Category: Nostalgia

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Calling Dick Tracy! volume 1


By Mike Curtis, Joe Staton & various (Rabbit Hole)
ISBN: 978-0-930645-11-0 (digital edition)

Time for another anniversary celebration. Dick Tracy is 95 in five months’ time, so here’s a superb collection crying out for revival in either physical or digital forms. Another time to agitate against the publishing powers-that-be, I think…

All in all, comics have a pretty good track record for creating household names. We could play the game of picking the most well-known fictional characters on Earth – usually topped by Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, Superman Batman & Tarzan – and supplement the list with Popeye, Blondie, Charlie Brown, Tintin, Spider-Man, Garfield, and – not so much now, but once, most definitely – Dick Tracy…

At the height of the Great Depression cartoonist Chester Gould sought fresh strip ideas. The story goes that as a decent guy incensed by the exploits of gangsters like Al Capone (who monopolised front pages of contemporary newspapers) the doughty doodler settled upon the only way a normal man could fight thugs: Passion and Public Opinion.

Raised in Oklahoma, Gould was a Chicago resident who hated seeing his home town in the grip of such wicked men, with far too many honest citizens beguiled by the gangsters’ charisma. He decided to pictorially get it off his chest with a procedural crime thriller that championed the ordinary cops who protected civilisation.

He took his proposal –“Plainclothes Tracy” – to Captain Joseph Patterson, the legendary newspaperman and strips Svengali whose golden touch had already blessed strips like The Gumps, Gasoline Alley, Little Orphan Annie, Winnie Winkle, Smilin’ Jack, Moon Mullins and Terry and the Pirates among others. Casting his experienced eye on the work, Patterson promptly renamed the hero Dick Tracy, whilst also revising his love interest into steady, steadfast girlfriend Tess Truehart. The daily series launched on October 4th 1931 through Patterson’s own Chicago Tribune Syndicate, growing quickly into a phenomenon and monumental hit, with all the attendant media and merchandising hoopla that follows. Bolstered by toys, games, movies, serials, animated features, TV shows et al, the strip soldiered on, influencing generations of creators and entertaining millions of fans. Gould unfailingly wrote and drew the strip for decades until retirement in 1977.

The legendary lawman was a landmark creation who influenced not simply comics but the entirety of American popular fiction. Its signature use of baroque villains, outrageous crimes and fiendish death-traps pollinated the work of numerous strips (most notably Batman), shows and movies since then, whilst the indomitable Tracy’s studied, measured use – and startlingly accurate predictions – of crimefighting technology and techniques gave the world a taste of cop thrillers, police procedurals and forensic mysteries such as CSI decades before the modern fascination took hold.

As with many creators in it for the long haul, the revolutionary 1960s were a harsh time for well-established cartoonists. Along with Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon, Gould’s grizzled gangbuster especially foundered in a social climate of radical change where popular slogans included “Never trust anybody over 21” and “Smash the Establishment”. The strip’s momentum faltered, perhaps as much from a move towards trendy science fiction (Tracy went off-Earth into space and the character Moon Maid was introduced) as from those improbable, Bond-movie-style villains or perceived “old-fashioned” attitudes. Even the introduction of more minority and women characters – and hippie cop Groovy Groove – couldn’t stop the rot. However, the feature soldiered on regardless…

When Gould retired in 1977, 29-year old author Max Allen Collins (Road to Perdition, Nathan Heller, Mike Mist, Ms. Tree, Batman) won the prestigious role as scripter, promptly taking the series back to its crime-busting roots for a breathtaking run, ably assisted by Gould as consultant with his chief artistic assistant Rick Fletcher promoted to full illustrator. After 11 years, Collins was removed in 1992 and replaced by Mike Kilian – who apparently worked for half the up-&-coming novelist’s price – until his death in October 2005. Dick Locher took over story & art, with assistant Jim Brozman assuming drawing duties from March 2009. On January 19th 2011, Tribune Media Services announced Locher’s retirement and replacement by a new team. That’s where this digital-only book begins…

Atoudingly versatile and unbelievably prolific artist/inker Joe Staton (E-Man, Mike Mauser, The Avengers, Incredible Hulk, Green Lantern, Legion of Super-Heroes) has been an integral part of American comic books since the early 1970s and in later years made kids comics his metier. During a spectacular run on licensed classic Scooby Doo, he and series scripter Mike Curtis (Casper the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich, Shanda the Panda) discovered a mutual love for Dick Tracy and – mostly for their own amusement – created a tribute strip entitled Major Crime Squad.

How that landed them the duty of continuing the ultimate cop’s official adventures is addressed in introductory text feature ‘Publisher’s Note – aka “The Dick Tracy vs. Major Crime Squad Caper”’ by Steve Tippie (VP of Licensing, TMS News & Features, LLC) before a stunning chronological re-presentation of all-new classics begins. Preceding those comic capers are more text-based insights and revelations: a Foreword by Mike Gold; former sheriff Curtis’ ‘How We Got the Job’ (supplemented by samples done in 2005 when they first tried to take on the strip) and Staton’s ‘Waiting For Dick Tracy’…

Next up is a brief visual refresher course of ‘Tracy and His Allies’ and the most nefarious of the repeat offenders in a ‘Rogues Gallery’ before the unending war on crime resumes in ‘Flyface and The Fifth Return’.

The strip has sadly long passed its heady glory days of mass sales, but that’s more about the death of print periodicals than this material. It still appears in a number of papers and as a potent online presences which means every episode is in full colour, with half-page Sunday strips still offering extras such as the ‘Crimestoppers Textbook’. One welcome addition is full credits so we can thank Shelley Pleger and Shane Fisher for their inks, colours and lettering. When Staton retired in October 2021, Pleger drew the feature, which these days is limned by Charles Ettinger…

The plot here sees the long separated traditional squad fully reunited to combat right wing terrorism and gradually reintroduced to the fanciful gadgets and controversial space tech after Tracy’s inventor pal Diet Smith gets in touch. A disgruntled former employee has stolen plans for his energy-beam weapon “Thor’s Hammer”…

After selling it to old lags Flyface and The Fifth – who kidnap officer Lizz Worthington to set a trap for their old nemesis – events spiral out of control, but only the wicked pay the final price this time…

Longtime comedic characters B.O. Plenty and his wife Gravel Gertie then resurface, celebrating the birth of their second child – the ugliest boy on Earth! – before falling foul of a manipulative foodie TV celebrity who sees a chance to own the airwaves with the stomach-churning infant in ‘Flakey Biscuits Makes the Dough’. Sadly, her bribing gifts to the couple include a shipment of cocaine being secretly couriered by her assistant Hot Rize, and soon bodies start dropping as the city’s top drug lord seeks to recover his missing product. Once Tracy realises what’s what, it’s all over bar the shooting…

‘Doubleup and the Scarlet Sting’ features the making of a movie starring a fictional superhero and depicts how childhood fan and modern-day gangster Doubleup barges in: infiltrating the cast to shakedown the production. Soon he’s too involved and after murdering his girlfriend all that’s left is being caught facing real-world justice…

At this time alternate Sunday extra ‘Tracy’s Hall of Fame’ (celebrating police officers) began, days before an officially deceased and clearly incorrigible arch enemy reappeared in ‘B-B Eyes and Honeymoon’. When Tracy’s adopted son Junior goes undercover to investigate a video piracy ring, the case quickly drags in the old cop’s granddaughter too, after Honeymoon Tracy tries to help out and almost dies because of her enthusiasm and lack of training.

Even with the comics component concluded, there’s more informational extras to enjoy as Curtis offers ‘Dick Tracy vs. the Villains: A Comparison’ and we meet the current creators in ‘Joe Staton’s Bio’, ‘Mike Curtis’ Bio’ and ‘Team Tracy Bios’ to close this initial casebook – hopefully the first of many.

Dick Tracy has always been a fantastically readable feature and this potent return to first principles is a terrific way to ease yourself into his stark, no-nonsense, Tough Love, Hard Justice world. Comics just don’t get better than this.
© 2013 TMS News & Features, LLC. All rights reserved.

On this day in 2003, Jerry Bittle’s redneck-ribbing strip Geech appeared for the final time, but the date is shared by a host of birthday boys and girls including French illustrator Paul Léonnec in 1842; publisher Clay Geerdes in 1934; Argentinian Lucho Olivera (Nippur de Lagash, Gilgamesh the immortal) in 1942 and undying legend Barry Windsor-Smith in 1949. Stan (Usagi Jojimbo) Sakai arrived in 1953; both Mark (Breathtaker, Tug & Buster, Sandman) Hempel and Publisher Terry Nantier in 1957 and mangaka Tomoko Ninomiya (Nodame Cantabile) in 1969.

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Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives volume 1


By Bill Everett and others, edited and complied by Blake Bell (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-488-7 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Thanks solely to modern technology and diligent research by dedicated fans, there is a sublime superabundance of collections featuring the works of too-long ignored founding fathers and lost masters of American comic books these days. A magnificent case in point is these curated chronicles (available in both print and digital formats) revisiting and yet barely touching upon the incredible gifts and achievements of one of the greatest draughtsmen and yarn-spinners our industry has ever seen.

You could save some time and trouble by simply buying them now rather than waste your valuable off-hours reading my preposterous blather and piffle, but since I’m keen to carp on anyway feel free to accompany me as I delineate just why these tomes need to join the books on your “Favourites” shelf.

The star under scrutiny here was a direct descendent and namesake of iconoclastic poet and artist William Blake. Bill was quite possibly the most technically accomplished artist in the US comic book industry and his tragic life and awe-inspiring body of work reveal how a man of privilege and astonishing pedigree was wracked by illness, addictive personality traits (especially alcoholism) and sheer bad luck, but nevertheless shaped an art-form. Bill Everett left twin legacies: an incredible body of superlative stories and art, and, more importantly, he redeemed many broken lives by becoming a dedicated mentor for Alcoholics Anonymous in his later years.

William Blake Everett was born in 1917 into a wealthy and prestigious New England family. Bright and precocious, he contracted tuberculosis at age twelve and was dispatched to arid Arizona to recuperate. This chain of events began a life-long affair with the cowboy lifestyle: a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, tall-tale-telling breed locked in a hard-to-win war against slow self-destruction.

All this and more is far better imparted in a scholarly, fact-filled, picture-packed Introduction by Blake Bell in Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives volume 1. This covers the development of the medium in ‘The Golden Age of Comics’; the history of ‘Bill Everett the Man’ and how they came together in ‘Centaur + Funnies Inc. = Marvel Comics #1’. The essay also includes an astounding treasure trove of found images and original art, including samples from 1940s Sub-Mariner, 1960s Daredevil and 1970s Black Widow stories, amongst many others.

Accompanied by the covers (that’s the case for most of the titles that follow: Everett was fast and slick and knew just how to catch a punter’s eye) for Amazing Mystery Funnies vol. 1 #1, 2, 3a, 3b and vol. 2 #2 (August 1938 – February 1939, from Centaur) are a quartet of rousing but muddled interstellar exploits starring sci fi troubleshooter Skyrocket Steele. These are followed by a brace of anarchic outer space shenanigans starring futuristic wild boy Dirk the Demon culled from Amazing Mystery Funnies (vol. 1 #3a and vol. 2 #3; November 1938 & March 1939 respectively).

The undisputed star and big draw at Centaur was always Amazing-Man who was a Tibetan mystic-trained orphan, adventurer and do-gooder named John Aman. After many years of dangerous, painful study that young man was despatched back to civilisation to do good… for a relative given value of “good”…

Aman stole the show in monthly Amazing Mystery Comics (#5-8, spanning September -December 1939) as seen in the four breakneck thrillers re-presented here and opening with ‘Origin of Amazing-Man’ followed by an untitled sequel episode with the champion saving a lady rancher from sadistic criminals; ‘Amazing-Man Loose’ (after being framed for various crimes) and a concluding instalment wherein the nomadic hero abandons his quest to capture his evil arch rival ‘The Great Question’ and instead heads for recently invaded France to combat the scourge of Nazism…

As previously stated, Everett was passionately wedded to western themes and for Novelty Press’ Target Comics he devised an Arizona-set, rootin’ tootin’ cowboy crusader called Bull’s-Eye Bill. Taken from issues #1 & 2 (February & March 1940), ‘On the trail of Travis Trent’ and ‘The Escape of Travis Trent’ has our wholesome yet hard-bitten cowpoke battling the meanest, most determined owlhoot in the territory. Accompanying the strips is an Everett-illustrated prose piece attributed to “Gray Brown” entitled ‘Bullseye Bill Gets his Moniker’.

