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Bread & Wine – an Erotic Tale of New York


By Samuel R. Delaney & Mia Wolff (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-632-4

The demands of drama dictate that true love never runs smooth but that’s not the case in real life. The trade off is that those actual romances which stand the test of time and tedium are painfully devoid of the remarkable circumstance and miraculous “gosh-wow” moments of fiction.

But this book proves That Ain’t Necessarily So…

In 1999 independent publisher Juno released a small graphic novel memoir, written by Samuel R. Delaney and illustrated by Mia Wolff, which recounted how a celebrated gay black literary giant, college professor and social theoretician with a mantelpiece crowded of awards and a teenaged daughter in tow, met and romanced one of society’s most outcast and forgotten souls.

At the time of publication they had been a couple for some years and they are together still, more than 25 years later. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere won’t be in this movie and not a single dragon had to die…

Following an Introduction from Alan Moore, this welcome and long-overdue new edition reveals how “Chip” Delaney took a walk on New York’s Upper West Side, bought a book from homeless Dennis and struck up a conversation with the kind of person most people refuse to acknowledge the very existence of…

In seamless seductive understated style the words and pictures detail how gradually, gently, unsurprisingly they became first friends and then lovers.

In the manner of all lasting romances, this is the history of two full equals who accidentally find each other, not some flimsy rags-to-riches Cinderella tale of predestination and magical remedies. The brilliance and position of one is perfectly complimented by the warmth, intelligence and quiet integrity of the other, and although far from smooth – or rose scented – their path to contentment was both tension-fraught and heart-warming.

Oh, and there’s sex: lots of sex, so if you’re the kind of person liable to be upset by pictures of joyous, loving fornication between two people separated by age, wealth, social position and race who happily possess and constantly employ the same type of naughty bits on each other, then go away and read something else.

In fact, just go away.

And that’s all the help you get from me. This lyrical, beguiling tale is embellished throughout with interwoven extracts from the poem Bread and Wine by German lyric poet Friedrich Hölderlin and illustrated in a mesmerising organic monochrome variety of styles by artist and Delaney family friend Mia Wolff, and you really need to have it unfold for you without my kibitzing…

This is one of the sweetest, most uplifting comics love stories ever written: rich with sentiment, steeped in literary punch and beautiful to behold. Moreover this lavish hardback also includes a celebratory commentary by Chip, Dennis and Mia and other protagonists in the Afterword, plus a sketch-packed earnest and informative interview with the creative participants.

Strong, assertive, uncompromising and proudly unapologetic, this is love we should all aspire to and Bread & Wine is a graphic novel every adult should see.
Introduction © 2013 Alan Moore. Contents © 2013 Samuel R. Delaney & Mia Wolff. This edition © 2013 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

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Green Eggs and Maakies


By Tony Millionaire (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-618-8

As a career and lifestyle, cartooning has far more than its share of individuals with a unique perspective on the world. Ronald Searle, Charles Addams, George Herriman, Gerald Scarfe, Rick Geary, Steve Bell, Berke Breathed, Ralph Steadman, Bill Watterson, Matt Groening, Gary Larson – the list is potentially endless. Perhaps it’s the power to create entire sculptured worlds coupled with the constant catharsis of vented spleen that so colours their work – whether they paint or draw – or maybe it’s simply the crucible of constant deadlines that makes their efforts so addictive and effective.

In Green Eggs and Maakies the astounding Tony Millionaire returns again with another two year compilation of his impossibly wonderful weekly newspaper strip and clearly time has not withered his infinite grotesque variety one little bit…

The man loves to draw and does it very, very well; referencing classical art, timeless children’s book illustration and an eclectic mix of pioneering comics draughtsmen – like George McManus, Rudolph Dirks, Cliff Sterrett, Frank Willard, Harold Gray, Elzie Segar and George Herriman – and seamlessly blending their styles and sensibilities with European engravings masters from the “legitimate” side of the storytelling picture racket.

Born Scott Richardson, he especially cites Johnny (Raggedy Ann and Andy) Gruelle and English illustrator Ernest H. Shepard (The Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh) as definitive formative influences.

With a variety of graphical strings to his bow such as his own coterie of books for children (particularly the superbly stirring Billy Hazelnuts series), animation and the now legendary Sock Monkey, Mr. Millionaire still finds the time to produce the deliciously deeply disturbing weekly Maakies which describes the riotously vulgar and absurdly surreal adventures of an Irish monkey called Uncle Gabby and his fellow macro-alcoholic and nautical mis-adventurer Drinky Crow.

They are abetted but never aided by a peculiarly twisted, off-kilter cast of reprobates, antagonists and confrontational well-wishers, such as Drunken Cop, old Wachtel, The Captain’s Daughter and avian Aunt Phoebe and constantly opposed by a nefarious French crocodile dubbed The Frenchman. Or not. It depends…

In the grand tradition of the earliest US newspaper cartoon features, each episode comes with a linked mini-strip running across the foot of the strip – although often that link is quite hard to ascertain. Nominally based in a nautical setting of  rip-roaring 19th century sea-faring situations, replete with maritime monsters and stunning vistas, the dark-and-bitter comical instalments vary from staggeringly rude and crude through absolutely hysterical to conceptually impenetrable, with content and gags utterly unfettered by the bounds of taste or any acquiescence to wholesome fun-squelching decency.

Millionaire even promotes his other creative endeavours in his Maakies pages, digresses into autobiography and personal rants, brings in selected guest creators to mess with his toys and invites the readership to contribute ideas, pictures and objects of communal interest to the mix – especially any tattoos his dedicated readership bother to send…

This penetratingly incisive, witty and often poignant cartoon arena is his playground and if you don’t like it, leave… but quietly please, ’cause there’s a hangover going on here most days…

Launching in February 1994 in The New York Press, the strip is now widely syndicated in US alternative newspapers such as LA Weekly and The Stranger and globally in comics magazines such as Linus and Rocky. There’s even an animated series on Time-Warner’s Adult Swim strand.

Since continuity usually plays second fiddle to the avalanche of inventive ideas and outré action the strips can be read in almost any order, and the debauched drunkenness, manic ultra-violence in the manner of the best Tom & Jerry or Itchy & Scratchy cartoons, acerbic view of sexuality and deep core of existentialist angst (like Sartre ghostwriting The Office or perhaps The Simpsons) still finds a welcome with Slackers, Laggards, the un-Christian and all those scurrilous, lost Generations after X and everyone addicted to bad taste tomfoolery.

This latest lush landscape hardcover collection provides – in indisputable black and white – still more of the wonderful same with such spit-take, eye-watering, drink-coming-out-of-your-nose moments as how mermaids and ugly fish are created, fun with snakes, the thoughts of ‘Real Ladies of the Dog Park’, the best Superman fart joke in decades and so much more scraped from the edges of all time and space and history.

Moreover, in a positive frenzy of public-spirited beneficence, this book features ‘Maakies Womb Portraits’, returning visits of ‘Dr. Dubel, Helicopter faith healer’, easily absorbed lessons on ‘How to Drink’, scatological marriage proposals, a running commentary on ‘Married Days’ and general sex advice, revelations of ‘The Accidental Sobrietist’, secrets of such self-surgical procedures as removing impacted belly hair or how to conduct an auto-splenectomy, an ode to ‘The Robust Human Liver’ and more bright ideas from ‘The Universal Moon Genius’.

All the timeless favourite themes Millionaire specialises in are on show and the usual variations of sordid sexual encounters, ghastly interspecies progeny, assorted single entendres, bodily function faux pas and gory death-scenes share space with some of literature’s greatest poets and sots – who never knew what hit them…

There are even a few continued tales starring ‘Noah’s Ark’, barbarian dwarf ‘Klaus Santa, son of Kleas, son of Wachtel’ and two sets of cut-out, colour-and-keep Christmas tree ornaments to make any seasonal pine a domestic no-go zone…

If you’re not easily upset this is a spectacularly funny and rewarding strip, one of the most constantly creative and entertaining in existence today, and if you can thrive on gorge-rousing gags and mind-bending rumination this is an experience you simply cannot deny yourself.

If you’re still not a fan, Green Eggs and Maakies is the perfect opportunity to become one, and if you’re already converted it’s an ideal gift for them that isn’t …
© 2013 Tony Millionaire. All rights reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bad Blood


By Andi Watson, Joe Bennett, Rick Ketchum & Jim Amash (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-179-3

Soon after establishing herself as a bona fide media sensation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer won her own monthly comicbook in 1998, with smart, suspenseful, action-packed yarns (in her own her monthly series and fully supplemented by spin-off miniseries and short stories in the company’s showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents) which perfectly complimented the sensational, groundbreaking and so utterly hip TV show.

