Category: Nostalgia

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Superman: The Many Worlds of Krypton


By E. Nelson Bridwell, Denny O’Neil, Cary Bates, Marv Wolfman, Elliot S. Maggin, Paul Kupperberg, John Byrne, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano, Gray Morrow, Michael Kaluta, Dave Cockrum, Dick Dillin, Marshall Rogers, Howard Chaykin, Paul Kupperberg, Mike Mignola, Rick Bryant, Carlos Garzon & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7889-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For fans and comics creators alike, continuity can be a harsh mistress. These days, maintaining a faux-historical cloak of rational integrity for the made-up worlds we inhabit is paramount, and the worst casualty of the semi-regular sweeping changes, rationalisations and reboots is great stories that suddenly “never happened”. A most painful example of this – for me at least – was the wholesale loss of the entire charm-drenched mythology that had evolved around Superman’s birthworld in the wonder years between 1948 and 1985.

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

Throughout the 1970s, The Fabulous World of Krypton was a back-up feature in Superman specifically revealing intriguing glimpses from the history of that lost world. But during Crisis on Infinite Earths and it’s in its wake that was all unmade. Happily, however, these days a far wiser DC has opened the doors to all those lost moments with a more inviting and inclusive definition of continuity, so a “yay them” all around!

Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s – and an issue of giant-sized anthology Superman Family – the peripatetic feature delivered 27 “Untold Tales of Superman’s Native Planet” (and is long overdue for a complete archival collection; perhaps as a DC Finest edition?) by a host of the industry’s greatest talents all further exploring that defunct wonderland. A far-too-small selection of those are re-presented in this beguiling commemoration, taken from Superman #233, 236, 238, 240, 248, 257, 266 and Superman Family #182, to augment a brace of miniseries World of Krypton #1-3 and World of Krypton (vol. 2) #1-4. These collectively span 1971-1988 and, following enticing scene-setting introduction ‘The World (of Krypton) According to Paul (Kupperberg)’, kick off Chapter 1: Fabulous World of Krypton with E. Nelson Bridwell (always the go-to guy for any detail of fact, or trivia concerning the company’s vast comics output) & Murphy Anderson’s trendsetting, groundbreaking yarn ‘Jor-El’s Golden Folly’.

Follow-up tales would alternate between glimpses of historical or mythological moments in the development of the Kryptonians and tales of the House of El, such as this astoundingly concise and tension-soaked drama which in seven pages introduces Superman’s father, traces his scholastic graduation and early triumphs in anti-gravity physics & rocketry and reveals how he met his bride-to-be, trainee astronaut Lara Lor-Van. The story also reveals how she stows away on a test rocket, crashes on the (luckily) habitable moon Wegthor and survives until her infatuated suitor finds a way to rescue her…

This a superb adventure in its own right and, set against what we fans already knew about the doomed planet, augured well what was to follow…

The remaining tales in this section concentrate on non-Jor-El episodes – presumably in lieu of what follows – so the next fable comes from Superman #236 with Green Arrow & Black Canary hearing their Justice League colleague recount the story of ‘The Doomsayer’ (by Denny O’Neil & Dick Giordano). This eco-terror tale reveals how scientist Mo-De detected mounting tectonic pressures at the planet’s core but was silenced by modern day lotus eaters who didn’t want to hear any unpleasant truths…

In the guise of a Kryptonian kindergarten class story time session, Cary Bates & Gray Morrow devised a hard science creation myth for Superman #238 as ‘A Name is Born’ details how two marooned – and initially mutually antagonistic – aliens crashed on the primeval planet and joined to birth a new race together…

Bates & Michael Kaluta united in #240 for a cunning, irony-drenched murder mystery as ‘The Man Who Cheated Time’ details the unexpected consequences of an ambitious scientist who stole from and slaughtered his rivals only to pay for his crimes in a most unexpected manner. Then, Kryptonian archaeologists unearth a lost moment in planetary history as ‘All in the Mind’ (Marv Wolfman & Dave Cockrum from #248) discloses how war between ancient city states Erkol and Xan resulted in a generation of mutants. If only the parents had been more understanding and less intolerant, those super-kids could have saved their forebears from extinction…

Superman #257 (October 1972) generated a timeless instant classic wherein Elliot S! Maggin and illustrators Dick Dillin & Giordano celebrated ‘The Greatest Green Lantern of All’. Here avian GL Tomar-Re reports his tragic failure in preventing Krypton’s detonation, unaware that the Guardians of the Universe had a plan to preserve and use that world’s greatest bloodline – or at least its last son…

Maggin, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella then emphasised a long-hidden connection between Earth and Krypton in #266 as ‘The Face on the Falling Star’ reveals how, in eons past, two Kryptonian children were saved from doom by a strange device fallen from the sky: a machine sent from a lost civilisation on pre-historic Terra…

Wrapping up this section is Paul Kupperberg, Marshall Rogers & Frank Springer’s ‘The Stranger’ as first seen in Superman Family #182: an analogue Christmas fable explaining how four millennia past a holy man named Jo-Mon sacrificed his life to liberate the people and end the depredations of tyrannical despot Al-Nei…

The second section – Chapter 2: The Life of Jor-El – reprints a pioneering miniseries that referenced many of those 27 vignettes, as well as the key Krypton-focussed yarns of the Superman franchise. In 1979 – when the first Superman movie had made the hero a global sensation once more – scripter Paul Kupperberg and artist Howard Chaykin (assisted and ghost-pencilled by Alan Kupperberg) plus inkers Murphy Anderson & Frank Chiaramonte, synthesised many scattered back-story details into DC’s first limited series World of Krypton.

Although never collected into a graphic novel, this glorious indulgence was resized into a monochrome pocket paperback book in 1982, supervised by and with an introduction from much-missed, multi-talented official DC memory E. Nelson Bridwell. That enchanting, magical celebration of life on the best of all fictional worlds remains a grand old slice of comics fun and forms the spine of the new composite compilation.

It opens on ‘The Jor-El Story’ with Superman reviewing a tape-diary found on Earth’s moon: a record from his long-deceased father detailing the scientist’s life, career and struggle with nay-saying political authorities whose inaction doomed the Kryptonian race to near-extinction. As the Man of Steel listens, he hears how Jor-El wooed and won his mother Lara Lor-Van despite sinister and aberrant efforts of the planetary marriage computer to frustrate them; how his sire discovered anti-gravity and invented the Phantom Zone ray; uncovered lost technology of a dead race that provided the basis of Kal-El’s escape rocket, and learns his father’s take on Superman’s many time-twisting trips to Krypton…

In ‘This Planet is Doomed’ the troubled orphan feels his father’s pain when android marauder Brainiac steals the city of Kandor, reels as rogue scientist Jax-Ur blows up inhabited moon Wegthor, and is revolted as civil war almost crushes civilisation thanks to deranged militarist General Zod – and how and when his own cousin Kru-El forever disgraced the noble House of El. The countdown to disaster continues until ‘The Last Days of Krypton’, as political intrigue and exhaustion overwhelm the distraught scientist and – all avenues closed to him – Jor-El takes drastic action…

Heavily referencing immortal classics such as ‘Superman’s Return to Krypton’ (Superman vol. 1 #141, November 1960), Fabulous World of Krypton mini-epics ‘Jor-El’s Golden Folly’, ‘Moon-Crossed Love’, ‘Marriage, Kryptonian Style’ and a host of others, this epochal saga from simpler and more wondrous times is still a sheer delight for any fan tired of unremitting angst and non-stop crises…

Final section Chapter 3: The World of Krypton is John Byrne, Mike Mignola, Rick Bryant & Carlos Garzon’s dark reworking of the myth, depicting a radically different planet which came with the reordering of reality. In 1985, when DC decided to rationalise, reconstruct and reinvigorate their continuity via Crisis on Infinite Earths, they used the event to regenerate key properties at the same time. The biggest gun they had was Superman and it’s hard to argue that the change was not before time. This new Superman repurposed the hero into a harsher, more uncompromising hero who might be alien in physicality but completely human in terms of feelings and attitudes. As seen in Man of Steel #1 (not included here), ‘From Out of the Green Dawn’ traced the child’s voyage in a self-propelled birthing matrix to a primitive but vital and vibrant world. He had escaped from a cold, sterile, soulless and emotionally barren planet barely glimpsed before it was gone in a cosmic flash.

As the reconfigured hero’s new adventures became a sensational success, his creators felt compelled to revisit his bleakly dystopian birthworld. It was however, now conceived of as a far darker and more forbidding place and 1987’s 4-issue miniseries opted to reveal how that transformation came about.

Scripted by Byrne, it all begins in ‘Pieces’ (art by Mignola & Bryant) as an indolent hedonistic scientific paradise comes crashing into ruin after the age’s greatest moral dilemma boils over into global civil war. For 10 thousand generations, Kryptonians enjoyed virtual immortality thanks to the constant cultivation of clones to use for medical spare parts. The rights of the clones had been debated for centuries, but recently resulted in sporadic violence. The situation changes after ultra-privileged Nyra is exposed as having stolen one of her supposedly braindead clones for an act of shockingly aberrant social abomination. Her exposure leads to murder, suicide and a rapidly escalating collapse of social cohesion…

Centuries ‘After the Fall’, technologist Van-L wanders a planet shattered by devastating war technologies, surviving only because of his nurturing war suit. The grand planetary society is gone, replaced by constantly warring pockets of humanity, but Van needs allies, be they former lovers or despised foes. He has learned that the original instigator of the collapse still lives and plans to assuage accumulated shame and guilt by blowing up the planet…

For the third issue, the scene shifts to millennia later as young scholar Jor-El immerses himself in a traumatic ‘History Lesson’. This distant descendant of Van-L obsessively probes the last days of the conflict and the nuclear annihilation scheme of terrorist cell Black Zero, but his compulsion causes him to almost miss a crucial social obligation: meeting his father and the grandparent of Lara, selected by The Masters of the Gestation Chamber as his ideal DNA co-contributor to what will be the first Kryptonian allowed to be born in centuries…

Carlos Garzon steps in to finish Mignola’s pencils for concluding chapter ‘Family History’ as, in contemporary times, Superman agrees to an interview with Daily Plant reporter Lois Lane. The subject is how Krypton died, and why…

Recapping the intervening millennia of history and stagnation, the Last Son of Krypton reveals how his own birth-father uncovered a shocking secret, rebelled against his moribund, morbid and repressed culture, and found brief comfort with perhaps the last kindred spirit on his world. Kal-El then tells of how they ensured his survival at the cost of their own…

Celebrating the many and varied Worlds of Krypton, this is a magnificent tribute to the imagination of many creators and the power of modern mythology: the ever-changing evolution of a world we all wanted to live on back in the heady Days of Yore(-El)…
© 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1987, 2008, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman the Deluxe Edition


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Fred Guardineer, Don Cameron, Mort Weisinger, Jerry Coleman, Otto Binder, Edmond Hamilton, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Joe Kelly, Grant Morrison, Paul Levitz, Mort Meskin, Ed Dobrotka, Fred Ray, Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Jim Mooney, Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Dick Giordano, Kerry Gammill, Bob McLeod, Ben Oliver, Neal Adams plus Many & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7887-8 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s a fact (if such mythological concepts still exist): the American comic book industry would be utterly unrecognisable without the invention of Superman. His unprecedented adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Within three years of his June 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early Man of Steel had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East embroiled America, patriotic relevance. He’s also been regular blockbuster business in his many and varied screen interpretations, too.

