Category: War Stories

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Showcase Presents Our Army At War


By Dave Wood, Robert Kanigher, David Khan, Hal Kantor, John Reed, France “Ed” Herron, William Woolfolk, John Reed, Art Wallace, Nat Barnett, Irv Novick, Carmine Infantino, Gene Colan, Bernie Krigstein, Frank Giacoia, Joe Giella, Bernard Sachs, Irwin Hasen, Bob Lander, Gil Kane, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Jerry Grandenetti, Bob Oksner, Mort Drucker, Sy Barry, Fred Ray, Eugene Hughes, Ray Burnley, Ray Schott & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1401229429 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In America following the demise of EC Comics in the mid-1950’s – and prior to Warren Publishing’s astounding Blazing Combat – the only certain place to find challenging, entertaining and often controversial American war comics was at DC. In fact, even as Archie Goodwin’s stunning yet tragically mis-marketed quartet of classics were waking up a generation, the home of Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman was also a cornucopia of gritty, intriguing, beautifully illustrated battle tales presenting combat on a variety of fronts and from many differing points of view. As the very public Vietnam War escalated, and secret wars in central America festered unseen, 1960s America increasingly endured a Home Front death-struggle pitting deeply-ingrained Establishment social attitudes against a youthful freedom-from-old-values-oriented generation with a radical new sensibility. In response, the military-themed comic books of DC (or rather National Periodical Publishing, as it then was) became ever bolder and more innovative…

That stellar and challenging creative period came to an end as all strip trends do, but some of the more impressive and popular features (Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank, Unknown Soldier, The War That Time Forgot, The Losers, Enemy Ace) survived well into the second – post horror-boom – superhero revival as character not genre vehicles. Currently, English-language fans of war stories are grievously underserved in both print and digital formats, but this magnificent monochrome reprint compendium is still readily available. It collects Our Army At War #1-20, from August 1952 – March 1954. With war comics resurgent, it was a new anthology title that was on sale from June 11th 1952 which ran for 301 issues until March 1977, whereupon it was redesignated Sgt. Rock and soldiered on (sorry, couldn’t stop myself!) until #422 cover dated June 1988. The appeal of that style and genre has largely vanished from comic books but once, these were hugely popular casual entertainments for kids and others.

Pure anthology Our Army At War very much followed Harvey Kurtzman’s EC model for Two-Fisted Tales & Frontline Combat, primarily featuring the proud American fighting man on a variety of historical battlefronts including the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI and Korean War even whilst concentrating the majority of its creative firepower on WWII – in which the target readership’s fathers and older relatives had just fought.

Sans ado or preamble, OAAW #1 opens with ‘Last Performance!’ as Dave Wood, Frank Giacoia & Joe Giella reveal how former acrobats Eddie March & Bert Brown escape a deadly German ambush thanks to their old act and a little common sense, after which Kanigher, Irv Novick & Bernard Sachs take us to the Pacific theatre of war and explain – without dialogue – how an entrenched marine patrol only survive Japanese scare tactics by when they ‘Dig Your Foxhole Deep!’

Fanciful – if not outright whimsical – notions proliferated in this era and David Khan, Irwin Hasen & Bob Lander gleefully kick off the practise as a Kentucky mountain man (and a dog!) unused to combat boots provides invaluable pedal intel at the Kasserine Pass thanks to ‘Radar Feet!’ prior to Dave Wood, Gil Kane & Giella ending the issue with inter service rivalry in the Pacific as ‘SOS Seabees!’ sees US troops and navy engineers forced to cooperate to survive…

In issue #2, Kanigher returned his much-loved boxing-as-combat metaphor in ‘Champ!’ with Carmine Infantino & Giella limning a yarn of sporting rivals meeting again over gunsights and in foxholes, before Dave Wood, Bob Oksner & Sachs depicted a tense moment as a sentry spots what might be Germans disguised as GIs in ‘Second Best!’, after which a soldiers takes drastic action to ensure a little peace and quiet to finish ‘A Letter from Joe!’ (by Hal Kantor, Mort Drucker & Lander). The issue ends on Khan, Novick & Lander’s ‘Survival for Shorty!’ as a sensitive short-tempered pee-wee powerhouse strives to proves he’s as big a man as any of his team as they raid a Japanese stronghold…

Kanigher, Novick & Sachs open #3 with the war deep inside a US Marine’s head as he endures the pressure of another ‘Patrol!’ even as Wood, Kane & Lander offer ‘No Exit!’ for former stunt-bikers Skeets & Wally when the former’s combat-trauma traps them behind enemy lines with crucial knowledge of a forthcoming surprise attack…

Kantor & Eugene Hughes then prove superstitious Roy has no need of his lost ‘Lucky Charm!’, before Kantor, Drucker & Lander complete the issue with the tale of ‘Frightened Hero!’ Perry Walters whose tardiness made him a lifelong mouse… until he hit the D-Day beaches…

The contemporaneous Korean conflict led in OAAW #4 where Kanigher, Novick & Sachs reveal the lonely response – and fate – of the ‘Last Man!’ in a unit wiped out by the pitiless enemy after which Kantor & Bernie Krigstein introduce a soldier hoping to take it easy until his ‘Replacement!’ shows up, before Kantor, Ray Schott & Lander, explore the job similarities of a peacetime mailman once more carrying a ‘Special Delivery!’ through the mud and weather of the 38th Parallel. Kantor, Jerry Grandenetti & Giella then finish the forays with an ironically barbed close look at the ‘Soft Job!’ tank men face every day in modern warfare…

Staying in Korea, #5 opens with Kanigher, Novick & Sachs wryly exploring the perennial problem of keepsakes in ‘Battle Souvenir!’, whilst Kantor, Oksner & Lander cover the other regular misdemeanour of illicit underage enlistment as a seasoned officer must act quickly after finding out the age of new unit replacement ‘Baby Face!’. Combat engineers then get a moment in the spotlight – and mud – blowing a crucial bridge in ‘T.N.T. Bouquet!’  courtesy of John Reed, Gene Colan & Sy Barry, after which Khan & Hughes detail the rocky ride of an elite ‘Ranger!’ in a unit of ordinary dogface… until the shooting starts…

Variety overrules contemporaneity in #6 as Kanigher, Novick & Sachs head back to the American Civil War for ‘Battle Flag!’: the lyrical tale of a grandfather recalling what carrying that bloody banner as boy-soldier cost, and followed by a highly experimental yarn from Kantor, Grandenetti & Ray Burnley that’s tantamount to science fiction, wherein a ‘Killer Sub!’ meets its fate. Robert Bernstein & Hughes take us to Korea next as a GI foils a cunning booby trap and makes a mortal enemy determined to have the ‘Last Laugh!’ at any cost before Kahn, Colan & Giella close the issue with the charming tale of a US soldier and a music (and democracy!) loving Korean boy happy to help out as ‘Kid Private!’…

Cover-dated February 1953 and on sale from December 10th 1952, OAAW #7 closed the first year with a mixed bag of yarns beginning with ‘Dive Bomber!’ by Kanigher, Grandenetti & Giella, wherein the novice team piloting a Curtiss Helldiver in a mass attack against the Japanese Navy are shot down and must survive all perils…

Kahn, Drucker, Lander then upgrade to Korea and trace the perilously peripatetic path of a US service pistol as narrated by ‘I, The Gun!’, prior to Reed, Colan & Lander detailing how lost puppy Tugger saves a doughboy patrol from murderous ‘Counterattack!’ before we close on alpine WWII combat as Wood, Colan & Giella’s ‘Mountain Trooper!’ learns a lesson about glamour jobs before returning to the good old infantry…

In #8, Kanigher & Novick’s ‘One Man Army!’ cogitates on being a cog in a massive war machine before single handedly conquering a communist Korean citadel, whilst Wood & Krigstein spectacularly play with the form in ‘Toy Soldier!’ – the short saga of an amazing inventor in the US trenches of the Great War. Reed & Colan then present ‘Rearguard!’ action as a lonely man holds off an unseen army and ponders his life before a brief cessation of hostilities as Wood, Grandenetti & Giella test argumentative sibling soldiers with roaring rapids, crucial supply deliveries and many, many murderous “commies” chasing then through the ‘Pusan Pocket!’…

Opening #9, uncanny coincidence and the powers of a jinx concern the crew of US submarine Flying Fish after picking up a message in a bottle written by members of their WWI namesake. The eerie tale of the ‘Undersea Raider!’ (by Kahn, Colan & Giella) ends badly and portentously for all before segueing into Wood, Grandenetti & Sachs’ generational saga of US pilots whose glorious deaths in combat overwhelm the latest scion and compel Joey Rickard to become a ‘Runaway Hero’ by joining the infantry in Korea. However, destiny is a harsh mistress…

Bernstein & Hughes test out motor pool instruction theory when novice corporal Jim Terris goes off book to deliver crucial supplies by making a ‘Fatal Choice!’ after which Kahn & Krigstein imaginatively refocus the ‘Eyes of the Artillery’ when a fighter pilot is forced to become a specialist bomber in primitive crate to destroy a deadly North Korean supergun…

Kanigher & Krigstein lead in #10, with Signal Corps veterans Don & Steve adding to their already lethal workload as ‘Soldiers of the High Wire’ when their commanding officer sanctions a broadcast for the folks back home and they have to keep the civilians alive and recording despite attacks from jets, tanks and even Korean guerillas…

‘Deadlock!’ by Wood, Colan & Giella then details how a downed American pilot and his Nazi counterpart are trapped in a standoff on a sinking submarine, each anticipating rescue by their side as time runs out. Next, Kantor, Grandenetti & Giella reveal how ‘Chessmen of War’ decide the course of a battle when captured Red Chinese Major Tao plays a fateful game with his US interrogator, after which we close on Kahn & Krigstein depict the ultimate triumph of a ‘Fighting Mess Sergeant’ taken prisoner by North Koreans…

Our Army At War #11 opens in the sky where Kanigher, Novick & Sachs compare the attitudes of Kamikaze pilots and US swabbies shooting them down in ‘Scratch One Meatball!’, whilst Kahn, Colan & Giella stick with the last days of WWII – specifically Luzon island – for ‘Guerilla Fighters’, where a grizzled yank sergeant and a young Filipino recruit make things hot for the embattled occupiers. Kantor & Hughes stick to same war but head to Europe for a ‘Combat Report’ as embedded war correspondent (albeit for a company newspaper) Davey Brown gets fed up with evasions from GIs and makes his own news before Wood & Krigstein return to Korea and depict how an embarrassing present from home can change a ‘Soldier’s Luck!’

William Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella secure pole position in #12 as ‘Flying Blind’ sees a cynical solitary US Navy pilot learn to trust when he is injured in mid-air even as Kahn, Colan & Giella oversee the reuniting of a team of track & field sportsmen on a Pacific island infested with Japanese killers and forced to endure a ‘Death Relay’ to survive, before Reed, Colan & Sachs define the ‘End of the Line!’ for a publicity-seeking fool who always had to be first in peacetime and paid the price for it in battle-shattered Belgium. Kanigher & Novick pause the fighting for the moment in a tale of performance anxiety as a paratrooper frets over ‘The Big Drop!’ on the night before D-Day…

Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella again lead in OAAW #13 as the torch of mentor/guardian passes from one pilot to another above bomb-shattered Japan in moody yarn ‘Ghost Ace!’, after which Wood, Novick & Sachs describe how ‘Combat Fever!’ chills one hypochondriac GI as his unit establish a beachhead on the ferociously occupied Solomon Islands. Human frailty and pomposity are punctured in Kahn, Colan & Giella’s ‘Phantom Frogman’ as a Navy hero describes the mysterious undersea guardian angel actually responsible for all his feats and medals before the issues closes on ‘Minuteman of Saratoga!’ by Nat Barnett & Krigstein wherein cocky young Roger Holcomb eventually proves his worth to his elders in the proud militia…

The concentration on American servicemen ended in #14 as Woolfolk & Krigstein share the militarily profound and uplifting tale of a boy more steadfast than Napolean himself and known forever after as the ‘Drummer of Waterloo’, before Kahn, Colan & Giella return to quarrelsome GIs in a foxhole inadvertently capture Nazi bigwigs in ‘Double or Nothing!’ Woolfolk, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito then detail the casual heroism of a military doctor who goes all out to save his patients as a ‘Soldier Without Armor’, in advance of the same author – with Grandenetti & Giella – exposing one soldier’s phobia over heavy ordnance… and how he was cured by a ‘Killer Tank’…

Kanigher, Novick & Sy Barry claimed the lead spot in #15 as ‘Thunder in the Skies’ exposed the pressures of night bombing raids over Germany as experienced by the waist gunner of a Flying Fortress, before Art Wallace, Colan & Sachs visit Italy as a history loving GI – one of the US divisions trying to kick out the Nazis – becomes an unwilling ‘Tourist with T.N.T.’ Reed, Colan & Giella then embrace 1918 and the Battle of Chateau Thierry as members of the 4th Marine Brigade take ‘A Sunday Walk’, into utter carnage before a ceasefire of sorts closes the issue with Reed, Grandenetti & Sachs’ ‘The Fifteen-Minute War’ – a brutal, barbaric fug-enshrouded 1942-set battle for Massacre Ridge on Attu in the Aleutians…

Obsessive hunger for vengeance grips hard in OAAW #16’s opener, ‘A Million-to-One Shot!’ as Kanigher, Novick & Giella detail how the lone survivor of a Japanese strafing attack on shipwrecked sailors turns into a quest spanning the entire Pacific war. Nat Barnett, Andru & Esposito cover a typically gung-ho ‘Battle of the Bugles!’ during the Spanish-American War’s attack on San Juan Hill, before Reed, Colan & Giella channel cyclic history for a 1940 ‘Last Stand!’ in the mountains of Greece with eerie echoes of 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. Ending on a lighter note, France “Ed” Herron, Andru & Esposito share the story of a street corner in liberated French city Metz that suddenly comes under Nazi attack with only a ‘Traffic Cop Soldier!’ to save the day…

Kanigher & Novick detail combat on skis to start #17, as ‘The White Death!’ follows an elite snow-skimming team ordered to take a key mountain pass untouchable by bomber raids, whilst Barnett, Colan & Giella draw the ‘Sword for a Statue’: revealing the strangest exploit of the War of 1812 and West Point’s mythology. Then, Wallace, Hughes & Giella recount an aspiring author’s ‘Battle Without Bullets!’ and unbelievable victory over his German captors, prior to Herron, Grandenetti & Sachs showing how a ‘Washed-Out Cadet!’ failure to make pilot officer is the Japanese’s loss after he finds his true killing calling…

Kahn, Colan & Giella open #18 in WWII as a Navy rescue helicopter pilot continually causes trouble in ‘The Duel’ by picking fights with Nazi infantry and even shipping and U-Boats, after which we head back to 1775 where ‘Frontier Fighter’ Mr. Wade casually and most effectively tramples all over the old-fashioned rules of combat held dear by his British employers and their French opponents in a frighteningly belligerent tale of early American exceptionalism from Barnett, Grandenetti & Sy Barry. Reed, Andru & Esposito then wittily address a fluke of combat as a simple corporal is rotated out before ever even seeing a Germen. Happily for him his ‘Delayed Action’ getting back to his lines more than makes up for his previous lack of stories to tell his kids. The issue closes with a more serious yarn from Woolfolk, Colan & Sachs as a sleep-deprived Pacific based Marine is constantly told to ‘Wake Up – And Fight!’