This slim and sinister compilation (I’m once more featuring the British Titan Books edition and – if you’re asking – these stories are set during TV Season 3) collects the first issues of an extended storyline which found the eclectic teen team battling an honest-to-god arch enemy in the sorry shape of narcissistic vampire Selke, all courtesy of regular creative team Andi Watson, Joe Bennett & Rick Ketchum.

This volume collects issues #9-11 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (May-July 1999) and includes as a bonus a short complete adventure from that March’s Dark Horse Presents #141.

In case you’re a stranger to this dimension: Buffy Summers was a so-simple Valley Girl and teen cheerleader waste of carbon until she inexplicably turned overnight into a monster-killer. She soon discovered – after being contacted by a crusty curmudgeon from a secret society of Watchers – that she was the latest unwilling winner of a mystic, genetic lottery which transformed mortal maids into human killing machines of all things supernatural: Slayers.

Moving to the small California hamlet of Sunnydale, located on the edge of a mystic portal dubbed The Hellmouth, she made a few close friends and with her newest cult-appointed magical mentor Rupert Giles battled devils, demons and every predatory species of terror inexorably drawn to the area…

Following a handy “previously page” and both photo and drawn covers for the following tale, the action resumes with ‘Hey, Good Looking Part I’ as a rare romantic moment with recently restored undead lover Angel in the local cemetery is interrupted by a new type of threat. However this particular monster is too quick to be seen and apparently consumes corpses rather than living flesh…

Meanwhile in a dingy alley the formerly beautiful vampire Selke seethes. Even though her kind cast no reflections, she knows her previous clashes with the Slayer have destroyed not only her strength but also her sublime allure…

Even as Buffy’s mom idly considers cosmetic surgery to bolster her own fading youth, Selke accosts plastic surgeon Dr. Flitter, offering the challenge of a lifetime and unchanging, undead eternal life in return. Obsession with appearances seems to be epidemic in Sunnydale and when Buffy is approached by talent scout Lana she seriously considers her proposal to become a model. If only it doesn’t cut into her Slaying schedule… oh, and school of course…

Whilst Giles had been busy researching the thing that eats cadavers, Mrs. Summers had regained her equilibrium and decided against going under the knife, which was lucky as Flitter has taken up Selke’s offer to restore her. However as his normal procedures don’t work he’s resorting to old books of magic for a solution, and is keeping the impatient nosferatu complacent by feeding her his other clients…

The tale continues in ‘Hey, Good Looking Part II’ as Buffy prepares to battle what Giles calls “Ghouls” and faces a far worse, emotional, battering from the other models on her first day at work. Selke, meanwhile, fooling herself that Flitter’s efforts are working, has tried to recruit vampire allies from the town’s new undead overlord Rouleau and been humiliated.

Later that night as Angel and the Slayer finally eradicate the ghoul gang the furious Selke puts her increasing arcane cosmetologist on warning: succeed soon or die horribly… Issue #11 continues the themes of looks and sexual politics as sleazy musician Todd Dahl hits town with his band and starts looking for hotties to bed.

After the Slayer forcefully turns him down, Todd brags that he has bagged Buffy and goes on to insult and rebuff the more-than-willing teen witch Amy. Soon however the repulsive love-rat is treated to a scary look at the other side of the bed when he suddenly transforms into ‘A Boy Named Sue’…

Flitter meanwhile has intercepted a grimoire intended for Giles’ lore library and deduced a way to heal Selke and even hype-up the strength of her own bite-created offspring. Unfortunately, it involves preying upon other vampires to get the raw ingredients…

The direly dangerous process succeeds and a fully restored, deadlier than ever Selke triumphantly puts her plans into play. Soon everyone who ever crossed her will pay and pay and pay in blood and torment…

As well as a cover gallery by Bennett, Jeff Matsuda, John Sibal, Chris Bachalo & Art Thibert, this sleek, slim chronicle also contains an added story bonus. ‘Hello Moon’, written by Daniel Brereton & Christopher Golden, with art by Joe Bennett & Jim Amash (from Dark Horse Presents #141 from March 1999) is a wistful vignette wherein the Slayer attacks a monster on the beach but soon discovers that she has much in common with the troubled fish-man who also bears the weight of unwelcome responsibility for his endangered race. No sooner had these two champions made their peace though than a band of roving vamps attacked…

Engaging, witty, fun and cleverly concealing a strong message of tolerance and gracious acceptance, this pictorially powerful, fast-fists-flying action extravaganza rockets along at a breakneck pace, perfectly mimicking the smart, intoxicating spirit of the TV show. Although Bad Blood is only the first part of a much longer saga, this is still an easily accessible romp even if you’re not familiar with the vast backstory, another suspenseful thriller as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by any dedicated devotee.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ™ & © 2000 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Sleaze Castle – the Directors Cut Part #0


By Dave McKinnon & Terry Wiley with various (Markosia)
ISBN: 978-1-905692-93-4

I’m old, me. I’ve been around for a bit and met a few folks. So, as occurs when I’m reviewing something by people I’ve gone drinking with, I feel compelled to admit to potential conflicts of interest such as here.

The Society of Strip Illustrators/Comics Creators Guild used to meet on the last Thursday of every month in London. There old lags and aspiring talents rubbed scruffy, grimy, dandruffed – occasionally scrofulous – shoulders, talking comics old and new whilst showing off what we were up to.

Always a fun, laid-back evening, those times when the laconic Terry Wiley would turn up from points North with copies of the latest self-published issue of Tales From Sleaze Castle were especially un-memorable – a combination of subsidised booze and the fact that most folks immediately buried their heads in the mesmerising, fundamentally British, trans-dimensional, time-busting kitchen sink comedy/drama/nostalgic fantasy buddy-movie of a comic and lost all power of speech until they’d finished.

It’s just that good – probably the very best home-grown comic saga you’ve never read – and it also holds strong claim to probably the very best and most appalling literary puns in all sequential narrative.

Scripted by the equally demi-mythical Dave McKinnon, the epic adventure is pretty straightforward but also nearly indescribable. The story unfolds in a progression of mini-chapters and vignettes which act as diary and six-month countdown to an inescapable, predestined event…

After a rather bemused Foreword from author McKinnon, this latest edition of the monochrome masterpiece of wacky understatement starts with ‘Another Earth, Another Dimension, Another Reason to Go Shopping’ and a brace of ‘Prologues’ in which we meet incomprehensibly ancient Pandadomino Quartile, puissant albino Empress of another Realm of Reality and undisputed dominant resident of the incredible, infinite domicile dubbed Sleaze Castle.

Also brought to our attention are the thoroughly grounded though no less implausible Dribble family of Earth; mother Poppy, younger daughter Petra and her older sister Jocasta, befuddled student and co-star of our show…

As post-grad Jo returns to college in the Northern wilds of England and her ongoing M.A. in Televisual Studies, in London the Queen (not ours, the other, alien one) goes shopping. It is ‘Sep. ’86: Castaway’ and there’s about to be a small hitch…

The time/space door malfunctions and Pandadomino is stranded here. Establishing shaky communications with home she is assured that things will be fixed but it will take six months to retrieve her. Moreover the portal will appear in another location…

An incoming call then gives further details and instructions.

It’s from herself who has literally just returned to SleazeCastle and she has some advice for her younger, stranded self. It’s quite bizarre, paradoxical and tediously specific instructions on what to do for the next 178 days so she’d better get a pencil…

Jocasta Dribble is on ‘Autopilot   11:23’ as she makes her way from the railway station to her room in the Ethel Merman Hall of Residence at the University of Novocastria.

As usual the trip is fraught with woolgathering and petty weirdnesses but eventually she slumps onto her term-time bed and makes the acquaintance of her new neighbour.

The oddly naive girl with the shock of black hair, exotic face and too much eye makeup is from Thailand.

Sandra “call me Panda” Castle has absolutely no idea about living in England so Jo takes her under her maternal wing, blithely oblivious that her new friend is an extraterrestrial immigrant, used to commanding vast armies and geniuses of various species, cunningly disguised with dyes and contact lenses. Moreover the strange stranger has used all her wiles to cheat her way into the room next door which will, some months’ distant, very briefly become an inter-dimensional gateway before snapping shut forever…

And thus begins the gentle and seductively enchanting story of the relationship between two of the most well-realised women in comics. As geeky outsider Jo at last blossoms into a proper grown-up – she even finds a boyfriend, more than a decade after her precocious schoolgirl sister Petra – her instruction of the oddly sophisticated “Thai” into British civilisation and college life is simultaneously heart-warming, painful, hilarious, poignant and irresistibly addictive to watch.

It’s also deliciously inclusive and expansive: packed with what 21st century consumers now call “Easter Eggs”. These hidden nuggets of in-jokes, wry observations and oblique cultural and comics references are witty and funny enough in their own right, but if you were in any way part of the comics scene in the late 1980s they are also an instant key into golden times past, packed with outrageous guest-appearances by many of the upcoming stars and characters of the British cartooning and small press movement.

