Category: War Stories

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H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories


Adapted by Gou Tanabe, translated by Zack Davisson (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-50670-312-1 (Tankobon paperback/Digital edition)

If you’re one of those people who’s never read a manga tale, or who’s been tempted but discouraged by the terrifying number of volumes these tales can run to, here’s a delicious feast of fantasy fables complete in one book revealing all that’s best about comics from the East in one darkly digestible big gulp.

Most manga can be characterised by a fast, raucous, even occasionally choppy style and manner of delivery but this volume of emphatically eerie adaptations is atmospheric, suitably scary and marvellously moody: just as you’d hope when recreating classic tales by the undisputed master of supernatural terror…

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was frail, troubled and remarkably ill-starred. Born August 20th 1890, he was truly afflicted with a hunger to write, but only achieved any degree of success after his death in March 1937 – following a life of desperate penury – from complications of intestinal cancer. Once he was gone, his literary star ascended, with posthumous publications making him a household name who changed the face of fiction forever.

His stories have deeply affected generations all over the world. One person particularly moved is international literary specialist Gou Tanabe who has previously adapted the works of Maxim Gorky and Anton Chekov to manga form.

Perfectly capturing the relentlessly oppressive and inescapably sombre sense of approaching fatality permeating most of Lovecraft’s potent prose, ‘The Temple’ was written in 1920 and first published 5 years later in the September issue of Weird Tales. The adaptor’s mildly updated version (migrated from WWI to WWII) originated in esteemed anthology magazine COMIC BEAM in March and April 2009: detailing the depredations of U-Boat U-29 and the doomed fools who man her.

After a particularly rewarding campaign, German Navy Commander Karl Heinrich Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein and his officers are taking the night air when they notice a dead British mariner gripping the sub’s handrail. Whilst trying to unlock the mariner’s death grip and eject the corpse, one of them salvages an ancient artefact – a small carved head – and pockets it.

From that moment, their voyage is damned…

Soon, madness and mishap grip the vessel. Death decimates the crew and inexorably the survivors drift ever deeper into depths both physical and metaphorical. When only one remains, he finds the U-boat drawn to a fantastic city and magnificent temple sunken beneath the waves. It is filled with statuary like the little head in his pocket…

Just as he raises his pistol to end the horror, the shattered sole survivor sees shining lights in the sunken edifice…

Lovecraft penned ‘The Hound’ in September 1922 and Weird Tales published it in 1924. Gou Tanabe’s chilling interpretation debuted in July 2014 in the online edition of Comic Walker. The tale is grim, grisly, exquisitely decadent and supremely shocking, detailing the extravagant excess of English gentleman grave-robbers and diabolist magical parvenus St. John and our unnamed narrator.

Bored and indolent, they renew their sordid, blasphemous hobby in a Dutch boneyard, exhuming an arcane trinket from a grave sealed for half a millennium and reap a ghastly bounty after liberating a vengeful howling horror…

After its first foray into the material world, the surviving dabbler attempts every stratagem to escape or expiate the beast, and finds some things have no use for apologies or reparations…

Concluding this first (hopefully of many) Lovecraft treasure trove is another export from Comic Walker (August 2014 this time).

‘The Nameless City’ was written in January 1921 and published 10 months later in The Wolverine. Tapping into the contemporary vogue for arcane exploratory adventure as also favoured by the likes of literary horrorist brethren Seabury Quinn, Clark Ashton Smith, and latterly August Derleth and Robert E. Howard, here Lovecraft shares the story of an itinerant western wanderer (think Indiana Jones without no sense of humour or chance in Hell) who survives Arabian deserts only to stumble upon a previously unsuspected deserted conurbation suddenly exposed by the roaring eternal winds.

Genned-up on local legends, the explorer cannot resist entering the vast metropolis. However, as he plunges deeper within, he finds thousands of boxes like a legion of coffins and realises the occupants are far from human. They may not even be dead…

Enthralling, understated and astoundingly effective, these classic tales have been reverently adapted and packaged in an inexpensive, digest-sized monochrome paperback that will delight avowed aficionados and beguile terror-loving newcomers alike.

© 2014 Gou Tanabe. All rights reserved. This English-language edition © 2017 Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

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Night and the Enemy


By Harlan Ellison & Ken Steacy (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels/Graphitti Designs)
ISBN: 978-0-486-79961-2 (Dover TPB/Digital edition) 978-0-936211-07-7 (Graphitti Designs Limited Editions HB)

Harlan Ellison’s dark and chilling space war tales are always eminently readable. This gloriously impressive re-issued volume – good luck on getting your hands on the 1987 premium hardback! – gathers five of the best and most celebrated, taken from the long-running sequence of novellas and short-stories detailing Mankind’s extended intergalactic struggle against a race of star-spanning rivals. They’re adapted and interpreted in a variety of visual formats by air-brush wizard and aviation-addict Ken Steacy, together with a new prose framing-sequence from the author.

Humanity’s literary battle against the Kyben spanned ten generations and involved all manner of technologies, up to and including time-travel. Probably the most famous of them is the award-winning Demon with a Glass Hand, adapted as both an episode of The Outer Limits TV show in 1964 and as one of the very best of the long-gone and much-lamented DC Graphic Novel series, but that’s a graphic extravaganza we’ve already covered elsewhere…

Right here, right now, this classy full-colour album-sized paperback resurrects a glorious artefact first released by Comico and Graphitti Designs in 1987, just as the market for English-language graphic novels was taking off. It also piles on the treats by adding a brace of fabulously informative and keenly reminiscent Introductions: ‘In these Pages, the War Still Wages’ from author Ellison and ‘…As We Go Forward, Into the Past!’ by astoundingly multi-talented adaptor Ken Steacy.

Closing down the show are more goodies: an eye-popping glimpse at Steacy’s visual virtuosity in the feature ‘Afterwords & Pictures’, sharing unpublished art, roughs, layouts and finished covers, as well as working models and more, and the original Afterwords ‘War Artist’ and ‘Whispers from the Telling Box’ by Steacy & Ellison respectively from the 1987 edition.

Following a specially created ‘Prologue’ by E & S, the pictorial panoply shifts seamlessly into the earliest tales of the epic conflict, beginning with the apocalyptic ‘Run for the Stars’: a traditional panels and balloons strip describing life and its imminent end on Deald’s World after the hordes of Kyba drop in. It’s followed by ‘Life Hutch’, a grim survival tale combining blocks of text with big bold images in both lavish colour and stark monochrome, highlighting a soldier-survivor’s battle against a malfunctioning robot…

‘The Untouchable Adolescents’ is a bright and breezy art job disguising a tragic and powerful parable of good intentions gone awry, whilst sardonic 2-pager ‘Trojan Hearse’ rates just one powerful, lonely illustration for its cunning tale of invasion. ‘Sleeping Dogs’ is a moody epic which fittingly concludes the short sagas with the story of a force of liberating Earthmen who trample all over a few aliens in their rush to defeat the Kyben… and realise too late they’ve poked the wrong bear…

Fans will be delighted to find this volume also carries an original entry in the annals of the Earth-Kyba conflict with prose & picture piece ‘The Few… The Proud’: at the time of this collection’s original release, Ellison’s first new story for the sequence in 15 years.

This epic tome was a groundbreaking landmark at the time of its original release and remains an innovative, compelling treat for both old and new fans of the writer, lovers of seductively unconventional graphic narrative and of course comic readers in general.

Written by Harlan Ellison ®. © 1987, 2015 The Kilimanjaro Corporation. All Rights Reserved. New material by Harlan Ellison®. © 2015 The Kilimanjaro Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Cover and illustrations © 1987, 2015 Ken Steacy. All Rights Reserved.

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Hurricane Isle: The Best of Captain Easy and Wash Tubbs


By Roy Crane, edited by Rick Norwood (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-809-0 (HB)

Modern comics evolved from newspaper cartoons and comic strips, and these pictorial features were until relatively recently utterly ubiquitous and hugely popular with the public. They were also highly valued by publishers who used them as an irresistible sales weapon to guarantee and increase circulation and profits.

It’s virtually impossible for us to today to understand the overwhelming power of the comic strip in America (and the wider world) from the Great Depression to the end of World War II. With no television, broadcast radio barely established and movie shows at best a weekly treat for most folk, household entertainment was mostly derived from the comic sections of daily and especially Sunday Newspapers. They were the most common recreation for millions who were well served by a fantastic variety and incredible quality. Crucially this notionally free entertainment kept readers loyal to the papers that ran a family’s favourites…

From the very start humour was paramount; hence the terms “The Funnies” and “Comics”, and from these gag and stunt beginnings – a blend of silent movie slapstick, outrageous fantasy and raucous vaudeville shows – came a thoroughly entertaining mutant hybrid: Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs.

Washington Tubbs II was a comedic gag-a-day strip not much different from family favourite Harold Teen (by Crane’s friend and contemporary Carl Ed). As first depicted on April 21st 1924, Tubbs was a diminutive, ambitious and bumbling young store clerk when the feature debuted, but after only three months Crane re-evaluated his little enterprise, making a few changes which would reshape the entire art form…

Having Wash run away to the circus (Crane did much the same in the name of research). the artist gradually moved the strip into mock-heroics, then through a period of gently boisterous action romps to become a full-blown, light-hearted, rip-roaring adventure series. It was the first of its kind and dictated the form for decades thereafter. Crane then sealed its immortality with the introduction of prototype he-man and ancestral moody swashbuckler Captain Easy in the landmark episode for 6th May, 1929.

As the yarns became more exotic and thrill-drenched, our globe-trotting little dynamo clearly needed a sidekick and sounding board. After a number of bright and breezy types were tried and discarded, Crane decided on one who could believably handle the combat side of things, and thus, in the middle of a European war in the fairytale kingdom of Kandelabra, Tubbs liberated a mysterious fellow American from a dungeon and history was made.

Before long the mismatched pair were inseparable; tried-and-true travelling companions hunting treasure, fighting thugs and rescuing startlingly comely damsels in distress…

The bluff, two-fisted, completely capable and utterly dependable, down-on-his-luck “Southern Gentleman” was something not seen before in comics: a taciturn, raw, square-jawed hunk played completely straight rather than the previously popular buffoon or music hall foil seen in such classic serials as Hairsbreadth Harry or Desperate Desmond.

Moreover, Crane’s seductively simple blend of cartoon exuberance and design was a far more accessible and powerful medium for action story-telling than the static illustrative style favoured by artists like Hal Foster who was just beginning to make waves on the new Tarzan Sunday page at this time.

Tubbs & Easy were as exotic and thrilling as the Ape Man but rowdily rattled along like the tempestuous Popeye, full of vim, vigour and vinegar, as attested to by a close look at the early work of the would-be cartoonists who followed the strip with avid intensity. Floyd Gottfredson, Milton Caniff, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and especially young Joe Shuster were eager fans taking notes and following suit…

After a couple of abortive attempts starring his little hero, Crane eventually bowed to the inevitable and created a full colour Sunday page dedicated solely to his increasingly popular hero-for-hire. The Captain Easy feature debuted on 30th July 1933, in wild and woolly escapades set prior to his fateful meeting with Tubbs.

Both together and separately, reprinted exploits of these troubleshooters became staples of the earliest comic books – specifically The Funnies from October 1936 and The Comics, from March 1937 onwards.

With an entire page and vibrant colours to play with, Crane’s imagination ran wild and his fabulous visual concoctions achieved a timeless immediacy that made each page a unified piece of sequential art. The effect of these can be seen in so many strips since, especially the works of such near-contemporaries as Hergé and giants in waiting like Charles Schulz. They have all been collected in the 4-volume Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips. Sadly, no digital versions yet, but there’s always hope…

Those pages were a clearly as much of a joy to create as to read. In fact, the cited reason for Crane surrendering the Sunday strip to his assistant Les Turner in 1937 was NEA Syndicate’s abruptly and arbitrarily demanding that henceforward, all its strips be produced in a rigid panel-structure to facilitate being cut up and re-pasted as local editors dictated. Crane just walked away, concentrating on the daily feature. In 1943 he quit NEA completely, to create wartime aviator strip Buz Sawyer, and Turner became the able custodian of the heroes’ fate.

Wash Tubbs ran until January 10th 1988.

Before all that, however, Wash was the affable and undisputed star of a never-ending parade of riotous monochrome daily escapades and this superb hardback opens with two of them: part of a cherry-picked compilation of ten of the very best adventures of the bombastic buddies. Hopefully it will one day lead to another complete reprinting such as the 18-volume series covering the entirety of the Wash Tubbs run – 1934-1943 – that was published by NBM from 1987-1992. Good luck finding those…

Before the non-stop nonsense begins author and pre-eminent comic strip historian Ron Goulart details all you need to know about the tales in ‘A History of Lickety Whop’ whilst editor Rick Norwood provides further background information in his copiously illustrated Introduction, after which we’re plunged into astounding adventure on eponymous ‘Hurricane Isle’ (which originally ran from February 23rd to June 6th 1928)…

At this time Wash and fellow inveterate fortune-hunter Gozy Gallup are gloating over securing an ancient map which once belonged to the dread pirate Edward Teach… AKA Blackbeard!

As they research the infamous buccaneer and scrabble to find a ship to take them where they need to go, they are unaware that aggrieved enemy Brick Bane – the “Bandit King of Mexico” – is hard on their heels and hungry for vengeance. Stalking them as they journey from New Orleans to the Caribbean, he takes a nasty sea captain into his confidence and arranges for that sinister salt to hire out his ship to the treasure seekers. The skipper is unsavoury brute Bull Dawson: destined to become Tubbs’ – and later Easy’s – greatest, most implacable foe…

After travelling to the island with them Dawson, having already removed Bane, springs his trap and turns Wash and Gozy into enslaved labourers, digging with the crew to find the fabled horde. The lads soon rebel and escape into the jungle to search on their own, and also abortively attempt to steal Dawson’s ship.

The wily brute is too much for them, however, and even after the boys finally locate the loot, the malicious mariner reappears to take it from them. The sadistic swine is preparing to maroon them when Bane arrives with a ship full of Mexican bandits and a shooting war begins…

With bullets flying and bodies dropping, Wash and Gozy convince affable deckhand Samson to switch sides and the trio take off for civilisation with the treasure in the hold…

Money comes and goes pretty freely for these guys but by the time ‘Arabia’ (July 30th – December 12th 1928) opens, they are still pretty flush and opt for a luxurious Mediterranean cruise. Unfortunately Wash’s propensity for clumsy gaffes raises the ire of very nasty sheik Abdul Hoozit Hudson Bey and the affronted potentate swears vengeance when the ship docks in Tunis.

As if icing fate’s cake, when wandering through the bazaar Wash is glamoured by a pair of gorgeous eyes and inadvertently seals his doom by attempting to rescue a girl from a seraglio: Jada is not only a distressed damsel but Bey’s favourite wife…

Heeding the French authorities’ advice to leave town quickly, the lads take off on a camel caravan into the Sahara. They have no idea they are heading into cunning Bey’s trap…

The fact that Jada is the favourite of the incensed chieftain saves them temporarily, but when the sheik finally finds a way to surreptitiously assassinate them, she and her devoted slave Bola dash into the deep desert to save them, and the quartet strike out for safety and freedom together.

That trek dumps them in the clutches of Bey’s great rival Abdullah Bumfellah and leads to a tribal shooting war. Happily, Bola has been busy and found a Foreign Legion patrol to save the day.

And that’s when Jada drops her bombshell. She is actually a princess from a European principality, sold to Bey by her father’s Grand Vizier so that he could steal the throne. Now that she’s free again, Jada must return to liberate her poor people. Despite having to get back to America, Wash won’t shut up about wishing he’d gone with her…

He soon gets the chance. Spanning April 11th through July 6th 1929, ‘Kandelabra’ became the most significant sequence in the strip’s history: introducing Captain Easy in a riotous, rousing Ruritanian epic which we join after Wash reunites with Jada in the postage stamp kingdom she had been so cruelly stolen from.

Our little go-getter infiltrates the government and rises to the rank of admiral of the landlocked realm before overplaying his hand and beingframed for stealing the army’s payroll. Delivered to a secret dungeon he (partially) escapes and finds a gruff fellow American who refuses to share his name but insists on being called “Easy”…

Busting out his new ally, Wash and the stranger are soon caught in a bloody revolution when the aggrieved army mutinies. Before long the Vizier’s cronies are ousted, the vile villain accidentally orchestrates his own demise and regally restored Jada declares the birth of the continent’s newest democracy…

In ‘Desert Island’ (February 6th – June 7th 1930) Bull Dawson returns to steal Tubbs’ entire fortune, and flies off across America in a bid to escape with his ill-gotten gains. The robbery becomes a nationwide sensation and we join the action as Wash & Easy pursue the fugitive. Tracking Dawson to San Francisco, they continue the chase as the malign mariner takes off in a schooner with our heroes first stowaways and, before long, prisoners…

The sadistic Bull lose face after being thrashed in a no-holds barred fight with Easy, which was mere subterfuge to allow the southern soldier of fortune to pick Dawson’s pocket and recover Wash’s easily portable $200,000 in cash. As the battered thug recuperates, the vessel is hit by a monster typhoon which apparently leaves our heroes sole survivors aboard shattered shards of the schooner.

The wreck fetches up on a desolate Pacific atoll where the boys soon fall into the routine of latter-day Robinson Crusoes. The isolated idyll becomes cruelly complicated when they find the place is already home to a young woman who was the only survivor of an attack by roving headhunters from Borneo. Mary Milton is brave, competent and beautiful and before long the lonely pals are fierce rivals for her affections…

The situation grows dangerously intense and only stabilises when the savages return, forcing the warring suitors to stand together or fall separately…

I think it’s about time that I remind everyone that these stories were crafted a long time ago for audiences with far less progressive ideas than us. There’s no deliberate intention to belittle or deride, but these lovely pages are certainly piled high with outdated assumptions and behaviour. If you are unable to forgive or set aside such treatment, please give this book a miss.

When the brutal battle ends, the westerners are in possession of a sturdy war canoe and opt to risk their lives on an epic ocean odyssey to the nearest outpost of civilisation. It’s only after the voyagers are far out to sea that Wash agonisingly recalls that he left his stash of dollars behind…

The next adventure (running from June 9th – October 1930) immediately follows on, with the weary travellers reaching French Indo-China and, thanks to a friendly soldier, escaping far inland via a mighty river. After days of travel they reach the previously hidden kingdom of Cucumbria and fall foul of the toad-worshipping emperor Igbay Umbay who takes one look at Mary and decides he has to have her…

Being a coward who stole the throne from his brother, this Grand Poobah hasn’t the nerve to simply take her, and so orchestrates a succession of scurvy schemes to get rid of Wash and Easy. Naturally, the boys are too smart and bold to fall for them.

Infuriatingly rising in power and status, aided by young prince Hilo Casino – freshly returned from college in America – the Americans finally seem be out of Umbay’s hair after they agree to lead his armies against supernatural rebel leader ‘The Phantom King’…

Despite deep misgivings “General” Easy and his aide Washington Tubbs embark upon a campaign that will ravage the hidden kingdom, unseat an emperor, cost thousands of lives and lose them the girl they both love…

A year later, ‘Down on the Bayou’ (March 12th to July 25th 1931) found the world-weary wanderers nearing home again, only to be arrested as they approach New Orleans in a stolen plane. They were fleeing a clever frame-up in infamous Costa Grande, but without any proof could only evade their US Navy captors and flee into the swampy vastness of the Mississippi Delta…

Lost for days and starving, they are picked up by vivacious gangster’s moll Jean who recruits them into a gang of smugglers and rum-runners who inhabit a huge plantation somewhere between Pelican Island and Barataria, dedicated to various criminal enterprises. Tubbs & Easy soon comfortably settle in amidst the rogues and outcasts, but everything changes when Jean’s brother returns from a smuggling trip. His name is Bull Dawson…

He is prevented from killing our heroes by Jean and the huge Cajun in charge of the outlaw outpost, but takes it badly. With his gang of deadly bodyguards in tow, Bull decides to take over the whole enterprise. A couple of murders later he’s big boss, but also oddly friendly to his most despised enemies.

Maybe it’s a ploy to put them off guard, or perhaps it has more to do with the gang of Chicago mobsters who have come down South, to put an end to the bootlegging mavericks cutting into their profits…

The troubles and bloodshed escalate exponentially and Jean drops her final bombshell: she’s a federal agent working with the Coast Guard to smash the budding criminal empire!

