Category: Nostalgia

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Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays “Robin Hood Rides Again” (volume 2)


By Floyd Gottfredson, Ted Osborne, Ted Thwaites, Manual Gonzales, Al Taliaferro, Julius Svensden, Merrill De Maris, Bill Walsh, Roy Williams, Del Connell, Tony Strobl, Bill Wright & Chuck Fuson, Bob Grant & various: edited by David Gerstein & Gary Groth (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-686-7 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

As collaboratively co-created by Walt Disney & Ub Iwerks, Mickey Mouse was first seen – if not heard – in silent cartoon Plane Crazy. The animated short fared poorly in a May 1928 test screening and was promptly shelved. That’s why most people who care cite Steamboat Willie – the fourth Mickey feature to be completed – as the debut of both the mascot mouse and co-star/paramour Minnie Mouse, since it was the first to be nationally distributed, as well as the first animated feature with synchronised sound. The astounding success of the short led to a subsequent and rapid release of fully completed predecessors Plane Crazy, The Gallopin’ Gaucho and The Barn Dance, once they too had been given soundtracks. From those timid beginnings grew an immense fantasy empire, but film was not the only way Disney conquered hearts and minds. With Mickey a certified solid gold sensation, the mighty mouse was considered a hot property and was soon inducted into America’s most powerful and pervasive entertainment medium – comic strips…

Floyd Gottfredson was a cartooning pathfinder who started out as just another warm body in the Disney Studio animation factory. Happily, he slipped sideways into graphic narrative and evolved into a pioneer of pictorial narratives as influential as George Herriman, Winsor McCay and Elzie Segar. Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse entertained millions – if not billions – of eagerly enthralled readers and helped shape the very way comics worked. Via some of the earliest adventure continuities in comics history he took a wildly anarchic animated rodent from slap-stick beginnings and transformed a feisty everyman underdog into a crimebuster, detective, explorer, lover, aviator and cowboy. Mickey was the quintessential two-fisted hero as necessity and locale demanded. In later years, as tastes – and syndicate policy – changed, Gottfredson steered that self-same wandering warrior towards a sedate, gently suburbanised lifestyle, employing crafty and clever sitcom gags suited to a newly middle-class and financially comfortable America: comprising a 50-year career generating some of the most engrossing continuities the comics industry has ever enjoyed.

Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was born in 1905 in Kaysville, Utah, one of eight siblings in a Mormon family of Danish extraction. Injured in a youthful hunting accident, Floyd whiled away a long recuperation drawing and studying cartoon correspondence courses. By the 1920s he had turned professional, selling cartoons and commercial art to local trade magazines and Big City newspaper the Salt Lake City Telegram. In 1928, he and wife Mattie moved to California where, after a shaky start, the compulsive doodler found work as an in-betweener with the burgeoning Walt Disney Studios. That was in April 1929, just before the Great Depression hit. Not long after that Gottfredson was personally asked by Walt to take over the newborn but already ailing Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. He would plot, draw and frequently script the strip across the next five decades: an incredible accomplishment by of one of comics’ most gifted exponents.

Veteran animator Ub Iwerks had initiated the print feature with Disney himself contributing, before artist Win Smith was brought in. The nascent strip was plagued with problems and young Gottfredson was only supposed to pitch in until a qualified regular creator could be found. His first effort saw print on May 5th 1930 (his 25th birthday) and Floyd just kept going for 50 years. On January 17th 1932, Gottfredson crafted the first colour Sunday page, which he also oversaw and often produced until retirement. At first he did everything, but in 1934 Gottfredson relinquished scripting, preferring plotting and illustrating the adventures to playing about with dialogue. Thereafter, collaborating wordsmiths included Ted Osborne, Merrill De Maris, Dick Shaw, Bill Walsh, Roy Williams & Del Connell. At the start and in the manner of a filmic studio system, Floyd briefly used inkers such as Ted Thwaites, Earl Duvall & Al Taliaferro, but by 1943 had taken on full art chores.

This superb archival compendium – part of a magnificently ambitious series collecting the creator’s entire canon – continues with his efforts from his thirties heyday to retirement in 1976. Initially – just like the daily feature – the Sunday strip was treated like an animated feature (and frequently promoted screen stories by adapting or continuing movies on the page) with diverse hands working under a “director” and each episode seen as a full gag with set-up, delivery and a punchline, usually all in service to an umbrella story or theme. Such was the format Gottfredson inherited from Walt Disney, and by the time of the material re-presented here it had evolved into a highly efficient system for delivering fun and adventure thanks to the tireless efforts of master storyteller, who knew how to spin out and embellish a yarn…

Following David Gerstein’s Introduction and a truly massive table of Contents, the show opens with preliminary features Setting the Stage. Unbridled fun and incisive revelations begin with J.B. Kaufman’s model-sheet stuffed Foreword ‘Mickey’s Sunday Best: Moving On’ introducing us to the pressures of this unique graphic world before Tom Neely’s equally image-packed Appreciation ‘Of Blots and Stressed-Out Bodies’ tells us more about Gottfredson himself, prior to the glories of the spoken picture as the comics delights begin with The Sundays: Mickey’s Rival and Helpless Helpers and Gag Strips: subdivided into ‘The Sundays, (Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse Stories)’ and each proudly preceded by Joe Torcivia’s Introductory Notes, starting with ‘Balancing Acts – And When Helpfulness Lacks’.

Then, spanning January 5th – 26th 1936, ‘Mickey’s Rival’ introduces our hero’s dark mirror antithesis in a sequence written by Ted Osborne, pencilled by Gottfredson and inked Ted Thwaites. Here a most manly, not to say thuggish and vulgar, fellow rodent named Mortimer makes major inroads courting Minnie and a month of escalating escapades – and even stern advice from Goofy – are ineffective. Ultimately, low cunning and unsportsmanlike tricks clear the path of true love and Mortimer is sent packing…

Done-in-one ‘Gag Strips’ run from February 2nd to 23rd with Al Taliaferro joining the creative trio mid-month: with Mickey and faithful hound Pluto dodging dog catchers, failing to open cans and bottles, falling foul of ice and snow and even street racing old cars with Donald Duck. Mickey then helps Goofy & Donald catastrophically “fix-up” Minnie’s house in themed sequence ‘Helpless Helpers’ (March 1st to 22nd) in advance of more ‘Gag Strips’ spanning March 29th to April 19th with the Mouse meeting burglars, bandits and floods whilst avoiding the dentist he really needs to see…

Stefano Priarone’s introductory text ‘Postmodern Times’ then ushers readers into compelling extended fantasy romp ‘The Robin Hood Adventure’ (April 19th to October 4th, with plot & pencils by Gottfredson, an Osborne script and Taliaferro inking): a story-within-a-story as ardent gardener Mickey is transported via beanstalk and magic book back to Sherwood Forest to for dashing derring-do, comical capers, swashbuckling swipes and satirical jibes.

Essay ‘Growing Up, Growing Down’ leads to a sequence demonstrating Mickey’s gifts as ‘The Ventriloquist’ (11th October – 8th November) with Gottfredson & Taliaferro limning another Osborne extended script with the rascally rodent exhibiting his voice throwing gifts – and puckish sense of prankery – to Pluto, Goofy, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow before inevitably suffering a major reversal of fortune…

Many, many more ‘Gag Strips’ follow (November 15th 1936 to May 9th 1937) as Osborne, Gottfredson, Thwaites & Taliaferro carry readers into a new year and beyond with slapstick hijinks about injury, infirmity, house, garden and motorcar maintenance, domestic spats, pets, circuses, playing practical jokes, and inescapable retaliation, pickpockets, panhandling, and snow. Bad weather, hunting and jail figure heavily too, as does love, with charmed simpleton Goofy’s unique point of view increasingly making Mickey the straight man in an enduring new relationship.

Halting momentarily to enjoy a Gottfredson private commission of the Mouse in cowboy mode from the 1980s, this compilation then heads west, only pausing to absorb more background and context via Francisco Stajano & Leonardo Gori’s essay ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Sunday’ Then Osborne scripts another gem for sagebrush devotee Gottfredson and inker Taliaferro in ‘Sheriff of Nugget Gulch’, running from May 16th to October27th. Here over-enthusiastic tenderfeet (tenderfoots?) Mickey & Goofy take a holiday of sorts after Minnie informs them of a gold strike near her uncle’s ranch. Sadly en route to Nugget Gulch, their rowdy excitement convinces everyone that they are deadly gunslingers: the toughest desperadoes since the Dalton Gang and both faster on the trigger than Bill Hickock…

The comedy of errors fully unfolds as the utterly unproven reputations of “Big Poison” & “Little Poison” continues to mount, with bandits pre-emptively heading for the hills and a terrified populace making them the new lawmen. Sadly that doesn’t count for much with genuine bad seed Pauncho Malarky, but eventually justice, goodness and blind luck carry the day and the railroad carries our heroes home…

Palate cleansing ‘Gag Strips’ from Osborne, Gottfredson, Thwaites & Taliaferro sustained readers between October 31st 1937 and 27th February 1938, with favoured themes like car trouble, house repairs, fancy dress, fashion, crop harvesting, bug infestation, family illness (Minnie’s nephew Manfred), construction crises and plain old surreal slapstick situations. Thanks to time of year, snow ice and inclement weather proved to timeless and reliable standbys, as were street crime, obnoxious cops and neighbours and household chores, with Minnie’s other rapscallion nephews (Mortimer and Ferdinand – AKA Morty & Ferdie – Fieldmouse) increasingly becoming the voice and faces of wayward youth in sneaky revolt…

Preceded by Gori & Stajano’s lecture ‘With Friends Like These’ continued sequence ‘Service with a Smile’ spans March 6th to April 10th with Merrill De Maris scripting for Gottfredson, Taliaferro, Manuel Gonzales & Thwaites. Her Mickey briefly manages his uncle’s gas service station, and between dealing with the public decides to go after delinquent clients and outstanding bills – with disastrous consequences. That chaos neatly transits to another tranche of stand-alone ‘Gag Strips’ (April 17th – August 21st 1938) by De Maris, Gottfredson, Taliaferro, Gonzales & Thwaites encompassing, bed-making, house cleaning, museum visits with Morty & Ferdie, fence-building with Goofy, hat-hunting with Minnie, more neighbour nonsense, car buying, chore-dodging, aviation antics, pet shenanigans and picnicking. As always many of these result in jail time – especially for Goofy and Mickey…

Another momentary diversion offers a Gottfredson inspired Goofy pinup/poem by Bob Grant from Mickey Mouse Magazine #59 (1940) comes in advance of movie inspired madness and mayhem again preceded by an essay. Thad Komorowski’s ‘Tailoring a Better Mouse’ explores Mickey’s declining film fanbase in lieu of rising stars Donald, Pluto & Goofy and how the Disney Studio remedied that with a new movie epic, suitably tied in and promoted to Gottfredson’s still hale and hearty newspaper strip. Albeit now a feature primarily supervised by Floyd and handled by Manual Gonzales, the strip actually saw print before the cinematic release of Brave Little Tailor.

