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The Legend of Korra: Book 4 – Balance – the Art of the Animated Series


By Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko & Joaquim Dos Santos (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-687-7

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Astonishing Art Attack for Kids Of All Ages… 9/10

Autumn is officially here, and huge men from many countries are running about very genteelly trying to cripple each other, so it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the Holiday Season is inescapably close. And after all, Christmas films have been playing on Sky Movies since early March…

Seriously though, if you’re prudent, it is time to start looking at gifts for your loved ones – or even family – and here’s something that will delight aspiring artists and lovers of fantasy television: one of the most evocative animation art-books I’ve seen in many a year…

Always foremost amongst the fascinating publishing add-ons to accompany major motion picture releases or mega-successful TV cartoon shows are the supplemental “Art of…” compendiums, such as this tome dedicated to the spectacular manga-inspired Nickelodeon hit The Legend of Korra.

A magnificent and stupendously oversized (312 x 246 mm) full-colour luxury hardcover, this is actually the last of a quartet of books tracing the progress of the critically acclaimed, commercially triumphant series, which aired for 52 episodes between 2012 and 2014 in the USA, divided into four chapter-seasons or “Books”: Air, Spirits, Change and Balance.

The show has been likened to Game of Thrones but that’s just lazy pigeon-hole reviewing so don’t be put off. You don’t even need to be a fan of the show to enjoy the astounding, gloriously enticing and visually breathtaking example of the collaborative animators’ art gathered within, but in case you’re looking for a bit of context here’s a little background…

Devised by Bryan Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino, the series began life as a 12-part continuation of Avatar: the Last Airbender – albeit, set seventy years later – on a fantastic world redolent of the works of Hayao Miyazaki (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, The Wind Rises), where certain momentous individuals are born with the power to manipulate the classic of Elements Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

All the eternal problems of greed, privation, venality and political ambition still plague the people though, and inevitably war and conquest are seen as the solution to obstacles by the worst humanity has to offer…

The series targeted older kids and was a huge hit, winning great approval for its frank treatment of real-world problems such as terrorism, dissent and socio-political unrest as well as for its forthright and groundbreaking treatment of race, gender and issues of sexual identity. It also looked stunning whilst doing it…

Dark Horse Editor Dave Marshall worked with DiMartino, Konietzko and Co-Executive Producer Joaquim Dos Santos to compile another eye-popping mix of production and concept art, storyboards, panoramic views, production sketches, designs, development art and models, a wealth of beautiful background paintings and a bountiful mass of model-sheets for each of the legion of characters which populated the show, all augmented with incisive commentary and colour from the creators, resulting in a splendid coffee-table chronicle which is utterly bewitching.

After Introductions from DiMartino, Konietzko & Dos Santos, the book cleverly divides into thirteen chapters, offering all those aforementioned construction-elements on an episode-by-episode basis. Thus ‘Chapter 1: After All These Years’ and ‘Chapter 2: Korra Alone’ display the characters and settings at the starting point whilst succeeding instalments ‘The Coronation ‘, ‘The Calling’, ‘Enemy at the Gates’, ‘Battle of Zaofu’, ‘Reunion’, ‘Beyond the Wilds’, ‘Operation Beifong’, ‘Kuvira’s Gambit’, ‘Day of the Colossus’ and the apocalyptic ‘Chapter 12: The Last Stand’ disclose the changes and developments in the cartoon cast and scenarios necessitated by the meticulously unfolding epic in a manner which is both captivating and revelatory.

The fantastic feast for the eyes then concludes with a selection of ‘Ancillary Art’ featuring character illustrations, poster art, unused roughs, book cover sketches, faux “photo-booth snapshots”, promo art, blog illustrations and prints from the series’ tribute art shows.

This is an awesome book that will certainly inspire artistically-inclined youngsters, and bereft fans of the broadcast iteration of The Legend of Korra can console themselves with the fact that Dark Horse are going to continue the adventure in comicbook form just as they have so successfully done with defunct shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly.
© 2015 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Green Arrow Volume 2: Here There Be Dragons


By Mike Grell, Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-4326-5

Premiering in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941, Green Arrow is one of very few superheroes to be continuously published (more or less) since the Golden Age of American comicbooks. At first glance this blatant amalgamation of Batman and Robin Hood seems to have very little going for him but he has always managed to keep himself in vogue.

Probably his most telling of many makeovers came in 1987, when, hot on the heels of The Dark Knight Returns, writer/artist Mike Grell was tasked with making him the star of DC’s second “Prestige Format Mini-Series”.

Grell was one of comics’ biggest guns at the time. Beginning his rise with a laudable run on Legion of Super-Heroes, he went on to draw the revived Green Lantern/Green Arrow and practically saved the company with his Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired fantasy epic Warlord. He had also notched up a big fan following illustrating many Aquaman, Batman and Phantom Stranger stories before establishing his independent creator credentials at First Comics with Starslayer and Jon Sable, Freelance…

In the grim’n’gritty late Eighties, it was certainly time for another overhaul of the Emerald Archer. Exploding arrows yes, maybe even net or rope arrows, but arrows with boxing gloves or paint brushes on them just wouldn’t wash with a newer, more sophisticated readership. Thus, in an era of corrupt government, drug cartels and serial killers, the evergreen survivor adapted and thrived under the direction of a creator famed for the uncompromising realism of his work.

The Longbow Hunters focused on the superhero’s mid-life crisis as he relocated to Seattle and struggled to come to terms with the fact that since his former sidekick Speedy was now a dad, Oliver Queen had technically become a grandfather. Beside long-time “significant other” Dinah Lance – AKA Black Canary – he began to simplify his life, but the drive to fight injustice never dimmed for either of them.

Dinah went undercover to stamp out a drug ring whilst Ollie became engrossed in the hunt for a psycho-killer dubbed “The Seattle Slasher”. The archer also learned of a second – cross-country – slayer who had been murdering people with arrows…

Eschewing gaudy costume and gimmicks, Queen reinvented himself as an urban hunter to stop such unglamorous, everyday monsters, stumbling into a mystery which led back to World War II involving the Yakuza, CIA, corporate America and even the Viet Nam war, even as it introduced a deadly female counterpart to the beleaguered bowman: an enigmatic, morally ambiguous archer called Shado…

The intricate plot, subtly blending three seemingly separate stories which were in fact one, still delivers a shocking punch even now in its disturbingly explicit examination of torture: a treatment which won the series undeserved negative press when it was first published. Although possibly tame to most modern tastes, this was eye-opening stuff in the 1980’s, which is a shame, as it diverted attention from the real issue… and that was a massive surge in quality and maturity.

The intricate, maturely sophisticated plot – interweaving themes of age, diminishing potency, vengeance and family – were another turning point in American comics and led to an ongoing series specifically targeting “Mature Readers”. The treatment and tone heavily influenced and flavoured today’s TV adaptation Arrow and has led to the release of Grell’s nigh-forgotten urban predator tales in a new range of economical, no-nonsense, full-colour trade paperbacks.

This second collection, primarily scripted by Grell with superbly efficient and powerfully understated art from Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano & Frank McLaughlin plus a few guest creators, re-presents Green Arrow volume 2, #7-12 (eccentrically cover-dated August through December plus “Winter” 1988), offering starkly authentic tales ripped from headlines that have as much impact and relevance today as they did nearly thirty years ago…

Sparse, Spartan and startlingly compelling, the drama begins – sans any preamble – with complex collaboration ‘The Powderhorn Trail’, written by Grell and Sharon Wright – who divided the Ollie and Dinah sections between them – with Randy DuBurque illustrating Black Canary portions whilst Ed Barreto pencilled the GA bits, after which Giordano & Arne Starr inked it all.

