Science Fiction – Page 95

August 30, 2014

The Adventures of Blake & Mortimer: The Mystery of the Great Pyramid part 1 – The Papyrus of Manethon

By Edgar P. Jacobs, translated by Clarence E. Holland (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-37-3

Brussels-born Edgar P. Jacobs was a prodigy who drew from an early age and was besotted by music and the performing arts – especially opera. Upon graduation from commercial school in 1919, he promptly rejected safe, steady office work and instead avidly pursued his artistic passionsâ€¦

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

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

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

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

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

Following the Liberation, publisher Raymond Leblanc convinced HergÃ©, Jacobs and a few other comicstrip masters to work for his bold new venture. Founding publishing house Le Lombard, Leblanc also launched Le Journal de Tintin, an anthology comic with editions in Belgium, France and Holland. It was edited by Herge and would star the already legendary intrepid boy reporter plus a host of new heroes and features.

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

Laudy had been a friend of Jacobs’ since their time together on Bravo, and the epic thriller serial ‘Le secret de l’Espadon’ starred Captain Francis Blake: an English Military Intelligence officer closely modelled on him. The debonair spy was to be partnered with a bluff, gruff excitable British boffin – Professor Philip Mortimerâ€¦

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

In 1984 the saga was repackaged for English translation as three volumes during a push to win some of Britain’s huge Tintin and Asterix market, but failed to find an audience. The venture ended after seven magnificent, under-appreciated volumes.

Cinebook have had far more success publishing Blake and Mortimer since 2007 and recently completed a triptych of the very first adventureâ€¦

Chronologically, the next epic was this eerily exotic thriller which originally ran in Tintin as Le MystÃ¨re de la Grande Pyramide from March 23^rd 1950 to February 21^st 1951.

These are the second and third volumes of the current Cinebook series and pick up the ongoing adventures in the months following the defeat of Tibetan warlord Basam-Damdu and liberation of the planet from his monomaniacal tyrannyâ€¦

The Mystery of the Great Pyramid, part 1 opens with the author’s fascinating and pertinent feature on everything Ancient Egyptian – complete with extremely handy maps and plans – before the story proper begins with fretful Professor Philip Mortimer taking some time off to pursue his occasional hobby.

A keen amateur archaeologist, the boffin has flown to Cairo with devoted assistant Nasir for a holiday and to help Egyptologist Ahmed Rassim Bey translate an astounding new find. However as they debark at the airport, the vigilant Indian thinks he spots an old enemyâ€¦

When no sign can be found the travellers move on, and the following morning Mortimer is examining some fragile scraps of papyrus attributed to legendary contemporary archivist Manethon. The ancient priest’s writings indicate that a secret treasure is hidden beneath a certain pyramid in a â€œChamber of Horusâ€â€¦

Cautious of the effect of such a sensationalistic discovery, the scientists decide to proceed carefully, blithely unaware that trusted assistant Abdul Ben Zaim is in the employ of a cruel and dangerous enemyâ€¦

Even after an evening of socialising the learned men are keen to get to work. Returning late to the laboratory of the Egyptian Museum they discover Abdul furtively loitering and Mortimer’s suspicions are aroused. When nobody is watching, the physicist craftily secures a portion of the papyrus and talks Ahmed into conducting a clandestine testâ€¦

Abdul is indeed playing a double game and his mysterious master is a man both subtle and exceedingly dangerous.

That night the leader tries to steal the documents but is surprised by Mortimer who has anticipated such a move. The canny scientist is just as surprised when the villain is revealed as Colonel Olrik.

The wily war criminal has been missing since the fall of warlord Basam-Damdu but has lost none of his lethal skills. Overpowering Mortimer, the rogue escapes, taking with him the last shred of papyrus the Professor had been holdingâ€¦

In his lair, Olrik presses Abdul, who hastily translates the assembled fragments and declares the Chamber of Horus must be in the Great Sphinx on the Giza Plateauâ€¦

Under constant surveillance by Olrik’s gang, Mortimer and Nasir warily go about their business, hoping to lure the mastermind out of hiding. Meanwhile Abdul, believing himself undiscovered, returns to work at the museum, where flashy German Egyptologist Herr Doktor Grossgrabenstein is loudly informing everyone of his latest search for the tomb of Tanitkara.

The bombastic treasure-hunter invites Mortimer to visit him and view his unique collection but the boffin is too absorbed with shadowing Abdul – a task made far harder by the inept assistance of the local police.

When a lucky clue leads the resolute researcher to an antique store, Olrik’s scurrilous henchman Basendjas ambushes and imprisons Mortimer in the basement, but after a tremendous, extended battle the doughty doctor breaks free and calls in the cops.

Sadly, even on the defensive, Olrik is formidable and fights free of the encroaching authorities before vanishing into the warrens of the cityâ€¦

After Abdul is killed by a hit-and-run driver the effusive Doktor Grossgrabenstein is present when Mortimer admits defeat and calls in a seasoned professionalâ€¦

In London, Captain Francis Blake receives a cablegram and takes a leave from desk duty at security organisation I5. The Scotland Yard department is already investigating a surge of criminal activity in Northeast Africa and is happy to have their top man take a personal interest.

Blake heads out to Egypt by devious and complex means but, despite his circuitous route and customary caution, does not make it. Mortimer becomes increasingly impatient as he awaits the espionage expert’s arrival and to kill time finally accedes to his German colleague’s repeated requests to visit his dig at Giza.

When he arrives Mortimer finds bullying foreman Sharkey whipping native workers and is just in time to thrash the brute as he tries to attack an old Holy Man who has objectedâ€¦

The enraged thug pulls a gun but is admonished by Grossgrabenstein, who then reluctantly allows the Professor to inspect the recently cleared chambers below the pyramid.

As Mortimer climbs back to the surface, a hasty, anonymous cry alerts him and he narrowly dodges a huge rock which crashes into the space where he stood. The area it stone fell from is empty and nobody recognises the voice which called outâ€¦

Making his way back to his hotel the weary scientist is then crushed to receive news that his best friend has been shot to death in a phone booth at Athens airportâ€¦

Bitter and enraged, Mortimer swears to make Olrik payâ€¦

To Be Concludedâ€¦

Beguiling, suspenseful and fantastic in the grandest tradition of epic intrigue, The Adventures of Blake & Mortimer is the very epitome of dogged heroic determination; delivering splendid Blood-&-Thunder thrills and spills in timeless fashion and with breathtaking visual punch. Every kid of any age able to suspend modern mores and cultural disbelief (call it alternate earth history or bakelite-punk if you want) can’t help but revel in the adventure of their livesâ€¦ and so will you.

August 19, 2014August 18, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2: War of Kings Book 1

By Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, Paul Pelletier, Brad Walker, Carlos Magno, Wes Craig & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3339-1

Following twin cosmic catastrophes (the invasion of our cosmos by Annihilus and legions of Negative Zone monsters plus a subsequent assault on the shattered survivors by parasitical invading Phalanx techno-horrors) our corner of the universe was left reeling and frantically trying to rebuild.

During that period of instability and crisis, Star-Lord Peter Quill assembled a rag-tag team of alien warriors with the intention of acting as a pre-emptive peace-keeping and disaster management force.

They comprised Quill, Adam Warlock, Gamora â€œthe Deadliest Woman in the Galaxyâ€, Drax the Destroyer, latest Quasar Phyla-Vell, anamorphic adventurer Rocket Raccoon and gloriously whacky â€œKirby Kritterâ€ Groot, a constantly regenerating killer tree and one-time â€œMonarch of Planet Xâ€.

The squad was supported by telepathic precog and failed Celestial Madonna Mantis and Cold War Soviet superdog Cosmo, both high in the controlling hierarchy of intergalactic research think-tank Knowhere, situated in the hollowed-out skull of a dead Celestial Space Godâ€¦

Before too long they were battling on many fronts after discovering that the fabric of the cosmos – stretched, mauled, abused and abraded by continual crises – had begun to unravel in various hotspots, allowing access to things from outside reality: very nasty things that really, really wanted to come and play in our universeâ€¦

Whilst closing one such rift the team recovered a huge chunk of â€œlimbo-iceâ€ and found the temporal effluvia was encasing a chunk of Avengers Mansion, an appalling atrocity hungry for slaughter and a strange costumed hero holding Captain America‘s legendary shieldâ€¦

The amnesiac outcast alternately called himself Vance Astrovik and Major Victory, claiming to be part of a 30^th century group of freedom-fighters called The Guardians of the Galaxy. He had travelled back from the future but could not remember what for, why or even if he had eventually arrived in the right universeâ€¦

Before the suspicious heroes could explore further, Knowhere and especially Astrovik were targeted by another future-born being – Starhawk – and the base was subject to infiltration by shapeshifting Skrulls.

In fighting off the attack Quill’s team accidentally discovered that when they initially convened, Star-Lord had urged Mantis to telepathically â€œnudgeâ€ the war-weary warriors into joining his proposed team.

Quite understandably on hearing this, they all quitâ€¦

Perhaps a better term would be mutinied as weeks later the majority were still putting out cosmic brush fires, but without the manipulative betrayer Star-Lordâ€¦

This particular collection – gathering Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2 #7-12 spanning November 2008 to April 2009 – acts as prologue to yet another cosmos-rending crisis wherein the battered Shi’ar Empire, ruled at this time by mutant Vulcan (half brother of Scott and Alex Summers) battled for its very existence against the resurgent Kree, led at first by Ronan the Accuser but eventually Black Bolt of the earthborn genetic weapons known as Inhumans.

