Category: Satire/Politics

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Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness


By John Layman, Fabiano Neves, Fernando Blanco, Sean Phillips & Arthur Suydam with John Byrne, Terry Austin, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru, Dick Giordano, Jim Lee, Jim Starlin, Frank Miller & various (MARVEL/Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4243-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Swiftly catching a cultural wave to become one of turn-of-the-century Marvel’s most popular niche-franchises, a canny blend of gratuitous violence, sharp wit and arrant buffoonery led to the Marvel Zombies taking the comics-reading world by storm in the mid-2000s. So big was the concept that, like a flesh-eating infection, it even escaped the confines of corporate continuity to engender an inter-company crossover with another hugely popular horror franchise. The result was carnage, mayhem, buckets of blood, macabre laughs via a 5-issue miniseries that mutated into this hard-to-find but fab-to-read treat…

You will need not nets, swords or shotguns but cold hard currency in various formats…

In one of so many Marvel universes an intruder from beyond brought an extra-dimensional curse to that tragic reality: a pestilence that without exception turned the infected (for which read “bitten” and “chewed on”) victims into ravenous, undead eating machines.

Confronted by wave after wave of valiant superheroes, “patient zero” defeated them all and his contagion spread exponentially as defenders fell to rise again as voracious monsters. Before a day was out, a chain-reaction of hungry terror devastated the world, leaving its costumed champions as no less than the apex predators atop a rapidly diminishing food source…

Ash Williams – as played on-screen by actor Bruce Campbell (and who wrote the eerily  excellent DC Horror Presents: Sgt. Rock vs. the Army of the Dead) is the implausible demon-killing star of the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness movies devised by Sam Raimi. A horny, misogynistic oaf and utterly charmless goon, he is nonetheless chosen by fate to destroy all “deadites”: ravening evil ghosts intent on ending all life, and originally spawned by a malignant, malevolent sentient tome known as The Necronomicon.

For a total butthole, Ash is surprisingly competent at his job…

Dark Horse Comics produced the first Evil Dead comic book series in 1992 before Dynamite Entertainment picked up the license in 2004, opening with dark ‘n’ daft miniseries Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes. That led to 2005’s Army of Darkness: Shop Till You Drop (Dead) and Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator before an on-going series was finally commissioned in 2006. Considering his predilection for gory, sardonic splatter-tainment, the dimension-hopping, time-jumping Ash was a dead cert to visit Marvel’s funerary fun house…

This slim, sinister inter-company chronicle collects Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness #1-5 (May – September 2007), by scripter John Layman and illustrator Fabiano Neves, with Fernando Blanco, Sean Phillips and colourist June Chung all contributing to the moody mix.

Unusual for such intersecting universe imbroglios, the events of this yarn are “in-continuity”, occurring during, contiguous with and ultimately affecting the tragic happenings seen in ‘Marvel Zombies: Dead Days’. It even offers key story points not revealed in the exclusively Marvel tales, so completists be warned…

It all begins after Ash arrives on (an) Earth in the hours before the infection first hits. A no-nonsense blue-collar kind of guy, the Deadite Destroyer can take demonic monsters and time-travel in his stride but is flabbergasted to see grown men in tights beating each other up.

Watching Daredevil battle supervillain Thunderball, the nonplussed necromantic nomad is unable to discern who is good and who evil, but his amazement is suspended after the wicked spirit of the Necronomicon appears to taunt him with a prophecy… “this world will die and an army of the dead will rise”…

Stuck in a la la land of costumed clowns, Ash opts to go straight to the top, seeking out Avengers Mansion, where the assembled heroes refuse to believe his warnings of doom. Being dumped in a lake by The Scarlet Witch only serves to jog his memory, however, and he recalls his last moments before arriving in this fruity, steroid-infested madhouse…

He was happily dead and about to enter Heaven when a costumed maniac attacked, biting the deceased, turning them into flesh-eating horrors and wrecking the entire Afterlife. Ash escaped back to the lands of the living, but the creature followed him…

The superheroes are leaving to investigate reports of a monster when Ash finds them again, and Colonel America orders Spider-Man to take the raving lunatic away for his own safety. By the time the traveller convinces the Wallcrawler that he isn’t crazy, the damage has been done. Almost all of the World’s Mightiest Heroes are now ravening undead horrors and Ash is ‘Earth’s Mightiest Zero’…

Stunned, the late-arriving webspinner is easy meat for the Star-Spangled zombie, leaving Ash helpless before a hungry rabble of former heroes. Events kick into grisly top gear in ‘Marvel Team-Ups’ as Spider-Man, frantically fighting the hunger that’s killing him, whisks Ash to temporary safety before fleeing, leaving the extra-dimensional demon killer all alone …until seeming kindred spirit The Punisher shows up.

The man with the skull on his chest doesn’t care about undead monsters: he’s busy killing a few living ones like The Kingpin, Hammerhead and The Owl. However, once his current task is completed, he comes around to Ash’s way of thinking, but his confrontational manner of only dealing with things head on soon ends his usefulness. The vigilante does leave Ash with a lot of serious ordnance, though which cocky Mr. Williams uses to save hot babe Dazzler from imminent death by superhero bite…

Ash is convinced the Necronomicon is summoning Deadites to this Earth and – after informing the mutant musical transducer that an evil magic book is behind all the grief – Dazzler takes him to the home of Doctor Strange, reasoning that if the chronicle of chaos is to be found anywhere it will be in the library of Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme…

They are far too late: ‘Night of the Livid Dead’ finds Ash reunite with Scarlet Witch (now the only still-breathing Avenger) and encounters his Marvel Earth counterpart as well as a flesh-eating humanoid duck named Howard, but the mystic they’re seeking is long gone. Ash and his new team do however convince other tormented tomes in the library to tell them where the Necronomicon is currently located and, leaving scenes of escalating horror behind them, the mortals fly to Latveria to confront a foreigner with the unlikely name of Doctor Doom…

By the time they get there the plague has gone global and the Balkan kingdom is under siege: possibly the only place on Earth where humans still live – and only then behind the straining forcefields of Castle Doomstadt.

‘The Book of Doom’ opens with the Iron Dictator disregarding Ash’s warnings of infernal invasion in favour his own conclusions of a simple pan-dimensional virus, before dumping him in the pens where a breeding stock of humans is cached, ready to repopulate Earth after Doom inevitably destroys the zombie hordes.

Unconvinced by his captor’s arrogant assurances, Ash busts out and meets Scarlet Witch on her way to the dictator’s library. Soon they are interrogating the Devil Doctor’s copy of the Necronomicon and Ash discovers he been played from page one…

Reeling with despair and defeat he then releases a hot chick in a glass tube who calls herself Amora the Enchantress, blissfully unaware that she is both an evil goddess and a plague-carrying zombie Doom has been experimenting on…

The tale and the world comes to an explosive, blood-drenched end in concluding chapter ‘The Stalking Dead’ wherein an army of undead heroes converge on Latveria, but not before Ash and Doom pull a minor rabbit out of their combined hats, ferrying the last humans to a place of other-dimensional safety. The hapless Haunt Hunter, however, is less lucky and lands in a dimension with a monster problem even he hasn’t encountered before…

Fast-paced, irreverent, raucous and gorily outrageous, this laugh-out-loud saga of no-guts-&-less-glory will sit well with readers hungry for immature entertainment and all comic book completists, and comes with a splendid gallery of covers-&-variants by Arthur Suydam, recreating eight classic scenes from Marvel history. Also included are inspirational originals by John Byrne, Terry Austin, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru, Dick Giordano, Jim Lee, Jim Starlin and Frank Miller.
© 2007, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. All Marvel characters, names and distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc. Army of Darkness and all characters, names and distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Orion Pictures™ & © 1993-2009 Orion Pictures Corporation, Inc. All rights reserved. Licensed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. to Dynamic Forces Inc. Dynamite, Dynamic Entertainment & its logo ™

& © & Dynamic Forces Inc. Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Complete Peanuts volume 11: 1971-1972


By Charles M. Schulz & various (Fantagraphics Books/Canongate Books UK)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-1456-9 (US HB/Digital edition), 978-0857864079 (UK HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peanuts is unequivocally the most important comic strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Cartoonist Charles M Schulz crafted his moodily hilarious, hysterically introspective, shockingly surreal philosophical epic for half a century: 17,897 strips spanning October 2nd 1950 to February 13th 2000. He died – from complications of cancer and in suitably mythopoeaic manner – the day before his last strip was printed.

At its height, Peanuts ran in 2,600 newspapers, in 21 languages and 75 countries. Many of those venues still run it in perpetual reprints, as they have ever since his death. During his lifetime, book collections, a merchandising mountain and television spin-offs had made the publicity-shy doodler an actual billionaire at a time when that really meant something…

None of that matters. Peanuts – a title Schulz loathed, but one the Syndicate forced upon him – changed the way comics strips were received and perceived: proving cartoon comedy could have edges and nuance and meaning as well as soon-forgotten pratfalls and punchlines.

For this 11th compendium we begin with a photo-portait of the man at work followed by an effusive Foreword from film & theatre star Kristin Chenoweth, recalling her time (1998-1999) as part of the gang. This is thanks to her stage triumph as Sally in musical phenomenon You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and here she shares memories and thoughts on Schultz; and thoughts on what makes the little sister tick on stage and on page…

As always, however, our pictorial focus and primary point of contact remains quintessential loser Charlie Brown who, alongside and yet simultaneously far behind fanciful, increasingly multi-personalitied, high-maintenance mutt Snoopy, remains squarely at odds with a mercurial supporting cast. They all timelessly hang out, doing what at first sight looks like Kids Stuff in an ever-more complex and adverse universe of perverse happenstance. But remember now, with this collecton it’s the socially aware, all-change era of “the Seventies”, when lots of untouchable notions were being deconstructed and reconsidered everywhere… even on the funny pages.

Individual strip slices focus on play and copious leisure time; varying degrees of musicality; childish pranks; interpersonal alignments; mounting pressures of evermore oppressive education and mass media lensed through wide (but often squinty) young eyes that witness it all with unguarded openess. These moments come pre-leavened by agonised teasing, aroused and/or crushed hope, naïve, baffled generalisations and observations with our little tots occasionally acting a bit too much like grown-ups.