Once the dust settles she has one final surprise in store. In all the years of their friendship Wash could never get his taciturn pal to talk of his past or even reveal his real name. Now the government girl gives Mr. William Lee a message which sends him rushing across country to an old plantation home. Here the astounded Wash hears all about his pal’s shocking life, sordid scandals and abandoned wife… and then he learns the whole truth…

Soon, the impediments and lies which blighted Easy’s life are all removed and the wanderer settles in to a well-deserved retirement with the girl he always loved but could never have. Tubbs moves on, quickly reuniting with old chum Gozy Gallup…

Some weeks later, ever-restless Wash is riding a tramp steamer headed for Europe, intent on paying Jada a visit in Kandelabra but – falling foul of rustic transportation systems – ends up in the similar but so different Principality of Sneezia…

Apart from pretty girls, the tiny kingdom has only one point of interest: the world’s dinkiest railway service. Run by aged expatriate American Calliope Simpson, ‘The Transalpina Express’ (August 13th – November 21st 1931) links Sneezia to sister kingdom Belchia and is the most unique and beloved (by its intoxicated customers at least) service in the world.

Wash is especially keen to learn the business, since being the engineer has made octogenarian Cal the most irresistible man in two countries, fighting off adorable young women with a stick…

Someone’s greatest dream comes true when Simpson finally elopes with one of his adoring devotees and Washington Tubbs become sole operator of the Express, but his joy at all the feminine attention soon sours when Belchia and Sneezia go to war, and both sides want to use his train to move men and material into combat. Of course, the dilemma can only end in disaster and before long our boy is running for his life again…

There’s a big jump to the next yarn which finds Wash and Easy reunited and stowing away on the wrong-est ship imaginable. Quickly caught, they are understandably assumed to be part of the contingent of prisoners bound for the final destination – ‘Devils Island’ (June 9th to August 30th 1932)…

No sooner are they mixed in with the hopeless prison population than the planning of their inevitable escape begins. However, success only leads to greater peril as they and their criminal confederates take ship with a greedy captain subject to murderous bouts of paranoia and madness…

‘Whales’ (April 24th – August 30th 1933) is probably the most shocking to modern sensibilities of the perennial wanderers’ exploits. Here Wash & Easy are drugged in a Dutch cafe and dumped aboard one of the last sailing ships to work the whaling trade. Elderly and nostalgic Captain Folly has been convinced by psychotic First Mate Mr. Slugg to compete one last time against the new-fangled factory whaling fleets, unknowingly crewing his creaking old ship with shanghaied strangers…

The grim minutiae of the ghastly profession are scrupulously detailed as our heroes seek some means of escape, but with Slugg becoming increasingly unbalanced – and eventually murdering Folly – bloody mutiny leads to the ship foundering. Both factions – or at least the survivors of each – are subsequently marooned on arctic Alaskan ice, where (naturally) our heroes find the only pretty girl in a thousand square miles…

This fabulous treasury of thrills concludes with one last battle against Bull Dawson after the incorrigible monster links up with gorgeous grifter Peggy Lake, who fleeces gullible Wash of his savings and disappears into the endless green wilderness of the swamps of ‘Okefenokee’ (June 13th – July 24th 1935).

The crime leads to a massive police manhunt through the mire before the boys personally track down the villains and deliver one more sound thrashing to the malodorous malcontent and his pretty patsy…

Rounding off this superb collection is a thorough ‘Captain Easy and Wash Tubbs Episode Guide’ by Rick Norwood, a glorious graphic Mexican travelogue feature by Crane in ‘An Afterword in Pictures’ and informative biography section ‘About the Authors’…

If I’ve given the impression that this has all been grim and gritty turmoil and drama thus far, please forgive me: Crane was a superbly irrepressible gag-man and his boisterous, enchanting serials resonate with breezy, light-hearted banter, hilarious situations and outright farce – a sure-fire formula modern cinema directors plunder to this day.

Easy was the Indiana Jones, Flynn (The Librarian) Carsen and Jack (Romancing the Stone) Cotton of his day – and, clearly blazed a trail for all of them – whilst Wash was akin to Danny Kaye or our own Norman Wisdom: brave, big-hearted, well-meaning, clay-footed, irrepressible and utterly indomitable everymen… just like all of us.

This superb monochrome landscape hardback (274 x 33 x 224 mm) is a wonderful means of discovering or rediscovering Crane’s rip-snorting, pulse-pounding, exotically racy adventure trailblazer.

This is comics storytelling of the very highest quality: unforgettable, spectacular and utterly irresistible. These tales rank alongside her best of Hergé, Tezuka and Kirby, irrefutably informing the creations of all of them. These strips inspired the giants of our art form. How can you possibly resist?
Hurricane Isle: The Best of Captain Easy and Wash Tubbs © 2015 Fantagraphics Books. All Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy Strips © 2015 United Features Syndicate, Inc. All other material © the respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.

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Captain Midnight Archive volume 1: Captain Midnight Battles the Nazis


By Dave Gormley, Leonard Frank, Carl Pfeufer, Dan Barry & anonymous & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 78-1-61655-242-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-62115-884-4

Captain Midnight began his bombastic life as a radio serial star in the days when two-fisted, troubleshooting aviators were the acme of adventure genre heroes. Created by broadcast writers Wilfred G. Moore and Robert M. Burtt, the show was conceived by Chicago ad-men to promote Skelly Oil in the American Midwest.

The Captain Midnight Program soldiered on from 1938 to 1940 until the Wander Company acquired the sponsorship rights to promote their top product: Ovaltine. From there on, not even the sky was the limit: national radio syndication led to a newspaper comic strip (by Erwin L. Hess, running from June 29th 1942 until the end of the decade); a movie serial (1942) and – later – two TV serials (1953 and 1954-1956 – but syndicated as “Jet Jackson, Flying Commando” well into the 1960s). There was also a mountain of merchandise such as the legendary Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Ring…

There was also a comic book franchise or more accurately two…

The core premise was that after World War One ended, pilot/aviation inventor Captain Jim Albright  returned home having earned the sobriquet “Captain Midnight” after a particularly harrowing mission that concluded successfully at the witching hour. Founding a paramilitary “Secret Squadron” of like-minded pilots, he did good deeds – often at the covert behest of the President – employing guts and gadgets to foil spies, catch crooks and defend the nation.

Captain Midnight really hit his stride after the attack at Pearl Harbor, becoming an early Home Front media sensation. However, his already fluid backstory and appearance underwent a radical makeover when he switched comic book horses in mid-stream.

This stunningly engaging full-colour collection gathers tantalising snippets from the vast comicbook canon of the “Sovereign of the Skies”, rather arbitrarily collected from Dell Comics anthologies The Funnies #59 (September 1941) and Popular Comics 76 & 78 (June and August 1942) as well as Fawcett Comics’ Captain Midnight #4-6, 9, 12, 31, 44, 47, 58 and 61, released between January 1943 and March 1948. The solo title was initially released fortnightly with #1 bearing a September 30th 1942 cover-date.

Much of this material is unattributed but amongst the regular writers were Joseph J. “Joe” Millard, Wilford Hamilton Fawcett, Bill Woolfolk and Otto Binder whilst artists included Jack Binder and his art stable, as well as the engagingly workmanlike Leonard Frank, Carl Pfeufer, Ken Bald, Jack Keller, Sheldon Moldoff and – latterly – young but constantly improving legends-to-be Leonard Starr and Dan Barry.

Following a fond appreciation and passionate reminiscences from David Scroggy in his effusive Introduction, the cartoon classics begin with an action-packed but confusing chapter from The Funnies #59. Here Dave Gormley depicts the Captain – still clad in regulation leather jacket, aviator flight cap and goggles – and his Secret Squadron in pursuit of nefarious archenemy Ivan Shark before Popular Comics #76 finds them battling to prevent the insidious Ivan’s airborne conquest of America.

Popular Comics #78 (with art by Bob Jenney) renews and continues that titanic struggle as Shark’s henchman Gardo rushes to his master with information that could destroy democracy forever…

When Fawcett took over the comic book license in 1942, they gave Albright a stripped-down operation, flashier gimmicks and a rather striking superhero costume. They also abandoned continued serials in favour of short complete adventures as the Sky Sovereign added Nazi and Japanese villains to his macabre rogue’s gallery.

The initial Fawcett offering comes from Captain Midnight #4 (January 8th 1943) as the sabotaging ‘Gremlins of Graham Field’– possibly illustrated by Frank? – are exposed as malevolent Nazi dwarves whilst #5 sees Albright and his ward Chuck Ramsay overseas in Alexandria proving that ‘The Beasts That Flew Like Birds’ (Pfeufer) were not ancient vampires but far more insidious and dangerous modern monsters…

Plucky mechanic and comedy stooge Icky was one of three regular holdovers from the radio roster of the Secret Squadron and eventually won his own back-up strip and codename: Sergeant Twilight.

A brace of tales from #6 begins with ‘Presenting Ichabod Mudd, Cowboy!’ wherein the homely oaf accidentally exposes Nazis masquerading as cattle rustlers in Nevada, and intent on preventing the government feeding its troops, after which ‘Broadcast of Death’ sees other Nazis jamming shortwave radio communications and morale-lifting programs… until the Captain and his crew step in.

Three tales from Captain Midnight #9 (June 1943) opens with ‘Silent Wings of Destruction’ as the Monarch of the Skies tracks down undetectable planes bombing US war production plants and discovers an astounding Nazi aviation advancement. In ‘Black Tornadoes’ a German inventor unleashes all the fury of nature against the Midwest until the Captain tracks him down, and Albright’s robotic ‘Samson the Mechanical Man’ proves a major asset after uncovering enemy agents in the lab…

Three more classics come from #12 (September 1943). ‘The Puzzle of the Flying Houses’ spots spies using cloud-cover and dwelling-shaped zeppelins to photograph military secrets whilst ‘Buy War Bonds!’ offers a breathtaking ad of the period before ‘The Sinister Angels’ suborning South American peasants and fomenting rebellion are ultimately exposed by our heroes as craftily disguised foreign agents.

A big jump to Captain Midnight #31 (April 1945) opens post-war proceedings with ‘Sgt. Twilight’s Flying School’ as lovably bumbling goof Icky is gulled into teaching a gang of wily thugs how to commit seemingly impossible crimes with aircraft… before finally wising up and lowering the boom…

Issue #44 (September 1946) heralds the resurrection of a deadly foe as ‘Return of the Shark’ sees the villain copying Albright’s latest invention to facilitate robbing planes in mid-air before a literally mad scientist forces Captain Midnight to participate in a deadly ‘Invention Duel to the Death’…

December 1946’s CM #47 tangentially addresses growing public interest in horror stories as ‘Fangs of the Werewolf’ (Frank art) sees Midnight hunt an amnesiac GI in the US Sector of newly-partitioned Germany. Here he meets maniacal Nazi holdout Storm von Cloud planning a wave of terror with his sinister Werewolf Corps commandos.

