Category: World Classics

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Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn (A Corto Maltese USA Graphic Novel)


By Hugo Pratt, translated by Dean Mullaney & Simone Castaldi (CONG SA)
ISBN: 978-2-940552-42-9 (Digital edition), ASIN: B0BZ4YY5BK

This book include Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

Born in Rimini on June 15th 1927, Ugo Eugenio Prat, AKA Hugo Pratt, wandered the world in his early life, and became one of its paramount comics creators. His enthralling pictorial inventions since Ace of Spades (whilst still a student at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts in 1945) were many and varied. His signature character – based in large part on his own exotic formative years – is mercurial soldier (perhaps sailor is more accurate) of fortune Corto Maltese who will be celebrating 60 inglorious years of disservice in July 2027.

Pratt was a consummate storyteller with a unique voice and starkly refined graphic style that should not work, but so wonderfully does. Usually and preferably viewed in stark monochrome, his tales blended pared-down, relentlessly modernistic narrative stylism with complex and memorable characters, often bordering on pure archetypes.

By placing a modern, morally ambivalent antihero in an era where his actions and responses to old-world duties and attitudes should make him a scoundrel and villain, yet keeping him true to an utterly personal, ironclad yet chimerical ethical integrity that went beyond considerations of race, class or gender, Pratt created an adventurer yardstick against which we cannot help but measure all other heroes. There and then, as empires faded and colonies fell, itinerant Corto Maltese dealt with and was moved by people, not money, national concepts and institutions or traditions. He was ever a whimsical man of action and a faithful humanist with a gift for being in the wrong place at the right time. We’ll return to him momentarily…

After working in both Argentinean and, from 1959, on English comics and true blue characters like Battler Briton, Hugo Pratt made a name for himself. In the UK he produced weekly serial fare and especially complete stories for our (extremely popular) digest graphic novel lines including Super Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library, Action Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library. These were half-sized, 64-page monochrome booklets with glossy soft-paper painted covers presenting complete stories in 1-4 panels per page. This was a luxury of layout and page design he would return to in his later years. Particularly suited to combat titles, Pratt worked on exotic jungle yarns for War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, War at Sea Picture Library and more. In the mid-1960s Pratt resettled in Italy and (in 1967) produced with Florenzo Ivaldi a number of features for monthly comic anthology Sgt. Kirk. In addition to the titular Western star, Pratt created pirate strip Capitan Cormorand; detective Lucky Star O’Hara, and a moody South Seas saga called Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea) and now regarded as the first official adventure of the insalubrious mariner. When the anthology folded in 1970, Pratt moved to France and took Una Ballata’s breakout character to French weekly Pif Gadget before eventually settling in at legendary Belgian periodical Le Journal de Tintin. Corto Maltese proved as much a Wild Rover in reality as in his historic and eventful career…

The sailor was soon seen all over Europe, filling a dozen multi-translated albums. His peripatetic exploits (both short-form tales and extended sagas in black-&-white yarns) were shared in no particular order and spanned 1967 to 1989, covering the old rogue’s wanderings between the turn of the 20th century and the 1930s. Corto won international awards and his own eponymous title, running between October 1983 and July 1993. Hugo Pratt died on August 20th 1995.

In 2014, current rights owner CONG SA regenerated the dormant property with new Corto albums created by writer Juan Díaz Canales (Blacksad) & illustrator Rubén Pellejero (El silencio de Malka) generating 5 new albums thus far. A year later, US publisher IDW began releasing English language translations (repaginated & “colorized”) of prime Pratt to mixed reviews, and in 2022 Spanish parent company CONG: Hugo Pratt Art Properties started a line of curated collections as eBooks, of which Under the Sign of Capricorn is the first. It’s still in color – but sensitively done – so if you’re a graphic purist who can’t abide the hues, you might prefer to track down the mid-1980s Corto Maltese volumes from NBM that we covered way back in 2007…

Chronologically, Under the Sign of Capricorn was the third captain’s log of salty seadog sagas. It’s 1916 – one year after the events of Ballad of the Salty Sea – as we open with ‘The Secret of Tristram Bantam’ wherein Corto broods, smokes, drinks and ponders at the Java Inn, Paramaribo, in the debilitating heat of Dutch Guyana. A magnet for trouble and sucker for sob stories, despite his hostess’s warnings he adopts drunken wretch and target of bullies Professor Jeremiah Steiner and is simultaneously sought out by a runaway English schoolboy beset with dreams and premonitions…

Current possessor of certain valuable papers indicating the location of the fabled lost kingdom of Mû, young Tristram’s father was an “associate” of worldly knife-throwing Madame Java and has sought her out as a possible means of meeting his disreputable half-sister Miss Morganna Dias do Santos Bantam of San Salvador de Bahia. All this has made Tristan the unwitting subject of nefarious scrutiny from his own lawyer Milner in London, the firm’s Javanese representative Kerster, locals like voodoo queen Ogun Ferraille and assorted murderous thugs. This results in a succession of murder attempts and the sinking of Maltese’s beloved boat…

Captain Maltese has heard many ridiculous and unprofitable fables in his time but is compelled in this instance by just how many rogues and killers are trying to take the papers from his new pint-sized admirer, and with Steiner and the kid in tow sets off to solve the mystery and find Mu…

The mystery deepens in ‘Rendez-Vous in Bahia’ as Bantam’s yawl The Dreaming Boy sails for Bahia to find Morgana. She has their father’s notes about the lost continent, documents Tristan has only tantalisingly glimpsed in dreams, These are getting more compelling and engrossing as the voyagers arrive meet a native shaman and accidentally expose a convict trafficking scheme. Recently arrived big boss Milner tries to save himself by killing Tristan but instead loses his own life thanks to Corto’s skill with cards and weapons, leaving the trail apparently clear sailing from now on…

‘Chapter Three: Sureshot Samba’ sees the seekers reach Itapoa, where Corto, Tristan and Steiner meet Bocca Dorata AKA Gold Mouth: a great sorceress who raised Morgana and taught her black and white magic. The enigmatic sage somehow knows far too much about Corto’s past and origins for comfort, but nevertheless he accepts her proposal to ferry weapons and cash to Cangaceiros. There, rebel natives led by local legend Sureshot fight in the Brazilian Sertão against landholding European tycoons, murderous mercenaries, corrupted Federal Colonel Gonçalves and his requisitioned river gunboat. After all, £1000 is not to sneezed at…

Corto deals with his opponents and competes his mission with startling violences and efficiency and assures a swift brutal change in political fortunes…

Still houseguests of Gold Mouth, in ‘The Basilian Eagle’ reluctant slave liberators/freedom fighters Corto, Tristan & Steiner are caught in the backwash of the Great War. As they sail the coast seeking a wrecked Spanish galleon loaded with gold – it supposedly foundered near Marajò Island, at the mouth of the Amazon – they are trapped by global politics and international intrigue as colonial powers Great Britain and Germany square off in Brazil. Wallowing in innocent avarice, our derelict adventurers become unwitting competitors with a German Baron and apparent naval “deserters”. Enfolded in the byzantine scheme hatched by Bocca Dorata, Corto’s fate comes down to actions of rogue operatives, a double/triple agent dubbed “Jawbreaker”, overwhelming greed and gunboat diplomacy…

In earlier-set tales, Corto Maltese visited Russia and made an enemy for life of wild rogue/ spiritual anthesis Rasputin (no relation). Now that ferocious frenemy shows up in ‘So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune’ in an adventure centred on the search for fabulous pirate treasure, set in Saint Kitts in the Antilles. Still reading and rereading those papers brought by Tristam, Corto & Steiner happen upon a singular grave and a clue leading to confrontations and untenable alliances with contemporary freebooters Rasputin and Ambiguity di Poincy, all similarly in search of the amalgamated hoard of creole corsair Prying Barracuda, Calico Rackman, Agonia La Bella of Rochelle and Blackbeard Teach…

The game of double dealing leads to vast wealth and huge surprises, but in the end such friendships are doomed and savage bloodletting leaves everyone dead broke or both and Corto counting the cost of what and who he’s lost…

Concluding episode ‘The Seagull’s Fault’ lays the groundwork for more tales in a bizarre murder-mystery set on an island near British Honduras. Wounded and amnesiac, our Not-a-Hero reels on a bloody beach as his life ebbs away. As he blankly watches his totem animal fly, peck and probe, “John Smith’s” memories lie just beyond reach. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if the stranger he can’t see would stop shooting at him…

It gets no clearer when lovely angel Soledad and her brutish Caribi minder arrive, as their tender ministrations in the gothic pile they call home soon prove to be barbed and double edged. If only he could remember what all this has to do with legendary pirate and merciless “Evangelist” Judas Lokäarth. Surely, though, that long-missing maniac is dead and gone?

Compelling, enticing and invitingly addictive, these bleak but witty, darkly romantic, captivatingly cosmopolitan stories will grip you and never let go. These are treasures you must unearth and cherish forever.
© 1971 Cong S.A., Switzerland. Corto Maltese® and Hugo Pratt™ © Cong S.A. Translation © 2019 Dean Mullaney and Simone Castaldi, All rights reserved.

Today in 1915 artist, inker, letterer & colourist George Roussos (Batman, Johnny Quick, Airwave, Vigilante, Superman, Starman, CrimeSuspensStories, Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Sgt Fury, Fantastic Four, Avengers et al) was born, followed in 1930 by cartoonist Bill Rechin (Out of Bounds, Crock), and in 1968 artist Jeff Johnson (Wonder Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Way of the Rat, Weapon X, Greem Lantern) and writer/filmmaker Greg Pak (City Boy, John Wick, Eternal Warrior, World War Hulk, Incredible Hercules, Firefly, Agents of Atlas).

This day marks the passing of three giants: inventor of comic books Max Gaines in 1947; British legend Dudley. D. Watkins in 1969 and Hugo Pratt in 1995.

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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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Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip volume 2


By Tove Jansson with Lars Jansson (Drawn & Quarterly)
ISBN: 978-1-897299-19-7 (Album HB) 978-1-770465-49-7 (Digital edition)

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and practically Bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914, making today her 112th anniversary, so hyvää vuosipäivää to her and all you fans…

Her father Viktor was a sculptor, whilst mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson enjoyed a successful career as illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars and Per Olov became a cartoonist/writer and photographer respectively. The family and its close intellectual, eccentric circle of friends seem to have been cast rather than born, with a witty play or challenging sitcom as the piece they were all destined to act in.

After a period of intensive study from 1930-1938 (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, the Graphic School of The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, then L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris), Tove became a successful exhibiting artist through the troubled period of the war. Intensely creative in many fields, she published the first fantastic Moomins adventure in 1945: Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood or more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood): a whimsical epic of gentle, inclusive, accepting, understanding, bohemian, misfit trolls and their strange friends. Always an over-achiever, from 1930 to 1953 she worked as an artist and cartoonist for Swedish satirical magazine Garm, achieving a measure of notoriety with an infamous political sketch of Hitler in nappies (a political method of self-expression currently back in vogue with many modern im-Potentates), lampooning the Appeasement policies of Chamberlain and other European leaders in the build-up to World War II. Tove was also a much-in-demand illustrator for many magazines and children’s books. She had been selling her own comic strips as early as 1929…

Moomintroll was literally her signature character. The lumpy, big-eyed goof began life as a spindly sigil beside her signature in political works. She called him “Snork” and claimed she had designed him in a fit of pique as a child – the ugliest thing a precocious little girl could imagine – as a response to losing an argument about Immanuel Kant with her brother.

The term “Moomin” came from maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop Tove pilfering food when she visited by warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. Over childhood years and far beyond, Snork/Moomin filled out, became timidly nicer (if a little clingy and insecure), a placid therapy-tool to counteract the grimness of the post-war world.

The Moomins and the Great Flood was relatively unsuccessful but she persisted, as much for her own therapeutic benefit as any other reason, so in 1946 the sequel Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland) was published. Many commentators believe this terrifying tale a skilful, compelling allegory of Nuclear destruction, with both it and 1948’s third illustrated saga Trollkarlens hatt (Finn Family Moomintroll – occasionally The Happy Moomins) translated into English in 1952. The success prompted British media giant Associated Press to commission a newspaper strip about her seductively sweet, sensibly surreal surrogate family.

Jansson had no prejudices regarding strip cartoons. Her earlier works included Lunkentus (Prickinas och Fabians äventyr, 1929); Vårbrodd (Fotbollen som Flög till Himlen, 1930) and Allas Krönika (Palle och Göran gå till sjöss, in1933). She had already successfully adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Thus, Mumintrollet och jordens undergång (Moomintrolls and the End of the World) was proven a popular feature and Jansson readily accepted a chance to extend her message across the world.