The convoluted saga involved a host of space-themed characters, crossed over into many titles and served to forge closer links between the Earth-based Marvel Universe and its far-flung intergalactic outliers, eventually encompassing and engulfing such diverse elements as the X-Men, Nova Corps, Darkhawk, Starjammers and many moreâ€¦

Here however there is the barest inkling of what is to come as writers Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning describe ‘No Future’ (illustrated by Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar) wherein the constantly gender-shifting captive Starhawk shares his/her shaky memories of the future and the fall of tomorrow’s galactic guardians with telepathic canine Ã©migrÃ© Cosmo whilst elsewhere Rocket, Groot, Mantis, Major Victory and Galactic Warrior Bug (from 1970’s phenomenon The Micronauts) struggle to prevent a Spartoi colony world from being ravaged by technologically enhanced undead monsters.

In a flash of memory Astrovik recognises them as precursors of the Badoon terror battalions he knows as â€œZomsâ€ just as he discovers a colossal factory churning out fresh horrors from the remains of the colony’s populaceâ€¦

Half a galaxy away Adam Warlock and Gamora have invaded a citadel of the Universal Church of Truth responsible for the latest rips in the fabric of space/time whilst Drax and Phyla-Vell are searching a planet of spiritualists and get a disturbing message from someone long deadâ€¦

And, further still from any of them, Peter Quill wakes up a captive of bombastic tyrant Blastaar, deep inside the subspace hell of the Negative Zoneâ€¦

How he got there is revealed in ‘Past Mistakes’ (with art by Brad Walker & Victor Olazaba), disclosing how the guilt-ridden Star-Lord returned to Kree homeworld Hala to aid their resistance only to be ambushed by notional leader Ronan who has commissioned the reconstruction of a lethal atrocity weapon dubbed the Babel Spireâ€¦

Quill’s moral and physical objections were overruled by superior force before the fallen hero was cast into the N-Zone whilst all his erstwhile comrades soldiered on without him in their own sectors of a growing universal disasterâ€¦

The self-appointed lord of the Negative Zone and unlikely ally of the Accuser wants Quill’s help. King Blastaar has a plan to invade Earth againâ€¦

At that time Earth’s smartest minds had built an other-dimensional jail – codenamed 42 – where they unceremoniously dumped a wide variety of super-felons and enhanced maniacs. ‘Prison Break’ (Walker, Carlos Magno, Olazaba & Jack Purcell) found Blastaar pitting his armies against the supposedly impenetrable fortress, determined to capture its single portal back the positive matter universeâ€¦

The penitentiary, long abandoned by its correctional officers, was being run by some of the less crazy inmates such as vigilante and former Captain America sidekick Jack Flag who had organised a stiff resistance to Blastaar’s bloody, besieging legions.

Quill, sent in by Blastaar as an ambassador to convince the humans to surrender, instead links up with the cons and they hatch a plan to unlock the one-way transmat portal and ship the surviving cons back home, but dealing with maniacs like Gorilla-Man Arthur Nagan, hacker Skeleton Ki, winged killer Condor and mutated mauler Bison proves as fraught with peril as betraying Blastaarâ€¦

In the outer universe, whilst Drax and Quasar seek a way to reunite with dead and possessed champion Moondragon, Quill uses a captive telepath to send a message to his former comrades. In response Cosmo uses Knowhere’s tech to despatch Rocket, Bug, Groot, Mantis and Major Victory to his aidâ€¦

Unfortunately they materialise on the wrong side of the invading forces just as a traitor opens the doors to the killer king’s forcesâ€¦

‘Blastaared!’ (Walker, Olazaba, Rodney Ramos & John Livesay) finds the reunited heroes battling for their lives inside 42 as, on the throneworld of the Universal Church of Truth, Warlock confronts his own appalling future before regretfully taking control over the merciless theocracy.

Pulling off a minor miracle, the Guardians and last penal survivors beam back to our reality, even as in a dark cell Starhawk realises that the war she/he had fought so hard to forestall is beginningâ€¦

The last two tales in this collection (illustrated by Wes Craig) yield focus to Drax and Phyla-Vell, beginning with ‘Welcome to Oblivion’ wherein the recently murdered duo awake in a deathlike dimension to be challenged by a number of deceased heroes and villains such as her father Mar-Vell and murderous maniac Maelstrom. The Avatar of Oblivion has been slowing leading the seekers to this pocket purgatory with psychic breadcrumbs of Moondragon’s essence in a scheme to escape back to the lands of the livingâ€¦

The resurrection shuffle spectacularly concludes in ‘Sacrifice’ as ghostly champion Wendell Vaughn – the first Quasar – boldly appears to aid Drax and Phyla’s rescue of Moondragon before sending them all back to the world of breath and light.

However plots within plots are constantly unfolding and in truth a new Avatar of Death has manifested, allowing the cosmic entity known as Oblivion to anticipate a forthcoming â€œEnd Warâ€â€¦

This stunning stellar treasure-chest also includes a covers-&-variants gallery by Clint Langley, Jim Valentino, Brandon Peterson, David Yardin and Paul Renavo to complete a sharp, breathtaking adventure with loads of laughs and tremendous imagination.

On its own terms this is superb stuff well worth seeking out, but Fights ‘n’ Tights completists might be wise to remember this is only the tip of a cataclysmic cosmic iceberg and the full picture spans at least six other volumesâ€¦
Â© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

August 15, 2014August 16, 2014

Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Guardians of the Galaxy

By Arnold Drake, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Bill Mantlo, Jim Valentino, Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, Gene Colan, Mike Mignola, Timothy Green, Paul Pelletier & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-601-4

With another Marvel filmic franchise kicking off around the world, here’s a timely tie-in trade paperback collection designed to perfectly augment the cinematic exposure and cater to movie fans wanting to follow up with a comics experience.

Part of the always rewarding Marvel Platinum/Definitive Edition series, this treasury of tales reprints intriguing landmarks and key moments from Marvel Super Heroes #18, Marvel Preview #11, Rocket Raccoon #1-4, Guardians of the Galaxy volume 1, #1, Annihilation Conquest: Star-Lord #1-4 and Guardians of the Galaxy volume 1, spanning January 1969-July 2008, and hopefully answering any questions the silver screen story might throw up whilst providing an immense amount of spectacularly bombastic fighting fun.

One thing to recall at all times though is that there are two distinct and separate iterations of the team. The film concentrates on the second but there are inescapable connections between them so pay attention hereâ€¦

Moreover, in addition to the sparkling Brady Webb Foreword, this compendium contains text features detailing the secret history and statistics of Drax, Gamora, Groot, Rocket Raccoon and Star-Lord, plus Mike Conroy’s scholarly trawl through comicbook history in ‘The True Origin of the Guardians of the Galaxy’.

Although heralded since its genesis in the early 1960s with making superheroes more realistic, The House of Ideas has also always maintained its close connection with outlandish and outrageous cosmic calamity (as best exemplified in their pre-superhero â€œmonster-magâ€ days), and their pantheon of much-travelled space stalwarts maintain that delightful â€œAnything Goesâ€ attitude in all of their many and varied iterations.

This titanic tome’s blistering battle-fest begins with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Earth Shall Overcome!’ first seen in combination new-concept try-out/Golden Age reprint vehicle Marvel Super Heroes #18 (cover-dated January 1969). The terse, gritty episode introduced a disparate band of freedom fighters battling to save Earth from occupation and humanity from extinction at the scaly hands of the sinister, reptilian Brotherhood of Badoon.

It all starts when Jovian militia-man Charlie-27 returns home from a six month tour of scout duty to find his entire colony subjugated by invading aliens. Fighting free, he jumps into a randomly programmed teleporter and emerges on Pluto, just in time to scotch the escape of crystaline scientist Martinex.

Both are examples of human genetic engineering: subspecies designed to populate and colonise Sol system’s outer planets but now potentially the last of their kinds. After helping the mineral man complete his mission of sabotage – blowing up potentially useful material before the Badoon can get their hands on it – the odd couple set the teleporter for Earth and jump…

Unfortunately the invaders have already taken the homeworld.

The Supreme Badoon Elite are there, busily mocking the oldest Earthman alive. Major Vance Astro had been the world’s first intersolar astronaut; solo flying in cold sleep to Alpha Centauri at a fraction of the speed of light.

When he got there 1000 years later, humanity was waiting for him, having cracked trans-luminal speeds a mere two centuries after he took off. Now he and Centauri aborigine Yondu were a comedy exhibit for the cruel reptilian conquerors who were eradicating both of their racesâ€¦

The smug invaders were utterly overwhelmed when Astro broke free, utilising the psionic powers he had developed in hibernation before Yondu slaughtered them with the sound-controlled energy arrows he carried.

In their pell-mell flight the pair stumbled across the incoming Martinex and Charlie-27 and a new legend of valiant resistance was bornâ€¦

The eccentric team, as originally envisioned by Arnold Drake, Gene Colan & Mike Esposito in 1968, were presented to an audience undergoing immense social change, with dissent in the air, riot in the streets and with the Vietnam War on their TV screens every night.

Perhaps the jingoistic militaristic overtones were off-putting or maybe the times were against the Guardians since costumed hero titles were entering a temporary downturn, but whatever the reason the feature was a rare â€œMissâ€ for Marvel and the futuristic freedom fighters were not seen again for years.

They floated in limbo until 1974 when Steve Gerber incorporated them into some of his assigned titles (Marvel Two-In-One and The Defenders), wherein assorted 20^th century champions travelled a millennium into the future to ensure humanity’s survival. Rejuvenated by exposure the squad rededicated themselves to liberating star-scattered Mankind, and eventually gained a short-lived series in Marvel Presents (#3-12, February 1976-August 1977, but not represented here) before cancellation left them roaming the Marvel Universe as perennial guest-stars in such cosmically-tinged titles as Thor, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One and most significantly The Avengers.

