Category: Mystery

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The Amazing Spider-Man Marvel Masterworks volume 19



By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Keith Pollard, Al Milgrom, Sal Buscema, John Byrne, Rich Buckler, Jim Mooney, Frank Giacoia, Marie Severin, Mike Esposito, Terry Austin, & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0339-8 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peter Parker was a smart yet alienated kid when he was bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Developing astonishing arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – the boy did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night, the cocky teen didn’t lift a finger to stop him. When Parker returned home he learned that his beloved guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, finding, to his horror, that it was the self-same felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help others…

Since that night he has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them…

A newly-minted star of live action television, Spider-Man’s adventures generally still downplayed traditional fantasy elements at the time of the yarns packing this 19th fabulous collection of web-spinning wonderment. The wondrous wallcrawler was a global figure and prime contender for the title of the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero and here, covering June 1979 to March 1980, are the chronologically re-presented contents of Amazing Spider-Man #193-202, and a combined story that spanned Amazing Spider-Man Annual #13 and The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1. The transformative tales are preceded by an appreciative appraisal and reminiscence from writer/editor Marv Wolfman in his Introduction.

The graphic action kicks off with #193’s ‘The Wings of the Fearsome Fly!’ with Wolfman, penciller Keith Pollard and inker Jim Mooney recapping how would-be Spider-Slayer Spencer Smythe had handcuffed J. Jonah Jameson and his despised Bête noir Spider-Man together in an explosive deathtrap that drew old enemy the Fly and resulted in the death of Jonah’s son John, albeit in his monster form as the ferociously feral Man-Wolf…

In that clash Jonah might have peeked under the arachnid’s mask whilst the wallcrawler was unconscious, and the not knowing is driving Parker crazy. The loss of his son has absolutely unhinged the publisher, however, and after firing Peter, he swears to destroy Spider-Man, even as Peter dutifully hunts down the Fly and finally finds him robbing the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s an opportunity to release his pent-up anger but ends badly…

In the aftermath, another plot strand resurfaces as Ned Leeds returns and punches Parker out. The reporter thinks its justifiable as his (recently estranged) wife – the former Betty Brant –has been nostalgically and aggressively pursuing old flame Peter, making Parker’s social life even more deeply complicated and exhausting…

Meanwhile at May Parker’s empty house, a strangely familiar figure is tearing the walls down hunting for something. After eventually giving up he then moves on to the Restwell Nursing Home where the widow Parker currently resides… and finds a situation he can readily exploit…

With life in turmoil Peter is poorly prepared for the major change that begins in #194 as he painfully learns ‘Never Let the Black Cat Cross Your Path!’ after encountering a svelte femme fatale costumed jewel thief with luck always on her side. Sadly, she seems to have forsaken profit for a new darker agenda. Inked by Frank Giacoia, the tale sees her recruit a crew to break someone out of jail, and – despite an obvious and mutual attraction – she will let nothing, not even sexy Spidey – stop her…

Now working as a photographer for rival paper the Daily Globe and immediately sparking the curiosity of reporter April Maye, Peter continues to pursue the feline felon in a chase to disaster, but soon realises ‘Nine Lives Has the Black Cat!’ (collectively inked by “M. Hands” Mooney, Mike Esposito & Al Milgrom) thereby affording an origin for the curvaceous crook and culminating in shocking news for Peter…

I’d normally give lip service here to “spoilers” and indeed back then, the death of Aunt May was a big deal for a brief moment, but it wasn’t real and didn’t last long. In-world however, Peter is crushed by the death of his last relative and only family, with ‘Requiem!’ – limned by Milgrom, Mooney & Frank Giacoia – finding him shattered by her “peaceful passing” whilst he was elsewhere, and blithely unaware of a plot by unctuous home director Dr. Rinehart. Many older fans had already clocked who he really was…

Dazed and reeling, the hero is just starting to suspect something isn’t right as he’s ambushed by thugs and dragged to ‘The Kingpin’s Midnight Massacre!’ in ASM #197. Here Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney show the soon-to-be-retired crime lord packing to leave and up against an immovable deadline. To please his beloved wife Vanessa, the villain will cease all his illegal activities at the witching hour. All that’s left on his to-do list is to kill Spider-Man, but the clock’s ticking and the wallcrawler just won’t die…

Building up to the anniversary spectacular and illustrated by Sal Buscema & Mooney, most dangling plot threads begin cleaving together as Peter realises who Rinehart actually is and bursts into the Restwell Home in ‘Mysterio is Deadlier by the Dozen!’ to find the master of illusion preying on sundowning oldsters and teamed up with the burglar who shot Uncle Ben. Out of jail and desperate to retrieve something long hidden in the Parker house, the long-discarded thug has hijacked Mysterio’s comfortable scam and attracted the wrath of a really, really angry Spider-Man…

Despite fighting back fiercely in ‘Now You See Me! Now You Die!’ the writing is truly on the wall for the now-at-odds bad guys who meet their fates in The Amazing Spider-Man #200’s extra-length conclusion ‘The Spider and the Burglar… A Sequel!’ cover dated January 1980 and courtesy of Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney.

With the truth out and May restored, Peter Parker is ready for whatever the future holds as we segue into The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #13 where Wolfman, John Byrne & Terry Austin occupy ‘The Arms of Doctor Octopus’ with a murderous scheme to regain his underworld reputation and dominance. The plot is brought to Spider-Man’s attention by murdered federal agent Kent Blake, who blackmails the hero into going undercover in the gang to recover stolen plans and ends with a catastrophic clash that sees the villain maimed…

Although momentarily defeated, Ock isn’t finished with New York or Spiderman, and the saga continues and concludes in the first annual of the companion Spider-title.

Before that though, the Annual traditions are upheld by additions to the ongoing feature ‘A Gallery of Spider-Man’s Most Famous Foes’. Rendered by Pollard, the roster adds here The Molten Man, The Looter, The Rhino, The Shocker, The Kingpin, Silverman and Man-Mountain Marko, The Prowler and The Kangaroo before ending on ‘A Mighty Marvel Bonus’ offering updated locations and floorplans for ‘Peter Parker’s Pad!’, The Daily Bugle & Daily Globe offices and Empire State University Campus – and Peter’s colleagues.

The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 details the denouement in ‘And Men Shall Call Him… Octopus!’ with Bill Mantlo, Rich Buckler & Mooney following the furious and confused webslinger who uses a severed metal tentacle to lure the near-insane-with-pain-&-shock Doc Ock into a cataclysmic showdown aboard a ship’s graveyard in the East River and apparently final clash in an undersea base…

Dried out and back to business basics, the hero’s journey resumes in ASM 201’s ‘Man-Hunt!’ as Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney reunite the wallcrawler with The Punisher whose hunt for a gang boss turns up a suspicious connection between photo seller Parker and his star subject Spider-Man…

Further muddying the waters is the latest woe to befall Jonah, whose nervous collapse now devolves into pure mania, prompting his escape into delusion and the streets of the city. Guilt-ridden Parker can’t do much for his favourite gadfly, but at least he can send Frank Castle on an identity-saving wild goose chase. And help deal with his latest target in concluding chapter ‘One For Those Long Gone!’

To Be Continued…

With covers by Milgrom, Pollard, John Romita Sr., Buckler, Bob McLeod & Josef Rubinstein, this tome also offers a selection of original art by Pollard with Mooney, Frank Giacoia and Byrne & Austin; Carmine Infantino & Steve Leialoha’s unused cover to Spider-Woman #9 where Wolfman originally intended Black Cat to debut, and Dave Cockrum’s revamped design for her as well as an unused Pollard & McLeod cover for ASM #194 and Cockrum’s rough for the cover they finally used. Completing the extras are House ads for forthcoming landmark ASM #200.

These yarns confirmed Spider-Man’s growth into a global multi-media brand. Blending cultural veracity with superb art, and making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and imputed powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, especially when delivered in addictive soap-styled instalments, but none of that would be relevant if Spider-Man’s stories weren’t so utterly entertaining. This action-packed collection relives many momentous and crucial periods in the wallcrawler’s astounding life and is one all Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics must see…
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

22nd George Herriman was born today in 1880. If you also want to learn about him, our most recent review of his magic can be found here.

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Eagle Classics: Harris Tweed – Extra Special Agent


By John Ryan (Hawk Books -1990)
ISBN: 978-0-94824-822-1 (album TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Happy anniversary Eagle!

The son of a diplomat and irrefutably a died-in-wool True Gent, John Ryan was born in 1921, served in Burma and India during WWII and – after attending the Regent Street Polytechnic (1946-48) – took up a teaching post as assistant Art Master at Harrow School from 1948 to 1955. It was during this time that he began contributing strips to comics such as Girl and a newfangled but soon to be legendary weekly comic…

On April 14th 1950, Britain’s grey, post-war gloom was partially lifted with the first issue of a glossy new comic that literally shone with light and colour. Mesmerised children were soon understandably enraptured with the gloss and dazzle of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, a charismatic star-turn venerated to this day, as well as a plethora of strips illustrating some of their favourite radio shows.

Eagle was a tabloid sized paper with full photogravure colour inserts alternating with text and a range of other comic features. Tabloid is a big page and you can get a lot of material onto each one. Deep within, on the bottom third of a monochrome folio was an 8-panel strip entitled Captain Pugwash, the story of a Bad Buccaneer and the many sticky ends which nearly befell him. Ryan’s quirky, spiky style also lent itself to the numerous spot illustrations required every week. Pugwash, his harridan of a wife and the useless, lazy crew of the Black Pig ran until issue #19 when the feature disappeared. This was no real hardship as Ryan had already begun writing and illustrating new feature Harris Tweed – Extra Special Agent which began as a full page (tabloid, remember – an average of 20 panels a page, per week) since #16 (cover-dated July 28th 1950).

Tweed ran for three years as a full page. Then in 1953 it dropped to a half-page strip and deftly repositioned as a purely comedic venture. For our purposes and those of the book under review, it’s those first three years we’re thinking of even if the only decent illustration I could find comes from the 1959 Eagle Annual…

Harris Tweed was a bluff and blundering caricature of the military “Big Brass” Ryan had encountered during The War. In gentler times, the bumbler with a young, never-to-be-named assistant known only as “Boy” solved mysteries and captured villains to general popular acclaim. Thrilling – and often eerily macabre – adventure blended seamlessly with sly yet cheerful schoolboy low comedy in these strips, since Tweed was in fact that most British of archetypes: a bit of a twit and a bit of a sham stumbling through a world of Thud & Blunder…

His totally undeserved reputation as detective and crime fighter par excellence, and his good-hearted yet smug arrogance – as demonstrated elsewhere by the likes of Bulldog Drummond, Dick Barton – Special Agent, or Sexton Blake – somehow endeared the arrogant, posturing buffoon to a young and impressionable public which would in later years take to its heart Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army and, more pointedly perhaps, Peter Sellers’ numerous film outings as Inspector Clouseau. Maybe most of those enthralled kids had an uncle or dad who buffaloed on about the war in just the same way…

Ryan’s art here is particularly noteworthy. Deep moody blacks and intense, sharp, edgy inking creates a constant mood of fever-dream intensity. There are anachronistic echoes and nuances of underground cartoons of more than a decade later, and much of the inevitable ‘brooding, lurking horror’ atmosphere found in the best works of Basil Wolverton. Ryan knew what kids liked and he delivered it by the cartload.

This too-slim, oversized (324 x 234mm x) paperback compilation is all that’s readily available these days, but surely in the era of electronic publishing, some enterprising fan with a complete Eagle collection can link up with a perspicacious publisher someway, somehow and produce a comprehensive compilation of the nation’s most self-lauded sleuth? I simply KNOW today’s TV crowd and dwindling but still-potent ancient 10-year-olds and their grandchildren would just lap him up….
Harris Tweed © 1990 Fleetway Publications. Compilation © 1990 Hawk Books.

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DC Finest: Plastic Man – The Origin of Plastic Man


By Jack Cole, Gil Fox, Will Eisner, Reed Crandall, Al Bryant & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-065-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Jack Ralph Cole (December 14, 1914 – August 13, 1958) was one of the most uniquely gifted talents of American Comics’ Golden Age, crafting landmark tales in horror, true crime, war, adventure and especially superhero genres. His incredible humour-hero Plastic Man remains an unsurpassed benchmark of screwball costumed hi-jinks: frequently copied but never equalled. As the Golden Age faded, Cole could see the writing on the wall and famously jumped into gag and glamour cartooning, becoming a household name when his brilliant watercolour gags and stunningly saucy pictures began running in Playboy from the fifth issue. Ever-restless and innately unsettled, Cole eventually moved into the lofty realms of newspaper strips before, in May 1958, achieving his lifelong ambition by launching a syndicated newspaper strip, the domestic comedy Betsy and Me.

