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Valerian – The Complete Collection volume 5


By J-C Méziéres & P Christin with colours by E. Tranlé: translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-400-7 (Album HB/Digital edition)

Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent first took to the skies and timestream in 1967: gracing the November 9th edition of Pilote (#420) in an introductory serial which ran until February 15th 1968. Although an instant hit, album compilations only began with second tale – The City of Shifting Waters – as the creators considered their first yarn as a work-in-progress, not quite up to their preferred standard.

You can judge for yourself by getting hold of the first hardcover compilation volume in this sequence of compilations Or you can consider yourself suitably forward-looking and acquire an eBook edition…

The groundbreaking fantasy series followed a Franco-Belgian boom in science fiction comics sparked by Jean-Claude Forest’s 1962 creation Barbarella. Other notable hits of that era include Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient and the cosmic excursions of Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane, which all – with Valérian in the vanguard – boosted public reception of the genre. It all led, in 1977, to the creation of dedicated fantasy periodical Métal Hurlant…

Valérian and Laureline (as the series became) was light-hearted and wildly imaginative: a time-travel action-adventure romp drenched in wry, satirical, humanist and political social commentary. The star was – at least initially – an affable, capably unimaginative, by-the-book cop tasked with protecting universal timelines and counteracting paradoxes caused by casual, incautious or criminally-minded chrononauts…

In the course of that debut escapade, Valerian picked up impetuous, sharp-witted peasant lass Laureline, who was born in the 11th century before becoming our star’s assistant and deputy. In gratitude for her truly invaluable assistance, the he-man hero brought her back to Galaxity, the 28th century super-citadel administrative capital where the feisty firebrand took a crash course in spatiotemporal ops before accompanying him on his cases…. luckily for all existence.

The series is not only immensely popular but also astoundingly influential.

This fabulous fifth oversized hardback – also available digitally – re-presents 1988’s On the Frontiers, 1990’s The Living Weapons and 1994’s The Circles of Power, and again offers a treasure trove of text features, beginning with critical appraisals ‘Valerian and Laureline: The Stuff of Heroes’; ‘Valerian, the Accidental Hero’; ‘Laureline, Bewitching and Wise’ and ‘The Heroes’ Metamorphosis’ by Stan Barets. Accompanying them are clip-art photo features ‘The Secret Charms of Laureline’, ‘The Colours of Laureline’ and essay ‘And Meanwhile…’ (detailing the creative duo’s other occupations at the time of creation).

A flurry of photos, sketches, designs and reference material detail the connections between comic album The Circles of Power and movie epic The Fifth Element in ‘A Taxi for Two’, and rounding out the extras is a selection of reportage comics by inveterate traveller Christin, illustrated by Philippe Aylmond, Alain Mounier, Enki Bilal, Méziéres, Olivier Balez and Max Cabanes.

Then, following a retrospective overview of the albums, it’s time to blast-off…

Valerian is arguably the most influential science fiction series ever drawn – and yes, I am including both Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in that undoubtedly contentious statement. Although to a large extent those venerable newspaper strips formed the medium’s foundations, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie has seen some of Jean-Claude Méziéres & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings which the filmic franchise has shamelessly plundered for decades: everything from the look of the Millennium Falcon to military uniforms to Leia’s Slave Girl outfit…

Simply put, more carbon-based lifeforms have experienced and marvelled at the uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in tech realism and light-hearted, socially-critical swashbuckling of Méziéres & Christin’s co-creation than any other cartoon spacer ever imagined. Now having scored their own big budget movie, that surely unjust situation is finally addressed and rectified…

Packed with cunningly satirical humanist action, challenging philosophy and astute political commentary, the mind-bending yarns always struck a chord with the public and especially other creators who have been swiping, “homaging” and riffing off the series ever since.

Sur les frontiers (On the Frontiers to English-speakers) was the 13th tale and marked a landmark moment in the series’ evolution.

When first conceived, every adventure started life as a serial in Pilote before being collected in album editions, but with this adventure from 1988, the publishing environment changed. This subtly harder-edged saga debuted as an all-new, complete graphic novel with magazine serialisation relegated to minor and secondary function. The switch in dissemination affected all top characters in French comics and almost spelled the end of periodical publication on the continent…

In the previous storyline the immensity of Galaxity had been erased from reality and our Spatio-Temporal Agents – with a few trusted allies – were stranded in time and stuck on late 20th century Earth…

Here, and now, we open in the depths of space as a fantastic and fabulous luxury liner affords the wealthy of many cultures and civilisations the delights of an interstellar Grand Tour. Paramount amongst guests are two god-like creatures amusing themselves by slumming amongst lower lifeforms whilst performing an ages old, languidly slow-moving mating ritual of their kind…

Sadly, puissant, magnificent Kistna has been utterly deceived by her new intended Jal. He actually has no interest in her or propagating the species: he intends stealing her probability-warping powers…

Jal is a disguised Terran and once he has completed his despicable charade, compels the ship’s captain to leave him on the nearest world: a place its indigenes call Earth…

Stranded on that world since Galaxity vanished, partners-in-peril Valerian and Laureline have been using their training and a few futuristic gadgets they had with them to become freelance secret agents. At this moment they’re in Soviet Russia where Val has just concluded that the recent catastrophic meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor was deliberately sparked by persons unknown…

As officials on site absorb the news, Val is extracted from the radioactive hotspot and ferried by laborious means across the frozen wastes to Finland and a belated reunion with Laureline and Mr. Albert: previously Galaxity’s jolly, infuriatingly unflappable 20th information gatherer/sleeper agent. The topic of discussion is tense and baffling: who could possibly profit from sparking Earth’s political tinderbox into atomic conflagration?

Far away in a plush hotel, a man with extraordinary luck discusses a certain plan with his awed co-conspirators, unaware that in the Tunisian Sahara near the frontier with Libya, three time-travelling troubleshooters are following his operatives…

That trail leads to a nuclear mine counting down to detonation, but happily the agents are well-versed in tackling primitive weaponry and the close call allows Albert to deduce why Libya and an unknown mastermind are working to instigate nuclear conflict in Africa…

After another near-miss on the US-Mexican border, investigators finally get a break, isolating the enigma behind these many almost-Armageddon moments. However, when Laureline approaches the super-gambler financing global nuclear terrorism through his bank-breaking casino sprees, she is astounded to realise the deadly disaster capitalist knows Galaxity tech…

As Valerian hurtles to her rescue, he discovers the enemy is an old comrade. For what possible reason could a fellow Galaxity survivor orchestrate Earth’s destruction? After all, isn’t it the home and foundation of the time-travelling Terran Empire they are all sworn to protect and restore?

This stunning caper was Christin & Méziéres deft re-rationalisation and clarification of their original drowned Earth storyline (as seen in 1968’s The City of Shifting Waters): adjusting it to the contemporary period that they were working in, with the added benefit of sending Valerian and Laureline into uncharted creative waters. Thus the agents’ solution to the problem of their deranged, broken – and god-powered – comrade was both impressively humane and winningly conclusive…

It was followed by 1990’s Les Armes Vivantes, with Valerian and Laureline forced to expend their last assets – a damaged astroship, some leftover alien gadgets and their own training – to eke out a perilous existence as intergalactic trans-temporal mercenaries.

Despite the misbehaviour of fractious inter-dimensional circuits in the much-travelled ship, our celestial voyagers are bound for distant, disreputable planet Blopik where Val has agreed to hand-deliver some livestock-improvement supplies. Moralistic Laureline is deeply suspicious of the way her man is behaving: it’s as if he’s doing something he knows she will disapprove of…

After a pretty hairy landing, she exits the ship to explore the burned-out pest-hole on her own. making the acquaintance of a trio of unique individuals: intergalactic performers stranded in their worst nightmare – a world without theatres and an absentee manager…

Before long they are all travelling together. The showbiz trio – malodorous metamorphic artiste Britibrit from Chab, indestructible rock-eater Doum A’goum and the indescribable Yfysania are seeking a venue to play in and appreciative audience to admire them, whilst taciturn Valerian is simply hunting the proposed purchaser of the wares in his case.

Laureline is, by now, frankly baffled. The centaurs who inhabit Blopik only understand and appreciate one thing – combat – and the planet’s cindered state is due to them setting fire to everything during the annual war between rival tribes. She can’t imagine what such folk would want with “farming gear”. For that matter, she also can’t imagine why Valerian keeps arguing with whatever he has in his travel-case…

Eventually, however, the alien Argonauts reach a grassy plain to be met by a bombastic centaur general. For “met”, read attacked without warning, but the natural abilities of the astounding performers soon gives pause to the hooved hellions and warlord Rompf agrees to parlay. He’s a centaur with a Homeric dream and Shakespearean leanings as well as the proposed purchaser of the bio-weapon in Valerian’s case. That thing has come direct from Katubian arms dealers and Laureline is appalled that Val has sunk so low and been devious enough to keep her out of the loop…

Rompf has declared War on War. He seeks to unify the tribes of Blopik by beating them all into submission and desperately needs the flame-spitting, foul-mouthed Schniafer couriered by the shamefaced former Spatio-Temporal peacekeeper to seal the deal. However, now that he’s seen what the offworld clowns can do, Rompf wants them too…

The various vaudevillians are not averse to the idea, but pride demands they put on a show too! They even have ideas how Laureline can be part of the fun.

