Category: Nostalgia

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Merry Christmas, Boys and Girls!

In keeping with my self-imposed Holiday tradition here’s another selection of British Annuals selected not just for nostalgia’s sake but because it’s my house and my rules…

After decades when only American comics and memorabilia were considered collectable or worthy, the growing resurgence of interest in home-grown material means there’s lots more of this stuff available and if you’re lucky enough to stumble across a vintage volume, I hope my words can convince you to take a punt and step out of your comfort zone.

Topping my Xmas wish-list would be further collections from those fans and publishers who have begun to rescue this magical material from print limbo in (affordable) new collections…

Great writing and art is rotting in boxes and attics or the archives of publishing houses, when it needs to be back in the hands of readers once again. As the tastes of the reading public have never been broader and since a selective sampling of our popular heritage will always appeal to some part of the mass consumer base, let’s all continue rewarding publishers for their efforts and prove that there’s money to be made from these glorious examples of our communal childhood.

Whizzer and Chips Annual 1979

By various (Fleetway)
SBN: 85037-478-2                  ASIN: B000IZ3DO2

British comics were always anthological. Even the few titles which notionally featured a solo lead like Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly or Hulk Comic carried a preponderance of ancillary series and serials. Most – whether Adventure or Humour, Pre-School or Juvenile and most importantly Boys or Girls – worked on the premise that variety was the spice of life and offered as many different characters and premises as they could cram into the page count.

That was never more ably demonstrated than in Fleetway/IPC’s ingenious comedy vehicle Whizzer and Chips which launched in October 1969 and ran – absorbing other flagging or failing kids’ humour titles – such as Knockout!, Krazy, Whoopee! and Scouse Mouse – until its own subsuming into valiant and venerable survivor Buster in October 1990, when the decline of mass-market children’s periodical publication really began to be felt.

Edited by Bob Paynter and lavishly packed with gag-features in IPC’s continual battle to steal market-share from DC Thomson’s unassailable Beano and Dandy, the first W&T appeared on Saturday 11th (dated the 18th; the off-sale date by when retailers had to have returned unsold copies for a refund/discount on the next issue), it’s innovative boast being “two comics for only sixpence” …and that’s in old money…

Chips was designed as a 16-page pull-out insert in the middle of Whizzer and the illusion was further fostered by the conceit that the graphic ranks of the “Whizz-kids” were deadly rivals of the “Chip-ites” eternally in their midst…

The comic was a splendid success, not because of the schizo-gimmick but because it was slickly professional and contained top-flight material by the company’s best comedy artists and writers; although arguably a toning down of the irreverent anarchy which predominated in earlier 1960s titles like Wham! and Pow! might have made parents a little happier to buy it too…

For a far more detailed discourse – on this and a host of other British comics – you should check out Lew Stringer’s glorious blog Blimey!… He’d also be able to tell you far more about the individual creators than I ever will, but as usual I’m going to have a bash anyway and apologize in advance for my inevitable errors and omissions.

As a hit weekly Whizzer and Chips naturally had end-of-year annuals from the earliest opportunity and this one (released at the end of 1978) was the ninth of 24, offering a wide range of old and new characters – just as you’d expect and want.

Behind that tantalising Mike Lacey cover the manic madness and mayhem begins with a delicious ‘Super Store Super Game’ (bring your own counters and dice, kids!) whilst ‘Lazy Bones’ (Colin Whittock) reveals how indolent young Bennie Bones attempts to skive off household chores again but only earned more work, after which Lacey’s ‘Sid’s Snake’ found serpentine Slippy getting into a tight spot he couldn’t slide out of.

Cliff Brown had the franchise for producing cartoon games and puzzles and begins here with the “mazing” ‘Jailbreak!’ before ‘The Magic of Films’ (Dave Jenner?) found the possessor of an enchanted tome using a manifested action hero to beat a bully before ‘Sweet Tooth’ (Trevor Metcalfe) outwitted another rampaging brute after his sugary treats. Always tardy ‘Slowcoach’ then found the perfect excuse for missing school registration…

Cover-star ‘Sid’s Snake’ – or rather his human co-conspirator – was the leader of the Whizz-Kids faction. He would organise infiltrations and “raids” onto Chips pages when not getting into tight spots or showing off to worms as in this second one-page outing, whilst the ‘Happy Families’ (by Dick Millington) spent most of their time sparring and causing domestic disasters, unlike Tom Williams’ underage ‘Tiny Tycoon’ who here transforms a little funfair into a big deal skate rink before Leo Baxendale’s pugnacious nipper ‘Champ’ turns his competitive drive to mastering the pogo stick with agonising consequences for all…

‘Super Store!’ by Bob Hill was the magical multi-storey emporium where anything could be bought, such as ghosts to stock a haunted house whilst – continuing the strangely trippy tone – ‘The Drips’ (Michael T Green perhaps?) were sentient water droplets playing mind-games with a baffled homeowner and ‘Beat Your Neighbour’ (a survivor of the merger with Knockout) revealed the depths competing families would sink to in order to be the best – in this case in making their home safe…

Uppity little madam ‘Toffee Nose’ made life hell for poor old dad when she found the garden too grubby, after which ‘Sid’s Snake’ resurfaces to show off his pugilistic skills; no doubt to provoke boy boxer ‘Shiner’ – also by Lacey – who leads off the Chips section of this book by once again disappointing his mum and copping a black eye without fighting anybody…

‘Footsie the Clown’ began as a colour strip by Leo Baxendale on the back page of Wham! and was revived here in monochrome, still being weird at the circus (by an artist I don’t recognise). Next comes Mike Brown’s bombastic ‘Super Dad’ quashing more time-wasting kids’ pranks before hard-luck lad ‘Loser’ adds his own unique spin to Shakespeare and Norman Mansbridge’s ‘Fuss Pot’ shows the proper way to shovel snow…

Cliff Brown’s ‘Treasure Island Maze!’ segues into another – cosmetically cushioned – clash for ‘Shiner’ and farmyard frenzy for ‘Footsie the Clown’ and his faithless companion Wuff the Wonder Dog whilst Reg Parlett’s rival gangs ‘Smarty’s Toffs & Tatty’s Toughs’ again fought a class war that left everyone bedraggled, beaten and in need of a break…

Following Cliff Brown’s brow-knitting puzzle ‘Two Old Grannies are in Trouble’ a TV commercial director soon regrets asking the opinion of one little girl in ‘Here’s Fuss Pot – the fussiest girl of the lot!’ after which ‘Pete’s Pockets’ disgorge a wish-granting genie as ‘Lib an’ Archie and their Magic Piano’ accidentally solve a skiers’ dilemma and ‘Loser’ wins after destroying a panting and uncovering a lost masterpiece…

‘Sammy Shrink – He’s the Smallest lad in the World’ – and one of IPC’s most well-travelled, having compactly fitted into Wham!, Pow!, Smash! and Knockout before squeezing into Whizzer and Chips.

Here Jenner portrays the mighty mite at his most pranksome before ‘Theo’s Thinking Cap’ saves the (wedding) day by finding a missing ring and ‘Belle Tent – She’s Funtastic’ proves girls can be just as destructive as boys and shouldn’t be let anywhere near a cricket pitch…

‘Shiner’ keeps his eyes un-pummelled by using his wits against a big bully before ‘Don’t Times Change!’ offers sharp comparisons of past and present parental peccadilloes whilst ‘Pete’s Pockets’ open again and suck the poor twit into a mad melee with a magician he didn’t know he had after which the landlord of ‘Harry’s Haunted House’ (Parlett) fails again to evict his ghostly tenant…

‘Shiner’s Scrap Book’ offers boxing spot-gags by Brocker and ‘Wear ’em Out Wilf’ (Mansbridge) shows the wee wrecker proving the flimsiness of pianos before ‘Little Mo Peep’ causes chaos during a seaside excursion, ‘The Toffs and the Toughs’ (Parlett) compare the relative merits of castles and tents and ‘Sammy Shrink’ (by Terry Bave and wife/scripter Sheila) reacts badly to the news that his sweetie ration is being cut…

Parlett’s ‘Belle Tent – She’s Funtastic’ finds the unladylike lass causing catastrophe at a country house after which ‘Smarty’s Toffs & Tatty’s Toughs’ resort to all-out retail war at an antiques fair and the Baves put ‘Sammy Shrink’ through icy hell at the skating rink whilst ‘Loser’ sees the dark side of scouting for badges.

A belligerent bee cause ‘Footsie the Clown’ to lose his sense of humour, ‘Theo’s Thinking Cap’ helps a kid get into an air-show and ‘Pete’s Pockets’ unleash a dragon at the cinema before ‘Sammy Shrink’ has fun with snow and none with ice cream whilst ‘Shiner’ proves the superiority of British boxing to the kung fu of a new (Korean) bully in town and ‘Beat Your Neighbour’ reveals the danger of high-impact competitive gardening before Baxendale’s ‘Champ’ tries karate… with smashing results…

There’s more eerie insanity when ‘The Drips’ decide to practice their practical jokes inside gumboots and umbrellas and the assorted gags of ‘Sid’s Snake Smiles’ give way to vintage hi-jinks as ‘Jumbo and Jet!’ sees a boy and his elephant attempt to lay crazy paving.

A new boomerang soon makes ‘Champ’ the most unpopular kid at the funfair and the ‘Beat Your Neighbour’ dads clash over whose son can get smartest quickest even as animal crackers in a ‘Vet Set’ neatly lead to a final dose of ‘Sid’s Snake’ silliness with the reptile deciding to emulate the action of a space-hopper…

The weekly comic usually sported an adventure serial to balance the mirth and here ‘Whizz Wheels’ – with art from Ron Turner – details another exploit of bicycle prodigy Tommy Wheels who stood up to a bullying newcomer in town and accidentally exposed a vast bike theft ring.

It’s back to the funny stuff as ‘Rotten Egghead – He’s Just Got to Win!’ find the inventive poor sport building a tank to win a snowball fight whilst the ‘Happy Families’ fall out over television programmes and ‘Tiny Tycoon’ finds a fortune marketing animal skateboards and artificial goalkeepers.

‘Lazy Bones’ learns that looking up his ancestors is conducive to a quiet nap and the ‘Beat Your Neighbour’ regulars take up fishing with the usual bellicose results after which Wham!‘s veteran cave-boy ‘Glugg – He’s First in Everything’ have a few problems with his breakfast egg before ‘Sweet -Tooth’ needs heavy machinery to retrieve his latest batch of stolen treats…

Brown offers one more diversionary puzzle in ‘Two Astro-Twits are trying to get to the Moon!’ and the ‘Super Store!’ vends a cut-price golf course to deflate the town swells and snobs before this years festival of fun concludes with a last ‘Lazy Bones’ lesson as his visit to a Free School soon has him begging to get back to his own humdrum class…

Weirdly timeless amusements and evergreen cartoon magic make this tome a terrific treat for youngsters as well as the nostalgia-besotted oldsters like me: this is well worth a second read and an absolute delight if you’re seeing it for the first time…
© IPC Magazines Ltd. 1978

Victor Book for Boys 1975

By many and various (DC Thomson)
Retroactively awarded ISBN: 978-0-85116-077-1

If you grew up British anytime after 1960 and read comics you probably cast your eye occasionally – if not indeed fanatically – over DC Thompson’s venerable standby The Victor.

The Dundee based publisher has long been a mainstay of British popular reading and arguably the most influential force in our comics industry. Its strong editorial stance and savvy creativity has been responsible for a huge number of household names over the decades, through newspapers, magazines, books and especially its comics and prose-heavy “story-papers” for Girls and Boys.

That last category – comprising Adventure, Rover, Wizard, Skipper and Hotspur – pretty much-faded out at the end of the 1950s when the readership voted overwhelming with their pocket money in favour of primarily strip-based entertainments…

Cover-dated 25th January The Victor premiered in 1961 as a (mostly) comic strip package, running for 1657 weekly issues until finally folding in November 1992. Absorbing in its time fellow publications Wizard, Hotspur, Scoop, Buddy, Champ and Warlord, it was very much the company’s flagship title for action tales and as such had its own immensely popular run of Christmas Annuals.

