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Vimanarama


By Grant Morrison & Philip Bond (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0496-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

South Asian Heritage Month (SAHM) starts today, running, as it does every year, from 18th July to 17th August. We’ll be dropping the occasional new and old review that might be of added significance over that period and probably beyond if I can find enough books that qualify through content or creators. Let’s start with a certifiable classic…

Superbly aided and abetted by the brilliant art of Philip Bond, Grant Morrison’s classic modern theological soap opera fantasy Vimanarama is set in and around an “open all hours” corner shop in Bradford.

Here second son Ali is fretting because his arranged bride is due to arrive any moment. His future happiness and life’s success or failure is tied to a girl he has never even met but fears that he is utterly unsuited for and will inevitably disappoint. Therefore, he really hasn’t got time to worry about the massive hole that has opened up under the shop, or brother Omar’s severe injuries from falling down it, or even that the baby has wandered into it and found a lost outpost of Atlantis.

Forced to explore the incredible ancient and remarkably well-preserved under-Earth mega-metropolis, Ali is, however, pretty impressed by the very capable and newly-arrived Sophia. His intended bride has made her own way to the shop, and also sought to find the toddler… She’s beside Ali when the savage techno-demons – who had slumbered there for millennia – awake and escape, intent on undoing creation. She helps him awaken the godly Ultrahadeen. …And she’s beautiful.

The problem is that the leader of these lordly heroes instantly loves Sophia too, which could drastically impinge on the whole saving humanity thing, as well as interfering with Ali’s now eagerly anticipated nuptials. The god-like Ben Rama is really tall, really beautiful, and, let’s not forget, a god.

How the world is saved and Ali gets what he deserves is a gloriously exuberant romp, bright, colourful and very, very funny. I haven’t heard a cool media term to pigeon-hole this sort of cross culture comic with, and I’m not going to use any form of “Bollywood” derivative. You should just read this and make one up yourself. Or, if not that, you should just read this.

This very Vedic epic was originally seen as a 3-issue miniseries in 2005 and first collected as book a year later. The story is also available as half of a graphic double bill with Morrison & Bond’s anarchically surreal social comedy Kill Your Boyfriend. When I review that soon , you can either reread the above review again or just ignore it. As ever in this Cycle of Existence, the choice is yours (although our assorted destinies are already written)…
© 2005 Grant Morrison & Philip Bond. All Rights Reserved.

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Joe and Azat


By Jesse Lonergan (NBM/ComicsLit)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-570-2 (TPB)

I’m writing this well in advance of publication, with the British media resolutely awash with the worst of all possible candidates for a new Prime Minister. That is of course excluding the one we still have – and cannot seem to pry loose from office. It’s actually comforting to remember that it could always be worse. Here’s a delicious example of a true tale with a hidden message…

Global traveller and cartoonist Jesse Lonergan (Flowers and Fade; Hedra) was born in Sacramento, California, raised in Saudi Arabi and Vermont and then spent two years as an American Peace Corps volunteer, before settling down as an artist and storyteller.

That stint was in the nation of Turkmenistan in the days when the Soviet Union’s collapse released many countries from seven decades of iron repression…

Granted autonomy and self-rule virtually overnight, a lot of Warsaw Pact countries didn’t fare well with instant democracy or Free Market Capitalism. In Turkmenistan, their new leader was also their old one.

Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov became First Secretary of the Turkmen Communist Party in 1985, and was leader of the country until the 1991 coup and revolt that established an independent Turkmenistan. Then – as “Turkmenbashy” – he ruled as president until his sudden and suspicious death in 2006.

The election was on 21st June 1992 and he was the only candidate running, and in 1994 extended his term of office until 2002 through a plebiscite whose official result gave him 99.9% of the vote (because “everybody likes him”). In December 1999, Parliament  – all of whom he hand-picked – spontaneously appointed him President for Life…

As you’d expect, he was a real pip, renaming the days of the week after himself, adding portions of his autobiography to the official driving test requirements and using the nation’s entire budget to send a book of his poetry into space. In a pitifully arid country, he built a river through his capital city – because all great cities have rivers running through them. Images of the ruthless potentate were everywhere: it’s a shame nobody ever found oil in the country… oh wait. They did…?

Seriously though, if you admire the precept that “truth is stranger than fiction”, you will have as much fun reading his Wikipedia page as this superb, charmingly subtle tale of culture shock pretensions and national misapprehensions that begins as young Joe grapples with the outrageous differences between his (mostly) liberal and wealthy homeland and the rules, laws and ingrained prejudices of a newly liberated society still reeling from the scary potentials of liberty and personal autonomy.

Nervous and alone, the Yankee lad slowly finds a friend in the astonishingly upbeat and forward looking Azat: an ambitious Turkmen convert and eager zealot for “The American Way”. Subsequently, most of Joe’s time is spent futilely apologising and explaining what that term actually means, since current reality is as far removed from the US Movies Azat is addicted to as the decades of Russian propaganda he grew up with.

Becoming almost part of the family – as complex and dysfunctional as any western one – Joe is caught in the tidal wave of Azat’s enthusiastic aspirations and daily frustrations, but never seems able – or willing – to staunch or crush them, even though he knows how hopeless they ultimately are…

Poignant, bittersweet, with an end but no conclusion, this is a superbly understated graphic dissertation on the responsibilities and power of friendship, the toxicity of unattainable dreams and the unthinking cruelty of cultural imperialism and unchallenged tyranny. Illustrated in a magically simplistic and irresistibly beguiling manner, Joe and Azat is a delight for any reader searching for more than simple jokes and action. Reading this would actually be time very well spent and could easily change your outlook…
© 2009 Jesse Lonergan. All rights reserved.

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Cyclops volume 1: Starstruck


By Greg Rucka, Russell Dauterman, Carmen Carnero, Terry Pallot & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9075-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

When mutant genius Henry McCoy learned he was dying, he used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to give his life meaning. Seeking to prevent an inter-species war, he brought the young, naive X-Men of his own youth into the future to reason with his radicalised former comrade Scott Summers, praying the still idealistic and hopeful teens could divert Mutant Enemy Terrorist No. 1 from his path of doctrinaire madness…

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than shocking modern day Cyclops back to his senses, the confrontation hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve. Moreover, after McCoy the younger somehow cured his older self, he and the rest of the X-Kids were trapped in their own future and began gradually defecting to the fundamentalist team…

Eventually, the temporally misplaced First Class all ended up living with the elder Cyclops’ crew, but everything changed after Gladiator of the Shi’ar realised that Jean Grey AKA Marvel Girl – and future host of the cosmic force known as the Phoenix – was back. The alien overlord rashly attempted to abduct and execute her for the crimes of her older self…

The insane pre-emptive punishment plan was foiled by an assembly of X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy and intergalactic buccaneers Hepzibah, Ch’od,  Raza Longknife and insectoid medical wizard Sikorsky – collectively known as The Starjammers.