(Whilst the absolutely riveting scenes of Jo and Panda trying out both Novocastria’s Women Cartoonist Society and all-male Komik Klub are timeless slices of shtick to you lot, they were a solid reminder of times past and people I still owe a Christmas card…)

Panda spends her first Christmas ever with the Dribbles and their ferociously Italian extended family but, as the days are counting down, the displaced millennia-old queen is beginning to wonder what will happen once she leaves…

Astoundingly there are people and places and things and people and one person in particularly who is apparently unique and irreplaceable even in the unending pan-cosmic Reality she owns. There’s this friend she’s really can’t bear to lose…

Beautifully scripted, alluringly paced and exquisitely rendered, this book would be paralysingly evocative for any Brit who went to college between 1975 and 1990, but what makes it all so astonishingly good is the fact that this delightful melange of all the things that contributed to our unique culture are effortlessly squooshed together as mere background in an captivating tale of two outsiders finding friendship through adversity and by perpetually lying to each other…

There have been comparisons to Los Bros Hernandez’ Love and Rockets but they’re superficial and unfair to both. I will say though that both are uniquely the product of their own time and regional geography…

This collection also includes a cover gallery and pin-ups as well as the additional plus of ‘And Finally… Three Lost Tales’ which features an aspect of the business I really miss.

A few of the self-publishing community cameoed in the Women Cartoonist Society and elsewhere – in a spirit of communal tit-for-tat – collaborated on side-bar stories featuring Panda, Jo and the rest during the comic’s initial run and with commentary from McKinnon are re-presented here, so even after the cliffhanger story-pause you can still have a laugh with ‘The Rules of the Game part I’ by Lee Kennedy, ‘The Rules of the Game part II’ by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood and what I’ll call ‘An Idea in a Book is Worth Two in the Head’ by Jeremy Dennis. You’ll need to buy this book to realise why…

This a book by lovers of comics for lovers of comics and now that I’ve read this brand-new edition with its remastered pages and fresh snippets of original  material I’m going to re-read the next three volumes in the Gratuitous Bunny Editions I bought years ago. Unless you have your own temporal retrieval system you’ll just have to wait for the next volume…
SleazeCastle is ™ & © 1992, 2012 Dave McKinnon & Terry Wiley. This edition ™ & © Dave McKinnon, Terry Wiley and Markosia Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved. Three Lost Tales © 1996, 2012 Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, Lee Kennedy and Jeremy Day
This book is available for download on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes. Books must be read on an iOS device.

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Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage


By Tom DeFalco, J.M. DeMatteis, Terry Kavanagh, David Michelinie, Mark Bagley, Sal Buscema, Ron Lim, Tom Lyle, Alex Saviuk & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-7851-0038-5 (1994)                                               978-0-7851-0987-7 (2005)

After a shaky start in 1962 The Amazing Spider-Man soon became a popular sensation with kids of all ages, rivalling the creative powerhouse that was Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four. Soon the quirky, charming, action-packed comicbook soap-opera would become the model for an entire generation of younger heroes elbowing aside the staid, (relatively) old costumed-crimebusters of previous publications.

You all know the story: Peter Parker was a smart but alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Discovering he had developed astonishing arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – the kid did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night he didn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returned home that his guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, finding, to his horror, that it was the selfsame felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help others…

Since that night the Wondrous Wallcrawler has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them.

In the anything-goes, desperate hurly-burly of the late 1980s and 1990s, fad-fever and spin-off madness obsessed the superhero genre in America as comics publishers hungrily exploited every trick to bolster flagging sales. In the melee Spider-Man spawned an intractable enemy called Venom: a disgraced and deranged reporter named Eddie Brock who bonded with Peter Parker‘s black costume (an semi-sentient alien parasite called the Symbiote) to become a savage, shape-changing dark-side version of the Amazing Arachnid.

Eventually the spidery adversaries reached a brooding détente and Venom became a “Lethal Protector”, dispensing a highly individualistic brand of justice everywhere but New York City.

However the danger had not completely passed. When the Symbiote went into breeding mode it created a junior version of itself that merged with a deranged psycho-killer named Cletus Kasady (in Amazing Spider-Man #344, March 1991).

Totally amoral, murderously twisted and addicted to both pain and excitement, Kasady became the terrifying metamorphic Carnage – a kill-crazy monster who carved a bloody swathe through the Big Apple before Spider-Man and Venom united to stop him.

Collecting the franchise-wide crossover which originally appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #378-389, Spectacular Spider-Man #201-203, Spider-Man #35-37, Spider-Man Unlimited #1-2 and Web of Spider-Man #101-103 (spanning from May – August 1993), this mammoth and extremely controversial summer event featured the inevitable return of the terrifying travesty and his bloodcurdling assault on everything Peter Parker held dear: love, family, responsibility and the heartfelt faith that killing was never justifiable…

After a behind-the-scenes Introduction (‘Darkness, Light… and Free Food’– with a corresponding Afterword at the end of the epic) by J.M. DeMatteis, this fast and furious slash-fest kicks off with ‘Carnage Rising’ by Tom DeFalco, Ron Lim & Jim Sanders III from Spider-Man Unlimited #1.

When a seemingly powerless Kasady is moved from ultra high security penitentiary The Vault to an experimental lab at Ravencroft Asylum, ambitious psychiatrist Dr. Pournella believes she can cure the monster’s underlying psychosis. Those opinions die with her and the rest of the staff and security officers when the long-dormant Carnage entity manifests and breaks free…

Across town, tormented by guilt and shame, Peter Parker and his new wife Mary Jane are attending the funeral of their friend Harry Osborn – who had gone mad and perished battling Spider-Man as the second Green Goblin. As the downcast hero wallows in soul-searching and wonders at the point of his life, in Ravencroft a nihilistic scourge of insane bloodlust rampages through the facility until he is stopped in his tracks by another inmate.

Shriek is a creature after Carnage’s own heart; a survivor of appalling childhood abuse who discovered she possessed incredible powers to make all her vile drives and dreams come true…

Instantly attracted to each other the pair join forces as a twisted “couple” and resolve to kill as often and as many as they can…

Escaping into New York they soon encounter and battle a mystical, nigh-mindless Spider-Man Doppelganger (which has been stalking the Webslinger since the end of the Infinity War crossover event) and adopt it. Together the ultimate embodiment of a dysfunctional family set out to teach the city the pointlessness of life and the imminent inevitability of remorseless death…

Peter meanwhile has quarrelled with Mary Jane, but after making up he hears of the bloodbath at Ravencroft and dutifully rushes off to recapture Carnage. He is utterly unprepared for the trio of terror he finds and is savagely beaten before barely escaping with his life…

The tale continues in ‘Dark Light’ (by Terry Kavanagh, Alex Saviuk & Don Hudson from Web of Spider-Man #101) as the incapacitated Arachnid is accosted by street thugs hungry for vengeance and only saved by the appearance of homeless vigilantes Cloak and Dagger.

The nomadic teens are two juvenile runaways who fell into the clutches of drug-pushing gangsters. As part of a group of abducted kids they were used as guinea pigs for new designer drugs, but though all the other test subjects died horribly Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen were mutated by the chemical cocktail into something more – and less – than human.

Isolated, alone, and vengeful they swore to help other lost kids by fighting drug dealers and all who preyed on the weak in the blackest corners of New York City. Cloak is connected to a dimension of darkness; able to teleport, become intangible, amplifying and feeding on the wickedness in his targets. His unceasing hunger for these negative emotions must be regularly if only temporarily sated by super-acrobat Dagger’s dazzling radiance. Her power too has advantages and hazards. The power can cleanse the gnawing dependency afflicting addicts, but constantly, agonizingly, builds up within her when not released. Thus Cloak’s incessant hunger can be assuaged by her light-knives and his apparently insatiable darkness.

Whilst tending to Spider-Man – whose injuries include cripplingly painful broken ribs – Cloak and Dagger are ambushed by the Carnage clan and a catastrophic clash razes the church they are sheltering in.

Shriek especially is revelling in the chaos. She has battled Cloak before and loathes him, taking sublime joy in tormenting him. Her greatest triumph comes when she uses her sonic powers to disintegrate his beloved Dagger before his horrified eyes…

‘Demons on Broadway’ (Amazing Spider-Man #378, by David Michelinie, Mark Bagley & Randy Emberlin) ramps up the tension as Venom returns to New York, determined to exterminate the appalling threat he inadvertently created. The severely wounded Spider-Man is meanwhile trying to console Cloak who is crazed with grief and fury. Elsewhere Carnage, Shriek and Doppelganger are simultaneously gloating, planning further bloodshed and fighting each other…

When Cloak disappears in a blink of black torment the barely conscious Wallcrawler resumes his search for the trio of horrors and instead stumbles upon another old foe – Demogoblin.

