Category: Sport

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The Rugger Boys volumes 1 & 2: Why Are We Here Again? & A Spoonful of Style and a Tonne of Class


By Béka & Poupard: coloured by Sylvain Frecon, Murielle Rousseau & Magali Poli-Rivière & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-33-5 (Album PB/Digital edition v1) 978-1-905460-44-1 (Album PB/Digital 2)

Time to cash in on a global sporting event again. We must do a cricket, ping pong or skateboarding feature one day…

Human beings and – according to the internet – a huge variety of our pets and animal housemates seem obsessed with and revel in chasing balls about. So much so that we/they even apply a range of complex rules to the sheer exhilaration of the process, just to make things more difficult and artificially extend proceedings.

We call it sport and when it’s not hugely thrilling and deadly serious it can be hilariously funny…

Comics over many decades and throughout the world have often mined our obsession with assorted games for secondary entertainment value and these Cinebook tomes detail in dramatically humorous manner stunning strips starring a dedicated amateur team of French gladiators, all painfully enamoured of the manly (and womanly and British-originated, let’s not forget) oddball pastime dubbed Rugby.

Les Rugbymen was created in 2005 by writing partnership Bertrand Escaich & Caroline Roque under their collaborative nom de plume Béka (Studio Danse, Les Fonctionnaires) in conjunction with self-taught illustrator Alexandre Mermin, who generally labours under the pseudonym Poupard (Chez Gaspard, Les Brumes du Miroboland). The resulting flurry of short sharp gags and extra-time yarns have filled 20 albums thus far with another due any day now, and there’s even a junior league spin-off which began in 2010 entitled Les Petits Rugbymen…

On n’est pas venus pour être là! was the third Euro-volume but as Why Are We Here Again? was the first to be translated by Cinebook… probably because it features a brief sporting tour of England. Pithy, gritty and very funny, it perfectly encapsulates the passion, toil and sheer testosterone-fuelled idiocy which can warp normally rational folk.

Our stars are a few dedicated souls faithfully enjoying the trials and welcome tribulations of club rugby (and that’s Rugby Union, right?) as played by the stalwarts of fictional south-western French town side Paillar Athletic Club, affectionately known to their frankly obsessive fans as The PAC…

As seen on the introductory page, the usual suspects generally manifest as intellectually compromised “Hooker” Lightbulb, Herculean “Prop” Fatneck, 2nd Row star The Anaesthetist, dashing sex-crazed Back Romeo and Scrumhalf/Captain The Grumpster, all regularly adored and vilified by The Coach who never lets his speech defect get in the way of a good insult to the dozy slackerrrs…

All you need to know is that these guys are bold, sturdy and love food and drink as much as they do smashing each other into the mud…

Their exploits are generally delivered as single page sequences, lavishly, lovingly and outrageously illustrated and jam-packed with snippets of off-kilter slapstick to supplement the main gag and the dramatic material. Content is almost everything you’d expect from such a fixture: big beefy blokes in very small towels, lots of booze-fuelled gaffes, bizarre eating eccentricities, what we Brits refer to as “knob-jokes” and mutual sportsmanlike skulduggery of the sort that has permeated all games Real Men compete in…

However, also on display are a profusion of smartly-planned running gags and truly effective comedic gems such as the well-meaning meatheads’ ongoing efforts to help Lightbulb find “love”, Romeo’s constant comeuppances from husbands, boyfriends and employers unhappy with his off-pitch assignations and The Coach’s eternal battle to whip his doughty but dopey band of idiots into a team he can be proud of…

As previously mentioned, this collection also contains a wry, preconception/prejudice-confirming international excursion when The PAC accept an offer to play a friendly match against British college side Camford. As well as a chance to pummel the despised English, there’s the promise of seeing a Six Nations match to offset the unbearable pain of living on the foreigners’ appalling food and pathetic beer…

 

The Rugger Boys volume 2: A Spoonful of Style and a Tonne of Class

Continentally the fifth outing, On va gagner avec le lard et la manière was the second (and, thus far, last) translated Cinebook tome – once again probably because it features brief sporting excursions to lesser English (sort-of) speaking nations Scotland and New Zealand.

As such it perfectly recapitulates the passion, toil and sheer testosterone-fuelled idiocy which can warp normally rational folk.

The titular Union Rules stars Romeo and The Grumpster are joined by character-expanded players like precocious Centre Hugo – The Engineer – Cap, and 2nd Row veteran Freddy – The Anaesthetist – Bones whilst The Coach now has a name to be cursed by – Bernard Farmer. He still never lets his barrrrbarous accent get in the way of a good insult or pithy instruction to the dozy slackerrrs…

These guys are bolder, funnier and sturdier – because they still love to eat and drink as much as they do spending every weekend in sanctioned unarmed combat. This time however equality reigns and there’s a succinct glimpse of the Paillar Athletic Ladies Team too, and you can share the lads’ first turbulent TV appearance too…

Mostly, however, on display is a profusion of smartly-planned running gags and compact comedy gems like the well-meaning meatheads’ further efforts to help Lightbulb find love, more of Romeo’s confrontations with other people’s significant others, and employers unhappy with his off-pitch Tries, plus the woebegone touchline medic’s miserable life and Coach’s eternal battle to make sporting gold from part-time dross…

This time kick off leads to an extended origin story revealing how the playful imps they once were turned a boring school lesson into a life-changing indoor match: thereby forming sporting bonds that last a lifetime…

As promised, this fixture includes a brief tour of Scotland, offering a broad belt of new experiences from braw brews to fine-foods-&-bonnie lassies, to life-changing injuries, before concluding with a bombastic whistle-stop tour of the Antipodes when The Pac are generously invited to visit the mighty New Zealand All-Blacks at home, after the Rugby World Cup concludes…

Mostly though it’s always about mud, mauling, getting stuffed and getting smashed – in every sense of the term…

Fast, furiously funny and splendidly boisterous, these cartoon antics might even inspire dedicated couch-potatoes to get out of the house… unless they order books and dinner online…
© BAMBOO EDITION, 2006, 2007 by Béka & Poupard. All rights reserved. English translation © 2007 Cinebook Ltd.

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Middle Distance – A Graphic Memoir


By Mylo Choy (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-914224-15-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

There are many ways to find yourself. Too often the main roadblock is other people… or maybe a lack of a pathfinder.

In Middle Distance, mixed race, non-binary Mylo Choy shares their road to understanding one’s self via curated extracts of a life filled with coping mechanisms such as running, drawing, reading or sharing stories: all solid sound ways of trying to address that feeling of not being who you might be or where you should be.

No overblown drama to titillate here, just a rational seeker recalling obstacles faced and hurdles cleared in a marathon push towards acceptance of a pragmatic middle way. It begins with growing up in Wisconsin, as ‘The Race’ sees the 6th grader run a first revelatory race and discover a feeling and undertaking to totally consume them and view a world of total isolation and security: the mile run…

Soon running daily with Dad before again graduating or reduced to a single person passion – to the point of slowing down and pretending to stroll if someone sees you – always the goal is no specified goal. Well, maybe making those who matter say the accomplishment is more than just “pretty good”…

‘Speedwork’ finds solo traveller joining the track team in sophomore year, learning from more experienced friends and uncaringly accepting a coach’s assessment to be a middle distance runner, yet feeling only glee and pride inside on being told 800 metres is the most painful distance to go…

Gaining technique but never losing the primal exuberance of putting one foot in front of another – and how that influences other passions like drawing – growth continues. Does the placebo puzzle of confidence, concentration and meditation contribute to landing impostor-like on the 4 x 800 relay team beside incomparable admirable Maggie?

Why read so many stories about “tomboys”? And why can’t an iron will hold back puberty?

Years pass and the now adult outsider works with kids in Brooklyn and upstate New York as an outdoor educator. Life catches up and starts inflicting years of mystery aches and severe pains, so running buddy Jeff suggests the only answer is the New York Marathon…

By re-examining Buddhist family roots ‘Rest’ traces years of sporadic and often-interrupted progress towards that great dream, before a series of small intense inner revelations point to ‘The Long Run’ and what comes next…

Subtly, almost accidentally allegorical, this testament to understanding through internal addiction and evolution by determination is beguiling, enticing and strangely cleansing: a welcome step into unknown territory for most of us and a journey well worth taking..

