Category: Mystery

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Second Shift


By Kit Anderson (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-917355-20-9 (TPB)

The world has gone to crap and work sucks. This is the eternal verity wherever and whenever you are. Not much can be done about the world – except maybe make or find another one – but here’s a way to at least handle the work part of that equation…

Grand Master of short form graphic narratives – you can just call them comics if you want – Kit Anderson (Safer Places) originated in Boulder, Colorado but now lives near Zürich. Ceaselessly making graphic stories long before earning an MFA from The Center for Cartoon Studies in 2022 – Anderson’s earlier stuff – can be seen at Parsifal Press and The Rumpus and for greater elucidation and edification you could get check out Comics — Kit Anderson…

Here Anderson dives deep into the contemporary by employing a future setting, exploring our increasingly uncertain/presumed/predicted fate in terms of the proverbial Human Condition – especially our self-destructive, double edged sword capacity to simultaneously doubt and trust – in a tale also exploring memory, imagination, inner worlds, nature, secrets, self-help solutions and isolation…

Pensive, genteel and quietly suspenseful, with action reduced to the participants’ downtime entertainment, Second Shift takes its emotional lead from contemplative classic science fiction movies like Silent Running and Soylent Green by tracing the revelations of live-in labourer Birdie Doran. At a time where human beings are pragmatically honed into useful components for megacorporations, she – like a few “lucky” others – toils for Terracorp, living on a hostile planet shepherding complex machines as they terraform the environment when not harvesting cometary material in mind-numbingly repetitive tasks that one day others will benefit from. It’s a living…

She spends her downtime in ‘Dropout’, indulging in the rich fantasy life provided and recommended by Company Exclusive DreamSpace: an engaging VR/AI environment replacing mundane travails with immersive escape routes (wizard’s worlds, haunted houses, cyber-realities, Knights & Ladies, alien mindscapes, fresh starts). Even when not suspended in economically sensible life stasis, Birdie hardly ever interacts with her human workers, like her brother Heck and standoffish Porter. Most of her conversations are with avatars of monitoring AI algorithm Station… and those are about work and her operating efficiency…

Toil and rest don’t leave much room for stimulating conversation and playing in the Station provided ‘Ruined Castle’ leaves Heck and Birdie increasingly bored and anxious. So, when he picks up an inexplicable ‘Signal’ Station cannot convince Heck to ignore it, and soon Birdie must trek out into the ever-changing icy wilds to fetch him back…

Her trudging trek eventually finds him staring at another – abandoned – station outpost, similar to but also utterly different to the cloying womb they live in. Unable to resist exploring, they discover wonders and eventually the VR menu of whoever worked there. What particularly grips then is something labelled “Wildlife”…

Torn over whether to report what they’ve found, and almost killed on their return journey by an inexplicable and highly suspicious event, the Dorans’ discovery increasingly divides whilst intellectually invigorating the siblings. Soon the shared secret is disrupting their efficiency and they clandestinely ‘Return’ to the lost outpost. It soon it becomes apparent that life for them has forever changed and nothing can stop what lies ahead…

Revelations and realisations come quietly but inescapably as the mystery intensifies in ‘Debris’, ‘Drop-In’ and ‘Payload’ before resolution arrives in ‘Museum Hall’, but can even enhanced awareness and growing knowledge help change this world? Whatever the outcome, it’s one only Birdie alone can achieve…

Beguiling, subversive, intensely absorbing and asking all the right questions on where the world or work is taking us – how do you feel about trading up to guaranteed food, lodging and being coddled and coshed by VR babysitters in return for surrendering liberty and your own opinions and questions? – Second Shift is socially-charged speculative fiction in the grand manner and a sublime, layered read you’ll return to over and again.
© Kit Anderson 2025. All rights reserved.

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The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs The Crime Genie (volume 3)


By Jerry Siegel & Reg Bunn, with Geoff Campion, David Sque, Jesús Blasco & various (Rebellion)
ISBN 978-1-83786-173-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

I once again find myself in a quandary. When seriously reviewing something you must always keep a weather eye on your critical criteria. For me, the biggest danger when looking at comic collections is to ensure the removal of the nostalgia-tinted spectacles of the excitable, uncritical scruffy little kid who adored and devoured the source material every week in the long ago and long-missed.

However, after thoroughly scrutinising myself – no pleasant task, as you can imagine – I can honestly say that not only are the adventures of the macabre and malevolent Spider as engrossing and enjoyable as I remember, but will also provide the newest, most contemporary reader with a huge hit of superb artwork, compelling, caper-style cops ‘n’ robbers fantasy and thrill-a-minute adventure. After all, the strip usually ran two (later three) pages per episode, so a lot had to happen in pretty short order.

A triumphant beacon of Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics line, The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs. The Crime Genie is the latest offering in what I hope will be a complete revival of the UK’s most marvellous vintage comics fantasies (bring on Smoke Man, Tri Man, Gadget Man & Gimmick Kid – we can take it!). Gathering material from peerless weekly anthology Lion and Champion spanning February 4th 1967- May 20th 1967, plus pertinent extracts from Lion Annual 1968 and 1969.

Mystery criminal genius and eventual superhero The Spider debuted on June 26th 1965 and reigned supreme until April 26th 1969. He has periodically returned in reprint form and occasional new stories ever since. As first introduced by Ted Cowan (Ginger Nutt, Paddy Payne, Adam Eterno, Robot Archie) & Reg Bunn (Robin Hood, Buck Jones, Captain Kid, Clip McCord), the moody malcontent was an enigmatic super-scientist whose goal was to be acclaimed the greatest criminal of all time. The flamboyantly wicked narcissist began his public career by recruiting crime specialists – safecracker Roy Ordini and genteelly evil genius inventor Professor Pelham – prior to a massive gem-theft from America’s greatest city. He was foiled by cruel luck and resolute cops Gilmore and Trask: crack detectives cursed with the task of capturing the arachnid arch-villain.

Cowan scripted the first two serialised sagas before handing over to comics royalty: Jerry Siegel (Superman, Superboy, The Spectre, Doctor Occult, Slam Bradley, Funnyman, The Mighty Crusaders, Starling), who had been forced to look elsewhere for work after an infamous dispute with DC Comics over the rights to the Man of Steel. His supervision of UK arachnid amazement began just as Britain and the entire, but less fab & groovy world succumbed to “Batmania”. In case you’re not old, the term covers a period of global hysteria sparked by the 1966 Batman TV show, as the planet went crazy for superheroes and an era dubbed “camp” saw humour, satire, and fantastic psychedelic whimsy infect all categories of entertainment. It was a time of peace, love, wild music and radical change, and I believe there were lots of drugs being experimented with at the time…

British comics were not immune, and a host of more conventional costumed crusaders sprang up in our traditionally unconventional pages. Scripted by the godfather of the genre – and an inveterate humourist – The Spider skilfully shifted gears without a squeak and became a superhero, battling in rapid succession The Exterminator, Crime Incorporated, The Silhouette, Dr. Mysterioso, The Android Emperor, The Infernal Gadgeteer, and The Crook From Outer Space…

Played out for months at breakneck rollercoaster pace, each monochrome story positively bulged with imaginative ingenuity, manic combats and crazy inventions peppering wide-eyed British kids with a bizarre conception of the USA. The strip grew ever more popular and by the time of this epic encounter demanded a full 5 pagers per episode, in a periodical where one or two pages a week was the norm. At the height of its creativity The Spider embraced full on surrealism in the tale as petty convict and recently escaped fugitive from a chain gang Steve Gurko finds a bottle with a djinn inside and strikes the deal of a lifetime…

Gifted with unlimited wishes, Gurko and the Genie go on a crime rampage and draw The Spider’s attention, leading to a protracted war of fantastic creatures against the arrogant hero’s ingenuity and inventions. A masterpiece of illustrative wonderment displaying Reg Bunn’s incredible gift for visualisation, the lengthy campaign finds The Spider, Pelham & Ordini facing hyper-enlarged insects, banishment to other eras, ancient warriors, terrible titans, wicked wizards, an army of modern mobsters, monstrous disembodied limbs, legions of trolls and giants, swarms of flying “stingers”, invading transdimensional “monstrogs”, erupting volcanoes, rampaging dinosaurs, missing links and Gurko himself willingly transformed into a super-heated “Sun-Man”…

Eventually, when he’s fed up with Gurko’s insipid uninspired ideas, the immortal genie turns on his Master and sets out to punish the infernal humans who have constantly escaped and humiliated him, and then the war gets really wild. Ultimately however, The Spider’s brain proves too much for ancient mystical brawn, especially after the increasing incensed apparition angers fellow mystical immortal Queen Lana of Valley of the Doomed…

It could have all ended there, but for the haughty Spider rebuffing her amorous advances and offers of alliance…

The climax comes when the retrenching genie mind controls the police as his new army and sets colossal arachnids on the hero, only to fall for a slick piece of conceptual sleight of hand and return to his own specialised “glass house”…

The months-long miracle war concluded, there’s still space for some extras, beginning with comic romp ‘The Spider and the Stone of Venus’. Illustrated by David Sque (The Skid Kids, Roy of the Rovers, Scorer) for Lion Annual 1968 and set when the Spider was seeking to shed his villainous, past it sees rival arch fiend Mister Mastermind frame him for a jewel theft and regret his folly very much indeed…

A year later an untitled Spider text story – lavishly adorned with Geoff (Battler Britton, Captain Condor, Typhoon Tracy, The Spellbinder, Captain Hurricane, D-Day Dawson) Campion illustrations – revealed how an army of assassins play on their enemy’s immense ego and successfully invade his castle as a film crew seeking to record his greatness for history. Sadly for them, even the Spider isn’t that vain…

Also from Lion Annual 1969, a second treat sees comics master Jesús Blasco (Steel Claw, Tex Willer, Buffalo Bill, Cuto, Capitán Trueno) limn a brutal war of wills and inventions as a fascistic tyrant threatens civilisation with his super weapons only to fall to the Spider’s boldness and amazing arachnid arsenal…

Completing the vintage treats is a full colour cover gallery, a Crime Syndicate pinup by Campion from Lion Summer Special 1968 and creator biographies. This compilation of retro/camp masterpieces is jam-packed with arcane dialogue, insane devices and outrageous antics that are perhaps an acquired taste. However, no one with functioning eyes can fail to be astounded by the artwork of Reg “crosshatch king” Bunn which handles mood, spectacle, action and Siegel’s frankly unbelievable script demands with captivating aplomb.