…And that gives Valerian a chance to redeem himself too…

This tesseract of timely tales close here for now with The Circles of Power (released continentally in 1994 as Les Cercles du pouvoir). The hard-ridden, worn-out brutally battered astroship has finally given up the ghost after reaching planet Rubanis: an advanced but violently volatile and dangerous world divided into five nested rings of influence and specialism. Leaving the ship for some extremely costly repairs in the anarchic, technological boomtown of the First Circle, the Spatio-Temporal Agents start looking for some way of earning enough cash to pay for it all…

Worryingly, their occasional allies the Shingouz have already found a profitable prospect (and naturally factored in their own cut): sending the humans to meet old acquaintance and current planetary Chief of Police Colonel Tlocq in his palatial, low-orbit, high security citadel. That means taking a flying taxi and learning more than they wanted to as their highly excitable, enthusiastic and informative cabbie briefs them on the planet. He is also a young man with strong beliefs, big ideas and an often expressed violent streak…

Tlocq is a venal, casually violent but extremely efficient being policing a brutal, callous rogue world with permanently conflicting interests. Moreover, he has adopted mistrust, deception and institutional corruption as the most effective methodology to keep everything on an even keel. His policy seems to be “keep your enemies close and your allies and subordinates close enough to stab in the back”…

His chief deputy Krupachov holds the exalted rank of “Informer” and they maintain a constant atmosphere of productive, self-limiting disorder in and between the ringed regions…

However, even Tlocq has realised that something extra nasty is unfolding below him: not just in the always-explosive Heavy Industry First Circle but also in the Second (Business) Circle; the Trade/Entertainments/Arts morass of the Third Circle and even the elitist, crime-free and off-limits Fourth Circle reserved for Religion, Administration, Finance and Aristocracy. This rarefied region generates what passes for Tlocq’s directives, orders and operating rules, but he hasn’t received anything from them for some time now…

In the past he received direction via one of the ubiquitous enigmatic “machines” dotted around the cities, but is utterly opposed to letting the humans poke around inside them. He believes the machines are somehow connected to the sporadically spreading, microcephaly-inducing Scunindar virus cropping up all over Rubanis. In fact, the last time Valerian and Laureline saw him (in The Ghosts of Inverloch), Tlocq was dying from it, but he seems to have fully recovered now…

To ensure they do things his way, Tlocq doubles their fee and, knowing exactly how his world works, also gives an advance: a Grumpy Transmuter from Bluxte, able to spontaneously generate any kind of cash to buy their way out of trouble…

What he wants is not clearcut or straightforward. Although the Colonel still controls the utterly mercenary, self-serving forces under him, he has lost faith in and contact with those above who issue his orders. He wants the outsiders to bypass them and invade the ineffable Fifth Circle and find out who or what truly governs this world…

Valerian and Laureline begin by heading for the Third Circle in the flying cab, but are immediately targeted by a hidden foe. Attacked by a by a mystery woman in a tricked-up luxury vehicle that could only come from the richer echelons, they are forced down, but thanks to the cabbie’s combat skills, bring the war-limousine down with them. Go-getting taxi pilot S’traks also leads them to shelter in a seedy club in the region of entertainment…

The Shingouz are already there, haggling with a seedy mechanic who claims to know a secret way into the Last Circle…

All dickering and bargains are put on hold when their attacker bursts in, leading a squad of Vlago-Vlago mercenaries and wielding a “moroniser” whip that paralyzes, pauses cognition and wipes short-term memory. Helpless and hidden, Val and the cabbie watch merciless crime lord Na-Zultra cart off stupefied Laureline, much to the anger and frustration of her incorrigible, besotted new admirer S’traks…

It’s his idea for the undeclared love rivals to conceal themselves in the crashed limo and wait for vicious virago Na-Zultra to reclaim her highly exclusive property, and it almost works, but when they emerge from the vehicle thy are deep in unknown territory, covertly watching a procession of High Priests, business moguls and assorted aristopatrons attend a secret ceremony. They all have preternaturally shrunken heads…

Regaining consciousness a prisoner, Laureline resists all Na-Zultra’s entireties and threats of torture whilst extracting the schemer’s intentions. She learns that the ambitious criminal was hired by some faction in the Fourth Circle to secure control of Rubanis for them, but now intends to seize power for herself. When Valerian and S’Traks are discovered, Na-Zultra goes after them with the majority of her forces and Laureline makes her move…

After recuing the men and having exposed a web of conspiracies as well as the deliberate pointless of their commission, the heroes split up with Valerian confronting Tlocq about his true intent whilst Laureline seeks out the Shingouz to finally expose the mystery of the Last Circle, with go-getting S’traks using the deteriorating situation and his cabbie connections to mobilise the lower classes in an armed uprising…

Ultimately the shocking truth is exposed, triggering planetary revolution with Tlocq, Na-Zultra and S’Traks leading separate factions. Before the dust at last settles, he is well on his way to controlling Rubanis via a popular revolution across all the Circles…

Smartly subtle, sophisticated, complex and hilarious, the exploits of Valerian and Laureline mix outrageous satire with blistering action, stirring the mix with wryly punishing, allegorically critical social commentary: challenging contemporary cultural trends to forge one of the most thrilling sci fi strips ever seen.

These stories are some of the most influential comics in the world, timeless, dynamic, funny and just too good to be ignored. The time is now and there’s no space large enough to contain the sheer joy of Valerian and Laureline, so go see what all the fuss is about right now…
© Dargaud Paris, 2017 Christin, Méziéres & Tran-L?. All rights reserved. English translation © 2018 Cinebook Ltd.

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Solar, Man of the Atom: Alpha and Omega (Slipcase Edition)


By Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith & Bob Layton with Kathryn Bolinger (Valiant)
No ISBN

The 1990s were a grim period for comics creativity. In far too many places, the industry had become market-led by speculators, with spin-offs, fad-chasing, shiny gimmicks and multiple-covers events replacing innovation and good story-telling. One notable exception was a little outfit with some big names that clearly prized the merits of well-told stories illustrated by artists immune to the latest mis-proportioned, scratchy poseur style, and one with enough business sense to play the industry at its own game…

As Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter had made Marvel the most profitable, high-profile comics company in America, and following his departure, he used that savvy to pick up the rights to a series of characters with Silver-Age appeal and turn them into contemporary gold.

Western Publishing had been an industry player since the earliest days, mixing major licensed brands such as Disney titles, Star Trek and Loony Tunes with in-house original stars like Turok, Son of Stone, Space Family Robinson, Magnus, Robot Fighter and – in deference to the age of the nuclear hero –Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom.

With an agreement to revive some, any or all of these four-colour veterans, Shooter and co-conspirator Bob Layton came to a bold decision and opted to incorporate all those 1960s adventures into their refits: acutely aware that older fans don’t like having their childhood favourites bastardized, and that revivals need all the support they can get. Thus the old days were canonical: they did “happen ” and would impact the new material being created for a brasher, more critical audience.

Although the company launched with a classy and classic reinterpretation of Magnus, the lynchpin title for the new universe they were building was the only broadly super-heroic character in the bunch. They had big plans for Solar, Man of the Atom who was launched with an eye to exploiting all the new printing gimmicks of the era, but was cleverly rationalised and realistically rendered. However, that’s not what this book is about.

The thrust of the regular series followed comic fan/nuclear physicist Phil Seleski – designer of the new Muskogee fusion reactor – as he dealt with its imminent activation. Inserted into the first ten issues was a brief extra chapter by Shooter, Windsor-Smith & Layton describing that self-same Seleski as he came to accept the horrific nuclear meltdown he had caused and the incredible abilities it had given him. As the world went to atomic hell, Seleski – AKA Solar – believed he had found his one chance to put things right…

That sounds pretty vague – and it should – because the compiled 10 chapters that form Alpha and Omega are a prequel, an issue #0, designed to be read only after the initial story arc had introduced readers to Seleski’s new world. That it reads so well in isolation is a testament to the talents of all those involved, and in combination with accompanying collection Solar, Man of the Atom: Second Death the saga forms a high point in 1990s comics creation. I will not be happy until this epic is generally available again – in all formats – but until that happens, I’ll take any opportunity to convince you all to seek out both these outstanding epics of science-hero-super-fiction.

You should take my word for it and start hunting now: and just by way of a friendly tip: each insert culminated with a two-page spread comprising a segment of “the world’s largest comic panel”, and the treasured slipcase edition I’m reviewing includes a poster combining those spreads into a terrifyingly detailed depiction of the end of the event…

By the way: one of those aforementioned trendy gimmicks was black-on-black printing, and the slipcase edition replicates that technique for the case cover. If you find an edition as seen in our attached cover illo, that’s the actual front of the interior book. There should also be that great big poster too. It’s still worth having without the extras, but it’s not the complete package…

Seek and enjoy, fans…
© 1994 Voyager Communications and Western Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Solar, Man of the Atom: Second Death


By Jim Shooter, Don Perlin, Barry Windsor-Smith, Bob Layton & Tom Ryder (Valiant)
No ISBN:

Quarterly title Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #1 hit newsstands on June 28th1962 sporting an October cover-date. My arithmetic isn’t good enough to decipher Gold Key’s arcane system but is advanced enough to realise that’s another 60th Anniversary occurring right about now. Happy birthday, Doc!

During the market-led, gimmick-crazed frenzy of the 1990s, amongst the interminable spin-offs, fads, shiny multiple-cover events a new comics company revived some old characters and proved once more that good story-telling never goes out of fashion. As Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter had made Marvel the most profitable and high-profile they had ever been, and after his departure he used that writing skill and business acumen to transform some almost forgotten Silver-Age characters into contemporary gold.

Western Publishing had been a major player since comics’ earliest days, blending a huge tranche of licensed publications such as TV, movie and Disney titles; properties like Tarzan and The Lone Ranger with homegrown hits like Turok, Son of Stone and Space Family Robinson.

In the 1960s, during the second superhero boom, these original adventure titles expanded to include Brain Boy, M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War (created by Wally Wood), Magnus, Robot Fighter (by the incredible Russ Manning) and in deference to the atomic age of heroes, Nukla and the brilliantly lowkey but explosively high concept Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom. Despite supremely high quality and passionate fan-bases, they never captured the media spotlight of DC or Marvel’s costumed cut-ups. Western shut their comics division in 1984.

With an agreement to revive some, any or all of these four-colour veterans, Shooter and co-conspirator Bob Layton came to a bold decision and made those earlier adventures part-and-parcel of their refit: acutely aware that old fans don’t like having their childhood favourites bastardized, and that revivals need all the support they can get. Thus the old days were canonical: they “happened.”

Although the company launched with a classy reinterpretation of Magnus, the key title to the new universe they were building was the only broadly super-heroic character in the bunch, and they had big plans for him. Solar, Man of the Atom was launched with an eye to all the gimmicks of the era, but was cleverly realised and realistically drawn.

Second Death collects the first four issues of the revived Solar and follows brilliant nuclear physicist Phil Seleski, designer of the new Muskogee fusion reactor in the fraught days before it finally goes online. Faced with indifferent colleagues and inept superiors, pining for a woman who doesn’t seem to know he exists, Seleski is under a lot of pressure. So when he meets a god-like version of himself. he simply puts it down to stress-induced delusion…

Solar, the atomic god who was Seleski, is freshly arrived on Earth, and with his new sensibilities goes about meeting the kind of people and doing the kind of things his mortal self would never have dreamed of. As if godhood had made him finally appreciate humanity, Solar befriends bums, saves kids and fixes disasters like the heroes in the comic books he collected as a boy.

His energized matter and troubled soul even further divide into a hero and “villain”, but things take a truly bizarre turn when he falls foul of a genuine super-foe: discovering that the “normal” world is anything but, and that he is far from unique. The superhuman individuals employed and mentored in Toyo Harada’s Harbinger Foundation prove that the world has always been a fantastical place, and Solar’s belief that he has travelled back in time to prevent his own creation gives way to realisation that something even stranger has occurred…

This is a cool and knowing revision of the hallowed if not clichéd “atomic blast turns schmuck into hero” plot: brimming with sharp observation, plausible characters and frighteningly convincing pseudo-science. The understated but compelling art by hugely under-appreciated Don Perlin is a terrifying delight and adds even more shades of veracity to the mix, as do the colours of Kathryn Bolinger & Jorge Gonzãlez.

