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Age of Reptiles Omnibus volume 1


By Ricardo Delgado (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-683-1

There’s an irresistible, nigh-visceral appeal to dinosaurs. Most of us variously and haphazardly evolved hairless apes seem to be mesmerically drawn to all forms of education and entertainment featuring the monster lizards of our primordial past.

Designed as a purely visual experience, this hypnotically beguiling series of sequences from Ricardo Delgado offers one of the most honestly awesome brushes with prehistory ever imagined. Age of Reptiles opens a window onto distant eons of saurian dominance and, completely devoid of sound or text, provides a profound, pantomimic silent movie that focuses on a number of everyday experiences which simply have to be exactly how it was, way back then…

Crafted by one of the most respected concept and storyboard men in Hollywood, these dino-dramas offer – even in comicbooks – a unique reading experience that must be seen to be believed, which is why I’m forgoing my usual laborious forensic descriptive blather in favour of a more general appreciation…

The tales originally appeared as a sequence of miniseries between 1993 and 2010 before being subsequently collected as individual compilations. In 2011 this titanic tome, part of Dark Horse’s excellent and economical Omnibus line, gathered the material into one handy Brachiosaur-sized book to treasure forever. In this way older material stays in print as classy, full-colour digests (slightly smaller in proportion than regulation US comic-books but larger and far thicker than standard manga “tankobon” volumes, running about 400 pages per book).

Following the expansive praise of Animator, Director and Producer Genndy Tartarkovsky in his Foreword the original introductions to initial outing ‘Tribal Warfare’ (from Ray Harryhausen, Burne Hogarth and John Landis) precede a fantastic extended clash between a pack – or perhaps more properly clan – of Deinonychus and a particularly irate opportunistic and undeterrable Tyrannosaur.

The savage struggle, literally red in tooth and claw, takes both sides to the very edge of extinction…

As in all these tales, the astoundingly rendered and realised scenery and environment are as much leading characters in the drama as any meat and muscle protagonists and all the other opportunistic scavengers and hangers-on that prowl the peripheries of the war, ever eager to take momentary advantage of what seems more a mutual quest for vengeance than a simple battle for survival…

That theme is further explored in ‘The Hunt’ (with Disney chief Thomas Schumacher offering his observations in the introduction) wherein the eat-or-be-eaten travails of a mother Allosaurus end only after she dies defending her baby. The culprits are a determined and scarily organised pack of Ceratosaurs who then expend a lot of energy trying to consume the carnosaur’s kid amidst scenes of staggering geographical beauty and terrifying magnificence.

Their failure leads to the beast’s eventual return and a bloody evening of the score. Think of it as Bambi with really big teeth and no hankies required…

The theme of unrelenting and ruthless species rivalry and competition is downplayed or at least diverted for the final episode.

‘The Journey’, with introduction and appreciation by educator and illustrator Ann Field) concentrates on an epic migration across the barren surface of the world as millions of assorted saurians undertake a prodigious trek to more welcoming feeding and spawning grounds, dogged every step of the way by flying, swimming and remorselessly running creatures ever-eager for their next tasty meal…

Supplementing the feral beauty of these astonishing adventures is a full Cover Gallery from the assorted original miniseries and book compilations, Delgado’s fulsome and effulgent Essays on his influences (‘Ray Harryhausen and the Seventh Voyage to the Drive-In’, ‘Desi Arnaz and the Eighth Wonder of the World’, ‘Real Dinosaurs: the Art of Charles R. Knight’ and ‘Zen and ZdenÄ›k Burian’) and a fabulous, copious and envy-invoking Sketchbook section with everything from quick motion studies to full colour preliminary pieces for the final artwork..

Although occasionally resorting to a judicious amount of creative anachronism and historical overlap, Delgado has an unquestioned love for his subject, sublime feel for spectacle and an unmatchable gift for pace and narrative progression which, coupled to a deft hand that imbues the vast range and cast of big lizards with instantly recognisable individual looks and characters, always means that the reader knows exactly who is doing what. There’s even room for some unexpectedly but most welcome rough-love humour in these brilliantly simple forthright, primal dramas…
© 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2009, 2010, 2011 Ricardo Delgado. All rights reserved.

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Golden Age Sandman Archives volume 1

Sandman Arc front
By Bert Christman, Gardner F. Fox, Creig Flessel, Chad Grothkopf, Ogden Whitney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0155-5

Probably created by and originally illustrated and scripted by multi-talented all-rounder Bert Christman (with the assistance of young scripting star Gardner Fox), The Sandman premiered in either Adventure Comics #40 July 1939 (two months after Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27) or two weeks earlier in New York World’s Fair Comics 1939, depending on which distribution records you choose to believe.

Intriguingly, the Dark Knight didn’t make the cut for the legendary commemorative comicbook and only appeared in New York World’s Fair Comics #2 in Summer 1940…

Head utterly obscured by a gas-mask and slouch hat; caped, business-suited millionaire adventurer Wesley Dodds was cut from the radio drama and pulp fiction mystery-man mould that had made The Shadow, Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, Phantom Detective, Black Bat, Spider, Avenger and so many more household names big hits of early mass-entertainment and periodical publication.

Wielding a sleeping-gas gun and haunting the night to hunt a host of killers, crooks and spies, he was eventually joined and accompanied by plucky paramour Dian Belmont, before gradually losing the readers’ interest and slipping from cover-spot to last feature in Adventure Comics, just as the shadowy, morally ambiguous avengers he emulated slipped from popularity in favour of more flamboyant and true-blue fictional fare.

This splendidly sturdy, moodily atmospheric Archive edition re-presents the landmark early appearances from both New York World’s Fair Comics, (1939 and 1940) and the rip-roaring exploits from Adventure Comics #40-59 – July 1939-February 1941 – a period when Detective Comics Incorporated frantically sought to follow up Superman and Batman with the Next Big Thing in Comicbooks…

Following an erudite appreciation from historian and comics all-star Jim Amash, the adventure begins here with the fast-paced thriller from the groundbreaking, pioneering comics premium New York World’s Fair Comics #1 as Christman & Fox introduced ‘Sandman at the World’s Fair’…

In those long-lost days, origins and back story were not nearly as important as action and spectacle so we’re quickly plunged into a fast-paced yarn as wealthy, rugged playboy scientist Dodds visits the global festival with the plans for a new ray-gun and encounters spies and a traitor within his own company. Already active as The Sandman -and sought by the cops for it – the vigilante quickly and beguilingly tracked down and dealt with the pre-war enemies of America…

Over in Adventure Comics #40, at about the same time, the cover-featured crusader was on hand to save kidnapped actress Vivian Dale when ‘The Tarantula Strikes’ (Christman & Fox) in a rousing romp reminiscent of the High Society hi-jinks of movie marvels the Saint, Falcon or Lone Wolf; prowling allies and rooftops, breaking into criminals’ lairs, rifling safes and dealing as much death as dream gas. He also had a unique calling card: sprinkled sand to proclaim and terrify wherever he had silently been and gone…

Christman wrote and drew many of the early thrillers such as #41’s ‘On the Waterfront’ wherein plucky reporter Janice Blue inadvertently stumbled into a dockside narcotics ring just as murderous seadog Captain Wing made a fateful takeover bid. Luckily for her the stealthy Sandman was already on the case…

Adventure #42 highlighted Christman’s love of aviation in ‘The Three Sandmen’ as Wes Dodds met up with a couple of his old Navy Flying Corps buddies to solve a string of murders. Somebody was rubbing out all the members of the old squadron…

Allen Bert Christman first came to public attention by following the near-mythic Noel Sickles on seminal newspaper strip Scorchy Smith. A dedicated patriot and flyer, Christman entered the Naval Air School in 1940 and joined Claire Lee Chennault’s 1st American Volunteer Group, known as the legendary fighter squadron the Flying Tigers.

