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Superman vs. Predator


By Mark Schultz & Ariel Olivetti (DC Comics/Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-319-3

I’m never particularly comfortable with crossovers combining licensed characters. It seems to me that some basic law of narrative integrity is being flouted purely for venal profit when two (or more) disparate headlining money-spinners are shoehorned into a story with scant regard for intrinsic values and often necessitating ludicrous plot-maguffins simply to make the mismatch work.

On first look just such commercial instincts seem to ride roughshod over all other considerations in this Battle of The Brands from DC and Dark Horse, which originally appeared as a three-issue miniseries in 2000 before making the jump to stiff covers and nominal legitimacy as a graphic novel…

However, appearances can be deceiving and once the necessary leveling gimmick has de-powered the nigh-omnipotent Man of Tomorrow what’s left is a beautifully illustrated and tensely effective thriller that both movie mavens and funnybook fans can read and enjoy.

Written by David Michelinie and illustrated by Alex Maleev the action opens with a S.T.A.R. Labs expedition to La Jungla de Las Sombras, one of the hottest and isolated areas of the South American rain forest. A small group of scientists looking for specimens discover a half-buried alien spacecraft and immediately fall out. Whilst ambitious young Dr. Marla Rollins is bedazzled by the potential benefits and glory that would accrue from such a find, grizzled xenobiologist Casey Trabor wants to blow it up. He knows trouble when he sees it. Of course the mound of human skulls he’s standing on might be colouring his judgement…

In Metropolis, Lois Lane gets wind of the find and promptly heads South, but Superman arrives first, only to be exposed to a fast-acting extraterrestrial virus when he enters the fallen vessel with the squabbling scientists. The first inkling that something is wrong comes when the “dead” ship awakens and emits an alarm signal. Before anybody can react a surprise attack by paramilitary mercenaries drives off both the explorers and a painfully weakened Man of Steel.

Fleeing into the jungles the Americans learn the legend of the Predators (heavily referencing the first movie) from a native and when Lois finally turns up Superman is captured trying to rescue her from the mysterious soldiers.

All is revealed when the entire party is dragged before mad scientist Solomon Ward, who has turned a lost city into his private lab. Ward intends to inject a chemical into the Earth’s atmosphere that will wipe out all hereditary disease and disability. Unfortunately it works by killing all the “genetically impure” carriers at once, leaving only healthy, “pure” people alive to breed…

With Superman crippled and an unstoppable madman about to eugenically euthanise possibly everyone on Earth, dark secrets are revealed about more than one of the S.T.A.R. scientists, whilst elsewhere chaos and horror erupt as an invisible monster begins slaughtering the mercenaries…

The good guys escape and try to warn civilisation, whilst the dying Superman heads back to the downed ship looking for a last-ditch cure. What he finds is a bloody charnel house and an alien hunter summoned by the reactivated vessel.

Dying but indomitable, the Man of Steel must defeat an inhuman killing machine in time to stop mass genocide by far more wicked human monsters. The inscrutable Predator, however, has an agenda of its own, and of course there’s a thermonuclear self-destruct clock counting down too…

We are all, on some level, still just kids in our own heads, inhabiting a vast metafictional gestalt where Dracula, Adam Adamant, Thursday Next, Danger Mouse, Fu Manchu, James Bond and Carnacki, the Ghost Breaker stalk the same London streets (hey! That I would buy…) and occasionally it’s okay to giver in to the wide-eyed wonder addict – but only if the product is a well written and beautifully executed as this rare treat…

© 2001 DC Comics, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Dark Horse Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Cloak and Dagger in Predator and Prey (Marvel Graphic Novel #34)


By Bill Mantlo, Larry Stroman & Al Williamson (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-8713-5125-8

Cloak and Dagger are two juvenile runaways who fell into the clutches of drug pushing criminals. With a group of other kids they were used as guinea pigs for new designer drugs but whereas all the others died horribly Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen were mutated by the chemical cocktail and became something more – or less – than human.

Isolated, alone, vengeful they determined to help other lost kids they hunted drug dealers and those who preyed on the weak in the blackest corners of New York City, guest-starring all over the Marvel Universe and occasionally winning and losing a number of short-lived series all of their own. They were created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan, first appearing in Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982).

Cloak is connected to a dimension of darkness; able to teleport, become intangible, terrifyingly amplify and feed on the wickedness in people. His unceasing hunger for these black emotions can be temporarily sated by the dazzling “light knives” emitted by Dagger, a shining, beautiful super-acrobat. Her power too has advantages and hazards. The power can cleanse the hunger of dependency from many addicts, but constantly, agonizingly builds within her when not used.

Cloak’s incessant hunger can be assuaged by the light-knives and his seemingly insatiable darkness proves a vital method of bleeding off the luminescent pressure within Dagger.

One of the perennial themes of the extended epic was the true nature of their abilities: were they mutants, transformed humans or were greater spiritual forces at play in their origins and operations…?

In Predator and Prey creator/writer Bill Mantlo describes a transformative moment when the symbiotic couple split, as Cloak’s ravening hunger and bleak nature clashed with Dagger’s increasing need to rejoin the larger world: a desire fostered by the obsessive attentions of Catholic priest Father Francis Delgado, who grants them shelter and sanctuary in the bowels of the Holy Ghost Church. Delgado believes that the beautiful young girl is an actual Angel of the Lord whilst Cloak is a demon straight out of Hell… and he’s apparently not completely deluded…

When an exorcism painfully affects Ty Johnson, shaking his previous belief that his powers stemmed from mad science and not the supernatural, he removes himself from the sustaining contact of Dagger. Alone, driven and desperate Cloak’s ravenous nature is revealed to be at least partially caused by a demonic entity named Predator who uses the teleporter’s dark energies to siphon human life force to itself. Greedy and malign, fed up with Cloak’s resistance it resurrects one of its old agents to take over the process, but the willful ghost that was Jack the Ripper has its own agenda…

Framed for a spate of murders and cop killings perpetrated by Jack and distanced from each other, Cloak starves whilst Dagger’s light grows and boils within her. They have never needed each other more or ever been further apart….

Once Marvel led the publishing pack in the development of high quality original graphic novels: mixing creator-owned properties, licensed assets, new series launches in and oversized and key Marvel Universe tales such as this one in extravagant over-sized packages (a standard 285mm x 220mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm) that always felt and looked like far more than an average comicbook no matter how good, bad or offbeat the contents might have been.