As the 1940s drew to a close technological advancement, science fiction and crime became the most popular topics for action tales, and from #58 (December 1947) ‘Test Tunnel’ uses all those elements to great effect as Shark discovers Midnight’s true identity and lays a lethal trap in Albright’s latest plane-proving system…

Wrapping up this glorious grab-bag of Golden Age goodies is a tale of dogged endurance as ‘Captain Midnight Masters Glacier Peak’ (#61, March 1948; credited to Leonard Starr, but it looks like Dan Barry to me) sees Albright embroiled in a brutal struggle between rival Arctic expeditions to claim acclaim and vast riches at the top of the world…

With an eye-popping gallery of covers by Gormley, Binder, Mac Raboy and Frank, plus mesmerising period ads and mini-features such as ‘Captain Marvel Secret Messages’, ‘Captain Midnight’s Air Quiz’, ‘Captain Midnight’s Air Insignia’ and ‘Fawcett Comix Cards’ this is a superbly engaging feast of comics history and timeless thrills.
Captain Midnight Archives volume 1: Captain Midnight Battles the Nazis ® and © Dark Horse Comics 2013. All rights reserved.

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The Bluecoats volume 15: Bull Run


By Willy Lambil & Raoul Cauvin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-061-6 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Devised by Louis “Salvé” Salvérius & Raoul Cauvin – who scripted the first 64 volumes until retirement in 2020 – Les Tuniques Bleues (and/or Dutch-language iteration De Blauwbloezen) debuted at the end of the 1960s: created to supplant the irreplaceable Lucky Luke when that laconic maverick defected from weekly anthology Le Journal de Spirou to rival publication Pilote.

From its first sallies, the substitute strip swiftly became hugely popular: one of the most popular bande dessinée series in Europe. In case you were wondering, it is now scribed by Jose-Luis Munuera and the BeKa writing partnership and we’re up to 66 tomes…

Salvé was a cartoonist of the Gallic big-foot/big-nose humour school, and after his sudden death in 1972, successor Willy “Lambil” Lambillotte gradually adopted a more realistic – yet still overtly comedic – tone and manner. Lambil is Belgian, born in 1936 and, after studying Fine Art in college, joined publishing giant Dupuis in 1952 as a letterer.

Born in 1938, scripter Cauvin was also Belgian and – before entering Dupuis’ animation department in 1960 – studied Lithography. He soon discovered his true calling was comedy and began a glittering, prolific writing career at Le Journal de Spirou.

In addition, he scripted dozens of long-running, award winning series including Cédric, Les Femmes en Blanc and Agent 212: more than 240 separate albums. Les Tuniques Bleues sold alone has over 15 million copies… and counting. Cauvin died on August 19th 2021, but his vast legacy of barbed laughter remains.

Here, designated The Bluecoats, our long-suffering protagonists are Sergeant Cornelius Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch; worthy, honest fools in the manner of Laurel & Hardy: hapless, ill-starred US cavalrymen defending America during the War Between the States.

The original format offered single-page gags set around an Indian-plagued Wild West fort, but from second volume Du Nord au Sud, the sad-sack soldiers were situated back East, perpetually fighting in the American Civil War.

All subsequent adventures – despite often ranging far beyond the traditional environs of the sundered USA and taking in a lot of genuine and thoroughly researched history – are set within the timeframe of the Secession conflict.

Blutch is your run-of-the-mill, whinging little-man-in-the street: work-shy, mouthy, devious and ferociously critical of the army and its inept orchestrators and commanders. Ducking, diving, deserting whenever he can, he’s you or me – except at his core he’s smart, principled and even heroic… if no easier option is available.

Chesterfield is big and burly, a professional fighting man and proud career soldier of the 22nd Cavalry who passionately believes in patriotism and the esprit-de-corps of the Military. He is brave, never shirking his duty and hungry to be a medal-wearing hero. He also loves his cynical little troll of a pal. They quarrel like a married couple, fight like brothers but simply cannot agree on the point and purpose of the horrendous war they are trapped in: a situation that once more stretches their friendship to breaking point in this cunningly conceived instalment.

Coloured by Vittorio Leonardo, Les Tuniques Bleues – Bull Run was originally serialised in Le Journal de Spirou (#2558-2562) during 1987 and collected into another mega-selling album before the year was out. The 27th continental album, it was Cinebook’s 15th translated Bluecoats album.

Bull Run offers the creators’ trenchant and bitterly hilarious account of the infamous and calamitous first full clash between North and South, which took place on July 21st 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia. That was only 30 miles from national capital Washington DC, near the city of Manassas, from which the Confederates derived their own name for the debacle – the Battle of First Manassas.

A story within a story, it’s the account of what just happened as told by one who survived the debacle sharing confidences with a new recruit who can’t understand why nobody will speak of it…

Safely hidden away Blutch starts talking, telling how before any fighting began, President Lincoln’s generals gave the leader bad advice and pompous assurances, and a publicity campaign to recruit volunteers was badly administered. Moreover, the crisis fostered a festival atmosphere and civilians flocked to the proposed battleground to see the spectacle…

It was certainly impressive. The Union forces included not just American infantry, cavalry and artillery, but also many foreign contingents and brigades: Crimean Zouaves, Italian Garibaldians, Bavarians, Croats, Cossacks, Chinese and more. What a pity nobody drilled them in taking orders in English…

Still angry from being tricked into joining up, Blutch was already wary and could not bear to see the eagerness on the face of his glory-struck comrade Chesterfield. That’s why – when the call came from on high – he broke the habit of a lifetime and volunteered to join the proud few called on to serve drinks and refreshments to the spectators and upper ranks…

Already class divisions had appeared: the cavalry were expressly ordered not to speak to foot soldiers. That would prove catastrophically crucial as the battle unfolded and messages could not be passed…

Most telling of all, the Confederate forces were well-trained, well-disciplined and did not overconfidently consider the battle a foregone conclusion…

With carnage and confusion everywhere, Blutch’s deepest convictions are completely confirmed, and the jolly adventure becomes a complete rout, made all the worse for death-or-glory Chesterfield, who is ignominiously saved from capture or worse by his sneaky pal’s ungentlemanly behaviour and dirty tricks. That’s why the sergeant never talks about Bull Run…

Painfully cleaving to the bald facts of history, this episode is far darker than most, with the underlying horror leavened by a narrative distancing that allows ridiculously surreal black comedy and bitter satire to blossom constantly.

Combining pointedly seditious polemic with stunning slapstick, Bull Run mordantly manipulates the traditions of war stories to hammer home the point about the sheer stupidity of war and crushing cruelty of arrogant elitism. These yarns weaponise humour, making occasional moments of shocking verity doubly powerful and hard-hitting. Funny, thrilling, beautifully realised and eminently readable, Bluecoats is the best kind of war-story and Western: appealing to the best, not worst, of the human spirit.
© Dupuis 1987 by Lambil & Cauvin. All rights reserved. English translation © 2021 Cinebook Ltd.

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Peach Slices


By Donna Barr (Aeon/Mu)
ISBN: 978-1-89225-325-5 (TPB Director’s Cut)

We can’t let another Pride Month go by without plugging again one of the earliest, best and most ingenious Gay comics icons ever conceived. Moreover, as he and his companions first appeared in 1988 (published by Thoughts and Images) we can wish him a resplendent 35th Anniversary too!

The Desert Peach is the supremely self-assured and eminently efficient gay brother of Erwin Rommel, the legendary German soldier universally hailed as “the Desert Fox”.

Set primarily in Africa during World War II, this priceless lost gem of a series effortlessly combines hilarity, absurdity, profound sensitivity and glittering spontaneity in stories describing the dalliances and daily tribulations of Oberst Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel. This younger sibling also dutifully served his fatherland, albeit as an unwilling and reluctant cog in the iniquitous German War Machine: one determined to remain a civilised gentleman under the most adverse and unkind conditions.

However, although in his own ways as formidable as his beloved brother, the caring, gracious and genteel Peach is a man who loathes causing harm or giving offence. Thus, he spends his service commanding the dregs of the military in the ghastly misshapes of the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging & Support Unit of the Afrika Korps, always endeavouring to remain stylish, elegant, polite and ever-so-patient with and to the assorted waifs, wastrels and warriors on both sides of the unfortunate all-encompassing conflict.

It’s a thankless, endless task: the 469th harbours the absolute worst the Wehrmacht has ever conscripted, from malingerers and malcontents to useless wounded, shiftless conmen, screw-ups and outright maniacs.

Pfirsich unilaterally applies the same decorous courtesies to the sundry natives inhabiting the area as well as the rather tiresome British and Anzac forces – not all of whom are party to the clandestine non-aggression pact Pfirsich has covertly agreed with his opposite numbers in the amassed Allied Forces. In fact, the only people to truly annoy the peace-loving Peach are boors, bigots, bullies and card-carrying Blackshirts…

The romantic fool is also passionately in love with and engaged to Rosen Kavalier: handsome Aryan warrior and wildly manly Luftwaffe Ace, but arguably the true star of these fabulous frothy epics is the Peach’s long-suffering, unkempt, crafty, ill-mannered, bilious and lazily scrofulous orderly Udo Schmidt.

This is a man (we’re at least assured of that!) of many secrets, whose one redeeming virtue is his uncompromising loyalty and devotion to the only decent man and tolerable officer in the entire German army.

This eccentric aggregation of extras, excerpts and exotica was first released in 1993, collecting extraneous material from a variety of sources and covering the period 1987-1993: as much an affectionate art-book as delicious dose of non- or mis-canonical hi-jinks.

The entire package was subsequently re-released in 2006 in a Director’s Cut edition which added issue #25 of the sporadic series: a WWI Transylvanian Hammer-Horror pastiche entitled ‘Beautiful’ to the mix and includes reminiscences, background commentary and creator-kibitzing regarding all the esoteric tales and titbits.

The gloriously engaging affair begins with an Unused Pin Design and splendid Badge Design taken from the San Diego Comic-Con 1989, after which a quartet of stunning and bizarre Beer Labels (for ales created by micro brewer Wendell Joost in 1988) precedes ‘Peach on Earth’ (from A Very Mu Christmas 1992) – one of the very best Christmas stories ever produced in the notoriously twee and sentimental comics biz.

