Category: Nostalgia

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Oor Wullie & The Broons: Cooking Up Laughs!


By Robert Duncan Low, Dudley D. Watkins, Ken H. Harrison & various (DC Thomson)
ISBN: 978-0-84535-614-9 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

August 24th is National Waffle Day so here I am burbling at you again and hoping this Crimbo I’ll get a day-diary with less distracting factoids…

Published eternally in perfect tandem, The Broons and Oor Wullie are two of the longest-running newspaper strips in British history, having appeared continuously in Scottish national newspaper The Sunday Post since their dual debuts in the March 8th 1936 edition. Both boisterous boy and gregariously engaging inner city clan were co-created by writer/Editor Robert Duncan Low (1895-1980) in conjunction with Dudley Dexter Watkins (1907-1969); DC Thomson’s greatest – and signature – artist. Three years later the first strips were collected in reprint editions as special Seasonal Annuals; alternating stars and years right up to the present day and remaining best-sellers every single time.

The shape and structure of British kids cartoon reading owes a massive debt to R.D. Low who was probably DC Thomson’s greatest creative find. He started at the Scottish publishing monolith as a journalist, rising to the post of Managing Editor of Children’s Publications where – between 1921 and 1933 – he conceived and launched the company’s “Big Five” story-papers for boys. Those rip-roaring illustrated prose periodicals comprised Adventure, The Rover, The Wizard, The Skipper and The Hotspur.

In 1936 his next brilliant idea resulted in The Fun Section: an 8-page pull-out supplement for The Sunday Post consisting primarily of comic strips. The illustrated accessory launched on 8th March and from the very outset The Broons and Oor Wullie – both laudably limned by the incomparable Watkins – were its incontestable star turns…

Low’s shrewdest move was to devise both strips as domestic comedies played out in the charismatic Scottish idiom and broad homespun vernacular. Ably supported by such features as Chic Gordon’s Auchentogle, Allan Morley’s Nero and Zero, Nosey Parker and other comics pioneers, they laid the groundwork for the company’s next great leap, which came in December 1937 when Low launched DC Thomson’s first weekly pictorial comic.

The Dandy was followed by The Beano in 1938 and early-reading title The Magic Comic a year after that. War-time paper shortages and rationing sadly curtailed this strip periodical revolution, and it was 1953 before the next wave of cartoon caper picture-papers. To supplement Beano & Dandy, the ball started rolling again with The Topper, followed by a host of new titles like Beezer and Sparky.

Low’s greatest advantage was always his prolific illustrator, whose style, more than any other, shaped the look of DCT’s comics output until and even beyond the bombastic advent of Leo Baxendale who shook things up in the mid-1950s. Hailing from Manchester and Nottingham, Watkins was an artistic prodigy. He entered Glasgow College of Art in 1924 and before long was advised to get a job at Dundee-based DCT, where a 6-month trial illustrating 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 a dead cert for both lead strips in the Fun Section and, without missing a beat, in 1937 Dudley D. added The Dandy’s sagebrush superman Desperate Dan to his weekly workload, and The Beano‘s placidly and seditiously outrageous Lord Snooty seven months later.

Watkins soldiered on in unassailable magnificence for decades, drawing some of the most lavishly lifelike and winningly hilarious strips in illustration history. He died at his drawing board on August 20th 1969. For all those astonishingly productive years he had unflaggingly drawn a full captivating page each of Oor Wullie and The Broons every week.

His loss was a colossal blow to the company and Thomson’s top brass preferred to reprint old Watkins episodes in both newspaper and Annuals for seven years before replacement artists were agreed upon. Dandy reran his old Desperate Dan stories for twice that length of time.

An undeniable, rock-solid facet of Scots popular culture from the very start, the first Broons Annual (technically Bi-Annual) appeared in 1939, alternating with a first Oor Wullie book a year after (thanks to those wartime paper restrictions, no annuals at all were published between 1943 – 1946) and for millions of readers no year can truly end without them.

Every kid who grew up reading comics has their own personal nostalgia-filled nirvana, and DC Thomson have always sagely left that choice to us whilst striving to keep all eras alive with carefully-tooled collectors’ albums like this substantial (225 x 300 mm) hardback Gift Book. Bright and breezy, the compilation focuses on the characters’ relationship with food – particularly Scotland’s unique and evocative cuisine – through festive occasions, seasonal celebrations and in everyday contexts: especially in comedic situations as comfort or consolation or even hard-won prizes. It’s also jam-packed with some of the best-written, most impressively drawn strips ever conceived: superbly timeless examples of cartoon storytelling at its best.

Moreover, rather than chronological arcs tracing particularly bleak and fraught beginnings in British history through years of growth, exploration and cultural change, we’re treated to a splendid pick-&-mix protocol: a surprise on every turn of a page with Low & Watkins ably succeeded by Tom Lavery, Peter Davidson, Robert Nixon, Ken H. Harrison, Iain Reid, Tom Morton, Dave Donaldson, Morris Heggie and more.

So What’s the Set Up?: the Brown family dwell together in a tenement flat at 10 Glebe Street in timelessly metafictional Scottish industrial everytown Auchentogle (sometimes called Auchenshoogle and soundly based on Glasgow’s working class Auchenshuggle district). As such it’s an ideal setting to tell gags in, relate events and crystalise the deepest, most reassuring cultural archetypes for sentimental Scots wherever in the world they might actually be residing. And naturally, such a region is the perfect sounding board to portray all the social, cultural and economic changes that came after the war…

Adamant, unswerving cornerstone of the family feature is long-suffering, ever-understanding culinary commander-in-chief Maw Broon, who puts up with cantankerous, cheap, know-it-all Paw and their battalion of stay-at-home kids. These comprise hunky Joe, freakishly tall beanpole Hen (Henry), sturdy Daphne, gorgeous Maggie, brainy Horace, mischievous twins Eck and the unnamed “ither ane” plus a wee toddling lassie referred to only as “The Bairn”.

Not officially in residence yet always hanging around is sly, patriarchal bewhiskered buffoon Granpaw: a comedic gadfly who spends more time at Glebe Street than his own cottage, constantly trying to impart his decades of out-of-date, hard-earned experience to the kiddies… but do they listen?

Offering regular breaks from inner-city turmoil whilst simultaneously sentimentalising, spoofing and memorialising more traditional times, the clan constantly adjourn to their “But ‘n’ Ben” (a dilapidated rustic cottage in the Highlands) to fall foul of weather, the countryside and all its denizens: fish, fowl, farm-grown, temporary and touristic…

As previously stated, Oor Wullie also launched on March 8th 1936 with his own collected Annual assemblages unfailingly appearing in the even years. His operating premise is sublimely simply and eternally fresh: an overly-imaginative, impetuous scruff with a weakness for mischief, talent for finding trouble and no hope of ever avoiding parental or adult retribution when appropriate shares what just happened…

Wullie – AKA William MacCallum – is the archetypal good-hearted rascal with too much time on his hands. He can usually be found sitting on an upturned bucket at the start and finish of his page-a-week exploits. The regular supporting cast includes Ma and Pa, local beat-Bobby P.C. Murdoch, assorted teachers and sundry other interfering adults who either lavish gifts or inflict opprobrium upon the little pest and his pals Fat Boab, Soapy Joe Soutar, Wee Eck and others. As a grudging sign of changing times, in later years he’s been caught in the company of sensible wise-beyond-their-years schoolgirls like Rosie and Elizabeth…

A compilation in monochrome – with some full-colour pages – Cooking Up Laughs! was released in 2016 as part of the admirable drive to keep early material available to fans: a lavishly sturdy hardback (still readily available through internet vendors) offering a tasty and tantalising selection curated with an emphasis on the eating habits of the stars; well, these northern stars at least….

Eating has always been a perennial and fundamental aspect of both strips (don’t get me started on the sociological value and importance of food in communal/tribal settings: I’ve been to college twice and did all the reading they told me to!), and the topic even generated a spin-off line of Maw Broon Cook Books…

Divided by colour cover or title-pages from previous Annuals, the endless escapades of the strip stars comprise the happily standard fare: kids outsmarting older folk to score sweets and prohibited provender; pompous male adults making galling goofs and gaffes when cooking; family frolics and festival events: rules of rationing and home-grown garden gifts; etiquette outrages: potent penalties for gorging; stolen candies, Christmas revels, how to drink Tea and even some full-colour puzzle pages to digest…

Also on show are Scots-specific treats and techniques such as Clootie Dumpling disasters; the mysteries of Fruit; the makings of “a Piece”; fabled Fish Suppers and the miracle of Cheps; how to present Crofter’s Porridge; the marvel of Mince ‘n’ Tatties; better things to do with Neeps; dieting dos and don’ts and every manner of sweet or savoury sampling of succulence and sinfulness…

With snobs to deflate, bullies to crush, duels to fight, chips to scoff, games to win and rowdy animals (from cats to coos) to escape, the eternally affable humour and gently self-deprecating, inclusive frolics make these superbly crafted strips an endlessly entertaining, superbly nostalgic treat.

Packed with all-ages fun, rambunctious homespun hilarity and deliriously domestic warmth, these examples of comedic certainty and convivial celebration are a sure cure for post-modern glums and Bank Holiday blues… and you can’t really have a happy holiday without that, can you?
© D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd. 2016.

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Robot Archie and the Time Machine


By E. George Cowan, Ted Kearon, Mike Western & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-169-9 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

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

Joking aside, British comics are unlike any other kind: having to be seen to be believed and always enjoying – especially when “homaging” such uniquely American fare as costumed crimefighters – a touch of insouciant rebelliousness…

Until the 1980s, UK periodicals employed an anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – sometimes fortnightly – basis. Humour comics like The Beano were leavened by action-heroes like The Q-Bikes or General Jumbo whilst adventure papers like Smash, The Eagle, Hotspur or Valiant always offered palate-cleansing gagsters like The Cloak, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and sundry other titter-treats.

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

After post-war austerity, the 1950s ushered in a revolution for British comics. With printing and paper restrictions gone, a steady stream of titles emerged from companies new and old, aimed at the many different levels of childish attainment from pre-school to young adult. When Hulton Press launched The Eagle in April 1950, the very concept of what weeklies could be changed forever. That oversized prestige package with photogravure colour was exorbitantly expensive, however, and when venerable London-based publishing powerhouse Amalgamated Press retaliated, it was a far more economical affair.

I’m assuming AP only waited so long before the first issue of Lion launched (cover-dated February 23rd 1952) to see if their flashy rival periodical was going to last. Lion – just like The Eagle – was a mix of prose stories, features and comic strips and even offered its own cover-featured space-farer in Captain Condor – Space Ship Pilot. Initially edited by Reg Eves, the title ran 1156 weekly issues until 18th May 1974 when it merged with sister-title Valiant. Along the way – in the tradition of British publishing which subsumed weaker-selling titles to keep popular strips going – Lion absorbed Sun (1959) and Champion (1966) before going on to swallow The Eagle in April 1969: soon after merging with Thunder (1971). In its capacity as one of the country’s most popular and enduring adventure comics, the last vestiges of Lion only vanished in 1976 during Valiant’s amalgamation with Battle Picture Weekly.

Despite that demise, there were 30 Lion Annuals between 1953 and 1982, all benefitting from the UK’s lucrative Christmas market, combining a variety of original strips with topical and historical prose adventures; sports, science/general interest features; short humour strips and – increasingly from the 1970s – reformatted reprints from IPC/Fleetway’s back catalogue.

