally suffer from a nostalgic sin. I love so many comic strips where casual and pointless female nudity is a given, and periodical comics tales where chicks put on skimpy costumes just to serve sandwiches, get held captive or be told “no dear”. I have argued art-appreciation and acknowledged sublime illustrative talent but it’s still gratification via nudity…

And yet there are still comics, films, shows, records, posters and books that I will ask you to exempt, accept and explore for what I consider worthwhile reasons.

One of the most tricky subsets of this quandary is westerns. In almost every aspect and platform this overwhelmingly popular genre just can’t be defended without a raft of caveats and picky exemptions. Root and branch, westerns are a shoddy defence and inadequate alibi for brutal colonialism, constructed by victors to whitewash and justify their sins. But again, there are so, so many really entertaining ones…

If any fellow shameful hypocrites are still with me, I’m not saying some things deserve a pass because of exculpatory artistic merits, but only asking that if you admire such wonderful “guilty-pleasure” arts and stories, keep foremost in mind that what you see is not the same as what others may. The same of course applies to anyone I’ve offended with the previous pontificating paragraphs. Yes, it is your childhood, and yes it was great and did you no appreciable harm, but you are not the only past and potential consumer of such material, whether Cowboys & Indians yarns, husbands & boyfriends who’ll “be watching you” or the latest Irish or poof joke…

Moving on…

Born Leonard Franklin Slye on November 5th 1911, American – and for a while, global – cultural touchstone Roy Rogers was a hugely popular entertainer who started as a rodeo performer and singing cowboy and built an empire on a folksy yet heroic image and fictionalised life. As a singer and actor (live shows, 90 movies, radio serials and more) he was a household name even before conquering the new medium of television. From 1951-1957, Roy, wife Dale Evans, horse Trigger and faithful dog Bullet were weekly invited into everybody’s home and enjoyed a mini-empire of comic books, strips. Rogers died on July 8th 1998. Unlike many contemporary media icons, he has not sustained his celebrity much beyond his generation of fans even though his name – and Trigger’s – remain an aspect of colloquial folklore.

While at his acme, however, Roy Rogers merchandise was exemplary. Artists such as John Buscema and Nat Edson drew his comic books (which sold north of 2 million copies per issue in the late 1950s), and his personalised toy guns, archery gear and cowboy/cowgirl playsets topped Christmas shopping lists. As seen in this curated compilation, the syndicated strip drew upon gifted but usually uncredited journeymen artists like Mike Arens, Hy Mankin, Al, Bob, Chuck & Tom McKimson, John Ushler and Pete Alvarado, and employed gifted ghosts and part-timers like Alex Toth.

Running seven days a week for 12 years, Roy Rogers King of the Cowboys graced 186 papers across America. As with all Hermes volumes, the vintage material is supplemented by picture-packed essays and editorial additions. Here that begins with Foreword ‘Roy Rogers and waiting at the Newsstand’, penned by his son Roy “Dusty” Rogers Jr., and precedes Tim Lasiuta’s Introduction ‘Roy Rogers, the 1950s, and the Funnies’ offering background, context and artist biographical data amidst many glorious illustrations including painted comic book covers, candid photos, panel details, and fabulous merch items such as fan club cards, movie posters, lunchboxes, press stills, original art and more.

The storytelling (by journalist Albert Laws Stoffel), and art are exemplary, and it’s a shame this is a commemorative celebratory selection rather than complete collection. Unlike many similar western strips of the era, the Rogers experience was vaguely contemporary, and family oriented, with action and violence taking a backseat to domestic drama, humour and mysteries suitable to children.

Opening the comics section and spanning January 2nd to February 17th 1950, ‘The Shasta Valley Dam’ details daily how a local irrigation project is almost scuttled by a selfish landowner, putting ranch owner Roy and old pal/travelling salesman Willie Dooley through a gauntlet of pacy perils, promptly followed by ‘Jack Spratt’ (January 2nd to February 17th), wherein our hero helps the sheriff of Jericho capture ghostly bandit “The Stick”…

Portly but astonishingly spry and astute “Zumaho Medicine Man” ‘Two Shadow’ (April 17th – June 10th) requests the Rogers touch when his tribe are framed for crimes and dangerous recidivism next, tumultuously causing chaos all around before leading to the exposure of a rich white man’s plot to deprive the tribe of oil deposits beneath their lands.

