Category: Science Fiction

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(Walt Disney’s) Mickey Mouse: The Greatest Adventures


By Floyd Gottfredson, with Walt Disney, Bill Walsh, Merrill de Maris, Bill Wright, Win Smith, Jack King, Roy Nelson, Hardie Gramatky, Ted Thwaites, Daan Jippes, David Gerstein & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-122-2 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68396-225-0

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, Mickey Mouse was first seen – if not heard – in the silent cartoon Plane Crazy. The animated short fared poorly in a May 1928 test screening and was promptly shelved. That’s why most people who care cite Steamboat Willie – the fourth completed Mickey feature – as the debut of the mascot mouse and his co-star and paramour Minnie Mouse as it was the first to be nationally distributed, as well as the first animated feature with synchronised sound.

The film’s astounding success led to the subsequent rapid release of its fully completed predecessors Plane Crazy, The Gallopin’ Gaucho and The Barn Dance, once they too had been given new-fangled soundtracks. From those timid beginnings grew an immense fantasy empire, but film was not the only way Disney conquered hearts and minds. With Mickey a certified solid gold sensation, the mighty mouse was considered a hot property and soon invaded America’s most powerful and pervasive entertainment medium: comic strips…

Floyd Gottfredson was a cartooning pathfinder who started out as just another warm body in the Disney Studio animation factory who slipped sideways into graphic narrative and evolved into a pictorial narrative ground-breaker as influential as George Herriman, Winsor McCay or Elzie Segar. Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse entertained millions of eagerly enthralled readers across the entire planet and shaped the very way comics worked. He took a wildly anarchic animated rodent from slapstick beginnings, via some of the earliest adventure continuities in comics history, and transforming a feisty everyman underdog – yes, okay, mouse – into a crimebuster, detective, explorer, lover/romantic lead, aviator or cowboy, and the quintessential two-fisted hero whenever necessity demanded.

In later years, as tastes and syndicate policy shifted, Gottfredson steered that self-same wandering warrior into a more sedate, gently suburbanised lifestyle via crafty sitcom gags suited to a newly middle-class America: a fifty-year career generating some of the most engrossing continuities the comics industry has ever enjoyed.

Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was born today in 1905 in Kaysville, Utah; one of eight siblings in a Mormon family of Danish extraction. Injured in a youthful hunting accident, Floyd whiled away a long recuperation drawing and studying cartoon correspondence courses. By the 1920s he had turned professional, selling cartoons and commercial art to local trade magazines and Big City newspaper the Salt Lake City Telegram. In 1928 he and his (apparently nameless) wife moved to California where, after a shaky start, he found work in April 1929: an in-betweener at the burgeoning Walt Disney Studios. Just as the Great Depression hit, Floyd was personally asked by Disney to take over the newborn yet ailing Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. Gottfredson would plot, draw and frequently script the strip for the next five decades: an incredible accomplishment by of one of comics’ most gifted exponents.

Veteran animator Ub Iwerks had initiated the print feature with Disney himself contributing, before artist Win Smith was brought in. The nascent strip was plagued with problems and young Gottfredson was only supposed to pitch in until a regular creator could be found.

Floyd’s first effort saw print on May 5th 1930 (his 25th birthday) and he just kept going in an uninterrupted run over the next half century. On January 17th 1932, Gottfredson created the first colour Sunday page, which he also handled until his retirement.

In the beginning he did everything, but in 1934 Gottfredson relinquished scripting, preferring plotting and illustrating adventures to playing about with dialogue. His eventual collaborating wordsmiths included Ted Osborne, Merrill De Maris, Dick Shaw, Bill Walsh, Roy Williams and Del Connell. At the start and in the manner of a filmic studio system, Floyd briefly used inkers such as Ted Thwaites, Earl Duvall and Al Taliaferro, but by 1943 had taken on full art chores.

This tremendous archival hardback compendium (185 x 282 mm and also available digitally) gathers and remasters in full colour a sublime selection of those daily delights, stuffed with thrills, spills and chills, whacky races, bizarre situations, fantastic fights and a glorious superabundance of rapid fire sight-gags peppered with verbal by-play: an unmissable journey of fabulous cartoon fun.

And I don’t need to remind you that this stuff can be deemed “dated or discriminatory content” created in times when casual violence, smoking, drinking and ethnic stereotyping were everyday occurrences, so please read this with that in mind or not at all…

The manner in which Mickey became a syndicated star is covered by editor/savant, devoted fan David Gerstein in bookend articles at front and back of this timely tome, namely Floyd Gottfredson: Walt Disney’s Mouse Man and Mickey Mouse: The Hero. In between the comic capers commence with legendary yarn ‘Mickey Mouse in Death Valley’ which ran from April 1st – September 22nd 1930. Initially the strip was treated like an animated feature, with diverse hands working under a “director”. Each day was viewed as a full gag with set-up, delivery and a punchline, usually all in service to an umbrella story or theme. Such was the format Gottfredson inherited from Walt Disney for his first full yarn.

‘The saga was further complicated by an urgent “request” from controlling syndicate King Features that the strip be immediately made more adventure-oriented to compete with the latest trend in comics – action-packed continuities…

Also roped in to provide additional art and inking to the raucous, rambunctious rambling saga were Win Smith, Jack King, Roy Nelson & Hardie Gramatky. The resulting saga – coloured here by Scott Rockwell & Susan Daigle-Leach – involved a picaresque and frequently deadly journey way out west to save Minnie’s inheritance (a lost mine) from conniving lawyer Sylvester Shyster and his vile and violent crony Pegleg Pete, whom Mickey and his aggrieved companion chased across America by every conveyance imaginable. In this pursuit they were aided by masked mystery man The Fox, while facing every possible peril as immortalised by silent movie westerns, melodramas and comedies…

With cameos throughout from Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, goat-horned Mr. Butt and a prototype Goofy who used to answer – if he felt like it – to Dippy Dog, we pause to share specially commissioned Illustrations by Gottfredson (a promotional pic and photos of tough guy pal Butch) before moving on to ‘The Picnic’ (crafted by Gottfredson, Earl Duvall & Travis Seitler (coloured by Rick Keane). It originally ran from January 5th to 10th 1931): a hopefully bucolic moment plagued by natural catastrophe, after which bold deeds are a requisite for exploring the ‘Island in the Sky’ (November 30th 1936 – April 3rd 1937, by Gottfredson, Ted Thwaites, Michel Nadorp, Erik Rosengarten, & Disney Italia).

Having secured a cash reward for capturing a band of smugglers, Mickey& Goofy buy an airplane and become working aviators: a plot device affording plenty of daily gags before one flight brings them into aerial contact with the flying automobile of a mystery scientist. After much detecting and pursuit, they find the floating fortress of reclusive super-genius Doctor Einmug, learning that he’s also being approached – if not outright menaced – by vile Pegleg Pete. The dyed-in-the-wool thug is acting as agent of a foreign power, seeking the astonishing secret and unlimited power of “aligned atoms” fuelling Einmug’s aerial miracles: trying everything from bribery to coercion to feigned reformation. When those fail, good old reliable theft and violence follow, but naturally, none of that means anything to the indomitable Mouse…

Appended by Gottfredson’s painting Mickey Mouse on Sky Island and a mini-feature on personalised birthday and anniversary commissions, the cloud-busting crime-caper is followed by a baffling mystery as ‘The Gleam’ (January 19th – May 2nd 1942, by Gottfredson, Merrill de Maris, Bill Wright, Daan Jippes, Seitler, Gerstein & Daigle-Leach) sees Mickey, Minnie & Goofy plagued by a diabolical hypnotist who plunders Mouseton’s High Society elite at will. The bandit even embroils Minnie’s unwelcome visiting parents in his crimes before our heroes finally bring him to justice. It’s followed by the cover of 1949’s Big Little Book #1464: a modified version of this tale behind a cover by an artist unknown.

Gottfredson, Bill Walsh, Wright, Gerstein & Disney Italia then detail a string of interlinked gags comprising a burst of DIY invention resulting in ‘Mickey Mouse and Goofy’s Rocket’ (September 9th – 21st 1946), before Gottfredson, Walsh, Pierre Nicolas, Gerstein & Digikore Studios resort to full on sci fi as The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man’ (April 30th – October 9th 1948) finds Eega Beeva (an occasional visitor from 2447 AD) popping back for fun and a spot of inventing. Most of his whacky gadgets are generally harmless, but when he tinkers up a handheld defence against physical attack which repels everything from pie to nuclear weapons, word gets around fast and some very shifty characters invite themselves in. When juvenile genius Dr. Koppenhooper, an unlovely femme fatale and a poetic superspy get involved, things go from bad to calamitous…

The friendly future-man appeared in many commercial commissions. After a brace of monochrome samples reprinted here courtesy of Gottfredson, the manic menu of Mouse Masterpieces concludes with ‘Mickey’s Dangerous Double’ (March 2nd – June 20th 1953 by Gottfredson, Walsh, Jippes, Paul Baresh, Gerstein & Disney Italia) as a devious “evil twin” trashes our hero’s reputation and destroys all his friendships before scapegoating him for a string of crimes in a gleeful but paranoia-inducing tale.

Of course, in the end the ingenuity of the original and genuine article wins through but only after a truly spectacular battle…

Gottfredson’s influence on not just the Disney canon but sequential graphic narrative itself is inestimable: he was among the first to produce long continuities and straight adventures; he pioneered team-ups and invented some of the first super-villains in the business.

Disney killed their continuities in 1955, dictating that henceforth strips would only contain one-off gags. Gottfredson adapted seamlessly, working on until retirement in 1975. His last daily appeared on November 15th and the final Sunday on September 19th 1976.

Like all Disney creators Gottfredson worked in utter anonymity, but in the 1960s his identity was revealed and the voluble appreciation of his previously unsuspected horde of devotees led to interviews, overviews and public appearances, with effect that subsequent reprinting in books, comics and albums carried a credit for the quiet, reserved master. Floyd Gottfredson died in July 1986. Thankfully we have this wealth of his works to enjoy and inspire us and hopefully a whole new generation of inveterate tale-tellers…
Mickey Mouse: The Greatest Adventures © 2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All contents © 2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc. unless otherwise noted. “Floyd Gottfredson: Walt Disney’s Mouse Man” and “Mickey Mouse: The Hero” texts © 2018 David Gerstein. All rights reserved.

Oh what a date this is!

In 1905 Floyd Gottfredson was born and 25 years later his first Mickey Mouse daily appeared on his birthday.

In 1913 animator/ author Frank Tashlin (Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies) was born, with Golden Age workhorse Dan Zolnerowich (Dollman, Blackhawk, Super American, Suicide Smith, Kaanga, Kayo Kirby, The Hawk, Captain Terry Thunder, Captain Wings) arriving in 1915; Belgian superstar Michel Régnier AKA Greg (Luc Orient, Bruno Brazil, Bernard Prince, Zig et Puce, Achille Talon) in 1931 and Cartoonist Supreme Stan Goldberg in 1932.

