Category: Science Fiction

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Walt Disney’s Donald Duck by Carl Barks: volume 6 – The Old Castle’s Secret


By Carl Barks & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-653-9 (HB/Digital edition)

Donald Duck ranks among a number of fictional characters who have transcended the bounds of reality to become – like Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Popeye and James Bond -meta-real. As such, his origins are complex and convoluted. His official birthday is June 9th 1934: a dancing, nautically-themed bit-player in the Silly Symphony cartoon short The Wise Little Hen.

However, that date is based on the feature’s release, as announced by distributors United Artists and latterly acknowledged by the Walt Disney Company. Recent research reveals the piece was initially screened at Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles on May 3rd, part of a Benefit show. The Wise Little Hen officially premiered on June 7th at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, before the general release date was settled.

The animated cartoon was adapted by Ted Osborne & Al Taliaferro for the Silly Symphonies Sunday comic strip and thus classified by historians as Donald’s official debut in Disney comics. Controversially though, he was also reported to have originated in The Adventures of Mickey Mouse strip which began 1931. Thus the Duck has more “birthdays” than the Queen of England (plus the generally disUnited Kingdom and gradually diminishing Commonwealth) which probably explains why he’s such a bad-tempered old cuss.

Visually, Donald Fauntleroy Duck was largely the result of animator Dick Lundy’s efforts, and, with partner-in-fun Mickey Mouse, is one of TV Guide‘s 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time. The Duck has his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame and has appeared in more films than any other Disney player.

During the 1930s his screen career grew from background and supporting roles to a team act with Mickey and Goofy to a series of solo cartoons that began with 1937’s Don Donald, which also introduced love interest Daisy Duck and the nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey. By 1938 Donald was officially more popular than company icon Mickey Mouse, especially after his service as a propaganda warrior in a series of animated morale boosters and information features during WWII. The merely magnificent Der Fuehrer’s Face garnered the 1942 Academy Award (that’s an Oscar to you and me) for Animated Short Film…

Crucially for our purposes, Donald is also planet Earth’s most-published non-superhero comics character and has been blessed with some of the greatest writers and illustrators ever to punch a keyboard or pick up a pen or brush.

A publishing phenomenon and mega star across Europe – particularly Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland – Donald & Co have spawned countless original stories and characters. Sales are stratospheric there and in the more than 45 other countries they export to. Japanese manga publishers have their own iterations too…

The aforementioned Silly Symphonies adaptation and Mickey Mouse newspaper strip guest shots were trumped in 1937 when Italian publisher Mondadori launched an 18-page story by Federico Pedrocchi in comic book format. It was quickly followed by a regular serial in Britain’s Mickey Mouse Weekly. The comic was produced under license by Willbank Publications/Odhams Press and ran from 8th February 1936 to 28th December 1957.

In #67 (May 15th 1937) it launched Donald and Donna (a prototype Daisy Duck girlfriend), drawn by William A. Ward. Running for 15 weeks it was followed by Donald and Mac before ultimately settling on Donald Duck, and a fixture until the magazine folded. The comic inspired similar Disney-themed publication across Europe with Donald regularly appearing beside company mascot Mickey…

In the USA, a daily Donald Duck newspaper strip launched on February 2nd 1938, with a colour Sunday strip added in 1939. Writer Ted Karp joined Taliaferro in expanding the duck cast, adding a signature automobile, dog Bolivar, cousin Gus Goose, grandmother Elvira Coot and expanded the roles of both Donna and Daisy…

In 1942, his licensed comic books canon began with the October cover-dated Dell Four Color Comics Series II #9 as Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold: conceived by Homer Brightman & Harry Reeves, scripted by Karp and illustrated by Disney Studios employees Carl Barks & Jack Hannah. It was the moment everything changed…

Carl Barks was born in Merrill, Oregon in 1901, and raised in rural areas of the West during some of the leanest times in American history. He tried his hand at many jobs before settling into the profession that chose him. His early life is well-documented elsewhere if you need detail, but briefly, Barks was an animator before quitting in 1942 to work in the new-fangled field of comic books.

With studio partner Jack Hannah (another future strip illustrator) Barks adapted Karp’s rejected script for an animated cartoon short into Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold, and although not his first published comics work, it was the story that shaped the rest of his career.

From then until his official retirement in the mid-1960s, Barks operated in self-imposed seclusion: writing, drawing and devising a vast array of adventure comedies, gags, yarns and covers that gelled into a Duck Universe of memorable and highly bankable characters. These included Gladstone Gander (1948), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Magica De Spell (1961) and the nefarious Beagle Boys (1951) to supplement Disney’s stable of cartoon actors. His greatest creation was undoubtedly the crusty, energetic, paternalistic, money-mad giga-gazillionaire Scrooge McDuck: the World’s wealthiest winged nonagenarian.

Whilst producing all that landmark material Barks was also just a working guy, generating cover art, illustrating other people’s scripts when asked, and contributing stories to the burgeoning canon of Duck Lore. After Gladstone Publishing began re-packaging Barks material amongst other Disney strips in the 1980s, he discovered the well-earned appreciation he never imagined existed…

So potent were his creations that they inevitably fed back into Disney’s animation output itself, even though his brilliant comic work was done for Dell/Gold Key and not directly for the studio. The greatest tribute was undoubtedly the animated series Duck Tales: heavily based on his classic Uncle Scrooge tales.

Barks was a fan of wholesome action, unsolved mysteries and epics of exploration, and this led to him perfecting the art and technique of the blockbuster tale: blending wit, history, plucky bravado and sheer wide-eyed wonder into rollicking rollercoaster romps that utterly captivated readers of every age and vintage. Without the Barks expeditions there would never have been an Indiana Jones…

During his working life Barks was blissfully unaware that his work (uncredited by official policy, as was all Disney’s comics output) had been recognised by a rabid and discerning public as “the Good Duck Artist.” When some of his most dedicated fans finally tracked him down, a belated celebrity began.

In 2013, Fantagraphics Books began chronologically collecting Barks’ Duck stuff in wonderful, carefully curated archival volumes, tracing his output year-by-year in hardback tomes and digital editions that finally do justice to the quiet creator. These will eventually comprise the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. The physical copies are sturdy and luxurious albums – 193 x 261 mm – that would grace any bookshelf, with volume 6 re-presenting works from 1948 – albeit not in strict release order. I should also note that all the Four Color issues come from Series II of that mighty anthological vehicle and all cover are by Barks.

It begins eponymously with ‘The Old Castle’s Secret’ (FC #189, June 1948) as a crisis in the McDuck financial empire triggers a mission for Donald and the nephews: accompanying Scrooge to the ancestral pile in Scotland to search for millions in hidden treasure. Apparently the craggy citadel is haunted, but what they actually encounter is both more rationalistically dangerous and fantastically unbelievable…

Two single-page gags from the same issue follow, with ‘Bird Watching’ exposing the hidden perils of the hobby whilst superstition is painfully debunked in ‘Horseshoe Luck’ before ‘Wintertime Wager’ (Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #88, January) introduces annoying cousin Gladstone Gander. Amidst chilling winter snows, the miraculously lucky, smugly irksome oik invites himself over for Christmas and soon he and Donald are involved in an escalating set of ordeals that might cost the Duck his house. Thankfully, Daisy and the boys are there to solve the problem…

Gainful employment was a regular dilemma for Donald and February’s ‘Watching the Watchman’ (WDC&S #89) finds him taking a midnight-to-daybreak job at the docks, but pitifully unable to alter his sleep patterns. Once again, Huey, Louie and Dewey offer outrageous assistance but this time it’s the Duck’s inability to stay awake that foils a million dollar heist….