Pausing briefly to enjoy original art for a Roy Rogers Colouring Book, comics fun resumes with ‘Chili’ (June 12th – August 5th) as Willie Dooley discovers his dream of settling down endangered when hydraulic engineers divert all the region’s waters for illicit mining. Thankfully a sharp little Mexican kid is on hand to point out a solution, but not before an uncharacteristic and violent protracted shooting battle breaks out…

More colouring book art carries us into ‘The Sheep-Cattle War’ (August 7th – September 30th) as Roy is made deputy marshal of Peace City to quell a manufactured crisis that only benefits enigmatic bandit chief The Shroud, but also somehow helps a local business casualty get even richer, after which 1950’s daily dilemmas conclude with ‘The Stagecoach Race’ (October 2nd – November 25th). The stories all very much mirror the plots of the movie and TV serials that inspired them, and this was no doubt exactly what the franchise holders and reading public wanted as in this much-told tale of rival businesses competing for a stagecoach contract with Roy in the middle of sassy, gun-totin’ owners’ daughters and evil entrepreneurs…

As with many strips of the era, Roy Rogers Dailies and Sunday strips told separate stories. Here credited to Al McKimson and in full colour is ‘The Charity Carnival’ (August 21st – November 20th 1955) as Roy ends the cheating ways of a bunch of fairground folk before joining little Chili – from March 4th to 27th May 1956 – in stopping the ‘Attempted Murder’ of a man who’s been dead for 50 years…

Covering 26th May to September 1st 1957, ‘Bride By Mail’ offers a comedy break when a woman contracted to marry a man she’s never met expresses her anger that the hubby sent her a picture of Roy instead for his own far less attractive face. Cue a disgruntled wedding party and much gun-waving until the real sender of the picture is exposed as well as his greedy reason…

The storytelling concludes with Roy exposing scuba divers mimicking sea monsters for nefarious purposes in ‘Underwater Mystery’ (24th August to November 23rd 1958) before we return to academia with Daniel Herman’s copiously illustrated essay ‘Roy Rogers and the Art of Alex Toth’, revealing the graphic maestro’s previously unheralded contributions, before ending with another tranche of ‘Memorabilia’…

A treasure very much of its time, but with enough intrinsic charm and artistic merit to be worth a cautious modern revisit, Roy Rogers King of the Cowboys: The Collected Dailies and Sundays is an acquired taste that might just make a select comeback.
© 2011 The Roy Rogers Family Entertainment Corporation, reprinted with permission.  Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Identity Crisis 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition


By Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales & Michael Bair & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-2592-5 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Dark Highlights Not to Be Forgotten… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

For most of us older acolytes, comics – drenched as they are in childhoods shared and solitary – are a nostalgic wonderland as much as fantasy playground. We grew up with certain characters and they mean a lot to us. It’s often a wrench to share such golden moments with other – usually new or just younger – disciples, especially if those new guys have different notions on what we communally cherish.

Jam-packed with all the heroes and villains and supporting cast Silver Agers and Boomers grew up with, 2004 miniseries Identity Crisis was, more than any other, the story that changed the tone and timbre of the DC universe forever.

For such an impressive, far-reaching comics event, the core collection is a rather slim and swift read. Whilst the serialised comic book drove the narrative forward in the manner of a whodunit, most of the character by-play and staggeringly tectonic ripples of the bare-bones murder-mystery at the heart of the story could only be properly experienced in interlinked, individual issues of involved (or perhaps “implicated”) titles. As this was all absorbed week-by-week, month-by-month, the cumulative effect was both bewildering and engrossing, and I doubt that such a muti-level entertainment experience could be duplicated or even attempted in traditional publishing… or any other medium.

