Category: World Classics

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The Dick Tracy Casebook – Favourite Adventures 1931-1990


By Chester Gould, selected by Max Allan Collins & Dick Locher (St. Martins/Penguin)
ISBN: 978-0-31204-461-9 (HB) 978-0-14014-568-7 (PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Lost in all the landmarks and events of the moment, I’d intended to commemorate and memorialise the anniversary of a true comics giant yesterday, but missed my shot. On May 11th 1985, Chester Gould passed away. On that same day in 1953, latterday Dick Tracy scribe Mike Curtis was born. He wrote the latest exploits of the unflinching super-cop, as collected in Calling Dick Tracy!. Justice may be slow sometimes, but if the comics are anything to go by, cannot be deferred forever…

All things considered, comics have a pretty good track record on creating household names. We could play the game of picking the most well-known fictional characters on Earth (with Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, Superman, James Bond and Tarzan usually topping most lists) but you’ll also see Batman, Popeye, Blondie, Charlie Brown, Tintin, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and not so much now – but once upon a time – Dick Tracy there as well.

At the height of the Great Depression cartoonist Chester Gould was looking for strip ideas. The story goes that as a decent guy incensed by the exploits of gangsters (like Al Capone who monopolised front pages of contemporary newspapers) he settled upon the only way a normal man could fight thugs: Passion and Public Opinion.

Raised in Oklahoma, Gould was a Chicago resident who hated seeing his home town in the grip of such wicked men, with far too many honest citizens beguiled and seduced by the gangsters’ power and charisma. Boy, if they could see how politics today exploits that self-destructive tendency…

Gould decided to pictorially get it off his chest with a procedural crime thriller championing the ordinary cops who protected civilisation. He took “Plainclothes Tracy” to legendary newspaperman/comic strip Svengali Captain Joseph Patterson, whose golden touch had blessed such strips as Gasoline Alley, The Gumps, Little Orphan Annie, Winnie Winkle, Smilin’ Jack, Moon Mullins and Terry and the Pirates among others. Casting his seasoned eye on the samples, Patterson renamed its stark, stern protagonist Dick Tracy and revised his love interest into steady girlfriend Tess Truehart. The series launched on October 4th 1931 through Patterson’s Chicago Tribune Syndicate and rapidly became a huge hit, with all the attendant media and merchandising hoopla that follows.

Amidst the toys, games, movies, serials, animated features, TV shows et al, the strip soldiered on, influencing generations of creators and entertaining millions of fans. If you’ve never seen the original legend in action this collection – still readily available and originally released to accompany a movie adaptation in 1990 – is a great introduction.

Selected by successor scripter Max Allen Collins & Dick Locher, who worked on the strip after Gould retired in 1977, it re-presents complete adventures from each decade of the strip’s existence to date, offering a grand overview of the development from radical, ultra-violent adventure to forensic Police Procedural, through increasingly fantastical science fiction and finally back-to-basics cop thriller under Collins’ own script tenure.

From the 1930s comes the memorable and uncharacteristic ‘The Hotel Murders’ (9th March – 27th April, 1936) wherein the terrifyingly determined – some might say obsessed – cop solves a genuine mystery with a sympathetic antagonist instead of the usual unmitigated, unsavoury, unrepentant outlaw.

Whodunits with clues, false trails and tests of wits were counterproductive in a slam-bang, daily strip with a large cast and soap-opera construction, but this necessarily short tale follows all the ground rules as Tracy, adopted boy side-kick Junior, special agent Jim Trailer and the boys on the beat track down the killer of a notorious gambler.

The best case of the 1940s – and for many the best ever – was ‘The Brow’ (22nd May – 26th September 1944) in which the team hunt down a brilliant but ruthless Nazi spy. As my own personal favourite, I’m doing you all the favour of saying no more about this compelling, breathtaking yarn, and you’ll thank me for it, but I will say that this is a complete reprinting, as others have been edited for violence and one edition simply left out every Sunday instalment – which is my own definition of police brutality.

By the 1950s Gould was at his creative peak. ‘Crewy Lou’ (22nd April – 4th November, 1951) and ‘Model’ (23rd January – 27th March, 1952) are perfect examples of the range of his abilities. The first is an epic of minor crimes and perpetrators escalating into major menaces whilst the latter is another short shocker with the conservative Gould showing social ills could still move him to action in a tale of juvenile delinquency as Junior grows into a teenager and experiences his first love affair…

As with many established cartoonists in it for the long haul, the revolutionary 1960s were a harsh time. Along with Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon, Dick Tracy especially foundered in a cultural climate of radical change where popular slogans included “Never trust anybody over 21” and “Smash the Establishment!”. The strip’s momentum faltered, perhaps as much from the shift towards science fiction themes (Tracy moved into space and an alien character – Moon Maid – was introduced) as any old-fashioned attitudes.

In the era when strip proportions had begun to diminish as papers put advertising space above feature clarity, his artwork had attained dizzying levels of creativity: mesmerising, nigh-abstract monochrome concoctions that grabbed the eye no matter what size editors printed it. ‘Spots’ (3rd August – 30th November) 1960 comes from just before the worst excesses, but still displays the artist’s stark, chiaroscurist mastery in a terse thriller demonstrating the fundamental secret of Tracy’s success and longevity… Hot Pursuit wedded to Grim Irony…

The 1970s are represented by ‘Big Boy’s Open Contract’ (12th June – 30th December 1978) by Collins & Rick Fletcher. Although officially retired since 1977, Gould still consulted with the new creative team, and the third outing for the new guys saw the long-awaited return of Big Boy, the thinly disguised Capone analogue Tracy had sent to prison at the very start of his career, and whose last attempt at revenge tragically cost the dutiful hero a loved one whilst forever changing the strip. Despite a strong core readership the series had stalled, especially as improbable, Bond-style villains were utilised to beef up its perceived “old-fashioned” attitudes. Even the introduction of more minority and women characters and hippie cop Groovy Groove couldn’t stop the rot. However, the feature soldiered on regardless…

When Gould retired, 29-year-old author Max Allen Collins (Road to Perdition Nathan Heller, Mike Mist, Ms. Tree) won the prestigious writer’s role, promptly taking the series back to its crimebusting roots for a breathtaking run, assisted by Gould’s insights as his chief artistic assistant Rick Fletcher was promoted to full illustrator. After 11 years, in 1992 Collins was removed and replaced by Mike Kilian – who apparently worked for half the author’s price – until his death in October 2005, whereafter Dick Locher took over story and art, with assistant Jim Brozman assuming drawing duties from March 2009.

On January 19th 2011, Tribune Media Services announced Locher’s retirement and replacement by a new team – Mike Curtis and Joe Staton. You already know where to find them…

Representing the 1980s, the final tale here is ‘The Man of a Million Faces’ (October 5th 1987 – April 10th 1988) by Collins & Locher. Like Fletcher, this illustrator was an art assistant to Gould who took up the master’s mantle. Despite the simply unimaginable variety of crimes and criminals Tracy has brought to book, this sneaky story of a bank robber and his perfect gimmick proves that sometimes a back to basics approach produces the best results.

Dick Tracy is a milestone strip that has influenced all popular fiction, not simply comics. Baroque villains, outrageous crimes and fiendish death-traps pollinated the work of numerous strips and comics such as Batman, but his studied use – and startlingly accurate predictions – of crimefighting technology and techniques gave the world a taste of cop thrillers, police procedurals and forensic mysteries decades before TV made those disciplines everyday coinage.

This is fantastically readable, and this chronological primer is a wonderful way to sneak into his stark, no-nonsense, Tough-love, Hard Justice world.
© 1990 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Complete Peanuts volume 9: 1967-1968


By Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics Books/Canongate Books UK)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-826-8 (US HB) 978-085786-213-6 (UK HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peanuts is unequivocally the most important comic strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Cartoonist Charles M Schulz crafted his moodily hilarious, hysterically introspective, shockingly surreal philosophical epic for half a century: 17,897 strips spanning October 2nd 1950 to February 13th 2000. He died – from complications of cancer – the day before his last strip was printed.

At its height, Peanuts ran in 2,600 newspapers, in 21 languages and75 countries. Many of those venues still run it in perpetual reprints, as they have ever since his death. During his lifetime, book collections, a merchandising mountain and television spin-offs had made the publicity-shy doodler an actual billionaire at a time when that really meant something…

None of that matters. Peanuts – a title Schulz loathed, but one the syndicate forced upon him – changed the way comics strips were received and perceived: proving cartoon comedy could have edges and nuance and meaning as well as soon-forgotten pratfalls and punchlines.

We begin with an effusive foreword from film icon John Waters expressing his utter support of the mighty Lucy Van Pelt and all who sail in range of her, drawing references and similarities to actor/personality Divine I never saw before, but now can’t shift…

Notionally, our focus and point of contact remains quintessential, inspirational loser Charlie Brown who, beside fanciful, high-maintenance mutt Snoopy, remains squarely at odds with a mercurial supporting cast, hanging out doing what at first sight seems to be Kids Stuff and an increasingly hostile universe of perverse happenstance.

Always, gags centre on play, varying degrees of musicality, pranks, interpersonal alignments, the mounting pressures of ever-harder education, mass media lensed through young eyes and a selection of sports in their season, leavened by agonising teasing, aroused and crushed hopes, the making of baffled observations and occasionally acting a bit too much like grown-ups. However, in this tome, themes and tropes that define the entire series (especially in the wake of many animated TV specials) become mantra-like yet endlessly variable, but focus less on Charlie Brown and more on those around him. One deliciously powerful constant that remains and grows more abundant is his inability to fly a kite. Here the war with wind, gravity and landscape reaches absurdist proportions, as a certain tree pursues his adored pastime with vicious violent and malicious venom…

Human interactions still find the boy a pitiable outlier. Mean girl Violet, musical prodigy Schroeder, self-taught psychoanalyst and dictator-in-waiting Lucy, her brilliantly off-kilter little brother Linus and dirt-magnet “Pig-Pen” are fixtures honed to generate joke-routines and gag-sequences around their signature foibles, but some early characters have faded away in favour of fresh attention-attracting players joining the mob. Newcomers sidle in and shuffle off without much flurry or fanfare but in our real world the debut of “Minority” characters José Peron of New Mexico and African American Franklin attracted much attention and drew controversy – because, I guess, there will always be gits and arseholes…

A little girl Lila also debuted, but another white kid wasn’t much of shock to the system, even if she shared a fantastic life-changing secret with Snoopy…

At least the Brown boy’s existential crisis/responsibility vector/little sister Sally has grown enough to become just another trigger for relentless self-excoriation. As she grows, pesters librarians, forms opinions and propounds steadfastly authoritarian views, Charlie is relegated to being her dumber, but eternally protective, big brother…

