Category: Nostalgia

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The U-Ray (Before Blake and Mortimer vol. 1)


By Edgar P. Jacobs, coloured by Bruno Tatti, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBNs: 978-1-80044-105-7 (album PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Once Upon A Time… 9/10

Belgian Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs (1904-1987) is rightly considered one of the founding fathers of the European comics industry. Although his output is relatively meagre when compared to some of his contemporaries, his iconic works formed the basis and backbone of the art form across post-war Europe and far beyond. As a world rebuilt, his splendidly adroit, roguish and impeccably British adventurers Blake and Mortimer – created for the first issue of Le Journal de Tintin in 1946 – became a staple of Continental kids’ life just as Dan Dare did in Britain starting four years later.

E.P. Jacobs was born in Brussels, a precocious child who began feverishly drawing from an early age but was even more obsessed with music and the performing arts – especially opera. He attended a commercial school but – resolved never to work in an office – pursued art and drama following his graduation in 1919. A succession of odd jobs at opera-houses – scene-painting, set decoration, acting, singing as an Extra – supplemented his private performance studies. In 1929, Jacobs won a Government award for classical singing, but his dream career as an opera singer was thwarted by the Great Depression, as the art funding and performances nosedived following the stock market crash.

Picking up whatever stage work was to be had – including singing and performing – Jacobs finally switched streams to commercial illustration in 1940 and found regular employment at magazine Bravo. While illustrating short stories and novels, he famously took over the syndicated Flash Gordon strip after the occupying German authorities banned Alex Raymond’s quintessentially All-American Hero, leaving the publishers desperately seeking someone to satisfactorily complete the saga.

Jacob’s Stormer Gordon lasted less than a month before being similarly sanctioned by the Nazis, after which Jacobs created his own epic science-fantasy feature – Le Rayon U: a weekly comics milestone in both Belgian comics and science fiction adventure…

The U Ray was a huge hit in 1943 and scored big all over again a generation later when Jacobs reformatted the original and traditional “text-block & picture” material to incorporate speech balloons before re-running the entire series in Le Journal de Tintin in 1973. It was subsequently released as graphic albums beginning in 1974.

There are conflicting accounts of how Jacobs and Tintin creator Hergé formed their infamous partnership together – and why they parted ways professionally, if not socially – but as to the whys and wherefores of the split, I frankly don’t care.

What is known is this: whilst creating U Ray, one of Jacob’s other jobs was scene-painting, and during the staging of a theatrical version of Tintin and the Cigars of the Pharaoh Hergé and Jacobs met and became friends. If the comics maestro was unaware of Jacob’s comics output before then, he was certainly made aware of it after.

Jacobs started working on Tintin, colouring the originally monochrome strips of The Shooting Star from newspaper Le Soir for a forthcoming album collection. By 1944, he was performing similar service for Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America, King Ottokar’s Sceptre and The Blue Lotus. Jacobs also contributed to the illustration on extended epic The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun. His love of opera made it into the feature as Hergé, (who loathed it) teasingly created bombastic Bianca Castafiore as a comedy foil while basing a number of bit players (such as Jacobini in The Calculus Affair) on his long-suffering assistant.

After war and liberation, publisher Raymond Leblanc convinced Hergé, Jacobs and other creatives to work for his new venture. Launching publishing house Le Lombard, Leblanc also started Le Journal de Tintin: an anthology comic edited by Hergé with editions in Belgium, France and Holland starring the intrepid boy reporter and a host of newer heroes.

Beside Hergé, Jacobs and writer Jacques van Melkebeke, the weekly comic featured Paul Cuvelier’s Corentin and Jacques Laudy’s ‘The Legend of the Four Aymon Brothers’. Laudy had been a friend of Jacobs’ since they worked together on Bravo and became a model for some of his characters.

The first instalment of epic serial Le secret de l’Espadon (which eventually ran from #1, 26th September 1946 to 8th September 1949) cemented Jacobs’ status as a star in his own right: offering a wide variety of perils and menaces in stunning action thrillers blending science fiction, detective mysteries and supernatural thrillers in the timeless, universally engaging Ligne Claire style which had done so much to make intrepid boy reporter Tintin a global sensation.

In 1950, with the first 18 pages slightly redrawn, Le secret de l’espladon V1 (The Secret of the Swordfish) became Le Lombard’s first album release, with a concluding volume published three years later. These were reprinted nine more times between 1955 and 1982, with an additional single complete deluxe edition released in 1964. The epic romp featured a distinguished duo of Scientific Adventurers: a bluff, gruff Scots/British scientist and English Military Intelligence officer (closely modelled on his comics colleague Laudy): Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blake. They and archfoe Olrik (based on Jacobs himself) were a thematic and visual evolution of characters Jacobs created for The U Ray…

After decades of old farts like me whining, the lost gem was finally released in English translation this year – recently followed by sequel La Flèche Ardente courtesy of Jean Van Hamme, Christian Cailleaux & Etienne Shréder – and it was worth all that waiting…

In 1943 the Nazis may have banned the strikingly Aryan Flash Gordon but there was no denying the public appetite for his kind of action and so Jacobs’ next project dipped deep from that established well of romanticism and fantasy as well as borrowing heavily from US movie serial chapterplays.

In another place and time, the nations of Norlandia and Austradia are at war. The former’s chief scientist Professor Marduk has devised an ultimate weapon capable of ending the conflict but lacks the fuel source to power his mighty “U ray”. He believes the Uradium he needs can be found on the unexplored lost continent and organises an expedition to locate and secure some of the miracle ore. His prototypical party of archetypes includes his assistant Sylvia Hollis, heroic Major Walton, Lord Calder, Captain Dagon, Sergeant MacDuff and “Asiatic” manservant Adji at the head of sturdy crew, but the desperate mission to the Black Isle Archipelago is doomed from the start thanks to a spy hidden in their ranks…

After many fraught moments and sabotage attempts, the expedition finally lands in the forbidding jungles of a lost world teeming with uncanny primal beasts and savage humanoids. Soon, however, sheer misfortune, invading Austradians, deadly natural hazards and tragedy reap a heavy harvest as they trek inlands to where Marduk’s machines and charts say Uradium can be found. Thankfully, Major Walton is there to constantly counter peril of every description.

After heartbreaking effort a turning point comes when the survivors find a lost civilisation and encounter Prince Nazca and Princess Ica of the Underground City. These highly evolved beneficiaries give them the mineral they want but of course refuse to let their “guests” leave. With time running out and old and new enemies getting closer, it’s up to Walton to find a solution and escape plan…

Old world fun that cannot be denied or ignored, this album also includes tantalising teasers for the auteur’s later classics, a bibliography/publishing timeline and an informative article on Jacobs’1946 masterpiece of design The Swordfish.

Simplistic but effortlessly engaging, The U Ray is pure escapist joy to behold, and a book no serious fun-loving nostalgic can afford to miss.
Original edition © Editions Blake & Mortimer/Studio Jacobs (Dargaud-Lombard S.A.) 2023. All rights reserved. English translation © 2023 Cinebook Ltd.

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The Hawk and The Dove: The Silver Age


By Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, John Celardo, Sal Trapani, Wally Wood & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1401278052 (TPB/Digital edition)
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: For a Season of Heated Family Debates… 9/10

The 1960s changed the world, especially in comics. Fresh ideas, new freedoms, young talents emerging and a growing assurance among established creators that what they were doing mattered and had lasting relevance generated a wave of inspiration and new characters everywhere. Not all of them hit home, but all have lasting significance. Happy Anniversary Hawk & Dove…

Steve Ditko was one of our industry’s greatest and most influential talents and – in his lifetime – one of America’s least lauded. Reclusive and reticent by inclination, his fervent desire was always just to get on with his job, telling stories the best way he could: letting his work speak for him. Whilst the noblest of aspirations, that attitude was usually a minor consideration – and even an actual stumbling block – for the commercial interests which controlled all comics production back then and still exert an overwhelming influence upon the bulk of mainstream comic industry output. If you need more biographical background, there are plenty of wonderful books or even that internet stuff to find it. I’m sticking to his wish to have the stories tell you all you need to know…

After his legendary disagreements with Stan Lee led to Ditko quitting Marvel he worked at Warren Publishing and resumed his career-long association with Charlton Comics. Their laissez faire editorial attitudes always offered virtual creative freedom, if not great financial reward, but when their trailblazing editor Dick Giordano was poached by rapidly-slipping industry leader DC Comics in 1968, he brought with him some of his bullpen of key creators.

Whilst Jim Aparo, Steve Skeates, Frank McLaughlin and Denny O’Neil found a new home, Ditko began only a sporadic – if phenomenally fruitful – association with DC.

During this heady, unsettled period, the first strips derived from Ditko’s interpretation of novelist Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy began appearing in fanzines and independent press publications like Witzend and The Collector – an avenue of freer expression the artist wholeheartedly embraced in an era of social rebellion. For the “over-ground” publishing colossus DC, he devised numerous short stories for genre anthologies and a brace of cult classics. Beware The Creeper came first, followed by the superbly captivating concept gathered here: The Hawk and the Dove. Later visits to the house of Superman & Batman generated Shade, the Changing Man, Stalker and The Odd Man, plus truly unique reinterpretations of The Demon, Man-Bat, Legion of Super-Heroes and many more…

This slight but superb compilation gathers every Ditko-drafted episode of a feature very much of its time plus those who took up the task when he left: curating Showcase #75, The Hawk and the Dove #1-6 and Teen Titans #21, covering May/June 1968 to May/June 1969.

The domestic drama of a family at war naturally opens ‘In the Beginning’ (Showcase #75, with Ditko doing everything except dialoguing which was left to relative youngster Steve Skeates) as high school kids Don and Hank Hall resume their heated quarrel about what American society needs to be. Don is left-leaning pacifist and younger brother Hank is savagely reactionary: pro-military, pro-patriot and anti-dissent of any kind. It was a situation played out all over the world at that crucial stage of the Vietnam war as a new generation turned away from what their parents held dear…

The Hall boys’ paternal parent was doctrinaire small town Judge Irwin Hall of Elmond County: handing out harsh but fair pronouncements that were the cause of a minor superhero moment. When he throws the book at convicted racketeer Dargo, it sparks a wave of violent reprisals and assassination attempts that hospitalise the Judge. Constantly arguing their irreconcilable views, Don and Hank follow one gangster they suspect and are trapped in a warehouse, helpless to prevent a follow-up murder attempt. Their mounting panic and frustration ends when a mysterious voice magically grants them superpowers and costumed identities based on their divergent worldviews and allowing them to escape and foil the killers…

The gift only activates “when evil is present” and also magnifies their ability to act out their philosophical standpoint, and in typical Ditko manner is heartily vilified by the Judge who advocates the rule of law and enforcement of elected authority over criminal vigilantism…

Reaction was strong enough to warrant a solo series and cover-dated August/September that year, The Hawk and the Dove #1 (again scripted by Skeates) revealed ‘The Dove is a Very Gentle Bird’ as teen thieves The Drop-outs plunder at will, with Dove Don and Hawk Hank taking very different approaches to stopping them. The concept of the warring brothers was fascinating but extremely flawed in comic book terms.

Hawk happily smashed everything in traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights style whilst Dove second-guessed his own every action, enduring all kinds of permutation to be dynamic and proactive without ever actually hitting anyone: a definition of pacifism that struggled with itself…

The dichotomy clearly affected Ditko, who abandoned his creation after only three stories, although his swansong ‘Jailbreak’ (H&D #2 Ditko & Skeates) is a mini-masterpiece perfectly embodying all those innate contradictions to craft a powerful tale of ideology and redemption. When the Hall family vacation is overtaken by a mass prison escape, crazed killer Harker forces hopeless, despondent career-convict Davis and a genuinely-reformed young parolee to escape with him, intending to sacrifice them to aid his getaway. When Harker takes the Halls hostage, Hawk and Dove manifest, but as the belligerent bird-boy brutalises Davis and the many escapees he brought along, the repentant parolee saves the hostages whilst Dove stubbornly defeats Harker by taking the beating of his life and wearing his opponent down. Here, the true victory belongs to Don and the system that punishes the guilty and rewards the rule-followers: hardly a radical challenge to the social issues the series sought to redress…

The Hawk and the Dove #3 (December 1968/January 1969) brought a big creative change but more thematic confusion as Gil Kane & Sal Trapani joined Skeates for a brace of crime mysteries. ‘After the Cat’ has the heroes hunt a violent costumed burglar, where Dove’s principles directly lead to tragedy and death after which ‘Twice Burned!’ finds the avian avengers helpless when a savage assault and travesty of justice leads an angry teenager into vengeful violence…

Skeates, Kane & Trapani advanced the themes of ideology versus family bonds in #4 as ‘The Sell-Out!’ sees a mayoral run implicate Judge Hall in wrongdoing when Hawk and Dove expose their father’s oldest political ally as a murdering criminal mastermind funding his campaign through forgery and art theft…

The inevitable occurs in #5 when Kane takes over scripting and Wally Wood assumes the inker’s role in ‘Walk With Me O’ Brother… Death Has Taken My Hand!’

A pre-WWII infant immigrant from Latvia born Eli Katz, Gil Kane was a pivotal player in the developing US comics industry, and indeed the art form itself. Working as an artist, and an increasingly more effective and influential one, he drew for many outfits from 1942 on, tackling superheroes, crime, action, war, mystery, romance, animal heroes (Streak, Rex the Wonder Dog!), movie adaptations Westerns and Science Fiction tales.