In June 1990 they secured a relatively successful relaunch (#62 issues + annuals and spin-off miniseries) before cancellation again claimed them in July 1995.

However before we get there this volume highlights two seemingly unrelated characters who made their debuts elsewhere in the 20^th century Marvel Universe.

Starlord (without the hyphen) premiered in black-&-white mature-reader magazine Marvel Preview # 4 in 1976, appearing thrice more – in #11, 14 and 15 – during the height of the Star Wars inspired Science Fiction explosion.

Years previously a warrior prince of an interstellar empire was shot down over Colorado and had a brief fling with solitary Earther Meredith Quill. Despite his desire to remain in idyllic isolation, duty called the starman back to the battle and he left, leaving behind an unborn son and a unique weaponâ€¦

A decade later, the troubled boy saw his mother assassinated by alien lizard men. Peter Jason Quill vengefully slew the creatures with Meredith’s shotgun, before his home was explosively destroyed by a flying saucer.

The orphan awoke in hospital, his only possession a â€œtoyâ€ ray-gun his mother had hidden from him his entire life. Years later his destiny found him, as the half-breed scion was elevated by the divinity dubbed the â€œMaster of the Sunâ€, becoming StarLord. Rejecting both Earth and his missing father Peter chose freedom, the pursuit of justice and the expanse of the cosmos.

In his second outing (Marvel Preview #11, Summer 1977) Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Terry Austin crafted a classic space opera which saw the deity-appointed galactic policeman scupper a slaving ring and follow a string of clues back to his own incredible origins.

Presented here in the original monochrome, that tale opens on decimated agrarian planet ‘WindhÃ¶lme’ where fisherman’s son Kip sees his entire community abducted like cattle by alien criminals. Aboard their vessel he is befriended by feisty fellow abductee Sandy but before they can enact their childish dreams of revenge the slaver dreadnought is attacked by Starlord and his sentient super vehicle â€œShipâ€â€¦

The traffickers are no match for the aggrieved heroes and, after the victims have been repatriated, psychic interrogation leads Kip, Sandy and the stellar paladin up the criminal chain to flesh-peddler and imperial favourite Kyras Shakti on his debauched pleasure world ‘Cinnibar’.

The monolithic battle there reveals even greater Royal involvement, drawing Starlord to ‘Sparta’, and a shocking family connection before ‘The Hollow Crown’ sees Quill uncover his true origins when he is unexpectedly reunited with his alien father. Despite renewed emotional ties the hero forswears a life of impossible luxury for the heavens, duty and justiceâ€¦

Rocket Raccoon was a minor character who appeared in backup serial ‘The Sword in the Star’ (Marvel Preview #7 in 1976). He won a larger role in Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982), and like Wolverine years before refused to go away quietly.

Reprinted here in its entirety is the 4-issue Rocket Raccoon miniseries (cover-dated May to August 1985 and crafted by Bill Mantlo, Mike Mignola, Al Gordon & Al Milgrom), a bizarre and baroque sci-fi fantasy which blended the charm of Pogo with the biting social satire of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest all whilst ostensibly describing a battle between Good and Evil in a sector of space crazy even by comicbook standards.

Rocket was one of many talking animals in the impenetrable, inescapable Keystone Quadrant; a Ranger in charge of keeping the peace as robots and anamorphic beasties went about their holy tasks of caring for the distinctly odd and carefree humans known as The Loonies on their idyllic, sybaritic planet Halfworld.

However when a brutal shooting war between voracious apex toymakers Judson Jakes and Lord Dyvyne led to Rocket’s girlfriend Lylla Otter being kidnapped, the planet went wild, or perhapsâ€¦ ‘Animal Crackers’.

In rescuing her, Rocket and his faithful deputy Wal Rus had to contend with a murderous army of mechanised Killer Clowns, face an horrific, all-consuming bio-weapon at ‘The Masque of the Red Breath’, and even team up with arch-foe and disreputable mercenary bunny Blackjack O’Hare before uncovering the horrendous truth behind the mad society he so tirelessly defended in ‘The Book of Revelations!’

The final chapter then shook everything up as ‘The Age of Enlightenment’ saw the end of The Loonies, allowing the Raccoon and his surviving companions to escape the confines of the eternally segregated Keystone Quadrant into the greater universe beyondâ€¦

Back on Earth, a speculator-fuelled boom in comics sales led to Marvel launching a bunch of new titles in the early 1990s. Amongst them was Guardians of the Galaxy volume 1, #1, once again focusing on the 31^st century centurions.

Conceived, written and drawn by Jim Valentino – with Steve Montano inking – the debut issue reprinted here reprised the entire eccentric combined careers of Vance, Yondu, Charlie and Martinex (plus later recruits Mercurian Nikki and Starhawk – an alien god who shared a single body with his estranged wife Aleta) as the team set off on a quest.

They were following a string of ancient clues to recover Captain America‘s legendary shield, only to fall foul of cyborg-enhanced warrior ‘Taserface!’

For the rest of that epic journey and their battle against the alien Stark race who had based their entire warrior culture on Iron Man‘s armour, you’ll need to track down one of the many other GotG collections flooding out nowâ€¦

In 2006 a massive crossover involved most of Marvel’s 21^st century space specialists in a spectacular Annihilation Event, leading writing team Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning to confiscate and reconfigure the Guardians concept for modern times and tastes.

Among the stalwarts in the big event were Silver Surfer, Galactus, Firelord (and other previous heralds of the world-eater), Moondragon, Quasar, Star-Lord, Thanos, Super-Skrull, Rigellian Colonizer Tana Nile, Gamora (â€œDeadliest Woman in the Galaxyâ€), Ronan the Accuser, Nova, Drax (the Destroyer), a Watcher and many previously established alien civilisations such as the Kree, Skrulls, Xandarians, Shi’ar et al., all falling before an invasion of rapacious Negative Zone bugs and beasties unleashed by insectoid horror Annihilus..

After that shooting match subsided the decimated sectors and empires were left helpless as sentient, aggressive all-subsuming technological parasite The Phalanx struck, absorbing and thriving inside all the machines and electronic engines the shaken civilisations were using to rebuild in a follow-up apocalypse designated Annihilation: Conquest.

From that second sidereal saga came the beginnings of the Guardians the world has gone crazy over – specifically the side-bar miniseries Annihilation Conquest: Star-Lord #1-4 from September-December 2007 and which is reprinted here in full.

What You’ll Need to Know: in the scarred and war-torn realm of known space, still reeling from the chaos of the Annihilation Wave and its aftermath, both the Kree and Skrull empires are splintered, Xandar‘s Nova Corps (the universal police force) has been reduced to a single agent, ancient gods are loose and a sizable number of the Negative Zone invaders have tenuously established themselves in territories stolen from the billions of dead sentients that once populated the cosmos.

The Supreme Intelligence is gone and arch-villain Ronan has become a surprisingly effective ruler of the Kree remnants. Cosmic Protector Quasar is dead and Phyla-Vell, daughter of the first Captain Marvel has inherited both his powers and nameâ€¦

Whilst Phyla and psychic demi-goddess Moondragon were working with the pacifist Priests of Pama to relieve the suffering of starving survivors, Peter Quill (no longer Star-Lord) was working with Ronan and the pitiful Kree remnants on Hala to shore up the battered communal interstellar defences of the myriad races in the sector.

Quill had brokered an alliance with the Spaceknights of Galador (an old noble cyborg species most famously represented by 1980s hero Rom) which should enhance the all-pervasive etheric war-net, but once uploaded the data instantly causes disastrous problems throughout the system.

In seconds all technology in the region is compromised: overruled and overwritten by a ruthlessly efficient electronic sentience whose cybernetic credo is â€œpeace and order through assimilationâ€. Once more organic life is facing total extinctionâ€¦

On Pama, Phyla and Moondragon are targeted by repurposed Kree automatons as the Phalanx attempt to destroy any credible resistance before cutting off the entire quadrant from the rest of the universe.

If life was to survive this threat it must besaved by the champions trapped insideâ€¦

The 4-part miniseries Annihilation Conquest: Star-Lord – written by Keith Giffen and illustrated by Timothy Green II, Victor Olazaba & Nathan Fairbairn, finds the former Cosmic Avenger stripped of his powers and hi-tech enhancements – all liabilities when facing a predator species that infests electronic devices – and forcibly seconded to a Kree resistance division.

Here he is tasked with turning a bunch of Kree convicts into a Penal Strike Force (a highly engaging intergalactic Dirty Half-Dozen) to take out the complex where the Phalanx are perfecting an efficient way to assimilate organics into their electro-mechanistic hive-mind.

The Kree were once the major bad-guy race in the Marvel mainstream, so whoever they consider criminals look surprising like failed heroes to us. Firstly there’s Galactic Warrior Bug (originally from 1970’s phenomenon Micronauts), the current Captain Universe (ditto), the Shi’ar berserker Deathcry, failed Celestial Madonna Mantis, the so-very-far-from-home Rocket Raccoon and gloriously whacky â€œKirby Kritterâ€ Groot: a Walking Tree and one-time â€œMonarch of Planet X.â€

With this reluctant team in tow and using natural abilities and decidedly primitive Earth weapons the squad invades Hala – central beachhead of the Phalanx – to discover and destroy the augmented assimilation project, but they have drastically underestimated the remorselessly callous creativity of the electronic invadersâ€¦

Happily the Phalanx have no grasp of the ingenuity, bloody-minded determination and willingness to die stupidly for a cause that afflicts organics and heroesâ€¦

Sharp, witty and engaging, this is a magnificent romp full of humour, shocks and thrills no comic fan could possibly resistâ€¦

The roaring success of all that intergalactic derring-do led to a new rootin’, tootin’, blaster-shootin’ conclave of outer space reprobates who formed a new 21^st century iteration and this titanic tome concludes its comics cavalcade with Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2, #1, (July 2008) wherein some of those recently acquainted adventurers get back into the business of saving the universeâ€¦

‘Somebody’s Got To Do It’ – by Abnett, Lanning, Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar – reveals how, due to fellow Earthling Nova’s prompting, Star-Lord forms a pro-active defence force to handle the next inevitable cosmic crisis as soon as – if not before – it starts.