This titanic tome confirms that the King is back at last and should find a home in every kid’s heart and mind, no matter how young they might be, or threaten to remain. Batty, baroque and often simply bonkers, The Spider proves that although crime does not pay, it always provides a huge amount of white-knuckle fun…
© 1967, 1968, 1969, 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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The Man Who Shot Lucky Luke


By Matthieu Bonhomme: and translated by Montana Kane/Jerome Saincantin (Europe Comics/Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-063-0 (Cinebook PB Album/Digital edition)

Lucky Luke was created in 1946 by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère (AKA “Morris”), first riding out in Le Journal de Spirou that summer sans any title or banner, and only in the French-language edition. His official launch came with Christmas Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947, before beginning his first weekly serial adventure – ‘Arizona 1880’ – in December 7th 1946’s multinational weekly issue.

Doughty, rangy, and dashingly dependable, the cowboy is an implacably even-tempered do-gooder who can “draw faster than his own shadow”, amiably ambling around a mythic, cinematically realised Old West on his petulant, stingingly sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper in light-hearted adventures. Ever since that natal moment, his exploits in LJdS – and, from 1967, in rival periodical Pilote – have made the sharpshooter a legend of stories across all media and monument of merchandising.

Working solo with occasional script assistance from his brother Louis, Morris produced 10 albums worth of affectionate and thrilling sagebrush parody before formally uniting with René Goscinny, who became regular wordslinger with Des rails sur la Prairie (Rails on the Prairie), which commenced in LJdS on August 25th 1955. They literarily rode together on another 44 albums whilst Luke attained dizzying heights of superstardom. The partnership continued when the six-gun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with La Diligence (The Stagecoach). When Goscinny died, Morris continued both singly and with fresh collaborators. The dream team’s last ride was 1986’s La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires/The Ballad Of The Daltons and Other Stories.

Ultimately the grand originator invited an inspiring passel of legacy creators to step in: luminaries like Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more, who all took their own shots at the lovable lone rider. Morris died in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus an assortment of sidebar and spin-off sagebrush sagas such as the one we’re scrutinising today. Since 2016 Julien Berjeaut, AKA Jul (Silex and the City) has handled the tall tale telling…

Lucky is one of the top-ranked comic characters in the world, having generated 94 albums (if you count spin-off series like Kid Lucky and Ran-Tan-Plan, and artist’s specials) with sales well north of 300 million in 33 languages. That renown has translated into a mountain of merchandise, toys, games, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know…

Our taciturn trailblazer’s travails draw on western history as much as movie mythology and regularly interact with historical and legendary figures as well as even odder fictional folk as he re-explores and refines key themes of classic cowboy films – as well as some uniquely European notions and interpretations. As previously hinted, the happy wanderer is not averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire …but not in this primal, purely-classic-western-influenced outing. Here the entire premise is played dead straight…

We Brits first encountered Lucky Luke in the late 1950s, syndicated to weekly comic Film Fun, and again in 1967 in Giggle, where he blazed trails as Buck Bingo. In all these venues – as well as in numerous attempts to capitalise on the English-language success of Tintin and Asterix albums from Brockhampton and Knight Books – Luke had a trademark cigarette hanging insouciantly from his lip. In 1983 Morris – no doubt amidst both pained howls and muted mutterings of political correctness gone mad – substituted a piece of straw for the much-travelled dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization. The classic snout is notionally back here and plays a large part in how an uncharacteristically grim saga unfolds…

Scion of an artistic family, Matthieu Bonhomme received his degree in Applied Arts in 1992, before learning the comics trade working in the atelier of western and historical comics specialist Christian Rossi. Le Marquis d’Anaon was Bonhomme’s first regular series, running from 2002-2008, after which he began writing as well as illustrating a variety of tales from L’Age de Raison, Le Voyage d’Esteban, and others.

When invited to craft his own take on a comics megastar, in 2016 he delivered L’Homme qui tua Lucky Luke: a wry but strictly serious pastiche of the parody western pioneer that successfully answered the question “what if they dropped all the funny bits and (mostly) played the hero as straight as the classic cinema fare he’s usually spoofing?” The gimmick clearly hit a cord as he was asked back and in 2022 released second shot Wanted: Lucky Luke, which we’ll get to another day…

The result was first translated in 2016 by digital-only comics collective Europe Comics (which I’m referencing here today) but the tale is also available as part of the Cinebook Lucky Luke Library available both on paper and in pixel pictures. The Man Who Shot Lucky Luke is a deliciously enticing drama with notes and references to many US western movies anyone over 40 has seen – usually beside a parent or grandparent – that tips its Stetson to the glory days of shoot-‘em-ups. You can play spot the movie reference on your own time, but yes, it’s notionally based on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, with hints of The Big Country, 1957’s Gunfight at the OK Corral and more…

One cold, wet night, a lone rider ambles into sleazy, dying mining outpost Froggy Town. The dank muddy dump is hardly welcoming, as it still reels from a recent robbery that took away the last of the gold the mines seem to contain, Moreover, the taking of those few nuggets by a mysterious Indian left beloved stagecoach driver Bob dead in the dust…

Tired, hungry and desperate for a smoke, the legendary good-guy gunslinger is inexplicably provoked by incompetent sheriff James Bone and his lethal, brooding brother Anton, and only coughing, slowly expiring veteran shootist Doc Wednesday is able to defuse what might have become another tragedy.

Fed and watered, Luke’s luck seems to be turning, but even the little metropolis can’t supply all his needs. There’s no tobacco to be had at any price since the robbery…

Moreover, the dogged, reputation-obsessed brothers conspire to get Lucky out of the way and Luke, still thwarted in every attempt to get some tobacco, tetchily starts to feel the Bone boys aren’t quite right in the head… and he hasn’t even met big brother Steve yet…

In that diagnosis he’s not wrong, and the assessment is even more true of their miner father. Big shot Pa Bone founded Froggy Town with his first big strike, runs roughshod over the townsfolk, literally rules his sons with a rod of iron and is desperate to save the place from fading away as the precious ore peters out…

Luke’s reputation prompts a citizens committee to appoint him to investigate the robbery/ murder, hoping to catch the enigmatic Indian and recover the gold, but the Bone boys sabotage his every effort, even confiscating his gun and Jolly Jumper and “losing” them… and that’s before old flame Laura Legs shows up, betrothed to Anton…

Distracted, jonesing for a smoke and outwitted at every turn, Luke is even framed for the crime after Pa Bone suddenly saves the town by “finding” more gold, but the tissue of lies is starting to tear. When the old man shoots Luke – in the back – the tragedy sparks a lynch mob and the true finally emerges, but far too late for some…

Not without humour – but not the raucous slapstick Luke’s readers are used to – this is a beguiling tribute to traditional western tales, asking Europe’s most famous cowboy to play against type and the trick works perfectly. If you ever wondered what Lucky would be like as a straight Gallic-framed hero like Blueberry or Red Dust (in Comanche) this is the book for you…
© 2016 – LUCKY COMICS – Bonhomme. All rights reserved. English translation © 2021 Cinebook Ltd.

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Yoko Tsuno volume 18: The Rhine Gold


By Roger Leloup, coloured by Studio Leonardo & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-093-7 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

On September 24th 1970, “electronics engineer” Yoko Tsuno began a career as an indomitable intellectual adventurer in Le Journal de Spirou in “Marcinelle style” cartoonish 8 page short ‘Hold-up en hi-fi’. She is still delighting readers and making new fans to this day, in action-packed, astonishing, astoundingly accessible adventures numbering amongst the most intoxicating, absorbing and broad-ranging comics thrillers ever created.

Her globe-girdling mysteries and space-&-time-spanning epics are the brainchild of Belgian maestro Roger Leloup who properly started his own solo career in 1953 after working as studio assistant/technical artist on Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

Compellingly told, sublimely imaginative and – no matter how implausible the premise of an individual yarn – always firmly grounded in hyper-realistic settings underpinned by authentic, unshakably believable technology and scientific principles, Leloup’s illustrated escapades were at the vanguard of a wave of strips revolutionising European comics. Very early in the process, he switched from loose illustration to a mesmerising nigh-photo realistic style that is a series signature. That long-overdue sea-change in gender roles and stereotyping heralded a wave of clever, competent, brave and formidably capable female protagonists taking their rightful places as heroic ideals and not romantic lures; elevating Continental comics in the process. Such endeavours are as engaging and empowering now as they ever were, none more so than the travails of Miss Tsuno.

Her first outings (the aforementioned but STILL unavailable Hold-up en hi-fi, and co-sequels La belle et la bête and Cap 351) were mere introductory vignettes before epic authenticism took hold in 1971 when the unflappable troubleshooter met valiant but lesser (male) pals Pol Paris and Vic Van Steen. Instantly hitting her stride in premier full-length saga Le trio de l’étrange (starting in LJdS’s May 13th edition), from that point on, Yoko’s cases encompassed explosive exploits in exotic corners of our world, sinister deep-space sagas and even time-travelling jaunts. There are 31 European bande dessinée albums to date, with 19 translated into English thus far, albeit – and ironically – none of them available in digital formats…

Initially serialised in LJdS #2841 to 2861and spanning September 23rd 1992 – 10th February 1993 as L’Or du Rhin, The Rhine Gold chronologically follows deep space saga The Exiles of Kifa, with our tireless troubleshooter planting her feet firmly back on terra firma in familiar territory.

Revisiting Germany and old friend/occasional partner in crimefighting Ingrid Hallberg (The Devil’s Organ, On the Edge of Life, Wotan’s Fire) Yoko’s scheduled meeting in Cologne Cathedral abruptly catapults her headlong into industrial chicanery, political intrigue and murder, as well as a return engagement with devious billionaire war criminal/arch enemy Ito Kazuki (Daughter of the Wind).

When a woman is drugged and assaulted in the crypt, her last words before unconsciousness are “no police”, “Bahnhof” and “Rheingold”. Yoko and Ingrid instantly assist, and after getting her anonymously into hospital, discover Minako Yasuda is a Japanese interpreter… who came to the cathedral with burglary tools, handguns and plastic explosives!

Trading handbags with the victim, and pinching her car, Ms. Tsuno rashly assumes her identity, and from obscure clues she and Ingrid retrace the victim’s steps to the vast Haupt Bahnhof rail terminus… and finally deduce the incredible secret of code phrase Rheingold…

In pursuit of justice and answers, Yoko stumbles into a top secret conclave of unsavoury types convened to ride a very special luxury train from Cologne to Koblenz and ultimately Pfalz Grafenstein castle. Behind the “business jolly” is ruthless technocrat entrepreneur and family foe Ito Kazuki, who long ago defamed Yoko’s father Seiki.

