Now Read This!

October 12, 2011October 14, 2011

Nuts

By Gahan Wilson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-454-2

Mordant cartoonist Gahan Wilson has been tickling funnybones and twanging tense nerves with his darkly dry concoctions since the 1960s; contributing sparklingly horrific and satirically suspenseful drawings and strips to Playboy, Collier’s, The New Yorker and other magazines as well as writing science fiction, criticism, book and film reviews for Again Dangerous Visions, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Twilight Zone Magazine and Realms of Fantasy.

In his broad and long career he has worn many creative hats, even creating his own supernatural computer game, Gahan Wilson’s the Ultimate Haunted House, with Byron Preiss.

In April 1970, when National Lampoon first began its devastatingly hilarious all-out attack on the American Dream, Wilson was invited to contribute a regular strip to the comics section. Nuts began in 1972 and ran until 1981, generally a single-page complete graphic epigram â€œstarringâ€ a grotty little chubby homunculus dubbed The Kid. This fabulous monochrome (with occasional colour) collection gathers that complete serial for collectors and potential addicts in a perfect hardback package that readers will dip into over and over again.

Taking his lead from popular sickly-sweet strips about or starring little children and the brilliant but definitely not jejune Peanuts (which was populated, to all intents and purposes, with teeny-weeny neurotic middle-aged midgets), Wilson sought to do the exact opposite and attempt to access the fear, frustration, confusion and unalloyed joy of being a young, impressionable, powerless, curious and demandingâ€¦

â€¦and magnificently succeeded.

Dense, claustrophobic, intense and trenchantly funny, the self-contained strips ranged from satire to slapstick to agonising irony, linking up over the years to form a fascinating catalogue of growing older in the USA: a fearfully faithful alternate view of childhood and most importantly, of how we adults choose to recall those distant daysâ€¦

Each strip begins with the question â€œRemember howâ€¦â€ or â€œOne of theâ€¦â€ or some equally folksy enquiry before unveiling bafflement, bewilderment, night-terrors or a deeply-scarring embarrassment which haunts us till doomsday, all wrapped in a comradely band-of-brothers, shared-coping-mechanism whimsy that is both moving and quintessentially nostalgic.

Topics include the unremitting horror of germs, sudden death, being ill, inappropriate movies, forced visits, grandparents, things adults do that they don’t want you to see, unexplained noises, the butcher’s shop, accidents and rusty nails, things in closets, doctors and needles, dying pets, Santa Claus, seasonal disappointments, summer camp, sleep, bodily functions, school and lessons (two completely different things), fungus, bikes and toys, haircuts, comicbooks, deaths of relatives, hot weather, candy, overhearing things you shouldn’t, stranger danger, hobby-kits and glue, daydreaming, babies and so many other incomprehensible daily pitfalls on the path to maturityâ€¦

Peppered also with full page, hilariously annotated diagrams of such places of enduring childhood fascination as ‘The Alley’, ‘The Kit for Camp Tall Lone Tree’, ‘Mr. Schultz’s Cigar Store’, ‘The Movie Theater Seat’, ‘Table Set Up For Making Models’, ‘The Doctor’s Waiting Room’, ‘The Closet’, ‘The Sick Bed’ and ‘The Private Drawer’, this glorious procession also covers occasions of heartbreaking poignancy and those stunning, blue moon moments of serendipity and triumph when everything is oh-so-briefly perfectâ€¦

Complete with a 3-D strip and ‘Nuts to You’, a comprehensive appreciation and history by Gary Groth, this funny, sad, chilling and sublimely true picture-passport to growing up is unmissable cartoon gold.

October 11, 2011October 14, 2011

Ultimate Spider-Man: Death of Spider-Man

By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Andy Lanning, Andrew Hennessey & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-498-0

There’s no way around this and Spoiler-Warnings are pointless so you’ll just have to bear up. It even made the papersâ€¦

The Ultimate Comics Spider-Man dies. It says so on the cover. However Writer Brian Michael Bendis and returning artist Mark Bagley end the adventures and young adventurer they began in 2000 in a spectacular, thoroughly action-packed and deeply moving manner and Marvel promises that a new hero will arise from the ashes of this taleâ€¦

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint began in 2000 with major characters and concepts re-imagined to bring them into line with the tastes of modern readers – a different market from the baby-boomers and their descendents content to stick with the delights sprung from founding talents Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee – or possibly – one unable or unwilling to deal with the five decades (seven if you include the Golden Age Timely tales retroactively co-opted into the mix) of continuity baggage conglomerated around the originals.

Eventually this darkly nihilistic alternate universe became as continuity-constricted as its predecessor and in 2008 the cleansing event â€œUltimatumâ€ culminated in a reign of terror which apparently (this is still comics, after all) killed dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals.

The era-ending event was a colossal tsunami which inundated Manhattan after which a number of new compendia continued the superhero soap-opera of young Peter Parker and his fellow survivors daily readjusting to a braver, cleaner new world.

Parker is the perennial hard-luck loser kid: a secretive yet brilliant geek just trying to get by in a world where daily education is infinitely more trouble than beating monsters and villains. Between High School and slinging fast food he still finds time to fight crime although his very public heroics during the crisis made him a beloved hero of police and citizenry alike – which is the creepiest thing he has ever endured.

He lives in a big house with his Aunt May and despite his low self-esteem has stellar lovelies like Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson and others seemingly hungry for his scrawny tuchus. He even briefly dated mutant babe Kitty Pride…

Many kids were homeless after the deluge, with schools and accommodation stretched to breaking point. May Parker opened her doors to a select band of orphaned super-kids like the Human Torch, Iceman and even Gwen, all living anonymously in the relatively unaffected borough of Queens.

Oversight agency S.H.I.E.L.D and their representatives Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, were assigned to teach Parker how to be a proper hero, whilst once-nemesis Jonah Jameson became an unexpected ally. With so many fortuitous events in place it could only be a prelude to disaster for the original hard luck heroâ€¦

This volume collects the five-part conclusion to the Ultimate Spider-Man saga from 2011 with issues #156-160 of the monthly comicbook and then defuses the tragedy somewhat by ending with a reprinting of the 2002 Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special.