Penultimate inclusion OAAW #19 commences with Kanigher & Novick’s ‘The Big Ditch’ as a fighter pilot shot down by a Focke is picked by a Nazi crash boat and interrogated at a hidden rocket base before escaping and destroying it all. That remarkably low concept yarn is made up for by Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella’s ‘No Rank’ as damaged, isolated lone wolf Jack Randall learns the value and responsibilities of leadership, after which historical specialist/veteran Superman and Tomahawk illustrator Fred Ray delivers a potent paean to the Civil War with his Gettysburg-set ‘Stand-In Soldier’, after which Kahn, Colan & Giella play games as ‘G.I. Tarzan’ sees a former ape-man actor employ what he learned on set to flush out Japanese soldiers hiding in lush island jungles…

Closing this vintage veteran-fest, Our Army At War #20 (cover dated March 1954 and on sale from January 4th) sees Kanigher, Grandenetti & Sachs launch proceedings with the life story of USS Lion from the mustering of its crew to the Captain’s command to ‘Abandon Ship!’, whilst Joseph Daffron, Andru & Esposito more light-heartedly trace the fall and rise of a seemingly cursed B-25 bomber in ‘The Flying Crackerbox’. Herron & Frank Giacoia address the hostility and acrimony of defeated southern soldiers in ‘The Blue and the Gray’, and the epic war stories conclude for now with ‘T.N.T. Mail!’ by Woolfolk, Grandenetti & Giella wherein contented loner and voluntary outsider Charlet West at long last learns the value of comradeship during a colossal tank engagement…

With covers by Novick, Infantino, Giella, Giacoia, Kane, Colan, Krigstein & Grandenetti this compilation is technically excellent but suffers from many flaws caused by changing tastes and expanded consciousness. Bombastic, triumphalist and frequently overbearingly jingoistic, this mighty black-&-white treasure trove of combat classics also holds thoughtful, clever and even funny yarns of relatively ordinary guys in the worst times of their lives, making it a monument to a type and style (if not ideology) of storytelling we’re all the poorer without. Hopefully the publishers will wise up soon and begin restoring their like to the wide variety of genre sagas currently available in graphic collections…
© 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Plastic Man – The Origin of Plastic Man


By Jack Cole, Gil Fox, Will Eisner, Reed Crandall, Al Bryant & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-065-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Jack Ralph Cole (December 14, 1914 – August 13, 1958) was one of the most uniquely gifted talents of American Comics’ Golden Age, crafting landmark tales in horror, true crime, war, adventure and especially superhero genres. His incredible humour-hero Plastic Man remains an unsurpassed benchmark of screwball costumed hi-jinks: frequently copied but never equalled. As the Golden Age faded, Cole could see the writing on the wall and famously jumped into gag and glamour cartooning, becoming a household name when his brilliant watercolour gags and stunningly saucy pictures began running in Playboy from the fifth issue. Ever-restless and innately unsettled, Cole eventually moved into the lofty realms of newspaper strips before, in May 1958, achieving his lifelong ambition by launching a syndicated newspaper strip, the domestic comedy Betsy and Me.

On August 13th 1958 at the moment of his biggest break he took his own life.

The unexplained reasons for his death are not as important as the triumphs of Cole’s artistic life and this captivating paperback (reprinting a rare hardback compilation from 2004) provides a fascinating insight into a transitional moment in his artistic development.

Without doubt – and despite great successes with other heroic characters as well as in the crime and horror genres – Cole’s greatest creation was the zany, malleable Plastic Man. He quickly grew from a minor B-character into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the Golden Age and seemed to be the perfect fantastic embodiment of the sheer energy, verve and creativity of that era when anything went and comics-makers were prepared to try out every outlandish idea…

This premier trade paperback collection reprints the Stretchable Sleuth’s astounding exploits from anthology title Police Comics #1-36 and Plastic Man #1-2, covering the period August 1941 to November 1944. These whacky exploits are unearthed and unleashed from a time when nobody really knew the rules. Creators, publishers and readers were prepared to try literally anything and, by sheer Darwinian processes, the cream of the crop always rose to the top…

The magic begins with a little added extra as most of these tales have retroactively been awarded titles; although most originally appeared without any. The debut and origin of Plastic Man happened in the middle of Police Comics #1, a brief but beguiling 6-pager introducing mobster Eel O’Brian, who is shot by a guard during a factory robbery. Soaked by a vat of acid and instantly, callously, abandoned by his partners in crime, Eel crawls away and is found by a monk who nurses him back to health and proves to the hardened thug that the world is not just filled with brutes and vicious chisellers all after a fast buck.

His entire outlook altered, and somehow now blessed with incredible malleability – he surmises it was the chemical bath mingling with his bullet wounds – Eel opts to put his new powers to use cleaning up the scum he used to run with. Creating the identity of Plastic Man he thrashes his own gang and begins his stormy association with the New York City cops…

Still written, drawn and lettered by Cole, in Police #2 ‘Dueling the Dope Smugglers’ sees Plas apply for a job with the cops, only to be told he can join up if he accomplishes the impossible task of capturing the notorious and slippery Eel O’Brian, currently the Most Wanted crook in eight states…

Ever wily, the Rubber-Band Man bides his time and wins the position anyway by cracking an international dope racket (that’s illegal narcotics, kids) stretching from Canada to Chinatown, whilst in #3’s ‘The Pinball Racket’ he fully capitalises on his underworld reputation and connections to bust up a nefarious mob led by a cunning crook with ears inside the Police Department itself.

The ‘Crime School for Delinquent Girls’ run by Madame Brawn pits the Silly Putty Paladin against a brutal babe intent on taking over the city mobs, and despite getting a thorough trouncing, she and her gang of gal gorillas are back for next issue, having turned her burly hand to a spot of piracy in ‘The Return of Madame Brawn.’ Police Comics #5 (December 1942) also marked a major turning point for Plastic Man, as with that issue he took the cover-spot away from fellow adventurer and failed superstar Firebrand; a position Plas would hold until costumed heroes faded from popularity at the end of the 1940s.

In PC #6 Plas’ burgeoning popularity was graphically reflected in a spookily murderous mystery in ‘The Case of the Disembodied Hands’, whilst in #7 – as Eel – he infiltrates and dismantles the massed forces of the ‘United Crooks of America!’ before #8 has the hero seriously outmatched but still triumphant when battling a colossal, city-crushing giant ‘The Sinister Eight Ball!’ and its decidedly deranged inventor. In #9 the yarns reached an early peak of macabre malevolence as Plastic Man foils a traitorous little mutant dubbed Hairy Arms in ‘Satan’s Son Sells Out to the Japs!’: a darkly bizarre thriller which embraces the hero’s meteoric rise by increasing the regular story-length from six to nine pages.

The carnival of cartoon grotesques continued in #10 as hayseed wannabe-cop Omar McGootch accidentally involves the Malleable Mystery-man in ‘The Cyclop Caper’, a Nazi plot to steal a new secret weapon, whilst #11 finds Plastic Man in mortal combat with the spirit of a 17th century London alchemist whose brain is unearthed and accidentally transplanted into a wounded spitfire pilot. Suddenly gaining incredible mystic powers and menacing mankind, ‘The Brain of Cyrus Smythe’ is still no match for the Pliable Powerhouse…

In Police #12 a desperate blackmailer joined forces with criminal astrologer ‘The Sinister Swami’, who predicts perpetual failure unless Plastic Man is killed, prior to Cole introducing his second most memorable character in #13’s ‘Presenting… the Man Who Can’t be Harmed’.

Despite himself, indolent felonious slob Woozy Winks accidentally saved a wizard’s life and was gifted in return with a gift of invulnerability: all the forces of nature henceforth shielding him from injury or death. Flipping a coin the oaf decided to get rich quick with his power. Unable to stop him, Plas appeals to his sentimentality and better nature and, once Woozy repented, was compelled to keep him around in case he strayed again…

Unlike Omar, Woozy Winks – equal parts Artful Dodger and Mr. Micawber, with the verbal skills and intellect of Lou Costello’s screen persona – would prove the perfect foil for Plastic Man: a lazy, venal, ethically fluid reprobate with sticky fingers who got all the best lines, possessed inexplicable charm and had a habit of finding trouble. It was the perfect marriage of inconvenience…

As stories jumped to 13 pages the new team were set on the trail of Eel O’Brian himself. PC #14 began the snipe hunt with ‘Oh, Plastic Man!’, but during the chase Woozy stumbled onto a slavery racket which soon foundered against his insane luck and Plastic Man’s ingenuity. In a hilarious twist Plas then let Woozy arrest him, but then escaped from under the smug cops’ very noses. When war scientists investigated Plastic Man and Woozy’s uncanny abilities in #15 it led to murder, a hot pursuit to Mexico City and almost a new Ice Age thanks to ‘The Weather Weapon’, whilst in #16 disgruntled Native Americans organised the ‘Revenge of the Chief Great Warrior’ and a movie cast succumbed one by one to a murderous madman in #17 before hilarious #18 revealed what happened after ‘The Drafting of Plastic Man’…

The shockingly intolerable dilemma of all branches of the Armed Services fighting to recruit him was only solved when the President himself seconded Plas to the FBI, where his first case – with Woozy stuck to him like human(ish) moss – saw the Stretchable Sleuth investigating ‘The Forest of Fear!’: a 15 page terror-tale involving a cabal of killers and an army of animated oaks. Police #20 celebrated opening of the ‘Woozy Winks Detective Agency’ as, with Plas temporarily laid up wounded, the rotund rascal took centre stage to solve a robbery in a frantically surreal extravaganza reminiscent of the screwball antics of the musical show/movie Hellzapoppin’ and the anarchic shtick of the Marx Brothers…

The strip just kept getting more popular, and regardless of resource rationing the next step was inevitable. Without doubt – and despite other comic book innovations and triumphs such as Silver Streak, Daredevil, The Claw, Death Patrol, Midnight, Quicksilver, The Barker and The Comet, as well as his uniquely twisted take on the crime and horror tales – Cole’s greatest creation was zany, malleable Plastic Man who exploded from minor back-up into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the Golden Age. Plas was the wondrously perfect fantastic embodiment of the sheer energy, verve and creativity in an era when anything went and comics-makers were prepared to try out every outlandish idea. Moreover he had a classic literary redemption arc and was funny as hell…

Plastic Man debuted in 1943, plopping onto newsstands on December 29th. The premier issue somehow circumvented shortages and government rationing gripping the country at this time, and publishers shaded their bets by giving it a long, Long, LONG shelf life. It was cover-dated February 1944 – but you won’t see any off sale date on the cover – and it was released through subsidiary company Vital Books, rather than as a straight addition to Quality Comics’ prestigious but officially restricted line.

Regardless of the name on the masthead, the mammoth, 64 page tome offered a quartet of stunning tales of humour, heroic hi-jinks and horror, beginning with cover-featured ‘The Game of Death’ in which Plas and his inimitable, generally unwanted assistant set upon the trail of an engrossing mystery and incredible threat posed by a rich man’s gambling club which concealed a sadistic death cult using games of chance to recruit victims – and new disciples. Said assistant was still a lazy slovenly slob, paltry pickpocket, and utterly venal, but he was slavishly loyal and just as blessed with invulnerability: all the forces of nature would henceforth protect him from injury or death – if said forces felt like it….

In ‘Now You See it, Now You Don’t’, the rotund rogue was involved with a goofy Professor and became the wrong guy to watchdog an invisibility spray. The boffin wanted to sell it to the Army but Japanese spies captured both the formula and Plastic Man, and dispatched them to Tokyo for disposal. Of course this simply allowed the Man of a Thousand Shapes to deliver such a sound and vicariously joyful thrashing to the “Dishonourable Sons of Nippon” that it must have had every American kid who saw it jumping for joy…

Cole then touched heartstrings with the tragic tale of ‘Willie McGoon, Dope’ as a hulking but gentle simpleton disfigured by neighbourhood kids became the embittered pawn of a career criminal. The duo’s terrifying crime-wave paralysed the city until Plas and Woozy stepped in. before the stunning solo package closed with ‘Go West Young Plastic Man, Go West’, as Woozy buys a gold mine from a guy in a bar and greedily gallops to Tecos Gulch to make his fortune. By the time Plas arrives to save him from his folly, the corpulent clown has already been framed for rustling and murder…

The pace and invention didn’t let up in monthly Police Comics and #21 featured conspiracy by a financial cabal attempting to corner the nation’s travel and shipping routes. Only one man can counter the impending monopoly but he is missing, seduced by the prognostications of a circus fortune teller. If Plas can’t rescue Sylvester Smirk from ‘The Menace of Serpina’ the country will grind to a standstill. In #22, ‘The Eyes Have It!’ pits Plas & Woozy against a child-trafficking human horror The Sphinx who exercises all his vile resources to regain possession of a little mute boy who has seen too much, before #23’s purportedly supernatural thriller sees the Stretchable Sleuth prove ‘The Ghost Train’ to be no such thing, but only a scam by a shareholder trying to buy up a rail line the Government needs for vital war work.

A rash of tire thefts (also severely rationed during war time) in PC #24 has a grotesquely  sinister purpose as gangsters and a mad scientist join forces to synthesise evil knock-offs of their greatest enemy. ‘The Hundred Plastic Men’ don’t pan out though and Woozy again steals the show – and sundry other items – when addiction to mystery stories leads him and Plas on a deadly chase to discover culprit and cause of #25’s ‘The Rare Edition Murders’.

Over and above his artistic virtuosity, Cole was an astonishingly adept writer. His regular 15-page cases were packed with clever, innovative notions, sophisticated character shtick and far more complex plots than any of his competitors. In #26’s ‘Body, Mind and Soul’ he starts with Plas’ FBI boss discovering his shady past, and builds on it as the exposed O’Brian agrees to take on three impossible cases to prove he really has reformed.

