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Women Discoverers: 20 Top Women in Science


By Marie Moinard & Christelle Pecout, translated by Montana Kane (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-270-0 (Album HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-271-7

Comics and graphic novels have an inconceivable power to deliver information in readily accessible form, and – exactly like all the best human teachers – do so in ways that are fascinating, fun and therefore unforgettable. Here’s a crucial past highpoint in a wave of historical and biographical visual celebrations seeking to redress centuries of gender injustice while providing true life role models for coming generations… if we have any.

Crafted by writer, editor and journalist Marie Moinard (En chemin elle recontre, La petite vieille du Vendredi) & Christelle Pecout (Lune d’Ombre, Hypathie, Histoires et légendes normandes), Les découvreuses is a cheery compendium made comprehensible to us via translation into English by the fine folk at NBM. As the name suggests, Women Discoverers focuses on 20 NOT MALE scientists and researchers who generally sans fanfare, or even fair credit, changed the world. Some are thankfully still doing so.

A combination of comics vignettes and short illustrated data epigrams preceded by an impassioned Introduction from Marie-Sophie Pawlak (President of the Elles Bougent scientific society), the revelations begin with an extended strip history citing some of the achievements of the peerless Marie Curie – whose discoveries in chemistry and physics practically reinvented the planet. She is followed by brief vignettes of French biologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (discoverer of the HIV retrovirus), Canadian physicist Donna Théo Strickland (laser amplification) and African-American Dorothy Vaughan whose mathematical and computing skills served the world at NASA.

It’s back to comics for Ada Lovelace who revolutionized mathematics and invented computer programming, after which single page biographies describe the achievements of and lengths undertaken by French mathematician Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet AKA Émilie du Châtelet to attend men-only institutions in the days of the Enlightenment, before writing world-changing philosophical magnum opus Institutions de Physique.

Although separated by centuries, mathematicians Emmy Noether (Germany 1882-1935) and Niger-born Grace Alele-Williams (December 16th 1932 to March 25, 2022) both excelled and triumphed despite male opposition, but their stories pale beside the strip-delivered hardships of screen star, engineer, plastic surgeon and computing/mobile phone/internet pioneer Hedy Lamarr…

Another Nasa stalwart, mathematician/astrophysicist Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, famously calculated Apollo 11’s life-saving orbit, while paediatrician Marthe Gautier discovered the origins of Downs’ Syndrome. Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani’s geometry discoveries were tragically cut short by illness, whilst the shameful treatment and fate of British researcher Rosalind Franklin also ended in unjust sidelining, a cruelly early death and belated fame, unlike French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Sophie Germain whose many (posthumous) triumphs never brought her inclusion in the numerous scientific organisations barring female membership during her lifetime and far beyond it…

Whereas Marie Curie’s daughter Iréne Joliot-Curie won similar accolades to her mother, astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars, only to have her (male) supervisor steal the credit. At least she’s still alive to see the record set straight and reap belated fame and awards (go Google Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell to see a rare happy ending)…

In pictorial form, astronaut Mae Jemison reveals her life and medical successes on Earth, before this potent paean closes with a trio of one-page wonders: Kevlar inventor Stephanie Kwolek, Navy mathematician Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (writer of the notorious, ubiquitous and utterly essential programming language COBOL) and Chinese chemist Xie Yi, whose advances in nanotechnology are still making the world a very different place.

Sure, you could ride a search engine to learn about them all, but this book is a far more satisfying and charming alternative and the very fact that you probably haven’t heard of most of these astounding innovators – or even a few of the more ancient ones – only proves why you need this book.
© 2019 Blue Lotus Prod. © 2021 NBM for the English translation.

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Henry Speaks for Himself


By John J. Liney, edited by David Tosh (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-733-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Created by veteran cartoonist Carl Anderson as a silent, pantomimic gag-panel first seen on March 19th 1932, Henry was one of the most venerated and long-lived of US newspaper comics strips. The feature was developed for The Saturday Evening Post before being picked up by legendary strip advocate and proponent William Randolph Hearst. He brought it and the then-69-year-old Anderson to his King Features Syndicate in 1934 after which the first comic strip appeared on December 17th, with a full colour Sunday half-page following on March 10th 1935. The Saturday Evening Post had to content and console itself with a new feature entitled Little Lulu by Marjorie Henderson Buell. I wonder how that worked out?

Being a man of advanced years, Anderson employed Don Trachte to assist with the Sundays whilst John J. Liney performed the same role for the Monday to Saturday black and white iteration. This continued until 1942 when arthritis forced Anderson to retire. Trachte and Liney became de facto creators of the feature – although the originator’s name remained on the masthead for the next twenty years.

Liney (1912-1982) had started as a staff cartoonist on the Philadelphia Evening Ledger and began selling gag ideas to Anderson in 1936 before landing the full-time assistant’s job. After assuming the illustrator’s role in 1942, Liney took over sole writing responsibilities for the daily in 1945, continuing Henry until 1979 when he finally retired. His own name had been adorning the strip since 1970. He was also a passionate teacher and educator on comics and cartooning, with a position at Temple University. Nevertheless, he still found time to write and draw a comic book iteration of the mute and merry masterpiece from 1946 to 1961.

Major licensing monolith Western Publishing/Dell Comics had been successfully producing comic books starring animation characters, film icons and strip heroes since the mid-1930s, and when they launched their Henry – first in Four Color Comics #122 and #155 (October 1946 and July 1947) prior to his own 65 issue title from January 1948 – they successfully argued for a radical change in the boy’s make-up.

The newspaper strip had always been a timeless, nostalgia-fuelled, happily humour-heavy panoply of gags and slapstick situations, wherein the quite frankly weird-looking little bald kid romped and pranked in complete silence, with superb cartooning delivering all the communication nuance its vast international audience needed.

Now though, with children seen as sole consumers, the powers-that-be felt that little lad should be able to speak and make himself understood. Liney easily rose to the challenge and produced a sublime run of jolly, wild, weird if not often utterly surreal, endlessly inventive adventures – many of which approached stream-of-consciousness progressions that perfectly captured the ephemeral nature of kids’ concentration. He also introduced a captivating supporting cast to augment the boy, and his appealingly unattractive, forthright and two-fisted inamorata Henrietta.

This splendid collection gathers some of the very best longer tales from the comic book run in the resplendent flat primary colours that are so evocative of simpler days, beginning after a heartfelt reminiscence in the Foreword by Kim Deitch. Another pause before the comics commence comes from Editor, compiler and devotee David Tosh who outlines the history of the character and his creators in ‘Henry – the Funniest Living American’. He then goes on to explain ‘The Dell Years’ before offering some informative ‘Notes on the Stories’.

The vivid viewing portion of this collection is liberally augmented with stunning cover reproductions; all impressively embracing to the quiet lad’s silent comedy roots, a brace of which precede a beautiful double-page spread detailing the vast and varied cast Liney added to the mix. Then, from #7 (June, 1949), we discover ‘Henry is Thinking Out Loud!’ as the kid keeps his non-existent mouth shut and explores the medium of first person narrative, inner monologues and thought-balloons, all whilst getting into mischief seeking odd jobs to do…

October’s edition, Henry #9, introduced good-natured, cool but increasingly put-upon Officer Yako in ‘You Can’t Beat the Man on the Beat!’ via an escalating succession of brushes with the law, bullies, prospective clients… and darling Henrietta.

That bald boy still hadn’t actually uttered a sound, but by #14 (August 1950) had found his voice, much to the amusement of his layabout Uncle (rather suspiciously, he never had a name) who eavesdropped on the assorted kids comparing their ‘Funny Dreams’. After a quartet of covers, Henry #16 (December 1950) finds Liney playing with words as ‘Rhyme Without Reason’ reveals the entire cast afflicted with doggerel, meter, couplets and all forms poetic, with Liney even drawing himself into the madcap procession of japes and jests, whilst ‘A Slice of Ham’  #22, December 1951) cleverly riffs on Henry’s ambitions to impress Henrietta by becoming an actor. This yarn offers a wealth of Liney caricatures featuring screen immortals such as Chaplin, Gable, Sinatra and more, whilst introducing a potential rival contender for Henry’s affections in cousin Gilda…

In #24 (April 1952) Henry ‘Peeks into the Future’ by outrageously pondering on his possible careers as an adult, before plunging into Flintstone or Alley Oop territory – complete with cave city and dinosaurs – as a result of studying too hard for a history test in ‘The Stone Age Story’ from #29, February 1953.

After four more clever funny covers, growing up again features heavily with ‘Choosing Your Career’ (#45, March 1956) as the little fool road-tests a job as a home-made cab driver and accidentally slips into law enforcement by capturing a bandit. Henry #48 (December 1956) sees him attend a fancy dress party and become ‘The Boy in the Iron Mask’, before this completely charming compilation closes by reprising that sojourn in the Stone Age ‘Rock and Roll’ (#49 March 1957). Concluding the comedy capers is fond personal reminiscence ‘Henry and Me’ by David Tosh; a man justifiably delighted to be able to share his passion with us and hopefully proud that this book gloriously recaptures some of the simple straightforward sheer joy that could be found in comicbooks of yore.