It’s a little bit strange to write about running which mostly consists of clearing the mind and just going. That’s especially true of this pretty and memorable book. You should just do it…

© 2023 Mylo Choy. Written and drawn by Mylo Choy. All rights reserved.
Middle Distance will be published in the UK on 14th September 2023. An American edition will be released 31st October 2023.

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Spinning


By Tillie Walden (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-62672-772-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Transitions are important. In fact, they are literally life changing. Here’s another one captured and shared by the amazing Tillie Walden…

We usually attribute wisdom and maturity in the creative arts to having lived a bit of life and getting some emotional grit in our wheels and sand in our faces, but that’s not the case for Texas-raised Tillie, whose incredible canon includes I Love this Part, On a Sunbeam, Are You Listening? and Clementine, not to mention award-winning debut graphic novel The End of Summer and the revelatory biography we’re discussing here today.

If you’re a completist, you’ll also want her picture book My Parents Won’t Stop Talking (created with Emma Hunsinger) and even her Cosmic Slumber Tarot set.

You don’t need a mask to have an origin story, and it’s a rare person – or perhaps indicative of self-deception or mental illness – who never ponders who they are or how they got to right here, right now. It’s a process that’s infinitely rewarding for creators and their readers. Spinning is a perfect example of an extremely talented person taking a basic human drive, exploiting it and turning it into magic. It’s a very personal origin story, which may have great relevance and meaning for many seeing it – and it’s got costumes too…

As previously stated, Walden has created a bunch of books and they mostly have little bios that say that she’s from Austin, Texas, as if that’s some kind of warning or character reference. Later ones say that she lives in Vermont with her wife and two cats and teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies. So how did that happen?

Intimate and revelatory, some of the story is here: concentrating on her middle school years, back when she was a competitive ice skater.

There’s something worrisome and uncomfortable about the kind of family that allows – or worse, pushes – a child into a punishing regime of intense training in pursuit of sporting (or any other kind of excellence with a monetary benefit attached). I’ve heard all the arguments for and frankly, I don’t care. I was in a choir from age 5 to the end of secondary school, and I know just when it stopped being fun and became a burden…

Tillie back then was a kid who had to get up hours before school, travelling mostly on her own to isolated rinks and push relentlessly just to be one of the few seeking to excel at figure and synchronised skating. There were countless hours of sleep deficit, cruelly screaming or smotheringly solicitous coaches, equally exhausted and brittle girls just as reluctant to be there and always perishing cold. And that’s only how each day started.

… And then the family abruptly upped sticks from New Jersey to resettle in Austin, Texas…

The next few years are revisited with punishing candour and beguiling charm, employing the conceit of specific moves in a skating program as indicators/chapter headings. We open with ‘Waltz Jump’, covering her East Coast life and cross-country transition to a whole new world as soon as 5th grade classes ended…

‘Scratch Spin’ sees scorching August heat as the new kid meets teammates and/or rivals Michaela, Jennifer, Rosalind, Dasha and Little Dasha: as Tillie quickly learns that nothing she knew before applies here. At least coach Caitlin seems supportive and not another screaming harpy…

To supplement the misery, boost her grades and ostensibly offset bullying, Tillie is enrolled in a private girls’ school and sent for private cello lessons, proving her parents knew nothing about girls or school. Even skating has changed. Now she must attend two different rinks at separate times of day, constantly test to qualify and of course, endure more new friends… and otherwise.

Although Carly, Trinity, Sarah and the rest are all nice enough, it somehow only reinforces Tillie’s feelings of isolation and discomfort…

‘Flip Jump’ features first crushes, new bestie Lindsay, scary moments with adored brother John and a creepy old guy, with Miss Walden triumphantly rejoining the traveling competition circuit, and ‘Axel’ celebrates her turning 12 and become bogged down in all the complex social interactions she just doesn’t understand but which increasingly obsess her class and teammates. There’s also a bitterly regretted missed chance to confront the bully who made her life hell for a year…

Increasingly aware that skating is now a chore not a choice, Tillie begins to ‘Spiral’ after a near fatal accident she refuses to tell anyone about, but which has lasting repercussions. There’s a life changing moment when she realises how much she enjoys drawing and how good she is at it, and a far happier discovery: classmate Rae likes her every bit as much as Tillie likes her – and in just the same way.

‘Spread Eagle’ sees that critical first love brutally end when her girlfriend’s parents find out and take preventative action: something Tillie would have far preferred to the understanding talk her own mother forces upon her, and which leads to the skater coming out to anyone who cares to listen…

As art grows to consume her, skating declines as an interest but paradoxically boosts her ability to win. Nevertheless, a crisis inevitably approaches and ‘Counter’ focuses on her at age 16, simultaneously seeking to bolster her skate ranking and planning on leaving Texas as soon as possible. SATs loomed large on everyone’s horizon and Tillie has to endure extra tutoring despite having no intention of going to college. The arrangement almost makes her another crime statistic, but the real result of her narrow escape is realisation that her entire life is all about being tested and narrowly passing or surviving…

Floating days go by in a non-involved haze, before she eventually wakes up and takes charge. ‘Lutz’ addresses all her biggest challenges coming at once, yet another near-death experience, a life-altering unburdening and a decision at last made, leading into the liberating whirl of ‘Twizzle’ to free herself from twelve years a slave to other people’s wishes and the beginning of her own life…

That’s further addressed in the biographical Author’s Note that closes this magnificent and moving memoir. I said earlier that this was a part of Tillie Walden’s story: for more – as much as she’s willing to share – you’ll need to read her other books, both the biographical and fully fictional ones. Get them, read them, tell a friend.
© 2017 Tillie Walden. All rights reserved.

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Represent!


By Christian Cooper, Jesse J. Holland, Regine Sawyer, Nadira Jamerson, Tara Roberts, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Onyekachi Akalonu, N. Steven Harris, Justin Ellis, Frederick Joseph, Gabe Eltaeb, Dan Liburd, Keah Brown, Camrus Johnson, Alitha E. Martinez, Mark Morales, Doug Braithwaite, Eric Battle, Brittney Williams, Yancey Labat, Valentine De Landro, Travel Foreman, Keron Grant, Koi Turnbull, Don Hudson, Tony Akins, Moritat & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77951-419-6 (HB/Digital)

Originally published digitally in 14 chapters from September 2020 to June 2021, Represent! was – in the words of Executive Editor Marie Javins – “designed to showcase and introduce creators traditionally underrepresented in the mainstream comics book medium.” As such it was part of a greater effort by that mainstream – which contemporaneously sparked a similar project from the House of Ideas that became a string of one-shot anthologies known as Marvel Voices…

Operating in conjunction with writers, artists and other creatives of colour (both In- and especially Out-Industry) allowed greater leeway and by displaying editorial willingness to address issues, themes and opinions – and even formerly entirely-ignored and marginalised sectors of society – the series was not dictated to by commercial economics and a militant fanbase addicted to continuity.

The results were admittedly mixed, but generally the freedom elevated the material to the levels of the best of adult European comics…

Here, the result is an engaging trek through history, studied observation, personal anecdote and even fantasy, with perspectives seldom – if ever – seen in your everyday funnybook. It could not possibly all be to everyone’s taste, but this weary, aged, comfortably privileged-yet broken English white boy found plenty to enjoy and much to ponder…

Exploring all aspects of the non-white American experience, from inner-imaginative landscapes and escapes to personal ideologies, each literary-leaning comics tales comes with a brief bio of the writer (sometimes that’s also the illustrator) and unless stated otherwise is lettered by the tireless Deron Bennett.

Not so Chapter 1:‘It’s a Bird’, which sees Robert Clark put words to a heartwarming tale of family and generational birdwatching written by 1990s comics creator Christian Cooper (Star Trek, The Darkhold, Excalibur and Marvel’s first openly gay writer/editor). The modern day rights activist is here supported by illustrated by Alitha E. Martinez (Heroes, World of Wakanda, Iron Man, Mighty Crusaders, Batgirl) & Emilo Lopez.