Running from August 28th to November 27th 1938, ‘The Brave Little Tailor’ began and ended with original framing episodes written by De Maris, who also adapted the film’s script which was realised by Gottfredson & Gonzales & inked by Thwaites. Here actor Mickey Mouse joins an epic in production and the fairy tales immediately becomes utterly real, as out unassuming hero is swept along in a rush to kill a giant, marry a princess and save an embattled kingdom…

De Maris, Gottfredson, Gonzales & Thwaites stuck around to produce more ‘Gag Strips’ spanning December 4th to 25th 1938, involving the film’s premier and Goofy’s growing prominence after which Gottfredson’s involvement was curtailed by his promotion to manager of the prodigious Comic Strip Department, addressed here in Later Years: Gottfredson Fill-Ins (June 17th 1956- September 19th 1976), through essay ‘Mouse Soup’. From the end of 1938, Gottfredson oversaw Gonzales on the Sunday feature until the mid-1940s when he gifted Frank Reilly with his managerial duties and took on “Special Projects”.

The period lasted until his retirement in 1976 and is represented here with a selection of delightful oddments beginning with more ‘Gag Strips’ starring a far more sedate and suburban Mouse and traversing June 17th 1956 to September 19th 1976, with stories by Bill Walsh, Roy Williams, & Del Connell, and pencilled and/or inked by Floyd with Tony Strobl. The content is lovely but no longer in any way subversive: detailing swimming pool and gardening woes, ice cream parlor perils, entertaining bored kids, sports, decorating, fashion, camping, pets… and snow…

The remainder of the comics content concerns other Disney stalwarts graced by the master storyteller’s touch. ‘Gottfredson Guest Stars: Donald Duck and Treasury of Classic Tales’ shows stories of other Disney strip features and comes with its own briefing in context confirming ‘Calling All Characters!’ From there it’s a small hop to ‘Donald Duck Gag Strips’ by Osborne, Taliaferro & Gottfredson as seen in the Silly Symphonies feature for October 3rd & 10th 1937. Here the mad as heck mallard goes hunting with Pluto as his gun dog and deeply regrets pranking Goofy with a peashooter…

Walt Disney’s Treasury of Classic Tales extended and adapted other studio screen gems and Gottfredson lustrated many of them, beginning here with Frank Reilly’s interpretation of ‘Lambert the Sheepish Lion’ which ran from August 5th to September 30th 1956. It’s followed by ‘The Seven Dwarfs and the Witch Queen’ (March 2nd – April 27th, 1958) with Gottfredson writing and lettering a saga illustrated by Julius Svensden. The team reunited for the film adaptation of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ from August 3rd to December 28th 1958, and Gottfredson’s last hurrah here was laying out Reilly’s adaptation of ‘101 Dalmatians’ (January 1st to March 26th 1961) for pencillers Bill Wright & Chuck Fuson. The eclectic but buzzy result was inked by Wright & Gonzales.

The joyous cartoon fun is complimented by another mini-moment: this one discussing the rarely seen pre-US Mickey Mouse Sunday strips published in Britain’s Sunday Pictorial from July 13th 1930, and how they never should have been released at all…

Although the comics conclude here there’s still plenty to see and learn as The Gottfredson Archives: Essays and Special Features section follows with a plethora of picture packed articles. Kicking off is ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Mickey’s Rival and Helpless Helpers’ with overseas edition depicting ratty rogue Mortimer as seen in Italy’s Topolino and Germany’s Mickey Maus Mini-Comic Klassiker, with ‘The Cast: Mortimer’ by Gerstein giving a full assessment of the love-rat before segueing into the expert’s review of Otto Englander’s film storyboards of a most influential unfinished epic in ‘Behind the Scenes: Interior Decorators (Again!)’.

A Gottfredson painting offers visual refreshment in ‘Mickey Mouse Adventures with Robin Hood Adventure’ prior to ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: The Robin Hood Adventure’ sharing international interpretations of the tale from Yugoslavia, Italy and Brazil. Then Gerstein appraises recycled Earl Hurd storyboards in ‘Behind the Scenes: Mickey’s Garden’, whilst ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Gags of 1936-1938’ depicts international collections of the auteur’s single page strips published in the US and Italy, before Gerstein deconstructs ‘The Inventive Goof’ and Alberto Becattini & Gerstein share the story of a late arriving collaborator in ‘Sharing the Spotlight: Julius Svensden’.

Fully focused on cowboy fun ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Sheriff of Nugget Gulch’ depicts some of the numerous compilations of the western classic from America and France, whilst six versions from Italy, the US and Yugoslavia illuminate a follow up ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: ‘The Brave Little Tailor’. Then Timo Ronkainen & Gerstein again highlight a Mickey mainstay in ‘The Heirs of Gottfredson: Manuel Gonzales’ before a last dose of strip silliness comes via Gag Strips (A Mickey Supplement): selections from August 25th 1940 to 18th February 1951 by De Maris, Walsh, Gonzales, and Wright.

The glee finally stops with a lovely sketch from Floyd entitled ‘Al [Taliaferro] came into the studio…’, a pertinent cover from California Magazine and biographies of the hard-working editors involved on this splendid tome…

Floyd Gottfredson’s influence on not just Disney’s canon but sequential graphic narrative itself is inestimable: he was among the very first to produce long continuities and “straight” adventures, pioneered team-ups and invented some of the art form’s first “super-villains”.

When Disney killed their continuities in 1955, dictating henceforth strips would only contain one-off gags, Floyd adapted seamlessly, working until retirement in 1975. His last daily appeared on November 15th with the final Sunday included here published on September 19th 1976.

Like all Disney’s creators, Gottfredson worked in utter anonymity, until, in the 1960s, his identity was revealed and the roaring appreciation of previously unsuspected hordes of devotees led to interviews, overviews and public appearances, leading to subsequent his reprinting in books, comics and albums which now all carried a credit for the quiet, reserved master. Floyd Gottfredson died in July 1986.

Thankfully we have these Archives to enjoy, inspiring us and hopefully a whole new generation of inveterate tale-tellers.…

Still, isn’t there more we could find for a third book?
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays volume 2 “Robin Hood Rides Again” © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. Text of “Mickey’s Sunday Best: Moving On” by J.B. Kaufman is © 2013 by J.B. Kaufman. Text of “Of Blots and Stressed-Out Bodies” by Tom Neely is © 2013 by Tom Neely. All contents © 2013 Disney Enterprises unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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DC Finest: Hawkman volume 1 – Wings Across Time


By Gardner F. Fox, Bob Haney, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson, Howard Purcell, Carmine Infantino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-250-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Here’s another stunning compilation from the DC Finest line: full colour chronolgically curated collections delivering “affordably priced, large-size (generally around 600 pages) paperback collections” of past glories. Whilst concentrating on the superhero pantheon, there are and will also be assorted genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia.  

Sadly, none of these comics classics are available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope and keep on whining…

Not all passions are romantic: mine is to finally have all old comics forever available in curated editions. These astoundingly engaging Silver Age tales are another joyous moment of past glories revisited highlighting one of the most effective and enduring romantic crime-busting, world-saving partnerships in comics…

With a superhero revival in full swing by 1961, Editorial mastermind Julius Schwartz turned to resurrecting one of DC’s most visually arresting and iconic Golden Age characters. Once again eschewing mysticism for science fiction (the original Hawkman was a reincarnated Egyptian prince murdered by a villainous priest who just kept coming back…), Schwartz picked scripter Gardner F. Fox who had created the Golden Age great and matched him with artist Joe Kubert to construct a new and contemporary hero for the Jet/Space Age.

This titanic tome at last gathers in full colour the works and deeds of the Winged Wonders as first seen in The Brave and the Bold #34-36 & 42-44 & 51; The Atom #7; Mystery in Space #87-90 and Hawkman #1-11: cumulatively spanning February/March 1961 to December 1965/January 1966.

Katar Hol and Shayera Thal are police officers on their own planet of Thanagar. The married couple have travelled to Earth from the star system Polaris in pursuit of a spree-thief named Byth who assaulted a scientist and stole a drug bestowing the ability to change into anything. Thus the scene was set in ‘Creature of a Thousand Shapes!’ which graced The Brave and the Bold #34 (cover-dated February/March 1961) back when the title was a try-out vehicle like Showcase. Disappointments aside, the origin yarn is a spectacular work of graphic magic, with the otherworldly nature of the premise rendered captivatingly human by the passionately emphatic, moody expressiveness of Kubert’s art. It is a minor masterpiece of comic storytelling, and still a darned good read.

The high-flying heroes returned in the next issue, now “temporarily” stationed on Earth to study Terran police methods. In ‘Menace of the Matter Master’ they defeat a plundering scientist who has discovered a means to control elements and indulge in super-larceny, before ‘Valley of Vanishing Men’ takes our fully-integrated visitors from another world to the Himalayas to unlock the astounding and ironic secret of the Abominable Snowmen. Last shot in the try-out session, B&B #36 sees them defeat modern day wizard Konrad Kazlak in ‘Strange Spells of the Sorcerer!’ and, soon after, save Earth from another Ice Age whilst outwitting ‘The Shadow Thief of Midway City!’

With the 3-issue audition over, the publishers sat back and waited for the fan letters and sales figures… and something odd happened: fans were vocal and enthusiastic, but the huge sales figures that previously accompanied such reactions just weren’t there. It was inexplicable. The quality of the work was plain to see on every page, but somehow not enough people had plunked down their dimes to justify an ongoing Hawkman series.