The main story is basic, primal and unforgettable: Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, escapes from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody whilst the Ultimates and Avengers are otherwise occupied and, freeing fellow prisoners Electro, Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Sandman and the Vulture – all of whom know Spider-Man’s civilian identity and address – rampage their way across New York determined to slaughter Parker and everyone who knows him.

After a cataclysmic conflict with echoes of Gotterdammerung and the fall of Beowulf the young warrior sacrifices everything and goes out the way a hero shouldâ€¦

Tense, breathtaking, evocative and even funny in the right places, this is the way a true champion should fight his final battleâ€¦

With a gallery of alternate covers by Kaare Andrews, Ed McGuiness & Morry Hollowell, Steve McNiven, Frank Cho, Michael Kaluta and Joe Quesada this epic volume concludes with a giant collaborative and life-affirming venture both in terms of Ultimate Comics co-stars and impressive guest artists from happier, more hopeful times.

Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special was basically a travelogue of the alternate Marvel Universe held together by Spider-Man examining his motives for being a hero. If you’re not that bothered by who drew things, feel free to skip the next paragraph and jump to the summing up.

Working on a pretty ultimate jam-session, a number of creators all drew a slice of the story. In order of presentation they were Alex Maleev, Dan Brereton, John Romita Sr. & Al Milgrom, Frank Cho, Jim Mahfood, Scott Morse, Craig Thompsom, Michael Avon Oeming, Jason Pearson, Sean Phillips, Mark Bagley & Rodney Ramos, Bill Sienkiewicz, P. Craig Russell, Jacen Burrows & Walden Wong, Leonard Kirk & Terry Pallot, Dave Gibbons, Michael Gaydos, James Kochalka, David Mack, Brett Weldele, Ashly Wood and Art Thibert illustrating cameos from the other Blade the Vampire Hunter, Elektra, Daredevil, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Human Torch, the Ultimates/Avengers, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Black Widow, S.H.I.E.L.D., X-Men, Wolverine and Punisher.

Although not the edgiest of tales or most effective in respect of story-telling, the bold creative choices make it an art connoisseur’s delight and, of course, most dyed-in-the-woollen-long-johns comics fans will love all the hitting and kicking.

Comics as a medium and superheroes as a genre are infamous for raising the dead, so if you are inconsolable about the demise of a minor legend there’s comfort to be had there, if you wish. However if you like a little closure with your drama and spectacle this is a modern epic to wallow in and thoroughly adoreâ€¦

October 10, 2011October 9, 2011

The Cabbie vol. 1

By Marti Riera with an introduction by Art Spiegelman (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-4504

After far too long out of print Fantagraphics have rescued one of the darkest and yet most grimly illuminating classics of European cartooning from relative obscurity with this augmented, remastered reissue of Marti’s The Cabbie – a stylish, nightmarish psycho-sexual noir thriller that has as much seedy kick now as it had when first translated in 1987 by Catalan Communicationsâ€¦

Dick Tracy is one of the most well-known strips in the world and his contributions to the art form are many and indisputable. They occurred over many decades and the medium of graphic narrative grew up with it. Imagine the effect instant exposure – almost over exposure – to such an uncompromising, bombastic, iconic property on the artists of a nation where free-expression and creative autonomy was suppressed for generations.

That’s what happened when the death of General Franco (who held Spain in a fascistic time-warp from his victory in October 1936 until his death in November 1975) instantly opened-up and liberalized all aspects of Spanish life.

As Art Spiegelman says in his introduction ‘decades of political and social repression gave way to a glorious eruption of creativity that allowed a full-fledged counterculture to come to life at just about the same time that America’s â€œLove Generationâ€ gave way to what Tom Wolfe labelled the â€œMe Generation.â€’

How odd yet fitting then that an American symbol of â€œthe Establishmentâ€ so enchanted and captivated the young cartoonist Marti Riera that he assimilated every line and nuance to create this bleak, stripped-down and very angry homage concerning the tribulations of a seedy, desperate taxi-driver trapped in a vanished past and prey to a world at once free and dangerous, ungoverned and chaotic.

Driving the seediest part of town our hero picks up a high-rolling gambler who’s just won big, but his night goes horribly wrong when a knife-wielding thief hijacks the cab and robs his passenger. Luckily the Cabbie can handle himself and he quickly, brutally subdues the thug.

He’s a decent, hard-working man who lives with his ailing mother, humouring her talk of a mysterious inheritance, and allowing her to keep the embalmed cadaver of his father in the spare bedroom, but he’s tragically unaware that his citizen’s arrest will have terrible repercussions for them both.

When the son of the thief he captured is released from prison he immediately begins a grim campaign of retribution against the Cabbie that creates a maelstrom of tragedy, degradation and despair.

This is a harsh and uncompromising tale of escalating crime and uncaring punishments: blackly cynical, existentially scary and populated with a cast of battered, desolate characters of increasingly degenerate desperation. Even the monsters are victims. But for all that The Cabbie is an incredibly compelling drama with strong allegorical overtones and brutally mesmerizing visuals.

Any adult follower of the art form should be conversant with this superb work and with a second volume forthcoming hopefully we soon all will beâ€¦
The Cabbie (Taxista) Â© 2011 Marti. Introduction Â© 2011 Art Spiegelman. This edition Â© 2011 Fantagraphics Books.

October 9, 2011October 6, 2011

Doctor Strange: Into Shamballa – Marvel Graphic Novel #23

By J.M. DeMatteis & Dan Green (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-559-0 or ISBN13: 978-0-87135-166-1

Once upon a time Marvel published far more all-original graphic novels than reprint collections or assorted compendia of past glories, utilising new formats and print innovations to tell â€œbig storiesâ€ on larger than normal pages (285 x 220mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm) featuring not only licensed assets like Conan, high profile movie adaptations and creator-owned properties, but also proprietary characters the company owned lock, stock and barrel.