Editor, Educator, broadcaster, historian and author Jesse J. Holland (Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther?, Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Finn’s Story, The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House) unites with British born Doug Braithwaite (Hulk, Captain America, Justice, Judge Dredd, The Punisher) & colourist Trish Mulvihill to relate a true tale. In disjointed yet carefully tailored flashbacks, a saga of endurance on a farm in rural Mississippi from 1980 to now unfolds: tracing the lives of the Hollands – a family still working land secured by ancestor and freed slave Conklin Holland in 1899…

‘Food for Thought’ comes courtesy of award-winning writer, small press publisher, essayist and journalist Regine Sawyer, with Eric Battle (Kobalt, Hardware, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Flash, Walking Dead) & Bryan Valenza rendering joyous reminiscences of a daughter shopping, cooking, talking and learning with her father in Queens, NYC, after which journalist Nadira Jamerson joins Brittney Williams (Goldie Vance, Betty & Veronica, Rugrats, Shade the Changing Girl, Lois Lane and the Friendship Challenge, Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat) & Andrew Dalhouse on the harrowing, but ultimately triumphant, journey of a black mother fighting a hostile medical system to secure an accurate diagnosis of a mystery ailment. Sometimes, all that’s necessary is to find someone to ‘Believe You’…

Chapter 5 declares ‘My Granny Was a Hero’ as Tara Roberts – educator, writer, editor and fellow of both MIT’s Open Documentary Lab and the National Geographic Storytelling project – unites with Yancey Labat (DC Superhero Girls, Legion of Super-Heroes) & colourist Monica Kubina as a little girl in 1983 changes her idol from Wonder Woman to someone far closer to home after learning how her own family unwillingly “came to America” from Cameroon in 1860…

Coloured by Emilio Lopez, ‘The Lesson’ is otherwise an all-Dominike “Domo” Stanton (Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Starbrand & Nightmask, Nubia & the Amazons) affair about violent high school days and one crucial path to escape, before writer/journalist Onyekachi Akalonu connects with Valentine De Landro (Bitch Planet, Marvel Knights: 4, X-Factor, Silver Surfer: Ghost Light, Black Manta) & Marissa Louise to offer social context on repressed young black lives by advocating ‘Fight Fires with Spray Cans’…

Coloured by Walt Barna, Chapter 8 stands ‘In Defense of Free Speech’ as 20-year comics veteran N. Steven Harris (Aztek: The Ultimate Man, Batman: Officer Down, Deadpool, X-Force, Generation X, The Wild storm: Michael Cray, Indigo Clan) recalls a time when college lectures on black culture and experience required volunteer security teams to be heard at all…

‘Weight of the World’ – by writer/editor/media producer Justin Ellis (Problem Areas, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, The Cruelty of Nice Folks), Travel Foreman (Cla$$war, Doctor Spectrum, Immortal Iron Fist, Star Wars, Black Cat) & Rex Lokus – explores the pressures family can innocently inflict on a black kid graduating high school… and how the right librarian at the right moment can turn the page on the future…

For ‘The Flightless Bird’, prominent activist, philanthropist and bestselling author Frederick Joseph collaborates with Keron Grant (Fantastic Four, Kaboom, Son of Vulcan, Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus, New Mutants) on a tale of introspection and hope when a young man is diagnosed with a killer disease.

Gabe Eltaeb (Aquaman, Batman, Star Wars) then exposes an ‘American Mongrel’ with middle school kid Abdul learning some painful truths in 1991 as his mixed Hispanic/Iraqi heritage make him an instant and easy target during the first Iraq war. Thankfully, his grampa has seen all this before…

Celebrated sports science specialist Dan Liburd asks Koi Turnbull (Fathom, Wolverine: Dangerous Games, Superman Confidential) & Tony A?ina to join him at ‘The Water’s Edge Within Reach’; exploring the assumed limits of human aspiration and physical achievement via a career in “ironman” eventing, before journalist, actor, screenwriter and author Keah Brown (The Pretty One, Sam’s Super Seats) luxuriates in superhero excess with Don Hudson (Nick Fury/SHIELD, Forever Amber, Scalped, Curse of Brimstone) & Nick Filardi. They enquire ‘Who Hired the Kid?’: debuting a sheer escapist delight in time-travelling, monster-fighting schoolgirl adventurer “The Vet”…

The wonderment concludes by going out big with actor, director, animator and comics writer Camrus Johnson joining Tony Akins (Terminator, Star Wars, Hellblazer: Papa Midnight, Fables, Jack of Fables, House of Mystery, Wonder Woman), Moritat (Harley Quinn, The Spirit, Elephantmen, All Star Western, Hellblazer, Batman, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, Transmetropolitan) & colourist Dee Cunniffe for ‘I’ll Catch up’. It finds the author in painful nostalgia mode, recalling how his big brother Mo used to visit in New York every summer, teaching the kid all the tricks of staying alive and protesting in a white world whilst still making his voice heard and his opinions count…

The stories are augmented by Darran Robinson’s iconic ‘Cover Gallery’ and supplemented by fascinating ‘layouts’ of various stories as crafted by Braithwaite, Harris & Akins…

Visually compelling, extremely well-executed, imaginative, purely poetic and operating with a degree of allegory seldom seen in regular comics whilst offering a wide and disparate use of the medium, Represent! is stunning, intriguing and entertaining but still feels something of a mixed bag… but then, it’s not really meant for me, is it?

If you’re like me, get it read and learn something…
© 2021 DC Comics, All Rights Reserved.

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Fists Raised – 10 Stories of Sports Star Activism


By Chloé Célérien & Karim Nedjari translated by Peter Russella (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-303-5 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-304-2

Having just recently endured the most nauseating and crass example of sports-washing I can think of – and I’m including the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 in that statement – here’s a wonderful comics counterpoint and riposte, detailing the power of sports to do good.

Sadly – and as seems quite usual now – it’s generally cases of well-meaning individuals working against the advisement and wishes of their own sporting governing bodies and governments. It’s almost as if the people running the show care more about money and power than honour, history, achievement or the fans that pay their wages…

It seems there’s nothing you can’t craft compelling comics about if you’re talented and inspired, as seen in this spellbinding celebration of sports stars weaponising their fame and glory to change the world in ways that truly matter.

Originally released au Continent in 2021 as Générations Poing Levé, quand le sport percute l’histoire, this beguiling and amusingly infuriating book blends history, biography and social commentary thanks to scripter Karim Nedjari (French pundit, journalist and CEO of Radio Monte Carlo and RMC Sport) who teams up with sports-mad cartoonist Chloé Célérien to précis the lives and careers of ten true champions.

These noteworthy stars have all used their celebrity to call out hypocrisy and injustice, fighting to better the lives of the Poor, Disenfranchised, Oppressed or otherwise Othered our rulers choose to ignore or outlaw…

Sports and public competition have always enraptured the masses: eternally viewed as a great and unifying leveller. Even the most lowly and downtrodden can derive joy from playing or participating and, for the impoverished, excellence has always offered a means of escape: a way to turn their talents into a kind of liberty and agency.

It has never, however, been enough to make players into billionaires. Even the greatest can’t make the leap from “player” to “owner”. That takes generational wealth…

Moreover, we haven’t changed much from ancient times. Women are still excluded or simply included on arbitrary male terms and there’s little difference in the status and treatment of a top footballer and a champion racehorse, a boxer or a show dog: ultimately they’re all property of an elite that runs the game and makes – and changes – the rules.

Even so, some modern-day gladiators risking themselves for the benefits granted by cunning commerce and contemporary Caesars may have personal Spartacus moments: telling the powers-that-be when, how, how much and how often they are betraying the people they smugly lord over…

That’s certainly the case in the brief biography of ‘Marcus Rashford – Big Brother to the Poor (1997, soccer, England)’. He’s a young black athlete who translated his astounding footballing triumphs into a very public war of wills with the entire British Government, and especially inept, pitifully attention-addicted prime minister Boris Johnson.

Émigré comedian Henning Wenn summed it up best when he said “We don’t do charity in Germany. We pay taxes. Charity is a failure of Government’s responsibilities…”

A grateful beneficiary of free school meals as a child, Rashford used his elevated public position to school the ruling Conservative party – who had near-unanimously voted AGAINST FEEDING STARVING CHILDREN – in a media campaign that resulted in Johnson repeatedly bowing to the footballer’s gadfly “suggestions”.

In a backward-looking Britain that has adopted the dogma that money is more important than people, the toxic policies of the Tories had never been more powerfully or effectively opposed than in this case of a working-class hero who never forgot where he came from…

‘Muhammad Ali – The Greatest (1942-2016, boxing, United States)’ recalls the career of another icon. Ali was a sporting superstar who evolved into a paragon of black liberation and human equality, and global symbol of power, endurance and dignity.

