Category: Wonder Woman

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Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant volume 15: 1965-1966


By Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-025-6 (HB)

These books include Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect

Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur premiered on Sunday February 13th 1937: a fabulous rainbow-hued weekly peek into a world where history met myth to produce something greater than both. Canadian illustrator-turned pioneering comics creator Harold “Hal” Foster developed the feature after a groundbreaking and astoundingly popular run on the Tarzan of the Apes comic strip, seeking something that could be his personal domain.

Prince Valiant offered action, adventure, exoticism, romance and a surprisingly high quota of laughs in its engrossing depiction of noble knights, scheming kings and wicked barbarians played out against a glamorised, dramatized Dark Ages backdrop. The never-ending story traces the eventful life a refugee lad of royal blood, driven from an ancestral Scandinavian homeland – Thule – and who grows up to roam the world, attaining a paramount position amongst the fabled heroes of Camelot.

Foster wove his generational epic romance over decades, tracing the progress of a feral wild boy who became a paragon of chivalric virtue: knight, warrior, saviour, secret agent, avenger and ultimately family patriarch through a constant storm of wild, robust and joyously witty wonderment. The restless champion visited many far-flung lands, siring a dynasty of equally puissant heroes whilst enchanting generations of readers and thousands of creative types in all the arts.

The glorious strip saga spawned films, animated series, comic books and all manner of toys, games, books and collections. Prince Valiant was – and remains – one of the few adventure strips to have run continuously from the thunderous 1930s to the present day (well north of 4000 episodes and still going strong) – and, even here at the end-times of newspaper strips as an art form, it continues in hundreds of papers and via the internet.

Foster soloed on the feature until 1971 when John Cullen Murphy (Big Ben Bolt) succeeded him as illustrator and the originator continued as writer and designer. That ended in 1980, when Foster fully and finally retired. Cullen Murphy’s daughter Mairead took over colouring and lettering whilst her brother John assumed the writer’s role, and in 2004 the senior Cullen Murphy also retired, since when the strip has soldiered on under the aegis of other extremely talented artists such as Gary Gianni, Scott Roberts and latterly Thomas Yeates & Mark Schultz.

This luxuriously oversized (362 x 264 mm) full-colour hardback (tragically, the series is still unavailable digitally) re-presents pages spanning January 3rd 1965 to December 25th 1966, (individual Strips #1456 to 1559) and comes with all the regular bonus trimmings. Preceding two years’ worth of graphic narrative wonderment, historian/editor Brian M. Kane conducts an interview with a veteran comic book artist/comics strips illustrator. Heavily illustrated, the Foreword ‘Sir Robert of Dell: the Prince Valiant Art of Bob (Rip Kirby; Flash Gordon; Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom; Turok, Son of Stone; Lassie) Fujitani’ shares many secrets at the front, and the titanic tome ends with a flurry of illustrated essays and the rear.

These include fabulous King Features promotional material and inducements to newspapers plus Kane’s critical appraisal and discussion of the strip in other media. ‘Not Just For Sundays: Prince Valiant’s Adventures Beyond the Fourth Estate’ details collected editions from around the world; spin-offs and edited collections for the children’s book trade; novelisations (mainly by Max Trell); Hal Foster’s other books and curated compendia that fuelled the global demand for the apparently inexorable knight extant. Heavily illustrated with a wealth of book and comics covers (by Foster, John Cullen Murphy or Mike Grell) and candid photos, the reprint round-up also includes a gallery of covers by Michael Wm. Kaluta that graced the all-new sagas published by Marvel in 1994 (as written by Charles Vess & Elaine Lee and illustrated by the deeply underrated John Ridgway).

What Has Gone Before: valued vassal and infallible secret asset of King Arthur of Britain, Prince Valiant has travelled the world carrying out missions for his liege lord, embattled Christendom, honour and decency. His greatest comrades are stalwart Knights like Sir Gawain, Sir Kay and Sir Launcelot and barbarous Viking pirate Baltar. Val’s life of duty and action won him a glorious, implacable and equally incomparable wife in Mediterranean monarch Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles. Their first son Arn was born on an unknown continent and since has thrived on a life of constant peril. He stands on the brink of manhood and his own path of Royal service.

Val’s offspring currently number four: Arn, precocious twin girls Karen & Valeta and recent addition Galan, arriving during Aleta’s last peril-packed stay in her Misty Isles homeland. Arn rapidly advanced from Court Page to Novice and began official combat training. He swiftly became a Batchelor-at-Arms and constantly excels. Some battles are purely personal as when vindictive Mordred attempted to traduce Aleta’s honour by orchestrating a vicious scandal involving her and Lancelot, but the plot was foiled by clear thinking and valiant action…

In combination with his father, Arn’s gifts proved invaluable in repelling invasion by Saxon hordes and foiling rebellions in Scotland, Cornwall and Wales, as well as an international insurrection when savage Skogul Oderson united disparate Nordic tribes into a united force to ravage his grandfather’s kingdom of Thule. In the aftermath of that triumph, Valiant’s large family wintered in those chilly climes. While taking their ease, Arn and Boltar’s son Hatha talked much of the lost lands of Arn’s birth, recalling the prophecy that Valiant’s heir (deemed “son of the Sun Woman and the Bringer of Harvests”) would one day return to Vinland (the Americas) and his Niagara birthplace to do great deeds…

It should be noted that Hatha’s mother Tillicum is a princess of the Algonquin folk the Vikings befriended 15 years previously. She accompanied the Sun Woman on her return north and east, becoming Aleta’s bondswoman, royal nursemaid and confidante…

Now, as the year reaches mid-point Arn yearns to fulfil his mother’s promise of his return, not only to prove his manhood, but also to make good his family honour, forge trade alliances, and do mighty deeds. The most import of these goals is the first… receiving his father’s approval and mother’s grudging acquiescence. As winter approaches, Arn and Hatha must ready a ship – the province of Valiant’s old friend and ingenious shipwright Gundar Harl – and recruit a competent crew who can survive the perilous voyage and handle anything they might meet on the other side…

Arn further prepares by learning the Algonquin language from Tillicum and discovers her gift for strategic planning. He is delighted when she invites herself along for the trip – a gesture that convinces many holdouts that mayhap the callow youth might make them all rich after all…

Preparations are geared to a spring embarkation and Arn spends every moment seeking to anticipate problems and solve them. Disbelief and dwindling confidence in his proposed crew is offset by Arn undertaking a perilous midwinter sortie to the chilly home of his grandfather Aguar and convincing the hard-headed businessman to back the venture. That gained, Arn almost dies on the return trip, but survives to recruit even more men from local lads who would rather fight than farm…

Arn’s relentless proselytising (he even recruits a skald to visit outlying homesteads singing of the glorious exploit to come in hopes of boosting support and manpower) pays dividends and the voyage begins with the Prince, Hatha, Tillicum and Gundar leading an untried crew across largely unknown waters. Early upsets are all deftly dealt with by Arn and his nursemaid: pirates, rebellious crewmen, deadly winds, dire doldrums, pack ice and resource shortages, before they make landfall in the chilly climes of Vinland…

Here the real adventure begins as the explorers make their way down from the far north to the more hospitable shores of what will be New England a thousand years hence. Arn manipulates the understandably anxious tribes and stage-manages a charm offensive that sees him accepted as the supernatural “Bringer of Harvests” promised by the Sun Woman, as he introduces new weapons and tactics, farming implements, fresh food production methods, new ways to fight and fish, permanent sustainable dwellings and a staggering haul of trade goods. In the course of an epic exploration of the region via the St Lawrence river and overland, Arn learns the art of ruling and that physical wealth means nothing. Hatha narrowly escapes marriage, Tillicum reunites with her long-abandoned father and Viking knowhow saves the Algonquin from eradication by tribal nemeses the Iroquois, and apparently unkillable (chainmail-clad) Arn raises their status with the so-far neutral Ottowa and Huron. In the aftermath of a colossal tribal war, preparations begin for the return to Thule with their trade items (amber, seeds, furs, pemmican and precious minerals) being constantly computed and weighed against sufficient provisions to sustain them for the entire trip home. However, even readying themselves to leave generates tension and clashes with Mohawk and Mohegan enclaves before Gundar declares his modified dragonship refitted and ready to go…

During this rite of passage and voyage of bloody discovery life continued to present challenges in civilised Thule. As their children endured the return trip, both Valiant and Boltar were at the end of their patience and the Prince unwisely organised a tournament to amuse the warriors and himself. Sadly, unlike Arthur’s knights rowdy reivers have no understanding of ritual combat and the event was called off; barely before the competitors killed each other…

Soon after the debacle their boys triumphantly return, but their exploits and triumphs are not celebrated for long, as a ship from Camelot follows, bidding Valiant back into service. Beyond Hadrian’s Wall, life-long foes the Picts and Caledonians have somehow buried past grievances and are massing to attack England together. Arthur needs his greatest operative to find out how the miracle occurred and how best to counter it. Disguised as a vagabond sell-sword Val infiltrates the alliance and discovers Mordred is the unifying force, and embarks on a rapid but brutal solution. There is no love lost between the factions and less trust even now, so it only takes a few covert – and rather macabre – dirty tricks to set clan against clan. Sadly, Mordred sees his old enemy’s hand in the affair and determines to be revenged…

Arn would have joined the undercover mission, but as the latest Man of the House his job was to escort Aleta and the family back to Arthur’s court. By the time they arrive, Mordred and his half-brothers Agravaine and Gaheris have enacted a scheme to targeting Valiant’s loved one, but which is humiliating foiled by playful romance-obsessed Karen & Valeta and their burly handmaiden Katwin. Upon his return to Court, Valiant seeks out Mordred and lays down the law…

The year and the book close on lighter notes as skinny-dipping Aleta accidentally starts a mermaid panic after taking up bathing in Britain’s chilly seas, before her husband is called upon to apply his diplomatic skills to end a succession crisis. A staunch supporter of Arthur, King Bedwin of Dimore had trained his son Prince Harwick to carry on his wise reign and peaceful policies. Now though, as death approaches the aged monarch, Harwick has vanished and Bedwin’s brothers make ready for civil war should the son not be available to take over. When Val traces the absent heir apparent, he finds an obnoxious layabout dedicated only to fishing and carousing, but still smart enough to trick an oath of non-interference out of Arthur’s agent…

As war clouds gather, Valiant seems utterly stifled by his own honour and beliefs..

To Be Continued…

A mesmerising non-stop panorama of visual passion and precision, Prince Valiant is a tremendous procession of boisterous action, exotic adventure and grand romance; blending epic fantasy with dry wit and broad humour, and soap opera melodrama with dark vividly authentic violence. Lush, lavish and captivatingly lovely, it is an indisputable landmark of comics fiction and something no true fan should miss.
All comics © 2017 King Features Syndicate. All other content and properties © 2016 their respective creators or holders. This edition © 2015 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

Today in 1892 cartoonist and animator Otto Messmer (Fun, Feline Follies, Felix the Cat) was born, sharing the natal celebrations with fellow cartoon gamechanger Hal Foster (Tarzan, Prince Valiant). In 1916 Golden Age art star Paul Gustavson (The Angel, The Human Bomb, A-Man, Alias the Spider, Quicksilver) was born; as was British writer Dick Foreman (Black Orchid, Hellblazer) in 1952; illustrator Brian Stelfreeze (Black Panther, CyCops, Shadow of the Bat, Gun Candy) in 1962 and Italian artist Enrico Marini (Batman: Dark Prince Charming, Gipsy, The Scorpion) in 1969.

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Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors


By Martin Pasko, Elliot S! Maggin, Cary Bates, Len Wein, Curt Swan, John Rosenberger, Irv Novick, Dick Dillin, Kurt Schaffenberger, Dick Giordano, José Delbo, Tex Blaisdell, Phil Zupa, Vince Colletta, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3494-2 (PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Princess of Paradise Island originally debuted as a special promotional feature in All Star Comics #8 (cover dated December 1941/January 1942 and on sale from October 21st 1941). Happy 85th birthday Princess Diana!

Officially, she was conceived by psychologist/polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston and realised and nigh-exclusively illustrated by Harry G. Peter, in their calculated attempt to offer girls a positive and forceful role model and, on forward-thinking Editor M.C. Gaines’ part, to sell more funnybooks to girls. Later research has since disclosed much of her genesis was thanks to Moulton’s wife – attorney turned psychologist Sarah Elizabeth Marston (née Holloway) who had worked with him to create the systolic lie detector process – with further input provided by their live-in partner Olive Byrne.

Wonder Woman catapulted into her own series and the cover-spot of new anthology Sensation Comics a month later. An instant hit, the Amazing Amazon won her own eponymous supplemental title a few months later, cover-dated Summer 1942.

Once upon a time on a hidden island of immortal superwomen, US aviator Steve Trevor of US Army Intelligence crashed to Earth. Near death, he was nursed back to health by young, impressionable Princess Diana. Fearful of her besotted child’s growing obsession with the creature from a long-forgotten and madly violent world, Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyte revealed the hidden history of the Amazons: how they were seduced and betrayed by men but rescued by the goddess Aphrodite on condition that they forever isolated themselves from the mortal world and devoted their eternal lives to becoming ideal, perfect creatures.

However, with the planet in crisis, goddesses Athena and Aphrodite instructed Hippolyte to send an Amazon back with the American to fight for global freedom and liberty. She would be chosen by triumphing over all her sisters in a grand tournament. Although forbidden to compete, Diana clandestinely overcame all other candidates to become their emissary. On arriving in the Land of the Free, she purchased the identity and credentials of lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince, elegantly allowing the Amazing Amazon to stay close to Steve whilst enabling the heartsick but poverty-stricken care-worker to join her own finance in South America. Diana gained a position with Army Intelligence as secretary to General Darnell, ensuring she would always be able to watch over her beloved. She little suspected that, although the painfully shallow Steve only had eyes for the dazzling Amazon superwoman, the General had fallen for the mousy yet supremely competent and capable Lieutenant Prince…

That set up set the Star-Spangled Siren to weather the vicissitudes of the notoriously transient comic book marketplace and survive the end of the Golden Age of costumed heroes along with Superman, Batman and the few lucky second-stringers who inhabited the backs of their titles. She soldiered on until the end of the Silver Age revival, mostly under the auspices of Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, but by 1968 superhero comics were in decline again and publishers sought new ways to keep audiences interested as tastes – US society – changed. Back then, the entire industry depended on newsstand sales and if you weren’t popular, you died. Editor Jack Miller & Mike Sekowsky stepped up with a radical proposal and made a little bit of comic book history with the only female superhero to still have her own title in that turbulent marketplace.

The superbly eccentric art of Sekowsky had been a DC mainstay for nearly two decades, and he had also scored big with fans at Gold Key with Man from Uncle and Tower Comics in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and war title Fight the Enemy! His unique take on the Justice League of America had cemented its overwhelming success, and in 1968 he began stretching himself further with a number of experimental, young-adult oriented projects. Tapping into the teen zeitgeist with Easy Rider style drama Jason’s Quest and resurgent sci fi and western genres in Manhunter 2070 proved ultimately unsuccessful, but with the Metal Men and the hopelessly outdated and moribund Wonder Woman he had much greater impact. Sekowsky would subsequently work the same magic with equally stalled icon Supergirl…

The big change came when the Amazons were compelled to leave our dimension, taking with them all their magic – including Wonder Woman’s powers and all her mystic weaponry. Now no more or less than human, she opted to stay on Earth permanently, assuming her own secret identity of Diana Prince, dedicated to fighting injustice as a mortal, very much in the manner of TV’s Emma Peel, Honey West and crimebusting comics siren Modesty Blaise…

Blind Buddhist monk I Ching rather rapidly trained her as a martial artist, and she soon became embroiled in the schemes of would-be world-conqueror Doctor Cyber. Most shockingly, her beloved Steve was branded a traitor and murdered! Sekowsky’s root & branch overhaul offered a whole new kind of Wonder Woman, but as I’ve already said fashion ruled and, in a few years, without fanfare or warning, everything that had happened since Diana lost her powers was unwritten. Her mythical origins were revised and re-established as she returned to a world of immortals, gods, mythical monster and super-villains with a new nemesis… an African (or perhaps Hellenic?) American half-sister named. Nubia. It took decades for her to find her place in the modern DC but that’s a tale for another day and review…

Such abrupt reversal had tongues wagging and heads spinning in fan circles. Had the series offended some shady “higher-ups” who didn’t want controversy or a shake-up of the status quo?

Probably not. Sales were never great even on the Sekowsky run and the most logical reason is probably Television. The Amazon had been optioned as a series since the days of the Batman TV show in 1967, and by this time (1973) production work had begun on the original 1974 pilot featuring Cathy Lee Crosby. An abrupt return to the character most viewers would be familiar with from their own childhoods seems perfectly logical to me…

By the time Lynda Carter made the concept work in 1975, Wonder Woman was once again “Stronger than Hercules, swifter than Mercury and more beautiful than Aphrodite”, but as Diana returned to mainstream DC continuity, readers and fans expected her to fully reintegrate, leading to this early and impressive example of a comics miniseries which ran in Wonder Woman #212 through 222 (cover-dates July 1974 to March 1976), detailing how the Amazing Amazon reclaimed her confidence and rejoined the JLA.

Scripter Len Wein and artists Curt Swan & Tex Blaisdell got the ball rolling with ‘The Man Who Mastered Women!’ wherein the Hellenic Hellion thwarts a terrorist attack at New York’s United Nations building… where Diana Prince now works as a translator. In the aftermath she surprisingly meets old friend Clark Kent. Over the course of a conversation she suddenly realises that her memories have been tampered with and understands why her JLA colleagues haven’t called her to any meetings. She had resigned years ago…

Although her former comrades beg her to re-enlist, Diana declines, fearing her memory lapse might endanger the team and the world. After much insistent pleading, she relents enough to suggest the League must covertly monitor her next dozen major cases – in the manner of Hercules’ twelve legendary tests – until she proves herself competent and worthy, for her own peace of mind, if not the JLA’s.

Once they grudgingly agree, she leaves and Superman begins surveillance, observing her flying to Paradise Island in her Invisible Plane. Correctly deducing she has been subjected to Amazonian selective memory manipulation, Diana confronts her mother and learns of her time as a mere mortal and of Steve’s death. Although the past has been excised by her well-meaning Amazon sisters, Diana now demands every recollection removed be returned…

Back in “Man’s World”, a crisis is already brewing as chauvinist costumed crazy The Cavalier exerts his uncanny influence over women to control female Heads of State. Ultimately, however, his powers prove ineffectual over the Amazing Amazon. As a result of that case, Diana Prince changes jobs, going to work as a troubleshooter for dashing Morgan Tracy at the UN Crisis Bureau, and her first mission isn’t long in coming…

Crafted by Cary Bates, Irv Novick & Blaisdell, Wonder Woman #213 details how an alien robot removes all aggression from humanity in one stroke. As The Flash helplessly observes, however, ‘The War-No-More Machine!’ also quashes all bravery, determination, confidence and capability. The species faces imminent – if long and drawn out – extinction. Happily, Diana, a teenaged girl and a murderous criminal are all somehow immune to the invader’s influence. Elliot S! Maggin, Swan & Phil Zupa then share Green Lantern Hal Jordan‘s undercover observations after a lost Amazon gem in unwitting, unscrupulous hands almost triggers World War III with the Princess of Power barely averting nuclear holocaust spawned by a ‘Wish Upon a Star!’

Inked by Vince Colletta, the superb and vastly undervalued John Rosenberger pencilled Bates’ tale of the ‘Amazon Attack Against Atlantis’ as Aquaman watches Wonder Woman unravel a baroque and barbaric plot by Mars, God of War to set Earth’s two most advanced nations at each other’s throats, after which #216 boasts Black Canary uncovering the Amazon Sisterhood’s greatest secret in ‘Paradise in Peril!’ (Maggin, Rosenberger & Colletta). The tale concerns an obsessed multi-millionaire risking everything… including the collapse of civilisation… to uncover exactly what would happen if a man set foot upon the Amazons long-hidden Island.

One of Diana’s oldest foes resurfaces in ‘The Day Time Broke Loose!’ (Maggin, Dick Dillin & Colletta) and Green Arrow is caught in the crossfire as the Duke of Deception attacks the UN, with temporally torturous images and hallucinations designed to generate madness and death on a global scale.

Produced by Martin Pasko & Kurt Schaffenberger, WW #218 offers two short complete tales. Firstly Red Tornado reports on the ‘Revolt of the Wonder Weapons’ as an astrologer with influential political clout uses mind-control techniques to gain power and accidentally undermine Diana’s arsenal, after which The Phantom Stranger stealthily surveys her foiling a mystic plot by sorcerer Felix Faust to animate and enrage the Statue of Liberty in ‘Give Her Liberty – and Give Her Death!’

This was a time when feminism was finally making inroads into American culture and Pasko, Swan & Colletta slyly tipped their hats to the burgeoning movement in a wry and fanciful sci-fi thriller. Thus, #219 sees Diana preventing a vile incursion by the dominating males of Xro, a ‘World of Enslaved Women!’, with stretchable sleuth Elongated Man covertly traversing the parallel dimensions in Wonder Woman’s wake.

With the epic endeavour almost ended, scripter Pasko added a patina of mystery to the affair as The Atom watched Diana tackle ‘The Man Who Wiped Out Time!’ Illustrated by Dick Giordano, WW #220 found temporal bandit Chronos eradicating New York’s ability to discern time and time pieces: a plot foiled with style and brilliance by the on-form, in-time Power Princess. The only problem was that during that entire exacting episode Hawkman was simultaneously watching Diana tackle another potential disaster hundreds of miles away.

The Feathered Fury’s report (illustrated by Swan & Colletta) shows how Crisis Bureau operative Diana Prince was targeted by Dr. Cyber & Professor Moon – old enemies from her powerless period – who combined their craving for vengeance with a plan to steal a UN-controlled chemical weapon in ‘The Fiend with the Face of Glass’

How she could be in two places simultaneously was revealed by Batman, who wraps up the twelve trials in ‘Will the Real Wonder Woman Please… Stand Up Drop Dead!’ (illustrated by José Delbo & Blaisdell), detailing how a beloved children’s entertainment icon was subverted into a monster feeding off people whilst replacing them with perfect duplicates.

Even this was not enough to deter Diana who triumphed again before taking up her leading role in the World’s Greatest Superheroes again…

With covers by Bob Oksner, Nick Cardy, Mike Grell, Dick Giordano & Ernie Chan, this is a spectacular slice of pure, uncomplicated, all ages superhero action/adventure starring one of comics’ true all stars.

Stuffed with stunning art and witty, beguiling stories, here is Wonder Woman at her most welcoming in a timeless, pivotal classic of our medium: one that still provides astounding amounts of fun and thrills for anyone interested in a grand old time.
© 1974, 1975, 1976, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1867 primal and insalubrious British Comics icon Ally Sloper first appeared in the magazine Judy. Coincidentally on the same day in 1932, Frederick Burr Opper’s descendant strip itinerant Happy Hooligan made his final bow.

Real people sharing the day include Golden & Silver Age Bill Draut (genre anthologies, The Fly, Teen Titans, Phantom Stranger, Weird War Tales) born in 1921; impossibly prolific French Shakespeare René Goscinny in 1926; artist letterer John Costanza (Tales of the Green Berets, Swamp Thing, The Dark Knight Returns, everything!) arriving in 1943’ master mangaka Jiro Taniguchi (A Distant Neighborhood, The Summit of the Gods, A Journal of My Father, K, Guardians of the Louvre) in 1947; cartoonist Gary Larson (The Far Side) in 1950; British musician/cartoonist Peter Blegvad (Leviathan) in 1951 and writer/inker Jimmy Palmiotti (Ash, Painkiller Jane, Daredevil, Jonah Hex, Supergirl, Harley Quinn) in 1961.

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Harley Quinn’s Greatest Hits


By Scott Beatty, Kelly Puckett, Jeph Loeb, Paul Dini, Adam Glass, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Rob Williams, Bruce Timm, Mike Parobeck, Jim Lee, David Lopez, Federico Dallocchio, Jock, John Timms, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Richard Friend & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7008-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Harley Quinn wasn’t supposed to be a star – or even an actual comic book character. As would soon become apparent however, the manic minx had her own off-kilter ideas on the matter. Created by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm, Batman: The Animated Series aired in the US from September 5th 1992 to September 15th 1995. Ostensibly for kids, the breakthrough TV cartoon revolutionised everybody’s image of the Dark Knight and immediately began feeding back into the print iterations, leading to some of the absolute best comics tales in the hero’s many decades of existence.

Employing a timeless visual style dubbed “Dark Deco”, the show mixed elements from all eras and aspects of the character and, without diluting power, tone or mood of the premise, reshaped the grim avenger and his extended team into a wholly accessible, thematically memorable form that the youngest of readers could eagerly enjoy, whilst adding shades of exuberance, sophistication and sheer panache that only most devout and obsessive Batmaniac could possibly object to…

Harley was first seen as the Clown Prince of Crime’s slavishly adoring, abuse-enduring assistant in Joker’s Favor (airing on September 11th 1992) wherein she instantly captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers. From there on she began popping up in the licensed comic book and – always stealing the show – soon graduated to mainstream DC continuity.

After a period bopping around the DCU she was re-imagined as part of the company’s vast post-Flashpoint, major makeover and appeared as part of a new iteration of The Suicide Squad. Now, with numerous motion picture, TV animation and live action small screen presence in play, it’s absolutely time to take a look at her eccentric career path…

Collecting material from Countdown to Final Crisis #10; Batman Adventures #12; Batman #613; Gotham City Sirens #7; Suicide Squad #1; Batman vol 2#13, Harley Quinn vol. 2 #21, 2015 and Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fools Special #1, the madcap mayhem commences with a 2-page potted biography of the mad miss in comics form.

Crafted by Scott Beatty & Bruce Timm, ‘The Origin of Harley Quinn’ (Countdown #10, February 2008) economically reveals how troubled psychologist Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel arrived at Arkham Asylum to analyse The Joker only to lose all distance and perspective. Fully falling under his malign spell during interviews, she became his adoring, pliable and utterly despised slave…

A classic and classy semi-solo yarn comes from Batman Adventures #12, (September 1993) where Kelly Puckett, Mike Parobeck & Rick Burchett revealed how Barbara Gordon became a masked adventurer. Student Babs makes a superhero costume for a party in ‘Batgirl: Day One!’ before stumbling into a larcenous ‘Ladies Night’ when that High Society bash is crashed by rapacious gal pals Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy. With no professional help on hand, Miss Gordon must act as ‘If the Suit Fits!’ and tackle the bad girls herself , only to see Catwoman show up for the frantic finale ‘Out of the Frying Pan!’…

A far darker if less comprehensible interpretation graced Batman #613, (May 2003 by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee & Scott Williams) as an incessant parade of villains du jour in Bat mega-event Hush sees The Joker and Harley invade ‘The Opera’ attended by Bruce Wayne and hidden master villain Tommy Elliot. It’s visually resplendent and shockingly violent, but story content is virtually zero since the entire farrago is just an extracted episode from a far larger and more complex epic. Go read that instead or as well…

Far more satisfactory, ‘Holiday Story’ is by Dini, David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez (Gotham City Sirens #7, February 2010). Here, new housemates Harley, Ivy & Catwoman split up to celebrate Christmas in their own uniquely different ways. This tale is a candid peek into the home-life and history which turned dead-end kid Harleen into an overachieving doctor, athlete and, latterly, lunatic supervillain by introducing the inveterate slimeball who fathered her…

Hitting modern times hard, ‘Kicked in the Teeth’ comes from Suicide Squad #1 (vol. 4, November 2011), wherein Adam Glass, Federico Dallocchio, Ransom Getty & Scott Hanna put Harley, Deadshot, Black Spider, King Shark, El Diablo, Voltaic and Savant through hell and torture as mere preparation for their first mission for top spook Amanda Waller whilst ‘Tease’ (Batman vol. 2, #13, December 2012 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV & Jock) sees Harley reunited with her maniac main man, only to once again suffer from the pernicious, vindictive whimsy and twisted love of the Joker…

‘Tug A’ War’ (Harley Quinn vol. 2, #21, December 2015 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, John Timms) finds Harley Quinn a bounty hunter battling former squad-mate Deadshot and setting Hollywood ablaze as she seeks top cash-cow Sparrow Adaro. Things quickly go south when she discovers her target is no crook, simply the wayward spouse of a Showbiz bigwig who only wants his little lady back. Their twisted relationship touches Harley’s heart and she resolves to help, but the former psychologist never expected so many collateral corpses to accrue as she “fixed” the not-so-happy family…

This rough & ready compilation concludes with collaborative effort ‘Evil Anonymous’ from Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fools Special #1, 2016. Courtesy of Rob Williams, Jim Lee, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope & Richard Friend this is a light-hearted, self-referential journey of discovery wherein Harley – prompted by another brush with The Joker – attempts to “cure” a number of her fellow criminal killer loons, beginning with bestial winged predator Man-Bat…

Soon, she’s reverted to a childlike state to tackle Killer Moth, Enchantress, Rat Catcher, Toyman and Poison Ivy, although things get a little out of hand when she gets Scarecrow on her couch and goes crazy serious when the Justice League step in. Nobody involved is aware of the insidious mastermind actually pulling the strings to get Harley Quinn back to where she really belongs… and is most needed…

Fast, furiously funny, often unnecessarily dark and making precious little narrative sense, Harley Quinn’s Greatest Hits is nonetheless a potent primer of Fights ‘n’ Tights furore that will give newcomers a taste of what the motley minx can do and should whet appetites for a deeper exploration of her anarchic exploits.
© 1993, 2003, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1920 Golden Age artist Al Avison (Captain America, The Whizzer, Joe Palooka, The Green Hornet, Little Dot) was born, followed by Al Wenzel (Adventure Comics, Superboy) in 1924, an Oh My Goddess creator Kosuke Fujishima in 1964. One year later the amazing Mike Parobeck (JSA, Batman Adventures) arrived, sharing the day with editor/cartoonist Jordan B. Gorfinkel (Batman: No Man’s Land, Everything’s Relative), with artists Juan Vlasco (Spider-Boy, Cable) coming in 1968 and Evan “Doc” Shaner (Strange Adventures, Flash, Aquaman) born in 1985.

In 1958 today Anthony Hern & John McLusky’s James Bond strip debuted in the UK’s Daily Express, whilst in 1978, The Walt Disney Company won its copyright infringement lawsuit against underground comix outfit the Air Pirates. In 1997 Jerry Scott & Jim Bergman’s strip Zits launched, and in 2002, the last episode of Modesty Blaise was published.

Today in 1977, legendary pioneering strip cartoonist Roy Crane (Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy, Buz Sawyer) died.

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DC Finest: Wonder Woman – Introducing Wonder Woman


By William Moulton Marston, Harry G. Peter, Alice Marble, Sheldon Moldoff, Frank Godwin, Frank Harry & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7995-033-6-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Wonder Woman debuted as a special feature in All Star Comics #8, cover-dated December 1941, but actually on sale from October 21st of that year). The book was home to top-sellers the Justice Society of America and where she would immediately be invited to join the team, albeit only as “club secretary”…

Officially, she was conceived by psychologist/polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston and realised and unilaterally illustrated by Harry G. Peter, in a calculated attempt to offer girls a positive and forceful role model and, on forward-thinking Editor M.C. Gaines’ part, to sell more funnybooks to girls. Later research has since disclosed much of her genesis was due to Moulton’s wife – attorney turned psychologist Sarah Elizabeth Marston (née Holloway) who had worked with him to create the systolic lie detector process – with further input from their live-in partner Olive Byrne.

Despite all the complexities and confusion surrounding her genesis, Wonder Woman was an instant hit and catapulted from the try-out into her own series as the cover-featured character of new anthology Sensation Comics one month later. The unstoppable Amazon then won her own eponymous supplemental title some months after that, cover-dated summer 1942, as well as a lead position in bumper anthology book Comics Cavalcade (December 1943).

Using nom de plume Charles Moulton, Marston – and his domestic writing partners – scripted all her many and miraculous adventures until his death in 1947, whereupon Robert Kanigher officially took over the writer’s role. Venerable co-creator H.G. Peter illustrated almost every WW tale until his own death in 1958.

Spanning cover-dates December 1941 to June 1943, this compelling full-colour compilation collects her debut from All Star Comics #8, and every iconic adventure plus pertinent extras from Sensation Comics #1-18; Comics Cavalcade #1-2 and Wonder Woman #1-4. Of course, we begin with ASC #8 and ‘Introducing Wonder Woman’…

On a hidden island of immortal super-women, an aviator crashes to Earth. Near death, US Army Intelligence officer Captain Steve Trevor is nursed back to health by young Princess Diana. Fearing her daughter’s growing obsession with the man, fiercely maternal Queen Hippolyte reveals the hidden history of the Amazons to the child. Diana learns how her people – all women – were seduced and betrayed by men in ancient times but rescued by the goddess Aphrodite on condition that they thenceforward isolate themselves from the rest of the world and devoted their eternal lives to becoming ideal, perfect creatures.

Now however, after Trevor explains the perfidious spy plot which accidentally brought him to the Island enclave, divine Athena and Aphrodite appear, ordering Hippolyte to assign an Amazon warrior to return with the American and fight for global freedom and liberty. The Queen diplomatically and democratically declares an open contest to determine the best candidate and – despite being forbidden to participate – Diana enters and wins. Accepting the will of the gods, the worried mother outfits her in the guise of Wonder Woman and sends her out to Man’s World…

A month later the saga continued where the introduction left off. Sensation Comics #1 declared ‘Wonder Woman Comes to America’, seeing the eager immigrant repatriating the recuperating Trevor to the modern World. She also trounces a gang of bank robbers and falls in with a show business swindler. One major innovation here is the newcomer perpetrating identity theft by buying her secret identity. Lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince elegantly allows the Amazon to be close to Steve by becoming her, enabling the heartsick medic to join her own fiancé in faraway South America. Even with all that going on, there’s still room for Wonder Woman & Trevor to stop a spy ring attempting to use poison gas in a Draft induction centre, before Steve breaks his leg and ends up in hospital again, where “Nurse Prince” is assigned to tend him…

Sensation #2 debuted a deadly enemy agent and recurring villain in ‘The Menace of Dr. Poison’ – a cannily crafted tale which also introduced the most radical comedy sidekicks of the era. The plucky “fun-loving gals” (sweets, dancing and spanking mostly) of the Holliday College for Women and their chocolate-gorging Beeta Lamda sorority-chief Etta Candy would find trouble and save the day in equal proportions for years to come: constantly demonstrating Diana’s – and Marston’s – philosophical contention that girls, with correct encouragement, could accomplish anything that men could…

With War raging and in a military setting, espionage and sabotage were inescapable plot devices. ‘A Spy in the Office’ sees Diana arranging a transfer to the office of General Darnel as his secretary so she can keep a closer eye on finally fit Steve. She isn’t there five minutes before uncovering a ring of undercover infiltrators amongst the typing pool and saving her man from assassination. Unlike most comic stars of the period, Wonder Woman tales sought tight continuity. ‘School for Spies’ in #4 shows some of those fallen girls murdered by way of introducing inventive genius/Nazi master manipulator Baroness Paula von Gunther. She employs psychological ploys to enslave impressionable women to her will and sets otherwise decent Americans against their homeland. Even Diana succumbs to her machinations – until Steve and the Holliday Girls crash in…

America’s newest submarine is saved from destruction and cunning terrorists brought to book in ‘Wonder Woman versus the Saboteurs’ before SC #6 has Diana accepting a ‘Summons to Paradise’ to battle her immortal sisters in Kanga-riding duels before receiving her greatest weapon: an unbreakable Lasso of Truth which compels and controls anyone who falls within its golden coils. It proves quite handy when Paula escapes prison and uses an invisibility formula to wreak havoc on US coastal defences…

‘The Milk Swindle’ is pure 1940s social advocacy drama, with homegrown racketeers and Nazi von Gunther joining forces to seize control of America’s milk supply with the incredibly long-sighted intention of weakening the bones of the country’s next generation of soldiers. Closely following in Sensation #8 is ‘Department Store Perfidy’ wherein the Perfect Princess goes undercover in the monolithic Bullfinch emporium to win better working conditions and fair pay for the girls employed there. There was a plethora of surprises in #9 too, with ‘The Return of Diana Prince’ from South America. Now Mrs Diana White, the young mother needs her job and identity back until her inventor husband can sell his latest invention to the US army. Luckily, Wonder Woman and an obliging gang of saboteurs can expedite matters…

The next major landmark was the launch of the Amazon’s solo title. The first quarterly Wonder Woman opens here with twinned text features ‘Introducing Miss Alice Marble as Associate Editor of Wonder Woman’ before wordy primer ‘Wonder Woman: Who is She?’ focuses on the Amazon’s pantheon of godly patrons after which comic action commences with a greatly expanded revision of her first appearance in ‘The Origin of Wonder Woman’. This precedes a beguiling mystery tale as in ‘Wonder Woman Goes to the Circus!’ Diana solves the bizarre serial murders of the show’s elephants before Paula von Gunther rears her shapely head again in ‘Wonder Woman versus the Spy Ring’ wherein the loss of the Golden Lasso almost causes Diana’s demise and ultimate defeat of the US Army…

In ‘The Greatest Feat of Daring in Human History!’ Diana and Etta head for Texas, only to become embroiled in a sinister scheme involving Latin Lotharios, lady bullfighters, lethal spies and a Nazi attempt to conquer Mexico, after which the inaugural issue ends with new feature Wonder Women of History wherein a biography of ‘Florence Nightingale, Angel of the Crimea’ is supplied by Miss Marble & Sheldon Moldoff.

Over in Sensation Comics #10 (October 1942) ‘The Railroad Plot’ celebrates Steve & Wonder Woman’s first anniversary by exposing a sinister plan devised by Japanese and German agents to blow up New York City using the labyrinth of subway tunnels under the metropolis, after which ‘Mission to Planet Eros’ launches the Princess’ long line of cosmic fantasy exploits. The Queen of Venus requests Diana’s aid in saving an entire planetary civilisation from gender inequality and total breakdown, before ‘America’s Guardian Angel’ (Sensation #12) sees the Warrior Princess accepting an offer to play herself in a patriotic Hollywood movie, only to find production infiltrated by insidious Paula and her latest gang of slave-girls…

Preceded by prose/photo introduction ‘Boys and Girls! Here are the Men Behind Wonder Woman!’ and an illustrated prose piece about ‘The Spirit of War’, Wonder Woman #2 comprises a 4-chapter epic introducing the Amazon’s greatest enemy in ‘Mars, the God of War’. He apparently instigated World War from his HQ on the distant red planet but chafes at the lack of progress since Wonder Woman entered the fray on the side of the peace-loving allies. He now opts for direct action, no longer trusting his earthly pawns Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito…

When Steve goes missing, Diana allows herself to be captured and ferried to Mars. Here she starts disrupting the efficient working of the war-god’s regime and fomenting unrest amongst the slave population, before rescuing Steve and heading home to Earth. ‘The Earl of Greed’, one of Mars’ trio of trusted subordinates, takes centre stage for the second chapter, with orders to recapture Steve and Diana at all costs. As the duo attempt to infiltrate Berlin, Greed uses his influence on Hitler to surreptitiously redirect the German war effort, using Gestapo forces to steal all the USA’s gold reserves. With Steve gravely injured, the Amazon returns to America and whilst her paramour heals, uncovers and foils the Ethereal Earl’s machinations to prevent much-needed operating funds from reaching Holliday College, where young girls learn to be independent free-thinkers. With Greed thwarted, Mars dispatches ‘The Duke of Deception’ to Earth, where the spindly phantom impersonates Wonder Woman and frames her for murder. Easily escaping from prison, the Princess of Power not only clears her name but also finds time to foil a Deception-inspired invasion of Hawaii, leaving only ‘The Count of Conquest’ free to carry out Mars’ orders.

His scheme is simple: through personal puppet Mussolini, the Count tries to brutalise and physically overpower the Amazing Amazon with a savagely bestial giant boxing champion, even as Italian Lothario Count Crafti attempts to woo, seduce and suborn her. The latter’s wiles actually work, too, but capturing and keeping her are two different things entirely, and after breaking free on the Red Planet, Diana delivers a devastating blow to Mars’ war effort…

This issue ends with a sparkling double page patriotic plea when ‘Wonder Woman Campaigns for War Bonds’ after which Marble & Moldoff detail another historical all-star in ‘Clara Barton, Angel of the Battlefield’.

Cover-dated January 1943, Sensation Comics #13 claims ‘Wonder Woman is Dead’ as a corpse wearing her uniform is discovered, and astounded Diana Prince discovers her alter ego’s clothes and the irreplaceable magic lasso are missing. The trail leads to a diabolical spy-ring working out of Darnell’s office and explosive confrontation in a bowling alley, before ‘The Story of Fir Balsam’ in #14 delivers a seasonal saga concerning lost children, an abused mother and escaped German aviators. All is happily resolved around a lonely pine tree, after which the Immortal Warrior celebrated her next publishing milestone…

The 1938 debut of Superman propelled National Comics to the forefront of their fledgling industry and a year later the company was licensed to produce a commemorative comicbook celebrating the opening of the New York World’s Fair. The Man of Tomorrow prominently featured on the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics among such four-colour stars as Zatara, Butch the Pup, Gingersnap and The Sandman. In 1940, another abundant premium emerged with Batman and Robin augmenting the roster, and the publishers felt they had an item and format worth pursuing commercially.

The spectacular card-cover 96-page anthologies had been a huge hit and convinced editors that an over-sized anthology of their pantheon of characters, with Superman & Batman prominently featured, was a worthwhile proposition. Thus, format was retained for a wholly company-owned, quarterly high-end package, retailing for the then-hefty price of 15¢. Launched as World’s Best Comics #1 in Spring 1941, the book morphed into World’s Finest Comics from #2, beginning a stellar 45-year run which only ended as part of the massive decluttering exercise that was Crisis on Infinite Earths. During the Golden Age, however, it remained a big blockbuster bonanza of strips to entice and delight readers…

At this time National/DC was in an editorially-independent business relationship with Max Gaines that involved shared and cross promotion and distribution for the comicbooks released by his own outfit All-American Publications. Although technically competitors if not quite rivals, the deal included shared logos and advertising and even combining both companies’ top characters in the groundbreaking All Star Comics as the Justice Society of America.

However, by 1942 relations between the companies were increasingly strained – and would culminate in 1946 with DC buying out Gaines, who used the money to start EC Comics.

All-American thus decided to create its own analogue to World’s Finest, featuring only AA characters. The outsized result was Comics Cavalcade. Cover-dated December 1942-January 1943 – and following Frank Harry’s gloriously star-studded cover to Comic Cavalcade #1 – Wonder Woman’s fourth regular star slot began with the superstar solving the ‘Mystery of the House of the Seven Gables’ (as ever the fruits of “Marston” & Peter’s fevered imaginations) wherein Diana Prince stumbles upon a band of Nazi spies. All too soon, the Amazon needs the help of some plucky youngsters to quash the submarine-sabotaging brutes…

Wonder Woman #3 then dedicates its entirety to the return of an old foe; commencing with ‘A Spy on Paradise Island’ as undergrads of Holliday College for Women – including Etta Candy – are initiated into some pretty wild Amazon rites on Paradise Island. Sadly, the revels inadvertently allow an infiltrator to gain access and pave the way for an invasion by Japanese troops. Naturally Diana and the Amazons prevail on the day, but the exposed sinister mind behind it all strikes back in ‘The Devilish Devices of Baroness Paula von Gunther’.

Whilst alert Amazons build a women’s prison to known as “Reform Island”, Wonder Woman, acting upon information received by the new inmates, trails Paula and is in time to crush her latest scientific terror: an invisibility ray. Then ‘The Secret of Baroness von Gunther’ offers a rare peek at a villain’s motivation when the captured super-spy reveals how her little daughter Gerta has been a Nazi hostage for years and remains a goad to ensure the genius’ total dedication to the German cause. Naturally, the Amazing Amazon resolves to reunite mother and child at all costs, after which ‘Ordeal of Fire’ confirms the Baroness aiding Diana & Steve in dismantling her spy network and slave-ring the Nazis had spent so long building in America… albeit at great personal and physical cost to the repentant Paula…

Much has been posited about subtexts of bondage and subjugation in Marston’s tales – and, to be frank, there really are lots of scenes with girls tied up, chained or about to be whipped – but I just don’t care what his intentions (subconscious or otherwise) might have been: I’m more impressed with the skilful drama and incredible fantasy elements which are always wonderfully, intriguingly present. I mean, just where does the concept of giant war-kangaroos come from?

This issue closes with another Marble & Moldoff biography lesson this tome focussed on ‘Nurse Edith Cavell’, before Sensation #15’s ‘Victory at Sea’ pits Diana & Steve against lethal saboteurs set on halting military production and working with shady lawyers, whilst in #16 ‘The Masked Menace’ is one of very few stories not illustrated by H.G. Peter, but rather the work of illustrator and strip cartoonist Frank Godwin. He was called in as the crushing workload of an extra 64-page comic book every couple of months piled pressure on WW’s artistic director. The tale sees steadfast Texan Etta Candy ready to elope with slick, sleazy Eurotrash Prince Goulash, until Diana & Steve crash the wedding party to expose spies infiltrating across the Mexican border and a plot to blow up the invaluable Candy family oil-wells…

Inescapable war-fervour was tinged with incredible fantasy in Wonder Woman 4, which opened with ‘Man-Hating Madness!’ wherein a Chinese refugee from a Japanese torture camp reaches America and draws the Amazon into a terrifying scheme to use biological weapons on the American Home Front. Cruel, misogynistic ‘Mole Men of the Underworld’ then kidnap collegiate Holliday Girls sidekicks, before Diana and reformed, recuperated former-Nazi genius Baroness Paula rescue them, liberate a race of female slaves and secure America’s deepest border from further attack.

‘The Rubber Barons’ provide a rousing romp wherein greedy corporate profiteers attempt to hold the Government and war effort to ransom with a new manufacturing process in a high-tech tale involving mind-control, gender role-reversal and behaviour modification, as only a trained and passionate psychologist could promote them, before the drama concludes with ‘The Treachery of Mavis’ as Paula, now fully accepted into Amazon society, is attacked by one of her erstwhile spy-slaves. The traumatised victim then abducts her ex-mistress’ daughter Gerta and Wonder Woman, burdened with responsibility, is compelled to hunt her down. Again the issue closes with a Marble & Moldoff history moment sharing the triumphs of ‘Lillian D. Wald, “The Mother of the East Side”’…

A revered classic from Sensation #17 follows. ‘Riddle of the Talking Lion’ (limned by Godwin) finds Diana Prince visiting an ailing friend and discovering that Sally’s kids have overheard a zoo lion speaking… and revealing strange secrets. Although Steve & Diana dismiss the tall tale, events take a peculiar turn when the beast is subsequently stolen with the trail leading to Egypt and a plot by ambitious Nazi collaborator Princess Yasmini…

Next, following the Frank Harry cover of Comics Cavalcade #2, Wonder Woman’s Godwin illustrated offering ‘Wanted by Hitler, Dead or Alive’ pits her against devious Gestapo agent Fausta Grables before another from Sensation Comics #18 closes out this epic compilation: one last yarn illustrated by superbly gifted classical artist Godwin with Diana saving a lost Mesolithic tribe from despotic theocracy and ancient greed in ‘The Secret City of the Incas’.

Exotic, baroque, beguiling and uniquely exciting, these Golden Age adventures of the World’s Most Famous woman superhero are timeless and pivotal classics in the development of comics books and still provide lashings of fun and thrills for anyone looking for a great nostalgic read.
© 1941, 1942, 1943, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1883, global cartooning force of nature Rube Goldberg as born, sharing the day with prolific British letterer Ellie DeVille in 1947; artist David Finch (CyberForce, Moon Knight, New Avengers) in 1971 and David Petersen (Mouse Guard) in 1977.

The date saw the deaths of career cartoonist Art Sansom (Chris Welkin-Planeteer, The Born Loser) in 1991 and in 2005 today premiered Tyler Martin’s long-running webcomic Wally and Osborne (formerly On the Rocks).

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Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice


By Len Strazewski, John Broome, Paul Levitz, Rick Burchett, Grant Miehm, Mike Parobeck, Tom Artis, Frank McLaughlin, Frank Giacoia, Arthur Peddy, Bernard Sachs, Joe Staton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0744-0 (HB) 978-1-77951-209-3 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

After the actual invention of comic book superheroes with the Action Comics debut of Superman in 1938, the most significant event in the industry’s history was the combination of individual sales-points into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: consumers couldn’t get enough of garishly-hued mystery men, and combining many characters inevitably increased readership. Plus, of course, a mob of superheroes is just so much cooler than one – or one-and-a-half if there’s a sidekick involved…

The creation of the Justice Society of America utterly changed the shape of the budding business and – technically – All Star Comics #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940-1941, and on sale from November 22nd 1940) was the kick-off. However, in that landmark issue, the assembled heroes merely had dinner whilst recounting recent cases and didn’t actually go on a mission together until #4 (cover-dated April 1941). With the simple notion that mighty mystery men hung out together, history was made and it wasn’t long before they started working together…

When WWII ended, superheroes gradually declined, and most companies had shelved them by 1950. That plummet in popularity led to rekindled interest in traditional genre-themed titles and characters, and it was a stripped-down team (Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, Black Canary, Dr. Mid-Nite &Wonder Woman) who battled on in trendily tailored crime or sci fi sagas before the title abruptly changed to All Star Western with #58.

It would take a second age of superheroes to revive them, this time as the champions of a parallel universe dubbed Earth Two…

Gathered here is a near-forgotten limited series focussed on the latter days of the team’s Golden Age which originally ran in Justice Society of America #1-8 (April – November 1991), augmented by the last case of the original era from All-Star Comics#57, (February/March 1951), plus a turning point tale from Adventures Comics #466 (December 1979). They are preceded a sparkling, informative and appreciative Foreword by Golden Age aficionado and super scripter Mark Waid.

The miniseries – subtitled Vengeance from the Stars! – comprising the majority of this tome was scripted by journalist/educator/author Len Strazewski (February 16th 1955 – April 27th 2026) whose comics included Speed Racer, The Flash, Phantom Lady, Starman, The Fly, The Web, Prime, Prototype, Elven and more. It was illustrated by a rotating tag team of artists, opening as Rick Burchett draws ‘Beware the Savage Skies’. Here recently-retired mystery man Ted Knight – AKA the original Starman – is attacked in his private New Mexico observatory by incredible astral energy beings. Broken and dispirited, he is then enslaved by an old enemy who purloins his wondrous Gravity Rod before luring Jay (Flash) Garrick into a deathtrap that results in power outages across America…

The plot thickens with ‘The Sack of Gotham’ (art by Grant Miehm) as radio/television executive Alan Scott seeks to keep the lights on in his city whilst Black Canary prowls the darkened streets deterring looters and career criminals. Distracted by a museum break-in, she finds herself punching way, way up as undead monster/functional moron Solomon Grundy and a gang of very determined bandits help themselves to ancient Egyptian artefacts at the behest of a hidden client.

By the time Scott arrives as Green Lantern, the Canary has been thrashed and captured, leaving him to battle an animated star constellation dubbed Sagittarius…

Burchett inks the astoundingly talented Mike Parobeck in #3’s ‘Dead Air’, as the star thing blacks out Gotham and Scott struggles to stop it. Complications occur when Grundy – afflicted with an obsessive hatred of Green Lantern – forgets the orders from the mystery Machiavelli to attack his emerald enemy. Far away, Ted Knight learns his gleeful foe intends to conquer Earth by eradicating modern technologies and attitudes and replace them with primordial magic and tyranny…

Tom Artis & Frank McLaughlin limn #4 as ‘Evil of the Ancients’ sees reincarnating Egyptian warrior Hawkman uncovering star-themed neolithic treasures in his day job as archaeologist Carter Hall. These findings expose the history and provenance of the constellation creatures, but also trigger the arrival of another. Despite aerial valour and the US Army’s best efforts, deadly colossus Andromeda storms off with a clutch of atom bombs and only the sudden arrival of Flash prevents utter disaster. The clash resumes in ‘Double Star Rising!’ by Parobeck & Burchett, as arcane knowledge and modern engineering savvy combine to trace the stellar plunderer and incredible pyramid of power it is constructing. When the heroes try to destroy it, they are confronted with a second energy horror but find a way to defeat both at once, compelling the man behind the plot to finally take a personal hand in the fight…

Far across the country the Lantern and the Canary escape captivity in ‘Danger Flies the Skies’ (Artis & McLaughlin), thanks to some timely aid from valiant sidekick Doiby Dickles, and track west after the museum artefacts in time to reinforce Flash and Hawkman in ‘The Return of the Justice Society’ (art by Miehm & Burchett). Redeemed and reinspired, Knight once more takes up his costumed identity to end the villain’s plot in ‘Battle of the Stars!’

In the heady aftermath, the JSA ponder what the next decade will bring, unaware that political conspiracies, public paranoia and a wave of intolerance masquerading as social conformity was waiting to change the world in ways no one could anticipate…

In continuity terms, this was technically the antepenultimate adventure of the JSA, with the rousing romp slyly heralding mood swings in the heartland of Democracy. It is thus smartly supplemented by the team’s final Golden Age appearance (All-Star Comics #57) and a chilling, thematically-aligned codicil from Adventures Comics #466.

Written by John Broome and illustrated by Frank Giacoia, Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs, it was the JSA’s last hurrah as ‘The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives!’ pitted them against criminal mastermind The Key. When he abducted Earth’s greatest criminologists in advance of a spectacular robbery spree, the superheroes were called in to solve the case and prevent an impending catastrophe. It took a lot of time and effort, but the JSA never fail…

The fallow period and return of the JSA was a major success of fan power in the 1960s, but that decade too ended with superheroes in decline. During the torrid, turbulent 1970s, many of the industry’s oldest publishing ideas were finally laid to rest. The belief that characters could be “over-exposed” was one of the most pernicious and long-lasting (although it never hurt Superman, Batman or the original Captain Marvel), garnered from years of experience in an industry which lived or died on that fractional portion of pennies derived each month from the pocket-money and allowances of children which wasn’t spent on candy, toys or movies.

By the end of the 1960s, comic book costs and retail prices were inexorably rising and a proportion of titles – especially newly revived horror stories – were consciously being produced for older readerships. Nearly a decade of organised fan publications and letter writing crusades had finally convinced publishing bean-counters what editors already knew: grown-ups avidly read comics too. Moreover, they happily spent more than kids and craved more, more, more of what they loved.

Explicitly: If one appearance per month was popular, extras, specials and second series would be more so. By the time Marvel Comics Wunderkind Gerry Conway left The House of Ideas, DC was willing and ready to expand its variegated line-up with some oft-requested fan-favourite characters. Paramount among these was the JSA, the first super-team and a perennial gem whose annual guest-appearances in Justice League of America and other superhero titles had become a beloved tradition and treat.

Thus in 1976 writer/editor Conway marked his second DC tenure (he had first broken into the game writing horror shorts for Joe Orlando) by reviving All Star Comics with #58. In 1951, the original title transformed overnight into All Star Western with the numbering running for a further decade for the home of cowboy crusaders like Strong Bow, The Trigger Twins, a different Johnny Thunder and Super-Chief. Now, set on Earth-Two, and in keeping with the editorial sense of ensuring a series be relevant to young readers too, Conway reintroduced the veteran team, leavened with a smattering of teen heroes forming a contentious, generation gap-fuelled “Super Squad”…

Augmented by Robin (a JSA-er since the mid-1960s and Justice League of America #55), Sylvester Pemberton/Star-Spangled Kid and a busty young thing who rapidly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys: Kara Zor-L: Power Girl. Closing this collection is a short piece as she and fellow newcomer Huntress discuss how the Golden Age died. Taken from 68-page anthology title Adventure Comics 466 where Paul Levitz & Joe Staton delivered a pithy history lesson exposing the reason why the team vanished at the beginning of the 1950s, ‘The Defeat of the Justice Society!’ shows how the US Government cravenly betrayed their greatest champions. Set during early days of the McCarthy era anti-communist witch-hunts, a sham trial provoked the mystery men into voluntarily withdrawing from public, heroic life. There they stayed until the costumed stalwarts of Earth-One started the whole Fights ‘n’ Tights scene all over again…

These exuberant, rapid-paced and imaginative yarns perfectly blend the naive charm of Golden Age derring-do with cynically hopeful modern sensibilities. Here you will be reassured that no matter what, in the end our heroes will always find a way to save the day. These are classic tales from simpler times and a glorious example of traditional superhero storytelling at its finest: fun, furious and ferociously engaging, excitingly written and beguilingly illustrated. No Fights ‘n’ Tights fan should miss these marvellous sagas.
© 1951, 1979,1991, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1907, Dutch Indo painter and cartoonist Joseph Ferdinand Doeve was born, with Us comics writer Jerry Coleman (Superman, Batman) arriving in 1913; Dutch comics author Wim Booster in 1918.

This date saw the passing of artists Mike Parobeck (Batman Adventures, El Diablo, Elongated Man, Justice Society of America, The Fly) in 1996 and John Cullen Murphy (Prince Valiant) in 2004.

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Supergirl’s Zoo-per Heroes: Krypto’s Big Break


By Rob Justus with Wes Abbott (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-601-0 (HB) 978-1-79950-602-7 (Digital edition)

Somehow, despite her longevity, comics popularity and screen star status, Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El has always struggled to maintain the career impetus and position she deserves. Even after a multi-season hit TV show and the (second) big screen movie currently offending incels and insecure basement dwellers everywhere, the Girl of Steel has devotees but not a perceptible global presence like her cousin Kal, Wonder Woman, Batman, The Hulk or Spider-Man.

To be scrupulously fair, the same argument applies to Harley Quinn, Black Canary, Batgirl, She-Hulk, Scarlet Witch and even The Black Widow. I think I sense a pattern…

However, one arena where girls loudly and proudly dominate is the Young Adult graphic novel marketplace. DC alone has multiple marvellous titles starring Amazon Princesses Diana & Nubia, Catwoman, Batgirl/Oracle, Lois Lane, Harley Quinn, Zatanna, Poison Ivy, Green Lantern Jessica Cruz, Raven, Mera, and even new original characters like Primer, Starfire’s daughter Mandy (in I Am Not Starfire!), and TV Supergirl spin-off Dreamer…

A far more attractive and apparently accessible option over decades has been the Kryptonian Good Boi who debuted in a Superboy yarn way back in Adventure Comics #210 (cover-dated March 1955 and on sale from January 25th), where Otto Binder, Curt Swan & Sy Barry introduced ‘The Super-Dog from Krypton!’ Although unruly, boisterous, waywardly mischievous and dangerously playful, Krypto heralded a wave of survivors from the dead world and made the (male) Kid From Krypton feel less lonely and unique. Every boy needs a dog and Krypto hung around for ever, before eventually valiantly dying as part of the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. He has returned many times in many moods ever since. The current movie franchise incarnation is – much like the debut dog – a rowdy rascal, and can be seen on screen and in this standalone tale targeting that burgeoning YA GN market that was released in February 2026…

Crafted by multi award winning – aren’t they all? – Canadian author/artist Rob Justus (Death and Sparkles, Brave Enough, Superman’s Good Guy Gang) and lettered by Wes Abbott, this first in a proposed series of shaggy doggish tales is also greatly-informed by animated TV shows like Justice League Unlimited and opens with teen hero Supergirl popping aboard the JLA’s satellite “The Watchtower” prior to a fun time with Krypto. Sadly, the Dog of Tomorrow – already in the dog house with the senior superstars for past misdemeanours – is in one of his more playful moods…

The Girl of Steel allowed him aboard on their way to the Cosmic Dog Park and he promised to be good, but it’s sooooo hard as the big wheel in the sky is packed with such intriguing smells and toys…

After another of his joyous unsupervised romps, Kara is on frantic clean up duty. That means doing the adult heroes’ laundry – again – but the problem is extremely bad this time, as first she has to find it all. Not only has Krypto snuffled, ruffled and barfed on costumes (and super sweaty super socks and …underwear!), but he then ejected the clothes out into space where they have been hyper-charged by weird space energies (cosmic rays, solar winds, atmospheric radiation, lightning and Eclipso’s magic!) genetically infusing hero DNA into the individual fabrics…

Desperately seeking to gather the gruesome grubby garments, Supergirl – with Krypto joining in the chase by following his nose – track some costumes to shabby, old-fashioned Metropolis Zoo. Here, weary, downhearted animals are being mistreated by neglectful greedy Zookeeper Cass, until, at the height of a thunderstorm, four power-packed outfits land on them and duplicate in them very specific superpower sets….

At exactly the wrong moment the boosted beasts – the fastest sloth alive, Wonder seal, Super lion and the Bat rhino – bust out, just as Krypto arrives demanding the cosmic clothing back. He is happy to fight everyone to retrieve them, but, after bonding over garbage they all team up instead, which is good as Supergirl is much less understanding – even though she thinks she can speak “animal”…

The situation utterly escalates when one last costume – Zatanna’s hat – empowers Cass with eldritch abilities and she sees her now superpowered tatty cash-cows as the way to get really rich really fast…

Then all that’s left is a full-combat trial by fire and the birth of a new team. After all, there are many more lost costumes still to find…

To Be Continued…

Not merely another child-friendly iteration of Super-Pets, Supergirl’s Zoo-per Heroes are a wild and woolly bunch of wonders you can’t afford to deny yourself and, if you have animals or kids (frequently a tricky distinction, I admit), you can even share the fun with them… but only if they’re good too…
Text and Illustrations © 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved..

Today in 1958 artist Shawn McManus (Omega Men, Doctor Fate, The Sandman, Fables) was born, sharing the natal date with writer/editor Christopher Priest – née Jim Owsley – (The Falcon, Black Panther, The Ray, Conan the Barbarian, Quantum & Woody) in 1961 and True Brits Mike McKone (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Justice League International) in 1969 and Tony Lee (Superboy, Star Trek, Doctor Who) in 1970.

This date in 1940 Dale Messick’s landmark strip Brenda Starr, Reporter began, but also saw the loss of cartoonist Abner Dean (What Am I Doing Here?, Cave Drawings for the Future) in 1982; French creator Jacques Lob (Ténébrax, Submerman, Blanche Épiphanie, Superdupont, Le Transperceneige) in 1990 and Spanish artist Jaime Brocal Remohí (The Saint, Creepy, Eerie, Kami no Ude, El otro Necronomicón ) in 2002.

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Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman volume 2


By Michael Jelenic, Adam P. Knave, Alex De Campi, Amy Chu, James Tynion IV, Heather Nuhfer, Lauren Beukes, Cecil Castelucci, Sara Ryan, Aaron Lopresti, Drew Johnson, Matthew Dow Smith, Ray Snyder, Neil Googe, Bernard Chang, Noelle Stevenson, Ryan Benjamin, Mike Maihack, Chris Sprouse & Karl Story, Christian Duce & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5862-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Time to start planning for a Big Comics Anniversary later this year…

The Princess of Paradise Island originally debuted as a special feature in All Star Comics #8, cover-dated December 1941, but actually on sale from October 21st of that year). She was officially conceived by psychologist/polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston and illustrated by Harry G. Peter, in a calculated attempt to offer girls a positive and forceful role model and, on forward-thinking Editor M.C. Gaines’ part, to sell more funnybooks to girls. Later research has since disclosed much of her genesis was due to Moulton’s wife – attorney turned psychologist Sarah Elizabeth Marston (née Holloway) who had worked with him to create the systolic lie detector process – and their live-in partner Olive Byrne.

Despite all the complexities and confusion surrounding her genesis, Wonder Woman was an instant hit and catapulted from the try-out into her own series as the cover-feature character of new anthology title Sensation Comics one month later. The Amazing Amazon then won her own eponymous supplemental title a few months after that, cover-dated summer 1942…

You already know the story: Once upon a time on a hidden island of immortal super-women, American aviator Steve Trevor of US Army Intelligence crashed to Earth. Near death, he was nursed back to health by young, impressionable Princess Diana. Fearful of her besotted child’s growing obsession with the creature from a long-forgotten and madly violent world, Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyte revealed the hidden history of the Amazons: how they were seduced and betrayed by men but rescued by the goddess Aphrodite on condition they forever isolate themselves from the mortal world and devote their eternal lives to becoming ideal, perfect creatures.

However, with the planet in crisis, goddesses Aphrodite and her sister Athena instructed Hippolyte to send an Amazon back with the American to fight for global freedom and liberty. Although forbidden to compete, closeted, cosseted Diana clandestinely overcame all other candidates to become their emissary: Wonder Woman.

On arriving in the Land of the Free she purchased the identity and credentials of lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince, which elegantly allowed the unregistered immigrant to stay close to Steve whilst enabling the heartsick care-worker to join her own fiancé in South America.

The new Diana soon gained a position with Army Intelligence as secretary to General Darnell, further ensuring she would always be able to watch over her beloved. She little suspected that, although the painfully shallow Steve only had eyes for the dazzling Amazon superwoman, the General had fallen for the mousy but supremely competent Lt. Prince…

That set up enabled the Star-Spangled Sentinel to weather the notoriously transient comic book marketplace, surviving the end of costumed heroes’ Golden Age beside Superman, Batman and a few lucky hangers-on who inhabited the backs of their titles. She soldiered on well into the Silver Age revival under the auspices of Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, but by 1968 superhero comics were in decline again and publishers sought new ways to keep audiences interested as tastes – and American society – changed.

Back then, as her sales withered during the mid-1960’s, the entire industry depended on newsstand sales and if you weren’t popular, you died. Jack Miller, Denny O’Neill & Mike Sekowsky stepped up with a radical depowering and made comic book history with the only female superhero to still have her own title in that marketplace. Eventually, however, merely mortal trouble-shooter gave way to a reinvigorated Amazing Amazon who battled declining sales (thanks to a TV-inspired boost) until DC’s groundbreaking Crisis on Infinite Earths after which she was once again fundamentally reimagined.

Minor tweaks in her continuity accommodated different creators’ tenures until 2011 when DC rebooted their entire comics line again and Wonder Woman once more underwent a drastic, fan-infuriating root-and-branch refit. Possibly to mitigate the fallout the publishers okayed a number of fall-back options such as this intriguing package…

Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman began as a “digital first” series online before collecting chapters into a new standard comic book. Crafted by a fluctuating roster of artists and writers, the contents highlighted every previous era and incarnation of the character – and even a few wildly innovative alternative visions – offering a wide variety of thrilling, engaging and sincerely fun-filled moments to remember. The physical iteration was enough to warrant a series of trade paperback compilations which – in the fullness of time and nature of circularity – gained their own digital avatars as eBooks too.

This second of three full-colour treasuries gathered Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #6-10 (March-July 2015) and offered another legion of talent and multitude of different visions, beginning with ‘Generations’ by Michael Jelenic & Drew Johnson, wherein an annual odyssey for the perfect gift for Amazon Queen – and rather forbidding mother – Hippolyta leads Diana into battle with mythical monsters, an old enemy and her own obsessive drive to overachieve…

Adam P. Knave & Matthew Dow Smith’s ‘Not Included’ pairs the potent Paradise Islander with Apokolyptian New God Big Barda against evil super-science and robotic hordes of The Brain and M’sieu Mallah, after which a decidedly different take by Alex De Campi & Neil Googe has Wonder Woman coming to the rescue of a commercial space station above the Second Rock from the Sun in ‘Venus Rising’. Amy Chu & Bernard Chang then go out-world to celebrate the core concept of Wonder Woman in ‘Rescue Angel’, as soldiers pinned down in Afghanistan are saved by Lt. Angel Santiago. The wounded warrior claims her outstanding actions under fire are the result of a vision from her beloved, long-cherished comic books…

Spectacular action and sinister skulduggery inform Heather Nuhfer & Ryan Benjamin’s clash between the Amazing Amazon and Lex Luthor, who triggers ‘Sabotage is in the Stars’ when the Indian government’s space program starts impacting Lexcorp’s projected profits. James Tynion IV & Noelle Stevenson introduce feisty teen Riley as guide to a culture-shocked young Diana in ‘Wonder World’ next, but as they bond over stupid boys and cheesy beachside entertainments, the girls are blithely unaware the foreign newcomer’s Amazon bodyguards are frantically searching for their AWOL charge…

‘The Problem with Cats’ by Lauren Beukes & Mike Maihack takes a light-hearted look at sisterhood and the rivalry between Wonder Woman and The Cheetah – or is it all in the over-active imagination of frustrated. grounded little African girl Zozo? Possibly the best yarn this go-round comes as frosty, testy and possibly hostile Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane is ordered to interview Wonder Woman.

The ice is only broken after an monster invasion leads to a splendid ‘Girl’s Day Out’, courtesy of Cecil Castelucci, Chris Sprouse & Karl Story before Sara Ryan & Christian Duce reveal a timely intervention that saves the life and emotional stability of ‘VIP’ pop star Esperanza, before Aaron Lopresti wraps up this parade of pulse-pounding peril and imago of insightful episodes with a brutal dragonslaying clash as ‘Casualties of War’ shows Diana’s abiding reluctance to engage in battle, but how sometimes there is just no other choice…

Augmented by a spectacular covers-&-variants gallery from Paul Davey, Shane Davis, Michelle & Alex Sinclair, Ben Caldwell & Francesco Francavilla, this is a scintillating snapshot of the astounding variety of visions Wonder Woman has inspired in her decades of existence, and one to delight fans old and new alike.
© 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1928 DC star artist/inker Joe Giella (Hopalong Cassidy, Flash, Adam Strange, Justice League of America, DC Comics Presents, Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Mary Worth) was born, with creator Dan Jurgens (Booster Gold, Superman, Captain America, Thor) arriving in 1959 and Jackson Guice (Micronauts, Action Comics, The Flash, Ruse) and Canadian cartoonist Bernie Mireault (Grendel, The Jam, Dr. Robot, McKenzie Queen) sharing a 1961 birthday.

In 20005, Atsushi Suzumi’s manga Venus Versus Virus began, as did Seinen anthology magazine Monthly Comic Alive one year later. In 2001 Tove Jansson died, predeceasing co-founder of The School of Visual Arts (AKA the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, NYC) Silas Rhodes in 2007, and Belgian creator, comics historian and Spirou editor Thierry Martens/Yves Varende.

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DC Finest: The Joker – The Last Ha-Ha


By Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Bob Haney, Martin Pasko, David V. Reed, Steve Englehart, Len Wein, Paul Levitz, Dick Dillin, Neal Adams, Irv Novick, Jim Aparo, Ernie Chan, José Luis García-López, John Calnan, Marshall Rogers, Walter Simonson, Don Newton, Joe Staton, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, Frank McLaughlin, Bob Wiacek, Terry Austin, Steve Mitchell & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79951-025-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

HEY! WHO LET THAT CLOWN IN? IS THERE A PARTY SOMEWHERE?

An old adage says that you can judge someone by the calibre of their enemies, and that’s never been more ably demonstrated than with Batman. For most of his near century of existence, but most especially ever since the 1970s, the position of paramount antagonist has been indisputably filled by Clown Prince of Crime The Joker! He first hit newsstands in Batman #1 (cover-dated Spring and officially on sale from April 25th 1940). That’s 86 exploding candles and poisoned cakes and he’s still totally, lethally crazy after all these years…

Spanning cover-dates December 1969 to September 1981, this compilation collects stories from Justice League of America #77; Batman # 251, 260, 286, 291-294 & 321; Detective Comics #475-476 & 504; eccentric team-ups from The Brave and the Bold #111, 118, 129-130 & 141: The Joker volume 1 #1-10 and Earth-Two appearances from Wonder Woman volume 1 #280-283, a comprehensive but by no means complete carry on of one of the most conflicted and confusing characters in comics.

In the late 1960s superheroes experienced a rapid decline in popularity – presumably reaction to global media’s crass and crushing overexposure. When that bubble burst, Batman’s comic franchise sought to escape the zany, “camp” image by methodically re-branding the hero and returning to the original 1930s concept of a grim, driven Dark Avenger. Although hugely popular, TV’s sappy buffoon/thieving villain version of The Joker was almost fatal to the character on the printed page. However, a deftly calculated return to his Golden Age, eerie cheery killer persona began almost immediately. Thus this collection which kicks off with the Mountebank of Mirth manically upping his game and expanding his pool of enemies…

In Justice League of America #77 (cover-dated December 1969), the smugly complacent confidence and cheery worldview of the World’s Greatest Superheroes is shattered after enigmatic political populist Joe Dough suborns and compromises their beloved teen mascot in ‘Snapper Carr… Super-Traitor!’ This revelatory rite of passage comes from Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella: a coming-of-age yarn that saw the team lose public support and even their secret HQ, as the comfy, cosy superhero game changes forever… and no guesses for who Joe Dough really is!

The dark transformation of the Crime Clown was fully accomplished in Batman #251 (September 1973 by O’Neil & Neal Adams). ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge!’ reinstated the psychotic, diabolically unpredictable Killer Clown who scared the short pants off readers of the 1940s. A true milestone utterly redefining the hero’s nemesis for the modern age, the frantic moody yarn sees the Mirthful Maniac stalking his old gang, seeking to eradicate them all, with a hard-pressed Gotham Guardian desperately playing catch-up. As crooks die in all manner of byzantine and bizarre ways, Batman realises his archfoe has gone irrevocably off the deep end. Terrifying and beautiful, for many fans this is the definitive Batman/Joker story.

Cover-dated February/March 1974, The Brave and the Bold #111 boasted “the strangest team-up in history” as writer Bob Haney & artist on fire Jim Aparo had the Gotham Guardian join forces with the Harlequin of Hate for a brilliantly twisty tale of cross-&-double-cross in ‘Death has the Last Laugh!’ Complex and compelling, this murder-spree yarn possibly led to the Crime Clown’s own short-run series a year later.

Meanwhile, from Batman #260 (January/February 1975 by O’Neil, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano), ‘This One’ll Kill You Batman!’ finds the grim, po-faced Darknight Detective racing to save his own life after being poisoned by Joker Toxin that acts like irresistibly lethal laughing gas, after which B&B #118 (April) sees Wildcat and Batman forced to brutally battle each other in ‘May the Best Man Die!’ after being sucked into Joker’s scheme to poison boxers (and anyone else in range) with a deadly, blood-borne virus…

Within 18 months of the breakthrough revision in Batman #251, The Joker won his own series. Titles starring villains were exceedingly rare back then and provided quite a few problems for writers and editors still labouring under the edicts of the Comics Code Authority. The outré experiment ended after 9 issues – spanning May 1975 to October 1976, (plus one formerly unpublished digital issue in 2019) – and had utilised some of the most talented creators in DC’s employ. It remained a peculiar historical oddity for decades. Now, in these less doctrinaire times those strange tales of the Smirking Slaughterman have an appreciative audience…

The murderous merriment commences with ‘The Joker’s Double Jeopardy!’ Here fellow Arkham Asylum inmate Two-Face arrogantly escapes, pinking the Felonious Funnyman’s pride and compelling the giggling ghoul to similarly break out to prove he’s the greater criminal maniac. Their extended duel of wits and body-counts only lands them both back inside. That “revolving door” security at Arkham eventually leads to the firing of much-harassed guards Marvin Fargo & Benny Khiss in #2’s ‘The Sad Saga of Willie the Weeper!’ However, as the again-at-liberty Lethal Loon attempts to boost the confidence of a lachrymose minor-league larcenist for his own purposes, those defrocked jailers determine to restore their honour and fortunes and astoundingly, they succeed.

Written by O’Neil with art by Ernie Chan (nee Chua) & José Luis García-López, ‘The Last Ha Ha’ in #3 details a burglary and kidnapping of superstar cartoonist Sandy Saturn by a green-haired, cackling crazy. Witness accounts lead the cops to the ludicrous conclusion that The Creeper is the culprit. Cue lots and lots of eerie chortling, mistaken identity shenanigans and murderously manic explosive action…

The ethical dilemma of a star who’s arguably the world’s worst villain is further explored in ‘A Gold Star for the Joker!’ (Elliot S! Maggin, García-López & Vince Colletta) wherein our Perfidious Pagliacci inexplicably develops a crush on Black Canary’s alter-ego Dinah Lance and resolves to possess her or kill her. Typically, even though she’s perfectly capable of saving herself, Dinah’s beau Green Arrow (see what I did there?) is also the possessive aggressive kind of consort…

‘The Joker Goes Wilde!’ (Martin Pasko, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell) finds the Clown Prince in bombastic competition with similarly playing-card themed super-bandits The Royal Flush Gang. Everyone wants to secure a lost masterpiece, but even as he’s winning that weird war, the Mountebank of Menace is already after a hidden prize.

More force of nature than mortal miscreant, the Pallid Punchinello meets his match after assaulting actor Clive Sigerson in #6. Famed for stage portrayals of a certain literary detective, Sigerson sustains a nasty blow to the bonce which befuddles his wits and soon ‘Sherlock Stalks the Joker!’ (O’Neil, Novick & Blaisdell), foiling a flood of crazy schemes and apprehending the maniac before his concussion is cured…

We learn surprising facts about the Clown Prince of Carnage when he steals the calm, logical intellect of Earth’s most brilliant evil scientist. Naturally, psychic transference in ‘Luthor… You’re Driving Me Sane!’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) is two-way and, whilst the newly cognizant Clown becomes ineffably intelligent, Lex Luthor is reduced to a risk-taking maniac unphased by potential consequences and determined to have fun no matter who dies. The Joker’s eighth outing covered a clash with Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror as ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) saw the top contenders for scariest guy in town (not counting Batman!) steal each other’s thunder whilst vying for that macabre top spot, before the villainous vignettes conclude with a claws-out clash as ‘The Cat and the Clown!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) sees an aged comedian and his million-dollar kitty targeted by rival rogues Catwoman and Joker. Unhappily for the crooks they had both underestimated the grizzled guile of their octogenarian victim…

In Fall of 2019 the unpublished tenth issue was released digitally and appeared in monolithic, print-only, rather inaccessibly expensive The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus (Collected). There – and here – Pasko & Novick’s tale ‘99 and 99/100% Dead!’ involves a deal with the Devil (AKA “Lou Cipher”) and scheme to murder Earth’s greatest heroes – The JLA – that doesn’t quite come about and ends on a cliffhanger…

Here, however, we resume with a rare two-parter from The Brave and the Bold #129 & 130: a jam-packed action-romp with ‘Claws of the Emperor Eagle’ pitting Batman, Green Arrow and The Atom against Joker, Two-Face and hordes of bandits in a manic race to possess a statue that had doomed every great conqueror in history. The epic, globe-trotting saga concluded with an ironic bang in ‘Death at Rainbow’s End’…

In Batman #286,‘The Joker’s Playground of Peril!’ (April 1977 by O’Neil, Novick & Bob Wiacek) sees The Clown escape Arkham Asylum prompting panic in the lawyer who failed get him off and the fence who cheated the loon when selling his ill-gotten gains. The fugitives make it easy for the manic by hiding in the same Amusement park but the Dynamoc Duo are clued in and waiting…

Next is an extended saga from Batman #291-294 (cover dates September through December 1977) written by author David V. Reed and illustrated by John Calnan & Tex Blaisdell. Over four deviously clever issues ‘Where Were You the Night Batman Was Killed?’ sees hordes of costumed foes the Caped Crimebuster has crushed assemble to verify the stories of various felons claiming to have done the deed. This thematic partial inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s “Last Batman Story” kicks off with ‘The Testimony of the Catwoman’ followed by ‘The testimony of…’ The Riddler, Lex Luthor and The Joker before satisfactorily concluding with a twist in a spectacular grand manner.

The only real contenders for the plaudits of being the best Joker yarn ever follows: a two-part saga from Detective Comics #475-476 (February & April 1978) concluding a breathtaking, signature run of retro tales by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin. The absolute zenith in a short but stellar sequence resurrecting old foes naturally peaked with the Dark Knight’s nemesis at his most chaotic, and began with ‘The Laughing Fish!’ and culminating in ‘The Sign of the Joker!’, comprising one of the most reprinted Bat-tales ever concocted. It was even adapted as an episode of the award-winning Batman: The Animated Adventures TV show in the 1990s. In fact, you’ve probably already read it. But if you haven’t… what a treat awaits you!

As seafood sporting the Joker’s horrific smile began turning up in sea-catches all over the Eastern Seaboard, the Clown Prince attempts to trademark them. When patent officials foolishly tell him it can’t be done, they start dying – publicly, impossibly and incredibly painfully…

The story concluded in a spectacular apocalyptic clash which shaped, informed and redefined the Batman mythos for decades to come…

The best was saved for last, with continuity altering sub-plots concerning Bruce Wayne’s current inamorata Silver St. Cloud, crooked politico “Boss” Rupert Thorne and the Gotham City Council who had outlawed the hero, and even the recurring ghost of Hugo Strange culminating in THE classic confrontation with The Joker.

B&B #141 (May/June 1978) offers another Batman team-up with Black Canary as ‘Pay – or Die!’ (by Haney & Aparo) finds Dinah Lance looking at a modelling career but pausing to help Batman and Alfred quash the Joker’s bizarrely byzantine extortion/loan sharking/crooked mortician scheme in ‘Pay – Or Die!’

The gleeful terror continues with ‘Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker…!’ by Len Wein, Walt Simonson & Giordano (from Batman #321 March 1980), wherein the Malevolent Mummer planned to celebrate his anniversary in grand style: kidnapping a bunch of old chums like Robin, Jim Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Catwoman and others to be the exploding candles on his giant birthday cake…

The Joker has the rare distinction of being perhaps the most iconic villain in comics and can claim that title in whatever era you choose to concentrate on; Noir-ish Golden Age, sanitised Silver Age or malignant modern and Post-Modern milieus. This book captures just a fraction of all those superb stories and with the benefit of another two and a half decades of material since the release of this compendium, just think of what a couple of equally well-considered sequels might offer…

Cover-dated July 1981, Detective #504 – by Gerry Conway, Don Newton & Dan Adkins – details ‘The Joker’s Rumpus Room Revenge!’ Closing the Batman related portion of the book, here the Murderous Mummer again slips out of Arkham and murders an old puppet-maker to lure the Dark Knight into a killzone packed with killer toys and robots…

During the late Seventies and early Eighties Helena Wayne was the daughter of the deceased Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman Selina Kyle. As The Huntress, the immensely popular character sprang from a then-current Justice Society of America series in All Star Comics into her own relatively long-running back-up feature initially in Batman family and then in Wonder Woman (#271 September 1980 through #321, November 1984). She died in but notionally survived the Crisis on Infinite Earths by being retooled as mob-orphan Helena Bertinelli to become a post-Crisis Dark Knight adjunct.

From Wonder Woman #280 – 283 (vol. 1, June to September 1981) and crafted by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Steve Michell ‘Lion at Bay’ sees Huntress crush her mother’s old nemesis Lionmane, but not before his mass jailbreak allows a declining but still demented and deadly Harlequin of Hate to escape Gull’s island prison. Refusing to believe Batman is dead, elderly Joker proceeds to poison old foes like Commissioner O’Hara to draw out his enemy. Stalked by Huntress in ‘Always Leave ‘em Laughing’ before recruiting another old Crazy Clown combatant to help trick and trap the madman, the end comes in ‘First Laugh…’ and final encore ‘…Last Laugh!’

With covers by Murphy Anderson, Adams, Tatjana Wood, Nick Cardy, Aparo, Giordano, Ross Andru, Chan, García-López, Drew Moore, Rogers & Austin, Simonson, Jim Starlin, Rich Buckler, and George Pérez, this quirky oddment offers slick plotting and startling visuals as madcap misdemeanours are soundly upstaged and shoved aside by lunatic larks, malign malice and a more mounting degree of murderous mayhem than most classical fans might be comfortable with, but always sustained and supported by strong storytelling and stunning art to delight fans of traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights sagas.
© 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1913 author and groundbreaking comics scripter John Broome (aka John Osgood & Edgar Ray Meritt) was born, followed in 1928 by Filipino art maestro Nestor Rendondo (Darna, Rima the Jungle Girl, The Bible, Swamp Thing); Belgian cartoonist Joseph Loeckx/“Jo-El Azara” (Taka Takata, Clifton) in1937, and our own astounding John Ridgway (Commando Picture Library, Famous Five, Young Marvelman, Judge Dredd, Bozz Chronicles, Hellblazer) in 1940.

This date in 1953 welcomed US cartoonist/book illustrator Doug Cushman (Aunt Eater, Holiday Mice!); Canadian Underground artist Patrick Henley AKA Henriette Valium in 1959; Mad magazine illustrator Tom Richmond in 1966; Scott Kolins in 1968 and Ale Garza in 1977.

We lost today editor Lou Stathis in 1997, and Henry Sunday page artist Don Trachte in 2005 but the day did give us Richard F. Outcaul’s Buster Brown which launched in 1902, Ivy the Terrible’s debut in The Beano, courtesy of Roy Nixon in 1985 and the very first Free Comic Book Day today in 2002.

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DC Finest: The Demon – Birth of the Demon


By Jack Kirby with Mike Royer, Bob Haney, Bob Rozakis, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Jim Aparo, John Calnan, Mike Golden, Steve Ditko, José Delbo, Bob McLeod, Dick Giordano, Dave Hunt & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1799507437 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Jack “King” Kirby shaped the very nature of comics narrative. A compulsive storyteller, Jack was an astute, spiritual man who had lived through poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II. He had seen Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. He was open-minded and utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject. He began at the top of his game, galvanising the comic book scene from its earliest days with long-term creative partner Joe Simon: creating Blue Bolt, drawing Captain Marvel and adding lustre to Timely comics with creations such as Red Raven, Hurricane, Captain America and The Young Allies.

In 1942 Simon & Kirby moved to National/DC and hit even more stellar highs with The Boy Commandos, Newsboy Legion, Manhunter and The Sandman before the call of duty saw them inducted into the American military.

On returning from World War II, they reunited, forming a studio working primarily for the Crestwood/Prize publishing outfit. Here they invented the entire genre of Romance comics. Amongst that dynamic duo’s other concoctions for Prize was a noir-ish, psychologically underpinned supernatural anthology Black Magic and its short-lived but fascinating companion title Strange World of Your Dreams. All their titles eschewed traditional gory, heavy-handed morality plays and simplistic cautionary tales for deeper, stranger fare. Until the EC comics line hit their peak, S&K’s were far and away the best and most mature titles on the market.

Kirby understood the fundamentals of pleasing his audience and always strived diligently to combat the appalling state of prejudice about the comics medium – especially from industry insiders and professionals who despised the “kiddies world” they felt trapped in. When the 1950s anti-comics comics witch hunt devastated the industry, Simon & Kirby parted ways. Jack went back to DC briefly and created newspaper strip Sky Masters of the Space Force before partnering with Stan Lee at what remained of Timely Comics to create the monolith of stars we know as Marvel. After more than a decade there he felt increasingly stifled and side-lined and in 1970 accepted an offer of complete creative freedom at DC. The jump resulted in a root and branch redefinition of superheroes in his quartet of interlinked Fourth World series.

When those controversial, grandiose, groundbreaking titles were cancelled, Kirby looked for other concepts to stimulate his vast creativity and still appeal to an increasingly fickle and divided market. General interest in the Supernatural was peaking, with books and movies exploring the unknown in gripping and stylish new ways, and the Comics Code Authority had already released its censorious choke-hold on mystery and horror titles, thereby saving the entire industry from implosion when the superhero boom of the 1960s fizzled away.

At DC’s suggestion, Kirby had already briefly returned to his supernatural experimentation in a superb but poorly received and largely undistributed monochrome magazine. Spirit World launched in the summer of 1971, but as before, editorial cowardice and back-sliding scuppered the project before it could get going. You can see what might have been in a collected edition re-presenting the sole published issue and material from a second, unreleased sequel in Jack Kirby’s Spirit World…

With most of his ideas misunderstood, ignored or side-lined by the company, Kirby opted for more traditional fare. Never truly defeated though, he cannily blended his belief in the marketability of the mystic unknown with flamboyant super-heroics to create another unique and lasting mainstay for the DC universe: one whom lesser talents would make a pivotal figure of the company’s continuity.

This compilation collects The Demon #1-16 (1972-1973), classic team-ups from The Brave and the Bold #109 & 137 and key appearances from Batman Family #17, Detective Comics #482-485 and Wonder Woman volume 1 #280-282, cumulatively spanning cover dates August/September 1972 through August 1981, providing a comprehensive introduction to one of Kirby’s most broadly reinterpreted and reimagined characters.

Inked by Mike Royer, The Demon #1 introduces a howling, leaping monstrosity (modelled after a 1939 sequence from Hal Foster’s Arthurian epic Prince Valiant) in ‘Unleash the One Who Waits’. This shocking force of un-nature battles beside its master Merlin as Camelot dies in flames, a cataclysmic casualty of the rapacious greed of sorceress Morgaine Le Fey. Out of that apocalyptic destruction, a man arises and wanders off into the mists of history…

In our contemporary world (or at least the last quarter of the 20th century) demonologist and paranormal investigator Jason Blood has a near-death experience with an aged collector of illicit arcana. This culminates in a hideous nightmare about a demonic being and the last stand of Camelot. He has no idea that Le Fey is still alive and has sinister plans for him…

And in distant Moldavia, strange things are stirring in crumbling Castle Branek, wherein lies hidden the lost Tomb of Merlin…

Blood is wealthy, reclusive and partially amnesiac, but one night he agrees to host a small dinner party, entertaining acquaintances Harry Mathews, psychic UN diplomat Randu Singh and his wife Gomali plus their flighty young friend Glenda Mark.

The soiree does not go well. Firstly, there is the painful small talk, and the sorcerous surveillance of Le Fey, but the real problems start when an animated stone giant arrives to “invite” Blood to visit Castle Branek. This shattering voyage leads to Merlin’s last resting place but just as Blood thinks he may find some answers to his enigmatic past, Le Fey pounces. Suddenly he starts to change, transforming into the horrific beast of his dreams…

Issue #2 – ‘My Tomb in Castle Branek!’ – opens with wary villagers observing a terrific battle between a yellow monster and Le Fey’s forces, but when the Demon is defeated and Blood arrested, only the telepathic influence of Randu back in America can help him. Le Fey is old, dying, and needs Merlin’s grimoire, the Eternity Book, to extend her life.

Thus, she manipulates Blood – who has existed for centuries, completely unaware that Merlin’s hellish attack dog the Demon Etrigan is chained inside him – to regain his memories and awaken the slumbering master mage. It looks like the last mistake she will ever make…

Kirby’s tried-&-trusted approach was always to pepper high concepts throughout blazing, breakneck action, and #3 was one of the most imaginative yet. ‘Reincarnators’ finds Blood back in the USA, aware at last of his tormented history, and with a small but devoted circle of friends. Adapting to a less lonely life, he soon encounters a cult able to physically regress people to a prior life… and use those time-lost beings to commit murder. The Demon #4-5 comprise one single exploit, wherein a simple witch and her macabre patron capture the reawakened, semi-divine Merlin. ‘The Creature from Beyond’ and ‘Merlin’s Word’s …Demon’s Wrath!’ introduce cute little monkey Kamara the Fear-Monster (later used with devastating effect by Alan Moore in Saga of the Swamp Thing #26-27) and features another startling “Kirby-Kritter”: Somnambula, the Dream-Beast…

It seems odd in these blasé, anything goes modern times but The Demon was a deeply controversial book in its day – cited as providing the first post-Comics Code depiction of Hell, and one where problems were regularly solved with sudden, extreme violence. ‘The Howler!’ in issue #6 is a truly spooky yarn with Blood hunting a primal entity of rage and brutal terror that transforms victims into murderous lycanthropic killers, whilst #7 debuts a spiteful, malevolent young fugitive from a mystical otherplace.

‘A Witchboy!!’’ introduces Klarion and his cat-familiar Teekl – utterly evil little sociopaths in a time where all comic book politicians were honest, cops only shot to wound and “bad” kids were only misunderstood: thus, another Kirby first…

An extended epic, ‘Phantom of the Sewers’ skilfully combines movie and late-night TV horror motifs in the dark and tragic tale of actor Farley Fairfax, cursed by the witch he once spurned. Unfortunately, Glenda is the spitting image of the departed Galatea, and when, decades later, the demented thespian kidnaps her (in ‘Whatever Happened to Farley Fairfax?!!’) to raise the curse, it could only end in a flurry of destruction, death, consumed souls and ‘The Thing That Screams’…

In case you were wondering: the first musical adaption of The Phantom of the Opera (by Ken Hill) was in 1976, and the one you’re thinking of launched in 1986. The King was always ahead of the curve and subtly influential…

This 3-part thriller is followed by another moody, multi-part masterpiece (The Demon #11-13). ‘Baron von Evilstein’, ‘Rebirth of Evil!’ and ‘The Night of the Demon!’ comprise a powerful parable about worth and appearance, featuring the ultimate mad scientist and the tragic, misunderstood monster he so casually builds. It’s a truth that bears repeating: ugly doesn’t equal bad…

An opportunity to widen the horror-hero’s appeal came next in The Brave and the Bold #109: as Bob Haney & Jim Aparo unship superb supernatural thriller ‘Gotham Bay, Be My Grave!’ wherein the Caped Crusader and Kirby’s Kritter Etrigan the Demon fractiously unite to battle an unquiet spirit determined to avenge his own execution after nearly a century…

Despite the King’s best efforts The Demon was not a monster hit – unlike his science-fiction disaster drama Kamandi – and by #14 it’s clear the book was in its last days. Not because the sheer pace of imagination, excitement and passion diminished – far from it – but because the well-considered, mood-drenched stories were suddenly replaced by rocket-fast, eldritch romps populated with returning villains. First back was Klarion in ‘Return of the Witchboy!’ who creates a deadly doppelganger to replace Jason Blood and kill his friends in ‘The One Who Vanished!!’ (#14-15) before the series succumbed to irresistible economic forces with #16 (cover dated January 1974) in a climactic if hasty showdown with ‘Immortal Enemy’ Morgaine Le Fey…

Etrigan and cohort resurfaced in 1977 and B&B #137 (October) as Haney, John Calnan & Bob McLeod subjected Batman, Jason Blood’s friends and The Demon to war with resurrected Chinese wizard Shahn-Zi at ‘The Hour of the Serpent!’ before in a guest shot led to short revival. In Batman Family #17 (cover-dated April/May 1978), the Man-Bat serial saw Bob Rozakis & Mike Golden celebrate a happy event as the Chiropteran Crusader awaited the natal event of his firstborn child only to learn ‘There’s a Demon Born Every Minute!’ with devil babies infesting the maternity ward the hero welcomes the arrival of Etrigan (eventually) before teaming up to again thwart the diabolical schemes of malign Morgaine Le Fey.

Implicit invite accepted, Gotham resident The Demon took up residence in anthological blockbuster Detective Comics beginning with #482 (February/March 1979). Here Len Wein, Golden & Dick Giordano opened a tense quest for ‘The Eternity Book’ of Merlin. As Steve Ditko added his unique vision to the optics, the chase caught Etrigan clashing with mad mystic academic Baron Tyme in DC #483’s ‘Return to Castle Branek!’ before hurtling to a chaotic, cataclysmic conclusion in #484’s ‘Tyme Has No Secrets!’ and furious finish in #485’s ‘The Fatal Finale!’

The riotous revelries conclude with an often overlooked team-up. For Wonder Woman #280 (volume 1, June 1981), Gerry Conway, José Delbo & Dave Hunt detail how Air Force officers Diana Prince and Steve Trevor investigate the prestigious Delphi Foundation after demon Baal-Satyr abducts their friend Etta Candy. They uncover senatorial corruption and insidious infiltration by witchboy Klarion and use arcane connections to link up with Randu Singh, Blood and his infernal alter ego prior to a rescue raid on ‘The Castle Outside Time!’ (WW #281), enduring more hellish treatment prior to #282’s triumphant, resurgent ‘Return and Redemption’…

With covers by Kirby, Royer, Tatjana Wood, Aparo, Rich Buckler, Ross Andru & Dick Giordano, this is a sublime slice of Right Place, Wrong Time entertainment: a wondrously economical collection every comics fan of today should have and cannot help but enjoy.
© 1972, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today comic strip master Sy Barry arrived in 1928, whilst Graham Nolan didn’t turn up until 1962 and much-missed Italian artist Massimiliano Frezzato (I custodi del Maser, Margot) in 1967.

We lost Barney Baxter cartoonist Frank Miller in 1949, and the amazing Arnold (Deadman, Doom Patrol, Guardians of the Galaxy) Drake in 2007 but could enjoy Treasure Chest comics from 1946 and Hank Ketchum’s (US) Dennis the Menace from 1951.

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All-Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever


By Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Ric Estrada, Wally Wood, Keith Giffen, Joe Staton, Bob Layton, Joe Giella, Dave Hunt, Dick Giordano, Brian Bolland, Jim Aparo & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0071-7 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Ageless Evergreen Super-Sensationalism… 8/10

In the torrid and turbulent 1970s many of the comics industry’s oldest publishing ideas were finally laid to rest. The belief that characters could be “over-exposed” was one of the most long-lasting (after all, it never hurt Superman, Batman or the original Captain Marvel), garnered from years of experience in an industry which lived or died on that fractional portion of pennies derived each month from pocket-money and allowances of kids that wasn’t spent on candy, toys or movies.

By the end of the 1960s, comic book costs and retail prices were inexorably rising and a proportion of titles – especially newly resurrected horror stories – were consciously being produced for older readerships. Nearly a decade of organised fan publications and letter writing crusades had finally convinced publishing bean-counters what editors already knew: grown-ups avidly read comics too. Avidly. Passionately. Obsessively. They would happily spend more than kids and, most importantly, wanted more, more, more of what they particularly loved.

Explicitly: If one appearance per month was popular, extras, specials and second series would be more so. By the time Marvel Wunderkind Gerry Conway was preparing to leave The House of Ideas, DC was willing and ready to expand its variegated line-up with some oft-requested/demanded fan-favourite characters…

Paramount among these was the Justice Society of America, the first comic book super-team and a perennial gem whose annual guest-appearances in the Justice League of America had become an inescapable and beloved summer tradition. Thus in 1976 Writer/Editor Conway marked his second DC tenure (he had first broken into the game writing horror shorts for Joe Orlando) by reviving All Star Comics with number #58. In 1951, as the first Heroic Age ended, the key title had transformed overnight into All Star Western, with that numbering running for a further decade as home cowboy crusaders like Strong Bow, Trigger Twins, Johnny Thunder (a new “masked” do-gooder, not the Golden Age costumed idiot with a genie) and Super-Chief.

If you’re interested, among the other revivals/introductions in “Conway’s Corner” were perennial star Plastic Man, Blackhawk, The Secret Society of Super-Villains, Freedom Fighters, Kobra, Blitzkrieg – and many more.

In case you need reminding in their anniversary year: All Star Comics #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940-1941 and released in November 1940) is the officially cited kick-off for all Superteam tales, even if the assembled mystery men merely had dinner and recounted recent cases. They didn’t actually go on a mission together until ASC #4, which had an April 1941 cover-date and hit newsstands on February 7th.

Set on the parallel world of Earth-2, and in keeping with the editorial sense of ensuring the series be relevant to young readers too, Conway reintroduced a veteran team, leavened with a smattering of teen heroes, combined into a contentious, generation-gap fuelled Super Squad. These young whippersnappers included Robin (already a JSA-er since the mid-1960s and Justice League of America #55); Sylvester Pemberton AKA The Star-Spangled Kid (in actuality a boy-hero from the 1940s lost in time for decades) and – it must shamefully be said – a busty young thing who quickly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys.

Kara Zor-L was attention grabbing in all the right and wrong ways and would soon become infamous as the “take-charge” pushy feminist dynamo Power Girl.

This titanic hardback and digital collection volume gathers that 4-year run of the JSA from the late 1970s into a sublime showcase of so-different, ever-changing times via All-Star Comics #58-74, plus the series’ continuation and conclusion from epic anthology title Adventure Comics (#461-466), and includes the seminal saga from DC Special #29 which, after almost four decades, finally provided the team with an origin…

Without preamble, the action begins with ‘Prologue’: a 3-page introduction/recap/summation of the Society’s history as well as the celestial mechanics of Alternate Earths, as crafted by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Bob Layton and first seen in Adventure #461, January/February 1979. This outlines the history and workings of DC’s parallel continuities, after which the first half of the 2-part debut tale from All-Star Comics #58 (January/February 1976 by Conway, Ric Estrada &Wally Wood) finds newly-inducted Pemberton chafing at his time-lost plight and revelling in new powers after being given a cosmic-energy device by retired JSA veteran Starman.

When a crisis propels him and elder heroes Flash, Dr. Mid-Nite, Wildcat, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Dr. Fate into a 3-pronged calamity devastating Seattle, Cape Town and Peking (which you youngsters now known as Beijing). With man-made natural disasters, everywhere the elder statesmen split up but are overwhelmed, giving the new kids a chance to shine in ‘All Star Super-Squad’. With abrasive, impatient Power Girl in the vanguard, the entire team is soon on the trail of old foe Degaton and his mind-bending ally in #59’s conclusion ‘Brainwave Blows Up!’

Keith Giffen replaced Estrada in #60 whilst introducing a psychotic super-arsonist who attacks the Squad just as the age-divide starts grating and PG begins ticking off (or “re-educating”) the stuffy, paternalistic JSA-ers in ‘Vulcan: Son of Fire!’. Closing instalment ‘Hellfire and Holocaust’ finds the flaming fury fatally wounding Fate before his own defeat, just as a new mystic menace is stirring…

Conway’s last issue as scripter was #62. ‘When Fall the Mighty’ highlights antediluvian sorcerer Zanadu who devastatingly attacks, even as the criminal Injustice Gang open their latest vengeful assault using mind-control to turn friend against friend. The cast subsequently expands with the return of Hourman and Power Girl’s Kryptonian mentor, but even they prove insufficient to prevent ‘The Death of Doctor Fate’ as written by Paul Levitz. Assaulted on all sides, the team splinters. Wildcat, Hawkman and the Kryptonian cousins tackle the rampant super-villains whilst Flash & Green Lantern search Egypt for a cure to Fate’s condition, and Hourman, Mid-Nite & Star-Spangled Kid desperately attempt to keep their fallen comrade alive.

When they fail Zanadu renews his assault, almost adding the moribund Fate’s death-watch defenders to his tally… until the archaic alien’s very presence calls Kent Nelson back from beyond the grave…

With that crisis averted, Superman makes ready to leave but is embroiled in a last-minute, manic time-travel assassination plot (Levitz script, and fully illustrated by inimitable Wally Wood) which drags the team and guest-star The Shining Knight from an embattled Camelot in ‘Yesterday Begins Today!’ to the far-flung future and ‘The Master Plan of Vandal Savage’: a breathtaking spectacle of drama and excitement that signalled Woody’s departure from the series.

Joe Staton & Bob Layton took the unenviable task of filling his artistic shoes, beginning with #66 as ‘Injustice Strikes Twice!’ wherein the reunited team – sans Superman – fall prey to ambush by arch-enemies, whilst emotion-warping Psycho-Pirate starts twisting GL Alan Scott into an out-of-control menace determined to crush Corporate America beneath his emerald heel. This subsequently leads to the return of Earth-2’s Bruce Wayne, who had previously retired his masked persona to become Gotham’s Police Commissioner. In ‘Attack of the Underlord!’ (All-Star Comics #67, July/August 1977), the Injustice Society’s monstrous allies are revealed as subterranean conquerors who nearly end the team forever. Meanwhile, Wayne’s plans near fruition. He wants to shut down the JSA before their increasingly destructive exploits demolish his beloved city…

Contemporary continuity pauses here as the aforementioned case from DC Special #29 (September 1977) discloses ‘The Untold Origin of the Justice Society’ in an extra-length epic set in 1940. Here Levitz, Staton & Layton reveal previously classified events which saw Adolf Hitler acquire the mystical Spear of Destiny and immediately summon mythical Teutonic Valkyries to aid in the invasion of Britain. Alerted to the threat, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – hampered by his country’s neutrality – unofficially asks a select band of masked mystery-men to lend their aid as non-political, private citizens.

In a cataclysmic escalation, the struggle ranges from the heart of Europe throughout the British Isles and even to the White House Oval Office before ten bold costumed champions finally – albeit temporarily – stymy the Nazis’ plans…

Back in All Star #68 (October 1977) the Kryptonian Kid was clearly becoming top star of the show. ‘Divided We Stand!’ (Levitz, Staton & Layton) concludes the Psycho-Pirate’s scheme to discredit and destroy the JSA, and sets the scene for her first solo outing in Showcase #97-99 (which is not included here). Meanwhile GL resumes a maniacal rampage through Gotham and Police Commissioner Wayne takes extreme measures to bring the seemingly out-of-control JSA to book. With ASC #69’s ‘United We Fall!’, he reunites in his own team of retired JSA stars to arrest the rogue squad, resulting in a classic fanboy dream duel as Dr. Fate, Wildcat, Hawkman, Flash, GL & Star-Spangled Kid battled the original Batman, Robin, Hourman, Starman, Dr. Mid-Nite and Wonder Woman. It’s a colourful catastrophe in waiting until PG & Superman intervene to reveal the true cause of all that unleashed madness.

… And in the background, a new character was about to make a landmark debut…

With order restored ‘A Parting of the Ways!’ spotlights Wildcat and Star-Spangled Kid as the off-duty heroes stumble upon high-tech super-thieves Strike Force. These bandits initially prove too much for the pair – and even new star The Huntress – but with a pair of startling revelations in ‘The Deadliest Game in Town!’ the trio finally triumph. In the aftermath, the Kid resigns and the daughter of Batman & Catwoman replaces him…

All-Star Comics #72 reintroduces a brace of classic Golden Age villainesses in ‘A Thorn by Any Other Name’ – wherein the psychopathic floral fury returns to poison Wildcat, leaving Helena Wayne to battle the original 1940’s Huntress for an antidote and rights to the name. With Joe Giella taking over the inker’s role, concluding chapter ‘Be it Ever So Deadly’ sees the whole team deployed as Huntress battled Huntress whilst Thorn and The Sportsmaster do their deadly best to destroy the heroes and their loved ones. Meanwhile in Egypt, Hawkman & Dr. Fate stumble upon a deadly ancient menace to all of reality…

The late 1970s was a perilous period for comics, with exponentially rising costs inevitably resulting in drastically dwindling sales. Many titles were abruptly cancelled in a “DC Implosion” and All-Star Comics was one of the casualties. Issue #74 was the last, pitting the reunited Society against a mystic Armageddon perpetrated by a nigh-omnipotent Master Summoner who orchestrated a ‘World on the Edge of Ending’ before the JSA triumphantly dragged victory from the jaws of defeat…

Although the book was gone, the series continued in 68-page anthology title Adventure Comics, beginning in #461 (January/February 1979) with the first half of a blockbuster tale originally intended for the anniversary 75th issue. Drawn & inked by Staton, ‘Only Legends Live Forever’ details the Batman’s last case as the Dark Knight comes out of retirement to battle a seeming nonentity who has mysteriously acquired god-like power. Adventure #462 delivered the heartbreaking conclusion in ‘The Legend Lives Again!’ before AC #462’s ‘The Night of the Soul Thief!’ sees Huntress, Robin and assembled Society members deliver righteous justice to the mysterious mastermind who actually orchestrated the death of the World’s Greatest Detective…

For #464, an intriguing insight into aging warrior Wildcat reveals ‘To Everything There is a Season…’ as Ted Grant embraces his own mortality and begins a new career as a teacher of heroes, before ‘Countdown to Disaster!’ (inked by Dave Hunt) finds Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Power Girl, Huntress & Dr. Fate hunting a doomsday device lost amidst Gotham’s teeming masses. It would be the last modern outing of the team for years to come…

But not the last in this volume: that honour falls to another Levitz & Staton landmark: a little history lesson wherein they expose the reason why the team vanished at the beginning of the 1950s. From Adventure #466, ‘The Defeat of the Justice Society!’ shows how the US Government had cravenly betrayed their greatest champions during the McCarthy witch-hunts: provoking the mystery-men into voluntarily withdrawing from public, heroic life for over a decade… until the costumed stalwarts of Earth-1 started the whole Fights ‘n’ Tights scene all over again…

Upping the gaudy glory quotient, a team pin-up by Staton & Dick Giordano and two earlier collection covers from Brian Bolland cap off the costumed dramas.

Although perhaps a tad dated now, these exuberant, rapid-paced, imaginative yarns perfectly blend the naive charm of Golden Age derring-do with cynical modern sensibilities. Here you will be reassured that no matter what, in the end our heroes will always find a way to save the day. Such classic spectacles from simpler times are a glorious example of traditional superhero storytelling at its finest: fun, furious, ferociously engaging, excitingly written and beguilingly illustrated. No Fights ‘n’ Tights fan should miss these marvellous sagas.
© 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 2019 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1912 Cliff Sterrett’s astounding strip Polly and Her Pals ran in US papers for the first time, and in 1921 artist Art Saaf was born – someone else you’ve probably enjoyed without even knowing it, so go learn about him too.