In the late 1950s he became one of Julie Schwartz’s key artists: regenerating and rebooting the superhero concept. Yet by 1968, at the top of his profession, this relentlessly revolutionary and creative man felt so confined by the juvenile strictures of the industry that he struck out on bold new ventures that jettisoned the editorial and format bondage of comic books for new visions and media. His Name Is Savage was an adult-oriented black & white magazine about a cold and ruthless super-spy in the James Bond/Matt Helm/Man Called Flint mould; co-written by friend and collaborator Archie Goodwin. It was very much a precursor in tone, treatment and subject matter of many of today’s adventure titles.

His other venture, Blackmark (1971, also with Goodwin), not only ushered in the comic book era of Sword & Sorcery, but also became one of the medium’s first Graphic Novels. Technically, as the series was commissioned by fantasy publisher Ballantine as 8 volumes, it was also envisioned as America’s first comic Limited Series. Before them, though, there was Captain Action and The Hawk and The Dove. At this moment Kane was eager to stretch his creative muscles in a period of great change and challenge and editor Dick Giordano was happy to oblige…

The tale of betrayal and rage sees Irwin Hall uncharacteristically intercede when old friend and literal life-saver Sam Hodgins is framed for armed robbery and murder. When Hawk and Dove investigate they discover a shocking truth that leads to Hank Hall being near-fatally injured as Don – losing his mind with grief – betrays his principles in pursuit of vengeance, not justice…

The tale leads into Teen Titans #21 (June 1969) and a landmark guest shot in DC’s other young heroes title. Written by Neal Adams, pencilled by him and Sal Amendola with inks from brush-maestro Nick Cardy – one of the all-out prettiest illustration jobs of that decade – the tale is centrepiece of a triptych tale spanning TT #20-22.

Facing interdimensional invasion spearheaded by a human multinational crime gang, Titans (Kid Flash, Robin, Wonder Girl and Speedy) are briefly joined by our symbolic super-teens for ‘Citadel of Fear’: chasing smugglers, facing evil ETs and ramping up the surly teen angst quotient whilst moving the invaders story-arc towards a stunning conclusion that you’ll have to read elsewhere…

The unstoppable superhero recession of the late 1960s generated incredible and bold experiments, but all those groundbreaking advances went unheeded and unheralded – except by the next generation of comic creators who benefitted from them. Back then, costumed hero books fell like dominoes and The Hawk and The Dove died with #6 (June/July 1969, by Kane & John Celardo). ‘Judgment in a Small Dark Place!’ again focusses on Judge Hall as the son of a man he jailed years previously targets the family before kidnapping and torturing the draconian lawgiver.

Unable to cooperate, the boys search for him separately, but in the end it’s Hawk’s mindless violence that solves the problem and – as usual – Hall’s ungrateful response is seeking to arrest the lawless vigilantes…

This little slice of obscure hero history also includes spectacular covers by Ditko, Kane and Cardy.

The Sixties was the era when all assorted facets of “cool-for-kids” ephemera finally started to coalesce into a comprehensive assault on our minds and our parents’ pockets. Music, TV, movies, comics, bubble-gum cards and toys all began concertedly feeding off each other, building a unified and combined fantasy-land no kid could resist, but there was also deep and permanent change to the culture and social consciousness and kids became aware politically active for the first time. Those competing colliding forces have never been more wonderfully expressed than in the stories in this book and you would be mad to miss it.
© 1968, 1969, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Strange Adventures volume 1


By John Broome, Otto Binder, Edmond Hamilton, Joe Samachson, Gardner Fox, Dave Wood, Bill Finger, Harry Sharp, Sid Gerson, Ed Herron, Jerry Coleman, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Harry Sharp, Sid Greene, Murphy Anderson, Sy Barry, Joe Giella, Jerry Grandenetti, John Giunta, Joe Kubert & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1544-6 (TPB)

As the 1940s closed, masked mystery-men dwindled in popularity and the American comicbook industry found new heroes. Classic genre titles flourished; resulting in anthologies dedicated to crime, war, westerns and horror dominating most comics publishing. These were augmented by newer fads like funny animal, romance and especially science fiction which, in 1950, finally escaped its glorious thud and blunder/ray guns/bikini babes in giant fishbowl helmets pulp roots – as perfectly epitomised in the uniquely wonderful Golden Age icon Planet Comics. It all came about with the introduction of Strange Adventures.

Packed with short adventures from jobbing SF prose writers offering done-in-one dramas and new heroes such as Chris KL99, Captain Comet, The Atomic Knights and more, the magnificent monthly magazine – supplemented a year later by companion title Mystery in Space – introduced wide-eyed youngsters to a fantastic yet intrinsically rationalist universe and all the potential wonders and terrors it might conceal…

This economical monochrome collection (astonishingly, still no archival collections of this stuff available to modern readers these days; not even via that future-fangled interweb) re-presents stories from the inception of the self-regulatory Comics Code: specifically Strange Adventures #54-73 (cover-dates March 1955 to October 1956, right up to the start of the Silver Age when superheroes successfully returned, offering beguiled readers technological wonderment and the sure-&-certain knowledge there were many and varied somethings “Out There”…

On a thematic note: a general but by no means concrete rule of thumb was the Strange Adventures generally occurred on Earth or were at least Earth-adjacent, whilst – as the name suggests – Mystery in Space offered readers the run of the rest of the universe. Moreover, many plots, gimmicks, maguffins and even art and design would be cleverly recycled for the later technologically-based Silver Age superhero revivals…

This mind-blowing, physics-challenging monochrome colossus opens with the March 1955 issue and four classic vignettes, beginning with ‘The Electric Man!’ by John Broome & Sy Barry, wherein a geologist in search of new power sources accidentally unleashes destructive voltaic beings from the centre of the Earth. As always – and in the grand tradition of pulp sci-fi editor John Campbell – human ingenuity/decency generally solves the assorted crises efficiently and expeditiously…

‘The World’s Mightiest Weakling!’ from Otto Binder, Carmine Infantino & Bernard Sachs, offers a charming yet impossible conundrum after a puny stripling gains incomprehensible mass and density during the course of an experiment, whilst ‘Interplanetary Camera!’ (Binder, Gil Kane & Sachs) grants a photographer a glimpse of the unknown when he finds an alien image recorder and uncovers a plot to destroy Earth.

The issue concludes with another Binder blinder in the taut thriller ‘The Robot Dragnet!’, illustrated by Harry Sharp & Joe Giella, with a rip-roaring romp of rampaging robotic rage.

This tale was actually sequel to an earlier yarn but sufficiently and cleverly recapped so that there’s no confusion or loss of comprehensibility…

Issue #55 led with ‘The Gorilla who Challenged the World’ by Edmond Hamilton & Barry, wherein an ape’s intellect is scientifically enhanced to the point where he becomes a menace to all mankind. So great was his threat that this tale also carried over to the next issue…

During this period baffled editors discovered a bizarre truism: any issue of any title which featured gorillas on the cover ALWAYS resulted in increased sales. Little wonder then that so many DC comics had hairy headliners…

‘Movie Men from Mars!’ (Hamilton, Sharp & Giella) sees our world the unwilling location for cinematographers from the Red Planet. Unfortunately, they’re making a disaster movie…

Joe Kubert’s ‘A World Destroyed!’ offered a fanciful yet gripping explanation for how the asteroid belts between Mars and Jupiter were formed, with that cataclysm theme revisited in ‘The Day the Sun Exploded!’ with Broome, Kane & Sachs depicting a desperate dash by scientists to save Earth from melting. Sid Gerson, Murphy Anderson & Giella wrapped up by revealing the baffling puzzle of ‘The Invisible Spaceman!’

SA #56 opened whimsically with ‘The Fish-Men of Earth!’ (Broome, Infantino & Sachs) as air density goes temporarily askew thanks to invading aliens, before ‘Explorers of the Crystal Moon!’ (Broome, Sharp & Sachs) sees a little boy going for a secret solar safari with visiting extraterrestrials.

Artist Paul Paxton then inadvertently becomes ‘The Sculptor Who Saved the World!’ when future-men ask him to make some highly specific pieces for them: a fast-paced yarn by Broome, Kane & Giella whilst penitent Dr. Jonas Mills corrects his evolutionary error by finally defeating his mutated gorilla in the concluding part of Hamilton & Barry’s simian saga ‘The Jungle Emperor!’

Broome, Sid Greene & Sachs’ ‘The Spy from Saturn!’ opened #57 with a Terran scientist replaced by a perfect impostor, prior to ‘The Moonman and the Meteor!’ (Bill Finger & Barry) positing millionaires and aliens trying to buy or inveigle a fallen star from a humble amateur astronomer for the best and worst of reasons. Binder, Kane & Giella proffer ‘The Riddle of Animal “X”!’ as a small boy finds a pet like no other creature on Earth after which Broome, Infantino & Giella reveal an incredible ancient find to a Uranium prospector and some fugitive convicts desperate enough to try any means of escape in ‘Spaceship Under the Earth!’…

Strange Adventures #58 opens with a police chief’s frantic search for a superhuman felon in ‘I Hunted the Radium Man!’ (Dave Wood & Infantino) whilst ‘Prisoner of Two Worlds!’ – Finger & Barry – sees the long-awaited return of genius detective Darwin Jones of The Department of Scientific Investigation. Although an anthology of short stories, the periodical featured numerous returning characters and concepts such as Star Hawkins, Space Museum and others during its run.

Jones debuted in the very first issue, solving fringe science dilemmas for the Federal Government and making 13 appearances over as many years. In this third adventure he assists alien peace-officers in preventing a visiting extraterrestrial taking a commonplace earth object back to his homeworld where it would be a ghastly terror-weapon…

Broome, Kane & Sachs’ ‘Dream-Journey Through Space!’ depicts an ordinary human plucked from Earth to rescue an ancient civilisation from destruction as well as a humble but cunning ventriloquist who saves us all from invasion by invincible aliens in Finger, Greene & Giella’s ‘The Invisible Masters of Earth!’

A young married couple must find a way to prove they aren’t dumb animals on ‘The Ark from Planet X’ (Broome, Greene & Giella) which opened #59, after which ‘The Super-Athletes from Outer Space!’ came to our world to train in a heavier gravity environment and find the galaxy’s greatest sports-coach in a charming tale by Binder, Kane & Sachs. Ed “France” Herron & Infantino then explore the domino theory of cause & effect in ‘Legacy from the Future!’, before Broome & Barry delve into ancient history and doomsday weaponry to discover the secret of our solar system and ‘The World that Vanished!’

SA #60 featured a light-hearted time-travel teaser by Broome, Jerry Grandenetti & Giella concerning historians gathering famous historic personages from ‘Across the Ages!’ before Binder, Kane & Sachs’ ‘The Man Who Remembered 100,000 Years Ago!’ offers terse, tense thrills as lightning provokes ancestral memories of a previous civilisation just in time for a scientist to cancel his unwitting repeat of the self-same experiment which had eradicated them.

Broome, Greene & Sachs then follow the life of a foundling boy who turns out to be an ‘Orphan of the Stars!’, and the issue concludes with a future-set thriller wherein schoolboy Ted Carter wins a place on a multi-species outing to the ‘World at the Edge of the Universe!’ (Binder & Barry).

In #61, ‘The Mirages from Space!’ (Binder, Kane & Sachs) are a portal into a fantastic other world holding the secret of Earth’s ultimate salvation and ‘The Thermometer Man’ – Binder, Greene & Giella – sees a scientist striving to save a stranded Neptunian from melting in the scorching hell of our world. Next, a lighthouse keeper is forced to play smart to counter a Plutonian invasion with ‘The Strange Thinking-Cap of Willie Jones!’ (Herron & Barry).

In conclusion Binder, Greene & Giella’s ‘The Amazing Two-Time Inventions’ has an amateur inventor making fortuitous contact with his counterparts in 3000AD…

Broome, Infantino & Sachs introduced ‘The Fireproof Man’ in SA #62, with his equally astounding dog foiling an alien invasion even as an ordinary handyman falls into another dimension to become a messiah as‘The Emperor of Planet X’ (Broome, Greene & Giella). Binder, Kane & Giella then detail an abortive ‘Invasion from Inner Space!’ before ‘The Watchdogs of the Universe!’ recruit their first human agent in a tantalising tale by Binder, Greene & Giella.

Joe Samachson, Grandenetti & Giella open #63 with ‘I Was the Man in the Moon!’: an intriguing puzzle for an ordinary Joe awakened to find aliens have inexplicably re-sculpted the lunar surface with his face, whilst a Native American forest ranger is Earth’s only hope of translating an alien warning in ‘The Sign Language of Space!’ (Binder, Greene & Giella).

Jerry Coleman, Kane & Giella’s ‘Strange Journey to Earth!’ sees a school teacher deduce an alien’s odd actions and save the world before the issue ends in ‘Catastrophe County, U.S.A.!’ wherein Hamilton, Greene & Giella introduce scientists to the Government’s vast outdoor natural disaster lab…

Sales-boosting simians resurface in #64 as Finger, Infantino & Sachs deliver hostile ‘Gorillas in Space!’ who are anything but, whilst a first contact misunderstanding results in terror and near-death for an Earth explorer lost in ‘The Maze of Mars’ (Binder, Greene & Sachs) and a technological Indiana Jones becomes ‘The Man Who Discovered the West Pole!’ (Binder, Kane & Giella) whilst Samachson & Grandenetti craft a canny tale of planetary peril in ‘The Earth-Drowners!’

