Science Fiction – Page 62

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014

Blake and Mortimer volume 17: The Secret of the Swordfish Part 3 – SX1 Strikes Back!

By Edgar P. Jacobs, coloured by Philippe BiermÃ© & Luce Daniels translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-174-7

After three years of stunning intrigue mystery and action, E.P. Jacobs’ groundbreaking saga of a battle for world peace and universal liberty concluded in a spectacular duel below the Earth and in the skies of the embattled world.

The saga concludes in SX1 Strikes Back!: a tension-drenched race against time as

Blake, Mortimer and the shattered dregs of Great Britain’s military forces prepare for a last ditch strike using the Professor’s greatest inventions to win freedom for the oppressed peoples of the worldâ€¦

Brussels-born Edgar P. Jacobs was a prodigy who drew from an early age and was besotted by music and the performing arts – especially opera. After graduating commercial school in 1919, he rejected safe office work and instead avidly pursued his passions drama on his graduation.

A succession of odd jobs at opera-houses (which included everything from scene-painting to set decoration and even performing as both an acting and singing extra) supplemented private performance studies, and in 1929 Jacobs won an award from the Government for classical singing.

His dream of operatic glory was crushed by the Great Depression, and when arts funding dried up following the global stock market crash he was forced to pick up whatever dramatic work was going, although this did include more singing and performing. He moved into illustration in 1940, with regular work for Bravo magazine and some jobs for short stories and novels, and when the occupying Nazi authorities in Belgium banned Alex Raymond’s quintessentially All-American Hero Flash Gordon Jacobs famously took over the syndicated strip to complete the saga.

His ‘Stormer Gordon’ lasted less than a month before being similarly embargoed by the Occupation dictators, after which the man of many talents simply created his own epic science-fantasy feature in the legendary Le Rayon U, a milestone in both Belgian comics and science fiction adventure.

During this period Jacobs and Tintin creator HergÃ© got together, and whilst creating the weekly U Ray strip the younger man began assisting on Tintin, colouring the original black and white strips of The Shooting Star (originally run in newspaper Le Soir) for an upcoming album collection.

By 1944 Jacobs was performing similar duties on Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America, King Ottokar’s Sceptre and The Blue Lotus. He was also contributing to the drawing too, working on the extended epic The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun.

Following the Liberation, publisher Raymond Leblanc convinced HergÃ©, Jacobs and a few other comicstrip masters to work for a new venture. Founding publishing house Le Lombard, Leblanc also commissioned Le Journal de Tintin, an anthology comic with editions in Belgium, France and Holland, edited by Herge and starring the intrepid boy reporter plus a host of newer heroes.

Beside HergÃ©, Jacobs and writer Jacques van Melkebeke, Le Journal de Tintin featured Paul Cuvelier’s ‘Corentin’ and Jacques Laudy’s ‘The Legend of the Four Aymon Brothers’.

Laudy had been a friend of Jacobs’ since their time together on Bravo, and the epic thriller serial ‘Le secret de l’Espadon’ starred an English Military Intelligence officer closely modelled on Laudy, who worked with bluff, gruff British Boffin: Captain Francis Blake and Professor Philip Mortimerâ€¦

The premiere serial ran from issue #1 (26^th September 1946 to September 8^th 1949) and cemented Jacobs’ status as a star in his own right. In 1950, with the first 18 pages slightly redrawn, The Secret of the Swordfish became Le Lombard’s very first album release with the concluding part published three years later. The volumes were reprinted nine more times between 1955 and 1982, supplemented in 1964 by a single omnibus edition.

HergÃ© and Jacobs purportedly suffered a split in 1947 when the former refused to grant the latter a by-line on new Tintin material, but since the two remained friends for life and Jacobs continued to produce Blake and Mortimer for the weekly comic, I think it’s fair to say that if such was the case it was a pretty minor spat. I rather suspect that The Secret of the Swordfish was simply taking up more and more of the diligent artist’s time and attentionâ€¦

In 1984 the story was repackaged for English translation as three volumes as part of a push to win some of the lucrative Tintin and Asterix market, but failed to find an audience. The venture ended after seven magnificent if under-appreciated volumes.

Cinebook has been publishing the later Blake and Mortimer tales since 2007 and recently completed a triptych of the very first adventureâ€¦

In The Incredible Chase and Mortimer’s Escape a hidden cabal in the Himalayas launched a global Blitzkrieg at the command of Basam-Damdu, malign Emperor of Tibet. The warlord’s arsenal of technological super-weapons were wielded by an army of the world’s wickedest rogues – such as diabolical Colonel Olrik – and their lightning sneak almost accomplished all his ambitions in one fell swoop.

Happily, English physicist Philip Mortimer and MI5 Captain Francis Blake were aware of the threat and when the attack came they narrowly escaped destruction in a devastating bomber raidâ€¦

Mortimer’s breakthrough Golden Rocket launched just as Olrik’s bombers attacked and easily outdistanced the rapacious Empire forces, leaving ruined homes behind them as they flew into a hostile world now brutally controlled by Basam-Damduâ€¦

Seeking out British Middle East resistance forces, the fugitives’ flight ended prematurely when the Rocket crashed in the rocky wilds between Iran and Afghanistan. Parachuting to safety, Blake and Mortimer survived a host of perils and escaped capture more than once as they slowly, inexorably made their way to the distant rendezvous, before meeting British-trained native Sergeant Ahmed Nasir.

The loyal Indian had served with Blake during the last war and was delighted to see him again, but as the trio laboriously made their way to the target site, Olrik had already found it and seized their last hopeâ€¦

Using commando tactics the heroes escaped in the Colonel’s own Red-Wing super-jet, but were again shot down – this time by friendly fire as anti-Lhasa rebels saw the stolen plane as an enemy targetâ€¦

Surviving this crash too, the trio were ferried by the apologetic tribesmen to the enemy-occupied town of Turbat and sheltered by a friendly Khan administrator. However a faithless servant recognised the Englishmen and the Britons were ambushedâ€¦

Sending Nasir away, Blake tried valiantly frantically to save Mortimer whilst a platoon of Empire soldiers rapidly mounted the stairs to their exposed roomâ€¦

Mortimer’s Escape saw the heroes initially avoid capture and flee Turbat, which was torn apart by a furious spontaneous rebellion but, unknown to the fugitives, the spy Bezendjas was hard on their heels. Moreover with the city in flames and fighting in every street the callous Colonel Olrik abandoned his own troops to pursue Nasir, Blake and Mortimer into the wastes beyond the wallsâ€¦

After days of relentless pursuit they reached the rocky coastline where Blake realised that he had lost precious plans and documents he have been carrying since they fled Englandâ€¦

Knowing that somebody must reach the British resistance at their hidden Eastern base, the comrades split up, with Blake and Nasir going onwards whilst Mortimer returned for the plans. Finding them was sheer good fortune, but being found by Olrik’s troops was not. Despite a Horatian last stand the scientist was taken prisonerâ€¦ but only after first successfully hiding the priceless documentsâ€¦

Months later Olrik was called to account by Basam-Damdu’s ruling council, increasingly incensed with the Colonel’s lack of progress in breaking the captive scientist and even more infuriated by a tidal-wave of sabotage and armed rebellion throughout their freshly-conquered territories.

Olrik’s realised that his days as an agent of the Yellow Empire might be numberedâ€¦

Given days to make Mortimer talk, the Colonel returned to his base just as another rebel raid allowed Nasir to infiltrate the HQ. Blake was also abroad, having joined British resistance forces in the area.

A British submarine was roving the area, launched from a vast atomic-powered secret installation under the Straits of Hormuz, where the Royal Navy were preparing for a massive counter-attack. With daring raids freeing interned soldiers all the time, the ranks of scientists, technicians and soldiers were swelling dailyâ€¦

Meanwhile, Nasir was working to free Mortimer, who was still adamantly refusing to talk of the mysterious â€œSwordfishâ€ Olrik’s agents continually heard rumours ofâ€¦

When devious Doctor Sun Fo arrived to interrogate him, the Professor explosively escaped into the fortress grounds during an earth-shattering storm. Trapped in a tower with only a handgun, he was determined to sell his life dearly, but was rescued by Blake and Nasir in a Navy Helicopter.

Using the storm for cover the heroes evaded jet pursuit and a naval sweep to link up with the British sub and escape into the nightâ€¦

The final chapter opens with a stunning reprise of past events – cunningly compiled from a succession of six full page illustrations and presumably original covers from the weekly Le Journal de Tintin – after which a daring commando raid liberates a trainload of British prisoners.

Brought to a fabulous subterranean secret base, the assorted scientists and engineers discover an underground railway, factory, armaments facilities and even an atomic pile, all furiously toiling to complete the mysterious super-weapon dubbed â€œSwordfishâ€.

The former prisoners all readily join the volunteers, blithely unaware that supremely capable scoundrel Olrik is amongst them in a cunning disguise.