In comic book terms, though, Superman is master of the world, having utterly changed the shape of a fledgling industry and modern entertainment in general. There were newspaper strips, radio & TV shows, cartoons, games, toys, mountains of merchandise and those movies mentioned. Everyone on Earth gets a picture in their heads when they hear his name.

It all started with Action Comics #1 and continues to this day, so this bold compilation (presumably soon to be superseded by a 90th Anniversary edition) celebrates the magic, not just with the now-traditional re-runs of classic Superman tales, but with informative articles and fascinating glimpses of some of the other characters who shared the title with him. This epic album gathers material from Action Comics #0, 1, 2, 42, 64, 241, 242, 252, 285, 286, 309, 419, 484, 554, 584, 655, 662 & 800, opening with writer/DC publisher Paul Levitz’s Introduction, a fond Foreword from Laura Siegel Larson and Jules Feiffer’s scene-setting, context-creating essay ‘The Beginning’ before the immortal pictorial wonderment commences.

Most early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience have been given descriptive appellations by the editors. Thus, after that unmistakeable, iconic cover and a single page describing the foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton (also explaining his astonishing powers in 9 panels), with absolutely no preamble ‘The Coming of Superman’ by Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster introduces a costumed crusader – masquerading by day as reporter Clark Kent – averting numerous tragedies. As well as saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and roughing up a wife-beater, the tireless crusader works over racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving suave and feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse since she is attempting to vamp the thug at the time!

The mysterious Man of Steel makes a big impression on her by then outing a lobbyist for the armaments industry bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europe…

To say the editors were amazed by Superman’s popularity was a gross understatement. They had their money bet on a knock-off Mandrake the Magician crafted by veteran cartoonist Fred Guardineer as graphic top dog. Here, Zatara: Master Magician’s mystic/illusion powers are fully demonstrated in ‘The Mystery of the Freight Train Robberies’ but it’s still a run-of-the-mill, rather sedate affair when compared to the astounding exploits of the Caped Wonder.

Next up is a sneak peek at ‘The Ashcans’: unused and alternative illustrations that didn’t make that crucial first cut, after which Action #2 (with a Leo O’Mealia generic adventure cover) supplies the conclusion of Superman’s first case as ‘Revolution in San Monte’ finds the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the war-zone to spectacularly dampen down hostilities already in progress…

‘The Times’ by Tom DeHaven deconstructs the mythology of the title before Fred Ray’s Superman cover (November 194)1 introduces Action #42’s ‘The Origin of the Vigilante’ by Mort Weisinger & and incredible Mort Meskin. This spectacular western-themed hero-romp proves the anthology title had plenty of other captivating characters to enchant audiences…

AC #64 debuted ‘The Terrible Toyman’ (Don Cameron, Ed Dobrotka & George Roussos), wherein an elderly inventor of children’s novelties and knick-knacks conducts a spectacular campaign of high-profile and potentially murderous robberies, with Lois as his unwilling muse and accessory, and is followed by a little tale of serendipity as Marv Wolfman harks back to his early days and explains ‘How I Saved Superman’. That’s followed by a genuine lost treasure as ‘Too Many Heroes’ offers an unpublished 1940s Superman tale – credited to Siegel & Shuster – rescued from destruction and obscurity. What a gift!

David Hajdu exposes the allure of the alter ego in ‘Clark Kent, Reporter’, after which we jump to June 1958 and the beginning of the Silver Age. Action Comics #241 cover-featured ‘The Key to Fort Superman’: a fascinating, clever puzzle-play guest-featuring Batman, scripted by Jerry Coleman and limned by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye as an impossible intruder vexes the Man of Steel in his most sacrosanct sanctuary. One month later Otto Binder & Al Plastino introduced both the greatest new villain and most expansive new character concept the series had seen in years.

‘The Super-Duel in Space’ has evil alien scientist Brainiac attempt to add Metropolis to his collection of miniaturised cities in bottles. As well as a titanic tussle in its own right, the tale totally changed the Man of Steel’s internal mythology: introducing Kandor, a city packed with Kryptonians who all escaped the planet’s destruction when Brainiac abducted them. Although Superman rescues his fellow survivors, the villain escaped to strike again, and it would be years before the hero could restore Kandorians to their true size.

After some intriguing and noteworthy test-runs, a future star of Superman’s ever-expanding universe launched in Action Comics #252. ‘The Supergirl from Krypton!’ (May 1959), saw Superman discover he has a living relative in cousin Kara Zor-El who had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, which was hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually Argo City turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the detonated world’s debris, and her dying parents repeated recent history as, observing Earth through their scopes, they despatched Kara to safety as they perished.

Landing on Earth, she met Superman and he created the cover-identity of Linda Lee, hiding her in an orphanage in small town Midvale so that she could master her new powers in secrecy and safety. Larry Tye’s ‘Endurance’ discusses longevity and political merit before we return to Superman’s official Action Comics co-star throughout the 1960s…

Hogging the cover (by Super-stalwarts Curt Swan & George Klein) the simpler times of practicing in secret ended as a big change in the Maid of Might’s status occurred. When her new adoptive parents learned of their new daughter’s true origins, Superman allowed cousin Kara to announce her existence to the world in 2-part saga ‘The World’s Greatest Heroine!’ (#285 February 1962) and ‘The Infinite Monster!’ (#286, March). Here Siegel & Jim Mooney detail how Supergirl becomes the darling of the universe, openly saving planet Earth and finally getting the credit for it.

Those long-standing TV connections were exploited in Action Comics #309 (February 1964) for hoary secret-identity save plot ‘The Superman Super-Spectacular!’ as a telethon posed a puzzle for the always overbooked Man of Steel. Written by Edmond Hamilton and illustrated by Swan & Klein, it sets up a scene where the Action Ace can use none of his usual tricks to be both Superman and Clark simultaneously, and delivers a truly shocking and utterly era-appropriate solution…

Hurtling forward to December 1972 and Action #419 we meet a surprisingly successful back-up feature created by Len Wein, Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano. ‘The Assassin-Express Contract!’ introduced Christopher Chance as the Human Target, hiring himself out to impersonate endangered individuals such as the businessman “accidentally” sitting in the sights of a hitman, thanks to a disgruntled employee dialling a wrong number…

From a period where Golden Age stories were assumed to have occurred on parallel world Earth-Two, ‘Superman Takes a Wife’ first appeared in 40th Anniversary issue #484 (June 1978). Here Cary Bates, Swan & Joe Giella detail how the original 1938 Man of Tomorrow became editor of the Metropolis Daily Star in the 1950s and married Lois Lane. Thanks to villains Colonel Future and The Wizard who had discovered a way to make Superman forget his own existence, only she knew that her husband was once Earth’s greatest hero…

More meta-realistic meandering led to ‘If Superman Didn’t Exist’ (by Marv Wolfman & Gil Kane in Action #554 (April 1984) which posits an alien-subjugated Earth deprived of heroes until two kids with big dreams invent one…

In 1985 DC Comics rationalised, reconstructed and reinvigorated their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths. They also used the event to regenerate key properties at the same time. The biggest gun they had was Superman and it’s hard to argue that the change was not before time. The big guy was in another slump, but he’d weathered those before. So how could a root and branch retooling be anything but a pathetic marketing ploy that would alienate the real fans for a few fly-by-night Johnny-come-latelies who would jump ship as soon as the next fad surfaced? This new Superman was going to suck…

But he didn’t.

Public furore began with all DC’s Superman titles being “cancelled” (actually suspended) for three months, and yes, that did make the real-world media sit-up and take notice of the character everybody thought they knew for the first time in decades. However, there was method in this seeming corporate madness.

The missing mainstays were replaced by a 6-part miniseries running from October to December 1986. Entitled Man of Steel it was written and drawn by Marvel’s mainstream superstar John Byrne and inked by venerated veteran Dick Giordano. The bold manoeuvre was a huge and instant success and the retuned Superman titles all came storming back with the accent on breakneck pace and action. Superman had always enjoyed brief or lengthy partnerships with other if lesser heroes and Action Comics was confirmed as a team-up vehicle for the Man of Steel. Issue #584 had a January 1987 cover-date and featured a case fighting with and beside the Teen Titans as the young heroes had to battle an apparently out-of-control Caped Kryptonian with a ‘Squatter’ secretly riding in his head…

Following a gentle cartoon “roasting” by Gene Luen Yang in ‘Supersquare’, Roger Stern, Kerry Gammill & Dennis Janke review ‘Ma Kent’s Photo Album’ (from AC #655, July 1990) offering some insights into growing up different before a major turning point began…

As years passed, Lois and Clark gradually grew beyond professionalism into a work romance but the hero had always kept his greatest secret from her. That all changed after the Man of Tomorrow narrowly defeated mystic predator Silver Banshee and decided no more ‘Secrets in the Night’ between him and his beloved (by Stern & Bob McLeod: #662, February 1991).

Action #800 (April 2003) offers a reverential examination of the ongoing myth thus far as ‘A Hero’s Journey’ combines a Joe Kelly script with art from Pasqual Ferry, Duncan Rouleau, Alex Ross, Tony Harris, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave Bullock, Ed McGuiness, J.H. Williams III, Dan Jurgens, Klaus Janson, Killian Plunkett, Jim Lee, Tim Sale, Lee Bermejo, Cam Smith, Marlo Alquiza & Scott Hanna: cherry-picking unmissable moments from a life well lived…

In 2011, DC again rebooted their entire line and Superman was reimagined once more. ‘The Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape’ by Grant Morrison & Ben Oliver comes from Action Comics #0, (November 2012), focussing on a decidedly blue-collar champion just learning the game and painfully aware of the consequences if he makes a mistake, before we wrap up the celebrations with April 2018’s ‘The Game’ by Levitz & Neal Adams. Here primal archenemies Superman and Luthor face off for another round in their never-ending battle…

Before the curtain comes down, there’s still more unbridled joy and rekindled memories as ‘Cover Highlights’ resurrects stunning examples from the Golden, Silver, Bronze, Dark and Modern ages of the Man of Tomorrow, as well as the very best of Action Comics ‘Now’.