The plutocrat is all apologies now: revealing he is merging his interests with German rivals, selling his newest world-changing super-weapon and retiring. However, many nefarious, potentially harmful details still need to be ironed out or erased. The clandestine rail conference is a way avoid press and government scrutiny whilst smoothing the transition and identifying pitfalls, but it also brings many opportunities for sabotage from foes and false friends.

Seemingly repentant, Kazuki implores Yoko to formally replace Miss Yasuda. She grudgingly accepts, not for the small fortune he offers for 36 hours as his secretary/translator, or his assurances that he has changed. Rather, she thinks how many innocents could be harmed by all the explosives she did not find in the package she recovered, and is convinced that, despite his frankness, the billionaire is still hiding something…

Thus, with overtones of Murder on the Orient Express, a story of betrayal, butchery and double cross unfolds. As Yoko, Kazujki’s sketchy staff and his pride-&-joy – AI computer/samurai robot Koshi – all hunt a killer amongst an elite passenger list including two disbarred doctors with the same name, rogue CIA and KGB operatives and eager Euro-capitalists, there are also indications that one of Kazujki’s inner circle is a Japanese agent. It’s a good thing Yoko has maximised her advantages by getting Pol hired as a waiter/attendant. It doesn’t prevent her being attacked again, but his support is welcome after Yoko is mysteriously “rewarded” with hidden files and documents giving fresh clues to what’s actually going on…

With the first attempt on her life spectacularly taking place even before the train leaves the station, and the utter conviction that Kazuki is playing his own game, the first murder inevitably occurs aboard the train and the terrors and tribulations continue all the way to Pfalz Grafenstein where the survivors cautiously gather.

It’s not what anyone expected or anticipated, but Yoko now has all the answers. All she has to do is escape the castle and save the rest of the passengers – who have all sought to go their own ways – and foil the last trick of the cunning mastermind behind all the chaos and carnage…

Blending high finance and wicked crimes with tecno-dread, killer robots, death rays, evil twins, deadly doppelgangers and humanity’s fascination with precious metal, The Rhine Gold displays our valiant troubleshooter triumphant in a taut, tense thriller of cutthroat corporate espionage and relatively mundane real-world menace. Once more, malevolence proves inadequate in the face of Yoko Tsuno’s passionate humanity, bold imagination and quick thinking…

Moodily-paced, deviously twisted and terrifying plausible, this tale reemphasises how smarts and combat savvy are pointless without compassion, and as ever, the most potent asset of these edgy exploits is astonishingly authentic settings, as ever benefitting from Leloup’s diligent research and meticulous attention to detail. The Rhine Gold is a magnificently wide-screen thriller, utterly enthralling and surely appealing to any fan of blockbuster action, felonious fantasy and gobsmacking derring-do.

…And Steam trains too, if that especially floats your boat…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1991 by Roger Leloup. All rights reserved. English translation 2022 © Cinebook Ltd.

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Buck Danny volumes 2 & 3: The Secrets of the Black Sea & Ghost Squadron


By Francis Bergése & Jacques de Douhet; colours by Frédéric Bergése: translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebooks)
ISBN: 987-1-84918-018-4 (Album TPB – Black Sea) 987-1-905460-85-4 (Album TPB – Ghost Squadron)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Buck Danny premiered in Le Journal de Spirou in January 1947 and continues soaring across assorted Wild Blue Yonders to this day. The strip describes the improbably long yet historically significant career of the eponymous Navy pilot and his wing-men Sonny Tuckson and Jerry Tumbler. As one of the world’s last aviation strips the series has always closely wedded itself to current affairs, from the Korean War to Afghanistan, the Balkans to Iran…

The US Naval Aviator was created by Georges Troisfontaines whilst he was Director of Belgian publisher World Press Agency and realised by Victor Hubinon before being handed to multi-talented scripter Jean-Michel Charlier, then working as a junior artist. Charlier’s fascination with human-scale drama and rugged realism had been first seen in such “true-war” strips as L’Agonie du Bismark (The Agony of the Bismarck – published in LJdS in 1946). Charlier and René Goscinny were co-editors of Pistolin magazine from 1955-1958 and subsequently created Pilote in 1959. When they, with fellow creative legend Albert Uderzo, formed the Édifrance Agency to promote the specialised communication benefits of comic strips, Charlier continued scripting Buck Danny and did so until his death. Thereafter his artistic collaborator Francis Bergése (who had replaced Hubinon in 1978) took complete charge of the All-American Air Ace’s exploits, working with other creators like Jacques de Douhet.

Like so many artists involved in aviation storytelling, Bergése (born in 1941) started young with both drawing and flying. He qualified as a pilot whilst still a teenager, enlisted in the French Army and was a reconnaissance flyer by his twenties. At age 23 he began selling strips to L’Étoile and JT Jeunes (1963-1966), after which he produced his first aviation strip – Jacques Renne for Zorro. This was followed by Amigo, Ajax, Cap 7, Les 3 Cascadeurs, Les 3 A, Michel dans la Course and more. Prior to 1983, Bergése was a jobbing artist on comedies, pastiches and WWII strips until he won the coveted job of illustrating globally syndicated Buck Danny with 41st yarn ‘Apocalypse Mission’.

Bergése even found time in the 1990s for episodes of a European interpretation of British icon Biggles before finally retiring in 2008, passing on the reins (control? Joystick? Nope, absolutely not that last one) to illustrators Fabrice Lamy & Francis Winis and scripter Frédéric Zumbiehl. Thus far – with Zumbiehl, Jean-Michel Arroyo & Gil Formosa all taking turns at the helm – the franchise has notched up 60 albums and a further 10 spin-off tomes…

Like all Danny tales, these Cinebook editions are astonishingly authentic: breezily compelling action thrillers. Back in 1994, Buck Danny #45: Les secrets de la mer Noire, delivered a suspenseful, politically-charged action yarn which became the second Cinebook volume, blending mindboggling detail and technical veracity with good old-fashioned blockbuster derring-do.

 

The Secrets of the Black Sea

In-world, it’s 1991 and the dying days of the Soviet Empire. When a submarine incident occurs, the American Chief of Naval Operations dispatches Buck to the newly open Russia of “Glasnost and Perestroika” to ascertain the true state and character of the old Cold War foe. All but ordered to become a spy, Buck is further perturbed by his meeting with ambitious Senator Smight, a US dignitary supposed to be his contact and cover-story on the trip to heart of Communism…

Buck is an old acquaintance and recurring target of the KGB and knows that no matter what the official Party Line might be, many Soviet Cold Warriors have long and unforgiving memories…

No sooner does he make landfall than his greatest fears are realised. Shanghaied to a top secret Russian Naval super-vessel, Buck knows he’s living on borrowed time,: but his death is apparently only a pleasant diversion for the KGB renegade in charge, whose ultimate plans involve turning back the clock and undoing every reform of the Gorbachev administration; gleefully anticipating how the key component to the diabolical scheme will be a conveniently dead American spy in the wrong place at the right time…

Of course, the ever-efficient US Navy swings into action, resolved to rescue their pilot, clean up the mess and deny the Reds any political victory, but there’s only so much Tumbler & Tuckson can do from the wrong side of the recently re-drawn Iron Curtain. Luckily, Buck has some unsuspected friends amongst the renegades too…

Fast-paced, brimming with tension, packed with spectacular air and sea action and delivered like a top-class James Bond thriller, The Secrets of the Black Sea effortlessly catapults the reader into a dizzying riot of intrigue, mystery and suspense in a superb slice of old-world razzle-dazzle that enthrals from the first page to the last panel and shows just why this brilliant strip has lasted for so long.

 

Ghost Squadron

This third sitting offers more of the same fantasy realpolitik in a contemporary war setting. First published in 1996 as Buck Danny #46 L’escadrille fantôme and still a family affair with Frédéric Bergése adding colours to papa’s pictures. It’s 1995 and, above shattered Sarajevo, Tuckson and pioneer female fighter pilot Cindy McPherson patrol as part of the UN Protection Force. UNProFor is the West’s broad but criminally ineffectual coalition to stop various factions in the region butchering each other, but fails hard, big and often…

The overflight takes a dark turn when Cindy’s plane is hit by Serb rockets in contravention of all the truce rules. Incensed, Tuckson peels off to open up with machine gun fire without obtaining the proper permissions. Subsequently nursing McPherson’s burning plane back to their carrier in the Baltic, Sonny doesn’t care how much trouble he’s in, but rather than facing a Court Martial, the impetuous lad’s punishment is rather unique…

Called to interview with the Admiral, the pensive pilot expects at the very least to be thrown as food to the skipper’s vile dog O’Connor, but instead meets enigmatic Mr. Tenderman before being seconded to a top secret “Air Force/Navy Coordination” mission. Wise confidante Buck, meanwhile, is gone, part of an op to locate an unexplained radar echo in an area supposedly neutral and empty…

After wishing Cindy a fond farewell and hinting at his big CIA secret posting, Sonny ships out by helicopter, landing at Prevesa Airbase in Greece. Bewilderment is replaced with terror and rage once he unpacks and discovers O’Connor has stowed away in his kit. Now stuck with the infernal, nastily nipping mutt, Sonny’s screams draw an old friend into his room: maverick test pilot/old partner in peril Slim Holden. That inveterate rulebreaker also has no idea what they’ve been roped into…

Next day the conundrum continues as they and a small group of pilots – also with no idea of why they’re here or where they’re going – are shipped to a secret base in the mountains. After the military’s usual “hurry up and wait” routine, the wary fliers are greeted by a familiar face…

Buck is introduced as Colonel Y by grimly competent General X, and assigns each pilot a number from 1 to 16. The only thing they know is that all have committed serious breaches of military discipline and will have the record wiped clean once the mission is over. Moreover, as long as they’re here, they will refer to each other only by their code numbers…

Awaiting them are unmarked F-16s without radios. They are to train on the jets in preparation for an unspecified single task under the strictest security conditions, until finally apprised of their specified purpose. Days of exhausting preparation and pointless speculation are almost disrupted when an unidentified MiG-29 buzzes the base at extremely low altitude. Although Buck rapidly pursues, the quarry eludes him, but only after the chase reveals their so-secret base as being covertly observed by a radar station on the Albanian border…

With no viable options, Buck returns and training resumes at full pace. Inevitably, the regimen results in fatality. With the warning of more to come before strafing and low-level bombing runs end, the practicing goes on. Rumours mount over what the actual targets of their illicit ground-attack squadron might be…

Back at the official war zone, tensions mount when US Navy F-18s are shot down over Bosnia – apparently by a flight of unidentified jets. At the hidden base, Buck’s security overflights still register radar tracks from an unknown source. Buck and General X have no idea which of the many warring factions might be operating the MiGs and/or mobile radar unit, but have no choice except to proceed with their original plan. They might be far more concerned if they realised that one of the downed – official – combatants was McPherson…

As the situation worsens, word to go is given and the unofficial spectre squadron finally learn what they’re expected to do: take out the armoured concentrations and artillery emplacements relentlessly bombarding Sarajevo. In the face of increasingly obvious NATO and UN impotence, it has been decided that the Pan-Serbian aggressors must be taught a hard lesson about keeping their word regarding cease-fires…

The Ghost squadron’s mission is unsanctioned on paper, with no radio contact and disabled ejector seats. Moreover, they all have permission to respond in kind to any attack – even by American forces…

As the doomed pilots roar across the Adriatic to their targets, the Navy mission to rescue or recover their downed reconnaissance pilots proceeds, and an ever-vigilant AWACS plane picks up the inexplicable bogeys heading for Sarajevo. Of course, they reach the only conclusion possible…

When Major Tumbler and his Flight are despatched after the mystery jets, an inconclusive dogfight leads him to suspect the nature and identities of some of his targets, but after breaking off hostilities the officially sanctioned Navy planes are ambushed by MiGs from a third faction.