With this tome’s tales, themes and tropes defining the series (especially in the wake of so many animated TV specials) became mantra-like and endlessly variable for the growing radership. Focus now is less on Charlie Brown and more on those around him but this time everybody’s hunger for acceptance has been subsumed into a deliciously overarching environmental constant that grows more abundant in its fallout… everyone is growing aware  of relationships and LOVE…

Of course, most human interactions still find our boy a pitiable outlier who only really understands sports – or so he thinks. People come and go but although Mean Girl Violet and Pig-Pen might be fading into the background, a core grpup consisting of musical prodigy Schroeder, self-taught psychoanalyst/dictator-in-waiting Lucy van Pelt, her brilliant but off-kilter little brother Linus and Charlie’s sister Sally are all abundantly on view, but regularly ensnared in the sundry traps of romance and attraction, and seem to be leaving our boy behind…

Snoopy, by strutting his many and varied imaginry selves – such as a predatory vulture waiting to pick off frozen kids in the snow – plays many key roles. These include the savvy sports-beagle; the pronosticating owner of an eerily insightful “Beagle Board”; a reputed war hero/author and so many more, but he too has a dubious, inexplicable relationship. His time with his secretary – a tiny, ditzy bird called Woodstock – is open to frequent comment, much of it from the beagle himself…

Our titular star still pines for the unattainable  “Little Red-haired Girl” who so tragically moved away before he could summon the nerve to speak to her…

The kids and critters are primarily fixtures honed to generate joke-routines and gag-sequences around signature foibles, but some (like African American Franklin and even author-Snoopy) enjoy more serious roles too and have become signposts for specific cntemporary themes. In this book one extended instance is when Snoopy’s favourite writer (Helen Sweetstory of The Six Bunny-Wunnies fame) is removed from the school library, as the strip homed in on the then-growing real-world crime of parentally-steered book-banning…

Another star on the rise is Patricia Reichardt AKA tomboy Peppermint Patty (who had debuted four years earlier on August 22nd 1966). She had been a strong, opinionated female achetype and a counsellor to younger girls, when not inadvertantly outshining Charlie Brown in sporting endeavours, but here gains far greater feminist prominence. Her key moments include making a stand for personal female individuality after School introduces more feminine dress codes (but only for half the students); struggling with learning issues and slowly, painfully finding herself falling for utterly oblivious, deeply lonely “Chuck” Brown.

That overstrained relationship is agony to watch unfold (…crash, burn and then begin all over again) with Patty growing increasingly upset and unnerved by new kid Marcie (she of the bottle-specs and 1000-yard stare) who tags along, calling her “Sir”…

Sally Brown has grown from frail infant to needy complainer, and just enough to become another trigger for Charlie’s relentless self-excoriation. As she ages (a rare event in a strip about eternal tots) and forms her own anxieties, she declaims loud opinions and propounds steadfastly misinformed views, with him relegated to being her dumber, protective but outgunned and baffled big brother. Sally now gets all the best lines yet still struggles with school in many strips depicting her attitudes to study and homework, which reveal the contest is pretty even and not at all one-sided…

Resigned to – but far from uncomplaining about – life as a loser in the gunsights of cruel and capricious fate, the boy Brown is still helpless in the clutches of openly sadistic Lucy. When not sabotaging his efforts to fly a kite or kick a football or while endlessly sabotaging his beloved baseball games, she monetises his discomfort with spiteful verve via a 5¢ walk-in psychoanalysis booth, ensuring that whether at play, in competition, in despair, allowing hope to flower or just brooding, the round-headed kid truly endures the character-building trials of the damned.

In this era, the beagle is the true star of our show, with his primary quest for fame or at least more and better food playing out against a magnificently baroque inner life. There are wild encounters with birds, skateboarding, dance-offs, ice skating and snow-sport trysts, philosophical ruminations, martial assignations and ever-more-popular catchphrases to learn. As burgeoning whimsy and dreams of writing bestsellers blossom, we catch constant glimpses of the dog’s WWI other life, but also acknowledge the the world’s growing teen scene with his reinvention in new personas like college frat boy Joe Cool and cosmopolitan rake Joe French.

Perhaps his most momentous new alter ego is The Attorney who so often steps in to lend legal sagacity to the kids in times of growing litigiousness and political protest…

Naturally all of these shadow-dogs harbour fondness for little Woodstock and abiding animus for natural enemy Lucy, whose life is also plagued by mounting hurdles. Paramount are her weirdo brother Linus (who has become obsessed with undiscovered cryptids like Gully Cats and Queen snakes)  and his comfort blanket; that dog; failure to boss everyone around enough, that dog and piano-boy Schroeder’s utter inability to realise that he loves her…

Timeless episodes of play, peril, peewee psychoanalysis, philosophical ponderings, anxiously anticipatory cinema-visits and personal recrimination are cunning beards for some heavy topics. Always realised in stark monochrome are more new characters, more plot developments (like the threatened return of Snoopy’s childhood nemesis Lila!) and the founding of even more traditions we all revere to this day.

As suggested, the beagle is the only force capable of challenging – if not fully countering -Lucy. Over these two years, her campaign to curb the weird dog; cure her brother of comfort blanket dependency; seduce Schroeder and generally reorder reality to her preferences reach astounding heights and appalling depths, but Snoopy keeps trying and scores many minor victories. In the main, though, Lucy continues to consistently suck all the joy out of the white wonder stuff, green summers, fallen leaves, refreshing rain, hobbies, sports, music and anthing else other people like. Except skipping. Playing with a jump rope is still acceptable…

Hilariously, her reality takes a solid knock when Mr & Mrs Van Pelt announce the imminent arrival of a new baby sister, an intruder shellshocked Lucy instantly names “Rerun”…

From the start Schulz established way points in his year: formally celebrating certain calendar occasions – real or invented – as perennial shared events: St. Valentine’s Day, Mothers & Fathers’ Days, Fourth of July strips and the like are accompanied in their turn by yearly milestones lincluding Christmas, Easter, Halloween/Great Pumpkin Day and Beethoven’s Birthday.

Here they are augmneted by another American ritual as many of the cast return to (and are dismissed from) summer camp. This results in fresh heartbreak for all after Patty finally meets the nigh-legendary Little Red-haired Girl and realises all hope is lost. There’s even more endless heartbreak heading for Charlie Brown too, as he looks on and can do nothing. The poor oaf still has no idea how to begin to respond to closer ties with his dream girl or why even Patty cares…

Sports fun looms large and terrifying as ever, but star athlete-turned-coach/manager Snoopy is more interested in new passions than boring old baseball, hockey, tennis and football. These include fishing, swimming, skiing, skating and new sensation Frisbee-ing, as well as embracing the ups and downs of perilous passtime “Ha-Ha, Herman!” and watching Lucy learn some hard truths while rollerskating…

Even she finds far more absorbing pastimes but still revels in crushing the spirits of her teammates in whatever endeavour they are failing at. Linus endures more disappointment in two Great Pumpkin seasons as well as his rare-animal searches, and before you know it, there’s the traditional countdown to Christmas and another year filled with weird, woolly and wonderful moments…

Neatly interspersed with the daily doses of gloom, the Sunday page debuted on January 6th 1952: a half-page slot offering more measured fare than 4-panel dailies. Thwarted ambition, sporting failures, crushing frustration – much of it psychoanalysis or sport related – abound, alternating with Snoopy’s inner life of aviation, war stories, star gazing, shooting the breeze with bird buddies, weather woes, fame and food fiascos. These and other signature sorties across the sabbath indulgences afforded Schulz room to be his most imaginative, whimsical and provocative… or just plain jokey…

Tentpole moments to relish this time include intensification of the magnificently barbed romantic triangle involving Lucy, Schroeder & Beethoven; Linus kicking the blanket habit only to be dragged back in under again; more Snoopy v Lucy deathmatches as well as a claws & paws clash of our dog and the despised cat-next-door. Charlie Brown’s food feud with the beagle continues, as do assorted night terrors, Lucy’s unique solutions to complex questions; Valentines’ card coup counting, doggy dreams; sporting endeavours,  all counterpointed by Snoopy’s latest top secret mission for the Head Beagle and the paving over of his puphood home…

To Be Continued…

To wrap it all up, Gary Groth celebrates and deconstructs the man and his work in ‘Charles M. Schulz: 1922 to 2000’, preceded by a copious ‘Index’ offering instant access to favourite scenes you’d like to see again…

Readily available in many formats, this volume guarantees total enjoyment: comedy gold and social glue metamorphosing into an epic of spellbinding graphic mastery that still adds joy to billions of lives, and continues to make new fans and devotees long after its maker’s passing.
The Complete Peanuts: 1971-1972 (Volume Eleven) © 2009 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. “Charles M. Schulz: 1922 to 2000” © 2009 Gary Groth. All rights reserved.

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The Bluecoats volume 20: Bloomers and Bone Saws


By Willy Lambil & Raoul Cauvin, with Leonardo; translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-199-6 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content employed for dramatic and comedic effect.

Devised by Louis “Salvé” Salvérius & Raoul Cauvin – who scripted the first 64 volumes until retirement in 2020 – Les Tuniques Bleues (or Dutch iteration De Blauwbloezen) began as the 1960s ended: created to soften the blow of losing Lucky Luke when that mild-mannered maverick megastar defected from Le Journal de Spirou to arch-rival periodical Pilote. From the start, the substitute strip was popular: swiftly becoming one of the most-consumed bande dessinée series in Europe. After stints by the Jose-Luis Munuera/BeKa writing partnership, it is now scribed by Kris and up to 70 volumes.

Salvé was a cartoonist in the Gallic big-foot/big-nose humour manner, and after his sudden death in 1972, successor Willy “Lambil” Lambillotte gradually moved towards a more realistic – albeit still overtly comedic – tone and look. Born in 1936, Lambil is Belgian and, after studying Fine Art in college, joined publishing giant Dupuis in 1952 as a letterer. Arriving on Earth two years later, scripter Cauvin was also Belgian and (prior to joining Dupuis’ animation department in 1960) studied Lithography. He soon discovered his true calling was comedy and began a glittering, prolific writing career at LJdS. In addition, he scripted dozens of long-running, award winning series including Cédric, Les Femmes en Blanc and Agent 212: clocking up more than 240 separate albums. Les Tuniques Bleues alone has sold over 15 million copies… and counting. Cauvin died on August 19th 2021, but his vast legacy of barbed laughter remains and – as of ten minutes ago – Lambril, at 90, is still drawing the Boys in Blue…

The Bluecoats are long-suffering protagonists Sergeant Cornelius Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch: worthy, honest fools in the manner of Laurel & Hardy; ill-starred US cavalrymen defending a vision of a unified America during the War Between the States – well, at least one of them is, as the comrades spend all of their time bickering over the war, patriotism, honour, and the stupid callousness of their leaders and cause…

The original format offered single-page gags set around an Indian-plagued Wild West fort, but from second volume Du Nord au Sud, the sad-sack soldiers were situated back East, perpetually fighting in the American Civil War. Subsequent exploits are set within the scant timeframe of the Secession conflict, but often range far beyond the traditional environs of the sundered USA, dipping into and embracing actual events (like today’s tale), tackling genuine, thoroughly researched moments of history…

Blutch is an everyday, whinging little-man-in-the street: work-shy, mouthy, devious and ferociously critical of the army and its inept orchestrators and commanders. Ducking, diving, deserting at every opportunity, he’s you or me – except at his core he’s smart, principled, loyal and even heroic… if no easier option presents itself.

