Category: TV Adaptations

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Collected Comics volume 1


By Ed Caruana, Landry Walker, John-Paul Bove, Erik Burnham, Jack Lawrence, Cosmo White, Bob Molesworth, Jason Cardy & various (Nickelodeon/Panini Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84653- 615-1

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: What Every Kid Craves… 8/10

Devised by young comicbook creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first appeared in a self-published black & white parody comicbook in 1984.

After spawning an explosive boom in do-it-yourself comics and changing the very nature of the industry, their concept resolved into the ideal example of successful exploitation, expanding to encompass toys, movies, games, food, apparel, general merchandising and especially television cartoons, becoming – and remaining – a globally potent franchise. There’s another movie in the cinemas even as I type this…

In 2012 the third animated TV series – rendered in extremely impressive 3D CGI – launched on Nickelodeon to tremendous world wide approval and is now up to its fourth season.

Such universally popular characters usually filter back into comics as their media stars wax and the TV show generated an Official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Magazine, packed with puzzles, posters, fact files, competitions and some extremely engaging and entertaining strips.

This bold, brassy and bombastic collection gathers the hilarious, action-packed comic chronicles from issues #2 through 13 and 15 – with a few value-added extras thrown in – and sensibly opens with a rehash of the characters’ ‘Origins’ before ‘The Need for Speed!‘ by Ed Caruana, Jack Lawrence and chief colourist Jason Cardy sets the ball rolling when a silly mistake forces romantic Donatello into the most important rescue mission of his life.

After a glitch in computer communication makes him mistakenly believe their human associate April O’Neil has confessed her love for him, in a state of euphoria he responds with a flamboyant gesture.

Unfortunately, by the time he realises the hugely embarrassing error and needs to stop a florist delivering a bonanza bouquet to her, he’s in the middle of a furious fight with the robotic Kraangs who are still insidiously contaminating New York City with the alien Mutagen concoction which had years ago turned a Ninjutsu master into a giant rat and four baby amphibians into the world’s greatest warriors…

‘Podzilla’ then finds our shell-backed saviours battling deranged nemesis and insufferable mad scientist Baxter Stockman whose latest mechanical monstrosity is proof against martial arts mastery but not inventive genius Donnie’s latest innovation. ‘Thief in the Night’ (by Erik Burnham & Bob Molesworth) then sees the quartet battling to save a “magic” sword from Mutagen-warped piscine peril Fishface whilst ‘Slug’ (by Caruana & Molesworth) pits the boys against an uncommon bank robber who accidentally steals some of the ubiquitous ooze and so very slowly reaps the consequences…

Freewheeling Michelangelo saves the day in blistering battle against feral fury Dogbreath thanks to a killer move taught him by a samurai pelican in a ‘Daydream’ (Landry Walker, Caruana & Cosmo White) after which ‘Taken’ (Caruana & Jack Lawrence) finds the turtles’ pet – un-mutated – tortoise Spike at the centre of a kidnap plot involving those incorrigible Kraangs, after which the awesome power of pizza deals a substantial blow to arch-maniac Shredder‘s plans when ‘A Slice of Luck’ (Caruana & White) pits the team against an army of enemies and ticked-off mutant alligator Leatherface…

Donatello’s new stealth wings prove more handicap than advantage when the lads invade Kraang HQ in ‘Dropzone’ (Caruana & Lawrence), but not as much as the citizens of New York after the Turtles visit a pizzeria in ‘Takeout’ (Caruana, John-Paul Bove & Ryan J. Neal)…

In ‘Number One Fan’ (Walker & White) Leonardo trade blows and fanboy trivia with Stockman when they discover a shared love of vintage TV serial Space Heroes during a cataclysmic clash at a movie premiere…

Leo and Raphael later develop an intense and extremely physical rivalry in ‘Own Worst Enemy’ (Bove & Molesworth) but rodentine Master Splinter‘s solution falls far short of the bonding necessitated during a frantic fracas against antagonistic allies Fishface and Dogbreath at a superglue factory…

‘What Goes Up…’ (Bove, Caruana & Lawrence) features a fight in a rooftop jungle hiding veggie-monster Snakeweed, after which Donnie’s latest tinker toy ‘Roboninja’ (Caruana & White) proves more foe than friend after Mikey messes with its controls, whilst in ‘Meet the Dream King’ (Walker, Caruana & Molesworth) the pestiferous Michelangelo is lost in a fabulous but lethal fantasy realm which can only be escaped through the magic of pizza…

The mutant martial arts mirth and mayhem concludes with ‘Space Captain Leo’ (Walker Caruana & White) as the incurable telly addict suffers a debilitating head injury and starts channelling the valiant Captain Ryan of the Starship Dauntless whilst tracking down the Kraangs and a vast shipment of deadly Mutagen.

His bewildered brothers in arms can barely keep up as the carnage commences…

Wrapping up the all-ages fun is a mesmerising fact-feature ‘Behind the Scenes’ which traces the development of the story pages from rough layouts to full-finished computer-coloured art and also includes a selection of ‘Concept Sketches’ revealing the evolution of Podzilla, Roboninja, Slug and The Dream King.

Fast, furious, fun-filled and funny, this reinvention of the perennial shell-backed sentinels offers a superb slice of excitement and enjoyment – and bizarrely addictive catch-phrases – that will keep kids and adults alike bouncing off the walls with eager appreciation.

Mums: You have been warned…

© 2014 Viacom Overseas Holdings, C. V. All Rights Reserved. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related logos and characters are ™ Viacom Overseas Holdings, C. V. Based on characters created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.

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Bart Simpson 2015 Annual


By various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78329-449-7

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fun festive Frolics in the old school style… 9/10

The comic has been with us a long time now and debate still continues about where, when and exactly what constitutes the first of these artefacts to truly earn the title. There’s a lot less debate about the children’s annual, a particularly British institution and one that continues – albeit in a severely limited manner – to this day.

It’s a rare Brit who never received a colourful card-covered compendium on Christmas morning, full of stories and comic-strips and usually featuring the seasonal antics of their favourite characters, whether from comics such as Beano, Dandy, Lion, Eagle and their ilk, pop stars, television, film or radio franchises and personalities such as TV21, Radio Fun, Arthur Askey, Dr Who, Star Wars or even peculiar and ephemeral somethings trending at a given moment.

There were also sports books and beautifully illustrated commemorative editions of the fact and general knowledge comics such as Look and Learn and special generational unmissables such as Giles, The Broons, Oor Wullie or the always glorious Rupert Annuals.

The Simpsons first aired as a series in December 1989 after debuting as a segment on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. It is currently the longest running sitcom, longest-running animated program and longest-running scripted primetime television series in American entertainment history. Once the show became a runaway hit, Bongo Comics was formed in 1993 by Steve and Cindy Vance, Bill Morrison and inspirational creator Matt Groening as an adjunct to the TV show, to provide extra Springfield madness for the masses.

British Comics have always fed heavily on other media and as television grew during the 1960s – especially the area of children’s shows and cartoons – those programmes increasingly became the staple source for the Seasonal Annual market, replacing radio and movie personalities as fodder for fun and imagination. As the years passed, there would be a profusion of stories and strips targeting not readers but young viewers and more and more often the stars would be , not British.

Perhaps the nation’s most impressive and long-lived modern purveyor of the once ubiquitous gifting standby is the mini-franchise of monthly comics and books starring the aforementioned cartoon phenomenon and this year’s Cool Yule offerings boast a family fun-fest featuring all of the Springfield Irregulars but also a canny collection of capers starring the poster child for children who belong on wanted posters…

This collection of strip shenanigans – all culled from the pages of the mighty Bongo Comics – opens with ‘Elementary School Dropout’ (by Earl Kress, Joey Nilges & Andrew Pepoy) which details how, after a particularly unsavoury expression of recreational nudity, young Bart finally succeeds in being expelled from school.