A year later DC tried again. The Brave and the Bold #42 (June/July 1962) featured ‘The Menace of the Dragonfly Raiders’ which found Katar & Shayera returning to Thanagar just in time to encounter a bizarre band of alien thieves and the sinister hand of their oldest foe. Here was superhero action in a fabulous alien locale and the next issue maintained the exoticism – at least initially – before Hawkman and Hawkgirl returned to Midway City to defeat a threat to both worlds – ‘The Masked Marauders of Earth!’.

One last B&B issue followed (#44, October/November 1962) with two splendid and delightful short tales. ‘Earth’s Impossible Day!’ focused on Shayera’s desire to celebrate a holiday tradition of Thanagar before eerie doomsday thriller ‘The Men who Moved the World’ unearthed a lost civilisation and the return of Earth’s original occupiers seeking to move back again…

And then the Hawks vanished again. It certainly looked like this time the Schwartz magic had stumbled if not faltered. It was not, however, the end of the saga. Convinced he was right, Schwartz retrenched. Enjoying some success with his latest revival and mindful of the response when he had teamed Flash with Green Lantern in the summer of 1962, the editor had writer Fox include the Winged Wonder in The Atom #7 (cover-dated June/July 1963). An interplanetary thriller illustrated by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson, ‘The Case of the Cosmic Camera!’ is a rocket-paced invasion rollercoaster ranging from the depths of space to Earth’s most distant past, where this new, clean-limbed version of the Avian Avenger clearly found fan-favour. In 1963 Hawkman returned! Again!

Mere months later, and dated November, Mystery in Space #87 had the Pinioned Paladin in action on the cover. The anthologogical sci fi standard had been the home of interstellar adventurer Adam Strange since #53, so now Schwartz moved his Winged Wonders into a plausible back-up slot and even bestowed occasional cover-privileges. Still beguilingly written by Fox, Kubert’s dark gritty art was superseded by the clean, graceful illustration of Anderson. Crime caper ‘The Amazing Thefts of the I.Q. Gang!’ dealt with a unexpected repercussion of an Adam Strange thriller and was followed a month later by ‘Topsy-Turvy Day in Midway City!’… a whimsical flourish as the cosmic couple’s devotion and Thangarian wedding customs lead to the capture of Terran bank bandits…

With the management now on board, guest appearances to maximise profile were easier to find. Hawkman returned to The Brave and the Bold with #51 (December 1963/January 1964) to team with Aquaman and face the ‘Fury of the Exiled Creature’ in a quirky tale of monsters, magic and mayhem in sunken Atlantis written by Bob Haney and illustrated by the criminally neglected Howard Purcell. Back in Mystery in Space #89 the ‘Super-Motorized Menace!’ proved the highest tech motor cycle is still no match for ancient weapons and alien  advantages…

These brief, engaging action pieces paled before the majesty and ambition of MiS #90 which delivered a full length epic uniting teaming the Hawks and Adam Strange in a legendary End-of the-World(s) epic. Illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Anderson, ‘Planets in Peril!’ was the last Hawkman back-up. From the next month, and after three years of trying, Hawkman soared into his own title.

Cover-dated April/May 1964, Hawkman #1 is a gem by Fox & Anderson. Two of the most visually arresting chracters in comics, the Hawks also boasted one of the most subtle and sophisticated relationships in the business. Like Sue & Ralph Dibney (Elongated Man and wife) Katar & Shayera are equal partners, and both couples were influenced by the Nick & Nora Charles characters of the Thin Man movies. Like those progenitors, the interplay of the Hols at home or at work is always rich in humour and warmth. In ‘Rivalry of the Winged Wonders’ – and whilst accommodatingly recapping their origins for newcomers, the couple decide to turn their latest case into a contest – Hawkgirl (eventually more appropriately called Hawkwoman) will use Thanagarian super-science to track and catch a band of thieves, whilst Hawkman limits himself to Earth techniques and tools to solving the crime.

This charmingly witty yarn is balanced by action thriller ‘Master of the Sky Weapons’ as recentlt resurrected ancient Mayan warrior Chac threatens Earth with disinterred alien super weapons. The the second issue stuck with star-stuff as the ‘Secret of the Sizzling Sparklers!’ offered an action-packed thriller of transdimensional invasion before closing with ‘Wings across Time!’: a mystery revolving around the discovery of the flying harness of legendary figure Icarus.

With “Carter & Shiera Hall” established as archeologists at Midway City Museum and Earth’s crypto-history & -zoology offering constant story-inspiration, another criminal brain-teaser opened the third issue. However, scientific bandits proved less of a menace than ‘The Fear that Haunted Hawkman’ with inexplicable panic attacks, before ordinary thugs and an extraordinary alien owl converged to make our heroes ‘Birds in a Gilded Cage’. Hawkman #4 then opened with a tale destined to revolutionise DC comics. ‘The Girl who Split in Two!’ introduced legacy hero Zatanna, daughter of a magician who fought crime in the 1940s only to “mysteriously disappear”…

From the very first issue, and for over a decade, Zatarra was a hero in the Mandrake mould who fought evil in the pages of Action Comics. During the Silver Age, Gardner Fox had Zatarra’s young, equally gifted daughter search for the missing mage, systematcally teaming up with superheroes he was currently scripting (if you’re counting, those tales appeared in Hawkman #4, The Atom #19, Green Lantern #42, and the Elongated Man strip from Detective Comics #355). A very slick piece of backwriting latterly included the high-profile Caped Crusader via Detective #336 – ‘Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare!’. The saga concluded in Justice League of America #51’s ‘Z… As in Zatanna… and Zero Hour!’). The collected saga Zatanna’s Search is currently out of print but you can go here for our take on it…

This wide, long-running experiment in continuity proved there was a dedicated fanbase with a voracious appetite for experimentation and relatively deep pockets. Most importantly, it finally signalled an end of the period where DC heroes largely lived and battled in self-imposed worlds of their own.

Hawkman #4 back-up ‘The Machine that Magnetized Men!’ is another enthalling howdunnit  tale as the Pinioned Paladins use reason and deduction to defeat thieves who are impossible to touch. For the next issue ‘Steal, Shadow… Steal!’ was the first full-length thriller, wherein ruthless Shadow Thief Carl Sands returns seeking revenge, believing causing Earth’s next Ice Age to be an acceptable consequence of his schemes, whilst in #6, publishing fashion caught up with the Hawks…

Another epic, and one that turned DC’s peculiar obsession with gorillas into a classic adventure, ‘World Where Evolution Ran Wild!’ lures our heroes to fabled Illoral, where a scientist’s explorations and interventions have stretched Natural Selection to un-natural limits. Bold, brash and daft in equal amounts, this is a fabulous romp and seeing again the cover where Hawkman struggles for his life against a winged gorilla makes the adult me realise those DC chaps might have known what they were doing with all those anthropoid covers!

By issue #7 (April/May 1965) the world was gripped in secret agent fever as the likes of James Bond, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and a host of others snuck and sashayed across our screens. Comics were not immune,  even though spies had been a staple threat there for decades. Before Hawkman joined the gang, however, he had to deal with the rather mediocre threat posed by solar ray inspired criminal genius Ira Quimby and ‘The Amazing Return of the I.Q. Gang!’ As they were quickly returned to prison the Hawks faced the ‘Attack of the Crocodile-Men!’: a high-octane super-science thriller introducing C.A.W. – the Criminal Alliance of the World…

Another supremely captivating cover adorned #8, as the Hawks fought an ancient Roman Artificial Intelligence, built by not-so-mythical metalsmith Vulcan in ‘Giant in the Golden Mask!’, before defeating an alien Harpy who’d been buried for half a million years and promptly triggered a ‘Battle of the Bird-Man Bandits!’ as soon as she woke up…

Hawkman #9 saw The Atom as guest star when an old villain returned with a seemingly perfect revenge plan. Full-length super-thriller ‘Master Trap of the Matter Master!’ offered sheer superhero hi-jinks, after which #10 saw a playful Fox at his best in both ‘Hawkman Clips the Claws of C.A.W!’ This was another espionage drama with a delicious subplot as the Winged Wonder aids a sexy CIA agent with a big secret of her own – before solving ‘The Magic Mirror Mystery!’: a fair-play brainteaser with lots of high-flying action to balance the smart stuff.

This glorious volume closes with another superb full-length epic. Clearly designed as a so-fashionable “player on the other side”, ‘The Shrike Strikes at Midnight!’ leaving our heroes trailing a super-powered, winged bandit all over the world and on to the star system Mizar, in a gripping tale of crime, super-villainy, aliens, revolutions and even dinosaurs…

Although never the major player of his 1940s ancestor, Hawkman grew to be one of the most iconic characters of the second superhero boom, not just for the superb art but also because of a brilliantly sly, whimsically subtle writer with a huge imagination. These tales are comfortably familiar but also grippingly timeless. Thankfully, comics are a funny business; circumstances, tastes and fashions often mean that wonderful works are missed and unappreciated, but it aso means revivals are never too late. Don’t make the same mistake readers did in the 1960s. Whatever your age, read these astounding adventures and become a fan. It’s never too late.
© 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Beano and The Dandy: A Celebration of Dudley D. Watkins


By Dudley D. Watkins, R.D. Low & various (DC Thomson)
ISBN: 978-1-84535-818-1 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the physical books I bought to commemorate this occasion still haven’t arrived yet, and none of them are available digitally, I’m celebrating the achievements of one of Britain’s greatest cartoonists with something you might have read before. So if I didn’t convince you then, here’s a another shot at what you see and what should be a compulsory text in Art, Sociology and History classes. Don’t make me repeat myself again…

Unlike any other artform, Comics is uniquely set up to create small gods. Initially low cost, mass-market and appearing with rapidity – occasionally over the course of decades – the works of some creators are instantly recognisable and generally prolific, and come to define the medium for generations of enthralled recipients. All generally defy exact duplication, despite being always heavily imitated by adoring adherents, since they possess an indefinable element that slavish imitation cannot capture: Osamu Tezuka, Hergé, Jack Kirby, Alex Raymond, Moebius, Steve Ditko and Charles Schulz are all instantly known. There are certainly a few others you’d like to add to that list.

Feel free.