Moreover, the original comics had a special inserted component in the first 10 issues (by Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith & Layton) revealing the epic events that made Seleski into a god. Designed to be best read only after the initial story arc had introduced readers to Seleski’s new world, these were collected as Solar, Man of the Atom: Alpha and Omega. Together they combine to form one of the most impressive and cohesive superhero origin sagas ever concocted and one desperately in need of reprinting …if whoever currently controls the licensing rights to the stories could only get their act together…

Until then you can try hunting these down via your usual internet and comic retailers, and trust me, you should…
© 1994 Voyager Communications Inc. and Western Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Oh My Goddess! volume 1


By K?suke Fujishima, original translation by Dana Lewis, Alan Gleason & Toren Smith (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-387-9 (tank?bon TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62115-755-7

Talking of school – as we were the other day – college days also offer plenty of opportunities for comics creativity and, as is usually the case, manga has been there first and explored avenues you never even realised existed.

Fujishima K?suke was born in Chiba, Japan on July 7th 1964, and after completing High School, got a job as an editor. His plans to be a draughtsman had foundered after failing to secure a requisite apprenticeship, and he instead joined Puff magazine in that backroom role. Life began looking up after he became assistant to manga artist Tatsuya Egawa (Be Free, Golden Boy, Magical Taluluto)…

Fujishima graduated to his first solo feature in 1986: writing and illustrating police series You’re Under Arrest until 1992. In 1988, he began a consecutive second series: a fantasy comedy that would reshape his life forever. Although he would work on other manga like Paradise Residence and Toppu GP over the decades, Aa! Megami-sama – alternatively translated as Ah! My Goddess and Oh My Goddess! became his signature work and one that has made him a household name in Japan.

The series began in the September 1988 issue of Kodansha’s seinen (“young males”) manga periodical Monthly Afternoon. The strip ran until April 2014, generating enough stories for 48 tank?bon volumes, a spin-off series and spawning anime, special editions, numerous TV series, musical albums, games and all the attendant spin-offs and merchandise such popular success brings.

In 2020 there were 25 million physical copies of the editions in circulation and an unguessable number of digital sales. OMG! has won awards, been translated across the globe in print and on screens and has a confirmed place in comics history…

Oh My Goddess! is a particularly fine example of a peculiarly Japanese genre of storytelling combining fantasy with loss of conformity and embarrassment. In this case, and as seen in opening chapter ‘The Number You Have Dialled is Incorrect’ nerdy engineering sophomore Keiichi Morisato dials a wrong number one night and inadvertently connects to the Goddess Technical Help Line.

When the captivatingly beautiful and cosmically powerful minor deity Belldandy materialises in his room offering him one wish, he mockingly asks that she never leave him. This rash response effectively traps her on Earth, unable even to move very far beyond his physical proximity. Her powers are mighty but also come with a bucketload of provisos and restrictions. The most immediate and terrible repercussion manifests quickly as he is ejected from his student residence for having a girl in his room…

Belldandy’s profligate use of her divine powers, utter naivety and tendency to attract chaos and calamity make their search for a new home a fraught exercise, but finally second chapter ‘Lair of the Anime Mania’ finds Keiichi trying the apartment of old friend Sada. He was not a preferred choice because he is addicted to anime: a living zombie of fannishness who welcomes the refugees in without even noticing them …or letting go of the TV and video remotes…

All too soon however, and again thanks to the Goddess’ gifts, Sada notices Belldandy’s similarities to his cartoon fantasies and they have to move again…

After a night on the freezing streets, providence smiles on them when a Buddhist priest welcomes them into his dwelling. An individual prone to conclusion-jumping, the holy man’s eventual deduction of her true nature prompts him to undertake a pilgrimage of rediscovery, bequeathing them custody of his earthy abode in ‘A Man’s Home is His… Temple?’

With accommodation secured, the hapless student needs to get back to his education, and in a structured society like Japan there’s plenty of scope for comedy when a powerful and beautiful female seemingly dotes on a barely average male, especially as Keiichi’s new girlfriend seems unwilling to even leave his side…

The solution is to use her powers to “enrol” at his school – the Nekomi Institute of Technology. However, when the clearly “European” newcomer becomes a ‘College Exchange Goddess’ she can’t help but draw unwelcome attention, particularly from Keiichi’s macho, petrolhead fellow students and creepy lecturer Dr. Ozawa. The lifelong rival of Morisato’s favourite teacher “Doc” Kakuta has his suspicions aroused when all his students switch to the classes Belldandy audits and he begins a covert campaign to get rid of her…

More trouble materialises in ‘Those Whom Goddess Hath Joined Together, Let No Woman Put Asunder’ as thoroughly unlikeable campus queen and predatory Mean Girl Sayoko Mishima realises the new kid is a threat to her social supremacy and sets her destructive sights and wealth on Belldandy’s hapless chump. The goddess is more aware of the interlopers inadvertent mystical bad mojo and takes kind, gentle but firm retaliatory action…

College is a series of crucial interconnections and – other than Belldandy – Morisato is closest to his colleagues in the Nekomi Institute of Technology Motor Club: a gang of overbearing, bullying gear-head maniacs, always spending his money, eating his food and getting him into trouble…

However, the earthbound divinity’s role is to aid those in need and when she detects chief brute Otaki is enduring unrequited love she plays matchmaker in ‘Single Lens Psychic: The Prayer Answered’ and sets off a chain of domestic shock and awe…

This mainly monochrome compendium is peppered with brief full colour sections and one such opens ‘Lullaby of Love’ as Morisato finally summons the nerve to move beyond the painfully platonic life sentence he’s been locked into. Sadly, books like Going Steady for Dummies can get him no closer to even kissing his goddess and their first stab at an intimate dinner date turns into a disaster further compounded in ‘The Blossom in Bloom’ as financial shortfalls presage the introduction of Morisato’s little sister Megumi: a gossip spreader and imaginative tale teller. What family furore she will make of him living with a gorgeous exotic foreigner cannot be allowed…

She causes chaos from the start: bearing enough cash to tide them over but only if Keiichi boards her for a week while she takes some important entrance exams. There’s no way the kid won’t expose Belldandy’s supernatural nature to the world…

What big brother should have fretted over was the actual tests, as Megumi aces he exams and is admitted to Nekomi Tech. Now Morisato is plagued with ‘Apartment Hunting Blues’ as he hunts for a decent place to house her. It’s a good thing that Belldandy accompanies the siblings as – once they find the perfect place – the goddess has to exorcise and transform the evil spirit haunting it …the true reason it was so cheap in the first place…

Following the comics comes a text feature by editor Carl Gustav Horn. ‘Letters to the Enchantress’ details the strip’s history and evolution to an English language series, and is supplemented by ‘Editor’s Commentary on Vol. 1’: an expansive collection of footnotes clarifying everything from explaining untranslated background kanji and graphics to detailing significant cultural clues that might bypass most readers.

Oh My Goddess! is a beguiling, engaging and eminently re-readable confection, at once frothy fun and entrancing drama. Think of it as a Eastern take on Bewitched or I Dream of Genie, especially as the romance develops: one that both mortal and immortal protagonists are incapable of admitting to. Throw in the required supporting cast of friends, rivals, insane teachers and interfering entities and there’s plenty of light-hearted fun to be found in this bright and breezy manga classic.
© 2005 by Kosuke Fujishima. All Rights Reserved. This English language edition © 2005 Dark Horse Comics.

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Hawkeye Epic Collection volume 1: The Avenging Archer 1964-1988


By Stan Lee & Don Heck, Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Steven Grant,  Mark Gruenwald, David Michelinie, Mike Friedrich, J.M. DeMatteis, Scott Edelman, Roger Stern, Charlie Boatner, Jack Kirby, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, John Byrne, Carmine Infantino, Greg LaRoque, George Evans, Jimmy Janes, Paul Neary, Joe Staton, Dick Ayers, Mike Netzer, Trevor Von Eeden, Eliot R. Brown & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3723-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

Clint Barton is probably the world’s greatest archer: swift, bold, unerringly accurate and augmented by a fantastic selection of multi-purpose high-tech arrows. Other masked bow persons are available… including a young, female Hawkeye…

Following an early brush with the law and as a reluctant Iron Man villain, Barton reformed to join the Mighty Avengers, serving with honour and distinction, despite always feeling overshadowed by his more glamorous, super-powered comrades.

Long a mainstay of Marvel continuity and probably Marvel’s most popular B-list hero, the Battling Bowman has risen to great prominence in recent years, boosted by his film and television incarnation.

This brash and bombastic collection – available in paperback and digital formats – re-presents breakthrough miniseries Hawkeye #1-4, the major early appearances from Tales of Suspense #57, 60, 64 and momentous moments from The Avengers #16, 63-65, 189, 223: supplemented by outings in Marvel Team-Up #22, 92, 95; Captain America #317 and pertinent material from Marvel Tales #100; Marvel Fanfare #3, 39 and Marvel Super Action #1, all chronologically covering September 1964 to August 1988. It should be noted that some of these tales feature his occasional wife and partner Mockingbird…

It naturally begins with a blockbusting debut from Tales of Suspense #57. In ‘Hawkeye, the Marksman!’ – by Stan Lee & Don Heck – as the villainous Black Widow resurfaces to beguile an ambitious and frustrated former carnival performer-turned-neophyte-costumed vigilante. She convinces him to attack her archenemy Iron Man and, despite a clear power-imbalance, the amazing ingenious archer comes awfully close to beating the Golden Avenger…

Natasha Romanoff (sometimes Natalia Romanova) was a Soviet Russian spy who came in from the cold to become one of Marvel’s earliest female stars. She started life as a svelte, sultry honey-trap during Marvel’s early “Commie-busting” days, periodically targeting Tony Stark and battling Iron Man. She was subsequently redesigned as a torrid, tights-&-tech super-villain before defecting to the USA, falling for an assortment of Yankee superheroes – including Hawkeye, Daredevil and Hercules – and enlisted as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., setting up as a freelance do-gooder before joining (and occasionally leading) The Avengers.