For #65 (February 1956) Binder, Greene & Giella’s ‘The Prisoner from Pluto!’ features an alien attempt to warn Earth of imminent Saturnian attack and forced to extreme measures to accomplish his mission. A different kind of cultural upheaval is referenced in quaint-but-clever tale ‘The Rock-and-Roll Kid from Mars!’ (Samachson, Kane & Giella) and a stage mentalist outfoxes genuine telepaths in Binder, Infantino & Sachs’ ‘War of the Mind Readers!’ just before a biologist turns temporary superhero to foil an alien attack in ‘The Man who Grew Wings!’ by Binder, Greene & Giella.

Issue #66 opens with Broome & Infantino’s tale of ‘The Human Battery!’ as an undercover cop suddenly develops incredible power, whilst a guy in a diner mistakenly picks up ‘The Flying Raincoat!’ (Samachson, Greene & Giella) – accidentally averting an insidious clandestine invasion of our world. Binder, Kane & Sachs then see Darwin Jones solve the ‘Strange Secret of the Time Capsule!’ as a metamorphic ‘Man of a Thousand Shapes!’ (Samachson, Infantino & Sachs) proves to have a few secrets of his own…

‘The Martian Masquerader!’ (Strange Adventures #67, by Broome, Kane & Giella) plays clever games as editor Julie Schwartz (AKA “Mr. Black”) is approached by an alien in need of assistance tracking down an ET terrorist, after which Hamilton, Greene & Giella hone in on a subatomic scientist desperate to find his infinitesimal point of origin in ‘Search for a Lost World!’

‘The Talking Flower!’ in chemist Willie Pickens‘ buttonhole is a lost alien who helps him save the world in Samachson, Infantino & Sachs’ charming romance, but the time-travelling travails experienced by archaeologist Roger Thorn after he discovers the ‘Gateway Through the Ages!’ (Hamilton, Greene & Giella) lead only to danger and hard-earned knowledge.

Broome, Infantino & Sachs’ ‘The Man who Couldn’t Drown!’ leads #68: a tale of genetic throwbacks and unfathomable mystery segueing into Samachson, Greene & Giella’s ‘Strange Gift from Space!’ which results in a safer planet for all. A chance chemical discovery then produces a happy salvation in ‘The Balloons That Lifted a City!’ (Samachson, Kane & Giella) and a common thief gets in way over his head after robbing a laboratory in Samachson, Greene & Sachs’ witty ‘The Game of Science!’

SA #69 sees a time-traveller voyage into pre-history and help dawn-age humans overcome ‘The Gorilla Conquest of Earth’ (Broome, Kane & Sachs) whilst the arrival of ‘The Museum from Mars’ (Gardner Fox, Greene & Giella) offers nigh-irresistible temptation and deadly danger to humanity before ‘The Man with Four Minds!’ (Hamilton & Infantino) sees a man with too much knowledge and power eschew it all for normality. ‘The Human Homing Pigeon!’ (Samachson, Greene & Giella) then burns out his own unique gift in the service of his fellows…

‘The Triple Life of Dr. Pluto!’ (Broome, Greene & Giella in #70) deals with the dangers of a human duplicating ray before Darwin Jones confronts a deadly dilemma when warring aliens both claim to be our friends and ‘Earth’s Secret Weapon!’ (Samachson, Kane & Giella). An early computer falls into the hands of a petty thief with outrageous consequences in ‘The Mechanical Mastermind!’ (Samachson & Infantino) whilst Broome, Greene & Giella’s ‘Menace of the Martian Bubble!’ is foiled by a purely human mind and skills of a stage magician.

Issue #71 features ‘Zero Hour for Earth!’ (Broome & Barry) as a scientist at world’s end sends a time-twisting thought-message back to change future history, whilst invisible thieves of our fissionable resources are thwarted by a scientist with unique visual impairments in ‘Raiders from the Ultra-Violet!’ (Binder, Greene & Giella). Writer Ray Hollis sees a star fall and encounters ‘The Living Meteor!’ (Fox, Kane & Sachs) whilst a guy with a weight problem discovers he has become ‘The Man Who Ate Sunshine!’ in a clever conundrum from Samachson, Grandenetti & Giella.

Strange Adventures #72 starts with a fabulous, self-evident spectacular in ‘The Skyscraper that Came to Life!’ by Broome, Greene & Giella, whilst a shooting star reveals an ancient ‘Puzzle from Planet X!’, promising friendship or doom in a classy yarn by Hamilton, Greene & Sachs.

Gerson & John Giunta’s ‘The Time-Wise Thief!’ provides a salutary moral for a bandit with too much technology and temptation before ‘The Man Who Lived Nine Lifetimes!’ (Binder, Kane & Giella) is aroused from a sleep of ages to save us all from robot invasion…

These flights of fantasy conclude with #73: firstly Broome, Greene & Giella’s ‘The Amazing Rain of Gems!’, wherein a sentient jewel almost beguiles the entire world, whilst humans are hijacked to attend a ‘Science-Fiction Convention on Mars’ (Fox, Kane & Giella) and ‘The Man with Future-Vision!’ (Fox, Infantino & Sachs) discovers knowing what’s coming isn’t necessarily enough…

The imaginative inspiration ends with a clever time-paradox fable in Hamilton, Greene & Giella’s ‘Reverse Rescue of Earth!’

Conceived and edited by the brilliant Julie Schwartz and starring the cream of the era’s writers and artists, Strange Adventures set the standard for mind-boggling all-ages fantasy fiction. With stunning, evocative covers from such stellar art luminaries as Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane and Ruben Moreira, this titanic tome is a perfect portal to other worlds and, in many ways, far better times.

If you dream in steel and plastic, are ready for all AI can do and are agonising and still wondering why you don’t yet own a personal jet-pack, this volume might go some way to assuaging that unquenchable fire for the stars!

Then again, so might a spiffy new collection as part of DC’s Silver Age archive strand…
© 1955, 1956, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks X-Men volume 3: Divided We Fall


By Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, Dick Ayers, John Tartaglione, Art Simek, Joe Rosen & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: ?978-1-3029-4901-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Celebrate in X-quisite Classical Style… 9/10

These stories are timeless and have been gathered many times so here’s my now-standard advisory on format.

The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line is designed with economy in mind. Classic tales of Marvel – such as the birthday boys and girl on show today – have been an archival book staple since the 1990s, but always in lavish, expensive hardback collectors’ editions. The new tomes are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller, about the size of a paperback book.

Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for the digital editions, that’s no issue at all…

Way back in 1963 things really took off for the budding Marvel Comics Group as Stan Lee & Jack Kirby expanded their meagre line of action titles: putting a bunch of relatively new super-heroes (including hot-off-the-presses Iron Man) together as The Avengers; launching a decidedly different war comic in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and creating a group of alienated heroic teenagers united to fight a rather specific, previously unperceived threat to humanity. Those halcyon days are revisited in this splendid trade paperback/eBook compilation, gathering from May 1966 to February 1967, the contents of X-Men #20-29.

Way back in the summer of 1963, the premiere issue had introduced Cyclops/Scott Summers, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Angel/Warren Worthington III and The Beast/Henry “Hank” McCoy: extremely special students of Professor Charles Xavier. This brilliant, driven, charismatic and wheelchair-bound telepath was dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race: human mutants called Homo Superior. The story saw the students welcome newest classmate Jean Grey, who would be codenamed Marvel Girl. She possessed the ability to move objects with her mind.

No sooner has the Professor explained their mission than an actual Evil Mutant – Magneto – singlehandedly took over American missile base Cape Citadel. A seemingly unbeatable threat, the master of magnetism was nonetheless driven off in under 15 minutes by the young heroes on their first combat mission…

These days, young heroes are ten-a-penny, but it should be noted that these kids were among Marvel’s first juvenile super-doers (unless you count Spider-Man or Human Torch Johnny Storm) since the Golden Age, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that in early tales the youngsters regularly benefitted from a little adult supervision, such as is the case in the landmark tale that opens this book…

With Werner Roth & Dick Ayers making the pictures, in X-Men #20, the writing reins were turned over to Roy Thomas, who promptly jumped in guns blazing with ‘I, Lucifer…’: an alien invasion yarn starring Xavier’s arch-nemesis as well as old adversaries Unus the Untouchable and the Blob. Most importantly, it revealed in passing how Professor X lost the use of his legs.

With canny concluding chapter ‘From Whence Comes Dominus?’, Thomas & Roth completely made the series their own: blending juvenile high spirits, classy superhero action and torrid soap opera with beautiful drawing and stirring adventure.

At this time Marvel Comics had a vast and growing following among older teens and college kids, and the youthful Thomas spoke and wrote as they did (or maybe a little better?). Coupled with his easy delight in large casts, this would increasingly make X-Men a most welcoming read for any educated adolescent – like you or me…

As suggested already, X-Men was never one of young Marvel’s top titles, but it found a devout and dedicated following, with the frantic, freakish energy of Jack Kirby’s heroic dynamism comfortably transiting into the slick, sleek attractiveness of Roth as the fierce tension of hunted, haunted juvenile outsider settled into a pastiche of college and school scenarios familiar to the students who were the series’ primary audience.

The action continues with a crafty 2-parter resurrecting veteran Avengers villain Count Nefaria who employs illusion-casting technology and a band of other heroes’ second-string foes (The Unicorn, Porcupine, Plantman, Scarecrow and Eel, if you’re wondering) to hold Washington DC hostage and frame the X-Men for the entire scheme.

‘Divided… We Fall!’ and ‘To Save a City!’ form a fast-paced, old-fashioned Goodies vs. Baddies battle with a decided sting in the tail. Moreover, the tale concludes with Marvel Girl yanked off the team when her parents insist she furthers her education by leaving the Xavier School to attend New York’s Metro University…

Illustrated by Roth & Ayers she is off the team and packed off to college but here visits her old chums to regale them with tales of life outside. Her departure segues neatly into a beloved plot standard – Evil Scientist Grows Giant Bugs – when she enrols and meets an embittered recently-fired professor, leading her erstwhile comrades to confront ‘The Plague of… the Locust!’

Perhaps X-Men #24 isn’t the most memorable tale in the canon but it still reads well and has the added drama of Jean Grey’s departure crystallizing the romantic rivalry for her affections between Cyclops and Angel: providing another deft sop to readers as it enabled many future epics to include Campus life in the action-packed, fun-filled mix…

Somehow Jean still managed to turn up in every issue even as ‘The Power and the Pendant’ (#25, October 1966) finds the boys tracking new menace El Tigre. This South American hunter is visiting New York to steal the second half of a Mayan amulet which willgrant him god-like powers…

Having soundly thrashed the male X-Men, newly-ascended and reborn as Kukulkan, the malign meta returns to Amazonian San Rico to recreate a fallen pre-Columbian empire with the heroes in hot pursuit. The result is a cataclysmic showdown in ‘Holocaust!’ which leaves Angel fighting for his life and deputy leader Cyclops crushed by guilt…

Issue #27 see the return of some old foes in ‘Re-enter: The Mimic!’ as the mesmerising Puppet Master pits power-duplicating Calvin Rankin against a team riven by dissention and ill-feeling, before ‘The Wail of the Banshee!’ sees Rankin join the X-Men in a tale introducing the sonic-powered mutant (eventually to become a valued team-mate and team-leader) as a deadly threat.

This was the opening salvo of an ambitious extended epic featuring a global coalition of sinister, mutant-abductors… Factor Three.

This turbulent tome terminates with John Tartaglione replacing Ayers as regular inker beginning with bright and breezy thriller ‘When Titans Clash!’, wherein the power-duplicating Super-Adaptoid almost turns the entire team into super-slaves before ending the Mimic’s career…

Supplemented by original art – an unused Roth cover for X-Men #25 – these charming idiosyncratic tales are a million miles removed from the angst-ridden, breast-beating, cripplingly convoluted X-brand of today’s Marvel, and in many ways are all the better for it. Superbly rendered, highly readable adventures are never unwelcome or out of favour and it should be remembered that everything here informs so very much of the mutant monolith. These are stories for dedicated fans and the rawest converts. Everyone should have this book.
© 2023 MARVEL

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Doctor Who Graphic Novel 24: Emperor of the Daleks


By Dan Abnett, Paul Cornell, Warwick Gray, Richard Alan, John Ridgway, Lee Sullivan, Colin Andrew & various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-807-0 (TPB)

Somewhere in time, it’s always that moment just before the TV got turned on and the Time Lord was born. This year is the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who. Here’s another Timey-Wimey treat to celebrate a unique TV and comics institution in a periodical manner …

We Brits love comic strips, adore “characters” and are addicted to celebrity. The history of our comics includes an astounding number of comedians, Variety stars and television actors: such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Askey, Charlie Drake and so many more I’ve long forgotten and you’ve likely never heard of.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows like Ace of Wands, Timeslip, Supercar, The Clangers and countless more. If we watched or listened, an enterprising publisher made printed spectacles of them. Hugely popular anthology comics like Radio/Film Fun/TV Fun, Look-In, TV Comic, TV Tornado, and Countdown regularly translated light entertainment favourites into pictorial joy. It was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed strip property…

Doctor Who debuted on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with episode 1 of ‘An Unearthly Child’. Months later in 1964, TV Comic began its decades-long association, as issue #674 began ‘The Klepton Parasites’ – by an unknown author with the art attributed to illustrator Neville Main.