From there it’s all rollercoaster action as the Pliable Paladin rounds up brutish Slugger Crott, ferrets out the true identity of the city’s smartest mob boss and ends the depredations of a tragically cursed werewolf. The rotund rascal again took centre stage – and the cover – in #27 as ‘Woozy Winks, Juror’ hilariously endangered the very nature and sacred process of jurisprudence after being excluded from jury duty. After all, he only had a small criminal record and the impish imbecile was determined to serve, so when a sharp operator gives him a few tips, Woozy was so grateful that he decided to turn his voluminous coat…

The star-struck schmuck dominated again in #28 as Hollywood called and the Flexible Fed agreed to star in a film. However with Mr. Winks as his manager it was inevitable that Plastic Man’s movie would start with intrigue, sex and murder before ending as a furious fun-filled fiasco. Trailing America’s biggest tax-evader draws Plas to ‘Death in Derlin’s Castle’, as the FBI’s Odd Couple follow an absence of money to an historic pile and nefarious scheme with moody movie echoes of Citizen Kane and The Cat and the Canary. Police Comics #30 then offers outrageously odd and supremely surreal saga ‘Blinky Winks and Gooie Louie’ as Plas & Woozy endure incredible peril when ruthless butter-leggers begin supplying illicit spreads to the city’s dairy-deprived (rationing again) denizens. Even dedicated crime-busters like Winks find it hard to resist the lure of the lard, and when a creamy trail unfortunately leads to Woozy’s uncle Blinky, justice must be done. Of course, there are lots of hard-to-find foodstuffs to be found on a farm, but that’s just a happy coincidence…

Coner-dated June 1944, Police Comics #31 offers an outrageous examination of current affairs as the chameleonic cop investigates ‘The Mangler’s Slaughter Clinic’ wherein fit & healthy draft-dodgers go to get brutalised, broken and guaranteed certifiably unfit for active duty. The biggest mistake these canny crooks make is kidnapping Woozy and trying their limb-busting procedures on a man(like) protected by the forces of nature…

Police #32 details ‘The La Cucaracha Caper’ wherein ultra-efficient Plas is forcibly sent on vacation to give cops and FBI a break and time to process all the crooks the Ductile Detective has corralled. What no-one expected was the last gangsters left un-nabbed would also head south of the border to escape their nemesis (and Woozy) who soon find far more than Sun, Señoritas and Bullfights in a sleepy Mexican resort…

‘Plastic Man’s Rubber Armor’ headlined in #33 as a crazed saboteur stretches our hero’s resources and reason in his mad mission to destroy a vital prototype plane for the most implausible of reasons, which all neatly segues into Plastic Man #2 (August 1944), offering a quartet of brilliant gems, beginning with ‘The Gay Nineties Nightmare’, wherein Plas & Woozy trail the worst rats of the underworld to a hidden corner of America where they can’t be touched. Due to clerical errors, No Place, USA had been left off all official maps and huffily withdrew from the Union in the 1890s. The FBI can’t enforce justice there, but maybe two good men – or one and Woozy – can…

Satire is replaced by outrageous slapstick as mild-mannered Elmer Body became a man who could switch bodies in ‘Who’s Who’, using his newfound gift to experience all the joys and thrills his dull life had denied him. When Plas realises he couldn’t catch or hold the identity thief, all he could do was offer better candidates for possession…

In hot pursuit of Fargo Freddie, the stretchable sleuth accidentally chases the killer into a Mexican volcano, and, thinking the case closed heads home, unaware that a miraculous circumstance has transformed his target into ‘The Lava Man’. His resultant revenge rampage sets nations ablaze until Plas resorts to brains and not bouncy brawn. The issue closes with a tale of urban horror as Plas & Woozy are dispatched to a quiet hamlet where everyone’s been driven crazy – even the medics and FBI agents sent in to investigate – in ‘Welcome to Coroner’s Corners’…

An untitled tale in Police #34 introduces a well-meaning if screwball campaigner determined to end Plas’ maltreatment of malefactors by organising “Serena Sloop’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Criminals”. Sadly, the old biddy’s philanthropy takes a big hit after she actually meet the crooks she’s championed, whilst ‘The Confession of Froggy Fink’ in PC #35 threatens to tear the entire underworld apart: if Plas gets hold of it before so many concerned members of the mastermind’s gang do. Cue frantic chases, and lots of double-dealing back-stabbing cathartic violence…

We fold for now with #36 as a gang of brutal thieves hide out in the isolated but idyllic paradise of ‘Dr. Brann’s Health Clinic’, turning the unprofitable resort into a citadel of crime… until Plas &Woozy opt to take a rest cure themselves…

With stunning covers by Cole, Gil Fox, Will Eisner, Reed Crandall & Al Bryant, these tales remain exciting, innovative, thrilling, breathtakingly original, funny, scary and visually intoxicating over 80 years later. Jack Cole’s Plastic Man is a truly unique creation that has only grown in stature and appeal and this is a magical comics experience fans would be crazy to deny themselves.
© 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman The Golden Age Sundays volume 1: 1943-1946


By Jerry Siegel and “DC Comics”, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley, Stan Kaye, Ira Snappin, &various (IDW/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-797-8 (HB)

This book includes REALLY Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times and under the madness of war.

The comic book industry would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s bold and unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre… if not an actual art form.

The Man of Tomorrow was shamelessly copied, adapted by countless inspired writers and artists for numerous publishers, spawning an incomprehensible army of imitators and variations within three years of his summer 1938 debut.

Yes, 87 YEARS… and still counting!

The intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and triumphal wish-fulfilment expressed by the early Action Ace expanded to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reformist dramas, science fiction/fantasy, romance, comedy and, once war in Europe and the East also engulfed America, absorbed and reinforced patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do. Superman was master of the world and whilst transforming and dictating the shape of the fledgling funnybook industry, relentlessly expanded into all areas of entertainment media.

We might think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as the epitome and acme of comic strip creation, but the truth is that very soon after his debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, and Sherlock Holmes. Diehard comics fans regard our purest, most enduring icons in primarily graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, The Avengers and their hyperkinetic ilk long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures, instantly recognised in mass markets across all platforms and age ranges. Far more people have viewed or heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comics.

However, his globally syndicated newspaper strips reached untold millions, and by the time of his 20th anniversary – at the very start of what we know as the Silver Age of Comics – he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial regular and starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons, as well as two films and a novel by George Lowther.

Superman was a perennial wellspring for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers and had just ended his first smash live-action television serial. In his future were many more shows, a stage musical, many blockbuster movies and almost seamless succession of games, bubblegum cards and TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even superdog Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

However, in his formative years the small screen was simply an expensive novelty for many. The Action Ace achieved true mass market fame through a different medium: one not that far removed from his print origins.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the last century newspaper strips were the Holy Grail all American cartoonists/graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and frequently the world – they might be seen by millions if not billions, of readers and were generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books. At that time it also paid far better, and rightly so. Some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture. Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Blondie, Charlie Brown and many more escaped humble and tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Some still do…

After years lost in obscurity, almost all of Superman’s early newspaper strip exploits are at last available to aficionados and the curious newcomer in tomes such as this one, compiled under the auspices of the Library of American Comics. Showcasing the tough transitional period when Shuster’s diminishing eyesight overlapped Siegel’s military service and other minds and hands increasingly steered their super-baby the full colour strips here cover episodes #184 – #353, covering May 9th 1943 to August 4th 1946.

The daily Superman newspaper comic strip launched on 16th January 1939, supplemented by the full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Initially crafted by Siegel & Shuster and an ever-growing studio – Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring – the mammoth, relentless task required the additional talents of luminaries like Jack Burnley and writers Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz, especially as the draft deprived DC and McClure of those talented gentlemen. Managed by the McClure Syndicate, the feature ran continuously from 1939 until May 1966, appearing at its peak in more than 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers, boasting a combined readership of more than 20 million. When the Christopher Reeve Superman film franchise began, a second newspaper strip did too, starting in 1978 as The World’s Greatest Superheroes before becoming simply Superman. It folded in 1985. The combined series totalled almost 12,000 newspaper strips, but I strongly suspect that no matter how good the new movie is, the parlous state of newspaper publishing won’t be able to support a fresh tabloid iteration. I would love to be wrong…

For most of the war years Wayne Boring and Jack Burnley handled the visuals. Seigel was called up in 1943, as were Sikela and Nowak, and scripts were anonymously generated in-house at DC. When Burnley began his Starman comic book series, Boring (working for DC/National, not Shuster’s Superman Studio) was back on Sundays, with inker Stan Kaye signing up for the long haul, reinforced by steadfast Ira Snappin filling narrative boxes and word balloons throughout.

For reasons covered in previous collections, Superman was generally stuck on the home front as ordinary US fighting men proudly got blown up and maimed, but as the war progressed, those high-minded and pragmatically framed (editorial) edicts began to slip. Let’s face it, even the youngest readers knew Superman could have ended the conflict in hours but, like USO tours, the Man of Steel’s job was entertainment not solutionising. Thus, at least initially, content remained carefully curated tales of emotional dilemmas, romances and pedestrian criminality rather than muscle-flexing bombast, utilising mystery, fashion, wit and satire as substitutes for bludgeoning action…

Following affable appreciation in ‘An Introduction’ by Mark Waid, weekly wonderment commences in all its vibrant glory at the height of hostilities. Sadly, individual serial stories are untitled, so you’ll just have to manage with my meagre synopses of individual yarns; and it’s important to note that during this time Seigel finally left for boot camp and a number of often anonymous scribes were pulled in to take his place…

We open with Burnley rendering a serial saga as 4F reporter Clark Kent is assigned to follow and write on the experience of “Model Air Cadet” Dave Cooper as he progresses through training. Naturally, the proposed series presents a perfect opportunity for spies to deliver a shattering propaganda coup, but even after sneaky Nazi uber-strategist Eyeglasses takes charge of a sustained but continually failing campaign of sabotage, character assassination, framing and attempted murder, somehow Dave gets ever nearer to his goal of serving his country as an American Airman without ever knowing how much Superman helped…

With Boring at the drawing board a whole new concept took over the Sunday strip from August 15th as the Action Ace – responding to mail from servicemen overseas – sets up wish-fulfilment service ‘Superman’s Service for Servicemen’.

Apparently based on genuine GI letters from service people reading the strip wherever they were stationed, the following weeks and months found the hero scanning a postcard and then making a wish come true. These included flying soldiers across the world to get the most out of 24-hours passes; playing cupid; chasing off Home Front wolves and solving other “Dear John…” crises; checking for infidelity (he even helps WACs confirm that their far-deployed lovers are staying true!); crushing an invasion of sabotage-intent Gremlins infesting Metropolis and getting one Pacific-stranded soldier home in time for Christmas… and the birth of his first child…

Ranging far and wide, Superman delivers a kangaroo to an officer’s little girl; delivers late or lost mail to every stranded warrior; helps women decide which branch of the auxiliary services they should volunteer for; tracks down four separated pals lost on different missions; handles the KP duties for an entire army camp; supplies a busload of burlesque entertainers for joy-strapped GIs; assuages nervous mothers’ concerns on the lack of luxury in service barracks; criss-crosses oceans to facilitate marriages; retrains square pegs in over their heads; mediates service legal disputes; helps one lonely soldier enlist his pet pooch and much, much more…

Naturally, any enemy shipping, aviation, ordnance or personal encountered during these humanitarian sorties did not fare well at the mighty hands of the Man of Steel, such as a second sneak attack of 200 Japanese bombers seeking to ambush embattled troops and a similar land-based assault on our boys. Eventually as newspaper time catches up with real-world events, Superman acts as escort to flighty Sally Wilshire as she witnesses first-hand the D-Day landing and beyond…

Sadly, not included here is an oddment of publishing history and doctrine that will hopefully make it to future editions. In 1943, McClure – concerned that circulation might dip if Superman did not appear regularly – urged DC to create a spin-off feature. The abortive result was Lois, Lane, Girl Reporter. Intended as filler for emergencies, a trial run of 12 strips ran above Superman Sunday pages in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, sporadically between  October 24th 1943 and February 27th 1944, but are not seen here…

Back on the Superman Service, the ultimate expression of the service was when the Wonder of the Age astoundingly grants the wish of arrogant Japanese Major Saki Sukiyaki, and turns a planned propaganda triumph for the foe into a spectacular victory for democracy…

After more than a year, as the war staggered to its conclusion, continuity drama returned to Superman, albeit still laced with contemporary themes. Strip #263 (November 12th 1944) began a tale exploring the traumas of being demobilised as Clark encounters old pal Elmer Kronk, whose casual reaction to a string of near-lethal accidents is most disturbing…

Reinstating Superman’s service for servicemen – with a side-order of civilian reintegration – took the feature into the last year of the conflict with the emphasis very much on mopping up and going home, but boasts one last bizarre hurrah spanning #279-282 (March 4th – 25th 1945) as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and rest of the insane inner circle use the service to invite the literal Übermensch to a conference where he can take up his natural place as one of them…

Then Lois exploits her relationship for a private service. Having been a volunteer ambulance driver, she wants the Action Ace to visit and cheer up disabled servicemen. That’s easy enough to accomplish but the hero runs with the idea and organises an entire support organisation from those women no longer employed as war workers, but it’s a big job with some weird turns in store. Before long the Man of Tomorrow is finally battling Japanese soldiers in the skies over the Pacific, before heading home to help a young man struggling with uninformed parents and a massive case of “battle fatigue”, and another poor soul who somehow mislaid the army’s cash payroll…

Although the war against Japan ended with unconditional surrender on August 14th 1945 – and officially on September 2nd – preprepared stories kept coming that kept affairs on a strictly martial note. In #306 (September 9th) the failing militarists instigated a scheme to create their own superman with crudely hilarious (by 1940s standards) results, before Superman played matchmaker to a marriage-hungry war-hero seeking a “Dream Girl” to wed…

A sign of changed times came at last with episode #317 (November 25th 1945) as a thematic reset looked forward by looking back. Here, a much enhanced and expanded origin saga began with Jor-El & Lara accepting doom on Krypton, infant Kal-El’s flight to Earth, childhood in Smallville and Clark’s first days at the Daily Planet and nights as Superman…

Clearly the stars were his destination, and the new year brought a new direction. With #326 (27th January 1946) a return to contemporaneity saw the deep thinker Professor Vern build a Rocketship and drag Lois to Saturn with him. Thankfully, when the voyage inevitably hits trouble, Superman is able to follow and rescue them from a thousand perils and the solicitude of oppressive mega civilisation Suprania. It’s a close-run thing though, as fabulous High Queen Arda really likes the Kryptonian and isn’t married at the moment…

A return to Earth in every way prompts a human-scaled story of mystery, murder and romance amongst circus folk as the Man of Tomorrow must navigate a happy course between rivals Sadface the Clown and high wire artist Breakstone as they bring acrimony and woe to Warnum & Wailey’s 3-ring extravaganza whilst battling without let or restraint for the love of comely aerialist Carlotta…

Happily, Lois & Clark are there to adjudicate, referee, spot the deathtraps and reap the headlines in a Big Top thriller comprising episodes #339-353 (28th April – 4th August 1946)…

Although that one concludes on a happy note, generally it’s all To Be Continued…

Superman: The Golden Age Sunday Pages 1943-1946 is the first of three huge (312 x 245mm), lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the earliest and always transitional Man of Tomorrow. It’s an inexpressible joy to see these “lost” stories, offering a far more measured, domesticated and comforting side of America’s most unique contribution to world culture. It’s also a pure delight to see some of the hero’s most engaging yesterdays. Join me and see for yourself…
Superman ™ & © 2013 DC Comics. All rights reserved. The Library of American Comics is a trademark of The Library of American Comics LLC. All rights reserved. SUPERMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics.