After failing to get the anarchic little nonconformist into any other educational establishment in the country Marge and Homer are depressed, defeated and resigned to having the smug horror at home for good, but eventually boredom and ostracism compel Bart to get himself back into school… with the connivance of a most unexpected ally…

The madness expands to include professional Scotisher Groundskeeper Willie who takes centre stage to reminisce aboot his pop-star days as a drummer in ‘Willie and the Weasels’ (Mary Trainor, James Lloyd & Pepoy): a shocking expose of the cruel and callous treatment sensitive musicians endured in the swingin’ sixties…

Then ‘Mrs. Bart Krabappel!’ (Tom Peyer, Nilges & Pepoy) outrageously details how Bart’s appetite for chaos causes his long-suffering teacher to be arrested. In an example of pure ingenuity the Judge sentences her to live with the Simpsons, where a strange relationship gradually develops…

Bart and best bud Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten subsequently test the boundaries of science, nature and imagination in ‘With Great Power…’ (Max Davison, Nina Matsumoto & Pepoy), engineering “accidents” and even nuclear calamities in a wild quest to develop superpowers before the discovery of a strange book creates the perfect conditions for a children’s cult in ‘One for All and Alpha One’ (by Trainor, Lloyd & Pepoy)…

The world turns upside down when School Superintendent Chalmers fires Mr. Skinner and makes Bart ‘Principal Simpson’ (Peyer, Mike DeCarlo & Ken Wheaton) for a day. Oddly, the exercise seems to the liberation of both and leads to a strange rapprochement after which ‘Treehouse of Chimps’ (John Zakour, John Delaney & Pepoy) concludes the seasonal celebration in fine style as three of Professor Frink‘s lab monkeys – hopped up on Primate Intelligence Enhancer – set up their own science experiment to observe the wild, undomesticated inhabitants of Springfield in their (un)natural environments…

Wry, hilarious, surreal and satirical, abounding in slapstick and poor taste gags, these dynamic tales of the world’s foremost mischief test-pilot shine in this sterling oversized (297 x 222mm) full colour hardback collection of edgy, barbed spoofs: another timeless piece of comic ordinance that we should use to get kids into comics. And of course, once we have them, we need even more stuff of this quality around to keep them here….
The Simpsons ™, created by Matt Groening, is the copyrighted and trademarked property of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Bart Simpson 2015 Annual © 2014 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved.

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DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk volume 1: Dragon Down


By Simon Furman, Iwan Nazif & Bambos Georgiou (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-076-4

These days, young kids are far more likely to find their formative strip narrative experiences online or between the card-covers of specially tailored graphic novels rather than the comics and periodicals of my long-dead youth.

In times past the commercial comics industry thrived by producing copious amounts of gaudy, flimsy pamphlets subdivided into a range of successful, self-propagating, seamlessly self-perpetuating age-specific publications. Such eye-catching items generated innumerable tales and delights intended to entertain, inform and educate such well-defined target demographics as Toddler/Kindergarten, Younger and Older Juvenile, General, Girls, Boys and even Young Teens, but today the English-speaking world can only afford to maintain a few paltry out-industry, licensed tie-ins and spin-offs for a dwindling younger readership.

Where once cheap and prolific, strip magazines in the 21st century are extremely cost-intensive and manufactured for a highly specific – and dying – niche market, whilst the beguiling and bombastic genres that originally fed and nurtured comics are more immediately disseminated via TV, movies and assorted interactive media.

Happily, in this country old-school prose publishers and the newborn graphic novel industry have a different business model and far more sustainable long-term goals, so the magazine makers’ surrender has been turned into a burgeoning victory, as solid and reassuringly sturdy Comics-in-Books increasingly buck the pamphlet/papers downward spiral.

Moreover, many of those old comics enjoyed a successful affiliation and almost symbiotic relationship with television (and before that, Films and radio shows), and these days when even the ubiquitous goggle-box business is paralysed and endangered by on-demand streaming, too many channels and far too much choice, those connections have been taken up by the graphic novel trade too.

The links between animated features and comicbooks are long established and I suspect, for young consumers, indistinguishable. After all, in the end it’s all just entertaining pictures…

One of the most popular TV cartoons – and certainly the most gripping and entertaining – of recent years is DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk (and its follow-up Defenders of Berk). It’s based on the wonderful movie How to Train Your Dragon – which was itself loosely adapted from Cressida Cowell’s glorious and charming sequence of children’s books.

The show has internationally wowed audiences young and old alike and, in this first full-colour Titan Comics digest-sized collection by Simon Furman, Iwan Nazif & BambosGeorgiou, those amazing adventures continue as brilliant but introverted boy-hero Hiccup and his compatriots of the Dragon Rider Academy gleefully roam the skies with their devoted scaly friends.

When not fighting each other the trusty teens attempt to keep the peace between the rambunctious multiplicity of saurians and the island of Berk’s irascible Viking settlers: protecting the humans’ village from the constant attacks of nastier folk such as Alvin the Treacherous and his fleet of piratical Outcasts or new and unknown monsters…

Following a brace of handy information pages introducing Hiccup and his devoted Night Fury Toothless, as well as tom-boyish Astrid on Deadly Nader Stormfly, obnoxious jock Snotlout and Monstrous Nightmare Hookfang, portly scholar Fishlegs on ponderous Gronckle Meatlug and the terribly dim but merrily violent twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut on double-headed Zippleback Belch & Barf, this initial saga opens as the riders go through their spectacular aerial combat paces over the waters around Berk.

Trouble is never far away where Dragons are concerned, and when Hookfang begins shedding incandescent scales, they soon have half the village putting out the resultant flash-fires…

For the safety of the town and the ailing Wyrm, Hiccup’s father Chief Stoick has no choice but to quarantine Hookfang off-island and ground the rest of the flight. However, when the Monstrous Nightmare goes missing the kids decide to ignore orders and go looking for the poor beast…

Chapter two opens during a massive squall with the Dragon Riders being bawled out by Stoick. Snotlout is heartbroken – but won’t show it – and guilty Hiccup furtively sneaks off to continue the search alone with Toothless.

Hookfang is in real trouble. He’s been cornered by Alvin the Treacherous, who wants to make dragons his war weapons. Now he has bait and only needs a skilled trainer to enslave… and he knows that one will be along soon to rescue the still-shedding Monstrous Nightmare he has trapped in a cave…

The evil scheme works almost perfectly. Hiccup is easily captured by the hulking Outcast warriors, but manages to convince the sleek, speedy Night Fury to abandon him and fetch help…

Valiantly making his way back to Berk, the loyal Toothless rouses the Riders and Stoick’s men who speed to the rescue. Meanwhile, ingenious Hiccup has already engineered his own escape. It would have worked, too, if the islet they were on hadn’t been a not-quite dormant volcano with explosively shedding Hookfang inadvertently stoking the geological fires…

The saga concludes in an astounding sea battle as Stoick’s fleet engages Alvin’s pirates whilst Astrid and Stormfly spring Hiccup. Reunited with Toothless, the leader of the Dragon Riders then shows the Outcasts the dangers of messing with the boys and girls of Berk before deducing a (rather perilous) way to reunite Snotlout and Hookfang before the islet melts down or goes up in flames…

Despite being ostensibly aimed at excitable juniors and TV kids, this sublimely sharp yarn is a smart and engaging fantasy romp no self-indulging fun-fan of any vintage should miss: accessible, entertaining, and wickedly habit-forming.
DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk © 2014 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Past Lives


By Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Cliff Richards, Christian Zanier, Joe Pimentel & Digital Jump (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-366-7

These days an ingenuous ingénue loving an undead bloodsucker is so worn out and overused it is mostly a subject of parody and jest, but not too long ago the concept was relatively fresh and enticing, with longed-for trysts generating lots of sparks and oodles of blood…

For an entire generation, their first brush with the idea came courtesy of landmark TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Her charismatic career began after a clueless cheerleaderValley Girl teenager suddenly turned into an indomitable monster-killer: latest winner of an arcane mystic/genetic lottery which transformed unsuspecting mortal maids into martial arts killing machines…

The cult series and its assorted media spin-offs refocused the zeitgeist and, since comics’ clever, witty graphic interpretation of the show is what interests me most, here’s a look at one of the first team-up projects.