The Victor Book for Boys began in 1964 and resulted in thirty stout and stunning hardcover editions over the years. As with the comic iteration the content was based on classic “Boys Own” adventure material encompassing fantasy, war, science fiction, sports stories, period drama and everything in between.

This particular edition opens with historical fact feature ‘The Age of the Ironclad’ and follows up with war comic strip ‘The Pigeon That Won the V.C.’, detailing how avian messenger Winkie was responsible for the rescue of four downed airmen in 1942; pressing on with perennial favourite ‘The Tough of the Track’ illustrated by Peter Sutherland.

Alf Tupper ranked high amongst the company’s grittily realistic pantheon of ordinary stars: a perpetually grimy, soot-stained, incorrigibly working class true sportsman who ran for pride and honour, not gain or prestige.

Here he has a nasty clash with rich, spoiled running rival Nigel Fenton who tries to hit Alf with his sports-car even as his equally vile father is attempting to fix a traction engine competition. When Alf allies with Colonel Fenton‘s most feared opponent, sparks fly, steam explodes and both generations of bad men learn a much deserved lesson…

This is followed by another exploit of the magnificent ‘Morgyn the Mighty’. The “strongest man in the world” first appeared in The Rover in 1928 in prose form, transferred to The Beano in 1938 (drawn by Dudley Watkins) and, after visiting the reborn comics version of Rover, rocked up in The Victor in 1963.

Here the wandering, loincloth-clad wonder man (drawn by Ted Kearnon, perhaps) is in the Himalayas and uncovers the secret of the legendary Yetis, after which ‘The Ruffies and the Tuffies’ (by George Martin and recycled from The Beezer where they were The Hillies and the Billies) comedically continue their frantic feuding before another WWII yarn depicts a plucky Home Guard hero using ‘The Drainpipe Destroyer’ (the formidable Northover Projector) to quash a burglary by Black Marketeers.

Following a general knowledge ‘Quick Quiz’, ‘The Jalopy with a Jinx’ reveals how a young man uses a vintage car to foil a modern jailbreak before ‘Killer Kennedy R.N.’ triumphantly trades his motor torpedo boat for a German bomber after being captured at sea and Queen’s Messenger Peter Hazard runs into a little trouble in modern Afghanistan and has to recover precious papers and treasures before completing his ‘Escape from the Red Assassin’…

‘Night run to Fort Luton’ offers a prose yarn about a motorbike despatch rider in WWII Britain, followed up by sports feature ‘Goal!’, a fact-file on rescue procedures entitled ‘Guardians of the Mountains’ and comedy capers from Michael Barratt in a reprint of ‘Tall Tales from Toad-in-the-Hole’: a Topper revival/reprint featuring a little village cut off from progress since the time of Cromwell and poorly adjusting to modern developments such as the unfortunate bill-poster of this episode…

‘Splashdown to Danger!’ finds a modern British salvage vessel on site when a space capsule plunges into the ocean and quickly embroiled in a sinister scheme by leftover Nazi rocket scientists before ‘The Sea Shall Not Have Them!’ describes contemporary air-sea rescue procedures.

Next up is an example of fabulously engaging, long running comedy adventure ‘The Hammer Man’ superbly illustrated by Richard Terry “Ted” Rawlings. Set in the 15th century the strip detailed the rise of blacksmith Chell Puddock whose services to King Henry V saw the commoner elevated to the knighthood as the most peculiar noble of all time…

Here it’s 1415 and he’s still a commoner on the battlefields of France, but his valiant deeds make him many noble friends as he unhorses a rogue English knight, single-handedly breaches the stubbornly impregnable castle of St. Pol and defeats the terrifying Wolf of Picardy in single combat…

Another light-hearted comedy drama was ‘Fred Kay’s Crazy Railroad’ (art by Josep Marti) which described the exploits of a determined British transport sergeant and his crew of misfits and rejects who constructed a makeshift transport line in Burma in 1944. This time his immediate problem is a load of unstable dynamite a pushy American Colonel wants anywhere but where he is…

‘Gorgeous Gus’ (by Bert Vandeput?) was English aristocrat the Earl of Boote who owned and played for First Division Redburn Rovers. When the team travelled to Buenos Aires for an international fixture, Sportivo’s scurrilous director tricks Gus into a polo match and dislocates his shoulder, thinking that it will keep the Rover’s star player out of the game.

Devious Don Juan has no concept of True Brit grit…

Prose skit ‘Chipper’s Time Machine’ reveals why you should never buy a time/space engine from the back of a market stall and ‘Sports Quiz’ tests your knowledge on a wide variety of subjects before Rawlings turns in a typically robust and rambunctious job dramatising the incredible career of Nova Scotian Negro William Hall V.C. who was born the ‘Son of a Slave’ in 1827 and became one of the Royal Navy’s greatest heroes…

‘The Ruffies and the Tuffies’ then briefly suspend hostilities to appear on a TV show whilst ‘It’s a Funny Old World!’ offers crazy clipping of strange –but-true events before ‘The Flying Cowboy’ joins the British Royal Flying Corps in 1916 to show the Boche how things are done back home on the range…

‘Tall Tales from Toad-in-the-Hole’ sees an aged dotard experience the terrors of modern heating before our learning experience kicks in again with optical shenanigans in ‘Your Eyes Tell you Lies!’ whilst ‘Build a Battle Gun’ offers patterns and instructions for the budding model-maker.

The strip action wraps up with a tale of ‘Kenny Carter’s Kayo Kids’ as the dedicated boxing coach takes under his wing a brace of constantly battling troubled twins who only want to fight each other before the tome steams to close with another spread detailing more amazing vessels from ‘The Age of the Ironclad’.

Divorcing the sheer variety of content and entertainment quality of this book from simple nostalgia may be a healthy exercise but it’s almost impossible. I’m perfectly happy to luxuriously wallow in the potent emotions this annual still stirs. It’s a fabulous thrill-packed read from a magical time and turning those stiffened two-colour pages is always an unmatchable Christmas experience… happily one still relatively easy to find these days.

You should try it…
© DC Thomson & Co., Ltd., 1974.

Batman Storybook Annual

By various and Mick Anglo (World Distributors)
No ISBN

Before American publishers began exporting directly into the UK in 1959 our exposure to their unique brand of fantasy came from licensed reprints. British publishers/printers like Len Miller, Alan Class and others purchased material from the USA – and occasionally Canada – to fill 68-page monochrome anthologies – many of which recycled those same stories for decades.

Less common were the flimsy, strangely coloured pamphlets reprinting the same stuff, produced by Australian outfit K. G. Murray and exported and distributed here in a rather sporadic manner. They also produced sturdily substantial Christmas Annuals which had a huge impact on my earliest years (I strongly suspect my adoration of black-&-white artwork stems from seeing supreme stylists like Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson uncluttered by cheap, flat colour).

The first Batman Annual came out in 1960, but in the heyday of “Batmania” two separate publishers were releasing hardback Holiday Editions. This delightful oddment comes from just after Batmania ruled the Earth, thanks to the power of the Adam West/Burt Ward Batman TV show. Another publisher had the rights to reprint the current crop of DC comic strips – which bore only superficial resemblance to the TV iteration anyway – but World Distributors secured a license to publish prose books directly based on the screen escapades…

British comics have always fed heavily on other media and as the popularity of television burgeoned during the 1960s – especially children’s shows and cartoons – those shows increasingly became a staple source for the Seasonal Annual market. There would be a profusion of stories and strips targeting not simply readers but young viewers and more and more often the stars would be American not British…

After three seasons (perhaps two and a half would be closer) the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes and a movie since the US premiere on January 12th, 1966 and triggered a global furore for all things zany and mystery-mannish.

At this time DC, Dell/Gold Key, Marvel and Charlton all had limited overseas licenses – usually in dedicated black-&-white anthologies. Another factor to consider was the traditions of the UK market. American comics had been primarily picture-strip based since the 1930s, but British weeklies had been providing Boy’s and Girl’s “papers” that were prose-based for all that time and longer.

DC Thompson persevered with illustrated text periodicals until well into the 1960s and every British company continued to shave costs by padding comics and annuals with text stories and features well into the 1970s.

Seasonal annuals provided a vital sales peak of the publishing year and a guaranteed promotional push (see Alan Clark’s superb The Children’s Annual for further details). Any comic worth its salt needed a glossy hardback on the shelves over the Christmas period, but they didn’t have to be picture-packed…

Not yet, at least. In future years various outfits would publish DC and Marvel Annuals: mostly full colour reprint strip extravaganzas with a little UK-originated material, but in the 1960s the prose tradition was still worth pursuing – especially if another company had the licences to publish strips but had neglected to secure rights to storybooks and text tales…

Thus this peculiar and delightful novelty: a comfortingly sturdy 96 page parcel of bold illustrations, games, puzzles and prose stories featuring the Dauntless Dynamic Duo in exceedingly British, goggle-box inspired tales of skulduggery and derring-do, flavoured with the OTT wackiness of the TV show at its madcap height.

This was the last of four; released in 1969 by Manchester-based World Distributors. The company was formed by Sidney, John and Alfred Pemberton after WWII and their main business was licensed Annuals; usually released in Autumn for the Christmas trade and ranging over the decades from Doctor Who to Star Trek to Tarzan, as well as choice selections of comics properties like Fantastic Four, Superman and The Phantom. They became World International Ltd in 1981 but changing market conditions put them out of business by the end of the decade.

This entire package – like most of their 1960s offerings – was produced in the cheap and quirky mix of monochrome, dual-hued and weirdly full-coloured pages which made the Christmas books such a bizarrely beloved treat. As for the writers and artists of the material your guess is, sadly, as good as or better than mine, but it was certainly generated by the wonderful Mick Anglo’s publishing/packaging company Gower Studios and therefore offered a delightfully eclectic mix of material far more in keeping with the traditionally perceived interests of British boys than the suited-&-booted masked madness which usually followed in the Caped Crusader’s scalloped wake.

The madcap all-ages mayhem opens with ‘The Archer Hits the Target’ wherein the Caped Crusader escapes an bizarre bowman’s death-trap through a liberal application of “batdope” after which the ‘The Riddler Riddles’ provide a page-full of wicked brainteasers. ‘The Joker Laughs Last’ but still fails in pulling off a million-dollar bank raid and we take a quick break by enjoying some arcane natural history facts in featurette ‘How Odd!’

An invasion of animated umbrellas presages ‘The Penguin’s Biggest Flap’ but once he’s properly thumped a brace of divertissements begins with more gags in ‘The Caped Crusader’s Conundrums’ and ends with speed records quiz ‘Fast, Faster, Fastest’ after which the Gotham Gangbusters scupper a modern buccaneer and leave ‘No Plunder for the Pirate’…

A fact-file on ‘Queer Birds’ then leads into gripping board-game ‘Catch the Joker’ (still got those counters and dice?) whilst a sartorially superior super-crook meets his match when ‘Batman Buttonholes the Gent’ after which the not-so-Dark Knight offers a lecture on natural gimmicks and animal adaptations in ‘Crime Fighters, Please Note’.

‘Bus Ride – by Water’ is a photo-feature on hovercraft and ‘Know your Sports’ tests your knowledge on games before the Bird Bandit bounces back in ‘A Parry for the Penguin’, kidnapping Commissioner Gordon and Chief O’Hara before a second seductive board-game pits the Caped Crimebusters against the Fowl Felon and Mountebank of Mirth who are ‘Cruising for a Bruising’…

‘No Safety in Numbers’ examines conspiracies from Guy Fawkes to the German plot to kill Hitler via the betrayal of Jesse James, whilst ‘Sharpen your Mind’ provides another batch of riddles before we charge back into action as Batman rescues Bruce Wayne‘s Aunt Harriet from a medieval-themed malcontent in ‘A Bleak Outlook for the Black Knight’…

‘A Joke Isn’t a Joke’ offers another board-game and language-skills are tested in ‘Every Kind of Bat’ and crossword ‘Words Up and Down’ before a deadly card-based cad hits town and ‘Batman Outshines the Ace’ after which another photo-spread details the job of divers in ‘Splash! It’s the Police’ and the underwater theme concludes with ‘The Penguin’s Fishy Facts’…

‘Wiping the Smile from the Smiler’s Face’ finds Batman battling a bomb-planting maniac after which general knowledge is assessed in ‘Battle of Wits’ and the Dynamic Duo become ‘Big Game for the Catwoman’ (and her sultry Cat-Girls!) before we all suffer the corny pangs of wit from ‘The Joker Jokes’…

This quirky fun-fest then concludes on a high note (A-flat, I suspect) as ‘The Minstrel Plays it Hot’ but still falters before the keen wits and fast fists of Batman and Robin…

Odd and truly daft, this titanic tome is probably only of interest to comics completists and incurable nostalgics, but I’ll bet there are more of us than anybody suspects out there and what’s wrong with a little sentiment-soaked reminiscing anyway?
© MCMLXIX by National Periodical Publications Inc. All rights reserved throughout the world.