In 1953, The London Evening News launched the first of 21 Moomin serial sagas which captivated readers of all ages. Tove’s involvement ended in 1959, a casualty of her own success and a punishing publication schedule. So great was the pressure that she had early on recruited brother Lars to help. He proudly and most effectively continued the feature until its end in 1975. Free of the strip, she returned to painting, writing and her other creative pursuits: generating book illustrations, plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera, 9 more Moomin-related picture-books & novels, as well as 13 books and short-story collections more obviously intended for grown-ups.

Her awards are too numerous to mention (literally dozens of international art and literary plaudits), but consider this: how many modern artists – let alone comics creators – get their faces on the national currency or have commemorative coins struck bearing their image?

Tove Jansson died on June 27th 2001 but her timorous critters and their better, nicer world has proliferated beyond belief.

Tove could deploy slim economical line and pattern to create sublime worlds of fascination, and her dexterity made simple forms into incredibly expressive and potent symbols. In this second oversized (312 x 222mm) monochrome hardback (or electrical options are available for the screen of your preference!) compilation commences with ‘Moomin’s Winter Follies’, wherein the rotund, gracious and deeply considerate young troll has an accident on ice that prompts the family to begin their annual preparations for the winter’s hibernation.

However, after all these efforts lead to nothing but petty disaster, boldly unconventional Moomin Pappa decides that tradition isn’t everything and decrees that they shall all stay awake for the icy months ahead…

The family and their many friends are soon bedevilled by the obnoxiously enthusiastic Mr. Brisk who cajoles the easygoing Moomins to indulge in his abiding passion for winter sports. Results are painful and far from impressive, but ruggedly athletic Brisk does turn the head of overly romantic and lonely Mymble. As usual, the object of her affections is blithely oblivious, with eyes only for the upcoming Winter Games, but when beauteous Snorkmaiden also starts succumbing to Brisk’s physical charms, Moomin is forced to take up ski-jumping just to win back her attention.

When that goes poorly, he is tempted into contemplating murder until cooler heads, his own gentle nature and the onset of spring produces a milder and more suitable solution…

Moomins are placid free spirits, bohemians untroubled by hidebound domestic mores and societal pressures. Moomin Mamma is warm and capable but overly concerned with propriety and appearances, whilst Pappa spends most of his time trying to rekindle his adventurous youth or dreaming of fantastic journeys. However, when prideful snobbish Mrs. Fillyjonk moves in next door, her snooty attitudes unfavourably affect the entire family, resulting in the hiring of ‘Moomin Mamma’s Maid’.

The search for a suitable servant results in disruption and discontent before dour, distressed and doom-obsessed Misabel – along with her direly depressed dog Pimple – further blight the formerly happy household. Misabel suffers from secrets and persecution complexes, and when Fillyjonk goes missing, a detective starts hanging around, adding to the general aura of anxiety until Moomin Mamma shakes herself out of her status-induced funk and starts a campaign to cheer up and change the latest additions to her wildly imaginative, but oddly welcoming, home…

‘Moomin Builds a House’ sees Mymble’s eccentrically forgetful yet fruitful mother come to visit, inflicting her latest batch of wild & wilful youngsters (17, or thereabouts!) on the normally compassionate and understanding trolls. The children are, to put it mildly, little monsters: destructive, practical joking, firestarter hellions who would put the Belles of St. Trinian’s to shame and to rout…

Soon, impressionable Moomin is driven out of his home and, egged on by the worst of the brood Little My, attempts to build his own house in the woods. With none of Moomin Pappa’s craft skills, the lad’s efforts are far from satisfactory but nonetheless his flighty paramour Snorkmaiden soon joins him, intent on making the shaky edifice their romantic hideaway. Sadly, with Little My still around, their best laid plans quickly come unstuck…

This utterly incomparable and heartwarming box of graphic delights concludes with a brilliantly satirical salutary romp as ‘Moomin Begins a New Life’, wherein an itinerant thinker enters the valley, sharing his secret recipe for “How to be Happy”. Although self-proclaimed, The Prophet is remarkably convincing and, seeing how his pronouncements and suggestions have changed the lives of all their friends and neighbours, the graciously impressionable Moomins attempt to adjust their behaviour to maximise their joy, unaware that they are already as happy and content as anyone can be…

With the entire locality blissed out, the well-intentioned Prophet then convinces the constable to release all the folk in jail, allowing mischievous trickster and devoted scofflaw Stinky to resume his prankish shenanigans. After convincing Pappa to set up an illicit still producing hard liquor – which incites Snorkmaiden to run off with another young man – Stinky subsequently convinces desolate, deserted Moomin to turn to the dark side, becoming a glamorous highwayman and jewel thief to win her back…

Having spread malice and disorder, Stinky’s next stunt is badly misjudged. He invites a puritan, fire-&-brimstone rival philosopher dubbed the Black Prophet to come and save all the sinners. Thankfully, as the rival Prophets’ war of words escalates, Moomin Mamma at last reaches the end of her patience and intervenes…

Following the Wild Things wonderment is short essay ‘Tove Jansson: To Live in Peace, Plant Potatoes, and Dream’: a comprehensive biography and commentary by Alisia Grace Chase, PhD celebrating the astound achievements of this genteel giant of literature and the arts.

These are truly magical tales for the young laced with the devastating observation and razor-sharp mature wit which enhances and elevates only the greatest kid’s stories into classics of literature. These volumes are an international treasure and no fan of the medium – or biped with even a hint of heart and soul – can afford to be without them.
© 2007 Solo/Bulls. All other material © its creators. All rights reserved.

Today in 1907 nonstop cartoonist Mel Graff (Adventures of Patsy, Secret Agent X-9, Captain Easy) was born, sharing the day with utterly unique Tove Jansson who joined the party in 1914 as did eventual pulp scribe turned Atlas Comics & EC genre anthology author Daniel Keyes (Flowers for Algernon) in 1927.

Mandrake the Magician artisan Fred Fredericks came along in 1929; Belgian creator William Vance (XIII, Marshall Blueberry, Bob Morane, Bruno Brazil) in 1935; British cartoonist Posy Simmons (Bear, Mrs Weber’s Diary, Gemma Bovary, Tamara Drewe) in 1955 and comic book craftsman Bob McLeod (New Mutants, Conan, Wonder Woman, Superman) in1951. Ultra stylist Rick Leonardi (Spider-Man 2099, Uncanny X-Men, Cloak and Dagger, Batman Beyond) arrived in 1957, sharing cake & candles with Fish Police creator Steve Moncuse, and Gene Luen Yang (Chinese Born American, Superman Smashes the Klan, Monkey Prince) popped by in 1971.

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Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips volume 1


By Roy Crane, Les Turner & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-161-9 (Album HC)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Amongst the many cartoon and comics anniversaries this year there are household names still with us (albeit in exceedingly altered forms) and tragically masterpieces of the form that have faded from popular memory, even though their influence remains in every panel we might peruse…

Modern comics evolved from newspaper gag and comic strips. These pictorial features were, until relatively recently, utterly ubiquitous and hugely popular with the public and highly prized by publishers who used them as an irresistible sales weapon to guarantee and increase circulation and profits. It’s virtually impossible for us today to understand the overwhelming power of the comic strip in America (and wider world) from the Great Depression to the end of World War II. With no television, broadcast radio far from universal, and movie shows at best a weekly treat for most folk, household entertainment was mostly derived from the strip sections of daily and especially Sunday Newspapers. “The Funnies” were the most common recreation for millions who were well served by a fantastic variety and incredible quality of adventures and exploits.

From the very start humour was paramount; hence the terms Funnies and “Comics”, and from these gag and stunt beginnings – a blend of silent movie slapstick, outrageous fantasy and the vaudeville shows – evolved a thoroughly entertaining mutant hybrid: Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs. Debuting on April 14th 1924, Washington Tubbs II was a comedic gag-a-day vehicle not much different from family favourite Harold Teen (by Crane’s friend and contemporary Carl Ed). Depiction of pretty girls was a key component of the daily show, and when it launched, Tubbs was a diminutive yet ambitious young store-clerk. However, gradually the strip moved into mock-heroics, then through cosy, non-confrontational action, to become a full-blown, light-hearted, rip-roaring adventure series… after the introduction of ancestral he-man and prototype moody swashbuckler Captain Easy in the landmark episode for 6th May, 1929. Incidentally Wash Tubbs ran until 1949, at which time it merged into Crane’s spin-off feature: the previously Sunday-only Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune.

As the daily episodes had become ever-more exotic and thrill-packed, the globetrotting little dynamo had shown a clear need for a sidekick who could believably handle the strenuous combat side of things, and thus – in the middle of a Europe-set war yarn – Wash liberated a mysterious fellow American from a jail cell and history was made…

Before long the mismatched pair were travelling companions, hunting treasure, fighting thugs and rescuing a bevy of startlingly comely maidens in distress. The bluff, two-fisted, surly, comprehensively capable, utterly dependable, down-on-his-luck “Southern Gen’leman” was something not seen before in comics: a raw, square-jawed hunk played completely straight rather than as the buffoon or music hall foil of such classic serials as Hairsbreadth Harry or Desperate Desmond.

Moreover, Crane’s seductively simple blend of cartoon exuberance and stylish design was a far more accessible. exuberant and powerful medium for action storytelling than the rather static illustrative style favoured by artists like Hal Foster: just beginning to make waves on the groundbreaking new Tarzan Sunday page. Tubbs & Easy were as exotic and thrilling as the Ape-Man, but rattled along like the surreal and tempestuous Popeye, full of vim, vigour and vinegar, as attested to by a close look at the early work of the would-be cartoonists who followed the strip with avid intensity: Floyd Gottfredson, Milton Caniff, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and especially young Joe Shuster…

After a couple of abortive attempts starring his little hero, Crane bowed to the inevitable and created instead a full-colour Sunday page dedicated to his increasingly popular hero-for-hire.

Captain Easy debuted on 30th July 1933 (Heppy Buthday, Suh!), in wild-&-woolly escapades set prior to his first fateful rendezvous with Tubbs.

This first sublime archival volume (long-overdue for rerelease and a digital edition) begins with the sullen mercenary undertaking a mission for the Chinese government… spying on the city of ‘Gungshi.’ In that heyday of popular exploration and dashing-aviator exploits, the bold solo flight over the Himalayas to Chinese Turkestan was stirring enough, but when Easy then infiltrates a hidden citadel, it heralds the beginning of a rollercoaster romp with sword-wielding Mongols, sultry houris, helpless dancing girls, fabulous beasts and wicked bandits. The heady, intoxicating dramatic brew captivated entire families across the planet, week after addictive week…

With an entire page and vibrant colours to play with, Crane’s imagination ran wild and his fabulous visual concoctions achieved a timeless immediacy that made each page a unified piece of sequential art.

The effect and influence of Crane’s pages can be seen in so many strips since; especially the works of close-contemporaries such as Hergé and giants-in-waiting like Charles Schulz.

These pages were a clearly as much of joy to create as to read. In fact, the cited reason for Crane surrendering the Sunday strip to his assistant Les Turner in 1937 was controlling NEA Syndicate’s abrupt and arbitrary demand that all its strips be henceforward produced in a rigid panel-structure to facilitate them being cut up and re-pasted as local editors dictated.

Crane simply walked away, concentrating on the daily feature. In 1943, he quit the Syndicate to create aviation adventure strip Buz Sawyer.

At the end of the initial blockbuster, cinematic epic Easy is a hero to the people of Gungshi, if not its aristocracy, who plot to oust him via the subtlest of means. The second adventure ‘The Slave Girl’ opened on 21st January 1934, depicting the occidental hero bankrupted in saving the beautiful Rose Petal from the auction block: a chivalrous gesture leading to war with the rival city of Kashno, and a brutally hilarious encounter with South Sea pirates…

In an era where ethnic stereotyping and casual racism were commonplace and acceptable – if not actually the mandatory shortcuts of social interaction – the introduction of a vile, unscrupulous Yank as the exploitative villain was – and remains – a surprising delight.