Days pass and as preparations for the Big Push produce satisfactory results, a series of disastrous accidents soon leads to one inescapable conclusion: there is a saboteur in the citadelâ€¦

Eventually Olrik becomes overconfident and Mortimer exposes the infiltrator in a crafty trap, but after a fraught confrontation the Colonel escapes after almost causing a nuclear catastrophe. Fleeing across the seabed, the harried spy narrowly avoids capture by diver teams and even a hungry giant octopusâ€¦

The flight takes its toll upon Olrik and he barely reaches land alive. Luckily for him Bezendjas had been checking out that region of coastline and finds the exhausted villain trapped in his stolen deep-sea diver suit. After a lengthy period the dazed desperado recovers and delivers his hard-won information. Soon Imperial forces are converging on the British bastionâ€¦

As air and sea forces bombard the rocky island and sea-floor citadel, Olrik dispatches crack troops to break in via a concealed land entrance, resulting in a staggering battle in the depths of the Earth.

They were almost in timeâ€¦

After months of desperate struggle, Mortimer and his liberated scientists have rushed to complete the incredible Swordfish: a hypersonic attack jet with uncanny manoeuvrability and appallingly destructive armament.

Astoundingly launched from beneath the sea, the sleekly sinister plane single-handedly shoots the Empire jets out of the skies before sinking dozens of the attacking naval vessels. Ruthlessly piloting SX1 is Francis Blake; and even as he wreaks havoc upon the invading force he is joined by SX2 – a second equally unstoppable super-jetâ€¦

Soon the Yellow Empire is in full retreat and a squadron of Swordfish is completed. With the once-occupied planet in full revolt, it’s not long before Lhasa gets a taste of the flaming death it callously inflicted upon a peaceful, unsuspecting and now most vengeful worldâ€¦

They were only just in time: the insane and malignant Emperor was mere moments away from launching a doomsday flight of atomic missiles to every corner of the planet he so briefly ownedâ€¦

Gripping and fantastic in the truest tradition of pulp sci-fi and Boy’s Own Adventures, Blake and Mortimer are the very epitome of dogged heroic determination; always delivering grand, old-fashioned Blood-&-Thunder thrills and spills in timeless fashion and with astonishing visual punch. Despite the epic body count and dated milieu, any kid able to suspend modern mores and cultural disbelief (call it alternate earth history or bakelite-punk if you want) will experience the adventure of their livesâ€¦ and so will their children.

This Cinebook edition also includes a fascinating illustrated essay ‘Jacobs: 1946, The Swordfish, starting point of a masterful work’ first seen in The World of Edgar P. Jacobs, a tantalising preview of new adventure The Oath of the Five Lords (by Yves Sente & AndrÃ© Juillard) plus a biographical feature and chronological publication chart of Jacobs’ and his successors’ efforts.

April 16, 2014April 21, 2014

Blake and Mortimer volume 16: The Secret of the Swordfish Part 2 – Mortimer’s Escape

By Edgar P. Jacobs, coloured by Philippe BiermÃ© & Luce Daniels translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-161-7

Belgian Edgard FÃ©lix Pierre Jacobs (March 30th 1904-February 20th 1987) is rightly considered to be one of the founding fathers of the Continental comics industry. Although his output is relatively modest compared to most of his iconic contemporaries, the landmark serialised epic he created practically formed the backbone of the straight action-adventure comic in Europe, and his splendidly adroit yet roguish and thoroughly British adventurers Blake and Mortimer, conceived and realised for the very first issue of Le Journal de Tintin in 1946, swiftly became an crucial staple of post-war European kids’ life, in exactly the same way that Dan Dare was in 1950s Britain.

Edgar P. Jacobs was born in Brussels, a precocious child who was always drawing but was even more obsessed with music and the performing arts – especially opera. He attended a commercial school but loathed the idea of office work and instead avidly pursued the arts and drama on his graduation in 1919.

A succession of odd jobs at opera-houses (scene-painting, set decoration and even performing as both an acting and singing extra) supplemented his private performance studies, and in 1929 Jacobs won an award from the Government for classical singing.

His dreamed-of operatic career was thwarted by the Great Depression. When arts funding suffered massive cutbacks following the global stock market crash, he was compelled to pick up whatever dramatic work was going, although this did include more singing and performing.

Jacobs switched to commercial illustration in 1940, winning regular work in the magazine Bravo, as well as illustrating short stories and novels. He famously took over the syndicated Flash Gordon strip when the occupying German authorities banned Alex Raymond’s quintessentially All-American Hero and the publishers desperately needed someone to satisfactorily complete the saga.

Jacobs’ ‘Stormer Gordon’ lasted less than a month before being similarly embargoed by the Occupation dictators, after which the man of many talents simply created his own epic science-fantasy feature in the legendary Le Rayon U, a milestone in both Belgian comics and science fiction adventure.

During this period Jacobs and Tintin creator HergÃ© got together, and whilst creating the weekly U Ray strip, the younger man began assisting on Tintin, colouring the original black and white strips of The Shooting Star (originally run in newspaper Le Soir) for an upcoming album collection.

After the war and liberation, publisher Raymond Leblanc convinced HergÃ©, Jacobs and a few other comicstrip aristocracy to work for his proposed new venture. Founding publishing house Le Lombard, Leblanc also commissioned Le Journal de Tintin, an anthology comic with simultaneous editions in Belgium, France and Holland, edited by HergÃ© and starring the intrepid boy reporter plus a host of newer heroes.

Beside HergÃ©, Jacobs and writer Jacques van Melkebeke, Le Journal de Tintin featured Paul Cuvelier’s ‘Corentin’ and Jacques Laudy’s ‘The Legend of the Four Aymon Brothers’.

Laudy had been a friend of Jacobs’ since their time together on Bravo, and the first instalment of the epic thriller serial ‘Le secret de l’Espadon’ starred a bluff, gruff British scientist and an English Military Intelligence officer (who was closely modelled on Laudy): Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blakeâ€¦

The initial storyline ran from issue #1 (26^th September 1946 to September 8^th 1949) and cemented Jacobs’ status as a star in his own right. In 1950, with the first 18 pages slightly redrawn, The Secret of the Swordfish became Le Lombard’s first album release with the concluding part published three years later. These volumes were reprinted nine more times between 1955 and 1982 in addition to a single omnibus edition released in 1964.

In 1984 the story was reformatted and repackaged for English translation as three volumes with additional material (mostly covers from the weekly Tintin added to the story as splash pages) as part of a push to win some of the lucrative Tintin and Asterix market here, but failed to find an audience and ended after seven magnificent if under-appreciated volumes.

Now happily Cinebook has finally released the tale – albeit after publishing many later adventures first – and this second instalment carries the tale of the struggle against world domination to next epic levelâ€¦

Although all the subsequent Blake and Mortimer sagas have been wonderfully retranslated and published by Cinebook in recent years, this initial epic introductory adventure and its concluding two volumes remained frustratingly in the back-issue twilight zone, possibly due to their superficial embracing of the prevailing prejudices of the time.

By having the overarching enemies of mankind be a secret Asiatic â€œYellow Perilâ€ empire of evil, there is some potential for offence – unless one actually reads the books to find that any presumed racism is countered throughout by an equal amount of â€œgoodâ€ ethnic people and â€œevilâ€ white folk, so please if you have any doubts please quell them and get these booksâ€¦.

Here and now, however, let’s recap The Incredible Chase, wherein a clandestine clique in the Himalayas launched a global Blitzkrieg at the command of Basam-Damdu, malign Emperor of Tibet. The warlord ruled a secret cabal of belligerent conquerors, whose arsenal of technological super-weapons were wielded by an army of the world’s wickedest rogues such as the diabolical Colonel Olrik who dreamed of ruling the entire Earth, and his sneak attack almost accomplished all his schemes in one fell swoop.

Happily however, English physicist Philip Mortimer and MI5 Captain Francis Blake were aware of the threat and were already racing to finish the boffin’s radical new aircraft at a hidden British industrial complex.

When the attack came the old friends swung into immediate action and narrowly escaped destruction in a devastating bomber raidâ€¦

The Golden Rocket launched just as Olrik’s bombers attacked and easily outdistanced the rapacious Empire forces, leaving ruined homes behind them as they flew into a hostile world now brutally controlled by Basam-Damduâ€¦

Seeking to join British Middle East resistance forces, the fugitives’ flight ended prematurely when the Rocket crashed in the rocky wilds between Iran and Afghanistan. Parachuting to safety, Blake and Mortimer survived a host of perils and escaped capture more than once as they slowly, inexorably made their way to the distant rendezvous, before meeting a British-trained native Sergeant Ahmed Nasir.

