Category: Science Fiction

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Out of this World Volume 1


By Raymond Everett Kinstler & various (Malibu)
No ISBN

A little while ago I reviewed the mind-boggling, intellectually challenging science fiction yarns of DC’s Strange Adventures and made a rather offhand remark about the other end of the genre-spectrum then extant.

Whilst Julie Schwartz and his band of writers (many full-time SF authors recruited during the Editor’s early days as a literary agent) pushed conceptual envelopes and opened doors of wonder, another strand focusing on sheer adventure offered the trappings of the form in racy, hard-bitten tales with rocket-ships replacing speeding Sedans or charging steeds, blasters substituting for gats or six-guns, aliens taking the place of Commies, Injuns or mobster-mooks and yes, lots of scantily clad babes in torn clothes or fetching ensembles comprising filmy underwear and large glass domes on their immaculately coiffed, pretty little heads…

These terrifically tacky tales of space sensationalism from another age are a delicious forbidden and oh, so guilty pleasure, thus there’s no real literary justification for today’s featured item, just old fashioned fun and some extremely enticing artwork.

These pre-code tales from minor publishers of the early 1950s are sheer, rockets-roaring, Thud and Blunder classics and might be missing a few technical truths and sensible science facts, but in terms of pulse-pounding excitement and masterful illustration they’re the real deal…

Collected from Avon’s Strange Worlds #9, Strange Planets #16 (an I.W. reprint of Strange Worlds #6), Harvey Comics’ Tomb of Terror #6 and S.P.M’s Weird Tales of the Future #1, the material within is pretty much the best the sub-genre has to offer and opens with the Everett Raymond Kinstler illustrated ‘Ransom – One Million Decimars!’ (Strange Worlds #9, November 1952) as hard-boiled space-cop Mike Grant hunted down the interplanetary mobster who had kidnapped the daughter of Earth’s President…

The same issue also provided the utterly anonymous ‘World of the Monster Brain!’ with its tale of the overthrow of a transdimensional tyrant as well as the thoroughly cathartic save-the-world thriller ‘Radium Monsters’ which looks like early Frank Springer to me…

Extraordinary special Agent Kenton of the Star Patrol spectacularly tackled ‘The Monster-Men of Space!’ in another Kinstler classic from Strange Planets #16 whilst  ‘The Survivors!’ (Tomb of Terror #6 1952, with art tantalisingly reminiscent of Joe Certa) pitted hunk and hot babe against hairy horrors in a post-Armageddon yarn, after which the manic tragedy of ‘The Man Who Owned the Earth’ (Strange Planets #16) was followed by the concluding classic of unwanted immorality in ‘Ten Thousand Years Old!’

This cheap and cheerful black and white compilation, coyly contained behind a cracking Bruce Timm cover, cuts straight to the magnificently cheesy pulp pulchritude pull of this kind of fantasy and although hard to find, difficult to justify, and perhaps a stretch to accept from our advanced perspective here in the future, these stories and their hugely successful ilk were inarguably a vital stepping stone to our modern industry. There is a serious lesson here about acknowledging the ability of comics to appeal to older readers from a time when all the experts would have the public believe that comics were made by conmen and shysters for kiddies, morons and slackers.

Certainly there are also a lot of cheap laughs and guilty gratification to be found in these undeniably effective little tales. This book and the era it came from are worthy of far greater coverage than has been previously experienced but no true devotee should readily ignore this stuff.

© 1989 Malibu Graphics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Strange Adventures volume 1


By John Broome, Otto Binder, Edmond Hamilton, Joe Samachson, Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Sid Greene & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1544-6

As the 1940s closed, masked mystery-men dwindled in popularity and the American comicbook industry found new heroes. Classical genre titles flourished; anthologies dedicated to crime, war, westerns and horror, were augmented by newer fads like funny animal, romance and especially science fiction which in 1950 finally escaped its glorious thud and blunder/ray guns/bikini babes in giant fishbowl helmets pulp roots (as perfectly epitomised in the uniquely wonderful Golden Age icon Planet Comics) with the introduction of Strange Adventures.

Packed with short adventures from jobbing SF writers and a plethora of new heroes such as Chris KL99, Captain Comet, the Atomic Knights and others, the magnificent monthly compendium (which was supplemented a year later with sister-title Mystery in Space) introduced wide-eyed youngsters to a fantastic but intrinsically rationalist universe and the wonders it might conceal…

This spectacular and economical monochrome collection features stories from the inception of the self-regulatory Comics Code (issues #54-73, covering March 1955 to October 1956) right up to the start of the Silver Age when superheroes began to successfully reappear, offering wide-eyed technological wonderment and the sure and certain knowledge that there were many and varied somethings “Out There”.

On a thematic note: a general but by no means concrete rule of thumb was that Strange Adventures generally occurred on Earth or were at least Earth-adjacent whilst as the name suggests Mystery in Space offered readers the run of the rest of the universe…

Moreover many of the plots, gimmicks, maguffins and even art were recycled for the later technologically-based Silver Age superhero revivals…

This mind-blowing, physics-challenging monochrome colossus opens with the March 1955 issue and four classic vignettes, beginning with ‘The Electric Man!’ by John Broome & Sy Barry, wherein a geologist in search of new power sources accidentally unleashes destructive voltaic beings from the centre of the Earth. As always – and in the grand tradition of legendary pulp sci-fi editor John Campbell – human ingenuity and decency generally solves the assorted crises efficiently and expeditiously…

‘The World’s Mightiest Weakling!’ from Otto Binder, Carmine Infantino & Bernard Sachs offered a charming yet impossible conundrum when a puny stripling gained incomprehensible mass and density during the course of an experiment, whilst ‘Interplanetary Camera!’ (Binder, Gil Kane & Sachs) gave a photographer a glimpse of the unknown when he found an alien image recorder and uncovered a plot to destroy Earth. The issue concluded with another Binder blinder in the taut thriller ‘The Robot Dragnet!’ illustrated by Harry Sharp & Joe Giella, with a rip-roaring romp of rampaging robotic rage.

This tale was actually the sequel to an earlier yarn but sufficiently and cleverly recapped so that there’s no confusion or loss of comprehensibility…

Issue #55 led with ‘The Gorilla who Challenged the World’ by Edmond Hamilton & Barry, wherein an ape’s intellect was scientifically enhanced to the point where he became a menace to all mankind. So great was his threat that this tale also was carried over to the next issue…

During this period editors were baffled by a bizarre truism: every issue of any title which featured gorillas on the cover always produced increased sales. Little wonder then that so many DC comics had hairy headliners…

‘Movie Men from Mars!’ (Hamilton, Sharp & Giella) found our world the unwilling location for cinematographers from the Red Planet. Unfortunately they were making a disaster movie…

‘A World Destroyed!’ by Joe Kubert offered a fanciful but gripping explanation for how the asteroid belts between Mars and Jupiter were formed and the cataclysm theme continued in ‘The Day the Sun Exploded!’ with Broome, Kane & Sachs depicting a desperate dash by scientists to save Earth from melting, after which Sid Gerson, Murphy Anderson & Giella revealed the baffling puzzle of ‘The Invisible Spaceman!’

