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Nudnik Revealed!


By Gene Deitch (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-651-5

Kim Deitch has been one of the leading lights of America’s Comix Underground since its earliest days. He probably got his artistic acumen, narrative know-how and skewed raconteur’s view from his dad…

Eugene Merril “Gene” Deitch was born in 1924 and began his astounding career as a graphic designer and art director before eventually moving into animation. Over a 65-year career working as producer, scripter, artist, designer and Director for UPA/Columbia Pictures, MGM, Terrytoons/20th Century Fox, King Features and Paramount Pictures, he created cartoons for both movie audiences and television consumption.

In 1961 his cartoon feature of Jules Feiffer’s Munro won the Oscar® for Animated Short Film, and he numbers Tom Terrific, Tom and Jerry, Popeye and Krazy Kat amongst his other major successes. Deitch directed Alice of Wonderland in Paris, adapted the animated feature of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and is credited with the first ever Tolkien film adaptation with The Hobbit in 1966.

Gene Deitch has resided in Prague for decades where he established a long and fruitful working relationship with Krátký Film s.r.o. studios. This partnership led, in 1964-1965, to a uniquely personal and brilliant run of movie cartoon shorts starring the latest in a shabby yet unbroken line of good-natured, ingenuously bumbling, impoverished cinematic victims of cruel circumstance.

The very first Nudnik cartoon garnered Deitch another Academy Award® nomination and led to the commission of 11 more shorts starring the luckless loafer, conceived and mapped out by Deitch to be constructed by his Iron Curtain cousins …and delivered just as the American tradition of preceding main movie blockbusters with brief cartoons was ending….

Now with those lost classics restored and collected on a commemorative DVD, Deitch has also compiled a glorious oversized (310 x 236mm) full-colour hardback compendium detailing the history and genesis of Nudnik as an accompaniment.

Dedicated to and enamoured of the hallowed concept of the lonely loser, Deitch famously got the idea for his favourite creation after a piece of office machinery tried to kill him. From there the concept of a down-and-out hobo who was a magnet for ever-increasing disaster just seemed to gel…  

Liberally illustrated throughout with original art and documents scrupulous hoarded by Deitch, the disclosures begin in the introductory ‘Here’s Nudnik’ after which the physical genesis of the character is revealed in ‘Nudnik, Master of Failure’…

In ‘What’s a Nudnik?’, Deitch traces the development of his ultimate baggy-pants clown, revealing his personal empathy with his creation, after which ‘The Nudnik Plot’ examines the narrative thrust of the two brief series.

Historical antecedents, poster art and some of the merchandising intended to supplement the character launch all contribute to the story of ‘The Nudnik Look’ before the real meat of this tome begins with ‘Production Scrapbook – Capturing Ideas on Paper’.

This vast collection of utterly fascinating development sketches, preparatory roughs, scene layout drawings, models sheets, animation tests, character designs, episode models, gags, pictorial story snippets and even a complete 1967 “flip-book” adventure (‘The Cut Finger Fumble’ produced for the Montreal World’s Fair) plus more merchandise prototypes all show just how much work goes into making animation.

Then ‘Film Setups – Some actual camera setups, cels, and backgrounds’ reproduces many actual finished scenes from the cartoons whilst ‘Gags – Nudnik gag sketches, some of which were produced as 30-second “blackout” gag films’ reprints whole raw story sequences which show just how similar cartons and comics strips truly are.

At the time, Deitch was still learning how to work with his Czech team and thus his visual instructions were often excessively detailed.

The next section fills out the book with a magical treat for fans and students of the medium: three complete production storyboards, exactly as the actual animators received them and which they used to turn Deitch’s script, ideas and drawings into six minutes of slapstick action and outré sound effects.

The actual tales are all 18 to 20 pages of nine frames each, ‘Home Sweet Nudnik’ (episode 7), ‘Welcome Nudnik’ (episode 3) and ‘Good Neighbor Nudnik’ (episode 11), and work perfectly as comics even as they reveal the secret of animation magic…

This terrific tome then closes with additional features ‘To Russia With Love’ featuring a modern performer celebrating the cartoon clown’s shtick, a salutary example of the unwanted influence of Studio bosses in ‘Peeing in the Soup’ and a warm plug for that aforementioned DVD collection in ‘Nudnik Lives Again’…

Long regarded as a lost masterpiece of the art form, Nudnik Revealed! is a wonderful visual memoir which offers stunning insights into the history of cartoon creation and the mind of a brilliantly imaginative creative force.

Nudnik Revealed! is © 2013 Fantagraphics Books Inc. All contents © 2013 Gene Deitch. All rights reserved.

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Astounding, Mysterious, Weird & True Volume 1: The Pulp Art of Comic Book Artists


By Steven Brower & Jim Simon (SB Studio Books)
ISBN: 978-1-4820-3313-7

Once upon a time, literacy was at an all-time high in the English-speaking world. A determined push to educate all and sundry took reading out of the hands of a moneyed intelligentsia and made it a tool of the working man, just as print technology was finding cheaper and more effective ways for creators and purveyors to disseminate their wares to growing markets.

Moreover, what everybody in the publishing world knew was what working folk needed more than anything (even religion) was cheap entertainment – the less wholesome and salutary the better…

In Britain we had newspapers, a burgeoning comics sector, “blood and thunder” periodicals and story magazines. In America they had “The Pulps”…

The first was indisputably The Argosy, created by Frank A. Munsey in 1896 and largely superseding most types of the infamous “Dime Novel” which had, with untrammelled sensationalism, ruled the periodical markets since 1860.

Argosy and its end-of-the-century imitators dominated and inspired a publishing phenomenon which eventually covered every genre – or blend of genres – in an industry niche which lasted well into the 1990s, albeit in a much reduced and rarefied form.

As well as spectacular colour covers, almost all pulps had black and white interior illustrations – spots, splashes and spreads – and some even had their own comic strip serials.

There were pulps for every possible taste and topic from romance to mystery to all-out action – including racier “men’s adventures”: two-fisted exotic action-thrillers heavy on mildly fetishistic sadism and bondage themes, with Rugged American men coming to the rescue of white women in peril from thugs and foreigners, saving them (the white women, of course) from “fates worse than death”, but only just in time and never before they had lost most of their clothes (the girls, and often many of the Rugged Americans too…).