These volunteers began fighting the Japanese in China long before America officially entered WWII on December 8th 1941, and Christman – officially designated a Colonel in the Chinese Air Force – used his artistic talents to personalise and decorate many of the  planes in his Flight.  He was shot down and died in horrific circumstances on January 23rd 1942.

Issue #43 featured his last official story as Dodds went on a South Seas flying vacation and became embroiled in an ‘Island Uprising’, spectacularly saving embattled white pearl hunters from natives enraged to fury by latter-day pirate Red Hatch…

In Adventure #44 (November 1939), Fox & Creig Flessel stepped into the breach left by Christman as ‘The Sandman Meets the Face’ found the playboy back in civilisation and aiding a down-and-out old friend against a mercurial disguise artist and mob boss terrorising the city. This splendid blood-&-thunder caper also saw the feature’s page count rise from six to ten as the Sandman finally found his lurking, moody metier…

‘The Golden Gusher’ (#45 by Fox & Flessel) was nightclub singer Gloria Gordon, threatened with kidnap or worse until the Master of Sleep intervened, whilst #46 ‘The Sandman Meets with Murder’ saw rising talent Ogden Whitney step into the artistic hot seat when the slaying of an old Dodds pal led into a deliciously convoluted murder-mystery involving beautiful twins, counterfeiting and a macabre cross-dressing killer…

A huge step in continuity occurred in #47 as District Attorney Belmont agreed to an unofficial truce with the Sandman following the assassination of a prominent banker. Simultaneously, Wesley Dodds caught a wily thief trying to crack his safe and became unwilling partner to the ‘Lady in Evening Clothes’ (Fox & Whitney) after she discovered his secret identity.

A celebrated cat-burglar, the sophisticated she-devil was plagued by not knowing who her parents were but happily went straight(ish) in return for Dodd’s pledge to help her…

Revealed as long-lost Dian Belmont she became a regular cast addition in #48 as ‘Death to the D.A.’ found her newly-restored father under threat from gangsters and far less obvious killers on a palatial island retreat after which ‘Common Cold – Uncommon Crime’ (#49 by Fox, Flessel & perhaps Chad Grothkopf on inks) found the mystery-man tracking killers who were eradicating the scientists who refused to hand over their cure for one of our most unforgiving ailments.

With a year gone by and global war looming, the “World of Tomorrow” exhibition was slowly closing but there was still time for New York World’s Fair Comics #2, where this time ‘Sandman Goes to the World’s Fair’ (by Fox & Grothkopf on pencils and inks) delivered a blistering crime caper wherein Wesley and Dian got stuck babysitting her maiden Aunt Agatha around the fair and were targeted by ambitious but exceedingly unwise kidnapper Slugger Slade…

In Adventure Comics #50 ‘Tuffy and Limpy’s Revenge Plot’, by Fox & Flessel, covered similar ground as a murderous campaign of apparently unrelated deaths eventually pointed to another scheme to get rid of the dauntless DA and led Sandman and Dian into a blockbusting battle against ruthless rogues, whilst in #51 (June 1940, by Fox & Flessel and previously reprinted elsewhere as ‘The Pawn Broker’) ‘The Van Leew Emeralds’ provided a fascinating detective mystery romp for the romantically inclined crimebusters to solve in fine style and double-quick time…

A burglary at the Belmont residence only netted a pair of gloves in #52’s ‘Wanted! Dead or Alive’ but inexorably led to a perplexing scavenger hunt with sinister overtones and a deadly pay-off when scandalous Claudia Norgan tried to frame her best gal-pal Dian for the Amber Apple Gang‘s crimes, after which in #53 ‘The Loan Sharks’ unwisely aroused the ire of the dynamic dream-maker when they graduated from simple leg-breaking to murder to enforce their demands. They almost ended the Sandman too before he finally got the better of them…

In issue #54 ‘The Case of the Kidnapped Heiress’ found Wes and Dian witnesses to a bold snatch-and-grab but their frenzied pursuit only resulted in both the DA’s daughter and millionairess Nana Martin being abducted together. Fury-filled and frantic, the Sandman tracked down the ransoming rogues only to find himself in the unexpected role of Cupid.

When the legendary jewel ‘The Star of Singapore’ was stolen in #55, the trail led to a ever increasing spiral of death and destruction until the Man of Dreams finally recovered it, whilst in the next issue ‘The Crook Who Knew the Sandman’s Identity’ (Fox, Flessel & Grothkopf) learned to his eternal regret that it just wasn’t so, thanks to some delightfully imaginative improvisation from Dian…

The mystery and general skulduggery gave way to world-threatening science fiction in #57 when the Sandman battled a mad scientist who had devised a deadly atom-smasher for blackmail and ‘To Hammer the Earth’, after which some macabre murders pointed the dream-team towards spies and killers profiting from ‘Orchids of Doom’, before this stylish selection of outré crime-thrillers concludes with Adventure #59’s ‘The Story of the Flaming Ruby’ as a cursed gem enabled a hypnotic horror to turn honest men into thieves and Dian into a mindless assassin…

Possessing a certain indefinable style and charm but definitely dwindling pizzazz, the feature was on the verge of being dropped when The Sandman abruptly switched to a skin-tight yellow-and-purple costume – complete with billowing cape for two issues – and gained a boy-sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy (in Adventure Comics #69, December 1941, courtesy of Mort Weisinger & Paul Norris), presumably to emulate the overwhelmingly successful Batman and Captain America models currently reaping such big dividends. It didn’t help much at first but when Joe Simon & Jack Kirby came aboard with #72 that all spectacularly changed.

A semi-supernatural element and fascination with the world of dreams (revisited by S&K a decade later in their short-lived experimental suspense series The Strange World of Your Dreams) added a moody conceptual punch to equal the kinetic fury of their art, as Sandman and Sandy became literally the stuff of nightmares to the bizarre bandits and murderous mugs they stalked. Those spectacular but decidedly different adventures can be found in The Sandman by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby if you dare…

With covers by Sheldon Mayer, Jack Burnley and Flessel, these raw, wild and excessively engaging comics capers are actually some of the best but most neglected thrillers of the halcyon Golden Age. Modern tastes too have moved on and these yarns are probably far more in tune with contemporary mores, making this a truly unmissable treat for fans of mystery, murder and stylish intrigue…
© 1939, 1940, 1941, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Bone: Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails – the Adventures of Big Johnson Bone, Frontier Hero


By Jeff Smith, Tim Sniegoski & Stan Sakai (Cartoon Books)
ISBN: 978-1-88896-306-9

Jeff Smith burst out of relative obscurity in 1991 and changed the comics-reading landscape with his captivating all-ages comicbook Bone. The compelling black and white saga intoxicated the market and prospered at a time when an endless procession of angst-ridden, steroid-breathed super-vigilantes and implausibly clad “Bad-Grrls” came and went with machine-gun rapidity.

Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Ohio, Smith avidly absorbed the works of Carl Barks, Charles Schultz and especially Walt Kelly from an early age, and purportedly first began producing the adventures of his Boneville creations at age ten.

Whilst attending OhioStateUniversity he created a prototype strip for the College newspaper: ‘Thorn’ was another early incarnation of his personal universe and a valuable proving ground for many characters that would eventually appear in Bone. A high school classmate became a Disney animator and Smith subsequently gravitated to the field before striking out on his own, having mastered the graceful gentle slapstick timing and high finish style which typifies his art style.

He founded Cartoon Books to self-publish 55 delightful black and white issues: a fantasy-quest yarn that owed as much to Tex Avery as J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as his personal holy trinity, Barks, Schultz & Kelly. The thrilling and fantastically funny saga progressed at its own unique pace between 1991 and 2004 and since then has been collected into nine volumes from Cartoon Books (with two further collections of prequels and side tales), reissued in colour by Scholastic Books and even reprinted in Disney Adventures magazine.

Fone Bone is the strange, amorphous, affably decent little hero, a thematic blend of Mickey Mouse and Asterix, who had been run out of the town of Boneville along with his tall, not-so-bright cousin Smiley due to the financial and political irregularities, misdemeanours and malfeasances of their dastardly, swindling relative Phoncible P. “Phoney” Bone…

After an incredibly journey the trio ended up in LostValley: an oasis of pastoral beauty hidden from the rest of the world. Along the way Bone was adopted by a dragon he doesn’t believe in, stalked by ghastly rat monsters and befriended by many talking animals and people…

At series’ end, Smith issued a monumental one volume compilation (more than 1300 black and white pages) which Time magazine dubbed “the best all-ages graphic novel yet published” and one of the “Top Ten Graphic Novels of All Time.”

Smith has won many awards including 11 Harveys and 10 Eisners. In 2011, a spectacular 20th anniversary full-colour edition of the Brobdingnagian single volume was released, stuffed with extras and premiums. If you’ve got the dough, that’s the book to shoot for…

The core series also spawned a few prequel series such as dark origin tale Rose and this far-lighter yarn introducing the Bone cousins’ pioneering ancestor: a rootin’ tootin’ rip-snorter of a trapper and loud-mouthed, itinerant Frontier Scout named Big Johnson Bone who found and saved an idyllic valley from an all-consuming threat and made the place safe from marauding monsters. Since there are plenty of versions to opt for, purist that I am, I’ve again plumped for an original monochrome Cartoon Books collection.

Originally appearing as back-ups in the original comicbook and the one-shot Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails between 1998 and 1999. these tremendously intoxicating tall tales were first gathered together in 2000 and remain one of the best and most entertaining all-ages comics sagas of the modern age.

Once upon a time a distant land was filled with huge, scary, fiercely rapacious rat creatures with magnificent tails…

Scripted by Tom Sniegoski and illustrated by Smith, the eponymous 3-part epic ‘Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails: the Adventures of Big Johnson Bone, Frontier Hero’ opens with the boastful lone scout – except for his mule Blossom and Mr. Pip, a dolorous, depressive, nagging monkey he won in a card game – getting snatched up in a real rip-roarer of a twister and whirled across the landscape to be unceremoniously dumped in a beautiful, unspoiled valley…

Actually it’s not completely perfect: there are a vast number of stupid but rapacious monsters eating all the local fauna. After giving two of the surly critters a sound drubbing, Johnson finds the last few animal kids still unconsumed by the long-tailed, giant ratty beasts. Lily the bearcub, Pete the Porcupine, Ramona the fox kitten and Porter the turtle then ask the big-hearted little guy for help in getting their mummies and daddies back…

The kits, cubs, pups and tads already have a protector of sorts but Stillman is a very little dragon, lacking in size, power and confidence as he can’t breathe flame because it gives him indigestion and makes him puke. He’s a dab hand at throwing rocks though…

Stillman says that a proper protector from the High Council of Dragons is on the way, but has no idea how soon the saviour will arrive.

Some distance away Maud, queen of the rat creatures, has problems of her own. It’s really hard to stay happy and well-groomed when your son is as big as a mountain, dumb as a rock and hungrier than all the rest of her stupid, stupid subjects combined. The big darling might be a hundred feet tall, but he has such a sensitive tummy and is a martyr to bilious attacks. With a kid like Prince Tyson it’s no wonder she has to kill so often.

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “mad as a bag of rats”? Maud is the bag they were taking about.

When she hears from her chastened subjects of tough, two-fisted mammals falling from the sky, stopping her subjects from rightfully expanding her territory and just plain refusing to be eaten, she decides to send a party to capture them – which coincidentally is just what Johnson Bone has decided to do to her…

The rat things attack first however but only get another fierce trouncing for their troubles. In fact the old scout might well have ended it all then and there had not Stillman joined in with an extremely poorly thrown stone…

Taking advantage of Bone’s temporarily stunned state, the rats scoop up Lily and Pete and amscray pronto, leaving the slowly recovering trapper with but one thought… those giant varmint pelts would be worth a fortune back home…

As soon as his head clears Johnson is off in pursuit, tracking the rat things to Maud’s cave, where the accounts of what the sky-dropped mammal does to rat beast tails has the entire tribe in a tizzy. In a fit of regal rage Maud sends everybody to kill the invaders…

When the opposing forces clash, despite routing the ordinary man-sized rodent rogues, even the dapper trapper is daunted when Tyson snatches up him and Ramona and swallows them whole…

Left behind, Blossom and snooty Mr. Pip are in a world of trouble until the wily monkey tries to romance Maud, whilst inside the cavernous Tyson Bone is still alive and kicking and he’s even found most of the animal kids’ missing parents alive and as yet undigested. Elsewhere Stillman has discovered his inner firedrake – much to the rat creatures’ dismay… and that’s when the wily explorer in Tyson’s tum gets a hankering for a good old hootenanny and roaring bonfire barbeque…

A stunning blend of slapstick and wry laughs for young and old alike, this gloriously over-the-top, tall tales prequel and modern “Just So” story is a pure cartoon delight of all-ages action and comedy adventure, but this terrific tome has even more fun in store.

Again scripted by Sniegoski, Riblet introduces a real problem child to the valley’s animal population in a fabulously arch yarn illustrated by the amazing Stan Sakai.

The other cubs and kits don’t like hanging out with Riblet. The baby boar is a bully: mean, rough and developmentally challenged, he just doesn’t play well – or safely – with the other kids. So when a couple of starving rat creatures capture him, thinking ‘A Little Pork Would be Lovely’ they have no idea of the trouble they’ve made for themselves…

In ‘Bringing Home the Bacon’, the suddenly liberated kids celebrate their good fortune and nobody tries that hard to get him back even as Riblet begins working his unique charms on his unlucky abductors, revelling in his favourite ‘Fun & Games’ even as the hungry horrors learn the logic of ‘Losing One’s Appetite’ and resort to ‘Something Drastic’ even as the kids begin to feel the tiniest pangs of conscience…

Fast-paced, trenchant and wickedly uproarious, Riblet is a smart, beguiling counterpoint to the sometime saccharine sweetness of the Valley Forest’s frolicsome animal kids and a sheer ribald riot in its own right.

Bone is a truly perfect cartoon tale and one that appeals with utterly universal appeal. Already it is in the rarefied ranks of Tintin, Pogo, Rupert Bear, Little Nemo and the cherished works of Schultz, Kelly and Barks, and it’s only a matter of time before it breaks out of the comic club completely and becomes kin to the likes of The Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, the Moomins and Oz.