Strange Adventures #56 opened whimsically with ‘The Fish-Men of Earth!’ (Broome, Infantino & Sachs) as air density went temporarily askew thanks to invading aliens, ‘Explorers of the Crystal Moon!‘ (Broome, Sharp & Sachs) found a little boy going for a secret solar safari with visiting extraterrestrials, and artist Paul Paxton inadvertently became ‘The Sculptor Who Saved the World!’ when future-men asked him to make some highly specific pieces for them. A fast-paced yarn by Broome, Kane & Giella saw penitent Dr. Jonas Mills correct his evolutionary error by finally defeating his mutated gorilla in the concluding part of the simian saga ‘The Jungle Emperor!’ by Hamilton & Barry.

Broome, Sid Greene & Sachs’ ‘The Spy from Saturn!’ opened issue #57 with a Terran scientist replaced by a perfect impostor, whilst ‘The Moonman and the Meteor!’ (Bill Finger & Barry) found millionaires and aliens trying to buy or inveigle a fallen star from a humble amateur astronomer for the best and worst of reasons, after which Binder, Kane & Giella proffered ‘The Riddle of Animal “X”’ when a small boy found a pet like no other creature on Earth, before ‘Spaceship Under the Earth!’ (Broome, Infantino & Giella) revealed an incredible ancient find to a Uranium prospector and some fugitive convicts desperate enough to try any means of escape…

Issue #58 began with a police chief’s frantic search for a superhuman felon in ‘I Hunted the Radium Man!’ (Dave Wood & Infantino) whilst ‘Prisoner of Two Worlds!’ by Finger & Barry saw the long awaited return of genius detective Darwin Jones of the Department of Scientific Investigation.

Although an anthology of short stories Strange Adventures featured a number of memorable returning characters and concepts such as Star Hawkins or Space Museum during its run. Jones debuted in the very first issue, solving fringe science dilemmas for the Federal Government and making thirteen appearances over as many years. In this third adventure he assisted alien peace-officers in preventing a visiting extraterrestrial from taking a commonplace earth object back to his homeworld where it would be a ghastly terror-weapon…

‘Dream-Journey Through Space!’ (Broome, Kane & Sachs) saw an ordinary human plucked from Earth to rescue an ancient civilisation from destruction and a humble but cunning ventriloquist save our world from invasion by invincible aliens in Finger, Greene & Giella’s ‘The Invisible Masters of Earth!’

A young married couple had to find a way to prove they weren’t animals on ‘The Ark from Planet X’ (Broome, Greene & Giella) which opened #59, whilst ‘The Super-Athletes from Outer Space!’ came to our world to train in a heavier gravity environment and found the galaxy’s greatest sports-coach in a charming tale by Binder, Kane & Sachs.

Ed “France” Herron & Infantino then explored the domino theory of cause and effect in ‘Legacy from the Future!’ before Broome & Barry delved into ancient history and doomsday weaponry to discover the secret of our solar system and ‘The World that Vanished!’

Strange Adventures #60 featured a light-hearted time-travel teaser by Broome, Jerry Grandenetti & Giella when historians gathered together famous historic personages from ‘Across the Ages!’ but ‘The Man Who Remembered 100,000 Years Ago!’ (Binder, Kane & Sachs) was a terse, tense thriller as lightning provoked ancestral memories of a previous civilisation just in time for a scientist to cancel the self-same experiment which had eradicated them…

Broome, Greene & Sachs then followed the life of a foundling boy who turned out to be an ‘Orphan of the Stars!’ and the issue ended with a future-set thriller where schoolboy Ted Carter won a place on a multi-species outing to the ‘World at the Edge of the Universe!’ (Binder & Barry).

In #61, ‘The Mirages from Space!’ (Binder, Kane & Sachs) were a portal into a fantastic other world and the secret of Earth’s ultimate salvation; ‘The Thermometer Man’ by Binder, Greene & Giella saw an scientist striving to save a stranded Neptunian from melting in the scorching hell of our world and a lighthouse keeper was forced to play smart to counter a Plutonian invasion with ‘The Strange Thinking-Cap of Willie Jones!’ (Herron & Barry) before Binder, Greene & Giella’s ‘The Amazing Two-Time Inventions’ found an amateur inventor making fortuitous contact with his counterparts in 3000AD…

Strange Adventures #62 introduced ‘The Fireproof Man’ (Broome, Infantino & Sachs) whose equally astounding dog foiled an alien invasion whilst an ordinary handyman fell into another dimension to become a messiah and ‘The Emperor of Planet X’ (Broome, Greene & Giella). Binder, Kane & Giella then reported an abortive ‘Invasion from Inner Space!’ before ‘The Watchdogs of the Universe!’ recruited their first human agent in a tantalising tale by Binder, Greene & Giella.

‘I Was the Man in the Moon!’ by Joe Samachson, Grandenetti & Giella started #63 with an intriguing puzzler as an ordinary Joe awoke to find aliens had inexplicably re-sculpted the lunar surface with his face whilst a Native American forest ranger was the planet’s only hope of translating an alien warning in The Sign Language of Space!’ (Binder, Greene & Giella).

‘Strange Journey to Earth!’ by Jerry Coleman & Kane Giella saw an ordinary school teacher deduce an alien’s odd actions and save the world and the issue ended in ‘Catastrophe County, U.S.A.!’ where Hamilton, Greene & Giella introduced scientists to the Government’s vast outdoor natural disaster lab…

Sales-boosting simians were back in #64 as Finger, Infantino & Sachs introduced hostile ‘Gorillas in Space!’ who were anything but, whilst a first contact misunderstanding resulted in terror and near-death for an Earth explorer lost in ‘The Maze of Mars’ (Binder, Greene & Sachs) after which a technological Indiana Jones became ‘The Man Who Discovered the West Pole!’ (Binder, Kane & Giella) and Samachson & Grandenetti crafted a canny tale of planetary peril in ‘The Earth-Drowners!’

In #65 (February 1956) ‘The Prisoner from Pluto!’ by Binder, Greene & Giella, featured an alien trying to warn Earth of imminent Saturnian attack and forced to extreme measures to accomplish his mission whilst a different kind of cultural upheaval was referenced in the quaint but clever tale of ‘The Rock-and-Roll Kid from Mars!’ by Samachson, Kane & Giella. A stage mentalist outfoxed genuine telepaths in ‘War of the Mind Readers!’ by Binder, Infantino & Sachs and a biologist turned temporary superhero to foil an alien attack in ‘The Man who Grew Wings!’ by Binder, Greene & Giella to end the issue.

Issue #66 opened with Broome & Infantino’s tale of ‘The Human Battery!’ as an undercover cop suddenly developed an incredible power, a guy in a diner mistakenly picked up ‘The Flying Raincoat!’ (Samachson, Greene & Giella) and accidentally averted an insidious clandestine invasion of our world before Binder, Kane & Sachs had Darwin Jones solve the ‘Strange Secret of the Time Capsule!’ and the metamorphic ‘Man of a Thousand Shapes!’ (Samachson, Infantino & Sachs) proved to be a being with a few secrets of his own…

Broome, Kane & Giella’s ‘The Martian Masquerader!’ in Strange Adventures #67 played clever games as editor Julie Schwartz (aka “Mr. Black”) was approached by an alien in need of assistance in tracking down an ET terrorist whilst Hamilton, Greene & Giella honed in on a subatomic scientist desperate to find his infinitesimal homeworld in ‘Search for a Lost World!’

‘The Talking Flower!’ in chemist Willie Pickens’ buttonhole was a lost alien who helped him save the world in Samachson, Infantino & Sachs’ charming romance but the time travelling travails experienced by archaeologist Roger Thorn after he discovered the ‘Gateway Through the Ages!’ (Hamilton, Greene & Giella) led only to danger and hard-earned knowledge.