They’re actually Donald’s rivals in ‘Wired’ (WDC&S #90, March) when all seek big bucks as telegram messengers. Sadly, millionaires are not generally friendly, welcoming or prone to giving giant gratuities…

A dedicated social climber, Donald plans a garden party in WDC&S #91 (April), but his notion of fancy dress and family solidarity utterly anger the boys, who retaliate with manic mesmerism in ‘Going Ape’, after which March of Comics #20 finds butterfly-hunter Donald at war with avaricious lepidopterist Professor Argus McFiendy across two continents.

Donald’s sharp and ruthless tactics inspire onlooker Sir Gnatbugg-Mothley to fund a safari to ‘Darkest Africa’ in search of the rarest butterfly on Earth. The daunting quest for the Almostus Extinctus is frenetically fraught, astoundingly action-packed and fabulously fun-filled but please be aware that despite Barks’ careful research and diligent, sensitive storytelling some modern folk could be upset by his depictions of indigenous peoples in terms of the accepted style of those decades-distant times.

Nevertheless, the bombastic war ends with a delicious sting in the tail.

In case you were wondering: March of Comics releases were prestigious promotional giveaways tied to retail products and commercial clients like Sears, combining licensed characters from across Whitman/KK/Dell’s joint catalogue. The often enjoyed print runs topping 5 million copies per issue. Being a headliner for them was a low key editorial acknowledgement of a creator’s capabilities and franchise’s pulling power…

Back in the regular world, Donald’s eternal war of nerves with the kids boiled over in FC #189 (June) as ‘Bean Taken’ saw his obsessive side dominant in a guessing game, a single-pager, preceding another exploring the downside of sandlot baseball in ‘Sorry to Be Safe’ (FC #199, October) and standard 10-page romp ‘Spoil the Rod’ (WDC&S #92, May). Here passing do-gooder Professor Pulpheart Clabberhead seeks to stop Donald’s apparent abuse of Huey, Louie and Dewey – but only until he gets to know them…

Although the science fiction boom and flying saucer mania was barely beginning in 1948, Barks was an early advocate and ‘Rocket Race to the Moon’ (WDC&S #93, June) sees newspaper seller Donald suckered into piloting an experimental lunar exploration ship. Tragically, Professors Cosmic and Gamma seem more concerned with a large cash-prize contest than advancing science and rival rocketman Baron De Sleezy is a ruthless schemer, but no one – not even the stowaway nephews – were prepared for what lived on the moon…

Patriotism inspires our bellicose birdbrain to enlist as ‘Donald of the Coast Patrol’ (WDC&S #94, July) but it’s his innate gullibility and bad temper that helps him bag a bunch of spies before true wickedness rears its downy head as ‘Gladstone Returns’ (WDC&S #95, August).

The ghastly Gander was designed as a foil for Donald, intended to be even more obnoxious than the irascible, excitable film fowl.

This originally untitled tale reintroduces him as a big noxious noise every inch as blustery a blowhard as Donald but still lacking his seemingly supernatural super-luck talent. Here, both furiously boast and feud, trying to one-up each other in a series of scams that does neither any good… especially once the nephews and Daisy join the battle…

Arguably Barks’ first masterpiece, ‘Sheriff of Bullet Valley’ was the lead tale from Dell Four Color Comics #199, drawing much of its unflagging energy and trenchant whimsy from Barks’ own love of cowboy fiction – albeit seductively tempered with his self-deprecatory sense of absurdist humour. For example, a wanted poster on the jailhouse wall portrays the artist himself, offering the princely sum of $1000 and 50¢ for his inevitable capture.

Donald is – of course – a self-declared expert on the Wild West (he’s seen all the movies) so when he and the boys drive through scenic Bullet Valley, a wanted poster catches his eye and his imagination. Soon he’s signed up and sworn in as a doughty deputy, determined to catch rustlers plaguing the locals. Unfortunately for him, the good old days never really existed and today’s bandits use radios, trucks, tommy guns and ray machines to achieve their nefarious ends. Can Donald’s impetuous boldness and the nephews’ collective brains and ingenuity defeat the ruthless high-tech raiders?

Of course they can…

That same issue first saw a brace of short gags, beginning with ‘Best Laid Plans’ as Donald’s feigned illness earns him extra hard labour rather than a malingering day in bed and closing with ‘The Genuine Article’ wherein suspicions of an antiques provenance leads to disaster…

The lads plans to go fishing are scuppered – but not for too long – when Donald demands their caddying services in ‘Links Hijinks’ (WDC&S #96, September). It all really goes south once Gladstone horns in and Donald’s competitive spirit overwhelms everybody…

That tendency to overreact informs ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ (WDC&S #97, October) when the nephews find a small pearl in a locally-sourced oyster and big-dreaming Donald goes overboard in exploiting the” hidden millions” probably peppering the ocean floor, before we close with another mission for Uncle Scrooge.

To close a deal with British toff Lord Tweeksdale, McDuck must prove his family pedigree by excelling in the most “asinine, stupid, crazy, useless sport in the world”: fox hunting. Designating Donald his champion, the Downy Dodecadillionaire of Duckburg is thankfully unaware Huey, Louie and Dewey also consider themselves ‘Foxy Relations’ (WDC&S #98, November), injecting themselves covertly into proceedings with catastrophic repercussions…

The visual verve over, we move on to validation as ‘Story Notes’ offers commentary for each Duck tale and Donald Ault relates ‘Carl Barks: Life Among the Ducks’, before ‘Biographies’ explain why he and commentators Alberto Beccatini, R, Fiore, Craig Fischer, Jared Gardner, Leonardo Gori, Rich Kreiner, Ken Parille, Stefano Priarone, Francesco (“Frank”) Stajano and Mattias Wivel are saying all those nice and informative things.

We close with an examination of provenance as ‘Where Did These Duck Stories First Appear?’ explains the somewhat byzantine publishing schedules of Dell Comics.

Carl Barks was one of the greatest exponents of comic art the world has ever seen, and almost all his work featured Disney’s Duck characters: reaching and affecting untold millions of readers across the world and he all too belatedly won far-reaching recognition. You might be late to the party but it’s never too soon to climb aboard the Barks Express.
Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “The Old Castle’s Secret” © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All contents © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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Black Knight volume 1


By Kai Tsurugi (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-59816-522-7 (TPB)

So, it’s Pride Month and not all comics are about genocide or racial slaughter. Here’s a lost gem long overdue for another run in the sun – or at least a new English language revival on paper or in digital form…

Japan’s vast comics industry is formally sub-divided into discrete categories to avoid dithering and confusion. This is a fine historical example of a Yaoi story – a romanticised fantasy relationship drama starring beautiful young men in love. The genre was devised for female audiences: like Shounen-Ai (stories of two young men, but with more erotic content) although very mild – to the point of chaste gentility – by that standard.