Set in the harsh December of 1945, it follows demobbed and repatriated Pfirsich as he wanders through his broken and occupied homeland: avoiding trouble and American troops but not the gnawing starvation and freezing snows which would kill so many returning, defeated German soldiers. On the verge of despair and death, the Peach is brusquely adopted by a strange, brittle and utterly fearless little boy who has only known the Fatherland in the throes of decline, but still looks eagerly to a brighter tomorrow…

This is followed by a rather risqué Rosen Kavalier pinup from 1991’s Paper Phantasies and an unused strip commissioned by Rip Off Press, after which ‘Whipping Boy’ offers a full-on adult escapade of unconventional lovers, as is ‘I Am What I Am… (I Think)’. This was a “Desert Peach Pitt Stop” that languished unpublished until this collection preserved it.

Bits ‘n’ Pieces was a short-lived self-published magazine the indefatigable author used to disseminate assorted works which never made it into the regular, normal-length Desert Peach title, and ‘The Veteran’ comes from the first issue in 1991. It returns focus to the motley cast of the hapless 469th for a pleasurably philosophical foray starring a most peculiar and innocent warrior named Thommi, whilst – following a frolicsome Desert Peach pinup from the 1989 Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Special – ‘Hindsight’ (Bits ‘n’ Pieces #1) dips into personal politics before ‘Reflections’ (BnP #3, 1991) offers a few New Year’s observations on the cast and stars from Barr herself.

1991 San Diego Comic-Con’s booklet provided another beguiling Pinup before ‘Udo and the Phoenix’ (Xenophon#1, 1992) relates another tale of the spirited Arab horse accidentally owned by Udo and cared for by the equally magnificent Pfirsich.

Next, ‘Reluctant Affections’ (BnP #1 before being redrawn as ‘Pigeonholed’ for Gay Comics #16) explores a tender, fragile moment and adorable chink in the macho armour of uber-Mensch Rosen…

‘The More Things Change’ comes from 1992 benefit book Choices, debating the abortion issue with characteristic abrasive aplomb, after which ‘Sweet Delusions’ (Wimmin’s Comix #16, 1991) gets down to the eye-watering nitty-gritty of Rosen & Pfirsich’s love life and ‘Wet Dream’ (Bits ‘n’ Pieces #3) follows up with more of the same in a hilariously wry maritime moment.

Barr’s creations are never far from always internally consistent flights of extreme fantasy, as observed in glorious diversion ‘The Oasis’ (Centaurs Gatherum 1990) with Pfirsich and brother Erwin finding a strategically priceless waterhole with a fantastic secret and forced to spend a truly outrageous time trapped as hybrid half horses…

This captivating chronicle concludes with a selection of ‘Peach Pits’ miscellanea: illustrations, roughs and small press items culled from the Desert Peach Musical books, T-shirts and posters. There’s some fascinating rough layouts from the aforementioned ‘Peach on Earth’, an unused page from DP #17 (the superb ‘Culture Shock’ as seen in The Desert Peach: Marriage & Mayhem and assorted stuff from Zine Zone #13, 1992. Even more extras include covers from Germanophilic Amateur Press Association magazine “Krauts”, and shirt designs before the whole outrageous escapade ends well with an implausibly “true tail” starring half-horse Stinz Löwhard, Pfirsich and Erwin in a ‘Character Revolt’ from 1987’s Fan-toons #19.

Desert Peach adventures are bawdy, raucous, satirical, authentically madcap and immensely engaging: bizarre (anti) war stories which rank amongst the very best comics of the 1990s. Even now they still pack a shattering comedic kick and – if you’re not quite braced – poignantly emotional charge.

The Desert Peach ran for 32 intermittent issues via a number of publishers and was collected as 8 graphic novel collections (1988-2005). A prose novel, Bread and Swans, a musical and an invitational collection by other artists (Ersatz Peach) were also created during the strip’s heyday. A larger compendium, Seven Peaches, collected issues #1-7 and Pfirsich’s further exploits, as part of the now much-missed Modern Tales webcomics collective.

Illustrated in Barr’s fluidly seductive wood-cut and loose-line style, this book is an absolute must-have item for lovers of wit, romance, slapstick, high drama and belly-laughs as well as grown-up comics in general.

All the collections are pretty hard to locate these days but if you have any facility with the digital world they can still be found. There’s also chatter that Robot Comics will be re-releasing the entire saga digitally sometime soon. Let’s hope so…
© 1987-1993 Donna Barr. All rights reserved. The Desert Peach is ™ Donna Barr.

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Hugo Pratt: Battler Britton – War Picture Library


By Hugo Pratt & V.A.L. Holding (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-766-4 (HB/Digital Edition)

Hugo Eugenio Pratt (June 15th 1927-August 20th 1995) was one of the world’s paramount comics creators, and his enthralling graphic narratives inventions since Ace of Spades (whilst still a student at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts) in 1945 were both many and varied.

His signature character – based in large part on his own exotic early life – is the mercurial soldier (perhaps sailor would be more accurate) of fortune, Corto Maltese.

After working in both Argentinean and English comics for years Pratt returned to Italy in the 1960s. In 1967 he produced a number of series for monthly comic Sgt. Kirk. In addition to the Western lead character, he created pirate strip Capitan Cormorand, detective feature Lucky Star O’Hara, and a moody South Seas adventure called Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea).

It folded in 1970, but Pratt took one of Ballata’s characters to the French weekly, Pif Gadget, before eventually settling in with legendary Belgian periodical Le Journal de Tintin. Corto Maltese proved as much a Wild Rover in reality as in his historic and eventful career…

However, a storyteller of such vast capabilities as Pratt was ever-restless, and as well as writing and illustrating his own tales, he scripted for other giants of the industry.

Battler Britton was first seen in January 1956. “The fighting ace of Land, Sea and Air” debuted in The Sun (back when it was actually a proper comic and before the title was appropriated for the tabloid red top screed joke it is today); the feisty True Brit brainchild of Mike Butterworth and the astounding Geoff Campion.

In 1958 the doughty dauntless pilot graduated to the front cover and lead spot, before taking over completely in 1959 when the periodical briefly became Battler Britton’s Own Weekly. He even transferred to sister title Knockout during 1960-1961 before joining the roster after merging with Lion. Britton persevered and carried on until 1967…

He was a major draw for Amalgamated/Odhams/Fleetway and also a key returning feature in the publisher’s range of complete digest series, illustrated by such astounding luminaries as Francisco Solano Lopez, Pat Nicolle, Graham Coton, Ian Kennedy… and Hugo Pratt.

Britton was a regular standby – in reformatted reprint form – in numerous Fleetway Christmas Annuals for years after his comics sorties ceased. Why there has never been a concerted effort to restore this treasure trove of comics glory in some kind of archival format is utterly beyond me, but at least he’s with us in this bold compilation gathering yarns limned by the master of adventure which first saw print in Thriller Picture Library #297 & Battler Britton Annual 2. Both were written by Val Holding: a former paratrooper and store detective before moving into comics writing. Amongst his many triumphs was a run on other Air Ace Paddy Payne. He eventually became Fleetway’s Managing Editor of Juvenile Publications.

Most British companies produced Seasonal Specials, hardcover Annuals and digest-sized anthology publications. DC Thomson still publishes Commando Picture Library and used to sell romance, school dramas and a science fiction title (Starblazer) to match their London competitors’ successful paperback book titles.

Those ubiquitous delights included Super Picture Library, War Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library, Action Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library: half-sized, 64-page monochrome booklets with glossy soft-paper covers. Presenting complete stories in 1 to 3 panels a page, they were regularly recycled and reformatted.

Here the result is a brace of stunningly rendered enthralling all-action romps beginning with the 1945-set ‘Battler Britton and the Rockets of Revenge’ wherein the top pilot is parachuted into occupied Poland to secure the secrets of a V2 missile that has fallen into the hands of a partisan unit. Typically, that means getting his hands dirty again: dodging bullets, fighting traitors and frustrating the Gestapo before ultimately triumphing and leaving the Abwehr a nasty surprise…

‘Battler Britton and the Wagons of Gold’ focuses on 1941, with Britton in the Adriatic, testing procedures for landing Spitfires on British aircraft carriers. When an urgent request comes in, he’s off to Yugoslavia – currently losing to the Nazi war machine.

Sent on a simple reconnaissance run, he can’t help downing a few Stukas and strafing German ground forces before coming to the assistance of freedom fighters desperately shipping the country’s entire monetary reserves away from the rapacious Nazis.

It’s not long before Battler trades his plane for a lorry to frustrate the swiftly pursuing Germans and deliver the bullion into the safe hands of the Royal Navy, despite the Nazis’ ardent efforts to catch and kill him and his new allies…

Swift, straightforward and startlingly compelling, these bread & butter war stories sustained British comics readers for decades and have seldom looked so good doing it. If you’re a connoisseur of graphic thrills don’t miss these airy escapades.
© 1959, 1961, 1964, 2020 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Invasion 1984!


By John Wagner, Alan Grant, Eric Bradbury & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 9-781-78108-675-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

For most of the industry’s history, British comics were renowned for the ability to tell a big story in satisfying little instalments. This, coupled with supremely gifted creators and the anthological nature of our publications, guaranteed hundreds of memorable characters and series seared themselves into the little boy’s psyche lurking inside most adult males.

One of the last great weeklies was Battle: a strictly combat-themed confection which began as Battle Picture Weekly, launching on 8th March 1975. Through absorption, merger and re-branding (as Battle Picture Weekly & Valiant, Battle Action, Battle, Battle Action Force and Battle Storm Force), it reigned supreme in Blighty before itself being combined with Eagle on January 23rd 1988.

Over 673 blood-soaked, testosterone-drenched issues, it carved its way into the bloodthirsty hearts of a generation, producing some of the best and most influential war stories ever.

Happily, many of the very best – like Charley’s War, The Sarge and El Mestizo – have been preserved and revisited in resilient reprint collections, but there’s still loads of superb stuff to rediscover, as typified by recent releases from Rebellion Studios (stay alert for those in days to come, chums…!).

This is nothing like any of them…

This particular combat compendium re-presents possibly the most unconventional series in the title’s eccentric history one that ran in Battle from 26th March to 31st December 1983. The entire saga is done in one book and comes with an enthused Introduction from editor and veteran scripter (Death Wish, Survivor, Real Roy of the Rovers Stuff, Comic Book Hero) Barrie Tomlinson.

What we have in Invasion 1984! is a classic end of the world/alien attack yarn in the vein of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds, published in the months leading up to the long-awaited literary moment of prophesied dystopia foretold by George Orwell. Deep stuff for a kids’ comic primarily about how their grandads were shot at by German and Japanese soldiers. However, the topic was evergreen, the fantastic elements were commonplace at this time and the actual work was left to three of the industry’s biggest guns…

Credited writer “R. Clark” was in fact John Wagner working with his regular co-scripter Alan Grant. Wagner (Bella at the Bar, One-Eyed Jack, Joe Two Beans, Roy of the Rovers, Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Outcasts, Fight for the Falklands, Button-Man, The Bogie Man, Batman, A History of Violence, Darkie’s Mob, Rok of the Reds and countless more) was born in Pennsylvania in 1949, but returned to Greenock in Scotland with his war-bride mum and siblings 12 years later.

