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Superman: The Golden Age Dailies 1942 to 1944


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Whitney Ellsworth, Wayne Boring & the Superman Studio (IDW/ Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-383-5 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In this month of romantic anticipation and disillusionment, it’s worth reminding ourselves that every iconic hero of strips and comics has a dutiful, stalwart inamorata waiting ever so patently in the wings for their moment to spoon and swoon or be rescued. Here’s another vintage outing for one of the earliest and most resolute…

The American comic book industry – if it existed at all – would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s unprecedented invention was first fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation, and gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Spawning an army of imitators and variations within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and wish-fulfilment which epitomised the early Man of Steel grew to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reforming dramas, sci fi fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East sucked in America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do.

From the outset, in comic book terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming the shape of the fledgling funnybook biz, the Man of Tomorrow irresistibly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as epitome and acme of comics creation, the truth is that very soon after his springtime debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse. We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers and their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures familiar in mass markets, across all platforms and age ranges…

Far more people have seen and heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comic books. These globally syndicated newspaper strips alone were enjoyed by countless millions, and by the time his 20th anniversary rolled around, at the very start of what we call the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial star, headlined 17 astounding animated cartoons, become a novel attraction (written by George Lowther) and helmed two feature films and his first smash 8-season live-action television show. Superman was a perennial sure-fire success for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers all over the planet.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the previous century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail that all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and often the planet – it was seen by millions, if not billions, of readers and generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books. It also paid better, and rightly so. Some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture. Mutt and Jeff, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped humble, tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Most still do…

The daily Superman newspaper strip launched on 16th January 1939, augmented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by luminaries like Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task required additional talents like strip veteran Jack Burnley and writers including Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz.

The McClure Syndicate feature ran continuously until May 1966, appearing, at its peak, in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers; a combined readership of more than 20 million. Eventually, Win Mortimer and Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye whilst Bill Finger and Siegel provided stories, telling serial tales largely divorced from comic book continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

This is the first volume of the Library of American Comics collection, which picks up from the Sterling/Kitchen Sing softcover editions which ceased production in 1999. All of the material is long overdue for re-release and digital editions. Here, however, the never-ending battle resumes with Siegel & Shuster and their helpers addressing the world war had just become part of. This superb collection – still not available digitally, despite its superb quality and sublime content – opens with an Introduction by John Wells discussing the Man of Tomorrow’s role of during those days of combat and fear, comprises episodes #20-30, pages 967 through 1814, and publication dates February 16th 1942 to October 28th 1944. It begins with ‘Lair of the Leer’ (February 16 – May 23 1942, #967-1050) as following Pearl Harbor, Clark Kent tries to enlist but fails the physical. In his eagerness, the hero had accidentally activated his super vision and read an eye chart in another room!

Marooned at home, Superman instead counters a wave of sabotage instigated by a murderous maniac dubbed The Leer and addresses Congress, swearing to defend the homeland while America’s brave boys settle the fascists overseas…via a string of Japanese, Italian and German operatives, seeking to destroy government, shipping transport infrastructure and arms plants. As he tirelessly stops these attempts, savvy Lois Lane investigates and soon is in the thick of the action…

The challenge is swiftly taken up by the master spy who mistakenly targets male reporter Clark, but gets snoopy Lois anyway; a mistake that leads to his undoing and his end…

Dialling down fury and spectacle, strips 1051-1115 reveal the secret of ‘The Steel Mill Poet’ (May 25-August 8) as Lois & Clark visit critical war industry site the Canby steel mill where fanciful dowager Mrs Canby believes her cousin’s odes and ditties will uplift the sweaty toilers. With morale plummeting Superman goes looking for her vanished husband, and finds himself playing cupid to two generations of steel tycoons whilst also scotching a sabotage scheme unlike any other…

The naval war features heavily in ‘The Monocle Menace’ (August 10-November 21, #1116-1205) as a new malicious mastermind targets shipping and support services by creating a evil Superman doppelganger, although his real objective is a secret formula. As usual Lois is first on the case and has a ringside seat to an ever-escalating battle of super-powers against super science; even saving her hero when the Man of Steel succumbs to sinister mesmerism and seemingly switches sides!

With Wayne Boring taking more and more of the drawing duties, Seasonal whimsy informs the 23rd exploit as Hitler, Mussolini and General Tojo combine forces to shatter the moral of the world by having ‘Santa Claus Kidnapped’ (November 23-December 19, strips 1206-1229). This compels Superman to go undercover in Berlin, saving Saint Nick and giving the German resistance a big boost before returning to truly nasty business by countering ‘The Villainy of the Voice’ (December 21 1942 to April 17 1943, and 1230-1331). Here an anonymous plotter uses a whispering campaign of insinuation and innuendo to terrorise key workers until Lois and Clark expose the rat and his insidious gang of spying blackmailers and extortionists…

As the Daily Planet’s top reporters are despatched to “war-torn Europe”, Lois &Clark accidentally encounter super spy ‘The Nefarious Noname’ (April 19-June 26, 1332-1391) and are sucked into a Hitchcockian chase around London in pursuit of stolen Allied invasion plans. “Luckily” Superman is also on hand to help them against the freakish, many-eyed psionic mutant terror commanding the enemy agents and a ferocious battle of powers and war of wills ends with the right side victorious again…

Returning safely to America, LL & CK are just in time to see how ‘The Sneer Strikes’ (June 28 – August 21, #1392-1439) as the brother of the Leer targets Japanese Internment Camps in a remarkably even-handed exploration of what we now consider one of the darkest ethical moments in US history. Hopefully that’s not a statement I’ll have amend over the next four years…

Back then though, the reporters’ investigative visits uncover spy schemes and escape plots, forcing the Man of Steel to use his disguise powers to go undercover, infiltrating the Nipponese gang as they attempt to destroy US/Chinese relations and foil a West Coast invasion. The war was slowly turning in the Allies’ favour and reader burnout was growing, so it’s no surprise story #27 moved into solid mystery territory with ‘Where is Lois Lane?’ (August 23 – November 18, #1440-1518) as Clark and Jimmy Olsen realise the woman working at the Daily Planet with them has vanished. Moreover, every aspect of her non-work life – home, neighbours, friends – has been eradicated…

It’s even more confusing when she suddenly reappears, claiming everyone else is crazy. Maybe its because she’s been replaced by an enemy agent wearing her face and form carrying out a bizarre ploy to make Superman her slave and destroy the US economy…

A different kind of whimsy is in play when Lois’s niece – a habitual liar who could shame Baron Munchausen, if not the 47th President – debuts in ‘Little Susie’s Fibs’ (November 19 1943 – February 19 1944, #1519-1598). The fabricating deceiver is an inveterate troublemaker, and when she sees Clark become Superman the scene is set for an avalanche of chaos, after Susie confronts Kent. Of course, he denies everything but cannot find a way to prove he is NOT the Man of Steel telling a lie, and the fantastic hilarity goes into overdrive when ‘The Mischievous Mr. Mxyztplk’ first manifests (February 21 – July 19, #1599-1727). Forewarned by medium Madame Zodia, Lois & Clark are still utterly unprepared for a spate of poltergeist phenomena at the Planet building, heralding the arrival of a fun-addicted magical imp who doesn’t care who gets hurt whilst he’s getting his giggles…

As if his antics aren’t enough to fully occupy the Action Ace, the “Most Beautiful Woman in the World” chooses that moment to stop covering her face, no longer caring about the fights and accidents her looks generate. With men rioting and suiciding everywhere, the imp sets his heart on her too, but Miss Dreamface seeks to steal Superman’s, even though faithful old flame Ted is still chasing her too. The frenzy mounts and peaks in Metropolis, setting the scene for tragedy and disaster, even if true love eventually finds a way to restore order…

Acclaimed favourite of the Superman radio show, the Daily Planet copy boy got his first taste of pictorial fame in concluding sequence #30 ‘King Jimmy Olsen’ (July 20-October 28 1944, #1728-1814). Here the dauntless is lad abducted by hidden super-scientific kingdom Thymaung. The boy is the exact double of ruler Rahma, and a council of usurpers want to replace their noble boy king with a pliable primitive they can control and who will front their campaign to conquer Earth. Unfortunately for them, Superman tracks down his pal, but insists the kid plays along until the Man of Tomorrow can safely liberate the captive king. A whirlwind ride of action, fantasy and first love, it heralds a new era of decreasingly political satire in favour of gender stereotyping and reinforcement masked as a comedic “battle of the sexes”. There will be more of that next time -and all through the “Atomic age” of the 1950s & 1960s…

For now though, these yarns offer timeless wonders and mesmerising excitement for lovers of action and fantasy. The raw-boned early Superman is beyond compare. If you can handle the warts of the era or just crave simpler stories from less angst-wracked times, they are ideal comics reading, and this a book you simply must see.
© 2016 DC Comics. All rights reserved. Superman and all related names, characters and elements are ™ DC Comics.

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Conan Epic Collection volume 5: Of Once and Future Kings (1976-1977)


By Roy Thomas & John Buscema, with John Jakes, Len Wein, Skip Kirkland, Ralph Macchio, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom, Val Mayerik, Vicente Alcázar, Howard Bender, Marshall Rogers, Neal Adams, Tim Conrad & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 1-84576- (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the 1970’s, America’s comic book industry opened up after more than 15 years of calcified publishing practises promulgated by the censorious, self-inflicted Comics Code Authority: a self-imposed oversight organisation created to police product after the industry suffered its very own McCarthy-style 1950s witch-hunt. The first genre revisited during the literary liberation was Horror/Mystery, and from those changes sprang migrated pulp star Conan.

Sword & Sorcery stories had been undergoing a prose revival in the paperback marketplace since the release of softcover editions of Lord of the Rings in 1954 and, in the 1960s, revivals of the fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline, Fritz Lieber and others were making huge inroads into buying patterns across the world. The old masters had also been augmented by many modern writers. Michael Moorcock, Lin Carter and others kick-started their prose careers with contemporary versions of man against mage against monsters. The undisputed overlord of the genre was Robert E. Howard with his 1930s pulp masterpiece Conan of Cimmeria.

Gold Key had notionally opened the field in 1964 with cult hit Mighty Samson, followed by Harvey Comics’ ‘Clawfang the Barbarian’ (1966’s Thrill-O-Rama #2). Both steely warriors dwelt in post-apocalyptic techno-wildernesses, but in 1969 DC dabbled with previously code-proscribed mysticism as Nightmaster came (and went) in Showcase #82-84, following the example of CCA-exempt Warren anthologies Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Marvel tested the waters with barbarian villain/Conan prototype Arkon the Magnificent in Avengers #76 (April 1970) – the same month they went all-out with short supernatural thriller ‘The Sword and the Sorcerers’ in their own watered-down horror anthology Chamber of Darkness #4.

Written by Roy Thomas and drawn by fresh-faced Barry Smith (a recent Marvel find just breaking free of the company’s still-prevalent, nigh-compulsory Kirby house style) the tale introduced Starr the Slayer… who also bore no small resemblance to our Barbarian-in-waiting…

Conan the Barbarian debuted with an October 1970 cover-date and despite early teething problems (including being cancelled and reinstated in the same month) these strip adventures of Howard’s primal hero were as big a success as the prose yarns they adapted. Conan became a huge hit: a blockbuster brand that prompted new prose tales, movies, TV series, cartoon shows, a newspaper strip and all the other paraphernalia of global superstardom.