Resigned to – but far from uncomplaining about – life as a loser in the gunsight of cruel and capricious fate, the boy Brown is helpless meat in the clutches of openly sadistic Lucy. When not sabotaging his efforts to kick a football, she monetises her spiteful verve via a 5¢ walk-in psychoanalysis booth (although supply and demand economics also affects this unshakeable standard), ensuring that whether at play, in sports, kite-flying or just brooding, the round-headed kid truly endures the character-building trials of the damned. She’s so good at it that a certain dog opens up a rival concern…

By this time, the beagle is the true star of the show, with his primary quest for more and better food playing out against an increasingly baroque inner life, wild encounters with birds, skateboarding, dance marathons and skating trysts with a “girl-beagle”, philosophical ruminations, and ever-more-popular catchphrases. Here, the burgeoning whimsy leads to constant glimpses of the dog’s WWI other life, peppered with classic dogfights against the accursed Red Baron, but also focuses on his side hustles: running for civic office, competing as arm wrestler The Masked Marvel and brief but intense time as an Olympic ice skater…

Snoopy also indulges in a protracted period impersonating a vulture, but pickings seem to have been quite slim…

As always, timeless episodes of play, peril, peewee psychoanalysis and personal recrimination are beards for some heavy topics. Rendered in marvellous monochrome, there are crucial character introductions, more plot developments and creation of even more traditions we all revere to this day. Of particular note is confirmation of the soft revolution leaving the wonder beagle and Lucy Van Pelt in the driving/pilot’s seat and head of the table/analyst’s couch…

Health and status became increasingly important at this time and the collection opens with a painfully relevant sequence of gags as Linus and Lucy get their measles vaccinations. It was played for laughs then and all ended well, but the way today’s parental moron sector are playing Russian roulette with kids’ lives is still no bloody joke…

Another trenchant continued gag-series follows Lucy attempts to “cure” Linus of his blanket dependency by playing him off against grandma who will give up smoking if he gives up clutching fabric and sucking thumb…

Snoopy is the only force capable of challenging if not actually countering Lucy. Over these two years, her campaign to curb that weird beagle, cure her brother of his comfort blanket addiction and generally reorder reality to her preferences reaches astounding heights and appalling depths, but the dog keeps trying and scores many minor victories. As always volumes open and close with many strips riffing on snow, food, movie-going and television – or the gang’s responses to it – become ever more pervasive. As aways, Lucy constantly and consistently sucks all the joy out of the white wonder stuff and the astounding variety offered by the goggle-box. Perpetually sabotaged, and facing abuse from every female in their life, Brown and Snoopy endure casual grief from smug, attention-seeking Frieda, championing shallow good looks over substance. Linus is still beguiled by the eerie attractions of his teacher Miss Othmar and Lucy’s amatory ambitions for Schroeder grow ever more chilling and substantive…

Schulz established way points in his year: formally celebrating certain calendar occasions – real or invented – as perennial shared events: Mothers and Fathers’ Days, Fourth of July, National Dog Week strips accompanied in their turn yearly milestones like Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween/Great Pumpkin Day and Beethoven’s Birthday were joined this year by a return to another American ritual as many of the cast return to summer camp. This heralds a greater role for old pal Patricia Reichardt AKA tomboy Peppermint Patty (who debuted in the previous collection on August 22nd 1966); this time around, she becomes a counsellor to younger girls, ousts Charlie Brown from his own baseball team and even replaces him as manager with the beagle…

More endless heartbreak ensues as Charlie Brown fruitlessly pursue his ideal inamorata the “little red-haired girl”: a fascination outrageously exploited by others whenever he doesn’t simply sabotage himself. The poor oaf still has no idea how to respond to closer ties with his dream girl or why even Patty cares…

Sports loom large and terrifying as ever, but star athlete Snoopy is more interested in his new passions than boring old baseball or hockey. Even Lucy finds far more absorbing pastimes but still enjoys crushing the spirits of her teammates in whatever endeavour they are failing at. Anxiety-wracked Brown even steps down from the baseball team to ease his life, but being replaced by Linus only intensifies his woes. It also does nothing to help his kite wielding or paper plane folding…

Linus endures more disappointment in two Great Pumpkin seasons and before you know it, there’s the traditional countdown to Christmas and another year filled with weird, wild and wonderful moments…

Neatly interspersed with the daily doses of gloom, the Sunday page first debuted on January 6th 1952: a standard half-page slot offering more measured fare than the 4-panel dailies. Thwarted ambition, sporting failures, crushing frustration – much of it kite/psychoanalysis related – abound, alternating with Snoopy’s inner life of aviation and war stories, star gazing, shooting the breeze with bird buddies, weather woes and food fiascos. These and other signature sorties across the sabbath indulgences afforded Schulz room to be his most imaginative, whimsical and provocative…

Particular tentpole moments to relish include as always, the sharply-cornered romantic triangle involving Lucy, Schroeder & Beethoven; Snoopy v Lucy deathmatches; Charlie Brown’s food feud with the beagle, and assorted night terrors, Lucy’s unique solutions to complex questions; Valentines’ card coup counting, doggy dreams; the power of television; sporting endeavours; and more…

To wrap it all up, Gary Groth celebrates and deconstructs the man and his work in ‘Charles M. Schulz: 1922 to 2000’, preceded by a copious ‘Index’ offering instant access to favourite scenes you’d like to see again…

Readily available in many formats, this volume guarantees total enjoyment: comedy gold and social glue metamorphosing into an epic of spellbinding graphic mastery that still adds joy to billions of lives, and continues to make new fans and devotees long after its maker’s passing.
The Complete Peanuts: 1967-1968 (Volume Nine) © 2008 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. The Foreword is © 2008, John Waters. “Charles M. Schulz: 1922 to 2000” © 2008 Gary Groth. All rights reserved.

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Explainers


By Jules Feiffer (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-835-0 (HB)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content included for comedic and dramatic effect.

In January this year we lost one of the few remaining titans of our industry and art form. Bronx-born Jules Ralph Feiffer (January 26th 1929 – January 17th 2025) was always far more than “just a comic-book guy”, even though his credits in the field are astonishingly impressive. Feiffer wrote upwards of 35 books, plays, and screenplays and was frequently cited as the most widely read satirist in America. His creative credits extend far beyond the world of print. Feiffer was one of the playwrights on stage revue Oh! Calcutta! (collaborating with Kenneth Tynan, Edna O’Brien, Sam Shepard, Leonard Melfi, Samuel Beckett & John Lennon) and has created 35 plays, books and screenplays including Carnal Knowledge and Little Murders. In 1961 his animated trenchant antiwar short feature Munro won an Academy Award.

In our isolated, outlier field, Feiffer began his career working for and with Will Eisner on The Spirit and other comics features, before creating his own Sunday strip Clifford (1949-51). He eventually settled at The Village Voice, art directing and crafting a variety of comics for kids and adults. These include Sick, Sick, Sick, Passionella and Other Stories (1959), Feiffer on Nixon, the Cartoon Presidency (1974), Knock Knock (1976), Tantrum (1979), I Lost My Bear (1998), Kill My Mother (2014) and Amazing Grapes (2024).

He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995, and his many awards include a Pulitzer and Oscar, an Obie, Inkpot, National Cartoonists Society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Writers Guild and Dramatists Guild of America. In 2004 he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame and was later recognized by The Library of Congress for his “remarkable legacy as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, adult and children’s book author, illustrator, and art instructor”. In 2006 was awarded the Creativity Foundation’s Laureate.

Novelist (Harry: The Rat with Women, a Novel in 1963 and 1977’s Ackroyd), animator, educator, academic, film maker, playwright (why isn’t there a single-word term for those guys?), he officially turned his back on cartooning in 2000, but the 42-year run of his satirical comic strip in The Village Voice ranks as some of the most telling, trenchant, plaintive and socio-politically perspicacious narrative art in the history of the medium.

In 1965 Feiffer kickstarted academic American comic fandom with his celebratory evaluation of the industry’s formative Golden Age The Great Comic Book Heroes, and in 1979 was at the forefront of the creation of graphic novels with Tantrum before scripting Robert Altman’s much-undervalued Popeye movie (released a year later).

After years as a cartoonist, illustrator, pundit and educator, at the age of 85 (having been born in the Bronx on 26th January 1929) he returned to his primary role of storyteller with another gripping and innovative graphic novel – for which read on after the review below…

Originally entitled Sick, Sick, Sick, and latterly Feiffer’s Fables, before simply settling on Feiffer – Feiffer’s Village voice strip was quickly picked up by the Hall Syndicate and developed a devoted worldwide following. Over decades the strip generated many strip collections – the first book was in 1958 – since its low key premiere. The auteur’s incisive examination of American society and culture, as reflected by and expressed through politics, art, Television, Cinema, work, philosophy, advertising and most especially in the way men and women interacted, informed and shaped opinions and challenged accepted thought for generations. They were mostly bloody funny and wistfully sad too – and remain so today.

Fantagraphics Books began collecting the entire run in 2007 – and we’re all waiting patiently for the run to continue and conclude. However Explainers is a magnificent first volume of 568 pages, covering the period from its start in October 1956 up to the end of 1966. As such, it covers a pivotal period of social, racial and sexual transformation in America and the world beyond its borders and much of that is – tragically- still painfully germane to today’s readers.

Explainers is a “dipping book”: not something to storm your way through, but a faithful relaxation resource to return to over and again. Feiffer’s thoughts and language, his pictorial observations and questions on “the eternal verities” are potently, dauntingly relevant even now. As I’ve already mentioned, it is utterly terrifying how many problems of the 1950s and 1960s still vex and dog us today – and the “Battle of the Sexes” that my generation honestly believed to be almost over still breaks out somewhere every minute. Of course, now we have the internet to advise and enrage us further…

Most crucially and compellingly, Feiffer’s expressive drawing is a masterclass in style and economy all by itself.

If you occasionally resort to Thinking and sometimes wonder about Stuff, this book should be your guide and constant companion – and it will make you laugh.
© 2007 Jules Feiffer. All Rights Reserved.

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The Phantom: The Complete Sunday Archive volume Four 1950-1953


By Lee Falk, Ray Moore & Wilson McCoy, with Dick Wood, Pat Fortunato, Bill Lignante, José Delbo, Sal Trapani & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-137-3 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

In this month of romantic anticipation and disillusionment, it’s worth remarking that every iconic hero of strips and comics has a dutiful, stalwart inamorata waiting ever so patently in the wings for a moment to spoon and swoon. Here’s another date with one of the earliest and most resolute…

Born Leon Harrison Gross, “Lee Falk” created the Ghost Who Walks at the request of his King Features Syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician. Although technically not the first ever costumed champion in comics, The Phantom became the prototype paladin to wear a skin-tight body-stocking and the first to have a mask with opaque eye-slits…

The generational champion debuted on February 17th 1936, in an extended sequence pitting him against an ancient global confederation of pirates. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over illustration to artist Ray Moore. The spectacular and hugely influential Sunday feature began in May 1939.

