Category: Romance

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The Complete Love Hurts – Horrifying Tales of Romance


By Kim W. Andersson with Sara B. Elfgren & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-859-8 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-63008-152-2

Internationally acclaimed and award-winning, Kim W. Andersson began his comics career in fanzines, and after studying at the Serieskolan School of Art in Malmö began his professional life with contributions to Sweden’s broad and varied comics industry. His first hit series was Love Hurts which began in 2009.

Wry, creepy, mordant and ironically funny, the series appeared in numerous venues before serialisation in anthology series Dark Horse Presents, for us English speakers. In 2015 Dark Horse Books re-presented the entire shebang in one titanic, trenchant tome…

Collecting Love Hurts #1-22, Love Hurts: Anastasia from Nemi, and #23-32 as seen in Utopi Magasin, also included here is one-shot Love Hurts: Dead End courtesy of Johnossi Comics – which you would already know if you read more stuff published in Scandinavia…

Since then, Andersson has returned to school thematically in chiller Alena (made into a movie) and Astrid: Cult of the Volcanic Moon. When not lecturing, creating gallery shows or making comics, the auteur works as an illustrator of book, magazines and for TV.

Following Peter Snejbjerg’s barbed Introduction ‘It was a Dark and Stormy Night’, what follows is a rapid-fire, smartly sarcastic and cunningly pilfered and plundered tribute to all aspects of mass entertainment and popular fiction from EC Comics to slasher movies, manipulating relationships as a trigger for jabs, pokes and broadsides at how and why people (and related beings) want, need and use other people…

The result is a nonstop procession of gags and incidents starring serial killers, domestic abusers, needy girlfriends, procurers, and wayward teens all encountering endings they might not deserve but certainly should have been expecting…

Sexy, gory yet remarkably not salacious, pastiches of screen shockers are supplemented by surreal and metaphysical moments, historical fantasies, ghostly encounters or sci fi and monster moments: all leavened by a darkly childish sense of the absurd and all illustrated with fetching style…

From spoofs starring 50-foot girlfriends to perplexing prom night pranks; from western showdowns and manga cautionary tales to lovingly irreverent myths mauled and manipulated, the marriage of amour and peril is dissected, with demons, devils, doctors, dweebs and dolly-birds re-examined via a puckish contemporary lens. There’s even a murky nod to superheroes and – just when you’re off guard – genuine tragedy amidst the crimson-spattered comedy…

Here love comes in all sizes, shapes and kinds with nothing barred or forbidden but with precious little in the way of happy endings…

The short punchy vignettes are bolstered by two longer tales: frenzied fairy tale Love Hurts: Anastasia darkly riffs on the tale of Bluebeard and 1001 Arabian Nights by way of Puss in Boots and Night of the Living Dead whilst Love Hurts: Dead End depicts a deadly pan-dimensional trip to the bad places and a celebrity La-la-land after one poor guy “wins” ‘The Lottery’…

Scary, hilarious, mordant, and in wickedly Bad Taste, these tales for culturally savvy appetites are augmented by a bonus section of Sketches and Extras offering ‘Happy Valentine’s Day!’ cards; working sketches of the models used to create the strips; cover designs; previous collection covers; layouts; original pages in various stages of completion, tattoo art and a biography.

Dark, doom-swept, daft, deranged and delightful, this may be the most appropriate appreciation of the annual emotional event yet conceived…
Love Hurts™ © 2015 Kim W. Andersson. All rights reserved.

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Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, restored & edited by Michael Gagné (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-502-0 (HB)

Comics dream team Joe Simon & Jack Kirby presaged and ushered in the first American age of mature comics – not just with the Romance genre, but through all manner of challenging modern graphic dramas about real people in extraordinary situations… before seeing it all disappear again in less than eight years.

Their small stable of magazines – produced for a loose association of companies known as Prize/Crestwood/Pines – blossomed and wilted as the comics industry contracted throughout the 1950s.

As the popularity of flamboyant escapist superheroes waned after World War II, newer yet more familiar genres like Crime, Westerns and Horror returned to the fore in all popular entertainment media, as audiences increasingly rejected simplistic, upbeat or jingoistic fantasy for grittier, more sober themes.

Some comic book material, such as Westerns or anthropomorphic “Funny Animals”, hardly changed at all, whereas gangster and detective tales were utterly radicalised by the temperament of the post-war world.

Stark, uncompromising, cynically ironic novels, plays and socially aware, mature-themed B-movies that would be later defined as Film Noir offered post-war civilian society a bleakly antiheroic worldview that often hit too close to home and set fearful, repressive, middle-class parent groups and political ideologues howling for blood.

Naturally, these new forms and sensibilities seeped into comics, transforming good-natured, two-fisted gumshoe and Thud-&-Blunder cop strips of yore into darkly intriguing, frightening tales of seductive dames, last chances, big pay-offs and glamorous thuggery.

Sensing imminent Armageddon, the moral junkyard dogs bayed even louder as they saw their precious children’s minds under seditious attack…

Concurrent to the demise of masked mystery-men, industry giants Simon & Kirby – who were already capitalising on the rapidly growing True Crime boom – legendarily invented the genre of comic book Romance with mature, beguiling, explosively contemporary social dramas equally focussed on a changing cultural scene and adult-themed relationships. They also – with very little shading – discussed topics of a sexual nature!

After testing the waters with the semi-comedic prototype My Date for Hillman in early 1947, Joe & Jack plunged in full force with Young Romance #1 in September of that year. It launched through Crestwood Publications: a minor outfit which had been creating (as Prize Comics) interesting but far from innovative comics since 1940.

Following Simon’s plan to make a new marketplace out of the grievously ignored older girls of America, they struck gold with stories addressing serious issues, pitfalls and even genuine hazards of relationships…

Not since the invention of Superman had a single comic book generated such a frantic rush of imitation and flagrant cashing-in …although you might argue that MLJ’s Archie Andrews came close in 1942-1943.

Young Romance #1 was a monumental hit and the team acted accordingly: rapidly retooling and expanding, “S&K” released spin-offs Young Love (February 1949), Young Brides and In Love, all under a unique profits-sharing deal that quickly paid huge dividends to the publishers, creators and a growing studio of specialists.

All through that turbulent period, comic books suffered impossibly biased oversight and hostile scrutiny from hidebound and panicked old guard institutions such as church groups, media outlets and ambitious politicians. A number of tales and titles garnered especial notoriety from those conservative, reactionary doom-smiths and when the industry buckled and introduced a ferocious Comics Code, it castrated the creative form just when it most needed boldness and imagination.

Comics endured more than a decade and a half of savagely doctrinaire self-imposed censorship until swiftly changing youthful attitudes, a society in crisis and plummeting profits forced the artform to adapt, evolve or die.

Those tales all come from a simpler time: exposing a society in meltdown and suffering cultural PTSD – and are pretty mild by modern standards of behaviour – but the quality of art and writing make those pivotal years a creative highpoint well worthy of a thorough reassessment…

In 1947, fictionalising True Crime Cases was tremendously popular and profitable, and of the assorted outfits generating such material, nobody did it better than Simon & Kirby. Crucially they proved that a technique of first-person confession also perfectly applied to just-as-uncompromising personal sagas told by a succession of archetypal women and girls who populated their new comic book smash.

Their output as interchangeable writers, pencillers and inkers (aided from early on by Joe’s brother-in-law Jack Oleck in the story department) was prodigious and astounding. Nevertheless, other hands frequently pitched in, so although these tales are all credited to S&K, art-aficionados shouldn’t be surprised to detect traces of Bill Draut, Mort Meskin, Al Eadeh, George Roussos or other stalwarts lurking in the backgrounds… and minor figures and…

Michelle Nolan’s ‘Introduction’ for this rousing full-colour compilation analyses the scope and meteoric trajectory of the innovation and its impact on the industry before the new era opens with ‘Boy Crazy’ from Young Romance #2 (cover-dated November/December1947) wherein a flighty teenager with no sense of morality steals her aunt’s man with appalling consequences…

From the same issue, Her Tragic Love’ delivers a thunderbolt of melodrama as an amorous triangle encompassing a wrongly convicted man on death row presents one woman with no solution but a final one…

Scripted by Oleck, ‘Fraulein Sweetheart’ (YR #4, March/April 1948) reveals dark days but no happy endings for two German girls eking out existence in the American-occupied sector of post-war Marburg, whilst ‘Shame’ – from #5 – deals with an ambitious, social-climbing young lady too proud to acknowledge her own scrub-woman mother whenever a flashy boyfriend comes around.

Next is ‘The Town and Toni Benson’ from Young Romance #11 (contemporarily designated volume 2, #5, May/June 1949) which offers a sequel to ‘I Was a Pick-Up’ from the premiere issue (which tale is confusingly included in the sequel to this volume Young Romance 2: The Early Simon & Kirby).

Here, however, S&K cleverly build on that original tale, creating a soap opera environment which could so easily have spawned a series, as the now-newlywed couple struggle to make ends meet under a wave of hostile public scrutiny…

On a roll, the creative geniuses began mixing genres. Western Love #2 (September/October 1948) provides ‘Kathy and the Merchant of Sunset Canton!’, as a city slicker finds his modern mercenary management style makes him no friends in cowboy country – until one proud girl takes a chance on getting to know him…

‘Sailor’s Girl!’ (Young Romance #13/Vol. 3, #1, September 1949) then picks over the troubles of an heiress who marries a dauntless sea rover working for Daddy. She is absolutely confident that she can tame or break her man’s wild, free spirit…

We head out yonder once more to meet ‘The Perfect Cowboy!’ (Real West Romances # 4, October/November 1949) – at least on set – a well as the simple sagebrush lass whose head he briefly turns, before social inequality and petty envy inform brutally heavy-handed ‘I Want Your Man’ (Young Romance #21/Vol. 3 #9, May 1950).