Things look grim until NATO support arrives in the form of French Mirages and British Tornados. As the ghosts fly on to complete their punishment run, in the mad scramble behind them Tumbler tracks a MiG that has had enough, and accidentally exposes a hidden Bosnian hangar housing a phantom flight of their own. Sadly, they see him too…

The CIA covert mission is a success and massive catalyst. In the aftermath, planes from many surrounding nations tear up the skies, and in the confusion, Tumbler makes his way from landing point to the MiG base, discovering old enemy and maniac mercenary Lady X running the show. He also learns that a beloved comrade may well be a traitor in her employ, but resolves to save his friend and let the chips fall where they may…

A stunning all-action riot of righteous revenge that grips from the start and only gets more intense, Ghost Squadron confirms just why this brilliant series has endured for generations. Complex politics, intrigue, personal honour and dastardly schemes all seamlessly blend into a breakneck thriller suitable for older kids of all ages, and especially for boys of all ages and gender, the Adventures of Buck Danny is one long, enchanting tour of duty no comics fan, armchair Top Gunner or couch adrenaline-junkie can afford to miss.

Bon chance, mes braves et Chocks Away!
© Dupuis, 1994, 1996 by Bergése. English translation © 2009, 2012 Cinebook Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Eagle Classics: The Adventures of P.C. 49


By Alan Stranks & John Worsley (Hawk Books -1990)
ISBN: 978-0-948248-17-7 (album TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Eagle is 75 years old this year and the reason we old farts remember it so fondly are many and various. Here’s just one of them.

On 14th April 1950 Britain’s grey, postwar gloom was partially lifted with the first issue of a glossy new comic that seemingly gleamed with light and colour. Eagle was the most influential comic of the era, running until 26th April 1969, and its legions of mesmerised readers were understandably enraptured with the gloss and dazzle of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future: a charismatic star-turn venerated to this day. However it also carried a plethora of traditional genre strips, fact and prose regulars. These included both original features and further exploits of some of their favourite radio shows and cinema heroes – and even best beloved gustatory treats!

It was the brainchild of a Southport vicar, the Reverend Marcus Morris, who was worried about the detrimental effects of US comic books on British children. He advocated a good, solid, Christian antidote. Seeking out like-minded creators he jobbed around a dummy to British publishers for over a year – with little success – until he found an unlikely home at Hulton Press, a company producing general interest magazines such as Lilliput and Picture Post. The result was a huge hit that spawned in-house clones Swift, Robin and Girl – targeting other sectors of the children’s market – whilst generating crucial radio series, books, toys and other sorts of merchandising. The Eagle phenomenon reshaped the industry, compelling UK comics colossus Alfred Harmsworth to release cheaper imitations through his Amalgamated Press/Odhams/Fleetway/ IPC group such as the far longer-lived Lion (23rd February 1952 – 18th May 1974) and many companion titles like Tiger and Valiant.

A huge number of soon-to-be prominent creative figures worked on Eagle, and although Dan Dare is deservedly revered as its star, many other strips were as popular at the time, some rivalling the lead in quality and entertainment value. At its peak the periodical sold close to a million copies a week, before changing tastes and a game of “musical owners” killed Eagle. In 1960 Hulton sold out to Odhams, who became Longacre Press. A year later they were bought by The Daily Mirror Group who evolved into IPC. Due to multiple episodes of cost-cutting, many later issues carried Marvel Comics reprints rather than home-originated material. It took time, but the Yankee cultural Invaders won out in the end. In 1969, with the April 26th issue, Eagle merged into Lion, before eventually disappearing altogether. Successive generations revived the title, but never the initial blockbuster success.

In its youth, heydays and prime, Eagle was tabloid sized with photogravure colour inserts, alternating with monochrome pages of text and comic features. Tabloid is a big page, and you can get a lot of material onto each one, so – at the start – something of equal merit deserved almost as much space. One of the biggest draws to Eagle’s mighty pantheon was family radio/film attraction P.C. 49. Although latterly eclipsed by BBC radio colleagues Jeff Arnold/Riders of the Range (whose comic exploits were handled by Charles Chilton & Frank Humphris), and John Ryan’s TV sensation-in-waiting Captain Pugwash and the inimitable Harris Tweed, the unflagging beat copper pre-dated the comic, bringing an established (and frequently older) audience with him. All of them became darlings of other media too via promotional tie-ins such as books, puzzles, toys, games, apparel and comestibles as well as and all other sorts of ancillary merchandising – although the PC had his share of that boodle too…

Dare of course soon overtook them all, especially after acquiring his own weekly radio serial on Radio Luxembourg. The Adventures of Dan Dare played out five nights a week from July 1951 to May 1956…

Preceded by fantastically informative pictorial essay ‘The Many Adventures of P.C.49 – An introduction by Norman Wright’, this epic oversized (330 x 238mm) tribute edition provides background on the radio episodes, both films and all iterations of the comic and prose publishing incarnations of Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby AKA “Fortynine”. That specifically includes how the radio hero progressed from ambitious affable “plod” to proud father and family man after marrying his sassy, smarter, fiancée/crimebusting rival/competitor Joan Carr in the broadcast world, as well as how all that was shunted aside and ignored in comics. Instead from August 1951 Joan vanished and was replaced by an international kid’s gang of juvenile sidekicks – the Boys Club – who would help Fortynine solve crimes if not actually get his longed-for promotion to plainclothes detective…

Initially illustrated by illustrator/gallery artist Charles Sidebotham “Strom” Gould (Storm Nelson) – who limned the first four cases – The Adventures of P.C.49 – from the famous radio series by Alan Stranks began on page 3 of Eagle #1, and ran until March 1957, long after the radio show finished. It featured the daily travails of genial posh berk turned keen as mustard Police Constable Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby as he sought to make progress from beat copper into the serried ranks of plainclothes detectives. This all occurred in Q Division, the sleeziest parts of a major modern metropolis where, despite many weekly triumphs and his immediate uniformed superiors being utterly convinced that “Fortynine” did not have “what it takes”, he proved he did…

Collected here are three yarns by originator Stranks and the strip’s most beloved co-creator. In 1903, Australian Alan Stranks (Dick Barton, Special Agent, Dan Dare- Prisoners of Space) was born in Brunswick, Victoria. Beginning his career in the 1920s as a lyricist – he penned Britain’s very first Eurovision entry “All” – Stranks became a crime reporter before moving to England. He continued in the field but added feature writing and gradually moved sideways into drama; writing novels, radio plays and serials, as well as movies and comics. He died suddenly and without warning from a cerebral haemorrhage in 1959.

The radio Adventures of PC 49 ran (intermittently thanks to Stranks’ increasingly busy schedule) on the BBC Home Service from October 27th 1947 to Summer 1953, just as the astounding John Worsley was making the comic strip one of the most entertaining and enthralling pages in the periodical with his charmingly informative and sublimely expressionistic cartooning style.

Illustrator/Naval war artist, police sketch artist, commercial designer, president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and certified war hero John Godfrey Bernard Worsley was born on 16th February 1919 in Liverpool and raised in Kenya. After studying at Goldsmiths College of Art he became a travelling artist and portraitist before joining the Royal Navy in WWII. For a fuller assessment of this incredible man go to John Worsley (artist) – Wikipedia or track down John Worsley’s War… or watch the film Albert RN…

For all his other artistic endeavours Worsley is rightly renowned, but we’re here for the comics. His cartooning career began with Tommy Walls in Eagle. An advertising campaign for the ice cream company masquerading as an adventure strip serial, it led to him taking over P.C. 49 from Strom Gould and handling ancillary strips and illustrations for Annuals and Archie’s own line of books. This led to more strips: Daughter of the Nile and Belle Of The Ballet in Girl – reprinted as Lindy of Latmyer Grange in Princess Tina – and the delightful Wee Willie Winkie for Treasure as well as ads, military recruitment materials, books such as The Little Grey Men and The Wind in the Willows, and – his personal favourite – a lavish cartoon interpretation of A Christmas Carol created to support a major television special in 1970. Aged 81, Worsley died on October 3rd 2000.

In lieu of a full P.C. 49 collection or other curated compilations, his gifts live on here as first seen here in seventh serial saga ‘The Case of the Spotted Toad’. This began in the Christmas 1952 issue of Eagle and carried on into May 1953 as the cheery copper is hospitalised by ruthless gangsters Knocker Dawson and Slim Jiggs after saving homeless boy Dickie Duffle and his dog Rip. His eager young pals and Boy’s Club protégées Toby, Mongatiki, Snorky, Gigs & Bunny plus “Terrible Twins” Pat & Mick Mulligan join forces to finish the job of capturing the murderous fur thieves and finding the well-hidden loot, with Archie back on his feet just in time to face the explosive final showdown…

Nervous tyke Bunny and his pocket pet Victor take centre stage in follow up ‘The Case of the Magnificent Mouse’ wherein the nosy nipper sees local tramp Tatty Bogle kidnapped and a perfect duplicate beggar appear. Of course no one believes him but before too long it all unfolds as a major counterfeiting caper run by Lew Lupus and Nix Nobbler. When they snatch Bunny, the police are stumped until the Boys Club lead P.C. 49 to the impenetrable lair of the villains, but in the ends it’s up to Victor to magnificently save the day…

Concluding the casebook, ‘The Case of the Old Crock’ finds the Boys Club preparing for their annual hike/unsupervised holiday at the seaside (because all us Boomer kids were utterly feral and fearless!). Seeing how worn out Archie is thanks to loads of compulsory overtime, the lads use club funds to buy the weary, footsore adult a “car”. Sadly, their choice is not only an appalling fixer-upper, it’s secretly the safe used by master thief Tiger Maggs to stash a map to where he’s buried his carefully hoarded loot. Guess which seaside beach it’s stashed under?