The wonderful compelling David Lloyd (V for Vendetta, Night Raven, Wasteland, Aces Weekly, Kickback) joined us in 1950 – as did Juan Ortiz – with true Brits Peter Hogan (Robo-Hunter, Resident Alien) in 1954 and Mike Collins (Doctor Who, Judge Dredd, X-Men, Superman) in 1961, whilst cover star Adam Hughes (Maze Agency, Ghost, Legion of Super-Heroes) only arrived in 1967, the same year and date that Robert Crumb’s Mr. Natural debuted…

In 1975 Sad Sack creator George Baker died.

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DC Finest: The Joker – The Last Ha-Ha


By Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Bob Haney, Martin Pasko, David V. Reed, Steve Englehart, Len Wein, Paul Levitz, Dick Dillin, Neal Adams, Irv Novick, Jim Aparo, Ernie Chan, José Luis García-López, John Calnan, Marshall Rogers, Walter Simonson, Don Newton, Joe Staton, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, Frank McLaughlin, Bob Wiacek, Terry Austin, Steve Mitchell & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79951-025-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

HEY! WHO LET THAT CLOWN IN? IS THERE A PARTY SOMEWHERE?

An old adage says that you can judge someone by the calibre of their enemies, and that’s never been more ably demonstrated than with Batman. For most of his near century of existence, but most especially ever since the 1970s, the position of paramount antagonist has been indisputably filled by Clown Prince of Crime The Joker! He first hit newsstands in Batman #1 (cover-dated Spring and officially on sale from April 25th 1940). That’s 86 exploding candles and poisoned cakes and he’s still totally, lethally crazy after all these years…

Spanning cover-dates December 1969 to September 1981, this compilation collects stories from Justice League of America #77; Batman # 251, 260, 286, 291-294 & 321; Detective Comics #475-476 & 504; eccentric team-ups from The Brave and the Bold #111, 118, 129-130 & 141: The Joker volume 1 #1-10 and Earth-Two appearances from Wonder Woman volume 1 #280-283, a comprehensive but by no means complete carry on of one of the most conflicted and confusing characters in comics.

In the late 1960s superheroes experienced a rapid decline in popularity – presumably reaction to global media’s crass and crushing overexposure. When that bubble burst, Batman’s comic franchise sought to escape the zany, “camp” image by methodically re-branding the hero and returning to the original 1930s concept of a grim, driven Dark Avenger. Although hugely popular, TV’s sappy buffoon/thieving villain version of The Joker was almost fatal to the character on the printed page. However, a deftly calculated return to his Golden Age, eerie cheery killer persona began almost immediately. Thus this collection which kicks off with the Mountebank of Mirth manically upping his game and expanding his pool of enemies…

In Justice League of America #77 (cover-dated December 1969), the smugly complacent confidence and cheery worldview of the World’s Greatest Superheroes is shattered after enigmatic political populist Joe Dough suborns and compromises their beloved teen mascot in ‘Snapper Carr… Super-Traitor!’ This revelatory rite of passage comes from Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella: a coming-of-age yarn that saw the team lose public support and even their secret HQ, as the comfy, cosy superhero game changes forever… and no guesses for who Joe Dough really is!

The dark transformation of the Crime Clown was fully accomplished in Batman #251 (September 1973 by O’Neil & Neal Adams). ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge!’ reinstated the psychotic, diabolically unpredictable Killer Clown who scared the short pants off readers of the 1940s. A true milestone utterly redefining the hero’s nemesis for the modern age, the frantic moody yarn sees the Mirthful Maniac stalking his old gang, seeking to eradicate them all, with a hard-pressed Gotham Guardian desperately playing catch-up. As crooks die in all manner of byzantine and bizarre ways, Batman realises his archfoe has gone irrevocably off the deep end. Terrifying and beautiful, for many fans this is the definitive Batman/Joker story.

Cover-dated February/March 1974, The Brave and the Bold #111 boasted “the strangest team-up in history” as writer Bob Haney & artist on fire Jim Aparo had the Gotham Guardian join forces with the Harlequin of Hate for a brilliantly twisty tale of cross-&-double-cross in ‘Death has the Last Laugh!’ Complex and compelling, this murder-spree yarn possibly led to the Crime Clown’s own short-run series a year later.

Meanwhile, from Batman #260 (January/February 1975 by O’Neil, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano), ‘This One’ll Kill You Batman!’ finds the grim, po-faced Darknight Detective racing to save his own life after being poisoned by Joker Toxin that acts like irresistibly lethal laughing gas, after which B&B #118 (April) sees Wildcat and Batman forced to brutally battle each other in ‘May the Best Man Die!’ after being sucked into Joker’s scheme to poison boxers (and anyone else in range) with a deadly, blood-borne virus…

Within 18 months of the breakthrough revision in Batman #251, The Joker won his own series. Titles starring villains were exceedingly rare back then and provided quite a few problems for writers and editors still labouring under the edicts of the Comics Code Authority. The outré experiment ended after 9 issues – spanning May 1975 to October 1976, (plus one formerly unpublished digital issue in 2019) – and had utilised some of the most talented creators in DC’s employ. It remained a peculiar historical oddity for decades. Now, in these less doctrinaire times those strange tales of the Smirking Slaughterman have an appreciative audience…

The murderous merriment commences with ‘The Joker’s Double Jeopardy!’ Here fellow Arkham Asylum inmate Two-Face arrogantly escapes, pinking the Felonious Funnyman’s pride and compelling the giggling ghoul to similarly break out to prove he’s the greater criminal maniac. Their extended duel of wits and body-counts only lands them both back inside. That “revolving door” security at Arkham eventually leads to the firing of much-harassed guards Marvin Fargo & Benny Khiss in #2’s ‘The Sad Saga of Willie the Weeper!’ However, as the again-at-liberty Lethal Loon attempts to boost the confidence of a lachrymose minor-league larcenist for his own purposes, those defrocked jailers determine to restore their honour and fortunes and astoundingly, they succeed.

Written by O’Neil with art by Ernie Chan (nee Chua) & José Luis García-López, ‘The Last Ha Ha’ in #3 details a burglary and kidnapping of superstar cartoonist Sandy Saturn by a green-haired, cackling crazy. Witness accounts lead the cops to the ludicrous conclusion that The Creeper is the culprit. Cue lots and lots of eerie chortling, mistaken identity shenanigans and murderously manic explosive action…

The ethical dilemma of a star who’s arguably the world’s worst villain is further explored in ‘A Gold Star for the Joker!’ (Elliot S! Maggin, García-López & Vince Colletta) wherein our Perfidious Pagliacci inexplicably develops a crush on Black Canary’s alter-ego Dinah Lance and resolves to possess her or kill her. Typically, even though she’s perfectly capable of saving herself, Dinah’s beau Green Arrow (see what I did there?) is also the possessive aggressive kind of consort…

‘The Joker Goes Wilde!’ (Martin Pasko, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell) finds the Clown Prince in bombastic competition with similarly playing-card themed super-bandits The Royal Flush Gang. Everyone wants to secure a lost masterpiece, but even as he’s winning that weird war, the Mountebank of Menace is already after a hidden prize.

More force of nature than mortal miscreant, the Pallid Punchinello meets his match after assaulting actor Clive Sigerson in #6. Famed for stage portrayals of a certain literary detective, Sigerson sustains a nasty blow to the bonce which befuddles his wits and soon ‘Sherlock Stalks the Joker!’ (O’Neil, Novick & Blaisdell), foiling a flood of crazy schemes and apprehending the maniac before his concussion is cured…

We learn surprising facts about the Clown Prince of Carnage when he steals the calm, logical intellect of Earth’s most brilliant evil scientist. Naturally, psychic transference in ‘Luthor… You’re Driving Me Sane!’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) is two-way and, whilst the newly cognizant Clown becomes ineffably intelligent, Lex Luthor is reduced to a risk-taking maniac unphased by potential consequences and determined to have fun no matter who dies. The Joker’s eighth outing covered a clash with Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror as ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) saw the top contenders for scariest guy in town (not counting Batman!) steal each other’s thunder whilst vying for that macabre top spot, before the villainous vignettes conclude with a claws-out clash as ‘The Cat and the Clown!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) sees an aged comedian and his million-dollar kitty targeted by rival rogues Catwoman and Joker. Unhappily for the crooks they had both underestimated the grizzled guile of their octogenarian victim…

In Fall of 2019 the unpublished tenth issue was released digitally and appeared in monolithic, print-only, rather inaccessibly expensive The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus (Collected). There – and here – Pasko & Novick’s tale ‘99 and 99/100% Dead!’ involves a deal with the Devil (AKA “Lou Cipher”) and scheme to murder Earth’s greatest heroes – The JLA – that doesn’t quite come about and ends on a cliffhanger…

Here, however, we resume with a rare two-parter from The Brave and the Bold #129 & 130: a jam-packed action-romp with ‘Claws of the Emperor Eagle’ pitting Batman, Green Arrow and The Atom against Joker, Two-Face and hordes of bandits in a manic race to possess a statue that had doomed every great conqueror in history. The epic, globe-trotting saga concluded with an ironic bang in ‘Death at Rainbow’s End’…

In Batman #286,‘The Joker’s Playground of Peril!’ (April 1977 by O’Neil, Novick & Bob Wiacek) sees The Clown escape Arkham Asylum prompting panic in the lawyer who failed get him off and the fence who cheated the loon when selling his ill-gotten gains. The fugitives make it easy for the manic by hiding in the same Amusement park but the Dynamoc Duo are clued in and waiting…

Next is an extended saga from Batman #291-294 (cover dates September through December 1977) written by author David V. Reed and illustrated by John Calnan & Tex Blaisdell. Over four deviously clever issues ‘Where Were You the Night Batman Was Killed?’ sees hordes of costumed foes the Caped Crimebuster has crushed assemble to verify the stories of various felons claiming to have done the deed. This thematic partial inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s “Last Batman Story” kicks off with ‘The Testimony of the Catwoman’ followed by ‘The testimony of…’ The Riddler, Lex Luthor and The Joker before satisfactorily concluding with a twist in a spectacular grand manner.

The only real contenders for the plaudits of being the best Joker yarn ever follows: a two-part saga from Detective Comics #475-476 (February & April 1978) concluding a breathtaking, signature run of retro tales by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin. The absolute zenith in a short but stellar sequence resurrecting old foes naturally peaked with the Dark Knight’s nemesis at his most chaotic, and began with ‘The Laughing Fish!’ and culminating in ‘The Sign of the Joker!’, comprising one of the most reprinted Bat-tales ever concocted. It was even adapted as an episode of the award-winning Batman: The Animated Adventures TV show in the 1990s. In fact, you’ve probably already read it. But if you haven’t… what a treat awaits you!

As seafood sporting the Joker’s horrific smile began turning up in sea-catches all over the Eastern Seaboard, the Clown Prince attempts to trademark them. When patent officials foolishly tell him it can’t be done, they start dying – publicly, impossibly and incredibly painfully…

The story concluded in a spectacular apocalyptic clash which shaped, informed and redefined the Batman mythos for decades to come…

The best was saved for last, with continuity altering sub-plots concerning Bruce Wayne’s current inamorata Silver St. Cloud, crooked politico “Boss” Rupert Thorne and the Gotham City Council who had outlawed the hero, and even the recurring ghost of Hugo Strange culminating in THE classic confrontation with The Joker.