Originally a science-powered super-crook, the mercenary killer was mystically cursed and transfigured into a supernatural scourge dedicated to cleansing the earth of sin. To his diseased mind that means slaughtering humans because they are all sinners…

As the messianic devil thrashes the utterly exhausted and overstretched Spider-Man in Central Park, Venom tracks down Kasady but is similarly crushed by Doppelganger, Shriek and his sadistically exultant “offspring”…

Brock barely escapes with his life and crawls to Peter and Mary Jane’s apartment in Spider-Man #35, driving Mrs. Parker crazy with fear and resentment. In fact it seems as if the entire city is on the edge and ready to explode in rage, negativity and violence…

As Spider-Man resigns himself to working again with his murderous worst nightmare, Demogoblin joins the fiendish family. The good guys recruit Peter’s ex-girlfriend The Black Cat to even the odds in ‘Team Venom’ (David Michelinie, Tom Lyle & Scott Hanna), but by the time they find their constantly bickering homicidal foes Cloak has already impetuously attacked them and is close to death…

As another blockbusting battle ends in defeat for the heroes, the Amazing Arachnid finds himself berated and deserted by his own allies. Taken to task for his foolish unwillingness to use lethal force, Peter questions his ingrained reluctance to go ‘Over the Line!’ (Spectacular Spider-Man #201, J.M. DeMatteis & Sal Buscema) even as Carnage adopts another psychotic menace into his growing killer kin.

The cadaverous mutated clone Carrion shares their ambitions and eagerly joins in their avowed mission to kill every human in New York.

The blood-soaked brood are aided in their task by the very citizens they imperil, as an inexplicable wave of fear and hatred grips the populace, sparking savage rioting and a tide of death. The inflamed innocents even attempt to lynch Spider-Man when he comes to their aid…

As Parker faces an overwhelming crisis of conscience in ‘Sinking Fast’ (by Kavanagh, Saviuk & Hudson from Web of Spider-Man #102), Venom’s vengeance squad recruits another old Spider-Man foe in the ghastly shape of Michael Morbius – a science-spawned Living Vampire with an unquenchable appetite for human blood.

After years of death and torment, the helpless victim had recently begun to seek a form of redemption by only slaking his thirst on the wicked…

With her husband insanely risking his life beside allies as bad as the villains, Mary Jane attempts to ease her own rage by going clubbing, just as Carnage’s “carnival of chaos” tears into the fashionable nightspot eager to display their warped philosophy of senseless death.

She is only saved by the appearance of Team Venom, with Spider-Man arriving far too late to help. After helping to drive off the macabre marauders a heartbroken Parker is forced to accept the antihero’s methods and rejoins the squad in time to confront ‘The Gathering Storm’ (Amazing Spider-Man #379, Michelinie, Bagley & Emberlin)…

As the notional white hats again spectacularly and pointlessly clash with the cotillion of crazies – resulting in the collateral deaths of the NYPD’s Extreme Emergency Team – a new player enters the conflict.

Deathlok was pacifist scientist Michael Collins until his consciousness was imprisoned within a cyborg body built to be the ultimate battlefield weapon. Rebelling against the corporate monsters who doomed him to the life of a mechanical zombie, Collins turned the war body into a macabre force for justice, so when he detected strange energies at work in town he immediately entered the fray… and was trashed by Clan Carnage, just as Spider-Man and Cloak recruited the idealistic mutant Firestar to their side…

Fighting chaos and terror with logic, the Web-spinner had reasoned that since all Symbiote spawn were chronically susceptible to excessive heat (as well as high energy sonic assault) a champion capable of emitting unstoppable microwaves would turn the tide in humanity’s favour…

As the heroes lay their plans, ‘Hate is In The Air’ (Spider-Man #36 by Kavanagh, Lyle & Hanna) reveals the horrific childhood of Cletus Kasady and events which shaped the unrepentant kill-crazed fiend. Meanwhile martial arts hero Iron Fist steps in to rescue the broken Deathlok and the Venom gang again engage Carnage’s crew. They almost succeed but for the rallying efforts of the increasingly rebellious and independent Shriek…

One secret is revealed in ‘The Turning Point’ (Spectacular Spider-Man #202, DeMatteis & Buscema) as a crazed mob attacks the battling metahumans, and Shriek discloses her powers enable her to broadcast her own madness to the entire city, driving everyone into paroxysms of despair and fury. With Spider-Man actively urging Firestar to kill Carnage, the heroes’ ethical collapse seems assured…

From the depths of his soul Peter’s moral core finally breaks through the madness and he stops the equally conflicted microwave mutant from committing the ultimate sin, just as inspirational legend Captain America arrives to take charge…

With both Avengers and Fantastic Four occupied elsewhere, the Sentinel of Liberty has rushed back to save ‘Sin City’ (Kavanagh, Saviuk & Hudson, Web of Spider-Man #103) from Armageddon, and instantly rallies the hard-pressed heroes and their more ambivalent allies.

Sadly his presence causes a schism and as mysterious vigilante Nightwatch joins the dark defenders in still more reactive, pointless violence, ‘Soldiers of Hope’ (Amazing Spider-Man #380, Michelinie, Bagley & Emberlin) sees Parker at last use his brains rather than brawn. With Cap’s resources, the philosophical discipline of Iron Fist and technical skills of Deathlok, a weapon is devised that could disable and even cure the frenzied killers running wild in the streets…

An even greater turnabout occurs in ‘The Light!’ ( courtesy of DeMatteis, Lyle, Hanna & Al Milgrom and Spider-Man #37) as, at the height of the most savage battle yet, the three factions are stunned by the luminescent resurrection of Dagger, who spearheads a triumphant ‘War of the Heart!’ (Spectacular Spider-Man #203, DeMatteis & Buscema) that crushes the clan and kills Carnage…

Of course it’s never that easy and the cunning maniac is only shamming, as the exhausted and traumatised Spider-Man and Venom discover when the blood-red maniac ambushes them in one last all-or-nothing attack in ‘The Hatred, the Horror, & the Hero!’ by DeFalco, Bagley, Lim, Sanders III & Sam de la Rosa from Spider-Man Unlimited #2…

If you love the extended hyperbolic, continual conflict which is at the core of all Costumed Dramas, this non-stop battle bonanza is the ideal way to spoil yourself. Logic and pacing are subsumed into one long, escalating struggle, and a working knowledge of the players is largely unnecessary to the raw, brutal clash of wills, ideologies and super-powers. One fair warning however: although handled with a degree of reserve and taste, this yarn has an appalling bodycount and scenes of torture that might upset younger fans of the Amazing Arachnid.
© 1993, 1994, 2005 Marvel Entertainment Group Inc/Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

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Young, Talented… Exploited!


By Yatuu, translated by FNIC (Sloth Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-908830-02-9

Much as we’d like to think otherwise, the world of work is no longer possessed of purely national characteristics. These days we all slave under a universal system that sidesteps borders in the name of global corporate philosophy. Thus this stunning glimpse of one French woman’s frustrated struggle against modern employment practise is one that’s being repeated all over the planet every day.

This time however, Capitalism picked on the wrong person because Yatuu has enough spark, gumption and talent to fight back…

When Cyndi Barbero graduated from college and began looking for a job, all she was offered were unpaid internships. Eventually, she took one, still believing the mantra everyone with a job repeated: “if you work hard enough they may offer a permanent position”.

The work-placement role ran its legally-mandated course and she was promptly replaced by another sucker. After the third time it happened she began to blog (www.yatuu.fr/en) about and share her experiences, venting her opinions on such a manifestly unfair system and derive a soupçon of justifiable payback…

Just in case you’re unaware: an Intern takes a position in a company to learn the ropes, develop good working habits and establish contacts in order to make them more employable. The system used to work even though most kids ended up doing scut-work and never really learning anything.

These positions are unpaid and in recent times most employers realised that they could get free low grade temporary labourers and thereby cut their own running costs. Using, abusing and discarding the seemingly endless supply of optimistic hopefuls has become an accepted expense-control measure at most large businesses…

I know of only one large company where Interns are paid – and that’s only because the CEO put his foot down and insisted…

This subtly understated, over-the-top manga-styled, savagely comedic exposé tracks the exhilarated graduate’s progress from college to the world of no work through ‘At the End of the First Internship’ via ‘At the End of the Second Internship’ to ‘At the End of the Third Internship’ when even she began to smell a rat.

That didn’t daunt her (much) and, after much soul-searching, she took her dream job at a major Ad Agency. At least it would have been, were she not the latest addition to a small army of Interns expending their creative energies for insane hours, no thanks or acknowledgement and at their own financial expense…

From ‘Some Words Get Instant Reactions at Interviews’ through her ‘First Day’ – via memorable digressions on expected behaviour and hilariously familiar vignettes of types (I spent 30 years as an advertising freelancer and I think I’ve actually gone drinking with many of these guys’ British cousins…) – to the accepted seven-days-a-week grind of ‘This Place is Great because You Learn to Laugh on Cue’ and ‘Nothing Out of the Ordinary’, Yatuu grew accustomed to her voluntary slavery… although her barely-suppressed sense of rebellion was unquenchable.