Rambling Jack is every inch the greedy “ugly American” of later, more informed decades, and by contrasting Easy’s wholesome quest to make his fortune with the venal explorer’s rapacious ruthlessness, Crane makes a telling point for the folks back home. It also makes for great reading, as Chinese bandits also enter the fray, determined to plunder both cities and everybody else in their path. Nevertheless, with the help of a lost British flyer Easy is finally victorious, but on returning to his Chinese employers he spots something whilst flying over the Himalayas that radically derails his plans…

‘The Sunken City’ is an early masterpiece of comics fiction, with Easy recruiting cockney comedy stooge ‘Arry Pippy, a demobbed British Army cook, to help reconnoitre a drowned metropolis submerged for centuries in a hidden inland sea, and one he had he had spotted from the air only through sheer chance. Of course, simply to get there the pair must trek through rampant jungles, survive blowpipe-wielding cannibals and avoid the greatest threat our valiant rogue has ever faced…

If I’ve given the impression that this has all been grim-‘n’-gritty turmoil & tension thus far, please forgive me: Roy Crane was an utterly irrepressible gag-man and his enchanting chapter-play serial abounds with breezy light-hearted banter, hilarious situations and outright farce… a sure-fire formula cinema directors still plunder to this day. Easy is the Indiana Jones, Flynn (The Librarian) Carsen and Jack (Romancing the Stone) Cotton of his day and inarguably blazed the trail for all of them and whoever I’ve left out… even Lara Croft…

In a deep-sea diver’s suit, Easy & ‘Arry examine piscine wonders and trace the submerged grandeur of the lost city, encountering some of the most magical and fanciful sea beasts ever recorded in comics, before literally striking gold. Typically, when more cannibals attack those dredged up treasures are lost and Easy finds himself captive and betrothed to the most hideous witch-hag imaginable…

Risking everything, the desperate treasure-seekers make a break for it only to re-encounter ‘The Pirates’ (April 14th – July 7th 1935), but before they get too far the husband-hungry sorceress and her faithful person-eaters come after Easy, leading to a brutal, murderous conclusion…

After years in the Orient, Easy & Pippy succumb to a hankering for less dangerous company and make their way to Constantinople and Europe. Sadly, trouble is never far from the moody mercenary and in ‘The Princess’ (14th July – December 1st 1935), his gentlemanly instincts compel him to rescue a beautiful woman from the unwelcome attentions of munitions magnate Count Heyloff, a gallant gesture that embroils our hero in a manufactured war between two minor nations. This tale addressed contemporary American sentiments that another world conflict was brewing, and it’s obvious that Crane’s opinion was the deeply held common conviction that the whole international unrest was the result of rich men’s greedy manipulations and machinations. Just like today…

Dark, bittersweet and painfully foreboding, this yarn sees Easy become the focus of Heyloff’s vengeance, and the sum total Airforce for tiny underdog nation Nikkateena in their bitter struggle for survival against the equally-duped and deceived country of Woopsydasia. Crane kept the combat chronicle light but on occasion his true feelings showed through in some of the most trenchant anti-war art ever seen.

This superb hardback and colossal initial collection is the perfect means of discovering or rediscovering Roy Crane’s rip-snorting, pulse-pounding, exotically racy adventure pioneer. The huge pages in this volume (almost 14½ inches by 10½ inches, or 210 x 140 mm for the metric crowd dominating global measuring these days) also offer a fascinating, informative introductory biography of Crane by historian Jeet Heer; a glowing testimonial from Charles Schulz; contemporary promotional material, extra drawings and sketches, plus a fascinating feature explaining how pages were coloured in those long-ago days before computers and other jumped-up adding machines…

This is primal comics storytelling of the very highest quality: unforgettable, spectacular and utterly irresistible. These tales rank alongside the best of Hergé, Tezuka, Eisner and Kirby, and led inexorably to the greatest creations of all of them. You have the chance to experience the strips that inspired the giants of our art form, and celebrate the achievements, so how can you possibly resist?
Captain Easy Strips © 2010 United Features Syndicate, Inc. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books, all other material © the respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.

Today in 1892 Alfred Harmsworth launched landmark British comics storypaper The Wonder, sharing the date with DC Thomson’s The Beano, debuting in 1938. In 1955, Ken Reid’s hilarious timeless feature Grandpa began in The Beano. Of course you already know Captain Easy launched on July 30th 1933.

Births on this day include colourist Tom Ziuko in 1955; Turkish cartoonist Turhan Selçuk and French author/artist Hervé Darmenton AKA “Achde” (Fort Braillard, Woker, Les Damnés de la route, CRS=Détresse, Lucky Luke ) in 1961 and illustrator Chris Sprouse (Tom Strong, Supreme, Hammerlocke, The Rocketeer, Legion of Super-Heroes) in 1966.

Today in 1992 Joe Shuster died.

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Superman The Golden Age Sundays volume 2 1946-1949


By Alvin Schwartz, Wayne Boring & various (IDW/Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-109-1 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times..

After years wallowing in obscurity most of Superman’s newspaper strip exploits were at last made available to aficionados and the curious newcomer in tomes such as this one, compiled under the auspices of the Library of American Comics. Sadly, that bounty has dried up and the books are becoming as rare as the original strips. Hopefully the whole canon will one day make it into digital editions. Until then though, we fortunate ones can share what we have, like this epic transitional selection seeing the close of a Golden era in advance of a fresh, bold, daringly Atomic Age…

The comic book industry would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s bold and unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. The Man of Tomorrow was shamelessly copied, adapted by countless inspired writers and artists for numerous publishers, spawning an incomprehensible army of imitators and variations within three years of his summer 1938 debut.

Yes, 88 YEARS… and still counting!

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

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

His globally syndicated newspaper strips reached untold millions, and by the time of his 20th anniversary – at the very start of what we know as the Silver Age of Comics – he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial regular and starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons, as well as two films and a novel by George Lowther. Superman was a perennial wellspring for toys, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers and had just ended his first smash live-action television serial. In his future were many more shows, a stage musical, a ton of blockbuster movies and near-seamless succession of games, bubblegum cards and TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even superdog Krypto has got in on the all screens act. However, in his formative years the moving picture option was simply an expensive novelty for most. The Action Ace achieved true mass market fame through a different medium: one not that far removed from his print origins.

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

Superman was the first comic book character to make that leap; about six months after exploding out of Action Comics. The daily Superman strip launched on 16th January 1939, augmented from November 5th of that year by a full-colour Sunday page. Originally crafted by Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task soon required the additional artistic gifts of Jack Burnley and ancillary writers Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz. The McClure Syndicate feature ran uninterrupted until May 1966, and at its peak appeared in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers with a combined readership surpassing 20 million. For most of the post-war years, Boring & Stan Kaye limned the spectacular Sundays (latterly supplemented by Win Mortimer & Curt Swan). The majority of strips from 1944 to 1958 were written by largely unsung, nigh-forgotten scribe Alvin Schwartz.

Born in 1916, Schwartz was an early maestro of comic books, writing Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel, and for many other titles and companies. Whilst handling the Superman strip he freelanced on Wonder Woman and other superheroes as well as DC’s genre titles such as Tomahawk, Buzzy, A Date with Judy and House of Mystery. After numerous and ever-escalating clashes with new Superman Editor Mort Weisinger, Schwartz quit comics for commercial writing: selling novels, essays, documentaries and docudramas for the National Film Board of Canada. He worked miracles in advertising and market research, developing selling techniques like psychographics and typological identification. A member of the advisory committee to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, he died in 2011.

After too many years wallowing in obscurity most of Superman’s newspaper strip exploits are finally available to aficionados and the curious newcomer in tomes such as this one compiled under the aegis of the Library of American Comics.

Showcasing Schwartz & Boring in their purest prime, these Sundays (numbered as Pages #354 to #520, collectively spanning August 11th 1946 to October 16th 1949) depict an almost omnipotent Man of Steel in domestically-framed tales of emotional dilemma, pedestrian criminality and surreal situations rather than muscle-flexing bombast, faux angst and bludgeoning action. Here humour, wit, mystery, fashion, satire and wonder reign supreme.

Following affable appreciation of the creators and the times in Mark Waid’s ‘An Introduction’ and a selection of contemporaneous Superman comic book covers in ‘A Wayne Boring Gallery’ the weekly wonderment recommences in all its vibrant glory. Sadly, the serials are untitled, so you’ll just have to manage with my meagre synopses of individual yarns…

Kicking off is a beguiling domestic dilemma as Lois Lane is overwhelmed looking after a neighbour’s boy whilst preparing to collect her sternly formidable, imminently visiting Aunt Matilda. Snowed under mounting physical and mental loads, she ropes in Superman to backstop her, only to discover there are many tasks – like baking a cake whilst watching a boisterous brat – that even the miraculous Man of Steel cannot manage…

Next up and beginning with Page 358 (September 8th 1946) the Action Ace faces criminal mastermind Tom Catt who plunders Metropolis in “Curiosity Crimes” dependent on the victims’ own innate nosiness. After a cascade of cat & mouse clashes the cunning crook ultimately falls because he didn’t follow his own advice about obtrusive inquiry and foolhardy felines…

More distracting nonsense results after social thinktank The Skeptics prove by rational debate that Superman doesn’t exist and seek to legally end the fraud being perpetrated upon the world. It takes a number of impossible tasks diligently performed by our hero before the cranky coots are convinced to change their minds, after which Page 371 (December 8th 1946) briefly returns the Man of Tomorrow to his war years and wish-fulfilling Superman’s Service for Servicemen scheme as he helps demobbed G.I. Steve Kennedy adapt to peacetime, work woes and officious in-laws making life intolerable…

Keeping our frame of reference domestic, a new year and fresh sequence (Page 375, January 5th 1947) saw the invulnerable hero hounded by an indefatigable go-getting salesman from Dynamic Insurance. Elmer Doolittle’s career – and future wedded bliss – depend on selling Superman a policy. Luckily, the goal never actually specified what kind of policy…

March 9th (Page 384) signalled a return to fantastic fantasy as an invisible beast causes havoc in the heartlands and farmers call for help to bring the “Nosuch Animal” to brook. Sadly, when Superman intervenes the unseen terror loses its camouflage gift and is exposed as a living example of a dinosaur… a Paleomatzoball. Moreover, this rampaging colossus loves rough handling and develops a disastrous romantic attachment to the Man of Steel before our embarrassed involuntary swain devises a timely solution to their mutual problem…

The “peace dividend” delivered by the end of the war is scrutinised next as Clark visits Boom Town and sees how a former manufacturing mecca was infiltrated and overrun by mobsters, gamblers and racketeers once the military – and their trustworthy, well-trained police – were transferred elsewhere. When the entrenched thugs begin attacking the municipality’s new law enforcement recruits, the Man of Steel steps up to school the neophytes and ensure crime never pays there again…

Circuses were a big draw and popular pastime of the postwar years and from Page 400 (June 29th) Superman & Lois were lured into that limelight when swindlers targeted Cap’n Tobey’s Mammoth Carnival. When the doddering owner is gulled into promising the world that the Metropolis Marvel is his new top attraction, Superman naturally helps out by showing up, but his good deed only allows a cartel of gangsters to use his scheduled performances as opportunities to try new ways to assassinate the Action Ace… with no appreciable result…

Next (from 28th August) two more former G.I.’s enlist the Man of Steel in a business venture, hoping his promotion of their new hot dog line (“Teenie Weinies”) will ensure success, Sadly, the enthusiastically spectacular super sales campaign only lands our hero with a lawsuit for restraint of trade when established fast food rivals cry unfair competition against their own brand of “Yankie Frankies”! Ordered to cease and desist, our hero still manages one stellar and out of this world act of promotion before capitulating…

One of the earliest examples of a recurring Silver Age Superman trope comes next as Page 414 (October 5th 1947) sees exotic nuclear radiation (another increasing popular maguffin of the forthcoming Atomic Age) accidentally reduce the mighty Man of Tomorrow to the size and relative age – but thankfully not intellect or emotional development – of an infant. Unable to appear as Clark, “Superbabe” recruits vagabond Edward Benton who resembles his adult self to impersonate Kent until a remedy is found, only to see the double fall for Lois and attempt to steal his civilian life and wed her under false pretences. Unable to operate as hero or tolerate the loss of Lois, the Caped Kryptonian risks a deadly potential cure, sabotages Lois’ wedding day and risks exposing his greatest secret to stop the mad escapade…

After that soap opera scandal carries us over the Holiday season, accidental time travel – beginning with February 22nd 1948’s Page 434 – sees Superman stranded in the past and ensnared by the irresistible wiles of seductive, lethally ambitious Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. Thankfully, former beau Mark Antony is able to break her spell before the Man of Tomorrow returns to today, just in time to foil an impending Martian invasion (May 2nd – July 18th over Pages 444-455) by impersonating an “ordinary human” abducted to their testing labs…

He even acts as a matchmaker for their lonely leader before returning to Earth and his strangest encounter yet after he’s “adopted” by talking dog Angus who needs a safe, secure home for his homeless human orphan kid pal Nicky Nichols. Of course, once he’s over the shock and disbelief, Superman is delighted to provide them and even reunite Nicky with his missing-but-not-dead mother… once he’s stopped every grifting chancer’s exploitative schemes to make money out of the mouthy mutt…

Another extraordinary tyke turns up on Page 467 (October 10th) as radical theorists of The Educational Improvements Association attempt to hothouse a 3-year old prodigy with plenty of weird notions of her own. “Smartypants” is granted absolute freedom to do whatever she wants, with the Man of Steel sworn to make every wish come true. The result is utter anarchy (with unleashed dinosaurs!) and total chaos until the harassed, embattled boffins convene for a swift rethink before resorting to tried-&-trusted rearing methods…

November 28th (Page 474) saw Superman in whimsical mood as he puckishly teaches a rug salesman a lesson by making his smarmy, smug sales patter about magic carpets come true for downtrodden shopper Geoge Paley. Sadly, the prank goes exponentially awry as an ever-escalating war for possession of George’s flying rug breaks out, resulting in violence, loss of livelihood and litigation. Once he’s done settling all the crises he’s sparked, the Action Ace resolves to quit playing practical jokes…

Far-flung fantasy follows from Pages 484 to 493 (February 6th – April 10th 1949) as Superman gathers Amazon jungle flora for the Metropolis Botanical Society and stumbles upon a fabulous golden sword, a potent legend and a long-hidden civilisation in the Lost Valley of Ru. Holding the antique blade, the Man of Steel inadvertently fulfils an ancient prophecy and must marry the socially reforming Queen. That’s not what tyrannical nobles led by Baron Akhar want, and his machinations to thwart the prophecy and marry her himself – as well as the monarch’s embarrassing infatuation with the mighty caped stranger – lead to confusion, crisis and civil war before our hero can fix everything and flee back to the outer world’s relative calm…

The next serialised saga (Pages 494-505, April 17th to July 3rd) offers another human-interest drama given a super-powered spin as, having learned nothing, Superman hires a double to stand in for him at all onerous public functions he’s too polite to refuse. Sadly, affable, honest mimic Mike is soon innocently complicating the Action Ace’s double lives to the point of imminent calamity and when the hapless doppelganger is kidnapped, panic ensues following wildfire rumours of the hero losing his powers. Realising the jig is up, Superman takes drastic action…

Concluding this final Golden Age collection, Pages 506-520 (July 10th – October 16th 1949) detail a bizarre fantasy wherein Superman emulates the travels of Lemuel Gulliver in a story within a story. To cheer up a love-crushed youngster, the Metropolis Marvel recounts his travails on a distant heavy-gravity world where his powers fluctuated and he faced miniscule warriors and lumbering giants, overthrew a tyrant before brokering peace and even arranging a love match between representatives of each side!