The round-robin episode sees the hunter (the series was notable in that other than on the cover, the soubriquet “Green Arrow” was never, ever used) stumbling upon a clue to drug-smuggling at his local carwash and having to explain to Dinah why he’s taking off for Alaska, even as she is approached by a casual acquaintance whose life she once saved, who inadvertently tips the Canary to a string of crimes-in-the-making…

The all-action conclusion (by Grell, Paris Cullins, Gary Martin & Giordano) then sees Ollie solo-stalking from Anchorage to deep in the North country on the trail of not just drug dealers and high-end car thieves but also opportunistic Tong smugglers trafficking illegal, poached and pointless Chinese herbal remedies under cover of the infamous Iditarod…

The remainder of this book deals with the eagerly-anticipated return of Shado in the 4-part ‘Here There Be Dragons’ (Grell, Hannigan, Giordano & Frank McLaughlin) which opens with the reunited Ollie and Dinah celebrating a birthday whilst still attempting to reconcile the changes in their life. As much as the after-effects of being brutally tortured still affect her, they trouble him far more…

Killing her tormentor haunts them both, as does the role the enigmatic Japanese archer played in the bloody drama. With the memories still poisoning the atmosphere, neither hero is particularly happy when sleazy CIA executive Greg Osborne comes back into their lives with another offer they’d better not refuse.

Far across the Pacific, Shado has fallen out of favour with the Yakuza masters who took a little girl and turned her over decades into a living weapon. When one arrogant young Oyabun overstepped his authority he turned her into an implacable foe of the entire organisation. Now to save face the criminal society must kill her at all costs…

In Seattle, Osborne blackmails Ollie, forcing him to go to the Philippines in search of the country’s gold reserves which have been hidden since the Japanese occupation in WWII. The current US administration wants to help its Eastern ally without being seen to be interfering, especially since a treasure map has surfaced and the Yakuza are using it to murderously appropriate the lost bullion.

The Japanese gangsters are simultaneously searching the islands for a mysterious dragon-tattooed woman archer who apparently has somehow won possession of the gold chart…

Dinah is unconvinced by Ollie’s reasons for going. She knows he is fascinated to the point of obsession with the exotic archer, but still stands aside as the hunter embarks for Hawaii. All too soon Queen’s specialised knowledge has put him on Shado’s trail, but that only makes him a perfect target…

A few weeks later, Ollie is slowly recovering from an arrow in the chest, nursed back to health from the edge of death by the beguiling tattooed woman; seduced as much by her arcane philosophy of archery as her beauty, compassion and air of fragility. In the quiet hours they grow closer and she shares her tragic origins with him, as well as the recent events which made her both free agent and fleeing fugitive.

Faced with the choice of defying Osborne or reluctantly handing her over to the American authorities pressurising him, Ollie is forced into a third option when Yakuza death-squads attack their isolated island retreat, prompting a prolonged chase through the region and a bloody trail impossible to cover-up…

The harassed quarry eventually double-back to Honolulu for a climactic final battle during which Ollie discovers how the Yakuza have been able to dog their steps so closely. He and Shado part for what he secretly prays is the last time, after which, armed with suspicions of exactly who Osborne is actually working for, Oliver confronts his blackmailer…

Terse scripts, intelligent, flawed human interactions, stunning action delivered through economical and immensely effective illustration and an unfailing eye for engaging controversy make these epic yarns some of the most powerful sagas American comics ever produced. Compiled here with a cover gallery by Grell (both fully painted and line art), Joe Rubinstein, Hannigan & Giordano, this compulsive retooling is yet another long-overlooked highpoint of superhero storytelling no lover of the genre will want to miss.
© 1988, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Grand Vizier Iznogoud


By Goscinny and Tabary, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-131-0

For the greater part of his far-too-short lifetime (1926-1977), René Goscinny was one of the most prolific and most-read writers of comic strips the world has ever seen. He still is.

Amongst his most popular and enduring comic collaborations are Lucky Luke, Le Petit Nicolas, Signor Spaghetti and, of course, Asterix the Gaul, but there were so many others, such as the despicably dark deeds of a dastardly usurper whose dreams of diabolical skulduggery perpetually proved to be ultimately no more than castles in the sand…

In the wake of the Suez crisis, the French returned Рat least in cartoon form Рto the hotly contested deserts when Goscinny teamed with sublimely gifted Swedish ̩migr̩ Jean Tabary (1930-2011) Рwho numbered Richard et Charlie, Grabadu et Gabaliouchtou, Totoche, Corinne et Jeannot and Valentin le Vagabond amongst his other hit strips Рto detail the innocuous history of imbecilic Arabian (im)potentate Haroun el-Poussah.

However as is so often the case, it was the strip’s villainous foil, power-hungry vizier Iznogoud who stole the show… possibly the conniving little blackguard’s only successful insurrection.

Les Aventures du Calife Haroun el Poussah was created for Record; the first episode appearing in the January 15th issue of 1962. A minor hit, the feature subsequently jumped ship to Pilote – a new comics magazine created and edited by Goscinny – where it was artfully refashioned into a starring vehicle for the devious little Tuareg toe-rag who had increasingly been hogging all the laughs and limelight.

Like all great storytelling, Iznogoud works on two levels: for the youngsters it’s a comedic romp with adorably wicked baddies invariably hoisted on their own petards and coming a-cropper, whilst older, wiser heads can revel in pun-filled, witty satires and marvellously surreal antics.

This same magic formula made its more famous cousin Asterix a monolithic global phenomenon and, just like the saga of that indomitable Gaul, the appallingly addictive Arabian Nit was first adapted into English by master translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge who made those Franco-Roman Follies so very palatable to British tastes.

In 1977 after Goscinny’s death, Tabary began scripting his own superbly stylish tales, switching to book-length complete adventures, rather than compilations of short, punchy vignettes which typified his collaborations.

As always the deliciously malicious whimsy is heavily dosed with manic absurdity, cleverly contemporary cultural critiques and brilliantly delivered creative anachronisms which serve to keep the assorted escapades bizarrely fresh and hilariously inventive.

Insidious anti-hero Iznogoud is Grand Vizier to affable, easy-going Caliph of Ancient Baghdad Haroun Al Plassid, but the sneaky little second-in-command has loftier ambitions, or as he is always declaiming “I want to be Caliph instead of the Caliph!”…

The retooled rapscallion re-debuted in Pilote in 1968, quickly becoming a massive European hit, with 29 albums to date (carried on by Tabary’s children Stéphane, Muriel and Nicolas), his own solo comic, a computer game, animated film, TV cartoon show and even a live-action movie.

Les grand Vizier Iznogoud was originally released in 1966, the very first of Dargaud’s album compilations, but here it’s the ninth exotically outrageous Cinebook tome, offering a fistful of trend-setting tales as the ambitious autocrat schemes to seize power from his gentle – but far from wise – sublimely oblivious Lord and Master.

Following the traditional introductory page introducing the regulars the devious deceptions resume with the Caliph planning a party, inspiring Iznogoud to visit a Magical Item Merchant in search of mystic booby-traps to get rid of the roadblock to his domination of Baghdad. What he finds is ‘The Genie’ inhabiting a pair of slippers and, convinced his mundane life as a minion is finally ended, the putrid plotter brings the fantastic footwear back to the palace.

Unfortunately the Genie is brutally literal and extremely quick off the mark, so when the slippers are lost amidst the hundreds of pairs already in situ, chaos and calamity ensue…

The next opportunity to overthrow his rightful master occurs when an invitation arrives from a neighbouring nabob: the incredible short-tempered and excessively violent Sultan Pullmankar…

That terrifying tyrant wants the Caliph to come visit on an ‘Official Trip’ and Iznogoud sneakily senses how little it would take to make the petrifying Pullmankar blow his top and topple Haroun.

The scheme is wickedly simple: by taking charge of the visit, the vile Vizier can easily orchestrate an unforgivable gaffe for which the Sultan will destroy Al Plassid, leaving his deputy to take over.

Typically however each carefully organised act of sabotage goes awry and before long Iznogoud’s short temper and quick mouth makes him the Sultan’s preferred object of retribution…

Throughout all his Machiavellian machinations the Vizier is assisted (let’s be charitable and call it that…) by his bumbling, brutish flunky crony Wa’at Alahf, but when that hulking worthy takes his annual vacation the contemptible Caliph-in-waiting finds himself in need of truly thuggish assistance and hires ‘The Strong-Arm Men’ to kidnap Haroun Al Plassid.

Sadly the nature of basic skulduggery doesn’t attract too many smart men – just single-minded, greedy ones – and a frustrating comedy of errors soon devolves into life or death for the wily weasel who thought he was in charge…

Broad slapstick gives way to pun-filled pandemonium when ‘The Horde’ of fearsome, all-conquering Genghis Khan fetches up at the border and triggers a wave of panic. Intrigued by the urban unrest that results the Vizier, through nefarious means, raises the greatest army in Baghdad’s history – with the intention of instantly surrendering rather than fighting – and letting the conqueror take the Caliph away in chains…

This plan would certainly have succeeded if only his opposite number Blujin (who wanted to be Khan instead of the Khan) hadn’t had the same idea…

Another normal day with Iznogoud petulantly plotting suddenly perks up when long-suffering Wa’at Alahf ushers in ‘A Lookalike’ of the despised Caliph. Merchant Aristides Kingsizos is the spitting image of Baghdad’s boss – except for a black eye – and food and money soon convince him to stick around until that heals and he can (albeit temporarily) replace the sublime ruler.

Cue a succession of appearance-altering manic mishaps which have the plotters playing frantic physiological catch-up whilst Haroun’s litany of ailments take their toll on the health and patience of the increasingly unhappy doppelganger…

These ancient antics conclude with a fantastic nautical voyage as the Vile Vizier meets mad mariner Cymbal the Sailor and learns of a terrifying destination that would truly be the answer to all his problems. It all seems perfect and just for once the Caliph is even eager to join him on a quiet fishing trip, utterly unaware that his faithful servants Iznogoud and Wa’at Alahf plan to maroon him on ‘The Giants’ Island’…

Of course it ends badly with all of them stuck in the forbidding monsters’ paradise but the fabled colossi are not quite what one would expect and harbour very different intentions for the schemers and the Caliph…

Such witty, fast-paced hi-jinks and craftily crafted comedy set pieces have made this addictive series a household name in France where “Iznogoud” is common parlance for a certain kind of politician: over-ambitious, unscrupulous – and frequently insufficient in inches (or should that be centimetres?).

Desiring to become “Caliph in the Caliph’s place” is a popular condemnation in French, targeting those perceived as overly-ambitious, and since 1992 the Prix Iznogoud is awarded annually to “a personality who failed to take the Caliph’s place”.

Nominees are chosen from prominent French figures who have endured spectacular failures in any one year and been given to the likes of Édouard Balladur (1995) and Nicolas Sarkozy (1999). The jury panel is headed by politician André Santini, who gave himself one after failing to become president of Île-de-France in regional elections in 2004.

When first released in Britain during the late 1970s and 1980s (and again in 1996 as a periodical comicbook) these tales made little impression, but at last this wonderfully beguiling strip has deservedly found an appreciative audience among today’s more internationally aware, politically jaded comics-and-cartoon savvy connoisseurs…
Original edition © Dargaud Editeur Paris, 1966 by Goscinny & Tabary. All rights reserved. This edition published 2012 by Cinebook Ltd.

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Evil Emperor Penguin


By Laura Ellen Anderson (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-910200-51-3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Outrageous Antics and Brilliant Buffoonery… 8/10

In January 2012 Oxford-based family publisher David Fickling Books launched an “old school” weekly comics anthology (aimed at girls and boys between 6 and 12) which revelled in reviving the good old days of British picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in its style and content.

In October 2015 The Phoenix will release its landmark 200th issue – the first British comic publication to reach that milestone since 2000AD – and as always each enchanting instalment offers humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy.

In the years since its premiere, the periodical has gone from strength to strength, winning praise from the Great and the Good, child literacy experts and the only people who really count – the totally engaged kids and parents who read it…

The magazine’s pantheon of superbly engaging strips inevitably led to a line of superbly engaging graphic novel compilations, the latest of which is a riotous romp starring a gloriously malign arch-wizard of scientific wickedness who will delight all readers with a profound sense of mischief and unbridled imaginations.

Conceived and created by children’s book illustrator and author Laura Ellen Anderson (Kittens, Snow Babies, My Brother is a Superhero {with David Solomons}), Evil Emperor Penguin lives in a colossal fortress beneath the Antarctic, working tirelessly towards total world domination, assisted by his stylish, erudite administrative lackey Number 8 and a cute, fuzzy, loyal, endlessly inventive little abominable snowman clone named Eugene. EEP had whipped up a batch of 250 but none of the others are quite like Eugene…

EEP appointed the hairy, bizarrely inventive tyke his Top Minion but somehow never managed to instil him with the proper degree of evilness. He is, however, a dab-hand with spaghetti hoops so it’s not a total loss…

Following a pin-up info page ‘EEP’s Evil Underground Headquarters (Top Secret!)’ which discloses all you’ll need to know before an assortment of vile vignettes begins with ‘A Stitch in Time’ wherein the cape-clad malcontent megalomaniac unleashes his Evil Emperor-bot of Icy Doom at the annual World Leaders’ Picnic.

Unfortunately, due to a totally typical cock-up with the plans by oafish underlings, the titanic tin-can terror’s ice-laser eyes have somehow been replaced by instant knitting machines…

The next invention doesn’t even get out of the lab before malfunctioning. ‘Have No Fear’ sees a nasty device that manifests personal terrors run amok in the lab, unleashing EEP’s domineering mother and sweet Eugene’s incredible, ghastly secret phobia before the inventors can reach the Emergency Self-Destruct Button, after which ‘Cat-astrophe’ introduces a terrifying rival in the Word Domination stakes who infiltrates the bad bird’s base as a cute and fluffy feline pet for Number 8…

When EEP’s giant spider robot immobilises the entire Earth in its ‘World Wide Web’ even Evil Cat is caught off guard and only Eugene’s unwholesome preoccupation with shiny, sparkly unicorns prevents total disaster.

The top-hatted, moustachioed, perfidious puss then attempts an amnesty with ‘The Truce: Part 1’. The fuzzy fiend is, of course, shamming friendship and the floral gift he proffers is in fact a deadly animated booby-trap which is only just defeated thanks to Eugene’s usual ineptitude in concluding episode ‘The Truce: Part 2’…

Would-be World Dictators are not a particularly forgiving bunch and when the fuzzy tyke accidentally unleashes the full force of EEP’s Ferocious And Really Terrible machine, ‘The Stinking Truth’ released in a Nuclear Stench Cloud prompts EEP to fire the Top Minion. His loss is Evil Cat’s gain though and Eugene soon settles in with an Evil Master who really appreciates him.

‘Please Alight for the Domination Station: Part 1’ soon finds them quashing the chilly, Caped Fiend’s scheme to transform Britain’s seat of government into the Houses of Penguinment but a pitched battle between super-science cat and brilliant gadget bird swiftly escalates beneath London streets in ‘Please Alight for the Domination Station: Part 2’ and Eugene’s cuteness-filled ultimate weapon sadly takes out his new boss by mistake…

As a result of that debacle the little snowman is briefly evaporated by Evil Cat and ends up floating wistfully over Antarctica as a ‘Head in the Clouds’ even as Evil Emperor Penguin faces his greatest challenge when his little sister Ruth – she prefers “Ruth-less” – pays a visit, sees what big brother is up to and decides that she too is going to rule the world in ‘Sibling Rivalry: Part 1’…

Things get even worse when Evil Cat interferes, holding Ruth-less hostage in ‘Sibling Rivalry: Part 2’ but everybody involved has foolishly forgotten that little turncoat Eugene is afflicted with niceness and a powerful conscience…

This initial outing exploring cartoon evil and daft depravity then concludes with an epic 4-part saga detailing ‘The Return’ when sweet-natured Eugene’s continual bodges at last force Evil Cat to fire him with extreme prejudice.

Hopeless, homeless and homesick, the shaggy savant is on his last legs when he’s taken in by jolly unicorn Keith, who nurses him back to health and flies him to Antarctica just in time for them both to become embroiled in the final fateful clash between Penguin and Cat. Naturally such devoted do-gooders can only get stuck in and engineer a magical reconciliation…

Rollercoaster-paced, hilariously inventive and happy to be silly when it counts, this is a captivating spree of smart, witty adventure, which will delight readers of all ages.
Text and illustrations © Laura Ellen Anderson 2015. All rights reserved.

Evil Emperor Penguin will be released on October 1st 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

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Barefoot Gen volume 10: Never Give Up


By Keiji Nakazawa (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-601-6

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Shocking, Momentous, Unmissable… 10/10

Constantly revised and refined by its creator and publishers around the world, Barefoot Gen is the quintessential anti-war tract and message of peace for humanity. It is angry, uncompromising and never forgives those who seek to perpetuate greed, mendacity and bloody-handed stupidity.

After many years of struggle the entire epic semi-autobiographical saga has being remastered as an unabridged and uncompromising 10-volume English-language translation by Last Gasp under the auspices of Project Gen, a multinational organisation dedicated to peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Hadashi no Gen was first seen in Japan began in 1973, serialised in Shūkan Shōnen Jampu (Weekly Boys Jump) following an occasional 1972 series of stand-alone stories in various magazines which included Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain) and Aru Hi Totsuzen (One Day, Suddenly).

The scattered tales eventually led Shonen’s editor Tadasu Nagano to commission the 45-page Ore wa Mita (I Saw It) for a Monthly Jump special devoted to autobiographical works. Nagano clearly recognised that the author – an actual survivor of the word’s first atomic atrocity – had much more to say which readers needed to see and commissioned the serial which has grown into this stunning landmark epic.

The tale was always controversial in a country which still generally prefers to ignore rather than confront its mistakes and indiscretions and, after 18 months, Hadashi no Gen was removed from Jump, transferred first to Shimin (Citizen), then Bunka Hyōron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyōiku Hyōron (Educational Criticism).

Just like his indomitable hero, Keiji Nakazawa never gave up and his persistence led to a first Japanese book collection in 1975, translated by the newly-constituted Project Gen team into Russian, English and then other languages including Norwegian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Indonesian, Tagalog and Esperanto.

The author completed his story in 1985 and his telling testament of survival has since been adapted into live-action and anime films, operas, musicals and live-action television dramas; all spreading the message across every continent and all generations.

This concluding volume brings the story of irrepressible, ebullient Gen and his friends to a close, once again pitting the forceful vitality of a select band of bomb survivors against the constant shadow of tragedy which implacably dogs them in the city slowly recovering from nuclear conflagration.

Here the indomitable idealistic individualist, having finally found a way to express his anger and effectively fight back against the idiocies and injustices of a world which lets Atom bombs fall and is seemingly incapable of learning from its mistakes, at last strikes back at the demagogues and monsters who still keep the bad old ways alive even after their people suffered the most hideous of consequences…

Barefoot Gen: Never Give Up begins following the inspirational ‘Gen’s Message: A Plea for Nuclear Abolition’ by the Translators and Editors and, as always, the other end of this monochrome paperback balances the essay with a biography of the author and invaluable data ‘About Project Gen’…

The graphic manifesto resumes in March 1953 as Gen prepares for his school graduation ceremony, despite seldom attending the hidebound institution for the past few years. Fellow bomb orphans Ryuta and quietly stolid Musubi – who have shared his shabby shack for years – are also in high spirits. They have been constantly selling dresses made by radiation-scarred outcast Katsuko on Hiroshima’s rebuilt street corners, diligently saving the proceeds until she has enough money to open a shop. Now the manager of one of the big stores wants to buy all the clothes they can manufacture to sell in his fashionable venues…

At the Graduation Ceremony Gen once again loses his temper when the faculty begin memorialising the past and celebrating the failed regime of the empire. Later, his savage confrontation with teachers and visiting dignitaries sparks a minor student revolution. For many of the juvenile delinquents it also presents an opportunity to inflict some long-delayed retribution on the educational bullies who have beaten them for years…

Encouragingly, however, not all the parents and attending adults take the teachers’ side and a potentially murderous confrontation is (rather violently) defused by Gen…

The boy’s life then changes forever when he bumps into a young woman and is instantly smitten. His pursuit of lovely Mitsuko will bring him into conflict with her brutal father, former employer and unrepentant war-lover Nakao; now a highly successful businessman going places in the reconstructed city…

Gen has been studying with elderly artist Seiga Amano, learning the skills his own father would have passed on had he not died in 1945. The mentor/father-figure encourages his protégé to pursue Mitsuko and it costs them both their jobs…

The seeming setback is in fact liberating and before long the star-crossed youngsters are in a fevered euphoria of first love. So engaged is Gen that he is not there when stolid Musubi is targeted by a cruel Yakuza honey-trap who addicts him to drugs and fleeces him of all Katsuko’s hard-earned savings…

With a happy ending so close he can touch it Gen is dragged back down to earth by a trio of tragedies which leave him near-broken and all alone. The legacies of the bombing have again cost him almost everything…

After a horrendous bout of death and vengeance-taking, Gen seems to have nothing to live for, but the despondent young man is saved by aged Amano who rekindles his spirit and wisely advises him to get out of Hiroshima and start his real life in the world beyond it…

Keiji Nakazawa’s broad cartoon art style has often been subject of heated discussion; his simplified Disney-esque rendering felt by some to be at odds with the subject matter, and perhaps diluting the impact of the message. I’d like to categorically refute that.

The style springs from his earliest influence, Osamu Tezuka, Father of Anim̩ and God of Manga who began his career in 1946 and whose works РShin Takarajima (New Treasure Island), Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) and so many more Рeased some of the grim realities of being a bomb survivor, providing escape, hope and even a career path to the young illustrator. Even at its most bleak and traumatic the epic never forgets to shade horror with humour and counterpoint crushing loss with fiery idealism and enthusiasm.

As such the clear line, solid black forms and abstracted visual motifs act as tolerable symbols for much of the horror in this parable. The art defuses but never dilutes the horror of the tragedy and its aftermath. The reader has to be brought through the tale to receive the message and for that purpose drawings are accurate, simplified and effective. The intent is not to repel (and to be honest, even as they are they’re still pretty hard to take) but to inform, to warn.

Bleak and violent but ultimately impossibly uplifting, Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen is without peer and its legacy will be pervasive and long-lasting. So now you’ve been warned, buy this book. Buy the entire series. Tell everyone you know about it. Barefoot Gen is an indisputable classic and should be available to absolutely everyone… © 2009 Keiji Nakazawa. All rights reserved.

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Ant-Man: Second Chance Man


By Nick Spencer, Ramon Rosanas & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9387-6

Scott Lang was an electronics engineer who turned, more out of boredom than necessity, to crime. Caught and imprisoned he diligently served his time and on release the ex-convict joined Stark Industries as a determinedly reformed character. Everything was fine until his daughter Cassie developed a heart condition which wiped out his savings and compelled Scott to look to old solutions to save her.

He was desperate to find the wherewithal to hire experimental cardiac surgeon Dr. Erica Sondheim and began casing likely money-spinning prospects, but in the meantime she was abducted by merciless industrialist Darren Cross who was currently using all the resources of his mega-corporation Cross Technological Enterprises to keep himself alive…

Now even more frantic for cash just to broach the impenetrable CTE complex, Lang went back to Plan A and burgled the lab of retired superhero Henry Pym, where he discovered the scientist/superhero’s old Ant-Man gear and size-changing gases. In a moment of madness Lang decided not to sell the stolen tech but instead used the outfit to break in to Cross’ citadel and rescue Sondheim…

That plan wasn’t so great either as the dying billionaire, in a desperate attempt to stay alive, had been harvesting the hearts of homeless people to power an experimental device which subsequently mutated him into a monstrous brute. Scott eventually triumphed; unaware until the very last that Pym (in his guise as Avenger Yellowjacket) had allowed him to swipe the suit and was backstopping him every inch of the way. With Cassie saved, Pym then invited Lang to carry on as the new Ant-Man…

After long and creditable stints with the Avengers and Fantastic Four – during which time he died and returned (even giving Doctor Doom the most comprehensive defeat of his entire evil life) – Lang eventually found himself just another victim of the economic downturn and went looking for a job with a former employer…

Scripted by Nick Spencer and illustrated by Ramon Rosanas (with colours from Jordan Boyd) Second-Chance Man collects the 5-issue Ant-Man volume 2 from March to July 2015 and opens with the down-on-his-luck Lang joining a cattle call of super-types auditioning to be Tony Stark’s new security chief…

The application process was a set-up but against all odds Lang persevered, proved Stark wrong and ultimately succeeded. He had to: his ex-wife had shown up whilst he was dead and won custody of Cassie…

Just when his life seemed to be going right for once, the former Mrs. Peggy Lang played her meanest trump card. Without warning she moved back to the family’s old home in Miami, removing Cassie from Scott’s superhero idiocies and fatherly influence. Without missing a beat Scott chucked his plush new Stark job and followed…

The second chapter finds our little hero targeted by failed super-villain the Grizzly, who has tracked him to Florida seeking revenge. Unfortunately, the Ant-Man he has a beef with is the third one (Eric O’Grady) and it takes all Scott’s fast-talking and ingenuity to escape getting squished.

When tempers cool Grizzly is truly apologetic and Scott simply takes it in stride. He has bigger problems, such as trying to set up a small business as a security consultant. Banks don’t like lending to ex-cons – especially ones who have been declared legally dead – and he still has the worst luck in the world…

At one bank a stunt he pulls to prove his hacking abilities results in a WWII robot stored in its vault running amok. Still, when Lang finds out where the bank got its own start-up funds from, he “leverages” them into extending him that business loan…

Flushed with success and revelling in Cassie’s approval, he then proves his sound business acumen by hiring Grizzly to be the muscle for Ant-Man Security Solutions, tragically unaware that the closest thing he has to an arch-enemy is already targeting him for destruction…

Erica Sondheim meanwhile has moved on since her clash with CTE and is less than ecstatic when the company again kidnaps her. Although Darren Cross is long dead, his deeply disturbed son Augustine is determined to resolve his daddy issues by resurrecting the old man. Now that he has the cardiac surgeon he only requires one more thing: the one-of-a-kind heart she fitted for young Cassie Lang.

…And the first Scott learns of it is after the deadly Taskmaster attacks him for old times’ sake…

By the time Ant-Man can act it’s too late. Cassie has been spirited away by billionaire Augustine’s super-villain uncle Crossfire and prepped for surgery. At his wits end, Lang listens to Grizzly’s half-baked suggestion and hires another villain – the biology-hating living data-store dubbed Machinesmith – to get him inside Cross’ Miami factory. When the blistering three-pronged attack finally gets the unlikely rescuers inside, the damage has been done: the blockbusting Darren Cross is back from the dead and hungry for revenge.

Sadly for the resurrected rogue, everybody has overestimated Erica Sondheim’s ingenuity and the lengths a frustrated, pissed-off desperate Ant-Man will go to when his kid is threatened…

Fast, furious, action-packed and astonishingly funny when it isn’t moving or scary, Second-Chance Man is a delicious confection perfectly designed to relaunch Marvel’s latest movie sensation and this slim full-colour compilation comes with a covers and variant gallery by Mark Brooks, Jason Pearson, Skottie Young, Phil Noto & Cliff Chiang.
© 2005 2008 Marvel. All rights reserved.

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Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles volume 1


By Max Allan Collins and Rick Fletcher (Checker Books)
ISBN: 978-0-97416-642-1

All in all comics have a pretty good track record on creating household names. We could play the game of picking the most well-known fictional characters on Earth (usually topped by Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, Superman and Tarzan) and in that list you’ll also find Batman, Popeye, Blondie, Charlie Brown, Tintin, Spider-Man, Garfield, and – not so much now, but once definitely – Dick Tracy…

At the height of the Great Depression cartoonist Chester Gould was looking for strip ideas. The story goes that as a decent guy incensed by the exploits of gangsters like Al Capone – who monopolised the front pages of contemporary newspapers – he settled upon the only way a normal man could fight thugs: Passion and Public Opinion.

Raised in Oklahoma, Gould was a Chicago resident and hated seeing his home town in the grip of such wicked men, with too many honest citizens beguiled by the gangsters’ charisma. He decided to pictorially get it off his chest with a procedural crime thriller that championed the ordinary cops who protected civilisation.

He took his proposal – “Plainclothes Tracy” – to legendary newspaperman and strips Svengali Captain Joseph Patterson, whose golden touch had already blessed such strips as Gasoline Alley, The Gumps, Little Orphan Annie, Winnie Winkle, Smilin’ Jack, Moon Mullins and Terry and the Pirates among others. Casting his gifted eye on the work, Patterson renamed the hero Dick Tracy and revised his love interest into steady girlfriend Tess Truehart.

The series launched on October 4th 1931 through Patterson’s Chicago Tribune Syndicate and quickly grew into a monumental hit, with all the attendant media and merchandising hoopla that follows. Amidst the toys, games, movies, serials, animated features, TV shows et al, the strip soldiered on, influencing generations of creators and entertaining millions of fans. Gould unfailingly wrote and drew the strip for decades until his retirement in 1977.

The legendary lawman was a landmark creation who influenced all American popular fiction, not simply comics. Its signature use of baroque villains, outrageous crimes and fiendish death-traps have pollinated the work of numerous strips (most notably Batman), shows and movies since then, whilst the indomitable Tracy’s studied, measured use – and startlingly accurate predictions – of crime fighting technology and techniques gave the world a taste of cop thrillers, police procedurals and forensic mysteries such as CSI decades before our current fascination took hold.

As with many creators in it for the long haul the revolutionary 1960s were a harsh time for established cartoonists. Along with Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon, Gould’s grizzled gangbuster especially foundered in a social climate of radical change where the popular slogans included “Never trust anybody over 21” and “Smash the Establishment”. The strip’s momentum faltered, perhaps as much from the move towards science fiction (Tracy moved into space and the character Moon Maid was introduced) and improbable, Bond-movie style villains as any perceived “old-fashioned” attitudes. Even the introduction of more minority and women characters and hippie cop Groovy Groove couldn’t stop the rot but the feature soldiered on regardless…

Max Allen Collins is a prolific and best-selling author of both graphic novels (Road to Perdition, CSI, Mike Mist, Ms. Tree) and prose thriller series featuring his crime-creations Nathan Heller, Quarry, Nolan, Mallory and a veritable pantheon of others. When Gould retired from the Tracy strip, the young author (nearly thirty!) won the prestigious role as scripter, promptly taking the series back to its roots for a breathtaking 11-year run, ably assisted by Gould as consultant even as his chief artistic assistant Rick Fletcher was promoted to full illustrator.

This splendidly enthralling monochrome paperback compilation opens with publisher Mark Thompson’s informative Introduction ‘Flatfoot’ and offers a frankly startling ‘Dick Tracy Timeline’ listing the series achievements and innovations from 1931 to 1988 before the captivating Cops-&-Robbers clashes recommence with Collin’s inaugural adventure ‘Angeltop’s Last Stand’ (3rd January – March 12th 1978) which rapidly sidelined all the fantastical science fiction trappings (Tracy’s adopted son Junior had married lunar princess Moon Maid) and returned to grittily ultra-violent suspense as old friend Vitamin Flintheart is targeted for assassination.

With the senior detectives assistants Sam Catchem and Lizz Worthington on the case it is soon clear that the assault is part of a plan to make Tracy suffer. Solid investigation soon turns up two suspects, relatives of old – and expired – enemies Flattop Jones and The Brow and familial revenge is revealed as the motive…

Sadly not all the Police Department’s resources are enough to prevent aggrieved daughter Angeltop Jones and the new Brow from abducting Tracy. Tragically for the vengeful felons, the grizzled crimebuster might be old but he’s still inventive and indomitable and a cataclysmic confrontation leads to a fatal conflagration at the place of Flattop’s demise…

The next tale featured an original Gould villain making a surprise comeback in the ‘Return of Haf-and-Haf’ (March 13th – June 11th) as maniac murderer Tulza Tuzon – whose left profile had been hideously scarred with acid – was released from the asylum, rehabilitated by modern psychology and groundbreaking plastic surgery…

Of course only his face was fixed and the fiend quickly tried to murder ex-fiancée Zelda who had betrayed him to the cops a decade previously. Tracy was on hand to save her life but unable to prevent her from enacting grisly retribution on her attacker, leaving Tuzon frantically in need of fresh cosmetic repair.

Sadly the unscrupulous surgeon who fixed him on the State’s dime wanted a huge amount of clandestine cash to repeat the procedure and the stage was soon set for doom and tragedy on a Shakespearean scale…

This first Collins collection concludes with an epic minor classic that harked back to Tracy’s first published case. ‘Big Boy’s Revenge’ (also known as ‘Big Boy’s Open Contract’ ran from 12th June 1978 to January 2nd 1979) and saw the unexpected return of the thinly disguised Al Capone analogue Tracy had sent to prison at the very start of his career.

Decades later Big Boy, still a member of the crime syndicate known as The Apparatus, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and wants to take the cop who brought him down with him.

Ignoring and indeed eventually warring with the other Apparatus chiefs, the dying Don puts an open contract for $1,000,000 on Tracy’s head and lies back to watch the fireworks as a horde of hit-men and -women zero in on the blithely unaware Senior Detective…

The resulting collateral damage costs the hero one of his nearest and dearest, removes most of the strip’s accumulated sci fi trappings and firmly resets the series in the grim and gritty world of contemporary crime. The Good Guys triumph in the end but the cost is shockingly high for a family strip…

Dick Tracy has always been a fantastically readable feature and this potent return to first principles is a terrific way to ease yourself into his stark, no-nonsense, Tough-Love, Hard Justice world.

Comics just don’t get better than this…
© Checker Book Publishing Group 2003, an authorized collection of works © Tribune Media Services, 1978, 1979. All characters and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

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If You Steal


By Jason (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-854-0

Christmas Gift Recommendation: A comics lover’s dream made real… 9/10

Jason is secretly John Arne Saeterrøy: born in Molde, Norway in 1965 and an overnight international cartoon superstar since 1995 when his first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) won that year’s Sproing Award (Norway’s biggest comics prize). He won another Sproing in 2001 for the series Mjau Mjau and in 2002 turned almost exclusively to producing graphic novels.

A global star among the cartoon cognoscenti, he has won many major awards from all over the planet. Jason’s work always jumps directly into the reader’s brain and heart, utilising the beastly and unnatural to gently pose eternal questions about basic human needs in a soft but relentless quest for answers. That you don’t ever notice the deep stuff because of the clever gags and safe, familiar “funny-animal” characters should indicate just how good a cartoonist he is…

The stylised artwork is delivered in formalised page layouts rendered in a minimalist evolution of Hergé’s Claire Ligne style, solid blacks, thick outlines and settings of seductive simplicity – augmented by a deft and subtle use of flat colour which enhances his hard, moody, suspenseful and utterly engrossing Cinema-inspired world.

The superbly understated art acts in concert with his dead-on, deadpan pastiche repertoire of scenarios which dredge deep from our shared experience of old film noir classics, horror and sci fi B-movies and other visual motifs which transcend time and culture, and the result is narrative dynamite.

This latest hardback compilation collects eleven new short yarns and opens with the eponymous and eerie ‘If You Steal’, wherein cheap thug Paul perpetually risks everything and the one person who keeps him feeling alive in search of quick cash, only to lose it all in the end after which ‘Karma Chameleon’ finds a small desert community dealing with the discovery of a giant, carnivorous and extremely predatory lizard which nobody seems able to see. Good thing masturbation-obsessed boffin Dr. Howard Jones and his long-suffering daughter Julia are in town…

The deliciously wry and whimsically absurdist Samuel Beckett spoof ‘Waiting for Bardot’ then segues neatly into a dashing mystery of masked derring-do as ‘Lorena Velazquez’ eventually tires of waiting for her ideal man to finish off a necessarily interminable and horrific army of villains prior to doling out a maiden’s traditional rewards whilst a fugitive murderer narrates his own paranoia-fuelled downfall after his ‘New Face’ briefly tempts him with love and the never-to-be-achieved promise of peace and safety…

A series of six faux horror comics covers combines to relate the trials of chilling romances in ‘Moondance’ and the classic fear theme extends into a rip-roaring battle against the undead in ‘Night of the Vampire Hunter’ and ‘Polly Wants a Cracker’ follows the other unique career path of artistic legend/assassin-for-hire Frida Kahlo whilst a junkie musician pushes his luck against some very bad guys because ‘The Thrill is Gone’ before ‘Ask Not’ takes a trawl through history from Stonehenge in 2583 BC to Salon de Provence in 1554 AD (courtesy of Nostradamus) to 1960s Cuba, revealing the truth behind the assassination of JFK and Abraham Lincoln and what parts Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby actually played in that millennial plot: a parallel worlds yarn like no other…

The book ends with a stunning, deeply moving graphic examination of dementia which is both chilling and oddly-heart-warming as aging Emma deals with the scary creatures who keep taking away the names of things in ‘Nothing’, proving once more that behind the innocuous-seeming cartoons and contemporary fairy tale trappings Jason’s work is loaded with potent questions…

If You Steal resonates with Jason’s favourite themes and shines with his visual dexterity, and skewed sensibilities. disclosing a decidedly different slant on secrets and obsessions. Primal art supplemented by sparse and spartan “Private Eye” dialogue, enhanced to a macabre degree by solid cartooning and skilled use of silence and moment, all utilised with devastating economy, affords the same quality of cold, bleak yet perfectly harnessed stillness which makes Scandinavian crime dramas such compelling, addictive fare.

These comic tales are strictly for adults yet allow us all to look at the world through wide-open young eyes. They never, however, sugar-coat what’s there to see…
If You Steal is © 2015 Jason. All rights reserved.

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The Bozz Chronicles


By David Michelinie & Bret Blevins, with John Ridgway and various (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-79851-6

Thanks to unseasonably chilly weather and a total plethora of astoundingly great graphic tracts in my reviews tray I’ve decided to brave the wrath of the readership by bring up the dreaded “C” word almost a month earlier than usual. I make no apologies. This is a book everybody will have on their wants list…

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A timeless, captivating delight… 9/10

During the 1980s the American comics scene experienced an astounding proliferation of new titles and companies in the wake of the creation of the Direct Sales Market. With publishers now able to firm-sale straight to specialised, dedicated-retail outlets rather than overprint and accept returned copies from general magazine vendors, the industry was able to risk and support less generic titles whilst authors, artists and publishers could experiment without losing their shirts.

In response to a wave of upstart innovators, Marvel developed a line of creator-owned properties at the height of the subsequent publishing explosion, launching a number of idiosyncratic, impressive series in a variety of formats under the watchful, benevolent and exceptionally canny eye of Editor Archie Goodwin. The delightfully disparate line was dubbed Epic Comics and the results reshaped the industry.

One of the most significant hits was a winsomely engaging blend of fantasy, criminology and urban myth with a beautifully simple core concept: “Sherlock Holmes from Outer Space”. Even that painfully broad pitch-line does the series it became an unforgivable disservice: The Bozz Chronicles was – and is – so much more. It became one of Epic’s earliest sensations and the reasons it never continued beyond its initial 6-issue run (spanning December 1985-November 1986) had nothing to do with poor sales…

The mesmerising mix of Victoriana, super-science and sorcery might even be considered as an early precursor if not progenitor of the visual form of the literary genre K. W. Jeter dubbed “steampunk” in 1987…

Preceded with a Foreword from Brandon Graham, Dave Michelinie’s self-deprecating Introduction ‘Blame it on Spielberg’ plus fond reminiscences from originating illustrator Bret Blevins, an amazing moment in comics history repeats itself as ‘The Bozz Chronicles’ opens on Mandy Flynn, a fiercely independent young woman plying her trade – frequently described as the World’s Oldest – in the sooty, sordid environs of London during the latter quarter of the 19th century.

Saucy, sassy, sensitive and lovely, she is bringing her latest client up to her attic abode when the incipient physical transaction is suddenly curtailed by the discovery of a strange-looking foreigner trying to commit suicide in her rooms…

As her toff flees in terror, Mandy tries to talk down the intruder and realises just how strange he truly is: eight feet tall, pale yellow in complexion, with a hairless, pointy head. He is also gentle, exceptionally well-spoken, has a long tail and can fly…

Six months later Mandy and the creature she calls Bozz are doing exceptionally well. He still claims to be from another world and certainly acts like no human she has ever met: he cannot tell lies, communicates with animals, constantly wanders around naked and absorbs like a sponge every scrap of knowledge she can provide for him through books and papers.

Bozz misses his home: a far-distant world of benevolent intelligences he has no chance of ever returning to. So much so that he was going to kill himself as much through boredom as loneliness and Mandy’s brilliant idea to keep him alive was to engage his prodigious intellect in puzzles. She set them up as consulting detectives based in the less than fashionable Maracot Road, using the profits to better her own hand-to-mouth existence in the process.

The only problem is that when no challenging cases manifest, Bozz’s thoughts instantly return to ending it all…

Thankfully, just as she is preparing to hide all the sharp objects again, a truly unique mystery knocks on the door and the secretary of Lord Giles Morgan requests their help. According to the Press, her employer – and prospective Prime Minister – recently escaped an assassination attempt. She however was with him when it happened and claims he did not survive. In fact, after having made further discreet inquiries she found her master had in fact been dead for some three years prior to the attack…

As Bozz excitedly accepts the commission Mandy is convinced they are dealing with a madwoman, but when their client is destroyed by a bolt of lightning as soon as she leaves their office the retired demimondaine is forced to think again…

The first step is naturally to interview Lord Giles and, although the shady politician proves no help at all, Bozz gleans much useful information from the caged bird in Morgan’s study and is soon on the trail of an aristocratic secret society utilising vast funds and weird science to resurrect the dead in pursuit of a deadly and regressive political and economic agenda…

Sadly even the alien outcast’s uncanny powers prove less than enough to stop the plotters, but Mandy has gifts of her own and beguiles a rowdy American ex-prize-fighter she found in a bar to assist in the climactic final confrontation…

Besotted, punch-drunk Salem Hawkshaw then joins the detectives to handle any future physical exigencies that might occur, but despite everything he sees is never convinced his big, bemused boss is anything other than a crazy circus freak.

The new comrades are all utterly aware that their sudden success has brought them to the attention of Scotland Yard’s most privileged operative and the trio have barely caught their breath before Inspector Colin Fitzroy comes calling, deviously offering them a case the police have no interest in.

Apparently a drunk had seen demons in Park Lane…

As the shamefully-employed scion of Britain’s richest family continues trying to impress the ravishing Miss Flynn, further arcane incidents are occurring, ‘Raising Hell’ in the capital’s swankiest district and before long the Private Inquiry agents have found troubled Samantha Townes whose husband has fallen foul of the vilest black magic and his own gullibility…

Wealthy Inspector Fitzroy has his own, more pressing problems. A rash of exceedingly orderly murders has turned up odd artefacts which defy explanation by any expert Scotland Yard can muster: things that cannot possibly have been built by any craftsman on Earth…

In ‘The Tomorrow Man’ (inked by Al Williamson) a trip to the funfair does little to alleviate Bozz’s boredom but does lead to the gently gullible giant being gulled and lured away by a wily pack of street children who use his powers and naivety to go on a crime spree.

Later, when the shady Fair-owner tries to kidnap Bozz for his freak show, the ultimately unsuccessful attack leaves the alien blind and kids’ ringleader Oliver brings him to underworld surgeon Dr. Paine, who runs a subterranean clinic as a sideline to pay for his researches into time travel. He sees in the alien a perfect opportunity to advance the causes of science…

Redeemed by Bozz’s unflagging trust, Oliver at last realises the enormity of his betrayal and fetches Mandy and Salem to effect a rescue, but by the time they arrive, chronal chaos is erupting everywhere…

As engaging and enthusiastic as the tales have been until this point, ‘Were-Town!’ is (at least for history-buffs and especially Londoners) a truly stand-out moment in the series as the ineffably marvellous John Ridgway stepped in to illustrate a pithy, punchy deep midwinter tale disclosing something of Mandy’s past whilst introducing her reprehensible absentee father Egan Thorpe.

We’ve always whined in Britain about how Us and Ours are represented in American productions and, despite the obviously strenuous and diligent researches Michelinie & Blevins undertook, frequently the tone of their Bozz Chronicles often smacks more of Hollywood than Cricklewood. It’s not something that non-Brits will even notice, but for us aging “Cockney Sparrers” the differences are there to be seen.

Such is not the case (as gratefully acknowledged by the creators themselves in their respective, respectful Introductions) when Ridgway applied his meticulous line and copious pictorial acumen – gleaned from decades drawing a variety of British strips for everything from Commando Picture Library to Warrior to 2000AD to The Famous Five – to a genuinely spooky and photographically authentic tale of deranged artists, dastardly squires and infernal paintings which come to unholy life in the snow-drenched rural wilds of Southeast England…

Michelinie & Blevins reunited for ‘The Cobblestone Jungle’ as Inspector Fitzroy again called upon the Consulting Detectives; impelled as much by his lusty fascination with Amanda as the demands of an African king who needed the assistance of the British Empire if he was to guarantee a steady flow of diamonds from his equatorial realm…

Apparently a white man had stolen the tribe’s sacred jewel and brought it to his hidden jungle playground in London. Thanks to some canny legwork from little Oliver the detective trio are able to track the bounder, but nobody expected the filched jewel to be capable of emitting destructive death-rays…

After a spectacular battle high above the city Bozz was able to end the threat, but his biggest surprise came when the grateful king asked to thank him personally and revealed a millennia-old connection to Bozz’s extraterrestrial race…

It all culminated in a desperate voyage to the Dark Continent for Mandy, Bozz, Salem and Fitzroy in search of ‘King Solomon’s Spaceship’ and the achievement of the marooned alien’s most fervent desires… unless of course, a gang of German raiders or Mandy’s own selfish self-interest somehow ruined everything…

Rounded out by a superb ‘Bonus Artwork and Cover Gallery’ from Blevins and closing with an effusive ‘Afterword by John Ridgway’, this is a long-overdue collection of a magnificent moment in comics collaboration which will now hopefully reclaim its place at the forefront of fantasy fables.

The Bozz Chronicles © 1985, 1986, 2015 David Michelinie. Introduction © 2015 David Michelinie. Foreword © 2015 Brandon Graham. Afterword © 2015 John Ridgway. All rights reserved.

The Bozz Chronicles will be in stores from September 16th 2015 and is available for pre-order now. Check out www.doverpublications.com, your internet retailer or local comic shop.

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The Erotic Adventures of Space Babe 113


By John Maybury (Soaring Penguin Press)
ISBN: 978-1-908030-16-0

I have to declare an interest before I review this splendid and long-awaited collection. John Maybury is, as well as a fellow survivor of the Comic Creators Guild and my editor on the Guild’s Annuals (still available at most Unicorn Fairs and any Galifreyan used-stuff emporium), one of many people I have taught in more than twenty-five years as a tutor of comic skills at various organisations ranging from the London College of Printing, through the London Cartoon Centre to the Cartoon Art Trust.

I think it’s only fair to state, however, looking at how few of those hundreds, if not thousands, of students have gone on to produce outstanding comic work, that we’d be deluding ourselves in assuming I had any effect whatsoever.

I’ve known John for decades both professionally, socially and on occasion alcoholically and feel the Convent-school-inculcated need to admit this long association. Of course you might say it’s no fault of mine if extremely talented and dedicated people congregate around me like shining planets around a dying sun contemplating becoming a big black hole…

Confession over, and so to work…

The Erotic Adventures of Space Babe 113 is a remarkably original and ferociously addictive landmark of comedic science fiction from a creator not content to simply tell stories, but determined also to constantly challenge himself in the process. Redolent with overtones of Barbarella (Jean Claude Forest’s comic more than the Jane Fonda movie), The Ballad of Halo Jones, Red Dwarf, Little Annie Fanny and a dozen other things I could cite to show off, this is the intoxicating tale of a sexy ingénue on a five-year commercial mission to the stars with a motley mob of misfits on the claustrophobic and muddled European Union ship Marco Polo.

Although nominally the ship’s Catering Officer, Space always seems to get the tackiest jobs – such as testing the fetishistic Off World Battle Garb – during a mercilessly mercantile mission to sign up new trading partners.

Perhaps it’s because she’s a bit of a “looker”, not that academically accomplished and reputedly far from chaste? Whatever the actual reason, the Earth-based overseer of this particular mission – Media Director 667 – has already increased company revenue streams by forward-selling the “adults-only” Ship’s Logs to broadcast franchises and so most of Space’s shipboard duties tend to end with her undraped and panting.

Regrettably for all the cunning entrepreneurs, although free, healthy and over 21, SB 113 has faithfully promised her boyfriend to stay exclusive until they’re reunited, even though that tends to make her a little short on patience and quite ready to stroppily protest the stream of strange orders perpetually foisted upon her by immediate superiors Lesbian Sex Officer Mrrf M’n’cha and Marketing & Sales Officer Star 406…

At least she can share her woes with Laundry Officer Rince Cycle 335 – whose sympathetic ear almost makes up for his permanently sneering at her for being a glorified microwave-oven operator…

Not long into the mission the first crisis occurs after cosmic rays mutate the female crew-members’ underwear and only after a valiant struggle are the rampaging killer-skivvies ejected from the ship. Sadly, it does mean that the women might be stuck in Scottish Engineer‘s hastily cobbled-together titanium-steel knickers or reduced to going commando, and further danger lurks since not all the deadly drawers have been banished…

Eventually stability returns in time for the planned rendezvous with the fabled ‘Lirka’ and on Marco Polo assorted crewpersons prepare for their first trade conference with the asexual Aardvarks. Tensions are high but at least all are confident that there will be no further assaults from treacherous or homicidal underwear.

Unbeknownst to most of the Terran delegation, however, lead negotiator Star 406 has been secretly instructed to use any means necessary to compel the Lirka to purchase human porn. She regretfully realises that in such an impossible situation she will need every possible advantage and that means the always-aggravating Space Babe 113.

Can two such widely differing species find some common ground to build upon? In the strangest, stickiest manner imaginable the answer is categorically “yes”, but sometimes getting what you want isn’t really a good thing, as can be seen when the conference devolves into a wild, narcotically-deranged strip-poker party…

Barely surviving the catastrophic aftermath of the all-too successful trade-conference with the androgynous ant-eaters, Space crashes a hastily procured escape pod onto a desolate jungle world dubbed ‘Foliage’ where she must eke out a lonely existence and pray for rescue. She has her snarkily sarcastic and judgemental new AI knickers to talk to, but other than them, is she truly alone?

At last convinced that something on the lush planetoid is trying to communicate with her, she undertakes an epic quest and falls for the oldest line in interstellar seduction. Is she the last hope for a dying race to return from the very edge of extinction, or is it just that Earth Girls really are Easy?

At least she’s still kept her promise, if you only count humans…

Rince had also ditched on the green world and before too long he and Space were rescued by U.S. starship George Dubya: a straight-laced, traditional exploration vessel which only releases “Family Viewing” Mission Logs. ‘Stones’ finds Media Director 667 – terrified of lost sales or shared profits – frantically informing his superiors of the disaster before determining to get his star back or get rid of her before the Yanks get all the cash and glory.

He discloses that Space’s knickers have an illegal patch and are operating without the curbs of the Three Laws of Lingerie: if necessary they can be manipulated and compelled to self-destruct…

Things are pretty desperate already aboard the US starship: Space has met the bosom-heavingly gorgeous archaeologist Dr. Standing Stones and, despite a complete lack of qualifications, has claimed to be one herself, ready and so-very-willing to join his expedition to the ancient world of ‘Sand’ spinning beneath them. She is hot, bothered and blithely unaware of EU Commands’ murderous plan, busily losing another ill-tempered battle with her surly underwear which cruelly claims it is no longer her size…

She is plagued by hot, sweaty dreams as ‘Mud’ then sees the history-hunters encountering one of the most powerful and ancient species in existence. Tragically the puissant Grand T’Kleep of Tyracus III understandably takes great umbrage at being used in a most unseemly manner for a moment of urgently needed libidic relief by the soft, curvy one and decides to put her entire race on trial. As the representative of humanity SB 113 must defeat the mighty Bolboi champion in a sacred duel which looks remarkably like mud-wrestling or her entire species will excised from existence 35,000 years before they began annoying proper civilised beings.

Good thing Space was Academy Champion three years running…

Meanwhile on the George Dubya the Americans have cracked the murderous coded message from MD 667 and begin countermeasures…

Chapter 7 slightly diverts to offer an ‘Origin’ revealing how a simple wannabe fashion designer encountered the wrong Careers Bot and ended up an unwilling astronaut Catering Officer, as well as her hidden history with the frustrated creature who became Media Director 667 before ‘Jet’ finds Star 406 fanatically attempting to complete the explosive sabotage mission even as MD 667 – under orders from his own boss – reluctantly leads a rescue mission to pick up his out-of-control minions as a fantastic, millennia-old plan of cosmic fiddling slowly, teasingly unfolds…

With star ships and space stations in imminent danger of destruction the explosive climax sees Space forced into extremely rash behaviour as she tussles with Star to save Dr. Stones and perhaps all of us thanks to ‘Wings’, common sense, good luck and sheer guts…

Raunchy, hilarious, surreal and astoundingly clever, but still deftly striding the right side of the line between charm and prurience, Space Babe 113 is not only great saucy smut and potent parody but also solid, big sky science fiction treated with all the irreverence it deserves and I for one can’t wait for her snooty talking pants to spin off into their own mini-series. Until that moment however this splendid, long overdue chronicle concludes with a few delicious shorts including ‘Space Babe’s Handy Guide to Lesbian Sex for Single Girls’ and ‘The Space Probe: an investigation of the Seamier Side of Sequential Art’.

There is a long tradition of sexy spacewomen in comics, films, TV and even novels and this gently racy, technically torrid tale ranks among the highest in those arenas. The humour is both broad and gentle, with much more of the Carry On movie rather than Emmanuelle about it, although many subversive side-splitters do sneak in, and there are oodles of deep-genre, comic book and computer techie in-jokes for those in the know.

Remember I said he liked to challenge himself? Although able to draw fabulously well in a variety of representational styles, John has sweetened the pot for us all by setting himself a daunting task. This is a glamour book which has successfully abandoned pseudo or mega-pneumatic realism in favour of reductionist abstraction which has echoes of Vaughn Bodé, Alex Niño and graffiti street art. It is to his credit that his diligence has incontrovertibly succeeded. She may just be large blobs of thick black and white, but she is certainly a tasty little minx.

Well-rounded, captivating and impossible to put down. Buy it and decide if I mean her or it, why don’t you?
© 2015 John Maybury. All rights reserved.