Category: Satire/Politics

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No Refuge


By Patrice Aggs & Joe Brady (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-119-2 (PB)

I normally aim to review unpublished and new books relatively close to their release date because people have minds like sieves and seldom sustain interest for unavailable items, but this is a long and eagerly anticipated treat and one everyone needs to be aware of as soon as possible. I might even remind you all closer to the release date… just see if I don’t…

Just imagine a Britain where the leaders ignore laws, suspend Parliament and rule by fiat. Consider curfews and lockdowns, citizens attacking each other over differing views, shortages in shops and direct monitoring and control of what the press and even teachers can say and do. Further ponder on what happens when impassioned protestors organise into militant groups, systematically and violently resisting armed interventions and oppressions doled out by an ever more heavy-handed police force and too-readily deployed army.

That’s what Patrice Aggs & Joe Brady did for their award-winning all-ages thriller No Country. The resulting comic saga was set in contemporary England; following comic-loving middle schooler Bea, her little brother Dom and far-too-bossy older sister Hannah as they were forced to adapt to a rapidly-changing reality. Their dad used to work as a local councillor, but was sidelined on office and relegated to looking after the kids – although he spent his off-hours in quiet, secret meetings with other adults who all had worried faces…

Mum had been gone for a while, but still connected to them via the internet… whenever there was enough electricity. She was safely living in another country, trying to get exit visas and paperwork so the family could be reunited… somewhere safe.

Tensions ratcheted up when a long-declared Martial Law edict was shockingly enforced by New Army divisions who occupied the town and “requisitioned” everything not nailed down. Hannah was just getting to know her first proper boyfriend. He was part of patriotic rebel front Free Kingdom – the other side of a rapidly escalating, ideologically fanatical civil war, ripping sedate stuffy Britain to pieces.

Argumentative but always bonded by their “Sister Code” Bea and Hannah already knew bad days were coming. They didn’t care about stupid politics but as shortages mounted and hunger grew, with home raids and “searches” intensifying daily, friends and teachers started disappearing. When Mum finally contacted them, saying that their documents were ready the girls knew they must act immediately. Tragically, not everyone was there to get the message. Dad was missing…

However, he had wisely drummed a contingency plan into them. With no time to wait, the moment to run had come…

Picking up immediately after the close of No Country, the family history turns even more chilling here as the kids hunker down in a flimsy powered dingy, trusting everything to shady rogues in illegal boats… and the kindness of strangers they haven’t met yet.

How they got to this parlous state unfolds in a grimly harrowing, emotionally challenging flashback of tribulation that begins with Hannah taking charge and dragging Bea and toddler Dom across open country for days. Thankfully unaware of what both New Army and Free Kingdom forces are doing in equally determined searches for them, Bea argues constantly and leaves dangerously revealing picture messages for Dad, who she knows must be following them. She also forces fiercely pragmatic Hannah to let a huge dog join the group. That proves to both wise and ultimately heartbreaking…

Cold, starving, harried and hunted, the family experience hardship and the worst of civilisation in crisis, but are inevitably forced to give themselves up to get medical assistance when Dom succumbs to exhaustion and fever. Initial relief and gratitude turn to panic and fury as their baby brother is “disappeared” and they must escape their draconian girls’ boarding establishment to retrieve him. The frantic attempt takes them to the capital – a high-security oasis of calm and serenity where the rich and privileged have isolated themselves from the country’s troubles and its lesser inhabitants.

Utterly unstoppable, undaunted by continuing disappointment and prepared to face any risk, the girls make unlikely friends – such as a benevolent people trafficker – and persevere until a seeming miracle occurs…

Every bit as compelling and rewarding as its predecessor, this is another superb exploration of the world’s ongoing refugee crisis with the comfy, cosy UK all-too-convincingly substituting for Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine and now also the USA (and please feel free to look up why I chose those countries). This is a brilliant treatment of real-world problems any kid can grasp and be moved by, in exactly the same way books like The Diary of a Young Girl AKA The Diary of Anne Frank, Animal Farm, A Kestrel for a Knave or Lord of the Flies ushered in new, transformational understanding for generations of youngsters.

Read carefully, read open-mindedly, but please do read.

This volume includes a Phoenix Comic Club feature steered by Aggs & Brady, providing discussion questions readers might want to think about after finishing the story…
Text & Illustrations © The Phoenix Comic 2025.

No Refuge is published on 11th September 2025 and available for preorder now.

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Sshhhh!


By Jason (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-497-0 (TBB/Digital edition)

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

Born this day in 1965 in Molde, Norway, John Arne Sæterøy is known globally by his enigmatic, utilitarian nom de plume. The shy & retiring draughts-scribe started on the path to international cartoon superstardom in 1995, once first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) won Norway’s biggest comics prize: the Sproing Award. Prior to that, he had contributed to alternate/indie magazine KonK whilst, from 1987, studying graphic design and illustration at Oslo’s Art Academy, before going on to Norway’s National School of Arts. After graduating in 1994, three years later he founded his own comic book Mjau Mjau, citing Lewis Trondheim, Jim Woodring and Tex Avery as his primary influences and constantly refining his style into a potent form of meaning-laden anthropomorphic minimalism.

Moving to Copenhagen Jason worked at Studio Gimle alongside Ole Comoll Christensen (Excreta, Mar Mysteriet Surn/Mayday Mysteries, Den Anden Praesident, Det Tredje Ojet) and Peter Snejbjerg (Den skjulte protocol/The Hidden Protocol, World War X, Tarzan, Books of Magic, Starman, Batman: Detective 27). His efforts were internationally noticed, making waves in France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Germany and other Scandinavian countries as well as the Americas. He won another Sproing in 2001 – for self-published series Mjau Mjau – and from 2002 turned nigh-exclusively to producing graphic novels, winning even more major awards.

Jason’s breadth of interest is wide and deep: comics, movies, animated cartoons, music, high literature and pulp fiction all feature equally with no sense of rank or hierarchy. This puckish and egalitarian mixing and matching of inspirational sources always and inevitably produces picture-treatises well worth a reader’s time.

Over a succession of tales Jason built and constantly employed a repertory company of stock characters to explore deceptively simplistic milieux based on classic archetypes of movies, childhood entertainments, historical and literary favourites. These all role play in deliciously absurd and surreal sagas centred on his preferred themes of relationships and loneliness. In latter years, Jason returned to such “found” players as he built his own highly esoteric universe, and even has a whole bizarre bunch of them “team-up” or clash…

As always, visual/verbal bon mots unfold in beguiling, sparse-dialogued, or even as here silently pantomimic progressions, with compellingly formal page layouts rendered in a pared back stripped-down interpretation of Hergé’s Claire Ligne style: solid blacks, and thick outlines dominating settings of seductive monochrome simplicity augmented by a beguiling palette of stark pastels and muted primary colours.

The majority of his tales brim with bleak isolation, swamped by a signature surreality: largely populated with cinematically-inspired, darkly comic, charmingly macabre animal people ruminating on those inescapable concerns whilst re-enacting bizarrely cast, bestial movie tributes.

A perfect example of his oeuvre is ‘Sshhhh!’: a deliciously evocative, extended romantic melodrama created without words; the bittersweet tale of boy-bird meeting girl-bird in a world overly populated with spooks and ghouls and skeletons. The archetypes and cartoon critters are similarly afflicted by far more harsh demons: loneliness and regret.

Of course, it’s not just that. It’s also boy-bird loses girl-bird to death, other men, his own inadequacies and the vagaries of parenthood. It’s about how money fixes nothing and how Death is ever at your elbow and can be – quite frankly – a bit of a nuisance. It’s sex and death and discontentment and bloody ungrateful kids; aliens; being invisible; miserable vacations; disappointing locations: guys who are sexier than you and The Devil…

… And birds-nests…

Jason’s work always jumps directly into the reader’s brain and heart, always probing the nature of “human-ness” by visually invoking the beastly and unnatural to ask persistent and pertinent questions. Although clever sight-gags are less prominent here, his repertory company still uncannily display the subtlest emotions with devastating effect, proving again just how good a cartoonist he is.

This comic tale is best suited for adults but makes us all look at the world through wide-open childish eyes. Jason is instantly addictive and a creator every serious fan of the medium should move to the top of the “Must-Have” list. Don’t even wait for a physical copy, buy a digital edition ASAP, just so you can see immediately what all the fuss is about…
All characters, stories and artwork © 1998, 1999, 2008 Jason. All rights reserved.

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Helter Skelter Fashion Unfriendly


By Kyoko Okazaki (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-93565-483-4 (Tankōbon PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Following her 1983 debut as a producer of erotic material for the men’s markets, Kyoko Okazaki established a reputation for challenging, controversial, contemporary manga tales before gradually shifting her focus to produce stories specifically for and about women (such as Pink, Happy House and River’s Edge), focusing with unflinching intensity on their social issues and the overwhelming pressures of popular culture in modern Japan.

You can find out more about this pioneering creator here.

From 1994-1995, and following her immensely successful strip Tokyo Girls Bravo in mainstream fashion magazine CUTIE, Okazaki created a biting expose of the industry and its casualties for Shodensha’s Feel Young anthology. Heruta Sukeruta took the author’s concerns, inclinations and observations into realms tinged with dark speculation, but individual episodes never seemed too far-fetched or distant from what we all believed models and managers and clients actually experienced…

Liliko is the undisputed top model in Japan. The face and body of “The Lily” are everywhere, selling products and lifestyle to men, women and especially young girls. She is an iconic, unchanging paragon of look & style and has been so for absolutely ages.