Once the company secured the strip licensing rights, they began generating a Buffy regular series, a welter of original graphic novels, specials, numerous miniseries and eventually a full spin-off.

Buffy Summers lived in the small California hamlet of Sunnydale, unfortunately situated on a paranormal portal to the Nether Realms dubbed The Hellmouth. Here she and a small band of friends battled devils, demons and every sort of horror inexorably drawn to the area and whom/what/which all considered humanity an appetiser and planet Earth an irresistible eldritch “fixer-upper” opportunity.

With Rupert Giles, scholarly mentor, father-figure and Watcher of all things unnatural, Buffy and her “Scooby Gang” began making the after-dark streets of Sunnydale safe for the oblivious human morsels, aided by an enigmatic stud-muffin calling himself Angel…

He was a good vampire – one who possessed a soul – and he and the Summers girl fell in love. Sadly that broke the spell which made him a tragic hero and instead unleashed the diabolical vampire he had been – the red-handed Angelus who had turned Europe into his personal charnel house for nearly two centuries.

When Angel was finally restored to the ranks of the valiant – thanks to the loving efforts of the Slayer – the paralysing guilt and threat of a relapse compelled the vampire to leave Sunnydale and set up monster-killing shop in Los Angeles: a city packed with its own plague of supernatural horrors (in actuality the separation was prompted by Angel winning his own TV series and naturally that meant a solo comicbook too)…

This British Titan Books edition – collecting the story originally and alternately seen in Angel #15-16 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer #29-30 (January and February 2001) – combines the talents of scripters Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski with illustrators Cliff Richards, Christian Zanier, Joe Pimentel & Digital Jump and commences with an Introduction by Golden, detailing the genesis of this ambitious crossover before the drama commences in LA, where Angel is enduring heightened demonic assaults.

The monsters are furiously out of control, claiming Angel’s deadly new female ally is responsible for ramping up the ongoing Cold War. Unfortunately, the undead crusader has absolutely no idea what the assembled horrors are talking about but realises things are getting desperate when higher level demons attack him in his own sanctuary…

Meanwhile in London, the Council of Watchers convene a special meeting. The normally passive supernatural society are all in a tizzy over Mr. Travers‘ pet project. It seems his disciple Alexa Landry has absconded with a number of arcane artefacts and is now creating a public spectacle, acting more like a Slayer than a coolly dispassionate occult observer…

In Sunnydale, recent College Freshman Buffy Summers has also noticed a sharp jump in monster mayhem. Night predators are streaming in, having escaped from LA and all claiming – in the brief moments before the Slayer ends them – that they are being relentlessly stalked and savagely destroyed by another human female…

Back in Los Angeles, Angel barely survives a nigh-overwhelming monster ambush only to discover on returning home that his mortal allies Cordelia and Wesley have been brutally beaten by an apparently rogue female Watcher…

Buffy #29 then resumes the tale as Giles gets a call from the hospitalised Wesley and rallies the gang to Angel’s assistance. Soon he, Buffy, witches-in-training Willow and Tara, former-demon Anya and plucky human sidekick Xander are on the road – but not the Slayer’s current boyfriend.

Left behind and sulking is Riley Finn – a military spook-buster trained by the government as part of a covert Federal anti-demon task force. Apparently Buffy isn’t too keen on her past and present beaus trading stories…

In a flashback, the scene switches to the 19th century where Sir Andrew Landry and his faithful band of vampire hunters spectacularly fail to destroy the diabolical Angelus. Moreover the deeply insulted and chimeric vampire determines to visit his particular brand of generationally extended retribution upon the nobleman and his family…

Back in the now, Angel has his first painful encounter with Alexa, last of the Landrys, even as Watcher Travers reintroduces himself to Buffy and Giles. The perturbed patriarch wants the Slayer’s help in stopping his off-the-rails acolyte, but before he can ask, the trio are attacked by a posse of demons out for payback…

Elsewhere, as Alexa thrashes Angel, the story emerges: Travers had clandestinely supplied Landry with mystic weaponry in the hopes she would prove a more loyal tool than Buffy, utterly unaware that his scholarly protégé had a personal agenda to address wrongs dating back centuries…

Now she is seemingly unstoppable and even combining all their various monster hunting forces isn’t enough to stop the magically augmented, vengeance-crazed psycho…

Luckily Buffy and Giles have a cunning plan…

With covers by Keith Wood, Zanier & Dave Stewart, this is a splendidly straightforward, fast and furious action romp blending supernatural thrills, beastly chills and sharp wit: a total tonic prescribed for anybody suffering a surfeit of lovestruck face-suckers and kissypoo predators – which last really should know better at their age…
Buffy the Vampire Slayer™/Angel ™ & © 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Food Chain


By Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Doug Petrie, Jamie S. Rich, Tom Fassbender, Jim Pascoe, Christian Zanier, Cliff Richards Ryan Sook & others (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-315-5

Having conquered television, Buffy the Vampire Slayer began a similar crusade with the far harder-to-please comicbook audiences. Launched in 1998 and offering smart, sassy tales to accompany the funny, action-packed and mega-cool onscreen entertainment, the saga began in an original graphic novel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Dust Waltz) before debuting as a monthly series.

She quickly became a major draw for publisher Dark Horse – whose line of licensed comicbook successes included Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Aliens and Predator – and her exploits were regularly supplemented by short stories in company showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents and other venues.

This commodious UK Titan Books compilation features stories spanning 1999 and 2000 – set during Seasons 3 and 4 of the TV show – including issues #12, 16 and 20 of the regular title, a couple of yarns from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Annual 1999 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lovers’ Walk plus the Dark Horse/Wizard co- published Buffy/Angel #½: a period which saw Buffy’s noble vampire lover Angel set up shop in his own spin-off series –both small screen and printed…

What You Need to Know: Buffy Summers was a hapless Californian cheerleader Valley Girl until the night she inexplicably turned into a hyper-strong, impossibly durable monster-killer. Accosted by a creepy old coot from a secret society of Watchers she discovered that she had become a “Slayer” – the most recent recipient of an ancient geas which transformed selected mortal maids into living slaughter-machines of all things undead, arcane or uncanny.

After little trouble in Los Angeles she moved with her mom to the deceptively quiet hamlet of Sunnydale, but Buffy quickly and painfully discovered that her new hometown was situated on the edge of an eldritch gateway known to all the unhallowed as The Hellmouth…

Enrolling at Sunnydale High, Buffy made some friends and, tutored by new Watcher Rupert Giles, conducted a never-ending war on devils, demons and every shade of predatory supernatural species inexorably drawn to the area…

The stories re-presented here span Buffy’s horrific Graduation Day and eventual transition to the local college (complete with a new boyfriend – federal/military spook-buster Riley Finn) but open with a few High School escapades such as ‘Food Chain Part 1’ (by Christopher Golden, Christian Zanier & Andy Owens from Buffy #12 where it was originally seen under the title ‘A Nice Girl Like You’) as new student Sandy inexplicably gets involved with bad boy Brad Caulfield and his gang.