On 11th October 1979, Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. Turning monthly in September 1980 (#44) it’s been with us – via various iterations – ever since: proving the Time Lord is a comic star of impressive pedigree, not to be trifled with.

Panini’s UK division ensured his comics immortality by collecting all strips of every Time Lord Regeneration in a series of graphic albums – although we’re still waiting for digital versions. Each time tome focused on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer, with this one gathering stories plucked from the annals of history and the Terran recording dates November 1992 and July 1995. These yarns all feature Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy in a collection offering both monochrome and full-colour episodes. It all kicks off with sinister espionage thriller ‘Pureblood’ (from Doctor Who Magazine #193-196: November 1992 to January 1993) by writer Dan Abnett & artist Colin Andrew. Here the devious Time Lord and his formidable companion Benny save the last survivors of the Sontaran race from extinction at the hands of their immortal enemies the Rutan – despite hostage humans and a spy in the embattled clone-warriors’ midst. Why save a deadly enemy? Ah well, The Doctor has a rather convoluted plan…

The epic yarn leads directly into the ‘Flashback’ (Doctor Who Winter Special 1992, by Warwick Gray & John Ridgway) as we glimpse First Doctor (William Hartnell, keep up, keep up!) having a potentially universe- shattering falling out with his best friend: a proudly arrogant young Gallifreyan called Magnus (any guesses who he regenerates into?)

The main meat of this massive collection is eponymous epic ‘Emperor of the Daleks’ (DWM #197-202) reuniting the time meddler with his deadliest foe and their deadliest foe: Abslom Daak, a deranged maniac in love with a dead woman and determined to die gloriously exterminating Daleks…

Written by Paul Cornell and John Freeman with art from Lee Sullivan (and a chapter in full-colour courtesy of Marina Graham), the sprawling saga shows civil war between the murderous pepperpots’ creator Davros and their current supreme commander, with the Doctor (two of them, in fact) and a motley crew of allies stirring the bubbling mix and nudging the feuding megalomaniacs in a certain direction…

When the dust settles, Richard Alan & Sullivan provide a salutary epilogue in ‘Up Above the Gods’ (DWM#227, July 1995) as The Doctor explains his actions to Davros – or so, at least, the deluded devil believes…

Warwick Gray & Colin Andrew introduce a universe where The Doctor perished in his Third Regeneration: leading to a cross dimensional incursion by ours – plus Benny and Ace – to foil the ‘Final Genesis’ of Silurian/Sea Devil renegade Mortakk (from DWM #203-206) before full-colour fun returns in ‘Time & Time Again’ (#207, Cornell, Ridgway and hues-smith Paul Vyse) with all seven incarnations of the Gallivanting Gallifreyan in action to retrieve the Key to Time and stop the Black Guardian recreating the universe in his own vile image…

Abnett & Ridgeway return to the black & white days of 1840s Kent for ‘Cuckoo’ (#208-210) as Ace and Benny understandably revolt when The Doctor seeks to steal the limelight from the first woman palaeontologist Mary Anne Wesley. His motives are quite pure: what the young scientist has found is not a missing link in human evolution but something alien that its descendants are prepared to kill for…

The dramas conclude in fine style as Gray & Ridgway expose the ferocious spleen of the Doctor in full indignant mode when he is an ‘Uninvited Guest’ (DWM #211) delivering judgement and punishment to a soiree of indolent and callous timeless beings who enjoyed making sport and playing games with “lesser” creatures. They soon painfully learn that such valuations are all a matter of perspective…

Supplemented with commentaries by the original creators, this is a splendid book for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics another go…
All Doctor Who material © BBCtv 2014. Doctor Who, the Tardis and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. All other material © 2017 its individual creators and owners. Published 2017 by Panini. All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents Superman Family volume 4


By Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, Edmond Hamilton, Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger, Al Plastino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3837-7 (TPB)

When the Man of Steel debuted in Action Comics #1 (cover-dated June 1938) he was instantly the centre of attention, but even then the need for a solid supporting cast was apparent and cleverly catered for. Glamorous daredevil reporter Lois Lane premiered right beside Clark Kent and was a constant companion and foil from the outset, and – although unnamed – a plucky red-headed, befreckled kid started working alongside Lois & Clark from issue #6 (November 1938) onwards.

His first name was disclosed in Superman #13 (November-December 1941) having already been revealed as Jimmy Olsen to radio listeners when he became a major player in The Adventures of Superman show from its debut on April 15th 1940. As somebody the same age as the target audience, on hand for the hero to explain stuff to (all for the listener’s benefit) Jimmy was the closest thing to a sidekick the Action Ace ever needed. He’s remained a sporadic and amazingly popular one ever since.

When the similarly titled television show launched in the autumn of 1952 it was again an overnight sensation and National Periodical Publications began cautiously expanding their revitalised franchise with new characters and titles.

First to get a promotion to solo-star status was the Daily Planet’s impetuously capable if naive “cub reporter”. His addictively charming, light-hearted, semi-solo escapades began in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 (September-October 1954); the first spin-off star in the Caped Kryptonian’s ever-expanding entourage.

It took three years for the cautious Editors to tentatively extend the franchise again. In 1957, just as the Silver Age of Comics was getting underway, try-out title Showcase – which had already launched The Flash in #4 and Challengers of the Unknown in #6 – followed up with a brace of issues entitled Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane (#9-10). The “plucky News-hen” was rapidly awarded a series of her own. Technically it was her second, since for a period in the 1940s she had held a regular solo-spot in Superman.

In previous reviews I’ve banged on about the strangely patronising, parochial – and to at least some of us – potentially offensive portrayals of kids and most especially women during this period, and although at least fairer and more affirmative instances were beginning to appear, the warnings still bear repeating.

At that time Lois Lane was one of precious few titles with a female lead, and, in the context of today, one that causes many 21st century fans a few understandable qualms of conscience. Within the confines of her series the valiant, capable working woman careered crazily from man-hungry, unscrupulous bitch through ditzy simpleton to indomitable and brilliant heroine – often all in the same issue. The title was clearly intended to appeal to the family demographic that made I Love Lucy a national phenomenon, and many stories were played for laughs in the same patriarchal, parochial manner: a “gosh, aren’t ladies funny?” tone that appals me today – but not as much as the fact that I still love them to bits. That they’re mostly sublimely illustrated by the wonderfully whimsical Kurt Schaffenberger softens the repeated blows, but really, I should know better…

For the Superman Family and extended cast the tone of the times dictated a highly strictured code of conduct and parameters: Daily Planet Editor Perry White was a stern, shouty elder statesman with a heart of gold, Cub Reporter Jimmy was a brave and impulsive unseasoned fool – with a heart of gold – and Lois was brash, nosy, impetuous and unscrupulous in her obsession to marry Superman, although she too was – deep down – another possessor of an Auric aorta. There were also more people with blue or green skin than brown or other human shades, but as I’m trying to plug this book’s virtues I’m just shutting up now.

Somehow, even with these mandates in place the talented writers and artists assigned to detail their wholesomely uncanny exploits managed to craft tales both beguiling and breathtakingly memorable… and usually as funny as they were thrilling.

By today’s standards, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen wasn’t quite as contentious, but still far too often stories meant to amuse portrayed the bright, bold boy in socially demeaning – if not downright cruel – situations and humiliating physical transformations. Even so, a winning blend of slapstick adventure, action, fantasy and science fiction (in the gentle but insidiously charming manner scripter Otto Binder had perfected 15 years previously at Fawcett Comics on the magnificent Captain Marvel) made the series one of the most popular of the era.

Again, originally most yarns were played for laughs in a father-knows-best manner and tone which can again appal me today, even though I still count them amongst some of my very favourite comics.

Confusing, ain’t it?

This fourth intriguingly intermingled, chronologically complete compendium collects the affable, all-ages tales from Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #17-26, (spanning May 1960-July 1961) and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #45-53 (ditto for June 1960-June 1961): a period of infinite wackiness and outrageous absurdity, which also saw the inevitable dawning of a far more serious milieu for the Man of Tomorrow and his human family.

This particular monochrome ethical conundrum commences with the Action Ace’s perpetual lady-in-waiting as SGLL #17 as Robert Bernstein & Schaffenberger introduce ‘The Girl that Almost Married Clark Kent!’, revealing how Lois covertly helps heiress Doris Drake win her reporter partner’s affections, unaware that the conniving rich girl has proof of the Caped Kryptonian’s secret identity…

‘Lana Lang, Superwoman!’ (Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan & Stan Kaye) then sees jealousy run wild as Superman gives first one then the other lady in his life superpowers: a secret scheme to foil Brainiac with no thought as to how either woman will feel once the crisis is over.

The issue ends with Binder & Schaffenberger’s ‘How Lois Lane Got Her Job’, disclosing how, even before she first met him, Superman was inadvertently helping the neophyte journalist score scoops…

SPJ #45, (illustrated throughout by Swan & John Forte) kicked off with Binder-scripted ‘Tom Baker, Power Lad!’: a sharp yarn wherein an apparently ordinary boy temporarily gains super powers. The shocking truth involves then-top-secret weapon Supergirl and the Bottle City of Kandor. Meddling with resident crackpot genius Professor Phineas Potter’s untested time machine hurls Jimmy back to the Wild West where he becomes accidental outlaw ‘The Gunsmoke Kid!’ (by a sadly anonymous scripter) whilst Bernstein’s ‘The Animal Master of Metropolis!’ portrays Jimmy as a local hero and target of crooked gamblers after he starts playing with a magic wand bestowing absolute mastery of the world’s fauna.

Lois Lane #18 opened with ‘The Star Reporter of Metropolis!’ (possibly Binder or Bernstein, but definitely limned by Schaffenberger) wherein a mousy protégé steals Lois’ thunder for the best possible reasons, whilst ‘The Sleeping Doom’ (Bernstein & Schaffenberger) is a superb thriller of aliens invading Earth by taking over people as they fall asleep. Valiant Lois staves off slumber for days until Superman returns to send the invaders packing, before ‘Lois Lane Weds Astounding Man!’ (Binder & Al Plastino), finds the flabbergasted journalist wooed by an alien wonder warrior with a very strange secret…

Another all-Swan & Forte art-extravaganza, Jimmy Olsen #46 opens with Siegel’s ‘Jimmy Olsen, Orphan!’ as an accident gives the cub reporter amnesia and he ends up in the same institution where Linda Lee is hiding whilst learning how to be a Supergirl. Bernstein then hilariously lampoons Hollywood as a succession of starlets romance the baffled but willing lad in ‘The Irresistible Jimmy Olsen!’. Of course, these eager actresses are all operating on the mistaken assumption that our boy is Tinseltown’s latest genius Movie Producer…

The issue concludes with another outing for Jimmy’s occasional alter ego in ‘Elastic Lad’s Greatest Feats!’ with scripter Binder perfectly blending drama and comedy to deliver a punishing moral to the over-impulsive kid.

LL #19 (August 1960 and fully illustrated by Schaffenberger) opens with Bernstein’s ‘The Day Lois Lane Forgot Superman!’ as devoted sister Lucy convinces her perennially heartbroken elder sibling to try hypnosis and get over her destructive obsession. Of course, when it works, Lois finds time to pester Clark so much he has no time to save the world…

When an accident seemingly catapults Lois into the past she quickly becomes enamoured of Samson, a hero with a secret identity as ‘The Superman of the Past!’: a quirky yarn by Binder, before Jerry Siegel debuts a new occasional series.

‘Mr. and Mrs. Clark (Superman) Kent!’ was the first tale of a poignant comedy feature depicting the laughter and tears that might result if Lois secretly married the Man of Steel. Although seemingly having achieved her heart’s desire, she is officially only married to dull, safe Clark and must keep her relationship with the Man of Tomorrow quiet. She can’t brag or show pride and has to swallow the rage she feels whenever another woman throws herself at the still eligible bachelor Superman…

For an artefact of an era uncomfortably dismissive of women, there’s actually a lot of genuine heart and understanding in this tale and a minimum of snide sniping about “silly, empty-headed girls”. Perhaps it was the influence of the tailored-for-adults Superman newspaper strip leaking into the funnybook line….

