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Lucky Luke volume 9: The Wagon Train


By Morris& Goscinny translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-90546-040-3 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One could quite convincingly argue that the USA’s greatest cultural export has been the Western. Everybody everywhere thinks they know what Cowboys and Indians are and do, but the genre has long migrated and informed every aspect or art and literature all over the planet. Comics particularly have benefited from the form, with Europe continuing to produce magnificent works even in these latter years when sagebrush sagas are barely visible in American entertainment and instead play out on the streets and in the courts…

This side of the pond, cowboys were a key component in all nooks & crannies of popular fiction from the earliest days. Newspapers were packed with astoundingly high-quality strips ranging from straight dramas such as Gun Law and Matt Marriott to uniquely British takes like Bud Neill’s outrageous spoof Lobey Dosser, whilst weekly kids comics anthologically abounded with episodic exploits of Texas Jack, Desperate Dan, Colorado Kid, Davy Crockett, Kid Dynamite, Buffalo Jack and more.

As previously mentioned, Europe especially embraced the medium and expanded the boundaries of the genre. In Italy Tex (Willer) remains as vital as ever, far outdistancing later revered and much-exported series such as Captain Miki, Il Grande Blek, Zagor, Larry Yuma, Ken Parker, Magico Vento and Djustine. The Franco-Belgian wing also has a long tradition of variety with true immortals amongst its ponderosa Pantheon: from all ages-comedic treats such as Yakari, OumPah-Pah, Chick Bill or The Bluecoats to monolithic and monumental mature-reader sagas like Jerry Spring, Comanche, Sergeant Kirk, La Grande Saga Indienne, Buddy Longway or the legendary Blueberry…

Topping them all in terms of sales and fame, however, is a certain laconic lone rider…

A precocious, westerns-addicted, art-mad kid, well off and educated by Jesuits, Maurice de Bevere was born on December 1st 1923 in Kortrijk, Belgium. A far from illustrious or noteworthy scholar – except in all the ways teachers despise – Maurice later sought artistic expression in his early working life via forays into film animation before settling into his true vocation. While working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’Actualitiés) animation studio, “Morris” met future comics superstars Franquin & Peyo, and worked for weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist. Morris quickly became one of la Bande des quatre – The Gang of Four – comprising Jijé, Will and old comrade Franquin: leading proponents of a loose, free-wheeling artistic style known as the “Marcinelle School” which dominated Le journal de Spirou in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style favoured by Hergé, EP Jacobs and other artists in Le Journal de Tintin.

In 1948, said Gang (all but Will) visited America, befriending many US comics creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, meeting fellow traveller René Goscinny, scoring some work from newly-formed EC sensation Mad and making copious notes and countless sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West. That research would resonate on every page of his life’s work.

Working solo, albeit with occasional script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere until 1955, Morris produced nine albums of affectionate sagebrush parody and comedic cinematic homage before formally uniting with Goscinny, who became the regular wordsmith as Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with Des rails sur la Prairie which began in weekly LJd S from August 25th 1955. The collected album was first released for Christmas in 1957, the ninth in the series, and was followed by Morris’ final solo tale Alerte aux Pieds Bleus/The Bluefeet are Coming! in 1958.

Doughty, rangy, and dashingly dependable Lucky Luke is the likable, imperturbable, implacably even-tempered cowboy do-gooder who can “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around a mythic, cinematically informed Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant, stingingly sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. Over nearly nine decades, his exploits in LJdS (and from 1967, in rival periodical Pilote) made the sharp shooter a legend of stories across all media and monument of merchandising.

His exploits have made him one of the bestselling comic characters in Europe (83 collected albums plus around a dozen spin-offs and specials – totalling over 300 million books in at least 33 languages), with all the spin-off toys, computer games, puzzles, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies that come with that kind of popularity.

The rapid pace and seeming simplicity of these spoof tales means older stories can generally sit quite comfortably alongside newer material crafted for a more modern readership.

In 1962 Morris & Goscinny’s 15th collaboration was serialised in LJdS #1281 – 1302 before arriving as 24th European album collection Lucky Luke et La Caravane; The Wagon Train to us…

It’s one of their most traditional tales; playing joyously with tropes and memes of the genre and clearly having as much fun as future readers were going to, and begins in dusty Nothing Gulch as a bedraggled procession of “Prairie Schooners” limp into town. Expedition head Andrew Boston is arguing with unscrupulous guide Frank Malone who’s demanding even more money before completing his commission to bring the hopeful settlers to California. When heated words are replaced with gunplay, a dusty observer ends the fracas before blood is shed…

Boston has heard a lot about Lucky Luke and promptly starts a multi-pronged charm offensive to have the Sagebrush Stalwart take over guiding the party to the fabled Golden State. Our hero is flattered but not interested… until Boston wheels out his big guns and has the kids ask in their own unique ways. Despite being prepared to use children to emotionally twist the cowboy’s arm, the twenty or so wagon-loads of pioneers are an affable if odd bunch from all over the world, and soon Luke is leading them across prairies and through deserts and mountains.

However, as days pass an extraordinarily large number of accidents and mishaps occur, and before long it cannot be denied that somebody is clearly attempting to sabotage the expedition…

With close calls and near-death escapes mounting, Lucky splits his attention between blazing a trail and playing detective but the suspect pool is just too large. Anybody from the undertaker in his hearse to the inventor in his constantly evolving horseless converter-car (there’s more than a passing similarity to TV’s Whacky Races here!); the suspiciously French Barber/Surgeon, creatively foul-mouthed mule driver or even the no-nonsense School Marm could be the culprit. But then again, there are so many others who act out of the ordinary…

Nevertheless, the voyage proceeds and as the would-be homesteaders survive the temptations of bad towns and other dens of vice and iniquity, bad food, and inclement weather a sense of community builds. Sadly, that’s soon tested to the limit when word comes that Sioux Chief Rabid Dog is on the warpath…

Despite all these traditional trials and tribulations Luke persists, and before long the Promised Land is reached and a vile villain finally exposed.

Cleverly barbed, wickedly ironic and joyously packed with classic cowboy set-pieces, this splendidly slapstick spoof of a crucial strand of the genre is another grand old hoot superbly executed by master storytellers for any kids who might have missed the romantic allure of an all-pervasive Wild West that never was…

And in case you’re worried, even though the interior art still has our hero chawin’ on that ol’ nicotine stick, trust me, there’s very little chance of anyone craving a quick snout, but quite a strong probability that they’ll be addicted to Lucky Luke Albums…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Goscinny & Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2007 Cinebook.

Today in 1930: French comics pioneer Jean-Claude Forest – creator of Barbarella – was born.

Today in 1954 the premier issue of Tiger went on sale. After 1555 issues and seven decades, its top star remains Roy of the Rovers (see The Bumper Book of Roy of the Rovers ).

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Jack Staff: Everything Used to Be Black and White


By Paul Grist (Dancing Elephant/Image Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-5824-0335-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

Just like many aging Brits & gits, I forget things and yesterday I missed a birthday. September 9th 1960 should be best known as the natal debut of cartoon paragon Paul Grist. Read this – and absolutely the book and its three sequels – to learn why.

Growing up a comic fan in 1960s -1970s Britain was an oddly schizophrenic situation. Not only were we bombarded and enthralled by our own weirdly eclectic mix of TV stars, Dying Empire jingoism and military bluster, fantastic anti-establishment fantasy, science-fiction and sport yarns – all augmented by the sheerly inspired, madcap anarchy of gag strips that always accompanied such adventure serials in our anthology weeklies – but from 1959 on, we also had unfettered access to exotic worlds and thinly veiled cultural imperialism of US comic books, bulk-imported as ballast in cargo ships and readily available in glorious full colour…

And don’t even get me started on the precious few, but always exotic and classy European wonders like Tintin, Lucky Luke and Asterix, simultaneously filtering into the funnybook gestalt constantly brewing in our fevered little heads. All this pictorial wonderment tended to make us young strips disciples a tad epicurean in our tastes and broad-minded, eccentric synthesists about our influences…

I’ve followed Paul Grist’s work since the small press days of Burglar Bill and St. Swithin’s Day, and his brilliantly refined design sense and incisive visual grasp of character made his interpretations of Grendel, Judge Dredd and other commercial properties excellent examples of why individuality always trumps house style. However, when he writes his own material, he steps into a creator class few can touch, always blending and refining key elements of genre and shared public consciousness into a stunningly inviting new nostalgia. For another perfect example check out what he accomplished with hard-boiled detective archetypes in his splendid Kane (see Kane: Welcome to New Eden among others)…

Grist established his own company, Dancing Elephant Press, to produce the kind of works big-time publishers lacked the imagination to support and in 2002 returned to the childhood delights of superhero comics with the creation of Jack Staff, who began life as a proposed Union Jack story for Marvel.