Comprising and compiling Identity Crisis #1-7, with additional editorial material from Identity Crisis, Absolute Edition, this potent memento mori opens with an ‘Introduction by Dan Didio’ explaining some hows and whys of the tale. Still controversial after all these years, the plot unfolds next, involving DC heroes brutally, painfully and uncompromisingly re-assessing their careers whilst frantically hunting a murderer.

This assailant struck too close to home however, killing Sue Dearborn-Dibny, the beloved and adored-by-all wife of second-string hero/deceptively top drawer detective The Elongated Man. The deed is done in ‘Coffin’, exposing a toxic ‘House of Lies’ and leading to escalating incidents that point to a cape-&-cowl ‘Serial Killer’ on the rampage. However, with heroes at each other’s throats and cuttingly questioning past mistakes – especially a very vocal younger generation of costumed champions only just learning of cover-ups and dubious decisions made by their mentors – eventually, rational heads and deductive procedures force distraught protagonists to ask ‘Who Benefits’.

This leads to revelatory discoveries on ‘Father’s Day’ and appalling disclosures between ‘Husbands and Wives’ before the culprit is unmasked and the superhero community reels and begins a long, painful recovery…

As the investigation proceeds, the heroes – and villains – confront and reassess many of their bedrock principles including tactics, allegiances and even the modern validity of that genre staple, the Secret Identity.

Throughout, characterisation is spot-on and dialogue is memorable with the artwork never short of magnificent. Moreover, this time the aftershocks of revelation did indeed live up to their hype. How sad then than this central book feels like a rushed “Readers Digest” edition, whilst many of the key moments are scattered in a dozen other (unrelated) collections. Maybe it’s time to start more modern omnibus collected editions, and even make them available digitally  too?

As befits a 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, there is a vast amount of extra material, and behind the scenes treats including a ‘Cover Gallery’, heavily-illustrated essays ‘The Making of Identity Crisis’, ‘The Making of The Covers’, ‘The Making of the Action Figures’ (!!) and an appreciative memorial piece ‘Remembering Michael Turner’.

Gripping, painful in places but extraordinarily cathartic, Identity Crisis is a book every superhero fan must see and will never forget.
© 2004, 2005, 2011, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Hellboy Omnibus volume 1


By Mike Mignola, with John Byrne, Mark Chiarello, Matt Hollingsworth, James Sinclair, Dave Stewart, Pat Brosseau & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-50670-666-5 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-50670-687-0

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Seasonal Standard for Shock Addicts… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

After the establishment of the US comic book direct market system, there came a huge wave of independent publishers. As with all booms, a lot of them went bust. Some few however were more than flash-in-the-pans, growing into major players of a new world order. Arguably, the most successful was Dark Horse Comics who fully embraced the concept of creator ownership (amongst other radical ideas). This concept – and their professional outlook and attitude – drew many big name creators to the new company and in 1994 Frank Miller & John Byrne formally instituted sub-imprint Legend for major creators wanting to produce their own way and at their own pace.

Over the next four years the brand counted Mike Mignola, Art Adams, Mike Allred, Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbons and Geof Darrow amongst its ranks; generating a wealth of superbly entertaining and groundbreaking series and concepts. Unquestionably, most impressive, popular (and long-lived) was Mignola’s supernatural thriller Hellboy. The monstrous monster-hunter debuted in event program San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993) before formally launching in 4-issue miniseries Seed of Destruction (where Byrne scripted over Mignola’s plot and art). Colourist Mark Chiarello added loads of mood with his understated hues.

That story and the string of sequels that followed were re-presented in the first of four trade paperback offerings (also available as a complete boxed set). This particular tome offers Mignola’s earliest longform triumphs starring the Scourge of Sheol – The Wolves of Saint August; The Chained Coffin; Wake the Devil and Almost Colossus. The omnibi were latterly accompanied by a companion series featuring all the short stories.