On August 13th 1958 at the moment of his biggest break he took his own life.

The unexplained reasons for his death are not as important as the triumphs of Cole’s artistic life and this captivating paperback (reprinting a rare hardback compilation from 2004) provides a fascinating insight into a transitional moment in his artistic development.

Without doubt – and despite great successes with other heroic characters as well as in the crime and horror genres – Cole’s greatest creation was the zany, malleable Plastic Man. He quickly grew from a minor B-character into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the Golden Age and seemed to be the perfect fantastic embodiment of the sheer energy, verve and creativity of that era when anything went and comics-makers were prepared to try out every outlandish idea…

This premier trade paperback collection reprints the Stretchable Sleuth’s astounding exploits from anthology title Police Comics #1-36 and Plastic Man #1-2, covering the period August 1941 to November 1944. These whacky exploits are unearthed and unleashed from a time when nobody really knew the rules. Creators, publishers and readers were prepared to try literally anything and, by sheer Darwinian processes, the cream of the crop always rose to the top…

The magic begins with a little added extra as most of these tales have retroactively been awarded titles; although most originally appeared without any. The debut and origin of Plastic Man happened in the middle of Police Comics #1, a brief but beguiling 6-pager introducing mobster Eel O’Brian, who is shot by a guard during a factory robbery. Soaked by a vat of acid and instantly, callously, abandoned by his partners in crime, Eel crawls away and is found by a monk who nurses him back to health and proves to the hardened thug that the world is not just filled with brutes and vicious chisellers all after a fast buck.

His entire outlook altered, and somehow now blessed with incredible malleability – he surmises it was the chemical bath mingling with his bullet wounds – Eel opts to put his new powers to use cleaning up the scum he used to run with. Creating the identity of Plastic Man he thrashes his own gang and begins his stormy association with the New York City cops…

Still written, drawn and lettered by Cole, in Police #2 ‘Dueling the Dope Smugglers’ sees Plas apply for a job with the cops, only to be told he can join up if he accomplishes the impossible task of capturing the notorious and slippery Eel O’Brian, currently the Most Wanted crook in eight states…

Ever wily, the Rubber-Band Man bides his time and wins the position anyway by cracking an international dope racket (that’s illegal narcotics, kids) stretching from Canada to Chinatown, whilst in #3’s ‘The Pinball Racket’ he fully capitalises on his underworld reputation and connections to bust up a nefarious mob led by a cunning crook with ears inside the Police Department itself.

The ‘Crime School for Delinquent Girls’ run by Madame Brawn pits the Silly Putty Paladin against a brutal babe intent on taking over the city mobs, and despite getting a thorough trouncing, she and her gang of gal gorillas are back for next issue, having turned her burly hand to a spot of piracy in ‘The Return of Madame Brawn.’ Police Comics #5 (December 1942) also marked a major turning point for Plastic Man, as with that issue he took the cover-spot away from fellow adventurer and failed superstar Firebrand; a position Plas would hold until costumed heroes faded from popularity at the end of the 1940s.

In PC #6 Plas’ burgeoning popularity was graphically reflected in a spookily murderous mystery in ‘The Case of the Disembodied Hands’, whilst in #7 – as Eel – he infiltrates and dismantles the massed forces of the ‘United Crooks of America!’ before #8 has the hero seriously outmatched but still triumphant when battling a colossal, city-crushing giant ‘The Sinister Eight Ball!’ and its decidedly deranged inventor. In #9 the yarns reached an early peak of macabre malevolence as Plastic Man foils a traitorous little mutant dubbed Hairy Arms in ‘Satan’s Son Sells Out to the Japs!’: a darkly bizarre thriller which embraces the hero’s meteoric rise by increasing the regular story-length from six to nine pages.

The carnival of cartoon grotesques continued in #10 as hayseed wannabe-cop Omar McGootch accidentally involves the Malleable Mystery-man in ‘The Cyclop Caper’, a Nazi plot to steal a new secret weapon, whilst #11 finds Plastic Man in mortal combat with the spirit of a 17th century London alchemist whose brain is unearthed and accidentally transplanted into a wounded spitfire pilot. Suddenly gaining incredible mystic powers and menacing mankind, ‘The Brain of Cyrus Smythe’ is still no match for the Pliable Powerhouse…

In Police #12 a desperate blackmailer joined forces with criminal astrologer ‘The Sinister Swami’, who predicts perpetual failure unless Plastic Man is killed, prior to Cole introducing his second most memorable character in #13’s ‘Presenting… the Man Who Can’t be Harmed’.

Despite himself, indolent felonious slob Woozy Winks accidentally saved a wizard’s life and was gifted in return with a gift of invulnerability: all the forces of nature henceforth shielding him from injury or death. Flipping a coin the oaf decided to get rich quick with his power. Unable to stop him, Plas appeals to his sentimentality and better nature and, once Woozy repented, was compelled to keep him around in case he strayed again…

Unlike Omar, Woozy Winks – equal parts Artful Dodger and Mr. Micawber, with the verbal skills and intellect of Lou Costello’s screen persona – would prove the perfect foil for Plastic Man: a lazy, venal, ethically fluid reprobate with sticky fingers who got all the best lines, possessed inexplicable charm and had a habit of finding trouble. It was the perfect marriage of inconvenience…

As stories jumped to 13 pages the new team were set on the trail of Eel O’Brian himself. PC #14 began the snipe hunt with ‘Oh, Plastic Man!’, but during the chase Woozy stumbled onto a slavery racket which soon foundered against his insane luck and Plastic Man’s ingenuity. In a hilarious twist Plas then let Woozy arrest him, but then escaped from under the smug cops’ very noses. When war scientists investigated Plastic Man and Woozy’s uncanny abilities in #15 it led to murder, a hot pursuit to Mexico City and almost a new Ice Age thanks to ‘The Weather Weapon’, whilst in #16 disgruntled Native Americans organised the ‘Revenge of the Chief Great Warrior’ and a movie cast succumbed one by one to a murderous madman in #17 before hilarious #18 revealed what happened after ‘The Drafting of Plastic Man’…

The shockingly intolerable dilemma of all branches of the Armed Services fighting to recruit him was only solved when the President himself seconded Plas to the FBI, where his first case – with Woozy stuck to him like human(ish) moss – saw the Stretchable Sleuth investigating ‘The Forest of Fear!’: a 15 page terror-tale involving a cabal of killers and an army of animated oaks. Police #20 celebrated opening of the ‘Woozy Winks Detective Agency’ as, with Plas temporarily laid up wounded, the rotund rascal took centre stage to solve a robbery in a frantically surreal extravaganza reminiscent of the screwball antics of the musical show/movie Hellzapoppin’ and the anarchic shtick of the Marx Brothers…

The strip just kept getting more popular, and regardless of resource rationing the next step was inevitable. Without doubt – and despite other comic book innovations and triumphs such as Silver Streak, Daredevil, The Claw, Death Patrol, Midnight, Quicksilver, The Barker and The Comet, as well as his uniquely twisted take on the crime and horror tales – Cole’s greatest creation was zany, malleable Plastic Man who exploded from minor back-up into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the Golden Age. Plas was the wondrously perfect fantastic embodiment of the sheer energy, verve and creativity in an era when anything went and comics-makers were prepared to try out every outlandish idea. Moreover he had a classic literary redemption arc and was funny as hell…

Plastic Man debuted in 1943, plopping onto newsstands on December 29th. The premier issue somehow circumvented shortages and government rationing gripping the country at this time, and publishers shaded their bets by giving it a long, Long, LONG shelf life. It was cover-dated February 1944 – but you won’t see any off sale date on the cover – and it was released through subsidiary company Vital Books, rather than as a straight addition to Quality Comics’ prestigious but officially restricted line.

Regardless of the name on the masthead, the mammoth, 64 page tome offered a quartet of stunning tales of humour, heroic hi-jinks and horror, beginning with cover-featured ‘The Game of Death’ in which Plas and his inimitable, generally unwanted assistant set upon the trail of an engrossing mystery and incredible threat posed by a rich man’s gambling club which concealed a sadistic death cult using games of chance to recruit victims – and new disciples. Said assistant was still a lazy slovenly slob, paltry pickpocket, and utterly venal, but he was slavishly loyal and just as blessed with invulnerability: all the forces of nature would henceforth protect him from injury or death – if said forces felt like it….

In ‘Now You See it, Now You Don’t’, the rotund rogue was involved with a goofy Professor and became the wrong guy to watchdog an invisibility spray. The boffin wanted to sell it to the Army but Japanese spies captured both the formula and Plastic Man, and dispatched them to Tokyo for disposal. Of course this simply allowed the Man of a Thousand Shapes to deliver such a sound and vicariously joyful thrashing to the “Dishonourable Sons of Nippon” that it must have had every American kid who saw it jumping for joy…

Cole then touched heartstrings with the tragic tale of ‘Willie McGoon, Dope’ as a hulking but gentle simpleton disfigured by neighbourhood kids became the embittered pawn of a career criminal. The duo’s terrifying crime-wave paralysed the city until Plas and Woozy stepped in. before the stunning solo package closed with ‘Go West Young Plastic Man, Go West’, as Woozy buys a gold mine from a guy in a bar and greedily gallops to Tecos Gulch to make his fortune. By the time Plas arrives to save him from his folly, the corpulent clown has already been framed for rustling and murder…

The pace and invention didn’t let up in monthly Police Comics and #21 featured conspiracy by a financial cabal attempting to corner the nation’s travel and shipping routes. Only one man can counter the impending monopoly but he is missing, seduced by the prognostications of a circus fortune teller. If Plas can’t rescue Sylvester Smirk from ‘The Menace of Serpina’ the country will grind to a standstill. In #22, ‘The Eyes Have It!’ pits Plas & Woozy against a child-trafficking human horror The Sphinx who exercises all his vile resources to regain possession of a little mute boy who has seen too much, before #23’s purportedly supernatural thriller sees the Stretchable Sleuth prove ‘The Ghost Train’ to be no such thing, but only a scam by a shareholder trying to buy up a rail line the Government needs for vital war work.

A rash of tire thefts (also severely rationed during war time) in PC #24 has a grotesquely  sinister purpose as gangsters and a mad scientist join forces to synthesise evil knock-offs of their greatest enemy. ‘The Hundred Plastic Men’ don’t pan out though and Woozy again steals the show – and sundry other items – when addiction to mystery stories leads him and Plas on a deadly chase to discover culprit and cause of #25’s ‘The Rare Edition Murders’.

Over and above his artistic virtuosity, Cole was an astonishingly adept writer. His regular 15-page cases were packed with clever, innovative notions, sophisticated character shtick and far more complex plots than any of his competitors. In #26’s ‘Body, Mind and Soul’ he starts with Plas’ FBI boss discovering his shady past, and builds on it as the exposed O’Brian agrees to take on three impossible cases to prove he really has reformed.