Issue #68 opened with ‘The Man who Couldn’t Drown!’ (Broome, Infantino & Sachs): a tale of genetic throwbacks and unfathomable mystery whilst a ‘Strange Gift from Space!’ (Samachson, Greene & Giella) led to a safer planet for all, after which a chance chemical discovery produced a happy salvation in ‘The Balloons That Lifted a City!’ (Samachson, Kane & Giella) and a common thief got in way over his head when he robbed a laboratory in Samachson, Greene Sachs’ witty ‘The Game of Science!’

In #69 a time-traveller voyaged into pre-history and helped the dawning humans overcome ‘The Gorilla Conquest of Earth’ (Broome, Kane & Sachs) whilst the arrival of ‘The Museum from Mars’ (Gardner Fox, Greene & Giella) offered almost irresistible temptation and deadly danger to humanity and ‘The Man with Four Minds!’ (Hamilton & Infantino) saw a man with too much knowledge and power eschew it all for normality before ‘The Human Homing Pigeon!’ (Samachson, Greene & Giella) burned out his own unique gift in the service of his fellows…

‘The Triple Life of Dr. Pluto!’ by Broome, Greene & Giella in #70 dealt with the dangers of a human duplicating ray and Darwin Jones was faced with a deadly puzzle when warring aliens both claimed to be our friends and ‘Earth’s Secret Weapon!’ (Samachson, Kane & Giella). An early computer fell into the hands of a petty thief with outrageous consequences in ‘The Mechanical Mastermind!’ by Samachson & Infantino whilst the ‘Menace of the Martian Bubble!’ (Broome, Greene & Giella) was foiled by a purely human mind and the skills of a stage magician.

Issue #71 featured ‘Zero Hour for Earth!’ (Broome & Barry) as a scientist at world’s end sent a time twisting thought-message back to change future history, whilst invisible thieves of the planet’s fissionable resources were thwarted by a scientist with a unique visual impairment in ‘Raiders from the Ultra-Violet!’ by Binder, Greene & Giella, after which writer Ray Hollis saw a star fall and encountered ‘The Living Meteor!’ (Fox, Kane & Sachs) and a guy with a weight problem discovered he had become ‘The Man Who Ate Sunshine!’ in a clever conundrum from Samachson, Grandenetti & Giella.

Strange Adventures #72 began with a fabulous, self-evident spectacular in ‘The Skyscraper that Came to Life!’ by Broome, Greene & Giella, whilst a shooting star revealed an ancient ‘Puzzle from Planet X!’ which promised friendship or doom in a classy yarn from Hamilton, Greene & Sachs, after which ‘The Time-Wise Thief!’ (Gerson & John Giunta) provided a salutary moral for a bandit with too much technology and temptation before ‘The Man Who Lived Nine Lifetimes!’ (Binder, Kane & Giella) was aroused from a sleep of ages to save us all from robot invasion…

The initial flight of fantasy concludes with the contents of issue #73, beginning with ‘The Amazing Rain of Gems!’ by Broome, Greene & Giella wherein a sentient jewel almost beguiles the entire world, humans are hijacked to attend a ‘Science-Fiction Convention on Mars’ (Fox, Kane & Giella), ‘The Man With Future-Vision!’ (Fox, Infantino & Sachs) discovers that knowing what’s coming isn’t necessarily enough, and the imaginative inspiration ends with a clever time-paradox fable in Hamilton, Greene & Giella’s ‘Reverse Rescue of Earth!’

Conceived and edited by the brilliant Julie Schwartz and starring the cream of the era’s writers and artists, Strange Adventures set the standard for mind-boggling all-ages fantasy fiction. With stunning, evocative covers from such stellar art luminaries as Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane and Ruben Moreira, this titanic tome is a perfect portal to other worlds and, in many ways, far better times.

If you dream in steel and plastic and are still wondering why you don’t own a personal jet-pack yet, this volume might go some way to assuaging that unquenchable fire for the stars…
© 1955, 1956, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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William Gibson’s Neuromancer – a Marvel Graphic Novel


By Tom de Haven and Bruce Jensen (Marvel/Epic)
ISBN: 0-87135-574-4

Even during the burgeoning comics boomtimes of the 1980s when the most inane, insane or banal illustrated material seemed capable of achieving a measure of success and acclaim, occasionally books everybody “knew” would be huge hits somehow failed to score or survive.

Perhaps the most surprising of these was a high-profile graphic adaptation of William Gibson’s landmark first novel, which looked great, triumphantly rode the zeitgeist of the era (in fact it created it) and was massively anticipated by avid readers within the industry and beyond it…

At this time Marvel led the field of high-quality original graphic novels: offering Marvel Universe tales, series launches, creator-owned properties, movie adaptations and licensed assets in lavishly expansive packages (square-ish pages of 285 x 220mm rather than the customary 258 x 168mm) which felt and looked instantly superior to the gaudily standard flimsy comicbook pamphlets – irrespective of how good, bad or incomprehensible the contents proved to be…

With the Gibson-minted term “Cyberspace” (first coined in his 1982 short story ‘Burning Chrome’ – as well as the acronym “ICE”: Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) on everyone’s mind and the suddenly legitimised literary Noir sub-genre of Cyberpunk revolutionising film and comicbooks, Marvel’s Epic imprint released the first two chapters of the multi-award winning Neuromancer in an effective and challenging 48 page adaptation by author and screenwriter Tom de Haven (It’s Superman!, Galaxy Rangers), illustrated by bookcover illustrator Bruce Jensen.

This slim introductory teaser tome comprises ‘Chiba City Blues’ and ‘The Shopping Expedition’ describing a frantic and terrifying dystopian future where life is cheap, drugs are everywhere, money is everything and human bodies are merely the basic canvas for electronic or mechanical augmentations.

Those with any imagination, hope or human potential spend all the time they can in the omni-pervasive wonder-world of cyberspace where anything is possible and escape is always tantalising close… just like death.

Burned out hacker-hustler Case is on a downward spiral. He used to be a top “Cowboy”, hired to break data security and steal for the Big Boys. His major mistake was keeping some for himself and getting caught…

Instead of killing him, his “clients” took away his talent with chemicals and surgery and then let him loose to die slowly and very publicly by inches over years…

Now his trials are almost at an end: someone in the vast under-city is hunting him and all the derelict’s remaining connections are turning their backs on him…

When he is finally cornered by the deeply disturbing augmented assassin Mollie Millions (who first debuted in Gibson’s 1981 short story Johnny Mnemonic) Case’s life changes forever – but not necessarily for the better…

Mollie’s boss Armitage needs the world’s greatest hacker to crack an impossible data store and in return he’s prepared to repair all the cyber-cripple’s neural handicaps. Of course it won’t be pleasant and the boss is going to take a few biological precautions to ensure complete loyalty…

Addictively desperate to return to Cyberspace the hobbled hacker agrees, but as he undertakes his task he increasingly finds that everyone involved has their own exclusive agenda: even Armitage’s silent partner, the mysterious Artificial Intelligence Wintermute, is playing its own deadly game…

Intriguing and engrossing, this ultimately frustrating artefact isn’t so much my recommendation (although on its own truncated terms its not a bad piece of work and you might just like on its own terms) as a heartfelt wish for a new – and complete – pictorial interpretation and an impassioned plug for the prose novel itself if you still haven’t got around to it…
Introduction © 1989 William Gibson.  © 1989 Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc. Original novel Neuromancer © 1984 William Gibson. All rights reserved.

