Category: Satire/Politics

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Lucky Luke volume 45: Tying The Knot


By Achdé & Laurent Gerra, in the style of Morris and coloured by Anne-Marie Ducasse: translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-188-4 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times, although if you were of a mean-spirited mien or read recent news you might as easily say “This book includes Discriminatory Content produced by French men of a certain age and disposition”.

On the Continent, the general populace has a mature relationship with comics: according them academic and scholarly standing as well as meritorious nostalgic value and the validation of acceptance as an actual art form. That frequently means that what we English-speakers too-readily define and dismiss just by depending on art style and first glance as For Kids or Not For Kids can contain material and themes many parents are not keen on their spawn knowing too soon… or even ever. In their mother tongues, attitudes and even snarky political and social commentary are all over children’s icons like Asterix or Lucky Luke: just another reason parents should read these gems with and during their offsprings’ formative years. Just a friendly warning…

Doughty, dashing and dependable cowboy “good guy” Lucky Luke is an even-tempered do-gooder able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around the mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant and rather sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. For nearly 80 years, his exploits have made him one of the top-ranking comic characters in the world.

Originator Morris crafted enough material for nine albums before allying with René Goscinny (Asterix, Iznogoud, Le Petit Nicolas, Oumpah-Pah) to co-craft 45 albums before the writer’s untimely death. Thereafter Morris soldiered on both singly and with other collaborators, going to the Last Roundup in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar sagebrush sagas with Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more: all taking their own shot at the venerable vigilante with writer Jul, taking on the storytelling role from 2016.

Lucky Luke has a long history in Britain, at first pseudonymously amusing and enthralling young readers in the late 1950s, syndicated to weekly anthology Film Fun. He rode back into comics-town in 1967 for comedy paper Giggle, using nom de plume Buck Bingo. And that’s not counting the numerous attempts to establish him as a book star, beginning in 1972 with Brockhampton Press and continuing via Knight Books, Hodder Dargaud UK, Ravette Books and Glo’Worm, until Cinebook finally found the right path in 2006.

The taciturn trailblazer regularly interacts with historical and legendary figures as well as even odder fictional folk in tales drawn from key themes of classic cowboy films – as well as some uniquely European notions, and interpretations. As previously hinted, the sagebrush star is not averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire.

Cinebook’s 45th Lucky Luke album was officially the 74th individual exploit of the frontier phenomenon, originally appearing au continent in 2006 as La Corde au cou by Achdé & Laurent Gerra. It’s been translated as From the Gallows to the Altar or, as here, the comfortably ambiguous Tying the Knot…

In what looks now like a moment of timely prescience, this tale simultaneously addresses issues of executive expedience, jurisprudence and imbalanced sexual politics as the incoming US President instantly settles the overwhelming problem – and cost – of overcrowded jails by arbitrarily commuting prison full life tariffs into death sentences. With their consecutive time calculated as a further 387 years, appalling arch-bandits the Dalton (Averell, Jack, William and devious, slyly psychotic, dominant diminutive Joe) are the most vicious and feared outlaws in America, and promptly moved to death row with 14 days to wait until they stop being a problem to decent citizens…

Old adversary Lucky is astounded by the news and heads straight for the prison, where the panicked siblings are seeking any means of escape. Thanks to corrupt, incarcerated Judge Portly, they find it in matrimony. An old law states that if any woman will wed a gallows bird, the sentence is quashed, prompting ruthless Ma Dalton to undertake a frantic hunt for a quartet of desperate idiots willing, lonely or bribe-able women to hitch to her horrible boys. The task proves near-impossible – especially as most of the boys would rather die than “settle down” – but when the noose tightens and absolutely no woman (no matter how fallen) can be found, salvation comes from the Flat Heads tribal reservation where the daughters of wily Chief Cheerful Eagle (grotesquely formidable Little Moon, Hissing Viper, Clairvoyant Mole and adopted gamin Prairie Flower) are quite coincidentally all hunting for husbands and prepared to not look too closely…

Suspecting a trick and expecting a double cross, PotUS appoints Lucky Luke as watchdog (accompanied by dopey mutt Rin Tin Can) to ensure the treacherous villains stay faithful to their vows and out of trouble. Thus the gunslinger is a gleeful witness to a different kind of penal servitude as the Daltons daily learn the downsides of matrimony in a somewhat inappropriate and unnecessary barrage of unreconstructed gags redolent of 1970s UK sitcoms disparaging “’Er Indoors…” whilst depicting acts of battleaxe/tartar/harridan schtick…
The horrible things the Daltons endure soon have repercussions for the entire country, when Cheerful Eagle’s true intentions are exposed. Soon the bandits are schooling Flat Heads in the arts of robbery, plundering and terrorism, advancing a bold scheme to destroy America’s devotion to and dependence upon money. With the nation’s economy and true god existentially endangered, Lucky must swing into action again, just like he always knew he would have to…

Best suited to older kids with some historical perspective and social comprehension – and although the excellent action and slapstick situations constantly war with sexist undercurrents – this is an episode that could divide purist fans and those with modern sensibilities, although anyone not offended by movies like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers or Paint Your Wagon won’t have too much to moan about.
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 2006 by Achdé & Gerra. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2014 Cinebook Ltd.

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The Complete Just a Pilgrim


By Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra with Paul Mounts, Ken Wolak, Chris Eliopoulos & various (Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-60690-003- (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-60690-007-9 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the entire planet ruminates on what about to happen and ponders how many different kinds of “American Dream” can coexist, let’s go back to a future that never happened – yet – but look less like harmless fiction every day…

Like its troubled protagonist, Just a Pilgrim is a much-travelled item that never sat comfortably anywhere, but still has much to recommend it. Originally miniseries Just a Pilgrim (2001) and sequel Just a Pilgrim: Garden of Eden (2002), the property started at Blackbull Comics with Britain’s Titan Books releasing trade paperback compilations, before this deluxe hardcover/soft cover/digital edition from Dynamite Entertainment.

Fleetway veterans Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra have a long association with war comics and the apocalyptic visions of alternate lifestyle bible 2000AD, so combining their kindred sensibilities for near-future post-apocalyptic adventures always pays off in visceral hits and giggles. Since the 5-part miniseries spawned an almost immediate follow-up, they must have been more or less correct, but as the volatile state of the comics industry ended many indie companies at that time, this compilation comes to us via media/intellectual property specialists Dynamite…

Moreover, co-creator Ennis stated that even after past works and collaborations with Carlos Ezquerra (such as Bloody Mary and Adventures in the Rifle Brigade) he was keen to push the envelope on the mythology and iconography of the classic movie western hero/antihero.

The black sardonic ironies of Judge Dredd, Preacher, Hellblazer and True Faith are not present in this exploration of Christian indoctrination ascendant produced with veteran combat illustrator Carlos Ezquerra for Black Bull Comics way back in 2001 and 2002.

This treat is garnished and flavoured with all the iconic spaghetti western tropes and themes of Clint Eastwood via traditional “a man’s gotta do…” John Wayne nonsense taken to its outrageous but so logical extremes, but be warned: in this exploration of religious fanaticism there’s not much room (some, not a lot…) for the cruel, ultra-violent gross-out stuff that made Hitman, The Boys and A Train Called Love such guilty pleasures.