From there it’s all rollercoaster action as the Pliable Paladin rounds up brutish Slugger Crott, ferrets out the true identity of the city’s smartest mob boss and ends the depredations of a tragically cursed werewolf. The rotund rascal again took centre stage – and the cover – in #27 as ‘Woozy Winks, Juror’ hilariously endangered the very nature and sacred process of jurisprudence after being excluded from jury duty. After all, he only had a small criminal record and the impish imbecile was determined to serve, so when a sharp operator gives him a few tips, Woozy was so grateful that he decided to turn his voluminous coat…

The star-struck schmuck dominated again in #28 as Hollywood called and the Flexible Fed agreed to star in a film. However with Mr. Winks as his manager it was inevitable that Plastic Man’s movie would start with intrigue, sex and murder before ending as a furious fun-filled fiasco. Trailing America’s biggest tax-evader draws Plas to ‘Death in Derlin’s Castle’, as the FBI’s Odd Couple follow an absence of money to an historic pile and nefarious scheme with moody movie echoes of Citizen Kane and The Cat and the Canary. Police Comics #30 then offers outrageously odd and supremely surreal saga ‘Blinky Winks and Gooie Louie’ as Plas & Woozy endure incredible peril when ruthless butter-leggers begin supplying illicit spreads to the city’s dairy-deprived (rationing again) denizens. Even dedicated crime-busters like Winks find it hard to resist the lure of the lard, and when a creamy trail unfortunately leads to Woozy’s uncle Blinky, justice must be done. Of course, there are lots of hard-to-find foodstuffs to be found on a farm, but that’s just a happy coincidence…

Coner-dated June 1944, Police Comics #31 offers an outrageous examination of current affairs as the chameleonic cop investigates ‘The Mangler’s Slaughter Clinic’ wherein fit & healthy draft-dodgers go to get brutalised, broken and guaranteed certifiably unfit for active duty. The biggest mistake these canny crooks make is kidnapping Woozy and trying their limb-busting procedures on a man(like) protected by the forces of nature…

Police #32 details ‘The La Cucaracha Caper’ wherein ultra-efficient Plas is forcibly sent on vacation to give cops and FBI a break and time to process all the crooks the Ductile Detective has corralled. What no-one expected was the last gangsters left un-nabbed would also head south of the border to escape their nemesis (and Woozy) who soon find far more than Sun, Señoritas and Bullfights in a sleepy Mexican resort…

‘Plastic Man’s Rubber Armor’ headlined in #33 as a crazed saboteur stretches our hero’s resources and reason in his mad mission to destroy a vital prototype plane for the most implausible of reasons, which all neatly segues into Plastic Man #2 (August 1944), offering a quartet of brilliant gems, beginning with ‘The Gay Nineties Nightmare’, wherein Plas & Woozy trail the worst rats of the underworld to a hidden corner of America where they can’t be touched. Due to clerical errors, No Place, USA had been left off all official maps and huffily withdrew from the Union in the 1890s. The FBI can’t enforce justice there, but maybe two good men – or one and Woozy – can…

Satire is replaced by outrageous slapstick as mild-mannered Elmer Body became a man who could switch bodies in ‘Who’s Who’, using his newfound gift to experience all the joys and thrills his dull life had denied him. When Plas realises he couldn’t catch or hold the identity thief, all he could do was offer better candidates for possession…

In hot pursuit of Fargo Freddie, the stretchable sleuth accidentally chases the killer into a Mexican volcano, and, thinking the case closed heads home, unaware that a miraculous circumstance has transformed his target into ‘The Lava Man’. His resultant revenge rampage sets nations ablaze until Plas resorts to brains and not bouncy brawn. The issue closes with a tale of urban horror as Plas & Woozy are dispatched to a quiet hamlet where everyone’s been driven crazy – even the medics and FBI agents sent in to investigate – in ‘Welcome to Coroner’s Corners’…

An untitled tale in Police #34 introduces a well-meaning if screwball campaigner determined to end Plas’ maltreatment of malefactors by organising “Serena Sloop’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Criminals”. Sadly, the old biddy’s philanthropy takes a big hit after she actually meet the crooks she’s championed, whilst ‘The Confession of Froggy Fink’ in PC #35 threatens to tear the entire underworld apart: if Plas gets hold of it before so many concerned members of the mastermind’s gang do. Cue frantic chases, and lots of double-dealing back-stabbing cathartic violence…

We fold for now with #36 as a gang of brutal thieves hide out in the isolated but idyllic paradise of ‘Dr. Brann’s Health Clinic’, turning the unprofitable resort into a citadel of crime… until Plas &Woozy opt to take a rest cure themselves…

With stunning covers by Cole, Gil Fox, Will Eisner, Reed Crandall & Al Bryant, these tales remain exciting, innovative, thrilling, breathtakingly original, funny, scary and visually intoxicating over 80 years later. Jack Cole’s Plastic Man is a truly unique creation that has only grown in stature and appeal and this is a magical comics experience fans would be crazy to deny themselves.
© 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Star Cat – Unicorns in Space


By James Turner & Yasmin Sheikh (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-356-1 (TPB)

Never forget: all the best cats are ginger, and especially so if space is their back yard and litter box…

Way back in January 2012, Oxford-based David Fickling Books made a rather radical move by launching a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at under-12s. It revelled in reviving the good old days of picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content.

Each issue still features humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. Since then The Phoenix has established itself a potent source of children’s entertainment as, like The Beano and The Dandy, it is equally at home to boys and girls, and has mastered the magical trick of mixing amazingly action-packed adventure series with hilarious humour strip serials such as this one.

One of the wildest rides of the early days was Space Cat by James Turner (Super Animal Adventure Squad, Mameshiba, The Unfeasible Adventures of Beaver and Steve). His yarns entertained us for ages before, eventually Yasmin Sheikh (Luna the Vampire) joined in – a hopefully unendingly collaboration to amuse us all for years to come…

Like an animalistic Red Dwarf, the premise is timeless and instantly engaging, detailing far-out endeavours of spacefaring nincompoops in classic mock-heroic manner. There’s so very far-from-dauntless and possibly neurotic Captain Spaceington; extremely dim and utterly unschooled amoeboid Science Officer Plixx; inarticulate, barely housebroken feral beastie The Pilot and disdainfully arrogant Robot One, who quite erroneously believes itself at the forefront of the cosmos’ smartest thinkers. The colossal, void-busting vessel the Captain and his substandard crew traverse the universe in looks like a gigantic ginger tom, and that’s because that’s what it is: half cat, half spaceship. What more do you need to know?

After briefly reconnecting with the interstellar imbeciles via info spread ‘Welcome Aboard’, the ramshackle roving resumes in ‘Chapter 1: Deity Dishes’ as our stellar sentinels are tasked with testing a breakthrough in cosmic power production and storage. Omega Toroids are so potent and jam-packed with energy that they can’t be used in series or left together, but as the Captain and Plixx install a single unit in the Star Cat’s engine, overconfident know-it-all Robot One’s craving for donuts creates a mix-up of potentially devastating proportions after mistakenly stuffing his metal maw with all the remaining toroids and getting an inadvertent upgrade to all-conquering star-god status. Sadly, despite the boost, he’s still intrinsically him and becomes the cause of his own downfall while ravaging the Pixie planet…

Supervising chicken-on-a-mission The Space Mayor then despatches his top team (no, Spaceington & Co…) on an urgent mission to end a rubber chicken shortage on Clowntopia-8. So desperate is the crisis that, against all advice and common sense, they consider a short cut through the notorious Spooky Quadrant… and literally live to regret it after encountering all the horrors of the damned at sinister Space Castle Spaceferatu in ‘Chapter 2: Nothing to Fear Except Fear Itself’.

Just purely coincidentally, the creepy citadel in space that is reputed to hold the most unimaginably priceless treasure in the universe has no impact on the team making that diversion short cut. However, even with Robot-One’s “Moral Dilemma Mode” activated, they make the wrong decision and it proves as useless as all the rest of R-1’s upgrades in dealing with the terrifying and sneaky Space Vampyr…

Deplorably deranged, terrifying two-dimensional tyrant/archenemy Dark Rectangle reappears in ‘Chapter 3: Flat Out’, when his trusty hench-being Murky Hexagon begs Spaceington’s aid in curing his master’s dose of 3-D Flu. That noble deed demands the idiots invade the 2-D “Flati-verse” Dark Rectangle came from, and leads to odd adjustments, bizarre doings and a very nasty clash with the villain’s ghastly family…

After crashing on an unknown world, the Star Cat crew are accused of cultural sabotage and sundry misdemeanours in ‘Chapter 4: Rhyme Crime’ but soon get the hang of talking for better or verse… all except Robot-One of course…

That mini-armageddon is as nothing when measured against the chaos generated by the Massivitis germs that transform and utterly embiggen the boss of space in ‘Chapter 5: Mega Mayor’. Thankfully, self-identified chicken-biologist (and closet proctologist) Robot-One has a plan, but it does require golden wigs, giant automatons in drag, extremely invasive incursions by medically untrained volunteers and biscuits, Many, many biscuits…

That fantastic voyage successfully concluded, ‘Chapter 6: Crab to the Future’ details how all but The Pilot are flash frozen on the coldest planet in the galaxy and eventually defrosted in the far future. Ten thousand years of progress – and the occasionally case of time-meddling – have created an odd yet ideal utopia, but the Captain, Plixx and especially the annoying Robot soon fix that, prior to returning to their own lethally enthralling era…

Eventually, even the dimmest crewmember realizes the robot is getting more arrogant, nasty and dangerous, but that doesn’t stop the Space Mayor sending him and his comrades to the Lovely Sector to fetch a crystal flower from the most pure and good planet in the galaxy. ‘Chapter 7: Unicorns in Space!’ reveals how Unicornia initially takes the wild rovers to its collective hearts and bosoms, but it’s not long before the abhorrent android taints even this rainbow hued paradise…

As a result of the tragedy he triggered, Robot-One earnestly seeks to change and ‘Chapter 8: A Light Year in Your Shoes’ has the crew indulge in a spot of body-switching and mind transference that only causes more chaos. The Space Mayor gets accidentally involved in ‘Chapter 9: Change of Mind’ when the Chook in Charge pays a visit to the ginger starship just as Robot-One starts editing aspects of his digital personality and memory…

Closing – for now – on an even-more lowered tone, acronym layered ‘Chapter 10: Fair-Weather Friends’ finds the crew supervising the mayor’s new project – a Binary Universal Manipulator constructed for the Federation of Allied Republics and Territories. Uncannily, the freshly modulated, good-as-gold & nice-as-pie Robot-One is no help at all when Dark Rectangle sabotages the test and causes climactic calamities so all that good work must be undone to unleash the old personality if the obnoxious oblong is to be defeated…

Wrapping up the sidereal silliness are a bunch of pages of related activities: a swathe of features offered under the aegis of the Phoenix Comics Club. Bring paper, pencils and you to a compact online course in all aspects of comic strip creation supervised by James Turner & Yasmin Shiekh, expounding on how to draw the crew, absorb the basics of page-craft and learn professional terms. With features on lettering, layouts and composition, colouring, example panels/pages and even some page blanks to go wild in, plus an extensive plug for the Phoenix Comics Club website complete with instant access via a QR code. What are we all waiting for?

Text and illustrations © The Phoenix Comic 2025. All rights reserved.
Star Cat – Unicorns in Space will be published on August 14th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

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Darkie’s Mob: The Secret War of Joe Darkie


By John Wagner & Mike Weston (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-442-8 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Britain has always had a solid tradition for top-notch comic strips about the Second World War, but the material produced by one radically different publication in the 1970s & 1980s surpassed all previous efforts and has been acknowledged as having transformed the entire art form. Some of the best bits and most memorable moments have been gathered over the intervening decades and current Fleetway license holder Rebellion are doing a sterling job revisiting past glories via their Treasury of British Comics imprint. So too are the equivalent efforts of DC Thomson’s modern combat archives…

Here however is a still-controversial yet sublime series that’s been “At Ease” since Titan Books released this edition way back in 2011. As we again commemorate the end of WWII and Victory over Japan’s loathsome militarist regime, surely this saga is ripe for release again?

Battle was one of the last great British weekly anthologies: a combat-themed anthology comic. It began as Battle Picture Weekly on 8th March 1975 and, through absorption, merger and re-branding became Battle Picture Weekly & Valiant, Battle Action, Battle, Battle Action Force and ultimately Battle Storm Force before itself being combined with the too-prestigious-to-cancel Eagle on January 23rd 1988. Over 673 gore-soaked, politically incorrect, epithet-stuffed, adrenaline-drenched issues, the contents of the blistering periodical gouged its way into the bloodthirsty hearts of a generation. It was consequently responsible for producing some of the best and most influential war stories ever.

These include Major Eazy, D-Day Dawson, The Bootneck Boy, Johnny Red, HMS Nightshade, Rat Pack, Fighter from the Sky, Hold Hill 109, Fighting Mann, Death Squad!, Panzer G-Man, Joe Two Beans, The Sarge please link to 8th May 2025 (star-artist Mike Western’s other best work ever), Hellman of Hammer Force and the stunning and iconic Charley’s War among many others.

The roster of contributors was equally impressive: writers Pat Mills, John Wagner, Steve McManus, Mark Andrew, Gerry Finley-Day, Tom Tully, Eric & Alan Hebden, with art from Colin Page, Pat Wright, Giralt, Carlos Ezquerra, Geoff Campion, Jim Watson, Mike Western, Joe Colquhoun, Carlos Pino, John Cooper, Mike Dorey, Cam Kennedy and more…

One of the most harrowing and memorable series during that reign of blood & honour was an innovative saga of obsession and personal vengeance set in the green hell of Burma in the months following the Japanese invasion and rapid rout of the entrenched British Empire in Spring 1942.

As crafted by John Wagner & Mike Western, Darkie’s Mob is a phenomenally and deservedly well-regarded classic of the genre, disclosing how a mysterious maniac adopts and gradually subverts a lost, broken, demoralised and so very doomed squad of British soldiers. The sinister Svengali’s intent is to on use them to punish Japanese soldiers in ways no normal man could imagine…

This gloriously oversized hardback compilation collects the complete uncompromising saga – which originally ran from 14th August 1976 to 18th June 1977 – in a deluxe monochrome edition which also contains a comprehensive cover gallery and ‘Dead Men Walking’: an effusive introduction by unabashed fan and occasional war-writer Garth Ennis.

