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Justice League: Midsummer’s Nightmare


By Mark Waid, Fabian Nicieza, Jeff Johnson, Darick Robertson, John Holdredge, Hanibal Rodriguez & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-338-4

There are many facets that contribute to the “perfect mix” in the creation of any continuing character in comics. How much more so then, when the idea is to build a superhero team that will stand out from the seething masses that already exist?

In the mid-1990s, the iconic squad which truly ushered in the return of superheroes to comics suffered one of its periodic plunges in quality and popularity and ignominiously folded.

Of course the Justice League of America is too hallowed, venerated and valuable to fester in oblivion for any length of time and was quickly reconvened in a fresh new interpretation which quickly became the breakout book of 1997, courtesy of Grant Morrison & Howard Porter (see JLA: New World Order).

However, the scene was set for them by a strikingly exuberant miniseries which acted as a reassessment and reintroduction of the World’s Greatest Superheroes. Since the Silver Age’s greatest team-book died a slow, painful, embarrassing death, not once but twice, DC were taking no chances with their next revival and tapped Big Ideas wünderkind Morrison to reconstruct the group and the franchise.

However he was to a large extent riffing on groundwork laid by writers Mark Waid and Fabian Nicieza – as well as the impressive illustration of Jeff Johnson, Darick Robertson, John Holdredge & Hanibal Rodriguez – in a captivating no-nonsense miniseries which went a long way towards regenerating interest…

This slim sleek compilation (collecting Justice League: Midsummer’s Nightmare #1-3 from September-November 1996) opens with an effusive ‘Intro’ from Morrison before a world of confusion is revealed in ‘True Lies’ where comicbook artist Kyle Rayner struggles to meet the deadline for his assignment. He can’t understand why anybody would want to read about fictitious masked mystery men characters like Green Lantern when the entire planet is in the midst of a cosmic revolution.

All over earth humans are spontaneously developing super-powers as an inexplicable genetic “spark” triggers the next stage in evolution. Millions of superhumans are manifesting with no rhyme or reason whilst others seem doomed to remain merely mundane. It’s like a comicbook plot come to life…

Amongst the ordinary mortals left behind are reporter Clark Kent, philanthropist Bruce Wayne, schoolteacher Diana Prince, college lecturer Wally West and corporate compliance officer Arthur Curry. Elsewhere, separated by immeasurable gulfs, scientist J’onn J’onzz leads an idyllic life under the skies of Mars with his wife and daughter…

The dreams of all these mortals are troubled. They have vague, impossible recollections of beings colourful heroes in a world filled with their like, not this savage situation where selfish “Sparkers”, intoxicated with newfound power, squabble and bicker like bullies and thugs in a primarily plebeian universe…

In a hidden place, an immortal mastermind manipulates a super-villain the entire world has forgotten, using his power to reshape dreams to achieve an eons-long plan. However there’s far more to heroism than powers and each mentally diminished champion individually struggles to find the disturbing deeper truth they know has been somehow taken from them…

The spell of targeted amnesia starts to unravel when journalist Kent somehow survives being caught in a savage exchange between rival sparker gangs. Shocked back to Kryptonian normality he starts tracking down his vanished costumed contemporaries…

Elsewhere relative neophyte legacy heroes Wally and Kyle have their own epiphany moments as the second chapter ‘To Know a Veil’ finds a restored Superman and Batman systematically unravelling the sinister plot.

In a hidden sanctum Machiavellian Know Man further exploits the reality-warping gifts of his slave Doctor Destiny to create a team of sparkers specifically designed to eradicate the re-emergent heroes. Meanwhile Aquaman and Wonder Woman have united with the World’s Finest team in time to be ambushed by an army of sparkers. The battle is in no way certain until the restored Flash and Green Lantern pile in…

After the inconclusive clash the heroes realise they need their old telepathic team-mate back and hunt for J’onzz, eventually dragging the Martian Manhunter from his perfect dream of paradise regained in a bunker at Roswell. Having lost his world and family a second time, he is not in any mind to be merciful with his anonymous abductors…

The saga kicks into terminal high gear with ‘Daze & Knights’ as Know Man’s tailor-made sparker squad attacks only to fall as one before the brutal psychic assault of the furious and heartbroken Manhunter.

His mental capabilities then glean the whereabouts of their true foes from data buried by rebellious Dr. Destiny in Kyle’s subconscious and the fighting mad team race off to a final confrontation with their hidden enemy…

Fast-paced, action-packed and breathtakingly bold, this galvanic tale, pitting the greatest champion’s in DC’s pantheon against an immortal enemy whose roots stem back to the earliest days of the universe is a gloriously baggage-free romp and a splendid jumping on point for readers new and old alike, and this fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights foray also includes a handy information section recapitulating and assessing the characters of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.
© 1996 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Moomins and the Great Flood


By Tove Jansson, translated by David McDuff (Sort Of Books)
ISBN: 978-1-90874-513-2

Tove Jansson was one of the greatest literary innovators and narrative pioneers of the 20th century: equally adept at shaping words and images to create worlds of wonder. She was especially expressive with basic components such as pen and ink, manipulating slim economical lines and patterns to realise sublime realms of fascination, whilst her deeply considered dexterity made simple forms into incredibly expressive and potent symbols.

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and practically bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914.

Her father Viktor was a sculptor, her mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson a successful illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars and Per Olov became a cartoonist/writer and photographer respectively. The family and its close intellectual, eccentric circle of friends seems to have been cast rather than born, with a witty play or challenging sitcom – or immortal kids’ fantasy – as the piece they were all destined to act in.

After intensive study from 1930-1938 (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, the Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris) she became a successful exhibiting artist all through the troubled period of the Second World War. She was immensely creative in many fields, and began her first novel as the war clouds began blighting Europe in 1939.

As she recounts in her Preface to the 1991 Scandinavian edition, all too soon it became too much and she laid it aside. Only once the war was over did she acquiesce to the urgings of friends to complete it.

In 1945 the first fantastic Moomins adventure was published: Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood or latterly and more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood), a whimsical epic of gentle, inclusive, accepting, understanding, bohemian, misfit trolls and their strange friends, all searching for something precious that was lost in the aftermath of a terrible calamity…

A youthful over-achiever, from 1930-1953 Tove worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for Swedish satirical magazine Garm, and achieved some measure of notoriety with an infamous political sketch of Hitler in nappies that lampooned the Appeasement policies of Chamberlain and other European leaders in the build-up to World War II. She was also an in-demand illustrator for many magazines and children’s books, and had started selling comic strips as early as 1929.

Moomintroll was her signature character. Literally.