Using commando tactics to infiltrate the enemy camp and stealing the villainous Colonel’s own Red-Wing super-jet, the heroes made their way towards a fall-back point but were again shot down – this time by friendly fire as anti-Lhasa rebels saw the stolen plane as an enemy targetâ€¦

Surviving this crash too, the trio were ferried in relative safety by the apologetic tribesmen to the enemy-occupied town of Turbat and sheltered by a friendly Khan administrator. However the man’s servant, a spy of the Empire-appointed Wazir, recognised the Englishmen and Nasir realised far too late the danger they all facedâ€¦

Sending his loyal Sergeant away, Blake tried valiantly frantically to save Mortimer whilst a platoon of Empire soldiers rapidly mounted the stairs to their exposed roomâ€¦

The frantic action resumes here in Mortimer’s Escape with soldiers bursting into an empty chamber before being themselves attacked by the Khan. After a bloody firefight the Englishmen emerge from their cunning hiding place and flee Turbat, which has been seized by a furious spur-of-the-moment rebellion.

Unknown to the fugitives, the devious spy Bezendjas is hard on their heels and soon finds an opportunity to inform Olrik. With the city in flames and fighting in every street the callous colonel abandons his own troops to pursue Nasir, Blake and Mortimer into the wastes beyond the wallsâ€¦

On stolen horses the heroes endure all the ferocious hardships of the desert but cannot outdistance Olrik’s staff-car. After days of relentless pursuit they reach the rocky coastline and almost stumble into another Empire patrol, and whilst ducking them Blake almost falls to his doom. Narrowly escaping death, the trio continue to climb steep escarpments and it is dusk before the Intelligence Officer realises that he has lost the precious plans and documents they have been carrying since they fled Englandâ€¦

Realising that somebody must reach the British resistance at their hidden Eastern base, the valiant comrades split up. Blake and Nasir continue onwards whilst Mortimer returns to the accident site. Finding the plans is a stroke of sheer good fortune, immediately countered by an ambush from Olrik’s troops.

Despite a Herculean last stand the scientist is at last taken prisoner but only after successfully hiding the lost plansâ€¦

Three months later Olrik is called to account in the exotic city-fortress of Lhasa. Basam-Damdu’s ruling council are unhappy with the Colonel’s lack of progress in breaking the captive scientist, and even more infuriated by a tidal-wave of sabotage and armed rebellion throughout their newly-conquered territories. Even Olrik’s own spies are warning him that his days as an agent of the Yellow Empire might be numberedâ€¦

Given two days to make Mortimer talk, the Colonel returns to his base in Karachi just as another rebel raid allows Nasir to infiltrate the Empire’s HQ. Blake is also abroad in the city, having joined British forces in the area.

With less than a day to act, the MI5 officer rendezvous with a British submarine and travels to a vast atomic-powered secret installation under the Straits of Hormuz, where the Royal Navy are stoically preparing for a massive counter-attack on the Empire. With raids liberating interned soldiers all the time, the ranks of scientists, technicians and soldiers are swelling dailyâ€¦

Meanwhile, Nasir has begun a desperate plan to free Mortimer, who is still adamantly refusing to talk of the mysterious â€œSwordfishâ€ Olrik’s agents continually hear rumours ofâ€¦

Aware of his danger and the Sergeant’s efforts, Mortimer instead cunningly informs Nasir of the lost plans’ location, even as the impatient Emperor’s personal torturer arrives from Lhasaâ€¦

Always concerned with the greater good, Blake and a commando team secure the concealed plans and are met by Nasir who has been forced from Karachi after realising the spy Bezendjas has recognised him. It appears that time has run out for their scholarly comradeâ€¦

Mortimer, however, has taken fate into his own hands. When the devious Doctor Sun Fo begins his interrogation, the Professor breaks free and escapes into the fortress grounds during an earth-shattering storm. Trapped in a tower with only a handgun, he is determined to sell his life dearly, but is rescued by Blake and Nasir in a Navy Helicopter.

Using the storm for cover the heroes evade jet pursuit and an enemy naval sweep to link up with a British sub and escape into the nightâ€¦

To Be Concludedâ€¦

Gripping and fantastic in the best tradition of pulp sci-fi and Boy’s Own Adventures, Blake and Mortimer are the very epitome of True Brit grit and determination; always delivering grand, old-fashioned Blood-&-Thunder thrills and spills in tried and true timeless fashion and with staggering visual verve and dash. Despite the high body count and dated milieu, any kid able to suspend modern mores and cultural disbelief (call it alternate earth history or bakelite-punk if you want) will experience the adventure of their livesâ€¦ and so will their children.

This Cinebook edition also includes a tantalising preview of the next volume as well as excerpts from stand-alone adventure S.O.S. Meteors, plus a biography feature which offers a chronological publication chart of Jacobs’ and his successors’ efforts and a handy comparison and chronological publishing order of the Cinebook releases.

April 1, 2014March 31, 2014

Vignette

Drawings by Antoine CossÃ©, stories by Alex Jackson (Records Records Records books)
ISBN: 978-0-9566330-3-3

Here’s a tantalising little digest of comics delights featuring clever collaborations between Parisian expat illustrator Antoine CossÃ© and Alex Jackson who here pens a beguiling selection of short yarns to charm and chill aficionados of visual storytelling.

The eye-catching entertainments begin with an elysian travelogue as our narrator offers a bulletin of placid news and ethereally calming events straight from an idyllic ‘Paradise’, after which ‘The Architect’ lets his job go to his head in a wryly OTT dissertation on the seductive power and limitations of creativity.

‘Bantam’ powerfully captures the helpless, impassioned loyalty of a lifelong supporter for his local football team, exploring with heartfelt empathy that infernal drive which always tantalises and annually crushes the hopes and dreams of followers of impoverished and perennially second class teams.

‘Dr. Hall’ then endearingly examines English manners and mores in a beguiling record of a GP’s talents and failings, as seen through the doting reminiscences of one of his patientsâ€¦

Comics and film are similar art forms in that both can deliberately lie whilst revealing truths. By the simple act of juxtaposing visuals and sound/text in opposition (like seeing a baby crying but dubbing in giggling) in a narrative, levels of meaning can be easily manipulated and the consumer made aware of two – or more – stories at once.

It’s an odd psychological quirk in such situations that readers or viewers always treat the pictures as â€œtrueâ€ or â€œrealâ€ whilst the words/soundtrack are deemed false, duplicitous or wrongâ€¦

Comprising the majority of this evocative and compelling collection, ‘J.1137’ first appeared as a self-contained comicbook from Breakdown Press and is certainly the most engaging and challenging piece in the book.

With words and pictures apparently contradicting or belying each other, a strange, fantastic enigma draped in all the apparent trappings of a movie blockbuster unfolds as an immortal screen star rashly steps outside the bounds and parameters of his lavish but fiercely proscribed existence, seeing too much of the wrong things and inevitably paying a high priceâ€¦

Constructed of warring layers of reality and illusion, this is a cross-genre saga that will appeal to lovers of the art form who love a mystery and are prepared to work out their own answers.

Beguiling, intriguing, contemplative, astonishingly fresh and appealing, Vignette is a beautiful example of comics’ unique power which deserves to find the widest possible audience. Buy it and show all your friends.
Â© 2013 Antoine CossÃ© + Alex Jackson. Â© & â„— Records Records Records.

March 25, 2014March 24, 2014

Kiddo

By Antoine CossÃ© (Records Records Records Books)
ISBN: 978-0-9566330-1-9

Since Britain grew up and joined the rest of the world in accepting comics as a valid and viable art form, the shelves of Albion have been positively groaning with a wealth of superbly fascinating graphic narratives of all types; especially since a number of bold new publishers have either picked up and translated Asian and European material or confidently released new stuff from creators around the world.

Antoine CossÃ© is a French graphic storyteller living in London. He left Paris to study at Camberwell College of Arts and graduated in 2006 with a degree in illustration. He then began a seemingly non-stop barrage of moody, funny and evocative strips catering to his own need to explore the absurd, the fanciful and the unexpected lurking behind the humdrum passage of everyday lives and kindly invited a growing fan-base to join him in his explorations.

Following a number of short strips, features and collaborations, in 2012 he produced his debut graphic novel – Kiddo – for British outfit Records Records Records Books: an enigmatic, helter-skelter cartoon progression practically devoid of words which combines elements of epic dystopian science fiction with unceasing kinetic forward motion redolent in tone – if not style and content – to the ceaselessly energetic strip works of AndrÃ© Barbe.

Lavishly packaged as a black and white hardback (comfortingly reminiscent of those classily sturdy children’s books of my youth) the stark events unfold as a solitary man plunges through jungles and wastelands, seeking who knows what in a scary big world.

Encountering beasts, a woman, hardship, hunger, booze, a giant monster dog, war, strange phenomena and the encroaching remnants – or perhaps discards – of civilisation, he moves ever onward to a chaotic closing conundrumâ€¦

Deeply sly, beguiling reductive and intoxicatingly Primitivist, Kiddo is an irresistibleÂ surge of purely visual drama and a mystery for its own sake which will delight all aficionados of the medium who value comics for their own sake and don’t need answers spoon-fed to them.
Â© 2012 Antoine CossÃ©. Â© & â„— Records Records Records Books.