Amongst so many short pithy lessons we see and sympathise with ‘Intensive Training’, observe ‘The Pleasure of Feeling Useful’ and realise there’s ‘Nothing to Lose’, before an intriguing game of office ‘Dilemma’ explores whether to have lunch with the Employees or Interns and what to do if asked to do ‘Overtime’…

As much diary as educational warning, this collection reveals how the hapless ever-hopeful victim developed survival strategies – such as finding a long-suffering workmate prepared to lend a floor, couch or bed for those frequent nights when the last train leaves before you do…

Mostly however, this addictive collection deals with the author’s personal responses to an untenable but inescapable situation for far too many young people: revealing insane episodes of exhaustion, despondency and work (but not job)-related stress, such as too many scary midnight cab rides home, constant nightmares and grinding daily insecurity.

What’s amazing is that it’s done with style, bravery and an astonishing degree of good-natured humour – especially when dealing with ‘The Idea Thief’, planning ‘Retaliation’ or perfecting ‘The Ultimate Revenge Technique!!!’…

Collected as Moi, 20 Ans, Diplômée, Motivée… Exploitée, Yatuu’s trenchant cartoon retaliations have recently been published in English and make for fascinating reading. Although it really should be, you probably won’t find Young, Talented… Exploited! discussed in any school Careers lessons or part of any college Job seminar and it’s almost certainly banned from every employers’ Orientation and Training package, but that’s just a sign of how good it is.

Best get your own copy and be ready for the worst scams, indignities and excesses that the Exploiters and Bosses will try to spring on you…

At least once you’ve paid for it you can be assured that it will deliver on its promise…
© 2013 Yatuu & 12bis. English translation and layout © 2013 Sloth Publishing, Ltd.

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Batman, Batman vs. The Penguin, Batman vs. The Joker


By various (Four Square/New English Library)
ISBNs: 1688, 1692 and 1694

The Silver Age of comicbooks utterly revolutionised the medium, bringing a modicum of sophistication to the returning genre of masked mystery men. However for quite some time the changes instigated by Julius Schwartz in Showcase #4 (October 1956) which rippled out in the last three years of the decade to affect all of National/DC Comics’ superhero characters generally passed by Batman and Robin.

Fans buying Batman, Detective Comics, World’s Finest Comics and even Justice League of America would read adventures that in look and tone were largely unchanged from the safely anodyne fantasies that had turned the Dark Knight into a mystery-solving, alien-fighting costumed Boy Scout just as the 1940s turned into the1950s.

By the end of 1963, Schwartz having – either personally or by example – revived and revitalised much of DC’s line and the entire industry with his modernization of the Superhero, was asked to work his magic with the creatively stalled and nigh-moribund Caped Crusaders.

Bringing his usual team of top-notch creators with him, the Editor stripped down the core-concept, downplaying all the ETs, outlandish villains and daft transformation tales, bringing a cool modern take to the capture of criminals whilst overseeing a streamlining rationalisation of the art style itself. The most apparent change to us kids was a yellow circle around the Bat-symbol but, far more importantly, the stories also changed. A subtle aura of genuine menace had crept back in.

At the same time Hollywood was preparing to produce a television series based on Batman and, through the sheer karmic insanity that permeates the universe, the producers were basing their interpretation upon the addictively daft material that the publishers were turning their Editorial backs on and not the “New Look Batman” that was enthralling the readers.

The TV show premiered on January 12th 1966 and ran for three seasons (120 episodes in total), airing twice weekly for its first two seasons. It was a monumental world-wide hit and sparked a wave of trendy imitation. The resulting media hysteria and fan frenzy generated an insane amount of Bat-awareness, no end of spin-offs and merchandise – including a movie – and introduced us all to the phenomenon of overkill.

“Batmania” exploded across the world and then as almost as quickly became toxic and vanished.

To this day, no matter how much we might squeal and foam about it, or what has occurred since in terms of comics, games or movies, to a huge portion of this planet’s population Batman is always going to be that “Zap! Biff! Pow!” costumed buffoon…

To tap into the frenzy, American book publisher Signet/New American Library – a company well-used to producing media tie-in titles such as Girl from U.N.C.L.E. or novelisations like Breakfast at Tiffany’s – released five paperbacks starring Batman and Robin, beginning in March 1966.

Technically, it was four plus an adaptation of the Movie that was released later in the year (and the second was in fact an all-new prose novel by Winston Lyon – AKA William Woolfolk – which I’ll be covering in a later review), so in the proper fashion of the times, British counterparts quickly followed.

This terrific little trio of black and white paperback pocket books – the spearhead of National Periodical Publications’ on-going efforts to reach wider reading audiences – were published in 1966 to accompany the launch of the Batman TV show, and fully fuelled the “Camp” superhero craze which saw Masked Manhunters and costumed crazies sneak into every aspect of popular entertainment.

Each breathtaking tome contained five reformatted stories of the Dynamic Duo, culled from the archives and crafted by some of the greatest scripters and illustrators the industry has even seen. Collected here in incontrovertible black-and-white are the tales from this trio of cartoon books which blew my unformed little mind in that most auspicious year for fun and fantasy escapism…

The first UK release was Batman which featured primarily crime stories rather than the baroque super-villain fare that informed and monopolised the television iteration. In the aforementioned mid-1950s, fancy-dress felons had all but vanished from view, and the new Schwartz Batman also eschewed costumed crazies … at least until the Batman show made them stars in their own right.

The reformatted mini-masterpieces start with the positively eerie 1940 origin tale ‘The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came To Be!’ by Gardner Fox, Bob Kane & Sheldon Moldoff from Batman #1 (Spring 1940). This piece was actually recycled from portions of Detective Comics #33 and 34 (1939) but still offers in 13 perfect panels what is effectively the best ever origin of the character.

The drama continued with ‘The Web of Doom’ (from Batman #90, March 1955, by Bill Finger, Moldoff & Charles Paris, in which a biologist lost a package of deadly germ phials somewhere in Gotham City. Batman and Robin had only days to track down three criminals who held the key to restoring the savant’s shattered memories and retrieving the deadly parcel…

Batman #92, from June 1955, provided ‘Fan-Mail of Danger!’ (by Finger, Moldoff & Paris) as letters to the gracious heroes piled up and the lads hired a secretary to handle the load. Sadly Susie Smith‘s over-eager diligence almost exposed Batman’s secret identity to a cunning counterfeiter…

There was one exception in this collection to the “no loons” rule. The Joker tale ‘The Crazy Crime Clown!’ was something extra-special from Batman #74 (December 1952-January 1953, by Alvin Schwartz, Dick Sprang & Charles Paris) and saw the exotic but strictly larcenous Harlequin of Hate apparently go bonkers.

He was thus committed to the Gotham Institute for the Insane but, naturally, there was method in the seeming madness which Batman only discovered after he too infiltrated the worthy asylum in disguise…

Cunning criminal mastermind Mr. Blank almost took over the underworld by destroying a new super-computer in ‘The Crime Predictor!’ (Batman #77, June/July 1953 courtesy of Edmond Hamilton, Bob, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Paris), and it took all of the ingenuity of the World’s Greatest Detective to unravel the deadly mire of duplicity and prevent his own infallibly predicted demise…

‘The Man Who Could Change Fingerprints!’ (Batman #82, March 1954 by David Vern Reed, Sprang & Paris) was another clever scheme by brilliant killers who thought they could outwit the Caped Crusaders, before this initial volume closed with a thrilling suspense shocker in ‘The Testing of Batman!’ (Batman #83, April 1954) by Hamilton, Sprang & Paris.

Here a scientist’s exercise research was usurped by thugs who wanted to have fun killing the enemies of crime. At least that’s what they told the captive Gotham Gangbusters…

 

Six months later a second volume was released.