One such spectacular home-grown special event is this quirky, lyrically lovely visual and philosophical diversion starring the company’s own New Age Astral Avengerâ€¦

Steven Strange was once America’s greatest surgeon, a brilliant man, yet vain and arrogant, caring nothing for the sick, except as a means to wealth and glory. When a self-inflicted drunken car-crash ended his career, Strange hit the skids.

Then, fallen as low as man ever could, the debased doctor overheard a barroom tale which led him on a delirious odyssey – or perhaps pilgrimage – to Tibet, where an impossibly aged mage and eventual enlightenment through daily redemption transformed the derelict into a solitary, ever-vigilant watchdog for frail humanity against all the hidden dangers of the dark. Now he battles otherworldly evil as the Sorcerer Supreme, a Master of the Mystic arts.

After years of unceasing battle, a momentary lull in the eldritch crusade allows Strange time for contemplation and reminiscence. His thoughts return to the beginning of his second life amidst the misty crags of the Himalayas. He is often troubled by his long-departed mentor’s more impenetrable teachings and questions, even doubts begin to cloud the wizardly warrior’s sense of mission and purposeâ€¦

Visiting the Ancient One’s abandoned abode, Strange meets again his past master’s devoted body servant Hamir the Hermit and takes possession of his mentor’s final gift: a puzzle-box which defies his every effort to discern its true meaning.

Just as Strange’s frustration peaks he is summoned by the puissant and (seemingly) benevolent Lords of Shamballa and press-ganged into undertaking a global odyssey to jump-start the spiritual evolution of humanity and thereby mid-wife the Golden Age of Mankind.

But for that joyous miracle to occur the Doctor must perform three drastic and draconian feats of mystic surgery; in South America, India and England, harried each time by an unknown and deeply malevolent adversary.

However, no matter how far he travels or bravely he strives Stephen Strange cannot solve his most urgent internal dilemma: what kind of transcendent world can be built only on the corpses of three-quarters of humanityâ€¦?

Challenging, allegorical and elegiacally moving, Into Shamballa offers a far more mature and spiritual experience than most comics tales whilst still maintaining the thrill and wonder so necessary to lovers of graphic narrative.

Enticingly scripted by Searcher into the Mysteries J.M. DeMatteis and stunningly painted by Dan Green, this off-beat gem typifies all that was great about the bold and innovative middle-period of â€œthe House of Ideasâ€.
Â© 1989 Marvel Entertainment Group/Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

October 8, 2011October 8, 2011

The Flash: Rogues

By Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Doug Hazlewood & various (DC)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-950-8

When Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash whose creation ushered in a new and seemingly unstoppable era of costumed crusaders, was killed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, he was succeeded by his young sidekick Wally West, a young man who initially struggled to fill the boots of his predecessor, but like a true hero persevered and eventually overcameâ€¦

After years in the role West adapted and made a convincing argument for being an even greater hero as he triumphed over both his mentor’s uncanny foes and a whole new Rogue’s Gallery of his own.

This volume, Rogues – which follows directly on from Blood Will Run – is part of a massive continued storyline by scripter Geoff Johns and will be best enjoyed if you can also lay your hands on Crossfire and Blitz – at the very least – and collects issues #177-182 of the long-gone monthly comicbook.

The twin cities of Keystone and Central City are in economic turmoil. In an atmosphere of job-cuts and financial woe, ostensibly-reformed super-villain Keith Kenyon AKA Goldface is causing (mostly legal) trouble promoting his militant blue-collar union, whilst on the crime front a new conglomeration of Rogues is being formed by a sinister mastermindâ€¦

The action in this particular tome, all pencilled and mostly inked by Doug Hazlewood, begins with ‘Event Horizon’ when Flash’s oldest ally and human Black Hole Chester Runk, gifted with incredible teleportation and gravity-warping powers, is shot by an assassin. Although Chunk survives the bullet, the wound causes his powers to spiral out of control and subsequently endangers the entire planet until Wally can find a typically fast-paced fix.

Meanwhile in Keystone City, a new, non-union manufacturer of detention units falls foul of Kenyon’s pickets, allowing the lethally destructive super-gorilla Grodd to escape in ‘Caged’â€¦

Immensely strong, carnivorous and possessing staggering psionic abilities, the savage simian goes on an earth-shattering rampage through the city until the hard-pressed hyper-fast hero finally stops him. Across town at that moment, another Flash-friend is arrested for murderâ€¦

‘Smile for the Camera’ incorporates a DC braided crossover event which spanned the entire DC pantheon (for more details and murderous high jinks see Batman: The Joker’s Last Laugh) which can be summed up by saying the Joker thought he was dying and infected hundreds of villains with his looks and madness before setting them loose to hilariously wreck civilisation and kill millions.

By the time the Pied Piper is remanded to super-penitentiary Iron Heights, the Jokerising plague is in full effect and chaos ensues. Even with Flash on hand the situation only gets more difficult as the Piper also succumbs to the contagious insanityâ€¦

A new villain is introduced in ‘Peek-a-boo’ when a desperate medical student uses her teleporting powers to steal harvested organs for her dying dad. Unfortunately, whenever young Lashawn Baez triggers her power, the air explodes with the force of a detonating missile. Happily for Wally, his old Teen Titans pal Cyborg has moved to town and is able to lend a detachable handâ€¦

‘Fallout’ was a radioactive minor player illegally exploited to power Iron Heights until the Flash liberated him; but the walking atomic reactor was finding life on the outside increasingly hazardous. However, whilst the Scarlet Speedster struggled to find an ethical solution to his dilemma his oldest friends and mentors were falling victim to terrible personal tragedyâ€¦

The Rogues and their new boss Blacksmith are happily celebrating their carefully laid plans as Flash’s police contact Detective Jared Morillo becomes their latest victim, but the villains have no idea what trouble is waiting them as this tense tome concludes with ‘Absolute Zero’ (inked by Dan Panosian) when Captain Cold goes renegade to avenge the murder of his sister and affords us all a look at the early life which made him such a cold-hearted killerâ€¦

Fast, furious and fantastic, The Flash has always epitomised the very best of Fight ‘n’ Tights fiction. This impressive slice of top-speed, high-octane action can happily be read as is, but as part of the intended, extended epic these tales become vital parts of an overwhelming whole.

The Geoff Johns years are slick and absolutely addictive: engrossing, suspenseful and often genuinely scary comics you simply have to read. If you haven’t seen them yet, run – don’t walk – to your nearest purveyor of graphic magnificence and snag all the breathless excitement you could ever withstand.

October 7, 2011October 8, 2011

Venom

By Rick Remender, Tony Moore, Crimelab! Studios, Sandu Florea, Karl Kesel & Tom Fowler ((Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-493-5

In the anything goes, desperate hurly-burly of the late 1980s and 1990s, fad-fever and spin-off madness gripped the superhero genre in America as publishers hungrily exploited every trick to bolster flagging sales.

In the melee Spider-Man spawned an implacable enemy called Venom: a deranged and disgraced reporter named Eddie Brock who bonded with Peter Parker’s alternate costume (a semi-sentient alien parasite called the Symbiote which the wall-crawler first wore in Secret Wars #8, December 1984).

Brock became a savage, shape-changing, dark-side version of the Amazing Arachnid but after numerous spectacular clashes, the spidery adversaries eventually reached a brooding dÃ©tente and Venom became a â€œLethal Protectorâ€, dispensing a highly individualistic brand of justice everywhere but New York City.

At one stage the Symbiote went into breeding mode; creating a junior version of itself that merged with a deranged psycho-killer named Cletus Kasady to form the even more terrifying metamorphic Carnage.

Since then many other hosts have bonded with the ebony parasite, including Brock’s wife Ann Weying, Mac Gargan, AKA the Scorpion, mobster Angelo Fortunato, Mayoral assistant Edward Saks and even Franklin Richards and other members of the Fantastic Four.

In the beginning of 2011 a new iteration of the lethal Protector debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #654 and was swiftly followed by this classy and viscerally action-packed rollercoaster ride from scripter Rick Remender and penciller Tony Moore, ably augmented by inkers Crimelab! Studios, Sandu Florea, Karl Kesel, Tom Fowler & colourist John Rauch.

This time the host is Flash Thompson, Spider-Man’s greatest fan and a war hero who came back from Afghanistan without his legs. A recovering alcoholic, Eugene, as he now prefers, is part of a top-secret military black-ops operation which uses the Symbiote to carry out under-the-radar missions vital to US security.

In return, Thompson gets to be a hero (of sorts), feel useful again, serve his country and get out of his wheelchair prison for 48 hours at a time.

Of course there are drawbacks: the parasite is a deadly menace, constantly seeking to permanently bond with its wearer and is classed as one of the most dangerous entities on the planet. If the new Venom should go berserk or if the human host stays bonded for more than two days the war room controllers of the mysterious General Dodge will simply detonate the explosives attached to Thompson’s body and start the project over with another volunteer. It’s what they had to do with the previous wearer, after allâ€¦

This superb blend of visceral action and powerful drama opens with Venom trying to extract to the US a genocidal scientist attempting to ethnically cleanse his Balkan homeland with the unstoppable Vibranium weaponry he was contracted to build for American gang boss Crime Master.

Even inside an alien skin driving him crazy whilst granting him incredible, intoxicating power, Flash can’t help going off-mission to save dying civilians, so he’s doubly distracted when Crime Master’s kill-crazy enforcer Jack O’Lantern attempts to steal the mad scientist out from under him, resulting in a devastating battleâ€¦

Only partially successful, Thompson limps home to girlfriend Betty Brant and pal Peter Parker, trusted confidantes he cannot tell about his new private life and who are therefore terrified that his constant disappearances mean he’s drinking againâ€¦

Venom’s second mission is to stop the supply of Vibranium from the Antarctic Lost World known as the Savage Land but that goes even more Fubar (it’s military slang and rude – look it up if you must) when Kraven the Hunter unexpectedly attacks and delays him long past his time limit.

With the parasite making inroads into his psyche and Crime Master’s goons delaying him even longer over his deadline, his identity is exposed to the Machiavellian mastermind and Flash mistakes a military technical hitch for Dodge’s trust in his ability to resist the Symbiote’s influence when, after days as Venom, his brain still hasn’t detonatedâ€¦

In America, however, Jack O’Lantern has kidnapped Betty and uses her to force the extremely famous and recognisable paraplegic war-hero to bring him all the remaining Vibranium. Desperate, and with his mind slowly being eaten away by contact with the alien parasite, Venom runs amok in New York battling Spider-Man as a bomb counts down under baffled hostage Betty Brant, all leading to a staggering and supremely satisfying bombastic battle climax.

But wait: there’s moreâ€¦

Rick Remender is a stellar writer and somehow convinced his editors to end this blistering adventure miniseries on a small, quiet and highly poignant note. After a brief but gruesome clash with cannibal serial killer the Human Fly, Venom is safely squared away as the last issue follows the wheelchair-bound Flash through his abusive past and traumatic present by focusing on his brutal, alcoholic cop-father who so nearly made his son into a doomed and self-destructive carbon copy of himself.

Moving and thought-provoking, this affords a powerfully intimate glimpse into the real world behind all those high-flying fantasy heroes, villains and monsters.

Fast-paced, scary, clever and full of heart, this is a thriller to delight action fan and superhero deep-thinkers alike.

October 6, 2011October 4, 2011

Zorro – the Masters Edition volume 1

By Johnston McCulley (Pulp Adventures Inc.)
ISBN: 978-1-89172-920-1

One the earliest masked heroes and still phenomenally popular throughout the world is perennial film favourite â€œEl Zorro, The Foxâ€, originally created by jobbing writer Johnston McCulley in 1919 in a five part serial entitled ‘The Curse of Capistrano’ and launched in prose magazine All-Story Weekly beginning in with the August 6^thedition and concluding with 6^th September).

The tale was subsequently collected as a novella and published by Grossett & Dunlap in 1924 as The Mark of Zorro and further reissued in 1959 and 1998 by MacDonald & Co. and Tor respectively.

Famously Hollywood royalty Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford read the ‘The Curse of Capistrano’ in All-Story Weekly whilst on their honeymoon and immediately optioned the rights for the first film release from their new production company/studio United Artists.

The Mark of Zorro movie was a global sensation in 1920 and for years after, so a second prose serial was understandably commissioned from McCulley. ‘The Further Adventures of Zorro’ ran in All-Story Weekly from May 6^th to June 10^th 1922, but the magic thunderbolt didn’t strike twice and the Swashbuckling SeÃ±or wasn’t seen again until revived in the 1930’s pulps as part of a boom in extraordinary, more-than-merely-mortal adventures.

New York based McCulley was clearly no fool and had re-tailored his creation to match the extremely different filmic incarnation, making Zorro more a prototypical superhero than the broad Scarlet Pimpernel knock-off he had begun as (although many fictive historians prefer the idea that the character was based on real-life bandit Joaquin Murrieta, the â€œMexican/Chilean Robin Hoodâ€, whose life was fictionalized by John Rollin Ridge in 1854), so the Caped Crusader aptly fitted the burgeoning genre that would soon be peopled by the likes of The Shadow, Doc Savage and the Spider.

Weekly Argosy Magazine featured the four-chapter serial ‘Zorro Rides Again’ from October 3^rd – 24^th 1931 and a year later began a succession of complete novellas which ran between 1932 and 1935 and these are all reprinted in this glorious, album-sized volume.

McCulley produced a further chapter-novel ‘The Sign of Zorro’ for Argosy in 1941 (following the 1940 Rouben Mamoulian movie The Mark of Zorro) before switching to the monthly West Magazine in 1944. The first two of the 52 short stories produced between then and 1951 are also included, closing out this initial collection.

The author wrote two further stories ‘Zorro Rides the Trail’ for the May 1954 Max Brand Western Magazine and another, different version of ‘The Mark of Zorro’ which was published in Short Story Magazine in April 1959, the year after McCulley’s death and just as Disney’s epochal Zorro TV show was ending its three year run..

This wonderful monochrome celebration opens with an introduction from Don McGregor, who scripted comicbooks and a newspaper strip about the character, after which the stirring prose exploits beginâ€¦

For the uninitiated: Don Diego de la Vega was the foppish son of a grand house in old California when it was a Spanish Possession, who used the masked persona of SeÃ±or Zorro (the Fox) to right wrongs, defend the weak and oppressed – particularly the pitifully maltreated natives and Indians – and thwart the schemes of a succession of military leaders and the colonial Governor determined to milk the populace for all they had.

Whenever Zorro struck he left his mark – a letter â€œZâ€ carved into walls, doors, facesâ€¦

By the time of ‘Zorro Saves a Friend’ (Argosy November 12^th 1932) he had become simply Don Diego Vega, and had a whole support structure in place. His stiff-necked Hildalgo father knew his secret, as did his two assistants Bernardo (the deaf-mute manservant retained for the assorted TV and movies) and Jose of the Cocopahs – a native chief who often acted as stableman, decoy and body-double for the Masked Avenger. Diego also employed a retired, reformed one-eyed pirate named Bardoso to act as his spy amongst townsfolk and outlawsâ€¦

It is the pirate who warns the seemingly effete nobleman that his young comrade Don Carlos Cassara, amongst others, has been especially targeted by military overseer CapitÃ¡n Torello. That cunning strategist had hired a professional gambler and card-sharp to ruin the wealthy grandees who constantly resist the Governor’s political schemes, intending to humiliate or even cause the suicide of a generation of rich menâ€¦

Forewarned, The Fox took action as only he couldâ€¦

‘Zorro Hunts a Jackal’ first appeared in April 1933, and detailed in stirring fashion how Torello hires a horse-breaker to abuse and cheat the natives in a plot to draw out Zorro and expose him as Don Diego. However, the mercenary has a darker secret of his own, but all his machinations are as nothing against the wiles of The Foxâ€¦

New Army chief Marcos Lopez was an even more cunning opponent. In ‘Zorro Deals With Treason’ (August 1934) the CapitÃ¡n employed an impostor Zorro to foment rebellion among the Indians, but was soon made painfully aware of the regard and trust they placed in the genuine masked marvelâ€¦

The lengthy novelette which follows was first published in two parts in the Argosy issues for September 21^st and 28^th 1935, and is here presented as an interrupted saga of grand romance and spectacular action as Don Diego and Bernardo travelled to distant San Diego de AlcÃ¡la to escort his father’s greatest friend, his entire wealth and his beautiful daughter Carmelita to a new life in Reina de Los Angeles.

Major headaches along the way include astute new military commander CapitÃ¡n Carlos Gonzales, assorted bandits, murderous rogues Pedro Pico and Valentino Vargas and an enigmatic mastermind building a criminals’ army known only as the ‘Mysterious Don Miguel’â€¦

The last two tales come from West Magazine: a brace of short stories from July and September 1944. The first ‘Zorro Draws His Blade’ finds Don Diego contacted by the Friars of the local Mission – who also aware of his other identity – to clear the name and save the life of a peasant who has been framed for murdering a landowner. Of course the task is accomplished with cunning and devastating panache before the adventure concludes with ‘Zorro Upsets a Plot’ as the dashing Night-rider is forced to clear his name and confound another military frame-up when a masked and cloaked figure boldly and conspicuously abducts a beautiful maidenâ€¦

These are classic Blood-and-Thunder tales chock-full of fights and midnight chases, with scurvy blackguards maimed or slaughtered according to their crimes and station in life and dastardly plots unravelled with great style.

The more observant will note that as the years went by the rate of wounding decreased whilst the body-count steadily rose: a sure sign of the changing times and one which was repeated decades later in the superhero comics this series is such a clear template forâ€¦

The volume also contains a complete checklist of the prose canon and is liberally sprinkled with spot illustrations and full-page plates by Joel F. Naprestek, Franklyn E. Hamilton, Glen Ostrander, Mark Bloodworth and Randy Zimmerman as well as all the (sadly unattributed) illustrations which accompanied the original incarnations, as well as the painted magazine covers of those issues.

This edition and its successors apparently retail for staggering prices, but since there’s only one Rights owner and the character is so unbelievably popular, surely there’s a publisher out there willing and able to produce decent new collectors editions of these timeless tales along the sturdy, standard B-format paperback lines of Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes or The Casebook of Sexton Blake?

I want more and surely there are hordes of others ready and eager to spend Â£s and $s for more â€œZâ€s?
Zorro Â® and Â© Zorro Productions. All Rights Reserved. This edition Â© 2000 Pulp Adventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

October 5, 2011September 3, 2017

Valerian and Laureline book 2: The Empire of a Thousand Planets

By J.-C. MÃ©ziÃ©res & P. Christin, with colours by E. TranlÃ© and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-087-0

ValÃ©rian is arguably the most influential comics science fiction series ever drawn – and yes, I am including both Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in that expansive and undoubtedly contentious statement.

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie has seen some of Jean-Claude MÃ©ziÃ©res & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings which the filmic phenomenon has shamelessly plundered for decades: everything from the look of the Millennium Falcon to Leia‘s Slave Girl outfit -as this second volume powerfully proves in a stunning comparisons feature following after the magnificent adventure contained hereinâ€¦

Simply put, more carbon-based lifeforms have experienced and marvelled at the uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in tech realism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of MÃ©ziÃ©res & Christin than any other cartoon spacer ever imagined possible.

The groundbreaking series followed a Franco-Belgian mini-boom in fantasy fiction triggered by Jean-Claude Forest’s 1962 creation Barbarella. ValÃ©rian: Spatio-Temporal Agent launched in the November 9th, 1967 edition of Pilote (#420) and was an instant hit. In combination with Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient and Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane, ValÃ©rian‘s hot public reception led to the creation of dedicated adult graphic sci fi magazine MÃ©tal Hurlant in 1977.

ValÃ©rian and Laureline (as the series eventually became) is light-hearted, wildly imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy (a bit like Dr. Who, but not really at allâ€¦), drenched in wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary, starring, in the beginning, an affable, capable, unimaginative and by-the-book cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology and counteracting paradoxes caused by casual time-travellers.

When ValÃ©rian travelled to 11th century France in the initial tale ‘Les Mauvais RÃªves (‘Bad Dreams’) he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline whom he brought back to the 28th century super-citadel and administrative wonderland of Galaxity, capital of the Terran Empire. The indomitable lass trained as a Spatio-Temporal operative and began accompanying him on his missions.

Every subsequent ValÃ©rian adventure until the 13th was first serialised weekly in Pilote until the conclusion of ‘The Rage of Hypsis’ after which the mind-boggling sagas were only published as all-new complete graphic novels, until the whole spectacular saga resolved and ended in 2010.

The Empire of a Thousand Planets originally ran in Pilote #520-541from October 23^rd 1969 to March 19^th 1970 and saw the veteran and rookie despatched to the fabled planet Syrte the Magnificent, capital of vast system-wide civilisation and a world in inexplicable and rapid technological and social decline.

The mission is one of threat-assessment: staying in their base time-period (October 2720) the pair are tasked with examining the first galactic civilisation ever discovered that has never experienced any human contact or contamination, but as usual, events don’t go according to planâ€¦

Despite easily blending into a culture with a thousand sentient species, Valerian and Laureline soon find themselves plunged into intrigue and dire danger when the acquisitive girl buys an old watch in the market.

Nobody on Syrte knows what it is since all the creatures of this civilisation have an innate, infallible time-sense, but the gaudy bauble soon attracts the attention of one of the Enlightened – a sinister cult of masked mystics who have the ear of the Emperor and a stranglehold on all technologiesâ€¦.

The Enlightened are responsible for the stagnation within this once-vital interplanetary colossus and they quickly move to eradicate the Spatio-temporal agents. Narrowly escaping doom, the pair reluctantly experience the staggering natural wonders and perils of the wilds beyond the capital city before dutifully returning to retrieve their docked spaceship.

Soon however our dauntless duo are distracted and embroiled in a deadly rebellion fomented by the Commercial Traders Guild. Infiltrating the awesome palace of the puppet-Emperor and exploring the mysterious outer planets Valerian and Laureline discover a long-fomenting plot to destroy Earth – a world supposedly unknown to anyone in this Millennial Empireâ€¦

All-out war looms and the Enlightened’s incredible connection to post-Atomic disaster Earth is astonishingly revealed just as inter-stellar conflict erupts between rebels and Imperial forces, with our heroes forced to fully abandon their neutrality and take up arms to save two civilisations a universe apart yet inextricably linkedâ€¦

Comfortingly, yet unjustly familiar, this spectacular space-opera is fun-filled, action-packed, visually breathtaking and mind-bogglingly ingenious.Â Drenched in wide-eyed fantasy wonderment, science fiction adventures have never been better than this.

October 4, 2011October 3, 2011

Showcase Presents World’s Finest volume 1

By Edmond Hamilton, Bill Finger, Curt Swan, Dick Sprang & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1697-9

Some things were just meant to be: Bacon & Eggs, Rhubarb & Custard, Chalk & Cheeseâ€¦

For many years Superman and Batman worked together as the â€œWorld’s Finestâ€ team. They were friends as well as colleagues and the pairing made sound financial sense since DC’s top heroes (in effect the company’s only costumed stars) could cross-pollinate and, more importantly, cross-sell their combined readerships.

This most inevitable of Paladin Pairings first occurred on the Superman radio show in the early 1940s, whilst in comics the pair had only briefly met whilst on a Justice Society of America adventure in All-Star Comics #36 (August-September 1947) – and perhaps even there they missed each other in the gaudy hubbubâ€¦

Of course they had shared the covers on World’s Finest Comics from the outset, but never crossed paths inside; sticking firmly to their specified solo adventures within. So for us pictorial continuity buffs, the climactic first time was in the pages of Superman’s own bi-monthly comic (issue #76, May/June 1952).

Science fiction author Edmond Hamilton was tasked with revealing how Man of Steel and Caped Crusader first met – and accidentally discovered each other’s identities – whilst sharing a cabin on an over-booked cruise liner. Although an average crime-stopper yarn, it was the start of a phenomenon. The art for ‘The Mightiest Team in the World’ was by the superb Curt Swan and inkers John Fischetti & Stan Kaye with that keynote caper the opening inclusion in this first magnificent monochrome compendium (which thereafter re-presents their first 41 collaborations from World’s Finest Comics #71-111).

With dwindling page counts, rising costs but a proven readership and years of co-starring but never mingling, World’s Finest Comics #71 (July-August 1954) presented the Man of Tomorrow and the Gotham Gangbuster in the first of their official shared cases as the Caped Crusader became ‘Batman – Double For Superman!’ (by scripter Alvin Schwartz with Swan & Kaye providing the pictures) as the merely mortal hero traded identities to preserve his comrade’s alter ego and latterly, his life…

‘Fort Crime!’ (Schwartz, Swan & Kaye) saw them unite to crush a highly organised mob with a seemingly impregnable hideout, after which Hamilton returned to script ‘Superman and Batman, Swamis Inc’, a clever sting-operation that almost went tragically awry before an alien invader prompted an insane rivalry which resulted in ‘The Contest of Heroes’ by Bill Finger, Swan & Kaye, from World’s Finest #74.

The same creative team produced ‘Superman and Robin!’ wherein a disabled Batman could only fret and fume as his erstwhile assistant seemingly dumped him for a better man, whereas ‘When Gotham City Challenged Metropolis’ (Hamilton, Swan & Charles Paris) saw the champions at odds as their hometowns over-aggressively vied for a multi-million dollar electronics convention before a landmark tale by Hamilton, Swan & Kaye invented a new sub-genre when a mad scientist’s accident temporarily removed the Caped Kryptonian’s powers and created ‘The Super-Batman!’ in WF #77.

Arguably Batman’s greatest artist joined the creative crew ‘When Superman’s Identity is Exposed!’ (by Hamilton, Dick Sprang & Kaye) as a mysterious source kept revealing the Man of Steel’s greatest secret, only to be revealed as a well-intentioned disinformation stunt, whereas the accent was on high adventure when the trio became ‘The Three Musicians of Bagdad’ – a stunning time-travel romp from Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye.

When the Gotham Gazette faced closure days before a spectacular crime-expose, Clark Kent and Lois Lane joined dilettante Bruce Wayne as pinch-hitting reporters on ‘The Super-Newspaper of Gotham City’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Charles Paris) after which ‘The True History of Superman and Batman’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye, #81) saw a future historian blackmail the heroes into restaging their greatest exploits so his erroneous treatise on them would be accurateâ€¦

Hamilton also produced a magnificent and classy costumed drama when ‘The Three Super-Musketeers!’ visited 17^th century France to solve the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask whilst Bill Finger wrote a brilliant and delightful caper-without-a-crime in ‘The Case of the Mother Goose Mystery! before Hamilton provided insight on a much earlier meeting of the World’s Finest Team with ‘The Super-Mystery of Metropolis!’ in #84, all for Sprang & Kaye to enticingly illustrate.

Hamilton, Swan, Sprang & Kaye demonstrated how a comely Ruritanian Princess inadvertently turned the level-headed heroes into ‘The Super-Rivals’ (or did she?), before a monolithic charity-event ‘The Super-Show of Gotham City’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye) was almost turned into a mammoth pay-day for unscrupulous con-men whilst ‘The Reversed Heroes’ (Finger, Sprang & Ray Burnley) once again saw the costumed champions swap roles when Batman and Robin gained powers thanks to Kryptonian pep-pills found by criminal Elton Craig, just as Superman’s powers fadedâ€¦

World’s Finest #87 presented ‘Superman and Batman’s Greatest Foes!’ (Hamilton, Sprang, Kaye) and found â€œreformedâ€ villains Lex Luthor and the Joker ostensibly setting up in the commercial robot business – which nobody really believed – after which seminal sequel ‘The Club of Heroes’ by Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye, reprised a meeting of Batmen from many nations (Detective Comics #215, January 1955 or Batman: the Black Casebook and a key plank of Grant Morrison’s epic Batman: the Black Glove serial) but added the intriguing sub-plot of an amnesiac Superman and a brand-new costumed championâ€¦

That evergreen power-swap plot was revisited in #90’s ‘The Super-Batwoman’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye) when the headstrong heroine defied Batman by restarting her costumed career and was quickly compelled to swallow Elton Craig’s last Krypton pill to prevent criminals getting it, after which the stirring time-busting saga of ‘The Three Super-Sleepers’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye) saw our heroes fall into a trap which caused them to slumber for 1000 years and awaken in a fantastic world they could never escapeâ€¦

But of course they could and once back where they belonged ‘The Boy From Outer Space!’ by Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye detailed how a super-powered amnesiac lad crashed to Earth and briefly became Superman’s sidekick Skyboy, whilst ‘The Boss of Superman and Batman’ (author unknown, Sprang & Kaye) revealed how a brain-amplifying machine turned Robin into a super-genius more than qualified to lead the trio in their battle against insidious rogue scientist Victor Danning.

When the Man of Tomorrow replaced the Caped Crusader with a new partner it led to a review of ‘The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team’ by Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye after which Dave Wood, Sprang & Ray Burnley pitted the now equally multi-powered and alien-entranced champions against each other in ‘The Battle of the Super-Heroes’ from WF #95.

A magical succession of magnificent and whacky classics began in #96 with Hamilton’s ‘The Super-Foes From Planet X’ as indolent and effete aliens dispatched fantastic monsters to battle the titanic trio for the best possible reasons, before Bill Finger took over scripting and turned the Man of Steel on his greatest friends in ‘The Day Superman Betrayed Batman’ after which ‘The Menace of the Moonman!’ pitted the heroes against a deranged hyper-powered astronaut, ‘Batman’s Super-Spending Spree!’ baffled all his close friends and Luthor then trapped Superman in the newly recovered Bottle City of Kandor and became ‘The Dictator of Krypton City’ – all astounding epics beautifully limned by Sprang & Kaye.

Sprang inked himself in the rocket-paced super-crime thriller ‘The Menace of the Atom-Master’ whilst it took Swan, Burnley, Sprang & Paris to properly unveil the titanic tragedy of ‘The Caveman from Krypton’ in #102.

‘The Secret of the Sorcerer’s Treasure’ (art by Sprang & Paris) found two treasure hunters driven mad by the tempting power unearthed magical artefacts and Luthor quickly regretted used a hostage Batwoman to facilitate ‘The Plot to Destroy Superman’ whereas the metamorphosis which turned Clark Kent into ‘The Alien Superman’ proved not at all what it seemed.

‘The Duplicate Man’ in WF #106 had developed an almost unbeatable crime tool – whereas ‘The Secret of the Time-Creature’ spanned centuries and produced one of Finger’s very best detective thrillers to baffle but never stump the Terrific Team.

Jerry Coleman took over scripting with ‘The Star Creatures’, (art by Sprang & Paris), the tale of an extraterrestrial moviemaker whose deadly props were stolen by Earth crooks, whilst ‘The Bewitched Batman’ drawn by Swan & Kaye, was a tense race to save the Gotham Guardian from an ancient curse and ‘The Alien who Doomed Robin’ (Sprang & Sheldon Moldoff) saw a symbiotic link between monster marauder and Boy Wonder leave the senior heroes apparently helplessâ€¦ at least for a little whileâ€¦

This inaugural black and white chronicle concludes with ‘Superman’s Secret Kingdom’ by Finger, Sprang & Moldoff from World’s Finest #111 (August 1960): a compelling lost world yarn wherein a cataclysmic holocaust deprives the Man of Steel of his memory and Batman and Robin have to find and cure him at all costsâ€¦

These are gloriously clever yet uncomplicated tales whose dazzling style has returned to inform if not dictate the form for much of DC’s modern television animation – especially the fabulous Batman: the Brave and the Bold series – and the contents of this tome are a veritable feast of witty, charming thrillers packing as much punch and wonder now as they always have.
Â© 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

October 3, 2011October 2, 2011

Marvel Masterworks volume 5: The Amazing Spider-Man 11-20

By Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-480-2

After a shaky start The Amazing Spider-Man quickly became a popular sensation with kids of all ages, rivalling the creative powerhouse that was Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four and soon the quirky, charming action-packed comics soap-opera would become the model for an entire generation of younger heroes elbowing aside the staid, (relatively) old thirty-something mystery-men of previous publications.

This second supremely lavish deluxe hardback collection gathers issues #11-20 of the pulsating prodigy’s enduring exploits, covering April 1964 to January 1965, a truly stellar period of imaginative innovation and terrific thrillsâ€¦

The wonderment begins with a magical two-part adventure ‘Turning Point’ and ‘Unmasked by Dr. Octopus!’ which saw the return of the lethally deranged and deformed scientist and the disclosure of a long-hidden secret which had haunted Peter Parker’s girlfriend Betty Brant for years.

The dark, tragedy-filled tale of extortion and excoriating tension stretched from Philadelphia to the Bronx Zoo and cannily tempered the trenchant melodrama with spectacular fight scenes in unusual and exotic locations, before culminating in a truly staggering super-powered duel as only the masterful Steve Ditko could orchestrate it.

A new super-foe premiered in Amazing Spider-Man #13 with ‘The Menace of Mysterio!’ as a seemingly eldritch bounty-hunter hired by Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson to capture Spider-Man eventually revealed his own dark agenda, whilst #14 was an absolute milestone in the series as a hidden criminal mastermind manipulated a Hollywood studio into making a movie about the wall-crawler.

Even with guest-star opponents such as the Enforcers and the Incredible Hulk ‘The Grotesque Adventure of the Green Goblin’ is most notable for introducing Spider-Man’s most perfidious and flamboyant enemy.

Jungle superman and thrill-junkie ‘Kraven the Hunter!’ made Spider-Man his intended prey at the behest of embittered old Spidey-foe the Chameleon in #15, whilst the Ringmaster and his Circus of Evil prompted #16â€²s dazzling and delightful ‘Duel with Daredevil’.

An ambitious three-part saga began in Amazing Spider-Man #17 which saw the rapidly-maturing hero touch emotional bottom before rising to triumphant victory over all manner of enemies. ‘The Return of the Green Goblin!’ saw the wall-crawler endure renewed print assaults from the Daily Bugle just as the Goblin began a war of nerves using the Enforcers, Sandman and an army of thugs to publicly humiliate the Amazing Arachnid, just as Aunt May’s health took a drastic downward turn.

Continued in ‘The End of Spider-Man!’ and concluded in ‘Spidey Strikes Back!’ – featuring a turbulent team-up with friendly rival the Human Torch – this extended tale proved that the fans were ready for every kind of narrative experiment (single issue and even two stories per issue were still the norm in 1964) and Stan and Steve were more than happy to try anything.

This magical compendium closes with ‘The Coming of the Scorpion!’ wherein Jameson let his obsessive hatred for the cocky kid crusader get the better of him; hiring scientist Farley Stillwell to endow a private detective with insectoid-based superpowers. Unfortunately the process drove Mac Gargan completely mad before he could capture Spidey, leaving the web-spinner with yet another lethally dangerous meta-nutcase to deal withâ€¦

Such was the early life of comic’s most misunderstood hero and this gloriously lavish collection of landmark tales absolutely resonates with mesmerising power and creativity.

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