When they pulled the plug, Grist, unable to let a good idea go and now freed of the usual creative restraints that come from playing with other people’s toys, went wild and produced a purely British take on the superhero phenomenon that is simultaneously charming, gripping and devilishly clever. I usually go into laborious (most would say tedious) detail about the events in these graphic novel reviews but this first Jack Staff collection (gathering the first 12 issues) will be an exception as Grist’s captivating style here (based on and mimicking the anthology format of British Weeklies such as Lion and Valiant) means each issue feels like seven stories in one. As my intention is to convince to buy this book I’m sacrificing detail for brevity… you lucky people.

In a nondescript British city Becky Burdock is a feisty girl reporter for trashy newspaper The World’s Press. Opening gambit ‘Yesterday’s Heroes’ finds her hunting down a serial killer scoop on the “Castletown Slasher”, when she accidentally stumbles onto the identity of Jack Staff (Britain’s greatest costumed hero since WWII, and a man missing since the 1980s).

It happens when local builder John Smith saves her from a collapsing billboard, precipitating memories of wartime international superhero team The Freedom Fighters and a battle against a centuries-old vampire. It also strangely involves British Q Branch (investigating un-rational or weird crimes) and US superhuman Sgt. States, Jack Staff’s opposite number and another seemingly immortal patriotic hero.

Marvel Zombies will rightly identify this tale has echoes of the Roy Thomas & Frank Robbins Baron Blood storyline from 1970s title The Invaders, and if Marvel had been more accommodating this would indeed have been a classy sequel to that saga. However they missed their chance and this magically tongue-in-cheek pastiche is the magnificent result and our gain.

There are still superhumans in this world such as heroic Tom Tom, the Robot Man and villainous Doc Tempest, and even mortal champions like Albert Bramble and his son Harold who battle dark forces as vampire hunters, but even they cannot prevent Becky becoming a victim of the killer stalking the city. John Smith is clearly reluctant to rejoin the masked hero community but events keep pushing him until he uncovers an international conspiracy of sanctioned atrocity that naturally gets hushed up by the powers that be…

These stories are rife with references and cameos from 50 years of popular culture, and not just comics. Us Brits love television and thinly disguised TV icons such as Steptoe and Son, Dad’s Army and The Sweeney ferociously jostle alongside purely comic stars such as Captain America and Dr. Strange and members of our own uniquely bizarre periodical pantheon including Robot Archie, Zip Nolan, Kelly’s Eye, Jason Hyde, Adam Eterno and even relatively real people such as Alan Moore and Neal Gaiman.

A far larger part is played by incomparable poacher turned gamekeeper The Spider in second story-arc ‘Secrets, Shadows and the Spider!’ as things go quirkily cosmic after Becky Burdock, Vampire Reporter and the increasingly intriguing Q cops stumble into real X Files territory and we get some welcome background into recent history when a 1960s super-criminal starts stealing again.

Or does he? The Spider never shot anybody before…

The mystery is cleared up when elderly Alfred Chinard (it’s a partial anagram – work it out…) hires builder John Smith and springs a trap on his old foe before they notionally team up to stop the real thief. Of course, it doesn’t really go Jack’s way and he’s literally left holding the bag. After a full-length Q adventure ‘Quotations’ involving a meta-fictional serial killer, ‘Out of Time’ rounds out the book (and don’t forget there are three sequels…).

Here, Victorian showman and escapologist Charlie Raven (a canny reworking of period masterpiece Janus Stark) enters the picture, encountering a Dorian Gray-like mystery and losing a battle to a foe who consumes time itself. As a result, charismatic Raven endures an Adam Adamant moment and ends up in 21st century Castletown, where his enemy is still predating the human populace. Also causing trouble is Ben Kulmer – the invisible bandit known as The Claw (and lovingly homaging Ken Bulmer, Tom Tully & Jesús Blasco’s astounding antihero The Steel Claw).

When that nice Mr. Chinard turns up again the stage is set for a spectacular time-rending chronal clash involving the entire expansive cast that is spectacular, boldly bewildering and superbly satisfying.

The stark yet inviting monochrome design, refined, honed and pared down to minimalist approachability has an inescapable feeling of Europe about it. If ever anyone was to create a new TinTin adventure, Grist would be the ideal choice to draw it. Not because he draws like Hergé, but because he knows his craft as well as Hergé did. However, I’m deliriously happy that he has so brilliantly assimilated the essences of cherished keystones of my beloved comics-consuming past and given them such a vital and compelling fresh lease of life.

Thrilling, funny, fabulous. Buy this Book!
™ & © Paul Grist. All rights reserved.

Today in 1952 writer Gerry Conway was born, as was Alison Bechdel in 1960. We’ve done some but hardly all of their many works and we’ll be adding to that list soon.

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Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s This Slavery


Adapted by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard, edited by David Hine (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-91422-435-5 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

Published in 1925, and set in the cotton town of Great Harwood, near Blackburn at the Edwardian height of the Lancashire weaving industry, the prose This Slavery explored the ironclad imbalances of the feudal class structure the industry depended upon and did it in terms of a then-fashionable romance novel. It was dismissed in many quarters because of it. Its author Ethel Carnie Holdsworth (January 1st 1886 – December 28th 1962) was a poet, journalist, editor, educator, children’s author and novelist (with at least 10 books released in her lifetime, and whose fashionable gothic romances briefly outsold works by H.G. Wells!) and the first working class woman in Britain to have a book published – Miss Nobody in 1913.

Working class and self-made, she escaped the drudgery of her birth to become a socialist intellectual, foe of fascism, successful author and ardent campaigner. However, she was gradually and in her own lifetime erased from history and public consciousness – perhaps because this daring experiment was intended to reach beyond the intelligentsia on both sides of the cultural battlegrounds. Maybe – just perhaps – it happened because this story recognised that even though all workers were equal, female ones were supposed to be less equal than all the rest, before then challenging that apparently sacrosanct sacred cow and credo…

Divided into two Books, this saga is sparked by the aftermath of a fire at Barstock’s mill. This triggers another cycle of unemployment, privation and deaths for the weakest. Workers are paid a pittance and toil at the owners’ discretion with no salaried protections. Even skilled workers lives depend on the pennies weaving factories dole out whenever the owners need them to, and unemployment is common and frequent. Now, with their only livelihood destroyed with no sign of reopening, many men are leaving for more favourable climes. Of course, their wives and sweethearts must remain…

Hester and Rachel Martin live with their mother and grandmother, one a fierce and ferocious firebrand advocate of political and social change for all and the other a fair-faced, gifted musician in search of peace and security. Life for them is scrounging and performing for pennies or else perpetually borrowing to make do. When their granny dies, they don’t even have the money to bury her…

As their friends and lovers leave, existence becomes ever more onerous, and each achieves a shocking revelation regarding a woman’s place in the grand schemes, Thus each chooses a difficult way to survive…

The manner in which each “gets by” is moodily realised in grittily oppressive episodes beginning with ‘Chapter One: The Proposal’ and inexorably unfolding in a tapestry of tragedy comprising ‘The Denial’, ‘The Exile’, ‘The Struggle’, ‘The Secret’, ‘The Inevitable’, ‘The Undesirables’, ‘The Last Snap’ and ‘The Commitment’ all confirming that the war for freedom and equality is a three way battle: rich vs poor vs women…

As Hester and Rachel each make life-changing decisions, the illustration embraces and resonates with powerful natural forces of nature and darkness opposed to crushing streets, oppressive architecture and shining gleaming inescapable artificial light that emotionally ground down the workers – employed or otherwise. Moreover, as Book Two sees the situation escalate into inevitable mass violence, readers are not allowed to forget that police, “scab” workers, and the military always have paid work to do…
As the drama leads to an inevitable conclusion each sister rediscovers her true nature via ‘Chapter Ten: The Negotiations’, ‘The Strike’, ‘The Lost Opportunity’, ‘The Innocents’, ‘The Beasts of the Jungle’, ‘The Revelations’, ‘The Rebellion’, ‘The Decision’ and momentous moment ‘The Last Battle’…

Like any inspirational tale espousing change, there is the hint of happy endings and brighter futures for all depicted in an ‘Epilogue’ with the entire story reinforced by a candid and thoughtful Afterword from adaptors Sophie & Scarlett Rickard (Mann’s Best Friend, A Blow Borne Quietly, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, No Surrender).

Righteously strident, passionately polemical and powerfully enraging, engaging, this never-more-timely tale of the eternal injustice and biologically apologist is superbly readable, dramatically enticing and should be compulsory viewing for all – as long as we don’t force anyone …

© 2025 SelfMadeHero. Text © 2025 Sophie Rickard. Artwork © 2025 Scarlett Rickard. All rights reserved.
Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s This Slavery will be published on September 11th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

Today in 1917, cartoonist/writer Frank Robbins was born. Among his many, many masterworks this character stands at the forefront.

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Blondie: The Bumstead Family History/Blondie: The Complete Bumstead Family History


By Dean Young, and Melina Ryzik (Thomas Nelson/Rutledge Hill Press, U.S.)
ISBN: 978-1-4016-0322-9 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Normally I leave newspaper strip reviews for a weekend, but this is one birthday we just can’t miss. Please remember, just because you don’t read something don’t mean it ain’t popular…

Like Dagwood’s legendary sarnies, Bumstead family functions go on forever. Yesterday we learned how Chic Young’s strip Blondie began on September 8th 1930 and just kept going. The feature was inherited and carried on in 1973 by his family, chiefly son Dean with a select group of collaborators. Dean considers himself the guardian of a legacy as much as continuer of a phenomenon. In 2007, after the 75th anniversary, commemorative curated celebration Blondie: the Bumstead Family History was released to mark the occasion, and with the feature still going strong this remastered (even enjoying fancy-schmancy External hyperlinks, no less!) “Complete” edition invites a look at what he’s done to keep things fresh as much as safeguard generations of readers’ fond memories.

Combining short lavishly illustrated articles with a wealth of published strips – each attached to general topics – the raucous revery begins with ‘Chapter One: The Bumstead Family Album’, incorporating historical overviews and the traced evolutions of ‘Blondie’ and eternal, often inanimate inamorata ‘Dagwood’; firstborn son/current teen icon ‘Alexander’ (who first appeared on April 15th 1934) and his sister ‘Cookie’ who Dagwood feels is far too popular with boys). Faithful, longsuffering house mutt ‘Daisy’ gets her own section, as does abusive Boss/archnemesis ‘Mr. Dithers’, next-door-neighbours ‘The Woodleys’ (AKA Herb & Tootsie), long-suffering mailman ‘Mr. Beasley’ and cheeky, always underfoot kid/voice of a fresh generation ‘Elmo Tuttle’…

The early days of the unshakable relationship are scrutinised in ‘Chapter Two: Getting Married’, tracing love’s rocky road through turbulent fast-changing times and a hugely successful publicity gimmick of young Dagwood going on extended hunger strike to force his adamant parents to allow him to wed! A massive publicity coup, the convoluted month-long storyline led to rowdy nuptials in February 1933 and is swiftly and sensibly followed by chapters on ‘Family Life’, as the couple become a nuclear unit, demographic and breadwinning paean to domesticity as ‘Dagwood at Work’ reveals what a decent man endures to bring home the bacon – and pickles and bratwurst and olives and pastrami and turkey and chicken, and salmon and lettuce and pumpernickel and lox and…

Courting middle American controversy, not to say media attention and a little homemaker wrath, ‘Blondie Goes to Work’ saw the tireless and capable stay-at-home mom and neighbour Tootsie ultimately turn those life skills into joyously fulfilling independence by starting their own catering business. This was only in 1991 and this pic-packed chapter also deals with the ridiculous amounts of outrage the world-shaking leap into the 20th century seemed to trigger in the heartland. Naturally, Dagwood was completely supportive: who else could test the new dishes and delights the girls kept inventing…

‘Chapter Six: Favourite Strips’ reviews some of the countless gags to have riffed on the series’ core themes – eating, sleeping, making and living and eating – whilst focussing on Dean Young’s constant efforts to keep the strips relevant and contemporary whilst the major industry event that evolved out of ‘The 75th Anniversary’ is described in detail. To celebrate the milestone in 2005, Dean and King Features organised a massive crossover that included VIPs like President Bush and other real-world notables as well as most of the nation’s major strips and creators wishing the happy couple all the best.

If you read Beetle Baily, Hagar the Horrible, Garfield, Rose is Rose, Wizard of Id, Dick Tracy, B.C., Mother Goose & Grimm, Family Circus, Shoe, Hi & Lois, Gasoline Alley, Sally Forth, Snuffy Smith, Buckles, Baby Blues, Zits, Mutts, Curtis, Marvin, For Better or Worse, Born Loser, Dennis the Menace (theirs not ours), Cathy, Thick Thin or Bizarro you were invited and there on the day. Disney alumni and single panel editorial cartoonists got in on it and for one moment all of America enjoyed a taste of Dagwood. Most of those strips are here as well as plenty from the months-long build up and aftermath in the actual Blondie feature.

This super memoriam concludes with a look beyond the panels as ‘Forever Young’ explores the life and achievements of Murat Bernard Young, his wife and model/inspiration Athel Lindorff née Young, Dean and sister Jeanne and the many notables who pitched in and/or assisted on Blondie’s production: Alex and Jim Raymond, Stan Drake, Mike Gersher, Ray McGill, Denis LeBrun, and John Marhall & Frank Cummings

Also included in this inescapably family function are original art and sketches, dozens of candid family portraits and photos, commentary and so, so many cartoons to wallow in. If you want a simple satisfying Good Read, this is for you your kids and your grannie, but don’t forget to bring the sandwiches… and not small ones neither…
© King Features Syndicate, Inc. 2007.

Today in 1958, Jack Kirby’s Sky Masters of the Space Force newspaper strip launched.

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Star Trek: Gold Key Archives volume 1


By Dick Wood, Nevio Zaccara, Alfredo Giolitti & various (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-922-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Star Trek debuted on American televisions on September 8th 1966 and ran until June 3rd 1969: three seasons comprising 79 episodes. A moderate success, it only really became popular after going into syndication, running constantly throughout the 1970s. It was also sold all over the world, popping up seemingly everywhere and developing quite a devoted fanbase.

Being a third world country, Britain didn’t see the show until July 12th 1969 during the rocket fever surrounding the Apollo moon landings, when BBC One screened “Where No Man Has Gone Before” in black-&-white before proceeding to broadcast the rest of the series in the wrong order. “Arena” was the first episode screened in colour (November 15th 1969), but viewers didn’t care. We were all hooked anyway and many of the show’s catchphrases – many erroneous and some entirely fictitious – quickly entered the popular lexicon of the nation.

The series spawned a licensed, British-originated comic strip which ran in Joe 90, TV21 and TV21 and Valiant from the late 1960s into the 1970s. These have also been collected and I’ll get to them in the fullness of time and space.

In the USA, although there was some merchandising, things were a little less enthusiastically embraced. Even though there was a comic book – from “properties magnate” Gold Key and running for almost a decade after the show’s cancellation – authenticity at the start wasn’t really a watchword. Nor was immediacy or urgency an issue. In fact, only six issues were released during the show’s entire three-season run. Published between July 1967 and December 1968, they are all gathered in this first archive Star Trek…

Printing giant Whitman Publishing had been producing their own books and comics for decades through their Dell and Gold Key imprints, rivalling and often surpassing DC and Timely/Marvel at the height of their powers in sales and popularity. Famously Whitman never capitulated to the wave of anti-comics hysteria resulting in the crippling self-censorship of the 1950s and Dell Comics never displayed a Comics Code Authority symbol on their covers.

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

Just like the big and little screen, the product enticed but never shocked and kept contentious social issues implicit instead of tacit. It was a case of “violence and murder are fine, but never titillate”…

Moreover, the vast majority of their adventure comics’ covers were high quality photos or paintings – adding a stunning degree of veracity and verisimilitude to even the most outlandish of concepts for us wide-eyed waifs in need of awesome entertainment. The company seemed the only logical choice for a licensed comic book, and to be honest, these stories are cracking space opera yarns, even if they occupy an odd position in the hearts of older screen-dominant fans. In the UK, distribution of US comics was haphazard at best, but Gold Key Trek yarns were reprinted in our beloved and trusted hardback Christmas annuals. Nevertheless, the earliest ones bore little resemblance to what we’d seen on TV.

Our little minds were perplexed and we did wonder, but as the tales offered plenty of action and big sci fi concepts we just enjoyed them anyway.

Original British Star Trek yarns came in serialised comic-strip form, superbly illustrated and bearing a close resemblance to the source material. The feature only appeared as 2 or 3-page instalments in weekly anthologies, but was at least instantly familiar to TV viewers.

I discovered the answer to the jarring discrepancy, years later. Apparently scripter Dick Wood (a veteran writer who had worked on hundreds of series from Batman and the original Daredevil to Crime Does Not Pay and Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom) had not seen the show when commissioned to write the comic book iteration, and both he and Italian artists Nevio Zaccara – and latterly Alberto Giolitti – received only the briefest of outlines and scant reference materials from the show’s producers. They were working almost in the dark…

When you read these stories, you’ll see some strange sights and apparent contradictions to Trek canon lore, but they were all derived from sensible assumptions by creators doing the very best with what meagre information they had. If you’re likely to have your nostalgic fun spoiled by wrong-coloured shirts or Lasers rather than Phasers, think alternate universe or read something else. Ultimately, you are the only one missing out…

That’s enough unnecessary apologising. These splendidly conceived all-ages tales don’t deserve or need it, and even the TV wellspring was a constantly developing work-in-progress, as fan and occasional Trek scripter Tony Isabella reveals in his Introduction ‘These Are the Voyages…’

Accompanied by the stunning photo-collage covers and endpapers (an expensive rarity at the time outside Gold Key titles) the quirky collation of cosmic questing commences with ‘The Planet of No Return’ (by Wood & Zaccaria, from #1, July 1967) as the Enterprise enters a region of space oddly devoid of life and encounters predatory spores from a planet designated Kelly-Green. This is a world of horror where vegetative life contaminates and transforms flesh whilst mindlessly seeking to constantly consume and conquer. After the survivors of the landing party escape deadly doom and return to the safety of space, there is only one course of action Captain Kirk can take…

‘The Devil’s Isle of Space’ was released with a March 1968 cover-date and found the ever-advancing Enterprise trapped in a space-wide electronic net. The technology was part of a system used by an alien race to pen death-row criminals on asteroids, where they would be (eventually) executed in a truly barbarous manner. Sadly, it’s hard not to interfere in a sovereign culture’s private affairs when the doomed criminals hold Federation citizens hostage and want Kirk to hand his ship over to them…

Bombastic. beguiling and spectacular, ‘Invasion of the City Builders’ (#3, December 1968) saw legendary Alberto Giolitti take the artistic reigns. Prolific, gifted and truly international, his work and the studio he founded produced a wealth of material for three continents; everything from Le Avventure di Italo Nurago, Tarzan, The Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon, Zorro, Cisco Kid, Turok, Gunsmoke, King Kong, Cinque anni dopo, Tex Willer and dozens more. In England, the Giolitti effect enhanced many magazines and age ranges; everything from Flame of the Forest in Lion to Enchanted Isle in Tammy. His textural adeptness and gritty line-work added visual terseness and tension to the mix, as seen in his first outing here, as Enterprise crewmembers land on a planet where automated machines originally programmed to build new homes and roads have been out of control for a century. Forcing the organic population to the edge of extinction, the mechs build cities no one can live in over the soil they need to grow food. The machines seem utterly indestructible, but Mr. Spock has an idea…

Social commentary gave way to action and suspense when ‘The Peril of Planet Quick Change’ (June 1969) finds the explorers investigating a world of chimerical geological instability, only to see Spock possessed by beings made of light. These creatures use him to finally stabilise their unruly world, but once the crisis is averted, one of the luminous spirits refuses to exit the Vulcan and plans to make the body its own…

‘The Ghost Planet’ (September 1969) was fast approaching parity with the TV incarnation as Enterprise reaches a world ravaged by radiation rings. Its twin rulers are eager for the star men’s help in removing the rings, but don’t want them hanging around to help rebuild the devastated civilisation. A little quiet investigation reveals that most of the carnage is due to eternal warfare which the devious despots plan to resume as soon as the Federation ship destroys the radiation rings and leaves…

Wrapping up this initial TV treasure-trove is ‘When Planets Collide’ (December 1969): a classic conundrum involving two runaway worlds inexorably drawn to each other and mutual destruction. What might have been a simple observable astronomical event becomes fraught with peril when the Enterprise’s crew discover civilisations within each world: both of which would rather die than evacuate their ancient homes…

With time running out and lives at stake there’s only one incredible chance to save both worlds, but it will take all Spock’s brains and Kirk’s piloting skill to avert cosmic catastrophe…

Bold, expansive and epic, these are great stories to delight young and old alike and well worth making time and space for. Why not explore lost worlds and sagas of guaranteed merit via the comics wayback machine? You know the one: it’s the comic shop located on the Edge of Forever?

® and © 2014 CBS Studios, Inc. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today Finnish cartoonist Lars Jansson was born today in 1926. You can see his work in Moomin Volume 9.

Today in 1937, Archie Goodwin was born: a gentle genius and still the Nicest Man in Comics, of whom you can learn more and appreciate his subtle mastery by checking Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin.

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Blondie and Dagwood’s America or Blondie and Dagwood


By Dean Young & Rick Marschall (Harper & Row/Arthur Barker Limited)
ISBN: 978-0-21316-830-8 (Arthur Barker UK TPB) 978-0-06090-908-6 (Harper & Row US)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of one of the most popular comic strips of all time …and probably one you thought had long ended, if indeed you thought of it at all.

For decades Blondie was the most popular – for which read most commercially successful – newspaper strip in the world. Way back in 2005, the former Blondie Boopadoop and her hapless husband Dagwood Bumstead celebrated 75 years of publication are still going strong today, both in print and online.

For such a remarkable comics mainstay, there are precious few celebratory collections and commemorations, so we went even way-er back (to 1981) to focus on this fabulously inclusive authoritative anniversary compilation. Here, I’m starting early in my campaign to commemorate their 95th anniversary – that’s tomorrow, right? – by agitating for its revision and re-release.

The Blondie strip was created by Murat Bernard “Chic” Young and promoted/distributed by King Features Syndicate. It launched on September 8th 1930, as the result of a startling game of one-upmanship between feisty cartoonist Young and King’s general manager Joe Connolly. Already a roaring success and up-&-comer due to his “Flapper” strip Beautiful Bab, Young had followed up with even bigger smash hit Dumb Dora in 1924.

He was on a fast track to stardom when the stock market crash wiped out his savings in 1929. Broke and with a new bride, he wanted a new contract for a new feature that he owned and controlled. Understandably, Management had other ideas…

However, when the artist packed up and took ship for Paris, Connelly caved and Blondie was born. She was an instant print sensation, and soon spawned 28 movies starring Penny Singleton & Arthur Lake between 1938 and 1950. They also voiced a popular radio show version (1939 – 1950) and three TV series… in 1954, 1958 and 1968-69. The Bumstead couple’s comic book adventures – reprint and new stuff – have come courtesy of a variety of publishers including Ace, Big Little Books, Harvey, King & Charlton Comics, running in place from 1936 to 1976. There was all the other usual merchandising stuff too…

In the earliest days tension was high and gag ideas limitless as rich but socially inept Dagwood Bumstead’s wealthy family tried to stop their idiot scion from marrying a low, common blonde, but in 1933, with the voracious lovestruck swain disinherited but happy, the lovers finally wed and the true magic of this everyday domestic comedy began.

Chic Young drew Blondie until his death in 1973, when his son Dean took over. The inheritor worked with many artists on the strip, including Alex Raymond and his brother Jim, Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun and John Marshall. Through it all, Blondie remained uncannily popular, appearing in more than 2,300 newspapers across 55 countries and translated into 35 languages: an audience of 290 million. In 1948 Chic Young won the Reuben Award for the strip and in 1995 the feature was honoured as one of 20 selected as part of the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative US Postage Stamps.

This still-available UK paperback edition reprints hundreds of the best strips, backed up by wonderfully chatty, informative text-pieces from the junior Young and historian Rick Marschall: offering an enchanting treat for all the family. I don’t know how easy this book is to find and of course other collections are available (most notably 2007’s Blondie: the Complete Family History, published by Thomas Nelson- ISBN-13: 978-1-40160-322-9) but I’ve never found one that featured as broad a spread of strips from this comic landmark’s incredibly long history. Good hunting, and don’t forget to bring a sandwich… and not a small one neither…

The book was initially published in the US as Blondie & Dagwood’s America, which is also still easy to get if you want…
© 1981 King Features Syndicate Inc. World Rights Reserved.

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Forever Nuts: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff (Classic Screwball Strips)


By Bud Fisher, edited by Jeffrey Lindenblatt (NBM)
ISBN 13: 978-1-56163-502-3 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today in 1954, Bud Fisher died. His landmark strip shaped the way cartoon humour worked for decades. Eerily, on the same day in 1955, Joe Palooka creator Ham Fisher (no relation), also died. There are even fewer collections of his work in print but one day we’ll get to what there is…

Here’s another wonderful historical treat that’s tragically lost to public gaze, once a welcome addition to a growing pool of classic strips that seemed to finally gain fan traction and be collected into accessible forms for posterity and enjoyment. Bud Fisher’s Mutt & Jeff is arguably the first comic strip to employ day to day carried-over continuity rather than individual escapades on a per diem basis.

Harry Conway “Bud” Fisher began the strip A. Mutt in 1907 as a topical topper added to the racing pages of the San Francisco Chronicle. The gimmick was to have his cartoon wastrel bet on the runners and riders of that day’s paper, with the results – good or bad – forming the bones of the next day’s strip.

When Fisher’s wittily funny side hustle took off – first at the more cosmopolitan San Francisco Examiner and then into national syndication – such a limited, local maguffin was impossible for a strip now seen all across the continent. Thus a vaudeville style comedy partner and more general topics were added to become the norm. The premise of two ordinary, average – if dumb – Joes remained the strip’s basis until it ultimately folded in 1983.

Although of undoubted historical value, the slapstick roots of these everyman characters meant that gags were its currency, and the sensibilities employed – and appealed to – were often harsh, sexist, and very often quite racist by today’s standards.

Or were they?

Undoubtedly the physical depiction of Negro, Mexican, British, French, Turkish and so many other non-W.A.S.P. Americans never deviated from the graphically stereotypical. Certainly young women were always sexy and older women were grim battle axes, whilst rich people were always fat. But I suspect that that more comedic social shorthand as wilful malice aforethought.

Certainly for every gag that portrayed stupid, slow or cowardly black people there was another when the stereotype outwitted the protagonist. For every dim blonde or dumb Hausfrau there was a female sharpie who made the boys into the goats. Could it be Fisher was just a child of his time, knew his audience and was just going for the laugh wherever it was with no thought of political or social relevance?

Perhaps Fisher or his innumerable and often anonymous ‘ghosts’ (among whom Ed Mack and latterly Al Smith were most prominent) weren’t as evolved as us?

Fisher was a notoriously “absentee” creator who regularly missed deadlines and had a string of substitutes to produce the strip for him once he became comics’ first millionaire. Occasionally he would even suspend the strip entirely. Yet the feature was never discarded by client newspapers who felt it mirrored their readerships. It was just that popular.

This volume assembles strips from 1909-1913 and is certainly not without flaws. Often the heroes are pretty unlikable when they aren’t being winningly daft or actually funny. There are moments of pure racism and sexism, but also uncharacteristic challenges to that woeful status quo of acceptable stereotypes.

One minor technical moan: there’s some unfortunate editing and some strips are repeated, and it’s not that some gags are so old you can’t tell them apart…

I know that last charge isn’t true. Despite the implications of the somewhat apologist introduction from historian Allen Holtz, Mutt & Jeff was a huge multimedia hit for nearly 80 years and they are still household names today. Moreover, read in context and on their own terms, they are still brilliantly hilarious slapstick gag strips. If you’re prepared to read with an open mind you might be pleasantly surprised.
No © invoked. Any helpful suggestions?

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Superboy: A Celebration of 75 Years


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Bill Finger, Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Jim Shooter, Paul Levitz, Gerry Conway, Elliot S! Maggin, Geoff Johns, Karl Kesel, Brian Michael Bendis, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, John Sikela, Curt Swan, Al Plastino, George Papp, James Sherman, Joe Staton, Phil Jimenez, Jerry Ordway, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, Tom Grummett, Dusty Abell, Matthew Clark, Francis Manapul, Viktor Bogdanovic, Jonathan Glapion & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9951-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Superman was the initiating spark that created the superhero genre. Without him we would have no modern gods to worship. However, within a decade of his launch, creators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster had evolved a revised a concept nearly as powerful and persistent: the sheer delight of a child no adult could dominate or control…

Ever-innovating DC’s Universe has hosted many key entertainment concepts that have done much to bring about the vibrant comics industry of today. This stunning compilation – part of a series reintroducing and exploiting the comics pedigree of veteran DC icons and concepts – is available in hardback and digital formats and offers an all-too-brief sequence of snapshots detailing how one of the most beguiling came to be, and be and be again.

Gathering material from More Fun Comics #101; Superboy #10, 89; Adventure Comics #210, 247, 271, 369-370; DC Comics Presents #87; Infinite Crisis #6; Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233, 259; Adventures of Superman #501; Superboy (volume 2) #59; Teen Titans (vol. 3) #24, Adventure Comics (vol. 2) #2; Young Justice (vol. 3) #3 and Superman (vol. 4) #6, 10-11, it reintroduces the many heroes – and villains – who have earned the soubriquet of the Boy of Steel,. Moreover, the landmark moments are all preceded by brief critical analyses by Karl Kesel, outlining the significant stages in their development.

It begins with Part I – 1945-1961: A Boy and His Dog…

After the Man of Tomorrow made his mark as Earth’s premier champion, his originators took a long look and reasoned that a different tone could offer a fresh look. What would it be like for a fun-loving lad who could do literally anything?

The answer came in More Fun Comics #101 (cover-dated January/February 1945 but on sale from November 18th 1944) wherein Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster shared ‘The Origin of Superboy!’ This fleshed out fabled and fabulous doomed Krypton and baby Kal-El’s flight: thereby giving him accessible foster parents and a childhood full of fun and incident…

The experiment was a monster hit. The lad swiftly claimed the lead slot of Adventure Comics and – in 1949 – his own title, living a life locked 20 years behind his adult counterpart. Cover-dated October 1950, Superboy #10 originated ‘The Girl in Superboy’s Life’, with Bill Finger & John Sikela introducing Smallville newcomer Lana Lang, who instantly sees resemblances between Clark Kent and the Boy of Steel and sets out to confirm her suspicions…

Despite battling crooks, monsters, aliens, scandal and the girl next door, Superboy enjoyed a charmed and wonderful life which only got better in Adventure Comics #210 (March 1955), as Otto Binder, Curt Swan & Sy Barry introduced ‘The Super-Dog from Krypton!’ Although waywardly mischievous and dangerously playful, Krypto heralded a wave of survivors from the dead world and made the Kid From Krypton feel less lonely and unique. Every boy needs a dog…

The next tale is a certified landmark. Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) was at the cusp of the Silver Age costumed character revival, when Otto Binder & Al Plastino introduced a concept that would reshape comics fandom: ‘The Legion of Super-Heroes!’ The many-handed mob of juvenile universe-savers debuted in a Superboy tale wherein three mysterious kids invited the Smallville Sensation to the future to join a team of metahuman champions inspired by his historic feats. The throwaway concept inflamed public imagination and after a slew of further appearances throughout Superman Family titles, the LSH eventually took over Superboy’s lead spot in Adventure for their own far-flung, quirkily future-set escapades, with the Caped Kryptonian reduced to one of the crowd…

Before then, though, Adventure Comics #271 (April 1960) revealed ‘How Luthor Met Superboy!’ as Siegel & Plastino united to depict how teenaged scientist Lex Luthor and Superboy became fast friends, before the genius became deranged after a laboratory fire extinguished by the Boy of Steel caused Lex to lose his hair. Enraged beyond limit, the youthful inventor turned his talents to crime, evil and vengeance…

Robert Bernstein & George Papp introduced ‘Superboy’s Big Brother!’ in Superboy #89 (June 1961) in which an amnesiac, super-powered space traveller crashes in Smallville, speaking Kryptonese and carrying star-maps written by the Boy of Steel’s long-dead father Jor-El…

Jubilant, baffled and suspicious in equal amounts, Superboy eventually, tragically discovers ‘The Secret of Mon-El’ by accidentally exposing the stranger to a lingering, inexorable death, before desperately providing critical life-support by depositing the dying alien in the Phantom Zone until a cure could be found.

Anybody who regularly reads these reviews know how crotchety and hard-to-please I can be. Brace yourself…

The following section – Part II – 1968-1980: The Space Age – concentrates on Superboy’s Legion career. That’s not the problem because those are great stories, well deserving of their own book, but they’re wasted here while the Boy of Steel’s adventures from this period are completely neglected. That’s work by the likes of Frank Robbins, Binder, Jim Shooter, Curt Swan, Bob Brown, Wally Wood and others we don’t get to see. Poor editorial decision, that…

Calm again, so let’s see how the Boy of Tomorrow fares one thousand years from now. During this period the youthful, generally fun-loving and carefree Club of Champions peaked; having only just evolved into a dedicated and driven dramatic action series starring a grittily realistic combat force in constant, galaxy-threatening peril. Although now an overwhelming force of valiant warriors ready and willing to pay the ultimate price for their courage and dedication, science itself, science fiction and costumed crusaders all increasingly struggled against a global resurgence in spiritual questioning and supernatural fiction…

The main architect of the transformation was teenaged sensation Jim Shooter, whose Legion of Super-Heroes scripts and layouts (generally finished and pencilled by the astoundingly talented and understated Curt Swan) made the series accessible to a generation of fans growing up with their heads in the Future. Ultimately, however, as tastes and fashions shifted, the series was unceremoniously ousted from its ancestral home and full-length adventures to become a truncated back-up feature in Action Comics. Typically, that shift occurred just as the stories were getting really, really good and truly mature…

Here, tense suspense begins with Adventure Comics #369’s (June 1968) and ‘Mordru the Merciless!’ (Shooter, Swan & Jack Abel) as the Legion are attacked by their most powerful enemy, a nigh-omnipotent sorcerer the entire assemblage only narrowly defeated once before.

A sneak attack shatters the team and only four escape, using a time bubble to flee to the remote and archaic time-period where Superboy lived. With him come Mon-El (freed from the Phantom Zone after 1,000 years to become a Legion stalwart), Shadow Lass and Duo Damsel – the last remnants of a once-unbeatable team.

Mordru’s magic is stronger, though, and even the time-barrier cannot daunt him…

Disguised as mere mortals, the fugitive Legionnaires’ courage shines through. When petty gangsters take over Smallville, the teen heroes quash the parochial plunderers and opt to return to the 30th century and confront Mordru, only to discover he’s found them first. The saga concludes in #370 with ‘The Devil’s Jury!’ wherein the kids escape and hide in plain sight by temporarily wiping their own memories to thwart the Dark Lord’s probes. Against appalling odds and with only Clark’s best friend Pete Ross and Insect Queen Lana Lang to aid them, the heroes’ doomed last stand only succeeds because Mordru’s overbearing arrogance causes his own downfall. Then, when the exhausted fugitives got back to the future, they joyously learn Dream Girl and benign sorceress White Witch have undone the deluded Dark Lord’s worst atrocities…

Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and overwritten, retconned and rebooted over and over again to comply with editorial diktat and popular fashion. After disappearing from the newsstands, the team returned as Guests in Superboy, before eventually taking over the title. Deju Vu, much?

November 1977’s Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233 sees the Krypton Kid join his teammates to thwart ‘The Infinite Man Who Conquered the Legion!’: an extra-long blockbuster battle by Paul Levitz, James Sherman & Bob Wiacek, after which issue #259 (January 1980) drops Superboy and the… to become Legion of Super-Heroes #259, subsequently ending an era. ‘Psycho War!’ by Gerry Conway, Joe Staton & Dave Hunt then sees the time-lost teen targeted by a deranged war veteran using futuristic trauma weapons, forcing his legion chums to mindwipe Kal-El and return him to his original time forever…

In the mid-1980s, DC’s editorial hierarchy felt their vast 50-year continuity was stopping them winning new readers. The solution was a colossal braided-mega series to streamline, redefine and even add new characters to the mix.

The worlds-shattering, reality-altering bombast of Crisis on Infinite Earths resulted in such spectacular commercial success, those movers-&-shakers must have felt more than justified in revamping a number of their hoariest icons for their next 50 years of publishing. As well as Superman, Flash, & Wonder Woman, many moribund and directionless titles were reconsidered for a radical revision. It didn’t all go to plan…

The background on a new Boy of Steel is covered in the essay and stories comprising Part III 1985-2006: Dark Reflection, opening with twinned tales from DC Comics Presents #87 (November 1985) by Elliot S! Maggin, Swan & Al Williamson. In ‘Year of the Comet’ Superman of Earth-1 meets and mentors teen Clark from an alternate world: one previously devoid of superheroes and alien invaders, after which ‘The Origin of Superboy-Prime’ exposes crucial differences that would make Earth Prime’s Last Son of Krypton so memorable. Events culminated in ‘Touchdown’ by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, Jerry Ordway, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, inkers Andy Lanning, Oclair Albert Marc Campos, Drew Geraci, Sean Parsons, Norm Rapmund & Art Thibert, from #6 of Infinite Crisis (May 2006). Teen Clark had evolved into Superboy-Prime: one of the most sadistic, unstoppable monsters in DCU history… but here he met his end battling another kid calling himself Superboy.

That hero gets his own out-of-chronology section: Part IV 1993-2019: The New Kid detailing how he grew out of another different publishing landmark. Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman was stripped-down and pared back to basics, grittily re-imagined by John Byrne, and marvellously built upon by a succession of immensely talented comics craftsmen, resulted in some genuine comics classics. Most significant was a 3-pronged story-arc which saw the martyrdom, loss, replacement and inevitable resurrection of the World’s Greatest Superhero in a stellar saga which broke all records and proved that a jaded general public still cared about the venerable, veteran icon of Truth, Justice and the American Way.

The dramatic events also provided a spectacular springboard for a resurgent burst of new characters who revitalised and reinvigorated more than one ailing franchise over the next decade, all exploding from braided mega-saga “Reign of the Supermen” which introduced a quartet of heroes each claiming the mantle of Superman (Don’t panic: the Real Deal Man of Steel returned too!).

The final contender for the S-shield cropped up in Adventures of Superman #501. ‘…When He Was a Boy!’ (by Kesel, Tom Grummett & Doug Hazlewood) reveals the secret history of a brash, cocky kid wearing an adaptation of the Man of Tomorrow’s outfit and claiming to be the deceased hero’s clone, recently escaped from top secret bio-factory Cadmus. After alienating everybody at the Daily Planet, the horny, inexperienced juvenile latches onto ambitious young journalist Tana Moon and falls under the spell of corrupt media mogul Vinnie Edge. Soon the kid is fighting crime live on TV to boost ratings…

Blending fast action with smart sassy humour, the clone Superboy was a breakout hit that ran for years, even infiltrating the established Superman Family. A key moment came in Superboy (volume 2) #59 by Kesel, Dusty Abell, Dexter Vines as a virtual ‘Mission to Krypton’ results in the clone finally earning a family name as Kon-El of the House of El…

In the build-up to DC’s Infinite Crisis crossover event, many long-running story-threads were pulled together ready for the big bang. Crafted by Geoff Johns, Matthew Clark & Art Thibert, ‘The Insiders Part 1’ (Teen Titans #24, July 2005) reveals how Kon-El’s belief that he was Superman’s clone is shattered after learning that half of his DNA comes courtesy of Luthor. Just as the traumatised kid is about to share the revelation with his Teen Titan team-mates, Lex activates deep psychological programming to override Superboy’s consciousness and make him evil and murderous…

From November 2009, ‘The Boy of Steel Part Two’ (Adventure Comics vol 2 #2, by Johns & Francis Manapul) offers a gentler moment as Kon-El, now living in Smallville as Conner Kent, enjoys a potentially romantic interlude with team mate Wonder Girl before jumping to May 2019 and ‘Seven Crises Part Three’ from Young Justice volume 3 #3, by Brian Michael Bendis, Patrick Gleason, Viktor Bogdanovic & Jonathan Glapion. Having skipped two universe-altering events (Flashpoint and Rebirth) the formerly erased-from-continuity Impulse has found old friend Conner living in a mystic realm as part of his quest to put his old band back together. It’s fast, furious, heart-warming and hilarious. You should really get all of this tale in its own compilation – Young Justice: Gemworld – even before I review it next year…

Wrapping up this saunter in Super-kids’ shoes is the freshest take on the concept in decades. Part V 2016 and Beyond: Like Father, Like Son offers a too short glimpse at Jon Kent, the child of Superman and Lois Lane, inserted into mainstream continuity after the New 52 Superman died. If this is making your brain hurt, don’t fret. It’s only unnecessary background for some truly exemplary comics yarns…

Superman (volume 4) #6, 10, 11 are by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, Mark Morales & Christian Alamy, and firstly depict the ‘Son of Superman’ helping Dad defeat evil Kryptonian mechanoid The Eradicator before settling into outrageous action comedy beside, with and frequently against Damian Wayne: son of Bruce and the latest, most psychotic Robin yet. ‘In the Name of the Father: World’s Smallest Parts One and Two’ pits the junior odd couple against aliens, monsters and girls, but mostly each other. It’s unmissable stuff and you should expect me to wax delirious about the new Super Sons in the New Year…

Adding immeasurably to the wonderment is a superb gallery of covers by Swan with Stan Kaye & Abel, Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Dick Giordano, Eduardo Barreto, Jim Lee & Sandra Hope, Grummett, Kesel & Hazlewood, Mike McKone & Marlo Alquiza, Manapul, Doug Mahnke & Wil Quintana & Gleason with Alejandro Sanchez, Gray & John Kalisz.

Superboy has a long, proud history of shaking things up and providing off-kilter fun to offset the general angst level of superhero storytelling. Even with my petty caveats, this compelling primer of snapshots is staggeringly entertaining and a monolithic testament to the inestimable value of a strong core concept matured over decades of innovation.
© 1960, 1964, 1969, 1977, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2005, 2011, 2018, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1945 Go Nagai was born. You can meet him in our truly ancient review of Mazinger.

In 1956 Alex Raymond died today. We covered Flash Gordon on the Planet Mongo volume 1: Sundays 1934-1937 recently, but this master also triumphed with Secret Agent X-9, Jungle Jim, Blondie and Rip Kirby.

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The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection volume 11: Nine Lives Has the Black Cat (1978-1980)


By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Roger Stern, David Michelinie, Jim Starlin, Keith Pollard, John Byrne, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney, Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Terry Austin, Gene Day, Pablo Marcos, Bob McLeod, Frank Springer, Marie Severin, Alan Kupperberg & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5641-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Spectacular Seasonal Spider Sensationalism … 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peter Parker was a smart yet alienated kid when he was bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Developing astonishing arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – the boy did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night, the cocky teen didn’t lift a finger to stop him. When Parker returned home he learned that his beloved guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, finding, to his horror, that it was the self-same felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help others…

Since that night he has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them, and by the time of the tales in this full-colour compendium of web-spinning adventures the wondrous wallcrawler was a global figure and prime contender for the title of the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero. Spanning November 1978 to July 1980, chronologically re-presenting Amazing Spider-Man #186-206, Annual #13 & Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 the transformative tales are an attempt to reconcile the tragic, ill-fated young man with the changing world of the fast-approaching, take-no-prisoners 1980s; and regrettably they don’t always succeed in our hindsight-equipped 21st century eyes…

Previously: old girlfriend and current neurotic stranger Betty Brant-Leeds returned after fleeing a dying marriage. She was absorbed with nostalgic notions to rekindle old flames with first love Peter Parker, but that mature-&-moved-on, almost-college-graduate’s social life was already deeply out of control. For his arachnid alter ego life involved constant attacks especially from increasing out-of-whack J. Jonah Jameson who funds yet another fringe science secret scheme to trap Spider-Man…

At this time a star of (1970s) television, the webslinger’s adventures were downplaying traditional fantasy elements as Keith Pollard became penciller for #186. Now, ‘Chaos is… the Chameleon!’ sees the devious disguise artist seeking to discredit the webslinger, even as District Attorney Blake Tower works to dismiss all charges against him, and is followed by a moody tale of lockdowns and plague as Spider-Man and Captain America unite to stop a voltaic villain inadvertently using ‘The Power of Electro!’ (Marv Wolfman, Jim Starlin & Bob McLeod) to trigger a biological time bomb…

Ruthlessly violent thugs are on the rampage next as ASM #188 depicts ‘The Jigsaw is Up!’ (illustrated by Pollard & Mike Esposito) after the river party cruise Peter, his pals and increasingly insistent Betty are enjoying is hijacked. Jameson’s secret then gets out to inflict ‘Mayhem by Moonlight!’ in a sharp two-part shocker limned by John Byrne & Jim Mooney. Exploited by malign and dying science rogue Spencer Smythe, Jonah is abducted by his own monster-marked son John leaving the wallcrawler ‘In Search of the Man-Wolf!’ Forced to witness the (presumed) death of his child at his worst enemy’s hands leads to a savage confrontation with Smythe’s Spider-Slayer robots in ‘Wanted for Murder: Spider-Man!’ (#191 by Pollard & Esposito) before all Jonah’s debts are paid and another death results after Spidey & Jonah are bound to the same bomb and given ‘24 hours Till Doomsday!’ …

Eluding doom by the skin of their shackled wrists, a new phase in the Jonah’s psychotic enmity begins in ASM #193’s ‘The Wings of the Fearsome Fly!’ with Wolfman, penciller Keith Pollard and inker Jim Mooney recapping how would-be Spider-Slayer Spencer Smythe had handcuffed JJJ to his despised bête noir Spider-Man in an explosive deathtrap and how that drew mutual old enemy The Fly as well as causing the death of John Jameson in his monster form of the ferociously feral Man-Wolf…

Peter is most disturbed by a half-remembered moment. In that clash Jonah might have peeked under the arachnid’s mask whilst the wallcrawler was briefly unconscious, and not knowing is driving Parker crazy. The loss of his son has absolutely unhinged the publisher, however, and, after firing Peter, Jonah swears to destroy Spider-Man, even as Peter dutifully hunts down the Fly. He finally finds him robbing the Metropolitan Museum of Art and succumbs to an opportunity to release his pent-up anger. It ends badly…

In the aftermath, another plot strand resurfaces as Ned Leeds show up and punches Parker out. The incensed reporter thinks its justifiable as his (recently estranged) wife Betty has been nostalgically and aggressively pursuing old flame Peter. Meanwhile at May Parker’s empty house, a strangely familiar figure is tearing walls down hunting for something. After eventually giving up, he moves on to the Restwell Nursing Home where the widow Parker currently resides… and finds a situation he can readily exploit…

With life in turmoil Peter is poorly prepared for the major change that begins in #194, painfully learning ‘Never Let the Black Cat Cross Your Path!’ after encountering a svelte femme fatale costumed jewel thief with luck always on her side. However, she seems to have forsaken profit for a new, darker agenda. Inked by Frank Giacoia, the tale sees her recruit a crew to break someone out of jail, and – despite an obvious (and mutual) attraction to sexy Spidey – she will let nothing stop her…

Now working as a photographer for rival paper the Daily Globe where he immediately sparks the curiosity of reporter April Maye, Peter continues to pursue the feline felon in a chase to disaster, quickly realising ‘Nine Lives Has the Black Cat!’ (collectively inked by “M. Hands” Mooney, Mike Esposito & Al Milgrom). This affords an origin for the curvaceous crook and culminates in shocking news for Peter…

I’d normally give lip service here to “spoilers” and indeed back then, the death of Aunt May was – for a brief moment – a big deal, but it wasn’t real and didn’t last long. In-world though, Peter is crushed by the loss of his last relative and only family, with ‘Requiem!’ – limned by Milgrom, Mooney & Frank Giacoia – seeing him shattered by her “peaceful passing” whilst he was elsewhere, and at this moment still blithely unaware of a plot by unctuous home director Dr. Rinehart. Many older fans had already clocked who he really was…

Dazed and reeling, the hero is just starting to suspect something isn’t right as he’s ambushed by thugs and dragged to ‘The Kingpin’s Midnight Massacre!’ in ASM #197. Here Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney show the soon-to-be-retired crime lord packing to leave and up against an immovable deadline. To please his beloved wife Vanessa, the villain will cease his illegal activities at the witching hour. All that’s left on his to-do list is to kill Spider-Man, but the clock’s ticking and the wallcrawler just won’t die…

Building up to the anniversary spectacular and illustrated by Sal Buscema & Mooney, most dangling plot threads start cleaving together when Peter realises who Rinehart actually is and bursts into the Restwell Home in ‘Mysterio is Deadlier by the Dozen!’ to find the master of illusion preying on sundowning oldsters and teamed up with the burglar who shot Uncle Ben. Out of jail and desperate to retrieve something long hidden in the Parker house, the long-discarded thug has hijacked Mysterio’s comfortably risk-free scam and attracted the wrath of a really, really angry Spider-Man…

Despite fighting back fiercely in ‘Now You See Me! Now You Die!’ the writing is truly on the wall for the now-at-odds bad guys who meet their fates in The Amazing Spider-Man #200’s extra-length conclusion ‘The Spider and the Burglar… A Sequel!’ – cover dated January 1980 and courtesy of Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney.

With the truth out and May restored, Peter is ready for whatever the future holds as we segue into The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #13 where Wolfman, Byrne & Terry Austin occupy ‘The Arms of Doctor Octopus’ with a murderous scheme to regain his underworld reputation and dominance. The plot is brought to Spider-Man’s attention by murdered federal agent Kent Blake, who blackmails the hero into going undercover in the gang to recover stolen plans and ends with a catastrophic clash that sees the villain maimed…

Although momentarily defeated, Ock isn’t finished with New York or Spider-Man, and the saga continues and concludes in the first annual of a companion Spider-title. Before that, though, Annual traditions are upheld by additions to ongoing feature ‘A Gallery of Spider-Man’s Most Famous Foes’. Rendered by Pollard, the roster expands for The Molten Man, The Looter, The Rhino, The Shocker, The Kingpin, Silverman and Man-Mountain Marko, The Prowler and The Kangaroo before ending on ‘A Mighty Marvel Bonus’ offering updated locations and floorplans for ‘Peter Parker’s Pad!’, The Daily Bugle & Daily Globe offices and Empire State University Campus – and Peter’s colleagues.

The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 details the denouement in ‘And Men Shall Call Him… Octopus!’ as Bill Mantlo, Rich Buckler & Mooney follow a furious and confused webslinger who uses Ock’s severed metal tentacle to lure the near-insane-with-pain-&-shock villain into a cataclysmic showdown aboard a ship’s graveyard in the East River and apparently final clash in an undersea base…

Dried out and back to business basics, the hero’s journey resumes in ASM 201’s ‘Man-Hunt!’ as Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney reunite the hero with The Punisher, whose hunt for a gang boss turns up a suspicious connection between photo seller Parker and his star subject Spider-Man…

Further muddying the waters is the latest woe to befall Jonah, whose nervous collapse devolves into pure mania, prompting his escape into delusion and the city’s back alleys. Guilt-ridden Parker can’t do much for his favourite gadfly, but can send Frank Castle on an identity-saving wild goose chase, before helping to deal with his latest target in concluding chapter ‘One For Those Long Gone!’

More infomercial than adventure – and probably a deadline-busting fill-in – Amazing Spider-Man #203 is one huge plug for Marvel’s disco sensation as Wolfman, Pollard, Esposito & Friends introduce Spider-Man to mutant musician Dazzler. The siren songstress is being hunted by old arachnid foe Lightmaster who needs her energies to bust him free of the light dimension that holds him captive but fails again in ‘Bewitched, Bothered and B-Dazzled!’

Another strong independent woman (re)appears in Pablo Marcos inked #204, as Wolfman signs off with ‘The Black Cat Always Lands on her Feet!’ Here the presumed-dead super thief returns to steal a selection of romance-themed art, and Spidey’s pursuit is the bandit’s actual goal. As seen in #205’s David Michelinie, Pollard & Mooney conclusion ‘…In Love and War!’, second generation purloiner Felicia Hardy has become fixated on the enigmatic masked man and stealing these items is her way of wooing the wallcrawler. Just for a change, this is a challenge requiring Parker’s mind and empathy, not Spider-Man’s might…

With an increasingly angry and unstable Joe Robertson replacing a lost amnesiac Jameson at the Daily Bugle, ASM #206 sees Roger Stern, John Byrne & Gene Day resolve the saga of his breakdown in closing inclusion ‘A Method in his Madness!’ Here it’s revealed that rogue scientist Dr. Jonas Harrow (who remade sundry second-rate thugs into super-foes like Will-O’the-Wisp, Kangaroo and Hammerhead) had turned the publisher’s office into a testing ground for his fringe science. Now that his Mental Attitude-Response Variator ray has driven Jonah to the edge of madness, Harrow plans to turn it on Spider-Man himself, but one last test on the entire Bugle staff gives our hero a heads-up and leads to the devil doctor’s defeat…

With covers throughout from Milgrom, Pollard, John Romita Sr., Buckler, McLeod & Josef Rubinstein, this tome also offers a selection of original art by Pollard with Mooney, Frank Giacoia and Byrne & Austin; Carmine Infantino & Steve Leialoha’s unused cover to Spider-Woman #9 where Wolfman originally intended Black Cat to debut, and Dave Cockrum’s revamped design for her as well as an unused Pollard & McLeod cover for ASM #194 and Cockrum’s rough for the cover they finally used. Completing the extras are House ads for forthcoming landmark ASM #200.

These yarns confirmed Spider-Man’s growth into a global multi-media brand. Blending cultural veracity with superb art, and making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and imputed powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily, resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, especially when delivered in addictive soap-styled instalments, but none of that would be relevant if Spider-Man’s stories weren’t so utterly entertaining. This action-packed collection relives many momentous and crucial periods in the wallcrawler’s astounding life and is one all Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics must see…
© 2025 MARVEL.

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Approximate Continuum Comics


By Lewis Trondheim, edited & translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-410-8 (TPB)

With well over 100 books sporting his name (which isn’t actually Lewis Trondheim but Laurent Chabosy), the writer/artist/editor and educator is one of Europe’s most prolific comics creators: illustrating his own work and working with the industry’s top artists; overseeing animated cartoons of print successes like La Mouche (The Fly) and Kaput and Zösky and even editing younger readers book series Shampooing for Dargaud. His most famous works are the global hits Les Formidables Aventures de Lapinot (translated as The Spiffy Adventures of McConey) and, with Joann Sfar, the Donjon (Dungeon) series of nested fantasy epics (see the translated Dungeon: Parade, Dungeon: Monstres and Dungeon: the Early Years).

Tireless and prolific, he has written for everything from satirical magazine Psikopat to Le Journal de Spirou and Walt Disney. His scripts for the continent’s most popular artists include Le Roi Catastrophe and Vénézia with Fabrice Parme, Les Cosmonautes du futur (Manu Larcenet), Allez Raconte and Papa Raconte (José Parrondo), Politique étrangère (with Jochen Gerner and which Trondheim adapted into an opera in 2009) and Petit Pére Noël (Thierry Robin).

He is a cartoonist of uncanny wit, piercing, gentle perspicacity, comforting affability and self-deprecating empathy who prefers to control scrupulously what is known and said about him…

I first became aware of Lewis Trondheim’s subtly engaging comics mannerism in Fantagraphics’ Mome anthologies which reprinted excerpts of his utterly entrancing comics blog Little Nothings, wherein Trondheim’s friends and acquaintances, rendered and simultaneously masked as anthropomorphised animals (with him a dowdy, parrot-beaked central figure) revisit episodes of his life, flavoured with philosophy, personal introspection, whimsical inquiry and foible-filled observations.

These mini-treats were gathered into four terrific tomes of drawn diaries for constant re-reading (Little Nothings: Curse of the Umbrella, The Prisoner Syndrome, Uneasy Happiness and My Shadow in the Distance). You might still find the first three available as collected gift set Bigger Nothings…

However, before all that, in 1993 Trondheim first explored the idea as a 4-issue American-styled comic book project and those prototypical slices of wry and winning reportage are finally available in a translated black and white softcover collection. Some of the very first autobiographical works on the French bande dessinée scene, these little gems were a genuine game-changer for cartoonists and storytellers, prompting a rise in personal stories that has generated many works to rival the best of Harvey Pekar himself and created a new (sub)genre of graphic narrative…

In this collected Approximate Continuum Comics the signature blend of visualised introspection and self-condemnatory flagellation finds the younger Trondheim questioning his own professional integrity; violently and graphically wish-fulfilling his way through rush-hour crowds (haven’t we all?); planning – for which read risk-assessing – his forthcoming marriage and dealing with his unfathomable Japanese publisher during the early days of creating his multi-media hit La Mouche.

He regularly gets lost in his own free-associating daydreams and rightly fears being castigated by his own conscience for swimming in megalomania, indecisiveness, forthrightness and deference. Trondheim’s many inner voices don’t like him very much: there are myriad incidences of self-abuse where his alternate egos beat the crap out of him; counterbalanced with gloriously loaded “real-world” episodes where he lampoons and embarrasses his fellow studio-mates of publishing collective L’Association. (To be fair these are fabulously balanced by a marvellous section at the book’s end where such maligned and injured creative colleagues as David B., Emile Bravo, Didier Tronchet, Jean-Christophe Menu, Killofer & Philippe Dupuy among others, as well as civilian friends, his wife Brigitte and even his mother all get a trenchant and routinely hilarious right-to-reply.)

The first inklings of the artist’s perennial problems with technology in general and computer games in particular appear here, as do many childhood memoirs and sundry diatribes against people and places either experienced or sometimes only imagined. One of the best sequences concerns the trip-of-a-lifetime to America (first of many, but he didn’t know that then…) and his apparent inability to think of one single strip idea about it, only surpassed by his behaviour at a raucous party held in his beloved studio.

During the course of these cartoon capers, Trondheim married his fiancée, sired his first child and moved into a new home, but although these major events are thoroughly and compellingly covered they still pale into insignificance against the spectacular battles against his inevitably spreading paunch, obsessively mean-spirited self-criticism and the thunderbolt-like occasional phone call from his mum. …And whenever that’s no longer painful enough there’s always the violent physical assaults and punishment-beatings from his inner selves…

Personal favourites of mine include Les petits riens, Tiny Tyrant, Ralph Azham, Mr. O, Archives of Lost Issues, Mister I, Infinity 8 and A.L.I.E.E.E.N. but if you fancy other kinds of fare, Trondheim’s probably covered whatever you fancy and done it with wit and aplomb…

Superbly skilled at switching imperceptibly from broad self-parody to cripplingly honest and  painful personal revelation; wild surrealism to powerful reportage and from clever humorous observation to howling existentialist inquisition, Trondheim’s cartoon interior catalogue is always a supremely rewarding and enjoyable experience and, as these ancient texts prove, always has been…
© 2001 Lewis Trondheim and Cornélius. This edition © 2011 Fantagraphics Books. All Rights Reserved.