During that cosmic conflict, 16-year-old Scott met his believed-dead dad Christopher Summers, now called Corsair and undisputed leader of the cosmic privateers. When the mutant heroes returned to Earth, Scott chose to remain in space with the father he had spent most of his brief life assuming killed in a plane crash…

Scripted by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Russell Dauterman, Carmen Carnero & Terry Pallot, stellar saga Starstruck collects issues #1-5 of Cyclops: (July-November 2014), following the chronal castaway to the ends of the universe and even further into uncharted emotional territory…

The story begins as the still shell-shocked teen spends some time in hard vacuum with his dad’s exotic paramour Hepzibah. Together they are testing his new spacesuit, which allows him to fire his fearsome optic blasts safely through his helmet. That and reminiscing about how he got here and revelling in the sheer majesty of the intergalactic firmament, of course…

For most of his career Scott Summers has been capable and competent but also dour, grim, despondent and simply no fun at all. Here, however, we get to see the true hero he always was, whilst also following a nervous, unsure kid hungry for affirmation and still capable of ingenuous wide-eyed wonder.

That’s never more ably demonstrated than when his attempts to write a letter to Jean (the girl everybody in the future tells him he will marry and lose) are interrupted by an attack on the ship. The Starjammers are wanted by almost every empire and ruling authority in the universe, but this ambush by the scurrilous Brotherhood of Badoon is easily repulsed and only results in the freebooters capturing their attackers’ vessel primarily intact…

Not so easily handled is the growing gulf between Scott and Corsair. The boy simply cannot accept why his father would allow him – and indeed his future self – to believe he was dead for decades…

The grizzled star-pirate thinks he has a solution. Giving Scott a sword liberated from the vessel (apparently a crucial piece of kit for any space-farer regularly indulging in close combat) Corsair suggests a father-and-son vacation: a few months tooling around the galaxies in their newest prize, just getting to know each other…

At first the grand tour is all mind-bending exploration and eye-popping alien encounters, but eventually Scott starts seeing a disturbing pattern to Corsair’s actions and arrives at a ghastly conclusion. His dad is a drug addict and their numerous stopovers in quirky cosmic bazaars and seamy sidereal marketplaces are just opportunities to restock his personal pharmacopoeia…

One such jaunt introduces the kid to unlikely barkeeper/crimelord Baroque and leads Scott into a potentially life-changing VR encounter with a svelte and sexy alien temptress named Vass. Sadly, anything he might have learned is promptly forgotten when a merciless multi-species band of bounty hunters corners the father-&-son team.

These wily thief-takers are utterly unprepared for Cyclops’ optic blasts, however, and the humans get away relatively unscathed… except for Corsair’s latest “stash”…

The next crisis occurs soon after as the Badoon ship catastrophically malfunctions, stranding them on an isolated planetoid. Painfully scouring through crash wreckage later, Scott discovers a tracking device – now destroyed – and finally confronts his father about his addiction.

He is doubly appalled when Corsair shamefully reveals that rather than buying narcotics, he’s been visiting every criminal dive in creation to score universally-proscribed nanite tech: the only thing currently keeping him alive…

Stranded on a primitive mudball filled with predators becoming increasingly less cautious and more hungrily curious, Scott at last learns of his unsuspected brother Vulcan: a mutant who seized control of the Shi’ar Empire, sparked intergalactic wars and killed their father…

Of course, his devoted comrades refused to leave Corsair dead, and petitioned enigmatic cult the Shrouded to restore him. The cloaked wonders succeeded, but their cure required constant and illicit maintenance…

Days pass and the last dregs of the contraband chemicals are used, whilst fading father and estranged son grow closer: to the point where they unite to deal with the voracious bird-things stalking them. As Corsair impatiently strives to teach his son everything he’ll need to survive the decades he might be alone on the planetoid, the boy enacts a desperate scheme to save them both. The first step is repairing that fractured tracking device and luring the bounty hunters to their current location…

Everything goes according to plan and the hunters become the hunted, but at a critical moment Scott, seemingly swayed by the blandishments of the mercenaries’ female slave, sells his own dad out.

What happens next proves the boy hero’s astonishing tactical genius and saves everyone’s lives – if not necessarily their honour…

Heart-warming, thrilling, funny and astoundingly action-packed, Cyclops: Starstruck combines cosmic intrigue and dashing derring-do with solid characterisation and wild blue yonder wonderment, and will delight any fan of cosmically light-hearted Marvel Movies like Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor: Ragnarok.

What more could any wide-eyed, entertainment-starved child of the wondering stars want?
© 2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Superman vs Zod


By Robert Bernstein, Cary Bates, Steve Gerber, Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, George Papp, Curt Swan, Alex Saviuk, Rick Veitch, Rags Morales & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3849-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

Superman is comics’ champion crusader: the hero who heralded a whole genre. In the decades since his spectacular launch in April 1938 (cover-dated June), one who has survived every kind of menace imaginable. With this in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his prodigious back-catalogue and re-present them in specifically-themed collections, such as this fun but far from comprehensive chronicling of someone who’s become his latter-day Kryptonian antithesis: a monstrous militaristic madman with the same abilities but far more sinister values and motivations.

For fans and comics creators alike, continuity can be a harsh mistress. These days, when maintaining a faux-historical cloak of rational integrity for the made-up worlds we inhabit is paramount, the greatest casualty of the semi-regular sweeping changes, rationalisations and reboots is those terrific tales which suddenly “never happened”.

The most painful example of this – for me at least – was the wholesale loss of the entire charm-drenched mythology that had evolved around Superman’s birthworld in the wonder years between 1948 and 1986. Happily, DC post Future State and Infinite Frontier is far more inclusive and all-encompassing…

Silver Age readers buying Superman, Action Comics, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane, World’s Finest Comics and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (not forgetting Superboy and Adventure Comics) would delight every time some fascinating snippet of information was revealed. We spent our rainy days filling in the incredible blanks about the lost world through the delightful and thrilling tales from those halcyon publications.

Thankfully DC was never as slavishly wedded to continuity as its readership and understood that a good story is worth cherishing. This captivating compilation gathers material from Adventure Comics #283, Action Comics #473, 548-549, DC Comics Presents #97 and Action Comics Annual #10; spanning 1961-2007), re-presenting appearances both landmark and rare, current and notionally non-canonical featuring Kryptonian warlord and arch-nemesis General Dru-Zod, crafted by so many brilliant writers and artists who have contributed to the mythology of the Man of Tomorrow over the years.