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Swords of the Swashbucklers – Marvel Graphic Novel #14


By Bill Mantlo & Jackson Guice; lettered by Ken Bruzenak & coloured by Alfred Ramirez (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-002-5

During the 1980s the American comics scene experienced a magical proliferation of new titles and companies following the creation of the Direct Sales Market. With publishers now able to firm-sale straight to retail outlets rather than overprint and accept returned copies from non-specialised shops, the industry was able to support less generic titles and creators were able to experiment without losing their shirts.

In response Marvel developed its own line of creator-owned properties during the height of the creative explosion, generating a number of supremely impressive, idiosyncratic series on better quality paper in a variety of formats under the watchful, canny eye of Editor Archie Goodwin. The delightfully disparate line was called Epic Comics and the results reshaped the industry.

One of their earliest hits was a sparkling, rambunctious science fantasy serial with a delightfully familiar core concept: Pirates in Space.

Swords of the Swashbucklers debuted in a premiere Marvel Graphic Novel before graduating to an on-going Epic series in March 1985; created by the much missed Bill Mantlo and ‘Jackson “Butch” Guice, whose collaborative efforts had made the latter days of the Marvel Micronauts comicbook such a vibrant joy (and there’s another series simply gasping for an Essential Edition, should the arcane gods of Trademark and Licensing ever get their acts together…)

The oversized process-colour format had been a great success for the company: a venue for a variety of “big stories” told on larger than normal pages (285 x 220mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm, similar to the standard European albums of the times) featuring not only proprietary characters such as Iron Man or the New Mutants, but also licensed assets like Conan, media tie-ins such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and creator-owned properties including Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar, Cholly and Flytrap and many more.

Although little more than a prelude for the series that followed this scintillating romp is still a compelling rollercoaster adventure in its own right which begins on the South Carolina coastline the morning after a terrific storm had battered those isolated dunes.

Thirteen year old Domino Blackthorne Drake, descendent of a genuine buccaneer queen, is happily beach-combing with her cat Cap’n Kidd when they find an incredible alien device uncovered by the gales.

Although clearly centuries old, the thing is still active and, as her distracted parents discuss their marital problems, the bold little girl gets too close and the artefact unleashes a torrent of impossible energy into the helpless lass…

As the authorities take over and place the now comatose waif and bizarre device into government quarantine, across the universe a solar-sailed marauder attacks a colossal slave ship of the rapacious Colonizer Empire. In command of the freebooter “Starshadow” is charismatic, ruthless half-breed Raader – the scourge of intergalactic civilisation…

A merciless conglomeration of greedy knaves and pitiless cutthroats, the Swashbucklers are still more welcome on many worlds than the resource-plundering, slave-taking Colonizers and, after freeing the captives (whilst keeping all their treasures and possessions) the Starshadow heads for safe-harbour on the hidden world Haven.

Here, amidst fair-weather friends and openly hostile rivals, the pirate princess clashes and carouses before awakening in her mother’s house – a citadel the mysterious “Earthling” Bonnie Blackthorne has maintained for over two hundred years…

When the pirates intercept a signal from a long-lost Colonizer probe coming from beyond the cosmic phenomena dubbed the Cloudwall, the race is on to secure the riches of the new world hidden there…

Daring the intergalactic unknown and expansion-obsessed Colonizer ships, the Starshadow arrives on the legendary planet Earth only hours ahead of the Imperial survey forces. The primitive human forces swiftly fall between attacks from both pirates and invading alien conquerors, whilst the somnolent Domino slumbers on.

When the Surveyors seize the sleeper and her family, the girl snaps awake, filled with irresistible, uncanny energies and routs the raiding party, but not before her mother and father are taken aboard the Imperial flagship, which retreats back beyond the Cloudwall to report a new world to conquer.

Rescued by Raader Domino discovers an impossible shared heritage with the alien privateer and determines to join her on the other side of the sky, both to rescue her parents and possibly save her own unsuspecting world…

Straightforward, fast-paced adventure in the grand manner, supplemented by a ‘Saga of the Swashbucklers’ additional feature, this is a fine fun book well worthy of rediscovery, preferably with the entirety of the comicbook run that followed in one deluxe collection.

Until then, though all these items are readily available through many internet retailers, so dig deep, me thrill-starved Hearties…
© 1984 Bill Mantlo & Jackson Guice. All rights reserved. Swords of the Swashbucklers is ™ Bill Mantlo & Jackson Guice.

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Robotech: the Macross Saga volume 1


By Jack Herman, Carl Macek, Mike Baron, Reggie Byers, Neil D. Vokes, Ken Steacy & various (WildStorm)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-713-9

Robotech was a minor comics/TV crossover phenomenon of the 1980s based on some rather deft remarketing of assorted Japanese fantasy exports. Whilst American TV company Harmony Gold was cobbling together and re-editing three separate weekly science fiction anime series (Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA), US model-kit company Revell had begun selling Japanese mecha kits based on the aforementioned Fortress Macross, plus Super Dimension Century Orgus and Fang of the Sun Dougram as Robotech Defenders, complete with an all-new English language tie-in comic produced by DC Comics.

A copyright clash resulted in the DC title being killed two issues in, after which TV produced Carl Macek and Revell went into limited partnership on a Macross co-licensing deal which saw the three shows translated into an 85-episode generational saga wherein planet Earth was rocked by successive alien invasions decades apart and only saved from annihilation by a fortuitous spaceship crash which had allowed humans to master extraterrestrial Robotechnology.

The American TV hybrid and toy range naturally led to Role Playing Games, novels, an animated movie, art books and comicbooks which have been semi-continuously in print since 1984.

The premise evolved into The Macross Saga – First Robotech War: a desperate conflict with giant Zentraedi warriors seeking to retrieve a crashed space craft; Robotech Masters – Second Robotech War wherein Earthlings battled a fresh wave of Zentraedi, come here to discover what happened to their lost fleet and Robotech Masters – Third Robotech War, with enemies becoming allies to confront an even greater, mutual foe: the horrendous Invid, from whom the Robotech Masters had originally stolen the near-magical, cataclysmic, semi-spiritual power source Protoculture, reverentially worshipped as the Flower of Life and the motivating force behind all Robotechnology….

Comico produced separate titles set twenty years apart (Robotech Macross Saga, Robotech Masters and Robotech the New Generation) from 1984-1989, after which Eternity Comics, Academy Comics, Antarctic Press and WildStorm took up the perennial favourites in their turn.

At the height of the furore in 1986 and two years after the comic book triptych launched, Comico produced Robotech: the Graphic Novel, an original oversized 48 page European style graphic album plotted by Carl Macek which filled in the heretofore unknown backstory; telling the story of that fateful First Contact when a starship crashed onto the island of Macross.

It was scripted by Mike Baron, illustrated by Neil D. Vokes & Ken Steacy (with painted colour by Tom Vincent and lettering by Bob Pinaha) and the initial chapter of that revelatory tale provides the opening segment of this digest-sized, full-colour compilation which then re-presents the first six Macross Saga comicbooks in a handy catch-all edition for the next generation of Amerimanga or OEL (Original English Language) fans.

In ‘Genesis: Robotech’ far away on the other side of the universe a two kilometre long spacecraft is seeding desolate worlds with a unique plant. Unconventional and rebellious Philosopher-Scientist Zor is attempting to grow the energy-rich Flower of Life in soil not sanctioned by his Robotech Masters, over the protests of dutiful warrior-commander Dolza.