As Kuro no Kishi, the serial first appeared from August 2003-October 2005 in Magazine Be x Boy, before filling 4 subsequent tankōbon tomes. These were translated via TokyoPop’s Blu Manga imprint and released between July 2006 and February 2009. There’s no English language digital editions that I know of, but the physical copies are still readily available.

This lyrical, sexually explicit fantasy opens by introducing wayward hero Zeke O’Brien: a trainee mercenary of lower class origins who rises to the rank of Black Knight by saving the life of a lovely young Prince targeted for assassination by the hidden enemies of the King of Aran.

When the royal neophyte is assigned to train as a Black Knight, Zeke thwarts every attempt to murder the elfin Prince Chris, but falls hopelessly in love with his charge. He is delighted to discover the feeling is mutual and furtively, frequently, passionately reciprocated. However, the King’s enemies are many and the trials for the young lovers are only just beginning in this splendidly Ruritanian Romance of intrigue and melodrama.

Lavish, ostentatious, beautifully illustrated and inoffensively charming, this initial volume carries an additional, modern tale of boy-on-boy romance that might upset some readers, but not for obvious reasons.

‘Deadly Sin’ tells of the intimate (and naturally, graphically explicit) affair between a young priest (a son of IRA terrorists who subsequently murdered the SAS killers of his parents) and an athlete/poet he meets on holiday. Despite being well written and drawn, this type of material is bound to offend devoutly Christian, sectarian and/or conservative sorts (note the small ‘c’) so if you are the type hanging around waiting to be outraged, please save us all some grief and don’t read it.
© 2003 Kai Tsurugi. English text © 2006 BLU Inc. All rights reserved.

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If You Steal


By Jason (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-854-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Jason is secretly John Arne Saeterrøy: born in Molde, Norway in 1965 and an international cartoon superstar since 1995 when his first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) won that year’s Sproing Award (Norway’s biggest comics prize). He won another Sproing in 2001 for series Mjau Mjau and in 2002 turned almost exclusively to producing graphic novels.

A global star among cartoon cognoscenti, he has received major awards from all over the planet. Jason’s work always jumps directly into a reader’s brain and heart, utilising the beastly and unnatural to gently pose eternal questions about basic human needs in a softly relentless quest for answers. That you don’t ever notice the deep stuff because of the clever gags and safe, familiar “funny-animal” characters should indicate just how good a cartoonist he is…

The stylised artwork is delivered in formalised page layouts rendered in a minimalist evolution of Hergé’s Claire Ligne style: solid blacks, thick outlines and settings of seductive simplicity; augmented by a deft and subtle use of flat colour which enhances his hard, moody, suspenseful and utterly engrossing Cinema-inspired world.

The superbly understated art acts in concert with his dead-on, deadpan pastiche repertoire of scenarios which dredge deep from our shared experience of old film noir classics, horror and sci fi B-movies and other visual motifs which transcend time and culture, and the result is narrative dynamite.

This compilation collects eleven short yarns and opens with the eponymous and eerie ‘If You Steal’, wherein cheap thug Paul perpetually risks everything – including the one person who keeps him feeling alive – in search of quick cash: only to lose it all in the end, after which ‘Karma Chameleon’ sees a small desert community dealing with the discovery of a giant, carnivorous and extremely predatory lizard which nobody seems able to see. Good thing masturbation-obsessed boffin Dr. Howard Jones and his long-suffering daughter Julia are in town…

The deliciously wry and whimsically absurdist Samuel Beckett spoof ‘Waiting for Bardot’ then segues neatly into a dashing mystery of masked derring-do as ‘Lorena Velazquez’ eventually tires of waiting for her ideal man to finish off a necessarily interminable and horrific army of villains prior to doling out a maiden’s traditional rewards, before a fugitive murderer narrates his own paranoia-fuelled downfall after his ‘New Face’ briefly tempts him with love and the never-to-be-achieved promise of peace and safety…

A series of six faux horror comics covers combines to relate the trials of chilling romances in ‘Moondance’. The classic fear theme extends into a rip-roaring battle against the undead in ‘Night of the Vampire Hunter’ and ‘Polly Wants a Cracker’ follows the other unique career path of artistic legend/assassin-for-hire Frida Kahlo.

A junkie musician pushes his luck against some very bad guys because ‘The Thrill is Gone’ after which ‘Ask Not’ takes a trawl through history from Stonehenge in 2583 BC to Salon de Provence in 1554 AD (courtesy of Nostradamus) to 1960s Cuba, revealing the truth behind the assassination of JFK and Abraham Lincoln and what parts Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby actually played in that millennial plot: a parallel worlds yarn like no other…

The book ends with a stunning, deeply moving graphic examination of dementia which is both chilling and oddly-heart-warming as aging Emma deals with the scary creatures who keep taking away the names of things in ‘Nothing’: proving once more that behind innocuous-seeming cartoons and contemporary fairy tale trappings Jason’s work is loaded with potent questions…

If You Steal resonates with Jason’s favourite themes and shines with his visual dexterity and skewed sensibilities. disclosing a decidedly different slant on secrets and obsessions. Primal art supplemented by sparse and spartan “hardboiled Private Eye” dialogue, enhanced to a macabre degree by solid drawing and skilled use of silence and moment, all utilised with devastating economy, affords the same quality of cold, bleak yet perfectly harnessed stillness which makes Scandinavian TV dramas such compelling, addictive fare.

These comic tales are strictly for adults, yet allow us all to look at the world through wide-open young eyes. They never, however, sugar-coat what’s there to see…
If You Steal is © 2015 Jason. All rights reserved.

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2120


By George Wylesol (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-910395-65-3 (TPB)

Baltimore-based George Wylesol (Internet Crusader; Ghosts, Etc.) is a cartoonist with lots to say and intriguing ways of doing so. Past works have channelled his avowed fascinations – old computer kit/livery; anxiety; iconography; the nostalgic power of commercial branding and signage and a general interest in plebian Days Gone By – into chilling affirmations of his faith in the narrative power of milieu and environment as opposed to characters.

That remains the case in his latest retro-modernist extravaganza… a canny revival of a brief fad stillborn on the way to today’s computer game world; explored through a salutary experience befalling a rather bland service engineer…

Once upon a time (way back in the 1980s) books and graphic novels experimented with an interactive approach: constructing stories where readers could opt to proceed in a linear manner, whilst being encouraged to jump ahead or back, by following suggestions at certain decision points of the narrative. Depending on which one a reader followed, the story could travel in numerous directions and outcomes were many and varied…

The fad faded as technology surpassed physical print restrictions and now most games offer even more variety and immersion, but the process was and still is a powerful device for storytelling and point-making, if you know the trick of it.

Wylesol does, and in 2120 skillfully manipulates the form to create a chilling and potent suspense saga. The set-up is simple. Forty-something computer repairman Wade Duffy is booked to service a machine at 2120 Macmillan Drive: an isolated building in a vacant lot.

The place seems deserted and decommissioned, but after gaining entry, Wade dutifully proceeds through countless empty rooms and corridors – far more than seems possible for a facility of its size. The place seems to go down too many levels, and as he seeks endlessly for the broken computer he is determined to repair, his responsible work attitude gradually erodes under tidal waves of suspicion, uncertainty and nervous tension.