By 1988 Marvel’s ambitious line of all-new epics was beginning to founder and some less-than-stellar tales were squeaking into the line-up. Moreover, the company was increasingly resorting to in-continuity stories with established and company copyrighted characters rather than new properties. Moreover hastily turned out movie tie-ins became an increasingly regular feature. The line began to have the appearance of an over-sized, over-priced clearing house for leftover stories – but this isn’t one of them.

Tension-filled, bleak, brooding and potentially controversial this exploration of society’s darker sides, set amidst the casual ruthlessness of 42nd Street’s capacious, innocence-devouring seediness blends horror, superheroics and social conscience into a gripping and effective tale of hope, redemption and just punishments.

Produced on luxuriantly large slick pages, lettered by Ken Bruzenak with colouring from John Wellington, Larry Stroman and the incomparable Al Williamson, despite displaying the American’s total inability to draw English Police helmets (sorry – such a pet peeve!) have crafted a gem of a thriller that is worthy of another look by horror-lovers and Costumed Crusader fans alike.
© 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Ditko Collection Volume 2 1973-1976


By Steve Ditko, edited by Robin Snyder (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 0-930193-27-X

After Steve Ditko left Marvel where his astounding work made the reclusive genius a household name (at least in comicbook terms) he continued working for Charlton Comics and in DC in 1968 began a sporadic association with DC by creating cult classics The Hawk and the Dove and the superbly captivating Beware… The Creeper. It was during this period that the first strips derived from his interpretation of the Objectivist philosophy of novelist Ayn Rand began appearing in fanzines and independent press publications like Witzend and The Collector.

This second softcover book, collected from a variety of independent sources by fan and bibliographer Robin Snyder, represents the remainder of a canon of lost treasures by a driven and dedicated artistic trailblazer whose beliefs have never faltered, whose passion never waned and whose art never stagnated. Produced in bold collage, abstract calligraphic and design essays and a variety of vibrant black and strips in his utterly unique cartoon style, these strident, occasionally didactic, but always bold, impassioned and above all – for Ditko never forgets that this is a medium of Narrative and Art – gripping stories and parables of some of his most honest – and infamous – characters.

The most common complaint about this area of Ditko’s work – and there have been lots – is the sometimes hectoring nature of the dialectic. Nobody likes to be lectured to, but it’s an astonishingly effective method of imparting information: our schools and Universities depend on the form as their primary tool of communication, just as Ditko’s is the comic strip artform.

He’s showing you a truth he believes – but at no time is he holding a gun to your head. If you disagree that’s up to you. He grants you the courtesy of acknowledging you as equal and demands that you act like one. You are ultimately responsible for yourself. It’s a viewpoint and tactic an awful lot of religions could benefit from.

After a new but unused cover piece and an introduction from editor Snyder the polemical panoply gathered here begins with the contents of self-published magazine The Avenging World (1973), beginning with an eponymous cartoon and collage directory of terms-defining vignettes after which some of his most impassioned artwork expands the arguments in ‘The Avenging World Part 2’, followed by the cover of that landmark publication and a highly charged parable ‘The Deadly Alien’.

At heart Ditko is an unreconstructed maker of stories and with ‘Liberty or Death: Libage Vs Chain’ (from the Collector 1974) he returns to the narrative idiom of enigmatic masked mystery heroes for a gripping tale of totalitarian barbarism and the struggle for freedom. ‘Who Owns Original Art?’ is a philosophical statement in essay form after which his satirically barbed ‘H Series: The Screamer’ perfectly marries superheroics, adventure, comedy and blistering social commentary.

After a selection of covers from Wha, the assorted contents follow beginning with hard-bitten incorruptible cop Kage who determinedly solves ‘The Case of the Silent Voice’ despite interference, apathy, malfeasance and the backsliding of his own bosses. ‘Premise to Consequence’ uses Ditko’s facility for exotic science fiction to examine truth and reality and sinister silent avenger ‘The Void’ reveals how even the best of men can betray their own principles.

‘The Captive Spark’ displays Ditko’s beliefs from the birth of civilisation to the sorry present whilst ‘Masquerade’ delightfully follows two journalists as they simultaneously and independently decide to crack a troubling story by becoming masked adventurers. The volume dedicates the remainder of its content to the final amazing exploits of Ditko’s purest ideological champion – the utterly uncompromising Mr. A…

TV reporter Rex Graine is secretly Mr. A: white suited, steel-masked, coldly savage, challenging society, ruthlessly seeking Truth and utterly incapable of moral compromise. In most respects A is an extreme extension of faceless agent of Justice The Question as seen in all his glory in DC’s Action Heroes Archive volume 2

From Mr. A #2 (1975) after the gloriously moody cover comes the gripping battle against duplicitous prestidigitator and media-darling bandit ‘Count Rogue’ and his startling solo campaign against ‘The Brotherhood of the Collective’ whose bullyboy tactics include racketeering, slander, murder and imposture. Also included here is the stunning Mr. A page from the 1976 San Diego Comic Con Program Booklet, a tantalising “coming next” page for the tragically unreleased ‘Mr. A Vs The Polluters‘ and this collection culminates with a true graphic tour de force as the incorruptible, unswerving White Knight battles the ultimate threat in a wordless, untitled masterpiece fans know as ‘Mr. A: Death Vs Love-Song’ (which appeared in The Comic Crusader Storybook in 1976 and from which the cover of this collection is taken).

I love comics. Steve Ditko has produced a disproportionate amount of my favourite, formative fiction over the decades. His is a unique voice wedded to an honest heart blessed with the captivating genius of a graphic master. The tales here have seldom been seen elsewhere; never often enough and always with little fanfare. If you can find this volume and its predecessor you’ll see a lot of his best work, undiluted by colour, and on lovely large (274x212mm) white pages.

Even if you can’t find these, find something – because Steve Ditko is pure comics.
All works © 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1986 Steve Ditko for The Avenging World, The Collector, Inside Comics, Comics Crusader, Wha, Mr. A, San Diego Comic Con Program Booklet and Comic Crusader Storybook respectively. All Rights Reserved.

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Hawkman Volume 3: Wings of Fury


By Geoff Johns, Rags Morales, José Luis García-López, Scot Eaton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0467-9

Rising to even greater heights this third volume of the resurrected Winged Wonders (collecting issues #15-22 of their own high-flying series and including material from JLA A to Z #1-2) intensified the high-octane thrills and dynamic tension of the lovers-with-many-lives in a sequence of tales which delved deeper into their many and varied pasts and even had a bold shot at reconciling all the bewildering iterations generated by the many reboots and retcons the Feathered Furies have endured over the decades.