Of course Maggs’ henchmen Junky and Dandy have no idea of the clunker’s real value when they dupe the boys into buying it, but with Scots Boys Club recruit Tam Piper unleashed on it, the junker soon seems roadworthy and eye-catching. Best of all, Bunny has found a map, but he can’t convince anyone that it could lead to pirate treasure…

When Maggs gets out of prison and goes to pick up his car, all hell breaks loose, leading to escalating excitement, another shockingly white-knuckle concatenation of circumstances and a brutally gripping denouement…

Blending genuine tension with schoolboy thrills and genteel police procedurals, The Adventures of P.C. 49 is a true lost gem of British comics, funny, warm, scary, inclusive (as any strip of that period can be), rollercoaster-paced and truly beautiful to see. I can’t see how it will ever be reproduced in full, but I so very much wish it would be. Yet another one to add to “The Why Is This Not In Print?” drawer…
P.C. 49 strip © 1990 Fleetway Publications. This arrangement and Compilation © 1990 Hawk Books.

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The Inhumans Masterworks volume 1


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Archie Goodwin, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Arnold Drake, Gene Colan, Neal Adams, Mike Sekowsky, Tom Sutton, Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta, Chic Stone, Tom Palmer, John Verpoorten, Bill Everett, Frank Giacoia & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-41419 (HC) 978-0-7851-4142-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Debuting in 1965 and conceived as one more incredible lost civilisation during Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s most fertile and productive creative period, The Inhumans are a secretive race of phenomenally disparate beings genetically altered by aliens in Earth’s primordial pre-history. They subsequently evolved into a technologically-advanced civilisation far ahead of emergent Homo Sapiens and isolated themselves from the world and barbarous dawn-age humans, first on an island and latterly in a hidden valley in the Himalayas, residing in a fabulous city named Attilan.

The mark of citizenship is immersion in the mutative Terrigen Mists which further enhance and transform individuals into radically unique and generally super-powered beings. The Inhumans are obsessed with order, rank, genetic structure and heritage, worshipping the ruling Royal Family as the rationalist equivalent of mortal gods.

How the hereditary outsiders first impacted the Marvel Universe is gathered in this carefully curated tome which represents early solo-starring appearances from the Tales of the Uncanny Inhumans back-up series in Thor #146-153; a one-off yarn from Marvel Super-Heroes #15; their entire starring run from Amazing Adventures #1-10, plus a guest shot in Avengers #95 collectively spanning the period cover dates November 1967 to January 1972. Also included are a trio of spoof features taken from  Not Brand Echh #6 and 12 (February 1968 and February 1969).

Designed to delight all fanboy truth-seekers, former Kirby assistant and disciple Mark Evanier’s Introduction offers candid and informative behind-the-scenes revelations detailing the true publishing agenda and “Secret Origin of the Inhumans”, before reintroducing the Royal Family of Attilan. Black Bolt, Medusa, Triton, Karnak, Gorgon, Crystal and the rest who would soon become mainstays of the Marvel Universe.

After a plethora of guest shots in The Fantastic Four, the hidden ones began their first solo feature in Thor #146: a series of complete, 5-page vignettes detailing some of the tantalising backstory so effectively hinted at in previous appearances. ‘The Origin of… the Incomparable Inhumans’ (Lee, Kirby & Joe Sinnott) plunges back to the dawn of civilisation with cavemen fleeing in fear from technologically advanced humans who live on an island named Attilan.

In that ancient futuristic metropolis, wise King Randac finally makes a decision to test out his people’s latest discovery: genetically mutative Terrigen rays…

The saga expands a month later in ‘The Reason Why!’ as Earth’s duly-appointed Kree Sentry visits the island and reveals how in ages even further past his alien masters experimented on an isolated tribe of primitive humanoids. Now keen to determine their progress, the menacing mechanoid observes that the Kree’s lab rats have fully taken control of their genetic destiny and must now be considered Inhuman…

Skipping ahead 25,000 years, ‘…And Finally: Black Bolt!’ reveals how a baby’s first cries wreck Attilan and reveal the infant prince to be an Inhuman unlike any other: one cursed with an uncontrollable sonic vibration which builds to unstoppable catastrophic violence with every utterance. Raised in isolation, the prince’s 19th birthday marks his release into the city and close contact with the cousins he has only ever seen on video screens. Sadly, the occasion is co-opted by Bolt’s envious brother Maximus who coldly tortures the royal heir to prove he cannot be trusted. Sadly for the upstart the prince is strong enough for all that comes and prepares for a life determined by his ‘Silence or Death!’

Thor #150 (March 1968) opened a lengthier, continued tale as ‘Triton’ leaves the hidden city to explore the greater human world, only to be captured by a film crew making an underwater monster movie. Allowing himself to be brought to America, the wily manphibian escapes when the ship docks and becomes an ‘Inhuman at Large!’ The series concluded with Triton on the run and a fish out of water ‘While the City Shrieks!’ before returning to Attilan with a damning assessment of the Inhumans’ lesser cousins…

The first Inhuman introduced to the world was the menacing Madame Medusa in Fantastic Four #36: a female super-villain joining team’s antithesis The Frightful Four. This sinister squad comprised evil genius The Wizard, shapeshifting Sandman and gadget fiend The Trapster, and their repeated battles against Marvel’s first family led to the exposure of the hidden race and numerous clashes with humanity.

In 1967, a proposed Inhumans solo series was canned before completion, but the initial episode was retooled and published in the company’s try-out vehicle Marvel Super-Heroes. Scripted by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta, ‘Let the Silence Shatter!’ appeared in #15 (July 1968), revealing how the villainous quartet temporarily reunite after the Wizard promises a method for controlling Black Bolt’s deadly sonic affliction in return for Medusa’s services. As usual, the double-dealing mastermind betrays his coerced accomplice, but again underestimates her abilities and intellect, resulting in yet another humiliating defeat…

A few years later, bi-monthly “split-book” Amazing Adventures launched with an August 1970 cover-date and the Inhumans sharing the pages with a new Black Widow series. The big news however was that Kirby was both writing and illustrating the ‘The Inhumans!’ Inked by Chic Stone, the first episode saw the Great Refuge targeted by atomic missiles apparently fired by the Inhumans’ greatest allies, prompting a retaliatory attack on the Baxter Building and pitting ‘Friend Against Friend!’ However, even as the battle raged, Black Bolt takes covert action against the true culprits…

AA #3 sees the uncanny outcasts as ‘Pawns of the Mandarin’ when the devilish tyrant tricks the Royal Family into uncovering a mega-powerful ancient artefact, but he is ultimately unable to cope with their power and teamwork in concluding chapter ‘With These Rings I Thee Kill!’ before issue #5 (March 1971) ushered in a radical change of tone and mood as the currently on-fire creative team of Roy Thomas & Neal Adams took over the strip when Kirby shockingly left Marvel for DC. Inked by Tom Palmer, ‘His Brother’s Keeper’ sees Maximus finally employ a long-dormant power – mind-control – to erase Black Bolt’s memory and seize control of the Great Refuge. The real problem however, is that at the exact moment the Mad One strikes, Black Bolt is in San Francisco on a secret mission. When the mind-wave hits, the stranger forgets everything and as a little boy offers assistance, ‘Hell on Earth!’ (John Verpoorten inks) begins as a simple whisper shatters the docks and the vessels moored there…

As Triton, Gorgon, Karnak & Medusa flee the now utterly entranced Refuge in search of Black Bolt, ‘An Evening’s Wait for Death!’ finds little Joey and the still-bewildered Bolt captured by a radical black activist determined to use the Inhuman’s shattering power to raze the city’s foul ghettoes. A tense confrontation in the streets with the police draws storm god Thor into the conflict during ‘An Hour for Thunder!’, but when the dust settles it seems Black Bolt is dead…

Gerry Conway, Mike Sekowsky & Bill Everett assumed storytelling duties with # 9 as the Inhumans took over the entire book. Reaching America, the Royal Cousins’ search for their king is interrupted when they are targeted by a cult of mutants. ‘…And the Madness of Magneto!’ reveals Black Bolt in the clutches of the Master of Magnetism, who needs the usurped king’s abilities to help him steal a new artificial element. However ‘In His Hands… the World!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) soon proves that with his memory restored nothing and no one can long make the mightiest Inhuman a slave…

The series abruptly ended there. Amazing Adventures #11 featured a new treatment of graduate X-Man Hank McCoy who rode the trend for monster heroes by accidentally transforming himself into a furry Beast. The Inhumans simply dropped out of sight until Thomas & Adams wove their dangling plot threads into the monumental epic unfolding in The Avengers #89-97 from June 1971 to March 1972.

At that time Thomas’ bold experiment was rightly considered the most ambitious saga in Marvel’s brief history: an astounding saga of tremendous scope which dumped Earth into a cosmic war the likes of which comics fans had never before seen. The Kree/Skrull War set the template for all multi-part crossovers and publishing events ever since…

It began when, in the distant Kree Empire, the ruling Supreme Intelligence was overthrown by his chief enforcer Ronan the Accuser. The rebellion resulted in humanity learning aliens hide among us, and public opinion turned against superheroes for concealing the threat of repeated alien incursions…

A powerful allegory of the Anti-Communist Witch-hunts of the 1950s (and more relevant than ever now that TacoPotUS misrules that benighted land), the epic saw riots in American streets and a political demagogue capitalising on the crisis. Subpoenaed by the authorities, castigated by friends and public, the Avengers were ordered to disband. Sadly omitted here, issue #94 entangled the Inhumans in the mix, disclosing that their advanced science and powers result from Kree genetic meddling in the depths of prehistory. With intergalactic war beginning, Black Bolt missing and his madly malign brother Maximus in charge, the Kree now come calling in their ancient markers…

Wrapping up the dramatic graphic wonderment, ‘Something Inhuman This Way Comes…!’ (Avengers #95, January 1972) coalesces many disparate story strands as aquatic adventurer Triton aids the Avengers against government-piloted Mandroids before beseeching the beleaguered heroes to help find his missing monarch and rescue his Inhuman brethren from the press-ganging Kree…

After so doing, Earth’s Mightiest head into space to liberate their kidnapped comrades and save the planet from becoming collateral damage in the impending cosmos-shaking clash between Kree and Skrulls (a much-collected tale you’d be crazy to miss…).