For such a long-lived, influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been quite poorly served in the English language market (except for the Antipodes, where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god). Many companies have sought to collect strips from one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history, but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success. That began to be rectified when archival specialists Hermes Press launched their curated collections…

This fourth fabulous curated conclave of rain forest romances and jungle action is a lovely landscape hardback (or digital) tome, displaying alternately complete full colour Sunday episodes or crisp monochrome instalments shot from press proofs and digitally remastered. Released in March 2016, its 208 pages are stuffed with sumptuous visual goodies like panel and logo close-ups, comics covers and original art, opening with publisher Daniel Herman’s Introduction ‘The Phantom Sundays March On’. This recaps all you need to know about the ongoing feature and discloses how the advent of a woman superhero might have changed the strip’s dynamic forever…

For those who came in late: 400 years ago, a British mariner survived an attack by pirates, and – after washing ashore on the African coast – swore on the skull of his father’s murderer to dedicate his life and that of his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights evil and injustice from his fabulous lair deep in the jungles of Bengali. Throughout Africa and Asia he is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice led to his being considered an immortal avenger by the uneducated, credulous and wicked. Down the decades, one heroic son after another has inherited the task, fought and died in an unbroken family line, with the latest wearer of the mask indistinguishable from the first and proudly continuing the never-ending battle.

In his first published exploit, the Phantom met and fell for wealthy American sophisticate Diane Palmer. His passion for her was soon reciprocated and returned and she became a continuing presence in both iterations of the series as ally, partner, sounding board, a means of reader identification and naturally a plot pawn and perennial hostage to fortune. She was also a handy conduit as the hero occasionally shared four centuries of Phantom history, hearing tales of ancestral Ghosts Who Walked in earlier eras. As was the fashion of the feature almost every saga included powerful, capable and remarkably attractive women as both heroes and villains.

However as the new ultra conservative Fifties decade progressed, that femme fatale policy was gradually but increasingly downplayed. In Falk & Wilson McCoy’s opening tale ‘The Mysterious Passenger’ (running from May 14th 1950 to July 16th 1950), Diana is wholly absent as the mysterious “Mr. Walker” and his faithful wolf companion Devil board ship for Bengali, only to be quickly framed for a huge jewel theft…

Marooned in the vast trackless ocean after jumping ship, the pair are soon hot on the trail of the plunderers and soon bring them to justice.

Evil never sleeps, however, and in the Phantom’s absence horse thieves visited his “native” stable boy Toma and stole the hero’s fabulous steed Hero. ‘The Jungle King’ (July 23rd – October 22nd 1950) proves a far harder proposition to keep than to take, though, and when Mr Walker returns and sets out to recover the wonder horse, the trail leads all over the world and ultimately to an emotional showdown with the world’s richest sportsman and racehorse owner…

A key component of the Phantom’s appeal is the weight of history built into the premise, and that’s perfectly exploited in ‘The Phantom’s Ring’ (October 29th 1950 to June 10th 1951), as the signet that has adorned the fingers of every masked champion since the first one goes missing. Recognised by educated and illiterate alike across Africa and the east, the “Death’s head” has been used to mark felons and acted as a symbol of the ghost’s power for centuries. Now a succession of ne’er-do-wells briefly possess and exploit the soft power of the trinket, but the seasoned detective and his “dog” are rapidly gaining on them and dispensing plenty of jungle justice even without the skull printing adornment. Pursuit of the ring even ends a modern pirate brotherhood – much like the one the first Phantom fought – and acts as cupid bringing a prince and a pauper together forever…

Order restored, a tale very much of its time follows as The Phantom must rescue scientist Dr Archer and his pretty daughter June from cannibal terrors ‘The Rope People’ (June 17th to November 4th 1951), by repeating the herculean tasks he (in actuality his grandfather) had performed generations ago, after which ‘Tale of Devil’ (November 11th 1951 to March 23rd 1952) finds the mighty lupine relentlessly stalked by sadistic visiting royalty with vacant spots on his palace wall and a fondness for bear baiting and other acts of organised animal cruelty.

However, Devil is beloved by Prince Hirk’s son and wife, and even before the Phantom can save his faithful hound – and after the potentate refuses to change his ways – the royal family find a way to stop him for good…

An actual feel-good tale of redemption and repentance, the saga is followed by a return to all-out action as ‘The ‘Copter Pirates’ (March 30th to July 13th 1952) finally reintroduces potential Ghost-Who-Walks-wife Diana Palmer, as she sets out to rejoin her masked man in darkest Bengali, only to be kidnapped. An unwilling spoil of war taken by thieves plundering passenger planes with helicopters, she soon overwhelms unstable lothario Drake and is able to keep him at bay until the Phantom organises an army (navy?) of local tribal fisherfolk to search hundreds of islands and spectacularly lower the boom on the aerial upstarts…

A sublime lost opportunity comes next as ‘The Female Phantom’ (July 20th – October 12th 1952) introduces one of the only woman Crimebusters in US comics of this era. Reunited with “Kit Walker”, Diana has him delve into the meticulous family chronicles to reveal how, a few generations previously, the feisty twin sister of a former Ghost Who Walked took her brother’s place to police the jungles of Bengali after he was shot battling river pirates. Girl Phantom Julie briefly substituted for Kip, saving a hostage missionary that she later married, and kept the Phantom’s Peace until the natural order was restored.

The concept obviously intrigued Falk who carried it on in sequel saga ‘Diana and the Bank Robbers’ (October 19th 1952 to February 1st 1953) wherein Diana “borrowed” Julie’s well-preserved fitted costume for a prank and was captured and entombed by ruthless bullion thieves. Discovered and rescued by super-steed Hero, Diana then let the true, many masked manhunter settle their hash and resumed her rightful place as asker of leading questions…

Closing this section of this compilation, she enquires about ‘The Chain’ (February 8th – May 24th 1953) welded to the Phantom’s throne in the Skull Cave, just in time to reinvigorate the exhausted hero whose constant attempts to forestall an impending tribal war have led him to the brink of resignation and retirement…

As the couple listen to elder Woru, they learn how a similar situation plagued the fearsome forest peacekeeper’s own father and how, after solving his crisis of confidence, escaping slavery, saving his own intended (Kit Walker’s mother-to-be) from abduction and destroying a human monster through sheer persistence, the weary victor attached the links in hopes that they would serve as a reminder for all who followed in his footsteps…

And they do…

Closing this tome ‘Focus: The Female Phantom in the Comics’ discusses the female Phantom (who never appeared again in the 1950s) and provides two tales from her resurrection in the 1960s – albeit not in family oriented strips but in those rowdily anarchic comic books.

Between 1966 and 1967 King Features Syndicate dabbled with a comic book line of their biggest stars Flash Gordon, Popeye, Mandrake and The Phantom: developed after the Ghost Who Walks had enjoyed a solo-starring vehicle under the broad and effective aegis of veteran licensed properties publisher Gold Key Comics. The Phantom was no stranger to funnybooks, having been featured since the Golden Age in titles such as Feature Book and Harvey Hits, but only as straight reformatted strip reprints. The Gold Key exploits were tailored to a big page and a young readership, a model King maintained for their own run.

Here, from the era of superhero saturation and The Phantom #20 (cover dated January 1967, scripted by Dick Wood and illustrated by Bill Lignante) ‘The Adventures of the Girl Phantom’ expands upon the strip sequence above as Julia again dons the purple leotard, mask and gun belt to counter a crime wave following Kit’s incapacitation due to fever. Although more than a match for normal bandits, poachers and evil Europeans, she almost succumbs to the sinister plots of gang boss Lamont until her ferocious jungle cat Fury comes to her aid…

Closing the extra treats is vignette ‘The Secret of the Golden Ransom’ from Charlton’s The Phantom #30 ( February 1969, by Pat Fortunato, José Delbo & Sal Trapani) as Julie and faithful (human) friend Maru face a flamboyant pirate who demands a unique payment for returning her captive brother, the “real Phantom”…

If the kind of fare you’d encounter in a 1940s Tarzan movie or noir thriller might offend, you should consider carefully before starting this book, but if you’re open to oldies with historical cultural challenges there’s a lot to be said for these straightforward and pioneering thrillers. Finally rediscovered, these lost treasures are especially rewarding as the material is still fresh, entertaining and addictively compelling. However, even if it were only of historical value (or just printed for Australians – manic devotees of the implacable champion from the get-go) surely the Ghost Who Walks and fiancée/wife-who-waits is worthy of a little of your time?
The Phantom® © 1950-1953 and 2018 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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Superman: The Golden Age Dailies 1942 to 1944


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Whitney Ellsworth, Wayne Boring & the Superman Studio (IDW/ Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-383-5 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In this month of romantic anticipation and disillusionment, it’s worth reminding ourselves that every iconic hero of strips and comics has a dutiful, stalwart inamorata waiting ever so patently in the wings for their moment to spoon and swoon or be rescued. Here’s another vintage outing for one of the earliest and most resolute…

The American comic book industry – if it 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 which epitomised 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…

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 helmed two feature films and his first smash 8-season live-action television show. Superman was a perennial sure-fire success for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers all over the planet.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the previous century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail that all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and often the planet – it was seen by millions, if not billions, of readers and generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books. It also paid 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. Mutt and Jeff, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, 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, augmented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by luminaries like Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task 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 readership of more than 20 million. Eventually, Win Mortimer and Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye whilst Bill Finger and Siegel provided stories, telling serial tales largely divorced from comic book continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

This is the first volume of the Library of American Comics collection, which picks up from the Sterling/Kitchen Sing softcover editions which ceased production in 1999. All of the material is long overdue for re-release and digital editions. Here, however, the never-ending battle resumes with Siegel & Shuster and their helpers addressing the world war had just become part of. This superb collection – still not available digitally, despite its superb quality and sublime content – opens with an Introduction by John Wells discussing the Man of Tomorrow’s role of during those days of combat and fear, comprises episodes #20-30, pages 967 through 1814, and publication dates February 16th 1942 to October 28th 1944. It begins with ‘Lair of the Leer’ (February 16 – May 23 1942, #967-1050) as following Pearl Harbor, Clark Kent tries to enlist but fails the physical. In his eagerness, the hero had accidentally activated his super vision and read an eye chart in another room!

Marooned at home, Superman instead counters a wave of sabotage instigated by a murderous maniac dubbed The Leer and addresses Congress, swearing to defend the homeland while America’s brave boys settle the fascists overseas…via a string of Japanese, Italian and German operatives, seeking to destroy government, shipping transport infrastructure and arms plants. As he tirelessly stops these attempts, savvy Lois Lane investigates and soon is in the thick of the action…

The challenge is swiftly taken up by the master spy who mistakenly targets male reporter Clark, but gets snoopy Lois anyway; a mistake that leads to his undoing and his end…

Dialling down fury and spectacle, strips 1051-1115 reveal the secret of ‘The Steel Mill Poet’ (May 25-August 8) as Lois & Clark visit critical war industry site the Canby steel mill where fanciful dowager Mrs Canby believes her cousin’s odes and ditties will uplift the sweaty toilers. With morale plummeting Superman goes looking for her vanished husband, and finds himself playing cupid to two generations of steel tycoons whilst also scotching a sabotage scheme unlike any other…

The naval war features heavily in ‘The Monocle Menace’ (August 10-November 21, #1116-1205) as a new malicious mastermind targets shipping and support services by creating a evil Superman doppelganger, although his real objective is a secret formula. As usual Lois is first on the case and has a ringside seat to an ever-escalating battle of super-powers against super science; even saving her hero when the Man of Steel succumbs to sinister mesmerism and seemingly switches sides!

With Wayne Boring taking more and more of the drawing duties, Seasonal whimsy informs the 23rd exploit as Hitler, Mussolini and General Tojo combine forces to shatter the moral of the world by having ‘Santa Claus Kidnapped’ (November 23-December 19, strips 1206-1229). This compels Superman to go undercover in Berlin, saving Saint Nick and giving the German resistance a big boost before returning to truly nasty business by countering ‘The Villainy of the Voice’ (December 21 1942 to April 17 1943, and 1230-1331). Here an anonymous plotter uses a whispering campaign of insinuation and innuendo to terrorise key workers until Lois and Clark expose the rat and his insidious gang of spying blackmailers and extortionists…

As the Daily Planet’s top reporters are despatched to “war-torn Europe”, Lois &Clark accidentally encounter super spy ‘The Nefarious Noname’ (April 19-June 26, 1332-1391) and are sucked into a Hitchcockian chase around London in pursuit of stolen Allied invasion plans. “Luckily” Superman is also on hand to help them against the freakish, many-eyed psionic mutant terror commanding the enemy agents and a ferocious battle of powers and war of wills ends with the right side victorious again…

Returning safely to America, LL & CK are just in time to see how ‘The Sneer Strikes’ (June 28 – August 21, #1392-1439) as the brother of the Leer targets Japanese Internment Camps in a remarkably even-handed exploration of what we now consider one of the darkest ethical moments in US history. Hopefully that’s not a statement I’ll have amend over the next four years…

Back then though, the reporters’ investigative visits uncover spy schemes and escape plots, forcing the Man of Steel to use his disguise powers to go undercover, infiltrating the Nipponese gang as they attempt to destroy US/Chinese relations and foil a West Coast invasion. The war was slowly turning in the Allies’ favour and reader burnout was growing, so it’s no surprise story #27 moved into solid mystery territory with ‘Where is Lois Lane?’ (August 23 – November 18, #1440-1518) as Clark and Jimmy Olsen realise the woman working at the Daily Planet with them has vanished. Moreover, every aspect of her non-work life – home, neighbours, friends – has been eradicated…

It’s even more confusing when she suddenly reappears, claiming everyone else is crazy. Maybe its because she’s been replaced by an enemy agent wearing her face and form carrying out a bizarre ploy to make Superman her slave and destroy the US economy…

A different kind of whimsy is in play when Lois’s niece – a habitual liar who could shame Baron Munchausen, if not the 47th President – debuts in ‘Little Susie’s Fibs’ (November 19 1943 – February 19 1944, #1519-1598). The fabricating deceiver is an inveterate troublemaker, and when she sees Clark become Superman the scene is set for an avalanche of chaos, after Susie confronts Kent. Of course, he denies everything but cannot find a way to prove he is NOT the Man of Steel telling a lie, and the fantastic hilarity goes into overdrive when ‘The Mischievous Mr. Mxyztplk’ first manifests (February 21 – July 19, #1599-1727). Forewarned by medium Madame Zodia, Lois & Clark are still utterly unprepared for a spate of poltergeist phenomena at the Planet building, heralding the arrival of a fun-addicted magical imp who doesn’t care who gets hurt whilst he’s getting his giggles…

As if his antics aren’t enough to fully occupy the Action Ace, the “Most Beautiful Woman in the World” chooses that moment to stop covering her face, no longer caring about the fights and accidents her looks generate. With men rioting and suiciding everywhere, the imp sets his heart on her too, but Miss Dreamface seeks to steal Superman’s, even though faithful old flame Ted is still chasing her too. The frenzy mounts and peaks in Metropolis, setting the scene for tragedy and disaster, even if true love eventually finds a way to restore order…

Acclaimed favourite of the Superman radio show, the Daily Planet copy boy got his first taste of pictorial fame in concluding sequence #30 ‘King Jimmy Olsen’ (July 20-October 28 1944, #1728-1814). Here the dauntless is lad abducted by hidden super-scientific kingdom Thymaung. The boy is the exact double of ruler Rahma, and a council of usurpers want to replace their noble boy king with a pliable primitive they can control and who will front their campaign to conquer Earth. Unfortunately for them, Superman tracks down his pal, but insists the kid plays along until the Man of Tomorrow can safely liberate the captive king. A whirlwind ride of action, fantasy and first love, it heralds a new era of decreasingly political satire in favour of gender stereotyping and reinforcement masked as a comedic “battle of the sexes”. There will be more of that next time -and all through the “Atomic age” of the 1950s & 1960s…

For now though, these yarns offer timeless wonders and mesmerising excitement for lovers of action and fantasy. The raw-boned early Superman is beyond compare. If you can handle the warts of the era or just crave simpler stories from less angst-wracked times, they are ideal comics reading, and this a book you simply must see.
© 2016 DC Comics. All rights reserved. Superman and all related names, characters and elements are ™ DC Comics.

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Mandrake the Magician: Fred Fredericks Dailies volume 1: The Return of Evil – The Cobra


By Lee Falk & Fred Fredericks (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-691-9 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

In this month of romantic anticipation and disillusionment, it’s worth remarking that every iconic hero of strips and comics has a dutiful, stalwart inamorata waiting ever so patiently in the wings for a moment to spoon and swoon. Here’s another beguiling outing starring one of the earliest and most resolute…

Regarded by many as comics’ first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on 11th June 1934 – although creator Lee Falk had sold the strip almost a decade previously. Initially drawing it too, Falk replaced himself as soon as feasible, allowing the early wonderment to materialise through the effective understatement of sublime draughtsman Phil Davis. An instant hit, Mandrake was soon supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page from February 3rd 1935. Happy other Birthday, dapper tuxedo dude…

Whilst a 19-year old college student Falk had sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to it full time. Schooling done, the 23-year-old born raconteur settled into his life’s work, entertaining millions with astounding tales. Falk also created the first costumed superhero – moodily magnificent generational manhunter The Phantom – whilst spawning an entire comic book subgenre with his first inspiration. Most Golden Age publishers boasted at least one (but usually many) nattily attired wizards in their gaudily-garbed pantheons: all roaming the world(s) making miracles and crushing injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actual sorcery. Characters such as Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of  “…the Magician” ’s like Zatara, Zanzibar, Kardak proliferated ad infinitum: all borrowing heavily and shamelessly from the uncanny exploits of the elegant, enigmatic man of mystery gracing the world’s newspapers and magazines.

In the Antipodes, Mandrake was a suave stalwart regular of Australian Women’s Weekly and became a cherished icon of adventure in the UK, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and across Scandinavia: a major star of page and screen, pervading every aspect of global consciousness.

Over the years he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation (as part of the cartoon series Defenders of the Earth). With that has come the usual merchandising bonanza of games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and more…

Falk helmed Mandrake and The Phantom until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed, he was laying out one last story), but also found some few quiet moments to become a renowned playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller. After drawing those the first few strips Falk united with sublimely polished cartoonist Phil Davis (March 4th 1906 -16th December 1964). His sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip, especially the expansive Sunday page to unparalleled heights of sophistication. Davis’ steadfast, assured realism was the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of spectacular miracles. He rendered and realised Falk’s words until his death by heart attack…

Harold “Fred” Fredericks, Jr. (August 9th 1929 – March 10th 2015) took over – with strips starting in June 1965 – he was also handpicked by Falk who admired his work as both writer and/or illustrator on teen strip Rebel and family comic books such as Nancy, Boris Karloff, The Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Mister Ed, O.G. Whiz presents Tubby, Mighty Mouse, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and Bullwinkle.

In later years tireless taleteller Fredericks became an inking mainstay at Marvel & DC on titles including New Titans, Catwoman, Robin, Punisher War Journal, Nth Man, Daredevil, Quasar, G.I. Joe and Defenders of the Earth.

Preceded by Roger Langridge’s essay ‘Fred Fredericks – An Appreciation’ and John Preddle’s appraisal ‘Mandrake: The Fred Fredericks Era’, the official changing of the artistic guard comes with a cheeky contemporary mystery…

However, firstly…

Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globetrotting troubleshooter, accompanied by his faithful African friend Lothar and eventually enchanting companion (and in 1997, bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne. They co-operatively solve crimes, fight evil and find trouble and mystery apparently everywhere. Although the African Prince was a component from the start, Narda turned up fashionably late (in 1934) as victim/secret weapon in early escapade ‘The Hawk’ (see Mandrake the Magician: Dailies vol. 1 – The Cobra ): a distrait socialite forced to use her every wile to seduce and destroy the magician and Lothar. Thwarting each attack, Mandrake went after the monstrous stalker blackmailing Narda’s brother Prince Sigrid/Segrid and extorting her, decisively lowering the boom and liberating the embattled aristocrats. Bear all that in mind: it’s going to come in handy later…

Falk and Fredericks started as they meant to go on with ‘Odd Fellow’ (running from May 3rd to August 14th 1965) wherein a puckish little chap ruins a day of quiet contemplation for Narda before going on to peddle incredible inventions to greedy industrialists. By the time Mandrake gets involved, a lethal looking pursuer is hard on their heels and the mounting chaos is explained by the deduction that the jolly leprechaun is actually Roger the Rogue: a conman from the future with a deadly secret agenda but no idea who he’s messing with…

Following an interlude that introduces Mandrake’s palatial super citadel Xanadu, it’s back to basics for the next epic as the Princess goes to college to improve her mind and inadvertently uncovers and exposes a criminal gang embedded in world culture for hundreds of years. With echoes on modern conspiracy thriller 100 Bullets, ‘The Sign of 8’ (August 16th 1965 to February 6th 1966) arise from managed obscurity to discredit, hunt and destroy Narda with increasingly baroque and deadly assaults before falling to the counterattack of the Magician…

