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Django, Hand on Fire: The Great Django Reinhardt


By Salva Rubio & Efa, translated by Matt Madden (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-287-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-288-5

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

The world has now formally and officially gone to hell in a handcart, so how about some soothing, jolly music – or at least some comics about that music?

Publisher NBM’s line of European-originated biographies never fails to delight, with this oversized luxury hardcover (also available in digital formats) one of the most engaging thus far: skilfully deconstructing – when not actually aiding and adding to – the myths and legends surrounding a top contender for the title of greatest guitar player of all time…

Django, Hand on Fire rewardingly reunites award-winning screenwriter, historian and novelist Salva Rubio (Max; The Photographer of Mauthausen) with animator/illustrator Ricard Fenandez (AKA Efa of Les Icariades; Rodriguez; L’Âme du Vin; Le Soldat). Their other collaborations are also beautiful biographies – Monet: Itinerant of Light and Degas & Cassatt: A Solitary Dance.

Originally released in France, the translated story of Django, main de feu is preceded here by an introductory prose appraisal from Thomas Dutronc before a stunning confection of painterly images traces the life of the troubled and unfortunate Roma musician from his fraught birth in a frozen field in Belgium to his second birth and reunion with the true love he threw away and found again. That natal moment was in 1910 as his father and the other itinerant performers of their tribe were eking out a wage entertaining outworlders.

By 1922, the troupe were resident in Paris’ “Zone”: an enclave for “his sort” where social outcasts like gypsies could reside until posh folks found a use for them. The lad was cocky and troublesome, an arrogant illiterate born for mischief but blessed with astounding musical skill. His life turned around when his mama acquired a six-string banjo for him and all his energies suddenly refocussed on mastering music. Soon Django was making money – and losing it gambling – even before he was considered a man…

Still an emotional child, he became the star of a professional (adult) band but his actions and attitude lost him many friends and family and ultimately the girl who adored him: Irma AKA Naguine. She faithfully trailed in his wake as producers and record publishers tracked the young man and watched in resignation as he succumbed to the shining blonde glory of faux flower artisan Florine/Bella. Naguine left the Zone entirely when Django and the flower girl wed, but swore to return…

The musician’s meteoric rise stalled only as he awaited his first child’s birth. As they slept in their wagon, it caught fire and although Bella got out, Django was badly burned on his legs and left hand. How – driven by his formidable mother – he battled back to overcome his life-changing injuries and, by changing his style, mastered another instrument, found undying fame and finally realized where his true love lay is a fabulous (if not strictly accurate) tale to warm the heart and gladden the eyes…

The pictorial paean to persistence and testament to passion is supported by a Bibliography and Creator Biographies plus ‘Django Reinhardt, from mystery to legend… In the light of History’: a fulsome, copiously-illustrated essay detailing the author’s factual choices and path to this particular truth, categorised and examined in ‘A mythical birth’; ‘The Zone’; ‘An interloper in the world of bal-musette’, ‘J’ai deux amours: Naguine and …le jass…’, ‘The Cross of Blood…’; ‘…and the fiery flowers’; ‘Hospital for the Poor’ and ‘Hand on fire’…

Sparkling and inspirational, this is treat for every music historian and intrigued dilettante: a beguiling magic window into another world and one you should seek out tout de suite…
© DUPUIS 2020 by Rubio, Efa. All rights reserved.

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The Complete Just a Pilgrim


By Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra with Paul Mounts, Ken Wolak, Chris Eliopoulos & various (Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-60690-003- (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-60690-007-9 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the entire planet ruminates on what about to happen and ponders how many different kinds of “American Dream” can coexist, let’s go back to a future that never happened – yet – but look less like harmless fiction every day…

Like its troubled protagonist, Just a Pilgrim is a much-travelled item that never sat comfortably anywhere, but still has much to recommend it. Originally miniseries Just a Pilgrim (2001) and sequel Just a Pilgrim: Garden of Eden (2002), the property started at Blackbull Comics with Britain’s Titan Books releasing trade paperback compilations, before this deluxe hardcover/soft cover/digital edition from Dynamite Entertainment.

Fleetway veterans Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra have a long association with war comics and the apocalyptic visions of alternate lifestyle bible 2000AD, so combining their kindred sensibilities for near-future post-apocalyptic adventures always pays off in visceral hits and giggles. Since the 5-part miniseries spawned an almost immediate follow-up, they must have been more or less correct, but as the volatile state of the comics industry ended many indie companies at that time, this compilation comes to us via media/intellectual property specialists Dynamite…

Moreover, co-creator Ennis stated that even after past works and collaborations with Carlos Ezquerra (such as Bloody Mary and Adventures in the Rifle Brigade) he was keen to push the envelope on the mythology and iconography of the classic movie western hero/antihero.

The black sardonic ironies of Judge Dredd, Preacher, Hellblazer and True Faith are not present in this exploration of Christian indoctrination ascendant produced with veteran combat illustrator Carlos Ezquerra for Black Bull Comics way back in 2001 and 2002.

This treat is garnished and flavoured with all the iconic spaghetti western tropes and themes of Clint Eastwood via traditional “a man’s gotta do…” John Wayne nonsense taken to its outrageous but so logical extremes, but be warned: in this exploration of religious fanaticism there’s not much room (some, not a lot…) for the cruel, ultra-violent gross-out stuff that made Hitman, The Boys and A Train Called Love such guilty pleasures.

Behind that gripping Mark Texiera cover is a yarn steeped in classic western lore and references as an embattled wagon train picks its way through hostile territory and appalling predators. The kid who is our narrator and viewpoint is helplessly drawn to a charismatic stranger his parents fear but cannot survive without, and death is absolutely everywhere…

The saga of this particular Man With No Name happens on a parched Earth that has been subjected to a vast solar flare that dried up the oceans.

Following Mark Waid’s text preamble ‘If You Call This Introduction “Just an Introduction,” I’ll F***ing Kill You’ the story unfolds in little Billy Shepherd’s own diarised words. The kid is 10½ and riding across the dusty Atlantic floor from sunken wreck to sundered bleaching hulk in ‘Anno Domini’ when raiders attack the convoy of migrant families in search of better lives. Thankfully, the sea floor foragers are singlehandedly driven off by a big guy with a strange long gun and crucifix-scarred face.

The newcomer is murderously pious and after despatching the bandits to their final judgement, offers to guide the trekker through the wastes and awful mutant beasts inhabiting the region to possible wetter climes. Sadly, his staunch resistance has made them all the sole concern of obsessive psychotic quadriplegic blind pirate king Castenado, who diverts all his plundered resources and army of “Buckers” to destroying him and the intruders he’s protecting beginning in ‘To Reign in Hell’…

Despite his upstanding Christian values, the Pilgrim terrifies everyone but Billy and as the brutal voyage and attacks continue, he is finally recognised for the monstrous infamous sinner he used to be – a grisly tale told in of cannibalism and redemption recounted in ‘Bloody Baskets’ before the inevitable showdown with Castenado and his horde in ‘Firestarter’ and blistering conclusion in the Alamo-like mouldering ruins of the Titanic in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’…

One year later Just a Pilgrim: Garden of Eden sees the wanderer faithfully reading not only the Bible but also Billy’s diary as he discovers a recess in the pacific ocean floor where water still exists; supporting abundant vegetation and a small colony of scientists. The ‘Marianas’ oceanic trench is a staging post where techs seek to fix up a space shuttle to take them all to a new less hostile world. However, under constant insidious assault, and picked off by mutant creatures that reanimate the dead, they are willing to suspend their distrust of the religious maniac if he can stop the killings. It’s an ill-judged compromise as the deaths mount in ‘To the Stars by Hard Ways’ and the colonists are further split by the Pilgrim’s ruthless and sanctimonious safeguarding actions. Most vocal is Dr Christine Page who clashes with him constantly but after he gifts her Billy’s diary she begins to realise how much the fanatic has actually already softened…

When the dead-riders attack in force and torch the garden, little girl Maggy is taken below ground and the Pilgrim leads a doomed rescue party after her. In face of their latest losses, and a most appalling act that has debased them all, the scientists make ready to leave Earth, giving the outcast one last chance to save Maggy and join them in a ‘Last Supper’ that only goes even more wrong. As fate signals the end of humanity’s time on Earth and forces the fanatical zealot to reexamine his beliefs and ask ‘Why Has Thou Forsaken Me?’ the apostle of the apocalypse ends his crusade in the only way he ever could…

If you were wondering, colours come courtesy of Paul Mounts & Ken Wolak, with Chris Eliopoulos lettering this violently engaging, sublimely cathartic and painfully accurate prognostication of what lies in store for us…

Supplementing the iconographic saga is a map of the dry world and travel progress of the Pilgrim, a Cover Gallery of 15 variants by Steve Dillon, Joe Jusko, Mark Texiera, Tim Bradstreet, J.G. Jones, Glenn Fabry, Kevin Nowlan, Bill Sienkiewicz, John McCrea and Dave Gibbons, backed up by an 8-page Pin-Up Gallery from Amanda Conner, McCrea, Nelson, Darick Robertson, Paul Mounts and Jimmy Palmiotti, before closing with a Sketchbook section packed with roughs and character designs by Ezquerra, Jusko and Jones.

Excessively violent, trenchant, savagely satirical, gripping and never less than totally thrilling, this slice of dark, theology shows Ennis and much-missed Ezquerra at their anarchic best, offering an everyman view of all the hell-and-stupidity we can expect.

These are grown-up comics at its very best and long overdue for their rightful place on your bookshelf or in your digital library.
™ & © 2008 Wizard Entertainment. All rights reserved.

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OMAC – One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby



By Jack Kirby with D. Bruce Berry, Mike Royer, Joe Kubert & various (DC)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-1026-6 (TPB) 978-1-4012-1790-7 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There’s a magnificent abundance of Kirby collections in print, but none seem more prescient than this compact gem of dark prognostication that “The King” (perhaps thankfully) never lived long enough to see come true in all the ways that most matter…

This oft-compiled collection re-presents possibly his boldest, most bombastic and most heartfelt creation after the comics landmark that was Jack Kirby’s Fourth World cycle.

Famed for larger than life characters and gigantic, cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual man who had lived through poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II. He experienced pre-war privation, post-war optimism and opportunism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures, but always looked to the future while understanding human nature intimately. In OMAC: One Man Army Corps, he gave his darkest assumptions and prognostications free rein, with his “World That’s Coming” now proving far too close to the world we’re frantically trying to escape or save right now…

In 1974, with his newest creations inexplicably tanking at DC, Kirby tentatively considered a return to Marvel, but – ever the consummate professional – he scrupulously carried out every detail of an increasingly onerous and emotionally unrewarding DC contract. When topical supernatural star turn The Demon was cancelled, the King needed another title to maintain his Herculean commitments (he was legally obliged to deliver 15 completed pages of art and story per week!) and returned to an idea he had shelved back in 1968. That was to re-interpret Captain America for a possible future where all Kirby’s direst suspicions and fears could be made manifest. In 1974 he revisited those anxieties: producing a nightmare scenario that demanded not a hero but a warrior.

Dubbing his Day-After-Tomorrow dystopia “The World That’s Coming”, Kirby let his mind run free – and scared – to birth a frighteningly close appreciation of our “Now”, where science and wealth have outstripped compassion and reason, whilst circumventing law and ethics, as humanity teeters on the brink of self-inflicted global annihilation. His thoughts then are represented here in the editorial that accompanied the premier issue…

OMAC #1 launched with a September/October 1974 cover-date, introducing the Global Peace Agency, a world-wide Doomwatch-style police force who manufactured a super-soldier to course-correct mankind and crisis-manage the constant threats to a species with hair-trigger fingers on nuclear stockpiles, chemical weapons of mass destruction and made-to-measure biological horrors. Base, uncontrolled human nature is the true threat manifested in this series, and that was first demonstrated by decent young man Buddy Blank who – whilst working at Pseudo-People Inc. – discovers that their euphemistically entitled Build-A-Friend division hides a far darker secret than merely pliant girls who come in kit-form (I believe we finally have those now, too, for those with much money but no moral compass…)

Luckily Buddy has been singled out by the GPA’s resident genius Professor Myron Forest for eternal linkage to sentient satellite Brother Eye. His atoms shifted and reconstructed, Buddy is fundamentally restructured and rebuilt to become a living God of War, and the new-born human weapon easily destroys his ruthless employers before their murderous plans can be fully realised. ‘Buddy Blank and Brother Eye’ was followed by a truly prophetic tale, wherein impossibly wealthy criminal Mister Big purchases an entire city simply to assassinate Professor Forest in ‘The Era of the Super-Rich!’

Kirby’s tried and trusted approach was always to pepper high concepts throughout blazing action, and #3 was the most spectacular yet. OMAC fought ‘One Hundred Thousand Foes!’ to get to murderous Marshal Kafka, terrorist leader of a rogue state and a private army, arsenal of WMDs and solid belief that the United Nations can’t touch him. Sound familiar…? That incredible clash carries on and concludes in #4’s ‘Busting of a Conqueror!’, whilst in #5, Kirby moved on to other, newer crimes for the new world. The definition of a criminal tends to blur when you can buy anything – even law and justice – but rich old people cherry-picking young men and women for brain-transfer implantation is (hopefully) always going to be a no-no. Still, you can sell or plunder specific organs even now…

Busting the ‘New Bodies for Old!!’ racket took two issues, and after the One-Man-Army-Corps smashed ‘The Body Bank!’ he embarked on his final adventure. Ecological disaster and water shortage was the theme of the last tale, but as our hero trudges across a dry, desolate lake bottom amidst the dead and dying marine life he is horrified to discover the disaster is the work of one man. ‘The Ocean Stealers!’ (#7) introduced scientific madman Doctor Skuba, who mastered atomic manipulation techniques that had turned feeble Buddy Blank into an unstoppable war machine.