The Jungle Robot debuted in Lion’s first issue, created by incredible prolific E. George Cowan (Ginger Nutt, The Spider, Saber, King of the Jungle, Smokeman/UFO Agent, Nick Jolly the Flying Highwayman, Paddy Payne, Girls’ Crystal Libraries) and drawn by Alan Philpott (The Deathless Men/V for Vengeance, A Classic in Pictures, Rebels of Ancient Rome, War/Super Detective/Cowboy Comics & Picture Libraries, Look-In, Klanky). It enthralled readers for a couple of months before abruptly vanishing with the August 9th issue.

Other than an appearance in the 1955 Lion Annual that was it until January 19th 1957 when the mechanical marvel was revived and revised by Cowan & A. Forbes before veteran artist Ernest “Ted” Kearon (Spot the Clue with Zip Nolan, The Day the World Drowned, Steel Commando and DC Thomson’s Morgyn the Mighty) signed on in 1958 and soldiered on for most of the next 17-ish years. On his return the mighty mouthed mechanoid became one of the most popular and well-remembered heroes of the British scene and was successfully syndicated all across Europe and around the world. Hopefully this compilation of later material will be soon supplemented by earlier annals in the fullness of time…

Reprinting stories from Lion between 20th April 1968 to 11th January 1969 plus yarns from Lion & Valiant Special 1969 and Lion Summer Special 1970 the saga returns and -following a fulsome reminiscence and Introduction by John Reppion – the latterday ongoing adventures of explorers and troubleshooters Ted Ritchie, Ken Dale and arrogant, smug, self-absorbed yet innately paternally benevolent super-robot Robot Archie resume and take an outrageous turn…

The former Jungle Robot was once the greatest achievement of Ted’s inventor uncle Professor C. R. Ritchie: battling monsters & aliens, foiling crooks and battling disasters, but in ‘Robot Archie’s Time Machine’ – by Cowan & Kearon and running from 20th April to 29th June 1968 – the boastful ‘bot discovers the wonders and perils of spacetime after the boys inherit The Castle, a colossal inhabitable two-storey faux chess piece which can take them anywhere in history and even into the future…

The first tempestuous test drive dumps them in the 14th century and into a minor peasants’ revolt as cruel, ambitious tyrant Hugo the Black Wolf terrorises his bit of Britain, and sees the armoured interloper and his pitiful retinue as a mighty rival knight and squires. Soon the visitors are battling injustice and beloved of the peasantry, but also risking accusations of sorcery with Archie’s many electromechanical add-ons (magnets, extendible claws, jet pack etc.) and incredible strength and durability adding to his lustrous legend… as a warlock!

Hugo despatched, the voyagers seek their own time and home but a technical hitch sees them overshoot by nearly a 100 years in second saga ‘Robot Archie and the Superons’ (6th July to 2nd November 1968). Obviously influenced by TV series/movie adaptation Doctor Who: Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD, the extended epic finds the trio in a London resembling a rain forest and overrun with wild animals, where the surviving dregs of humanity are hunted by invading aliens inside an infinite army of mechas ranging from tiny to gigantic …until Archie and Co organise a resistance and repel the rapacious robotic rogues…

Final weekly serial ‘Robot Archie – Time Traveller’ sees the garrulous gadget admitting he cannot control The Castle as another attempt to return to 1968 deposits them all in 18th century England where the big guy is mistaken for a heroic and popular highwayman battling corrupt and unjust magistrate Sir Jeremiah Creefe, who uses The Law and the King’s Soldiery to scourge London Town and line his own coffers in the days before Christmas. But not for long; once Archie sets his mechanical mind to it…

A section of ‘Extras’ kicks off with a brace of short complete tales from the Lion & Valiant Special 1969 and Lion Summer Special 1970 respectively. The first sees the time-tossed trio fetch up on a desert island just as bunch of pirates is bury their ill-gotten gains. Sadly, Blackbeard’s pistol balls briefly blow one of Archie’s fuses and only sheer luck and attacking Spaniards save the heroes from the plank…

This romp is illustrated by magnificent Mike Western who also closes this book with a half-dozen full-colour covers, but before that one last jaunt takes the team all the way back to who knows when and a lost isle of dinosaurs, cavemen and exploding volcanoes: a breathless rollercoaster ride by an artist unknown to me…

Now part of Rebellion Publishing’s line of British Comics Classics, Robot Archie is an icon of UK fantasy long overdue for revival. I hope not much time passes before we see all the old stories back again…
© 1968, 1969 & 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: The Black Casebook


By Bill Finger, France Herron, Edmond Hamilton, Dave Wood, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang, Charles Paris, Stan Kaye & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2264-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Despite having his name writ large on the cover the only thing Grant Morrison produced for this weird and wonderful compilation is the introduction, so if he’s the reason you buy Batman you’re in for a little disappointment. However if you feel like seeing the incredible stories that inspired him, then you’re in for a bizarre and baroque treat as this collection features a coterie of tales considered far too outlandish and fanciful to be canonical for the last few decades but now reintroduced to the mythology of the Dark Knight as a casebook of the “strangest cases ever told!”…

Tales from the overwhelmingly anodyne 1950s (and just a little overlap in the 1960s) always favoured plot over drama – indeed, a strong argument could be made that all DC’s post-war costumed crusaders actually shared the same character (and yes, I’m including Wonder Woman) – so narrative impetus focuses on comfortably familiar situations, outlandish themes and weird paraphernalia. As a kid they simply blew me away. They still do.

Starting things off is a ‘A Partner for Batman’ (Batman #65 June/July 1951) by Bill Finger, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Charles Paris, wherein the masked mentor’s training of a foreign hero is misconstrued as a way of retiring the current Boy Wonder, whereas a trip way out west introduces the Dynamic Duo to their Native American analogues in ‘Batman… Indian Chief!’ (#86 September 1954, by Ed “France” Herron, Sheldon Moldoff & Stan Kaye), before ‘The Batmen of All Nations!’ (Detective Comics #215, January 1955 by Edmond Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris) took the sincere flattery a step further by introducing nationally-themed imitations from Italy, France, England, South America and Australia: all attending a convention that’s doomed to disaster.

A key story of this period introduced a strong psychological component to Batman’s origins in ‘The First Batman’ (Detective Comics #235, September 1955) by Finger, Moldoff & Kaye, after which the international knock-offs reconvened to meet Superman and shocking new mystery-hero in ‘The Club of Heroes’ (World’s Finest Comics #89, July/August 1957 -Hamilton and magnificent Dick Sprang & Kaye).

Detective #247 (September 1957, by Finger, Moldoff & Paris) introduced malevolent Professor Milo who used psychological warfare and scientific mind-control to attack our heroes in ‘The Man who Ended Batman’s Career’ with the same creative team bringing him back for an encore in Batman #112’s ‘Am I Really Batman?’

Herron scripted one of Sprang & Paris’ most memorable art collaborations in incredible spectacular ‘Batman – Superman of Planet X!’ (Batman #113, February 1958) before Finger, Moldoff & Paris unleashed the Gotham Guardian’s most controversial “partner” in manic mirthquake ‘Batman Meets Bat-Mite’ (Detective Comics #267, May 1959). In comparison, ‘The Rainbow Creature’ (Batman #134, September 1960) is a rather tame monster-mash from Finger & Moldoff which only serves to make the next tale more impressive.

‘Robin Dies at Dawn’ by Finger, Moldoff & Paris is an eerie epic first seen in Batman #156, June 1963 (supplemented by, but not dependent upon, a Robin solo adventure sadly omitted from this collection). Here Batman experiences truly hideous travails on an alien world culminating in the death of his young partner. I’m stopping there as it’s a great story and plays a crucial part in latter day sagas Batman: R.I.P., The Black Glove and others. Buy this book and read it yourself…

But wait: There’s more! From the very end times of vintage-style tales comes inexplicably daft but brilliant ‘The Batman Creature!’ (Batman #162, March 1964) by an unknown writer (latterly identified as Dave Wood), Moldoff & Paris, wherein Robin and Batwoman must cope with a Caped Crusader horrifically transformed into a rampaging giant monster. Shades of King Kong, Bat-fans!

Even though clearly collected to cash in on the success of modern Morrison vehicles, these stories have intrinsic worth and power of their own, and such angst-free exploits from a bygone age still have the magic to captivate and enthral. Do not dismiss them and don’t miss out!
© 1951, 1954-1960, 1963, 1964, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Night of The Devil – War Picture Library volume 3


By Hugo Pratt, Tom Tully, Gordon Sowman & various (Rebellion Studios/Treasury of British Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-903-3 (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) wandered the world in early life, whilst becoming one of its paramount comics creators. His enthralling graphic inventions since 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 own exotic formative years – is mercurial soldier (perhaps sailor is more accurate) 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 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 others – Pratt returned to and 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 star, he created pirate feature Capitan Cormorand, detective feature Lucky Star O’Hara, and a moody South Seas saga called Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea). When it folded 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 rich thematic pickings in the ubiquitous mini-books like 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 yarns were regularly recycled and reformatted, but the supernaturally-tinged stories gathered here – from Battle Picture Library #62 (June 1962) and War Picture Library #91 (March 1961) – have only appeared once… until now…

Resurrected and repackaged by Rebellion Studios for their Treasury of British Comics imprint, Night of the Devil is a brooding blend of mystery, revenge and supernatural doom scripted by astoundingly prolific long-serving Glasgow-born Tom Tully. His canon of classic delights include Roy of the Rovers, Heros the Spartan, Dan Dare, The Leopard from Lime Street, Adam Eterno, Janus Stark, Mytek the Mighty, Master of the Marsh, The Wild Wonders, Nipper, The Mind of Wolfie Smith, Johnny Red, Harlem Heroes, Mean Arena, Inferno, Football Family Robinson, Buster’s Ghost and countless more.

He’s supported here by co-writer/unsung company stalwart Gordon Sowman who toiled during the 1950s & 1960s on Picture Library publications and weekly features as well as writing numerous Sexton Blake Library novels under the nom du crime Desmond Reid. He might even have written the sadly uncredited second jungle combat tale here…

A fulsome and informative Foreword from Chloe Maveal shares some more astounding real life adventures of Pratt and traces his celebrated career before we step into creepy comics combat mode with ‘Night of the Devil’ (BPL #62)…

Deep in Burma’s jungles a seven-man British Army platoon races to blow up the bridge at Taigu and slow the inexorable advance of Japanese forces. However ‘The Lieutenant’ in command is untested, arrogant and vainglorious, only seeing the task as a means to secure promotion and praise.

Ignoring the advice of tested veterans such as Lance Corporal Paddy Price and Sergeant Matt Brind, smugly superior Lieutenant Robert Salter pushes his team mercilessly and makes one costly mistake after another. When his recklessness causes his scout’s death and makes them a pinpoint target of the enemy, the remaining squad snatch a few hours’ sleep before pressing on and taking refuge in an ancient edifice far from their planned route home. ‘The Temple’ is pre-Buddhist, eerily magnificent and occupied by a single native priest dedicated to the worship of ancient Phya Yomaraj. That doesn’t save him when Salter panics and opens fire with a machine gun…

As the cleric dies vowing doom to all, the gunfire alerts the enemy outside and triggers ‘The Siege’ which gradually but spectacularly winnows the team down. Tensions aren’t eased any when Private Don Evans finds a tourist guide and mordantly reads out the history of the arcane temple and its god who is “king of the devils” and ruthless with all transgressors…

Salter is descending into madness but still hopeful of escape, triumph and glory. Despatching the Sarge and Price to complete the mission and blow up ‘The Bridge’ simply to distract encroaching waves of Japanese soldiers, he then betrays them to save his own skin. As his end approaches, Salter experiences ‘The Awakening’, but as he shakes sleep from his head and readies his team to resume the mission to Taigu something occurs and he realises it was no dream but a horrific prophecy…

A powerful psychological thriller breaking the rules of kids’ combat comics, Night of the Devil is subtly subversive, straightforwardly told and startlingly compelling, far from the bread & butter war stories that sustained British readers for decades.

Pure horror overtones are dialled down in follow-up ‘The Bayonet Jungle’. Far less overtly spooky in delivery, this catalogue of jungle warfare originated in War Picture Library #91 (March 1961) with Pratt limning a more traditional episode, albeit one similarly steeped in psychological angst. It begins as a hard-pressed, cut-off British unit in Burma is disturbed and conflicted by new replacement Jack Green. Although a capable soldier, many of his new comrades believe him a jinx because twice he has been the ‘Sole Survivor’ of in-country patrols. Minor events seem to constantly confirm those fears and superstitious squaddie Jenkins can’t stop speculating aloud despite every effort of solid soldiers Sergeant Freeman and Major Webb…

With mail drops and supply runs failing, snipers, air raids and ‘Jungle Ambush’ bedevilling the embattled survivors, the last thing they need is demoralising accidents too, but only after a Burman native working for the Japanese infiltrates the unit and leads them into an ambush at the ‘Village of Treachery’ is rationality is restored with the ‘Test of Courage’ in fighting their way out inspiring the spooked warriors to battle towards reinforcements, turn the tables on the enemy and score an explosive victory…

What happens next is powerful, exhilarating and exactly what you’d expect from a kids’ comic crafted to sell in the heyday of UK war films commemorating the conflict their parents lived through.

At the end are the original full-colour painted covers by superb Pino Dell’Orco as first seen on Battle Picture Library #62 (June 1962 ‘Night of the Devil’) and War Picture Library #91 (March 1961 ‘The Bayonet Jungle’).

Potent, powerful, genre-blending and oddly cathartic, these are brilliant examples of the British Comics experience – and if you’re a connoisseur of graphic thrills and dramatic tension – utterly unmissable.
© 1961, 1962, 2021 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Batman: The Daily Classics 1943-1946 AKA Batman: The Dailies 1943-1946


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Don Cameron, Alvin Schwartz, Jack Schiff, Jack Burnley, Dick Sprang, Charles Paris, Stan Kaye & various (Sterling/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4027-4717-5 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For most of the 20th century newspaper comic strips were the Holy Grail cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country and the planet with millions of readers; accepted (in most places) as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books, they also paid better. The Holiest of Holies was a full-colour Sunday page…

However, it was usually something of a poisoned chalice when original comic book stars became so popular that they swam against the tide to become syndicated strips. After all, weren’t funnybooks invented just to reprint newspaper stars in a cheap accessible form? Superman, Wonder Woman, Archie Andrews and a few others made the jump in the 1940s and many “four-color” features have done so since. One of the most highly regarded came late to the party, both in its daily and Sunday format. It was called Batman and Robin.

Although a highpoint in strip cartooning, both 1940s iterations of Batman seemed cursed – especially by bad timing. After years of negotiating, the Daily strip finally debuted during a period in newspaper publishing afflicted by war-time rationing, shortages and a volatile marketplace. Thus it never achieved the circulation it deserved, but at least some Sundays eventually won a new lease of life when DC began reprinting vintage stories in the 1960s in their 80-Page Giants and Annuals. The superior quality adult/family oriented adventures of were ideal action-mystery fare, and also added an extra cachet of exoticism for young readers already captivated by tales of their heroes that were positively ancient and redolent of History with a capital “H”.

The original printings comprising this epic hardback compilation tome were three volumes co-published by DC and Kitchen Sink Press in 1990. This 21st century re-issue is a cheaply-bound hardback easily damaged by its own bulk and poor quality stitching, so if given the choice get the trade paperbacks. Ideally of course, multimedia giant DC would release this whole collection digitally…

Each landscape TPB offered a wealth of superb background information provided by Joe Desris in his ‘A History Of The 1940s Batman Newspaper strip’. It remains in three parts, scattered throughout the book and preceding each monochrome section. Perhaps that’s best as it’s a phenomenal, near-overwhelming feat of scholarship offering history, biographies, historical anecdotes, context, critique and comparisons, a description of what was happening in the comics at the time and a mouth-watering mountain of candid photos, print and movie serial promotional material, individual essays on the creators and their strips, contributions and even merchandise memorabilia: all combining to form a fantastically informative and extensive overview detailing the strip, its antecedents and the tantalising minutiae, how it came to be and even why it never found an readership…

Nevertheless what you want is the stories, so following all that schooling comes sheer entertainment and an Introduction Week of strips by Finger & Kane with Charles Paris applying inks and crafting shading in a sequence setting the scene and revealing the secrets of Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Alfred and the rest of the cast. This was used as a compulsory starter for any and every paper picking up the strip and was initially seen between October 25th to 30th 1943.

From there it’s straight into action as ‘What a Sweet Racket!’ (Finger, Kane & Paris spanning 1st November 1943 – 8th January 1944) sees the Batsignal lit, summoning the Dynamic Duo to find missing Police Commissioner Gordon…

The doughty lawman disappeared soon after visiting convict Spike Durphy at State Prison, and the con is also now gone! Although quickly recovered by the masked manhunters, Gordon has uncovered a sinister scheme to spring prisoners from jail and get them out of town. After many near-death incidents Batman and Robin realise the gang are well imbedded in Gotham and are playing more than one game, but what no one knows is that there’s a spy on the task force and the mobsters have a second scheme in play to remove their greatest enemy.

Of course the World’s Greatest Detective has already spotted a major giveaway and is ready to swoop when the time is right…

Switching from crime thriller to melodrama, second sortie ‘The Phantom Terrorist’ (Finger, Kane & Paris from 10th January to 18th March 1944) traces the macabre manoeuvres of a seeming maniac targeting dancer Rita Rollins. However, a little digging by theatregoers Wayne and Grayson exposes plenty of grudges and simmering tensions fraying the nerves of management, cast and crew; any one of whom could be the phantom saboteur spoiling the production and nearly killing many performers and audience members…

Oddly, even after devious deduction and dynamic derring-do leads to the capture of “The Terrorist”, accidents keep happening and the sleuths must think again – with some insightful input from Alfred – to stop tragedy occurring…

In pursuing a “more mature” newspaper readership editor Jack Schiff and the creators were mindful to keep supervillain appearances to a minimum and play up themes and plots familiar to movie-trained audiences. That might explain why killer-clown The Joker made an early appearance: his look was reputedly based on Conrad Veidt as tragic antihero Gwynplaine in the 1928 expressionist movie masterpiece The Man Who Laughed (itself an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel).

Again crafted by Finger, Kane & Paris and running Mondays to Saturdays from 20th March through 3rd June 1944, ‘The Joker’s Symbol Crimes’ opens with the villain in jail and seemingly suffering a psychological breakdown. It’s hard to tell with the “Clown Prince of Crime” but the situation is simply a ploy to escape and – once again at liberty – he goes on another terrifying spree based on images of symbolic value to the victims in an attempt to categorically prove his superiority to Batman. The chase leads all over Gotham and includes a fantastic sequence dangling from a clock tower that informed Bat-iconology for decades after as well as the climactic scene in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie…

It should also be noted that as a maturer feature, these Batman adventures casually included a lot more scantily clad ladies than the comic book iteration: generally actresses like Rita Rollins or, as here, svelte starlet Miss Gaylord…

Big changes began with the fourth sequence as new writers delivered shorter, snappier adventures. beginning with ‘The Secret of Triangle Farm’ (5th June -12th August) by crime novelist Don Cameron. His comic book credits included Superman, Liberty Belle, Boy Commandos, Superboy, Aquaman, Congo Bill and DC western stars Pow Wow Smith, Hopalong Cassidy and Nighthawk) and with Kane & Paris he revealed here how fur thieves used their isolated spread to launder a string of brutal robberies. Mastermind The Silver Fox even managed to shoot the Darknight Detective, generating harrowing weeks of tense melodrama as he hovered between life and death. The Boy Wonder briefly worked alone until forced to recruit a lookalike Batman from the police force, but the ploy ended in shocking tragedy and ultimately a bittersweet victory when the true masked manhunter returned…

‘The Missing Heir Dilemma’ saw more radical roster changes with Alvin Schwartz (as Vernon Woodrum  and later scripter of many DC stars including Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Newsboy Legion, Aquaman, Vigilante, Slam Bradley, Tomahawk and the Superman newspaper strip), beginning the mystery with Kane pencilling the first 2 weeks before newspaper strip star/sports cartoonist Jack Burnley (Superman, Starman) replaced him. As ever Paris inked the tale which ran from 14th August to October 28th 1944.

It begins as super-slick sadistic Southern conman Percy Swann joins forces with local mobster “The Spaniel” to extend the scammer’s grift of choice by “finding” lost inheritors like Eggbert Dover. The Dynamic Duo find the petty criminal first but cannot see what benefit to major felons the job would afford… but that’s only until the real target is revealed and the long con exposed. Sadly, dying William Jenkin enjoys a miraculous recovery after Swann introduces him to the son he lost decades ago and when the located prodigal suffers pangs of conscience, steps need to be taken if the job is to succeed…

When those murderous efforts inadvertently involve Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend (nurse Linda Page) our heroes find the link they’ve been looking for and justice takes its harsh course…

The next five stories (preceded by another titanic tranche of information from Deris) originally comprised the second 1990s’ collection (covering 1944-1945) but here rolls straight on with Schwartz, Kane & Paris’ ‘The Two-Bit Dictator of Twin Mills’ (October 30th 1944 – January 27th 1945). This time dirty politics and graft are the topical topics as Bruce and Dick relocate to a nearby city and into a war between honest newspaper editor Ben Bellow and corrupt party boss Tweed Wickham. When Bellow won’t stop crusading his offices are blown up and friend/shareholder Wayne takes over the Twin Mills Sentinel and is soon finishing the job of dismantling Wickham’s all-powerful party machine. Despite the best efforts of corrupted cops, bought judges outlawing Batman & Robin, an army of cheap thugs and creepily “infallible” hired killer JoJo (based on actor Peter Lorre at his most sinister) the outcome is never in doubt. However, when JoJo feels he’s been betrayed by his employers a deadly wild card threatens to end everyone concerned on all sides…

Jack Schiff returned to his writing roots for next yarn ‘Bliss House Ain’t the Same’ (January 29th – April 28th) as Gotham suburb Midville Junction welcomes back prodigal son Martin Bliss. Sadly, his reunion at the old homestead reveals an unwanted and monstrous cuckoo in the nest and his fiery mother a virtual hostage. Fugitive poetic gangster Pomade is ruling the roost and soon “disappears” Martin’s girlfriend Corrine to further robberies involving shady gangster Skipper Keane… which is where Batman comes in as he’s just confirmed that gunman’s participation in a recent hold-up…

A classic caper of crooks, kidnaps, chases and sinister doings, the building tension culminates in an eerie subterranean pursuit and marine manhunt ending in the death of a tragic monster before Schiff, Burnley & Paris find true romance in ‘The Karen Drew Mystery’ (April 30th – July 7th). Here Bruce Wayne’s latest flighty fascination proves to be a real dark horse and his equal in ingenuity who initially frames him for murder before becoming a fellow fugitive from justice. Literally tied together Bruce and Karen hunt the real culprit with the Gotham cops dogging their heels until she brings him to the real enemy – blackmailing smuggler Mr. Wright –  and a rightful if rough and (for Bruce) unsatisfactory conclusion…

A moment of rare tranquillity opens Schwartz, Kane & Paris’ ‘Their Toughest Assignment’ (July 9th – September 1st) as Commissioner Gordon is compelled to pay off a longstanding police debt of honour and calls in Batman and Robin despite the matter having “nothing to do with crime”…

Big Ed Parker helped out the force in times of trouble and now needs to find his daughter an apartment in the city already groaning under a housing crisis caused by returning military and demobbed civilian workers all freshly out of WWII. It’s a conundrum even vast personal wealth and all the skills of the World’s Greatest Detectives can’t readily solve, and is soon complicated by equally desperate seekers competing for the premises of murder victims, upward moving millionaires and recently arrested felons.

Aso it doesn’t stay felony-free for long as even when they do find a home for Phyllis Parker it turns out to be an active crime scene and even Phyllis isn’t on the level…

Moving from wry topical humour to macabre murder mystery the same creative team detail ‘The Warning of the Lamp!’ (September 3rd – November 24th 1945) as a fishing trip lands Bruce & Dick in the heart of a mystery as fellow angler Finlay Gribbidge reels up a jacket with his name in that he’s never seen before…

Bitten by the mystery, Bruce pursues the odd coincidence and is soon wading through a complicated scam involving a cult of vegetarians led by a dubious prophet/spiritualist with his eye on a convoluted property scam. His multi-million dollar payout is almost assured and The Lamp is quite content to kill anyone in his way unless Bruce can find a way to foil him…

The third and final individual outing becomes the last section of this 40s Batman compilation, again enhanced by fascinating Bat-lore from Joe Desris (including a complete list of all the papers that carried the feature and a comparison of the comic book and strip interpretations of the Doctor Radium story).

From November 26th 1945 to February 9th 1946 Schwartz, Burnley Kane & Paris explored ‘An Affair of Death’ as a stolen car racket plagues Gotham and Bruce Wayne acts as an undercover agent of the DA’s office. Although the police arrest many lower down the chain, the endeavour prospers and Wayne agrees to buy a hot car from the enigmatic bosses. That trail seemingly leads to hulking, speech-impaired crime boss Lockjaw and his ubiquitous, obsequious major domo Echo, but something isn’t right…

In an effort to stop the interference, Lockjaw springs from jail young “gypsy” Eduardo (no such thing as Roma outside horror movies back then). The boy is already serving time for threatening the DA to protect his sister’s honour and Lockjaw tries to coerce the angry kid to get rid of his legal problems – but with no effect. Meanwhile said sister Juanita has already painfully interacted with Bruce, and when Batman follows her the truth slowly comes out, but not before the real leader captures the siblings and tries again to make them his patsies. As events spiral out of control a degree of disguise and identity trading leads to a vicious showdown and honour bloodily restored…

Jack Schiff clearly had fun great scripting ‘A Change of Costume’ (February 11th – March 23rd) for strip debutantes Dick Sprang & Stan Kaye as Gordon and Batman planned a big bust and the arrest of notorious gangster “Slugger” Kaye. The scheme involved tricking their quarry into attending a society ball he had never before missed but all the cheeky fun came as the Dynamic Duo attend dressed as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Robin was mad enough to be turning villainous heads as the glamorous Queen of France even before Slugger introduced his own “insurance policy”/escort – formidable female fighter Hammerlock Hilda. When she started laying out the attendees… all heck broke loose…

Reining in the delicious comedy Schwartz, Kane & Paris revealed how a ruthless, intrusive radio journalist Reed Parker broke all rules and abandoned ethics to trump his rivals with ‘The News That Makes the News’ (March 25th – June 1st). His scandalous scoops spoil police plans, endanger witnesses and allow the guiltiest scum in America to run free, but when he stepped over the line once too often, the government asked Batman and Robin to ferret out his sources and found a dark criminal secret at the heart of Parker’s crusade – one that could expose the Dark Knight’s other identity to the lethal glare of exposure…

Schwartz, Kane & Paris then revealed how a bridegroom on his wedding day only had ‘Ten Days to Live!’ (June 3rd – August 3rd). Cappy Wren’s shocking prognosis spurs his bride to marry him at once, but as the countdown ticks away Batman and Robin become involved when the living deadman tries to make his end meaningful by going after notorious criminals like Monty Flak…

When that results in hoods and hoodlums seeking to speed up that demise, counterattacks by the Gotham Guardians result in a bonanza of arrests and big surprise happy ever after…

The law process is severely scrutinised by the same creative team in penultimate thriller ‘Acquitted By Iceberg’ (August 5th – September 21st) when the most cunning, unscrupulous and infallible defense lawyer in America sets up his shingle in Gotham and starts allowing the worst of the worst back onto its bloodstained streets. After numerous confrontations produce nothing but stalemate, Batman’s dogged determination finally overwhelms the Iceberg’s patience and when he finally steps over his own legal line, the true victor is justice…

First told in Batman #8 (1941), the last strip escapade adapts ‘The Strange Case of Professor Radium’ which told of a scientist abused by money-grubbing financial backers who turned himself into a deadly radioactive marauder. Here original writer Bill Finger with Kane & Paris radically revises, recycles and expands the moody horror as arrogant nuclear physicist Professor Knell accidently overdoses on radiation and becomes a madly murderous menace dubbed ‘Deadly Professor Radium’ (September 23rd – November 2nd). After developing a “death touch” and going on a horrific rampage of mercy-killings bringing peace and final rest to the afflicted whether they seek it or not, he meets his own end after turning the city into an abandoned ghost town, with scenes presaging the atomic monster tropes of the following 15 years. In the end it’s not the heroes who end the threat but hubris and fate…

And that was that. The daily strip incarnation of Batman and Robin closed with no fanfare and little lamentation as post-war America turned to different kinds of two-fisted champions for their family Funny Page hits. The Sunday page had already ended (on October 27th 1946) and world of regulation he-men in dire straits – but no tights and much military regalia – waited in the wings. However time and distance have showed us these are truly tales of golden vintage and inestimable value. It’s long past time this stuff was back in print, and available in digital formats too – as it’s a must for both Bat-fans and lovers of the artform.
© 1991, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Martian Manhunter volume 1


By Jack Miller, Joe Samachson, Dave Wood, Edmund Hamilton, Bob Kane, Joe Certa, Lew Sayre Schwartz & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1368-8 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Stress-alleviating Fun is in pretty short supply everywhere these days, but if you’re a comics fan susceptible to charming nostalgia, this item – readily available in paperback, but tragically still not formally full-colour archived or even compiled in any digital format yet – might just appeal to the starry-eyed wonderer in you.

As the 1950’s opened, comic book superheroes were in inescapable decline, giving way to a steady stream of genre-locked he-men and “Ordinary Joes” dramatically caught up in weird or extraordinary circumstances. By the time the “Red-baiting”, witch-hunting Senate hearings and media investigations into causes of juvenile delinquency fizzled out mid-decade, the industry was further depleted by the excision of any sort of mature content or themes.

The self-imposed Comics Code Authority took all the hard edges out of the industry, banning horror and crime comics whilst leaving ghostly, sanitised anodyne shades to inhabit the remaining adventure, western, war, humour and fantasy titles that remained. American comics – for which read a misperceived readership comprising only children and cretins – could have bowdlerised concepts of evil and felonious conduct, but not the simplest note of repercussion: a world where mad scientists plotted to conquer humanity without killing anybody and cowboys severed gun-belts or shot guns out of opponents’ hands with a well-aimed bullet without ever drawing blood. Moreover, no civil or government official or public servant could be depicted as anything other than a saint…

With corruption, venality and menace excised from the equation, comics were forced to supply punch and tension to proceedings via mystery and imagination – but only as long as it all had a rational, non-supernatural explanation…

Beating by a year the new Flash (who launched in Showcase #4 cover-dated October 1956) and now officially the first superhero of the Silver Age, the series depicting the clandestine cases of stranded alien scientist J’onn J’onzz was initially entitled John Jones, Manhunter from Mars: an honourable, decent being unwillingly trapped on Earth who chose to confront injustice and fight crime secretly using incredible powers, knowledge and advanced technical abilities with no human even aware of his existence.

In truth, even before that low-key debut, Batman #78 trialled the concept in ‘The Manhunter From Mars!’ (August/September 1953) wherein Edmund Hamilton, Bob Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Charlie Paris told the tale of Roh Kar: lawman of the Fourth Planet who assisted the Dynamic Duo in capturing a Martian bandit plundering Gotham City. That stirring titbit opens this first magnificent monochrome compendium before doling out a main course of the eccentric, frequently formulaic but never disappointing back-up series from Detective Comics #225 to 304, cumulatively spanning November 1955 to June 1962.

In one of the longest creative tenures in DC comics’ history, all the art for the series was by veteran illustrator Joe Certa (1919-1986), who had previously worked for the Funnies Incorporated comics “Shop”. His credits included work on Captain Marvel Junior and assorted genre titles for Magazine Enterprises (Dan’l Boone, Durango Kid), Lev Gleason’s crime comics and Harvey romance titles. For DC he drew nautical sleuth Captain Compass and many tales for such anthological titles as Gang Busters and House of Mystery.

Certa also drew the newspaper strips Straight Arrow and Tarzan, and ghosted long-lived boxing strip Joe Palooka. In the 1970s he moved to Gold Key, working on TV adaptations, mystery tales and all-ages horror stories, before ending his career at DC on Challengers of the Unknown and Legion of Super-Heroes…

At the height of global Flying Saucer fever John Jones, Manhunter from Mars debuted in Detective Comics #225 (cover-dated November 1955). Written by Joe Samachson, ‘The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel’ describes how a reclusive genius builds a robot-brain able to access Time, Space and the Fourth Dimension, and accidentally plucks an alien scientist from his home on Mars. After a brief conversation with his unfortunate guest, Erdel succumbs to a heart attack whilst attempting to return the incredible J’onn J’onzz to his point of origin.

Marooned on Earth, the Martian realises his new home is riddled with the primitive cancer of Crime and resolves to use his natural abilities (which include telepathy, mind-over-matter psychokinesis, shape-shifting, invisibility, intangibility, super strength and speed, flight, assorted super vision powers, invulnerability and many more) to eradicate the blight; working clandestinely disguised as a human policeman. His only concern is the commonplace chemical reaction of fire which saps all Martians of their mighty powers…

With his name Americanised to John Jones he enlists as a Police Detective and with #226’s ‘The Case of the Magic Baseball’ began a long, peril-fraught career tackling a variety of Earthly thugs, mobsters and monsters, starting with the sordid case of Big Bob Michaels – a reformed ex-con and baseball player blackmailed into throwing games by a gang of crooked gamblers. He continues in ‘The Man with 20 Lives’ as the mind-reading cop impersonates a ghost to force a confession from a hard-bitten killer.