To that end he convinces Phyla-Vell, Drax, Gamora, Groot, Warlock and the Raccoon to relocate with him to the pan-species science-station Knowhere (situated in the hollowed-out skull of a dead Celestial Space God) and start putting out a never-ending progression of interstellar brush-fires before they become really seriousâ€¦

The station is guarded and run by Cosmo – an elderly Soviet dog with astounding telepathic abilities – and is where Mantis now works as chief medic. It also offers unlimited teleportational transport which the team soon needs as it tries to prevent an out-of-control Universal Church of Truth Templeship from crashing into a time/space distortion and shredding the fabric of realityâ€¦

Soon the surly scratch squad are battling savage, crazed missionary-zealots empowered by the worship of enslaved adherents channelled through the Templeship’s colossal Faith Generators whilst desperately attempting to divert the vessel before it impacts the fissure in space.

Such a collision would cause catastrophic destruction to the galaxy but the UCT crusaders only see heretics trying to interfere with their mission to convert unbelieversâ€¦

The crisis is exacerbated by another small problem: there are very nasty things on the other side of the fissure that really want to come and play in our universe, and when one of them breaks through the only thing to do is destroy the Templeshipâ€¦

In the aftermath, Warlock reveals that the non-stop string of cosmic Armageddons since Annihilus’ invasion has fundamentally damaged the substance of space and inevitably more fissures will appear. He wants to repurpose the team to find and close them all before anything else escapes.

And on Sacrosanct, homeworld of the Universal Church of Truth, the Matriarch issues a decree for her Cardinals to deal with the interfering unbelieversâ€¦

With covers by Colan & Esposito, Ken Barr, Mignola & Gordon, Valentino, Nic Klein, and Clint Langley, this spectacular slice of riotous star-roving is a non-stop feast of tense suspense, surreal fun and blockbuster action: another well-tailored, on-target tool to turn curious movie-goers into fans of the comic incarnation and another solid sampling to entice the newcomers and charm even the most jaded slice ‘n’ dice fanatic.

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August 4, 2014August 16, 2014

Battling Boy: The Rise of Aurora West (Uncorrected Proof Copy)

By Paul Pope, J.T. Petty & David Rubin (First Second)
ISBN: 978-1-62672-009-1

Don’t you just love comics convention season? Here’s a splendid sneak peak at an upcoming instant classic from a modern master of comics courtesy, I’m assuming, of the publishers promotional outreach budgetâ€¦.

Paul Pope is undoubtedly one of the most creative and visually engaging creators working in comics these days. Since his debut in 1993 he has stunningly combined elements of European and Japanese styles with classical American fictive themes to produce uniquely tweaked tales of science fiction, fantasy, crime, comedy, romance, adventure and even superheroics.

If you’re not a fan yet, check out Sin Titulo, Batman: Year 100, Heavy Liquid, 100%, One Trick Ripoff and other mature reader titles and most especially the previous volume in his occasional series Battling Boy and its delightful supplement The Death of Haggard Westâ€¦

His latest venture is aimed a general readership – Hey, Kids, This Means You! – and features a world so very similar to our own but with one big, dangerous differenceâ€¦

Arcopolis City would be the perfect place to bring up kids but for one thing. Ghastly devils roam at night, causing chaos in their unrelenting quest to steal all the children.

Even the daylight hours are becoming increasingly fraught as a seemingly endless succession of horrendous behemoths and leviathans incessantly carve a swathe of mindless destruction through the bright, breezy thoroughfaresâ€¦

They aren’t the worst however. The true threat is the hidden gangs of extremely smart monsters led by the likes of the sinister Sadisto who acts as a vile capo of a hellish alien underworldâ€¦

The situation only began to turn around after bemused junior deity Battling Boy was unceremoniously dumped in the harassed metropolis by his tough-love war-god dad, but this electrifying yarn is a prequel to that particular saga.

The Rise of Aurora West is set in the months before the evocative advent of the juvenile saviour, when all that stood between the howling night-haunters and their preferred prey was an aging â€œScience Heroâ€ and his highly-trained but understandably cautious, rather pessimistic, teenaged daughterâ€¦

Haggard West has battled the terrors ever since they first appeared; initially beside his wife and – now that she’s old enough – his daughter Aurora.

The girl’s life is a whirl of energetic physical practice, martial arts training, detective tuition and (to maintain a safe cover) school at the prestigious St. Ignomious Prep, but she can’t help but dwell on the facts that the never-ending crusade has already deprived her of a mother and is killing her dad in slow, painful incrementsâ€¦

This particular evening father and sidekick are stalking a pack of hooded horrors intent on securing some strange device for disreputable squid-witch Medula. Unfortunately, after a blistering battle, the majority of the monsters make their escape with the enigmatic doodad, leaving the senior Science Hero to painfully question an unlucky captiveâ€¦

It knows nothing valuable but before expiring it scrawls a strange symbol in the dirt – one which has a shocking effect on Auroraâ€¦

Back home, as formidable housekeeper, medic and trainer Mrs. Grately ministers to the battered senior West, Aurora cannot get the symbol out of her mind. Driven by instinct and distant memory she heads for the library and finds an old long-forgotten scrawl she scratched on a wall when she was only three years old. It is the same signâ€¦

Grately fills in the details. It was a time when the monsters were only just beginning to appear and the defacing took place due to the suggestion of the toddler’s imaginary friend Mr. Wurple.

With breathtaking clarity Aurora recalls everything: the conversations with the silly phantom and how he vanished a year laterâ€¦ on the night the monsters killed her motherâ€¦

Agitated and obsessed, the teenager goes into a frenzy of research, tracing the symbol to an archaeological trip her family took to see the Sphinx when she was barely walking and talking. With growing horror she recalls how she stumbled upon a secret entrance into the edifice and how her parents discovered the strange mummy of an ancient hero who had died fighting monsters thousands of years agoâ€¦

She also remembers with shock how she was approached by a bizarre energy creature who begged her not to tell her folks he was there and realises that Mr. Wurple was real. Moreover ever since he â€œleftâ€, Arcopolis has been a city under siegeâ€¦

And thus begins the coming-of-age epic as the unsure girl becomes a resolute and dedicated hero determined to solve the disturbing enigma of her insidious imaginary companion whilst attempting to make amends for all the horrors and tragedies she might very well have unleashed on her home town, friends and familyâ€¦

Scripted by Pope and J.T. Petty (Bloody Chester) with stunning art by Spanish cartoonist and illustrator David Rubin, this is a superb and moving sidebar yarn, packed with clever intoxicating mystery, astounding action, tense suspense and beguiling characters that will delight older kids, and reads even better if you’re their adult keeper or guardian.

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Battling Boy: The Rise of Aurora West will be published on September 30^th 2014.

July 15, 2014July 14, 2014

God is Dead Volume 1

By Jonathan Hickman, Mike Costa, Di Amorim & Rafael Ortiz (Avatar Press)
ISBN: 978-1-59291-229-2

Launched in September 2013, Jonathan Hickman and Mike Costa’s God is Dead spectacularly began extrapolating on the age-old question â€œWhat if God(s) were real?â€ in a wry and deliciously dark summer blockbuster style.

Now the first six issues, illustrated by Di Amorim and others, have been collected into a bombastic bludgeoning bible of senses-shattering Apocalyptic apocrypha that begins one day in May 2015 when the pantheons of ancient Egypt, Greece, Viking Scandinavia, the Mayans and Hindu India all explosively return: shattering monuments, landscapes and nations whilst slaughtering millions of mortals, faithful and disbelievers alikeâ€¦

Within two months the ineffable gods have fully re-established themselves, pushing rational, scientific mankind to the brink of extinction, reclaiming their old places of worship and terrified congregations of adherents.

On the run from the new faithful, Dr. Sebastian Reed is rescued from certain death by the stunning Gaby and joins The Collective, an underground think tank of fugitive scientists, even as the Gods savagely revel in their bloody return to power and glory.

In a secret bunker the suicide of the American President leaves an obsessively aggressive General in charge of the US military. He has no intention of letting any primitive usurper run roughshod over the Greatest Nation on Earthâ€¦

As rationalist deep thinkers and innocuous PhDs Thomas Mims, Airic Johnson and Henry Rhodes welcome the fresh recruit, in the heavens Odin convenes a grand congress to settle the final disposition of the mortal world and all its potential worshippersâ€¦

The fable resumes as the American Army goes nuclear. However, although the strike vaporises an army of mortal converts, it cannot harm sublime Quetzalcoatl and merely provokes a punishing response from the assembled and arrogant Lords of the Air.

Far beneath the earth the scientists are engaged in heated debate over the nature of their enemies. Eventually they agree that they have insufficient data and resolve to capture one of the returned godsâ€¦

In America resistance ends when the common soldiery convert to the Mayan religion and sacrifice their stubborn atheist general, but this only leads to greater strife as the Pantheons, with humanity subdued, now turn on each other. Gods are not creatures willing to share or be long bound by pacts and treatiesâ€¦

Over the Himalayas Gaby and her security consultant dad Duke are ferrying the test tube jockeys when their irreplaceable jet is downed by a monstrous dragon even as, in newly holy sites around the globe, the war of the gods gorily eliminates one greedy pantheon after another.