Joe Kubert crafted the cover to final outing OMAC #8. ‘Human Genius Vs Thinking Machine’ was an epic ending seeing Brother Eye apparently destroyed with Skuba and Buddy perishing together in a cataclysmic explosion. But that final panel was a hasty, last-minute addition by unknown editorial hands, for the saga never actually finished. Kirby – his contract completed – had promptly returned to Marvel and new challenges such as Black Panther, Captain America, 2001, Devil Dinosaur, Machine Man and especially The Eternals.

Hormone treatments, Virtual Reality, medical computers, satellite surveillance, genetic tampering and all the other hard-science predictions in OMAC pale into insignificance against Kirby’s terrifyingly accurate social observations in this bombastic and tragically incomplete masterpiece. OMAC is Jack Kirby’s Edwin Drood: an unfinished symphony of such power and prophecy that it informs not just the entire modern DC universe and inspires ever more incisive and intriguing tales from the King’s artistic inheritors but still presages more truly scary developments in our own mundane and inescapable reality. As always in these wondrously economical collections it should be noted that the book includes many Kirby pencilled pages, confirming his artistry was always a match for his imagination.

Jack Kirby is unique and uncompromising. If you’re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind. That doesn’t alter the fact that Kirby’s work from 1937 to his death in 1994 shaped the entire American comics scene, affected the lives of billions of readers and thousands of creators in all areas of artistic endeavour around the world for generations and still wins new fans and apostles every day, from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. His work is instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral, deceptively deep whilst being simultaneously mythic and human: and just plain Great. Let’s hope there will be future generations around to enjoy them…
© 1974, 1975, 2021 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Peanuts Dell Archive


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Judge Anderson PSI Files volume 01


By Alan Grant, John Wagner, Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson, Robin Smith, Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, Mark Farmer, Mick Austin, David A. Roach, Arthur Ranson, Carlos Ezquerra, Kim Raymond & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-90673-522-7 (TPB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

A wellspring of spin-off creativity, Britain’s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD. As such he’s also spawned a rich world where other stars have been born and thrived…

Judge Dredd and the ultra-dystopian environs of Mega-City One were created by a creative committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, with the majority contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and several pseudonymous names.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper and usually more efficient than humans. Jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity and boredom has reached epidemic proportions. Almost everybody is just one askance glance away from mental meltdown. Judges are pot-watching peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs in a vast bubbling cauldron: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

They are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is that the entire milieu is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action. Just keep telling yourself, some situations demand drastic solutions…

In 1980 and Progs (that’s tomorrow-talk for issue number) #149-151 – January 26th-February 9th – with continuity and scenario firmly established, Wagner, writing as John Howard, introduced Judge Death: an undead lawman from an alternate Earth, whose Judges, faced with the same interminable problems as our world, took their creed to its only logical conclusion. If all crime is perpetrated by the living, then to eradicate crime…

After ending all life in his own dimension, the ghostly ghoul extended his mission to ours, wiping out criminals and law-abiding citizens alike, with the Judges – even Dredd – unable to stop him… until the flamboyant and unconventional psychic recruit Judge Cassandra Anderson of PSI Division sacrificed herself to trap the evil spirit forever…

With Wagner clearly on a creative roll, the fans spoke long and loud. Both the Zombie Peacemaker and Anderson returned within a year. Credited to T.B. Grover (still Wagner in Progs #224-228/August 8th to September 5th 1981), ‘Judge Death Lives’ saw a desperate citizen releasing the horror from his eternal tomb at the behest of three more expired Judges: Mortis, Fire and Fear.

Reunited with their leader the Dark Judges went about their lawful occasions, executing vast numbers of Mega-City citizens. It took a trans-dimensional trip to their origin realm – “Deadworld” – before Dredd & Anderson could stop the slayers; and even then, only temporarily. Those magnificent yarns appear often in other collections, and I’ll surely revisit them again soon, but the most important aspect of all that is how both Anderson and Death went on to their own series… which brings us to here, because this book is not about Joe Dredd but rather what can bloom in his honking, big-booted shadow…

Cassandra Anderson, as part of the Judges’ psychic/weird phenomena division is given far more leeway than her straitlaced, buttoned-down street cops colleagues. That made her own exploits far quirkier, outrageous and experimental, thereby guaranteeing her a solo series…

Spanning 1983-1990 and collecting early cases as originally seen in anthological weekly 2000AD #416-427, 468-478, 520-531, 607-609, 612-613, 614-612, 635-644, 645-647, 657-659, 669-670, 712-717 and 758-763, plus self-contained episodes from 2000AD Annual 1984 and 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988, the eerie off-kilter terrors begin with another outing for the ‘Four Dark Judges’ as detailed by new lead scripter Alan Grant and Wagner in Progs #416-427, with illustrators Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson and Robin Smith tag-teaming the art. As with the majority of these yarns, veteran letterer Tom Frame made sense of it all…

The opening tale details how the essences of Death and his subordinate Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis mentally bombard the psychic peacekeeper until she breaks regs and dimension hops to their deceased dimension – “Deadworld” – to sort them out once and for all. However, they quickly overpower her consciousness and use her to unleash themselves on the puling masses of Mega-City One. With another kill-spree in full flow, suspended Anderson breaks a few more rules and finds a way to despatch one Dark Judge and force the remaining trio to retreat. She’s ready for them when they strike again and end up banished to Limbo thanks to fortitude, determination and new Judge tech. It’s the only thing that saves her from her own commanding officers…

Grant, Wagner, Ewins & Frame catered Anderson’s second solo-starring soirée (#468-478) as ‘The Possessed’ sees Anderson investigating a poltergeist at Ed Poe “hab-block” (big, Big apartment buildings) and inexorably drawn into a war with demons led by child-possessor Gargarax. Even PSI-Division’s exorcists are outgunned when Cassandra’s gifts lead her to block satanists secretly summoning the arcane entities by sacrificing relatively innocent waif Hammy Blish, and the conflict and carnage soon spread far, wide and even deep under the mass-metropolis into its appalling Undercity…

Anderson’s hunt for Gargarax ultimately leads her to its private hell and war against a host of devils, but her escape and the ensured safety of Mega-City One come at a grave cost…

The rich history of the City and Anderson’s precognitive visions fuel the next epic yarn as illustrators Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, John Aldrich, and letterers Frame & Steve Potter join Grant & Wagner for ‘Hour of the Wolf’ (#520-531). As vague, surreal dream portents plague the rule-breaking Judge, seeking to warn her of a deadly plot, Sov-City psychic sleeper agents attempt to wreck her city, kill her and liberate the Judges’ greatest opponent – arch terrorist Orlok the Assassin of East-Meg One…

The campaign almost succeeds and costs many more lives before the mass murderer is (barely) thwarted…

Grant, Mark Farmer & Frame deliver a shorter pace-changing romp in Progs #607-609 as ‘Contact’ sees Anderson sent to the far end of the solar system to scope out a strange alien ship that has ignored all other forms of communication or investigative scanning. Good call too, as what she finds are liars and deeply predatory…

Mick Austin joins Grant & Frame across #612-613 as ‘Beyond the Void’ sees Anderson despatched to handle a transcendental incident at the Mahatma Cote monastery. There she finds a Lama’s spiritual journey has taken him to the gateway of Judge Death’s cosmic cell, and must act accordingly. David A. Roach then assumes control of the vision-making for Grant as ‘Helios’ (#614-622) sees her and occasional partner Judge Corey on the trail of a long-dead, vengeance-crazed killer using mind-control and surgical alteration to carry out his schedule of slaughter.  Grant, Austin & Gordon Robson then sort out a solo saga in 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988. ‘Judge Corey: Leviathan’s Farewell’ finds the empath chasing ruthless sugar smugglers to the toxin-blighted coastal shores, only to have a deep encounter with something old, uncanny and irresistibly tragic…

Arthur Ranson illustrates Grant’s next extended storyline as ‘Triad’ (#635-644) reveals the true nature of an ethereal serial killer with a penchant for baroque monsters and Fortean events hunting in Mega-City One. The connection to an abused boy is not clear at first but as more bodies spectacularly drop, Anderson’s visions become clearer and much more insistent and soon the hand of an old enemy can be seen.

An unhealthy obsession with robots grips a unique spree killer in ‘The Prophet’ (#645-647 by Grant, Roach & Potter) whilst #657-659’s ‘The Random Man’ – illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra – sees Anderson in pursuit of a sex-&-gambling-obsessed perp in the throes of transition, before Roach returns to limn #669-670’s ‘The Screaming Skull’: a deviously twisted macabre mystery of ghosts, assassins and the world’s oldest motive for murder…

One last extended epic brings the psionic shenanigans to a close as Grant, Roach and Potter take two bites of the cherry (Progs #712-717 and 758-763) to explore the meaning of ‘Engram’ in a Shakespearean saga of Cursed Earth witches, a child of destiny and Anderson in hot pursuit of pyrokinetic mass murderer Verona Rom. One threat ended, a bigger one emerges and the Judge-out-of-water must contend with a ghostly stalker only she can see, not-so-slowly driving her insane. After mounting bouts of madness Anderson is sectioned to an Iso-Cube, whilst her colleagues and superiors dig deep to find what really happened in the Cursed Earth, leading to staggering revelations of her own childhood, a game changing reunion with the witches in the scarred wastelands and rebirth of intent in Mega-City One…

To Be Continued…

Rounding out this initial monochrome compendium is ‘Bonus Strip: The Haunting’ by Grant, Kim Raymond & Tony Jacob from 2000AD Annual 1984 with the Judge battling demonic usurper Dahak for the mind and soul of impulsive scholar Dr Levin who should have kept his hands off the treasures of the Mega-City One Museum of Antiquities…

Supplemented by Ewins’ cover for 2000 AD Prog #468, and biographies of the ‘Writers’ and ‘Artists’ involved, these groundbreaking tales are amongst the very best action adventures Apocalypse-obsessed, dystopia driven Britain has ever produced, neatly balancing paranoia with gallows humour and innate anarchic disrespect for authority (any authority) with pulse-pounding thrills, spills and chills.

This is sheer addictive nostalgia for my generation, but the stories hold up against anything made for today’s marketplace. Buy it for the kids or keep it for yourself; this cheap-&cheerful tome is glorious, funny challenging and beautifully realised… and steel yourself for even better yet to come…
© 1983, 1985,1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 & 2012 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved.

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


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Planet of the Apes Adventures – The Original Marvel Years


By Doug Moench, George Tuska, Alfredo Alcala, Mike Esposito, Tony Mortellaro, Dave Hunt, George Roussos & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5073-6 (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-3029-5999-9 (TPB/Epic Collection)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most effective and long-lasting explorations of failed human ambition and resultant dystopia is not the last 50 years of global government, but rather a film franchise built on a seminal French science fiction novel.

Peirre’s Boulle’s satirical La Planète des singes (1963) was just another tale from a former secret agent/engineer who earned major accolades and rewards as an author. Your entire family has probably seen his other Oscar-winning blockbuster – David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai – never realising it is an autobiographical saga originally called La Pont de la rivière Kwai.

Translated into English 1964, his other epic became Monkey Planet, and – after numerous major rewrites by screenwriters Rod Serling & Michael Wilson – was 1968’s movie sensation Planet of the Apes. The US production inspired four sequels and a TV series which lived on in reruns and reedited TV movies for decades after, plus an animated series, books, toys, games, a home projector pack, records and comics and other merchandise. In 2001 it was added to the US National Film Registry as the Library of Congress deemed it as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”… and that’s all before Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, the 2011 reboot and an ongoing, evolving franchise still growing to this day…

There have been numerous comics iterations and adaptations, beginning with two manga interpretations (1968 & 1971) intersecting a 1970 Gold Key movie adaptation and assorted later international versions. In 1974 – no doubt thanks to the impending TV show – a Marvel Magazine continuation combining serialised comics continuations, expanded comics adaptations of the five original films, features and articles began. Sporting an August 1974 cover-date and on sale from June 25th of that year, Planet of the Apes #1 blended photos and articles with Part 1 (of 6) of an adaptation of the 1968 blockbuster movie, plus all-new ape-ventures set in a time period when humans were still sapient talkers living in notional harmony with equally erudite orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. For more on that you could consult our review Planet of the Apes Archive volume 1: Terror on the Planet of The Apes or simply go buy that book too. It’s quite good…

Although the US magazine was resolutely aimed at a readership beyond a standard newsstand kids range, in Britain that material was solidly aimed at 10-13-year-olds. When Marvel US abruptly cancelled PotA in December 1976, the franchise lay fallow until Malibu Comics picked it up in 1990 (reprints, new stories and franchise mash-up Ape Nation). Other companies added new material over the years. However, at the height of the fuzzy fun and furore, Marvel reprinted in colour deftly re-edited and toned-down film adaptations from the magazine. The general release incarnation was a simpler affair, and somewhat sporadic in distribution.

Now that Marvel is again helming the simian franchise these tales are again offered to fans: available in hardback and trade paperback Epic Collection each with its digital versions, backstopping new stories in the niche universe. Scripted by Doug Moench (Batman, Moon Knight, Master of Kung Fu), and with comics veteran George Roussos “colorizing” the monochrome art of George Tuska, Mike Esposito, Tony Mortellaro & Dave Hunt, the first film filled #1-6 (October 1975-June 1976) of Adventures on the Planet of the Apes.

Wilson & Serling’s excoriatingly satirical screenplay was faithfully serialised as ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘World of Captive Humans’, ‘Manhunt!’, ‘Trial’ and ‘Into the Forbidden Zone’ before at last revealing ‘The Secret’ of the anthropoid world to time-lost astronaut George Taylor. Due to calamity and enemy action Taylor is soon the sole survivor of an Earth space flight that lands him on a primitive devastated world. Here talking orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas live in tense collaboration and humans are barely-sensate beasts of burden or preferred targets of bloodsports. The civilisation is superstitious, uncompromisingly theocratic but, as Taylor quickly deduces, clearly suppressing some awful secret about the human herds they hunt and enslave…

The rebellious talking human is somehow a clear threat to the power and dogma of the ruling simians, but thanks to the aid of well-meaning chimps scientists Zira, Lucius and Cornelius, Taylor and indigenous human companion Nova are able to escape the schemes of chief scientist Zaius who knows the awful truth Taylor and his allies are stumbling towards…

Although film fans waited two years for what happened next, the comics story seamlessly continues as Moench & Roussos join illustrator Alfredo Alcala (Swamp Thing, Batman, Man-Thing) for Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Paul Dehn & Mort Abrams’ bleak, chilling screenplay sequel becomes a dark, brooding and ultimately apocalyptic quest for answers when Taylor is captured by mutated humans who worship nuclear weapons even as Earth’s follow-up expedition smashes to destruction just like the first…

Eponymous opening ‘Beneath the Planet of the Apes’ sees sole survivor Brent similarly stranded in 3955 AD and equally unaware that his ship has brought him back to a much-altered birthworld. He soon meets Nova, who was ignored by whatever rules the “Forbidden Zone”. The fact that she’s wearing Taylor’s dog tags convinces Brent to accompany the mute, but he thinks twice when Nova leads him to Cornelius and Zira in Ape City. The metropolis is in turmoil with gorilla General Ursus increasingly usurping Dr. Zaius and demanding eradication of humans and conquest of the heretically sorcerous Forbidden Zone…

In this febrile atmosphere, Nova brings Brent to Taylor’s chimpanzee benefactors, before they are captured and ‘Enslaved!’ by gorillas preparing to invade the land of terror. On escaping, and barely ahead of an ape army, Brent and Nova return to the lost land where the shocked explorer delves deep into subterranean ruins and discovers the secret after recognising a place where he used to live so very long ago. Now it’s a tomb of terror and temple to ‘The Warhead Messiah’, ruled by cruel telepaths who are all that remain of sapient humanity. As ape forces advance, these ‘Children of the Bomb’ introduce Brent to their other captive, forcing the ancient astronauts to battle. As Ursus’ killers invade the nuclear cultists anticipate detonating the bomb to end all bombs and as violence and brutality explode everywhere, any chance to stop ‘The Hell of Holocaust’ dwindles and dies…

With the collection cover art by E.M. Gist and individual series covers by John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Rich Buckler, Dan Adkins, Ron Wilson, Vince Colletta, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Klaus Janson, Jim Starlin, Mike Nasser/Netzer, Esposito, Alcala, Paty Anderson, & Earl Norem, this is a straightforward slice of allegorical action hokum that reads remarkably well even after all these years. Moreover, as Marvel recently regained the franchise rights, this iteration neatly inspired its own sequel of sorts – for which see a forthcoming review….

In equal parts vivid nostalgia and crucial component of current comics expansion, this compelling treat is pure whacky fun no film fan or comics devotee should miss… and there’s more to come…
© 2023 20th Century Studios.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks The Avengers volume 4: The Sign of the Serpent


By Stan Lee, Don Heck, Roy Thomas, Frank Giacoia, George Roussos & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5430-7 (PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

These stories are timeless and have been gathered many times before but here we’re enjoying another example of The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line: designed with economy in mind and newcomers as target audience. These books are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller – like a paperback novel. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that’s no issue at all.

After a period of meteoric expansion, in 1963 the burgeoning Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the successful DC concept that had cemented the legitimacy of the Silver Age of American comics. The notion of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket had made the Justice League of America a winner and subsequently inspired the moribund Atlas outfit – primarily Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko – into conceiving “super-characters” of their own. The result – in 1961 – was The Fantastic Four…

After 18 months, the fledgling House of Ideas had generated a small successful stable of costumed leading men (but still only 2 sidekick women!), allowing Lee & Kirby to at last assemble a select handful of them into an all-star squad, moulded into a force for justice and soaring sales. Cover dated September 1963, and on sale from early July, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men. This edition collects The Avengers #31-40 (cover-dated August 1966 to May 1967): groundbreaking tales no newbie or potential lover of superhero stories can do without…

Here the team consists of Captain America, Hawkeye, mutant twins Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch (who had replaced big guns Thor and Iron Man) and recently returned Giant-Man (AKA Goliath) and The Wasp, looking for a way to enable Henry Pym to regain his size-changing powers and his normal six-foot height. The revised team was already proving a firm fan-favourite. Spectacle had been nudged aside in favour of melodrama sub-plots, leavening the action through compelling soap-opera elements which kept readers riveted…

Of course, the founding stars regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy which meant that most issues included somebody’s fave-rave. The increasingly bold and impressive stories and artwork were no hindrance either. Once Lee moved on, the team was left in the capable hands of Roy Thomas who grew into one of the industry’s most impressive writers, guiding the World’s Mightiest Heroes through a range of adventures ranging from sublimely poetic to staggeringly epic.

With this fourth collection the hero alliances rise to dominance truly began and resumes on a cliffhanger yarn that began when Goliath – tragically trapped at a freakish ten-foot height – sought a cure south of the border only to be embroiled in a futuristic civil war amongst a lost south American civilisation. Here the concluding chapter threatens global incineration in the ludicrously titled yet satisfyingly thrilling ‘Never Bug a Giant!’ as Wasp, Hawkeye and Cap track down their massive missing man and face escalating atomic armageddon…

The company’s crusading credentials are enhanced next as ‘The Sign of the Serpent!’ and sequel ‘To Smash a Serpent!’ (#32-33, with Heck providing raw, gritty inks over his own pencils) craft a brave, socially-aware epic. Here the heroes tackle a sinister band of organised racists in a thinly veiled allegory of the Civil Rights turmoil then gripping America. Marvel’s bold liberal stand even went so far as to introduce a new African-American character, Bill Foster, who would eventually become a superhero in his own right.

It’s back to crime-busting basics as Roy Thomas officially begins his long association with the team in #34’s ‘The Living Laser!’, although second part ‘The Light that Failed!’ again assumes political overtones as the light-bending supervillain allies himself with South American – and, by implication, Marxist – rebels for a rollercoaster ride of thrills and spills.

The team’s international credentials are further exploited when long-absent Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver return, heralding an alien invasion of the Balkans in ‘The Ultroids Attack!’ and ‘To Conquer a Colossus!’ (#36-37). Along for the ride and a crucial factor in repelling an extraterrestrial invasion is newly cured and reformed Natasha Romanoff: the sinister, merciless Black Widow…

Thomas clearly relished juggling a larger roster of characters as he promptly added Olympian godling Hercules to the mix, first as a duped and drugged pawn of the Enchantress in #38’s ‘In our Midst… An Immortal’ (inked by George Roussos) and then as a member from the following issue onwards, when The Mad Thinker attacks the assemblage during ‘The Torment… and the Triumph!’.

No prizes for guessing who was throwing the punches in ‘Suddenly… the Sub-Mariner!’ as the team battle the Lord of Atlantis for possession of a reality-warping Cosmic Cube; a riotous all-action romp to end a superb classic chronicle of furious Fights ‘n’ Tights fables.

Augmenting the narrative joys is the cover gallery by Heck, Jack Kirby, Frank Giacoia, Gil Kane and Roussos plus Heck’s unused cover for #37.

Unceasingly enticing and always evergreen, these immortal epics are tales that defined the Marvel experience and a joy no fan should deny themselves or their kids.
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Walt Kelly’s Our Gang volume 1


By Walt Kelly (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN 978-1560977537 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today is the anniversary of controversial screen pioneer Hal Roach (January 14th 1892 – November 2nd 1992), a movie man responsible for some of the best comics and newspaper strips ever made. Here’s one of the very best solely in need of rediscovery and new archival editions…

The movie shorts franchise Our Gang (latterly the Li’l Rascals) were one of the most popular in American Film history. Beginning in 1922 they featured the fun and folksy humour of a bunch of “typical kids”. Atypically though, there was always full racial equality and mingling – and the little girls were still always smarter than the boys. Romping together, they all enjoyed idealised adventures in a time both safer and more simple.

The rotating cast of characters and slapstick shenanigans were the brainchild of film genius Hal Roach who directed and worked with Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase and Laurel & Hardy amongst so many others. These brief cinematic paeans to a mythic childhood entered the “household name” category of popular Americana in amazingly swift order. As times and tastes changed Roach was forced to sell up to the celluloid butcher’s shop of MGM in 1938, and the features suffered the same interference and loss of control that marred the later careers of Stan and Ollie, the Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton.

In 1942 Dell released an Our Gang comic book written and drawn by Walt Kelly who, consummate craftsman that he was, deftly restored the wit, verve and charm of the glory days via a progression of short comic stories elevating lower class American childhood to the mythic peaks of Dorothy in Oz, Huckleberry Finn or Laura Ingalls of Little House… fame.

Over the course of the first eight issues so lovingly reproduced in this glorious collection, Kelly moved beyond the films – good or otherwise – to sculpt an idyllic storyscape of games and dares; excursions; pee-wee adventures; get-rich-quick schemes; battles with rival gangs and especially plucky victories over adults, mean, condescending, criminal or psychotic.

Granted great leeway, Kelly eventually settled on his own cast, but aficionados and purists can still thrill here to the classic cast of Mickey, Buckwheat, Happy/Spanky, Janet and Froggy.

Thankfully, after far too long a delay, today’s comics are once again offering material of this genre to contemporary audiences. Even so, many modern readers may be unable to appreciate the skill, narrative charm and lost innocence of this style of children’s tale. If so I genuinely pity them, because this is work with heart and soul, drawn by one of the greatest exponents of graphic narrative America has ever produced. I hope their loss is not yours.
© 2006 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

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Daredevil Epic Collection volume 7: The Concrete Jungle (1976-1978)


By Marv Wolfman, Jim Shooter, Roger McKenzie, Tony Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, Don McGregor, Bob Brown, Carmine Infantino, John Buscema, Frank Robbins, John Byrne, Sal Buscema, George Tuska, Lee Elias, Gene Colan, Tom Sutton, Jim Mooney, Klaus Janson, Vince Colletta, Don Perlin, Keith Pollard, Frank Chiaramonte, Al Milgrom, Dan Green, Tony DeZuñiga, Steve Leialoha, Josef Rubinstein, Bob Wiacek & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1634-3 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer whose remaining senses hyper-compensate, making him an astonishing acrobat, formidable fighter and living lie-detector. A second-string hero for much of his early career, Daredevil was nonetheless a striking and popular one, due mostly to the captivatingly humanistic art of Gene Colan. DD fought gangsters, super-villains and even the occasional monster or alien invasion, quipping and wisecracking his way through life and life-threatening combat, utterly unlike the grim, moody, quasi-religious metaphor he became.

After a disastrous on-again, off-again relationship with his secretary Karen Page, Murdock took up with Russian émigré Natasha Romanoff, infamous and notorious ex-spy Black Widow. She was framed for murder and prosecuted by Matt’s best friend and law partner Foggy Nelson before the blind lawman cleared her. Leaving New York with her for the West Coast, Matt joined a prestigious San Francisco law firm but adventure, disaster and intrigue sought out the Sightless Sentinel and ultimately drew him back to the festering Big Apple…

Spanning May 1976 to May 1977, this Epic Collection re-presents Daredevil #133-154, Annual #4, a crossover from Ghost Rider #19-20, plus spin-offs from Marvel Premiere #39-40 & 43, spanning cover-dates May 1976 and September 1978.

Writer/editor Marv Wolfman always designed long term plans for his characters which oddly start buried in the publicity stunt yarn opening this collection. Daredevil #133 begins laying groundwork for an unfolding epic about fake news and disinformation in public office (and remember this is set just after Watergate and decades before Trumpism) before digressing to a fanciful fluff piece co-starring real-world stage trickster and headline-seeker Uri Geller. Concocted by Wolfman, Bob Brown & Jim Mooney, ‘Introducing: Mind-Wave and his Fearsome Think Tank!’ is a happily forgettable tale about a maniac in a supertank attacking Manhattan. Thankfully, Mind-Wave‘s arch enemy (Geller, claiming to have psychic powers granted him by aliens) is there to aid the Scarlet Swashbuckler…

More sinister secrets of the perception-shaping masterplan of The Jester are revealed in #134’s ‘There’s Trouble In New York City…’ as disgruntled former football star/insurance salesman Brock Jones returns. Previously, he had stumbled into a plot to control Earth and taken possession of a rocket-powered super-suit coveted by enemy agents. DD had almost been killed by the suit’s original owner, leading to the usual superhero misunderstanding and a savage clash. Now, as TV news shows Daredevil killing cops and with the shapeshifting Chameleon robbing at will, Brock again dons the suit to help the common man as The Torpedo, innocently adding to the chaos and confusion before the Chameleon is caught…

Jester’s grand scheme is revealed in ‘What Is Happening?’ The Manic Mountebank has exploited a computer pioneer to create a wave of stories making the public mistrust the authorities by manipulating the media. (I’m not commenting, I’m not commenting…)

Seeing newspaper reports, photos and even news tapes of John and Robert Kennedy alive, superheroes killing cops and “proof” that the Viet Nam war never happened, but secret conflicts in Chile and Saudi Arabia did, much of the public readily accepts the villain was framed, resulting in Daredevil being arrested and subsequently handed over to an army of thugs and gangsters.

John Buscema assumed pencilling with #136, as the Jester’s endgame is exposed. When President Gerald Ford announces that New York City’ s police and all its superheroes have gone insane, citizens are urged to take up arms and defend themselves at all costs. The entire scheme has been devised to leave the city open to plunder by the Jester’s hastily-assembled army of thugs. Unable to keep away, DD strikes back but is captured and subjected to ‘A Hanging for a Hero!’

As a lynch mob of panicked citizens and enraged criminals almost execute the Man Without Fear, he flamboyantly escapes but is forced back into action for concluding episode ‘The Murder Maze Strikes Twice!’ as “President Ford’s” broadcasts demand citizens “take back Wall Street” from the gangsters that now control it. Deducing Jester’s location, DD storms in, dismantles all the villain’s traps and minions, restoring order and justice, only to discover personal crises boiling over…

Throughout the media reality war, Daredevil had been seeking to prove the innocence of Heather Glenn‘s father. Matt Murdock’s current girlfriend knows her dad isn’t a ruthless, murdering slumlord but that someone must have framed him. All evidence says otherwise. Now, as Matt and Foggy return to that case, word comes (for readers, as two excerpted pages from Ghost Rider #19 – August 1976 by Tony Isabella, Frank Robbins & Vince Colletta) depicting former girlfriend turned soap star Karen Page being kidnapped by friend and ally Stuntman…

It leads directly into Daredevil #138 where Wolfman, John Byrne & Mooney ask ‘Where is Karen Page?’ as the Man Without Fear drops everything for his one true love: heading for Los Angeles where Page is a Hollywood star with a complex convoluted life. However her relationship with hell-tainted Johnny Blaze is not why she was targeted, but rather from her father’s inventions and career as super-maniac Death’s Head – and the impostor now using the name to further his own insane plans. The saga concludes in Ghost Rider #20 (Wolfman, Byrne & Don Perlin) as ‘Two Against Death!’ reveals who is actually pulling all the strings with Satan-spawn and Scarlet Swashbuckler pairing to save page. Meanwhile in Manhattan, Foggy continues investigating Glenn Industries… and is shot.

The plot threads expands in Daredevil Annual #4’s ‘The Name of the Game is Death!’ Plotted by Wolfman, scripted by Chris Claremont, drawn by George Tuska and inked by Frank Chiaramonte, it sees The Black Panther aiding an industrialist whose son is abducted. Thanks to friendship with King T’Challa and judicious use of Vibranium, Robert Mallory has built the world’s first Tidal Power Station. Someone thinks holding his son will win them the plans but hasn’t counted on T’Challa paying his friend a visit at this inopportune moment…

Daredevil, meanwhile, fights for his life, having stumbled into a furiously rampaging Sub-Mariner. Prince Namor has returned to the vile surface world because of a man named Mallory and a power station that while providing cheap clean energy for mankind will overheat the seas and divert the tides…

Concluding chapter ‘And Who Shall Save the Panther?’ begins with the Great Cat prowling Manhattan, having tracked the crime to ambitious mobster Ruffio Costa. Sadly, he’s unable to defeat the thugs alone and eventually DD steps in to deliver a ransom, accidentally bringing Sub-Mariner along for the ride. When the superbeings converge and clash, Costa is caught in the carnage and a lab explosion transforms him into something far worse than gradual climate crisis and the factions must all temporarily unite to defeat the threat of Mind-Master.

The editorial story behind Wolfman, Sal Buscema & Mooney’s ‘A Night in the Life’ (DD #139) is a true insight to comics at their best, but for readers it’s simply a chance to enjoy enhanced drama, suspense and action as the search for a missing haemophiliac boy overlaps a police manhunt for a mad bomber demanding the return of his drug-addicted wife. Wolfman was unsurpassed at interleaving soap opera melodrama with costumed cavorting, and the fraught tone carried over into #140 as Bill Mantlo, Sal B & Klaus Janson detailed ‘Death Times Two!’ when a runaway bus dumped Daredevil into a hunt for accidentally united old enemies The Gladiator and The Beetle who then aimed a runaway train at Grand Central Station and attempted to settle old scores with the hero amidst the dead and dying…

An even bigger change in tone began in #141. ‘Target: Death!’ was plotted by Wolfman, and scripted by Jim Shooter, with pencils divided between Gil Kane and Bob Brown, and Jim Mooney inking. It is very much a forerunner of what Roger McKenzie and Frank Miller would conceive of in months to come, opening with another murder attempt on Foggy and fresh insights into the abduction of his fiancée Debbie Harris. More secrets of Glenn Industries are teased out, a killer dies and DD’s ultimate arch-nemesis returns for another killing spree before abruptly changing his mind and tying defeated Daredevil to a giant arrow and firing him at the New Jersey Palisades…

Pulling out all the stops for his final forays, Wolfman – with Brown & Mooney – resurrected more classic villains for #142. Escaping one doom, DD meets new hero Nova, even as Mr. Hyde and The Cobra reunite, targeting the Scarlet Swashbuckler as he passes the rooftop rainforest garden of a young millionaire living in a personal paradise: ‘The Concrete Jungle’

The clash concludes with ‘“Hyde and Go Seek”. Sayeth the Cobra!’ (Wolfman, Brown & Keith Pollard) wherein the villains leave our hero to the carnivores populating the skyscraper Eden while they plunder the penthouse below. The goal is not wealth but ancient books and formulas to enhances their powers, but as ever, they grievously underestimate the boldness and ingenuity of the Man Without Fear…

Times were changing for the Scarlet Swashbuckler, and stories by incoming scripters including Jim Shooter and Roger McKenzie contributed to a gradual darkening of the atmosphere. In DD #144 Shooter, penciller Lee Elias & inker Dan Green amp up the edginess and intensify foreboding shadows by proving ‘Man-Bull Means Mayhem’ as the petty thug-turned-mutated-menace Bill Taurens again clashes with the Crimson Crusader. The battle begins when he breaks jail to join DD’s oldest archenemy The Owl and it emerges the avian ganglord is critically enfeebled, under attack by rivals and needs the Man-Bull to kidnap the one scientist who can fix him. Sadly, the boffin might also be able to cure Taurens, and the brute’s selfish betrayal leads to disaster when Daredevil intervenes again…

The Owl’s fate is sealed in ‘Danger Rides the Bitter Wind!’ (by Shooter from a Gerry Conway plot, illustrated by George Tuska & Jim Mooney) as the desperate human raptor goes after Dr. Petrovic personally, raiding a hospital and triggering his own doom in a rooftop clash with Daredevil. Shooter then amps up tension as #146 welcomes Gil Kane as penciller for Mooney and maniac marksman Bullseye returning to force a showdown ‘Duel!’ with the hero, achieved by taking an entire TV studio hostage before being soundly defeated yet again…

Throughout The Jester’s media reality war, DD had dated flighty socialite Heather Glenn. When, as both masked hero and lawyer he discovered her father was a corrupt slumlord and white collar criminal, the hero began looking for proof to exonerate his potential father-in-law. Instead he found further damning proof everywhere he looked. Matt’s girlfriend knows her dad isn’t a ruthless, murdering monster and that someone must have framed him. All evidence says otherwise…

Now another long running plot thread – with Foggy’s kidnapped girlfriend now held for months – converges as DD confronts Maxwell Glenn and the true culprit reveals himself to readers if not the hero. As Glenn confesses to everything and is arrested, the hero hits his ‘Breaking Point!’ (Shooter, Kane & Janson) after dramatically liberating the broken captive but failing to catch the true villain – mindbending archfoe Killgrave, the Purple Man…

With Kane co-plotting, and Glenn believing himself guilty, #148’s ‘Manhunt!’ sees the increasingly overwhelmed adventurer lash out at the entire underworld in search of the malign mauve manipulator, only to stumble into a wholly separate evil plot instigated by the another enemy – the diabolical Death-Stalker. Murdock’s relationship with Foggy also takes a hit as the usually genial partner deals with a PTSD ravaged Debbie and can’t understand why his best friend is defending self-confessed perpetrator Glenn…

Carmine Infantino joins Shooter & Janson for DD #149 as ‘Catspaw!’ sees Heather dump Matt and super-thug The Smasher target Daredevil in a blistering battle bout that is mere prelude to #150’s ‘Catastrophe!’, finding the valiant crusader stretched beyond his capacity in the courtroom and on the streets, just as charming, debonair mercenary Paladin premieres in a clash of vigilante jurisdictions. The debuting mercenary hero for hire is also hunting the Purple Man and has advantages DD can’t match, and no scruples at all…

Kane returns as plotter and penciller as Shooter gives way to McKenzie, who joins the creative crew to script ‘Crisis!’ with another tragic death blighting Murdock’s soul. As a result, Heather accidentally uncovers Matt’s heroic secret and DD simply quits. However, the horrors of the world and his own overzealous Catholic conscience soon force him back to work again…

Paladin and Infantino return for ‘Prisoner!’ (DD #152) joining McKenzie & Janson in reintroducing Death-Stalker just as our masked hero makes an intervention to reunite Foggy with traumatised fiancé Debbie. Although the ploy is successful, another clash with the mercenary leaves DD beaten and open to a surprise attack by The Cobra & Mr Hyde in #153. Crafted by McKenzie, Gene Colan & Tony DeZuñiga, ‘Betrayal!’ debuts aging Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich – who will play a huge part in Daredevil’s future – with the weary hero ambushed, defeated and dragged to the ‘Arena!’ (Steve Leialoha inks) wherein Killgrave seeks ultimate victory by mind-piloting a squad of DD’s foes, including The Gladiator, Jester, Cobra & Hyde, to slaughter the swashbuckler in front of a captive audience. It proves to be the fiend’s final mistake once Paladin shows up and shifts the balance of power…

To Be Continued…

At this period the series was generating plenty of noteworthy characters, and included here are some solo spin-off stories that resulted. First is a two-issue try-out tale starring hero/ villain The Torpedo. He first (accidentally) battled DD in Daredevil #126-127. After the brief reprise recounted above he was given his shot at fame in Marvel Premiere #39 & 40 (December 1977 – January 1978) before ultimately dying in Rom: Spaceknight and being replaced by a teenaged girl.

‘Ride a Wild Rocket!’ and ‘…Battle With the Big Man!’ was a rushed-looking collaboration of Wolfman, Mantlo, Brown, Al Milgrom, Josef Rubinstein, Bob Wiacek & Alan Weiss showing Brock Jones pursuing the Rocketeer gang who originally owned his turbo-suit, but all his efforts to reclaim the acclaim of his quarterbacking days seem pointless. Harassed at home and bored at work, his American Dream is dying. After almost triggering a nuclear meltdown he was considered a menace, even though he saved the state from atomic catastrophe, and now a critical change comes after the hidden mastermind behind all his woes and superhero aspirations decides enough is enough…

As seen in Captain America, Machine Man, and The Incredible Hulk, long-time villain Senator Eugene “Kligger” Stivak is a high-ranking official of criminal capitalists The Corporation who decides he will deal with Brock personally, but the villain has seriously underestimated the over-the-hill hero’s stubbornness and desperation to regain his self-esteem…

Also included here is a Paladin pilot from Marvel Premiere #43; cover-dated August 1978 and devised by Don McGregor & Tom Sutton as a super hero/bodyguard/private eye mash-up, with Paladin Paul Denning learning ‘In Manhattan, They Play for Keeps’. Here the suave merc faces a new iteration of Mr Fear calling himself Phantasm. Mutated in a radiation accident, the maniac soon graduates from abusive boyfriend to enemy of capitalism, fixated on old girlfriend Marsha Connors until she hires Paladin to save her…

Supplementing the resurgent rise in comics form is a cover gallery by Ed Hannigan, Rich Buckler, John Buscema, Al Milgrom, Dave Cockrum, Kane, Tom Palmer, Joe Sinnott, Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia, Janson, Terry Austin, Colan, Steve Leialoha, Infantino & Frank Springer. The extras sections include Wolfman’s editorial from #133 detailing circumstances of Geller/Marvel’s publicity stunt, pages The Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar 1976 from Marvel Comics Memory Album 1977 (by Sal Buscema and Gil Kane), house ads and original art pages by John Buscema, Mooney, Byrne, Brown, Kane & Janson.

As the 1970s closed, these gritty tales laid the foundation for groundbreaking mature dramas to come, promising the true potential of Daredevil was finally in reach. Their narrative energy and exuberant excitement are dashing delights no action fan will care to miss.

… And the next volume heads full on into darker shadows, the grimmest of territory and the breaking of many boundaries…
© 2024 MARVEL.