The place is just not right…

Too many rooms, odd sights and sounds, bizarre detritus, scraps and remnants indicating rapid abandonment… and his solitary, endless examinations and futile explorations only tip further into paranoia once he finally finds other occupants and his mind starts doubting him…

I first read the book without making any choices. I’m not saying you should, but if you do, let your mind build a story of its own then reread as often as you want, using the page directions to reshape the events and outcomes and see how that changes the momentous “Big Reveal” hidden within.

Genuinely disturbing in the manner of the best psychological dramas, with plenty of scary moments and distressingly eerie characters, the coldly diagrammatical illustration and workplace bright colour palette adds immensely to the overall aura of unease.

A compelling and compulsive experience, seamlessly wedding sensory evocation to carefully neutralised visual input, like the subject matter itself, this book is not what it seems and should not be missed.
© George Wylesol 2019. All rights reserved.

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Blake and Mortimer volume 19: The Time Trap


By Edgar P. Jacobs, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-214-0 Album PB/Digital edition)

Pre-eminent fantasy raconteur Edgar P. Jacobs devised one of fiction’s greatest heroic double acts: pitting distinguished Scientific Adventurers Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blake against numerous perils and menaces in a stellar sequence of stunning action thrillers blending science fiction scope, detective mystery suspense and supernatural thrills. The magic was made perfect through his stunning illustrations, rendered in the timeless Ligne claire style which had made intrepid boy-reporter Tintin a global sensation.

The spy and the boffin debuted in the very first issue of Le Journal de Tintin (26th September 1946): an ambitious international anthology comic with editions in Belgium, France and Holland. The magazine was edited by Hergé, with his eponymous star ably supplemented by new heroes and features for the post-war world…

The Time Trap comes from a transitional period when that entire world seemed to be changing. It was originally serialised from January 8th 1958 to 22nd April 1959 and subsequently collected in a single album (B & M’s eighth drama-drenched tome), six months after the tale’s conclusion. However, as befitted the times, this largely solo saga seemed to offer faster, leaner drama and stripped-down action in bigger, less dense panels…

Translated by Cinebook in 2014 as their 19th Blake and Mortimer release, it begins with the chaps relaxing in Paris – until the savant receives a rather shocking message. Not long previously (in SOS Meteors), he was instrumental in foiling the diabolical plans of Professor Milosh Georgevich, who used the vast resources of a certain aggressor nation – no guesses who as they’re still at it today – to weaponize weather in advance of an audacious scheme to invade France. Now, that quite literally mad scientist villain has communicated from beyond the grave and has bequeathed to Mortimer – the only man he considered an intellectual equal – his estate and last and greatest invention…

When his naturally suspicious comrade is called to Germany on another MI5 errand, Mortimer slowly motors alone down to rural La Roche-Guyon and – still looking for traps – cautiously inspects the Tenth century house known locally as “The Bove of the Maiden” bequeathed to him by Milosh. The idyllic setting, complete with haunted, legend-drenched castle, is not one to likely to set off any alarms in his bemused head. What he finds in deep cellars beneath his new property defies belief and comprehension…

As described in recorded messages, Georgevich had solved the mystery of time travel and – since he was dying of radiation poisoning – wanted his incredible device to be used by the only other person who could truly appreciate the scope of his genius. In a daze, sceptical Mortimer follows taped instructions, dons a protective suit provided and activates the vehicle. Only as the “Chronoscaphe” rumbles into action, depositing him a terrifying antediluvian world of colossal plants, rampaging dinosaurs and marauding giant bugs, does he realise how he has been tricked…

Against all his expectations the time machine worked, landing him in a fantastic lost realm, but the machine’s selector controls were sabotaged, leaving Mortimer no way to return. However, Milosh has not counted on his dupe’s steely determination, expansive brilliance and sheer stubbornness, and before long, the Professor is hurtling forward 100,000,000 years through eternity, roughly calculating in his shaggy head his point of origin. Relatively, he’s not far off in his sums …

This cellar is indeed where he first found the Chronoscaphe, but sadly, some time before Georgevich built his lab. Realising he needs to know the exact date before he can fine-tune his calibrations, Mortimer works his way through tunnels towards the surface and promptly finds himself in the midst of a feudal rebellion…

Gui de la Roche is not a benevolent overlord, and is currently losing control of his lands to a serfs uprising. The petty tyrant is understandably unhappy and suspicious when an oddly dressed Englishman drops into the middle of the conflict, babbling like a loon. The ill-educated peasants simply think he’s a demon…

Mortimer barely makes it back to the Chronoscaphe, and in his haste overshoots his desired destination, encountering a few bizarre temporal manifestations as he plunges far into a dystopian future…

Accidentally embroiled in all-out war to liberate mankind from a global dictator, the Professor’s insights – wedded to the technology of a broken future – soon topple the tyrant before he can adapt Tomorrow’s technology to solving his own past problems.

With everything he needs to steer true a course home, the boffin even finds opportunity to turn the tables on the villain who caused his eccentric odyssey through the corridors of time…

Swift-paced and spectacularly action-packed, this solo outing for Mortimer rockets from staggering sci fi set-piece to set-piece, building to an explosive conclusion with a tantalising final flourish, delivering a sublimely engaging blockbuster to delight any adventure addict.

This Cinebook edition also includes excerpts from other Blake & Mortimer albums plus a short biographical feature and publication chart of Jacobs’ and his successors’ efforts
Original edition © Editions Blake & Mortimer/Studio Jacobs (Dargaud-Lombard s. a.) 1962 by E.P. Jacobs. All rights reserved. English translation © 2014 Cinebook Ltd.

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Batman: Gotham by Gaslight


By Brian Augustyn, Michael Mignola, P. Craig Russell & Eduardo Barreto (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1153-0 (TPB/Digital Edition)

We lost another great in February, albeit an unfairly unsung one. Although a brilliant writer in his own right, Brian Augustyn (November 2, 1954-February 1, 2022) was mostly remarked upon for his scripting collaborations, or perhaps by the more astute for his work as an editor. He began in that role at NOWComics in 1986, on Trollords, Syphons and Speed Racer, before moving to DC in 1988 to edit the weekly Action Comics, the Impact Comics line, Justice League and most notably The Flash. He formed a writing partnership with Mark Waid, encompassing The Flash, Impulse, JLA: Year One, The Comet, The Crusaders, Event Comics’ Painkiller Jane and Ash: Cinder and Smoke, Valiant’s X-O Manowar and most recently the magnificent Archie 1941.

On his own, he scripted Black Condor, Black Mask, Marvel’s Imperial Guard, Out There, Crimson, Mega Man, Amped (in Giant Comics) and the landmark concept/character which forms the basis of this this memorial.

Brian Augustyn died from a stroke on February 1st.

Originally released in 1989 as a 52-page prestige-format (glossy paper, cardstock covers better printing) one shot, Gotham By Gaslight was a sensation. Offering an alternate history for Batman in a chillingly familiar scenario and locale it opened the doors for similar experimentation with all DC’s other properties and directly led to the formation of an eclectic publishing imprint for all such out-continuity “Imaginary Stories”: Elseworlds. As well as opening the doors of creativity, it also fostered crossovers with other companies’ properties, by giving fans a handle to hang such non-canonical stunts on…

From 2013, this edition combines the classic Gotham By Gaslight with its cruelly neglected sequel Master of the Future.

The conceit of the landmark first story is the transposition of the most recognisable icons of the Batman mythos to the end of the 19th century, enabling troubled millionaire and would be avenger Bruce Wayne to begin his shrouded career in gory battle with the world’s most famous serial killer: Jack the Ripper.