The Golden Age Superman: – Sunday Pages 1946-1949 – was the last of two huge (312 x 245 mm), lavish, high-end twinned hardbacks re-presenting the Man of Steel’s exploits during WWII and the immediate aftermath. They were a welcome addition to the superb commemorative series of Library of American Comics which preserved in luxurious splendour such landmark strips as Lil Abner, Tarzan, Rip Kirby, Polly and her Pals and many of the abovementioned cartoon icons. It’s an unimaginable joy to see these neglected Superman stories again, offering a far more measured, domesticated and comforting side of one of America’s most unique contributions to world culture. It’s also a pure delight to see some of the most engaging yesterdays of the Man of Tomorrow. Join me, see for yourself and agitate for the entire library to be released in digital editions…
© 2014 DC Comics. All rights reserved. SUPERMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics.

Today in 1883, Edwin Balmer – journalist/fantasist/author/co-creator of the Speed Spaulding sci fi strip – was born. The day also saw the deaths of groundbreaking cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland, Gertie the Dinosaur, Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend) in 1934 and Reg’lar Fellers, It’s A Great Life If You Don’t Weaken, Wide Awake Willie creator Gene Byrnes in 1974.

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Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant volume 14: 1963-1964


By Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-970-7 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur premiered on Sunday February 13th 1937: a fabulous rainbow coloured weekly peek into a world where history met myth to produce something greater than both. Pioneering creator Hal Foster developed the feature after a groundbreaking and astoundingly popular run on the Tarzan of the Apes comic strip.

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

Foster wove his complex epic romance over decades, tracing the progress of a feral wild boy who became a paragon of chivalric virtue: knight, warrior, saviour, 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, enchanting generations of readers and thousands of creative types in all the arts.

The glorious epic spawned films, an animated series 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 US and international papers and globally through the internet.

Foster soloed on the feature until 1971 when John Cullen Murphy (Big Ben Bolt) succeeded him as illustrator whilst the originator remained as writer and designer. That ended in 1980, when he finally retired and Cullen Murphy’s daughter Mairead took over colouring and lettering whilst her brother John assumed the writer’s role. In 2004 the senior Cullen Murphy also retired, since when the strip has soldiered on under the auspices 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 6th 1963 to December 27th 1964, (individual Strips #1352 to 1455) and comes with all the regular bonus trimmings. Comics book A-Lister Roger Stern (Superman; Avengers; Spider-Man; Doctor Strange; Incredible Hulk; Captain America) discusses and critically appraises the influential force of the newspaper strip on comic books in picture packed Foreword ‘Swiping Mr. Foster: A Legacy in Four Colors’, offering many potent comparisons and shameless swipes, after which Brian M. Kane expands the argument about Valiant’s lasting influence in ‘Might for Right: A Code of Honor for Sentinels of Liberty’.

The erudite scholar returns at this tome’s close: spotlighting the glorious range of the master storyteller in closing article ‘Land and Sea: Hal Foster’s Fine Art Paintings’ via a gallery of land-&-seascapes, nature studies and illustrative tableaux. Captivating as they are, though, the real wonderment is, as ever, the unfolding epic preceding them…

What Has Gone Before: following a failed and ruinous quest for the Holy Grail by the Round Table Knights, Valiant has compelled their return to Camelot and courtly duties. In the months following he visited the Great Tor at Glastonbury, met St Patrick and assisted a Papal mission from Rome assigned to erect a cathedral there. Wars erupted and plots were foiled, and an extended familial rift with long-suffering wife Aleta healed. A visit to Valiant’s Thule homeland brought more battle and death… and personal injury. With firstborn son Arn in tow, recuperation was concluded during a visit of the entire clan to Aleta’s ancestral kingdom in the Misty Isles, as Viking reiver Boltar escorted them to counter (other) Mediterranean pirates and brigands…

At their destination, the family defeated a colonising invasion by rival ruler Thrasos during which the queen delivered twin daughters, to make Valiant a proud father of four. His peace was shattered when fleeing prisoners of war abducted Arn and his commoner pals Paul & Diane, forcing Valiant and Viking shipwright Gundar Harl into frantic pursuit to prevent their being sold as slaves. However, by the time they caught up, cunning, capable Arn had already dealt with the problem. Even with the crisis averted peace was impossible to find. When pilgrims bound for the Holy Land were shipwrecked on the Misty Isles, Val was duty-bound to offer aid, and used his presence as escort to found a trade mission promoting the produce and wares of his island home. He also brought Arn, whose days of childhood indolence gave way to learning his proper place in the world…

Many rousing exploits marked their trail from Jaffa to the Dead Sea, and Damascus to Baghdad, before the pilgrimage ends in Aleppo where Boltar waits to ferry father and son back to a recovered and much wealthier Aleta. However, a brief period of glorious relaxation ends as King Arthur summons them to save Gaul from invading Goth hordes. With safe passage across Europe ended, England’s ruler also needed his greatest hero to carry a message to the Pope. As Aleta’s forces secured a sea route to Albion, Valiant & Arn’s perilous mission drew much action but ultimately no satisfaction from the embattled Pontiff. Undaunted, Valiant devised an alternative trade route between the Holy Father and increasingly imperilled Christian Britain: visiting what would become Spain and France, encountering a lost land where monks were guarded by monsters, dodging Goths and ousting a usurper all whilst reinstating the true ruler…

By the time the scattered family were reunited in England, the country endured a new kind of assault, as a charismatic priest was manipulated by his scurrilous scholar attendants/business managers to foment a religious revolution. After cleverly ending that near-insurrection, Val rejoined his family at the site of a church under construction near the fens where he grew up. The lure of his sire’s past beguiles Arn, who explored the boggy waterways and was soon hopelessly lost. Over tense weeks, he experienced the same privations his father had, before being rescued. Carrying huge wealth destined for Arthur’s coffers, the family thankfully took ship for Camelot, unaware that greedy, ambitious eyes were watching…

The illuminating wonders here resume with those eyes fatally blinking. Opportunistic fellow voyager Ethwald abducts Arn by guile, holding him to ransom for treasure Valiant safeguards for the king. Ethwald fears the knight’s prowess but is certain a father will do nothing to endanger his heir. He grievously underestimates the deadly wiles of outraged mother Aleta…

The majority of this two-year tome deals with the anticipation and results of a mass invasion by Angles and Saxons, but the slowly-building saga is built of many shorter episodes – adventures both tragic and even broadly comedic – in its ever-expanding tapestry. After returning to Camelot, the family are feted until Valiant is again called to defend the realm. Arn meanwhile, steadily advances from Page to Novice and begins official combat training. Soon he is made Batchelor-at-Arms and, when the vassal king of Wales dies, is drawn into war. The former Prince Cidwic hungers for fame, glory and riches, and – deploying his fierce Welshmen and a mercenary Pictish & Caledonian warband – besieges Carlisle in an attempt to annexe Scottish territories. The city is defended by a small contingent of cavalry and engineers led by Sir Kay, but as Arthur readies a rescue fleet to aid them, Valiant forms and leads a unit of swift-riding messengers from the Novices & Batchelors to keep lines of communication open. His youngest recruit is Arn…

When Cidwic regroups and fortifies his position, the boy plays a crucial role in supporting Kay’s forces and in the would-be conqueror’s eventual downfall. As diplomacy and reconciliation take over, Arthur rewards the boy with more responsibility: befriending new King Cuddock, Cidwic’s 12-year old son. As they bond and duty grows into true friendship, the king’s uncle Ruddah seeks to frame Arn for murdering the boy king, and learns to his eternal regret that youth does not equate to stupidity…

Plot foiled, Valiant & Arn make their slow way back to Court, partaking of many local jousts and tourneys that filled the autumn season and served to keep fighting men in peak form. As they compete, they encounter two impoverished, less than noble knights whose response to defeat leaves much to be desired and exposes the sordid underbelly of professional jousting. On reaching Camelot, a joyous family reunion almost ends in shame and bloodshed when cunning schemer Modred attempts to traduce Aleta’s honour and reputation by trapping her and Launcelot in a compromising situation. His vile scheme exposed, the villain flees and encounters a Saxon war party infiltrating the region around the Vale of the White Horse. The long dreaded war with the invaders is starting…

War-wise Arthur deems them to be scouting the land and sends his best men to observe them, with Arn and other knights-in-training as messengers. Sadly, Owen is still starry-eyed and vainglorious, and his inexperience leads to Arn’s capture. Thankfully, the prisoner is sharp-witted and well-disguised: convincing the Saxons he is a son of infamous pirate Boltar, while turning his situation to Britain’s advantage by memorising the plans of the vast invasion force marshalling overseas. Of course, his actions suggest to the keenly watching rescue party that the son of Valiant has turned traitor… before the boy orchestrates his escape and reports back to Arthur…

Although moving to a war footing, life at Court continues largely as before and prompts a personal crisis when a grand tournament intended to hone the fighting spirit of the nation’s champions sparks intrigue, and murder.. Visiting his kinsman Launcelot, Count Brecey of Brittany finds Aleta most pleasing and determines to make her his. That she is a queen with four children he can profitably marry off when he marries her is a huge additional benefit. Accustomed to taking whatever he wants, the overprivileged coward operates through his personal assassin Hugo, but that deadly wight proves no match for Valiant and his mighty warhorse Arvak, and as a web of sinister schemes unravels, Brecey abducts Aleta and runs for the coast. Thanks to the efforts of his victim and her hotly-pursuing spouse and first son, the Count doesn’t get far and – when caught – compounds his villainy with the worst kind of cowardice…

As summer approaches, Arthur’s preparations intensify, and the entire Court awaits news of a vast fleet of Angles, Jutes, Danes and Saxons. Tensions mount as word comes of established colonies, previously defeated by and sworn to Arthur, recant their oaths of allegiance and pick up the swords they had abandoned for peace and acceptance. The lure of imminent plunder is everywhere and the King is forced to remind is noble subjects of their promises to supply fighting men when the nation needs them. Valiant & Gawain are despatched to Cornwall where three local kings are at war with each other and “unable” to honour their word, whilst Arn travels to North Wales where his friend Cuddock is genuinely embattled, plagued by raids of marauding Scotti. As he will soon discover, the raiders are sponsored by the Saxon overlord as a distracting diversion…

Although one Cornish ruler is steadfast and readily provides promised forces for the army, weak, ambitious, greedy Kings Grundemede and Alrick-the-Fat need a sharp lesson in realpolitik and practical conjuring (learned long ago when young Valiant was attached to the wizard Merlin) before they grudgingly comply. Their missions successful, both the Cornish and Welsh embassages return with their new reinforcements to Camelot to make final preparations for the encroaching Saxon invasion. Thanks to Arn’s prior intelligence, the warlord’s colonising raiders head for Badon Hill, the ideal site for Arthur’s stout defence…

This astounding clash takes seven weeks to tell, but at the end England is barred to them for generations and the victorious armies return to their own lands. Switching from epic action to wry romantic comedy, Foster then plays with his stars as Aleta and the visiting queen of Alrick-the-Fat indulge in combat matchmaking; each seeking to wed heroic Sir Charles of Cornwall to their respective noblewoman protégés. However, their escalating wiles and schemes make a catastrophic impression on Aleta’s twins Karen & Valeta, who apply what they’ve seen to their own relentless pursuit of boy-king Cuddock, recuperating from nobly-earned wounds and far too naive to endure being the subject of the girls’ first crush…

Employing the clever conceit of lost historical scrolls, the narrative jumps forward some months before resuming with Valiant’s entire family en route to ancestral homeland Thule with bombastic brigand Boltar. That voyage is interrupted by news of marauders assembled by Skogul Oderson, who has united numerous warring tribes into a formidable force to ravage Thule. As the year ends, the far northern chieftain is spectacularly beaten, never counting on Valiant and wilderness scout Garm organising scattered self-serving homesteaders into a lethally effective guerrilla force to slowly whittle away the raider’s numerical advantage through guile, lethally inventive use of terrain and psychological warfare. The final instalment here presages even greater adventure as Boltar’s son and Arn discuss a return to the lost continent they had visited: a land latterly dubbed “the New World.”