Here a young woman of meagre means realises almost too late the cost of her vendetta against a pretty little rich girl…

In the name of variety ‘Nancy Hale’s Problem Clinic’ (Young Romance #23/Vol. 3 #11, July 1950) offers a brief dose of sob-sister advice as “treatment for the troubled heart” before the romantic rollercoaster rides resume with ‘Old Fashioned Girl’ (YR #34/Vol. 4 #10 June 1951) as a forceful young woman raised by her grandmother slowly has her convictions about propriety challenged by intriguing men and her own barely subsumed passions… Alternatively, ‘Mr. Know-It-All Falls in Love’ (Young Love #37/Vol. 7 #10, September 1952) takes a rare opportunity to speak with a male narrator’s voice as a buttoned-down control freak decides that with his career in order it’s time to marry. But who’s the best prospect?

Another of those pesky lovers’ triangles then results in one marriage, one forlorn heartbreak, war, vengeance and a most appropriate ‘Wedding Present!’ (Young Love #50/Vol. 5 #8 October 1953) before this cleverly conceived chronicle takes a conceptual diversion – after one last tale from the same issue – detailing the all-business affair of ‘Norma, Queen of the Hot Dogs’ and her (at first) strictly platonic partner…

In 1955 the Comics Code Authority began its draconian bowdlerising of the industry’s more mature efforts and Romance titles especially took a big conceptual hit. Those edgy stories became less daring and almost every ending was a happy one – at least for the guy or the parents…

Following a superbly extensive ‘Cover Gallery’ featuring a dozen of the most evocative images from those wild and free early years, The Post-Code Era re-presents the specific conditions affecting romantic relations from the censorious document, followed by a selection of the yarns S&K and their team were thereafter reduced to producing.

Even the art seems less enthusiastic for the wholesome, unchallenging episodes which begin with ‘Old Enough to Marry!’ (Young Romance #80/Vol. 8 #8, cover-dated December 1955/January 1956) wherein a young man confronts his grizzled cop dad. The patriarch has no intention of letting his son make a mess of his life…

Next, a maimed farmer tries to sabotage the budding romance between his once-faithful girlfriend and the brilliant good-looking doctor who cured him in ‘Lovesick’ from the same issue.

The following four tales all originated in Young Romance #85/Vol. 10, #1 (December 1956/January 1957), beginning with ‘Lizzie’s Back in Town’ as a strong, competent girl returns home to let Daddy pick her husband for her (no, really!).

Next, two guys fight and the winner gets the girl in ‘Lady’s Choice’ whilst another, less frenzied duel results in a ‘Resort Romeo’ marrying the girl of everybody’s dreams, even as ‘My Cousin from Milwaukee’ exposes a gold-digger before reserving her handsome relative for herself…

These anodyne antics mercifully conclude with ‘The Love I Lost!’ (Young Romance #90/Vol. 12 #3, October/November 1957) wherein another hospital case realises just in time that the man she wants is not the man she deserves…

This emotional rollercoaster is supplemented with a number of well-illustrated bonus features including ‘Why I Made this Book’, ‘Simon and Kirby’s Romance Comics: A Historical Overview’; a splendid selection of S&K’s pioneering ‘Photo Covers’ (18 in all) and a fascinating explanation of the process of artwork-rehabilitation in ‘About the Restoration’

The affairs then wrap up with the now-traditional ‘Biographies’ section.

Simon & Kirby took much of their tone – if not actual content – from movie melodramas of the period (such as Mr. Skeffington, All About Eve or Mildred Pierce and/or Noir romances like Blonde Ice or Hollow Triumph) and, unlike what we might consider suitable for romantic fiction today, their stories crackled with tension, embraced violent action and were infested with unsavoury characters and vicious backstabbing, gossiping hypocrites.

Happily, those are the tales which mostly fill most of this book, making for an extremely engaging, strikingly powerful and thoroughly addictive collection of great yarns by brilliant masters of the comics arts: and one no lover (of the medium) should miss…
Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics © 2012 Fantagraphics Books Inc. Introduction © 2012 Michelle Nolan Schelly. All rights reserved.

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Ares & Aphrodite: Love Wars


By Jamie S. Rich &Megan Levens, lettered by Crank! (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-62010-208-4 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62010-209-1

It might be hard to believe for people like us, but not all love stories are about hunting the villain who murdered your “Only One” or fighting dragons, or even seeking out the ghosts of those who are gone. Sometimes it’s just mutual attraction, Meet-cutes, Getting-to-know-you’s and taking some chances…

Author, editor, comics scripter and film fan Jamie S. Rich (12 Reasons Why I Love Her, You Have Killed Me, Cut My Hair, Lady Killer, Archer Coe and the Way to Dusty Death, It Girl and the Atomics, A Boy and a Girl, Justice League: Endless Winter) is a big fan of classic romance and film fiction and here unites with his collaborator on Madame Frankenstein to celebrate the genre and all its trappings. Best yet it’s all drenched in the heady miasma of modern life in Hollywood…

This tale was a breakthrough venture for Megan Levens, who went on to score big with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Spell on Wheels, Mysticons, Wonder Woman: Black and Gold and more…

The similarities with cinematic RomComs are both deliberate and delightfully effective as we meet successful Tinseltown divorce lawyer Will Ares: a dedicated singleton doing his job well but paying for it through the malicious and destructively vindictive acts of a mystery stalker targeting his car, home and private life…

As a result, his dating profile is bleak and his love life is non-existent but he clings to the dream that somehow somewhere love conquers all…

The client taking up most of his time these days is legendary (and geriatric) Producer/serial romantic Evans Beatty. Ares handles all his divorces and is currently deeply involved in the necessary legal motions to accommodate his next walk up the aisle – with recently matured & legal former child-star Carrie Cartwright.

All that remains for Will to do is finalise Beatty’s split from extremely unhappy wife #4 Eileen. She, however, is not playing ball…

The impending bride-to-be is sweet but tough. Raised in Hollywood, she’s trying to be everyone’s friend, but in the unblinking spotlight of Hollywood’s news cycle, her only real ally at this moment is jaded yet ultra-competent wedding planner Gigi Averelle who owns Goddess of Love Nuptials.

Averelle’s really good at her job, but the daily grind and manufactured dream game has convinced her that there’s truly no such thing as Love. When marital mastermind and legal beagle meet and clash in Beatty’s office, all the wrong sort of sparks fly…

Will’s barely-acknowledged interest in the tough-cookie facilitator is soon sidelined as the targeted vandalism escalates and completely forgotten by the time Evans drunkenly reveals that he’s already secretly wed Carrie – despite still being tethered to Eileen…

With his client’s entire fortune and now liberty at stake, Will frantically strives to crisis-manage a catastrophe, whilst Gigi continues orchestrating an utterly unnecessary but so fabulously flashy Hollywood glamour-fest. Interest in the affair reaches fever-pitch when news breaks that Carrie’s next movie role will be as ingenue in classic fantasy Crown Princess…

The forthcoming blockbuster’s lead is Allison Queen and the salivating press-pack clearly anticipate fireworks aplenty with the next Mrs. Beatty picked to play second fiddle on set to Evans’ formidable, star-powered and apparently happily-divorced second wife…

Repeatedly forced into close contact, Will and Gigi witness the worst that LaLa Land’s scandal mill can generate, and as speculation, malicious rumour, misinformation, unvetted and illegal photo-scoops and ex-wife mischief mounts, the love-wary professionals foolishly contrive an ill-considered wager…

Arguing that the outcome will validate one or the others’ ideals, they bet on whether the upcoming wedding will actually happen. Fixing the prize/penalty as a date with the lawyer if Will wins and his having to publish a full accounting in the papers of every marriage he’s ruined if Gigi gets it right…

Forced into close proximity, both sides warm and mellow, and before long that penalty is watered down to Averelle rebuilding Ares’ online dating profile if she wins. Of course, she’s still unaware that the process is completely sham as Carrie and Evans are already hitched…

As the big day approaches, all hell repeatedly breaks loose with rogue reporters, spies, runaway brides and a tissue of lies drawing the distanced, smugly aloof and superior-feeling outsiders ever closer, even before “The Date” can happen. Then, when Carrie Cartwright delivers a shocking bombshell announcement, Gigi and Will are forced to reassess their opinions…

Wry and playful, this appalling yarn has engaging echoes of movies like Destination Wedding or the 1950 Father of the Bride, gently prodding all the established accoutrements of an evergreen plot and genre. It’s undemanding and might well give your comics-indulgent significant other an unexpected treat – or at least a brief break from Batman and Star Wars.

Bonus material includes a faux Trailer for Crown Princess, an appreciative Afterword from Jacque Nodell of romance comics site Sequentialcrush.com and a rundown of the full art process from script to final pages.