Behind that gripping Mark Texiera cover is a yarn steeped in classic western lore and references as an embattled wagon train picks its way through hostile territory and appalling predators. The kid who is our narrator and viewpoint is helplessly drawn to a charismatic stranger his parents fear but cannot survive without, and death is absolutely everywhere…

The saga of this particular Man With No Name happens on a parched Earth that has been subjected to a vast solar flare that dried up the oceans.

Following Mark Waid’s text preamble ‘If You Call This Introduction “Just an Introduction,” I’ll F***ing Kill You’ the story unfolds in little Billy Shepherd’s own diarised words. The kid is 10½ and riding across the dusty Atlantic floor from sunken wreck to sundered bleaching hulk in ‘Anno Domini’ when raiders attack the convoy of migrant families in search of better lives. Thankfully, the sea floor foragers are singlehandedly driven off by a big guy with a strange long gun and crucifix-scarred face.

The newcomer is murderously pious and after despatching the bandits to their final judgement, offers to guide the trekker through the wastes and awful mutant beasts inhabiting the region to possible wetter climes. Sadly, his staunch resistance has made them all the sole concern of obsessive psychotic quadriplegic blind pirate king Castenado, who diverts all his plundered resources and army of “Buckers” to destroying him and the intruders he’s protecting beginning in ‘To Reign in Hell’…

Despite his upstanding Christian values, the Pilgrim terrifies everyone but Billy and as the brutal voyage and attacks continue, he is finally recognised for the monstrous infamous sinner he used to be – a grisly tale told in of cannibalism and redemption recounted in ‘Bloody Baskets’ before the inevitable showdown with Castenado and his horde in ‘Firestarter’ and blistering conclusion in the Alamo-like mouldering ruins of the Titanic in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’…

One year later Just a Pilgrim: Garden of Eden sees the wanderer faithfully reading not only the Bible but also Billy’s diary as he discovers a recess in the pacific ocean floor where water still exists; supporting abundant vegetation and a small colony of scientists. The ‘Marianas’ oceanic trench is a staging post where techs seek to fix up a space shuttle to take them all to a new less hostile world. However, under constant insidious assault, and picked off by mutant creatures that reanimate the dead, they are willing to suspend their distrust of the religious maniac if he can stop the killings. It’s an ill-judged compromise as the deaths mount in ‘To the Stars by Hard Ways’ and the colonists are further split by the Pilgrim’s ruthless and sanctimonious safeguarding actions. Most vocal is Dr Christine Page who clashes with him constantly but after he gifts her Billy’s diary she begins to realise how much the fanatic has actually already softened…

When the dead-riders attack in force and torch the garden, little girl Maggy is taken below ground and the Pilgrim leads a doomed rescue party after her. In face of their latest losses, and a most appalling act that has debased them all, the scientists make ready to leave Earth, giving the outcast one last chance to save Maggy and join them in a ‘Last Supper’ that only goes even more wrong. As fate signals the end of humanity’s time on Earth and forces the fanatical zealot to reexamine his beliefs and ask ‘Why Has Thou Forsaken Me?’ the apostle of the apocalypse ends his crusade in the only way he ever could…

If you were wondering, colours come courtesy of Paul Mounts & Ken Wolak, with Chris Eliopoulos lettering this violently engaging, sublimely cathartic and painfully accurate prognostication of what lies in store for us…

Supplementing the iconographic saga is a map of the dry world and travel progress of the Pilgrim, a Cover Gallery of 15 variants by Steve Dillon, Joe Jusko, Mark Texiera, Tim Bradstreet, J.G. Jones, Glenn Fabry, Kevin Nowlan, Bill Sienkiewicz, John McCrea and Dave Gibbons, backed up by an 8-page Pin-Up Gallery from Amanda Conner, McCrea, Nelson, Darick Robertson, Paul Mounts and Jimmy Palmiotti, before closing with a Sketchbook section packed with roughs and character designs by Ezquerra, Jusko and Jones.

Excessively violent, trenchant, savagely satirical, gripping and never less than totally thrilling, this slice of dark, theology shows Ennis and much-missed Ezquerra at their anarchic best, offering an everyman view of all the hell-and-stupidity we can expect.

These are grown-up comics at its very best and long overdue for their rightful place on your bookshelf or in your digital library.
™ & © 2008 Wizard Entertainment. All rights reserved.

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OMAC – One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby



By Jack Kirby with D. Bruce Berry, Mike Royer, Joe Kubert & various (DC)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-1026-6 (TPB) 978-1-4012-1790-7 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There’s a magnificent abundance of Kirby collections in print, but none seem more prescient than this compact gem of dark prognostication that “The King” (perhaps thankfully) never lived long enough to see come true in all the ways that most matter…

This oft-compiled collection re-presents possibly his boldest, most bombastic and most heartfelt creation after the comics landmark that was Jack Kirby’s Fourth World cycle.

Famed for larger than life characters and gigantic, cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual man who had lived through poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II. He experienced pre-war privation, post-war optimism and opportunism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures, but always looked to the future while understanding human nature intimately. In OMAC: One Man Army Corps, he gave his darkest assumptions and prognostications free rein, with his “World That’s Coming” now proving far too close to the world we’re frantically trying to escape or save right now…

In 1974, with his newest creations inexplicably tanking at DC, Kirby tentatively considered a return to Marvel, but – ever the consummate professional – he scrupulously carried out every detail of an increasingly onerous and emotionally unrewarding DC contract. When topical supernatural star turn The Demon was cancelled, the King needed another title to maintain his Herculean commitments (he was legally obliged to deliver 15 completed pages of art and story per week!) and returned to an idea he had shelved back in 1968. That was to re-interpret Captain America for a possible future where all Kirby’s direst suspicions and fears could be made manifest. In 1974 he revisited those anxieties: producing a nightmare scenario that demanded not a hero but a warrior.

Dubbing his Day-After-Tomorrow dystopia “The World That’s Coming”, Kirby let his mind run free – and scared – to birth a frighteningly close appreciation of our “Now”, where science and wealth have outstripped compassion and reason, whilst circumventing law and ethics, as humanity teeters on the brink of self-inflicted global annihilation. His thoughts then are represented here in the editorial that accompanied the premier issue…

OMAC #1 launched with a September/October 1974 cover-date, introducing the Global Peace Agency, a world-wide Doomwatch-style police force who manufactured a super-soldier to course-correct mankind and crisis-manage the constant threats to a species with hair-trigger fingers on nuclear stockpiles, chemical weapons of mass destruction and made-to-measure biological horrors. Base, uncontrolled human nature is the true threat manifested in this series, and that was first demonstrated by decent young man Buddy Blank who – whilst working at Pseudo-People Inc. – discovers that their euphemistically entitled Build-A-Friend division hides a far darker secret than merely pliant girls who come in kit-form (I believe we finally have those now, too, for those with much money but no moral compass…)

Luckily Buddy has been singled out by the GPA’s resident genius Professor Myron Forest for eternal linkage to sentient satellite Brother Eye. His atoms shifted and reconstructed, Buddy is fundamentally restructured and rebuilt to become a living God of War, and the new-born human weapon easily destroys his ruthless employers before their murderous plans can be fully realised. ‘Buddy Blank and Brother Eye’ was followed by a truly prophetic tale, wherein impossibly wealthy criminal Mister Big purchases an entire city simply to assassinate Professor Forest in ‘The Era of the Super-Rich!’

Kirby’s tried and trusted approach was always to pepper high concepts throughout blazing action, and #3 was the most spectacular yet. OMAC fought ‘One Hundred Thousand Foes!’ to get to murderous Marshal Kafka, terrorist leader of a rogue state and a private army, arsenal of WMDs and solid belief that the United Nations can’t touch him. Sound familiar…? That incredible clash carries on and concludes in #4’s ‘Busting of a Conqueror!’, whilst in #5, Kirby moved on to other, newer crimes for the new world. The definition of a criminal tends to blur when you can buy anything – even law and justice – but rich old people cherry-picking young men and women for brain-transfer implantation is (hopefully) always going to be a no-no. Still, you can sell or plunder specific organs even now…

Busting the ‘New Bodies for Old!!’ racket took two issues, and after the One-Man-Army-Corps smashed ‘The Body Bank!’ he embarked on his final adventure. Ecological disaster and water shortage was the theme of the last tale, but as our hero trudges across a dry, desolate lake bottom amidst the dead and dying marine life he is horrified to discover the disaster is the work of one man. ‘The Ocean Stealers!’ (#7) introduced scientific madman Doctor Skuba, who mastered atomic manipulation techniques that had turned feeble Buddy Blank into an unstoppable war machine.

Joe Kubert crafted the cover to final outing OMAC #8. ‘Human Genius Vs Thinking Machine’ was an epic ending seeing Brother Eye apparently destroyed with Skuba and Buddy perishing together in a cataclysmic explosion. But that final panel was a hasty, last-minute addition by unknown editorial hands, for the saga never actually finished. Kirby – his contract completed – had promptly returned to Marvel and new challenges such as Black Panther, Captain America, 2001, Devil Dinosaur, Machine Man and especially The Eternals.

Hormone treatments, Virtual Reality, medical computers, satellite surveillance, genetic tampering and all the other hard-science predictions in OMAC pale into insignificance against Kirby’s terrifyingly accurate social observations in this bombastic and tragically incomplete masterpiece. OMAC is Jack Kirby’s Edwin Drood: an unfinished symphony of such power and prophecy that it informs not just the entire modern DC universe and inspires ever more incisive and intriguing tales from the King’s artistic inheritors but still presages more truly scary developments in our own mundane and inescapable reality. As always in these wondrously economical collections it should be noted that the book includes many Kirby pencilled pages, confirming his artistry was always a match for his imagination.

Jack Kirby is unique and uncompromising. If you’re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind. That doesn’t alter the fact that Kirby’s work from 1937 to his death in 1994 shaped the entire American comics scene, affected the lives of billions of readers and thousands of creators in all areas of artistic endeavour around the world for generations and still wins new fans and apostles every day, from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. His work is instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral, deceptively deep whilst being simultaneously mythic and human: and just plain Great. Let’s hope there will be future generations around to enjoy them…
© 1974, 1975, 2021 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Judge Anderson PSI Files volume 01


By Alan Grant, John Wagner, Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson, Robin Smith, Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, Mark Farmer, Mick Austin, David A. Roach, Arthur Ranson, Carlos Ezquerra, Kim Raymond & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-90673-522-7 (TPB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

A wellspring of spin-off creativity, Britain’s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD. As such he’s also spawned a rich world where other stars have been born and thrived…

Judge Dredd and the ultra-dystopian environs of Mega-City One were created by a creative committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, with the majority contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and several pseudonymous names.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper and usually more efficient than humans. Jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity and boredom has reached epidemic proportions. Almost everybody is just one askance glance away from mental meltdown. Judges are pot-watching peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs in a vast bubbling cauldron: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

They are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is that the entire milieu is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action. Just keep telling yourself, some situations demand drastic solutions…

In 1980 and Progs (that’s tomorrow-talk for issue number) #149-151 – January 26th-February 9th – with continuity and scenario firmly established, Wagner, writing as John Howard, introduced Judge Death: an undead lawman from an alternate Earth, whose Judges, faced with the same interminable problems as our world, took their creed to its only logical conclusion. If all crime is perpetrated by the living, then to eradicate crime…

After ending all life in his own dimension, the ghostly ghoul extended his mission to ours, wiping out criminals and law-abiding citizens alike, with the Judges – even Dredd – unable to stop him… until the flamboyant and unconventional psychic recruit Judge Cassandra Anderson of PSI Division sacrificed herself to trap the evil spirit forever…

With Wagner clearly on a creative roll, the fans spoke long and loud. Both the Zombie Peacemaker and Anderson returned within a year. Credited to T.B. Grover (still Wagner in Progs #224-228/August 8th to September 5th 1981), ‘Judge Death Lives’ saw a desperate citizen releasing the horror from his eternal tomb at the behest of three more expired Judges: Mortis, Fire and Fear.

Reunited with their leader the Dark Judges went about their lawful occasions, executing vast numbers of Mega-City citizens. It took a trans-dimensional trip to their origin realm – “Deadworld” – before Dredd & Anderson could stop the slayers; and even then, only temporarily. Those magnificent yarns appear often in other collections, and I’ll surely revisit them again soon, but the most important aspect of all that is how both Anderson and Death went on to their own series… which brings us to here, because this book is not about Joe Dredd but rather what can bloom in his honking, big-booted shadow…

Cassandra Anderson, as part of the Judges’ psychic/weird phenomena division is given far more leeway than her straitlaced, buttoned-down street cops colleagues. That made her own exploits far quirkier, outrageous and experimental, thereby guaranteeing her a solo series…

Spanning 1983-1990 and collecting early cases as originally seen in anthological weekly 2000AD #416-427, 468-478, 520-531, 607-609, 612-613, 614-612, 635-644, 645-647, 657-659, 669-670, 712-717 and 758-763, plus self-contained episodes from 2000AD Annual 1984 and 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988, the eerie off-kilter terrors begin with another outing for the ‘Four Dark Judges’ as detailed by new lead scripter Alan Grant and Wagner in Progs #416-427, with illustrators Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson and Robin Smith tag-teaming the art. As with the majority of these yarns, veteran letterer Tom Frame made sense of it all…

The opening tale details how the essences of Death and his subordinate Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis mentally bombard the psychic peacekeeper until she breaks regs and dimension hops to their deceased dimension – “Deadworld” – to sort them out once and for all. However, they quickly overpower her consciousness and use her to unleash themselves on the puling masses of Mega-City One. With another kill-spree in full flow, suspended Anderson breaks a few more rules and finds a way to despatch one Dark Judge and force the remaining trio to retreat. She’s ready for them when they strike again and end up banished to Limbo thanks to fortitude, determination and new Judge tech. It’s the only thing that saves her from her own commanding officers…

Grant, Wagner, Ewins & Frame catered Anderson’s second solo-starring soirée (#468-478) as ‘The Possessed’ sees Anderson investigating a poltergeist at Ed Poe “hab-block” (big, Big apartment buildings) and inexorably drawn into a war with demons led by child-possessor Gargarax. Even PSI-Division’s exorcists are outgunned when Cassandra’s gifts lead her to block satanists secretly summoning the arcane entities by sacrificing relatively innocent waif Hammy Blish, and the conflict and carnage soon spread far, wide and even deep under the mass-metropolis into its appalling Undercity…

Anderson’s hunt for Gargarax ultimately leads her to its private hell and war against a host of devils, but her escape and the ensured safety of Mega-City One come at a grave cost…

The rich history of the City and Anderson’s precognitive visions fuel the next epic yarn as illustrators Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, John Aldrich, and letterers Frame & Steve Potter join Grant & Wagner for ‘Hour of the Wolf’ (#520-531). As vague, surreal dream portents plague the rule-breaking Judge, seeking to warn her of a deadly plot, Sov-City psychic sleeper agents attempt to wreck her city, kill her and liberate the Judges’ greatest opponent – arch terrorist Orlok the Assassin of East-Meg One…

The campaign almost succeeds and costs many more lives before the mass murderer is (barely) thwarted…

Grant, Mark Farmer & Frame deliver a shorter pace-changing romp in Progs #607-609 as ‘Contact’ sees Anderson sent to the far end of the solar system to scope out a strange alien ship that has ignored all other forms of communication or investigative scanning. Good call too, as what she finds are liars and deeply predatory…

Mick Austin joins Grant & Frame across #612-613 as ‘Beyond the Void’ sees Anderson despatched to handle a transcendental incident at the Mahatma Cote monastery. There she finds a Lama’s spiritual journey has taken him to the gateway of Judge Death’s cosmic cell, and must act accordingly. David A. Roach then assumes control of the vision-making for Grant as ‘Helios’ (#614-622) sees her and occasional partner Judge Corey on the trail of a long-dead, vengeance-crazed killer using mind-control and surgical alteration to carry out his schedule of slaughter.  Grant, Austin & Gordon Robson then sort out a solo saga in 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988. ‘Judge Corey: Leviathan’s Farewell’ finds the empath chasing ruthless sugar smugglers to the toxin-blighted coastal shores, only to have a deep encounter with something old, uncanny and irresistibly tragic…

Arthur Ranson illustrates Grant’s next extended storyline as ‘Triad’ (#635-644) reveals the true nature of an ethereal serial killer with a penchant for baroque monsters and Fortean events hunting in Mega-City One. The connection to an abused boy is not clear at first but as more bodies spectacularly drop, Anderson’s visions become clearer and much more insistent and soon the hand of an old enemy can be seen.

An unhealthy obsession with robots grips a unique spree killer in ‘The Prophet’ (#645-647 by Grant, Roach & Potter) whilst #657-659’s ‘The Random Man’ – illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra – sees Anderson in pursuit of a sex-&-gambling-obsessed perp in the throes of transition, before Roach returns to limn #669-670’s ‘The Screaming Skull’: a deviously twisted macabre mystery of ghosts, assassins and the world’s oldest motive for murder…

One last extended epic brings the psionic shenanigans to a close as Grant, Roach and Potter take two bites of the cherry (Progs #712-717 and 758-763) to explore the meaning of ‘Engram’ in a Shakespearean saga of Cursed Earth witches, a child of destiny and Anderson in hot pursuit of pyrokinetic mass murderer Verona Rom. One threat ended, a bigger one emerges and the Judge-out-of-water must contend with a ghostly stalker only she can see, not-so-slowly driving her insane. After mounting bouts of madness Anderson is sectioned to an Iso-Cube, whilst her colleagues and superiors dig deep to find what really happened in the Cursed Earth, leading to staggering revelations of her own childhood, a game changing reunion with the witches in the scarred wastelands and rebirth of intent in Mega-City One…

To Be Continued…

Rounding out this initial monochrome compendium is ‘Bonus Strip: The Haunting’ by Grant, Kim Raymond & Tony Jacob from 2000AD Annual 1984 with the Judge battling demonic usurper Dahak for the mind and soul of impulsive scholar Dr Levin who should have kept his hands off the treasures of the Mega-City One Museum of Antiquities…

Supplemented by Ewins’ cover for 2000 AD Prog #468, and biographies of the ‘Writers’ and ‘Artists’ involved, these groundbreaking tales are amongst the very best action adventures Apocalypse-obsessed, dystopia driven Britain has ever produced, neatly balancing paranoia with gallows humour and innate anarchic disrespect for authority (any authority) with pulse-pounding thrills, spills and chills.

This is sheer addictive nostalgia for my generation, but the stories hold up against anything made for today’s marketplace. Buy it for the kids or keep it for yourself; this cheap-&cheerful tome is glorious, funny challenging and beautifully realised… and steel yourself for even better yet to come…
© 1983, 1985,1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 & 2012 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved.

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Planet of the Apes Adventures – The Original Marvel Years


By Doug Moench, George Tuska, Alfredo Alcala, Mike Esposito, Tony Mortellaro, Dave Hunt, George Roussos & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5073-6 (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-3029-5999-9 (TPB/Epic Collection)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most effective and long-lasting explorations of failed human ambition and resultant dystopia is not the last 50 years of global government, but rather a film franchise built on a seminal French science fiction novel.

Peirre’s Boulle’s satirical La Planète des singes (1963) was just another tale from a former secret agent/engineer who earned major accolades and rewards as an author. Your entire family has probably seen his other Oscar-winning blockbuster – David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai – never realising it is an autobiographical saga originally called La Pont de la rivière Kwai.

Translated into English 1964, his other epic became Monkey Planet, and – after numerous major rewrites by screenwriters Rod Serling & Michael Wilson – was 1968’s movie sensation Planet of the Apes. The US production inspired four sequels and a TV series which lived on in reruns and reedited TV movies for decades after, plus an animated series, books, toys, games, a home projector pack, records and comics and other merchandise. In 2001 it was added to the US National Film Registry as the Library of Congress deemed it as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”… and that’s all before Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, the 2011 reboot and an ongoing, evolving franchise still growing to this day…

There have been numerous comics iterations and adaptations, beginning with two manga interpretations (1968 & 1971) intersecting a 1970 Gold Key movie adaptation and assorted later international versions. In 1974 – no doubt thanks to the impending TV show – a Marvel Magazine continuation combining serialised comics continuations, expanded comics adaptations of the five original films, features and articles began. Sporting an August 1974 cover-date and on sale from June 25th of that year, Planet of the Apes #1 blended photos and articles with Part 1 (of 6) of an adaptation of the 1968 blockbuster movie, plus all-new ape-ventures set in a time period when humans were still sapient talkers living in notional harmony with equally erudite orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. For more on that you could consult our review Planet of the Apes Archive volume 1: Terror on the Planet of The Apes or simply go buy that book too. It’s quite good…

Although the US magazine was resolutely aimed at a readership beyond a standard newsstand kids range, in Britain that material was solidly aimed at 10-13-year-olds. When Marvel US abruptly cancelled PotA in December 1976, the franchise lay fallow until Malibu Comics picked it up in 1990 (reprints, new stories and franchise mash-up Ape Nation). Other companies added new material over the years. However, at the height of the fuzzy fun and furore, Marvel reprinted in colour deftly re-edited and toned-down film adaptations from the magazine. The general release incarnation was a simpler affair, and somewhat sporadic in distribution.

Now that Marvel is again helming the simian franchise these tales are again offered to fans: available in hardback and trade paperback Epic Collection each with its digital versions, backstopping new stories in the niche universe. Scripted by Doug Moench (Batman, Moon Knight, Master of Kung Fu), and with comics veteran George Roussos “colorizing” the monochrome art of George Tuska, Mike Esposito, Tony Mortellaro & Dave Hunt, the first film filled #1-6 (October 1975-June 1976) of Adventures on the Planet of the Apes.

Wilson & Serling’s excoriatingly satirical screenplay was faithfully serialised as ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘World of Captive Humans’, ‘Manhunt!’, ‘Trial’ and ‘Into the Forbidden Zone’ before at last revealing ‘The Secret’ of the anthropoid world to time-lost astronaut George Taylor. Due to calamity and enemy action Taylor is soon the sole survivor of an Earth space flight that lands him on a primitive devastated world. Here talking orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas live in tense collaboration and humans are barely-sensate beasts of burden or preferred targets of bloodsports. The civilisation is superstitious, uncompromisingly theocratic but, as Taylor quickly deduces, clearly suppressing some awful secret about the human herds they hunt and enslave…

The rebellious talking human is somehow a clear threat to the power and dogma of the ruling simians, but thanks to the aid of well-meaning chimps scientists Zira, Lucius and Cornelius, Taylor and indigenous human companion Nova are able to escape the schemes of chief scientist Zaius who knows the awful truth Taylor and his allies are stumbling towards…

Although film fans waited two years for what happened next, the comics story seamlessly continues as Moench & Roussos join illustrator Alfredo Alcala (Swamp Thing, Batman, Man-Thing) for Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Paul Dehn & Mort Abrams’ bleak, chilling screenplay sequel becomes a dark, brooding and ultimately apocalyptic quest for answers when Taylor is captured by mutated humans who worship nuclear weapons even as Earth’s follow-up expedition smashes to destruction just like the first…

Eponymous opening ‘Beneath the Planet of the Apes’ sees sole survivor Brent similarly stranded in 3955 AD and equally unaware that his ship has brought him back to a much-altered birthworld. He soon meets Nova, who was ignored by whatever rules the “Forbidden Zone”. The fact that she’s wearing Taylor’s dog tags convinces Brent to accompany the mute, but he thinks twice when Nova leads him to Cornelius and Zira in Ape City. The metropolis is in turmoil with gorilla General Ursus increasingly usurping Dr. Zaius and demanding eradication of humans and conquest of the heretically sorcerous Forbidden Zone…

In this febrile atmosphere, Nova brings Brent to Taylor’s chimpanzee benefactors, before they are captured and ‘Enslaved!’ by gorillas preparing to invade the land of terror. On escaping, and barely ahead of an ape army, Brent and Nova return to the lost land where the shocked explorer delves deep into subterranean ruins and discovers the secret after recognising a place where he used to live so very long ago. Now it’s a tomb of terror and temple to ‘The Warhead Messiah’, ruled by cruel telepaths who are all that remain of sapient humanity. As ape forces advance, these ‘Children of the Bomb’ introduce Brent to their other captive, forcing the ancient astronauts to battle. As Ursus’ killers invade the nuclear cultists anticipate detonating the bomb to end all bombs and as violence and brutality explode everywhere, any chance to stop ‘The Hell of Holocaust’ dwindles and dies…

With the collection cover art by E.M. Gist and individual series covers by John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Rich Buckler, Dan Adkins, Ron Wilson, Vince Colletta, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Klaus Janson, Jim Starlin, Mike Nasser/Netzer, Esposito, Alcala, Paty Anderson, & Earl Norem, this is a straightforward slice of allegorical action hokum that reads remarkably well even after all these years. Moreover, as Marvel recently regained the franchise rights, this iteration neatly inspired its own sequel of sorts – for which see a forthcoming review….

In equal parts vivid nostalgia and crucial component of current comics expansion, this compelling treat is pure whacky fun no film fan or comics devotee should miss… and there’s more to come…
© 2023 20th Century Studios.

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Ducoboo volume 5: Lovable Dunce


By Godi & Zidrou, coloured by Véronique Grobet, translated by Mark Bence (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-311-6 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

If you’re currently experiencing offspring overload, fear not! The Back to School countdown has begun!

School stories and strips about juvenile fools, devils and rebels are a lynchpin of western entertainment and an even larger staple of Japanese comics – where the scenario has spawned its own numerous wild and vibrant subgenres. However, would Dennis the Menace (ours and theirs), Komi Can’t Communicate, Winker Watson, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Power Pack, Cédric or any of the rest be improved or just different if they were created by battle-scarred, shell-shocked former teachers rather than ex-kids or current parents?

It’s no surprise the form is evergreen: schooling (and tragically, sometimes, sufficient lack of it) takes up a huge amount of children’s attention no matter how impoverished or privileged they are, and their fictions will naturally address their issues and interests. It’s fascinating to see just how much school stories revolve around humour, but always with huge helpings of drama, terror, romance and an occasional dash of action…

One of the most popular European strips employing those eternal yet basic themes and methodology began in the last fraction of the 20th century, courtesy of scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Godi. Drousie is Belgian, born in 1962 and for six years a school teacher prior to changing careers in 1990 to write comics like those he probably used to confiscate in class. Other mainstream successes in a range of genres include Blossoms in Autumn, Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Shi, Léonardo, a superb revival of Ric Hochet and many more. His most celebrated and beloved stories are the Les Beaux Étés sequence (only available digitally in English as Glorious Summers) and 2010’s sublime Lydie, both illustrated by Jordi Lafebre.

Zidrou began his comics career with what he knew best: stories about and for kids, including Crannibales, Tamara, Margot et Oscar and, most significantly, a feature about a (and please forgive the charged term) school blockhead: L’Elève Ducobu…

Godi is a Belgian National Treasure, born Bernard Godisiabois in Etterbeek in December 1951. After studying Plastic Arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels he became assistant to comics legend Eddy Paape in 1970, working on the strip Tommy Banco for Le Journal de Tintin whilst freelancing as an illustrator for numerous comics and magazines. He became a Tintin regular three years later, primarily limning C. Blareau’s Comte Lombardi, but also working on Vicq’s gag strip Red Rétro, with whom he also produced Cap’tain Anblus McManus and Le Triangle des Bermudes for Le Journal de Spirou in the early 1980s. Godi soloed on Diogène Terrier (1981-1983) for Casterman prior to moving into advertising cartoons and television. He cocreated animated TV series Ovide with Nic Broca, only returning to comics in 1991 to collaborating with newcomer Zidrou on L’Elève Ducobu. The strip began in Tremplin magazine (September 1992) before transferring to Le Journal de Mickey, with collected albums starting in 1997: 28 so far in a raft of languages. When not immortalising modern school days for future generations, Godi diversified, co-creating (in 1995 with Zidrou) comedy feature Suivez le Guide and game page Démon du Jeu with scripter Janssens. That series spawned a live action movie franchise and a dozen pocket books, plus all customary attendant merchandise paraphernalia.

English-speakers’ introduction to the series (5 volumes only thus far) came courtesy of Cinebook with 2006’s initial release King of the Dunces – in actuality the 5th European collection L’élève Ducobu – Le roi des cancres. The indefatigable, unbeatable format comprises short – most often single page – gag strips like you’d see in The Beano, involving a revolving cast; well-established albeit also fairly one-dimensional and easy to get a handle on. Our star is a well-meaning, good natured but terminally lazy young oaf who doesn’t get on with school. He’s sharp, inventive, imaginative, inquisitive, personable and not at all academical. Today he’d be SEN, banished as someone else’s problem, relegated to a “spectrum” or casually damned by diagnoses such as ADHD, but back then, and at heart, he’s just not interested: a kid who can always find better – or certainly more interesting – things to do…

Dad is a civil servant and Mum left home when Ducoboo was an infant. It’s no big deal: Leonie Gratin – the girly brainbox from whom he constantly and fanatically copies answers to interminable written tests – only has a mum. Ducoboo and his class colleagues attend Saint Potache School and are mostly taught and tested by ferocious, impatient, mushroom-mad Mr Latouche. The petulant pedagogue is something of humourless martinet, and thanks to him, Ducoboo has spent so much time in the corner with a dunce cap on his head that he’s struck up a friendship with the biology skeleton. He (She? They!) answer to Skelly – always ready with a crack-brained theory, wrong answer or best of all, a suggestion for fun and frolics…

Released in 2001, Europe’s sixth collected album Un amour de potache became another eclectic collation of classic clowning about that begins with another new term. Mr. Latouche is hard in, training for the trials to come whilst Ducoboo does his utmost to keep fresh young innocents away from the sinister scholastic hellhole. Here, many strips address burgeoning personal technologies as the wayward lad tests aids like earbuds and smartpens but finds nothing cleverer than his teacher or Leonie…

An extended riff on the kinds of comics and magazines – and free gift premiums – kids consume leads to the cheater retrenching and re-exploring tried-&-tested ways of sneaking answers, before Leonie stumbles into new avenues to exploit and educational toys to distract the big oaf with.

Thanks to Skelly, at least anatomy class is a breeze, but when Ducoboo looks for specialist cadavers for use in his other lessons, Latouche loses his cool – and his esteemed position. Inevitably, the pressure proves too great. Sadly, when teacher has a breakdown, the school replaces him with surly cleaning lady Mrs. Mop, who employs extraordinary methods our bad boy cannot overcome…

With swipes at modern methodology and mercantile means – such as teaching-by-photocopy and growing class sizes – a long section on Christmas holidays, festivities and just rewards leads to a new year and more of the same, as times tables, history and poetry increasingly impinge on Ducoboo’s dreary supposedly free days. Nevertheless, he still finds time to defend Leonie from a bully before life goes topsy-turvy with the arrival of a pretty new girl. She’s also called Leonie Gratin, lives in the same house as his educational fount of knowledge wellspring and has just had – reluctantly – her first maternally funded and fuelled makeover…

When that chaos and confusion concludes, mysteriously returned original Leonie agrees to visit a museum with her engaging oaf and again discovers that there are depths he hasn’t plumbed yet: gifts that come in handy when term end approaches and Latouche plans to upgrade the testing/exams and parental reports side of his job.

As summer comes at last the kids enjoy markedly different vacations and activities, but Ducoboo’s take a wild turn as his desperate dad hires a private tutor and accidentally becomes a sort of teacher’s pet himself. It’s clearly a common condition as, far, far away, Leonie succumbs to a holiday urge and finally tries to honestly communicate what she really feels about her truly aggravating classmate…

Despite the accidental and innocent tones of stalking and potential future abuse, these yarns are wry, witty and whimsical: deftly recycling adored perennial childhood themes. Ducuboo is an up-tempo, upbeat addition to a genre every parent or pupil can appreciate and enjoy. If your kids aren’t back from – or to – school quite yet, why not try keeping them occupied with Lovable Dunce, and again give thanks that there are kids far more demanding than even yours…
© Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard s.a.) 2001 by Godi & Zidrou. English translation © 2016 Cinebook Ltd.

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Superman: The Dailies volume III: 1941-1942


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster & the Superman Studio (Kitchen Sink Press/DC)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-462-9 (TPB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Up, Up And Forever Away …10/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The American comic book industry – if it existed at all – would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Spawning an army of imitators and variations within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and wish-fulfilment which epitomised the early Man of Steel grew to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reforming dramas, sci fi fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East sucked in America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do.

From the outset, in comic book terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming the shape of the fledgling funnybook biz, the Man of Tomorrow irresistibly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as epitome and acme of comics creation, the truth is that very soon after his springtime debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse.

We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers and their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures familiar in mass markets, across all platforms and age ranges…

Far more people have seen and heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comic books. His globally syndicated newspaper strips alone were enjoyed by countless millions, and by the time his 20th anniversary rolled around, at the very start of what we call the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial star, headlined a series of astounding animated cartoons, become a novel attraction (written by George Lowther) and helmed two films and his first smash, 8-season live-action television show. Superman was a perennial sure-fire success for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers all over the planet.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the previous century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail that all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and often the planet – it was seen by millions, if not billions, of readers and generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic-books. It also paid better, and rightly so. Some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture. Mutt and Jeff, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped their humble tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Most still do…

The daily Superman newspaper strip launched on 16th January 1939, augmented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by luminaries like Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task required additional talents like strip veteran Jack Burnley and writers including Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz. The McClure Syndicate feature ran continuously until May 1966, appearing, at its peak, in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers; a combined readership of more than 20 million. Eventually, Win Mortimer and Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye whilst Bill Finger and Siegel provided stories, telling serial tales largely divorced from comic book continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

This superb, long overdue for re-release collection comes from 1999, re-presents strips #673-866 (episodes 20-28) and is preceded by Steve Vance’s informative, picture and photo-packed introduction ‘Superman Goes Hollywood’, focussing on the hero’s spectacular early triumphs on the big screen in animated and live action formats. If I live long enough, next year I’ll move on to the IDW American classics volumes…

The never-ending battle resumes with Siegel & Shuster attempting something quite spectacular. Although daily strips were never meant to be packaged as units of entertainment but rather present an ongoing, non-stop reading experience, all funnies features incorporated an internal “beginning-middle-end” structure that allowed new readers (preferably in new client regions) to hop aboard the adventure bus. With these tales, however, the creators built in a serial within a serial motif as one deadly enemy enlisted a horde of foes to face the Man of tomorrow, each in his/their own tale…

The saga began on March 10th 1941, as sequence #20, with the initial chapter playing out until April 19th by launching ‘The League to Destroy Superman’ (episodes #673-708). It begins as Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent investigates shady property tycoon Ralph Roland and uncovers a viper’s nest of thugs and bandits resulting in the news hound’s attempted murder. However, after applying his usual heavy-handed solutions, Superman is accused of the manslaughter of one of Roland’s staff – the honest, “nice guy” partner Horace Danvers…

Shocked by the accusation and now doubting himself, the Man of Steel is unaware outraged, affronted, arrogant Roland has convened a forum of crime bosses, enemy spies, mad scientists and professional killers, offering $1,000,000 to anyone who can eradicate the vigilante riff-raff…

First to try is Spanish self-proclaimed “super-scientist” Carlos who – with ferocious flunky Rolf – unleashes a wave of diabolical inventions between April 21st and May 22nd in ‘The Scientists of Sudden Death’ (#709-736), all based around luring the caped champion into lethal traps baited with abducted person of interest Lois Lane…

The League had also agreed to a gentlemanly running order of attempts, but fiery murderess the Blond Tigress keeps jumping the gun due to her hidden personal stake in the contest…

After epically failing, Carlos is readily replaced by overconfident technologist Block whose weapon can derail trains and shoot planes from the sky but also falls short in ‘The Death Ray’ (#737-774 May 23rd – July 5th).

While the Action Ace is drawing fire, Lois and the Tigress individually and jointly address the bigger mystery of who killed Danvers, and why organised crime is seemingly acting on some hidden mastermind’s agenda: an investigation that keeps both fully in harm’s way all year long…

Evil engineer Coker comes next, but although confident his electro-dart gun can do the job, its short range requires an extra effort and employment of deadly doppelganger ‘The Pseudo-Superman’ (#775-798, July 7th – August 2nd) to get his high-flying target into range. Cue a confusing comedy of errors, twisty twin tumult, and sudden deaths before next contender Slag – AKA ‘The Deadly Dwarf’ – (#799-840 August 4th – September 20th) tries his shaky old hand by deploying his incredible gift for hypnotism. Despite provoking a wave of suicides, terrorism and destruction, Slag too fails to collect the bounty, prompting chemist Fant to modify his plans to kill the hero via a hyper-capsule ‘Explosion’ (#841- 854 September 22nd – October 7th). However, even recruiting Blond Tigress to vamp and distract the caped wonder has no appreciable effect, and last genius standing Sleez orchestrates a crimewave and employs lethal ultimate weapon ‘The Electric Rod’ (#855-876 October 8th – November 1st) with as little success as all his competitors. With the field clear the deeply conflicted final contestant at last officially strikes, but ‘The Blond Tigress Regrets’ (#877-888, November 3rd – November 15th) that she might be playing on the wrong team. That’s confirmed when Lois solves the murder mystery and exposes the big shot behind Superman’s frame up…

The compendium concludes with a slice of justified infomercial bragging as – in loose conjunction with the Man of Tomorrow’s screen triumphs – ‘Superman’s Hollywood Debut’ (#889-966, November 17th 1941 – February 14th 1942) follows Lois & Clark to Lala Land where an impending movie biopic is being hampered by a dearth of suitable leading men. Even after that problem is fixed when klutzy Kent takes off his glasses, a rash of weird accidents seems to indicate someone doesn’t want this Super-flick released…

Cue lights! Action! Cartoonists….

Offering timeless wonders and mesmerising excitement for lovers of action and fantasy, the early Superman is beyond compare. If you love the era or just crave simpler stories from less angst-wracked times, these are perfect comics reading, and this a book you simply must see.
Superman: The Dailies volume III co-published by DC Comics and Kitchen Sink Press. Covers, introduction and all related names, characters and elements are ™ & © DC Comics 1998, 1999. All Rights Reserved.

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Gomer Goof volume 11: Goof-Off at the Gomer Corral


By Franquin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-128-6 (PB Album/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Little Euro-Sparkle for Any Occasion …9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd 1924, André Franquin began his astonishing comics career in a golden age of European cartooning. As assistant to Joseph “Jijé” Gillain on the strip Spirou, he inherited sole control of the keynote feature in 1946, and went on to create countless unforgettable new characters like Fantasio and The Marsupilami. Over two decades Franquin made the strip purely his, expanding Spirou & Fantasio’s scope and horizons, as they became globetrotting journalists who visited exotic places, exposed crimes, explored the incredible and clashed with bizarre, exotic arch-enemies. Throughout, Fantasio remained a full-fledged – albeit entirely fictional – reporter for Le Journal de Spirou, popping back to base between assignments. Sadly, ensconced there was an arrogant, accident-prone office junior tasked with minor jobs and general dogs-bodying. This was Gaston Lagaffe; Franquin’s other immortal – or peut-être unkillable? – conception…

There’s a hoary tradition of comics personalising fictitiously back-office creatives and the arcane processes they indulge in, whether it’s Marvel’s Bullpen or DC Thomson’s lugubrious Editor and underlings at The Beano and Dandy; it’s a truly international practise. Somehow though, after debuting in LJdS #985 (February 28th 1957), the affable dimwit grew – like one of his monstrous projects – beyond control, becoming one of the most popular and ubiquitous components of the comic, whether guesting in Spirou’s adventures or his own strips/faux reports on the editorial pages he was supposed to paste up. Initial cameos in Spirou yarns or occasional asides on text pages featured well-meaning foul-up and ostensible gofer Gaston lurking and lounging amidst a crowd of diligent toilers: a workshy slacker employed as a general assistant at LJdS’s head office. The scruffy bit-player eventually and inevitably stumbled into his own star feature…

In terms of schtick and delivery, older readers will recognise favourite beats and elements of well-intentioned helpfulness wedded to irrepressible self-delusion as seen in Benny Hill or Jacques Tati vehicles and recognise recurring riffs from Only Fools and Horses and Mr Bean. It’s blunt-force slapstick, paralysing puns, fantastic ingenuity and inspired invention, compiled to mug smugness, puncture pomposity, lampoon the status quoi? (that there’s British punning, see?) and ensure no good deed goes noticed, rewarded or unpunished…

As previously stated, Gaston/Gomer can be seen (if you’re quick) toiling at Spirou’s editorial offices: initially reporting to Fantasio, but latterly complicating the lives of office manager Léon Prunelle and other harassed and bewildered staffers, all whilst effectively ignoring any tasks he’s paid to actually handle. These include page paste-up, posting packages, filing, clean-up, collecting stuff inbound from off-site and editing readers’ letters (the real reason fans’ requests and suggestions are never acknowledged or answered)…

Gomer is lazy, hyperkinetic, opinionated, ever-ravenous, impetuous, underfed, forgetful and eternally hungry: a passionate sports fan and animal lover whose most manic moments all stem from cutting work corners, stashing or consuming contraband nosh in the office or inventing the Next Big Thing. It leads to constant clashes with colleagues and draws in notionally unaffiliated bystanders like increasingly manic traffic cop Longsnoot and fireman Captain Morwater, plus ordinary passers-by who should know by now to keep away from this street. Through it all, the obtuse office oaf remains affable, easy-going and incorrigible. Only three questions matter: why everyone keeps giving him one last chance, what does gentle, lovelorn Miss Jeanne see in the self-opinionated idiot, and will perpetually-outraged capitalist financier De Mesmaeker ever get his perennial, pestiferous contracts signed?

In 1979, after a long pause while the auteur dealt with his mental health issues, Gaston – Lagaffe mérite des baffes became the 13th collected album and in 2023 was Cinebook’s 11th translated compilation. As Goof-off at the Gomer Corral, it offers single page bursts and half-page gags in non-stop all-Franquin jabs and japes. From this point on the frequency of Gaston collections reduced by 50%…

A brighter spotlight falls upon Longsnoot (AKA Joseph Longtarin in European editions) too, a protracted war of nerves across future volumes as Gomer increasingly clashed with forces of authority, and revealed here via many car-based clashes and a cold war involving parking meters culminating in the Goof’s invention of mobile dummy replicas of the despised coin collectors.

As always, forward looking Gomer is blind to the problems his antiquated automobile causes, despite numerous attempts to soup up, cleanse, modify and mollify the motorised atrocity he calls his. The decrepit, dilapidated Fiat 509 is more in need of assisted execution than his many well-meant engineering interventions, as seen in its brief conversion to natural gas fuel, petrol-powered gassifiers, onboard coal-burners and addition of crash bags years ahead of anything produced by hitmen or torturers. With travel so important, it’s no wonder he also finds time to similarly improve his motor bike with augmented horns and lethally heated seats…

Work gets tougher as a succession of nightmares plague Gomer even as unanswered mail piles up, making more trouble for Prunelle and in-house staff artist Yves (occasionally “Yvon”) Lebrac who often act as unwilling, inadvertent beta testers for our well-meaning, overly-helpful, know-it-all office hindrance. This time the poor saps are at ground zero for numerous moments of projectile madness after Gomer improves the pedal bin lid springs…  Devoted to his inhouse menagerie (Cheese the mouse, goldfish Bubelle, an adopted feral cat and a black-headed gull) our loving lad adds doors and passages and even teaches them all to blow gum bubbles. It doesn’t take long, but the clean-up sure does… almost as long as training a troupe of snails to perform a nightclub act…

Although there’s less opportunity to invent interesting foodstuffs, Gomer has leisure enough to augment office traffic, filing and even automate suitcase usage, but his greatest triumph this time round is renovating the office reference library, creating a thing of architectural wonder and lethal imprecision…

At least lovely Miss Jeanne and forever faithful pal Jules-from-Smith’s-across-the-street are able to appreciate the efforts made to improve the world, even if it seems at the cost of a few paltry lives and much municipal and private property…

Far better enjoyed than précised or spoken of, these strips allowed Franquin to flex whimsical muscles, subversively sneak in satirical support for their environmental beliefs, pacifism and animal rights and remain sublime examples of all-ages comedy: wholesome, barbed, daft and incrementally funnier with every re-reading. Why haven’t you got your Goof on yet?

Isn’t it time you started Goofing around?
© Dupuis, Dargaud-Lombard s.a. 2009 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation © 2023 Cinebook Ltd.

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They Shot the Piano Player – A Graphic Novel


By Fernando Trueba & Javier Mariscal, translated by Mediasaur (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-91422-424-9 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Look, Listen and Learn …8/10

Comics are serious business in South and Central America, but not as much as Music is. Add to that the fact that all of us hate evil and love a mystery and the result is a captivating read. It’s also a captivating film but that’s not my point today…

As much a treatment on the power of obsession and curiosity as a (fictionalised) account of one creator’s fascination with another, They Shot the Piano Player is a lovely, tortured beast: an account of how a multi-award-winning writer, director, producer and documentarian became obsessed with the forgotten fate of a “disappeared” musician Francisco Tenório Cerqueira Júnior and went looking for answers – albeit at one remove and using a made-up “journo” as his literary bloodhound.

The story is true. Tenório lived, loved and died through the most appalling of times, for the most stupid and venal of reasons and the world moved on. At least, until one man heard some old Bossa Nova records and decided to know more about the incredibly talented man who made them…

Delivered in a parade of vivid and captivating styles by major mainstream artist/designer Javier Mariscal, the dry obsession blossoms into a captivating murder mystery with clues unpicked and suspects followed until an awful truth about governments and power is exposed. There’s no restorative justice to be found here, just an acknowledgement of unpunished wickedness and sombre warnings that it can still happen again…

Devious, relentless and compelling, the multimedia masterwork concludes with a copious section on the how the book/film came to be. ‘Searching for Tenório’ combines Trueba’s research notes, visits and interviews across Central and South America and through generations with photos and Mariscal’s amazing art and sketches. These are subdivided into ‘The Characters’, ‘The Family’, ‘The Buenos Aires Group’, ‘Musicians’, ‘Argentina’, ‘Guest Artists’, and ‘The Tragedy’, and precede a glorious gallery of ancillary art studies from the book itself.

Reading like no other graphic biography you’ve ever seen but subtly gripping like the most potent crime fiction or UN report on war crimes, They Shot the Piano Player is a ferociously addictive read you will never forget.
© 2023, Fernando Trueba. © 2023, Javier Mariscal. Originally published as DISPARARON AL PIANISTA © 2023, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial S.A.U. Travessera de Gracia, 08021 Barcelona

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The Drowned Girl


By Jon Hammer (Piranha Press/DC)
No ISBN: ASIN: B002KZ8ENI

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

During the “anything goes” 1980s, the field of comics publishing expanded exponentially with new companies offering a vast range of fresh titles and ideas. To combat this upstart expansion, Marvel and DC instigated and commissioned innovative material for those freshly growing markets, with the latter cartoon colossus especially targeting readers for whom old-fashioned comic books were anathema… or at least a long-abandoned or clandestine dalliance. DC created new, mature-oriented imprints such as Vertigo and Helix, but some of the most intriguing projects came out of their Piranha Press sub-division, formed in 1989 and re-designated Paradox Press in 1993.

When DC founded the adult special projects imprint, the resulting publications and reader’s reaction to them were mixed. It had long been a Holy Grail of the business to produce “comics for people who don’t read comics” and, despite the inherent logical flaw, that’s a pretty sound and sensible plan. However, delivery of such is always problematic.

Is the problem resistance to the medium? Then try radical art and narrative styles, unusual typography and talent from outside the medium to tell your stories: you get some intriguing results but risk still not reaching a new audience whilst alienating readers already on board…

This eclectic and overwhelmingly effective tome was one of the best and simultaneously – as all you cynics might expect – one of the least appreciated…

Dick Shamus lives in New York City. Not necessarily the one you know, but one equally composed of book snippets, flickers of films and TV titbits, all filtered through the fried brains of an incorrigible addict who’s been off his prescription Lithium for far too long now.

Dick Shamus is a Private Eye. If he says so then it’s got to be true, right?

On one night so much like every other, Dick, bombed out of his gourd on his tipple of choice – embalmers’ formaldehyde with a chocolate drink chaser – picks up a useful tip about a Nazi weight-lifting club from one of his usual sources: far too few of them at all credible and none of them at all real. The drink might be the secret CIA vaccine to prevent AIDS, but it sure plays hob with the old deductive faculties…

The side of the city that only he can see informs our weary, ravaged gumshoe that there’s a connection between the Fascist health fanatics, India and the Drowned Girl – whoever she is. As his personal reality intercepts and continually collides with equally outrageous consensus realities the rest of us are stuck with, Dick is carried along by events to a tragic and disturbing rendezvous. If only he could recall who the client was…

Raw and savagely beguiling, here is a one night odyssey of a perceptually challenged shamus weaving between rich bastards, gutter-scum, gullible art-trendoids, yuppie-gentrifiers and armchair anarchists. On the way he encounters affable protester-bashing cops and a hundred other “normal” folks all in search of his dimly perceived targets – as anyone would…

This disturbing, hard-luck pilgrim’s progress is as truly thought-provoking, hard-bitten, revelatory and socially castigating as the best works of Dashiell Hammett, William Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Raymond Chandler or Gabriel García-Márquez, whilst the brutally unrefined and intoxicatingly vibrant painting of author Jon Hammer (The Batman Adventures) makes this perhaps the very best psycho-detective graphic novel you’ve never read.

But all that could change if and when you too track down or dredge up The Drowned Girl…
© 1990 Jon Hammer. All rights reserved.