My own candidate for ascension is Dudley Dexter Watkins…

A tireless and prolific illustrator equally adept at comedy and drama storytelling, his style more than any other’s shaped the postwar look and form of Scottish publishing giant DC Thompson’s comics output. Watkins (1907-1969) started life in Manchester and Nottingham as an artistic prodigy prior to entering Glasgow College of Art in 1924. Before too long he was advised to get a job at expanding, Dundee-based DCT, where a 6-month trial illustrating prose boys’ stories led to comic strip specials and some original cartoon creations. Percy Vere and His Trying Tricks and Wandering Willie, The Wily Explorer made him the only contender for both lead strips in a bold new project conceived by Robert Duncan Low (1895-1980).

Low began as a journalist for DC Thomson, rising via story scripting to Managing Editor of Children’s Publication and between 1921 and 1933 launched the company’s “Big Five” story papers for boys: Adventure, The Rover, The Wizard, The Skipper and The Hotspur. In 1936, he created the landmark “Fun Section”: an 8-page pull-out comic strip supplement for national newspaper The Sunday Post. This illustrated accessory – prototype and blueprint for every comic the company subsequently released – launched on 8th March. From the outset The Broons and Oor Wullie were the uncontested headliners.

Low’s shrewdest notion was to devise both strips as comedies played out in the charismatic Scottish idiom and broad unforgettable vernacular, supported by features such as Chic Gordon’s Auchentogle, Allan Morley’s Nero and Zero, Nosey Parker and other strips. These pioneering comics then laid the groundwork for the company’s next great leap. After some devious devising, in December 1937 Low launched DC Thomson’s first weekly all-picture strip comic. The Dandy was followed by The Beano Comic in 1938, and early-reading title The Magic Comic in 1939.

Low’s irresistible secret weapon in all of these ventures was Watkins. The indefatigable cartoon stalwart drew the Fun Section signature strips The Broons and Oor Wullie from the outset and – without missing a beat – added Desperate Dan (in The Dandy) to his weekly workload in 1937. Seven months later, placidly outrageous, subtly subversive social satire Lord Snooty became a big draw for freshly launched companion paper The Beano.

This stunning and luxurious hardback commemorative celebration was released to mark 50 years since Watkins’ death and – despite dealing with a rather solemn topic – is exuberantly joyous in tracing the man’s astounding career and output. No one could read this stuff and not smile, if not actually collapse in mirth.

Packed with brief commentary and visual extracts, the artist is revealed in excerpts and complete episodes chronologically curated to maximise his artistic development. Beginning with The 1930s, a selection of strips starring Oor Wullie and The Broons from The Fun Section is followed by a vintage full-colour Beano Book cover, before a feature on Desperate Dan leads inevitably to a tranche of wild cowboy antics in the best Dundee tradition. The system then repeats for Lord Snooty – and his Pals – and then forgotten almost-stars Wandering Willie the Wily Explorer and aforementioned Percy Vere and his Trying Tricks who share their brand of whimsy. Up until now, the majority of strips are monochrome, but the sequence starring Smarty Grandpa comes in the nostalgic two-colour style we all remember so fondly…

An introductory essay about The 1940s is followed by more of the same, but different; beginning with lost family favourite adventure series. Jimmy and His Magic Patch (latterly Jimmy’s Magic Patch) share the exploits of a wee nipper whose torn trousers were repaired with a piece of mystical cloth that could thereafter grant wishes and transport the wearer to other times and fantastic realms. Here Watkins got to impress with authentic imagery of pirates and dinosaurs, while a two-tone tale from an annual took Jimmy to Sherwood Forest and a meeting with Robin Hood…

Apparently Watkins could handle anything, as seen by a selection of book covers that follow – The Story of Kidnapped, The Story of Treasure Island and The Story of Robinson Crusoe – and illustrated general knowledge pages Cast Away!, Wolves of the Spanish Main and Soldiers’ Uniforms & Arms 1742-1755 which precede complete Jacobite adventure strip Red Fergie’s “Army”.

Once upon a time, comics offered illustrated prose yarns too, and a literary legend was a fan favourite when Watkins did the pictures. ‘Gulliver – the Paraffin Oil Plot’ has splendidly stood the test of time and neatly segues into a hefty section of strips starring the evergreen Lord Snooty and his Pals and Desperate Dan, before Biffo the Bear debuts in full colour, beginning with his premier on January 24th 1948 and including three more captivating outings. The decade closes with another prose Gulliver treat in ‘Baron Bawler’s Blackout’…

A true golden age, The 1950s section opens with Oor Wullie derivative Ginger (from The Beezer), another full-colour cover-star copiously represented and followed by fellow mischief-maker Mickey the Monkey out of The Topper, after which Lord Snooty and his Pals get the text & picture treatment for an extended (possibly Annual or summer special?) lark, and Desperate Dan & Biffo the Bear star in multi-hued shorts trips, after which ‘The Tricks of Tom Thumb’ – another classical adventure yarn – sets the scene for a veritable flurry of strips starring Biffo & Dan to see the decade out.

Venerable Lord Snooty and his Pals open The 1960s, with Desperate Dan quickly following, before more full-colourful Mickey & Ginger strips lead into what was probably the artist’s preferred material. Watkins was a committed man of faith, creating illustrated Bible tracts in his spare time, and always eager to (decorously) promote his beliefs. Here – in full colour – are a brace of theological adventure strips beginning with ‘David’ and his notorious battle, supplemented by ‘The Road to Calvary’ which lead into a rousing clan romp in the prose-&-picture yarn of English-trouncing Scots rebel Wild Young Dirky…

Ending the festival of fun, with a lump in the throat, is the Biffo strip that formed the cover of Beano #1423 (25th October 1969). Watkins had soldiered on in unassailable triumph for decades, drawing some of the most lavishly lifelike and winningly hilarious strips in comics history, and died at his drawing board on August 20th 1969. The page he was working on was completed by David Sutherland, who adds his own gracious homily to the piece.

For all those astonishingly productive years, Dudley D. Watkins had also unflaggingly crafted a full captivating page each of Oor Wullie and The Broons, as well as his church tracts and periodical commitments. His loss was a colossal blow to the company. DC Thomson reprinted old episodes of both strips in the newspaper and the Annuals for seven years before a replacement was agreed upon, whilst The Dandy reran Watkins’ Desperate Dan stories for twice that length of time.

DCT’s publications have always played a big part in Britain’s Christmas festivities and are still a cornerstone of our cultural bulwarks, so let’s revel in the Good Old Days of comics via this lovingly curated tribute to Scotland’s greatest cartoon artisan.
© DCT Consumer Products (UK) Ltd. 2020.

Hugo Pratt also died today in 1995. If you want to learn about him, our most recent review of his magic can be found here.

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Eagle Classics: Harris Tweed – Extra Special Agent


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Happy anniversary Eagle!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Showcase Presents Our Army At War


By Dave Wood, Robert Kanigher, David Khan, Hal Kantor, John Reed, France “Ed” Herron, William Woolfolk, John Reed, Art Wallace, Nat Barnett, Irv Novick, Carmine Infantino, Gene Colan, Bernie Krigstein, Frank Giacoia, Joe Giella, Bernard Sachs, Irwin Hasen, Bob Lander, Gil Kane, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Jerry Grandenetti, Bob Oksner, Mort Drucker, Sy Barry, Fred Ray, Eugene Hughes, Ray Burnley, Ray Schott & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1401229429 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In America following the demise of EC Comics in the mid-1950’s – and prior to Warren Publishing’s astounding Blazing Combat – the only certain place to find challenging, entertaining and often controversial American war comics was at DC. In fact, even as Archie Goodwin’s stunning yet tragically mis-marketed quartet of classics were waking up a generation, the home of Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman was also a cornucopia of gritty, intriguing, beautifully illustrated battle tales presenting combat on a variety of fronts and from many differing points of view. As the very public Vietnam War escalated, and secret wars in central America festered unseen, 1960s America increasingly endured a Home Front death-struggle pitting deeply-ingrained Establishment social attitudes against a youthful freedom-from-old-values-oriented generation with a radical new sensibility. In response, the military-themed comic books of DC (or rather National Periodical Publishing, as it then was) became ever bolder and more innovative…

That stellar and challenging creative period came to an end as all strip trends do, but some of the more impressive and popular features (Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank, Unknown Soldier, The War That Time Forgot, The Losers, Enemy Ace) survived well into the second – post horror-boom – superhero revival as character not genre vehicles. Currently, English-language fans of war stories are grievously underserved in both print and digital formats, but this magnificent monochrome reprint compendium is still readily available. It collects Our Army At War #1-20, from August 1952 – March 1954. With war comics resurgent, it was a new anthology title that was on sale from June 11th 1952 which ran for 301 issues until March 1977, whereupon it was redesignated Sgt. Rock and soldiered on (sorry, couldn’t stop myself!) until #422 cover dated June 1988. The appeal of that style and genre has largely vanished from comic books but once, these were hugely popular casual entertainments for kids and others.

Pure anthology Our Army At War very much followed Harvey Kurtzman’s EC model for Two-Fisted Tales & Frontline Combat, primarily featuring the proud American fighting man on a variety of historical battlefronts including the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI and Korean War even whilst concentrating the majority of its creative firepower on WWII – in which the target readership’s fathers and older relatives had just fought.

Sans ado or preamble, OAAW #1 opens with ‘Last Performance!’ as Dave Wood, Frank Giacoia & Joe Giella reveal how former acrobats Eddie March & Bert Brown escape a deadly German ambush thanks to their old act and a little common sense, after which Kanigher, Irv Novick & Bernard Sachs take us to the Pacific theatre of war and explain – without dialogue – how an entrenched marine patrol only survive Japanese scare tactics by when they ‘Dig Your Foxhole Deep!’