American prize fighter Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., found his true name and purpose after years of social othering, where he was readily permitted to entertain millions of Americans, but only to eat, sleep or share space where white people said he could…

Born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17th 1942, Clay began boxing at age 12. He won titles and acclaim and notoriety, not simply for his incredible sporting achievements but for his quick wit, cultural savvy and moral standing. Gold medal Olympian, World heavyweight champion, critic, pundit and street poet, in 1966 Clay took on the American government and paid a high personal price for refusing to fight a “white man’s war” in Vietnam.

Originally declared 4F due to dyslexia, he was abruptly re-classified and called up after becoming a voice of the Civil Rights Movement. Many still believe he was only drafted to shut him up… a tactic repeated over and over again throughout modern history.

A lifelong equal rights advocate, in 1964, the forceful Conscientious Objector had converted to Islam and formally renounced his “slave name”, adopting new appellation Muhammad Ali.

A living symbol of black pride, Ali retired from boxing in 1981 to concentrate on commercial, social, political and philanthropic works. He was declared Sportsman and Sports Personality of the (20th) Century by Sports Illustrated and the BBC respectively, and died in June 2016 from complications associated with Parkinson’s disease. Like Pelé, he changed the way the world saw colour…

Such was also the case with ‘Surya Bonaly – Black Blades (1973, figure skating, France)’: a black female skater who overcame all odds, broke records and revolutionised her sport, only to be denied its greatest awards and rewards thanks to constant gaslighting and the immovable forces of institutionalised racism. Her fight to correct those injustices for all who followed in her spectacular footsteps comprises the greater part of her entry here.

The same is true for the now largely anonymized icon whose very stance and image gave rise to the concept of sport as symbolic culture weapon.

‘Tommie Smith – The Black Clenched Fist of America (1944, track and field, United States)’ overcame poverty and entrenched bias to win gold at the 1968 Olympics, educating himself to the rank of college professor

His actions particularly outraged closet racist and antisemite and President of the Olympic Committee Avery Brundage (you should look up his sterling record…): a man whose influence tainted sport for generations from his apologist stance at the 1936 “Nazi Olympics” all the way through to the terrorist-blighted 1972 Munich games. He’s worthy of his entry if not book, but it wouldn’t be very complimentary…

How Tommie Smith willingly surrendered everything to make the political statement he believed more important than his own future, and how not just he and black teammate John Carlos (bronze medallist) but also white Australian silver medallist Peter Norman (who contributed a crucial twist to the Raised Fist incident) were punished for the visual statement is something every sports lover should be ashamed of and outraged by…

This chapter also carefully deconstructs the events and planning leading to that moment and the carefully conceived symbolic assault on the Establishment. Here we see Smith enduring decades of FBI surveillance in the aftermath. Moreover, he was designated one of ten athletes considered “a threat to America”, but ended on a triumphal high as the man who inspired Colin Kaepernick’s latterday protest, the Black Lives Matter movement and the career of Barack Obama finally received the acclaim he deserved…

Just as ingrained and unassailable was the attitude to women in sport and ‘Megan Rapinoe – An American Feminist (1985, soccer, United States)’ traces a painfully similar and oft-rerun path. Rapinoe was born to a poor white staunchly Republican family, and endured a different kind of bigotry. She and her siblings employed sport – or petty crime – to escape their stifling social problems, but Megan’s unique triumphs in soccer made her a global icon.

World Cup winner, Gold-winning Olympian, openly gay and a media megastar, she used her fame to champion pay inequality in US sport and constantly battled racial, sexual and gender bias. She was the first sports professional to support and emulate Colin Kaepernick’s stance and gesture, and proudly basked in the wrath of one-time President Donald Trump: constantly doubling down in a personal campaign to “smash the Patriarchy”, against the express wishes of much of her family. She too was celebrated and encouraged by more rational American Presidents and continues her forthright war on repressive conservatism…

‘Caster Semenya – The Woman Who Ran Too Fast (1991, track and field, South Africa)’ relates the shameful treatment of an African Olympian whose actual biology was considered aberrant and unwelcome. Targeted by (some) fellow competitors as well as international sporting authorities, the World Champion runner’s achievements and gender were constantly and repeatedly questioned. She was accused of being a man unfairly competing against women, and that man Brundage had plenty of unpleasant, unhelpful things to say on this issue too…

Her struggle for personal validation encompassed and overcame many official attempts to reclassify the sporting definitions of gender, and her later life has been dedicated to championing the rights of intersex women across the world…

‘Arthur Ashe – Humanitarian Aces (1943-1993, tennis, United States)’ was a world-shaking trailblazer who broke a monopoly. As seen above, sporting success has always been the only real weapon poor people have in a world tailored to accommodate the wealthy – usually white – and their offspring. A descendent of slaves, second class Virginian citizen Ashe shattered an age-old State colour bar preventing “his kind” playing tennis against white players. He fought hard and progressed, going on to become a global superstar: the first black man on UCLA’s team, first to play on the USA’s International (Davis Cup) team and first to win a prestigious Wimbledon tournament (where he controversially raised a Tommie Smith style fist after beating ferocious rival and Great White Hope Jimmy Connors).

Ashe was also a self-educated intellectual, a pacifist, a fashion icon and born social warrior who happily made waves. He too was classified as fodder for Vietnam, but his brother – a veteran – volunteered to take his place, leaving Arthur to continue his campaigns against injustice and intolerance, such as his early opposition to Apartheid in South Africa.

The crusader seemed born under an unlucky star: his sporting career ended early after a massive heart attack, and he survived quadruple bypass surgery to become a tennis coach who numbered John McEnroe amongst his protégés. His influence inspired many players of colour, from Yanick Noah to Venus and Serena Williams …

A second heart attack led to an agonisingly slow decline and dictated the course of his last crusade. Blood used during another heart operation had been contaminated with HIV and infected Ashe with AIDS. Diagnosed in 1988 with the mystery disease then decimating gay and black communities – and whilst writing a definitive history of black sportsmen and women in America – Ashe became the spokesman for AIDS sufferers everywhere after blackmailers threatened to expose his condition.

Instead, he went public, frustrating the criminals, demystifying the modern bête noir and becoming a UN consultant on HIV/AIDS until his death in February 1993. He lived long enough to see Apartheid end and meet his idol Nelson Mandela…

An unending fight for personal freedom and autonomy follows in the history of ‘Nadia Comaneci – The Dictator’s Doll (1961, gymnastics, Romania)’. Raised in the Soviet satrapy of Romania, determined sportswoman and legendary Olympic gymnast Comaneci fell under the absolute control of monstrous dictators and deranged personality cultists Nicolae and Elena Ceau?escu. Henceforth, her astounding accomplishments (first ever to achieve maximum possible scores and youngest athlete to win gold) became just like her pay, awards and prizes: property of the State as manifested in Mrs & Mrs Ceau?escu – whose many insane edicts included classifying sex education as a state secret and establishing Menstruation Police to enforce a population boom the bankrupt nation could not support…

Nadia’s abuse, struggle, flight to freedom in the West and subsequent bondage to a coercive controller is the stuff of nightmares and her eventual triumph and loving later life an utter cathartic joy.

Even for a nation that has produced many messianic footballers ‘Sócrates – Half Plato, Half Pelé (1954-2011, football, Brazil)’ is a remarkable figure. Another poor, talented and self-educated soccer star drawn from the underclasses, his struggles against addiction (“beer, cigarettes and women”) and the toxic allure of celebrity fed a fierce desire to be the best, but never affected his aims to help the people through socialism, medicine and ultimately political power. His early death might have robbed the world of a force for change, but his admirers’ and followers’ successful struggles against the Right – as manifested in dictatorial President Jair Bolsonaro – prove that his legacy ranges far beyond his sporting miracles…

Ending this potent exploration of individual achievement lifting all boats is the inspirational story of ‘Hiyori Kon – Little Miss Sumo (1997, sumo wrestling, Japan)’.

A resolute Japanese girl of lowly origin, she was early besotted by the national sport and battled two millennia of entrenched chauvinism and anti-female prejudice in a paradoxically forward-looking but hidebound society where many male and female roles are backed up by draconian laws and ironclad cultural conditioning. Even today Japan is one of the most gender-restricted societies on Earth (ranked 121st of 153 in terms of gender inequality by the World Economic Forum). The very term “feminism” equates with “hate” and “hysteria”…

Hiyori’s battles to compete as a female sumo wrestler were the stuff of legend, taking her across the country and the world as both competitor and coach for a sport growing evermore popular amongst women everywhere but in its nation of origin.