B&B #141 (May/June 1978) offers another Batman team-up with Black Canary as ‘Pay – or Die!’ (by Haney & Aparo) finds Dinah Lance looking at a modelling career but pausing to help Batman and Alfred quash the Joker’s bizarrely byzantine extortion/loan sharking/crooked mortician scheme in ‘Pay – Or Die!’

The gleeful terror continues with ‘Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker…!’ by Len Wein, Walt Simonson & Giordano (from Batman #321 March 1980), wherein the Malevolent Mummer planned to celebrate his anniversary in grand style: kidnapping a bunch of old chums like Robin, Jim Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Catwoman and others to be the exploding candles on his giant birthday cake…

The Joker has the rare distinction of being perhaps the most iconic villain in comics and can claim that title in whatever era you choose to concentrate on; Noir-ish Golden Age, sanitised Silver Age or malignant modern and Post-Modern milieus. This book captures just a fraction of all those superb stories and with the benefit of another two and a half decades of material since the release of this compendium, just think of what a couple of equally well-considered sequels might offer…

Cover-dated July 1981, Detective #504 – by Gerry Conway, Don Newton & Dan Adkins – details ‘The Joker’s Rumpus Room Revenge!’ Closing the Batman related portion of the book, here the Murderous Mummer again slips out of Arkham and murders an old puppet-maker to lure the Dark Knight into a killzone packed with killer toys and robots…

During the late Seventies and early Eighties Helena Wayne was the daughter of the deceased Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman Selina Kyle. As The Huntress, the immensely popular character sprang from a then-current Justice Society of America series in All Star Comics into her own relatively long-running back-up feature initially in Batman family and then in Wonder Woman (#271 September 1980 through #321, November 1984). She died in but notionally survived the Crisis on Infinite Earths by being retooled as mob-orphan Helena Bertinelli to become a post-Crisis Dark Knight adjunct.

From Wonder Woman #280 – 283 (vol. 1, June to September 1981) and crafted by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Steve Michell ‘Lion at Bay’ sees Huntress crush her mother’s old nemesis Lionmane, but not before his mass jailbreak allows a declining but still demented and deadly Harlequin of Hate to escape Gull’s island prison. Refusing to believe Batman is dead, elderly Joker proceeds to poison old foes like Commissioner O’Hara to draw out his enemy. Stalked by Huntress in ‘Always Leave ‘em Laughing’ before recruiting another old Crazy Clown combatant to help trick and trap the madman, the end comes in ‘First Laugh…’ and final encore ‘…Last Laugh!’

With covers by Murphy Anderson, Adams, Tatjana Wood, Nick Cardy, Aparo, Giordano, Ross Andru, Chan, García-López, Drew Moore, Rogers & Austin, Simonson, Jim Starlin, Rich Buckler, and George Pérez, this quirky oddment offers slick plotting and startling visuals as madcap misdemeanours are soundly upstaged and shoved aside by lunatic larks, malign malice and a more mounting degree of murderous mayhem than most classical fans might be comfortable with, but always sustained and supported by strong storytelling and stunning art to delight fans of traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights sagas.
© 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1913 author and groundbreaking comics scripter John Broome (aka John Osgood & Edgar Ray Meritt) was born, followed in 1928 by Filipino art maestro Nestor Rendondo (Darna, Rima the Jungle Girl, The Bible, Swamp Thing); Belgian cartoonist Joseph Loeckx/“Jo-El Azara” (Taka Takata, Clifton) in1937, and our own astounding John Ridgway (Commando Picture Library, Famous Five, Young Marvelman, Judge Dredd, Bozz Chronicles, Hellblazer) in 1940.

This date in 1953 welcomed US cartoonist/book illustrator Doug Cushman (Aunt Eater, Holiday Mice!); Canadian Underground artist Patrick Henley AKA Henriette Valium in 1959; Mad magazine illustrator Tom Richmond in 1966; Scott Kolins in 1968 and Ale Garza in 1977.

We lost today editor Lou Stathis in 1997, and Henry Sunday page artist Don Trachte in 2005 but the day did give us Richard F. Outcaul’s Buster Brown which launched in 1902, Ivy the Terrible’s debut in The Beano, courtesy of Roy Nixon in 1985 and the very first Free Comic Book Day today in 2002.

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Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom Archives volume 1


By Paul S. Newman, Matt Murphy, Bob Fujitani, Frank Bolle & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-285-8 (HB) 978-1-59582-586-5 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The comics colossus identified by fans as Dell/Gold Key/Whitman had one of the most complicated publishing set-ups in history, but that didn’t matter one iota to the kids of all ages who consumed their vastly varied product. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, Whitman had been a crucial part of the monolithic Western Publishing and Lithography Company since 1915 and could draw on the commercial resources and industry connections that came with editorial offices on both coasts (and even a subsidiary printing plant in Poughkeepsie, New York).

Another connection was with fellow Western subsidiary K.K. Publications (named for licensing legend Kay Kamen who facilitated extremely lucrative “license to print money” merchandising deals for Walt Disney Studios between 1933 and 1949).

From 1938, Western’s comic book output was released under a partnership deal with a “pulp” periodical publisher under umbrella imprint Dell Comics – and again those creative staff and commercial contacts fed into the line-up of the Big Little, Little Golden and Golden Press books for children. The partnership ended in 1962 and Western had to swiftly reinvent its comics division as Gold Key.

As previously cited, Western Publishing had been a major player since comics’ earliest days, blending a huge tranche of licensed titles comprising newspaper strips, TV and Disney titles, – such as Nancy and Sluggo, Tarzan, or The Lone Ranger – with home-grown hits like Turok, Son of Stone and Space Family Robinson. In the 1960s, during the camp/superhero boom these original adventure titles expanded to include Brain Boy, M.A.R.S. Patrol, Total War (created by Wally Wood), Magnus, Robot Fighter (by the incredible Russ Manning) and – in deference to the atomic age of heroes – Nukla, another brilliantly coolly understated nuclear white knight. Despite supremely high quality and passionate fan-bases, they never really captured the media spotlight like DC and Marvel’s costumed cut-ups. Western eventually (in 1984) shut their comics division, having lost or ceded their licenses to DC Marvel and Charlton.

All this and much more can be found far more clearly explained by the wonderful Mark Evanier in this hardback or trade paperback collection’s Foreword – ‘The Golden Years’ – as well as a fond critical appraisal of the superb comics yarn-spinning that follows…

As a publisher, Gold Key never really “got” the melodramatic, breast-beating, often mock-heroic Sturm und Drang of the 1960s superhero boom – although for many of us, the understated functionality of Silver Age classics like Magnus, Robot Fighter or remarkably radical concepts of atomic crusader Nukla and crime-fighting iterations of classic movie monsters Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolf were utterly irresistible. The sheer off-the-wall lunacy of features like Neutro or Dr. Spektor I will save for a future occasion…

The company’s most recognisable stab at a pure superhero was an rather sedate and reticent nuclear era star with the unwieldy codename Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom. He debuted in an eponymous title cover-dated October 1962, sporting a captivating painted cover by Richard M. Powers which made the whole deal feel like a grown up book rather than a mere comic.

Solar was devised by prolific writer Paul S. Newman and in-house editor Matt Murphy, and initially illustrated by Bob Fujitani (Flash Gordon, Rip Kirby, Prince Valiant).

Tirelessly creative and seen in many titles across numerous companies, Native New Yorker Newman was crowned “King of Comics”, with the Guiness Book of Records confirming at least 4,100 separate scripts published and 36,000 pages filled. He was Dell/Gold Key’s movie adaptation warhorse, worked on such licensed attractions as Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Lone Ranger, 77 Sunset Strip, The Beatles – Yellow Submarine, Buck Rogers and dozens more. He crafted countless short tales of anthology genre fare and stars such as Turok, Son of Stone.

Here he, Murphy, and Fujitani deliver terse 2-part origin ‘Solar’s Secret’ and ‘An Atomic Inferno’ detailing how a campaign of sabotage at research base Atom Valley culminates in the death of top boffin Dr. Bentley and accidental transmutation of his lab partner Doctor Solar into a (no longer) human atomic pile, with incredible, impossible and apparently unlimited powers and abilities. Of course, his very presence is lethal to all around him…

The espionage and murder are at the instigation mysterious Bad Actor Nuro, who seeks a total monopoly on atomic science, so when his agent targets Solar’s girlfriend Gail Sanders, our reluctant hero – still learning his potential and limitations – is forced to act fast…

Powers painted a second rousing cover (before handing the job over to Gold Key mainstay George Wilson for the rest of this collection’s inclusions) and #2 (December) opens with Nuro’s latest plot: using radio implants to turn Gail into ‘The Remote-Control Traitor’, before ill-considered, precipitate atomic testing triggers tectonic terror for the entire region on ‘The Night of the Volcano’…

By the time of Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom #3 (March 1963), a solid pattern was in place. Solar continued his researches, aided by his two confidantes, Gail and project leader Dr. Clarkson, consequently facing a wide variety of nefarious challenges and unnatural disasters, generally at a rate of two stories per issue. In ‘The Hidden Hands’ the science hero becomes a clandestine globetrotter to foil a plundering terrorist with the power of invisibility, after which Atom Valley’s own prototype weather satellite triggers atmospheric conditions which split the hero into polar opposites in ‘Solar’s Deadly Double’.

June 1963 brought #4, featuring early eco-concerns as atomic contamination to the Atlantic sees Solar scupper a certain mystery mastermind’s gold extraction engine in ‘The Deadly Sea’ prior to ‘The Treacherous Trap’ finding the Atomic Man – who must regularly absorb lethal amounts of radiation to live – accidentally endangered by fellow scientist Thor Neilsen, whose radical rad poisoning cure presents unanticipated peril. The good-looking swine has also turned poor Gail’s head with silly romantic notions…

A big change came with #5 (September) as the until-now top-secret activities of Solar are first exposed to a ruthless thief trying to steal the Atomic Ace’s latest elemental discovery in ‘The Crystallized Killers’. This, and his advancing mutation, leads to ‘The New Man of the Atom’ wherein Solar adopts a public masked persona and finally dons a costume: all whilst stopping an incipient atom war…

With #6 (November 1963) illustrator Frank Bolle joins Newman & Murphy to detail Solar’s stories, beginning with ‘The Impostor’ as Nuro despatches a face-shifting automaton to infiltrate Atom Valley and discover the masked hero’s true identity: a saga which concludes in spectacular nuclear combat in ‘Android Against the Atom’…

This volume’s action concludes with #7 (March 1964), opening with a drastic drop in sea levels. Upon investigation, Solar discovers malevolent extraterrestrials are behind the ‘Vanishing Oceans’ but no sooner does he deal with them than ‘The Guided Comet’ covertly controlled by Nuro simultaneously threatens human existence and acts as a near-foolproof deathtrap for the Man of the Atom. Almost…

Augmented by fulsome Biographies of the creative personnel, this charismatic collection offers potently underplayed and scientifically astute (as far as facts of the day were generally known) adventures blending the best of contemporary movie tropes with the still fresh but burgeoning mythology of the Silver Age super hero boom. Enticingly restrained, these Atom Age action comics offered a compelling counterpoint to the eccentric hyperbole of DC and Marvel and remain some of the most readable thrillers of the era.