Tales of Suspense #60 (December 1964, by Lee, Heck & Dick Ayers) featured an extended plotline with Stark’s “disappearance” leading to Iron Man being ‘Suspected of Murder!’. Capitalizing on the chaos, lovestruck Hawkeye and the Widow again attacked the Armoured Avenger, but another failure led to her being recaptured and re-educated by enemy agents…

Abruptly transformed from fur-draped seductress into gadget-laden costumed villain, she resurfaced in #64 (April 1965 by Lee, Heck & Chic Stone), again steering the bewitched bowman into attacking her enemy. Her final failure led to huge changes…

Most importantly, one month later, Avengers #16 saw the superstar team split up following climactic battles against Zemo and the Masters of Evil. Laid out by Jack Kirby & embellished by Ayers, ‘The Old Order Changeth!’ introduced a dramatic change of concept for the series. As Lee increasingly wrote to the Marvel’s unique strengths – tight continuity and strongly individualistic characterisation – he found juggling individual stars in their own titles in addition to a combined team episode every month was almost impossible…

As Captain America and substitute sidekick Rick Jones fight their way back to civilisation, the Avengers institute changes and seek out their own replacements. The big-name stars resigned making way for three erstwhile villains: Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye, all reformed, reenergised and hungry for redemption…

The Straightshooter became a mainstay and backbone of the team, but in Avengers #63, survived a battle epiphany that triggered a big change after returning from a mission in Wakanda.

Beginning a 3-part tale illustrated by Gene Colan & George Klein ‘And in this Corner… Goliath!’ saw Barton abandon the arrow schtick in favour of true super-powers as Roy Thomas finally gave the enigmatic Avenger an origin.

The first chapter was part of a broader tale: an early crossover experiment intersecting with the 14th issue of both Sub-Mariner and Captain Marvel, wherein a coterie of cerebral second-string villains combined to conquer the world by stealth…

Within the Avengers portion of proceedings, Hawkeye revealed his civilian identity for the first time. He was ex-circus performer Clint Barton and shared his origins before forsaking bow and trick-arrows to become a size-changing hero using Pym particles. He then adopted the now-vacant name Goliath to save the Black Widow.

In #64’s ‘Like a Death Ray from the Sky!’ he reluctantly reunited with his mobster brother Barney Barton and led the team against a terror satellite scheme cooked up by Egghead before #65 (inked by Sam Grainger) saw him attacked by his old enemy/mercenary mentor the Swordsman in ‘Mightier than the Sword?’

Jumping to June 1974 – a time when the archer pursued a solo career – Marvel Team-Up #22 (by Len Wein, Sal Buscema & Frank Giacoia) unleashes ‘The Messiah Machine!’ as Battling Bowman and Amazing Spider-Man frustrate deranged computer Quasimodo’s ambitious if absurd mechanoid invasion of Earth.

Cover-dated February 1979, reprint title Marvel Tales #100 concealed ‘Killers of a Purple Rage!’: a new short tale by Scott Edelman, Michael Netzer & Terry Austin which finds time-displaced Two-Gun Kid and Hawkeye battling each other and then mind controlling menace Killgrave the Controller…

Avengers #189 (November 1979, by Steven Grant, John Byrne & Dan Green) then reveals how official reservist Hawkeye get a day job at Cross Technological Enterprises in ‘Wings and Arrows!’ Before long, he’s earning every penny as the new security chief by battling alien avian interloper Deathbird…

For Marvel Team-Up #92 (April 1980) Grant, Carmine Infantino & Pablo Marcos reunite Archer and Arachnid after a new iteration of Mr. Fear steals CTE technology and almost cripples the heroes with ‘Fear!’ after which vigilante activist El Águila raids the corporate citadel in a tight tale from Marvel Fanfare #3 (July 1982). Crafted by Charlie Boatner, Trevor Von Eeden & Josef Rubinstein, ‘Swashbucklers’ at last opens Hawk’s eyes to what his bosses are truly like and what they do with their discoveries…

Cover-dated September 1982, Avengers #223 talked ‘Of Robin Hoods and Roustabouts’. Devised by David Michelinie, Greg LaRocque, Brett Breeding & Crew, it saw reinstated Avenger Clint Barton join Ant-Man Scott Lang, when he and daughter Cassie attend a circus and stumble into a clash with skills-mimic Taskmaster to extricate an old friend from the maniac’s clutches and influence.

Hawkeye was always a team player and unlucky in love, but that was all about to change. In the interests of complete clarity, this collection pops briefly back to 1976 for some classy comics context and the first (costumed) appearance of occasional wife and frequent paramour Bobbi “Mockingbird” Morse as first seen in January 1976.

Preceded by a Howard Chaykin frontispiece from monochrome Marvel Super Action #1, former Ka-Zar romantic interest Dr. Barbera Morse was reinvented by Mike Friedrich, George Evans & Frank Springer in ‘Red-Eyed Jack is Wild!’ Adopting unwieldy nomme de guerre Huntress, skilled combat operative Morse devotes herself to cleaning up corruption inside S.H.I.E.L.D., no matter what the cost…

Huntress became Mockingbird in Marvel Team-Up #95 (July) in a smart thriller by Grant, Jimmy Janes & Bruce Patterson. ‘…And No Birds Sing!’ ended the long-extant S.H.I.E.L.D. corruption storyline as Morse invited Spider-Man to join forces and expose the true cancer at the heart of America’s top spy agency…

All this was laying the groundwork for something truly game-changing…

Written and drawn by the hugely underrated and much-missed Mark Gruenwald, assisted by inkers Brett Breeding & Danny Bulanadi and running from September-December 1983, Hawkeye #1-4 was one of Marvel’s earliest miniseries and remains one of the very best and most eventful adventures of the Ace Archer. Much like the character himself, this project was seriously underestimated when first released. Most industry pundits and the more voluble fans expected very little from a second-string hero drawn by a professional writer. Guess again, suckers!

 ‘Listen to the Mockingbird’ sees Clint still moonlighting as security chief for electronics corporation CTE when he captures a renegade S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. She reveals that his bosses are all crooks, secretly involved in shady mind-control experiments.

After some initial doubts, in ‘Point Blank’ Barton teams with the svelte and sexy super-agent to foil the plot, gaining in the process a new costume and an instant rogues’ gallery of archfoes such as Silence, Oddball and Bombshell by third chapter ‘Beating the Odds’…

As the constant hunt and struggle wears on, Barton succumbs to – but is not defeated by – a life-changing physical injury leading to permanent disability. He also impetuously marries in explosive conclusion ‘Till Death us do Part…’ wherein the sinister mastermind behind everything is finally revealed and summarily dealt with.

In those faraway days both Gruenwald and Marvel Top Gun Jim Shooter maintained that a miniseries had to deal with significant events in a character’s life, and this bright and breezy, no-nonsense, compelling and immensely enjoyable yarn certainly kicked out the deadwood and re-launched Hawkeye’s career.

In short order from here the bowman went on to create and lead his own team: The West Coast Avengers, gained a regular series in Solo Avengers/Avengers Spotlight and his own titles, consequently becoming one of the most vibrant and popular characters of the period and today as well as a modern-day action movie icon…

However, there are still treats to share

Next here is fun foray from Captain America 317 (May 1986) by Gruenwald, Paul Neary & Dennis Janke. In ‘Death-Throws’ Hawkeye and Mockingbird hunt circus-themed villains and their boss Crossfire with the Sentinel of Liberty reduced almost to a spectator and proud dad watching the kids grow up…

The comics wonderment concludes with a little-seen story from Marvel Fanfare #39 (August 1988). Courtesy of J.M. DeMatteis, Joe Staton & Kim DeMulder, ‘The Cat’s Tale’ finds the Ace Archer seriously off his game until taken on a vision-quest by Navajo shaman Jesse Black Crow to confront the predatory feline spirit that is poisoning his existence…

Packed with terrific tales of old-fashioned romance, skulduggery and derring-do, this book comes with extras including the Gil Kane cover to Marvel Triple Action #10, text articles on the Hawkeye miniseries from Marvel Age #6; the event’s 1983 house ad by Gruenwald & Brett Breeding and the covers and introduction from the 1988 TPB collection (and three subsequent re-releases), plus text pieces from Archie Goodwin, & Gruenwald.

Also on view are contemporaneous info pages from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, about Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Death-Throws, Ringleader, Oddball, Bombshell, Tenpin and KnickKnack, plus diagrammatic cutaways by Eliot R. Brown, detailing the secrets of ‘Hawkeye’s Skymobile’, ‘Hawkeye’s Quiver and Bows’ and ‘Mockingbird’s Battle-Staves’.

This is a no-nonsense example of the straightforward action-adventure yarns that cemented Marvel’s reputation and success and a collection to enhance any Fights ‘n’ Tights fans’ place of honour on the bookshelf.
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Ducoboo volume 1 – King of the Dunces


By Godi & Zidrou, coloured by Véronique Grobet & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-15-1 (Album PB/Digital edition)

School stories and strips of every tone about juvenile fools, devils and rebels are a lynchpin of modern western entertainment and an even larger staple of Japanese comics – where the scenario has spawned its own wild and vibrant subgenres. However, would Dennis the Menace (ours and theirs), Komi Can’t Communicate, Winker Watson, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Power Pack, Cédric or any of the rest be improved or just different if they were created by former teachers rather than ex-kids or current parents?

It’s no surprise the form is so evergreen: school life takes up a huge amount of children’s attention no matter how impoverished or privileged they are, and their fictions will naturally address their issues and interests. It’s fascinating to see just how much school stories revolve around humour, but always with huge helpings of drama, terror romance and an occasional dash of action…

One of the most popular European strips employing the eternal basic themes and methodology began in the last fraction of the 20th century, courtesy of scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Godi.

Drousie is Belgian, born in 1962 and for six years a school teacher prior to changing careers in 1990 to write comics like those he probably used to confiscate in class. Other mainstream successes in a range of genres include Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Shi, Léonardo, a revival of Ric Hochet, and many more. However, his most celebrated and beloved stories are the Les Beaux Étés sequence (digitally available in English as Glorious Summers) and 2010’s Lydie, both illustrated by Spanish artist Jordi Lafebre.

Zidrou began his comics career with what he knew best: stories about and for kids, including Crannibales, Tamara, Margot et Oscar Pluche and, most significantly, a feature about a (and please forgive the charged term) school dunce: L’Elève Ducobu…

Godi is a Belgian National Treasure, born Bernard Godisiabois in Etterbeek in December 1951. After studying Plastic Arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels he became an assistant to comics legend Eddy Paape in 1970, working on the strip Tommy Banco for Le Journal de Tintin whilst freelancing as an illustrator for numerous comics and magazines. He became a Tintin regular three years later, primarily limning C. Blareau’s Comte Lombardi, but also working on gag strip Red Rétro by Vicq, with whom he also produced Cap’tain Anblus McManus and Le Triangle des Bermudes for Le Journal de Spirou in the early 1980s. He soloed on Diogène Terrier (1981-1983) for Casterman.

He then moved into advertising cartoons and television, cocreating with Nic Broca the animated TV series Ovide. He only returned to comics in 1991, collaborating with newcomer Zidrou on L’Elève Ducobu for magazine Tremplin. The strip launched in September 1992 before transferring to Le Journal de Mickey, and collected albums began in 1997 – 25 so far in French and Dutch, 8 for Turkish readers, and 6 for Indonesia.