She has won medals everywhere but Japan, where the National Olympic governing body actually excluded the sport/discipline from their own (Covid-delayed) 2021 games because all events in any Olympiad must be open to male and female competitors…

Nevertheless, as part of a growing, inexorable tide of resolute women working for change, Hiyori has started a wave of reform and her crusade continues to this day…

These days a seemingly infinite variety of subjects fit under the umbrella of modern graphic novels – everything from superheroes, sci fi and the supernatural to philosophy, journalism and education. Thanks to their global reach and outlook, NBM are at the forefront of this welcome revolution, bringing a range of visions to the English-speaking table that apparently daunt most mainstream publishers here and in America.

Today’s book is a perfect case in point: a sequence of visual adaptations of some of the world’s most celebrated role models, chosen not only for their scintillating accomplishments but also the force of their convictions. The result is an utterly enticing graphic treasure, and there’s not a single tragic supervillain in sight… unless you count assorted governments, individual politicians, scurrilous administrators and business owners…

NBM’s library of graphic biographies are swiftly becoming the crucial guide to the key figures of modern history and popular culture. If you haven’t found the answers you’re seeking yet, then you’re clearly not looking in the right place…
© Hatchette Livre (Marabout) 2021. © 2022 NBM for the English translation. All rights reserved.

Fists Raised – 10 Stories of Sports Star Activism will be released on January 12th 2023 and can be pre-ordered now in both print and digital editions.

Most NBM books are also available in digital formats. For more information and other great reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/

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Lion Annual 1954


By Frank S. Pepper, Ron Forbes, Edwin Dale, Ted Cowan, Vernon Crick, & many & various (Amalgamated Press)
No ISBN: Digital edition

The 1950s ushered in a revolution in British comics. With wartime restrictions on printing and paper lifted, a steady stream of new titles emerged from many companies and when The Eagle launched from the Hulton Press in April 1950, the very idea of what weeklies could be altered forever. That kind of oversized prestige package with photogravure colour was exorbitantly expensive however, and when London-based publishing powerhouse Amalgamated Press retaliated with their own equivalent, it was an understandably more economical affair.

I’m assuming they only waited so long before the first issue of Lion launched (cover-dated February 23rd 1952) to see if their flashy rival periodical was going to last. Lion – just like The Eagle – was a mix of prose stories, features and comic strips and even offered its own cover-featured space-farer in Captain Condor – Space Ship Pilot.

Initially edited by Reg Eves, the title ran for 1156 weekly issues until 18th May 1974 when it merged with sister-title Valiant. Along the way, in the approved manner of British comics which subsumed weaker-selling titles to keep popular strips going, Lion absorbed Sun (in 1959) and Champion (1966) before going on to swallow The Eagle in April 1969 before merging with Thunder in 1971. In its capacity as one of the country’s most popular and enduring adventure comics, the last vestiges of Lion finally vanished in 1976 when Valiant was amalgamated with Battle Picture Weekly.

Despite its demise in the mid-70s, there were 30 Lion Annuals between 1953 and 1982, all targeting the lucrative Christmas market, combining a broad variety of original strips with topical and historical prose adventures; sports, science and general interest features; short humour strips and – increasingly in the 1970s – reformatted reprints from IPC/Fleetway’s vast back catalogue.

That’s certainly not the case with this particular item. Forward-dated 1954, but actually published in late 1953, it’s the first counterstrike from AP in the war to own Christmas: a delicious – but occasionally ethno-socially and culturally dated and dubious – dose of traditional comics entertainment. Big on variety, sturdily produced in a starkly potent monochrome, it offers a wide mixed bag of treats to beguile boisterous boys in a rapidly-changing world. What’s especially satisfying is that, current sensibilities notwithstanding, this volume has been digitised and can be bought and read electronically by kids of all vintages today…

I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that these entertainments were produced in good faith with the best of intentions by creators in a culture and at a time very different from ours. Very frequently attitudes and expressions are employed which we now find a little upsetting, but this book is actually one of the better examples of racial, gender and cultural tolerance. Still, even so…

The cornucopia of prose, puzzles, strips and features (all illustrated by artists as photography was too expensive) opens with a rather disturbing but truly lovely painted frontispiece ‘The Redskin Accepts the Challenge’ before a contents page promises astounding wonders to come.

We then rocket into adventure in the future where freedom fighter Captain Condor – by Frank S. Pepper and probably illustrated by original artist Ron Forbes – continues his war against despots running the solar system by solving ‘The Mystery of the Vanished Space-Ship!’ Edwin Dale then provides a prose thriller starring troubleshooter Mr. X, who discovers ‘The Tree that Stopped a Rebellion’ as he traverses the fabled African Veldt…

Presumably scripted by Ted Cowan & illustrated by Barry (R. G. Thomas) Nelson, ‘Sandy Dean’s Prize Guy’ is a comic strip wherein the schoolboy paragon and his chums deal with cheating classmates sabotaging and stealing effigies built to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night. It’s followed by Nigel Dawn’s prose thriller ‘Too Smart for the Atom Spy!’ wherein a schoolboy pigeon fancier foils a cunning espionage plot, after which we segue into a historical action strip credited to George Forrest (Cowan again).

‘The Slaves who Saved the Emperor’ follows two recently escaped British warriors who foil an imperial Roman assassination and is counterbalanced by Tom Stirling’s (E. L. Rosman) humorous text tale ‘Only a Press-Button Champ!’ This sees inventor’s nephew Jingo Jones stir up tons of trouble using his “Invisibliser” to save himself from a bully. Sadly, it also gives his headmaster and a boxing promoter the idea that the skinny runt is a fighting marvel…

‘The Weird Ways of Witch-Doctors Beat the Bush-Rangers’ (possibly by John Donnelly Jr.) shares amazing “facts” about jobbing mages in the post-war world after which John Barnes -AKA Peter O’Donnell – tells prose tale of ‘Chalu the Elephant Boy’ who clears his beloved four-legged co-worker Tooska when the big beast is framed as a murderous rogue animal…

Rex King (A.W. Henderson) delivers comic strip cowboy thrills as cavalry scout exposes a traitor and battles ‘Peril on the Tomahawk Trail’ before ‘Wiz and Lofty – Rescuers of the Kidnapped King’ (by E.L. Rosman as Victor Norman) delivers text thrills and spills as the globetrotting speed merchants stumble into a deadly plot to usurp a kingdom…

Harry Hollinson D.F.C. details and depicts some soon to be commonplace future wonders in speculative feature ‘Scientists Land on the Moon’ after which we pop back to WWII where Edward R. Home-Gall (AKA Edwin Dale) reveals in cartoon form how ‘The Lone Commandos’ scupper hidden Nazi artillery and save British soldiers in ‘Operation Gunfire’ before Vernon Crick shows in prose that ‘Rust’s the Boy for Stunts’: a rousing tale of motorcycle mayhem and skulduggery at a circus’ Wall of Death ride…

A pictorial ‘World-Wide Quiz’ tests your general knowledge before Peter O’Donnell – as Derek Knight – delivers a chilling prose vignette of Arctic endeavour as ‘Tulak Hunts the Polar Terror’, saving lost scientists, capturing murderous outlaws and stalking a killer bear…

A sea strip by A. W. Henderson as Roy Leighton sees schooner skipper Don Watson save pearl divers and solve ‘The Secret of Ju-Ju Island’ whilst Michael Fox’s prose story ‘Mike Merlin – Master of Magic’ details the greatest trick of a schoolboy conjuror before we meet one of British comics’ most enduring stars.

Robot Archie began life as ‘The Jungle Robot’ and his comic strip (by E. George Cowan & Ted/Jim Kearon) reveals how the mechanical marvel becomes the ‘Pal o’ the Pigmies’ before another prose piece by R. G. Thomas sees a western trader and his Native American pal stave off bandits and a hidden tribe of renegades in ‘Rod and the Red Arrow Raiders’…

A ‘Picture Parade of Facts from Near and Far’ precedes a text thriller by Hedley Scott (AKA Hedley O’Mant) wherein ‘The Schoolboy Treasure Hunters’ do a bit of digging and uncover presumed pirate gold with a far more modern and sinister provenance, before John Fordice (Colin Robertson) employs the comic strip form to catch ‘The Smash-and-Grab Speedster’, courtesy of consulting crimebuster Brett Marlowe, Detective as he explores the contemporary sporting phenomenon of motorcycle speedway…

Donald Dane’s prose yarn ‘Kurdo of the Strong Arm’ details the fascinating, action-packed saga of a Viking teenager – from ancient Scotland – stranded in North America hundreds of years before Columbus and leads to all those puzzle answers and final cartoon fact file ‘Fishy Tales – But They’re True!’ before a House Ad for weekly Lion – “The King of Picture Story Papers!’ brings us to the back cover and a sponsored treat: early infotainment treat ‘Cadbury’s Car Race puzzle’.