If you have kids or can still think and feel like one you must have these books…
© 1998, 1999 and 2000 Jeff Smith. All rights reserved.

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Batman and Robin volume 1: Batman Reborn


By Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Philip Tan & Jonathan Glapion (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-85768-213-0

The Final Crisis cost Earth dearly, but only the superheroic community really understood the scale of the true loss. In the process of defeating invading evil god Darkseid, the mighty Batman had been lost.

In the aftermath of that epochal loss, a secret, sustained and epic Battle for the Cowl ensued amongst the fallen hero’s closest allies and disciples before eventually Dick Grayson succeeded his lost mentor.

Carrying on the tradition of the Dark Knight, the new Batman took it upon himself to complete the education of Bruce Wayne‘s League of Assassins-trained son Damian, continuing the rehabilitation with the headstrong and potentially lethal lad as the latest iteration of Robin, the Boy Wonder…

In 2009, the post-Crisis Dynamic Duo debuted in new series Batman & Robin; core title of a refreshed and edgy franchise with scripter Grant Morrison joined by preferred partner and collaborator Frank Quitely. This collected volume gathers the first six issues and hits the ground running in a spectacular 3-part thriller aptly entitled ‘Batman Reborn’…

It all begins with ‘Domino Effect’ as yet another baroque and murderously bizarre villain invades the benighted city. However the recklessly manic Mr. Toad‘s spectacular rise and fall merely presages the arrival of a much more macabre gang of criminals and their mad master Professor Pyg…

At home in a new Bat Bunker, the Caped Crusaders are undergoing a difficult period of adjustment with the obnoxious Damian constantly testing his unwanted senior partner at every opportunity, but their relationship takes a solid upswing once they start patrolling Gotham in the new flying Batmobile…

Whilst Pyg is happily mutilating one of his less trustworthy flunkies and turning the fool’s daughter Sasha into his latest slave by burning one of his slave masks onto her face, more of his myriad vassals are raiding Police Headquarters to spring Toad in a bravura display of ruthless abandon. Despite Batman and Robin being on hand, the odiously outrageous freaks comprising ‘The Circus of Strange’ are almost too much for the heroes to handle…

Once the battle is over, however, Robin again overreacts and sullenly storms off, falling into a subtle trap set by Pyg…

With Batman hot on his trail, Robin faces a dire crisis of conscience and confidence when, in the blistering finale ‘Mommy Made of Nails’, he and the Dark Knight save Sasha from Pyg only to lose her to someone far worse…

Philip Tan & Jonathan Glapion provided the art for the second story-arc ‘Revenge of the Red Hood’ as the most dangerous contender for Bruce Wayne’s legacy returned with a bloody Plan B…

Another orphan taken in by Batman, Jason Todd once served valiantly as the second Boy Wonder, but his many psychological problems remained hidden and unresolved even after he was murdered by the Joker.

Subsequently resurrected by one of the frequent Cosmic Upheavals that plague the DC Universe (Infinite Crisis if you’re interested, but it all happened off-camera and post hoc…), the boy took on the identity of the Red Hood and began cleaning up Gotham his way: using Batman’s training and the merciless tactics of the villains he remorselessly stalked.

When the role of Dark Knight became vacant Todd tried to make the mask and the mission his own, but was resoundingly defeated by Grayson.

Now, still determined to deliver the heroes Gotham City always deserved, he recruits the traumatised Sasha, dragging her from hospital to become his sidekick and ‘Red Right Hand’: beginning a lethal campaign against small-time creeps like Lightning Bug before graduating to the city’s super-criminal aristocracy such as Black Mask, Two-Face and the Penguin…  

Even the arrival and assistance of enigmatic British masked sleuth Oberon Sexton AKA Gravedigger isn’t enough to staunch the terror, and Batman and Robin are compelled to play catch-up as the homicidal vigilantes cut a brutal, bloody swathe through the streets. Both teams are blithely unaware of even greater chaos in store as global crimelord El Penitente, fed up with caped clowns interfering with his business, dispatches the world’s most infallible punisher to deal with the mess. The Eater of Faces is coming…

The carnage continues until Red Hood and ‘Scarlet’ crash a crime conference and come face to face with the CapeCrimebusters, resulting in a catastrophic but inconclusive clash of arms and ideology. The war comes to an unexpected end when Batman and Robin are soundly defeated and captured by their dark counterparts.

Meanwhile a few miles away a plane lands in Gotham, filled with flayed corpses gorily announcing that ‘Flamingo is Here!’

Before long the ultimate assassin has tracked the Hood and his homely help to their hideout, easily overpowering and humiliating them, but the deadly debacle has given the Dark Knights time to break free for the most dangerous fight of their lives…

Accompanying the covers and variants (by J.G. Jones, Andy Kubert, Tony S. Daniel, Quitely & Tan) is ‘Batman Redrawn’, an extended sketchbook and commentary section by Morrison, Quitely & Tan, offering an issue-by-issue tour of the re-imagining process that led to the new state of play.

Bold, explosive and breathtaking, this furious renewal and reboot of the World’s most successful comics franchise is a highly-charged, high-octane action extravaganza both impressive and imaginative. If you were bored with Batman, this might well make you a fan all over again…
© 2009, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Fear Agent: Re-Ignition


By Rick Remender & Tony Moore (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 987-1-59307-764-8

Once upon a time science fiction was hard, fast all-action wrapped in impossible ideas, but over the years films like Star Wars and TV shows like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica slowly ameliorated, crossbred and bastardised the form until it became simple window-dressing for cop stories and westerns and war yarns…

Rick Remender clearly loves the old-fashioned, wide-eyed wonder stuff too, and in 2005 brought back strictly impossible, mind-bending action-packed Amazing Stories to remind us all of what we’d been missing.

Fear Agent debuted from Image Comics and ran for eleven issues before folding and being subsequently picked up by Dark Horse in 2007. This slim, scintillating tome collects the introductory 4-issue story-arc which introduced dissolute, Mark Twain-spouting, alcoholic Texan freelance pest-control operative Heath Huston: the original Man With A Past But No Future…

It opens as a weary, hungry space-trucker pulls into Glentbin deep-space service station and discovers to his horror that the place is overrun with an entirely unacceptable kind of vermin, before the scene shifts to planet Frazterga where independent contractor Huston is on a bug-hunt with his mouth dry, his head screaming and his bank-account empty.

He’s climbing a really big mountain with a massive hangover and it’s real hard to make a living when the pencil-pushers of the Quintala Convention daily redefine the parameters of the Killable Alien Rating, but here in this last-ditch, last-chance filthy backwater Huston is going to make some money if it kills him.

Heath’s been hired to retrieve terraforming technology filched from colonists by the stupid, stupid ape-creatures living in the hills, but after a decidedly well-planned resistance from the hairy beasts he soon realises he’s been shafted yet again. The big dumb monkeys are using the stolen parts to build a spaceship…

After another blockbusting battle Huston discovers the burly pro-simians have been psionically enslaved by a marooned Class A entity. Officially, he should back off and leave it be, but he’s ticked, determined to get paid and has never liked aliens anyway…

The catastrophic explosion and riotous aftermath don’t go down too well with his clients either, and when he returns to his sentient spaceship Annie it’s empty-handed and with the Mayor’s blood on his gauntlets.

Down to their last wisps of fuel, the exterminator and his rather stroppy ship head for nearby Glentbin Station and the dubious hope that they can hock or trade something for fuel and food…

As they coast on fumes towards the service facility a call comes in from Thomas Yorke of the United Systems government. He wants to hire the reprobate – maybe that should be “needs to hire”…

They are old not-friends but Glentbin has gone offline and the authorities suspect some kind of infestation. If there is and Huston cleans it up there’s a 10,000 Uni-cred fee in it…

The satellite mall is empty and the legendary “too quiet”, but the smell more than makes up for it. Fearing the worst, Huston starts helping himself to supplies when he finds the ghastly remains of a patron and realises the entire place has been taken over by Feeders…

Fighting a wave of tentacles coming from everywhere, the terrified spacer blasts his way into a water pipe and is flushed into the station’s main cistern. Floating there is the only survivor of the infestation – a feisty, surly warp scientist named Mara…

She’s never seen the beasts before but Heath has. Feeders are a flesh-eating horror that were only stopped by blowing up any planet they landed on and, when his sodden new friend says they were sent to Glentbin by the Dressite Empire, Huston realises that Earth’s greatest enemy are planning on finishing the job they started decades ago: the last time they tried to wipe out mankind and legendary Fear Agents only just stopped them…

Blasting through the hull of the station, the grizzled veteran admits to being the only survivor of that august cadre of warriors, even as he and Mara spy on the station from the relative security of hard vacuum.

And that’s when he learns the Dressites have used the station to dispatch the unstoppable Feeder larvae to Earth in a convoy of deadly Trojan Horse ships…

Frantic, frustrated and unable to broadcast a warning, the Terrans bleed off cached fuel supplies into Annie – who hates Mara on sight – and try to reach Earth first. This is exactly what the Dressites want: they’ve supercharged the warp fuel and expect their old enemy to go up in a blaze of burning hell…

They have however not reckoned on the astounding intellect of the AI, who contrives to ride the explosive warp-wave and dumps the fugitives alive but lost on a strange alien world where they’re soon embroiled in an apocalyptic civil and religious war between creatures of flesh and monsters of metal. Moreover, as the campaign proceeds and Huston frets that the Feeders are inexorably closing on planet Earth, he realises that they are lost not just in space but also time…

Given a chance to save his homeworld years before any greedy marauding ETs ever attacked it, Huston embarks on a crazy raid with his fleshy allies that goes horribly, irretrievably wrong.

And then he’s killed.

To Be Continued (yes, really)…

With a copious sketchbook section from artist Tony Moore, this powerfully character-driven, fast, furious, frantic, thrilling, manic and exceedingly clever balls-to-the-wall science fiction is in the best tradition of 2000AD, and has all the adrenalin-fuelled fun any fantasy aficionado could want.

Fear Agent was a breath of fresh air when it came out and remains one of very best cosmic comics experiences around. If you’re old enough, Sentient enough and Earthling enough, this is a series you must see before you die, have your brain-engrams recorded and are cloned into a new form unable to enjoy terrific fiction feasts.
© 2006, 2007 Rick Remender & Tony Moore. All rights reserved. All characters and distinctive likenesses are ™ Rick Remender & Tony Moore.

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X-Men: First Class volume 1


By Jeff Parker, Roger Cruz, Kevin Nowlan & Victor Olazaba (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5313-9

Radical perpetual change – or the appearance of such – is a driving force in modern comics. There must be a constant changing of the guard, a shifting of scene and milieu and, in latter times, a regular diet of death, resurrection and rebirth – all grounded in relatively contemporary terms and situations.

With a property as valuable as the X-Men such incessant remodelling is a necessarily good thing, even if you sometimes need a scorecard to keep up, and over the decades the franchise has repeatedly reinterpreted, refashioned and updated the formative early epics by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, Roy Thomas and Werner Roth to give a solid underpinning to all the modern Mutant mayhem.

A case in point is the impressive and deliciously upbeat restating of the Mutant paradigm wherein the latest status quo gets the boot and a new beginning equates with a return to the good old days…

In 1963, The X-Men #1 introduced gloomy, serious Scott Summers/Cyclops, ebullient Bobby Drake/Iceman, wealthy golden boy Warren Worthington III/Angel, Jean Grey/Marvel Girl and erudite, brutish genius Henry McCoy/Beast: very special youngsters and students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between the sprawling masses of humanity and an emergent off-shoot race of mutants with extra abilities, ominously dubbed Homo Superior.

The team was also occasionally supplemented by magnetic minx Polaris and cosmic powerhouse Havok – although they were usually referred to respectively if not respectfully as Lorna Dane and Scott’s brother Alex.

After eight years of eccentric, quirky adventures, the masked misfits faded away in early 1970 when mystery and supernatural themes once again gripped the world, causing a consequent sustained downturn in costumed hero comics.

Although the title was revived at the end of the year as a reprint vehicle, the mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players across the Marvel Universe whilst the Beast was further mutated into a monster to cash in on the new big thing. Then in 1975 Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas green-lighted a risky Giant-Size one-shot as part of the company’s line of over-sized specials. The introduction of a fresh team of mutants made history and began a still-burgeoning frenzied phenomenon…

In 2006 those deliriously naive secret school days inspired X-Men: First Class (a comicbook iteration, not the movie) which once again updated the seminal 1960s adventures for a far more sophisticated modern audience (as had happened twice before in the intervening decades).

Most people who read comics have a passing familiarity with Marvel’s ever-changing X-franchise so newcomers and occasional consumers won’t have too much trouble following the backstory, so let’s plunge in as the hostile world once more kicks sand in the faces of the planet’s most dangerous and reviled minority…

An 8-issue miniseries and a One-Shot Special led to a further 16 issue run: retrofitting old material around new stories, in-filling cases and teaming the teenaged school squad with assorted adult guest-stars such as Man-Thing, Invisible Woman, Gorilla-Man and those included in this book. The series inevitably led to a slew of spin-off series based on the same winning “untold X-tales” format.

However all good things come to an end – until the next time a few years from now – and the junior league finally had to move on into their later lives and rejoin the ongoing Marvel Universe continuity. Thus in 2009 the 4-issue miniseries X-Men First Class: Finals revealed how the student heroes’ graduation fed directly into the introduction of the All-New, All Different modern team…

This rousing compilation – illustrated throughout by Roger Cruz with inks from Victor Olazabo – is an introductory/best of edition with series scripter Jeff Parker picking his favourite stories from the initial run (specifically issues #1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 plus a cracking vignette from 2007’s X-Men: First Class Special) and opens with ‘X-Men 101’ as youngest student Bobby Drake writes a letter to his mum, giving the lowdown on his new classmates and detailing the eventful last few days.

The edited highlights include a battle against an utterly alien hive-mind, rich-kid pal Warren being possessed, childish pranks going scarily awry on a quick field-trip to the Arctic and the saving of the oldest creature on earth from well-meaning but oblivious scientists…

Warmer climes beckon next as Professor X takes the kids on a vacation to Florida, playing anonymous matchmaker to Scott and Jean, whilst star scholar Hank and the Angel get stuck with hunting for scientist Curt Connors, who has once more mutated into a deadly human-hating saurian scourge in ‘The Bird, the Beast and the Lizard’. In the end however it was Iceman who held the key to their success…

Issue #4 then gave us a glimpse into the inner world of Cyclops with ‘Seeing Red’ as he is targeted by an escaped demon from the Ruby Realm of Cyttorak and the team require the aid of Doctor Strange to set two dimensions to rights…

Dr. Donald Blake appears in ‘The Littlest Frost Giant’ as the X-Men battle an Ice Troll, unaware that young Bobby is being hunted by an ancient Viking cult intent on awakening the primal monster and Lord of Winter Ymir. However once they make their move the villainous Vanir are soon in over their heads and the aroused and angry Frost Giant can only be stopped by the hard-pressed mutants and their new friend The Mighty Thor…

Young romance is in the air when ‘Who Wants to Date a Millionaire?’ finds Warren skipping classes to make out with European hottie and newly-reformed member of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Wanda Maximoff. Sadly the Scarlet Witch‘s twin brother Pietro is the old fashioned protective type and Quicksilver‘s enraged over-reaction endangers an entire playground full of kids before the X-Men can satisfactorily calm the situation down…

The all-new classic cases conclude with a short, sharp skit wherein Iceman and the Beast are dispatched by mutant-detecting electronic wonder-computer Cerebro to find a hidden Homo Superior lurking within the vaudevillian confines of ‘The Museum of Oddities’, brilliantly illustrated by the superb Kevin Nowlan.

This perfect primer also includes the usual cover gallery – by Marko Djurdjevic and Nowlan – plus character designs and model sheets by Cruz and pencilled cover sketches from Djurdjevic for art lovers to drool over.

Engaging, exciting and extremely entertaining; blending outrageous adventure with raucous humour and sheer comradely warmth and affection, this thoroughly beguiling collection always keeps the continuity baggage to a sustainable minimum for non-addicts and concentrates on delivering vibrant fun and fast-paced rollercoaster thrills packed with smart laughs, heavy on action and light on extended sub-plots.

For moments of mutant mirth and mayhem gloriously free of angst and overkill, these tales are without doubt top of the class…
© 2006, 2007, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Clubbing


By Andi Watson & Josh Howard (Minx/Titan Books edition)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-580-4

In 2007 DC comics had a worthy go at building new markets by creating the Minx imprint: dedicated to producing comics material for the teen/young adult audience – especially the ever-elusive girl readership – that had embraced translated manga material, momentous global comics successes such as Maus and Persepolis and those abundant and prolific fantasy serials which produced such pop phenomena as Roswell High, Twilight and even Harry Potter.

Sadly after only a dozen immensely impressive and decidedly different graphic novels Minx shut up shop in October 2008, markedly NOT citing publishing partner Random House’s failure to get the books onto the appropriate shelves of major bookstore chains as the reason.

Nevertheless the books which were published are still out there and most of them are well worth tracking down – either in the US originals or the British editions published by Titan Books.

One of the most engaging was Clubbing, from Andi Watson & Josh Howard, which stylishly and wittily blended teen rebellion and shopping-culture insouciance with murder-mystery and supernatural horror in an audacious and winning black and white, cross-cultural romantic romp in Wordsworth Country…

Charlotte Brook has been a bad girl. London’s most self-absorbed fashionista, social butterfly and shopping diva, “Lottie” got caught using a homemade fake I.D. to get into an out-of-bounds West End nightclub and ended up coming home in a police car…

Her outraged but rather disinterested parents simply bundled her off for the summer to the wilds of the Lake District where her dull grandfather and good old Grandma Aggie are going to put her to work in their new Golf resort.

Faced with the dire prospect of months of rain, no Wi-Fi coverage, Golf, Women’s Institute do’s, old people, hicks and yokels, golf and mud and golf, Lottie is far from happy, but as always Aggie’s ubiquitous cakes and cuppas go some small way towards assuaging the agony.

Granddad Archie Fitz-Talbot‘s time is constantly taken up with the on-going and behind schedule conversion of his posh old country club into a major modern sport and leisure venue and, after only one wind-blown, rain-sodden tour in the most fabulous outfit from her stylishly inappropriate wardrobe, Lottie realises that she’s actually in hell.

Her poor beloved shoes are all doomed too…

The local teens are a dire lot, rough, rude and pretentious; more interested in gore, blood and faux Satanism rather than music and fashion – like any self-respecting Goth should be – and as for the nice young man Aggie is trying to set her up with, Lottie wouldn’t be seen dead with a guy who loves fishing and golf no matter how good looking he is…

Howard is the least of her problems. In their affable, comfortable way, Archie and Aggie are determined to torture her to death: they feed her wholesome stodgy food, drag her all over the place on walks and trips through the beautiful countryside, take her to W.I. galas and, horror of horrors, ask her to work in the gift-shop with ghastly golf pro Tom Hutchinson – at least until she accidentally burns it down…

Things get decidedly strange after Lottie clashes with officious wizened-ancient employee Mrs. Geraldine Gibbons over towels in the gym, and again at a W.I. cake-baking contest. The old biddy has a real bee in her bonnet and babbles on about secrets and hidden truths and is clearly bingo-wing bonkers…

Lottie begins to suspect otherwise when she and the slowly growing in coolness Howard find the old bat’s strangely mutilated body in a water-hazard on the Links…

Some of those sinister secrets start to emerge when the shaken teen then discovers old Archie is a bit of a player – Urgh! wrinklies indulging in illicit lurrve – and might need to get rid of the occasional octogenarian bit of rough, but something just doesn’t add up and before long Lottie and Howard are grudgingly, disbelievingly swept into a bizarre and baffling mystery with demonic cults, a horrific monster menace from beyond Reality and staggering personal implications for Lottie and her entire family…

Clubbing is a sharp, witty, subtly funny and intriguing coming of age horror-thriller-comedy which follows all the rules of the teen romance genre yet manages to inject a huge helping of novelty and individual character into the mix: a perfect vehicle for attracting to our medium new and youthful readers with no abiding interest in outlandish power-fantasies or vicarious vengeance-gratification – and yes, that does mean girls…

This snazzy so-British reading rave also includes ‘Lottie’s Lexicon’: a cool guide to speaking young Londoner, full creator biographies and three tantalising preview segments from other tempting MINX titles.

Track them all down and enjoy a genuinely different kind of comic book…
© 2007 Andi Watson and DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Spider-Man & the Secret Wars


By Paul Tobin, Patrick Scherberger, Clayton Henry & Terry Pallot, with Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4449-6

Presented in the manner of the company’s all-ages Marvel Adventures format, this notionally “in-continuity” tale offers cosmic thrills, chills and light drama by in-filling on one the House of Ideas’ biggest successes. Assiduously revisiting the epic “maxi-series”, writer Paul Tobin, penciller Patrick Scherberger and inkers Clayton Henry & Terry Pallot have cannily crafted an engagingly expanded selection of Spider-sagas faithful to the original whilst adding a contemporary complexity and depth to the iconic wall-crawler

This highly satisfying digest-sized collection collects the 4-issue miniseries from February-May 2010, and also re-presents the original Secret Wars #1 (May 1984) and its opening chapter by James Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty.

The premise of the original 1980s blockbuster was that an all-powerful alien calling itself The Beyonder abducted an army of Earth heroes and villains to an alien purpose-built Battleworld created as an arena in which to prove which was mightier – Good or Evil.