The incredible story begins with a review of secret files. On December 23rd 1944 American Patriotic Superhero The Torch of Liberty and a squad of US Rangers interrupt a satanic ritual predicted by Allied parapsychologist Professors Trevor Bruttenholm and Malcolm Frost. They were working in conjunction with influential medium Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones. All waited at a ruined church in East Bromwich, England when a demon baby with a huge stone right hand eventually appeared in a fireball. The startled soldiers took the infernal yet seemingly innocent waif into custody. Far, far further north, off the Scottish Coast on Tarmagant Island, a cabal of Nazi Sorcerers roundly berated ancient wizard Grigori Rasputin whose Project Ragna Rok ritual seems to have failed. The Russian is unfazed. Events are unfolding as he wishes…

Five decades later, the baby has grown into a mighty warrior engaging in a never-ending secret war: the world’s most successful paranormal investigator. Bruttenholm has spent the years lovingly raising the weird foundling whilst forming an organisation to destroy unnatural threats and supernatural monsters: The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. “Hellboy” is now its lead agent. Today, the recently-returned, painfully aged professor summons his surrogate son and warns of impending peril wrapped in obscured reminiscences of his own last mission. The Cavendish Expedition uncovered an ancient temple submerged in arctic ice, but what occurred next has been somehow excised from Bruttenholm’s memory. Before he can say more, the mentor is killed by a rampaging plague of frogs, and enraged Hellboy is battling for his life against a demonic giant amphibian…

Following fact-files about Project Ragna Rok and ‘An African Myth about a Frog’, Chapter Two opens at eerie Cavendish Hall, set on a foetid lake in America’s Heartland. Matriarch Emma Cavendish welcomes Hellboy and fellow BPRD investigators Elizabeth Sherman and Dr. Abraham Sapien, but is not particularly forthcoming about her family’s obsession. Nine generations of Cavendish have sought – and sponsored the search for – the Temple at the Top of the World. Three of her own sons were lost on the latest foray, from which only Bruttenholm returned, but her story of how founding patriarch Elihu Cavendish’s obsession infects every male heir for hundreds of years imparts no fresh insights. She also says she knows nothing about frogs, but she’s lying and the agents know it…

As they retire for the night, Hellboy’s companions prepare for battle. Psychic firestarter Liz is taken unawares when the frogs attack and our Dauntless Demon fares little better against another titanic toad-monster. Of Abe there is no sign: the BPRD’s own amphibian has taken to the dank waters of the lake in search of long-buried answers…

And then a bald Russian guy claiming to know the truth of Hellboy’s origins appears and monstrous tentacles drag the hero through the floor…

Chapter Three views a vast hidden cellar where Rasputin explains he is the agent for undying and infinite antediluvian evil: seven-sided serpent Ogdru-Jahad who sleeps and waits to be reawakened. Hellboy was originally summoned from the pit to be the control interface between the Great Beast and the wizard whilst he oversaw the fall of mankind, but when the BPRD agent refuses his destiny – in his obtuse, obnoxious manner – Rasputin goes crazy…

Overwhelmed by the Russian’s frog foot soldiers, Hellboy is forced to listen to the story of Rasputin’s alliance with Himmler and Hitler, and how they sponsored a mystic Nazi think-tank to conquer Earth. Of how the mage manipulated the fanatics, found the Temple at the Top of the World and communed with The Serpent, and of how that last Cavendish Expedition awoke him. Of how he used them to trace the crucial tool he had summoned from Hell half a century ago… And then the raving Russian reveals how his infernal sponsor Sadu-Hem – The Serpent’s intermediary – has grown strong on human victims but will become unstoppable after feasting on Liz’s pyrokinetic internal forces…

With all hell literally breaking loose, the final chapter sees Rasputin exultantly calling upon each of the seven aspects as Hellboy attempts a desperate, doomed diversion and the long-missing Abe Sapien finally makes his move, aided by a hidden faction Rasputin had not anticipated…

The breathtaking conclusion sees supernal forces spectacularly laid to rest, but the defeat of Sadu-Hem and his Russian doll only opens the door for other arcane adversaries to emerge…

Bombastic, moody, laconically paced, suspenseful and explosively action-packed, Seed of Destruction manages the masterful magic trick of introducing a whole new world and making it seem like we’ve always lived there.