Appended with creator biographies and House Ads for the Inhumans’ debut, the thrills and chills are topped off with three comedy vignettes. The first, from Not Brand Echh #6 (the “Big, Batty Love and Hisses issue!” of February 1968) reveals how ‘The Human Scorch Has to… Meet the Family!’: a snappy satire on romantic liaisons from Lee, Kirby & Tom Sutton, complimented by ‘Unhumans to Get Own Comic Book’ (Arnold Drake, Thomas & Sutton) and ‘My Search for True Love’ by Drake & Sutton: both from Not Brand Echh #12 (February 1969).

The first of these depicts how other artists might render the series – with contenders including faux icons BOob (Gnatman & Rotten) Krane, Chester (Dig Tracing) Ghoul and Charles (Good Ol’ Charlie…) Schlitz, whilst the second follows lovelorn Medoozy as she dumps her taciturn man and searches for fulfilment amongst popular musical and movie stars of the era…

These stories cemented the outsiders place in the ever-expanding Marvel universe and helped the company to overtake all its competitors. Although making little impact at the time they remain potent and innovative: as exciting and captivating now as they ever were. This is a must-have book for all fans of graphic narrative.
© 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Fox: Freak Magnet


By Dean Haspiel, Mark Waid, JM DeMatteis, Mike Cavallaro, Terry Austin & various (Red Circle Comics/Archie)
ISBN: 978-1-936975-93-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

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

In the early days of the US comicbook biz, just after Superman and Batman had ushered in a new genre of storytelling, a rash of publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, relished only as trivia by sad old blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: not forgotten, but certainly not household names either…

MLJ were one of the quickest outfits to pump out a mystery-man pantheon, following the spectacular successes of the Man of Tomorrow and Darknight Detective with their own small but inspirational pantheon of gaudily clad crusaders.

It all began in November 1939 (one month after a little game-changer entitled Marvel Comics #1) with Blue Ribbon Comics #1: content comprising the standard blend of two-fisted adventure strips, prose pieces and gag panels and, from #2 on, costumed heroes. They rapidly followed up with Top-Notch and Pep Comics. However, after only a few years Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater (hence MLJ) spotted a gap in the blossoming market and in December 1941 nudged aside their masked heroes and action strips to make room for a far less imposing hero; an “average teen” who would have ordinary adventures like the readers, but with triumphs, romance and slapstick emphasised.

Pep #22 (December 1941) featured a gap-toothed, freckle-faced, red-headed goof taking his lead from the popular Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney. Goldwater developed the concept of a youthful everyman protagonist, tasking writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana with the job of making the concept work. A 6-page tale introduced Archie Andrews and pretty girl-next-door Betty Cooper plus an unconventional best friend/confidante Jughead Jones; all growing up in a small-town utopia called Riverdale.

The feature was an instant hit and by the winter of 1942 had migrated to its own title. Archie Comics #1 was the company’s first solo-star magazine and with it began a metamorphosis of the entire company. With the introduction of rich, raven-haired Veronica Lodge, all the pieces were in play for the comic book industry’s second Genuine Phenomenon (as influential, if not so all-pervasive, as Superman)…

By 1946 the kids had taken over, and MLJ – renamed Archie Comics – retired its heroic characters years before the end of the Golden Age, becoming, to all intents and purposes, a publisher of family comedies. Its success, like Superman’s, changed the content of every other publisher’s titles, and led to a multi-media industry including TV shows, movies, and a chain of restaurants. In the swinging sixties the pop hit Sugar, Sugar (a tune from their animated show) became a global smash, and their wholesome garage band The Archies has been a fixture of the comics ever since.

Nonetheless the company had by this stage also blazed through a rather impressive legion of costumed champions (such as The Shield who predated Captain America by 13 months) who would form the backbone of numerous future superhero revivals, most notably during the High-Camp/Marvel Explosion/Batman TV show-frenzied mid-60’s…

The heroes impressively resurfaced in the 1980s under the company’s Red Circle banner but again failed to catch enough public attention. Archie let them lie fallow – except for occasional revivals and intermittent guest-shots in regular Archie titles – until 1991, when the company licensed its heroes to superhero specialists DC for a magically fun, all-ages iteration (and where’s that star-studded curated collection, huh?!).

Impact Comics was a vibrant, engaging and fun all-ages rethink that really should have been a huge hit but was again incomprehensibly unsuccessful. When the Impact line folded in 1993 the characters returned to limbo until the company had one more crack at them in 2008, briefly and boldly incorporating Mighty Crusaders & Co into DC’s own maturely angst-ridden, stridently dark continuity… with the usual overwhelming lack of success.

In 2012 the company began restoring their superhero credentials with a series of online adventures under the aegis of a revived Red Circle subdivision. They began with The Mighty Crusaders (reinforced by traditional monthly print versions six months later): new costumed capers emphasising fun and action equally welcoming to inveterate fanboys and eager newcomers alike…

Moreover…

One of the company’s most tantalising and oddly appealing Golden Age second stringers was a notional Batman knockoff dubbed The Fox. Debuting in Blue Ribbon #4 (cover dated June 1940, but on sale from March 28th) the feature followed ambitious, go-getting young photojournalist Paul Patton, who initially dressed up as a costumed crusader to get exclusive scoops before inevitably and properly catching the hero-bug and doing his thing for the Right Reasons.

Running until #22 – March 1943 – the first Fox strips were scripted by Joe Blair and drawn by Irwin Hasen (who recycled the timelessly elegant costume design for DC/All American’s pugilistic powerhouse Wildcat in January 1942’s Sensation Comics #1). The dark detective vanished in the wave of Archie’s ascent, until revived as a walk-on in Mighty Crusaders #4 (April 1966). He was particularly well-served during a subsequent 1980s revival when visual narrative genius Alex Toth illustrated many of his new adventures. In 2013 the character – or rather his son – was singled out for solo stardom in the most recent (and mainly digital) Red Circle resurrection.

This superbly riotous collection collects the first story-arc and a few cool on-line extras published in 2013 as the sublimely witty and engaging action-romp The Fox: Freak Magnet #1-5. There was also a second miniseries/sequel collection that we’ll get to in the fullness of time…

As seen in New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes, this Earth’s masked heroes were generally enjoying a well-deserved retirement in the ideal little city of Red Circle, until tracked down and murdered by old foe The Brain Emperor. Only elderly Joe Higgins was left to save their children and heirs. He shepherded them to safety thanks to a long-established and practised escape plan devised by the Mighty Crusaders and tutored the instant orphans to the eventual attainment of their true potential as heroes in their own right…

Higgins was a lucky choice: the world’s first masked superman and a trusty Shield against all evil and injustice…

At first, all that has very little to do with Paul Patton Jr., who has voluntarily followed in his own father’s footsteps both as a photojournalist and masked mystery man – and for the same venal petty reasons – only to discover that both jobs come at an inescapable price. In his case trouble and insanity always finds him, so he might as well be dressed and ready for the occasions…

Following a Foreword by Mike Allred, the further adventures of The Fox – as imagined by plotter/artist Dean Haspiel and scripter/dialoguer Mark Waid – begin with ‘Freak Magnet part 1: Public Face’ as the reluctant champion accidentally exposes the shady secrets of the world’s most beautiful social media tycoon whilst on a cushy photo assignment. Magnificent Lucy Fur seems to have everything going for her, but the Fox’s infallible gift for stumbling into unfortunate situations soon “outs” the beautiful siren as manic murder-monster Madame Satan…

No sooner has our Roguish Reynard despatched her and caught a breath than he’s accosted by an extradimensional princess in distress, desperately seeking a few good men in ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’. The frantic Queen of Diamonds has already shanghaied some of Earth’s greatest champions, sending them to save her beloved husband from wicked menace the Druid who has transformed hubby into a ravening monster. Now, however, as her power to fight back – and options – dwindle, she finally arrives at merely mortal but weirdly lucky Patton…

Given no chance to refuse, the fed-up Fox is soon questing through a bizarre world, enduring horrific hallucinations (including his not-so-understanding wife Mae who infrequently suits-up as the savage She-Fox) and a succession of marauding man-things. After he defeats a particularly big beast, it reverts to the battered form of missing pulp hero Bob Phantom…

That issue also began a back-up serial by JM DeMatteis, Mike Cavallaro & Terry Austin, included here as ‘Shield: The Face of Hate part 1 – A Very Cold War’ which finds aged but still vital Joe Higgins in a bar, recounting one of his WWII exploits…

Debuting way back when in Pep Comics #1, Higgins was an FBI scientist who devised a suit which gave him enhanced strength, speed and durability, battling the USA’s enemies as The Shield in the days before America entered WWII. He also devised a serum which enhanced those powers, smashing spies, saboteurs, subversives and every threat to Democracy and decency. This particular old soldier’s yarn concerns a 1944 mission in Antarctica to crush an Axis super-weapon, but which found him facing not just a legion of monsters but also his Nazi and Japanese counterparts Master Race and Hachiman…

Chapter three of Freak Magnet resumed with Haspiel & Waid’s lucky lad wandering through ‘Hell’s Half Acre’ like a Lycra-draped Indiana Jones in Dante’s Inferno; en route defeating and curing lost hero/mutated monster Inferno, the Flame Breather prior to rescuing gun-toting pulp-era vigilante The Marvel from a macabre torture chamber. Unfortunately, once released, the Scourge of Gangland is a wee bit traumatised and can no longer tell friend from foe…

Meanwhile back in World War II, ‘The Face of Hate part 2 – The Enemy of My Enemy’ (DeMatteis, Cavallaro & Austin) sees the sworn enemies’ 3-way battle boil over into berserker rage… until a grotesque horror jumps all three of them…

In the Diamond Dimension of today, whilst Inferno tackles a maddened Marvel, Fox must face the Queen’s ensorcelled husband in ‘The Voodoo You Do’ (Haspiel & Waid), until the nigh-omnipotent Druid takes a personal hand. Happily, at that moment the more-or-less dutiful wives appear, the power of love and sparkly expensive engagement rings having allowed the Queen and Mae to cross the dimensional divide and tip the scales. With the Druid blasted to chunks, Patton believe the madness has subsided for a while… until the Diamond Ruler blasts the Earthlings home and Patton arrives alone in Antarctica, dumped into another insanely dangerous situation…

‘Shield: The Face of Hate part 3 – A Mind of Shattered Glass’ (DeMatteis, Cavallaro & Austin) saw the hate-filled human foes swallow their feelings to unite in combat against an incredible predatory horror which has grown from a fragment of a far greater being destroyed in antiquity and scattered throughout the universe. This entity fed on hate and planned to transform Earth into a world of monsters, but just as it completes its evolution into a new, much more malign and menacing Druid, a black clad, long-eared and annoyingly familiar figure materialises…

The time-tossed twin sagas combine for the epic conclusion ‘Freak Magnet: Future’s End’ (by DeMatteis & Haspiel) as Fox, Shield, Hachiman and Master Race team up: striving together to save humanity and finding themselves forever changed by the cosmic experience.