The lumpy, lanky, gently adventurous big-eyed romantic goof began life as a spindly sigil next to her name in her political works. She called him “Snork” and claimed she had designed him in a fit of pique as a child – the ugliest thing a precocious little girl could imagine – as a response to losing an argument about Immanuel Kant with her brother.

The term “Moomin” came from her maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop her pilfering food when she visited by warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. Eventually Snork/Moomin filled out, became timidly nicer – if a little clingy and insecure – acting as a placid therapy-tool to counteract the grimness of the post-war world.

The Moomins and the Great Flood didn’t make much of an initial impact but Jansson persisted, probably as much for her own edification as any other reason, and in 1946 her second book Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland) was published. Many critics and commentators have reckoned the terrifying tale a skilfully compelling allegory of Nuclear Armageddon.

When it and her third illustrated novel Trollkarlens hatt (Finn Family Moomintroll or occasionally The Happy Moomins from 1948) were translated into English in 1952 to great acclaim, it prompted British publishing giant Associated Press to commission a newspaper strip about her seductively sweet and sensibly surreal creations.

Jansson had no misgivings or prejudices about strip cartoons and had already adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Mumintrollet och jordens undergäng – Moomintrolls and the End of the World – was a popular feature so Jansson readily accepted the chance to extend her eclectic family across the world.

In 1953 The London Evening News began the first of 21 Moomin strip sagas which promptly captivated readers of all ages. Tove’s involvement in the cartoon feature ended in 1959, a casualty of its own success and a punishing publication schedule. So great was the strain that towards the end she had recruited her brother Lars to help. He took over, continuing the feature until its end in 1975, captivating generations of children and adults alike and pushing Jansson’s gentle gang to the forefront of literary universes…

Eventually after a succession of nine novels, five picture books and that sublime strip, Tove returned to painting, writing and her other creative pursuits, generating plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera as well as thirteen books and short-story collections strictly for grown-ups.

Tove Jansson died on June 27th 2001 and her awards are too numerous to mention, but consider this: how many modern artists – let alone comics creators – get their faces on the national currency?

Her Moomin comic strips have long been available in Scandinavian volumes and the discerning folk at Drawn & Quarterly have translated these into English for your – and especially my – sheer delight and delectation.

The Moomins and the Great Flood – being slightly more sombre than the later tales – was out of print for years in Europe (until the aforementioned 1991 edition) and never translated into English at all until 2005 – published by Schildts of Finland for the 60th anniversary of the series.

This resplendent hardback edition hails from 2012, published in Britain by Sort Of Books and a charmingly moving little thing it is. Not strictly a comic strip or a graphic novel, but rather a beautifully illustrated picture book, unafraid to be allegorical or scary or sad yet closing with a message of joy and hope and reconciliation…

It begins as capable Moominmamma and her nervous little son enter the deepest part of the great Forest one day at the end of August. They are tired and hungry and have been searching for the longest time for Moominpappa. The big gallant fool went off adventuring with the crazy wandering Hattifatteners and they haven’t seen him for years…

Soon they are joined by a nervous Little Creature and after escaping a Great Serpent meet a blue haired girl named Tulippa who used to live in a flower…

Travelling together they meet an old gentleman who lives in a tree which contains a huge park full of sweets and treats, traverse a terrific abyss in a railway cart and narrowly escape an ant-lion.

Persevering the hopeful party continue their wandering search until they meet a band of Hattifatteners and join them on their boat just as the skies begin to darken and a vast deluge begins…

The tumultuous voyage search takes them through a world turned upside down by calamity but eventually leads to a joyous reunion after all the assorted and individualistic creatures affected by disaster pull together to survive the inundation and its effects…

Augmented with 14 stunning sepia-wash illustrations and 34 spot-illos in various styles of pen and ink scattered like cartoon confetti throughout the confection, this is a magical lost masterpiece for the young, laced with the unfettered imagination, keen observation and mature reflection which enhances and elevates only the greatest kid’s stories into classics of literature. Charming, genteel, amazingly imaginative and emotionally intense, this is a masterpiece of fantasy no one could possibly resist…
Text and illustrations © Tove Jansson 1945, 1991. English translation © David McDuff 2012.

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Michael Moorcock’s Elric volume 2: Stormbringer


By Julien Blondel, Jean-Luc Cano, Julien Telo, Robin Recht & Didier Poli, translated by Edward Gauvin (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978 -1-78276-125-9

Michael Moorcock began his career as a comics creator aged 15; writing and editing classic strips like Dogfight Dixon, Jet Ace Logan, Captain Condor, Olac the Gladiator, Tarzan and many, many other British favourites. As the swinging Sixties began he made the leap to prose fiction where he single-handedly revitalised a genre in 1961 with the creation of Elric and the high-concept notion of the Eternal Champion.

Elric is a landmark of the Sword and Sorcery genre: fore-doomed last ruler of the pre-human civilisation of Melniboné, a race of cruel, nigh-demonic sorcerers. These arrogant, dissolute creatures are in a slow, decadent decline after millennia of dominance over the Earth.

An albino, Elric is physically weak, buoyed up by drugs, blood and dark magic, and of a brooding, philosophical temperament. He cares for little save his beautiful cousin Cymoril, who will die one day whilst he battles her loathsome usurping brother Prince Yyrkoon in service to a manipulative god of Chaos.

The White Wolf doesn’t even really want to rule, but it is his duty, and he is the only one of his debased race to see the (comparatively) freshly evolved race of Man as a threat to the Empire.

As this volume opens he is yet to be owned by the terrible black sword: one of a matched pair of sorcerous weapons which steal the souls of their victims and feed that stolen life and vitality to the wielder…

Elric is a tragic incarnation of the restless Eternal Champion, reincarnated in every time, place and alternate dimension. His life is violence, blood and unending tragedy, exacerbated by dependence on that soul-drinking ebony blade and his sworn – if somewhat compelled and thus reluctant – allegiance to the chimerical Lords of Chaos.

Everybody knows all that, right?

In 2013, however, the creator of the iconic wanderer – and arguably a whole sub-genre of fantasy fiction – has allowed his premiere paladin to undergo a visceral, spectacular and enchanting make-over under the auspices of a team of premiere French graphic arts prodigies.

Tasking themselves to re-adapt, augment and expand Moorcock’s tales and novels (with his willing and eager permission and supervision), writers Julien Blondel and Jean-Luc Cano, illustrators Julien Telo, Robin Recht & Didier Poli, with colour-artists Recht, Jean Bastide & Scarlett Smulkowski, resume the reinvigoration in Stormbringer.

This second chapter in the doom-drenched saga is preceded by a powerful introduction and affirmation of Elric’s impact in Alan Moore’s ‘Reflections in a Pink Eye’ and this sumptuous oversized (284x212mm) colour hardback album also includes – at the back – another look at the creative process in ‘Genesis’; via pages of design sketches (Elric and Stormbringer and the Dragon Caves) and a exploration of the working process of the ‘New Talents’ who recently joined the large storytelling team…

What Has Gone Before: usurper Yyrkoon has escaped his punishment through sorcery and taken Cymoril with him. Despite pledging himself to Arioch, Duke of Swords, weeks pass and all Elric’s arcane might is unable to glean where the fugitive has taken her.

The pallid, impotent Emperor has become a raging fury of frustration…

The dark, brooding epic continues as the albino brutally chastises Melnibonéan subjects and elemental agents tasked with finding Yyrkoon and Cymoril. The streets of Imrryr run red with sacrificial blood and the gory scraps of ghastly auguries, but no answer can be found.

At last the dejected sovereign calls again upon Arioch and this time the puissant hell-lord offers a shred of useful information…

Impatient and incandescent with rage Elric then exploits his ancestral relationship with majestic sea god Straasha, who once more honours his ancient pact with the rulers of Melniboné but again indicates times are changing and such services are soon to end…

In the Dragon Caves below the city, faithful Tyvim Tvar inducts his sons into the arts of commanding The Great Winged Ones, fearing that his latest endeavour with Elric will end badly…

On a quiet morning Staasha’s proffered aid hoves into magnificent view: an astounding vessel unlike any other. The Ship Which Sails over Land and Sea was built in eons past to seal a truce between Straasha and his brother Grome, Lord of the Earth Elementals who had warred for half the age of the world. Soon the incredible thought-guided vessel is soon hurtling towards the Young Kingdoms.

Elric anticipates satisfaction but enjoys no peace. His dreams are plagued with scenes of his consort-cousin Cymoril expiring in blood and fire…

Nearing their hidden quarry a grievous setback halts the chameleonic craft in its tumultuous course as mountainous Grome manifests, demanding the return of his ship. Nothing will sway him and, with his soldiers valiantly perishing, their enraged commander capitulates…

Undaunted, Elric leads his surviving warriors on foot across the foreboding terrain, infested with the upstart monkey people who would challenge their betters. He accepts terrified hospitality from peasants and rewards the humans in ways that delight his rattled and despondent, casually sadistic Melnibonéan warriors…

Eventually the weary task force arrives at the antediluvian and horrific city of Dhoz-Kam – site of a terrible battle between the Lords of Law and Chaos – and immediately readies himself for battle with Yyrkoon. His vile cousin is a great magical adept and is certain to have taken precautions.

The Emperor couldn’t be more right and an indescribably protean thing decimates his troops. Elric does not care and pushes on, finding Yyrkoon just as the madman butchers Cymoril…

Screaming out to Arioch, Elric pleads for her life and the whimsical god answers… after a fashion. Having made similar deals with both cousins, he suggests they fight using the demonic weapons he has been safeguarding: huge, deadly sisters of shining black metal, calling eagerly for someone to hold them…

With Elric wielding Stormbringer and Yyrkoon its demonic twin Mournblade, all the hate and fury the cousins bear each other comes out in mind-bending combat. However as the duel escalates the albino realises his sword is communicating with him, urging him on to ever-greater excess and demanding a price paid in blood and souls…

Much as he wants Yyrkoon dead he won’t be any being’s puppet and refuses to administer a killing blow. Still furious however he realises Arioch has his own agenda and needs him. Defiantly arrogant, the Emperor dictates new terms for their relationship…

None the less, Stormbringer must be fed and, after ministering to the resurrected Cymoril and setting course for the Dreaming City, Elric finds a way to give the blade its appalling reward…

Back in Imrryr at last, the emperor begins his service to Arioch with an astounding announcement. He is abdicating and names the traitor Yyrkoon as his successor…

To Be Continued…

Elric is a primal character whose sheer imaginative force has inspired a host of superb graphic interpretations – and probably daunted many eager movie producers – with the astonishing complexity and emotional power of his dying, dawning world. This latest tremendously dark and deeply engaging graphic extravaganza again raises the creative bar and proves why he is the leading light of fantasy fiction.

Elric: Stormbringer and all contents are © 2014 Éditions Glénat. This Translated Edition © 2014 Titan Comics. Adapted from the works of Michael Moorcock related to the character of Elric of Melniboné © 2013, Michael & Linda Moorcock. Introduction © 2015, Alan Moore.
Michael Moorcock’s Elric volume 2: Stormbringer will be released on March 31st 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

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Deep Gravity


By Mike Richardson, Gabriel Hardman, Corinna Bechko, Fernando Baldó & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-619-8

Sometimes a straightforward short, sharp movie-blockbuster style yarn in the manner of Aliens or Avatar is all you need to make your day and if so this slim compilation – collecting issues #1-4 of 2014’s Deep Gravity (by storyman Mike Richardson, scripters Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko, illustrator Fernando Baldó, colourist Nick Filardi and letterer Nate Piekos of Blambot®) is just the ticket.

The narrative territory is well-explored but eternally rewarding and begins with a little lesson on cruelly exploited exo-planet GILISE MG452: Poseidon.

Circling a red dwarf, the biological goldmine takes three years to reach from Earth, which is about as long as any human can survive there. Miners, scientists, trappers, security grunts, support staff and techs are all scrupulously rotated out every thousand days or so by Maelstrom Science and Technology Corp which has the sole and exclusive license to mine Poseidon’s extensive resources: mineral, vegetable and most especially animal – where such loose descriptions can be said to apply…

It’s not just the excessive gravity and high background radiation. Poseidon is a wet swampy world of bugs and monsters which all hate humanity…

The story opens as engineer third class Steven Paxon floats into EVA near-disaster fixing a glitch as Deep Space Freighter Vanguard approaches its destination. Inside Captain Chadwick is again arguing with Drummond, the company Efficiency Officer.

The commercial contract to exploit Poseidon is extremely coveted and ferociously defended under the harsh scrutiny of government oversight. With Maelstrom determined to keep profits high, the luxury of fully qualified, First Class – i.e. unionised – technicians and engineers is one the bosses have controversially decided they cannot afford…

The latest tri-annual changeover is about to begin and the next five weeks are going to be phenomenally busy, but as the newcomers undergo orientation – which basically translates as stay in base compound, don’t go anywhere and remember everything here wants to kill and eat you – Paxon is getting increasingly nervous.