When not immortalising modern school days for future generations, Godi latterly diversified, co-creating (1995 with Zidrou) comedy feature Suivez le Guide and game page Démon du Jeu with scripter Janssens.

The series has spawned a live action movie franchise, a dozen pocket books plus all the usual attendant merchandise paraphernalia. and we English-speakers’ introduction to the series (5 volumes thus far) came courtesy of Cinebook with 2006’s initial release King of the Dunces which was in fact the 5th European collection L’élève Ducobu – Le roi des cancres.

The format is loads of short – most often single page – gag strips starring a revolving cast who are all well established by this point, but also fairly one-sided and easy to get a handle on.

Our star is a well-meaning, good natured young oaf who doesn’t get on with school. He’s sharp, inventive, imaginative, inquisitive, personable and just not academical at all. We might today put him on a spectrum or diagnose a disorder like ADHD, but at heart he’s just not interested and has better things to do…

Dad is a civil servant and Mum left home when Ducoboo was a baby, but then there’s a lot of that about. Leonie Gratin – from whom he constantly copies answers – only has a mum.

The boy and his class colleagues attend Saint Potache School and are mostly taught by draconian Mr Latouche who’s something of humourless martinet. Thanks to him, Ducoboo has spent so much time in the corner with a dunce cap on his head that he’s struck up a friendship with the biology skeleton. He calls himself Neness and is always ready with a theory or suggestion for fun and frolics…

In this volume, after being caught cheating again, Latouche applies what he calls “truth serum” to the squabbling kids. The wild kid fakes taking it, but Leonie is an obedient child and soon can’t help blurting out her hidden feelings for the class outlaw – thereby ensuring he voluntarily tries keeping his distance for some time after …or at least until the next test or exercise…

On view are fresh riffs on being late and missing class; roll calls and registers; new and old class furniture; novel ways to copy answers; writing lines and how to hack the system; the power of art; collecting educational stickers; yawning in class; grammar and grandmas, punctuation, warring student radio stations; the restorative blessings of short naps whilst working; the ultimate futility of bad boys actually working and still being called a cheat and always, always cheating, copying and guessing answers…

Also encountered are jaunts to a circus, educational psychologists, Teachers’ changing pay and conditions, new ways to learn, the origins of his skeletal comrade, Nativity plays and mistletoe mischief, classical poetry – like ‘The Nitwit and the Trickster’ by bony scribe Nessy de la Fontanelle, dress codes for kids from other cultures (especially fascinating new girl Fatima and her lovely chador), new romantic fancies and classroom exoticism, outrageous example test papers and – as a main event – the educational crucible of April Fool’s Day and its cumulative effect on Latouche…

Wry, witty and whimsical whilst rehashing evergreen childhood themes, Ducuboo is an up-tempo, upbeat addition to the genre that any parent or pupil can appreciate and enjoy. If your kids aren’t back at school quite yet, why not keep them occupied a little longer with the King of the Dunces – whilst thanking your lucky stars that he’s not yours?
© Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard) 2000 by Godi & Zidrou. English translation © 2006 Cinebook Ltd.

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Bluecoats volume 13: Something Borrowed, Something Blue


By Willy Lambil & Raoul Cauvin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-531-8 (Album PB/Digital edition)

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

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

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

Born in 1938, scripter Cauvin was also Belgian and – before entering Dupuis’ animation department in 1960 – studied Lithography. He soon discovered his true calling – comedy – and began a glittering, prolific writing career at Le Journal de Spirou. In addition, he scripted dozens of long-running, award winning series including Cédric, Les Femmes en Blanc and Agent 212: more than 240 separate albums. Les Tuniques Bleues alone has sold more than 15 million copies of its 66 (and counting) album sequence. Cauvin died on August 19th 2021, but his vast legacy of laughter remains.

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

The original format offered single-page gags set around an Indian-plagued Wild West fort, but from the second volume – Du Nord au Sud – the sad-sack soldiers were situated back East, fighting in the American Civil War. All subsequent adventures – despite ranging far beyond the traditional environs of America and taking in a lot of genuine and thoroughly researched history – are set within the timeframe of the Secession conflict.

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

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

Des bleus et des dentelles was originally serialised in 1983 in Le Journal de Spirou (#2384-2387) before collection into another mega-selling album in 1985. It was the 22nd European release and in 2020 became Cinebook’s 13th translated volume. As Something Borrowed, Something Blue it offers a lighter touch and tone than many, with the underlying horror salved by a kind-of romance and ridiculously surreal black comedy.

Once again Union forces are stalemated with no advance possible. Even the cavalry – under the leadership of utterly deranged, apparently invulnerable maniac Captain Stark – are stuck in dugouts, dodging enemy artillery fire beside ordinary foot soldiers. The zealot’s constant, costly, pointless charges at Confederate gun emplacements have left them short of riders and out of horses…

Sergeant Chesterfield is furious, but Blutch is perfectly happy keeping his head down and playing cards… until a shell lands on his position. By some miracle, he survives, but as Chesterfield brings him to the casualty-packed field hospital, it becomes clear that the odds of remaining so are against him.

Only the sarge’s armed intimidation can get a doctor to even look at his pal, and when they try to hack off Blutch’s leg, only the little man’s hidden gun stops them from completing the unnecessary surgery…

Suddenly, the entire camp’s attention is switched to the hospital, as the General’s latest morale-boosting scheme arrives: volunteer medical assistants – all women…

Suddenly, the entire army is stricken with some malady or other. Even Stark abandons the joy of slaughter to secure some female attention, and a top level secret plan is enacted to retore order. It involves scrupulous triage before any soldier can be admitted for treatment and to make doubly sure of weeding out malingerers, the formidable Miss Bertha will examine every man claiming injury.

The most secret part is that she is actually the hugely unhappy Private Burke in drag. His greatest fear is dying in a dress, but at least he won’t have to explain his new “uniform” to the wife and kids…

Meanwhile, actually injured Blutch is slowly recovering, thanks in great part to the diligent ministrations of nurse Jenny. Angel and patient are always together now, and Chesterfield finds himself increasingly lonely and jealous …but not as much as Blutch’s incredibly smart horse Polka…

As the shirker heals, the military situation is worsening. The unassailable artillery is grinding the Union stronghold to rubble and ruin, but things start changing after another futile Stark sortie leads to the enemy troops learning there are women in their enemies’ camp. Soon, Rebel wounded are demanding that they be treated in the Union hospital too…

The situation is untenable and Chesterfield is going crazy, but the biggest bombshell comes not from enemy guns but little Blutch, as he hobbles around on crutches. The little guy is going to marry Jenny…

Initially horrified, the General unexpectedly agrees to the match, but as preparations take the men’s minds off the perpetual bombardment another shock lands after Stark requests he be allowed to wed “Bertha”…

Moreover, as Mr and Mrs Blutch ride a buggy back to safety and civilisation, Chesterfield discovers the truth about Bertha and is ordered to take his place as a female-presenting triage nurse. When “Miss Cornelia” then discovers how Blutch and Jenny have fooled everybody and escaped the war, he goes ballistic and sets off after the delinquents. He finds them frantically coming towards him scant yards ahead of a Confederate sneak attack approaching the Union camp from the rear.

Suddenly, it’s time for everyone to get back to the real business of war, with the Bluecoats survival dependant on Stark’s insane tactics…

Combining searing satire with stunning slapstick, Something Borrowed, Something Blue deftly delivers a beguiling message about the sheer stupidity of war equally clear  to younger, less world-weary audiences and old lags who have seen it all.

These stories weaponise humour, making occasional moments of shocking verity doubly powerful and hard-hitting. Funny, thrilling, beautifully realised and eminently readable, Bluecoats is the kind of war-story and Western, appealing to the best, not worst, of the human spirit.
© Dupuis 1985 by Lambil & Cauvin. All rights reserved. English translation © 2020 Cinebook Ltd.

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Wonder Woman: The War Years 1941-1945


By William Moulton Marston & Harry G. Peter, with Gardner F. Fox, Jack Burnley, Frank Godwin, Joe Gallagher & various: curated & edited by Roy Thomas (Chartwell Books)
ISBN: 978-0-7858-3284-3 (HB)

Without doubt Wonder Woman is the very acme of female role models. Since her premier she has permeated every aspect of global consciousness, becoming not only a paradigm of comics’ very fabric but also an affirming symbol to women everywhere. In whatever era you observe, the Amazing Amazon epitomises the perfect balance between Brains and Brawn and, over decades, has become one of a rarefied pantheon of literary creations to achieve meta-reality.

In 2019, fans celebrated the 80th anniversary of Batman’s debut in Detective Comics #27. A year after that dynamic debut his astounding popularity resulted in the launch of Batman #1 (cover-dated “Spring” and released April 25th 1940). Back then, only precursor/stablemate Superman was more successful, but it wasn’t long before one half of the company that became todays DC Comics delivered another timeless game-changing icon…

Wonder Woman was born on the cusp of a year and a new age, and fans have argued about her debut date ever since. Her first appearance was in late 1941, buried and shoe-horned in without fanfare into top-selling All-Star Comics (#8): home of the mighty Justice Society of America. However, as revealed here by Roy Thomas, she was intended to launch later, in Sensation Comics #1, but events overtook her and her creators…

Once the war in Europe and the East snared America’s consciousness, crime and domestic deviltry increasingly gave way to combat and espionage themes. Patriotic imagery dominated most comic book covers – if not interiors – and the USA’s mass-publishing outfits geared up for joining the seemingly inevitable conflict.

I feel – like many of my era and inclinations – that superhero comics were never more apt or effective than when wholeheartedly combating global fascism with explosive, improbable excitement courtesy of a myriad of mysterious, masked marvels. I have similar thoughts about the early 1970s “relevancy period”, when my heroes turned to tackling slum landlords, super-rich scum, social injustice, crushing poverty and environmental issues: at least we won that one and don’t have to face real atrocities like that anymore, right?

