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December 30, 2012December 27, 2012

Golden Age Spectre Archives volume 1

By Jerry Siegel & Bernard Baily with various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-955-3

The Spectre is one of the oldest characters in DC’s vast stable of characters, created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily in 1940 and debuting with a 2-part origin epic in More Fun Comics #52 and 53 where he was the first superhero to star in the previously all-genres adventure anthology. For a few years the Ghostly Guardian reigned supreme in the title with flamboyant and eerily eccentric supernatural thrillers, but gradually slipped from popularity as firstly Dr. Fate and successively Johnny Quick, Aquaman, Green Arrow and finally Superboy turned up to steal the show. By the time of his last appearance the Spectre had been reduced to a foil for his own comedic sidekick Percival Popp, the Super-Copâ€¦

Just like Siegel’s other iconic creation, the Dark Man suffered from a basic design flaw: he was just too darn powerful. Unlike the vigorously vital and earthy early Superman however, the ethereal champion of justice was already dead, so he couldn’t be logically or dramatically imperilled. Of course in those far-off early days that wasn’t nearly as important as sheer spectacle: grabbing the reader’s utter attention and keeping it stoked to a fantastic fever pitch. This the Grim Ghost could do with ease and always-increasing intensity.

Re-presenting the first 19 eerie episodes and following a fulsome Foreword from pre-eminent Comics historian Dr. Jerry Bails, detailing the state of play within the budding marketplace during those last months of the 1930s, the arcane action commences in this stunning full-colour deluxe hardback with ‘The Spectre: Introduction’ from More Fun Comics #52 (February 1940).

This wasn’t the actual title: like so many strips of those early days, most stories didn’t have individual titles and many have been only retroactively designated for collections such as this.

The Ghostly Guardian was only barely glimpsed in this initial instalment. Instead the action rested upon Jim Corrigan, a hard-bitten police detective, who was about to marry rich heiress Clarice Winston when they were abducted by mobster Gat Benson. Stuffed into a barrel of cement and pitched off a pier, Corrigan died and went to his eternal reward. Almostâ€¦

Rather than finding Paradise and peace, Corrigan’s spirit was accosted by a glowing light and disembodied voice which, over his strident protests, ordered him return to Earth to fight crime and evil until all vestiges of them were goneâ€¦

Standing on the seabed and looking at his own corpse, Corrigan began his mission by going after his own killersâ€¦

In #53 ‘The Spectre Strikes’ found the furious revenant swiftly, mercilessly and horrifically ending his murderers and saving Clarice, before calling off the engagement and moving out of the digs he shared with fellow cop and best friend Wayne Grant. After all, a cold, dead man has no need for the livingâ€¦

The origin ends with Corrigan implausibly sewing himself a green and white costume and swearing to eradicate all crimeâ€¦

Splendidly daft, this two-part yarn is one of the darkest and most memorable origins in comicbook history and the feature only got better with each issue as the bitter, increasingly isolated lawman swiftly grew into most overwhelmingly powerful hero of the Golden Age.

In MFC #54 the Supernatural Sentinel tackled ‘The Spiritualist’, a murderous medium and unscrupulous charlatan who almost killed Clarice and forever ended the Spectre’s hopes for eternal rest, after which #55 introduced ‘Zor’: a ghost of far greater vintage and power, dedicated to promulgating evil on Earth. He too menaced Clarice and only the intervention of the Heavenly Voice and a quick upgrade in phantasmal power enabled The Spectre to overcome the malign menace.

More Fun Comics #56 was the first to feature Howard Sherman’s Dr. Fate on the cover but the Spectre was still the big attraction even ifÂ the merely mundane bandits and blackmailers instigating ‘Terror at Lytell’s’ were no match for the ever-inventive wrathful wraith. Far more serious was ‘The Return of Zor’ in #57, as the horrific haunt returned from beyond to frame Corrigan for murder and again endanger the girl Jim dared not loveâ€¦

An embezzler turned to murder as ‘The Arsonist’ in #58, but was no match for the cop – let alone his eldritch alter ego – whilst ‘The Fur Hi-Jackers’ actually succeeded in killing the cop yet were still brought to the Spectre’s unique brand of justice.

In #60 ‘The Menace of Xnon’ found a super-scientist using incredible inventions to frame the ghost and even menace his ethereal existence, prompting The Voice to again increase its servant’s power – this time by giving The Spectre the all-powerful Ring of Life – but not before the Ghostly Guardian had been branded Public Enemy No. 1.

With Corrigan now ordered to arrest his spectral other self on sight, #61 (another Dr. Fate cover) featured ‘The Golden Curse Deaths’ wherein prominent citizens were dying from a scientific terror with a deadly Midas Touch, after which ‘The Mad Creation of Professor Fenton’ pitted the Phantom Protector against a roving, ravaging disembodied mutant super-brainâ€¦

In #63 a kill-crazy racketeer got his just deserts in the electric chair only to return and personally execute ‘Trigger Daniels’ Death Curse’ on all who had opposed him in life. Happily The Spectre proved to be more than his match but ‘The Ghost of Elmer Watson’ was a far harder foe to face. Murdered by mobsters who had also nearly killed Corrigan’s only friend Wayne Grant, the remnant of the vengeful dead man refused to listen to The Spectre’s brand of reason and its dreadful depredations had to be dealt with in fearsome fashionâ€¦

‘Dr. Mephisto’ was a spiritualist who utilised an uncanny blue flame for crime in #65, after which the Ghostly Guardian battled horrendous monsters called forth from ‘The World Within the Paintings’ probably written by the series’ first guest writer – Gardner Fox – before Siegel returned with ‘The Incredible Robberies’ which found the phantom policeman battling deadly mystic Deeja Kathoon to the death and beyondâ€¦

With MFC #68 The Spectre finally lost his protracted cover battle to Dr. Fate even though, inside, the ‘Menace of the Dark Planet’ featured a fabulously telling tale of Earthbound Spirit against alien invasion by life-leeching Little Green Men, before in #69 ‘The Strangler’ murders led Corrigan into an improbable case with an impossible killerâ€¦

This first fearful tome terminates with issue #70 and ‘The Crimson Circle Mystery Society’ in which a sinister cult employed a merciless phantasmal psychic agent named Bandar to carry out its deadly schemesâ€¦

Still a mighty force of fun and fearful entertainment, The Spectre’s Glory Days – and Nights â€“ were waning and more credible champions were coming to the fore. He would be one of the first casualties of the post-War decline in mystery men and not be seen again until the Silver Age 1960’sâ€¦

Moreover, when he did return to comics, the previously omnipotent ghost was given strict limits and as he continued to evolve through various returns, refits and reboots The Spectre was finally transmogrified into a tormented mortal soul bonded inescapably to the actual embodiment of the biblical Wrath of God. Revamped and revived in perpetuity, revealed to be the Spirit of Vengeance wedded to a human conscience, Jim Corrigan was finally laid to rest in the 1990s and Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan replaced him. Returning to basics in recent years, the latest host is murdered Gotham City cop Crispus Allen.

They’re all worth tracking down and exhuming: spooky comic champions who have never failed to deliver an enthralling, haunted hero rollercoaster â€“ or is that Ghost Train? â€“ of thrills and chills.
Â© 1940, 1941, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 29, 2012December 27, 2012

Thor: Latverian Prometheus

By Kieron Gillen, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Stan Lee, Billy Tan, Ryan Stegman, David Aja & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4372-7

In the middle of 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby launched their latest offbeat superhero creation in anthology monsters-and-mysteries title Journey into Mystery #83. The taleÂ Â introduced crippled American doctor Donald Blake who took a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing in terror he was trapped in a cave wherein lay an old, gnarled walking stick. When, in helplessness and frustration, the puny human smashed the cane into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his insignificant frame was transformed into the hulking and brawny Norse God of Thunder, Thor!

The series grew from formulaic beginnings battling aliens, commies and cheap thugs into a vast, breathtaking cosmic playground for Kirby’s burgeoning imagination with Journey into Mystery inevitably becoming the Mighty Thor where, after years of bombastic adventuring, the peculiarities and inconsistencies of the Don Blake/Thor relationship were re-examined and finally clarified to explain how the immortal godling could also be locked within frail Don Blake.