Chesterfield is a big, burly professional fighting man: a proud career soldier of the 22nd Cavalry who devoutly believes in nationalistic patriotism and the esprit-de-corps of The Army. Brave, bold, never shirking his duty and appallingly hungry to be a medal-wearing hero, he’s quite naïve yet also loves his cynical little pal. Naturally, they quarrel like a married couple, fight like brothers and simply cannot agree on the point and purpose of the horrendous war they are trapped in. That situation again stretches their friendship to breaking point in this cunningly conceived instalment, in which both find themselves again at odds…

On offer here is a far more plain-speaking and trenchant outing than usual, one including actual historical characters rather than regulation schtick & settings providing mostly humour. Coloured as ever by Vittorio Leonardo, Les Tuniques Bleues – Miss Walker was serialised continentally in Le Journal de Spirou #3773-3778, before becoming the 54th album in 2010, and now Cinebook’s 20th translated Bluecoats book.

As already hinted, it differs from the majority of tales treading a fine line between comedy and righteous anger, so if you share these books with younger kids, best read this one pre-emptively first. Here, swingeing wit and sardonic comedy are doctor’s orders with slapstick reigned in and “bigfoot clown” antics toned down and with even the illustration carefully reined in. Thus the more authentic illustration provides a magnificently barbed, double pronged assault on masculine attitudes and military protocols and procedures, as a wild card arrives to propagate rebellion on two fronts (sexism and military ruthlessness)…

Mary Edwards Walker (26th November 1832-21st February 1919) qualified as a doctor in 1855, earning her degree from the renowned and prestigious Syracuse Medical College, New York. In her most eventful life she was an abolitionist; battlefield surgeon (the US army’s first female one); prisoner of war; Prohibitionist, writer; lecturer and suffragette, as well as the only woman in US history to be awarded the Medal of Honor. When war broke out, she was immediately rejected on applying to serve as a Union forces medic, but, after working in a Washington DC field hospital, she was sought out and hired by the military to work on the front lines. You should go read up on her. She was a forceful, successful and amazing pioneer and advocate of all the right causes…

Deeply wedded to her beliefs and causes, Dr. Walker’s comics analogue makes quite a splash when she arrives. Clad in her outlandish trademark “bloomers”, she looks very much like a man…

As usual the Confederate and Union armies have fought themselves to a bloody standstill and barely have enough men mobile enough to mount an attack. Particularly vexatious are the daily-rising desertion rates, but now these are compounded by the fact that the Union medical team has been eradicated and survivors, sick and wounded are just piling up in an old community building in a nearby village. Thankfully, General Alexander’s request for a replacement reaches Ulysees Grant at just the right moment. The military Commander-in-Chief has a growing problem involving one doctor he would be happy to lend his suffering troops…

As always a command decision divides the old comrades and unleashes calamity and catastrophe. It begins with the ferocious, short-tempered doctor requesting a permanent assistant and which wily Blutch immediately volunteers for in his constant search to stay out of the Greycoats’ – and his own superiors’ – sights.

Despite Chesterfield’s constant chiding, lazy, idle Blutch is soon avidly sweeping floors, making beds, changing bandages, scrubbing bodies and delousing patients and the scratch-hospital itself. Soon he’s unwillingly progressed to dressing wounds and helping to lop off limbs…

Meanwhile, his formidable new boss goes about making more enemies. From the start Walker laid down her law: the hospital was her domain and she could not be overruled regarding its function. Moreover, she obsessively despised smoking, boozing and gambling and refused to let her patients – or any man in her sight – indulge in such dangerous vices. Sadly, for the nonplussed Alexander’s general staff, Walker is possibly the best surgeon and doctor they will ever meet. Her rate of success is astounding and many who should be dead are diligently restored to active service.

Tragically, that’s where her biggest fault comes into play and it’s one Blutch wholeheartedly supports. Wherever Mary Walker cures the wounded, her lectures somehow provoke mass-desertions…

Her unrestrained truthfulness infects the unceasing arguments between Blutch & Chesterfield and soon the whole camp from callow replacements to scarred veterans are (over)hearing facts they would rather not face, and before long those desertion figures are skyrocketing…

With morale in tatters, the staff try reason and bluster, but Walker refuses to mend her ways or hold her tongue, and Alexander, alerted to the imminent threat of another Confederate attack, embarks on a ruthless scheme. It involves having Walker and Blutch take a medical wagon to troops lying wounded beyond the camp, and Chesterfield soon has reason to regret inveigling himself aboard to look after his wrong-headed (but instantly-aware-of-subterfuge) pal…

The entire notion is to have Walker captured by the enemy. An apolitical healer at heart, she immediately begins treating Rebel wounded… until the cycle begins again and Confederate troops start to abscond in droves. With battle postponed due to lack of manpower, the Greys find their own way of removing the doctor, which circuitously lands Blutch & Chesterfield back where they started. However, with Walker safely removed from doing more harm, General Alexander has time to punish the pestilential pair in a most unique and far-seeing manner…

Highlighting not only the disparities between officers and enlisted men but also foundational America’s class structure and entrenched gender divisions, Bloomers and Bone Saws is a disturbingly edgy epic that makes fun from the very worst of human endeavours. Shocking, powerful and hard-hitting as well as painfully funny, beautifully realised and eminently readable, this is one of the most sardonic Bluecoats yarns in the canon and finest kind of war-story/Western. It appeals to the best, not worst, of the human spirit; and hopefully that means you.
© Dupuis, 2010 by Lambil & Cauvin. All rights reserved. English translation © 2026 Cinebook Ltd.

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Ugly Mug Issue Nine


By many and various anonymous aligned to The House of Harley, but particularly including Julian Geek, Denny Derbyshire, Ed Pinsent, Alberto Monteiro, John Bagnall, Dave Kilburn, Miranda Smart, Adam Falp & various (House of Harley)
ISBN: 978-1-0669144-1 (A4 Card cover TPB)

In these, my elderly end-times, a year goes by just like 365¼ days, which means that (notionally) I only have to blink or slip into a brief nap/coma for something fun or welcoming to pop up. Of course that can apply to nasty stuff too, but that is SO NOT the case here…

Comics can be a billion dollar business these days, but thankfully remains at its heart & soul a form of expression all about doing something creative for people to react to. Hopefully, they’ll be appreciative and give you lots of money and offer to have your babies… or at least try to swindle you out of your rights. That latter one’s not actually so bad, as it does mean you’re doing something others appreciate…

What I crave – and can now revel in again – is the latest extravaganza from unchecked artistic iconoclasterers The House of Harley; who have completed one more supercharged, in-your-facial-area assemblage of stories, cartoons, thoughts and even characters from people who don’t care if pastors complain, Mumsnet worries or The Telegraph pitches a disingenuous, profit-seeking hissy-fit. Self-chained to this fertile, dynamic pictorial coalface are folk who would draw strips and tell tales even if the act carried the threat of exile, death penalty or mandatory Ed Sheeran tickets. They go on concocting and unleashing the sort of word-wedded images the industry and art form continually refreshes, renews and reinvents itself with.

Every year since they started, shady, covert Art-Quango The House of Harley has unleashed an annual (well duh!) anthological aggregation of short stories, poster-works, diagrammatic diatribes and tableaux, augmented by further exploits of ongoing made-up individuals, new characters and pictorial serials. They also invite guests to aid & abet those efforts by getting what’s needful off their artistic chests, so it’s now well past time you indulged their splendid efforts.

This year’s model puts its foot down on the side of LAW & ORDER, proudly presenting old guard and new models (in Quarter, Half, Single and multi-page narrative outbreaks and graphic outbursts) all set between nostalgia-kicking covers by Julian Geek. Within, strangely fresh yet familiarly comforting fare nestles menacingly between full-colour poster-art homage frontispiece ‘Beware! The Claws of the Cat!’ and closing apocalyptic vision ‘Project Final X’ – both from Jason Atomic.

The interior trigger-edged, truncheon-terse treats unfold after the customary wild contents and introductory section, announcing the reserve forces of returning resident Ugly Mug contributors whilst welcoming new kids on the block Miranda Smart, Adam Falp & Dave Kilburn. The overall effect is shocking insights into “the causes of social collapse” and a potent invitation to the final showdown of our kind…

Stationed within and throughout are works by old lags of the House of Harley studio, seeking to keep things from spinning out of control with tales of enforced health like ‘The Cancer Detection Dogs’, revealing what is ‘Tender to the Touch’ and exactly when ‘Cometh the Hour’ or even a sharing a home visit from ‘Dr. Anadi (With Curses She is Handy)’…

‘Scatter’ is a suburban probe into abandoned rental bikes, ‘Seb, Superimposed’ follows one woman’s personal quest to be drunk and disorderly courtesy, as an extended cartoon chat exposes what happens ‘While the City Slumbers’, and there’s even a spot of recreational downtime in ‘Let’s Bake Up a Batch of Ugly Mugs’…

Shorter call-ups to duty include further forays for Mark E Smith Music Teacher (promoting plastic bags and work experience gigs whilst exposing The Truth about Taylor Swift), and more naked exposures via Life with Freda Nipple (nudist, career woman, penal reformer, rag ‘n’ bone man nostalgist) as well as a Q&A on 2-tier policing with PCSO Dan and Busy Lizzie revealing what is not right about Woody Allen…

Regular guest Ed Pinsent is much represented, pictorially prognosticating thanks to ‘Hex Patterns’, tuning in on R.S.D. Laing, Record Collector after ‘He Suffers a Chemical Reaction’, exposing ‘The Horrible Story of Monster Pig – and How He Became So Fat!’ before climaxing big with the ninth arcane instalment of Pinsent’s beguiling ‘Windy Wilberforce’ serial The Saga of the Scroll (fear not, back issues of Ugly Mug are available to all with the wherewithal) as Harry Excess finds fun and fish in the desert….

Other contributions from those bearing visitor passes include Social Historian Gareth Corduroy (AKA John Bagnall) unearthing the lost working class blessing of ‘The Pit Pool’; a dose of abstract impressionist portraiture in Denny Derbyshire’s ‘Twin Peeks’; Julian Geek’s controversial TV debate stance in ‘321 with Mean Bean and Da Bug’; Miranda Smart’s challenging tableau ‘The Art of Complaining’ and Adam Falp’s vision of ‘Seven Sisters Road’ all counterpointed by Brazilian creator Alberto Monteiro ‘Several Intense Scenes’…

… And about us leprechauns pop up as Dave Kilburn offers contemporary Celtic mythology via a succession of scandalous exploits starring Irish fae folk The Leps (Seamus & Eamonn, St Patrick, His Lordship, The Vulnerable Lord Cecil and others), beginning with ‘The Shillelagh of Temptation’ and supplemented by an untitled boozing binge, a ‘Mid-week drinking’ session and a spot of bonfire building…

Innocuously including and pointedly presenting “robot dogs, radioactive popcorn, broken glass, canoodling couples, different kinds of dealers, stale beer & chips, ADHD, a black-&-white rainbow, pavement potholes, symbolic sheep, naked giants, shopping receipts, miracle cures, crime scene cakes, savage cabbage and the proverbial two birds with one stone”, this doughty dossier delivers more racy, pacey fun fare than any British X-mas Annual of yore. These cunning creations teem with turbulent observation and force, and come armed to the nines with wryly witty visual oomph, making it the ideal example of where we will draw the line and leave our marks…

Buy one. Read one. Do one yourself. You know you want to…
All contents © their respective creators.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Wild Fun and the Latest Last Word in Sheer Creativity Perfection… 8/10

For all this and so much more please check out houseofharley.net/shop or their Etsy shop.