Fanciful – if not outright whimsical – notions proliferated in this era and David Khan, Irwin Hasen & Bob Lander gleefully kick off the practise as a Kentucky mountain man (and a dog!) unused to combat boots provides invaluable pedal intel at the Kasserine Pass thanks to ‘Radar Feet!’ prior to Dave Wood, Gil Kane & Giella ending the issue with inter service rivalry in the Pacific as ‘SOS Seabees!’ sees US troops and navy engineers forced to cooperate to survive…

In issue #2, Kanigher returned his much-loved boxing-as-combat metaphor in ‘Champ!’ with Carmine Infantino & Giella limning a yarn of sporting rivals meeting again over gunsights and in foxholes, before Dave Wood, Bob Oksner & Sachs depicted a tense moment as a sentry spots what might be Germans disguised as GIs in ‘Second Best!’, after which a soldiers takes drastic action to ensure a little peace and quiet to finish ‘A Letter from Joe!’ (by Hal Kantor, Mort Drucker & Lander). The issue ends on Khan, Novick & Lander’s ‘Survival for Shorty!’ as a sensitive short-tempered pee-wee powerhouse strives to proves he’s as big a man as any of his team as they raid a Japanese stronghold…

Kanigher, Novick & Sachs open #3 with the war deep inside a US Marine’s head as he endures the pressure of another ‘Patrol!’ even as Wood, Kane & Lander offer ‘No Exit!’ for former stunt-bikers Skeets & Wally when the former’s combat-trauma traps them behind enemy lines with crucial knowledge of a forthcoming surprise attack…

Kantor & Eugene Hughes then prove superstitious Roy has no need of his lost ‘Lucky Charm!’, before Kantor, Drucker & Lander complete the issue with the tale of ‘Frightened Hero!’ Perry Walters whose tardiness made him a lifelong mouse… until he hit the D-Day beaches…

The contemporaneous Korean conflict led in OAAW #4 where Kanigher, Novick & Sachs reveal the lonely response – and fate – of the ‘Last Man!’ in a unit wiped out by the pitiless enemy after which Kantor & Bernie Krigstein introduce a soldier hoping to take it easy until his ‘Replacement!’ shows up, before Kantor, Ray Schott & Lander, explore the job similarities of a peacetime mailman once more carrying a ‘Special Delivery!’ through the mud and weather of the 38th Parallel. Kantor, Jerry Grandenetti & Giella then finish the forays with an ironically barbed close look at the ‘Soft Job!’ tank men face every day in modern warfare…

Staying in Korea, #5 opens with Kanigher, Novick & Sachs wryly exploring the perennial problem of keepsakes in ‘Battle Souvenir!’, whilst Kantor, Oksner & Lander cover the other regular misdemeanour of illicit underage enlistment as a seasoned officer must act quickly after finding out the age of new unit replacement ‘Baby Face!’. Combat engineers then get a moment in the spotlight – and mud – blowing a crucial bridge in ‘T.N.T. Bouquet!’  courtesy of John Reed, Gene Colan & Sy Barry, after which Khan & Hughes detail the rocky ride of an elite ‘Ranger!’ in a unit of ordinary dogface… until the shooting starts…

Variety overrules contemporaneity in #6 as Kanigher, Novick & Sachs head back to the American Civil War for ‘Battle Flag!’: the lyrical tale of a grandfather recalling what carrying that bloody banner as boy-soldier cost, and followed by a highly experimental yarn from Kantor, Grandenetti & Ray Burnley that’s tantamount to science fiction, wherein a ‘Killer Sub!’ meets its fate. Robert Bernstein & Hughes take us to Korea next as a GI foils a cunning booby trap and makes a mortal enemy determined to have the ‘Last Laugh!’ at any cost before Kahn, Colan & Giella close the issue with the charming tale of a US soldier and a music (and democracy!) loving Korean boy happy to help out as ‘Kid Private!’…

Cover-dated February 1953 and on sale from December 10th 1952, OAAW #7 closed the first year with a mixed bag of yarns beginning with ‘Dive Bomber!’ by Kanigher, Grandenetti & Giella, wherein the novice team piloting a Curtiss Helldiver in a mass attack against the Japanese Navy are shot down and must survive all perils…

Kahn, Drucker, Lander then upgrade to Korea and trace the perilously peripatetic path of a US service pistol as narrated by ‘I, The Gun!’, prior to Reed, Colan & Lander detailing how lost puppy Tugger saves a doughboy patrol from murderous ‘Counterattack!’ before we close on alpine WWII combat as Wood, Colan & Giella’s ‘Mountain Trooper!’ learns a lesson about glamour jobs before returning to the good old infantry…

In #8, Kanigher & Novick’s ‘One Man Army!’ cogitates on being a cog in a massive war machine before single handedly conquering a communist Korean citadel, whilst Wood & Krigstein spectacularly play with the form in ‘Toy Soldier!’ – the short saga of an amazing inventor in the US trenches of the Great War. Reed & Colan then present ‘Rearguard!’ action as a lonely man holds off an unseen army and ponders his life before a brief cessation of hostilities as Wood, Grandenetti & Giella test argumentative sibling soldiers with roaring rapids, crucial supply deliveries and many, many murderous “commies” chasing then through the ‘Pusan Pocket!’…

Opening #9, uncanny coincidence and the powers of a jinx concern the crew of US submarine Flying Fish after picking up a message in a bottle written by members of their WWI namesake. The eerie tale of the ‘Undersea Raider!’ (by Kahn, Colan & Giella) ends badly and portentously for all before segueing into Wood, Grandenetti & Sachs’ generational saga of US pilots whose glorious deaths in combat overwhelm the latest scion and compel Joey Rickard to become a ‘Runaway Hero’ by joining the infantry in Korea. However, destiny is a harsh mistress…

Bernstein & Hughes test out motor pool instruction theory when novice corporal Jim Terris goes off book to deliver crucial supplies by making a ‘Fatal Choice!’ after which Kahn & Krigstein imaginatively refocus the ‘Eyes of the Artillery’ when a fighter pilot is forced to become a specialist bomber in primitive crate to destroy a deadly North Korean supergun…

Kanigher & Krigstein lead in #10, with Signal Corps veterans Don & Steve adding to their already lethal workload as ‘Soldiers of the High Wire’ when their commanding officer sanctions a broadcast for the folks back home and they have to keep the civilians alive and recording despite attacks from jets, tanks and even Korean guerillas…

‘Deadlock!’ by Wood, Colan & Giella then details how a downed American pilot and his Nazi counterpart are trapped in a standoff on a sinking submarine, each anticipating rescue by their side as time runs out. Next, Kantor, Grandenetti & Giella reveal how ‘Chessmen of War’ decide the course of a battle when captured Red Chinese Major Tao plays a fateful game with his US interrogator, after which we close on Kahn & Krigstein depict the ultimate triumph of a ‘Fighting Mess Sergeant’ taken prisoner by North Koreans…

Our Army At War #11 opens in the sky where Kanigher, Novick & Sachs compare the attitudes of Kamikaze pilots and US swabbies shooting them down in ‘Scratch One Meatball!’, whilst Kahn, Colan & Giella stick with the last days of WWII – specifically Luzon island – for ‘Guerilla Fighters’, where a grizzled yank sergeant and a young Filipino recruit make things hot for the embattled occupiers. Kantor & Hughes stick to same war but head to Europe for a ‘Combat Report’ as embedded war correspondent (albeit for a company newspaper) Davey Brown gets fed up with evasions from GIs and makes his own news before Wood & Krigstein return to Korea and depict how an embarrassing present from home can change a ‘Soldier’s Luck!’

William Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella secure pole position in #12 as ‘Flying Blind’ sees a cynical solitary US Navy pilot learn to trust when he is injured in mid-air even as Kahn, Colan & Giella oversee the reuniting of a team of track & field sportsmen on a Pacific island infested with Japanese killers and forced to endure a ‘Death Relay’ to survive, before Reed, Colan & Sachs define the ‘End of the Line!’ for a publicity-seeking fool who always had to be first in peacetime and paid the price for it in battle-shattered Belgium. Kanigher & Novick pause the fighting for the moment in a tale of performance anxiety as a paratrooper frets over ‘The Big Drop!’ on the night before D-Day…

Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella again lead in OAAW #13 as the torch of mentor/guardian passes from one pilot to another above bomb-shattered Japan in moody yarn ‘Ghost Ace!’, after which Wood, Novick & Sachs describe how ‘Combat Fever!’ chills one hypochondriac GI as his unit establish a beachhead on the ferociously occupied Solomon Islands. Human frailty and pomposity are punctured in Kahn, Colan & Giella’s ‘Phantom Frogman’ as a Navy hero describes the mysterious undersea guardian angel actually responsible for all his feats and medals before the issues closes on ‘Minuteman of Saratoga!’ by Nat Barnett & Krigstein wherein cocky young Roger Holcomb eventually proves his worth to his elders in the proud militia…

The concentration on American servicemen ended in #14 as Woolfolk & Krigstein share the militarily profound and uplifting tale of a boy more steadfast than Napolean himself and known forever after as the ‘Drummer of Waterloo’, before Kahn, Colan & Giella return to quarrelsome GIs in a foxhole inadvertently capture Nazi bigwigs in ‘Double or Nothing!’ Woolfolk, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito then detail the casual heroism of a military doctor who goes all out to save his patients as a ‘Soldier Without Armor’, in advance of the same author – with Grandenetti & Giella – exposing one soldier’s phobia over heavy ordnance… and how he was cured by a ‘Killer Tank’…

Kanigher, Novick & Sy Barry claimed the lead spot in #15 as ‘Thunder in the Skies’ exposed the pressures of night bombing raids over Germany as experienced by the waist gunner of a Flying Fortress, before Art Wallace, Colan & Sachs visit Italy as a history loving GI – one of the US divisions trying to kick out the Nazis – becomes an unwilling ‘Tourist with T.N.T.’ Reed, Colan & Giella then embrace 1918 and the Battle of Chateau Thierry as members of the 4th Marine Brigade take ‘A Sunday Walk’, into utter carnage before a ceasefire of sorts closes the issue with Reed, Grandenetti & Sachs’ ‘The Fifteen-Minute War’ – a brutal, barbaric fug-enshrouded 1942-set battle for Massacre Ridge on Attu in the Aleutians…

Obsessive hunger for vengeance grips hard in OAAW #16’s opener, ‘A Million-to-One Shot!’ as Kanigher, Novick & Giella detail how the lone survivor of a Japanese strafing attack on shipwrecked sailors turns into a quest spanning the entire Pacific war. Nat Barnett, Andru & Esposito cover a typically gung-ho ‘Battle of the Bugles!’ during the Spanish-American War’s attack on San Juan Hill, before Reed, Colan & Giella channel cyclic history for a 1940 ‘Last Stand!’ in the mountains of Greece with eerie echoes of 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. Ending on a lighter note, France “Ed” Herron, Andru & Esposito share the story of a street corner in liberated French city Metz that suddenly comes under Nazi attack with only a ‘Traffic Cop Soldier!’ to save the day…

Kanigher & Novick detail combat on skis to start #17, as ‘The White Death!’ follows an elite snow-skimming team ordered to take a key mountain pass untouchable by bomber raids, whilst Barnett, Colan & Giella draw the ‘Sword for a Statue’: revealing the strangest exploit of the War of 1812 and West Point’s mythology. Then, Wallace, Hughes & Giella recount an aspiring author’s ‘Battle Without Bullets!’ and unbelievable victory over his German captors, prior to Herron, Grandenetti & Sachs showing how a ‘Washed-Out Cadet!’ failure to make pilot officer is the Japanese’s loss after he finds his true killing calling…

Kahn, Colan & Giella open #18 in WWII as a Navy rescue helicopter pilot continually causes trouble in ‘The Duel’ by picking fights with Nazi infantry and even shipping and U-Boats, after which we head back to 1775 where ‘Frontier Fighter’ Mr. Wade casually and most effectively tramples all over the old-fashioned rules of combat held dear by his British employers and their French opponents in a frighteningly belligerent tale of early American exceptionalism from Barnett, Grandenetti & Sy Barry. Reed, Andru & Esposito then wittily address a fluke of combat as a simple corporal is rotated out before ever even seeing a Germen. Happily for him his ‘Delayed Action’ getting back to his lines more than makes up for his previous lack of stories to tell his kids. The issue closes with a more serious yarn from Woolfolk, Colan & Sachs as a sleep-deprived Pacific based Marine is constantly told to ‘Wake Up – And Fight!’