Should you be of a scholarly or just plain reverential mood you can then study the copious ‘Biographies’ section so you know who to thank…

Exciting, epochal and unmissable, this is a book for all fans of superhero stories and the man who started them all.
© 1938, 1941, 1943, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1972, 1978, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 2003, 2012, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Superman – Kryptonite Nevermore


By Dennis O’Neil, Leo Dorfman, Cary Bates, Len Wein, Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-165-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

This stunning compilation is part of the DC Finest editions line: full colour chronologically curated paperback compilations delivering “affordably priced” comic books generally around 600 pages and highlighting past glories.Whilst primarily and understandably concentrating on the superhero character pantheon, there will also be genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Superman is the comic book champion who started the whole genre and, in the decades since his 1938 debut, has probably undertaken every kind of adventure imaginable. With that in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his inventory and periodically re-present them in specific themed collections, such as this one commemorating one his greatest extended adventures. The episodes contained herein were originally released just as comics fandom was becoming a powerful – if headless – lobbying force reshaping the industry to its own specialised desires and remains a true landmark of the superhero genre. Moreover the brand overhaul seen here was a major concerted effort to re-energise the Man of Steel at a time when comics superheroes were experincing a major die-back…

When Julie Schwartz took over editorial responsibility for the Superman title in 1970, he was expected to shake things up with nothing less than spectacular results. To that end, he incorporated many key characters and events simultaneously developing as part of fellow iconoclast Jack Kirby’s freshly unfolding “Fourth World”. That bold experiment was a breathtaking tour de force of cosmic wonderment which brought a staggering new universe to fans: instantly and permanently changing the way comics were perceived and how the entire medium could be received. Don’t think for a moment that the 1985 reboot triggered by Crisis on Infinite Earths was new or innovative… just necessary…

As the Sixties closed, Schwartz was again breathing fresh life into a powerful but moribund icon – a job he had been excelling at since more-or-less singlehandedly kickstarting the Silver Age of Comics. Superman had been a mega-media star since his launch, with internationally syndicated comics, books, newspaper strips, movie and cinema serials plus hugely successful radio and TV shows (live action and animated) making the franchise globally recognizable. Whenever that happens, inevitably overkill and overexposure inescapably set in and the core property needs to be carefully overhauled or vanish forever. I’ll bet you can think of plenty of really famous and ubiquitous things from your childhood that one day you simply stopped noticing. Happily, sometimes they can be reborn…

Schwartz knew his market and was open to new ideas, and his creative changes were just appearing in 1971. The new direction was also vanguard and trigger for a wealth of controversial, socially-challenging “realistic” story content unseen since the feature’s earliest days: a wave of tales ultimately described as “Relevant”…

With iconic covers by Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Murphy Anderson & Jack Adler, this titanic tome collects in whole or in part the Man of Steel’s first comics renaissance through exploits from Action Comics #393-406 and Superman #233-238 and #240-242, spanning cover dates October 1970 to December 1971.

On sale from 27th August 1970, Action Comics #393 hinted at rather than heralded a new era as ‘Syperman Meets Super-Houdini!’ In a tale by prolific lead super-scribe Leo Dorfman and artists Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson (AKA “Swanderson”) the ultimate hero faces a moral dilemma when reformed crimnal turned escape artist “Hair-breadth” Holahan is blackmailed to resume his criminal ways – or lose his abducted son. Of course, Superman can help…

Following a Superman Scrapbook Pinup, with Swanderson reworking a classic Golden Age Superman contents page, second strip ‘The Day Superboy Became Superman!’ (by Dorfman as Geoff Brown with Ross Andru & Mike Esposito illustrating) depicts a pivotal moment for college boy Clark Kent as radical student Marla Harvey showed the so-conservative law-&-order adherent what those concepts meant to people trapped in poverty and privation…

The updating of an icon continued in AC #394 with Swanderson illustrating both ‘Midas of Metropolis’ and low key “Geoff Brown” character vignette ‘Requiem for a Hot Rod’. The lead yarn pits Superman against world’s richest man Cyrus Brand, who seemingly infects the Action Ace with his own all-encompsing lust for money, only to find the hero is incorruptible and knows actual crime when he sees it, whilst a humourous follow-up sees Clark and Lois Lane at a vintage car event, cleverly exposing a bully rigging games of chicken for cash…

Action #395 revealed ‘The Secrets of Superman’s Fortress’ with a dynamic cutaway spread fuelling an “untold tale” of an early romantic encounter with a sexy alien Superman could have loved. Sadly, super-powered Althera was of an incompatible species… and also a slaver…

Dorfman was the go-to guy for supernatural tales and weird phenomena articles, and at the forefront of a shift in tone as DC characters and titles embraced the global resurgence in spooky horror and mystery fare. Next here a back-up guest starring Supergirl explores the uncanny powers and shocking truth of accident inducing accessory ‘The Credit Card of Catastrophe’, but comes down down heavily on the side of rationality and confidence trickery in the end…

As the sixties closed and with his various screen appearances a thing of the past, Superman was soon in dire need of an editorial overhaul. That officially began with Superman #233 in a groundbreaking epic serial edited by incoming reboot wunderkind Julius Schwartz that was heavily promoted in advance. Crafted by scripter Dennis J. “Denny” O’Neil, and ubiquitous illustrators Swan & Anderson – although stand-in Dick Giordano inked #240 – a deliberate and very public abandonment of tired old super-villains, fanciful Kryptonian scenarios and otherworldly paraphernalia instantly poked the readership and revitalised the Man of Tomorrow, attracting new readers and beginning a period of engagingly human-scaled stories making Superman a “must-buy” character all over again.

The innovations began with ‘Superman Breaks Loose’ as a government experiment to harness Kryptonite as an energy source goes explosively wrong. Closely monitoring the test, the Metropolis Marvel is blasted across the desert surrounding the isolated lab, but somehow survives a supposedly fatal radiation-bath. Then, reports begin filtering in from all over Earth: every piece of the deadly mineral has been transformed to harmless, common iron! As he goes about his protective, preventative patrols, the liberated hero experiences an emotional high at the prospect of all the good he can now accomplish. He isn’t even phased when the Daily Planet’s new owner Morgan Edge – a key character created by Jack Kirby for his soon to unfold Fourth World Saga – shakes up Clark Kent’s cosy civilian life: summarily ejecting him from the print game and remaking him as a roving TV journalist…

Meanwhile, the desert site of his recent crashlanding offers a moment of deep foreboding as Superman’s irradiated imprint in the sand shockingly grows solid and shambles away in ghastly parody of life…

Over in Action Comics #396, editors Murray Boltinoff & E. Nelson Bridwell continued in their editorial positions (right up until #419 December 1972) but heralded the beginning of a radical new age with a 2-chapter Imaginary Story (hey, didn’t Alan Moore do that too?) ‘The Super-Panhandler of Metropolis!’ was set years from “now”, where a highly advanced Earth wonders why and how Superman disappeared. Media mogul Jimmy Olsen discovers the shocking truth of the hero’s degrading decline in #397 as ‘Secret of the Wheel-Chair Superman!’ sentimentally focuses on a pitiable but still valiant do-gooder giving everything for those in need, and thereby saving himself too.

For this colossal collection, each issue’s stand-alone back-up has been moved to allow an uninterrupted lead story and for reader convenience of comprehension. Thus, next comes #396’s Brown/Swanderson teaser ‘The Invaders from Nowhere!’: an intellectual mystery with Superman perplexed and imperiiled by super-technological aliens somehow living inside his own infallible arctic citadel. It is bolstered by the legendary ad that announced the big change in Metropolis…

Rendered by Swan & Vince Colletta, ‘A New Year Brings a New Beginning for Superman 1971’ announced Clark’s job change and enhanced cast, trumpeted that Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane would be joined by The Newsboy Legion and Rose and the Thorn and that Supergirl would get a new look, as well as suspending the venerable World’s Finest team of Superman, Batman & Robin, with the title becoming a Superman team-up book…

‘The Super-Captive of the Sea!’ was AC #397’s closer, wherein the Man of Tomorrow is indefinitely trapped beneath the oceans thanks to aquatic aliens flooding Earth’s skies with red sun refracting crystal clouds. They wanted Superman for their own world, but foolishly understimated his ingenuity and determination…

O’Niel & Swanderson’s intensely sophisticated suspenseful overhaul properly resumes in Superman #234’s ‘How to Tame a Wild Volcano!’ as an out-of-control, politically untouchable plantation owner/human trafficker refuses to let his indentured workforce flee an imminent eruption on the island of Boki. Handicapped by international laws, the Man of Steel can only fume helplessly as the UN blunders towards a diplomatic solution, and his anxiety intensifies when a sinister sand-thing inadvertently and agonisingly drains him of his powers. Crashed to Earth in a turbulent squall, the de-powered champion is attacked by work boss Boysie Harker’s thugs and instantly responds to the foolish provocation, relying for a change on determination rather than overwhelming might to save the day…

In #235, the ‘Sinister Scream of the Devil’s Harp’ tacitly acknowledged fasionable arcane influences – remember, the comics industry and wider world was enjoying a periodic revival of interest in supernatural themes and stories – as mystery musician and apparent polymath Ferlin Nyxly reveals the secret of his ever-growing aptitudes and gifts is an archaic artefact which steals from living beings knowledge, talents and even Superman’s alien abilities. The Man of Steel is initially unaware of the drain as he’s trying to communicate with his eerily silent dusty doppelganger, but once Nyxly graduates to a full-on raving super-menace self-proclaimed “Pan”, the taciturn homunculus unexpectedly joins its living template to trounce the power plunderer…

“The Youth” and their music take centre stage in Action #398 as Kent’s news round-up of the college campus scene unmasks sinister sonic skulduggery that – accidentally combined with Kryptonian recording tech – makes Superman an out-of-control rioter thanks to ‘The Pied Piper of Steel’, after which Dorfman/Brown reveal a horrifiying transformation for Supergirl into a ‘Spawn of the Unknown’…

Superman #236 offered a Batman cameo and science fictional morality play when cherubic E.T.’s seek Superman’s assistance to defeat a band of devils and rescue Kent’s friends from Hell. However, the ‘Planet of the Angels’ proves to be nothing of the kind, and the Man of Steel must pull out all the stops to save his adopted homeworld from a very real Armageddon, whilst in Action #399 ‘Superman, You’re Dead… Dead… Dead!’, finds the hero trapped with other great men of the past abducted by future historians and accidentally discovering a ghastly end that awaits him, before realising that something’s not quite right, whilst B-feature ‘Superbaby’s Lost World’ sees the Tot of Tomorrow lost in a theme park and exploited as cover by charismatic bandits Connie & Hyde. Of course this innocent waif is far more than anyone can handle…

Superman #237 sees him save an astronaut only to see him succumb to a madness-inducing mutative disease. After another savage confrontation with the Sand-thing further debilitates him, the harried hero is present as more mortals fall to the contagion. Convinced he is both carrier and cause, the ‘Enemy of Earth’ considers quarantining in space. Meanwhile, Lois tumbles into another lethal predicament and Kal-el’s instinctive intervention seemingly confirms his earlier diagnosis, before another clash with the sandy simulacrum on the edge of space presents an incredible truth.