It’s a blessed circumstance for the surviving scientists who find an immolated Hindu deity and promptly harvest the carcass for investigation and experimentation.

With mythological monsters increasingly repopulating the world, the gaggle of geniuses rapidly reverse-engineer the godly genetic soup and decide to make their own deities: Gods of Science to take back the world for rational menâ€¦

The first attempt is an unmitigated catastrophe, savagely eviscerating one of the boffins before Duke manages to kill it. Terrified but undaunted, Gaby leads the way to the next, inevitable step: human trials using what they have gleaned to transform themselvesâ€¦

Up above the god-war is almost over and Odin, Thor and Loki turn their vastly depleted forces towards Mount Olympus and a showdown with Zeus who has until now kept out of the devastating internecine conflict.

The sole divine survivor of that staggering clash – now omnipotent on Earth – then discerns the experiment of the mortal inventors and flashes to their secret lab.

He is too late. The end results of the religion of rationality have already travelled to Olympus and when the ancient frustrated arrogant all-father returns, he is confronted by a triumvirate of new gods born of needles and serums, ready to finally decide who will rule the worldâ€¦

That astoundingly vicious clash is then followed by a portentous Interlude (by Costa & Rafael Ortiz) which follows that oriental dragon into previously unseen China to meet entrepreneurial Sammi whose future seems ‘Gloriously Bright’, after which the newly re-emergent gods of that ‘Middle Kingdom’ have their own crucial confrontation with the golden Wyrm of the Heavensâ€¦

With additional art by Jacen Burroughs and Hickman, God is Dead provides a brutally engaging, uncompromising, brilliantly vicarious dark-edged romp to satisfy any action-loving adult’s need for comics carnage and breathtaking big-concept storytelling.
Â© 2014 Avatar Press Inc. God is Dead and all related properties â„¢ & Â© 2014 Jonathan Hickman and Avatar Press Inc.

July 7, 2014July 12, 2014

Judgment Day and Other Stories

Illustrated by Joe Orlando, written by Al Feldstein & Jack Oleck with Ray Bradbury, Otto Binder & Bill Gaines (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-727-7

During an era of traditionally genre-inspired entertainments, EC Comics excelled in tales that both epitomised and revolutionised the hallowed, hoary themes such standard story categories utilised.

The company had started publishing in 1944 when comicbook pioneer Max Gaines – presumably seeing the writing on the wall – sold the superhero properties of his All-American Comics company to half-sister National/DC, retaining only Picture Stories from the Bible.

His high-minded plan was to produce a line of Educational Comics with schools and church groups as the major target market. He augmented his flagship title with Picture Stories from American History, Picture Stories from Science and Picture Stories from World History but the worthy projects were all failing when he died in a boating accident in 1947.

As detailed in the comprehensive closing feature of this superb graphic compilation (‘Crime, Horror, Terror, Gore, Depravity, Disrespect for Established Authority – and Science Fiction Too: the Ups and Downs of EC Comics’ by author, critic and fan Ted White) his son was rapidly dragged into the company by Business Manager and unsung hero Sol Cohen who held the company together until the initially unwilling Bill Gaines abandoned his dreams of being a chemistry teacher and quickly refashioned the ailing enterprise into Entertaining Comicsâ€¦

After a few tentative false starts and abortive experiments copying industry fashions, young Bill began to closely collaborate with multi-talented associate Al Feldstein, who promptly graduated from creating teen comedies and westerns into becoming Gaines’ editorial supervisor and co-conspirator.

As they began collaboratively plotting the bulk of EC’s stories together, they changed tack, moving in a boldly impressive new direction. Their publishing strategy, utilising the most gifted illustrators in the field, was to tell a â€œNew Trendâ€ of stories aimed at older and more discerning readers, not the mythical semi-literate 8-year-old all comicbooks ostensibly targeted.

From 1950 to 1955 EC was the most innovative and influential publisher in America, dominating the genres of crime, horror, war and science fiction and even creating an entirely new beast: the satirical comicbookâ€¦

Feldstein had started life as a comedy cartoonist and, after creator/editor Harvey Kurtzman departed in 1956, Al became Editor of Mad magazine for the next three decades â€¦

This ninth volume of the Fantagraphics EC Library gathers a mind-boggling selection of science fiction tales – mostly co-plotted by sci-fi fan and companion-in-crime (and Horror and Comedy andâ€¦) Gaines – all illuminated by the company’s most successful alumnus: a legendary, chameleonic artist, illustrator, editor and latterly discoverer of new talent who went on to impact the burgeoning comics industry over and over again.

The Amazing work of Joe Orlando (1927-1998) has been gathered here in a fabulous bible of iconic graphic futurism: a lavish monochrome hardcover edition packed with supplementary features and dissertations; beginning with historian and educator Bill Mason’s informative and laudatory essay ‘Orlando Ascendant’.

What follows is a spectacular beguiling, amazing and frequently wryly hilarious panoply of fantastic wonders, opening with an adaptation of one of Ray Bradbury’s most famous short stories taken from his Martian Chronicles cycle. Bradbury – a huge fan of comics – had, after a tricky start (involving an unsanctioned adaptation of one of his works), struck a deal with EC that saw a number of his horror, crime and science fantasy tales transformed into quite remarkable pieces of mature strip magic.

The eerily poignant and disturbing yarn ‘The Long Years!’ was adapted by Feldstein for Weird Science #17, (January/February 1953) and detailed how a relief ship to the Red Planet found an old man and his young family. â€¦Or rather the perfect thinking facsimiles he had built after they had died decades previously. In that same month Weird Fantasy #17 featured an all-original Feldstein/Gaines yarn.

‘In the Beginningâ€¦’ was a delightfully convoluted time-paradox tale which took flight after Earth explorers landed on a mysterious tenth planet in the solar system, after which

‘Infiltration’ (Shock SupenStories #7, February/March 1953) highlighted Cold War paranoia and repression as a plucky young woman takes up her post in Washington DC and uncovers evidence of alien enemies entrenched in the corridors of power.

Wry irony underpinned the tale of a greedy TV repairman who stumbled upon a crashedUFO and sought to make his fortune by patenting some of the unique components inÂ Â ‘Dissassembled!’ (Weird Science #18, March/April 1953), whilst simultaneously, in Weird Fantasy #18, ‘Judgment Day!’ took a powerful poke at America’s institutionalised bigotry and racism with the allegorical tale of an Earthman visiting a colony of robots who had devised a uniquely oppressive form of apartheid.

The stunningly effective story was reprinted in Incredible Science Fiction #33 (January/February 1956) as Gaines & Feldstein’s last sally and parting shot against the repressive, ever-more censorious Comics Code Authority before shutting down EC’s comicbook division for goodâ€¦

‘Keyed Up!’ from Weird Science #19, May/June 1953 detailed how a drunken spacer who had accidentally killed most of his fellows came a cropper after trying to bury the evidence, whilst that month in sister publication Weird Fantasy #19 ‘Time for a Change!’ saw explorers on Pluto lethally succumb to the tempo and dangers of local rotational conditioners before ‘The Meddlers!’ (Shock SupenStories #9, June/July 1953) revealed how small-town suspicion and hostility turned a scientist into a pariah, a corpse and eventually the doom of scenic Millvilleâ€¦

Gaines and Feldstein were as much satirists, reformers and social commentators as entertainers and never missed an opportunity to turn a harsh spotlight on stupidity, cupidity, prejudice and injustice. They struck gold with ‘The Reformers’ (Weird Science #20, July/August 1953), which outrageously lampooned interfering star-roving blue-stocking do-gooders who discovered a planet they simply couldn’t find fault withâ€¦ no matter how infernally hard they tried.

More importantly this also gave the phenomenally gifted humorist Orlando a rare opportunity to apply his subtler gifts of character nuance and comic timing.

Totalitarianism came under the hammer with ‘The Automaton’ (Weird Fantasy #20, July/August 1953) as a rebellious individual who refused to acknowledge that he was â€œproperty of the Stateâ€ killed himself. Over and over and over and over againâ€¦

‘Home Run!’ (Shock SuspenStories #10 August/September 1953) saw a creature trapped on Earth go to extraordinary measures to return to Mars whilst Weird Science #21 (September/October 1953) played with the plot of the Ugly Duckling for the cruel fantasy ‘The Ugly One’.

An invisible, untouchable intruder wreaked havoc with a band of stellar prospectors in the chilling ‘My Homeâ€¦’ (Weird Fantasy #21, September/October 1953), before Bradbury’s deeply moving family fable ‘Outcast of the Stars’ (Weird Science #22 November/December 1953) confirms Orlando’s artistic star quality with the subtly uplifting tale of a poor man who gives his children the most magnificent gift of all timeâ€¦

In a genre where flash and dazzle were the norm, the illustrator’s deft ability to portray the subtler shades of being merely human regularly took the readers’ breath awayâ€¦

Alien archaeologists reconstructed a shocking surprise when they reached Earth and reconstructed ‘The Fossil’ (Weird Fantasy #22 November/December 1953) and ‘Fair Trade’ (Weird Science Fantasy #23, Spring 1954) explored the ever-present prospect of atomic Armageddon before Feldstein adroitly adapted another pulp sci-fi author’s masterwork in ‘The Teacher from Mars’ (Weird Science Fantasy #23 June 1954).

Otto Binder had two writing careers. As Eando Binder he crafted superb short stories and classic space novels whilst as comicbook scripter using his given name he revolutionised superhero sagas as chief writer on Fawcett’s Captain Marvel, assorted icons of the Superman Family and a host of others.

Amongst the legion of publishers he worked for was EC Comics, but he had no part in the adaptation of his deeply moving tale of an alien educator facing intolerance from his human students. The magic comes purely from Feldstein’s sensitive adaptation and Orlando’s passionate drawing.