No one in the “Scooby-Gang” (Willow, Xander, Cordelia and werewolf Oz) can understand what she sees in the local louts… until Buffy uncovers Sandy’s true nature and her nasty habit of feeding on the energy of young folk…

Golden, Tom Sniegoski, Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel then detail ‘The Latest Craze’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Annual 1999) wherein an avaricious old enemy introduces demonically addictive toy “pets” to the impressionable Sunnydale kids. However, the wickedly adorable “Hooligans” are not only moonlight kleptomaniacs but have a sinister agenda all their own…

From the same source, by Doug Petrie, Ryan Sook & Tim Goodyear comes ‘Bad Dog’ wherein the Slayer, whilst hunting for Oz on one of his bad (i.e. full moon) nights, encounters a nasty young sorcerer determined to turn himself into a god at Willow’s expense, after which ‘Food Chain Part 2‘ (Buffy #16 by Golden, Zanier, Marvin Mariano, Draxhall Jump, Curtis P. Arnold, Jason Minor & Owens) reveals how Brad is still connected to the demonic Sandy’s monstrous master and killing in his name…

Set in the aftermath of the pivotal Graduation Day episode, ‘Double Cross’ (#20, by Petrie, Minor & Arnold) follows Angel as he heads for his new mission in LA and stay-at-home Buffy when  a demon who feeds on lost hope targets both monster-hunters simultaneously, eager to destroy them both at their lowest ebb…

A bright change of pace follows as trainee witch Willow and new partner Tara go hunting for a rare magical flower and stay in a haunted Bed-&-Breakfast. ‘Punish Me with Kisses’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lovers’ Walk by Jamie S. Rich & China Clugston-Major) sees the young lovers futilely trying to placate and exorcise a married couple who had been quarrelling for most of the century since their deaths…

The special also provided ‘One Small Promise’ by Tom Fassbender & Jim Pascoe, with art by Richards & P. Craig Russell, in which Buffy and Riley have a thoroughly entertaining spat which a band of roving vampires mistakenly assume might put them off their staking game…

Wrapping things up is ‘City of Despair’ from Buffy/Angel #½ (Fassbender, Pascoe, Richards & Owens) wherein Angel and Buffy – although separated by hundreds of miles – are united in an extra-dimensional arena after their souls are stolen to take part in a demon’s gladiatorial game…

This is one more splendidly accessible assemblage of arcane action and furious phantasm fighting, even for those unfamiliar with the extensive back history: another self-contained chronicle of creepy carnage and witty wonderments as easily enjoyed by the newest neophyte as any confirmed connoisseur.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ™ & © 2001 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Steed and Mrs. Peel volume 1: A Very Civil Armageddon


By Mark Waid, Caleb Monroe, Steve Bryant, Will Sliney, Yasmin Liang & Chris Rosa (Boom! Studios/Titan Books)
ISBN: 987-1-60886-306-8

Generally when I write about the Avengers here we’re thinking about an assembled multitude of Marvel superheroes, but – until the recent movie blockbuster stormed the world – for most non-comics civilians that name usually conjured up images of dashing heroics, old world charm, incredible adventure and bizarrely British festishistic attire.

It’s easy to see how that might lead to some consumer confusion…

The (other) Avengers was/were an incredibly stylish and globally popular crime/spy TV show made in Britain which glamorously blended espionage with arch, seductively knowing comedy and deadly danger with elements of technological fantasy from the 1960s through to the beginning of the 1980s. A phenomenal cult hit, the show and its sequel The New Avengers is best remembered now for Cool Britannia style action, kinky quirkiness, mad gadgetry, surreal suspense and the wholly appropriate descriptive phrase “Spy Fi”.

The legacy of the series is still apparent in many later hit shows as The Invisible Man (both TV spy iterations), Chuck, the new Mission: Impossible movies and even Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Enormously popular all over the globe – even Warsaw Pact Poland was crazy for Rewolwer i melonik (or A Revolver and a Bowler Hat) – the show gradually evolved from a gritty crime/vengeance thriller entitled Police Surgeon in 1961 into a paragon of witty, thrilling and sophisticated adventure lampoonery with suave, urbane British Agent John Steed and dazzlingly talented amateur sleuth Mrs. Emma Peel battling spies, robots, criminals, secret societies, monsters and even “aliens” with tongues very much in cheeks and always under the strictest determination to remain cool, dashingly composed and exceedingly eccentric…

The format was a winner. Peel, as played by (Dame) Diana Rigg, had been a replacement for landmark character Cathy Gale – the first hands-on fighting female in British television history – who left the show in 1964 to become Bond Girl Pussy Galore in the movie Goldfinger. However Rigg’s introduction took the show to even greater heights of success and recently bereaved actress Emma Peel’s huge popularity with viewers cemented the archetype of a powerful, clever, competent woman into the nation’s psyche and forever banished the screaming, eye-candy girly-victim to the dustbin of popular fiction.

Rigg left in 1967 (she married James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and another feisty female was found in the person of Tara King (Linda Thorson) to carry the series to its demise in 1969. Its continued popularity in more than 90 countries eventually resulted in a revival during the late 1970s. The New Avengers saw glamorous Purdey (Joanna Lumley) and brutishly manly Gambit (Gareth Hunt) acting as partners and foils to the agelessly debonair and deadly Steed…

The show has remained a hugely enticing cult icon. There was a rather ill-conceived major motion picture in 1998, and in 2007 America’s TV Guide ranked the TV iteration the 20th Top Cult TV Show Ever. During its run and beyond, the internationally adored series spawned toys, games, collector models, a pop single and stage show, radio series, posters and books and all the myriad merchandising strands that inevitably accompany a media sensation.

Naturally, as a popular British Television program these Avengers were no stranger to our comics pages either.

Following an introductory strip starring Steed & Gale in listings magazines Look Westward and The Viewer plus the Manchester Evening News (September 1963 to the end of 1964), legendary children’s staple TV Comic launched its own Avengers strip in #720 (October 2nd 1965) with Emma Peel firmly ensconced. This serial ran until #771 (September 24th 1966) and the dashing duo also starred in the TV Comic Holiday Special, whilst a series of young Emma Peel adventures featured in June & Schoolfriend.

The feature then transferred to DC Thomson’s Diana until 1968 whereupon it returned to TV Comic with #877, depicting Steed and Tara King until 1972 and #1077.

In 1966 there was a one-off, large-sized UK comicbook from Mick Anglo Studios whilst in America, Gold Key’s Four-Color series published a try-out book in 1968 using recycled UK material under the rather obvious title John Steed/Emma Peel – since Marvel had already secured an American trademark for comics with the name “Avengers”…

There were also a number of wonderful, sturdily steadfast hardback annuals for the British Festive Season trade, beginning with 1962’s TV Crimebusters Annual and thereafter pertinent TV Comic Annuals before a run of solo editions graced Christmas stockings from 1967-1969 plus a brace of New Avengers volumes for 1977 and 1978.

Most importantly, Eclipse/ACME Press produced a trans-Atlantic prestige miniseries between 1990 and 1992. Steed & Mrs. Peel was crafted by Grant Morrison & Ian Gibson with supplementary scripting from Anne Caulfield.

That tale was reprinted in 2012 by media-savvy publishers Boom! Studios and acted as a kind of pilot for the current iteration under review here. The adventures of Steed and Mrs. Peel Ongoing began soon after and this initial compilation – collecting issues #0-3 from August to December 2012 – form a worthy reintroduction for the faithful and happily accessible introduction for notional newcomers as the dedicated followers of felons return for another clash with memorable TV antagonists The Hellfire Club.

These baroque bounders appeared in the TV episode ‘A Touch of Brimstone’ and so warped the maturing personalities of young Chris Claremont and John Byrne that they later created their own version for a comicbook they were working on – the Uncanny X-Men…

The drama here opens in ‘A Very Civil Armageddon: Prologue’ (written by Boom! chief creative guru Mark Waid and illustrated by Steve Bryant) as, back in the style-soaked Swinging Sixties, our heroes are called upon to investigate ‘The Dead Future’ and how an active – albeit murdered – agent can seemingly age decades overnight.