Painfully debilitated, Superman nevertheless saves Lois and again meets the ever-more human creature. Now able to speak, it offers a chilling warning and the Man of Steel realises exactly what it is taking from him and what it might become…

In Action #400 ‘My Son… Is He Man or Beast?’ sees Superman made reluctant guardian to troubled teen Gregor Nagy: an angry boy with astounding shapeshifting powers that will inevitably kill him, whilst back-up ‘Duel of Doom!’ offers an untold Tale of Kandor as students, rivals and lovers Yllura and Arvor vie for academic awards, almost die together and ultimately learn the value of teamwork and togetherness…

The Man of Tomorrow is a mere shadow of his former self in Superman #238, unable to prevent terrorists taking over a magma-tapping drilling rig and endangering all Earth in ‘Menace at 1000 Degrees!’ With Lois among their hostages and the madmen threatening to detonate a nuke in the pipeline, the Action Ace desperately begs his doppelganger to assist him, but its cold rejection forces the depleted hero to take the biggest gamble of his life…

Superman #239 was an all-reprint giant featuring the hero in his incalculably all-powerful days – so not included here – before Action Comics #401 & 402 address the growing contemporary political crisis of First Nations’ rights in ‘Invaders Go Home’ and ‘This Hostage Must Die!’ The continued tale sees Superman taken hostage by Indian protesters seeking to stop the US government taking a piece of sacred ground for a rocket base. Despite being apparently helpless before the magic of Angry Young Medicineman Dan Red Hawk the Action Ace is playing a covert game and hunting a criminal profit motive behind all the passionate rhetoric and popular dissent…

Cary Bates scripted #401’s back-up yarn as ‘The Boy Whe Begged to Die!’ sees our hero forced to use his superwits when he’s accidentally activates a mega-timebomb and fails to evacuate every civilian in time whilst Brown delivers #402’s ‘The Feud of the Titans!’ as Superman and Supergirl inexplicably go to war for possesion of the Fortress of Solitude…

The physically diminished Caped Kryptonian returned in Superman #240 (O’Neil, Swan and Dick Giordano inks) to confront his own lessened state and seek a solution. In ‘To Save a Superman’, his inability to extinguish a tenement fire and the wider world’s realisation that their unconquerable champion is now vulnerable and fallible makes his dilemma dangerously common knowledge. Especially interested are the Anti-Superman Gang who immediately allocate all resources to destroying their nemesis. After one particularly close call, Clark is visited by an ancient Asian sage who somehow knows his other identity and offers an unconventional solution…

From 1968 superhero comics began to decline – just as they had at the end of the 1940s – so publishers sought fresh ways to maintain their readerships as tastes changed. Back then, the industry depended on newsstand sales, and if you weren’t popular, you died. Editor Jack Miller, innovating illustrator Mike Sekowsky and relatively new scripter Denny O’Neil came up with a radical proposal and made history by depowering the only female superhero then in the marketplace. They had the mystical Amazons leave our dimension, taking with them all their magic – including Wonder Woman‘s powers and all her weapons…

Reduced to humble humanity she chose to stay on Earth, assuming and legitimising her own secret identity of Diana Prince and resolved to fighting injustice as a mortal. Tutored by blind Buddhist monk I Ching, she trained as a martial artist, and quickly became a formidable enemy of contemporary evil. Now, I Ching claims he can repair Superman’s difficulties and restore his dwindling might, but evil eyes are watching. Arriving clandestinely, Superman allows the adept to remove his remaining Kryptonian powers as a precursor to fully regaining them, allowing the ASG opportunity to strike. In the resultant brutal melee, the all-too-human hero triumphs in the hardest fight of his life…

The saga continues with Swanderson back on art in #241, withSuperman overcoming momentary but nigh-overwhelming temptation to put down his oppressive burden of duty and lead a normal life. Admonished and resolved, he submits to Ching’s resumed remedy ritual and finds his spirit soaring to where the sand-being lurks, before explosively reclaiming the stolen powers. Leaving the gritty golem a shattered husk, the astral Kal-El brings the awesome energies back to their true owner and a triumphant hero returns to saving the world…

Over the next few days, however, it becomes clear that something has gone wrong. The Man of Tomorrow has become arrogant, erratic and unpredictable, acting rashly, overreacting and even making stupid mistakes. In her boutique, Diana Prince discusses the problem with Ching and the sagacious teacher deduces that whilst merely mortal and fighting ASG thugs, Superman received punishing blows to the head which have caused a brain injury that did not heal when his powers returned…

When the out-of-control hero refuses to listen, Diana & Ching track down the dying sand-thing and beg its aid. The elderly savant recognises it as a formless creature from other-dimensional Quarrm and listens to the amazing story of its entrance into our world. He also suggests a way for it to regain some of what it recently lost…

Superman, meanwhile, has blithely gone about his deranged business until savagely attacked by a statue of a Chinese war-demon. Also able to steal his power, it has been possessed by a second fugitive from Quarrm. It has no conscience and wears ‘The Shape of Fear!’…

The shocking saga concludes in ‘The Ultimate Battle’ as the second Quarrmer falls under the sway of two petty thugs who use it to put freshly de-powered Superman into hospital…

Rushed into emergency surgery, the Kryptonian fights for his life as sand-thing confronts war-demon in the streets. Events take an even more bizarre turn once the latter drives off its foe and turns towards the hospital to finish off the flesh-&-blood Superman…

Regaining consciousness – and a portion of his power – the Metropolis Marvel battles the beast to a standstill but needs the aid of his silicon stand-in to drive the thing back beyond the pale. With the immediate threat ended, Man of Steel and Man of Sand face off one last time, each determined to ensure his own existence no matter the cost…

The stunning conclusion was a brilliant stroke on the part of the creators, one which left Superman approximately half the Man of Tomorrow he used to be. Of course, he eventually returned to his unassailable, god-like power levels but never quite regained the tension-free smug assurance of his pre-1970s self…

For now though, with the epic ended day-to-day dilemmas resume with Action #403 and Bates & Swanderson’s ‘Attack of the Micro-Murderer’, wherein the Krptonian is attacked and fatally infected by sentient time-travelling micobe Zohtt before millions of earthlings donate blood to flush his system clean, after which Brown channels Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon for ‘The Man With the X-Ray Mind’ as an intellectually-challenged janitor develops and tragically loses astounding mental abilities…

Dorfman scripted #404’s ‘Kneel to Your Conqueror, Superman!’ wherein governemntal secret weapon/supergenius Rufus Caesar goes rogue and devises tech to steal The Action Ace’s powers, before inevitably overreaching and reaping every tyrant’s fate. As Geoff Brown, the multi-faceted writer offers another glimpse at our hero’s college years with ‘The Day They Killed Clark Kent’ relating a memorable teaching moment after a hazing incident is covertly commandeered and redirected by the Adolescent of Steel. Then Bates introduces ‘The Starry-Eyed Siren of Space!’ in Superman #243, as cosmic catastrophe catapults the Caped Kryptonian into an encounter with disembodied ultra-mentalities Kond & Rija. Sadly, the latter recalls the long forgotten joys of physicality and constructs an organic form to woo Superman, leaving Rija no choice but to do similar and win back his mate…

‘Superman, Bodyguard or Assassin?!’ leads in Action #405, as Bates posits an Imaginary Story near future where a Psy-ops expert turns the Man of Steel into an assassin pointed at the US President. He follows up with regulation continuity thriller ‘The Most Dangerous Bug in the World?’ as Clark Kent is swept up in a product demo that threatens to expose his secret identity. Over in Superman #244, O’Neil anticipates early AI anxiety and human responses via the rampages of ‘The Electronic Ghost of Metropolis!’, before AC #406 sees Dorfman deal with the rise of counter cultures and semi-religious cults as telejournalist Clark Kent investigates a charismatic ‘Master of Miracles’. What he discovers is a devious plot orchestrated by someone very close to his home and his heart…

For the same issue, the writer dons his “Brown” mantle to expose a restless and beleagured supernatural alchemist inhabiting the Tower of London for centuries as ‘The Ghost That Haunted Clark Kent’ before the wraparound superhero-bedecked cover for all reprint giant Superman #245 and Curt Swan’s pencilled model sheet ‘The Man of Many Faces’ penultimately usher in final wonder ‘Danger… Monster at Work!’ from #246, with Len Wein debuting as super-scribe and introducing an extended cast of Clark Kent’s neighbours in a wry and witty warning tale of pollution gone mad and monsters in Metropolis’ sewers, perfectly limned by Swan & Anderson…

A fresh approach, snappy dialogue and more human-scaled concerns to balance outrageous implausible fantasy elements all wedded to gripping plots and sublime art make Kryptonite Nevermore one of the very best Superman sagas ever created, and its wonderful to see the other stories of the time included for balance and to prove that this was very much the Man of Steel getting his long-needed second wind for the next comics age.

A must-have graphic collection to sit on the same shelf as Watchmen, Batman: Year One, Segar’s Popeye, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse, The Fourth World Saga, Kirby & Lee’s Galactus Trilogy and Chaykin’s American Flagg!, this is a shining exemplar of action- adventure comics captured at their most perfect moment. Why don’t you have this yet?
© 1970, 1971, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Maroc the Mighty


By an unknown author & Don Lawrence with Alfredo Marculeta (Rebellion Studios/ Treasury of UK Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-517-8 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-1-83786-518-5 (Webshop Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For British, commonwealth and European readers of a certain age and prone to debilitating nostalgia, the comic works of Don Lawrence (17th November 1928 – 29th December 2003) are a treat that never pales and always satisfies. His lavish painted-narrative illustration was only ever about two things: boyish wish-fulfilment and staggeringly beautiful images.

Beginning in the 1950s, Lawrence (Marvelman, Wells Fargo, Billy the Kid, Fireball XL5, Olac the Gladiator, The Adventures of Tarzan, The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, adult comedy strip Carrie and multi-volume Dutch magnum opus Storm), inspired a host of artists like Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons. However, as Lawrence worked into the 1990s, his eyesight was increasingly impaired by cataracts, and he took on and diligently trained apprentices like modern stars Chris Weston and Liam Sharp who collaborated with the venerable mentor on his last Storm stories.

Although magnificent painted fantasies are Don’s everlasting legacy, he was also a supremely gifted master of monochrome illumination and gritty realism. Astoundingly, in Britain most of those pre-colour comics remained unreprinted until relatively recently. Now a regular and recognised wellspring for Rebellion Studios’ Treasury of UK Comics, two volumes of his Karl the Viking have been augmented by a true lost classic: a historical but engagingly daft fantasy that Lawrence was plucked from in midstream to begin the Trigan Empire opus…

The extraordinary adventures of a valiant and benevolent wandering Devonshire yeoman making his way back to England after the Third Crusade never actually carried the hero’s name in the weeklies where it was serialised, but ever since the feature – long mis-attributed to writer Michael Moorcock, but now officially devoid of a credited author – has been called by fans Maroc the Mighty…

This brief but bombastic movie-influenced (particularly Ray Harryhausen) skein of sword & Sorcery sagas was first seen in Lion: a triptych of tales spanning 3rd October 1964 to 6th February 1965 (The Hand of Zar); 13th February – May 1st (The Red Knights of Morda) and then May 8th to 3rd July 1965 (The Gigantos), augmented by a short escapade from Lion Annual 1967 as originally released in the autumn of 1966.

Following an enthusiastic and informative Introduction from historian Steve Holland ‘The Hand of Zar’ introduces John Maroc: a doughty English fighter serving the Lords and Nobles of militant Christendom, who now the defeated Christian warriors flee the Holy Land. Sadly, the term “noble” never really applied to aristocratic leader Sir Guy who uses the retreat to pillage and plunder, and when his depredations threaten a helpless Arab boy, outraged Maroc leaps to his defence and must battle his way out with young Ahmid. Fleeing to the mountains they meet an old man who gives the Englishman a golden wrist bracer. The Hand of Zar originally belonged to an ancient “Sun warrior” who fought for justice, and will make Maroc “a giant among men”. It gets the chance almost immediately as Sir Guy’s men ambush them and overwhelm them… until John discovers he has strength enough to snap chains and topple stone pillars…

Over ensuing weeks Maroc and Ahmid thwart Sir Guy’s schemes despite quickly discovering that although the relict imparts incomprehensible strength – and a little enhanced stamina and durability – it only does so as long as it remains in direct sunlight. If clouds appear or night arrives, Maroc is reduced to his ordinary self…

The clashes eventually attract the attention of Richard the Lionheart, who values and admires the efforts of the peasant warrior, but must follow the codes of chivalry and shun him for fighting against his betters, no matter how scurrilous they might be. To make matters worse, Sir Guy accuses the lowly hero of treason and settles a death sentence upon his head…

Their flight across the middle east brings them into extended conflict with all-conquering Warlord Kalin and his war elephants, wicked mountain wizards and dinosaurs, marine slavers, shark packs and reivers, and embroils Maroc and Ahmid in a deadly quest for a mystic artifact – the Stone of Aolath – fighting antediluvian primitives inhabiting The City of the Clouds. Ultimately the legacy of Zar proves unconquerable and the wandering heroes part ways…

One week later, the Englishman abroad reached Spain as The Red Knights of Morda plunged into more of the episodic same. In mountainous, arid Morda Maroc encounters a band of rogue paladins steadily eroding established rule and bleeding the coffers of true local sovereign Don Miguel Y Cipriano. When Maroc befriends the Baron’s son Carlos and charming scoundrel “Ramon the Gypsy”, it begins a brutal, bloody fightback to restore order and justice. The real enemy is a secret society led by evil genius mastermind Satana, and encompasses defeating his colossal enforcer Khala the Strong and legions of fanatical killers, bad knights, huge swamp lizards and more war elephants…

The final Lawrence exploit began in colour on the cover of Lion’s May 8th 1965 issue, with the wanderer still trudging through Spain and abruptly ambushed by archers. Falling victim to the assault he sees with amazement that none of his attackers are over four feet tall…

Explanations by the Minimas lead to the Englishman enlisting to aid the “dwarf folk” against a determined foe sworn to enslave them for their mines – ‘The Gigantos’. Nominative determinism was a major factor at this time in comics and their oppressors are a tribe of oversized tyrants misusing their strength and exploiting equally prodigious wildlife – like giant eagles and bears – to tyrannise the Minimas, but all their might, diabolical traps and the wiles of their leader Pesado – and the active volcano they live in – are insufficient to deter Maroc when he finds injustice festering…

… And that was it for Lawrence’s most superheroic star since Marvelman. From September 18th 1965 fans were periodically gobsmacked and enthralled by The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire – and never really looked back. Editors, however, are callous pragmatic folk and established name brand Maroc returned via Lion Annual 1967 in another anonymously scripted, done-in-one tale illustrated by UK comics mainstay Alfredo Marculeta. He was a regular of the era’s weeklies probably most recognisable today for The Rubber Man, a superhero knock-off of Jack Cole’s Plastic Man written by Ken Mennell and running in Smash from #15.

I can’t find out much about him, but his work and overall style look remarkably similar to that of Spanish political exile, cartoonist, caricaturist and comics illustrator Edmundo Marculeta (6th April 1923 – 3rd May 1989 and AKA “Marcouleta”, “Marcouletta”, “Marcou”, “Tony Cranach” & “Boris Tunder”) who worked in Europe and the UK in the 1960s & 1970s on everything from all-ages westerns and historical adventures to adult comics.

Here, those gifts are employed depicting how mighty Maroc is tramping through Germany’s Black Forest and attacked. Losing and winning back the armlet of Zar, he joins ousted prince Johann of Grunde, helping him regain his birthright from usurping murderer Baron Grimm, a tyrant obsessed with gladiatorial contests and animal cruelty…

Based in equal part on cinematic Sword & Sandal and Knight & Ladies epics and a long-cherished movie genre of manly blockbusters to construct a vast sprawling serial of heroic vigilantism, two-fisted warriors, wild beasts, deadly monsters and even occasionally the odd female (very, very occasionally in this instance!) Maroc the Mighty is the quintessential 5-minute read, but with visuals every boy I knew spent hours staring at. Some – who shall remain nameless – might even have traced or copied many of the panels and tableaux for art and history projects, Hem Hem…

Incorporating a tantalising teaser for the next volume and creator biographies, this truly spectacular visual triumph is a monument to British Comics creativity, simultaneously pushing memory buttons for old folk whilst offering a light but beautiful straightforward epic readily accessible to the curious and genre inquisitive alike or anyone who actually saw the latest William Tell movie…

Is that you or someone you know?
Maroc the Mighty is ™ Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. © 1964, 1965, 1966 & 2025 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Shazam! Family Archives volume 1


By William Woolfolk, Otto Binder, Joe Millard and many unknown authors, C.C. Beck, George Tuska, Mac Raboy, Al Carreño, Mark Swayze & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0779-3 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most venerated and beloved characters of America’s Golden Age of comic books, Captain Marvel was created in 1940: part of the wave of opportunistic creativity which followed the stunning success of Superman in 1938 and Batman one year later. Although there were many notable similarities in the early months, Fawcett’s champion quickly moved squarely into arenas of light entertainment and even pure 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 utilise the powers of six ancient gods and heroes in a never-ending battle against 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 for the series throughout its stellar but too brief run. Before eventually evolving his own affable personality the Captain was serious, bluff and taciturn: a rather charmless powerhouse. Always, 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 immense popularity Captain Marvel – and many of his fellow Shazam!-powered pals – were published twice monthly and outsold Superman, but as the Furious Forties closed, tastes changed, sales slowed and Fawcett saw the way the wind was blowing. In 1953, 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 inventor of many established comic book sales tactics we all take for granted today. This stunning, lavishly sturdy full-colour hardback compendium gathers 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 were fully covered in Shazam! Archives volume 4 so feel free to go there first…

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 (Captain Marvel Jr. #1, cover-dated 18th November 1942) and also includes the debut appearance of mighty Miss Mary Marvel who premiered in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (December 11th 1942). All that and the stunning covers by Beck & Raboy are preceded by an erudite and incisive Foreword from artist, editor, historian – and former student of C.C. Beck – P.C. Hammerlinck, who reveals many secrets of the original comics’ production before the 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, Manly Wade Wellman, Joe Millard, 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 covers in monthly Master Comics and carrying his own solo comic title. That all changed with the 21st issue and murderous arrival of Captain Nazi. Hitler’s Übermensch 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 wizard saved his life by granting Freddy 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 superpowered, invulnerable version of his mortal self.

The prototype crossover epic concluded in Master Comics #22 when the teen titan joined Bulletman & 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. That parade of epic exploits begins in this tome with ‘Captain Nazi’s Assassination Plot’ (Master Comics #23), immaculately rendered by the Alex Raymond-inspired Raboy who would produce for the feature some of the most iconic art of his illustrious career. Sadly, that meant struggling constantly with punishing deadlines and his own impossibly harsh standards. Moreover, the legend abounds that Raboy would rewrite scripts he wasn’t happy with…

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 #25 sees Freddie investigate a little lad’s broken balloon in Woolfolk & Raboy’s ‘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 printed spectacles of the Golden Age…

On a smaller scale, the next issue featured Otto Binder’s ‘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 a 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…

MC #30 saw the wonder boy back in the USA, stopping 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’ but inevitably tasting frustrating defeat and receiving the sound thrashing he so richly deserves…

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

A blockbuster hit, “The Most Sensational Boy in the World” promptly 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 Carreño – a Fawcett regular who had covered almost every character in the company’s stable.

The bumper book – probably scripted by Binder & Joe Millard – 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!’…

Then, 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’, before 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 grab-bag concludes with a landmark from ‘Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel’, as capably rendered by Otto Bonder and Fawcett illustration mainstay Mark Swayze as first seen in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (cover-dated December 11th, 1942). 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 & Junior rescue Mary, they foolishly fall under the sway of the crooks and are astounded when she 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, strength of Hippolyta, skill of Ariadne, fleetness of Zephyrus, beauty of Aurora (always crucial when battling thugs, brutes and beasts!) and 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 milestone of progress adding a formidable, unbeatable female role model to the ranks of the almost universally male mystery-man population of comic books.

The original Captain Marvel is a key factor in the development 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 proves 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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Eagle Classics: Fraser of Africa


By George Beardmore & Frank Bellamy (Hawk Books -1990)
ISBN: 978-0-94824-832-0 (Tabloid TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Frank Alfred Bellamy (21st May 1917 – 5th July 1976) is one of British Comics’ greatest comics artists. In the all-too-brief years of his career he produced magnificent and unforgettable visuals for Eagle, TV21, Radio Times (Doctor Who) before graduating to The Daily Mirror newspaper strip Garth in 1971. He turned that long-running yet lacklustre adventure strip into a magnificent masterpiece of unmissable fantasy, with eye-popping, mind-blowing monochrome art other artists were proud to boast they swiped from. However, after only 17 stories, Bellamy died suddenly in 1976 and it’s absolutely criminal that his work isn’t in galleries, let alone in permanent collected book editions.

Bellamy was born in 1917 but didn’t begin comic strip work until 1953: a strip for Mickey Mouse Weekly. From there he moved on to Hulton Press and drew features starring the Swiss Family Robinson, Robin Hood and King Arthur for Swift – the “junior companion” to Eagle. In 1957, he moved on to the star title, producing standout, innovative work on a variety of strips, beginning with a biography/hagiography of Winston Churchill.

‘The Happy Warrior’ was followed by ‘Montgomery of Alamein’, ‘The Shepherd King – the story of David’, and ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’, from which Bellamy was promptly pulled only a few months in. As Peter Jackson took over the back page historical adventure, Bellamy was on his way to the front cover and The Near Future.

When Hulton were bought by Odhams Press there soon manifested irreconcilable differences between Frank Hampson and the new management. Dan Dare’s creator left his superstar baby and Bellamy was tapped as replacement – although both Don Harley & Keith Watson were retained as his assistants. For a year Bellamy produced “The Pilot of the Future”: redesigning the entire look of the strip at management’s request, before joyfully stepping down to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition.

For his entire life Frank Bellamy had been fascinated – almost obsessed – with Africa. When asked if he would like to draw a big game hunter strip he didn’t think twice. Fraser of Africa debuted in August 1960, a single page per week in the prestigious full-colour centre section. George Beardmore wrote three serials comprising the entire canon, starring Martin Fraser, a rare individual working in modern day Tanganyika’s game reserves.

Bellamy again surpassed himself: consulting with the Hulton Press printers Bemrose over the colours he wanted to use and employing Kenyan farmers as fact & sense checkers to ensure he got everything just right. The result was a new colour palette that burned with the dry, yellow heat of the Veldt and delivered searing authenticity. The strip became the readers’ favourite, knocking Dare from a position previously considered untouchable and unassailable.

Fraser the character is a man out of time. Contrary to modern assumptions, the hunter loved animals, treated “natives” as full equals and had a distinctly 21st century ecological bent. For a Britain blithely rife with institutionalized racism, cheerfully promoting bloodsports and still wondering what happened to The Empire, Fraser’s startlingly “PC” (let’s not say “woke” and ruffle a few gammon feathers…) antics were a thrilling, exotic and salutary experience for us growing lads.

Notwithstanding the high quality and intense drams of the serialised stories, Fraser of Africa is a primarily an artistic landmark. Bellamy’s techniques of line and hatching, in conjunction with sensitive, atmospheric colours, even his staging and layout of pages – which would lead to the majestic Heros the Spartan and eventually the bravura creativity displayed in the Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet strips for TV21 – all were derived from the joyous stories of the Dark Continent.

In case you still need convincing to seek this out the three tales appearing here are hopefully pretty self-explanatory, beginning with the recovery in bush of a lost American movie star in ‘Lost Safari’ (Eagle Vol.11, #32-11:53 spanning August 6th 1960 through December 31st 1960, and Vol 12, #1-12 from January 4th 1961 to 28 January 1961). That segues neatly into ‘The Ivory Poachers’ (Eagle Vol.12, #5-12, 4th February to 20th May 1961) and a protracted campaign against callous Eurotrash butchering willy nilly across the endangered dwindling veldt.

The saga ended with ‘The Slavers’ (Eagle Vol.12, #21-2:32 from 27th May to August 12th 1961) as Fraser aids Masai warriors targeted by Arab slavers…
Yet another one to add to the “Why Is This Not In Print” pile…
Fraser of Africa ©1990 Fleetway Publications. Compilation © 1990 Hawk Books.

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The Shield – America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero


By Irving Novick, Harry Shorten & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-87979-408-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are numerous comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but many are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m still abusing my privileges to revisit another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print but at least readily obtainable in digital formats…

Happy Birthday US of America! – even the less reasonable bits…

In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman and Batman had ushered in a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, remembered only as trivia by sad blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: Not forgotten, but certainly not household names either…

The Shield was FBI scientist Joe Higgins who created a suit and vitamin supplement system bestowing enhanced strength, speed and durability. These advantages he used to battle America’s enemies in the days before the USA entered World War II. Latterly, he also devised a Shield Formula to increase his powers. Beginning with the first issue of Pep Comics (January 1940) he battled spies, saboteurs, subversive organisations and every threat to American security and well-being and was a minor sensation. He is credited with being the industry’s very first Patriotic Hero, predating Marvel’s iconic Captain America in the “draped in the Flag” field.

Collected here in this Golden-Age fan-boy’s dream (barely available as a trade paperback but also more accessible in digital formats) are the lead stories from monthly Pep Comics #1-5 (January – May 1940) plus three solo adventures from hastily assembled spin-off Shield-Wizard Comics #1 (Summer 1940).

Following a Foreword from Robert M. Overstreet and context-providing Introduction from Paul Castiglia the jingoistic wonderment opens with FBI agent Joe Higgins smashing a “Stokonian” spy and sabotage ring in his mystery man identity of The Shield – ‘G-Man Extraordinary’. Only his boss J. Edgar Hoover knows his dark secret and of the incredible scientific process that has made the young daredevil a veritable human powerhouse.

In Pep #2, as American oil tankers begin vanishing at sea, The Shield hunts down the ray gun-wielding rogues responsible and delivers punishing justice before #3 sees mini parachute mines cause devastating destruction in US waters… until the patriotic paragon locates the undersea base of brilliant science-maniac Count Zongarr and deals out some more all-American retribution…

There’s a whiff of prescience or plain military/authorial foresight to the blistering tale from Pep #4 (May 1940) when dirty, devious, diabolical Mosconians perpetrate a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Warned by a clairvoyant vision from new mystery man The Wizard, Higgins hurtles to Hawaii to scotch the plot. When fists and fury aren’t quite enough, the Shield turns an exploding volcano on the murdering backstabbers! Mission accomplished, Higgins takes an ocean liner home in Pep #5, only to have the ship attacked by vengeful Mosconians. After thwarting the sinister ambushers and battling his way home, Joe arrives back in the USA just in time to thwart a tank column attack on Congress!

The blistering pace, energising enthusiasm of the creators and sheer scale, scope and bravura of the Patriotic Paragon’s adventures made him an early hit, and he soon won a second venue for his crusade – the aforementioned Shield-Wizard Comics. The cunningly contrived shared title hit newsstands on June 20th 1940, and opened with the expanded origin for the red, white and blue blockbuster reprinted here.

In 1916 Joe Higgin’s father was a scientist and officer in US Army Intelligence. Whilst working on a formula to make men superhuman, Tom Higgins was attacked by enemy agents and lost his life when they blew up a fleet of ammunition barges. To make matters worse, the innocent dedicated agent was posthumously blamed for the disaster…

Joe grew up with the shame but swore to complete his father’s work and clear his name. By achieving the first – and gaining super-powers – Joe consequently lured out spy master Hans Fritz (who had framed his dad) and accomplished the most crucial component of his crusade: exonerating Tom Higgins. Then, with dad’s old partner J. Edgar as part of the secret, the son joined the FBI and began his work on America’s behalf…

Shield-Wizard #1 contained three complete exploits of the Star-Spangled Centurion, with the second introducing Joe to new partner Ju Ju Watson: a doughty veteran agent dedicated to completing the young operative’s training. Together they investigate a steel mill infiltrated by crooks holding the owner hostage and aiming to purloin the payroll. Young Higgins’ next case involves grisly murder as corpses are found concealed in a floating garbage scow with the trail leading back to vice racketeer Lou Zefke. His ongoing trial is stalling for lack of witnesses, but with only the slimmest of leads and plenty of enthusiasm, The Shield steps in and cleans up the mess…

Raw, primitive and inarguably a little juvenile, these are unadorned, glorious romps from the industry’s exuberant, uncomplicated daw days: Plain-&-simple fun-packed thrills from the gravely under-appreciated Irving Novick (Batman, Flash, Captain Storm, Wonder Woman, countless war comics, The Joker) & Harry Shorten (Archie Comics, Charlton Comics, The Black Hood, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, There Oughta be a Law!) and others whose names are now lost to history.

Despite absolutely not being to everyone’s taste, for dyed-in-the-woollen-tights superhero freaks, these guilty pleasures are worth a look, affording a rapturous tribute to those less complicated times and folk who always saw simple solutions to complex problems…
© 1940, 2002 Archie Publications In. All Rights Reserved.

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New Crusaders Legacy


By Rich Buckler, Ian Flynn, Robert Kanigher, Marty Griem, Lou Manna, Rex Lindsey, Stan Timmons, Bill DuBay, Jr., Rich Margopoulos, David M. Singer, Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, Gray Morrow, Alec Niño, Tony DeZuñiga, Louis Barreto, Adrian Gonzales, Ricardo Villagran, Frank Giacoia, Alan Kupperberg, Jerry Gaylord, Ben Bates, Alitha Martinez & many more (Red Circle/Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-936975-22-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman and Batman pioneered a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t; now relished only as trivia by sad old blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: not forgotten, but certainly not household names either.

MLJ were one of the quickest publishers to jump on the Mystery-Man bandwagon, following the spectacular successes of the Man of Tomorrow with their own small yet inspirational pantheon of gaudily clad costumed crusaders, beginning in November 1939 with Blue Ribbon Comics. Soon followed by Top-Notch and Pep Comics, their content was the standard blend of two-fisted adventure strips, prose pieces and gag panels and, from #2 on, superheroes. However, after only a few years Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater spotted a gap in the blossoming market and in December 1941 nudged aside their masked heroes and action strips to make room for a far less imposing hero; an “average teen” who would have ordinary adventures like the readers, but with triumphs, romance and slapstick emphasised. The teen phenomenon was pure gold and by 1946 the kids had taken over, so MLJ renamed itself Archie Comics; retiring its heroic characters years before the end of the Golden Age and becoming, to all intents and purposes, a publisher of family comedies. Its success, like Superman’s, changed the content of every other publisher’s titles, and led to a multi-media industry including TV shows, movies, a chain of restaurants and even a global pop hit Sugar, Sugar (a tune from their animated show).

By this stage the company had blazed through an impressive pantheon of mystery-men who would form the backbone of numerous future superhero revivals, most notably in the High-Camp/Marvel Explosion/Batman TV show-frenzied mid-60’s era. The heroes impressively resurfaced under the company’s Red Circle imprint during the early days of the Direct Sales revolution of the 1980s, but after a strong initial showing, again failed to sustain the public’s attention.

Archie let them lie fallow (except for occasional revivals and intermittent guest-shots in Archie titles) until 1991, when the company licensed its heroes to superhero specialists DC for a magically fun, all-ages iteration (and where’s that star-studded trade paperback collection, huh?!). Impact Comics was a vibrant, engaging and fun all-ages rethink that really should have been a huge hit but was again cruelly unsuccessful. When the line folded in 1993 the characters returned to limbo. DC had one more crack at them in 2008, incorporating The Mighty Crusaders & Co into their own maturely angst-ridden and stridently dark continuity – with the usual overwhelming lack of success.

Over the last decade the wanderers returned home to Archie in superbly simplistic and winningly straightforward revivals aimed squarely at old nostalgics and young kids reared on action/adventure TV cartoons: brimming with all the exuberant verve and wide-eyed honest ingenuity you’d expect from an outfit which has been pleasing kids for over 80 years.

Released initially online in May 2012 – followed by a traditional monthly print version that September – the first story-arc made it to full legitimacy with a thrill-packed trade paperback collection, equally welcoming to inveterate fanboys and eager newcomers alike. The series introduced a new generation of legacy heroes rising from the ashes of their parents/guardians’ murders to become a team of teenaged gladiators carrying on the fight as New Crusaders.

This collection supplements and follows on from that magical makeover: with mentor The Shield training the potential-filled juniors with the records of their predecessors. The stories included here come from those aforementioned 1980s Red Circle episodes; culled from the

Mighty Crusaders #1, 8, 9; The Fly #2, 4, 6; Blue Ribbon (vol 2) #3, 8, 14; The Comet #1 and Black Hood #2, collectively spanning 1983-1985.

Following an engaging reintroduction and recap, contemporary creative team Ian Flynn, Jerry Gaylord, Ben Bates & Alitha Martinez reveal how the grizzled, flag-draped veteran has trouble reaching his teenaged students until he begins treating them as individuals, and sharing past Crusaders’ cases. Starting with personal recollections of his own early days as America’s first Patriotic superhero in ‘The Shield’ (Mighty Crusaders #8, by Marty Greim, Dick Ayers & Rich Buckler), Joe Higgins explains his active presence in the 21st century, leading into a recapitulation of the first Red Circle yarn.