Naturally this terrific tome begins with the first appearance – brief and incidental though it was – of the warrior who tried to conquer Krypton with an army of Bizarro-like clonal “inorganisms”. ‘The Phantom Superboy’ – by Robert Bernstein & George Papp – was lead feature in Adventure Comics #283 (cover-dated April 1961), describing how a mysterious alien vault smashes to Earth and the Smallville Sensation finds sealed within three incredible super-weapons built by his long-dead dad Jor-El.

There’s a disintegrator gun, a monster-making de-evolutioniser and a strange projector that opens a window into an eerie, timelessly dolorous dimension of stultifying intangibility. However, as Superboy reads the history of the projector – used to incarcerate Krypton’s criminals such as Dr. Xadu and the traitorous General – an implausible accident traps him inside the Phantom Zone and only by the greatest exercise of his mighty intellect does he narrowly escape…

Although there were plenty more appearances of the Red Sun Rebel, we jump here to ‘The Great Phantom Peril’ from Action Comics #473 (July 1977, by Cary Bates, Curt Swan & Tex Blaisdell) for the concluding chapter in a 3-issue tale introducing sadistic psycho-killer Faora Hu-Ul.

In this instalment, the male-hating escapee engineers freedom for all her ghostly companions, leaving criminal Kryptonians running riot on Earth. Thankfully, foresighted Superman has contrived to place all humanity in the Phantom Zone even as the prisoners explosively exited it…

Again no more than a bit-player, Zod was left to shout empty threats and wreck property until the ingenious Man of Steel turned the tables on his foes and banished them all back behind intangible bars once again…

He played a far more important role in the next epic. ‘Escape from the Phantom Zone!’ (Action Comics #548 October 1983) was the first part of a 2-issue yarn by Bates, Alex Saviuk, Vince Colletta & Pablo Marcos: an engaging if improbable saga of cosmic vengeance as a race of primordial plunderers discovered the dead remains of Argo City, hurled intact into space when the planet exploded and birthplace of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El AKA Supergirl. The starfarers gleefully realised that there was at least one Kryptonian left in the cosmos and started searching…

The alien marauders were Vrangs, savage slavers who had conquered Krypton in eons past and brutally used the primitive populace to mine minerals too toxic for the aliens to handle. Krypton’s greatest hero was Val-Lor, who died instigating the rebellion which drove off the Vrangs and prompted the rise of a super-scientific civilisation.

All Kryptonians developed an inbred hatred of Vrangs, and when Phantom Zone prisoners Jax-Ur, Professor Va-Kox, Faora and General Dru-Zod observe their ancestral oppressors from the stark and silent realm of nullity that had been their drearily, unchanging, timeless jail since before Krypton perished, they swore to destroy them. If their holy mission also allowed the Kryptonian outcasts to kill the hated son of the discoverer of the eerie dimension of stultifying intangibility, then so much the better…

Using the psycho-active properties of Jewel Kryptonite – a post-cataclysm isotope of the very element poisonous to Vrangs – a quartet of Zoners break-out and head to Earth for vengeance… but upon whom?

Soon after, Clark Kent, still blithely unaware of his peril, investigates a citizens’ defence group that has sprung up in Metropolis in response to a city-wide rash of petty crimes. ‘Superman Meets the Zod Squad’ (Action Comics #549) as Zod, Faora, Tyb-Ol and Murkk infiltrate human society and bide their time, while the Man of Steel and Lois Lane are most concerned with how these “White Wildcats” can afford to police neighbourhoods with jet-packs and martial arts skills unknown on Earth…

Uncovering militarist maniac Zod behind the scheme, Superman is astounded when the Kryptonians surrender, offering a truce until their ancient mutual enemies are defeated.

…And that’s when the Vrangs teleport the Man of Steel into their ship, exultant that they now possess the mightiest slave in existence.

Moreover, there are four more potentially priceless victims hurtling up to attack them, utterly unaware in their blind rage and hatred that the Vrangs have a weapon even Kryptonians cannot survive…

This clever, compulsive thriller of cross, double and even triple-cross is a fabulously intoxicating, tension-drenched treat blending human foibles with varying notions of honour, and shows that even the most reprehensible villains may understand the value of sacrifice and the principle of something worth dying for…

In 1986 DC celebrated its 50th year with the groundbreaking, Earth-shattering Crisis on Infinite Earths by radically overhauling its convoluted multiversal continuity and starting afresh. All the Superman titles were cancelled or suspended pending this back-to-basics reboot courtesy of John Byrne, allowing the opportunity for a number of very special farewells to the old mythology.

One of the most intriguing and challenging came in the last issue of team-up title DC Comics Presents: specifically #97 (September 1986) wherein ‘Phantom Zone: the Final Chapter’ – by Steve Gerber, Rick Veitch & Bob Smith – offered a creepy adieu to a number of Superman’s greatest foes and concepts…

Tracing Jor-El’s discovery of the Phantom Zone through to the impending eradication of the multiverse, this tale reveals that the dread region of nullity was in fact sentient and had always regarded the creatures deposited within as intruders.

Now as cosmic chaos ensues the entity Aethyr, served by Kryptonian mage Thul-Kar, causes the destruction of the Bizarro World and deification/corruption of Fifth Dimensional pest Mr. Mxyzptlk as well as the subsequent crashing of green-glowing Argo City on Metropolis.

As a result Zod and his fellow immaterial inmates are freed to wreak havoc upon Earth until the now-crystalline pocket dimension merges with and absorbs the felons, before implausibly abandoning Superman to face his uncertain future as the very Last Son of Krypton…

This compilation concludes with a thoroughly modern reinterpretation of General Zod from Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Rags Morales & Mark Farmer from Action Comics Annual #10 in 2007.

Blending elements of the 1978 filmic Superman franchise (and starring Zod, Ursa and Non as seen in Superman: the Movie and Superman II),‘The Criminals of Krypton’ reveal that their lost world was no utopian paradise in its final days and how its ruling Science Council silenced Jor-El’s mentor and kept word of the impending planetary explosion quiet by operating on Non’s brain…

Although pacifistic Jor-El chose to argue his position from within the strictures of the Council, his impatient converts Zod and Ursa tried to seize control of the government to save the unwary citizens, forcing the head of the House of El to exile (or perhaps save?) them from the cataclysm to come…

Superman has proven to be all things to all fans over his decades of existence, and with the character again undergoing another radical overhaul, these timeless tales of charm and joy and wholesome wit (accompanied by classic covers from Papp, Swan, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Veitch & Smith) are more necessary than ever: not just as a reminder of great tales of the past but as an all-ages primer of wonders still to come…
© 1961, 1977, 1983, 1986, 2007, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Turok Son of Stone Archives volume 1


By Gaylord DuBois Ray Bailey, Bob Correa, Jack Abel, Vince Alascia & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-155-3 (HB)

By simply never signing up to the draconian overreaction of the bowdlerizing Comics Code Authority, in the late 1950s Dell became the company for life and death thrills, especially in the arena of traditional adventure stories. If you were a kid in search of a proper body count instead of flesh wounds, you went for Tarzan, Roy Rogers, Tom Corbett and their ilk. That’s not to claim that the West Coast outfit were gory, exploitative sensationalists – far from it – but just that the writers and editors knew that fiction – especially kid’s fiction – needs a frisson of danger to make it work.

That was never more aptly displayed than in the long-running cross-genre saga of two Native Americans trapped in a world of sabretooth tigers, cavemen and dinosaurs…

Printing giant Whitman Publishing had been producing their own books and comics for decades through their Dell and Gold Key imprints, rivalling and often surpassing DC and Timely/Marvel at the height of their powers. Famously, they never capitulated to the wave of anti-comics hysteria which resulted in the crippling self-censorship of the 1950s and Dell Comics never displayed the Comics Code Authority symbol on their covers or sought the organization’s nanny-like approval.

They never needed to: their canny blend of media and entertainment licensed titles were always produced with a family market in mind and their comics’ creative staff took their editorial stance from the mores of the filmic Hayes Code and burgeoning television industry.

Like the big and little screen, they enticed but never shocked: keeping contentious social issues implicit instead of tacit. It was a proven case of “violence and murder are fine, but never, ever titillate.”

Moreover, the majority of their adventure comics covers were high quality photographs or paintings – adding a stunning degree of authenticity and realism to even the most outlandish of concepts for us wide-eyed waifs in need of awesome entertainment.

Dell hit the thrill jackpot as the censorship debacle hit its peak, by combining a flavour of westerns with monster lizards: after all what 1950s kid could resist “Red Indians” vs Dinosaurs?

Debuting in Four-Color Comics #596 (October/November 1954) Turok, Son of Stone told of two plains warriors hunting in the wilderness North of the Rio Grande when they became lost in a huge cave-system. They eventually emerged into a lost valley of wild men and antediluvian beasts and would spend the next 26 years (a total of 125 issues) wandering there, seeing sights and doing things kids of all ages would happily die for.

Despite solid claims from historian Matthew H. Murphy and comics legend Paul S. Newman (who definitely scripted the series from #9 onwards) Son of Stone was almost certainly created and first written by Dell’s editorial supremo Gaylord DuBois, and this magnificent hardcover collection gathers both Four Color try-outs (the second originally appearing in #656, October/November 1955) and thereafter issues #3-6 of an eponymous solo title.

Dell had one of the most convoluted numbering systems in comics collecting, and successive appearances in the try-out title usually – but not always – corresponded to eventual early issues of a solo series. Therefore FC #596 is Turok #1, FC #646 became #2 and the series proper began with #3. It isn’t always that simple though: after 30-odd Donald Duck Four Colors, Donald Duck proper launched his own adventures with #26!

Go figure… but just not now…

Set sometime in the days before Columbus stumbled upon America, Turok is a full brave mentoring a novice lad named Andar (apparently the original concept called for two teens, with the mature warrior originally a boy called Young Hawk). In ‘The World Below’ (limned by Rex Maxon), the hunters become lost while exploring Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico (DuBois was a frequent visitor to that fabulous subterranean site) and after days lost and wandering, they emerge into a vast, enclosed valley where they are menaced by huge creatures they never dreamed could exist.

In ‘The Terrible Ones’ they encounter beast-like cavemen and discover a way to make their puny arrows potent against the colossal cats, wolves and lizards that make human life spans so brief in this incredible world. In return they teach the ape-men the miracle of archery…

One year later, Four Color #656 opened on the morning after in ‘The Mystery of the Mountain’ as caveman Lanok helps Turok and Andar solve a grisly disappearance before the newcomers become lost once more in the great caverns. Eventually emerging at a far distant point of the lush valley, they are befriended by another tribe; one composed only of women and children. The technologically advanced modern visitors helped the primitives recover their men-folk in ‘The Missing Hunters’ and come tantalizingly close to escaping the sunken world forever before their hopes are cruelly dashed…

The format was set and successful. With Turok, Son of Stone #3 (March-May 1956) the pair began decades of constant wandering, seeking escape from the valley, encountering a fantastic array of monsters and lost tribes to help or fight, and illustrated by a succession of artist which included Ray Bailey, Bob Correa, Jack Abel & Vince Alascia.

‘The Exiled Cave Men’ saw them find their way back to Lanok, whose tribe had lately been driven from their home by a gigantic tyrannosaur. As well as helping them find new digs, Andar and Turok give them a further short and profitable lesson in cutting edge weaponry.

Of course the natives didn’t call it a tyrannosaur. The absolute best thing about this glorious series is the imaginative names for monsters. Moreover, although cavemen might have called T. Rexes “Runners”, Allosaurs “Hoppers” and Pterosaurs “Flyers”, whilst generally referring to giant lizards as “Honkers”, us kids knew all the proper names for these scaly terrors and felt pretty darn smug about it…

Relocated to an island in a great lake, Lanok’s tribe marvelled at the coracles and canoes Turok builds to explore its tributaries as ‘Strange Waters’ follows the homesick braves to another section of the valley with even stranger creatures.

Issue #4 opened with ‘The Bridge to Freedom’, finding Turok and Andar escaping the valley, only to turn back and help Lanok, whilst ‘The Smilodon’ pits the reunited trio against the mightiest hunter of all time as a sabretooth tiger takes an unrelentingly obsessive interest in how they might taste…

‘The River of Fire’ opened #5 as geological turbulence disrupted the valley, causing beasts to rampage and forcing Lanok’s tribe to flee from volcanic doom, whilst ‘The Secret Place’ sees Turok and Andar suffer from the jealous rage of the tribe’s slighted shaman. Of course, the witch-doctor turns out to be his own worst enemy…

Issue #6 (December 1956-February 1957) began with an inevitable but fabulously rewarding and cathartic clash as the wanderers face ‘The Giant Ape’; a King Kong-inspired romp with a bittersweet sting before Turok’s initial collected outing ends with ‘The Stick Thrower’ wherein a monkey-like newcomer introduces the lost boys to the magic of boomerangs and the pernicious wilfulness of mastodons…

But that’s not all! For sundry commercial reasons comic books were compelled to include at least three features per issue at this period, so this selection concludes with recovered text vignette ‘Aknet Becomes a Man’ and, just to be safe, ‘Lotor’: a natural history strip starring a wily raccoon looking to feed his brood, despite the best efforts of giant bullfrogs and hungry allosaurs…

With a rapturous introduction from artistic superstar/dino-buff William Stout, plus assorted fact-features that graced the original issues (‘The Dinosauria’, ‘The Ichthyosaurs’, ‘The Smilodon’, ‘The Mastodon’, ‘Turok’s Lost Valley’ and ‘Prehistoric Men’), this is a splendid all-ages adventure treat that will enrapture and enthral everybody who ever wanted to walk with dinosaurs… and Mammoths and Moas and…

Now, if we can only convince the current rights-holders to sanction a fresh release of this and its companion volumes – either physically and/or digitally – we could all travel back and get lost again in the primal Garden of action/adventure Eden…
™ & © 2009 Random House, Inc. Under license to Classic Media, Inc., an Entertainment Rights Company. All rights reserved.

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Lost Cat


By Jason, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-009-6 (HB/Digital)

A global star among comics cognoscenti, coining numerous major awards from all over the planet, Jason is secretly John Arne Saeterrøy. Born in Molde, Norway in 1965, he’s been an international cartoon superstar since 1995 when his first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) won that year’s Sproing Award (Norway’s biggest comics prize). He won another Sproing in 2001 for his series Mjau Mjau and in 2002 turned almost exclusively to producing graphic novels.

The stylised artwork is delivered in formalised page layouts rendered in a minimalist take on Hergé’s Claire Ligne style: solid blacks, thick outlines and settings of seductive simplicity – augmented here by mesmerising hints in earth-tones enhancing the hard, moody, suspenseful and utterly engrossing appreciation of the ambience of France’s Cinema Verité movement.

Jason’s work always jumps directly into the reader’s brain and heart, using beastly and unnatural repertory players to gently pose eternal questions about basic human needs in a soft but relentless quest for answers.

That you don’t ever notice the deep stuff because of clever gags and safe, familiar “funny-animal” characters should indicate just how good a cartoonist/storyteller he is. This would be a terrific yarn even without Jason’s understated art, but in combination with his dead-on, deadpan pastiche of The Big Sleep and other movies, the result is outrageous narrative dynamite.

This gem sees the artist’s return to full length tales (160 pages) after some years producing shorter album-style pieces, and in Lost Cat he lends his uniquely laconic anthropomorphic art-stylings to a surprisingly edgy, delicious tale of lost loves, scurrilous misdeeds and uncanny sinister secrets.

This a scarily evocative romantic puzzle with its roots in Raymond Chandler mysteries, tipping a slouched hat to Hollywood Noir, B-Movie sci-fi and psychologically underpinned melodramas, with Jason’s traditionally wordless primal art supplemented by sparse and spartan “Private Eye” dialogue, enhanced to a macabre degree by solid cartooning and skilled use of silence and moment.

This sly and beguiling detective story opens as seedy shamus Dan Delon – a specialist in tawdry divorce cases – sees a poster about a lost cat and, upon accidentally encountering the missing moggy, returns it to solitary, sombre yet oddly alluring bookshop proprietor Charlotte.

The two lonely people enjoy a coffee and stilted conversation before Dan departs, but in his head his calm, pleasant night with the quiet lady continues to unfold…

Life goes on, but even after taking on a big case – tracking the lost nude painting of a rich man’s long-gone inamorata – Delon just cannot get Charlotte out of his mind. Despite knowing better, he inserts himself into the woman’s staid, sedate life and slowly realises that their pleasant evening together was a complete tissue of lies.

Moreover, his grail-like quest for the truth leads the dowdy gumshoe into deadly danger and shocking revelations of Earth-shaking consequences…

Utilising with devastating effect that self-same quality of cold, bleak yet perfectly harnessed stillness which makes Scandinavian crime dramas such compelling, addictive fare, Lost Cat resonates with the artist’s favourite themes and shines with his visual dexterity, disclosing a decidedly different slant on secrets and obsessions, in a tale strictly for adults which nonetheless allows us to look at the world through wide-open young eyes.
All characters, stories and artwork © 2013 Jason. All rights reserved.

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Spider-Man: Blue


By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale with lettering by Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Wes Abbot and colours by Steve Buccellato & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0785134466 (HB/Digital edition)

The creative team of Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale have tackled many iconic characters in a number of landmark expansions/reworkings. In Spider-Man: Blue Loeb & Sale set their nostalgia-soaked sights on the beginnings of Peter Parker’s tragically brief romance with Gwen Stacy and ever-maturing relationship with eventual wife Mary Jane Watson. It encompasses that transitional period when Steve Ditko’s creepy, plucky outsider grew into a wholesome, straight-shooting, hard-luck hero as re-designed by John Romita Senior – who also provides the Introduction (first seen in the 2004 release) for this 2019 remastered collected edition. Also included are a full cover gallery by Sale and many of his preparatory sketches, plus a sketchbook section at the book’s end, featuring commentary from writer and artist revealing their process, in crafting ‘Cover Concepts’, ‘The Girls’, ‘French Posters’ (focussing on European editions) and a prodigious ‘Sketch Gallery’.

Part of a colour-themed project based on Marvel Super-hero beginnings, Spider-Man: Blue gathers the 6-issue miniseries from 2002: a slight but extremely readable tale reconstituted from and built upon pertinent snippets from Amazing Spider-Man #39-49 – plus a smidgeon of #63.

It opens on one gloomy February 14th, as happily married but momentarily melancholy Peter records a message to a former girlfriend he hasn’t really gotten over…

Successive tapes to murdered Gwen follow issue by issue, taking the form of a reminiscence of the days when he first emerged from his solitary shell. Parker recalls how he found – and lost – a few friends while inadvertently growing closer to MJ, all whilst pursuing a pure, innocent and unlikely love for a seemingly unattainable dream girl.

‘My Funny Valentine’ begins in modern days of muted blue, before memories of Parker’s first showdown with Green Goblin Norman Osborn erupt in vibrant full colour, with the epochal moments concluding as – whilst visiting the now amnesiac villain in hospital – “Gorgeous Gwen” first notices something special about staid, standoffish Peter…

‘Let’s Fall in Love’ sees that relationship grow whilst adding a major complication with the long-anticipated, oft-delayed first meeting with flirtatious Mary Jane, before ‘Anything Goes’ sees her “wild-child” vivacity steering our shy boy’s social life, making him almost popular with fellow students and even more intriguing to Gwen even as MJ (innocently?) aids and abets his secret life and career…

‘Autumn in New York’ follows Parker leaving Aunt May’s home to share an apartment with Harry Osborn (troubled son of the Goblin, and his eventual successor) with MJ inviting herself along as Harry’s official girlfriend, after which ‘If I Had You’ sees Parker’s youthful associates growing up a bit before concluding reverie ‘All of Me’ shows how a climactic clash with a lurking stalker on another St. Valentine’s night led to the birth of a love for the ages…

Along the way – and as formerly depicted in the Lee & Romita classics – Spider-Man fights a formidable array of super-foes, including The Rhino, Lizard, two separate Vultures and ultimately Kraven the Hunter (rather uncomfortably and implausibly re-imagined here as the kind of sinisterly patient, brooding mastermind that he simply could never have been). Loeb & Sale in-fill, expand and often radically rework those battles with the advantage of revelations culled from stories by others over the intervening decades.

Regrettably but crucially, the end result is clever and pretty but offers no real sense of tension, because even the newest readers already know the inevitable romantic outcomes whilst the attempt to weave a number of isolated super-baddie clashes into a vast master-plan over and above what Lee & Romita envisioned feels clumsy and ill-considered. Don’t take my word for it: the original tales are readily available for your perusal and delectation in numerous collections as assorted Marvel Masterworks and Epic Collections, should you feel the need to contrast and compare…

Loeb & Sale rightly enjoy a prodigious track record for retrofitting, rationalising and restating pivotal moments of comic book icons: especially distilling turning points of iconic characters and careers into material palatable to modern readers, but here it’s simply a waste of their time and talents. The originals are simply still better than the rehashing here. This is not one of their better efforts, and often comes perilously close to being maudlin far too often for comfort.

Although Sale’s art is always a joy to behold, and Loeb’s gift for dialogue is undiminished, Spider-Man: Blue falls short of their best. A solid, casual affair but, sadly, not a patch on the real thing …
© 2019 MARVEL.

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Feng Shui Academy


By Haruka Shouji & Midori Natsu, translated by Jason Tanthum (DrMaster Publications)
ISBN: 978-1-59796-191-2 (Tank?bon PB)

If you’re one of those people who’s never read a manga tale, or who’s been tempted but discouraged by the terrifying number of volumes these tales can run to here’s a delightful little fantasy fable complete in one book that shows all that’s best about comics from the East.

Comfortably fitting into the Worst Witch/Harry Potter milieu of magical schools, the tale covers the exploits of young Enoki Ozunu, the best and most talented student at the Kusanagi School of Magical Architecture. Based in Tokyo – a city that really needs the help, as its own harmonious defenses were shattered years ago by warfare and urban development – this venerable establishment trains students to restore spiritual harmony to buildings using Feng Shui, and also to exorcise demons and ghosts that can infest a dwelling once its “Harmonic Seals” are broken.

Narrative balance is achieved by adding a bunch of memorable school friends – and enemies – and a chaotic home-life, courtesy of his foster family…

Beyond all the intriguing and exotic scenarios and Eastern mythology is a solid school-days comedy drama, packed with excitement and honest sentiment as orphan Ozunu and his sassy cat-girl familiar Kyara save people’s homes from giant earth-spiders, root rats, eel water-spirits and more. There’s even opportunity to rescue the odd monster from evil people…

Uncomplicated, charming, funny and unashamedly sentimental (I defy the hardest-hearted old git to read the story of a faithful ghost-cat without shedding a tear or two), this older kid’s adventure exemplifies all that’s best in Manga and is a darn good read to boot.
© 2006 Haruka Shouji. © 2006 Midori Natsu. English translation © 2008 DrMaster Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Bible


By Sheldon Mayer & Nestor Redondo, with Joe Kubert (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3425-6 (HB/Digital edition)

I first reviewed this material back in 2008, even though it didn’t really qualify as a graphic novel or book. This was because the artist I wanted to highlight wasn’t a fan-favourite in America or England (a fact I find utterly inexplicable) and English-language collections featuring his incredible artwork were few and far between.

Eventually a new world dawned where comics can be considered both Art forms and high-ticket commercial artefacts, where the big comic has been reborn as a full-on item of merit. All anything ever takes, is time…

In 2012, the entire affair was reprinted as an oversized (262 x 345 mm) commemorative hardback edition, and latterly rereleased in the digital edition I’m referencing here.

Nestor Redondo was born in 1928 at Candon, Ilocas Sur in the American Territory of the Philippines. Like so many others in that impoverished land, he was deeply influenced by US comic strips such as Tarzan, Superman, The Phantom, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon which were immensely popular and widely disseminated in the entertainment-starved Pacific Archipelago.

Drawing from an early age, Nestor emulated his brother Virgilio who already worked as a comics artist for the cheap magazines of the young country. The Philippines became a commonwealth in 1935, and achieved full-independence from the USA in 1946, but always maintained close cultural links to America.

Nestor’s parents pushed him into architecture, but within a year he returned to comics. A superb artist, he far outshone Virgilio – and everybody else – in the cottage industry. His brother switched to writing and they teamed up to produce some of the best strips the Islands had ever seen, the most notable and best regarded being Mars Ravelo’s Darna.

Capable of astounding quality at an incredible rate, by the early 1950s Nestor was drawing for many comics simultaneously. Titles such as Pilipino Komiks, Tagalog Klasiks, Hiwaga Komiks and Espesial Komiks were fortnightly. and he usually worked on two or three series at a time, pencils and inks. He also produced many of the covers.

In 1953, he adapted MGM film Quo Vadis for Ace Publications’ Tagalong Klasiks #91-92. Written by Clodualdo Del Mundo, it was serialized to promote the movie in the Philippines, but MGM were so impressed by the art-job that they offered 24 year old Nestor a US job and residency. He declined, thinking himself too young to leave home yet. If you’re interested, you can see the surviving artwork by searching online for “Nestor Redondo’s Quo Vadis”, and you should, because it’s frankly incredible.

Ace was the country’s biggest comics publisher, but by the early 1960s they were in dire financial straits. In 1963 Nestor, Tony Caravana, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Fernandez, Amado Castrillo and brother Virgilio set up their own company – CRAF Publications, Inc. – but times were against them …and publishers everywhere.

Around this time, America came calling again, in the form of DC and Marvel Comics. By 1972, US based Filipino artist Tony DeZuñiga had introduced a wave of his associates to US editors. Nestor drew anthological horror tales for House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Phantom Stranger, Secrets of Sinister House, Witching Hour, The Unexpected, Weird War Tales; fill-ins for Marvel’s Man-Thing; an astonishingly beautiful run on Rima the Jungle Girl #1-7 (a loose adaptation of W H Hudson’s seminal 1904 novel Green Mansions) and ultimately replaced Bernie Wrightson as artist on the first run of Swamp Thing. He also worked on Lois Lane and crafted magnificent tales for Joe Kubert’s Edgar Rice Burroughs/Tarzan titles.

In 1973, Nestor produced classical literature comics adaptations including Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Vincent Fago’s Pendulum Press Illustrated Classics (later reprinted as Marvel Classics Comics). In later years he moved to Marvel to ink – and eventually fully illustrate – Savage Sword of Conan.