Augustyn’s moody, edgy and so-broodingly steam-punk script was elevated to spectacular heights by the astounding artwork of comic giants Mike Mignola & P Craig Russell, and the results have long been considered one of the comic’s high points ever since.

Which in some ways is a shame, as Master of the Future is in many respects a better story. Augustyn finds space and time to flesh out Wayne’s character and show him as an individual, not a transplanted clone of the man we all know, and the drama is gilded by the superb and criminally unappreciated art of Eduardo Barreto splendidly recreating the turn of the (20th) century technological wonderment of Jules Verne (specifically Robur the Conqueror/The Clipper of the Clouds and Master of the World).

Here, as prototypical Mad Scientist Andre LeRoi threatens to destroy the burgeoning metropolis of Gotham City from his airborne dreadnought, only the by-now-disenchanted Batman could possibly stand against him… if he can be bothered.

Augustyn’s intriguing examination of vigilante motivation once the transformational forces of grievance and anger are expiated, especially in an era and milieu of extreme wealth and privilege, provides an interesting counterpoint to the mind-numbing obsession of the “real” caped crusader.

Batman was voted the most popular comic character of the 20th century. How strange, then, that two of his best escapades deal with the age before then and are directed by someone you probably never heard of? How about judging for yourselves with this superb collection?
© 1989, 1991, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Yoko Tsuno volume 13: The Light of Ixo


By Roger Leloup, coloured by Beatrice/Studio Leonardo, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-392-5 (Album PB)

Indomitable intellectual adventurer Yoko Tsuno began her career in Le Journal de Spirou in 1970 and is still delighting regular readers and making new fans to this day. Her astounding, all-action, excessively accessible adventures are amongst the most intoxicating, absorbing and broad-ranging comics thrillers ever created.

The globe-girdling, space-&-time-spanning episodic epics starring the Japanese technologist-investigator were devised by monumentally multi-talented Belgian maestro Roger Leloup, who began his own solo career after working as a studio assistant on Herge’s Adventures of Tintin.

Compellingly told, superbly imaginative and – no matter how implausible the premise of any individual yarn may appear – always firmly grounded in hyper-realistic settings underpinned by authentic, unshakably believable technology and scientific principles, Leloup’s illustrated escapades were at the vanguard of a wave of strips revolutionising European comics in the mid-1970s.

That long-overdue sea-change heralded the rise of competent, clever and brave female protagonists taking their rightful places as heroic ideals; elevating Continental comics in the process. Happily, most of their endeavours are as timelessly engaging and empowering now as they ever were, and none more so than the trials and tribulations of Miss Tsuno.

Her very first outings (the still unavailable Hold-up en hi-fi, La belle et la bête and Cap 351) were simple introductory vignettes before the superbly capable electrical engineer and her valiant if less able male comrades Pol Paris and Vic Van Steen properly hit their stride with premier full-length saga Le trio de l’étrange in 1971 with Spirou’s May 13th issue…

Yoko’s exploits include explosive exploits in exotic corners of our world, time-travelling jaunts and sinister deep-space sagas – such as this one – with our human troubleshooters working beside the disaster-prone alien colonists of planet Vinea beside devoted best friend Khany: a competent, commanding single mother who combines parenting her toddler Poky with saving worlds, leading her people and chasing cosmic adventure…

There have been 30 European albums to date and today’s tale originally debuted in 1980 as La Lumière d’Ixo, technically the 10th Yoko Tsuno exploit and the fifth to feature the extraterrestrial Vineans. It appears here via UK translation powerhouse Cinebook, offering an interstellar mystery of beguiling power and confirming the dreadful menace of faith in the hands of ruthless manipulators…

In their first outing together, Yoko, Vic and frivolous Pol discovered a pocket of dormant extraterrestrials hibernating for eons in the depths of the Earth. After freeing them from robotic tyranny, the valiant humans occasionally helped the alien refugees (who had fled their own planet two million years previously) rebuild their lost sciences, before ultimately accompanying them on their return to their own star system and presumed-dead homeworld. As the Vineans rebuilt their civilisation and culture, the humans became regular guests…

On this excursion, the trio join an exploratory mission to distant moon Ixo. In ages past, it was a dumping ground for lethal toxic wastes, uncontrollable superweapons and other deadly discoveries, but since reclaiming their homeworld, the Vinean refugee/re-colonisers have observed periodic flashes of luminescence from what should be nothing but a dead ball of ice and rock. Now, the humans, Khany and her ever-present Poky join a science team seeking answers…

As the expedition travels across the eerily beautiful frozen vacuum of the moon, they discover a hidden sub-surface enclave of enigmatic survivors dedicated to a staggering goal. In the millions of years the Vineans slept in the depths of Earth, their primary civilisation collapsed. One of the greatest casualties was a neighbour planet used to house rebels and exiles, which at some distant time was reduced to a field of space debris.

For eons now, the banished dwellers of surviving self-contained orbital city Shyra have been harvesting energy on Ixo and transmitting it at the rubble, where it has been utilized to slowly reconstruct the broken world.

Tragically, the vast generational task has devolved into a holy crusade, governed by dogma and superstition. As an age-old power struggle between engineers and priests reaches boiling point, Khany and her human companions are captured and impressed into service. Plunged right into the heart of the clash, with hostile forces all around, the deeply empathic Yoko overcomes all odds and opposition: dethroning two minor dictators while perfecting the colossal concave ice mirror used to beam power across space to the shattered world, and even brokers a tenuous peace between Vinea and the Shyrans who have for millions of years considered their sister world a demonic, implacable enemy…

Gripping and visually spectacular, The Light of Ixo combines hard science with tense drama and a soupcon of social criticism: delivering another terse, action-packed, “Big Sky” sci fi thriller, once again magnified into magnificence by the astonishingly compelling and staggeringly detailed draughtsmanship and storytelling of Leloup.
Original edition © Dupuis, 1980 by Roger Leloup. All rights reserved. English translation 2018 © Cinebook Ltd.

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Ant-Man/Giant-Man Marvel Masterworks volume 3


By Roy Thomas, Mike Friedrich, Tony Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, David Micheline, Herb Trimpe, P. Craig Russell, George Tuska, John Byrne, Ross Andru, Jim Starlin, Ron Wilson, Rich Buckler, Keith Pollard & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1079-2 (HB/Digital edition)

Marvel Comics built its fervent fan base through strong and contemporarily relevant stories and striking art, but most importantly by creating a shared continuity that closely followed the characters through not just their own titles but also through many guest appearances in other comics. Such an interweaving meant that even today completists and fans seek out extraneous stories to get a fuller picture of their favourite’s adventures.

In such an environment, series such as these Marvel Masterworks are a priceless resource approaching the status of a public service for collectors, especially when you can now purchase and peruse them electronically from the comfort of your own couch, or the lesser luxury of your parents’ basement, garage or attic…

If you’re of a particularly picky nature – and what comic book superhero fan isn’t? – you could consider the Astonishing Ant-Man to be the second star of the Marvel Age of Comics. The unlikeliest of titans first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27 (cover-dated January 1962, so on sale during the last months of 1961), in one of those splendidly addictive men-vs-monsters anthology titles that dominated in the heady days of Science Fiction Double-Feature B-Movies.