Penultimate inclusion OAAW #19 commences with Kanigher & Novick’s ‘The Big Ditch’ as a fighter pilot shot down by a Focke is picked by a Nazi crash boat and interrogated at a hidden rocket base before escaping and destroying it all. That remarkably low concept yarn is made up for by Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella’s ‘No Rank’ as damaged, isolated lone wolf Jack Randall learns the value and responsibilities of leadership, after which historical specialist/veteran Superman and Tomahawk illustrator Fred Ray delivers a potent paean to the Civil War with his Gettysburg-set ‘Stand-In Soldier’, after which Kahn, Colan & Giella play games as ‘G.I. Tarzan’ sees a former ape-man actor employ what he learned on set to flush out Japanese soldiers hiding in lush island jungles…

Closing this vintage veteran-fest, Our Army At War #20 (cover dated March 1954 and on sale from January 4th) sees Kanigher, Grandenetti & Sachs launch proceedings with the life story of USS Lion from the mustering of its crew to the Captain’s command to ‘Abandon Ship!’, whilst Joseph Daffron, Andru & Esposito more light-heartedly trace the fall and rise of a seemingly cursed B-25 bomber in ‘The Flying Crackerbox’. Herron & Frank Giacoia address the hostility and acrimony of defeated southern soldiers in ‘The Blue and the Gray’, and the epic war stories conclude for now with ‘T.N.T. Mail!’ by Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella wherein contented loner and voluntary outsider Charlet West at long last learns the value of comradeship during a colossal tank engagement…

With covers by Novick, Infantino, Giella, Giacoia, Kane, Colan, Krigstein & Grandenetti this compilation is technically excellent but suffers from many flaws caused by changing tastes and expanded consciousness. Bombastic, triumphalist and frequently overbearingly jingoistic, this mighty black-&-white treasure trove of combat classics also holds thoughtful, clever and even funny yarns of relatively ordinary guys in the worst times of their lives, making it a monument to a type and style (if not ideology) of storytelling we’re all the poorer without. Hopefully the publishers will wise up soon and begin restoring their like to the wide variety of genre sagas currently available in graphic collections…
© 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Plastic Man – The Origin of Plastic Man


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Superman The Golden Age Sundays volume 1: 1943-1946


By Jerry Siegel and “DC Comics”, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley, Stan Kaye, Ira Snappin, &various (IDW/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-797-8 (HB)

This book includes REALLY Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times and under the madness of war.

The comic book industry would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s bold and unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre… if not an actual art form.

The Man of Tomorrow was shamelessly copied, adapted by countless inspired writers and artists for numerous publishers, spawning an incomprehensible army of imitators and variations within three years of his summer 1938 debut.

Yes, 87 YEARS… and still counting!

The intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and triumphal wish-fulfilment expressed by the early Action Ace expanded to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reformist dramas, science fiction/fantasy, romance, comedy and, once war in Europe and the East also engulfed America, absorbed and reinforced patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do. Superman was master of the world and whilst transforming and dictating the shape of the fledgling funnybook industry, relentlessly expanded into all areas of entertainment media.

We might think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as the epitome and acme of comic strip creation, but the truth is that very soon after his debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, and Sherlock Holmes. Diehard comics fans regard our purest, most enduring icons in primarily graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, The Avengers and their hyperkinetic ilk long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures, instantly recognised in mass markets across all platforms and age ranges. Far more people have viewed or heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comics.

However, his globally syndicated newspaper strips reached untold millions, and by the time of his 20th anniversary – at the very start of what we know as the Silver Age of Comics – he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial regular and starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons, as well as two films and a novel by George Lowther.

Superman was a perennial wellspring for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers and had just ended his first smash live-action television serial. In his future were many more shows, a stage musical, many blockbuster movies and almost seamless succession of games, bubblegum cards and TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even superdog Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

However, in his formative years the small screen was simply an expensive novelty for many. The Action Ace achieved true mass market fame through a different medium: one not that far removed from his print origins.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the last century newspaper strips were the Holy Grail all American cartoonists/graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and frequently the world – they might be seen by millions if not billions, of readers and were generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books. At that time it also paid far better, and rightly so. Some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture. Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Blondie, Charlie Brown and many more escaped humble and tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Some still do…

After years lost in obscurity, almost all of Superman’s early newspaper strip exploits are at last available to aficionados and the curious newcomer in tomes such as this one, compiled under the auspices of the Library of American Comics. Showcasing the tough transitional period when Shuster’s diminishing eyesight overlapped Siegel’s military service and other minds and hands increasingly steered their super-baby the full colour strips here cover episodes #184 – #353, covering May 9th 1943 to August 4th 1946.

The daily Superman newspaper comic strip launched on 16th January 1939, supplemented by the full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Initially crafted by Siegel & Shuster and an ever-growing studio – Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring – the mammoth, relentless task required the additional talents of luminaries like Jack Burnley and writers Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz, especially as the draft deprived DC and McClure of those talented gentlemen. Managed by the McClure Syndicate, the feature ran continuously from 1939 until May 1966, appearing at its peak in more than 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers, boasting a combined readership of more than 20 million. When the Christopher Reeve Superman film franchise began, a second newspaper strip did too, starting in 1978 as The World’s Greatest Superheroes before becoming simply Superman. It folded in 1985. The combined series totalled almost 12,000 newspaper strips, but I strongly suspect that no matter how good the new movie is, the parlous state of newspaper publishing won’t be able to support a fresh tabloid iteration. I would love to be wrong…

For most of the war years Wayne Boring and Jack Burnley handled the visuals. Seigel was called up in 1943, as were Sikela and Nowak, and scripts were anonymously generated in-house at DC. When Burnley began his Starman comic book series, Boring (working for DC/National, not Shuster’s Superman Studio) was back on Sundays, with inker Stan Kaye signing up for the long haul, reinforced by steadfast Ira Snappin filling narrative boxes and word balloons throughout.

For reasons covered in previous collections, Superman was generally stuck on the home front as ordinary US fighting men proudly got blown up and maimed, but as the war progressed, those high-minded and pragmatically framed (editorial) edicts began to slip. Let’s face it, even the youngest readers knew Superman could have ended the conflict in hours but, like USO tours, the Man of Steel’s job was entertainment not solutionising. Thus, at least initially, content remained carefully curated tales of emotional dilemmas, romances and pedestrian criminality rather than muscle-flexing bombast, utilising mystery, fashion, wit and satire as substitutes for bludgeoning action…

Following affable appreciation in ‘An Introduction’ by Mark Waid, weekly wonderment commences in all its vibrant glory at the height of hostilities. Sadly, individual serial stories are untitled, so you’ll just have to manage with my meagre synopses of individual yarns; and it’s important to note that during this time Seigel finally left for boot camp and a number of often anonymous scribes were pulled in to take his place…

We open with Burnley rendering a serial saga as 4F reporter Clark Kent is assigned to follow and write on the experience of “Model Air Cadet” Dave Cooper as he progresses through training. Naturally, the proposed series presents a perfect opportunity for spies to deliver a shattering propaganda coup, but even after sneaky Nazi uber-strategist Eyeglasses takes charge of a sustained but continually failing campaign of sabotage, character assassination, framing and attempted murder, somehow Dave gets ever nearer to his goal of serving his country as an American Airman without ever knowing how much Superman helped…

With Boring at the drawing board a whole new concept took over the Sunday strip from August 15th as the Action Ace – responding to mail from servicemen overseas – sets up wish-fulfilment service ‘Superman’s Service for Servicemen’.