The situation reminds Mrs. Peel of the mind-bending, lethally effective fun-and-games perpetrated by the insidious Hellfire Club and its now-defunct leader the Honourable John Clever Cartney…

Further inquiries take them to the latest incarnation of the ancient Gentleman’s Club where the futurist Ian Lansdowne Dunderdale Cartney disavows any knowledge of the matter or his dad’s old antisocial habits. In fact the current scion is far more absorbed with the World of Tomorrow than the embarrassing peccadilloes of the past. However it’s all a trap and whilst Emma is attacked by a killer robot maid Steed is ambushed – only to awaken as an old man 35 years later in the year 2000AD!

Forever undaunted, the temporarily separated Derring-Duo refuse to believe the improbable and impeccably strike back individually to uncover the incredible answer to an impossible situation…

The main feature, by Waid and Caleb Monroe with art from Will Sliney, then sees ‘London Falling’ as the long-dreaded nuclear Armageddon finally happens, leaving Steed, Peel and a swarm of politicians, Lords and civil servants as the only survivors in a battered atomic bunker beneath a utterly devastated Houses of Parliament.

The shattered, shaken remnants of Empire and Civilisation are astounded to discover that the only other survivors are ghastly atomic mutants and a coterie of exceptionally well-stocked and fully prepared members of the Hellfire Club…

‘Life in Hell’ finds the former foes joining forces and combining resources, but Steed and Peel are convinced that something is “not kosher”. For one thing former members of once-important political committees and knowledgeable generals keep disappearing, but most importantly Ian Cartney and his deplorable sister Dirigent are now known to be masters of their father’s dark arts of illusion, trickery and brainwashing…

Steed rumbles to the nature of an audaciously cunning Psy-Ops espionage scheme almost too late as Emma is once again transformed into a ferocious, whip-wielding bondage nightmare in the concluding instalment ‘Long Live the Queen’. Of course, a good spy, like a boy scout, is always prepared and the dapper detective cleverly turns the tables on his foes just in time for a rollicking, explosively old-fashioned comeuppance…

Wry, arch and wickedly satisfying, this opening salvo in the reborn franchise is a delight for staunch fans and curious newcomers alike and this volume also includes a vast (28) covers and variants gallery by Joseph Michael Linsner, Phil Noto, Joshua Covey & Blond, Mike Perkins & Vladimir Popov and Drew Johnson to astound the eyes as much as the story assaults the senses…

© 2013 StudioCanal S.A. All rights reserved.

OK. All clued in?

Would you like to own this book without paying? If so then this is your chance.

All you have to do is enter this piffling little contest and trust to luck…

It’s free and absolutely anybody can join in. You can enter as many times as you want but there’s only one prize and my word is final in every instance.

Below are three multiple choice questions. Simply send your best guesses using Leave a Reply and we’ll pull a correct entry out of our digital bowler hat on December 1st.

Do Not Text, Tweet, Telephone or Telepath us. Just append the name of the lucky person you want to receive the prize with the three letters of your divination in the review’s comment section and we’ll take it from there.

Please do not send us your address. If you win we’ll contact you and ask for where you want the book sent.

Unless you’re residing at the ends of the Earth (in which case the parcel may take a little longer to arrive) the winner should have this treasured possession in time for Christmas, even with British post-privatised post practises…

Ready… Set… Go!

  1. The Avengers were known by what title in Poland?
    1. A Revolver and a Bowler Hat.
    2. Hard Hat and Leather Boots.
    3. Umbrellas and Kicks.
  2. Mrs Peel was Steed’s second karate-kicking female fighting partner. Who preceded her?
    1. Sue Storm.
    2. Tara Tempest.
    3. Cathy Gale.
  3. Patrick MacNee & Honor Blackman produced an infamous Avengers spin-off novelty pop single in 1964. What was it called?
    1. These Boots Are Made for Kicking.
    2. Have some Madeira, M’Dear.
    3. Kinky Boots.

Good luck one and all…

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Wallace & Gromit – The Complete Newspaper Comics Strips Collection volume 1: 2010-2011


By various (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-87276-032-0

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: An X-mas tradition in the making… 10/10

Hard though it is to believe, Wallace & Gromit have been delighting us for nearly 25 years and this extremely engaging compilation perfectly attests to just how much a cornerstone of British culture the potty putty pair have become.

The ingenious, quintessentially English cheese-chasing chaps were originally conceived as an ArtSchool graphic novel for the student Nick Park, before the Plasticene lure of movement and sound diverted the concept to the world of animation.

Now a multi-media success, the animator’s ingenious inventors have come full circle with this compelling compilation of the newspaper comic strip adaptation spawned by their small (and big) screen endeavours.

According to the informative Foreword by Nick Park, in his youth the affable creator was a big fan of comics, newspaper strips and those gloriously fun-filled Christmas Annuals, so this book, incorporating all three, must be a big boost to the old glee muscles…

After years of perpetually waiting for more Wallace & Gromit, the public were given a big treat after Aardman and Titan Comics put their collective creative noggins together and produced a daily, full-colour comic strip to run in Red-Top tabloid The Sun.

The series was produced by committee and actually actualised (for this edition at least) by scripters Richy Chandler, Robert Etherington, Ned Hartley, Rik Hoskin, David Leach, J.P. Rutter and Rona Simpson, with Gordon Volke, Mike Garley, & Luke Paton with art by Jimmy Hansen & Mychailo Kazybrid, Sylvia Bennion, Jay Clarke, Viv Heath & Brian Williamson, inked by Bambos Georgiou with colours by John Burns & Digikore.

The rather complex creative process is explained in the closing essay ‘Tomb of the Unknown Artist’ if you’re of an inquiring technical nature…

Despite some early controversy about the suitability of the venue, the feature launched on Monday 17th May, 2010, cleverly offering a regular weekly adventure broken down into six, complete, stand-alone gags in traditional format (three panels: Set-up, Delivery, Punchline!). What could be better?

The tone is bright and breezy, inventive family fare with all the established characters in play and the emphasis equally on weird science and appalling puns.

…And Cheese, buckets and buckets of fermented milk-curd mirth…

Dedicated to the further adventures of Northern boffin Wallace and the incomparable best-of-breed working dog Gromit, and set as ever in and around scenic 62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan, the first six-day week reveals that ‘The Tooth Hurts’ in a painful progression from agonised impacted wisdom tooth through the construction of an oddly automated – and frankly terrifying – “Cavitron” to a more traditional extraction thanks to the dog’s sensibly take-charge attitude.

This is promptly followed by similar results from the construction of washing-up robot ‘Helping Hands’, sound amplifying ‘Hear Muffs’ and the first of a dozen double-page spread photo pin-ups taken from the original animated features.

Then ever-peckish Wallace attempts to update the ancient science of apiary in ‘Knowing Bee, Knowing You’, builds his own T-Rex in ‘Jurassic Lark’, “helps” Gromit solve the mystery of missing milk with the overzealous ‘Roboplod’ and even catch a tragic dognapper in ‘Pet Detectives’…

There’s a wealth of delightful in-jokes scattered throughout the strips such as scholarly Gromit’s quirky reading habits (The Dog Delusion by Richard Pawkins, Paws by Peter Barkly, Cracking Cakes by Nigella Pawson or On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwinalot…) as well as a glorious parade of pained and hangdog expressions on the permanently perplexed pooch’s puss.

After another tasty photo-spread the lads go into ‘The Restaurant’ business with their Cheesy Way Diner, get into a bit of a kerfuffle with long-suffering Reg and Ida from ‘The House Next Door’, herald the pastapocalypse with an ultimate noodle maker that triggers ‘The Spaghetti Incident’ after which the lucky dog discovers the lost city of Wallabyzantium under the house in ‘Raiders of the Lost Bark’…

Another pin-up heralds a commission to fix the clock tower chronometer in ‘Gromit Time’ whilst ‘Life’s a Beach’ introduces rival tinkerer Otto Bahn mit his hund Wulfie at the European Inventor’s Convention, before the appallingly keen Sharp-sichord quickly graduates from honing pencils to bigger challenges in ‘Wallace’s Sharp Idea’ and football is forever changed by the old fool’s Robo-goalie in ‘A Safe Pair of Hands’.

The sport of cheese-rolling was easy meat for Wallace in ‘The Edam Busters’ after which a series of unconnected one-off strips comprising ‘Funnies #1’ is followed by the return of penguin super-thief Feathers McGraw in ‘Jolley-Goode Jewels’, the advent of ruthless twitcher Albert Ross in ‘Watch the Birdy’ and a foray into automated barber-ism in ‘A Snip Above’

Feathers made a break for it in ‘It Had to be Zoo’ whilst Wallace was beta-testing his robot-muck-spreader, and the inventor made quite a splash in his new day-job as a chauffeur ‘Driving Miss Crazy’, before Gromit registered extreme discontentment with his instant-self-assembly kennel in ‘Gone Camping’.

The lads celebrated Halloween as paranormal investigators of a haunted school in ‘Ghostblusters’, before all that cheese got to Wallace and Gromit put him on a diet in ‘A Fridge Too Far’. Then, following some more solo ‘Funnies #2’, there was monkey business aplenty when an ape went ‘Bonkers About Conkers’ before ‘A Family Affair’ unearthed a tradition for innovation in our pair’s inspirational ancestors…

The threat of Ballroom Dancing with Wendolene prompts the construction of another ill-advised training robot in ‘Strictly Wallace’, and greedy impatience the building of a ‘Cake-While-You-Wait’ oven, before the far more efficient ‘12 6 Days of Christmas’ celebrates the season with speedily surreal succinctness, after which a half-dozen ‘Breakfast Gags’ usher in a new year rife with catastrophic potential…

The restless dilettante then improves winter sports with jet-pack technology in ‘Ice to See You’, safeguarded Reg and Ida’s sowing season with the accidentally sinister ‘Scarecrowmatic’ and builds a Caddy-Matic contraption to take the dullness out of golf in ‘Hole in One (Hundred)’, going on to sculpt ice statues and an ‘Abominable Snowman’ before retiring with a ‘Perfect Cuppa’ courtesy of a jury-rigged Teasmaid-from-Hell…

Another cash shortfall leads to a dalliance with the arts in ‘Bona Lisa’ whilst an overabundance of soft fruit inspires a domestic mechanised revolution in ‘Bit of a Jam’, after which Albert Ross returns to squash Wallace’s sky-writing enterprise in ‘Love is in the Air’. Gromit then wants a bit of help protecting nest boxes from predatory moggies and Wallace’s solution is certainly ‘For the Birds’…

Disappearing dairy comestibles prove that ‘Sweet Dreams are made of Cheese’ and poor TV reception requires ‘Another Grand Day Out’ to clear space of accumulated junk – good thing they had that old rocket lying about – but autumnal clutter needs a more hands-on approach in ‘Leaf it to Wallace’, whilst the bonkers boffin’s attempts to mechanise newspaper delivery don’t work so well for Gromit the ‘Paper Hound’…

There were too many strings attached to ‘The Pup-Pet Show’ for the impecunious innovator, but a complete overhaul of Mr. Braddle’s little enterprise into ‘The Hard Work Hardware Shop’ paid big dividends, leaving time for a little fishing break in ‘Hook, Line and Stinker’ but it’s soon back to business when Feathers set his beady eye on the ‘The Faver-Heigh Egg’ belonging to a crusty colonel…

The chaps’ attempt to put up the official town bunting for the Queen’s visit lead to ‘A Right Royal Knees Up’ after which a Mayoral Fancy Dress affair offers real rewards for the brace of ‘Caped Crusaders’ and this initial barrage of batty bewilderments concludes with one more snack break as the boys adapt their removals firm to the needs of a catering crisis in ‘Movers and Shakers’…

Lovingly rendered and perfectly timed, the skilful blend of low comedy and whimsy is just as memorable in two dimensions as four, and this book will make a lot of kids – of all ages – extremely happy. Moreover, for all those parents who deliberately avoided the strip because of the paper which carried it, you no longer have that excuse and should now consider this annual collection a “must have” for your family bookshelf…
WALLACE & GROMIT, AARDMAN, the logos and all related characters and elements are © and ™ Aardman/Wallace & Gromit Ltd. 2013. All rights reserved.

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Thunderbirds – the Comic Collection


By Alan Fennell, Scott Goodall, Frank Bellamy, John Cooper, Eric Eden, Graham Bleathman & various (Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-4052-6836-3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: 10/10 because it just is.

Stand By For Frothing!
Growing up in 1960’s England was the best of all possible worlds for a comic lover. As well as US imports you were treated to some frankly incredible weekly publications, and market bookstalls sold second-hand comics for at least a third of their cover price. We also had some of the greatest artists in the world working on some of the best licensed properties around. A perfect example is the TV – primarily Gerry Anderson – anthology comic TV Century 21.

For British kids of a certain vintage – it varies from eighty to four and three quarters – the Anderson experience is a large and critical component of the DNA of childhood. The TV episodes, toys, bubblegum cards, movies and especially the comic strips all irresistibly evoke and re-manifest the thrill and fevered anticipation of juvenile ecstasy in the millions of kids who enjoyed the weekly rush of mind-boggling, mouth-watering adventure – even decades after the initial hit.

Thus this latest glossy compilation, collecting some of the greatest strips in comics history is probably going to leave a lot of people gurgling in delight as they revisit or – if they’re incredibly lucky – see for the first time a spectacular panorama of futuristic fantasy thrills, spills and chills.

TV Century 21 (the unwieldy “Century” was eventually dropped) was patterned after a newspaper – albeit from 100 years into the future – and this shared conceit carried avid readers into a multimedia wonderland as television and comics fed off each other.

The incredible illustrated adventures were often supplemented with colour stills taken from the shows and photos also graced all text features and fillers which added to the unity of one of the industry’s first “Shared Universe” products. Even the BBC’s TV “tomorrows” were represented in a full-colour strip starring The Daleks.

The first issue launched on January 23rd 1965, instantly capturing the hearts and minds of millions of children and further proving to British comics editors the unfailingly profitable relationship between TV shows and healthy sales.

Filled with high quality art and features, printed in gleaming photogravure, TV21 featured such strips as Fireball XL5, Supercar and Stingray as well as a strange series about a posh future lady spy and her burglar chauffeur.

In an attempt to be topical, the allegorically Soviet and terribly totalitarian state of Bereznik was used in many strips, acting as an overarching, continuity-providing bad guy. Behind numerous plots and outrages, the TomorrowTerrorState constantly schemed against the World Government (for which read “The West”) in an eerily advanced Cold War espionage scenario which augmented the aliens, aquatic civilizations, common crooks and cataclysmic disasters that threatened the general well-being of the populace.

Although Thunderbirds did not premiere on TV until September of that year (with Frank Bellamy’s incredible strip joining the comic’s line-up in January 1966 with #52) Lady Penelope and Parker (subtitled as and promising “Elegance, Charm and Deadly Danger”) had been running since issue #1.

The aristocratic super-spy was promoted to her own spin-off, top-class photogravure publication in January 1966 – just as Anderson’s newest creations launched into super-marionated life: their comics exploits becoming the big draw in the already unmissable TV21.

All that is further explained in an expansive ‘Introduction’ before the procession of weekly wonderment – two staggeringly intoxicating pages every seven days! – begins in this massive (290 pages, 297x222mm) full-colour luxury hardback.

It all begins with the thirteenth adventure, which ran from #141-146 (30th September to November 4th 1967, scripted by Scott Goodall and illustrated by Frank Bellamy) and details how an avaricious madman intends splitting Persia in two with ‘The Earthquake Maker’.

The unforgettable alien invader story ‘Visitor from Space’ (#147-154) follows, with one of the most memorable monsters in comics history stealing the show on every page, after which ‘The Antarctic Menace’ (6th January-17th February 1968, #155 to 161) begins a brand new year with the same tried and true thrills as the Tracy boys are called in to save the day after the Australia-Antarctica highway is sabotaged!

‘Brains is Dead’ (#162-169, running until 13th April) features the skulduggery of the sinister Hood in a deadly game of industrial espionage, after which artist Graham Bleathman provides a captivating glimpse at those longed-for technical details with double-page cutaway spreads and single page strip sequences ‘Thunderbird 1 Technical Data’, ‘Launch Sequence: Thunderbird 1’, ‘Launch Sequence: Thunderbird 2’ and ‘Thunderbird 2 Technical Data’.

The suspenseful strip stories resume with ‘The Space Cannon’ (Goodall & Bellamy, from TV21 #170-172 April 20th to May 4th 1968) as the team have to stop a continually firing neutron cannon that’s crashed into the Thames, whilst follow-up yarn ‘The Olympic Plot’ by Howard Elson & Bellamy (#173-178) finds the great games – held in the crater of Vesuvius – disrupted not only by a lake of fire but also a madman digging up a pirate treasure hidden since the 17th century…

TV21 #184-187 (27th July-17th August 1968) offered ‘Devil’s Crag’ (Goodall & Bellamy) and saw International Rescue save a lost schoolboy; a spectacular visual extravaganza that belies its deceptively simple plot, after which ‘The Eiffel Tower Demolition’ (#188-191) goes dreadfully wrong and Scott and Virgil find themselves endangered by thieves and saboteurs…

Bleathman returns with more pictorial top secrets in ‘Specifications of Thunderbird 3’, ‘Launch Sequence: Thunderbird 3’, ‘Launch Sequence: Thunderbird 4’ and ‘Specifications of Thunderbird 4’ after which Goodall & Bellamy expose ‘The Nuclear Threat’ (TV21 #192-196, 21st September-19th October 1968) of an out-of-control drone ferrying atomic weapons to their intended deep sea dumping ground, whilst the ‘Hawaiian Lobster Menace’ (#197-202) outrageously reveals a plot to turn tasty crustacean treats into explosive anti-personnel weapons…

‘The Time Machine’ (December 7th 1968 to January 11th 1969) used by Jeff and Scott Tracy malfunctioned in a most unfortunate manner, whilst from #209-217 a more domestic disaster saw ‘The Zoo Ship’ which foundered off Tracy Island lead to crewmen trapped aboard ship and savage beasts loose on shore with our harried heroes trying to save lives whilst keeping their secrets safe from the ever insidious Hood…

Bleathman has more artistic innovations to display in ‘Specifications of Thunderbird 5’, ‘The Construction of Thunderbird 5′, ‘This is Tracy Island’ and ‘Tracy Island’ giving us all the detail and data we desire before ‘City of Doom’ (Goodall as “Spencer Howard” & Bellamy from #218-226, 22nd March to May 17th) finds a top secret, ultra-futuristic Andean science metropolis endangered by a wild nuclear reaction…

Scripted by Goodall or (perhaps John W. Jennison?), ‘Chain Reaction’ ran in TV21 and TV Tornado #227-234, May 24th-12th July 2069) wherein the Tracy team had to stop an out of control 50,000-ton space freighter from impacting in the middle of San Francisco – and that’s just the start of an epic calamity which threatened to destroy the entire Pacific Rim…

There’s a big jump here to October 1968 for ‘The Big Bang’ by Geoff Cowan & John Cooper, possibly explained by the fact that once Bellamy left the strip, his cruelly underrated replacement rendered the strip in black and white. When Fleetway revived the Anderson franchise in the early 1990s the comics featured artwork from TV21 supplemented with new original material from another generation of fans and creators, but as Thunderbirds was far and away the biggest hit, some of Cooper’s strips were reprinted with the artist at last getting the chance to colour his efforts.

Thus this, his second original yarn from TV21 & Joe 90 #5-8 (25th October-15th November 1969), involving smuggled diamonds and a boy trapped on a building both sinking and about to explode…

The endeavours of the Tracy clan then conclude with ‘The Mini Moon’ (Richard O’Neill & Cooper (TV21 & Joe 90 #22-28, 21st February to April 4th 1970) as a roving planetoid menaces Earth and Brains, Alan and Gordon have to blow it up while it’s still far enough away to pose no extinction-level threat…

Happily there’s still plenty for fans to enjoy as, after Bleathman’s revelatory ‘The Secrets of FAB 1’ and Creighton-Ward Stately Home’, the adventures of Lady Penelope and her invaluable manservant Parker begin with ‘Mr. Steelman’ by Alan Fennell & Eric Eden. Originally seen in TV Century 21 #1-11, January 23rd to April 3rd 1965, this is a complex thriller involving espionage and a deadly robot, after which Bellamy handles ‘The Isle of Arran Riddle’ (#35-43, September 18th to November 13th 1965) wherein the Honourable Lady Creighton-Ward attempts to solve an ancient puzzle and inherit a fabulous ruby.

Eden returned for ‘The Vanishing Ray’ (#44-51) as the stately spy was mysteriously sent a torch that turned objects transparent, unaware that the wicked Hood was hot on its trail.

The deadly games end with ‘The Enemy Spy’, illustrated by the legendary Frank Hampson from the July 1965 Lady Penelope Summer Extra, wherein an idle glance at the TV news sets Her Ladyship on the trail of Bereznik’s top assassin…

But of course the real treasure is the phenomenal and unparalleled work of Frank Bellamy, whose fantastic design, drawing and painted colour (which holds up rather well here, despite the limitations of modern print technology to accommodate the subtleties of the photogravure process) steals the show – and usually one’s breath away!

The work of Bellamy and his successors are a cherished highpoint of British comic-making. Crisp, imaginative writing, great characters and some of the very best science-fiction art of all time make this a must-have book for just about anybody with a sense of adventure and love of comics. It doesn’t get better than this.
Thunderbirds ™ and © ITC Entertainment Group Limited 1964, 1999, 2013. Licensed by ITV Ventures Limited. All rights reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Pale Reflections


By Andi Watson, Doug Petrie, Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-236-6

Having conquered television, Buffy the Vampire Slayer began a similar crusade with the far harder to please comicbook audiences. Launched in 1998 and offering smart, sassy tales to accompany the funny, action-packed and mega-cool onscreen entertainment, the series began in an original graphic novel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Dust Waltz) before debuting in a monthly series.

She quickly became a major draw for publisher Dark Horse – whose line of licensed comicbook successes included Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Aliens and Predator – and her exploits were substantially supplemented by a profusion of short stories in the company’s showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents and other venues.

Scripted primarily by Andi Watson, this particular UK Titan Books edition – with depiction and delineation from Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel – features stories set during TV Season 3 and re-presents issues #17-19 (January through March 2000), as well as a delicious and timely morsel first seen in Dark Horse Presents #141, March 1999.

Check your facts here: Buffy Summers was a gormless charm-free cheerleaderValley Girl until the night when she inexplicably turned into a hyper-strong, impossibly durable monster-killer.

After being stalked by a creepy old coot from a secret society of Watchers she discovered that she was the most recent recipient of a millennial mystic curse which transformed mortal maids into living death-machines to all things undead arcane or uncanny: a Slayer.

Moving with her mom to typical California hamlet Sunnydale, Buffy then learned her new hometown was located on the edge of an eldritch gateway known to the unhallowed as The Hellmouth.

Enrolling at Sunnydale High Buffy made some friends and, schooled by new Watcher Rupert Giles, conducted a never-ending war on devils, demons and every shade of predatory supernatural species inexorably drawn to the area…

This slim supernal compilation at last concludes ‘Bad Blood’ – an extended storyline which pitted the daring, darling “Scooby Gang” against ambitious, narcissistic psycho-killer vampire Selke and her new breed of modified demonic thralls.

When vain Selke’s face was ruined in battle she naturally sought out a plastic surgeon. Dr. Flitter took up her cause, restoring and improving the vampire with the promise of immortality as his oft-postponed reward.