Batman vs. The Penguin followed the same beguiling format but, with flamboyant arch-foes predominating on the silver screen, the emphasis shifted. As the title clearly shows, this compilation concentrated on cases featuring the Felonious Fowl and Bird of Ill Omen, but it also harboured a secret surprise…

The all-ages action and excitement kicked off with ‘The Parasols of Plunder’ (Batman #70 April/May 1952 by Bill Woolfolk, Kane, Sayre Schwartz & Paris) and detailed how, after being released from prison, The Penguin gave up his obsession with birds and began selling umbrellas. But, oh… what deadly umbrellas…

He returned to ornithology for ‘The Golden Eggs!’ in Batman #99 (April 1956, Finger, Moldoff & Paris), as whilst on the run his hobby inspired a deadly retaliatory crime wave before Batman scrambled all his plans, whilst in The Penguin’s Fabulous Fowls’ the Umbrella King turned crypto-biologist, capturing mythical avian monsters and turning them loose to devastate Gotham in a sharp suspense shocker from Batman #76 (April-May 1953 by Hamilton, Kane, Sayre Schwartz & Paris)…

His last appearance was in ‘The Return of the Penguin’ (by Finger, Moldoff & Paris from Batman #155 May 1963) which found the Bird Bandit coming out of retirement to match wits with Batman again. If only the Pompous Peacock had ignored the teasing of the other crooks when they called him a “has-been”…

This tome wraps up with a classic Catwoman yarn, as the Feline Temptress put all the contestants of Gotham City’s “Queen for a Day” gala into catatonic trances. Moreover, suspiciously still-awake competitor Selina Kyle claimed complete innocence and insisted some other Catwoman was responsible for creating the ‘The Sleeping Beauties of Gotham City!’ in a taut mystery by Reed, Moldoff & Stan Kaye from Batman #84 (June 1954)…

 

Batman vs. The Joker followed a month later with a full quintet of comicbook curios starring Batman’s ultimate nemesis. The madcap mayhem began with ‘The Challenge of The Joker’ (Batman #136, December 1960 by Finger, Moldoff & Paris) in which the Clown Prince of Crime determined to prove to the world that modern police science was no match for cunning and the four ancient elements…

Then ‘The Joker’s Winning Team!’ (Batman #86, September 1954 Woolfolk, Moldoff & Kaye) revealed how the Baseball-inspired brigand assembled a squad of crime specialist pinch-hitters to ensure he never lost a match against Batman, after which the gloriously engaging saga of ‘The Joker’s Millions!’ from Detective Comics #180 (February, 1952 by Reed, Sprang & Paris) disclosed how the villain’s crime rival took his ultimate revenge by leaving the Harlequin of Hate too rich to commit capers.

It was a double-barrelled scheme though and made the Joker twice a fool, as the Caped Crusaders found to their great amusement…

‘The Joker’s Journal’ (Detective #193 March 1953 Reed, Kane, Sayre Schwartz & Paris) followed the theme after the penniless Punchinello left prison and started a newspaper. Naturally everybody in Gotham knew it was only a matter of time before the Mountebank of Mirth returned to his old tricks, and this final volume concludes in the only way possible as the eternal arch enemies’ minds were swapped in a scientific accident. Soon a law-abiding Joker and baffled Robin had to hunt down ‘Batman – Clown of Crime!’ in a rousing romp by Reed, Moldoff & Paris from Batman #85, August 1954.

As I’ve constantly averred, the comics tales themselves are always special but somehow when they appeared in proper books it always made those fantastic adventure dreams a little more substantial; and perhaps even real…

Batman has proven to be all things to all fans over his decades of existence and, with the character undergoing almost perpetual overhaul these days, the peerless parables of wit and bravery encapsulated here are more welcome than ever: not just as memorial to what has been but also as a reminder that once upon a time everybody could read the fabulous Tales of Gotham City…

These books are probably impossible to find today – even though entirely worth the effort – but whatever format or collection you happen upon, such forgotten stories of the immortal Dark(ish) Knight are part of our cultural comics heritage and should never be lost.
© 1940, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1963, 1966 National Periodical Publications. All rights reserved.

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Dinocorps


By Andy Briggs, Steve Horvath & Robert Molesworth (Markosia)
ISBN: 978-1-905692-80-4

The giant lizards who dominated earth for millions of years are an inescapable component of our culture and a vibrant part of modern story-telling. From Gertie and Barney to The Lost World or Dinotopia, from Calvin and Hobbes, Dinosaurs for Hire or Devil Dinosaur to The War that Time Forgot, Age of Reptiles and Tyrant, rampaging, roaring reptiles have and always will fascinate and captivate us all.

Here’s a rather cool, kid-friendly tweak on such scaly tales from screenwriter and author Andy Briggs (Judge Dredd, Freddy vs. Jason, Tarzan: the Greystoke Legacy) and Steve Horvath, illustrated in effective anime style by Robert Molesworth (Endangered Weapon B) that takes our long-vanished antecedents into rarely seen high-adventure territory.

Geeky Carl Vega is barely awake in his science class. The poor kid is fourteen and struggling to accept the inevitable changes and developments in his life. High school is getting him down and best buddy Winston just keeps obsessing about girls and parties.

Carl isn’t keen and he’s way behind on his science project but Winston doesn’t care. Being noticed by girls is cool and anyway he’s already handled his school chores. He shows off the geode/fossil thing he found near the old abandoned mine to prove it, and urges Carl to get one too before getting a life and joining him at the party…

Still fuming, Carl bikes out to the spooky old ruin and begins poking about deep inside, nervous despite himself over all those scary stories adults told him just to keep kids out. However, as he plunges through loose boards into a deep shaft, his last thought is that Winston said he found his rock “near” not “in” the mine…

Miraculously alive after his painful fall, Carl discovers an incredible rock-encrusted machine in a large icy cavern and is irresistibly drawn to a lever he can’t stop himself pulling…

With a crackle and a splash the device spews out a giant figure in a military uniform, speaking an utterly alien tongue. It’s a two-legged lizard a bit like a T-Rex, and with the flick of a switch it’s suddenly speaking colloquial English. Worse yet the machine is upchucking more of them …

Soon the decanted creatures have settled and explain that they are a crack military unit from a place called Pangea. It was an idyllic civilisation and perfectly integrated society of many reptile species living in harmony – until that is – a sect of separatist terrorists who called themselves “True-Bloods” detonated a doomsday weapon to wipe out all the inferior species.

As the bewildered boy continues talking with Sergeant Rex, Lieutenant Kayla, Corporal Dirk, Professor Theodore and high-flying pterosaur Buzz they all reach the grim realisation that Pangea is now Earth, the Saurons’ dreaded Extinction Protocol device worked too well and the dinosaur soldiers have slept for thirty million years…

Marooned an eternity away from everything they have ever known, the Dinocorps accept Carl’s offer of help and emerge into a land completely different from their own. Painful memories of the scientific super-civilisation that once conquered space and privation taunt the sad survivors, but they are blithely unaware that they are not the only relics of that lost world.

In another distant cavern, a very similar bunker activates and the last cadre of Sauron supremacists awaken. Cruel, merciless eyes open and consult their monitoring machines. They are not happy with what they learn…

Meanwhile Carl has told Winston everything, but his “all grown-up” pal refuses to believe a word and the friends have a huge fight. The cynic soon changes his mind however when a rampaging platoon of dinosaurs destroy the local Mall. Commander Jarek, Rayok, Kainor Veeble, Icks and Blix have no worries about being inconspicuous or polite…

The Saurons eradicated their entire civilisation because they wouldn’t share the world with different types of their own kind: they’re certainly not going to allow a bunch of mammals to live in it. The huge solar cannon that destroyed Pangea is still in orbit and operational. All they have to do is find the trigger control and they can wipe out this latest infestation of inferior life…

When Carl deduces that it’s in the geode Winston found, the heroes rush over to his house only to find the horrifically wicked flesh-hungry Saurons have also tracked it down. A brutal clash between the time-lost angels and devils then results in the first Dinocorps casualty in 30 million years…

In the aftermath, Jarek and his squad retreat with Winston as their hostage and Rex reveals the device has attuned itself to the terrified kid. Unless they can rescue him from the triumphant terror-lizards the end of the world is only days away…

Saurons are fanatical but not suicidal and immediately head for an ancient back-up bunker prepared before their world died. Unfortunately we mammals are everywhere and the overland journey is fraught with clashes against the puny humans, allowing Winston an opportunity to phone his friend and give the Dinocorps one last chance to intercept them and stop the countdown.

As the solar clock ticks down events continually frustrate Jarek. Even after reaching the location of the shelter the killer lizard is temporarily stymied because the insufferable mammals have built a city over it…

When Carl and his valiant dinosaur defenders hit Las Vegas in their recently restored antediluvian dino-jet the scene is set for one last cataclysmic battle to save everything…

Reading like a spectacular pilot for an edgy Saturday morning cartoon, Dinocorps is fast-paced and action-packed, with acres of drama and tension in the style of both Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Furious fantastic fun for kids of all ages and constructed with sequels in mind, this collection also sports a section of sketches and designs for the dynamic dinosaur defenders…

Dinocorps ™ & © 2012 Andy Briggs, Steve Horvath, Robert Molesworth and Markosia Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved.
Dinocorps is also available as an E-book.

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Showcase Presents Justice League of America volume 5


By Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, Marty Pasko, Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin, Frank McLaughlin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-85768-195-9

After the actual invention of the comicbook superhero – for which read the Action Comics debut of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s history was the combination of individual sales-points into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: a number of popular characters could multiply readership by combining forces. Plus, of course, a mob of superheroes is just so much cooler than one (…or even one-and-a-half if there’s a sidekick in situ…).

The Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a true landmark in the development of comicbooks and when Julius Schwartz revived the superhero genre in the late 1950s, it was inevitable that there would be a new banding together of the latest reconfigured mystery men.

That moment came with The Brave and the Bold #28, a classical adventure title that had recently transformed into a try-out magazine like Showcase. Just before Christmas 1959 the ads began running. “Just Imagine! The mightiest heroes of our time… have banded together as the Justice League of America to stamp out the forces of evil wherever and whenever they appear!”

The rest was history: the JLA captivated the youth of a nation, further reinvigorated an industry and even inspired a small family publishing concern to create the Fantastic Four, inspiring a whole new way of telling comics stories.

Following a meteoric rise, TV spin-offs brought trendy international awareness of costumed crusaders which in turn led to catastrophic overexposure. By 1968 the superhero boom looked to be dying just as its predecessor had at the end of the 1940s.

Sales were down generally and production costs beginning to spiral. More importantly “free” entertainments, such as television, were now found in even the poorest household. If you were a kid in the sixties, think just how many brilliant cartoon shows were created during that decade, when comics artists such as Alex Toth and Doug Wildey moved into West Coast animation studios.

Moreover, many comicbook heroes were now appearing on that ubiquitous small screen. As well as wholly original characters, the Marvel heroes, Superman, Aquaman, Batman, and even the JLA were there every Saturday in your own living room – even after that global bubble had burst…

It was also a time of great political and social upheaval. Change was everywhere and unrest even reached the corridors of DC. When a number of creators agitated for increased work benefits the request was not looked upon kindly. Many left the company – not always voluntarily – for other outfits. Some quit the business altogether.

Of course the greatest threat was the insatiable appetite for supernatural themes which decimated the industry’s pantheons of gaudily-clad mystery men…

This fifth monochrome Justice League Showcase volume compellingly reflects the signs of the times as the next generation of writers fostered a “new wave” and saw the title’s lowest ebb. Publication slowed to six issues a year before the tide slowly turned and the World’s Greatest Superheroes began climbing again to the top of the gradually recovering, tried-and-tested Fights ‘n’ Tights arena…

Collecting Justice League of America #107-132 from the era when superheroes were in the direst doldrums and looked like disappearing forever, this tome covers the period September/October 1973 to June 1976, during which the market changed forever from mass market to niche-industry and comicbooks stopped being casual, cheap or disposable entertainment.

By the end of this book the stories reflected the harsh facts, and publishers had accepted the conceptual and commercial transition from a broad-appeal medium slavishly following outside trends and fashions to increasingly become a targeted service making only what their most dedicated fans wanted…

The dramas begin here with Justice League of America #107 and ‘Crisis on Earth-X’ by Len Wein, Dick Dillin & Dick Giordano, the first chapter of another landmark crossover with their Earth-2 counterparts and antecedents in the JSA.

Following the popular revival of a forgotten team during their previous get-together (The Seven Soldiers of Victory as seen in Showcase Presents Justice League of America volume 4), this time the annual team-up reintroduced another band of Golden Age warriors – from corporate acquisition Quality Comics and newly rechristened The Freedom Fighters…

It began when a recreational trip across the dimensional barrier was accidentally sabotaged by android stowaway Red Tornado, depositing Batman, Green Arrow and Elongated Man from Earth-1 and Superman, Sandman and Doctor Fate from Earth-2 into another alternate universe – one where the Nazis had won World War II.

Trapped and outnumbered, the seven displaced heroes were rescued by the last liberty-loving champions of a world dominated by fascist super-science and a secret dictator. Joining forces with embattled champions Uncle Sam, The Ray, Doll Man, Phantom Lady, Black Condor and the Human Bomb the newcomers ended the Nazi threat forever in the sinister sequel ‘Thirteen Against the Earth!’…

With everybody returned to their home planes #109 then brought back a cultish guest star as ‘The Doom of the Divided Man!’ revived the dormant career of 1960’s hero/villain Eclipso, who harboured another cunning plan to conquer the world. However the real focus of this tale was the unexpected resignation of Hawkman following his recall to home planet Thanagar…

Wein, Dillin & Giordano then got to deliver a delightful and potent seasonal present in #110 as Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary and Red Tornado had to adapt to abrasive substitute Green Lantern John Stewart (a controversial “angry black man” conceived at a time when non-Caucasian heroes could be counted on the fingers of one hand) mid-mission, when the League gathered to hunt down ‘The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!’

Murderous psychopath The Key had set up the heroes for ambush with the callous assassination of an actor hired to cheer orphaned kids, but his horrific deeper scheme was only foiled thanks to the supernatural intervention of an almost forgotten League member…

JLA #111 introduced a seminal villain who became, decades later, a pivotal player in The Final Crisis. Here however the enigmatic Libra merely used his incredible abilities to revive the dormant Injustice Gang of the World.

Although his stated goal was to imbue Chronos, Mirror Master, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Shadow Thief and Tattooed Man with energies stolen from Aquaman, Superman, Batman, Flash, Elongated Man and the fully recovered GL Hal Jordan, the ‘Balance of Power!’ he was really seeking meant keeping all the purloined might for his own unimaginable use…

Those stolen super-powers featured in #112’s follow-up ‘War with the One-Man Justice League!’ as the entire team gathered to help restore their diminished comrades. The high risk solution was to resurrect power-stealing android Amazo to collect the stolen energies and abilities – but nobody considered what the mechanoid might do after it absorbed Batman’s vast intellect and suspicious mind…

Justice League of America #113 (September/October 1974) proved how desperate were the times for the spandex set as the epic annual collaboration with the JSA was restricted to a single issue. Nevertheless ‘The Creature in the Velvet Cage!’ proved to be one of the very best team-up tales as a JLA visiting party to Earth-2 (Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Elongated Man) shared the shame and horror of The Sandman, when his greatest secret was catastrophically revealed.

Years ago the Master of Dreams had accidentally transformed his sidekick Sandy, the Golden Boy into a ravening silicoid monster and been compelled to sedate and imprison his best friend.

Now after three decades the beast was awake and free, seemingly intent on destroying the world. At least that’s what Hourman and the Golden Age Flash and Wonder Woman believed when they joined their old comrade on his tragic manhunt…

Wein, with the plotting assistance of Mark Hanerfeld, ended his run as scripter with a smart and decidedly effective little thriller in #114 – ‘The Return of Anakronus!’ During a League-sponsored telethon an enigmatic time-bending villain took disgraced old team mascot Snapper Carr and his family hostage. Although definitely dangerous, the crazed felon’s ranting didn’t make much sense: after all, why would a man who had repeatedly defeated the JLA stoop to demanding a mere cash ransom…?

The tone turned cosmic in #115 as Denny O’Neil provided a fill-in script which brought back retired hero J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars who begged his former comrades to save the dying remnants of his people from ‘The Last Angry God!’ who had imprisoned them on a far-distant world.

Cary Bates then contributed ‘The Kid Who Won Hawkman’s Wings!’ in #116 as sightings of Hawkman in Midway City led Elongated Man, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Flash and Batman into a deadly duel against the Matter Master. Closer inspection revealed the Pinioned Paladin to be a baffled kid named Charley Parker who had no idea why he changed into a Golden Eagle, whilst the actual mastermind behind the plot was a shock to everybody concerned…

After just over a year’s absence the true winged Wonder returned in JLA #117. ‘I Have No Wings and I Must Fly!’ – scripted by Elliot S! Maggin and with Giordano’s protégé Frank McLaughlin assuming the role of regular inker over Dick Dillin’s sleek and effective pencils – saw alien cop Katar Hol resurface to warn Earth of a deadly extraterrestrial menace dubbed The Equalizer.

This ineffable menace was driven to achieve pure balance in the universe, and to achieve this he somehow homogenised entire civilisations, making life forms exactly identical to each other.

His Equalizer plague weapon was overwhelmingly contagious and – after reducing the population of Thanagar to imbecilic, four foot tall clones of each other, including Hol’s beloved wife Shayera – the unfathomable voyager had turned his single eye upon Earth…

With his homeworld quarantined and after defeating the appalling threat beside the JLA, Hawkman had no other refuge than our planet and promptly joined Aquaman, Black Canary, Flash Red Tornado and Superman in resisting the ‘Takeover of the Earth-Masters!’ (#118 by Maggin, Dillin & McLaughlin). This saw a misguided attempt by trans-dimensional beings who sought to save our world from super beings by despatching eerie hyper-evolving Adaptoid organisms.

With even the Man of Steel unable to face the ghastly invaders, Hawkman devised a risky strategy involving his Equalization-infected wife, which fortunately turned out in Humanity’s favour in #119’s ‘Winner Takes the Earth!’

Another old friend reappeared in #120 as ‘The Parallel Perils of Adam Strange!’ (written by Bates) saw the Earth-born champion of Planet Rann forced to re-fight his greatest battles after despotic Kanjar Ro murdered his fiancée Alanna.