Henry Speaks for Himself is fun, frolicsome and fabulously captivating all-ages cartooning that will enthral anyone with kids or who has the soul of one.
Henry Speaks for Himself © 2014 Fantagraphics Books Inc. All comics and drawings © 2014 King Features, Inc. All other material © its respective creators. This book was produced in cooperation with Heritage Auctions.

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Dazzler Marvel Masterworks volume 1


By Chris Claremont & John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Tom DeFalco, Danny Fingeroth, John Romita Jr, Frank Springer, Keith Pollard, Alan Kupperberg, Terry Austin, Mike Esposito, Alfredo Alcala, Danny Bulanadi, Armando Gil, Ricardo Villamonte, Frank McLaughlin, Vince Colletta & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2212-2 HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are quite a few comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but a few are going to be unjustly ignored. Here’s one you should have no trouble finding physically or in digital formats…

Until relatively recently US comics and especially Marvel had very little in the way of positive female role models and almost no viable solo stars. Although a woman starred in the very first comic of the Marvel Age, The Invisible Girl took decades to become a potent and independent character in her own right – or even just be called “woman”. The company’s very first starring heroine was leather-clad, whip-wielding crimebuster Black Fury: imported from a newspaper strip created by Tarpe Mills in April 1941.

The seductive sentinel was resized and repackaged as a reprint for Timely’s funnybooks and renamed Miss Fury, enjoying a 4-year (1942-1946) run – although her tabloid incarnation carried on until 1952. Fury was actually predated by Silver Scorpion, who debuted in Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941), but the homegrown hero was rapidly relegated to a minor position in the book’s line-up and she had a very short shelf-life.

Miss America premiered in anthological Marvel Mystery Comics (#49, November 1943), created by Otto Binder & artist Al Gabriele. After a few appearances, she won her own title in early 1944. Miss America Comics lasted, but the costumed crusader did not as – with the second issue (November1944) – the format changed, becoming an amalgam of teen comedy, fashion feature and domestic tips magazine. Feisty take-charge superheroics were steadily squeezed out and the title is most renowned now for introducing virginal evergreen teen ideal Patsy Walker. Other woman warriors appeared immediately after the War, the majority as spin-offs/sidekicks of established male stars such as distaff Sub-Mariner Namora (debuting in Marvel Mystery Comics #82, May 1947 before graduating to her own 3-issue series in 1948).

She was soon joined by the Human Torch’s secretary Mary Mitchell who, as Sun Girl, helmed her own 3-issue 1948 series before becoming a wandering sidekick and guest star in Sub-Mariner and Captain America Comics. Draped in a ballgown and wearing high heels, masked detective Blonde Phantom was created by Stan Lee & Syd Shores for All Select Comics #11 (Fall 1946) whilst cover-dated August 1948, kind-of, sort-of goddess Venus debuted in her own title, becoming the gender’s biggest Timely-Atlas-Marvel success… until the advent of the “Jungle Girl” fad in the mid-1950s.

Her triumph came mostly by dint of the superb stories and art by the great Bill Everett and by ruthlessly changing genres from crime to romance to horror as any popular trend inched forward in other media…

Don Rico & Jay Scott Pike’s Jann of the Jungle was just part of an anthology line-up in Jungle Tales #1 (September 1954), yet she took over the title with the 8th issue (November 1955). Jann of the Jungle ran until June 1957 (#17), spawning a host of in-company imitators like Leopard Girl, Lorna the Jungle Queen and so on…

During the costumed hero boom of the 1960s, Marvel experimented with a title shot for Inhuman émigré Madame Medusa in Marvel Super-Heroes (#15, July 1968) and a solo series for the Black Widow in Amazing Adventures #1-8 (August 1970 to September 1971). Both were sexy, reformed villainesses, not wholesome girl-next-door heroes – and neither lasted solo long on their own. With a costumed crazies craze subsiding as the 1970s, began, Stan Lee & Roy Thomas looked into creating a girl-friendly boutique of “heroines” written by and for women. Opening shots in this mini-liberation war were Linda Fite, Marie Severin & Wally Wood’s Claws of the Cat and Night Nurse by Jean Thomas & Win Mortimer (both #1’s cover-dated November 1972). Modern day jungle queen Shanna the She-Devil #1 – by Carole Seuling & George Tuska – came out in December 1972, but despite impressive creative teams none of these fascinating experiments lasted beyond a fifth issue.

Red Sonja, She-Devil with a Sword, caught every one’s attention in Conan the Barbarian #23 (February 1973) and eventually won her own series, whilst in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974), The Cat mutated into Tigra, the Were-Woman. However, the general editorial position was still “books starring chicks don’t sell”…

The company kept on plugging though, and eventually found the right mix at the right time when Ms. Marvel launched in her own title (cover-dated January 1977). She was followed by equally copyright-protecting Spider-Woman (Marvel Spotlight #32: February 1977), who secured her own title 15 months later) and Savage She-Hulk (#1 February 1980). The last was supplemented by the music-biz inspired Dazzler who sagely premiered in top-selling title Uncanny X-Men #130 the same month, before inevitably graduating to her own book.

Thus, please find gathered here that mutant-motivated launch tale from #130-131, a crafty crossover from Amazing Spider-Man #203 and then #1-13 of Dazzler, all cumulatively covering cover-dates February 1980 to March 1982. Before it all kicks off there’s even an informative Introduction ‘Dazzler and Me’ by sometime scribe Danny Fingeroth…

Previously and elsewhere: Having saved Edinburgh and perhaps the world from reality-warping Proteus, The X-Men return to Charles Xavier at their Westchester home where – thanks to sinister psionic predator Jason Wyngarde, Jean Grey/Phoenix is increasingly experiencing visions of a former life as a spoiled, cruel slave-owning child of privilege, contrasting sharply with her renewed love for Scott Summers/Cyclops, but the home atmosphere is troubled by another discordant factor. Xavier is insensitively intent on training the team, haughtily oblivious that this group are grizzled, seasoned veterans of combat, rather than the callow teenagers he first tutored.

Elsewhere, a cabal of mutants and millionaires plot murder and conquest. Black King Sebastian Shaw, White Queen Emma Frost and the rest of The Hellfire Club hierarchy know Wyngarde is an ambitious, presumptuous upstart, but the possibility of subverting the almighty Phoenix to their world-dominating agenda is irresistible…

Beginning here, the action opens as two new mutants manifest, and Xavier must split the team to initiate a “first contact” with both. He goes with Storm, Wolverine and Colossus to Chicago and meets the nervous parents of naive 13-year-old Kitty Pryde. She has just realised that, along with all the other problems of puberty, she now uncontrollably falls through floors and walks through walls…

However, no sooner does the Professor offer to admit enrol her in his select and prestigious private school than they are all attacked by war-suited mercenaries and shipped by Emma Frost to the Hellfire Club. Only Kitty escapes, but instead of running, she stows away on the transport; terrified but intent on saving the day…

The other Homo Superior neophyte to debut sees Cyclops, Phoenix and Nightcrawler head into Manhattan’s club district, tracking a disco singer dubbed ‘Dazzler’. They are unaware that they too have been targeted for capture. However, Kitty’s attempts to free the Hellfire base captives forces the villains to tip their hand early and with the assistance of “disco diva” Dazzler – AKA Alison Blaire and a wannabee musician who converts sound to devastating light effects – the second mercenary capture team is defeated…

The drama concludes in #131 as Kitty is forced to frantically ‘Run for Your Life!’ – happily, straight into the arms of the remaining X-Men. Soon the plucky lass, after an understandable period of terror, confusion and kvetching, leads a strike on the lair of the White Queen: freeing Wolverine, Colossus and Xavier as Frost faces off in a deadly psionic showdown with a Phoenix far less kind and caring than ever before…

Suitably introduced into the Marvel milieu, Dazzler promptly encored in Amazing Spider-Man #203 (April 1980) ‘Bewitched. Bothered and Be-Dazzled!’ wherein Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard & Mike Esposito (and inking friends) jammed a short tale of opportunism as old arachnid adversary Lightmaster tapped into Blaire’s inherent abilities to liberate himself from an all-enveloping “light dimension”. Having returned to Earth the malign menace kept Dazzler as living battery to amp up his powers until Spider-Man stepped in and put him down…

Dazzler the character had been born of another of those 1980-1990s doomed-from-the-start cross-media deals wherein comics companies attempted to break out of their “ghetto” into the real money world. In 1979 Disco specialists Casablanca Records began an development project with Marvel to create a TV based character who would release records like the Archies or The Monkees, but set in an animated Marvel Universe. A giant-sized comics special was set into motion but when the deal was cancelled, the company was left with a lot of talented people going “now what?” since Dazzler had already been launched and guested in the company’s top titles (her shot in Fantastic Four #217 the same month as the Spider-Man tale and nipped-in-the-bud flirtation with Johnny Storm is not included here). Failing to find other record companies willing to commit, big boss Jim Shooter decreed that the comics special would be expanded/recycled as #1 & 2 of her own title…

After the singer went dark until for a year she debuted again in ‘So Bright This Star’ (cover-march 1981) and credited conceptually to Alice Donenfeld, John Romita Jr., Shooter, Stan Lee, Al Milgrom, Roger Stern and Tom DeFalco with DeFalco, Romita Jr., Alfredo Alcala, and Walt Simonson actually delivering the pages of an epic premier.