To Be Continued…

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

Today in 1921 cartoonist and King Features editor Bill Yates (Professor Phumble) was born, followed in 1933 by uber enthusiast Shel Dorf (who founded the San Diego Comics Convention) and in 1945 French creator François Bourgeon (Les passagers du vent, Cyann Saga, Les Compagnons du crépuscule). In 1945; cartoonist supreme Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) in 1958; British writer Ian Edgington (Scarlet Traces, X-Men, Predator, The Red Seas, Aliens) in 1963 and mangaka Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina) in 1968.

In 2004 this date, Tim Rickard’s comic strip Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! first launched, but we lost astounding master Frank Bellamy (Fraser of Africa, Dan Dare, Thunderbirds, Garth) in 1976, Belgian Paul Cuvelier (Corentin, Line, Epoxy) in 1978 and manga artist Shinji Wada (Waga Tomo Frankenstein, Sukeban Deka, Ninja Hish?) in 2011.

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Superman: The Golden Age Dailies 1947 to 1949 (volume 3)


By Alvin Schwartz, Wayne Boring, Jack Schiff, Win Mortimer & various (IDW/Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-68405- (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The American comic book industry – if it still existed at all – would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s unprecedented invention was first fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation, and gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Spawning an army of imitators and variations within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and wish-fulfilment epitomising the early Man of Steel grew to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reforming dramas, sci fi fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East sucked in America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous, dashing derring-do.

From the outset, in comic book terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming the shape of the fledgling funnybook biz, the Man of Tomorrow irresistibly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as epitome and acme of comics creation, the truth is that very soon after his springtime debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse. We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers and their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures familiar in mass markets, across all platforms and age ranges…

In the last century and even more so in this one, far more people have seen and heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comic books. These globally syndicated newspaper strips alone were enjoyed by countless millions, and by the time his 20th anniversary rolled around, at the very start of what we call the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial star, headlined 17 astounding animated cartoons, become a novel attraction (written by George Lowther) and – by the time of the last stories in this tome – had helmed two feature films. He had then seamlessly segued into the next Big Thing: television. Soon his first (of 8) smash-hit live-action tv seasons would start his next great media conquest, making Superman a perennial sure-fire success for toys, games, food, and puzzle and apparel manufacturers all over the planet.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the last century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country (and frequently the world) a strip feature could be seen by millions if not billions of readers and was generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books. It also – at the start! – paid better, and rightly so. Some of the most enduring, entertaining characters and concepts of all time were devised to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of the best became cornerstones of a shared global culture. People across the Earth had a communal context thanks to thrilling to the same comics; and Mutt and Jeff, Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped humble, tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Most still do…

The daily Superman newspaper strip launched on 16th January 1939, swiftly augmented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & crucially Wayne Boring), the mammoth task soon required additional talents like strip veteran Jack Burnley and writers including Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz. The McClure Syndicate feature ran continuously until May 1966, appearing, at its peak, in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers: a combined average readership of more than 20 million. Eventually, Win Mortimer & Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye, whilst Bill Finger and Siegel also provided stories, telling serial tales largely divorced from comic book continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

This third volume of the Library of American Comics collection continues the prodigious and formidable reprint program begun in the Sterling/Kitchen Sink softcover editions which ceased production in 1999. All of that material – and these books too – are long overdue for re-release and digital editions. Here, however, WWII is well and truly over and the decidedly different demands of peacetime and reconstruction have given way to an era of hectic prosperity, but still see our hero and his regular cast tested and beset by domestically endangering perils and conundrums only a Man of Steel could handle…

We open with another Introduction by Sidney Friefertig, discussing the changes from conflict to reconstruction and detailing why and how poet-turned-thriller writer Alvin Schwartz (1916-2011) became the key writer of the feature as well as sharing contextual, behind-the-scenes moments before our cosy but never-ending battle resumes.

These sequences came six days a week, comprising episodes #47-61, pages #2595 through 3338, and publication dates April 28 1947 to September 3rd 1949. With the material credited to Schwartz (Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Tomahawk, Newsboy Legion, Slam Bradley, House of Mystery, A Date With Judy, Buzzy, Bizarro) and the sole pictorial province of illustrator Wayne Boring, the compilation kicks off with and a bizarre “manhunt” to solve the dilemma of ‘Who is Miss Whisper?

Running in strips #2595-2654 as seen between April 28th to July 5th 1947, the story depicts mounting frenzy in Metropolis after lonely millionaire at sea Jonathan Dexter experiences a crossed radio line and catches a brief snippet of conversation with a distant voice. Instantly falling inescapably in love with a person he cannot and probably will never see, he is despondent until he remembers how rich he is…

Thus when, Cinderella-style, the heartsore plutocrat uses the Daily Planet to publicise his plight and swears to endow the mystery maid with all his worldly goods, the entire female population goes crazy. Everybody loves a doomed romance but some seek to con him, some attempt to bamboozle or even supplant his absent inamorata and some – gangsters led by cunning rogue Wishbone – seek to replace Miss Whisper with a voice impersonating ringer. Clark Kent and Lois Lane are drawn to the story and Superman promises to help after the rich guy promises to pay a million to deserving charities but even after finding her, the Man of Tomorrow can’t make the quiet quarry want to marry the spoiled rich, groom-to-be…

Nevertheless, because it’s a fairy tale writ large, love does find a way…

Crafted for daily doses, these Superman snippets are torturous, convoluted and often seemingly divert in tangents to indulge in seemingly pointless but epically spectacular super-feats (such as razing an entire forest to make a really, Really big billboard). These are to pad out increasingly formulaic plots and emphasise the “Super” in the hero but also counterpoint the ongoing social commentary and essentially domestic tribulations of familiar and warmly appreciated entertainment characters being constantly put through their paces. That’s clearly seen as greed and venality abound in the next arc as Superman reels under the manic idiocies generated by ordinary people in mounting frenzy once news leaks out that the Man of Steel has agreed to safeguard humanity’s greatest desire made manifest.

Running from July 7th to September 27th, the sorry tale of ‘The Youth Serum’ (strips #2665-2732) sees chemist Dr. Ogilvie unwisely entrust his age-defeating miracle mixture to shady promoter Willie Poster who triggers a literal stampede of the vain, vainglorious and outright villainous who will do anything to roll back a few years… including bribery, fraud, theft and kidnapping Daily Planet staff to compel the Man of Steel to hand over the rejuvenation juice…

With the multi-million daily readership reckoned to be at least 50% female, encroaching domesticity was a regular plot standby but Alvin Schwartz proved able to tweak the situation in unusual ways. For ‘The Marriage Gamble’ (#2733- 2768; September 29th to November 8th) he enfolds Lois & Clark in a criminal caper wherein crooked – and ultimately near-murderous – loan sharks seek vengeance on a professional gambler by rigging a bet that one of their on-the-hook client/victims can be made to marry the first women he sees. Thanks to poor timing and fate the intended marriage material is inadvertently delayed by Lois, and helpless desperate sap Joe Deems’ unsuspecting bride-to-be becomes a certain feisty journalist…

There’s no escaping his fate – it’s death or Lois – but the mobsters have utterly underestimated Lane’s instincts and the determination of Joe’s actual fiancée Dotty… as well as Superman’s covert intervention…

Who’s chasing who is the key to next serial saga ‘The Perfect Woman’ (#2769-2828, November 10th1947 – January 17th 1948) as super-rich, supremely smart, ultra-fit and staggeringly beautiful heiress Olivia Hill finally reaches marrying age and decrees that the Man of Tomorrow is the only one worthy of her. Of course, Lois has other ideas and also senses a huge scoop as the terrified Superman struggles to escape a girl prepared to risk her own life and reputation to get her way…

Backed by money and privilege, wilful scheming rich kid Olivia seems unstoppable. All our hero’s efforts to avoid her cunning matrimonial traps come to naught as she employs fair means and foul to land the most eligible bachelor on Earth, but events take truly dark turn when master of media manipulation Hill meets ruthless gangsters who don’t play games by her rules…

Evil and mystery dominate in next exploit ’The Crime Mentalist’ (#2829-2936, January 19th – March 20th) as a shy, lonely, mild mannered bank teller survives a street incident and develops the power to psychically tune in on thieves and killers about to commit heinous acts. The cops are instantly suspicious of poor Edgar Jenkins and Clark is concerned for his safety, as Edgar apparently can’t stop himself uncovering crimes. He even exposes the venality of the learned doctors examining him and eventually Superman is forced to act as permanent bodyguard. Events come to ahead when the nation’s top crime bosses engage ruthless femme fatale Dotty Storm to vamp, distract and eliminate the nervous ninny. It works too, despite Jenkins’ gifts. He knows she’s evil but she’s also so very pretty and attentive and perhaps he can convert her from her wicked ways…

Pure whimsy and trenchant social satire manifest with ‘The Return of the Ogies’ (#2883-2936, March 22nd – May 22nd 1948) as the invisible fairy pranksters again bedevil Clark and Superman. However their escalating campaign to annoy the Metropolis Marvel – such as seeking to tell everyone his secret identity – goes weirdly awry after they lose that invisibility and become extremely popular figures perpetually pestered by the public. It looks like even Superman cannot solve this problem, but then…

After being denied a journalism award because everybody knows that the Man of Steel does all the heavy lifting in her stories, the City’s top reporter swears off male interference and undertakes a canny campaign of crimebusting and scandal-exposing in ‘Lois Lane’s Solo Adventures’. Spanning May 24th to July 3rd, strips #2937-2972 reveal just how brave and competent Lois can be on her own, especially after one piece makes a furious enemy of spoiled debutante Kim West. The brat’s idea of redress involves having two mob bosses vying for her exclusive attentions taking out contracts on the “Lane Dame”, but she’s less sanguine about her own devoted butler also trying to murder the journalist. This time Superman does not come to her assistance as the drama expands into murder and both mobs of rank-&-file thugs rebel, seeking to kill West and Lois to avoid a gang war and return to business…

With Lane back at the top of her game and even notional friends with Kim, focus switches to her rival for ‘The Millionaire Ex-Reporter Clark Kent’ (July 5th – August 14th, strips #2973-3008).

After suddenly and unwelcomely winning a fortune, Kent must act like a normal guy and quit his job just to preserve his secret identity. Moreover, all efforts to lose the wealth by acting like a rich idiot only increase it and make him the target of enterprising heiress Kim who has blown through all her own money and needs a pliable husband with plenty…

She doesn’t see Lois as serious competition but still ends up unsatisfied and unwed, before Clark goes broke, gets back to the Planet and almost meets his doom from ‘Enthor’s Paralyzing Ray’ (August 16th – October 16th; strips #3009-3062). Long before Luthor, Metropolis was terrorised by a criminal scientist who immediately quit when Superman appeared. Now having served his time, doddery figure of fun Enthor renews his malevolent career after discovering a gadget that makes the Man of Tomorrow comatose. With a beguiling romantic subplot and conclusion channelling the movie White Heat the shorter action yarn segued into a straightforward mystery as the aftereffects of Enthor’s weapon triggered ‘Clark’s Memory Lapse’ (October 18th – December 25th; #3063-3122). With bizarre reports coming, Superman is forced to reconstruct a fugue moment when the reporter apparently assaulted, abducted and held hostage an innocent man. Diligent investigation and the odd super stunt soon prove bank official Fred Camper is anything but, and that Clark was just being a hero…

It’s back to more traditional fare when Clark’s old pal Ed invents ‘The Super Elixir’ (#3123-3176; December 27th 1948 – February 26th; 1949) and gets Kent to drink it. Now publicly and officially superpowered, Clark is pursued by wannabees and crooks alike as he seeks ways to keep his friend’s family safe amidst a storm of attention and stunts that somehow incredibly peak with the reporter seemingly wresting Superman for charity and begging for a solution that will allow him to return to his quiet anonymous life…

Running from February 28th to April 23rd ‘Superman, Jailbird’ (strips #3177 – 3224) saw Canadian James Winslow “Win” Mortimer take over the illustration ushering in an era of greater whimsy and accessible comedy underpinnings. The initial outing found Superman breaking speeding laws in rural Amosville and arrested by an overly officious police constable. His thirty day jail sentence turns into a unique form of community service when gamblers try to make the hamlet the next Las Vegas, after which ‘Lois ’s Secret Identity’ (April 25th – June 25th, #3225-3278) sees her lose her Planet position and become a radio personality. Unable to abandon print, she dons a disguise and replaces herself as new ace reporter Lily Loring, competing with Kent and both her selves even as she’s targeted by murderous mobster Johnny Braxton seeking to silence one and all of her…

After accidentally injuring a bystander, Clark Kent pinch-hits for the wounded man, taking on his (then) rather-rare job in ‘Superman, Male Escort’ (June 27th – August 13th; #3279-3320. With my own super power working full out to resist that straight line (sooo mmmany jokes!) but blandly state that this sequence finds the Man of Steel soon helping lonely ladies, provoking yet another Metropolis mob of matrons and maidens demanding their moment with the miracle man, unaware that an actual mobster’s moll has plans to secure his exclusive services. Thankfully, Lois is there to make sure that doesn’t happen…

The collection and – more or less – the Golden Age era ends here with short sequence ‘Reenacting Superman’s Greatest Feats’ from August 15th to September 3rd 1949 (#3321-3238) as the Action Ace reconstructs his last month of rescues and stunts in the hopes of jogging the addled memories of literal absent-minded Professor Flagg and enabling him to recover sections of a misremembered formula. Of course, word associations and recall don’t always work according to plan…

These yarns offer timeless wonders and mesmerising excitement for lovers of action and fantasy. The raw-boned early Superman is beyond compare and if you can handle the warts of the era or just crave simpler stories from less angst-wracked times, the adventures gathered here are ideal comics reading, and this a book you simply must see.

© 2019 DC Comics. All rights reserved. Superman and all related names, characters and elements are ™ DC Comics.

Today in 1872, English cartoonist and genteelly warped brainbox W. Heath Robinson was born, with Allen Bert Christman (The Sandman, Scorchy Smith) arriving in 1915 and Dutch comics master Cees van de Weert (Ben Busy, Marco Polo) turning up in 1917.

Underground commix legend Gilbert Shelton was born in 1940, and scripter, journalist , critic & historian David Anthony Kraft came along in 1952. Artist/playwright Dean Haspiel (Billy Dogma, The Quitter)was born in 1967 and graphic auteur Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Sleepwalk and Other Stories, Killing and Dying).

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Walt Disney’s Donald Duck by Carl Barks: volume 6 – The Old Castle’s Secret


By Carl Barks & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-653-9 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Donald Duck ranks among a small number of fictional characters who have transcended the bounds of reality to become – like Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Popeye and James Bond -meta-real. As such, his origins are complex and convoluted. His official birthday is June 9th 1934: a dancing, nautically-themed bit-player in the Silly Symphony cartoon short The Wise Little Hen. However, that date is based on the feature’s release, as announced by distributors United Artists and latterly acknowledged by the Walt Disney Company. Recent research reveals the piece was initially screened at Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles on May 3rd, part of a Benefit show. The Wise Little Hen officially premiered on June 7th at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, before a general release date was settled.

The animated feature was adapted by Ted Osborne & Al Taliaferro for the Silly Symphonies Sunday comic strip and thus classified by historians as Donald’s official debut in Disney comics. Controversially, though, he was also deemed to have originated in The Adventures of Mickey Mouse strip which had begun 1931. Thus the Duck has more “birthdays” than the Queens and Kings of England (plus the generally dis-United Kingdom and gradually diminishing Commonwealth) which probably explains why he’s such a bad-tempered old cuss. Today is not so much a birthday as graduation party…

Visually, Donald Fauntleroy Duck was largely the result of animator Dick Lundy’s efforts, and, with partner-in-fun Mickey Mouse, is one of TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time. The Duck has his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame and has appeared in more films than any other Disney player. During the 1930s his screen career grew from background/supporting roles to a team act with Mickey and Goofy, to a series of solo cartoons that began with 1937’s Don Donald, which also introduced love interest Daisy Duck and nephews Huey, Louie and Dewey.

By 1938 Donald was officially more popular than signature company icon Mickey, especially after the brash bird’s service as a propaganda warrior in a series of animated morale boosters and information features during WWII. The merely magnificent Der Fuehrer’s Face took the 1942 Academy Award (that’s an Oscar to you and me) for Animated Short Film…

Crucially for our purposes, Donald is also planet Earth’s most-published non-superhero comics character, and has been blessed with some of the greatest writers and illustrators ever to punch a keyboard or pick up a pen or brush. A publishing phenomenon and mega star across Europe – particularly Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland – Donald & Co have spawned countless original stories and characters. Sales are stratospheric there and in the more than 45 other countries they export to. Japanese manga publishers have their own carefully-tailored iterations too…

The aforementioned Silly Symphonies adaptation and Mickey Mouse newspaper strip guest shots were trumped in 1937 when Italian publisher Mondadori launched an 18-page story by Federico Pedrocchi in comic book format. It was quickly followed by a regular serial in Britain’s Mickey Mouse Weekly. The comic was produced under license by Willbank Publications/Odhams Press and ran from 8th February 1936 to 28th December 1957.

In #67 (May 15th 1937) it launched Donald and Donna (a prototype Daisy Duck girlfriend), drawn by William A. Ward. Running for 15 weeks it was followed by Donald and Mac before ultimately settling on Donald Duck, and became a solid fixture until the magazine folded. That comic inspired similar Disney-themed publication across Europe, with Donald regularly appearing beside company mascot Mickey.

In the USA, a daily Donald Duck newspaper strip launched on February 2nd 1938, with a colour Sunday strip added in 1939. Writer Ted Karp joined Taliaferro in expanding the duck cast, adding a signature automobile, dog Bolivar, cousin Gus Goose, grandmother Elvira Coot and even expanded the roles of both distaff ducks Donna and Daisy…

In 1942, Donald’s licensed comic books canon began with October cover-dated Dell Four Color Comics, Series II #9. As Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold it was conceived by Homer Brightman & Harry Reeves, scripted by Karp and illustrated by Disney Studios employees Carl Barks & Jack Hannah. That was the moment everything changed…

Carl Barks was born in Merrill, Oregon in 1901, and raised in rural areas of the West during some of the leanest times in American history. He tried his hand at many jobs before settling into the profession that chose him. His early life is well-documented elsewhere if you need detail, but briefly, Barks was an animator before quitting in 1942 to work in the new-fangled field of comic books. With studio partner Jack Hannah (another future strip illustrator) Barks adapted Karp’s rejected script for an animated cartoon short into Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold, and although not his first published comics work, it was the story that shaped the rest of Carl’s career.

From then until his official retirement in the mid-1960s, Barks operated in self-imposed seclusion: writing, drawing and devising a vast array of adventure comedies, gags, yarns and covers that gelled into a coherent Duck Universe of memorable – and highly bankable – characters. These included Gladstone Gander (1948), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Magica De Spell (1961) and the nefarious Beagle Boys (1951) to supplement Disney’s stable of cartoon actors. The greatest creation was undoubtedly the crusty, energetic, paternalistic, money-mad giga-gazillionaire Scrooge McDuck: the World’s wealthiest winged nonagenarian.

Whilst producing all that landmark material Barks was also just a working guy, generating cover art, illustrating other people’s scripts when asked, and contributing stories to a burgeoning canon of Duck Lore. After Gladstone Publishing began re-packaging Barks material amongst other Disney strips in the 1980s, he discovered the well-earned appreciation he never imagined existed. So potent were his creations that they inevitably fed back into Disney’s animation output, even though his brilliant comic work was done for Dell/Gold Key and not directly for the studio. The greatest tribute was undoubtedly animated TV series Duck Tales: heavily based on his classic Uncle Scrooge tales.

Barks was a fan of wholesome action, unsolved mysteries and epics of exploration, and this led to him perfecting the art and technique of the blockbuster tale: blending wit, history, plucky bravado and sheer wide-eyed wonder into rollicking rollercoaster romps that utterly captivated readers of every age and vintage. Without the Barks expeditions there would never have been an Indiana Jones…

During his working life Barks was blissfully unaware that his efforts (uncredited by official policy, as was all Disney’s comics output) had been recognised by a rabid and discerning public as “the Good Duck Artist”. When some of his most dedicated fans finally tracked him down, a belated celebrity began.

In 2013, Fantagraphics Books began chronologically collecting Barks’ Duck stuff in wonderful, carefully curated archival volumes, tracing his output year-by-year in hardback tomes and digital editions that finally do justice to the self-closeted creator. These will comprise the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. The physical copies are sturdy and luxurious albums – 193 x 261mm – that would grace any bookshelf, with volume 6 re-presenting works from 1948 – albeit not in strict release order. I should also note that all Four Color issues come from Series II of that mighty anthological vehicle and all covers are by Barks.

It begins eponymously with ‘The Old Castle’s Secret’ (FC #189, June 1948) as a financial crisis in McDuck’s empire triggers a mission for Donald and the nephews: accompanying Scrooge to the ancestral pile in Scotland to search for millions in hidden treasure. Apparently the craggy citadel is haunted, but what they actually encounter is both more rationalistically dangerous and fantastically unbelievable…

Two single-page gags from the same issue follow, with ‘Bird Watching’ exposing the hidden perils of the hobby before superstition is painfully debunked in ‘Horseshoe Luck’ after which ‘Wintertime Wager’ (Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #88, January) introduces annoying cousin Gladstone Gander. Amidst chilling winter snows, the miraculously lucky, smugly irksome oik invites himself over for Christmas and soon he and Donald are involved in an escalating set of ordeals that might cost the Duck his house. Thankfully, Daisy and the boys are there to solve the problem…

Gainful employment was a regular dilemma for Donald, so February’s ‘Watching the Watchman’ (WDC&S #89) finds him taking a midnight-to-daybreak job at the docks, despite being pitifully unable to alter his sleep patterns. Once again, Huey, Louie & Dewey offer outrageous assistance but this time it’s the Duck’s failure to stay awake that foils a million dollar heist. The kids are actually Donald’s rivals in ‘Wired’ (WDC&S #90, March) when all seek big bucks as telegram messengers. Sadly, millionaires are not generally friendly, welcoming or prone to giving giant gratuities…

A dedicated social climber, Donald plans a garden party in WDC&S #91 (April), but his notion of fancy dress and family solidarity utterly enrage the boys, who retaliate with manic mesmerism in ‘Going Ape’, after which March of Comics #20 finds butterfly-hunter Donald at war with avaricious lepidopterist Professor Argus McFiendy across two continents. Donald’s sharp and ruthless tactics inspire onlooker Sir Gnatbugg-Mothley to fund a safari to ‘Darkest Africa’ in search of the rarest butterfly on Earth. The daunting quest for Almostus Extinctus is frenetically fraught, astoundingly action-packed and fabulously fun-filled but please be aware that despite Barks’ careful research and diligent, sensitive storytelling some modern folk could be upset by his depictions of indigenous peoples in terms of the accepted style of those decades-distant times…

Nevertheless, the bombastic war ends with a delicious sting in the tail.

In case you were wondering: March of Comics releases were prestigious promotional giveaways tied to retail products and commercial clients like Sears, combining licensed characters from across Whitman/KK/Dell’s joint catalogue. The often enjoyed print runs topping 5 million copies per issue. Being a headliner for them was a low key editorial acknowledgement of a creator’s capabilities and a franchise’s pulling power…

In the regular comics world, Donald’s eternal war of nerves with the kids boiled over in FC #189 (June) as ‘Bean Taken’ saw his obsessive side dominant in a guessing game, a single-pager preceding another exploring the downside of sandlot baseball in ‘Sorry to Be Safe’ (FC #199, October) and standard 10-page romp ‘Spoil the Rod’ (WDC&S #92, May). Here passing do-gooder Professor Pulpheart Clabberhead seeks to stop Donald’s apparent abuse of Huey, Louie and Dewey – but only until he gets to know them…

Although the science fiction boom and flying saucer mania was barely beginning in 1948, Barks was an early advocate and ‘Rocket Race to the Moon’ (WDC&S #93, June) sees newspaper-seller Donald suckered into piloting an experimental lunar exploration ship. Sadly, Professors Cosmic and Gamma seem more concerned with a large cash-prize contest than advancing knowledge, and rival rocketman Baron De Sleezy is a ruthless schemer, but no one – not even the stowaway nephews – was prepared for what lived on the moon…

Patriotism inspires our bellicose birdbrain to enlist as ‘Donald of the Coast Patrol’ (WDC&S #94, July) but it’s his gullibility and bad temper that helps him bag a bunch of spies before true wickedness rears its downy head as ‘Gladstone Returns’ (WDC&S #95, August). The ghastly Gander was designed as a foil for Donald, intended to be even more obnoxious than the irascible, excitable film fowl and this originally untitled tale reintroduces him as a big super-lucky noxious noise every inch as blustery a blowhard as Donald. Here, both furiously boast and feud, trying to one-up each other in a series of scams that does neither any good – especially once the nephews and Daisy join the battle…

Arguably Barks’ first masterpiece, ‘Sheriff of Bullet Valley’ was the lead tale from Dell Four Color Comics #199, drawing much of its unflagging energy and trenchant whimsy from Barks’ own love of cowboy fiction, albeit seductively tempered with his self-deprecatory sense of absurdist humour. For example, a wanted poster on the jailhouse wall portrays the artist himself, offering the princely sum of $1000 and 50¢ for his inevitable capture.