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The Ghost Stories of M. R. James


By M. R. James, illustrated by Rosalind Caldecott, selected & edited by Michael Cox (Tiger Books International)
ISBN: 978-1-85501-141-0

These days, thanks to cinema, television and latterly the internet, our deepest emotions are mostly prodded and provoked by creators through sound and most especially by visuals, but for the longest time artists got into our heads through words and pictures, letting our own imaginations do all the damage…

A truly Great British tradition is the Christmas Ghost Story and the art form – at least in its literary iteration – has never been better expressed than in the cool, dry, chillingly understated tales of scholar and cleric M. R. James.

A series of BBC TV adaptations appeared sporadically from the late 1960s onwards, thoroughly warping the unformed minds of a generation of kids like me and Mark Gatiss who, in fact, revived the tradition in 2013 with his dramatisation of The Tractate Middoth on December 25th 2013 with A Ghost Story for Christmas…

There are naturally plenty of compilations of the macabre master’s creepy canon – although as far as I’m aware, no complete collection yet – but a treasured favourite of mine, incorporating the majority of his most infamous spellbinders, is this copiously illustrated commemorative hardback from 1986 which also offers a series of superb, atmosphere-evoking yet sublimely understated pencil drawings from Rosalind Caldecott for each eerie episode.

So successful were M. R. James’ painfully small canon of stories that he has been given the honour of defining a genre. The “Jamesian” style revolves around and usually includes a familiar if bucolic setting such as an English hamlet, manorial estate or seaside town, ancient European edifices like an abbey or university library where quiet, naive bookish types finds antiquarian books or ancient artefacts and arouse the ire of something far better left dead and forgotten…

In this scholarly tome – befitting a man as well known for his educational, scholastic and ecumenical achievements as his horrorist hobby – the timeless terror tales are preceded by an epic and entrancing biography of Montague Rhodes James OM, MA, FBA (1862-1936) who, when not disturbing the dreams of a nation and empire, was a medieval researcher and latterly Provost of King’s College Cambridge and Eton College.

His life and works are here traced with meticulous precision in a photo-packed, illustration-augmented ‘Introduction by Michael Cox’ before begins a cavalcade of subdued, understated, ferociously evocative tales wherein comfortable elements of the ordinary and safely commonplace are over and again suddenly compromised by the relentless howling unknown…

The prose pilgrimage begins with ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book’ (first published in National Review, March 1895) as a student and collector of scriptural antiquities describes the close call he had when offered an illicit mediaeval manuscript volume. He had no qualms about purchasing the relic until he saw what was hidden at the back…

This is followed by the classic ‘Lost Hearts’ (debuting in Pall Mall Magazine, December 1895 and adapted into a TV masterpiece by Robin Chapman for the BBC’s Christmas top-slot in 1973) which describes how young orphan Stephen is adopted by his elderly cousin at a remote mansion. His extremely distant benefactor is obsessed with immortality but the truly disturbing problem is the frequent peripheral glimpses of a gypsy girl and Italian boy with holes in their chests…

A far more sedate yet equally sinister situation unfolds when a university museum curator acquires a rare artwork in ‘The Mezzotint’ (from Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, 1904). The local scene depicted seemingly changes whenever people look away and elements of the subtly shifting picture bear ghastly echoes of a local atrocity from years past…

From that same landmark anthology volume comes ‘The Ash-Tree’ which relates how the inheritor of an ancient and much-cursed country estate discovers to his horror the Things which have caused so much misery over the centuries and where they’ve been hiding, whilst a church historian staying at a Danish inn uncovers true terror through the uncanny appearances and disappearances of both his sometime neighbours and even room ‘Number 13’ (GSoaA, 1904) itself…

A deservedly legendary and infamous tale from GSoaA, 1904, ‘“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”’ is one of James’ most celebrated chillers which, as adapted by Jonathan Miller in 1968, set the tone and format for the BBC’s seasonal horror-offerings for decades to come.

The original prose piece concerns a stuffy, solitary academic who discovers an old whistle whilst poking about in a ruin once occupied by the Knights Templar. He then unleashes something incomprehensible and malign after he blows on it…

‘The Tractate Middoth’ (More Ghost Stories, 1911) details how a college librarian is sucked into a protracted family legal dispute over a lost book being sought by both the living and the dead whilst ‘The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral’ (Contemporary Review, 1910) reveals how when the old Archdeacon dies in mysterious circumstances his successor becomes beguiled with – or is that stalked by? – a certain set of carved seats in the Cathedral…

A local scandal and subsequent court case finds the Squire accused of murdering a young girl he had been dallying with in ‘Martin’s Close’ (More Ghost Stories, 1911), but events take a strange turn after the prosecution enter into evidence the victim’s ghostly testimony, before ‘Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance’ (MGS, 1911) explains how a beneficiary’s windfall comes with a few unpleasant strings attached: specifically, a maze and Folly Temple which form part of his new estate and operate in a most bizarre and predatory fashion…

James preferred to distance himself and generally his story-narrators from the actual arcane action and this is seldom better seen than in the relatively lengthy and convoluted tale of ‘The Residence at Whitminster’ (A Thin Ghost, 1919) wherein the new modern rector at an ancient ecclesiastical home idly delves into the death of two children in 1730 and uncovers generations of tragedy locked in a simple old chest, unleashes unquiet spirits in the manse and lets loose demonic insects…

Another scholar investigating past parlous events informs ‘A Neighbour’s Landmark’ (The Eton Chronic, May 1925) wherein a visit to a friend’s country seat uncovers the reasons ancient woodland Betton Wood was dug up and ploughed over. However the eerie ghostly screams that used to emanate from it can still rattle the unwary…

‘A View From a Hill’ (The London Mercury, May 1925) then recounts how a historian on holiday visits a chum and borrows some very odd old binoculars. With them he rambles to a local beauty spot and sees something impossible and out of joint: an ancient tower and gibbet which are no longer situated on notorious local landmark Gallows Hill. …And then he sees through those ancient lenses impossible people moving with deadly purpose…

Minor classic ‘A Warning to the Curious’ was written after the Great War (The London Mercury, August 1925) and is one of James’ most bleak, chilling and hope-abandoned offerings. It tells of Paxton, an antiquarian/archaeologist on holiday in a Suffolk coastal resort who happens upon an important relic…

Unable to resist the lure of the long-lost Saxon Crown of Anglia – one of three fabled to protect the nation from invasion – he disinters and takes the artefact but is subsequently and relentlessly stalked by its sinister supernatural sentinel.

By the time Paxton unburdens himself to our narrator it is almost too late and, although he is convinced to restore the Crown to its resting place, his sin can be expiated only by occult judgement…

This sublimely supernal feast of fear and uneasy elucidation concludes with the disquieting and quasi-autobiographical ‘A Vignette’ which first appeared in The London Mercury in November 1936. It discloses how, on a quiet day in a typically idyllic English Country Garden, a sensitive young boy saw something he could not explain and felt somehow compelled to draw closer rather than run away…

This erudite edition also includes full ‘Publication Details’ of where and when the terror tales originated and where they were subsequently collected, whilst ‘Notes to the Introduction’ provide timely background to the storyteller’s eclectic life and everything ends with a tantalising ‘Select Bibliography’ to get your own antiquarian juices flowing…

Calmly disquieting, approachably uneasy and superbly scary, these are stories every fear fan should know and, whether through this illustrated item or any later collection, you must read these tales.
Copyright this edition © 1986 Nicholas Enterprises Limited. This edition published 1991 All rights reserved.

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Batman: the Dark Knight Archives volume 7


By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz, Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Ray Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3744-8

Win’s Christmas Recommendation: Classically Traditional, Timelessly Wonderful… 9/10

Launching a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market frontrunner and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry.

Having established the fantastic parameters of the metahuman with their Man of Tomorrow, the strictly mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of DC’s Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

This eighth luxuriously lavish hardback Archive Edition volume covers another bevy of Batman adventures (#32-37 of his solo title, spanning December 1945/January 1946 through October/November 1946), with the Gotham Gangbusters resolutely returned to battling post-war perils and peacetime perfidies of danger, doom and criminality….

These Golden Age greats comprise many of the greatest tales in Batman’s decades-long canon, as lead writers Bill Finger and Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz and other – sadly unrecorded – scripters, pushed the boundaries of the medium.

On the visual side, graphic genius Dick Sprang superseded and surpassed freshly-returned originator Bob Kane (who had been drawing the Batman daily newspaper strip until its cancellation), making the feature utterly his own in all but name whilst keeping the Dauntless Double-act at the forefront of the legion of superhero stars, even as veteran contributor Jerry Robinson was reaching the peak of his illustrative powers and preparing to move on to other artistic endeavours…

The sheer creativity exhibited in these adventures proved the creators responsible for producing the bi-monthly adventures of the Dark Knight were hitting an artistic peak that few other superhero titles could match. Within scant years they would be one of the only games in town for Fights ‘n’ Tights fans…

Following a fascinatingly fact-filled and incisive Foreword from the inestimable Roy Thomas, the all-out action begins with Batman #32 and another malevolently marvellous exploit of The Joker whose ‘Racket-Rax Racket!’ (crafted by Cameron & Sprang) finds its felonious inspiration in college-student hazing and initiation stunts, after which Finger scripted ‘Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder!’ for that man Sprang, which reprises the jaunty junior partner’s origins and reveals how the lad earned the right to risk his life every night beside the mighty Batman in a blisteringly tense first case…

Light-hearted supplemental feature ‘The Adventures of Alfred’ provides thrills and laughs in equal measure as the dutiful butler reluctantly baby-sits a posh pooch and ends up ‘In the Soup’ after stumbling upon a gang of high society food smugglers (courtesy of Samachson & Robinson), before Cameron & Sprang spectacularly combine a smidgen of science fiction flair and a dash of historical conceit to the regular adventure mix when Professor Carter Nichols uses his hypnosis-powered time-travel trick to send Bruce and Dick to the court of Louis XIII to work with D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers in ‘All for One, One for All!’

Issue #33 was the Christmas issue for 1945 – complete with seasonal cover by Sprang – but was otherwise an all-Win Mortimer art-fest; beginning with Finger’s ‘Crime on the Wing’ wherein the Penguin popped up and began a renewed campaign of crime with his trick umbrellas, just to prove to modern mobsters that he was still a force to be reckoned with after which anonymously-scripted thriller ‘The Looters!’ found the Dynamic Duo hunting a heartless pack of human hyenas led by the Jackal, raiding cities struck by disasters natural and not…

As if that wasn’t vile enough, the shameless exploiter was also trying to steal or sabotage the invention of a dedicated seismologist who thought he’d found a way to predict earthquakes until Batman and Robin rocked the Jackal’s world…

The issue ended with a similarly uncredited Holiday treat as ‘The Search for Santa Claus’ saw three broken old men redeemed by the season of goodwill.