It was intended as nothing more than another here-today, gone-tomorrow filler in one of the company’s madly engaging pre-superhero “monster-mags”. However, the character struck a chord with someone since, and as the DC Comics-inspired superhero boom flourished, and Lee sprung The Hulk, Thor and Spider-Man on the unsuspecting kids of America, Pym was economically retooled as a fully-fledged costumed do-gooder for TtA #35 (September 1962).

You can read about his extremely eccentric career elsewhere, but suffice it to say Pym was never settled in his persona: changing name and modus operandi many times before junking his Ant-Man identity for the reasonably more stable and more imposing identity of Yellowjacket…

This episodic, eclectic and entomologically edifying compendium gathers the last full series of the original Ant-Man, plus the legacy of science adventurer Hank Pym as his size-shifting discoveries were employed by other champions. Contained herein are pertinent portions of Invincible Iron Man #44; Marvel Feature #4-10; Power Man #24-25; Black Goliath #1-5, The Champions #11-13 and Marvel Premiere #47-48, convolutedly spanning January 1972 to June 1979.

There are three heroes on offer here and each comes with an Introduction by his key scripter: Mick Friedrich’s ‘Downsizing Hank Pym’; ‘Professor Bill’s Big Adventure‘ by Tony Isabella and David Micheline’s ‘New Kid on the Block’, all sharing insights and reminiscences to delight every true ant-ficionado (yes. I said that, and I’m not sorry!)

The ball starts rolling with a brief back-up vignette from Invincible Iron Man #44 as Roy Thomas, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito light-heartedly deliver ‘Armageddon on Avenue ‘A” as Ant-Man Pym clashes again with the sinister Scarlet Beetle. The evil arthropod stills seeks to eradicate mankind, but is too busy battling Pym to notice his new secret citadel catching alight as part of a seedy insurance scam. Bah! Human scum!

Marvel Feature #4 then begins a new series with ‘The Incredible Shrinking Doom!’ (by Friedrich & Herb Trimpe) as a hero history recap segues into ‘The Beginning’ with Peter Parker interviewing Dr Pym before they team up to rescue a kidnapped boy. The son of Curt Conners (The Lizard) has been snatched to force the surrender of a valuable formula. However, while cleaning up M’Sieu Tête‘s thugs, Pym is injected with a bacterial enzyme that traps him at the size of an insect and even Spider-Man cannot help him…

The saga proceeds in #5’s ‘Fear’s the Way He Dies!’ as arch enemy Egghead returns even as Ant-Man loses all the precious technology that bolsters his powers. Deprived of his insect-controlling cybernetic helmet, Pym is helpless until the maniac’s niece Trixie Starr makes him new duds. It’s not quite enough to defeat the villain, but at least the shattering explosion of his mobile HQ seems to drive the killer away…

Pym’s wife Janet resurfaces in Marvel Feature #6’s ‘Hellstorm!’ (inked by Mike Trimpe) as the beleaguered hero – thanks to trusty pet hound Orkie the dog – finally reaches his own home only to be attacked by another old foe… Whirlwind. In the aftermath the house is totally destroyed and Mr & Mrs Pym are officially declared dead…

P. Craig Russell, Dan Adkins & Mark Kersey illustrate ‘Paranoia is the Para-Man!’ in #7 as a new android enemy captures Hank and Jan. escape and the mechanoid’s defeat mutates the Wasp into a true insectoid predator for #8’s deadline wracked ‘Prelude to Disaster!’ Russell, Jim Starlin & Jimmy Janes’ framing sequence here originally supported a Lee, Kirby & Don Heck origin flashback but you can just consult the first volume in this series if you’re feeling a little completist…

Here and now, however, Marvel Feature #9 ‘…The Killer is My Wife!’ – limned by Russell & Frank Bolle – finally finds Hank battling his mutated killer wife as Pym’s lab partner Bill Foster and Iron Man investigate their “deaths.” Tragically, not so far from them, the tiny terror is overwhelmed and temporarily cured by her husband, just in time for both to fall victim to new nutcase Doctor Nemesis, before the saga and the series are hastily wrapped up in concluding chapter ‘Ant-Man No More!‘ by Friedrich, Russell & Frank Chiaramonte.

Ant-Man faded from view, eventually replaced by Yellowjacket again, and one among many in the Avengers.

Time passed and a new writer decided it was time to try the size-shifting concept again. It began as so often with a try-out taster in an already established title…

While hiding in plain sight as a Hero for Hire in Times Square, escaped convict Luke Cage fell in love with doctor Claire Temple. When she abruptly vanished, Cage and buddy D.W. Griffiths scoured America looking for her. The trek fed directly into a 2-part premier for another African American superhero with the trail leading to the Ringmaster’s Circus of Crime in Power Man #24 (January 1975) where ‘Among Us Walks… a Black Goliath!’ by Tony Isabella, George Tuska & Dave Hunt.

One of the earliest returning black characters in Marvel’s comics, the above-mentioned Bill Foster was a highly educated biochemist working for Tony Stark and with Henry Pym. Foster first appeared in Avengers #32 (September 1966), working to find a cure when – as Goliath – Pym was trapped at a 10-foot height. Foster faded from view when Pym eventually regained his size-changing abilities…

Having continued his own experiments in size-shifting, Foster was now trapped as a freakish colossus, unable to shrink to human proportions. Cage painfully learned he was also Claire’s former husband and when he became trapped at 15 feet, she had rushed back to Bill’s substantial side to help find a cure.

After Luke turns up, passions are stoked, resulting in another classic heroes-clash moment until the mesmeric Ringmaster hypnotises all combatants, intent on using their strength to feather his own three-ring nest. ‘Crime and Circuses’ (Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Ron Wilson & Fred Kida) sees the heroes helpless until Claire comes to the rescue, before making her choice and returning to New York with Luke. Foster soon gravitated to his own short-run series, becoming Marvel’s fourth African American costumed hero under a heavy-handed and rather uninspired sobriquet…

Cover-dated February 1976, and courtesy of Isabella, Tuska & Vince Colletta, Black Goliath #1 reintroduced a far more together hero. Foster was now in complete control of his powers and led an exotic, eccentric Stark International Think Tank in Los Angeles. Sadly, his arrival coincided with a spate of high tech burglaries that revealed how out-of-depth ‘Black Goliath!’ was when the gang boss was exposed as living nuclear nightmare Atom-Smasher, who doled out ‘White Fire, Atomic Death!’ in #2 as scripter Chris Claremont joined Tuska & Colletta.