One publisher in particular specialised in this niche market, producing a range of saucy genre thrillers all graced with a defining appellative: Spicy Detective, Spicy Western, Spicy Mystery and Spicy Adventure Stories. This was printer-turned-publisher Harry Donenfeld, who occasionally assumed control of companies who couldn’t pay their print bills. In 1934 and knowing pretty well what readers liked, he created a “Men’s Mag” mini empire under the twin banners of Culture and Trojan Publications. Of course, that’s also how he assumed control of the company that became DC Comics less than a decade later…

In 1943 the pressure exerted by various censorious elements in America became too much and Trojan/Culture changed tack and “Spicy” overnight evolved into “Speed Detective”, “Speed Western” and so forth. Perhaps the fact that Donenfeld was sitting on a wholesome family goldmine of comicbook characters such as Superman and Batman had something to do with that…

The story of how Max Gaines turned freebie pamphlets containing reprinted newspaper strips into a discrete and saleable commodity (thereby launching an entire industry, if not art-form) has been told far better elsewhere, but undoubtedly the influence of eye-grabbing pulp pictures as much as those reformatted strips influenced the growth and iconography of comicbooks.

Moreover, with thematic similarities and the same few owners hiring illustrators (and writers), naturally the creatives of one market frequently worked in both – and occasionally all three – arenas.

Now at long last, with comicbooks the indisputable major force in today’s illustrated fiction, comes a superb collection of images gathered together by writer/designer Steven Brower and novelist Jim Simon which shines a welcome light on those artists whose talents were to be found in all areas of popular printed fiction…

This superb gallery begins with ‘Diamonds and Rust’ by Simon; an efficient and studious overview of the history, artists and characters that thrived in those bygone days of wonder before the sublime and stunning panoply of pictures – all accompanied by incisive and revelatory potted biographies – commences.

The images are all culled from such evocative titles as Astounding, If, Courage, Super Science Stories, Weird Tales, Marvel Stories, Galaxy, Nick Carter, Detective, Basketball Stories, Wonder Stories, Big Book, Detective Short Stories, Planet Stories, Adventure, World’s News, Speed Detective, Sky Fighters, Dime Western and many more…

The many artists whose work features in this initial volume can be broken into roughly three categories. The first is pulp masters who also worked in comicbooks such as Edd Cartier, Charles Coll, Virgil Finlay, Kelly Freas, Roy G. Krenkel, Gray Morrow and Alex Schomburg whilst the second is jobbing artists equally at home in newspapers comicbooks, pulps and eventually commercial art.

Those include Benjamin “Stookie” Allen, D, Bruce Berry, Jack Binder, Jon L. Blummer, J. C, Burroughs (son of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs), Harry Campbell, Paul Cooper, Harvey Eisenberg, Elton Fax, Harry Fisk, Dan Heilman, Ray Isip, Jeff Jones, Jacob Landau, D.H. Moneypenny, Lou Morales, Leo Morey, Norman Nodel, Neil O’Keefe, George Olesen, Paul Orban, H.L. Parkhurst, Louis Ravielli, Rod Ruth, John Styga, Riley Thomson, Elmer Wexler, Chuck Winter and Cedric Windas.

Finally there are fascinating examples of non-narrative illustration by legendary stars of comics such as Dan Adkins, Murphy Anderson, Dick Ayers, Matt Baker, Dan Barry, C.C. Beck, Pete Constanza, Stan Drake, Bill Draut, Will (or Bill) Ely, Creig Flessel, Dick Fletcher, John Forte, Matt Fox, Dick Giordano, John Giunta, Jerry Iger, Graham Ingels, Jack Kirby, George Klein, Alex Kotsky, Alden McWilliams, Mort Meskin, Irving Novick, Rudy Palais, Alex Raymond, Paul Reinman, Syd Shores, Joe Simon and Wally Wood.

There even a few British superstars included, such as Norman Petit (creator of legendary strips Jane and Susie), Brian Lewis (Dan Dare, Suki, Starlord, 2000AD, House of Hammer) and the inimitable Don Lawrence, artist on Storm, Trigan Empire, Marvelman, Olac the Gladiator, Buffalo Bill and so many more…

Also included in this wonderful celebration is an intriguing selection of Prototypes, displaying potential pulp antecedents of comics characters such as the Joker and Mr. Mxyzptlk…

If you’re of a nostalgic bent or simply a lover of magnificent art and illustration, Astounding, Mysterious, Weird & True is a compendium that will amaze and delight you.

© 2013 Steven Brower & Jim Simon. Diamonds and Rust © 2013 Jim Simon. Text and design © 2013 Steven Brower.

Astounding, Mysterious, Weird & True was made via the CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

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Eye of the Majestic Creature volume 2


By Leslie Stein (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-672-0

Help Wanted: Girl cartoonist seeks meaning of contemporary existence and like minded individuals to share bewilderment and revelations with.

Interests/Hobbies include: drinking, counting sand, growing stuff, antiquing for pop culture “trash”, drinking, meaningful conversations with musical instruments, playing board games with same, recreational herbal intoxicants, reminiscing about wild-times with gal-pals and old cronies, drinking, visiting difficult relatives.

Employment: unwanted but regrettably necessary. Although a newcomer to the BigCity, is extremely adaptable and willing to do anything – unless it’s hard, boring or she sucks at it…

After graduating from the New York School of Visual Arts, Leslie Stein began producing unbelievably addictive cartoon strips in the self-published Yeah, It Is. Winning a Xeric Grant for her efforts, she then started the even better comicbook Eye of the Majestic Creature, miraculously blending autobiographical self-discovery, surreal free-association, philosophical ruminations, nostalgic reminiscences and devastatingly dry wit to describe modern life as filtered through her seductive meta-fictional interior landscape. Here at play is a creator who sees things as they really aren’t – but makes them authentic and even desirable to everyone willing to pay attention…

This long-awaited second collected volume (gathering issues #5-7) resumes the airy, eccentric and addictive pictorial mood-music as the mythologized autobiography continues to reveal the history of Larrybear – a girl deliberately and determinedly on her own, trying to establish her uniquely singular way of getting by.