In fact, nobody seems to know quite how long… except ruthless model agency president Mama Tada. Moreover, only Liliko’s long-suffering gofer/manager Hada and make-up artist Kin Sawanabe have any inkling of the real person under the gloss, glitz and glamour…

Despite this stellar star status, Lily is incredibly unhappy: bored, paranoid, burned out and increasingly obsessed with her inevitable usurpation by some fresh young “Next Year’s Model”. Knowing her days are numbered, the fragile but hard-as-nails supermodel is frantically chasing singing and acting gigs, and capitalising on her celebrity. Sadly, lacking discernible talent, she’s only getting ahead by sleeping with all the money-men involved…

When not drugged up, stressed out or screaming, Liliko finds a measure of contentment in the arms of Takao, handsome, spoiled heir to the Nanbu department store fortune (and the man she plans to marry) or in degrading and debauching the obsessively devoted Hada. Liliko’s biggest problem is an incredible secret that could shake the nation. All her beauty and success come from a series of cosmetic procedures carried out by a renegade plastic surgeon at an exclusive clinic that caters to the most powerful and influential people in the world.

Long ago a desperate girl with a sordid past met Mama and agreed to a complete, full-body series of operations. Now only her bones and some meat is her – all that glittering skin and surface is fabrication, maintained by constant use of addictive drugs supplied by the dowdy doctor in charge to fight implacable tissue rejection. Now, after years of use even these experimental remedies aren’t as efficient as before and Liliko’s look is breaking down and fragmenting…

She is by no means the clinic’s only client, and following a spate of suspicious deaths and the trail of illegal aborted foetal organ traffickers, police prosecutor Asada has begun putting pieces together. Sadly, even he is not completely immune to the Lily’s allure…

In the face of increasing breakdown, Mama brings Kin up to date and makes him part of the conspiracy, whilst arranging with “The Doctor” to perform still more operations on her fragile star. Liliko’s damaged psyche endures even greater shocks when her fat, dumpy little sister turns up. Having impossibly tracked down her sublime sibling, little Chikako is sent away with stars in her eyes, a dream in her heart and newfound determination to be beautiful too, whatever the cost.

Chemically deranged, paranoid and alternately wildly uncontrollable and practically catatonic, Lily goes off the deep end when Takao admits that he’s marrying an heiress for dynastic reasons but will still, of course, have sex with her in secret…

Having already seduced Hada and her boyfriend in a moment of malicious boredom, Liliko induces them to take revenge for her bruised pride and events soon spiral into an inescapable crescendo of catastrophe that extends far beyond the intangible arenas of image and illusion into the very bedrock of Japanese society…

Harsh, raw, brutal and relentlessly revelatory, the author’s forensic examination of the power of sex, temptations of fame and commoditisation of beauty is a multi-layered, shockingly effective – if occasionally surreal – tale that should alarm every parent who reads it. It is also a superb adult melodrama, tense political thriller and effective crime mystery to delight all broad-minded fans of comics entertainment looking to expand their horizons beyond capes, ghosts and ray-guns…

This cautionary tale was collected into a tankōbon edition in 2003, winning a number of awards including the 2004 Osamu Tezuka Culture Prize, and subsequently adapted into a film shown in Cannes.

Grim, existential and explicit, this is not a book for kids or the squeamish, but it is a dark marvel of graphic narrative and one well deserving of your attention.
© 2003 Kyoko Okazaki. All rights reserved.

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1941 – The Illustrated Story


By Stephen Bissette, Rick Veitch & Allan Asherman (Heavy Metal Books/Arrow Books)

ISBN: 978-0- 09922-720-7 (HMB) 978-0-09922-720-5 (Arrow Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

This book includes Discriminatory Content intended for dramatic and satirical effect.

It’s not often that I get to review a graphic adaptation that surpasses the source material, but this odd little item certainly does that. I’ll leave it to your personal tastes to determine if that’s because of the comic creators or simply because the movie under fire here wasn’t all that great to begin with…

Written by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale and John Milius, 1941 was a big budget screwball comedy starring some of the greatest comedy talents of the day. It was also youngish Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster follow-up to Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but did not nearly receive the same kind of accolades and approbation.

The plot, adapted by Allan Asherman, concerns a certain night in December of that year when Hollywood was panicked by some “sightings” and many panicked reports of Japanese planes and submarines. One week after the devastation of Pearl Harbor, much of the USA – particularly its West Coast – was terrified of an invasion by the Imperial Forces of Emperor Hirohito. To be fair so were most of the white colonised Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand…

In this tale, one lone sub, borrowed from the Nazis, actually fetches up on the balmy shores of La-La land, but is largely ignored by the populace. The panic actually starts when gormless “Zoot-Suiters” Wally & Denny use an air-raid siren to distract store patrons and staff so that they can shop-lift new outfits, and inevitably peaks later when these feckless wastrels start a fist-fight at a USO (United Services Organisation) Dance. From there on, chaos and commotion carry this tale to its calamitous conclusion…

For the film that premise and delivery isn’t too successful, burdened as it is by leaden direction and a dire lack of spontaneity. However, all the frenetic energy and mania that was absent on screen is present in overwhelming abundance in the comic art of Steve Bissette (Swamp Thing, Taboo, 1963, Tyrant) & Rick Veitch (Swamp Thing, Army@Love, Heartburst, The One, Can’t Get No, 1963, Miracleman).

Taking their cue from the classic Mad Magazine work of the 1950s, they produced a riot of colour pages for the tie-in album reminiscent of Underground Comix and brimming with extra sight-gags, dripping bad-taste and irony, and combining raw, exciting painted art with collage and found imagery.

It’s not often that I say the story isn’t important in a graphic package, but this is one of those times. 1941 – The Illustrated Story is a visual treat and a fine example of two major creators’ earlier – and decidedly more experimental – days. If you get the chance, it’s a wild ride you should take. You can even shade your late-arriving curiosity in terms of “research” as we head towards the 80th anniversary of VJ Day if it makes you feel better…
© 1979 Universal City Studios, Inc. and Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

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Omaha the Cat Dancer volumes 1-7


By Reed Waller & Kate Worley with James M. Vance (NBM/Amerotic)
Set I ISBN: 978-1-56163-601-3
Vol. 1 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 2 ISBN: 978-1-56163-457-3, vol. 3 ISBN: 978-1-56163-474-3
Set II ISBN: 978-1-56163-601-3
Vol. 4 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 5 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 6 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4, vol. 7 ISBN: 978-1-56163-451-4

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic and satirical effect.

Just for a change I thought I’d celebrate an astounding creator while they’re still alive, and morbid leanings aside, in a world both wide and awash with unique stylists, I can honestly say there has never been anyone like Reed Waller (born today in 1949)…

And in case the covers didn’t give it away…

These books are intended to make adults laugh and think and occasionally feel frisky. If the cover images haven’t clued you in, please be warned that these items contain nudity, images of sexual intimacy – both hetero and homosexual – and language commonly used in the privacy of the bedroom and school playgrounds whenever supervising adults aren’t present. If that sort of thing offends you, read no further and don’t get these books. The rest of us will enjoy one of the best graphic novel experiences ever created without you.

Omaha the Cat Dancer began during the 1970s as an “Underground” venture and over torturous decades grew into a brilliant but controversial drama of human fallibility with all the characters played by funny animals. What most people noticed was a matter-of-fact, constant inclusion of graphic sex acts. Over the years, the series was subject to many obscenity seizures by various muddle-headed stickybeaks, inspiring the formation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. One classic case apparently involved the local defenders of morality raiding a comics store because Omaha promoted bestiality…

As there’s only so much excitement a man of my advanced years and proclivities can endure (and probably only so much me you can stand) I’ll review these in one hit, but if you can locate the whole saucy saga in its original supremely economical shrink-wrapped gift set, you’d  be crazy to not take advantage of that but please, pace yourselves…

Following an introduction by late-coming co-scripter James Vance, and Reed Waller’s original intro from a1987 collected edition, The Complete Omaha the Cat Dancer Volume 1 gathers the short story appearances from a number of Counter-culture Commix as well as some out-of-continuity infilling short pieces so readers can enjoy what can best be described as the official Directors Cut of the tale.

The wicked wonderment begins with the very first ‘Adventures of Omaha’ from Vootie in 1978. Vootie started in 1976 as a self-published fanzine founded by Waller and like-minded artistic friends who bemoaned the loss of anthropomorphic comics – once a mainstay of US comicbooks. When contributors also griped that there wasn’t much sex in comics either, Waller, taking inspiration from R. Crumb’s Fritz the Cat and responding to recent intensification of local “Blue Laws”, created the evocative, erotic dancer and compared her free and easy lifestyle to a typical, un-elected, interfering know-it-all moral guardian busybody. Blue Laws were – and probably still are – particularly odious anti-fun statutes usually instigated by religious factions designed to keep the Sabbath holy by dictating shop-opening hours and generally limiting or banning adult entertainments like clubs and pubs (but not gun clubs!) and their repressive use (in fact and fiction) became a major narrative engine for the series.

‘Why they Call Her Omaha’ introduces young stripper Susie Jensen who hits the metropolis of Mipple City, Minnesota (a barely concealed Minneapolis) and signs up with a modelling agency where she meets fellow dancer Shelley Hine. Over lunch they bond and pick a better stage name for the gorgeous but naive newcomer, whilst ‘Kitten of the Month’ & ‘Omaha centrefold’ reveal the first glorious results of her management’s efforts. No-holds-barred sexual action returns in ‘Shelley and Omaha’ with the girls, now popular erotic dancers, meeting some guys who will play a big part in the unfolding drama to come.

In ‘Chuck and Omaha’, which officially heralded the beginning of scripter Kate Worley’s (16th March, 1958 – 6th June, 2004) stunning and crucial contribution to the series, Jerry – one of those aforementioned pick-up guys – introduces Omaha to Chuck Katt, a shy artist who will become the great love of her life. ‘Adventures of Omaha’ sees a budding relationship progress whilst ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ moves the grander story arc along when Mipple bans nipples in the opening shot of a political power-grab using Christian/Family-morality pressure groups as unwitting, if fervent, patsies…

Although comprising less than 50 pages, all that material took nearly 15 years to produce. For the longest time, Omaha had no fixed abode; peripatetically wandering from magazine to Indie book, and even guest-shots in the occasional mainstream publication. From Kitchen Sink’s Bizarre Sex #9-10 in 1981-2; a pastiche page in E-Man (1983 and included in vol. 2); Dope Comix #5 (1984), she even starred in a story from Munden’s Bar Annual #2 in 1991. Often stalled for creative, when not censorship, reasons Omaha finally won her own title in 1984 thanks to SteelDragon Press, before vanishing again until 1986, when Kitchen Sink Press took over publication. For further details I strongly advise CAUTIOUSLY checking the internet…

Volume 1 switches to high gear and addictive narrative mode with ‘Omaha #0’: a single page recap followed by a powerfully compelling yarn wherein forces of decency make life difficult for the adult entertainment industry. With stripper bars closing, Omaha is recruited to dance for “The Underground”: an exclusive, ultra-secret, high-class bordello catering to the darkest desires of America’s ultra-elite of businessmen and politicians… many of whom are actively leading the Decency campaign. Shelley is involved too, recruiting contacts from her old profession for more hands-on roles. Chuck meanwhile has reapplied for his old advertising job where old girlfriend Joanne makes life uncomfortable. She has other problems too, as powerful forces draw Omaha & Chuck into a far-reaching, sinister scheme…

On opening night all elements for disaster converge as the Movers and Shakers get more debauchery than even they can handle as someone dopes the entire proceedings, leading to a violent, destructive orgy that previously set up cameras record for blackmail purposes. As they flee the club, hitmen try to kill Chuck but shoot Shelley instead. Believing her dead, Omaha & Chuck run for their lives. Heading for Joanne’s house, Chuck reveals he is the son of Charles Tabey: monomaniacal millionaire businessman, undisputed ruler of Mipple City and the probable true target of the assassination…

Narrowly escaping another murder attempt, they find Tabey and Joanne are intimately involved, and are horrified to find Chuck’s pa was behind the whole thing, intending to mould the wastrel into the kind of son he needs. The sire is also clearly stark, raving mad…

Traumatised and terrified, the young lovers jump into their car and head for California in the short ‘Adventures of Omaha’ quickie with the initial volume concluding with the contents of ‘Omaha #1’ as they reach San Francisco tired, hungry and broke. Grateful for the kindness of strangers, they soon discover Joanne waiting for them and find that Tabey is not their only persecutor. During a drunken three-way another hired killer almost ends them all. From a well-intentioned, joyous celebration of open living free-loving modernity Omaha had evolved into a captivating adult soap opera and conspiracy thriller of mesmerising intensity and complexity…

With an introduction by Worley, Volume 2 eases into the enticing adult entertainment with a ‘Hotziss Twonkies’ parody from E-Man #5 prior to Omaha #2-5 enlarging the saga. In the aftermath of another close shave, Chuck & Joanne bitterly spar whilst an increasingly traumatised cat dancer wanders the streets of San Francisco. When Tabey abducts her whilst moving against all his old enemies, Chuck & Joanne fall into bed…

Meanwhile Jerry, who also works for Tabey, is busying sorting fallout from the club riot/shooting. In a secluded palatial beach-house Omaha discovers Chuck’s dad has been watching over them for some time and soon discovers another shocking secret…

Omaha was utterly groundbreaking in its mature treatment of gay and disabled relationships: offering the sound, common sense opinion that this is what all people think and do. After all, “it’s just sex”…

Paralysed but not deceased, Shelley is also sequestered in the house. She is a long-term Tabey employee and slowly developing a relationship with her nurse Kurt Huddle, and the manic tycoon has convinced Omaha to stay and help care for her. Back in ’Frisco, Chuck rekindles his old relationship with Joanne, utterly unaware she has film and photos taken at the club on that terrible night. That’s where gay photographer and old friend of Joanne Rob Shaw enters the picture as developer and guardian of the contentious materials…

Chuck misses Omaha and tension leads to his splitting with Joanne and moving in with Rob. The cat dancer too is lonely, finding brief and unsatisfactory solace with Jerry again, so when Tabey goes off his meds Jerry arranges for Chuck & Omaha’s reunion, leading to a dreadful confrontation between father and long-estranged son, the apparent result of which is Tabey taking his own life…

Together again after so long, Omaha & Chuck comfort each other as repercussions of Charles Tabey Sr.’s demise shake the country and the cast. The close-knit group endure loss, guilt and outrageous press scrutiny as the matter of inheritance crops up. Against his wishes, Chuck might be incredibly rich and saddled with unwanted responsibilities, but there are some unspecified problems with the will. The plots thicken when Joanne and Rob have a falling out and as all this is going on, back in Mipple City, a powerful new threat makes his move. Senator Calvin Bonner was one of the patrons at the Underground that fateful night, but now he’s making his move for total power, stirring up a wave of fundamentalist hatred and anti-smut indignation with his “Crusade for Decency”…

Covering issues #6-9, and with an introduction by Trina Robbins, Volume 3 follows the action back to Minnesota, but things are difficult for Chuck & Omaha – who can’t seem to re-establish that earlier, innocent rapport. As they go house-hunting, in San Francisco Rob Shaw is visited by thugs after the photos of The Underground riot. His shop destroyed, the photographer narrowly escapes burning in it…

Mipple City’s Blue Laws are more draconian than ever. When Omaha and Shelley – who has moved into the ground floor of the Cat Dancer’s new house – visit old workplace the Kitty Korner, and discover performers must now dance behind plate glass… which makes taking punter’s tips really tricky…

When old friend Shawn turns up, he warns Chuck & Omaha of the plan to redevelop A Block – the part of town where all the artists, musicians and strip clubs are. Something needs to be done to stop it and now Chuck might just be the richest, most influential degenerate in town…

As the lovers go furniture shopping, Shelley and Kurt look for a suitable physical therapy clinic – preferably a non-religious, non-judgemental un-condescending one – and later, whilst Omaha helps Shelley move in, Chuck and Jerry make plans to fight the A Block development. As ever, there is far more going on than the lovers can imagine…

Omaha wants to get back into dancing and, as Chuck becomes increasingly mired in running his father’s many businesses, Kurt learns (some) of Shelley’s murky history even as Joanne and Jerry compare notes and make plans. Rob turns up in Mipple after more attempts on his life, convinced he needs to find his attackers’ boss before his luck runs out. The book ends on a shocking note for Chuck when he discovers his long-dead mother isn’t…

The stunning, addictive saga of the erotic dancer, her bone-headed boyfriend and animalistic extended ensemble takes a dark and dreadful turn with Volume 4 – re-presenting the Kitchen Sink Omaha #10-13 (plus one-page gag strip ‘Alterations’ from Fire Sale #1, 1988-1989) – as the death of Charles Tabey Sr., increasing violence and oppression of the Campaign for Decency and a seemingly constant stream of personal revelations strain Omaha & Chuck’s relationship to the breaking point.

The story resumes after an introduction from writer James Vance who married Worley after her break-up with Waller. He then worked with the artist to finish the saga from her notes after her untimely death from cancer in 2004. Tense and suspenseful, the drama kicks into high gear as Chuck comes to terms with the shocking knowledge that his mother didn’t die decades ago.

The pressure seems to be affecting him badly – or perhaps the thought of all the wealth and responsibility – and our decent young rebel is becoming as exploitative, abusive and creepy as his manic dad ever was, but even though he’s acting paranoid, it doesn’t mean he’s hasn’t got real and deadly enemies…

The situation isn’t helped by learning that somewhere his beloved Omaha has a husband she hasn’t quite divorced and never ever mentioned…

Slyly sinister Senator Bonner is ratchetting up the pressure of his anti-smut campaign and even close ally Jerry is working to his own agenda, with the assistance of avaricious partner Althea. Confused, lonely and neglected, Omaha devotes her energies to dancing for the upcoming video for Shawn’s band, whilst Rob confronts Shelley – whom he believes ordered the attempt on his life and torching of his studio…

When Tabey’s will is read, Chuck does indeed inherit the bulk of his father’s holdings as well, apparently, as many of Tabey Sr.’s deranged obsessions. Far more intriguing than she seems, Shelley acts on Rob’s misperceived accusations whilst lover/carer Kurt finds part-time employment with mysterious Mr. Lopez – the last major player in an increasingly complex game. Meanwhile, high-powered call-girl, blackmailer and Keeper of Secrets Joanne re-insinuates herself with Jerry – and Chuck… and Bonner(!) in a terrifying confrontation that threatens to destroy Omaha and crush Chuck in his own blackmail scheme…

During the video shoot, Omaha & Joanne compare notes on Bonner, after which the capable callgirl enlists Rob’s aid in a scheme to get the goods on the hypocritical Senator, with whom she shares a highly secret and extremely specialised professional relationship. Sadly, whilst both Joanne and Rob practice their unique personal skills, the senator is murdered in the most compromising of all positions and the story moves effortlessly from passionate drama to dark murder mystery. Abandoned, bewildered, angry and very hurt, Omaha leaves town, unaware that both she and Joanne are suspects in the Bonner murder case…

As she heads for a new life in rural Wisconsin, Chuck relearns some long-forgotten personal history from his mother, but no matter how she disguises her appearance, an increasingly popular video means the cat dancer will never be truly safe or unseen…

Volume 5 is introduced by Neil Gaiman, after which issues #14-17 (1990-1992) find the lovers painfully adapting to life apart, with Omaha’s old friends wondering where she’s gone. Meanwhile in Lawrenceville, Wisconsin, after an abortive stab at office work for an all-too-typical, male-dominated factory, “Susan Johnson” goes back to honest work, dancing in the town’s only strip joint, making reliable new friends and meeting a young man who will become far more…

Back in Mipple, Joanne’s lawyer finally clears her of suspicion in Bonner’s demise, Jerry plans to reopen infamous bordello The Underground as a legitimate nightclub and Chuck is making new friends and intimate acquaintances whilst spending his days trying to save the Bohemian A Block district from redevelopment. However, he inadvertently gets far closer to the heart of all the various intrigues threatening the players in the drama, and Jerry’s business partner Althea reveals her true colours… and allies. At Bonner’s funeral, Lopez reveals an unsuspected connection to the venomous politician…

Shelley has made new friends too – in a scathing, utterly delightful episode exposing unexpected biases held by certain sorts of feminists and do-gooders. Joanne is increasingly at odds with Rob regarding films of Bonner’s last moments and when Jerry invites Chuck to become partner in his nightclub venture Althea seeks to secure the deal by offering herself as a sweetener… Or does she actually have another reason for her bold advances?

Kurt & Shelley’s relationship starts showing signs of strain, but in Lawrenceville Susan is relaxed and happy, with the strength to contact the friends she ran out on. In Mipple, the cops slowly uncover uncomfortable facts about everybody in the Bonner case when the Senator’s private secretary comes forward with new information, and Joanne secures the final weapon necessary to expedite her plans…

The final Kitchen Sink issues – #18-20 (1993-1994) – comprise the major part of Volume 6. Following an introduction from Terry Moore, there’s a brief discourse on the large cast’s other appearances, accompanied by short pieces from diverse places. First, there’s the delightful foray into mainstream comics culled from Munden’s Bar Annual #2 in 1991. ‘A Strip in Time’ sees the exotic kitty visit the legendary pan-dimensional hostelry after which come two short ‘n’ sexy vignettes originally produced for The Erotic Art of Reed Waller: one untitled and the other graced with the subtly informative designation ‘Waking Up Under a Tent’, to somewhat offset the angst and drama of the main event hoving into view…

Here, Rob learns what Shelley’s actual role was in the arson attack on his shop, Joanne takes a live-in position with Mr. Lopez and – after many abortive attempts – Chuck & Omaha finally speak. As Thanksgiving dawns, many of Omaha’s friends gather for a momentous dinner and things start to unravel for the bad guys trying to destroy A Block.

And, back in Wisconsin, just as she’s becoming reconciled with Chuck, her fling with appreciative punter Jack intensifies to a crisis point. Meanwhile elsewhere, someone with an intimate knowledge of her recognises the hot dancer in a rock video and begins making fevered inquiries…

When Shawn’s touring band reaches Lawrenceville and discover Susie is Omaha, the scene is set for her return to Mipple City, where – after being arrested in connection with Bonner’s murder – Chuck’s mother reveals the whole story of her past, the sordid truth of Bonner’s obsessive depravity and Charles Tabey’s bi-polar affliction. In light of horrific revelations, Chuck seems to go completely off the deep end and, far too late, his friends and family realise money and looks might not be the only things the son inherited from the father…

Next, just a smidge out of chronological order, comes ‘Tales of Mipple City: Rob Steps Out’: a charming first date sidebar tale from Gay Comics #22 (1994), after which revelations resume as the cops release Maria Elandos Tabey, and her boy is sectioned. In Lawrenceville, Susie gets an unforgettable farewell from before she returns to her true love… who has never needed her more…

The last volume in this magnificent sequence features the final four issues published by Fantagraphics as Omaha the Cat Dancer volume 2, #1-4 (1994-1995). The series at times seemed truly accursed: plagued by illness, delays and creative problems which took a cruel toll on all the creators. Waller & Worley ended their relationships in spectacular fashion at this time and only began working together again in 2002. Two years later Worley died from cancer and it seemed the saga was destined to remain an unfinished masterpiece, but in 2006 Waller and Worley’s husband James Vance began to finish the job from her notes, with the concluding chapters serialised in the magazine Sizzle. When those final instalments were finally collected the completed Omaha the Cat Dancer became a contender for possibly the finest adult comics tale in history*

Here and now, however, the compulsive obsessive yarn reaches a kind of conclusion as – after an introduction from honorary Mipple City citizen Denis Kitchen, and a stunning cartoon recap – Omaha & Chuck renew their relationship, Jerry & Shelley and Rob & Joanne reach workable détente agreements and that tantalising missing husband tracks the cat dancer to her new home. Set over Christmas and New Year’s period, various plot threads come together during an unforgettable party at Chuck’s palatial new house, although a hung-over aftermath promises there are still stories to be told and loose ends to be knotted off once and for all…

Even if the saga had stopped here, Omaha the Cat Dancer would be an incredible narrative achievement and groundbreaking landmark of comics creation, but with the promise of a final resolution still to come, it’s likely to become an icon of our industry, celebrated forever for moving beyond simple titillation and happy, innocent prurience to become a fully matured work of Art. Captivating, intense, deeply moving and addictively engrossing, Omaha never forgets to be also fun, funny, fabulous and utterly inclusive: full of astonishingly well drawn, folk (admittedly largely furry or feathered folk) happily naked and joyously guilt-free… at least about sex.

Monochrome tomes printed at 220 x 280mm (much larger than the original comic books), these books also contain copious full page illustrations – many taken from companion book The Erotic Art of Reed Waller. This saga is one of those true turning points in comics history – a moment we could all provably say “this is socially relevant, capital ‘A’ Art” – as viable and important as the best play or film or symphony: don’t miss any opportunity to make yourself familiar with the whole marvellous classic…

No cats, dogs, chickens, moose, ferrets or anything else living (well maybe some trees) were harmed, abused, distressed or disagreeably surprised in the making of these stories, so if you’re open-minded, fun-loving and ready for the perfect grown-up adventure please take advantage of this unmissable opportunity. You won’t regret it…
© 1978, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987-1996 Reed Waller & Kate Worley. Contents of these editions © 2005-2007 NBM. All Rights Reserved. © 1987-1996 Reed Waller & Kate Worley. Contents of these editions © 2005-2008 NBM. All Rights Reserved.

*A slight footnote (pawnote?). That eighth volume was finally released in 2013, to complete the saga, and we’ll be tackling that in its own post and on its own merits in the fullness of time. Keep ’em peeled, folks…

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Moomin volume 9 – The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip


By Lasse Lars Jansson (Drawn & Quarterly)
ISBN: 978-1-77046-157-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-77046-556-5-

Today 25-years ago in Helsinki Lars Fredrik Jansson died. His work and that of his sister lives on.

Tove Jansson was one of the greatest literary innovators and narrative pioneers of the 20th century: equally adept at shaping words and images to create worlds of wonder. She was especially expressive with basic components like pen & ink, manipulating economical lines and patterns into sublime realms of fascination, whilst her dexterity made simple forms into incredibly expressive and potent symbols. So was her brother…

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and rather bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914. Patriarch Viktor was a sculptor and mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson a successful illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars AKA “Lasse” and Per Olov became – respectively – an author and cartoonist, and an art photographer. The family and its close intellectual, eccentric circle of friends seems to have been cast rather than born, with a witty play or challenging sitcom as the piece they were all destined to inhabit.

After extensive and intensive study (from 1930-1938 at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris), she became a successful exhibiting artist through the troubled years of WWII.

Brilliantly creative across many fields, she published her first Moomins fable in 1945. Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood – latterly and more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood) was a whimsical epic of gentle, inclusive, accepting, understanding, bohemian misfit trolls and their strange friends…

The term “Moomin” came from maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who tried to stop Tove pilfering food when she visited by warning that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks… you can check out our other reviews such as Christmas Comes to Moominvalley for how the critter became a mega franchise and proto-mythology. Here and now, let’s discuss how Lars got involved…

More popular with each successive book, global fame loomed. And in 1952 Finn Family Moomintroll/The Happy Moomins was translated into English to great acclaim, prompting British publishing giant Associated Press to commission a daily newspaper strip starring the seductively sweet & sensibly surreal creations. Jansson had no misgivings or prejudices about strip cartoons as she had already adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Mumintrollet och jordens undergäng/Moomintrolls and the End of the World was hugely popular and she welcomed the chance to extend her eclectic family’s range. In 1953, The London Evening News began the first of 21 Moomin strip sagas which captivated readers of all ages. Tove Jansson’s involvement in the cartoon ended in 1959, a casualty of its own success and the punishing publication schedule. So great was the strain that she had already recruited brother Lars to help. He quietly took over, continuing the feature until its close in 1975. His tenure as sole creator officially began with the sixth collection in this series and reaches its penultimate volume here…

Liberated from cartooning pressures, Tove returned to painting, writing and other pursuits: generating plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera and 9 more Moomin-related picture-books and novels, as well as 13 books and short-story collections strictly for grown-ups. She died on June 27th 2001, with awards too numerous to mention, and her face on the national currency…

Lars Fredrik Jansson (October 8th 1926 – July 31st 2000) was almost as amazing as his sister. Born into that astounding overachieving clan 12 years after Tove, at 16 he started writing – and selling – his own novels (nine in total). He also taught himself English because there weren’t enough Swedish-language translations of books available for his voracious reading appetite. In 1956 at his sister’s request he began co-scripting the Moomin strip: injecting his own witty whimsicality to ‘Moomin Goes Wild West’. He had been Tove’s English language translator and sense-reader from the start, seamlessly converting her Swedish into text and balloons even the British could grasp.

In 1959, when her contract with The London Evening News expired, Lars officially took over, having spent the interim period learning to draw and perfectly mimic his sister’s art style. He had done so in secret, assisted and tutored by their mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson. From 1961 to strip’s end in 1974, Lars was sole steersman of trollish tabloid tails (I fear that could be much misconstrued these days…).

“Lasse” was a man of many parts. Other careers included aerial photographer, professional gold miner, writer and translator. He was basis and model for ultimate cool kid Snufkin and his Moomins exploits were subtly sharper than his sister’s version: far more in tune with the quirky British sense of humour. Nevertheless, his whimsically wry sense of wonder was every bit as compelling. In 1990, long after the original series, Lasse began a new career, working with Dennis Livson (designer of Finland’s acclaimed Moomin World theme park) as producers of anime series The Moomins and, with daughter Sophia Jansson in 1993, on new Moomin strips…

Moomintrolls are easy-going free spirits: polite modern bohemians untroubled by hidebound domestic mores but under Lars, increasingly diverted and distracted by societal pressures. Moominmama is warm, kindly tolerant and capable, if perhaps overly concerned with propriety and appearances, whilst her devoted spouse Moominpappa spends most of his time trying to rekindle his adventurous youth or dreaming of fantastic journeys. Their darling son Moomintroll is a meek, dreamy boy with confusing ambitions who adores – and moons over – permanent houseguest the Snorkmaiden – although that impressionable, flighty gamin prefers to play things slowly whilst awaiting somebody potentially better…

A particularly acerbic affair, this 9th monochrome compilation revisits serial strip sagas #34-37, and opens with Lars in full charge as confusion blooms with the arrival of cinematic thespians and sundry other playactors all concerned with immortalising a ‘Damsel in Distress’.

Sadly our happy family and most of Moominvalley are utter neophytes regarding the miracles of the moving image and understandable initial confusion soon grows into envy, dangerous jealousy, unleashed ambition and when Moominpappa leaps to a wrong conclusion, frustrated heroism and vigilantism once the old stalwart spots ladies tied to railway tracks and caped mustachio-twirling figures lurking about…

No soon does that furore die down than domestic strife manifests as ‘Fuddler and Married Life’ finds the androgynous collector and equally ambiguous new spouse Jumble exploit everyone’s goodwill and happy wishes to unwisely expand their personal button collection into a rapacious runaway commercial enterprise that soon leaves them homeless and straining the good will of all around them. Luckily, Moominmamma is on hand to take over babysitting chores whilst the drama sorts itself out…

Rampant unchecked capitalism gone mad is also the order (to go) of the day in ‘Sniff’s Sports Shop’ as the exceptionally shy and nervous critter inherits a thriving activities emporium from an uncle whose sole previous contact was a monthly stipend for staying the full length of the valley away from him…

Moomin is there to support Sniff’s crash course in commercial enterprise and unwise quest for a game or endeavour he can take up as his very own, but the escalating chaos inevitably ends in tizzies, higgledy-piggledy behaviours, embarrassment and injury, before the sporting mogul wisely calls it a day…

Concluding proceedings is the sorry salutary saga of ‘Mymble’s Diamond’ wherein the impulsive, impressionable, incurable romantic shows everyone the flashy ring she’s been given by latest flame Rinaldo, and certain tongues begin wagging once again…

Soon the valley is afire with stridently expressed opinions and mounting certainty that “something should be done”, but what and to whom and – for pity’s sake – why?

A cautionary tale exploring the power of gossip and apparently irresistible need for some to judge others, here is a perfect example of cartoons’ power for cultural commentary and social satire, and a splendid place to pause and think quietly for a moment…

This compilation again closes with a closer look at the creator in ‘Lars Jansson: Roll Up Your Sleeves and Get to Work’ courtesy of family biographer Juhani Tolvanen, extolling his many worthy attributes…

These are utterly, adorably barbed tales for the young, laced with the devastating observation and razor-sharp mature wit which enhances and elevates only the greatest kids’ stories into classics of literature. These tomes – both Tove & Lars’ – are an international treasure trove no fan of the medium – or carbon-based lifeform with even a hint of heart and soul – can afford to be without.
© 2013 Solo/Bulls. “Lars Jansson: Roll Up Your Sleeves and Get to Work” © 2011/2013 Juhani Tolvanen. All rights reserved.

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Pogo – The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips volume 3: Evidence to the Contrary


By Walt Kelly, edited by Carolyn Kelly & Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-694-2 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic and satirical effect.

Today in 1975 the final episode of Pogo was published. Walt’s widow Selby Kelly said it was because newspapers were reducing print size to accommodate more ads but many, Many, Many of us knew it was really because fiction and satire could no longer keep up with reality. now with the burden of hindsight I can safely say “What the $££&%!! did we know?”

Books of this stature, calibre and merit are worth buying and reading at every moment of every day, and rather than waste your valuable time with my purely extraneous blather, you could just hit the shops or online emporia and grab this terrific tome right now. And Stay Tuned, Every time I see the news I resolve to finally finish reviewing these astounding tomes… AND THIS TIME I MEAN IT!

If you still need more though, and aren’t put off by me yet, I’m honoured to elucidate at some length so let’s restart here…

Walter Crawford Kelly Jr. was born in 1913 and began his cartooning career whilst still in High School as artist/reporter for the Bridgeport Post. In 1935 he moved to California and joined the Disney Studio, working on animated short films and such features as Dumbo, Fantasia and Pinocchio. His steady ascent was curtailed by the infamous animator’s strike in 1941. Refusing to take sides, Kelly quit, moving back East and into comic books – primarily for Dell, who held at that time the Disney rights license – amongst many other popular and invaluable properties.

Despite his glorious work on major mass-market, people-based comics classics such as the Our Gang movie serial spin-off, Kelly preferred – and particularly excelled – with anthropomorphic animal and children’s fantasy material.

For the December 1942-released Animal Comics #1 he created Albert the Alligator and Pogo Possum, and wisely retained the copyrights to the ongoing saga of two affable Bayou critters and their young African-American pal Bumbazine. Although the black kid soon disappeared, the animal actors stayed on as stars until 1948 when Kelly moved into journalism, becoming art editor and cartoonist for hard-hitting, left-leaning liberal newspaper The New York Star.

On October 4th 1948, Pogo, Albert and an ever-expanding cast of gloriously addictive, ridiculously exuberant characters began strip careers, appearing in the paper six days a week until the periodical folded in January 1949.

Although ostensibly a gently humorous kids feature, by the end of its NYS run (collected in Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips vol. 1), first glimmerings of an astoundingly barbed, boldly satirical masterpiece of velvet-pawed social commentary had begun to emerge.

When the paper folded, Pogo was picked up for mass distribution by the Post-Hall Syndicate, debuting on May 16th 1949 in selected outlets across the nation. The colour Sunday page launched on January 29th 1950 and both were produced simultaneously by Kelly until his death in 1973 and thereafter by his talented wife and family until the feature was at last laid to rest on July 20th 1975. At its height the strip appeared in 500 papers in 14 countries and book collections (which began in 1951) eventually numbered nearly 50; collectively selling over 30 million copies… and all long before this Fantagraphics series even began…

In this third volume of a proposed full dozen reprinting the entire Kelly canon of Okefenokee Swamp’s critter citizenry, undoubtedly our main aspect of interest is the full-on comedic assault against possibly the greatest danger and vilest political demagogue America ever endured (at least in the last century…) but the counterattack against witch-hunter Senator Joe McCarthy is merely one of many delights in this stunning mix of free expression and wild and woolly whimsy…

This colossal and comfortingly sturdy landscape compilation includes monochrome ‘Daily Strips’ from January 1st 1953 to December 31st 1954, and Sundays – in their own full-colour section at the back of the bus book – from January 4th to December 26th of the same years.

Supplemental features this time comprise a Foreword by award-winning cartoonist Mike Peters (Mother Goose & Grimm); a wealth of deliriously winning unpublished illustrations, working drawings by Kelly and utterly invaluable context and historical notes in R.C. Harvey’s ‘Swamp Talk’ appendix. This last also compellingly, almost forensically, details the rise and fall of rabblerousing “red-baiter” Joe McCarthy and how Kelly courageously opened America’s fight back against the unscrupulous, bullying chancer (and the movement for which he was merely a publicity-hungry figurehead. Nope! NOTHING CHANGES) with an unbeatable combination broadside of ridicule and cool disdain…

Mark Evanier’s closing biographical feature ‘About Walt Kelly’ is supplemented by a comprehensive ‘Index of the Strips’ and a gloriously inspired selection of ‘Noteworthy Quotes’ to fill the academic needs of the reader, but of course the greatest boon here is the strips and characters themselves.