However, since scientific procedures didn’t work, he resorted to magic and his researches found a way to turn vampire blood into a super-steroid for Selke and her chosen brood. Now she and her newly-minted children of the night hunt not only humans for food, but other vampires to provide the raw ingredients of the Bad Blood serum…

Despite a rather full dance card, however, Selke cannot forget what Buffy did and is increasingly obsessed with making the Slayer suffer…

Selke’s über-vamps are also making much mischief, and Buffy and recently restored undead lover Angel are finding them almost impossible to destroy…

As a nocturnal civil war breaks out between Selke’s squad and the town’s “normal” vampires, Selke urges Flitter to use the blood to make a Slayer antipersonnel weapon – a sorcerous clone designed to hunt down and slaughter the original…

The saga picks up in ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ as Willow, Cordelia, Oz, Xander and Buffy are forced to join in school-type activities by building a float for an upcoming parade. Angel, meanwhile, has captured one of Selke’s new ‘Roid Rage Vamps and started obtaining answers in a manner most un-heroic…

On the midnight streets, Buffy is ambushed by her mystic clone and, after a blistering battle, loses. Elsewhere Selke, unaware that a new faction has sabotaged her modified blood supply, gorges herself on the foul brew…

After disposing of Buffy’s body down a handy manhole, the doppelganger attempts to infiltrate the Scooby Gang, but although she has the Slayer’s memories, her attitudes are seriously skewed. For instance, her knowledge of fashion rivals Cordie’s…

Tensions rise in ‘She’s No Lady’ as the clone starts to degrade. Born of Bad Blood, she casts no reflection and can’t see her face, but once she notices the flesh of her shoulder coming off she heads straight back to Doc Flitter…

The cosmetic alchemist has already discovered that someone has adulterated his buckets of blood and Selke is completely out of control when the clone arrives, leaking from many lesions.

None of them are aware that under Sunnydale Buffy is slowly recuperating, assisted by a shambling earlier prototype previously discarded by Flitter.

As Angel sneaks in and destroys the reservoir of augmented blood, the raging, oblivious Selke orders the duplicate to fetch Buffy’s body and prove she’s dead…

The gory carnival of chaos concludes in ‘Old Friend’ as the clone confronts the Slayer and her earlier incarnation in the sewers, whilst above ground Willow and Giles examine “Buffy’s” blood on a discarded parade costume and uncover the awful truth…

When Selke sees the decimation wrought by Angel, she goes berserk, body rapidly mutating into monstrosity, just as the long-awaited procession begins through Sunnydale. Her depredations are interrupted by the battered but victorious Buffy who spectacularly destroys Selke and ends the Bad Blood menace forever.

However in the shadows, deadly demon lovers Spike and Drusilla fade from sight, taking their new toy Dr. Flitter with them…

Supplemented by the usual wealth of photos and covers by Jeff Matsuda, John Sibal, Randy Green & Andy Owens, this chronicle also includes ‘Killing Time’ – a short adventure by Doug Petrie, Richards and Pimentel wherein three sulky Goth girls manifest chronal ravager Ragginor and the Slayer has to defeat the demon before all time ends…

Here is another superbly accessible magical fight-fest – even for those unfamiliar with the vast backstory: a creepy chronicle of short stirring sagas as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by any dedicated devotee.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ™ & © 2000 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Nudnik Revealed!


By Gene Deitch (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-651-5

Kim Deitch has been one of the leading lights of America’s Comix Underground since its earliest days. He probably got his artistic acumen, narrative know-how and skewed raconteur’s view from his dad…

Eugene Merril “Gene” Deitch was born in 1924 and began his astounding career as a graphic designer and art director before eventually moving into animation. Over a 65-year career working as producer, scripter, artist, designer and Director for UPA/Columbia Pictures, MGM, Terrytoons/20th Century Fox, King Features and Paramount Pictures, he created cartoons for both movie audiences and television consumption.

In 1961 his cartoon feature of Jules Feiffer’s Munro won the Oscar® for Animated Short Film, and he numbers Tom Terrific, Tom and Jerry, Popeye and Krazy Kat amongst his other major successes. Deitch directed Alice of Wonderland in Paris, adapted the animated feature of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and is credited with the first ever Tolkien film adaptation with The Hobbit in 1966.

Gene Deitch has resided in Prague for decades where he established a long and fruitful working relationship with Krátký Film s.r.o. studios. This partnership led, in 1964-1965, to a uniquely personal and brilliant run of movie cartoon shorts starring the latest in a shabby yet unbroken line of good-natured, ingenuously bumbling, impoverished cinematic victims of cruel circumstance.

The very first Nudnik cartoon garnered Deitch another Academy Award® nomination and led to the commission of 11 more shorts starring the luckless loafer, conceived and mapped out by Deitch to be constructed by his Iron Curtain cousins …and delivered just as the American tradition of preceding main movie blockbusters with brief cartoons was ending….

Now with those lost classics restored and collected on a commemorative DVD, Deitch has also compiled a glorious oversized (310 x 236mm) full-colour hardback compendium detailing the history and genesis of Nudnik as an accompaniment.

Dedicated to and enamoured of the hallowed concept of the lonely loser, Deitch famously got the idea for his favourite creation after a piece of office machinery tried to kill him. From there the concept of a down-and-out hobo who was a magnet for ever-increasing disaster just seemed to gel…  

Liberally illustrated throughout with original art and documents scrupulous hoarded by Deitch, the disclosures begin in the introductory ‘Here’s Nudnik’ after which the physical genesis of the character is revealed in ‘Nudnik, Master of Failure’…

In ‘What’s a Nudnik?’, Deitch traces the development of his ultimate baggy-pants clown, revealing his personal empathy with his creation, after which ‘The Nudnik Plot’ examines the narrative thrust of the two brief series.

Historical antecedents, poster art and some of the merchandising intended to supplement the character launch all contribute to the story of ‘The Nudnik Look’ before the real meat of this tome begins with ‘Production Scrapbook – Capturing Ideas on Paper’.

This vast collection of utterly fascinating development sketches, preparatory roughs, scene layout drawings, models sheets, animation tests, character designs, episode models, gags, pictorial story snippets and even a complete 1967 “flip-book” adventure (‘The Cut Finger Fumble’ produced for the Montreal World’s Fair) plus more merchandise prototypes all show just how much work goes into making animation.

Then ‘Film Setups – Some actual camera setups, cels, and backgrounds’ reproduces many actual finished scenes from the cartoons whilst ‘Gags – Nudnik gag sketches, some of which were produced as 30-second “blackout” gag films’ reprints whole raw story sequences which show just how similar cartons and comics strips truly are.

At the time, Deitch was still learning how to work with his Czech team and thus his visual instructions were often excessively detailed.

The next section fills out the book with a magical treat for fans and students of the medium: three complete production storyboards, exactly as the actual animators received them and which they used to turn Deitch’s script, ideas and drawings into six minutes of slapstick action and outré sound effects.

The actual tales are all 18 to 20 pages of nine frames each, ‘Home Sweet Nudnik’ (episode 7), ‘Welcome Nudnik’ (episode 3) and ‘Good Neighbor Nudnik’ (episode 11), and work perfectly as comics even as they reveal the secret of animation magic…

This terrific tome then closes with additional features ‘To Russia With Love’ featuring a modern performer celebrating the cartoon clown’s shtick, a salutary example of the unwanted influence of Studio bosses in ‘Peeing in the Soup’ and a warm plug for that aforementioned DVD collection in ‘Nudnik Lives Again’…

Long regarded as a lost masterpiece of the art form, Nudnik Revealed! is a wonderful visual memoir which offers stunning insights into the history of cartoon creation and the mind of a brilliantly imaginative creative force.

Nudnik Revealed! is © 2013 Fantagraphics Books Inc. All contents © 2013 Gene Deitch. All rights reserved.