If you’re still keen to embrace the dying embers of old world transactionalism, you can support enlightened capitalism and get a copy from a real world retailer like Gosh! Comics, London.

My spiffy review copy came with a bunch of extra goodies “From the Sketchbooks of The House of Harley” – Limited Edition minicomics Boat Race #1, Scratch An Itch #1 and Hands Up #1 – each offering even more contentious Comics & Improper art vouchsafing visual verve and vitality in strict monochrome and/or assorted multi-hued palettes. Maybe yours will too; or perhaps it’s simply that age and rank still hath their privileges…

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The Pony Express – A Lucky Luke Adventure (volume 46)


By Morris, scripted by Xavier Fauche & Jean Léturgie & coloured by Studio Leonardo, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-194-5 (Album PB), 978-1-84918-880-7 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also contains Discriminatory Content added for comedic effect.

Time for another Anniversary announcement, non?

Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, “lonesome cowboy” able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. Doughty, dashing, dependable Lucky is an implacably placid do-gooder roaming the mythical Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his wonder horse Jolly Jumper whilst interacting with a host of historical and/or fictionally famous figures of the genre.

It’s Jolly & Lucky’s 80th birthday this year and their continued exploits have made him one of the bestselling comic characters in Europe, encompassing 83 albums, numerous spin-off books and series comprising more than 300 million albums in at least 31 languages thus far. That has all generated a mega-mesa of merchandise: posters, toys, games, apparel, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies.

Lucky was dreamed up by western-loving Maurice de Bévère AKA “Morris”: a Belgian-born animator, illustrator and cartoonist. His sagebrush star debuted in the summer of 1946, initially in Le Journal de Spirou in mid-summer sans title or banner logo, and only in the French-language edition of the multinational kids comic. The Lone Rider’s official launch came in autumn of that year in Christmas Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947, before opening his first official serial in the pan-regional, multilingual weekly edition cover-dated December 7th 1946.

After a relatively slow start for such a fast gun, Lucky’s global dominance came via Morris’ decades-long collaboration with superstar scripter René Goscinny. The official partnership spanned Rails on the Prairie (from August 25th 1955) to The Ballad Of The Daltons And Other Stories in 1986, during which time the sixgun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with The Stagecoach in 1967, with guest appearances all over the European publishing scene after that.

Goscinny co-crafted 45 albums before his death in 1977, after which Morris continued both singly and with new literary pardners, ultimately recruiting a posse of legacy creators including Lo Hartog van Banda, Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Benacquista & Pennac, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shots at the venerable vigilante. Morris continued until his own death in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar and spin-off whimsical western tales.

His grande idée draws on western history less than movie mythology, but – as here – our hero regularly met historical figures as well as famous fictional folk in tales drawn from classic cowboy lore, lensed through uniquely European notions and interpretations… as also seen here. Moreover, our sharpshooting star is never averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire, as well as spoofing his own antecedents whilst wallowing in movie schtick to trigger delicious drives down memory lane in the eternal game of cowberks and imbeciles…

Le Pony Express was the 59h European album, first seen serially in monthly magazine Pif Gadget #997 – 999 in 1988 before being collected into book form that same year. As the self-explanatory adventure The Pony Express, it was Cinebook’s 46th English-language outing of hijacked history, scathing satire and horselaugh hijinks.

Morris always drew from a deep, shared well of cinematic motifs, gilded with authenticity and tempered with veracity as required. Here, with prolific scripters Xavier Fauche (Lucky Luke, Rantanplan, Percevan, Marsupilami) & Jean Léturgie (Lucky Luke. Rantanplan, Kid Lucky, Percevan, Gastoon, Space Cake) he put his unique brand on the epic but short-lived myth of a crucial communications experiment: one that actually lasted 18 months (April 3rd 1860 to October 26th 1861) but which has gripped imaginations forever-after…

The sly, wry, action-packed yarn opens in Washington DC as Senators welcome California into the United States of America whilst complaining of the administrative problems of its immense distance. Faced with a 30-day stagecoach journey from new State Capital Sacramento to notional outpost of civilisation of St. Joseph Missouri, the government gasbags demand a faster way. However, when their chosen pathfinding frontiersman agent Edson Cody fails to find better more expedient route, the lawmakers offer a reward of $50,000 to anyone able to cut that onerous time lag.

Thus, when inspired entrepreneur William H. Russell has his great idea for a non-stop, horse-powered relay system staffed by a trained team of specialist riders sworn to carry mailbags from coast to heartland in just ten days, hopes are high even though expectations are guarded. There is, of course, opposition from the slowly progressing Pacific Railway Company who want that fifty grand for themselves and immediately begin sabotaging every aspect of the enterprise via the extremely long reach of Sacramento stationmaster Ted Ballast and his mean minions…

Russell’s plan submitted to and accepted by the Senate envisions relay stations of fresh horses and riders every 75 miles of the prospective 1,840 mile route. As it is intended to be non-stop day & night, riders would have to be the best of the best. Thankfully, Russell and ferociously supportive wife Imelda have just made the acquaintance of a quietly capable cowboy…

This Lucky Luke will be vetting candidates, training successful applicants (such as Charley Cliff, Johnny Fry, Nick Wilson, Billy Richardson and 15-year-old living legend in waiting William “Buffalo Bill” Cody) and putting them through the most torturous toughening-up regime imaginable, even as Imelda concerns herself with their emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing. The lads would rather be brutalised again and again than swear off drink, gambling and wimmin, but a job’s a job…

Also heavily involved in the testing and training stage, Jolly Jumper personally ends many applicant riders’ hopes of the fabulously well-paid positions, but also ensures that every steed under them will be at least as fit and twice as smart as its rider…

… And then it’s April 3rd and time for the initial run that will secure the enterprise or crush all their dreams. This is when Ballast’s boys – already a permanent thorn in the Express’ side – go into spoiler overdrive, spreading lies and disinformation, rousing local Indian tribes, faking a Dalton Brothers jailbreak, planting diabolical honeytrap Lola and Her Girls in the couriers’ path, wrecking relay stations along the way, and even tampering with the heartbreaking, arduous wilderness-spanning route.

Lucky & Jolly Jumper handled the first 75 miles with little trouble, but soon after handing over to Charley Cliff, our heroes discover that the Pony Express man has been nobbled and is actually working for Ballast. Not knowing who to trust, Luke decides it’s probably best if he and his trusty horse do the entire 10-day nonstop run themselves…

It’s a sound decision, but one fraught with peril and wonder before they make it to St. Joseph, and even after triumphantly arriving, the weaselly rail ramrods have one last wheeze to employ… which only Luke’s cool calculations can counter…

These youthful forays of an indomitable hero offer grand joys in the tradition of Destry Rides Again and Little Big Man, superbly executed by master storytellers: a brilliant introduction to a unique genre for modern kids who might have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1988 by Morris and Xavier Fauche & Jean Léturgie. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2014 Cinebook Ltd.

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Asterix and Obelix All at Sea


By Uderzo, translated by Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Sphere)
ISBN: 978-0-75284-778-8 (Album PB), 978-0-75284-717-7 (Album HB), 978-1-44401-337-5 (Digital edition)

This book contains Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

It’s still Asterix & Obelix’s 87th Anniversary (for the strip) and 85 years since the first collected Album!

A son of Italian immigrants, Alberto Aleandro Uderzo was born on April 25th 1927 in Fismes on the Marne. As a child reading Mickey Mouse in Le Pétit Parisien he showed artistic flair from an early age and dreamed of becoming an aircraft mechanic. Alberto became a French citizen when he was seven and found employment at thirteen, apprenticed to the Paris Publishing Society, where he learned design, typography, calligraphy and photo retouching.

When World War II began he spent time with farming relatives in Brittany and joined his father’s furniture-making business. Brittany beguiled and fascinated Uderzo: when a location for Asterix‘s idyllic village was being mooted, the region was the only choice. In the post-war rebuilding of France, Uderzo returned to Paris and became a successful artist in the recovering nation’s burgeoning comics industry.

An inveterate traveller, the artistic prodigy met Rene Goscinny in 1951. Soon becoming fast friends, they resolved to work together at the new Paris office of Belgian Publishing giant World Press. Their first collaboration was in November of that year; a feature piece on savoir vivre (how to live right or gracious living) for women’s weekly Bonnes Soirée, following which an avalanche of splendid strips and serials poured forth. Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior were created for La Libre Junior and they resulted in a western starring a “Red Indian” who eventually evolved into the delightfully infamous Oumpah-Pah. In 1955, Uderzo drew Bill Blanchart for La Libre Junior, replaced Christian Godard on Benjamin et Benjamine and in 1957 added Charlier’s Clairette to his portfolio.

The following year, he made his debut in Tintin, as Oumpah-Pah finally found a home and a rapturous audience. Uderzo also drew Poussin et Poussif, La Famille Moutonet and La Famille Cokalane. When Pilote launched in 1959, Uderzo was a major creative force for the new magazine, collaborating with Charlier on Tanguy et Laverdure and launching – with Goscinny – a little something called Asterix…

Although the gallant Gaul was a massive hit from the start, Uderzo continued working on Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure, but once the first hilarious historical romp was collected in an album as Astérix le gaulois in 1961 it became clear the series would demand most of his time – especially since the incredible Goscinny never seemed to require rest or run out of ideas.

By 1967 Asterix occupied all Uderzo’s time and attention, so in 1974 the partners formed Idéfix Studios to fully exploit their inimitable creation. In case you were unaware, Idéfix is also the Franco-Belgian name for Obelix’s little white dog. When Goscinny passed away three years later, Uderzo had to be convinced to continue the adventures as writer and artist,  but eventually resumed to produce a further ten volumes up until 2010 when he retired.

After nearly 15 years as a weekly comic serial subsequently collected into book-length compilations, in 1974 the 21st (Asterix and Caesar’s Gift) was the first published as a complete original album before serialisation. Thereafter each new release was an eagerly anticipated, impatiently awaited treat for the strip’s millions of fans…

Like all the best stories the narrative premise works on more than one level: read it as an action-packed comedic romp of sneaky and bullying baddies coming a-cropper if you want or as a punfully sly and witty satire for older, wiser heads. We Brits are further blessed by the brilliantly light touch of master translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge who played no small part in making the indomitable little Gaul so very palatable to English tongues.