Apparently based on genuine GI letters from service people reading the strip wherever they were stationed, the following weeks and months found the hero scanning a postcard and then making a wish come true. These included flying soldiers across the world to get the most out of 24-hours passes; playing cupid; chasing off Home Front wolves and solving other “Dear John…” crises; checking for infidelity (he even helps WACs confirm that their far-deployed lovers are staying true!); crushing an invasion of sabotage-intent Gremlins infesting Metropolis and getting one Pacific-stranded soldier home in time for Christmas… and the birth of his first child…

Ranging far and wide, Superman delivers a kangaroo to an officer’s little girl; delivers late or lost mail to every stranded warrior; helps women decide which branch of the auxiliary services they should volunteer for; tracks down four separated pals lost on different missions; handles the KP duties for an entire army camp; supplies a busload of burlesque entertainers for joy-strapped GIs; assuages nervous mothers’ concerns on the lack of luxury in service barracks; criss-crosses oceans to facilitate marriages; retrains square pegs in over their heads; mediates service legal disputes; helps one lonely soldier enlist his pet pooch and much, much more…

Naturally, any enemy shipping, aviation, ordnance or personal encountered during these humanitarian sorties did not fare well at the mighty hands of the Man of Steel, such as a second sneak attack of 200 Japanese bombers seeking to ambush embattled troops and a similar land-based assault on our boys. Eventually as newspaper time catches up with real-world events, Superman acts as escort to flighty Sally Wilshire as she witnesses first-hand the D-Day landing and beyond…

Sadly, not included here is an oddment of publishing history and doctrine that will hopefully make it to future editions. In 1943, McClure – concerned that circulation might dip if Superman did not appear regularly – urged DC to create a spin-off feature. The abortive result was Lois, Lane, Girl Reporter. Intended as filler for emergencies, a trial run of 12 strips ran above Superman Sunday pages in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, sporadically between  October 24th 1943 and February 27th 1944, but are not seen here…

Back on the Superman Service, the ultimate expression of the service was when the Wonder of the Age astoundingly grants the wish of arrogant Japanese Major Saki Sukiyaki, and turns a planned propaganda triumph for the foe into a spectacular victory for democracy…

After more than a year, as the war staggered to its conclusion, continuity drama returned to Superman, albeit still laced with contemporary themes. Strip #263 (November 12th 1944) began a tale exploring the traumas of being demobilised as Clark encounters old pal Elmer Kronk, whose casual reaction to a string of near-lethal accidents is most disturbing…

Reinstating Superman’s service for servicemen – with a side-order of civilian reintegration – took the feature into the last year of the conflict with the emphasis very much on mopping up and going home, but boasts one last bizarre hurrah spanning #279-282 (March 4th – 25th 1945) as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and rest of the insane inner circle use the service to invite the literal Übermensch to a conference where he can take up his natural place as one of them…

Then Lois exploits her relationship for a private service. Having been a volunteer ambulance driver, she wants the Action Ace to visit and cheer up disabled servicemen. That’s easy enough to accomplish but the hero runs with the idea and organises an entire support organisation from those women no longer employed as war workers, but it’s a big job with some weird turns in store. Before long the Man of Tomorrow is finally battling Japanese soldiers in the skies over the Pacific, before heading home to help a young man struggling with uninformed parents and a massive case of “battle fatigue”, and another poor soul who somehow mislaid the army’s cash payroll…

Although the war against Japan ended with unconditional surrender on August 14th 1945 – and officially on September 2nd – preprepared stories kept coming that kept affairs on a strictly martial note. In #306 (September 9th) the failing militarists instigated a scheme to create their own superman with crudely hilarious (by 1940s standards) results, before Superman played matchmaker to a marriage-hungry war-hero seeking a “Dream Girl” to wed…

A sign of changed times came at last with episode #317 (November 25th 1945) as a thematic reset looked forward by looking back. Here, a much enhanced and expanded origin saga began with Jor-El & Lara accepting doom on Krypton, infant Kal-El’s flight to Earth, childhood in Smallville and Clark’s first days at the Daily Planet and nights as Superman…

Clearly the stars were his destination, and the new year brought a new direction. With #326 (27th January 1946) a return to contemporaneity saw the deep thinker Professor Vern build a Rocketship and drag Lois to Saturn with him. Thankfully, when the voyage inevitably hits trouble, Superman is able to follow and rescue them from a thousand perils and the solicitude of oppressive mega civilisation Suprania. It’s a close-run thing though, as fabulous High Queen Arda really likes the Kryptonian and isn’t married at the moment…

A return to Earth in every way prompts a human-scaled story of mystery, murder and romance amongst circus folk as the Man of Tomorrow must navigate a happy course between rivals Sadface the Clown and high wire artist Breakstone as they bring acrimony and woe to Warnum & Wailey’s 3-ring extravaganza whilst battling without let or restraint for the love of comely aerialist Carlotta…

Happily, Lois & Clark are there to adjudicate, referee, spot the deathtraps and reap the headlines in a Big Top thriller comprising episodes #339-353 (28th April – 4th August 1946)…

Although that one concludes on a happy note, generally it’s all To Be Continued…

Superman: The Golden Age Sunday Pages 1943-1946 is the first of three huge (312 x 245mm), lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the earliest and always transitional Man of Tomorrow. It’s an inexpressible joy to see these “lost” stories, offering a far more measured, domesticated and comforting side of America’s most unique contribution to world culture. It’s also a pure delight to see some of the hero’s most engaging yesterdays. Join me and see for yourself…
Superman ™ & © 2013 DC Comics. All rights reserved. The Library of American Comics is a trademark of The Library of American Comics LLC. All rights reserved. SUPERMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics.

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Darkie’s Mob: The Secret War of Joe Darkie


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Superman: The Secrets of the Fortress of Solitude


By Jerry Siegel, Jerry Coleman, Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Mark Schultz, Geoff Johns & Richard Donner, John Sikela, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye, Ross Andru & Romeo Tanghal, John Statema, George Peréz, Mike Mignola, Curt Swan, Brett Breeding, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3423-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Superman is comics’ champion crusader: the hero who heralded and defined a genre. In the decades since his spectacular launch in April 1938 (cover-dated June), one who has survived every kind of menace imaginable. With this in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his prodigious back-catalogue and re-present them in specifically-themed collections, such as this fun but far from comprehensive chronicling of someone who’s become his latter-day Kryptonian antithesis: a monstrous militaristic madman with the same abilities but far more sinister values and motivations.

For fans and creators alike, continuity can be a harsh mistress. These days, when maintaining a faux-historical cloak of rational integrity for the made-up worlds we inhabit is paramount, the greatest casualty of the semi-regular sweeping changes, rationalisations and reboots is those terrific tales which suddenly “never happened”.

The most painful example of this – for me at least – was a wholesale loss of the entire charm-drenched mythology which had evolved around Superman’s birthworld in the wonder years between 1948 and 1986. Happily, DC post Future State/Infinite Frontier/other recent publishing events are far more inclusive, all-encompassing and history-embracing…

Silver Age readers buying Superman, Action Comics, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane, World’s Finest Comics and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (not forgetting Superboy and Adventure Comics) would delight every time some fascinating snippet of information was revealed. We spent our rainy days filling in the incredible blanks about the lost world through the delightful and thrilling tales from those halcyon publications.

Thankfully DC was never as slavishly wedded to continuity as its readership and understood that a good story is worth cherishing. This captivating compilation gathers material from

Superman #17: Action Comics #241 & 261; Action Comics Annual #2; Superman Man of Steel #100 and Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude All New Collector’s Edition/DC Special Series #26 spanning 1942 to 2000, and focusing on landmark, rare, and notionally non-canonical tales of his astounding home-away-from-home/Super Mancave: all crafted by some of the countless gifted writers and artists to have contributed to the mythology of the Man of Tomorrow over the years.

Without preamble we open with Jerry Siegel & John Sikela’s ‘Muscles for Sale!’ (from Superman #17, cover-dated July/August 1942) which offered the very first revelation that the ultra-busy champion of the weak had built himself a little retreat. Here, located in a remote US mountain, the Action Ace enjoyed some Me-time in his new “Secret Citadel”, exercising, letting off super-steam and wandering about his Trophy Room before battling a mad mesmerist turning ordinary citizens into dangerously overconfident louts, bullies and thieves…

Then, an era later and after the Metropolis Marvel had become a small screen star, the Silver Age officially began with Action Comics #241 cover-dated June 1958. Scripted by Jerry Coleman and limned by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye ‘The Super-Key to Fort Superman’ is a fascinating, clever puzzle-play guest-featuring Batman as an impossible intruder vexes, taunts and baffles the Man of Steel in his most sacrosanct sanctuary: a place packed with fascinating wonders for Space Age kids…

February 1960 offered a classic return to the icy palace in ‘Superman’s Fortress of Solitude!’ (Action Comics #261 by Siegel, Boring & Kaye) as linked but previously untold anecdotes detail the secret history of the citadel of wonders to foil a cunning criminal plot against the indomitable hero…

Next, from 1981 and in its 64-pages + covers entirety, is an epic time travel excursion catered and curated by Roy Thomas, Ross Andru & Romeo Tanghal, and only previously seen in film-inspired oversized tabloid treat Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude All New Collectors Edition (DC Special Series #26). A cunning excuse to revisit past stories and glories and enjoy a room-by-room meander, ‘Fortress of Fear!’ finds the Man of Steel scouring his vast domicile for a clue to prevent the imminent explosive demise – 59 minutes and counting! – of his second homeworld! He’s also planning on thoroughly chastising mystery villain Dominus for risking all of humanity for simple vengeance…

Co-crafted by Jerry Ordway, John Statema, George Peréz, Mike Mignola, Roger Stern, Curt Swan & Brett Breeding, ‘Memories of Krypton’s Past’ (Action Comics Annual #2 1989) was a way-station moment in an absolutely epic endeavour wherein the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman finally learned why he was the last and only Kryptonian.

Previously. when trapped in a pocket dimension he had been forced to execute three super-criminals who had killed every living thing on their Earth and were determined to do the same to ours. Although given no choice, Superman’s actions plagued him, and on his return his subconscious caused him to stalk the streets in a fugue-state dealing out brutal justice to criminals in the guise of Gangbuster. When finally made aware of his schizophrenic state, Kal-El banished himself before he could do any lasting harm to Earth.

For months the exile roamed space, losing his abilities (deprived of Sol’s rays his powers quickly fade), before being enslaved by tyrant Mongul and forced into gladiatorial games on giant battle-planet Warworld…

Not seen here is the aftermath of those revelations wherein Superman overthrows the despot, liberates the hordes of the Warworld and returns to Earth with the most powerful device in Kryptonian history…

Closing the vacation trips comes the last chapter of another extended epic as first seen in Superman: Man of Steel #100 (May 2000). In Mark Schultz, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen’s ‘Creation Story’, semi-retired inventor hero John Henry Irons AKA Steel and his brilliant niece Natasha continue their battle against electronic packrat cult the Cybermoths: foiling the theft of future tech. Their efforts and resultant struggle happily lead to a brand new extra-dimensional opportunity for the astounded and late-arriving Caped Kryptonian as a freshly discovered pocket dimension discovered by Steel is filled and repurposed with the last Kryptonian remnants of the original Fortress of Solitude. Sadly, the astounding architectural feat draws rapacious Cybermoths and their anarchic queen Luna into action again, with neither Superman nor his engineering associates aware that a horrifying old enemy is behind her repeated attempts to seize this new citadel in a “Phantom Zone”…

No trip is complete without a little keepsake, and here we finish with double page cutaway diagram spread ‘Secrets of the Fortress of Solitude’ by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning, taken from Action Comics Annual #10 in 2007. Be assured, should you ever get lost in the astounding arctic sanctuary, this should keep you out of the Interplanetary Zoo and well away from the Phantom Zone portal.