Unknown to everyone but heroes and villains, Blaire is a sound-transducing mutant able to convert noise of any kind (rhythmic is best!) into light that she can manipulate and direct. She’s also a performer still trying to make it big in music. A promising law student, she dropped college studies and forever disappointed her austere father – Judge Carter Blair – to pursue a frivolous, worthless life on stage. At least Grandma Bella still supports her, confident that one day Dazzler will be a star…

Now down to the dregs of her savings and still stumbling into crimes and emergencies at every turn, Alison checks in regularly with her superhero pals but cannot drop the hope that fame, not fighting is her destiny. That seems less likely than ever as, in Asgard, evil sorceress Amora the Enchantress awaits a shift in the cosmic axis.

For the person standing in one location on Midgard at the correct moment, awesome unspeakable energies are ready for the taking. Sadly, that’s the stage of the Numero Uno club. When the advertised star performer falls ill with a mystery ailment. Amara successfully auditions for the spot but only until Dazzler gets a last-minute call to try-out. With the goddess out and the secret mutant in, Enchantress is most displeased and makes plans to take that stage no matter what…

Alison only got the gig thanks to hedonist pal/fan Hank The Beast McCoy, and he brings all the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and other super-doers to her big night in #2. Before long Enchantress strikes, using magic and an army of mythical beasts and monsters to disrupts Alison’s act and secure the coveted axis spot until an army of superheroes come to Dazzler’s aid in all-out battle bonanza ‘Where Demons Fear to Dwell!’ with the roller-skating woman warrior (no really!) personally dealing with the sorceress New York street-style…

After a promising start, however, the series quickly reverted to hoary company traditions regarding books read by girls. These again tapped into and blended older male-assumed tropes of females seeking independence and careers whilst also seeking love and a settled home life.

And lots of shots of women in underwear, dressing and undressing or getting into and out of baths and showers.

However, gradually the faithful standbys faded and Dazzler began facing and dealing with ever-tougher challenges. It would some while before later scribes like Archie Goodwin added some modern innovations and true confirmation that girls just didn’t want the same kind of stories as pubescent males – at that time still much of Marvel’s fan base and possibly a fair proportion of the writing staff and illustrators…

Alison’s life changes as she lucks into an (W.C. Fields-channelling) agent/promoter – Harry S. Osgood – who begins shaping her music career immediately after a full-page Bonus Pinup, as DeFalco, Romita Jr., Alan Kupperberg, Danny Bulanadi & Armondo Gil detail how a show for UNICEF leaves Alison at the UN just as Doctor Doom tries to reclaim part of his magical arsenal in ‘The Jewels of Doom!’ Despite her most valiant efforts, Dazzler is defeated and dragged to the Iron Despot’s lair, intended as a weapon in his battles with dream demon Nightmare. Despite battling her own darkest nature in ‘Here Nightmares Abide!’ (DeFalco, Frank Springer, Bulanadi & Gil), Blair blasts her way back to Earth and destroys the purloined jewels; earning a brutal punishment from Doom…

Ricardo Villamonte inks a change of pace yarn in #5 as ‘Tell Joey I love Him!’ sees Alison recuperate in hospital and overhear an old lady’s pleas. Mrs Anita Cartelli is married to the mob and worries about her son growing up in the life, and do-gooder Dazzler promises to look into it. It’s a bold but bad move, as Joey is also streel level vigilante the Blue Sheild, violently dismantling the Bo Barrigan gang from the inside… although he does need some laser assistance once the mobster unleashes his killer robots…

The ups-&-downs of building her career are constantly exacerbated by obnoxious Lancelot Steele; a sexist macho jerk/stage manager/field rep for Harry on road gigs, and Alison’s growing fondness for her doctor Paul Janson is giving her pause , but all that is put in proper perspective when DeFalco, Fingeroth, Springer, Quickdraw Studios & Gil advise ‘The Hulk May Be Hazardous to Your Health!’ after a last-minute cancellation drops Allie and her band at Gordon University just as desperate Bruce Banner seeks to burgle their science labs for a possible cure for his “condition”…

Sadly although Banner and Blaire hit it off, when his alter ego inevitably arrives student riots and National Guard assaults literally bring the house down in ‘Fort Apache, the Hulk!’

Fabled Good Girl artist/romance comics inker Vince Colletta joins Fingeroth, DeFalco & Springer, as intrigue overtakes action in ‘Hell… Hell is for Harry!’ The music magnate is being ruthlessly targeted and tormented for undescribed past transgressions and sinister mastermind Techmaster has begun including Alison in his sly assaults, but she has more than enough problems of her own. The situation with Paul is worsening and she feels constantly diminished and belittled. Worst of all, somebody is following her everywhere…

When the Enforcers (Ox, Montanna & Fancy Dan) wreck Harry’s office, it compels Osgood to reveal his shared pas with Techmaster, but even Dazzler is not ready when they come back for her, employing the tactics that once defeated Spider-Man. She is far better prepared for the rematch…

Her own enigmatic stalker strikes next. Mr. Meeker works for Federal energy thinktank Project Pegasus but greatly oversteps his remit, using shady contracts to rendition Blaire and ultimately hold her at the upstate facility. Despite the strident protests of in-house superhero Wendell Quasar Vaughn Dazzler is held and cruelly experimented upon like any other energy-based villain and monster, until pushed too far she tries to escape and triggers a mass breakout in #9’s ‘The Sound and the Fury!’

Some Pegasus internees deserve to be there, and when living sound monster Klaw goes on a murderous rampage, almost killing Quasar, Dazzler reluctantly absorbs him. However, the monumental energy increase brings her to the attention of planet devouring Galactus and ‘In the Darkness… A Light’ reveals why the space god needs the over-juiced mutant to extract his fugitive herald Terrax from a black hole. Sadly, the victim doesn’t want to be saved and ‘…Lest Ye Be Judged!’ displays just how annoyed she can get when pushed too far…

Returned to Earth and her normal power levels, Alison has a hard time explaining why she’s been off the grid for so long – even her draconian dad was starting to worry – before ‘Endless Hate!’ drops her right into the most unconventional conclusion of the Techmaster saga.

Closing this initial collection with gentle probing of Alison’s past and discussion of her long missing mother. Dazzler #13 had Fingeroth, Springer & Colletta depict ‘Trial …and Terror!’ as still furious Mr. Meeker abuses the federal power of Pegasus to regain control of Blaire by charging her with Klaw’s murder. Remanded to Riker’s Island and dumped amidst he savage superhumans in the women’s wing, Alison overcomes the mighty Titania and the Grapplers (Screaming Mimi, Letha & Poundcakes) before getting her day in court and proving that she was paying attention in law school…

To Be Continued..

The rather meagre bonus offerings here include the house ad from all May 1981 Marvel titles plus the original art for #1 page 1 by Romita Jr. & Alcala, prior to much modification and editorial adjustment, and a simply huge Biographies section on the many folk involved in getting Dazzler into the spotlight.

Although very much of its troubled times, this collection also sees the beginnings of the transformative shift in attitudes that resulted in women becoming less ornamental, no longer decorative and always the authors of their own fates. Even if not to everyone’s taste there is enough of significance here to make the Dazzler worthy of any modern readers attention.
© 2020 MARVEL.

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Madwoman of the Sacred Heart


By Jodorowsky & Moebius, translated by Natacha Ruck & Ken Grobe (Humanoids/Sloth Publishing UK)
ISBN: 978-1-908830-01-2 (Sloth HB 2011), 978-1-59465-046-8 (Humanoids HB 2013),

978-1643379548 (Jodorowsky Library vol. 6, 2023)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Here’s a modern masterpiece of comics creativity, one of the most intriguing and engaging works by two creative legends of sequential narrative. To some people however, this superb piece of thought-provoking fiction might be shocking or blasphemous, so if you hold strong views on sex or religion – particularly Christianity – stop right now, spare yourself some outrage and come back tomorrow.

Born in Tocopilla, Chile in 1929, Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky is a filmmaker, author, playwright, actor, comics writer, world traveller, philosopher and spiritual guru. He is most widely known for films like Fando y Lis, El Topo, The Holy Mountain, Sante Sangre, The Rainbow Thief and the like, as well as a vast comics output, including Anibal 5, (created whilst living in Mexico) Le Lama blanc, Aliot, The Meta-Barons, Borgia and so much more, co-created with some of South America and Europe’s greatest artists. His nigh decade-long collaboration with Möebius on the Tarot-inspired adventure The Incal (1981-1989) completely redefined and reinvented what comics could aspire to and achieve.

Best known for violently surreal avant-garde films, loaded with highly-charged, inspired imagery blending mysticism and “religious provocation” and his spiritually informed fantasy and science fiction comics, Jodorowsky is also fascinated by the inner realms and has devised his own culture of therapeutic healing: Psychomagic, Psychogenealogy and Initiatic massage. He still remains fully engaged and active in all these creative areas today.

Jean Henri Gaston Giraud was born in the suburbs of Paris in 1938 and raised by his grandparents. In 1955 he attended the Institut des Arts Appliqués where he became friends with Jean-Claude Mézières who, at 17, was already selling strips and illustrations to magazines such as Coeurs Valliants, Fripounet et Marisette and Le Journal de Spirou. Giraud apparently spent most of his time drawing cowboy comics and left college after a year. In 1956 he travelled to Mexico, staying with his mother for eight months, before returning to France and a full-time career in comics: mostly westerns such as Frank et Jeremie for Far West and King of the Buffalo, A Giant with the Hurons and others in Coeurs Valliants, all in a style based on French comics legend Joseph “Jijé” Gillain.

Between 1959 and 1960, Giraud spent his National Service in Algeria, where he worked on military service magazine 5/5 Forces Françaises. On returning to civilian life, he became Jijé’s assistant in 1961, working on the master’s long-running (1954-1977) western epic Jerry Spring. A year later, Giraud and Belgian writer Jean-Michel Charlier launched the serial Fort Navajo in Pilote #210, and soon its disreputable, anti-hero lead character Lieutenant Blueberry was one of the most popular European strips of modern times. In 1963-1964, Giraud produced strips for satire periodical Hara-Kiri and – keen to distinguish and separate this material from his serious day job – first coined his pen-name “Möebius”.

He didn’t use it again until 1975 when he joined Bernard Farkas, Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Philippe Druillet – all rabid science fiction fans – as co-founders of a revolution in narrative graphic arts: Les Humanoïdes associés. Their groundbreaking adult fantasy magazine Métal Hurlant utterly enraptured the comics-buying public and Giraud again wanted to utilise a discrete creative persona for the lyrical, experimental, soul-searching material he was crafting: series such as The Airtight Garage, The Incal (with Jodorosky) and mystical, dream-world flights of sheer fantasy contained in Arzach…

To further separate his creative bipolarity, Giraud worked in inks with a brush whilst the futurist Möebius rendered with pens. Both of him passed away on March 10th 2012.

Jodorowsky & Möebius’ second groundbreaking co-creation was originally released as 3 albums from Les Humanoïdes associés – La Folle du Sacree Coeur (1992), Le piège de l’irrationnel (1993) and Le Fou de la Sorbonne (1998) – before the saga was initially collected into one massive, ecstatic and revolutionary volume in 2004. The company’s American arm Humanoids, Inc. translated it into English in 2006, and it’s resurfaced on occasion ever since.

Professor Alan Mangel is a world-renowned aesthete, deep thinker and chief lecturer at the Sorbonne. As such he is the focus of much student attention – particularly female – but none as fervent as that of insular, fanatically, deeply disturbed bible-bashing Christian Elisabeth.

When the educator’s shrewish wife Myra denounces, shames and impoverishes him at the moment of his greatest triumph, the arrogantly cerebral, proudly austere, violently chaste and determinedly sexually-abstinent Mangel loses the awed respect of his once-doting students and disciples. They now shun his once overcrowded classes, mock and even assault him.

Only Elisabeth remains devoted to him, but she has designs both carnal and divine on the aging, flabby, secular, lapsed and born-again Jew. To make matters worse, when she throws herself at him and is repulsed, this awakens the philosopher’s own lustful youthful libido which takes form as a gadfly ghost constantly urging him to indulge in acts of vile debauchery and rampant lust. Eventually the pressure is too great and Mangel agrees to meet Elisabeth at the Church of the Sacred Heart. The journey there is awful: even the universe seems set against him as rude taxi-drivers, a mad old lady tramp and even dogs further humiliate the broken old man.

In the holiest part of the church Elisabeth again attempts to seduce the long sterile and wilfully impotent Alan, explaining that her researches have revealed him to be the biblical Zacharias reborn, destined to impregnate her with a son: the Prophet John who would in turn herald the rebirth of Jesus…

Again the rational scientist baulks at her words but Elisabeth promises a miracle and when Mangel’s horny, ghostly other self “possesses” him the dotard loses control and finally gives the mad girl what she’s been begging for…

Plagued with shame, despondent with remorse, still tormented by his inner letch and so very broke, Mangel resumes lecturing, gradually rebuilding his reputation until one day Elisabeth returns, her nude body declaring her to be forever the property of Alan Zacharias Mangel. She is three months pregnant with the sterile man’s baby and has already recruited a “St. Joseph” who will help them fulfil their sacred mission…

The divinely-dispatched protector, a drug addict and petty criminal previously called Muhammad, already has a line on “The Mary”: she’s his girlfriend Rosaura, currently imprisoned in a secure mental hospital. She’s also in a coma.

Dragged against the will he no longer seems capable of exerting, Mangel experiences his latest ongoing tribulation when St. Joseph breaks The Mary out with the aid of a gun and his distressed guts give way to what will be, for all of the chosen ones, an uncomfortable and prolonged period of stress-related explosive diarrhoea. Against all his rational protests and worries, things just seem to keep falling into place for the pilgrims. Rosura is no longer comatose, and they get away without a single problem… if you don’t count the olfactory punishment the Professor’s rebellious innards are repeatedly inflicting upon them all…

“Mary” is the most ravishing creature he has ever seen, but just as crazy as her friends. When she cavorts naked in a field during a midnight thunderstorm, frantically imploring God to impregnate her with the second Jesus, Mangel’s lustful ghost again overtakes him and he surreptitiously copulates with the wildly-bucking “lascivious loon”. One day later reality hits hard when the lecturer reads of two nurses executed when the comatose daughter of an infamous Columbian drug baron was abducted from a certain institution…

The second chapter opens with the four fugitives hiding out in a lavish seaside house and Mangel – as always – arguing with both his priapic phantom and rationalist conscience. His so impossibly, imperturbably persuasive companions are untroubled: they are simply passing the days until the birth of John the Baptist and imminently impending Second Coming of Christ.

The next crisis is pecuniary as the lavish spending of the trio soon exhausts the Professor’s funds and they are reduced to their last 100 franc note…

Elisabeth is unconcerned and simply places a bet with it. Operating under divine guidance the horse race wins the quartet 3.5 million Francs, but before the reeling rationalist can grasp that, there’s another insane development as The Mary/Rosaura declares herself to be the Androgynous Christ – both male and female – reborn and made manifest to save us all…

She still looks devastatingly all-woman however, and when she kisses the old fool and sends him back to the Church of the Sacred Heart to “obtain” a vial of holy Baptismal oil, he goes despite himself, arguing all the way with his imaginary sex-obsessed younger self. It’s all another humiliating and deranged debacle. The famous house of worship is hosting an ecumenical convention of argumentative theologians of all religions and that self-same crazy woman is still there, claiming to be God and challenging them all. After driving them away she even tries to have sex with the utterly bemused and bewildered fallen philosopher who barely escapes with the stolen oil.

The worst of it all is that, based on recent evidence, Mangel can’t even say with any certainty that the vile-smelling harridan isn’t telling the truth…

Driving back through the fleshpots of the city with his ghost tempting him every inch of the way, the weary savant is dragged back to appalling reality by a newspaper headline declaring that the police have a witness in the murder/abduction of Rosaura Molinares, daughter of the most wanted drug trafficker on Earth. However, when the nigh-unhinged thinker reaches his sanctuary from reason, the true believers already know. They taped the TV news and show him the witness describing a completely different killer: El Perro, chief hitman of Pedro Molinares’ Medellin Cartel…

With the last foundations of precious logic crumbling, Mangel reaches an emotional tipping point and when The Androgynous Christ demands he make love to her, the old fool submits to stress – and his ever-horny spectral alter ego – by surrendering to his lusts. Before long he is in the throes of a bizarre, eye-opening, life-altering four-way love session with all the mad people he has wronged in his head and heart. The epiphanic moment is rather spoiled when the wall explodes and a cadre of mercenaries working for a rival cartel burst in, seeking Rosaura’s dad. They’re followed by the Columbian Secret Service, also hunting the drug lord and quite prepared to kill everybody to find him.

… And they in turn are ambushed by American DEA agents who slaughter everybody in their sights in their desperation to capture Molinares’ daughter and her weirdo friends. The illegally operating Yanks drag their captives to a submarine waiting offshore just as French police hit the beach and El Perro attacks the sub, spectacularly rescuing the quartet and transporting them to safety by helicopter and cargo plane…

The concluding chapter of the blasphemous, ever-escalating cosmic farce opens with all of France astonished by the kidnapping of its most beloved thinker even as, in a Columbian Garden of Eden, a newly-enlightened and happy Mangel and his heavily pregnant Elisabeth prepare for the birth of The Child. The Androgynous Christ too has changed and grown, easily converting the hard-bitten drug gangsters into a holy army of believers in the redeemer Jesusa…

Top dog Pedro Molinares is dying from cancer and his devoted army are fully, fanatically in tune with Jesusa’s plans, especially after an impossible blood miracle seemingly proves their new leader’s earthbound divinity. Equally astounded, Mangel too reaches a spiritual crisis as he accompanies Elisabeth deep into the jungle to give birth.

Mangel’s journey and ultimate transformation at the hands of rainforest shaman Doña Paz then lead to even more astonishing revelations, changes and shocks that I’m just not prepared to spoil for you…

After years of exile by exclusion the tale was translated for English readers in 2004, and has since been seen many times, such as the sterling UK edition published by Sloth Comics, and most recently in 2023, when it was rereleased under the prestigious Jodorowsky Library imprint (specifically as Book Six: Madwoman of the Sacred Heart • Twisted Tales) paired with “Selected Stories” and mindbending short Twisted Tales…

Controversial, shocking, challenging, fanciful, enchanting and incredibly cruelly funny in an Armando Iannucci manner, this a parable you must read and will always remember.
™ & © Les Humanoïdes associés, SAS, Paris. English version © 2011 Humanoids, Inc., Los Angeles. All rights reserved.

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Robin: Year One – the Deluxe Edition


By Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty, Javier Pulido, Robert Campanella, Lee Loughridge, Sean Konot & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7764-2 (HB/Digital edition)

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

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 – which despite its April 1940 cover-date was first snatched off newsstands across the USA from March 6th – until they all sold out. Happy Birthday, Boy Wonder! and congratulations on sparking an entire comics subgenre and inspiring so many heroes to indulge in innocuous child endangerment in our favourite entertainment medium and so many others…

Devised by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, Robin was a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss in a savage display of ruthless public barbarity. The story of how Batman took orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day. This 25-year-old version remains one of the best as well as arguably the least in need of toxic levels of suspended disbelief…

In the original pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those socially turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder/college student. His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with has inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed sidekicks and kid crusaders, and Grayson continued in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America’s increasingly rebellious youth culture.

The first Robin even had his own solo series in Star Spangled Comics from 1947-1952 (mostly collected as two DC Archive volumes), a solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s – a position he alternated and shared with Batgirl – and a starring feature in anthology comic Batman Family. During the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, initially in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing, all while re-establishing a (somewhat turbulent) working relationship with his mentor Batman.

This Deluxe Edition compiles Robin: Year One #1-4, cover-dated December 2000 to April 2001: an enthralling embellishment of early Golden Age adventures topped up with modern sensibilities and a few supervillains to provide that peculiar kind of “fan-service” comic book devotees demand.

It begins in Blackgate prison with recent acquisition Joe Minette expressing his extreme unhappiness with being busted by a little kid in pixie boots. The brutal thug wants his notional partner Two-Face to do something about it, but seemingly legit intermediary Louis soon realizes his bifurcated boss is spiralling again: locked onto the idea that his lone adversary “The Bat” is now a tag-team of two…

In the avenues and alleyways, more and more miscreants are reporting a gaudily-garbed sparrow who flits like a bird and hits like a hammer, unaware that the nightly crime thwarting is simply on-the-job training for Batman’s newest weapon. In the Batcave, however, faithful family retainer Alfred Pennyworth is concerned at how happy and keen recently orphaned Dick Grayson appears. The boy seems to have accepted the death of his parents’ killer “Boss” Zucco and a prospective career bringing similar scum to justice, but how can the boy possibly be so well adjusted?

As the much travelled lad adapts to life in one – admittedly palatial – place, across town Mr. Pak meets professional henchperson Dormouse and his leader Jervis Tetch. The Mad Hatter is a subcontractor, using his mind control technology to assemble a unique package for a very prestigious and discriminating client. Visiting dignitary President Generalissimo Singh Manh Lee has a thing for little white girls, but unfortunately the Hatter has his own exacting aesthetic standards to fulfil, and has only programmed and prepped eight of the ten originally contracted for…

When another goes missing from Dick’s high school it’s game on…

Police Captain James Gordon is a father and far from happy that his clandestine costumed ally has brought a child into their personal war on crime. However, eventually accepting that it’s as much therapy for the victim as tactical advantage for the Batman, he’s prepared to let it pass, at least until the little girls are all found…

However it’s as a callow schoolboy that Grayson finds a crucial lead, before blotting his copybook by suiting up to rescue the victims and confront the exposed Generalissimo whilst spectacularly lowering the boom and nabbing his first supervillain. The pushback from austere-but-really-trying mentor Bruce is not at all what the Boy Wonder anticipated…

After more humdrum daily/nightly deeds of derring-do and clashes with minor mooks like Killer Moth, Firefly, Cluemaster and even hulking brute Blockbuster, the kid’s next formative crisis crops up as Two-Face makes the enigmatic junior partner his special project and means of keeping detested Batman in his proper place…

It begins with the modern Janus abducting a judge and staging a show trial to punish all those he holds responsible for the murder of his civilian half Harvey Dent as a prelude to capturing Robin and inflicting physical and psychological torments on his ultimate nemesis’ “second”…

Scarred and broken, Robin is no longer a feature of the night skies. Acting on toxic and malicious “information received” Gordon now acts on a promise he made himself and goes after the Dark Knight for reckless endangerment, child abuse and more. As Grayson comes out of his coma, his first thought is to get back into action, only to learn Bruce has benched him for life. Recuperating but shellshocked, the indomitable boy makes the best of his so-much-lessened life, enduring depression whilst dutifully soldiering on as civilian schoolboy. He does however secretly prepare for a change of heart and call back to action. That comes during a regular checkup with in-the-know family physician Leslie Thompkins, when Dr. Victor Frieze – Mister Freeze – ruthlessly raids the hospital blood bank. In his eagerness to stop the death toll mounting, a masked Grayson saves the day but only at the cost of more lives…

Finally pushed too far and convinced of his own utter worthlessness, Grayson runs away from home, but his time on the streets is cut short after Two-Face breaks out and Minette hires League of Assassins hitter Shrike to settle all his outstanding accounts…

As Batman hunts all the murderous players, he is distracted by the loss of his partner, unaware that the acrobat is not only a target of assorted super freaks but has also been “adopted” by Shrike and added to a most elite training cadre and is picking up skills the Dark Knight would never dream of teaching to children…

Inevitably all the vengeance-hungry murderers’ various schemes converge with Grayson right in the middle. But deep in the shadows, Batman has found him and accepted that theirs is an eternal, fated partnership…

An astounding and breathlessly fun-filled revision by Chuck Dixon (Batman, Robin, Bane, G.I. Joe, The Punisher, The Simpsons, Birds of Prey, Spongebob Squarepants, The Hobbit, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Superman), brought to boundless life by Javier Pulido (Ninjak, Human Target, She-Hulk Star Trek, Jessica Jones, Amazing Spider-Man) & Robert Campanella, the saga herein contained also comes with the artist’s gorgeous ‘Robin: Year One Sketchbook’ of character studies, roughs, layouts and fully pencilled pages, cover roughs and pencils more.

Short and so very, very sweet, this is thrilling romp Fights ‘n’ Tights fans will adore and a paean of pure superhero joy and grace any action/adventure admirer will covet.
© 2000, 2001, & 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Dreamer


By Will Eisner (Kitchen Sink Press/W. W. Norton & Company/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-87816-015-0 (HB) 978-0-39332-808-0 (TPB)

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

It’s Will Eisner’s Birthday today. He was born on March 6th 1917 and between that moment and his death on January 3rd 2005 was the leading proponent and champion of American comics as an art form. Many consider him the father of the Graphic Novel. For such a prominent and prolific creator, it’s truly remarkable how so many of his stories and books are out of print. Currently, this is mini masterpiece is one of them, but is still fairly available in many of its assorted editions…

First released by Kitchen Sink Press in 1986, The Dreamer is thinly disguised diary (call it a graphic Mise-en-scène if you wish) depicting the early days of the American comic book industry as observed by hungry comics creators looking to make a buck. However, some of the toilers can’t help but see such untapped potential in what they do at their desks…

It might be short on action and page count – some editions come in at between 46 and 54 pages – but the strength of the characters’ aspirations all shine through. Creative people seem to gravitate towards each other, and depression era tales abound with big dreams fuelled by desperation, playing out against a backdrop of comradeship. The politics of revolution simmer in the minds and unfilled bellies of the poor. Characters we all should recognize make their choices and move on to become the gods of popular or even High Culture we all grew older with. Can you spot ’em all?

There is an added impetus for the afficionado of the strips. Not only engaging characters, not merely an insider’s perspective on the beginnings of our beloved obsession, not at last a direct link to history that the rest of world thinks worth remembering, but also a real glimpse inside the minds and hearts of the creative wizards that started it all.

Covering a period rife with daily human drama, and exploring an age where dreams were common and creativity unshackled, The Dreamer is a captivating reverie of how comics were, and how they work, delivered in the best manner of one of comics’ greatest innovators and practitioners.
© 1986, 2004, 2008 Will Eisner.

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Lucky Luke Volume 8 Calamity Jane


By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Pablo Vela (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-25-0 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Doughty, dashing and dependable cowboy “good guy” Lucky Luke is a rangy, implacably even-tempered do-gooder able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around the mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant and stingingly sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. Over nine decades, his exploits have made him one of the top-ranking comic characters in the world, generating nearly 90 individual albums and spin-off series like Kid Lucky and Ran-Tan-Plan, with sales totalling upwards of 300 million in 30 languages. That renown has translated into a mountain of merchandise, toys, games, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know…

The brainchild of Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère (AKA “Morris”), Lucky only truly expanded to global dominance via his 45-volume collaboration with superstar scripter René Goscinny (from Des rails sur la Prairie/Rails on the Prairie beginning August 25th 1955 to La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires/The Ballad Of The Daltons And Other Stories in 1986).

On Goscinny’s death, Morris worked alone again and with others, inspiring a passel of legacy creators including Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shots at the affable lone rider. Morris soldiered on both singly and with these successors before his passing in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar and spin-off sagebrush sagas.

Our taciturn trailblazer’s tales draw on western history as much as movie mythology and regularly interacts with historical and legendary figures as well as even odder fictional folk in tales drawn from key themes of classic cowboy films – as well as some uniquely European notions, and interpretations. As previously hinted, the sagebrush star is not averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire… like this one…

Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, lightning-fast quick-draw cowboy at home in any crisis; and generally unflappable. He’s probably the most popular Western star in the world today, but occasionally he meets someone even more confident than he.

First published continentally in 1967, Calamity Jane was the 30th European album and Goscinny’s 21st collaboration with Morris. It’s one of the team’s better tales, blending historical personages with the wandering hero’s action-comedy exploits and as such it’s a slice of Horrible Histories-tinged Americana you won’t want to miss. It all begins with our hero taking a welcome bath in a quiet river, only to be ambushed by Apaches spoiling for a fight. Their murderous plans are ruined by a bombastic lone rider who explosively drives off the raiders in a hail of gunfire before stopping to laugh at the embarrassed Luke. His cool, confidant rescuer is tough, bellicose, foul-mouthed, tobacco-chewing and infamous: born Martha Jane Cannery, apparently most folk just call her Calamity Jane…

She’s becomes more amenable after learning who Luke is, and, over coffee and a scratch meal, mutual respect develops into real friendship. Recounting her (remarkably well-researched) history, Cannery learns in return why Luke is in the region: someone has been supplying the Indians with guns just like the ones that almost killed him earlier…

Keen to help, Calamity joins Lucky and they ride into frontier town El Plomo and another minor crisis. The saloon prefers not to serve ladies – until Jane convinces them to change the policy in her own unique manner.

The glitzy dive is owned and operated by unctuous, sleazily sinister August Oyster who instantly suspects legendary lawman Luke is there because of his own underhand, under-the-counter activities…

As the cowboy heads off to check in with the sheriff, Calamity indulges in games of chance and skill with the sleazy Oyster and his hulking henchman Baby Sam, swiftly causing an upset by winning his hotel and saloon. Happily, Lucky is back on the scene by the time the grudging grouse has to officially hand over his money-making venture. Flushed with success, the new proprietor starts making changes and no man cares to object to the Calamity Jane Saloon and Tearoom (Reserved for Ladies). They’ll happily buy her beer and whiskey too, but not even at gunpoint will they eat her crumpets…

Oyster and Baby Sam, however, are utterly frantic. The saloon was crucial to their side business selling guns to renegades and they have to get it back before the increasingly impatient Chief Gomino takes matters into his own bloodstained hands. Still hunting for the gunrunners and pretty certain who’s behind the scheme, Luke is constantly distracted by petty acts of sabotage and even arson plaguing Calamity, but even as he finds his first piece of concrete proof, Oyster instigates his greatest distraction yet: organising the haughtily strait-laced Ladies Guild of El Plomo to close down the insalubrious saloon and run its new owner out of town…

Never daunted, Luke eventually pacifies and placates his tack-spitting pal down before deftly counterattacking by sending for an etiquette teacher to polish rough diamond Jane enough to be accepted by the ferociously militant guildswomen. It is the greatest challenge urbane, effete Professor Robert Gainsborough (an outrageously slick caricature of British actor David Niven) has undertaken. His eventual (but only partial) success leaves him a changed and broken man.

Stymied at every turn, increasingly panicked August Oyster is soon caught red-handed by the vigilant vigilante, but it’s too late. Frustrated and impatient, Gomino has opted to raid the town in broad daylight and seize his long-promised guns and ammo from their hiding place. The marauders have not, however, reckoned on the steely fighting prowess of Lucky Luke and the devil woman they superstitiously call “Bang! Bang!”…

Cleverly barbed, wickedly witty and spectacularly playing with key tropes of classic sagebrush sagas, this raucous romp is a grand escapade in the comedic tradition of Destry Rides Again, Cat Ballou and Support Your Local Sheriff, superbly executed by master storytellers as a wonderful introduction to a venerable genre for today’s kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of an all-pervasive Wild West that never was…

Also included is a photo pin-up of the actual Martha Jane Cannery in her gun-toting prime and, in case you’re worried, even though the interior art still has our hero drawin’ on his ol’ roll-ups, there’s very little chance of any reader craving a quick snout (or crumpets wild west style), but quite a strong likelihood that they’ll be addicted to Lucky Luke albums.
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Goscinny & Morris. © Lucky Comics.

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Birds of Prey volume 1


By Chuck Dixon, Jordan Gorfinkel, Gary Frank, Jennifer Graves, Matt Haley, Sal Buscema, Stefano Raffaele, Dick Giordano, Greg Land & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5816-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Truly groundbreaking at the time, the exploits of the Birds of Prey recount the missions and lives of a rotating team of female crimefighters led by Barbara Gordon, the computer genius and omega level coder known to her inner circle as Oracle. Child of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon, her own career as Batgirl was ended when the Joker blew out her spine during a terrifying kidnap attempt. Trapped in a wheelchair, she hungered for justice and sought new ways to make a difference in a very bad world…

Reinventing herself as a covert information-gatherer for Batman’s clique of avengers and defenders, she made herself an invaluable resource for the entire superhero community, but in the first of these collected tales Babs undertakes a new project that will allow her to become an even more effective crusader against injustice…

This volume contains the numerous one-shots, specials and miniseries that successfully introduced an eye-popping, mindblowing blend of no-nonsense bad-girl attitude and spectacular all-out action which finally convinced timid editorial powers-that-be of the commercial viability of a team composed of nothing but female superheroes. Who could possibly have guessed that some readers would like effective, positive, clever women kicking evil butt, and that boys would follow the adventures of violent, sexy, usually underdressed chicks hitting bad-guys – and occasionally each other? Or even eventually spawn their own TV series and sub-genre?

Gathered here, Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey #1, Birds of Prey: Revolution, a pertinent section of Showcase ’96 #3, Birds of Prey: Manhunt #1-4, Birds of Prey: Revolution #1, Birds of Prey: Wolves #1 and Birds of Prey: Batgirl #1 (collectively spanning cover-dates June 1996 through February 1998) comprise a breathtaking riot of dynamic, glossy crimebusting, heavily highlighting the kind of wickedness costumed crusaders generally ignored back then: white collar and thoroughly black-hearted…

Opening tale ‘One Man’s Hell’ is written by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Gary Frank & John Dell: set at a time when veteran martial arts crime-crusher Black Canary (AKA Dinah Laurel Lance) was slowly going to hell after the death of her long-time lover Oliver Queen. Of course, he got better a few years later (don’t they all?).

Broke, uncontrolled and hellbent on self-destruction, the increasingly violent, adrenaline-addicted heroine is contacted by a mysterious unseen presence and dispatched to a third world country to investigate a series of “terrorist attacks” that always seem to profit one unimpeachably benevolent philanthropist. With nothing left to lose, the Canary undertakes a tragically brutal mission and gains an impossibly valuable prize: purpose.

Peppered with an intriguing array of guest-stars and villains, this socially-conscious high-octane thriller established the Canary as one of the most competent and engaging combatants of the DCU and a roving agent of conscience and retribution more than capable of tackling any villainous scum clever enough to stay below regular superhero radar: a reputation enhanced in the sequel ‘Revolution’. Here Dixon, Stefano Raffaele & Bob McLeod craft a superbly compelling tale from a time when Oracle is no more than a rumour to everybody but Batman and Dinah Lance – and even they only get “intel” and advice from an anonymous voice over phone, by text or via radio-jewellery in a mysteriously provided new combat Canary uniform. Here Dinah and her silent partner track a human trafficking ring to failed state Santa Prisca and stumble into a dirty campaign by American interests to topple the standing dictator. Not for long…

When the venerable Showcase try-out title was revived in the 1990s it was as a monthly anthology highlighting old, unemployed characters and tapping into events already originated, rather than offering wholly new concepts. It swiftly becoming a place to test the popularity of DC’s bit players, with a huge range of heroes and team-ups passing through its eclectic pages. This made it a perfect place to trot out the new team for a broader audience who might have ignored the one-shots with girls on the cover…

Showcase ’96 #3 cover-starred Black Canary and Lois Lane, featuring a frantic collusion between the reporter, the street fighter and the still “silent partner” Oracle in a tale scripted by series editor Jordan B. Gorfinkel, laid out by Jennifer Graves and finished by Stan Woch. ‘Birds of a Feather’ sees Superman’s then Girlfriend and the Birds taking out a metahuman gangmaster who enslaves migrant workers to work in Metropolis’ secret sweat shops. Punchy and potent, the tales led to a 4-issue miniseries introducing a new wrinkle in the format – pairing Oracle and the Canary with an ever-changing cast of DC’s women warriors.

‘Manhunt’ has Dixon again scripting a breakneck, raucous thriller which begins ‘Where Revenge Delights’ (illustrated by Matt Haley & Wade Von Grawbadger) wherein the Birds’ pursuit of a philandering embezzler/scam-artist leads them to heated conflict and grudging alliance with The Huntress – a mob-busting vigilante even Batman thinks plays too rough…

She also wants the revoltingly skeevy Archer Braun (whom she knows and loathes as “Tynan Sinclair”) but her motives soon seem a good deal more personal than professional…

The two regular agents cautiously agree to cooperate, but the mix gets even headier after Selina Kyle invites herself to the lynching party in ‘Girl Crazy’ (enjoying additional inking from John Lowe). Over the strident objections of the never-more-helpless and frustrated Oracle, Canary consents. Braun, it seems, is into bigger, nastier crimes than anyone suspected and has made the terminal error of bilking the notorious Catwoman…

Fed up with Babs shouting in her ear, Canary goes offline, subsequently getting captured by Braun, ‘The Man That Got Away’ (inked by Cam Smith) and clearly a major threat. He might even be a secret metahuman…

Shanghaied to a criminal enclave in Kazakhstan for the stunning conclusion ‘Ladies Choice’ (with art by Sal Buscema, Haley & Von Grawbadger) Canary is more-or-less rescued by the unlikely and unhappy pairing of Catwoman & Huntress, but none of them is ready or able to handle Braun’s last surprise – Lady Shiva Woosan – the world’s greatest martial arts assassin.

Birds of Prey: Revolution (#1, February 1997, limned by Stefano Raffeale & Bob McLeod) then switches locale back to Caribbean rogue state/playground of the evil idle rich Santa Prisca, where the Canary trusts the wrong allies but still manages to shut down a human trafficking ring and drug-peddling general with delusions of grandeur.

Cover-dated October and illustrated by Dick Giordano & Wayne Faucher, one-shot Birds of Prey: Wolves #1 sees long-festering tensions over suitable targets seemingly split the core duo. However, after separately stopping Eastern European mobsters and a gang of high-tech home invaders, the heroes realize that flying solo is for the birds and they are better together, before the action and adventure pause after the long-awaited Birds of Prey: Batgirl #1 (February 1998, with art by Greg Land & Drew Geraci). The launch proper offers a baffling mystery, with a somehow fully physically functional Batgirl battling beside Black Canary to end the threat of the mindbending Mad Hatter and a host of Batman’s most vicious foes. All is obviously not as it seems, but the true nature of the spellbinding threat is almost too much for cerebral savant Oracle. Almost…

To Be Continued…

These rollercoaster rides of thrills, spills and consistently beautifully edgy, sardonic attitude finally won the Birds their own regular series. It quickly became one of DC’s best and most consistently engaging superhero adventure series of the nineties and Noughties and has manifested some type of team for readers ever since. This opening salvo is both landmark and groundbreaking and is still a fantastically fun adventure to delight any comics Fights ‘n’ Tights follower.
© 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Yoko Tsuno volume 10: Message for Eternity


By Roger Leloup translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-251-5 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

On 24th September 1970, indomitable intellectual adventurer and “electronics engineer” Yoko Tsuno commenced her career in Le Journal de Spirou via a cartoony “Marcinelle style” 8-page short entitled ‘Hold-up en hi-fi’. Two more followed (‘La belle et la bête’ and ‘Cap 351’), serving as precursors for her first full-length adventure, Le trio de l’étrange as serialised in proper full-sized regular LJdS beginning on May 13th 1971. She is still delighting readers and making new fans 31 albums later, in astonishing, action-packed, astoundingly accessible adventures numbering amongst the most intoxicating, absorbing and broad-ranging comics thrillers ever created.

Her globe-girdling mysteries and space-&-time-spanning epics are devised by multitalented Belgian maestro Roger Leloup who, in 1953, started his own solo career after working as a studio assistant and technical artist on Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

Leloup’s illustrated escapades were at the vanguard of an unstoppable wave of comics and strips revolutionising European comics. Very early in the process, he switched from loose illustration to the mesmerising nigh-photo realistic Ligne Claire style that is a series signature. The result is a compelling cannon of compellingly told, superbly imaginative and – no matter how implausible the premise of any individual yarn may seem – unswervingly grounded in hyper-realism with settings, if not scenarios, all underpinned by authentic, unshakably believable technology and scientific principles.

The long-overdue sea change in gender roles and stereotyping heralded a wave of clever, competent, brave and formidably capable female protagonists taking their rightful places as heroic ideals and not romantic lures and ornamental booby traps: elevating all Continental comics in the process. Such endeavours are as engaging and empowering now in Miss Tsuno’s 55th anniversary year as they ever were.

As already stated, her first outings (STILL unaccountably unavailable in English) were mere introductory vignettes before epic authenticism took hold in 1971 when the unflappable troubleshooter met valiant but excitable pals Pol Paris and Vic Van Steen, and properly hit her stride. Following on from that epic of extraterrestrial intrigue, Tsuno’s case books would expand to include explosive exploits and espionage affairs in exotic corners of our world, sinister deep-space sagas and even time-travelling jaunts. Of the 31 European bande dessinée albums to date, 19 have been translated into English thus far, albeit – and ironically – none of them are available in digital formats…

Message pour l’éternité was first serialised in Spirou #1882-1905 (9th May-17 October 17th 1974) and became the fifth album compilation a year later. A skilfully-conceived suspenseful mystery thriller, it reached us as Cinebook’s tenth translated chronicle. It all begins as ever-restless ferociously perfectionist Yoko masters a new hobby.

After gliding high above Brittany, she fortuitously sets down in a field adjacent to a vast telecommunications complex. Offered a tour of the space-probing facility, Yoko learns from one of the chatty scientists of a fantastic “ghost message” recently picked up by satellites: a Morse code signal from a British plane lost in 1933. Bizarrely, the signal is somehow still being regularly broadcast…

When Yoko tries to arrange to have her glider picked up and sort out her own departure, a mysterious Englishman offers her a lift in his private helicopter. Naturally, he has an ulterior motive: as an employee of the company which originally insured the lost flight, he’s looking for someone with certain precise qualifications to trace the downed craft and recover the fortune in jewels it was carrying. Her fee will be suitably astronomical too…

It transpires that his firm has known where the plane went down for some time, but logistical and geographical difficulties have prevented them from undertaking any kind of recovery mission – until now. Moreover, although they have now started the process, the petite engineer is physically superior to any of the candidates the company are currently working with. Cautiously accepting the commission, Yoko starts planning, but even before Pol & Vic can join her the following day, strange accidents and incidents begin imperilling her life…

The boys are understandably reluctant but that attitude turns to sheer frustration and terror after someone tries to shoot down Yoko as she practises in her glider, but it only makes her more determined to complete the job.

Two weeks later the trio are heading to the daunting Swiss fortress the company uses as a base when another spectacular murder attempt almost ends their lives. Tsuno remains undeterred, but not so Vic & Pol, especially after learning that two of her fellow trainees have recently died in similar “accidents” in the mountains. Carrying on regardless, she is introduced to the fantastic glider-&-launch system that will take her to the previously unattainable crash site and starts finessing her landing technique in a fantastic training simulator.

Eventually more details are provided and the real story unfolds. The Handley-Page transport they’re seeking was conveying diplomatic mail from Karachi to London in November 1933, but vanished in a storm over Afghanistan. Decades later, a satellite somehow picked up a broken radio message stating it had landed – somewhere…

The businessman the trio cheekily refer to as “Milord” identifies himself as Major Dundee, a spymaster from Britain’s Ministry of Defence, and explains how a shady American former U2 pilot approached the British government, claiming to have spotted the downed ship during a clandestine overflight of Soviet territories. He also provided purloined photos showing the plane in the centre of a vast circular crater on the Russo-Chinese border, but subsequent reconnaissance flights have revealed nothing in the hole.