The epic saga took the immortal hero back to his long-distant youth and finally revealed that the mortal surgeon was no more than an Odinian construct designed to teach the Thunder God humility and compassionâ€¦

Time passed; Kirby left and the Thunderer’s fortunes waxed and waned. During the troubled mid-1990’s the title vanished, culled with the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four and subcontracted out to Image creators Jim Lee and Rob Liefield during 1996-1997 in a desperate attempt to improve sales after Marvel’s apocalyptic Onslaught publishing event.

In 1998 Heroes Return and Heroes Reborn saw those properties rejoin the greater Marvel Universe, relaunched with brand new first issues with the Thunder God reappearing a few weeks later. After many phenomenal adventures the second volume concluded with issues #84-85 (November-December 2004) which once-and-for-all depicted the Really, Truly, We Mean It End of the Gods and Day of Ragnarok as Thor himself instigated the final fall to end an ceaseless cycle of suffering and destruction, ultimately defeating the ruthless beings who had manipulated the inhabitants of Asgard since time beganâ€¦

You can’t keep a profitable property down or a great comics character unresurrected, so he was reborn again as a mysterious voice summoned Thor back to life – and Earth (us fans call it Midgard) – in a crack of spectacular thunder. Revived for an unspecified purpose the solitary Lord of Asgard swiftly set about retrieving the souls of his fellow godlings, all scattered and hidden inside human hosts and set up Asgard on Earth a few paltry feet above the ground ofBroxton,Oklahomaâ€¦

As this small, simple community with some intriguing neighbours increasingly became the focus of cosmic events, newly arrived big city doctor Don Blake was corporeally merged with Thor and became the mortal host for the God of Thunderâ€¦

What you need to know: when wicked trickster god Loki orchestrated his half-brother Thor’s exile from Asgard, Balder the Brave became the latest leader of the displaced deities. However the real power was always the skulking schemer who slowly convinced the new king to relocate the population of the floating kingdom to Latveria: absolute fiefdom of malign technological tyrant Doctor Doom.

No one knew then that the trickster had long been Doom’s ally in a cabal of ultimate evilâ€¦

The Iron Dictator, adept in science and sorcery, had always been gripped by a voracious lust for power and quickly began to kidnap and vivisect his Asgardian guests, determined to divine the secrets of their immortality and powers. The clandestine campaign of terror was only exposed by Bill Junior, the mortal beloved of goddess Kelda Stormrider, who sacrificed his life to tell Balder the truth about their unctuous host.

Meanwhile in Broxton, ravening Doombots attacked and almost killed Don Blake in an attempt to destroy his Thunderous alter egoâ€¦

Collecting issues #604-606 of Thor from 2009, this grim fairytale also includes a solo story of the Prince of Asgard’s sometime paramour from the Sif one-shot and portions of the anniversary Thor #600.

The tale (by Kieron Gillen, Billy Tan & Batt) resumes here with the vengeance-crazed Kelda invading Doom’s fortress only to become his latest victim and test subject. In the Asgardian camp Balder marshals his forces to rescue his stolen subjects, unaware that Loki has prevented Thor from heeding the clarion summons. In Broxton, however, the maimed Blake has already pieced together evidence and deduced where his attackers originated with a little help from his friends in the metahuman communityâ€¦

The God of Mischief has been arrested by Balder but still schemes to save his neck and cause further hurt where he can. Dragged along as the enraged Asgardians assault Castle Doom, he witnesses the horrors the Master of Latveria has wrought when hideous technologically augmented corpses attack the besiegers at the Doctor’s imperious command. The shocking abominations swiftly gain the upper hand until a furious Thor appears and directly engages with Doom, but the battle is halted when the villain produces Kelda’s ravaged corpse and Loki gleans a way to restore her to life.