These are lost gems from a time when fun was paramount and entertainment a mandatory requirement. This is comics the way they were and really should be again…
DOCTOR SOLAR®, MAN OF THE ATOM ARCHIVES Volume 1 ™ & © 2010 Random House, Inc. Under license to Classic Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Today in 1877 pioneering US cartoonist Tad Dorgan (Indoor Sports, Judge Rummy) was born, followed in 1885 by future groundbreaking publisher Wilford Fawcett (Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, Mechanix Illustrated, Captain Marvel et al). Author Jack Willamson (Beyond Mars) arrived in 1908; Paul S. Newman in 1924; Michael Davis of Milestone Media in 1958 and cartoonist Roman Dirge (Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl) in 1972.

We lost Golden Age Great Paul Gustavson (Human Bomb, The Angel, The Arrow, Fantom of the Fair, Magno the Magnetic Man, Blackhawk, Uncle Sam and more) in 1977 and ultra-versatile Croatian cartoonist/comics artist Žarko Beker (Koraljka, Neven, Bobo, Špiljko, Magirus) in 2012.

Today in 1906 Lyonel Feininger’s landmark strip The Kin-der-Kids premiered in the Chicago Sunday Tribune.

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Spirou and Fantasio volume 7: The Rhinoceros’ Horn


By André Franquin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-224-9 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also contains Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

André Franquin was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd 1924 and died on January 5th 1997. In between there were good times and bad, which he offset by creating the most incredible characters and stories, and by making people laugh and think – but mostly laugh. This is one of the very best you can find translated into English.

Adventure-seeking brave lad Spirou headlined the magazine he was named for from the first issue (dated April 21st 1938). He was created by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter using his pen-name Rob-Vel for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in direct response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin for rival outfit Casterman. Originally a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a puckish reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique), his improbable exploits with pet squirrel Spip gradually but steadily grew into high-flying, far-reaching, surreal comedy dramas. That evolution was mainly thanks to Velter’s wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939 and Belgian artist/assistant Luc Lafnet… at least until 1943 when Dupuis purchased all rights to the property, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (Jijé) took the helm.

When Jijé handed his own trainee/assistant total responsibility for the flagship feature part-way through serial Spirou et la maison préfabriqué (Le Journal de Spirou #427, June 20th 1946), André Franquin ran with it for the next 20 years, enlarging the scope and horizons until it was purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as comrade/rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics the Count of Champignac. Spirou and Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, travelling to exotic places, uncovering crimes, exploring the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Fantasio’s unsavoury cousin Zantafio.

Franquin, plagued in later life by bouts of depression, passed away in 1997 but his legacy remains; a vast body of work which reshaped the landscape of European comics.

With that brave experiment clearly having paid dividends over decades it’s perhaps timely to remind readers that times and taste having changed radically since then, and as such current UK publisher Cinebook felt the need to issue a heartfelt warning and carefully considered apologia regarding some content of The Rhinoceros’ Horn…

I’ll précis it here: it was seventy years ago and our attitudes to hunting, other ethnicities and especially the modern obscenity of killing for ivory and horn have thankfully changed. Please read this book with that in mind. The publishers, of course, phrased it much better…

The Rhinoceros’ Horn was originally serialised in two sequences in Le Journal de Spirou: #764-787 (Spirou et la Turbotraction) and #788-797(La corne de rhinocéros), and spanned 1952 and early 1953 before being united in 1955 hardback album La corne de rhinocéros. The story begins with Spirou exulting over the success of Fantasio’s latest enterprise – personal helicopters worn as backpacks – but discovers his pal is rather down in the dumps. The ingenious journo’s just been dressed down by his editor on The Mosquito and warned that the paper has hired a new reporter: a real go-getting hotshot. Dejected and desperate, Fantasio resolves to revive his flagging career by staging a publicity stunt: robbing the Good Bazaar Department Store…

As the rattled reporter draws up his plans and sends a warning to the store of his intentions, a colossal explosion shakes the town. Persons unknown have blown up the nearby Turbot car plant. With even more to prove now, Fantasio proceeds…

Dragged along for the ride and to photograph the stunt, Spirou and snarky squirrel Spip reluctantly join their pal in the harebrained venture. Alighting on the roof of the emporium courtesy of those petrol-powered “Fantacopters”, they deftly break in through the fire-door, Spirou recording everything with his gigantic flash camera. Of course, our lead-footed burglars make an appalling clatter and tremendous mess, but no night-watchmen confront them. They’ve all been incapacitated and tied up by real robbers…

Hearing villains approaching, the lads take refuge in a wardrobe in the bedrooms department and discover an old acquaintance already there. Behring works for Turbot and was wounded in the explosion earlier. Moreover, he’s carrying the company’s blueprints for their latest advancement. The burglars in the darkened store are actually trying to finish him off to get them. Handing the boys an envelope and begging them to get it to his employer Mr. Martin, the troubleshooter loses consciousness just as the involuntary heroes are challenged by a shadowy figure demanding the precious prize. It’s not the bad guys, however, but Fantasio’s journalistic nemesis…

Cellophine is already streets ahead of them: she knows of the plot to steal Turbot’s revolutionary supercar. All she needs is the address Behring muttered to secure an interview with the in-hiding Martin and her next terrific scoop.

…And that’s when the gun-toting goons make their move, demanding blueprints and the rendezvous address. Thankfully, Spirou is still holding the camera and super-bright flashgun…

Calamitously – and hilariously – fleeing for their lives through the darkened store, the guys eventually escape via fantacopters from the top storey, allowing Cellophine to lock the bandits up on the roof before dragging Behring to safety. Next morning the boys are in Whistleton but Martin has already fled. His note reveals nothing, but later a sinister stranger in a café advises them to surrender the blueprints and warns them not to join Mr. Martin at Bab-el-bled in North Africa.

Ignoring him and returning home, they encounter distressingly persistent Cellophine and Spirou clues her in. Sadly, the thugs have also tracked them down and overhear the plans, so when the boys catch a jet liner to Africa, heavily disguised heavies are in the seats behind them…

These villains are on the lads’ tails all though the avenues and alleyways of Bab-el-bled, before a wig malfunction in the Souk warns Spirou that they’re being shadowed and another hectic chase ensues. Thinking they’ve at last shaken their pursuers our heroes go to Martin’s house only to learn he was ambushed by the bandits…

Happily the troubled Turbot exec had escaped and fled further into North Africa. He’s apparently rushing off to the M’saragba Animal Reservation but as the boys try to follow Cellophine appears and pips them to the last spot on the plane – stowed away in the baggage hold.

Forced to follow by train, it is eight days later when Fantasio & Spirou finally reach the Reserve and yet again – as infinitely aggravating Cellophine explains – they’ve just missed Martin. He was chased into the bush by the implacable bandits…

Going after him they find him just after the thugs do. Having shot Martin, the villains are smugly gloating when the sinister stranger from Whistleton café appears. He’s a cop and finally has enough evidence to arrest them for blowing up the factory, but they are all too late. The harassed entrepreneur has already got rid of his portion of the plans, giving them to a local friend to hide.

As Martin is carried to hospital, Spirou & Fantasio volunteer to retrieve those accursed documents but have not reckoned on the quirky ingenuity of the chief of the Wakukus, the vastness of the reserve and the sheer bloody-mindedness of local flora and fauna. After days of unpleasant and painful adventures, they finally locate the safeguarding tribe and, following even more nerve-wracking moments convince the chief that they too are friends of Martin. That’s when the king delivers his bombshell…

Tasked with keeping safe the plans – now contained on a spool of microfilm – the wily Wakuku had his subjects capture a rhino before drilling a hole in its horn and sealing the container within. They then released it back into the wild. He has no idea where it is now or even which of the 200 in the park it might be…

Determined to complete their mission, the lads spend months tracking and capturing assorted beasts. The task becomes only slightly easier after they find a dipsomaniac white trader who sells them hunting gear and latterly, yellow paint so that they can tell the rhinos they’ve already checked from the ones so cunningly evading them…

It’s a backbreaking, heartbreaking and increasingly pointless task but only when their resolve crumbles and they brokenly give up and head for home do they find the prize in the very last place they looked…

Even the trip back is a tribulation, and eventually they collapse only to awake in a nice clean hospital with Martin and Cellophine offering to fill in the blanks on this baffling case. Six weeks later the lads are recuperating at home when Behring shows up. He’s got a little reward for them from the grateful Turbot Company but, as usual, Cellophine is on hand to spoil it for Fantasio…

Stuffed with superb slapstick situations, riotous Keystone Cops chases and gallons of gags, this exuberant, high-spirited yarn is a true celebration of angst-free action, thrills and spills. accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductively wholesome élan which makes Asterix, and Lucky Luke so compelling, this is an enduring comics treat from a long line of superb exploits, certain to be as much a household name as those series – and even that other kid with the white dog…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1955 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation 2014 © Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1942 Underground Commix pioneer Dan O’Neill (Air Pirates Funnies, Odd Bodkins) was born, preceding both Teris Sue Wood (Wandering Star) in1965 and super-glamour artist Michael Turner (Witchblade, Fathom, Superman/Batman) in 1971.

Deaths on this date include British satirist & caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson in 1827. In 1962 Golden Age cartoonist/animator Robert Winsor McCay (Nemo in Adventureland, Impie, Bulletman, Ajax the Sun Man, Blackstone the Magician) and animator turned cartoonist Bob Wickersham (Spencer Spook, Funny Films, Ha Ha Comics, The Kilroys, The Kellys, Flippity and Flop, Colonel Punchy Penguin) both passed on as did veteran comics book illustrator Art Saaf (Sheena, Jumbo Comics, Princess Pantha, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, The Twilight Zone, Supergirl) in 2007.

In 1938 on this date, Tif et Tondu and Spirou premiered in the debut issue of Le Journal de Spirou.

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The Steel Claw: Invisible Man


By Ken Bulmer & Jesús Blasco & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-906-4 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most fondly-remembered British strips of all time is the startlingly beautiful Steel Claw. From 1962 to 1973 the stunningly gifted Jesús Blasco and his small studio of family members thrilled the nation’s children, illustrating the angst-filled adventures of scientist, adventurer, secret agent and even – occasionally – costumed superhero Louis Crandell.

The majority of the character’s career was scripted by comic veteran Tom Tully, but initially follows the premise of HG Wells’ original unseen adversary with prolific science fiction novelist Ken Bulmer devising a modern spin and contemporary twist on The Invisible Man.

Another superb salvo of baby boomer nostalgia from Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics strand, initial collection The Steel Claw: Invisible Man gathers material from beloved and enduring weekly anthology Valiant, spanning 6th October 1962 to 21st September 1963 and also includes stories from the Valiant Annuals for 1965 and 1966.

Following an Introduction from Paul Grist, the tense drama begins with our (eventual) hero debuting as a rather surly assistant to the venerable Professor Barringer, working to create a germ-destroying ray. Crandell is an embittered man, possibly due to having lost his right hand in a lab accident. After its replacement with a steel prosthetic and his notional recovery, he is back at work when the prof’s new device explodes. Crandell receives a monumental electric shock and is bathed in radiation from the ray-device which, rather than killing him, renders him totally transparent. Although he doesn’t stay unseen forever, this bodily mutation is permanent. Electric shocks cause all but his metal hand to disappear.

Kids of all ages, do not try this at home!

Whether venal at heart or temporarily deranged, Crandell goes on a rampage of terror against society and destruction of property culminating in an attempt to blow up New York City before finally coming to his senses. Throughout Crandell’s outrages, Barringer is in guilt-fuelled pursuit, determined to save or stop his former friend…

The second adventure channels another classic (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), intriguingly pitting the Claw against his therapist, who – in an attempt to treat him – is also traumatically and life-changingly exposed to Barringer’s ray. Instead of permanent invisibility, Dr. Deutz develops the ability to transform himself into a bestial ape-man who malevolently turns to crime and frames Crandell for a series of spectacular robberies and outrages.

On the run and innocent for once, Crandell is saved by the intervention of Barringer’s niece Terry Gray. After weeks of beast-triggered catastrophe and panic in the streets, the Steel Claw is vindicated and proved a hero …of sorts…

Bulmer’s next tale changes location to the Bahamas as our star shifts from outlaw to hero. While recuperating on an inventor-friend’s yacht, Crandell is accidentally embroiled in a modern-day pirate’s attempt to hijack an undersea super-weapon system. After would-be bullion bandit Sharkey and his nefarious gang steal the device and use it to capture a submarine, their convoluted scheme to rob an ocean liner finally falters when a steel-fisted ghost starts picking them off one by one…

More than any other comics character, the Steel Claw was a barometer for reading fashions. Starting out as a Quatermass-style cautionary sci fi tale, the strip mimicked fresh trends of the greater world, becoming a James Bond-style superspy strip with Crandall eventually tricked out with outrageous gadgets, and latterly, a masked-&-costumed super-doer when TV-show-sparked “Batmania” gripped the nation and the world.

When that bubble burst, he resorted to becoming a freelance adventurer, combating eerie menaces and vicious criminals. However, before we head too far down that path, his potent contributions to Valiant Annuals 1965 and 1966 – respectively released in Autumn 1964 and 1965 – afford rather more constrained thrills and chills as Crandell defeats a gang using an electricity-supressing gadget to rob a blacked-out London and (one year later) assists the Metropolitan Police force in corralling a bunch of apparently invisible bandits dubbed the Phantom Raiders…

The thrills of the writing are engrossing enough, but the real star of this feature is the artwork. Blasco’s captivating classicist drawing, his moody staging and the sheer beauty of his subjects make this an absolute pleasure to look at. Buy it for the kids and read it too; this is a glorious book, and brace yourself for even better yet to come…
© 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966 & 2021 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1949 actor turned comics writer John Ostrander (Oracle, The Spectre, Grimjack, Firestorm, Suicide Squad, Star Wars, Magnus Robot Fighter) was born, as was Norwegian creator Christopher Nielson (To Trøtte Typer) in 1963 and funny, funny guy Evan Dorkin (Milk and Cheese, Welcome to Eltingville, Dork, Beasts of Burden) in 1965.

In 1968 comedy master and Katzenjammer Kids creator Rudolph Dirks died. And while we remember laughing, let’s celebrate that Crockett Johnson’s astounding 10-year wonder Barnaby debuted on this date in 1942.

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The Phantom – The Complete Series: The Charlton Years Volume Two


By Pat Boyette, Joe Gill, D. J. Arn
eson & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-032-1 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the 17th century a British sailor survived an attack by pirates, and, washing ashore on the African coast, swore on the skull of his murdered father to dedicate his life and that of all his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the jungles of Bengali, and throughout Africa is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice have led to him being considered an immortal avenger by the credulous and the wicked. Down the decades one hero after another has fought and died in an unbroken family line, and the latest wearer of the mask, indistinguishable from the first, continues the never-ending battle.

Lee Falk created the Jungle Justice dealer at the request of his syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician, and although technically not the first ever costumed hero in comics, The Phantom’s astounding popularity made him the prototype paladin: wearing the later demi-compulsory skintight bodystocking and mask with opaque eye-slits.

He debuted on February 17th 1936 (Yep! Ninety nonstop years!!) in an extended sequence pitting him against a global confederation of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over the illustration side to artist Ray Moore. A hugely successful Sunday feature began in May 1939. However, for such a long-lived and influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been very poorly served by the English language market – except in Australia where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god.

Numerous companies had begun releasing books of the strips – one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history – but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success, but, even if only of historical value (or just printed for Australians), surely the mysterious Mr. Kit Walker was worthy of a definitive chronological compendium series?

Happily, and perhaps because of the tights and mask, his comic book adventures have fared slightly better – especially in recent times. From November 1962 through July 1966, all new adventures were published by West Coast giant Gold Key Comics after which King Features Syndicate dabbled with a comic book line of their biggest stars – including Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake and The Phantom – between 1966 and 1967. When they gave up the ghost (see what I did there?), plucky dependable, cheap Charlton Comics were there to pick up the slack…

The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, having appeared since the Golden Age in titles like Feature Book and Harvey Hits, albeit only as reformatted newspaper strip reprints. Gold Key’s efforts were tailored to a big page and a young readership, a model King Features maintained for their own run, but which was carefully tweaked when Charlton acquired the license. This splendid full-colour tome gathers the contents of The Phantom #39-47 (originally released between August 1970 and December 1971) and opens with an erudite Introduction and appreciation from Don Mangus who reveals everything of the history and involvement of a much-sidelined star in ‘Sworn to the Oath of the Skull – Pat Boyette’.

San Antonio born on 27th July 1923, Aaron P. Boyette was pure mythical Texan: self-taught in everything that mattered and unstoppably confident. A true and tireless entrepreneur, he was a key component of the development of commercial radio in Texas: a journalist who researched, wrote, broadcast, managed, and presented shows. If you’ve read Golden Age Green Lantern, everyman hero Alan Scott – who did all the jobs – could have been patterned on Pat…

Boyette forsook burgeoning stardom to become a cryptographer during WWII. Coming out, he performed the same do-it-all trick with early television and later moved into making movies. After anchoring TV news, he abruptly moved sideways again, and took to comics: writing, editing, lettering, painting and illustrating as Pat Boyette, Sam Swell, Alexander Barnes & Bruce Lovelace.

Working for Charlton, DC, Warren, Archie, Acclaim; a host of eighties indie outfits and as a self-publisher, he produced newspaper strip Captain Flame; drew prestigious DC title Blackhawk; and found a lasting home at Charlton Comics. Here Boyette co-created The Peacemaker and assumed creative duties on Pete (“PAM”) Morisi’s Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. As the superhero boom faded he increasingly output on their anthological lines, crafting hundreds of genre short stories for romance, war, western horror, science fiction, fantasy and other titles. Boyette also handled Charlton’s biggest and most high-profile licensed features including The Six Million Dollar Man; Space: 1999; Korg: 70,000 B.C; Flash Gordon; Jungle Jim and the company’s runaway top seller: The Phantom. Boyette’s work was continually published at Charlton until at least 1986 when the outfit was being wrapped up. He readily adapted to the growing indie market, with his last work appearing in DC/Paradox Press’s The Big Book of the Weird Wild West in 1998.

Pat Boyette died of oesophageal cancer on January 14th, 2000 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The majority of the bi-monthly yarns here are scripted by Boyette, backed up by Joe Gill in #40, 41 & 45 (and also perhaps occasionally by predecessor scripter D.J. Arneson?): utterly workmanlike and hitting all the expected bases, with each issue offering a pictorial Contents Page teaser and terse, spartan, stripped-back action; mystery yarns with themes and plots that readers of newspapers and dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans could appreciate equally. There are plenty of mad scientists, aliens, monsters, war criminals, brutal beasts, sadistic potentates, thieves & pirates and many admiring women, but no costumed villains…

We open with The Phantom #39 as ‘A Small War!’ sees a ruthless filmmaker provoke conflict between old tribal friends until the Ghost-Who-Walks steps in, after which the hero foils thinly-disguised Nazis seeking to recover lost gold from the ‘Canyon of Death!’, and scuppers ‘The Silent Thieves!’ using their U-Boat to raid a river-adjacent diamond mine…

Boyette and his associates often sagely left their time period vague and unconfirmed, allowing creative anachronism to play out in tales that could often be starring earlier Phantoms of the undying dynasty. In #40, following a sample of original art pages, a wryly fond homage to earlier legends sees the masked marvel battle once again a giant warrior with quarterstaffs over a river crossing in ‘The Ritual’, before a vengeful criminal frames the Phantom for multiple murders with a diabolical device leaving his death’s head signature – ‘The False Mark’ – on native victims. The issue closes with a distraught heiress seeking her long-missing father and momentarily gulled by ‘The Second Phantom’ until the true titan turns up…

Scripted by Joe Gill, #41’s opener ‘Slave of Beauty’ sees our hero captured by an immortal queen resurrecting her fallen desert empire through slavery. However, Hegara is not all she seems and the Jungle Juggernaut readily crushes her dream before chasing a stolen Bandar treasure across the world. Savagely seized by murderous white hunter Waldo Brunn, ‘The Idol’ is only ultimately recovered after a bizarre alliance, and is followed by a devious clash with a ‘Deadly Foe’ developing viruses in the wilderness who proves to be anything but…

The Phantom #42 opens with a cruel high-tech attack on elephants perpetrated by plutocratic monster Rama Jahn and requiring all the ingenuity of the Ghost-Who-Walks to save the ‘Keeper of the Herd!’, before a simple good deed generates chaos in ‘Who Needs Enemies?’ Seeking to repay his debt, multi-millionaire E.R. Randall bombards the Bengali villagers with gifts and money that disrupt their lives. Moreover, he’s extremely unhappy when they begin to reject his unwanted largesse…

‘Prey of the Hunter’ then reveals what must be done when hunter Hugo Lusk becomes addicted to killing and the Judge of the Jungle must stop the slaughter, Sadly, that involves first becoming Lusk’s latest trophy…

Up front in #43 ‘Test of an Idol!’, finds fabulously attractive, utterly spoiled screen star Iris Benton attempting – and initially succeeding – in beguiling the hero and making The Phantom her latest conquest. Thus he permits a movie of his exploits and even participates but is tragically unprepared when her allure crosses the species barrier and leads to her abduction by apes!