Somehow, the genre’s most evocatively visceral moments seemingly come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – I hope you’ll please forgive the appropriated and now truly offensive contemporary colloquialisms – “Japs and Krauts”. Wonder Woman was actually designed to do so an,d again, Thomas’ editorial comments provide historical revelations throughout…

A companion to volumes featuring Superman and Batman, Wonder Woman: The War Years 1941-1945 is superb hardcover archive curated by Thomas, exclusively honing in on the Amazing Amazon’s’ euphoric output from those war years, even though in those long-ago dark days, comics creators were wise enough to offset and counterbalance their tales of espionage and imminent invasion with a barrage of home-grown threats as well as gentler or even more whimsical four-colour fare…

Marshalled here is material from All-Star Comics #8,11, 15, 20, 24, 27; Sensation Comics #1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 20, 21, 24, ; Wonder Woman #1-3, 5, 7, 11, 12; Comic Cavalcade #1-2 and excerpts from the short-lived Wonder Woman newspaper strip, cumulatively covering Winter 1941 to Winter 1945. The comics stories, snippets, ads, features and patriotic covers are augmented throughout by essays or brief critical analyses. Champion and grandmaster of WWII-era material, Thomas opens with a scene-setting Introduction and prefaces each chapter with essays establishing tone and context before the four-colour glories commence with Part 1: The War Comes to Paradise Island…

For decades, the official story was that the Princess of Paradise Island was conceived by psychologist/polygraph pioneer/showman William Moulton Marston: a calculated attempt to offer girls a positive and forceful role model and – for forward-thinking Editor M.C. Gaines – a sound move to sell more funnybooks to girls. From a teaser shot in All Star Comics the Amazon immediately catapulted one month later into her own series and the cover-spot of new anthology Sensation Comics.

An instant hit, Wonder Woman won her own title six scant months later (cover-dated Summer 1942). That start (or was it a savvy contract? …see inside for more details!) enabled the Star-Spangled Sensation to weather the vicissitudes of the turbulent comics marketplace. Ultimately – beside Superman, Batman and a few lucky hangers-on who inhabited the backs of their titles – she survived far beyond the Golden Age of costumed heroes…

We now know Wonder Woman was a team – if not truly communal – effort, with Moulton Marston acting in conjunction with his remarkable wife Elizabeth and their life partner Olive Byrne. Moreover, barring a couple of early fill-ins by Frank Godwin, the vast majority of outlandish, eccentric, thematically barbed adventures they collectively penned were limned by classical illustrator Harry G. Peter; a man personally hired ay the writers, not the editors.

This stunning compilation is part of a series introducing and exploring the historical and cultural pedigree of venerable DC icons. Sadly, it’s only available in hardback, but it offers a sequence of sublime snapshots detailing how Diana of the Amazons evolved and thrived in a war setting that challenged traditional roles of women: back when the entire gender was generally regarded as second class, second rate, painfully functional or strictly ornamental.

‘Introducing Wonder Woman’ was a hidden extra in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941/ January 1942): It led directly to ‘Wonder Woman Comes to America’: her formal debut in Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942).

In combination they reveal how, once upon a time on a hidden island of immortal super-women, US Army Intelligence aviator Steve Trevor crashes to Earth. Near death, he is nursed back to health by young, impressionable Princess Diana…

Fearful of her besotted child’s growing obsession with the creature from a long-forgotten and madly violent world, Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyte reveals the Amazons’ hidden history: how they were seduced and betrayed by brutal men and saved by goddess Aphrodite, on condition that they forever isolate themselves from the mortal world and devote their eternal lives to becoming ideal rational beings.

However, once Trevor explains the perfidious spy plot which accidentally brought him to the Island enclave and how the world is in crisis, Athena and Aphrodite instruct the Queen to send an Amazon back with the American to fight for global freedom and liberty. Hippolyte declares an open contest to find the best candidate and – despite being forbidden to compete – closeted, cosseted masked Diana clandestinely overcomes all to become their emissary.

Accepting the will of fate, her worried mother outfits Diana in the guise of Wonder Woman; sending her to Man’s World carrying an arsenal of super-scientific and magical weapons…

Here, that origin is also retold in extracted ‘Wonder Woman Daily Comic Strips’ from June 12-17, 1944. The strip was a relative late entry, running from May 8th 1944 to December 1st 1945. It never found a solid audience or secured a Sunday Colour section…

Fronted by a stunning H.G. Peter, cover and leading from the front in her own series, Diana truly debuted in anthological Sensation Comics #1. The origin resumes in ‘Wonder Woman Comes to America’’ as the eager, culture-shocked immigrant returns recuperating Trevor to Man’s World, before incidentally trouncing a gang of bank robbers and briefly falling in with a show business swindler.

An intriguing innovation was the newcomer buying her secret identity from lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince: elegantly enabling the Amazon to remain close to Steve whilst the heartsick trained medic joined her fiancé in South America. Even with all that going on, there was still room for Wonder Woman and Captain Trevor to stop a spy ring using poison gas on a Draft Induction centre. Typically, Steve breaks his leg and ends up in hospital again, where “Nurse Prince” looks after him…

Sensation #2 (February 1942) introduced deadly, toxic enemy agent ‘Dr. Poison’ in a cannily crafted tale with plenty of twists and surprises, which also debuted the most radical comedy sidekicks of the era…

The plucky, fun-loving gals of the Holliday College for Women and their rotund, chocolate-gorging Beeta Lamda sorority-chief Etta Candy would get into trouble and save the day in equal measure for years to come: constantly demonstrating Diana’s – and Marston’s – philosophical contention that girls, with the correct encouragement, could accomplish anything that men could…

With the War raging espionage and sabotage were inescapable plot devices. Diana arranged a transfer to the office of General Darnell as his secretary, so that she could keep a closer eye on the finally fit Steve. Her new position with Army Intelligence created a big problem, but she little suspected that, although painfully shallow Steve only had eyes for the dazzling superwoman, the General had fallen for mousy but supremely competent Lieutenant Prince…

Unlike most comics of the period, Wonder Woman followed a tight continuity. School for Spies’ in Sensation #4 sees American girls, who had become enemy agents, murdered by way of introducing inventive genius and Nazi master manipulator Baroness Paula von Gunther. She employs psychological tricks to enslave girls to her will and set otherwise decent Americans against their homeland. Even Diana initially succumbs to her deadly machinations until Steve and the Holliday Girls crash in…

‘Wonder Woman versus the Saboteurs’ (Sensation Comics #5 May) closes the first section as America’s newest submarine is saved from destruction and a cunning gang of terrorists is brought to justice, after which an essay detailing how and why Wonder Woman joined the JSA and her role in their wartime exploits opens Part 2: The War Comes to America.

That’s followed by selected pages from All-Star Comics #11 (June/July 1942) as ‘The Justice Society Joins the War on Japan’. All-Star featured individual chapters for each team member, and here a page from the Hawkman section by Gardner Fox & Jack Burnley sees the Winged Wonder and future Hawkwoman Shiera Sanders meet Diana Prince on a medical troopship headed for the besieged Philippines. It’s followed by the full Fox & Peter crafted chapter starring the Amazon as she routs Japanese troops trying to establish a beachhead, and concludes with 2 more Burnley pages  as she is officially inducted int the team as they rename themselves the Justice Battalion of America for the duration…

The next major landmark was the launch of the Amazon’s solo title. “Moulton” & Peter handled the launch of quarterly Wonder Woman #1 (Summer 1942), represented here by short espionage mystery yarn ‘Wonder Woman Goes to the Circus’ wherein Diana solves bizarre serial murders of the show’s elephants…

The covers to Sensation Comics #9 & 10 (September & October) segues into the lead story from the latter. ‘The Railroad Plot’ celebrates Steve and Wonder Woman’s first anniversary – which they celebrate by exposing a sinister plan devised by Japanese and German agents to blow up New York using the labyrinth of subway tunnels under the city…

Peter’s iconic cover for Sensation Comics #12 (December 1942) precedes Part 3: Against the Axis: and an essay detailing with the worst moments of the real war and the morale boosting efforts of America’s home front entertainers.

Then Wonder Woman #2 (Fall 1942) follows in full: Peter’s cover backed up by photo feature ‘The Men Behind Wonder Woman’ and an illustrated prose feature about ‘The God of War’ before 4-part epic ‘The Spirit of War’ introduces the Astounding Amazon’s greatest nemesis: ‘Mars, God of War’. The deadly divinity had instigated the World War from his HQ on the distant red planet, but chafes at the lack of progress since Wonder Woman entered the fray on the side of the peace-loving allies.

He opts for direct action rather than trust his earthly pawns Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito…

When Steve goes missing, Diana orchestrates her own capture and is ferried to Mars. Here she disrupts the efficient working of the war-god’s regime: fomenting unrest amongst the slave population, before rescuing Steve and heading home to Earth. ‘The Earl of Greed’, one of Mars’ trio of trusted subordinates, takes centre stage in the second chapter with orders to recapture Steve and Diana at all costs.

As the bold duo infiltrate Berlin, Greed uses his influence on Hitler to surreptitiously redirect the German war effort, using Gestapo forces to steal all the USA’s gold reserves…

When Steve is gravely injured, the Amazon returns to America and – as he recuperates – foils the Ethereal Earl’s machinations to prevent much-needed operating funds reaching Holliday College where young girls learn to be independent free-thinkers…

With Greed thwarted, Mars next dispatches ‘The Duke of Deception’ to Earth, where the spindly phantom impersonates Wonder Woman and frames her for murder. Easily escaping prison, the Princess of Power not only clears her name but also finds time to foil a Deception-inspired invasion of Hawaii, leaving only ‘The Count of Conquest’ free to enact Mars’ orders.

This scheme is simple: through his personal puppet Mussolini, the Count tries to physically overpower the Hellenic Heroine with a brutal giant boxing champion, even as Italian Lothario Count Crafti attempts to woo and seduce her. The latter’s wiles actually work, but capturing and keeping the Amazon are two entirely different affairs. Breaking free on the Red Planet, Diana delivers a devastating blow to the war-machine of Mars…

This issue ends with a sparkling double page patriotic plea as ‘Wonder Woman Campaigns for War Bonds and Stamps’…

Fans could not get enough Wonder Woman and she next became a big draw in new project: a huge and spectacular 96-page card-cover anthology package based on DC’s World’s Finest Comics and highlighting AA’s other big guns Flash and Green Lantern, plus a string of lesser luminaries. At this time National/DC enjoyed an editorially-independent business relationship with Max Gaines that involved shared and cross promotion and distribution for comic books released by his own All-American Publications outfit. Although technically competitors if not rivals, the deal included shared logos and advertising and even combining both companies’ top characters in All Star Comics as the Justice Society of America.

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

Thus, A-A created its own analogue to World’s Finest, featuring only AA characters. The outsized, outstanding result was Comics Cavalcade…

Cover-dated December 1942/January 1943 Wonder Woman’s fourth regular residency began with the company superstar solving the ‘Mystery of the House of the Seven Gables’ – as ever, the fruits of Marston & Peter’s fevered imaginations – wherein Diana Prince stumbles upon a band of Nazi spies. As was so often the case, the Amazing Amazon needs the help of some plucky patriotic youngsters to quash the submarine-sabotaging barbarians…

The January 1943 cover for Sensation Comics #13 and a roll call of members from All-Star Comics #15 February/March 1943 leads to Part 4: Don’t You Know There’s a War On? via a text treatise on comic book covers and Home Front occupations.