Even though Ro had cruelly stacked the deck, Strange – and his newly arrived Justice League allies – triumphed and even pulled a rabbit out of the hat to restore the Rannian heroine in time for her own magical wedding in the blistering conclusion ‘The Hero Who Jinxed the Justice League!’

In issue #122 Marty Pasko delved into the team’s private lives and revealed why the JLA shared their civilian secrets with each other in ‘The Great Identity Crisis!’ as old enemy Dr. Light used photonic super-science and the too-good-to-be-true mineral Amnesium (guess what it causes?) to mess with the heroes’ minds and lure them into what should have been inescapable death-traps…

Another year gone, it was then time for the annual JLA/JSA yarn and Bates, Maggin, Dillin & McLaughlin stepped far off the reservation with ‘Where on Earth Am I?’ and ‘Avenging Ghosts of the Justice Society!’ from issues #123 and 124.

In Flash #179 (‘The Flash – Fact of Fiction?, May 1968) Bates and Gardner Fox first took the multiple Earths concept to its illogical conclusion by trapping the Monarch of Motion in “our” Reality of Earth-Prime, where the Sultan of Speed was just a comic-book character.

Here Bates and co-scripter Maggin returned to the idea as a story conference in Editor Julie Schwartz’s office led to the oafish goons playing with the Flash’s hastily-constructed Cosmic Treadmill, sending one of them hurtling between dimensions.

Transformed and empowered by the journey, Cary Bates became the most dangerous villain alive, leading Earth-2 criminals The Wizard, Shade, Sportsmaster, Huntress, Icicle and The Gambler in a lethal assault on JSA heroes Robin, Hourman, Wildcat, Wonder Woman, Johnny Thunder and Dr. Mid-Nite.

Maggin, meanwhile, had followed his friend but ended up on Earth-1. Undaunted, he recruited Batman, Black Canary, Aquaman, Hawkman, Green Arrow and Flash to save three imperilled universes but it took the Divine Might of the supernal Spectre to truly set every thing back to its assigned place and time…

Gerry Conway began his long association with the Justice League in #125 with a clever 2-parter concerning the dumping of toxic energy from an outer dimension onto Earth. ‘The Men Who Sold Destruction!’ craftily employed schizophrenic villain Two-Face as their wily broker to expend the deadly forces, but the super-minds of Dronndar completely underestimated the double-dealing Harvey Dent‘s capacity for betrayal. Almost as bad was that the opportunistic Weaponers of Qward and the JLA were as easily fooled by the Machiavellian maniac in #126’s Byzantine conclusion ‘The Evil Connection!’

JLA #127 confirmed that ‘The Command is “Chaos”!’ when new menace The Anarchist discovered a means of tapping Green Lantern’s power battery and desperate Hal Jordan begged his fellow champions to stop him recharging his ring at any cost, after which Pasko popped back to author a sharp, smart reintroduction for the Earth-1 Amazing Amazon in #128’s ‘Death-Visions of the Justice League!’

For a period “our” Wonder Woman had lost her powers and fought crime as a martial artist (see Diana Prince: Wonder Woman volumes 1-4), but once her supernatural gifts returned she underwent a self-imposed set of trials before rejoining the team.

Sadly her readmission coincided with the team disbanding following a cataclysmic, psychologically punishing assault by alien fear-eater Nekron, and even the Princess of Power seemed unable to galvanise the Leaguers before ‘The Earth Dies Screaming!’ in #129.

The next issue explored the revelatory early days of the team’s orbiting satellite headquarters as ‘Skyjack at 22,300 Miles!’ (scripted by Pasko) disclosed how an intergalactic interloper attempted to turn the space base into a spawning ground and put the nonplussed heroes through a gamut of ghastly trials before order and equilibrium were unconventionally restored.

This mammoth tome ends with a clever mystery double-bill from Conway, Dillin & McLaughlin. Issue #131 featured ‘The Beasts Who Thought Like Men!’ wherein a new credit card currency for America somehow enhanced the minds of animals and insects, simultaneously decreasing human brainpower to such a low point that bugs could enslave deadly villains like Sonar and Queen Bee…

The tale took a strange turn in #132 as Superman vanished and Supergirl stepped in to help against animals organised enough to conquer the country. Even then there was still one more tangled twist in the tale of ‘The Beasts Who Fought Like Men!…’

The Justice League of America has become a keystone of American comics and these tales are still among the most thought-provoking, controversial and purely entertaining episodes in their half-century history.

With captivating covers provided by Nick Cardy, Mike Grell, Giordano, Ernie Chan (née Chua) & José Luis García-López, this captivating transition tome shows the unalloyed appeal of the Fights ‘n’ Tights Crowd at their most innovative and inspiring.

Just Imagine…
© 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Misery City


By K. I. Zachopoulos & Vassilis Gogtzilas (Markosia)
ISBN: 978-1-905692-81-1

For purists every literary genre is sacrosanct – unless you can come up with a way to mix or blend them with such style, verve and panache that something new is born which feels like it’s always been one if the gang…

Misery City is a dark, bleak and ferociously introspective comic that relates the cases of Max Murray, a dowdy, down-at-heel shamus walking the meanest streets imaginable, in a vast and ever-changing metropolis situated on the outskirts of Hell – and, no, that’s not poetic license or flowery prose, it’s a geography lesson…

Following an effusive Foreword from arch-stylist Sam Keith and an Introduction from big-league writer J. M. de Matteis, the first five issues of the comics series unfold in this pocket novel package: a stark, unrelenting procession of grimly trenchant case-files starring a shabby private eye just trying to get by uncovering other people’s secrets and make some sense of the most pitiless town in creation.

Of course he has a few secrets of his own…

The black parade begins on the ‘Night of the Corpse’ when the world-weary Max is attacked by a giant skeleton and has to use his beloved and handy handgun Fat Betty to end the undead animate. Times are both tough and weird so he doesn’t give it much thought before retiring to his dingy office to await a new client and case…

When the phone rings it’s that sexy waitress Pakita from the Bar. Max has had the serious hots for her forever, but his rising hopes take a dive when the mercurial Mexican only hires him to check up on her cheating boyfriend.

With heavy heart and azure cojones the gumshoe goes looking, utterly unaware that an old enemy has returned seeking vengeance. Professor Ego was penned in unimaginable torment because of Murray, and now that he’s out he’s wasting no time in sending a plague of devils to get some payback…

As a host of demonic clowns hunt the private detective, Max has found Pakita’s man. Seeing the faithless dog with another woman drives him crazy though and the shamus goes ballistic, beating the cheating Dick to a pulp. Appalled and repentant, Max then heads over to Pakita’s place to apologise and finds her gone, snatched by his long-forgotten foe.

Answering the ‘Call of Ego’ Max heads for the horror’s Tower hideout and a brutal showdown…

Despite his shoddy appearance, this PI is no dumb palooka. His secret vice is reading and his internal monologue is peppered with quotes and allusions from poets like Dante and Tennyson. They’re the only thing comforting him as ‘A Wooden Coffin for Max Murray part I’ finds him taking the Hell train to the worst part of MiseryCity for a surveillance job.

Horny as usual, Max is disappointed to discover what the owner of that sexy French voice on the phone looks like, but still agrees to check out the old abandoned timber-framed family house the tearful widow fears property developers want.

Maybe he should have been more suspicious, but the client’s stunning daughter Josephine had turned his head and all points south…

When he enters the ramshackle old pile a colossal zombie fiend attacks Max and, before he can react, the entire house explodes out of the ground and rockets into orbit…

Lost in space and out of options, the gumshoe reveals a few of his own incredible survival secrets destroying the monster (said client’s vengeful and very angry husband) in ‘A Wooden Coffin for Max Murray part II’ before escaping the timber trap and settling scores with the murderous she-devils.

It appears Max is on a first name basis with the Big Boss of the Inferno, and the head man is keen on renewing a satanic acquaintance with the understandably reluctant detective…

The malign mystery yarns conclude with a stunning surprise in ‘The Last Drag of a Pocket God’ as Max tracks down a puissant phantom with astounding delusions of grandeur. However, after sending Marty “The Voice” Coronado to his final rest, an uncomfortable conversation with Pakita forces him to confront his own long-suppressed thoughts and examine the illusions that keep him going on the pitiless streets of Misery City…

Potent targeted vulgarity and a brusque, verbally confrontational narrative style gives Kostas Zachopoulos’ manic scripts a supremely savage edge, whilst the freakish, surreal Horror-Noir milieu is perfectly captured by illustrator Vassilis Gogtzilas’ astoundingly frenetic art, delivered in a melange of assorted styles. This mean, moody and menacing chronicle is topped off with a host of powerful pin-ups and a cover art gallery to further disquiet and beguile the unwary reader.
Misery City ™ & © 2013 Kostas Zachopoulos, Vassilis Gogtzilas and Markosia Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved.