Now Read This!

January 11, 2016January 10, 2016

As You Were volume 4: Living Situations

By various, compiled and edited by Mitch Clem & Avi Ehrlich (Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club/Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-822-5

Speaking as a doddering survivor of the first Punk Uprising, I admit to still hankering for those frenzied days of youthful indiscretion, impatient passions, a sense of being completely tangential to most folk around me and a clear idea of who â€œThe Enemyâ€ was.

At least I’m still utterly angry and discontented over inequality, political arrogance, corporate smugness, bigotry of every type and the First World’s poisonous assumptionÂ that we all adhere to their vile philosophy of I’m-all-right-Jackeryâ€¦

So it’s bloody wonderful to see some of those attitudes still surviving into this century: even if the issues are more about personal liberty and freedom of expression and lifestyle, rather than Fighting the Power or just being listened tooâ€¦

As You Were is a periodic collection of strips by contemporary cartoonists who self-identify as â€œpunkâ€ and this fourth instance is dedicated to the precarious prospect of daily existence, gathered under one cardboard roof by Mitch Clem (creator of Nothing Nice to Say – arguably the first online punk comic) and Avi Erlich, designated adult of San Franciscan arts collective Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club, who worked in conjunction with Last Gasp to produce this starkly monochrome digest-sized anthology collection.

Behind the Kriss Stress cover and following a fabulously illuminated contents section embroidered with a border by Autumn Ballard, the domestic diatribes (produce of more than one country) open with a frenetic depiction of ‘Tuesday Night at the Rad House’ from Liz Suburbia after which Ben Passmore details the fantastic rules controlling all dealings with ‘The Punklord’ and Shannon Knox examines the lives of the poor, abused cleaning utensils so seldom used by any house occupant in ‘Takes from the Kitchen Sink’.

‘I Grew Up in a Haunted House’ relates Liz Prince’s odd preoccupation with one room in a certain home after which James the Stanton visually and viscerally recalls a party which was out of this world in ‘Gnartoons’, Brad Dwyer and his partner find some ‘Common Ground’ in the raising of their kids and Evan Wolff vs Campus P.D. finds the author not-so nostalgic about college housing and student crash-pads in ‘One Time at the Hot Tub House’â€¦

Wondering if it’s booze or Ska music making everything so swirly in Mel’s ‘This Only Works When Everyone is Drunk’, we stagger on to enjoy Jim Kettner’s gleefully elegiac ‘Tales from the Bookhouse’, recounting the unique selling points of past temporary dwellings before Meg Has Issues realises ‘All Roommates are Asshole’ and Chris (Comics of Mass Distraction) Mindtree details a happy ending resulting from ‘2 Guys 1 Apartment’â€¦

‘Homecore’ by Josh PM Frees reveals the trials of two gentle scholarly souls searching for shelter whilst Andra Passen exposes herself in ‘Crowded thoughts and crooked teeth’ before the perennial new-student dilemma (no contraceptives!!!) surely evokes pained, fond memories for many of us as Steve Thueson remembers ‘July 2009’â€¦

Sam Grinberg shares a rowdy party experience in ‘Quiet’ before Rick V hilariously ‘Draws A Comic About Every Human He Has Lived With’ and Nomi Kane totally steals the show with ‘Nightmare on Milwaukee Avenue’ as the housemates have to deal with â€œthat guyâ€: the lazy, shiftless one who has problems with the very concept of menstruation and other girl stuffâ€¦

Steve Larder offers a uniquely British outlook whilst recalling his time staying in ‘The Hippy House’ and Emily â€œBuckwheatâ€ Timm scales flights of fantasy in ‘A Girl Can Dream’ with Joshum sustaining the escapism in fabulous pantomimic sci fi fable ‘Coming Home’.

World traveller AimÃ©e Pijpers thoughtfully details her ‘Living Arrangements: a Timeline’ before true Brit Rob Cureton amuses and outrages with his ‘INFOMERCIAL’ for a very special old folks home after which Alex Barrett exposes the idiocy of the Tallahassee cops in ‘GCF’ and Rachel Dukes depicts a moment of pure romance in ‘Good Morning, Dracula’â€¦

Alex Krokus then shares a ‘House Meeting’ like so very many others and Sarah Graley intimately recalls ‘Elly’s Room’ after which Wyeth Yates gloriously predicts a happy future in the ‘Horse Latitudes’ before Ben Snakepit apologises for his many sins as a ‘Roomate from Hell’

‘Buying the Baron’s House’ is Erin K. Wilson’s silent tale told in two timeframes, relating the history of a home and its fate today whilst ‘There and Back Again’ finds Carolina Porras daydreaming as she packs up for another move. After Andy Warner graphically catalogues a ‘House Party’, Will Laren recapitulates a modern manifesto with ‘The People’s System’ before Lindsay Anne Watson pantomimically advocates that we ‘Settle Down’ to close this conference of cartoons.

With a full biography/contact section (for when you want to see moreâ€¦ and where) this is a wonderful collaborative colloquium of cartoon free expression to delight lovers of the comics game, but if your new to all this, British and of a certain age or maybe simply a devotee of anarchic comedy, the (long and disinfectant-dosed) handle you’re reaching for regarding much of this material is Mayall & Edmonton’s The Young Ones or Bottom, possibly by way of John Belushi in Animal Houseâ€¦

However, whatever your age, stance or orientation, this splendid collection of funny, raucous, whimsical and thought-provoking graphic narrative is a delicious way of seeing how those kids you claim not to understand think – and surely that’s no bad thing?
Collection Â© 2015 Silver Sprocket. Contributions Â© 2015 by the individual authors.

January 8, 2016January 8, 2016

Long John Silver volume 4: Guiana-Capac

By Xavier Dorison & Mathieu Lauffray, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-1-84918-175-4

British and European comics have always been far more comfortable with period-piece strips than our American cousins and much more imaginative when reinterpreting classical fiction for jaded comicbook audiences. The happy combination of familiar exoticism, past lives and world-changing events blended with drama, action and, most frequently, broad comedy has resulted in a uniquely narrative art form suited to beguiling readers of all ages and tastes.

Our Franco-Belgian associates in particular have made an astonishing success out of repackaging days-gone-by – generally in comedic form – but this particularly enchanting older-readers yarn forgoes broad belly-laughs whilst extending the adventures of literature’s greatest rogue into a particularly engaging realm of globe-girdling thriller with one hell of a twist.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island was originally serialised from 1881-1882 in Young Folks magazine as Treasure Island or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola, as pseudonymous penned by â€œCaptain George Northâ€.

It was collected and published as a novel in May 1883 and has not been out of print since. A landmark of world storytelling, Treasure Island has been dramatised too many times to count and adapted into all forms of art. Most significantly, the book created a metafictional megastar – albeit at best an anti-hero – as immortal as King Arthur, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan or Superman. Almost everything the public â€œknowsâ€ about pirates devolves from the book and its unforgettable, show-stealing one-legged antagonistâ€¦

Writer Xavier Dorison was born in Paris in 1970 and graduated business school before moving into storytelling. He works as an author, film writer, lecturer and movie script doctor. His comics works include West, Sanctuary and The Third Testament and in 2006 he began the award-winning Long John Silver in conjunction with preferred collaborator Mathieu (Prophet) Lauffray, with this last volume released in Europe in 2013.

Lauffray is also Parisian; born in 1970. He spends his days illustrating, drawing comics, crafting games and concept designing for movies. His art has graced international items as varied as Dark Horse’s Star Wars franchise, games like Alone in the Dark, the album Lyrics Verdun, February 21, 1916 – December 18, 1916, Tarzan and much moreâ€¦

Their collaborative exploration of the piratical prince’s later years is a foray into far more mature arenas set decades after the affair of the Hispaniola and ranges far and wide: from foggy, oppressive England to the vast, brooding inner recesses of the Amazon and into the darker deeps beyond

What Has Gone Before: in 1785 treasure-hunting Lord Byron Hastings found the lost bastion of Guiana-Capac but needed further funds to exploit this fabulous City of Gold.

In England, his profligate and wanton wife Lady Vivian had been enjoying herself too much and was with child by a lecherous neighbour. With a baby in her belly and a husband three years gone, she was considering having Byron declared dead and undertaking a hasty remarriageâ€¦

Suddenly shattering those plans her despised brother-in-law turned up with an aged, garish tribesman named Moxtechica bearing both message and map from her long-lost husband. Prudish and cruel, Royal Naval officer Edward Hastings gleefully told the despicable scheming strumpet his brother had succeeded and demanded she sell everything – including all the treasured family possessions, manor house and lands she had brought to the marriage – to finance his returnâ€¦

Byron named Edward sole Proxy and the martinet delighted in giving high-born trollop Vivian her marching orders. He even urged her to confine herself to a convent and save them all further shame and disgraceâ€¦

The Lady considered numerous retaliatory tactics before settling upon the most bold, dangerous and potentially rewarding. After announcing to the stunned Edward that she would accompany him to the Americas and reunite with her beloved husband, the fallen noblewoman sought out a certain doctor to help care of her problemâ€¦

Dr. Livesay was a decent, god-fearing soul who led a quiet, prosperous life ever since his adventures on Flint’s Island. However, it was not just her condition which brought Vivian to the physician’s door, but also persistent tales of a former acquaintance; a formidable, peg-legged rogue with a reputation for making life’s difficulties disappearâ€¦

Against his better judgement, Livesay capitulated to Vivian’s urgings and introduced her to retired sea-cook John Silver. Amidst the (alleged) ex-pirate’s inner circle of scary-looking confederates she spun the story of the Spaniard Pizarro’s discovery of a City of Gold and how, centuries later, her husband had reclaimed it.

She wanted to travel there with capable men and make those riches her own, but needed Silver and his associates to infiltrate Edward’s crew, seize the ship he’d chartered and complete the voyage under her commandâ€¦

Unable to convince Vivian to desist or Silver to reject her offer, Livesay reluctantly joined them in vain hopes that he could keep the debased woman from mortal harm. Nobody was aware Silver concealed a debilitating, soon-to-be-fatal affliction as the rascal orchestrated his own hiring and thereafter packed the Neptune with suitable scoundrels â€“ but only after compelling Lady Vivian to sign a sacrosanct Pirate’s Contract.

With each schemer believing their own plans were proceeding satisfactorily, the ship sailed, but at the last moment Silver suffered a major setback when rival rogue Paris inveigled his way onto the crewâ€¦

As the tense voyage progressed, Silver’s men, Paris’ contingent and even Hastings’ innocent hires all slowly succumbed to the sea cook’s glib tongue and bombastic tales of the Red Brotherhood.

Only Hastings’ lieutenants Dantzig and Van Horn had any inkling of the battle of wills below decks, but even that shaky dÃ©tente shattered when Lady Vivian’s maid Elsie was murdered. Painfully aware that everybody aboard was gripped by gold-fever, Hastings had been ruling with a rod of iron and full naval discipline. Settling upon Jack O’Kief (Paris’ protÃ©gÃ©, but beloved by Silver) as responsible for her death, Hastings had the boy brutally flogged.

A prolonged battle of wills followed, pushing the crew to the edge of mutiny. Hastings delayed final landfall off the tantalisingly close South American coastline and strained tempers exploded just as a colossal storm pushed the Neptune inexorably towards its foregone destination. Inevitable mutiny erupted, resulting in appalling bloodshed and a red-handed settling of many scoresâ€¦

Literally above it all, old shaman Moxtechica rode out both tempests, patiently waiting to see what dawn might bringâ€¦

In the ghastly aftermath of the twin maelstroms the becalmed and battered Neptune drifted idly off-shore and survivors reeled aimlessly on her decks until Silver’s ferocious tongue-lashing brought them to life.

Now completely in charge, the old pirate makes Dantzig (the only trained pilot/navigator left) second-in-command, despite the Navy Man swearing he’ll see them all hang one dayâ€¦

Boldly sailing the ship straight into the cliffs, Silver and Dantzig navigated a barely discernible channel through the stony walls and brought the Neptune into a sedate, beguiling tributary of the Amazon. With time taken to repair and recover, however, the men soon resort to their old ways. Dead are buried, some old scores settled and Jasper, a new rival to Silver’s authority, began to assert himself. Seeing the way things were going, Vivian stepped in, employing wiles and cunningâ€¦

Seducing the entire crew with her story of Emperor Viracocha and his City of Gold, she tells of how her husband claimed it and won them over by revealing how they would take it from himâ€¦

The wary mariners impatiently and so-slowly sailed up the vast river in an epic voyage through labyrinthine courses and jungle backwaters. Each time they stalled, Moxtechica was there, silently divining their route to Guiana-Capac.

This sparked growing suspicion in Vivian. Her brutal, impatient husband was never given to trusting or inspiring loyalty – even in other Englishmen – and she harboured grave doubts over the shaman’s true motivesâ€¦

Those same thoughts plagued Silver and his wily shipmate Olaf as the river grew perilously shallow, especially after the voyagers discovered the foundered, rotting hulk of Hastings’ ship The Nimrod in the shallows abutting a vast overgrown, jungle-smothered cityâ€¦

As Silver readied the depleted contingent to begin searching the ruins, Vivian surprised him by requesting to be put aboard Nimrod. Perhaps her husband’s ship held answers to the many questions vexing her. As she scanned his grimy journal, aboard Neptune nobody really cared that Moxtechica was missingâ€¦ but they should haveâ€¦

This epic conclusion commences as Vivian is taken and reunited with her husband. Lord Byron is a much altered man with a new overarching passion…

Meanwhile, at the gates of the city Silver and his small scouting party – which includes Doctor Livesay â€“ are confronted by the gloating shaman before being set upon by gigantic iguanas. Forced to plunge deep into the sinister metropolis to save themselves, their hasty explorations uncover a map crafted by the Conquistadors. It does not depict where gold is stored but rather where the Christian warriors set huge stores of gunpowder in an attempt to destroy the infernal god-forsaken citadelâ€¦

Silver is undaunted: he came for treasure and will not be thwarted, but as the Englishmen continue their search they discover a procession of robed natives ascending to a temple and cautiously follow.

Vivian is still reeling at the changes to her husband and the disclosures he fervently shares. He evangelically recounts the story of his own voyage and reveals that he came not for gold but in search of an ancient god.

He was successfulâ€¦

This was also what the Conquistadores came for, but they failed in their quest to destroy the profane entity and now its long-foretold coming is imminent. Its latest high priest then reveals it is currently feeding one-by-one on the captured crew of the Neptune, but what it really craves and requires is the baby in Vivian’s bellyâ€¦

The appalled Lady reels, realising at last that the entire venture has been a Byzantine ploy to bring her to the city where the God will use the results of her sins to finally come to Earthâ€¦

Equally aghast are Silver and his party: they have stumbled upon a colossal chamber in time to see Olaf beguiled and sacrificed. Helpless to save him they swear terrible vengeance. Vivian is of the same mind as she drives a great sword through the body of her smug, uncomprehending and astounded husbandâ€¦

Too furious even to plot, Silver goes on a rampage and whilst slaughtering priest-natives discovers the rest of his crew. Leaving his companions to rouse the drugged or ensorcelled shipmates and get them back to the Neptune, Silver storms on. Followed by Livesay the rogue eventually finds an inner chamber rigged with more barrels of gunpowder. It’s also packed floor to ceiling with glittering goldâ€¦

As the seamen make a valiant last stand against the enraged and innumerable warriors of Guiana-Capac, Vivian stumbles upon Silver and Livesay moments before Moxtechica find them. Knowing the value of her child to the pagan maniacs she holds her own life hostage until the pirate and doctor can get awayâ€¦

As the outnumbered buccaneers sell their lives dearly across the city, Vivian is taken to the sacrificial chamber for the consummation of centuries of arcane anticipation, but inveterate villain Silver finds himself acting completely against his nature, aligning with the doctor in a most uncharacteristic manner to foil the hellish natives, frustrate a god and still claim the treasure his entire life has been dedicated to winningâ€¦

And as a man-made apocalypse descends upon the infernal city, the slightest whim of fate and steadfast determination of the unlikeliest of heroes saves a small fraction of the doomed company to tell the taleâ€¦

Suspenseful, eerily compelling, spectacularly powerful and magnificently realised, this final exploit of Long John Silver sets the seal on a modern masterpiece of adventure fiction worthy of Stevenson’s immortal adventure (and perhaps even the works of Clark Ashton Smith or H.P. Lovecraft). They might even convince a few more folks to actually read the originals.

This is unmissable stuff which could only be improved upon by bundling all four albums into one single treasure-trove volumeâ€¦
Â© Dargaud, Paris, 2013 by Dorison & Lauffray. All rights reserved. English translation Â© 2013 Cinebook Ltd.

January 7, 2016January 6, 2016

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires

New expanded review

By Joss Whedon, various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56971-749-3

Although debuting as a motion picture starlet, Buffy the Vampire Slayer only really found her high-kicking feet after migrating to the small screen. Soon after securing her status as a certified media sensation, she won her own comicbook in 1998, with smart, suspenseful, action-packed yarns (in a monthly series and graphic novels, fully supplemented by spin-off miniseries and short stories in showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents) which perfectly complemented the sensational, groundbreaking and so culturally crucial TV show.

And just like in the TV arena, many of those spin-offs had plenty going for them in their own right: not just character-driven vehicles like Angel or Spike and Drusilla, but also more anthological and tangential fare such as this intriguing, cleverly-themed collection of bloodsucking short tales notionally scattered throughout the â€œBuffyverseâ€. Interweaving vignettes with an overarching in-continuity story these episodes – which originally appeared as part of one-shot Drawing on Your Nightmares Halloween Special and 5-issue miniseries Tales of the Vampires from September 2003 to April 2004 – are mostly coloured by Michelle Madsen with lettering primarily by Annie Parkhouse.

It all eerily opens with eponymous introduction ‘Tales of the Vampires’ by Joss Whedon, Alex Sanchez & Derek Fridolfs as a rather select school party visits some most peculiar historical sightsâ€¦

Deep underground, four precocious children are brought to interview a long captive vampire. The aspiring Watchers – who will one day witness and war against all the forces of supernatural horror – are smugly conscious of their abilities, but have never truly imagined a vampire like Roche. The enchained Nosferatu is pleased: he can share stories of his kin and wait for his momentâ€¦

‘Father’ begins a triptych of tales written by Jane Espenson. Illustrated by J. Alexander it starts in Hollywood, circa 1922 and ends in 2003, tracing the strange relationship of boy grown old beside his evergreen last blood-kin whilst ‘Spot the Vampire’ (lavishly limned by Scott Morse) playfully and poetically offers some sage advice to monster-hunters at Christmas before ‘Dust Bowl’ (Jeff Parker) settles in 1933 Kansas; a land sucked dry and desolate, but where one family has found an inexhaustible supply of something refreshing, thanks to a wandering strangerâ€¦

A strange relationship is developing between raconteur and his deceptively dangerous listeners as Roche recounts the story of ‘Jack’ – by Brett Matthews & Vatche Mavlian – which sheds new light on events in Whitechapel in 1888, whilst ‘Stacy’ (Whedon & Cameron Stewart with colours by Chip Zdarsky) reveals the innermost thoughts of an imaginative lass who believed in magic and so wanted to be different. Then ‘Some Like it Hot’ (Sam Loeb & Tim Sale, with letters from Richard Starkings and Comicraft) comedically considers the outcomes when a mad doctor meets a vampire fed up of living in the darkâ€¦

Of much darker mien is ‘The Problem with Vampires’ (Drew Goddard & Paul Lee) as Spike returns to Prague to rescue his insane inamorata Drusilla from a human determined to torture her to second death after which ‘Taking Care of Business’ by Ben Edlund & the Nick of Time Crew (with Fridolfs inks and colours by David Nestelle), offers a moment of devotion as a centuries old-vamp who specialises in eating clergymen has a gas station â€œroad to Damascusâ€ moment after meeting a little man who says he’s Godâ€¦

As little Edna slowly comes to the conclusion that Roche has more in mind than mere storytelling, the vampire relates how a bloodsucking gambling addict met his match thanks to ‘Dames’ (Brett Matthews & Sean Phillips) in Depression-era Las Vegas and before the monstrous Roche makes his move against those sweet little kids (sarcasm alert!) he tells them of when puissant Vlad Dracula clashed with Buffy Summers, Kira, Xander and other newly activated Slayers in ‘Antique’ (Goddard & Ben Stenbeck) whilst redeemed vamp Angel was feeling ‘Numb’ (Matthews & Cliff Richards) from recollections of the evil acts he had so recently committedâ€¦

And then Roche makes that moveâ€¦ and Edna makes hersâ€¦

If you’re a Buffy fan this collection featuring the kinds of beasties that she so adroitly despatched is for you. If you’re a devotee of kick-ass action/horror comics you’ll love this too. And if you’ve just been a fan of the television show this is your chance to get addicted to comics ’cause this one’s so terribly hard to put down.
Tales of the Vampires â„¢ & Â© 2004 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved.

January 6, 2016January 5, 2016

Paleo: the Complete Collection

By Jim Lawson, with Stephen R. Bissette, Peter Laird & various (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-80356-2

It’s a rare hominid that hates dinosaurs. Sure, the occasional chimpanzee might prefer a nice kitten or peanut, but most of us soft, hairy two-leggers can’t get enough of our antediluvian predecessors. Apart from the cool way they look and the marvellous variety they came in, it’s pretty clear they concentrated on eating their surroundings and/or each other and never once tried organised sports, or to appropriate more deckchairs than they could use, or wreck the planetâ€¦

Seriously though, there’s an irresistible, nigh-visceral appeal to all manner of saurians; small or super-sized. Most of us variously and haphazardly evolved hairless apes seem obsessively drawn to all forms of education and entertainment featuring monster lizards from our primordial past. That’s especially true of comics.

Most nations and many languages have filled countless pages with illustrated stories featuring cretaceous cameos and lizardly line-ups, but America has proudly gone one stage further than most by evolving a true sub-genre. As eruditely and loving explained by Stephen R. Bissette in his scholarly overview and Introduction ‘The Paleo Path: Paleo and the History of Dinosaur Comics’, the terrifying thunder lizards have been visitors and antagonists in literature and the arts for decades but it was comics – specifically a minor back-up feature in Turok, Son of Stone #8 (August 1957, by Paul S. Newman & Rex Maxon) – which finally gave them a voice of their own.

What’s a Dinosaur Comic? One set in the creatures’ own times and scenarios, with no human intrusion or overblown authorial invention. They are scientifically credible tales about animals living and dying on their own terms and in their own context: no cavemen, aliens, time machines or human heroes. All Then, All Lizard, All the Timeâ€¦

There have been precious few – and Bissette lists them all, including his own wonderful Tyrant – but for us devotees, paramount amongst them is the far-too occasional Paleo: Tales of the Late Cretaceous by Jim Lawson.

Since 2001 the exceptionally gifted, prolific and apparently tireless Lawson has relaxed from his day jobs (most impressive of which are the thousands of pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles he has written and drawn for more than two decades) by crafting a string of 8 black-&white comics detailing the fictionalised natural history and dramas of the big beasts.

Now Dover has republished Lawson’s 2003 graphic novel compilation, with the added attraction of two more unpublished issues: three all-new stories produced in collaboration with Bissette, Peter Laird and other equally dedicated devotees.

In case the name still seems familiar, Lawson’s other interests include motorcycles – one day I’ll review his outrageous debut series Bade Bike and Orson – and fantastic fantasy. His other cartoon forays include Rat King, Planet Racers (with TMNT co-originator Laird) and in 2013 he began new project Dragonflyâ€¦

This mammoth monochrome collection begins with that aforementioned Introduction before quickly thundering on to the meat we all crave, opening with Book One (inked and lettered by Laird) which focuses attention on a key moment in the life of a Triceratops seventy million years agoâ€¦

These â€œTales from the Late Cretaceousâ€ are all delivered with the earnest veracity and unsentimental authenticity of a show on Animal Planet, or perhaps the better Disney wildlife films of the 1960s and 1970s, and the spectacular, eye-popping narrative takes the form of informed observation as a young, leathery, three-horned cow interacts with or avoids Quetzalcoatalus, egg-stealing proto-rodents and voracious Daspletosaurs, getting into a fix which nearly ends her young life. Nearlyâ€¦

Lawson inked his own pencils on Book Two where an alpha male Dromeosaur deals with a pushy young male in the female-heavy pack. Status quo re-established, the hunters collaboratively take down a massive Tsintaosaurus but when an apex predator Albertosaur claims the kill, the pack’s hierarchy again becomes an issue of survivalâ€¦

This issue was supplemented with ‘Gratitudeâ€¦ A Paleo Short Story’ wherein the most experienced female of the pack examines her precarious place in the worldâ€¦

Book Three examines a strange case of maternal transference as a baby Stegoceras loses one mother and believes a roosting Quetzalcoatalus might be a likely substitute whilst Book Four reviews ‘A Busy Day in the life of a Plotosaurus’ with the colossal sea lizard coming in-shore to scavenge from Aublysodons and later making the kill of a lifetime in deep water after boldly attacking a much larger Thallassomedon Plesiosaurâ€¦

It’s a time of snow and deadly cold in Book Five as an aging Albertosaurus takes a bad wound from the Styracosaur he planned on eating. As the world slowly turns white, the hunter finds himself regarded as preyâ€¦

There’s a shift in focus and look at the true top killers in Book Six as a herd of feeding Corythosaurs idly watch a dragonfly pass. The insect which is the epoch’s most efficient hunter then makes a mistake for the ages when it lands on the wrong tree at the right momentâ€¦

Lawson is at his dramatic best depicting a night hunt in ‘A Paleo Short Story’: a stark, wordless, dramatically chiaroscuric duel to the death in the darkâ€¦

Book Seven offers layers of passionate empathy as a Tyrannosaurus Rex battles a host of lesser beasts taking advantage of her seeming defeat by an unconquerable enemy – viscous mud flats – before Book Eight lingers lovingly on the lives of the era’s biggest beasts as a brace of Alamosaurs provide smaller herbivores such as Lambeosaurs and Edmontosaurs a safe, sheltering, mobile feeding environment. But what happens when one disappears and the other is no longer passiveâ€¦?

The lengthy new material begins with ‘Easy’ (story by Bissette, art Lawson & lettered by Thomas Mauer) as a healthy young male meat-eater succumbs to the pressure of the breeding impulse, heedless of the deadly consequences, after which the same creative team craft ‘Floater’ with a baffled tyrannosaur unable to tear himself away from a tantalising carcass in the river. She’s long dead. She should just be food, but why is her belly still heaving and moving?

This catalogue of carnosaur carnage and herbivore history closes with ‘Loner’ – an all-Lawson affair – as an adolescent Tyrannosaur is driven away by his mother and sisters and learns the cost of being alone. Why then would such a solitary survivor after years alone adopt another rejected young male at he risk of his life?

This book superbly opens a window onto distant eons of saurian dominance and provides a profound panorama that focuses on a number of everyday experiences which simply have to be exactly how it was, way back thenâ€¦

As in all these tales, the astoundingly rendered and realised scenery and environment are as much characters in the drama as any meat and muscle protagonists and all the other opportunistic scavengers and hangers-on that prowl the peripheries of the war, ever eager to take momentary advantage of every opportunity in a simple battle for survivalâ€¦

Lawson’s love for his subject, sublime feel for spectacle and an unmatchable gift for pace coupled to a deft hand which imbues the vast range and cast with instantly recognisable individual looks and characters, always means the reader knows exactly who is doing what.

This is book no lover of lizards and comics fan should miss.
Â© 2003, 2016 Jim Lawson. All rights reserved.

Paleo: the Complete Collection is available in comic shops and online around the world now. It can be pre-ordered online for a February 26^th release in the UK.

January 5, 2016January 3, 2016

Plastic Man Archives volume 4

By Jack Cole (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-835-8

As adroitly recounted by European comics historian and film critic Andreas C. Knigge in his Foreword to this fourth beguiling Deluxe Archive collection, Jack Cole was one of the most uniquely gifted talents of America’s Golden Age of Comics.

Before moving into the magazine and gag markets he originated landmark tales in horror, true crime, war, adventure and especially superhero comicbooks, and his incredible humour-hero Plastic Man remains an unsurpassed benchmark of screwball costumed hi-jinks: frequently copied but never equalled. It was a glittering career of distinction which Cole was clearly embarrassed by and unhappy with.

In 1954 he quit comics for magazine cartooning, becoming a household name when his brilliant watercolour gags and stunningly saucy pictures began running in Playboy from the fifth edition. Cole eventually moved into the lofty realms of newspaper strips and, in May 1958, achieved his life-long ambition by launching a syndicated newspaper strip, the domestic comedy Betsy and Me.

On August 13^th 1958, at the moment of his greatest success he took his own life. The reasons remain unknown.

Without doubt – and despite his other triumphal comicbook innovations such as Silver Streak, Daredevil, The Claw, Death Patrol, Midnight, Quicksilver, The Barker, The Comet and a uniquely twisted and phenomenally popular take on the crime and horror genres – Cole’s greatest creation and contribution was the zany Malleable Marvel who quickly grew from a minor back-up character into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the era. â€œPlasâ€ was the wondrously perfect fantastic embodiment of the sheer energy, verve and creativity of an era when anything went and comics-makers were prepared to try out every outlandish ideaâ€¦

Eel O’Brian was a brilliant career criminal wounded during a factory robbery, soaked by a vat of spilled acid and callously abandoned by his thieving buddies. Left for dead, he was saved by a monk who nursed him back to health and proved to the hardened thug that the world was not just filled with brutes and vicious chisellers after a fast buck.

His entire outlook altered and now blessed with incredible elasticity, Eel resolved to put his new powers to good use: cleaning up the scum he used to run with.

Creating a costumed alter ego he began a stormy association with the New York City cops before being recruited as a most special agent of the FBIâ€¦

He soon picked up the most unforgettable comedy sidekick in comics history. Woozy Winks was a dopey indolent slob and utterly amoral pickpocket who accidentally saved a wizard’s life and was gifted in return with a gift of invulnerability: all the forces of nature would henceforth protect him from injury or death – if said forces felt like it.

After failing to halt the unlikely superman’s impossible crime spree, Plas appealed to his sentimentality and, once Woozy tearfully repented, was compelled to keep him around in case he strayed again. The oaf was slavishly loyal but perpetually sliding back into his old habitsâ€¦

Equal parts Artful Dodger and Mr Micawber, with the verbal skills and intellect of Lou Costello’s screen persona or the over-filled potato sack he resembled, Winks was the perfect foil for Plastic Man: a lazy, greedy, morally bankrupt reprobate with perennially sticky fingers who got all the best lines, possessed an inexplicable charm and had a habit of finding trouble. It was the ideal marriage of inconvenienceâ€¦

This lavish, full-colour hardback barely contains the exuberantly elongated exploits of the premier polymorph from Police Comics #40-49 and Plastic Man #3 (stretching from March 1945 to Spring 1945), and opens with an outrageous murder mystery in Woozy’s loon-filled boarding house as ‘The Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder’ inexorably lead to a fatal stabbing and the ever-imaginative Plas aping the victim until the culprit tries to kill him againâ€¦

Police #41 details how an epidemic of shoplifting threatens to close a department store, but when Plas and Woozy hunt down prime suspect ‘Louie the Lift’ they soon discover the thief is only the stooge of a far more dangerous crook, whilst ‘The Diabolical Dr. Dratt’ is clearly his own maniacal man; conning innocent strangers into distilling a deadly new weapon which could level the cityâ€¦

In ‘Arctic Circle Adventure’ the misshaped manhunters head to the far north to save a little professor’s radium mine from claim-jumpers but none of the polar perils compare to the ardour of marriage-mad Hut Sut who thinks Woozy is the man of her dreams, after which the big goof helps a down-&-out drifter get into a old folks home and precipitates a ‘Murder at the home for the Aged’. Thankfully Plastic Man is on hand to ascertain the identity of the assassin-wolf in the well-wrinkled foldâ€¦

Sheer absurdity – and Woozy – trigger a city-wide disaster when a founding father determines to sell the smelly, garbage-strewn land the city is built on back to the Indians and Plas’ poltroon pal makes it happen. Soon ‘Chief Rain-in-the-Trap’ and his braves are running roughshod over everyone and the chameleonic cop is intent on discovering if there’s a pale face behind all that war-paintâ€¦

Issue #46 reveals the genesis – and demise – of ‘The Owl’s Witch Union’ as a crook realises magic has as much power as the A-bomb and organises all the city’s sham shamans and con conjurers to take control of the state by eradicating its legislature and governmentâ€¦

‘Slicer and Doser’s Medical School’ finds Woozy trying to save his partner’s life when a pair of deranged surgeons decide to dissect Plastic Man for the sake of science and the betterment of humanity, and it’s just such noble sentiments which prompt inventor Jasper Tipple to design ‘The City of the Future’. Sadly since honest entrepreneurs won’t provide the venture capital to build it the poor fool accepts dirty money and sees his masterpiece become a safe-haven for crooksâ€¦ until Plastic Man takes an elasticated handâ€¦

The monthly exploits end here with Police Comics #49 (cover-dated December 1945) and the sad tale of a young lady whose physical blandishments were merely average but who nevertheless had the power to make men into helpless puppets.

After years of men acting like slaves around her naturally she fell for the one man immune to her gifts. Such a shame he was a murderous conman and she was so naÃ¯ve and love-struckâ€¦

It was more luck than wit which saved Plas, Woozy and ‘Thelma Twittle, Super-Charmer’â€¦

Rounding out this stylish slapstick selection is grand quintet of tales from Plastic Man #3 (Spring 1946) which opens with ‘The Killing of Snoopy Hawks’ wherein Woozy is threatened by a gossip columnist who ends up dead. Although the cops feel certain it’s the confirmed felon at fault, Plastic Man is equally suspicious of the former banker, upcoming actress and brutal prize-fighter also on the victim’s scandal-listâ€¦

The Pliable Paladin almost meets his match when a criminal sociologist hoodwinks a trio of genuine magic makers into destroying the only barrier to his nefarious plots in ‘B. T. Tokus and the Witch Doctors’ after which the stooge becomes the star as ‘Woozy Winks: The Escape of Smelly Pitts’ finds the Dolorous Dope attempting a (semi-legal) get-rich-quick bounty-hunting scheme only to be captured by his target, and fooled into getting marriedâ€¦

Plastic Man’s uncanny abilities are then explored in prose short ‘The Hand Behind’ before this superb slice of superhero silliness concludes with a daring tale of High Seas drama as at-long-last body-conscious Mr. Winks goes in search of deodorant and becomes embroiled in an ambergris-smuggling racket, which is only the tip of an illegal iceberg.

When the oaf turns up missing again, Plastic Man gets on the case and soon discovers and closes ‘A Whale of a Tale’â€¦

Augmented by all the stupendously hilarious covers and a ‘Biographies’ feature detailing the author’s amazing achievements and unhappy life, this is another true gem of funnybook virtuosity: exciting, breathtakingly original and still thrilling, witty, scary, visually outrageous and pictorially intoxicating more than seventy years after Jack Cole first put pen to paper.

Plastic Man is a truly unique creation who has only grown in stature and appeal and this is a magical comics experience fans would be crazy to deny themselves.
Â© 1945, 1946, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

January 4, 2016January 3, 2016

The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer: The Affair of the Necklace

By Edgar P. Jacobs, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-037-5

Pre-eminent fantasy raconteur Edgar P. Jacobs devised one of the greatest heroic double acts in fiction: pitting his distinguished scientific adventurers Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blake against a broad variety of perils and menaces in a sequence of stellar action thrillers which merged science fiction scope, detective mystery suspense and supernatural thrills. The magic was made perfect through his stunning illustrations rendered in the timeless Ligne claire style which had made intrepid boy-reporter Tintin a global sensation.

The Doughty Duo debuted in the very first issue of Le Journal de Tintin (26^th September 1946): an ambitious international anthology comic with editions in Belgium, France and Holland. The magazine was edited by HergÃ©, with his eponymous star ably supplemented by a host of new heroes and features for the rapidly-changing post-war worldâ€¦

L’affaire du collier – the partnership’s ninth drama-drenched epic escapade – was originally serialised in 1965 and forms the last leg of a trilogy of tales set in France. It was subsequently collected in a single album two years after the conclusion and became Cinebook’s seventh translated treat as The Affair of the Necklace in 2009.

Of more interest perhaps is the fact that it is the only straight crime-caper; shunning the regulation science fictional tropes in favour of a suspenseful mystery and breakneck action thrillerâ€¦

The story itself draws upon a legendary historical scam which rocked France in the 1780s and has fascinated storytellers ever since: haunting films and television, fascinating authors from Dumas to Maurice Leblanc (ArsÃ¨ne Lupin, Gentleman Thief) to Goethe and even featuring in manga such as The Rose of Versailles.

In 1772 Louis XV asked Parisian jewellers Boehmer and Bassange to create a matchless necklace for his mistress Madame du Barry. The magnificent adornment took so long to complete, the king died and was succeeded by his heir Louis XVI and although the jewellers offered the finished piece – which had not been paid for – to Marie Antoinette numerous times, she refused it â€“ citing the money could be better spent on warships.

Her refusals â€“ probably because she despised Du Barry and didn’t want her cast-offs – laid her open to claims of defrauding the artisans and further tarnished the Queen’s shaky reputation.

When a Bastard-Royal confidence trickster got involved and scammed everybody from the jewellers to the government, the doomed trinket destroyed a Bishop, defanged court magician Cagliostro, scandalised the aristocracy, enraged the public and arguably hastened the fall of the Royal House of Bourbon and sparked the French Revolution.

The necklace itself reputedly ended up in England where it was broken up and its hundreds of individual gems separately sold offâ€¦

You don’t need any of that immensely complex background for this jaunt though, which begins with modern France ablaze at the news that the infamous adornment has been found – complete and entire – by British collector Sir Henry Williamson who shockingly plans to give it to the young Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom!

Not-all-that-bothered are Professor Mortimer and Captain Blake, back in Paris to give evidence at the trial of infamous criminal and arch-enemy Colonel Olrik. However, that mission is foiled when the Master of Evil boldly escapes from a sealed prison van en route to court.

Despite quickly deducing the rogue’s methods, the Englishmen are at a loss and cooling their heels when Olrik cheekily challenges them to catch him, but with no clues they instead attend the swank soirÃ©e held by Sir Henry where he intends to take possession of the infamous Queen’s Necklace from Frances’ greatest jeweller Duranton-Claret who has been repairing and cleaning the long-lost treasure.

The inveterate thrill-seekers eagerly agree and are lost in the social swirl when the unthinkable happens: a landslip in the notorious catacombs below Paris cause the gem-smith’s high security cellar-vault to collapse into the subterranean maze beneath the City of Lightsâ€¦

Ever in the thick of action, Mortimer braves the disaster scene and quickly discerns it was explosion not accident which caused the chaos. He even returns with the salvaged jewellery case but the ponderous chain of glittering gems is missing; replaced by a taunting note from Olrikâ€¦

After agreeing with top cop Commissioner Pradier to keep the theft quiet, all concerned are astounded to find the morning newspapers full of the crime of the century: Olrik himself has contacted them to boast of itâ€¦

Duranton is a nervous wreck: his reputation is destroyed and the phone in his palatial house will not stop ringing with rabid reporters constantly pestering him for a comment. Things take a darker turn when Olrik’s chief heavy Sharkey leads a bold raid to abduct the terrified jeweller. Thankfully Blake and Mortimer are on hand to drive off the attackers and are forced to repeat the feat when the thugs later return with Olrik taking personal charge.

This time the intrepid investigators and Duranton’s valiant butler Vincent are hard-pressed and forced into a last-stand firefight before the police arrive. When those reinforcements counterattack the crooks vanish with disturbing ease and familiarity into the catacombs beneath the houseâ€¦

As the harassed jeweller’s behaviour becomes more paranoid and erratic, the Englishmen’s suspicions are aroused: if Olrik already has the fabulous treasure, why is he still hounding the Duranton? Thus thanks to a covert wiretap supplied by the ever-efficient Pradier, a sordid story is revealed and an unsuspected connection to Olrik exposedâ€¦

Both the jeweller and Olrik know the master criminal only got away with a glass copy of the Queen’s Necklace but as the double-dealing Duranton tries to flee the country, he only avoids the police cordon: wily Olrik and brutal Sharkey are extraordinary criminals, easily snapping up the fugitive and spectacularly beating the cops at their own game – but not before the little gem-smith hides the real necklace in a place only he can accessâ€¦

The action and suspense spiral as Sharkey is captured. Helpfully leading the authorities into the Byzantine tunnels below Paris he easily gives them the slip, but whilst the police wait for municipal tunnel experts to arrive and take charge of the hunt, Blake and Mortimer strike off on their own. Soon they are hopelessly lost in the terrifying labyrinthâ€¦

With their torches failing, the partners in peril at last discover the secret of how the mobsters are able to move so confidently through the uncounted miles of deadly tunnels and track them to their fortress-like lair before reuniting with Pradier’s forces and instigating a blistering showdownâ€¦

When the shooting ends our heroes are frustrated to discover that Olrik has escaped and taken the much sought-for necklace with him. Of course, the rogue also has a big surprise in storeâ€¦

Swift-paced, devilishly devious and gritty, grimly noir-ish, this tale shows the utter versatility of our heroes as they slip seamlessly into a straight cops-&-robbers set-piece, building to an explosive conclusion with a tantalising final flourish, resulting in another superbly stylish blockbuster to delight every adventure addict.

This Cinebook edition also includes excerpts from two other Blake & Mortimer albums plus a short biographical feature and publication chart of Jacobs’ and his successors’ efforts.
Original edition Â© Editions Blake & Mortimer/Studio Jacobs (Dargaud-Lombard S. A.) 1967, 1991 by E.P. Jacobs. All rights reserved. English translation Â© 2009 Cinebook Ltd.

January 1, 2016December 30, 2015

Showcase Presents Sgt. Rock volume 3

By Robert Kanigher, Joe Kubert, Russ Heath & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2771-5

In America after the demise of EC Comics in the mid-1950’s and prior to the game-changing Blazing Combat, the only certain place to find controversial, challenging and entertaining American war comics was DC.

In fact, even whilst Archie Goodwin’s stunning but tragically mis-marketed quartet of classics were waking up a generation, the home of Flash, Green Arrow and the Justice League of America was a veritable cornucopia of gritty, intriguing and beautifully illustrated battle tales presenting combat on a variety of fronts and from many differing points of view.

Whilst the Vietnam War escalated, 1960s America increasingly endured a Homefront death-struggle pitting deeply-ingrained Establishment social attitudes against a youth-oriented generation with a radical new sensibility. In response DC’s (or rather National Periodical Publishing, as it then was) military-themed comicbooks became even more bold and innovativeâ€¦

Sgt. Rock and the â€œcombat-happy Joesâ€ of Easy Company are one of the great and enduring creations of the American comic-book industry. The gritty meta-realism of Robert Kanigher’s ordinary guys in a constant welter of life-or-death situations captured the imaginations of generations of readers, young and old.

So pervasive is this icon of comicbook combat that’s it’s hard to grasp that Rock is not an immortal industry prototype like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman – with us since the earliest moments of the industry – but is in fact a late addition to and child of the Silver Age of Comics: debuting as just another tale in war anthology G.I. Combat (#68, January 1959, by Kanigher & Joe Kubert).

The archetypal and ideal sergeant was an anonymous boxer who wasn’t particularly skilled but simply refused to be beaten, absorbing any and all punishment dealt out to him. When ‘The Rock!’ enlisted, that same Horatian quality attained mythic proportions as he held back an overwhelming Nazi attack by sheer grit and determination, remaining bloody but unbowed on a field littered with dead and broken men. The tale inspired an instant sequel or two before, in Our Army at War #83 (June 1959), the legend really beganâ€¦

This third monumental military milestone collects in chronological publishing order and stark, stunning monochrome more of the groundbreaking classics which made Rock a comics legend. These grim and gritty, epically poetic war stories are taken from the still-anthological Our Army at War #149-180 (bracketing December 1964 to May 1967), a period when American comics were undergoing a spectacular renaissance in style, theme and quality even as the Vietnam war took over the nation’s consciousness and conscience.

Scripted throughout by Writer/Editor Kanigher and illustrated primarily by Joe Kubert, the terse episodes herein begin with ‘Surrender Ticket!’ as the German High Command randomly pick an American Company to endure unrelenting pressure until they crack, thereby proving Nazi superiority. They really should have picked again after selecting Easy Companyâ€¦

In ‘Flytrap Hill!’, Rock is forced to request a retreat before instead leading his brutalised men to unlikely victory after they all find fresh inspiration through the example of a messenger who gave his life to reach them whilst ‘War Party!’ sees the Sarge undertaking a trial organised by Little Sure Shot to become an honorary Apache Indian, with the always-advancing Germans inadvertently spoiling his chances at every turn.

OAAW #152 is a full-length yarn in which a shipment of green replacements find themselves frozen under fire until Rock recounts the tales of Ziggy and Hopeless who found courage with their last breaths in ‘Last Man – Last Shot!’ This narrative device of incorporating brief past-action episodes into a baptism of fire scenario played over and over again in Sgt. Rock and never got old.

‘Easy’s Last Stand!’ saw the stony serviceman battling alone in the mistaken belief he was the only one left alive whilst ‘Boobytrap Mascot’ found Easy accompanying boy soldier Andre Lune in search of hidden artillery emplacements as the lad tried to live up to – and die for – the pressure of generations of warrior ancestors who gave their lives for Franceâ€¦

‘No Stripes for Me!’ saw the non-com in the middle of a family feud as a valiant GI continually refuses well-earned battlefield promotions his father – the General – keeps foisting upon him, after which a bumbling medic deemed unfit for combat fatally proves his worth saving Easy as ‘The Human Tank Trap!’

The shell-shocked last survivor of an eradicated relief company goes through hell at Rock’s side as the topkick strives to prove that ‘Nothin’s Ever Lost in War!’ before OAAW #158 introduces some insight into the pre-war world of civilian Frank Rock as well as an antithesis and arch-enemy for Easy’s front man in ‘Iron Major – Rock Sergeant!’

With the non-com captured, tortured and used as bait in a blizzard by a steel-handed master strategist, it takes sheer guts and unflinching to save Easy from a deadly ambushâ€¦

Wounded in combat, hunted by a German kill-team and guided by the sister of a nurse he feels responsible for killing, Rock becomes ‘The Blind Gun!’ before recovering his sight and finding a measure of solace in groundbreaking epic ‘What’s the Colour of Your Blood?’

Here black soldier (it’s a comicbook making a point: please ignore the appalling and sordid truth about US Army segregation during WWII) and former boxer Jackie Johnson is forced to bare-knuckle battle the racist Aryan prize-fighter he trounced in the years before the war. Of course if he raises his hands to defend himself in this impromptu rematch, Storm Trooper Uhlan‘s comrades will shoot Jackie’s Easy Co. comradesâ€¦ until the right word from Rock changes all the oddsâ€¦

An over-eager replacement almost dies to prove he’s not a coward like his court-martialled brother in ‘Dead End for a Dog Face!’ before ‘The Prince and the Sergeant!’ revives an old DC star for a truly bizarre team-up.

When superheroes were in decline during the 1950s, comicbook companies sought different types of action hero. In 1955 Kanigher devised traditional adventure comic The Brave and the Bold which featured historical strips and stalwarts such as Golden Gladiator, Robin Hood and Silent Knight. Already-legendary, Joe Kubert drew the fantastic exploits of a dynamic Norseman dubbed the Viking Prince.

This last feature appeared in nearly every issue, eventually monopolising Brave and the Bold entirely, until the resurgent superhero boom saw the comic retooled as a try-out title with the 25^th issue. Before that, however, those fanciful Scandi-sagas were among some of the finest adventure comics of all time (and they’re still too long overdue for a definitive collection of their own).

In Our Army at War #162 Easy Company were sent to Norway on a proverbial suicide mission but subsequently separated under fire. Taking cover in a cave, Rock discovered a warrior frozen in ice moments before an explosion shattered the frigid tomb. Soon the revived Prince Jon was slicing his way through the modern Huns, determined to sell his life dearly.

Before his entombment he had fallen in love with a Valkyrie and had to die gloriously in battle to reunite with her in Valhalla. Of course, offended Odin had stacked the odds and decreed no mortal weapon could now harm himâ€¦

Despite his best efforts Jon and Rock kept winning and so the saga continued in the next issue as the doughty comrades completed the suicide mission with the Viking crying ‘Kill Me – Kill Me!’â€¦ until a seeming martial miracle occurredâ€¦

Our Army at War #164 was an 80-page Giant reprint issue (not included here) and #165 heralded the ‘Return of the Iron Major!’ with the Nazi Superman back from the dead and seeking revenge, only to find Rock kissing his former fiancÃ©e Contessa Helga von Hohenschlag-Lowenburgâ€¦

That resulted in another brutal death-duel after which ‘Half a Sergeant!’ saw the indomitable human force-of-nature suffer a crack-up until an inconsolable loss on the battlefield shocked him back to normal, whilst ‘Kill One – Save One!’ continued the psycho-dramas as Rock shoots a sniper and discovers he’s killed a child. The guilt cripples him so completely he can’t raise a hand against the boy’s even younger comrade who takes the topkick prisonerâ€¦

An element of supernatural mystery flavoured ‘I Knew the Unknown Soldier!’ in Our Army at War #168, as Rock proudly recalls an enigmatic GI who repeatedly saved and inspired Easy to overcome impossible odds. This short yarn would be the genesis of future combat superstar The Unknown Soldierâ€¦

Again blinded in battle, Rock unwittingly trekked across the African desert towards German lines with an American-educated ‘Nazi on My Back!’ in #169 but was back in Europe for ‘No One Comes Down Alive from – Buzzard Bait Hill!’: dealing with a shell-shocked veteran who had been reliving the war since the last time Germans invaded France.

War’s insanity was a recurring theme and in ‘The Sergeant Must Die!’ Easy had to steal a relic of huge symbolic importance from a mediaeval castle defended by a deranged Nazi who believed himself the reincarnation of legendary Hun Barbarosa. A perilous stalemate was only broken by vicious single combat; a situation echoed in ‘A Slug for a Sergeant!’ as Russ Heath slowly began to take over illuminating Rock’s sorties.

German Sgt. Schlum was every inch Rock’s equal and when the hostage American chose to duel his counterpart rather than betray Easy into ambush, the outcome was anything but certainâ€¦

Our Army at War #173 was another reprint – also omitted here – and Kubert returned in #174 as ‘One Kill Too Many!’ sees the Sarge suffer another breakdown after reliving the moment he shot that child-sniper and freezing under fire. His inaction leads to Easy’s medic being killed and the broken soldier giving up fighting to take his placeâ€¦ until the wounded men he treats show Rock where he truly belongsâ€¦

Heath was back in #175 to deliver the ‘T.N.T. Letter!’ from Rock’s stateside sweetheart Mary which left him broken and suicidal until he met a battlefield gamin who restored his perspective, and Kubert limned the strange saga of Crusher Cole, a beefy replacement who wanted the sergeant’s job and kept crying ‘Give Me Your Stripes!’

Following another 80-Page Giant in #177, ‘Only One Medal for Easy’ (Heath, #178) returned to the series’ picaresque, portmanteau traditions as Rock is given one gong and a Pass to dispense to Easy’s most outstanding combatant. Of course, the medal is passed around the entire company as every time the enemy attacks, a different hero saves the dayâ€¦

Kubert was back reprising that landmark tale of bigotry and tolerance in OAAW #179 as white supremacist Sharkey joined Easy and made things tough for the unit’s only black soldier. Even Rock couldn’t change his attitudes but the trials of war and the patience of a truly noble man finally change the racist views of the soldier who wouldn’t give ‘A Penny for Jackie Johnson!’

Russ Heath ends this cataclysmic comics campaign with another stunning moral quandary as Rock captures a German officer and has to endure unbearable provocation as he escorts his prisoner to base; coming within an inch of breaking all the rules as the cunning monster brags ‘You Can’t Kill a General!’â€¦

Robert Kanigher at his worst was a declarative, heavy-handed and formulaic writer, but when writing his best stuff – as here – his work was imaginative, evocative, iconoclastic and heart-rending. He was a unique reporter and observer of the warrior’s way and the unchanging condition of the dedicated and so very human ordinary foot-slogging G.I. He was also a strident and early advocate of equality and integration.

With superb combat covers from Kubert fronting each episode, this battle-book is a visually vital compendium and a certain delight for any jaded comics fan looking for something more than flash and dazzle.

A perfect example of true Shock and Awe; these are stories every comics fan and combat collector should see.
Â© 1964-1967, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 31, 2015December 30, 2015

Hellboy volume 1: Seed of Destruction

By Mike Mignola & John Byrne with Mark Chiarello & Matt Hollingsworth (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-094-6

After the establishment of the comicbook direct market system, there was a huge outburst of independent publishers in America and, as with all booms, a lot of them went bust. Some few however were more than flash-in-the-pans and grew to become major players in the new world order.

Arguably, the most successful was Dark Horse Comics who fully embraced the shocking new concept of creator ownership (amongst other radical ideas). This concept – and their professional outlook and attitude – drew a number of big name creators to the new company and in 1994 Frank Miller and John Byrne formally instituted the sub-imprint Legend for those projects major creators wanted to produce their own way and at their own pace.

Over the next four years the brand counted Mike Mignola, Art Adams, Mike Allred, Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbons and Geof Darrow amongst its ranks and generated a wealth of superbly entertaining and groundbreaking series and concepts. Unquestionably the most impressive, popular and long-lived was Mignola’s supernatural thriller Hellboy.

The monstrous monster-hunter debuted in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993) before formally launching in 4-issue miniseries Seed of Destruction with Byrne scripting over Mignola’s plot and art. Colourist Mark Chiarello added layers of mood with his understated hues.

Those stories and an ancillary tale from Comics Buyer’s Guide make up this impressive Third Edition of the modern classic and it’s all kicked off with an effusive Introduction from Master of Terror Robert Blochâ€¦

The story begins with a review of secret files. On December 23^rd 1944 American Patriotic superhero The Torch of Liberty and a squad of US Rangers interrupted a satanic ritual predicted by Allied parapsychologist Professors Trevor Bruttenholm and Malcolm Frost in conjunction with influential Medium Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones. They were waiting at a ruined church in East Bromwich, England when a demon baby with a huge stone right hand appeared in a fireball. The startled soldiers took the infernal yet seemingly innocent waif into custody.

Far further north, off the Scottish Coast on Tarmagant Island, a cabal of Nazi Sorcerers roundly berated ancient wizard Grigori Rasputin whose Project Ragna Rok ritual seemed to have failed. The Russian was unfazed. Events were unfolding as he wishedâ€¦

Five decades later, the baby has grown into a mighty warrior in a never-ending secret war: the world’s most successful paranormal investigator. Bruttenholm has spent the years raising the weird foundling whilst forming an organisation to destroy unnatural threats and supernatural monsters – the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. â€œHellboyâ€ is now its lead agentâ€¦

The recently-returned, painfully aged professor summons his surrogate son and warns him of impending peril wrapped in obscured reminiscences of his own last case. The Cavendish Expedition discovered an ancient temple submerged in arctic ice, but what happened next has been stricken from Bruttenholm’s memory. Before he can say more the mentor is killed by a plague of frogs and enraged Hellboy is battling for his life against a demonic amphibianâ€¦

Following fact-files about Project Ragna Rok and ‘An African Myth about a Frog’ Chapter Two opens at eerie Cavendish Hall, set on a foetid lake in America’s Heartland. Matriarch Emma Cavendish welcomes Hellboy and fellow BPRD investigators Elizabeth Sherman and Dr. Abraham Sapien but is not particularly forthcoming about her family’s obsession.

Nine generations of Cavendish have sought for and sponsored the search for the Temple at the Top of the World. Three of her own sons were lost on the latest foray, from which only Bruttenholm returned, but her story of how founding patriarch Elihu Cavendish‘s obsession infected every male heir for hundreds of years imparts no fresh insights. She also says she knows nothing about frogs, but she’s lying and the agents know itâ€¦

As they retire for the night, Hellboy’s companions prepare for a fight. Liz is a psychic firestarter but is still taken unawares when the frogs attack and the Daring Demon fares little better against another titanic toad-monster. Of Abe there is no sign: the BPRD’s own amphibian has taken to the dank waters of the lake in search of long-buried answersâ€¦

And then a bald Russian guy claiming to know the truth of Hellboy’s origins appears and monstrous tentacles drag the infernal avenger through the floorâ€¦

Chapter Three opens in a vast hidden cellar where Rasputin explains he is the agent for antediluvian infinite evil: seven-sided serpent Ogdru-Jahad who sleeps and waits to be reawakened. Hellboy was summoned from the pit to be the control interface between the great beast and the wizard as he oversaw the fall of mankind, but when the BPRD agent refuses – in his own obtuse, obnoxious manner – Rasputin goes crazyâ€¦

Overwhelmed by the Russian’s frog servants, Hellboy is forced to listen to the story of Rasputin’s alliance with Himmler and Hitler and how they sponsored a mystic Nazi think-tank to conquer the Earth; of how the mage manipulated the fanatics, found the Temple at the Top of the World and communed with The Serpent; of how the last Cavendish Expedition awoke him and how he used them to trace the tool he had summoned from Hell half a century agoâ€¦

And then he reveals how his infernal sponsor Sadu-Hem, intermediary of The Serpent, has grown strong on human victims but will become unstoppable after feasting on Liz’s pyrokinetic energiesâ€¦

With all hell literally breaking loose the final chapter finds Rasputin exultantly calling upon each of the seven aspects as Hellboy attempts a desperate, doomed diversion and the long-missing Abe Sapien finally makes his move, aided by a hidden faction Rasputin had not anticipatedâ€¦

The breathtaking conclusion sees the supernal forces spectacularly laid to rest, but the defeat of Sadu-Hem and his Russian puppet only opens the door for other arcane adversaries to emergeâ€¦

Bombastic, moody, laconically paced, suspenseful and explosively action-packed, Seed of Destruction manages the masterful magic trick of introducing a whole new world and making it seem like we’ve always lived there. This edition also sweetens the pot with bonus features like the sketch-packed ‘Where the Hell Did He Come From? – Personal reminiscences by Mike Mignola’ and ‘More First Things’: the initial proto-stories from San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (where he clobbered a gas station dog demon) and Comics Buyer’s Guide with the World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator scuttling the plans of a Nazi brain-in-a-bottle and his talking gorillasâ€¦

Wrapping up the show is a Hellboy Gallery with pinups from Simon Bisley, Mike Allred. Art Adams, Frank Miller, Fred Blanchard & Gary Gianni, making this a supernatural thriller no comics fan should be without.
Â© 1993, 1994, 1997, 1999 and 2003 Mike Mignola. Introduction Â© 1994 Robert Bloch. Hellboy is â„¢ Mike Mignola. Torch of Liberty â„¢ John Byrne, Inc. Madman â„¢ Mike Allred. Blitz the Maniac Mandrill â„¢ Simon Bisley. All rights reserved.

December 30, 2015December 28, 2015

Essential Captain America volume 6

By Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Don Glut, Sal Buscema, Frank Giacoia & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5091-6

Created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in an era of ferocious patriotic fervour, Captain America was a dynamic and exceedingly bombastic response to the horrors of Nazism and the threat of Liberty’s loss.

He quickly lost focus and popularity after hostilities ceased: fading during post-war reconstruction to briefly reappear after the Korean War: a harder, darker sentinel ferreting out monsters, subversives and the â€œcommiesâ€ who lurked under every American bed. Then he vanished once more until the burgeoning Marvel Age resurrected him just in time to experience the Land of the Free’s most turbulent and culturally divisive era.

He quickly became a mainstay of the Marvel Revolution during the Swinging Sixties but lost his way somewhat after that, except for a glittering period under scripter Steve Englehart. Eventually however he too moved on and out in the middle of the 1970s.

Meanwhile, after nearly a decade drafting almost all of Marvel’s successes, Jack Kirby had jumped ship to arch-rival DC in 1971, creating a whole new mythology and dynamics pantheon before accepting that even he could never win against any publishing company’s excessive pressure to produce whilst enduring micro-managing editorial interference.

Seeing which way the winds blew, Kirby exploded back into the Marvel Universe in 1976 with a promise of free rein, concocting a stunning wave of iconic creations (2001: a Space Odyssey, Machine Man, The Eternals, Devil Dinosaur). At the same time he was handed control of two of his previous co-creations – firmly established characters Captain America and Black Panther – to do with as he wished.

His return was much hyped at the time but swiftly became controversial as his intensely personal visions paid little lip service to company continuity and went explosively his own way. Whilst his new works quickly found many friends, his tenures on those earlier inventions drastically divided the fan base.

Kirby was never slavishly wedded to tight continuity and preferred, in many ways, to treat his stints on Cap and the Panther as creative â€œDay Onesâ€. This was never more apparent than in the pages of Captain America

This sixth Essential monochrome collection features the last contentious stories by â€œThe Kingâ€, before Kirby quit writing, drawing and editing the Sentinel of Liberty; abruptly returning the patriotic paragon fully to Marvel’s restrictively overarching interlinked continuity.

Gathered within are Captain America #206-229 (cover-dated February 1977 to February 1978) and Captain America Annual #4 plus a bonus crossover tale from Incredible Hulk #232.

At the end of the previous volume the Fighting American had saved the nation from a conclave of aristocratic oligarchs attempting to undo two hundred years of freedom and progress with their â€œMadbombâ€, visited another dimension and liberated its human abductee-inhabitants and spectacularly turned back an invader from the far future.

The non-stop nightmares resume here with Captain America and the Falcon #206 as ‘Face to Face with the Swine!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) sees the Star-Spangled Sensation mistakenly renditioned to deepest Central America and toppling the private kingdom and hunting ground of psychotic sadist Comandante Hector Santiago, unchallenged monarch of the prison of Rio del Muerteâ€¦

Never one to go anywhere meekly, Cap escapes and begins engineering the brute’s downfall in ‘The Tiger and the Swine!!’ but soon finds the jungles conceal genuine monsters. When they exact primal justice on the tormentors, Cap’s escape with the Swine’s cousin Donna Maria down ‘The River of Death!’ is interrupted by the advent of another astounding â€œKirby Kreationâ€â€¦ ‘Arnim Zolaâ€¦ the Bio-Fanatic!!’

The former Nazi geneticist was absolute master of radical biology, dragging Cap and Donna Maria to his living castle and inflicting upon them a horde of diabolical homunculi at the behest of a mysterious sponsor even as the Avenger’s partner Falcon was closing in on his long-missing pal.

Indomitable against every kind of shapeshifting horror, Captain America battles on, enduring a terrible ‘Showdown Day!’ (with Mike W. Royer taking over the inking) whilst back home his girlfriend Sharon Carter uses her resources as SHIELD’s Agent 13 to trace wealthy Cyrus Fenton and expose ‘Nazi â€œXâ€!’ as the Sentinel of Liberty’s greatest nemesisâ€¦

With his time on the title counting down, Kirby ramped up the tension in #212 as ‘The Face of a Hero! Yours!!’ finds Zola preparing to surgically give the Red Skull Cap’s form, resulting in a cataclysmic clash which leaves the hero bloodied and blind, but ultimately victoriousâ€¦

With the hero recuperating in hospital, Dan Green steps in to ink #213 as ultimate assassin ‘The Night Flyer!’ targets the ailing Captain America at the behest of unfettered capitalist villain Kligger from the insidious Corporation, but inadvertently triggers the return of the victim’s vision in blockbusting – if abrupt – conclusion ‘The Power’ (Royer inks)â€¦

Reading slightly out of sequence here, Captain America Annual #4 ‘The Great Mutant Massacre!’ ends the Kirby contribution to the career of the Star-Spangled Avenger: a feature- length super-shocker which again eschewed convoluted back-story and the cultural soul-searching which typified the character before and after Kirby’s tenure.

It saw America’s Ultimate Fighting Man strive against humanity’s nemesis Magneto and his latest mutant recruits Burner, Smasher, Lifter, Shocker, Slither and Peeper. This riot of rampaging action and end-of-the-world wonderment pitted the Sentinel of Liberty against a Homo Superior hit-squad aiming to take possession of a super-powered being whose origins were far stranger than anybody could conceiveâ€¦

When Kirby moved on it left a desperate gap in the schedules. Captain America #215 saw Roy Thomas, George Tuska & Pablo Marcos remix the hero’s origin story for the latest generation with ‘The Way it Really Was!’: reiterating also the history of the heroes who also wore the red, white & blue uniform whilst Steve Rogers was entombed in ice and ending with our hero desperately wondering who the man beneath the mask might beâ€¦

For all that, #216 was mostly a reprint. With a framing sequence by Thomas, Dave Cockrum & Giacoia ‘The Human Torch meetsâ€¦Captain America!’ was written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Kirby & Dick Ayers, rerunning November 1963’s Strange Tales #114. It featured the return of the third of Timely Comics’ Golden Age Big Three – or at least an impersonation of him by the insidious Acrobat – in a bombastic battle romp.

Here’s a quote from the last panelâ€¦

â€œYou guessed it! This story was really a test! To see if you too would like Captain America to Return! As usual, your letters will give us the answer!â€ I wonder how that turned out?

‘The Search for Steve Rogers!’ by Thomas, Don Glut, John Buscema & Marcos began in #217 and with SHIELD’s record division, but the Falcon was soon distracted by a surprising job offer as Nick Fury, busy with the hunt for the Corporation, asked Cap’s partner to train the agency’s newest project: the SHIELD Super-Agentsâ€¦

These neophyte wonders consisted of Texas Twister, Blue Streak, Vamp and a rather mature Marvel Boy, but the team was already flawed and deeply compromisedâ€¦

Issue #218 saw Cap targeted by a Corporation agent and fed data which turned his legendarily-fragmented memory to his thawing from the ice. Heading north to retrace his original journey, Cap spent ‘One Day in Newfoundland!’ (Glut, Sal Buscema & John Tartaglione) and uncovered a secret army, an old foe and a colossal robotic facsimile of himselfâ€¦

In #219 ‘The Adventures of Captain America’ (Glut, Sal B & Joe Sinnott) reveals how, during WWII, the hero and junior partner Bucky were ordered to investigate skulduggery on the set of a movie serial about them and exposed special effects wizard Lyle Dekker as a highly-placed Nazi spy.

Now in modern-day Newfoundland that warped genius has built a clandestine organisation with an incredible purpose; revealed in ‘The Ameridroid Lives!’ (inked by Tartaglione & Mike Esposito) as the captive crusader is mind-probed and dredges up shocking submerged memories.

When he and Bucky were chasing a swiftly launched secret weapon at the end of the war, the boy died and Steve Rogers fell into the North Atlantic and was frozen in a block of ice until found and thawed by the Avengers. At least, he always thought that’s how it happened.

Now as the probe does its devilish work, Captain America remembers that he was in fact picked up by Dekker after the spy was punished by the Red Skull and exiled for his failures. Deciding to work only for his own interests, Dekker then attempted to transfer Cap’s power to himself and it was only in escaping the original Newfoundland base that Rogers crashed into the sea and frozeâ€¦

Now decades later, the vile scheme is finally accomplished: Cap’s energies are replicated in a fifteen foot tall super-android with the aging Dekker’s consciousness permanently embedded in its metal and plastic brain.

â€¦And only then does the fanatic realise he’s made himself into a monster at once unique, solitary and utterly apart from humanityâ€¦

The deadline problems still hadn’t eased and this episode is chopped in half with the remainder of the issue giving Falcon a short solo outing as ‘â€¦On a Wing and a Prayer!’ by Scott Edelman, Bob Budiansky & Al Gordon finds the Pinioned Paladin hunting a mad archer who has kidnapped his avian ally Redwingâ€¦

The remainder of the Ameridroid saga appears in Captain America #221 as Steve Gerber and David Kraft co-script ‘Cul-De-Sac!’, wherein the marauding mechanoid is finally foiled by reason not force of arms whilst ‘The Coming of Captain Avenger!’ (Edelman, Steve Leialoha & Gordon) provides another space-filling vignette with former sidekick Rick Jones being given a tantalising glimpse of his most cherished dreamsâ€¦

Issue #222 sees Gerber fully in the writer’s seat as ‘Monumental Menace!’ (by Sal B, Tartaglione & Esposito) as â€œThe Search for Steve Rogersâ€ storyline moves to Washington DC.

As our hero examines army records at the Pentagon, the Corporation’s attempts to destroy him become more pronounced and bizarre. After escaping an animated, homicidal Volkswagen Steven Grant Rogers learns at last that he was once the son of a diplomat and lost a brother at Pearl Harbor (all these revelations were later rather ingeniously retconned out so don’t worry about spoilers). Soon however events spiral and Liberty’s Sentinel is attacked by the Lincoln Memorial, sacrilegiously brought to lethal lifeâ€¦

The madness continues as the hulking, monstrous horror responsible screams ‘Call Me Animus’ before unleashing a succession of blistering assaults which result in hundreds of collateral casualties before being finally repulsedâ€¦

The epic is again interrupted as Peter Gillis, Mike Zeck, Esposito & Tartaglione contrive a thrilling mystery with a battered Cap awakening in a river with partial amnesia and a new face. Forced to find out what happened to him, the sinister trail leads to guest-villains Senor Suerte and Tarantula in ‘Saturday Night Furor!’â€¦

The Search Saga resumes in #225 as ‘Devastation!’ (Gerber, Sal Buscema, Esposito & Tartaglione) as Fury gives Captain America access to incarcerated mind-master Mason Harding (inventor of the â€œMadbombâ€,as seen in Essential Captain America volume 5) who uses his embargoed technology to unseal the Avenger’s closed memories at long lastâ€¦

Sadly the cathartic shock has terrifying repercussions: although Rogers regains many memories, the mind machines somehow denature the Super-Soldier serum in his blood and he is forced to ask ‘Am I Still Captain America?’ when his perfect warrior’s frame reverts to the frail, sickly mess it used to be.

New scripter Roger McKenzie begins his superb run of tales – with Sal B, Esposito & Tartaglione still illustrating – as SHIELD puts all its resources into restoring the One Man Army but is suddenly brought low by an invasion of body-snatching Red Skulls.

Back in fighting trim, the incursion is repelled by the resurgent Patriotic Paragon in ‘This Deadly Gauntlet!’ but the aftermath sees the too-often compromised Peacekeeping agency mothball many of its facilities. During the closure and destruction of the Manhattan branch, Cap is ambushed by the Constrictor in #228’s ‘A Serpent Lurks Below’ and subsequently gets his first real lead on the Corporationâ€¦

The trail leads back to Falcon and the Super Agents, and with ‘Traitors All About Me!’ the Cap exposes the rotten apples working for Kligger – and another enemy force – leading to a spectacular ‘Assault on Alcatraz!’ (McKenzie, Roger Stern, Sal Buscema & Don Perlin) to rescue hostage friends and end the Corporation’s depredations in Captain America #230â€¦

While this solely unfolding epic was entertaining readers here, fans of the Hulk were reading of equally shady shenanigans in his title (and Kirby’s Machine Man) where the Corporation’s West Coast Chief Curtiss Jackson was ruthlessly enacting his own perfidious plans. This volume concludes as parallel plotlines converge into a bombastic action-extravaganza as the crossover conclusion from Incredible Hulk #232. ‘The Battle Below’ by Stern, David Michelinie, Sal Buscema & Espositoâ€¦

The King’s commitment to wholesome adventure, breakneck action and breathless wonderment, combined with his absolute mastery of the comic page and unceasing quest for the Next Big Thrill, always make for a captivating read and this stuff is as good as any of his post Fourth World stuff. However, it does make the collection a bit of a double-edged treat. Engaging and impressive as the last two thirds of this volume is, the stories are worlds away in style, form and content from the perfect imaginative maelstrom of Kirby at his creative peak.

Not better but very, very different.

You can hate one and love the other, but perhaps it’s better to try to appreciate each era on its own meritsâ€¦

Fast-paced, action-packed, totally engrossing fights ‘n’ tights masterpieces no fan should ignore and above all else, fabulously fun tales of a true American Dreamâ€¦
Â© 1977, 1978, 1979, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

December 29, 2015December 24, 2015

Blackhawk Album #1

By Dick Dillin, Chuck Cuidera, Jack Kirby, Sheldon Moldoff, George Roussos, Mort Meskin, Nick Cardy, Frank Frazetta, Bill Ely, Bob Brown & various (Strato Publications)
No ISBN:

Here’s another long-lost oddity of the eccentric and exotic British comics market that might be of passing interest to curio collectors and unrepentant comics nerds like me.

The early days of the American comicbook industry were awash with both opportunity and talent and those factors happily coincided with a vast population hungry for cheap entertainment.

The new medium of comicbooks had no acknowledged fans or collectors; only a large, transient market open to all varied aspects of yarn-spinning and tale-telling – a situation which publishers believed maintained right up to the middle of the 1960s. Thus, in 1940 even though America was loudly, proudly isolationist and more than a year away from any active inclusion in World War II, creators like Will Eisner and publishers like Everett M. (â€œBusyâ€) Arnold felt Americans were ready for a themed anthology title Military Comics.

Nobody was ready for Blackhawk.

Military #1 launched at the end of May 1941 (with an August cover-date) and included in its gritty, two-fisted line-up Death Patrol by Jack Cole, Miss America, Fred Guardineer’s Blue Tracer, X of the Underground, The Yankee Eagle, Q-Boat, Shot and Shell, Archie Atkins and Loops and Banks by â€œBud Ernestâ€ (actually aviation-nut and unsung comics genius Bob Powell), but none of these strips, not even Cole’s surreal and suicidal team of hell-bent fliers, had the instant cachet and sheer glamour appeal of Eisner and Powell’s â€œForeign Legion of the Airâ€ led by the charismatic Dark Knight of the airways known only as Blackhawk.

Chuck Cuidera, already famed for creating the original Blue Beetle for Fox, drew ‘the Origin of Blackhawk’ for the first issue, wherein a lone pilot fighting the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 was shot down by Nazi Ace Von Tepp; only to rise bloody and unbowed from his plane’s wreckage to form the World’s greatest team of airborne fighting menâ€¦

This mysterious paramilitary squadron of unbeatable fliers, dedicated to crushing injustice and smashing the Axis war-machine, battled on all fronts during the war and – once the embattled nations had notionally laid down their arms – stayed together to crush international crime, Communism and every threat to democracy from alien invaders to supernatural monsters, consequently becoming one of the true milestones of the US industry.

Eisner wrote the first four Blackhawk episodes before moving on and Cuidera stayed until issue #11 – although he triumphantly returned in later years. There were many melodramatic touches that made the Blackhawks so memorable in the eyes of a wide-eyed populace of thrill-hungry kids. There was the cool, black leather uniforms and peaked caps. The unique, outrageous – but authentic – Grumman F5F-1 Skyrocket planes they flew from their secret island base and of course their eerie battle-cry â€œHawkaaaaa!â€

But perhaps the oddest idiosyncrasy to modern readers was that they had their own song (would you be more comfortable if we started calling it an international anthem?) which Blackhawk, AndrÃ©, Stanislaus, Olaf, Chuck, Hendrickson and Chop-Chop would sing as they plummeted into battle. (To see the music and lyrics check out the Blackhawk Archives edition but just remember this catchy number was written for seven really tough leather-clad guys to sing while dodging bulletsâ€¦

Quality adapted well to peacetime demands: superheroes Plastic Man and Doll Man lasted far longer than most of their Golden Age mystery man compatriots and rivals, whilst the rest of the company line turned to tough-guy crime, war, western, horror and racy comedy titles.

The Blackhawks soared to even greater heights, starring in their own movie serial in 1952. However the hostility of the marketplace to mature-targeted titles after the adoption of the self-censorious Comics Code was a clear sign of the times and as 1956 ended Arnold sold most of his comics properties to National Publishing Periodicals (now DC) and turned his attentions to becoming a general magazine publisher.

Most of the purchases were a huge boost to National’s portfolio, with titles such as GI Combat, Heart Throbs and Blackhawk lasting uninterrupted well into the 1970s (GI Combat survived until in 1987), whilst the unceasing draw and potential of characters such as Uncle Sam, the assorted Freedom Fighters costumed pantheon, Kid Eternity and Plastic Man have paid dividends ever since.

The â€œBlack Knightsâ€ had also been a fixture of the British comics reprint industry since the early 1950s, with distributor-turned publisher Thorpe & Porter releasing 37 huge (68-page, whilst the US originals only boasted 36 pages) monochrome anthologies to entrance thrill-starved audiences under their Strato imprint.

This commodious British collection combines a flurry of tales featuring the Air Aces, balanced out by an assortment of mystery and science fiction tales from DC’s wide selection of weird adventure anthologies (primarily culled in this instance from September and October 1957) and kicks off with the contents of (US) Blackhawk #117 and ‘The Fantastic Mr. Freeze’ wherein the paramilitary aviators battle a chilling criminal maniac with a penchant for cold crimes before tackling smugglers masquerading as Vikings in ‘The Menace of the Dragon Boat’.

‘How Not to Enjoy a Vacation’ was seen in many places; a Public Service feature probably written by Jack Schiff and definitely illustrated by Rueben Moreira, followed by prose poser ‘I Was a Human Missile’, relating a technician’s account of when he was trapped during the test firing of a missile – and how he escaped â€“ after which ‘The Seven Little Blackhawks’ become the targets of a ruthless mastermind exploiting their fame and reputations to plug his new movieâ€¦

Regrettably most records are lost so scripter-credits are not available (likely candidates include Ed â€œFranceâ€ Herron, Arnold Drake, George Kashdan, Jack Miller, Bill Woolfolk, Jack Schiff and/or Dave Wood) but the art remained in the capable hands of veteran illustrators Dick Dillin & Chuck Cuidera: a team who meshed so seamlessly that they often traded roles with few any the wiserâ€¦

Moreover although broadly formulaic, the gritty cachet, exotic crime locales, Sci Fi underpinnings and international jurisdiction of the team always allowed great internal variety within the talesâ€¦

Here however the uniformed escapades pause as House of Mystery #67 (October 1957) offers the sorry saga of ‘The Wizard of Water’ – a scurvy conman who accidentally gets hold of King Neptune’s trident as drawn by Bill Ely – and, after an always-engaging ‘Science Says You’re Wrong’ page and text terror tale ‘The Mummy’s Revenge’, counts down ‘Five Days to Doom’ (illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff from House of Mystery #66, September 1957) wherein a printer discovers a seemingly-prophetic calendar and uses it to track down aliens planning to destroy Earth.

‘The Legend of the Golden Lion’ (HoM #67 again and illustrated by George Roussos) then described a Big Game Hunter’s confrontation with a leonine legend of biblical pedigree whilst from the same issue the ever-excellent Bob Brown depicted a weird science-tinged crime caper about ‘The Man Who Made Giants’ before the Blackhawks soared back into action battling ‘The Bandit with a Thousand Nets’ – yet another audacious costumed thief with a novel gimmick (from Blackhawk #118, October 1957).

That issue also provided ‘The Blackhawk Robinson Crusoes’ wherein the Pacific Ocean proved to be the real enemy when an accident marooned the Aviators as they hunted the nefarious pirate Sting Ray, followed by much-reprinted western classic ‘The Town Jesse James Couldn’t Rob’ limned by Frank Frazetta and itself a reprint from Jimmy Wakely #4.

Text feature ‘From Caveman to Classroom’ charted the history of map-making after which Blackhawk #118 continues to completion as ‘The Human Clay Pigeons’ found the entire squadron helpless targets of international assassin/spymaster the Sniper, leaving the rest of this collection to astound and amuse with more genre-specific tales such as the Roussos illustrated psychological crime thriller ‘Sinister Shadow’ from House of Mystery #66 Sept 1957.

Also in that issue is Jack Kirby’s eerie mystery of best friends turned rivals ‘The Thief of Thoughts’, Moldoff’s jungle trek chiller ‘The Bell that Tolled Danger’ and Mort Meskin & Roussos’ tragic supernatural romance ‘The Girl in the Iron Mask’.

Rounding out the collection are selections from House of Mystery #64 (July 1957) beginning with Nick Cardy’s irony-drenched riff on the curse of Midas wherein a criminal subjects himself to ‘The Golden Doom’ – pausing briefly for Jack Miller’s prose expose of mind-readers ‘A Clever Code’ (from HoM #66) and another Public Service ad with teen star Binky explaining ‘How to Make New Friends’ (Schiff & Bob Oksner) – before Bill Ely delivers a murderous revelation regarding ‘The Artist Who Painted Dreams’.

A brace of Henry Boltinoff gag pages starring ‘Professor Eureka’ and ‘Moolah the Mystic’ then segues into Bernard Baily’s macabre depiction of criminal obsession in ‘My Terrible Twin’ (HoM #64) to bring the fun to a close on a spooky high note.

These stories were produced â€“ and reprinted here – at a pivotal moment in comics history: the last showing of broadly human-scaled action-heroes and two-fisted mystery-solvers in a marketplace increasingly filling up with gaudily clad wondermen and superwomen. The iconic blend of weary sophistication and glorious, juvenile bravado where a few good men with wits, firearms and an occasional trusty animal companion could overcome all odds was fading in the light of spectacular scenarios and ubiquitous alien encounters.

These are splendidly engaging tales that could beguile and amaze a whole new audience if only publishers would give them a chance. But whilst they won’t your best bet is to seek out books like this in specialist comic shops or online.

Go on; let your fingers do the hard workâ€¦

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