Whilst by no means a new plot, it gave the entire company a massive commercial boost and allowed a number of major series to radically retool at a time when comicbook sales were in a dire downturn. This canny slice of infilling explores some of the saga’s untold moments in an engaging and appealing way, adding contemporary sensibilities and a lighter take to a classic but rather dated and straightforward Fights ‘n’ Tights yarn.

I would strongly suggest however, that if you’ve never seen the original epic, you track it down before tackling Spider-Man & the Secret Wars – it’s not actually necessary but you will get the most out of the new material that way…

The drama opens at a most critical moment, seconds after the almighty Molecule Man has dropped an entire mountain on top of the embattled heroes. With the Incredible Hulk holding up millions of tons of rock, the entombed good guys perforce take a few moments to chill and reminisce.

Top of Spider-Man’s list is the many gaffes he’s made since arriving, particularly the way he’s treated Captain America and the monstrous Green Goliath currently holding all their lives in his big green hands…

Thanks to heroic teamwork, all of the buried brigade eventually emerge safely but the wall-crawler has learned a hard lesson in a most harrowing manner…

The second chapter also focuses strongly on damaging mis- and pre-conceptions as the residents of Denver, Colorado – simultaneously shanghaied by the Beyonder and dumped on his remodelled planet as some kind of control group – is assaulted by a horde of marauding aliens, and the heroes form a living barricade with the valiant but all-too-human civilian defenders to lives and property.

They are surprisingly assisted by arch-nemesis and ultimate evil Doctor Doom, but try as he might Spider-Man cannot fathom the Iron Dictator’s true purpose…

At one critical juncture the world-devouring cosmic god Galactus decided to end the contest early by eating Battleworld, prompting a desperate alliance by the transplanted heroes and villains to stop him. Here, portions of their combined assault are examined in detail as Spider-Man experiences bizarre reality-warping episodes – a natural side effect of proximity to the perilous planetivore – and flashes back and forward through his personal past and futures, experiencing happiness and the darkest of imagined terrors…

The original miniseries culminated with Doom actually stealing the Beyonder’s power and becoming omnipotent. In this modern re-visitation, that conditional triumph is examined as the web-spinner is granted a taste of paradise by the troubled new god who is finding it hard to hang on to lust for conquest, or even personal ambition, after achieving all-consuming divinity…

The cleverly introspective human adventure is capped off by a re-presentation of the original saga’s first issue from 1984, wherein ‘The War Begins’ with the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four, Magneto, the Hulk and the utterly out-of-his-depth Spider-Man all teleported into the deep unknown to see a galaxy destroyed and a world constructed purely so that a cosmic force could determine which of two philosophies was correct.

Arrayed against them were Doom, Galactus, Molecule Man, Ultron, the Lizard, Dr. Octopus, the Enchantress, Absorbing Man, Kang the Conqueror and the Wrecking Crew, all of whom had no problem with a disembodied voice telling them “Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours”…

Unceremoniously dumped on the brand new world the sides split into factions and the War began…

This blockbusting little box of delights also includes a full cover gallery by Scherberger, Christina Strain, Chris Sotomayor, Veronica Gandini, Jean-Francis Beaulieu, Zeck & Beatty as well as pages of Scherberger’s early character sketches.

Fast-paced and impressive, bright and breezy with lots of light-hearted action and some solid sly laughs, this book really sees the alternative web-spinner hitting his wall-crawling stride with the violence toned down and “cartooned-up” whilst the stories take great pains to keep the growing youth-oriented soap opera sub-plots pot-boiling on but as clear as possible.

In 2012 the Marvel Adventures line was superseded by specific comicbook titles tied to Disney XD TV shows designated as “Marvel Universe cartoons”, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born often two generations or more away from those far-distant 1960s originating events. However even though these Spidey super stories are extremely enjoyable yarns, parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action” and might perhaps better suit older kids…
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Asterix and the Roman Agent


By Goscinny & Uderzo, translated by Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Brockhampton/Knight Books)
ISBN: 0-340-20285-8

This is another one purely for driven nostalgics, consumed collectors and historical aficionados, highlighting the marvellous variety of formats and methods used to elevate and disseminate brilliant comics from the gutters of prejudice by turning them into proper books…

One of the most-read series in the world, the collected chronicles of Asterix the Gaul have been translated into more than 100 languages since his debut in 1959, with animated and live-action movies, TV series, assorted games, toys and even a theme park outside Paris (Parc Astérix, if you’re planning a trip…) spinning off from his hilarious exploits.

More than 325 million copies of 34 Asterix books have sold worldwide, making his joint creators France’s bestselling international authors. The diminutive, doughty hero was created as the transformative 1960s began by two of the art-form’s greatest masters, René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo, and even though their perfect partnership ended in 1977 the creative wonderment still continues – albeit at a slightly reduced rate of rapidity.

When Pilote launched in 1959 Asterix was a massive hit from the very start. At first Uderzo continued working with Charlier on Michel Tanguy, (Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure), but soon after the first epic escapade was collected as Astérix le gaulois in 1961 it became clear that the series would demand most of his time – especially as the incredible Goscinny never seemed to require rest or run out of ideas (after the writer’s death the publication rate dropped from two books per year to one volume every three to five).

By 1967 the strip occupied all Uderzo’s attention. In 1974 the partners formed Idéfix Studios to fully exploit their inimitable creation and when Goscinny passed away three years later Uderzo had to be convinced to continue the adventures as writer and artist, producing a further ten volumes thereafter.

Like all great literary classics the premise works on two levels: for younger readers as an action-packed comedic romp of sneaky, bullying baddies always getting their just deserts and as a pun-filled, sly and witty satire for older, wiser heads, enhanced here by the brilliantly light touch of master translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge who played no small part in making the indomitable Gaul so very palatable to the English tongue. (Me, I still admire a divinely delivered “Paff!” to the snoot as much as any painfully potent pun or dry cutting jibe…)

The feature debuted in Pilote #1 (29th October 1959, with the first page actually appearing a week earlier in a promotional issue #0, June 1st 1959). The stories were set on the tip of Uderzo’s beloved Brittany coast where a small village of redoubtable warriors and their families resisted every effort of the all-conquering Roman Empire to complete their conquest of Gaul. Alternately and alternatively the tales took the heroes anywhere in the Ancient World, circa 50BC, as the Gallic Gentlemen wandered the fantastic lands of the Empire and beyond…

Unable to defeat or even contain these Horatian hold-outs, the Empire resorted to a desperate policy of containment with the seaside hamlet perpetually hemmed in by the heavily fortified garrisons of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium.

The Gauls don’t care: they daily defy the world’s greatest military machine simply by going about their everyday affairs, protected by the magic potion of resident druid Getafix and the shrewd wits of the rather diminutive dynamo and his simplistic, supercharged best friend…

Firmly established as a global brand and premium French export by the mid-1960s, their gradual rise to prominence this side of the pond was tentative but as unstoppable as Obelix’s pursuit of roast boar or Roman playmates…

The translated albums are available in a wealth of differing formats and earlier editions going all the way back to the first 1969 Brockhampton editions (still readily available from a variety of retail and internet vendors – or even your local charity shop and jumble sale).

Asterix and the Roman Agent premiered in 1970 in Pilote #531-552, simultaneously making the jump to a French album and English translated editions in 1972 – from when this delightful digest-sized (212 x 150mm), kid-friendly collectors’ item originates, and highlighted homeland insecurity as Caesar, under attack by the Roman Senate over the indomitable, unconquerable Gauls, deploys his greatest weapon: a double-edged sword named Tortuous Convolvulus, whose every word and gesture seems to stir ill-feeling and conflict in all who meet him.