A clever use of the hero’s historical longevity drives ‘Paid in Full’ when the descendent of a long-dead British victim of jungle larceny (saved by a Ghost who Walked in 1653) demands reparations – and compound interest – on a sum of money that went missing at the time. Happily Edward Cowper-Smythe is reasonable man…

The issue closed with a clash against most modern witchdoctor Medugli, who refused to follow the Phantom’s Peace and returned to torment the Bandari with a technological terror-weapon provided by colonising secret allies. Happily, ‘The Rain Stopper!’ was no mystery to the hero and ecological catastrophe was averted in the nick of time

In #44, ‘To Right a Wrong!’ sees marauding Achmid Raj successfully plunder the fabled Skull Cave only to be hunted down by the Ghost Who Walks, after which ‘Danger in Bengali’ reintroduces the contemporary hero’s true love Diana Palmer who regrettably arrives at the Cave just as a diabolical, piratical impostor is plundering it. Taken hostage she soon learns that her man – and his wolf Devil – are not dead, but in hot pursuit and really, really angry…

When replacement Bandari witch-man Zulanga proves just as nefarious as his predecessor, The Phantom again exiles him, and almost pays a fatal price as the wily rogue covertly returns with serpents and poisons to inflict ‘Death from Far Away!’ Almost…

A rare Phantom failure is rectified after 105 years in #45’s opening saga ‘Return of the Ruby!’ as the descendent of the hero who lost an unparalleled gem to bandits locates the precious prize. Now he must solve the moral dilemma of depriving its current – honest and innocent – owner to restore it to the family of the original ones…

In 1777, as tyrannical Captain Mustaphi ravaged the seas around Tripoli, an alliance to scuttle the slavers’ schemes paired an earlier Ghost Guardian with a Revolutionary War icon in ‘Phantom and John Paul Jones’ before a return to the present sees the death of the Bandar monarch and a vigil in the ‘Cave of Kings’. Happily The Phantom is paying his respects when hostile blood-enemies the Yumyu attempt to slaughter the grieving subjects and steal the incomparable grave goods…

The Phantom and Diana face devilish duplicates and legendary cult terrors the Leopardmen in #46’s lead yarn ‘Last of the Cat’, only to learn that vengeful old enemy Felix Cattmann is out of jail and behind all the Leopard-y jeopardy (sorry not sorry!) after which fantasy blends with larceny as Piranha Men raid the Skull Cave from the lakes and rivers beneath it. Of course, ‘The Vanishing Thieves!’ grievously underestimated the hero’s lung capacity and resolve, and their defeat lonely led to the Ghost Who Walks daring a deadly mountain peak to rescue abducted princess Inja from slave-raider Kruug and the eagles defending the ‘Nest of the Man-Eaters’…

Last issue in this tome of thrills and terrors, The Phantom #47 offered another trio of wild adventures beginning with entry into ‘The False Skull Cave’ constructed after avaricious Busas used government spy-plane systems to map vast “undiscovered” Bengali and ferret out the location of the world’s greatest treasure store. Of course, finding either cave or escaping alive were entirely different matters…

In ‘Soundless Voices!’ another cunning attempt to replace the Ghost with a diabolical doppelganger is foiled by the hero’s ferocious will to live and the long-range communications net of whale song, before the episodes pause after exposure to ‘The Vapors of Vulcan’. When Morpheus Negri, the mostly-dormant volcano in a remote corner of Bengali erupts again, the incredible immortals who live within it again plunder and ravage the land, seeking slave-prospects from the fittest of surface dwellers Who could they possibly pick this millennium?

Undying ruler Brilla has faced a Phantom long before and this one also rejects her offer of eternal “companionship” and escapes her alternate tactic of being consumed to sustain her energies for another century…

Packed and peppered throughout with pages of Boyette original art, this is another riveting, nostalgia-drenched triumph: straightforward, stripped down, nonstop rollicking action-adventure that has always been the staple of comics fiction and the Ghost Who Walks. If that sounds like a good time to you, this is a traditional action-fest you must not miss…
The Phantom® © 1970-1971 and 2013 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Today in 1946 horror story mangaka Hideshi Hino (Hell Baby, Hino Horrors, Panorama of Hell) was born, whilst strip debuts include Russell Myers’ Broom Hilda in 1970 and Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks in 2006. We lost crucial Disney animator Milt Kahl in 1987, DC cartoonist Henry Boltinoff in 2001 and Mexican creator/founder of their Academy of Arts Alberto Beltrán a year later.

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Ant Wars


By Gerry Finley-Day, José Luis Ferrer, Alfonso Azpiri, Luis Bermejo, Lozano, Peña, Simon Spurrier & Cam Kennedy & various (Rebellion/REBCA)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-622-3 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The sun’s out and the sarnies are packed so let’s shamble down memory lane with a bug-beguiling packed lunch for all us oldsters which might, perhaps, offer a fresh, untrodden path for younger fans of the fantastic in search of a typically quirky British comics experience.

This stunning paperback/eBook package provides another knockout nostalgia-punch from Rebellion Studios’ scintillating 2000 A.D. treasure-trove, gathering the 15 weekly episodes of seminal shocker Ant Wars as first seen in Progs #71-85 (July 1st – 7th October 1978). There’s also a later resurgence of creepy creatures, which initially infested The Judge Dredd Megazine (#231-233, May to July 2005).

The strip debuted with ferociously prolific writer Scots Gerry Finley-Day (Ella on Easy Street, The Camp on Candy Island, Rat Pack, The Bootneck Boy, D-Day Dawson, The Sarge, One-Eyed Jack, Hellman of Hammer Force, Sgt. Streetwise, Dredger, Dan Dare, Invasion, Judge Dredd, Harry 20 on the High Rock, The V.C.s, Rogue Trooper, Fiends of the Eastern Front and dozens more) establishing a contemporary scenario to explore human greed and venality against a setting of increased pollution and eco-barbarism in the heart of the Amazon basin. The creepily compelling visuals came via an international tag team of illustrators – beginning with co-creator José Luis Ferrer, and followed by Alfonso Azpiri, Luis Bermejo, Lozano and Peña -who skilfully combined local knowledge of Central/South American locales with old fashioned monster movie riffs to deliver a wicked and wild cautionary tale.

In an era of burgeoning eco-politics, increasing environmental awareness and growing advocacy for Indigenous rights, the saga confronted entrenched corporate greed, Military-Industrial Complex arrogance and political complacency in a rip-roaring, grossly anarchic Doomwatch scenario that revelled in an innate love of irony married to macabre and bloody carnage. It was also pretty cool to see an utter absence of Yanks or Brits casually saving the day…

It begins in the depths of the Brazilian rain forest as helicopter-borne soldiers descend on “wild Indians” they find eating ants. After despatching the disgustingly primitive indigenes, the troops complete their mission, expediting a test of GGS: a new super-insecticide created by a multinational corporation which needs testing without too much oversight…

Some months later captive natives are being forcibly “civilised” by those soldiers in a Reservation Camp. The captives (grudgingly) wear clothes and can speak to their “benefactors” now, but recidivism remains stubbornly high. When one youngster is caught eating ants again, he endures another punishment beating before escaping. Delighted to have something to do, the soldiers board their copters and track him into the verdant hell all around them. That’s when they discover skyscraper-sized anthills and are ambushed by hungry Formicidae the size of buses and far smarter than they are or, indeed, most humans…

The squad are wiped out, but Captain Villa survives, aided by the Indian boy they had disparagingly dubbed “Anteater”. His speed, agility and dexterity with a machete are the only counter to the big bugs – which readily dismember troops and destroy aircraft – so the enemies form a reluctant partnership to escape the ant-controlled jungles and alert humanity to the imminent peril they all face. The boy understands bugs implicitly and his knowledge saves them over and again as they struggle through green hells barely ahead of an endless army of colossal soldier ants apparently intent on eradicating humankind.

After many close calls and stomach-churning hairsbreadth escapes – avoiding the plantation-consuming, outpost-conquering, riverboat-confiscating bugs, Villa and Anteater reach Rio de Janeiro, and at last convince people with actual power and authority of the existential threat, but it is far too late. Ant queens have already established forward bases there and as the humans waste time and resources partying at Carnival, a horrific battle for control of the continent and ultimately the planet begins.

Soon ant colonies are found in Argentina, Bolivia and beyond and the struggle must be decided by humanity’s most unforgivable armaments…

And in the aftermath, there are many profitable opportunities to test even better bug sprays and formulations…

In 2005 the concept was retooled, crafted in tribute to the original by Simon Spurrier & Cam Kennedy. A notional sequel set in the future world of Mega-cities and mass madness where Judges like Joe Dredd were sworn to curtail and control Zancudo was a short serial running across 2000 A.D. spin-off title The Judge Dredd Megazine (issues #231-233). It focused on less-than-upstanding Judges Xavi Ancizar and Sofia Perez as they escort sociopathic “mutie” telepath Fendito “El Bandito” in a medical-supply flyer bound for the penal facility in La Paz. It’s 2171 and they have left sprawling metropolis Cuidad Barranquilla to risk the perils of the Peruvian rainforest, but don’t get far. When the ship is brought down, and even after surviving the crash, their chances diminish every second as they are attacked by giant intelligent mosquitos. They are also blithely unaware that the device neutralising El Bandito’s psionic powers has malfunctioned…

Although Judges are trained to resist, smart giant bugs are easier to handle, and it might have all worked out differently for the mind-thief if they hadn’t stopped to save a little girl and stumbled into Los Zancudo Pichu. This bizarre embattled colony is home to human natives enslaved to Mosquito queens and where all inhabitants – even the big bugs – are slowly expiring of a malarial infection they call The Blight…

Those downed Judge medical supplies promise a cure for the dying city and all its inhabitants, and Fendito is delighted to betray his own (more or less) kind to save his skin, but even corrupted, debased Judges have standards, so their discovery of the original purpose of Zancudo prior to the insects’ triumphal takeover offers a slim chance of atonement if not personal survival…

A grand, old fashioned Mankind vs Monsters yarn dripping with wit and edgy social commentary, Ant Wars is an unreconstructed romp to while away a little time with and a splendid way to prepare for the long hot and possibly few days ahead.
© 1978, 2005 & 2018 Rebellion A/S. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1828 trailblazing cartoonist, caricaturist and author Frank Bellew was born, with Marvel bulwark Carl (Human Torch) Burgos coming along in 1916 and – in 1986 – mainly-Marvel comic book illustrator Paulo Siqueira.

Ken Reid’s Roger the Dodger debuted in The Beano this date in 1953, but we lost British underground star and newspaper cartoonist Edward Barker (International Times, The Largactilites, The Galactilites) in 1997 and Steve Canyon artist Dick Rockwell in 2006.

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SAM volume 1: After Man


By Richard Marazano & Shang Xiao, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-218-8 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Robots are a beloved theme of fiction, and many stories seem to work on the dichotomy of their innately innocent yet potentially deadly double nature. Channelling elements of A Boy and His Dog via Terminator, here’s one that’s a cut above from French polymath (artist, critic, historian, astrophysicist, politician, comics author) Richard Marazano (The Chimpanzee Complex; Cuervos; Zarathustra and more) with Chinese artist/illustrator/animator Shang Xiao (Midsummer Park).

Told over four volumes, Après l’Homme details a heady tale of trust and survival between apparent natural enemies…

It’s just been the End of the World as We Know It, and in the scattered, shattered rubble of our technological triumphs, gangs of desperate kids forage for food, vitamins and ordnance to help them fend off the autonomous robots that have all but eradicated biological life.

Terse flashbacks disclose the armed rebellion of the mechanised realm and how the mostly subterranean youngsters still alive scavenge and scrounge with roaming mechs hunting them day and night. Tensions are high and emotions fraught, so if someone is a little bit different, negligent or disobedient – like incurable dreamer Ian – it’s a problem for everybody…

Ella looks out for him as much as possible but Ian is destined for doom unless he shapes up. Sadly, he instead takes a step in the other direction after one particular dusk raid to the surface sees Ian instants from annihilation when cornered by a towering killer robot.

Thankfully Russ disables it with his bazooka, but just for a moment there, Ian was sure he had experienced an emotional connection with the droid. It was like it chose not to kill him…

Increasingly obsessed, Ian cannot let the notion go and eventually breaks security to sneak out and examine the remains. They will be easy to find, with the letters SAM boldly painted on the bodywork…

When he comes back, it’s all Ella can do to stop the others killing him. Ultimately, though, tempers subside, but Ian has not learned his lesson. After sharing his earliest memories of his father, fleeing and the lucky escape that saved him, the troubled boy seems to buckle down to the basics of survival, but he’s still gripped by crazy notions, such as abandoning their tunnels and heading out to the fabled suburbs…

With defiance growing and rebellion brewing, the kids head out on another daylight hunt, but again Ian goes looking for “his” robot. Ella catches him and starts yelling, but they are both targeted by a roving mech… and inexplicably saved by another killer machine: SAM!

The victorious horror is badly damaged and as Ella watches in horror, Ian starts to fix it…

When the others find them, more arguing results in Ian getting a deadline: if he can’t make SAM fully operable in two days, he must let them destroy it. The frantic boy strives for the entire time – and succeeds – only to pass out at the end. When he wakes and races to the site, the robot is gone. Bereft and furious, Ian allows Ella to drag him away, but both are unaware that coldly-calculating optic systems are watching them from hiding…

Beguiling and powerfully engaging, this vivid take on an much-explored plot is surprisingly compelling and promises a big payoff in volumes to come.
© Dargaud Paris 2011 by Marazano & Shang. All rights reserved. English translation © 2014 Cinebook Ltd.

Today in 1923, illustrator and cover painter Earl Norem (Savage Sword of Conan, Silver Surfer, Six Million Dollar Man, Planet of the Apes) was born, with French pioneer Claire Bretécher (Agrippine, Cellulite, Les Frustrés) arriving in 1940, American mangaka Ben Dunn (Ninja High School, Warrior Nun Areala) in 1964 and Shawn Martinborough (AngelTown, Thief of Thieves, Luke Cage Noir) in 1972.

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The Avengers Marvel Masterworks volume 19


By David Michelinie, Steven Grant, Roger Stern, Mark Gruenwald, Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, Tom DeFalco, John Byrne, George Pérez, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Arvell Jones, Ron Wilson, John Fuller, Dan Green, Ricardo Villamonte, Josef Rubinstein, Jack Abel, Gene Day, Mike Esposito, Brett Breeding, Joe Sinnott, Bruce Patterson & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1637-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Avengers have always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in a single basket pays off big-time: even when all Marvel’s classic all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it merely allows the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly. Of course, all founding stars were regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy, which means that every issue includes somebody’s fave-rave – and the boldly grand-scale impressive stories and artwork are no hindrance either. With the team now global icons, let’s look again at the stories which form the foundation of that pre-eminence.

Re-presenting Avengers #189-202, plus a pertinent tale from Marvel Premier #55 (August 1980) and a lost snippet from Tales to Astonish (vol. 2 #12, November 1980) these sagas encompass cover-dates November 1979 to December 1980. Jim Shooter, having galvanised and steadied the company’s notional flagship moved on, leaving David Michelinie to impress his own ideas and personality upon the team,. However such transitions are always tricky and a few water-treading fill-ins were necessary before progress resumed. For behind the scenes details you can read of his recollections in his fascinating ‘Introduction by David Michelinie’ before diving in to the fabulous action and drama. Another Introduction by latterday editor Tom Brevoort can be found in the book’s Bonus Section, eulogising and appreciating the return of George Pérez to the Avengers before diving in to the fabulous action and drama…

Previously: After defeating the Absorbing Man, apparently resolving the convoluted origins of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, inviting Ultron’s robot bride Jocasta into their midst, defeating vintage murder-mech enigma Arsenal and stopping world conquering sentient elements, the team were ready for a break but would be disappointed…

Avengers #189 reveals how deeply unhappy official reservist Hawkeye takes a day job at (corrupt and EVIL) tech company Cross Technological Enterprises and inadvertently begins his steady march to solo stardom. When the current administration began interfering in Avengers business intrusive and obsessive NSA Agent Henry Peter Gyrich laid down the law and winnowed the army of heroes down to a federally acceptable (and “manageable”) seven-and-a-spare: Captain America, Iron Man, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wasp, Beast and Ms. Marvel. Gyrich had spitefully rejected the in-your-face archer in favour of Falcon – who was parachuted in (against his own wishes!) to conform to government affirmative action quotas…

Feeling rejected by the team and definitely still persona non grata to the obnoxious pencil-pushing Government gadfly, Hawkeye goes corporate in ‘Wings and Arrows!’ (Steven Grant, John Byrne & Dan Green). It’s not too long before he’s earning every penny as the new security chief by battling alien avian interloper Deathbird of the Shi’ar…

As a terrifying horror from space crashes to Earth and rampages through Manhattan, the Avengers ae summoned to tribunal seeking to close down the group. However, with a monster in the streets, Beast sees a way to dent Gyrich’s credibility and win back Avengers autonomy in chilling monster-mash ‘Heart of Stone’. Despatched to stop the thing, their subsequent battle draws in scarlet swashbuckler Daredevil who helps expose an old enemy in disguise…

Scripted by Micheline, concluding chapter ‘Back to the Stone Age!’ sees the assemblage overwhelmed by petrifying space pirate The Grey Gargoyle and the Falcon prove his worth until the team can rally and render the marauder helpless, after which artists Arvell Jones & Ricardo Villagran limn #192’s ‘Steel City Nightmare!’ When former industrialist/inventor and occasional Avenger Simon Wonder Man Williams visits Detroit to finalise selling his old steel mill to Tony Stark, they uncover an old but lasting connection to Thor’s uru hammer and the site’s new covert status as a centre of organised crime activity. When a whistle-blower is murdered only to return as a rampaging vengeance-driven flame monster, the call goes out and the Avengers find ‘Battleground Pittsburgh!’ (illustrated by Sal Buscema & Green) to be almost more than they can handle.

Inked by Josef Rubinstein, George Pérez draws the Micheline-scripted ‘Interlude’ in #194, as roster changes saw the Scarlet Witch (briefly) and Falcon leave and Wonder Man return. With Jocasta destabilizing the Vision’s marriage, tensions are high but the later discovery that wannabe actor Simon Williams is moonlighting as a clown on children’s television takes off a lot of edges. Focus abruptly shifts when an apparent escaped mental patient circumvents Avengers security, breaks into the mansion and begs for help. Returned to his carers at the Solomon Institute, Selbe’s plight remains uppermost in Wasp’s thoughts. When she investigates the facility she exposes an horrific science abomination in progress before vanishing without trace…

New Ant-Man Scott Lang got his first dose of team action in Avengers #195 (May 1980) in Michelinie, Pérez, Jack Abel & Green’s ‘Assault on a Mind Cage!’ When his benefactor Hank Pym/Yellowjacket asks Lang to help infiltrate the suspect Solomon asylum he believes holds the Wasp hostage the miniature marvels uncover illegal cloning for spare parts and a murderous madman also capitalising on the facilities to profitably train better henchmen for major villains and mob bosses…

The climactic clash resulting from ‘The Terrible Toll of the Taskmaster’ (by Michelinie, Pérez & Abel) wrecks the joint but leaves former burglar and convict Lang one step closer to true redemption…

Cold War paranoia fuels Avengers #197’s ‘Prelude to the War-Devil!’ (illustrated by Carmine Infantino, Abel and a horde of helpers) wherein overwrought scientist Dr. Cowan absconds from Stark Detroit facilities inside a super-mecha warrior initially built to destroy the undisputed king of Kaiju (see Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years). Unable to stand the tension any longer, the boffin intends triggering WWIII and ending the anxiety of humankind once and for all, but must first face the deployed and increasingly desperate Avengers in ‘Better Red Than Ronin!’ (art by Pérez, Brett Breeding & Gene Day) and cataclysmic climax ‘Last Stand on Long Island’ (inked by Dan Green).

Away from the mounting carnage, a disturbing subplot played out as a strange, terrifyingly rapid transformation sees Carol Danvers (Ms, and these days Captain Marvel) impossibly pregnant and bringing an unknown baby with no father to term in a matter of days. Reaching out to the Scarlet Witch, the hasty decision is to call in the full resources of the Mighty Avengers…

The mystery is solved in bonanza anniversary issue #200 (October 1980 by plotters, Jim Shooter, Pérez & Bob Layton; scripter Michelinie, and artists Pérez & Green). In ‘The Child is Father To…?’ with almost the entire past roster on hand, the miracle baby is born without incident, but consequently hyper-rapidly matures as time goes wild around the city. With different eras overwriting the present, the unearthly boy begins building a machine to stabilise the chaos despite the profoundly suspicious heroes misunderstanding his motives. Marcus claims to be the son of time-master Immortus, seeking to escape eternal isolation in transdimensional Limbo by implanting his essence in a mortal tough enough to survive the energy required for the transfer.

Literally reborn on Earth, his attempts to complete the process are foiled by the World’s Most Confused Heroes and he is tragically drawn back to his timeless realm. Carol, suddenly declaring her love for Marcus, unexpectedly goes with him. The heroes unquestioning acceptance of the result might well be the greatest failure and betrayal in Avengers history…

The clean-up begins in #201 where ‘The Evil Reborn’ sees Michelinie, Pérez & Green adapt a Jim Shooter short story as Tony Stark succumbs to previous, deep-buried hypnotic programming to reconstruct cybernetic conqueror Ultron…

The tale is cut short as back-up strip ‘Bully!’ by Michelinie, Roger Stern, Pérez & Day explores the off-duty life of butler Edwin Jarvis as he improves his home neighbourhood with a little human-scaled heroism and defiance in the face of insurmountable odds…

The Avenging escapades pause for now with bombastic brutal closing chapter ‘This Evil Undying’ (Micheline, Pérez & Mike Esposito) as the team (Captain America Thor, Wasp, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Jocasta free Iron Man from the metal maniac’s domination and apparently end the threat forever…

Supplementing the main drama are a brace of contemporaneous tales beginning with the first Wonder Man solo saga, as published in Marvel Premiere #55 (August 1980). ‘A Force of Two!’ by Micheline, Layton, Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnott sees Simon Williams return to another of his old factories (in Brooklyn this time) to clean out the criminal trash who took over after his “death” and eventual resurrection as being of ionic energy. Even he isn’t quite enough to oust entrenched Maggia mobsters – and their lawyers – and requires a little offbeat assistance from an old pal who risks everything to atone…

Next comes a six-page vignette starring The Vision, created during a rookie initiative program in 1976 by Tom DeFalco, John Fuller & Bruce Patterson, ‘Double Vision’ sat in the inventory drawer until seen in Tales to Astonish (vol 2 #12, November 1980) and relates how the eerie android saves a diplomat and other caught in a plane hijacking…

With covers by Byrne, Pérez, Frank Miller, Dave Cockrum, Wilson, Sinnott, Green, Bob McLeod, Rubinstein and Terry Austin; original art pages from Byrne, Pérez, Green & Day; the Pérez/Tom Smith painted cover to Avengers Visionaries: George Pérez (1999) and the aforementioned Brevoort appreciation of the artist from that tome, this compelling collection is available in hardback and digital iterations, and a must-read moment of wonder every fan must see.
© 2019 MARVEL.

Today in 1877 Catalan comics creator and pioneer Tomàs Padró died, as did French surrealist cartoonist and multimedia maven Roland Topor in 1997. In 1934 Chilean Disney artist Vicar (Víctor José Arriagada Ríos) was born, as was arch-stylist Paul Rivoche (Mister X, Batman, Exile of the Aeons) in 1959.

On this date in 1990 The Times of India supplement Indrajal Comics published its last issue. Started in 1964 its 805 issues brought The Phantom, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Garth, Rip Kirby, Phil Corrigan, Buz Sawyer, Mike Nomad, Kerry Drake, and others to millions of readers, and in 1976 debuted homegrown Indian hero Bahadur by Aabid Surti.

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DC Finest: Justice League of America – Starro the Conqueror


By Gardner F. Fox, Mike Sekowsy, Carmine Infantino, Bernard Sachs, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-773-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – by which we mean the launch of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s progress was to combine individual sales-points into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was irrefutably proven: a number of popular characters could multiply readership by combining forces. Plus, of course, a whole bunch of superheroes is far cooler than just one – or even one and a sidekick…

Thus the Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a true landmark in the development of comic books and – when Julius Schwartz began reviving and revitalising the nigh-defunct superhero genre in 1956 – the next key moment would come a few years with the inevitable teaming of reconfigured mystery men. The League launched in The Brave and the Bold #28 (cover-dated March 1960 but actually on sale from December 29th 1959) and cemented the growth and validity of the revived subgenre, triggering an explosion of new characters at every company producing comic books; even spreading to the rest of the world as the 1960s progressed.

Spanning March 1960 to May 1963, this full-colour paperback collection of timeless classics re-presents The Brave and the Bold #28-30, issues #1-19 of the epochal first series of Justice League of America and a crucial early cross-branding event from Mystery in Space #75, with scripter Gardner Fox and illustrators Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs – with the support of Joe Giella, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson – seemingly able to do no wrong. That moment that changed everything for us baby-boomers came in The Brave and the Bold #28, a classical adventure title that had recently become a try-out magazine like Showcase. Just in time for Christmas 1959 ads began running…

“Just Imagine! The mightiest heroes of our time… have banded together as the Justice League of America to stamp out the forces of evil wherever and whenever they appear!…”

When it came that first tale was written by the indefatigable Gardner Fox and illustrated by quirky, understated virtuoso Mike Sekowsky, and inked by Bernard Sachs, Joe Giella & Murphy Anderson. ‘Starro the Conqueror!’ saw Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, J’onn J’onzz – Manhunter from Mars and recent debutante Green Lantern defeat a marauding alien starfish whilst Superman and Batman stood by as a reserve. In those naive days, editors feared their top characters could be “over-exposed” and consequently lose popularity. The team also picked up an average American kid as a mascot. “Typical teenager” Snapper Carr would prove a focus of fan controversy for decades to come, and the yarn was/is supplanted by fact page ‘The “Starfish” Family!’ crafted by clever persons currently unknown…

Confident of his material and the superhero genre’s fresh appeal, Schwartz had two more thrillers ready for the following issues. B&B #29 saw the team defeat a marauder from the future who apparently had history on his side in ‘The Challenge of the Weapons Master!’ (inks by Sachs and Giella) whilst #30 saw the debut of the team’s first mad-scientist archvillain in the form of Professor Ivo who employed and his super android Amazo in ‘The Case of the Stolen Super Powers’ (Fox, Sekowsky & Sachs) to  end the try-out run. Three months later a new bi-monthly title debuted…

Perhaps somewhat sedate by histrionic modern standards, the JLA was revolutionary in a comics marketplace where less than 10% of all sales featured costumed adventurers. Not only consumer imagination was struck by hero teams either. Stan Lee was apparently given a copy of Justice League by his boss Martin Goodman and told to do something similar for the tottering comics company he ran… and look what came of that…

Justice League of America #1 offered a voyage to ‘The World of No Return’, in the insalubrious company of trans-dimensional tour-guide and tawdry tyrant Despero who bedevilled the World’s Greatest Heroes until, once again, plucky Snapper Carr became the key to defeating the villain and saving the day. As previously mentioned, although Superman and Batman were included in the membership their participation was strictly limited as editorial diktat at the start to avoid possible reader ennui and saturation from over-exposure. That ended from this point forward as they joined the regulars in all their games.

The second issue’s ‘Secret of the Sinister Sorcerers!’ presented an astounding conundrum as the villains of Magic-Land sneakily transposed the location of their dimension with Earth’s, causing the Laws of Science to be replaced with the Lore of Mysticism. The true mettle of the costumed heroes (with Superman & Batman fully participating in the proceedings) was shown when they had to use ingenuity rather than their powers to defeat fearsome foes and set two worlds to rights.

JLA #3 introduced despicable despot and slimy sentient trafficker Kanjar Ro who attempted to turn the team into his personal army in ‘The Slave Ship of Space!’, before the next episode was the first of many to feature a new member joining the team. Green Arrow saved the day in science-fiction thriller ‘Doom of the Star Diamond’, but was almost kicked out in #5 as the insidious evil genius Doctor Destiny inadvertently framed him ‘When Gravity Went Wild!’

The glory days of full-on “costumed crazies” was still in the future and most tales of this period involved extraterrestrial or fringe technology-triggered emergencies such as the mad scientist who encountered them next. ‘The Wheel of Misfortune!’ saw the debut of pernicious and persistent master of wild science Professor Amos Fortune, who weaponised luck to challenge the masked marvels, whilst #7 was another alien invasion plot (Agellaxians this time) who used an amusement park as a live-weapons lab, using humans to beta test their tech and eerily transform the swiftly-investigating heroes infiltrating ‘The Cosmic Fun-House!’

Organised crime then collided with cruel happenstance in January 1962’s JLA #8. ‘For Sale… the Justice League!’ offered a smart gangster caper wherein cheap hood Pete Rickets finds a prototype teaching tool and misuses it as mind-control weapon to enslave the superhero team before simple Snapper once again saves the day.

As often remarked, back then origins and character background were not as important as delivering solid entertaining stories and it was not until Justice League of America #9 (cover-dated February 1962 and on sale from December 21st 1961) that the group shared its motivating first case with enthralled readers via the narrative engine of curious Snapper Carr. Nigh-mythic now and oft-recounted. ‘The Origin of the Justice League’ recounts the circumstances of the team’s birth in an alien invasion saga as mighty space warriors seeking to use Earth as a gladiatorial arena in which to decide the future ruler of their distant world Appellax…

It’s followed by the series’ first continued story. ‘The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust!’ finds the World’s Greatest Superheroes already battling a marauder from the future – the Lord of Time – when they’re spellbound by a vile sorcerer. Faust has awoken three antediluvian demons (Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast) and sold them the world in exchange for 100 years of unlimited power. Although the heroes eventually outwit and defeat Faust they have no idea that the demons are loose…

Although chronologically and sequentially adrift, next up is  Mystery in Space #75 (May 1962), wherein the worlds-beating team guest-star in a full-length thriller in Adam Strange’s ongoing, off-world epic adventures. Strange is an Earth archaeologist who regularly teleports to a planet circling Alpha Centauri where his wits and ingenuity saved the citizens of Rann from all manner of interplanetary threats and menaces. In ‘The Planet that came to a Standstill!’, Kanjar Ro attempts to conquer Strange’s adopted home, and our gallant hero must enlist the aid of the JLA before once again saving the day himself. This classic team-up was written by Fox, and illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson.

Then, back in JLA #11 (also cover-dated May 1962) concluding chronological conundrum ‘One Hour to Doomsday!’ sees the JLA pursue and capture initial target The Lord of Time, before becoming trapped a century from their home-era by the awakened, re-empowered demons. This level of plot complexity hadn’t been seen in comics since the closure of EC Comics, and never before in a superhero tale. It was a profound acknowledgement by the creators that the readership was no longer simply little kids – if indeed it ever had been…

Perennial archvillain Doctor Light debuted in #12, attempting a pre-emptive strike on the team by transporting them to carefully selected sidereal worlds where their abilities would be useless, but ‘The Last Case of the Justice League’ proved to be anything but, and in the next issue the heroes saved our entire reality by solving ‘The Riddle of the Robot Justice League’: sinister simulacra created to stop the champions from halting the theft of our life-energy by agents of another cosmic realm. Then ‘The Menace of the “Atom” Bomb!’ in #14 proved to be  a neat way of introducing latest inductee The Atom whilst showing a fresh side to an old villain masquerading as new nemesis Mister Memory…

‘Challenge of the Untouchable Aliens’ in JLA #15 added some fresh texture to the formulaic plot of extra-dimensional invaders out for our destruction before ‘The Cavern of Deadly Spheres’ delivered a deceptive change-of-pace tale with a narrative technique that just couldn’t be used on today’s oh-so-sophisticated audience, but still has the power to grip a reader. Ever challenging and always universal continuity building, more links between heroes were formed in #17’s ‘Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant!’ Here a sentient cyclone that had once battled indomitable Adam Strange (in Mystery in Space #61) set up housekeeping on an desolate world and ponder the very nature of Good and Evil and even roleplay out its deliberations. It soon realised that it needed the help of the Justice League to reach a survivable conclusion…

Teaser Alert: As well being a cracking yarn, this story is pivotal in the development of the android hero Red Tornado…

JLA #18 found the heroes forcibly summoned to a subatomic universe by three planetary champions whose continued existence now threatened to destroy the very world they were designed to protect. ‘Journey to the Micro-World’ found the JLA compelled to defeat opponents who were literally unbeatable and discovering yet again that Batman’s brains were a super power no force could thwart…

One final perplexing puzzle was posed in ‘The Super-Exiles of Earth’ after unstoppable duplicates of the heroes go on a crime-spree, forcing global governments to banish the League into space. Breaking rules and laws whilst battling undercover in their civilian identities, the team prove too much for the mystery mastermind behind the plot and return to public acclaim in a stellar wrap-up to another fabulous feast of four-colour fun.

With iconic covers by Sekowsky, Infantino and Anderson, these tales are a perfect example of all that was best and purest about US comics’ Silver Age: combining optimism and ingenuity with bonhomie and adventure. This slice of better times also has the benefit of cherishing wonderment whilst actually being historically valid for any fan of our medium. Best of all the stories here are still captivating and enthralling transports of delight.

These classical compendia are a dedicated fan’s delight: an absolute gift for modern fans who desperately need to catch up without going bankrupt. They are also perfect to give to youngsters as an introduction into a fabulous world of adventure and magic…
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Today in 1883 trailblazing strip creator Frank King (Gasoline Alley) was born, as was trendsetting illustrator Mac Raboy (Captain Marvel Junior, Green Lama, Flash Gordon) in 1914; German comics legend Rolf Kauka (Dagobert, Fix und Foxi) in 1917 and Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol, some music and TV and movies ‘n’ stuff) in 1977.

In 1978, DC’s The World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip premiered.