March 19, 2014March 17, 2014

Uber

By Kieron Gillen, Canaan White & Keith Williams (Avatar Press)
ISBN: 978-1-59291-218-6

There’s something of an immediately post-WWII zeitgeist in effect in Britain at the moment: exhibitions, documentaries, a few exceedingly good TV dramas (Bletchley Circle, Murder on the Home Front, Foyle’s War) and even some comics.

Being British, writer Kieron Gillen grew up reading war comics like Battle and so has our peculiarly manic and trenchant viewpoint – engendered by the works of Pat Mills, John Wagner, Tom Tully, Alan Hebden and Gerry Finley-Day – to augment his own uniquely dark and sardonic imagination, previously displayed in strips and comics as varied as Phonogram, Save Point, Dark Avengers: Ares, Thor, Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man and many more.

Now he has applied the implausible metahuman trappings of the American superhero comicbook to the bleak, gritty, apocalyptically human scaled drama of â€œthe Last Good Warâ€ to produce a vicious, nasty and utterly enthralling sci-fi-tinged epic of staggering scope and power.

This first full-colour trade paperback compilation, illustrated with stark, gory verve by Canaan White & Keith Williams, collects issues #0-5, and posits a much debated â€œWhat Ifâ€¦?â€ as Germany’s GÃ¶tterdÃ¤mmerung is averted at the very last moment by a very nasty miracleâ€¦

Blending scrupulous historical research with a canny take on human nature, the story begins with the triumphant Russians barbarously overrunning Berlin on the night of April 24^th 1945, even as arch-patriot General Sankt delivers at long last a handful of incomprehensible human weapons to General Heinz Guderian, just as that demoralised, defeated Reichsmann readies himself for the end.

Five days later in a secret base near the Swiss border, a trusted scientist for Projekt U murders her former colleagues and sabotages the outpost before dashing towards the advancing American forces, carrying an incredible secretâ€¦

With Hitler putting a gun into his mouth word comes of an impossible turnaround. The human â€œBattleshipsâ€ Siegmund, Siegfried and Seiglinde, supplemented by lesser supermen and wonder women, have ravaged and repulsed the despised subhuman Sovietsâ€¦

The Generals realise even these Wunderwaffen (the result of years of ruthless research) cannot reverse Germany’s fate, but by their ghastly actions and uncanny efforts the nation may be able to negotiate a favourable armistice that won’t leave the country broken forever.

Der Fuhrer, however, totally demented and wantonly vengeful, wants Grand Opera outcomes: Wagnerian Cataclysm and the world made into a rubble heap that would make Berlin seem merely scratchedâ€¦

The madman appals his closest cronies when he orders Seigfried to execute a million Russian prisoners of war before despatching his ghastly Hell-kinder to destroy Paris and resume his holy war on Russia.

Meanwhile British spy Stephanie has made it back to England – having en route despatched two of the Ãœbermensch she helped create – and convinced Winston Churchill to fast-track the Allies’ own Human Tank project.

To facilitate this, she had brought stolen samples of the transformative crystalline chemical Woden’s Blood and copies of artefacts and documents used by Nazi scientist Professor Metzger.

The ancient – possibly extraterrestrial – inscriptions and records the biochemist was working from go to BletchleyPark where brilliant cryptologist Alan Turing lets his new Electronic Brain loose on deciphering the still untranslated majority of the writingsâ€¦

Woden’s Blood only upgrades 1 in every 5000 humans, and needs repeated, gradual applications, but even so the harried Allies still find enough volunteers to get the ball rolling, and as weeks pass they slowly become a plausible answer to the now limited and stalled German superhuman project.

In the intervening time, Battleship Sieglinde has led her less-developed and incomplete Mark 2 comrades in the march upon so-recently liberated Paris to carry out Hitler’s demands for punishment. Now as the fanatical Ãœber Soldaten prepare to raze the city they are ambushed by a hastily prepared Expeditionary Force of Anglo American Human Tanks.

They are not enoughâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Savage, brutal and visually shocking, this stunning, doom-drenched drama crackles with tension, drips with mystery and suspense and comes with a chilling 20+ page gallery of covers, variants and ancillary artwork, and will appeal to lovers of fantasy fiction and unreal war stories alikeâ€¦

Â© 2013 Avatar Press Inc. Uber and all related properties â„¢ & Â© 2013 Avatar Press Inc.
Uber will be released on April 1^st 2014

March 6, 2014March 6, 2014

It Came!

By Dan Boultwood, Esq. (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-005-4

Once upon a time â€œretroâ€ only meant rockets, with all those thrilling chilling connotations of clunky spaceships, cardboard robots and men in Baco-foil suits shambling about and terrifying avid children who had stayed up late to watch B-movie sci-fi yarns on black-&-white TV sets.

Jeepers, I miss those days, and so, apparently, does multi-talented, forward-thinking nostalgeologist Dan Boultwood.

In 2013, his 4-issue miniseries offered a tantalising tribute to the fantastic fantasy movies which fuelled the imaginations of British Baby-Boomers: simultaneously recapturing the wide-eyed wonder of the period whilst adding layers of archly post-modern humour to the mixâ€¦

This stirring monochrome graphic-novelisation of a faux-classic effort from the rightly almost-forgotten Pinetree Studios outfit now allows modern film fans to experience (or revisit) the quirky delights which wowed their grandparents – and all from the comfort of their own homes – or even whilst out riding in a open-topped omnibusâ€¦

Packed to bursting with and supplemented by oodles of outrageous, hilarious, mood-setting ads for everything from Smoke & Choke’um Cigarettes to Johnny Foreigner Engine Oil, the story is a loving but irreverent paean of praise not only to those inspirational filmic marvels but also to the small repertory of actors and producers who made the late 1950s and early 1960s such a cornucopia of movie madness.

Like all such matinee marvels, the main feature here is preceded by a short trailer (for The Lost Valley of the Lost) which serves to introduce our cast, specifically He-Man Lead Dick Claymore as the sexist, pipe-chewing, tweed draped boffin Dr. Boy Brett and strident starlet Fanny Flaunders as his long-suffering, infinitely patient, glamorous-whilst-screaming assistant/secretary Doris Night.

The vintage supporting cast includes Bertrum Cumberbund, Spencer Lacey and Joan Fetlock, stalwart Pinetree thespians allâ€¦

It’s 1958 and in a beautiful bit of rural, ill-educated England a colossal robot rampagesâ€¦

Two days later Dr. Brett from SpaceUniversity is treating working class ingÃ©nue Doris to a ride in his Morris Minor. He decides they should stop for a Ploughman’s Lunch in a strangely quiet and quaint village, blithely unaware that the reason it’s so still is because the aforementioned alien automaton has depopulated the shireâ€¦

Its subsequent surprise attempt to trap the tourists founders only when it stumbles into a cloying web of obfuscating, celebratory buntingâ€¦

After their spectacular close call the harried humans reach the next village over, but despite the boffin’s Old Boy Network connections, it’s the Devil’s own job to get the Ministry to mobilise the Military.

Nevertheless, Boy persists and soon a squad of veterans arrive to take control of the situation (a superb pastiche of the venerable icons of the â€œCarry-Onâ€ film franchise), only to vanish as the rapacious robot strikes againâ€¦

Undaunted, Boy drags Doris into more trouble and soon they find themselves aboard a vast Flying Saucer, uncovering the nature of the invaders’ appalling assault. The creepy, apparently unstoppable horrors are imprisoning salt-of-the-earth British citizens and somehow extracting their Stiff Upper Lipsâ€¦

Following a necessary Intermission for the purchase and consumption of gin and fags, the cartoon/celluloid calamity continues as our hero – and the girl – escape and head for London to warn the authorities, but not before accidentally dropping a handy but unlucky army division on exercises right in the UFO’s marauding sights.

Dr. Brett arrives barely ahead of the indestructible, unbeatable Saucer and, as the World’s Smoggiest Capital burns and founders, he is compelled to stop running and turn his mighty, college-honed intellect to the task of destroying the threat to civilisationâ€¦

This collection is also augmented by the original full-colour covers, hysterical background â€œinformation pagesâ€ on and intimate photos of stars Claymore and Flaunders, blueprints and design sketches for the alien Grurk and Flying Saucer, a selection from the infamous It Came! Cigarette Cards and colour posters for other Pinetree Studio releases such as ‘My Reptilian Bride!’, ‘Rocket Into Space!’, ‘The Lost Valley of the Lost’ and ‘Myopic Moon Men from the Moon’â€¦

More revelations are forthcoming in the ‘Metropolitan Police Incident Report on Mr. Claymore’s â€œeccentricâ€ Drinking Habits’, and Director Boultwood’s photo-feature exposing his Special Effects magic in animating the Saucer for celluloid.

It Came! is a brilliant and sublime masterpiece of loving parody, perfectly executed and astoundingly effective. It is also the funniest – both visually and verbally – book I’ve read in years, blending slapstick with satire, outrageous ideas with infamous characterisations, and spit-taking puns, single entendres and innuendoes that would do Sid James, Charles Hawtrey or Kenneth Williams proud.

Miss it at your peril, Chaps (and Ladies tooâ€¦).
It Came! â„¢ and Â© 2014 Dan Boultwood.

It Came! is published on March 11th.

March 3, 2014March 2, 2014

Chronos Commandos: Dawn Patrol

By Stuart Jennett (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-006-1

In a marketplace stuffed to bursting point with books and stories that are only parts of a greater whole, it’s a merciful delight to see that some publishers and creators are still sticking to the perfect basics and delivering complete, enthralling and fundamentally cool packages for kids of all ages (at least if you’re a bit liberal/traditional in your views of parenting and accept the intrinsically bloodthirsty nature of children)â€¦

If you’re British a reader of a certain vintage – and more or less male – you never really grew out of the fundamental and sheerly gratuitous entertainment of seeing soldiers, explosions, chases, big guns and dinosaurs, and this spectacularly backwards-looking romp from Stuart Jennett (Warheads, 2000AD) punches all those buttons in a riotous time-travel war story which originally appeared in 2013 as a 5-issue miniseries.

The idea of honking big lizards against honking big guns is venerable, unceasingly cool and simply too good a concept to resist. I believe it all kicked off with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World and was refined by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Caprona stories (known alternatively as the Caspak Trilogy or â€œthe Land That Time Forgotâ€, although many of his other novel sequences contained saurian co-stars) providing everything imaginative boys could wish for: giant lizards, humongous insects, fantastic adventures, hot cave girls and two-fisted heroes with lots of gunsâ€¦

The most successful comics instance of this must surely be Robert Kanigher’s The War that Time Forgot (which debuted in Star Spangled War Stories #90, April-May 1960). The stories of US troops fighting Germans, Japanese and hungry monsters ran until #137 (May 1968) skipping only three issues: #91, 93 and #126 – the last of which starred the United States Marine Corps simian Sergeant Gorillaâ€¦

Whereas this fine new iteration, given a quirkily British spin, boasts no busty babes in either torn but oddly obfuscating scraps of lab coat or fetching muskrat-pelt bikinis (though maybe there’s room in the sequel), it does contain fast-paced, gory antediluvian slaughter and a twisty-turny, time-bending plot to heighten the gruelling, gripping duel between the world’s first full time chronal combatantsâ€¦

Following Jennett’s Introduction the non-stop action begins deep in dinosaur times and climes as a veteran US Army Sergeant leads his squad in another raid to stop Nazi time-troopers from mucking up history in the Fuhrer’s favour.

Temporal travel is still a new arena for combat and nobody really knows the rules, but the Professor back in 1944 is pretty adamant that visitors to the past should harm or kill as little as possible.

Of course that’s easy for him to say from his nice safe labâ€¦

Time-Landings are haphazard at best and the G.I.s have to cut through miles of swamp to reach their current objective, so before too long only Grease and the Sarge are left to sneak up on the Nazi Time-Bell, doing God knows what to win the war for Uncle Adolfâ€¦

In charge is old enemy Kapitan Dieter Richter, Germany’s top Chrono-Kriegsmann, and the wily fox again manages to escape even though the Sarge succeeds in blowing up his baseâ€¦

Exhausted and wounded, the Sarge treks back alone and triggers his Chronosphere’s return, only to emerge into another blazing firefight. Nazi agents have successfully infiltrated the Allied time lab of Project: Watchmaker and stolen the Professor’s Chronos Core – the invention which powers the trips and enables US time-teams to return homeâ€¦

A traitor has jumped back to the Cretaceous, intent on handing the core over to a Kraut team and giving them an unbeatable edge in time tech, leaving the Americans with only 30-minutes Relative to prevent the end of Allied Chronal Operations forever.

Frantically, Sarge assembles a 4-man team from the lab’s surviving soldiery to give chase and recover the device, utterly unaware that he has left the Prof unprotected with another insidious Nazi infiltratorâ€¦

The grizzled Non-Com would be no happier knowing that he’s bringing one back to the age of reptiles with him tooâ€¦

What follows is a desperate and ghastly race against time with hungry saurians, deadly giant bugs and murderous bushwhacking Nazis all adding to the body count, whilst in the Age of Man lethal paradoxes multiply and the fragile stability of all time and space begin to fractureâ€¦

Riotous and spectacular, explosively gung-ho but still smart enough to pile on the temporal pressures and leavened with sly, knowing black humour, Dawn Patrol offers a bullet-ridden rollercoaster of blockbuster thrills no big kid could possibly resist.

Also included here is a large section of added features from the ‘Chronos Commandos Supplemental Briefing Pack’ which includes such text background as ‘Official Papers Transferring Sgt. XXXX to Project: Watchmakerâ€¦’, ‘Black Star Initiative Operational Parameters’, ‘Chronos Commandos Search and Destroy Mission Briefing’, ‘Dr. Herla’s Autopsy Report: including Discussion of His Various Fatal Mutations, and Informed Speculation on the Perils of Time Travel’ and ‘Know Your Enemy Dinosaur Comparison Charts’.

Also included are the tragic fragments of a lost hero’s life in ‘Peabody’s ‘Letters from Home’ and his ‘Vintage Crash Jordan Serial Poster’ as well as Blueprints for both the Allied and Nazi Time Pods, original comics ‘Series Covers’ and extensive excerpts from ‘The Chronos Commandos Sketchbook’.

Chronos Commandos: Dawn Patrol is published on March 11^th. For details of how to meet the author and get a copy signed, check out our Noticeboard section.

February 16, 2014

Zero Hour and Other Stories

Illustrated by Jack Kamen, written by Al Feldstein, Bill Gaines, Ray Bradbury & Jack Oleck (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-704-8

From 1950-1954 EC was the most innovative and influential comicbook publisher in America, dominating the genres of crime, horror, adventure, war and science fiction. They even originated an entirely new beast – the satirical comicbook – with Mad.

After a shaky start and following the death of his father (who actually created comicbooks in 1933), new Editor/publisher William Gaines and his trusty master-of-all-comics trades Al Feldstein turned a slavishly derivative minor venture into a pioneering, groundbreaking enterprise which completely altered the perception of the industry and art form.

They began co-plotting the bulk of EC’s output together, intent on creating a â€œNew Trendâ€ of stories aimed at older, more discerning readers (rather than the mythical 8-year-olds comics ostensibly targeted) and shifted the emphasis of the ailing company towards dark, funny, socially aware broadly adult fare.

Their publishing strategy also included hiring some the most gifted writers and artists in the field. One of the earliest and certainly most undervalued at the time was Jack Kamenâ€¦

This lavish monochrome hardcover volume, another instant classic in Fantagraphics’ EC Library, gathers a scintillating selection of Kamen’s quirkily low-key science fiction tales which always favoured character over spectacle or gimmicks and human frailty and foibles: the kind of offbeat yarns which predominated in such cleverly thought out TV shows as Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, which followed in EC’s wakeâ€¦

This almanac of The Unknown is, as always, stuffed with supplementary features beginning with ‘Graceful, Glamorous, and Easy on the Eye’: an informative, picture-packed history and critical appreciation by lecturer Bill Mason, after which the succession of scary, funny Tomorrow Stories opens with ‘Only Human!’

Kamen actually began working for EC before their New Trend days, brought in by old friend Al Feldstein (who scripted most of the stories here after barnstorming plot-sessions with affirmed SF fan and closet scientist Gaines) and this yarn from Weird Science #11, January/February 1952, perfectly shows the artist’s facility for capturing feminine allure (which served him well in his earlier romance comics days).

The tale is smart too as a group of readers is hired to educate the first ever electronic brain, but are unable to keep their feelings from contaminating the projectâ€¦

‘Shrinking from Abuse!’ (Weird Fantasy #11, also January/February 1952) is more recognisably EC â€œjust dessertsâ€ fare, as an abusive chemist’s size-changing solution leads to his beleaguered wife getting the final word in, whilst ‘The Last Man!’ from W S #12 (March/April 1952) plays morality games after a male survivor of atomic Armageddon finally locates a new Eve and finds she is the only woman he can’t possibly repopulate the world withâ€¦

Weird Fantasy #12, (March/April 1) revealed ‘A Lesson in Anatomy’ as a little lad’s ghoulish curiosity inadvertently ended an alien infiltration attempt, after which ‘Saving for the Future’ (Weird Science #13, May/June) offered a stunning lesson in Compound Interest when a poor couple opened a bank account and went into induced hibernation for 500 years, whilst ‘The Trip!’ (W F#13, May/June) looked at a different aspect of the topic as a philandering scientist attempted to use quick freeze tech to run off with his pretty assistant, but forgot something really importantâ€¦

‘Close Call!’ (W F #14, July/August) took a rather cruel look at a female scientist who wished that her male colleagues would stop hitting on her and wasn’t too happy at the hand fate then dealt her, before Weird Science #15 (September/October 1952) took a knowing glimpse at everyman’s dream when a nerd accidentally acquired the time-lost means to make perfect, willing women – and still got everything wrong due to ‘Miscalculation!’â€¦

Feldstein worked on every genre in EC’s stable, but the short, ironic, iconic science thrillers he produced during that paranoid period of Commies and H-Bombs, Flying Saucer Scares and Red Menaces, irrevocably transformed the genre from cowboys in tinfoil suits and Ray-gun adventure into a medium where shock and doom lurked everywhere.

His cynically trenchant outlook and darkly comedic satirical stories made the cosmos a truly dangerous, unforgiving place and kept it such – until the Comics Code Authority and television pacified and diminished the Wild Black Yonder for all future generations. He did however maintain a strong working relationship with Space-babes and ethereally beautiful E.T.s – and nobody drew them better than Kamenâ€¦

Â ‘He Who Waits!’(Weird Fantasy #15, September/October 1952) revealed one of their best collaborations as an old botanist discovered a luscious, seductive maiden only eight inches tall, living in one of his plants. The bittersweet tale showed that love could overcome any obstacleâ€¦

Greed is another unfailing plot driver in EC stories and in ‘Given the Heir!’ (W S #16, November/December) a poor new husband recruits his own descendent in a crazy plan to change the past and inherit millions. Unfortunately he didn’t pay as much attention to family history as he should haveâ€¦

‘What He Saw!’ in W F #16, (November/December) is an unrelenting tale of induced madness inflicted upon a lost space explorer whilst 1953 began in fine style with another science lesson as ‘Off Day!’ (Weird Science #17, January/February) outrageously depicted the potential results of the law of averages taking a day off before ‘The Parallel!’ (W S #18, March/April 1953) explored the concept of alternate earths as a smart but poor genius attempted to improve his life by murdering his other selvesâ€¦

Weird Fantasy #18 (March/April) featured the eponymous ‘Zero Hour’ – adapted from a Ray Bradbury short story â€“ and dealt with the subtlest of Martian invasions as imaginary friends used human children to pave their way, after which the Gaines/Feldstein brain trust described the grim fate of a chancer who used intercepted future gadgetry to turn his automobile into a getaway vehicle nobody could catchâ€¦ or findâ€¦ in ‘Hot-Rod!’ (Weird Fantasy #19, May/June 1953).

Cold, emotionless invaders infiltrated human society only to be doomed by seductive feelings in ‘â€¦Conquers All!’ (W F #20, July/August) after which the Bradbury prose piece â€œChangelingâ€ became ‘Surprise Package’ in Weird Science #20 (also July/August 1953) detailing the complex web of savage emotions engendered when Love Mannequins become commonplaceâ€¦

Bradbury’s sequel ‘Punishment Without Crime’ (W S #21, September/October) took the theme further by considering if killing such automata might be murder, before ‘Planely Possible’ (W F #21, September/October) returns to the concept of parallel Earths for a car crash survivor who would do anything to be reunited with his dead wife – or nearest approximation – after which cruel and unscrupulous carnival owners learn what its like to be ‘The Freaks’ (Weird Fantasy #22, November/December 1953)â€¦

Cold war paranoia and repression inform the 1984-like world of ‘4^th Degree’ (Weird Science-Fantasy #27, January/February 1955) as a closet rebel attempts to unmake his totalitarian world through time travel, and this glossy, dark trip through vintage tomorrows ends with ‘Round Trip’ from Weird Science-Fantasy #27 (March/April 1955) with a touching and contemplative reverie of a life lived long if not wellâ€¦

Regarded as one of the company’s fastest artists (only the phenomenal Jack Davis turned in his pages at a greater rate) Kamen always produced illustrative narrative which jangled nerves and twanged heartstrings: his lush forms and lavish inks instantly engaging and always concealing brilliant touches of sly, knowing humour. He was often overshadowed by EC’s other stalwarts but he was every bit their equal.

The timeless comics tales are followed by more background revelations in S.C. Ringgenberg’s ‘Jack Kamen’ and a special essay on the artist’s later life in ‘From Science Fiction to Science Fortune’ drawing intriguing parallels between his EC cartoons and the design assistance he later contributed to his inventor son Dean’s landmark creations – the portable Drug Infusion pump, portable Kidney Dialysis machine and Segway PT (yeah, that Dean Kamen) – before ending on another comprehensively illuminating ‘Behind the Panels: Creator Biographies’ from Tom Spurgeon, Janice Lee and Arthur Lortie.

The short, sweet but severely limited output of EC has been reprinted ad infinitum in the decades since the company died. These astounding, ahead-of-their-time-comics tales did not just revolutionise our industry but also impacted the whole world through film and television and via the millions of dedicated devotees still addicted to New Trend tales.

Zero Hour is the 8^th Fantagraphics compendium highlighting the contributions of individual creators, adding a new dimension to aficionados’ enjoyment whilst providing a sound introduction for those lucky souls encountering the material for the very first time.

Whether an aged EC Fan-Addict or the merest neophyte convert, this is a book no comics lover or crime-caper victim should missâ€¦
Zero Hour and Other Stories Â© 2014 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All comics stories Â© 2014 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., reprinted with permission. All other material Â© 2014 the respective creators and owners.

February 14, 2014February 14, 2014

Snowpiercer volume 2: The Explorers

By Benjamin Legrand & Jean-Marc Rochette, translated by Virginie Selavy (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978 -1-78276-136-5

Like the times that produced it, the Franco-Belgian comics classic Le Transperceneige was a troubled and ill-starred beast. The tale was originally conceived by prolific veteran scripter and occasional cartoonist Jacques Lob to be illustrated by his Superdupont collaborator Alexis (Dominique Vallet) but the artist’s untimely death on 7^th September 1977 stalled the project until 1982 when painter, comics artist and book illustrator Jean-Marc Rochette (Pinocchio, Le petit poucet, Le chat bottÃ©, Candide, Le DÃ©poteur de ChrysanthÃ¨mes, Edmond le Cochon, Requiem Blanc) came aboard.

The delayed apocalyptic epic then ran in Ã€ Suivre in 1982 and 1983, with a collected edition published in 1984.

Although popular the sequel was not forthcoming until long after Lob died in 1990, whereafter Benjamin Legrand took up the concept with Rochette, producing two more epic tales of the Last Train to Nowhereâ€¦

No stranger to comics, Legrand (Lone Sloane, White Requiem, Gold & Spirit) is also a major mainstream prose author and French-language translator of such luminaries as Milton Caniff, R. Crumb, Robert Ludlum, Tom Wolfe, John Grisham and Nelson DeMille amongst many others. This varied background brought an edgy thriller-writing sensibility to the austere high concept of the original dystopian tomorrow mixâ€¦

With the imminent UK release of the movie Snowpiercer, Titan Comics (whose other translated offerings include The Hunting Party, Blueberry and other assorted classics by Enki Bilal, Moebius and others) have brought the entire three album masterpiece to our parochial Anglo-centric attention in two lavishly luxurious monochrome hardbacks. Both of Legrand & Rochette’s cool collaborations are here combined into a stunning collection of bleak and chilling End of the World turmoil: in one stunning, sturdy volume, as a companion to Snowpiercer book 1: The Escape.

In that original tale a new Ice Age had instantaneously descended over Earth and a microcosm of humanity rushed onto a vast vacation super-train repurposed as an ever-running ark of survival. As that monolithic futuristic engine began a never-ending circumambulation on tracks originally designed to offer the idle rich the ultimate pleasure cruise, the people rich, lucky or ruthless enough to secure a place quickly settled into their old pre-disaster niches and original divisive social stratifications.

Life continued for decades in this manner until a bold outcast named Proloff escaped from the sealed nether-end carriages, travelling the length of the 1001 cars pulled by the mysterious miracle of modern engineering. He acquired a romantic companion, clashed with the Military and Elite’s hierarchies, inadvertently sowing deadly discord until he reached the Engine herself and discovered the uncanny secret of the machine called â€œOlgaâ€â€¦

The drama now resumes in Snowpiercer book 2: The Explorers (originally serialised as Le Transperceneige: L’arpenteur in 1999) with a stunning revelation.

Soon after that train first sealed itself from the world and departed, a second, better equipped life-preserving cortÃ¨ge took off after it. Perpetually trailing the original, the denizens of the second Snowpiercer have also devolved into a far-from-homogeneous society: one also crippled by the overwhelming fear that they will inevitably smash into their forerunner one dayâ€¦

Snowpiercer 2 has many modifications missing from the original. Designed as an icebreaker, the train also boasts radar detection systems, one-man short-hop flying modules and is able to brake and stop, allowing the hardiest individuals to debark and briefly scavenge amongst the frozen ruins of the world that’s goneâ€¦

There’s also a far more savvy autocracy in charge; scrupulously managing the disparate elements of the rolling society. Carefully constructed hologram adventures and TV shows placate passengers of all classes, an oligarchic Council manages every aspect of existence, a religion has been created to dole out hope, passive acceptance and guilt as required and the rulers run a gambling racket which provides a safe outlet for the lowest of the lowâ€¦

Explorers have a short life expectancy and are highly expendable, but generally bring back far more flashy trinkets for the wealthy than salvaged food, drugs or technology for the masses.

The constant fear of collision has produced malcontents, cynics, terrorists, a huge need for anti-depressants and increasing incidents of a deranged group psychosis in many carriage dwellers. â€œCosmosiansâ€ are gripped by a sure and certain belief that the entire vehicle is actually a spaceship hurtling through hard vacuum, rather than a wheeled entourage braving mere minus-130 degree wind and snow.

The terrifying panic which resulted from the first test-braking 15 years previously still scars most psyches but life on the rails is generally improving. Council head Kennel is delighted to learn that surface temperatures outside are slowly rising again (-121 in some places!), the birth rate is still successfully and voluntarily restricted whilst recycling, meat and agriculture output are at record levels.

Moreover his own daughter Val is constantly coming up with new and exciting Virtual Environment programs for the winners of the ubiquitous gambling contests to enjoy: histories, fantasies and adventures all enthral the Proles and keep them slavishly betting in hope of winning new and stimulating diversionsâ€¦

Her latest idea is a bit of a shocker though: she wants to reproduce what the Explorers experience when they leave the trainâ€¦

Despite her father refusing the request Val decides to go ahead anyway and sneaks back to the carriages where Reverend Dicksen is administering the blessing of Saint Loco upon the suicidal scavengers in preparation for their next foray.

As she spies on them she is accosted by the increasingly unstable Metronome – spiritual leader of the breakaway Cosmosian sect – but ignores his warnings, set on learning more about the anonymous stalwarts who risk their lives for medicines for the masses.

Explorer Puig VallÃ¨s is not an idealist. As the third-class grunt fatalistically trudges back from a deep-frozen museum, he is one of only four survivors of yet another art raid, stealing useless treasures for the coffers of the elite â€œFrontersâ€. His surly rebelliousness and smart mouth soon get him into hot water and he is arrestedâ€¦

Uncaring of the trouble he’s in or the cheap price of lower class life, Puig is intercepted by Val, whose status and family connections allow her to do almost anything she desires – even interviewing a disgraced Explorer.

Fate seems to be against her, though, as Puig is promptly announced as a winner in the Lucky Lady lottery. His prize is not a virtual vacation, but the â€œhonourâ€ of piloting one of the deteriorating fliers on an exploratory (AKA suicide) mission to see if Snowpiercer 1 is stalled on the tracks up aheadâ€¦

And in a dark and gloomy carriage, Metronome and his acolytes finish a bomb that will divert the hurtling spacecraft from its present course and towards the â€œpromised planetâ€â€¦

Puig knows he’s been set up to die and breaks free, stealing a gun and running for he knows not where, but is captured after a ferocious fire-fight. Val, meanwhile, has discovered that the train’s archives and historical records have been doctored: there’s evidence of anti-fertility drugs being added to the water, and that momentous day 15 years ago when she personally witnessed the death of Puig’s parents has been somehow deletedâ€¦

Near the front, the eternally vigilant â€œRadaristsâ€ have spotted a crisis which needs confirmation. A vast bridge pings back as damaged, but on-site inspection is vital to avoid disaster. Val clandestinely confers with Puig, just before the disgraced Explorer is subjected to a kangaroo court and charged with causing the deaths of the other Explorers in his team.

His guilt a foregone conclusion, he is sentenced to Community Service and ordered to fly a flimsy, malfunctioning scout plane to inspect the failing span ahead of the train.

His terrifying sortie confirms the radar data, and the train frantically brakes to avoid disaster. However, by the time Puig turns the plane back, the Icebreaker has switched to full reverse and is speeding away. Determined not to die, he gives chase in the dying flier, and miraculously travels through a brief burst of sunlight.

Shocked and galvanised he nurses the plane onward, even avoiding anti-aircraft fire from the train and discovers that his rolling home has a super engine at each endâ€¦

He threatens to crash the plane into the retreating cars and, as the Council deliberate the potential harm he might cause, Val – listening in on tapped lines – broadcasts the conversation to the entire populace.

Consummate politician Councillor Kennel does the only thing possible: regaining public support by proclaiming Puig a hero and taking him fully into the elite’s confidence by sharing all the Train Elite’s secrets with him.

As a Councillor, the rebel anarchist has no choice but to become a co-conspirator and in a horrifying moment of revelation meets an elderly Explorer who describes how the first â€œbrakingâ€ was actually the collision everyone has dreaded for years. The original Snowpiercer is now the rear end of their own vastly snaking train. Every moment of fear and anticipation since than has been manufactured to control the peopleâ€¦

The chilling triptych concludes in the immediately-following Snowpiercer Book 3: The Crossing (serialised in 2000 as Le Transperceneige: La traversÃ©e) as Puig chafes under a burden of secrets and his new role as Councillor, but one with far less power than the established members.

At least he no longer fears a collision that can never happen, but his sense of threat has not diminished, but rather widenedâ€¦

When Metronome’s fanatics finally detonate their bomb at the North End of Upper Second-Class, the explosion wrecks the train braking system. Naturally Puig leads a reconnaissance expedition, allowing adversarial Councillors Reverend Dicksen and fellow hardliner The General opportunity to assassinate the Explorer upstart whilst he is occupied cutting free the destroyed cars, effectively chopping the train – and humanity – in half.

As frantic evacuation procedures take effect, the Reverend dispatches fanatical cold-resistant children he’s been training to dispatch the despised enemy, but even clinging to roof of a rocketing carriage in lethal freezing winds Puig is far harder to kill than anybody realisedâ€¦

With an Engine at either end, the two halves of the train are quickly separated by frozen miles whilst Puig covertly rejoins wife Val and leads a coup. With Dicksen and the General incarcerated and resources impossibly scant for the people crammed into their half of the train, Kennel then reveals one last piece of potentially life-changing news.

The Radarists have for some time been receiving radio transmissions from across the frozen sea. Perhaps somewhere other pockets of human civilisation existâ€¦

Even if the rails hold firm and bridges are still passable, eventually the truncated train will collide head on with its severed other half if the passengers don’t starve, freeze or kill each other first.

With Councillor Kennel on-side and determined to preserve some vestige of the human race, the Explorer, tantalised by an impossible hope, decides to employ the train’s never-tested Snow Chain technology to leave the tracks completely and take everybody out across the ice-locked, frozen ocean in search of the originators of that beguiling transmissionâ€¦

Unfortunately the bold strike into the unknown is far less dangerous than the fanatics still riding within, and even the despondent, electronic phantom of Proloff, psychically bonded to the original Snowpiercer engine as a cerebral ghost within the machine, can’t help against the bloody religious uprising fomented by Dicksen, Metronome and the Generalâ€¦

And there are even more deadly revelations and surprises awaiting them in the cold, dark unknown across the seaâ€¦

This harsh exploration of society in crisis is a gripping tale depicting different kinds of survival values no reader of fantasy fiction could possibly resist, and one long overdue for major public recognition.

And by reading this volume, you’ll see far more than the movie adaptation could possibly coverâ€¦
Transperceneige/Snowpiercer and all contents are â„¢ and Â© 2013 Casterman.
Snowpiercer volume 2: The Explorers is scheduled for release on February 25th 2014

February 7, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2: Angela

By Brian Michael Bendis with Neil Gaiman, Sara Pichelli, Olivier Coipel, Valerio Schiti, Francesco Francavilla, Kevin Maguire & Mark Morales (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-570-3

Since its momentous rebirth in the early 1960s Marvel Comics was synonymous with making superheroes more realistic. However the little publisher always maintained a close connection with the fantastic space-opera and outrageous cosmic calamity that typified its pre-renaissance – as cherished by oldsters like me who grew up reading their â€œHairy-underpants Monsters from Beyondâ€ stuff.

With Space bigger than ever (a little cosmology humour there), one of the resurgent company’s earliest concepts has had a major revamp and now ranks as one of the most entertaining titles to come out of 2012’s MarvelNow! group-wide reboot.

There’s even a major blockbuster movie scheduled for release this Augustâ€¦

The Guardians of the Galaxy were created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan for try-out title Marvel Super-Heroes (#18, January 1969): a band of freedom fighters dedicated to liberating star-scattered Mankind from domination by the sinister, reptilian Brotherhood of Badoon.

A rare â€œmissâ€ for the creatively on-fire publisher, they then vanished into limbo until 1974, when Steve Gerber incorporated them into Marvel Two-In-One, Giant Size Defenders and The Defenders, wherein assorted 20th century champions travelled a millennium into the future to ensure humanity’s liberation and survival.

This led to the Guardians’ own short-lived series in Marvel Presents (February 1976-August 1977) before premature cancellation again left them floating around the Marvel Universe as perennial guest-stars for such cosmically-tinged titles as Thor, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One and The Avengers.

In 1990 they secured a relatively successful second series (#62 issues, annuals and spin-off miniseries) before cancellation struck again in July 1995.

This isn’t them; that Future was a Preludeâ€¦

In 2006 a monumental crossover epic involved most of Marvel’s 21^st century space stars in an â€œAnnihilationâ€ Event, and led writing team Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning to reconfigure the Guardians concept for contemporary times and tastes.

Amongst the stalwarts initially in play were Silver Surfer, Galactus, Firelord, Quasar, Nova, Thanos, Star-Lord, Moondragon, Super-Skrull, Gamora, Ronan the Accuser, Drax the Destroyer and a host of previously established alien civilisations such as the Kree, Skrulls, Watchers, Xandarians, Shi’ar et al., all falling before a invasion of rapacious Negative Zone beasties unleashed by undying horror Annihilus.

The saga spawned specials, miniseries and new titles (subsequently collected in many volumes) and inevitably led to a follow-up eventâ€¦

In Annihilation: Conquest, the cast expanded to tackle new threat, adding – and sometimes subtracting – such interstellar luminaries as Adam Warlock, the Inhumans, Kang the Conqueror, Blastaar, the Magus, Captain Universe, fallen Celestial Madonna Mantis, anamorphic adventurer Rocket Raccoon and gloriously whacky â€œKirby Kritterâ€ Groot, a walking killer tree and one-time â€œMonarch of Planet Xâ€, amongst othersâ€¦

I’ve covered part of that cataclysmic clash elsewhere and will get to the rest one day: suffice to say that by the end of the successive Annihilations and subsequent intergalactic War of Kings, a new, pan-species Guardian group had appointed itself to defend the recovering civilisations and prevent such calamities from ever happening again.

This isn’t them eitherâ€¦ not so muchâ€¦

A few years later and many more cosmic crises, the remnants of those many Sentinels of the Spaceways got the band back together, still determined to make the universe a safe place (for specifics you should consult Guardians of the Galaxy volume 1: Cosmic Avengers).

Thus this second compelling chronicle (collecting Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2 #4-10 from July 2013-January 2014) resumes the immensely absorbing interstellar interactions of a bunch of alien freaks and the human heroes who fight beside – when not actually with – them. Moreover, this time it all ties neatly into the overarching mainstream Marvel continuityâ€¦

Brian Michael Bendis continues the tale of Peter Jason Quill – half-breed Terran son of J’Son of Spartax: undisputed ruler of an interstellar empire but no friend of Earth – and his allies in pacifying an unruly and unforgiving universe as Drax, Rocket Racoon, Groot and Gamora (â€œDeadliest Woman in the Galaxyâ€) spend some downtime in a bar with their newest recruit, Tony Starkâ€¦

Iron Man had been spending time exploring the universe and become embroiled in the self-appointed Guardians’ ongoing trouble with a compact of major cosmic powers and principalities. A coterie of these had formed a Council of Galactic Empires and unilaterally declared Earth â€œoff limitsâ€: quarantined from all extraterrestrial contact.

That high-minded declaration hadn’t stopped one of the Signatories – the scurrilous reptilian Brotherhood of Badoon – from launching a sneak attack on London and being soundly thrashed by Quill, Stark and Coâ€¦

After open-minded â€œLadies Manâ€ Stark scores an amatory epic fail with Gamora (a wry episode which delivers plenty of laughs for his new comrades who can’t let it lie for the rest of the book), the viridian virago storms out to cool off and is ambushed by an alien bounty hunter.

Despite her formidable prowess she is only saved by the arrival of the Guardians who have just finished trashing a bar and the squad of Spartax soldiers who walked in on their drunken carousingâ€¦

With no information on who else now wants them dead, the disparate legion of the lost head back into space and a fateful dalliance with destinyâ€¦

Still being crushingly snubbed by Gamora, Stark occupies himself learning new ways to repair his comparatively primitive armour under the guidance of the aggravatingly disparaging racoon whilst Quill takes a secret meeting in one of the universe’s many unsavoury, unwelcoming armpits.

Starlord’s consultation with former ally Mantis about a bizarre episode (wherein he seemed to experience an inexplicable and debilitating chronal mindquake) provides no answers and he is forced to go ask the last person in creation he ever wanted to see againâ€¦

Meanwhile, Stark and the remaining Guardians have spotted an unidentifiable lifeform approaching Earth and rush to incept her before she can do any damageâ€¦

They reason they can’t identify her is because she’s from another universe and time. Angela (created by Neil Gaiman for Spawn #9 in 1993 and, after much legal foofawraw, brought under Marvel’s auspices in Age of Ultron) is lost and baffled, approaching a world her people have always considered a fairytale or religious myth when the still disgruntled Gamora smashes her into the moon, grateful for an excuse to work off her pent-up hostilitiesâ€¦

The satellite’s oldest inhabitant – Uatu the Watcher – is reeling from the conflict. Not because of its savage intensity but because he knows what Angela is and how she simply cannot be present in this Realityâ€¦

Quill however is pumping the mad Titan Thanos for information on his own time troubles and realises he has just poked the biggest bear in existence. The Death-Lover declares that humanity’s perpetual tampering with the time-stream has broken the universe and brought our pathetic mud-ball to the attention of races and powers that won’t let Mankind muck up Reality any longerâ€¦

Rushing back to his birthworld, Star-Lord finds his team faring very badly against the mysterious Angela and pitches in. When she is finally, spectacularly subdued, Uatu appears and proffers dire warnings for all Realityâ€¦

With uncharacteristic diplomacy Quill then coaxes the enigmatic intruder into relating her story. Apparently she’s a Hunting Angel from a place called Heven, fallen through a gaping crack in Everything That Isâ€¦

Drawn to Earth – a place her race reveres but considers a beautiful fiction – she was ambushed by Gamora, who cannot believe Star-Lord’s next move: freeing Angela and, after personally conducting her on a tour of the world, letting her go freeâ€¦

At this time almost all of Marvel’s titles had been building to a big Avengers-centric crossover event dubbed Infinity, and the next two issues (#8-9, stunningly illustrated by Francesco Francavilla) form the Guardians’ contribution to the epic, in which a double crisis afflicts our particular portion of space.

As Thanos invades Earth for his own dark personal motives, an ancient spread of races from far beyond attack those stellar empires still recovering from the Annihilation outrages and the War of Kings. It’s nothing personal: this invading alien Armada is tasked with eradicating every Earth in every dimension and the Kree, Skrulls, Badoon, Galadorians, Spartax, Shi’ar and all the rest are simply guilty of associating with humansâ€¦

With all the Avengers called into space to fight beside their former enemies, Earth is helpless when enemy E.T.’s overwhelm The Peak (the planet’s orbital defence citadel) and Abigail Brand – Director ofÂ the Sentient World Observation & Response Department – sends a desperate distress call to Star-Lord.

His affirmative answer enrages Gamora, already bristling from the knowledge Quill has been fraternising with the despised Thanos and she quitsâ€¦

With Iron Man also gone, Star-Lord, Groot and the Raccoon sneakily infiltrate the station (Drax doesn’t do unobtrusive) but quickly fall foul of the superior forces and only the sudden return of Angela saves the day. When Gamora and Drax then join the fray the Guardians are magnificently triumphantâ€¦ but at a terrible costâ€¦

This volume then closes with a far-lighter â€œGirls Night Out-rageousâ€ (#10, illustrated by Kevin Maguire) as Gamora and Angela enjoy a blistering bonding session and action-comedy moment whilst visiting the Badoon homeworld Moord, freeing the reptilians’ vast contingent of enslaved races and accidentally uncovering an impossible connection between the scurvy raider race and Angela’s dimensionally displaced peopleâ€¦

Bright, breezy, bombastic and immensely enjoyable, the Guardians of the Galaxy offer fast and furious adventure and captivating thrills, spills and chills, and this volume also includes a beautiful gallery of two dozen covers-&-variants by Pichelli & Justin Ponsor, Adi Granov, J. Scott Campbell, Julian Totino Tedesco, Brandon Peterson, Francavilla, John Tyler Christopher, Maguire, Paul Renaud, Skottie Young, Mike Deodato Jr., Terry Dodson, Milo Manara, Paolo Manuel Rivera, Mark Brooks, Leonel Castellani and Adam Kubert plus a wealth of as-standard added extras provided by a multitude of AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) offering story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: