Category: Science Fiction

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Frostbite


By Joshua Williamson, Jason Shawn Alexander, Luis NCT, Steve Wands & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7134-3 (HB/Digital edition)

As you have probably noticed, Earth as we know it is doomed. It’s a tragedy of staggering proportions and a telling indictment of the suicidal greed and indifference afflicting so many humans. Ironically this fact does fuel an immense and growing genre of armageddon fiction…

Here’s a – brace yourselves! – truly chilling, utterly gripping yarn from writer Joshua Williamson (The Flash, Infinite Frontier, Justice League vs Suicide Squad, Birthright. Deathbed), illustrator Jason Shawn Alexander (Killadephia, Marvel Zombies, Empty Zone, Batman), colour-artist Luis NCT and letterer Steve Wands that superbly captures all the grim foreboding of the Last Days whilst still dangling cruel hopes of possible survival.

If you’re one of that strange breed of modern knight errant who just can’t stomach a woman – and a black one, too! – in the role as Last Action Hero, you won’t like this superb science-gone-bad, doom-watched dystopian drama, so you’ll want to go play somewhere else for validation…

Once upon a time, six scientists sought to save the world from destruction and humanity from itself. As inexorable climate change turned Earth into an uninhabitable tinderbox, they did something wondrous with cold fusion and eradicated the searing heat build-up.

However, as we all know, no good deed ever goes unpunished and their miraculous solution unleashed a new ice age that brought civilisation to its knees and human beings to the edge of extinction.

In the aftermath, as pockets of mankind sought to stay warm and eat on a desolate ice-ball world, it was revealed that the temperature inversion had brought another – even more terrifying – tribulation: a bizarre disease that slowly turned living creatures into ice. Terrified humans began isolating themselves in smaller groups, making pariahs of strangers, abhorring the blue stigma and dreading the inescapable death sentence that was “Frostbite”…

America 57 years after big freeze is an icy wind-wracked wilderness, with meagre population pockets occupying what used to be mega-cities. It’s a world of barter, exploitation and quick violence, with heating devices and drugs as the prime transferable resources. Criminals have scrambled to the top of the heap and dictate the way things are. Everyone is terrified that fraternisation also brings the cold contagion…

In Mexico City, freelance cargo-shippers Keaton and her partner Chuck Barlow accept a commission to transport a father and his daughter to what used to be Alcatraz Island. Both prospective passengers are science doctors and display obvious signs of great wealth, but broke as she is, Keaton can’t shake her suspicions of something bad in play…

Henry Bonham and his brilliant child Victoria clearly have the resources to travel in style and comfort, but instead want the secrecy of a lumbering tractor like Barlow’s pride-&-joy Icebreaker. Keaton would be even more upset if she knew who they were and who was chasing them…

When those pursuers attack, the Bonhams are separated and Keaton, on learning Henry’s secret, kills him herself. Only afterwards does she discover that it wasn’t him the pursuers wanted, but Victoria. The junior scientist has developed a cure for frostbite and is now the most valuable thing on earth…

Furious, guilt-ridden, repentant, hopeful and slowly dying, Keaton resolves to get the daughter to the Alcatraz lab before she expires, no matter who or what stands in their way. As she grows ever closer to her trek buddy, the hardest part is not confessing what she’s done and what’s she’s becoming. Although built on mutual lies, there’s a painfully doomed relationship growing that might be even more important to Keaton than saving the world or her own life…

Their voyage across the frozen south overflows with violent clashes as relentless pursuit constantly results in explosive violence, with Keaton’s prowess and ingenuity significantly reducing the numbers of humans in existence every time they are caught or intercepted.

Soon however, their only foe is Keaton’s secret and when that’s exposed, everything changes forever…

Fast-paced, smart, action-packed and tension-taut, Frostbite is a picture perfect action adventure with a flawed but indomitable hero in the same unstoppable yet fragile mould as Ripley or Sarah Connor.

Graced by a magnificent cover gallery by Alexander & NCT, this is the kind of chill affirmative action we should all enjoy.
© 2016, 2017 Joshua Williamson and Jason Shawn Alexander. All Rights Reserved.

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Kill All Monsters!™ Omnibus


By Michael May & Jason Copland & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-827-7 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-613008-400-4

Somebody once said “In comics, Less Is More”.*

Sometimes all we want is a primal experience with intrigue and character pared down to basics. Maybe a little mystery and treachery but fundamentally heroes, villains and an overwhelming menace to rail valiantly against.

There’s all that and so much more in Kill All Monsters!: a vibrant and vivid monochrome monster-fest which started life as an online tribute to Japan’s greatest cultural export – spectacular Kaiju versus Mecha mega-duels.

Crafted by writer Michael May (Hunt the Winterlands) and illustrator Jason Copland (The Perhapsnauts: Molly’s Story; Murder Book; Poutine) – with early idea contributions by Alex Ness – the 2013 webcomic was picked up by Dark Horse two years later, reprinting the epic and delivering a sequel…

The hugely hulking omnibus edition arrived in 2017, gathering Kill All Monsters! volume 1: Ruins of Paris and Kill All Monsters!: The Ministry of Robots which ran in Dark Horse Presents (volume 3) #12-24. It includes another 100 pages of story, notionally concluding the tale in a welter of edgy grey-toned “Amerimanga” action and suspense. Critical tech support throughout is provided by letterers Ed Brisson, Ryan Ferrier & Micah Myers.

Shell-pocked, gritty and executed at breakneck pace, with captivating atmosphere and a do-or-die sense of duty, it opens in ‘The Ruins of Paris’ as a squad of human warriors explore the devasted city in their singular giant robot war-suits.

Like everywhere else in the world, the City of Lights was razed to rubble by waves of monster attacks which began in Japan in 1954 and which have steadily pushed humanity to the edge of extinction.

Dressen, Spencer Djamel and Akemi are part of the African Defense Force conceived and commanded by visionary General Abbud Rashad as a last-ditch deterrent to colossal horrors that started harassing humanity in the wake of the atomic bomb’s first detonations. The Mecha-riders are champions of human technology and ingenuity, forever shaking the earth in constant clashes with relentless, merciless killer kaiju.

Here and now, the pilots barely survive an assault by an octet of titanic terrors and are stuck nervously awaiting repair services, when they discover barbarous Parisians who have taken a different path in adapting to the monster depredations…

Second chapter ‘Attack of the Killer Robot’ takes us to Kenya, where latest recruit Archer despatches a brutal bug beast menacing a village. He is the General’s latest innovation and last hope…

In Paris, the stranded pilots seek shelter until Archer can rescue them, encountering a pack of feral, human-sized beasts. They survive, but doubt their impending recovery will be in time. Moreover, they are far from happy that the General is putting so much faith in a Mecha that is fully artificial. Nobody human trusts AIs like Archer…

‘Pigs in the Sky’ reveals the machine saviour is equally uncertain of his role and capabilities, although base technician, repairman and passenger-to-Paris Angus assures him he’s being foolish. In the meantime, the subjects of their rescue mission have linked up with the locals after being ambushed by rampaging warthog horrors. Relocating to the catacombs beneath the city after the first attack in 1959, the French tribe have become true savages ‘Down in the Underground’: scavenging at the borders of daily horror. However, the better educated pilots quickly realise that the subterranean sanctuary they occupy is a technological treasure trove…

The primitives have been skulking amidst resources that could have turned the tables on their tormentors, and Spencer finds mystery to compound the irony. The modern machinery in the tunnels had to have been installed long after the city fell – possibly less than a decade ago – but how, why and by whom?

Seeking answers, the uneasy allies return to the stalled Mecha to access the hard drive they have recovered, but are ambushed by another mega-monster. That’s when Archer explosively arrives to save them all, even as Akemi and Parisian ally Cosa decipher the data and discover a human conspiracy – ‘Pax Monstrorum’ – is behind the monsters…

With an enemy to hunt comes knowledge of an imminent endgame. The villains have scheduled an ultimate monster to eradicate what remains of humankind, and the allies ready themselves for the final battle…

Heading ‘Into the Trees’ to a hidden base in the Black Forest of what used to be Germany, their assault on ‘The Castle of Doom’ forestalls humanity’s end – for a little while – but comes at a huge cost, and exposing a traitor in the squad working for the Pax in ‘Akemi’s Secret’…

There’s a tragic and cruel backstory beneath all the brutal Brobdingnagian battles, but revelation takes a big step to the side as ‘Time Bomb’ sees the ascendant Pax Monstrorum trying to clean house but foiled and punished by the last ADF warriors in ‘Death in the Deep’ before ultimately triumphing over the worst beasts of all in ‘Revenge of the Robots’ and ‘The Serpent Strikes’…

Under Dark Horse’s aegis the war of survival resumed with ‘The Ministry of Robots’, beginning with a review of how humanity fell and the course of global military resistance to the massive marauders. A glimpse of the early days of Rashad’s Mecha project sees embittered Captain Vivian Matthews ordered to assess his radical project to fight monsters with giant robots. Her evaluation will determine if Canada joins the scheme, but almost founders at the start…

When her plane is brought down by a big beast, she is saved by Colonel Spencer Djamel and his prototype Lion-bot. She then sees the work first hand when invited to pilot the incredible war-suit . Of course, her dry run becomes serious wetwork when she is ambushed by a giant bug and becomes the first human in history to kill rather than repulse a monster…

She is blithely unaware that her closest aide belongs to a secret society promoting the rise of the horrors…

This classy combat compendium closes with all-new, past-set tale ‘Island of Giants’ with focus shifting to the start of  the fightback – and home of the genre – in the last days of lost Tokyo. When experimental Mecha warriors Shogun and Bushi-1 are directed to reconnoitre a solitary isle that surveillance has determined is the origin point of the killer colossi shattering Japan, they discover not only the infinitely variable creature legions’ home, but also that these ravagers are being carefully farmed…

And that is when the real trouble starts…

This manic, mostly monochrome tome is the acme of artistic thrills and chills, perfectly capturing the addictive wonderment of all Heroes vs. Monster yarns. As such, it also supplies a stunning Pin-up Gallery by guest aficionados Brian Level, Frankie B. Washington, Jeff McComsey, Johnnie Christmas and Otis Frampton.

This starkly compelling collection delivers dark chills, compulsive mystery, cunning conspiracy, deeply flawed human heroes and villains, but above all constant cathartic combat carnage in intoxicating amounts… and it all starts, unfolds and ends right here. No muss, no fuss, no busload of tie-ins.

Less is More. Ride the rocket robot. Save the world.
© 2013, 2015, 2017 Michael May & Jason Copland All rights reserved.

* It was me, yesterday! Less Is still More, but Bigger is Better. Get this Book too.

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Monsters! and Other Stories


By Gustavo Duarte (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-309-8 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-62115-886-8

In comics, Less Is More.

You start with pictures. They should be clearly understood. Deathless prose so often just gets in the way…

This stunning breakthrough compilation from Brazilian graphic raconteur Gustavo (Bizarro; Guardians of the Galaxy; Dear Justice League) Duarte’s earliest works is a sublime masterclass in cartoon comedy: a trio of engrossing mini-epics each hallmarked by breakneck pace, captivating atmosphere and escalating conceptual insanity, all delivered via inspired sight-gags and superb drawing.

Following an effusive Introduction extolling the virtues of pantomimic comics and the sheer wonder of silent comedy from indisputable arch-maestro Sergio Aragonés, a twisted triptych of hilarious terror tales opens with ‘Có!’ (2009).

Here is a sardonically sinister saga of alien abductions, pig husbandry and commercial chicken-rearing practises, tinged with bizarre transformations, existential confrontations and the unmitigated horror of incomprehensible extraterrestrial agendas…

Anthropomorphically unfolding next, ‘Birds’ (2011) pecks at the cutthroat business world. One ordinary day a sinister murder mystery ensues, with two avian office workers having the worst day of their lives. A tense situation swiftly degenerates into a surreal bloodbath where only Death holds true dominion…

Concluding this soundless extravaganza is bombastic battle bout ‘Monsters!’ from 2012. This is a manic celebration of Kaiju (that’s city-stomping, rampaging giant beasties to old folk like you and me) as a jaded recreational angler reels in a big catch before becoming one as a colossal lizard wades ashore to tear up the town and literally sample the night life. As the creature inevitably attracts gargantuan rivals ashore for a showdown and the human populace panic, an elderly gentleman patiently gathers ingredients for a very ancient and special potion. He’s seen this all before and has the perfect solution…

This manic, mostly monochrome tome is the acme of artistic thrills and chills, perfectly capturing the addictive wonderment of monster stories and crafted by a master of fun and thrills.

Less is More. Silence is Golden. Get this Book.
© 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 Gustavo Duarte Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Kindred – A Graphic Novel Adaptation


By Octavia E. Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy & John Jennings (Abrams ComicArts)
ISBN: 978-14197-0947-0 (TPB/Digital)

This month we’re (rather crazily!) focussing on material pertinent to Black History Month and simultaneously indulging ourselves in the regular Halloween fright-fest. Maybe one year minorities and women will get a whole month to themselves or perhaps the powers that decree these arbitrary festivals might even acknowledge that these subjects are acceptable everyday fare…

However, here and now let’s consider a very different kind of scary story that qualifies on either and both counts..

Octavia Estelle Butler (1947-2006) overcame the stacked handicaps of being female, shy, dyslexic, depressive, fatherless, poor and black in post-war America to become a shining light of the socially-aware science fiction scene that grew out of the works of Philip K Dick, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Samuel R. Delaney, Zenna Henderson, John Brunner and others.

Reared in ethnically diverse but still segregated Pasadena, California, she studied hard, followed her passions, took every opportunity available to studious young women of colour and became one of the most innovative and lauded science fiction authors of her generation. Butler went to community college just as the Black Power Movement took off and – attending writers workshops – realised that her own experiences could and should inform her writing.

In series like her Parable books, Patternist and Xenogenesis sequences, stand-alone novels and dozens of award-winning short stories, she explored how societies and splinter groups acted, addressing themes of alienation, exclusion, social and biological evolution, control through belief systems, mutual coexistence of species, genetic manipulation, parapsychic abilities and biological adjustment. These subjects were screened through a lens of co-dependent cultures of dominance and submission, and framed in terms of “racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other ‘isms’ that cause so much suffering in the world.”

Elements of loss, contamination, interbreeding, miscegenation, mutation, symbiosis, surrender of autonomy and especially fear continually resurface as scenes of coercion, rape and violence: exploring how and why the weak are ruled by the strong and suggesting such actions are a kind of evolutionary parasitism which might be corrected by sociobiological interventions…

Her works are often associated with the vibrant subgenre of Afrofuturism – as so ideally depicted in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther stories – but Butler’s stories are rife with disenfranchised outsiders or lowly minority characters who are putatively weak: born compromised, enduring and tolerating appalling changes of state and status simply to survive.

Such is certainly the case with the protagonist of Kindred. Adapted here by Damien Duffy and illustrated by John Jennings, the 1979 novel was a stand-alone time-travel tale written by Butler in response to a colleague’s questions about why antebellum slaves tolerated captivity and treatment. Her response was this story, offering brutal, inescapable context justifying  how those accepting years of “willing” subservience might have worked…

It’s still in preproduction-limbo for a TV series , but until then you can hunt it out in two kinds of print – prose and pictorial…

The graphic odyssey is preceded by a heartfelt ‘Introduction by Nnedi Okorafor’ before the shocking drama opens with a ‘Prologue’ as African American Dana contemplates the limb she no longer has…

A mystery starts to unravel on June 9th 1976, as she and her white husband Kevin Franklin celebrate her 26th birthday by unpacking the boxes that brought all their worldly goods into their new home. They’re both writers and have lots to stuff into this house, but dreamy domesticity ends abruptly as she’s seized by an uncanny force and vanishes. She reappears by ‘The River’ just in time to save a little a white boy named Rufus from drowning…

Dana is then attacked and beaten by his mother and shot at by his father before warping back to Kevin and home. Her soaked, dishevelled condition categorically proves that what she experienced was no delusion: an inexplicable event that has shattered her joy and composure. Dana no longer feels safe or secure: here or anywhere…

The dreaded incident reoccurs mere hours later with Dana manifesting in Rufus’ bedroom just as he’s sparking ‘The Fire’ that would have destroyed the vast plantation house he lives in. The boy is at least four years older and deeply disturbed, but Dana patiently establishes a working relationship with him, based on a shared fear of his parents. With open mind and terrified conviction, Dana has concluded that she is somehow being pulled through time to a place where her kind are objects bought and sold, a fact Rufus confirms when he reveals the year is 1815…

Further cautious conversation draws from the boy his surname – Weylin – and the plantation’s location in Maryland. With horror, Dana recalls snippets of her own family history and realizes this half-crazed, privileged, firebug – WHITE – brat is her direct ancestor…

Despite her bizarre clothes, hair, manners and spurious claims to be a freed woman, Dana tries to flee the manorial house but is caught up in a slave-taker’s punishment raid. After torturing runaways, they then turn on her and a callous beating edges into a sexual assault that only a sudden switch back to 20th century California prevents from becoming her last moment.

Grievously battered, she refuses to let Kevin call an ambulance. By his reckoning, she’s only been gone for three minutes, but cannot bear the thought of vanishing again from a hospital…

Anticipating another vanishing, they assemble a “go-bag” of 20th century medicines and tools for her next abduction and Kevin bones up on black history from their reference library. Here and now, knowledge is power…

Fondly recalling how they first got together, Dana is unprepared for the next summoning, but when the force grips her now, Kevin reacts rapidly. Grabbing her, he goes with her and sees for himself the living past. Rufus is visibly older and has just broken his leg in ‘The Fall’…

Reacting with fury to the news that these adults are married – scandalously illegal miscegenation! – Rufus is taken into their confidence as they conclusively prove they come from the future.

Forced to be Dana’s “owner” whilst a guest in the Weylin household, Kevin spends too much time apart from his wife whilst she is assigned to the plantation staff. After savagely beating her for teaching blacks to write, her shameful ability to read is secretly exploited by Rufus’ parents, who remain unaware that the strange slave is making many friends and useful connections amongst the lower orders. However, when the future calls her again, Kevin is nowhere to be found and left behind…

And so the story unfolds, with years passing as eyeblink instalments with Dana gradually building a seditious second life among slaves she secretly seeks to radicalise and protect, under the aegis of her family recollections.  She searches in vain for her missing husband and contrives a disturbing, discordant and deeply unhealthy relationship with the cruelly manipulative – adult – ancestor/owner Rufus in ‘The Fight’, before the time-lost lovers are finally reunited in ‘The Storm’.  And at last an ending arrives after Dana’s lowest moments in ‘The Rope’…

The scattered threads of family are then drawn together in an ‘Epilogue’ that trusts but cannot prove that the mystery is done and the travelling finished…

A chilling, complex and extremely challenging reappraisal of many kinds of status quo, Kindred is more topical and germane than ever, examining social, racial and gender roles in a culture that has never been less stable or secure. Delivered with the full, uncompromising force of graphic narrative and in the charged, unrestrained terms and language of the 19th century via 1970s liberal outrage, this is a rewarding, informative yet potentially shocking narrative demanding your full attention and a tacit acceptance that history must not be shaded or censored. If unsanitised violence, non-voyeuristic nudity and harsh language are more distressing to you than learning uncomfortable truths, you might be better served by today’s other review…

Adding value here, this adaptation (which was followed by the team’s treatment of Butler’s Parable of the Sower and the still-forthcoming Parable of the Talents) includes biographies ‘About Octavia E. Butler’ and ‘About the adaptor and artist’ plus ‘Acknowledgements’ and material recommended ‘For Further Reading’…

Kindred is powerful and upsetting, just like it was always meant to be, and is a story you should know in all its forms. There’s no time like the present…

Kindred © The Estate of Octavia E. Butler. Adaptation © 2017 Damian Duffy and John Jennings. Introduction © 2017 Nnedi Okarador. Based on the novel Kindred by Octavia E.
Butler © 1979. All rights reserved.

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House of Dolmann


By Tom Tully & Eric Bradbury, with Carlos Cruz & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-78618-491-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Weird, Wonderful, So Why Not?… 9/10

Wrapping up a week of Unamerican Superheroes is a classic British confection which might well be the closest we ever got to a Silver Age super-team – even if the members are technically all the same bloke…

Valiant debuted as a “Boys’ Paper” in 1962, as our indigenous periodicals industry struggled to cope with spiralling costs and a sudden mass importation of brash, flashy, full-colour comics from America. A weekly anthology dedicated to adventure features and providing a constantly-changing arena of action, the comic became the company’s most successful title for over a decade: absorbing many less successful titles whilst preserving their top features between its launch on October 6th and eventual amalgamation into new-styled, immensely popular Battle Picture Weekly in 1976. It also generated dozens of extra-sized Summer Specials and 21 Annuals between 1964 and 1985: combining original strips with prose stories; sports, science and general interest features, short humour strips and – increasingly from the 1970s onwards – reformatted reprints from IPC/Fleetway’s copious back catalogue.

In February of 1963 it merged with the company’s previous star vehicle Knockout and, mere months later, became the brand title for a series of fortnightly – later monthly – digest-sized comics volumes. The Valiant Picture Library offered longer stories at the cost of 1 shilling. It ran to 144 issues ending in 1969…

In May 1965, the weekly Valiant increased its price from sixpence to 7d (that was in old money, of course) but also increased the page count from 28 to 40 action and fun-packed pages, and ramped up the innovative anthological entertainment…

British weekly comics in the 1960s and early 1970s were a phantasmagorical playground of bizarre wonders. Truly recognisable heroes appeared in war, western and its gradually declining straight crime serials, whilst the most memorable momentum devolved to a hybrid, bastardized mixture of fantasy, horror and science fiction themes to spawn an evil-crushing pantheon unlike any other…

The Spider, Steel Claw, Thunderbolt, Phantom Viking, Captain Hurricane, Robot Archie, Kelly’s Eye, Cursitor Doom and others utterly tainted the gleaming pristine gene pool of noble superheroism with its bleak and often manic sensibilities. You can thank this stuff for the 1980s “British Invasion” of American comic books and the dystopian weltschmerz that dominated the industry for a decade thereafter, peppering the genre with our sort of misfit, maverick and malcontent misanthrope…

Even early on when we briefly adopted full-blown US style superheroes like Marvelman, Captain Universe, Danger Man and Thunderbolt Jaxon, or late entries Tri-Man, The Leopard from Lime Street, Gadget Man & Gimmick Kid and the wondrous Johnny Future at the height of “Batmania”, Brits could never really take it straight. There was always something daft, anarchic, quirky or just scarily warped in the final result…

Here’s a sublimely perfect example of all that: a seedy solitary inventor with a hidden past who spends his days playing with puppets: an obsessive who can’t help literally putting words into their mouths…

Another stunning salvo of baby boomer nostalgia courtesy of Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics strand, this first collection of The House of Dolmann gathers the early material from Valiant, spanning October 8th 1966 (issue #208) to May 6th 1967, plus a late entry from Valiant Super Special 1980. The strip itself ran until May 1970, and has resurfaced a few times since then, both in reprint form and new tales…

It also offers an incisive Introduction from modern day comics scribe Simon Furman and begins with a handy character guide in ‘Meet Dolmann’s Dolls (part 1)’ providing a pictorial and text run-down of Astro, Elasto, Giggler, Micro, Mole, Raider and Togo: purpose-built robots designed with amazing specialised abilities. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that this was the mid-Sixties, so racial depictions like the half-sized sumo wrestler-bot last cited were perpetrated “in fun”, and not fairness or good taste…

House of Dolmann was a curious, inexplicably compelling blend of super-spy and crime-buster strip scripted by the magnificently prolific Glasgow-born Tom Tully. His astoundingly broad output included classic delights like Roy of the Rovers, Heros the Spartan, Dan Dare, Master of the Marsh, Janus Stark, Mytek the Mighty, The Wild Wonders, Nipper, Adam Eterno, The Mind of Wolfie Smith, Johnny Red, Harlem Heroes, Mean Arena, Inferno, The Robo Machines, Football Family Robinson, Buster’s Ghost as well as many of the strips cited above.

His collaborative co-creator here also worked on many of those sagas. The incredibly gripping moody comic art of Eric Bradbury had begun gracing newsagents shelves in 1949 in Knockout. Frequently working with studio mate Mike Western, Bradbury drew strips like Our Ernie, Blossom, Lucky Logan, Buffalo Bill, No Hiding Place, The Black Crow and Biggles. He was an “in-demand” illustrator who worked into the 1990s on landmark strips like The Avenger, Phantom Force 5, Maxwell Hawke, Death Squad, Doomlord, Darkie’s Mob, Hook Jaw, The Sarge, Invasion, Invasion 1984, Rogue Trooper, Future Shocks, Tharg the Mighty and so much more…

From the start, Tully & Bradbury delivered intense, claustrophobic tension-drenched, action-packed episodic adventures, opening with a spectacular kidnapping at the London Opera House.

When Professor Hanson – head of Britain’s atomic missile program – is abducted by jetpack-wearing masked thugs, the police and security services are stumped and the authorities have no recourse but to call in independent contractors International Security. Enigmatic chief Mr. Marshal and his top aide promptly pop over to the East End and The House of Dolmann: a pokey shop owned by a grimy, creepy puppet seller who apparently makes ends meet as a mannequin repairman who also dabbles in second-hand dolls, puppets, animatronics and shop or museum dummies.

However, in the grotty emporium – looking like a blend of junk shop and the parlour set of Steptoe & Son – a brilliant inventor has been clandestinely building an army of automated assistants – if not actual friends – to do his bidding. The IS operatives are greeted by a 3-foot tall articulated sumo automaton who invites them inside. They are as yet unaware that the voice – and appallingly racist accent – in fact belongs to proprietor Eric Dolmann who uncontrollably puts words in the mouths of all his creations… and perhaps divides a series of multiple personalities amongst them all at the same time. Shabby Dolmann’s life is pure subterfuge. (I digress here, but an awful lot of “our” heroes were tattily unkempt: we had “Grunge” down pat decades before the Americans made a profit out of it!)

The bizarre figure is in fact a troubled engineering genius who designs and constructs an army of specialised robots disguised as puppets to act as his shock-troops in his a dark and crazy war against the forces of evil. They are all directly radio-controlled by the inventor, but seem to act with increasing autonomy as the months go by …

Top of his hit list is subversive organisation D.A.R.T. – the Department for Arson, Revolution and Terror – and he eagerly accepts the job of foiling their plans by single-handedly raiding their London secret HQ with small army of super-bots…

The assault is a complete success but in the resultant rout and rescue, D.A.R.T. boss Rafe Garrott gets away from Dolman and his “children”…

Pattern set, what follows is a potent and spectacular parade of peril-packed romps: complete 4-page thrillers alternating with extended sagas wherein the troubled and frankly disturbing puppeteer and an ever-expanding team tackle high-tech kidnappers, rascally protection racketeers, road haulage hijackers, weapons dealers, bullion bandits, museum marauders, blackmailers and a silver-obsessed madman…

In his unceasing war on wickedness, the daring Dolls hunt and confront modern-day river pirates, escaped killer convicts, train robbers and mail van raiders, fur-thieves, mad scientists Dr. Magno and Doctor Volt, a costumed cat-burglar, super-sophisticated safecrackers, deranged arsonist Firebug, cunning counterfeiters in their tricked-out funfair of doom, a brutal biker gang and – repeatedly – the massed minions of arch super-criminal ‘The Hawk’. The half-pint heroes even infiltrate a prison in search of justice…

As the series progressed, additions were made to the synthetic squad – like tactical calculator Egghead – and supplemental gadgets such as a flying Dolmobile and all-terrain Dol-Bike (with sidecar for the fractious, ever-squabbling toy boys), tacitly acknowledging the tropes and trends gripping the world beyond the comic.

A slow backstory develops, hinting at the inventor’s murky past. Eventually his real name – Jonas Luthor – is revealed after his obscuring clown mask falls off in a tussle with a career criminal. The accident belatedly leads to his squalid shop being threatened by a police raid as diabolical plunderer The Gold Miser drives London into a glistering plutocratic panic and it takes all Dolmann’s ingenuity and dexterity to deflect, divert, disinform and save the day…

Ultimately, wild sci fi spy paraphernalia like levitation ray thieves and the tank-driving Commando Raiders inform and dominate the stories, with D.A.R.T.’s resurrection adding layers of fearsome fantasy frenzy. Crucially, the always-unsettling sight of dolls perpetually arguing amongst themselves grows more frenetic, generating moments of apparently genuine animosity within the automatic adventurers …

The weekly stories were always a mix of action, surreal humour and topical bombast, which close here with a rowdy, rousing romp involving saving the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels from fake guards tunnelling under the walls…

One final treat opens the ‘Extras’ section, with the 1980 Valiant Summer Special providing an extended maritime exploit from Tully and Spanish artist Carlos Cruz (AKA Carlos Cruz González, who limned many UK yarns including Sergeant Kirk, The Shrinker’s Revenge, Mighty McGinty, Sergeant Rock – Paratrooper, Dr. Mesmer’s Revenge, Bloodfang, Union Jack Jackson, M.A.S.K., Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future, The Phantom and so forth) detailing how a jaunt to Cornwall leads to the plastic pack scuppering a gang of transatlantic pirates raiding shipping in a submarine…

That’s supplemented by prose thriller ‘Slaves of the Spider’: a tantalising promo and extract by Barrington J. Bayley & Bradbury taken from the forthcoming Mind of Jason Hyde collection and a batch of Creator Biographies…

Brilliantly bizarre, creepily compelling and stuffed to overflowing with zany thrills and chills, The House of Dolmann is inconceivably engrossing and incontrovertibly British to the core: fast-paced, freakily funny and once seen, never forgotten. Buy it for the kids and read it too; this is a glorious book, and you should brace yourself for better yet to come…
© 1966, 1967 & 2022 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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The Leopard from Lime St. Book Two: the Beast of Selbridge Returns!


By Tom Tully, Mike Western, Eric Bradbury & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 9-781-78108-678-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

Other than lawyers, most people claim imitation as the sincerest form of flattery. You can make your own mind up on that score when seeking out these quirky and remarkable vintage treats offering a wonderfully downbeat, quintessentially British spin on a very familiar story…

British comics have always enjoyed a strange, extended love affair with what can only be described as “unconventional” (for which feel free to substitute “weird” or “creepy”) heroes. So many stars and putative role models of our serials and strips have been outrageous or just plain “off”: self-righteous voyeurs-vigilantes like Jason Hyde, sinister masterminds in the manner of The Dwarf, self-absorbed outsiders like Robot Archie, arrogant former criminals like The Spider or outright racist supermen such as Captain Hurricane…

Joking aside, British comics were unlike any other kind: having to be seen to be believed and enjoyed – especially if “homaging” such uniquely American fare as costumed crimefighters…

Until the 1980s, UK periodicals employed an anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – sometimes fortnightly – basis. Humorous comics like The Beano were leavened by action-heroes like The Q-Bikes or General Jumbo whilst adventure papers like Smash, Lion or Valiant always carried palate-cleansing gagsters like The Cloak, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and other laugh treats.

Buster offered the best of all worlds. Running 1902 issues from May 28th 1960 to 4th January 2000, it delicately balanced drama, mystery, action and comedy, with its earliest days – thanks to absorbing Radio Fun and Film Fun – heavily dosed with celebrity-licensed material starring media mavens like Charlie Drake, Bruce Forsyth and Benny Hill backing up the eponymous cover star billed as “the son of (newspaper strip star) Andy Capp”. The comic became the final resting place of many, many companion papers in its lifetime, including The Big One, Giggle, Jet, Cor!, Monster Fun, Jackpot, School Fun, Nipper, Oink! and Whizzer & Chips, so its cumulative strip content is wide, wild and usually pretty wacky…

At first glance, British comics prior to the advent of 2000AD – and Happy 45th Anniversary to you all, Mighty Tharg! – seem to fall into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and/or fantastic preschool fantasy; a large selection of licensed entertainment properties; action; adventure; war; school dramas, sports and straight comedy strands. Closer looks would confirm that there was always a subversive merging, mixing undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace or our rather strained interpretation of superheroes. Just check out The Phantom Viking, Kelly’s Eye or early Steel Claw…

We had dabbled with the classic form in the early Marvel and Batman-influenced 1960s (and slightly before and beyond), but Tri-Man, The Black Sapper, Gadgetman & Gimmick Kid, Johnny Future, Red Star Robinson and Thunderbolt Jaxon remained off-kilter oddities. In the March 27th 1976 edition of Buster everything changed…

Now part of Rebellion Publishing’s line of British Comics Classics, The Leopard from Lime Street originally ran 470 episodes (comprising 50 adventures until May 18th 1985 – and even later as colorized reprints and a wealth of foreign-language and overseas editions). For most of that time it was a barely-legal knock-off of Marvel’s Spider-Man – with hints of DC Thomson’s Billy the Cat – as viewed through a superbly time-stamped English lens of life in a Northern Town. It was also, however, utterly unmissable reading…

This second collected volume – available as an oversized (213 x 276 mm) paperback and digital edition – was released in 2019, gathering Buster and Buster & Monster Fun strips spanning 18th June 1977 to 15th July1978.

What you need to know: in the middle (or maybe north-ish) of England lies Selbridge, where scrawny 13-year-old Billy Farmer was constantly bullied, by kids at school and especially his Uncle Charlie. Billy’s abiding interests were journalism and photography. He started a school newspaper (Farmer’s World) all by himself, probably to compensate for his home life. He lived with loving but frail Aunt Joan and her vicious, indolent, physically abusive partner Charlie Farmer who avoided honest work like the plague but was always ready to deliver a memorable life-lesson with fist, boot or belt…

Billy’s life forever changed when he visited the Jarman Zoological Institute and was accidentally scratched by Sheba, an escaped leopard being treated for an unspecified disease with radioactive chemicals.

In the days before Health and Safety regulations or a culture of litigation, Billy was given a rapid once-over by the boffins in charge and declared fine before being sent home. When Uncle Charlie tried to hit him. the brute was casually chucked into the dustbins and the lad realised he had developed  the strength, speed, stamina and agility of a jungle cat as well as enhanced senses, empathic feelings, a paralysing roar and a predator’s “danger-sense”…

Soon, clad in a modified pantomime costume, Billy prowled Selbridge’s dark streets and low rooftops, incurring the curiosity and animosity of Thaddeus Clegg: editor of local paper The Selbridge Sun whilst ever-more confidant Billy sold exclusive news photos of burglars, crooks and kidnappers the vigilante “leopard man” preyed upon at night. Somehow, the raw kid could also get candid shots of many secluded celebrities no adult journo could get near…

Moreover, the boy’s earnings – grudgingly paid by Clegg – started making life easier for Aunt Joan, whilst the Beast’s constant proximity to Lime Street ensured Charlie kept his outbursts verbal and his drunken fists unclenched…

School remained a nightmare of bullies and almost-exposure of Billy’s secret, but home life improved further once the police identified Billy as an official confidante of the vigilante. They even noted how Charlie was regularly brutalised by the feral fury in defence of his “friend”…

Over months the leopard man caught many criminals, was implicated – and cleared – of arson and theft, was abducted by a crooked circus owner, caught  child abductors, battled a fame-obsessed masked wrestler and thwarted a circus acrobat mimicking the cat’s abilities to frame the Leopard for crimes.

On a school trip to a Safari Park, Billy was reunited with his accidental creator Sheba and his powers seemed to exponentially increase beyond his ability to control them…

The costumed melodramas resume now as hero-struck kids start imitating “Leopardman”, and the Selbridge Sun puts a cash bounty on his head, precipitating a string of minor annoyances. The real crisis comes when Farmer gets home and learns Aunty Joan is seriously ill and needs cash urgently to help pay for an operation. The only solution is for Billy to surrender his alter ego to Clegg…

Uncle Charlie also wants the cash and starts tracking the sneaky kid, hoping Billy will lead him to the cat beast. As the town erupts with opportunistic hopefuls and the cops close in, Billy prepares to end his double life, before Charlie’s interference provides a last-minute chance of escape and a solution to Joan’s dilemma…

The debacle makes an accidental and unwilling media star of Charlie, but Billy finds a way to safely sabotage the abuser’s 15 minutes of fame, leading to being singled out by more shady fairground showmen who initially seek to co-opt the boy. When rebuffed, they attempt to foist an imitation catman on the gullible public…

After the charlatans schedule a battle between leopard man and actual leopards, Billy is forced to intervene, finding himself in action against a huge, deranged, fame-hungry maniac with steel claws. Suffering a rare defeat, he awakes a captive of vile showman Flanagan who now has the scary beast he’s always hungered to exploit in his underground cages…

A glimpse for freedom comes after the fairground staff move their prize, displaying him at the distant Alf Campbell’s Circus. A moment’s distraction leads to Billy’s escape, liberating all the other big cats and briefly turning the tables on the human beasts before leaving them in the hands of a baffled constabulary and turning tail back to Selbridge…

In school, scrawny Billy is still the butt of bigger kids “jokes”, but finds a new if unwelcome ally in classmate Debra Stevens who secretly looks out for him and discovers that he’s not at all who he pretends to be…

When the cat crusader foils a wages van raid, she confronts the masked mystery, prompting a sustained and spectacular campaign of disinformation as Billy seeks to change her mind and stifle her suspicions. The task is made more difficult when reclusive millionaire (remember them?) Henry Hammond also targets the boy. His motives are far less benevolent but after cornering his prey (and Debra) everything spirals out of control when a criminal gang tries to abduct everybody…

As Christmas rolls around and Joan’s operation fund grows, Selbridge is blanketed in snow (remember that?). As Billy romps alone in the winter wonderland he is joined by Sheba who has once again escaped from Windburn Safari Park, but his joy is tempered with terror as he meets her far less friendly fellow fugitive… angry, unreasonable male leopard Raja…

Barely escaping, the boy hero is appalled to find that in intervening hours hordes of gun-toting hunters have converged on the town, eager for a spot of hometown big game fun. Suiting up, Billy is desperate to stop them – especially gun-nut Buck Redford – killing either Raja or beloved pal Sheba…

Their battle of wits and skills takes hunters, hunted and human cat all over the rugged icy landscape with numerous tragic close calls. The increasingly incensed gunman slowly loses all sense and starts menacing people as well as apex predators until a frenzied assault on Windburn finally sees Billy end the bonkers bwana’s campaign of terror…

Despite being shot, Billy’s greatest casualty is his repurposed costume and the New Year sees him searching out a replacement – or at least spare parts for a patch job. Opportunity knocks in the form of a genuine leopard skin in a junk shop, but even after arduous toil to earn the revolting antique remnant his troubles magnify not diminish when Charlie tries to steal the hard-won prize.