There’s also a previously unseen vignette by Rich & Levens about disentanglement. Short and sweet, it involves bridges, potential strangers, relationship insecurities and the eternal war between cyclists and pedestrians: all prime fantasy fodder for mismatched marital mayhem. ‘Two Wheels, Two Feet’ plays out here with subtlety and whimsical wit, proving love is all around…
Ares & Aphrodite is ™ & © Jamie S. Rich and Megan Levens 2015. All rights reserved.

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A Very DC Valentine’s Day


By Cecil Castellucci, Amanda Conner, Andy Diggle, Paul Dini, Ray Fawkes, Phil Hester, Kyle Higgins, Collin Kelly, Alisa Quitney, Jackson Lanzing, Peter Milligan, Ann Nocenti, Steve Orlando, Jimmy Palmiotti, James Robinson, Mark Russell, Mairghread Scott, Tim Seeley, Simon Bisley, Ben Caldwell, Aaron Campbell, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Mirko Colak, Andrew Currie, Javier Fernandez, Julio Ferreira, Julius Gopez, Sanford Greene, Stephanie Hans, Bryan Hitch, Frazer Irving, Kelley Jones, Nic Klein, Emanuela Lupacchino, Guillem March, John McCrea, Jaime Mendoza, Inaki Miranda, Robson Rocha, Thony Silas, Cam Smith, John Timms & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1401287665 (TPB/Digital edition)

After generations of incorporating seasonal occasions, milestones and themes into their regular chronology, in recent years comics publishers have started releasing special issues and compilations to single out those sale-enhancing moments. For DC, that process really began during their New 52 reboot…

Regrettably eschewing their own vast back catalogue of magnificently-limned genre romance material (still… maybe one day, hey?) the home of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman released all-new anthologies exploring the many roads to and ways of loving.

In 2018, three one-shots – Young Monsters in Love #1, Young Romance: The New 52 Valentine’s Day Special #1 and Harley Quinn Valentine’s Day Special #1 – were tangled together as a celebratory tome which might entice less traditional fans…

We begin with Young Monsters in Love #1, which hit stores on February 7th 2018 carrying an April cover-date. It opens with a tale of Man-Bat wherein Kyle Higgins, Kelley Jones & colourist Michelle Madsen expose the bestial inner monologue of Kirk Langstrom’s ‘“Nocturnal Animal”’ as the self-mutated science renegade seeks to rekindle his romantic relationship with ex-wife Francine…

Tim Seeley, Giuseppe Camuncoli & Cam Smith also explore that theme of stability lost as Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. reviews his centuries-long relationship with “The Bride” in ‘Pieces of Me’ whilst Clark Kent and his son Jon learn a few hard truths about love and loss in ‘Buried on Sunday’. It’s a potentially shattering lesson for the Man of Steel and Superboy who seek to ensure that Solomon Grundy does not wallow in the eternal despair of bereavement as sensitively detailed by Mairghread Scott, Bryan Hitch & Andrew Currie…

Disgruntled Teen Titan/peripatetic ghost buster Raven discovers ‘The Dead Can Dance’ on a long-deferred Prom Night(mare) by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing & Javier Fernandez, after which Paul Dini & Guillem March expose the cruel traumas of elementary school bullying when Deadman saves a lonely boy crushed and nearly killed by the annual purgatory of card-giving in ‘Be My Valentine’…

Swamp Thing loves and loses another frail and fragile human contact in the beautifully eerie ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ by Mark Russell & Frazer Irving, before Steve Orlando & Nic Klein push the parameters of amour and self-sacrifice when queer cop Maggie Sawyer seeks to stop a potential bloodbath as Monsieur Mallah & The Brain (of the Brotherhood of Evil) seek a way to further their impossibly complex relationship by looking backwards in ‘Visibility’…

Andrew Bennet (I, Vampire, by Alisa Quitney & Stephanie Hans) then experiences painful revelation when forced to accept a new role for his ever-maturing disciple in ‘The Turning of Deborah Dancer’, whereas Etrigan – The Demon – brutally challenges the entire infernal host to reach Jason Blood’s lost love in ‘To Hell and Gone’ by Phil Hester &Mirko Colak.

Amidst the madness of WWII, the warped wooing closes with a distressing brush-off letter to the Creature Commandos’ man-made vampire in ‘Dear Velcoro’, by James Robinson & John McCrea.

Heralding a shift from dark dilemmas to costumed courting – courtesy of the contents of Young Romance: The New 52 Valentine’s Day Special #1 (originally cover-dated April 2013) – our soap-opera sagas start with Catwoman reminiscing over her first meeting and troubled history with Batman in Ann Nocenti, Emanuela Lupacchino & Jaime Mendoza’s ‘Think it Through’…

Aquaman & Mera uncover unrequited love and reunite unquiet separated spirits in ‘The Lighthouse’ (by Cecil Castellucci & Inaki Miranda) before Batgirl Babs Gordon lets her guard down with a certified bad boy in Ray Fawkes & Julius Gopez’s ‘Dreamer’.

Superhero teammates Apollo & Midnighter revisit their first “ mad moment” mid-mission in ‘Seoul Brothers’ by Peter Milligan & Simon Bisley, whilst paragon legacy hero Nightwing makes all his old mistakes again with new foe/ally/love interest Ursa in ‘Another Saturday Night’ by Kyle Higgins & Sanford Greene…

One of the biggest and most touted draws of the New 52 was the sidelining of Lois Lane and shocking romantic entanglement of Superman and Wonder Woman. Here, Andy Diggle, Robson Rocha & Julio Ferreira depict the ultimate power couple in the early, exploratory stages of that relationship and learning via a shocking game of ‘Truth or Dare’ …until spiteful sirens and a possessed god of love violently object…

The final third of this torrid tome sees lunatic love bandit Harleen Quinzel hog the limelight and steal the show with an extended epic from the Harley Quinn Valentine’s Day Special #1: released on February 11th 2015 and once again cover-dated for the month of All Fools…

Written by Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti, and collaboratively illustrated by John Timms, Ben Caldwell, Aaron Campbell, Thony Silas and colourists Paul Mounts & Hi-Fi, ‘Just Batty Over You’ offers an hallucinogenic rollercoaster ride of passions and perplexing playfulness as The Joker’s former main squeeze espies and is enthralled by super-sexy Bruce Wayne who is a prize in a charity dating auction…

She determines to make him hers and the abduction part goes off pretty much as required. However, complicating the scheme is Harley’s own meandering grip on reality, Bruce’s many jobs and secrets, so very much over-applied and shared narcotic inducement, hench-folk who can only see the billionaire’s vast dollar-value and the perpetual interference of briny costumes activists The Carp and Sea Robin, who really want everybody to heed their message of marine environmental crisis…

Daft, delightful and delivered with perfect timing and elan, this lustful lark caps a supremely frothy and inconsequential diversion to charm casual and fully committed thrill seekers in equal amounts.
© 2013, 2015, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Marvel Romance


By Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jean Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Jean Thomas, Jack Kirby,  Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta, Joe Orlando, Gene Colan, Al Hartley, Sol Brodsky, John Romita Sr., John Buscema, Jim Steranko, Don Heck, Bill Everett, Jim Starlin, Jack Abel, Jim Mooney, Frank Giacoia & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2089-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

It’s the officially mandated period for us all to boost the economy by thinking of Love, Happy Ever Afters and furtive desperate hooks-ups, so if you’re reading this rather than frantically swiping your way through TENDR, eHugmany, GRUMBLR or GREEBLR?, you are probably old, unhip (perhaps Replacement Hipped?) or just like comics.

Once upon a time, comic books were the singular first port of call for entertainment/hope deprived, lovelorn ladies of all ages, whilst many a baffled bloke consulted such publications for useful hints on how to approach their amatory prey – before donning metaphorical rutting stag antlers and putting all their time and efforts into a staggeringly (tee hee!) inappropriate and never-to-be-repeated grandstanding stunt that simultaneously stunned their potential inamorata and forever burned out all desire ever to be such a sappy silly bugger again.

Such is modern love…

However, over the decades, the commercial aspects of the never-ending battle generated pretty good stories and paid the bills of some of our artform’s greatest talents, and early in this century Marvel celebrated with a splendid archival gift for the fans…

As the escapist popularity of flamboyant superheroes waned after World War II, newer genres such as Romance and Horror came to the fore even as older ones regained their audiences. Some, like Westerns and Funny Animal comics, had hardly changed at all but crime and detective tales were utterly radicalised by the temperament of the times.

Stark, uncompromising, cynically ironic novels and socially aware, mature-themed movies that would become categorised as Film Noir offered post-war society a bleakly antiheroic worldview that often hit too close to home and set fearful, repressive, middleclass parent groups and political ideologues howling for blood.

Naturally, these new sensibilities seeped into comics, transforming two-fisted gumshoe and cop strips of yore into darkly beguiling, even frightening tales of seductive dames, big pay-offs and glamorous thugs. Sensing imminent Armageddon, America’s moral junkyard dogs bayed even louder as they saw their precious children’s minds under seditious attack…

Concurrent with the decline of masked mystery-men, industry giants Joe Simon & Jack Kirby famously invented the romantic genre for comic books: devising beguiling, explosively mature social dramas equally focussed on a changing cultural scene and adult themed relationships. They began with semi-comedic prototype My Date in early 1947, before plunging into the torrid real deal with Young Romance #1 in September of that year.