A fulsome ‘Afterword by Dean Haspiel’ follows and is augmented by one more comics treat as our effulgent everyman crafts a delicious and hilariously thrilling short yarn starring Paul Patten Jr., explaining his choice of cameras in ‘Epilogue: A Picture Lasts Forever’…

This delightful exercise in reviving the fun-filled excitement of comics that don’t think they’re Shakespeare or Orwell also includes such extra inducements as a covers-&-variants gallery (23 in total) from Haspiel and guests Darwyn Cooke, Fiona Staples, Mike Norton, Allen Passalaqua, Paul Pope, Mike & Laura Allred, David Mack, Howard Chaykin, Jesus Aburto, Mike Cavallaro & Alex Toth, as well as a fact-packed ‘Special Feature’ section revealing some of ‘The Fox Files’.

Beginning with the lowdown on the cagy crusaders in ‘Origin of the Freak Magnet’ and ‘She-Fox: The Vivacious Vixen’, there’s even room for bonus featurette ‘Red Circle Heroes: Extra Pulp’, offering character insights and publication histories for ‘Bob Phantom’, ‘Inferno’ and ‘The Marvel’.

… And best yet, there’s a great big tantalising “To Be Continued…”

Full of vim & vigour, this phenomenal Will Eisner-inspired romp delivers no-nonsense, outrageously emphatic superhero hijinks drenched in slick, smart, tried-&-true comic book bombast and outrageous action which manages to feel brand-new whilst simultaneously remaining faithful to all the past iterations and re-imaginings of the assorted superheroes.

Fast, fulfilling and immediately addictive, The Fox should always have been Archie’s long-awaited superhero superstar… and might just yet be the one…

If you yearn for all the uncomplicated fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights furore of your youth – whenever that was – this is a book you must not miss.
THE FOX ™ & © RED CIRCLE COMICS ® ACP, Inc. The individual characters; names and likenesses are the exclusive trademarks of Archie Comics Publications, Inc. © 2014 Archie Comics Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pandora in Puzzlevale: The Secret Town (volume 1)


By Paul Duffield, Poqu, Siobhan McKenna & various (Pheonix Comic Books/David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-349-3 (TPB)

These days, kids are more likely to find their formative strip narrative experiences online or in specially tailored graphic novels rather than the anthological, pick ‘n’ mix of pictorial periodicals that defined my long-dead youth. And yet, once upon a time, the comics industry was a commercial colossus that thrived by producing copious amounts of gaudy, flimsy pamphlets in a multitude of subjects and sub-genres, subdivided into a range of successful, self-propagating, seamlessly self-perpetuating age-specific publications.

These eye-catching items generated innumerable tales and immeasurable delight, designed to entertain, inform and educate tightly-defined target demographics including Toddler/Pre-school, Younger & Older Juvenile, Girls, Boys. General and even Young Teens, but today Britain can barely maintain a few paltry out-industry licensed tie-ins and spin-offs for a dwindling younger readership. Where once cheap and prolific, strip magazines in the 21st century are extremely cost-intensive and manufactured for a highly specific niche market, whilst all those beguiling and bombastic genres that originally fed and nurtured comics are more immediately disseminated via TV, movies and interactive media. There are a few venerable, long-lived holdouts like The Beano & 2000 AD, but overall the trend since the 1970s has been downwards and declining.

That seeming inevitability was happily turned on its head in January 2012 when Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched The Phoenix: a traditional (seeming) anthology comic weekly aimed at girls and boys between 7 and 14, revelling in those good old days of picture-story entertainment Intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and Content. It has been generating fun, fantasy, educational episodes and wild adventure for kids ever since, scoring many impressive results whilst lifting the standards of comics literature and quality of graphic novels. Each weekly issue still offers humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy and, in the years since its premiere, the comic has gone from strength to strength. It is, most importantly, big and bold, totally tuned in to its contemporary readership and tremendous fun.

The powers that be at the company also understand the sheer wonder of the creative urge and spend a vast amount of time and energy getting readers to have a go themselves: honing their own comics storytelling skills and making their own characters and stories via various outlets cumulatively designated The Phoenix Comics Club.

You can run that by your preferred search engine or just buy this book and access their portal via the enclosed QR code…

Moreover, as established comics companies seem to give up the ghost (in this country at least), old-school prose publishers embraced the graphic novels that evolved to fill their vacated niche. With a less volatile and tenuous business model and far more sustainable long-term goals, book sellers have prospered from magazine makers’ surrender, and there have never been so many and varied cartoon and comics chronicles, compilations and tomes for readers to enjoy. Happily, many of The Phoenix’s superb serials and series have joined that market, having been superbly repackaged as all-ages graphic albums. There are comedy adventures Bunny Vs Monkey, Mega Robo Bros, Toby and the Pixies, Evil Emperor Penguin, Donut Squad, Looshkin, Star Cat, Long Gone Don, Corpse Talk and fantasy dramas like No Country, Tosh’s Island, Tamsin, Pirates of Pangaea, Lost Tales, Troy Trailblazer, Tales of Fayt and The Adventures of John Blake.

The comic has inspired factual series like the award-winning Martin Brown’s Lesser Spotted Animals sequence and an entrancing and absorbing range of puzzle/activity books including Von Doogan and the Curse of the Golden Monkey/The Great Air Race, Bunny vs Monkey: The Whopping World of Puzzles! or How to Make Awesome Comics (With Professor Panels & Art Monkey!), and more…

The one we’re looking at today is Pandora in Puzzlevale: The Secret Town, the first of a serial offering a dazzling display of cartoon virtuosity and brain-busting challenges co-composed by writer/art director Paul Duffield, graphic staging scenarist Poqu and illustrator Siobhan McKenna. A comic strip mystery that operates and progresses by solving assorted tests and conundrums, it all begins in ‘Welcome to Puzzlevale’ as aspiring crimebuster and Detective Crow devotee Pandora is dragged from her comic long enough to realise that the tedious drive to their holiday home has been paused. Although the route to the much-anticipated “secrets-themed” village seemed straightforward, the road is long, winding and confusing. Now, heavy mists are falling and the satnav doesn’t seem to work right anymore…

When Mum and Dad pull up at a petrol station to ask directions, Pandora is fully engrossed in her comic, but eventually she looks up and realises she’s all alone. Her parents are gone…

Thus opens the catalogue of confusion and a casebook of ratiocination and logical deduction as the young girl is drawn deeper and deeper into a program apparently designed to test her physical and mental abilities.

For readers the principle is simple: by accessing the book and selecting a choice of action at a critical moment in each episode, you/Pandora are directed to another page to experience the ramifications of that decision. The final objective is to find her folks and learn the nested secrets of Puzzlevale but it’s you who will be doing much of the work…

In-world, there are people in the mist-shrouded hamlet such as fortune tellers, tea shop staff, rambling bystanders and potential witnesses like gossip Granny Garnett and enigmatic rhymer Rita Idyll – but everyone’s motives and accounts are unverifiable and not to be trusted so Pandora is ultimately left to fend for herself. At least in this very strange and mutable place, she occasionally has Detective Crow by her side and leading her on…

Her methodology includes clue finding, location identification, map-making, maze-defeating, symbol deciphering, wordsearch weaving, witness-statement verifying, code-breaking, rune reading, message translating, riddle-solving, character assessing, crossword completing, key & lock retrieving, object unearthing, back-story compiling and comparison testing as well as frequent odd behaviour explanation, with all facts slowly forming a working hypothesis and eventual plan of action in her trusty ever-present notebook…

But there are so many questions, such as why do the buildings seem to shift, and why do so many villagers wear masks and all-concealing costumes?

Pandora’s quest is divided into 26 sequential ‘Mysteries’ undertaken across five chapters – ‘Welcome to Puzzlevale’, ‘The Curious Crow’, ‘The Mysterious Mask’, ‘The Great Escape’, and ‘The Mists of Change’ – each with its own set of tests and challenges contributing to a Big Picture solution, but even after Pandora completes them all, she’s left with much more to solve and a divergent path to follow…

To Be Continued…

Story! Games! Action! Beguiling mystery unravelled in the manner of multiple-choice decisions and all there in the irresistible shape of entertaining pictures. How much cooler can a book get?

Well, quite a lot actually since this premier tome devotes a bunch of pages to related activities in a swathe of features offered under the aegis of the aforementioned Phoenix Comics Club: tips and snippets by Duffield & McKenna on ‘Drawing Pandora’, and how Poqu crafts the buildings, backgrounds and locations of Puzzlevale, as well as how to construct puzzles, draft alphabets and design symbols, before we conclude for now with a full list of mystery solving clues and hints detailing how it all came about in a closing glimpse at ‘Pandora’s Notes’…

Bring paper, pencils and your intellectual A-game, and have the time of your life…
Text and illustrations © The Phoenix Comic, 2025. All rights reserved.

Pandora in Puzzlevale: The Secret Town will be published on June 5th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

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Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954


By Alex Toth, Mike Peppe & various, edited by Greg Sadowski (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-408-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Alex Toth was a master of graphic communication who shaped two different art-forms and is largely unknown in both of them. He died on this day in 2006.

Born in New York in 1928, the son of Hungarian immigrants with a dynamic interest in the arts, Toth was something of a prodigy. After enrolling in the High School of Industrial Arts he doggedly went about improving his skills as a cartoonist. His earliest dreams were of a strip like Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates, but his uncompromising devotion to the highest standards soon soured him on newspaper strip work when he discovered how hidebound and innovation-resistant the family-values based industry had become whilst he was growing up.