After such preliminaries the drama opens: a frenetically fast-paced mystery-thriller beginning in 1946 when Allied troops discover the blood-soaked combat journal of Private Richard Shortland, reported missing along with the rest of his platoon during the frantic retreat from the all-conquering Japanese. The first entry – and the opening initial episode – are dated May 30th 1942, describing a slow descent into the very heart of darkness…

Defeated, despondent, and ready to die, the rag-tag remnants of the mighty British Army are rescued from certain death by uncompromising, unconventional and terrifyingly pitiless Captain Joe Darkie, who strides out of the hostile Burmese verdure and instantly asserts an almost preternatural command over the weary warriors. The men are appalled by Darkie’s physical and emotional abuse of them, and his terrifying treatment of an enemy patrol he encounters whilst leading them out of their predicament. They’re even more shocked when they discover that he’s not heading for the safety of their lines, but guiding them deeper into Japanese-held territory…

Thus begins a guerrilla war like no other, as Darkie moulds the soldiers – through brutal bullying and all manner of psychological ploys – into fanatics with only one purpose: hunting and killing the enemy.

In rapid snatches of events culled from Shortland’s log, we discover Darkie is a near-mythical night-terror to the invaders: a Kukri-wielding, poison-spitting demon happy to betray, exploit and expend his own men if it means slaughtering his hated foes. The monster is equally well-known to enslaved natives and ruthlessly at home in the alien world of the Burmese jungles and swamps. What kind of experiences could transform a British Officer into such a ravening horror?

An answer of sorts quickly comes after Shortland intercepts a radio communication and discovers that the British Army has no record of any soldier named Joe Darkie, but the dutiful diarist has no explanation of his own behaviour or reasons for keeping the psycho-killer’s secret to himself…

For over a year the hellish crusade continued with the Mob striking everywhere like bloody ghosts: liberating prisoners, sabotaging Japanese bases, destroying engineering works and always, always killing in the most spectacular manner possible. Eventually, after murdering generals, blowing up bridges and casually invading the most secure cities in the country, the Mob become the Empire of Japan’s most wanted men, but in truth both Britain and the enemy hunt the rogue unit with equal vehemence and ferocity.

Darkie wants to kill and not even Allied orders will stop him…

Gradually whittled away by death, attrition, insanity and fatigue as Darkie infects them with his hatred and nihilistic madness, The Mob are nothing more than Jap-hating killing machines ready and willing to die just as long as they can take another son of Nippon down to hell with them…

The descent culminates but doesn’t end with the shocking revelations of Darkie’s origins and secret in Shortland’s incredible entry for October 30th 1943, after which the inevitable end inexorably drew near…

This complete chronicle also includes a heavily illustrated prose tale from the 1990 Battle Holiday Special and I’m spoiling nobody’s fun by advising you all to read this bonus feature long before you arrive at the staggering conclusion…

A mention should be made of the language used here. Although a children’s comic – or perhaps because it was designated as one – the speech and interactions of characters contains a strongly disparaging and uncomfortably colourful racial element. Some of these terms are liable to cause offence to modern readers – but hopefully not nearly as much as any post-watershed TV show or your average school playground – so please try and remember the vintage, authorial directives and cultural temperature of those times (the 1980s not WWII) when these stories were first released.

Battle exploded forever the cosy, safely nostalgic “we’ll all be alright in the end” tradition of British comics; ushering in an ultra-realistic, class-savvy, gritty awareness of the true horror of military service and conflict, pounding home the message War is Hell. With Darkie’s Mob Wagner & Western successfully and so horrifyingly showed us its truly ugly face and inescapable consequences. It should read with caution but also demands to be a permanent fixture on graphic novel shelves.
Darkie’s Mob © 2011 Egmont UK Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Dead Men Walking © 2011 Garth Ennis.

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Omaha the Cat Dancer volumes 1-7


By Reed Waller & Kate Worley with James M. Vance (NBM/Amerotic)
Set I ISBN: 978-1-56163-601-3
Vol. 1 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 2 ISBN: 978-1-56163-457-3, vol. 3 ISBN: 978-1-56163-474-3
Set II ISBN: 978-1-56163-601-3
Vol. 4 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 5 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 6 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 7 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic and satirical effect.

Just for a change I thought I’d celebrate an astounding creator while they’re still alive, and morbid leanings aside, in a world both wide and awash with unique stylists, I can honestly say there has never been anyone like Reed Waller (born today in 1949)…

And in case the covers didn’t give it away…

These books are intended to make adults laugh and think and occasionally feel frisky. If the cover images haven’t clued you in, please be warned that these items contain nudity, images of sexual intimacy – both hetero and homosexual – and language commonly used in the privacy of the bedroom and school playgrounds whenever supervising adults aren’t present. If that sort of thing offends you, read no further and don’t get these books. The rest of us will enjoy one of the best graphic novel experiences ever created without you.

Omaha the Cat Dancer began during the 1970s as an “Underground” venture and over torturous decades grew into a brilliant but controversial drama of human fallibility with all the characters played by funny animals. What most people noticed was a matter-of-fact, constant inclusion of graphic sex acts. Over the years, the series was subject to many obscenity seizures by various muddle-headed stickybeaks, inspiring the formation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. One classic case apparently involved the local defenders of morality raiding a comics store because Omaha promoted bestiality…

As there’s only so much excitement a man of my advanced years and proclivities can endure (and probably only so much me you can stand) I’ll review these in one hit, but if you can locate the whole saucy saga in its original supremely economical shrink-wrapped gift set, you’d  be crazy to not take advantage of that but please, pace yourselves…

Following an introduction by late-coming co-scripter James Vance, and Reed Waller’s original intro from a1987 collected edition, The Complete Omaha the Cat Dancer Volume 1 gathers the short story appearances from a number of Counter-culture Commix as well as some out-of-continuity infilling short pieces so readers can enjoy what can best be described as the official Directors Cut of the tale.

The wicked wonderment begins with the very first ‘Adventures of Omaha’ from Vootie in 1978. Vootie started in 1976 as a self-published fanzine founded by Waller and like-minded artistic friends who bemoaned the loss of anthropomorphic comics – once a mainstay of US comicbooks. When contributors also griped that there wasn’t much sex in comics either, Waller, taking inspiration from R. Crumb’s Fritz the Cat and responding to recent intensification of local “Blue Laws”, created the evocative, erotic dancer and compared her free and easy lifestyle to a typical, un-elected, interfering know-it-all moral guardian busybody. Blue Laws were – and probably still are – particularly odious anti-fun statutes usually instigated by religious factions designed to keep the Sabbath holy by dictating shop-opening hours and generally limiting or banning adult entertainments like clubs and pubs (but not gun clubs!) and their repressive use (in fact and fiction) became a major narrative engine for the series.

‘Why they Call Her Omaha’ introduces young stripper Susie Jensen who hits the metropolis of Mipple City, Minnesota (a barely concealed Minneapolis) and signs up with a modelling agency where she meets fellow dancer Shelley Hine. Over lunch they bond and pick a better stage name for the gorgeous but naive newcomer, whilst ‘Kitten of the Month’ & ‘Omaha centrefold’ reveal the first glorious results of her management’s efforts. No-holds-barred sexual action returns in ‘Shelley and Omaha’ with the girls, now popular erotic dancers, meeting some guys who will play a big part in the unfolding drama to come.

In ‘Chuck and Omaha’, which officially heralded the beginning of scripter Kate Worley’s (16th March, 1958 – 6th June, 2004) stunning and crucial contribution to the series, Jerry – one of those aforementioned pick-up guys – introduces Omaha to Chuck Katt, a shy artist who will become the great love of her life. ‘Adventures of Omaha’ sees a budding relationship progress whilst ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ moves the grander story arc along when Mipple bans nipples in the opening shot of a political power-grab using Christian/Family-morality pressure groups as unwitting, if fervent, patsies…

Although comprising less than 50 pages, all that material took nearly 15 years to produce. For the longest time, Omaha had no fixed abode; peripatetically wandering from magazine to Indie book, and even guest-shots in the occasional mainstream publication. From Kitchen Sink’s Bizarre Sex #9-10 in 1981-2; a pastiche page in E-Man (1983 and included in vol. 2); Dope Comix #5 (1984), she even starred in a story from Munden’s Bar Annual #2 in 1991. Often stalled for creative, when not censorship, reasons Omaha finally won her own title in 1984 thanks to SteelDragon Press, before vanishing again until 1986, when Kitchen Sink Press took over publication. For further details I strongly advise CAUTIOUSLY checking the internet…

Volume 1 switches to high gear and addictive narrative mode with ‘Omaha #0’: a single page recap followed by a powerfully compelling yarn wherein forces of decency make life difficult for the adult entertainment industry. With stripper bars closing, Omaha is recruited to dance for “The Underground”: an exclusive, ultra-secret, high-class bordello catering to the darkest desires of America’s ultra-elite of businessmen and politicians… many of whom are actively leading the Decency campaign. Shelley is involved too, recruiting contacts from her old profession for more hands-on roles. Chuck meanwhile has reapplied for his old advertising job where old girlfriend Joanne makes life uncomfortable. She has other problems too, as powerful forces draw Omaha & Chuck into a far-reaching, sinister scheme…

On opening night all elements for disaster converge as the Movers and Shakers get more debauchery than even they can handle as someone dopes the entire proceedings, leading to a violent, destructive orgy that previously set up cameras record for blackmail purposes. As they flee the club, hitmen try to kill Chuck but shoot Shelley instead. Believing her dead, Omaha & Chuck run for their lives. Heading for Joanne’s house, Chuck reveals he is the son of Charles Tabey: monomaniacal millionaire businessman, undisputed ruler of Mipple City and the probable true target of the assassination…

Narrowly escaping another murder attempt, they find Tabey and Joanne are intimately involved, and are horrified to find Chuck’s pa was behind the whole thing, intending to mould the wastrel into the kind of son he needs. The sire is also clearly stark, raving mad…

Traumatised and terrified, the young lovers jump into their car and head for California in the short ‘Adventures of Omaha’ quickie with the initial volume concluding with the contents of ‘Omaha #1’ as they reach San Francisco tired, hungry and broke. Grateful for the kindness of strangers, they soon discover Joanne waiting for them and find that Tabey is not their only persecutor. During a drunken three-way another hired killer almost ends them all. From a well-intentioned, joyous celebration of open living free-loving modernity Omaha had evolved into a captivating adult soap opera and conspiracy thriller of mesmerising intensity and complexity…

With an introduction by Worley, Volume 2 eases into the enticing adult entertainment with a ‘Hotziss Twonkies’ parody from E-Man #5 prior to Omaha #2-5 enlarging the saga. In the aftermath of another close shave, Chuck & Joanne bitterly spar whilst an increasingly traumatised cat dancer wanders the streets of San Francisco. When Tabey abducts her whilst moving against all his old enemies, Chuck & Joanne fall into bed…

Meanwhile Jerry, who also works for Tabey, is busying sorting fallout from the club riot/shooting. In a secluded palatial beach-house Omaha discovers Chuck’s dad has been watching over them for some time and soon discovers another shocking secret…

Omaha was utterly groundbreaking in its mature treatment of gay and disabled relationships: offering the sound, common sense opinion that this is what all people think and do. After all, “it’s just sex”…

Paralysed but not deceased, Shelley is also sequestered in the house. She is a long-term Tabey employee and slowly developing a relationship with her nurse Kurt Huddle, and the manic tycoon has convinced Omaha to stay and help care for her. Back in ’Frisco, Chuck rekindles his old relationship with Joanne, utterly unaware she has film and photos taken at the club on that terrible night. That’s where gay photographer and old friend of Joanne Rob Shaw enters the picture as developer and guardian of the contentious materials…

Chuck misses Omaha and tension leads to his splitting with Joanne and moving in with Rob. The cat dancer too is lonely, finding brief and unsatisfactory solace with Jerry again, so when Tabey goes off his meds Jerry arranges for Chuck & Omaha’s reunion, leading to a dreadful confrontation between father and long-estranged son, the apparent result of which is Tabey taking his own life…

Together again after so long, Omaha & Chuck comfort each other as repercussions of Charles Tabey Sr.’s demise shake the country and the cast. The close-knit group endure loss, guilt and outrageous press scrutiny as the matter of inheritance crops up. Against his wishes, Chuck might be incredibly rich and saddled with unwanted responsibilities, but there are some unspecified problems with the will. The plots thicken when Joanne and Rob have a falling out and as all this is going on, back in Mipple City, a powerful new threat makes his move. Senator Calvin Bonner was one of the patrons at the Underground that fateful night, but now he’s making his move for total power, stirring up a wave of fundamentalist hatred and anti-smut indignation with his “Crusade for Decency”…