Not since the invention of Superman had a single comic book generated such a frantic rush of imitation and flagrant cashing-in. It was a monumental hit and “S&K” quickly expanded: releasing spin-offs Young Love (February 1949), Young Brides and In Love.

Simon & Kirby presaged and ushered in the first American age of mature comics – not only with their creation of the Romance genre, but with challenging modern tales of real people in extraordinary situations – before seeing it all disappear again in less than eight years.

Their small stable of magazines produced for the loose association of companies known as Prize/Crestwood/Pines blossomed and wilted as the industry contracted throughout the 1950s.

All through that turbulent period, comic books suffered impossibly biased oversight and hostile scrutiny from hidebound and panicked old guard institutions such as church groups, media outlets and ambitious politicians. A number of tales and titles garnered especial notoriety from those social doom-smiths, and hopeful celebration and anticipation amongst tragic, forward-thinking if psychologically scarred comics-collecting victims was quashed when the industry introduced a ferocious Comics Code that castrated the creative form just when it most needed boldness and imagination.

We lost and comics endured more than a decade and a half of savagely doctrinaire, self-imposed censorship.

Those tales from a simpler time, exposing a society in meltdown and suffering cultural PTSD, are mild by modern standards of behaviour, but the quality of art and writing make those pivotal years a creative highpoint long overdue for a thorough reassessment.

For years such Code-vetted romance comics were a comfortably profitable, solid staple of Marvel – as well as almost every other publishing house. It’s also a truism that girls are pickier than boys – or at least have more discerning tastes – so most of those titles, whilst extremely limited by editorial tastes in the stories they offered, were generally graced with some of the best artwork the industry could offer.

Those love-starved chicks might have been content to absorb the same old perpetually regurgitated characters and plot pablum, but they definitely, defiantly wanted it all to look the best it possibly could…

Having accepted that the art for comics aimed at females has always been of a higher standard and observed that many of Marvel’s greatest action illustrators have secretly toiled in the tear-sodden Hearts and Flowers mines, the wisely cynical Editorial heads at The House of Ideas released an archival edition of the best of the bunch in 2006. – just in time for St. Valentine’s day! – Marvel Romance. To cover all bases (third is my favourite!), they also released comedic one-shot versions: latterly collected as Marvel Romance Redux…

Contained herein are a selection of 1960s relationship yarns that cunningly show the formulaic nature of the genre at the time Marvel was revolutionising superhero comics, backed up by significant and memorable stories from the early 1970s when the company tried to repeat the process for the romance genre.

I fear it’s a subtly intrinsic indicator of the tone of the times and state of society, but you may notice how crying seems to be the natural resting state of women in romance comics, and love stories were always a good and sound excuse to show pretty girls in swimsuits or their underwear. As us guys always suspected, un- or semi-dressed was the fitting and proper state of females….

The amorous advances begin with the contents of Love Romances #89, cover-dated September 1960. Presumably scripted by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, all are limned by Dick Giordano & Vince Colletta, opening with ‘I Mustn’t Love You, My Darling!’ as a woman seeking eligible bachelors almost misses out on a hot doctor due to her prejudices, after which the same attitude nearly saves a dishy director and producer from an aspiring actress who eventually decides he’s ‘The Only Man for Me’…

When a high school girl is let down and has ‘No Dates for the Dance!’, a little maternal advice leads to happy ending before ‘The Last Good-By’ reminds a woman of a smugly arrogant college flame and why she left him…

The romance market was always subdivided into niche categories and young love was catered too in books like Teen-age Romance. From September 1960, #77 spawned a brace of tales possibly drawn as well as inked by Colletta. ‘A Teen-Ager Can Also Love!’ revealed how one fan’s devotion saved the career of an up-&-coming crooner whilst ‘Someday He’ll Come Along’ showed how an ambitious and determined secretary became an ad exec and still got to marry the boss…

Cover-dated November 1961, Teen-age Romance #84 sees Jack Kirby excel in ‘The Summer Must End!’ (Lee script & Colletta inks) as a haughty and beautiful social butterfly – and predator – luxuriates in the pick of men before making the wrong choice and regretting it…

Gene Colan then renders a simple and charming story of instant connection in ‘He Never Said a Word’ from Love Romances #101 (September 1962) before one month later #102 serves up a double dose of magic from Lee, Kirby & Colletta when a bride-to-be jumps to a painfully erroneous conclusion in ‘By Love Betrayed!’ after which a graduate returns to the scene of her bitterest disappointment and finally bags the lecturer she was too young for in ‘Give Back My Heart!’

Cover-dated January1963, Love Romances #103 saw Kirby inked by Al Hartley in  ‘The Dream World of Doris Wilson!’ – wherein a lonely outsider finds her perfect partner in a young comic book artist – and ‘If Your Heart I Break…’ depicting an imminent bride and groom both realising just in time the mistake they’re about to make…

The socially conformist sampling ceases with ‘Please Don’t Let Me Be a… Spinster!’ (Love Romances #104, March 1963 by what looks like Colletta inking Joe Orlando) as a young woman forgoes her own needs to care for her ailing mother. Just when all hope is lost, a dishy new doctor cures the elder and offers a new life for the dutiful daughter…

As already indicated, Romance played a big part in the Pre-Marvel Comics Atlas Era and next up is an issue of a teen star who was a big gun of that success.

Patsy Walker was an ideal girl-next-door whose wholesome teen-comedic exploits delighted readers for decades following her debut in Miss America #2 (Nov. 1944). She starred in seven separate comic series until 1967 and was dramatically retooled in the 1970s by Steve Englehart, Tom Sutton, George Pérez and others, eventually evolving into supernatural superhero Hellcat.

Patsy Walker #119 (November 1964) is by Lee & Sol Brodsky, revealing ‘Patsy’s Secret Boyfriend’, with the wholesome, decent teen star’s friends shocked and amazed by her apparent two-timing of high school sweetheart Buzz Baxter, in the days leading up to his coming home from the Vietnam war. Of course, there’s a sound and sensible reason for her actions that everyone has completely misunderstood…

This segment also includes the issue’s perennially adored style and clothing tips courtesy of ‘Patsy, Hedy and Nan’s Smart Styles’, ‘Patsy’s Fashion Page’, ‘Hedy’s Fashion Page’, ‘Patsy’s Heavenly Hairdos’ and ‘Hedy’s Charming Coiffures’. There are naturally lots of underwear moments…

After utterly changing the superhero scene, Stan Lee turned his attentions to reviving the ailing fortunes of the moribund romance division. Unlike competitors DC and Charlton Comics, Marvel’s comparatively limited creative resources and restrictive distribution contracts meant that the love anthologies had to go as the costumed cohort proliferated.

However, in 1969, with a new distributor and a burgeoning creative workforce, Marvel launched anthologies My Love (volume 2) and Our Love Story: offering new, edgier, contemporary stories by top flight writers and artists. Arguably, the project was a rare failure, but both books carried on into 1976, releasing 39 and 38 issues respectively, even though by 1972 new stuff was increasing supplemented by modified and updated reprints.

Again, the tales were heavily geared towards images of beautiful girls in glamorous roles and poses…

Here we begin with ‘I Do My Thing… No Matter Whom It Hurts!’ by Lee, John Buscema & John Romita Sr. as first seen in My Love #2 (cover-dated November 1969): the tale of a lovely but self-serving go-go dancer who learns too late that selfishness is its own punishment, after which Lee & Jim Steranko’s landmark pop-art masterpiece gets another airing. After debuting in Our Love Story #5 (June 1970) ‘My Heart Broke in Hollywood!’ was acclaimed as a breakthrough in graphic storytelling, although the story is a simple one of an aspiring actress losing a role but gaining a husband. Visually, it alone is worth the price of this book…

Lee, Don Heck & Romita Sr. then depict how a lonely, oblivious lass is ‘Jilted!’ (My Love #14, November 1971) and discovers that her true love has been right beside her all along, whilst Gary Friedrich, Colan & Giordano delve deep into hero-worship in My Love #16’s ‘As Time Goes By!’: exploring how a modern woman obsessed by Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca is returned to reality by a determined former boyfriend. The same issue – cover-dated March 1972 – also provides the ‘Formula for Love!’ with Jean Thomas, Colan & Bill Everett collaboratively proving that even a tutor-obsessed chemistry student can find true love, even after acting like a (Sandra) bullock in a china-shop, setting herself on fire and soaking the lab…

A deeply dissatisfied nurse then discovers ‘Another Kind of Love!’ (My Love #18, July 1972 by Lee, John Buscema & Colletta), ditching her dull banker boyfriend for a patient with months to live, whilst Romita Sr.-inked Lee & JB’s ‘I Love Him… But He’s Hers!’ (My Love #19, September 1972) sees a hardworking waitress/poor college student find her man when her work ethic outshines the wealth, glamour and self-indulgence of her spoiled competitor dorm roommate…

The dalliances close with a trio of tales from My Love #20 (November 1972), starting with Friedrich, Jim Starlin & Jack Abel’s ‘One Day a Week!’ as a diner waitress is beguiled by a fancy man who is there all the time – unlike her trucker fiancé…

Lee, John B, Romita Sr. & Frank Giacoia turn the tables on expectation in ‘Love Isn’t in the Cards for Me!’ as a charming conman selling a shop owner a line ultimately redeems himself, after which Lee, Colan & Jim Mooney wrap things up revisiting an old story of betrayal by a best friend when a conflicted woman remembers ‘The Boy That Got Away!’…

For many, love stories are just an inaccessible “other country”, but even the most formulaic of these tales are beautiful examples of comics creation and if you can unbend a bit – and swallow some painfully outdated notions and attitudes – these mini-dramas can still delight and enthral. Why not take a chance on love and see what’s in it for you?
© 2020 MARVEL.