During his DC period, he was tapped to draw an adaptation of King Arthur (which DC killed before it was completed (once again some pages survive and the internet is your friend if you want to see them). He also illustrated issue C-36 of the tabloid-sized Limited Collectors’ Edition. These were comics printed twice the height and width of standard comic book and generally a means of selling themed reprint collections, but also became a magnificent vehicle for all-original special events such as the first Superman/Spider-Man team-up, Neal Adams & Denny O’Neil’s Superman Vs Muhammad Ali and many headline-grabbing moments in DC continuity such as the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl or Superman vs Wonder Woman…

Another ambitious all-new project that was never completed, The Bible was written by Sheldon Mayer (Scribbly; Red Tornado; Black Orchid; Day After Doomsday; Three Mouseketeers; Sugar and Spike) and designed and edited by Joe Kubert. It was planned as the first instalment in a graphic interpretation of the entire Bible, but apparently readers prefer costumed saviours above all others…

A deeply religious man, Redondo had already produced the serial Mga Kasaysayang Buhat sa Bibliya (Tales from the Bible) for the Philippine’s Superyor Komiks between 1969-1970, as well as creating an on-the-job training scheme for young creators there. Over many years he contributed to various Christian comics, including Marx, Lenin, Mao and Christ, published in 1977 by Open Doors, Aida-Zee and Behold 3-D, produced in the 1990s by Nate Butler Studio. He was also a panellist for the first Christian comics panel discussion of Comic-Con International, in 1992.

Stories from the Bible have been a part of US comics since the earliest days of the industry, but they have never been so beautifully illustrated as in this book. Included herein are loving interpretations of The Creation, The Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, The Generations of Adam, Noah and the Flood, The Tower of Babel, The Story of Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah.

Also included are single-page information features ‘Digging into the Past’, ‘School Days in Bible Times’, ‘The Ziggurat’ and ‘Soldiers in the Time of Abraham’ all illustrated by Kubert, but the true star is the passionate beauty of Redondo’s, lush, glorious art.

Redondo worked as an animation designer for Marvel Studios in the 1990s. He wrote On Realistic Illustration – a teaching session for the 1st International Christian Comics Training Conference in Tagaytay, the Philippines, in January 1996, but sadly, died before he was able to deliver it.

Whatever your beliefs – and I don’t really care – you wouldn’t be reading this unless comics meant something to you. On that basis alone, this is work that you simply cannot be unmoved by and truly should be aware of. Even if there isn’t a comprehensive collection of his work – yet – this single work stands as a lasting tribute to Nestor Redondo’s unparalleled talent. If you venerate beautiful pictures telling stories, you must see this book.
© 1975 National Periodical Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Crisis on Multiple Earths Book 1: Crossing Over


By Gardner Fox, Dennis O’Neil, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin, Bernard Sachs, Sid Greene, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0753-2 (TPB/Digital)

As I’ve frequently mentioned before, I was one of the “Baby Boomer” crowd which grew up with Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox and John Broome’s tantalisingly slow reintroduction of Golden Age superheroes during the halcyon, eternally summery days of the early 1960s. To me those fascinating counterpart crusaders from Earth-Two weren’t vague and distant memories rubber-stamped by parents or older brothers – they were cool, fascinating and enigmatically new.

…And for some reason the “proper” heroes of Earth-One held them in high regard and treated them with obvious deference…

The transcendent wonderment began, naturally enough, in The Flash; pioneering trendsetter of the Silver Age Revolution. After successfully ushering in the triumphant return of the superhero concept, the Scarlet Speedster – with Fox & Broome at the writing reins – set an unbelievably high standard for costumed adventure in sharp, witty tales of science and imagination, always illustrated with captivating style and clean simplicity by Carmine Infantino.

The epochal epic that literally changed the scope of American comics forever was Fox’s ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (Flash #123 September 1961, reprinted in many places, but not here): introducing to an emerging continuity the concept of alternate Earths and, by extension, the multiversal structure of the future DCU as well as all the succeeding cosmos-shaking yearly “Crisis” sagas that grew from it.

Moreover, where DC led, others followed…

Received with tumultuous acclaim, the concept was revisited months later in Flash #129 which also teasingly reintroduced evergreen stalwarts – Wonder Woman, the Atom, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Doctor Mid-Nite and Black Canary: venerable members of the fabled Justice Society of America. Clearly Editor Schwartz had something in mind…

That tale directly led into the veteran team’s first meeting with the Justice League of America and the start of an annual tradition. When ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ brought us the notion of Infinite Earths and multiple iterations of costumed crusaders, fan pressure had begun almost instantly to agitate for the return of the Greats of the “Golden Age”. Editorial powers-that-be were hesitant, fearing too many heroes would be silly and unmanageable, or worse yet, put readers off. If they could see us now…

These innovative adventures generated an avalanche of popular and critical approval (big sales figures, too) so inevitably the trans-dimensional tests led to the ultimate team-up in the summer of 1963.

This gloriously enthralling volume is the first in a sequence of collections celebrating Infinite Diversity in Infinite Costumes, gathering the first eight summer double-header JLA/JSA convocations (Justice League of America #21-22, 29-30, 37-38, 46-47, 55-56, 64-65, 73-74, and 82-83) plus pertinent excerpts from other places: stunning superhero wonderments which never fail to astound and delight. Also on offer are a context-conveying Introduction ‘1 & 2 – Crisis’ by wonder-scribe Mark Waid detailing even more cool facts behind the phenomenon and Martin Pasko’s erudite Foreword ‘Crisis Behind the Scenes’, revealing how the loss of stalwart originators Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowsky led to a new way of telling stories, offsetting in many respects the genuine dilemma of readers’ changing tastes…

The comic book catharsis commences with the landmark ‘Crisis on Earth-One’ and ‘Crisis on Earth-Two’ (from Justice League of America #21-22, August & September 1963) combining to form one of the most important stories in DC history and arguably one of the most crucial tales in American literature: at least the stuff with pictures in it.

Written by Fox and illustrated by Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs, the yarn finds a coalition of assorted villains from each Earth plundering at will, meeting and defeating the mighty Justice League before impertinently imprisoning them in their own secret mountain HQ…

Temporarily helpless, “our” heroes contrive a desperate plan to combine forces with the champions of another Earth to save the world – both of it – and the result is pure Fights ‘n’ Tights majesty.

It’s impossible for me to be totally objective about this saga. I was a drooling kid in short trousers when I first read it and the thrills haven’t diminished with this umpty-first re-reading.

This is what superhero comics are all about!

The buying public clearly agreed. One year later ‘Crisis on Earth-Three’ and ‘The Most Dangerous Earth of All!’ (JLA #29-30) reprised the team-up after super-beings of a third alternate Earth discover the secret of trans-universal travel.