Sadly, many of the creators remain unknown and uncredited, especially the exceptional artists whose efforts adorn the prose stories, but this remains a solid box of delights for any “bloke of a certain age” seeking to recapture his so-happily uncomplicated youth. It also has the added advantage of being far less likely than other (usually unsavoury) endeavours which, although designed to rekindle the dead past, generally lead to divorce…

Before I go, let’s thank Steve Holland at Bear Alley (link please) and all the other dedicated diligent bods researching and excavating the names and other facts for everyone like me to cite and pretend we’re so clever…

A true taste of days gone by, this is a chance for the curious to test bygone tomes and times and I thoroughly recommend it to your house…
© 1955 the Amalgamated Press and latterly IPC. All rights reserved.

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Billy’s Boots Book 1: The Legacy of ‘Dead-shot’ Keen


By Fred Baker, Colin Page, Mike Western, Bill Lacey, Tom Kerr & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-671-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Classic Comics Fun and Games… 9/10

British kids have always been utterly besotted with sports and comics have continually fed and fuelled their addiction. Even in the days when children’s only exclusive “entertainment” was primarily prose “Story Papers”, tales of playing field rivals, earnest competition, glorious accomplishments, fair play and sporting prodigies dominated. As comic strips took tight hold of kid’s lives during WWII and after, generations of boys grew up wanting to be Wilson, Alf Tupper, His Sporting Lordship, Skid Solo or Roy of the Rovers.

As the 1950s unfolded, football became the undisputed leader of sporting strips: a peculiarly wide field that had found room for speedway, cricket, motor racing, rugby, boxing, wrestling, athletics and fishing among many, many others. In September 1954, Amalgamated Press launched a companion comic to anthological market leader Lion. Edited by Derek Birnage – until 1963, when Barrie Tomlinson took over – Tiger – The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly was cover-dated 11th September and out in time for the new football season. Primarily sports-themed for its entire run (1573 issues until 1985) it merged with or absorbed Champion (1955), Comet (1959), Hurricane (1965), Jag (1969), Scorcher (1974) and Speed (1980) before itself being subsumed by the relaunched Eagle in April 1985.

Among its most memorable treasures was Skid Solo, Johnny Cougar, Rod and Line, Hot Shot Hamish, Nipper, Football Family Robinson, Billy’s Boots and Roy of the Rovers…

As the 1960s segued into a new decade, across the United Kingdom, football was king in comics: everything from straight sporting drama strips to wild comedies with strange teams and odd motivations, and even supernaturally-tinged strips like Raven on the Wing…

Shoot launched in 1969, a junior, comics-heavy version of adult magazine Goal (which it eventually absorbed!) and Striker in January 1970. Its lead strip would graduate to The Sun newspaper.

Scorcher also kicked off on January 10th 1970, with an all football roster of photo-features sports journalism dedicated to the beautiful game and strips including Kangaroo Kid, Royal’s Rangers, Bobby of the Blues, Sub (He’s always on the sidelines!), Paxton’s Powerhouse, Lags Eleven, Jack of United, Jimmy of City, Hotshot Hamish and Nipper, but the breakout feature proved to be a dramatic reimagining of a comedy strip from Tiger: Billy’s Boots…

Scorcher became Scorcher and Score after 77 issues (merging with Score ‘n’ Roar in early July 1971) and finally called “time” with the October 5th 1974 issue – a further 171 outings. Its favourite features were ultimately absorbed into Tiger in 1980, but Annuals and Summer Specials continued to appear until 1984.

The stories here originally played in Scorcher from 10th January 1970 to 9th January 1970. The strip had taken its name from a comedic feature by Frank Purcell that ran in Tiger from 1961-1963. For a fresh new era, it was overhauled by 50-year veteran scripter Fred Baker (Martin’s Marvellous Mini, Skid Kids, Tommy’s Troubles, Hot-Shot Hamish, and much more in titles including Tiger, Buster, Chips, Radio Fun, Film Fun, Valentine and Roy of the Rovers).

He wrote the feature for most of its first 20 years run which was initially illuminated – in this volume at least – by Colin Page (Adam Eterno, Paddy Payne), Bill Lacey (Rick Random, Super Detective Library, Cowboy Comics Library, Mickey Mouse Weekly, Mytek the Mighty, Rat Pack), Mike Western (Lucky Logan, Biggles, No Hiding Place, The Wild Wonders, The Leopard from Lime Street, Darkie’s Mob, HMS Nightshade, Roy of the Rovers) and Tom Kerr (Little Lew, Fay, Monty Carstairs, Kip Kerrigan, Kelly’s Eye, Captain Hurricane, The Steel Claw, Charlie Peace, Kraken, Black Axe, Boy Bandit, Tara King/The Avengers, Peter the Cat, Clarks Commandos et al).

Billy’s Boots was initially rendered in 2-page, full colour instalments and survived Scorcher’s merger with Tiger in 1974, and amalgamation with Eagle in 1985. A year later Billy migrated to Roy of The Rovers magazine offering new adventures until 1990. Even then, the lad kept kicking, appearing in reprints, Annuals and Best of Roy of the Rovers Monthly, Striker and Total Football magazine into the 21st century.

He’s also an international star, having been translated into Finnish, Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, Bengali, Turkish and more…

In October 1971, John Gillatt took over the art for a 16-year run which truly defined the strip in readers’ eyes and minds, but that’s a treat for another volume…

Here however, in interlinked serials we meet 12-year-old Billy Dane who is an avid – but rubbish – footballer. His earnest desire is simply to play the game but he’s so bad nobody will let him join even a playground kickabout…

An orphan living with his grandmother, Billy’s life changes forever when he dutifully cleans out her attic and finds a battered old pair of football boots. They were a souvenir his grandad had picked up, and had been used by sporting legend Charles “Dead-Shot” Keene. When Billy wistfully dons them and starts mucking about in the backyard, something miraculous occurs.

Suddenly, he can kick with the force and accuracy of an adult professional and later testing shows that the fabulous footwear sends him subconscious messages, enabling to read a field and almost predict the best place to be in any game situation…

Now bursting with confidence and hungry to play, he rapidly moves from friendly games to school caps, county matches and even international fixtures, with a heaping helping of drama accruing from his eagerness frequently leading him to play for rivals and opposing teams…sometimes on the same day…

Further confusions and concerns arise as he researches the life of Dead-Shot and realises that he’s often reliving actual events that affected the star and shaped his astounding career. The phenomenon doesn’t let up even after Billy finally meets and befriends his idol…

Of course, as this is a drama the most challenging problem Billy constantly faces is losing, mislaying, being deprived of and recovering the ratty, tatty, far-out-of-fashion old boots: prompting many manic moments where the plucky kid must humiliatingly go on without the miracle-making fantastic footwear, but always the lad perseveres and overcomes…

It’s also not as if he doesn’t have other problems too. At one stage he’s forced to move across the country, leaving all his friends: encountering school bullies, and teachers and trainers who think he’s troubled…

After its initial set-up the nature of the stories become rather formulaic, with Billy always seeking to be the best he could: trying to wean himself off ghostly footgear and develop innate natural skills. This was usually a huge disappointment as he always failed unless he was wearing the boots of his hero. Thankfully, the astounding illustration always makes the stories feel fresh and the ongoing mystery of how and why the boots work keeps the tension up…

Such narrative repetition was not deemed a problem at the time, since editors held the firm conviction that readers had a definite shelf-life and would quickly move on to better things… like Chaucer, Len Deighton, or the back pages of The Sun or Daily Mirror…

This astoundingly absorbing classic is another perfect example of purely British comics sensibilities: passionate, idealistic and desperately earnest as it follows the path of a working class hero navigating a treacherous path to glory or dismal defeat. This is a welcome reintroduction: inspirational, warm, beautifully rendered and absolutely unforgettable. Another treasure-trove from Rebellion’s ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics, this tale span generations and demands to be in every family bookcase.
© 1970, 1971, & 2020 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

A thankful tip of the fact hat to footy publications site Soccerbilia – for some of the background recycled here.

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Superman vs Muhammad Ali Deluxe Edition


By Neal Adams, Denny O’Neil, Dick Giordano, Terry Austin, Gaspar Saladino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2841-5 (HB/Digital edition)

It’s a fact (if such mythological concepts still exist): the American comic book industry would be utterly unrecognisable without the invention of Superman. His unprecedented adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally created a genre if not art form.

Within three years of his June 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early Man of Steel had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and – once the war in Europe and the East embroiled America – patriotic relevance.

If only in comic book terms, Superman is master of the world, having utterly changed the shape of a fledgling industry and entertainment in general. There have been newspaper strips, radio and TV shows, cartoons, games, toys, apparel, merchandise and blockbusting movies. Everyone on Earth gets a picture in their head when they hear the name.

Another icon – a magnificently human one – was a sporting legend who became a paragon of black liberation and human equality, as well as global symbol of power, endurance and dignity. He was an American prizefighter who started life as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., before finding his true name and purpose…

Born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17th 1942 – so, technically, also a son of the Golden Age – Clay began boxing at age 12. He won titles and acclaim – and later notoriety – not simply for his incredible sporting achievements but for his quick wits, cultural savvy and moral standing. Gold medal Olympian, World heavyweight champion, critic, pundit and street poet, in 1966 Clay took on the American government and paid a high personal price for refusing to fight a white man’s war in Vietnam.

A forceful lifetime advocate of equal rights, in 1964, the Conscientious Objector had converted to Islam and formally renounced his “slave name”, adopting new appellation Muhammad Ali. A living symbol of black pride during the Civil Rights era, Ali retired from boxing in 1981, concentrating on commercial, social, political and philanthropic works. He was declared Sportsman and Sports Personality of the (20th) Century by Sports Illustrated and the BBC respectively, and died in June 2016 from complications associated with Parkinson’s disease.

As part of his campaign to draw attention to his causes, in 1977 “The Greatest” agreed to a headline-grabbing exhibition bout with the “World’s Greatest Superhero” which was released in January 1978 in the flashy, oversized tabloid iteration that was the decade’s equivalent of today’s prestige print formats. Originally published as All-New Collectors’ Edition volume 7, #C-56, the project was very much the baby of another phenomenon of the era…

Neal Adams was born on Governors Island, New York City, on June 15th 1941. His family were career military and he grew up on bases across the world. In the late 1950s, Adams studied at the High School of Industrial art in Manhattan, graduating in 1959.

As the turbulent, revolutionary 1960s opened, the illustrator had worked in advertising and ghosted some newspaper strips whilst trying to break into comics. In pursuing a commercial art career – advertising and “real art” – he did some comics pages for Joe Simon at Archie Comics (The Fly and that red-headed kid too) before becoming one of the youngest artists to co-create and illustrate a major licensed newspaper strip: Ben Casey, based on a popular TV medical drama series. His first attempts to find work at DC were not successful…

That comic book fascination never faded, however, and as the sixties progressed Adams drifted back to National/DC, working on covers as inker or penciller. After “breaking in” via anthological war comics, he eventually found himself at the vanguard of a revolution in pictorial storytelling, much of it with similarly socially-inclined writer Denny- O’Neil (with whom he had spearheaded an age of “relevancy” in Green Lantern/Green Arrow)…

As well as a comics iconoclast, Adams was a tireless social activist and campaigner. His mission as champion of creators rights even finally secured some long-ignored liberties and rewards for the formerly invisible stars of comic books like Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster…

For the high-profile Superman vs Muhammad Ali project – immortalised here in a splendidly oversized (187 x 283 mm) commemorative Deluxe collection – Adams even latterly assumed much of the writing thanks to his affinity for the stars and the subject. He also gets in the first word in his ‘Introduction’ before the saga begins…

As well as worthy and well-intentioned, the bombastic saga is also intoxicatingly exciting and well-executed: a classic invasion tale that finds the Man of Steel helpless before an encircling alien armada pointing appalling weapons at the world. Unable to counter the overwhelming force determined to eradicate or enslave troublesome humanity before they become a threat to all the civilised species of the universe, Superman must play a more devious game…

The Scrubb are a warrior race demanding Earth provide a representative champion to fight a single-combat duel as the means of determining the fate of their species. Forced to play the game by the rules of Scrubb leader Rat’Lar, Superman assumes he will fight for Earth, but is challenged by new friend Muhammad Ali who quite reasonably points out that the hero is only an adopted earthman, even as he shares a few fight tips in ‘Training’…

The fight to be the challenger is also manipulated by Rat’Lar, who broadcasts the event across the galaxies to cow and intimidate rival civilisations. The emperor makes great capital of the ‘Preliminary’ bout with the de-powered Kryptonian batting valiantly but in vain against the kid from Kentucky.

The result was never in doubt. Without powers, Superman could never handle Ali, and soon the grievously beaten superhero is stretchered out of the ring, leaving the boxer to face Scrubb champion Hun’Ya in the ‘Main Event’…

Exactly as Superman and Ali had planned…

Culminating in a battle of wits and blockbusting demonstration of human and superhuman brawn, this cathartic revel was never about showing whose hero is best, but how underdogs working together can defeat any opposition, even nasty aliens who have no intention of acting in good faith or fighting with honour…

Spectacular hokum, magnificently rendered, this is a treat for the eyes and endlessly re-readable, and this Deluxe tome enhances the visceral fun with loads of extras such as the original wraparound cover, and a ‘Seating Chart’ for the dozens of ringside celebrities Adams added to it plus some candid behind-the-scenes revelations in an ‘Afterword’ from then-DC publisher Jenette Khan. Moreover, art fans and history-buffs can delight in a selection of pencil page layouts and roughs in a copious ‘Sketches’ section, which includes script pages and creator ‘Bios’.

Fast, furious, enthralling and extremely rousing, Superman vs Muhammad Ali celebrates a classic moment of comics history: one that is endlessly appealing and rewarding, and one no fan should be without.
© 1978, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Muhammad Ali and all associated marks are trademarks of Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC © MAE LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Suzanne: The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis

By Ted Humberstone (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-910395-69-1 (HB)

I’m sure by now you have realised that history is utterly filled with women we apparently can’t stop talking about quickly enough. Happily, the medium of comics is one area where we’re digging deeper and revealing obscured accounts of past giants to make vibrant new stories about. Here’s a particularly poignant one that actually qualifies as living memory for many, yet is about a wonder woman so many have literally never heard of…

…And it’s not like these stories are hidden away where none can find them: it’s simply a case of invisibility by tacit omission, WG Grace died in 1915 and Don Bradman played his final Test Match in 1948, but I grew up with – and still hear – their names cited at every modern meeting.

For years Suzanne’s near-contemporary Fred Perry was downplayed if not actually excluded from the history books and media celebration before being reclaimed as a “Great” (politics: you should look him up too, and see how he was mostly rediscovered by the simple expedient of being the last Brit to win a Wimbledon title until 2013!).

For so many stars like Suzanne, it’s hard not to consider a conspiracy of silence was at play amongst previous generations of pundits and sports writers…

This torrid hardback tome opens with a handy diagrammatic guide to the rules of Lawn Tennis before we trace in a carefully audited and beautifully visualised manner episodes of a truly unique individual’s life.

In Paris in 1938, fading American tennis star Bunny Ryan visits an old friend. Her great friend and colleague is dying of the undiagnosable mystery ailment that has plagued her entire life, but which never prevented her from becoming the greatest woman player in history. Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was born on May 24th 1899 and would die in July 1938. In between, she courted controversy, lived life her way, embraced personal and career scandal, and changed the course of Lawn Tennis.

Her accomplishments were truly astounding. Between 1912 and her death, Suzanne won 241 titles, enjoyed a 181 match-winning streak, was World Number One for 8 years and held a 341-7 match record, but that is only the tip of this social and sporting iceberg…

Our examination truly begins in Nice in 1908, when Suzann’s father Charles observed a (men’s) tennis match and realised the attention and approbation the players basked in. At this time, the pastime was a rich man’s diversion: strictly amateur status with nothing but “expenses” paid to the gentry who indulged in it. There was a thriving women’s game too, but this also was more freak show than serious sport.