Despite being DC’s most popular and visually striking characters, the various versions of Hawkman and Hawkwoman always struggled to find enough of an audience to sustain a solo title. From the very beginning as the second feature in Flash Comics, they battled through many excellent yet always short-lived reconfigurations. From ancient heroes to space-cops and (post-Crisis on Infinite Earths) Thanagarian freedom fighters, they never quite hit the big time they deserved…

Hawkman premiered in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940), created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, with Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert carrying on the strip’s illustration, whilst a young Robert Kanigher was justly proud of his later run as writer. Carter Hall was a playboy archaeologist until he found a crystal knife that unlocked his dormant memories. He realised that once he was Prince Khufu of ancient Egypt and that he and his lover Chay-Ara had been murdered by High Priest Hath-Set. Moreover with his returned memories came the knowledge that both lover and killer were also nearby and aware…

Hall fashioned a garish uniform and anti-gravity harness, becoming a crime-fighting phenomenon. Soon the equally reincarnated Shiera Sanders was fighting and flying beside him as Hawkgirl. Together these gladiatorial “Mystery-Men” battled modern crime and tyranny with weapons of the past.

Fading away at the end of the Golden Age (the last appearance was in All Star Comics #57, 1951 as leader of the Justice Society of America) they were revived nine years later as Katar Hol and Shayera Thal of Thanagar by Julie Schwartz’s crack creative team Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert – a more space-aged interpretation which survived until 1985’s Crisis, and their long career, numerous revamps and retcons ended during the 1994 Zero Hour crisis. After the universe-shuffling a new team of Winged Wonders appeared (See Hawkworld) – refuges from a militaristic Thanagarian Empire who found new purpose on Earth.

When a new Hawkgirl was created as part of a revived Justice Society comicbook, fans knew it was only a matter of time before her Pinioned Paramour rejoined her, which he did in the excellent JSA: the Return of Hawkman, after which he immediately regained his own book. This time the blending of all previous versions into a reincarnating, immortal berserker-warrior appeared to strike the right note of freshness and seasoned maturity. Superb artwork and stunning stories didn’t hurt either.

The reconstituted Hawkman now remembers all his past lives: many millennia when and where he and Chay-Ara fought evil together as bird-themed champions, dying over and over at the hands of an equally renewed Hath-Set. Most importantly, Kendra Saunders, the new Hawkgirl, differs from all previous incarnations since Shiera was not reborn this time, but rather possessed the body of her grand-niece when that tragic girl committed suicide. Although Carter Hall still loves his immortal inamorata his companion of a million battles is no longer quite so secure or sure of her feelings…

This cracking chronicle opens with a portentous reunion between the Winged Warrior and alien cop Shayera Thal in ‘The Thanagarian’ a three-part saga by Geoff Johns, Rags Morales & Michael Bair which sees the alien virago seeking to discover the final fate of “her” Hawkman…

With Katar Hol now incorporated into the body and memories of Hawkman nobody is prepared for the brutal attack of another Winged Wonder claiming to be the actual Thanagarian hero… It takes the combined efforts of Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Shayera Thal and guest-star Animal Man to divine the secret of the murderous mystery marauder…

Artistic maestro José Luis García-López took over for ‘Blood Lines’ as the old soldier revisits his history and some of the places where he has been buried over the centuries, affording us an insight into the tragedy of reincarnation, before Carter Hall revives his career as an archaeologist in ‘Hunting For History’ (Scott Eaton & Ray Kryssing), excavating in Saharan Kahndaq and renewing a somewhat strained relationship with five thousand-year-old erstwhile comrade Black Adam…

An arcane supernatural threat materialises in St. Roch when ‘The Headhunter’ (Morales, Bair & McMurray) comes to steal the memories of the Aerial Ace and not even best friend the Atom can tip the balance when Hawkman’s past incarnations slip their graves to hunt them down in ‘Taking Off the Mask’. As ever, in the end it’s all a matter of guts and determination to end Headhunter’s ‘Blood and Lies’, but victory might well be just a far more subtle kind of defeat…

Tense, terse, beautiful and extremely violent this book saw the start of far more savage hero than previously seen but Geoff Johns’ worthy attempts to rationalise the chequered histories of Hawkmen new and old should easily stifle the qualms of the old guard: this new composite Winged Wonder is an unmissable, visceral delight no superhero devotee can afford to be without.

© 2003, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Hellblazer: The Fear Machine


By Jamie Delano and various & (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-880-5

You’ve either heard of John Constantine by now or you haven’t, so I’ll be as brief as I can. Originally created by Alan Moore during his groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing, he is a mercurial modern wizard, a chancer who plays with magic on his own terms for his own ends. He is not a hero. He is not a nice person. Sometimes though, he’s all there is between us and the void.

Given his own series by popular demand, he premiered in the dying days of Reaganite Atrocity in the US but at the height of Thatcherite Barbarism in England, so as we’re singing the same song now (but with second-rate Britain’s Got Talent cover-artists as leaders) I thought I’d cover a few old gems that might be regaining their relevance in the days ahead…

In 1987 Creative Arts and Liberal attitudes were dirty words in many quarters and the readership of Vertigo was pretty easy to profile. Jamie Delano began the series with relatively safe horror plots, introducing us to Constantine’s unpleasant nature, chequered history and odd acquaintances but even then discriminating fans were aware of a joyously anti-establishment political line and wild metaphorical underpinnings.

Skinheads, racism, Darwinian politics, gruesome supernature and more abound in the dark dystopian present of John Constantine – a world of cutting edge of mysticism, Cyber-shamanism and political soul-stealing. In Delano’s world the edges between science and magic aren’t blurred – they simply don’t exist.

Some terrors are eternal and some seem inextricably tied to a specific time and place: The Fear Machine (collecting issues #14-22 of the mature readers monthly comicbook) is an engrossing extended epic which began when the wizard went on the run after the tabloid press pilloried him as a Satanist serial killer in ‘Touching the Earth’ (by Delano, Richard Piers Rayner & Mark Buckingham).

Forced to flee his inner London comfort-zone he is adopted by a band of neo-pagan Travellers (apparently as responsible for all the ills plaguing society in the 1980s and 1990s as fat people and immigrants are today…) and journeys through the heartland of Britain.

Going native amongst the drop-outs, druggies, bath-dodgers and social misfits Constantine buddies up with an immensely powerful psychic girl named Mercury and her extremely engaging mum, Marj, but even amidst these freewheeling folks he can feel something nasty building. The first inkling occurs in ‘Shepherd’s Warning’ when Mercury discovers an ancient stone circle has been fenced off by a quasi-governmental company named Geotroniks. Someone is trying to shackle Mother Earth’s circulatory system of Ley lines…

Meanwhile elsewhere, people are compelled to kill and mutilate themselves and Geotroniks is watching and taking notes…

When police raid the Travellers campsite in ‘Rough Justice’ Mercury is abducted and imprisoned in a secret complex where the mind’s limits and the Earth’s forces are being radically tested. Cutting edge stuff… if only the subjects and observing scientists can be persuaded to stop committing suicide…

Mike Hoffman illustrated the fourth chapter, ‘Fellow Travellers’ as Constantine headed back to London for help in finding Mercury and uncovering the secrets of Geotroniks. He gains a horrific insight when the train he’s on is devastated by a psychic assault which makes all the passengers destroy themselves…

‘Hate Mail & Love Letters’ (with art by Buckingham & Alfredo Alcala) begins two months later. Marj and the travellers are hiding in the Highlands with a fringe group called the Pagan Nation, led by the mysterious Zed – an old friend of the wily trickster. Constantine keeps digging, but across the country suicide and self harm are increasing. Society itself seems diseased, but at least the Satanist witch hunt has been forgotten as the Press rage on to their next sanctimonious cause celebré…

Touching base with his few police contacts and pet journalists the metropolitan mage soon stumbles into a fresh aspect of the mystery when a Masonic hitman begins removing anyone who could be of use to his enquiries in ‘The Broken Man’. Saving journalist Simon Hughes from assassination in a particularly exotic manner guaranteed to divert attention from his politically damaging investigations, Constantine finds new clues that a the psychic horror and social unrest are all being orchestrated by reactionary aspects of the government and a sinister “Old Boy network”…

And somewhere dark and hidden Mercury’s captors are opening doors to places mortals were never meant to…

As the Pagan Nation’s priestesses work their subtle magics to find the missing girl and save humanity’s soul, a disgusting, conglomerate beast-thing is maturing, made from fear and pain, greed and suffering and deep black despair: provoking a response from and guest-appearance by Morpheus, the Sandman, and prompting Constantine, Hughes and possibly the last decent copper in London to go hunting…

Picking up another recruit in the form of KGB scientist Sergei, events spiral ever faster as the Freemasons – or at least their “Magi Caecus” elite – are revealed to be organising the plot in ‘Betrayal’, combining Cold War paranormal research, economic imperialism, Thatcherite divisive self-gratification and the order’s own quasi-mystical arcana to create a situation in which their guiding principles will control society and the physical world. It nothing more than a greedy power-grab using blood and horror to fuel the engines of change…

All pretence of scientific research at Geotroniks is abandoned in ‘The God of All Gods’ as Masonic hitman Mr. Webster goes off the deep end, ignoring his own Lodge Grandmaster’s orders to abort the project amidst an increasing national atmosphere of mania, determined to free the fearful thing they’ve created and unmake the modern world at all costs. Constantine’s allies are all taken and the wizard is left to fight on alone.

Knee deep in intrigue, conspiracy and spilled guts, humanity seems doomed unless Constantine’s band of unhappy brothers and a bunch of Highland witch women can pull the biggest, bloodiest rabbit out of the mother of all hats in the spectacular conclusion ‘Balance’…

The heady blend of authoritarian intransigence, counterculture optimism, espionage action, murder-mystery conspiracy theories and ancient sex-magic mix perfectly to create an oppressive tract of inexorable terror and smashed hope before the astounding climax forestalls if not saves the day of doom, in this extremely impressive dark chronicle which still resonates with the bleak and cheerless zeitgeist of the time.

This is a superb example of modern horror fiction, inextricably linking politics, religion human nature and sheer bloody-mindedness as the root cause of all ills. That our best chance of survival is a truly reprehensible exploitative monomaniac seems a perfect metaphor for the world we’re locked into…

Clever, subversive and painfully prophetic, even at its most outlandish, this tale jabs at the subconscious with its scratchy edginess and jangles the nerves from beginning to end. An unmissable feast for fear fans, humanists and political mavericks everywhere…

© 1989, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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100 Bullets: Samurai


By Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-800-3

Not long after Columbus landed in America, thirteen ancient European crime-families migrated to the New World and clandestinely carved up the continent in perpetuity between them. As the country grew cultured and a new nation was born the Trust embedded itself in every aspect of it.

To prevent their own greed and ambition from destroying the sweetest deal in history the Families created an extraordinary police force to mediate and act when any Trust member or faction acted against the unity and best interests of the whole. They were called the Minutemen and were always led by the kind of peacekeeper needed to keep them honest and actively cooperating – a man uniquely honest, dedicated, smart and remorseless.

Not too long ago though, The Trust’s leaders decided they no longer needed overseers and acted with characteristic ruthlessness to remove them. Betrayed Minutemen leader Agent Graves didn’t take his dismissal well and has been slowly enacting a plan to rectify that casual injustice. For years he has been appearing to various betrayed and defeated people as a “Court of Last Resort” offering answers, secrets, an untraceable handgun and 100 Bullets…

Beginning as one of the best crime-comics in decades, 100 Bullets slowly, steadily transformed into a captivating conspiracy thriller of terrifying scope and immense, intimate detail. With this seventh volume (collecting issues #43-49 of the magnificently adult comicbook) creators Azzarello and Risso began arraying their huge cast of pawns and key pieces for the endgame and unguessable conclusion even though it was only the halfway point of the show…

With ‘Chill in the Oven’ the action switches to a maximum security prison where Loop Hughes is just getting out of solitary. Sadly that’s only the beginning of his problems since both the convict alpha dogs and the guards have been waiting for this moment…

Luckily, or probably not, the heat is temporarily off since the new intake includes the most dangerous sociopath nut-job in America… Lono, a brutal force of nature planning to take charge even from behind bars, fresh from an unexpected encounter in 100 Bullets: Six Feet Under the Gun. Sadly, the murderous ex-Minuteman also has a score to settle with Loop too…

When the Trust’s fixer Shepherd pays a surprise visit Lono realises who is behind all his problems if not why and decides to take matters into his own calloused, bloodstained hands…

Meanwhile out in the free world junkie Jack Daw (100 Bullets: A Foregone Tomorrow) still has one of those untraceable guns and is travelling south with his skeevy pal Mikey. ‘In Stinked’ finds the pair laying low at a seedy wild animal park that secretly caters to “businessmen” who want to kill a big cat without the hassle of licenses, laws or leaving the country…

Jack clearly thinks he has more in common with the caged beasts but when he discovers what else goes on at Jungle Land the lost boy finally makes a stand that leaves the walls red and nobody standing…

Wicked, clever, blackly funny and gloriously, gratuitously vicarious, this ultra-violent, sex-stuffed, profanity-packed, utterly addictive thrill ride goes from strength to strength but always pay close attention! Every beautiful panel on every thrilling page might hold clues to the grand saga unfolding before your eyes.

If there are still any of you rush-starved story fans – grown-up, paid-up, immured to harsh language and unshaken by rude, nude and very violent behaviour – who aren’t addicted to this compulsive classic yet, get out there and grab every one of these graphic novels at all costs! You need them all and the very best is yet to come…

© 2003, 2004 Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Risso & DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Flash Gordon: complete daily strips – 19th November 1951-20th April 1953


By Dan Barry & Harvey Kurtzman, with Frank Frazetta (Kitchen Sink Press)
ISBN: 978-0-86801-969-7

By most lights Flash Gordon is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th 1934 (with the superb Jungle Jim running as a supplementary “topper” strip) as an answer to the revolutionary, inspirational, but rather clunky Buck Rogers strip of Philip Nolan and Dick Calkins (which also began on January 7th, but five years earlier) two new elements were added to the wonderment; Classical Lyricism and astonishing beauty.

Where Rogers blended traditional adventure and high science concepts, Flash Gordon reinterpreted Fairy Tales, Heroic Epics and Mythology, spectacularly draping them in the trappings of the contemporary future, with varying ‘Rays’, ‘Engines’ and ‘Motors’ substituting for spells, swords and steeds – although there were also plenty of those – and exotic craft and contraptions standing in for Galleons, Chariots and Magic Carpets.

Most important of all, the sheer artistic talent of Raymond, his compositional skills, fine line-work, eye for sumptuous detail and just plain genius for drawing beautiful people and things, swiftly made this the strip that all young artists swiped from.

When all-original comicbooks began a few years later, dozens of talented kids weaned on the strip’s clean-lined, athletic Romanticism entered the field, their interpretations of Raymond’s mastery a ticket to future success in the field of adventure strips. Almost as many went with Milton Caniff’s expressionistic masterpiece Terry and the Pirates (and to see one of his better disciples check out Beyond Mars, illustrated by the wonderful Lee Elias).

For over a decade sheer escapist magic in a Ruritanian Neverland, blending Camelot, Oz and every fabled paradise that promised paradise yet concealed hidden vipers, ogres and demons, enthralled the entire world, all cloaked in a glimmering sheen of sleek art deco futurism. Worthy adversaries such as utterly evil, animally magnetic Ming, emperor of a fantastic wandering planet; myriad exotic races and fabulous conflicts offered a fantastic alternative to the drab and dangerous real world…

Alex Raymond’s ‘On the Planet Mongo’, with Don Moore doing the bulk of the scripting, ran every Sunday until 1944, when the artist joined the Marines. On his return he would create the gentleman detective serial Rip Kirby. The one continuous, unmissable weekly appointment with sheer wonderment, continued under the artistic auspices of Raymond’s assistant Austin Briggs who had drawn the daily instalments since 1940.

That Monday to Saturday black and white feature ran from 1940-1944 when it was cancelled to allow Briggs to take over the Sunday page. Often regarded as the poor relation, the daily strip got an impressive reboot in 1951 when King Features, keenly aware of the science fiction zeitgeist of the post-war world, revived it, asking Dan Barry to produce the package. The Sunday was continued by Austin Briggs until 1948 when Mac Raboy assumed artistic control, beginning a twenty year resurgence of classical brilliance. On Raboy’s death Barry added the Sunday to his workload until he quit over a pay dispute in 1990.

Barry (1911-1997) started as a jobbing artist in comicbooks, a contemporary of Leonard Starr and Stan Drake. Like them and his brother Seymour “Sy” Barry (who produced The Phantom newspaper strip for three decades) Dan worked in a finely detailed, broadly realistic style, blending esthetic sensibility with sharp detail and strong, almost burly virile toughness – a gritty “He-man” attitude for a new era and defined as “New York Slick”.

Dan Barry drew such varied comicbook series as Airboy, Skywolf, Boy King, Black Owl, Spy Smasher and Doc Savage before joining the Air Force. Returning after the hostilities he drew The Heap and assorted genre shorts for new titles such as Crimebusters. He also started his own business producing educational and informational comics.

He began the gradual departure from funny-books as early as 1947 when he took over the Tarzan daily strip for a year but he was still gracing DC’s crime, mystery and science fiction anthologies as late as 1954. When offered Flash Gordon he agreed, intending to write the feature himself. However, the financial rewards were meager and soon he was looking for a scripter.

The story of how cartoon genius Harvey Kurtzman came aboard (probably in February 1952) makes a fascinating postscript in this magnificent volume so I won’t spoil the revelations of the text feature at the back: a section which also contains a wealth of the new writer’s rough-penciled script layouts, sketches, ghosted pencils from young Frank Frazetta and a selection of Flash Gordon spoofs from other magazines. (If you’re interested, they include ‘Flesh Garden’ by Wally Wood from Mad #11 (May 1954), ‘Flyashi Gordonovitch’ (Jack Davis, Humbug #10, June 1958), ‘Little Annie Fanny’ (Playboy 1962, Will Elder) and Kurtzman’s own art for the cover of Snarf #5, September 1972).

This huge black and white tome, 320mm x 260mm, available as both hardback and softcover, reprints the entire run until Kurtzman’s departure with the 20th April episode. Later Flash Gordon story collaborators included writers Harry Harrison and Julian May and art assistants Bob Fujitani and Hillman Publications comrade Fred Kida – more magical material well worth collecting someday….

The new Flash Gordon daily debuted on 19th November 1951 with all the beloved history and scenarios of Mongo and the Ruritanian universe sidelined in favour of a grittier, harder-edged pulp fiction atmosphere. Sometime in the near future astronaut Flash launches into space, part of an expedition to Jupiter, However technical trouble forces the ship to stop at the Space Prison Station.

Docked for repairs the crew inadvertently triggers a riot as the ruthless convicts take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to escape the space rock… Terse and gripping, this two-fisted yarn rockets along with Flash, Dale and the crew fighting for their lives before finding an ally among the rioters, one who would eventually join them on their voyage to the gas giant and beyond…

With new iconoclastic tone and milieu firmly established, ‘Man Against Jupiter!’ began on Monday, February 25th 1952 (with Kurtzman’s first scripts appearing sometime in April). The crew orbiting the colossal globe once more experiences terrifying malfunctions and their atomic ship “Planet Pioneer” heads to the moon Ganymede to effect repairs. On landing the bold explorers discover a subterranean civilisation within the icy satellite and a young Earth boy…

Ray Carson was the son of a lost lunar scientist and his presence halfway across the solar system is but one of the intriguing mysteries challenging Flash and Dale as they battle alien madmen and malicious monsters in the hidden City of Ice… Of course the real threat is the willful, voluptuous Queen Marla who abducted Ray and his father…

Using teleport technology she had dispatched the missing scientist to another star-system to search for an element vital to the Ganymedan’s survival but when upheaval and revolution tear the city apart Flash, Dale, Ray and Marla can only escape by following the missing savant into an unknown universe…

Slowly the old accoutrements of the classic strip had been returning: lost civilizations, monsters, arena duels… and with this new sequence (beginning 17th June 1952) the creators brought back more fantasy elements as the survivors explore this new world hunting Dale, who had been lost in transit. After an intriguingly off-beat encounter with Butterfly Men and a grueling ocean odyssey the Flash, Marla and Ray discover a feudal race of horned and tailed, cloven-hoofed warriors in the devil city of Tartarus and an old friend making earth weapons for them as they strive to overthrow their tyrannical warlord…

Wherever Flash Gordon goes war and revolution seem to follow, but once the devil-men have settled their differences Flash, Marla and Ray resume the search for Dale, and stumble into the bizarrely advanced city of Pasturia, ruled by masters of the mind…

With “Planet Pioneer” crewman Bill Kent, the trio press on and soon make the most astounding discovery of all: this distant world is the retirement home of legendary Earth wizard Merlin, whose super technology includes a time-machine which not only recovers Dale and returns them all to Earth but subsequently endangers our home world by accidentally allowing criminals from the future to poison the planet…

Gripping, alluring, stunningly well illustrated (did I mention that the incomparable Frank Frazetta penciled a long sequence of incredible strips?) this lost treasure is pure graphic gold, presented on huge pages that perfectly display the virtuosity of all involved. Perfect, perfect comic strip wonderment…
© 1988 King Features Syndicate. Additional material © 1988 its respective copyright holders. This edition © 1988 Kitchen Sink Press. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA volume 9: Terror Incognita


By Mark Waid & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-936-2

By the time of these tales (reprinting issues #55-60) the Justice League of America had become once more a fully integrated part of the DCU and no longer a high-profile niche project for creative superstars. Mark Waid, joined here by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, proved that the heroes were the true stars in a succession of fast, furious and funny fights ‘n’ tights romps that managed to blend high concept and big science with all the classical riffs beloved by long-term fans.

Starting off this volume is the extended, eponymous dark and devilish thriller ‘Terror Incognita’ as the sinister White Martians (first rearing their pallid spiky heads in JLA: New World Order) return to transform the planet into their own recreational slaughterhouse. Launching the campaign with a series of blistering personalised psychic assaults in ‘Came the Pale Riders’ by Waid, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, their intensifying efforts were met with valiant resistance in ‘Harvest’ (illustrated by Mike S. Miller & Dave Meikis), before Batman led the counterpunch with plenty of guest-stars in tow in ‘Mind Over Matter’ (Miller & Neary) resulting in a calamitous crescendo and glorious triumph in ‘Dying Breath’.

With no appreciable pause for breath the team then became involved in the cross-company publishing event that saw “Jokerised” super-villains running amok throughout the DCU (see Batman: the Joker’s Last Laugh for further details).

‘Bipolar Disorder’ (scripted by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, with art from Darryl Banks & Wayne Faucher) saw magnetic malcontent and world class lunatic Dr. Polaris made even crazier when infected by the Crazy Clown’s unique brand of insanity, stretching Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Plastic Man to their utmost in a bid to preserve the planet deep in the icy Antarctic wastes…

Rounding out the book is a classy Christmas neo-classic as Plastic Man reveals how Santa Claus joined the JLA in the outrageously engrossing ‘Merry Christmas, Justice League… Now Die!’ by Waid, Cliff Rathburn & Paul Neary.

Witty, engaging, beautiful and incredibly exciting these are some of the best superhero adventures ever created: timeless, rewarding sagas that must be part of your permanent collection…
© 2001, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase presents Teen Titans volume 2


By Bob Haney, Nick Cardy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-677-1

It’s hard to grasp now that once kid heroes were a rarity and during the beginning of the Silver Age, often considered a liability. Now the massive brand that is the Teen Titans (with numerous comicbook iterations, a superbly successful TV show and even an award-winning early reading comic (Aw, Yeaah! Tiny Titans!) their continuance is as assured as anything in our biz, but during the tumultuous 1960s the series – never a great seller – courted controversy and an actual teenaged readership by confronting controversial issues head on.

I must have been just lucky, because these stories of lost youth searching for meaning were released just as I turned into a teenager.  They resonated because they were talking directly to me.  It didn’t hurt that they were brilliantly written, fantastically illustrated and staggeringly fresh and contemporary.  I’m delighted to declare that age hasn’t diminished their quality or impact either, merely cemented their worth and importance.

The concept of underage hero-teams was not a new one when the Batman TV show prompted DC to entrust the big heroes’ assorted sidekicks with their own regular comic in a hip and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil.

The biggest difference between wartime groups like The Young Allies, Boy Commandos and Newsboy Legion or such 1950s holdovers as The Little Wise Guys or Boys Ranch and the creation of the Titans was quite simply the burgeoning phenomena of “The Teenager” as a discrete social and commercial force. These were kids who could be allowed to do things themselves (within reason) without constant adult help or supervision. As early as June-July 1964 Brave and the Bold #54 had tested the waters with a gripping tale by Bob Haney & Bruno Premiani in which Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin thwarted a modern-day Pied Piper.

What had been a straight team-up was formalised a year later when the heroes reunited and included Wonder Girl in a proper super-group with a team-name: Teen Titans. With this second collected volume of those early exploits the series had hit a creative peak, with spectacular, groundbreaking artwork and fresh, different stories that increasingly showed youngsters had opinions and attitudes of their own – and often that they could be at odds with those of their mystery-men mentors…

Collecting Teen Titans #19-36, and the team-up appearances from Brave and the Bold #83 and 94 and World’s Finest Comics #205, these stories cover the most significant period of social and political unrest in American history and do it from the perspective of the underdogs, the seekers, the rebels…

The wonderment begins with a beautifully realised comedy-thriller as boy Bowman Speedy joins the team. ‘Teen Titans: Stepping Stones for a Giant Killer!’ (#19, January/February 1969) by Mike Friedrich, Gil Kane & Wally Wood, pitted the team against youthful criminal mastermind Punch who planned to kill the Justice League of America and thought a trial run against the junior division a smart idea…

Brave and the Bold # 83 (April-May 1969) took a radical turn as the Teen Titans (sans Aqualad, who was dropped to appear in Aquaman and because there just ain’t that much sub-sea malfeasance) tried to save Bruce Wayne’s latest foster-son from his own inner demons in a tense thriller about trust and betrayal in the Bob Haney & Neal Adams epic ‘Punish Not my Evil Son!’. TT #20 took a long running plot-thread about extra-dimensional invaders and gave it a counterculture twist in ‘Titans Fit the Battle of Jericho’, a spectacular rollercoaster romp written by Neal Adams, penciled by him and Sal Amendola and inked by brush-maestro Nick Cardy – one of the all-out prettiest illustration jobs of that decade.

Symbolic super-teens Hawk and Dove joined the proceedings for #21’s ‘Citadel of Fear’ (Adams and Cardy), chasing smugglers, finding aliens and ramping up the surly teen rebellion quotient whilst moving the invaders story-arc towards a stunning conclusion. ‘Halfway to Holocaust’ is only half of #22; the abduction of Kid Flash and Robin leading to a cross-planar climax as Wonder Girl, Speedy and a radical new ally quashed the invasion forever, but still leaving enough room for a long overdue makeover in ‘The Origin of Wonder Girl’ by Marv Wolfman, Kane & Cardy.

For years the series had fudged the fact that the younger Amazon Princess was not actually human, a sidekick, or even a person, but rather an incarnation of the adult Wonder Woman as a child. As continuity backwriting strengthened its stranglehold on the industry it was felt that the team-tottie needed a fuller background and this moving tale revealed that she was in fact a human foundling rescued by Wonder Woman and raised on Paradise Island where their super-science gave her all the powers of a true Amazon. They even found her a name – Donna Troy – and an apartment, complete with hot roommate. All Donna had to do was sew herself a glitzy new costume…

Now thoroughly grounded the team jetted south in #23’s fast-paced yarn ‘The Rock ‘n’ Roll Rogue’ (by Haney, Kane & Cardy), trying to rescue musical rebel Sammy Soul from his grasping family and his lost dad from Amazonian headhunters. ‘Skis of Death!’ (#24, November-December 1969) by the same creative team saw the quartet holidaying in the mountains and uncovering a scam to defraud Native Americans of their lands. It was a terrific old-style tale but with the next issue the most radical change in DC’s cautious publishing history made Teen Titans a comic which had thrown out the rulebook…

For a series which spoke so directly to young people, it’s remarkable to think that ‘The Titans Kill a Saint?’ and its radical departure from traditional superhero stories was crafted by Bob Kanigher and Nick Cardy – two of the most senior creators in the business. It set the scene for a different kind of human-scaled adventure that was truly gripping, bravely innovative. For the relatively short time the experiment continued, readers had no idea what was going to happen next…

While on a night out in their civilian identities Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Wonder Girl, Hawk and Dove meet a telepathic go-go dancer Lilith who warns them of trouble. Cassandra-like they ignore her warnings, and a direct result a globally revered Nobel Laureate is gunned down.

So soon after the death of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the even more controversial murder of Malcolm X this was stunning stuff and in response all but Robin abandoned their costumed personas and with the help of mysterious millionaire philanthropist Mr. Jupiter dedicated their unique abilities to exploring humanity and finding human ways to atone and make a difference…

With Lilith beside them they undertake different sorts of missions, beginning with ‘A Penny For a Black Star’ in which they attempt to live in a poverty-wracked inner city ghetto, where they find Mal Duncan, a street kid who becomes the first African-American in space, although it’s a one-way trip…

Issue #27 reintroduces an eerie element of fantasy as ‘Nightmare in Space’ (Kanigher, George Tuska, Carmine Infantino & Cardy) finds the Titans en route to the Moon to rescue Mal but encountering something far beyond the ken of human imagining.

Meanwhile on Earth Donna Troy’s roommate Sharon had stumbled upon an alien incursion. ‘Blindspot’ by Steve Skeates & Nick Cardy, was tangentially linked to another innovative saga then playing out in Aquaman’s comicbook. Both were edited by young Dick Giordano, who was at this time responsible for the vast proportion of bold new material coming out of DC, even whilst proving himself one of the best inkers in the field.

You’ll need to see a (hopefully) forthcoming Aquaman Showcase edition for that delight, but suffice to say that the Sea King’s foe Ocean Master had allied himself with aliens and Sharon became involved just as Aqualad returned looking for help. Unable to understand the Titan’s reluctance to get involved he tries to go it alone but hits a problem only the original team can fix, which they do in Skeates & Cardy concluding instalment ‘Captives!’

However, once the alien threat is thwarted the heroes once more lay down their powers and costumes…

Teen Titans #30 featured three short tales, all written by Skeates. ‘Greed… Kills!‘ illustrated by Cardy, is a canny mystery exploring street and white-collar crime, ‘Whirlwind’ a Kid Flash prose novelette with art from Sal Amendola and ‘Some Call it Noise’ (Infantino & Cardy) an Aqualad solo tale in which his girlfriend Aquagirl takes a near-fatal wrong turn at a rock concert.

Student politics took centre-stage in #31’s lead feature ‘To Order is to Destroy’ (Skeates, Tuska & Cardy as the young heroes investigate a trouble-free campus where unhappy or difficult scholars are given a small brain operation to help them “concentrate” whilst a Hawk and Dove solo ‘From One to Twenty’ pitted quarrelsome Don and Hank Hall against a crafty band of murderous counterfeiters in a deft crime-caper by Skeates, Tuska & Cardy.

The gifted trio then opened up the fantasy element again with a time-travelling, parallel universe epic beginning in #32 with ‘A Mystical Realm, A World Gone Mad’ as Mal and Kid Flash accidentally changed the past turning Earth into a magical madscape. However undoing their error resulted in a Neanderthal teenager being trapped in our time, presenting the group with their greatest challenge: turning a savage primitive into a modern man.

Illustrated by Tuska and Cardy ‘Less Than Human’ signaled the full return of Bob Haney as writer and the gradual return of powers and costumes picked up pace as the grand experiment, if not over, was restated in terms that looked less harshly on bread and butter fights ‘n’ tights scenarios.

Brave and the Bold #94 (February-March 1971) was a powerful counter-culture thriller as the team infiltrated an inner city commune to solve a nuclear bomb-plot in ‘Rebels in the Streets’ and the exigencies of publishing moved the series into the blossoming world of the supernatural as costumed heroes temporarily faded in favour of tales of mystery and imagination.

‘The Demon of Dog Island’ (Haney, Tuska & Cardy) found the team, including Robin who had quietly rejoined during the civilisation of cave-boy Gnarrk, desperately battling to prevent Wonder Girl’s possession by a gypsy ghost whilst ‘The Computer that Captured a Town’ (World’s Finest Comics #205, September 1971) cleverly examined racism and sexism as Superman found the Titans trapped in a town that had mysteriously re-adopted the values of the 1890s (Skeates, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella)…

Teen Titans #35 continued the supernatural theme as the team traveled to Verona in ‘Intruders of the Forbidden Crypt’ (Haney, Tuska & Cardy) wherein Lilith and the son of Mr. Jupiter’s business rival found themselves drawn into a beguiling web of tragedy as they were compelled to relive the doomed love of Romeo and Juliet despite all the rationalisations of modern science and the best efforts of the young heroes…

‘A Titan is Born’ by the same creators was a rite of passage for Mal as the everyman hero had to face the murderous Gargoyle alone and unaided, whilst the reincarnation tragedy concluded with fate foiled in ‘The Tomb Be their Destiny’, the cover feature of #36. Filling out that issue and this book are two brief vignettes, the Aqualad three pager teaser ‘The Girl of the Shadows’ by Skeates & Jim Aparo and an impressive opening episode in the origin of Lilith. ‘The Teen-Ager From Nowhere’ by Haney & Cardy showed the ten year old orphan’s first prescient exploit and the distrust that it engendered, promising much more to come: a perfect place to end this second monochrome masterpiece of graphic literature…

Although perhaps dated in delivery, these tales were a liberating experience for kids when first released. They truly betokened a new empathy with independent youth and tried to address problems that were more relevant to and generated by that specific audience. That they are so captivating in execution is a wonderful bonus. This is absolute escapism and absolutely delightful.

© 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Death of Groo the Wanderer (Marvel Graphic Novel #32)


By Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, Stan Sakai & Tom Luth (Epic/Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-290-7

Groo is a living paradox: a brilliant fighting man and unbeatable warrior sell-sword and simultaneously the dumbest collection of organic molecules on the planet. Always hungry, he wanders because most places where he pauses burn down, wash away or crash into rubble soon after he gets there. He loves to fight and the entire world trembles at the mention of his name. They do the same when they smell him too…

Produced in unique fashion by Sergio Aragonés, wordsmith Mark Evanier, letterer Stan Sakai (creator of Usagi Yojimbo) and colourist Tom Luth, the idiot’s adventures form one of the longest running humour comicbook series in America and there seems to be no chance of stopping the creators as long as we keep buying these incredible, hilarious sagas…

Both in comic narrative and the infinitely more strenuous field of gag-cartooning Sergio Aragonés has produced vast volumes of excellent work. His darkly skewed sensibilities and grasp of the cosmically absurd, wedded to a totally unique, anarchically meticulous drawing style and frankly terrifying professional discipline, have made his (usually) silent doodles a vibrant proof of the maxims that laughter is universal and a picture is worth a thousand words.

After working for years for Mad Magazine and DC’s horror titles on gag features and the occasional full comic strip, in 1981 with writer and associate Mark Evanier, Aragonés produced a madcap four-page parody of the Sword-and-Sorcery genre as a contribution to the Creators Rights benefit comicbook Destroyer Duck published by Eclipse Comics.

Following a second outing in Mike Grell’s Starslayer (#5) Pacific Comics launched Groo the Wanderer in his own title. After 8 issues (December 1982-April 1984) the troubled company folded but the unsinkable barbarian (that’s a joke I’ll explain later) resurfaced in the Groo Special one-shot from Eclipse (October 1984), before finding a home at Epic Comics: Archie Goodwin’s creator-owned corner of the Marvel Universe.

Aragonés first created his witless warrior in the 1970s but no publisher would take on the property unless he sold all rights – an almost universal situation in the industry until the advent of the Direct Sales market transferred power from companies and distributors to creators and consumers. After an uproarious 120 issue run at Epic, and dozens of graphic novel compilations, the witless wonder moved on to Image and Dark Horse Comics, but they haven’t completely gone belly-up yet…

This all original volume from 1987 reintroduces readers to the smelliest, ugliest, stupidest itinerant mercenary in the world. Luckily he’s also the best swordsman in creation and too thick to be harmed because when he shuffles his unshod, dirty feet into the domain of King Krag he inadvertently encounters a thoroughly nasty man with a good many reasons to psychotically hate him…

At that time the kingdom was being ravaged by a colossal dragon, but as the only man on the planet crazy enough to fight it has a huge bounty on his head, how stupid would he have to be to come and attempt to kill it? – and if you’re having difficulty answering that, either you’ve not been paying attention or Groo has found a new apprentice…

Due to the kind of circumstance-concatenation that only happens in this series, everybody in the land of Groo-haters thinks the oaf is finally dead – even Groo – but with all the folk who have ever suffered at his hands gathered in one place they all start to realise that a world without Groo just isn’t the same…

Fear not however: order, if not sense, is eventually restored – but only after a grand display of confusions, contusions, conflagrations, conflicts, pratfalls, pitfalls, punch-lines and punch-ups. There’s even a little room left over for a soupcon of romance (Mmmm, Soup! Mmmm, leftovers…)

Published in the extravagant, luxurious over-sized 285mm x 220mm European album format which allows even more room for the artist’s tireless tornado of visual gags and graphitti this is a masterpiece of mirth and madness that comedy addicts will love and the great strength of the series is that new readers can start practically anywhere – and still be none the wiser…

Oh yeah, that sinking thing: among his other lack of abilities Groo cannot travel by ship. He’s not sea-sick or anything – it’s just that his physical presence on a nautical apparatus of any sort causes it to sink – and this book has one of the very best riffs on that running (swimming? sinking?) gag I’ve ever seen…
© 1987 Sergio Aragonés. All Rights Reserved.