Aged 15 he sold his first funnybook works to Heroic Comics and, after graduating in 1947, worked for All American/National Periodical Publications who would amalgamate and evolve into DC Comics. He pursued his craft on Dr. Mid-Nite, All Star Comics, The Atom, Green Lantern, Johnny Thunder, Sierra Smith, Johnny Peril, Danger Trail and a host of other features and on the way dabbled with newspaper strips (see Casey Ruggles: the Hard Times of Pancho and Pecos)… and found that nothing had changed…

Ceaselessly seeking to improve his own work, he never had time for fools or formula-hungry editors who wouldn’t take artistic risks. In 1952 Toth quit DC to work for Thrilling Pulps publisher Ned Pines who was retooling his prolific Better/Nedor/Pines nested comics companies (Thrilling Comics, Fighting Yank, Doc Strange, Black Terror and dozens more) into Standard Comics: a comics house targeting older readers looking for sophisticated, genre-based titles.

Beside fellow graphic masters Nick Cardy, Mike Sekowsky, Art Saaf, John Celardo, George Tuska, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito and particularly favourite inker Mike Peppe, Toth set the bar high for a new kind of story-telling: wry, restrained and thoroughly mature. This quiet revolution took place in a wave of short-lived titles dedicated to War, Crime, Horror, Science Fiction and especially Romance…

After Simon &Kirby invented love comics, Standard – through artists like Cardy and Toth and writers like the amazing and unsung Kim Aamodt – polished and honed the ubiquitous fare of the nascent comics category, delivering clever, witty, evocative and yet tasteful melodramas: heart-tuggers both men and women could enjoy.

Before going into the military, where he still found time to create a strip (Jon Fury for the US army’s Tokyo Quartermaster newspaper The Depot’s Diary), Toth illustrated 60 glorious tales for Standard; as well as a few rare pieces for EC and others. On his return – to a very different industry on the defensive against public antagonism, and one he didn’t much like – Toth split his time between Western/Dell/Gold Key (Zorro and many movie/TV adaptations) and National/DC (assorted short pieces, Hot Wheels and Eclipso): illustrating scripts he increasingly found uninspired, moribund and creatively cowardly. Soon, after drawing X-Men #12 (cover-dated May 1965) over Jack Kirby’s layouts, Toth moved primarily into TV animation. At Hanna-Barbera from 1964 on he designed and storyboarded for shows such as Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, Herculoids, Birdman, Shazzan!, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, Sealab 2020, Fantastic Four and Super Friends amongst many others.

He returned sporadically to comics, setting the style and tone for DC’s late 1960’s horror line in House of Mystery, House of Secrets and especially The Witching Hour, as well as illustrating more adult fare for Warren’s Creepy, Eerie and The Rook. In the early 1980s Toth redesigned The Fox for Red Circle/Archie, produced stunning one-offs for Archie Goodwin’s Batman and war comics (whenever they offered him a “good script”) and contributed to landmark or anniversary projects like Batman: Black and White.

His later, personal works included Torpedo (look for a fully updated review of the series here soon!) and the magnificently audacious Bravo for Adventure!

Alex Toth died of a heart attack at his drawing board on May 27th 2006.

After reprinting an extensive informative and almost exhaustive interview with the artist from Graphic Story Magazine – conducted by Vincent Davis, Richard Kyle and Bill Spicer in 1968 – this fabulous full colour chronicle then reprints every scrap of Toth’s superb Standard fare beginning with impressive melodrama in ‘My Stolen Kisses’ from Best Romance #5 (February 1952), after which light-hearted combat star Joe Yank nearly lost everything to ‘Black Market Mary’ in the debut issue of his own title (#5 March 1952).

Perhaps a word of explanation is warranted here: due to truly Byzantine commercial and promotional considerations, all Standard Comics premiered with issue #5, although the incredibly successful Romance comics were carried over from their earlier Better Comics incarnations such as New Romances #10 (March 1952) for which Toth illustrated the touching ‘Be Mine Alone’ and the parable of empty jealousy ‘My Empty Promise’ from #11.

The hilarious ‘Bacon and Bullets’ offered a different kind of love in Joe Yank #6 (May) – a very pretty pig named Clementine – after which witty 3-pager ‘Appointment with Love’ (Today’s Romance #6 May) provides a charming palate cleanser before the hard-bitten ‘Terror of the Tank Men’ from Battlefront #5 (June 1952) offers a more traditional view of the then-raging Korean War.

‘Shattered Dream!’ (My Real Love #5 June) is an ordinary romance well told whilst ‘The Blood Money of Galloping Chad Burgess’ (The Unseen #5 June 1952) reveals the sheer quality and maturity of Standard’s horror stories, with ‘The Shoremouth Horror’ (Out of the Shadows #5) from that same month proving Toth to be an absolute master of terror and genius at the pacing and staging needed to scare the pants off you in pictorial form…

‘Show Them How to Die’ (This is War #5 July) is a superbly gung-ho combat classic whilst the eerie ‘Murder Mansion’ and ‘The Phantom Hounds of Castle Eyne’ – both from the August cover-dated Adventures into Darkness #5 – again demonstrate the artist’s uncanny flair for building suspense. The single pager ‘Peg Powler’ (The Unseen #6 September) is reprinted beside the original artwork – which makes me wish the entire collection was available in black & white – after which the highly experimental ‘Five State Police Alarm’ (Crime Files #5) displays the artist’s amazing facility with duo-tone and craft-tint techniques before salutary saga ‘I Married in Haste’ (Intimate Love #19, September) offers a remarkably modern view of relationships.

Science Fiction was the metier of Fantastic Worlds #5 which provided both contemporary ‘Triumph over Terror’ and futuristic fable ‘The Invaders’ to finish off Toth’s September commissions after which ‘Routine Patrol’ and ‘Too Many Cooks’ offer two-fisted thrills from This is War #6 (October). ‘The Phantom Ship’ is a much reprinted classic chiller from Out of the Shadows #6, with October also releasing the extremely unsettling ‘Alice in Terrorland’ from Lost Worlds #5.

Toth only produced four covers for Standard, and the first two, Joe Yank #8 and Fantastic Worlds #6, precede ‘The Boy Who Saved the World’ from the latter (November 1952) after which service rivalry informed ‘The Egg-Beater’ from Jet Fighters #5. The cover of Lost Worlds #6 (December) perfectly introduces the featured ‘Outlaws of Space’, after which the single-page ‘Smart Talk’ (New Romance #14) perfectly closes the first year and sets up 1953 to open strongly with ‘Blinded by Love’ from Popular Romance #22 January) in which the classic love triangle has never looked better…

This was clearly Toth’s ideal year as ‘The Crushed Gardenia’ from Who is Next? #5 shows his incredible skills to their utmost in one of the best crime stories of all time. ‘Undecided Heart’ (Intimate Love #21 February) is a delightful comedy of errors whilst both ‘The House That Jackdaw Built’ and ‘The Twisted Hands’ from Adventures into Darkness #8 perfectly reveal the artist’s uncanny facility for building tension and anxiety. The cover to Joe Yank #10 is followed by splendid aviation yarn ‘Seeley’s Saucer’ from March’s Jet Fighters #7, whilst the clever and racy ‘Free My Heart’ (Popular Romance #23, April) adds new depth to the term “sophisticated” and ‘The Hands of Don José’ (Adventures into Darkness #9) is just plain nasty in the manner horror fans adore. ‘No Retreat’ (This is War #9 May) offers more patriotic combat, but ‘I Want Him Back’ (Intimate Love #22) depicts a far softer, more personal duel whilst ‘Geronimo Joe’ (Exciting War #8 May) proves that in combat there’s no room for rivalry…

Toth was rapidly reaching the acme of his design genius as ‘Man of My Heart’ (New Romances #16 June), ‘I Fooled My Heart’ (Popular Romance #24 July – and reprinted in full as original art in the notes section) and both ‘Stars in my Eyes’ and ‘Uncertain Heart’ from New Romances #17 (August) saw him develop a visual vocabulary to cleanly impart plot and characterisation simultaneously. He often stated he preferred these mature, well-written romance stories for the room they gave him to experiment and expand his craft, and these later efforts prove him right: especially in the moving ‘Heart Divided’ (Thrilling Romances #22) and compelling ‘I Need You’ (September’s Popular Romances #25).

‘The Corpse That Lived’ (Out of the Shadows #10) is a historically based tale of grave-robbing, whilst deeply moving ‘Chance for Happiness’ (Thrilling Romances #23 October) is as powerful today as it ever was. ‘My Dream is You!’ (New Romances #18) turned fresh eyes on the old dilemma of career vs husband and far darker love is depicted in ‘Grip on Life’ (The Unseen #12 November), before true love actually triumphs in ‘Guilty Heart’ (Popular Romance #26). Another ‘Smart Talk’ advice page ends 1953 (New Romances #19) and neatly precedes an edgy affair in ‘Ring on Her Finger’ (Thrilling Romances #24 January 1954), after which ‘Frankly Speaking’ from the same issue leads to terrifying period horror in ‘The Mask of Graffenwehr’ (Out of the Shadows #11).

February saw a fine crop of Toth tales, beginning with charming medical drama ‘Heartbreak Moon’ (Popular Romance #27), spooky mining mystery ‘The Hole of Hell’ (The Unseen #13), 1-page amorous advisory ‘Long on Love’ (Popular Romance #27), lesson in obsession ‘Lonesome for Kisses’ and two more advice pages – ‘If You’re New in Town’ and ‘Those Drug Store Romeos’ – from Intimate Love #26. These last stories were eked out in the months after Toth had left, having been drafted and posted to Japan. However, even though he had (presumably) rushed them out whilst preparing for the biggest change in his young life, there was no loss but a further jump in artistic quality.

One final relationship ‘Smart Talk’ page (New Romances #20 March 1954) precedes a brace of classic mystery masterpieces from Out of the Shadows #12: ‘The Man Who Was Always on Time’ (also reproduced in original art form in the copious ‘Notes’ section at the back of this monumental book) before the graphic wonderment regrettably concludes with the cynically spooky ‘Images of Sand’ – a sinister cautionary tale of tomb-robbing…

After all that, the last 28 pages of this compendium comprise a thorough and informative section of story annotations, illustrations and a wealth of original art reproductions to top off this sublime collection in ideal style.

Alex Toth was a tale-teller and a master of erudite refinement, his avowed mission to pare away every unnecessary line and element in life and in work. His dream was to make perfect graphic stories. He was eternally searching for how to best tell a story, to the exclusion of all else. This long-ignored but still utterly compelling collection shows how talent, imagination and dedication to that ideal can elevate even the most genre-bound vignette into a paragon of form and a mere comic into high art. Get this book, absorb it all and learn through wonder and delight.
All stories in this book are in the public domain but the specific restored images and design are © 2011 Fantagraphics Books. Notes are © 2011 Greg Sadowski and the Graphic Story Magazine interview is © 2011 Bill Spicer. All rights reserved.