Things get completely out of hand and young Farmer physically rebuffs his guardian before secretly donning the modified suit. Suddenly, somehow, his human personality is utterly overwhelmed by savage, primal killer-cat instincts…

On the prowl and seeking brutal release, Billy comes to his senses just as Charlie is mugged. The town is currently swamped with ruthless violent street thieves and the leopard man instantly, instinctively intervenes: almost losing all semblance of humanity before ultimately regaining control and suppressing his newly awakened wild side after giving the muggers – and Charlie – the fright of their lives…

Ever ready to exploit a situation for profit, the vindictive uncle calls the police, blaming the cat vigilante for the rash of thefts. His lies spark a popular explosion of fear as embattled residents of Selbridge organise a protest which quickly degenerates into a riot and rabid mob on a leopard hunt…

Chased across rooftops, masked Billy tracks down the real muggers and falls into a trap laid by criminal mastermind Nipper Nemo. The elderly bandit is not as smart as he thinks, though, and before long the boy has made him and mugger army his latest chew toys…

Trouble of a different nature materialises at school when well-intentioned teacher Mr. Gleeson encourages the budding journalist and makes Farmer the preferred target of psychotic bully Barry Towler. Fighting back, Billy momentarily loses control before calming down, but the real damage is to his printing gear. With his pride and joy seemingly finished, the desperate boy approaches his employer Clegg, who cruelly offers to print the magazine for him if Billy can get a photo of the legendary ghost haunting the derelict Regal Cinema.

The editor thinks it a tremendous joke, but he’s underestimated the mettle of his victim…

Diligently researching, Billy learns the spook is reputedly old projectionist Lurcher Creel, who perished on the night before the fleapit closed for good. Strange visions have been seen ever since, but oddly, new owner Mr. Miller is violently opposed to letting the kid take a peek inside, for reasons which become blindingly obvious and increasingly deadly when the enigmatic leopard man starts sniffing round…

Enthrallingly scripted by British comics superstar Tom Tully (Roy of the Rovers; Heros the Spartan; Janus Stark; Mytek the Mighty; Adam Eterno; Johnny Red; Harlem Heroes and many of the strips cited above) these tales are magnificently illustrated.

Working collaboratively British comics royalty Mike Western (Lucky Logan; No Hiding Place; The Avenger; Biggles; The Wild Wonders; Darkie’s Mob; The Sarge; HMS Nightshade; Jack O’Justice; Billy’s Boots; Roy of the Rovers) shared pencilling and inking with mood master Eric Bradbury (Mytek the Mighty; Maxwell Hawke; Cursitor Doom; Von Hoffman’s Invasion; House of Dolmann; Death Squad; Hook Jaw; Doomlord; Rogue Trooper; Invasion; Mean Arena; Tharg the Mighty and more) to craft a pre-modern masterwork affording a fascinating insight into the slant a different culture can bring to as genre.

The concept of a “real-life” superhero has never been more clearly and cleverly explored than in these low-key tales of the cat kid who survives not supervillains but a hard-knock life…
The Leopard from Lime Street ™ & © 1977, 1978, 2019, Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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Suicide Squad: The Silver Age


By Robert Kanigher, Howard Liss, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6343-0 (HB) 978-1 4012 7516 7 (TPB)

The War that Time Forgot was a strange series which saw paratroopers and tanks of the “Question Mark Patrol” dropped on Mystery Island from whence no American soldiers ever returned. Assorted crack GIs discovered why when the operation was suddenly overrun by pterosaurs, tyrannosaurs and worse…

However, the combat-&-carnosaur creation was actually a spin-off of an earlier concept which hadn’t quite caught on with the comics-buying public. That wasn’t a problem for Writer/Editor Kanigher: a man well-versed in judicious recycling and reinvention…

Back in 1955 he had devised and written anthology adventure comic The Brave and the Bold which featured short complete tales starring a variety of period heroes: a format mirroring that era’s filmic fascination with historical dramas.

Issue #1 led with Roman swords-&-sandals epic Golden Gladiator, medieval mystery-man The Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’ Viking Prince. Soon the Gladiator was side-lined by the company’s iteration of Robin Hood, but the high adventure theme carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning superhero revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle in the manner of the astounding successful Showcase. Used to launch enterprising concepts and characters such as Cave Carson, Strange Sports Stories, Hawkman and the epochal Justice League of America, the title began test runs s with #25 (August/September 1959) with the fate-tempting Suicide Squad – code-named Task Force X by the US government to investigate uncanny mysteries and tackle unnatural threats.

The scary tales were all illustrated by Kanigher’s go-to team for fantastic fantasy (Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) and they clearly revelled at the chance to cut loose and show what they could do outside the staid whimsy of Wonder Woman or gritty realism of the war titles they usually handled…

The Brave and the Bold #25 introduced a quartet of merely human specialists – air ace war hero Colonel Rick Flag, combat medic Karin Grace and big-brained boffins Hugh Evans and Jess Price – all officially convened into a unit whose purpose was to tackle threats beyond conventional comprehension such as the interstellar phenomenon dubbed ‘The Three Waves of Doom!’

The quartet were built on a very shaky premise. All three men loved Karin. She only loved Rick (who wouldn’t?), but agreed to conceal her inclinations and sublimate her passions so Hugh and Jess would stay on the team of scientific death-cheaters…

In their first published exploit, a cloud from outer space impacted Earth and created a super-heated tsunami which threated to broil America. With dashing derring-do, the troubleshooters quenched the ambulatory heat wave only to have it spawn a colossal alien dragon emanating super-cold rays that might trigger a new ice age…

The only solution was to banish the beast back into space on a handy rocket headed for the sun, but tragically, the ship had to be piloted…

Having heroically ended the invader, the team were back two months later as B&B #26 opened with an immediate continuation. ‘The Sun Curse’ saw our stranded astronauts struggling – in scenes eerily prescient and reminiscent of the Apollo 13 crisis a decade later – to return their ship to Earth. Uncannily, the trip bathes them in radiation which causes them to shrink to insect size…

Back on terra firma but now imperilled by everything around them, the team nonetheless manages to scuttle a proposed attack by a hostile totalitarian nation before regaining their regular stature…

A second, shorter tale finds the quartet enjoying some downtime in Paris before the Metro is wrecked by an awakened dinosaur. Of course, our tough tourists are ready and able to stop the ‘Serpent in the Subway!’

In an entertainment era dominated by monsters and aliens, with superheroes still only tentatively resurfacing, Task Force X were at the forefront of beastie-battles. Their third and final try-out issue found them facing evolutionary nightmare as a scientist vanished and the region around his lab was suddenly besieged by gigantic insects and a colossal reptilian humanoid the team dubbed ‘The Creature of Ghost Lake!’ (December 1959/January 1960). They readily destroyed the monster but never found the professor…

A rare failure for those excitingly experimental days, the Suicide Squad vanished after that triple try-out run, only to resurface months later for a second bite of the cherry. The Brave and the Bold #37 (August/September 1961) opened with Karin displaying heretofore unsuspected psychic gifts and predicting an alien ‘Raid of the Dinosaurs!’ which pitted the group against hyper-intelligent saurians whilst ‘Threat of the Giant Eye!’ focussed on the retrieval of a downed military plane and lost super-weapon. That mission brought the Squad to an island of mythological mien where a living monocular monolith hunted people…

In #38 (October/November 1961) the team tackled the ‘Master of the Dinosaurs’ – an alien using Pteranodons to hunt like an Earthling employs falcons – after which the fabulous four fell afoul of extra-dimensional would-be conquerors but still had enough presence of mind and determination to defeat the ‘Menace of the Mirage People!’

B&B #39 (December 1961/January 1962) called “time!” on Task Force X after ‘Prisoners of the Dinosaur Zoo!’ saw the team uncover an ancient extraterrestrial ark caching antediluvian flora and fauna, and a ‘Rain of Fire!’ found them crushing a macabre criminal entombing crime-busters in liquid metal. That was it for the Squad until 1986 when a new iteration of the concept was launched in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Or was it? Superhero fans are notoriously clannish and insular so they might not have noticed how one creative powerhouse refused to take “no thanks” for an answer…

Robert Kanigher (1915-2002) was one of the most distinctive authorial voices in American comics, blending rugged realism with fantastic fantasy in his signature war comics, westerns, horror stories, superhero titles such as Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Teen Titans, Hawkman, Metal Men, Batman and other genres too numerous to cover here. He also scripted ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’ – the very first story of the Silver Age. This introduced Barry Allen AKA the Flash to hero-hungry kids in 1956.

Kanigher sold his first stories and poetry in 1932 and wrote for the theatre, film and radio before joining the Fox Features shop where he created The Bouncer, Steel Sterling and The Web whilst also providing scripts for Blue Beetle and the original Captain Marvel.

In 1945, he settled at All-American Comics as both writer and editor, staying on when the company amalgamated with National Comics to become the forerunner of today’s DC. He wrote the original Flash and Hawkman, created Black Canary and Lady Cop, plus many memorable villainous femme fatales like Harlequin and Rose and Thorn. This last he reconstructed during the relevancy era of the early 1970s into a schizophrenic crime-busting female superhero.

When mystery-men faded out at the end of the 1940s, Kanigher easily switched to espionage, adventure, westerns and war stories, becoming in 1952 writer/editor of the company’s combat titles: All-American War Stories, Star Spangled War Stories and Our Amy at War.

He created Our Fighting Forces in 1954 and added G.I. Combat to his burgeoning portfolio when Quality Comics sold their line of titles to DC in 1956, all the while helming Wonder Woman, Johnny Thunder, Rex the Wonder Dog, Silent Knight, Sea Devils, The Viking Prince and a host of others.