Lenglen was an athletic child who loved dance, and the family was comfortable with inherited wealth. Had her older brother not died, her life might have been utterly different, but her father then and there decided that his remaining offspring would be greatest tennis player who ever lived…

How his ruthless ambition shaped the life of sporting superstar who broke all the rules is tantalisingly outlined in snapshots of Suzanne’s life: the men who shaped her career, rare friendships (usually men and women connected to the rarefied world of tennis) and particularly her rebellions.

Suzanne refused to play in corsets, ultimately liberating all female players and pioneering a dashing, vigorous, aggressive style of play. Keenly understanding that she was a centre of attention, she had a clothes designer create a string of daring costumes that forged today’s link between sports and fashion. She drank alcohol between sets, partied hard and won match after match.

Dubbed “the Maid Marvel” by the all-male press that she developed an increasingly hostile relationship with, her personal life consisted of dazzling success, broken by recurring periods of debilitating illness no doctors could understand of properly treat. The only thing that caused temporary remissions was the next tournament…

Possibly her greatest achievement began after an exhibition tour of America in 1921. Here, in the shadow of Prohibition, she met financier Charles Pyle and was asked for the first time to consider becoming a professional player. At this juncture tennis was a sacrosanct, pure and “amateur” game with all rewards and inducements being “under the counter”. Only the clubs like Wimbledon and Nice or the newspapers made any sordid profit from players efforts and labours, whilst the rulers of her country’s Tennis Federation even tried to sabotage her with patriotic nonsense, demanding that she only play doubles matches with French nationals rather than her preferred (and equally triumphant) Bunny Ryan.

In 1926, her eventual acquiescence to Pyle’s offer to join his American league and go on a world tour – brought on by her advancing age and Charles Lenglen’s financial losses – saw her ostracised and exiled from the circuit she had dominated for decades, but also paved the way for fair and equitable remuneration of tennis players, rather than the glad-handing rewards and mutable generosity of being exploited by the rich and privileged…

Rather than a straight catalogue of events and assessment of achievement, this examination is carefully fictionalised and massaged to capture what Suzanne Lenglen may have been. Unwell or unstoppable, confused, angry and always desperately seeking to please her father and still be herself, this bright, breezy account of Suzanne details appalling treatment, but succeeds in painting the Goddess of the Courts as a triumphant survivor and not a victim, thanks as much to the astonishingly engaging and open drawing style of the biographer as an astute appreciation of the times and the players involved.

The revelatory saga also includes an Introduction from founding co-secretary of the Women’s Tennis Association and International Tennis Hall of Famer Françoise Dürr; Thank Yous, Foot Notes and a list of Further Reading, and comes courtesy of staggeringly gifted Scottish cartoonist Tom Humberstone (Doctor Who, Nelson, Solipsistic Pop) and publisher Avery Hill.

You should buy all their books and, if you want more of similar, after buying this you could also check out publishers such as SelfMadeHero, Myriad, NBM and so many more outfits seeking to correct the historical balance through informative entertainments.

Trust me, you can’t lose…

© 2022 Tom Humberstone.

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Dreams in Thin Air


By Michael Magnus Nybrandt & Thomas Engelbrecht Mikkelsen translated by Steffen Rayburn-Maarup (Conundrum Press)
ISBN: 978-1-77262-010-8 (HB)

Fantastic battles against overwhelming odds and magnificent, unlikely victories are the lifeblood of graphic narratives – and most of popular fiction, I suppose – but seeing such triumphs in our own mundane mortal coil is barely credible in the real world.

Happily, miracles do occur, and one such forms the basis of this stunningly engaging chronicle of a good heart and love of sport defeating the political skulduggery of an oppressive but publicity-shy superpower.

Delivered as a sturdy and compelling full-colour landscape format hardback, Dreams in Thin Air details the struggle of a young Danish man whose life was changed by a pre-college visit to Tibet: the things he saw and the people he met…

To make the story even more accessible, the man at the centre of events tells his own story, teaming here with Danish comics superstar and educator Thomas Engelbrecht Mikkelsen (Wizards of Vestmannaeyjar, Einherjar) who adds zest, verve and spectacular imagination to the already heady mix.

Following a Foreword by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the story opens near the end as impassioned, frustrated Michael Magnus Nybrandt paces outside the Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen. We haven’t seen it yet, but Michael has gambled years of hard work, devious conniving and soul-destroying dedication on a true long shot!

‘Chapter 1: Towards Tibet’ then takes us back to 1997 as Michael and his friend Thomas land at Lhasa Airport and are only saved from disaster by the quick thinking of Tibetan guide Jamphel Yeshi, who rescues the idealistic Scandinavians from a potentially lethal encounter with bribe-seeking Chinese Guards.

As they ride away from the airport, the Europeans observe over and again the brutal results of China’s annexation and systematic eradication of Tibetan culture begun in the aftermath of the 1950 invasion. Of course, the gun-toting occupiers called it an act of “liberation”…

The white boys’ feelings as they contrast the broken relics of a glorious past with urbanised concrete wastelands inflicted by two generations of self-serving Chinese occupiers are obvious and exceedingly painful, and before long they check out of their state-sponsored hotel and go on a trans-Tibetan tandem ride, looking for the real country…

In ‘The Easy Way’, that joyous if exhausting excursion brings them into constant contact with the earthy, gregarious Tibetans and solidifies a feeling in Michael that he must do something to help them. The revelation of exactly what that might be comes after they arrive at a shattered temple and meet Lama Tsarong.

During their stopover, the Europeans encounter young monks in training and discover the Tibetans’ abiding passion for football – the proper “beautiful game” and not the dandified Rugby played by Americans…

Later, Michael endures a bizarre dream in which he is coach of a Tibetan National Team. That’s clearly an impossible notion. Thanks to China’s political clout and annexation policy, there is no such nation as Tibet, only outlaw enclaves of dispossessed Tibetans living as exiles in well-wishing countries such as India and Nepal.

No politically expedient government on Earth recognises the annexed but unforgotten land and it has no official national standing in any arena… even sporting ones…

In August 1997, Nybrandt returns to Denmark and resumes his education in Aarhus. He is part of the landmark radical education initiative dubbed Kaospilot, but despite all his studies cannot shift his focus away from that vivid dream…

At that time, privately-sponsored Kaospilot trained less than 40 students per year in Leadership, Business Design, Process Design and Project Design. The private school’s educational philosophy stresses personal development, values-based entrepreneurship, socially-responsible innovation and – above all else – creativity.

Although Michael strives to adapt to the program, eventually he gives in to his obsession and retools his lessons and educational modules to the ultimate goal of creating a Tibetan National Football team and securing for them international matches…

That’s when his problems really begin, as the full political might of the People’s Republic is brought to bear, not just on him but also on Denmark itself. In ‘Dharamsala’ that subtle, silent opposition becomes far more overt, even as Nybrandt tirelessly works with Tibetan bigwigs – in the conquered mountain country itself and throughout the rest of the world.

Undaunted, he sources players, finds sponsors bold enough to buck the Chinese government; sidestepping petty-minded obfuscations like visa-sabotage and rescinded travel permits and even terrifying physical assaults from thinly-disguised political bully boys in China’s pay…

The tide starts to turn in ‘Dharma Player’ after a meeting with the Dalai Lama and arrangement of an international fixture against Greenland’s national team. With the threat of public legitimisation of a “non-country”, China begins turning the geo-political screws: threatening economic sanctions that might bankrupt Denmark and even more dire unspecified consequences…

On the brink of defeat, Michael thinks furiously and realises that although the prestige of international sport has caused all his problems, it has also provided a once-in-a-lifetime possible solution. All he has to do is confront the Chinese ambassador and not blink first…

The result was a milestone in the modern history of oppressed, subjugated Tibet and resulted in ‘Ninety Minutes of Recognition’ as China was forced to climb down and allow the match to take place…

Being a true story, this gloriously inspirational tale also offers a photo-reportage-packed ‘Epilogue by the Author’; geographical and socio-political synopsis on the country at ‘The Roof of the World’ and a heartfelt ‘Acknowledgments’ section dedicated to the brave souls who made the miracle happen and brought this book into print.

Compelling, hugely entertaining and astoundingly uplifting, Dreams in Thin Air is a moving and wonderful tribute to the power of sport and the resolve of good people. Don’t wait for the inevitable feelgood movie: read this magnificent graphic testament right now and experience the all-too-rare joy of good intentions triumphing over arrogance and overwhelmingly ensconced power…
English Edition © Michael Magnus Nybrandt, Thomas Engelbrecht Mikkelsen and Conundrum Press 2017.