Posts

Posted on

Oor Wullie & The Broons: Cooking Up Laughs!


By Robert Duncan Low, Dudley D. Watkins, Ken H. Harrison & various (DC Thomson)
ISBN: 978-0-84535-614-9 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

August 24th is National Waffle Day so here I am burbling at you again and hoping this Crimbo I’ll get a day-diary with less distracting factoids…

Published eternally in perfect tandem, The Broons and Oor Wullie are two of the longest-running newspaper strips in British history, having appeared continuously in Scottish national newspaper The Sunday Post since their dual debuts in the March 8th 1936 edition. Both boisterous boy and gregariously engaging inner city clan were co-created by writer/Editor Robert Duncan Low (1895-1980) in conjunction with Dudley Dexter Watkins (1907-1969); DC Thomson’s greatest – and signature – artist. Three years later the first strips were collected in reprint editions as special Seasonal Annuals; alternating stars and years right up to the present day and remaining best-sellers every single time.

The shape and structure of British kids cartoon reading owes a massive debt to R.D. Low who was probably DC Thomson’s greatest creative find. He started at the Scottish publishing monolith as a journalist, rising to the post of Managing Editor of Children’s Publications where – between 1921 and 1933 – he conceived and launched the company’s “Big Five” story-papers for boys. Those rip-roaring illustrated prose periodicals comprised Adventure, The Rover, The Wizard, The Skipper and The Hotspur.

In 1936 his next brilliant idea resulted in The Fun Section: an 8-page pull-out supplement for The Sunday Post consisting primarily of comic strips. The illustrated accessory launched on 8th March and from the very outset The Broons and Oor Wullie – both laudably limned by the incomparable Watkins – were its incontestable star turns…

Low’s shrewdest move was to devise both strips as domestic comedies played out in the charismatic Scottish idiom and broad homespun vernacular. Ably supported by such features as Chic Gordon’s Auchentogle, Allan Morley’s Nero and Zero, Nosey Parker and other comics pioneers, they laid the groundwork for the company’s next great leap, which came in December 1937 when Low launched DC Thomson’s first weekly pictorial comic.

The Dandy was followed by The Beano in 1938 and early-reading title The Magic Comic a year after that. War-time paper shortages and rationing sadly curtailed this strip periodical revolution, and it was 1953 before the next wave of cartoon caper picture-papers. To supplement Beano & Dandy, the ball started rolling again with The Topper, followed by a host of new titles like Beezer and Sparky.

Low’s greatest advantage was always his prolific illustrator, whose style, more than any other, shaped the look of DCT’s comics output until and even beyond the bombastic advent of Leo Baxendale who shook things up in the mid-1950s. Hailing from Manchester and Nottingham, Watkins was an artistic prodigy. He entered Glasgow College of Art in 1924 and before long was advised to get a job at Dundee-based DCT, where a 6-month trial illustrating boys’ stories led to comic strip specials and some original cartoon creations.

Percy Vere and His Trying Tricks and Wandering Willie, The Wily Explorer made him a dead cert for both lead strips in the Fun Section and, without missing a beat, in 1937 Dudley D. added The Dandy’s sagebrush superman Desperate Dan to his weekly workload, and The Beano‘s placidly and seditiously outrageous Lord Snooty seven months later.

Watkins soldiered on in unassailable magnificence for decades, drawing some of the most lavishly lifelike and winningly hilarious strips in illustration history. He died at his drawing board on August 20th 1969. For all those astonishingly productive years he had unflaggingly drawn a full captivating page each of Oor Wullie and The Broons every week.

His loss was a colossal blow to the company and Thomson’s top brass preferred to reprint old Watkins episodes in both newspaper and Annuals for seven years before replacement artists were agreed upon. Dandy reran his old Desperate Dan stories for twice that length of time.

An undeniable, rock-solid facet of Scots popular culture from the very start, the first Broons Annual (technically Bi-Annual) appeared in 1939, alternating with a first Oor Wullie book a year after (thanks to those wartime paper restrictions, no annuals at all were published between 1943 – 1946) and for millions of readers no year can truly end without them.

Every kid who grew up reading comics has their own personal nostalgia-filled nirvana, and DC Thomson have always sagely left that choice to us whilst striving to keep all eras alive with carefully-tooled collectors’ albums like this substantial (225 x 300 mm) hardback Gift Book. Bright and breezy, the compilation focuses on the characters’ relationship with food – particularly Scotland’s unique and evocative cuisine – through festive occasions, seasonal celebrations and in everyday contexts: especially in comedic situations as comfort or consolation or even hard-won prizes. It’s also jam-packed with some of the best-written, most impressively drawn strips ever conceived: superbly timeless examples of cartoon storytelling at its best.

Moreover, rather than chronological arcs tracing particularly bleak and fraught beginnings in British history through years of growth, exploration and cultural change, we’re treated to a splendid pick-&-mix protocol: a surprise on every turn of a page with Low & Watkins ably succeeded by Tom Lavery, Peter Davidson, Robert Nixon, Ken H. Harrison, Iain Reid, Tom Morton, Dave Donaldson, Morris Heggie and more.

So What’s the Set Up?: the Brown family dwell together in a tenement flat at 10 Glebe Street in timelessly metafictional Scottish industrial everytown Auchentogle (sometimes called Auchenshoogle and soundly based on Glasgow’s working class Auchenshuggle district). As such it’s an ideal setting to tell gags in, relate events and crystalise the deepest, most reassuring cultural archetypes for sentimental Scots wherever in the world they might actually be residing. And naturally, such a region is the perfect sounding board to portray all the social, cultural and economic changes that came after the war…

Adamant, unswerving cornerstone of the family feature is long-suffering, ever-understanding culinary commander-in-chief Maw Broon, who puts up with cantankerous, cheap, know-it-all Paw and their battalion of stay-at-home kids. These comprise hunky Joe, freakishly tall beanpole Hen (Henry), sturdy Daphne, gorgeous Maggie, brainy Horace, mischievous twins Eck and the unnamed “ither ane” plus a wee toddling lassie referred to only as “The Bairn”.

Not officially in residence yet always hanging around is sly, patriarchal bewhiskered buffoon Granpaw: a comedic gadfly who spends more time at Glebe Street than his own cottage, constantly trying to impart his decades of out-of-date, hard-earned experience to the kiddies… but do they listen?

Offering regular breaks from inner-city turmoil whilst simultaneously sentimentalising, spoofing and memorialising more traditional times, the clan constantly adjourn to their “But ‘n’ Ben” (a dilapidated rustic cottage in the Highlands) to fall foul of weather, the countryside and all its denizens: fish, fowl, farm-grown, temporary and touristic…

As previously stated, Oor Wullie also launched on March 8th 1936 with his own collected Annual assemblages unfailingly appearing in the even years. His operating premise is sublimely simply and eternally fresh: an overly-imaginative, impetuous scruff with a weakness for mischief, talent for finding trouble and no hope of ever avoiding parental or adult retribution when appropriate shares what just happened…

Wullie – AKA William MacCallum – is the archetypal good-hearted rascal with too much time on his hands. He can usually be found sitting on an upturned bucket at the start and finish of his page-a-week exploits. The regular supporting cast includes Ma and Pa, local beat-Bobby P.C. Murdoch, assorted teachers and sundry other interfering adults who either lavish gifts or inflict opprobrium upon the little pest and his pals Fat Boab, Soapy Joe Soutar, Wee Eck and others. As a grudging sign of changing times, in later years he’s been caught in the company of sensible wise-beyond-their-years schoolgirls like Rosie and Elizabeth…

A compilation in monochrome – with some full-colour pages – Cooking Up Laughs! was released in 2016 as part of the admirable drive to keep early material available to fans: a lavishly sturdy hardback (still readily available through internet vendors) offering a tasty and tantalising selection curated with an emphasis on the eating habits of the stars; well, these northern stars at least….

Eating has always been a perennial and fundamental aspect of both strips (don’t get me started on the sociological value and importance of food in communal/tribal settings: I’ve been to college twice and did all the reading they told me to!), and the topic even generated a spin-off line of Maw Broon Cook Books…

Divided by colour cover or title-pages from previous Annuals, the endless escapades of the strip stars comprise the happily standard fare: kids outsmarting older folk to score sweets and prohibited provender; pompous male adults making galling goofs and gaffes when cooking; family frolics and festival events: rules of rationing and home-grown garden gifts; etiquette outrages: potent penalties for gorging; stolen candies, Christmas revels, how to drink Tea and even some full-colour puzzle pages to digest…

Also on show are Scots-specific treats and techniques such as Clootie Dumpling disasters; the mysteries of Fruit; the makings of “a Piece”; fabled Fish Suppers and the miracle of Cheps; how to present Crofter’s Porridge; the marvel of Mince ‘n’ Tatties; better things to do with Neeps; dieting dos and don’ts and every manner of sweet or savoury sampling of succulence and sinfulness…

With snobs to deflate, bullies to crush, duels to fight, chips to scoff, games to win and rowdy animals (from cats to coos) to escape, the eternally affable humour and gently self-deprecating, inclusive frolics make these superbly crafted strips an endlessly entertaining, superbly nostalgic treat.

Packed with all-ages fun, rambunctious homespun hilarity and deliriously domestic warmth, these examples of comedic certainty and convivial celebration are a sure cure for post-modern glums and Bank Holiday blues… and you can’t really have a happy holiday without that, can you?
© D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd. 2016.

Posted on

The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea – A Graphic Memoir of Modern Slavery


By Vannak Anan Prum, told to Ben & Jocelyn Pederick and translated by Lim Sophorn (Seven Stories Press)
ISBN: 978-1-6098-0602-6 (HB/Digital edition)

This book made me furiously angry, but that’s good because it was supposed to. So as we reel at contemporary news headlines from locales as diverse as Saudi Arabian construction sites to Scottish fishing boats and UK care homes let’s dedicate this International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition to ponder again how capitalism got us here and what we will do next…

Despite years of shocking scoops, excellent exposés and countless in-depth news reports, far too many first world citizens seem – or choose to be – blissfully unaware that human slavery still thrives.

In fact, the commercial practise of organised enforced and unpaid labour props up a vast number of businesses and industries, from migrants and homeless people used as domestic beasts of burden to gangs masquerading as service, telemarketing, construction or hospitality companies using shady contracts and extortion to man their enterprises. Young hopefuls are trafficked into a global sex market and entire village populations are captured or conned and compelled to till fields or man fishing boats for “entrepreneurs” no better than racketeers.

At the root of all this appalling exploitation and upheaval is one unchanging factor: a desperate need by the downtrodden to escape overwhelming poverty.

This breathtakingly low key, matter-of-fact tale is the testimony in cartoon form of Cambodian Vannak Anan Prum who went looking for work to pay for his pregnant wife’s medical care and was gone for years…

Bracketed by a fact-filled and frankly nightmare-inducing Foreword from activist and cartoon journalist Anne Elizabeth Moore (Unmarketable, Body Horror, Threadbare: Clothes, Sex, and Trafficking), an equally sobering Introduction by Minky Worden – Director of Global Initiatives for Human Rights Watch – and a laudatory appreciation and call to arms by Kevin Bales (Professor of Contemporary Slavery and Research Director at the Rights Lab: University of Nottingham) in his Afterword, a compelling human-scaled odyssey unfolds in these pages.

Rendered with the gently seductive warmth and deceptively comfortable lushness of a Ladybird early reader book, this saga of endurance and survival against the cruellest of fates begins with a ‘Prologue’ as a stranger enters a Cambodian village…

Vannak Anan Prum started life ‘Drawing in the Dirt’. He had been born the year the Vietnamese beat the Khmer Rouge, but his early life was still one of hardship, privation and family abuse. Barely more than a boy, he fled his home seeking ‘Adventure’, becoming first a soldier, then a monk and finally an artisan sculptor toiling in a workshop making tourist trinkets and statues. His constant hunt for work led him to farming where he met the girl who became ‘My Wife’. When she fell pregnant, he had to make more money to pay for her hospital care, so with village friend Rus Vannak followed a promising lead to Thailand and contacted ‘Moto & the Middleman’. After helping them in ‘Crossing the Border’ their new friends soon changed from chummy helpers to sinister guards…

Apparently, the great secret to successful slave-taking is convincing victims that the police, army and authorities are ruthless and will punish harshly undocumented illegals and economic migrants: constantly dangling hope of good pay and promises of eventual freedom to keep their dupes quiescent. For Vannak and Rus ‘The Writing on the Wall’ was a clear but anticlimactic moment and – after relatively painless incarceration – they were shipped onto facilities ship ‘The Took Tho’. This seedy vessel serviced a vast fleet of illegal fishing boats, pirating catches in other nations’ waters and manned by hundreds of men who only wanted to better themselves. Most never saw land again once they were taken…

One such was ‘The Old Man’ whose fate led to Vannak being transferred to fishing factory ship ‘The Took Oh’. Eventually, crushing routine took hold, only barely broken by what happens to ‘Rus’…

‘Life on the Boat’ ruled Vannak’s world and any number of candidates for ‘The Deadliest Job’ were gratefully handled before the new man’s status was slightly elevated. After he started idly tattooing himself with makeshift tools, his ‘Writing on the Skin’ led to the others wanting such decoration – and paying him for it. His artistic gifts were useless when the ship was chased by the Indonesian navy, resulting in ‘Fire at Sea’ and Vannak being traded to ‘The New Boat’…

Fresh horrors awaited there: murder, beatings and the shocking fate of ‘Two Guys’ from Thailand, but there were also more serene moments with ‘My Friend K’Nack’. Adding to alternating dire tedium and frantic hardship, ‘Storms at Sea’ and consequent becalmed periods made ‘Days Stretch Out’…

At last, after the craft unexpectedly neared land, a chance came for ‘Escape’. With Thai compatriot Chaya, Vannak chanced everything on ‘The Swim’ to an unknown jungle beach and kept going. Once again hope quickly gave way to despair. In ‘The Monkeys and the Man Waiting for Us’ an idyllic pause and aid of helpful locals brought the escapees to ‘Police and the Chinese Man’… who promptly sold them both to plantation owner ‘Crazy Boss’…

More months of slavery in what eventually turned out to be Malaysia followed, but again Vannak’s artistic skills proved invaluable and he made enough to obtain ‘The Phone’. Contact with the outside world made, he prepared for rescue, but when drunken partying dissolved into ‘The Fight’ Vannak and “co-worker” Theara were wounded by machetes and dumped into the custody of the local cops. At least they (grudgingly) got them to ‘Hospital’…

And that’s where the real injustices started piling up as the victims suffered ‘Yo-Yo Justice’. Although Theara was soon reclaimed by his family, illegal worker Vannak was arrested. However, in ‘Prison’ he was interviewed by German NGO worker Manfred Hornung who began the complex and convoluted process of freeing the abducted and enslaved artist.

Sadly, that took months, and was perpetually hampered by police interference and the revelation of just who – and how prestigious and influential – Crazy Boss was…

It was still a long, torturous ordeal before the LICADHO (Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights) could ferry the relieved and apprehensive Vannak ‘Home’ again…

This crushingly sedate, oppressively action-deprived story is an astounding and remarkable testament to sheer will-to-survive, but by no measure does it lack power, merit or moment. Life simply isn’t a 3-act summer blockbuster with exploding helicopters, sexy hotties and Mikado-esque just deserts doled out to the apparently endless chain of truly evil, corrupt bastards entrenched at every stage of this century’s slavery system, all with hands out and blind eyes turned to the plight of those they’re supposed to protect and serve.

In actual fact, the only thing they really fear is exposure, and that began once Vannak – still desperately seeking a means to earn a living – started drawing his five years a slave: awful life-changing experiences gathered in these strips. The comics were seen by filmmakers Ben & Jocelyn Pederick and one of the results and repercussions was this book…

As seen in ‘Epilogue’, there is more to come…

The almost incomprehensible story of a quietly indomitable man who turned survival into a waiting game and patience into his weapon, The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea is a book everyone should read and every exploiter should dread.
Text and images © 2018 Vannak Anan Prum. Foreword © 2018 Anne Elizabeth Moore. Introduction © 2018 Minky Worden. Afterword © 2018 Kevin Bales. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Robot Archie and the Time Machine


By E. George Cowan, Ted Kearon, Mike Western & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-83786-169-9 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

British comics have always enjoyed an extended love affair with what can only be described as “unconventional” (for which feel free to substitute “weird” or “creepy”) heroes. So many stars and notional role models of our serials and strips have been outrageous or just plain “off”: self-righteous voyeur/vigilantes like Jason Hyde, sinister masterminds in the manner of The Dwarf or Black Max, arrogant former criminals like The Spider or outright racist overmen such as fearsome white ideologue Captain Hurricane…

Joking aside, British comics are unlike any other kind: having to be seen to be believed and always enjoying – especially when “homaging” such uniquely American fare as costumed crimefighters – a touch of insouciant rebelliousness…

Until the 1980s, UK periodicals employed an anthological model, offering variety of genre, theme and character on a weekly – sometimes fortnightly – basis. Humour comics like The Beano were leavened by action-heroes like The Q-Bikes or General Jumbo whilst adventure papers like Smash, The Eagle, Hotspur or Valiant always offered palate-cleansing gagsters like The Cloak, Grimly Feendish, Mowser and sundry other titter-treats.

At first glance, prior to the advent of game changers Action and 2000AD, British comics seemingly fell into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had genial and/or fantastic preschool fantasy; a large selection of licensed entertainment properties; action; adventure; war; school dramas, sports and straight comedy strands. Closer examination would confirm there was always a subversive merging, mixing undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace or our rather strained interpretation of superheroes. Just check out The Phantom Viking, Kelly’s Eye or early Steel Claw stories…

After post-war austerity, the 1950s ushered in a revolution for British comics. With printing and paper restrictions gone, a steady stream of titles emerged from companies new and old, aimed at the many different levels of childish attainment from pre-school to young adult. When Hulton Press launched The Eagle in April 1950, the very concept of what weeklies could be changed forever. That oversized prestige package with photogravure colour was exorbitantly expensive, however, and when venerable London-based publishing powerhouse Amalgamated Press retaliated, it was a far more economical affair.

I’m assuming AP only waited so long before the first issue of Lion launched (cover-dated February 23rd 1952) to see if their flashy rival periodical was going to last. Lion – just like The Eagle – was a mix of prose stories, features and comic strips and even offered its own cover-featured space-farer in Captain Condor – Space Ship Pilot. Initially edited by Reg Eves, the title ran 1156 weekly issues until 18th May 1974 when it merged with sister-title Valiant. Along the way – in the tradition of British publishing which subsumed weaker-selling titles to keep popular strips going – Lion absorbed Sun (1959) and Champion (1966) before going on to swallow The Eagle in April 1969: soon after merging with Thunder (1971). In its capacity as one of the country’s most popular and enduring adventure comics, the last vestiges of Lion only vanished in 1976 during Valiant’s amalgamation with Battle Picture Weekly.

Despite that demise, there were 30 Lion Annuals between 1953 and 1982, all benefitting from the UK’s lucrative Christmas market, combining a variety of original strips with topical and historical prose adventures; sports, science/general interest features; short humour strips and – increasingly from the 1970s – reformatted reprints from IPC/Fleetway’s back catalogue.

The Jungle Robot debuted in Lion’s first issue, created by incredible prolific E. George Cowan (Ginger Nutt, The Spider, Saber, King of the Jungle, Smokeman/UFO Agent, Nick Jolly the Flying Highwayman, Paddy Payne, Girls’ Crystal Libraries) and drawn by Alan Philpott (The Deathless Men/V for Vengeance, A Classic in Pictures, Rebels of Ancient Rome, War/Super Detective/Cowboy Comics & Picture Libraries, Look-In, Klanky). It enthralled readers for a couple of months before abruptly vanishing with the August 9th issue.

Other than an appearance in the 1955 Lion Annual that was it until January 19th 1957 when the mechanical marvel was revived and revised by Cowan & A. Forbes before veteran artist Ernest “Ted” Kearon (Spot the Clue with Zip Nolan, The Day the World Drowned, Steel Commando and DC Thomson’s Morgyn the Mighty) signed on in 1958 and soldiered on for most of the next 17-ish years. On his return the mighty mouthed mechanoid became one of the most popular and well-remembered heroes of the British scene and was successfully syndicated all across Europe and around the world. Hopefully this compilation of later material will be soon supplemented by earlier annals in the fullness of time…

Reprinting stories from Lion between 20th April 1968 to 11th January 1969 plus yarns from Lion & Valiant Special 1969 and Lion Summer Special 1970 the saga returns and -following a fulsome reminiscence and Introduction by John Reppion – the latterday ongoing adventures of explorers and troubleshooters Ted Ritchie, Ken Dale and arrogant, smug, self-absorbed yet innately paternally benevolent super-robot Robot Archie resume and take an outrageous turn…

The former Jungle Robot was once the greatest achievement of Ted’s inventor uncle Professor C. R. Ritchie: battling monsters & aliens, foiling crooks and battling disasters, but in ‘Robot Archie’s Time Machine’ – by Cowan & Kearon and running from 20th April to 29th June 1968 – the boastful ‘bot discovers the wonders and perils of spacetime after the boys inherit The Castle, a colossal inhabitable two-storey faux chess piece which can take them anywhere in history and even into the future…

The first tempestuous test drive dumps them in the 14th century and into a minor peasants’ revolt as cruel, ambitious tyrant Hugo the Black Wolf terrorises his bit of Britain, and sees the armoured interloper and his pitiful retinue as a mighty rival knight and squires. Soon the visitors are battling injustice and beloved of the peasantry, but also risking accusations of sorcery with Archie’s many electromechanical add-ons (magnets, extendible claws, jet pack etc.) and incredible strength and durability adding to his lustrous legend… as a warlock!

Hugo despatched, the voyagers seek their own time and home but a technical hitch sees them overshoot by nearly a 100 years in second saga ‘Robot Archie and the Superons’ (6th July to 2nd November 1968). Obviously influenced by TV series/movie adaptation Doctor Who: Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD, the extended epic finds the trio in a London resembling a rain forest and overrun with wild animals, where the surviving dregs of humanity are hunted by invading aliens inside an infinite army of mechas ranging from tiny to gigantic …until Archie and Co organise a resistance and repel the rapacious robotic rogues…

Final weekly serial ‘Robot Archie – Time Traveller’ sees the garrulous gadget admitting he cannot control The Castle as another attempt to return to 1968 deposits them all in 18th century England where the big guy is mistaken for a heroic and popular highwayman battling corrupt and unjust magistrate Sir Jeremiah Creefe, who uses The Law and the King’s Soldiery to scourge London Town and line his own coffers in the days before Christmas. But not for long; once Archie sets his mechanical mind to it…

A section of ‘Extras’ kicks off with a brace of short complete tales from the Lion & Valiant Special 1969 and Lion Summer Special 1970 respectively. The first sees the time-tossed trio fetch up on a desert island just as bunch of pirates is bury their ill-gotten gains. Sadly, Blackbeard’s pistol balls briefly blow one of Archie’s fuses and only sheer luck and attacking Spaniards save the heroes from the plank…

This romp is illustrated by magnificent Mike Western who also closes this book with a half-dozen full-colour covers, but before that one last jaunt takes the team all the way back to who knows when and a lost isle of dinosaurs, cavemen and exploding volcanoes: a breathless rollercoaster ride by an artist unknown to me…

Now part of Rebellion Publishing’s line of British Comics Classics, Robot Archie is an icon of UK fantasy long overdue for revival. I hope not much time passes before we see all the old stories back again…
© 1968, 1969 & 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Batman: The Black Casebook


By Bill Finger, France Herron, Edmond Hamilton, Dave Wood, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang, Charles Paris, Stan Kaye & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2264-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Despite having his name writ large on the cover the only thing Grant Morrison produced for this weird and wonderful compilation is the introduction, so if he’s the reason you buy Batman you’re in for a little disappointment. However if you feel like seeing the incredible stories that inspired him, then you’re in for a bizarre and baroque treat as this collection features a coterie of tales considered far too outlandish and fanciful to be canonical for the last few decades but now reintroduced to the mythology of the Dark Knight as a casebook of the “strangest cases ever told!”…

Tales from the overwhelmingly anodyne 1950s (and just a little overlap in the 1960s) always favoured plot over drama – indeed, a strong argument could be made that all DC’s post-war costumed crusaders actually shared the same character (and yes, I’m including Wonder Woman) – so narrative impetus focuses on comfortably familiar situations, outlandish themes and weird paraphernalia. As a kid they simply blew me away. They still do.

Starting things off is a ‘A Partner for Batman’ (Batman #65 June/July 1951) by Bill Finger, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Charles Paris, wherein the masked mentor’s training of a foreign hero is misconstrued as a way of retiring the current Boy Wonder, whereas a trip way out west introduces the Dynamic Duo to their Native American analogues in ‘Batman… Indian Chief!’ (#86 September 1954, by Ed “France” Herron, Sheldon Moldoff & Stan Kaye), before ‘The Batmen of All Nations!’ (Detective Comics #215, January 1955 by Edmond Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris) took the sincere flattery a step further by introducing nationally-themed imitations from Italy, France, England, South America and Australia: all attending a convention that’s doomed to disaster.

A key story of this period introduced a strong psychological component to Batman’s origins in ‘The First Batman’ (Detective Comics #235, September 1955) by Finger, Moldoff & Kaye, after which the international knock-offs reconvened to meet Superman and shocking new mystery-hero in ‘The Club of Heroes’ (World’s Finest Comics #89, July/August 1957 -Hamilton and magnificent Dick Sprang & Kaye).

Detective #247 (September 1957, by Finger, Moldoff & Paris) introduced malevolent Professor Milo who used psychological warfare and scientific mind-control to attack our heroes in ‘The Man who Ended Batman’s Career’ with the same creative team bringing him back for an encore in Batman #112’s ‘Am I Really Batman?’

Herron scripted one of Sprang & Paris’ most memorable art collaborations in incredible spectacular ‘Batman – Superman of Planet X!’ (Batman #113, February 1958) before Finger, Moldoff & Paris unleashed the Gotham Guardian’s most controversial “partner” in manic mirthquake ‘Batman Meets Bat-Mite’ (Detective Comics #267, May 1959). In comparison, ‘The Rainbow Creature’ (Batman #134, September 1960) is a rather tame monster-mash from Finger & Moldoff which only serves to make the next tale more impressive.

‘Robin Dies at Dawn’ by Finger, Moldoff & Paris is an eerie epic first seen in Batman #156, June 1963 (supplemented by, but not dependent upon, a Robin solo adventure sadly omitted from this collection). Here Batman experiences truly hideous travails on an alien world culminating in the death of his young partner. I’m stopping there as it’s a great story and plays a crucial part in latter day sagas Batman: R.I.P., The Black Glove and others. Buy this book and read it yourself…

But wait: There’s more! From the very end times of vintage-style tales comes inexplicably daft but brilliant ‘The Batman Creature!’ (Batman #162, March 1964) by an unknown writer (latterly identified as Dave Wood), Moldoff & Paris, wherein Robin and Batwoman must cope with a Caped Crusader horrifically transformed into a rampaging giant monster. Shades of King Kong, Bat-fans!

Even though clearly collected to cash in on the success of modern Morrison vehicles, these stories have intrinsic worth and power of their own, and such angst-free exploits from a bygone age still have the magic to captivate and enthral. Do not dismiss them and don’t miss out!
© 1951, 1954-1960, 1963, 1964, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Night of The Devil – War Picture Library volume 3


By Hugo Pratt, Tom Tully, Gordon Sowman & various (Rebellion Studios/Treasury of British Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-903-3 (HB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born in Rimini, Ugo Eugenio Prat, AKA Hugo Pratt (June 15th 1927 – August 20th 1995) wandered the world in early life, whilst becoming one of its paramount comics creators. His enthralling graphic inventions since Ace of Spades (in 1945 whilst still studying at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts) were many and varied. His signature character – based in large part on his own exotic formative years – is mercurial soldier (perhaps sailor is more accurate) of fortune Corto Maltese.

Pratt was a consummate storyteller with a unique voice and a stark expressionistic graphic style that should not work, but so wonderfully does: combining pared-down, relentlessly modernistic narrative style with memorable characters, always complex whilst bordering on the archetypical. After working in Argentinean and (from 1959) English comics like top gun Battler Briton, and on combat stories for extremely popular digest novels in assorted series such as War Picture Library, Battle Picture Library, War at Sea Picture Library and others – Pratt returned to and settled in Italy, and later France. In 1967, with Florenzo Ivaldi he produced a number of series for monthly comic Sgt. Kirk.

In addition to the Western lead star, he created pirate feature Capitan Cormorand, detective feature Lucky Star O’Hara, and a moody South Seas saga called Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea). When it folded in 1970, Pratt remodelled one of Una Ballata’s characters for French weekly, Pif Gadget before eventually settling in with the new guy at legendary Belgian periodical Le Journal de Tintin. Corto Maltese proved as much a Wild Rover in reality as in his historic and eventful career…

In Britain Pratt found rich thematic pickings in the ubiquitous mini-books like Super Picture Library, Air Ace Picture Library, Action Picture Library and Thriller Picture Library: half-sized, 64-page monochrome booklets with glossy soft-paper covers containing lengthy complete stories of 1-3 panels per page. These yarns were regularly recycled and reformatted, but the supernaturally-tinged stories gathered here – from Battle Picture Library #62 (June 1962) and War Picture Library #91 (March 1961) – have only appeared once… until now…

Resurrected and repackaged by Rebellion Studios for their Treasury of British Comics imprint, Night of the Devil is a brooding blend of mystery, revenge and supernatural doom scripted by astoundingly prolific long-serving Glasgow-born Tom Tully. His canon of classic delights include Roy of the Rovers, Heros the Spartan, Dan Dare, The Leopard from Lime Street, Adam Eterno, Janus Stark, Mytek the Mighty, Master of the Marsh, The Wild Wonders, Nipper, The Mind of Wolfie Smith, Johnny Red, Harlem Heroes, Mean Arena, Inferno, Football Family Robinson, Buster’s Ghost and countless more.

He’s supported here by co-writer/unsung company stalwart Gordon Sowman who toiled during the 1950s & 1960s on Picture Library publications and weekly features as well as writing numerous Sexton Blake Library novels under the nom du crime Desmond Reid. He might even have written the sadly uncredited second jungle combat tale here…

A fulsome and informative Foreword from Chloe Maveal shares some more astounding real life adventures of Pratt and traces his celebrated career before we step into creepy comics combat mode with ‘Night of the Devil’ (BPL #62)…

Deep in Burma’s jungles a seven-man British Army platoon races to blow up the bridge at Taigu and slow the inexorable advance of Japanese forces. However ‘The Lieutenant’ in command is untested, arrogant and vainglorious, only seeing the task as a means to secure promotion and praise.

Ignoring the advice of tested veterans such as Lance Corporal Paddy Price and Sergeant Matt Brind, smugly superior Lieutenant Robert Salter pushes his team mercilessly and makes one costly mistake after another. When his recklessness causes his scout’s death and makes them a pinpoint target of the enemy, the remaining squad snatch a few hours’ sleep before pressing on and taking refuge in an ancient edifice far from their planned route home. ‘The Temple’ is pre-Buddhist, eerily magnificent and occupied by a single native priest dedicated to the worship of ancient Phya Yomaraj. That doesn’t save him when Salter panics and opens fire with a machine gun…

As the cleric dies vowing doom to all, the gunfire alerts the enemy outside and triggers ‘The Siege’ which gradually but spectacularly winnows the team down. Tensions aren’t eased any when Private Don Evans finds a tourist guide and mordantly reads out the history of the arcane temple and its god who is “king of the devils” and ruthless with all transgressors…

Salter is descending into madness but still hopeful of escape, triumph and glory. Despatching the Sarge and Price to complete the mission and blow up ‘The Bridge’ simply to distract encroaching waves of Japanese soldiers, he then betrays them to save his own skin. As his end approaches, Salter experiences ‘The Awakening’, but as he shakes sleep from his head and readies his team to resume the mission to Taigu something occurs and he realises it was no dream but a horrific prophecy…

A powerful psychological thriller breaking the rules of kids’ combat comics, Night of the Devil is subtly subversive, straightforwardly told and startlingly compelling, far from the bread & butter war stories that sustained British readers for decades.

Pure horror overtones are dialled down in follow-up ‘The Bayonet Jungle’. Far less overtly spooky in delivery, this catalogue of jungle warfare originated in War Picture Library #91 (March 1961) with Pratt limning a more traditional episode, albeit one similarly steeped in psychological angst. It begins as a hard-pressed, cut-off British unit in Burma is disturbed and conflicted by new replacement Jack Green. Although a capable soldier, many of his new comrades believe him a jinx because twice he has been the ‘Sole Survivor’ of in-country patrols. Minor events seem to constantly confirm those fears and superstitious squaddie Jenkins can’t stop speculating aloud despite every effort of solid soldiers Sergeant Freeman and Major Webb…

With mail drops and supply runs failing, snipers, air raids and ‘Jungle Ambush’ bedevilling the embattled survivors, the last thing they need is demoralising accidents too, but only after a Burman native working for the Japanese infiltrates the unit and leads them into an ambush at the ‘Village of Treachery’ is rationality is restored with the ‘Test of Courage’ in fighting their way out inspiring the spooked warriors to battle towards reinforcements, turn the tables on the enemy and score an explosive victory…

What happens next is powerful, exhilarating and exactly what you’d expect from a kids’ comic crafted to sell in the heyday of UK war films commemorating the conflict their parents lived through.

At the end are the original full-colour painted covers by superb Pino Dell’Orco as first seen on Battle Picture Library #62 (June 1962 ‘Night of the Devil’) and War Picture Library #91 (March 1961 ‘The Bayonet Jungle’).

Potent, powerful, genre-blending and oddly cathartic, these are brilliant examples of the British Comics experience – and if you’re a connoisseur of graphic thrills and dramatic tension – utterly unmissable.
© 1961, 1962, 2021 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All rights reserved.

Posted on

The Marquis of Anaon volumes 1 & 2: The Isle of Brac & The Black Virgin


By Vehlmann & Bonhomme, coloured by Delf: translated by Mark Bence (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-255-3 (PB Album/Digital edition Brac) & 978-1-84918-265-2 (PB Album/Digital edition Virgin)

These books include Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

In 1972 Fabien Vehlmann entered the world in Mont-de-Marsan. He was raised in Savoie, growing up to study business management before taking a job with a theatre group. His prodigious canon of pro comics work began in 1998 and has earned him the soubriquet of “Goscinny of the 21st Century”.

In 1996, after entering a writing contest in Le Journal de Spirou, he caught the comics bug and two years later – with illustrative collaborator Denis Bodart – produced a mordantly quirky, sophisticated portmanteau period crime comedy entitled Green Manor. From there on his triumphs grew to include – amongst many others – Célestin Speculoos for Circus, Nicotine Goudron for L’Écho des Savanes and major-league property Spirou and Fantasio…

Scion of an artistic family, Matthieu Bonhomme received his degree in Applied Arts in 1992, before learning the comics trade working in the atelier of western & historical strip specialist Christian Rossi. Le Marquis d’Anaon was Bonhomme’s first regular series, running from 2002-2008, after which he began writing as well as illustrating a variety of tales, from L’Age de Raison, Le Voyage d’Esteban, The Man Who Shot Lucky Luke and much more.

So, what’s going on here? Imagine The X-Files set in France in the Age of Enlightenment (circa 1720s), played as a solo piece by a young hero growing reluctantly into the role of crusading troubleshooter. With potent overtones of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Fall of the House of Usher and similar traditional gothic romances, 2001’s L’Isle de Brac was the first of 5 albums (all available in English-language paperback and digital formats) tracing the development of a true champion against darkness and human venality.

Under-employed scholar and middle class, pragmatic philosopher Jean-Baptiste Poulain is the son of a merchant, an ardent disciple of Cartesian logic and former medical student. Educated but impoverished, he accepts a post to tutor the son of the mysterious Baron of Brac. It is a career decision that will shape the rest of his life…

As he approaches the windswept, storm-battered and extremely isolated island off the Brittany Coast, Poulain cannot understand the fear and outrage in the downtrodden villagers who initially believe him to be a visiting nobleman. Taken under the wing of another passenger – an itinerant professional storyteller – the teacher-in-waiting learns that the surly peasant inhabitants secretly call their master and liege lord “the Ogre”. Moreover, Poulain is utterly astounded by how violently protective they are in regard to the village’s few children…

In an oppressive atmosphere and crushed beneath ever-mounting social tensions, the facts gradually unfold. Even as the young man endures suspicion and veiled hostility from the lowly classes, he gradually nurtures a deep appreciation for the forward-thinking, rationalist and compellingly charismatic Baron de Brac. However, when the heir – and his sole student – Nolwen is found brutalised and murdered, heightened feelings spike and Poulain painfully learns that this is not the first body to be found…

From then on, it’s hard to determine who is friend or foe and – although a trained thinker always inclined to challenge the old superstitions – the tutor increasingly ponders if unworldly forces are in play…

Conversations with the roaming mariner known only as The Storyteller lead to Poulain being attacked by some villagers – or perhaps they are merely opportunistic thieves? Barely escaping, the dazed, astounded scholar sees poor murdered Nolwen before passing out…

The baffled teacher awakes under the Baron’s care and resolves to leave at the first opportunity by any means necessary. When disturbed housemaid Ninon begs him to take her with him, an incredible secret history of unremitting horror is exposed, leading to the Baron ruthlessly hunting his fleeing employees and caging them in a hidden laboratory.

Here Poulain discovers the appalling truth of his employer. The elder savant is obsessed with unlocking all secrets of the human mind and man’s inner world, and has over many years devised pitiless experiments to test all his theories. Of course they yield the best results if carried out on unformed minds…

Trapped but not helpless, Poulain uses the tests and data de Brac has indulged and fanatically compiles against him, before escaping to expose the ghastly secret of the “ghosts” who walk the island. When the Baron and his terrifying flunkey come for him, fortune finally favours the tutor and apparently divine justice is rendered unto all…

In the aftermath, Poulain quits the island alone, as much to avoid the pitifully grateful, still fearful villagers as to resume his interrupted life in healthier climes. Sadly, he cannot outrun the obnoxious title they have bestowed upon him in their Bretagne argot: Le Marquis d’Anaon – “the Marquis of Lost Souls”…

The Black Virgin

Jean-Baptiste Poulain returned in 2003’s La Vierge Noire (with Cinebook’s translated tome released in October 2015) as his travels and compulsions bring him to isolated, snowbound Puy-Marie in the middle of Advent. Here the populace are far less diffident, actively poking into his affairs and even his luggage. Finding worthless books – and a loaded pistol – they back off and a pedlar engages him in conversation, assuming he’s here to observe the witchcraft and murder all are expecting to manifest once again on the sacred solstice…

Women have been horrendously killed at the Christmas feast for years now and a ghastly trade in sensationalistic, prurient gutter prints and memorabilia has grown up around the phenomenon of “the Demon of Puy-Marie” and its connection to the Shrine of the Black Virgin. Poulain has indeed travelled from Paris to observe the expected imminent atrocity, but does not believe the killer is a supernatural force…

Despite wanting the Christmas Eve murders stopped, the Count of Puy-Marie is far from encouraging, but does actually not forbid the scholar’s investigations, which begin in mid-December at the woodland shrine. Local priest Fra Guillaume despairs: his parishioners still believe the little relic in the woods has magical powers and even admits it is also a focus for those who still believe in the old practises of witchcraft… most notably the heathen gypsies who travel to the shrine every yuletide and are currently infesting the woods around the village. He also urges the godless rationalist to abandon his morbid unhealthy curiosity and leave things alone…

With every pauper, vendor and lord anticipating another torture/murder in the days to come, Poulain ponders again the horrid discoveries and fascinations of Baron de Brac and debates whether this might be another case of twisted human madness unleashed. If so, it is one he can end…

After using his medical knowledge to help a woman “cursed by gypsies”, he gets some of the terrified citizens onside even as sporadic incidents of blood magic denote “the Demon” is back and flexing his infernal muscles. One such incident even deprives Poulain of his most trusted and faithful companion, and his new friends readily fall back on old prejudices and condemn the homeless, impious, degenerate and debauched “Egyptians” in the forest…

When another village girl is found horrifically mutilated by the shrine days earlier than expected, the scholar fears escalation in the perpetrator’s behaviour but must first head off potential mob retaliation. With the appalled Count’s approval he visits the Roma encampment and has a most disturbing encounter with a brazen young fortune teller Sarah, who seems to know all his secrets. She rattles his intellectual composure so much that Poulain almost issues a crucial clue when her guardians Allesandro and Lucas come to blows over her gifts and reputation…

In the village tempers are still flaring and when Poulain discovers a nasty warning to back off, he only intensifies his enquiries: learning key background from the oldest woman in town that at last points him in the right direction. This in turn unearths more shocking secrets and illicit affairs that would rock the status quo if exposed…

With too much information to sift through, Poulain again despairs: even backsliding to consider a supernatural culprit, but when The Demon strikes, making him the next Christmas offering, the proximity of agonising extinction sharpens the detective’s wits. Deducing the killer’s identity, Poulain shamefully employs psychological tricks gleaned from Baron de Brac’s journals to turn the maniac’s hatred fatally, finally inward…

Vehlmann’s tight, taut authentic compellingly scripting, backed up by Bonhomme’s densely informative but never obtrusive realistic illustration delivers moody, ingenious, utterly enthralling tales of modern horror tropes imbedded in an era of superstition, class separation, burgeoning natural wonder, reason ascendant and crumbling belief: spooky crime mysteries with a troubled, self-doubting quester holding always at bay the crippling notion that all his knowledge might be trumped by the lurking unknown…

The Marquis of Anaon is a mystery milestone well-deserving of a greater audience and one no mystery maven should miss.
Original edition © Dargaud Paris 2002, 2003 by Vehlmann & Bonhomme. All rights reserved. English translations © 2015 by Cinebook Ltd.

Posted on

Batman: The Daily Classics 1943-1946 AKA Batman: The Dailies 1943-1946


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Don Cameron, Alvin Schwartz, Jack Schiff, Jack Burnley, Dick Sprang, Charles Paris, Stan Kaye & various (Sterling/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4027-4717-5 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For most of the 20th century newspaper comic strips were the Holy Grail cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country and the planet with millions of readers; accepted (in most places) as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books, they also paid better. The Holiest of Holies was a full-colour Sunday page…

However, it was usually something of a poisoned chalice when original comic book stars became so popular that they swam against the tide to become syndicated strips. After all, weren’t funnybooks invented just to reprint newspaper stars in a cheap accessible form? Superman, Wonder Woman, Archie Andrews and a few others made the jump in the 1940s and many “four-color” features have done so since. One of the most highly regarded came late to the party, both in its daily and Sunday format. It was called Batman and Robin.

Although a highpoint in strip cartooning, both 1940s iterations of Batman seemed cursed – especially by bad timing. After years of negotiating, the Daily strip finally debuted during a period in newspaper publishing afflicted by war-time rationing, shortages and a volatile marketplace. Thus it never achieved the circulation it deserved, but at least some Sundays eventually won a new lease of life when DC began reprinting vintage stories in the 1960s in their 80-Page Giants and Annuals. The superior quality adult/family oriented adventures of were ideal action-mystery fare, and also added an extra cachet of exoticism for young readers already captivated by tales of their heroes that were positively ancient and redolent of History with a capital “H”.

The original printings comprising this epic hardback compilation tome were three volumes co-published by DC and Kitchen Sink Press in 1990. This 21st century re-issue is a cheaply-bound hardback easily damaged by its own bulk and poor quality stitching, so if given the choice get the trade paperbacks. Ideally of course, multimedia giant DC would release this whole collection digitally…

Each landscape TPB offered a wealth of superb background information provided by Joe Desris in his ‘A History Of The 1940s Batman Newspaper strip’. It remains in three parts, scattered throughout the book and preceding each monochrome section. Perhaps that’s best as it’s a phenomenal, near-overwhelming feat of scholarship offering history, biographies, historical anecdotes, context, critique and comparisons, a description of what was happening in the comics at the time and a mouth-watering mountain of candid photos, print and movie serial promotional material, individual essays on the creators and their strips, contributions and even merchandise memorabilia: all combining to form a fantastically informative and extensive overview detailing the strip, its antecedents and the tantalising minutiae, how it came to be and even why it never found an readership…

Nevertheless what you want is the stories, so following all that schooling comes sheer entertainment and an Introduction Week of strips by Finger & Kane with Charles Paris applying inks and crafting shading in a sequence setting the scene and revealing the secrets of Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Alfred and the rest of the cast. This was used as a compulsory starter for any and every paper picking up the strip and was initially seen between October 25th to 30th 1943.

From there it’s straight into action as ‘What a Sweet Racket!’ (Finger, Kane & Paris spanning 1st November 1943 – 8th January 1944) sees the Batsignal lit, summoning the Dynamic Duo to find missing Police Commissioner Gordon…

The doughty lawman disappeared soon after visiting convict Spike Durphy at State Prison, and the con is also now gone! Although quickly recovered by the masked manhunters, Gordon has uncovered a sinister scheme to spring prisoners from jail and get them out of town. After many near-death incidents Batman and Robin realise the gang are well imbedded in Gotham and are playing more than one game, but what no one knows is that there’s a spy on the task force and the mobsters have a second scheme in play to remove their greatest enemy.

Of course the World’s Greatest Detective has already spotted a major giveaway and is ready to swoop when the time is right…

Switching from crime thriller to melodrama, second sortie ‘The Phantom Terrorist’ (Finger, Kane & Paris from 10th January to 18th March 1944) traces the macabre manoeuvres of a seeming maniac targeting dancer Rita Rollins. However, a little digging by theatregoers Wayne and Grayson exposes plenty of grudges and simmering tensions fraying the nerves of management, cast and crew; any one of whom could be the phantom saboteur spoiling the production and nearly killing many performers and audience members…

Oddly, even after devious deduction and dynamic derring-do leads to the capture of “The Terrorist”, accidents keep happening and the sleuths must think again – with some insightful input from Alfred – to stop tragedy occurring…

In pursuing a “more mature” newspaper readership editor Jack Schiff and the creators were mindful to keep supervillain appearances to a minimum and play up themes and plots familiar to movie-trained audiences. That might explain why killer-clown The Joker made an early appearance: his look was reputedly based on Conrad Veidt as tragic antihero Gwynplaine in the 1928 expressionist movie masterpiece The Man Who Laughed (itself an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel).

Again crafted by Finger, Kane & Paris and running Mondays to Saturdays from 20th March through 3rd June 1944, ‘The Joker’s Symbol Crimes’ opens with the villain in jail and seemingly suffering a psychological breakdown. It’s hard to tell with the “Clown Prince of Crime” but the situation is simply a ploy to escape and – once again at liberty – he goes on another terrifying spree based on images of symbolic value to the victims in an attempt to categorically prove his superiority to Batman. The chase leads all over Gotham and includes a fantastic sequence dangling from a clock tower that informed Bat-iconology for decades after as well as the climactic scene in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie…

It should also be noted that as a maturer feature, these Batman adventures casually included a lot more scantily clad ladies than the comic book iteration: generally actresses like Rita Rollins or, as here, svelte starlet Miss Gaylord…

Big changes began with the fourth sequence as new writers delivered shorter, snappier adventures. beginning with ‘The Secret of Triangle Farm’ (5th June -12th August) by crime novelist Don Cameron. His comic book credits included Superman, Liberty Belle, Boy Commandos, Superboy, Aquaman, Congo Bill and DC western stars Pow Wow Smith, Hopalong Cassidy and Nighthawk) and with Kane & Paris he revealed here how fur thieves used their isolated spread to launder a string of brutal robberies. Mastermind The Silver Fox even managed to shoot the Darknight Detective, generating harrowing weeks of tense melodrama as he hovered between life and death. The Boy Wonder briefly worked alone until forced to recruit a lookalike Batman from the police force, but the ploy ended in shocking tragedy and ultimately a bittersweet victory when the true masked manhunter returned…

‘The Missing Heir Dilemma’ saw more radical roster changes with Alvin Schwartz (as Vernon Woodrum  and later scripter of many DC stars including Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Newsboy Legion, Aquaman, Vigilante, Slam Bradley, Tomahawk and the Superman newspaper strip), beginning the mystery with Kane pencilling the first 2 weeks before newspaper strip star/sports cartoonist Jack Burnley (Superman, Starman) replaced him. As ever Paris inked the tale which ran from 14th August to October 28th 1944.

It begins as super-slick sadistic Southern conman Percy Swann joins forces with local mobster “The Spaniel” to extend the scammer’s grift of choice by “finding” lost inheritors like Eggbert Dover. The Dynamic Duo find the petty criminal first but cannot see what benefit to major felons the job would afford… but that’s only until the real target is revealed and the long con exposed. Sadly, dying William Jenkin enjoys a miraculous recovery after Swann introduces him to the son he lost decades ago and when the located prodigal suffers pangs of conscience, steps need to be taken if the job is to succeed…

When those murderous efforts inadvertently involve Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend (nurse Linda Page) our heroes find the link they’ve been looking for and justice takes its harsh course…

The next five stories (preceded by another titanic tranche of information from Deris) originally comprised the second 1990s’ collection (covering 1944-1945) but here rolls straight on with Schwartz, Kane & Paris’ ‘The Two-Bit Dictator of Twin Mills’ (October 30th 1944 – January 27th 1945). This time dirty politics and graft are the topical topics as Bruce and Dick relocate to a nearby city and into a war between honest newspaper editor Ben Bellow and corrupt party boss Tweed Wickham. When Bellow won’t stop crusading his offices are blown up and friend/shareholder Wayne takes over the Twin Mills Sentinel and is soon finishing the job of dismantling Wickham’s all-powerful party machine. Despite the best efforts of corrupted cops, bought judges outlawing Batman & Robin, an army of cheap thugs and creepily “infallible” hired killer JoJo (based on actor Peter Lorre at his most sinister) the outcome is never in doubt. However, when JoJo feels he’s been betrayed by his employers a deadly wild card threatens to end everyone concerned on all sides…

Jack Schiff returned to his writing roots for next yarn ‘Bliss House Ain’t the Same’ (January 29th – April 28th) as Gotham suburb Midville Junction welcomes back prodigal son Martin Bliss. Sadly, his reunion at the old homestead reveals an unwanted and monstrous cuckoo in the nest and his fiery mother a virtual hostage. Fugitive poetic gangster Pomade is ruling the roost and soon “disappears” Martin’s girlfriend Corrine to further robberies involving shady gangster Skipper Keane… which is where Batman comes in as he’s just confirmed that gunman’s participation in a recent hold-up…

A classic caper of crooks, kidnaps, chases and sinister doings, the building tension culminates in an eerie subterranean pursuit and marine manhunt ending in the death of a tragic monster before Schiff, Burnley & Paris find true romance in ‘The Karen Drew Mystery’ (April 30th – July 7th). Here Bruce Wayne’s latest flighty fascination proves to be a real dark horse and his equal in ingenuity who initially frames him for murder before becoming a fellow fugitive from justice. Literally tied together Bruce and Karen hunt the real culprit with the Gotham cops dogging their heels until she brings him to the real enemy – blackmailing smuggler Mr. Wright –  and a rightful if rough and (for Bruce) unsatisfactory conclusion…

A moment of rare tranquillity opens Schwartz, Kane & Paris’ ‘Their Toughest Assignment’ (July 9th – September 1st) as Commissioner Gordon is compelled to pay off a longstanding police debt of honour and calls in Batman and Robin despite the matter having “nothing to do with crime”…

Big Ed Parker helped out the force in times of trouble and now needs to find his daughter an apartment in the city already groaning under a housing crisis caused by returning military and demobbed civilian workers all freshly out of WWII. It’s a conundrum even vast personal wealth and all the skills of the World’s Greatest Detectives can’t readily solve, and is soon complicated by equally desperate seekers competing for the premises of murder victims, upward moving millionaires and recently arrested felons.

Aso it doesn’t stay felony-free for long as even when they do find a home for Phyllis Parker it turns out to be an active crime scene and even Phyllis isn’t on the level…

Moving from wry topical humour to macabre murder mystery the same creative team detail ‘The Warning of the Lamp!’ (September 3rd – November 24th 1945) as a fishing trip lands Bruce & Dick in the heart of a mystery as fellow angler Finlay Gribbidge reels up a jacket with his name in that he’s never seen before…

Bitten by the mystery, Bruce pursues the odd coincidence and is soon wading through a complicated scam involving a cult of vegetarians led by a dubious prophet/spiritualist with his eye on a convoluted property scam. His multi-million dollar payout is almost assured and The Lamp is quite content to kill anyone in his way unless Bruce can find a way to foil him…

The third and final individual outing becomes the last section of this 40s Batman compilation, again enhanced by fascinating Bat-lore from Joe Desris (including a complete list of all the papers that carried the feature and a comparison of the comic book and strip interpretations of the Doctor Radium story).

From November 26th 1945 to February 9th 1946 Schwartz, Burnley Kane & Paris explored ‘An Affair of Death’ as a stolen car racket plagues Gotham and Bruce Wayne acts as an undercover agent of the DA’s office. Although the police arrest many lower down the chain, the endeavour prospers and Wayne agrees to buy a hot car from the enigmatic bosses. That trail seemingly leads to hulking, speech-impaired crime boss Lockjaw and his ubiquitous, obsequious major domo Echo, but something isn’t right…

In an effort to stop the interference, Lockjaw springs from jail young “gypsy” Eduardo (no such thing as Roma outside horror movies back then). The boy is already serving time for threatening the DA to protect his sister’s honour and Lockjaw tries to coerce the angry kid to get rid of his legal problems – but with no effect. Meanwhile said sister Juanita has already painfully interacted with Bruce, and when Batman follows her the truth slowly comes out, but not before the real leader captures the siblings and tries again to make them his patsies. As events spiral out of control a degree of disguise and identity trading leads to a vicious showdown and honour bloodily restored…

Jack Schiff clearly had fun great scripting ‘A Change of Costume’ (February 11th – March 23rd) for strip debutantes Dick Sprang & Stan Kaye as Gordon and Batman planned a big bust and the arrest of notorious gangster “Slugger” Kaye. The scheme involved tricking their quarry into attending a society ball he had never before missed but all the cheeky fun came as the Dynamic Duo attend dressed as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Robin was mad enough to be turning villainous heads as the glamorous Queen of France even before Slugger introduced his own “insurance policy”/escort – formidable female fighter Hammerlock Hilda. When she started laying out the attendees… all heck broke loose…

Reining in the delicious comedy Schwartz, Kane & Paris revealed how a ruthless, intrusive radio journalist Reed Parker broke all rules and abandoned ethics to trump his rivals with ‘The News That Makes the News’ (March 25th – June 1st). His scandalous scoops spoil police plans, endanger witnesses and allow the guiltiest scum in America to run free, but when he stepped over the line once too often, the government asked Batman and Robin to ferret out his sources and found a dark criminal secret at the heart of Parker’s crusade – one that could expose the Dark Knight’s other identity to the lethal glare of exposure…

Schwartz, Kane & Paris then revealed how a bridegroom on his wedding day only had ‘Ten Days to Live!’ (June 3rd – August 3rd). Cappy Wren’s shocking prognosis spurs his bride to marry him at once, but as the countdown ticks away Batman and Robin become involved when the living deadman tries to make his end meaningful by going after notorious criminals like Monty Flak…

When that results in hoods and hoodlums seeking to speed up that demise, counterattacks by the Gotham Guardians result in a bonanza of arrests and big surprise happy ever after…

The law process is severely scrutinised by the same creative team in penultimate thriller ‘Acquitted By Iceberg’ (August 5th – September 21st) when the most cunning, unscrupulous and infallible defense lawyer in America sets up his shingle in Gotham and starts allowing the worst of the worst back onto its bloodstained streets. After numerous confrontations produce nothing but stalemate, Batman’s dogged determination finally overwhelms the Iceberg’s patience and when he finally steps over his own legal line, the true victor is justice…

First told in Batman #8 (1941), the last strip escapade adapts ‘The Strange Case of Professor Radium’ which told of a scientist abused by money-grubbing financial backers who turned himself into a deadly radioactive marauder. Here original writer Bill Finger with Kane & Paris radically revises, recycles and expands the moody horror as arrogant nuclear physicist Professor Knell accidently overdoses on radiation and becomes a madly murderous menace dubbed ‘Deadly Professor Radium’ (September 23rd – November 2nd). After developing a “death touch” and going on a horrific rampage of mercy-killings bringing peace and final rest to the afflicted whether they seek it or not, he meets his own end after turning the city into an abandoned ghost town, with scenes presaging the atomic monster tropes of the following 15 years. In the end it’s not the heroes who end the threat but hubris and fate…

And that was that. The daily strip incarnation of Batman and Robin closed with no fanfare and little lamentation as post-war America turned to different kinds of two-fisted champions for their family Funny Page hits. The Sunday page had already ended (on October 27th 1946) and world of regulation he-men in dire straits – but no tights and much military regalia – waited in the wings. However time and distance have showed us these are truly tales of golden vintage and inestimable value. It’s long past time this stuff was back in print, and available in digital formats too – as it’s a must for both Bat-fans and lovers of the artform.
© 1991, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch Epic Collection volume 1 – Vengeance Reborn (1990-1991)


By Howard Mackie, Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, Javier Saltares, Mark Texeira. Mark Bagley, Larry Stroman, Chris Marrinan, Jimmy Palmiotti, Harry Candelario, Tom Palmer, Mark McKenna & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5405-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

In the early 1970’s, following a downturn in superhero comics sales Marvel shifted focus from traditional clean-cut costumed crusaders to supernatural and horror characters. One of the most enduring was a flaming-skulled vigilante dubbed The Ghost Rider.

Carnival stunt-cyclist Johnny Blaze had sold his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father from cancer. As is always the way of such things Satan (or arch-liar Mephisto as he actually was) followed the letter, but not spirit, of the contract and Crash Simpson died anyway.

When the Demon Lord came for Blaze only the love of an innocent saved the bad-boy biker from eternal pain and damnation. Temporarily thwarted, Johnny was punished: afflicted with a body that burned with all the fires of Hell every time the sun went down. He became the unwilling host for outcast and exiled demon Zarathos – the Spirit of Vengeance. After years of travail and turmoil Blaze was liberated from the demon’s curse and seemingly retired from the hero’s life. The origin has been tweaked constantly since then, but for this time and tome, this is what the reboot stemmed from…

As Blaze briefly escaped a preordained doom, a tragic boy named Danny Ketch assumed the role of Zarathos’ host and prison by a route most circuitous and tragic…

From that dubious period of fashionably “Grim ‘n’ Gritty” superheroics in the early 1990s comes an engagingly fast-paced and action-oriented horror-hero re-imagining, courtesy of writer Howard Mackie and artists Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira, which rapidly secured the newest Ghost Rider status as one of the hottest hits of the period.

This premiere Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch Epic Collection volume gathers #1-12 of the revitalised series plus crossover incidents from Marc Spector: Moon Knight #25, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #28 and material from Marvel Comics Presents #64-71: cumulatively covering cover-dates May 1990 to April 1991, and opens sans introduction with Howard Mackie, Javier Saltares & Mark Texiera’s bonanza-sized introductory tale ‘Life’s Blood’

Here teenager Danny and his photographer sister Barbara are looking for Houdini’s tomb in Brooklyn’s vast Cypress Hills Cemetery on the eve of Halloween. Tragically, they stumble into a bloody criminal confrontation over a mysterious briefcase with ninjas and gangsters lashing out indiscriminately. Discovered, the siblings flee but Barb is hit by an arrow, with the case itself snatched by a juvenile gang who haunt the wooded necropolis. One of them makes tracks with the prize as the ninjas and macabre leader Deathwatch finish the firefight that follows. Now they are hunting for their hard-won prize… and the witnesses…

In an adjacent junkyard Danny is helplessly watching Barb bleed out when his attention is caught by a glowing pair of eyes. Closer inspection reveals them to be an arcane design on the gas-cap of an abandoned motorbike. The ninjas, having caught the girl who stole the briefcase, are closing in on the Ketch kids when Danny, hands soaked in his sister’s blood, touches the glowing bike symbol and is inexplicably transformed into a spectral horror, burning with fury and indignation. He has become a Spirit of Vengeance hungry to assuage the pain of innocent blood spilled, brimming with inhuman vitality, toting an infinitely adaptable bike chain and employing a mystic “Penance Stare” which subjects the guilty to unimaginable psychic pain and guilt…

The Blazing Biker makes short work of the ninjas, but when the police arrive and find him standing over dying Barbara, they naturally jump to the wrong conclusion…

Ghost Rider flees on a bike with wheels of fire, causing spectacular amounts of collateral carnage, as Barb is rushed to hospital, where a re-transfigured, bruised, bleeding and totally confused Danny finds her next morning…

In the richest part of Manhattan, Wall Street shark/psionic monster Deathwatch makes a ghastly example of the man who lost his briefcase – twice! – even as his competitor for it, criminal overlord Wilson Fisk, similarly chastises his own minions for failure. The contents of the case are not only hotly disputed, but utterly lethal and both factions will tear Brooklyn apart to get them. Meanwhile the teen thieves known as the Cyprus Pool Jokers find three canisters in the purloined case and hide them all over the vast cemetery, unaware that both Deathwatch’s ninjas and the Kingpin’s hoods are hunting for them.

At Barbara’s bedside Danny is wracked with guilt and plagued by anger. Unable to help his comatose sister, he decides to investigate what happened to him. When he regained consciousness, the blazing bike had returned to a normal configuration which Danny climbs aboard to heads back to Cyprus Hills and seek answers… just as competing packs of killers are turning the streets into a free-fire zone.

Riding right into the bloodbath, Danny sees his bike gas-cap glowing again and, almost against his will, slams his palm onto it to unleash his skeletal passenger once again…

Devastating assembled mobsters and murderers, the Ghost Rider takes wounded Cyprus Pool Jokers Ralphie and Paulie to hospital and another pointless confrontation with the authorities…

Second issue ‘Do Be Afraid of the Dark!’ depicts open war between Deathwatch and Kingpin’s forces for canisters neither side possesses, with Ghost Rider roaming the night tackling increasingly savage hunters on both sides. Paulie admits she has no idea where two of the containers might be, since the Jokers split up to hide them and she’s now the last of them…

The urban horror escalates when Deathwatch’s metahuman enforcer Blackout joins the hunt: a sadistic manmade vampire with the ability to manipulate fields of complete darkness. This psychotic mass-murderer targets entire families and starts his search by “questioning” the cops who attended the initial battle in the graveyard…

Danny is on the verge of a breakdown, snapping viciously at his mother and girlfriend Stacy: utterly unable to share the horror his life has become. Between days at Barb’s bedside and nights enslaved to a primal force obsessed with blood and punishment, Ketch is drowning…

When Blackout tracks down recuperating Ralphie, Ghost Rider is too late to save the young felon’s parents and barely manages to drive the vampire away before the boy also succumbs, leading to the inevitable final clash in ‘Deathwatch’ as the Wall Street dilettante’s forces find the canisters before being overwhelmed by the Kingpin. Painfully pragmatic, the ninja-master simply surrenders, but wildly unpredictable Blackout refuses to submit, slipping into a deadly berserker rage before escaping with the containers and terrified hostage Paulie.

The albino maniac knows his prize is a toxin able to eradicate New York’s population and harbours an plan to use it to kick-start an atomic war. The subsequent nuclear winter would ensure an Earth he would inevitably rule. However, his delusional dreams are ended when the Ghost Rider appears and engages the vampire in blistering battle.

Incensed beyond endurance, Blackout savagely bites the blazing biker, but instead of blood sucks down raw, coruscating hellfire that leaves his face a melted, agonising ruin whilst burning the canisters to harmless slag…

GR #4 finds Danny – unable to resist the constant call to become the Flaming Apparition – locking the cursed motorcycle beyond the reach of temptation in distant Manhattan. Sadly, it has other ideas when a clash between bikers and an old Thor villain trap Ketch and a car full innocent bystanders in a subterranean parking garage. ‘You Can Run, but You Can’t Hyde!’ teaches the troubled young man that the Rider is a cruel necessity in a bad world: an argument confirmed by the beginning of an extended subplot wherein children start vanishing from Brooklyn’s streets.

The very epitome of Grim ‘n’ Gritty stops by for a two issue guest-shot in #5-6 as ‘Getting Paid!’ and ‘Do or Die!’ reveal a mysterious figure distributing free guns to children, drawing the attention of not just the night-stalking Spirit of Vengeance but also merciless, militaristic vigilante Frank Castle, known to criminals and cops alike as The Punisher.

The weapons are turning the city into a slaughterhouse, but cops and unscrupulous TV reporter Linda Wei seem more concerned with stopping Ghost Rider’s campaign against the youthful killers than ending the bloodshed. Danny investigates in mortal form and quickly finds himself in over his head, but for some reason the magic medallion won’t transform him. He is completely unaware how close he is to becoming the Punisher’s latest statistic…

The situation changes that night and the flame-skulled zealot initially clashes with Castle before they unite to tackle the true mastermind: rabid anti-nationalist, anti-capitalist terrorist Flag-Smasher. With the insane demagogue determined to unleash a blizzard of death on Wall Street, the driven antiheroes briefly unite to end the scheme and save the “bad” kids and the system that created them…

Illustrated solely by Texeira, ‘Obsession’ in #7 sees the return of contortionist/animal trainer The Scarecrow – who barely troubled Iron Man, The X-Men or Captain America in his early days – reinventing himself after slipping into morbid thanophilia. Now a remorseless, death-preoccupied deviant, he presents a truly different threat to the mystic agent of retribution…

A far greater menace is seen – or rather, not seen – as Blackout resurfaces: silently stalking Ketch and savagely slaughtering everybody who knows him. Not even the police guards at Barbara’s hospital bedside can stop the fiend with half-a-face…

Through dreams Danny debates his cursed existence with the Spirit of Vengeance in Mackie, Saltares & Texeira’s ‘Living Nightmare’ with Danny bemoaning his fate but seemingly unable to affect the implacable, terrifying being he can’t stop becoming. Adding to his fevered nights are visions of Deathwatch, Barbara and vile psycho-killer Blackout…

As the vampire continues killing anybody coming into contact with Danny – who seems paralysed by his dilemma – Stacy completes her training to be a cop, whilst her dad increases patrols to catch the blazing Biker. Impatient and scared, the Cypress Hills Community Action Group takes controversial steps to safeguard their streets: hiring maverick private security company H.E.A.R.T. (Humans Engaging All Racial Terrorism – truly one of the naffest and most inappropriate acronyms in comics history) who promptly assess Ghost Rider as the cause of all the chaos and go after him with high-tech military hardware including a helicopter gunship…

The Spirit of Vengeance is already occupied, having found Blackout attacking another girl, but their showdown is interrupted when the fiery skeleton is attacked by a colossal Morlock (feral mutants who live in tunnels beneath New York) mistaking saviour for assailant…

GR #9 guest-stars X-Factor (a reconstituted X-Men team comprising Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman and The Beast) who solve the mystery of the missing children in ‘Pursuit’ (with additional inks by Jimmy Palmiotti) after following Ghost Rider and Morlocks under the city.

Tragically, Blackout too is on the Blazing Biker’s trail and finds in the concrete depths even more victims to torture Danny Ketch’s breaking heart and blistered soul before their climactic last clash…

Here we pause for social networking 90s style as a serial in fortnightly anthology showcase Marvel Comics Presents (issues #64-710) sees the spectral biker participate in ‘Acts of Vengeance.’ Concocted by Mackie, Texiera & Harry Candelario the 8-part serial finds the Rider, Wolverine and debutante hero Brass battle Deathwatch, ninjas, Triads and host of other then-ubiquitous oriental-themed foes in a rushed, non-stop excuse for a fight detailed in ‘Ghosts of the Past!’, ‘Claw & Chain’, ‘Dancing in the Dark’, ‘Uneasy Alliance’, ‘Mutants, Nijas & Demons’, ‘Brass Tactics’, ‘Confession is Good for the Soulless’ and ‘The End’, prior to the Rider roaring into double-length and out-of-chronology Marc Spector: Moon Knight #25 April 1991).

Here Mackie, Mark Bagley & Tom Palmer detail how the Fist of Khonshu fights fanatical and fatalistic religious zealots The Knights of the Moon before grudgingly accepting vengeful spiritual support to prevent a wave of New York bombings… and worse…

Returning to Ghost Rider #10 (February 1991 by Mackie, Saltares & Texiera) ‘Stars of Blood’ sees Danny reconciled to his burden and beginning a new phase of life. When a series of horrific murders are attributed to a publicity-seeking serial killer named Zodiak, Ketch investigates the deaths and discovers the haunted gas-cap is again inactive, although it does transform him later when he stumbles over a couple of kids fighting. Arcanely active again, Ghost Rider follows a convenient tip to the astrological assassin and discovers a far more prosaic reason for the string of slayings before an inclusive and unsatisfying battle with the insufferable, elusive Zodiak.

Meanwhile elsewhere, the humiliated H.E.A.R.T. honchos accept Deathwatch’s commission to destroy the Spirit of Vengeance, whilst in the western USA a previous victim of the curse of Zarathos is riding his motorcycle hard, determined to get to New York and destroy the new Ghost Rider as soon as possible…

Pencilled by Larry Stroman, ‘Through a Nightmare Revealed…’ finds Danny repeatedly targeted by the dream demon who once controlled Zarathos – and who is determined to do so again. In the physical world Zodiak, returns with anew scheme and the previous Biker from Hell closes in on Danny, all before Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme pops in moments too late to prevent Ketch and the Spirit of Vengeance taking their relationship to the next level…

This volume ends on a thematic cliffhanger with GR #12 (April 1991 by Mackie, Saltares & Texiera) sharing some Stephen ‘Strange Tales’ as Earth’s magical monitor and aides Topaz and Rintrah arrive at a wrong conclusion about the new Ghost Rider and take unnecessarily hostile action.

Incapable of relinquishing his mission to save the innocent, the Rider hits back and heads off, leading the mistaken heroes to the real monsters and the true victims in time for a shocking demon-infested conclusion in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #28’s ‘Strange Tales, Part II’ (Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, Chris Marrinan & Mark McKenna) with infernal old foes and new threats all failing to flay humanity…

To Be Continued…

This expanded re-issue of 1991’s Ghost Rider Resurrected trade paperback also includes the Texiera cover and articles by John A. Wilcox from Marvel Age #87 (April 1990) as well as Marvel Trivia Quiz, Fred Hembeck’s Li’l Blazer cartoon spoof and a text piece and spoof ads from Marvel 1990 – The Year in Review.

Also on show are Texiera’s cover and Mackie’s introduction from that 1991 collection and the Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Acts of Vengeance TPB; Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch – Marvel Tales by Logan Lubera & Chris Sotomayor; Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch Classic by Saltares & John Kalisz and Marvel Comics Presents Wolverine volume 4 by Rob Liefeld & Tom Chu, plus pin-ups from Texiera, Palmiotti & Saltares. There’s a full cover gallery and variants by Saltares, Texiera, Jim Lee, Bagley, Stroman, Mike Thomas & Klaus Janson, David Ross, Jim Valentino & Joe Rosas, Paul Gulacy, Sandy Plunkett & Alan Weiss, Liefeld, John Byrne and Mike Golden, and also original art by Lee.

Despite being markedly short on plot and utterly devoid of humour, this reboot delivered the maximum amount of uncomplicated thrills, spills and chills for action-starved fight fans – and still does. If you occasionally feel subtlety isn’t everything and yearn for a vicarious dose of plain-&-simple wickedness-whomping, this might well be the book you’re looking for.
© 2023 MARVEL.

Posted on

Showcase Presents Martian Manhunter volume 1


By Jack Miller, Joe Samachson, Dave Wood, Edmund Hamilton, Bob Kane, Joe Certa, Lew Sayre Schwartz & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1368-8 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Stress-alleviating Fun is in pretty short supply everywhere these days, but if you’re a comics fan susceptible to charming nostalgia, this item – readily available in paperback, but tragically still not formally full-colour archived or even compiled in any digital format yet – might just appeal to the starry-eyed wonderer in you.

As the 1950’s opened, comic book superheroes were in inescapable decline, giving way to a steady stream of genre-locked he-men and “Ordinary Joes” dramatically caught up in weird or extraordinary circumstances. By the time the “Red-baiting”, witch-hunting Senate hearings and media investigations into causes of juvenile delinquency fizzled out mid-decade, the industry was further depleted by the excision of any sort of mature content or themes.

The self-imposed Comics Code Authority took all the hard edges out of the industry, banning horror and crime comics whilst leaving ghostly, sanitised anodyne shades to inhabit the remaining adventure, western, war, humour and fantasy titles that remained. American comics – for which read a misperceived readership comprising only children and cretins – could have bowdlerised concepts of evil and felonious conduct, but not the simplest note of repercussion: a world where mad scientists plotted to conquer humanity without killing anybody and cowboys severed gun-belts or shot guns out of opponents’ hands with a well-aimed bullet without ever drawing blood. Moreover, no civil or government official or public servant could be depicted as anything other than a saint…

With corruption, venality and menace excised from the equation, comics were forced to supply punch and tension to proceedings via mystery and imagination – but only as long as it all had a rational, non-supernatural explanation…

Beating by a year the new Flash (who launched in Showcase #4 cover-dated October 1956) and now officially the first superhero of the Silver Age, the series depicting the clandestine cases of stranded alien scientist J’onn J’onzz was initially entitled John Jones, Manhunter from Mars: an honourable, decent being unwillingly trapped on Earth who chose to confront injustice and fight crime secretly using incredible powers, knowledge and advanced technical abilities with no human even aware of his existence.

In truth, even before that low-key debut, Batman #78 trialled the concept in ‘The Manhunter From Mars!’ (August/September 1953) wherein Edmund Hamilton, Bob Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Charlie Paris told the tale of Roh Kar: lawman of the Fourth Planet who assisted the Dynamic Duo in capturing a Martian bandit plundering Gotham City. That stirring titbit opens this first magnificent monochrome compendium before doling out a main course of the eccentric, frequently formulaic but never disappointing back-up series from Detective Comics #225 to 304, cumulatively spanning November 1955 to June 1962.

In one of the longest creative tenures in DC comics’ history, all the art for the series was by veteran illustrator Joe Certa (1919-1986), who had previously worked for the Funnies Incorporated comics “Shop”. His credits included work on Captain Marvel Junior and assorted genre titles for Magazine Enterprises (Dan’l Boone, Durango Kid), Lev Gleason’s crime comics and Harvey romance titles. For DC he drew nautical sleuth Captain Compass and many tales for such anthological titles as Gang Busters and House of Mystery.

Certa also drew the newspaper strips Straight Arrow and Tarzan, and ghosted long-lived boxing strip Joe Palooka. In the 1970s he moved to Gold Key, working on TV adaptations, mystery tales and all-ages horror stories, before ending his career at DC on Challengers of the Unknown and Legion of Super-Heroes…

At the height of global Flying Saucer fever John Jones, Manhunter from Mars debuted in Detective Comics #225 (cover-dated November 1955). Written by Joe Samachson, ‘The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel’ describes how a reclusive genius builds a robot-brain able to access Time, Space and the Fourth Dimension, and accidentally plucks an alien scientist from his home on Mars. After a brief conversation with his unfortunate guest, Erdel succumbs to a heart attack whilst attempting to return the incredible J’onn J’onzz to his point of origin.

Marooned on Earth, the Martian realises his new home is riddled with the primitive cancer of Crime and resolves to use his natural abilities (which include telepathy, mind-over-matter psychokinesis, shape-shifting, invisibility, intangibility, super strength and speed, flight, assorted super vision powers, invulnerability and many more) to eradicate the blight; working clandestinely disguised as a human policeman. His only concern is the commonplace chemical reaction of fire which saps all Martians of their mighty powers…

With his name Americanised to John Jones he enlists as a Police Detective and with #226’s ‘The Case of the Magic Baseball’ began a long, peril-fraught career tackling a variety of Earthly thugs, mobsters and monsters, starting with the sordid case of Big Bob Michaels – a reformed ex-con and baseball player blackmailed into throwing games by a gang of crooked gamblers. He continues in ‘The Man with 20 Lives’ as the mind-reading cop impersonates a ghost to force a confession from a hard-bitten killer.

The tantalising prospect of a return to Mars confronts Jones in the Dave Wood scripted ‘Escape to the Stars’ (Detective #228) wherein criminal scientist Alex Dunster cracks the secret of Erdel’s Robot Brain. However, duty overrules selfish desire and the mastermind destroys his stolen super-machine when Jones arrests him…

With #229 Jack Miller took over scripting, leading off with ‘The Phantom Bodyguard’ as the Hidden Hero signs on to protect a businessman from his murderous partner, only to discover a far more complex plot unfolding, before #230’s ‘The Sleuth Without a Clue’ sees the covert cop battling a deadline to get the goods on a vicious gang, just as a wandering comet causes his powers to malfunction…

Detective Comics #231 heralds a shift towards sci fi roots in ‘The Thief Who Had Super Powers!’, as an impossible bandit proves to be simply another refugee from the Red Planet, after which ‘The Dog with a Martian Master’ is revealed to be just another delightful if fanciful animal champion. Jones returns to straight crimebusting and clandestine cops-&-robbers capers by becoming ‘The Ghost from Outer Space’ in #233 before going undercover in a prison to thwart a smart operator in #234’s ‘The Martian Convict’.

Jones infiltrates a circus as ‘The World’s Greatest Magician’ to catch a Phantom Thief and finally re-establishes contact with his extraterrestrial family to solve ‘The Great Earth-Mars Mystery’ in #236, all before seeing out 1956 as ‘The Sleuth Who went to Jail’ (this time one operated by crooks) and loses his powers to work as an ‘Earth Detective for a Day’ in #238.

For Detective #239 (January 1957) ‘Ordeal By Fire!’ finds the Anonymous Avenger transferred to the Fire Department to track down an arson ring, whilst in ‘The Hero Maker’ Jones surreptitiously uses his gifts to help a retiring cop go out on a high, prior to yet another firebug targeting historical treasures sparking ‘The Impossible Manhunt!’ in #241.

Jones thought he’d be safe as a underwater officer in ‘The Thirty Fathom Sleuth’ but even there flames find a way to threaten him, after which he battles legendary Martian robot Tor in #243’s ‘The Criminal from Outer Space’, latterly doubling for an endangered actor in ‘The Four Stunts of Doom!’ and busting up a clever racket utilising ‘The Phantom Fire Alarms!’ in #245.

As a back-up feature, expectations were never particularly high but occasionally all those formula elements gelled to produce exemplary adventure tales such as #246’s ‘John Jones’ Female Nemesis’, introducing pert, perky and pestiferous trainee policewoman Diane Meade. Being a 1950’s woman, naturally she had romance most in mind, but was absent for the next equally engaging thriller wherein our indomitable alien cop puzzled over ‘The Impossible Messages’ of scurrilous smugglers and #248’s marvellous tale of ‘The Martian Without a Memory’. Struck by lightning, Jones must utilise earthly deductive skills to discern his lost identity, and almost exposes his own extraterrestrial secret in the process…

In Detective #249’s ‘Target for a Day’ the Martian disguises himself as the State Governor marked for death by a brutal gang whilst as ‘The Stymied Sleuth!’ he is forced to stay in hospital to protect his alien identity as radium thieves run amok in town, after which he seemingly becomes a brilliant crook himself… ‘Alias Mr. Zero’.

For #252 Jones confronts a scientific super-criminal in ‘The Menace of the Super-Weapons’ before infiltrating a highly suspicious newspaper as ‘The Super Reporter!’ and invisibly battle rogue soldiers as ‘The One-Man Army’ in #254. The Hidden Hero attempts to foil an audacious murder-plot encompassing the four corners of Earth in a ‘World-Wide Manhunt!’, after which #256’s ‘The Carnival of Doom’ pits him against crafty crooks whilst babysitting a VIP kid whilst #257 sees the Starborn Sleuth perpetrating spectacular crimes to trap the ‘King of the Underworld!’

In Detective #258 Jones takes an unexpectedly dangerous vacation cruise on ‘The Jinxed Ship’ and return to tackle another criminal genius in ‘The Getaway King!’ before helping a failing fellow cop in the heartwarming tale of ‘John Jones’ Super-Secret’, after which ab-normality resumes in #261 as a shrink ray reduces him to ‘The Midget Manhunter!’.

It was an era of ubiquitous evil masterminds and another one used beasts for banditry in ‘The Animal Crime Kingdom’, whilst a sinister stage magician tested Manhunter’s mettle and wits in #263’s ‘The Crime Conjurer!’ before the hero’s hidden powers are almost exposed after cheap hoods find a crashed capsule and unleash ‘The Menace of the Martian Weapons!’

Masked and costumed villains were still a rarity when J’onzz tackled ‘The Fantastic Human Falcon’ in #265 whilst ‘The Challenge of the Masked Avenger!’ was the only case for a new – and inept – wannabe hero, after which the Martian’s sense of duty and justice force him to forego a chance to return home in #267’s ‘John Jones’ Farewell to Earth!’

A menacing fallen meteor results in ‘The Mixed-Up Martian Powers’ and a blackmailing reporter almost becoming ‘The Man who Exposed John Jones’, before a trip escorting an extradited felon from Africa results in J’onzz becoming ‘The Hunted Martian’. The Manhunter’s origin was revisited in #271 when Erdel’s robot-brain accidentally froze the Martian’s powers in ‘The Lost Identity’ whilst death threats compelled Jones’ boss to appoint a well-meaning hindrance in the form of ‘The Super-Sleuth’s Bodyguard’…

By the time Detective Comics #273 was released (autumn 1959 and cover-dated November) the Silver Age superhero revival was in full swing and, with a plethora of new costumed characters catching the public imagination, old survivors and hardy perennials like Green Arrow, Aquaman and others were given a thorough makeover. Perhaps the boldest was the new direction taken by the Manhunter from Mars as his undercover existence on Earth was revealed to all mankind when he very publicly battled and defeated a criminal from his home world in ‘The Unmasking of J’onn J’onzz’. As part of the revamp, J’onzz lost the ability to use his powers whilst invisible and became a very high-profile superhero. At least that vulnerability to common flame was still a closely guarded secret…

Nonetheless, this tale was followed by the debut of incendiary villain ‘The Human Flame’ in #274 and the introduction of a secret-identity-hunting romantic interest as policewoman Diane Meade returned in #275 recast as ‘John Jones’ Pesky Partner’…

‘The Crimes of John Jones’ finds the new superhero an amnesiac pawn of bank robbers before another fantastic foe premiered in #277 with ‘The Menace of Mr. Moth’. Invading Venusians almost cause ‘The Defeat of J’onn J’onzz’ next, and a hapless millionaire inventor nearly wrecks the city by accident with ‘The Impossible Inventions’…

Advance word of an underworld plot compels the Manhunter to be ‘Bodyguard to a Bandit’ and keep a crook out of jail, whilst #281’s ‘The Menace of Marsville’ inadvertently grants criminals powers to equal his after which another fallen meteorite temporarily makes Diane ‘The Girl with the Martian Powers’ – or does it?

To help out an imperilled ship captain, J’onzz becomes ‘The Amazing One-Man Crew’ whilst in #284 Diane – unaware of his extraterrestrial origins – seeks to seduce her partner in ‘The Courtship of J’onn J’onzz!’ after which monster apes tear up the city in ‘The Menace of the Martian Mandrills!’

Detective #286 found ‘His Majesty, John Jones’ standing in for an endangered Prince in a take on The Prisoner of Zenda before ‘J’onn J’onzz’s Kid Brother!’ T’omm is briefly stranded on Earth. Only one of the siblings could return…

‘The Case of the Honest Swindler’ in #288 sees a well-meaning man accidentally endanger the populace with magical artefacts after which a quick trip to Asia pits the Martian against a cunning jungle conman in ‘J’onn J’onzz – Witch Doctor’. Then when a movie is repeatedly sabotaged, Diane assumes the job of lead stunt-girl with some assistance from the Manhunter in ‘Lights, Camera – and Doom!’ and a lovesick suitor masquerades as ‘The Second Martian Manhunter’ to win his bride in #291. ‘The Ex-Convicts Club’ almost founders before it begins after someone impersonates reformed criminals to pull new jobs. Luckily J’onzz is more trusting than most…

Diane finds herself with a rival in policewoman Sally Winters and their enmity can apparently only be resolved with ‘The Girl-Hero Contest!’, after which the Manhunter pursues crooks into another dimension and becomes ‘The Martian Weakling’ (DC #294), and thereafter ‘The Martian Show-Off!’ to inexplicably deprive a fellow cop of his 1000th arrest! When that mystery is solved, he acts as ‘The Alien Bodyguard’ for Diane who is blithely unaware she has been marked for death…

Detective #297’s ‘J’onn J’onzz vs. the Vigilantes’ has the Green Guardian expose the secret agenda of a committee of wealthy “concerned citizens” before going to the aid of a stage performer who is ‘The Man Who Impersonated J’onn J’onzz!’ He then almost fails as a ‘Bodyguard for a Spy’ because Diane is jealous of the beautiful Princess in his charge…

Detective Comics #300 unveiled ‘The J’onn J’onzz Museum’ – a canny ploy by a master criminal who believes he has uncovered the Martian’s secret weakness, whilst ‘The Mystery of the Martian Marauders!’ has our hero battling impossible odds when an army of his fellows invaded Earth…

‘The Crime King of Mount Olympus’ matches the Manhunter against a pantheon of Hellenic super-criminals to save Diane’s life after which more plebeian thugs attempt to expose his secret identity in ‘The Great J’onn J’onzz Hunt!’ This first beguiling compendium then concludes with #304’s rousing tale of an academy of scientific lawbreakers as John Jones infiltrates ‘The Crime College!’…

Although certainly dated, these complex yet uncomplicated adventures are drenched in charm and still sparkle with innocent wit and wonder. Perhaps not to everyone’s taste nowadays, such vintage exploits of the Manhunter from Mars are still an all-ages buffet of fun, thrills and action no fan should miss.
© 1953, 1955-1962, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Marsupilami volume 9: The Butterfly and the Treetop Squid


By Batem & Yann, coloured by Cerise: created by Franquin and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1 80044-126-2 (Album PB/Digital edition)

One of Europe’s most popular and evergreen comic stars is an eccentrically unpredictable, irascible, loyal, superstrong, rubber-limbed yellow-&-black ball of explosive energy with a seemingly infinite elastic tail. The mighty Marsupilami is a wonder of nature and icon of entertainment invention originally spun-off from another immortal comedy adventure strip…

In 1946 Joseph “Jije” Gillain was crafting the eponymous keystone strip of Le Journal de Spirou when he abruptly handed off the entire kit & caboodle to assistant André Franquin. The apprentice gradually shifted format from short complete gags to extended adventure serials and adding a wide and engaging cast of new characters. For 1952’s Spirou et les heritiers (January 31st issue), he devised a beguiling boisterous South American critter and tossed him like an elastic-arsed grenade into the mix. Thereafter – until his resignation from the feature – Franquin frequently folded his bombastic beast into Spirou’s exotic escapades…

The Marsupilami returned over and over again: a phenomenally popular magical animal who inevitably grew into a solo star of screen, toy store, console games and albums all his own.

In 1955 a contractual spat with Dupuis resulted in Franquin signing up with publishing rivals Casterman on Le Journal de Tintin to work with René Goscinny and Peyo whilst concocting raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon. However, Franquin quickly patched things up with Dupuis and was restored to Le Journal de Spirou. In 1957, he unleashed Gaston Lagaffe (Gomer Goof) whilst still legally obliged to carry on Tintin work too. In 1959 writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem began assisting, but after 10 more years Franquin had reached his Spirou limit. He quit for good in 1969, and took his golden monkey with him…

Plagued by bouts of depression, Franquin died on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics. Moreover, having learned his lesson about publishers, Franquin retained all rights to Marsupilami and in the late 1980s had begun publishing his own adventures of the rambunctious miracle-worker…

Tapping old comrade Greg (Michel Régnier, writer and/or artist of Luc Orient, Bernard Prince, Bruno Brazil, Rock Derby, Zig et Puce, Achille Talon and Le Journal de Tintin editor from 1966-1974) as scripter and inviting commercial artist/illustrator Luc Collin (pen-name Batem), Franquin launched his new comedy feature through Marsu Productions. The first tome was La Queue du Marsupilami (1987) – translated as The Marsupilami’s Tale.

Ultimately, his collaborators monopolised art duties, and with 4th volume The Pollen of Mount Urticando Greg was replaced by artist-turned-scripter Yannick Le Pennetier – AKA “Yann” (Les Innomables, Bob Marone, Lolo et Sucette, Chaminou, Kid Lucky). In 2016, the long-sundered universes of Marsupilami and Spirou reconnected, allowing the old gang to participate in shared exploits of a unique world created and populated by Franquin.

Graced with a talent for mischief, the Marsupilami is a fiercely protective, deviously ingenious anthropoid inhabiting the rainforests of Palombia. One of the rarest animals on Earth, it speaks a language uniquely its own and has a reputation for making trouble and sparking chaos. The species is fanatically dedicated to its young, occasionally extending that filial aegis to other species – even sometimes to the ever-encroaching humans who constantly poke around looking for Marsupilami and other, even rarer creatures…

The Butterfly and the Treetop Squid was released in Europe in October 1994 as Les papillon des cimes: 9th of 33 solo albums thus far (not including all-Franquin short-story collection/volume #0 Capturez un Marsupilami). It delivers another riotous comedy action romp, introducing more weird interlopers to the growing cast…

We open deep in the wild woods of Palombia’s rainforests where our hirsute hero cavorts in the bosom of nature and revels in the innocent joys of family. That feeling evaporates when he discovers traps, lures and cast off rubbish left by human scientists…

Two of these unsavoury intruders (lepidopterist Professor Lida Dorvasal and his greedy guide Bring) are Palombians in pursuit of the world’s rarest butterfly – the female Narcissus Bucephalus – but the true threat to peace and tranquillity is a clandestine international expedition funded by “Big Sausage” interests currently secreted above the treetops in a vehicle like none ever built before…

These generally well-meaning but obsessively goal-oriented, self-serving and glory-seeking boffins comprise Professors Henry Verse-Geere, Apollo Nabokov, Lolita Rantula, Zephyr Morehouse-Fly and Akira “Batman” Mitsuhirato, latterly supplemented by “grunge-punk” Brad Wurst, ostensibly an artist/cameraman but also an unwanted legacy of the Neslog Kramart Quality Sausage empire foisted upon them against their express wishes.

The science squad are also seeking rare bugs and butterflies, and even after their advanced tech and kit is wrecked, have a hard time believing the Marsupilami exists… but that’s only the case until he starts wreaking more havoc by invading their canopy-crawling mobile octopoid fortress: an event coinciding with further breakdowns and crises that can only have been perpetrated by a human traitor on the team…

As breakdowns intensify and disappearances mount, the mission is further diverted and derailed after the Thinktank go crazy for Narcissus Bucephalus caterpillars (discovered to only propagate in occupied Marsupilami bowers). However, the pestiferous primates are proved mostly innocent of being wreckers when indigenous and invasive boffins unite to catch butterflies and inadvertently unmask a potential killer with criminal tendencies and a nasty job to do…

These eccentric exploits of the garrulous golden monkey are moody, macabre and madcap, furiously funny and pithily pertinent, offering engagingly rowdy romps and devastating debacles for wide-eyed kids of every age all over the world. If you care to revisit your wild ways it all starts with a Hoobee, Hoobah Hoobah…
Original edition © Dupuis, Dargaud-Lombard s.a. 1994 by Batem & Yann, Franquin. All rights reserved. English translations © 2023 Cinebook Ltd.