Covering issues #6-9, and with an introduction by Trina Robbins, Volume 3 follows the action back to Minnesota, but things are difficult for Chuck & Omaha – who can’t seem to re-establish that earlier, innocent rapport. As they go house-hunting, in San Francisco Rob Shaw is visited by thugs after the photos of The Underground riot. His shop destroyed, the photographer narrowly escapes burning in it…

Mipple City’s Blue Laws are more draconian than ever. When Omaha and Shelley – who has moved into the ground floor of the Cat Dancer’s new house – visit old workplace the Kitty Korner, and discover performers must now dance behind plate glass… which makes taking punter’s tips really tricky…

When old friend Shawn turns up, he warns Chuck & Omaha of the plan to redevelop A Block – the part of town where all the artists, musicians and strip clubs are. Something needs to be done to stop it and now Chuck might just be the richest, most influential degenerate in town…

As the lovers go furniture shopping, Shelley and Kurt look for a suitable physical therapy clinic – preferably a non-religious, non-judgemental un-condescending one – and later, whilst Omaha helps Shelley move in, Chuck and Jerry make plans to fight the A Block development. As ever, there is far more going on than the lovers can imagine…

Omaha wants to get back into dancing and, as Chuck becomes increasingly mired in running his father’s many businesses, Kurt learns (some) of Shelley’s murky history even as Joanne and Jerry compare notes and make plans. Rob turns up in Mipple after more attempts on his life, convinced he needs to find his attackers’ boss before his luck runs out. The book ends on a shocking note for Chuck when he discovers his long-dead mother isn’t…

The stunning, addictive saga of the erotic dancer, her bone-headed boyfriend and animalistic extended ensemble takes a dark and dreadful turn with Volume 4 – re-presenting the Kitchen Sink Omaha #10-13 (plus one-page gag strip ‘Alterations’ from Fire Sale #1, 1988-1989) – as the death of Charles Tabey Sr., increasing violence and oppression of the Campaign for Decency and a seemingly constant stream of personal revelations strain Omaha & Chuck’s relationship to the breaking point.

The story resumes after an introduction from writer James Vance who married Worley after her break-up with Waller. He then worked with the artist to finish the saga from her notes after her untimely death from cancer in 2004. Tense and suspenseful, the drama kicks into high gear as Chuck comes to terms with the shocking knowledge that his mother didn’t die decades ago.

The pressure seems to be affecting him badly – or perhaps the thought of all the wealth and responsibility – and our decent young rebel is becoming as exploitative, abusive and creepy as his manic dad ever was, but even though he’s acting paranoid, it doesn’t mean he’s hasn’t got real and deadly enemies…

The situation isn’t helped by learning that somewhere his beloved Omaha has a husband she hasn’t quite divorced and never ever mentioned…

Slyly sinister Senator Bonner is ratchetting up the pressure of his anti-smut campaign and even close ally Jerry is working to his own agenda, with the assistance of avaricious partner Althea. Confused, lonely and neglected, Omaha devotes her energies to dancing for the upcoming video for Shawn’s band, whilst Rob confronts Shelley – whom he believes ordered the attempt on his life and torching of his studio…

When Tabey’s will is read, Chuck does indeed inherit the bulk of his father’s holdings as well, apparently, as many of Tabey Sr.’s deranged obsessions. Far more intriguing than she seems, Shelley acts on Rob’s misperceived accusations whilst lover/carer Kurt finds part-time employment with mysterious Mr. Lopez – the last major player in an increasingly complex game. Meanwhile, high-powered call-girl, blackmailer and Keeper of Secrets Joanne re-insinuates herself with Jerry – and Chuck… and Bonner(!) in a terrifying confrontation that threatens to destroy Omaha and crush Chuck in his own blackmail scheme…

During the video shoot, Omaha & Joanne compare notes on Bonner, after which the capable callgirl enlists Rob’s aid in a scheme to get the goods on the hypocritical Senator, with whom she shares a highly secret and extremely specialised professional relationship. Sadly, whilst both Joanne and Rob practice their unique personal skills, the senator is murdered in the most compromising of all positions and the story moves effortlessly from passionate drama to dark murder mystery. Abandoned, bewildered, angry and very hurt, Omaha leaves town, unaware that both she and Joanne are suspects in the Bonner murder case…

As she heads for a new life in rural Wisconsin, Chuck relearns some long-forgotten personal history from his mother, but no matter how she disguises her appearance, an increasingly popular video means the cat dancer will never be truly safe or unseen…

Volume 5 is introduced by Neil Gaiman, after which issues #14-17 (1990-1992) find the lovers painfully adapting to life apart, with Omaha’s old friends wondering where she’s gone. Meanwhile in Lawrenceville, Wisconsin, after an abortive stab at office work for an all-too-typical, male-dominated factory, “Susan Johnson” goes back to honest work, dancing in the town’s only strip joint, making reliable new friends and meeting a young man who will become far more…

Back in Mipple, Joanne’s lawyer finally clears her of suspicion in Bonner’s demise, Jerry plans to reopen infamous bordello The Underground as a legitimate nightclub and Chuck is making new friends and intimate acquaintances whilst spending his days trying to save the Bohemian A Block district from redevelopment. However, he inadvertently gets far closer to the heart of all the various intrigues threatening the players in the drama, and Jerry’s business partner Althea reveals her true colours… and allies. At Bonner’s funeral, Lopez reveals an unsuspected connection to the venomous politician…

Shelley has made new friends too – in a scathing, utterly delightful episode exposing unexpected biases held by certain sorts of feminists and do-gooders. Joanne is increasingly at odds with Rob regarding films of Bonner’s last moments and when Jerry invites Chuck to become partner in his nightclub venture Althea seeks to secure the deal by offering herself as a sweetener… Or does she actually have another reason for her bold advances?

Kurt & Shelley’s relationship starts showing signs of strain, but in Lawrenceville Susan is relaxed and happy, with the strength to contact the friends she ran out on. In Mipple, the cops slowly uncover uncomfortable facts about everybody in the Bonner case when the Senator’s private secretary comes forward with new information, and Joanne secures the final weapon necessary to expedite her plans…

The final Kitchen Sink issues – #18-20 (1993-1994) – comprise the major part of Volume 6. Following an introduction from Terry Moore, there’s a brief discourse on the large cast’s other appearances, accompanied by short pieces from diverse places. First, there’s the delightful foray into mainstream comics culled from Munden’s Bar Annual #2 in 1991. ‘A Strip in Time’ sees the exotic kitty visit the legendary pan-dimensional hostelry after which come two short ‘n’ sexy vignettes originally produced for The Erotic Art of Reed Waller: one untitled and the other graced with the subtly informative designation ‘Waking Up Under a Tent’, to somewhat offset the angst and drama of the main event hoving into view…

Here, Rob learns what Shelley’s actual role was in the arson attack on his shop, Joanne takes a live-in position with Mr. Lopez and – after many abortive attempts – Chuck & Omaha finally speak. As Thanksgiving dawns, many of Omaha’s friends gather for a momentous dinner and things start to unravel for the bad guys trying to destroy A Block.

And, back in Wisconsin, just as she’s becoming reconciled with Chuck, her fling with appreciative punter Jack intensifies to a crisis point. Meanwhile elsewhere, someone with an intimate knowledge of her recognises the hot dancer in a rock video and begins making fevered inquiries…

When Shawn’s touring band reaches Lawrenceville and discover Susie is Omaha, the scene is set for her return to Mipple City, where – after being arrested in connection with Bonner’s murder – Chuck’s mother reveals the whole story of her past, the sordid truth of Bonner’s obsessive depravity and Charles Tabey’s bi-polar affliction. In light of horrific revelations, Chuck seems to go completely off the deep end and, far too late, his friends and family realise money and looks might not be the only things the son inherited from the father…

Next, just a smidge out of chronological order, comes ‘Tales of Mipple City: Rob Steps Out’: a charming first date sidebar tale from Gay Comics #22 (1994), after which revelations resume as the cops release Maria Elandos Tabey, and her boy is sectioned. In Lawrenceville, Susie gets an unforgettable farewell from before she returns to her true love… who has never needed her more…

The last volume in this magnificent sequence features the final four issues published by Fantagraphics as Omaha the Cat Dancer volume 2, #1-4 (1994-1995). The series at times seemed truly accursed: plagued by illness, delays and creative problems which took a cruel toll on all the creators. Waller & Worley ended their relationships in spectacular fashion at this time and only began working together again in 2002. Two years later Worley died from cancer and it seemed the saga was destined to remain an unfinished masterpiece, but in 2006 Waller and Worley’s husband James Vance began to finish the job from her notes, with the concluding chapters serialised in the magazine Sizzle. When those final instalments were finally collected the completed Omaha the Cat Dancer became a contender for possibly the finest adult comics tale in history*

Here and now, however, the compulsive obsessive yarn reaches a kind of conclusion as – after an introduction from honorary Mipple City citizen Denis Kitchen, and a stunning cartoon recap – Omaha & Chuck renew their relationship, Jerry & Shelley and Rob & Joanne reach workable détente agreements and that tantalising missing husband tracks the cat dancer to her new home. Set over Christmas and New Year’s period, various plot threads come together during an unforgettable party at Chuck’s palatial new house, although a hung-over aftermath promises there are still stories to be told and loose ends to be knotted off once and for all…

Even if the saga had stopped here, Omaha the Cat Dancer would be an incredible narrative achievement and groundbreaking landmark of comics creation, but with the promise of a final resolution still to come, it’s likely to become an icon of our industry, celebrated forever for moving beyond simple titillation and happy, innocent prurience to become a fully matured work of Art. Captivating, intense, deeply moving and addictively engrossing, Omaha never forgets to be also fun, funny, fabulous and utterly inclusive: full of astonishingly well drawn, folk (admittedly largely furry or feathered folk) happily naked and joyously guilt-free… at least about sex.

Monochrome tomes printed at 220 x 280mm (much larger than the original comic books), these books also contain copious full page illustrations – many taken from companion book The Erotic Art of Reed Waller. This saga is one of those true turning points in comics history – a moment we could all provably say “this is socially relevant, capital ‘A’ Art” – as viable and important as the best play or film or symphony: don’t miss any opportunity to make yourself familiar with the whole marvellous classic…

No cats, dogs, chickens, moose, ferrets or anything else living (well maybe some trees) were harmed, abused, distressed or disagreeably surprised in the making of these stories, so if you’re open-minded, fun-loving and ready for the perfect grown-up adventure please take advantage of this unmissable opportunity. You won’t regret it…
© 1978, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987-1996 Reed Waller & Kate Worley. Contents of these editions © 2005-2007 NBM. All Rights Reserved. © 1987-1996 Reed Waller & Kate Worley. Contents of these editions © 2005-2008 NBM. All Rights Reserved.

*A slight footnote (pawnote?). That eighth volume was finally released in 2013, to complete the saga, and we’ll be tackling that in its own post and on its own merits in the fullness of time. Keep ’em peeled, folks…

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The Order of the Black Dragon – a Bob Wilson Adventure


By Griffo & Marcus (Deligne)
ISBN: 978-2-87135-023-1 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Here’s another oddity from the experimental 1980s when many European publishing houses had a concerted go at cracking the highly resistant US comic book market. The Bob Wilson in question is not the revered nigh-sainted Arsenal and England goalkeeper, nor the character in the old Fatal Fury videogame, but rather a traditional two-fisted adventurer/Soldier of Fortune of the sort that fed so much popular fiction of the last century and a half…

Back in 1982 the series debuted in Le Journal Illustré le plus Grand du Monde as ‘L’Ordre du Dragon Noir’, written by “Marcus” (nom de plume of relative mystery-man Danny de Laet) and drawn by the esteemed Werner “Griffo” Goelen, whose other works include Modeste et Pompon, S.O.S. Bonheur, Munro and – with Jean Dufaux – Béatifica Blues, Samba Bugatti and Giacomo C, amongst so many others, all of which really should be available in a language I’m actually conversant with or fluent in.

Bob Wilson is a period thriller, with this volume, set during the days of US Prohibition, following him and his pal Dashiel Hammett as they battle Chinatown Tongs to thwart the plans of insidious oriental mastermind Black Dragon, prior to our hero tracking the eponymous fiend all the way back to his lair in civil war-torn China.