Among his numerous game-changing war series were Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, the Haunted Tank and The Losers as well as the visually addictive, irresistibly astonishing “Dogfaces and Dinosaurs” dramas sampled and filling out the back of this stunning collection…

Kanigher was a restlessly creative writer and even used the uncanny but formulaic adventure arena of The War that Time Forgot as a personal laboratory for his series concepts. The Flying Boots, G.I. Robot and many other teams and characters first appeared in the manic Pacific hellhole with wall-to-wall danger. Indisputably the big beasts were the stars, but occasionally (extra)ordinary G.I .Joes made enough of an impression to secure return engagements, too…

The War that Time Forgot debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #90 (April-May 1960), running until #137 (May 1968). It skipped only three issues: #91, 93 and #126 (the last of which starred the United States Marine Corps simian Sergeant Gorilla – look it up: I’m neither kidding nor being metaphorical…).

Simply too good a concept to ignore, this seamless, shameless blend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Caprona stories – known alternatively as the Caspak Trilogy or The Land That Time Forgot – provided everything baby-boomer boys could dream of: giant lizards, humongous insects, fantastic adventures and two-fisted heroes with lots of guns. The only thing mostly missing was cave-girls in fur bikinis…

In the summer of 1963, a fresh Suicide Squad debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #110 to investigate a ‘Tunnel of Terror’ into the lost land of giant monsters: this time though, a giant albino gorilla decided that us mammals should stick together…

The huge hairy beast was also the star of ‘Return of the Dinosaur Killer!’ in #111 as the unnamed Squad leader and a wily boffin (visually based on Kanigher’s office associate Julie Schwartz) struggled to survive on a reptile-ridden tropical atoll…

SSWS #116 (August/September 1964) depicted a duo of dedicated soldiers facing ice-bound beasts in ‘The Suicide Squad!’ – the big difference being that Morgan and Mace were more determined to kill each other than accomplish their mission…

‘Medal for a Dinosaur!’ in #117 bowed to the inevitable: introducing a (relatively) friendly and extremely cute baby pterodactyl to balance out Mace & Morgan’s barely suppressed animosity, after which ‘The Plane-Eater!’ in #118 saw the army odd couple adrift in the Pacific and in deep danger until the leather-winged little guy turned up once more…

The Suicide Squad were getting equal billing by the time of #119’s ‘Gun Duel on Dinosaur Hill!’ (February/March 1965), as yet another band of men-without-hope battled saurian horrors – and each other – to the death, after which seemingly unkillable Morgan & Mace returned with Dino, the flying ptero-tot, who found a new companion in handy hominid Caveboy before the whole unlikely ensemble struggled to survive against increasingly outlandish creatures in ‘The Tank Eater!’…

Issue #121 presented a diving drama when a UDT (Underwater Demolitions Team) frogman won his Suicide Squad rep as a formidable fighter and ‘The Killer of Dinosaur Alley!’ Increasingly now, G.I. hardware and ordnance trumped bulk, fang and claw…

Undisputed master of gritty fantasy art Joe Kubert added his pencil-and-brush magic to a tense, manic thriller featuring the return of the G.I. Robot in stunning battle bonanza ‘Titbit for a Tyrannosaurus!’ in #125 (February/March 1965), after which Andru & Esposito covered another Suicide Squad sea-saga in #127: ‘The Monster Who Sank a Navy!’

This eclectic collection tumultuously terminates in scripter Howard Liss and visual veteran Gene Colan’s masterfully crafted, moving human drama from #128 which was astoundingly improved by the inclusion of ravening reptiles in ‘The Million Dollar Medal!’

Throughout this calamitous compilation of dark dilemmas, light-hearted romps and battle blockbusters, the emphasis is always on foibles and fallibility; with human heroes unable to put aside grudges, swallow pride or forgive trespasses even amidst the strangest and most terrifying moments of their lives. This edgy humanity informs and elevates even the daftest of these wonderfully imaginative adventure yarns.

Classy, intense, insanely addictive and Just Plain Fun, the original Suicide Squad offers a kind of easy, no-commitment entertainment seldom seen these days and is a deliciously guilty pleasure for one and all. Surely, this is a movie we would all watch…
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Cyclops volume 2: A Pirate’s Life for Me


By John Layman, Javier Garrón, Chris Sotomayor, & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9076-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

When mutant genius Henry McCoy learned he was dying, he used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to give his life meaning. Seeking to prevent an inter-species war, he brought the young, naïve X-Men of his own youth into the future to reason with his radicalised former comrade Scott Summers, praying the still idealistic and hopeful teens could divert Mutant Enemy Terrorist No. 1 from his path of doctrinaire madness…

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than shocking modern day Cyclops back to his senses, the confrontation hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve. Moreover, after McCoy the younger somehow cured his older self, he and the rest of the X-Kids were trapped in their own future and began gradually defecting to the fundamentalist team…

Eventually, the temporally-misplaced First Class ended up living with the elder Cyclops’ crew, but everything changed after Gladiator of the Shi’ar realised Jean Grey AKA Marvel Girl – and future host of the cosmic force known as the Phoenix – was back. The alien emperor rashly attempted to abduct and execute her for the crimes of her older self, but his insane pre-emptive punishment plan was foiled by an assembly of X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy and intergalactic buccaneers Hepzibah, Ch’od, Raza Longknife, Korvus and insectoid medical wizard Sikorsky – collectively known as The Starjammers.

During the sideral shenanigans, 16-year-old Scott met his long-believed-dead dad. Now going by Corsair and undisputed leader of the cosmic privateers, Christopher Summers invited his boy to stay behind when the mutant heroes returned to Earth…

Enduring and barely surviving a steep learning curve to become a full-blooded galactic buccaneer whilst forging bonds of comradeship with the exotic crew, Scott eventually takes off with his dad for some true father-son time only to discover Corsair’s darkest secret whilst being marooned on a desolate planetoid.

Facing slow death, Cyclops devises a way off but it’s possibly worse than being eaten by the mudball world’s predatory lifeforms…

Scripted by John Layman, illustrated by Javier Garrón and coloured by Chris Sotomayor, this compendium collects issues #6-12 of Cyclops: (December 2014-June 2015), following the chronal castaway into emotional typhoons and universe-shredding crises before making safe harbour back on Earth…

It begins with the Summers family back aboard the Starjammer with the kid geekily seeking to impress his crewmates. His eagerness leads to disaster and the ship’s ambush by master star pirate Captain Malafect of the mighty vessel Desolation. Outgunned, outnumbered and seemingly helpless, Corsair savagely turns on his son, beating and denouncing him…

When the triumphant villain maroons the Starjammers to die a slow death in a lifepod, he keeps Scott as his newest recruit and Corsair just so’s he can torment and torture his old shipmate…

Soon the kid is learning the darkest sides of space pillaging, and it’s all he can do to keep the bodycount low. His squeamishness and eagerness to please doesn’t initially endear him to his new shipmates either, but he gradually befriends some of them. Pretending to torture Corsair helps his standing but the real turnabout comes after Captain’s daughter Vileena decides she really likes the “Pirate Boy”…

The X-Man Cyclops was regarded as one of the most brilliant tacticians ever born and now his timeslipped junior self proves that gift came early as the complex long game he initiated when the Starjammer was first taken begins to pay off.

As his marooned former shipmates are picked up by slavers, he leads a (relatively bloodless) raid and acquires a Shi’ar super-weapon dubbed a “starcracker”, endearing him further to Malefect and Vileena whilst losing forever the leader of the crew faction intent on killing him…

Riding high in the buccaneer’s regard, Scott leads an away mission whilst the Captain seeks to sell the ultimate weapon leading to the liberation of his father and an all-out war that pits his new friends against his old crew. In the end, it can only end in disaster and tragedy…

Rightly, the tale should end here, but also included is the final issue which was the tenth instalment of publishing event Black Vortex (Cyclops #12; June 2015). The story detailed how many of Marvel’s space-based heroes and villains became embroiled in the quest to possess a cosmic mirror that bestowed infinite power on any who used it.  Prior to this chapter, Scott reunited with his X-Men as a mystery opponent named Mr. Knife out-manoeuvred the Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, Captain Marvel and many more…

Now reunited with his school chums and on the run again Scott sacrifices himself – as do Iceman and Groot – to the Black Vortex, hoping the resultant power-hike will help their friends before ultimately corrupting them…

Unfortunately, readers won’t learn the answer here, as we conclude with a feature on Garrón & Sotomayor’s process for turning drawings into full colour art , leaving us to the seas of fate and another collection for answers and culmination…

With covers & variants gallery by Alexander Lozano and Andrea Sorrentino, this is – despite my cavils and quibbles – a thrilling, heart-warming, funny and astoundingly action-packed romp. Cyclops: A Pirate’s Life For Me combines cosmic intrigue and dashing derring-do with solid characterisation and wild blue yonder wonderment, and will delight any fan of cosmically light-hearted Marvel Movies like Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor: Love and Thunder. What more could any wide-eyed, entertainment-starved child of the wondering stars want?
© 2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. 2021 MARVEL

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Mighty Samson Archives volume one


By Otto Binder & Frank Thorne & various (Dark Horse Comics) 
ISBN: 978-1-59582-579-7 (HB) 

These days all the attention in comics circles goes to big-hitters and headline-grabbing ground-breakers, but once upon a time, when funnybooks were cheap as well as plentiful, a kid (whatever their age) could afford to follow the pack and still find time and room to enjoy quirky outliers: B through Z listers, oddly off-kilter concepts and champions far falling outside the accepted parameters of standard super-types… 

A classic example of that exuberant freedom of expression was the relatively angst-free dystopian tomorrow of Mighty Samson, who had a sporadic yet extended comics career of 32 issues spanning 1964 to 1982. 

Although set in the aftermath of an atomic Armageddon, the story of the survivors was a blend of updated myth, pioneer adventure and superhero shtick, liberally leavened with variations of the incredible creatures and sci fi monsters the industry thrived on back then. 

Comics colossus Dell/Gold Key/Whitman had one of the most complicated publishing set-ups in history, but that didn’t matter one iota to kids of all ages who consumed their vastly varied product. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, Whitman had been a crucial component of monolithic Western Publishing and Lithography Company since 1915: drawing upon huge commercial resources and industry connections that came with editorial offices on both coasts. They even boasted a subsidiary printing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York. 

Another connection was with fellow Western subsidiary K.K. Publications (named for licensing legend Kay Kamen who facilitated extremely lucrative “license to print money” merchandising deals for Walt Disney Studios between 1933 and 1949). From 1938, the affiliated companies’ comic book output was released under a partnership deal with a “pulps” periodical publisher under the umbrella imprint Dell Comics – and again those creative staff and commercial contacts fed into the line-up of the Big Little, Little Golden and Golden Press books for younger children. This partnership ended in 1962 and Western had to swiftly reinvent its comics division as Gold Key. 

Western Publishing had been a major player since comics’ earliest days, blending a huge tranche of licensed titles including newspaper strips, TV tie-in and Disney titles (like Nancy and Sluggo, Tarzan and The Lone Ranger) with in-house originations such as Turok, Son of Stone, Brain Boy and Kona: Monarch of Monster Isle. 

Dell and Western split just as a comic book resurgence triggered a host of new titles and companies, and a superhero boom. Independent of Dell, new outfit Gold Key launched original adventure titles including Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom; Magnus – Robot Fighter; M.A.R.S. Patrol – Total War; Space Family Robinson and many more. 

As a publisher, Gold Key never really “got” the melodramatic, frequently mock-heroic Sturm und Drang of the 1960s superhero boom – although for many of us, the understated functionality of classics like Magnus and Doctor Solar or the crime-fighting iterations of classic movie monsters Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolf were utterly irresistible. The sheer off-the-wall lunacy of features like Neutro or Dr. Spektor I will reserve for a future occasion… 

This superb first full-colour hardback compilation – printed on a reassuringly sturdy and comforting grainy old-school pulp stock rather than glossy paper – gathers the first half dozen issues of Mighty Samson, as anonymously created by industry giants Otto Binder & Frank Thorne. It even includes some monochrome single-page fact-features and the mesmerising painted covers by unsung master illustrators Morris Gollub and George Wilson. 

These covers were reproduced text-free on the back of each issue and probably graced many a kid’s bedroom wall way back when. You get those too, but I’d suggest scanners rather than scissors this time around… 

Otto Binder was a quintessential jobbing writer. He and his brother Earl were early fans of science fiction, making their first professional sale to Amazing Stories in 1930. As “Eando Binder” their pulp-fiction and novels output continued well into the 1970s, with Otto rightly famed for his creation of primal robotic hero Adam Link. 

From 1939 onwards, Otto was also a prolific comic book scripter, most beloved and revered for the invention and perfection of a humorous blend of spectacular action, self-deprecating humour and gentle whimsy as characterised by the Fawcett Captain Marvel line of titles (and later in DC’s Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen). Binder was also constantly employed by many other publishers and amongst his most memorable inventions and innovations are Timely’s Young Allies, Mr. Mind, Brainiac, Krypto the Super Dog and the Legion of Super-Heroes.  

In his later life, he moved into editing, producing factual science books and writing for NASA. 

Frank Thorne was one of the most individualistic talents in American comics. Born in 1930, he began his comics career drawing romance stories for Standard Comics beside the legendary Alex Toth before graduating to better-paid newspaper strips, such as Perry Mason for King Features Syndicate. For Dell/Gold Key he drew comic book classics Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim and The Green Hornet, as well as the first few years of this seminal sci-fi classic. 

For DC he did compelling work on Tomahawk and Son of Tomahawk before being hired by Roy Thomas at Marvel to illustrate his belated breakthrough strip Red Sonja. Forever-after connected with feisty, earthy, highly sexualised women, in 1978 Thorne created outrageously bawdy (some say vulgar) swordswoman Ghita of Alizarr for Warren’s adult science fantasy anthology 1984/1994 as well as such adult satirical strips as Moonshine McJugs for Playboy and Danger Rangerette for National Lampoon.  

Thorne eventually won the National Cartoonists Award for comic books, an Inkpot Award and a Playboy Editorial Award, but was still a fairly by-the-book illustrator at the time of this collection’s content. In fact, it was on Mighty Samson that he opened up and found his own unique artistic vision: one which would carry him to the forefront of stylists with the satirical and erotic works of his later years. 

That’s meat for other reviews, but here the creators combine to craft a beguiling otherworld of action, adventure and drama suitable for most kids of all ages and a milieu which would be perfectly at home today on any Kids channel… 

The strip, its merits and the incredible careers of its originators are fully and lovingly discussed by Dylan Williams in his Foreword ‘The Mighty Samson Comics of Frank Thorne and Otto Binder’, and there are full ‘Creator Biographies’ at the end of the book, but what really matters is the sublime yarns reprinted between those points: no-nonsense, high-fantasy yarns at once self-contained, episodic, exciting, enticing and deceptively witty. 

Following the first magnetic painted cover from Gollub, the eponymous ‘Mighty Samson’ (#1, July 1964) introduces the bombed out former metropolis of N’Yark: a dismal dangerous region where human primitives cling to the ruins, striving daily against mutated plants and monsters and less easily identified blends somewhere in between… 

A remarkable occurrence begins one day when a toddler is grabbed by a predatory plant and casually tears the terror apart with his podgy little hands. Years pass and the child grows tall and clean-limbed, and it’s clear that he too is a mutant: immensely strong, fast and durable… 

Impassioned by his mother’s dying words – “protect the weak from the powerful, the good from the evil” – Samson becomes the champion of his people, battling the beasts and monsters imperilling the city. Sadly, these struggles are not without cost, such as when he kills the immense Liobear, but loses his right eye in the struggle… 

The clash proves a turning point in his life as his terrible wounds are dressed by a stranger named Sharmaine. She and her father Mindor are voluntary outcasts in the city: shunning contact with superstitious tribes whilst gathering lost secrets of science.  

They are striving to bring humanity out of its second stone age and, fired with inspiration, Samson agrees to join in their self-appointed mission: defending them from all threats as they carry out their work. 

There were generally two complete adventures per issue, and the quest continues in ‘Ancient Weapon’ as the trio’s scavenging leads them through a gauntlet of horrendous mutant monsters to an ancient armoury where sagacious Mindor deciphers the secrets of sticks which kill from a distance. Unfortunately, the discovery is observed by brutal warlord Kull the Killer who takes Sharmaine hostage to seize control of the rediscovered death-technology. Thankfully, the tyrant and his warriors never suspect Samson is as clever as he is strong… 

It was nearly a year until a second issue was released (#2, June 1965), but when it finally arrived it was at full throttle. ‘The Riddle of the Raids’ sees the wandering science nomads buzzed by a flying saucer which proves to be the vehicle of choice of a new arch foe. Terra is an exotic mystery woman possessing many lost technological secrets who has emerged after years underground in a bunker from the old world. Her store of atomic batteries finally exhausted, she begins raiding across the toxic, monster-infested Huzon River from the wastelands of Jerz, and quickly recruits Kull to her cause. However, even working in unison they are no match for Mighty Samson and once he drives them off, aged Mindor is able to add greatly to mankind’s store of recovered knowledge… 

Intent on uncovering the truth about ‘The Maid of Mystery’, Samson makes the perilous excursion across the devastated George Washington Bridge to invade Terra’s subterranean fortress in Jerz. Although faced with Kull’s monstrous minions and captured, the one-eyed hero soon escapes, but not before making a lasting impression on the evil empress of forgotten lore… 

More lost secrets emerge in #3 (September 1965) after the atomic archaeologists unearth ‘Peril from the Past’. Dr. John Pitt was working in an atomic bunker when the civilisation ended, somehow falling into suspended animation before being revived by jubilant Mindor. 

Determined to glean everything possible from the shaken survivor, his hopes are continually dashed as a geological accident in an old chemical factory threatens N’Yark with toxic clouds of radioactive poison. However, as the reawakened chemist works with his rescuers to end the threat, Sharmaine suspects the old-worlder is hiding something… 

The tragic truth about Pitt comes out as he and Samson begin ‘The Desperate Mission’ to snuff out the source of the death cloud, but it is only a prelude to a greater, final loss… 

With Mighty Samson #4 (December 1965), the turbulent world of tomorrow expanded exponentially as N’Yark endured raids by post-apocalyptic Vikings from pastoral paradise Greelynd. Barbaric despot Thorr leads ‘The Metal Stealers’ in stripping the ruins of all its scrap alloys; sailing them to a distant Nordic castle where he has rediscovered the processes of smelting and forging. 

Samson doggedly tracks him across unknown oceans, not just because he has stolen the city’s heritage and vital resources, but also because the reaver kidnapped Sharmaine and seemingly turned Mindor’s head with promises of technological resources and total freedom to experiment… 

Of course, all is not as it seems and when Samson invades Thorr’s ‘Sinister Stronghold’ to battle the tyrant’s legion of monsters, idealistic Mindor’s seeming compliance is revealed as a clever scheme to defeat the resource raider… 

Returned to their shattered home, the allies are helpless against the mounting radioactive peril of ‘The Death Geysers’ (#5, March 1966) erupting from beneath the city. With large portions of N’Yark now no-go areas, hope apparently materialises in the form of Vaxar: a newcomer versed in science, whom Samson rescues from a voracious “Gulping Blob”. The stranger eagerly joins their efforts to neutralise the geyser menace, but the researcher’s every invention is countered by monstrous, bestial mutant Oggar who is every inch Samson’s physical equal… 

Once again, clear-headed Sharmaine is the one who deduces the truth about ‘The Double Enemy’ in their midst and, as Vaxar’s terrible secret is exposed, awesome natural forces combine with a most terrifying artefact of recovered weaponry to end the threat of both Oggar and the geysers… 

These utterly accessible, exultant and exuberant romps conclude in this volume with a sop to the then-escalating “space race” between Russia and the USA. Issue #6 (June 1966) opens with N’Yark bombarded by ‘The Sinister Satellites’ of a forgotten era, haphazardly crashing to earth around the city. Consulting his preciously-hoarded records, Mindor ascertains they are lost technology he simply must possess, but finds himself in deadly contention with Terra of Jerz for the fallen stars. 