Thanks to his breakthrough Sub-Mariner sagas, Everett became inextricably linked to water-based action adventures and immensely popular, edgy heroes. That’s why Eastern Comics hired him to create human waterspout Bob Blake, Hydroman for their bimonthly anthology Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics.

Here – spanning issues #1-5 and August 1940 to March 1941- are five spectacular, eerily offbeat exploits, encompassing ‘The Origin of Hydroman’ and covering his patriotic mission to make America safe from subversion by “oriental invaders”, German saboteurs and assorted ne’er-do-wells, after which a Polar Paladin rears his frozen head. Sub-Zero Man debuted in Blue Bullet Comics vol. 1 #2 cover-dated July 1940. He was a Venusian scientist stranded on Earth who, through myriad bizarre circumstances, became a chilly champion of justice. Everett is only credited with the episode ‘The Power of Professor X’ (vol. 1 #5, October 1940) but also included here are the cover of vol. 1 #4 and spot illustrations for the prose stories ‘Sub-Zero’s Adventures on Earth’ and ‘Frozen Ice’ (from Blue Bullet Comics vol. 1 #2 and vol. 2 #3).

The Conqueror was another quickly forsaken Everett creation: a Red, White & Blue patriotic costumed champion debuting in August 1941’s Victory Comics #1. Daniel Lyons almost died in a plane crash but was saved by cosmic ray bombardment which granted him astounding mental and physical powers in ‘The Coming of the Conqueror’. He promptly moved to Europe to “rid the world of Adolf Hitler!” with Everett’s only other contribution being the cover of issue #2 (September 1941). Accompanied by a page of original artwork from Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics #12 (May 1941), The Music Master then details how dying violinist John Wallace was saved by mystic musical means and becomes a sonic-powered superman righting injustices and crushing evil…

Rounding out this initial cavalcade of forgotten wonders are a selection of covers, illustrations and yarns which can only be described as Miscellaneous (1938-1942). These comprise the cover to the 1938 Uncle Joe’s Funnies #1; procedural crime thriller ‘The C-20 Mystery’ (from Amazing Mystery Funnies vol. 2 #7, June 1939) and ‘The Story of the Red Cross’ from True Comics #2 (June 1938). The cover for 1941’s Dickie Dare #1 is followed by a range of potent images from text tales beginning with three pages for ‘Sheep’s Clothing’ (Funny Pages vol. 2 #11, November 1940); a potent pic for ‘Birth of a Robot Part 2’ (Target Comics vol. 1 #6, July 1940); two pages from ‘Death in a Box’ courtesy of Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics #5 (March 1941) and two from ‘Pirate’s Oil’ in RFHC #13 (July 1942), before the unpublished, unfinished 1940 covers for Challenge Comics #1 and Whirlwind Comics #1 bring the potent nostalgia to a close.
© 2011 Fantagraphics Books. Introduction © 2011 Blake Bell. All art © its respective owners and holders. All rights reserved.

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Heroic Tales: The Bill Everett Archives volume 2


By Bill Everett and others, edited and complied by Blake Bell (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-600-3 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The second visit to the works of Bill Everett also opens with a fact-filled, picture-packed Introduction by Blake Bell which covers ‘The Early Years of Comics: 1938-1942’, ‘The Birth of Marvel Comics’ and ‘The Comic Book Production System’, before ‘The Heroes’ precedes a selection of astounding, astonishing prototypical adventure champions accompanied a brief essay on the set-up of Centaur Comics, Novelty Press, Eastern Color Printing, Hillman and Lev Gleason Publications.

Augmented by covers for Centaur’s Amazing Mystery Funnies vol. 2 #3, 5 & 6 (March, May & June 1939) are three outer space exploits of futuristic troubleshooter Skyrocket Steele, whilst Tibetan-trained superhero Amazing-Man offers a transformative triptych of titanic tales spanning war-torn Europe, augmented by covers to Amazing-Man Comics #9-11 (February-April 1940).

Everett’s deeply held sagebrush sentiments are served with another brace of barnstorming Bull’s-Eye Bill from Target Comics #3-4 (Novelty Press, April & May 1940) whilst from #7-9 (August-October 1940), the author smoothly switched to sophisticated suspense as master of disguise The Chameleon cunningly crushed contemporary criminals in scintillating escapades from Target Comics’ answer to The Saint, The Falcon and The Lone Wolf.

Everett’s other aquatic adventurer – Eastern Comics’ human waterspout Bob Blake, Hydroman returns next, as seen in Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics # 6-9 (May – November 1941, with Bill’s covers for #6 & 7): four spectacular, eerily, offbeat exploits, covering an extended battle against foreign spies and American Fifth Columnists, after which Red Reed in the Americas! (created by Bob Davis & Fitz) offers the first two chapters in a political thriller wherein a college student and his pals head South of the Border to fight Nazi-backed sedition and tyranny in a stunning tour de force first seen in Lev Gleason’s Silver Streak Comics #20 & 21 (April & May 1942).

A section of Miscellaneous and text illustrations follows, blending Western spot drawings with eye-catching covers from Amazing Mystery Funnies vol. 2 #18; Target Comics #5 & 6; Blue Bolt (vol. 1 #11, vol. 2 #1, 2 &~ 3) and Famous Funnies #85. The Humorous and More then details Everett’s forays into other markets: niche sectors such as licensed comics, comedy and romance, and even  a return to pulp and magazine illustration as he strove to stay one step ahead of a constantly shifting market and his own growing reputation for binges and unreliability.

‘What’s With the Crosbys?’ is a superbly rendered gossip strip from Famous Stars #2 (1950, Ziff-Davis) whilst a stunning monochrome girly-pin-up of ‘Snafu’s Lovely Ladies’ (from Marvel’s Snafu #3, March 1956), and the cover of Adventures of the Big Boy #1 (also Marvel, from the same month) lead into the back cover of Cracked #6 (December 1958, Major Magazines) and other visual features from that Mad magazine mimic, as well as the colour cover to less successful imitator Zany (#3, from March 1959). Everett’s staggering ability to draw beautiful women plays well in the complete romance strip ‘Love Knows No Rules’ (Personal Love #24, November 1953 Eastern Color), before this section concludes with a gritty monochrome title page piece from combat pulp War Stories #1, courtesy of Marvel’s parent company Magazine Management, and cover-dated September 1952.

The Horror concentrates on our post-superhero passion for scary stories: an arena where Bill Everett absolutely shone like a diamond. For more than a decade he brought a sheen of irresistible quality to the generally second-rate chillers Timely/Atlas/Marvel produced in competition with genre frontrunners EC Comics. It’s easy to see how they could compete and even outlive their gritty, gore-soaked competitor, with such lush and lurid examples of covers and chillingly beautiful interior pages…

Following a third informative background essay detailing his life until its cruelly early end in 1973, a choice selection of his lesser known or celebrated efforts opens with tale of terror ‘Hangman’s House’ (Suspense #5, November, 1950),; a grim confrontation with Satanic evil, followed by futuristic Cold War shocker ‘I Deal With Murder!’ and a visit to a dark carnival of purely human wickedness in ‘Felix the Great’(both from Suspense #6, January 1951).

Adventures into Weird Worlds #4 (Spring 1952) offered a laconic, sardonic glimpse into ‘The Face of Death’, whilst from the following issue (April 1952) ‘Don’t Bury Me Deep’ tapped untold depths of tension in a moodily mordant exploration of fear and premature burial. Hard on the heels of the cover to Journey Into Unknown Worlds #14 (December 1952) comes one of its interior shockers as ‘The Scarecrow’ helps an aged couple solve their mortgage problems in a most unusual manner. The Marvel madness concludes with a cautionary tale of ‘That Crazy Car’ from Journey into Mystery #20, December 1954, concluding a far too brief sojourn amidst arguably Everest’s most accomplished works and most professionally adept period.

This magnificent collection ends with a gallery of pages and one complete tale from the end of his career; selected from an even more uninhibited publisher attempting to cash in on the adult horror market opened by Warren Publishing with Eerie, Creepy and Vampirella.

Skywald was formed by industry veteran Israel Waldman and Everett’s old friend Sol Brodsky, tapping into the burgeoning black-&-white, mature-reader market with supernatural flavoured magazines Hell-Rider, Crime Machine, Nightmare, Psycho and Scream. Offered an “in”, Everett produced incredible pin-ups (included here are three from Nightmare (#1, 2 & 4, December 1970-June 1971); ‘A Psycho Scene’ (Psycho #5, November, 1971); a stunning werewolf pinup from Psycho #6 and one of revived Golden Age monstrosity ‘The Heap’ from Psycho #4. Most welcome is a magnificent 10-page monochrome masterpiece of gothic mystery ‘The Man Who Stole Eternity’ from Psycho #3 (May, 1971).

Although telling, even revelatory and concluding in a happy ending of sorts, what these books truly celebrate is not the life but the astounding versatility of Bill Everett. A gifted, driven man, he was a born storyteller with the unparalleled ability to make all his imaginary worlds hyper-real; and for nearly five decades his incredible art and wondrous stories enthralled and enchanted everybody lucky enough to read them.
© 2013 Fantagraphics Books. Text © 2013 Blake Bell. All art © its respective owners and holders. All rights reserved.

Bill Everett was born today in 1917, as was Mad mainstay Don Martin in 1931, foundational Underground Commix publisher/empresario Don Donahue (AKA Apex Novelties) in 1942 and in 1953 both Alan Kupperberg (Blue Devil, Dragonlance) and Arthur Suydam (Cholly and Flytrap, Marvel Zombies).

Today in 2017, Oscar González Guerrero died. The Mexican comic artist, art director and educator had started taletelling in the 1950s and created Zor y Los Invencibles, Hermelinda Linda, Burrerías, Smog, Don Leocadio El Tío Porfirio, Las Aventures de Capulina and run ¡Ka-Boom! Estudio.

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Walt Disney’s Donald Duck by Carl Barks: volume 6 – The Old Castle’s Secret


By Carl Barks & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-653-9 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Donald Duck ranks among a small number of fictional characters who have transcended the bounds of reality to become – like Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Popeye and James Bond -meta-real. As such, his origins are complex and convoluted. His official birthday is June 9th 1934: a dancing, nautically-themed bit-player in the Silly Symphony cartoon short The Wise Little Hen. However, that date is based on the feature’s release, as announced by distributors United Artists and latterly acknowledged by the Walt Disney Company. Recent research reveals the piece was initially screened at Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles on May 3rd, part of a Benefit show. The Wise Little Hen officially premiered on June 7th at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, before a general release date was settled.

The animated feature was adapted by Ted Osborne & Al Taliaferro for the Silly Symphonies Sunday comic strip and thus classified by historians as Donald’s official debut in Disney comics. Controversially, though, he was also deemed to have originated in The Adventures of Mickey Mouse strip which had begun 1931. Thus the Duck has more “birthdays” than the Queens and Kings of England (plus the generally dis-United Kingdom and gradually diminishing Commonwealth) which probably explains why he’s such a bad-tempered old cuss. Today is not so much a birthday as graduation party…

Visually, Donald Fauntleroy Duck was largely the result of animator Dick Lundy’s efforts, and, with partner-in-fun Mickey Mouse, is one of TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time. The Duck has his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame and has appeared in more films than any other Disney player. During the 1930s his screen career grew from background/supporting roles to a team act with Mickey and Goofy, to a series of solo cartoons that began with 1937’s Don Donald, which also introduced love interest Daisy Duck and nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey.