Wilson can count on the support of a grand line of brothers-in-arms as his protracted war takes him across the globe alongside such historical figures as Aristotle Onassis, John Flanders (one of many pen-names for Belgian writer Jean Ray) and Chiang Kai-shek, as well as the odd fictional character like Buddy Longway – a Western hero very popular au continent…

It’s an infectious blend of all-action, grittily excessive adult pulp fiction, highly cinematic, fabulously exotic and very, very stylish in the manner those darned Europeans made all their own for the longest time. I would dearly love to see some publisher give this franchise another go in these days of digital accessibility and global, not national, market-places…
© 1885 Editions Michel Deligne S.A. and Griffo & Marcus. All rights reserved.

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Batman: The Dark Knight Archives volume 8


By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz, Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Ray Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3744-8 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s an absolute crime that the comics stories of Richard W. Sprang have never been gathered in a properly curated edition. On the 110th anniversary of his birth in Fremont, Ohio, I’m flogging another dead comics horse by re-reviewing one of my favourite collections, but even that is a venue he shared with others. Surely his astounding, compelling contributions particularly to DC key icons Batman & Superman have earned him a dedicated Sprang Legends or Tales of omnibus or compendium?

Dick Sprang (July 28th 1915 – May 10th 2000) began earning money from art and narrative early on, working as a designer and illustrator in Ohio whilst still in high school: editing and contributing art to magazines and pulps from the early 1930s onwards. On graduation in 1934 he joined the bullpen of Toledo, Ohio publishing chain Scripps-Howard delivering deadline-busting ads, editorial cartoons and illustrations. Working with the company engravers Sprang mastered every aspect of print technology before moving to New York City in 1936 to illustrate pulps – everything from westerns to detective to general adventure yarns.

Regular clints included Popular Detective, Popular Western, Phantom Detective, G-Men, Detective Novels Magazine, Crack Detective & Black Hood Detective/Hooded Detective, for which he also wrote stories. In 1937, Sprang began ghosting/assisting on newspaper strips including Secret Agent X-9 and The Lone Ranger, which led to his scripting episodes of the latter’s radio show.

As pulps declined and comic books proliferated, he capitalised on the trend, forming a studio shop with Ed Kressy (Fact Finders, The Lone Ranger, Power Nelson) & Norman Fallon (Speed Comics, Shock Gibson, World’s Finest Comics). In 1941 they were hired by DC supremo Whitney Ellsworth who anticipated with dread Bob Kane being drafted. The trio began crafting inventory material to offset that inevitable day, which gradually slipped out over the course of the conflict. His first newsstand appearance was on part of the cover for Batman #18 (August/September 1943) whilst his first full outing was the next issue. For Batman #19, he pencilled all four stories and the cover, but only inked the first three (!) leaving Fallon to embellish the fourth yarn. By 1946, and although utterly uncredited, Sprang was the leading artist on Batman comic book material, which marrying and moving to Sedona, Arizona barely impacted. In fact, he taught commercial photographer/new bride Lora Ann Neusiis to letter and colour his pages and, as “Pat Gordon”, she took off some of the load until their divorce in 1951. Gordon carried on working for DC until around 1961…

In 1955, despite still being unknown to fans, Sprang took on the Superman/Batman team-up feature in World Finest Comics and soldiered on with it, newspaper strips, countless covers and more. His astounding artistry enhanced DC titles for 20 years, including Real Fact Comics #1–3, 18, Strange Adventures #1, Superman, Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane & Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, and he fully recreated Batman’s look for the forward-facing 1950s, with a new Batplane, Batmobile and other paraphernalia. Sprang’s Joker was definitive and he also co-created the Riddler and the character who became Supergirl.

That all ended on his retirement in 1963. When he wasn’t beguiling sedentary adventure fans, Sprang had become a noted explorer and historian of Arizona, Utah and Colorado, and happily commenced a career that brought him the fame comics hadn’t. His many celebrated discoveries and contributions are on show at Northern Arizona Universities Cline Library Special Collections in Flagstaff and the Utah Historical Society in Salt Lake City.

Under recommendation here in my What the £*^&$!? section is a tome chockfull of Sprang in full bloom, but which still only has him as just one of the guys. Nevertheless what is there is totally unmissable and on the 110th anniversary of his birth there’s something to look for as the material is rarely reprinted and utterly eternally beguiling…

Batman: The Dark Knight Archives volume 8

Launching a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market frontrunner and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comic book industry. Having established the fantastic parameters of metahumans with their Man of Tomorrow, the strictly mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of DC’s Dynamic Duo then became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were measured.

This luxuriously lavish hardback Archive Edition covers another bevy of Batman adventures (#32-37 from his solo title, spanning December 1945/January 1946 to October/November 1946), with the Gotham Gangbusters resolutely returned to battle post-war perils and peacetime perfidies of danger, doom and criminality…

These Golden Age greats comprise many of the greatest tales in Batman’s decades-long canon, as lead writers Bill Finger & Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz and other – sadly unrecorded – scripters, pushed the boundaries of the medium. On the visual side, graphic genius Dick Sprang superseded and surpassed freshly-returned originator Bob Kane – who had been drawing Batman’s daily newspaper exploits until its cancellation – making the feature utterly his own in all but name whilst keeping the Dauntless Double-act at the forefront of a legion of superhero stars, just as veteran contributor Jerry Robinson was reaching the peak of his illustrative powers and preparing to move on to other artistic endeavours. The sheer creativity exhibited here proved the creators responsible for producing the bi-monthly adventures of the Dark Knight were hitting their own artistic peak: one few other superhero titles might match. Within scant years they would be one of the only games in town for Fights ‘n’ Tights fans…

Following a fascinatingly fact-filled and incisive Foreword from the inestimable Roy Thomas, the all-out action begins with Batman #32 and another malevolently marvellous exploit of The Joker whose ‘Racket-Rax Racket!’ (by Cameron & Sprang) finds its felonious inspiration in college-student hazing and initiation stunts, after which Finger scripted ‘Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder!’ for your man Sprang, reprising the jaunty junior partner’s origins to reveal how the lad earned the right to risk his life every night beside the mighty Batman in a blisteringly tense first case…

Light-hearted supplemental feature ‘The Adventures of Alfred’ provides thrills and laughs in equal measure as the dutiful retainer reluctantly baby-sits a posh pooch and ends up ‘In the Soup’ after stumbling upon a gang of high society food smugglers (Samachson & Robinson), before Cameron & Sprang spectacularly combine a smidgen of sci fi flair and a dash of historical conceit to the regular adventure mix when Professor Carter Nichols uses his hypnosis-powered time-travel trick to send Bruce & Dick to the court of Louis XIII to work with D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers in ‘All for One, One for All!’

Issue #33 was 1945’s Christmas issue – complete with seasonal cover by Sprang – but is otherwise an all-Win Mortimer art-fest; beginning with Finger’s ‘Crime on the Wing’, wherein the Penguin pops up with a renewed campaign of crime employing trick umbrellas, just to prove to modern mobsters that he’s still a force to be reckoned with, after which anonymously-scripted thriller ‘The Looters!’ has the Dynamic Duo hunting a heartless pack of human hyenas led by the Jackal: raiding cities struck by disasters natural and not…

As if that wasn’t vile enough, the shameless exploiter also tries to steal or sabotage the invention of a dedicated seismologist who thought he’d found a way to predict earthquakes. Thankfully, the Batman & Robin are on site to rock the Jackal’s world…

The issue ended with a similarly uncredited Holiday treat as ‘The Search for Santa Claus’ sees three broken old men redeemed by the season of goodwill. After selflessly standing in for Saint Nick, an innocent man who’d spent 25 years in jail, an over-the-hill actor and a millionaire framed and certified insane by unscrupulous heirs all find peace, contentment and justice after encountering our industriously bombastic caped & masked elves…

Three quarters of issue #34 was crafted by Finger & Sprang, beginning with ‘The Marathon of Menace!’ as an old man who dedicated his life to speed records organises a cross-country race across the US with enough prize cash to interest crooks – and the ever-vigilant Gotham Gangbusters, after which an insufferable chatterbox deafeningly returns in ‘Ally Babble and the Four Tea Leaves!’; in which the chaos-causing manic maunderer consults a fortune teller and accidentally confounds a string of dastardly desperadoes…

Robinson limned an anonymous yet timely tale as ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Tired Tracks’ finds the veteran valet stumbling upon opportunistic thieves before the issue ends with Finger & Sprang detailing ‘The Master Vs. the Pupil!’ Here Batman tests his partner’s progress by becoming the quarry in a devious manhunt, but Robin’s early confidence and success take a nasty nosedive after an embarrassing gaffe which proves the danger of too much success…

Finger, Bob Kane & Ray Burnley crafted the lion’s share of Batman #35, beginning with the landmark ‘Nine Lives has the Catwoman!’ wherein the slinky thief finally emerged as the Dark Knight’s premier female foil. Escaping prison and going on a wild crime spree, the feline felon convinces the world – and possibly the Caped Crusaders – that she cannot die, after which the equally auspicious and influential ‘Dinosaur Island!’ catches the heroes performing a sociology experiment in a robotic theme park, only to find the cavemen and giant beasts co-opted by a murderous enemy looking to become king of the criminal underworld by orchestrating their deaths…

An unknown creator scripted the whimsical exploits of ‘Dick Grayson, Author!’ (Kane & Burnley art) as the young daredevil deems comic book stories too unrealistic and is offered the opportunity to write some funnybook dramas which would benefit from actual crime-fighting experience. Of course, all that typing and plotting are harder than they look…

Kane & Burnley also illustrated all the Batman tales in #36, beginning with Alvin Schwartz’s ‘The Penguin’s Nest!’ wherein the podgy Bird of Ill-Omen starts imperilling his new, successful – and legitimate – restaurant venture by committing minor misdemeanours just to get arrested. Unsure of what he’s up to, the Masked Manhunters spend an inordinate amount of time and energy keeping him out of jug… until they finally glean his devious, million-dollar scheme…

When Hollywood’s top stuntman suffers a head injury on set and begins acting out assorted past roles in the real world, the panicked studios call in Batman as ‘Stand-In for Danger!’ (Cameron, Kane & Burnley), whilst Robinson’s ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Elusive London Eddie!’ sees the mild-mannered manservant ferreting out a British scallywag gone to ground in Gotham, after which the issue ends on a spectacular high with another terrific time-travel trip. Courtesy of Finger, Kane & Burnley ‘Sir Batman at King Arthur’s Court!’  sees our compulsive chrononauts crisscrossing fabled Camelot and battling rogue wizards to verify the existence of enigmatic Round Table legend Sir Hardi Le Noir…

This stunning and sturdy compilation concludes with the all-Robinson, all anonymously scripted #37, beginning with ‘Calling Dr. Batman!’ wherein the wounded crimebuster is admitted to hospital and uncovers dark doings and radium robbery. As if that wasn’t enough, a very sharp nurse seems to have suspicions regarding the similarity of the masked celebrity’s wounds to those of a certain millionaire playboy she recently tended to…

Batman & Robin are back in Tinseltown to solve a dire dilemma as ‘Hollywood Hoax!’ sees them hunt thieves and blackmailers who have swiped the master print of the latest certified celluloid smash before the dauntless derring-do ends with a magnificent clash of eternal adversaries when ‘The Joker Follows Suit!’ Fed up with failing in all his felonious forays, the Clown Prince of Crime decides imitation is the sincerest form of theft and begins swiping the Dark Knight’s gimmicks, methods and gadgets; using them to profitably come to the aid of bandits in distress…

Accompanied as always by a full creator ‘Biographies’ section, this superb collection of comic book classics is a magnificent rollercoaster ride back to an era of high drama and breathtaking excitement: a timeless, evergreen delight no addict of graphic action can ignore.

And it’s got lots of Dick Sprang in it!
© 1945, 1946, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Superman – The First Superhero


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Paul Cassidy, Paul Lauretta, Wayne Boring, Dennis Neville, Creig Flessel, Bernard Baily, Bob Kane, Leo O’Mealia, Jack Burnley, Fred Guardineer & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77952-833-9 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Here’s another stunning and timely compilation comprising the best of vintage comics in another astounding and epic DC Finest edition. These full colour treasure troves are chronologically curated themed tomes highlighting past glories from the company that invented superheroes and so much more. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Just over 87 years ago, Superman rebooted planetary mythology and kickstarted the whole modern era of fantasy heroes. Outlandish, flamboyant, indomitable, infallible and unconquerable, he also saved a foundering industry by birthing an entirely new genre of storytelling: the Super Hero. Since April 18th 1938 (the generally agreed day copies of Action Comics #1 first went on sale) he has grown into a mighty presence in all aspects of art, culture and commerce, even as his natal comic book universe organically grew and expanded. Within three years of that debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment that had hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown: encompassing crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy. However, once the war in Europe and the East seized America’s communal consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comic book covers, if not interiors.