He began his professional comic career at the end of the 1960s, firstly in an editorial capacity with Dundee-based DC Thomson & Co. He became a freelance writer soon after and moved to IPC in London. With him came colleague Alan Grant…

Born in Bristol, Grant (February 9th 1949 – July 21st 2022) grew up a true Scot in the heart of Midlothian. Wayward and anarchic, after trying regular life a couple of times he began his comics career in 1967 as an editor for DC. Soon he was writing scripts – many with Wagner – and inventing characters, first for British outfits but eventually all over the world.

His triumphs include Tarzan, Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Batman, Lobo, L.E.G.I.O.N., Judge Anderson, The Bogie Man, Channel Evil, Kidnapped, The Demon, Robo-Hunter, Anarky, The Loxleys and the War of 1812, Rok of the Reds and so many more.

He also contributed to amateur fanzines, encouraging and supporting new talent; adapted classic literature to comics form for major art festivals; worked in animation; organized his own comic conventions (in home village Moniaive) and self-published and ran his own publishing house Berserker Comics. In 2020, he led a community outreach project to inform about CoVID-19 via a comic book.

Handling the art was arguably Britain’s most accomplished dramatic illustrator.

The incredible and prolific career of Eric Bradbury (January 4th – 1921 – May 2001) began in 1949 in Knockout. Born in Sydenham, Kent, he studied at Beckenham Art School from 1936 and served in the RAF as a bomber rear gunner during the war. Demobbed, he worked at Gaumont-British Animation, where he met other future cartooning and comics masters Mike Western, Ron Smith, Bill Holroyd, Harry Hargreaves and Nobby (AKA Ron) Clark. When the studio closed Clark and Bradbury were hired by comics everyman Leonard Matthews at Amalgamated Press (latterly Fleetway/IPC).

Frequently working with studio mate Western, Bradbury drew strips such as Our Ernie, Blossom, Lucky Logan, Buffalo Bill, No Hiding Place, The Black Crow and Biggles. He was an “in-demand” illustrator well into the 1990s on many landmark strips including The Avenger, Cursitor Doom, Phantom Force 5, Maxwell Hawke, Joe Two Beans, Mytek the Mighty, Death Squad, Doomlord, Darkie’s Mob, Crazy Keller, Hook Jaw, The Sarge, Invasion (the 2000 AD strip), The Mean Arena, The Fists of Jimmy Chang, The Dracula Files, Rogue Trooper, Future Shocks, Tharg the Mighty and so much more…

Together this triumphant triumvirate crafted a sublimely simple but compellingly cathartic scary story of doom and resurrection, which began and proceeded in real time one year into the future…

On March 21st 1984, astronomers detect a vast fleet of city-sized extraterrestrial craft heading directly for Earth. When space shuttle Columbia is despatched to intercept and extend peaceful greetings, it is blasted to atoms…

From then on, the 3-page weekly instalments catalogue the crushing of our planetary defences, military helplessness, mass panic and displacement of humanity. Terrified and running, people are picked off by silent skeletal warriors or bombed and ray-blasted into annihilation. Once the city-ships land, increasing numbers of shattered shell-shocked humans are captured and flown away…

Amongst the panicking masses fleeing London is language professor Edward Lomax who quite sensibly packs up his wife Marion and son Mike and tries desperately to get out of the capital. As Britain’s armed forces stubbornly resist to the last, the Lomaxes strive to escape the carnage and Edward confirms his own fighting spirit by killing dozens of the intruders with their own weapons.

Ultimately, resistance proves useless and civilisation falls in days, but just when Edward is ready to give up, he and his loved ones are somehow found and rescued by an unconventional unit of brutal killers…

Modern day Dirty Dozen Storm Squad have been tasked with finding the professor by the last free remnants of the army. Plucked from the rubble of London after days of constant running and killing, Lomax and his kin are whisked to a hidden Command Bunker in Bedfordshire, where General Lapsley and Britain’s Defence Secretary (the last survivor of Parliament) put him to work finding out how the invaders communicate and devising a way to talk to them…

The task becomes increasingly urgent after even nuking occupied cities fails to slow the invaders, and Storm Squad (Major “Mad Mac” McVicker, Sergeant Dent, Corporal Cheyney, Plank, creepy Geiger, repulsive deviant Burke and the rest) are despatched to capture some live “spooks” to experiment on…

The most savagely effective killers on Earth quickly succeed – despite sustained resistance from the aliens and opportunistic interference from humans quickly returned to primal self-reliance. With the world a depleted wreck mired in constant conflict, Lomax cracks the mystery, just as Storm Squad learn first-hand what’s become of the millions taken by the Spooks. It only makes more imperative his efforts to talk to the newcomers…

His inevitable success comes at a cost and illuminate a relentless countdown. The aliens have brought a ghastly plague into the bunker that is also ravaging what remains of life on Earth…

At last aware of why they’re here and determined to secure the spooks’ universal cure for illness, Earth’s last defenders deploy for their final sortie with an ultimate weapon of their own, knowing they won’t all be standing at the end…

Bombastic, brilliantly bellicose and mischievously misusing the British Bulldog Spirit, this grim game-changing fable is a delightful response to the toxic tone of the mid-Eighties, whilst still fabulously filling the brief of a boys’ combat yarn: offering casual heroism and vicarious carnage sans any moral nuance. It’s a case of us or them and we will always choose us…

This mostly monochrome masterpiece also includes the 5 full-colour covers the short series spawned plus biographies of all involved, offering the kind of uncomplicated unshaded thrills we all secretly yearn for…
© 1983, 2019 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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The Newsboy Legion by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby volume Two


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby with Don Cameron, Joe Samachson, Ed Herron, Arturo Cazeneuve, Curt Swan, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7236-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Just as the Golden Age of comics was beginning, two young men with big dreams met up and began a decades-long association that was always intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes. As kids they had both sold newspapers on street-corners to help their families survive the Great Depression…

Joe Simon was a sharp-minded, talented guy with 5 years’ experience in “real” publishing; working from the bottom up to become art director on a succession of small papers – such as the Rochester Journal American, Syracuse Herald and Syracuse Journal American – before moving to New York City to freelance as an art/photo retoucher and illustrator. Recommended by his boss, Simon joined Lloyd Jacquet’s pioneering Funnies Inc. This was a production “shop”: a conveyor belt of eager talent generating strips and characters for numerous publishing houses eager to cash in on the success of Action Comics and its stellar attraction Superman.

Within days, Simon created The Fiery Mask for Martin Goodman of Timely Comics (now Marvel) and met Jacob Kurtzberg, a cartoonist and animator just hitting his stride with the Blue Beetle for the Fox Feature Syndicate.

Together, Simon and Kurtzberg (who went through many pen-names before settling on Jack Kirby) enjoyed a stunning creative empathy and synergy: galvanizing an already electric neo-industry with a vast catalogue of features and even sub-genres.

They produced influential monthly Blue Bolt, rushed out Captain Marvel Adventures #1 for Fawcett and – after Martin Goodman appointed Simon editor at Timely – created a host of iconic characters such as Red Raven, the first Marvel Boy, Hurricane, The Vision, Young Allies and million-selling mega-hit Captain America.

Famed for his larger-than-life characters and colossal cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual hard-working family man who lived through poverty, gangsterism and the Depression. He loved his work, hated chicanery of every sort and saw a big future for the comics industry…

When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to industry leader National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and open chequebook. The pair were initially an uneasy fit, bursting with ideas the staid company were not comfortable with and thus given two strips that were in the doldrums until they found their creative feet…

Turning both around Sandman and Manhunter virtually overnight and – once established and left to their own devices – went on to devise the “Kid Gang” genre (technically, it was “recreating” as the notion was one of the duo’s last innovations for Timely as seen in 1941’s Young Allies). The result was unique and trendsetting juvenile Foreign Legion The Boy Commandos.

The little warriors began by sharing the spotlight with Batman in flagship publication Detective Comics, but before long they won their own accompanying solo title – which promptly became one of the company’s top three sellers. Frequently cited as the biggest-selling US comic book in the world at that time – Boy Commandos was such a success that the editors, painfully aware that the Draft was lurking, green-lit the completion of extra material to lay away for when their star creators were called up.

S&K assembled a creative team that generated so many stories in a phenomenally short time that publisher Jack Liebowitz then suggested they retool some of it into adventures of a second kid gang…

Thus was born The Newsboy Legion and super-heroic mentor The Guardian…

Probably based on the Our Gang/Little Rascals film shorts (1922-1944) and pitched halfway between a surly comedy grotesques and charmingly naive ragamuffins, the Newsboy Legion comprised four ferociously independent orphans living together on the streets of “Suicide Slum” peddling papers to survive. Earnest, good-looking Tommy Tompkins, garrulous genius Big Words, diminutive, hyper-active chatterbox Gabby and feisty, pugnacious Scrapper – whose Brooklyn-based patois and gutsy belligerence usually stole the show – were all headed for a bad end until somebody extraordinary entered their lives…

Their exploits offered a bombastic blend of crime thriller and comedy caper, leavened with dynamic superhero action and usually seen from a kid’s point of view. The series debuted in Star-Spangled Comics #7, forcing Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy off the covers and to the back of the book. The Legion remained lead feature until the end of 1946 when, without fanfare or warning, issue #65 was published without them.

The lads had been ousted and replaced by solo tales of Robin, the Boy Wonder. His own youth-oriented solo series subsequently ran all the way to SSC #130 in 1952, by which time superhero romps had largely been supplanted throughout the industry by general genre tales.

This second superb collection concludes their Golden Age exploits, with tales from Star-Spangled Comics #33-64 (cover-dated June 1944 – January 1947), including every stunning cover by Kirby, Simon, Fred Ray and teenager Gil Kane all inked by Arturo Cazeneuve, John Daly, Steve Brodie, George Roussos & Stan Kaye. There’s also an informative Introduction from The Jack Kirby Collector/Two Morrows’ publishing guru John Morrow setting the scene for the fun that follows…

In the very first tale, rookie cop Jim Harper adopted a superhero alter ego to administer hands-on justice when The Law was not enough. His vigilantism resulted in the capture of an infamous kidnap ring. Newspapers dubbed the mysterious hero the Guardian of Society and sold like hotcakes on all street corners, making money for even the poorest junior entrepreneurs.

Harper initially had no intention of repeating his foray into vigilantism but when he caught Tommy, Big Words, Gabby and Scrapper shoplifting, his life changed forever. The tough little monkeys were headed for reform school, but he made an earnest plea for clemency on their behalf and the judge appointed him their responsible adult: their “guardian”.

“The Newsboy Legion” were set on a righteous path, but their suspicions were aroused. Frustratingly, no matter how hard they tried, the boys could never prove that their two Guardians were the same guy…

With tales of the war declining in popularity, Star Spangled Comics #33 opens this concluding compilation with ‘The Case of the Bashful Bride!’ Regular illustrator Arturo Cazeneuve limns a fast-paced but uncredited yarn as gangster Sloppy Sam seemingly hangs up his gat after marrying into money. The nosy kids simply can’t accept the transformation and their poking around soon uncovers a cunning plot, cruel criminality and just a hint of hilarious hoity-toity crossdressing behind the scheme…

Naturally, by the time they’re in over their heads, Harper has again swapped his badge and gun for golden helmet and shield to wrap up the case…

The boys’ lives were peppered by dozens of get-rich-quick notions that inevitably uncovered crimes and unleashed chaos. In ‘From Rags to Ruin!’ (#34, by Cazeneuve, July 1944), Gabby discovers the power of positive thinking and talks himself into a high-paying executive position at an insurance company. His dream sours after discovering he’s the figurehead – and fall guy – for a protection racket. Time to call in some old pals…

Still calling himself Eli Katz, future superstar Gil Kane illustrated #35’s ‘The Proud Poppas!’ as the Newsboys adopt a homeless orphan fleeing a cruel and repressive institution. Peter wants to be an artist and gleefully moves into the Boys’ orbit – and shack – but his rightful carers desperately want him back and ruthless kidnappers now know who he is and where he’s hiding…

Cazeneuve returned for ‘The Cowboy of Suicide Slum!’ as grizzled former western sheriff Hawkeye Hawkins of Howlin’ Gulch comes Back East to see the sights. The Legion are all beguiled by his tall tales and before long hip-deep in trouble after they convince the ornery coot to display his talents by going after local gang boss Little Dodo…

After saving a swell from bullies in the slum, Scrapper is offered an apprenticeship by the city’s top gem cutter in ‘Diamonds in the Rough!’ However, as a business prone to criminality, the benefactor expects the fisty firebrand to protect his hands and quit fighting…

When workmen fixing waterpipes trigger a crude oil gusher in Suicide Slum, everybody wants to cash in whilst the toffs in swanky Doughbilt Apartments don’t want their views ruined by derricks. Into that bubbling cauldron of trouble come opportunists; crooks too, so it’s not long until The Guardian and the Legion discover what’s actually going on in ‘Roll Out the Barrels’…

Steve Brodie begins inking Cazeneuve in #39’s ‘Two Guardians Are a Crowd!’ (December 1944) as a crooked doppelganger plays hob with the hero’s reputation and the boys’ conviction of Harper’s double life – until the inevitable face-off – after which notorious thief Danny the Dip bids ‘Farewell to Crime!’ by writing a tell-all memoir. When the kids get involved, it’s exposed as less a confession and more perjury and blame-shifting, leading to the Guardian getting truth – and justice – his way…

When a criminal set fires and create street accidents to tie up first responders in ‘Time Out for the Guardian!’, cop Harper is among the injured. Mistakenly diagnosed with a broken leg, he uses the mistake to convince his wards that the superhero is another guy when they go after the culprits. However, they are just young, not idiots…

In #42, the Legion discovers ‘The Power of the Press!’ when they produce a grassroots periodical going after crooks at ground level. It’s good enough to get them framed by malign mastermind The Undertaker until good old Jim steps in, before the boys test their musical chops in a (naturally fixed and wildly comedic) barbershop quartet singing competition designed to expose the ‘Trials of a Tenor!’

Misguided philanthropy and unthinking privilege steer Ethelreda Winkle and her nephew Cuthbert when the daft dowager sets up an institute to elevate the poor by teaching them proper manners in ‘Etiquette Comes to Suicide Slum!’ With thieves flocking in to improve their chances of better scores, Harper asks the Newsboys to get with the program and learns all is not as seems, after which ‘Crime Gets Clipped!’ finds the lads setting up a …news-gathering “clipping service” and catching a vain bigshot plundering the city’s banks…

‘Clothes Make the Criminal!’ finds the kids on the trail of crooks using a selection of stolen uniforms and costumes to commit outrages before Jim and the boys again prove they have the right stuff…

With George Roussos inking Cazeneuve, ‘The Triumph of Tommy!’ sees the bold Newsboy gunned down by a robber. To recuperate, he’s carted off to Camp Woko-ni-to (“for underprivileged children of the slums”) by his doctor, and when his comrades visit, it sparks another fight when Tommy spots the thug who shot him laying low. Meanwhile, The Guardian has been following another trail and pops up just when he’s most needed…

‘Booty and the Blizzard!’ is one of the few stories we know the writer of. Don Cameron scripts for Cazeneuve & Roussos as an icy cold snap cuts off Suicide Slum and the industrious boys shovel out a network of tunnels for fellow residents trapped behind ten feet of hard-packed snow. Too bad it’s also an ideal escape route for wily bank bandits, until the Guardian learns to ski…

The same creative team measure out ‘One Ounce to Victory!’ as a scrap paper drive gets hyper-competitive when the Newsboys compete with rival news peddlers the Hawker Street Hawks. As if bitter enmity isn’t enough, the effort is made more dangerous after recently released convict Tightlips Leo hides the map to his stashed loot in one of those collected paper piles and resorts to murderous means to retrieve it…

Cover-dated November 1945, Star Spangled #50 features Joe Samachson, Joe Kubert & Roussos adding a flash of film fantasy in ‘The Leopard Man Changes his Spots!’ Here the boys help a meek movie star specialising in monsters channel his inner hero and escape the clutches of a racketeering mobster.

Another industrious enterprise transforms into a means of corralling crooks when the boys start a second-hand apparel business. Naturally, any way to help poor folk advance draws cunning connivers with a perfidious plan, but ‘The Style Show of Suicide Slum’ (Cameron & Kubert) also triggers a wicked comedy of errors when the ugliest jacket on Earth (concealing a fortune in stolen cash) is inadvertently passed from one ungrateful recipient to the next…

Cameron, Cazeneuve & Brodie reunite for #52’s ‘Rehearsal for a Crime!’ as Gabby breaks into an abandoned theatre and mistakes a practise run for robbery for a new play pre-debut. When he comes back with his pals they are all captured and it’s up to Harper to seek them out, shut them down and save the day…

Kirby returned in the next issue where Gabby won a jingle contest – and $500 – and pursued a career in rhyme as ‘The Poet of Suicide Slum!’ (script by Cameron and inked by Brodie). His delusions and propensity for naming gangsters and their plans in his odes soon made him a target for early immortality… until The Guardian applied his own brand of two-fisted criticism…

Another acknowledgement of the rise in western themes informs ‘Dead-Shot Dade’s Revenge!’ (by an uncredited writer, Kirby & Brodie) as a spiky relic of pioneer days drives his “prairie schooner” into Suicide Slum. He’s come 2000 miles in pursuit of Gaspipe Gosser, who stole Dade’s life savings, and it’s all The Guardian can do to stop the old coot shooting him dead like a dawg just to see him drop…

Happily, Gosser’s guilt triggers a pre-emptive strike that gives the hero all he needs to put the thug away, after which Curt Swan & Jack Farr depict how ‘Gabby Strikes a Gusher!’ He had been tending his vegetable garden when he discovered oil, but just as he looks into setting up a company, the thugs who originally stole the stuff came calling…

Cooking for the Newsboys was done on a strict rota basis, with dealer’s choice the prime consideration. When Gabby accidentally came into possession of oysters dropped by fleet-footed Willy Wetsell, he thought it solved his problem of what the gang would eat that night.

Instead, each mollusc contained a superb, huge fully processed Arabian pearl and Jim Harper realised that this ‘Treasure of Araby’ (art by Kirby & Ray Burnley) was far more than chance and not in the least lucky…

Kirby & John Daly limned Star Spangled Comics #57’s cunning shocker as mobster Snake Huggins resolved to fix the interfering brats for good. His plan was to hit him at his weakest point and resulted in ‘A Recruit for the Legion!’ but wealthy Timothy Tuck was not what he seemed and proved a far bigger threat that he looked…

Kirby handled exotic diversion ‘Matadors of Suicide Slum!’ as the boys befriend elderly janitor Perez and hear rousing tales of his glory days in the bullrings of Mexico. Coincidentally, Yankee businessmen are trying to bring the bloody sport to Suicide Slum, leading to a decades-delayed concluding duel between the man and his nemesis El Diabolo. Only, it’s not quite as they recalled or any onlooker quite expected…

From sentimental slapstick, we turn to criminal mystery in Kirby’s Daly inked ‘Answers, Inc.!’ (#59, August 1946) wherein Tommy cashes in on an unsuspected gift for solving riddles, puzzles and general knowledge quizzes. Although he’s smart, he’s still a kid though and when a cunning cove poses a pithy conundrum, Tommy hands over a method for a foolproof heist. Happily, jaded, cynical Jim Harper is on hand to ask his own difficult questions whilst The Guardian is ready to answer them…

Ed Herron, Swan and Stan Kaye then detail a whimsical winner as Scrapper seeks to become ‘Steve Brodie Da Second!’ to one-up friendly rivals the Boy Commandos. The Brodie in question is not the inker, but the turn of the century sportsman who claimed to have survived jumping off the East River Bridge. Here, however, Scrapper’s idiotic emulation ends when he jumps right into a gangster’s secret submarine, and silly season stunt escalates to front page crime caper…

Swan & Kaye then continued the new trend for stunts as Guardian’s pursuit of a crook leads to a syndicate dictating the demise of him and the Newsboy Legion under the pretence of sponsoring them in ‘The Great Balloon Race!’ across America, after which ‘Prevue of Tomorrow’ sees a mysterious stranger spark chaos by handing out papers offering news from 24 hours into the future. Of course for our heroes forewarned is simply forearmed…

Brodie inked Swan on penultimate outing ‘Code of the Newsstand!’ as the boys visit Chinatown just as Harper enters the enclave to find escaped convict Stiletto Mike. Of course, they are first to find the felon but it’s The Guardian who has the last word… and punch.

Cover-dated January 1947, Star Spangled Comics #64 closed the Newsboy Legion’s eclectic run with ‘Criminal Cruise!’ wherein Swan & Brodie had the kids literally sailing off into the sunset after winning an all-inclusive holiday to the South Seas. Naturally, trouble followed with lost tickets, stowaways and a gang of jewel thieves spicing up the voyage…

And that was that for almost 25 years, until Kirby brought them back in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 (October 1970), spearheading his mega revitalisation of DC’s continuity – but let’s talk of that another day…

There is a glorious abundance of Jack Kirby material available these days: true testament to his influence and legacy, with this magnificent and compelling collection in collaborations with fellow pioneer Joe Simon being another gigantic box of delights perfectly illustrating the depth, scope and sheer thundering joy of the early days of comics. Funny, thrilling and ideally accessing simpler days, this is a treat every fan should enjoy and share.
© 1944, 1945, 1946, 2017 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Garth Ennis Presents Battle Classics


By John Wagner, Alan Hebden, David Hunt, Mike Western, Ron Tiner, John Cooper, Cam Kennedy & various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78116-741-0 (HB)

In Britain, for decades after the rise of television, Easter Monday was the day when you all sat back after a big lunch and sank into a classic war movie. Some of them were pretty good.

I’m nothing if not nostalgic and backward-looking, so let’s see what that’s like in comic terms…

Perhaps you don’t know, but: apart from his other scripting wonders, Garth Ennis is the best writer of war comics working today. In fact, if you disregard the splendid Commando Picture Library series published by DC Thomson (which you shouldn’t – even though no one admits to reading them in my circle), he may well be the only full-time comics professional regularly working with the genre in the entire English Language.

His credentials are well established and, despite his self-deprecating tone in his Foreword, here, Ennis’s affinity for and love of combat tales makes him the go-to guy if you’re planning to re-publish classic war stories and even more so if they all come from his favourite boyhood read…

In January 2014, Titan Books began a series of Garth Ennis Presents Battle Classics, but there have only been two thus far. Volume II did manage a digital incarnation, but sadly that first shot only came in a solid, outsized hardback edition. Perhaps the publisher or their successors will amend that discrepancy soon, and even curate a couple more from the vast reservoir of unseen canonical wonders?

For most of the industry’s history, British comics have been renowned for the ability to tell a big story in satisfying little instalments. This, coupled with supremely gifted creators and the anthological nature of our publications, ensured that hundreds of memorable characters and series seared themselves into the little boy’s psyche inside most British (adult) males.

One of the last great weekly comics was Battle: a strictly combat-themed confection which began as Battle Picture Weekly, launching on 8th March 1975. Through absorption, merger and re-branding (as Battle Picture Weekly & Valiant, Battle Action, Battle, Battle Action Force and Battle Storm Force) it reigned supreme in Blighty before itself being combined with Eagle on January 23rd 1988. Over 673 blood-soaked, testosterone-drenched issues, it fought its way into the bloodthirsty hearts of a generation, consequently producing some of the best and most influential war stories ever.

Happily, some of the very best – like Charley’s War, Darkie’s Mob and Johnny Red – have been preserved and revisited in resilient reprint collections, ably supplemented by taster tome The Best of Battle, but there’s still loads of superb stuff to see, as typified by recent releases from Rebellion Studios (stay alert for those in days to come, chums!)…

This particular Titanic compendium (still readily available) re-presents two of the very best in their entirety, and also provides a triple dose of short, sharp shockers illustrated by doyen of war artists Cam Kennedy.

In introductory essay ‘And you expected to die hard: HMS Nightshade’, Ennis offers background on the strip which disproved an abiding publishing maxim that kids didn’t want to read “ship stories” whilst detailing how and when the 48-instalment feature began in Battle #200, dated January 6th 1979 and just why it was so special…

The simple answer is sheer talent: scripter John Wagner (Bella at the Bar, One-Eyed Jack, Joe Two Beans, Roy of the Rovers, Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Fight for the Falklands, Button-Man, The Bogie Man, Batman, A History of Violence etc.) and artist Mike Western (The Leopard of Lime Street, Jack o’ Justice, The Wild Wonders, The Sarge and so many more) had worked together on other strips like Partridge’s Patch and the aforementioned Darkie’s Mob, but here especially their talents synchronised and merged to form a minor classic of grit, determination and courage under fire and despite stupidity and cupidity.

Set in an almost forgotten and much-neglected maritime arena, HMS Nightshade shares the stories of Seaman George Dunn, as told to his grandson: grim and glorious events of the Second World War as seen from the rolling decks of a British Flower-Class Corvette.

Escorting merchant marine ships and tanker convoys keeping Britain on her feet during the Battle of the Atlantic, or constantly re-supplying war materiel to Russia on the Murmansk Run, meant days of back-breaking toil and unending tedium, punctuated by moments of insane amusement or terror-filled tension and sudden death, but the old salt slowly, engagingly reveals how bonds forged between shipmates and the vessel which protected them remain strong – even though old George is the last survivor of those perilous days…

With occasional art assistance from Ron Tiner, the saga begins with young George and his new shipmates Big Stan, Smiffy and Jock McCall joining a relatively tiny vessel in May 1940.

Forced to adapt quickly to life aboard ship, the quartet are just in time to become part of the vast flotilla rescuing British soldiers from Dunkirk: experiencing first-hand and up close all the horrors of war and shocks of personal loss.

Learning to despise the ever-present, merciless U-Boats and perpetual airborne attacks from Stukas and other predatory planes, Nightshade’s crew quickly master spotting and shooting back, but escort duty still consists mostly of barely suppressed panic and the appalling anger and pain as one more tanker or cargo ship under their protection explodes and sinks…

Wagner’s amazing ability to delineate character through intense action and staccato humour carried the series from the North Atlantic, through an astounding sequence in Russia, to Africa: blending sea battles with evocative human adventures – such as an imbecilic merchant sea captain, Smiffy’s tragic marriage and brush with Black Marketeers, or George’s vendetta with psychotic bullying shipmate Parsons. That villain’s ultimate fate remains one of the most unforgettable scenes in British comics history…

The voyage abounds with sharply defined and uniquely memorable supporting stars such as Handsome John, tragic Dennis Flowers and despondent “Never-gonna-make-it” Brown – who was so obsessed with his impending demise that every man aboard carried one of his goodbye letters to his mum. Even Dogfish – a half-drowned mongrel saved from drowning, and whose canine senses proved invaluable in early warning of German air raids – became a beloved co-star -which meant nothing to a writer like Wagner who knows how to use sentiment to his advantage…

Constant attacks led to a high turnover and later replacements included Whitey Bascombe, who barely survived an immersion in Arctic waters and never felt warm ever again, affable coward/inevitable absconder Tubby Grover and simpleminded body builder “Muscles” Thomson – who took his repugnant role of “Ship’s Crusher” to his heart…

Packed with intense combat action, bleak introspection, oppressive tension and stunning moments of gallows hilarity, the life and inescapable death of HMS Nightshade is a masterpiece of maritime fiction and war comics in general, and alone would be worth the price of admission here.

Even so, there are more dark delights to tickle the military palate, and the next inclusion offers a view of the conflict through an enemy’s eyes…

As explained by Ennis in ‘Rest Easy, Herr Margen: The General Dies at Dawn’ is a short yet provocative serial dealing with the concept of “the Good German”, cleverly executed here as a deathbed confession by a disgraced Wehrmacht officer awaiting death at Nuremberg.

Scripted by Alan Hebden (Rat Pack, Fighting Mann, M.A.C.H. 1, Meltdown Man, Major Eazy, etc) with art by John Cooper (Thunderbirds, Judge Dredd, Dredger, Armitage, One-Eyed Jack, Johnny Red, Dr. Who and so much more), this brief – 11 episodes from October 4th to December 28th 1978 – thriller traces the meteoric career of professional soldier Otto Von Margen.

Found guilty of Cowardice, Disobedience, High Treason and Defeatism by his fellow Nazi generals, he languishes in a cell at Stadiheim Military Prison, Nuremburg, on the 20th April 1945: counting down the 11 hours to his execution by telling his side of the story to his jailer.

Beyond the walls, the surging US army is drawing ever closer…

From early triumphs in Poland to the invasion of Norway, from Dunkirk to Yugoslavia, the Siege of Stalingrad and eventually Normandy – where his incessant opposition to the monstrous acts of his own side finally became unpardonable – Von Margen and his devoted comrade Feldwebel Korder proved themselves brilliant, valiant and honourable soldiers.

However, their incessant interference in Gestapo affairs and SS battlefield atrocities made them marked men, and finally the General went too far…

The tale of a patriotic soldier who served his country ruthlessly and proudly as a tank commander, whilst conducting a private and personal war against barbaric Nazi sadists of the Gestapo and SS, is both gripping and genuinely moving, and the glittering, dwindling hope of the Americans arriving before his execution keeps the suspense at an intoxicating level…

This epic monochrome collection (256 pages and 312mm x 226mm) then concludes with three complete short stories, all illustrated by the magnificent Cam Kennedy (Commando, Fighting Mann, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Batman, Star Wars, The Light and Darkness War, The Punisher, Zancudo).

Sadly, as explained by Ennis in his prelude ‘Get out, Leave me alone! This is my grave!: Private Loser and other stories’, only the last – and by far best – has a writer credit.

‘Clash by Night!’ is a classic “irony” tale, as a group of US Marines on Iwo Jima fall foul of the Japanese trick of imitating wounded American soldiers, whilst equally anonymous ‘Hot Wheels’ wryly describes the do-or-die antics of flamboyant supply truckers Yancy and Mule as they break all the rules to get a shipment of food and ammo to hard-pressed G.I.s closing in on Berlin in 1945…

There’s a subtle knack and true art to crafting perfect short stories, and Battle’s veteran editor Dave Hunt shows how it should be done in impressively gripping ‘Private Loser’ wherein a meek, hopeless failure left to die during the British retreat from Burma in 1942 finally finds a horrific, gore-soaked, existentialist moment where he matters…

Ennis’ Afterword wraps everything up with appropriate Thank-Yous and some very handy information on where to find even more masterful martial comics madness to enthral and delight anyone whose appetite for torment, tragedy, blood and wonder hasn’t been fully slaked yet…

These spectacular tales of action, tension and drama, with heaping helpings of sardonic grim wit from both sides, have only improved in the years since Battle folded, and these gems are as affecting and engrossing now as they’ve ever been. Fair warning though: this is astoundingly addictive fare and you might feel compelled to take up arms and campaign for more…
© 2013 Egmont UK Ltd. All rights reserved.