You’re welcome…
Copyright 1942, 1958, 1960, 1981, 1989, 2000, 2007, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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War Picture Library: The Crimson Sea


By Hugo Pratt, Fred Baker, Donne Avenell, Alf Wallace, E. Evans, W. Howard Baker, with Allan Harvey & various (Rebellion Studios/Treasury of British Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-199-6 (HB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born in Rimini, Ugo Eugenio Prat, AKA Hugo Pratt (June 15th 1927 – August 20th 1995) spent his early life wandering the world, in the process becoming one of its paramount comics creators. From the start his enthralling graphic inventions like initial hit Ace of Spades (in 1945, whilst still studying at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts) were many and varied. His signature character – based in large part on his exotic formative years – is mercurial soldier/sailor) of fortune Corto Maltese.

Pratt was a consummate storyteller with a unique voice and a stark expressionistic graphic style that should not work, but so wonderfully does: combining pared-down, relentlessly modernistic narrative style with memorable characters, always complex whilst bordering on the archetypical. After working in Argentinean and – from 1959 – English comics like UK top gun Battler Briton, and on combat stories for extremely popular digest novels in assorted series such as War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, War at Sea Picture Library and more – Pratt settled in Italy, and later France. In 1967, with Florenzo Ivaldi, he produced a number of series for monthly comic Sgt. Kirk.

In addition to the Western lead feature, he also created pirate feature Capitan Cormorand, detective feature Lucky Star O’Hara, and moody South Seas saga Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea). When that gig ended in 1970, Pratt remodelled one of Una Ballata’s characters for French weekly Pif Gadget before eventually settling in with the new guy at legendary Belgian periodical Le Journal de Tintin. Corto Maltese proved as much a Wild Rover in reality as in his historic and eventful career…

In Britain, Pratt found richly adventurous pickings in our ubiquitous mini-comic books such as Super Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library, Action Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library: half-sized, 64-page monochrome booklets with glossy soft paper covers containing lengthy complete stories of 1-3 panels per page. These were regularly recycled and reformatted, but the stories gathered here – from War Picture Library #50, 40, 58 & 92 – have only appeared once… until now…

Whilst we’re being all factual and ethical, it’s only fair and honest to state here that all these lost graphic classics have been restored by our own Allan Harvey, so if you can find him feel free to gift him with a cup of tea and a ship’s biscuit or two…

Resurrected & repackaged by Rebellion Studios for their Treasury of British Comics imprint, the quartet of gritty, no-nonsense war dramas of men against the enemy and their own flawed natures begins with eponymous oceanic saga The Crimson Sea, published in May 1960 in WPL #50. Scripted by editorial assistant Fred Baker to match tone & timbre of contemporary war films – back when he still freelanced on the side before becoming manager of Fleetway’s romance comics division – this terse taut odyssey of error and redemption is a drama-drenched family tale of brothers serving aboard the same convoy escort ship.

Baker’s writing credits include Martin’s Marvellous Mini, Skid Solo, Tommy’s Troubles, His Sporting Lordship, Skid Kids, Hot-Shot Hamish and much more for weekly titles including Lion, Tiger, Buster, Hurricane, Thunder, Valiant, New Eagle, Scorcher, Chips, Radio Fun, Film Fun, Valentine and Roy of the Rovers). Fred Baker died on 4th June 2008.

When HMS Grapnel is holed in 1942, younger sibling and junior ship’s telegrapher & W/T officer Peter Wayman is severely traumatised after being ordered – and expected – to remain at his post deep in the Destroyer’s bowels as it slowly sinks.

Lieutenant Dave Wayman is with him, secretly carrying out his panic-stricken younger brother’s duties until the end. After both are miraculously rescued, Peter descends into a spiral of guilt-fuelled self-loathing. Even though Dave does everything to help, all the younger son sees is shame and disgusting pity: forces that dog him over the following months whilst he retrains as a Landing Craft pilot, and exacerbated by big brother solicitously transferring along with him to “look after him”. Inevitably the war forces Peter to relive his worst moment, but it also gives him a chance to redeem himself in his own eyes… and he takes it…

Grittily authentic, the spectacle and scale of sea battles and harbour raids is perfectly balanced with dark passion and human frailty, and even though the yarn provides a plot twist happy ending (this is for kids, remember?) The Crimson Sea is a worthy match for any 1960s movie – especially with Hugo Pratt “art directing” at his peak…

Air war grips us for the next tale in this bumper compilation as E. Evans & Alf Wallace co-write the exploits of a displaced Australian bush pilot in ‘Pathfinder’: a tale of frustration, prejudice, battle fatigue and ultimate triumph first seen in February 1960’s WPL #40.

During the 1960s Alfred “Alf” Wallace was Managing Editor of Odhams and part of the triumvirate – with Bob “Bart” Bartholemew & Albert “Cos” Cosser – who brought Marvel Comics to Britain in the Short-lived Power Comics imprint. He apparently didn’t write much, but when he did, the results (like immortal classic The Missing Link/Johnny Future) were unmissable. Sadly, I can offer even less about his collaborator Evans here. Perhaps one day…

Commercial pilot Henri le Jeune despised Japan’s sneaky tactics at Pearl Harbor and Manila and swiftly enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force to make them pay. Sadly, his gifts were too valuable to a global war effort and he was posted to Britain, firstly as a fighter pilot and – after much unpleasantness – to Bomber Command. Boisterous, ill-disciplined and arrogant, this squarest of pegs in a succession of extremely round holes was also ridiculously unlucky, caught up in friendly fire incidents and constant squabbles with superior officers. This led to frequent Boards of Enquiry, where he was generally vindicated but somehow always remained shunned and popularly vilified…

It eventually led to Le Jeune flying Lancasters, but also into conflict with a CO who had flown too many missions and was falling apart on the job, ending in vindication of a sort following a calamitous night raid on the factories of Essen…

Author and journalist Arthur Atwill William “Bill” Baker was born in Cork on October 3rd 1925, not long after the partition and foundation of the nation of Ireland. He fought for Great Britain in WWII and, after becoming a globetrotting freelance foreign correspondent in the immediate aftermath, eventually settled in London. He became an editor for Panther Books, and wrote many Sexton Blake novels before becoming the franchise editor in 1955. As the Controlling Group Editor at Fleetway, he launched the Air Ace Picture Library line whilst continuing to write content and full stories for War Picture Library.

In 1963, when Fleetway axed Sexton Blake, Baker acquired all rights and continued the series as independent publisher Howard Baker Books until 1969, and whilst writing genre novels under many pen names, also embarked on the massive task of reprinting the entire run of classic boys story-paper The Magnet (home of Billy Bunter). He died just short of his goal in 1991, having published 1520 of the 1683 issues in hardback collections.

His script for WPL #58 (July 1960) provides rollicking, relatively uncomplicated action as ‘Up the Marines!’ follows Royal Marine Commandos on various lethal and perilous missions, employing kayaking skills and deadly combat training to harry German shipping and shore-bases behind enemy lines, and concentrates on veteran RMC Sergeant Alan Swift, who loses a comrade – and subsequently his nerve and initiative – on a raid. Highly decorated but plagued by what we now know as PTSD, Swift’s career is saved when the fallen hero’s younger brother Teddy joins his unit just in time to play a crucial role in the D-Day landings…

Final mission ‘Dark Judgment’ premiered in War Picture Library #92 (April 1961), written by Donne Avenell, who began his strips career in Amalgamated Press’ editorial department, long before it evolved into Fleetway and ultimately IPC. Avenell’s first tales were for household name Radio Fun but briefly paused whilst he participated in WWII. Born in Croydon in 1925, Avenell served with the Royal Navy, before resuming publishing: editing an AP architectural magazine whilst pursuing writing for radio dramas and romances under many pseudonyms. By the 1950s, he was back in comics on top titles including War Picture Library and Lion; scribing sagas of The Spider, Adam Eterno, Phantom Viking, Oddball Oates and more. Avenell co-wrote major international features like Buffalo Bill, Helgonet (The Saint) and Lee Falk’s The Phantom for Swedish publisher Semic and devised the Django and Angel strip, whilst toiling on assorted licensed Disney strips. In 1975, with Norman Worker, he co-wrote Nigeria’s Powerman comic which helped launch the careers of Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons. Avenell was equally at home on newspaper strips such as Axa (1978-1986, drawn by Enrique Romero); Tiffany Jones and John M. Burns’ Eartha whilst also working in television, on shows like The Saint plus their subsequent novelisations. He died in 1996.

Here, the setting is Nazi-occupied Greece in 1942 where ancient themes of suspicion and mistrust grip members of the Special Boat Section after they pick up two escaped POWs who have swum away from a prison camp on Rhodes. Able Seaman Sam Turner is stolidly ordinary and dependable, but his fellow fugitive – Richard Hasler, Lieutenant, R.N.V.R. – is decidedly odd. Some of the rescue crew have even heard him speaking German…

As the SBS officers probe the escapees for useful intel on the camp or other potential high value targets, Lieutenant Tod Fielding and his superior Major Adam Perry form diametrically opposed views on Hasler and everything he has told them. Despite fear of espionage and betrayal rife the war must go on and dramatic proof – one way or the other – can only come after the roving unit commits to a large and risky operation on Rhodes, with both Hasler and Turner employed as guides…

Dramatic and searingly tense if a little predictable, this yarn allows Pratt to make magic with his mastery of shadows and negative space with breathtaking effect.

Packed with powerful, exhilarating action and adventure and exactly what you’d expect from a kids’ comic crafted to sell in the heyday of UK war films commemorating a conflict their parents and relatives lived through, this is another bombastic artistic triumph equipped at the end with the original eye-catching painted covers: two by Giorgio De Gaspari (War Picture Library #40 and 58); one by Septimus E. Scott (WPL #50); plus War Picture Library #92’s team effort from “Creazioni D’Ami” as well the standard ads for other publications and creator biographies.

Potent, powerful, genre-blending and irresistibly cathartic, these are brilliant examples of the British Comics experience. If you are a connoisseur of graphic thrills and dramatic tension – utterly unmissable.
© 1960, 1961, 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All rights reserved.