After selflessly standing in for Saint Nick, an innocent man who’d spent 25 years in jail, an over-the-hill actor and a millionaire framed and certified insane by his unscrupulous heirs all found peace, contentment and justice after encountering those industriously bombastic elves Batman and Robin…

Three quarters of issue #34 was crafted by Finger & Sprang, beginning with ‘The Marathon of Menace!’ as an old man who’d dedicated his life to speed records organised a cross-country race across America with enough prize cash to interest crooks – and the ever-vigilant Gotham Gangbusters – after which an insufferable chatterbox deafeningly returned in ‘Ally Babble and the Four Tea Leaves!’; in which the chaos-causing manic maunderer consults a fortune teller and accidentally confounds a string of dastardly desperadoes…

Robinson then limned an anonymous but timely tale as ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Tired Tracks’ found the veteran valet stumbling upon a gang of opportunistic thieves before the issue ends with Finger & Sprang detailing ‘The Master Vs. the Pupil!’

Here the Batman tests his partner’s progress by becoming the quarry in a devious manhunt, but Robin’s early confidence and success take a nasty nosedive after an embarrassing gaffe which proves the danger of too much success…

Finger, Bob Kane & Ray Burnley crafted the lion’s share of Batman #35, beginning with the landmark ‘Nine Lives has the Catwoman!’ wherein the slinky thief finally emerged as the Dark Knight’s premier female foil.

Escaping prison and going on a wild crime spree, the feline felon convinces the world – and possibly the Caped Crusaders – that she cannot die, after which the equally auspicious and influential ‘Dinosaur Island!’ finds our heroes performing a sociology experiment in a robotic theme park, only to find the cavemen and giant beasts co-opted by a murderous enemy looking to become king of the criminal underworld by orchestrating their deaths…

An author unknown then scripted the whimsical exploits of ‘Dick Grayson, Author!’ (art by Kane & Burnley) as the young daredevil deems comicbook stories too unrealistic and is offered the opportunity to write some funnybook dramas which would benefit from actual crime-fighting experience. Of course, all that typing and plotting are harder than they look…

Kane & Burnley also illustrated all the Batman tales in #36, beginning with Alvin Schwartz’s ‘The Penguin’s Nest!’ wherein the podgy Bird of Ill-Omen started imperilling his new, successful – and legitimate – restaurant venture by committing minor misdemeanours just to get arrested. Unsure of what he’s up to, the Masked Manhunters spend an inordinate amount of time and energy keeping him out of jug until they finally glean his devious, million-dollar scheme…

When Hollywood’s top stuntman suffers a head injury on set and begins acting out his assorted past roles in the real world, the panicked studios call in Batman to be a ‘Stand-In for Danger!’ (Cameron, Kane & Burnley), whilst ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Elusive London Eddie!’ (with Robinson art) sees the mild-mannered manservant ferreting out a British scallywag gone to ground in Gotham after which the issue ends on a spectacular high with another terrific time-travel trip.

‘Sir Batman at King Arthur’s Court!’ – courtesy of Finger, Kane & Burnley – sees our compulsive chrononauts crisscrossing fabled Camelot and battling rogue wizards to verify the existence of the enigmatic Round Table legend dubbed Sir Hardi Le Noir…

This stunning and sturdy compilation closes with the all-Robinson, all anonymously scripted #37, beginning with ‘Calling Dr. Batman!’ wherein the wounded crimebuster is admitted to hospital and uncovers dark doings and radium robbery.

As if that wasn’t enough a very sharp nurse seems to have suspicions regarding the similarity of the masked celebrity’s wounds to those of a certain millionaire playboy…

Batman and Robin are back in Tinseltown to solve a dire dilemma as ‘Hollywood Hoax!’ has them hunting thieves and blackmailers who have swiped the master print of the latest certified celluloid smash, after which the dauntless derring-do ends with a magnificent clash of eternal adversaries when ‘The Joker Follows Suit!’

Fed up with failing in all his felonious forays, the Clown Prince of Crime decides that imitation is the sincerest form of theft and begins swiping the Dark Knights gimmicks, methods and gadgets; using them to profitably come to the aid of bandits in distress…

Accompanied as always by a full creator ‘Biographies’ section, this superb collection of comicbook classics is another magnificent rollercoaster ride back to an era of high drama and breathtaking excitement: a timeless, evergreen delight no addict of graphic action can ignore.
© 1945, 1946, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Boy Commandos volume 1


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Ideal for fanboys, superhero purists and lovers of sheer comic exuberance… 9/10

Just as the Golden Age of comics was kicking off two young men with big hopes met up and began a decades-long association that was always intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes.

Joe Simon was a sharp-minded, talented gentleman with five years experience in “real” publishing, working from the bottom up to art director on a succession of small newspapers such as the Rochester Journal American, Syracuse Herald and Syracuse Journal American before moving to New York City and a life of freelancing as an art/photo retoucher and illustrator. Recommended by his boss, Simon joined Lloyd Jacquet’s pioneering Funnies Inc., a comics production “shop” generating strips and characters for a number of publishing houses eager to cash in on the success of Action Comics and its stellar attraction Superman.

Within days Simon created The Fiery Mask for Martin Goodman of Timely (now Marvel) Comics and met young Jacob Kurtzberg, a cartoonist and animator just hitting his imaginative stride with the Blue Beetle for the Fox Feature Syndicate.

Together Simon and Kurtzberg (who went through a battalion of pen-names before settling on Jack Kirby) enjoyed stunning creative empathy and synergy which galvanized an already electric neo-industry with a vast catalogue of features and even genres.

At rocket-pace they produced the influential Blue Bolt, Captain Marvel Adventures #1 and, after Martin Goodman appointed Simon editor at Timely, a host of iconic characters such as Red Raven, Marvel Boy, Hurricane, The Vision, The Young Allies and a guy named Captain America.

When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and an open chequebook. Initially an uncomfortable fit, bursting with ideas the company were not comfortable with, the pair were soon handed two failing strips to play with until they found their creative feet.

Soon after establishing themselves with The Sandman and Manhunter they were left to their own devices and promptly created comicbooks’ “Kid Gang” genre with a unique juvenile Foreign Legion entitled The Boy Commandos – who soon shared the spotlight with Batman in flagship publication Detective Comics and whose solo title was frequently amongst the company’s top three sellers.

Boy Commandos was such a success – often cited as the biggest-selling American comicbook in the world at that time – that the editors, knowing The Draft was lurking, green-lighted the completion of a wealth of extra material to lay away for when their star creators were called up. S&K and their team produced so much four-colour magic in a phenomenally short time that Publisher Jack Liebowitz eventually suggested they retool some of it into adventures of a second kid gang… and thus was born The Newsboy Legion (and their super-heroic mentor The Guardian)…

Those guys we’ll get to some other time but today let’s applaud this splendidly sturdy full-colour hardback compilation re-presenting the first ten months of the courageous child soldiers (June 1942-March 1943) as seen in Detective Comics #64-72, World’s Finest Comics #8-9, Boy Commandos #1-2 (spanning June 1942 to March 1943): a barrage of bombastic blockbusters that were at once fervently patriotic morale-boosters, rousing action-adventures and potent satirical swipes and jibes by creators who were never afraid to show that good and evil was never simply just “us & them”…

Following a scholarly Introduction from respected academic Paul Buhle, the vintage thrills and spills commence with a spectacular introduction to the team as only S & K could craft it: a masterpiece of patriotic fervour which eschewed lengthy explanations or origins in favour of immediate action as ‘The Commandos are Coming!’ cleverly followed the path of a French Nazi collaborator who found the courage to fight against his country’s conquerors after meeting the bombastic military unit.

We never knew how American Captain Rip Carter got to command a British Commando unit nor why he was allowed to bring a quartet of war-orphans with him on a succession of deadly sorties into “Festung Europa”, North Africa, the Pacific or Indo-Chinese theatres of war. All we had to do was realise that cockney urchin Alfy Twidgett, French lad Pierre – later unobtrusively renamed Andre – Chavard, little Dutch boy Jan Haasen and rough, tough little lout Brooklyn were fighting the battles we would if we only had the chance…

From the start the yarns were strangely exotic and bizarrely multi-layered, adding a stratum of myth making and fantasy to the grim and grisly backdrop of a war fought from the underdog’s position. Detective Comics #66 (which featured a stunning art-jam cover by Jerry Robinson, Simon & Kirby with Batman and Robin welcoming the team to their new home) saw the exploits of the juvenile warriors related by a seer to feudal Queen Catherine of France in ‘Nostrodamus Predicts’.

She saw and drew comfort from Carter’s attempt to place the kids in a posh boarding school only uncovered a traitor in educator’s clothing and led to a shattering raid right in the heart of the occupier’s defences…

The locale shifted to Africa and time itself got bent when ‘The Sphinx Speaks’, revealing how a reporter in the year 3045 AD interviewed a mummy with a Brooklyn accent. The seeming madness had materialised after the Commando “mascots” arrived in Egypt in 1942 to liberate a strategically crucial village and discovered a Nazi radio post inside an ancient edifice. Whilst they were causing their usual corrective carnage one of the lads had a strange meeting with the rocky pile’s oldest inhabitant…

Another esoteric human interest tale began back in Manhattan where hoods Horseshoes Corona and his best pal Buttsy Baynes barely avoided a police dragnet and ‘Escape to Disaster!’ by heading out into the open ocean and straight into the sights of a U-boat. The sight of the gloating Nazis laughing as his friend perished had a marked effect on one heartless gangster.

When badly wounded Horseshoes was later picked up by Carter’s crew he immediately had a negative influence on impressionable, homesick Brooklyn but turned around his life in its final moments when the Allied ship attacked an apparently impregnable German sea base…

Detective #68 exposed ‘The Treachery of Osuki!’ as a dogfight dumped the boys and a Japanese pilot in the same life-raft. Once they hit land the obsequious flier soon began grooming the simple island natives who saved them, but ultimately couldn’t mask his fanatical urge to conquer and kill after which an epic of East-West cooperation saw the underage warriors battling Nazis beside desperate Russian villagers at ‘The Siege of Krovka!’ determined to make the invaders pay for every frozen inch of Soviet soil in a blockbusting tale of heroism and sacrifice.

Another odd episode found contentious, argument-addicted New York cabbie Hack Hogan drafted and – protesting all the way – slowly transformed into a lethal force of nature sticking it to the Nazis in the heart of their homeland with the kids reduced to awestruck observers in ‘Fury Rides a Taxicab!’

An astounding hit, the kids also became a fixture in premier all-star anthology World’s Finest Comics with #8’s (Winter 1942-1943) ‘The Luck of the Lepparts’ wherein a cad and bounder battled to beat a curse which had destroyed three previous generations of his family of traitors. Was it fate, ill fortune or the arrival of the Boy Commandos in the Burmese stronghold he planned to sell out that sealed his fate?

That same month saw the inevitable launch of Boy Commandos #1 which explosively opened with ‘The Town that Couldn’t be Conquered!’, wherein Rip leads the lads back to Jan’s home village to terrify the rapacious occupiers and start a resistance movement, after which ‘Heroes Never Die’ fancifully finds the team in China where they meet a dying monk.

This aged sage remembers his childhood when a white pirate and four foreign boys led a bandit army against imperial oppression and has waited for their prophesised return ever since the Japanese invaded…

This period of furious productivity resulted in some of Simon & Kirby’s most passionate yet largely unappreciated material. As previously stated, Boy Commandos regularly outsold Superman and Batman during WWII, and the moody ‘Satan Wears a Swastika’ clearly shows why, blending patriotic fervour with astonishing characterisation and a plot of incredible sophistication.