In comic book terms alone Superman was soon a true master of the world, utterly changing the shape of the fledgling industry as easily as he could a mighty river. There was a popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and as the decade turned, the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Moreover, the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release as the energy and enthusiasm of originators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster went on to inform and infect the burgeoning studio which grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

These tales have been reprinted many times, but this latest compilation might arguably be the best yet, offering the original stories in reading – if not strictly chronological publishing – order and spanning cover-dates June 1938 to December 1939. It features the groundbreaking sagas from Action Comics #1-25 and Superman #1-5, plus his pivotal first appearance in New York’s World Fair No. 1. Although most early tales were untitled, here, for everyone’s convenience, they have been given descriptive appellations by the editors.

Thus – after describing the foundling’s escape from exploding planet Krypton and offering a scientific rationale for his incredible abilities and astonishing powers in 9 panels – with absolutely no preamble the wonderment begins with Action #1’s primal thriller ‘Superman: Champion of the Oppressed!’ Here, an enigmatic oddly-clad caped crusader – who secretly masquerades by day as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent – begins publicly averting numerous tragedies and righting injustices…

As well as saving an innocent woman from the Electric Chair and roughing up an abusive “wife beater”, the tireless paragon works over racketeer Butch Matson and consequently saves feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse at his hands. Then he exposes a lobbyist for the armaments industry bribing Senators on behalf of the greedy munitions interests fomenting the war in Europe…

One month later Action #2 offered the next breathtaking instalment wherein the mercurial mysteryman travels to that benighted war-zone to spectacularly dampen down hostilities already in progress in ‘Revolution in San Monte Part 2’ before it’s back to the US where ‘The Blakely Mine Disaster’ finds the Man of Steel responding to a coal-mine cave-in and landing the blame squarely on corrupt corporate practises, before cleaning up gamblers ruthlessly fixing games and players in #4’s ‘Superman Plays Football’.

The Action Ace’s untapped physical potential is explored in AC #5 as ‘Superman and the Dam’ pits the human dynamo against the power of a devastating natural disaster, after which #6 sees canny chiseller Nick Williams attempting to monetise the hero – without asking first. ‘Superman’s Phony Manager’ (with Paul Lauretta adding inks to increasingly overworked Shuster’s art) even seeks to replace the real thing with a cheap knock-off, but quickly learns a most painful and memorable lesson in ethics…

Although Superman starred on the first cover, National’s cautious editors were initially dubious about the alien strongman’s lasting appeal and fell back upon more traditional genre scenes for the following issues (all by Leo E. O’Mealia and all included here). The Man of Tomorrow’s – and Joe Shuster’s – second cover graced Action Comics #7 (on sale from October 25th but cover-dated December 1938) and sparked a big jump in sales, even as the riotous romp inside revealed why ‘Superman Joins the Circus’ – with the mystery man crushing racketeers taking over the Big Top and illustrated by new kid Wayne Boring. Fred Guardineer produced genre covers for #8 & 9 whilst their interiors saw Siegel, Shuster & Lauretta’s ‘Superman in the Slums’ working to save young delinquents from a future life of crime and depravity before latterly detailing how city cops’ disastrous decision to stop the costumed vigilante’s unsanctioned interference plays out in the Boring-inked ‘Wanted: Superman’. That manhunt ended in an uncomfortable stalemate and ambiguous relationship with the authorities that endured for years…

Action Comics #7 had been one of the publisher’s highest-selling issues ever, so #10 again sported a stunning Shuster shot, whilst Siegel’s smart story ‘Superman Goes to Prison’ limned by Shuster, Lauretta & Boring struck another telling blow against institutionalised injustice and stacked odds, as the Man of Tomorrow infiltrated a penitentiary to expose the brutal horrors of State Chain Gangs. The next month saw a maritime cover by Guardineer whilst inside heartless conmen driving investors to penury and suicide rued the Metropolis Marvel intercession in ‘Superman and the “Black Gold” Swindle’ as illustrated by Paul Cassidy.

Guardineer’s spectacular cover of magician hero Zatara for issue #12 was a shared affair, incorporating another landmark as the Man of Steel was given a cameo badge declaring his presence inside each and every issue. Between those covers, Siegel, Shuster & Cassidy revealed how ‘Superman Declares War on Reckless Drivers’ – a hardhitting tale of joy-riders, cost-cutting automobile manufacturers, corrupt lawmakers and dodgy car salesmen who all feel the wrath of the human dynamo after a friend of Clark Kent dies in a hit-&-run incident…

By now, the editors had realised Superman had propelled National Comics to the forefront of the new industry, and in 1939 the company won a license to create a commemorative comic book edition celebrating the opening of the New York World’s Fair. The Man of Tomorrow naturally topped the bill on the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics at the forefront of such early DC four-colour stars as Zatara, Butch the Pup, Gingersnap and gas-masked vigilante The Sandman.

Following an inspirational cover by Sheldon Mayer, Siegel & Shuster’s ‘Superman at the World’s Fair’ describes how Lois and Clark are dispatched to cover the event, giving our hero an opportunity to contribute his own exhibit and bag a bunch of brutal bandits to boot…

Back in Action Comics #13 (June 1939 and another Shuster cover) the road-rage theme of the previous issue continued with Cassidy-rendered ‘Superman vs. the Cab Protective League’ as the tireless foe of felons faces murderous racketeers trying to take over the city’s taxi companies. The tale also introduces – in almost invisibly low key – The Man of Steel’s first recurring nemesis The Ultra-Humanite…

Next follows a truncated version of Superman #1. This is because the industry’s first solo-starring comic book simply reprinted the earliest tales from Action, albeit supplemented with new and recovered material – which is all that’s featured at this point.

Behind the truly iconic and much recycled Shuster & O’Mealia cover, the first episode was at last printed in full as ‘Origin of Superman’, describing the alien foundling’s escape from doomed planet Krypton, his childhood with unnamed Earthling foster parents and eventual journey to the big city…

Also included in those 6 pages (cut from Action #1, and restored to the solo vehicle entitled ‘Prelude to ‘Superman, Champion of the Oppressed’) is the Man of Steel’s routing of a lynch mob and capture of the actual killer which preceded his spectacular saving of the accused murderess that started the legend. Rounding off the unseen treasures is the solo page ‘A Scientific Explanation of Superman’s Amazing Strength!’, a 2-page ‘Superman text story’, and ‘Meet the Creators’ – a biographical feature on Siegel & Shuster. The landmark closed with a pinup of Superman breaking chains by breathing out: an image the tuned in will recognise as the basis of DC Studios’ animation ident…

Sporting another Guardineer Zatara cover, Superman in Action #14 (as realised by Cassidy) featured the return of a manic, money-mad supergenius deranged scientist in ‘Superman Meets the Ultra-Humanite’ as the mercenary malcontent switches his incredible intellect from incessant graft, corruption and murder to an obsessive campaign to destroy the Man of Steel. Whilst Cassidy concentrated on interior epic ‘Superman on the High Seas’ – wherein the hero tackles subsea pirates and dry land gangsters – Guardineer then made some history as illustrator of an aquatic Superman cover for #15. He also produced the Foreign Legion cover on #16, wherein ‘Superman and the Numbers Racket’ by Siegel, Shuster & Cassidy sees the hero save an embezzler from suicide before wrecking another wicked gambling cabal.

Superman’s rise was meteoric and inexorable. He was the indisputable star of Action, with his own dedicated solo title. Moreover, a daily newspaper strip had begun on 16th January 1939, with a separate Sunday strip following from November 5th of that year. The fictive Man of Tomorrow was the actual Man of the Hour and was swiftly garnering millions of new fans. A thrice-weekly radio serial was in the offing, and would launch on February 12th 1940. With games, toys, and a growing international media presence, Superman was swiftly becoming everybody’s favourite hero…

Inked by Cassidy, overworked Siegel & Shuster’s second issue of Superman opened with ‘The Comeback of Larry Trent’ – a stirring human drama wherein the Action Ace clears the name of the broken heavyweight boxer, and coincidentally cleans all the scum out of the fight game, followed by ‘Superman’s Tips for Super-Health’, as ‘Superman Champions Universal Peace!’ depicts the hero once more tackling unscrupulous munitions manufacturers and crushing a gang who had stolen the world’s deadliest poison gas. The pictorial dramas end with ‘Superman and the Skyscrapers’ which finds newshound Kent investigating suspicious deaths in the construction industry, before committing his alter ego to conflict with mindless thugs and their fat-cat corporate boss, after which a contemporary ad and a ‘Superman Text Story’ bring the issue to a close…

Action #17 declared ‘The Return of the Ultra-Humanite’ in a vicious and bloody caper realised by Shuster & Cassidy, involving extortion and the wanton sinking of US ships, and featured their classic Super-cover as the Man of Steel was awarded all the odd-numbered issues for his attention-grabbing playground. That didn’t last long: after Guardineer’s final adventure cover – a bi-plane dog fight on #18, which fronted the Cassidy-limned ‘Superman’s Super-Campaign’ with both Kent and the Caped Kryptonian determinedly crushing a merciless blackmailer, Superman monopolised every cover from #19 onwards. That issue disclosed the peril of ‘Superman and the Purple Plague’ as the city reeled in the grip of a deadly epidemic created by Ultra-Humanite.

The truncated contents of Superman #3 offer only the first and last strips originally contained therein, as the other two were reprints of Action Comics #5 and 6. “The Superman Studio” was constantly expanding to meet spiralling demand and Dennis Nevillie inked Shuster on ‘Superman and the Runaway’ – a gripping, shockingly uncompromising exposé of corrupt orphanages, after which – following a cartoon briefing on ‘Attaining Super-Health: a Few Hints from Superman!’ – Lois finally goes out on a date with hapless Clark – but only because she needs to get close to a gang of murderous smugglers. Happily, Kent’s hidden alter ego is on hand to rescue her in bombastic gang-busting style in ‘Superman and the Jewel Smugglers’ by Shuster & Cassidy…

Cover dated January 1940 and on sale from November 24th 1939, Action Comics #20 notionally opened a new decade and, although Siegel & Shuster had very much settled into the character by now, the buzz of success still fired them, Innovation still sparked and crackled amidst the exuberance and drudgery of churning out more and more material. Moreover, Shuster’s eyesight was failing, demanding his sure signature touch be parcelled out parsimoniously and judiciouly. Collabotative creativity was the order of the day in the Superman Studio …

This conveyor belt process was absent in ‘Superman and the Screen Siren’ as Cassidy pencilled and inked a moving masterpiece wherein beautiful actress Delores Winters is revealed not as another sinister super-scientific megalomaniac but the latest tragic victim – and organic ambulatory hideout – of aged male menace Ultra-Humanite who perfected his greatest horror… brain transplant surgery!

This is followed with an immediate sequel from Shuster & Cassidy as “Delores” seeks to steal another scientist’s breakthrough and oblierate the Action Ace with ‘The Atomic Disintegrator’ before #22 loudly declares ‘Europe at War (Part One)’: a tense, thinly disguised call to arms to a still neutral USA. It too was a continued story – almost unheard of in those early days of funnybook publishing and spectacularly concluded in #23 with ‘Europe at War (Part Two)’.

Cover-dated Spring 1940, Superman #4 featured four big new adventures, and the debut of more creative stars in the making, beginning with a succession of futuristic assassination attempts in ‘Superman versus Luthor’ by omnipresent author Siegel, Shuster & Bernard (The Spectre) Baily. After an educational cartoon vignette on ‘Attaining Super-Strength’, the original Man of Might battles dinosaurs and bandits in ‘Luthor’s Undersea City’, by Shuster, Cassidy & Creig (The Sandman) Flessel, before saving the whole world from financial and literal carnage by ferreting out ‘The Economic Enemy’: a prophetic espionage yarn about commercial sabotage instigated by an unspecified foreign power and artistically crafted by Shuster, Cassidy and Bob Kane – yes, that Bob Kane…

The issue closed with a tale of gangsters intimidating Teamsters and union workers in Siegel, Shuster & Cassidy’s‘Terror in the Trucker’s Union’.

Simultaneously, in Action Comics #24,‘Carnahan’s Heir’ (Shuster & Cassidy) becomes Superman’s latest social reclamation project when the Metropolis Marvel promises to turn a drunken wastrel into a useful citizen, whilst in #25 Cassidy rendered the tale of ‘Amnesiac Robbers’ compelled to crime by an evil hypnotist, before this initial DC Finest compilation closes with the contents of Superman #5: a superb combination of human drama, crime and wickedly warped science augmented by a flurry of gag cartoons by the burgeoning Superman Studio.