This allows the insidious and monstrous Invid to track them, fanatically attempting to wipe out the Zentraedis who had purloined their sacred bloom and daily desecrated its holy purpose…

Although temporarily driven off, the Invid fatally wound Zor and he dispatches the ship on a pre-programmed jaunt across the universe to a world only he knows of…

In two text reminiscences Bob Shreck and artist Neil Vokes describe the frantic efforts which resulted in the deal with the fledgling Comico and dictated rushing out the first issue ASAP (further demanding a new issue every fortnight until a stable print schedule could be established)…

All of which goes some way to pardoning the rather crude visuals on ‘Booby Trap’ as, a decade after that vessel crashed on Macross Island (instantly ending a percolating Third World War), the united Terran forces are preparing to activate their greatest weapon: the retooled, reconstructed ship as interplanetary dreadnought SDF-1 – Super Dimension Fortress.

Preparing for a shakedown flight and full test run ex-Admiral Gloval is not prepared for the shocking alien attack he has been dreading ever since the super-ship smashed to Earth…

In fact his first inkling of trouble is when the city-sized construct automatically fires its colossal main-gun, obliterating a squadron of unseen Zentraedi scout ships, just as teen exhibition-aviator Rick Hunter arrives on the Pacific Island to meet old mentor Roy Fokker. The invaders brutally respond and Gloval is compelled to take SDF-1 to battle stations and direct a desperate counterattack.

Caught up in the action Rick finds himself stuck in a Veritech fighter-plane he has no idea how to fly, dogfighting with giant invaders in incredible, mecha murder-machines…

With the Island and planet under brutal assault the illustration takes a huge step up in quality for the second issue as ‘Countdown’ finds the embattled Captain Gloval forced, under repeated sorties from the invaders, to move the sitting duck SDF-1 space whilst the civilians of Macross City suffer dreadfully under the Zentraedi bombardment.

Rick has made his first kill and panicked when his jet morphed into a giant robot, but has no time to panic as he saves civilians Minmei and her little brother Jason from death in the ruins…

Unfortunately the Fortress anti-gravity engines fail and humanity seems doomed until Gloval and his snarky Executive Officer Lisa Hayes gamble everything and switch to good, old-fashioned jet power…

Temporarily safe in low-Earth orbit, the SDF-1 is still an easy target for repeated alien assaults and the civilian population can only cower in deep shelters beneath Macross Island. With the SDF-1’s Veritechs easy prey for the Zentraedi, Gloval gambles again and activates the untested ‘Space Fold’ system. Instantly, a space warp deposits them safely in the orbit of Pluto, but brings with it a huge chunk of Macross, Pacific Ocean and Earth atmosphere…

Caught in mid-air over the city in the lad’s exhibition plane, Rick and Minmei are instantly stranded in hard vacuum but manage to crash into a previously unexplored section of the SDF-1 as the baffled engineers report to Gloval that the Fold Generators which saved and marooned them all months from home have inexplicably vanished…

Stranded in deep space, but temporarily beyond the reach of Zentraedi attack, the first order of business is rescuing the civilians trapped in the remnants of Macross Island. After long weeks the populace has been resettled within the vast ship and Macross City is being steadily incorporated into the vessel’s superstructure. ‘The Long Wait’ reveals how Rick and Minmei coped; isolated, alone and presumed dead until the constant rebuilding accidentally uncovers their unsuspected survival hutch…

As the SDF-1 proceeds slowly and cautiously back towards Earth, Gloval, Hayes and Fokker discuss reconfiguring the ship if necessary. The trouble is that nobody can predict what the ‘Transformation’ will mean to the masses of humanity now infesting every spare inch of the super-ship…

As they pass Saturn the decision is taken from their hands as the Zentraedi ambush the ship and the SDF-1 reconfigures into its gigantic robot warrior mode to fight off the cataclysmic alien ‘Blitzkrieg’…

Packed with fast-paced action and, I’m afraid, quite a bit of the twee, comedy-of-romantic-embarrassment soap opera beloved by the Japanese, this collection by Mike Baron, Jack Herman, Carl Macek, Reggie Byers, Dave Johnson, Mike Leeke Svea Stauch, Neil D. Vokes, Ken Steacy, Jeff Dee, Chris Kalnick, Phil Lasorda, Tom Poston, Rich Rankin and a host of colourists and letterers was groundbreaking for American comicbooks and opened the doors to a Manga invasion that reshaped the industry.

The stories also read winningly well, even after all these years and are easily accessible to older kids and young teens as well as all us picture-story junkies who never agreed to grow up…

Fun and adventure in the grand old space opera manner, it’s about time these 1980s epics were revisited by a more comics friendly readership.
© 2003 Harmony Gold, USA, Inc. All rights reserved. Previously published as Robotech: the Macross Saga #1-6 & Robotech: the Graphic Novel. © 1984-1986 Harmony Gold, USA, Inc and Tatsunoko Production Company, Ltd. Robotech®, Macross® and all associated names, logos and related indicia are trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.

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Valerian and Laureline book 2: The Empire of a Thousand Planets


By J.-C. Méziéres & P. Christin, with colours by E. Tranlé and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-087-0

Val̩rian is arguably the most influential comics science fiction series ever drawn Рand yes, I am including both Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in that expansive and undoubtedly contentious statement.

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie has seen some of Jean-Claude Méziéres & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings which the filmic phenomenon has shamelessly plundered for decades: everything from the look of the Millennium Falcon to Leia‘s Slave Girl outfit -as this second volume powerfully proves in a stunning comparisons feature following after the magnificent adventure contained herein…

Simply put, more carbon-based lifeforms have experienced and marvelled at the uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in tech realism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of Méziéres & Christin than any other cartoon spacer ever imagined possible.

The groundbreaking series followed a Franco-Belgian mini-boom in fantasy fiction triggered by Jean-Claude Forest’s 1962 creation Barbarella. Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent launched in the November 9th, 1967 edition of Pilote (#420) and was an instant hit. In combination with Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient and Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane, Valérian‘s hot public reception led to the creation of dedicated adult graphic sci fi magazine Métal Hurlant in 1977.

Valérian and Laureline (as the series eventually became) is light-hearted, wildly imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy (a bit like Dr. Who, but not really at all…), drenched in wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary, starring, in the beginning, an affable, capable, unimaginative and by-the-book cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology and counteracting paradoxes caused by casual time-travellers.

When Valérian travelled to 11th century France in the initial tale ‘Les Mauvais Rêves (‘Bad Dreams’) he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline whom he brought back to the 28th century super-citadel and administrative wonderland of Galaxity, capital of the Terran Empire. The indomitable lass trained as a Spatio-Temporal operative and began accompanying him on his missions.

Every subsequent Valérian adventure until the 13th was first serialised weekly in Pilote until the conclusion of ‘The Rage of Hypsis’ after which the mind-boggling sagas were only published as all-new complete graphic novels, until the whole spectacular saga resolved and ended in 2010.

The Empire of a Thousand Planets originally ran in Pilote #520-541from October 23rd 1969 to March 19th 1970 and saw the veteran and rookie despatched to the fabled planet Syrte the Magnificent, capital of vast system-wide civilisation and a world in inexplicable and rapid technological and social decline.