Comics sagas resume with ‘America’s Guardian Angel’ from Sensation #12 which finds the Warrior Princess accepting an offer to play herself in a patriotic Hollywood movie, only to learn the production had been infiltrated by the insidious Paula von Gunther and her gang of slave-girls…

‘Wanted by Hitler Dead or Alive’ comes from Comic Cavalcade #2 (Spring 1943), pitting Wonder Woman against devious gestapo agent Fausta Grables and her own purloined magic lasso. It’s one of very few stories not limned by H.G. Peter but the work of illustrator and strip cartoonist Frank Godwin, stepping in as the crushing workload of an extra 64-page comicbook every couple of months piled the pressure on WW’s artistic director.

It’s followed by the cover and story from Sensation #15 (March) with HGP on top form as ‘Victory at Sea’ pits Diana Prince and Steve against murderous saboteurs set on halting military production…

The patriotic H.G. Peter cover for Sensation Comics #16 is followed by a key excerpt from Wonder Woman #5 (June/July 1943). As previously mentioned, the Amazing Amazon was a huge and ever-growing hit, and her solo title frequently innovated with full-length stories, and rather radical themes. This extract – the opening chapter of interlinked epic the ‘Battle for Womanhood’ – had repercussions for the cast for decades to come.

War-god Mars returned to plague humanity directly, this time enlisting the aid of a brilliant but physically deformed and intellectually demented woman-hating psychologist with psychic powers. The very model of a true sexual predator, tormented Dr. Psycho uses his gifts to marry and dominate a medium named Marva, employing her unique abilities to form ectoplasmic bodies to attempt the enslavement of every woman on Earth. Allegorical or what, huh?

Dated August & September 1943, the covers of Sensation Comics #20 & 21 lead into the latter’s gripping tale – once again drawn by Godwin. As the war turned in favour of the Allies overseas, Steve and Wonder Woman  tracked down an insidious traitor dubbed the American Adolph as he conducted a murderous ‘War Against Society’

The final section explores an end of hostilities and new challenges and enemies explained by Thomas in Part 5: Victory in Sight with Sensation Comics #24 (December 1943) leading the charge to triumph with Marston & Peters’ ‘Adventure of the Pilotless Plane’. Steve is abducted by Japanese agents whilst investigating a new gas weapon preventing US aircraft from flying. The vile villains have nothing that can stop Wonder Woman from smashing them and freeing him, however…

Wonder Woman #7 offered an optimistic view of the future in a fantastic fantasy tale of America in the year 3000AD: a utopian paradise ruled by a very familiar female President. It’s represented here by its vibrant cover  and supplemented by a Joe Gallagher drawn public service ad from All-Star Comics #20 Spring 1944 to combat polio: ‘Justice Society of America – the March of Dimes’, before the cover for Wonder Woman #11 (Winter 1944) brings us to stories’ end and ‘The Invasion of Paradise Island’ (Sensation Comics #37 January 1945) wherein maltreated county orphans stow away to the Amazon’s home, just in time to help repel a U-boat full of Nazis unwilling to accept their war is over…

A triptych of visual treats wraps up the history lesson: firstly the cover of Wonder Woman #12 followed by PSA page ‘Wonder Woman Explains Waste Paper Salvage’ from All-Star Comics #24 (both from Spring 1945), and finally the cover of All-Star Comics #27 (Winter 1945) honouring disabled war veterans.

Because I’m me, I can’t stop without a minor quibble, so please be warned, the Contents Pages here have mis-listed a couple of things. What’s there is just as good, and individual page credits DO attribute everything that’s here accurately – just don’t expect to see a Junior Justice Society of America Ad’ or ‘The Secret of Baroness Von Gunther’ from Wonder Woman #3. You can, however, find them in other collections, so you now have a reason to look at more books…

The story of the American comic book industry – in almost every major aspect – stems from the raw, vital and still powerfully compelling tales of DC’s Trinity icons: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. These wartime tales cemented their popularity, bringing inspiration and hope to millions during a time of tremendous hardship and crisis. Even if these days aren’t nearly as perilous or desperate – although many aren’t so sure anymore! – the power of such work to rouse and charm is still potent and just as necessary. You owe it to yourself and your family and even your Kanga to Buy This Book…
™ & © 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks volume 2: The Invasion of Asgard


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, with Chic Stone, George Roussos, Vince Colletta, Paul Reinman, Don Heck & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3442-2 (PB/Digital edition)

These stories are timeless and have been gathered many times before, but today I’m once again focussing on format. The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line launched with economy in mind: classic tales of Marvel’s key creators and characters re-presented in chronological publishing order. It’s been a staple since the 1990s, but always in lavish, hardback collectors editions. These editions are cheaper, on lower quality paper and – crucially – smaller, about the dimensions of a paperback book. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for the digital editions, that’s no issue at all…

Even more than The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor was the arena in which Jack Kirby’s boundless fascination with all things Cosmic was honed and refined through his dazzling graphics and captivating concepts. The King’s plethora of power-packed signature pantheons began in a modest little fantasy/monster title called Journey into Mystery where – in the summer of 1962 – a tried-and-true comicbook concept (feeble mortal transformed into god-like hero) was revived by the rapidly resurgent company who were not yet Marvel Comics: adding a Superman analogue to their growing roster of costumed adventurers.

Cover-dated August 1962, Journey into Mystery #83 saw a bold costumed Adonis jostling aside the regular fare of monsters, aliens and sinister scientists in a brash, vivid explosion of verve and vigour. The initial exploit followed disabled American doctor Donald Blake who took a vacation in Norway and encountered the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing, he was trapped in a cave where he found an old, gnarled walking stick. When, in frustration, he smashed the stick into the huge boulder blocking his escape, his puny frame was transformed into the Norse God of Thunder!

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by his brother Larry Lieber and illustrated by Kirby and inker Joe Sinnott (at this juncture a full illustrator, Sinnott would become Kirby’s primary inker for most of his Marvel career), that introduction was pure primal Marvel: bombastic, fast-paced, gloriously illogical and captivatingly action-packed. It was the start of a new kind of legend and style of comics’ storytelling…

Spanning February to October 1964, this gloriously economical full-colour paperback tome – also available in eFormats – revisits pioneering Asgardian exploits from JiM #101-109 in a blur of innovation and seat-of-the-pants myth-revising and universe-building…

Lee had taken over scripting with Journey into Mystery #97, the issue that launched a spectacular back-up series. Tales of Asgard – Home of the Mighty Norse Gods gave Kirby a vehicle to indulge his fascination with legends and began by adapting classic traditional tales before eventually switching to all-new material shaped for Marvel’s pantheon. Here, Kirby built his own cosmos and mythology, which would underpin the company’s entire continuity.

Journey into Mystery #101 featured ‘The Return of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man!’ and sees Odin halve Thor’s powers for wilful disobedience, just as the futuristic felon abducts the Thunder God to help him conquer the 23rd century. A two-parter (with the first chapter inked by George Roussos), it was balanced by another exuberant tale of the boy Thor.

‘The Invasion of Asgard!’ sees the valiant lad fight a heroic rearguard action whilst introducing a host of future villainous mainstays such as the Rime Giants, King Geirrodur and Trolls.

‘Slave of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man!’ is a tour de force epic conclusion most notable for the introduction of Chic Stone as inker. To many of us oldsters, his clean, full brush lines make him The King’s best embellisher ever. This triumphant futuristic thriller is counterbalanced by brooding short  from ancient history. ‘Death Comes to Thor!’ has the teen hero face his greatest challenge yet, with two women who would play huge roles in his life introduced in this brief 5-pager; young goddess Sif and Hela, Queen of the Dead.

On a creative roll, Lee, Kirby & Stone next introduced ‘The Enchantress and the Executioner’ ruthless renegade Asgardians determined to respectively seduce or destroy the warrior prince at the front of JiM #103 whilst the rear detailed ‘Thor’s Mission to Mirmir!’, disclosing how the gods created humanity. That led one month later to a revolutionary saga in the present day lead feature when ‘Giants Walk the Earth!’

For the first time, Kirby’s imagination was given full rein after Loki tricks Odin into visiting Earth, only to release in his absence, ancient elemental enemies Surtur and Skagg, the Storm Giant from eternal Asgardian bondage.

This cosmic clash depicted noble gods battling demonic evil in a new Heroic Age, and the greater role of the Norse supporting cast – especially noble warrior Balder – was reinforced by a new Tales of Asgard strand focussing on individual Gods and Heroes. Inked by Don Heck, ‘Heimdall: Guardian of the Mystic Rainbow Bridge!’ was first, highlighting the mighty sentinel’s uncanny senses and crucial role in defending the realm from its foes…

JiM #105-106 saw the teaming of two old foes in ‘The Cobra and Mr, Hyde!’ and ‘The Thunder God Strikes Back!’: another continued story packed with tension and spectacular action, and proving Thor was swiftly growing beyond the constraints of traditional single issue adventures. The respective back-ups ‘When Heimdall Failed!’ (Lee, Kirby & Roussos) and ‘Balder the Brave’ (inked by Vince Colletta) further fleshed out the back-story of an Asgardian pantheon deviating more and more from those classical Eddas and Sagas kids had to plough through in schools.

A petrifying villain premiered ‘When the Grey Gargoyle Strikes!’ in Journey into Mystery #107: a rare yarn highlighting the fortitude of Dr. Blake rather than the power of the Thunder God, who was increasingly reducing his own alter-ego to an inconsequentiality. Closing the issue, the Norn Queen debuted in a quirky reinterpretation of the classic myth in ‘Balder Must Die!’ illustrated by Kirby & Colletta.

After months of manipulation, the God of Evil once again attempted direct confrontation with his despised step-sibling in ‘At the Mercy of Loki, Prince of Evil!’ With Jane Foster a helpless victim of Asgardian magic, the willing assistance of new Marvel star Doctor Strange made this a captivating team-up read, whilst ‘Trapped by the Trolls!’ (Colletta inks) showed the power and promise of tales set solely on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge as Thor liberates enslaved Asgardians from subterranean bondage.

Bringing down the curtain on this increasingly cosmic carnival, Journey into Mystery #109 was another superb adventure masquerading as a plug for recent addition to the Marvel roster.

‘When Magneto Strikes!’ pits Thor against the X-Men’s archfoe in a cataclysmic clash of fundamental powers, although you could hardly call it a team-up since the heroic mutants are never actually seen. The tantalising hints and cropped glimpses are fascinating teasers now, but the kid I then was felt annoyed not to have seen these new heroes… oh, wait… maybe that was the point?