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E-Man – The Early Years


By Nicola Cuti & Joe Staton & various (First Comics Inc.)
ISBN: 978-1-61855-000-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

In 1973, superheroes were in a severe decline and the few surviving publishers in the industry were making most of their money from genre fare like war, westerns, kids cartoon and licensed titles (if they could secure them) and particularly horror stories. Such was certainly the case at Charlton Comics: a self-confessed “little company” which nevertheless always punched above its weight.

That was particularly true in terms of talent discovery, with the likes of Dick Giordano, Sam Glanzman, Steve Ditko, Roy Thomas, Denny O’Neil, Jim Aparo, Sam Grainger, Sanho Kim, Wayne Howard, Tom Sutton, Don Newton, Mike Zeck, Roger Stern, Roger Slifer, Bob Layton and John Byrne making a mark there before moving onwards and upwards.

Another major discovery was ultra-versatile cartoonist Joe Staton. He was quickly becoming a fan favourite and shared an off-kilter sense of humour with a Charlton sub-editor who moonlighted as a writer of horror and fantasy for the company’s anthologies…

Nicola “Nick” Cuti (Moonchild, Cannon, Sally Forth, Creepy, Moonie the Starbabe, The Creeper, Spanner’s Galaxy, Captain Cosmos, Starflake the Cosmic Sprite) was born on October 29th 1944. Since then, he’s been an “Underground Comix” cartoonist, animator, film maker, magazine illustrator, movie backdrop designer, novelist, editor and comics scripter.

Between 1972 and 1976 he was assistant to award-winning cartoonist – and Charlton’s general editor – George Wildman (Popeye) who wanted to test the murky waters with a new superhero. He tapped Cuti to write something a bit different and used the experimental vehicle to try-out a succession of features at the back: crafted by creators like Sutton (The Knight), Ditko (Killjoy, Liberty Belle) and Byrne (Rog-2000). Cuti wrote many of them too…

Born January 19th 1948, Joe Staton (Primus, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, The Six Million Dollar Man, Space 1999, The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Silver Surfer, Green Lantern Corps, Guy Gardner, Legion of Super-Heroes, Millennium, All Star Comics, Power Girl, Metal Men, Doom Patrol, Plastic Man, Mike Danger and more) is a writer and incredibly versatile artist/inker who has been an integral part of American comic books since the early 1970s.

He has worked for dozens of companies, co-creating The Huntress, Killowog, The New Guardians and The Omega Men and in later years made kids comics his metier. During a spectacular run on licensed classic Scooby Doo, he and series scripter Mike Curtis (Casper the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich, Shanda the Panda) discovered a mutual love for Dick Tracy and – mostly for their own amusement – created tribute strip Major Crime Squad.

That led to them being invited to handle the prestigious Dick Tracy strip (from 2011 to October 2021) but throughout that epic and varied career, Staton regularly re-partnered with Cuti on further adventures of his first triumph…

A pioneering masterpiece of superhero whimsy, E-Man tells the convoluted love story of a alien lifeform and a wonderfully capable and smart earth girl, and the weird life they make for themselves. It all began in 1973 (Happy Golden Anniversary!) in a 10-issue run that was barely noticed by the readership but which affected how many future comics creators remade the medium.

This cheerful and charming collection gathers the E-Man moments from that initial run and includes technically unpublished tales from said run, plus covers and other material from the hero’s revival as part of the Independents Publishing revolution of the 1980s.

We begin with a brace of Introductions as ‘Finding the Right Words for Joe, Nick and Alec Tronn’ by Jon B. Cooke and ‘E-Man: His Beginnings’ by Cuti contextually set the scene for an extraordinary meeting…

Cover-dated October 1973, “Collector’s Item! First Edition!!” E-Man #1 starts at ‘The Beginning’ revealing how, millions of years ago, a star exploded and released a packet of energy that had spontaneous sentience, immense curiosity and no knowledge at all. The bundle of wonder floated across the galaxies seeking intelligence but encountering none until arriving near our world just as a star-ship from Sirius attempts to attain orbit around Pluto.

Infiltrating the vessel, the energy being converts into matter, duplicating one of the robots serving the giant Brain commanding the mission and overhears how the warlike cyborg is here to test an experimental ultra-weapon on the frozen target. Sadly, curiosity proves fatal and the sudden weight increase sends the ship careening out of control and ultimately into the atmosphere of the blue-green planet third out from the sun…

Some time later, college student Katrinka Colchnzski is just finishing her evening job. She is a tough, brilliant, capable and proudly independent: paying for her degree as burlesque dancer Nova Kane when one of the lightbulbs in her dressing room begs her for help.

Freeing the energy creature and quickly striking up a friendship with the naïve, affably clueless being – who has unselfconsciously turned into a real stud-muffin by human standards – she is abruptly drawn into a world of insane danger when her landlord tries to kill her. It transpires that in ‘The Brain and the Bomb’ the super cerebral invader has also survived the crash and is vengefully testing hate-gas on the inhabitants…

Without hesitation Nova and the stranger seek out and stop the plot…

These tales were originally quite quirkily coloured by Wendy Fiore and are reconstructed here by Matt Webb, who also shades the cover to Original E-Man #1: a reprint series released by First Comics in October 1985 to supplement their revival of the hero. That book also revisited the second escapade of guileless alien visitor Alec Tronn as first seen in E-Man #2’s ‘The Entropy Twins’ (December 1973). Here, the Brain from Sirius unleashes a second super-weapon against E-Man and Nova: an artificially-bred loving couple who can casually manipulate the forces of order and chaos.

Stalking and befriending the childlike hero and his charming cohabitator, Michael and Juno cause catastrophic accidents which almost kill Nova, only to learn that her special friend Alec is as vengeful as any child when the things he loves are threatened…

An unused cover from 1974 accompanies article ‘The Energy and Paper Crisis’, explaining how a global power shortage both inspired and derailed a comic response. The upshot was that the story intended for the fourth issue ended up in #3, and the third followed after. The chronological anomaly is corrected here with E-Man #4 going first.

Cover-dated August 1974, ‘City in the Sand’ sees the odd couple in Egypt with exotic dancer Nova showing belly dancers how it’s done at night and pursuing her archaeological studies during the day. With Alec in tow, she unearths an ancient mystery and – thanks to E-Man – functional time machine: propelling them back millennia to uncover a link between the pharaohs and a lost colony of aliens afflicted with mad militarism and a sinister plague…

December 1985’s cover of Original E-Man and Michael Mauser #3 precedes June 1974’s E-Man #3, wherein ‘The Energy Crisis!’ blacking out America and the world leads oil baron Samuel Boar to unleash a robotic Battery to kidnap useless, over-abundant humans and turn them into a new fuel source.

When Nova vanishes, E-Man stops powering up hospitals to go looking for her. He is unaware that Nova had already engaged seedy private eye Michael – “don’t call me Mickey” – Mauser to find her fellow dancer Rosie Rhedd after she was sucked into a brick wall…

The sordid shamus became a fixture and even won his own series in Vengeance Squad….

The invasion of Boar’s citadel and clash with ‘The Battery’ is fast and furious and leads to the villain’s capture but would have shocking consequences in the fullness of time…

The tale ends with a direct plea to readers to protect the environment and “save the Earth!”. It’s a shame more kids didn’t buy this comic back then and avoid the mess we’re all in now…

Staton had been growing in skill and confidence and by this story had taken to adding what we now call easter eggs to his art. Backgrounds, minor characters and especially posters and newspapers provided a rich source of added whimsy, commentary and fun. They are a sheer delight to this day…

The Original E-Man #2 cover from October 1985 leads into November 1974’s #5 as ‘The City Swallower’ sees a day at the beach devolve into a transdimensional excursion. When Alec follows a hippy mermaid (based on contemporary and legendary fandom icon Heidi Saha) back to her realm he’s just in time to spearhead a war against a beast that consumed helpless conurbations, after which January 1986’s Original E-Man and Michael Mauser #4 cover leads to monster madness in E-Man #6.

‘Wunder-world’ – cover-dated January 1975 – sees an old enemy resurface when Alec and Nova visit a theme park, using robots, movie horrors, war machines and psychological warfare to attack the unlikely couple…

A full, illustrated list of ‘E-Man and Nova – Other Appearances’ is followed by #7’s ‘TV Man’ (March 1975) as another old enemy uses the airwaves and super-science to turn the energy- man into Nova’s worst nightmares and Mauser reappears to save the day. It’s followed by Original E-Man and Michael Mauser #5’s cover (February 1986) and heralds a really big change…

With #8’s full-length epic ‘The Inner Sun’ (May 1975) the creators brilliantly exploit the capricious, functionally implausible nature of comics books to deliver a superb slice of nonsense that begins when a giant jungle girl attacks New York. When she then busts into Mauser’s office…

Her trail leads to Samuel Boar and a primeval world under the North Pole…

Unless I’ve already convinced you to seek this book out, be warned that there’s a major spoiler ahead. Stop here if you’re going to read the actual stories. Or not. It’s your choice.