By 1938 Donald was officially more popular than signature company icon Mickey, especially after the brash bird’s service as a propaganda warrior in a series of animated morale boosters and information features during WWII. The merely magnificent Der Fuehrer’s Face took the 1942 Academy Award (that’s an Oscar to you and me) for Animated Short Film…

Crucially for our purposes, Donald is also planet Earth’s most-published non-superhero comics character, and has been blessed with some of the greatest writers and illustrators ever to punch a keyboard or pick up a pen or brush. A publishing phenomenon and mega star across Europe – particularly Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland – Donald & Co have spawned countless original stories and characters. Sales are stratospheric there and in the more than 45 other countries they export to. Japanese manga publishers have their own carefully-tailored iterations too…

The aforementioned Silly Symphonies adaptation and Mickey Mouse newspaper strip guest shots were trumped in 1937 when Italian publisher Mondadori launched an 18-page story by Federico Pedrocchi in comic book format. It was quickly followed by a regular serial in Britain’s Mickey Mouse Weekly. The comic was produced under license by Willbank Publications/Odhams Press and ran from 8th February 1936 to 28th December 1957.

In #67 (May 15th 1937) it launched Donald and Donna (a prototype Daisy Duck girlfriend), drawn by William A. Ward. Running for 15 weeks it was followed by Donald and Mac before ultimately settling on Donald Duck, and became a solid fixture until the magazine folded. That comic inspired similar Disney-themed publication across Europe, with Donald regularly appearing beside company mascot Mickey.

In the USA, a daily Donald Duck newspaper strip launched on February 2nd 1938, with a colour Sunday strip added in 1939. Writer Ted Karp joined Taliaferro in expanding the duck cast, adding a signature automobile, dog Bolivar, cousin Gus Goose, grandmother Elvira Coot and even expanded the roles of both distaff ducks Donna and Daisy…

In 1942, Donald’s licensed comic books canon began with October cover-dated Dell Four Color Comics, Series II #9. As Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold it was conceived by Homer Brightman & Harry Reeves, scripted by Karp and illustrated by Disney Studios employees Carl Barks & Jack Hannah. That was the moment everything changed…

Carl Barks was born in Merrill, Oregon in 1901, and raised in rural areas of the West during some of the leanest times in American history. He tried his hand at many jobs before settling into the profession that chose him. His early life is well-documented elsewhere if you need detail, but briefly, Barks was an animator before quitting in 1942 to work in the new-fangled field of comic books. With studio partner Jack Hannah (another future strip illustrator) Barks adapted Karp’s rejected script for an animated cartoon short into Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold, and although not his first published comics work, it was the story that shaped the rest of Carl’s career.

From then until his official retirement in the mid-1960s, Barks operated in self-imposed seclusion: writing, drawing and devising a vast array of adventure comedies, gags, yarns and covers that gelled into a coherent Duck Universe of memorable – and highly bankable – characters. These included Gladstone Gander (1948), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Magica De Spell (1961) and the nefarious Beagle Boys (1951) to supplement Disney’s stable of cartoon actors. The greatest creation was undoubtedly the crusty, energetic, paternalistic, money-mad giga-gazillionaire Scrooge McDuck: the World’s wealthiest winged nonagenarian.

Whilst producing all that landmark material Barks was also just a working guy, generating cover art, illustrating other people’s scripts when asked, and contributing stories to a burgeoning canon of Duck Lore. After Gladstone Publishing began re-packaging Barks material amongst other Disney strips in the 1980s, he discovered the well-earned appreciation he never imagined existed. So potent were his creations that they inevitably fed back into Disney’s animation output, even though his brilliant comic work was done for Dell/Gold Key and not directly for the studio. The greatest tribute was undoubtedly animated TV series Duck Tales: heavily based on his classic Uncle Scrooge tales.

Barks was a fan of wholesome action, unsolved mysteries and epics of exploration, and this led to him perfecting the art and technique of the blockbuster tale: blending wit, history, plucky bravado and sheer wide-eyed wonder into rollicking rollercoaster romps that utterly captivated readers of every age and vintage. Without the Barks expeditions there would never have been an Indiana Jones…

During his working life Barks was blissfully unaware that his efforts (uncredited by official policy, as was all Disney’s comics output) had been recognised by a rabid and discerning public as “the Good Duck Artist”. When some of his most dedicated fans finally tracked him down, a belated celebrity began.

In 2013, Fantagraphics Books began chronologically collecting Barks’ Duck stuff in wonderful, carefully curated archival volumes, tracing his output year-by-year in hardback tomes and digital editions that finally do justice to the self-closeted creator. These will comprise the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. The physical copies are sturdy and luxurious albums – 193 x 261mm – that would grace any bookshelf, with volume 6 re-presenting works from 1948 – albeit not in strict release order. I should also note that all Four Color issues come from Series II of that mighty anthological vehicle and all covers are by Barks.

It begins eponymously with ‘The Old Castle’s Secret’ (FC #189, June 1948) as a financial crisis in McDuck’s empire triggers a mission for Donald and the nephews: accompanying Scrooge to the ancestral pile in Scotland to search for millions in hidden treasure. Apparently the craggy citadel is haunted, but what they actually encounter is both more rationalistically dangerous and fantastically unbelievable…

Two single-page gags from the same issue follow, with ‘Bird Watching’ exposing the hidden perils of the hobby before superstition is painfully debunked in ‘Horseshoe Luck’ after which ‘Wintertime Wager’ (Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #88, January) introduces annoying cousin Gladstone Gander. Amidst chilling winter snows, the miraculously lucky, smugly irksome oik invites himself over for Christmas and soon he and Donald are involved in an escalating set of ordeals that might cost the Duck his house. Thankfully, Daisy and the boys are there to solve the problem…

Gainful employment was a regular dilemma for Donald, so February’s ‘Watching the Watchman’ (WDC&S #89) finds him taking a midnight-to-daybreak job at the docks, despite being pitifully unable to alter his sleep patterns. Once again, Huey, Louie & Dewey offer outrageous assistance but this time it’s the Duck’s failure to stay awake that foils a million dollar heist. The kids are actually Donald’s rivals in ‘Wired’ (WDC&S #90, March) when all seek big bucks as telegram messengers. Sadly, millionaires are not generally friendly, welcoming or prone to giving giant gratuities…

A dedicated social climber, Donald plans a garden party in WDC&S #91 (April), but his notion of fancy dress and family solidarity utterly enrage the boys, who retaliate with manic mesmerism in ‘Going Ape’, after which March of Comics #20 finds butterfly-hunter Donald at war with avaricious lepidopterist Professor Argus McFiendy across two continents. Donald’s sharp and ruthless tactics inspire onlooker Sir Gnatbugg-Mothley to fund a safari to ‘Darkest Africa’ in search of the rarest butterfly on Earth. The daunting quest for Almostus Extinctus is frenetically fraught, astoundingly action-packed and fabulously fun-filled but please be aware that despite Barks’ careful research and diligent, sensitive storytelling some modern folk could be upset by his depictions of indigenous peoples in terms of the accepted style of those decades-distant times…

Nevertheless, the bombastic war ends with a delicious sting in the tail.

In case you were wondering: March of Comics releases were prestigious promotional giveaways tied to retail products and commercial clients like Sears, combining licensed characters from across Whitman/KK/Dell’s joint catalogue. The often enjoyed print runs topping 5 million copies per issue. Being a headliner for them was a low key editorial acknowledgement of a creator’s capabilities and a franchise’s pulling power…

In the regular comics world, Donald’s eternal war of nerves with the kids boiled over in FC #189 (June) as ‘Bean Taken’ saw his obsessive side dominant in a guessing game, a single-pager preceding another exploring the downside of sandlot baseball in ‘Sorry to Be Safe’ (FC #199, October) and standard 10-page romp ‘Spoil the Rod’ (WDC&S #92, May). Here passing do-gooder Professor Pulpheart Clabberhead seeks to stop Donald’s apparent abuse of Huey, Louie and Dewey – but only until he gets to know them…

Although the science fiction boom and flying saucer mania was barely beginning in 1948, Barks was an early advocate and ‘Rocket Race to the Moon’ (WDC&S #93, June) sees newspaper-seller Donald suckered into piloting an experimental lunar exploration ship. Sadly, Professors Cosmic and Gamma seem more concerned with a large cash-prize contest than advancing knowledge, and rival rocketman Baron De Sleezy is a ruthless schemer, but no one – not even the stowaway nephews – was prepared for what lived on the moon…

Patriotism inspires our bellicose birdbrain to enlist as ‘Donald of the Coast Patrol’ (WDC&S #94, July) but it’s his gullibility and bad temper that helps him bag a bunch of spies before true wickedness rears its downy head as ‘Gladstone Returns’ (WDC&S #95, August). The ghastly Gander was designed as a foil for Donald, intended to be even more obnoxious than the irascible, excitable film fowl and this originally untitled tale reintroduces him as a big super-lucky noxious noise every inch as blustery a blowhard as Donald. Here, both furiously boast and feud, trying to one-up each other in a series of scams that does neither any good – especially once the nephews and Daisy join the battle…

Arguably Barks’ first masterpiece, ‘Sheriff of Bullet Valley’ was the lead tale from Dell Four Color Comics #199, drawing much of its unflagging energy and trenchant whimsy from Barks’ own love of cowboy fiction, albeit seductively tempered with his self-deprecatory sense of absurdist humour. For example, a wanted poster on the jailhouse wall portrays the artist himself, offering the princely sum of $1000 and 50¢ for his inevitable capture.

Donald is, of course, a self-declared expert on the Wild West (he’s seen all the movies) so when he and the boys drive through scenic Bullet Valley, a wanted poster catches his eye and his imagination. Soon he’s signed up and sworn in as a doughty deputy, determined to catch rustlers plaguing the locals. Unfortunately for him, the good old days never really existed and today’s bandits use radios, trucks, tommy guns and ray machines to achieve their nefarious ends. Can Donald’s impetuous boldness and the nephews’ collective brains and ingenuity defeat the ruthless high-tech raiders? Of course they can…

That same issue provided a brace of short gags, beginning with ‘Best Laid Plans’ as Donald’s feigned illness earns him extra hard labour rather than a malingering day in bed, and closing with ‘The Genuine Article’, wherein suspicions of an antique’s provenance leads to disaster…

The lads’ plans to go fishing are scuppered – but not for too long – when Donald demands their caddying services in ‘Links Hijinks’ (WDC&S #96, September), but it all really goes south once Gladstone horns in and Donald’s competitive spirit overwhelms everybody…

That tendency to overreact informs ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ (WDC&S #97, October) when the nephews find a small pearl in a locally-sourced oyster and big-dreaming Donald goes overboard in exploiting the “hidden millions” presumably peppering the ocean floor, before we close with another mission for Uncle Scrooge.

To close a deal with British toff Lord Tweeksdale, McDuck must prove his family pedigree by excelling in the most “asinine, stupid, crazy, useless sport in the world”: fox hunting. Designating Donald his champion, the Downy Dodecadillionaire of Duckburg is thankfully unaware Huey, Louie & Dewey also consider themselves ‘Foxy Relations’ (WDC&S #98, November), injecting themselves covertly into proceedings with catastrophic repercussions…

The visual verve over, we move on to validation as ‘Story Notes’ offers commentary for each Duck tale and Donald Ault relates ‘Carl Barks: Life Among the Ducks’, before ‘Biographies’ explain why he and commentators Alberto Beccatini, R, Fiore, Craig Fischer, Jared Gardner, Leonardo Gori, Rich Kreiner, Ken Parille, Stefano Priarone, Francesco (“Frank”) Stajano and Mattias Wivel are saying all those nice and informative things. We close with examination of provenance as ‘Where Did These Duck Stories First Appear?’ explains the somewhat byzantine publishing schedules of Dell Comics.

Carl Barks was one of the greatest exponents of comic art the world has ever seen, and almost all his work featured Disney’s Duck characters: reaching and affecting untold millions of readers across the world and he all too belatedly won far-reaching recognition. You might be late to the party but it’s never too soon to climb aboard the Barks Express.

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “The Old Castle’s Secret” © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All contents © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Today in 1937 Donald Duck began his solo comics career.

In 1897 journalist turned strip writer Glenn Chaffin (Tailspin Tommy) was born, as was legendary fan artist John G. Fantucchio (Rocket’s Blast Comicollector (RBCC), The Collector, The Buyer’s Guide for Comic’s Fandom, Fantastic Fanzine, Comic Crusader) in 1938, and inker, illustrator and production god John Verpoorten in 1940. A year later along came Underground Commix and Graphic Novel pioneer Jaxon AKA Jack Jackson (God Nose, Comanche Moon, The Secret of San Saba)…

The date saw the deaths of both Golden Age star/political cartoonist Gill Fox (Torchy, Plastic Man, The Spirit daily) and Disney animator and story-maker Jack Bradbury in 2004, and legendary humour artist Will Elder (Mad, Little Annie Fanny) in 2008.

In 2006, Mark Tatulli’s silent strip Li? launched today.

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Suicide Squad: The Silver Age


By Robert Kanigher, Howard Liss, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6343-0 (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-4012-7516-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The War that Time Forgot was a strange series which saw paratroopers and tanks of the “Question Mark Patrol” dropped on Mystery Island from whence no American soldiers ever returned. Assorted crack GIs discovered why when the operation was suddenly overrun by pterosaurs, tyrannosaurs and worse. However, the combat-&-carnosaur creation was actually a spin-off of an earlier concept which hadn’t quite caught on with the comics-buying public. That wasn’t a problem for writer/editor Robert Kanigher: a man well-versed in judicious recycling and reinvention…

Back in 1955 he had devised and written anthology adventure comic The Brave and the Bold, which featured short complete tales starring a variety of period heroes in a format mirroring the era’s filmic fascination with historical dramas. Issue #1 led with Roman swords-&-sandals epic Golden Gladiator, medieval mystery-man The Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’ Viking Prince. Soon, the Gladiator was sidelined by the company’s iteration of Robin Hood, but the high adventure theme carried the title until the end of the decade when a burgeoning superhero revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle in the manner of the astounding successful Showcase. Used to launch enterprising concepts and characters like Cave Carson, Strange Sports Stories, Hawkman and the epochal Justice League of America, the title began these test runs with #25 (August/September 1959) with the fate-tempting Suicide Squad – codenamed Task Force X by the US government to investigate uncanny mysteries and tackle unnatural threats.

The light-scary tales were all illustrated by Kanigher’s go-to team for fantastic fantasy (Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) who clearly revelled at the chance to cut loose and show what they could do outside the staid whimsy of Wonder Woman or gritty realism of the war titles they usually handled…

Following the February 1957 launch of Jack Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown, landmark premiere The Brave and the Bold #25 was cover-dated September 1959 and on sale from 28th August 1959 (nearly two years before Fantastic Four #1 went on sale). The “novel-length” yarn introduced a quartet of highly trained but merely human specialists – air ace war hero Colonel Rick Flag, combat medic Karin Grace and big-brained boffins Hugh Evans and Jess Price – all officially convened as a unit whose purpose was to tackle threats beyond conventional comprehension, such as the interstellar phenomenon dubbed ‘The Three Waves of Doom!’ The quartet were built on a very shaky premise. All three men loved Karin. She only loved Rick (and who wouldn’t?), but agreed to conceal her inclinations and sublimate her passions so Hugh and Jess would stay on the team of scientific death-cheaters…

In their first published exploit, a cloud from outer space impacts Earth, creating a super-heated tsunami which threatens to broil America. With dashing derring-do, the patriotic troubleshooters quench the ambulatory heat wave only to have it spawn a colossal alien dragon emanating super-cold rays that could trigger a new ice age. The only solution is to banish the beast back into space on a handy rocket headed for the sun, but tragically, the ship has to be piloted…

Having heroically and categorically ended the invader, the team redeployed two months later as B&B #26 opened with immediate continuation ‘The Sun Curse’ seeing our stranded astronauts struggle – in scenes eerily prescient and reminiscent of the Apollo 13 crisis a decade later – to return the ship to Earth. Uncannily, the trip bathes them in radiation that causes them to shrink to insect size. Back on terra firma, but now imperilled by everything around them, the team nonetheless manage to scuttle a proposed attack by a hostile totalitarian nation before regaining their regular stature. A second, shorter follow-up tale finds the foursome enjoying downtime in Paris before the Metro is wrecked by an awakened dinosaur. Of course, our tough tourists are ready and able to stop the ‘Serpent in the Subway!’

In an entertainment era dominated by monsters and aliens, with superheroes only tentatively resurfacing, Task Force X were at the forefront of bombastic beastie-battles. Their third and final try-out issue found them facing evolutionary nightmare as a scientist vanishes and the region around his lab is suddenly besieged by gigantic insects and a colossal reptilian humanoid the team dubbed ‘The Creature of Ghost Lake!’ (December 1959/January 1960). They readily destroy the monster but never find the professor…

A rare misfire for those excitingly experimental days, the Suicide Squad vanished after the triple try-out, only to resurface months later for a second bite of the cherry. I’m sure it’s just coincidence, but Fantastic Four #1 went on sale on August 8th 1961, pipped again as The Brave and the Bold #37 (August/September 1961 and on sale from June 22nd) saw DC’s decidedly different quirky quartet resume operations with Karin displaying heretofore unsuspected psychic gifts and predicting an alien ‘Raid of the Dinosaurs!’

This pitted Task Force X against hyper-intelligent saurians whilst ‘Threat of the Giant Eye!’ focussed on the retrieval of a downed military plane and lost super-weapon. The mission brought the Squad to an island of mythological mien where a living monocular monolith hunted people…

For #38 (October/November 1961) the team tackled the ‘Master of the Dinosaurs’ – an alien using Pteranodons to hunt as Earthlings employed falcons – after which the fabulous four fell afoul of extradimensional would-be conquerors, yet still had enough presence of mind and determination to defeat the ‘Menace of the Mirage People!’

B&B #39 (December 1961/January 1962) called “time!” on Task Force X after ‘Prisoners of the Dinosaur Zoo!’ saw the team uncover an ancient extraterrestrial ark caching antediluvian flora and fauna, after which a ‘Rain of Fire!’ found them crushing a macabre criminal who had entombed many other crime-busters in liquid metal.

That was it for the Squad until 1986 when a new iteration of the concept was launched in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Or was it? Superhero fans are notoriously clannish and insular so they might not have noticed how one creative powerhouse refused to take “no thanks” for an answer…

Robert Kanigher (1915-2002) was one of the most distinctive authorial voices in American comics, blending rugged realism with fantastic fantasy in signature war comics, westerns, horror stories, romance and superhero titles including Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Metal Men, Batman and other genres too numerous to cite here. He scripted ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’, the very first story of the Silver Age, introducing Barry Allen AKA the second Flash to hero-hungry kids in 1956.

Kanigher sold his first stories and poetry in 1932 and wrote for the theatre, film and radio before joining the Fox Features shop where he created The Bouncer, Steel Sterling and The Web whilst also providing scripts for Blue Beetle and the original Captain Marvel. In 1945, he settled at All-American Comics as both writer and editor, staying on when the company amalgamated with National Comics to become the forerunner of today’s DC. He wrote the original Flash and Hawkman, created Black Canary and Dr. Pat, plus many memorable villainous femme fatales like Harlequin and Rose and Thorn. This last he reconstructed during the relevancy era of the early 1970s into a schizophrenic crimebusting female superhero.

Mystery-men faded away as the 1940s closed, and Kanigher easily switched to espionage, adventure, westerns and war stories, becoming in 1952 writer/editor of the company’s combat titles: All-American War Stories, Star Spangled War Stories and Our Army at War.

He created Our Fighting Forces in 1954 and added G.I. Combat to his burgeoning portfolio when Quality Comics sold their line of titles to DC in 1956, all the while helming/writing Wonder Woman, Johnny Thunder, Rex the Wonder Dog, Silent Knight, Sea Devils, Viking Prince and a host of others. Among his numerous game-changing war series were Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, Haunted Tank and The Losers as well as the visually addictive, irresistibly astonishing “Dogfaces & Dinosaurs” dramas sampled and filling out the back of this stunning collection. Kanigher was a restlessly creative writer and even used the uncanny but formulaic adventure arena of The War that Time Forgot as a personal proving ground for potential series concepts. The Flying Boots, G.I. Robot and many more teams and characters first appeared in the manic Pacific hellhole with wall-to-wall danger. Indisputably, the big beasts were the stars, but occasionally (extra)ordinary G.I .Joes made enough of an impression to secure return engagements, too.

The War that Time Forgot debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #90 (April-May 1960), running until #137 (May 1968). It skipped only three issues: #91, 93 & #126 (the last of which starred United States Marine Corps simian Sergeant Gorilla… go on. Look it up. I’m neither kidding nor being metaphorical…

Simply too good a concept to ignore, this seamless, shameless blend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Caprona stories (known alternatively as the Caspak Trilogy or The Land That Time Forgot) provided everything baby-boomer boys could dream of: giant lizards, humongous insects, fantastic adventures and two-fisted heroes with lots of guns. The only thing mostly missing was cave-girls in fur bikinis…

In the summer of 1963, a fresh Suicide Squad debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #110 to investigate a ‘Tunnel of Terror’ into the lost land of giant monsters. This time though, a giant albino gorilla decided that us mammals should stick together…

The huge hairy beast was also the star of ‘Return of the Dinosaur Killer!’ in #111, as the unnamed Squad leader and a wily boffin (visually based on Kanigher’s office associate Julie Schwartz) struggled to survive on a reptile-ridden atoll. SSWS #116 (August/September 1964) depicted a duo of dedicated soldiers facing ice-bound beasts in ‘The Suicide Squad!’ – the big difference being that Morgan and Mace were more determined to kill each other than accomplish their mission…

‘Medal for a Dinosaur!’ (#117) bowed to the inevitable: introducing a (relatively) friendly and extremely cute baby pterodactyl to balance out Mace & Morgan’s barely suppressed animosity, after which ‘The Plane-Eater!’ in #118 saw the army odd couple adrift in the Pacific and in deep danger until the leather-winged little guy turned up once more…

The Suicide Squad were getting equal billing by the time of #119’s ‘Gun Duel on Dinosaur Hill!’ (February/March 1965), as yet another band of men-without-hope battled leathery horrors – and each other – to the death, before apparently unkillable Morgan & Mace returned with Dino, the flying ptero-tot, who found a new companion in handy hominid Caveboy before the entire unlikely ensemble struggled to survive against increasingly outlandish creatures in ‘The Tank Eater!’…

SSWS #121 presented a diving drama when a UDT (Underwater Demolitions Team) frogman won his Suicide Squad rep as a formidable fighter and ‘The Killer of Dinosaur Alley!’ Increasingly now, G.I. hardware and ordnance trumped bulk, fang and claw and undisputed master of gritty fantasy art Joe Kubert added his pencil-&-brush magic to a tense, manic thriller featuring a returning G.I. Robot for battle bonanza ‘Titbit for a Tyrannosaurus!’ (#125, February/March 1965), after which Andru & Esposito covered another Suicide Squad sea-saga in #127’s ‘The Monster Who Sank a Navy!’ This eclectic collection tumultuously terminates in scripter Howard Liss and visual veteran Gene Colan’s masterfully crafted, moving human drama from #128, which was astoundingly improved by the inclusion of ravening reptiles in ‘The Million Dollar Medal!’

Throughout this calamitous compilation of dark dilemmas, light-hearted romps and battle blockbusters, the emphasis is always on foibles and fallibility, with human heroes unable to put aside grudges, swallow pride or forgive trespasses even amidst the strangest and most terrifying moments of their lives. This edgy humanity informs and elevates even the daftest of these wonderfully imaginative adventure yarns.

Classy, intense, insanely addictive and Just Plain Fun, the original Suicide Squad offers a kind of easy, no-commitment entertainment seldom seen these days and is a deliciously guilty pleasure for one and all. Surely, this is a movie we would all watch…
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

This date in 1942 political cartoonist/children’s book illustrator Tony Auth was born, with Underground Commix creator Joel Beck (Lenny of Laredo) arriving one year later, and Michael T. Gilbert (Doc Stearn – Mr. Monster, Elric) joining the party in 1951. That same year, multitalented Rick Veitch (Swamp Thing, Army@Love, Can’t Get No, Bratpack, Abraxas and the Earthman, Miracleman) with Belgian craftsman Philippe Geluck (Le Chat) popping by in 1954; writer/editor Joey Cavalieri (Wonder Woman, Huntress, Bugs Bunny) in 1957 and artist Jon Bogdanove (Power Pack, Superman, Steel) born in 1958.

Colourist Paul Mounts was born in 1964; Spanish artist Angel (Star Wars, Titans, Flash) Unzueta in 1969 and colourist Beth Sotelo in 1974.

Robert Kaniger (Sgt Rock, Metal Men, Black Canary, G.I. Robot, The Private Diary of Mary Robin R.N., Sea Devils, Haunted Tank, The Losers, Lady Cop, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Batman, Atom & Hawkman, Iron Man and all the rest) was so great he is also listed as having died today in 2002 as well as yesterday!

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The James Bond Omnibus volume 001


By Ian Fleming; adapted by Anthony Hern, Peter O’Donnell, Henry Gammidge & John McLusky (Titan Books)
ISBN: 987-1-84856-364-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s sad to admit but there are very few British newspaper strips to challenge the influence and impact of classic daily and Sunday “funnies” from America, especially in the febrile but slowly expiring the field of adventure picture-fiction.

The 1930’s and 1940’s were rich in popular, not to say iconic, creations. You would be hard-pressed to come up with homegrown household names to rival Popeye, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon, let alone Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon, or the likes of Little Lulu, Blondie, Li’l Abner, Little Orphan Annie or Popeye and yes, I know I said him twice, but Elzie Segars’s Thimble Theatre was funny as well as thrilling, constantly innovative, and really, really good.

What strips can you recall to equal simple popularity let alone longevity or quality in Britain? Rupert Bear? Absolutely. Giles? Technically, yes. Nipper? Jane? The Perishers? Garth? Judge Dredd? Scorer?

I’d like to hope so, but I doubt it. The Empire didn’t quite get it until it wasn’t an empire any more. There were certainly very many wonderful strips being produced: well-written and beautifully drawn, but that stubborn British reserve plus a completely different editorial view of the marketplace (which just didn’t consider strips infallible, readership-attracting magnets, as American did) never seemed to be in the business of creating household names – until the 1950’s. Something happened in ‘50s Britain, but I’m not going to waste any space here discussing it. It just did.

In a new egalitarian spirit that seemingly craved excitement and accepted previously disregarded, comics (as well as all tawdry “entertainment” media from radio serials to paperback novels) got carried along on the wave. Just like television, periodicals such as Eagle, the regenerated Dandy and Beano and girls’ comics in general all shifted into creative high gear… and so at last did newspapers.

And that means that I can properly extol the virtues of a graphic collection with proven crossover appeal for once. Debut 007 novel Casino Royale was published in 1953 and was subsequently serialised – after much dithering and nervousness on behalf of author Fleming – as a strip in The Daily Express from 1958. It was the start of a beguiling run of novel and short story adaptations scripted by Anthony Hern, Henry Gammidge, Peter O’Donnell and Kingsley Amis, before Jim Lawrence, a jobbing writer of US features (and who’d previously scripted the aforementioned Buck Rogers) came aboard for The Man With the Golden Gun, completing the transfer of the Fleming canon to strip format. Thereafter Lawrence was invited to create new adventures, which he did until the strip’s demise in 1983.

The art on the feature was always of the highest standard. Initially John McLusky handled the illustration until 1966’s conclusion of You Only Live Twice and, although perhaps lacking in flash or verve, the workmanlike clarity of his drawing easily coped with a daunting array of locales, technical set-ups and sheer immensity of cast members, whilst satisfying the then-novel directive of advancing a plot daily whilst ending each episode on a cliff-hanging hook every time.

McLusky was succeeded by Yaroslav Horak, who debuted on Man with the Golden Gun, offering a looser, edgier style, at once more cinematic and with a closer attention to camera angle and frenzied action that seemed to typify the high-octane 1960’s. Horak limned 26 complete adventures until 1977 when The Daily Express axed the Bond feature with a still-running adventure suddenly switching to The Sunday Express from January 30th until conclusion on May 22nd. Later adventures had no UK presence at all, and only appeared in syndication in European papers. This state of affairs continued until 1981 when British paper The Daily Star restored the feature to Britons with ‘Doomcrack’.

Titan Books re-assembled those scarce-seen tales – a heady brew of adventure, sex, intrigue and death – into addictively accessible monochrome Omnibus Editions, (sadly not available digitally at present) with a dedicated band of creators on top form proving how the world’s greatest agent never rests in his mission to keep us all free, safe, shaken (if not stirred) and thoroughly entertained…

This premier no-nonsense paperback gem adapting 11 of Fleming’s best, frantic derring-do and dark, deadly diplomacy commences with ‘Casino Royale’ as British operative Bond is ordered to gamble with and bankrupt Le Chiffre: a communist agent who has insanely embezzled away his Soviet masters’ operating capital.

The moodily compelling tale of tension that results depicts torture and violent death as well as oppressively suspenseful scenes of graphic gambling, heady stuff for newspaper readers of 1958, when it first ran.

Without pausing for breath or a fresh martini, the Bond briefing segues straight into ‘Live and Let Die’ which sees 007 and US agent Felix Leiter tackle Mr. Big, another scurrilous commie agent/devious genius who rules the Harlem underworld through superstition, voodoo and brutal force. Then, ‘Moonraker’ details the attempt by ex-Nazi officer Hugo Drax to drop a guided missile on London, a task made far simpler since the maniac has infiltrated the British aristocracy…

These newspaper strips come from a period when dependable John McLusky was developing a less formal approach, before going on to produce some of his best work. ‘Casino Royale’ was the opening strip in a near 25-year run, and the somewhat muted artwork shows an artist still not completely comfortable with his task. It was adapted and scripted by Anthony Hern, who had won the author’s approval after writing condensed prose versions of the novels for the Daily Express. Live and Let Die and Moonraker were both adapted by Henry Gammidge.

As McLusky settled in for the long haul, he warmed to the potentialities of the job with cracking tales of Cold-War intrigue and fast, dangerous living set in a multitude of exotic locales, and provides here a welcome return to public gaze of some of the most influential – and exciting – comic strips in British history.

The adaptation of ‘Diamonds are Forever’ pits Bond against an insidious diamond smuggling criminals, in an explosive if uncomplicated all-action romp before shifting into terse, low-key thriller ‘From Russia With Love’ (both courtesy of Gammidge & McLusky). The artist hit a creative peak with ‘Dr No’ – perhaps because of the sparkling script from Peter O’Donnell before he sloped off to create the amazing Modesty Blaise. As Bond returns to Jamaica and investigates the disappearance of two operatives he stumbles upon a plot to sabotage the US rocketry program. These stories come from an age at once less jaded but more worldly; a place and time where readers lived daily with the very real threat of instant annihilation. As such, the easy approachability of the material is a credit to the creators.

‘Goldfinger’ faithfully adapts Fleming’s novel of the world’s most ambitious bullion robbery, so if you’re only familiar with the film version there will be some things you’ve not seen before. The action fairly rockets along and tense suspense is maintained throughout this signature tale. Following that is ‘Risico’ as 007 is tasked with stopping heroin smugglers whose motive is not profit but social destabilisation. Next is ‘From a View to a Kill’: a traditional, low-key Cold War thriller with Bond trailing gangsters stealing state secrets by ambushing military dispatch riders…

In the Roger Moore film incarnation Risico was folded into ‘For Your Eyes Only’ but here you get the real deal with a faithful adaptation of Fleming’s short story, wherein Bond is given a mission of revenge and assassination. Set in Jamaica with Nazi war-criminal Von Hammerstein as culprit and target for the man licenced to kill, it’s a solid piece of dramatic fiction that again bears little similarity to the celluloid adventure.

The volume concludes with the then-controversial ‘Thunderball’ adaptation. That particular tale was savagely censored and curtailed at the behest of Daily Express owner Lord Beaverbrook. Five days of continuity were excised but what remains is still pretty engrossing comic fare and at least some effort was made to wrap up the storyline before the strip ended. In case you don’t recall: When Bond is sent on enforced medical leave, he stumbles into a deadly plot to steal nuclear weapons by a subversive organisation calling itself Spectre…

These grand stories are a must for not only aficionados of Bond but for all thriller fans, as an example of truly gripping adventure uncluttered by superficial razzamatazz. Get back to basics, and remember that classic style is never out of fashion.
All strips are © Ian Fleming Publications Ltd/Express Newspapers Ltd 1987. James Bond and 007 are ™ & © Danjaq LLC used under license from Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.

In 1915 prolific scripter Hank Chapman was born, with artistic maestro John Cullen Murphy (Prince Valiant) coming along four years later. Miss Pearl and Momma creator Mel Lazarus popped up in 1927, and Belgian Sammy draughtsman Berck (Arthur Berckmans) in 1928. Comic book legend Denny O’Neil was born in 1939 and Bill Sienkiewicz in 1958. German cartoonist Jan-Michael Richter – of Jamiri fame – came along in 1966 as did Nina Paley in 1968, and Mexican Gerardo Sandoval (Tomb Raider, Venom), and the date saw the first appearance of Zig et Puce (by Alain Saint-Ogan) in 1925; the premiere of Donald Duck (a bit player in Silly Symphony: The Wise Little Hen) in 1934; the launch of Dutch silent comic Fred’nand in 1937and the debut of Tiger by Bud Blake in 1965.

Milton Caniff died today in 1988.

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Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom Archives volume 1


By Paul S. Newman, Matt Murphy, Bob Fujitani, Frank Bolle & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-285-8 (HB) 978-1-59582-586-5 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The comics colossus identified by fans as Dell/Gold Key/Whitman had one of the most complicated publishing set-ups in history, but that didn’t matter one iota to the kids of all ages who consumed their vastly varied product. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, Whitman had been a crucial part of the monolithic Western Publishing and Lithography Company since 1915 and could draw on the commercial resources and industry connections that came with editorial offices on both coasts (and even a subsidiary printing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York).

Another connection was with fellow Western subsidiary K.K. Publications (named for licensing legend Kay Kamen who facilitated extremely lucrative “license to print money” merchandising deals for Walt Disney Studios between 1933 and 1949).

From 1938, Western’s comic book output was released under a partnership deal with a “pulp” periodical publisher under umbrella imprint Dell Comics – and again those creative staff and commercial contacts fed into the line-up of the Big Little, Little Golden and Golden Press books for children. The partnership ended in 1962 and Western had to swiftly reinvent its comics division as Gold Key.

As previously cited, Western Publishing had been a major player since comics’ earliest days, blending a huge tranche of licensed titles comprising newspaper strips, TV and Disney titles, – such as Nancy and Sluggo, Tarzan, or The Lone Ranger – with home-grown hits like Turok, Son of Stone and Space Family Robinson. In the 1960s, during the camp/superhero boom these original adventure titles expanded to include Brain Boy, M.A.R.S. Patrol, Total War (created by Wally Wood), Magnus, Robot Fighter (by the incredible Russ Manning) and – in deference to the atomic age of heroes – Nukla, another brilliantly coolly understated nuclear white knight. Despite supremely high quality and passionate fan-bases, they never really captured the media spotlight like DC and Marvel’s costumed cut-ups. Western eventually (in 1984) shut their comics division, having lost or ceded their licenses to DC Marvel and Charlton.

All this and much more can be found far more clearly explained by the wonderful Mark Evanier in this hardback or trade paperback collection’s Foreword – ‘The Golden Years’ – as well as a fond critical appraisal of the superb comics yarn-spinning that follows…

As a publisher, Gold Key never really “got” the melodramatic, breast-beating, often mock-heroic Sturm und Drang of the 1960s superhero boom – although for many of us, the understated functionality of Silver Age classics like Magnus, Robot Fighter or remarkably radical concepts of atomic crusader Nukla and crime-fighting iterations of classic movie monsters Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolf were utterly irresistible. The sheer off-the-wall lunacy of features like Neutro or Dr. Spektor I will save for a future occasion…

The company’s most recognisable stab at a pure superhero was an rather sedate and reticent nuclear era star with the unwieldy codename Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom. He debuted in an eponymous title cover-dated October 1962, sporting a captivating painted cover by Richard M. Powers which made the whole deal feel like a grown up book rather than a mere comic.

Solar was devised by prolific writer Paul S. Newman and in-house editor Matt Murphy, and initially illustrated by Bob Fujitani (Flash Gordon, Rip Kirby, Prince Valiant).

Tirelessly creative and seen in many titles across numerous companies, Native New Yorker Newman was crowned “King of Comics”, with the Guiness Book of Records confirming at least 4,100 separate scripts published and 36,000 pages filled. He was Dell/Gold Key’s movie adaptation warhorse, worked on such licensed attractions as Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Lone Ranger, 77 Sunset Strip, The Beatles – Yellow Submarine, Buck Rogers and dozens more. He crafted countless short tales of anthology genre fare and stars such as Turok, Son of Stone.

Here he, Murphy, and Fujitani deliver terse 2-part origin ‘Solar’s Secret’ and ‘An Atomic Inferno’ detailing how a campaign of sabotage at research base Atom Valley culminates in the death of top boffin Dr. Bentley and accidental transmutation of his lab partner Doctor Solar into a (no longer) human atomic pile, with incredible, impossible and apparently unlimited powers and abilities. Of course, his very presence is lethal to all around him…

The espionage and murder are at the instigation mysterious Bad Actor Nuro, who seeks a total monopoly on atomic science, so when his agent targets Solar’s girlfriend Gail Sanders, our reluctant hero – still learning his potential and limitations – is forced to act fast…

Powers painted a second rousing cover (before handing the job over to Gold Key mainstay George Wilson for the rest of this collection’s inclusions) and #2 (December) opens with Nuro’s latest plot: using radio implants to turn Gail into ‘The Remote-Control Traitor’, before ill-considered, precipitate atomic testing triggers tectonic terror for the entire region on ‘The Night of the Volcano’…

By the time of Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom #3 (March 1963), a solid pattern was in place. Solar continued his researches, aided by his two confidantes, Gail and project leader Dr. Clarkson, consequently facing a wide variety of nefarious challenges and unnatural disasters, generally at a rate of two stories per issue. In ‘The Hidden Hands’ the science hero becomes a clandestine globetrotter to foil a plundering terrorist with the power of invisibility, after which Atom Valley’s own prototype weather satellite triggers atmospheric conditions which split the hero into polar opposites in ‘Solar’s Deadly Double’.

June 1963 brought #4, featuring early eco-concerns as atomic contamination to the Atlantic sees Solar scupper a certain mystery mastermind’s gold extraction engine in ‘The Deadly Sea’ prior to ‘The Treacherous Trap’ finding the Atomic Man – who must regularly absorb lethal amounts of radiation to live – accidentally endangered by fellow scientist Thor Neilsen, whose radical rad poisoning cure presents unanticipated peril. The good-looking swine has also turned poor Gail’s head with silly romantic notions…

A big change came with #5 (September) as the until-now top-secret activities of Solar are first exposed to a ruthless thief trying to steal the Atomic Ace’s latest elemental discovery in ‘The Crystallized Killers’. This, and his advancing mutation, leads to ‘The New Man of the Atom’ wherein Solar adopts a public masked persona and finally dons a costume: all whilst stopping an incipient atom war…

With #6 (November 1963) illustrator Frank Bolle joins Newman & Murphy to detail Solar’s stories, beginning with ‘The Impostor’ as Nuro despatches a face-shifting automaton to infiltrate Atom Valley and discover the masked hero’s true identity: a saga which concludes in spectacular nuclear combat in ‘Android Against the Atom’…

This volume’s action concludes with #7 (March 1964), opening with a drastic drop in sea levels. Upon investigation, Solar discovers malevolent extraterrestrials are behind the ‘Vanishing Oceans’ but no sooner does he deal with them than ‘The Guided Comet’ covertly controlled by Nuro simultaneously threatens human existence and acts as a near-foolproof deathtrap for the Man of the Atom. Almost…

Augmented by fulsome Biographies of the creative personnel, this charismatic collection offers potently underplayed and scientifically astute (as far as facts of the day were generally known) adventures blending the best of contemporary movie tropes with the still fresh but burgeoning mythology of the Silver Age super hero boom. Enticingly restrained, these Atom Age action comics offered a compelling counterpoint to the eccentric hyperbole of DC and Marvel and remain some of the most readable thrillers of the era.

These are lost gems from a time when fun was paramount and entertainment a mandatory requirement. This is comics the way they were and really should be again…
DOCTOR SOLAR®, MAN OF THE ATOM ARCHIVES Volume 1 ™ & © 2010 Random House, Inc. Under license to Classic Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Today in 1877 pioneering US cartoonist Tad Dorgan (Indoor Sports, Judge Rummy) was born, followed in 1885 by future groundbreaking publisher Wilford Fawcett (Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, Mechanix Illustrated, Captain Marvel et al). Author Jack Willamson (Beyond Mars) arrived in 1908; Paul S. Newman in 1924; Michael Davis of Milestone Media in 1958 and cartoonist Roman Dirge (Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl) in 1972.

We lost Golden Age Great Paul Gustavson (Human Bomb, The Angel, The Arrow, Fantom of the Fair, Magno the Magnetic Man, Blackhawk, Uncle Sam and more) in 1977 and ultra-versatile Croatian cartoonist/comics artist Žarko Beker (Koraljka, Neven, Bobo, Špiljko, Magirus) in 2012.

Today in 1906 Lyonel Feininger’s landmark strip The Kin-der-Kids premiered in the Chicago Sunday Tribune.

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Frank Robbins’ Johnny Hazard volume Two – the Newspaper Dailies 1945-1947


By Frank Robbins with an introduction by Daniel Herman (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-017-8 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Johnny Hazard was a newspaper strip created in the style and manner of Terry and the Pirates, but in many ways this steely-eyed hero most accurately resembles – and in fact predates – Milton Caniff’s second masterwork Steve Canyon.

Unbelievably, until 2011 this influential, impressively enthralling adventure strip had never been comprehensively collected in archival volumes – at least not in English or even America’s version of it – although selected highlights had appeared in magazines like Pioneer Comics, Dragon Lady Press Presents and the Pacific Comic Club.

Boston born, Franklin Robbins (9th September 1917 – 28th November 1994) was an artistic prodigy who shone from early on. At age nine he was awarded a scholarship to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and at 15 moved to New York City to attend the National Academy of Design on a Rockefeller grant. Skilled, inventive and prolific as both painter and graphic artist, Robbins freelanced continually, even working with Edward Trumbull on the legendary murals for the NBC building and Radio City Music Hall. He created graphics for RKO Pictures, worked in advertising and magazine illustrations but never stopped painting, with work shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and Walker Art Gallery, although he found his perfect medium of expression when invited to take over a top comic strip…

Even whilst relentlessly creating a full seven days of newspaper strips, he exhibited work at the Whitney’s Annual show and, after ceasing his comics career, retired to Mexico to end his days with a brush in his hand.

The plain truth is that comics changed Robbins’ life. He was a brilliant natural cartoonist whose unique artistic and lettering styles lent themselves equally to adventure, comedy and superheroic tales, whilst his expansive raconteur’s nature made him one of the industry’s best writers over three generations.

He first found popular fame in 1939 after taking over aviation strip Scorchy Smith from Bert (The Sandman) Christman, when he quit isolationist America to fight with the Flying Tigers in China. Robbins thrived in the role, and created a Sunday page for the strip in 1940. This groundbreaking feature had been originated by John Terry before the astounding Noel Sickles replaced him: revolutionising Scorchy Smith and – with Milton Caniff – inventing a new impressionistic style of narrative art to reshape the way all comics were drawn and perceived.

Robbins remained until 1944 and was then offered high-profile Secret Agent X-9. Instead, he devised his own lantern-jawed, steely-eyed man of action. A tireless and prolific worker, even whilst producing the daily and Sunday Hazard (crafting separate but congruent storylines for each), Robbins continued freelancing as an illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post, Look, Life and other mainstream magazines. He also tried comic books for the first time when Johnny Hazard won his own title in 1948-1949, just as costumed superheroes began losing ground to ordinary he-men, mobsters and monsters…

Robbins returned to funnybooks in 1968, quickly becoming a key contributor as both artist and writer on Superboy, The Flash and The Atom, as well as a regular contributor to humour mag Plop! and DC’s mystery, horror and war anthologies. He particularly shone on Batman, Batgirl and in Detective Comics where, with Neal Adams, he pulled the Caped Crusader out of the TV show-inspired silliness. They created Man-Bat together and Robbins followed Michael Kaluta as artist on The Shadow. Moving to Marvel in the 1970s, Robbins concentrated on drawing a variety of titles including Captain America, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Morbius, The Man from Atlantis, Human Fly, Power Man and The Invaders – which he co-created with Roy Thomas.

When Johnny Hazard launched on Monday June 5th 1944, he was an aviator in the US Army Air Corps. When hostilities ceased, he briefly became a freelance charter pilot and spy before settling into the life of a globe-girdling, troubleshooting mystery-solver: a modern day Knight Errant. The strip folded in 1977: one more victim of diminishing panel-sizes and the move towards simplified, thrill-free, family-friendly gag-a-day graphic fodder to frame small-ads. In its time it was syndicated in nine different languages in thousands of newspapers across the world, and even scored a residency in 1950s British weekly Rocket.

This fabulous hardcover/digital series – reproduced from original King Features proofs – re-presents the definitive magnum opus in fitting form: a monochrome, landscape format archival collection. This second shot covers serialised daily thrills (spanning November 19th 1945 to August 16th 1947), to resurrect the Amazing Aviator in fans’ hearts and remind them of what we’ve all missed whilst hopefully finding a few new fervent followers.

Fully embracing noir sensibilities of the era but keeping things light, frothy, sexy and funny the globetrotting glee is preceded by Daniel Herman’s Introduction ‘A Look Back at Johnny Hazard’ before the preflight fun begins…

Previously we met coolly capable flyer Lt. Johnny Hazard who escaped from a German POW camp, broke into a Nazi airfield, stole a bomber and flew home. Liberated and ready-for-duty he met feisty, headstrong, utterly dedicated war photographer Brandy during an air raid and all kinds of sparks flew. A series of spectacular events constantly pushed them together and ultimately impassioned fury and disgust on both sides turned to something else amidst all the deadly missions and exploding ordnance.

The strip could not keep up with the fast-moving events after D-Day (the real world Allies invaded “Fortress Europa” the day after Johnny Hazard debuted) and third story arc ‘Sun Tan and General Mariwana’ – opening on September 11th 1944 – saw the hero’s squadron transferred to the Pacific Theatre of Operations to reinforce the battle against Japan. Brandy inveigled herself into the picture as newly promoted Captain Hazard and his crew undertook a top-secret mission couriering a Chinese resistance leader back to her people. Enigmatic, exotic, staggeringly beautiful and lethally dangerous Sun Tan was a magnet for trouble…

Foiling Japanese assassination plots while dodging Brandy’s jealous displeasure, Hazard faced baroque opponents like disfigured pilot Colonel Mariwana, Colonel Kiri, General Ishigaki and his glamorous French “assistant” Mademoiselle Touché but also found a stalwart new ally and wingman in Captain “The Admiral” Slocum: last in an unbroken line of valiant patriotic mariners, but reduced to defending his country in the skies since his debilitating sea sickness prevents him from serving afloat like a true warrior…

Across Iran, Japan, China, and the Himalayas, Hazard, Slocum and Brandy ducked death over and again and when official hostilities ended, encountered charismatic US underworld émigré, pool-addict and deal-maker Side-Pocket Sam. Debonair, charming and utterly amoral, he led Chinese bandits and vied with our heroes for possession of Japan’s failsafe game plan for World War III…

Now, in ‘Fancy Fluff’ (running from November 19th 1945 to June 15th 1946) finally and officially released from their country’s service, Hazard and Slocum barely have time to adjust to civilian life before desperate Fluff Randall recruits them to help find her missing brother. A former comrade of Hazard, “Bounce” Randall was wounded in action and shipped home, but soon disappeared. The last Fluff heard, despite a head injury that prevented him being a pilot, he was in French Guiana, flying private planes for mystery man “Dr. Fox”…

Soon the brothers in arms are on the trail, securing passports, papers and a reconditioned army surplus plane which they cheerfully dub Fancy Fluff in honour of their sponsor and despite the suspicions of suddenly-arriving Brandy. Her latest assignment is investigating a wave of jailbreaks in the penal colonies of that very country and a lift would be nice…

Soon the quartet are far south and negotiating with clearly corrupt cops and customs officers, dodging murder attempts and investigating local saint/Good Samaritan Docteur Reynard. A dramatically delivered letter from brother Bounce begging them to leave does nothing to deter them and before long they have uncovered not only an underground railroad using air transport to spring savage escapees but also murderous drug dealers using terror, mesmerism and narcotics to enslave Fluff’s brother among so many other victims…

It’s as much luck as competence that saves the valiant Americans from death and disaster a dozen times over, but in the end Reynard, his leg breakers Elf and Beeg Ox and all those bribe-taking officials pay for their crimes. Bounce is wounded again but at last healed of his enslavement and debilitating head injuries. However the overall cost is high. Admiral is lost to the world of action after falling for Fluff and that sappily contagious condition almost ensnares Johnny and Brandy too. Thankfully, common sense and sheer bile on both sides brings them to their senses before it’s too late…

Each serial storyline is garnished and bookended by Robbins’ original art designs for advertising the strip and after a comforting close up of Hazard second saga ‘The Flying Freight Mystery’ (June 17th – November 2nd) sees “just friends” Johnny and Brandy heading back to the USA but stalled on take-off when Johnny is conned by deviously mysterious entrepreneur M. Côte’-Poche into delivering to neighbouring nation Estantio a cargo of “typewriters”…

In flight, when Brandy discovers diminutive stowaway Wild Bill Hiccup and that the load is automatic weapons, an aerial ambush by “sky rustlers” leads to a less-than-longed-for reunion with Side-Pocket Sam. He is embroiled in ongoing war with ruthless river pirate Captain Gore who wants the emeralds Sam regularly ships from a mine to the coast. The baroque blubbery buccaneer is obsessed with piratical mythology and alongside fellow plunderers Mistuh Dirk and voluptuous siren Lady Mist opened a bizarre rogues gallery of foes who bedevilled Hazard over the next thirty years.

With Hazard as his air force, Sam has the upper hand until Mist infiltrates his freighter as an shipwrecked innocent: a daunting (and hilarious) job of acting that fools everyone but Brandy and leads to a spectacular display of air versus sea power, a brutal final mano-a-mano duel in the jungle and a surprise twist ending…

Another Canyon pinup segues into a yarn spanning November 4th 1946 to January 18th 1947. Hazard and Brandy arrive in tropical dump Querrero to find her journalistic colleague and Bureau Chief “Timely” Malcolm awaiting the outcome of a clash between government troops and bandit-turned-rebel ‘Major Risk’. Brandy opts to go to the story and with Johnny reluctantly flying her in, arrives at the frontline to find rival reporter “Blitz” (AKA “Loose-Lip”) Martin actively making the story happen.

With natural advantages and no scruples Brandy vamps the Government general for intel before tricking Johnny into delivering her right into the rebels’ hands. Her sharp scheme goes terribly awry and before long she is a hostage and bargaining chip between the sides and needs actual rescuing for a change. Thankfully, Hazard and Martin are willing to try it even if the shiny soldiers are not…

Back in Querrero and hired by Timely Martin as a ferry pilot for his reporters, Hazard faces unlikely danger in penultimate yarn ‘The Stout Man’ (January 20th to March 29th 1947). Repairs and search for spare parts sees the ex-airman as a passenger on a flight to San Tomayo, but the departure is interrupted by rude, rowdy and very bulky Brit Mr. Am and late-arriving Blitz Martin.

Away at last, Johnny befriends fellow traveller and prestigious nuclear boffin Noble Caldwell until Am hijacks the plane and sends it into a death-spin and crash. However, as Am escapes with Caldwell using parachutes hidden under his coat, Hazard manages to crash land the plane. Lost, starving and dying of thirst, the survivors are accidentally saved when Am returns in a helicopter to clear up loose ends and stupidly lets Johnny get the drop on him…

A deadly impasse ensues with both sides holding out against attrition and deprivation, but the balance of power shifts after indigenous tribesmen arrive, pointing their deadly blowpipes indiscriminately at all the unwelcome intruders…

A Vava Lavoum pinup segues into closing yarn ‘Danger À La Carte’ (March 29th – August 16th 1947) as freshly-fired Hazard is stranded in San Ruiz, catching the attention of jewel thieves Gloves Diamond and Mellow as well as their criminal competitors Side-Pocket Sam and Lady Mist. Before long Hazard and Blitz are bemused, befuddled and bamboozled, buffeted between opposing nefarious forces and unable to understand how a gourmet café delivering meals by jet plane can possible be profitable…

Not knowing all the facts doesn’t stop Johnny hiring on as a pilot and becoming an unwittingly accomplice, transporting human contraband to the heart of Casablanca’s wicked underworld. When he seeks to rectify his mistake, the fur, fists, knives and bullets start to fly but in the end justice wins again…

Ending with more advertising pinups – Kitty Hawkes, Sabina Eden, Baroness Flame and Sequin – this is another fast-paced, sharp-tongued and utterly gung-ho roster of romps starring a charming, happy-go-lucky lout, insouciantly ruthless and ever ready to risk his own life and limb to help the little guy and distressed damsels.

Sharp, snappy and devilishly funny repartee in the style of movies like Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday and Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night are a hallmark of these rapid fire yarns, some of the greatest comic strips in history, but that can present a few problems for modern readers. Contemporary attitudes to sexuality, gender and particularly race are far from what we find acceptable – or should even tolerate – today. We know better now – at least most of us do – but must accept and understand that hurtful and unjust as such terms are, they did exist and we’re doing history and our society a hugely dangerous disservice by ignoring, downplaying or worst of all self-censoring those terms and the attitudes that fed them.

In truth, Johnny Hazard was far less egregious than most: Robbins may have used visual shortcuts and slang but all characters were portrayed fairly and did not unnecessarily suffer from the worst propagandist nonsense used by the Allies to bolster a united war spirit and vilely resurrected by modern populists today.

All ethnicities are treated with the full dignity of different but equal cultures and depicted as competent comrades in arms, not ignorant primitives needing white men’s saving graces. However, arch comedian Robbins clearly couldn’t resist playing mischievous games with accents, names and speech patterns that would do Benny Hill, Hogan’s Heroes or Charlie Chan (the opposite of) proud, so if you don’t think you’re capable of remaining historically detached, best to forgo those delights that have transcended time…

To be continued…

These exotic all-action intrigues and romances perfectly capture the mood and magic of a distant yet incredibly familiar time; with cool heroes, hot dames and exceedingly intemperate baddies encountering exotic locales and stunning scenarios, all peppered with blistering tension, slyly mature humour and vivid, visceral excitement.

Johnny Hazard is a brilliant two-fisted thriller-strip too long forgotten, and this is your chance to remedy that.
© 2013 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1914 Aquaman creator Paul Norris was born, followed two years alter by George Tuska (Iron Man, Crime Does Not Pay), Belgian national treasure Victor Hubinon (Buck Danny, Redbeard) in 1924 and Marty Greim in 1942. In 1954 Kerry Gammill joined the party as did Brad W. Foster one year later and François Schuiten (Les Cités Obscures) in 1956, with John Paul Leon checking in in 1972.

Today in 1969 the last issue of the first iteration of Eagle was published.

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Marney the Fox


By Scott M. Goodall & John Stokes (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-598-1 (HB/Digital edition)

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

At first glance British comics prior to the advent of 2000 A.D., Action and Misty seemingly fell into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and fantastic preschool fantasy; a prodigious selection of adapted TV and media properties; action; adventure; war and comedy strands. A closer look, though, would confirm that there was always a subversive undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace, The Spider or the early Steel Claw.

…And then there was Marney the Fox.

Created and scripted by prolific Scott Goodall (Captain Hurricane, Kelly’s Eye, Cursitor Doom, Captain Scarlet and dozens more), the series ran in all-purpose anthology Buster from June 22nd 1974 to September 4th 1976 and – even in a weekly periodical notorious for its broad and seemingly mismatched mix of themes and features – stuck out like a sore thumb.

Not for any lack of quality, of course.

Compellingly scripted by Goodall and set in his beloved Devonshire country, the serial was lavishly, almost hauntingly illustrated by frequent collaborator John Stokes (Black Knight, Father Shandor, Maxwell Hawke, L.E.G.I.O.N., Aliens, Star Wars, The Invisibles), with whom the writer had already crafted for Buster seminal classics Fishboy and The War Children.

Marney the Fox was very much a passion project and a creature of its times. If you look at the ordering descriptions online or even revel in the gorgeous and serene cover embellishing this luxurious hardback/digital compilation, you might conclude it’s a natural history strip or animal adventure along the lines of Lassie or Black Beauty.

Don’t be deceived. The books you should be thinking of here are Ring of Bright Water, Tarka the Otter and A Kestrel for a Knave (or Kes, if you don’t read As Much As You Should, but do watch movies). The deftly-constructed atrocities beautifully limned in every 2-page monochrome instalment were – and remain – brilliant nature propaganda and should be mandatory reading for every person who lives in, near or with the natural environment…

For two years the weekly trials and tribulations of barely-weaned orphaned fox cub Marney the Wandering One were a painfully beautiful, frequently harrowing account of the horrors rural folk – from poachers to soldiers on manoeuvres to roadbuilders to landed gentry and their bloody hounds – all casually inflicted on unwelcome wildlife: ones that must have traumatised and successfully indoctrinated a generation of kids.

From his first encounter with and narrow escape from despicable mankind, young Marney endures a ghastly litany of close shaves, bolstered by far too few happy, peaceful moments as he flees from crisis to crisis until mercifully finding refuge and contentment. I had to put that last bit in because this is a sublime piece of comics wonderment that everybody should read, but the seven-day-cliffhanger cycle and sheer mental and physical abuse the little guy barely survives every week would have Batman, Daredevil and Judge Dredd rushing for Valium and comfort blankies in an instant…

So take it from me: the fox lives happily ever after, okay?

Augmented by an Introduction from John Stokes, this is magical and unique comics entertainment, suitably acid-coating the hard, harsh life of British wildlife and the ignorance and cruelty of many – but not all – people. It’s also a story you must see and will never forget…
™ & © 1974, 1975, 1976, & 2017 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1923 Marvel’s man behind the curtain Sol Brodsky was born, as was writer Steve Englehart in 1947; editorial whirlwind Marie Javins in 1966; British boys Ian Churchill in 1969 and Bryan Hitch one year later.

Today long ago, Machiko Hasegawa’s yonkoma manga Sazae-san began its epic 68-volume run (April 22nd 1946 – February 21st 1974) and in 1990, Scott Stantis began the still-running family strip The Buckets. In 2002 we lost British journeyman illustrator Denis (The Shark, Commando, Buffalo Bill, Wizard) McLoughlin.

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The Phantom – The Complete Series: The Charlton Years Volume Two


By Pat Boyette, Joe Gill, D. J. Arn
eson & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-032-1 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the 17th century a British sailor survived an attack by pirates, and, washing ashore on the African coast, swore on the skull of his murdered father to dedicate his life and that of all his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the jungles of Bengali, and throughout Africa is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice have led to him being considered an immortal avenger by the credulous and the wicked. Down the decades one hero after another has fought and died in an unbroken family line, and the latest wearer of the mask, indistinguishable from the first, continues the never-ending battle.

Lee Falk created the Jungle Justice dealer at the request of his syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician, and although technically not the first ever costumed hero in comics, The Phantom’s astounding popularity made him the prototype paladin: wearing the later demi-compulsory skintight bodystocking and mask with opaque eye-slits.

He debuted on February 17th 1936 (Yep! Ninety nonstop years!!) in an extended sequence pitting him against a global confederation of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over the illustration side to artist Ray Moore. A hugely successful Sunday feature began in May 1939. However, for such a long-lived and influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been very poorly served by the English language market – except in Australia where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god.

Numerous companies had begun releasing books of the strips – one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history – but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success, but, even if only of historical value (or just printed for Australians), surely the mysterious Mr. Kit Walker was worthy of a definitive chronological compendium series?

Happily, and perhaps because of the tights and mask, his comic book adventures have fared slightly better – especially in recent times. From November 1962 through July 1966, all new adventures were published by West Coast giant Gold Key Comics after which King Features Syndicate dabbled with a comic book line of their biggest stars – including Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake and The Phantom – between 1966 and 1967. When they gave up the ghost (see what I did there?), plucky dependable, cheap Charlton Comics were there to pick up the slack…

The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, having appeared since the Golden Age in titles like Feature Book and Harvey Hits, albeit only as reformatted newspaper strip reprints. Gold Key’s efforts were tailored to a big page and a young readership, a model King Features maintained for their own run, but which was carefully tweaked when Charlton acquired the license. This splendid full-colour tome gathers the contents of The Phantom #39-47 (originally released between August 1970 and December 1971) and opens with an erudite Introduction and appreciation from Don Mangus who reveals everything of the history and involvement of a much-sidelined star in ‘Sworn to the Oath of the Skull – Pat Boyette’.

San Antonio born on 27th July 1923, Aaron P. Boyette was pure mythical Texan: self-taught in everything that mattered and unstoppably confident. A true and tireless entrepreneur, he was a key component of the development of commercial radio in Texas: a journalist who researched, wrote, broadcast, managed, and presented shows. If you’ve read Golden Age Green Lantern, everyman hero Alan Scott – who did all the jobs – could have been patterned on Pat…

Boyette forsook burgeoning stardom to become a cryptographer during WWII. Coming out, he performed the same do-it-all trick with early television and later moved into making movies. After anchoring TV news, he abruptly moved sideways again, and took to comics: writing, editing, lettering, painting and illustrating as Pat Boyette, Sam Swell, Alexander Barnes & Bruce Lovelace.

Working for Charlton, DC, Warren, Archie, Acclaim; a host of eighties indie outfits and as a self-publisher, he produced newspaper strip Captain Flame; drew prestigious DC title Blackhawk; and found a lasting home at Charlton Comics. Here Boyette co-created The Peacemaker and assumed creative duties on Pete (“PAM”) Morisi’s Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. As the superhero boom faded he increasingly output on their anthological lines, crafting hundreds of genre short stories for romance, war, western horror, science fiction, fantasy and other titles. Boyette also handled Charlton’s biggest and most high-profile licensed features including The Six Million Dollar Man; Space: 1999; Korg: 70,000 B.C; Flash Gordon; Jungle Jim and the company’s runaway top seller: The Phantom. Boyette’s work was continually published at Charlton until at least 1986 when the outfit was being wrapped up. He readily adapted to the growing indie market, with his last work appearing in DC/Paradox Press’s The Big Book of the Weird Wild West in 1998.

Pat Boyette died of oesophageal cancer on January 14th, 2000 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The majority of the bi-monthly yarns here are scripted by Boyette, backed up by Joe Gill in #40, 41 & 45 (and also perhaps occasionally by predecessor scripter D.J. Arneson?): utterly workmanlike and hitting all the expected bases, with each issue offering a pictorial Contents Page teaser and terse, spartan, stripped-back action; mystery yarns with themes and plots that readers of newspapers and dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans could appreciate equally. There are plenty of mad scientists, aliens, monsters, war criminals, brutal beasts, sadistic potentates, thieves & pirates and many admiring women, but no costumed villains…

We open with The Phantom #39 as ‘A Small War!’ sees a ruthless filmmaker provoke conflict between old tribal friends until the Ghost-Who-Walks steps in, after which the hero foils thinly-disguised Nazis seeking to recover lost gold from the ‘Canyon of Death!’, and scuppers ‘The Silent Thieves!’ using their U-Boat to raid a river-adjacent diamond mine…

Boyette and his associates often sagely left their time period vague and unconfirmed, allowing creative anachronism to play out in tales that could often be starring earlier Phantoms of the undying dynasty. In #40, following a sample of original art pages, a wryly fond homage to earlier legends sees the masked marvel battle once again a giant warrior with quarterstaffs over a river crossing in ‘The Ritual’, before a vengeful criminal frames the Phantom for multiple murders with a diabolical device leaving his death’s head signature – ‘The False Mark’ – on native victims. The issue closes with a distraught heiress seeking her long-missing father and momentarily gulled by ‘The Second Phantom’ until the true titan turns up…

Scripted by Joe Gill, #41’s opener ‘Slave of Beauty’ sees our hero captured by an immortal queen resurrecting her fallen desert empire through slavery. However, Hegara is not all she seems and the Jungle Juggernaut readily crushes her dream before chasing a stolen Bandar treasure across the world. Savagely seized by murderous white hunter Waldo Brunn, ‘The Idol’ is only ultimately recovered after a bizarre alliance, and is followed by a devious clash with a ‘Deadly Foe’ developing viruses in the wilderness who proves to be anything but…

The Phantom #42 opens with a cruel high-tech attack on elephants perpetrated by plutocratic monster Rama Jahn and requiring all the ingenuity of the Ghost-Who-Walks to save the ‘Keeper of the Herd!’, before a simple good deed generates chaos in ‘Who Needs Enemies?’ Seeking to repay his debt, multi-millionaire E.R. Randall bombards the Bengali villagers with gifts and money that disrupt their lives. Moreover, he’s extremely unhappy when they begin to reject his unwanted largesse…

‘Prey of the Hunter’ then reveals what must be done when hunter Hugo Lusk becomes addicted to killing and the Judge of the Jungle must stop the slaughter, Sadly, that involves first becoming Lusk’s latest trophy…

Up front in #43 ‘Test of an Idol!’, finds fabulously attractive, utterly spoiled screen star Iris Benton attempting – and initially succeeding – in beguiling the hero and making The Phantom her latest conquest. Thus he permits a movie of his exploits and even participates but is tragically unprepared when her allure crosses the species barrier and leads to her abduction by apes!

A clever use of the hero’s historical longevity drives ‘Paid in Full’ when the descendent of a long-dead British victim of jungle larceny (saved by a Ghost who Walked in 1653) demands reparations – and compound interest – on a sum of money that went missing at the time. Happily Edward Cowper-Smythe is reasonable man…

The issue closed with a clash against most modern witchdoctor Medugli, who refused to follow the Phantom’s Peace and returned to torment the Bandari with a technological terror-weapon provided by colonising secret allies. Happily, ‘The Rain Stopper!’ was no mystery to the hero and ecological catastrophe was averted in the nick of time

In #44, ‘To Right a Wrong!’ sees marauding Achmid Raj successfully plunder the fabled Skull Cave only to be hunted down by the Ghost Who Walks, after which ‘Danger in Bengali’ reintroduces the contemporary hero’s true love Diana Palmer who regrettably arrives at the Cave just as a diabolical, piratical impostor is plundering it. Taken hostage she soon learns that her man – and his wolf Devil – are not dead, but in hot pursuit and really, really angry…

When replacement Bandari witch-man Zulanga proves just as nefarious as his predecessor, The Phantom again exiles him, and almost pays a fatal price as the wily rogue covertly returns with serpents and poisons to inflict ‘Death from Far Away!’ Almost…

A rare Phantom failure is rectified after 105 years in #45’s opening saga ‘Return of the Ruby!’ as the descendent of the hero who lost an unparalleled gem to bandits locates the precious prize. Now he must solve the moral dilemma of depriving its current – honest and innocent – owner to restore it to the family of the original ones…

In 1777, as tyrannical Captain Mustaphi ravaged the seas around Tripoli, an alliance to scuttle the slavers’ schemes paired an earlier Ghost Guardian with a Revolutionary War icon in ‘Phantom and John Paul Jones’ before a return to the present sees the death of the Bandar monarch and a vigil in the ‘Cave of Kings’. Happily The Phantom is paying his respects when hostile blood-enemies the Yumyu attempt to slaughter the grieving subjects and steal the incomparable grave goods…

The Phantom and Diana face devilish duplicates and legendary cult terrors the Leopardmen in #46’s lead yarn ‘Last of the Cat’, only to learn that vengeful old enemy Felix Cattmann is out of jail and behind all the Leopard-y jeopardy (sorry not sorry!) after which fantasy blends with larceny as Piranha Men raid the Skull Cave from the lakes and rivers beneath it. Of course, ‘The Vanishing Thieves!’ grievously underestimated the hero’s lung capacity and resolve, and their defeat lonely led to the Ghost Who Walks daring a deadly mountain peak to rescue abducted princess Inja from slave-raider Kruug and the eagles defending the ‘Nest of the Man-Eaters’…

Last issue in this tome of thrills and terrors, The Phantom #47 offered another trio of wild adventures beginning with entry into ‘The False Skull Cave’ constructed after avaricious Busas used government spy-plane systems to map vast “undiscovered” Bengali and ferret out the location of the world’s greatest treasure store. Of course, finding either cave or escaping alive were entirely different matters…

In ‘Soundless Voices!’ another cunning attempt to replace the Ghost with a diabolical doppelganger is foiled by the hero’s ferocious will to live and the long-range communications net of whale song, before the episodes pause after exposure to ‘The Vapors of Vulcan’. When Morpheus Negri, the mostly-dormant volcano in a remote corner of Bengali erupts again, the incredible immortals who live within it again plunder and ravage the land, seeking slave-prospects from the fittest of surface dwellers Who could they possibly pick this millennium?

Undying ruler Brilla has faced a Phantom long before and this one also rejects her offer of eternal “companionship” and escapes her alternate tactic of being consumed to sustain her energies for another century…

Packed and peppered throughout with pages of Boyette original art, this is another riveting, nostalgia-drenched triumph: straightforward, stripped down, nonstop rollicking action-adventure that has always been the staple of comics fiction and the Ghost Who Walks. If that sounds like a good time to you, this is a traditional action-fest you must not miss…
The Phantom® © 1970-1971 and 2013 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Today in 1946 horror story mangaka Hideshi Hino (Hell Baby, Hino Horrors, Panorama of Hell) was born, whilst strip debuts include Russell Myers’ Broom Hilda in 1970 and Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks in 2006. We lost crucial Disney animator Milt Kahl in 1987, DC cartoonist Henry Boltinoff in 2001 and Mexican creator/founder of their Academy of Arts Alberto Beltrán a year later.