Weird Science Fantasy #25 (September 1954) offered a gem of existentialist philosophy in ‘Harvest’ wherein a robotic farmer questions his never-ending taskâ€¦ until he finally meets the things he’s been growing his crops for, after which Jack Oleck concocts a brace of clever yarns beginning with ‘Conditioned Reflex’ (Incredible Science Fiction #30 July/August 1955) which tells a brilliantly conceived shaggy-dog story about alien invasion and the perils of smoking before ‘Fallen Idol!’ (Incredible Science Fiction #32 November/December 1955) takes us to a post-atomic World of Tomorrow wherein a bold raid on a fallen metropolis promises to change the lives of the barbaric humans and their ambitious leader foreverâ€¦

The last three stories in this titanic tome are adaptations of Binder’s astoundingly popular pulp sci-fi series starring â€œHuman Robotâ€ Adam Link: ten novellas written between 1939 and 1942.

As detailed in prose introductory briefing Adam Link: Behind the Scenes, the first three prose thrillers were adapted by Feldstein and Orlando at the end of the publisher’s struggle against comics censorship. Orlando returned to the feature a decade later when EC-influenced Creepy revived Adam Link, with Binder himself on the scripts. (Another graphic novel collection, another time, perhapsâ€¦?)

Here however the wonderment commences with ‘I, Robot’ (yep, Isaac Asimov didn’t coin the phrase, and was forced to use it on his own anthology of robot tales in 1950) from Weird Science Fantasy #27 (January/February 1955) which saw an erudite, sensitive mechanical man commit his origins to paper whilst waiting for a mob of outraged humans to come and destroy himâ€¦

The story continued in ‘The Trial of Adam Link’ in issue #28 (March/April) as crusading

lawyer Thomas Link struggles to clear the robot of a murder charge and win for him the right to be called human before the sequence concludes with ‘Adam Link in Business’ (Weird Science Fantasy #29 May/June 1955) as the enfranchised automaton struggles to find his place in society and is struck low by the emotion of loveâ€¦

Throughout this collection, encompassing monstrous pride, overweening prejudice, terrifying power and fallen glories, Joe Orlando’s sly and subversive artistry always captured the frailties and nobility of Man and the crazy, deadly and ironically cruel, funny nature of the universe that awaited him. These stories are wonderful, subtle and entrancing and, adding final weight to the proceedings, is S.C. Ringgenberg’s biography of artistic renaissance man ‘Joe Orlando’, the aforementioned history of EC and a comprehensively illuminating ‘Behind the Panels: Creator Biographies’ feature by Arthur Lortie, Tom Spurgeon and Janice Lee.

The short, sweet but severely limited output of EC has been reprinted ad infinitum in the decades since the company died. These astounding stories and art not only changed comics but also infected the larger world through film and television and via the millions of dedicated devotees still addicted to New Trend tales.

However, the most influential stories are somehow the ones least known these days.

Judgment Day is a mind-bending, eye-popping paean of praise to the sheer ability of a master of the comic art and offers a fabulously engaging introduction for every lucky stargazer fan encountering the material for the very first time.

Whether you are an aging fear aficionado or callow contemporary convert, this is a book you must not missâ€¦

Judgment Day and Other Stories Â© 2014 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All comics stories Â© 2014 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., reprinted with permission. All other material Â© 2014 the respective creators and owners.

July 4, 2014July 6, 2014

Death Sentence

By Montynero & Mike Dowling (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-008-5

For most of us Sex Sells.

If that’s not you and you’re easily shocked or offended, stop Right Here, Right Now and come back for a less grown up review tomorrowâ€¦

As for the salacious, tawdry, vulgar rest of humanity, however, fornication is a force that cannot be resisted and we’re always gagging for it.

One outrageous potential result of that inescapable biological imperative was recently examined and scathingly lampooned in a dark and decadent fable from scripter, artist and games designer Montynero and sublime illustrator Mike Dowling. Death Sentence – after an initial and truncated appearance in Clint Magazine in 2012 – was retooled and completed in a breakthrough 6-issue miniseries which took the comics world by storm when it was released in October 2013.

Now the entire sordid episode has been compiled – along with a scintillating selection of irresistible extras – in a stout and sturdy hardcover collection that promises to be one of the most talked about books of the yearâ€¦

The author’s own Introduction kicks everything off (and is complemented by another from Rob Williams) before the seductively apocalyptic tale begins with ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ wherein frustrated artist Verity Fette is getting some very distressing news in a Camden doctor’s surgery.

She’s just been diagnosed with G+: a new, universally fatal sexually transmitted disease that has a rather peculiar side-effect.

Although this STI kills in six months, for the length of that time the victim â€œsuffersâ€ from increased vigour, stamina, sex drive and even develops some form of super powerâ€¦

Over in Primrose Hill, disgraced, shambolic and rapidly fading rock star Daniel Waissel AKA Weasel awakes from another unspecified period of debauched excess and tries to make sense of what his A&R man Russ is saying.

Apparently having G+ might be the only thing to revive his failing career and, if his power is music-related, perhaps he can still get all six of the albums he’s contracted for finished before he joins all the other dead legends going out in a blaze of lucrative gloryâ€¦

Whilst Verity is quitting her meaningless job, over the river in a South Bank TV studio comedian, media darling, affirmed libertine and G+ carrier David â€œMontyâ€ Montgomery is charmingly, charismatically, shockingly titillating the nation again; avowing that his final months on Earth won’t alter his pleasure-seeking behaviour or sensuous attitudesâ€¦

Later, Weasel’s powers at last manifest when a couple of irate drug dealers turn up, wanting payment for the prodigious amount of pharmaceuticals the creatively blocked musician has consumed, but neither he nor the other two G+ sufferers are aware that a shady government agency is keeping tabs on them.

Unfortunately, when the spooks decide to â€œacquireâ€ Verity the result is spectacular and very messyâ€¦

Determined to keep the populace in the dark, the Department of National Security goes into utter bastard mode: blaming the gory fiasco on fictitious terrorists whilst covertly hunting the terrified ‘Dissolved Girl’ through the seedy streets of London.

Weasel is – as always – an emotional wreck, avoiding decisions – or making rock & roll – via a constant flurry of sex and drugs. His wake-up call comes when he realises his new normal has ended his latest bedmate in a most unsavoury mannerâ€¦

Monty, however, is completely in control: aware of what he’s doing and not about to let a few interfering coppers get in his way.

Appalled and guilt-ridden, Verity regains consciousness on a remote Scottish island, where a very nice old lady makes her an intriguing offer before inviting the still-frustrated artist into the huge secret base beneath the heatherâ€¦

‘Royals‘ finds bored and increasingly irresistibly Monty pondering how to top his already prodigious and unsurpassed career of licentious excess before heading off to Buckingham Palaceâ€¦

North of the border Verity is beguiled by talk of a cure and agrees to let Dr. Lunn train her in the use of her rapidly-expanding abilities whilst on a quiet London street fugitive Weasel sneaks into the bedroom of his son.

Leaving Mickey with his mother might well be only good thing he’s ever done in his whole wasted lifeâ€¦

This sentimental act is a big blunder though, as a flotilla of copters leads a blistering military ambush which, after a spectacular chase, finally leads to the capture of the musical rebel without a clueâ€¦

When he arrives on the island, the nice doctors are keen on helping Weasel learn about himself and sexy fellow inmate Verity. They happily provide space, time, tuition, medical grade drugsâ€¦

Down South, Monty, having crowned himself King of Britain, is barely able to contain his self-absorbed glee. ‘In the City’ sees him really stretching himself, and after a psionic flexing of his mental muscle, bloodily destroying a division of the army as well as the ruling elite of Britain, he declares London a city free from all laws.

Influenced as much by a sense of wild liberty as Monty’s surging mental influence, the population descends into gory debauchery, prompting the American President and NATO to take matters into their own hand before the seditious super-maniac works himself up into becoming a global threatâ€¦

In Scotland Dr. Lunn is helpless to prevent the DNS frantically turning her research subjects into weapons to use against the rogue G+ victim who has turned London into a sex-fuelled charnel house. Their main concern is to end the affair before the full NATO fleet steaming ominously towards Britain takes the matter into their own terrified, remorseless, thermonuclear handsâ€¦

‘This Woman’s Work’ ratchets up the tension as Monty increasingly opts for slaughter over sex whilst Verity and Weasel have no choice but to grudgingly accept that they might be the only way to stop him. The crisis then reaches a catastrophic climax in ‘To the End’â€¦but not in a way you’d suspect or be comfortable withâ€¦

Each chapter is bolstered by a series of faux news articles and public service features ranging from ‘Pop goes the Weasel’ to a medical advice website page for potential G+ sufferers, and this lewdly lavish hardback tome also includes a fifteen-strong covers-&-variants gallery, a fulsome, informative and frequently hilarious ‘Death Sentence Commentary’ from Montynero and Mike Dowling, and more.

Bold, slick, immensely engrossing and intoxicatingly enjoyable, Death Sentence is a black, uproarious fairytale for adults that blends superhero tropes with outrageous cheek, deliriously shocking situations and in-your-face irreverence, making it one of the most notable and unmissable comics tales of the last half centuryâ€¦

Buy it, read it and spread it around to everyoneâ€¦

July 1, 2014July 6, 2014

The Weirding Willows volume 1: What the Wild Things Are

By Dave Elliott, Barnaby Bagenda, Sami Basri & various (Atomeka/Titan Comics)
ISBN: 987-1-78276-035-1

Phillip Jose Farmer’s Tarzan Alive (1972) and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (1973) are probably the earliest modern examples of our current fascination with concatenating assorted literary icons and fictive childhood companions into heroic associations and fantasy brotherhoods, but as fantasy consumers we’ve always wanted our idols to clash or team up.