Eschewing chronological narrative for an easy, breezy raconteur’s epigrammatic delivery, all illustrated in loose, flowing line-work, detailed stippling, hypnotic pattern-building or even honest-to-gosh representational line-drawing, Stein operates under the credo of “whatever works, works” – and she’s not wrong…

Larrybear makes friends easily. Bums, winos, weirdoes, dropouts, misfits and especially inanimate objects – her BFF is her talking guitar and flatmate Marshmallow – all aggregate around her, sharing her outré interests and ambitions (of a sort) but she just doesn’t want an average life, just more experiences, less hassle and good companions to share it all with …

Delivered in mesmerising, oversized (292 x 202mm) monochrome snippets, these incisive, absurdist, whimsically charming and visually intoxicating invitations into a singularly creative mind and fabulous alternative reality begin with the delightful story of how the country girl hit the untamed New York metropolis and found a job in a clothes shop.

‘Sister Carrie’ is a partly pantomimic tour de force underpinned by pertinent extracts from American Naturalist author Theodore Dreiser’s novel of the same name, revealing how Larrybear’s debilitating daily toil is leavened by new friends, odd customers, alcohol and second-hand sand-counting memorabilia…

Issue #6 takes a ride on the Wayback Machine to the 1980s; disclosing childhood fun and traumas as Larry’s mom meets a guy in a bar and invites the freewheeling Jonathan to join them on a visit to Disneyworld Orlando.

‘Brown Heart’ dips into even more intimate territory as precocious doodler Larrybear accompanies her mom to AA meetings whilst ‘That Sticky Machine’ recounts the girl’s tragic relationship with a gumball machine…

Larry’s brief flirtation as a thirteen year guitarist with politically aware – and older -grunge band Lithium in Chicago neatly segues into a family reunion and Jonathan’s departure…

The final portion of the chronicle opens with ‘A Better Intoxication: the Subconscious Noodle’ as in contemporary New York Larrybear, Marshmallow and drinking buddy/life guru Boris renew their relationship with booze, whilst in ‘Soup’ her new boyfriend Poppin the Flower grows closer after she meets his incredibly difficult dad over a memorable Thanksgiving dinner…

The memories lane ramble then concludes with ‘Who Are You?‘ as after finding an iconic pop culture mask (Booji Boy from Devo, hipsters and post-punks!) Larrybear at last finds the drive and initiative to quit her job…

With additional art and info-features on Dreiser and Booji Boy, this exceptional wander on the wild side is a gloriously rewarding and enticing cartoon experience and one no serious fan of fun and narrative art can afford to miss.

© 2013 Leslie Stein. All Rights Reserved.

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A Treasury of Murder Set (Famous Players, The Lindbergh Child & The Case of Madeleine Smith)


By Rick Geary (NBM/ComicsLit)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-730-0

Master cartoonist Rick Geary is a unique presence in both comics and true crime literature. His compelling dissections of some of the most infamous and groundbreaking murder mysteries since policing began – as graphic novel reconstructions – never fail to darkly beguile or entertain, and now, with Christmas (always a time of drawn knives and frayed tempers) fast approaching, three of his very best have been re-released in an economical set that will delight fans of the genre and certainly make new converts out of dubious scoffers…

Combining a superlative talent for laconic prose, incisive observation and detailed pictorial extrapolation with his fascination for the darker aspects of human history, Geary’s forensic eye scoured the last hundred years or so for his ongoing Treasury of XXth Century Murder series, and this second volume here re-examined a landmark homicide that changed early Hollywood and led in large part to the punishing self-censorship of the Hays Commission Production Code.

Famous Players: The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor opens in 1911 when the first moving picture studio set up in the sunny orange groves of rural Hollywood. Within a decade the wasteland was a burgeoning boomtown of production companies and back lots, where newly beatified movie stars were earning vast sums of money.

As usual in such situations the new industrial community swiftly accumulated a ubiquitous underbelly, becoming a hotbed of vice, excess and debauchery.

William Desmond Taylor was a man with a clouded past and a huge reputation as a movie director and ladies man. On the morning of Thursday February 2nd, 1922 he was found dead in his palatial home by his valet, thus initiating one of the most celebrated (still unsolved) murder cases in Los Angeles’ extremely chequered history.

Uncovering a background of drugs, sex, booze, celebrity and even false identity, this crime was the template for every tale of “Hollywood Babylon” and, even more than the notorious and tragic Fatty Arbuckle sex scandal, drove the movers and shakers of Tinsel-Town to clean up their act – or at least to keep it fully concealed from the prudish, hypocritical public gaze.

Geary is meticulous and logical as he dissects the crime, examines the suspects – major and minor – and dutifully pursues all the players to their recorded ends. Especially intriguing are snippets of historical minutiae and beautifully rendered maps and plans which bring all the varied locations to life (the author should seriously consider turning this book into a Cluedo special edition) and gives us all a fair crack at solving this glamorous cold case…

 

The first volume in the series was every bit as compelling: a brilliant example of how graphic narrative can be so much more than simple fantasy and entertainment.

The Lindbergh Child: America’s Hero and the Crime of the Century reveals how, after crossing the Atlantic in the monoplane Spirit of St. Louis in May 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the most famous man in the world.

Six years later his son Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped from the family home at Hopewell, New Jersey. The boy disappeared on the night of February 29th 1932.

An intense, increasingly hysterical search went on for months as many bogus kidnappers, chancers, grifters and venal intermediaries tried to cash in. The toddler’s decomposed body was eventually discovered in desolate woodlands on Thursday 12th May. The 3-year-old had been dead for months, possibly even killed on the night he was taken…

What followed was one of the most appalling catalogues of police misconduct, legal malfeasance and sordid exploitation (from conmen trying to profit from tragedy) in history as, over the next few years, one suspect was caught, convicted and executed in such slapdash fashion that as late as 1981 and 1986 the conviction was appealed. A large number of individuals have claimed over the decades to actually be the real Lindbergh heir…

 

Before combining his unique talents for laconic prose, incisive observation and detailed cartooning with an obvious passion for the darker side of modern history, Geary had previously exercised his forensic eye in the gripping Treasury of Victorian Murder sequence.

From that series of graphic inquiries the eighth volume The Case of Madeleine Smith focused on the true and scandalous secret affair between Emile L’Anglier, a low-born French clerk and prim, proper and eminently respectable Miss Madeleine Smith, daughter of a wealthy Scottish merchant.