Kelly was a masterful inventor of engaging and endearing personalities, all of whom carried as many flaws as virtues. The regular roll call (some commentators reckon to be as many as 1000!) included gentle, perpetually put-upon bemused possum Pogo; boisterous, happily ignorant alligator Albert; dolorous, sensitive Porkypine; obnoxious turtle Churchy La Femme; lugubrious hound Beauregard Bugleboy; carpet-bagging Seminole Sam Fox; pompously ignorant know-it-all Howland Owl; sveltely seductive skunk Miz Mam’selle Hepzibah; long suffering matron Miz Beaver; maternal Miz Groun’chuck and her incomprehensible, bitey baby Grundoon plus all the other bugs, beasts and yapping young’uns of the swamp, but the author’s greatest strength lay in his uniquely Vaudevillian rogues, scoundrels and outright villains.

The likes of Tammanany Tiger, officious Deacon Mushrat, sinister, sycophantic beatnik communist Catbirds Compeer and Confrere, sepulchral Sarcophagus MacAbre, sloganeering P.T. Bridgeport and a trio of brilliantly scene-stealing bats named Bewitched, Bothered and Bemildred were perfect confections to illustrate all manner of pestilential pettifogging, mean manners and venal self-serving atrocities as they intermingled and interfered with the decent folk volubly enduring the vicissitudes of such day-to-day travails as love, marriage, comic books, weather, rival strips, fishing, the problem with kids, the innocent joys of sport, cadging food, making a living and why neighbours shouldn’t eat each other.

You could – and probably should – replace any government anywhere on Earth with them today and nobody would spot a lick of difference…

In this volume topics of exotically extravagant conversation include the longevity and worth of New Year’s Resolutions; the scandalous behaviour of Porkeypine’s kissing-thief Uncle Baldwin; a get-rich scheme involving dirt; and opening shots at the burgeoning phenomenon of commercial television. However, the gradual conversion of the Deacon’s Boy Bird Watchers society into a self-policing vigilante committee looking for strangers and making sure all citizens are right-thinking and proper-looking would quickly insinuate itself into every corner of the feature…

Anti-foreigner sentiments peak following the arrival of Deacon Mushrat’s old pal The Hon. Mole MacCarony; a blind, self-aggrandizing politico determined to root out all (undisclosed) threats, enforce conformity and stamp out the diseases obviously carried by strangers. The xenophobic dirt-digger was based on Nevada Senator Patrick McCarran, who briefly shaped paranoid public opinion on a platform of severely restricting immigration and implementing the speedy deportation of all communists and non-Americans. Clearly and sadly, his poisonous legacy and methodology remains a valuable asset and divine dogma for many politicos and opinion-shapers today…

Things got much darker – and therefore more effectively ludicrous – with the arrival of Mole’s malicious and ambitious associate Simple J. Malarkey – whose bullying tactics soon began to terrify his fellow bigots as much as the increasingly outraged, off-balance citizens. Eventually the villains fall out and trigger their own downfall, with the mortified Deacon sheepishly denying his part in the fiasco. Peace and (in)sanity return and with sunny days ahead weather-prognosticating frog Picayune debuts, only to suffer a great loss when Albert accidentally ingests the amphibian’s pal Halpha – an amoeba who actually did all the meteorological messing about…

Voracious Albert swallowed a lot of things over the years, but his biggest gaffe probably occurs after meeting Roogey Batoon, a pelican impresario who – briefly – “managed” Flim, Flam & Flo: a singing fish act billed as the Lou’siana Perches…

Many intriguing individuals shambled into view at this time: Ol’ Mouse and his tutorial pal Snavely (who taught worms how to be cobras and rattlers); cricket-crazed British bugs Reggie and Alf and family icons Bug Daddy and Chile, but the biggest mover and shaker to debut was undoubtedly a sporty Rhode Island Red chicken dubbed Miss Sis Boombah. The formidable biddy is a physically imposing and prodigiously capable sports enthusiast – and Albert’s old football coach – who wanders in as survey taker for Dr. Whimsy’s Report on the Sectional Habits of U.S. Mail Men (a brilliant spoof of societally sensational Kinsey Report on sexual behaviour in America) but her arrival also generates a succession of romantic interludes and debacles which eventually lead to a bewildered Mushrat proposing marriage before leaving her in the lurch and disappearing into the deepest parts of the swamp…

Mole reared his unseeing head again, causing merely minor mischief, but when the marriage-averse Deacon encounters the terrifying Malarkey lurking in hiding with sinister acolyte Indian Charlie (who bears a remarkable resemblance to then US Vice-President Richard Milhouse Nixon) the scene is set for another savage, often genuinely scary confrontation…

That’s also exactly what Miss Boombah has in mind as she sets out – accompanied by Bewitched, Bothered and Bemildred – to hunt down the scoundrel who left her in the lurch at the church…

Other story strands and insane interludes include such epic mini sagas as the search for an abducted puppy – lampooning TV cop series Dragnet – and a long session on the keeping and proper sharing of secrets; much ado about gossip and the art of being a busybody. Most memorable of all though, is Churchy’s sudden predilection for dressing up as a pretty little blonde girl, perpetually visiting Martians, and poor Pogo’s oddly domestic recipe for A-Bombs…

In his time, satirical supremo Kelly unleashed his bestial spokes-cast upon many other innocent, innocuous celebrity sweethearts such as J. Edgar Hoover, the John Birch Society and Ku Klux Clan, as well as lesser leading lights like Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson and – with eerie perspicacity – George W. Romney (U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Governor of Michigan and father of a guy named Mitt), but nothing ever compared to his delicious and devilish deconstruction of “Tailgunner Joe” in the two extended sequences reprinted here. Kelly’s unmatched genius lay in his seemingly effortless ability to lyrically, if not vivaciously, portray through anthropomorphic affectation and apparently frivolous nonsense language comedic, tragic, pompous, infinitely sympathetic characters of any shape or breed, all whilst making them undeniably human.

Kelly used that gift to readily blend hard-hitting observation of our crimes, foibles and peccadilloes with rampaging whimsy, poesy and sheer exuberant joie de vivre. However, he usually toned down the satirical scalpels for the magnificently imaginative ‘Sunday Funnies’: concentrating instead on fantastic and unfailingly hilarious serial fables and comedy romps.

Some of the best he ever conceived conclude this volume, beginning with the epic saga of little faun Melonbone whose search for the Fountain of Youth inadvertently causes Sam Duck to revert to an egg. The distraught drake’s wife is not best pleased at having to hatch her own husband out at her age… after all, she’s no spring chicken…

Churchy & Albert endure the ire of sharp toothed tot Grundoon as the kid’s inability to converse leads the alligator to accidentally swallow his turtle pal, after which the animal crackpots all get very lost for a long time in their own swampy backyard…

Howlan Owl’s latest get-rich-quick scheme – digging to China – results in his and Albert’s reluctant consultation of an Atlas and the shocking conclusion that the Russians have taken over Georgia…

The panicked reaction of the chumps precipitates their accidentally awakening an oversleeping bear who opts to celebrate Christmas in the middle of August. Eventually, everybody catches up to him just in time for the true Yule event…

After the usual New Year’s shenanigans, 1954 truly takes hold as everyone’s favourite alligator tries to recount the amazing exploit of ‘King Albert and the 1001 Arabian Knights of the Round Table’ – despite each listener’s evident and express disinterest – before Howlan and Churchy became compulsively embroiled in a furious feud over pugilism. Soon thereafter Albert is mistaken for a monster after getting his head stuck in a cauldron. Sadly, once he’s finally extricated from the calamitous cookpot, other unhappy folk become the infernal alembic’s unwilling method of locomotion…

No sooner does that culinary catastrophe conclude than the whole sorry fiasco promptly kicks off again with a lovesick octopus now playing transient chapeau to a succession of unfortunate and duly startled swamp critters…

The hairy, scaly, feathered, slimy folk of the surreal swamplands are, of course, inescapably us, elevated by burlesque, slapstick, absurdism and all the glorious joys of wordplay from puns to malapropisms to raucous accent humour into a multi-layered hodgepodge of all-ages delight – and we’ve never looked or behaved better. This stuff will certainly make you laugh; it will probably provoke a sentimental tear or ten and will certainly satisfy your every entertainment requirement. Timeless and ineffably magical, Pogo is a giant not simply of comics, but of world literature and this magnificent third tome should be the pride of every home’s bookshelf, right beside the others.

… Or, in the popular campaign parlance of the all politically astute critters – “I Go Pogo!”… and so should you.

Pogo Vol. 3: Evidence to the Contrary and all POGO images, including Walt Kelly’s signature © 2014 Okefenokee Glee & Perloo Inc. All other material © 2014 the respective creator and owner. All rights reserved.

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Rails on the Prairie – Lucky Luke Adventure vol. 32 & The Bluefeet are Coming! – Lucky Luke Adventure vol. 43


Lucky Luke volume 25: Rails on the Prairie
By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-104-4 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Lucky Luke volume 43 – The Bluefeet are Coming!
By Morris, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-173-0 (Album PB/Digital editions)

These books include Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today in 2001 we said “adios!” to one of the true masters of our industry and art form. Happily, his legend lives on in the form of his most significant creation.

A precocious, westerns-addicted, art-mad kid, well off and educated by Jesuits, Maurice de Bevere was born on December 1st 1923 in Kortrijk, Belgium. A far from illustrious or noteworthy scholar – except in all the ways teachers despise – Maurice later sought artistic expression in his early working life via forays into film animation before settling into his true vocation. While working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’Actualitiés) animation studio, “Morris” met future comics superstars Franquin & Peyo, and worked for weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist. Morris quickly became one of la Bande des quatre – The Gang of Four – comprising Jijé, Will and old comrade Franquin: leading proponents of a loose, free-wheeling artistic style known as the “Marcinelle School” which dominated Le journal de Spirou in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style favoured by Hergé, EP Jacobs and other artists in Le Journal de Tintin.

In 1948, said Gang (all but Will) visited America, befriending many US comics creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, meeting fellow traveller René Goscinny, scoring some work from newly-formed EC sensation Mad and making copious notes and countless sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West. That research would resonate on every page of his life’s work.

Working solo, albeit with occaisonal script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere until 1955, Morris produced nine albums of affectionate sagebrush parody and comedic cinematic homage before formally uniting with Goscinny, who became the regular wordsmith as Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with Des rails sur la Prairie which began in weekly  LJd S on August 25th 1955. The collected album was first released for Christmas in 1957, the ninth in the series, and was follewed by Morris’ final solo tale Alerte aux Pieds Bleus/The Bluefeet are Coming! in 1958.

Lucky Luke Rails on the Prairie

Doughty, rangy, and dashingly dependable Lucky Luke is a likable, imperturbable, implacably even-tempered cowboy do-gooder who can “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around a mythic, cinematically informed Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant, stingingly sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. Over nearly nine decades, his exploits in Le Journal de Spirou (and from 1967, in rival periodical Pilote) have made the sharp shooter a legend of stories across all media and monument of merchandising.

His exploits have made him one of the bestselling comic characters in Europe (83 collected albums plus around a dozen spin-offs and specials – totalling over 300 million books in at least 33 languages), with all the spin-off toys, computer games, puzzles, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies that come with that kind of popularity.

The rapid pace and seeming simplicity of these spoof tales means older stories can generally sit quite comfortably alongside newer material crafted for a more modern readership. Here, material from Le Journal de Spirou #906-929 – originally spanning 25th August 1955 to 2nd February 1956 – was collected in November 1957 as ninth album Des rails sur la Prairie: the first epic result of a grand partnership.

Although initially uncredited, it was cowritten by Morris and fellow euro-expat/US tourist Goscinny: auguring an astounding creative partnership to come. Goscinny produced 45 albums with Morris before his death in 1977, from whence Morris continued both singly and with fresh collaborators. Before all that, though, this wild & woolly transitional delight offers a far more boisterous and raw hero than we’re used to, highlighting the sunnier side of a mythic western scenario. Moreover, it ends with the first incidence of Lucky riding into the sunset singing “I’m a poor, lonesome cowboy”…

When track-laying for the Transcontinental Railroad stalls, outraged train moguls demand action. Dead Ox Gulch, Nebraska becomes a crunch point of construction confrontation. Constant hold-ups are actually caused by a traitor at home back East. Although a board-member in good standing, Black Wilson is secretly sabotaging the project to protect his other business: a stage coach company…

He contracts the nefarious Wilson Boys to keep up their bad work, even as a laconic stranger rides into town. Before long, the newcomer is assuredly spearheading the march of progress and civilisation simply by foiling every dirty trick the gang can conceive…

Once renewed efforts have moved beyond town and onto the prairie and the rails inch ever closer to California, a train carries Lucky, passengers and the navvies further westward, negotiating and stymying hostile natives, greedy townships and the still-active Wilson boys’ shady tactics and stratagems.

Ultimately, Black Wilson takes personal charge and boards a stagecoach westward to destiny. Despite his every trick, though, the showdown between spoiler and visionary is a foregone conclusion…

Fast funny, episodic and enthralling, these early exploits are a big old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides Again or Support Your Local Sheriff, superbly set up and laid out by a master storyteller, and make a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for modern kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was.

The Bluefeet are Coming! Lucky Luke volume 43

Au Continent, the populace has a mature relationship with comics, according them academic and scholarly standing as well as nostalgic value and the validation of acceptance as an art form. That even applies to challenging material such as seen in Alerte aux Pieds Bleus: Morris’s final solo effort until Goscinny passing in 1977. A tribute to all the purest western tropes and leitmotifs, it too offers a rowdier, boldly raw hero in transition, just hitting his stride and strutting his stuff, but also relies heavily on the cliches and narrative shortcuts of that earlier era, particularly in the depiction of other cultures and races appearances and customs for comedic intent. I can only apologise for my ancestors and ask that you read with an open mind: after all, Morris was simply exploiting longstanding filmic and comics influences. If I was really desperate, I might also say that his utilsation of comedy in these stereotypes may have helped challenge the status quo…

Lucky Luke debuted in autumn 1946: catapulted sans name or title into rolling gag vignettes in the French edition of multinational publication Le Journal de Spirou, before appearing (with a name) in Christmas Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947. Then his comic serial ‘Arizona 1880’ opened in the December 7th 1946 comic; and no one has ever looked back…

He first appeared in Britain syndicated to weekly comic Film Fun and again in 1967 in Giggle where he was renamed Buck Bingo. In all these venues – as well as numerous attempts to follow the English-language successes of Tintin and Asterix albums – Luke hung a trademark cigarette insouciantly from his lip, before in 1983 Morris, no doubt amidst pained howls and muted mutterings of “political correctness gone mad” (oooh! That’s what “woke” must mean!!) substituted a strand of straw for the dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization…

Morris died in 2001, having drawn 70 Lucky adventures, plus spin-off tales of Rantanplan (“dumbest dog in the West” and a charming spoof of cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin), with a posse of talented creators taking over the franchise.

The most successful attempt to bring Lucky Luke to our shores and shelves comes from Cinebook (who rightly restored the foul weed to his lips on the interior pages if not the covers), but sensibly took their own sweet time bringing the oldest, most potentially controversial tales to market. As serialised in LJdS #938 – #957, Alerte aux Pieds Bleus is certainly one of those…

A procession of linked gags sees Morris pile on and kick hard familiar themes and scenarios as the town of Rattlesnake Valley welcomes wanderer Lucky. The lone rider is just in time to save super-superstitious sheriff Jerry Grindstone from sneaky gambler and professional cheat Pedro Cucaracha whose plans to fleece the old codger result in his painful and shameful eviction from civilisation. Of course, the scoundrel had tried to rob and blow up the bank on his way out…

Chased into the desert, the scurvy Mexican then gulls the alcoholic Great Chief of the local Bluefeet Indians into laying siege to the town, tempting the old warrior with promises of unlimited booze…

Old Parched Bear is happy to oblige, and soon the town is forming a militia, telegraphing for the cavalry and setting up barricades. As food and water grow scarce profiteering proliferates, with Lucky and Jerry battening down the hatches and bolstering morale for a long and dangerous defence of their lives and loved ones…

Against that framework of classic movie moments there are rich slapstick pickings as spies, crossdressers, raids & counter-raids and devious secret weapons all build to a bombastic finale, with Pedro and Parched Bear attempting all manner of nefarious invention to get respectively vengeance and more “firewater”…

… And then, when it’s almost too late, the Cavalry arrive… just after the deployment of late arriving support from the Greenfeet and Yellowfeet branches of the family of First Nations. It can only end in catastrophe unless Lucky can contrive a solution…

Daft and Spectacular in equal amounts, this is perhaps a tale for older kids who have gained a bit of historical perspective and social understanding, although the action and slapstick situations are no more contentious than any old movie…
© Dargaud Edituer Paris 1971 by Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translations © 2011, 2013 Cinebook Ltd.

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Silver Surfer: Parable


By Stan Lee & Möebius; with Keith Pollard & Tom DeFalco, Josef Rubinstein, José Marzan, Chris Ivy, Paul Mounts, Michael Heisler & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6209-4 (HB) 978-0-7851-0656-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As Marvel’s cinematic arm tries once again to get it right with their founding concept and by extension ultimate allegory of God and Jesus, you can safely anticipate revisiting a selection of fabulous FF and associated material as well as new collections all culled from their prodigious paginated days…

The most eclectic and enigmatic of comic book cult figures, the Silver Surfer’s saga began with the deservedly lauded and legendary introductory story. Although pretty much a last-minute addition to Lee’s plot for Fantastic Four #48-50’s Galactus Trilogy, Jack Kirby’s gleaming god-adjacent creation became a watchword for depth and subtext in the Marvel Universe, and one Lee kept as his own personal toy for many years.

Sent to find planets for star god Galactus to consume, the Silver Surfer discovers Earth, where the latent nobility of humanity reawakens his own suppressed morality. He then rebels against his master, helping the FF save the world. As punishment, Galactus exiles the star-soaring Surfer to Earth, the ultimate outsider on a planet remarkably ungrateful for his sacrifice.

The Galactus Saga was a creative highlight in a period where the Kirby/Lee partnership was utterly on fire: an adventure with all the power and grandeur of a true epic and one which has never been surpassed for drama, thrills and sheer entertainment.

That one’s not here, but it can be found in many, many other compilations. Sorry.

In 1988-1989, ‘Parable’ was released as an Epic Comics micro-series. It featured an all-new interpretation of Galactus’ initial assault on our backwards world, illustrated by legendary French artist Jean Giraud/Möebius. As with the 1978 Fireside Books/Simon & Schuster Silver Surfer by Lee & Kirby, the story was removed from general Marvel continuity, allowing a focus on the unique philosophical nature of the Surfer and his ravenous master without the added distraction of hundreds of superheroes disrupting the flow.

It’s a beautiful piece of work and another one you really should read.

Basically, when Galactus reaches Earth in search of his absconded servant and herald – a spectacular exercise in scale and visual wonder – the Silver Surfer is hiding amongst us: a vagrant living on the streets and well aware of humanity’s many failings. However, when the star-god arrives and demands (like a huge cosmic TACO-PotUS) that everyone bows down and worships him, the solitary nomad is forced to confront his creator for the sake of beings who despise him.

Driven to extreme actions by his intimate knowledge of earthlings good and bad, the Surfer instigates a conceptual and spiritual fightback which soon devolves into blistering battle against his maker. With the sky literally falling, soon the tempted and terrified world rallies as Norrin Radd exposes the cosmic blowhard as a petty opportunist and inspires humanity to reject what seems like another deal too good to be true…

Isn’t it odd how fiction so often anticipates fact?

Tacked onto the ethereal, unmissable episode – one far more in tune with Möebius’ beliefs and interests than Stan’s – is an early Marvel Graphic Novel of the regulation Marvel Universe. The Enslavers is a rather self-indulgent but oddly entertaining slice of intergalactic eye-candy featuring the legendary icon of the counter-culture generation, and once again it depicts the ex-herald of planet-devourer Galactus as a tragic saviour and Christ metaphor. Now, though, it’s not our troubled humanity but the overwhelming power of slavers from space that threatens, and there’s a lot less breast-beating and soul-searching and far more cosmic action.

The story by Stan Lee (and Keith Pollard) has a rather odd genesis. Commissioned in the early 1980s by Jim Shooter, Lee’s original plot was apparently much transformed in the eight years it took to draw. By the time it was dialogued, it was a far different beast and Lee almost jokingly disowns it in his Afterword. Nevertheless, there’s lots to enjoy for fans who don’t expect too much in this tale of love and death in the great beyond. It’s inked by Josef Rubinstein, José Marzan & Chris Ivy, coloured by Paul Mounts and lettered by Michael Heisler.

Here, after a frantic rush through cosmic gulfs, Silver Surfer Norrin Radd crashes into the home of Reed & Sue Richards, just ahead of the colossal invasion craft of monstrous Mrrungo-Mu, who has been drawn to our world by the well-intentioned but naive Nasa probe Voyager III. Norrin’s homeworld Zenn-La has already been depopulated by the pitiless space slaver and Earth is next…

Moving swiftly, and exploiting the good intentions of an Earth scientist, the Enslavers incapacitate all our world’s superbeings and prepare to enjoy their latest conquest, but they have not accounted for the vengeful resistance of the Surfer or the debilitating power of the love Mrrungo-Mu is himself slave to: for the unconquerable alien warlord is weak and helpless before the haughty aloofness and emotional distance of his supposed chattel Tnneya…

Despite being – in far too many places – dafter than a bag of photonic space-weasels jonesing for disco lights, there’s still an obvious love of old, classic Marvel tales delivered at an enthusiastic pace informing these beautifully drawn pages, and the action sequences are a joy to behold. If you love cosmic adventure and can swallow a lot of silliness, this might just be worth a little of your time and money.

Altogether a very strange marriage, this is a compelling tome spanning the vast divide of comics from the ethereal and worthy to the exuberant and fun: a proper twofer you can get your teeth into…
© 1988, 1989, 1990, 2012 Marvel Entertainment Group/Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Sky Over the Louvre


By Bernar Yslaire & Jean-Claude Carrière, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM Comics Lit/Louvre: Musée du Louvre Éditions)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-602-0 (HB)

Joyeux 14 juillet! – or if you’re being a leetle pickee – Happy Bastille Day, mes braves!

Well over a decade ago the prestigious Louvre gallery in Paris began an intriguing, extremely rewarding collaboration with the world of comics, resulting in wealth of modern art treasures – translated bande dessinée made available to English readers courtesy of those fine folks at NBM.

The second release was 2012’s Le Ciel Au-Dessus du Louvre which we know as The Sky Over the Louvre – a lush and beautiful, oversized hardback graphic novel exploring the origins and philosophical underpinnings of France’s national art collection, whilst simultaneously peeling back the motivations and ambitions of the twisted visionaries who steered – or maybe simply rode – the human wave of Chaos deemed “the Terror” of the French Revolution: the catalyst for the gallery’s very existence.

These tales were produced in close collaboration with the forward-looking authorities of the Musée du Louvre, but this is no gosh-wow, “Night-at-the-Museum”, or thinly-concealed catalogue of contents from a stuffy edifice of public culture. Rather, here is an intense, informative, insightful and gripping glimpse into the price and power of art as engine of change and agent of obsession.

Jean-Claude Carrière was born on September 17th 1931, studied at the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud and wrote a novel before becoming an actor and one of France’s greatest screen writers. He assisted Jacques Tati and wrote the novelisations of his films, before going on to work with Luis Buñuel (for 19 years), scripting such classics as Diary of a Chambermaid, Belle de Jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, That Obscure Object of Desire and many more. Other notable credits include work with directors such as Milos Forman, Louis Malle, Andrzej Wajda, Nagisa Oshima and others on iconic films like The Tin Drum, Danton, The Return of Martin Guerre, Max, Mon Amour and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, although three generations of British television viewers will probably revere him most for his adaptation of the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (starring Robert Hoffmann and featuring that iconic theme-tune) which ran on BBC 1 at tea time from 1965 to about 20 minutes ago.

His approximately 80 screenplays, plus essays, fiction, translations and interviews led to countless awards and accolades including two Oscars – in 1963 for Heureux Anniversaire and an Honorary lifetime achievement Academy Award in 2014. Carrière died on February 8th 2021. In his spare time he had also written comics, particularly with legendary clown/gag writer Pierre Étaix and Bernard Yslaire…

Belgian born Bernard Yslaire (AKA Bernard Hislaire, Sylaire) began his career in 1978, drawing kiddie’s strip ‘Bidouille et Violette’ for Le Journal de Spirou before creating historical epic Sambre in 1986. He was one of the first creators to fully embrace the potential of the internet with his online strip Mémoires du XXe ciel / XXe ciel.com (Memories of the XXth Sky). In 2006 he produced the moving doomed romance Sky over Brussels, and since Le Ciel Au-Dessus du Louvre has largely left comics to concentrate on digital projects.

The Sky Over the Louvre compellingly dramatizes history, focussing on revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David and close associate Maximilien de Robespierre (who dubbed himself “The Incorruptible”) as they plan how to replace religion, monarchy and the Old Art with something unique and truly worthy of their revolution. David and his School (Drouais, Greueze, Girodet and students Serangeli and Gérard) have taken residence in the old Louvre Palace, where past kings left their grandiose aggregation of treasures when they vacated Paris for Versailles. Here the Revolutionary council aspires to create a new aesthetic and new thought for their New Society…

Jules Stern is a 13-year-old wanderer from the Black Sea, roaming Paris’ dangerous streets in search of his mother, and claiming to have an appointment with David. On the 15th Fructidor, Year 1 (8th August 1793 for those of us not wedded to the Republic’s new calendar) the angelic lad confronts the artist just as he is inaugurating the Louvre as the first Museum of the Nation: dedicated to public ownership of art and the notion of beauty as a revolutionary ideal. Later, they meet again and Robespierre forms a hostile opinion of the child, although David is clearly fascinated by the headstrong, beautiful boy…

As high-minded idealism of the Revolution’s early days dissolves into factional in-fighting, Robespierre and David become increasingly concerned with the spiritual and aesthetic, determined to excise and replace every vestige of the old regime and society. They seek images and concepts to embody their cause and plan a festival to the concept of Reason, but all across France backsliding and foreign invasion threaten their progress. In September 1793 the Convention (ruling body and parliament of the Republic) decrees “Terror to be the order of the day”…

Blood, betrayal and horror rule the streets as David, from his apartments in the Louvre, begins work on a brace of pivotal works: The Supreme Being and The Death of Joseph Bara. It is difficult to assess which causes him the most grief and triggers his ultimate downfall…

The Incorruptible is becoming increasingly more arrogant and ruthless, desperate for revolutionary images that will fire and inspire the masses. He presses David to produce the ultimate physical representation of the conceptual spirit of the New France – a vision of its Supreme Being – but as time goes by and no image emerges, one too many people whisper that what Robespierre actually requires is a portrait of himself…

Far less troublesome should be The Death of Joseph Bara: a boy who became First Martyr of the Revolution, and one scheduled to become the nation’s uniting icon. However, David’s obsession with Jules Stern brings more trouble, when Robespierre objects to the boy being selected as the model for Bara the Myth…

Nobody baulks The Incorruptible for long, but the obsessive nature of the creative impulse is insurmountable. Eventually Robespierre can only achieve his ends by sending Jules to the guillotine. Incredibly, not even death separates the artist from his model…

Set solidly in the very heart of a moment of epochal historical importance, this is a stunning, utterly compelling tale of humanity at its wildest extremes, when grand ideals wedded themselves to the basest on bestial impulses, yet from that Yslaire & Carrière have crafted a magnificently realised tale laced with staggering detail and addictive emotion.

With extra features including biographies and a listing of the actual artworks woven seamlessly into the narrative, this is a truly magical book no aficionado of the medium, lover of history or student of human nature should miss…
© 2009 Futuropolis/Musée du Louvre Éditions. © 2011 NBM for the English translation by Joe Johnson. All rights reserved.