‘The Wolves of Saint August’ was originally serialised in Dark Horse Presents #88-91 during 1994, before being reworked a year later for a Hellboy one-shot of the same name. Mignola handles art and script, with James Sinclair on colours and Pat Brosseau making it all legible and intelligible.

Set contemporarily, the moody piece sees the red redeemer working with BPRD colleague Kate Corrigan, investigating the death of Hellboy’s old pal Father Kelly in the Balkan village of Griart. It’s not long before they realise the sleepy hamlet is actually a covert den of great antiquity, where a pack of mankind’s most infamous and iniquitous predators still thrive…

Mignola has a sublime gift for setting tone and building tension with great economy. It always means that the inevitable confrontation between Good and Evil has plenty of room to unfold with capacious visceral intensity. This clash between unfrocked demon and alpha lycanthrope is one of the most unforgettable battle blockbusters ever seen…

In 1995 Dark Horse Presents 100 #2 debuted ‘The Chained Coffin’. Here Hellboy returns to the English church where he first arrived on Earth in 1943. Five decades of mystery and adventure have passed, but as the demon-hunter observes ghostly events replay before his eyes, he learns the truth of his origins. All too soon, Hellboy devoutly wishes he had never come back…

Wake the Devil delivered a decidedly different take on the undying attraction of vampires when a past case becomes active again. Hellboy and fellow outré BPRD agents Sherman & Sapien are still reeling from losing their aged mentor and uncovering Rasputin’s hellish scheme to rouse sleeping Elder Gods he served. Moreover, the apparently undying wizard – agent for antediluvian infinitely evil seven-sided serpent Ogdru-Jahad who-sleeps-and-waits-to-be-reawakened – is responsible for initially summoning Hellboy to Earth as part of the Nazi’s Ragna Rok Project. Now the Russian’s clandestine alliance with Himmler, Hitler and their mystic Nazi think-tank is further explored as, deep inside Norway’s Arctic Circle region, a driven millionaire visits a hidden castle. He is seeking the arcane Aryans long-closeted within, eager to deliver a message from “The Master”. In return, the oligarch wants sanctuary from the imminent end of civilisation…

In New York City, a bloody robbery occurs in a tawdry mystic museum and the BPRD are briefed on legendary Napoleonic soldier Vladimir Giurescu. It now appears that enigmatic warrior wasn’t particularly wedded to any side in that conflict… and was probably much older than reports indicated. More important is re-examined folklore suggesting Giurescu was mortally wounded many times but, after retreating to a certain castle in his homeland, would always reappear: renewed, refreshed and deadlier than ever. In 1882 he was in England and clashed with Queen Victoria’s personal ghost-breaker Sir Edward Grey, who was the first to officially identify him as a “Vampire”.  In 1944, Hitler met with Vladimir to convince the creature to join him, but something went wrong and Himmler’s envoy Ilsa Haupstein was ordered to arrest Giurescu and his “family”. The creatures were despatched in the traditional manner and sealed in boxes… one of which has now been stolen from an NYC museum. Intriguingly, the murdered owner was once part of the Nazi group responsible for Ragna Rok. The BPRD always consider worst-case scenarios, and if that box actually contained vampire remains…

The location of the bloodsucker’s fabled castle is unknown, but with three prospects in Romania and only six agents available, a trio of compact strike-teams is deployed with Hellboy in solo mode headed for the most likely location. Although not an active agent, Dr. Kate Corrigan wants Hellboy to take especial care. All indications are that this vampire might be the Big One, even though nobody wants to use the “D” word…

In Romania, still youthful Ilsa Haupstein talks to a wooden box, whilst in Norway her slyly observing colleagues Kurtz and Kroenen express concern. Once the most ardent of believers, Ilsa may have been turned from the path of Nazi resurgence and bloody vengeance. Her former companions are no longer so enamoured of the Fuehrer’s old dream of a vampire army either. Leopold especially places more faith in the creatures he has been building and growing…

Over Romania, Hellboy leaps out of a plane and engages his experimental jet-pack, wishing he was going with one of the other team… and even more so after it flames out. At least he has the limited satisfaction of crashing into the very fortress Ilsa is occupying…

The battle with the witch-woman’s grotesque servants is short and savage and as the ancient edifice crumbles, Chapter Two reveals how on the night Hellboy was born, Rasputin suborned Ilsa and her comrades. Making them devout disciples awaiting Ogdru-Jahad’s awakening, he saves them from Germany’s ignominious collapse. Now the Russian ghost appears offering her another prophecy and a great transformation…

Deep in the vaults, Hellboy comes to and meets a most garrulous dead man, unaware that in the village below the Keep, the natives are recognising old signs and making the traditional preparations again…

Hellboy’s conversation provides much useful background information but lulls him into a false sense of security, allowing the revenant to savagely attack and set up a confrontation with the ferocious forces actually responsible for the vampire’s power. Battling for his life, Hellboy is a stunned witness to Giurescu’s resurrection and ultimate cause of his latest demise, whilst far above, Rasputin shares his own origins with acolyte Ilsa, revealing the night he met the infamous witch Baba Yaga…

Nearly 300 miles away, Liz and her team scour ruined Castle Czege. There’s no sign of vampires but they do uncover a hidden alchemy lab with an incredible artefact in it: a stony homunculus. Idly touching the artificial man, Liz is horrified when her pyrokinetic energies surge uncontrollably into the artefact and he goes on a destructive rampage…

With the situation escalating at Castle Giurescu, Hellboy ignites a vast cache of explosives with the faint hope that he will be airlifted out before they go off, but is distracted by a most fetching monster who calls him by a name he doesn’t recognise before trying to kill him.

If she doesn’t, the catastrophic detonation might…

As the dust settles and civil war breaks out amongst the Norway Nazis, in Romania Ilsa makes a horrific transition and Hellboy awakes to face Rasputin, even as the BPRD rush to the rescue. Tragically Abe Sapien and his squad won’t make it before the revived and resplendent Giurescu takes his shot, whilst the world’s most successful paranormal investigator confronts and is seduced by uncanny aspects of his long-hidden infernal ancestry. With all hell breaking loose, the displaced devil makes a decision which will not only affect his life but dictate the course of humanity’s existence…

The breathtakingly explosive ending also resets the game for Rasputin’s next scheme, but the weird wonderment rolls on in a potent epilogue, wherein the mad monk visits macabre patron Baba Yaga for advice…

The story-portion of this magnificent terror-tome terminates with 1997’s 2-part miniseries ‘Almost Colossus’ wherein traumatised pyrokinetic Liz awaits test results. During the Castle Czege mission, an artificial man she discovered inadvertently drained Liz’s infernal energies, bringing it to life and causing hers to gradually slip away. Now, Hellboy and Corrigan are back in the legend-drenched region, watching a graveyard from which 68 bodies have been stolen. Elsewhere, the fiery homunculus is undergoing a strange experience: he has been abducted by his older “brother” who seeks, through purloined flesh, blackest magic and forbidden crafts to perfect their centuries-dead creator’s animation techniques.

Before the curtain falls, Hellboy – aided by the ghosts of repentant monks and the younger homunculus – battles a metal giant determined to crown itself God of Science, saving the world if he can and Liz because he must…

Wrapping up the show is a wealth of arty extras, beginning with the 1991 convention illustration Mignola created because he just wanted to draw a monster. From tiny acorns…

Following on – with author’s commentary – is a horror hero group shot that is Hellboy’s second ever appearance and a brace of early promo posters, and the full colour Convention book premiere appearance as ‘Hellboy – World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator’ battles a giant demon dog, courtesy of Mignola & Byrne. Hellboy Sketchbook then shares a treasure trove of drawings, designs and roughs from the early stories again, fully annotated to round out the eerie celebratory experience.

Available in paperback and digital formats, this bombastic, moodily suspenseful, explosively action-packed tome is a superb scary romp to delight one and all, celebrating the verve, imagination and longevity of the greatest Outsider Hero of All: a supernatural thriller no comics fan should be without.
Hellboy™ & © Seed of Destruction © 1993, 2018 Mike Mignola. Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman and all other prominently featured characters are trademarks of Mike Mignola. All rights reserved.