The slow poisoning of the Gallic Romeo led to a notorious trial in the 19th century and the eventual verdict shocked everyone and satisfied nobody….

The author is a unique talent in the comic industry not simply because of his manner of drawing but because of his subject matter and methodology in telling tales. Geary always presents both facts and the theories – both contemporary and modern – with chilling graphic precision, captivating clarity and devastating dry wit, examining criminology’s greatest unsolved mysteries with a force and power that Oliver Stone would envy.

These compelling cases are a perfect example of how graphic narrative can be so much more than simple fantasy entertainment, and all such merrily morbid murder masterpieces should be mandatory reading for every mystery addict and crime collector.

Seductive storytelling, erudite argument and audacious drawing give these tales an irresistible dash and verve which makes for unforgettable reading.

© 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013 Rick Geary. All Rights Reserved.

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Marvel Adventures Avengers volume 9: The Times They Are A’Changin’


By Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, Ig Guara, Casey Jones, Christian Vecchia & Sandro Ribeiro (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3832-7

Since its earliest days Marvel has always courted young comicbook audiences. Whether through animation tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or Calvin, the House of Ideas always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days, however, accessible child-friendly titles are in decline and with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company generally prefers to create adulterated versions of its own pantheon, making that eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the company created a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and subsequently merged it with remnants of its failed manga-based Tsunami imprint, which was also intended for a junior demographic.

The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and the reconstituted classics replaced by all-original yarns. Additional titles included Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, Power Pack, Hulk and The Avengers, which ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

This particularly light-hearted digest-sized collection re-presents issues #32-35 of Marvel Adventures Avengers (from 2009) and offers a succession of stand-alone yarns that will delight fans with a sense of humour and iota of wit…

What You Need To Know: this incarnation of the World’s Mightiest Superheroes operates an “open-door” policy where almost every metahuman marvel might turn up for duty. However – presumably because of their TV cartoon popularity – the Wondrous Wallcrawler and Jade Juggernaut are on scene in almost every episode…

Written throughout by Paul Tobin, the fast-paced fun begins with ‘The Big Payoff’ illustrated by Matteo Lolli & Christian Vecchia, wherein the team gets a most unpleasant visit from Special Agent Clark Harvey of the Internal Revenue Service.

This weaselling civil servant is ostensibly there to collect the individual Avengers’ taxes, but it’s all a ploy to blackmail the team into forcing a bunch of defaulting villains into paying up…

Smart and deviously hilarious, the clashes between Giant-Girl, Spider-Man and Luke Cage against Whirlwind, the Web-spinner and erudite philosophical monster/political activist Oog or Man-Bull versus Iron Man are entertainment enough, but Iron Man and Giant-Girl overmatched against the Absorbing Man and the childlike Hulk convincing assassin Bullsesye to do his patriotic duty are literally priceless…

When jungle king Ka-Zar visits from the Antarctic lost world all he can think about is learning how to use a car. Sadly Wolverine, Storm, Giant-Girl, Hulk and Spidey all feel safer battling an invasion of super-Saurians unleashed by Stegron the Dinosaur Man than sitting in the same vehicle as the Lord of the Savage Land in ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’ (art by Ig Guara & Sandro Ribeiro)…

When ancient Egyptian magicians turn time into an out of control merry-go-round, ‘Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos!’ (Lolli & Vecchia) are caught up in the assorted eras of chaos, with Ant-Man, Giant-Girl, Tigra, Storm, the Wallcrawler and Hulk frantically fighting just to keep up…

This titanic tiny tome then concludes on a romantic note in ‘Lovers Leaper’, rendered by Casey Jones, when all the female Avengers head off for a vacation break. They foolishly thought Captain America, Cage, Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Wolverine could handle things for awhile, but boys will be slobs and soon the HQ is a ghastly mess of “man-cave” madness…

Moreover, since Hawkeye now needs a date for the Annual Archer Awards, he tries an on-line dating service and manages to upload not just his but all his buddies’ information onto the site…

With seemingly every eligible lady – super-powered and not – in New York City subscribing to the Lovers Leap site, the unsuspecting heroes are soon being bombarded by an army of annoyed women who think they’ve been stood up by the utterly oblivious Avengers.

…And when they try to get the owner to remove their details, the heroes discover former French bad-guy Batroc the Leaper is in charge and unwilling to do them any favours…

Smart and fun on a number of levels, bright and breezy with lots of light-hearted action and many solid laughs, this book really offers a fabulous alternative to the regular Marvel Universe angst and agony.

Even with the violence toned down and “cartooned-up” the stories are superbly thrilling and beautifully depicted: a perfect introduction for kids and adults alike to the vast realm of adventure we all love…

In 2012 the Marvel Adventures line was superseded by specific comicbook titles tied to Disney XD TV shows designated as “Marvel Universe cartoons”, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born often two generations or more away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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All-New X-Men volume 3: Out of Their Depth


By Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, David Lafuente & Wade Von Grawbadger (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-561-1

Following the poor choices and horrendous paths taken by assorted mutant heroes over the last few years, and following the events of Avengers versus X-Men, MarvelNOW! reshaped the continuity, taking various factors of X-iterations in truly bizarre directions.

At the dawn of the Marvel Age, some very special kids were chosen by wheelchair-bound telepath Charles Xavier. Gloomy Scott Summers, ebullient Bobby Drake, trust fund brat Warren Worthington III, insular Jean Grey and simian genius Henry McCoy were gathered up by the enigmatic Professor X – a man dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between massed humanity and an emergent off-shoot race of mutants, no matter what the cost.

To achieve his dream he educated and trained the five youngsters – codenamed Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and The Beast – for unique roles as heroes, ambassadors and symbols in an effort to counter the growing tide of human prejudice and fear.

Over years the struggle to integrate mutants into society resulted in constant conflict, compromise and tragedy, including Jean’s death, Warren’s mutilation, Hank’s further mutation and eventually Cyclops’ radicalisation.

The formerly idealistic, steadfast and trustworthy team-leader Cyclops was even killed Xavier before eventually joining with old comrade Magik and former foes Magneto and Emma Frost in a hard-line alliance devoted to preserving mutant lives at the cost, if necessary, of human ones.