When news comes of the team’s death, official scribes Joe and Jack convene with the Sandman and Newsboy Legion on how to handle the morale-crushing crisis. As the Homefront heroes debate, across the ocean the answers unravel. The confusing contretemps had begun when a quartet of wealthy little people decided that despite their medical deficiencies they would not be cheated of their chance to fight fascism. Accompanied by their tall, rangy butler, they set up as a private combat unit and plunged into the bowels of Berlin even as the real commandos were currently being run ragged by the Germans’ most deadly operative Agent Axis…

That epochal initial issue ended with a weird war story as the boys kept meeting French soldier Francois Girard who shared snippets of useful intel as they prepared for their most audacious mission: kidnapping Hitler…

Even though the sortie eventually came up short the blow to the enemy’s morale and prestige was enormous but on returning home the codenamed ‘Ghost Raiders’ shockingly learned that for one of their number, the title was not metaphorical…

Back in Detective #71 (January 1943) ‘A Break for Santa’ offered a stellar change of pace as the boys organised a treat for orphans and opted – even if they were cashiered for it – to rescue one lad’s dad from a concentration camp for Christmas…

The next issue saw them uncover a devilish espionage/sabotage ring operating out of a florists shop in ‘Petals of Peril’ whilst #73 revealed ‘The Saga of the Little Tin Box’ as Rip dragged the kids through hellish African jungles ahead of a cunning and supremely competent Nazi huntsman; watching them slowly psychologically unravel as they became increasing obsessed with a pointless trinket…

That mystery successfully solved, the action switched to Europe for World’s Finest Comics #9 as the kids went undercover as circus performers cautiously recruiting a cadre of operatives to strike against the oppressors from within, culminating in ‘The Battle of the Big Top!’

This stunning collection concludes with the contents of Boy Commandos #2 (Spring 1943), leading with ‘The Silent People Speak’ as two Danish brothers – one on each side of the conflict – resolve years of jealousy and hatred when the Commandos stage an incursion into their strategically crucial village, after which black comedy resurfaces as wastrel nobleman Lord Tweedbrook is drafted and his butler becomes his drill-sergeant. Happily the young lions are on hand to stop the suffering scion absconding and see the turbulent toff’s transition to fighting tiger in ‘On the Double, M’Lord!’

Another tantalising twice-told tale has Rip and the boys invade fairytale European kingdom Camelon to rescue a sleeping Queen (from magic spells or Nazi drugs?) in ‘The Knights Wore Khaki’, before this first wave of yarns culminates with a gloriously sentimental romp as the kids adopt a battered and bloody bomb crater kitten and smuggle him onto a vital mission. Things looked bad until even little “Dodger” proves he would give ‘Nine Lives for Victory’…

Although I’ve concentrated on the named stars it’s important to remember – especially in these more enlightened times still plagued with the genuine horror of children forcibly swept up in war they have no stake in – that the Boy Commandos, even in their ferociously fabulous exploits, were symbols as much as combatants, usually augmented by huge teams of proper soldiers doing most of the actual killing.

It’s not much of a comfort but at least it showed Simon & Kirby were not simply caught up in a Big Idea without considering all the implications…

Bombastic, blockbusting and astoundingly appetising these superb fantasies from the last “Good War” are a spectacular example of comics giants at their most creative. No true believer or dedicated funnybook aficionado should be denied this book.
© 1942, 1943, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Rupert Treasury


By Mary Tourtel (Purnell Books)
ISBN: 9 78-0-36106-343-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Truly British Brilliance with Universal Appeal… 9/10

There’s not a lot around these days in our field which caters specifically for little kids, their nostalgic parents and guardians whilst simultaneously introducing them to the ineluctably tactile wonders and sensorium of a high quality comics anthological experience. Once upon a time there was a whole subdivision of the publishing business dedicated to enthralling and enchanting our youngest and, hopefully, brightest but now all I can think of are The Beano and The Phoenix…

At least we still have books – old and new – to fill the gap.

Moreover, comics fans and the British in general equally adore a well-seasoned tradition and in terms of pictorial narrative and sheer beguilement there’s nothing more perfect than the hairy national treasure called Rupert.

Long before television took him, the Little Bear was part of our society’s very fabric and never more so than at Christmas when gloriously painted, comfortingly sturdy rainbow-hued Annuals found their way into innumerable stockings and the sticky hands of astounded, mesmerised children.

The ursine über-star was created by English artist and illustrator Mary Tourtel (January 28th 1874-March 15th 1948) and debuted in the Daily Express on November 8th 1920; the beguiling vanguard and secret weapon of a pitched circulation battle with rival papers the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail. Both papers had cartoon characters for kiddies – Teddy Tail in the Mail and the soon-to-be legendary Pip, Squeak and Wilfred in the Mirror.

Tourtel’s daily serial of the Little Lost Bear ran for 36 instalments and triggered a phenomenon which remains in full force to this day, albeit largely due to the diligent efforts of her successor Alfred Edmeades Bestall, MBE, who wrote and illustrated Rupert Bear from 1935 to 1965 and was responsible for the Annuals which began with the 1936 edition.

The artist originally chosen to spearhead the Express’ cartoon counterattack was already an established major player on the illustration scene – and fortuitously married to the paper’s News Editor Herbert Tourtel, who had been ordered by the owners to come up with a rival feature.

The unnamed little bear was illustrated by Mary and initially captioned by Herbert, appearing as two cartoon panels per day with a passage of text underneath. He was originally cast as a brown bear until the Express decided to cut costs and inking expenses resulting in the iconic white pallor we all know and love today.

Soon though early developmental “bedding-in” was accomplished and the engaging scenario was fully entrenched in the hearts and minds of readers. Young Rupert lives with his extremely understanding parents in idyllically rural Nutwood village: an enticing microcosm and exemplar of everything wonderful about British life. The place is populated by anthropomorphic animals and humans living together and overlaps a lot of very strange and unworldly places full of mythical creatures and legendary folk…

A huge hit, Mary’s Rupert quickly expanded into a range of short illustrated novels (46 by my count from the early 1920s to 1936, with a further run of 18 licensed and perpetually published by Woolworth’s after that. It’s from the former that the five tales in this splendid hardback commemoration are taken…

Tourtel’s bear was very much a product of his times and social class: inquisitive, adventurous, smart, helpful yet intrinsically privileged and therefore always labouring under a veiled threat of having his cosy world and possessions taken away by the wicked and undeserving.

Heretical as it might sound, like the unexpurgated fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson or the Brothers Grimm, the pre-Bestall Rupert yarns all have a darker edge and worrisome undercurrent with mysterious forces casually, even capriciously targeting our innocent star. Naturally, pluck, good friends and a benevolent adult or two are always on hand to help our hero win through…

This glorious tome – still readily available through many internet vendors and originated in 1984 – gathers a quintet of typical Tourtel tales from the book editions, packing a wealth of full colour painted, duo-hued and monochrome ink-line illustrations into his enchanting pages and opens with the all-colour adventure of ‘Rupert and the Robber Wolf’ from 1932, with the text as always delivered in a succession of rhyming couplets.

The story sees Rupert deprived of his new pocket watch by a burly vulpine bandit and, despite seeking the assistance of best pal Bill Badger, friendly mystic The Wise Old Goat, pixies, fauns and rural troubleshooter The Pedlar, ending up a prisoner of the wolf.

Happily the Old Goat and a posse of police are on hand to collar the crook and his wayward son before something really nasty occurs…

Rendered in bucolic shades of green, ‘Rupert and the Old Miser’ (first released circa 1925) finds our bear playing with a new ball which flies over a forbidding wall into a large garden. When Rupert sneaks in to retrieve his toy he encounters a range of odd and terrified creatures all suborned to the eccentric whims of the rapacious Master Raven…

When the bear is caught the ebon enchanter declares the trespasser to be his property too and sets the poor mite to work as his latest chattel.

Rupert is despondent, but help is at hand. The Little Bear’s friends have concocted a cunning plan to rescue him and when the scheme succeeds the miser meets a grisly fate chasing his fleeing new slave…

Equally verdant in its art aspects is the saga of ‘Rupert and the Enchanted Princess’ (1928) which opens with the bear snatched up by a great bird and delivered to a distant kingdom where a feudal monarch pleads with him to find his missing daughter.

Despite the scorn of the assembled knights, Rupert sets out and, with the aid of woodland creatures and a talking horse, overcomes ogres, dragons and other terrors before reversing the magic curse of three witches and returning the Princess to her doting dad…

Rendered in beautiful, clear, clean black-&-white line art ‘Rupert and the Mysterious Flight’ (1930) begins when The Prince and Princess of the Wood of Mystery send the Little Bear a fully functional aeroplane. Soon Rupert is enjoying his maiden voyage but gets lost and alights in the Land of Kinkajous, where King Toucan – after an initial fright – sets the boy a series of never-ending mystic challenges. After a number of Herculean labours are accomplished Rupert at last regains his flying machine and makes a break for freedom and home…

The fantastic voyages then conclude with the full-colour ‘Rupert and the Magic Toyman’ (1933) wherein a thrilling day enjoying a Fair and Sports Day leads to the unlucky bear being spirited away by a genial craftsman whose enticing wares mask his true nature.

The toy maker is, in fact, a wicked sorcerer and his constructions are transformed animals and even a Princess…

Undaunted, Rupert organises an escape back to Princess Belinda‘s kingdom, but the Toyman has already ensorcelled the whole place into a land of marionettes. Happily, a glimmer of hope remains and the tables can be turned if only Rupert can find and recruit the valiantly heroic Moorland Will whose hunting horn can undo the magic spell…

Beautifully realised, superbly engaging fantasies such as these are never out of style and this fabulous tome should be yours, if only ass means of introducing the next generation to a perfect world of wonder and imagination.
© 1984 Beaverbrook Newspapers Limited. Artwork & text © 1984 Purnell Publishers Limited from original Mary Tourtel material.

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Batman: the Dark Knight Archives volume 7


By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Greene, Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Jack Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2894-1

Win’s Christmas Recommendation: Classically Traditional, Timelessly Wonderful… 9/10

Launching in 1939, a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market frontrunner and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry.

Having established the fantastic parameters of the metahuman with their Man of Tomorrow, the strictly mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of DC’s Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

This seventh lavish hardback Archive Edition volume covers another bombastic bevy of Batman adventures (from #26-31 of his solo title, spanning December 1944/January 1945 to October/November 1945), abandoning wartime themes and exploits as the American Homefront anticipated a return to peacetime dangers, dooms and criminality….

These Golden Age tales are amongst the very finest in Batman’s decades-long canon as lead writers Bill Finger and Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joseph Greene and other sadly unrecorded scripters, pushed the boundaries of the medium whilst graphic genius Dick Sprang veteran gradually superseded and surpassed originator Bob Kane (busy drawing the Batman daily newspaper strip); making the feature utterly his own whilst keeping the Dauntless Double-Act at the forefront of the legion of superhero stars.

The sheer creativity exhibited in these adventures saw an ever-expanding band of creators responsible for producing the stories of the Dark Knight were hitting an artistic peak which only stellar stable-mate Superman and Fawcett’s Captain Marvel could match.

Following a fascinatingly fact-filled and incisive Foreword from comics historian – and leading light of the magnificent Grand Comics Database – Gene Reed, the mesmerising flash and dazzle commences with Batman #26 and ‘The Twenty Ton Robbery!’

Delivered by Cameron & Sprang it described the return of Dashing Desperado The Cavalier, whose criminal cries for attention drove him to compete against the Caped Crusaders with ever-more spectacular and pointless plunderings after which Schiff & Robinson proffered another delightfully silly comedy-caper in ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Recipe for Revenge!’

This solo exploit of the wannabe detective found the fumbling footman shopping for fancy cuisine and inadvertently saving the life of a gourmet chef…

Crafted at the end of 1944, Greene & Sprang’s ‘The Year 3000!’ was a timely allegory of recent terrors and warning to tomorrow as the usual scenario boldly switched to an idyllic future despoiled when the Saturnian hordes of Fura invade Earth and nearly crush humanity. Happily, one brave man and his young friend find records of ancient heroes named Batman and Robin and, patterning themselves on the long-gone champions, lead a rebellion which overturns and eradicates those future fascists…

Although a touch heavy-handed in places, this first conception of the undying legacy of Batman is a stunning example of what comics do best: inspire whilst entertaining…

Cameron & Sprang close up the issue, back on solid ground and with an eye to contemporary trends as ‘Crime Comes to Lost Mesa!’ finds the Gotham Gangbusters way out west in pursuit of escaped convicts and stumbling into a lost land where pueblo Indians still live in blissful ignorance of the modern world.

Keeping it that way takes the aid of plucky native tyke Nachee, helping Batman and Robin by surreptitiously rounding up the fugitives…

Issue #27 sported a stunning Christmas cover by Jack Burnley (equally captivating other covers in this collection are provided by Robinson or Sprang) before the Masked Manhunters were introduced to ‘The Penguin’s Apprentice’ (Cameron, Burnley & Robinson). The lad was far from keen to continue the family’s illegal traditions or indulge in nefarious business and his dreams of being an author soon ensured Batman put the Bird Bandit back in a cage…

Jerry Robinson always had a deft touch with light comedy and excelled in illustrating the sadly uncredited butler yarns remaining in this tome. ‘The Adventures of Alfred: The Pearl of Peril!’ saw the hapless manservant suckered into an ancient con-game but still coming up trumps thanks to sheer dumb luck, after which Samachson, Burnley & Robinson took Batman and Robin on a ‘Voyage into Villainy’ when a murder at The Explorers Club leads to a deadly treasure hunt through scaled-down replicas of Earth’s most inhospitable environments with a hidden killer waiting to pounce at any moment…

Another of the annual “Christmas Batman” tales wraps up the issue (why on Earth DC has never released a paperback collection of this phenomenally rich seam of Festive gold I’ll never understand) as ‘A Christmas Peril!’ by Cameron & Robinson follows the downward progress and overnight redemption of appallingly callous boy-millionaire Scranton Loring, who learns – almost too late – the joy of giving and inadvisability of trusting bankers and financial advisers, thanks to the timely intervention of a couple of self-appointed (masked) Santa’s Helpers…

Batman #28 leads with ‘Shadow City!’ (Cameron & Robinson) wherein The Joker concocts a wild scheme involving a floating urban street where gamblers and other wealthy risk-takers can indulge their dark passions safe from legal oversight – until the Dynamite Detectives deduce the truth of his vanishing village…

Another anonymous Robinson-rendered romp follows as ‘The Adventures of Alfred: The Great Handcuff King!’ reveals how the bumbling butler’s attempts to familiarise himself with manacles accidentally ensnares an unwary thuggish miscreant, after which the mild-mannered manservant almost ends the career of ‘Shirley Holmes: Policewoman!’ by inadvertently exposing the undercover cop to criminals in a tense Batman thriller by Finger & Robinson.

This issue ends on a redemptive high note as ‘Batman Goes to Washington!’ (Alvin Schwartz & Robinson) finds the Dark Knight supporting a group of former criminals heading to the nation’s capital to argue the case for jobs for ex-offenders. Typically, some gang bosses react to the threat to their potential labour pool with murderous overkill…

Finger & Sprang opened #29 with the chilling ‘Enemy No. 1’ as a man obsessed by being first at everything turned his monomaniacal frustration to the commission of crime, after which the Unknown Writer joined Robinson returned in ‘The Adventures of Alfred: The Butler’s Apprentice!’ wherein our dapper Man Friday answers an ad to train a retainer and stumbles into another half-baked burglary plot…

Although credited here to Robinson, Don Cameron’s outrageous romp ‘Heroes by Proxy!’ is actually an all-Sprang affair, delightfully describing how down-on-their-luck private detectives Hawke and Wrenn try to save their failing business by masquerading as Batman and Robin.

Luckily their first case involves strangely embarrassed Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson who are mortified – then amused – to be burgled by bandits unknown and then coached and cosseted by these helpful but blatantly shoddy impostors of their alter egos…

The delicious hilarity successfully concluded, grim normality returns courtesy of Finger, Sprang & Charles Paris as the diabolical Scuttler devises an infallible means of purloining secret plans and foiling the law’s attempts to catch him in ‘The Mails Go Through!’…

The pompous Penguin pops up again in Batman #30, undertaking a bird and umbrella themed banditry-blitz to ensure his status as emperor of crime until the determined duo send him ‘Back to the Big House!’ (Cameron & Sprang).

‘While the City Sleeps!’ (Finger & Sprang) is a revered classic of informative, socially-aware entertainment which finds the senior crime-smasher taking his ward on a nocturnal tour of the city, celebrating the people who keep a modern metropolis going. Along the way they encounter a repentant thief trying to return stolen cash and have to deal with the guilty man’s murderous compatriots who want to keep the loot…

‘The Adventures of Alfred: Alias the Baron!’ (? & Robinson) then brightens the tone as the butler is mistaken by gangsters for a British crook marked for assassination, after which Finger & Sprang introduce the most annoying character in Gotham in ‘Ally Babble and the Fourteen Peeves!’

The well-meaning, impulse-challenged blabbermouth never shuts up and when he agrees to sort out a list of petty grievances for a well-to-do, bedridden old gent, the resulting chaos allows crooks to make a killing. As events alarmingly escalate however, the Caped Crimebusters are hard pushed to decide who’s the greater menace…

The final issue in this titanic tome is an all Robinson art-affair, beginning with the debut of quarrelsome couple ‘Punch and Judy!’ (scripted by Finger and inked by George Roussos). The wily elderly performers’ violent relationship makes them prime suspects when Bruce and Dick investigate a crooked carnival but can they possibly be involved in murder too?

‘The Adventures of Alfred: Alfred, Armchair Detective!’ was possibly written by Cameron or Samachson and hilariously depicts how an idle night spent eavesdropping on crooks results in a big arrest of burglars, whilst ‘The Vanishing Village!’ (Samachson) finds Batman and Robin in Florida, infiltrating a seemingly mobile resort hideaway for crooks on the run before Joe Greene authors the final act.

Here Robinson & Roussos depict the heroes investigating ‘Trade Marks of Crime!’ when a succession of crimes seem to indicate that some new culprit is utilising the tricks and M.O.’s of other bandits. The truth is a far more cunning and dangerous solution…

Accompanied by a full creator ‘Biographies’ section, this sublime selection of classic comicbook action is a magnificent rollercoaster ride to a era of high drama, low cunning and breathtaking excitement and this timeless and evergreen treat is one no lover of graphic entertainments should ignore.
© 1944, 1945, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Shazam! Family Archives volume 1


By unknown authors, Mac Raboy, Al Carreno, Mark Swayze & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0779-3

One of the most venerated and beloved characters of America’s Golden Age of comicbooks, Captain Marvel was created in 1940 as part of a wave of opportunistic creativity which followed the stunning success of Superman in 1938 and Batman one year later.

Although there were many similarities in the early years, the Fawcett champion quickly moved squarely into the area of light entertainment and even straight comedy, whilst as the years passed the Man of Steel increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action, drama and suspense.

Homeless orphan and all-around decent kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard named Shazam to periodically employ the powers of six ancient gods and heroes to battle injustice. Thereafter he could transform from scrawny, precocious kid to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel by speaking aloud the wizard’s acronymic name – invoking the powers of legendary patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.

Publishing house Fawcett had first gained prominence through an immensely well-received magazine for WWI veterans entitled Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, before branching out into books and general interest magazines. Their most successful publication – at least until the Good Captain hit his stride – was the ubiquitous boy’s building bible Mechanix Illustrated and, as the comicbook decade unfolded, the scientific and engineering discipline and “can-do” demeanour underpinning MI suffused and informed both the art and plots of the Marvel Family titles.

Captain Marvel was the brainchild of writer/editor Bill Parker and brilliant illustrator Charles Clarence Beck who, with his assistant Pete Costanza, handled most of the art on the series throughout its stellar run. Before eventually evolving his own affable personality the Captain was a serious, bluff and rather characterless powerhouse whilst junior alter ego Billy was the true star: a Horatio Alger archetype of impoverished, boldly self-reliant and resourceful youth overcoming impossible odds through gumption, grit and sheer determination…

After homeless orphan newsboy Billy was granted access to the power of legendary gods and heroes, he won a job as a roaming radio reporter for Amalgamated Broadcasting and first defeated demonic Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, setting a pattern that would captivate readers for the next 14 years…

At the height of his popularity Captain Marvel – and many of his fellow Shazam!-powered pals – were published twice monthly and frequently outsold Superman, but as the Furious Forties closed, tastes changed, sales slowed and Fawcett saw the way the wind was blowing.

They settled an infamous, long-running copyright infringement suit begun by National Comics in 1940 and the “Big Red Cheese” vanished – like so many other superheroes – becoming no more than a fond memory for older fans…

Fawcett in full bloom, however, was a true publishing innovator and marketing dynamo – now regarded as the inventor of many established comicbook sales tactics we all take for granted today. This stunning and lavishly sturdy full-colour hardback compendium features magnificent examples of the most effective strategy: spin-off characters linked to the primary star…

Fawcett was the company responsible for creating crossover-events and in 1942 they devised a truly unforgettable villain and set him simultaneously loose on their stable of costumed champions whilst using his (temporary) defeat to introduce a new hero to their colourful pantheon.

The epic creation of Captain Marvel Jr. and his originating antithesis Captain Nazi was covered in Shazam! Archives volume 4 so this subsidiary collection gathers his subsequent appearances as brand new headliner in Master Comics #23-32 (February to November 4th 1942) plus the first issue of his own solo title ( 18th November 1942) and also includes the first appearance of mighty Miss Mary Marvel who debuted in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (December 11th 1942)

Featuring a stunning array of breathtaking and evocative patriotic covers by Mac Raboy and Beck, this splendid compendium kicks off with an erudite and incisive Foreword by P.C. Hammerlinck (artist, editor, historian and former student of C.C. Beck) who reveals many secrets of the original comics’ production before the cartoon classics commence.

Sadly, although the artists involved are easily recognisable, the identities of these tales’ writers are lost to us but strong possibilities include primarily Rod Reed and Ed “France” Herron (both early editors of Fawcett’s comics line) as well as Bill Parker, Joe Millard, Manly Wade Wellman, Otto Binder and William Woolfolk.

Before the advent of the World’s Mightiest Boy, Bulletman – ably assisted by his companion Bulletgirl – was undoubtedly Fawcett’s runner-up star turn; hogging the cover spot in monthly Master Comics and carrying his own solo comicbook. However, that all changed with the twenty-first issue and the murderous arrival of Captain Nazi. Hitler’s Ãœbermensch made manifest, the monstrous villain was despatched to America to spread terror and destruction and kill all its superheroes.

The Horrendous Hun stormed in, taking on Bulletman and Captain Marvel who united to stop the Fascist Fiend wrecking New York City. The battle ended inconclusively but restarted when the Nazi nemesis tried to wreck a hydroelectric dam. Foiled again, the monster sought to smash a new fighter plane prototype before Captain Marvel countered him, but was not quick enough to prevent the killer murdering an old man and brutally crushing a young boy.

Freddy Freeman seemed destined to follow his grandfather into eternity, but guilt-plagued Billy brought the dying lad to Shazam’s mystic citadel where the old wizard saved his life by granting him access to the power of the ancient gods and heroes. Physically cured – except for a permanently maimed leg – there was a secondary effect: whenever he uttered the phrase “Captain Marvel” Freeman transformed into a super-powered, invulnerable version of his mortal self…

The prototype crossover epic concluded in Master Comics #22 when the teen titan joined Bulletman and Bulletgirl in stopping a string of Captain Nazi-sponsored murders, victoriously concluding with a bold announcement that from the very next issue he would be starring in his own solo adventures…

The triumphant parade of epic adventures starts in this tome with ‘Captain Nazi’s Assassination Plot’ (Master Comics #22), immaculately rendered by the Alex Raymond-inspired Raboy who would produce some of the most iconic art of his illustrious career, albeit struggling all the time with punishing deadlines and his own impossibly harsh standards…

Earning a living selling newspapers on street corners, young Freddie spots Captain Nazi again and dogs his corpse-strewn trail as the fascist kills a British agent and attempts to murder President Roosevelt. Then ‘Death by Radio’ introduces sinister serial killer Mr. Macabre who brazenly broadcasts his intention to assassinate former business partners until the young Marvel confronts him…

Master Comics #22 sees Freddie investigate a little lad’s broken balloon in ‘The Case of the Face in the Dark!’ only to stumble upon a cunning plot by the Japanese to invade Alaska. Whereas his senior partner’s tales were always laced with whimsy, Junior’s beautifully depicted exploits were always drenched in angst, tension and explosive action. The climax, which involved the bombastic boy-warrior shredding wave after wave of bombers, is possibly one of the most staggering spectacles of the Golden Age…

On a smaller scale, the next issue featured ‘The Return of Mr. Macabre!’ as the killer, turned sickly green after a failed suicide attempt, kidnaps a US inventor ferrying vital plans to England. The plot goes well until Macabre’s rendezvous with Captain Nazi in mid-Atlantic is interrupted by Junior who saves the day by ripping their battleship apart with his bare hands…

In a rare display of close continuity, Freddie then carries on to London in MC #27 to counter ‘Captain Nazi and the Blackout Terror’, with the malign master of disguise setting out to neutralise the city’s anti-Blitz protocols. For his service Freddie is made a special agent for Winston Churchill…

Never captive for long, in the next issue the Hunnish Hauptman spearheads an Atlantic reign of terror and kidnaps America’s chief of War Production until Junior single-handedly invades ‘Hitler’s Headquarters of Horror’, linking up with the German Resistance movement to free the crucial captive.

After such smashing successes it was no surprise that in #29 British Intelligence tapped innocuous Freddie Freeman to infiltrate Hitler’s Fortress Europa and prepare the enslaved populations under ‘The Iron Heel of the Huns’ to rise when the inevitable Allied counterattack came…

Master #30 saw the wonder boy back in the USA to stop Captain Nazi’s plan to poison an entire military base in ‘Captain Marvel Jr. Saves the Doomed Army’ before malignant Mr. Macabre joins the Japanese to abduct a crucially-placed diplomat in ‘The Case of the Missing Ambassador’ inevitably tasting frustrating defeat and receiving the sound thrashing he so richly deserves…

With Master Comics #32, the title became a fortnightly publication but Freddie barely noticed since he was embroiled in a decidedly domestic atrocity where corrupt orphanage officials collected and abused disabled kids to turn a profit from ‘The Cripple Crimes’…

A blockbuster hit, “The Most Sensational Boy in the World” won his own title as 1942 drew to a close, but with Raboy already hard-pressed to draw 14 pages a month to his own exacting standards, Captain Marvel Jr. #1 was illustrated by reliable Al Carreno – a Fawcett regular who had covered almost every character in the company’s stable.

The bumper book began by briefly reprising ‘The Origin of Captain Marvel Jr.’ before depicting ‘Wings of Dazaggar!’ wherein Junior follows Captain Nazi to an occupied West African colony and uncovers a flight of secret super-planes intended to bomb America to dust…

After scotching that scheme Freddie is drawn into an eerie murder-mystery as a succession of gangsters and investigative reporters fall victim to ‘The Shadow that Walked!’, after which thugs snatching beggars off the street to fuel a fantastically callous insurance scam make their biggest mistake by grabbing lame Freddie Freeman as their next patsy in ‘The Case of the Cripple Kidnappers’…

The soaring sagas conclude on a redemptive note as Captain Marvel Jr. “encourages” ‘The Cracked Safecracker’ to renounce his criminal ways and look after his elderly, ailing and extremely gullible parents…

This superb graphic treat concludes with ‘Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel’ capably rendered by Fawcett mainstay Mark Swayze from Captain Marvel Adventures #18. Preceded by a glorious painted cover from Beck of what would become known as “The Marvel Family”, the story saw boy broadcaster Billy Batson hosting a radio quiz show and finding himself drawn to sweet rich kid Mary Bromfield.

During the course of the show – which also includes Freddie Freeman amongst the contestants – Billy is made shockingly aware that Mary is in fact a long-lost twin sister he never knew he had (take that, Luke Skywalker!) but before he can share the knowledge with her, gangsters kidnap her for a hefty ransom.

Although Captain Marvel and Junior rescue her they foolishly fall under the sway of the crooks and are astounded when Mary idly mutters the word “Shazam!”, transforms into the World’s Mightiest Girl and rescues them all…

Crisis over, the trio then quiz the old wizard and learn the secret of Mary’s powers – gifts of a group of goddesses who have endowed the plucky lass with the grace of Selene, the strength of Hippolyta, the skill of Ariadne, the fleetness of Zephyrus, the beauty of Aurora and the wisdom of Minerva – before welcoming their new companion to a life of unending adventure…

Notwithstanding the acute implied sexism of Mary’s talents coming from goddesses rather the same source as the boys’, her creation was a landmark of progress which added a formidable and unbeatable female to the ranks of the almost universally male mystery-man population of comicbooks.

The original Captain Marvel is a true milestone of American comics history and a brilliantly conceived superhero for all ages. These enchanting, compelling tales show why “The Big Red Cheese” and his oddly extended family was such an icon of the industry and prove that such timeless, sublime graphic masterpieces are an ideal introduction to the world of superhero fiction: tales that cannot help but appeal to readers of every age and temperament…
© 1942, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Victor: the Best of Alf Tupper – The Tough of the Track


By various anonymous and Peter Sutherland, introduced by Morris Heggie (Prion Books)
ISBN: 978-1-85375-861-4

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Better than a Boxing Day kick-about… 8/10

If you grew up British anytime after 1960 and read comics you probably cast your eye occasionally – if not fanatically – over DC Thompson’s venerable “Boy’s Paper” The Victor. The Dundee based company has long been a mainstay of British popular reading and its strong editorial stance has informed and influenced a huge number of household names over the decades.

Post-WWII, Victor was very much the company’s flagship title for action and adventure and featured amongst its grittily realistic pantheon of ordinary stars a perpetually grimy, soot-stained, incorrigibly working class sportsman called Alf Tupper; forever immortalised as The Tough of the Track.

Gathered here in another superb hardcover compilation commemorating the truly unique DC Thomson comics experience is a splendid collection of the Running Man’s most impressive exploits, reproduced in the company’s traditional and splendidly evocative two-colour print process.

The main tenet of the Thomson adventure philosophy is a traditional, humanistic sense of decency. Talented and determined distance runner Tupper might be a poor, rough, ill-educated working lad, competing in a world of privileged “Toffee-Nosed Swells”, but he excels for the sheer joy 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…

Hugely friendly, helpful and big-hearted, Alf first appeared in 1949 in a continuing series of prose stories in “Boys Story-Paper” The Rover. He was created by Bill Blaine and the majority of his 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.

By the end of the 1950s the publishers were finally accepting that their readers no longer wanted all-prose periodicals, and comic strips were the only way to go. Alf was retooled as just such a pictorial headliner and transferred to The Victor where he persevered until the publication folded. His last appearance was in 1992 in The Sunday Post. He was training for the then-imminent Barcelona Olympics…

Common, rowdy, earthy and perpetually sticking it to the posh-boys who monopolised athletics, Tupper was also one of the greatest distance runners alive and fought prejudice, discrimination, poverty and especially privilege as he won races, medals and accolades.

When he wasn’t running or eating fish and chips, Alf was an accomplished welder in the northern industrial town of Greystone, originally apprenticed to shifty, shiftless Ike Smith before eventually setting up in business for himself.

The lad was all about determination countering ill-fortune, adversity – or 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…

The True Brit sporting legend apparently had a big influence on the development of many of our actual sporting greats, as seen from the ‘Foreword by Brendan Foster CBE’ and the background-stuffed ‘Introduction by Morris Heggie’ before the profusion of confusingly untitled treats begin – all apparently taken from assorted Victor Book for Boys Christmas Annuals and primarily illustrated by the superb and criminally un-acclaimed Peter Sutherland.

The initial tale finds Alf training in the wee small hours along Greystone’s grimly cobbled streets. As he tells a wary beat copper, he is snatching what time he can because he has a rush job on but still needs to keep in shape for the Fenfield Mile where Olympic hopeful Guy Granger is in competition…

The pace proves just too much and on the day Granger – a typical spoiled rich-boy – just pips Alf at the tape. When they meet again in a record race at White City, the Tough makes certain this race goes his way…

General picture quiz ‘A Question of Sport’ then leads neatly into another epic Tough of the Track tale as Ike ruins Alf’s leisurely trip to London (where he is entered in the 10,000 Metres at the European Championships) by putting his affable apprentice on a rush welding job.

Forced to travel down on a milk train after hours of intense toil, Tupper is suckered by the devious tactics of the Nuroslavian champion Sturmer and has to settle for silver, but when a team-mate competing in the 5,000 Metres is injured, the now-rested Tough gets another shot at a gold medal…

Another time, whilst hitching to a Mile race in Northcastle Alf discusses with the driver how he wants to run against National hope Harold Pilkington, but on arrival finds the devious rich boy refusing to compete. Terrified of being shown up, the sneaky snob is completely unwilling to compete in a fair race but cannot weasel out when Tupper finds employment in his father’s factory just so he can “run him” at the annual Works Sports Day…

When a vagrant wind blows Alf’s fish supper wrappings away from a bin, he falls foul of a litter-crazed policewoman, but later appreciates her stance after he steps on broken glass obscured by trash and is forced to quit running for a fortnight. At least he would have if there wasn’t a race that Saturday…

Now just as obsessed, he spends the rest of his recuperation cleaning up the streets and making litter-louts behave themselves, but almost loses his next race when he stops in the final stretch to pick up paper blown onto the track…

Another last-minute welding job almost ruins his shot at the international “Mile of the Century”. Oddly enough, the much-touted exhibition match is a dull affair because the other three contestants are equally debilitated for various reasons.

With the competitors as disappointed as the fans, Alf’s cheeky suggestion that they all enter for a local amateur Mile near the airport before flying home is met with huge enthusiasm and really pays off the local fans…

One of the most well-regarded Tupper tales follows as the Tough overcomes all manner of pedestrian obstacles in his efforts to race again against mythic Iron Curtain running star Fedor Oranski. When their epic dash at White City resulted in a dead heat the great man invited his young rival to a return match in distant, dangerous totalitarian Rakovia.

After getting his savings out and finagling a visa, the poor oaf is pick-pocketed at the airport and, rather than give in, stows away and enters the dictatorship illegally. Only a fortuitous last-second intervention by Oranski stops our kid ending up in a gulag or worse but at least this time when they run there’s a clear winner…

Tupper’s character and demeanour were again a problem for some people when he was invited to join top British athletes at select training camp Granton Hall. Despite his winning all the time, the snooty trainer – a former naval officer – objected to Alf’s attitude, discipline and apparent lack of team spirit…

It resulted in him being dropped from the official British squad for a major international cross country event, but Alf simply competed as an independent, even though in the days before the race he was hospitalised after saving a man who had crashed his vehicle and become lost in a blizzard…

A few tales have individual story titles. ‘The Winner Came in Eighth’ saw the runner targeted by the unscrupulous trainers of a leading French competitor who initially try to bribe and then simply kidnap Alf in advance of a big international race. This leads to a broadside of humorous sporting facts in ‘Football Fun’ before ‘The Tough of the Team’ finds the working-class hero in contention with an obnoxious American running for Granton Hall who takes an instant dislike to Alf and isn’t above employing dirty tricks to win.

When Tupper is invited to run for the prestigious Old Milocarians against Granton, he has his chance for revenge but almost loses everything when he sacrifices his lead to save an endangered labourer stuck in a smokestack…

The writers were always clever in finding ways to broaden the scope of stories. ‘The Runner from Long Ago’ offers an eerie mystery as Alf’s solitary training regimen finds him seemingly competing against the ghost of a celebrated distance runner from the 19th century after which another ‘A Question of Sport’ picture quiz leads Alf into a different kind of running dilemma as he saves a whippet from being drowned and is then targeted by shady gamblers trying to fix a big race. At one stage they even dope him just as he sets off on a calamitous 1500 metres run at a Miners Sports Meeting…

More ‘A Question of Sport’ segues into to a nasty clash with rich, spoiled running rival Nigel Fenton who tries to hit Alf with his sports-car even as his equally vile father is attempting to fix a traction engine competition. When Alf allies with Colonel Fenton‘s most feared opponent, sparks fly, steam explodes and both generations of bad men learn a much deserved lesson…

When the off-his-form Tough of the Track decides to pit himself against French Steeplechase champion Jussac he gets distracted helping a Formula One driver repair his ailing car engine and his own race against the Continental suffers because of it. Soon after, however, Alf hears of an all-comers event in Amsterdam and hitches to Holland in time to do himself proud despite some unhelpful strategic advice from his new motor racing friends…

Rupert Snyke was both rich and a cheat but Alf “ran him” anyway. And when the cad’s dad tried to nobble a rival in a veteran car rally Tupper was on hand to offer a bit of engineering aid and still had time to pip Rupert to the tape in their rematch, after which one final bout of snob-bashing occurs when Alf travels to France for an all-comers event and stands in for an injured friend at an “It’s a Knockout” style competition of crazy games.