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Darkie’s Mob: The Secret War of Joe Darkie


By John Wagner & Mike Weston (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-442-8 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Britain has always had a solid tradition for top-notch comic strips about the Second World War, but the material produced by one radically different publication in the 1970s & 1980s surpassed all previous efforts and has been acknowledged as having transformed the entire art form. Some of the best bits and most memorable moments have been gathered over the intervening decades and current Fleetway license holder Rebellion are doing a sterling job revisiting past glories via their Treasury of British Comics imprint. So too are the equivalent efforts of DC Thomson’s modern combat archives…

Here however is a still-controversial yet sublime series that’s been “At Ease” since Titan Books released this edition way back in 2011. As we again commemorate the end of WWII and Victory over Japan’s loathsome militarist regime, surely this saga is ripe for release again?

Battle was one of the last great British weekly anthologies: a combat-themed anthology comic. It began as Battle Picture Weekly on 8th March 1975 and, through absorption, merger and re-branding became Battle Picture Weekly & Valiant, Battle Action, Battle, Battle Action Force and ultimately Battle Storm Force before itself being combined with the too-prestigious-to-cancel Eagle on January 23rd 1988. Over 673 gore-soaked, politically incorrect, epithet-stuffed, adrenaline-drenched issues, the contents of the blistering periodical gouged its way into the bloodthirsty hearts of a generation. It was consequently responsible for producing some of the best and most influential war stories ever.

These include Major Eazy, D-Day Dawson, The Bootneck Boy, Johnny Red, HMS Nightshade, Rat Pack, Fighter from the Sky, Hold Hill 109, Fighting Mann, Death Squad!, Panzer G-Man, Joe Two Beans, The Sarge please link to 8th May 2025 (star-artist Mike Western’s other best work ever), Hellman of Hammer Force and the stunning and iconic Charley’s War among many others.

The roster of contributors was equally impressive: writers Pat Mills, John Wagner, Steve McManus, Mark Andrew, Gerry Finley-Day, Tom Tully, Eric & Alan Hebden, with art from Colin Page, Pat Wright, Giralt, Carlos Ezquerra, Geoff Campion, Jim Watson, Mike Western, Joe Colquhoun, Carlos Pino, John Cooper, Mike Dorey, Cam Kennedy and more…

One of the most harrowing and memorable series during that reign of blood & honour was an innovative saga of obsession and personal vengeance set in the green hell of Burma in the months following the Japanese invasion and rapid rout of the entrenched British Empire in Spring 1942.

As crafted by John Wagner & Mike Western, Darkie’s Mob is a phenomenally and deservedly well-regarded classic of the genre, disclosing how a mysterious maniac adopts and gradually subverts a lost, broken, demoralised and so very doomed squad of British soldiers. The sinister Svengali’s intent is to on use them to punish Japanese soldiers in ways no normal man could imagine…

This gloriously oversized hardback compilation collects the complete uncompromising saga – which originally ran from 14th August 1976 to 18th June 1977 – in a deluxe monochrome edition which also contains a comprehensive cover gallery and ‘Dead Men Walking’: an effusive introduction by unabashed fan and occasional war-writer Garth Ennis.

After such preliminaries the drama opens: a frenetically fast-paced mystery-thriller beginning in 1946 when Allied troops discover the blood-soaked combat journal of Private Richard Shortland, reported missing along with the rest of his platoon during the frantic retreat from the all-conquering Japanese. The first entry – and the opening initial episode – are dated May 30th 1942, describing a slow descent into the very heart of darkness…

Defeated, despondent, and ready to die, the rag-tag remnants of the mighty British Army are rescued from certain death by uncompromising, unconventional and terrifyingly pitiless Captain Joe Darkie, who strides out of the hostile Burmese verdure and instantly asserts an almost preternatural command over the weary warriors. The men are appalled by Darkie’s physical and emotional abuse of them, and his terrifying treatment of an enemy patrol he encounters whilst leading them out of their predicament. They’re even more shocked when they discover that he’s not heading for the safety of their lines, but guiding them deeper into Japanese-held territory…

Thus begins a guerrilla war like no other, as Darkie moulds the soldiers – through brutal bullying and all manner of psychological ploys – into fanatics with only one purpose: hunting and killing the enemy.

In rapid snatches of events culled from Shortland’s log, we discover Darkie is a near-mythical night-terror to the invaders: a Kukri-wielding, poison-spitting demon happy to betray, exploit and expend his own men if it means slaughtering his hated foes. The monster is equally well-known to enslaved natives and ruthlessly at home in the alien world of the Burmese jungles and swamps. What kind of experiences could transform a British Officer into such a ravening horror?

An answer of sorts quickly comes after Shortland intercepts a radio communication and discovers that the British Army has no record of any soldier named Joe Darkie, but the dutiful diarist has no explanation of his own behaviour or reasons for keeping the psycho-killer’s secret to himself…

For over a year the hellish crusade continued with the Mob striking everywhere like bloody ghosts: liberating prisoners, sabotaging Japanese bases, destroying engineering works and always, always killing in the most spectacular manner possible. Eventually, after murdering generals, blowing up bridges and casually invading the most secure cities in the country, the Mob become the Empire of Japan’s most wanted men, but in truth both Britain and the enemy hunt the rogue unit with equal vehemence and ferocity.

Darkie wants to kill and not even Allied orders will stop him…

Gradually whittled away by death, attrition, insanity and fatigue as Darkie infects them with his hatred and nihilistic madness, The Mob are nothing more than Jap-hating killing machines ready and willing to die just as long as they can take another son of Nippon down to hell with them…

The descent culminates but doesn’t end with the shocking revelations of Darkie’s origins and secret in Shortland’s incredible entry for October 30th 1943, after which the inevitable end inexorably drew near…

This complete chronicle also includes a heavily illustrated prose tale from the 1990 Battle Holiday Special and I’m spoiling nobody’s fun by advising you all to read this bonus feature long before you arrive at the staggering conclusion…

A mention should be made of the language used here. Although a children’s comic – or perhaps because it was designated as one – the speech and interactions of characters contains a strongly disparaging and uncomfortably colourful racial element. Some of these terms are liable to cause offence to modern readers – but hopefully not nearly as much as any post-watershed TV show or your average school playground – so please try and remember the vintage, authorial directives and cultural temperature of those times (the 1980s not WWII) when these stories were first released.

Battle exploded forever the cosy, safely nostalgic “we’ll all be alright in the end” tradition of British comics; ushering in an ultra-realistic, class-savvy, gritty awareness of the true horror of military service and conflict, pounding home the message War is Hell. With Darkie’s Mob Wagner & Western successfully and so horrifyingly showed us its truly ugly face and inescapable consequences. It should read with caution but also demands to be a permanent fixture on graphic novel shelves.
Darkie’s Mob © 2011 Egmont UK Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Dead Men Walking © 2011 Garth Ennis.

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The Order of the Black Dragon – a Bob Wilson Adventure


By Griffo & Marcus (Deligne)
ISBN: 978-2-87135-023-1 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Here’s another oddity from the experimental 1980s when many European publishing houses had a concerted go at cracking the highly resistant US comic book market. The Bob Wilson in question is not the revered nigh-sainted Arsenal and England goalkeeper, nor the character in the old Fatal Fury videogame, but rather a traditional two-fisted adventurer/Soldier of Fortune of the sort that fed so much popular fiction of the last century and a half…

Back in 1982 the series debuted in Le Journal Illustré le plus Grand du Monde as ‘L’Ordre du Dragon Noir’, written by “Marcus” (nom de plume of relative mystery-man Danny de Laet) and drawn by the esteemed Werner “Griffo” Goelen, whose other works include Modeste et Pompon, S.O.S. Bonheur, Munro and – with Jean Dufaux – Béatifica Blues, Samba Bugatti and Giacomo C, amongst so many others, all of which really should be available in a language I’m actually conversant with or fluent in.

Bob Wilson is a period thriller, with this volume, set during the days of US Prohibition, following him and his pal Dashiel Hammett as they battle Chinatown Tongs to thwart the plans of insidious oriental mastermind Black Dragon, prior to our hero tracking the eponymous fiend all the way back to his lair in civil war-torn China.

Wilson can count on the support of a grand line of brothers-in-arms as his protracted war takes him across the globe alongside such historical figures as Aristotle Onassis, John Flanders (one of many pen-names for Belgian writer Jean Ray) and Chiang Kai-shek, as well as the odd fictional character like Buddy Longway – a Western hero very popular au continent…

It’s an infectious blend of all-action, grittily excessive adult pulp fiction, highly cinematic, fabulously exotic and very, very stylish in the manner those darned Europeans made all their own for the longest time. I would dearly love to see some publisher give this franchise another go in these days of digital accessibility and global, not national, market-places…
© 1885 Editions Michel Deligne S.A. and Griffo & Marcus. All rights reserved.

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War Picture Library: The Crimson Sea


By Hugo Pratt, Fred Baker, Donne Avenell, Alf Wallace, E. Evans, W. Howard Baker, with Allan Harvey & various (Rebellion Studios/Treasury of British Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-199-6 (HB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born in Rimini, Ugo Eugenio Prat, AKA Hugo Pratt (June 15th 1927 – August 20th 1995) spent his early life wandering the world, in the process becoming one of its paramount comics creators. From the start his enthralling graphic inventions like initial hit Ace of Spades (in 1945, whilst still studying at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts) were many and varied. His signature character – based in large part on his exotic formative years – is mercurial soldier/sailor) of fortune Corto Maltese.

Pratt was a consummate storyteller with a unique voice and a stark expressionistic graphic style that should not work, but so wonderfully does: combining pared-down, relentlessly modernistic narrative style with memorable characters, always complex whilst bordering on the archetypical. After working in Argentinean and – from 1959 – English comics like UK top gun Battler Briton, and on combat stories for extremely popular digest novels in assorted series such as War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, War at Sea Picture Library and more – Pratt settled in Italy, and later France. In 1967, with Florenzo Ivaldi, he produced a number of series for monthly comic Sgt. Kirk.

In addition to the Western lead feature, he also created pirate feature Capitan Cormorand, detective feature Lucky Star O’Hara, and moody South Seas saga Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea). When that gig ended in 1970, Pratt remodelled one of Una Ballata’s characters for French weekly Pif Gadget before eventually settling in with the new guy at legendary Belgian periodical Le Journal de Tintin. Corto Maltese proved as much a Wild Rover in reality as in his historic and eventful career…

In Britain, Pratt found richly adventurous pickings in our ubiquitous mini-comic books such as Super Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library, Action Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library: half-sized, 64-page monochrome booklets with glossy soft paper covers containing lengthy complete stories of 1-3 panels per page. These were regularly recycled and reformatted, but the stories gathered here – from War Picture Library #50, 40, 58 & 92 – have only appeared once… until now…

Whilst we’re being all factual and ethical, it’s only fair and honest to state here that all these lost graphic classics have been restored by our own Allan Harvey, so if you can find him feel free to gift him with a cup of tea and a ship’s biscuit or two…

Resurrected & repackaged by Rebellion Studios for their Treasury of British Comics imprint, the quartet of gritty, no-nonsense war dramas of men against the enemy and their own flawed natures begins with eponymous oceanic saga The Crimson Sea, published in May 1960 in WPL #50. Scripted by editorial assistant Fred Baker to match tone & timbre of contemporary war films – back when he still freelanced on the side before becoming manager of Fleetway’s romance comics division – this terse taut odyssey of error and redemption is a drama-drenched family tale of brothers serving aboard the same convoy escort ship.

Baker’s writing credits include Martin’s Marvellous Mini, Skid Solo, Tommy’s Troubles, His Sporting Lordship, Skid Kids, Hot-Shot Hamish and much more for weekly titles including Lion, Tiger, Buster, Hurricane, Thunder, Valiant, New Eagle, Scorcher, Chips, Radio Fun, Film Fun, Valentine and Roy of the Rovers). Fred Baker died on 4th June 2008.

When HMS Grapnel is holed in 1942, younger sibling and junior ship’s telegrapher & W/T officer Peter Wayman is severely traumatised after being ordered – and expected – to remain at his post deep in the Destroyer’s bowels as it slowly sinks.

Lieutenant Dave Wayman is with him, secretly carrying out his panic-stricken younger brother’s duties until the end. After both are miraculously rescued, Peter descends into a spiral of guilt-fuelled self-loathing. Even though Dave does everything to help, all the younger son sees is shame and disgusting pity: forces that dog him over the following months whilst he retrains as a Landing Craft pilot, and exacerbated by big brother solicitously transferring along with him to “look after him”. Inevitably the war forces Peter to relive his worst moment, but it also gives him a chance to redeem himself in his own eyes… and he takes it…

Grittily authentic, the spectacle and scale of sea battles and harbour raids is perfectly balanced with dark passion and human frailty, and even though the yarn provides a plot twist happy ending (this is for kids, remember?) The Crimson Sea is a worthy match for any 1960s movie – especially with Hugo Pratt “art directing” at his peak…

Air war grips us for the next tale in this bumper compilation as E. Evans & Alf Wallace co-write the exploits of a displaced Australian bush pilot in ‘Pathfinder’: a tale of frustration, prejudice, battle fatigue and ultimate triumph first seen in February 1960’s WPL #40.

During the 1960s Alfred “Alf” Wallace was Managing Editor of Odhams and part of the triumvirate – with Bob “Bart” Bartholemew & Albert “Cos” Cosser – who brought Marvel Comics to Britain in the Short-lived Power Comics imprint. He apparently didn’t write much, but when he did, the results (like immortal classic The Missing Link/Johnny Future) were unmissable. Sadly, I can offer even less about his collaborator Evans here. Perhaps one day…

Commercial pilot Henri le Jeune despised Japan’s sneaky tactics at Pearl Harbor and Manila and swiftly enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force to make them pay. Sadly, his gifts were too valuable to a global war effort and he was posted to Britain, firstly as a fighter pilot and – after much unpleasantness – to Bomber Command. Boisterous, ill-disciplined and arrogant, this squarest of pegs in a succession of extremely round holes was also ridiculously unlucky, caught up in friendly fire incidents and constant squabbles with superior officers. This led to frequent Boards of Enquiry, where he was generally vindicated but somehow always remained shunned and popularly vilified…

It eventually led to Le Jeune flying Lancasters, but also into conflict with a CO who had flown too many missions and was falling apart on the job, ending in vindication of a sort following a calamitous night raid on the factories of Essen…

Author and journalist Arthur Atwill William “Bill” Baker was born in Cork on October 3rd 1925, not long after the partition and foundation of the nation of Ireland. He fought for Great Britain in WWII and, after becoming a globetrotting freelance foreign correspondent in the immediate aftermath, eventually settled in London. He became an editor for Panther Books, and wrote many Sexton Blake novels before becoming the franchise editor in 1955. As the Controlling Group Editor at Fleetway, he launched the Air Ace Picture Library line whilst continuing to write content and full stories for War Picture Library.

In 1963, when Fleetway axed Sexton Blake, Baker acquired all rights and continued the series as independent publisher Howard Baker Books until 1969, and whilst writing genre novels under many pen names, also embarked on the massive task of reprinting the entire run of classic boys story-paper The Magnet (home of Billy Bunter). He died just short of his goal in 1991, having published 1520 of the 1683 issues in hardback collections.

His script for WPL #58 (July 1960) provides rollicking, relatively uncomplicated action as ‘Up the Marines!’ follows Royal Marine Commandos on various lethal and perilous missions, employing kayaking skills and deadly combat training to harry German shipping and shore-bases behind enemy lines, and concentrates on veteran RMC Sergeant Alan Swift, who loses a comrade – and subsequently his nerve and initiative – on a raid. Highly decorated but plagued by what we now know as PTSD, Swift’s career is saved when the fallen hero’s younger brother Teddy joins his unit just in time to play a crucial role in the D-Day landings…

Final mission ‘Dark Judgment’ premiered in War Picture Library #92 (April 1961), written by Donne Avenell, who began his strips career in Amalgamated Press’ editorial department, long before it evolved into Fleetway and ultimately IPC. Avenell’s first tales were for household name Radio Fun but briefly paused whilst he participated in WWII. Born in Croydon in 1925, Avenell served with the Royal Navy, before resuming publishing: editing an AP architectural magazine whilst pursuing writing for radio dramas and romances under many pseudonyms. By the 1950s, he was back in comics on top titles including War Picture Library and Lion; scribing sagas of The Spider, Adam Eterno, Phantom Viking, Oddball Oates and more. Avenell co-wrote major international features like Buffalo Bill, Helgonet (The Saint) and Lee Falk’s The Phantom for Swedish publisher Semic and devised the Django and Angel strip, whilst toiling on assorted licensed Disney strips. In 1975, with Norman Worker, he co-wrote Nigeria’s Powerman comic which helped launch the careers of Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons. Avenell was equally at home on newspaper strips such as Axa (1978-1986, drawn by Enrique Romero); Tiffany Jones and John M. Burns’ Eartha whilst also working in television, on shows like The Saint plus their subsequent novelisations. He died in 1996.

Here, the setting is Nazi-occupied Greece in 1942 where ancient themes of suspicion and mistrust grip members of the Special Boat Section after they pick up two escaped POWs who have swum away from a prison camp on Rhodes. Able Seaman Sam Turner is stolidly ordinary and dependable, but his fellow fugitive – Richard Hasler, Lieutenant, R.N.V.R. – is decidedly odd. Some of the rescue crew have even heard him speaking German…

As the SBS officers probe the escapees for useful intel on the camp or other potential high value targets, Lieutenant Tod Fielding and his superior Major Adam Perry form diametrically opposed views on Hasler and everything he has told them. Despite fear of espionage and betrayal rife the war must go on and dramatic proof – one way or the other – can only come after the roving unit commits to a large and risky operation on Rhodes, with both Hasler and Turner employed as guides…

Dramatic and searingly tense if a little predictable, this yarn allows Pratt to make magic with his mastery of shadows and negative space with breathtaking effect.

Packed with powerful, exhilarating action and adventure and exactly what you’d expect from a kids’ comic crafted to sell in the heyday of UK war films commemorating a conflict their parents and relatives lived through, this is another bombastic artistic triumph equipped at the end with the original eye-catching painted covers: two by Giorgio De Gaspari (War Picture Library #40 and 58); one by Septimus E. Scott (WPL #50); plus War Picture Library #92’s team effort from “Creazioni D’Ami” as well the standard ads for other publications and creator biographies.

Potent, powerful, genre-blending and irresistibly cathartic, these are brilliant examples of the British Comics experience. If you are a connoisseur of graphic thrills and dramatic tension – utterly unmissable.
© 1960, 1961, 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All rights reserved.

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DC Finest: Superman – The First Superhero


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Paul Cassidy, Paul Lauretta, Wayne Boring, Dennis Neville, Creig Flessel, Bernard Baily, Bob Kane, Leo O’Mealia, Jack Burnley, Fred Guardineer & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77952-833-9 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Here’s another stunning and timely compilation comprising the best of vintage comics in another astounding and epic DC Finest edition. These full colour treasure troves are chronologically curated themed tomes highlighting past glories from the company that invented superheroes and so much more. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Just over 87 years ago, Superman rebooted planetary mythology and kickstarted the whole modern era of fantasy heroes. Outlandish, flamboyant, indomitable, infallible and unconquerable, he also saved a foundering industry by birthing an entirely new genre of storytelling: the Super Hero. Since April 18th 1938 (the generally agreed day copies of Action Comics #1 first went on sale) he has grown into a mighty presence in all aspects of art, culture and commerce, even as his natal comic book universe organically grew and expanded. Within three years of that debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment that had hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown: encompassing crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy. However, once the war in Europe and the East seized America’s communal consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comic book covers, if not interiors.

In comic book terms alone Superman was soon a true master of the world, utterly changing the shape of the fledgling industry as easily as he could a mighty river. There was a popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and as the decade turned, the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Moreover, the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release as the energy and enthusiasm of originators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster went on to inform and infect the burgeoning studio which grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

These tales have been reprinted many times, but this latest compilation might arguably be the best yet, offering the original stories in reading – if not strictly chronological publishing – order and spanning cover-dates June 1938 to December 1939. It features the groundbreaking sagas from Action Comics #1-25 and Superman #1-5, plus his pivotal first appearance in New York’s World Fair No. 1. Although most early tales were untitled, here, for everyone’s convenience, they have been given descriptive appellations by the editors.

Thus – after describing the foundling’s escape from exploding planet Krypton and offering a scientific rationale for his incredible abilities and astonishing powers in 9 panels – with absolutely no preamble the wonderment begins with Action #1’s primal thriller ‘Superman: Champion of the Oppressed!’ Here, an enigmatic oddly-clad caped crusader – who secretly masquerades by day as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent – begins publicly averting numerous tragedies and righting injustices…

As well as saving an innocent woman from the Electric Chair and roughing up an abusive “wife beater”, the tireless paragon works over racketeer Butch Matson and consequently saves feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse at his hands. Then he exposes a lobbyist for the armaments industry bribing Senators on behalf of the greedy munitions interests fomenting the war in Europe…

One month later Action #2 offered the next breathtaking instalment wherein the mercurial mysteryman travels to that benighted war-zone to spectacularly dampen down hostilities already in progress in ‘Revolution in San Monte Part 2’ before it’s back to the US where ‘The Blakely Mine Disaster’ finds the Man of Steel responding to a coal-mine cave-in and landing the blame squarely on corrupt corporate practises, before cleaning up gamblers ruthlessly fixing games and players in #4’s ‘Superman Plays Football’.

The Action Ace’s untapped physical potential is explored in AC #5 as ‘Superman and the Dam’ pits the human dynamo against the power of a devastating natural disaster, after which #6 sees canny chiseller Nick Williams attempting to monetise the hero – without asking first. ‘Superman’s Phony Manager’ (with Paul Lauretta adding inks to increasingly overworked Shuster’s art) even seeks to replace the real thing with a cheap knock-off, but quickly learns a most painful and memorable lesson in ethics…

Although Superman starred on the first cover, National’s cautious editors were initially dubious about the alien strongman’s lasting appeal and fell back upon more traditional genre scenes for the following issues (all by Leo E. O’Mealia and all included here). The Man of Tomorrow’s – and Joe Shuster’s – second cover graced Action Comics #7 (on sale from October 25th but cover-dated December 1938) and sparked a big jump in sales, even as the riotous romp inside revealed why ‘Superman Joins the Circus’ – with the mystery man crushing racketeers taking over the Big Top and illustrated by new kid Wayne Boring. Fred Guardineer produced genre covers for #8 & 9 whilst their interiors saw Siegel, Shuster & Lauretta’s ‘Superman in the Slums’ working to save young delinquents from a future life of crime and depravity before latterly detailing how city cops’ disastrous decision to stop the costumed vigilante’s unsanctioned interference plays out in the Boring-inked ‘Wanted: Superman’. That manhunt ended in an uncomfortable stalemate and ambiguous relationship with the authorities that endured for years…

Action Comics #7 had been one of the publisher’s highest-selling issues ever, so #10 again sported a stunning Shuster shot, whilst Siegel’s smart story ‘Superman Goes to Prison’ limned by Shuster, Lauretta & Boring struck another telling blow against institutionalised injustice and stacked odds, as the Man of Tomorrow infiltrated a penitentiary to expose the brutal horrors of State Chain Gangs. The next month saw a maritime cover by Guardineer whilst inside heartless conmen driving investors to penury and suicide rued the Metropolis Marvel intercession in ‘Superman and the “Black Gold” Swindle’ as illustrated by Paul Cassidy.

Guardineer’s spectacular cover of magician hero Zatara for issue #12 was a shared affair, incorporating another landmark as the Man of Steel was given a cameo badge declaring his presence inside each and every issue. Between those covers, Siegel, Shuster & Cassidy revealed how ‘Superman Declares War on Reckless Drivers’ – a hardhitting tale of joy-riders, cost-cutting automobile manufacturers, corrupt lawmakers and dodgy car salesmen who all feel the wrath of the human dynamo after a friend of Clark Kent dies in a hit-&-run incident…

By now, the editors had realised Superman had propelled National Comics to the forefront of the new industry, and in 1939 the company won a license to create a commemorative comic book edition celebrating the opening of the New York World’s Fair. The Man of Tomorrow naturally topped the bill on the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics at the forefront of such early DC four-colour stars as Zatara, Butch the Pup, Gingersnap and gas-masked vigilante The Sandman.

Following an inspirational cover by Sheldon Mayer, Siegel & Shuster’s ‘Superman at the World’s Fair’ describes how Lois and Clark are dispatched to cover the event, giving our hero an opportunity to contribute his own exhibit and bag a bunch of brutal bandits to boot…

Back in Action Comics #13 (June 1939 and another Shuster cover) the road-rage theme of the previous issue continued with Cassidy-rendered ‘Superman vs. the Cab Protective League’ as the tireless foe of felons faces murderous racketeers trying to take over the city’s taxi companies. The tale also introduces – in almost invisibly low key – The Man of Steel’s first recurring nemesis The Ultra-Humanite…

Next follows a truncated version of Superman #1. This is because the industry’s first solo-starring comic book simply reprinted the earliest tales from Action, albeit supplemented with new and recovered material – which is all that’s featured at this point.

Behind the truly iconic and much recycled Shuster & O’Mealia cover, the first episode was at last printed in full as ‘Origin of Superman’, describing the alien foundling’s escape from doomed planet Krypton, his childhood with unnamed Earthling foster parents and eventual journey to the big city…

Also included in those 6 pages (cut from Action #1, and restored to the solo vehicle entitled ‘Prelude to ‘Superman, Champion of the Oppressed’) is the Man of Steel’s routing of a lynch mob and capture of the actual killer which preceded his spectacular saving of the accused murderess that started the legend. Rounding off the unseen treasures is the solo page ‘A Scientific Explanation of Superman’s Amazing Strength!’, a 2-page ‘Superman text story’, and ‘Meet the Creators’ – a biographical feature on Siegel & Shuster. The landmark closed with a pinup of Superman breaking chains by breathing out: an image the tuned in will recognise as the basis of DC Studios’ animation ident…

Sporting another Guardineer Zatara cover, Superman in Action #14 (as realised by Cassidy) featured the return of a manic, money-mad supergenius deranged scientist in ‘Superman Meets the Ultra-Humanite’ as the mercenary malcontent switches his incredible intellect from incessant graft, corruption and murder to an obsessive campaign to destroy the Man of Steel. Whilst Cassidy concentrated on interior epic ‘Superman on the High Seas’ – wherein the hero tackles subsea pirates and dry land gangsters – Guardineer then made some history as illustrator of an aquatic Superman cover for #15. He also produced the Foreign Legion cover on #16, wherein ‘Superman and the Numbers Racket’ by Siegel, Shuster & Cassidy sees the hero save an embezzler from suicide before wrecking another wicked gambling cabal.

Superman’s rise was meteoric and inexorable. He was the indisputable star of Action, with his own dedicated solo title. Moreover, a daily newspaper strip had begun on 16th January 1939, with a separate Sunday strip following from November 5th of that year. The fictive Man of Tomorrow was the actual Man of the Hour and was swiftly garnering millions of new fans. A thrice-weekly radio serial was in the offing, and would launch on February 12th 1940. With games, toys, and a growing international media presence, Superman was swiftly becoming everybody’s favourite hero…

Inked by Cassidy, overworked Siegel & Shuster’s second issue of Superman opened with ‘The Comeback of Larry Trent’ – a stirring human drama wherein the Action Ace clears the name of the broken heavyweight boxer, and coincidentally cleans all the scum out of the fight game, followed by ‘Superman’s Tips for Super-Health’, as ‘Superman Champions Universal Peace!’ depicts the hero once more tackling unscrupulous munitions manufacturers and crushing a gang who had stolen the world’s deadliest poison gas. The pictorial dramas end with ‘Superman and the Skyscrapers’ which finds newshound Kent investigating suspicious deaths in the construction industry, before committing his alter ego to conflict with mindless thugs and their fat-cat corporate boss, after which a contemporary ad and a ‘Superman Text Story’ bring the issue to a close…

Action #17 declared ‘The Return of the Ultra-Humanite’ in a vicious and bloody caper realised by Shuster & Cassidy, involving extortion and the wanton sinking of US ships, and featured their classic Super-cover as the Man of Steel was awarded all the odd-numbered issues for his attention-grabbing playground. That didn’t last long: after Guardineer’s final adventure cover – a bi-plane dog fight on #18, which fronted the Cassidy-limned ‘Superman’s Super-Campaign’ with both Kent and the Caped Kryptonian determinedly crushing a merciless blackmailer, Superman monopolised every cover from #19 onwards. That issue disclosed the peril of ‘Superman and the Purple Plague’ as the city reeled in the grip of a deadly epidemic created by Ultra-Humanite.

The truncated contents of Superman #3 offer only the first and last strips originally contained therein, as the other two were reprints of Action Comics #5 and 6. “The Superman Studio” was constantly expanding to meet spiralling demand and Dennis Nevillie inked Shuster on ‘Superman and the Runaway’ – a gripping, shockingly uncompromising exposé of corrupt orphanages, after which – following a cartoon briefing on ‘Attaining Super-Health: a Few Hints from Superman!’ – Lois finally goes out on a date with hapless Clark – but only because she needs to get close to a gang of murderous smugglers. Happily, Kent’s hidden alter ego is on hand to rescue her in bombastic gang-busting style in ‘Superman and the Jewel Smugglers’ by Shuster & Cassidy…

Cover dated January 1940 and on sale from November 24th 1939, Action Comics #20 notionally opened a new decade and, although Siegel & Shuster had very much settled into the character by now, the buzz of success still fired them, Innovation still sparked and crackled amidst the exuberance and drudgery of churning out more and more material. Moreover, Shuster’s eyesight was failing, demanding his sure signature touch be parcelled out parsimoniously and judiciouly. Collabotative creativity was the order of the day in the Superman Studio …

This conveyor belt process was absent in ‘Superman and the Screen Siren’ as Cassidy pencilled and inked a moving masterpiece wherein beautiful actress Delores Winters is revealed not as another sinister super-scientific megalomaniac but the latest tragic victim – and organic ambulatory hideout – of aged male menace Ultra-Humanite who perfected his greatest horror… brain transplant surgery!

This is followed with an immediate sequel from Shuster & Cassidy as “Delores” seeks to steal another scientist’s breakthrough and oblierate the Action Ace with ‘The Atomic Disintegrator’ before #22 loudly declares ‘Europe at War (Part One)’: a tense, thinly disguised call to arms to a still neutral USA. It too was a continued story – almost unheard of in those early days of funnybook publishing and spectacularly concluded in #23 with ‘Europe at War (Part Two)’.

Cover-dated Spring 1940, Superman #4 featured four big new adventures, and the debut of more creative stars in the making, beginning with a succession of futuristic assassination attempts in ‘Superman versus Luthor’ by omnipresent author Siegel, Shuster & Bernard (The Spectre) Baily. After an educational cartoon vignette on ‘Attaining Super-Strength’, the original Man of Might battles dinosaurs and bandits in ‘Luthor’s Undersea City’, by Shuster, Cassidy & Creig (The Sandman) Flessel, before saving the whole world from financial and literal carnage by ferreting out ‘The Economic Enemy’: a prophetic espionage yarn about commercial sabotage instigated by an unspecified foreign power and artistically crafted by Shuster, Cassidy and Bob Kane – yes, that Bob Kane…

The issue closed with a tale of gangsters intimidating Teamsters and union workers in Siegel, Shuster & Cassidy’s‘Terror in the Trucker’s Union’.

Simultaneously, in Action Comics #24,‘Carnahan’s Heir’ (Shuster & Cassidy) becomes Superman’s latest social reclamation project when the Metropolis Marvel promises to turn a drunken wastrel into a useful citizen, whilst in #25 Cassidy rendered the tale of ‘Amnesiac Robbers’ compelled to crime by an evil hypnotist, before this initial DC Finest compilation closes with the contents of Superman #5: a superb combination of human drama, crime and wickedly warped science augmented by a flurry of gag cartoons by the burgeoning Superman Studio.

As ever scripted throughout by Siegel, it begins with our crimebusting hero crushing ‘The Slot Machine Racket’ (Cassidy, Boring & Lauretta) before pausing to promote health and exercise, via feaurette ‘Super-Strength: Rules for Summer Living’. Without pausing for breath he then – couertsy of Cassidy – foils a rival newspaper’s ‘Campaign Against the Planet’. Limned by Shuster & Boring, the awesome, insidious threat of ‘Luthor’s Incense Machine’ is similarly scuttled, before finally Big Business chicanery is exposed and severly punished whilst a decent simple chemist is cleared of a felonius frame-up in Cassidy’s ‘The Wonder Drug Racket’.

Re-presenting the epochal run of raw, unpolished but viscerally vibrant stories by Siegel & Shuster and their merry band who collectively and until now largely anonymously set the funnybook world on fire, this chronicle compellingly recaptures the sheer thrill of those pioneering days. As fresh and absorbingly addictive now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics perfectly display the savage intensity and sly wit of Siegel’s stories – which literally defined what being a Superhero means – whilst Shuster formulated the basic iconography for all others to follow.

The crude, rough, uncontrollable wish-fulfilling, cathartically exuberant exploits of The First Superhero reveals a righteous, superior champion of the helpless and outmatched dispensing summary justice equally to social malcontents, exploitative capitalists, thugs and ne’er-do-wells that initially captured the imagination of a generation. Although the gaudy burlesque of monsters and super-villains lay years ahead of Superman, these primitive, raw, captivating tales of corruption, disaster, moral deviancy and social injustice are just as engrossing and speak as powerfully of the tenor of the times then and now. Such Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment. What comics fan could possibly resist them?
© 1938, 1939, 1940, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time


By Bob Haney, Cary Burkett, Martin Pasko, Dave Michelinie, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Steve Englehart, Paul Levitz, Jim Aparo, José Luis García-López, Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Dick Dillin, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, Don Newton, Romeo Tanghal, Frank McLaughlin, Frank Chiaramonte, Dick Giordano, Jack Abel, Bob Smith & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-082-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Here’s another stunning and timely compilation comprising the best of vintage comics; one more astounding and epic DC Finest edition. These weighty, full colour treasure troves are chronologically curated themed tomes highlighting past glories from the company that invented superheroes and so much more. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

As you’ve probably noticed, a big part of superhero fiction involves interacting – if not always uniting – with other costumed stars. Every producer, purveyor and publisher of Fights ‘n’ Tights fare employs and exploits the concept of allied action and chums in conflict, with apparently every consumer insatiably coveting them and more of the same. With The Man of Steel and a whole bunch of super-suited & booted associates happily and profitably cavorting across big screens everywhere now, let’s look at a few of his past collaborations… and while we’re at it, peek at some of his best pal’s other playmates at the same time…

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to observe how the new gaudy gladiator stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the comics industry – and according to DC Comics Presents first editor Julie Schwartz, it was the same with the pulps and dime novels that preceded it – we’ve wanted our idols to meet, associate, battle together (and if you follow the Timely/Marvel model, that means against each other) far more than we want to see them trounce their archenemies in a united front…

The concept of team-up comic books – an established star pairing or battling (usually both) with less well-selling company characters – was far from new when DC awarded their then-biggest gun (it was the publicity-drenched weeks before the release of Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton’s Batman was over a decade away) a regular arena to share adventures with other stars of their firmament, just as Batman had been doing since the middle of the 1960s.

The Brave and the Bold began in 1955 as an anthology adventure comic featuring short tales of period heroes: a format mirroring contemporary movie fascination with historical dramas. Written by Bob Kanigher, issue #1 led with Golden Gladiator, the Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’s now legendary Viking Prince. From #5 the Gladiator was increasingly alternated with Robin Hood, and manly, mainly mainstream romps carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning costumed character revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle like sister publication Showcase.

Brave and the Bold #25 (August/September 1959) debuted Task Force X: Suicide Squad, followed by Justice League of America (#28), Cave Carson (#31) and Hawkman (#34). Since only the JLA hit first time out, there were return engagements for the Squad, Carson and Hawkman. Something truly different appeared in #45-49 with science fictional Strange Sports Stories before B&B #50 triggered a new concept that once again truly caught reader imaginations.

It paired superheroes Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter in a one-off team-up, as did succeeding issues: Aquaman and Hawkman in #51, WWII wonders Sgt. Rock, Captain Cloud, Mme. Marie and the Haunted Tank in #52 and Atom with Flash in #53. The next team-up – Robin, Aqualad & Kid Flash – swiftly evolved into the Teen Titans. After Metal Men/the Atom and Flash/Martian Manhunter, new hero Metamorpho, the Element Man debuted in #57-58. Then it was back to superhero pairings with #59, and although no one realised it at the time this particular conjunction (Batman & Green Lantern) would be particularly significant. Soon the book would become a vehicle for Batman team-ups…

With the 1978 release of Superman The Movie it was time to reward the Man of Tomorrow with a similar dedicated publication, although in truth, the Action Ace had already enjoyed the sharing experience once before, when World’s Finest Comics briefly ejected the Caped Crusader and Superman paired with a coterie of heroes including Flash, Robin, Aquaman, Teen Titans, Vigilante, Dr. Fate and others (i#198-214; cover-dated November 1970 to October/November 1972) before the traditional status quo was re-established.

This superb all action collection intriguingly re-presents the first 14 star-studded monthly DC Comics Presents releases and the equivalent contemporary issues of The Brave and the Bold – #141-155). These together collectively span May/June 1978 through October 1979. We open with B&B and resident creators Bob Haney & Jim Aparo, so before the off here’s some background.

Robert Gilbert Haney, Jr. was born on 15th March 1926, growing up in Philadelphia listening to radio dramas and serials, and reading newspaper strips like Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon. Higher education at Swathmore College led to service in the US Navy. He was one of the lucky ones to survive The Battle of Okinawa relatively unscathed.

Follow up studies at Columbia University led to a Master’s degree, after which Haney began a prolific storytelling career by writing a slew of popular novels under a number of noms de plume. In 1947, he moved sideways into comic books, beginning with racy tale ‘College for Murder’ in Harvey Comics’ Black Cat #9 (cover-dated January 1948). From then until 1955 he freelanced for various publishers like Fawcett, Hillman, Standard and St. John on genre tales packed with action, grit and wit.

When anti-comics witch-hunts in the 1950s led to a bowdlerising, self-inflicted Comics Code, Haney shifted gears and began an almost exclusive position as a scripter at DC/National Comics, initially for the war comic division. His first sale was ‘Frogmen’s Secret’ in All American Men of War #17 (January 1955), and he scripted the very first Sgt Rock story in 1959, and countless more for all the combat titles.

Immensely versatile, he wrote for every genre division from licensed to humour, western to superhero and for titles including Blackhawk, Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog, Sea Devils, Tomahawk, Challengers of the Unknown, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, My Greatest Adventure, Doom Patrol, Aquaman, Hawkman, Space Ranger, Green Arrow, Deadman, The Unknown Soldier, and the very first Batman team-up in The Brave and the Bold #59. For decades the book would be his personal playground and where he delivered his take on most of the company’s vast pantheon…

Haney co-created the Teen Titans, Metamorpho, Eclipso, Enchantress (in Strange Adventures), Aquagirl, Cain of The House of Mystery and the Super-Sons, but ultimately his style began to clash with DC’s changing teen demographic. Happily, he had also been working in animation since the mid-1960s, scripting episodes of The New Adventures of Superman and The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure TV shows; and in the 1980s, DC’s loss was cartoon kids’ gain. Haney worked extensively on new shows including Karate Kat, Silverhawks and ThunderCats, as well as producing books of general fiction and consumer journalism. Ultimately, rapprochement with a new DC management saw Haney return to comics for nostalgia-tinged titles including Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999); Silver Age: The Brave and the Bold #1 (July 2000); and – posthumously published –Teen Titans Lost Annual #1 (March 2008).

Haney died on November 25th 2004, in La Mesa, California.

Taking his cues from news headlines, popular films and proven genre-sources, Haney continually produced gripping yarns that thrilled and enticed, with no need for more than a cursory nod to an ever-more-onerous continuity. Anybody could pick up an issue of B&B and be sucked into a world of wonder. Consequently, these tales are just as fresh and welcoming today, their themes and premises just as immediate now as then. Moreover, Jim Aparo’s magnificent art is still as compelling and engrossing as it always was.

James N. Aparo (August 24th 1932 – July 19th 2005) was a true but quiet giant of comic books. Self-taught, he grew up in New Britain Connecticut, and, after failing to join EC Comics whilst in his 20s, slipped easily into advertising, newspaper and fashion illustration. Even after finally becoming a comics artist he assiduously maintained his links with his first career. For most of his career he was a triple-threat, pencilling, inking and lettering his pages. In 1963 he began drawing Ralph Kanna’s newspaper strip Stern Wheeler, and three years later was working on a wide range of features for go-getting visionary editor Dick Giordano at Charlton Comics. Aparo especially shone on the minor company’s licensed top gun The Phantom. In 1968 when Giordano was lured away to National/DC he brought his top performers (primarily Steve Ditko, Steve Skeates and Aparo) with him. Aparo began a life-long association with the company where legends live illustrating and reinvigorating moribund title Aquaman – although he also continued with The Phantom until his duties grew with the addition of numerous short stories for the monolith’s burgeoning horror anthologies and revived 1950s supernatural champion The Phantom Stranger.

Aparo went on to become a multi award-winning mainstay of DC’s artistic arsenal, with stellar runs on The Spectre, The Outsiders and Green Arrow, but his star was always and forever linked to Batman’s.

In B&B #141’s ‘Pay – Or Die!’ that relationship and the artist’s versatility shines as Black Canary helps Batman quash The Joker’s byzantine extortion scheme.

Fast-paced, straightforward, done-in-one dramas almost by definition, these quick treats were perfect introducer tales and seldom carried over, but in #142, ‘Enigma of the Death-Ship!’ sees Aquaman and wife Mera battle the Dark Knight to suppress a family secret, before the sordid trail of a covert Gotham drug lord leads to the most respected man in America in the next issue, with Cary Burkett collaborating with Haney for conclusion ‘Cast the First Stone’ as manic crime-crusher The Creeper confronts his mentor and finds even the most esteemed hero can have feet of clay…

The brave, bold portion of our entertainment pauses here to allow the Metropolis Marvel his moment to shine with a debut 2-part thriller from DC Comics Presents #1 & 2 (July/August & September/October 1978), featuring Silver Age Flash Barry Allen, who had also been Superman’s first co-star in that aforementioned World’s Finest Comics run. ‘Chase to the End of Time!’ and ‘Race to the End of Time!’ by scripter Marty Pasko & utterly astounding José Luis García-López inked by Dan Adkins, rather reprises that selfsame WF tale. Here warring alien races trick both heroes into speeding relentlessly through the time-stream to prevent Earth’s history from being corrupted and destroyed. As if that isn’t dangerous enough, nobody could predict the deadly intervention of the Scarlet Speedster’s most dangerous foe, Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, but the heroes sort it all out in the end…

In B&B #144 Haney& Aparo deliver a magical mystery tale of ‘The Arrow of Eternity’ as Caped Crusader and Emerald Archer head back in time to Agincourt and foil a wicked plot by time-tamperer the Gargoyle, whilst in DCCP #3, David Michelinie’s tantalising pastiche of classic Adam Strange/Mystery in Space thrillers results in a modern masterpiece for García-López to draw and ink in ‘The Riddle of Little Earth Lost’. Here Man of Two Worlds and Man of Steel foil the diabolical cosmic catastrophe scheme of deranged ex-tyrant Kaskor to transpose, subjugate and/or destroy Earth and light-years distant planet Rann.

Courtesy of Haney & Aparo, The Phantom Stranger and Batman face ‘A Choice of Dooms!’ pursuing voodoo crime lord Kaluu in B&B #145 whilst DCCP #4 welcomed Len Wein to script the superb ‘Sun-Stroke!’ for García-López, as Man of Steel and madly-malleable Metal Men join forces to thwart solar-fuelled genius I.Q. and toxic elemental menace Chemo after an ill-considered plan to enhance Earth’s solar radiation exposure provokes a cataclysmic solar-flare…

Haney and guest artists Romeo Tanghal & Frank McLaughlin switch worlds and times in B&B #146 as the Batman of World War II assists faceless superspy the Unknown Soldier in stopping Nazi assassin Count von Stauffen from murdering America’s top brass and greatest scientists to sabotage the nation’s most secret weapon project, whereas modern day Sea King Aquaman is embroiled in ‘The War of the Undersea Cities’ (by Wein, Paul Levitz & Murphy Anderson) in DCCP #5.

This time, Superman must step in after Aquaman’s subjects in Poseidonis re-open ancient hostilities with the mer-folk of undersea neighbour Tritonis, home of the caped Kryptonian’s college girlfriend Lori Lemaris. Fortunately, cooler heads prevail when the deadly Ocean Master is revealed to be meddling in their sub-sea politics…

Supergirl enjoyed her first ever B&B Bat team-up. She had previously paired with Wonder Woman in #63, in the outrageously-dated and utterly indefensible ‘Revolt of the Super-Chicks!’ but here in #147 however, Burkett & Aparo’s ‘Death-Scream from the Sky!’ sees her and the Gotham Guardian save the world from extermination by satellite and shady surprise super villain Dr. Light…

A DCCP two-parter opens with ‘The Fantastic Fall of Green Lantern’ (Levitz, Curt Swan & Francisco Chiaramonte) in #6 which sees the Man of Steel briefly inherit the awesome power ring after Hal Jordan falls in battle against his female antithesis Star Sapphire. Although triumphant against her, “Green Superman” is subsequently ambushed by warriors from antimatter universe Qward leading to ‘The Paralyzed Planet Peril!’ (#7 by Levitz, Dick Dillin & Chiaramonte) wherein those bellicose aliens seek to colonise Earth… until robotic AI hero Red Tornado swirls in to the rescue.

Back in B&B, Good Cheer mingles with Drama as ‘The Night the Mob Stole X-Mas!’ delivers seasonal fluff by Haney pencilled by Joe Staton, with Aparo applying his overpowering inks to a tale of cigarette smugglers and aging mafioso, with Plastic Man helping to provide a mandatory Christmas miracle. The disbanded Teen Titans briefly reform in #149 for Haney & Aparo’s ‘Look Homeward, Runaway!’ to help Batman hunt and redeem a kid gang moving from petty crime to the big leagues after which in DCCP #8, ‘The Sixty Deaths of Solomon Grundy’ (Steve Englehart & Murphy Anderson) teams Swamp Thing with Action Ace. At this time the bog-beast still believed he was a transformed human and not an enhanced plant, and Alec Holland searches the sewers of Metropolis for a cure to his condition, only to stumble onto a battle between the Man of Steel and the mystic zombie who was “born on a Monday”…

Anniversary event The Brave and the Bold #150 was celebrated with a pairing that was both old hat and never seen before. Haney & Aparo’s ‘Today Gotham… Tomorrow the World!’ commemorates the landmark anniversary with an extended tale of Bruce Wayne’s abduction by terrorists and the undercover superhero who secretly shadows him. No hints here from me…

In that other caped crimebuster’s book, Pasko returns to script Staton & Jack Abel’s ‘Invasion of the Ice People!’ in #9, wherein Wonder Woman assists in repelling an arctic assault by malign disembodied intellects whist in B&B #151, The Flash becomes prey and appetiser for a predatory haunt feeding off patrons at Gotham’s hippest nightspot… and Batman barely breaks the spell at the ‘Disco of Death’ (Haney & Aparo). Another 2-part tale commences with DCCP #10’s ‘The Miracle Man of Easy Company’ (Cary Bates, Staton & Abel), as a super-bomb blasts Superman back to WWII and a momentous if amnesia-tainted meeting with indomitable everyman soldier Sgt. Rock. However before the Caped Kryptonian returns home to battle a brainwashed and power-amplified Hawkman in #11’s ‘Murder by Starlight!’ (Bates, Staton & Chiaramonte) there’s an intriguing interruption. B&B #152 splits the saga as Haney & Aparo reveal ‘Death Has a Golden Grab!’. Here mighty mite The Atom helping the Gotham Gangbuster stop a deadly bullion theft.  Chronologically #153 – courtesy of Burkett, Don Newton & Bob Smith – then sees Red Tornado help Batman survive old school greed and the hi-tech ‘Menace of the Murder Machines’ before DCCP #12 arranged a duel between the Man of Steel and New God Mister Miracle in ‘Winner Take Metropolis’ by Englehart, Richard Buckler & Dick Giordano.


B&B #154 finds Element Man Metamorpho treading ‘The Pathway of Doom…’ to save former girlfriend Sapphire Stagg and help Batman disconnect a middle eastern smuggling pipeline, prior to the brave, bold portion of our entertainment coming to a close with #155’s ‘Fugitive from Two Worlds!’ as Haney & Aparo detail Green Lantern Hal Jordan clashing with the Dark Knight over jurisdiction rights regarding an earthshaking alien criminal.

Closing this perfectly curated portion of comics history is another two-part tale spanning centuries as Levitz scripts an ambitious epic limned by Dillin & Giordano that begins with ‘To Live in Peace… Nevermore!’ When the Legion of Super-Heroes visit the 20th century they must prevent Superman saving a little boy from alien abduction to preserve the integrity of the time-line. It doesn’t help that the lad is Jon Ross, son of Clark Kent’s oldest friend and most trusted confidante. Furious and deranged by loss, Pete Ross risks the destruction of reality itself by enlisting the aid of Superboy to battle his older self in ‘Judge, Jury… and No Justice!’, but achieves only stalemate and a promise from the Man of Tomorrow to somehow make things right…

This titanic tome offers a tantalising snapshot of combined A-lister capers and demonstrates the breadth of DC’s roster of lesser stars in punchy, pithy adventures acting as a perfect shop window and catalogue of legendary fascinating characters – and creators. It also delivers a delightful variety of self-contained, satisfying entertainments ranging from the merely excellent all the way to utterly unmissable. DC Finest: Team-Ups is an ideal introduction to the DC Universe for every kid of any age and passport to Costumed Dramas of a simpler, more inviting time.
© 1978, 1979, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Shazam! Family Archives volume 1


By William Woolfolk, Otto Binder, Joe Millard and many unknown authors, C.C. Beck, George Tuska, Mac Raboy, Al Carreño, Mark Swayze & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0779-3 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most venerated and beloved characters of America’s Golden Age of comic books, Captain Marvel was created in 1940: part of the wave of opportunistic creativity which followed the stunning success of Superman in 1938 and Batman one year later. Although there were many notable similarities in the early months, Fawcett’s champion quickly moved squarely into arenas of light entertainment and even pure comedy, whilst as the years passed the Man of Steel increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action, drama and suspense.

Homeless orphan and all-around decent kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard named Shazam to utilise the powers of six ancient gods and heroes in a never-ending battle against injustice. Thereafter he could transform from scrawny, precocious kid to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel by speaking aloud the wizard’s acronymic name – invoking the powers of legendary patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.

Publishing house Fawcett had first gained prominence through an immensely well-received magazine for WWI veterans entitled Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, before branching out into books and general interest magazines. Their most successful publication – at least until the Good Captain hit his stride – was the ubiquitous boy’s building bible Mechanix Illustrated and, as the comicbook decade unfolded, the scientific and engineering discipline and “can-do” demeanour underpinning MI suffused and informed both the art and plots of the Marvel Family titles.

Captain Marvel was the brainchild of writer/editor Bill Parker and brilliant illustrator Charles Clarence Beck who, with his assistant Pete Costanza, handled most of the art for the series throughout its stellar but too brief run. Before eventually evolving his own affable personality the Captain was serious, bluff and taciturn: a rather charmless powerhouse. Always, junior alter ego Billy was the true star: a Horatio Alger archetype of impoverished, boldly self-reliant and resourceful youth overcoming impossible odds through gumption, grit and sheer determination…

After homeless orphan newsboy Billy was granted access to the power of legendary gods and heroes, he won a job as a roaming radio reporter for Amalgamated Broadcasting and first defeated demonic Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, setting a pattern that would captivate readers for the next 14 years…

At the height of his immense popularity Captain Marvel – and many of his fellow Shazam!-powered pals – were published twice monthly and outsold Superman, but as the Furious Forties closed, tastes changed, sales slowed and Fawcett saw the way the wind was blowing. In 1953, they settled an infamous, long-running copyright infringement suit begun by National Comics in 1940 and the “Big Red Cheese” vanished – like so many other superheroes – becoming no more than a fond memory for older fans. Fawcett in full bloom, however, was a true publishing innovator and marketing dynamo – now regarded as inventor of many established comic book sales tactics we all take for granted today. This stunning, lavishly sturdy full-colour hardback compendium gathers magnificent examples of the most effective strategy: spin-off characters linked to the primary star. Fawcett was the company responsible for creating crossover-events and in 1942 they devised a truly unforgettable villain and set him simultaneously loose on their stable of costumed champions whilst using his (temporary) defeat to introduce a new hero to their colourful pantheon.

The epic creation of Captain Marvel Jr. and his originating antithesis Captain Nazi were fully covered in Shazam! Archives volume 4 so feel free to go there first…

This subsidiary collection gathers his subsequent appearances as brand new headliner in Master Comics #23-32 (February to November 4th 1942) plus the first issue of his own solo title (Captain Marvel Jr. #1, cover-dated 18th November 1942) and also includes the debut appearance of mighty Miss Mary Marvel who premiered in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (December 11th 1942). All that and the stunning covers by Beck & Raboy are preceded by an erudite and incisive Foreword from artist, editor, historian – and former student of C.C. Beck – P.C. Hammerlinck, who reveals many secrets of the original comics’ production before the classics commence.

Sadly, although the artists involved are easily recognisable, the identities of these tales’ writers are lost to us but strong possibilities include primarily Rod Reed and Ed “France” Herron (both early editors of Fawcett’s comics line) as well as Bill Parker, Manly Wade Wellman, Joe Millard, Otto Binder and William Woolfolk.

Before the advent of the World’s Mightiest Boy, Bulletman – ably assisted by his companion Bulletgirl – was undoubtedly Fawcett’s runner-up star turn; hogging the covers in monthly Master Comics and carrying his own solo comic title. That all changed with the 21st issue and murderous arrival of Captain Nazi. Hitler’s Übermensch made manifest, the monstrous villain was despatched to America to spread terror and destruction and kill all its superheroes.

The Horrendous Hun stormed in, taking on Bulletman and Captain Marvel who united to stop the Fascist Fiend wrecking New York City. The battle ended inconclusively but restarted when the Nazi nemesis tried to wreck a hydroelectric dam. Foiled again, the monster sought to smash a new fighter plane prototype before Captain Marvel countered him, but was not quick enough to prevent the killer murdering an old man and brutally crushing a young boy.

Freddy Freeman seemed destined to follow his grandfather into eternity, but guilt-plagued Billy brought the dying lad to Shazam’s mystic citadel where the wizard saved his life by granting Freddy access to the power of the ancient gods and heroes. Physically cured – except for a permanently maimed leg – there was a secondary effect: whenever he uttered the phrase “Captain Marvel” Freeman transformed into a superpowered, invulnerable version of his mortal self.

The prototype crossover epic concluded in Master Comics #22 when the teen titan joined Bulletman & Bulletgirl in stopping a string of Captain Nazi-sponsored murders, victoriously concluding with a bold announcement that from the very next issue he would be starring in his own solo adventures. That parade of epic exploits begins in this tome with ‘Captain Nazi’s Assassination Plot’ (Master Comics #23), immaculately rendered by the Alex Raymond-inspired Raboy who would produce for the feature some of the most iconic art of his illustrious career. Sadly, that meant struggling constantly with punishing deadlines and his own impossibly harsh standards. Moreover, the legend abounds that Raboy would rewrite scripts he wasn’t happy with…

Earning a living selling newspapers on street corners, young Freddie spots Captain Nazi again and dogs his corpse-strewn trail as the fascist kills a British agent and attempts to murder President Roosevelt. Then ‘Death by Radio’ introduces sinister serial killer Mr. Macabre who brazenly broadcasts his intention to assassinate former business partners until the young Marvel confronts him. Master Comics #25 sees Freddie investigate a little lad’s broken balloon in Woolfolk & Raboy’s ‘The Case of the Face in the Dark!’, only to stumble upon a cunning plot by the Japanese to invade Alaska. Whereas his senior partner’s tales were always laced with whimsy, Junior’s beautifully depicted exploits were always drenched in angst, tension and explosive action. The climax, which involved the bombastic boy-warrior shredding wave after wave of bombers, is possibly one of the most staggering printed spectacles of the Golden Age…

On a smaller scale, the next issue featured Otto Binder’s ‘The Return of Mr. Macabre!’ as the killer, turned sickly green after a failed suicide attempt, kidnaps a US inventor ferrying vital plans to England. The plot goes well until Macabre’s rendezvous with Captain Nazi in mid-Atlantic is interrupted by Junior, who saves the day by ripping their battleship apart with his bare hands! In a rare display of close continuity, Freddie then carries on to London in MC #27 to counter ‘Captain Nazi and the Blackout Terror’, with the malign master of disguise setting out to neutralise the city’s anti-Blitz protocols. For his service, Freddie is made a special agent for Winston Churchill…

Never captive for long, in the next issue the Hunnish Hauptman spearheads an Atlantic reign of terror and kidnaps America’s chief of War Production, until Junior single-handedly invades ‘Hitler’s Headquarters of Horror’, linking up with a German Resistance movement to free the crucial captive. After such smashing successes it was no surprise that in #29 British Intelligence tapped innocuous Freddie Freeman to infiltrate Hitler’s Fortress Europa and prepare the enslaved populations under ‘The Iron Heel of the Huns’ to rise when the inevitable Allied counterattack came…

MC #30 saw the wonder boy back in the USA, stopping Captain Nazi’s plan to poison an entire military base in ‘Captain Marvel Jr. Saves the Doomed Army’, before malignant Mr. Macabre joins the Japanese to abduct a crucially-placed diplomat in ‘The Case of the Missing Ambassador’ but inevitably tasting frustrating defeat and receiving the sound thrashing he so richly deserves…

With #32, Master Comics became a fortnightly publication, but Freddie barely noticed since he was embroiled in a decidedly domestic atrocity wherein corrupt orphanage officials collected and abused disabled kids to turn a profit in ‘The Cripple Crimes’…

A blockbuster hit, “The Most Sensational Boy in the World” promptly won his own title as 1942 drew to a close, but with Raboy already hard-pressed to draw 14 pages a month to his own exacting standards, Captain Marvel Jr. #1 was illustrated by reliable Al Carreño – a Fawcett regular who had covered almost every character in the company’s stable.

The bumper book – probably scripted by Binder & Joe Millard – began by briefly reprising ‘The Origin of Captain Marvel Jr.’ before depicting ‘Wings of Dazaggar!’ wherein Junior follows Captain Nazi to an occupied West African colony and uncovers a flight of secret super-planes intended to bomb America to dust. After scotching that scheme Freddie is drawn into an eerie murder-mystery as a succession of gangsters and investigative reporters fall victim to ‘The Shadow that Walked!’…

Then, thugs snatching beggars off the street to fuel a fantastically callous insurance scam make their biggest mistake by grabbing lame Freddie Freeman as their next patsy in ‘The Case of the Cripple Kidnappers’, before the soaring sagas conclude on a redemptive note as Captain Marvel Jr. “encourages” ‘The Cracked Safecracker’ to renounce his criminal ways and look after his elderly, ailing and extremely gullible parents…

This superb graphic grab-bag concludes with a landmark from ‘Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel’, as capably rendered by Otto Bonder and Fawcett illustration mainstay Mark Swayze as first seen in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (cover-dated December 11th, 1942). Preceded by a glorious painted cover from Beck of what would become known as The Marvel Family, the story saw boy broadcaster Billy Batson hosting a radio quiz show and finding himself drawn to sweet rich kid Mary Bromfield. During the course of the show – which also includes Freddie Freeman amongst the contestants – Billy is made shockingly aware that Mary is in fact a long-lost twin sister he never knew he had (take that, Luke Skywalker!), but before he can share the knowledge with her, gangsters kidnap her for a hefty ransom. Although Captain Marvel & Junior rescue Mary, they foolishly fall under the sway of the crooks and are astounded when she idly mutters the word “Shazam!”, transforms into the World’s Mightiest Girl and rescues them all…

Crisis over, the trio then quiz the old wizard and learn the secret of Mary’s powers – gifts of a group of goddesses who have endowed the plucky lass with the grace of Selene, strength of Hippolyta, skill of Ariadne, fleetness of Zephyrus, beauty of Aurora (always crucial when battling thugs, brutes and beasts!) and wisdom of Minerva – before welcoming their new companion to a life of unending adventure…

Notwithstanding the acute implied sexism of Mary’s talents coming from goddesses rather the same source as the boys’, her creation was a milestone of progress adding a formidable, unbeatable female role model to the ranks of the almost universally male mystery-man population of comic books.

The original Captain Marvel is a key factor in the development of American comics history and a brilliantly conceived superhero for all ages. These enchanting, compelling tales show why “The Big Red Cheese” and his oddly extended family was such an icon of the industry and proves that such timeless, sublime graphic masterpieces are an ideal introduction to the world of superhero fiction: tales that cannot help but appeal to readers of every age and temperament.
© 1942, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Captain America Epic Collection volume 7: The Swine (1976-1978)


By Jack Kirby, Don Glut, Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Scott Edelman, David Anthony Kraft, Sal Buscema, John Buscema, George Tuska, Steve Leialoha, Dave Cockrum, Frank Giacoia, Mike Royer, John Tartaglione, John Verpoorten, Pablo Marcos, Mike Esposito, Dan Green, Joe Sinnott, Al Gordon & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-6052-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

These days, Captain America is more a global symbol of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave than Uncle Sam or Apple Pie ever were. Thus, I’m again exploiting a lazy obvious way to celebrate the prelude to Independence Day (for them and whichever of so many prospects TangoTacoPotUS is shopping as the next candidate for the nation’s 51st State) by recommending this blockbuster book highlighting material first seen in 1976 and beyond as said States commenced a third century of existence and still felt relatively United and travelling in generally the same direction…

Created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in an era of frantic patriotic fervour, Captain America was a dynamic, highly visible response to the horrors of Nazism and the threat of Liberty’s loss. However, he quickly lost focus and popularity after hostilities ceased: fading away during post-war reconstruction. He briefly reappeared after the Korean War: a harder, darker sentinel ferreting out monsters, subversives and the “commies” who lurked under every American bed. Then he vanished once more until the burgeoning Marvel Age resurrected him just in time to experience the Land of the Free’s most turbulent and culturally divisive era.

“Cap” quickly became a mainstay of the Marvel Revolution across the Swinging Sixties, but lost his own way somewhat after that, except for a glittering period under scripter Steve Englehart. Eventually, however, he too moved on and out in the middle of the 1970s.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, after nearly a decade drafting almost all of Marvel’s successes, Jack Kirby had jumped ship to arch-rival DC in 1970, creating a whole new mythology and dynamically inspiring pantheon for the opposition. Eventually, The King accepted that even he could never win against any publishing company’s excessive pressure to produce whilst enduring micro-managing editorial interference.

Seeing which way the winds were blowing, Kirby exploded back into the Marvel Universe in 1976 with a signed promise of free rein, concocting another stunning wave of iconic creations – 2001: a Space Odyssey, Machine Man, The Eternals, Devil Dinosaur (plus – so nearly – seminal TV paranoia-fest The Prisoner) – as well as drafting a wealth of bombastic covers for almost every title in the company. He was also granted control of two of his previous co-creations – firmly established characters Black Panther and Captain America – to do with as he wished. The return was much hyped at the time but swiftly became controversial since Jack’s intensely personal visions paid little lip service to company continuity. Jack always went his own bombastic way and whilst those new works quickly found many friends, his tenure on those earlier inventions drastically divided the fan base.

Kirby was never slavishly wedded to tight continuity and preferred, in many ways, to treat his stints on Cap and the Panther as creative “Day Ones”. This was never more apparent than in the pages of the Star-Spangled Sentinel of Liberty…

This sterling collection reprints Captain America and the Falcon #201-221 and Captain America Annuals #3 & 4 cumulatively spanning September 1976 – May 1978, as the King eventually moved on and a horde of lesser lights sought to shepherd the hero back to Marvel mainstream continuity…

At the end of the previous volume Kirby’s original Fighting American had saved the nation from a conclave of aristocratic oligarchs attempting to undo two hundred years of freedom and progress with their “Madbomb” (and don’t forget to check out Washington DC for the effects still extant today…). After saving the nation, the Star-Spangled Avenger reunited with his partner Sam Wilson for CA&TF #201, set in the aftermath of their struggle…

Inked by Frank Giacoia, the tone shifts to malevolent moodiness and uncanny mystery with the introduction of ‘The Night People!’: a street-full of maladjusted maniacs who periodically phase into and out of “normal” New York City, creating terror and chaos with every sunset. When Falcon and girlfriend Leila are abducted by the eerie encroachers, they are quickly converted to their crazed cause by exposure to the ‘Mad, Mad Dimension!’ the vile visitors inhabit during daylight hours. This leaves Cap and folksy new not-evil millionaire colleague Texas Jack Muldoon hopelessly outgunned when their last-ditch rescue attempt results in them all battling an invasion of brutally berserk other-dimensional beasts in ‘Alamo II!’

On bludgeoning, battle-hardened top-form, the Star-Spangled Avenger saves the day once more, but no sooner are the erstwhile inhabitants of Zero Street safely re-integrated on Earth than ‘The Unburied One!’ finds our indefatigable champions clashing with a corpse who won’t play dead. The concluding chapter reveals the cadaver has become home to an energy-being from the far future as (inked by John Verpoorten) ‘Agron Walks the Earth!’ Thankfully, not even his/its pulsating power and rage can long baulk the indomitable spirit and ability of America’s Ultimate Fighting Man…

Non-stop nightmares resume in #206 as ‘Face to Face with the Swine!’ (Giacoia inks) sees the Star-Spangled Sensation illegally renditioned by secret police to deepest Central America. Here he subsequently topples the private kingdom and personal torture ground of psychotic sadist Comandante Hector Santiago, unchallenged monarch of the prison of Rio del Muerte. Never one to go anywhere meekly, Cap escapes and begins engineering the brute’s downfall in ‘The Tiger and the Swine!!’ but soon finds the jungles conceal actual monsters. When they exact primal justice on the tormentors, Cap’s escape with the Swine’s cousin Donna Maria down ‘The River of Death!’ is interrupted by the advent of another astounding “Kirby Kreation”:‘Arnim Zola… the Bio-Fanatic!!’

Abducting Cap and Donna Maria to his living castle, the former Nazi geneticist and absolute master of radical biology inflicts upon them a horde of diabolical homunculi at the behest of a mysterious sponsor, even as elsewhere, Falcon closes in on his long-missing pal. Indomitable against every kind of shapeshifting horror, Cap strives on, enduring a terrible ‘Showdown Day!’ (with Mike W. Royer taking over inking), whilst back home Steve Rogers’ girlfriend Sharon Carter uses her resources as SHIELD’s Agent 13 to investigate wealthy Cyrus Fenton and exposes ‘Nazi “X”!’ as Zola’s sponsor and the Sentinel of Liberty’s greatest nemesis.

With his time on the title counting down, Kirby ramped up the tension in #212 as ‘The Face of a Hero! Yours!!’ sees Zola preparing to surgically insert the Red Skull into Cap’s form, triggering a cataclysmic clash which leaves America’s hero bloodied, blind, but ultimately victorious…

With the hero recuperating in a US hospital, Dan Green inked #213 as ultimate assassin ‘The Night Flyer!’ targets the recuperating Cap at the behest of unfettered capitalist villain Kligger – of the insidious Corporation – inadvertently restoring his victim’s vision in time for spectacular if abrupt, Royer-inked conclusion ‘The Power’…

Narratively and chronologically adrift – and thus reading slightly out of sequence here – Captain America Annual #3 and 4 follow: wrapping up Kirby’s contributions to the career of the Star-Spangled Avenger beginning with his abruptly diverting back to business basics in a feature-length science fiction shocker which eschewed convoluted backstory and cultural soul-searching to simply pit the valiant hero against a cosmic vampire.

‘The Thing From the Black Hole Star!’ is a complication-free riot of rampaging action and end-of-the-world wonderment featuring a fallible but fiercely determined fighting man free of doubt and determined to defend humanity at all costs. It begins when farmer Jim Hendricks finds a UFO on his land and calls in a specialist he knows he can trust…

A year passes like magic in comics and one year later but immediately following here, Kirby recruits one of his earliest villain creations for ‘The Great Mutant Massacre!’: a feature- length super-shocker which again rejects accumulated history and the career confusion which typified Cap before and after Jack’s tenure for instant gratification. Here America’s Super Soldier strives against humanity’s nemesis Magneto and his latest mutant recruits Burner, Smasher, Lifter, Shocker, Slither and Peeper. This riot of rampaging action and end-of-the-world bombastic bravado pits the Sentinel of Liberty against a Homo Superior hit-squad aiming to take possession of a superpowered being whose origins are far stranger than anybody could conceive…

When Kirby moved on it left a desperate gap in the schedules. Captain America #215 saw Roy Thomas, George Tuska & Pablo Marcos respond by revisiting the hallowed origin story for the current generation with ‘The Way it Really Was!’: reiterating simultaneously the history of the heroes who had inherited the red, white & blue uniform whilst Steve Rogers was entombed in ice, and ending with our hero desperately wondering who the man beneath his mask might truly be.

For all that, #216 was a deadline-filling reprint of November 1963’s Strange Tales #114, represented here by Gil Kane’s cover and a single page framing sequence by Thomas, Dave Cockrum & Frank Giacoia. Thomas, Don Glut, John Buscema & Marcos actually began ‘The Search for Steve Rogers!’ in #217 with S.H.I.EL.D.’s record division, where the Falcon is distracted by a surprising job offer. Nick Fury (I), busy with the hunt for capitalist cabal The Corporation, asks Cap’s partner to supervise the agency’s newest project: the S.H.I.E.L.D. Super-Agents. These wonders-in-training consist of Texas Twister, Blue Streak, The Vamp and a rather mature-seeming Marvel Boy, but the squad are already deeply flawed and fatally compromised…

Issue #218 finds Cap targeted by a Corporation agent and fed data which bends his legendarily-fragmented memory back to his first thawing from the ice. Heading north to retrace his original journey, Cap spends ‘One Day in Newfoundland!’ (Glut, Sal Buscema & John Tartaglione), uncovering a secret army, an unremembered old foe and a colossal robotic facsimile of himself. One month later, ‘The Adventures of Captain America’ (Glut, Sal B & Joe Sinnott) reveals how, during WWII, Cap and junior partner Bucky were ordered to investigate skulduggery on the set of a movie serial about them, thereby exposing special effects wizard Lyle Dekker as a highly-placed Nazi spy. Now in modern-day Newfoundland, that warped and unforgiving genius has built a clandestine organisation with one incredible purpose: revealed in ‘The Ameridroid Lives!’ (inked by Tartaglione & Mike Esposito) as the captive crusader is mind-probed and dredges up shocking submerged memories.

In 1945, when he and Bucky chased a swiftly-launched secret weapon, the boy (apparently) died and Rogers fell into the North Atlantic: frozen in a block of ice until found and thawed by The Avengers. At least, he always thought that’s how it happened…

Now as the probe does its devilish work, Captain America finds that he was in fact picked up by Dekker after the spy was punished by the Red Skull and exiled for his failures. Deciding to work only for his own interests, Dekker then attempted to transfer Cap’s power to himself and it was only in escaping the Newfoundland base that Rogers crashed into the sea and fully froze…

In the Now, the vile scheme is finally accomplished: Cap’s energies are replicated in a 15-foot-tall super-android, with aging Dekker’s consciousness permanently embedded in its metal and plastic brain. However only at the peak of triumph does the fanatic realise he’s made himself into a monster at once unique, solitary and utterly apart from humanity…

The deadline problems still hadn’t eased and this episode was chopped in half, with the remainder of the issue affording Falcon a short solo outing as Scott Edelman, Bob Budiansky & Al Gordon’s ‘…On a Wing and a Prayer!’ portrays the Pinioned Paladin hunting a mad archer who has kidnapped his avian ally Redwing. The remainder of the Ameridroid saga came in #221 where Steve Gerber &David Kraft co-scripted ‘Cul-De-Sac!’, wherein the marauding mechanoid is finally foiled – by reason, not force of arms – whilst ‘The Coming of Captain Avenger!’ (Edelman, Steve Leialoha & Gordon) provides one last space-filling vignette with former sidekick Rick Jones given a tantalising glimpse of his most cherished dreams…

To Be Continued…

This tome then concludes with contemporary media moments, including John Romita’s July image from the Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar 1976 and Kirby & Giacoia’s contribution to Marvel Comics Memory Album Calendar 1977 plus a sublime covers and interior pages original art gallery by Kirby, Giacoia, Romita & Verpoorten for fans to drool over.

The King’s commitment to wholesome adventure, breakneck action and breathless wonder, combined with his absolute mastery of the comic page and unceasing quest for the Next Big Thrill, always make for a captivating read and this stuff is as good as anything Jack crafted over his decades of creative brilliance.

Fast-paced, action-packed, totally engrossing Fights ‘n’ Tights masterpieces no fan should ignore and, above all else, fabulously fun tales of a truly American Dream…
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