Abandoning Scott, his surviving team-mates and newer X-Men Wolverine, Storm and Kitty Pryde stayed true to Xavier’s dream, opting to protect and train the next mutant generation at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning…

When The Beast realised he was dying, he became obsessed with the notion that the still starry-eyed First Class of X-Men could bring Scott back from his doctrinaire madness and ideological race war obsession. To that end McCoy used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to fix everything: risking the entire space/time continuum by bringing those valiant, callow youngsters back to the future to reason with debased, possibly deranged Cyclops.

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than restoring Scott to reason, the confrontation simply hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve.

Moreover, even though McCoy’s younger self cured his older iteration, young Hank and the rest of the X-Kids refused to go home until “bad” Cyclops was stopped…

The modern world changes extremely rapidly. New mutants are now appearing in increasing numbers, all with more impressive talents than ever before. Worse still, through careful orchestration and by avoiding visibly unprovoked acts of violence, Cyclops’ Extinction Squad are winning the trust and respect of many oppressed sectors of humanity: the poor, the disenfranchised and rebellious, the young…

Following a very public humiliation of the Government-sponsored Uncanny Avengers, the internecine mutant conflict heats up when Cyclops and his allies visit the Jean Grey School with a chilling proposition. Convinced of inevitable extinction at human hands, Scott proffers a place to any student wishing to join his own academy: one dedicated to training mutants to fight and survive rather than wait for mankind to turn on them…

The psychically conjoined, socially-challenged and ruthless Stepford Sisters (Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe) readily accept but nobody is more shocked than the elder Cyclops when teenaged Angel also agrees to ditch his former classmates and switch sides…

Scripted by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Stuart Immonen with Wade Von Grawbadger, Out of Their Depth – re-presenting All-New X-Men #11-15 from May to August 2013 – picks up mere moments later as Warren’s incredible decision provokes a massive row amongst adults and students alike.

Her newly-awakened psionic abilities in overdrive and unable to filter out the thoughts and emotions boiling round her, Jean lashes out, taking control of Angel’s mind. Her arbitrary actions are countered by the Cuckoo triplets and a bloody battle looks certain to erupt between the factions until teen Scott dramatically brings them all to their senses.

With nothing resolved, the Extinction team simply teleport out with their new recruits as, a continent away, a third faction makes its move…

Shapeshifter Mystique had already attempted to seduce the naïve 16-year old Scott, but when that failed she simply moved ahead with her own scheme. Now she, feral berserker Sabretooth and illusion-projector Lady Mastermind embark on spectacular robberies, amassing a literal mountain of cash, whilst leaving “proof” that Wolverine and the time-lost X-Kids are responsible…

Back at School Jean has an educational heart-to-heart with Professor Kitty about controlling her new abilities and the ethics of using them before Wolverine leads them all after Mystique.

They don’t get far before being intercepted in ‘All-New X-Men VS Uncanny Avengers’…

The combined human/mutant team is lead by Scott’s younger brother Alex – now more than a decade older than his sibling. The search for answers and explanations is difficult: none of Cyclops’ classmates even knew he had a brother at this stage of their lives and the confrontation between the adults is fraught with tension.

Suddenly Jean’s telepathy scans the Scarlet Witch‘s thoughts and the mind-reader goes ballistic.

Wanda‘s greatest shame is the period of madness when she murdered many of her Avenger allies and used her probability magic to eradicate millions of mutants with a wish. The inadvertent revelations burn into Jean’s brain and she responds with a storm of unleashed psionic fury…

As the situation escalates, in London The Bank of England is pillaged by “The X-Men” and Captain America grudgingly allows sometime-Avenger Wolverine a chance to handle matters himself…

The torturous trail leads to a warehouse where Madame Hydra, Silver Samurai and a small army of Hydra stormtroopers are engaged in cautious, dangerous negotiations with Mystique.

The mutant’s incredibly audacious plan – and the need for untold billions in cash – is revealed, only to have the dickering disrupted by Kitty and Wolverine ambitiously ambushing everybody.

They had previously ordered the kids to stay back and keep safe but the quartet are just teenagers and thus biologically unable to follow adult instructions…

The frantic melee seesaws on a knife edge until in the midst of the chaos Jean seemingly transforms into the dreaded Dark Phoenix, and by the time the Avengers arrive the battle is over and the kids triumphant.

This is an action-packed collection of clashes and capers but is also wonderfully heavy on the light-hearted humour and hi-jinks which so distinguished the original mid-1960s run: filled with smart, plausible characterisation, delicious extrapolation plus hilarious one-liners and childish stunts…

The final tale herein, illustrated by David Lafuente, opens a whole new world of possibilities when Jean’s still-erratic telepathy leads her to discover that one of her dutiful classmates has loved her from afar for decades…

Since she arrived all she has dwelt upon is her star-crossed lovers’ destiny with Scott Summers – and how she will die.

Is it any wonder then that she takes the lead with her silently suffering young admirer? Scott too is rebelling against his future… only his response is to play hooky with the other junior X-Man and head for New York City to meet girls and have the kind of fun he never believed his powers would permit…

To Be Continued…

Out of Their Depth also includes a beautiful cover-and-variants gallery by Immonen, Leinil Francis Yu & Nick Bradshaw and the now standard 21st century add-on of AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.
™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Lost at Sea


By Brian Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-0-932664-16-4

You’ve no doubt heard that appallingly clichéd phrase “it’s about the journey”?

Well, sometimes it actually is…

Having got that off my capacious chest, I can whole-heartedly recommend this moody, enticingly sensitive and charming not-coming-of-age road-trip argosy by Bryan Lee O’Malley, whose Manga-tinted Scott Pilgrim tales of an adorable boy-idol idle slacker seemed to encapsulate the tone and tenor of the most recent generation to have invented sex and music and growing up confused…

Lost at Sea is a lovely lyrical look at a self-confessed outsider, couched in terms of a quasi-mystical mystery and rendered in an utterly captivating, boldly simple style simultaneously redolent of childhood misgivings and anticipatory tales of horror and imagination.

High School senior Raleigh is a passenger in a car slowly meandering its way back to Vancouver from California. She doesn’t really know Stephanie or the boys Dave and Ian. She only met them because dippy Stephanie never deletes any numbers from her cellphone and pocket-dialled her by coincidental accident just moments after Raleigh missed her train home. She had been enduring an unfortunate visit with her dad and his latest woman near San Francisco…

As the Canadian kids had a car and were heading back north, somehow, although a social misfit and practical stranger, Raleigh ended up travelling homeward with them…

Even though they all go to the same school – Sturton Academy – the kids are not really like her. They weren’t hot-housed or sent to “gifted” classes and they still have their souls…

Raleigh lives with her mum and continually misses her best friend, who she hasn’t seen in four years, six months and 24 days. She also has a secret internet boyfriend in California, (the real reason for visiting Dad and his new lady) and is very confused and lonely after travelling to meet darling Stillman….

She lost her soul in 9th Grade when her mother sold it to Satan in return for being successful, but the girl can’t quite remember why it was put into a cat. Ever since then cats seem to crop up everywhere she goes, even following her, and she can’t tell if she’s crazy or imagining it all…

Naturally, Raleigh is violently allergic to cats…

However when she finally loosens up and tells Stephanie her satanic secret, the boisterous wild child admits to seeing them too and suggests they should catch them and see if they can be made to cough up that stolen soul.

Dave and Ian are game too…

Expressionistic, impressionistic, existential, self-absorbed, vastly compassionate, deeply introspective and phenomenally evocative of that monstrous ball of confusion that is the End of Adolescence, Lost at Sea is a graphic marvel which seems, from my admittedly now-distant perspective, the perfect description of that so-human rite of passage we all endured and mostly survived.

Buy it for your teenagers, read it to rekindle your own memories and cherish it because it’s wonderful…
â„¢ & © 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008 Bryan Lee O’Malley. All Rights Reserved.

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Indestructible Hulk volume 2: Gods and Monster


By Mark Waid, Walt Simonson, Matteo Scalera & Bob Wiacek (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-562-8

Once upon a time, Bruce Banner was merely a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result, undue stress could cause him to transform into a gigantic green monster of unimaginable strength and fury. As both occasional hero and blockbusting brute he rampaged across the landscape for decades, becoming one of Marvel’s most popular characters and earliest multi-media titan.

Thus, he has often undergone radical changes in scope and format to keep his stories fresh and his exploits explosively compelling…

In recent years the number of Gamma-mutated monsters thundering through the Marvel Universe has proliferated to inconceivable proportions. The days of Bruce getting green with anger at the drop of a hat are long gone, so anybody taking their cues from TV or movie incarnations would be wise to anticipate a smidgen of unavoidable confusion.

By the time of the game-changing Avengers versus X-Men mega-crossover relaunch there were numerous Hulks, She-Hulks, Abominations and all kinds of ancillary rainbow-coloured atomic berserkers roaming around, but now with that house-cleaning exercise concluded, the subsequent MarvelNOW! event saw the Jade Giant in a stripped-down, back-to-basics version which should find favour with new and old fans alike.

But it’s definitely not your old Hulk anymore…

This stunning guest-star packed second volume details the next cataclysmic chapter in the ever-eventful life of Banner and his raging Emerald Animus (collecting Indestructible Hulk #6-10, cover-dated June-September 2013) wherein scripter Mark Waid pushes the boundaries even further whilst providing a breathtaking procession of astounding action and compelling drama…

The big transformation began when S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill was convinced to provide Banner with resources and funding to sanitise his scientific reputation in return for her utilising the Hulk as a living weapon of last resort in the agency’s armoury…

One of the smartest men on Earth, Banner had lost years of success, progress and peer renown whilst trying to destroy the Hulk. Concerned about his legacy, the fugitive genius had decided to make future headlines as a scientist, not a devastating force of nature.

For the foreseeable future and as long as possible he would manage, rather than seek cures for, his affliction. Moreover, in return for a S.H.I.E.L.D. lab and trained assistants, Banner would also give the agency first use of many of his discoveries and inventions…

Fast-paced and furious, ‘Gods and Monster’ – illustrated by Walt Simonson with Bob Wiacek – opens at the- isolated facility of Nuclear Springs, Nevada (AKA “Bannerville”) where Bruce and his team use a sliver of mystic metal Uru to open a portal to Jotunheim.

Banner theorises that the icy realm contains the most efficient superconductor in creation and, leaving climatologist Melinda Leucenstern to monitor the gateway, leads the rest of his people – biologist Patricia Wolman, renewable energies researcher Randall Jessup and molecular engineer Daman Veteri – into the frozen wastes in search of new breakthroughs… and to teach one of his staff a much-needed life-lesson.

The Uru sliver came from Thor‘s hammer Mjolnir and, soon after finding the sought after Eiderdürm liquid metal, the away party are greeted by the Asgardian Thunder God himself, come to warn them that the inimical indigenous Frost Giants don’t like trespassers.

He also mentions that he has not seen Midgardians in ages and doesn’t recognise Banner…

As the frozen monsters attack, Banner “Hulks out” and joins the Thunderer in routing the horrors. However, during the protracted battle, one of the Jotuns discovers the portal and attempts to cross into the Earth plane.

Thanks to Melinda’s quick thinking and Hill’s honking big gun, it fails, but the team are now trapped on the other side…

When Banner resumes control of himself, he realises the portal has not only spanned dimensions but also dropped them in the past, something the S.H.I.E.L.D. boffins are also keenly aware of as they try fruitlessly to repair the device…

Stranded in Jotunheim, the voyagers finish their mining and ponder a way home, unaware that the Frost Giants, hungry to invade the warm mortal lands, have magically substituted one of their own for a mortal trespasser…

When Hill and a squad of agents finally reopen the gateway the monsters attack en masse and only the shattering power of Thor and the Hulk can prevent utter disaster…

Matteo Scalera then illustrates ‘Blind Rage’ – a superbly dark, high-tension thriller which reveals how Banner has a Plan B in effect should S.H.I.E.L.D. welch on their deal…

One of the few people the Hulk – as opposed to his intellectual alter ego – trusts is lawyer Matt Murdock, the sightless sentinel Daredevil, and the attorney holds papers that will reveal the pact to the so-judgemental public if Hill oversteps herself.

Thus, when a mission to stop an illicit shipment of super-weapons takes Banner to Manhattan, he takes the opportunity to link up with the Man without Fear whilst the brutal mop-up is ongoing…

Unfortunately one of the Euro-trash Agence Byzantine mercenaries escapes with an ultrasound bazooka capable of flooring the Hulk, forcing the mismatched allies to track it down before it reaches its intended purchaser – one of the vilest villains in history…

Bombastic, hilarious, revelatory and vicariously rewarding, the Red and Green crusade through the bowels of the Big Apple is sublimely entertaining and even offers a brooding portent of a rift between Banner and his “boss” in the days to come…

Sharp, refreshingly straightforward and gloriously addictive, this latest stage in the conflict-packed life of the world’s most iconic split personality offers incredible adventure, smart characterisation and intoxicating excess for fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction, and includes a stunning cover-and-variants gallery by Simonson, Paolo Rivera, Dale Keown & Stephane Roux plus the now-customary AR icons (Marvel’s Augmented Reality App: printed portals giving access to story bonuses and extras for everyone who downloaded the free software from marvel.com onto a smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet doohickey).
™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Valerian and Laureline book 4: Welcome to Alflolol


By Méziéres & Christin, with colours by E. Tranlé and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-087-0   (Dargaud edition) 2-205-06573-4

Valérian is the most influential science fiction comics series ever drawn – and yes, that includes even Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Dan Dare and Judge Dredd.

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined and later re-defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie or that franchise’s overwhelming homages, pastiches and rip-offs has been exposed to doses of Jean-Claude Méziéres & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings (which the filmic phenomenon has shamelessly plundered for decades): everything from the character and look of alien races and cultures to the design of the Millennium Falcon and even Leia‘s Slave Girl outfit …

Simply put, more carbon-based life-forms have experienced and marvelled at the uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in authentic futurism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of Méziéres & Christin than any other cartoon spacer.

The groundbreaking series followed a Franco-Belgian mini-boom in fantasy fiction triggered by Jean-ClaudeForest’s 1962 creation Barbarella.

Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent launched in the November 9th, 1967 edition of Pilote (#420) and was an instant hit. In 1977 the fervour surrounding Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient and Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane, combined with Valérian‘s popularity led to the creation of an adult graphic sci-fi blockbuster – Métal Hurlant.

Val̩rian and Laureline (as the series eventually became) is a light-hearted, wildly imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy teeming with wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary, starring Рin the early days at least Рan affable, capable yet unimaginative by-the-book cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology by counteracting paradoxes caused by incautious time-travellers.

When Valérian travelled to 11th century France in the initial tale ‘Les Mauvais Rêves (‘Bad Dreams’ and still not translated into English yet), he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline whom he brought back to 28th century super-citadel and administrative capital of the Terran Empire, Galaxity.

The indomitable lass subsequently trained as a Spatio-Temporal operative and began accompanying him on all his missions.

Every subsequent Valérian adventure until the 13th was initially serialised weekly until ‘The Rage of Hypsis’ concluded, after which further yarns were solely published as all-new complete graphic novels. The whole spectacular saga resolved and ended in 2010.

Welcome to Alflolol originally ran in Pilote #631-652 (December 1971-May 11th 1972) and follows the Spatio-Temporal agents as they depart from Technorog, a desolate industrial planet whose vast resources are crucial to the running of human civilisation. So vital in fact that Galaxity sends her best agents just to inspect it every now and then…

As the S-T agents carefully negotiate the immense forcefield and asteroid belt that envelope the harsh and ferociously capitalistic factory world, Laureline is repeatedly possessed by an uncanny force. The fit also leads the couple to an immense ship which has foundered between the rocks and energy screen.

Investigating the vessel, which is purposely open to hard vacuum, Laureline again lapses into a glowing coma and eerily drifts towards a family of incredibly powerful yet rustically affable alien primitives sitting on the hull of their ship.

Valerian, closely following behind, prevents a terrible accident to his companion and is warmly greeted by the strangers, who explains that the eldest of the beings is very ill and in her throes has locked minds with his female. If they’re not careful, both could die…

Garrulous, easygoing Argol agrees to let Valerian treat the problem, and his wife Orgal telekinetically transports the Earthlings, her entire family and their pet Gumun back to the S-T astroship in mere moments. Soon Terran technology has saved both the human and alien and Argol settles back to explain what has happened…

The wanderers are naively friendly and immensely long-lived – like all their species – and are just returning to their homeworld Alflolol from an amusing perambulation through space. However since their departure – 4,000 Earth years ago – somebody has moved in…

Despite the Governor of Technorog’s protests, Galaxity law is clear and the Alflololians must be allowed back on their planet.

However the wheedling plutocrat – secure in his job’s importance to the empire – realises he doesn’t have to hand over the keys, just make room for the five meekly polite cosmic gypsies, who simply cannot grasp the concept of business and don’t understand why anybody would put up lots of flimsy, ugly buildings and spoil the hunting……

As Valerian allows the businessmen to walk all over the aliens’ rights, Laureline goes berserk: arguing for Argol’s family and indulging in a little light-hearted sabotage because the gentle giants won’t do it for themselves…

She needn’t bother though: their mere presence and incredible abilities are enough to disrupt the Governor’s precious productivity, especially when they get bored of sterile human accommodations and return to their ancestral ranges…

The real crisis only begins when the rest of the nomadic Alflololians return: one hundred separate ships full of natives protected by law and fully entitled to reclaim their homes.

The humans aren’t leaving, however, and soon the Governor has begun herding the wanderers onto a reservation and demanding they work if they want to eat.

Big mistake…

Socially aware and crusading, this is one of the earliest comics tales to catch the 1970s wave of ecological awareness and still ranks amongst the very best to explore the social iniquities which beset indigenous peoples at a time when most European ex-empires were still divesting themselves of their colonial possessions.

The theme of Capitalism versus Native Culture and the eternal struggle between territorial imperatives, moral rights and holy profit have seldom been dealt with in such an effective, sardonic and hilarious surreal manner. Ending on an outrageous twist, the story has lost none of its wit and punch forty years later.

And of course there’s the usual glorious blend of astounding action, imaginative imagery and fantastic creatures to leaven the morality play with space-operatic fun-filled, visually breathtaking and stunningly ingenious wide-eyed wonderment…

Between 1981 and 1985, Dargaud-Canada and Dargaud-USA published a quartet of these albums in English (with a limited UK imprint from Hodder-Dargaud) under the umbrella title Valerian: Spatiotemporal Agent and this tale was the third release, translated then by L. Mitchell.

Although this modern Cinebook release boasts far better print and colour values and a more fluid translation, total completists might also be interested in tracking down those 20th century releases too…
© Dargaud Paris, 1972 Christin, Méziéres & Tran-Lệ. All rights reserved. English translation © 2012 Cinebook Ltd.

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The Children of Palomar


By Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 976-1-60699-625-6

In the 1980s a qualitative revolution forever destroyed the clichéd, segregated, stereotypical ways genres of comic strips were produced and marketed. Most effective in blasting the comfy funnybook pigeonholes were three young guys from Oxnard, California: Jaime, Mario and Gilberto Hernandez.

Love and Rockets was an anthology magazine (and previously a self-published comic in 1981) that broke all the rules, featuring intriguing, adventuresome larks and captivating, experimental narratives which pretty much defied classification, all cloaked in the ephemera of LA’s Hispanic and punk music scene.

Stories generally focussed on the slick, sci-fi-seasoned larks of young gadabouts Maggie, Hopey and their extended eccentric circle of friends or the heart-warming, terrifying, gut-wrenching soap-opera travails of rural Central American outpost Palomar.

The Hernandez Boys, gifted synthesists all, enthralled and enchanted with incredible stories that sampled a thousand influences conceptual and actual – everything from comics, cartoon shows, masked wrestlers, trashy movies and American Hispanic pop culture to German Expressionism. There was also a perpetual backdrop displaying the holy trinity of youth: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll – for which please hear mostly alternative music and punk rock.

The result was dynamite. Mario only officially contributed on rare occasions but his galvanising energy informed everything. The slick and enticing visual forays by Jaime explored friendship and modern love whilst destroying stereotypes of feminine attraction through his fetching coterie of Gals Gone Wild, whilst Gilberto mostly crafted a hyper-real microcosm in his Latinate landscape: a playground of wit, toil, passion and raw humanity in a poor village with a vibrant, funny and fantastically quotidian cast created for his extended epic Heartbreak Soup.

Everything from life, death, adultery, magic, monsters, murder and especially gossip could happen in Palomar’s metafictional environs, as the artist mined his own post-punk influences in a deceptively effective primitivist art style which perfectly blended a personalised mythology of comics, music, intoxicants, strong women, gangs, sex and family. The denizens of Palomar still inform and shape Beto’s work, both directly and as imaginative spurs for spin-off stories.

Winning critical acclaim but little financial success, the brothers temporarily put aside their favourite toys to work on side projects and special series before creatively reuniting a few years back to produce annual collections of new material in their particularly peculiar shared or, rather, intermittently adjacent pen-and-ink universes.

In 2006, more than a decade after the canonical Heartbreak Soup stories, Beto popped back to his leafy arcadia via a three-magazine run entitled New Tales of Old Palomar, producing a too-brief selection of elucidating tales drenched in revelation and imagination which revealed a few answers to questions we never knew we had…

In the opening act of ‘The Children of Palomar’ the denizens of the little town are going about their daily business with a little less than usual calm since a couple of abandoned wild kids have been stealing food from everyone, everywhere. The naked little nippers are incredibly fleet-footed and not even Sheriff Chelo can catch them.

Her immediate problems are solved once sporty soccer-playing Pipo decides to prove who is truly the fastest runner in town, but unfortunately, once feral foundlings Tonantzin and Diana Villaseñor have been taken in, the village has to civilise and find homes for them…

The men meanwhile have devised a scheme to make Palomar a little export money. They mean well but when the mayor and his pals decide to blow up a boulder just as the stray kids take off, it takes all Pipo’s acceleration to prevent a horrific tragedy…

Another time little boys were on the other side of “The Crack” hazing young Gato before letting him join their black shirt gang. When they got bored and left, Pintor tried to help the traumatised candidate get home but the log across the giant gorge had vanished.

Stuck and terrified they were then abducted by strangers in space suits who experimented on them. The strangers spoke a strange language but another Palomar boy named Manuel was there and he said that soon they would be made to forget everything…

The villagers meanwhile had noticed them gone and Sheriff Chelo led a search party to the gap, but when their makeshift bridge sundered, only she managed to get across. By the time she found the kids their captors were arguing and the violence only escalated when she intervened…

The entire outpost then vanished in an explosion but at least she got the boys back…

Of course, Chelo had no idea that one of the ghostly White Strangers was still alive and intensely interested…

Palomar is surrounded by huge, ancient statues and the people all know they live in a world of magic. When babosa-selling Tonantzin began seeing a ghostly chuckling “Blooter Baby”, a wise woman explained that they only appeared to girls and women who would be childless, before telling her how to get rid of it.

Instead, she and the spectre reach an accommodation and the girl learns she is not alone before gaining a mission for life…

Our picaresque peregrinations conclude some time later when diminutive Carmen thinks she feels an Earth tremor no one else noticed. She considers asking the peculiar white scientists doing their weird bird research at the edge of town but doesn’t know their language.

Everybody goes about their day until the strangers kidnap Chelo and the horrified sheriff recognises one of the “aliens” from across the gorge all those years ago. Although formidable, she succumbs to superior force and wakes up maimed but back in bed in Palomar.

Not normally an unforgiving woman, Chelo goes looking for her tormentors as soon as she’s able… and finds them…

There’s fiction, there’s Meta-fiction and then there’s Gilbert Hernandez. In addition to Love and Rockets‘ captivating tales of Palomar he has produced numerous controversial and groundbreaking volumes such as Sloth, Grip, Birdland, Girl Crazy and Julio’s Day: all distinguished by his bold, instinctive, compellingly simplified artwork and a mature, sensitive adoption of the literary techniques of Magical Realist writers like Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez.

These techniques he has sublimely amplified and, visually at least, made utterly his own. This beguiling return to his landmark, signature series has been long overdue for a deluxe edition such as this splendid hardback, and such is the quality of the accessible writing and intoxicating art that first-timers will have no trouble slipping south of the border to join the veterans and devotees in a marvellous Latin mystery and adventure…
© 2013 Gilbert Hernandez. This edition © 2013 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.