Where Force of Arms has failed the wily despot hopes this living weapon of mass of dissension might forever fracture the Gauls’ unshakable comradeship and solidarity with a dose of Roman entente dis-cordiale…

On the crossing, just two minutes with the conniving Convolvulus has a sworn brotherhood of pirates at each other’s throats, and even while discussing the plan with Aquarium’s commander Felix Platypus, the agent’s unique gift sows discord and violence, so when he finally enters the village it’s not long before the high-spirited and fractious Gauls are at war with each other…

The women are cattily sniping at each other, the traders are trading blows and even Asterix and Obelix are on the outs. But that’s not the worst of it: somehow the idea has gotten around that their sharp little champion has sold out to the Romans…

With discord rife, the Romans soon have the secret of the magic potion too – or do they? The cunningly ingenious Convolvulus hasn’t reckoned on two things: the sheer dimness of Imperial troops and the invaluable power of true friendship, leaving Asterix and Obelix a way to overcome their differences, turn the tables and once more save the day.

At last, the agent provocateur is forced to realise that sometimes one can be too smart for one’s own good…

Brittle, barbed and devilishly sharp, this yarn was reputedly based on lingering ill-feeling following an internal power-struggle at Pilote which almost cost editor Goscinny his job. The original title for the tale was La Zizanie – “The Ill-feeling” or “The Dissension”. Seen through the lens of forty years of distance, however, all that can be seen now is stinging, clever, witty observational comedy and magnificently engaging adventure, and surely that’s what matters most?

Asterix sagas are always stuffed with captivating historical titbits, soupcons of healthy cynicism, singularly surreal situations and amazingly addictive action, illustrated in a magically enticing manner. These are perfect comics that everyone should read over and over again.

Surely you don’t disagree?
Text © 1970 Dargaud Editeur. English language text Text © Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd.

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Spider-Man: Fever


By Brendan McCarthy with Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Marvel)
ISBN: 987-0-7851-4125-9

It wasn’t too long before Stan Lee & Steve Ditko’s astonishing Spider-Man proved himself a contemporary hero who fitted every possible milieu and scenario; at home against cheap hoods, world-busting super-menaces or the oddest of alien incursions, and this superbly outré modern masterpiece celebrates that astounding versatility by reprising one of the most brilliantly bizarre team-ups from the early Marvel Age.

The legendary classic first meeting of Mystic Master and Webbed Wall-crawler occurred in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 and it’s happily included in this slim beguiling tome which features über-imaginative narrative art trendsetter Brendan McCarthy’s tribute to Ditko’s dazzling graphic magic.

London-born McCarthy came to prominence in comics on 2000AD before branching out into international comics stardom whilst pursuing a parallel career in film, television and design. His most notable works range from Strange Days and Paradax to Judge Dredd, Zenith, Sooner or Later, Skin, Rogan Gosh and innumerable stunning covers whilst his moving media credits include The Storyteller, Highlander, Lost in Space, Reboot, the upcoming Mad Max 4: Fury Road and so much more.

Collected here is a digitally-psychedelic, intoxicatingly appealing yarn 3-issue miniseries from 2010, written and illustrated by McCarthy – with lettering and additional colouring from old comrade Steve Cook – which begins with the web-spinner battling old foe The Vulture even as Sorcerer Supreme Stephen Strange explores a few Outer Realms and inadvertently activates an ancient trap set in an old grimoire – the Lost Journal of Albion Crowley…

The “webwaze” energy escapes into the very architecture and infrastructure of New York City, finding its way to the cornered Vulture and possessing the bad old bird before passing through him, permeating and infecting the Arachnoid Avenger…

As Strange further examines the cursed chronicle, he discovers the sorry tale of Crowley and his unlucky acolyte Victor Neumenon, whose long ago trans-dimensional forays led them into fateful contact with cosmically peripheral spider-demons dubbed Arachnix, who haunted the darkest corners and crannies of Creation.

Both were subjected to unimaginable atrocity at the many hands of the hairy horrors, but only Crowley returned to recount his experiences…

Meanwhile the ensorcelled Spider-Man, reeling in delirious torment, has instinctively crawled into the bathroom of Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum where his now-tainted soul is snatched away by arcane Arachnix hunter Daddy Longlegs, who drags the essence of the hero to its hideous homelands to be devoured by the ghastly King Korozon…

Arriving too late to assist, the Master of the Mystic Arts gives chase through increasingly impossible planes of existence, following the ethereal webwaze paths in his frenzied attempts to save his old friend from utter horror and damnation…

Along the way the wizard meets keenly helpful void-dwellers Fetch Doggy Fetch and Pugly even as Peter Parker’s enmeshed spirit faces consumption by the Eight-Legged Tribe. However the hero’s dual nature confounds the beasts who cannot determine if he is Spider – and therefore kin – or Man, and thus the most appealing meal ever presented to any Arachnix.

To decide his prey’s future fate Korazon despatches the befuddled soul-shell through the Insect Gate to catch the fabled feast known as the Sorror-Fly from the home dimension of all arthropods. If the arbitrary man-spider can snare the elusive treat he is their brother, but if he returns empty-handed he’s just lunch…

Whilst the englamoured hero hunts in the insect realm, Strange rescues fellow Earth-born traveller Ms. Ningirril, trapped during her dimensional Walkabout. In gratitude the Antipodean wanderer provides the mage with useful intelligence, sound advice and a safer, swifter means of navigating his search for Spider-Man…

In a fantastic City of Termites the befuddled hero has succeeded in his task and is dragging the woeful Sorror-Fly back to the Arachnix: succumbing with each moment to the inexorable, bestial allure of his Spider side, even as the garrulous meal he holds relates the dread history of the insect dimension and a prophecy of telling magnitude.

As the Sorcerer Supreme and his allies fortuitously arrive, the Fly transforms back to a form he has not held for over a century, presaging the redemption and cure of the fallen Wall-crawler and the spectacular end to an infinitude of eight-legged terrors…

Bold, ambitious and visually off the wall, this superb magical mystery tour is perfectly accompanied by that aforementioned first meeting.

In 1965 Steve Ditko was blowing away audiences with another oddly tangential and daringly different superhero. Amazing Spider-Man King Size Annual #2 cover featured ‘The Wondrous World of Dr. Strange!’ and stupendously introduced the web-slinger to whole other realities and menaces when he accidentally interrupted an attack by wannabe wizard Xandu upon the Master of the Mystic Arts.

The villain had stolen the puissant Wand of Watoomb from Strange to achieve ultimate power, and when that pesky interfering Spider-Man butted in, the power-crazed dilettante banished him to an alien dimension – but not before the hero’s webbing snatched the arcane artefact from Xandu’s hand and took it with him…

Cue an involuntary incredible journey to phantasmagorical, mind-bending worlds pursued by unstoppable zombie slaves and a desperately determined Doctor Strange in a dimension-hopping masterpiece of mystery and imagination…

Moody, creepy and staggeringly engrossing, this eerie eldritch escapade also includes the author/artist’s ‘Notes on the Design and Story Ideas for Spider-Man: Fever’ – a selection of commentary, roughs and sketches offering a fascinating glimpse of into the creative process of a truly unique talent…
© 1965 and 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.