Unfortunately, Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring are villains on a world without heroes who see costumed crimebusters like the JLA and JSA as living practise dummies to sharpen their evil skills upon.

With this cracking thriller the annual summer get-together became solidly entrenched in heroic lore, giving fans endless entertainment for years to come and making the approaching end of school holidays less gloomy than they could have been.

The third annual event was a touch different; a largely forgotten experimental tale wherein the educationally-challenged and extremely larcenous Johnny Thunder of Earth-1 wrests control of the genie-like Thunderbolt from his otherworld counterpart: employing its magical powers to change the events which created of all Earth-1’s superheroes. Catastrophically altered, in #37 it became ‘Earth – Without a Justice League’, and it was up to the JSA to save the day in a gripping battle of wits and power before Reality was re-established in #38’s concluding chapter ‘Crisis on Earth-A!’.

Veteran inker Bernard Sachs retired before the fourth team-up, leaving the amazing Sid Greene to embellish a gloriously whacky saga: one springing out of the global “Batmania” craze engendered by the first Batman television show…

A wise-cracking campy tone was fully in play, acknowledging the changing audience profile and this time the stakes are raised to encompass the destruction of both planets in ‘Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two’ and ‘The Bridge Between Earths’ (Justice League of America #46-47, August & September 1966).

Here a bold continuum-warping experiment drags the twin sidereal worlds towards an inexorable hyper-space collision. Making matters worse, an awesome anti-matter being uses the opportunity to break into and explore our positive-matter universe whilst the heroes of both worlds are distracted by the destructive rampages of monster-men Blockbuster and Solomon Grundy.

Peppered with wisecracks and “hip” dialogue, it’s sometimes difficult to discern what a cracking yarn this actually is, but if you’re able to forgive or swallow dated patter, it is one of the very best plotted and illustrated stories in the entire JLA/JSA canon. Furthermore, the vastly talented Greene’s expressive subtlety, beguiling textures and whimsical humour add unheard-of depth to Sekowsky’s pencils and the light and frothy comedic scripts of Fox.

The same can be said of the next year’s outing as the wise-cracking campy tone was still fully in play for ‘The Super-Crisis that Struck Earth-Two’ and ‘The Negative-Crisis on Earths One-Two!’ (JLA #55-56; August and September 1967).

Opening on Earth Two, it boasted a radical change as the JSA now included an adult Robin instead of Batman, although Hourman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Wildcat, Johnny Thunder and Mr. Terrific still needed the help of Earth One’s Superman, Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow to cope with an invasion of superpower-creating black spheres bestowing upon mere mortals uncanny abilities enabling them to satisfy their darkest desires.

Things went from bad to worse after the harried heroes used the ebony invaders to augment their own abilities and turn half the combined team evil too…

By 1968 the second superhero boom looked to be dying just as its predecessor had at the end of the 1940s. Sales were down generally in the comics industry and costs were beginning to spiral. More importantly, “free” entertainment, in the form of television, was by now ensconced in even the poorest household. If you were a kid in the sixties, think on just how many brilliant cartoon shows were created in that decade, when artists like Alex Toth and Doug Wildey were working in West Coast animation studios.

Moreover, comic book stars were appearing on the small screen. Superman, Aquaman, Batman, the Marvel heroes and even the JLA were there every Saturday in your own living room…

It was a time of great political and social upheaval. Change was everywhere and unrest even reached the corridors of DC. When a number of creators agitated for increased work-benefits the request was not looked upon kindly. Many left the company for other outfits. Some quit the business altogether.

Fox ended his magnificent run on the Justice League with a stunning annual team-up extravaganza. Creative and perfectly professional to the very end, his last story was yet another of the Golden-Age revivals which had resurrected the superhero genre.

JLA #64 and 65 (August- September 1968) featured the ‘Stormy Return of the Red Tornado’ and ‘T.O. Morrow Kills the Justice League – Today!’, with a cyclonic super-android taking on the mantle of a 1940s spoof “Mystery Man” who appeared in the very first JSA adventure (if you’re interested, the original Red Tornado was a brawny washerwoman named Ma Hunkle who escaped comedy feature Scribbly by Sheldon Mayer and became our earliest crossdressing masked marvel…).

The plot here involved a cagy time-plundering thief creating an artificial hero to help him defeat both JLA and JSA, before realising too late he had built better than he knew…

Fox’s departing thriller was also the series’ artistic debut for former Blackhawk artist Dick Dillin: a prolific draughtsman who would draw every JLA issue for the next twelve years, as well as many other adventures of DC’s top characters. He was inked by Greene, a pairing that seemed vibrant and darkly realistic after the eccentrically stylish, nigh-abstract Sekowsky.

Next up from August and September 1969 is Denny O’Neil’s first shot at the yearly cross-dimensional crisis as #73 and 74 offered ‘Star Light, Star Bright… Death Star I See Tonight!’ and ‘Where Death Fears to Tread!’

The tense, brooding tale introduced Aquarius; a sentient but insane star, who magically destroys Earth Two until Earth One’s heroes (with their surviving Golden Age counterparts) manage to restore it, but not without some personal tragedy. Black Canary loses her husband and opts to emigrate to our world, handily becoming the JLA’s resident Girl Superhero and picking up a new if somewhat unreliable power in the process.

This splendid exercise in fantastic nostalgia ends with another grand get-together as perfidious property speculators from space seek to raze both Earths in ‘Peril of the Paired Planets’ (#82 August 1970 by O’Neil, Dillin & Joe Giella) and only the ultimate sacrifice by a true hero averts trans-dimensional disaster in concluding chapter ‘Where Valor Fails… Will Magic Triumph?’

This volume also includes a few beguiling extras: covers by Sekowsky, Sachs, Greene, Murphy Anderson, Jack Abel, Dillin, Joe Kubert and Neal Adams, the front and back covers of Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-46 (by Neal Adams from August/September 1976); a double-page pin-up of the JSA by Anderson from Justice League of America #76 (October 1969) and previous collection covers by Alex Ross and Jerry Ordway…

These tales won’t suit everybody, and I’m as aware as any that in terms of the “super-powered” genre the work here can be boiled down to two bunches of heroes formulaically getting together to deal with extra-extraordinary problems. In mature hindsight, it’s obviously also about sales and the attempted revival of more sellable characters during a period of intense rivalry between DC Comics and Marvel.

But I don’t have to be mature in my off-hours and for those who love costume heroes, who crave these cunningly constructed modern mythologies and actually care about fun, this is simply a grand parade of straightforward action, great causes and momentous victories.

…And since I wouldn’t have it any other way, why should you?
© 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1976, 2002, 2003, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.