Growing contemporary fascination in the supernatural is addressed an capitalised upon in ‘The Witches’ (February 7th – May 28th) as criminal hypnotist Count Diablo and his all-women gang terrorise young heiress “Really” Riley , only to learn to their lasting regret what a master mesmerist can do to punish the wicked…

Another headline fuelled thriller, ‘The UFO’ May 30th – September 17th) sets the trio on the trail of aliens robbing banks with heat rays and escaping in flying saucers. Of course, it’s not long before Mandrake makes the connection between these uncanny events and missing military ordnance hot off the drawing board and takes steps to stop the plunderers from the stars…

In an era of super spies and covert cabals it wasn’t long before our heroes were back on ‘The Trail of the 8’ (September 19th 1966 – January 14th 1967) as Mandrake discovers evidence that the ancient order is still active. Teaming with good-guy agency Inter-Intel, the hunt makes Mandrake a target for repeated assassination attempts but ultimately leads to the organisation’s explosive demise. And yet the magician remains unconvinced…

This titanic tome terminates with a long-anticipated revival as ‘The Return of Evil – The Cobra’ (January 16th to June 3rd 1967) reveals how King Segrid of Cockaigne needs the help of his sister and her boyfriend after a sinister presence buys up tracts of the country and populace: using wealth, influence, chicanery, publicity stunts, blackmail and sheer dominating physical presence to rule the nation from behind the oval office throne. Thankfully, Mandrake and Lothar know just how to deal with the villain once he’s exposed as fatally flawed old foe The Cobra, and foil the fiend’s scheme to steal the nation from its legally-appointed ruler…

Supplemented here by a ‘Fred Fredericks – Biography’ before closing with ‘The Fred Fredericks Mandrake the Magician Complete Daily Checklist 1965-2013’, this thrilling tome offers exotic locales, thrilling action, fantastic fantasy, space age shocks, sinister spycraft, crafty criminality and spooky chills in equal measure. As always, the strip abounds with fantastic imagery from whenever “Mandrake gestures hypnotically” and drips with wry dialogue and bold action. Paramount taleteller Falk instinctively knew from the start that the secret of success was strong and – crucially – recurring villains and uncanny situations to test and challenge his heroes, making Mandrake the Magician an unmissable treat for every daily strip addict. These stories have lost none of their impact and only need you reading them to concoct a perfect cure for 21st century blues.
Mandrake the Magician © 2017 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. All other material © 2017 the respective authors or owners.

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Peanuts Dell Archive


By Charles M. Schulz, Jim Sasseville, Dale Hale, Tony Pocrnick & various (KaBOOM!)
ISBN: 978-1-68415-255-1 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-64144-117-9

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peanuts is unequivocally the most important comics strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Cartoonist Charles Monroe “Sparky” (forever dubbed thus by an uncle who saw young Charlie reading Billy DeBeck’s strip Barney Google: that hero’s horse was called “Spark Plug”) Schulz crafted a moodily hilarious, hysterically introspective, shockingly philosophical epic for half a century, producing 17,897 strips from October 2nd 1950 to February 13th 2000. He died, from the complications of cancer, the day before his last strip was published. Twenty five years later, his strip is still seen daily all over the world.

At its height, Peanuts ran in 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries, translated into 21 languages. Many of those venues are still running perpetual reprints, and have ever since his departure. Attendant book collections, a merchandising mountain and television spin-offs made the publicity-shy artist a billionaire.

In case you came in late – and from Mars – our focus (we just can’t call him “star” or “hero”) is everyman loser Charlie Brown who, with increasingly high-maintenance, fanciful mutt Snoopy, is at odds with a bombastic and mercurial supporting cast hanging out doing kid things with disturbingly mature psychological overtones…

The gags and tales centre on play, pranks, sports, playing musical instruments, teasing each other, making baffled observations about the incomprehensible world and occasionally acting a bit too much like grown-ups. The ferocious unpredictability and wilfulness of seasonal weather often impacts on these peewee performers, too. You won’t find many adults in the mix – which includes Mean Girl (let’s call her “forthright”) Violet, prodigy Schroeder, “world’s greatest fussbudget” Lucy, her strange baby brother Linus and dirt-magnet “Pig-Pen” all adding signature twists to the mirth – because this is essentially a kids’ world.

Charlie Brown has settled into existential angst and is resigned to his role as eternal loser: singled out by fate and the relentless diabolical wilfulness of Lucy who sharpens her spiteful verve on everyone around her. Her preferred target is always the round-headed kid though: mocking his attempts to fly a kite, kicking away his football and perpetually reminding him face-to-face how rubbish he is…

A Sunday page debuted on January 6th 1952; a standard half-page slot offering more measured fare than the daily. Both thwarted ambition and explosive frustration became part of the strip’s signature denouements and these weekend wonders gave Sparky room to be at his most visually imaginative, whimsical and weird. By that time, rapid-fire raucous slapstick gags were riding side-by-side with surreal, edgy, psychologically barbed introspection, crushing judgements and deep ruminations in a world where kids – and certain animals – were the only actors. The relationships were increasingly deep, complex and absorbing…

None of that is really the point. Peanuts – a title Schulz loathed, but one the syndicate forced upon him – changed the way comics strips were received and perceived, by showing cartoon comedy could have edges and nuance as well as pratfalls and punchlines. It also became a multimedia merchandising bonanza for Schulz and the United Features Syndicate, generating toys, games, books, TV shows, apparel and even comic books. These days there’s even an educational institution, The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, from which a goodly portion of the archival contributions in this wonderful compilation originate…

Just how and why the comic book version differs from the strip is explored with incisive and analytical vigour in Derrick Bang’s (of CMS M&RC) Introduction ‘Peanuts in Comic Books’ revealing how, in the early 1950s, reprints in St. John and, later, Dell Comics titles such as Tip Top Comics and United Comics gradually gave way to original back-up material in Fritzi Ritz, Nancy and other anthology titles. Very little of it was by Schulz – although he did contribute many covers – but rather were ghosted by hand-picked associates like Jim Sasseville, who ably aped Sparky Schulz and kept the little cast in character and on message for strips in Fritzi Ritz, Nancy, Tip Top or Nancy and Sluggo. Sasseville wrote and drew all of the Western Publishing’s Peanuts try-out issue (Four Color #878, February 1958). However, Schulz contributed heavily to the second FC Peanuts (#969, February 1959) with Dale Hale and Tony Pocrnick handling subsequent back-up tales plus third Four Color tester #1015 (August/October 1959).

The fourth release became Peanuts #4: a title that ran for 13 issues, before ending in July 1962. By then, Dell staff artists and writers were generating the stories and the overall quality was nothing to brag about – although Schulz still drew covers, at least. In terms of calibre and standards, the 75 comic tales here – beginning with the very first by Schulz from Nancy #146 (September 1957) to the anonymous last – are quite enjoyable and some are truly exceptional: such as Sasseville’s ‘The Mani-Cure’ (Tip Top #211, November 1957/ January 1958) or Dale Hale’s untitled treatise on keeping secrets from Tip Top #217 (May/July 1959).

Admittedly, hard core fans might have trouble with later yarns as the kids face an amok robot or dare the terrors of an old haunted house, but overall this collection remains a splendid peek at a little known cranny of the franchise and there is the joy of all those lost gems from Sparky to carry the day. After all, where else are you going to see the kids in stories you haven’t read yet… you Blockhead!?
Peanuts Dell Archive all contents unless otherwise specified © 2005 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Popeye: The E.C. Segar Popeye Sundays volume 4: Swea’Pea and Eugene the Jeep (February 1936 – October 1938)


By Elzie Crisler Segar, with Charles H. “Doc” Winner, Tom, Sims Kayla E. & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 979-8-8750-0001-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There is more than one Popeye. If your first thought when you hear the name is the cheerful, indomitable swabby in full Naval whites always biffing a hulking great beardy-bloke and mainlining tinned spinach, that’s okay. The Fleischer Studios and Famous Films animated features have a vivid brilliance and spontaneous energy of their own (even later, watered-down anodyne TV versions have some merit) and they are indeed all based on the grizzled, crusty, foul-mouthed, bulletproof, golden-hearted old swab who shambled his way into a fully cast and firmly established newspaper strip and would not leave. But they are really only the tip of an incredible iceberg of satire, slapstick, virtue, vice and mind-boggling adventure.

Popeye first washed ashore on January 17th 1929: a casual extra in the Thimble Theatre comic feature. That unassuming newspaper strip had launched on 19th December 1919: one of many funnies parodying and burlesquing the era’s silent movie serials. Its more successful forebears included C.W. Kahles’ Hairbreadth Harry and Ed Wheelan’s Midget Movies/ Minute Movies… which Thimble Theatre replaced in William Randolph Hearst’s papers.

All these strips employed a repertory company of characters playing out generic adventures based on those expressive cinema antics. Thimble Theatre’s cast included Nana & Cole Oyl; their gawky, excessively excitable daughter Olive; diminutive-but-pushy son Castor and Olive’s sappy, would-be beau Horace Hamgravy. The feature ticked along nicely for a decade, competent, unassuming and always entertaining, with Castor and Ham Gravy (as he became) stumbling and tumbling through get-rich-quick schemes, frenzied, fear-free adventures and gag situations until September 10th 1928, when explorer uncle Lubry Kent Oyl gave Castor a spoil from his latest exploration of Africa.

It was the most fabulous of all birds – a hand-reared Whiffle Hen – and was the start of something truly groundbreaking…

Whiffle Hens are troublesome, incredibly rare and possessed of fantastic powers, but after months of inspired hokum and slapstick shenanigans, Castor was inclined to keep Bernice – for that was the hen’s name – as a series of increasingly peculiar circumstances brought him into contention with ruthless Mr. Fadewell, world’s greatest gambler and king of gaming resort ‘Dice Island’. Bernice clearly affected and inspired writer/artist E.C. Segar, because his strip increasingly became a playground of frantic, compelling action and comedy during this period. When Castor and Ham discovered everybody wanted the Whiffle Hen because she could bestow infallible good luck, they sailed for Dice Island to win every penny from its lavish casinos. Big sister Olive wanted to come along, but the boys planned to leave her behind once their vessel was ready to sail. It was 16th January 1929…

The next day, in the 108th episode of that extended saga, a bluff, brusquely irascible, ignorant, itinerant and exceeding ugly one-eyed old sailor was hired by the pathetic pair to man the boat they had rented, and the world met one of the most iconic and memorable characters ever conceived. By sheer surly willpower, Popeye won readers’ hearts and minds, his no-nonsense, rough grumbling simplicity and dubious appeal enchanting the public until, by tale’s end, the walk-on had taken up residency. He would quickly make Thimble Theatre his own. The Sailor Man affably steamed onto the full-colour Sunday pages forming the meat of this curated collection.