As ever scripted throughout by Siegel, it begins with our crimebusting hero crushing ‘The Slot Machine Racket’ (Cassidy, Boring & Lauretta) before pausing to promote health and exercise, via feaurette ‘Super-Strength: Rules for Summer Living’. Without pausing for breath he then – couertsy of Cassidy – foils a rival newspaper’s ‘Campaign Against the Planet’. Limned by Shuster & Boring, the awesome, insidious threat of ‘Luthor’s Incense Machine’ is similarly scuttled, before finally Big Business chicanery is exposed and severly punished whilst a decent simple chemist is cleared of a felonius frame-up in Cassidy’s ‘The Wonder Drug Racket’.

Re-presenting the epochal run of raw, unpolished but viscerally vibrant stories by Siegel & Shuster and their merry band who collectively and until now largely anonymously set the funnybook world on fire, this chronicle compellingly recaptures the sheer thrill of those pioneering days. As fresh and absorbingly addictive now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics perfectly display the savage intensity and sly wit of Siegel’s stories – which literally defined what being a Superhero means – whilst Shuster formulated the basic iconography for all others to follow.

The crude, rough, uncontrollable wish-fulfilling, cathartically exuberant exploits of The First Superhero reveals a righteous, superior champion of the helpless and outmatched dispensing summary justice equally to social malcontents, exploitative capitalists, thugs and ne’er-do-wells that initially captured the imagination of a generation. Although the gaudy burlesque of monsters and super-villains lay years ahead of Superman, these primitive, raw, captivating tales of corruption, disaster, moral deviancy and social injustice are just as engrossing and speak as powerfully of the tenor of the times then and now. Such Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment. What comics fan could possibly resist them?
© 1938, 1939, 1940, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The 10,000 Disasters of Dort


By Mike Butterworth, Luis Bermejo, José Ortiz Moya & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-78618-949-3 (TPB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s time for another sortie down memory lane for us rapidly diminishing oldsters, but hopefully opening a fresh, untrodden path for new fans of the fantastic seeking a typically quirky British comics experience.

British comics have always enjoyed an extended love affair with what can only be described as “unconventional” (for which feel free to substitute “bizarre” or “creepy”) stars. So many notional role models in our strips have been outrageous or just plain “off”: self-righteous voyeur/vigilantes like Jason Hyde, sinister masterminds in the manner of The Dwarf or Black Max, arrogant ex-criminals like The Spider or outright racist overmen such as fearsome white ideologue Captain Hurricane…

At first glance, prior to the advent of game changers Action and 2000AD, British comics seemingly fell into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and/or fantastic preschool fantasy; a large selection of licensed entertainment properties; action; adventure; war; school dramas, sports and straight comedy strands. Closer examination would confirm that there was always a subversive merging, mixing undertone, especially anarchic antiheroes like Dennis the Menace or our rather strained interpretation of costumed crime-busters. Just check out Phantom Viking, Kelly’s Eye or early Steel Claw stories…

Following post-war austerity, the 1950s ushered in a comics revolution. With British printing and paper restrictions gone, a steady stream of titles emerged from companies new and old, aimed at the many different levels of childish attainment from pre-school to young adult. When Hulton Press launched Eagle in April 1950, the very concept of what weeklies could be changed forever. That oversized prestige package with photogravure colour was expensive, however, and when London-based publishing powerhouse Amalgamated Press retaliated, it was a far more economical affair. I’m assuming AP only waited so long before the first issue of Lion launched (cover-dated February 23rd 1952) to see if their flashy rival was going to last. Lion – just like Eagle – was a mix of prose stories, features and comic strips and even offered its own cover-featured space-farer in Captain Condor – Space Ship Pilot. Initially edited by Reg Eves, Lion’s 1156 weekly issues ran until 18th May 1974, when it merged with sister-title Valiant. Along the way, in the tradition of British publishing which had always subsumed weaker-selling titles to keep popular strips going, Lion absorbed Sun (1959) and Champion (1966) before going on to swallow Eagle itself in April 1969, with the result soon thereafter merging with Thunder (1971).

In its capacity as one of the country’s most popular and enduring adventure comics, the last vestiges of Lion only vanished in 1976 during Valiant’s amalgamation with Battle Picture Weekly. Despite that demise, there were 30 Lion Annuals between 1953 – 1982, benefitting from our lucrative Christmas market, and combining original strips with historical prose adventures; sports, science/general interest features; short humour strips and – increasingly from the 1970s – reformatted reprints from IPC/Fleetway’s back catalogue.

Of course, our pictorial kids’ stuff was always unlike any other kind: always enjoying -especially when “homaging” such uniquely American fare as masked superheroes – a touch of insouciant rebelliousness. Until the 1980s, UK comics employed an anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character. Humour vehicles like The Beano and Dandy were leavened by action-heroes such as Billy the Cat or General Jumbo whilst adventure papers like Smash, Hotspur or Valiant offered palate-cleansing gagsters including The Cloak, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and sundry other titter-treats. Originally presenting a cosy façade of genial comedic antics or school follies, cheery cowboys, staunch soldiery and moonlighting light entertainment stars, before long there increasingly lurked behind and below the surface dark and occasionally utterly deranged fantasy fare. These included marauding monsters and uncanny events upsetting a comfy status quo. Perhaps it was all just a national shared psychosis triggered by war, rationing, nightly bombing BUT NO SUCCESSFUL INVASION SINCE 1066, DAMMIT!…

Over and over British oddness seemingly combined with or reacted to our long-standing familiarity with soft oppression, leading to stories of overwhelming, imminent conquest and worse. With our benighted shores existentially threatened, the response from entertainment sources was a procession of doughty resistors facing down doom from the deepest depths of perfidy and menace… especially from the stars. Moreover, thanks to an economic downturn and spiralling costs in publishing, the mid 1960s and 1970s were particularly wild and desperate for UK comics: inspiring a wave of innovation most fondly remembered for darkly off-kilter heroes, beguiling monsters and charismatic villains. The 10,000 Disasters of Dort pretty much ticks all those boxes.

A trained artist, Mike Butterworth wrote for many comics titles: historical strips such as Buffalo Bill, Max Bravo, the Happy Hussar, Battler Britton and Billy the Kid as well as the epic Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire. He simultaneously and latterly became a Crime and Gothic Romance novelist with more than 20 books to his assorted pen names. The 10,000 Disasters of Dort was simply another bread-&-butter B-feature assignment; albeit an extremely popular one that probably took off thanks not just to his terse, imaginative scripts and the tone of the times but also the astounding visual vivacity of its illustrators, Luis Bermejo and José Ortiz…

The astoundingly gifted Luis Bermejo Rojo was a star of Spanish comics forced to seek work abroad after their domestic market imploded in 1956. He became a prolific contributor to British strips, working on a succession of moody masterpieces across many genres. These included The Human Guinea Pig, Mann of Battle, Pike Mason, Phantom Force Five and Heros the Spartan, in Girls Crystal, Tina, Tarzan Weekly, Battle Picture Library, Thriller Picture Library, Eagle, Buster, Boys World, Tell Me Why, Look and Learn and many more. Bermejo finally achieved a modicum of his long-deserved acclaim in the 1970s, after joining fellow studio mates José Ortiz, Esteban Maroto & Leopoldo Sanchez who all worked on adult horror stories for US magazines Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella and their Spanish spin-offs.

José Ortiz Moya’s 60 plus year career began after he won a contest in Spanish magazine Chicos. In the 1950s, he worked on digest strips for Editorial Maga, including Capitan Don Nadie, Pantera Negra and Jungla, and agency work saw him produce several strips for foreign publishers, particularly Britain. Here he memorably illustrated Caroline Barker, Barrister at Law for The Daily Express; Smokeman and UFO Agent in Eagle magazine and The Phantom Viking in top seller Lion. Over the 1970s & 1980s Ortiz worked on several popular British strips including The Tower King and House of Daemon for the new Eagle, Rogue Trooper, The Helltrekkers and Judge Dredd for 2000 AD and The Thirteenth Floor for Scream! This last was another stunning horror-show Ortiz co-created with John Wagner & Alan Grant. Whilst doing all of this work on UK kid’s comics, in the US Ortiz was also working on – and is arguably best known for – stories for Warren’s Eerie and Vampirella.

Here the meat of the matter is enthralling episodes delivering a stunning nostalgia-punch via Rebellion’s superb Treasury of British Comics imprint, collecting a seminal sci fi shocker unleashed on the “Juvenile Boys’ periodical” as the print equivalent of Saturday night at the movies…

This slim tall tome gathers the original saga as played out in Lion from 18th May to 23rd November 1968, and also includes the altered ending added when the saga was rerun eight years later. Rebellion have spared readers from redundancy by only adding the episodes from Lion for 11th & 18th May 1974, but have also kindly included pertinent items from Lion Annuals for 1970 & 1971; ta very much…

The premise is simple and effective, as decades from “now” on March 18th of super-advanced year 2000 AD, the last great Atlantic liner HMS Royalty approaches New York City, only to see the mega metropolis crumble to ruin before succumbing to disaster herself. Scientists around the world rally to investigate and Cambridge Professor Mike Dauntless discovers that all the steel for 50 miles around the city had become like rubber…

His rash deduction that Earth was under attack from space is confirmed 24 hours later as a colossal crystal cylinder materialises outside Moscow and a giant extraterrestrial calling itself Ratta, Dictator of Dort serves notice to humanity. With its own world doomed to expire in 50 years, Ratta intends to move his subjects to Earth. The resident population can move or endure 10,000 manufactured super-science generated trials and terrors that will sufficiently depopulate the region and thin the herd…

Responding to the sadistic ultimatum, Dauntless determines to foil or counter each “disaster”, and is soon called to Paris to destroy rampaging giant vines erupting from the sewers, consequently gaining a teen sidekick in newly orphaned Gaston…

… And that how the drama proceeded with Mike & Gaston plus occasional local co-stars countering or at least stalling each of smugly gloating Ratta’s doom ploys, and facing the best and worst of human behaviours as society crumbles. The star assaults include enlarging beasts and birds in Melbourne, drenching Britain with waves of hatred turning the population into marauding murderers by tainting the nations favourite tipple and dropping irresistible superweapons into the greedy hands of desert bandits in Central Arabia. In every instance Dauntless manufactures solutions at the risk of his life, never having time enough to stop, think, anticipate or plan a counter attack…

As Mike leads a spirited ground defence of Cairo, Ratta ups the stakes with a global attack that neutralizes electricity and follows up with a new ice age before teleporting to Earth and walking amongst embattled humanity to enjoy the agonies of his victims. The Dictator of Dort also infiltrates Mike Dauntless’ team with a view to ending the world’s resistance in one stroke, but shoots himself in the scaly foot after playing chess to decide humanity’s fate… and losing…

Temporarily stalled but undeterred, Ratta resumes his attacks by unleashing a billion bugs on Bavaria and going on to inundate Earth in ants, after which the alien turns the unchecked power of the sun upon the world. This Ninth Disaster necessitates Mike & Gaston seeking a solution in orbit and when they are posted as lost in space, newly-appointed alien attack tsar Tom Burley is quickly overwhelmed when men and women begin devolving into brutes and beasts…

Convinced of victory, Ratta declares the war over and orders all Dort to be evacuated and sets forth for the newly conquered territory, but the Dictator has made a grievous error…

With Earth ultimately saved, the feature ended, but under approved kids’ comics protocols was rerun after five years. Editorial policy dictated the entire readership would change approximately every 4 to 5 years as they grew older and sought other entertainments. Deemed still of interest despite the time required for a complete turnover of readership the Disaster unfolded again but with a new more relevant conclusion. Included here are the two new episodes commissioned and tacked on to the run which spanned 22nd December 1973 to May 4th 1974.

Sadly we don’t know wrote or drew the instalments for 11th & 18th May, and can only assume who was responsible for complete yarn ‘Plague of Locusts’: a comics sidebar story set in the same continuity as the main story included Lion Annual 1970, which would have been published in autumn 1969.

Here, Dauntless & Gaston aid London’s war against massive marauding monster locusts and learn that not all threats to humanity originated on Dort, before Lion Annual 1971 provides a tantalising text feature by artist and writers unknown asking ‘Do You Believe in Flying Saucers? and gathering in evidence a number of documented close encounters.

Also on view is s stirring Cover Gallery, Creator biographies and an always-welcome excerpt from Siegel & Bunn’s The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs. The Crook from Space.

An exciting, engaging, done-in-one delight that’s undemanding and rewarding is a rare treat these days. If that appeals, this is what you want. What you really, really want…
© 1968, 1970, 1971, 1974 & 2023 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights reserved.