By the time E-Man gets there though, the villain has kidnapped Nova and triggered a disaster that kills her. It’s not anything to worry about as – through typically miraculous circumstances – she reconstitutes herself with the same powers as boyfriend Alec and begins her own crime crushing career…

March 1986’s cover to Original E-Man and Michael Mauser #6 is accompanied by text feature ‘Other Appearances by Michael Mauser’ before E-Man #9 (July 1975) unleashes ‘The Genius Plant’ which is foreshadow by brief ‘Prologue! History of E-Man and Nova’…

Accompanied by new cast member Teddy – a reformed evil koala – the hot couple stumble into a plot by a cabal of scientists to hyper-enhance their intellects and rule the world. After they foil that, one final cover – Original E-Man and Michael Mauser #7 (April 1986) – segues into E-Man #10 (September 1975) as Nova meets the first girl Alec met when he landed on Earth. Although initially jealous, after meeting Maisy-June Bragg, she’s with her beau all the way when what appear to be unnatural forces reduce the gentle rural bombshell into ‘The Witch of Hog Hollow’ who really needs her old “genie” to save her…

E-Man was simultaneously Charlton’s worst selling retail title but its best via direct subscription, which kept it going long after Wildman should have killed it, but at last the axe fell. When it died, there were a couple of tales still in the pipeline which eventually saw print in the company’s in-house fanzine – which was edited by Bob Layton.

Coloured by Webb, Staton’s cover for Charlton Bullseye #2 (1975) and Charlton Bullseye #4 (March/April 1976) here precede ‘…And Why the Sea is Boiling Hot’ (colour by Webb & Michael Watkins) wherein the energy-beings investigate missing shipping and discover that a ghost galleon is actually an alien artefact.

One final story – starring Nova Kane – details a stunning truth. When that exploding sun detonated way back when, it spawned more than one sentient energy-being – and courtesy of FIRST COMICS INC. – Alec’s opposite number ‘Vamfire’ finally arrives on Earth in a scary yarn coloured by Alex Wald. This frenzied female aspect is a ravenous power leech but Nova and E-Man soon find a way to dispel her “hanger-pangs”…

Biographies of Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton close this archive of sheer escapist delight: capping a glorious revisitation of sharper, smarter, funnier days in comics. However it’s not too late to tune in and get turned on to E-Man and Nova.
© 1973-1974 Charlton Comics, reprinted in Original E-Man and Mauser #1-7 © 1985-1986, First Comics, Inc. All new material © 2011, Joe Staton/First Comics, Inc.). All Rights Reserved.

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Marvel Romance Redux: Another Kind of Love


By Jeff Parker, Roger Langridge, John Lustig, Jimmy Palmiotti, Keith Giffen, Zeb Wells, Frank Tieri, Michael Lieb, Joe R. Lansdale, Paul Di Fillipo, Peter David, Robert Loren Fleming, Fred Van Lente, Kyle Baker & Kirsten Sinclair, Matthew K. Manning illustrated by Jack Kirby, John Romita, John Buscema, Don Heck, Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta, Gene Colan, Jim Mooney, Bill Everett, Jim Starlin, Jack Abel, Frank Giacoia, Al Hartley, Sol Brodsky various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2090-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

Trust me: when – if! – you get to my age, Love is Funny.

For years romance comics were a comfortably profitable, solid staple of Marvel – and almost every other publishing house. It’s also a truism that girls are pickier than boys – just look at your own track record with the opposite sex or gender of your predisposition (and yes, I know that’s a cheap shot, but it’s also hard to contest!) – so most of those titles, whilst extremely limited in the stories they offered, were generally graced with some of the best artwork the industry could offer.

Those love-starved chicks might be content to absorb the same old perpetually regurgitated characters and plot pablum but they definitely, defiantly wanted it all to look the best it possibly could…

Having accepted that the art for comics aimed at females has always been of a higher standard and observed that many of Marvel’s greatest illustrators have secretly toiled in the tear-sodden Hearts and Flowers mines, the wisely cynical Editorial heads at The House of Ideas released an archival edition of the best of the bunch in 2006 – just in time for St. Valentine’s day! – as Marvel Romance.

Thanks, I’m sure, to prodding from younger, and disreputable quarters, they then re-released some of that select compilation and other material, realising that even though the tales might appear dull, dated, sexist and largely objectionable to Modern Misses; with a hefty dose of irreverence, a touch of tongue-in-cheek and a heaping helping of digital Tippex, much of that fallow folderol could be profitably retuned and recycled for modern-day shallow crowd of callow youths.

Moreover, if you tap some of the funniest and most imaginatively warped scribes working in the industry you might even make that mushy stuff accessible to jaded, worldly-wise, nihilistic, existentialist, and oh-so-lonely post-Generation X voidoids who think love is for cissies…

Thus in 2006, Marvel Romance Redux was to blame for five issues of raucous and occasionally ribald mockery that took the hallowed love comic book (often via the selfsame selections seen in Marvel Romance) to new depths, resulting in this deliciously offbeat confection a year later. Behind new covers by Keith Giffen, Pond Scum & Christina Strain, Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti, Greg Land, Kyle Baker and Frank Cho, 21st century sentiment met timeless 1950s, 1960s and 1970s artwork in a bizarre but highly successful marriage…

The first issue was subtitled But I Thought He Loved Me and opened with ‘President Stripper’ (rescripted by Jeff Parker from ‘I Do My Thing… No Matter Whom it Hurts’) by Johns Buscema & Romita Sr.: revealing how a daring Go-Go dancer heartbreakingly fails to find happiness using her daring moves and raunchy routines to run America.

Roger Langridge then twists the words of ‘I Mustn’t Love You, My Darling!’ (illustrated by Dick Giordano & Vince Colletta) into a tragic cautionary tale of a tattooed temptress who must cover up the fact that ‘I Was Inked by Sparky Hackworth!’

‘The Summer Must End’ originally by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Colletta becomes – courtesy of John Lustig – the sordid saga of a savage sexy relationship-wrecker in ‘I Was a Beach Blanket Barbarian!’ whilst Jimmy Palmiotti retains the title of Kirby’s ‘If Your Heart I Break…’ but shifts the cause for the end of the affair to the unpalatable fact that hunky beddable Matt is a hopeless comic book geek…

The first issue then closed with ‘Hit or Miss’ as Giffen massages Lee, Gene Colan & Jim Mooney’s bittersweet yarn ‘The Boy Who Got Away’ into a war of words and weapons between rival – but so hot! – assassins…

Guys & Dolls opens with ‘The Dinner Demon’ as Parker repurposes diner love story ‘One Day a Week’ (Jim Starlin & Jack Abel) into a creepy tale of greed and Satanism, before Lustig pushes the already outrageous ‘Please Don’t Let Me Be …a Spinster!’ (Don Heck & Colletta) into a modern parable of a girl who knows money makes the world go around in ‘Love Ain’t Cheap… Especially at these Prices!’

Sixties college affair ‘Formula for Love!’ by Jean Thomas, Colan & Bill Everett seamlessly evolved into a yarn of faux feminism and dangerous psychobabble thanks to Zeb Wells, whilst Palmiotti also kept the original title of Lee, Buscema & Romita Sr.’s ‘I Love Him… But He’s Hers!’ but happily messed with our heads in an account of petty jealousy and government conspiracies…

‘Love Isn’t in the Cards for Me’ from Lee, Buscema & Frank Giacoia became, under Frank Tieri, ‘A (Former Child) Star is Born!’ and showed just what a poor ambitious girl would endure to secure a man with money…

Love is a Four-Letter Word started with the magically surreal ‘Hot Alien Love’ (Jeff Parker making over Lee & Buscema & Colletta’s ‘Another Kind of Love’) as Gail – a dedicated agent of Homeworld Security – falls for the kinky tricks of an extraterrestrial Casanova, before Michael Lieb & Giffen introduced ‘Buffy Willow, Agent of A.D.D.’ (formerly ‘He Never Said a Word’ by Colan) as possibly Freedom and Democracy’s most inept honey-trap, and Joe R. Lansdale refitted Kirby & Colletta’s ‘By Love Betrayed’ into ‘Mice and Money’ wherein a hunky guy finally broke up gal-pals with the strangest tastes imaginable…

‘Love Me, Love my Clones!’ was originally ‘Jilted!’ by Jean Thomas, Heck & Romita) until Paul Di Fillipo added his own ideas on buying the ideal bespoke companion, whilst Peter David converted ‘Someday He’ll Come Along’ by Heck & Colletta into the death-affirming ‘They Said I was… Insane! … and “They” were right.

Robert Loren Fleming opened Restraining Orders are for Other Girls with the utterly hilarious ‘Too Smart to Date!’ (originally ‘The Dream World of Doris Wilson’ by Kirby & Al Hartley), after which ‘Callie Crandall: Co-Ed Campus Undercover Cutie’ laid out her Federally-mandated lures for radicals and subversives as Lieb overhauled Giordano & Colletta’s ‘50s filler ‘No Dates for the Dance’.

The art team was one of the most prolific of the period and Fred Van Lente turned their ‘The Only Man for Me’ into ‘Psycho for You’ which showed the upside of stalking and celebrity religious cults, whilst Kyle Baker performed similar duties on their ‘A Teenager Can also Love’, turning simple romance into psychedelic horror in ‘My Magical Centaur!’