The mission is one of threat-assessment: staying in their base time-period (October 2720) the pair are tasked with examining the first galactic civilisation ever discovered that has never experienced any human contact or contamination, but as usual, events don’t go according to plan…

Despite easily blending into a culture with a thousand sentient species, Valerian and Laureline soon find themselves plunged into intrigue and dire danger when the acquisitive girl buys an old watch in the market.

Nobody on Syrte knows what it is since all the creatures of this civilisation have an innate, infallible time-sense, but the gaudy bauble soon attracts the attention of one of the Enlightened – a sinister cult of masked mystics who have the ear of the Emperor and a stranglehold on all technologies….

The Enlightened are responsible for the stagnation within this once-vital interplanetary colossus and they quickly move to eradicate the Spatio-temporal agents. Narrowly escaping doom, the pair reluctantly experience the staggering natural wonders and perils of the wilds beyond the capital city before dutifully returning to retrieve their docked spaceship.

Soon however our dauntless duo are distracted and embroiled in a deadly rebellion fomented by the Commercial Traders Guild. Infiltrating the awesome palace of the puppet-Emperor and exploring the mysterious outer planets Valerian and Laureline discover a long-fomenting plot to destroy Earth – a world supposedly unknown to anyone in this Millennial Empire…

All-out war looms and the Enlightened’s incredible connection to post-Atomic disaster Earth is astonishingly revealed just as inter-stellar conflict erupts between rebels and Imperial forces, with our heroes forced to fully abandon their neutrality and take up arms to save two civilisations a universe apart yet inextricably linked…

Comfortingly, yet unjustly familiar, this spectacular space-opera is fun-filled, action-packed, visually breathtaking and mind-bogglingly ingenious.  Drenched in wide-eyed fantasy wonderment, science fiction adventures have never been better than this.

© Dargaud Paris, 1971 Christin, Méziéres & Tran-Lệ. All rights reserved. English translation © 2011 Cinebook Ltd.

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Velveteen & Mandala


By Jiro Matsumoto (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-935654-30-8

Civilisation has radically changed. What we knew is no longer right or true, but disturbing remnants remain to baffle and terrify, as High School girl Velveteen and her decidedly off-key classmate and companion/enemy Mandala eke out an extreme existence on the banks of a river in post-Zombie-Apocalypse Tokyo.

Here, using an abandoned tank as their crash-pad, the girls while away the days and nights slaughtering roaming hordes of zombies – at least whenever they stop squabbling with each other.

From the very outset of this grim, sexy, gratuitous splatter-punk horror-show there is something decidedly “off” going on: a gory mystery beyond the usual “how did the world end this time?”

On the surface, Velveteen and Mandala (Becchin To Mandara in its original release in the periodical Manga Erotics f, between 2007-2009) is a Buffy-style monster-killing yarn beginning at ‘The Riverside’ with the pair awaking from dreams to realise and remember the hell they now inhabit whilst ‘Smoke on the Riverside’ reveals a few of the nastier ground-rules of their new lives and especially Velveteen’s propensity for arson and appetite for destruction…

‘Sukiyaki’ finds the girls on edge as food becomes an issue whilst the introduction of ‘The Super’ who monitors their rate of zombie dispatch leads to more information (but not necessarily any answers) in this enigmatic world, whilst ‘The Cellar’ amps up the uncertainty when Velveteen steals into her new boss’s ghastly man-cave inner sanctum.

In a medium where extreme violence is commonplace, Matsumoto increasingly uses unglamorised nudity and brusque vulgarity to unsettle and shock the reader but the flashback events of … ‘School Arcade, Underground Shelter’ – if true and not hallucination – indicate that this society this debased might not be worth saving from the undead…

In ‘Omen’ and ‘Good Omen (Whisper)’ the mysteries begins to unravel as B52 bombers dumps thousands more corpses by the Riverside, adding to the “to do” roster of the walking dead that the girls must deal with once darkness falls…

Throughout the story Matsumoto liberally injects cool artefacts of fashion, genre and pop-culture seemingly at random, but as the oppressive horrors get ever closer to ending our heroines in ‘Genocide’ and ‘Deep in the Dark’, a certain sense can be imagined, so that when the Super is removed and Velveteen is promoted to his position in ‘Parting’ the drama spirals into a hallucinogenic but perhaps utterly untrustworthy climax in ‘Mandala’s Big Farewell Party’ and ‘Nirvana’ before the revelations of ‘Flight’…

Deliberately obfuscatory and strictly aimed at over 18s, this dark, nasty and scatologically excessive tale graphically celebrates the differences between grotesque, flesh-eating dead-things and the constantly biologically mis-functioning still-living (although the zombie “Deadizens” are still capable of cognition, speech and rape…), all wrapped up in the culturally acceptable and traditional manner of one blowing the stuffings out of the other…

Young Jiro Matsumoto is probably best known in Japan for the dystopian speculative sci-fi revenge thriller Freesia, but here his controversial yet sublime narrative gifts are turned to a much more psychologically complex – and almost meta-fictional – layering of meaning upon revelation upon contention that indicates that if you have a strong enough stomach the very best is still to come…

© 2009 Jiro Matsumoto. All right reserved. Translation © 2011 Vertical, Inc.

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Twin Spica volume 8


By Kou Yaginuma (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-935654-13-1

The hungry fascination, hopeful imagination and cocksure anticipation of space travel which was an integral component of post-World War II society is the driving narrative engine for this inspiring manga epic from Kou Yaginuma, who first began capturing hearts and minds with his poignant short story ‘2015 Nen no Uchiage Hanabi’ (‘2015: Fireworks’), published in Gekkan Comics Flapper magazine, June 2000).

The author happily expanded and enhanced the subject, themes and characters into a major narrative epic combining hard science and humanist fiction with lyrical mysticism and traditional tales of school-days and growing up.

To recap: diminutive teenager Asumi Kamogawa has always dreamed of going into space. From her earliest moments the lonely child gazed up at the stars with her imaginary friend Mr. Lion, especially at the twinkling glow of Virgo and the alluring binary star Spica. An isolated, serious girl, she lived with her father, a common labourer who once worked for the consortium which built the rockets for Japan’s Space Program.

In 2010, when Asumi was a year old, the first Japanese space-launch ended in utter catastrophe when rocket-ship Shishigō (“The Lion”), exploded: crashing to earth on the city of Yuigahama. Hundreds were killed and many more injured, including Asumi’s mother. Maimed and comatose, the matron took years to die. The shock crushed her grieving husband and utterly traumatised infant Asumi.

In response to the disaster, Japan set up an Astronautics and Space Sciences Acadamy. After years of struggle, in 2024 Asumi was accepted to the Tokyo National Space School and slowly began making real friends like Shinnosuke Fuchuya (who used to bully her as child in Yuigahama), jolly Kei Oumi, chilly Marika Ukita and spooky, ultra-cool style-icon and fashion victim Shu Suzuki. Every day Asumi moved closer to her unshakable dream of going to the stars.

Small, physically weak and very poor, Asumi endures and triumphs. She still talks with Mr. Lion… who might be the ghost of an astronaut who died on the Shishigō…

The individual stories are broken up into “Missions” and this particularly tender and thoughtful eighth volume begins with #39 as the still somewhat aloof Asumi undertakes a devout daily personal ritual – absorbing the wonder of the Heavens at the local Planetarium. Times are changing, however and the venerable old edifice is about to close forever, a victim of economic cuts and dwindling public interest…

Later she rejoins classmates Oumi and Ukita on the school roof for more stargazing. Excitement rises when they think they might have discovered a new supernova…

Mission: 40 concentrates on the rapidly approaching end of semester and exams. Oumi is ill and might not pass, whilst enigmatic Shu reveals yet another hidden talent after being given the shocking news that he is confidentially considered for participation in an American Shuttle mission. Meanwhile, Christmas is coming and Asumi is inexplicably growing closer to a shy and extremely diffident boy from the local orphanage, just when she can least afford distractions. With her workload and part-time job she hardly has time to think as it is…

Mission: 41 continues her concentration-busting whilst we learn some tragic secrets regarding the abusive home life of Mr. Perfect Shu Suzuki and the other girls begin to notice physical evidence of her “imaginary friend”. When the orphan boy reveals he is leaving Japan, Asumi has to make a choice between her current emotions and her life’s dream and it takes a dramatic intervention by rival and “frenemy” Fuchuya to set her straight on what she really needs in the truly heartbreaking Mission: 42…

The orphan boy’s history and astonishing secret is examined in #43 whilst #44 amps up the school pressure and the conflicted Fuchuya recalls an pivotal moment when his fireworks-maker grandfather sparked his own interest in the stars – and Asumi…

The offer to send a Japanese astronaut up with the US shuttle becomes public in Mission: 45 and a fierce competition for the single placement ensues counter-pointed by more agonising reminiscences from Shu and the main storyline concludes in #46 as the previously isolated Asumi realises her life is changing and she has friends she might soon lose…

The going is getting tougher and now that they are all nearing the end of their training, it becomes increasingly, painfully clear to the determined students that the bonds so painstakingly forged are on the verge of being severed. After only one more year, final selections will be made and most of the class will fail and vanish from each other’s lives. A countdown clock is ticking…

Also included here a couple of ancillary tales: ‘Giovanni’s Ticket’ returns to the early years following the Shishigō crash and explores Asumi and Fuchuya’s formative relationship whilst the poignant ‘Guide to Cherry Blossoms’ follows the path to love and examines roads not taken by Kasumi Suzuki (presumably Shu’s tragic other if the dates hidden in the art work are anything to go by) during the highly symbolic spring festival.

The book ends with a wistfully autobiographical ‘Another Spica’ vignette from author Yaginuma’s days as a part-time server on a soft-drink stand in a theme park; one more charming insight into creative minds and unrequited passions…

These deeply moving marvels originally appeared in 2005 as Futatsu no Supika 8 and 9 in the Seinen manga magazine Gekkan Comics Flapper, targeted at male readers aged 18-30, but this ongoing, unfolding beguiling saga is perfect for any older kid with stars in their eyes…

Twin Spica ran from September 2001-August 2009: sixteen volumes tracing the trajectories of Asumi and friends from callow students to competent astronauts and the series has spawned both anime and live action TV series.

This delightful serial has everything: plenty of hard science to back up the informed extrapolation, an engaging cast, mystery and frustrated passion, alienation, angst and true friendships; all welded seamlessly into a joyous coming-of-age drama with supernatural overtones and masses of sheer sentiment.

Hopefully rekindling the irresistible allure of the Final Frontier for the next generation (and the last ones too) Twin Spica is quite simply the best…

These books are printed in the Japanese right to left, back to front format.
© 2011 by Kou Yaginuma/MEDIA FACTORY Inc. Translation © 2011 Vertical, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Robotech: the Graphic Novel


By Mike Baron, Neil D. Vokes, Ken Steacy & various (Comico)
ISBN: 978-0-93896-500-8

Robotech was a minor comics phenomenon of the 1980s based on some rather deft marketing of assorted Japanese fantasy exports. Whilst American TV company Harmony Gold was cobbling together and re-editing three separate weekly science fiction anime series (Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA) US model-kit company Revell was selling Japanese mecha kits based on the aforementioned Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Century Orgus and Fang of the Sun Dougram as Robotech Defenders, complete with an all-new English language tie-in comic produced by DC Comics.

A copyright clash resulted in the DC title being killed after two issues after which TV produced Carl Macek and Revell went into limited partnership in a Macross co-licensing deal which saw three shows translated into an 85-episode generational saga wherein Earth was rocked by successive alien invasions decades apart and only saved from annihilation by a fortuitous spaceship crash which had allowed humans to master extraterrestrial Robotechnology.

The American TV hybrid and mecha toy range naturally led to Role Playing Games, novels, an animated movie, art books and comicbooks which have been semi-continuously in print since 1984.

The premise revolved into The Macross Saga – First Robotech War a desperate conflict with giant Zentraedi warriors seeking to retrieve a crashed space craft; Robotech Masters – Second Robotech War wherein Terrans battled a fresh wave of Zentraedi, come to discover what happened to their lost fleet and Robotech Masters or Third Robotech War, with enemies becoming allies to confront an even greater foe: the horrendous Invid – from whom the Robotech Masters originally stole the near-magical, cataclysmic, semi-spiritual power source Protoculture, reverentially worshipped as the Flower of Life and the motivating force behind all Robotechnology….

Comico produced separate titles set twenty years apart (Robotech Macross Saga, Robotech Masters and Robotech the New Generation) from 1984-1989, after which Eternity Comics, Academy Comics, Antarctic Press and WildStorm took up the perennial favourites in their turn.

In 1986, at the height of the furore Comico produced an original oversized 48 page European album format graphic novel plotted by Carl Macek which filled in the heretofore unknown backstory; telling the story of that fateful First Contact when a starship crashed on the island of Macross. It was scripted by Mike Baron, illustrated by Neil D. Vokes & Ken Steacy (with painted colour by Tom Vincent and lettering by Bob Pinaha)…

In ‘Genesis: Robotech’ far away on the other side of the universe SDF-1, a two kilometre long spacecraft is seeding desolate worlds with a unique plant. Unconventional and rebellious Philosopher-Scientist Zor is attempting to grow the energy-rich Flower of Life in soil not sanctioned by his Robotech Masters, over the protests of dutiful warrior-commander Dolza.

This allows the insidious Invid to track them and attack, fanatically attempting to wipe out the Zentraedis who stole their sacred bloom and daily desecrate its holy purpose…

Although temporarily driven off, the Invid fatally wound Zor but not before he dispatches the ship on a pre-programmed jaunt across the universe to a world only he knows of…

On orders from the enraged Masters Dolza returns Zor’s body to the homeworld so any useful information can be extracted from his cells whilst Field Comander Breetai is ordered to take a fleet and follow SDF-1. If Zor has been seeding worlds in secret both the ship and its destination must be found…

It is 1999 on planet Earth and a third global conflict is about to erupt. Brush-wars, resource squabbles and border-skirmishes are occurring everywhere. In the sky above the Pacific fighter pilot Roy Fokker is engaged in another deadly dogfight with mercenary T.R. Edwards which once more ends inconclusively…

Returning to the aircraft-carrier Kenosha Roy meets Senator Russo, Admiral Hayes and his own Commander Gloval who have an intriguing plan to end the faux-war before it ends humanity…

Meanwhile in America a little boy named Rick Hunter is learning flying tricks with his grandfather that will one day save the world when the sky is set ablaze by a vast object. Destined to crash far out in the North Pacific, in its thunderous passing the “meteor” triggers storms and earthquakes, disrupts electronic communications and causes global panic…

All over Earth hostilities cease and a military task force led by Gloval and Fokker, with arch enemy Edwards representing the once-opposition, explore the downed SDF-1, which has crashed on a barren rock once used for atomic testing.