So many comics from Scarlet in Gaslight (Sherlock Holmes and Dracula) to Planetary (pulp vigilantes and other companies’ superheroes cheekily retooled) to the magnificent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (everybody you’ve ever heard of and some you haven’t) and an uncountable number of TV shows, books and movies have mined this boundless seam of entertainment gold.

The Weirding Willows by Dave Elliott, Barnaby Bagenda, Sami Basri and an army of colourists continues that topical trend; recombining the innocent headliners of many a beloved British children’s book into a slick, harsh, creepily adult reconfigurationâ€¦

One cautionary note: as with every entry into this amalgamating sub-genre, if you are a literary purist you are going to hate this – or indeed any – contemporarily-toned, edgily in-your-face interpretation. Nothing I can say will change your mind, so don’t bother.

There are plenty of other graphic novels and albums around that will better suit your temperament. Please try one of thoseâ€¦

The series launched in the latest iteration of anthology title A1 and this collection of first story-arc What the Wild Things Are also includes a whole new chapter exclusive to this lush and beguiling hardback compilation.

Rural, bucolic Willow Weir is a quintessentially English hamlet with a big secret. The riverside association of houses and farms intersects a number of portals to numerous other Realms and Dimensions, and things strange and uncanny are often seen – if not discussed. The human folk who abide there are not so simple and frequently as odd as the creatures that roam the wild woods and harmless-seeming riverbanksâ€¦

Following author Elliott’s Introduction a handy map offers the geographical lowdown on the green and pleasantly deceptive land before the tale unfolds with ‘A Wicked Witch This Way Comes’ wherein we meet worldly wise teen totty Alice Moreau, a girl greatly at odds with her father’s scientific preoccupations.

Dad and daughter reside in the house abandoned by Professor Donald H. Lambert when he rode his time machine into the future, and the abrasive single parent soon filled the vacant dwelling with an assortment of animals for his experiments.

This particular morning he is dickering with Dr. Henry Jekyll who has provided formal introduction for a green-bedecked dowager temptress named Margareete Marche; a traveller from a distant land who wishes to commission the radical surgeon to construct for her an army of winged monkeysâ€¦

Insolent Alice isn’t impressed: she’s far more concerned that sheep are going missing from nasty Farmer McGregor‘s spread. Naturally darling Daddy is the prime suspect. There’s no love lost between father and daughter, ever since she followed a rabbit through a portal to Wonderland and told her father all about it. He didn’t believe a word and has mocked her ever sinceâ€¦

The unpleasant confrontation with McGregor is cut short when a trio of talking rabbits summon her away to deal with another crisis. She doesn’t get far, though, as Montgomery Doolittle arrives with a barge full of fresh beasts for the operating tableâ€¦

The cargo has also drawn a new player to the dell of domesticity. This black-maned wild child is desperate to rescue his beloved companions Baloo and Bagheera from the clutches of the obnoxious white man who can talk to animalsâ€¦

‘If You Go Down to the Woods Todayâ€¦’ sees Alice finally follow her bunny buddies as enraged Mowgli tries – and fails – to free his wild brothers: becoming instead more prospective raw material for Doctor Moreau. As Alice slips away no one pays any attention to a bizarrely grinning cat named Cheshire, and her own attentions are soon fully occupied by the rampages of an extremely angry example of the surgical efforts of an earlier modern Prometheusâ€¦

‘The Prisoner of Doctor Moreau’ finds Mowgli imprisoned with an exotic young woman named Kamaria, as across the river Alice brokers a peace between the rabbit race and Frankenstein’s Monster. As usual he has been gravely misunderstood: his frantic acts were merely the result of extreme concern for a lost companion.

Rosalind had gone missing and he has tracked her through a portal from Pellucidar – the world at the Earth’s Core – and is quite concerned. So is everybody else when they learn that Rosalind is a dinosaurâ€¦

‘What Lies Beneath Badger’s House’ introduces badger Victor Stoker, toad Dudley Cook, mole Morris Moore & ratty Terry James as well as a sinister hidden city deep down under Badger’s house, whilst in Moreau’s cellar laboratory the Cheshire Cat gives Mowgli some dangerous advice.

Meanwhile, the multi-species search party have found Rosalind on McGregor’s Farm, ferociously guarding a clutch of recently laid eggsâ€¦

That discovery only leads to tragedy as the obnoxious smallholder shoots Rosalind and claims the eggs for himself in ‘Here There Be Dragons!’ Thankfully Alice quickly deals with the farmer before monstrous Damon can get his second-hand hands on himâ€¦

Things take an even stranger turn when Victor, Morris, Dudley and Terry turn up. The Badger seems to know an awful lot about the experiments of the long-dead Dr. Frankensteinâ€¦

Night comes on and, in Moreau’s cellar as the full moon shines down on Kamaria, she begins to change and howlâ€¦

At a loss, Alice brings the whole menagerie back to her place in ‘What the Wild Things Are!’, much to the angry astonishment of her father, and at least has the satisfaction of proving that her â€œchildish ramblingsâ€ were all true, all alongâ€¦

However, when the rampant Kamaria werewolf tumultuously breaks out, strange alliances are quickly formed before the whole lethally helter-skelter hurly-burly is unconventionally settled in the low-key conclusion ‘Worlds Within Worlds’.

In the aftermath Alice at last finds time to renew an old acquaintanceship with a four-armed green man from another worldâ€¦

Each chapter is concluded with an excerpt from The Weirding Willows Field Guide, detailing pertinent facts and shameful secrets about Alice, Philippe Moreau, Monty Doolittle, Damon Frankenstein, Victor Stoker, Dudley Cook, Morris Moore & Terry James, Margareete Marche, Dr. Henry Jekyll & Edward Hyde, Mowgli, The Worriers Three (talking rabbits Benjamin Buckle, Peter Pipp & Hoetoe Darwin), Professor Donald H. Lambert and enigmatic, formidable bunny-with-a-secret Norman Pipp, and the tome terminates with the author’s afterword ‘Inspirations’ and some informative creator ‘Biographies’.

Magnificently, mesmerisingly illustrated, this is a visual feast no fan of fantastic fantasy mash-ups will want to missâ€¦

June 27, 2014July 6, 2014

Snowpiecer: The Escape

By Jacques Lob & Jean-Marc Rochette translated by Virginie Selavy (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-143-3

All science fiction is social commentary and, no matter when, where or how set, holds up a mirror to the concerns of the time of its creation. Many stories – in whatever medium – can go on to reshape the culture that spawned them.

There’s a reason why the Soviets proscribed many types of popular writing but actively encouraged (certain flavours of) science fiction. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Metropolis, 1984, Solaris, Star Trek, Alien and so many others escaped the ghetto of mere genre to change the cognitive landscape of the world, and hundreds more such groundbreaking and worthy efforts would do the same if we could get enough people to read or see them.

And most importantly, when done well and with honesty, such stories are also incredibly entertaining.

All over the world comics have always looked to the stars and voyaged to the future. Europe especially has long been producing spectacularly gripping and enthralling â€œWorlds of Ifâ€¦â€ and Franco-Belgian graphic storytelling in particular abounds with undiscovered treasures.

For every Blake & Mortimer or Barbarella, ValÃ©rian & Laureline, Airtight Garage, Chimpanzee Complex or Gods in Chaos there is an impossible hidden wealth of others, all perched tantalisingly out of reach for everybody unable or unwilling to read nothing but English.

To coincide with the release of spectacular summer blockbuster movie Snowpiercer, Titan Comics have released an economical paperback edition of another long-overlooked masterpiece. The book – a stunning example of bleak Cold War paranoid fantasy – is also electronically accessible to iPhone, iPad, Web, Android and Kindle consumers.

The original mesmerising monochrome adventure, written by Jacques Lob (TÃ©nÃ©brax, Submerman, Superdupont) and rendered by painter/illustrator Jean-Marc Rochette (Le DÃ©poteur de ChrysanthÃ¨mes, Les Aventures Psychotiques de NapolÃ©on et Bonaparte), was first serialised in 1982 in Ã€ Suivre and collected two years later as Le Transperceneige, and like most landmark yarns has a driving central conceit which is simple, brilliant and awesome.

In the future life is harsh, oppressive and ferociously claustrophobic. When eternal winter descended upon the Earth, fugitive remnants of humanity boarded a vast vacation super-train and began an eternal circumambulation of the iceball planet on railway tracks originally designed to offer the idle rich the ultimate pleasure cruise.

Thanks to lax security, as the locomotive started its unceasing circuit of the globe, gangs of destitutes boarded the vehicle, but were forced by the military contingent into the last of the 1001 cars pulled by the modern miracle of engineering.

Now decades later, the self-contained and self-sustaining Engine hurtles through unending polar gloom in a perpetual loop, carrying within a raw, fragmented and declining microcosm of the society that was lost to the new ice ageâ€¦

All contact with the Tail-enders of the â€œThird Classâ€ has been suspended ever since they tried to break through to the better conditions of the middle and front carriages. Their â€œWild Rushâ€ was repelled by armed guards and the survivors – who recall the terrifying event as â€œthe Massacreâ€ – were kicked back to their rolling slums and sealed in to dieâ€¦

The story proper begins as Lieutenant Zayim is called to an incident in a toilet. Somehow an individual has survived the -30 degree chill and monstrous acceleration, climbing along the outside of the train to smash his way into a centre carriage.

Normally the importunate refugee would be killed and ejected but the stunned officer receives instruction from his Colonel that the indigent – named Proloff – is to be interviewed by the leaders up in First Class.