The Young Thor feature ‘Banished from Asgard’ is an uncharacteristically lacklustre effort to end on, with Odin and Thor enacting a devious plan to trap a traitor in Asgard’s ranks, but the vignette hinted at much greater thrills to follow…

Rounding off the increasingly spectacular shenanigans are a gallery of original art pages and a rousing landmark house ad for the entire Marvel Comics line.

These foundational tales of the God of Thunder show the development not only of one of Marvel’s core narrative concepts but, more importantly, the creative evolution of perhaps the greatest imagination in comics. Set your common sense on pause and simply wallow in the glorious imagery and power of these matchless adventures to discover the true secret of what makes comic book superheroes such a unique experience.
© 2022 MARVEL.

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Frank Robbins’ Johnny Hazard: Volume One – the Newspaper Dailies 1944-1946



By Frank Robbins with an introduction by Daniel Herman (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-004-8 (HB/Digital edition)

Johnny Hazard was a newspaper strip created in the style and manner of Terry and the Pirates, but in many ways this steely-eyed hero most resembles – and indeed predates – Milton Caniff’s second masterwork Steve Canyon. Unbelievably, until 2011 this stunningly impressive, enthralling adventure strip had never been comprehensively collected in archival volumes – at least not in English – although selected highlights had appeared in magazines like Pioneer Comics, Dragon Lady Press Presents and the Pacific Comic Club.

Boston born, Franklin Robbins (9th September 1917 – 28th November 1994) was an artistic prodigy who shone from early on. At age nine he was awarded a scholarship to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and at 15, moved to New York City to attend the National Academy of Design on a Rockefeller grant. Skilled, inventive and prolific as both painter and graphic artist, he freelanced continually, even working with Edward Trumbull on the legendary murals for the NBC building and Radio City Music Hall.

Robbins created graphics for RKO Pictures, worked in advertising and magazine illustrations but never stopped painting, with work shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and Walker Art Gallery, although he found his perfect medium of expression when invited to take over a top comic strip…

Even whilst relentlessly creating a full seven days of newspaper strips, he exhibited work at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual show and – after ending his comics career – retired to Mexico to end his days with a brush in his hand.

The truth is that comics changed Robbins’ life. He was a brilliant natural cartoonist whose unique artistic and lettering styles lent themselves equally to adventure, comedy and super-heroic tales, whilst his expansive raconteur’s gifts made him one of the best writers over three generations.

He first found popular fame in 1939 by taking over aviation strip Scorchy Smith from Bert (The Sandman) Christman, who had left America to fight with the Flying Tigers in China. Robbins thrived in the role and created a Sunday page for the feature in 1940.

The groundbreaking feature had been originated by John Terry before the astounding Noel Sickles replaced him: revolutionising it and – with Milton Caniff – inventing a new impressionistic style of narrative art to reshape the way comics were drawn and perceived .

Robbins remained until 1944 and was then offered high-profile Secret Agent X-9. Instead, he devised his own lantern-jawed, steely-eyed man of action.

A tireless and prolific worker, even whilst producing the daily and Sunday Hazard (with a separate storyline for each), Robbins continued freelancing as an illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post, Look, Life and a host of other mainstream magazines. He also tried comic books for the first time when Johnny Hazard won his own title in 1948-1949, just as superheroes began being supplanted by he-men, gangsters and monsters…

Robbins tried again in 1968: quickly becoming a key contributor as both artist and writer on Superboy, The Flash and The Atom, as well as a regular contributor to humour mag Plop! and DC’s mystery and war anthologies. He particularly excelled on Batman, Batgirl and Detective Comics where, with Neal Adams, he created Man-Bat, before following Michael Kaluta as artist on The Shadow.

Moving to Marvel in the 1970s, Robbins concentrated on drawing a variety of titles including Captain America, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Morbius, The Man from Atlantis, Human Fly, Power Man and The Invaders – which he co-created with Roy Thomas.

When Johnny Hazard launched on Monday June 5th 1944, he was an aviator in the US Army Air Corps. When hostilities ceased, he briefly became a freelance charter pilot and spy before settling into the of a globe-girdling, troubleshooting mystery-solver: a modern day Knight Errant. The strip ended in 1977: one more victim of diminishing panel-sizes and the move towards simplified, thrill-free, family-friendly gag-a-day graphic fodder to frame small-ads. In its time it was syndicated in nine different languages in thousands of newspapers across the world, and even scored a residency in 1950s British weekly Rocket.

This fabulous hardcover/digital series – reproduced from original King Features proofs – at long last re-presents the definitive magnum opus in fitting form: a monochrome, landscape format archival collection of the first 2 years (covering June 5th 1944 to November 11th 1945), resurrecting the Amazing Aviator in followers’ hearts and hopefully finding new fans.

The action begins with a selection of those 1948 comic book covers and an informative ‘Introduction: Frank Robbins and Johnny Hazard’ by Daniel Herman before we meet the man himself in ‘The Escape’.

Here, the reader meets coolly capable flyer Lt. Johnny Hazard and his pals Loopy and Scotty as – having escaped from a German POW camp – they break into a Nazi air field to steal a bomber and fly home. Fast-paced, sharp-tongued and utterly gung-ho, the yarn introduces a cunning, charming, happy-go-lucky lout, insouciantly ruthless and prepared at every stage to risk his own freedom and life if it means killing a few more of the enemy and sabotaging the German war effort.

His saga truly begins with the 5th July episode as the liberated and again ready-for-duty airman touches base with friendly civilians only to meet feisty, headstrong and dedicated war photographer ‘Brandy’ during an air raid. All sorts of sparks fly as a series of spectacular events continually push them together and ultimately passionate fury and disgust on both sides turns to something else amidst all the deadly missions and flaming firepower.

The romantic turning point comes when Brandy impetuously parachutes into occupied territory to get a perfect shot and Hazard – hating himself every moment – goes after her…

The strip could not keep up with the fast-moving events after D-Day (the real world Allies invaded “Fortress Europa” the day after Johnny Hazard debuted) and third story arc ‘Sun Tan and General Mariwana’ – opening on September 11th 1944 – saw the hero’s squadron transferred to the Pacific Theatre of Operations to reinforce the battle against Japan. Through ingenious means Brandy inveigles herself into the picture as recently promoted Captain Hazard and his crew undertake a top-secret mission couriering a Chinese resistance leader back to her people.

Enigmatic Sun Tan is both staggeringly beautiful and lethally dangerous… and the Japanese Secret Service’s top target. Her leaked intentions spark a byzantine assassination plot wherein an experimental tracking device is hidden in Brandy’s camera gear during a refuelling stopover in Iran…

The architect of the plot is Colonel Mariwana: a pilot disfigured in a previous clash with the freedom fighter. His maniacally relentless pursuit costs him his command but does succeed in bringing down Hazard’s plane in the Himalayas. Ultimately, the grim episode of revenge leads to mass-murder and desecration of temples before honour is avenged. The mission is completed, but at a punishing cost…

A new year reinforced the darker tone as January 31st 1945 opened the saga of ‘Colonel Kiri’, as Hazard sets up shop on an embattled army air base under constant assault by Japanese forces on the front line of occupied China. It also introduces ace wingman Captain “The Admiral” Slocum: last in an unbroken line of valiant patriotic mariners, but reduced to defending his country in the skies since his debilitating sea sickness prevents him from serving afloat like a true warrior…

The Americans are hard-pressed, targeted by a secret Japanese installation decimating the region. When Brandy is shot down while helping to evacuate Chinese refugees, she is sheltered by farmers who disguise her as one of them. She meets malign war criminal Kiri when he claims her as a “comfort woman” and triggers his fate by freeing recently captured Hazard and Slocum, who spectacularly sabotage the ghost base. In the chaos, carnage and confusion, the Americans steal a Japanese tank and head for their own lines…

The closing chapter here is a deft and delicious tribute to the characters of Damon Runyon, embodied in displaced, pool-addicted, New York gunsel ‘Side-Pocket Sam’ (August 13th to November 11th 1945).

As our heroes enjoy the destructive capabilities of their new ride they almost accidentally capture a major prize. High command officer General Ishigaki and his glamorous French “assistant” Mademoiselle Touché aren’t quick or smart enough to escape the fleeing Yanks, and none of them are able to avoid the army of Chinese bandits who scoop them up and deliver them to their slick Yankee boss.

Side-Pocket Sam is debonair, charming but utterly amoral. He knows one of his “guests” carries Japan’s failsafe game plan for World War III and – once it’s his – plans to make the deal of his life…

Tragically, he’s underestimated his enemies and his friends, enabling Johnny, Brandy and the Admiral to save the day and head for safety…

Sharp, snappy and devilishly funny repartee in the style of movies like Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday and Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night is a hallmark of these rapid fire yarns, some of the greatest comic strips in history, and that in itself can present a few problems for modern readers.

Contemporary attitudes to sexuality, gender and particularly race are far from what we find acceptable – or should even tolerate – today. That situation is further compounded by an understandably fervent patriotic tone: equal parts pure jingoism and government-sponsored morale boosting.

Every contemporary-based feature of the era participated in the war effort by shaping its content accordingly, and terms like “Jap”, “Nip”, “Kraut” and many different forms of “othering” were common parlance in both movies and comics – the two main forms of popular entertainment. These slurs became a character-defining shorthand, used without consideration and thus an indelible facet of national speech and behaviour for decades to follow.

We know better now – at least most of us do – but must accept and understand that hurtful and unjust as such terms are, they did exist and we’re doing history and our society a huge and dangerous disservice by ignoring, downplaying or worst of all self-censoring those terms and the attitudes that fed them.

In truth, Johnny Hazard was far less egregious than most: Robbins may have made Kiri and Mariwana contemptible villains, but the Japanese army (who had committed many verified real world atrocities) were given fair play and did not unnecessarily suffer from the worst propagandist nonsense used by the Allies to bolster a united war spirit.

Other ethnicities – like Chinese, Iranian, Tibetans and Italians – are treated with the full dignity of different but equal cultures and depicted as competent comrades in arms, not ignorant primitives in need of a white man’s saving graces. However, arch comedian Robbins clearly couldn’t resist playing mischievous games with accents, names and speech patterns that would do Benny Hill, Hogan’s Heroes or Charlie Chan (the opposite of) proud, so if you don’t think you’re capable of remaining historically detached, best to forgo those delights that have transcended time…

To be continued…

These exotic action-romances perfectly capture the mood and magic of a distant but incredibly familiar time; with cool heroes, hot dames and exceedingly intemperate bad-guys encountering exotic locales and stunning scenarios, all peppered with blistering tension, slyly mature humour and vivid, visceral excitement.

Johnny Hazard is a brilliant two-fisted thriller-strip too long forgotten, and this is your chance to remedy that.
© 2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings Inc. All rights reserved.