On board the humans discover wonder, horror and the potential to create a golden age on Earth, but unbeknownst to them Breetai’s pursuing force is closing in…

Although designed as an in-filling prequel this is a classy traditional sci-fi romp which happily stands on its own merits for new readers whilst providing added narrative value to any readers – or indeed viewers – familiar with the greater saga it introduces.

Fun and adventure in the grand old space opera manner and superbly easy on the eye, it’s about time these 1980s epics were revisited by a more comics friendly readership.
“Robotech” ™ Revell, Inc. © 1986 Harmony Gold, USA, Inc./Tatsunoko Production Company, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Axa Books 7 & 8


By Donne Avenell & Enrique Badia Romero (Ken Pierce Books)
Vol. 7 ISBN: 0-912277-29-7   Vol. 8 no ISBN: 0-912277-35-1

Tough ‘n’ sexy take-charge chicks were a comic strip standard by the time the Star Wars phenomenon reinvigorated interest in science fiction and the old standby of scantily-clad, curvy amazons in post-apocalyptic wonderlands never had greater sales-appeal than when Britain’s best-selling tabloid The Sun hired Enrique Badia Romero and Donne Avenell to produce a new fantasy strip for their already well-stacked cartoon section.

Romero’s career began in his native Spain in 1953, where he produced everything from westerns, sports, war stories and trading cards, mostly in conjunction with his brother Jorge Badía Romero, eventually forming his own publishing house. “Enric” began working for the higher-paying UK market in the 1960s on strips such as ‘Cathy and Wendy’, ‘Isometrics’ and ‘Cassius Clay’ before successfully assuming the drawing duties on the high-profile Modesty Blaise adventure-serial in 1970 (see Modesty Blaise: The Hell Makers and Modesty Blaise: The Green Eyed Monster), only leaving when this enticing new prospect appeared.

Axa ran in The Sun Monday to Saturday from 1978 to her abrupt cancellation in 1986 – a victim of political and editorial intrigue which saw the strip cancelled in the middle of a story – and other than the First American Edition series from strip historian Ken Pierce and a single colour album, has never been graced with a definitive collection. It should be noted also that at the time of these books she was still being published with great success and to popular acclaim.

In those days it often appeared that only place where truly affirmative female role-models appeared to be taken seriously were those aforementioned cartoon sections, but even there the likes of Modesty Blaise, Danielle, Scarth, Amanda and all the other capable ladies who walked all over the oppressor gender, both humorously and in straight adventure scenarios, lost clothes and shed undies repeatedly, continuously, frivolously and in the manner they always had…

Nobody complained (no one important or who was ever taken seriously): it was just tradition and the idiom of the medium… and besides, artists have always liked to draw bare-naked ladies as much as blokes liked to see them and it was even “educational” for the kiddies – who could buy any newspaper in any shop without interference even if they couldn’t get into cinemas to view Staying Alive, Octopussy or Return of the Jedi without an accompanying adult…

The eponymous heroine was raised in a stultifying, antiseptic and emotionless domed city: a bastion of technological advancement in a world destroyed by war, pollution and far worse. Chafing at the constricting life of the living dead, Axa broke free and, ancient sword in hand, chose to roam the shattered Earth in search of something real and rue and free…

The seventh superb chronicle opens with ‘Axa the Mobile’ as the restless explorer dragged her footsore lover Matt and devoted robot assistant Mark 10 (obtained in Axa volume 3) through yet another trackless wasteland created in the aftermath of the Great Contamination that decimated human civilisation a century before.

When her sharp hearing discerns the sound of a petrol engine Axa stumbles into an ongoing cold war between rival sects both determined to bring back the ultimate icon of lost modernity – the motor car.

After rescuing a beautiful girl from a crashed dune buggy the trio is drawn into a tense situation where the debased descendents of assembly line workers dubbed “The Mechanics” dream of creating their own vehicles, despite the scorn and outright oppression of the autocratic “Automators” who trace their own lineage and technical superiority to the engineers who once designed the cars…

Siding with the downtrodden Mechanics Axa attempts to help them steal blueprints and secrets from the Automators, leading inexorably to a death-duel in reconstructed Formula One race-cars against the technocrats’ greatest driver…

As reward for her assistance in uniting the warring tribes Axa is given a car of her own…

Fast-paced and action-packed, this yarn from 1983 gave writer Don Avenell a happy opportunity to exercise his satire muscles with some telling side-swipes at manufacturing and industrial relations issues then surfacing in Britain.

‘Axa the Unmasked’ returned to more usual business and a startling fresh departure as the new vehicle takes them to a maintain range where a hidden enclave of apparently pristine perfection housing isolated ideal human survivors have just been visited by beings from another world.

The beauty-worshipping men and women call themselves Morphos and their leader Viktor is extremely taken with the wandering warrior-woman; inviting the stranded party to stay as they await some sign of life from the downed and still star-craft.

Free-spirit Axa is too much for any one man and despite’s Matt’s presence and crushed silence presence responds to Viktor’s overtures. However the Morphos are concealing a ghastly secret only hinted at when mutant underclass “the Grots” attack the saucer-ship and steal the deadly power-pack which fuels the vehicle and keeping the only survivor alive…

With a catastrophic countdown ticking away and a sublime being expiring by degrees Axa must expose all lies and find some way to repair the situation and reconcile Grots and Morphos before the entire Earth suffers the cataclysmic consequences…

Axa 8 once again dispenses with text introductions and dashes straight into the graphic action of ‘Axa the Castaway’ as the glorious gladiatrix and faithful Matt are marooned on an island following a colossal storm, after their car finally dies due to lack of fuel and maintenance. With Mark 10 lost at sea, the unhappy couple soon discover they are in constant peril from the wildly mutated flora and fauna of the deceptively Eden-like islet, but when Axa is abducted by a feral human raised by the deadly paradise’s rock apes the boiling sexual undercurrent violently erupts. And then, so does the dormant volcano the entire island sits upon…

This spectacular and light-hearted pastiche of Tarzan, The Blue Lagoon and dozens of other back to nature fantasy classics neatly segues into the revelatory ‘Axa the Seeker’ wherein the adventurous couple, reunited with mechanical Mark on the mainland, discover a jungle factory producing pharmaceutical drugs and recreational narcotics that are being shipped all over the devastated planet.

When Axa is captured by the technologically advanced “Dispensers” she is dragged into a political struggle in a hidden super-city and learns that she has a shattering personal connection to the unscrupulous monsters who run the enterprise, consequently learning her own true history… where she actually came from and why her life and personality are so at odds with the all the worlds around her…

Once Axa ended Romero returned to the barnstorming Modesty Blaise strip (from September 1986) staying on until it ended with creator Peter O’Donnell’s retirement in 2001. Since then the artist has produced Modesty material for Scandinavia and a number of projects such as Durham Red for 2000AD.

These stirring tales of an unbreakable free spirit are superb examples of the uniquely British newspaper strip style: lavishly drawn, subversively written, expansive in scope and utterly enchanting in their basic simplicity – with lots of flashed flesh, emphatic action and sly, knowing humour. Eminently readable and re-readable (and there’s still that dwindling promise of a major motion picture) Axa is long overdue for a definitive collection. Here’s hoping there’s a bold publisher out there looking for the next big thing…
©1985-1986 Express Newspapers, Ltd.