Kirsten Sinclair then wrapped it all up by upgrading Kirby & Colletta’s ‘Give Me Back My Heart!’ into a fable of crime and obsession in ‘Give Me Back My Heart! (Dame Mi Carozan)’…

I Should Have Been a Blonde devoted much of its content to adapting a full length tale of Marvel’s secret star Patsy Walker (of Patsy & Hedy and numerous spin-off titles most Marvel Zombies refuse to acknowledge the existence of). Under the sinister influence of Peter David, ‘Patsy’s Secret Boyfriend’ by Lee & Sol Brodsky became the uproariously self-censorious and rudely self-referential ‘Patsy Loves Satan’, sublimely supplemented by ‘Hedy’s Uncomfortable Fanmail’ and ‘Patsy Walker’s Battlesuits!’…

Also included to balance the passionate madness was ‘The Language of Love’, wherein Matthew K. Manning converted Giordano & Colletta’s ‘The Last Good-By’ into a good old-fashioned laugh at immigrants’ expense, before Lustig wraps it all up by turning Gary Friedrich, Colan & Giordano’s ‘As Time Goes By’ into a bizarro tale of superstar possession as a pretty film fan became ‘The Girl With Bogart’s Brain!’

Yes, it’s pretty much a one-trick pony but it is an endlessly amusing one and the tendency towards wry comics-insider gags is far outweighed by the plethora of absurd, surreal, sly outlandish and wickedly risqué spoofs and devastating one-liners.

Moreover, the wickedly recycled art is still stunning…

Daft, pretty and compellingly witty, this is a lovely antidote to the wave of mawkish sentiment doled out in motion picture RomComs and a welcome rare chance to see some of the industry’s greatest graphic talents’ most sidelined artistic triumphs.
© 2020 MARVEL.

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Trent volume 5: Wild Bill


By Rodolphe & Léo, coloured by Marie-Paule Alluard, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-395-6 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Continental audiences adore the mythologised American experience, whether in Big Sky Wild Westerns or later eras of crime-riddled, gangster-fuelled dramas. They also have a vested historical interest in the northernmost parts of the New World, and it has resulted in some pretty cool graphic extravaganzas if comics are your entertainment drug of choice…

Born in Rio de Janeiro on December 13th 1944, “Léo” is Brazilian artist and storyteller Luiz Eduardo de Oliveira Filho. After attaining a degree in mechanical engineering from Puerto Alegre in 1968, he was a government employee for three years, until forced to flee the country because of his political views.

While a military dictatorship ran Brazil, he lived in Chile and Argentina before illegally returning to his homeland in 1974. He worked as a designer and graphic artist in Sao Paulo whilst creating his first comics art for O Bicho magazine, and in 1981 migrated to Paris to pursue a career in Bande Dessinée. He found work with Pilote and L’Echo des Savanes as well as more advertising and graphics fare, until a big break came when Jean-Claude Forest invited him to draw stories for Okapi.

This led to regular illustration work for Bayard Presse, and in 1988 Léo began his association with scripter/scenarist Rodolphe D. Jacquette – AKA Rodolphe. The prolific, celebrated writing partner had been a giant of comics since the 1970s: a Literature graduate who left teaching and running libraries to create poetry, criticism, novels, biographies, children’s stories and music journalism.

After meeting Jacques Lob in 1975, Jacquette expanded his portfolio: writing for many strip artists in magazines ranging from Pilote and Circus to à Suivre and Métal Hurlant. Amongst his most successful endeavours are Raffini (with author Ferrandez) and L’Autre Monde (with Florence Magnin), but his triumphs in all genres and age ranges are too numerous to list here.

In 1991 “Rodolph” began working with Léo on a period adventure of the “far north”. Taciturn, introspective, bleakly philosophical and pitilessly driven, Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant Philip Trent premiered in L’Homme Mort, forging a lonely path through the 19th century Dominion. He starred in eight tempestuous, hard-bitten, love-benighted albums between then and 2000 and the creative collaboration sparked later fantasy classic Kenya and its spin-offs Centaurus and Porte de Brazenac.

Cast very much in the classic mould perfected by Jack London and John Buchan, Trent is a man of few words, deep thoughts and unyielding principles who gets the job done whilst stifling the emotional turmoil boiling deep within him: the very embodiment of the phrase “still waters run deep”…

As Wild Bill, this fifth saga comes from 1996, offering a much lighter and more playful yarn that also sees genuine progress in the extended, diffident path to love of the stoic Mountie and his always unobtainable objet d’amour…

Years previously, during an arduous criminal pursuit, he had met and saved Agnes St. Yves – but tragically not her beloved brother – and was given a clear invitation from her: one that he never acted upon. Eventually, he made a heartfelt decision and travelled all the way to Providence with marriage in mind, only to learn that Agnes had stopped waiting and wed someone else.

More time elapsed and they met again when her husband was killed during an horrific murder spree at isolated railway outpost White Pass. The ball was again in Trent’s court and once more he fumbled it through timidity, indecision and inaction: retreating into duty and using work as an excuse to evade commitment and the risk of rejection…

That situation changes in this cheeky cheery episode which begins with the recurrent dream of aging but still deadly gunfighter Wild Bill Turkey – a ridiculous soubriquet the legendary shootist adopted as part of his self-manufactured but well-earned reputation as a gunslinger par excellence.

In his sunset years, Bill is feted and celebrated everywhere but cannot escape recurring visions of a glory-hungry man in black gunning him down…

The oldster is boisterously enjoying his fame in Kildare, Alberta when Sergeant Trent rides in, escorting a prisoner to Winnipeg. The local police chief, a slack and dissolute man who’d rather carouse than work, suggests Trent himself lock up his charge in the town cells, rather than interrupt hard-earned drinking time.

Despite the obvious benefits of celebrity, Bill is preparing to retire: loudly proclaiming to all and sundry in the saloon that he’s engaged to be imminently married and standing free drinks for all. When Trent frustratedly heads for the police station, his duties are further disrupted by a stranger who offers him a truly phenomenal amount of money to let the young armed robber go free…

After kicking the tempter out, Trent spends an uncomfortable night pondering why someone prisoner Arthur Caldwell claims not to know has so boldly attempted to circumvent justice and the law, and departs at first light. It’s not just duty that drives him, though: Trent recently received a letter from Agnes who wants to see him. It came from Winnipeg…

Their dreary trek is interrupted by bad weather and as the heavens open, Mountie and miscreant take shelter in a dilapidated building in the middle of nowhere. That’s when the stranger and a half dozen hired guns besiege them.

Happily, Wild Bill’s fiancée Clementine is also waiting in Winnipeg and the gunman is riding the same trail there. He swiftly drives off the assailants and shares the bushwacked travellers’ refuge until the rains end…

With the same destination before them, all three travel together and gunslinger and lawman discover they have much in common. The old man is in utter earnest about hanging up his guns and settling down, but cannot shed the premonition that he will perish at the hands of the Man in Black before his new life can begin…

Meanwhile, far away in the lap of luxury, a powerful man takes further steps to ensure a huge embarrassment and potential threat to his plans never reaches civilisation…

All schemes and plans converge on and culminate in the township of Tootney, where a hired assassin (dressed in black) awaits someone he’s longed to duel for years. Fate seems to have marked the aging legend’s cards, and all his pep talks to Trent about love and second chances seem hollow when Wild Bill lies dying in the dust, but there’s a major surprise in store for the outraged and bereft Mountie and redemption of sorts for young Caldwell after the survivors get to their destination…

Most importantly, however, Trent meets Agnes and their stumbling, fumbling relationship enjoys a major step forward…

Another beguilingly introspective voyage of internal discovery, where environment and locales are as much lead characters as hero and villain, Wild Bill delivers action, conspiracy, suspense and poignant romantic drama in a compelling, light-hearted concoction which will delight any fan of widescreen cinematic crime fiction or charming western romance.
Original edition © Dargaud Editeur Paris 1996 by Rodolphe & Leo. All rights reserved. English translation © 2017 Cinebook Ltd.

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Ghost Tree


By Bobby Curnow & Simon Gane; coloured by Ian Herring & Becka Kinzie and lettered by Chris Mowry (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1684055999 (TPB) eISBN: 978-68406-810-4

The innate sadness and intense incompleteness of the spiritual world is something we tend to sideline in modern fiction, but once upon a time the melancholia of both the quick and the dead was far more important than scaring the pants off a thrill-seeking audience.

That old world approach is wonderfully revived in Ghost Tree, where author Bobby Curnow (Night of 1000 Wolves; My Little Pony; Battle Beasts; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), illustrator Simon Gane (They’re Not Like Us; Godzilla; Northlanders; Unfollow; Paris) and primary colour artist Ian Herring (Minor Threats; Ms Marvel; Nova: Resurrection; Junior Citizens) examine loss, legacy and duty. It’s all deftly done through a slowly unfolding search for self in its protagonist, and meaning or closure in the myriad spirits he is unwillingly connected to…

Despite growing up in the USA, Brandt was always close to his Japanese grandfather. However, the gentle old man also had other concerns and seemed to split his time. One day when the boy was visiting the old country, his beloved Ojii-chan wandered deep into the forests around the old ancestral home.