This paperback prize is the closing quartile of four books designed for swanky slipcases, comprehensively re-presenting Segar’s entire Sunday canon. Spiffy as that sounds, the wondrous stories are also available in digital editions if you want to think of ecology or mitigate the age and frailty of your spinach-deprived “muskles”…

Son of a handyman, Elzie Crisler Segar was born in Chester, Illinois on 8th December 1894. His early life was filled with solid, earnest blue-collar jobs that typified his generation of cartoonists. Young Segar worked as a decorator/house-painter, played drums to accompany vaudeville acts at the local theatre and when the town got a movie house played for the silent films. This allowed him to absorb staging, timing and narrative tricks from close observation of the screen, and these became his greatest assets as a cartoonist. Whilst working as a film projectionist, he decided to draw for his living, and tell his own stories. He was 18 years old.

Like so many of that “can-do” era, Segar studied art via mail order: in this case W.L. Evans’ cartooning correspondence course out of Cleveland, Ohio – from where Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster would launch Superman upon the world. Segar gravitated to Chicago and was “discovered” by Richard F. Outcault (The Yellow Kid, Buster Brown), arguably the inventor of newspaper comics. Outcault introduced Segar around at the prestigious Chicago Herald and soon – although still wet behind the ears – Segar’s first strip – Charley Chaplin’s Comedy Capers – debuted on March 12th 1916. Two years later, Elzie married Myrtle Johnson and moved to Hearst’s Chicago Evening American to create Looping the Loop. Managing Editor William Curley saw a big future for Segar and promptly packed the newlyweds off to the Manhattan headquarters of the mighty King Features Syndicate. Within a year Elzie was turning Thimble Theatre for The New York Journal. In 1924, Segar created a second daily strip. The 5:15 was a surreal domestic comedy featuring weedy commuter/would-be inventor John Sappo and his formidable, indomitable wife Myrtle…

A born storyteller, Segar had from the start an advantage even his beloved cinema couldn’t match. His brilliant ear for dialogue and accent shone out from admittedly rather average melodrama adventure plots, adding lustre to stories and gags he always felt he hadn’t drawn well enough. After a decade or so – and just as cinema caught up with the introduction of “talkies” – he finally discovered a character whose unique sound and individual vocalisations blended with a fantastic, enthralling nature to create a literal superstar…

Incoherent, ignorant, plug-ugly and stingingly sarcastic, Popeye shambled on stage midway through ‘Dice Island’ and once his very minor bit part played out, simply refused to leave. Within a year he was a regular. As circulation skyrocketed, he became the star. In the less than 10 years Segar worked with his iconic matelot (from January 1929 until the artist’s untimely death on 13th October 1938), the auteur built an incredible metaworld of fabulous lands and lost locales, where unique characters undertook fantastic voyages, spawned or overcame astounding scenarios and experienced big, unforgettable thrills as well as the small human dramas we’re all subject to. They also threw punches at the drop of a hat…

This was a serial saga simultaneously extraordinary and mundane, which could be hilarious or terrifying at the same time. For every trip to the rip-roaring Wild West, idyllic atoll or fabulous lost kingdom, there was a sordid brawl between squabbling neighbours, spats between friends or disagreements between sweethearts – any and all usually settled with mightily-swung fists and a sarcastic aside.

Popeye was the first Superman of comics and its ultimate working-class hero, but he was not a comfortable one to idolise. A brutish lout who thought with his fists, lacking respect for authority, he was uneducated, short-tempered and – whenever “hot termaters” batted their eyelashes (or thereabouts) at him – painfully fickle. He was also a worrisome gambling troublemaker who wasn’t welcome in polite society… and wouldn’t want to be. However, the mighty marine marvel might be raw and rough-hewn, but he was always fair and practical, with an innate, unshakable sense of what’s right and what’s not: a joker who wants kids to be themselves – but not necessarily “good” – and a guy who took no guff from anybody. Of course, as his popularity grew, he somewhat mellowed. Always ready to defend the weak and with absolutely no pretensions or aspirations to rise above his fellows, he was and will always be “the best of us”… but the shocking sense of unpredictability, danger and anarchy he initially provided was sorely missed by 1936 – so Segar brought it back again…

This concluding compilation of Segar’s Sunday comics masterpiece spans February 23rd 1936 to October 2nd 1938, with the classic pages and vintage views preceded by another sublimely whimsical cartoon deconstruction, demystification and appreciation. ‘“Gift from Uncle Ben” – An Introduction by Kayla E’ finds creative director/designer/artist Kayla E. (Precious Rubbish, Now: The New Comics Anthology) anticipating and celebrating the legacy of the strip in a captivating “silent” cartoon yarn starring the cast and highlighting the incredible Jeep…

Throughout, the weekend wonderment accentuates arcane antics of the star attraction, but increasingly the support cast provide comedy gold via potential straight man Popeye’s interactions with Wimpy, Olive Oyl, our eponymous co-stars and all the rest of Segar’s cast of thousands (of idiots). The humorous antics – in sequences of one-off gags alternating with occasional extended sagas – see the Sailor Man fighting for every iota of attention whilst mournful mooching co-star Wimpy becomes increasingly more ingenious – not to say surreal – in his quest for free meals.

An engaging Micawber-like coward, cad and conman, the insatiable J. Wellington Wimpy debuted on May 3rd 1931 as an unnamed and decidedly partisan referee in one of Popeye’s frequent boxing matches. The scurrilous but polite oaf obviously struck a chord and Segar gradually made him a fixture. Always hungry, keen to take bribes and a cunning coiner of immortal catchphrases like “I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” and “Let’s you and him fight” – he was the perfect foil for a simple action hero and increasingly stole the entire show; just like anything else unless it was firmly nailed down…

When not beating the stuffing out of his opponents or kissing pretty girls, Popeye pursued his flighty, vacillating and irresolute Olive with exceptional verve, if little success, but his life was always made more complicated whenever the unflappable, so-corruptible and adorably contemptible Wimpy made an appearance. He was even an occasional rival suitor, joining returning foils such as long-suffering local charmer Curly as convenient competitors for Olive’s dubious and flighty affections…

Infinitely varying riffs on Olive’s peculiar romantic notions or Wimpy’s attempts to cadge food or money for food were irresistible to the adoring readership, but Segar wisely peppered the Sundays with longer episodic tales, and the weirdest cast in comics then or since. Foils like diner owner Rough House, Alice the Goon and ever-irascible Mr. George W. Geezil perpetually vied for attention with baroque figures like subhuman pal Toar, King Blozo of Spinachovia and the vile Sea Hag, but so many semi-regulars simply defy description.

Eugene the Jeep debuted on March 20th 1936 in the daily strip: a fantastic 4th dimensional beast with incredible powers used by Olive and Wimpy to get very rich, very quickly. They soon lost it all betting on the wrong guy in another of Segar’s classic and hilarious set-piece boxing matches between Popeye and yet another barely-human pugilist. The tales come from an astonishingly fertile period for the strip’s long history. On August 4th, Eugene was instrumental in kicking off another groundbreaking and memorable sequence as the entire ensemble cast took off on a haunted ship to find Popeye’s absentee dad. That memorably riotous tale introduced ancient, antisocial reprobate Poopdeck Pappy and his diminutive hairy sidekick Pooky Jones. The elder mariner was a rough, hard-bitten, grumpy brute quite prepared and even happy to cheat, steal or smack a woman around if she stepped out of line and a visual warning of what might be Popeye’s eventual fate. Once the old goat was firmly established, Segar set Popeye & Olive the Herculean task of civilizing him; a task ongoing to this day…

The full-colour Sunday pages in this volume span February 23rd 1936 to October 13th 1938, opening with uniquely sentimental monster Alice the Goon resurfacing, permanently switching allegiance and becoming nanny to rambunctious tyke Swee’Pea after saving the “infink” from abduction by the sinister oceanic witch. Alice was a regular by the end of April. Her assimilation was part of a series of stand-alone gags revealing Popeye’s violent courtship of Olive and tactics for deterring rivals, counterpointing a stream of pugilistic bouts and reinforcing the gastronomic war of wills between Wimpy and Rough House, with Geezil’s hatred of the moocher also strongly represented week by week.

August 9th saw the Jeep make his spectacular Sunday debut, with a few demonstrations of the fanciful beast’s incredible powers to make money and cause chaos leading to infinitely varying riffs on Olive’s peculiar romantic notions or Wimpy’s attempts to cadge food or money (for food). These incidents were irresistible to the adoring readership, but Segar wisely peppered the Sundays with longer episodic tales, such as the saga of ‘The Terrible Kid Mustard’ (December 27th 1936 – February 28th 1937) and pitting the “sprize-fighting” Sea Salt against another boxer who was as ferociously fuelled by the incredible nourishing power of Spinach… an epic war of nerves that culminated in a ring bout adjudicated by Wimpy and remembered forever…

Another extended endeavour starred the smallest addition to the cast and co-star of this volume. Rambunctious tyke Swee’Pea was never an angel, and when he began stealing jam and framing Eugene (March 7th through 28th) the search for a culprit proved he was also precociously smart too. The impossible task of civilising Poopdeck Pappy also covered many months – with no appreciable or lasting effect – incorporating an outrageous sequence wherein the dastardly dotard becomes scandalously, catastrophically entangled in Popeye’s mechanical automatic diaper-changing machine…

On June 27th Wimpy found the closest thing to true love after meeting Olive’s friend Waneeta: a meek, retiring soul whose father owned 50,000 cows. His ardent pursuit filled many pages over following months, as did the latest scheme of his arch-nemesis Geezil, who bought a cafe/diner with the sole intention of poisoning the constantly cadging conman. Although starring the same characters, Sunday and Daily strips ran separate storylines, offering Segar opportunities to utilise the same good idea in different ways. On September 19th 1937 he began a sequence wherein Swee’Pea’s mother comes back, seeking custody of the boy she had given away. The resultant tug-of-love tale ran to December 5th, displaying genuine warmth and angst amidst the wealth of hilarious stunts by both parties to convince the feisty nipper to pick his preferred parent…

On January 16th 1938, Popeye was approached by scientists who had stumbled upon an incipient Martian invasion. The evil extraterrestrials planned to pit their pet monster against a typical Earthman before committing to the assault, so the wily boffins believed grizzly old pug Popeye was our world’s best bet…

Readers had no idea that the feature’s glory days were ending. Segar’s advancing illness was affecting his output and between December 1937 and August 1938 many pages ran unsigned and were ghosted by Charles H. “Doc” Winner and Tom Sims. When Segar resumed drawing, the gags were funnier than ever (especially a short sequence where Pappy shaves his beard and dyes his hair to impersonate Popeye and woo Olive!), but tragically the long lead-in time necessary to create Sundays only left him time to finish 15 more pages.