All Thor has to do is defeat Doom, invade his citadel and recover her still beating heart from the monster’s laboratoryâ€¦

Unfortunately standing in the way is the ultimate expression of the Devil Doctor’s Asgardian researches: a new and deadly iteration of science and sorcery patterned on Odin’s ultimate weaponâ€¦ the Destroyer.

As Thor battles furiously for his immortal life, Balder takes advantage of the distraction to enter Doom’s lair and grant tragic final rest to the abused remains of the subjects he so grievously failed before rescuing and restoring Keldaâ€¦

Even after the heroes have won their most inconclusive victory the diabolical duo of Loki and Doom are still at large, still unpunished and still plottingâ€¦ against each other as much as their heroic Asgardian enemiesâ€¦

This dark and brutal tome continues with ‘I am the Lady Sif’, a solo tale starring the warrior goddess Sif crafted by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Ryan Stegman, Tom Palmer & Victor Olazaba.

The war-maiden is in Broxton, recuperating and taking stock of her interminable life after an age of shame wherein Loki possessed her body and locked her soul in the withered frame of a dying mortal. The shame he brought to her reputation still burns and chokes even after she finally escaped his curseâ€¦

Although the Oklahomans are doing their best to raise her spirits, she remains downcast until old comrade Beta Ray Bill storms through the pub doors looking for Asgardian assistanceâ€¦

Bill first gained his own measure of Asgardian might when magic hammer Mjolnir deemed the Korbinite worthy and transformed the alien refugee into a warped duplicate of Thor, enabling him to save his space-faring race from a horde of demons who erased their civilisation and were implacably hunting them to extinctionâ€¦

Even after Bill, Thor, Sif and sentient starship Skuttlebutt defeated the threat and the homeless aliens voyaged on through the depths of space to some eventual Promised Land, a new insidious menace manifested and their once-trusty vessel has been possessed. Bill and his comely companion Ti Asha Ra desperately need a mighty non-Korbinite to scour the ship of its inimical infernal infestation and return hope to the remains of his race.

Just the job to perk up an ailing, down-in the-dumps sword-maidenâ€¦

Also included in this eclectic mix is a slight but pretty elegiac appreciation of the Thor canon by Stan Lee & David Aja celebrating the character’s stellar history in the manner of a lovely info-mercial, and the tome is topped off with a comedic cartoon â€œMini-Marvelsâ€ spoof ‘Welcome Back Thor’ by Chris Giarusso.

Dark, brooding and ferocious, this is a cosmic Costumed Drama that will enthral and delight fans of both comicbook and filmic iterations.
Â© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

December 28, 2012December 27, 2012

Showcase Presents Superman Family volume 2

By Otto Binder, Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-812-4

During the 1950s and early 1960s in America, being different was a bad thing. Conformity was sacrosanct, even in comicbooks, and everybody and thing was meant to keep to its assigned and intended role.

For the Superman family and cast that meant a highly strictured code of conduct and parameters: Daily Planet Editor Perry White was a stern, shouty elder statesman with a heart of gold, Cub Reporter Jimmy Olsen was a brave and impulsive, unseasoned fool â€“ with a heart of gold – and plucky News-hen Lois Lane was brash, nosy, impetuous and unscrupulous in her obsession to marry Superman although she too was – deep down – another possessor of an Auric aorta.

Yet somehow even with these mandates in place the talented writers and artists assigned to detail their wholesomely uncanny exploits managed to craft tales both beguiling and breathtakingly memorable and usually as funny as they were exciting.

This second cunningly combined chronologically complete compendium collects the affable, all-ages tales from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #23-34 (September 1957-January 1959), Lois’s second tryout issueÂ from Showcase #10 (September/October 1957) as well as Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #1-7 (March/April 1958-February 1959) and promptly commences with the Man of Steel’s Go-To Guy and the three tales which comprised issue #23 of his solo title, illustrated as almost always by the wonderful Curt Swan & Ray Burnley. ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Two Super-Pals’ was the first of three scripts by the irrepressible Otto Binder and described how our lad gained an other-dimensional Genie as another faithful Super-Friend. Of course with sinister radium bandits plaguing Metropolis there was more to the cosmic companion than met the eyeâ€¦

This was followed by ‘Jimmy Olsen, the Bearded Boy’ wherein boastful hubris and a magic potion inflicted runaway whiskers on many Daily Planet staff â€“ even ClarkKent â€“ prompting many face-saving secret feats from the identity conscious Man of Tomorrow. As Jimmy’s series progressed, one of the most popular plot-themes (and most fondly remembered and referenced today by most Baby-Boomer fans) was the unlucky lad’s appalling talent for being warped, mutated and physically manipulated by fate, aliens, magic, mad science and even his friendsâ€¦ a fate which frequently befell Lois too although Jimmy got a lot less marriage proposals from aliens, murderers of monstersâ€¦

The boy’s bits then concluded with ‘The Adventures of Private Olsen’ wherein the Cub Reporter was assigned to write articles on Army life and – with Superman’s assistance – taught an unscrupulous drill sergeant a much-needed lessonâ€¦

When Lois Lane – arguably the oldest supporting character/star in the Superman mythology if not DC universe – finally received her own shot at a solo title, it was very much on the terms of the times. I must shamefacedly admit to a deep, nostalgic affection for her bright and breezy, fantastically fun adventures, but as a free-thinking, (nominally) adult liberal of the 21^st century I’m often simultaneously shocked nowadays at the jolly, patronising, patriarchally misogynistic attitudes underpinning too many of the stories.

Yes, I’m fully aware that the series was intended for young readers at a time when â€œdizzy damesâ€ like Lucille Ball or Doris Day played to the popular American gestalt stereotype of Woman as jealous minx, silly goose, diffident wife and brood-hungry nester, but to ask kids to seriously accept that intelligent, courageous, ambitious, ethical and highly capable females would drop everything they’d worked hard for to lie, cheat, inveigle, manipulate and entrap a man just so that they could cook pot-roast and change super-diapers is just plain crazy and tantamount to child abuse. They’re great, great comics but stillâ€¦

I’m just sayingâ€¦

Showcase #10 (September/October 1957) was the second and final try-out appearance – all illustrated by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye – for Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane and opened with ‘The Jilting of Superman’ by Binder, wherein the Action Ace almost fell for a most ancient ploy when Lois pretended to marry another man to make the alien oaf realise what she meant to himâ€¦

‘The Sightless Lois Lane’ written by Jerry Coleman told how a nuclear accident temporarily blinded the journalist, and how her sudden, unexpected recovery almost exposed Clark Kent‘s secret when he callously changed to Superman in front of the â€œsightlessâ€ lass, after which Binder delightfully detailed the contents of ‘The Forbidden Box from Krypton’: a cache of devices dug up by a Smallville archaeologist originally packed by Jor-El and intended to aid the infant Superbaby on Earth. Of course when Lois opened the chest all she saw was a way to become as powerful as the Man of Steel and soon became addicted to being a super-champion in her own rightâ€¦

The Jaded Journo launched into her own title scant months later, clearly offering exactly what the reading public wantedâ€¦

Jimmy Olsen #24 featured another trio of top tales from Binder, Swan & Burnley beginning with ‘The Superman Hall of Trophies’ which found a Kryptonite-paralysed Metropolis Marvel trapped in a museum and rescued by the brave boy reporter, whilst ‘The Gorilla Reporter’ saw the poor sap briefly brain-swapped with a mighty (confused) Great Ape before Superman again had to divert attention from his exposure-threatened alter ego by convincing the world at large that Jimmy was ‘The Luckiest Boy in the World’â€¦

Issue #25 as ever by Binder, Swan & Burnley, featured ‘The Secret of the Superman Dummies’ wherein a trip to a magic show resulted in Jimmy being inescapably handcuffed to the last man in the world Superman dared to approach, ‘The Second Superboy’ saw the poor kid accidentally rocketed to an alien world where he gained incredible abilities – courtesy of resident absent-minded genius Professor Potter – and ‘The Day There Was No Jimmy Olsen’ offered a tantalising hoax and mystery which ended with an unexpected promotion for the pluckily ingenious boyâ€¦