Curiously following, the boy stopped at a strangely twisted willow tree where the old man asked him to make a promise. A dutiful, diligent, loving – but uncomprehending – grandson, Brandt swore to return to this spot ten years after Ojii-chan died…

Decades later, the man Brandt is heading back to Japan. Grown up and married, he’d all but forgotten that day. Now with his world disintegrating and Alice leaving, he’s flying to the ancestral homestead where his widowed grandmother still lives. Cousin Mariko and her new baby meet him at the airport. She’s worried stubborn, headstrong Obaa-chan is not doing well…

Grandmother is as blunt and feisty as ever, hectoring the new generation on how they should live. It’s a little too much and Brandt has to step outside. Reminiscing about those carefree childhood days, he thinks he sees something at the edge of the woods…

Restless and jetlagged, his sleep is also disrupted as he thinks of what might have been if he had stayed here with Arami rather than living in America…

Unaware that he’s under keen scrutiny, Brandt tries to make peace with grandma, and learns that the happy family was anything but. Shocked by revelations of his forebears’ lives lived at odds, he wanders off into the woods. He might have forgotten that Ojii-chan has now been dead for a decade, but everything comes flooding back when he finds the old man waiting for him by that certain willow…

As they chat under the ghost tree, the dead man explains that for generations some family members have been able to see kami and talk to spirits. Moreover, certain places are attractors, and lost souls are drawn to them. They are usually, angry, confused and despairing, haunted by things left unsaid or not done…

Whilst they sit, dozens of dead people and stranger things draw closer. Grandfather explains they expect Brandt to intercede for them and help deal with their unfinished business…

The old man wants him to avoid the family’s burden and nor repeat his own mistakes: to live a life among the living. His advice is wasted and worthless as Brandt has seen his first love Arami is one of the clamorous phantoms…

Soon the mortal is counselling revenants and carrying out minor missions on their behalf, but the renewed activity around the tree has drawn some of the worst horrors of Japanese mythology, and Brandt learns that the Zero – a traditional guardian defender – is slowly fading.

With Grandfather urging him to forsake the dead and spend time with his family, and Arami looking for reasons to stay or pass on, the conflicted man of two worlds is clearly avoiding making decisions, when the choice is taken from him.

With the safety of the living also threatened by encroaching demons, Brandt must confront uncomfortable home truths before devising a solution to satisfy all parties and safeguard both worlds. Then it’s time to tackle the hard job: fixing his marital situation and getting on with life…

Powerful, sensitive, heartwarming and uncompromising, this very human drama offers echoes of classic movie fantasies such as A Matter of Life and Death (1948) and The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947), suggesting that the dead are always with us and that – unlike families – it’s nothing to be scared of…
Ghost Tree. November 2019. © 2019 Curnow. Gane. Herring. © 2019 Idea and Design Works, LLC.

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Oh My Goddess! volume 1


By K?suke Fujishima, original translation by Dana Lewis, Alan Gleason & Toren Smith (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-387-9 (tank?bon TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62115-755-7

Talking of school – as we were the other day – college days also offer plenty of opportunities for comics creativity and, as is usually the case, manga has been there first and explored avenues you never even realised existed.

Fujishima K?suke was born in Chiba, Japan on July 7th 1964, and after completing High School, got a job as an editor. His plans to be a draughtsman had foundered after failing to secure a requisite apprenticeship, and he instead joined Puff magazine in that backroom role. Life began looking up after he became assistant to manga artist Tatsuya Egawa (Be Free, Golden Boy, Magical Taluluto)…

Fujishima graduated to his first solo feature in 1986: writing and illustrating police series You’re Under Arrest until 1992. In 1988, he began a consecutive second series: a fantasy comedy that would reshape his life forever. Although he would work on other manga like Paradise Residence and Toppu GP over the decades, Aa! Megami-sama – alternatively translated as Ah! My Goddess and Oh My Goddess! became his signature work and one that has made him a household name in Japan.

The series began in the September 1988 issue of Kodansha’s seinen (“young males”) manga periodical Monthly Afternoon. The strip ran until April 2014, generating enough stories for 48 tank?bon volumes, a spin-off series and spawning anime, special editions, numerous TV series, musical albums, games and all the attendant spin-offs and merchandise such popular success brings.

In 2020 there were 25 million physical copies of the editions in circulation and an unguessable number of digital sales. OMG! has won awards, been translated across the globe in print and on screens and has a confirmed place in comics history…

Oh My Goddess! is a particularly fine example of a peculiarly Japanese genre of storytelling combining fantasy with loss of conformity and embarrassment. In this case, and as seen in opening chapter ‘The Number You Have Dialled is Incorrect’ nerdy engineering sophomore Keiichi Morisato dials a wrong number one night and inadvertently connects to the Goddess Technical Help Line.

When the captivatingly beautiful and cosmically powerful minor deity Belldandy materialises in his room offering him one wish, he mockingly asks that she never leave him. This rash response effectively traps her on Earth, unable even to move very far beyond his physical proximity. Her powers are mighty but also come with a bucketload of provisos and restrictions. The most immediate and terrible repercussion manifests quickly as he is ejected from his student residence for having a girl in his room…

Belldandy’s profligate use of her divine powers, utter naivety and tendency to attract chaos and calamity make their search for a new home a fraught exercise, but finally second chapter ‘Lair of the Anime Mania’ finds Keiichi trying the apartment of old friend Sada. He was not a preferred choice because he is addicted to anime: a living zombie of fannishness who welcomes the refugees in without even noticing them …or letting go of the TV and video remotes…

All too soon however, and again thanks to the Goddess’ gifts, Sada notices Belldandy’s similarities to his cartoon fantasies and they have to move again…

After a night on the freezing streets, providence smiles on them when a Buddhist priest welcomes them into his dwelling. An individual prone to conclusion-jumping, the holy man’s eventual deduction of her true nature prompts him to undertake a pilgrimage of rediscovery, bequeathing them custody of his earthy abode in ‘A Man’s Home is His… Temple?’

With accommodation secured, the hapless student needs to get back to his education, and in a structured society like Japan there’s plenty of scope for comedy when a powerful and beautiful female seemingly dotes on a barely average male, especially as Keiichi’s new girlfriend seems unwilling to even leave his side…

The solution is to use her powers to “enrol” at his school – the Nekomi Institute of Technology. However, when the clearly “European” newcomer becomes a ‘College Exchange Goddess’ she can’t help but draw unwelcome attention, particularly from Keiichi’s macho, petrolhead fellow students and creepy lecturer Dr. Ozawa. The lifelong rival of Morisato’s favourite teacher “Doc” Kakuta has his suspicions aroused when all his students switch to the classes Belldandy audits and he begins a covert campaign to get rid of her…

More trouble materialises in ‘Those Whom Goddess Hath Joined Together, Let No Woman Put Asunder’ as thoroughly unlikeable campus queen and predatory Mean Girl Sayoko Mishima realises the new kid is a threat to her social supremacy and sets her destructive sights and wealth on Belldandy’s hapless chump. The goddess is more aware of the interlopers inadvertent mystical bad mojo and takes kind, gentle but firm retaliatory action…

College is a series of crucial interconnections and – other than Belldandy – Morisato is closest to his colleagues in the Nekomi Institute of Technology Motor Club: a gang of overbearing, bullying gear-head maniacs, always spending his money, eating his food and getting him into trouble…

However, the earthbound divinity’s role is to aid those in need and when she detects chief brute Otaki is enduring unrequited love she plays matchmaker in ‘Single Lens Psychic: The Prayer Answered’ and sets off a chain of domestic shock and awe…

This mainly monochrome compendium is peppered with brief full colour sections and one such opens ‘Lullaby of Love’ as Morisato finally summons the nerve to move beyond the painfully platonic life sentence he’s been locked into. Sadly, books like Going Steady for Dummies can get him no closer to even kissing his goddess and their first stab at an intimate dinner date turns into a disaster further compounded in ‘The Blossom in Bloom’ as financial shortfalls presage the introduction of Morisato’s little sister Megumi: a gossip spreader and imaginative tale teller. What family furore she will make of him living with a gorgeous exotic foreigner cannot be allowed…

She causes chaos from the start: bearing enough cash to tide them over but only if Keiichi boards her for a week while she takes some important entrance exams. There’s no way the kid won’t expose Belldandy’s supernatural nature to the world…

What big brother should have fretted over was the actual tests, as Megumi aces he exams and is admitted to Nekomi Tech. Now Morisato is plagued with ‘Apartment Hunting Blues’ as he hunts for a decent place to house her. It’s a good thing that Belldandy accompanies the siblings as – once they find the perfect place – the goddess has to exorcise and transform the evil spirit haunting it …the true reason it was so cheap in the first place…

Following the comics comes a text feature by editor Carl Gustav Horn. ‘Letters to the Enchantress’ details the strip’s history and evolution to an English language series, and is supplemented by ‘Editor’s Commentary on Vol. 1’: an expansive collection of footnotes clarifying everything from explaining untranslated background kanji and graphics to detailing significant cultural clues that might bypass most readers.

Oh My Goddess! is a beguiling, engaging and eminently re-readable confection, at once frothy fun and entrancing drama. Think of it as a Eastern take on Bewitched or I Dream of Genie, especially as the romance develops: one that both mortal and immortal protagonists are incapable of admitting to. Throw in the required supporting cast of friends, rivals, insane teachers and interfering entities and there’s plenty of light-hearted fun to be found in this bright and breezy manga classic.
© 2005 by Kosuke Fujishima. All Rights Reserved. This English language edition © 2005 Dark Horse Comics.