The tantalising prospect of a return to Mars confronts Jones in the Dave Wood scripted ‘Escape to the Stars’ (Detective #228) wherein criminal scientist Alex Dunster cracks the secret of Erdel’s Robot Brain. However, duty overrules selfish desire and the mastermind destroys his stolen super-machine when Jones arrests him…

With #229 Jack Miller took over scripting, leading off with ‘The Phantom Bodyguard’ as the Hidden Hero signs on to protect a businessman from his murderous partner, only to discover a far more complex plot unfolding, before #230’s ‘The Sleuth Without a Clue’ sees the covert cop battling a deadline to get the goods on a vicious gang, just as a wandering comet causes his powers to malfunction…

Detective Comics #231 heralds a shift towards sci fi roots in ‘The Thief Who Had Super Powers!’, as an impossible bandit proves to be simply another refugee from the Red Planet, after which ‘The Dog with a Martian Master’ is revealed to be just another delightful if fanciful animal champion. Jones returns to straight crimebusting and clandestine cops-&-robbers capers by becoming ‘The Ghost from Outer Space’ in #233 before going undercover in a prison to thwart a smart operator in #234’s ‘The Martian Convict’.

Jones infiltrates a circus as ‘The World’s Greatest Magician’ to catch a Phantom Thief and finally re-establishes contact with his extraterrestrial family to solve ‘The Great Earth-Mars Mystery’ in #236, all before seeing out 1956 as ‘The Sleuth Who went to Jail’ (this time one operated by crooks) and loses his powers to work as an ‘Earth Detective for a Day’ in #238.

For Detective #239 (January 1957) ‘Ordeal By Fire!’ finds the Anonymous Avenger transferred to the Fire Department to track down an arson ring, whilst in ‘The Hero Maker’ Jones surreptitiously uses his gifts to help a retiring cop go out on a high, prior to yet another firebug targeting historical treasures sparking ‘The Impossible Manhunt!’ in #241.

Jones thought he’d be safe as a underwater officer in ‘The Thirty Fathom Sleuth’ but even there flames find a way to threaten him, after which he battles legendary Martian robot Tor in #243’s ‘The Criminal from Outer Space’, latterly doubling for an endangered actor in ‘The Four Stunts of Doom!’ and busting up a clever racket utilising ‘The Phantom Fire Alarms!’ in #245.

As a back-up feature, expectations were never particularly high but occasionally all those formula elements gelled to produce exemplary adventure tales such as #246’s ‘John Jones’ Female Nemesis’, introducing pert, perky and pestiferous trainee policewoman Diane Meade. Being a 1950’s woman, naturally she had romance most in mind, but was absent for the next equally engaging thriller wherein our indomitable alien cop puzzled over ‘The Impossible Messages’ of scurrilous smugglers and #248’s marvellous tale of ‘The Martian Without a Memory’. Struck by lightning, Jones must utilise earthly deductive skills to discern his lost identity, and almost exposes his own extraterrestrial secret in the process…

In Detective #249’s ‘Target for a Day’ the Martian disguises himself as the State Governor marked for death by a brutal gang whilst as ‘The Stymied Sleuth!’ he is forced to stay in hospital to protect his alien identity as radium thieves run amok in town, after which he seemingly becomes a brilliant crook himself… ‘Alias Mr. Zero’.

For #252 Jones confronts a scientific super-criminal in ‘The Menace of the Super-Weapons’ before infiltrating a highly suspicious newspaper as ‘The Super Reporter!’ and invisibly battle rogue soldiers as ‘The One-Man Army’ in #254. The Hidden Hero attempts to foil an audacious murder-plot encompassing the four corners of Earth in a ‘World-Wide Manhunt!’, after which #256’s ‘The Carnival of Doom’ pits him against crafty crooks whilst babysitting a VIP kid whilst #257 sees the Starborn Sleuth perpetrating spectacular crimes to trap the ‘King of the Underworld!’

In Detective #258 Jones takes an unexpectedly dangerous vacation cruise on ‘The Jinxed Ship’ and return to tackle another criminal genius in ‘The Getaway King!’ before helping a failing fellow cop in the heartwarming tale of ‘John Jones’ Super-Secret’, after which ab-normality resumes in #261 as a shrink ray reduces him to ‘The Midget Manhunter!’.

It was an era of ubiquitous evil masterminds and another one used beasts for banditry in ‘The Animal Crime Kingdom’, whilst a sinister stage magician tested Manhunter’s mettle and wits in #263’s ‘The Crime Conjurer!’ before the hero’s hidden powers are almost exposed after cheap hoods find a crashed capsule and unleash ‘The Menace of the Martian Weapons!’

Masked and costumed villains were still a rarity when J’onzz tackled ‘The Fantastic Human Falcon’ in #265 whilst ‘The Challenge of the Masked Avenger!’ was the only case for a new – and inept – wannabe hero, after which the Martian’s sense of duty and justice force him to forego a chance to return home in #267’s ‘John Jones’ Farewell to Earth!’

A menacing fallen meteor results in ‘The Mixed-Up Martian Powers’ and a blackmailing reporter almost becoming ‘The Man who Exposed John Jones’, before a trip escorting an extradited felon from Africa results in J’onzz becoming ‘The Hunted Martian’. The Manhunter’s origin was revisited in #271 when Erdel’s robot-brain accidentally froze the Martian’s powers in ‘The Lost Identity’ whilst death threats compelled Jones’ boss to appoint a well-meaning hindrance in the form of ‘The Super-Sleuth’s Bodyguard’…

By the time Detective Comics #273 was released (autumn 1959 and cover-dated November) the Silver Age superhero revival was in full swing and, with a plethora of new costumed characters catching the public imagination, old survivors and hardy perennials like Green Arrow, Aquaman and others were given a thorough makeover. Perhaps the boldest was the new direction taken by the Manhunter from Mars as his undercover existence on Earth was revealed to all mankind when he very publicly battled and defeated a criminal from his home world in ‘The Unmasking of J’onn J’onzz’. As part of the revamp, J’onzz lost the ability to use his powers whilst invisible and became a very high-profile superhero. At least that vulnerability to common flame was still a closely guarded secret…

Nonetheless, this tale was followed by the debut of incendiary villain ‘The Human Flame’ in #274 and the introduction of a secret-identity-hunting romantic interest as policewoman Diane Meade returned in #275 recast as ‘John Jones’ Pesky Partner’…

‘The Crimes of John Jones’ finds the new superhero an amnesiac pawn of bank robbers before another fantastic foe premiered in #277 with ‘The Menace of Mr. Moth’. Invading Venusians almost cause ‘The Defeat of J’onn J’onzz’ next, and a hapless millionaire inventor nearly wrecks the city by accident with ‘The Impossible Inventions’…

Advance word of an underworld plot compels the Manhunter to be ‘Bodyguard to a Bandit’ and keep a crook out of jail, whilst #281’s ‘The Menace of Marsville’ inadvertently grants criminals powers to equal his after which another fallen meteorite temporarily makes Diane ‘The Girl with the Martian Powers’ – or does it?

To help out an imperilled ship captain, J’onzz becomes ‘The Amazing One-Man Crew’ whilst in #284 Diane – unaware of his extraterrestrial origins – seeks to seduce her partner in ‘The Courtship of J’onn J’onzz!’ after which monster apes tear up the city in ‘The Menace of the Martian Mandrills!’

Detective #286 found ‘His Majesty, John Jones’ standing in for an endangered Prince in a take on The Prisoner of Zenda before ‘J’onn J’onzz’s Kid Brother!’ T’omm is briefly stranded on Earth. Only one of the siblings could return…

‘The Case of the Honest Swindler’ in #288 sees a well-meaning man accidentally endanger the populace with magical artefacts after which a quick trip to Asia pits the Martian against a cunning jungle conman in ‘J’onn J’onzz – Witch Doctor’. Then when a movie is repeatedly sabotaged, Diane assumes the job of lead stunt-girl with some assistance from the Manhunter in ‘Lights, Camera – and Doom!’ and a lovesick suitor masquerades as ‘The Second Martian Manhunter’ to win his bride in #291. ‘The Ex-Convicts Club’ almost founders before it begins after someone impersonates reformed criminals to pull new jobs. Luckily J’onzz is more trusting than most…

Diane finds herself with a rival in policewoman Sally Winters and their enmity can apparently only be resolved with ‘The Girl-Hero Contest!’, after which the Manhunter pursues crooks into another dimension and becomes ‘The Martian Weakling’ (DC #294), and thereafter ‘The Martian Show-Off!’ to inexplicably deprive a fellow cop of his 1000th arrest! When that mystery is solved, he acts as ‘The Alien Bodyguard’ for Diane who is blithely unaware she has been marked for death…

Detective #297’s ‘J’onn J’onzz vs. the Vigilantes’ has the Green Guardian expose the secret agenda of a committee of wealthy “concerned citizens” before going to the aid of a stage performer who is ‘The Man Who Impersonated J’onn J’onzz!’ He then almost fails as a ‘Bodyguard for a Spy’ because Diane is jealous of the beautiful Princess in his charge…

Detective Comics #300 unveiled ‘The J’onn J’onzz Museum’ – a canny ploy by a master criminal who believes he has uncovered the Martian’s secret weakness, whilst ‘The Mystery of the Martian Marauders!’ has our hero battling impossible odds when an army of his fellows invaded Earth…

‘The Crime King of Mount Olympus’ matches the Manhunter against a pantheon of Hellenic super-criminals to save Diane’s life after which more plebeian thugs attempt to expose his secret identity in ‘The Great J’onn J’onzz Hunt!’ This first beguiling compendium then concludes with #304’s rousing tale of an academy of scientific lawbreakers as John Jones infiltrates ‘The Crime College!’…

Although certainly dated, these complex yet uncomplicated adventures are drenched in charm and still sparkle with innocent wit and wonder. Perhaps not to everyone’s taste nowadays, such vintage exploits of the Manhunter from Mars are still an all-ages buffet of fun, thrills and action no fan should miss.
© 1953, 1955-1962, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Human Torch volume 1 (#2-5A)


By Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Paul Reinman, Joe Simon, Al Gabriele, Harry Sahle, George Mandel, Harold Delay & Paul Quinn, John H. Compton, Ray Gill, Stan Lee, Sid Greene & others (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1623-3 (HB) 978-0785167778 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Lots of it, generated at moments of fervent if not rabid anti-German and anti-Japanese excess. Everybody on all sides was doing the same at the time but that’s no excuse, and if you can’t tolerate overtly racist depictions despite historical context and social grounding, this might be a Marvel Masterwork to avoid.

In the early days of the Golden Age, a novel idea and sheer exuberance could take you far, and since the alternative means of entertainment and escapism for most kids were severely limited, it just wasn’t that hard to make a go of it as a comic book publisher. Combine that once in a lifetime moment with a creative workforce which kept being drafted, and it’s clear to see why declining standards in story and art didn’t much affect month-to-month sales during World War II, but started a cascade-decline in superhero strips almost as soon as GI boots began hit US soil again.

In 1940 the comic book industry was in frantic expansion mode with every publisher trying to make and own the Next Big Thing. Martin Goodman’s pulp fiction business leapt to the challenge and scored big in the Fall of 1939 with debut anthology Marvel Comics (Marvel Mystery Comics from its second issue). Both The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner (Happy 85th Birthdays “firebug” & “water-rat”!) found great favour with the burgeoning, fickle readership. Two out of seven was pretty good: Action and Detective Comics only had the one superstar apiece…

An editorial policy of rapid expansion was in play: release a new book filled with whatever the art- & script-monkeys of the comics “shop” had dreamed up and not yet sold. “Shops” – freelance creative studios packaging material on spec for publishers – were the most prominent facilitators in the early days, and Goodman bought all his product from Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies Inc. Like every other money-man, Goodman kept the popular hits and disregarded everything else as soon as sales reports came in.

In quick succession Daring Mystery Comics #1 (January. 1940) and Mystic Comics #1 (March 1940) followed, with limited success and a rapid turnover of concepts and features. Timely Comics – or occasionally Red Circle, s the nest of companies then called itself – had a huge turnover of characters who only made one or two appearances before vanishing, never to be seen again …until modern revivals or recreations generated new, improved versions of heroes like Black Widow, Thin Man, The Angel, Citizen V or Red Raven.

That last one is especially relevant here. Although fresh characters were plentiful, physical resources were not and when the company’s fourth title Red Raven #1 was released (cover-dated August 1940) it failed to ignite substantial attention for title character or B-features Comet Pierce, Mercury, Human Top, Eternal Brain and Magar the Mystic – despite being crammed with stunning early work by rising star Jacob Kurtzberg/Jack Curtiss/Jack Kirby.

The magazine and its entire roster was killed and its publishing slot and numbering were handed over to a proven seller. Thus, a Human Torch solo title launched with #2 (Fall 1940) – not only offering extra tales of the flammable android hero, but also introducing his own fiery side-kick.

Just so’s you know; the next two Timely releases fared much better: Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) and inevitably, a singular title for Sub-Mariner (Fall 1941)…

Although the material in this collection is of variable quality and probably not to the tastes of many modern fans, for devotees of super-heroes, aficionados of historical works and true Marvel Zombies there’s still lots to offer here. However, it cannot be said enough: these stories were created in far less tolerant times and social, class and especially racial depictions leave a lot to be desired. But that’s history, and we need to see it, warts, epithets, attitudes, gross misconceptions and all…

After a knowledgeable and informative introduction by Roy Thomas, the vintage hot-dogging begins with by Carl Burgos’ ‘Introducing Toro – the Flaming Torch Kid’ wherein our shining star discovers a circus boy possessing all his own incendiary abilities. After learning his tragic story and how his parents were killed, he clashes with an evil, exploitative carny strongman with a ray-gun to free the lad from bondage. The misnamed senior Torch was actually a miraculous android and not at all human, but here he acquires a plucky, excitable teen assistant who would be his faithful comrade for (almost all) the remainder of his career…

Next comes Bill Everett’s ‘Sub-Mariner Crashes New York Again!!!’ as subsea stalwart Prince Namor once more attacks America, prior to ‘Carl Burgos’ Hot Idea’ and ‘Bill Everett’s Hurricane’ provide prose features allegedly detailing how the respective creators came up with their tempestuous brain-children…

The remaining stories are pretty pedestrian. ‘The Falcon’ by Paul Reinman features a young District Attorney who corrects legal shortcomings and miscarriages of justice as a masked vigilante, ‘Microman’ (Harold Delay & Paul Quinn) stars a young boy exploring his own garden at insect-size before Mandrake knock-off ‘Mantor the Magician’ sees a fez-topped modern mage crush crooks posing as ghosts in a by-the-numbers battle by Al Gabriele.

Joe Simon’s Fiery Mask actually debuted in Daring Mystery #1 before closing his career here with ‘The Strange Case of the Bloodless Corpses’, as the multi-powered physician hunts a remorseless mad doctor terrorising the city…

Second outing issue #3 (I loved typing that) is far more impressive, and includes the always-enticing ads old farts like me adore. Behind the Alex Schomburg cover (who provides all four in this book) is a monochrome plug for upcoming release Captain America Comics #1 before an ambitious and spectacular untitled 40-page Torch epic by Burgos & Harry Sahle reveals how naive traumatised Toro is seduced by Nazism. Partitioned by a full-colour ad for Marvel Mystery Comics and featuring another early Marvel standby moment as the flaming fireballs fight, before uniting again when the boy sees the patriotic light and burning off Hitler’s moustache, this is the early company at its most sensationalist and primal.

John H. Compton’s text piece ‘Hot and Wet’ sees the two elemental superstars debating whose creator is best and Cap offers kids membership in his Sentinels of Liberty club before a 20-page Sub-Mariner crossover yarn – anticipating Marvel’s successful policy of the 1960s onward – sees Namor and the Torch team up to trash Nazi vessels sinking Allied convoys, and ultimately scuttling a full-blown invasion together with the issue closing on an ad for Timely’s next sensation The Black Marvel in Mystic Comics…

Numbered #3 on the cover but #4 inside, much of the next issue was ghosted. Following another Captain America plug, The Torch – via Burgos & Sahle – takes far too long solving the ever-so-simple ‘Mystery of the Disappearing Criminals’, even splitting the battle against deranged mastermind Blackjack into two chapters divided by an ad for never-published All-Aces Comics, after which Ray Gill introduces second string star-spangled hero The Patriot in a 2-page text piece. Everett was still very much in evidence and on top form when Sub-Mariner takes 10 beautiful pages to save an Alaskan village from plague, blizzards, an onrushing glacier and incendiary bombs in a sublime forgotten classic, before another Marvel Mystery Comics ad segues into The Patriot’s rather lacklustre comics debut, shambling through a tale by Gill & George Mandel featuring Yellowshirt Bundist (that’s German/American Nazi sympathizers to you, kid) saboteurs to close the issue…

That line-up continued in the last issue reprinted here (Human Torch #5A, Summer 1941, and the “A” is because the series did a little lock-step to catch up with itself: the next issue would also be a #5). Here, however, following an ad for Captain America, the fiery star and his Flaming Kid clash with mad scientist Doc Smart in 2-part epic ‘The March of Death’ (Burgos layouts and Sahle finishes). Ads for Sub-Mariner Comics #2 and ‘Marvel’s Pinwheel of Stars!’ precedes the incandescent android joining forces again with Namor in Stan Lee-scripted prose vignette ‘The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner Battle the Nazi Super Shell of Death!’ and is backed up by more team-up action as Sub-Mariner and guest-star The Angel are assaulted by Nazi zombies in ‘Blitzkrieg of the Living Dead’ (possibly scripted by Mickey Spillane with art attributed to Bill Everett, but clearly overwhelmed by lesser hands in the inking and perhaps even pencilling stages)…

The action pauses after The Patriot wraps thing up in a boldly experimental job by future artistic great Sid Greene written by Ray Gill. Here the Home-Front Hero tracks down a Nazi who kills by playing the violin, after which an ad for landmark title Young Allies #1 brings the historical festivities to a close…

In the bonus section are more house ads (Human Torch # “1”, “3”, “4” & 5A) plus a promotional flyer confirming the astounding sales of the first Torch title…

Although undoubtedly controversial by modern standards, even with all the quibbles and qualifications, this is certainly a book lifelong Marvel and comics history fans would need to see. Value is one thing and worth another, so in the end it’s up to you…
© 1940, 1941, 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan® of the Apes volume 1


By Edgar Rice Burroughs, adapted by Roy Thomas, Pablo Marcos, Oscar González & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 987-1-50673-236-7 (HB) eISBN: 987-1-50673-335-7

This book includes historical Discriminatory Content.

Beginning with the October 1912 number, Tarzan of the Apes was serialized in anthological pulp magazine The All-Story before being collected into the world famous novel first released in June 1914. It and sequel tales were thereafter constantly adapted into plays, films and newspaper strip form: that last one beginning on January 7th 1929, and illustrated by Hal (Prince Valiant) Foster. A truly spectacular full page Sunday strip began on March 15, 1931, with artwork by Rex Maxon and carried on by some of the greatest illustrators in the business. United Feature Syndicate distributed the strip, which carried new Sunday material until 2002. The Daily strip had ended new material on 29th July 1972, when Russ Manning quit it to concentrate on the Sunday feature and Tarzan books for Europe. From 2003 even the Sundays switched to offering reprints of early classics – due more to the parlous state of US strips and newspapers than a loss of interest in the hero…

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ fantasy epic has been a hugely appreciated and acclaimed property for more than a century. The character has enjoyed countless novel releases (23 official sequels by ERB and many “rogue” tales by others) in every language and in every medium of expression – even a bunch of ballets!

The jungle man is (arguably) a public domain figure these days, spawning a number of hotly-contested crossover team-ups and “unauthorised” exploits. Just over a decade ago, his story was celebrated and commemorated by a return to basics as we’ll see in this review.

As already stated, very soon after his prose debut, Tarzan became a multimedia sensation and global brand. More novels and many, many movies – all created or at least sanctioned by Burroughs and his family – followed. The American comic strip arrived in 1929, followed by a radio show in 1932, and the Ape-Man inevitably carved out a solid slice of television and comic book markets too, once those industries were established. His comic book exploits have been with us since the start: initially gathering newspaper strips until Dell Four Color Comic #134 (February 1947) began a run of original material spanning Dell, Gold Key, Charlton, DC, Marvel, Blackthorne, Malibu, Dark Horse and Idaho Comics Group that is still unfolding.

… And that’s just the USA: Tarzan has been a global byword for adventure for most of the last hundred years, with many countries contributing to the oeuvre if not the canon. In Britain for a while in the 1950s, Michael Moorcock steered the course of Tarzan’s Adventures…

The book look today focuses on a compilation of the latest entertainment platform to go ape. As revealed in the ‘Introduction by Roy Thomas’ the formation of EdgarRiceBurroughs.com led to Thomas and Tom Grindberg reviving and expanding the Ape-Man’s canon via a webcomic – Tarzan: The New Adventures. Those online strips soon spawned a second string to the bow…

The parent company wanted more and Thomas’ solution was to re-adapt Burroughs’ original books as Foster had done in 1929, but by judicious editing of Tarzan of the Apes and its follow-ups, create at last a definitive, fully chronological biography of the immortal hero’s journey from birth to …whenever…

Thus he scoured the 24 canonical novels for revelatory moments, braiding them into a tapestry tracing the wild boy’s development over 127 Sunday instalments based on the material’s many flashback moments. Moreover, the feature would benefit from the experience of Peruvian master artist Pablo Marcos (James Bond 007, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Conan, Tales of the Zombie, Secret Society of Super-Villains) and designer/computer colour painter Oscar González.

By way of introduction, this version of Tarzan of the Apes opens in a bar where Edgar Rice Burroughs meets with a man with an extraordinary tale to tell…

It – and ‘Tarzan of the Apes: A Classic Adaptation’ – begins in 1888 as, following a shipboard mutiny, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke and his wife Lady Alice are marooned on the African coast. At least they have their possessions, including books for their soon-to-be-born baby…

Against appalling odds they persevere, with Greystoke building a fortified cabin to shelter them from marauding beasts – particularly curious and savage apes roaming the region. Despite the birth of a son, eventually the jungle wins and the humans die. However, their son is saved by a grieving she-ape who adopts the infant to replace her own recently dead “Balu”…

Here the saga diverges, as incidents latterly revealed in short stories comprising ERB’s 6th book Jungle Tales of Tarzan are intercut with the ongoing adaptation. Tragic circumstance leads to the wild boy discovering he can swim whilst further moments see the foundling exercise his growing intellect and penchant for practical jokes against older apes like bullies like Tublat and Kerchak before the origin resumes. As the ugly hairless freak thrives under mother Kala’s doting attentions, he grows strong but increasingly aware of his differences. He only discovers the how and why after years of diligent effort when – through sheer intellectual effort and the remnants of his father’s books and papers – the boy teaches himself to read and deduces that he is actually a “M-A-N”…

These lone forays to the abandoned cabin also lead to a major rite of passage as the boy is attacked by a berserk gorilla and almost perishes in the process of making his first kill…

No sooner has Kala nursed him back to health than Tublat attacks her and the “the hairless one” (the meaning of the term “Tarzan”) scores his second magnificent bloody triumph…

The tale within a tale continues as the boy rises to prominence amongst his hirsute kin. Through observation, imagination and ingenuity he invents a lasso, creates warm protective clothing and masters the beasts of his pitiless environment: most by force but some – like the elephants (“Tantor”) by friendly mutual cooperation…

When cannibalistic natives settle in the area Tarzan has his first contact with creatures he correctly identifies as being M-E-N like him. The situation leads to the greatest tragedy of his life, as one of M’Bonga’s tribe kills beloved, devoted Kala, teaching Tarzan the shock of loss and bestowing an overpowering hunger for revenge – which he inflicts on the whole tribe with chilling ruthlessness. The punitive actions grant him mastery of another infallible weapon: a hunting bow and poisoned arrows…

Weekly instalments adapt more vignettes from Jungle Tales, beginning with ‘Tarzan’s First Love’, detailing how the adolescent is increasingly drawn to fetching young she-ape Teeka. Incomprehensibly, no matter what he does, the young maiden just isn’t interested in her ardent pink admirer yet somehow sees his friend Taug as ideal…

Clearly, the heart wants what the heart wants and Tarzan understands: even nobly saving his rival from the M’Bonga’s relentless hunger for bushmeat. They call Tarzan “Forest-Devil”, and ‘The Capture of Tarzan’ follows, revealing how overconfidence leads to his downfall but also how his relationship with elephants saves him.

Reworkings continue in ‘The Battle for the Balu’ as Teeka & Taug become incomprehensibly aggressive after the birth of their first balu, and build in ‘The God of Tarzan’ with the ever-curious jungle wonder overdosing on his dead dad’s books and suffering a brain-expanding religious experience. As a result, a search for divinity takes him all over his savage kingdom and into clashes with beasts and men…

Next comes ‘Tarzan and Black Boy’ (often retitled ‘Tarzan and the Native Boy’) with the young outsider experiencing paternal yearnings. After abducting a small human boy and learning guilt, folly and shame, the Ape-Man gains his first human arch-enemy by spoiling greedy fetish-man Bukuwai the Unclean’s scam to impoverish the distraught mother of his kidnapped prize Tibo…

To Be Continued

Supplemented by Creator Biographies of Thomas, Marcos and Gonzalez, this tome is a fascinating addition to the pictorial annals of the Ape-Man and a monument to romantic fantasy, wild adventure and comics creativity no lover of the medium, character or genre can do without.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan® of the Apes © 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks Tarzan®, Tarzan of the Apes™ and Edgar Rice Burroughs® are owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. and used with permission. All rights reserved.

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Retro Classics: The Victor Presents: Alf Tupper – The Tough of the Track


By various anonymous and Peter Sutherland (Retro Classics/DC Thomson)
No ISBN, digital only edition

If you grew up British any time after 1960 and read our comics you probably cast your eye occasionally – if not indeed fanatically – over DC Thompson’s venerable “Boys’ Paper” The Victor. For over 100 years the Dundee-based company has been a mainstay of British reading entertainment with its strong editorial stance informing and influencing a huge number of household names over the decades.

Post-WWII, Victor was very much the company’s flagship title for action/adventure and featured amongst its grittily realistic pantheon of stars a perpetually grimy, soot-stained, incorrigibly working-class young(ish) sportsman called Alf Tupper; forever immortalised as The Tough of the Track. Gathered here is a clever compilation of early episodes from a sublimely never-ending soap opera story (sampled from the 1960s, illustrated by Peter [Mike Fink, Spy 13, Kit Carson, Battler Britton, Super Detective Library, Cowboy Comics Library, Thriller Picture Library] Sutherland) commemorating the unique DC Thomson comics experience and offering a splendid taste of the Running Man’s gritty charms.

The main tenet of Thomson adventure philosophy was a traditional, humanistic sense of decency. Talented, determined distance runner Tupper might be a poor, rough, ill-educated working-class orphan competing – we’d call it “punching up” – in a world of hostile “Toffee-Nosed Swells”, but he strives tirelessly and excels for the sheer reward of sportsmanship, not for gain or glory.

He’s the kind of man most decent folk used to want their kids to grow up into…

Friendly, helpful, short-tempered but big-hearted (and looking a little like everyman Norman Wisdom), Alf was actually created by in 1949 by Bill Blaine before featuring in a non-stop series of prose stories in “Boys Story-Paper” The Rover. The majority of those exploits were written by Gilbert Lawford Dalton with single illustrations by Len Fullerton, Ian McKay, Fred Sturrock, Jack Gordon, George Ramsbottom, Calder Jamieson and James “Peem” Walker.

As the 1950s ended the publisher was finally accepting that their readers no longer wanted all-prose periodicals, and comic strips were the way to go. Alf was retooled as just such a pictorial headliner, transferring to The Victor where he persevered if not prospered, carrying on until the title folded. His last 20th century appearance was in 1992 for The Sunday Post: training for the impending Barcelona Olympics. However, his spirit truly was indomitable and in April 2014 Tupper came out of enforced retirement, to begin a monthly page-per-issue strip in monthly international magazine Athletics Weekly…

Vulgar but decent, rowdy, earthy, barely-educated and perpetually sticking it to all those posh boys monopolising athletics, Alf was a proudly individualistic sportsman and one of the greatest natural distance runners who ever lived. He fought prejudice, discrimination, poverty and especially privilege to win races, medals and accolades. When he wasn’t training, competing or eating fish & chips (his secret weapon for success), the comic strip Alf was a welder in the northern industrial town of Greystone, originally apprenticed to shifty, shiftless Ike Smith before eventually setting up in business for himself.

Tupper was all about determination overcoming ill-fortune, adversity and even enemy action… and he just hated to be beaten. When he occasionally was, he didn’t dwell on excuses, but resolved to win the rematch…

Our True Brit sporting legend apparently had a big influence on the development of many of our actual sporting greats, such as Brendan Foster CBE, and the reason why can be seen in this carefully edited compilation of weekly episodes beginning with a race for the Greystone Harriers that ends in a fist fight with a fellow runner and Alf being kicked off the team and out of the club…

Barred from competing, Alf races along the verge of the track and beats them all…

As an apprentice welder, Alf spent lots of time in sports venues that were being refurbished and helped himself to empty tracks and unused facilities, gradually being noticed by coaches and selectors. However, every attempt to integrate him with the country’s top athletes ended in some smug elitist saying the wrong thing or even sabotaging the uppity oik; with Alf paying a working man’s penalty for it…

Further complicating Tupper’s life was his exploitative Aunty Meg, who controlled his wages, pawned his kit and prizes and generally gaslit him until he finally ran away from home – or rather the shed she rented to him…

In this brief collection, Alf’s career slowly progresses, comprising many clashes with the Greystone running elite, an on-off relationship with Olympic sporting academy Granton Hall, shoes and kit crises, high profile competitions in London, France, Belgium and beyond, hitchhiking troubles, clashes with the law and brushes with gamblers and race fixers, and dalliances with different distances and even other disciplines such as hurdles, long jump, 4X4 relay and steeplechase …and plenty of “boxing” too.

His biggest battle was against a top sports dietician who banned fish & chips and made him eat salads…

Wry and full of olde-worlde pluck, this seasoned sporting sampler is a wonderfully accessible slice of truly British nostalgia and a certain delight for every fan of classic competition and great comics.
VICTOR™ & © D.C. Thomson & Co. Associated text, characters and artwork © D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

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The Detective Chimp Casebook


By John Broome, Mike Tiefenbacher, Carmine Infantino, Irwin Hasen, Alex Kotzky, Gil Kane, Joe Giella, Sy Barry, Bernard Sachs & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-2165-1 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Detective stories are a literary subgenre wherein an investigation by amateur or professional (active or retired) into a legal transgression or moral/social injustice plays out before the consumer, who may or may not include themselves in the process. Like exploration and adventuring, fantasy, horror and science fiction, Detective stories blossomed in white western societies during the mid-19th century: spreading from magazines and prose novels to later forms of entertainment media such as plays, films and radio shows, with early crime puzzle solvers including C. Auguste Dupin, Judge Dee/Di Gong An, Sherlock Holmes, Jules Maigret, Father Brown, Lord Peter Wimsey, Sexton Blake and Hercule Poirot. Tales targeting youngsters generated their own sleuthing stars: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and more, sparking a subgenre especially popular on television…

Comic strips developed detective stalwarts like Hawkshaw, Dick Tracy, Charlie Chan, Kerry Drake ad infinitum: all contributing to a tidal wave of fictive crimebusters that in many ways inspired true literary legends – Philip Marlow, Sam Spade, Simon Templar, Mike Hammer and so on. Where there is such variety and richness, strange yet rewarding things may blossom, none more rewarding than those seen in graphic narratives. Gathered here is the original, seminal comics lunacy in the hirsute form of Detective Chimp: a Florida-based do-gooder who – thanks to an extremely unconventional official lawman – became assistant sheriff of a major coastal metropolis.

In later years, wit and whimsey fell prey to the all-consuming fan-drive for rationality and reason (at least in comic book science terms) and both the police primate and his comic book host Rex the Wonder Dog were given origins rationalising and explaining their mighty mentalities. You can see the first hint of that at the end of this compilation which gathers the madcap monkeyshines of an ape answering to Bobo, as first seen in The Adventures of Rex The Wonder Dog #4 and thereafter #6-46, plus a canny codicil from  DC Comics Presents #35: spanning July 1952 to September/October 1959 and including a moment of animal magic from July 1981. Also in here is material from DC Special #1, Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp #1, Tarzan #231, 234 & 235, Amazing World of DC Comics #1 and Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #6. And while we’re at it, let’s get one thing straight: I know and you know chimpanzees are APES. The author(s) did too, but to have more fun and engage euphony I – as they did – reserve the right to use many terms associated with both primates and prosimians throughout…

We now pause for me to pontificate some more…

Boasting a March 1937 cover-date, Detective Comics #1 was the third and final anthology title devised by luckless comics pioneer Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. In 1935, the entrepreneur had seen the potential in Max Gaines’ new invention – the Comic Book – and reacted quickly, conceiving and releasing packages of all-new strips in New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine and follow-up New Fun/New Adventure (ultimately Adventure Comics) under the banner of National Allied Publications. These publications differed from similar prototype comics magazines which simply reprinted edited collations culled from established newspaper strips. However, these vanguard titles were as varied and undirected in content as any newspaper funnies page.

Detective Comics was different. Specialising solely in tales of crime and crimebusters, the initial roster included (amongst others) adventurer Speed Saunders, Cosmo, the Phantom of Disguise, Gumshoe Gus and two series by a couple of kids from Cleveland named Siegel & Shuster – espionage agent Bart Regan and two-fisted shamus Slam Bradley…

Within two years the commercially inept and unseasoned Wheeler-Nicholson had been forced out by his more savvy business partners, and his company eventually grew into monolithic DC (for Detective Comics) Comics. Surviving a myriad of changes and temporary shifts of identity and aims, it’s still with us – albeit primarily as a vehicle for the breakthrough character who debuted in the 27th issue…

In the years when superheroes were in retreat and considered a bit foolish, DC concentrated on genre stars. At the end of 1951 they launched Rex the Wonder Dog (#1 cover-dated January/February 1952), based equally on Rin Tin Tin, Lassie and their own miracle mutt Streak – the original Green Lantern’s dog who had ousted Alan Scott and Co. from his own title in the dying days of the Golden Age.