SPJO #47 sees Jimmy in over his head impersonating an escaped convict Winky McCoy and trapped as ‘The King of Crime! in a cracking suspense tale by Bernstein, Swan & Forte, and the impatiently under-age lad transforms into a husky 30-something thanks to another Prof. Potter potion in ‘Jimmy Grows Up!’ Binder sagely proves that maturity isn’t everything, before Siegel wraps up the issue with a thrilling romp as alien producers of horror movies starring Superman and Jimmy return seeking sequels. Their robot reporter doesn’t like the prospect of being junked at shooting’s end, however, and tries to replace the original in ‘The Monsters from Earth!’…

SGLL #20 (October 1960) opens whimsically with ‘Superman’s Flight from Lois Lane’ (Siegel & Schaffenberger), with the Man of Steel escaping into his own past to see if a different life-path might result in a civilian existence unencumbered by a nosy snooping female. “Disc jockey” Clark soon realises his inquisitive assistant Liza Landis makes Miss Lane look positively disinterested and gladly ends the experiment, after which ‘The Luckiest Girl in Metropolis!’ (Bernstein & Plastino) sees Lois targeted by a Machiavellian mobster seeking to destroy her credibility as a witness, before ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Daughter!’ by Siegel & Schaffenberger revisits the Imaginary Mr. & Mrs. scenario wherein their attempts to adopt Linda (Supergirl) Lee lead to heartbreak and disaster…

That month in all-Swan & Forte Jimmy Olsen #48, anonymously scripted ‘The Story of Camp Superman!’ presents a heart-warming mystery as the cub works as counsellor to a bunch of youngsters – one of whom knows entirely too much about Superman – before ‘The Disguises of Danger!’ reprises undercover Jimmy’s acting abilities to get close to a cunning crook. Binder’s ‘The Mystery of the Tiny Supermen!’ then has Kandor’s miniscule Superman Emergency Squad repeatedly harass Jimmy: a clandestine scheme to stop him accidentally exposing the Man of Steel’s civilian identity…

The all-Schaffenberger November 1960 Lois Lane (#21) offers a double-length epic by author unknown wherein the Anti-Superman Gang utilise explosive toys to endanger the reporter in ‘The Lois Lane Doll!’ forcing the Action Ace to hide her in his Fortress of Solitude. When even that proves insufficient she finds refuge – and unlikely romance – ‘Trapped in Kandor!’ Siegel then scripts a classic comic yarn as bitter rivals gain incredible abilities from a magic lake and duke it out like men in ‘The Battle Between Super-Lois and Super-Lana!’

Cover dated December 1960, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #49 begins with ‘Jimmy’s Gorilla Identity!’ as the luckless lad meets DC stalwart Congo Bill and gets his personality trapped in the hunter’s occasional alter ego, giant golden ape Congorilla. Next, Professor Potter is blamed for, but entirely innocent of, turning the cub reporter into ‘The Fat Boy of Metropolis!’ in a daft but clever crime caper prior to Siegel playing with contemporary trends as Jimmy impersonates a rock ‘n’ roll star to impress Lucy Lane in ‘Alias, Chip O’Doole!’…

Another all-Schaffenberger affair, LL #22 (January 1961), starts with a Red Kryptonite experiment afflicting the Man of Steel with a compulsion to repeatedly pop the question to an increasingly dubious and suspicious Lois on ‘The Day When Superman Proposed!’ (Binder), after which Bernstein’s ‘Lois Lane’s X-Ray Vision!’ sees irradiated sunglasses create a tidal wave of problems for the Metropolis Marvel, whilst in ‘Sweetheart of Robin Hood!’ another time-shift dream sees Lois courted by a very familiar-seeming Defender of Truth, Justice and the Nottinghamshire Way…

In SPJO #50, Siegel, Swan & Sheldon Moldoff’s ‘The Lord of Olsen Castle’ sees Jimmy as potential heir of a Swedish castle and title. All he has to do is accomplish a slew of fantastic feats and defeat an ogre, utterly unaware Superman and a host of Kryptonians are secretly pitching in. ‘The Weirdest Asteroid in Space’ (Binder, Swan & Moldoff) then offers a bold monster mystery before another Potter experiment shifts all Superman’s might into his teen pal in ‘The Super-Life of Jimmy Olsen!’ by an unknown author illustrated by Al Plastino.

Lois Lane #23 (February 1961) opens with Binder & Schaffenberger’s riotous romp ‘The 10 Feats of Elastic Lass!’ as our impetuous reporter borrows Jimmy’s stretching serum to track down mad bomber The Wrecker, whilst ‘The Curse of Lena Thorul!’ (Siegel) exposes a bewitching beauty’s incredible connection to Lex Luthor before another Seigel Imaginary visit to a possible future sees ‘The Wife of Superman!’ worn to a frazzle by twin super-toddlers and yearning for her old job at the Daily Planet…

March 1961’s Jimmy Olsen #51 reveals ‘Jimmy Olsen’s 1000th Scoop!’ (Bernstein, Swan & Forte), with the prospective milestone repeatedly delayed by Superman for the best possible reasons, after which a sultry alien takes an unlikely shine to the lad. Sadly, ‘The Girl with Green Hair’ (Binder, Swan & Forte) was the result of a scheme by a well-meaning third party to get Lucy to be nicer to Jimmy and it all goes painfully, horribly wrong…

The issue ends with ‘The Dream Detective!’ (Swan & Kaye) as the cub reporter inexplicably develops psychometric abilities and unravels mysteries in his sleep, whilst in Lois Lane #24 (April 1961) anonymously scripted ‘The Super-Surprise!’ sees Lois undercover as a platinum blonde, scuppering a deadly plot against the Superman, superbly linmed by Schaffenberger, as is Bernstein’s ‘The Perfect Husband!’, wherein a TV dating show led Lois into a doomed affair with a he-man hunk who was almost the spitting image of Clark Kent… almost…

The issue closes on Bernstein & Forte’s ‘Lois Lane… Traitor!’ with Lois in the frame for murdering the King of Pahla until the incredible, unbelievable true culprit comes forward…

Also available that April, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #52 featured Leo Dorfman, Swan & Kaye’s ‘The Specter of the Haunted House!’ as a gang of cunning thieves use supernatural sceptic Olsen as a patsy for a bold robbery scheme, before ‘The Perils of Jimmy Olsen!’ -illustrated by Swan & Forte – sees the laid-up apprentice journo employ a robot double to perform feats of escalating daring and stupidity. ‘Jimmy Olsen, Wolfman!’ (Siegel, Swan & Kaye) then delivers a welcome sequel to the original hit tale wherein Superman’s Pal is again afflicted by lycanthropy thanks to the pranks of other-dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk…

In Lois Lane #25 (May 1961) Siegel & Schaffenberger’s Imaginary series reaches an impressively bittersweet high point in ‘Lois Lane and Superman, Newlyweds!’ as she convinces hubby to announce their relationship to the world and must live with the shocking consequences…

The brilliant reporter side was then highlighted in Bernstein’s diabolical thriller ‘Lois Lane’s Darkest Secret!’ with the daring reporter risking her life to draw out and capture a mesmeric master criminal before ‘The Three Lives of Lois Lane!’ (uncredited with Forte illustrating) sees the journalist surviving a car crash, only to be subsumed into the personalities of dead historical figures Florence Nightingale, Betsy Ross and Queen Isabella of Spain. Here, Superman can only stay near and try to limit the damage…

SPJO #53 opens with ‘The Boy in the Bottle!’ (Siegel, Swan & Kaye) as the cub suffers future shock whilst trapped in Kandor, after which sheer medical mischance results in Siegel, Swan & Forte’s now-legendary saga of ‘The Giant Turtle Man!’ and an oddly casualty-free monster rampage before ‘The Black Magician!’ (unknown writer, Swan & Forte) reveals Jimmy banished to the court of King Arthur by spiteful Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #26 (July 1961) closes this titanic tome, with three more Schaffenberger classics, starting with Siegel’s ‘The Day Superman Married Lana Lang!’ In this imaginary tragedy, the Action Ace finally settles down with his childhood sweetheart, but lives to regret it, whilst ‘Lois Lane’s Childhood!’ (Siegel) reveals how the lives of Kal-El on doomed Krypton and baby Lois on Earth were intertwined by fate and providence, before Bernstein’s ‘The Mad Woman of Metropolis’ concludes the comics cavalcade on a stunning high. Here, Lois foils a diabolical plot by criminals to murder Clark and drive her insane…

As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of the pre-angsty, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling, deeply peculiar and, yes, occasionally offensive tales perfectly capture the changing tone and tastes reshaping comics moving from the smug, safe 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1960s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry – “keep them entertained and keep them wanting more.”

Despite all the well-intentioned quibbles from my high horse here in the 21st century, I think these stories still have a huge amount to offer funnybook fun-seekers and strongly urge you to check them out for yourselves. You won’t be sorry…
© 1960, 1961, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Simon & Kirby Library: Horror!


By Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Mort Meskin and various (Titan Books)
ISBN13: 978-1-84856-959-1 (HB)

After too many years left languishing, there’s now a majority of magnificent Jack Kirby material available like this splendidly sumptuous Simon & Kirby Library gathering the iconic team’s groundbreaking contributions to the genre of mystery, suspense and the supernatural.

Kirby’s collaborations with fellow industry pioneer Joe Simon always produced dynamite concepts, unforgettable characters, astounding stories and huge sales no matter what genre avenues they pursued (they actually invented the Romance comic book), blazing trails for so many others to follow and always reshaping the very nature of American comics with their innovations and sheer quality.

Comic books started slowly and tenuously in 1933, until Superman’s debut unleashed a torrent of creative imitation and invented a new genre: Superheroes. Implacably vested in the Second World War, the masked mystery man swept all before him (very occasionally her or it) until the troops came home and older genres supplanted the Fights ‘n’ Tights crowd.

Although new kids kept up the buying, much of the previous generation also retained their four-colour habit but increasingly sought more mature themes in the reading matter. The war years altered the psychology of society and a more world-weary, cynical reading public came to see that all the fighting and dying hadn’t really changed anything. Their chosen forms of entertainment – film and prose as well as comics – increasingly reflected this.

Western, War and Crime comics, madcap teen comedy and anthropomorphic funny animal features were immediately resurgent, the aforementioned Romance comics appeared in 1947 and pulp-style Science Fiction began to spread, but gradually another global revival of spiritualism and interest in the supernatural (possibly provoked by the monstrous losses of the recent conflict, just as had happened in the 1920s following WWI) led to a wave of increasingly impressive, evocative and even shocking horror comics.

There were grisly, gory and supernatural stars before, including a pantheon of ghosts, monsters and wizards draped in costumed hero trappings (The Spectre, Mr. Justice, The Heap, Frankenstein, Zatara, Dr. Fate and dozens of others), but these had been victims of circumstance: the Unknown as power source for super-heroics. Now focus shifted to ordinary mortals thrown into a world beyond their ken with the intention of unsettling, not vicariously empowering, the reader.

Almost every publisher jumped onto the monumentally popular juggernaut, but B & I (which became magical one-man-band Richard E. Hughes’ American Comics Group) released the first regularly published horror comic with Adventures Into the Unknown in the autumn of 1948. Technically it was pipped by Avon whose one-shot Eerie debuted and closed in January 1947. They wised up later, and launched a regular series in 1951. By this time Classics Illustrated had already long milked the literary end of the medium: adapting The Headless Horseman, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both 1943), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1944) and Frankenstein (1945) among others.

At this time Joe & Jack identified another “mature market” gap for the line of magazines they autonomously packaged for publishers Crestwood-Prize-Essenkay: Headline Comics, Justice Traps the Guilty, Police Trap, Young Romance and other anthologies. They too saw the sales potential for spooky material, resulting in the superb and eerily seminal Black Magic (launched with an October-November 1950 cover-date) and the boldly obscure psychological drama anthology Strange World of Your Dreams in1952.

Marvel had jumped on the bloody bandwagon early but National/DC Comics only reluctantly bowed to the inevitable, launching a comparatively straight-laced short story title that nevertheless became one of their longest-running and most influential titles with the launch of The House of Mystery (December 1951/January 1952). Soon after, however, a hysterical censorship scandal led to witch-hunt Hearings (just type Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, April-June 1954 into your search engine at any time) which panicked most comics publishers into adopting a castrating straitjacket of self-regulatory rules…

Just like today, America back then cast about wildly looking for external contaminants rather than internal causes for a perceived shift in social attitudes and youthful rebellion, happily settling on bloodthirsty comics about crime or horror, drenched in unwholesome salacious sex, as the reason their children were talking back, acting up and staying out.

S&K didn’t do those kinds of comic books but they got tarred – and metaphorically feathered too – in the media-fuelled frenzy…

This striking full-colour hardback begins with essay ‘That Old Black Magic’ by series editor Steve Saffel, delineating the title’s history and tone of the times whilst ‘Simon and Kirby’s Little Shop of Horror’ describes the working of the small but prolific studio of rotating artists who augmented the output of the named stars: creators such as Mort Meskin, Bill Draut, Martin Stein, Ben Oda, George Roussos, Vic Donahue, Bill Walton, Jim Infantino, Bruno Premiani, John Prentice, Jerry Grandenetti and more. With a vast output across many titles, S&K simply couldn’t produce every story and many yarns here are ghosted by other hands, although each and every one does begin with a stunning Kirby splash panel.

As with all their titles, Simon & Kirby offered genre material tweaked by their own special sensibilities. Black Magic – and the Mort Meskin-inspired The Strange World of Your Dreams – eschewed cheap shocks, mindless gore and goofy pun-inspired twist-ending yarns in favour of dark, oppressive suspense soaked in psychological unease and inexplicable unease: tension over teasing…

The stories presented fantastic situations and too frequently for comfort there were no happy endings, pat cosmic justice or calming explanations: sometimes the Unknown just blew up in your face and you survived or didn’t… and never whole or unchanged.

The compendium of black cartoon cavortings commences with ‘Last Second of Life!’ (from volume 1 #1, October-November 1950) wherein a rich man obsessed over what the dying see at the final breath, but learned to regret the unsavoury lengths he went to finding out, after which ‘The Scorn of the Faceless People!’ (#2 December 1950-January 1951) relates the meaning behind a chilling nightmare. It’s not hard to believe this one must have prompted the creation of the spin-off Strange World of Your Dreams. Issue #2 also provided a chilling report on a satanic vestment dubbed ‘The Cloak!’ whilst an impossible love in the icy wastes of Canada ended with ‘A Silver Bullet for Your Heart!’ in #3 (February-March 1951).