The sub-par engineer was once a major player in Maelstrom’s Structural Design Department but took a low paying job just to get to the fetid hellworld. He even stayed awake for the entire trip, unlike the majority of replacements who made the journey in cryo-sleep. As his recently defrosted friend Greg Werner keeps telling him, no woman is worth all that…

They haven’t been on-planet for more than a few hours when disaster strikes. Taking a curious look through the perimeter fence Greg is attacked by a toxic monstrosity which braves the formidable defences. He is envenomed and loses his legs before the security teams can even react…

Already depressed, Paxon then meets Michelle, the girl he chucked everything for and came light years to apologise to, but she’s still angry even after all this time. He has no chance to make amends though, as one of her horrific but valuable specimens breaks loose in the compound at that moment…

The five weeks’ rotation transition is packed with such incidents, delays and debacles, and as departure time looms Paxon still hasn’t resolved his issues with Michelle. That’s when Greg informs him he won’t be going back with him on the return trip. Werner’s injuries are too great and he can’t heal in cryo so he’s stuck on Poseidon until the next ship arrives…

With hours remaining Vanguard is a whirlwind of activity as scientists scurry to secure their mineral cargoes and stow assorted live specimens, but with the clock ticking sudden catastrophe erupts as a series of explosions chop the giant transport ship into isolated sections…

This is where the tale leaps into high gear and I’m not going to spoil the surprises for you.

Suffice it to say that with the remains of Vanguard caught in Poseidon’s gravity well, the surviving humans in high orbit have to get from one rapidly burning and decompressing chunk of dead spaceship to another whilst avoiding all the scared, angry, awake and free monsters running loose and reach the relative safety of the surface, all the while aware that the cause of their impending doom is a human saboteur…

And even if they do escape, it’s only back to a world which is a virtual death sentence…

Fast-paced, gripping and suspenseful, Deep Gravity is a rollicking rollercoaster ride to delight action-lovers and tension-addicts everywhere.
© 2014, 2015 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Mystery of the Crooked Imp – Tales of Fayt


By Conrad Mason & Neill Cameron (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-910200-42-1

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

Each issue still offers humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. In the years since its premiere, The Phoenix 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 astoundingly engaged kids and parents who read it…

That same year “The Little Company that Could” also began publishing a trilogy of excellent children’s fantasy novels starring the strange denizens of a fantastic place called Port Fayt.

Conrad Mason’s enchanting saga of life’s underbelly in a bustling commercial harbour situated at the other end of the Ebony Ocean is wonderfully redolent of Sir Terry Pratchett’s sublime Discworld – both in tone and scope.

The seething dock community – shared by humans, trolls, elves, fairies, magicians and so many other sorts of fey folk and night people – is revealed though the continuing exploits of The Demon’s Watch – a pan-species band of volunteer police who do what the lackadaisical constables of the official Dockside Militia cannot or will not…

Trade is king in Port Fayt and the “Blackcoats” mustered by the dominant and immensely powerful Trading Companies are supposed to arrest pickpockets, smugglers and other business-harming riffraff, but the ordinary citizenry have far more faith in the Watch’s shark-tattooed brotherhood of bluecoats who do good because it’s right and not because they’re (badly) paid to…

Supplementing the prose novels, this superb graphic outing is magically illustrated by David Wyatt (Peter Pan in Scarlet, the Larklight Trilogy, Mortal Engines, assorted tomes of the aforementioned Mr. Pratchett and J.R.R. Tolkien amongst others) and opens with an informative background lecture in ‘Crafty Crocklewick’s Giude to Port Fayt’: a potted history complete with detailed and annotated maps of the region and its more infamous landmarks such as Manticore Playhouse, The Brig and Bootle’s Pie Shop – HQ and front office of the Demon’s Watch.

Their latest case opens one sparkling midnight when a band of desperate fairies hold up a coach and steal a very unusual human baby. It is most odd: fairies are notorious thieves but generally their preferred loot is sugar, not infants with sparkly eyes…

Next morning the child’s parents enjoy a visit from the Demon’s Watch offering assistance, but the wealthy Rattigans seem more annoyed than upset over little Clarence‘s abduction and, whilst half-ogre Captain Newton, troll brothers Frank and Paddy Bootle, ancient elf Old Jon and young magician Hal quiz them, wise and crafty young apprentice Tabitha gets the impression their maid Joanna knows more than she’s letting on…

Soon however the Watch are tracking down the carriage driver – a dwarf by the name of Whelk – but there are still a few unanswered questions to ponder. For instance: where was the baby going in a coach at midnight and why weren’t the parents with him?

For that matter why haven’t these wealthy types called in the Militia?

The investigation leads to insalubrious inn the Rusty Anchor but when they arrive the Watch discover Whelk expiring with a cutlass in his guts. Leaving Hal and Tabitha to tend the dying dwarf, they pursue the assailants and Tabs catches Whelk’s dying words: “the crooked imp”…

In the crowded alleyways below they confront a most motley crew of blackguards and a ferocious battle ensues until late-arriving Tabs joins in and distracts Newton enough so that the killer clowns can escape…

As the elder watchmen ponder the mysteries, downhearted Tabs prowls the market, sulking whilst buying the cakes she’s been despatched for until she encounters a frantically fleeing fairy named Spoon. The flighty fool has become the target of an obsessive and hungry seagull and is most grateful for her help in escaping the feathered fiend. She even spends a little precious time getting acquainted with the self-proclaimed “Free Fairy”…

When they part company Tabs goes back to Pie Shop and Spoon goes home where his formidable mum makes him help feed that appalling human baby they snatched for their human client…

Captain Newton meanwhile has taken his team into the seamiest dives in Port Fayt in search of information, but no one knows of a Crooked Imp. Wily old elf Jeb does know something of a band of garish thugs however. They sound like the nasty cutthroats employed by a maniacally bonkers troll gang-boss known as The Actor…

As Jeb fills them in on the monster’s likely lair – an old abandoned playhouse in the Marlinspike Quarter – the suspect is currently taking a meeting with an extremely dangerous client of his own: one nasty enough to give even a psychopathic troll pause and one who really, really wants the baby he was promised…

When the Watch tool up for a serious fight with The Actor’s crew Tabs is furious at being left behind again, but soon finds a new clue when Joanna turns up with a rather dubious ransom note for Clarence. It has been signed by the Free Fairies…

Whilst Tabs frantically hunts down Spoon, at the playhouse The Actor and his frankly terrifying employer are still engaged in heated debate when Newt and the lads storm in for a final dust-up. All manner of pointless carnage ensues but when our heroes return, bloodied, unbowed but without either Actor or Clarence, they find that Tabitha has discerned the secret of the Crooked Imp…

The Watch soon rescue Clarence and solve the case of his kidnapping, but it only leads to even greater danger as the role of the Actor and intentions of his eerie employer – as well as the ghastly Rattigans – is finally revealed. However before they can close the case the maniacs turn the tables on our heroes, capturing them all and attempting to make them walk the plank into a nest of artificial sharks. Once again it’s up to Tabs to save the day, so it’s a good thing she has Spoon and that crazy seagull on her side…

Topped off with a foreboding promise of Things to Come and a handy set of information pages on the Demon’s Watch, this boisterous blockbuster is bright, breezy and packed with pies and punch-ups: a rip-roaring mystery yarn that’s furious fun for the entire family. Grab this and prose novels The Demon’s Watch, The Goblin’s Gift and The Hero’s Tomb and surrender to Fayt…

Text © Conrad Mason 2015. Illustrations © David Wyatt 2015.
The Mystery of the Crooked Imp will be released on April 2nd 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

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Masked volume 1: Anomalies


By Serge Lehman, Stéphane Créty, Julien Hugonnard-Bert & Gaétan Georges translated by Edward Gauvin (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-108-2

It’s a great time for comics science fiction, and here’s one of the best examples of the bande dessinée take on tomorrow’s worlds, courtesy of Titan Comics’ ever-expanding line of stellar European translations.

Serge Lehman is the main nom de plume of prolific and multi award-winning author Pascal Fr̩jean (F.A.U.S.T., Thomas Lestrange, Metropolis, The Chimera Brigade) whilst mercurial illustrator St̩phane Cr̩ty came relatively late to comics Рvia stints as archaeologist, warehouseman and storyboard artist Рbut has been making up for it ever since.

With Sylvain & Sandrine Cordurié he created – between 2003 and 2004 – Salem le Noire and followed up with Acriborea. He has since lent his considerable skills to graphic serials Les Fleaux d’Enharma, Hannibal Meriadec et les larmes d’Odin amongst others, replaced Guy Michel on Le Sang du Dragon and produced stellar work on assorted Star Wars titles for Dark Horse in America.

In 2011 he united with Lehman to craft a cunning and captivating chronicle set just a bit ahead of Now: a world getting progressively stranger day by day…

It all begins with a patrol of peacekeepers in the Caucasus, policing a flash-war between Russia and Georgia. When they come across a devastating robotic combat drone only Sergeant Frank Braffort and Gunner Melissa Taleb survive the staggering assault of the kill-machine. They have no idea how: twin beams of red light simply blazed down out of an empty sky to destroy it…

The event was recorded as “incident 41” and filed away in army reports to be forgotten. It wasn’t…

Now, years after being hung out to dry by his superior officers for the inexplicable debacle, Braffort is back in Greater Paris. It’s December 23rd in District One of the XIII Arrondissment and strange mechanical trinkets keep turning up on the streets to grow and die like metal flowers or plastic mayflies. The blasé natives have grown used to them and dismiss the little widgets as mere “anomalies”…

Young science student Raphaelle Braffort is mildly intrigued by the phenomenon but is more concerned by her recently returned brother’s inability to accept the changes that have occurred during his six-year absence.

Back in town for twenty-four hours and all he can focus on is anomalies, the pirate media broadcasts of the enigmatic Lightning Network and the colossal ghostly hologram of legendary masked serial killer Fantoma manifesting all over the city. What Frank should be worried about are real issues like the growing political unrest, riots, repression and the swiftly boiling-over vendetta between District One Mayor Michelle Caprice and domineering, overreaching Joel Beauregard, Special Prefect of Greater Paris…

A quiet night in is interrupted when old army buddy Victor “Rocket” Duroc pays a call and drags Frank to a job interview that will be to his advantage…

As they cruise across town in Rocket’s municipally-owned flying Renault, the former sergeant cannot believe how much has changed: street riots, anomalies, a flying skateboarder, robot giants in the Seine…

The meeting is with Beauregard himself, who has an awful lot of ex-military in his entourage for someone whose official job is modernising the city and turning it into a global capital. However, before they can get started, a terrifying new type of Anomaly savagely attacks the Special Prefect before suddenly and inexplicably turning “her” sights on Braffort…

Most disturbing of all, the assault and its brutal conclusion are broadcast live by the Lightning Network. When the dust and cogs settle Frank finally meets the big man and is offered a job on the already formidable security team, but Beauregard is holding something back and asks Braffort to meet him at a secret location later.

The ex-sergeant has no idea how closely he’s being monitored, nor the unique role he’s being groomed for, and spends the day visiting Melissa Taleb. She’s in jail for “visiting” their old commanding officer and rather physically explaining why he shouldn’t have blamed his tactical screw-up on the men who died because of it…

Later that evening Braffort arrives at a deserted building in Montmartre and is ushered into an incredible basement complex which was once the lair of super-criminal Fantoma. There Beauregard and his scientific advisor Cleo Villanova – an expert on the clearly evolving and escalating Anomalies – reveal how research into the mechanoid plague uncovered this fortress, the history of a previously unknown superhero active from 1925-1940 and an even more incredible secret: one that has been kept by every government since De Gaulle liberated the city in World War II…

The Anomalies stem from an incredibly old technological temple hidden beneath Paris, and the mysterious motivating force reacts whenever Braffort is near. It wants something from him and the ruthless politicos are going to find out what by feeding him to it…

Braffort’s transformation is sudden, explosive and astonishing, but as the reaction sets the sky afire and alerts other clandestine elements in an ancient struggle Beauregard cannot help but gloat…

To Be Continued…

Fast-paced, suspenseful, imaginative and utterly compelling, this stunning opening salvo is supplemented by faux news article ‘Metrology: All Things in (im)Moderation by Zoe Kader’ offering a potted history and technical overview of the Anomaly phenomenon complete with illustrations of the rapid evolution of the intruding artefacts.

Complex, challenging and supremely enticing, Masked promises to be an outstanding addition to the annals of unmissable French science fiction classics.
Masked and all contents © Guy Delcourt Productions 2012. Masqué volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, Lehman-Créty © Editions Delcourt -2012-2013.

Masked: Anomalies will be released on March 30th 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

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Spawn of Mars and Other Stories Illustrated by Wallace Wood


By Al Feldstein, Harry Harrison & Wallace Wood (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-805-2

EC began in 1944 when comicbook pioneer Max Gaines sold the successful superhero properties of his All-American Comics company – including Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman – to half-sister National/DC, retaining only Picture Stories from the Bible. His plan was to produce a line of Educational Comics with schools and church groups as the major target market. He then augmented his core title with three more in similar vein: Picture Stories from American History, Science and World History. The worthwhile but unsustainable project was already struggling when he died in a boating accident in 1947.

His son William was eventually convinced to assume control of the family business and, with much support and encouragement from unsung hero Sol Cohen and multi-talented associate Al Feldstein, transformed the ailing enterprise into Entertaining Comics, consequently triggering the greatest qualitative leap forward in comicbook history…

After a few tentative false starts and abortive experiments, Gaines settled into a bold and impressive publishing strategy, utilising the most gifted illustrators in the field to tell a “New Trend” of stories aimed at an older, more discriminating audience.

From 1950 to 1954 EC was the most innovative and influential publisher in America, dominating the genres of science fiction, war, horror and crime. The company even added a new type of title and another genre with the creation of parody magazine Mad …

This 12th volume of the Fantagraphics EC Library compiles a mind-blowing catalogue of cosmic wonders courtesy of Wallace Allan Wood: one of the greatest draughtsmen and graphic imagineers our art form has ever produced.

Woody was a master of every aspect of the business. He began his career lettering Will Eisner’s Spirit strip, readily moving into pencilling and inking as the 1940s ended and, latterly, publishing. After years working all over the comicbook and syndicated strip industries, as well as in legitimate illustration, package-design and other areas of commercial art, he devised the legendary T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents franchise and even created one of the first adult independent comics with Witzend in the late 1960s.

The troubled genius carried the seeds of his own destruction, however. Woody’s life was one of addiction (booze and cigarettes), traumatic relationships, tantalisingly close but always frustrated financial security, illness and eventually suicide. It was as if all the joy and beauty in his existence stayed on the pages and there was none left for real life.

Although during his time with EC Wood became the acknowledged, undisputed Master of Science Fiction art in America, he was equally adept, driven and accomplished in the production of all genres.

This enticingly evocative collection reprints some of his best early science fiction and fantasy masterpieces, re-presented as always, in a lavish monochrome hardcover edition, with supplementary interviews, features and dissertations, beginning with ‘Spawn of Wood’ by Bill Mason, which dissects and appraises the yarns included with forensic discipline and unflinching insight.

Although the usual process at this time was for Gaines and Al Feldstein to plot stories before Feldstein meticulously scripted and laid out each tale for the artists, the worlds of wonder here begin their revelatory orbits with a chilling piece written and illustrated by Wood as ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ (from Weird Fantasy #15 September/October 1950) discloses how the fist lunar landing exposes an alien city of conquerors poised to attack…

Gaines & Al Feldstein were back in charge for ‘A Trip to a Star!’ (Weird Fantasy #16 November/December 1950) as an exploratory excursion far beyond the solar system leads to an astonishing mystery whilst ‘Return’ (Weird Science #15 January/February 1951) sees survivors of an antediluvian and previously unknown race show up on the brink of humanity’s atomic Armageddon to reveal what caused them to flee the planet in ages past…

‘Deadlock!’ was another all-Wood extravaganza (Weird Fantasy #17 January/February 1951), describing a gripping stalemate in space as mankind responded to its First Contact with another star-faring species with typical suspicion. Sadly, the strangers were more like us than different…

A traumatised survivor of the ‘Sinking of the Titanic!’ (Gaines, Feldstein & Wood from Weird Science #6 March/April 1951) built a time-machine to avert the tragedy and became a helpless pawn of destiny, whilst that same month in Weird Fantasy #6 ‘Rescued!’ saw a second ship of Earthly Argonauts fall foul of the cosmic irony which devastated their bold predecessors and ‘The Aliens!’ (Weird Science #7 May/June 1951) detailed another sidereal misapprehension when two belligerent alien species confronted each other and vowed eradication of their newfound foe and its homeworld. Sadly both were on a desolate part of Earth at the time…

“Red Scare” paranoia informed many tales from this time and ‘Breakdown!’ (Weird Fantasy #7, May/June 1951) is one of the best as a distraught wife tries to inform the authorities of imminent invasion only to walk straight into the mind-shatteringly hideous clutches of the infiltrators.

‘The Probers’ (Weird Science #8 July/August 1951) turns the tables on callous human scientists who jump to the wrong conclusions regarding the latest batch of alien guinea pigs whilst that same month in Weird Fantasy #8, all-Wood, ecologically astute saga ‘The Enemies of the Colony’ saw human pioneers on the Galactic Colonization Authority‘s new territory-world drive the wrong predator to extinction – and not live to regret it…

Extraterrestrial biological horror informed ‘The Gray Cloud of Death!’ (Gaines, Feldstein & Wood from Weird Science #9 September/October 1951) as an inimical and voracious thing invades the second ship to voyage to Venus, whilst that month in Weird Science #9 a tragic misunderstanding and itchy trigger-fingers signalled the end of refugees considered ‘The Invaders’ of our world in anther stark parable from Gaines, Feldstein & Wood…

The titular ‘Spawn of Mars’ (Gaines, Feldstein & Wood and also featured in WF #9) detailed the experiences of the first woman explorer on Mars as well as the thing that came back masquerading as her husband…

A brace of yarns from Weird Science #10 November/December 1951 begins with ‘The Maidens Cried’ as spacemen from Earth find themselves beguiled into the bizarre mating processes of beautiful butterfly women whilst ‘Transformation Completed’ offers a stunning moral fable wherein a possessive father uses his new discovery to get rid of his daughter’s “unworthy” suitor by converting him into a woman.

The paranoid Prof comes a cropper because he utterly underestimates his child’s capacity for love and sacrifice…

‘The Secret of Saturn’s Ring!’ was the first of a Gaines, Feldstein & Wood double-bill from Weird Fantasy #10 (November/December 1951), revealing what lurked within that celebrated debris field and how it portended horrific consequences for mankind, whilst ‘The Mutants!’ depicts our selfish bigotry in all its cruelty as the aberrations born in the atomic age are hounded off Earth…

‘The Conquerors of the Moon!’ Weird Science #11 January/February 1952 is a quintessential classic of the form as greedy industrialists steal a portion of Earth’s atmosphere to make the Moon cost-effectively habitable, destroying the birthplace of humanity and consequently laying the seeds of their own destruction, after which Weird Fantasy #11 from the same month offers both the irony-drenched tale of generational colonists undertaking ‘The Two-Century Journey!’ and a time-bending prophecy of inescapable atomic incineration in ‘The 10th at Noon’…

Wry and trenchant black humour resurfaced in ‘A Gobl is a Knoog’s Best Friend’ (Weird Science #12 March/April 1952) as the relationship between Earth spacers and the ship’s dog is misunderstood by aliens before – from the same issue – ‘The Android!’ showed that desire, deception and murder weren’t just facets of mere biology. That month in Weird Fantasy #12 ‘Project… Survival!’ played word games with mythology as mankind sought to survive Armageddon by selecting fragments of Earth to survive aboard rocketship A.R.C.-1 and ‘The Die is Cast!’ gets crushingly literal as explorers find doom and destruction on a desolate flatland plagued by moving mountains…

Shock SuspenStories launched in 1952 and was an anthological anthology – by which I mean that Gaines and Feldstein used it to highlight their other short-story titles by having horror, crime and sci fi yarns in each issue. From #2 (April/May) comes grisly parable ‘Gee Dad… It’s a Daisy!’ which saw explorers find a planet where the inhabitants are as capricious and inadvertently cruel as any earthling 10-year old…

When Wood first began working he formed a studio with a college buddy who would eventually go on to become one of America’s most popular science fiction authors. Working together as writers, pencillers, inkers and letterers it was often impossible to tell who did what.

Short text feature ‘The Enigma of Harrison the Artist’ by Bill Mason covers that uniquely fertile collaboration and includes a glorious Harry Harrison cartoon of his new colleagues in the pulp sci fi watering hole “the Hydra Club” before this volume concludes with a selection of Wood/Harrison EC collaborations beginning with ‘Dream of Doom’ (Harrison script & pencils, Wood inks from Weird Science #12 March/April 1950).

Here a pair of comic creators fall out over creator credit and persistent nightmares after which ‘Only Time Will Tell’ (possibly Gaines, Feldstein with Harrison & Wood from Weird Fantasy #13 May/June 1950) finds a scientist caught in an inescapable time-loop after popping back in time to help himself invent time travel…

Weird Science #13 July/August 1950 unleashed ‘The Meteor Monster’ (Harrison & Wood) which saw a small town slowly succumb to the mental domination of a thing from another world whilst ‘The Black Arts’ (with Harrison inking Wood from Weird Fantasy #14 July/August 1950) offered a rare supernatural horror outing wherein a mousy man tried to used sorcery to get a girlfriend… with disastrous results.

The comicstrip chronicles conclude with an all-Harrison affair as the ‘Machine From Nowhere’ (Weird Science #15 September/October 1950) offers an extremely rare upbeat ending as two scientists stifle their perfectly natural suspicions to help a little flying robot steal uranium for purposes unknown…

Following a delightful ‘Wallace Wood’ caricature by EC colourist and “office girl” Marie Severin, historian S.C. Ringgenberg provides a detailed history of the flawed genius in ‘Wallace Wood’ and this truly captivating compilation closes on another set of ‘Behind the Panels: Creator Biographies’ by Janice Lee and Bill Mason and Ted White’s ‘Crime, Horror, Terror, Gore, Depravity, Disrespect for Established Authority – and Science Fiction Too!: ‘The Ups and Downs of EC Comics: A Short History’ – a comprehensive run-down of the entire EC phenomenon.

The short, sweet, cruelly curtailed EC back-catalogue has been revisited ad infinitum in the decades since its demise. Those amazing yarns changed not just comics but also infected the larger world through film and television to convert millions into dedicated devotees still addicted to New Trend tales.

Whether you are an aged EC Fan-Addict, just a nervous newbie, or simply a mere fan of brilliant stories and sublime art, Spawn of Mars is a book no sane and sensible reader can afford to be without.
Spawn of Mars and Other Stories © 2015 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All contents © 2015 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All comics stories and illustrations © 2015 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All other material © 2015 the respective creators. All rights reserved.

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Elric volume 1: Elric of Melnibon̩ РThe Michael Moorcock Library


By Roy Thomas, Michael T. Gilbert, P. Craig Russell & Tom Orzechowski (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978 -1-78276-288-1

Here’s a bit of a dilemma. Later this week I’m going to review the second volume in Titan’s Comics’ new translated Euro-masterpiece Elric from Blondel, Cano, Telo, Recht & Poli. That ongoing drama adapts the very same short story Elric of Melniboné which was the basis of the lost comicbook classic on view today.

However as The Tempest and Forbidden Planet or Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story prove, style, interpretation and creator input are everything and both takes are equally unmissable…

As the first volume in a proposed Michael Moorcock Library of comics adaptations, this is, according to internal narrative chronology, the first tale of the doomed king, despite being one of the last adventures penned by Moorcock in the initial cycle of stories (he returned to the character years later).

As a sequential narrative the soaring saga was originally released in 1983-1984 from Pacific Comics (and later collected into a graphic novel by First Comics) and is now re-presented here in a superb hardcover tome complete with Introduction from Mr. Moorcock, plus a full cover gallery and additional art.

Adaptors Roy Thomas & P. Craig Russell had previously worked on other tales of the last Emperor of Melniboné: specifically debut tale The Dreaming City (first published in 1961) as a Marvel Graphic Novel in 1982 and 1984’s ‘While the Gods Laugh’ which featured in Marvel’s fantasy anthology magazine Epic Illustrated #14. Here they were joined by fellow enthusiast and brilliant arch-stylist Michael T. Gilbert to complete a masterpiece of decadently baroque, sinisterly effete storytelling based in large part on the dark visions of Aubrey Beardsley and Arthur Rackham.

Elric is an absolute classic of the Sword and Sorcery genre: Ruler of the pre-human civilisation of the Melnibonéans, a race of cruel, arrogant and congenitally sadistic sorcerers; dissolute creatures in a slow, decadent decline after millennia of dominance over the Earth.

Born an albino, he is physically weak and of a brooding, philosophical temperament, caring for nothing save his beautiful cousin Cymoril, even though her brother Prince Yyrkoon openly lusts for his throne. As seen in opening chapter ‘Out of the Dreaming City’ he doesn’t even really want to rule, but it is his duty, and he is the only one of his race to see the newly evolved race of Man as a threat to the Empire.

When intruders from Young Kingdoms are captured within the island’s maze defences they are interrogated in ‘Welcome to the Domain of Dr. Jest’ and reveal an imminent attack on the Dreaming City of Imrryr, capital of Empire for ten thousand years.

Provoked by Yyrkoon, physically frail Elric personally leads the response and the Fleet, bolstered by dragons and magic, easily dispatches the upstart humans, but the wily pretender seizes his chance and throws the enfeebled Emperor overboard to drown at the moment of victory.

The deeply conflicted hero believes himself happy to die but some part of his mind calls to the sea-elementals and their mighty king Straasha – bound allies and ancient friends of the Empire – to save him. When he returns to confront the usurper, Yrrkoon unleashes a demonic doomsday weapon and flees with Cymoril as his hostage.

Hidden at the ends of the Earth using the demonic ‘Mirror of Memory’ to conceal himself from all searches the usurper plans a counterattack and all Elric’s magic cannot find him. In obsessive desperation the pale Emperor swallows his pride and suspicion, pledging allegiance to Arioch, a Lord of Chaos in opposition to the Lords of Order.

The eternal see-saw war of these supernal forces is the fundamental principle of the universe or “Multiverse”. For providing the etiolated Elric with the means to find and defeat his cousin, Arioch will demand his devil’s due, but the Albino does not care…

Other allies such as Straasha are more forthcoming and less duplicitous: providing Elric with ‘The Ship Which Sails over Land and Sea’ enabling the frantic pursuer to travel to a ferocious and doom-drenched confrontation with his conniving cousin.

The voyage is fast but perilous but the final clash is delayed as Elric finds Cymoril ensorcelled to eternal sleep and Yyrkoon gone to another realm in quest of ultimate power…

Once again calling upon Arioch’s mercurial favours, Elric follows ‘Through the Shade Gate’ to dreary, dying otherwhere and meets affable exile Rackhir the Red Archer who joins him in the final stages of his pursuit, resulting in a terrifying duel with Yyrkoon holding the mighty Mournblade whilst Elric is compelled to accept his dark and foredoomed future by taking up the black blade he was born to carry in ‘At Last… Stormbringer‘.

Everything undergone, every trial undertaken and torment endured, has been orchestrated to get Elric to bring the Rune-sword, the malevolent Stealer of Souls, back to Earth and so very soon, he does… but not in the manner double-dealing Arioch intended…

The novel is an iconic and groundbreaking landmark of fantasy fiction and a must-read-item for any fan. This spectacular, resplendently flamboyant adaptation is a deliciously elegant, savagely beautiful masterpiece of the genre effortlessly blending blistering action and gleaming adventure with the deep, darkly melancholic tone of the cynical, nihilistic, Cold-War mentality and era that spawned the original stories.

You must read the book and you should own this graphic novel …and all the successive tomes to come…

Adapted from the works of Michael Moorcock related to the character of Elric of Melniboné © 2014, Michael & Linda Moorcock. All characters, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are ™ & © Michael Moorcock and Multiverse Inc.
The Michael Moorcock Library volume 1: Elric of Melniboné will be released on March 31st 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

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Department of the Peculiar #1 & 2


By Rol Hirst & Rob Wells
No ISBNs:

In strikingly similar vein from alternative press veterans Rol Hirst and Rob Wells is a splendid mash-up of X-Men and X-Files, given a splendidly seductive British taste and tone.

DotP #1 sees scripter Hirst and illustrator Wells take a laconic look at what ails the world in ‘Sick Day’ where we meet Malcolm Drake: an American metahuman embarrassed by his powers and hiding out in the UK.

His sad life didn’t get any better this side of the pond but suddenly changes forever when he is blackmailed by the ever-vigilant government quango known as the Department of the Peculiar into joining their covert, severely under-funded and cash-poor rapid response team.

Malcolm makes people sick (that’s his power, not his attitude – well, maybe a bit of his attitude too) and when abrasive chief administrator Lisa Cole confronts him in a Manchester shopping centre that is exactly what she needs.

Another “Peculiar” has seized control of an office building owned by food conglomerate Matheson-Beaumont. He did it by making people ill and wilfully distributing heart attacks and transfats amongst the security staff.

Threatened with deportation unless he replaces D.O.T.P.’s already-downed field agent, Malcolm reluctantly approaches the hostage building, but discovers that his strange gift can’t protect him from a heart attack either…

The story concludes in #2 with ‘Cure for Cancer’ as Drake provides a life-passing-his-eyes flashback and origin tale whilst aggrieved eco-warrior and nutritionally-abused walking cholesterol bomb Paul Aday carries out his ghastly revenge on the execs who poisoned a nation.

However Malcolm is made of stern stuff and rallies just enough to do the necessary…

Gross, scary, funny and wildly beguiling, this is outrageous non-stop spoofery, surreal whimsy, deceptively gritty action and bureaucrat-bashing as only world-wearily laconic Brits can do it, marking this as one of the best indie titles I’ve seen in decades…

Comicbook sized in stunningly powerful black & white, Department of the Peculiar #1 & 2 are available from rolhirst.co.uk and you can follow him on Twitter (@rolhirst) whilst these and Rob’s other wonderful canon of cartoon fun can be found via crispbiscuit.co.uk. He can be Twitterstalked on (@robertdwells).

© 2012, 2013 Rol Hirst and Rob Wells.
www.facebook.com/departmentofthepeculiar

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Vreckless Vrestlers #2-5


By Lukasz Kowalczuk, translated by Aneta Kaczmarek (Vreckless Comics!)
No ISBNs

Vreckless Vrestlers is a 5-chapter miniseries by Polish cartoonist Lukasz Kowalczuk, with a breathtakingly simple yet irresistibly engaging premise. The star is a temporally-transcendent fight-promoter abducting the greatest warriors from all time and space to fight in his Professional Interdimensional Wrestling League – brutal gladiatorial contests with only “One Rule – No Rules!”…

Produced as 210x150mm flip-book fight-fests, the progressively more excessive bouts feature astounding cartoon hyper-violence in the manner of Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit. Unmarred by subplot or subtext these tales delivering tons of spectacular, primal, monster-hitting action with oodles of juicy, oozy, gory sound effects and no tedious dialogue or badinage to slow down the horrific bone-crushing action…

Issue #2 sees Original Hippie Killer battle beaded barbarian lass Barbarica in one half whilst Sergeant Reptilion takes on Spike Lee (no, not the film guy), on the flipside, augmented and segregated with a 4-page puzzle section, whilst the next power-packed instalment sees Barbarica face Reptilion for a place in the ‘Mean Event’ that concludes hostilities.

Also tussling for a championship slot in #3 are Vegan Cat and The Eye, and the bouts are separated by hilarious faux merchandising ads, battle stats and a cut-out mask of current champion Bullgod for you to excise and wear with pride…

Issues 4 and 5 comprise one big, all action big bonanza finale-extravaganza which takes the reader to the edge of the seat and into bizarre metaphysical territory so hold on to your hats and your free stickers…

These little booklets are manic, eccentric and eminently addictive celebrations of the unfettered artist given carte blanche. Each black-&-white issue (limited to print runs of 200 in English and Polish) comes with all sorts of extras like promo cards, collectible stickers – and mini-album – and can be obtained by contacting www.vrecklessvrestlers.tumblr.com, www.fb.com/vrestlers or Lk@tzzad.pl.

Daft, thrilling, madcap and wonderful, if you need a little break, or contusion, or abrasion, this might be the very remedy…

…And if you’re irresistibly wedded to the future, Vreckless Vrestlers is also available on ComiXology and at Streets of Beige so there’s no reason not to grab a ringside seat in the comfort of your own cosy crash-pad, dude……

© 2014 Lukasz Kowalczuk. All rights reserved.