Barely surviving the first assault, Foster brought in his team of maverick geniuses for the second and decisive round, blissfully unaware the thermonuclear thug was working for a hidden mastermind…

‘Dance to the Murder!’ in #3 offers partial explanations as mystery man Vulcan leads multiple attacks on the Think Tank in an effort to liberate an enigmatic alien artefact. The result is chaos and catastrophe, exacerbated in #4 when ‘Enter Stilt-Man …Exit Black Goliath!’ – with art from Rich Buckler & Don Heck – finds the hero distracted by a supervillain hungry to upgrade his powers and status, and the mystery box swiped from the rubble by a looter…

The series came to an abrupt halt with #5 (November 1976), with Keith Pollard illustrating a tale of ‘Survival!’ as Foster and two bystanders are exiled on a lethal alien planet. Meanwhile on Earth, the Box is beginning to awaken…

The storyline was completed in LA based team title The Champions where #11 (February 1977) opened proceedings with ‘The Shadow from the Stars’ by Mantlo, John Byrne & Bob Layton. Returned without explanation, Foster was building tech for the team (Black Widow, Angel, Iceman, Hercules, Ghost Rider and Dark Star) as a side bar to the main event wherein Hawkeye and Two Gun Kid call for help to repel an alien incursion by vintage villain and sentient shadow Warlord Kaa…

Back to the plot for #12, ‘Did Someone say… the Stranger?’ sees Black Goliath ambushed by Stilt-Man as the long-contested Box begins to activate. When universal Elder The Stranger comes to reclaim his planet-destroying Null-Life Bomb, he deems it too late once the device warps reality and dumps the Champions in the realm of former Thor foe Kamo Tharnn, leaving Foster on Earth to prevent ‘The Doom That Went on Forever!’

Foster again faded from sight until revived for 1980s classic the Project Pegasus Saga, where he reclaimed the name Giant-Man, but this collection concludes with arguably the most successful size-shifting centurion: solo superhero, Avenger, entrepreneur, comedy turn and screen superstar Scott Lang… a true legacy hero made good.

Comics creators are six parts meddler and five parts chronic nostalgia buff and eventually somebody convinced somebody else that the concept and property of Ant-Man could be viable again, so we end here with the introduction of reformed thief Lang who debuted in Marvel Premiere #47 (cover-dated April 1979).

Those first somebodies were David Michelinie, John Byrne & Bob Layton who produced ‘To Steal an Ant-Man!’, revealing how a former electronics engineer had turned to crime – more out of boredom than necessity – and, after being caught and serving his time, joined Stark International as a resolutely reformed character. However, when his daughter Cassie developed a heart condition that wiped out his savings, Scott reverted to old ways to save her…

Desperate to find the wherewithal to hire experimental surgeon Dr. Erica Sondheim, he begins casing likely prospects, but is shattered when Sondheim is abducted by psychotic industrialist Darren Cross. The magnate is already using all the resources – legal and otherwise – of his mega-corporation Cross Technological Enterprises to keep himself alive…

Needing cash just to broach the CTE complex, Lang goes back to Plan A, burgling the lab of retired superhero Henry Pym and discovers mothballed Ant-Man gear and size-changing gases. In a moment of madness, Lang decides not to sell the stolen tech but instead use it to break into Cross’ citadel and rescue Sondheim…

That plan doesn’t go so great either, as Lang discovers the dying billionaire – in a desperate attempt to stay alive – has been harvesting the hearts of homeless people to power an experimental device which has mutated him into a monstrous brute…

After learning with horror ‘The Price of a Heart!’ (June 1979), Lang eventually triumphs; unaware until the very last that Pym had allowed him to take the suit and was backstopping him every inch of the way. With Cassie saved, Yellowjacket then invites Lang to continue as the new Ant-Man…

And so it begins again…

Completing this triptych treat are extras including original art pages by Trimpe; pencil art and the unused ending to Marvel Feature #10 by Russell (compared in situ with what actually got published as the series was rapidly concluded); two unused covers to Marvel Premiere #48 (by Layton), biographies of all concerned and peppered throughout with rousing covers by Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, Trimpe, Starlin, John Romita & Sal Buscema, Russell & Adkins, Rich Buckler, Jack Kirby, Al Milgrom, Layton, Dave Cockrum and Bob McLeod.

These itty-bitty sagas range from lost gems to true classics and will delight Marvel Movie buffs as well as the redoubtable ranks of dedicated comic book readers all cheerfully celebrating Pym’s 60 years of service and inspiration.
© 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Adam Strange Archives volume 3 


By Gardner F. Fox, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, John Giunta, Sid Greene, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics) 
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1661-0 (HB) 

For me and so many more aging Baby-Boomer brats, Adam Strange, more than any other character, epitomises the Silver Age of Comics. An Earth archaeologist who, whilst fleeing from enraged “ jungle natives” in Peru, jumped a 25 foot chasm, only to be hit by a stray teleport beam from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. He materialised on another world, filled with monsters, fabulous marvels and non-stop peril for which brains, not brawn, were the only solution. 

Witty, sophisticated, gloriously illustrated and fantastically imaginative: and there was always the woman named Alanna, beautiful, brilliant and not so much unattainable as frequently out-of-reach. The star-parted lovers happy-ever-after was always just in reach, but only after one more adventure… 

Pristine paragon of the latter age of “thinking man’s heroes”, Strange was an interplanetary ambassador who was very much of his era. However, as his elegant adventures gave way to a superhero avalanche, the creative dream team of Gardner F. Fox, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, (latterly aided and abetted by Sid Greene, and Joe Giella) were called away for more urgent creations elsewhere. From Mystery in Space #92 (June 1964) Editor Jack Schiff supervised Adam’s exploits until his final appearance in #102 (September 1965). Space Ranger had joined the book’s line-up with Adam and Allana’s last forays crafted by Dave Wood, Fox, Jerry Siegel, Lee Elias and Dick Dillin, until they were ousted by incoming experiment Ultra, the Multi-Alien… 

This third and final hardback outing gathers the last vestiges of that Silver Age excellence – comprising Mystery in Space #81-91, plus a team-up from Hawkman #18 and a pertinent short story from Strange Adventures #157. 

Jim Starlin’s introduction ‘Adam Strange: The Coolest Dude Around’ is followed by a barrage of delights from Fox, Infantino & Anderson, beginning with MIS #81 and testing our hero to his limits as the dictator who caused Rann’s nuclear armageddon returns after 1000 years to threaten both Adam’s homeworlds in ‘The Cloud-Creature that Menaced Two Worlds!’  

Then a terrestrial criminal’s scheme to conquer Earth is thwarted as a result of Adam ending a ‘World War on Earth – and Rann!’ whilst #83 pits the Star man  against a desperate ‘Emotion Master of Space!’ before relentless Dust-Devil Jakarta returns, shrugging off ‘The Powerless Weapons of Adam Strange!’ (inked by Joe Giella). Triumphing anyway, strange and Alanna are almost annihilated by the ‘Riddle of the Runaway Rockets!’ which sees a revived primordial robot rampage under the vivid veridian skies before ‘Attack of the Underworld Giants!’ (inked by John Giunta) foreshadows big changes to come via a fantastic vision… 

An intriguing diversion from sci fi sister publication Strange Adventures #157 follows. ‘Rescue by Moonlight!’ (Fox, Infantino Giunta & Anderson) is a Space Museum yarn (anthological done-in-one tales centred around Earth’s official interstellar knowledge repository) wherein 25th century descendent Alan Strange foils the theft of exotic mineral “parastil”. 