Issue #4 provided ‘Voodoo on Tenth Avenue’ as a disgruntled wife went too far in her quest to get rid of her man, whilst in #5 ‘The World of Spirits’ recounted the uncanny predictions of Emanuel Swedenborg in a brief fact-feature before #6 described psychic connection and a ‘Union with the Dead!’ and a ravaged mariner survived meeting ‘The Thing in the Fog!’ (#7) – an encounter with the legendary Flying Dutchman…

Black Magic #8 (December 1951-January 1952) detailed the sacrifice a woman made to save her man from ‘Donovan’s Demon!’ (mostly illustrated by Bob McCarty) whilst ‘Dead Man’s Lode!’ (#10 March 1952 – the series now being monthly) related a ghostly experience in an old mine and ‘The Girl Who Walked on Water!’ in #11 showed the immense but fragile power of self-belief…

Meskin & Roussos illustrated #12’s ‘A Giant Walks the Earth!’ as a downed pilot lost his best friend to a roving colossus in India, after which the utterly chilling and unforgettable ‘Up There!’ kicks off three stories from the landmark 13th issue…

That saga of a beguiling siren of the upper stratosphere is followed by ‘A Rag – a Bone and a Hank of Hair!’ (Meskin) and a pile of trash that learned to love, whilst ‘Visions of Nostradamus!’ (by Al Eadeh) tracked and interpreted the prognosticator’s predictions.

‘The Angel of Death!’ in #15 detailed a horrific medical mystery and ‘Freak!’ (#17, possibly by Bill Draut) exposed a country doctor’s deepest shame.

Black Magic #18 (November 1952) is another multi-threat issue. ‘Nasty Little Man!’ gets my vote for scariest horror art job of all time and saw three hobos discover to their everlasting regret why you shouldn’t pick on short old men with Irish accents.

Then ‘Come Claim My Corpse’ (Martin Stein?) offers a short, sharp, shocker wherein a convict discovers too late the flaw in his infallible escape plan, before an investigator tracing truck-wreckers learns of ‘Detour Lorelei on Highway 52’ (McCarty)…

‘Sammy’s Wonderful Glass!’ in #19 (December 1952) outlined the tragic outcome of a retarded lummox whose favourite toy could expose men’s souls, after which two shorts from #20 (January 1953) follow. ‘Birth After Death’ retold the reputedly true story of how Sir Walter Scott‘s mother survived premature burial, whilst ‘Oddities in Miniature: The Strangest Stories Ever Told!’ offered half a dozen uncanny tales on one page.

Issue #21 provided ‘The Feathered Serpent’ in which an American archaeologist uncovers the truth about an ancient god, #22 (March 1953) slipped into sci-fi morality play mode with the UFO yarn ‘The Monsters on the Lake!’, and ‘Those Who Are About to Die!’ from #23 sketched out the tale of a painter who could predict imminent doom…

A brace of tales from #24 – May 1953 – begin with a scholar who attempts to contact the living ‘After I’m Gone!’, complemented by the half page fact feature ‘Strange Predictions’ (Harry Lazarus) after which ‘Strange Old Bird!’ is the first of three stories from the (again bimonthly) Black Magic #25 (June-July 1953).

In this gently eerie thriller a little old lady gets the gift of life from her tatty old feathered friend, whilst ‘The Human Cork!’ precis’ the life of the literally unsinkable Angelo Faticoni , before a man without a soul escapes the morgue to become ‘A Beast in the Streets!’
There’s a similar surfeit of sinister riches from #26, beginning with ‘Fool’s Paradise!’ wherein a cheap bag-snatcher makes a deal with the devil, after which ‘The Sting of Scorpio!’ sees a rude sceptic wish she’d never taunted a fortune teller, whilst ‘The Strange Antics of the Mystic Mirror!’ terrified nurses in a major metropolitan hospital and ‘Demon Wind!’ (Kirby inked by Premiani) finds a brash Yankee learning not to mock the justice system of primitive native peoples…

‘The Cat People’ (#27) mesmerised and forever marked an unwary tourist in rural Spain, and the same issue exposed a seductive Scottish supernatural shindig hosted by ‘The Merry Ghosts of Campbell Castle’, whilst #28 saw an unwilling organ donor return to take back his property in ‘An Eye For an Eye!’ after which the same issue revealed with mordant wit how a mummy returned to make his truly beloved ‘Alive After Five Thousand Years!’…

From an issue actually cited during the anti-comic book Senate Hearings, ‘The Greatest Horror of Them All!’ (#29 March-April 1954) told a tragic tale of a freak hidden amongst freaks, before Black Magic #30 revealed the appalling secret of ‘The Head of the Family!’ (Kirby & Premiani) whilst #31 provided both alien invasion horror ‘Slaughter-House!’ and the cautionary tale of a child raised by beasts in ‘Hungry as a Wolf!’ (Ernie Schroeder).

‘Maniac!’ from #32 is another artistic tour de force and a tale much “homaged” in later years, detailing how a loving brother stops villagers taking his simple-minded sibling away, and the Black Magic section concludes with a terrifying fable of atomic radiation and mutated sea creatures in ‘Lone Shark’ from #33 November-December 1954.

With the sagacious, industry-hip, quality-conscious Simon & Kirby undoubtedly seeing the writing on the wall, their uniquely macabre title was wisely cancelled in 1954, not long before the Comics Code came into effect. A bowdlerised version was relaunched in 1957, long after they had dissolved their partnership and moved into different areas of the industry.

However the eerie treats don’t end as a short but sublime sampling from their other mystery title is appended here.

‘We Will Buy Your Dreams’ discusses features and stories from abortive and revolutionary title The Strange World of Your Dreams, inspired by studio-mate Mort Meskin’s vivid night terrors. The premise involved parapsychologist Richard Temple explaining and analysing storied nightmares and pictorially dramatizing dreams sent in by readers.

The too short comics section then begins with ‘Send Us Your Dreams’ from #1 (August 1952), a “typical” insecurity nightmare and the chilling ‘I Talked with my Dead Wife!’, whilst #2 (September-October) provided a trio of träumen tales: ‘The Girl in the Grave!’, a scary wedding scenario in ‘You Sent Us This Dream!’ and ‘Send Us Your Dreams’ in which Dr. Tempe describes the extent of self-preservation imagery…

‘The Woman in the Tower!’ came from #3 (November-December) and detailed typical symbolism whilst ‘You Sent Us this Dream’ from the same issue explains away a nightmare climb up an unending tower. Capping off everything is a spectacular Cover Gallery reprinting Black Magic #1 through #33 plus a stunning unpublished cover, performing the same service for The Strange World of Your Dreams #1-4, and including the unpublished #5 just to make our lives utterly complete.

The Simon & Kirby Library: Horror! is a gigantic compendium of classic dark delights that perfectly illustrates the depth and scope of their influence and innovation, and readily displays the sheer bombastic panache and artistic virtuosity they brought to everything they did. This tremendous hardcover is a worthy, welcome introduction to their unique comics contributions, but there’s loads left still to see so let’s have some more please…
© 2014 Joseph H. Simon and the Estate of Jack Kirby. All Rights Reserved.

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The Complete Peanuts volume 8: 1965-1966


By Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics Books/Canongate Books UK)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-724-7 (HB) 978-1-84767-815-7 (UK HB)

Halloween’s just around the corner and so, in the spirit of beleaguered, embattled diversity, here’s a sop to those devout devotees of the sectarian offshoot awaiting with nervous anticipation the spiritual harvest of The Great Pumpkin. The rest of you can just relish the timeless cartoon mastery of a pictorial comedy genius…

Peanuts is unequivocally the most important comic strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Cartoonist Charles M Schulz crafted his moodily hilarious, hysterically introspective, shockingly surreal philosophical epic for half a century: 17,897 strips spanning October 2nd 1950 to February 13th 2000. He died – from complications of cancer – the day before his last strip was printed.

At its height, Peanuts ran in 2,600 newspapers, in 21 languages and75 countries. Many of those venues still run it in perpetual reprints, as they have ever since his death. During his lifetime, book collections, a merchandising mountain and television spin-offs had made the publicity-shy doodler an actual billionaire at a time when that really meant something…

None of that matters. Peanuts – a title Schulz loathed, but one the syndicate forced upon him – changed the way comics strips were received and perceived: proving cartoon comedy could have edges and nuance and meaning as well as soon-forgotten pratfalls and punchlines.

Following a thoughtful Foreword from screenwriter, director, producer, composer and independent filmmaker Hal Hartley (Trust, Henry Fool, The Unbelievable Truth, Simple Men), the timeless episodes of play, peril, psychoanalysis and personal recrimination resume. Rendered in marvellous monochrome, there are some crucial character introductions, more plot developments and the creation of even more traditions we all revere to this day. Of particular note is the end of the de facto soft revolution leaving the wonder beagle in the driving – or rather pilot’s – seat…

Mostly, though, our focus and point of contact is quintessential, inspirational loser Charlie Brown who, beside fanciful, high-maintenance mutt Snoopy, remains squarely at odds with a mercurial supporting cast, hanging out doing what at first sight seems to be Kids Stuff.

Always, gags centre on play, varying degrees of musicality, pranks, interpersonal alignments, the mounting pressures of ever-harder education, mass media through young eyes and a selection of sports in their season. leavened by agonising teasing, aroused and crushed hopes, the making of baffled observations and occasionally acting a bit too much like grown-ups.

However, with this tome, themes and tropes that define the entire series (especially in the wake of the animated TV specials) become mantra-like yet endlessly variable. One deliciously powerful constant is Brown’s inability to fly a kite, and here war with wind, gravity and landscape reaches absurdist proportions…

Mean girl Violet, prodigy Schroeder, self-taught psychoanalyst and dictator-in-waiting Lucy van Pelt, her brilliantly off-kilter little brother Linus and dirt-magnet “Pig-Pen” are fixtures honed to generate joke-routines and gag-sequences around their signature foibles, but some early characters have faded away in favour of fresh attention-attracting players joining the mob. At least the Brown boy’s existential crisis/responsibility vector/little sister Sally has grown enough to become just another trigger for relentless self-excoriation. As she grows, pesters librarians, forms opinions and propounds steadfastly authoritarian views, Charlie is relegated to being her dumber, but eternally protective big brother…

Resigned – sort of – to life as a loser in the gunsight of cruel and capricious fate, the boy Brown is helpless meat in the clutches of openly sadistic Lucy. When not sabotaging his efforts to kick a football, she monetises her spiteful verve via a 5¢ walk-in psychoanalysis booth: ensuring that whether at play, in sports, kite-flying or just brooding, the round-headed kid truly endures the character-building trials of the damned. She’s so good at it that she even expands the franchise and brings in locums…

At this time, the beagle grew into the true star of the show, with his primary quest for more and better food playing out against an increasingly baroque inner life, wild encounters with birds, skateboarding, dance marathons and skating trysts with a “girl-beagle”, philosophical ruminations, and evermore popular catchphrases. Here, the burgeoning whimsy leads to the dog’s first forays into drama (“It was a dark and stormy night…”), a hunt for the brothers and sisters he was so cruelly torn from as a pup, and the opening shots in his WWI other life, peppered with classic dogfights against the accursed Red Baron…

Snoopy is the only force capable of countering Van Pelt. Over these two years, her campaign to curb that weird beagle, cure her brother of his comfort blanket addiction and generally reorder reality to her preferences reaches astounding heights and appalling depths…

This volume opens and closes with many strips riffing on snow, and television – or the gang’s responses to it – become ever more pervasive. As aways, Lucy constantly and consistently sucks all the joy out of the white wonder stuff and the astounding variety offered by the goggle-box. Perpetually sabotaged, and facing abuse from every female in his life, Brown endures more casual grief from smug, attention-seeking Frieda, demanding constant approval for her “naturally curly hair” and championing shallow good looks over substance. Linus meanwhile is pulled in many directions: primarily between his beloved blanket and the eerie attractions of his teacher Miss Othmar…

Schulz had established way points in his year: formally celebrating certain calendar occasions – real or invented – as perennial shared events: Mothers and Fathers’ Days, Fourth of July, National Dog Week strips accompanied in their turn yearly milestones like Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween/Great Pumpkin Day and Beethoven’s Birthday were joined this year by another American ritual as first Charlie Brown and latterly Linus are sent to summer camp. The experience heralded big changes and led to two permanent additions to the cast: camp mate and distant acquaintance Roy (debuting June 11th 1965) and eventually – on August 22nd 1966 – his pal Patricia Reichardt AKA bluff tomboy Peppermint Patty…

Endless heartbreak ensued – and escalates here – after Charlie Brown foolishly let slip his closet romantic aspirations regarding the “little red-haired girl”: a fascination outrageously exploited by others whenever he doesn’t simply sabotage himself, but the poor oaf has no idea how to respond to closer ties with his dream girl or why Patty cares…

Sports loom large and terrifying as ever, but star player Snoopy seems more interested in surfing and skateboarding than baseball and Lucy finds far more absorbing pastimes after picking up a croquet mallet and a sack for trick-or-treat candies…

Her brother, however, endures more disappointment (twice!) when again The Great Pumpkin spends Halloween night in someone’s patch. Poor Sallie also ends 1965 on a downward spiral after being diagnosed with amblyopia and forced to live with an eyepatch, just as everybody is drawn into a massive, unstoppable snowball war…

Another year and even more of the above sees lovesick sad sack Charlie sent to the Principal’s office (twice!) whilst his best bud is AWOL: continually shot down by phantom Hun The Red Baron or distracted by his growing cohort of bird buddies. Anxiety-wracked Brown even steps down from the baseball team to ease his life, but being replaced by Linus only intensifies his woes. Peppermint Patty eases some of his baseball problems but only until Linus seduces her away with impassioned proselytizing for the Great Pumpkin. As with so many others, Patty’s conversion is brief and doesn’t survive a dark night in field…

And then before you know it, there’s the traditional countdown to Christmas and another year filled with weird, wild and wonderful moments…

The Sunday page debuted on January 6th 1952: a standard half-page slot offering more measured fare than 4-panel dailies. Thwarted ambition, sporting failures, crushing frustration – much of it kite/psychoanalysis related – abound this time, alternating with Snoopy’s inner life which diversifies and intensifies into dogfights and other signature sorties as the sabbath indulgences afforded Schulz room to be his most imaginative, whimsical and provocative…

Particular moments to relish include the sharply-cornered romantic triangle involving Lucy, Schroeder & Beethoven; snow escapades, Snoopy v Lucy deathmatches; Charlie Brown’s food feud with the beagle, Lucy’s solutions to complex questions; toothbrush discipline: “tricks or treats”; doggy dreams; the growing power of television; sporting endeavours; and more…

To wrap it all up, Gary Groth celebrates and deconstructs the man and his work in ‘Charles M. Schulz: 1922 to 2000’, preceded by a copious ‘Index’ offering instant access to favourite scenes you’d like to see again…

Readily available in all formats, this volume guarantees total enjoyment: comedy gold and social glue metamorphosing into an epic of spellbinding graphic mastery that still adds joy to billions of lives, and continues to make new fans and devotees long after its maker’s passing.
The Complete Peanuts © 2007, United Features Syndicate, Ltd. 2014 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. The Foreword is © 2007, Hal Hartley. “Charles M. Schulz: 1922 to 2000” © 2007 Gary Groth. All rights reserved.

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Creepy Presents Steve Ditko


By Steve Ditko, with Archie Goodwin, Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson dddf Ben Oda, Bill Yoshida & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-216-9 (HB/Digital edition)

Once upon a time the short complete tale was the sole staple of the comic book profession, where the intent was to deliver as much variety and entertainment fulfilment as possible to the reader. Sadly that particular discipline is all but lost to us today…

Steve Ditko was one of our industry’s greatest talents and one of America’s least lauded. His fervent desire to just get on with his job and to tell stories the best way he can, whilst the noblest of aspirations, was always a minor consideration and stumbling block for the commercial interests which for so long monopolised comics production and which still exert an overwhelming influence upon the mainstream bulk of Funnybook output.

Before his time at Marvel, Ditko pursued perfection, creating immaculately paced, staged and rendered short stories for a variety of companies; tirelessly honing his craft with genre tales for whichever publisher would have him, free from the interference of over-intrusive editors.

Even after hitting the big time at Marvel and DC, it’s a creative arena he stayed active in, and this collection gathers some of his rarest yet most accomplished examples, produced at a time when a hidebound industry was just starting to open up to new publishers and fresh themes.

After Ditko’s legendary disagreements with Stan Lee led to his leaving Marvel – where his groundbreaking work made the reclusive genius (at least in comic book terms) a household name – he resumed a long association with Charlton Comics, but also found work at Warren Publications under whiz-kid writer/Editor Archie Goodwin.

The details are fully recounted in Mark Evanier’s biographically informative Foreword, as are hints of the artist’s later spells of creative brilliance at DC, the growing underground movement and nascent independent comics scene…

Erudite and economical, Evanier even finds room to describe and critique the differing art techniques Ditko experimented with during this brief tenure. Whilst working for Warren – between 1966 and 1967 – Ditko enjoyed great editorial freedom and cooperation. He crafted 16 moody monochrome masterpieces – most written by Goodwin – all without interference from the Comics Code Authority’s draconian and nonsensical rules. They ranged from baroque and bizarre fantasy to spooky suspense and science fiction yarns, limited only by the bounds of good taste – or at least as far as horror tales ever can be…

And whilst we’re name-checking unsung heroes, it’s only fair to reveal that all were lettered by Ben Oda or Bill Yoshida.

The uncanny yarns appeared in monochrome magazine anthologies Creepy and Eerie, affording Ditko time and room to experiment with not only a larger page, differing styles and media, but also to dabble in then-unknown comics genres. Those lost stories are gathered into a spectacular oversized (284 x 218 mm) hardback compendium – part of a series of all-star artist compilations which includes Rich Corben and Bernie Wrightson amongst others – and begins here with the short shockers from Creepy.

Culled from #9 and delivered in beguiling wash-tones, ‘The Spirit of the Thing!’ starts with shadows and screams, moves on to a dying man and reveals how teacher and student battle in a mind-bending phantasmagorical other-realm for possession of one healthy body, before #10’s ‘Collector’s Edition!’ returns to crisp line art to detail an obsessive bibliophile’s hunt for a mystic tome… and the reason he should have left well enough alone.

Gripping grey-tones reveal how a gullible prize-fighter is manipulated into becoming a bludgeoning ‘Beast Man!’, after which Creepy #12 sees a disturbed man turn to a psychoanalyst to cure his delusions in ‘Blood of the Werewolf!’ Of all the headshrinkers in all the world…

Throughout his time at Marvel – and especially on Doctor Strange – Ditko was applauded for astounding other-dimensional scenes and depictions. In ‘Second Chance!’, that facility is especially exercised when a wise guy regrets his earlier deal with the devil before ‘Where Sorcery Lives!’ pre-empts and anticipates the 1970s Sword-&-Sorcery boom (and Ditko’s own Stalker at DC) as quintessential barbarian hero Garth battles the ghastly legions of vile necromancer Salamand the Sorcerer…

Creepy #15 introduced another sword-swinging proto-Conan in ‘Thane: City of Doom!’, wherein our unwashed warrior titanically thrashes thaumic terrors but nearly succumbs to the hidden threats of a comely queen…

Goodwin didn’t script the last Creepy yarn for Ditko in #16. ‘The Sands that Change!’ was devised by Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson who produced a self-referential tale of a comics artist and his wife falling victim to macabre forces on a desert vacation. Although the story is pedestrian, Ditko’s choice of illustrative materials elevates it to one of the most memorable in his uncanny canon…

The rest of this titanic terror-tome re-presents the Ditko/Goodwin Eerie oeuvre, starting with ‘Room with a View!’ from #3. Rendered in claustrophobic line art, it details how a tired, obnoxious traveller insists on occupying a cheap suite his hotelier would do anything not to rent…

‘Shrieking Man!’ from #4 reveals how an incurable maniac is brought back from agonising insanity by a new doctor, much to the regret of the asylum chief who caused this condition, after which ‘Black Magic’ rolls back the years to mediaeval Europe and a final battle between sorcerer and apprentice…

An affluent and greedy jeweller learns to forever regret taking the ‘Deep Ruby!’ from a desperate hobo in Eerie #6, whilst an underworld plastic surgeon can’t save his latest patient from the depredations of ‘Fly!’ in issue #7. ‘Demon Sword!’ then explores the darkest recesses of psychological transformation and temptation before ‘Isle of the Beast!’ (#9) revisits the hoary Man-hunting-Men plot, but proves that you can never be too careful about who you pick as victim…

The scary sessions conclude with fantasy feast ‘Warrior of Death!’, wherein a barbarian warlord makes a deal with Death and learns that Higher Beings just cannot be trusted…

This voluminous volume has episodes which terrify, amaze, amuse and enthral: utter delights of fantasy fiction with lean, stripped down plots and a dark wit allowing art to set the tone, push the emotions and tell the tale, from a time when a story could end sadly as well as happily and only wonderment was on the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

These stories display the sharp wit and dark comedic energy which epitomised both Goodwin and Warren, channelled through Ditko’s astounding versatility and storytelling acumen: another cracking collection of his works not only superb in its own right but also a telling affirmation of the gifts of one of the art-form’s greatest stylists. This is a book serious comics fans would happily kill, die or be lost in a devil-dimension for…
Creepy, the Creepy logo and all contents © 1966, 1967, 2013 by New Comic Company. All rights reserved.

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Sabrina the Teenage Witch The Complete Collection volume 1: 1962-1972 (Sabrina’s Spellbook Book 1)


By George Gladir, Frank Doyle, Dick Malmgren, Al Hartley, Dan DeCarlo, Joe Edwards, Rudy Lapick, Vince DeCarlo, Bob White, Bill Kresse, Bill Vigoda, Mario Acquaviva, Jimmy DeCarlo, Chic Stone, Bill Yoshida, Stan Goldberg, Jon D’Agostino, Gus LeMoine, Harry Lucey, Marty Epp, Bob Bolling, Joe Sinnott & various (Archie Comic Publications)
ISBN: 978-1-936975-94-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Created by George Gladir & Dan DeCarlo, Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch premiered in Archie’s Mad House #22 (cover-dated October 1962): a throwaway character in a gag anthology which was simply one more venue for comics’ undisputed kings of kids comedy. She proved popular enough to become a regular in the burgeoning cast surrounding the core stars Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge and Jughead Jones.

By 1969, the high school enchantress had grown popular enough to win her own animated Filmation TV series (just like Archie and Josie and the Pussycats) and graduated to a lead position in Archie’s TV Laugh Out before finally winning her own title in 1971.

That first volume ran 77 issues (from 1971-1983) and, when a hugely successful live action TV series launched in 1996, ed comic book adaptation followed in 1997. That version folded in 1999 after a further 32 issues.

Volume 3 – simply entitled Sabrina – was based on new TV show Sabrina the Animated Series ran for 37 issues (2000- 2002) before a back-to-basics reboot saw the comic revert to Sabrina the Teenage Witch with #38, carefully blending elements of all previous print and TV versions.

A creature of seemingly infinite variation and variety, the mystic maid continued in this vein until 2004 and issue #57 wherein – acting on the global popularity of Japanese comics – the company switched format: transforming series into a manga-style high school comedy-romance in the classic Shoujo manner.

Another recent version abandoned whimsy altogether, depicted Sabrina as a vile and seductive force of evil in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. This no-frills. massively monochrome compilation re-presents all her appearances – even cameos on covers of other Archie titles – from that first decade, starting with an informative and educational Introduction courtesy of Editor-in-Chief Victor Gorelick before unleashing the wonderment in a year-by-year cavalcade of magic, mystery and mirth.

Clearly referencing Kim Novak as seen in Bell, Book and Candle, ‘Presenting Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ (George Gladir, Dan DeCarlo, Rudy Lapick & Vince DeCarlo from Archie’s Mad House #22) showcased a sultry seductress with a wicked edge preying on mortals at the behest of Head Witch Della, all whilst secretly hankering for the plebeian joys of dating…

Leading off the next year’s chapter, the creatives reunited in Archie’s Mad House #24 (February 1963), with ‘Monster Section’ depicting Sabrina bewitching boys the way mortal girls always have, whilst ‘Witch Pitch’ sees the young beguiler ordered to ensorcel the High School hockey team – with mixed results…

AMH #25 (April) focuses on the supernatural clan’s mission to destroy human romance. In ‘Sister Sorceress’ Della orders Sabrina to split up dating couple Hal and Wanda – with catastrophic results – before ‘Jinx Minx’ (#26, June) sees Sabrina go too far with a love potion at a school dance…

Bob White’s Archie’s Mad House #27 cover (August 1963) leads into #28’s ‘Tennis Menace’ (inked by Marty Epp) as Sabrina’s attempts to enrapture a rich lad go infuriatingly awry. AMH #30 (December) offers pin-up ‘Teen-Age Section’ drawn by Joe Edwards, with Sabrina comparing historical ways of charming boys with modern mortal methods…

The 1964 material opens with a love potion pin-up ‘Teen Section’ by Edwards (AMH #31, February) before Gladir & Edwards’ ‘Ronald the Rubber Boy Meets Sabrina the Witch Queen’ finds the magic miss disastrously swapping abilities with an elastic-boned pal.

Issue #36 (October, by Edwards) sees her failing to jinx her friends’ recreational evening in ‘Bowled Over’, after which (AMH #37, December) finds Gladir reunited with Dan & Vince DeCarlo for a spot of ‘Double Trouble’ when gruesome Aunt Hilda tries to fix Sabrina’s appalling human countenance, only to become her unwilling twin…

In 1965 Sabrina’s only appearance was a Harry Lucey-limned ad for Archie’s Mad House Annual, whereas a year later she triumphantly returned with illustrator Bill Kresse handling Gladir’s script for ‘Lulu of a Boo-Boo’ (AMH #45, February 1966). Here the witch-girl’s attempts to join the In-Crowd constantly misfire whilst ‘Beach Party Smarty’ (#48, August) confirms this new trend, as her spells to capture a hunky beau go badly wrong…

For ‘Go-Go Gaga’ (AMH #49, September) Gladir & Kresse pit the bonny bewitcher against a greedy entrepreneur planning to fleece school kids in his over-priced dance hall, whilst #50’s ‘Rival Reversal’ finds her failing to conjure a date before ‘Tragic Magic’ proves even sorcery can’t keep a teen’s room clean…

Art team Bill Vigoda & Mario Acquaviva join Gladir for 1967’s first tale. ‘London Lore’ (AMH #52, February) with Sabrina transporting new boyfriend Donald to the heart of the Swinging Scene (it meant something else back then) but ill-equipping him for debilitating culture-shock, after which ‘School Scamp’ (Gladir + Dan, Jimmy & Vince DeCarlo, from AMH #53, April) again proves magic has no place in human education…

In #55 Gladir, Dan DeCarlo & Lapick prove Sabrina’s wishing to help a doubly dangerous proposition in ‘Speed Deed’, whilst in #58 (December, Chic Stone & Bill Yoshida) the trend for ultra-skinny fashion models leads to a little shapeshifting in ‘Wile Style’…

1968 opens with Gladir, Stone & Yoshida exploring the downside of slot-car racing in ‘Teeny-Weeny Boppers’ (AMH #59, February) after which ‘Past Blast’ (#63, September by Gladir, Stan Goldberg, Jon D’Agostino & Yoshida) sees our mystic maid time-travel in search of Marie Antoinette, Pocahontas and Salem sorceress Hester. The year wraps up with ‘Light Delight’ (Gladir, White, Acquaviva & Yoshida: AMH #65, December) as Sabrina’s aunts Hilda and Zelda try more modern modes of witchy transport…

With Sabrina’s television debut, the end of 1969 saw a sudden leap in her comics appearances to capitalise on the exposure and resulted in a retitling of her home funnybook. Again crafted by Gladir, White, Acquaviva & Yoshida, ‘Glower Power’ comes from Mad House Ma-Ad Jokes #70 (September) with her duelling another teen mage before the cover of Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #1 (December: by Dick Malmgren & D’Agostino) leads into ‘Super Duper Party Pooper’ and the instant materialisation of a new sitcom lifestyle for the jinxing juvenile.

Sabrina yearns to be a typical High School girl. She lives in suburban seclusion with Hilda & Zelda and Uncle Ambrose. She has a pet cat – Salem – and is tentatively “seeing” childhood pal Harvey Kinkle. The cute but clueless boy reciprocates the affection, but is far too scared to rock the boat by acting on his own desires.

He has no idea that his old chum is actually a supernatural being…

This opening sally depicts what happens when surly Hilda takes umbrage at the antics of Archie and his pals after they come over for a visit, whilst ‘Great Celestial Sparks’ (pencilled by Gus LeMoine) reveals what lengths witches go to when afflicted with hiccups…

A full-on goggle-box star, Sabrina blossomed in 1970, starting with a little flying practice in ‘Broom Zoom’; boyfriend trouble in ‘Hex Vex’; fortune-telling foolishness in ‘Hard Card’; amulet antics in ‘Witch Pitch’ and kitchen conjurings in ‘Generation Gap’: all by Gladir, LeMoine, D’Agostino & Yoshida from Mad House Ma-Ad Jokes #72 (January). The issue also offered sporting spoofs in ‘Bowl Roll’ (Dan DeCarlo).

The so-busy cover of Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #2 (March 1970) segues into Gladir, Dan D, Lapick & Yoshida’s ‘A Plug for The Band’ with Sabrina briefly joining The Archies’ pop group, whilst LeMoine contributes a brace of half-page gags – ‘Sassy Lassy’ and ‘Food Mood’ – and limns ‘That Ol’ Black Magic’, wherein the winsome witch’s gifts cause misery to all her new friends in Riverdale…

Dan D’s & Lapick’s June cover for Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #3 leads into Malmgren-scripted ‘Double Date’, with hapless Harvey causing chaos at home until Ambrose finds a potential putrid paramour for Aunt Hilda. The creatives then launch an occasional series on stage magic with ‘Sabrina Tricks’ pages, before single-pagers ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips’, ‘The Hand Sandwich’, ‘The Sampler’, ‘Never on Sundae’ and ‘Finger Licken Good’ reveal a growing divide between house-proud Hilda and accident-prone, ever-ravenous Harvey.

Interspersed by three more ‘Sabrina Tricks’ pages, mystic mayhem continues with mini-epic ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ (Malmgren, LeMoine, D’Agostino & Yoshida) as our witch girl disastrously attempts to make Jughead Jones more amenable to Big Ethel’s amorous overtures. The food fiascos resume with LeMoine-limned ‘Good and Bad’, as Sabrina’s every good intention is accidentally twisted to bedevil her human pals.

Taken from Mad House Glads #74 (August 1970), Gladir & LeMoine’s half-page chemistry gag ‘Strange Session’ is oddly balanced by the painterly ‘Blight Sight’ of long-forgotten never-was Bippy the Hippy, before we’re back on track and at the beach for Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #4 (September, by Gladir, Vigoda, Lapick & Yoshida). In ‘To Catch a Thief’ Sabrina again assists Ethel in pinning down elusive, love-shy Jughead, and rounding out the issue are single page pranks ‘Beddy Bye Time’ (DeCarlo & Lapick), another ‘Sabrina Tricks’ lesson and seaside folly ‘In the Bag’ from LeMoine & D’Agostino.

ATVL-O #5 (November) offers up Gladir, Vigoda & Stone’s ‘I’ll Bite’ as Sabrina’s hungry schoolfriends learn the perils of raiding Hilda’s fridge and Gladir, DeCarlo & Lapick’s ‘Hex Vex’ as Della storms in, demanding tardy Sabrina fulfil her monthly quota of bad deeds…

Sabrina is an atypical witch: living in the mundane world and assiduously passing herself off as normal, and 1971 opens with DeCarlo & Lapick’s cover for Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #6 (February) and ‘Match Maker’ by Frank Doyle, Harry Lucey & Epp as Hilda tries getting rid of Harvey by making him irresistible to Betty & Veronica. No way that can go wrong…

‘Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch’ (Gladir, LeMoine, D’Agostino & Yoshida) then uses her powers openly with some kids and learns a trick even ancient crone Hilda cannot fathom. Bolstered by a ‘Sabrina Tricks’, ‘Carry On, Aunt Hilda’ (Malmgren, LeMoine & Lapick) hilariously depicts lucky stars shielding Harvey from the wrath of irascible Aunt Hilda…

Bowing to popular demand, the eldritch ingenue finally starred in her own title from April 1971. Dan D & Lapick’s cover for Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch #1 hinted at much mystic mirth and mayhem which began with ‘Strange Love’ (Doyle, Dan D & Lapick). This revealed a jealous response to seeing Harvey with another girl, supplemented by ‘Sabrina and Salem’s Catty Quiz’ before hippy warlock Sylvester comes out of the woodwork to upset Hilda’s sedate life in ‘Mission Impossible’ (Malmgren, LeMoine & D’Agostino).

Another ‘Sabrina Puzzle’ neatly moves us to Doyle, Dan D & Lapick’s ‘An Uncle’s Monkey’ with Harvey and a pet chimpanzee pushing Hilda to the limits of patience and sanity…

The cover of Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #7 (May) precedes a long yarn by Doyle, Bob Bolling & D’Agostino as ‘Archie’s TV Celebrities’ (the animated Archies, Sabrina and Josie and the Pussycats) star in ‘For the Birds’ with a proposed open-air concert threatened by the protests of a bunch of old ornithology buffs.

Thanks to Malmgren, LeMoine & D’Agostino, our celebrity pals tackle an instrument-stealing saboteur in ‘Sounds Crazy to Me’, before Sabrina cameos on the cover of Jughead #192 (May, by Dan DeCarlo & Lapick) before heading for the cover of her second issue (DeCarlo & Lapick, July). Within those pages Malmgren scripts ‘No Strings Attached’ as The Archies visit their bewitching buddy just as Hilda turns Harvey into an axe-strumming rock god…

‘Witch Way is That’ sees Hilda quickly regret opening her house to Tuned In, Turned On, Dropped Out Cousin Bert, prior to Malmgren, Lucey & Epp showing Archie suffering the jibes and jokes of ‘The Court Jester’ Reggie – until Sabrina adds a little something extra to the Andrews boys’ basketball repertoire..

At this time the world underwent a revival of supernatural interest and Gothic Romance was The Coming Thing. In a bold experiment, Sabrina had a shot at a dramatic turn as Doyle, Bolling, Joe Sinnott & Yoshida crafted ‘Death Waits at Dumesburry’: a relatively straight horror/mystery with Sabrina facing a sinister maniac in a haunted castle she inherits…

Rendered by LeMoine & D’Agostino, the cover of Jughead’s Jokes #24 (July 1971) brings us back to comedy central, as does their cover for Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #8 (August) and Malmgren’s charity bazaar-set tale ‘A Sweet Tooth’, with the winsome witch discovering even her magic cannot make Veronica’s baked goods edible…

Dan DeCarlo’s cover for Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch #3 (September) foreshadows a return to drama but in modern milieu as ‘House Breakers’ (Malmgren, DeCarlo & Lapick) finds Harvey and Sabrina stranded in an old dark mansion with spooks in situ, after which ‘Spellbinder’ (Doyle, Al Hartley) sees Hilda cringe and curse when human catastrophe Big Moose pays Sabrina a visit.

Hartley & D’Agostino fly solo on ‘Auntie Climax’ as irresistibility spells fly and both Archie and Hilda are caught in an amorous crossfire before Malmgren, Bolling & Lapick show our cast’s human side in ‘The Tooth Fairy’ as Archie, Jughead and Sabrina intervene to help a juvenile thief caught in a poverty trap …

A trio of DeCarlo & Lapick covers – Archie’s TV Laugh Out #9 (September), Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals #66 (October) and Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch #4 (October) segue into the teen thaumaturge’s fourth solo issue, where Doyle, Goldberg & D’Agostino set the cauldron bubbling with ‘Hex Marks the Spot’ as Aunts Hilda and Zelda nostalgically opine for their adventurous bad old days but something seems set on thwarting every spell they cast, after which ‘Which Witch is Right?’ (LeMoine pencils) finds obnoxious Reggie Mantle uncovering Sabrina’s sorcerous secrets.

Goldberg & Sinnott illustrate ‘Switch Witch’ as officious Della suspends Sabrina’s powers as a punishment and can’t understand why the girl is delirious instead of heartbroken, whilst Hartley & Sinnott contribute a run of madcap one-pagers from Gladir, Malmgren and Doyle with clue-packed titles such as ‘Out of Sight’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘The Teen Scene‘, ‘So That’s Why’ and ‘Time to Retire’.

Wrapping up the issue is ‘The Storming of Casket Island’ by Doyle, LeMoine & D’Agostino, blending stormy sailing, sinister swindling skulduggery and menacing mystic retribution…

More covers follow: Archie #213 and Archie’s TV Laugh Out #10 (both November by Dan D & Lapick) and Archie’s Christmas Stocking #190 (December, Hartley & D’Agostino), which latter also contributes Hartley & Sinnott’s ‘Card Shark’, with Sabrina joining Archie and the gang to explore the point and purpose of seasonal greetings postings. DeCarlo & Lapick’s cover of Betty and Me #39 brings the momentous year to a close…

The last year covered in this titanic tome is 1972, kicking off with DeCarlo & Lapick’s cover for Archie Annual #23, before their Sabrina’s Christmas Magic #196 cover (January) opens on a winter wonderland of seasonal sentiment. It all starts with ‘Hidden Claus’ (by featured team Hartley & Sinnott) as Sabrina ignores her aunt’s mockery and seeks out the real Father Christmas – just in time to help him with an existential and labour crisis…

‘Sabrina’s Wrap Session’ offers tips on gifting and packaging whilst ‘Hot Dog with Relish’ sees the witch woman zap Jughead’s mooching canine companion and make him a guy any girl could fall for. Doyle, Goldberg & Sinnott concocted ‘The Spell of the Season’, depicting our troubled teen torn between embracing Christmas and wrecking it as any true witch would. Guess which side wins the emotional tug-of-war?

More handicraft secrets are shared in ‘Sabrina’s Instant Christmas Decorations’ before Hartley & Sinnott’s ‘Sabrina Asks… What Does Christmas Mean to You?’ and ‘Sabrina Answers Questions About Christmas’, after which cartoon storytelling resumes with ‘Mission Possible’ as Hilda & Zelda find their own inner Samaritan.

Despite a rather distressing (and misleading) title ‘Popcorn Poopsie’ reveals a way of making tasty decorative snacks whilst ‘Sabrina’s Animal Crackers’ tells a tale of men turned to beasts before a yuletide ‘Sabrina Pin-Up’ and exercise feature ‘Sabrina Keeps in Christmas Trim’ return us to the entertainment section.

An all-Hartley affair, ‘Sabrina’s Witch Wisher’ examines what the vast cast would say if given a single wish, after which Doyle, Goldberg & Sinnott conclude this mammoth meander down memory lane by revealing how an evil warlock was punished by becoming ‘A Tree Named Obadiah’. Now – decked out in lights and tinsel – he’s back and making mischief in Veronica’s house…

An epic, enticing and always enchanting experience, the classic adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch are sheer timeless comics delight that no true fan will ever grow out of – and who says you have to?

© 1962-1972, 2017 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.