Many of the intoxicating epics are set in various exotic locales throughout the Ancient World, with these Garrulous Gallic Gentlemen reduced to quizzical tourists and bemused commentators in every fantastic land and corner of the civilisations that proliferated in that fabled era. The rest – more than half of the canon – unfold in Uderzo’s beloved Brittany, where, circa 50 B.C., a little hamlet of cantankerous, proudly defiant warriors and their families resisted every effort of the mighty Roman Empire to complete the conquest of Gaul.

The land is divided by the notional conquerors into provinces of Celtica, Aquitania and Amorica, but the very tip of the last just refuses to be pacified…

Whenever the heroes were playing at home, the Romans, unable to defeat the last bastion of Gallic insouciance, futilely resorted to a policy of absolute containment. Thus the little seaside hamlet was permanently hemmed in by heavily fortified garrisons Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium. The Gauls couldn’t care less, daily defying and frustrating the world’s greatest military machine simply by going about their everyday affairs, protected by the miraculous magic potion of resident druid Getafix and the shrewd wits of the diminutive dynamo and his simplistic, supercharged best friend Obelix.

Firmly established as a global brand and premium French export from the mid-1960s onwards, Asterix the Gaul continues to grow in quality as new creators toil ever onward, crafting further fabulous sagas and building a stunning legacy of graphic excellence and storytelling gold…

Uderzo’s sixth solo session was Asterix and Obelix All at Sea (released in 1996 as La Galère d’Obélix) as the 30th volume of the ever-unfolding saga. It opens in the cruel and callous capital of civilisation wherein the Master of the World is having a bit of a bad day. Not as bad, however, as his Grand Admiral Crustacius, who has just allowed a bunch of oar slaves to mutiny and steal Julius Caesar’s personal galley…

As the severely tongue-lashed mariner and his browbeaten aide Vice-Admiral Nautilus scurry away to pursue the fugitives, aboard the magnificent vessel magnificent Greek rebel Spartakis – bearing a striking resemblance to the magnificent actor Kirk Douglas in all his chinny glory – debates with some recently-liberated comrades from many nations on where in the Rome-ruled world they can go to remain free.

A British oarsman then suggests a Gaulish village on the coast of Armorica which the empire has never conquered…

Meanwhile, in the faraway subject of the rebels’ discussions, Asterix & Obelix are in argumentative mood too, but their clash is put aside when word comes that the entire complement of all four encircling garrisons are massing on the far side of the forest. Always eager for a little martial recreation, the villagers dose up on Druid Getafix’s strength-boosting potion. Once again, Obelix is frustrated in his attempt to get a share of the tantalising elixir and stumbles off in high dudgeon. The generally genial giant had fallen into a vat of potion as an infant and grown up a permanently superhuman, eternally hungry hulk who hates being told no and doesn’t believe more of the mouth-watering miracle mixture might harm him…

The Romans are utterly unaware of the danger insouciantly sauntering towards them, engaged as they are in military drills to celebrate the imminent arrival of Admiral Crustacius. Thoroughly thrashing the amassed legions, the victorious Gauls wonder why Roman-bashing addict Obelix is absent and Getafix, dreading the worst, dashes back to discover his greatest fears realised. The intransigent idiot has foolishly imbibed deeply from the potion and been turned to stone and nothing the druid can conceive will cure the calcified colossus!

It’s during this time of trouble that Spartakis and his freed men arrive, seeking sanctuary. As the welcoming villagers carry the huge ornate galley into the village, the Obelix ordeal takes a strange turn as his stony spell wears off and the former fighting fool returns to flesh and blood – albeit as the feeble little boy he was before ever falling into the potion pot. The little wimp can’t even eat roast boar anymore…

The puny pipsqueak is the darling of the town but cannot abide his weak, ineffectual status. The situation becomes truly intolerable after he is captured by Crustacius and shipped off to Rome. After suitably castigating the troops, Asterix, Getafix and faithful mutt Dogmatix give chase in Caesar’s ship, crewed by Spartakis and his valiant band of brothers. Powered by potion, the pursuers easily overtake the Romans, who have been hampered by Obelix’s obnoxious antics and the predations of the perennially, phenomenally unlucky pirates to whom (after the period of traditional chastisement) Asterix awards Caesar’s appropriated galley. Crucially, however, in his haste the little warrior leaves behind a barrel of potion when his comrades and little Obelix all transfer to a new, less conspicuous vessel.

As the Gauls sail off in the pirate’s battered ship, Getafix has an inspired idea, suggesting to Spartakis that they make for the last remnant of Atlantis, explaining that the idyllic Canary Islands survived the inundation of the magic continent and the people living there now are reclusive beings of great power and knowledge who might be able to restore Obelix to his natural state…

When they arrive in that beautiful land of miracles, they are greeted by aged Absolutlifabulos and hordes of beautiful, happy children riding dolphins, centaurs, swans and winged cattle. The jolly dotard explains the Atlanteans reverted themselves to carefree immortal childhood, but their powers cannot do anything to cure Obelix. As the downhearted Gauls make their way home, Spartakis and his men opt to stay and become forever kids too…

Meanwhile on Caesar’s galley, Crustacius has found Getafix’s stashed potion and powered up, dreaming of ousting his foul-tempered boss and making himself Emperor, even as leagues away, a Roman boarding party invades the pirate galley and menaces the powerless Gauls. With Asterix about to be killed, little Obelix goes berserk and the emotional overload restores him to his corpulent, hyper-charged older self, much to the distress of the Roman soldiers…

By the time Crustacius reaches Rome, he has made the same mistake Obelix did and his rapid overdosing on potion only provides Caesar with another statue for the Circus Maximus…

In Gaul, however, Obelix – with a lot of frustration to work through – debarks at recently repaired Aquarium for a spot of cathartic violence before accompanying his faithful chums back to the village for a celebratory feast…

This rollicking fantasy and paean to family and friendship cemented Uderzo’s reputation as a storyteller whilst his stunning illustrative ability affords glimpses of sheer magic to lovers of cartoon art. Asterix and Obelix All at Sea proves the potion-powered paragons of Gallic Pride will never lose their potent punch. If you still haven’t experienced this sublime slice of French polish and graphic élan, it’s never too late…
© 1996 Les Editions Albert René Goscinny/Uderzo. Revised English translations © 1998, 2002 Les Editions Albert René, Goscinny/Uderzo. All rights reserved.

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DC Finest Green Lantern (volume 3) – Hard-Travelling Heroes


By Denny O’Neil, Gardner F. Fox, John Broome, Mike Friedrich, Bob Haney, Gil Kane, Jack Sparling, Mike Sekowsky, Sid Greene, Dick Dillin, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Neal Adams, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, Wallace Wood, Vince Colletta, Bernie Wrightson, John Costanza, Joe Letterese, Ben Oda & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79951-027-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Pure Superhero Sensationalism… 10/10

After a hugely successful revival and reworking of Golden Age all-star The Flash, DC (National Periodical Publications as they were then) built on a resurgent superhero trend. Cover-dated October 1959 and on sale from July 28th, Showcase #22 hit newsstands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comic book (#108) and once again the guiding lights were editor Julie Schwartz and writer John Broome. Assigned as illustrator was genre-versatile action ace Gil Kane.

Brash, cocky test pilot Hal Jordan was in California when an alien cop crashed on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to find a replacement officer: one both honest and without fear. Scanning the planet, the wonder weapon selected Jordan, whisking him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his profession (patrolman of Sector 2814) to the astonished Earthman.

In 6 pages the story established characters, scenario and narrative thrust of a series that would become the spine of all DC continuity. With the concept of the superhero being re-established among the buying public, there was no shortage of gaudily clad competition. Better books thrived by having something a little “extra”. With Green Lantern, that was primarily the superb scripts of John Broome & Gardner Fox and astounding, ever-evolving drawing of Gil Kane (ably abetted by a string of top inkers) whose dynamic anatomy and dramatic action scenes were maturing with every page he drew. Happily, the concept itself was also a provider of boundless opportunity. Other heroes had extraterrestrial, other-dimensional and even trans-temporal adventures, but the valiant champion of this series was also a cop: a lawman working for the biggest police force in the entire universe.

This fabulous but strictly non-digital assemblage gathers Green Lantern #62-82 (July 1968-March 1971) including contemporaneous guest appearances in The Flash #191 and World’s Finest Comics #201. These all follow neatly on from GL’s previous DC Finest compilation, so you should get that too. It has no bearing on your understanding, as these are deftly designed to be read fresh at any stage of your fandom-hood, but they are really good too and I wouldn’t want you to miss out…

At the time this selection of stories began, DC was a company in transition – as indeed was America itself – with new ideas (which in comic book terms meant younger writers) being given greater headway than ever before, an influx of new kids unseen since the very start of the industry, when excitable young artists and writers ran wild with imagination.

However Green Lantern #62 had veteran scribe Gardner Fox providing clever scientific mystery/crime caper ‘Steal Small… Rob Big!’ for Jack Sparling & Sid Greene to limn before Denny O’Neil’s metaphysical, history-warping thriller ‘This is the Way… the World… Ends!’ in #63 sees Hal apparently hallucinating as the Guardians of the Universe seek to support his battle against time-warping despot Gracchus by acting though his so-human subconscious…

Mike Sekowsky & Joe Giella illustrated O’Neil’s ‘Death to Green Lantern’ wherein a long-forgotten minor foe almost destroys the Green Guardian’s reputation before ending his life… Social historians might want to note the early inclusion of benevolent and necessary (as well as favourably depicted and written) hippie flower children acting as more than mere comedic asides: Those times they really were a-changin’…

A return to straight superhero drama comes as Fox, Sekowsky & Giella’s deliver doomsday eco-thriller ‘Dry Up… and Die!’ which apparently ends the criminal career of Doctor Polaris before Broome takes GL back to the future for another planet-saving sci-fi romp in #66’s ‘5708 AD… A Nice Year to Visit – But I Wouldn’t Want to Live Then!’

GL #67 offered two shorter tales, the first of which – ‘Green Lantern Does his Ring Thing!’ by Fox, Dick Dillin & Giella – is a delightful old-school conundrum as old foe Bill Baggett again wrests mental control of the ring away from the Emerald Gladiator whilst ‘The First Green Lantern!’ (Fox & Greene) reveals how the Corps began in the first (and only, I think) of a projected series: Tales of the Power Ring.

Contemporary space opera was the order of the day in intriguing action thriller ‘I Wonder Where the Yellow Went!’ by O’Neil and featuring the wonderfully welcome return of a rejuvenated Gil Kane, aided and abetted by Giella. Kane’s last efforts of the decade on the hero he visually created was to be an eye-popping run of beautiful, dynamic classics, and none more so than the youth-rebellion parable ‘If Earth Fails the Test… it Means War!’, cleverly scripted by Broome and inked by the incomparable Wally Wood.