Rex solved crimes, saved lives in disasters, fought dinosaurs and saved the world, but that wasn’t enough and real-world legal restrictions dictated his title required other strips to qualify for favourable postal shipping rates. In #4 (July/August 1952), a future back-up feature was trialled. Written by John Broome, drawn by Carmine Infantino and inked by Sy Barry, the tale of a little chimp who helped solve the murder of his beloved owner captivated readers. Infantino always claimed this hirsute anthropoid crimebuster was his favourite character…

In The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #4 readers were invited to ‘Meet Detective Chimp!’ in a charming comedy thriller. It was the first outing of undeniably captivating comics lunacy revealing how, when Oscaloosa Florida’s Sheriff Chase snared the killer of prominent businessman and owner of Thorpe Animal Farm, it was only with the valiant and uncanny help of a certain young chimp. He consequently adopts and deputises the beast, with Bobo thereafter acting as assistant sheriff right up until the final issue. The hairy savant also enjoyed a revival at the end of the century and fresh fame in the 21st as new generations of creators and fans rediscovered him…

Response must have been overwhelming and immediate in 1952, because mere months later ‘The Return of Detective Chimp!’ came with #6 (cover-dated November/December – and remember, this was the company that took 3 years to give The Flash his own title…). Broome again scripted the hirsute Hawkshaw – as he would almost all (I’m presuming: records are sadly incomplete) – in a delightful succession of what we would call “Cosy Mysteries”. Infantino was inked by Joe Giella as the chimp – with the aid of an enraged nesting bird – solved a family murder, restored a sabotaged will and settled a family inheritance in a wild romp setting the pattern for years to come…

Illustrated by Alex (The Sandman, Plastic Man) Kotzky, #7 settled in for the long haul and exposed ‘Monkeyshines at the Wax Museum!’, with Bobo catching the killer of amiable murder-enthusiast Len Billings, after which Irwin (Green Lantern, Wildcat, Justice Society of America, Dondi) Hasen & Giella highlighted how ‘Death Walks the High Wire!’ as the savvy simian proved a circus trapeze accident was anything but, even deputising some four-legged performers to bring the assassin to justice…

For RtWD #9 (May/June 1953), Broome, Hasen & Bernard Sachs indulged a passion for sports as Bobo saved his favourite baseball star from kidnappers in ‘Crime Runs the Bases’ before uncovering ‘Monkey Business on the Briny Deep!’ (Broome, Hasen & Giella, July-August 1953). Here, Bobo became an inveterate but dilettante hobby fanatic, exploring a different fascination each episode which would miraculously impact on the current case. This time it was sea fishing that netted cunning thieves, whilst in #11 it was horses and jockeys, as the impressionable assistant solved ‘The Riddle of the Riverside Raceway!’ (Hasen & Giella): befriending a prize steed, stymying race-fixing gangsters and collaring the FBI’s Most Wanted fugitive…

Th chimp made and lost a new friend next with Hasen & Giella limning the saga of how ‘The Million Dollar Gorilla!’ was killed by a big game hunter’s jealous love-rival before Infantino (inked by Sy Barry) embraced Bobo’s new love of Westerns in #13’s ‘The Case of the Runaway Ostrich!’. This hobby afforded the hairy half-pint much opportunity to display his roping and riding skills when corralling a rare bird rustler…

In RtWD #14 (March/April 1954, with art by Hasen & Sachs) Bobo became a Flying Fool addicted to aircraft just in time to stumble over ‘Murder in the Blue Yonder!’ and catch the killer of his flight instructor, after which Infantino settled in for the long haul as his favourite character became a lifeguard and solved ‘The Case of the Fishy Alibi!’, wherein a gambler almost pulls off the perfect crime. For #16 Bobo’s new passion for scuba diving/ spearfishing exposes a millionaire’s murderer in ‘Monkey Sees, Monkey Does!’ Two months later Bobo cracked ‘The Case of the Suspicious Signature!’ (September/October 1954) when his new passion for autograph collecting accidentally lands him in a Hollywood star’s kidnapping…

When Chase starts paying his deputy in cash as well as room-&-board and bananas, Bobo goes ape over finance with ‘The Case of Bobo’s Bankbook!’ leaving him in the right place at the right time to foil a big heist, prior to succumbing to more basic fascination in #19’s ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil!’ Bobo falls for visiting movie star Moka and takes up bodybuilding to impress her, but it proves no help at all when “The Most Famous Female Chimpanzee in the World” is kidnapped and he needs all his old skills to save the day…

With Sy Barry inking Infantino, ‘Detective Bobo… Chimp-Napped!’ sees the deputy abducted when his circus chums hit town again, just in time to thwart a jewel snatch, after which #21’s ‘The Secret of the ‘Indian’ Monkey!’ offers opportunity for dressing up when a historical pageant uncovers a treasure map and draws thieves like flies. In #22’s topical tale – inked by Giella – the chimp goes ape for sci fi stories yet still foils a cunning robbery scheme after ‘Bobo Rides a Flying Saucer!’ RtWD #23 saw Sheriff Chase’s only hobby – stamp collecting – key to solving ‘The Secret of the Spanish Castle!’ as a misdelivered letter inadvertently draws the lawgivers into a robbery/hostage situation, whilst Bobo’s temporary love of railways is the spur for ‘The Mystery of the Silver Bullet!’ when locomotive driver Mike Layton allows the chimp onto the footplate just as hijackers attack…

A dalliance with firefighting in #25 proves ‘Where There’s Smoke – There’s Trouble!’ as Bobo joins the Junior Forest Rangers just when a couple of thieves trying to hide their loot in the woods start throwing lighted cigarettes around, and #26 sees the simian Sherlock take up Egyptology in time to solve ‘The Mystery of the Missing Mummy!’ (Giella inks) and save Chase from being entombed forever…

After months of eating premium-promotion cereal, the eager ape at last opens the pack containing ‘A Whistle for Bobo!’ and subsequently drives everyone crazy as an impromptu traffic cop… until one car packed with brigands and boodle refuses to stop. Then a string of robberies by the Goliath Gang again sees him seeking to build up his physique by using ‘Bobo’s Amazing Jungle Gym!’ That turns into bad news for the bandits…

Broome & Infantino transformed Detective Chimp into ‘The Scientific Crook-Catcher!’ (#29 September/October 1956) when the savvy simian sneaks into a symposium of savants disguised as human professor and wowing the assembled savants by tracking down quick-change disguise artist Larry the Lynx, after which a duel with a jewel thief and rendezvous with a robbing raven presents ‘A Jailbird for Bobo!’…

The special deputy met his match in a gang of boy do-gooders in ‘Clue of the Secret Seven!’ but even collaboratively collaring a brace of escaped convicts was no preparation for tackling the maritime ‘Mystery of the Talking Fish!’ (#32) after returning to diving to hunt for sunken treasure. When Bobo’s friend Alice Rogers – inheritor of the animal farm in the first adventure – needs a favour, the detective is more than happy to be companion to her new albino Guereza monkey. However, when it vanishes, Bobo attempts to impersonate a creature he has never seen, whilst seeking to find ‘The Mystery Monkey from Zanzibar!’ leads to the capture of its opportunistic abductors instead…

Infantino tested a range of stylistic innovations on Detective Chimp and excels in #34’s ‘The Case of the Chimpanzee’s Camera!’ when Bobo takes up photography and snaps a trio of paranoid thieves casing their next caper, whilst ‘Bobo’s New York Adventure!’ sees the little ape in the Big Apple, pinch-hitting for a monkey TV star and stumbling into Oscaloosa’s Most Wanted: murderous jewel thief “Dangerous Jack” Diamond…

Giella inks in #36 as ‘The Mystery of the Missing Missile!’ sees Bobo and Secret Seven pal Tommy Wheeler stymie thieves and test a new invention before the chimp takes a vacation in human guise and unearths ‘The Treasure of Thunder Island!’ In #38 he catches canny counterfeiters whilst accidentally debunking the theories of a scientist who believes he can make animals talk in ‘The Amazing Experiment of Professor Snodgrass!’

For the next case ‘Bobo Goes to Sheriff’s School!’ as Chase sends the assistant in his place to a detection and criminology seminar. It disturbs the chimp’s latest passion of collecting marbles but the substitution works out okay as the chimp outshines all human attendees and even catches a couple of robbers along the way, after which ‘Bobo the Baby Sitter!’ recovers escaped circus star Kangy (the Boxing ’Roo) and nabs a brace of thieving fugitives prior to becoming ‘Bobo – Sleuth on Skis!’ when freak weather turns Oscaloosa into a snowcapped winter playground for thieves…

Giella inks a road rage riot in #42 as hot-rod fanatic Bobo drives a kiddie stock car for the Secret Seven in a big meet, becoming ‘Demon of the Speedways!’ after his new invention allows him to pip all rivals at the post. This attracts the unwanted attention of a gang boss in need of  super-fast getaway car, but does not end well for him…

Keen on being a model citizen, Bobo resolves to ‘Stop That Litterbug!’ in #43, accidentally intercepting a scrap of paper worth millions to the desperate men who lost it, before Giella’s last inking hurrah confirms ‘Where There’s Smoke – There’s Bobo!’ as the ape’s drive to be a fireman almost costs him his real job – until he encounters crooks at a fire – after which a logical outcome of Bobo’s career comes to pass in penultimate episode ‘The Case of the Monkey Witness!’ Here the anthropoid must testify against crime boss Legs Dunne, with the mobster’s gang seeking to end him before the trial begins…

Bobo’s last case came in #46 as he joins a Little League team and becomes ‘The Chimp-Champ of Baseball!’ (September/October 1959), all while preventing a pair of crooks escaping custody.

And that was that…

To make room for resurgent superheroes, The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog folded with that issue and – other than an occasional reprint – Bobo vanished for years. The covers of most of those re-appearances are displayed at the back of this book and are listed there, but before that one last story falls under the aegis of this pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths collection.

DC Comics Presents had an occasional back-up series offering short tales of lost stars and in #35 (July 1981) Mike Tiefenbacher & Gil Kane (who had drawn the majority of exploits starring Bobo’s canine companion) revealed ‘Whatever Became of Rex the Wonder Dog?’ Here the canine marvel teamed with now-ancient and decrepit ape Bobo to solve one last mystery, inadvertently restoring themselves to youthful health and vitality for another round of action adventures…

The collection closes with gallery of images under the umbrella of ‘The Ape Files’ which include the 1969 cover to DC Special #1 (an “All-Infantino Issue”), those for Joe Kubert’s covers for Tarzan #231, 234, 235 (which carried Bobo reprints) and Amazing World of DC Comics #1: another Infantino mega montage. Brian Bolland’s preliminary pencil art for Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp #1 is augmented by the finished full-colour piece before all the ape antics end with Infantino & Bill Wray’s page on Bobo from Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #6, a brief biography ‘About the Ape’ and similar treatment for creators Broome and Infantino.

In this century an ape solving crimes is less of a sure-fire winner – as many other hirsute DC gumshoes could attest – and Detective Chimp speaks many human tongues, consults with Batman and works with Shadowpact and for Justice League Dark: a far different beast operating on less charming levels. However, if you’re looking for daft laughs, sublime wit and astounding artwork, this is a book worth casing…
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