‘Atlantis Rising’ is from Mighty Crusaders #1, by Buckler & Frank Giacoia, which saw psionic plunderer Brain Emperor and immortal antediluvian Eterno the Conqueror launching a multi-pronged attack on the world. They are countered by an army of costumed champions including the Golden Age Shield, Lancelot Strong – the (other) Shield – and for a while there were three different ones active at once – Fly and Fly-Girl, The Jaguar, The Web, Black Hood and The Comet, who communally countered a global crimewave and clobbered the villains’ giant killer robots…

This is followed by a modern interlude plus pin-up and data pages on Ralph Hardy AKA ‘The Jaguar’ before a potent vignette by Chas Ward & Carlos Vicat. ‘The Web’ offers the same data-page update for masked detective/criminologist John Raymond before ‘The Killing Hour’ (Blue Ribbon #14, by Stan Timmons, Lou Manna, Rex Lindsey & Chic Stone) sees the merely mortal manhunter join his brother-in-law The Jaguar in foiling nuclear terrorism.

Modern pin-ups and data-pages reintroduce ‘The Comet’ before Bill DuBay, Jr., Carmine Infantino & Alec Niño reworked the original 1940’s origin tale by Jack Cole from Pep Comics #1 in (1940). Reproduced from 1984’s The Comet #1, this chilling yarn detailed how an idealistic scientist became the most bloodthirsty hero of the Golden Age, with a body-count which made The Punisher look like a social worker.

The infomercial for ‘Steel Sterling’ precedes a wild and whimsical origin-retelling of the star-struck, super-strong “Man of Steel” by his 1940s scripter Robert Kanigher, illustrated with superb style by Louis Barreto & Tony DeZuñiga from Blue Ribbon #3, after which ‘Fly Girl’ gets star treatment in a brace of tales, augmented as always by the ubiquitous fact-folio.

Buckler, Timmons, Adrian Gonzales & Ricardo Villagran’s ‘A Woman’s Place’ (The Fly #2) clears up an exceedingly sexist old-school extortion ring whilst ‘Faithfully Yours’ (Fly #6) sees her movie-star alter ego Kim Brand subjected to a chilling campaign of terror from a fan. Timmons, Buckler, Steve Ditko & Alan Kupperberg take just the right tone in what might be the first incidence of stalking in US comics…

‘Black Hood’ has no modern iteration in the New Crusaders. Still active in contemporary times, he encountered the kids during their debut exploit and is phenomenally cool, so he gets a place here. Following the customary introductory lesson he appears in a gritty, Dirty Harry styled caper (from Blue Ribbon #8 by Gray Morrow) as undercover cop – and latest convert – Kip Burland, who sidesteps Due Process to save a kidnapped girl and ensure the conviction of crooks hiding behind the law. The gripping yarn also discloses the centuries-long justice-seeking tradition of “The Man of Mystery”…

That’s followed by a snippet from Rich Margopoulos, Kupperberg & Giacoia’s ‘A Hero’s Rage’ wherein Kip discovers his uncle Matt (the Golden Age Black Hood) has been murdered. Ditching his leather jacket and ski-mask in favour of the traditional costume, the bereaved hero suits up and joins the Mighty Crusaders…

Without doubt the most engaging reprint in this collection and by itself well worth the price of admission is ‘The Fox’ from Black Hood #2. Written and drawn by the inimitable Alex Toth, this scintillating light-hearted period comedy-drama finds the devilish do-gooder in Morocco in 1948 and embroiled with wealthy expatriate ex-boxer Cosmo Gilly, who has no idea he’s become the target for assassination…

The recondite recollections surge to a climax with ‘Old Legends Never Die’ (MC#9, by David M. Singer, Buckler & Ayers) as the first Shield is accused of excessive force and manslaughter when his 1940’s crime-fighting style seemingly results in the death of a thief he apprehended. With Joe Higgins’ costumed friends in support but out of their depth in a courtroom, the convoluted history of the three heroes bearing his codename is unpicked during ‘The Trial of the Shield’ before the uncannily sinister truth is exposed…

Supplemented by a plentiful cover gallery and packed with the kind of ephemera that sends old Fights ‘n’ Tights fans into paroxysms of delight, I fear this is probably a book only the wide-eyed young and dedicated still ambulatory old fart nostalgists could handle, but it is such a perfect artefact of the superhero genre I strongly urge anyone with a hankering for masked adventure and craving Costumed Dramas to give it a long look.
NEW CRUSADERS and RED CIRCLE COMICS ® ACP, Inc. © 2013 Archie Comics Publications. All rights reserved.

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Superman: The War Years – 1938-1945


By Roy Thomas, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster with Don Cameron, Mort Weisinger, Fred Ray, Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring, Leo Nowak, Ed Dobrotka, John Sikela, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, George Roussos, Stan Kaye & various (DC/Chartwell Books)
ISBN: 978-0-7858-3282-9 (Album HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The creation of Superman and his unprecedented adoption by a desperate, joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Within three years of his debut in the summer of 1938, the intoxicating mix of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy: all deep and abiding issues for the American public at that time.

However, once the war in Europe and the East snared America’s consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comicbook covers if not interiors and the Man of Steel was again in the vanguard.

In comic book terms Superman was master of the world and had already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was a popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons. Thankfully, the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release and the energy and enthusiasm of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster informed and infected the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

Superman was definitely every kid’s hero, and the raw, untutored yet captivating episodes reprinted here were also completely embraced by the wider public, as the new so very portable entertainment medium of comic books became a vital tonic for the troops and all the ones they had left behind…

I sometimes think – like many others of my era and inclinations – that superhero comics are never more apt or effective than when whole-heartedly combating global fascism with explosive, improbable excitement courtesy of a myriad of mysterious, masked marvel men. All the most evocatively visceral moments of the genre seem to come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and I hope you’ll please forgive the appropriated contemporary colloquialism – “Nips and Nazis”. Isn’t it great then that they’re political legacy remains and a whole new diverse, multinational bunch are back again for the latest costumed cavorters to knock around some more?

This superb hardcover archive – unavailable digitally but still readily accessible in paper formats – has been curated by comic book pioneer Roy Thomas, exclusively honing in on the euphoric output of the war years, even though in those long-ago dark days, publishers and creators were wise enough to offset their tales of espionage and imminent invasion with a barrage of home-grown threats and gentler or even more whimsical fare…

A past master of WWII era material, Thomas opens this tome with a scene-setting Introduction and prefaces each chapter division with an essay offering tone and context before the four-colour glories commence with Part 1: The Road to War, as following the cover to Action Comics #1, the first Superman story begins.

Most of early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience have in later years been given descriptive appellations by editors. Thus, after describing the foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton and explaining his astonishing powers in nine panels, with absolutely no preamble the wonderment begins in ‘Superman, Champion of the Oppressed’ and ‘War in San Monte’ from Action Comics #1 & 2 (June and July 1938 by Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster) as a costumed crusader who masquerades by day as reporter Clark Kent began averting numerous tragedies.

As well as saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and delivering rough justice to a wife-beater, the tireless crusader works over racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving suave and feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse, since she was attempting to vamp the thug at the time! The mysterious Man of Steel made a big impression on her by then outing a lobbyist for the armaments industry who was bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europe…

The next breathtaking instalment ‘Revolution in San Monte’ sees the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the war-zone and spectacularly shutting down hostilities already in progress…

Maintaining the combat theme, the cover of Action Comics #10 (March 1939) follows and the cover and first two pages of Superman #1 (Summer 1939): an expanded 2-page origin describing the alien foundling’s escape from Krypton, his childhood with unnamed Earthling foster parents and eventual journey to the big city. A back-cover ad for the Superman of American club and the October 1939 Action Comics #17 cover precedes Fall 1939’s Superman #2 cover and rousing yarn ‘Superman Champions Universal Peace!’, depicting the dynamic wonder man once more thwarting unscrupulous munitions manufacturers by crushing a gang who had stolen the world’s deadliest poison gas weapon…

After another concise history lesson Part 2: War Comes to Europe re-presents a stunning outreach article thanks to Look Magazine commissioning a legendary special feature by the original creators for their 27th February 1943 issue. ‘How Superman Would End the War’ is a glorious piece of wish-fulfilment which still delights, as the Man of Tomorrow arrests and hauls budding belligerents Hitler and Stalin to a League of Nations court in Geneva.

Accompanied by the March 1940 cover, Action Comics #22 & #23 then declares ‘Europe at War’: a tense, thinly disguised call to arms for the still neutral USA, and in a continued story – almost unheard of in those early days of funnybook publishing. Here Lois and Clark’s fact-finding mission (by Siegel, Shuster and inker Paul Cassidy) spectacularly escalates, and after astounding carnage reveals a scientist named Luthor to be behind the international conflict…

The anti-aircraft cover for Superman #7 (November/December 1940) and an ad for the Superman Radio Program precede Siegal, Wayne Boring & Don Komisarow’s ‘The Sinister Sagdorf’ (Superman #8 January/February 1941). This topical thriller spotlights enemy agents infiltrating American infrastructure whilst ‘The Dukalia Spy Ring’ (Superman #10 May/June 1941) references the 1936 Olympics and sees the Action Ace trounce thinly-veiled Nazis at an international sports festival and expose vicious foreign propaganda: themes regarded as fanciful suspense and paranoia as the US was still at this time still officially neutral in the “European War”.

Behind Fred Ray’s Armed services cover for Superman #12 (September/October 1941, ‘Peril on Pogo Island’ (Siegel, Shuster & Leo Nowak) finds Lois and Clark at the mercy of rampaging tribesmen, although spies from a certain foreign power are at the back of it all, after which a Fred Ray gallery of covers – Action Comics #43 (December 1941), Superman #13 (November/December 1941), Action Comics #44 (January 1942) and Superman #14 (January/February 1942) – concludes the chapter.

All of these were prepared long before December 7th changed the face and nature of the conflict…

After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor everything changed and Part 3: America Goes to War reflects the swift shift to a war footing, beginning with the notorious Siegel & Boring ‘Superman Daily Strips’ from January/February 1942, wherein an overeager Clark Kent tries too hard to enlist and only succeeds in getting himself declared 4F (unfit to fight)…

Timeless Fred Ray patriotic masterpieces from Superman #17 (July/August 1942) and #18 (September/October 1942) precede a stirring yarn from the latter. ‘The Conquest of a City’ (Siegel & John Sikela) sees Nazi agents using a civil defence drill to infiltrate the National Guard and conquer Metropolis in the Fuehrer’s name… until Superman spearheads a counter-attack…

The other great patriotic cover master was Hardin “Jack” Burnley and a quartet of his very best follow – Action Comics #54 (November 1942) & #55 (December 1942), World’s Finest Comics #8 (Winter 1942 with Batman & Robin thrown in for good measure) and Superman #20 (January/February 1943). That last also provides ‘Destroyers from the Depths’ wherein Hitler himself orders dastardly Herr Fange to unleash an armada of marine monstrosities on Allied shipping and coastal towns. Of course, they prove no match for the mighty magnificent Man of Steel…

After Burnley’s Action Comics #58 cover (March 1943), Siegel, Ed Dobrotka & Sikela detail the saga of ‘X-Alloy’ from Superman #21 (March/April 1943) as a secret army of Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists steal US industrial secrets and would have conquered the nation from within if not for the ever-vigilant Man of Steel. Sikela’s cover Action Comics #59 (April 1943) concludes this section as Part 4: In for the Duration discusses the long, hard struggle to crush the Axis. By the time of these tales, the intense apprehension of the early war years had been replaced with eager anticipation as tyranny’s forces were being rolled back on every Front…