Before that, however, the invader must be quarantined as the carriage doctor has no idea what contagions must proliferate in the squalor of the rear. But whilst Proloff is isolated, idealistic young activist Adeline Belleau forces her way into the carriage.

She is with a humanitarian Aid Group agitating to integrate the abandoned Tail-enders with the rest of the train, but is unceremoniously confined with the intruder and suffers the same appalling indignities as her unfortunate clientâ€¦

After a â€œnightâ€ in custody Proloff and Adeline are escorted by Sergeant Briscard and his squad through the strange and terrifying semi-autonomous carriages: each a disparate region of the ever-rolling city, contributing something to the survival of all.

Travelling through each car during their slow walk, Proloff observes how humanity has uniquely adapted on the journey to nowhere, but that each tiny kingdom is filled with people scared, damaged and increasingly dangerous.

In one car they are even attacked by banditsâ€¦

The invader also begins to glean certain facts: a religion has grown that worships the unlimited life-bestowing power of Saint Loco, rumours that the train is inexorably slowing down, reports that a plague has begun in the carriage he broke into. Even Adeline has picked up a cold from somewhereâ€¦

As they slowly approach the front, Proloff and Adeline grow closer, uniting against the antipathy of the incrementally better off passengers who all want the Powers-That-Be to jettison the dragging, superfluous end carriages packed with filthy Tail-endersâ€¦

When they at last reach the luxurious â€œGolden Carsâ€ the outcasts are interviewed by military Top Brass and the President himself.

He confirms that the train is indeed losing speed and that the furthest carriages will be ditched, but asks Proloff to act as an emissary, facilitating the dispersal of the human dregs throughout the rest of the train.

Billeted with Al, the timidly innocuous Train Archivist, Historian and Librarian, Proloff quickly confirms his suspicion that he is being played. Whilst deftly avoiding the grilling regarding conditions at the train’s tail, he swaps some theories about how the ice age really began and just how coincidentally lucky it was that this prototype vacation super-train was set up, ready and waiting to save the rich and powerfulâ€¦ and only accidentally and unwillingly a selection of the rest of humanityâ€¦

Stoically taking in the decadent debauchery of the First Class cars, Proloff is ready to die before going back, and when word of plague and revolution provokes an attack by the paranoid autocrats, he and Adeline decide to move even further forward, to see the mighty Engine before they die.

What they find there changes everything for everyone, foreverâ€¦

This incisive exploration of a delicately balanced ostensibly stable society in crisis is a sparkling allegory and punishing metaphor, playing Hell and poverty at the bottom against wealth in Heaven at the top, all seen through the eyes of a rebel who rejects both options in favour of a personal destiny, and is long overdue for the kind of recognition bestowed on that hallowed list of SF greats cited above.

Dark, brooding, manic and compulsive, Snowpiercer is a must-see masterpiece no fantasy fan can afford to miss.

June 24, 2014September 3, 2017

Valerian and Laureline book 6: Ambassador of the Shadows

By MÃ©ziÃ©res & Christin, with colours by E. TranlÃ© and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-178-5Â Â (Dargaud edition) 2-205-06949-7

ValÃ©rian and Laureline is the most influential science fiction comics series ever drawn, an innovation-packed big ideas drama stuffed with wry comment and sardonic sideswipes at contemporary mores and prejudices.

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined and later re-defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie or that franchise’s numerous homages, pastiches and rip-offs has been exposed to many doses of Jean-Claude MÃ©ziÃ©res & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in authentic futurism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of MÃ©ziÃ©res & Christin than any other cartoon spacer.

ValÃ©rian: Spatio-Temporal Agent debuted in Pilote #420 (November 9^th 1967) and was an instant hit. It gradually evolved into ValÃ©rian and Laureline as the feisty sidekick developed into the equal partner – if not scene stealing star – in a light-hearted, fantastically imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy stuffed with wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary.

At first Valerian was an affable, capable but unimaginative by-the-book space cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology by counteracting paradoxes caused by incautious time-travellers.

When ValÃ©rian travelled to 11^th century France in debut tale ‘Les Mauvais RÃªves (‘Bad Dreams’ and still not translated into English yet), he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline. He brought her back to the 28^th century super-citadel and administrative capital of the Terran Empire, Galaxity. The indomitable female firebrand trained as a Spatiotemporal operative and began accompanying him on all his missions.

Ambassador of the Shadows originally ran in Pilote from July to October 1975 and finds the wide-ranging Spatiotemporal agents assigned to an arrogant and obnoxious Terran diplomat transferring to the cosmically cosmopolitan space edifice known as Point Central.

Over the eons many races and species have converged there for commerce and social intercourse by the simple expedient of bolting their own prefabricated constructed segment to the colossal, continually expanding hodge-podge wholeâ€¦

With no central authority, different species take turns presiding over the amassed multitudes via the immense Hall of Screens. However, no decent species would ever leave its own tailor-made environmentâ€¦

And now it is Earth’s turn to take the lead but, as they vector in for landing, the pompous martinet they are escorting informs Valerian and Laureline of a slight modification in their orders. They are still to the Ambassador’s bodyguards but must stay extra vigilant as Earth is going to uses its term in office to bring â€œorder and disciplineâ€ to the lackadaisical way the universe is run.

The assembled races will be invited to join a federation run – and policed – by Earth. â€¦And just to make sure, there’s a Terran space fleet of 10, 000 warships manoeuvring just out of Point Central’sÂ sensor rangeâ€¦

Laureline is outraged but like Valerian can do nothing except acquiesce. For her pains she is put in charge of the mission’s funds – a Grumpy Transmuter from Bluxte – which can mass-excrete any currency or object of trade or barter swallowed by its always scowling other endâ€¦

All kitted-out, the trio and the living cash-machine spacewalk to Point Central but before the mission can begin an alien ambush occurs. Mystery warriors using Xoxos cocoon guns inundate the attending officers and dignitaries and only Valerian escapes plastic entombment.

As the raiders make off with the Ambassador, the Spatiotemporal Agent gives chase but is easily captured and dragged off tooâ€¦

By the time Laureline breaks loose they are long gone and she is left to pick up the pieces with stiff-necked human bureaucrat Colonel Diol, Under Chief of Protocol.

Determined but with little to go on, she is cautiously optimistic when a trio of aliens come knocking. Ignoring Diol’s protest at the shocking impropriety she invites the scurrilous Shingouz into the Earth Segment. They are mercenary information brokers and claim to have been invited by the Ambassador before his abductionâ€¦

From them – and thanks to the pained efforts of the Grumpy Transmuter – she purchases a few hints and allegations as well as a map of Point Central which might lead to Earth’s secret allies in the cosmopolisâ€¦

With the constantly bleating Diol reluctantly in tow, Laureline begins a quest through the underbelly of the station, seeing for the first time the mute but ubiquitous Zools: a much ignored under-race which has been maintaining Point Central for millennia.

The Earthlings’ perambulations take them to the centaur-like Kamuniks: barbaric feudal mercenaries allied to Galaxity and appreciative of humanity’s martial prowess, and over a lavish feast – liberally augmented by another painfully exotic payment courtesy of the overworked Transmuter – the warriors steer Laureline towards potential suspects the Bagulins: low grade muscle-for-hire who frequent the tawdry red-light sector run by The Suffussâ€¦

Despite Diol’s nigh-apoplexy the adamant and inquisitive Laureline follows the trail to the sin segment where she experiences the particular talents of the hosts: amorphous shapeshifters who can make any carnal dream come literally true.

Well into overtime now, the exhausted Grumpy buys the help of one Suffuss who smuggles the junior Spatiotemporal operative into a Bagulin party and the next link in the chainâ€¦

And so it goes as, with occasional prodding from the Shingouz, Laureline gets ever-closer to the enigmatic beings truly pulling all the strings on Point Central whilst elsewhere Valerian frees the Ambassador from a bizarre and ethereal captivity only to find the doctrinaire war-maker is undergoing a strange change of heart.

Seemingly landing their deserted ship on a paradisiacal â€œworld with no nameâ€ they bask in an idyllic paradise and converse with noble primitives who have an uncanny aura of great power.

These beings built the first section of Point Central and ruled the universe before withdrawing from mundane material affairs, but they still maintain a watch over their creation from the shadows and won’t let any race or species to dominate or conquer their pan-galactic melting pot of spaceâ€¦

In a more physical portion of reality Laureline follows her final clues and reaches the strange central area where Val and the Ambassador lie dazed and confused. By the time they all return to the Earth Segment a few major changes have taken place in the governance of the immense star station but, oddly, the Ambassador doesn’t seem to mindâ€¦

Ambassador of the Shadows was the first Valerian tale to make it into English, appearing as a serial in the American Heavy Metal magazine from January to April 1984 (volume 4, #10 to Volume 5, #1).

Socially aware and ethically crusading, this is one of the smartest, most beguilingly cynical comics tales to catch the 1970s wave of political awareness and still ranks amongst the very best to explore the social aspects and iniquities of colonialism.

And of course there’s the usual glorious blend of astounding action, imaginative imagery and fantastic creatures to leaven the morality play with space-operatic fun-filled, visually breathtaking and stunningly ingenious wide-eyed wondermentâ€¦

Between 1981 and 1985, Dargaud-Canada and Dargaud-USA published a quartet of these albums in English (with a limited UK imprint from Hodder-Dargaud) under the umbrella title Valerian: Spatiotemporal Agent and this tale was the fourth release, translated then by L. Mitchell.

Although this modern Cinebook release boasts far better print and colour values plus a more fluid translation, total completists might also be interested in tracking down the 20^th century edition too as it boasts a foreword by comics god Will Eisner, full creator biographies and a fascinating, insightful illustrated overview by French science fiction author and editor Daniel Richeâ€¦

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