The last signed Segar strip was published on October 2nd 1938. He died eleven days later from leukaemia and liver disease.

Popeye and the bizarre, surreally quotidian cast that welcomed and grew up around him are timeless icons of global culture who have grown far beyond their newspaper strip origins. Nevertheless, in one very true sense, with this marvellous yet painfully tragic final volume, the most creative period in the saga of the one true and only Sailor Man closes. His last strips were often augmented or even fully ghosted, but the intent is generally untrammelled, leaving an unparalleled testament to Segar’s incontestable timeless, manic brilliance for us all to enjoy over and over again.

Popeye is four years shy of his centenary and deserves that status as global icon. How many comics characters are still enjoying new adventures 96 years after their first? These volumes are a perfect way to celebrate the genius and mastery of E.C. Segar and his brilliantly flawed superman. These are tales you’ll treasure all of your life and superb books you must not miss. There is more than one Popeye. Most of them are pretty good and some are truly excellent. Don’t you think it’s about time you sampled the original and very best?
Popeye volume 4: Swea’Pea and Eugene the Jeep is copyright © 2024 King Features Syndicate, Inc./™Hearst Holdings, Inc. This edition © 2024 Fantagraphics Books Inc. Segar comic strips provided by Bill Blackbeard and his San Francisco Academy of Comic Art. “Gift from Uncle Ben” © 2024 Kayla E. All rights reserved.

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Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips volume 3 1938-1940


By Roy Crane with Leslie Turner (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-529-7 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The comics industry evolved from newspaper strips and these circulation-boosting pictorial features were, until relatively recently, utterly ubiquitous, hugely popular with the public and regarded as invaluable by publishers who used them as an irresistible sales weapon to guarantee consumer loyalty, increase sales and ensure profits. Many a scribbler became a millionaire thanks to their ability to draw pictures and spin a yarn.

It’s virtually impossible for us to today to understand the overwhelming power of the comic strip in America (and the wider world) from the Great Depression to the end of World War II. With no television, broadcast radio far from universal and movie shows at best a weekly treat for most folk, household entertainment was mostly derived from the comic sections of daily and especially Sunday Newspapers. The Funnies were the most common recreation for millions who were well served by a fantastic variety and incredible quality. From the very start humour was paramount… that’s why we call them “funnies” or “comics”, after all. From these gag and stunt beginnings, blending silent movie slapstick, outrageous antics, fabulous fantasy and vaudeville shows, came a thoroughly unique entertainment hybrid: Royston Campbell Crane’s Wash Tubbs.

Debuting on April 21st 1924 Washington Tubbs II was a comedic gag-a-day strip not entirely dissimilar from confirmed family favourite Harold Teen (by Crane’s friend and contemporary Carl Ed). Tubbs was a diminutive, ambitious young shop clerk when the strip began, but gradually he moved into mock-heroics, then through harm-free action into full-blown, light-hearted rip-roaring adventures with the introduction of pioneering he-man, moody swashbuckling prototype Captain Easy in the landmark episode for 6th May, 1929.

As the tales became increasingly more exotic and thrill-drenched, the globe-trotting little dynamo clearly needed a sidekick who could believably handle the combat side of things, and thus in the middle of a European war Tubbs liberated a mysterious fellow American from a jail cell and history was made. Before long the mismatched pair were inseparable comrades; travelling the world, hunting treasure, fighting thugs and rescuing a bevy of startlingly comely maidens in distress…

The 2-fisted, bluff, completely capable and utterly dependable, down-on-his-luck Southern Gentleman was something not seen before in comics: a raw, square-jawed hunk played straight rather than the buffoon or music hall foil of such classic serials as Hairsbreadth Harry or Desperate Desmond. Crucially, Crane’s seductively simple blend of cartoon exuberance and compelling page-design was a far more accessible and powerful medium for action story-telling than the static illustrative style favoured by artists like Hal Foster (just starting to make waves on the new Tarzan Sunday page).

While we’re thinking of Edgar Rice Burroughs, it’s difficult to re-read the phrase “Southern Gentleman” these days without pausing to consider how much of that term originally denoted chivalric do-gooder, rather than Defender of Slavery, to most readers. Frankly, I’m not sure Crane gave a moment’s thought to political or social implications, although his heroes never made any distinction between races and treated all characters equally, even back then. Their only motivations were getting rich honestly and helping folks in trouble. These stories come from a long time ago, so just read along with a sense of historical perspective, please…

Tubbs and Easy were easily as exotic and thrilling as the Ape Man but rattled along like tempestuous Sailor Man 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-guy hero, Crane bowed to the inevitable and created a full colour Sunday page dedicated to his increasingly popular hero-for-hire. Captain Easy debuted on 30th July 1933, in madcap, two-fisted exploits (originally) set before his first fateful meeting with Tubbs.

The third terrific tome of a stupendous 4-volume set covers May 22nd 1938 to December 15th 1940 and opens with a Foreword by Rick Norwood contrasting storylines in Daily and Sunday iterations whilst re-presenting a number of Crane’s illustrated articles on life in Mexico, after which R.C. Harvey’s Introduction provides some historical context and speculates on a potential real-life inspiration for the enigmatic Captain. There’s also a long-overdue appreciation of the artist’s friend, silent partner and eventual successor in ‘Easy Does it… And So does Leslie Turner’. Initially hired to provide Crane time and breathing room from the punishing seven day a week deadlines, from 1937 Turner increasingly took responsibility for the Sunday strip after the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicate ordered Crane to drop his cherished full-page experimental designs.

When he first began the Sunday page in 1933, Crane’s creativity went into overdrive: an entire page and sharp vibrant colours to play with had clearly stirred his imagination. The results were wild visual concoctions which achieved a timeless immediacy and made each instalment a unified piece of sequential art. The effect of the pages can be seen in so many comic and strips since – even in the works of such near-contemporaries as Hergé and giants-in-waiting like Charles Schulz. The pages were a clearly as much of a joy to create as to read but the commercial argument ran that the company couldn’t sell a feature which client periodicals were unable to cut-up and reformat to suit their own needs. In 1943 the former assistant inherited the black-&-white Daily feature after Crane quit NEA to produce his creator-owned Buz Sawyer strip for William Randolph Hearst’s King Features syndicate.

Once Crane was gone, Turner took Wash & Easy into ever more comedic regions, crafting the strip until his retirement in 1969 after which other writers and artists carried the Captain until the feature was ended in 1988. But that’s largely immaterial as here the superb high-adventuring is seen in its absolute prime…

As seen in Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips volume 2, after a spectacular string of solo adventures the solitary soldier of fortune at last met Tubbs whilst jugged in a jail cell in a Ruritanian European kingdom. He had been framed in an espionage plot. Risking life and diminutive limb to save his pal, Wash also rescued sultry spitfire Ruby Dallas who promptly entangled them in her own unfortunate tale of woe. Witness to a murder in America, she had been on the run ever since because the killer was a prominent millionaire with too much to lose. Once the trio escaped murderous cutthroats, slavers and assassins, they soon settled his hash…

The story picks up here with the lads again looking for jobs and passage home. Opportunity knocks in the form of an animal collector in need of a crew, but when his tiger gets loose on the boat everybody jumps overboard. Washing up on the isolated island of Koolyhow where an American entomologist and his female assistant are hunting the legendary doodle-bug, the boys sign on as helpers. They are soon embroiled in burgeoning madness gripping local governor Sergeant Major Gaspe Shalayli, and further complicating matters is a lost temple full of ancient treasures and a cute furry creature called a Swink. The gluttonous little anteater takes a shine to Wash and has a capacity for finding trouble or creating chaos exponentially greater than his new owner’s…

With bugs and Swink – christened “Bennie” – the triumphant Americans reach Singapore only to be targeted by grifters Sadie and Dipper, who believe their latest marks have the temple jewels (actually confiscated by the local government). Tricking their way onto the flying boat carrying Wash and Easy home, the crooks cause a crash leaving Sadie and our heroes stranded on a desolate island inhabited by the extremely civilised descendants of piratical bandits. The place is a utopian paradise with only one rule: nobody ever leaves…

Of course Easy, Wash & Bennie do, in a stolen sail boat which promptly starts sinking, leaving the voyagers in dire straits. They’re almost saved by a passing vessel but the pirates aboard The Typhoon gleefully ignore their plight and sail on…

Frantically bailing, they reach land just as Cap’n Robbins sinks and plunders a trading ship. Once again in hot water, Wash & Easy rescue Mona Milson – stranded survivor of a previous shipwrecking – and return her to her grateful father on yet another Pacific paradise, only to find the furious Robbins waiting for them. He’s just agreed to transport the old gent, his family and, most importantly, his life savings to Honolulu…

Unable to dissuade old man Milson, the boys book passage with him and Mona and, after days of outrageous hijinks as the voracious and disaster-prone Bennie makes life hell for the pirates, expose and capture the villains. With reward money in their pockets Wash & Easy (and the Swink) finally get back to America and begin a search for gainful employment which highlights a return to gag-filled short stories. The ever-ravenous Swink is a popular sensation, prompting his owners to buy a travelling medicine show truck. Whilst touring the country they discover the elixir they’re peddling has genuine restorative powers whilst encountering a succession of conmen, women, thieves, scheming women, bandits and determinedly marriage-minded women – some of whom even steal the fabulous, potentially invaluable Bennie. A martyr to crazy, hungry critters, Wash improbably inherits a hippo named Kittie.

It’s just one disaster after another…

Feeling they’ve outlived their welcome Wash & Easy go adventuring again, accidentally ending up in Peru, where dauntless Mary Lancaster is searching for her lost father. She enlists their help to enter the forbidden Lost Canyon region where they discover not only the missing archaeologist but a lost race of Indians who still practise human sacrifice. The humans only escape by trading their lives for Bennie, but as they make their forlorn way back to civilisation, the indomitable Swink catches up to them, having proved too smart for the Andeans. Packing the Lancasters off home, but too short of funds to accompany them, our heroes are soon clapped in jail for vagrancy, where they meet magician, ventriloquist and escapologist “the Great Plunkett”: an inveterate prankster who joins them as stowaways on a steamer back to the USA. Once there, Plunkett’s gift for opening safes makes him a target for opportunistic mobsters – until his new friends step in…

Big changes were underway at this time and Turner was increasingly yielding the focus on his titular stars to explore an array of new and returning supporting characters – presumably to allow Crane more leeway, if not exclusivity – on Tubbs and Easy. However with January 21st 1940’s episode, the boys were back, as Easy became a freelance spy-hunter/crimebuster in a nation progressively, inevitably marching towards war. The tone was still light and humorous, but the writing was on the wall…

After stopping spies, Easy tracked down escaped convict Killer Beck, exposed the murder of a Chinese servant and captured America’s Most Wanted female-impersonating conman. That led to his being hired to safeguard a new aviation weapon from a veritable army of foreign agents and the diabolical Mata Hari Z-1. Defeating her led to Easy and Wash being marooned in a vast jungle of cactus in the Western American desert where they stumbled onto a gang of ruthless counterfeiters before tackling train-stealing gunrunners in Mexico.