Donald is, of course, a self-declared expert on the Wild West (he’s seen all the movies) so when he and the boys drive through scenic Bullet Valley, a wanted poster catches his eye and his imagination. Soon he’s signed up and sworn in as a doughty deputy, determined to catch rustlers plaguing the locals. Unfortunately for him, the good old days never really existed and today’s bandits use radios, trucks, tommy guns and ray machines to achieve their nefarious ends. Can Donald’s impetuous boldness and the nephews’ collective brains and ingenuity defeat the ruthless high-tech raiders? Of course they can…

That same issue provided a brace of short gags, beginning with ‘Best Laid Plans’ as Donald’s feigned illness earns him extra hard labour rather than a malingering day in bed, and closing with ‘The Genuine Article’, wherein suspicions of an antique’s provenance leads to disaster…

The lads’ plans to go fishing are scuppered – but not for too long – when Donald demands their caddying services in ‘Links Hijinks’ (WDC&S #96, September), but it all really goes south once Gladstone horns in and Donald’s competitive spirit overwhelms everybody…

That tendency to overreact informs ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ (WDC&S #97, October) when the nephews find a small pearl in a locally-sourced oyster and big-dreaming Donald goes overboard in exploiting the “hidden millions” presumably peppering the ocean floor, before we close with another mission for Uncle Scrooge.

To close a deal with British toff Lord Tweeksdale, McDuck must prove his family pedigree by excelling in the most “asinine, stupid, crazy, useless sport in the world”: fox hunting. Designating Donald his champion, the Downy Dodecadillionaire of Duckburg is thankfully unaware Huey, Louie & Dewey also consider themselves ‘Foxy Relations’ (WDC&S #98, November), injecting themselves covertly into proceedings with catastrophic repercussions…

The visual verve over, we move on to validation as ‘Story Notes’ offers commentary for each Duck tale and Donald Ault relates ‘Carl Barks: Life Among the Ducks’, before ‘Biographies’ explain why he and commentators Alberto Beccatini, R, Fiore, Craig Fischer, Jared Gardner, Leonardo Gori, Rich Kreiner, Ken Parille, Stefano Priarone, Francesco (“Frank”) Stajano and Mattias Wivel are saying all those nice and informative things. We close with examination of provenance as ‘Where Did These Duck Stories First Appear?’ explains the somewhat byzantine publishing schedules of Dell Comics.

Carl Barks was one of the greatest exponents of comic art the world has ever seen, and almost all his work featured Disney’s Duck characters: reaching and affecting untold millions of readers across the world and he all too belatedly won far-reaching recognition. You might be late to the party but it’s never too soon to climb aboard the Barks Express.

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “The Old Castle’s Secret” © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All contents © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Today in 1937 Donald Duck began his solo comics career.

In 1897 journalist turned strip writer Glenn Chaffin (Tailspin Tommy) was born, as was legendary fan artist John G. Fantucchio (Rocket’s Blast Comicollector (RBCC), The Collector, The Buyer’s Guide for Comic’s Fandom, Fantastic Fanzine, Comic Crusader) in 1938, and inker, illustrator and production god John Verpoorten in 1940. A year later along came Underground Commix and Graphic Novel pioneer Jaxon AKA Jack Jackson (God Nose, Comanche Moon, The Secret of San Saba)…

The date saw the deaths of both Golden Age star/political cartoonist Gill Fox (Torchy, Plastic Man, The Spirit daily) and Disney animator and story-maker Jack Bradbury in 2004, and legendary humour artist Will Elder (Mad, Little Annie Fanny) in 2008.

In 2006, Mark Tatulli’s silent strip Li? launched today.

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Lone Wolf and Cub volume 7: Cloud Dragon, Wind Tiger


By Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima, translated by Dana Lewis (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-56971-508-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Best known in the West as Lone Wolf and Cub, the sprawling Samurai saga created by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima is a global classic of comics literature. An example of the popular Chanbara or “sword-fighting” genre of print and screen, Kozure Okami began serialisation in Weekly Manga Action in September 1970 and ran until April 1976. It was an immense and overwhelming Seinen (“Men’s manga”) hit. The tales prompted thematic companion series Kubikiri Asa (Samurai Executioner – which ran from 1972-1976) but the major draw – at home and, increasingly, abroad – was always the nomadic wanderings of doomed feudal noble Ōgami Ittō and his solemn, silent child Daigoro whose clan were framed by ambitious rivals the Yagyū, publicly dishonoured by the Shōgun and condemned to death by his peers. Breaching all etiquette, the court executioner refused to accept suicide quietly, and instead opted to vengefully walk the bloody road to Meifumadō: the hell of Buddhist legend as an assassin for hire…

Revered and influential, Kozure Okami was – after years of supplication by fans and editors – followed by sequel Shin Lone Wolf & Cub (illustrated by Hideki Mori) and even spawned – through Koike’s indirect participation – sci fi homage Lone Wolf 2100 (by Mike Kennedy & Francisco Ruiz Velasco). The original saga has been successfully adapted to most other media, spawning movies, plays, TV series (plural), games and merchandise. The property is infamously still in Hollywood pre-production…

The several thousand pages of enthralling, exotic, intoxicating narrative art produced by these legendary creators eventually filled 28 carefully curated collected volumes, beguiling generations of readers in Japan and, inevitably, the wider world. More importantly, their philosophically nihilistic odyssey – with its timeless themes and iconic visuals – has influenced hordes of other creators. The many manga, comics and movies, TV and animated versions these tales have inspired around the globe are utterly impossible to count. Frank Miller, who illustrated the cover of this edition, referenced the series in Daredevil, his dystopian opus Ronin, The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City. Max Allan Collins’ Road to Perdition is a proudly unashamed tribute to the masterpiece of vengeance-fiction. Stan Sakai has superbly spoofed, pastiched and celebrated the wanderer’s path in his own epic Usagi Yojimbo, and even children’s cartoon shows such as Samurai Jack are direct descendants of this astounding achievement of graphic narrative. The material has become part of a shared global culture.

In the West, we first saw the translated tales in 1987, as 45 Prestige Format editions from First Comics. That innovative trailblazer foundered before getting even a third of the way through the vast canon, after which Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights, systematically reprinting and translating the entire epic into 28 tankōbon-style editions of around 300 pages each. Once the entire epic was translated – between September 2000 and December 2002 – it was all placed online through the Dark Horse Digital project.

Following cautionary warning on stylistic interpretation ‘A Note to Readers’ this moodily mordant, violent, sexually charged monochrome collection gets underway, retaining terms and concepts western readers may find unfamiliar. Happily, on offer at the close is a Glossary providing detail and clarification on what’s used in the stories.

The endless journey resumes with 34th exploit ‘Dragnet’ as frustrated Yagyū arch-plotter Lord Retsudō seeks to placate his impatient relations and vassals over the increasing loss of kinsmen to the Lone Wolf. The threat of public disgrace and being proved an oath-breaker keeps him from arbitrarily murdering Ōgami and Diagoro as long as they stay away from capital city Edo, but a heated conference seems to deliver a foolproof scheme that will allow them to end the shameful situation with no blame pointing to them. It’s a lucky and timely stroke, as their ranks are seriously depleted by the fact that too many arrogant Yagyū swordsmen can’t resist challenging the apparently unbeatable hitman…

Using intermediaries and regional civil servants Retsudō has devised a way to remove the thorn in his side without blemishing the sacrosanct Ura-Yagyū reputation. Arranging for his nemesis to be rounded up in a homeless sweep, the wolf is but one amongst hundreds bundled along by law officers, and must surely die or be condemned as a mining slave. Sadly, the plotters underestimate Ōgami’s cunning, knowledge of the law, suspicion of bureaucrats sheer lethality with bladed weapons and tricked-out, gunpowder-laden baby carriage…

With the plot’s spectacular failure, furious Ura-Yagyū covert observers cannot control themselves and Retsudō’s forces are further depleted by the baby carriage killer…

As the killer-for-hire meets his next client, Daigoro is left at a vast riverside logging camp. Stumbling onto another assassin’s diabolical plan – to kill visiting dignitary/valuable bride-to-be Princess Aya of Zakōji – the boy becomes a collateral target when the schemer seeks to clean up loose ends. A spectacular, frightening chase by ‘Night Stalker’ climaxes in a deserted temple once the boy implicates a trusted courtier as culprit, but is consequently identified as the child of the deadliest killer in Japan. The outlook seems black for the stoic lad… until papa finally finds him. Then it’s just red…

Eponymous and deeply philosophical in celebration of Bushidō ways, ‘Cloud Dragon, Wind Tiger’ slowly unveils the story of dishonoured samurai Makabe Shōgen, who placidly awaits death for failure of duty and spends the days fishing in a stream. His much-anticipated end comes after meeting Ōgami (and Daigoro), but it is not their first encounter. Four years previously they formally crossed swords when – as Kōgi Kaishakunin (imperial executioner) – Ōgami officiated at the death of Shōgen’s master Lord Arima.

Now the Wolf is hired to remove the embarrassing river dweller because a new regional ruler is being pressured by officious, impatient retainers about the living eyesore and monument to failure. They would do it themselves, but the old coot – calling himself Hōzuki (like the flower) – is deadly when provoked and the new Daimyō is rapidly running out of warriors…

Ōgami is hired to take out the shameful reprobate, but also has a uniquely personal interpretation of the tenets of Bushidō…

When the roaming pair pause at the ‘Inn of the Last Chrysanthemum’, they encounter firsthand the horrific treatment of women. Oichi is an araime (foot washer) but reluctant to carry out the other demands of her new job – particularly luring in customers and sleeping with them.

Graced with simple kindness by both father and son, she resolutely tolerates other clients/guests as she awaits a moment long-anticipated. Once she was used by an unsuspected enemy (O-Maki of clan Gotō) to destroy her own noble family. It began with shaming, beggaring and the orchestrated suicide of her brother, a high-ranking samurai of the Fujieda household, and ended with lovely, serene, sophisticated Oichi being repeatedly, punitively “dishonoured” and made valueless (gang-raped to you and me) by order of O-Maki.

A protector-less non-person, Oichi could only find work as a De-Onna (“put-out girl”) used as a living inducement to entice customers to stay in one of the travel waypoint’s many competing inns. Now, her awful life’s continuation finally blossoms with purpose as ruthless, triumphant official mistress O-Maki finally stops there on her way to court.

When the victim finally takes revenge, Oichi learns that she would never have got past the guards except for a stroke of fate. O-Maki’s schemes hurt not only the Fujieda clan. Other innocents caught in her web of ambition also suffered, and a certain sword-for-hire has stalked the ascendant courtesan on behalf of other families who suffered for her greed…

The last furious fable also explores duty and honour – albeit among the lower classes – as three-year-old Daigoro encounters charming pickpocket “Quick-change” Anego O-Chō as she works a crowed street during the New Year’s Go-daishi-biraki festival.

Fleeing city guards, she deftly caches her loot with the unwitting waif but is seen by onlookers and pursuers. Arrested, the silent nipper is threatened with the full weight of law, specifically O-sademegaki. This promises flogging, torture and worse, due to the draconian strictures of ‘Penal Code Article Seventy-Nine.’ The “punishment of offenders fifteen and under” states there is no excuse of age for murder, arson or theft, and means the toddler will be tortured by (frankly unwilling) chief cop Senzō and his officials unless the prisoner admits guilt and testifies against her.

This Daigoro staunchly refuses to do, even after the thief surrenders herself to save the kid. Sadly, the law is unshakable and restitution must be made, and even the increasingly incensed crowd won’t do anything about it. It’s up to the true son of a true samurai to determine his own fate…

Although usually closing with ‘Creator Profiles’ of author Koike Kazuo & illustrator Kojima Goseki , this volume also offers another instalment of contextual/background feature ‘The Ronin Report’ wherein Tim Ervin discusses ‘The Women of Lone Wolf and Cub’: appraising roles, depictions (visual and as contributory narrative actors) and contributions of the many and various female characters to interact with the boy and his father on the path to hell.

From victims and prizes to life-endangering lures, or simply enemies en route to doom, these players are fully realised whether as fighting foils, endangered damsels or working folk adding colour to stories. With the roles of women from all strata of that locked-down culture in a brutally harsh patriarchal society examined and assessed on their own merits, the grit of this article explores, if not mitigates, one inescapable fact. In an era where no female of any age has unassailable intrinsic rights, but only duties and crushing expectations, there is a disturbing amount of rape, abuse and trafficking in so many tales and it’s important to remember that it’s not just there to titillate, but to spark empathy and rattle readers…

Despite its powerful, disturbing content Cloud Dragon, Wind Tiger is another epic selection in the series of Japanese imports that utterly changed the nature of US comics and a saga no lover of historical fiction should be without.
Art and story © 1995, 2001 Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima. All other material © 2000 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. Cover art © 2001 Frank Miller. All rights reserved.

Born today in 1887, pioneering Charles A. Voight is most renowned for his flapper strip Betty, and shares the day with the astounding Lee Falk (Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom) in 1911; Dick Ayers (Ghost Rider, Sgt Fury) in 1924; comics historian Bill Blackbeard in 1926 and author, journalist and Squirrel Girl co-creator Will Murray in 1953.

In 1966 we lost the uniquely magnificent Artist Jesse Marsh (Tarzan, John Carter of Mars) and in 2005 Zeke Zekley, assistant to George McManus and inheritor of the long-running strip Bringing Up Father.

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The Phantom – The Complete Series: The Charlton Years Volume Two


By Pat Boyette, Joe Gill, D. J. Arn
eson & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-032-1 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the 17th century a British sailor survived an attack by pirates, and, washing ashore on the African coast, swore on the skull of his murdered father to dedicate his life and that of all his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the jungles of Bengali, and throughout Africa is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice have led to him being considered an immortal avenger by the credulous and the wicked. Down the decades one hero after another has fought and died in an unbroken family line, and the latest wearer of the mask, indistinguishable from the first, continues the never-ending battle.

Lee Falk created the Jungle Justice dealer at the request of his syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician, and although technically not the first ever costumed hero in comics, The Phantom’s astounding popularity made him the prototype paladin: wearing the later demi-compulsory skintight bodystocking and mask with opaque eye-slits.

He debuted on February 17th 1936 (Yep! Ninety nonstop years!!) in an extended sequence pitting him against a global confederation of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over the illustration side to artist Ray Moore. A hugely successful Sunday feature began in May 1939. However, for such a long-lived and influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been very poorly served by the English language market – except in Australia where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god.

Numerous companies had begun releasing books of the strips – one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history – but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success, but, even if only of historical value (or just printed for Australians), surely the mysterious Mr. Kit Walker was worthy of a definitive chronological compendium series?

Happily, and perhaps because of the tights and mask, his comic book adventures have fared slightly better – especially in recent times. From November 1962 through July 1966, all new adventures were published by West Coast giant Gold Key Comics after which King Features Syndicate dabbled with a comic book line of their biggest stars – including Popeye, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake and The Phantom – between 1966 and 1967. When they gave up the ghost (see what I did there?), plucky dependable, cheap Charlton Comics were there to pick up the slack…

The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, having appeared since the Golden Age in titles like Feature Book and Harvey Hits, albeit only as reformatted newspaper strip reprints. Gold Key’s efforts were tailored to a big page and a young readership, a model King Features maintained for their own run, but which was carefully tweaked when Charlton acquired the license. This splendid full-colour tome gathers the contents of The Phantom #39-47 (originally released between August 1970 and December 1971) and opens with an erudite Introduction and appreciation from Don Mangus who reveals everything of the history and involvement of a much-sidelined star in ‘Sworn to the Oath of the Skull – Pat Boyette’.

San Antonio born on 27th July 1923, Aaron P. Boyette was pure mythical Texan: self-taught in everything that mattered and unstoppably confident. A true and tireless entrepreneur, he was a key component of the development of commercial radio in Texas: a journalist who researched, wrote, broadcast, managed, and presented shows. If you’ve read Golden Age Green Lantern, everyman hero Alan Scott – who did all the jobs – could have been patterned on Pat…

Boyette forsook burgeoning stardom to become a cryptographer during WWII. Coming out, he performed the same do-it-all trick with early television and later moved into making movies. After anchoring TV news, he abruptly moved sideways again, and took to comics: writing, editing, lettering, painting and illustrating as Pat Boyette, Sam Swell, Alexander Barnes & Bruce Lovelace.

Working for Charlton, DC, Warren, Archie, Acclaim; a host of eighties indie outfits and as a self-publisher, he produced newspaper strip Captain Flame; drew prestigious DC title Blackhawk; and found a lasting home at Charlton Comics. Here Boyette co-created The Peacemaker and assumed creative duties on Pete (“PAM”) Morisi’s Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. As the superhero boom faded he increasingly output on their anthological lines, crafting hundreds of genre short stories for romance, war, western horror, science fiction, fantasy and other titles. Boyette also handled Charlton’s biggest and most high-profile licensed features including The Six Million Dollar Man; Space: 1999; Korg: 70,000 B.C; Flash Gordon; Jungle Jim and the company’s runaway top seller: The Phantom. Boyette’s work was continually published at Charlton until at least 1986 when the outfit was being wrapped up. He readily adapted to the growing indie market, with his last work appearing in DC/Paradox Press’s The Big Book of the Weird Wild West in 1998.

Pat Boyette died of oesophageal cancer on January 14th, 2000 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The majority of the bi-monthly yarns here are scripted by Boyette, backed up by Joe Gill in #40, 41 & 45 (and also perhaps occasionally by predecessor scripter D.J. Arneson?): utterly workmanlike and hitting all the expected bases, with each issue offering a pictorial Contents Page teaser and terse, spartan, stripped-back action; mystery yarns with themes and plots that readers of newspapers and dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans could appreciate equally. There are plenty of mad scientists, aliens, monsters, war criminals, brutal beasts, sadistic potentates, thieves & pirates and many admiring women, but no costumed villains…

We open with The Phantom #39 as ‘A Small War!’ sees a ruthless filmmaker provoke conflict between old tribal friends until the Ghost-Who-Walks steps in, after which the hero foils thinly-disguised Nazis seeking to recover lost gold from the ‘Canyon of Death!’, and scuppers ‘The Silent Thieves!’ using their U-Boat to raid a river-adjacent diamond mine…

Boyette and his associates often sagely left their time period vague and unconfirmed, allowing creative anachronism to play out in tales that could often be starring earlier Phantoms of the undying dynasty. In #40, following a sample of original art pages, a wryly fond homage to earlier legends sees the masked marvel battle once again a giant warrior with quarterstaffs over a river crossing in ‘The Ritual’, before a vengeful criminal frames the Phantom for multiple murders with a diabolical device leaving his death’s head signature – ‘The False Mark’ – on native victims. The issue closes with a distraught heiress seeking her long-missing father and momentarily gulled by ‘The Second Phantom’ until the true titan turns up…

Scripted by Joe Gill, #41’s opener ‘Slave of Beauty’ sees our hero captured by an immortal queen resurrecting her fallen desert empire through slavery. However, Hegara is not all she seems and the Jungle Juggernaut readily crushes her dream before chasing a stolen Bandar treasure across the world. Savagely seized by murderous white hunter Waldo Brunn, ‘The Idol’ is only ultimately recovered after a bizarre alliance, and is followed by a devious clash with a ‘Deadly Foe’ developing viruses in the wilderness who proves to be anything but…

The Phantom #42 opens with a cruel high-tech attack on elephants perpetrated by plutocratic monster Rama Jahn and requiring all the ingenuity of the Ghost-Who-Walks to save the ‘Keeper of the Herd!’, before a simple good deed generates chaos in ‘Who Needs Enemies?’ Seeking to repay his debt, multi-millionaire E.R. Randall bombards the Bengali villagers with gifts and money that disrupt their lives. Moreover, he’s extremely unhappy when they begin to reject his unwanted largesse…

‘Prey of the Hunter’ then reveals what must be done when hunter Hugo Lusk becomes addicted to killing and the Judge of the Jungle must stop the slaughter, Sadly, that involves first becoming Lusk’s latest trophy…

Up front in #43 ‘Test of an Idol!’, finds fabulously attractive, utterly spoiled screen star Iris Benton attempting – and initially succeeding – in beguiling the hero and making The Phantom her latest conquest. Thus he permits a movie of his exploits and even participates but is tragically unprepared when her allure crosses the species barrier and leads to her abduction by apes!

A clever use of the hero’s historical longevity drives ‘Paid in Full’ when the descendent of a long-dead British victim of jungle larceny (saved by a Ghost who Walked in 1653) demands reparations – and compound interest – on a sum of money that went missing at the time. Happily Edward Cowper-Smythe is reasonable man…

The issue closed with a clash against most modern witchdoctor Medugli, who refused to follow the Phantom’s Peace and returned to torment the Bandari with a technological terror-weapon provided by colonising secret allies. Happily, ‘The Rain Stopper!’ was no mystery to the hero and ecological catastrophe was averted in the nick of time

In #44, ‘To Right a Wrong!’ sees marauding Achmid Raj successfully plunder the fabled Skull Cave only to be hunted down by the Ghost Who Walks, after which ‘Danger in Bengali’ reintroduces the contemporary hero’s true love Diana Palmer who regrettably arrives at the Cave just as a diabolical, piratical impostor is plundering it. Taken hostage she soon learns that her man – and his wolf Devil – are not dead, but in hot pursuit and really, really angry…

When replacement Bandari witch-man Zulanga proves just as nefarious as his predecessor, The Phantom again exiles him, and almost pays a fatal price as the wily rogue covertly returns with serpents and poisons to inflict ‘Death from Far Away!’ Almost…

A rare Phantom failure is rectified after 105 years in #45’s opening saga ‘Return of the Ruby!’ as the descendent of the hero who lost an unparalleled gem to bandits locates the precious prize. Now he must solve the moral dilemma of depriving its current – honest and innocent – owner to restore it to the family of the original ones…

In 1777, as tyrannical Captain Mustaphi ravaged the seas around Tripoli, an alliance to scuttle the slavers’ schemes paired an earlier Ghost Guardian with a Revolutionary War icon in ‘Phantom and John Paul Jones’ before a return to the present sees the death of the Bandar monarch and a vigil in the ‘Cave of Kings’. Happily The Phantom is paying his respects when hostile blood-enemies the Yumyu attempt to slaughter the grieving subjects and steal the incomparable grave goods…

The Phantom and Diana face devilish duplicates and legendary cult terrors the Leopardmen in #46’s lead yarn ‘Last of the Cat’, only to learn that vengeful old enemy Felix Cattmann is out of jail and behind all the Leopard-y jeopardy (sorry not sorry!) after which fantasy blends with larceny as Piranha Men raid the Skull Cave from the lakes and rivers beneath it. Of course, ‘The Vanishing Thieves!’ grievously underestimated the hero’s lung capacity and resolve, and their defeat lonely led to the Ghost Who Walks daring a deadly mountain peak to rescue abducted princess Inja from slave-raider Kruug and the eagles defending the ‘Nest of the Man-Eaters’…

Last issue in this tome of thrills and terrors, The Phantom #47 offered another trio of wild adventures beginning with entry into ‘The False Skull Cave’ constructed after avaricious Busas used government spy-plane systems to map vast “undiscovered” Bengali and ferret out the location of the world’s greatest treasure store. Of course, finding either cave or escaping alive were entirely different matters…

In ‘Soundless Voices!’ another cunning attempt to replace the Ghost with a diabolical doppelganger is foiled by the hero’s ferocious will to live and the long-range communications net of whale song, before the episodes pause after exposure to ‘The Vapors of Vulcan’. When Morpheus Negri, the mostly-dormant volcano in a remote corner of Bengali erupts again, the incredible immortals who live within it again plunder and ravage the land, seeking slave-prospects from the fittest of surface dwellers Who could they possibly pick this millennium?

Undying ruler Brilla has faced a Phantom long before and this one also rejects her offer of eternal “companionship” and escapes her alternate tactic of being consumed to sustain her energies for another century…

Packed and peppered throughout with pages of Boyette original art, this is another riveting, nostalgia-drenched triumph: straightforward, stripped down, nonstop rollicking action-adventure that has always been the staple of comics fiction and the Ghost Who Walks. If that sounds like a good time to you, this is a traditional action-fest you must not miss…
The Phantom® © 1970-1971 and 2013 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Today in 1946 horror story mangaka Hideshi Hino (Hell Baby, Hino Horrors, Panorama of Hell) was born, whilst strip debuts include Russell Myers’ Broom Hilda in 1970 and Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks in 2006. We lost crucial Disney animator Milt Kahl in 1987, DC cartoonist Henry Boltinoff in 2001 and Mexican creator/founder of their Academy of Arts Alberto Beltrán a year later.