Mystery in Space had starred Strange since #53, but with #87 (November 1963) Schwartz capitulated to and capitalized on the growing superhero boom: adding Hawkman (and Hawkgirl!) in a back-up slot that included full cover-privileges. Not included here, initial yarn ‘The Amazing Thefts of the I.Q. Gang! subtly impacted our hero’s lead tale as ‘The Super-Brain of Adam Strange!’ (with Sid Greene as final regular inker) sees the Earthman hyper-evolved by Zeta-radiation and an unlikely menace to all… 

An ethereal do-gooder goes astray as ‘The Robot-Wraith of Rann!’ and Adam proves irresistible to the ‘Siren of the Space Ark!’ before Infantino & Anderson reunited for Fox’s extra-length length End-of the-World(s) epic ‘Planets in Peril!’ in #90 but after teaming Adam and the Hawks to save two worlds, the glory days concluded quietly with ‘Puzzle of the Perilous Prisons!’ (MIS #91, May 1964), offering a return engagement with archfoe Mortan and a nasty case of evil duplicate girlfriend…  

Strange’s later divergent direction was ignored by Fox & Anderson in early 1967 when Hawkman #18 saw the Winged Wonder join Strange against malevolent Manhawks to locate the ‘World That Vanished!’ The planet in question was Thanagar and when it went, it took Hawkman’s beloved wife  Shayera with it… 

This volume concludes with biographies of the creators, but not sadly the conclusion of that fable as Adam wasn’t in it. If you hate to be kept hanging you’ll need to find a different reprint edition carrying that… 

Available in a monumental omnibus edition, but not in any format ordinary earthlings can lift or afford, these tales are desperately in need of a digital age refit. 
© 1963, 1964, 1967, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. 

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A1 – The World’s Greatest Comics 


By various (Atomeka/Titan Comics) 
ISBN: 987-1-78276-016-0 (HB) 

We were saddened to learn of the sudden death of Garry Leach on March 26th. An extremely talented artist best known for Illustrating Marvelman/Miracleman, Dan Dare, and The V.C.’s, he was also a dedicated mover and shaker behind the scenes; quietly helping many other creators on the way to their own fame and glory. Our condolences go out to his friends and family, and here’s a review of one his most important and significant ventures… 

A1 began in 1988 as an anthology showcase dedicated to comics creativity. Freed from the usual strictures of mainstream publishers, the project consequently attracted many of the world’s top writers and artists to produce work at once personal and experimental, comfortingly familiar and, on occasion, deucedly odd. 

Editors Garry Leach & Dave Elliott periodically returned to their baby and in 2013 the title and concept were resurrected under the aegis of Titan Comics to provide more of the same. 

Similarly committed to past excellence and future triumphs – and following the grandest tradition of British comics – this classic compendium offered the same eclectic mix of material old and new… 

After a colossal 2-page dedication/thank you to everyone from Frank Bellamy to Face Ache in ‘The Dream Days are Back: The One’s Especially For You…’ the cartoon carnival commences with a truly “Golden Oldie” as Joe Simon & Jack Kirby (and inked by Al Williamson) provide science fiction classic ‘Island in the Sky’ – which first surfaced in Harvey Comic’s Race for the Moon #2 September, 1958. Here an expired astronaut returns from death thanks to something he picked up on Jupiter… 

Each tale here is accompanied by fulsome creator biographies and linked by factual snippets about most artists’ “drug of choice”. These photographic examples of coffee barista self-expression (with all ‘Latte Art’ courtesy of Coffee Labs Roasters) are followed by illustrator Alex Sheikman & scripter Norman Felchle’s invitation to the baroque, terpsichorean delights of the ‘Odd Ball’. 

The fantastic gothic revisionism resumes after another coffee-break as the sublime Sandy Plunkett details in captivating monochrome the picaresque perils of life in a sprawling urban underworld with his ‘Tales of Old Fennario’. 

‘Odyssey: A Question of Priorities’ by Elliot, Toby Cypress & Sakti Yuwono is a thoroughly up-to-date interpretation of pastiche patriotic avenger Old Glory, who now prowls modern values-challenged America, regretting choices he’s made and the timbre of his current superhero comrades… 

‘Image Duplicator’ by Rian Hughes & Dave Gibbons is, for me, the most fascinating feature included here, detailing and displaying comics creator’s admirable responses to the appropriation and rapine of comic book images by “Pop” artist Roy Lichtenstein. 

In a move to belatedly honour the honest jobbing creators simultaneously ripped off and denigrated by the “recontextualisation” and transformation to High Art, Hughes & Gibbons approached a number of professionals from all sectors of the commercial arts and asked them to re-appropriate Lichtenstein’s efforts. 

The results were displayed in the exhibition Image Duplicator with all subsequent proceeds donated to the charity Hero Initiative which benefits comic creators who have fallen on hard times. 

In this feature are the results of the comic book fightback with contributions from Hughes, Gibbons, FuFu Frauenwahl, Carl Flint, Howard Chaykin, Salgood Sam, Mark Blamire, Steve Cook, Garry Leach, Dean Motter, Jason Atomic, David Leach, Shaky Kane, Mark Stafford, Graeme Ross, Kate Willaert & Mitch O’Connell. 

Master of all funnybook trades, Bambos Georgiou offers his 2011 tribute to DC’s splendidly silly Silver Age in the Curt Swan inspired ‘Weird’s Finest – Zuberman & Batguy in One Adventure Together!’ and Dominic Regan crafts a stunning Technicolor tornado of intriguing illumination as Doctor Arachnid has to deal with cyber Psychedelia and a divinely outraged ‘Little Star’… 

Bill Sienkiewicz’s ‘Emily Almost’  first appeared in the original A1 #4; a bleak paean to rejection seen here in muted moody colour, after which Scott Hampton revisits the biblical tale of ‘Daniel’ and Jim Steranko re-presents his groundbreaking, experimental multi-approach silent story ‘Frogs!’ before following up with ‘Steranko: Frogs!’ – his own treatise on the history and intent behind creating the piece 40 years ago… 

‘Boston Metaphysical Society’ is a prose vignette of mystic Steampunk Victoriana written by Madeleine Holly-Rosing from her webcomic, ably illustrated by Emily Hu, whilst ‘Mr. Monster’ by Alan Moore & Michael T. Gilbert (with inks from Bill Messner-Loebs) is a reprint of ‘The Riddle of the Recalcitrant Refuse!’ first found in #3 (1985) of the horror hunter’s own series. It recounts how a dead bag-lady turns the city upside out when her mania for sorting junk transcends both death and our hero’s best efforts… 

‘The Weirding Willows: Origins of Evil’ by Elliot, Barnaby Bagenda & Jessica Kholinne is one of the fantasy features from the later A1 iteration – a dark reinterpretation of beloved childhood characters like Alice, Ratty, Toad and Mole, which fans of Bill Willingham’s Fables should certainly appreciate… 

‘Devil’s Whisper’ by James Robinson & D’Israeli also came from A1 #4, and features Matt Wagner’s signature creation Grendel …or does it? 

Stechgnotic then waxes lyrical about Barista art in ‘The Artful Latte’ after which ‘Melting Pot – In the Beginning’ by Kevin Eastman, Eric Talbot & Simon Bisley ends the affair; revisiting the ghastly hellworld where the gods spawned an ultimate survivor through the judicious and repeated application of outrageous bloody violence. 

Of course it’s a trifle arrogant and rather daft to claim any collection as “The World’s Greatest Comics” and – to be honest – these weren’t. There’s no such thing and never can be… 

However, this absorbing, inspiring oversized collection does contain plenty of extremely good, wonderfully entertaining material by some of the best and most individualistic creators to have graced our art form. 

What more can you possibly need? 
A1 Annual © 2013 Atomeka Press, all contents copyright their respective creators. ATOMEKA © 2013 Dave Elliott & Garry Leach.Â