More short yarns bracket a concerted re-lightening of mood as the lads are hired by arrogant, flighty heiress and aspiring film star Honey Darling who uses them to stage dangerous, headline-grabbing stunts, before they’re hired to recover a yacht and rescue the passengers after the Captain loses control of it in a rigged card game. The mission goes slightly awry and leaves the boys, heiress Ginger Nelson, her chaperone aunt and some of the more nefarious crewmen shipwrecked. Amongst the saved luggage is the 12th biggest diamond in the world.

… And then the murders start happening…

Nevertheless Easy & Tubbs again save the day, but on returning stateside, the surly Soldier of Fortune is made the basis of a bet between two wealthy men. One wagers that any man can be made afraid, but the other believes Easy disproves the notion. Of course, neither has asked him to participate, and after the hero is tricked into a haunted house the trouble really begins as the mountaintop dwelling is invaded by bandits wanting their perfect hideout back…

After discovering the only thing that frightens Easy, this compelling cartoon carnival ends with the heartwarming tale of newsboy Buddie Burns who turns his passion for detecting into a successful anti-crime campaign – with a little help from a certain South’un Gen’leman…

Also included here are examples of original artwork and this colossal luxury hardback compilation (pages 380 x 270mm) even offers an extra colour tear-sheet plus a full hand-coloured page by Crane, used by print processors as a guide to produce finished instalments.

This volume also heralds the irrepressible humour which Turner would increasing bring into the feature and the stories – although still action adventures – abound with breezy, light-hearted banter, outrageous situations, hilarious slapstick and outright farce: a sure-fire formula modern cinema directors plunder to this day.

Captain Easy was the grandfather of Indiana Jones, Flynn (the Librarian) Carsen and Jack (Romancing the Stone) Cotton, clearly setting the benchmark for all of them. Happily, Crane’s rip-snorting, pulse-pounding, exotically racy adventure trailblazer fell into hands every bit as talented and the huge pages in this stupendous chronicle, crackling with fun and excitement, provide the perfect stage from which to absorb and enjoy the classic tale-telling of another sublime master raconteur.

This is storytelling of impeccable quality: unforgettable, spectacular and utterly irresistible. These tales rank alongside the best of Hergé, Tezuka, Toth and Kirby and unarguably fed the imaginations of them all as they still should for today’s comics creators. Now that you have the chance to experience the strips that inspired the giants of our art form, how can you possibly resist?
Captain Easy strips © 2012 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. This edition © 2012 Fantagraphics Books, all other material © the respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.

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Osama Tezuka’s Original Astro Boy volume 9


By Osamu Tezuka, translated by Frederik L. Schodt (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-56971-792-9 (tank?bon PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

From beginning his professional career in the late 1940s until his death in 1989, Osamu Tezuka generated an incomprehensible volume of quality work which transformed the world of manga and how it was perceived in his own country and, ultimately, across the globe. Devoted to Walt Disney’s creations, he performed similar sterling service with Japan’s fledgling animation industry. The earliest stories were intended for children but right from the start Tezuka’s expansive fairy tale stylisations harboured more mature themes and held hidden pleasures for older readers and the legion of fans growing up with his masterworks…

The “God of Comics” was born in Osaka Prefecture on November 3rd 1928, and suffered from a severe illness as a child. The doctor who cured him inspired the lad to study medicine, and although Osamu began drawing professionally whilst at university in 1946, he persevered with college and qualified as a medical practitioner too. Then, as he faced a career crossroads, his mother advised him to do the thing which made him happiest. He never practiced as a healer but the world was gifted with such masterpieces as Kimba the White Lion, Buddha, Black Jack and so many other graphic narratives. Working ceaselessly over decades, Tezuka and his creations inevitably matured, but he was always able to speak to the hearts and minds of young and old equally. His creations ranged from the childishly charming to the distinctly disturbing such as The Book of Human Insects.

Tezuka died on February 9th 1989, having produced more than 150,000 pages of timeless comics; created the Japanese anime industry and popularised a uniquely Japanese graphic narrative style which became a fixture of global culture.

These monochrome digest volumes (173 x 113 mm in the physical world and any size you like if you read them digitally) present – in non-linear order – revised exploits of his signature character, with the emphasis firmly on fantastic fun and family entertainment…

Tetsuwan Atomu (literally “Mighty Atom” but known universally as Astro Boy due to its dissemination around the world as an animated TV cartoon and one of post-war Japan’s better exports) offers spectacular, riotous, rollicking sci fi action-adventure starring a young boy who also happens to be one of the mightiest robots on Earth.

The series began in 1952 in Shōnen Kobunsha and ran until March 12th 1968 – although in later years Tezuka returned to add to the canon often, both in comics but in also in other media such as the newspaper strips. Over that period, Astro Boy spawned the aforementioned global TV cartoon boom, starred in comic book specials and featured in games, toys, movies, collectibles and the undying devotion of generations of ardent fans.

Tezuka frequently drew himself into his tales as chorus and commentator, and in later revisions and introductions often cited how stifling he found the restrictions of Shōnen comics; specifically, having to periodically pause a plot to placate the demands of his audience by providing a blockbusting fight every episode. That’s his prerogative: most of us avid aficionados have no complaints…

Tezuka and his production team were never as wedded to close continuity as any fan. They constantly modified stories and artwork in later collections, so if you’re a purist you are just plain out of luck. Such tweaking is the reason this series of collections seem to skip up and down the publishing chronology. The intent is to entertain at all times so stories aren’t treated as gospel and order is not immutable or inviolate.

It’s just comics, guys, and in case you came in late, here’s a little background to set you up.

In a world where robots are ubiquitous and have won (limited) human rights, brilliant Dr. Tenma lost his son Tobio in a traffic accident. Grief-stricken, the tormented genius used his position as head of Japan’s Ministry of Science to build a replacement. The android his team created was one of the most groundbreaking constructs in history, and for a while Tenma was content. However, as his mind re-stabilised, Tenma realised the unchanging humanoid was not Tobio and, with cruel clarity, summarily rejected the replacement. Ultimately, the savant removed the insult to his real boy by selling the robot to a shady dealer…

One day, independent researcher Professor Ochanomizu was in the audience at a robot circus and realised diminutive performer “Astro” was unlike the other acts – or indeed, any artificial being he had ever encountered. Convincing the circus owners to part with the little robot, the Prof closely studied the unique creation and realised just what a miracle had come into his hands…

Part of Ochanomizu’s socialization process for Astro included placing him in a family environment and having him attend school just like a real boy. As well as providing friends and admirers the familiar environment turned up another foil and occasional assistant in the bellicose and highly skilled form of Elementary School teacher Higeoyaji (AKA Mr. Mustachio)…

The wiry wonder’s astonishing exploits resume after the now traditional ‘A Note to Readers’ – explaining in prose why one thing that hasn’t been altered is the depictions of various racial types in the stories. The author was also keen on combining all aspects of his creation into one overarching continuity delivered as a cartoon prelude, so these ruminations promptly give way to an epic action adventure doused with humour and social satire as our plucky android Pinocchio stumbles into a vast global conspiracy and becomes an unwitting pawn and courier of a robot doomsday device in ‘The Secret of the Egyptian Conspirators’ (originally seen between April and August 1969 in Shōnen Magazine). With an abundance of contemporary spy fiction tropes and themes in play Astro is trapped in a deadly war when the nation of Egypt falls under the spell of a robotic Cleopatra and her creator and sets about restoring their ancient empire. Bizarrely, behind the scheme is fiendish inventor Baribari – an old acquaintance and enemy of someone extremely close to Astro Boy, but that unknown connection does not impede the cosmic kid’s attempts to redeem Cleopatra whilst battling a battalion of giant robot beast and monuments, as well as the rival’s vile opportunistic human forces, leading to more tragedy and loss for the lonely manmade boy…

Follow-up fable ‘The Invisible Giant’  ran in Shōnen Magazine from May to July 1961, and by Tezuka’s own admission was heavily inspired by George Langelaan’s short story The Fly as first published in Playboy (June 1957) before becoming a sci fi classic and motion picture franchise from 1958 onwards. Here however the teleportation device maguffin results from an intense rivalry between scientists: venerable, irascible Dr. Woods and glory-seeking upstart B.S. Hanabusa. When the latter’s creation malfunctions, failing to rematerialize assorted animals and manifesting a ghastly ethereal poltergeist, Astro and his human pal Shibukagi are caught up in the duel of wills, embroiled with hitman Killer 0000 and targeted by corrupt 3D TV exec Nada and his murderous thugs.

However, when Astro uncovers the true story of the amalgamated horror stalking the city and what Woods and Nada are planning, he finds the path to justice a lot clearer than anticipated… especially with Mr. Mustachio lending his martial art muscle to the gang war erupting in the streets. Even when Nada kidnaps Ochanomizu, the robot boy and his eerie ally have a plan to save the day and produce a notional win for the good guys…

After that frenetic globe girdling and otherworldly outing, moodier adventure ‘Cobalt’ (Shōnen Magazine, June-September 1954) reintroduces a duplicate Astro Boy, built in the midst of an atomic crisis after the original robot hero of Japan goes missing on a mission. Forced to speed up his creation of Astro Boy’s successor, Professor Ochanomizu cuts some corners, but with a nuclear deadline fast approaching, realises that all Cobalt needs to do is find Astro and let the real hero save everyone…

With incredible and deadly locales, fantastic beasts and an unsuspected villain behind the crisis, that proves to be easier said than done, but in the bitter end the substitute proves he’s more than the sum of his parts…

To Be Continued…

Breathtaking pace, outrageous invention, slapstick comedy, heart-wrenching sentiment and frenetic action are hallmarks of these captivating comics constructions: perfect examples of Tezuka’s uncanny storytelling gifts, which still deliver a potent punch and instil wide-eyed wonder on a variety of intellectual levels. The melange of marvels is further enhanced here by an older, more sophisticated tone and the introduction of political and social commentary, proving Astro Boy to be a genuine delight for all ages.
Tetsuwan Atom by Osama Tezuka © 2002 by Tezuka Productions. All rights reserved. Astro Boy is a registered trademark of Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd., Tokyo Japan. Unedited translation © 2002 Frederik L. Schodt.
This book is printed in the traditional western ‘read-from-front-to-back’ format.