Vince Colletta inked the less impressive Broome & Kane space spoof ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Earth’, but honour and quality are restored with Broome, Kane & Giella’s tense countdown-to-disaster conundrum ‘The City that Died!’: one of two tales in #71, and one that reintroduced Olivia Reynolds: a potential love interest for Hal whose subconscious mind is a planet-shattering energy source. The second story was another jolly Jordan Brothers yarn by Broome, Dillin & Murphy Anderson, but ‘Hip Jordan Makes the Scene!’ is a regrettably old-fashioned tale of a grifting hippie way out of tune with readers’ sensibilities… and that’s a shame because it is quite funny.

The annual traditional of an Emerald Gladiator/Scarlet Speedster team-up appears next as The Flash #191 hosts the heroes’ perplexing quest to unite and stop another alien catastrophe involving Olivia Reynolds and many marauding robots in Broome, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito’s ‘How to Invade Earth – Without Really Trying!’

Then in Green Lantern #72 O’Neil, Kane & Giella manifest and materialise ‘Phantom of the Space Opera!’ in a visually magical but rather heavy-handed co-opting of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungs (a favourite work of music-loving Kane) transposed to deep space. However, this was more than compensated for by the brilliant two-parter that followed. ‘From Space Ye Came…’ in Green Lantern #73, and climactic conclusion ‘Lost in Space!’ by Mike Friedrich, Kane & Anderson sees an unforgettable clash of ultimate enemies as renegade Green Lantern Sinestro makes a brutal attempt on Jordan’s life using his foe’s unrequited love for Carol Ferris as a psychological wedge. However, the alien mastermind was unaware of just how unstable Ferris was in her dual identity of gem-possessed space amazon Star Sapphire…

With #76 Denny O’Neil would become sole scripter and in collaboration with comics genius Neal Adams completely redefine contemporary superhero strips with relevancy-driven stories. First, though, the opening chapter of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern’s chequered career comes to its glorious swan-song with #75 and ‘The Golden Obelisk of Qward!’ Here the Emerald Crusader and a desperate doctor invaded the antimatter universe to save Olivia Reynolds and destroy a weapon capable of demolishing our galaxy. Broome, Kane & Giella went out on a high note, blending modern sensibilities with the plot-driven sense of wonder and high-octane action which made Green Lantern such an astounding hit and the very foundation stone of DC mythology.

In 1969, after nearly a decade of earthly crimebusting, interstellar intrigue and spectacular science fiction shenanigans, the Silver Age Green Lantern was swiftly becoming one of the earliest big-name casualties of the downturn in superhero sales. Editor Schwartz knew something extraordinary was needed to save the series and the result was a bold experiment that created a fad for socially relevant, ecologically aware, more mature stories which spread throughout costumed hero comics and utterly revolutionised the industry and nigh-radicalised the readers.

Tapping relatively youthful superstar-in-waiting O’Neil and with hyper-realistic artist Neal Adams to produce the revolutionary fare, Schwartz watched in fascinated disbelief as 13 groundbreaking issues captured and encapsulated the tone of the times. These garnered critical praise and awards within the industry and crucially valuable publicity from the real world outside. Sadly, the stories simultaneously registered such poor sales that the series was cancelled anyway, with the heroes unceremoniously packed off to the back of marginally less endangered title The Flash. O’ Neil, in tight collaboration with Adams, assaulted all the traditional monoliths of contemporary costumed dramas with tightly targeted, protest-driven stories. The comic book was re-titled Green Lantern/Green Arrow with the Emerald Archer constantly mouthing off as a hot-headed, liberal sounding-board and platform for a generation-in-crisis, as staid, conservative, quasi-reactionary Hal Jordan played the part of the oblivious but well-meaning old guard.

America was a bubbling cauldron of social turmoil and experimentation. In comic book terms, everything was challenged and ended with GL/GA #76. Cover-dated April 1970, on sale from February 19th, it was the first issue of the new decade and from the start O’Neil & Adams redefined superheroes; transforming complacent establishment masked boy scouts into uncertain, questioning champions and strident explorers of the revolution and enigmatic, apparently self-consuming America.

Inked by Frank Giacoia, ‘No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!’ broke the mould of the medium, re-positioning the very concept of the costumed crusader as newly-impoverished ex-millionaire turned social rebel Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen challenges GL’s cosy worldview. The specific villain du jour is a wealthy landlord whose treatment of his poverty-stricken tenants isn’t actually illegal but certainly is wickedly immoral. Soon the lofty space-cop painfully discovers real villains wear business suits, operate expense accounts, hurt people just because of skin colour and can happily poison their own nests for short-term gain.

Of course, that the story is a magnificently illustrated brilliant crime thriller with science-fiction overtones doesn’t hurt either…

O’ Neil became sole scripter with this story and, in close collaboration with socially “involved” ultra-realistic art-genius Adams, instantly overturned contemporary costumed dramas with their societally-targeted protest-stories. At least the “Ring-slinger” was able to perceive his faults, and was more or less willing to listen to new ideas…

Follow-up ‘Journey to Desolation’ in #77 was every bit as groundbreaking.

At the conclusion of #76 an immortal Guardian of the Universe – affectionately known as “the Old Timer” – is assigned to accompany the Emerald Duo on a voyage to “discover America”: a soul-searching exploration into the dichotomies which divided the nation, and a tremendously popular pastime for the nation’s disaffected citizens back then.

The first stop brought the trio to a poverty-stricken mining town run as a private kingdom by a ruthless entrepreneur happy to use agent-provocateurs and Nazi war criminals to keep his wage slaves in line. When a young protest singer looks likely to become the next Bob Dylan and draw unwelcome publicity, he has to be eliminated… as do the three nosy strangers who drive into town at just the wrong moment…

Although the heroes provide temporary solutions and put away viciously human criminals, these tales were always carefully heavy handed in exposing bigger ills and those issues which couldn’t be fixed with a wave of a Green Ring; invoking an aura of helplessness that was metaphorically emphasised during this story when Hal is summarily stripped of much of his power for no longer being the willing, unquestioning stooge of his officious, high-and-mighty alien masters. Even with Jordan off active duty (but still on-call!), his power levels and actions were still arbitrarily controlled by his little blue bosses…

The confused, now merely-mortal Lantern discovers another unpalatable aspect of human nature in ‘A Kind of Loving, a Way of Death!’ after newly-widowed Black Canary joins the peripatetic cast. Seeking to renew her stalled relationship with Green Arrow, she is waylaid by bikers, grievously injured and taken in by a charismatic hippy guru. Sadly, drop-out Joshua is more Manson than Messiah and his brand of Peace & Love only extends to white people. Everybody else is simply target practise…

The plight of Native Americans was stunningly highlighted in ‘Ulysses Star is Still Alive!’, as corporate logging interests attempt to deprive a mountain tribe of their very last scraps of heritage, again provoking the Green Knights to pick a side and take extraordinarily differing courses of action to help. GL/GA #80 then returns some science fictional gloss in a tale of judicial malfeasance. In ‘Even an Immortal Can Die!’ (inked by Dick Giordano), after the Old Timer uses his powers to save Green Lantern rather than prevent a pollution catastrophe in the Pacific Northwest, he is immediately sanctioned. For his selfish deed he is chastised by his fellow Guardians and dispatched to the planet Gallo for judgement by the supreme arbiters of Law in the universe.

His earth friends accompany him there and find a disturbing new administration with a decidedly off-kilter view of justice in a barbed and telling attack on the then-seen-to-be biased if not corrupt US Supreme Court… same as it ever was…

Adams’ staggering facility for capturing likenesses added extra-piquancy to this yarn that we’re just not equipped to grasp all these decades later, with the usurping, overbearing villain derived from the Judge of the infamous trial of anti-war protesters “The Chicago Eight”

Insight into the Guardians’ history underpins ‘Death Be My Destiny!’ when Lantern, Arrow & Canary travel with the now-sentenced and condemned Old Timer to the ancient planet Maltus (that’s a pun, son: just type Thomas Robert Malthus into your search engine of choice or even look in a book). They arrive on a world literally choking on its own out-of-control population. The uncanny cause of the catastrophe casts an unlovely light on the perceived role and worth of women in modern society…

Penultimately closing on a more traditional note, GL/GA #82 enquired ‘How Do You Fight a Nightmare?’ (with additional inks from Bernie Wrightson) as Lantern Jordan’s greatest foe unleashes Harpies, Alien Amazons and all manner of female furies on the hapless hero before Black Canary & Green Arrow can turn the tide, all whilst asking a few extremely pertinent and extremely pointed questions about women’s rights…

We properly close here with a nifty sidestep into the more cosmic heydays of the hero as World’s Finest Comics #201 (recently converted into a team-up vehicle for Superman), finds Jordan back at full strength and gulled into contesting ‘A Prize of Peril!’ (O’Neil, Dillin & Giella) after clashing with Superman. A close miss in near space prompts a competition to decide whether either Emerald Gladiator or Man of Steel has sole jurisdiction of Earth’s skies; at least that is the ostensible goal, but those adjudicating are not at all what they seem…

Augmented with covers by Kane, Sparling, Adams, Sekowsky, Anderdon, Jack Adler, Jo Kubert, Greene & Joe Giella, these costumed drama romps are in themselves a great read for most ages, but when also considered as the building blocks of all DC continuity they become vital fare for any fan keen to make sense of the modern superhero experience. This blockbusting book showcases the imaginative and creative peak of Broome, Fox & Kane as well as the start of the new world in comics, as a plot-driven plethora of action sagas and masterful thrillers give way to emotive, evocative dramas that literally reshaped the DC Universe. These tales of wit and courage, illustrated with astounding dynamism defined – and marked the end of – the Silver Age of comics and they are still as captivating and engrossing now as they ever were; perhaps even more so. If you love the gloss, scope and glamour of superhero fiction, you will never read better.
© 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Star Trek Archives volume 5: Best of Captain Kirk


By Peter David, James Fry, Gordon Purcell, Arne Starr & various (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-60010-571-5 (TPB) 978-1-62302-507-6 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The stellar Star Trek brand and franchise probably hasn’t reached any new worlds (strange or otherwise) just yet, but it certainly has permeated every aspect of civilisation here on Earth. Even though Canadians saw it first on Sept 6th 1966,“The Man Trap” went out on September 8th in the USA, which is why today is STAR TREK DAY.

The brand is arguably the biggest franchise engine on Earth, permeating every merchandisable sector imaginable. You can find daily live-action and animated screen appearances constantly screening somewhere on the planet, toys, games, conventions, merchandise, various comics iterations generated in a host of nations and languages and a reboot of the assorted movie divisions proceeding apace even as I type this. There’s a wealth of new series – live action and animated, all-ages and strictly adult and even as I just hinted, competing blockbuster film franchises. Like the most hallowed of fiction (Dracula, Tarzan, Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes) the show and its spinoffs have become part of shared human cultural heritage and like Shakespeare & Dickens (and The Simpsons!) the show has added concepts to and enlarged the vocabulary of the language. Happy 60th Birthday Star Trek. Live long and keep on prospering…

Many companies have published comic book adventures based on the exploits of Gene Roddenberry’s immortal brainchild. Currently, IDW have that treasured funnybook license and have combined splendid new tales with a choice selection of older examples from other publishers. A particularly fine extended exploit fills this epic sequence taken from the wonderful run of missions produced under the DC badge during the 1980s and early 1990s. Never flashy or sensational, those tales assiduously and scrupulously referenced the TV and movie canon whilst embracing the same storytelling values, by concentrating on stories simultaneously character-led and plot-driven – and never taking themselves too seriously.

Here Federation history blends seamlessly with suspenseful drama and spectacular action, subtle character interplay, boisterous humour and good old fashioned thrills as much-missed scripter Peter David and his artistic allies concocted a tense, politically-tinged saga first seen; between cover-dates April – September 1990, in issues #7-12 of DC’s monthly Star Trek comic book.

Peter Allen David (23rd September 1956-24th May 2025) wrote thousands of stories: continuity-changing runs on Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk (which he helmed for 12 years), Aquaman,  Supergirl, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Scarlet Spider, The Phantom, Young Justice, Dreadstar, X-Factor and Wolverine, as well as notable runs on countless more. In an industry heavily reliant on adapting media properties, he was the go-to guy for dozens of tie-in titles including all Star Trek books at various companies; Babylon 5; manga import Negima; Halo: Helljumper; Tron and younger reader titles like Powerpuff Girls and The Little Mermaid. His screen credits include Babylon 5 and animated series including Ben 10, Young Justice and Space Cases which he co-created with Bill Mumy. In comics he created or co-created Spiderman 2099, Fallen Angel, Sachs and Violens, Soulsearchers and Co., SpyBoy, The Atlantis Chronicles and so much more.

A tireless scribe and popular culture maven, his nigh 100 prose books include original creations, genre and franchise spin-off  novels for all Star Trek sub-franchises, Babylon 5, Alien Nation, Battlestar Galactica, Swamp Thing, Transformers, novelisations and adaptations, movie, biographies commentary and nonfiction. Outspoken, ferociously liberal, minority-advocating and never, never boring, he was a master of spit-take comedy moments and crushing emotional body blows in his work, and we are all poorer for his passing.

Previously on the Final Frontier: a number of hostile alien races – the Klingons just prior to a grand rapprochement with the Federation – and a now-uncomfortably un-PC fundamentalist species called Nasguls (based on then-contemporary bugbear Iran under the Ayatollahs) had recently fallen foul of James T. Kirk’s unconventional problem-solving methods. Having had enough of that human’s impious interference, the sacred Salla of the Nasguls had placed a planet-sized bounty on the Enterprise’s Captain.

Kirk didn’t care: he always has bigger problems, but finally fed up with his interstellar shenanigans and maverick solutions, Starfleet had appointed civilian protocol officer R. J. Blaise to the USS Enterprise to ensure Kirk behaves properly. Somehow this particular beautiful woman is completely immune to our hero’s amatory charms…

The astral action opens on Earth where Starfleet Vice-Admiral Tomlinson and the Federation President are enduring a fractious and tiresome meeting with the Klingon ambassador and the august Salla himself. The tyrannical aliens have temporarily suspended their disdain for each other and are now (relatively) united in pursuing quasi-legal avenues; seeking to have Kirk cashiered from the service, tried in a Federation court and then (naturally) executed.

Events take a most unwelcome turn in ‘Not… Sweeney!’ (by David, James W. Fry & Arne Starr) as news comes that the most dreaded bounty hunter in the universe has decided to collect the price on Kirk’s head. Although caring little for the death-sentence dogging him, the starship captain is utterly incensed when it adversely affects his job. Despatched to Tau Gamma II to rescue a human colony before the geologically unstable planet shakes itself to bits, Kirk is flabbergasted to find the survivors demanding another ship or to be left to the world’s erratic mercies, rather than endure certain doom when Sweeney comes for the Enterprise’s captain…

Their anxiety proves well-founded when, mere hours later, the infallible stalker arrives with a fleet of ships and instantly attacks…

After a tremendous struggle in ‘Going, Going…’, Kirk – with Spock and Blaise as collateral captives – is confined aboard the disturbingly effete bounty hunter’s flagship and made the star of an impromptu auction. Kirk has made many enemies in his career and a ferocious bidding war begins, but Sweeney’s attentions are soon diverted by the captive Vulcan. The scrupulously polite and terrifyingly brilliant manhunter has never met a prisoner like Spock, and his distracting new fascination eventually leads to Sweeney’s first defeat as Kirk and Blaise break out of the Brig just as competing Klingon and Nasgul forces warp in to claim the prize lot in Sweeney’s auction…

Things come to a head when the situation deteriorates into a petulant shooting war in ‘…Gone!’, leaving Kirk to pull off yet another hairsbreadth escape and even save the Tau Gamma II colonists. However, no longer willing to tolerate the political machinations, Kirk forces the issue to a head by surrendering himself to Federation authorities on Earth and demanding his day in court to clear his name once and for all…

Given the chance for a show trial, the Salla and his Klingon antagonists revel in the chance to destroy the greatest hindrance to their plans and ‘The Trial of James T. Kirk’ opens with ‘The First Thing We Do…’

This story-within-a-story is stuffed with hilarious cameos and vignettes from many old TV episodes (but in an easily accessible manner for newcomers unfamiliar with lore) and sees Kirk’s attorneys Samuel T. Cogsley and Areel Shaw (look them up if you need to) deftly manoeuvre to remove most of the charges whilst rolling out a host of fan-favourites from TV episodes to act as “character witnesses”…

Despite making some telling points, an Enterprise crewman turning to the Dark Side and the frank sworn testimony of R. J. Blaise, the case is clearly going against the Klingons and Nasgul. Thus they individually and clandestinely resort to their respective Plan Bs in ‘…Lets Kill All the Lawyers!’ The bellicose warrior race fly in their own Emperor to give personal testimony and demand Kirk’s destruction, whilst the fundamentalist tyrant of the Nasgul opts for a far more hands-on and devastatingly final solution…

Pencilled by Gordon Purcell, the saga explosively concludes in ‘Trial and Error!’ as deft work by Spock and the Bridge Crew uncover a plot to eradicate the courtroom and everyone in it, leading to a cessation of hostilities between Federation and Klingons and Kirk’s full exoneration.

Sadly, those efforts completely fail to expose the treacherous mole high in Star Fleet Command who was crucial to instigating the entire affair…

This tale is pure classic Trek. Fans loved it then and you will now. It’s also a superb example of how to do a licensed property in comic form, and readers and wannabe creators should buy and take note. Balancing action and drama are captivating moments of interpersonal byplay filling out the roles of beloved characters like Uhura & Sulu and – as you’d expect from Peter David – the story is packed with outrageously hilarious quotable moments…

These yarns are magical romps of fun and thrills fully embracing and enhancing canonical Star Trek for the dedicated devotee, offering memorable comic book adventure for followers of our art-form and, most importantly, providing an important bridge between the insular world of fans and the wider mainstream. Stories like these about such famous characters can only bring more people into comics and isn’t that what we all want?
Star Trek ® and © 2009 CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc.

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Black Panther: Panther’s Quest


By Don McGregor, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer, with Glynis Oliver, Mike Rockwitz, Gregory Wright, Joe Rosen, Jade Moede & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0803-4 (TPB), 978-1-3025-0149-5 (Digital edition)

Lauded as the first black superhero in American comics and one of the first to carry his own series, The Black Panther‘s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since the 1960s when he first attacked the Fantastic Four (in #52; cover-dated July 1966) as part of an elaborate plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.

There, T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of an incredible vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which that country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which had struck the continent in primeval antiquity – had powered his country’s rapid transformation into a technological wonderland. Moreover, that tribal wealth had long been guarded by a hereditary feline-garbed champion deriving physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious “heart-shaped herb” that ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s warrior Panther Cult.

Lyrical intellectual Don McGregor had already immortalised T’Challa in a stunning 1970s periodical run which produced the revered Panther’s Rage saga and controversial follow-up Panther vs the Klan storyline. Then, after years away from the mainstream, and crafting groundbreaking original graphic novels (OGNs) like Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species and Detectives Inc., as well as series including Ragamuffins & Nathaniel Dusk, McGregor was lured back to his roots to spin a shocking saga of contemporary intolerance and the end-days of South African Apartheid. He was joined by a semi-regular collaborator whose credentials in crafting human-scaled tales of adventure, horror and empathetic emotional drama were second to none. He was also one of the industry’s earliest exponents of strong black characters…

Eugene Jules “Gene” Colan (September 1st 1926 – June 23rd 2011) was one of comics’ greatest talents: a quietly professional artist who valued accuracy and authenticity in his work, whether it was science fiction, horror, war, satirical humour or the vast number of superheroes he brought to life. A devotee of classic adventure strips in the newspapers, Colan studied at the Art Students League of New York, before beginning his own narrative illustration career in 1944 (on Wings Comics) before military service in the Philippines. The war had just ended and Colan had leisure time to draw for local paper The Manilla Times. By 1946 he was a civilian again, and working for Stan Lee’s Atlas on crime and supernatural stories. He illustrated the last Golden Age sighting of Captain America (Captain America’s Weird Tales #75; February 1950), an all-horror issue with no superhero material at all. It was like a sign…

As the industry radically transformed, Colan began freelancing at DC/National Comics whilst remaining a mainstay of Atlas. His assignments increasingly focused on new genres of War Stories and Romance. When Superhero stories returned, he moved exclusively to Marvel (barring some monochrome horror stories done for Archie Goodwin at Warren Magazines), where his dynamic realism offered a powerful alternative to the graphic styles of Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita & Don Heck. Colan became renowned for his long stint on Daredevil (where he created blind black detective Willie Lincoln); Captain America; Doctor Strange; Iron Man; The Avengers; Sub-Mariner & Howard the Duck. During this period he co-created the Guardians of the Galaxy, two Captain Marvels (Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers), drew all of Tomb of Dracula (thereby introducing Blade the Vampire Slayer to the world) and was responsible for another black comic book icon and the nation’s first African American costumed hero, The Falcon.

In the 1980s he moved to DC, working on Batman; Superman; Wonder Woman and The Spectre; co-creating Night Force, Silverblade, Jemm, Son of Saturn and period private eye Nathanial Dusk, before expanding into independent comics at the forefront of innovation marking the rise of the Direct Sales Market. His later career was blighted by health issues, but he continued drawing whenever he could, for various companies. On one of his periodic returns to Marvel he reunited with McGregor for this astounding tale, originally serialised over 25 chapters in fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents (# 13-37, February-December 1989). In this collected tome the entire affair is preceded by ‘To Follow the track of The Great Cat with renewed wonder on his Panther’s Quest (From “Panther’s Rage” to “Panther’s Prey”)’ a typically effulgent yet informative Introduction by author McGregor…

One of the most thought-provoking mainstreaming comics tales ever released, Panther’s Quest added pressure to an ever-expanding Anti-Apartheid movement in comics and western media, by examining not only the condition of racial inequality but also turning a damning eye on sexual oppression and domestic abuse. Whether in his numerous solo series or as part of superteams including The Avengers, Fantastic Four or Ultimates, the Black Panther has always been one of Marvel’s most politically strident and socially-crusading characters. This is a book I’m certain Chadwick Boseman would have admired and supported…

Inked in its entirety by perfect work partner Tom Palmer, coloured by Glynis Oliver, Mike Rockwitz & Gregory Wright with lettering by Joe Rosen & Jade Moede, it begins on a dark night as the Panther infiltrates neighbouring totalitarian nation South Africa. Here a white minority oppresses the millions of blacks living there. T’Challa has heard ‘A Rumour of Life’ and come seeking his stepmother Ramonda. His father’s second spouse had raised the bereaved boy when T’Challa’s birth mother died, but one day when he was only three, she vanished and no one would speak of her. Now, he’s invaded the most dangerous land on Earth – for his kind – in search of answers from unscrupulous information peddler Patrick Slade…

‘Forgotten Corpses’ sees that clandestine meeting abruptly and brutally interrupted by white paramilitaries who seek to kill them – but without alerting the ever-vigilant police or security services…

McGregor has always a fascination with the real effects and consequences of violence, and this tale contains some pretty shocking moments that might make many readers wince. Suffice it to say, I’m staying vague throughout this review, but will confirm that vicious brute Elmer Gore graphically tortures the Panther with barbed wire in ‘Lost Blood in Copper Dust’, leading to our maimed hero staggering into the arms of ‘The Man Who Loved Sunrise’. Oppressed miner and narrative point-man Zanti Chikane is a miner/second class citizen crushed by his intolerable life, but he still overcomes his understandable caution to offer assistance to torn, bleeding T’Challa. That leads to Zanti’s own brush with death as white killers employ what they consider ‘Reasonable Force’ against the suspects, before being trounced by the still fighting cat-man…

The scene changes for ‘Naked Exposures’ as government Magistrate of Communications Anton Pretorius orders his battered, shamed and furious private security minions to capture an invading masked terrorist dubbed Black Panther. Apparently, this invader is a threat to national security but the mercenaries need no other reasons to kill the treacherous “kaffir”. Just to be sure though, Pretorius also uses his position to send out a nationwide TV alert…

‘Battered Artifacts’ sees T’Challa tracking Slade to an impoverished township, unaware that he’s under surveillance and about to step into the other side of deadly politics that wracked South Africa at this time. ‘Hatred under Tears’ sees the Magistrate’s mercenaries attack, uncaring of small children they are endangering. As “the Great Cat” stops to aid a tear-gassed toddler, ‘Justifiable Action’ sees him shot for his efforts and arrested in ‘Personal Risk’ prior to breaking free and escaping…

‘The Official Version’ gives T’Challa a stiff lesson in realpolitik from Slade’s wife even as the State intensifies its hunt for him, with Security Minister Doeke Riebeek officially branding the entire emergency a communist plot…

In the township, ‘Voices Heard, Voices Ignored’ has Zanti pondering the terrifying dangers to his family before returning to aid the Panther, whilst ‘A Right to Kill’ reveals Riebeek beginning to suspect Magistrate Pretorius might have ulterior motives for his actions. Elsewhere, enraged township men are moving against a suspected traitor, determined that ‘Somebody’s Going to Pay’. They’re carrying petrol and tyres needed for the appalling punishment they call “necklacing”. Do not google it or buy this book if you have a weak stomach…

When the Panther acts to save a life, he is horribly burned, even as events escalate to total tragedy when ‘Last Night I Wept for Freedom’ shows how the boy he helped returns the favour and pays the ultimate price, despite his own superhuman efforts and an initially-reluctant intervention by a white doctor in ‘Lost Promises’…

Traumatised and repentant, T’Challa returns to Slade whose ‘Dark Maneuvers’ lead them into a trap laid by Pretorius’ mercenaries in ‘So Many Nameless Enemies’. The battle is brief but results in a crucial clue in the true quest, as the trader reveals how, years ago, he learned of a black woman held in glittering bondage for decades at the home of a high-ranking government official…

‘Chances’ see Riebeek and his forces close in as T’Challa follows his clue to Johannesburg to confront one of the mercs in ‘The Great Cat in the City of Gold’. Now ferociously focused on finding Pretorius, the Panther & Zanti attempt to save his precious Wakandan stealth-ship from being captured by Riebeek in ‘Losing Control’… but at a terrible cost.

After ‘Saying Goodbye’, the Panther’s quest moves into its endgame as T’Challa invades Pretorius’ luxurious citadel, circumventing deadly ‘Barriers’ and crushing human and canine ‘Opponents’ (still more grimly authentic action in need of a strong stomach advisory), to ultimately rescue Ramonda from the luxurious cell she has inhabited ever since Pretorius abducted her decades ago.

The tyrannical hypocrite’s obsessive, abusive passion for her was also his downfall: a secret vice capable of destroying him in a nation and government that decreed interracial mixing immoral and illegal. Ultimately, it’s Ramonda who decrees his fate whilst enjoying a ‘Dawn Reunion’ with her long-lost child…

Available in trade paperback and digital editions and augmented by a full cover gallery and pinups from Marvel Fanfare #47 (by Bill Reinhold & Linda Lessman) and #45 (Steve Rude & Steve Oliff) this is the most important Black Panther tale you’ll ever read. So do.
© 2018 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

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Farewell, Brindavoine


By Tardi, translated by Jenna Allen (Fantagraphics)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-433-9 (Album HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic & literary effect and to make a point.

Credited with creating a new style of expressionistic illustration subsequently dubbed “the New Realism”, Jacques Tardi is one of the greatest comics creators in the world, blessed with singular vision and adamantine ideals. A strident anti-war activist, he apparently refused France’s greatest honour because he wanted to be completely free to say and create what he wants.

Tardi was born in the Commune of Valence, Drôme in 1946, studying at École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and prestigious Parisian École Nationale Supérieure des arts décoratifs. He launched his comics career in 1969 at home of modern French comics Pilote with the series we’re looking at today, as first seen in 1972-1973. From illustrating stories by Jean Giraud, Serge de Beketch and Pierre Christian, he moved on to westerns, crime tales and satirical works in magazines like Record, Libération, Charlie Mensuel & L’Écho des Savanes, whilst graduating to adapting prose novels by Louis-Ferdinand Céline & Léo Malet.

The latter’s detective Nestor Burma was the subject of all-new albums written and drawn by Tardi once the established literary canon was exhausted, and led to the creation of Polonius in Métal Hurlant (1976) and the now-legendary Les Aventures Extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec: an epic “gaslamp” period fantasy running in daily periodical Sud-Ouest. The series numbers 10 tomes thus far and inhabits the same pocket reality as the star of this book.

Our passionate raconteur has crafted crushingly powerful anti-war books and stories (C’était la guerre des tranchées, Le trou d’obus, Moi, René Tardi, prisonnierde guerre au Stalag IIB and others) dealing with the common soldier’s plight; written novels; created radio series; worked in movies and co-created – with writer Jean Vautrin – Le Cri du Peuple: a quartet of albums about the Parisienne revolt of the Communards.

This lavish full-colour extravaganza began life as Adieu Brindavoine, offering obscure, complex yet enticingly shady political intrigues; dastardly plutocratic plotters and cast-iron-&-clockwork chic in a grand mode of Victoriana & Edwardiana; and saw Tardi proclaimed in later years the “Godfather of Steampunk”. His surreally-structured, absurdist episodes and incidents – strung together in nigh-stream-of-consciousness mode – work best on the visual perceptions with dialogue used only to ensure clarity or bemuse perception…

Following a context-supplying appreciation in Benoît Mouchart’s Preface, we begin in Neuilly-Sur-Seine in May 1914, as an aged messenger braves the cluttered and controversial home of gentleman photographer Lucien Brindavoine. Surly Basil Zarkhov has a startling and potentially life-changing proposition, but is gunned down by a skylight-shattering intruder before he can share it. However, thanks to his deathbed exposition, Lucien is soon heading by steamship for Istanbul, and another risky meeting…

Constantly encountering strikingly odd individuals, Lucien is soon unwillingly partnered with effetely obnoxious intoxicated Englishman Mr. Oswald Carpleasure and hurtling across the desert towards Afghanistan in a battered motor vehicle. In their immediate future is a fantastic lost city, but the sinister gunman is in hot pursuit, with wicked Olga Vogelgesang also determined to destroy them from her deadly state-of-the-military-art biplane…


After much privation and bewilderment, Lucien finally reaches the lost Iron City and is greeted by the orchestrators of many of his woes. Learning of an incredible plutocratic plot affords him little comfort, but before long the baroque devils in nominal charge fall upon each other like deranged wolves, enabling – if not compelling – Brindavoine to flee in the most advanced passenger craft in the world…

Thanks to a breaking world war, he doesn’t get far.

Following the tale’s conclusion, a compelling comic epilogue from a previously unseen narrator (think The Rocky Horror Show) deviously adds to the confusion by “explaining” what’s happened and what will be Lucien’s ultimate fate before introducing a thematic follow-up.

‘Lambs to the Slaughter’ is set in November 1914 with deserters from all the armies involved holing up in a shattered church. Plagued by visions of perfect pasts and potential tomorrows, they are utterly unprepared for when the mad military of today finds them…

Bizarre, visually resplendent, darkly funny, evocative and deliciously challenging, Farewell, Brindavoine is a comic tour de force on every level and a sublime example of how fashion, fantasy and futurism can work miracles when woven together by a master craftsman.

This edition of Farewell, Brindavoine © 2021 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. Adieu Brindavoine © 2011 Casterman. Translation © 2021 Jenna Allen. Preface © 2021 Benoît Mouchart. All rights reserved.

Today in 1909, British strip stalwart Barry Appleby (The Gambols) was born, sharing birthday honours with groundbreaking manic maestro Robert Crumb (My Troubles with Women, Fritz the Cat, Mr Natural, The Book of Genesis) in 1943 and utterly amazing Jacques Tardi (It Was the War of the Trenches!, Nestor Burma, Griffu, Ici Même, Tueur de cafards, Tueur de cafards,) in 1946. Fellow natal newcomers include writer/editor Jack C. Harris (Kamandi, Wonder Woman, The Ray), in 1947 and letterer/typographer Ken Bruzenac (American Flagg!, E-Man, Mr Monster) in 1952.

We lost Belgian actress and that nation’s very first woman cartoonist Jeanne Hovine AKA Anne-Marie Ferrières (Nic et Nac) in 1992; French artist Raymond Poïvet (Colonel X, Guy Lebleu, Mam’zelle Nitouche, Les Pionniers de l’Espérance) in 1999; colourist Bob LeRose in 2006 and Spanish artist Roger Subirachs i Burgaya, (Vaselín y Loto, Emili Piula, Destino Gris) in 2017.