All that whacky merriment and non-standard training stands him in good stead when wild weather threatens to wash out the proper athletics match though…

With the strip dramas concluded everything wraps up with a brace of intellectual exercises as ‘Sports Quiz’ and the photo-packed ‘Alf Tupper’s Athletics Quiz’ test the readers’ memories. This is a wonderfully accessible slice of truly British nostalgia and a certain delight for every fan of sportsmanship and great comics.
VICTOR™ and © D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd. 2012. Associated text, characters and artwork © D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd. 2012. All rights reserved.

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The Dan Dare Dossier


By Norman Wright, Mike Higgs & various (Hawk Books)
ISBN: 978-0-94824-812-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: For everybody with Stars in their Eyes… 8/10

Launching on April 14th 1950 and running until 26th April 1969, Eagle was the most influential comic of post-war Britain, and possibly in our nation’s history.

It was the brainchild of a Southport vicar, the Reverend Marcus Morris, who was increasingly concerned about the detrimental effects of American comic-books on British children and wanted a good, solid, middle-class Christian antidote.

Seeking out like-minded creators he hoiked a dummy edition around British publishers for over a year with little success until he found an unlikely home at Hulton Press, a company that produced general interest magazines such as Lilliput and Picture Post.

The result was a huge hit which soon spawned age and gender-specific clones Swift, Robin and Girl which targeted the other key demographic sectors of the children’s market.

A huge number of soon-to-be prominent creative figures worked on the weekly, and although Dan Dare is deservedly revered as the star, many other strips were as popular at the time, and many even rivalled the lead in quality and entertainment value. Eagle‘s sensational pantheon – which included PC 49, Captain Pugwash, Jeff Arnold/Riders of the Range and the inimitable Harris Tweed – quickly became stars as well of radio series, books, toys, games and all other sorts of ancillary merchandising.

At its peak Eagle sold close to a million copies a week, but inevitably changing tastes and a game of “musical owners” killed the title. In 1960 Hulton sold out to Odhams, who became Longacre Press. A year later they were bought by The Daily Mirror Group who evolved into IPC. In cost-cutting exercises many later issues carried cheap Marvel Comics reprints rather than British originated material. It took time but those Yankee cultural Invaders won out in the end. With the April 26th 1969 issue Eagle was subsumed into Lion, eventually disappearing altogether. Successive generations have revived the title, but never the success.

There is precious little that I can say about Dan Dare that hasn’t been said before and better. What I will say is that everything you’ve heard is true. The vintage Dan Dare strips by Frank Hampson and his hand-picked team of dedicated artists are a high point in world, let alone British comics, ranking beside Tintin, Asterix, Tetsuwan Atomu, Lone Wolf & Cub and the best of Kirby, Adams, Toth, Noel Sickles, Milt Caniff, Elzie Segar and Carl Barks.

If you don’t like this stuff, there’s probably nothing any of us can do to change your mind, and all we can do is hope you never breed.

Accepting that there is a part of national culture which is Forever Dare, here’s a long overdue peek at an item which will delight all boys of a certain age which – despite its own vintage – is happily still readily available through internet vendors…

The colourful, magnificently oversized (333 x 242 mm), resolutely hard-backed Dan Dare Dossier was published in 1990 and offers everything any devotee could wish to know and see. It is absolutely packed with mouth-watering artwork and photos, tantalising examples of memorabilia, classic strips and even unseen/new material by a phalanx of the original creators.

Heavily illustrated throughout, it all begins with ‘The Rise of Dan Dare’, detailing the history of science fiction, development of comics – and especially Eagle – and offering a potted biography of Hampson, his team and Dan’s serried exploits.

Simultaneously those great big pages present unseen monochrome strip adventure ‘Dan & Donanza’ by the master himself, wherein our doughty heroes go haring across the solar system in pursuit of a fallen dictator who has turned the moon into a giant bomb…

Following that is an expansive itinerary of the major characters involved over the years in ‘Actors against a Solar Backdrop’ before ‘The Hardware File’ offers an eye-popping selection of plans, designs and extracted strip illustrations displaying the vast wealth of ships, kit and tech invented by the assembled strip-creators over the decades and paying especial attention to Space Transports and Dan and Digby’s venerable runabout Anastasia.

More bravura virtuosity is celebrated in ‘Aliens & Their Worlds’ as pertinent and beautiful clips and snippets highlight the amazing variety of extraterrestrial races and species.

Sharing a few pages with new black-&-white comedic strip ‘Digby – the Guinea Pig’ is a rundown of some of ‘The Artists’ who toiled collaboratively to produce the stunningly painted two pages per week (Hampson, Harold Johns, Eric Eden, Don Harley, Bruce Cornwell, Desmond Walduck, Frank Bellamy and Keith Watson); followed in turn by a fascinating trivia and memorabilia stuffed appreciation of the dauntless chaps’ five years on radio in ‘Dan Dare, Pilot of the Airwaves’…

Wisely taking a break from all that factual stuff, ‘Full Colour Adventure: Dan Dare in The Planulid’ reprints a rousing tale of a monstrous invasion of Earth (first seen in The Dan Dare Space Annual 1963) before the rousing envy-fest resumes with a grand examination of the breathtaking wealth of ‘Merchandise & Ephemera’ the strip generated.

On view is a procession of numerous ray guns and rocket pistols, games, puzzles, buttons, badges, stencil-kits, apparel, models, action-figures, home picture-film strips and projectors, walkie-talkies, all manner of books and print novelties and so much more…

Adjacent and in parallel with a full ‘Dan Dare Chronology’ is the immensely rare and sadly unappreciated Newspaper Strip ‘Mission to the Stars’ by William Patterson & Don Harley, which ran every Sunday in The People from April to October 1964, all capped off by the demise of the dream thanks to changing tastes and commercial mismanagement as detailed in ‘Changes – the Long Decline’…

Downhearted spirits are properly revived by another ‘Full Colour Adventure’ from The Dan Dare Space Annual 1963, specifically ‘The Planet of Shadows’ wherein our gallant lads uncover a lost civilisation on a new world after which ‘Dan Dare – to Date’ describes our hero’s 1977 resurrection in the pages of apocalyptic, dystopian 2000 AD. Reimagined as a bombastic rebel, the article tracks his slow rehabilitation and transition to the newly revived 1982 Eagle, before neatly segueing into a delightful reprint of one of those 80’s retro-exploits as ‘Dan Dare by Keith Watson’ depicts a hazardous mission by the Space Fleet stars to transport Earth’s radioactive waste stockpiles to the depths of space. It’s hard enough as is but things get particularly dicey when arch-nemesis The Mekon raises his giant green head…

Big, bold, beautiful and ruthlessly nostalgia-driven, this epic tome will utterly enchant veterans of the Baby-boomer years and sci fi fanatics in general, but it’s also packed with enough top flight comics material to beguile any kid or newcomer to our medium in search of a little simple, awestruck wonder…
This edition © 1990 Hawk Books Ltd. Dan Dare © 1990 Fleetway Publications.

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Blake and Mortimer: The Time Trap


By Edgar P. Jacobs, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-214-0

Pre-eminent fantasy raconteur Edgar P. Jacobs devised one of the greatest heroic double acts in fiction: pitting his distinguished Scientific Adventurers Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blake against a wide variety of perils and menaces in a stellar sequence of stunning action thrillers which merged science fiction scope, detective mystery suspense and supernatural thrills. The magic was made perfect through his stunning illustrations rendered in the timeless Ligne claire style which had made intrepid boy-reporter Tintin a global sensation.

The Doughty Duo debuted in the very first issue of Le Journal de Tintin (26th September 1946): an ambitious international anthology comic with editions in Belgium, France and Holland. The magazine was edited by Hergé, with his eponymous star ably supplemented by a host of new heroes and features for the post-war world…

The Time Trap comes from a transitional period when the entire world seemed to be changing. The tale was originally serialised from January 8th 1958 to 22nd April 1959 and subsequently collected in a single album, as B & M’s eighth drama-drenched epic album escapade, six months after the conclusion. However, as befitted the times, this largely solo saga seemed to offer faster, leaner drama and stripped-down action in bigger, less dense panels…

It was only recently translated by Cinebook (2014 as their 19th Blake and Mortimer release), and begins here with the heroes relaxing in Paris when Mortimer gets a rather shocking message. Not long before, the incomparable boffin had been instrumental in foiling the plans of diabolical Professor Milosh Georgevich who used the vast resources of an aggressor nation to weaponise the weather (as seen in SOS Meteors) in advance of an audacious scheme to invade France, and now the villain has seemingly communicated from beyond the grave…

The literally mad scientist was believed to have perished and now word comes that he has bequeathed to Mortimer – the only man he considered an intellectual equal – his estate as well as his last and greatest invention…

With his naturally suspicious comrade called to Germany on another Secret Service errand, the Professor slowly motors alone down to rural La Roche-Guyon and – still looking for traps – cautiously inspects the 10th century house known locally as “The Bove of the Maiden” bequeathed to him by Milosh.

The idyllic setting, complete with haunted, legend-drenched castle, is not one to likely to set off any alarms in his bemused head…

What he finds in the deep cellars beneath his new property defies belief and comprehension. As described in recorded messages Georgevich had solved the mystery of time travel and, since he was dying of radiation poisoning, wanted his incredible device to be used by the only other person who could truly appreciate the scope of his genius…

In a daze the still sceptical Mortimer follows the taped instructions, donning the protective suit provided before activating the vehicle. Only as the “Chronoscaphe” rumbles into action and deposits him a terrifying antediluvian world of colossal plants, rampaging dinosaurs and marauding giant bugs does he realise how he has been tricked…

Against all his expectations the time machine works, landing him in a fantastic lost realm. Sadly the machine’s selector controls have been sabotaged, leaving Mortimer no way to return…

Devilish Milosh however has not counted on his dupe’s steely determination, expansive brilliance and sheer stubbornness, and before long the Professor is hurtling forward 100,000,000 years through eternity, roughly calculating in his shaggy head his original point of origin.

He’s not far off in his sums, relatively. The cellar is indeed the one he first found the Chronoscaphe in, but some time before Georgevich built his lab. Realising he needs to know the exact date before he can fine-tune his calibrations Mortimer works his way through the tunnels towards the surface and promptly finds himself in the midst of a feudal rebellion…

Gui de la Roche is not a benevolent overlord and is currently losing control of his lands to an uprising of his Serfs. The petty tyrant is understandably unhappy and suspicious when a strangely dressed Englishman drops into the middle of the conflict, babbling like a loon. The ill-educated peasants simply think he’s a demon…

Mortimer barely makes it back to the Chronoscaphe and in his haste overshoots his desired destination, encountering a few bizarre temporal manifestations as he plunges far into a dystopian future…

Finding himself embroiled in an all-out war to liberate mankind from an insidious global dictator, the Professor’s insights wedded to the technology of a broken future soon topple the tyrant and he thereafter adapts Tomorrow’s technology to solving his own problems.

With everything he needs to steer true a course home, the wily boffin even has an opportunity to turn the tables on the madman who caused his eccentric odyssey through the corridors of time…

Swift-paced, witty and spectacularly action-packed, this solo outing for Mortimer rockets from staggering sci fi set-piece to set-piece, building to an explosive conclusion with a tantalising final flourish, resulting in a superbly engaging blockbuster to delight every adventure addict.

This Cinebook edition also includes excerpts from two other Blake & Mortimer albums plus a short biographical feature and publication chart of Jacobs’ and his successors’ efforts.
Original edition © Editions Blake & Mortimer/Studio Jacobs (Dargaud-Lombard s. a.) 1962 by E.P. Jacobs. All rights reserved. English translation © 2014 Cinebook Ltd.