Following Burnley’s May 1943 Action Comics #60 cover, Superman #22 May/June 1943 provides Siegel & Sam Citron’s ‘Meet the Squiffles’: a light-hearted but barbed flight of whimsy wherein Adolf Hitler is approached by the king of a scurrilous band of pixies who offer to sabotage America’s mighty weapons. Neither nefarious rogue had factored Superman – or patriotic US gremlins – into their schemes though…

Action #62 (July 1943) and Superman #22 (July/August 1943) showcase two of Burnley’s very best covers, with the latter fronting an astounding masterpiece of graphic polemic. Don Cameron scripts and Citron illustrates ‘America’s Secret Weapon!’: a rousing paean to US military might wherein Clark and Lois report on cadet manoeuvres and the Man of Steel becomes an inspiration to demoralised troops in training. Covers by Burnley for Action #63 (August 1943) and Superman #24 (September/October 1943) – which latter provides ‘Suicide Voyage’ – follow. This exuberant yarn by Cameron, Dobrotka & George Roussos finds Clark (and pesky stowaway Lois) visiting the Arctic as part of a mission to rescue downed American aviators. Of course, no one is expecting a secret invasion by combined Nazi and Japanese forces, but Superman and a patriotic polar bear are grateful for the resultant bracing exercise…

‘The Man Superman Refused to Help’ comes from Superman #25 (November/December 1943) and follows Burnley and Stan Kaye’s November 1943 cover for Action Comics #66. In a far more considered and thoughtful tale from Siegel, Ira Yarbrough & Roussos expose the American Nazi Party – dubbed the “101% Americanism Society” – whilst offering a rousing tale of social injustice as an US war hero is wrongly implicated in the fascists’ scheme until the Man of Steel investigates…

Next up and from the same issue is a much reprinted and deservedly lauded patriotic classic.

‘I Sustain the Wings!’ by Mort Weisinger & Fred Ray was created in conjunction with the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command under Major General Walter R. Weaver, designed to boost enlistment in the maintenance services of the military. In this stirring tale Clark attends a Technical Training Command school as part of the Daily Planet’s attempt to address a shortfall in vital services recruitment (a genuine problem at this time in our real world) but the creators still find space for our hero to delightfully play cupid to a lovestruck kid who really wants to be a hot shot pilot and not a mere “grease monkey”…

Wayne Boring & Roussos’ cover for Superman #26 (January/February 1944) precedes Boring’s ‘Superman Sunday Strips #220-227’ for January -March 1944, with the Metropolis Marvel heading to multiple theatres of War to deliver letters from loved ones on the Home Front after which Roussos’ ‘Public Service Announcement’ (from Superman #28, May 1944) urges everyone to donate waste paper – like comic books!

July/August 1944’s Boring cover for Superman #29 finds Lois greeting the USA’s real Supermen – servicemen all – before Action #76 (September 1944 and Kaye over Boring) leads to anonymously-scripted ‘The Rubber Band’ from World’s Finest Comics #15 (Fall 1944). Illustrated by Sikela & Nowak and concentrating on domestic problems, it details the exploits of a gang of black market tyre thieves who are given a patriotic “heads-up” after Superman dumps their boss on the Pacific front line where US soldiers are fighting and dying for all Americans…

Drawn by Boring, ‘Superman Sunday Strips #280-282? (March 1945) then rubbish and belittle the last vestiges of the Third Reich as Hitler and his inner circle desperately try to convince the Action Ace to defect to the side comprised of Supermen like them…

In Superman #34 (May/June 1945) Cameron, Citron & Roussos attempt to repeat the magic formula of ‘I Sustain the Wings’ with ‘The United States Navy!’ as Clark is despatched to follow three college football heroes as they progress in different maritime specialisations through the hellish war in the Pacific.

The enthralling sally through Superman’s martial exploits conclude with one final Thomas-authored article as Part 5: Atoms for Peace? reveals how the fruits of the Manhattan Project changed everything…

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly situated in these gloriously luxurious editions; worthy, long-lasting vehicles for the greatest and most influential comics stories the art form has ever produced. Such Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at absurdly affordable prices and in a durable, comfortingly approachable format. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?
™ & © 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs The Crime Genie (volume 3)


By Jerry Siegel & Reg Bunn, with Geoff Campion, David Sque, Jesús Blasco & various (Rebellion)
ISBN 978-1-83786-173-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

I once again find myself in a quandary. When seriously reviewing something you must always keep a weather eye on your critical criteria. For me, the biggest danger when looking at comic collections is to ensure the removal of the nostalgia-tinted spectacles of the excitable, uncritical scruffy little kid who adored and devoured the source material every week in the long ago and long-missed.

However, after thoroughly scrutinising myself – no pleasant task, as you can imagine – I can honestly say that not only are the adventures of the macabre and malevolent Spider as engrossing and enjoyable as I remember, but will also provide the newest, most contemporary reader with a huge hit of superb artwork, compelling, caper-style cops ‘n’ robbers fantasy and thrill-a-minute adventure. After all, the strip usually ran two (later three) pages per episode, so a lot had to happen in pretty short order.

A triumphant beacon of Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics line, The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs. The Crime Genie is the latest offering in what I hope will be a complete revival of the UK’s most marvellous vintage comics fantasies (bring on Smoke Man, Tri Man, Gadget Man & Gimmick Kid – we can take it!). Gathering material from peerless weekly anthology Lion and Champion spanning February 4th 1967- May 20th 1967, plus pertinent extracts from Lion Annual 1968 and 1969.

Mystery criminal genius and eventual superhero The Spider debuted on June 26th 1965 and reigned supreme until April 26th 1969. He has periodically returned in reprint form and occasional new stories ever since. As first introduced by Ted Cowan (Ginger Nutt, Paddy Payne, Adam Eterno, Robot Archie) & Reg Bunn (Robin Hood, Buck Jones, Captain Kid, Clip McCord), the moody malcontent was an enigmatic super-scientist whose goal was to be acclaimed the greatest criminal of all time. The flamboyantly wicked narcissist began his public career by recruiting crime specialists – safecracker Roy Ordini and genteelly evil genius inventor Professor Pelham – prior to a massive gem-theft from America’s greatest city. He was foiled by cruel luck and resolute cops Gilmore and Trask: crack detectives cursed with the task of capturing the arachnid arch-villain.

Cowan scripted the first two serialised sagas before handing over to comics royalty: Jerry Siegel (Superman, Superboy, The Spectre, Doctor Occult, Slam Bradley, Funnyman, The Mighty Crusaders, Starling), who had been forced to look elsewhere for work after an infamous dispute with DC Comics over the rights to the Man of Steel. His supervision of UK arachnid amazement began just as Britain and the entire, but less fab & groovy world succumbed to “Batmania”. In case you’re not old, the term covers a period of global hysteria sparked by the 1966 Batman TV show, as the planet went crazy for superheroes and an era dubbed “camp” saw humour, satire, and fantastic psychedelic whimsy infect all categories of entertainment. It was a time of peace, love, wild music and radical change, and I believe there were lots of drugs being experimented with at the time…

British comics were not immune, and a host of more conventional costumed crusaders sprang up in our traditionally unconventional pages. Scripted by the godfather of the genre – and an inveterate humourist – The Spider skilfully shifted gears without a squeak and became a superhero, battling in rapid succession The Exterminator, Crime Incorporated, The Silhouette, Dr. Mysterioso, The Android Emperor, The Infernal Gadgeteer, and The Crook From Outer Space…

Played out for months at breakneck rollercoaster pace, each monochrome story positively bulged with imaginative ingenuity, manic combats and crazy inventions peppering wide-eyed British kids with a bizarre conception of the USA. The strip grew ever more popular and by the time of this epic encounter demanded a full 5 pagers per episode, in a periodical where one or two pages a week was the norm. At the height of its creativity The Spider embraced full on surrealism in the tale as petty convict and recently escaped fugitive from a chain gang Steve Gurko finds a bottle with a djinn inside and strikes the deal of a lifetime…

Gifted with unlimited wishes, Gurko and the Genie go on a crime rampage and draw The Spider’s attention, leading to a protracted war of fantastic creatures against the arrogant hero’s ingenuity and inventions. A masterpiece of illustrative wonderment displaying Reg Bunn’s incredible gift for visualisation, the lengthy campaign finds The Spider, Pelham & Ordini facing hyper-enlarged insects, banishment to other eras, ancient warriors, terrible titans, wicked wizards, an army of modern mobsters, monstrous disembodied limbs, legions of trolls and giants, swarms of flying “stingers”, invading transdimensional “monstrogs”, erupting volcanoes, rampaging dinosaurs, missing links and Gurko himself willingly transformed into a super-heated “Sun-Man”…

Eventually, when he’s fed up with Gurko’s insipid uninspired ideas, the immortal genie turns on his Master and sets out to punish the infernal humans who have constantly escaped and humiliated him, and then the war gets really wild. Ultimately however, The Spider’s brain proves too much for ancient mystical brawn, especially after the increasing incensed apparition angers fellow mystical immortal Queen Lana of Valley of the Doomed…

It could have all ended there, but for the haughty Spider rebuffing her amorous advances and offers of alliance…

The climax comes when the retrenching genie mind controls the police as his new army and sets colossal arachnids on the hero, only to fall for a slick piece of conceptual sleight of hand and return to his own specialised “glass house”…

The months-long miracle war concluded, there’s still space for some extras, beginning with comic romp ‘The Spider and the Stone of Venus’. Illustrated by David Sque (The Skid Kids, Roy of the Rovers, Scorer) for Lion Annual 1968 and set when the Spider was seeking to shed his villainous, past it sees rival arch fiend Mister Mastermind frame him for a jewel theft and regret his folly very much indeed…

A year later an untitled Spider text story – lavishly adorned with Geoff (Battler Britton, Captain Condor, Typhoon Tracy, The Spellbinder, Captain Hurricane, D-Day Dawson) Campion illustrations – revealed how an army of assassins play on their enemy’s immense ego and successfully invade his castle as a film crew seeking to record his greatness for history. Sadly for them, even the Spider isn’t that vain…

Also from Lion Annual 1969, a second treat sees comics master Jesús Blasco (Steel Claw, Tex Willer, Buffalo Bill, Cuto, Capitán Trueno) limn a brutal war of wills and inventions as a fascistic tyrant threatens civilisation with his super weapons only to fall to the Spider’s boldness and amazing arachnid arsenal…

Completing the vintage treats is a full colour cover gallery, a Crime Syndicate pinup by Campion from Lion Summer Special 1968 and creator biographies. This compilation of retro/camp masterpieces is jam-packed with arcane dialogue, insane devices and outrageous antics that are perhaps an acquired taste. However, no one with functioning eyes can fail to be astounded by the artwork of Reg “crosshatch king” Bunn which handles mood, spectacle, action and Siegel’s frankly unbelievable script demands with captivating aplomb.

This titanic tome confirms that the King is back at last and should find a home in every kid’s heart and mind, no matter how young they might be, or threaten to remain. Batty, baroque and often simply bonkers, The Spider proves that although crime does not pay, it always provides a huge amount of white-knuckle fun…
© 1967, 1968, 1969, 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.