None too soon, suspicious Samson and Sharmaine discover the evil queen of science is actually pulling the satellites out of the skies with a magnetic cannon, but as they move to stop her, an unintended consequence of her meddling unleashes ‘The Monster from Space’ growing uncontrollably and soon set to devour the entire continent should Mighty Samson not find some way to kill it… 

This excellent tome has one last treat in store, as a brace of monochrome pictorial fact features – also illustrated by Thorne – reveal a few salient facts about the iconic Empire State Building in ‘The Mighty Tower’ and ‘The World’s Tallest’, both originally produced as frontispieces for the advert-free original comic books. 

Bizarre, action-packed and fabulously bombastic, Binder’s modern myth of a rationalist Hercules battling atom-spawned Titans and devils is a stunning spectacle of thrill-a-minute wonderment from start to finish, with artist Thorne visibly shaking off his artistic chains on every succeeding page. These tales are lost gems from an era when fun was paramount and entertainment a mandatory requirement. This is comics the way they were and really should be again… 
Mighty Samson ® Volume One ™ & © 2010 Random House, Inc. Under license to Classic Media LCC. All rights reserved. All other material, unless otherwise specified, © 2010 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved

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Doctor Who Graphic Novel volume 3: The Tides of Time


By Steve Parkhouse, Dave Gibbons, Dez Skinn, Paul Neary, Mick Austin, Steve Dillon & various (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-904159-92-6 (Album TPB)

The British love comic strips and they love celebrity and they love “Characters.” The history of our homegrown graphic narrative has a peculiarly disproportionate number of comedians (stage, screen and radio), Variety stars, general celluloid icons and all manner of television actors both in and out of character. This includes such disparate legends as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Askey, Flanagan & Allen, Shirley Eaton (“The Modern Miss”), Max Bygraves, Jimmy Edwards, Charlie Drake, and so many more; all dead and mostly forgotten.

As much adored and adapted were actual shows and properties like Whacko!, ITMA, Our Gang (a British version of Hal Roach’s film sensation by Dudley Watkins ran in The Dandy as well as the American comicbook series by Walt Kelly), Old Mother Riley, Andy Pandy Muffin the Mule, Supercar, Thunderbirds, Pinky and Perky, The Clangers and more.

Hugely popular anthology comics like Radio Fun, Film Fun, TV Fun, TV Tornado, Look-In, TV Comic and Countdown translated our viewing and listening favourites into pictorial joy every week, and it was a pretty poor star or show that couldn’t parley the day job into a licensed comic property…

Doctor Who premiered on black-&-white televisions across Britain on November 23rd 1963 with the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ and in 1964 a decades-long association with TV Comic began: issue #674 offered the premier instalment of ‘The Klepton Parasites’…

On 11th October 1979 (although adhering to the US off-sale cover-dating system so it says 17th), Marvel’s UK subsidiary launched Doctor Who Weekly. It regenerated into a monthly magazine in September 1980 (#44) and has been with us – under various names and guises – ever since. proving that the Time Lord is a comic hero with an impressive pedigree.

Panini’s UK division (formerly Marvel UK until 1995) endeavoured to collect every strip from its tenure as publisher into a compete archive in a uniform series of oversized graphic albums, each concentrating on a particular incarnation of the deathless wanderer. This particular tome was first released in 2005, collecting strips from Doctor Who Monthly #61-83 and #86-87 plus a bonus story from Doctor Who Weekly #17-18 spanning February 1982 to April 1984 and featuring the complete comics oeuvre of the “Fifth Doctor” as played by Peter Davidson.

With Steve Parkhouse scripting and increasingly in-demand Dave Gibbons still illustrating – albeit not for much longer as America called and global stardom beckoned – ‘The Tides of Time’ opens proceedings with a spectacular epic pulling together threads from previous strip exploits, as multiversal control mechanism The Event Synthesizer is compromised and its attendant guardian The Prime Mover assaulted and ousted by demonic intruder Melanicus.

Built to harmonise the flow of time into a single logical sequence, under the demon’s control the device begins randomising time and wrecking reality…

Meanwhile on Earth in the putative Now, a certain wandering Gallifreyan steps out to bat on a warm afternoon in a village cricket match.

Play suddenly stops when the ball turns into a live grenade halfway to the wicket! Total chaos ensues and the Doctor investigates, incidentally befriending and dragging along displaced medieval knight Sir Justin when irresistibly summoned to a conclave of “higher evolutionaries”: advanced beings such as Gallifrey’s original Master of Time Rassilon, and other sublime and elevated members of the Celestial Intervention Agency who despatch him to deal with the salvo of time-warps Melanicus has unleashed to unmake existence.

Aided – at first unknowingly – by Rassilon’s secondary agent Shayde (a complex program given form to match his function), The Doctor and Justin travel beyond time and reality to encounter bizarre and fantastic things before finally ending the demon’s reign of chaos…

In the aftermath as existence resets itself The Doctor returns to his cricket match and a waiting game…

Doctor Who Monthly #68-69 featured Gibbons’ final work on the feature as seeming standalone tale ‘Stars Fell on Stockbridge’ laid the groundwork for the rest of this Gallifreyan incarnation’s tenure whilst introducing local UFO nut and fantasist skywatcher Maxwell Edison who stumbles across a true alien and shares his TARDIS on the voyage of a lifetime.

Sadly, it intersects with an incredible ancient starship and awakens something incomprehensible before breaking up and raining down as fireworks over the sleepy British town…

Parkhouse pencilled the opening episodes of ‘The Stockbridge Horror’ in #70-75 before his inker Paul Neary was joined by Mick Austin for a dazzling mystery that opened when the local quarry blasted open a sheet of rock five hundred million years old to find a perfect fossilised impression of an old police box…

News of it ruined The Doctor’s breakfast in Stockbridge and precipitated a chase across creation: uncovering the horrifying fact that his TARDIS was increasingly rebellious and dysfunctional due to having been possessed and parasitized. It took a voyage across, between and beyond universes and a total rebuild to fix the problem and demanded a supreme sacrifice from Shayde…

It also brought the wanderer to the attention of Gallifrey’s shamefully opportunistic Military and caused another show trial of the Time Lord before honour could be restored and the parasite – which had gone on to shape all human history – was dealt suitably with. All that was left was to institute a cover-up on Earth, but the Time Lords were to slow and not thorough enough and some details remained in the hands of the UK’s S.A.G.3 unit: a covert squad of super-powered intelligence operatives…

In dire need of a vacation, the Doctor goes fishing in the tropics, but his downtime at the ‘Lunar Lagoon’ in #76-77 (all art by Austin) is marred when he’s captured by a Japanese soldier who doesn’t realise the war has ended. As he gradually befriends confused hold-out Fuji, his gentle therapy is short-circuited by an America warplane strafing the TARDIS before being shot down by Japanese planes!

Due to the Gallifreyan’s misguided interference, confusion follows tragedy as the American flier kills Fuji leading into epic follow-up serial ‘4-Dimensional Vistas’ (DWM #78-83) as the pilot reveals that the date is 1963 and the war never ended. In shock, The Doctor realises he has been on an alternate Earth since the Time Lords released him and offers Angus “Gus” Goodman a chance to escape the conflict forever…

After travelling back to a point when the world was still roiling stardust, the Doctor finally finds “his” Earth, in time to finish the secret mission that first found him playing a waiting game in Stockbridge. In the Arctic, another airliner is brought down and its remnants added to a long-running secret project instigated by Martian Ice Warriors and a hidden ally. Using stolen Gallifreyan technology a traitor Time Lord has been creating an ultimate weapon for the military maniacs, but had not reckoned on a last-ditch assault by the super-agents of S.A.G.3, and more interference from old enemy The Doctor. Although ultimately successful, the brutal battle at the top of the world is only won at great cost…

An era ended and the tone lightened with ‘The Moderator’ in #86-87. Steve Dillon deftly added gritty action and sardonic mirth to the tale of an infallible hired killer commissioned to destroy The Doctor and secure his time vehicle for a new recurring villain…

Ultimate disaster capitalist Josiah W. Dogbolter was the richest man (humanoid frog actually) in creation and believed that Time was Money, further positing that if he had a machine to control time all the money would naturally follow. He was not happy when The Doctor couldn’t be bought…

This stunning, sterling trade paperback concludes with a short story by veteran British comics stalwart Paul Neary (from a plot by Dez Skinn) as an extragalactic chronovore invades the TARDIS, causing continuity to reverse itself and requiring the attention of all four Doctors (and K-9!) to counter the threat of ‘Timeslip’ (DWW #17-18: February 6th – 13th 1980).

Sheer effusive delight from start to finish, this is a splendid confection for casual readers, a fine shelf addition for dedicated fans of the show and a perfect opportunity to cross-promote our particular art-form to anyone minded to give comics another shot. The only thing that could improve it would be a digital edition…

All Doctor Who material © BBCtv. Doctor Who, the Tardis, Dalek word and device mark and all logos are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. Dalek device mark © BBC/Terry Nation 1963. All other material © its individual creators and owners. Published 2005 and 2014 by Panini. All rights reserved.