Thus a decision was taken to make a physical assessment, even though the already inaccessible site is deep in hostile – if not actual – enemy territory. Since then it has become clear that an unidentified agent or group is acting against the recovery project, probably intent on retrieving the ship’s mysterious but valuable cargo for a foreign power. Events spiral out of control when a traitor in the training team attempts to kill Yoko and “Operation Albatross” is rushed to commencement before the unknown enemy can try again…

Within a day lone pilot Tsuno is transported in a most fantastic and speedy manner around the world before her space-age glider prototype is secretly deployed over the enigmatic crater. Narrowly avoiding patrolling Soviet jets, Yoko deftly manoeuvres into a mist-covered chasm and plunges into one of the most uncanny experiences of her life.

The old plane is certainly gone. The floor of the crater is oddly cracked, and at its centre stands a strangely burned and blackened monolith. There are uncharacteristic animal bones everywhere and, at one end of the vast cavity, there is a primitive but large graveyard…

When the astounded adventurer explores further she is ambushed by her treacherous fellow trainee who has raced after her by conventional means and parachuted into the bizarre basin. However, his original plans have changed drastically since arrival, and despite the machine gun he wields, he needs Yoko’s help. He’s already located the Handley-Page – somehow manually dragged under an unsuspected overhang in the crater – but is mortally afraid of what he describes as the “tiny people” infesting the terrifying impact bowl…

As the unlikely allies head towards the perfectly preserved plane, the truth of the terrifying homunculi is shockingly revealed when they meet the last human survivor of the downed Diplomatic Flight, discovering to their extreme cost the uncanny, ultimately deadly atmospheric anomaly which has kept the plane a secret for decades and turned the crater into a vast geological radio set…

When the dust settles, Yoko realises she is trapped in the subterranean anomaly. With all her escape plans rendered useless she must align herself with the bizarre sole survivor and his bestial, rebellious servants. However, she absolutely refuses to give up on the recovery mission. Of course that doesn’t mean that she has to trust anything the old relic in the hole or Major Dundee has said. With that in mind, Tsuno lays her own plans to settle matters…

As always, the most potent asset of these breathtaking dramas is the astonishingly authentic and staggeringly detailed draughtsmanship and storytelling, which superbly benefits from Leloup’s diligent research and meticulous attention to detail, honed through years of working on Tintin. With this sleekly beguiling tale, Yoko proved that she was a truly multifaceted hero, equally at home in all manner of dramatic milieus and able to hold her own against the likes of James Bond, Modesty Blaise, Tintin or any other genre-busting super-star: as triumphantly capable pitted against spies and crooks as alien invaders, weird science or unchecked force of nature…

This is a splendidly frenetic, tense thriller which will appeal to any fan of blockbuster action fantasy or devious espionage exploit and is a perfect introduction to a shockingly uncelebrated action star.
Original edition © Dupuis, 1973, 1979 by Roger Leloup. All rights reserved. English translation 2015 © Cinebook Ltd.

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The Terror of St Trinian’s and Other Drawings


By Ronald Searle with Geoffrey Willans, Timothy Shy & others (Penguin Modern Classics)
ISBN: 978-0-141-91285-1 (PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Time for another Birthday Briefing as we exploit our month mostly mandated to mulling over women in and of comics – by celebrating the achievements of another old white guy. However this is truly one of the good ones and absolutely a true pioneer in male/female power relationships…

Britain has a fantastic and enviable history and tradition of excellence in the arts of graphic narrative and cartooning. Whether telling a complete story or simply making a point, much of the modern world’s most innovative, inspirational and trenchantly acerbic drawing has come from British pens powered by British hearts and minds.

If you’re quietly humming Rule Britannia or Jerusalem right now, or heavy breathing and fingering a flag, pack it in. This is not the tone we want. I’m just stating a few facts.

Ronald William Fordham Searle was one of a very gifted few (in modern times I’d number Ken Reid, Leo Baxendale, Murray Ball and Hunt Emerson among them) who can actually draw funny lines. No matter how little or how much they need to say, they can imbue the merest blot or scratch of ink with character, intent and wicked, wicked will.

Born in Cambridge on March 3rd 1920, Searle studied at Cambridge School of Art before enlisting in the Royal Engineers when WWII broke out. When he was captured by the Japanese in 1942 he ended up in the infamous Changi Prison. The second St Trinian’s cartoon was drawn in that hell-hole in 1944 and it survived – along with his incredible war sketches – to see print once peace broke out. Searle was a slave-worker on the Siam-Burma Railroad (a story for another time and place) and risked his life daily both by making pictures and by keeping them.

He became a jobbing freelance cartoonist when he got home, acerbically detailing British life. Perhaps that why he moved to France in 1961 and became a globe-girdling citizen of the wider world. By the 1980s he was established – everywhere but here – as not only a cartoonist and satirist but as a film-maker, sculptor, designer, travel-writer and crafter of fascinating reportage. This man was a capital “A” artist in the manner of Picasso or Hockney and,  Scarfe and Steadman notwithstanding, he was the last great British commentator to use cartooning and caricature as weapons of social change in the caustic manner of his heroes Hogarth, Gillray, Rowlandson, Cruikshank and the rest.

This magnificent volume includes selections from assorted previous collections and includes political illustration, social commentary, arcanely mordant whimsy and some of the most surreal, sardonic and grotesque funny pictures of the 20th century. I won’t spend too much time on his other achievements as his work should be seen and his thoughts and opinions should be understood in his chosen language: Art. At least, he still has enough fans to fill the internet with all the information you could need, so go search-engining after you read this if you wish. You’ll probably be offered a digital copy of this archive there. Do yourself a big favour and buy it…

Why his creations are so under-appreciated I do not know. Why this book is physically out of print: ditto. That he will remain a relative unknown despite the clutch of movies about his St Trinian’s girls… Not if I can help it…

Anyone who considers themselves a devotee of the arts of graphic narrative should know of Searle’s work, even if not necessarily love – although how could you not? Just be aware of the tremendous debt we all owe to his vision, dedication and gifts.

This compilation traces the rise of his star following his POW years. Post-war, his mordantly funny cartoons appeared in venues such as Punch, Lilliput and The Sunday Express, and in hugely successful collections like Hurrah for St. Trinian’s!, The Female Approach, Back to the Slaughterhouse, The St. Trinian’s Story, Which Way Did He Go?,Pardong m’sieur, In Perspective and The Non Sexist Dictionary.

Searle’s work has influenced an uncountable number of other cartoonists too. His unique visualisation and darkly comic satirical cynicism in the St. Trinian’s drawings as well as his utterly captivating vision of boarding school life as embodied in the classically grotesque Nigel Molesworth quartet: influencing generations of children and adults, and even playing its part in shaping our modern national character and language.

And have I mentioned yet that his drawings are really, really funny?

This superb collection of monochrome cartoons samples choice cuts from a number of his book collections, all delivered with stunning absurdist candour and the peculiarly tragic passive panic and understated warmth that only Searle could instil with his seemingly wild yet clearly-considered linework.

Fronted by an impassioned Introduction from fan and proper grown up journalist/columnist Nicholas Lezard, this paperback and digital collection offers a sweet taste of dark design in haunting and hilarious images culled from a number of sources, opening (un)naturally with macabre treats from St Trinian’s: blending the comforting traditional bonhomie of a girl’s boarding school with the accoutrements of a sex dungeon, the atavists of a charnel house and the fragrant atmosphere of The Somme two days after all the shooting stopped.

Having proved that for some crime Does pay, focus shifts to Merry England, etc., where class, toil, occupations, hobbies, and the ardours of life are ferociously scrutinised before diverting into mirthful metaphysics with a damning disembodied judge dubbed The Hand of Authority…

More satirical body-blows from Souls in Torment lead delightfully to a montage of misspelled madcap moments of terror-tinged nostalgia as Molesworth extracts snippets of sheer genius from the books he co-created with Geoffrey Willans for Punch and which were subsequently released to enormous success as Down With Skool!, How to be Topp!, Whizz For Atomms! and Back in the Jug Agane.

Having fully gripped our last dose of ghastly goblin-esque girl power and brutal boy-moulding, our review of a master of graphic assassination moves on the far less solid ground of politics and satire. As I said previously, Searle was a devotee of satirist William Hogarth and in 1956 adapted the old master’s series of condemnatory cartoons (painted in 1732-34 and released as staggeringly popular engraved prints in 1735) to modern usage and characterisation. Included here in its entirety to conclude our fun, The Rake’s Progress follows the rise and fall of a number of contemporary figures – The Athlete, The Girlfriend, The Soldier, The Poet, The Trade Union Leader, The Actor, The Painter (he based this one on himself), The Don (English academic, not an American gangster but such confusion is easy to understand), The Dramatic Critic, The Doctor, The MP, The Clergyman, The Novelist, The Humourist, The Master of Foxhounds and The Great Lover – with all the excoriating venom and wit you’d expect from a master of people-watching…

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant stuff! See for yourself, whatever side of the battle lines you cower behind.
© 1948, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1959 by Ronald Searle.
This selection © Ronald Searle 2000, 2006. Introduction © Nicholas Lezard, 2000. All rights reserved.