However, times changed, sales declined and in 2003 the property moved to another comics publisher. Then in 2019 the brawny brute returned to the aegis of Marvel.

Their first bite of the cherry was retroactively subtitled “the Original Marvel Years” due to the character’s sojourn with Dark Horse Comics and other intellectual rights holders, and this fifth compendium spans cover-dates March 1976 to February 1977. It reprints Conan the Barbarian #60-71, Conan Annual #2-3 plus material from Power Records #31, F.O.O.M. #14 and elsewhere, highlighting a period when the burly brute was very much the darling of the comics crowd, and when artist John Buscema made the hero his very own.

Adaptor Thomas had resolved to follow the character’s narrative timeline as laid out by Howard and successors like L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, expanded and padded out with other adaptions of REH and his contemporaries and – almost as a last resort – all-new adventures. Thus, content was evermore redolent of pulp-oriented episodic action rather than traditional fantasy fiction. As usual, firstly hurtle back in time approximately 12,000 years to a forgotten age of wonders, and follow the now traditional map of ‘The Hyborean Age of Conan’ plus accompanying mandatory establishing quote.

Maybe we’d best pause a moment and say something necessary. Many of the trappings and themes of Sword & Sorcery stories – especially those from the 1970s & 1980s adapting even earlier tales when racism, sexism and the presumed superiority of white males was a given – are not as comfortable – or unchallenged – for modern readers as they were for my generation or its forebears. Many elements here, for all their artistic and narrative excellence, will be hard to swallow for a lot of younger readers.

At least I hope so…

If barely-clad women casually traded as prizes and trophies and brown people waving spears and wearing feathers are a trigger, please don’t read these tales. I’m not making apologies when I say Thomas and his collaborators were actively working to subvert the established paradigm even then, or that these stories are powerful, thrilling and of evolving cultural significance, but, until so very recently, this kind of epic was a diminishing force with dwindling power to supress or denigrate ethnicities and minorities.

Now, with ugly race supremacism, resurgent sexism, and all forms of “othering” on the rise once more, I get the need to call out or shout down things that could warp young or weak minds. Don’t read these if you can’t. They are only comics, but it doesn’t take much to form and fix a bias, does it?

If you’re still with us, the hopefully harmless action nonsense resumes with a riotous romp from CtB #60 introducing ‘Riders of the River-Dragons!’ The Cimmerian wanderer continues as red-handed consort to pirate queen Bêlit, a Shemite orphan raised by a Kushite witch doctor and considered an avatar of his tribe’s death goddess…

Pulp novelette Queen of the Black Coast was originally published in the May 1934 Weird Tales, and obliquely told of Conan’s time as infamous pirate “Amra”: plundering the coasts of Kush (prehistoric Africa) beside his first great love. The brief but tragic tale of bold buccaneer Bêlit was a prose one-off, but Thomas expanded it over years into an epic comics storyline that ran to #100 of the monthly title.

It had all begun in  Conan The Barbarian #58, where Thomas, Buscema & Steve Gan debuted their Queen of the Black Coast! After the fugitive Cimmerian found safe harbour on an outward bound Argossean trading ship. The Northborn outlaw befriended entrepreneurial Captain Tito and settled into the mariner’s life. After visiting many fabulous ports and exotic wild places, Conan’s life changed when the ship encountered the most feared vessel afloat. Only Conan survived the assault of Kushite warriors, but as he prepared to die fighting, their white queen spared his life, and allowed Conan to earn his place by fighting any objectors before settling in as Bêlit’s prize…

As Thomas fleshed out the text tale, eventually Conan learned from shaman/mentor/guardian N’yaga how the warrior woman had remade herself. How a daughter of Asgalun’s king escaped murder by the Stygians who placed her uncle on the suddenly vacant throne, and how she grew up among barbarous tribesmen of the Silver Isles. Trained to best any man and after mastering supernal horrors, she destroyed a jealous chieftain, proving her in the eyes of the tribes an earthly daughter of Death Goddess Derketa: sworn to inflict bloody vengeance on Stygians and all who stand with them. Before long she had trained them as seafaring plunderers building a war chest to retake her throne: her, deadly, merciless devoutly loyal “black Corsairs”…

Conan also realises that he loves Bêlit beyond all else, even if she may not be wholly human…

Here the saga further expands in Thomas, Buscema & Gan’s opening shot where the pirate goddess is captured by crocodile-riding warriors as she visits a vassal coastal tribe, When the dragon riders come again, Conan, his shipmates and the river dwelling Watambis turn the tables on them, forcing captive raiders to lead them to their distant domain and hidden lord: a bestial godlike entity called “Amra”…

Ploughing through foetid forests, the rescue party is hard ‘On the Track of the She-Pirate!’ (#61), but Bêlit has already escaped, only to fall victim to a monstrous Moth creature. Her death is only prevented by the arrival of the brutal ‘Lord of the Lions!’ in #63, who takes a fancy to a woman who is the same colour he is…

In a barbed pastiche of ultimate white god Tarzan, Thomas, Buscema & Gan reveal how a red-haired noble child lost in jungles is reared by lions. On maturity, his physical might and domination of beasts makes him de facto ruler of terrorised local tribes surrounding the ruined lost city he calls home. Sadly, Amra’s fascination with Bêlit drives a previous captive paramour – chief’s daughter Makeda – to jealously retaliate by awakening demonic creatures asleep in the city’s bowels.

By the time Conan arrives to duel his rival and physical equal, the entire region is imperilled as the dead hunt the living and ‘Death Among the Ruins!’ leads to Amra’s defeat and the Cimmerian being hailed as a new Lord of Lions…

Deadlines were always a scourge at this time and #64 pauses the serial to reprint a colorised, toned down tale from mature readers magazine Savage Tales #5 (July 1974). Crafted by Thomas from a John Jakes plot, ‘The Secret of Skull River’ is illustrated Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom, detailing the Cimmerian’s mercenary’s battle against monster-making alchemists Anaximander and Sophos, prior to CtB #65’s ‘Fiends of the Feathered Serpent!’ (inked by the Tribe) returning to the shipboard romance in a canny adaptation of Howard’s The Thunder Rider. Here the Corsairs are driven by a Stygian fleet into uncharted waters, encountering the accursed remains of legendary black slave liberator Ahmaan the Merciless and the sorcerer who finally killed him. Tezcatlipoca is still there, trying to steal the dead man’s magic axe – which has already chosen Conan/Amra as its next host – when Ahmaan comes back to settle unfinished business, with the entire atoll paying the price of that clash…

Still inked by The Tribe, ‘Daggers and Death-Gods!’ brings the corsairs back to Argossean port city Messantia as Bêlit seeks to barter her plunder for Shemite currency to fund her counter-revolution. When shady fence Publio offers a big payout for a special job robbing a temple , it results in a mesmerising priest pitting the lovers against each other after seemingly awakening guardian death deities Derketa and Dagon, The pitiless duel is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Conan’s old sparring partner Red Sonja…

Although based on Robert E. Howard’s Russian war-woman Red Sonya of Rogatine (from 16th century-set thriller The Shadow of the Vulture with a smidgen of Dark Agnes de Chastillon thrown into the mix) the comic book Red Sonja is very much Thomas’ brainchild. She debuted in Conan the Barbarian #23 (in November 1973) and became an unattainable gadfly/lure for the Cimmerian before gaining her own series and creative stable. Thomas returned as scripter to set up a tumultuous extended team-up with Conan and Bêlit that began with CtB #67’s ‘Talons of the Man-Tiger!’ as the Pirate Queen suspiciously eyes her man’s “one that got away” – and who is also after the loot Pulbio wants so badly…

Sonja was commissioned by Karanthes, High Priest of the Ibis God, to secure a page torn from mystic grimoire the Iron-Bound Book of Skelos in demon-haunted Stygia. She’s barely aware of an unending war between ancient deities, or that old colleague and rival Conan of Cimmeria is similarly seeking the arcane artefact. Ignoring his offer to work together, the women set off singly after the artefact, and Conan meets old apprentice Tara of Hanumar, who begs him to rescue her husband Yusef from a castle dungeon guarded by were-panther. By the time he finds Bêlit, Sonja has ridden off with the prize and the lovers give chase…

Prose recap of Marvel Feature #7 ‘The Battle of the Barbarians!’ summarises the other side of the story – and for her exploits see The Adventures of Red Sonja vol. 1. Sonja clashes repeatedly with her rivals and defeats many beasts and terrors, believing she has the upper hand, but there’s more at stake than any doughty warrior might imagine as the players reconvene with Karanthes.

Attacked by a demon bat who steals the page, Sonja, Amra and Bêlit give chase until they discover a strange city in the wastelands. Pencilled & inked by Buscema, CtB #68’s ‘Of Once and Future Kings!’ sees the sorcery of a sinister mastermind bring King Kull and his armies out of the past to conquer Conan’s era in a spectacular crossover conclusion that sets the scene for future forays of the fantastic before the love story takes centre stage once more with ‘The Demon Out of the Deep!’ as Thomas, Val Mayerik & the Tribe adapt REH’s historical horror classic Out of the Deep with the Cimmerian sharing an exploit of his teen years when as a captive of the enemy Vanir tribe he witnessed a sea devil decimate a fishing village before killing the thing with own brawny arms, neatly segueing into a two-part thriller from Conan the Barbarian #70 & 71, freely adapted from Howard’s The Marchers of Valhalla and inked by returning embellisher Ernie Chan.

In ‘The City in the Storm!’ a mighty storm drives the pirates far from recognisable shores and the corsairs’ iron discipline begins the fracture as they reach a welcoming island adorned with a fabulous walled metropolis of gold. With N’Yaga injured the crew head for shore and find glorious women serving a population of near-bestial sub-men. After an inconclusive battle, serving maid Aluna and her priestly master Akkheba negotiate a deal for the corsairs to defend the city – Kelka – from rival Barachan pirates, but there’s double dealing in the contract and soon the Kushites and their queen are captives awaiting sacrifice…

However as Conan discovers in ‘The Secret of Ashtoreth!’, the immortal captive the Kelkans worship and abuse in equal measure is no patron but vengeful victim who only needs a little aid to end their treacherous depredations forever…

The volume pauses Belit’s romance here to conclude with a selection of out-chronology oddments, beginning with 1976’s Conan the Barbarian Annual  #2. Opening with graphic reprise ‘Conan the Cimmerian’ by Thomas, Buscema & Yong Montano, the main event is a much abridged adaptation of ‘The Phoenix on the Sword’ by Thomas, Vicente Alcázar & Yong Montano, as aging King Conan faces sedition, rebellion and usurpation as he rules mighty empire Aquilonia. The thriller is backed up by The Hyborian Page text feature detailing the convoluted path of Howard’s original tale.

One year later, Conan the Barbarian Annual 3 reprinted some of Savage Sword of Conan #3 (December 1974) in a colourised, bowdlerised family friendly form, preceded by framing sequence ‘Conan the Barbarian and King Kull!’. Thomas, Buscema & Pablo Marcos placed General Conan of Khoraja ‘At the Mountain of the Moon-God’ and ‘Where Dark Death Soars’ to foil a scheme to replace the new King Khossus with a puppet of King Strabonus of Koth…

With covers by Gil Kane, John Romita, Rich Buckler, Vince Colletta, Mike Esposito, Dan Adkins, Marcos, Chan, Buscema, Adams & Crusty Bunkers, the regular comics fare is augmented by rare treats, beginning with a genuine rarity. Power Records #31: Conan the Barbarian was part of line of vinyl records packaged with comic adventures. Other titles included Batman, Planet of the Apes and many more, but here – scripted by Len Wein & J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Buscema, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano and friends – ‘The Crawler in the Mists!’ offers an old fashioned monster & misjudgement parable as Conan faces the uncanny and comes away far wiser…

House fan mag F.O.O.M. #14 (June 1976) was an all barbarian special and from it liberally-illustrated features ‘The Barbarian and the Bullpen!’, ‘Thomas Speaks!’, ‘Robert E. Howard: The Man Who Created Conan!’, ‘Conan Checklist’, ‘A Marvel Artistic Double-Treat’ and ‘Marvel Writer/Artist Scorecard’ reveal all things Hyborian. Then Conan ‘Marvel Value Stamp’, assorted house ads and pages from Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar (April 1976 by Gil Kane & Tony Isabella) reflect the comics popularity, and a Power Comics Conan promo and sleeve art by Adams leads to incisive article ‘The (Almost) Forgotten Tales of Conan’ by Fred Blosser from SSoC #40, a Romita pencil sketch and original art by Buscema & Gan, many pages of layouts, Tim Conrad pin-up and artwork from 1976’s Marvel Comics Index #2, painted by Conrad.

Stirring, evocative, cathartic and thrilling for all their modern faults and failings, these yarns are deeply satisfying on a primal level, and this is one of the best volumes in a superb series starring a paragon and icon of adventure heroes. This is classic pulp/comic action in all its unashamed exuberance: an honestly guilty pleasure for old time fans and newbies of all persuasion. What more does any red-blooded, action-starved fan need to know?
Conan the Barbarian Published Monthly by MARVEL WORLDWIDE Inc, a subsidiary of MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, LLC. © 2022 Conan Properties International, LLC (“CPI”).

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How to Be Happy


By Eleanor Davis (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-740-6 (HB/Digital edition)

Do acts of creation make one happy? They certainly do for me, but sometimes so do acts of wanton destruction. I’m sharing, not judging. With all the emotional pressure that builds at this time of year, let’s revisit a beautiful and beguiling picture treat intended to reinvigorate a little perspective and say “it’s not all bad”…

Eleanor Davis is one of those rare sparks that just can’t help making great comics. Born in 1983, and growing up in Tucson, Arizona, she was blessed with parents who reared her on classic strips like Little Nemo, Little Lulu and Krazy Kat. Following unconventional schooling and teen years spent making minicomics, she studied at Georgia’s wonderful Savannah College of Art and Design, and went on to teach there. Her innovative works have appeared in diverse places such as Mome, Nobrow and Lucky Peach.

A life of glittering prizes began after her award-winning easy reader book Stinky was released in 2008. Davis followed up with gems such as Flop to the Top, The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook (with husband Drew Weing), You & a Bike & a Road and Why Art? and has become a celebrated star of the international comics scene.

Way back in 2014, Fantagraphics released a themed collection of her epigrammatic tales, crafted in a mesmerising variety of styles and riffing on the concept of joy and contentment: causes, failings, and what to do with them when and if they happen. These are enigmatic variations on the most ephemeral of emotions and one you only really notice when it’s gone, but the individual episodes here are truly joyous to share.

How to Be Happy is NOT a self-help book – at least not in any traditional sense – but it did make me feel very good when I first read it and only increases my sense of fulfilment every time I pick it up, whether in its comforting. reassuring hardback edition or my ever-present anxiety-reducing digital edition…

These observational vignettes were created for the sheer innocent joy of making them, and diligently examine many aspects of life through self-contained yarns ranging from cautionary tales to excoriating self-diagnosis to flights of sardonic fancy. Some are titled like proper narratives whilst others just happen like life does. Those I’ve identified by first lines if no title is obvious…

Packed with evocative, stand-alone imagery, the episodes commence with line art pictorial pep talk ‘Write a Story’ before switching to lush colour for ‘In Our Eden’, wherein a primitive life of pastoral toil starts to grate on Adam and Eve. They are, unsurprisingly, not all they seem…

Further monochrome line art interventionism manifests in ‘First We Take Off Our Clothes’ after which a short hop into full-colour and a longer one into a fraught future examines family life on Tomorrow’s sub-continent when ‘Nita Goes Home’…

Separation and rural isolation underpin monochrome monologue ‘We Come Down on Clear Days’ before the restricted colour palette of ‘Stick and String’ offers a good hard look at relationships and agency in the tale of a wandering minstrel and captivating power of momentary fascination. Relations are further tested in monochrome as ‘Darling I’ve Realized I Don’t Love You’ provides unwise solutions to ancient problems, before a truly disquieting incident of mutual grooming in ‘Snip’ segues into a chilling visit to ‘The Emotion Room’.

Colour is employed to potent effect in ‘He turned a grey-green and thought he might pass out’ whilst ‘Seven Sacks’ addresses grisly problems in a fresh fable Aesop or the Brothers Grimm would be proud to pen.

Two colours and self-delusion tinge ‘Did you want to see the statue?’, whilst B&W lines detail the rewards of heroic vitality in ‘Make Yourself Strong’, after which young love blossoms in living colour in ‘Summer Snakes’…

The pure exultation and imagination of childhood is exposed through stark monochrome in ‘Thomas the Leader’ before a brief vox-pop moment in ‘I used to be so unhappy but then I got on Prozac’ is built upon in further untitled moments of self-realisation before a strong admonition to ‘Pray’…

Observation, tribulation and revelation come to the author for ‘In 2006 I took a Greyhound from Georgia to Los Angeles’, before a descent into dark moments and extreme actions in ‘The fox must have been hit pretty recently…’ is balanced by intimate sharing in ‘The woman feels sadness’.

Colour adds depth in an extended moment of group therapy release in ‘No Tears, No Sorrow’ after which the wandering introspection of ‘9/26’ leads to a conclusion of sorts during a cab ride to ‘25 Washington Street, Please’…

A superb and sublime example of the range and versatility of image &text cannily combined, How to Be Happy a true joy for all fans of unbridled expression no one could fail to enjoy.
© Eleanor Davis 2014. All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents Young Love


By Robert Kanigher, Jack Miller, Phyllis Reed, Lee Goldsmith, Barbara Friedlander, Julius Schwartz, John Romita, Bernard Sachs, John Rosenberger, Werner Roth, Bill Draut, Mike Sekowsky, Tony Abruzzo, Arthur Peddy, Dick Giordano, Sal Trapani, Jay Scott Pike, Gene Colan, John Giunta, Frank Giacoia & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3438-6 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in far less enlightened times.

As the escapist popularity of flamboyant superheroes waned after World War II, newer genres such as Romance and Horror came to the fore and older forms regained their audiences. Some, like Westerns and “Funny Animal” comics, had hardly changed at all but Crime and Detective tales were utterly radicalised by the temperament of the times. Stark, uncompromising, cynically ironic novels and socially aware, if not actually culturally nihilistic, movies that would become categorised as Film Noir offered postwar society a bleakly antiheroic worldview that often hit too close to home and set fearful, repressive, middleclass parent groups and political ideologues howling for blood.

Naturally, these new artistic sensibilities seeped into comics, transforming two-fisted gumshoe and Thud-&-Blunder cop strips of yore into darkly beguiling, even frightening tales of seductive dames, big payoffs and glamorous, sympathetically portrayed thugs and brutes. Sensing imminent Armageddon, America’s moral junkyard dogs bayed ever louder as they imagined their precious children’s minds under seditious attack…

Concurrent to the demise of masked mystery-men, industry giants and inveterate pioneers Joe Simon & Jack Kirby famously invented the love genre for comic books, crafting tastefully adult-oriented, beguiling, explosively contemporary social dramas equally focussed on the changing cultural scene and grown up relationships. However, even they began cautiously, with semi-comedic prototype My Date in early 1947 before plunging into the torrid real deal with Young Romance #1 in September of that year.

Not since the invention of Superman has a single comic book generated such a frantic rush of imitation and flagrant cashing-in. It was a monumental hit and the team quickly expanded: releasing spin-offs such as Young Love (February 1949), Young Brides and In Love. Simon & Kirby presaged and ushered-in the first American age of adult comics – not only with their creation of the Romance genre, but with challenging modern stories of real people in extraordinary situations. Sadly, they also saw it all disappear again in less than eight years. Produced for a loose association of companies known as Prize/Crestwood/Pines, their small stable of magazines blossomed and wilted as the industry contracted throughout the 1950s.

All through that turbulent period, comic books suffered impossibly biased oversight and hostile scrutiny from hidebound and panicked old guard institutions such as church groups, media outlets and ambitious opportunistic politicians. A number of tales and titles were cherry-picked and garnered especial notoriety from those social doomsmiths, whilst hopeful celebration and eager anticipation amongst tragic, forward-thinking (if psychologically scarred comics-collecting) victims was quashed when the industry instigated a ferocious Comics Code castrating the creative form just when it most needed boldness and imagination.

We lost and comics endured more than a decade and a half of savagely doctrinaire, self-imposed censorship. Those tales from a simpler, more paranoid time (much like right now), exposed a society in meltdown and suffering cultural PTSD, but are mild by modern standards of behaviour, and the sheer quality of art and writing make those pivotal years a creative highpoint long overdue for a thorough reassessment.

The first Young Love ran for 73 issues (1949-1956) before folding and being relaunched in a far more anodyne, CCA-approved form as All For Love in Spring 1957. Unable to find an iota of its previous and hoped-for audience, it disappeared after 17 issues in March 1959 before resurrecting as Young Love a year later. Starting with #18, the title ran steadily but unremarkably until June 1963 when the experiment and company died with #38. Crestwood sold its remaining landmark, groundbreaking titles and properties – Young Romance, Young Love and Black Magic being the most notable – to National/DC before fading from sight. The new editors released their first edition in the autumn of 1963 as part of their own small, shy, unassuming romance ring: carrying on with it and similar titles targeting teenaged girls (for which, read aspirational, imaginative 8-12 year-olds) for the next 15 years.

In the 1970s a sharp decline in all comic book sales finally killed the genre off. Young Love was one of the last; ending at #126 (cover-date July 1977). This monumental monochrome miscellany gathers DC’s first 18 issues (#39-56) spanning September/October 1963 – July/ August 1966) but, although beautiful to look upon, it is sadly plagued with twin tragedies.

The first is that the stories soon become fearfully formulaic – although flashes of narrative brilliance do crop up with reassuring regularity – whilst the second is an painfully inaccurate listing of creator credits. Many fans have commented and suggested corrections online, and I’m adding my own surmises and deductions about artists whenever I’m reasonably sure, but other than the unmistakable, declamatorily florid flavour of Robert Kanigher, none of us in fandom are that certain just who was responsible for scripting these amatory affairs. However, research continues and sources like Grand Comicbook Database, Lambiek and DC.fandom.com are continually amending history for us. Here, likely anonymous creative contenders include Dorothy Woolfolk, George Kashdan, E. Nelson Bridwell and Morris Waldinger, but I’m afraid we may never really know.

C’est l’amour… et la vie

On these anthological pages, the heartbreak and tears begin with the introduction of a soap-opera serial undoubtedly inspired by romantic antics of television physicians such as Dr. Kildare (1961-1966) and Ben Casey (1962-1966). Written in an uncomfortably macho “me Dr. Tarzan, you Nurse Jane” style by Kanigher and illustrated with staggering beauty by John Romita, ‘The Private Diary of Mary Robin R.N.’ follows the painful journey and regularly recurring heartache of a nurse dedicated to her patients, all whilst fighting her inbuilt need to “settle down” with the man of her dreams, whoever he may be.

It’s usually a big-headed, know-it-all medic with no time to waste on settling anything or anywhere…

The serial opened with 2-part novelette ‘No Cure for Love’, in which a newly-qualified Registered Nurse starts her career in the OR at County General Hospital, instantly arousing the ire of surly surgeon Will Ames whose apparent nastiness is only a mask for his moody man-concern over his poor benighted patients – but never their billables…

However, even as he romances Mary and she dares to dream, the good doctor soon proves that medicine will always be his first and only Love.

I’m not sure of the inker but the pencils on stand-alone back-up ‘You’ve Always Been Nice!’ look like Werner Roth in a novel yarn of modern Texans in love that pretty much sets the tone for the title: Modern Miss gets enamoured of the wrong guy or flashy newcomer until the quiet one who waited for her finally gets motivated. ‘The Eve of His Wedding’ – by Bernard Sachs – goes with the other favourite option: a smug, flashy girl who loses out to the quiet potentially Trad-wife heroine waiting patiently for true love to lead her man back to her…

In #40, Kanigher & Romita ask Mary Robin ‘Which Way, My Heart?’ and she answers by letting Dr. Ames walk all over her before transferring to Paediatrics. She still found time to fall in love with a thankfully adult patient – but only until he got better… Filling out the issue are ‘Someone to Remember’ (illustrated by Bill Draut) which sees sensible Judy utterly transform herself into a sophisticated floozy for a boy who actually prefers the old her, and ‘The Power of Love’ (incorrectly attributed to Don Heck but perhaps Morris Waldinger or John Rosenberger heavily inked by Sachs?) wherein Linda competes with her own sister over new boy Bill.

Although retaining the cover spot, the medical drama was relegated to the end of the comic from #41 on, and complete stories led, starting on ‘End With A Kiss’ (Mike Sekowsky & Sachs), wherein calculating Anna almost marries wrong guy Steve, until good old Neil puts his foot down, whilst for a girl who dates two men at the same time, ‘Heartbreak Came Twice!’ – a tale that was almost a tragedy. Mary Robin then cries – she cried a lot – ‘No Tomorrow for My Heart!’ as Will Ames continues calling when he feels like it as she somehow finds herself competing with best friend Tess for both him and a hunky patient in their care. Mary even briefly quits her job for this man of her dreams…

The always superb John Rosenberger inking himself – mistakenly credited throughout to Jay Scott Pike – opens #42 with ‘Boys are Fools!’ wherein young Phyllis is temporarily eclipsed by her cynical, worldly older sister Jayne; until a decent man shows them the error of their ways. Vile Marty then uses unwitting Linda as a pawn in a battle of romantic rivals for ‘A Deal with Love!’ (Rosenberger or maybe Win Mortimer & Sachs?). I don’t have any corroborating proof, but a custom of the era was for artists to trade pages or anonymously collaborate on some stories; making visual identification a real expert’s game…

With a ‘Fearful Heart!’, Mary Robin closes up the issue by accidentally stealing the love of a blinded patient nursed by her plain associate. When the hunk’s sight returned, he just naturally assumes the pretty one was his devoted carer…

Young Love #43 opened with the excellent ‘Remember Yesterday’ (Tony Abruzzo & Sachs) in which Gloria relives her jilting by fiancé Grant before embarking on a journey of self-discovery and finding her way back to love. Then the Sekowsky/Sachs influenced ‘A Day Like Any Other’ and ‘Before it’s Too Late’ disclose the difficulties of being a working woman and temptations of being left at home all alone…

After that, Kanigher & Romita end the affairs by sharing the childhood days of Mary Robin and just why she turned to nursing when her childhood sweetheart becomes her latest patient in ‘Shadow of Love!’ YL #44 declares ‘It’s You I Love!’ (Abruzzo & Frank Giacoia) as wilful Chris foolishly sets her cap for the college’s biggest hunk, whilst in ‘Unattainable’ Lorna learns she just isn’t that special to playboy Gary before Mary Robin endures ‘Double Heartbreak!’ when her own sister Naomi sweeps in and swoops off with on-again, off-again Dr. Ames.

Sekowsky & Sachs opened #45 with ‘As Long as a Lifetime!’ wherein poor April finds herself torn between and tearing apart best friends Tommy and Jamie, whilst ‘Laugh Today, Weep Tomorrow!’ (Phyllis Reed & Abruzo) has tragic Janet see her best friend Margot‘s seductive allure steal away another man she might have loved. ‘One Kiss for Always’ then shows Mary Robin as the patient after a bus crash costs her the use of her legs. During her battle back to health, and loss of the only man she might be happy with, the melodrama finally achieves the heights it always aspired to in a tale of genuine depth and passion.

Reed & Rosenberger lead in #46 as Maria and Mark conspire together to win back their respective intendeds and discover exactly ‘Where Love Belongs’, after which Mortimer reveals ‘It’s All Over Now’ (Reed & Arthur Peddy) for Merrill who only gets Cliff because Addie went away to finishing school. But then she came back…

This surprisingly mature and sophisticated fable is followed by Kanigher & Romita’s ‘Veil of Silence!’ in which Nurse Robin takes her duties to extraordinary lengths: allowing a patient to take her latest boyfriend in order to aid her full recovery…

YL #47’s ‘Merry Christmas’ (Rosenberger) shows astonishing seasonal spirit as Thea cautiously welcomes back sister Laurie – and gives her a second chance to steal her husband – after which secretary Vicky eavesdrops on her boss and boyfriend: almost finishing her marriage before it begins in ‘Every Beat of his Heart!’ (Reed & Peddy). Mary Robin’s ‘Cry for Love’ starts in another pointless fling with gadabout Ames and ends with her almost stealing another nurse’s man in a disappointingly shallow but action-packed effort, after which – in #48 – ‘Call it a Day’ (Lee Goldsmith & Peddy) finds an entire clan of women united to secure a man for little Alice, before Rosenberger limns ‘Trust Him!’ wherein bitter sister Marta‘s harsh advice to love-sick sibling Jill is happily ignored. Kanigher & Romita then explore Mary Robin’s ‘Two-Sided Heart!’ after Ames again refuses to consider moving beyond their casually intimate relationship. Of course, that shouldn’t excuse what she then does with the gorgeous amnesia patient who has a grieving girlfriend…

Young Love #49 led with Jack Miller & Rosenberger’s ‘Give Me Something to Remember You By!’, with Marge praying her latest summer romance turns into a something more. Waiting is a torment but ‘Your Man is Mine!’ (Goldsmith &Roth) shows what’s worse when sisters clash and Clea again tries taking what Pat has: a fiancé…

‘Someone… Hear my Heart!’ then unselfconsciously dips into the world of TV as Mary Robin dumps Dr. Ames for an actor and new career on a medical show. It doesn’t end well and she’s soon back where she belongs with bedpans and the man who can’t or won’t appreciate her…

Roth – or maybe Sekowsky & Jay Scott Pike – open #50 with ‘Second Hand Love’ as Debbie dreads that the return of vivacious Vicky will lead to her taking back the man she left behind, whilst ‘Come into My Arms!’ (Reed & Frank Bolle) sees Mary Grant visit Paris in search of one man, only to fall for another. Mary Robin then finds herself pulled in many directions as she falls for another doctor and one more hunky patient before yet again rededicating herself to professional care over ‘The Love I Never Held!’ She jumps back to the front in #51, discovering  ‘All Men are Children!’ (still Kanigher & Romita) when an unruly shut-in vindictively uses her to make another nurse jealous, after which Miller & Rosenberger delivers a stunning turn with ‘Afraid of Love!’ Here, after years of obsessive yearning, Lois finally goes for it with the man of her dreams. Romita then a took a turn at an stand-alone solo story, limning Miller’s ‘No Easy Lessons in Love’ wherein Gwen and Peter separately travel the world and make many mistakes before finally finding each other again.

The nurse finally got her man – and her marching orders – in #52’s ‘Don’t Let it Stop!’, but dashing intern Dan Swift only makes his move on Mary after being hypnotised! Hopefully, she lived happily ever after because, despite being advertised for the next issue, she didn’t appear again…

The abrupt departure was followed by vintage reprint ‘Wonder Women of History: Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch’ (by Julius Schwartz & John Giunta from Wonder Woman #55, September/October 1952), detailing the life of a crusading social campaigner before Roth & Sachs detail how a flighty girl stops chasing husky lifeguards and finds a faithful adoring ‘Young Man for Me!’ ‘The Day I Looked Like This!’ (by Dick Giordano & Sal Trapani) celebrates the day tomboy Judi finally starts gussying up like a proper girl and unhappily discovers she is the spitting image of a hot starlet…

Sporting a design makeover, Young Love #53 opens with ‘A Heart Full of Pride!’ (Abruzzo & Romita) as naïve Mib proves to herself that – just like in school – determination and perseverance pay off in romance, before Miller & Peddy show how standoffish Cynthia learns how she needs to play the field to win her man in ‘I Wanted My Share of Love’.

Miller & Romita describe the designs of Kathy, who discovers the pitfalls of her frivolous lifestyle in ‘Everybody Likes Me… but Nobody Loves Me!’ before Draut illustrates Miller’s lead feature for YL #54 as ‘False Love!’ exposes a case of painfully mistaken intentions when a gang of kids all go out with the wrong partners… until bold Nan finally speaks her mind.

Reed, Abruzzo & Sachs’ ‘Love Against Time’ shows schoolteacher Lisa that patience isn’t everything, after which ‘Too Much in Love!’(Miller & Romita) hints at a truly abusive relationship until Mandy‘s rival tells her just why beloved Van acts that way…

‘An Empty Heart!’ (Reed & Peddy) opens #55, revealing how insecure Mindy needs to date other boys just to be sure she can wait for beloved Sam to come back from the army, whilst in ‘Heart-Shy’ (Reed, Jay Scott Pike & Sachs) oblivious Della takes took her own sweet time realising self-effacing Lon is the boy for her, after which Pike limns Miller’s tale of Janie who finally defies her snobbish, controlling mother and picks ‘Someone of My Own to Love’.

The romance dance concludes here with #56 and ‘A Visit to a Lost Love’ (Miller & Gene Colan): a bittersweet winter’s tale of paradise lost and regained, after which perpetually fighting Richy and Cindy realise ‘Believe it or Not… It’s Love’ (Barbara Friedlander, Abruzzo & Sachs), and ‘I’ll Make Him Love Me!’ (Miller & Sachs) show how scary Liz stalks Perry until she falls for her destined soul-mate Bud…

As I’ve stated, the listed credits are full of errors and whilst I’ve corrected those I know to be wrong I’ve also made a few guesses which might be just as wild and egregious (I’m still not unconvinced that many tales were simply rendered by a committee of artists working in desperate jam-sessions), so I can only apologise to all those it concerns, as well as fans who thrive on these details for the less-than-satisfactory job of celebrating the dedicated creators who worked on these all-but-forgotten items.

As for the tales themselves: they’re dated, outlandish and frequently offensive in their treatment of women. So were the times in which they were created, but that’s no excuse.

However, there are many moments of true narrative brilliance to equal the astonishing quality of the artwork here, and by the end of this titanic torrid tome the tone of the turbulent times was definitely beginning to shift as the Swinging part of the Sixties began and hippies, free love, flower power and female emancipation began scaring the pants off the old guard and reactionary traditionalists.

Not for wimps or sissies but certainly an unmissable temptation for all traditionalist romantics and lovers of great comic art…
© 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Teen Angst: A Treasury of ’50’s Romance


By Everett Raymond Kinstler, Matt Baker & various, compiled and edited by Tom Mason (Malibu Graphics)
ISBN: 978-0944735350 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in far less enlightened times.

Ever felt in the mood for a really trashy read? These tacky tales of love from another age are a deliciously forbidden and oh, so very guilty pleasure – if only for the gonzo appeal of a ghastly bygone age and some of the most potently compelling art in US comics history.

There’s no real literary justification for today’s featured item, and I’m not even particularly inclined to defend some of material within on historical grounds either. Not that there isn’t an undeniable and direct link between these exceedingly engaging assignations and affairs and today’s funnybook market of age-&-maturity-sensitive cartoons. If and when taken on their own terms, these stories have a certain naively beguiling quality, like watching old B-movies. You know just when to go “Hey! Wait a minute, now…”

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 I suspect that without a ready public acceptance of serialised sequential narrative via occasional book collections of the most lauded strips and these saucy little interludes in the all-pervasive but predominantly prose pulps, the fledgling comic book companies would never have found their rabid customer-base quite so readily.

This cheap ‘n’ cheerful monochrome compilation, coyly contained behind a cracking Madman cover, opens with a brace of fascinatingly informative essays from Tom Mason whose ‘Bad Girls Need Love Too’ provides historical context before Jim Korkis covers the highpoints of the genre in ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?’: providing background for some (but sadly not all) of the mostly uncredited star turns revisited here.

Creative credit for most of these torrid tales is sadly lacking, but the unmistakable fine line feathering of Everett Raymond Kinstler definitely starts the ball rolling with a selection of his exotic frontispieces from Realistic Romances #2 and Romantic Love #7 (both from September-October 1951) and Realistic Romances #4, February 1952 before segueing into the equally stirring saga ‘Our Love was Battle-Scarred!’ (Realistic Romances #8, November 1952) – a tear-jerking tale of ardour amidst the air raids, whilst ‘Jinx Girl’ (Realistic Romances #7, August 1952 and possibly drawn by John Rosenberger) follows an unlucky lassie’s traumatic tribulations …until her man makes her complete and happy…

From that same issue comes ‘Triumphant Kisses’, a cautionary tale of a small town spitfire who would do (almost) anything to get into showbiz whilst ‘Dangerous Woman!’ (Romantic Love #7) proffers a parable of greed and desire from the magnificent Matt Baker. That gem-stuffed issue also provided the scandalous ‘I Craved Excitement!’ whilst Realistic Romances #6 (June 1952) exposed the shocking truth about the ‘Girl on Parole’ (Kinstler). There’s a lighter tone to ‘Kissless Honeymoon’ (Realistic Romances #2) before Baker excels again with youth oriented sagas ‘I Was a Love Gypsy’ and ‘Fast Company’ (Teen-Age Romances #20, February 1952 and Teen-Age Temptations #9, July 1953 respectively).

Somebody signing themselves “Astarita” drew the brooding ‘Fatal Romance!’ (Realistic Romances #2) whilst the (Korean) war reared its opportunistic head again in ‘Lovelife of an Army Nurse’ (Baker art from Wartime Romances #1 July 1952), after which ‘Make-Believe Marriage’ from the same issue examined the aftermath on the home front.

‘Thrill Hungry’ (Realistic Romances #6) proved it was never too late to change, ‘His Heart on My Sleeve’ (Teen-Age Temptations #5) displayed the value of forgiveness even as ‘Deadly Triangle’ (Realistic Romances #2) warned of the danger of falling for the wrong guy…

‘Notorious Woman’ (Teen-Age Temptations #5) continued the cautionary tone whilst ‘Borrowed Love’ (Realistic Romances #2) and ‘Confessions of a Farm Girl’ (Teen-Age Romances #20) conclude graphic revelations in fine style and with happy endings all around.

These old titles were packed with entertainment so as well as a plethora of “mature” (sic) ads from the era, the tome also contains a selection of typical prose novelettes – ‘I Had to be Tamed’, ‘Reckless Pasttime’ and ‘The Love I Couldn’t Hide’ – which originally graced Teen-Age Romances #20 and 22.

Hard to find, difficult to justify and certainly increasingly harder to accept from our sexually complacent viewpoint here and now, these tales and their hugely successful ilk exploding out of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby’s creation of the Romance comics in 1947 were inarguably a vital stepping stone to our modern industry and possible even society. There is a serious lesson here about acknowledging the ability of comics to appeal to older readers from a time when all the experts would have the public believe comics were made by conmen and shysters for kiddies, morons and slackers.

Certainly there are also many cheap laughs and guilty gratifications to be found in these undeniably effective little tales. This book and era it came from are worthy of far greater coverage than has been previously experienced and no true comics devotee can readily ignore this stuff.
© 1990 Malibu Graphics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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i love this part



By Tillie Walden (Avery Hill)
ISBN: 978-1-91039-532-5(HB) 978-1-91039-517-2 (TPB)

It’s time to remind readers of another imminently impending St. Valentines’ Day. I’m stifling my usual curmudgeonly attitudes for a while and re-recommending a book that’s solidly on the side of being in love, but not so disingenuous as to assure you that it’s all hearts and flowers…

Sweet but never cloying or calorific, i love this part deliciously pictorializes the happy, introspective, contemplative and aspirational moments of two schoolgirls who have found each other. Shared dreams, idle conversations, disputes and landmark first steps, even fights and break-ups are seen, weathered and sorted. Novelty, timidity, apprehension, societal pressure and even some unnecessary shame come into it, but generally this is just how young people learn to love and what that inevitably entails. Somehow the trappings shift all the time but clearly nothing really changes…

Apart from the astoundingly graceful and inviting honesty of the tale, the most engaging factor is author Tillie Walden’s brilliantly cavalier dismissal of visual reality. These interactions are all backdropped by wild changes in dimension and perspective, abrupt shifts in location and landscape and shots of empty spaces all adding a sense of distance and whimsy to very familiar proceedings.

Walden is a great admirer of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo so fellow afficionados will feel at home even if neophytes might experience the odd sensation of disorientation and trepidation. Like being in love, I suppose…

Gloriously celebrating not just the relationships but also in the sheer joy of drawing what you feel, Walden is still a relative newcomer – albeit a prolific and immensely gifted one – who has garnered heaps of acclaim and awards. Whether through her fiction or autobiographical works (frequently combined in the same stories), she always engenders a feeling of absolute wonder, combined with a fresh incisive view and measured, compelling delivery in terms of both story and character. Her artwork is a sheer delight.

Before globally turning heads with such unforgettable, deeply personal tales as On a Sunbeam, A City Inside, Spinning, Mini Meditations on Creativity, and Are You Listening? she followed up on her Ignatz Award-winning debut graphic novel The End of Summer with this fluffy yet barbed coming-of-age tale, and has latterly expanded her oeuvre with gems including Alone in Space, My Parents Won’t Stop Talking and the Clementine series (three books and counting…). In 2023 she became Vermont’s youngest ever Cartoon Laureate, and will hold the post until 2026.

i love this part is charming, moving, sad, funny and lovely. You’d have to be bereft of vision and afflicted with a heart of stone to reject this comic masterpiece; available in hardback, softcover and digital formats: a romantic treat no one should miss.
© Tillie Walden 2016. All rights reserved.

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Luke Cage Epic Collection volume 2: The Fire This Time (1975-1977)


By Tony Isabella, Don McGregor, Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, Steve Englehart, George Pérez, Ed Hannigan, Roger Slifer, George Tuska, Lee Elias, Ron Wilson, Rich Buckler, Arvell Jones, Sal Buscema, Frank Robbins, Marie Severin, Bob Brown, Vince Colletta, Dave Hunt, Al McWilliams, Keith Pollard, the Crusty Bunkers, Frank Springer, Joe Giella, Frank Giacoia, Aubrey Bradford, Jim Mooney, Klaus Janson, Tom Palmer, Alex Niño, Bob Smith & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5506-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content used for dramatic effect.

As is so often the case, it takes bold creative types and radically changing economics to really promote lasting change. In America, with declining comics sales at a time of enhanced social awareness and rising Black Consciousness, cash – if not cashing in – was probably the trigger for “the Next Step” in the evolution of superheroes.

In the early 1970s, contemporary “Blacksploitation” films and novels fired up commercial interests throughout the USA and in that atmosphere of outlandish dialogue, daft outfits and barely concealed – but completely justified – outrage, an angry black man with a shady past and apparently dubious morals debuted as Luke Cage, Hero for Hire in the summer of 1972.

A year later the Black Panther finally got his own series in Jungle Action #5 and Blade: Vampire Hunter debuted in Tomb of Dracula #10.

Cage’s origin was typically bombastic: Lucas, a hard-case inmate at brutal Seagate Prison, always claimed to have been framed and his inflexible, uncompromising attitude made mortal enemies of the racist guards Rackham and Quirt whilst alienating the rest of the prison population like out-&-out bad-guys Shades and Comanche…

The premiere was written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by George Tuska & Billy Graham (with some initial assistance from Roy Thomas & John Romita) detailing how a new warden promised to reform the hell-hole into a proper, legal penal institution. New prison doctor Noah Burstein then convinced Lucas to participate in a radical experiment in exchange for a parole hearing, having heard the desperate con’s tale of woe…

Lucas had grown up in Harlem, a tough kid who’d managed to stay honest even when his best friend Willis Stryker had not. They remained friends despite walking different paths – at least until a woman came between them. To get rid of his romantic rival, Stryker planted drugs and had Lucas shipped off to jail. While he was there his girl Reva – who had never given up on him – was killed by bullets meant for Stryker.

With nothing left to lose Lucas underwent Burstein’s process – an experiment in cell-regeneration – but Rackham sabotaged it, hoping to kill the con before he could expose the illegal treatment of convicts. It all went haywire and something incredible happened. Lucas, now incredibly strong and pain-resistant, punched his way out of the lab and then through the prison walls, only to be killed in hail of gunfire. His body plunged over a cliff and was never recovered. Months later, a vagrant prowling the streets of New York City stumbled into a robbery. Almost casually downing the felon, he accepted a cash reward from the grateful victim, and consequently had a bright idea…

Super-strong, bulletproof, streetwise and honest, Lucas would hide in plain sight while planning revenge on Stryker. Since his only skill was fighting, he became a private paladin. Whilst making allowances for the colourful, often ludicrous dialogue necessitated by the Comics Code’s sanitising of “street-talking Jive” Hero For Hire was probably the edgiest series of Marvel’s early years, but even so, after a time the tense action and peripheral interactions with the greater Marvel Universe led to a minor rethink and the title was altered, if not the basic premise. The private detective motif proved a brilliant stratagem in generating stories for a character perceived as a reluctant champion at best and outright anti-hero by nature. It allowed Cage to maintain an outsider’s edginess but also meant that adventure literally walked through his shabby door every issue.

Cage set up an office over a movie house on 42nd Street and met a young man who became his greatest/only friend: D.W. Griffith – nerd, film geek and plucky white sidekick. Noah Burstein resurfaced, running a rehab clinic on the dirty, deadly streets around Times Square, aided by Dr. Claire Temple. Soon she too was an integral part of Luke’s new life…

This stunning compendium collects Luke Cage Power Man #24-47 and Annual #1: a landmark breakthrough sequence cumulatively spanning April 1975 to October 1977 and opens in full furious flow.

Following a calamitous clash with many of his oldest enemies, most old business was settled and a partial re-branding of America’s premier black crusader began in issue #17. The mercenary aspect was downplayed (at least on covers) as Luke Cage Power Man got another new start when the constant chaos, cruel carnage and non-stop tension eventually sent romantic interest Dr. Claire Temple scurrying for points distant. In Luke Cage Power Man #23, Cage and D.W. went looking for her. That search culminates here in a 2-issue backdoor pilot for another African American superhero after the seekers find Dr. Temple in The Ringmaster’s Circus of Crime as seen in #24’s ‘Among Us Walks… a Black Goliath! (Isabella, Tuska & Hunt)…

Bill Foster was a highly educated black supporting character: a biochemist who worked with scientist-superhero Henry Pym (AKA Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath and Yellowjacket over decades of costumed capers). Foster debuted in Avengers #32 (September 1966), before fading from view after Pym eventually regained his temporarily lost size-changing abilities. Carrying on his own size-shifting research, Foster was now trapped as a giant, unable to attain normal size, and Cage discovered he was also Claire’s former husband. When he became stuck at 15 feet tall, she had rushed back to Bill’s colossal side to help find a cure.

When Luke turned up, passions boiled over, resulting in another classic heroes-clash moment until the mesmeric Ringmaster hypnotised all combatants, intent on using their strength to feather his own three-ring nest. ‘Crime and Circuses’ (Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Ron Wilson & Fred Kida) has the good guys helpless until Claire comes to the rescue, before making her choice and returning to New York with Luke. Foster thereafter won his own short series, becoming Marvel’s fourth African American costumed hero under the heavy handed painfully obvious sobriquet Black Goliath…

Timely spoofing of a popular ’70’s TV show inspired ‘The Night Shocker!’ (Steve Englehart, Tuska & Colletta) as Cage stalks a supposed vampire attacking 42nd Street patrons, after which a touching human drama finds Cage forced to fight a tragically simpleminded super-powered wrestler in ‘Just a Guy Named “X”!’ (by Mantlo, George Pérez & Al McWilliams, paying tribute to Steve Ditko’s classic yarn from Amazing Spider-Man #38).

A new level of sophistication, social commentary and bizarre villainy began in issue 28 as Don McGregor started a run of macabre crime sagas, opening when Cage meets ‘The Man Who Killed Jiminy Cricket!’ (illustrated by Tuska & Vince Colletta). Hired by a chemical company to stop industrial espionage, Luke fails to prevent the murder of his prime suspect and is somehow defeated by feeble but deadly weirdo Cockroach Hamilton (and his beloved shotgun “Josh”).

Left for dead in one of the most outré cliffhanger situations ever seen, Cage took two issues to escape, as the next issue featured a “deadline-doom” fill-in tale. Courtesy of Mantlo, Tuska & Colletta, Luke Cage Power Man #29 revealed why ‘No One Laughs at Mr. Fish!’ (although the temptation is overwhelming) as he fights a fin-faced mutated mobster robbing shipping trucks for organised crime analogue The Maggia, after which the story already in progress resumes in #30 with ‘Look What They’ve Done to Our Lives, Ma!’ (McGregor, Rich Buckler, Arvell Jones & Keith Pollard).

Escaping a deadly deathtrap, Cage hunts down Hamilton, and confronts his erudite, sardonic, steel-fanged boss Piranha Jones just after they succeed in stealing a leaking canister of lethal nerve gas. The dread drama concludes in ‘Over the Years They Murdered the Stars!’ (Sal Buscema & the inking legion of deadline-busting Crusty Bunkers) as Cage saves his city at risk of his life before serving just deserts to the eerie evildoers…

Having successfully rebranded himself, the urban privateer makes ends meet whilst seeking a way to stay under police radar and clear his name. The new level of sophisticated, social commentary and bizarre villainy of McGregor’s run led to Cage saving the entire city in true superhero style as #32 opens with the (still unlicensed) PI in leafy suburbs, hired to protect a black family from literally incendiary racist super-villain Wildfire in ‘The Fire This Time!’ (illustrated by Frank Robbins & Colletta). This self-appointed champion of moral outrage is determined to keep his affluent, decent neighbourhood white, and even Power Man is ultimately unable to prevent a ghastly atrocity from being perpetrated…

Back in the comfort zone of Times Square once again, Cage is in the way when a costumed manic comes looking for Noah Burnstein, and painfully learns ‘Sticks and Stone Will Break Your Bones, But Spears Can Kill You!’ As shady reporters, sleazy lawyers and police detective Quentin Chase all circle, looking to uncover the Hero for Hire’s secret past in ‘Death, Taxes and Springtime Vendettas!’ (Frank Springer inks), Cage’s attention is distracted from Burstein’s stalker by deranged wrestler The Mangler, prompting a savage showdown and near-fatal outcome in ‘Of Memories, Both Vicious and Haunting!’ (plotted by Marv Wolfman, dialogued by McGregor and illustrated by Marie Severin, Joe Giella & Frank Giacoia). Here at last, the reasons for the campaign of terror against the doctor are finally, shockingly exposed…

The 1976 Power Man Annual (#1) follows with ‘Earthshock!’ by Chris Claremont, Lee Elias & Hunt calling Cage to Japan as bodyguard to wealthy Samantha Sheridan. She’s being targeted by munitions magnate and tectonics-warping maniac Moses Magnum, intent on tapping Earth’s magma core, even though the very planet is at risk of destruction. Thankfully, not even his army of mercenaries is enough to stop Cage in full rage…

Next comes the cover for Power Man #36 (cover-dated October 1976) and another casualty of the “Dreaded Deadline Doom”. Although not included here, it reprinted #12 which first debuted the villain featured in #37’s all-new ‘Chemistro is Back! Deadlier Than Ever!’ thanks to Wolfman, Wilson & Aubrey Bradford.

The apparently grudge-bearing recreant attacks Cage at the behest of a mystery mastermind who clarifies his position in follow-up ‘…Big Brother Wants You… Dead!’ (Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Bob Brown & Jim Mooney). Minions Cheshire Cat and Checkpoint Charlie shadow our increasingly frustrated investigator, before repeated inconclusive and inexplicable clashes with Chemistro lead to a bombastic ‘Battle with the Baron!’ (Klaus Janson inks) – a rival mastermind hoping to corner the market on crime in NYC. The convoluted clash concludes in ‘Rush Hour to Limbo!’ (art by Elias & Giacoia) as one final deathtrap for Cage turns into an explosive last hurrah for Big Brother and his crew…

Inked by Tom Palmer, #41 debuts a new vigilante in ‘Thunderbolt and Goldbug!’ as a super-swift masked hero makes a name for himself cleaning up low-level scum. Simultaneously, Cage is hired by a courier company to protect a bullion shipment, but when the truck is bombed and the guards die, dazed and furious Cage can’t tell villain from vigilante and takes on the wrong guy…

Answers, if not conclusions, are forthcoming in ‘Gold! Gold! Who’s Got the Gold?’ (Alex Niño inks) as Luke learns who his real friends and foes are, only to be suckered into a trap barely escaped in #43’s ‘The Death of Luke Cage!’ In the aftermath, with legal authorities closing in on his fake life, Cage sheds his Power Man persona and flees town. However, even in the teeming masses of Chicago, he can’t escape his past and an old enemy mistakenly assumes he’s been tracked down by the hero he hates most in all the world.

Wolfman plots and Ed Hannigan scripts for Elias & Palmer as ‘Murder is the Man Called Mace!’ sees Luke dragged into the disgraced and dishonoured soldier’s scheme to seize control of America. Despite his best and most violent efforts, Cage is beaten and strapped to a cobalt bomb on ‘The Day Chicago Died!’ (Wolfman & Elias). Sadly, after breaking free of the device, it’s lost in the sewer system, prompting a frantic ‘Chicago Trackdown!’ before another savage showdown with Mace and his paramilitary madmen culminates in a chilling (Roger Slifer scripted) ‘Countdown to Catastrophe!’ as a fame-hungry sniper starts shooting citizens whilst the authorities are preoccupied searching for the missing nuke…

With atomic armageddon averted at the last moment, this collection – and Cage’s old life – end on a well-conceived final charge. With issue #48, Cage’s comic title would be shared with mystic martial artist Danny Rand in the superbly enticing odd couple feature Power Man and Iron Fist, but before that there’s still a ‘Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight!’ courtesy of Claremont, Tuska & Bob Smith, as Chicago is attacked by brain-sucking electrical parasite Zzzax! Thankfully, our steel-skinned stalwart is more than a match for the mind-stealing megawatt monstrosity…

With all covers – by Gil Kane, Wilson, Buckler, Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Ernie Chan, Jim Starlin, Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Klaus Janson, Dan Adkins, Tom Palmer, Joe Sinnott & Pablo Marcos – this street treat is backed up the cover of reprint one-shot Giant-Size Power Man from 1975; House ads and images by Sal Buscema from the Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar (1976) and Wilson & Sinnott’s June 1977 Marvel Comics Memory Album Calendar.

Arguably a little dated now (us in the know prefer the term “retro”), these tales were crucial in breaking down many social barriers across the complacent, intolerant, WASP-flavoured US comics landscape, and their power – if not their initial impact – remains undiminished to this day. These are tales well worth your time and attention.
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Mandrake the Magician: Fred Fredericks Dailies volume 1: The Return of Evil – The Cobra


By Lee Falk & Fred Fredericks (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-691-9 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

In this month of romantic anticipation and disillusionment, it’s worth remarking that every iconic hero of strips and comics has a dutiful, stalwart inamorata waiting ever so patiently in the wings for a moment to spoon and swoon. Here’s another beguiling outing starring one of the earliest and most resolute…

Regarded by many as comics’ first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on 11th June 1934 – although creator Lee Falk had sold the strip almost a decade previously. Initially drawing it too, Falk replaced himself as soon as feasible, allowing the early wonderment to materialise through the effective understatement of sublime draughtsman Phil Davis. An instant hit, Mandrake was soon supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page from February 3rd 1935. Happy other Birthday, dapper tuxedo dude…

Whilst a 19-year old college student Falk had sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to it full time. Schooling done, the 23-year-old born raconteur settled into his life’s work, entertaining millions with astounding tales. Falk also created the first costumed superhero – moodily magnificent generational manhunter The Phantom – whilst spawning an entire comic book subgenre with his first inspiration. Most Golden Age publishers boasted at least one (but usually many) nattily attired wizards in their gaudily-garbed pantheons: all roaming the world(s) making miracles and crushing injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actual sorcery. Characters such as Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of  “…the Magician” ’s like Zatara, Zanzibar, Kardak proliferated ad infinitum: all borrowing heavily and shamelessly from the uncanny exploits of the elegant, enigmatic man of mystery gracing the world’s newspapers and magazines.

In the Antipodes, Mandrake was a suave stalwart regular of Australian Women’s Weekly and became a cherished icon of adventure in the UK, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and across Scandinavia: a major star of page and screen, pervading every aspect of global consciousness.

Over the years he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation (as part of the cartoon series Defenders of the Earth). With that has come the usual merchandising bonanza of games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and more…

Falk helmed Mandrake and The Phantom until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed, he was laying out one last story), but also found some few quiet moments to become a renowned playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller. After drawing those the first few strips Falk united with sublimely polished cartoonist Phil Davis (March 4th 1906 -16th December 1964). His sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip, especially the expansive Sunday page to unparalleled heights of sophistication. Davis’ steadfast, assured realism was the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of spectacular miracles. He rendered and realised Falk’s words until his death by heart attack…

Harold “Fred” Fredericks, Jr. (August 9th 1929 – March 10th 2015) took over – with strips starting in June 1965 – he was also handpicked by Falk who admired his work as both writer and/or illustrator on teen strip Rebel and family comic books such as Nancy, Boris Karloff, The Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Mister Ed, O.G. Whiz presents Tubby, Mighty Mouse, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and Bullwinkle.

In later years tireless taleteller Fredericks became an inking mainstay at Marvel & DC on titles including New Titans, Catwoman, Robin, Punisher War Journal, Nth Man, Daredevil, Quasar, G.I. Joe and Defenders of the Earth.

Preceded by Roger Langridge’s essay ‘Fred Fredericks – An Appreciation’ and John Preddle’s appraisal ‘Mandrake: The Fred Fredericks Era’, the official changing of the artistic guard comes with a cheeky contemporary mystery…

However, firstly…

Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globetrotting troubleshooter, accompanied by his faithful African friend Lothar and eventually enchanting companion (and in 1997, bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne. They co-operatively solve crimes, fight evil and find trouble and mystery apparently everywhere. Although the African Prince was a component from the start, Narda turned up fashionably late (in 1934) as victim/secret weapon in early escapade ‘The Hawk’ (see Mandrake the Magician: Dailies vol. 1 – The Cobra ): a distrait socialite forced to use her every wile to seduce and destroy the magician and Lothar. Thwarting each attack, Mandrake went after the monstrous stalker blackmailing Narda’s brother Prince Sigrid/Segrid and extorting her, decisively lowering the boom and liberating the embattled aristocrats. Bear all that in mind: it’s going to come in handy later…

Falk and Fredericks started as they meant to go on with ‘Odd Fellow’ (running from May 3rd to August 14th 1965) wherein a puckish little chap ruins a day of quiet contemplation for Narda before going on to peddle incredible inventions to greedy industrialists. By the time Mandrake gets involved, a lethal looking pursuer is hard on their heels and the mounting chaos is explained by the deduction that the jolly leprechaun is actually Roger the Rogue: a conman from the future with a deadly secret agenda but no idea who he’s messing with…

Following an interlude that introduces Mandrake’s palatial super citadel Xanadu, it’s back to basics for the next epic as the Princess goes to college to improve her mind and inadvertently uncovers and exposes a criminal gang embedded in world culture for hundreds of years. With echoes on modern conspiracy thriller 100 Bullets, ‘The Sign of 8’ (August 16th 1965 to February 6th 1966) arise from managed obscurity to discredit, hunt and destroy Narda with increasingly baroque and deadly assaults before falling to the counterattack of the Magician…

Growing contemporary fascination in the supernatural is addressed an capitalised upon in ‘The Witches’ (February 7th – May 28th) as criminal hypnotist Count Diablo and his all-women gang terrorise young heiress “Really” Riley , only to learn to their lasting regret what a master mesmerist can do to punish the wicked…

Another headline fuelled thriller, ‘The UFO’ May 30th – September 17th) sets the trio on the trail of aliens robbing banks with heat rays and escaping in flying saucers. Of course, it’s not long before Mandrake makes the connection between these uncanny events and missing military ordnance hot off the drawing board and takes steps to stop the plunderers from the stars…

In an era of super spies and covert cabals it wasn’t long before our heroes were back on ‘The Trail of the 8’ (September 19th 1966 – January 14th 1967) as Mandrake discovers evidence that the ancient order is still active. Teaming with good-guy agency Inter-Intel, the hunt makes Mandrake a target for repeated assassination attempts but ultimately leads to the organisation’s explosive demise. And yet the magician remains unconvinced…

This titanic tome terminates with a long-anticipated revival as ‘The Return of Evil – The Cobra’ (January 16th to June 3rd 1967) reveals how King Segrid of Cockaigne needs the help of his sister and her boyfriend after a sinister presence buys up tracts of the country and populace: using wealth, influence, chicanery, publicity stunts, blackmail and sheer dominating physical presence to rule the nation from behind the oval office throne. Thankfully, Mandrake and Lothar know just how to deal with the villain once he’s exposed as fatally flawed old foe The Cobra, and foil the fiend’s scheme to steal the nation from its legally-appointed ruler…

Supplemented here by a ‘Fred Fredericks – Biography’ before closing with ‘The Fred Fredericks Mandrake the Magician Complete Daily Checklist 1965-2013’, this thrilling tome offers exotic locales, thrilling action, fantastic fantasy, space age shocks, sinister spycraft, crafty criminality and spooky chills in equal measure. As always, the strip abounds with fantastic imagery from whenever “Mandrake gestures hypnotically” and drips with wry dialogue and bold action. Paramount taleteller Falk instinctively knew from the start that the secret of success was strong and – crucially – recurring villains and uncanny situations to test and challenge his heroes, making Mandrake the Magician an unmissable treat for every daily strip addict. These stories have lost none of their impact and only need you reading them to concoct a perfect cure for 21st century blues.
Mandrake the Magician © 2017 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. All other material © 2017 the respective authors or owners.

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Surrounded – America’s First School for Black Girls, 1832


By Wilfrid Lupano & Stéphane Fert, translated by Montana Kane (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-348-6 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-349-3

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

As and when we actually get to hear it, history is an endlessly fascinating procession of progress and decline playing out eternally at the behest of whoever’s in power at any one time. However, don’t be fooled. It’s never about “opinions” or “alternative facts”: most moments of our communal existence generally happened one way with only the reasons, motivations and repercussions shaded to accommodate a preferred point of view.

The best way to obfuscate the past is to tell everyone it never happened and pray nobody goes poking around. So much you never suspected has been brushed under a carpet and erased by intervening generations proceeding without an inkling. Entire sections of society have been unwritten in this manner but always there have been pesky troublemakers who prod and probe, looking for what’s been earmarked for forgetting and shining a light on the history that isn’t there.

If I live long enough, I can’t wait to see what will be written about the next four years, but that’s a topic for another time…

One such team of intrepid histographic investigators are Wilfrid Lupano & Stéphane Fert. In 2020 they produced a sequential graphic narrative account of a remarkable moment of opportunity that was quashed by entrenched bigotry, selfish privilege and despicable intolerance. After far too long as a digital-only English-language edition (White All Around from Europe Comics), Blanc autour is now available in a lavish oversized hardback and new digital edition from those fine people at NBM. It opens with a context-filled Foreword before we meet servant girl Sarah Harris as she is tormented by ruffian child Feral, reading to her from an infamous new book…

Set one year after Nat Turner’s doomed black uprising of August 21st 1831 (which occurred in Southampton County, Virginia), this true tale took place in a land still reeling and terrified. Freshly minted preventative measures to control and suppress the slave population included banning black gatherings of three or more people, an uptick in public punishments like floggings, lynchings and ferocious policing – if not outright outlawing – of Negro literacy. The posthumous publishing of Thomas R. Gray’s The Confessions of Nat Turner had created a best seller that further outraged and alarmed Americans. Even in 1832, and hundreds of miles north in genteel Canterbury, Connecticut, black people were careful to mind their place. It might be a “Free State” where slavery was illegal, but even here Negros were an impoverished underclass…

Sarah, however, is afflicted with a quick, agile and relentlessly questioning mind. She craves knowledge and understanding the way her fellow servants do food, rest and no trouble from white folk. One day, fascinated by the way water behaves, Sarah plucks up her courage and asks the local school teacher to explain. Prudence Crandall is a well-respected, dedicated educator diligently shepherding the young daughters of the (white) citizenry to whatever knowledge they’ll need to be good wives and mothers, but when the brilliant little servant girl quizzes her, the teacher is seized by an incredible notion…

When the new term starts Sarah is the latest pupil, and despite outraged and increasingly less polite objections from the civic great and good – all proudly pro-Negro advancement, but not necessarily here or now – Miss Crandall is adamant that she must remain. When parents threaten to remove their children, the schoolmarm goes on the offensive, declaring her establishment open for the “reception of young ladies and little misses of color”…

Her planned curriculum includes reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, natural and moral philosophy, history, drawing and painting, music on the piano, and the French language, and by sending it along with her intentions to Boston Abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, Crandall declares war on intolerance and ignorance in her home town. Sadly, her proud determination unleashes an unstoppable wave of sabotage, intimidation, sly exclusion, social ostracism and naked hatred against herself and her unacceptable student. She even tries to defend the move at the Municipal Assembly, before learning that only men were allowed to speak there…

Crandall’s response is to make her Canterbury Female Boarding School exclusively a place for a swiftly growing class of black girls. All too soon, politicians and lawmakers get involved and harassment intensifies to the point of terrorism and murder. Connecticut even legislates that it is illegal to educate “colored people” from out of State…

The school becomes another piece in the complex political game between abolitionists and slave-owing states but still manages to enhance the lives and intellects of its boarders, until 1834 when Prudence Crandall stands trial for the crime of teaching black children. When she is exonerated, the good people of Canterbury take off the kid gloves…

Although this war was never going to be won, Crandall’s incredible stand for tolerance, inclusivity and universal education was a minor miracle of enlightenment, attracting students from across America and countering the long-cherished “fact” that blacks and females had no need – or even capacity – for learning. Moreover, though the bigots managed to drive her out, Crandall and her extraordinary pupils retrenched to continue the good work in another state: one more willing to risk the status quo…

This amazing story is delivered as a fictionalised drama made in a manner reminiscent of a charming and stylish Disney animated feature, but surface sweetness and breezy visuals are canny subterfuge. Scripter Wilfred Lupano (Azimut; Little Big Joe; Valerian & Laureline: Shingouzlooz Inc.; The Old Geezers; Vikings dans la brume) and illustrator Stéphane Fert (Morgane; Axolot; Peau de Mille Bêtes) deftly deploy a subtle sheen of beguiling fairy tale affability to camouflage their keen exposure of a moving, cruel and enraging sidebar to accepted history: one long overdue for modern reassessment.

The creators wisely leaven the heavy load with delightful, heart-warmingly candid moments exploring the feelings and connections of the students, and balance tragedy with moments of true whimsy and life-affirming fantasy: but please beware – it does not end well for all…

The book includes an Afterword by Joanie DiMartino – Curator of the Prudence Crandall Museum – tracing in biographical snippets, the eventful lives, careers and achievements of eleven of the boldly aspirational scholars of the Crandall School’s first class.

Surrounded – America’s First School for Black Girls, 1832 is a disturbing yet uplifting account every concerned citizen should read and remember. After all, learning is a privilege, not a right… unless we all defend and advance it…
© 2020 Dargaud Benelux, (Dargaud-Lombard S. A.) – LUPANO & FERT. All rights reserved.

Surrounded – America’s First School for Black Girls, 1832 will be published on February 11th 2025 and is available for pre-order now. For more information and other great reads see NBM Graphic Novels.

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Superman: The Man of Steel volume 2


By John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Paul Levitz, Jerry Ordway, Greg LaRoque, Erik Larsen, Karl Kesel, Dick Giordano, Keith Williams, Mike DeCarlo, Arne Starr, P. Craig Russell, Bob Smith, Jose Marzan Jr., John Beatty, India Inc. (Giordano, Kesel, Bob Lewis, Ordway, Russell, Smith, Robert Ian, Bill Wray), Kurt Schaffenberger & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0591-0 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In 1985 when DC Comics rationalise, reconstructed and reinvigorated their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths they also used the event to simultaneously regenerate their key properties. The biggest gun they had was Superman and it’s hard to argue that the change was not before time. The big guy was in a bit of a slump, but he’d weathered those before. So how could a root and branch retooling be anything but a pathetic marketing ploy that would alienate “real” fans for a few fly-by-night Johnny-come-latelies who would jump ship as soon as the next fad surfaced? The new Superman was going to suck…

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

It began with all Superman titles being “cancelled” (actually suspended) for three months, and yes, for the first time in decades, that did make the real-world media sit up and take notice of the character everybody thought they knew. However, there was method in this seeming corporate madness. The missing mainstays were replaced by a 6-part miniseries running from October to December 1986. Entitled Man of Steel, it was written and drawn by Marvel’s mainstream superstar John Byrne – fresh off a spectacular, groundbreaking run on Fantastic Four – inked by venerated veteran Dick Giordano. The bold manoeuvre was a huge and instant success. So much so that when it was first collected as a stand-alone compilation album in 1991, it became one of comics’ premiere “break-out” hits in the new format that would eventually become the industry standard for reaching mass readerships. Nowadays few people buy the periodical pamphlets but almost everybody has read a graphic novel…

From that overwhelming start the Action Ace seamlessly returned to his suspended comic book homes, enjoying the addition of a third monthly title that premiered that same month. Superman, Adventures of Superman, and Action Comics (which became a fan-pleasing team-up title guest-starring other favourites of the DC Universe, in the manner of the cancelled DC Comics Presents) were instant best-sellers. The back-to-basics approach lured many readers to – and, crucially back to – the Superman franchise, but the sheer quality of the stories and art are what convinced them to stay. Such cracking, clear-cut superhero exploits are a high point in the Action Ace’s decades-long career, and these collections are certainly the easiest way to enjoy one of the most impressive reinventions of a comic book icon.

So successful was the relaunch that by the early 1990’s Superman would be carrying four monthly titles as well as Specials, Annuals, guest shots and regular appearances in titles like Justice League – quite a turnaround from the earlier heydays of the Man of Steel when editors were frantic about never overexposing their meal-ticket.

In Superman’s 85th year of more-or-less consecutive and continuous publication, a new sequence of collections brought Byrne & Co.’s tales to a new generation of fans, and at long last we’re getting around to plugging the rest of them whilst adding our usual plea that the series continues and re-presents more of this wonderful material…

Spanning cover-dates May to December 1987 and re-presenting Superman #5-11, Action #588-593 and Adventures of Superman #429-435, plus crossover issues Legion of Super-Heroes #37-38 with relevant informative bio-pages from Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #13 & 23 and Who’s Who Update 1987 #2, 4-5, this monumental sequel compilation follows the Never-Ending Battle in unfolding, overlapping story order, not chronological release dates, and opens with ‘How Did I Get Here?’ – a reprinting of editor Mike Carlin’s introduction from a 2006 collection before the Actions and Adventures continue to unfold…

With Byrne’s so-very-controversial reboot of the world’s first superhero a solid smashing hit, the collaborative teams tasked with ensuring his continued success really hit their stride with the tales here, beginning with ‘The Mummy Strikes’ and ‘The Last Five Hundred’ (Byrne & inker Karl Kesel, from Superman #5-6). This introduces a first hint of romance between the Man of Tomorrow and Wonder Woman before Lois Lane and Clark Kent are embroiled in an extraterrestrial invasion that started half a million years ago, and features rogue robots and antediluvian bodysnatchers.

In ‘Old Ties’ (Adventures of Superman #429) Marv Wolfman & Jerry Ordway reveal the catastrophic repercussions of hidden race of alien telepaths the Circle transferring their expansionist attentions from rogue state Qurac to Metropolis, before segueing into a sidereal saga from Action Comics #588-589. Here Byrne & Giordano combine the Caped Kryptonian with Hawkman & Hawkwoman in ‘All Wars Must End’ – an epic battle against malign Thanagarian invaders – before meeting Arisia, Salaak, Kilowog, Katma Tui and other luminaries of the Green Lantern Corps who rescue the star-lost Superman in ‘Green on Green’ before uniting together and eliminating an unstoppable planet-eating beast.

Superman #7 by Byrne & Kesel follows ‘Rampage!’ as a petty male colleague sabotages a Metropolis lab experiment, accidentally mutating his boss Dr. Kitty Faulkner into a super-strong, rage-fuelled monstrosity. Thankfully, Superman is on hand and keeps a cool head, but only until Adventures of Superman #430 which sees the Metropolis Marvel ‘Homeward Bound!’ courtesy of Wolfman & Ordway before resorting to harsh measures in pitched battle against metahuman bandits the Fearsome Five. In Action Comics #590 Byrne & Giordano explored ‘Better Living Dying Through Chemistry’, wherein a bizarre toxic accident turns ambulatory waste dump Chemo into a giant Superman clone. Happily, its old adversaries The Metal Men are on hand to aid in the extremely violent clean-up…

As the ripples of Crisis on Infinite Earths pinged across the new DCU, there were a few bumps to smooth out that had missed being sorted during the big show. One of the most confusing was how the new Superman was never a costumed, crusading Boy of Steel. This epic tome includes two critical issues of Legion of Super-Heroes (#37-38) which outlines and resolves the dilemma that occurred after the Man of Tomorrow’s retcon eliminated his entire career and achievements as Superboy. The crossover event provided a classic back-writing exercise to solve an impossible post-Crisis paradox whilst giving us old geeks one chance to see a favourite character die in a way all heroes should…

Legion of Super-Heroes #37 (August 1987, by Paul Levitz, Greg LaRoque, Mike DeCarlo & Arne Starr) sets the scene for ‘A Twist in Time’ as a team of 30th century Legionnaires head back to 1960s Smallville to visit inspirational founding member Superboy only to find themselves attacked by their greatest ally and inspiration – the Time Trapper. The saga segues into Byrne & Kesel’s ‘Future Shock’ (Superman #8) as a strange squad of aliens appear in his beloved boyhood hometown. Mistaking Superman for Superboy, the Legionnaires attack, and after an inconclusive clash concludes, start piecing together an incredible act of villainy and cosmic manipulation that has made suckers of them all…

When a kill-crazed Superboy shows up the tale shifts to Action #491 as Byrne & Keith Williams reveal a ‘Past Imperfect’ where the youthful and adult Kal-Els butt heads until a ghastly truth is exposed, leading to Levitz, LaRoque & DeCarlo’s stunning and tragic conclusion in Legion of Super-Heroes #38, where the devious reality-warping mastermind behind the scheme falls to ignominious defeat at the hands of ‘The Greatest Hero of Them All’…

Back on solid ground and his own reality the one-&-only Superman then battles a new kind of maniac malcontent in ‘They Call Him… Doctor Stratos’ (Adventures of Superman #431 by Wolfman, Erik Larsen & embellishment tag-team “India Inc.”), delivering a crushing defeat to a weather-warping would-be god before Byrne & Kesel’s Superman #9 sees the Last Son of Krypton meet The Joker for the first time in a maniacally murderous battle of wits ‘To Laugh and Die in Metropolis’…

Accompanied by inker P. Craig Russell, Wolfman & Ordway open extended story arc Gangwar with ‘From the Streets, to the Streets!’ as a mystery mastermind foments chaos and teen unrest, with unsavoury tycoon Lex Luthor implicated. Social worker/troubled youth mentor Jose Delgado returns, but seems as helpless as Superman, Lois or Jimmy Olsen in saving Perry White’s son from a life of crime or imminent incarceration…

Inked by Keith Williams, Byrne teams the Man of Steel with Jack Kirby’s New Gods Big Barda and Mr. Miracle in fighting depraved Apokolips émigré Sleez during ‘A Walk on the Darkside’ and sequel ‘The Suicide Snare’ before channelling our hero’s pre-Crisis days in ‘The Super Menace of Metropolis’. Aided by Kesel, he reveals how Luthor tries to discredit the Action Ace by boosting his powers after which Bob Smith joins Ordway illustrating ‘A Tragedy in Five Acts’: the second part of Gangwar where escalating street chaos leads to a life-altering injury for Jose Delgado…

For Superman #11, Byrne & Kesel reintroduce a carefully revamped fifth dimensional prankster in wickedly barbed, in-joke drenched Mr. Mxyzptlk romp ‘The Name Game’, whilst in AoS #435,Wolfman, Ordway & José Marzan complete this collection’s comics section with Gangwar conclusion ‘Shambles’ – introducing mystery street hero Gangbuster, before #436’s ‘The Circle Turns’ finds Superman assaulted by psychic delusions thanks to the vengeful alien telepaths: two slower tales building on the strong continuity and character interactions that typified this incarnation of the Man of Tomorrow.

Bonus features this time include previous collection covers by Ordway, and augmenting the Costumed Dramas are more extracted character profiles from Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #13 & 23 and Who’s Who Update 1987 #2, 4-5, featuring Mr. Mxyzptlk, Rampage!, Superboy (Kurt Schaffenberger inks), The Legion of Super-Heroes (by LaRoque & Larry Mahlstedt), and Time Trapper (Keith Giffen & Rick A, Bryant) before a big bold pin-up of the Man of Steel ends the fun for now.

These superhero sagas are true a high point in the Man of Tomorrow’s near nine decades of existence and these astoundingly readable collections are certainly the easiest way to enjoy a stand-out reinvention of the ultimate comic-book icon.
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