He began #26 subjected to inexplicable bouts of deadly mass fluctuations as ‘The World’s ‘Heavyweight’ Champ’ before the newly appointed ‘Jimmy Olsen, Foreign Correspondent’ uncovered a sinister scheme to defraud the Ruritanian Kingdom of Hoxana.Â Back home however he had to again undergo a well-intentioned con from his best pal after he saw Clark flying and subsequently – inadvertently – himself became ‘The Birdboy of Metropolis’â€¦

Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #1 (March/April #1958) at last arrived sporting three stunning yarns illustrated by sleek, slick Kurt Schaffenberger whose distinctive art-style would quickly become synonymous with the reporter. Everything kicked off with ‘The Bombshell of the Boulevards’ (scripted by Leo Dorfman) wherein she donned a blonde wig to deceitfully secure aHollywood interview and soon provoked a death-duel between rival enflamed suitors. Of course it was only another scheme by Superman and Jimmy to teach her a lesson in journalistic ethics. Good thing reporters are so much less unscrupulous these daysâ€¦

During this Silver Age period with Superman a solid gold sensation of the newly ascendant television phenomenon, many stories were draped in the wholesome trappings of Tinseltown – even more so than most of celebrity-obsessed America. It didn’t hurt that editor Whitney Ellsworth was a part-time screenwriter, script editor and producer as well as National DC’sHollywood point man.

Otto Binder then reunited with his old Captain Marvel collaborator for ‘Lois Lane, Super-Chef’ as Lois disastrously tried to master home cooking in her latest scheme to get the Man of Steel to propose, whilst in ‘The Witch of Metropolis’ a science assignment went horrifically awry and transformed her into a wizened old hag every time the sun setâ€¦

JO #27 opened with ‘The Boy from Mars’ wherein the reporter got his own lesson in integrity after trying to create a circulation-boosting hoax, and another in the perils of pride and over-confidence after messing up ‘A Date with Miss Metropolis’ before the issue ended with a riotous battle with his own evil duplicate after Professor Potter accidentally created ‘The Outlaw Jimmy Olsen’: all courtesy of Binder, Swan & Burnley.

Ever so slowly a more mature tone was developing in the Cub’s adventures. In #28’s ‘The Spendthrift and the Miser’ an alien gift from Superman caused wildly manic mood swings whilst an accidental time-trip impossibly revealed that Jimmy was destined to become ‘The Boy who Killed Superman’ whilst in ‘The Human Skyscraper’ another botched Potter product enlarged the kid to monumental, city-endangering size.

In the second Lois Lanecomicbook she was apparently appalled to uncover ‘Superman’s Secret Sweetheart’ (uncredited here but possibly Bill Finger?), but was in fact on her very best mettle helping a bullied college girl fight back against her mean sorority sisters, after which Binder recounted how Tinseltown improbably called and the reporter became â€“ eventually – an extremely high maintenance actress in ‘Lois Lane in Hollywood’â€¦

‘Superman’s Forbidden Room’ then closed proceedings with a cruel hoax playing on her well-publicised infatuation, but this time it wasn’t the Man of Tomorrow doing the fooling and the stakes had never been higher in a moody thriller illustrated by Boring & Kaye and probably written by Jerry Coleman.

In Jimmy Olsen #29 the usually adept reporter hit a monumental writer’s block whilst working on a novel, but ‘The Superman Book that Couldn’t be Finished’ eventually was – with a little hands-on Kryptonian help – whilst in ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Super-Pet’ the Cub Reporter was adopted by super-hound Krypto in his twilight years – and was instrumental in rejuvenating the Dog of Steel for a new generation. ‘The Amazing Spectacles of Doctor X’ then ended the issue with a clever thriller as Jimmy appropriated goggles which could see the future and glimpsed something he wished he hadn’tâ€¦

‘The Rainbow Superman’ by Binder & Schaffenberger, opened Lois Lane #3 and saw the News-hen at her very worst as a cosmic accident made the Man of Tomorrow an ambulatory spectrum and she set about trying to see if Clark too glowed, whilst ‘The Man who was Clark Kent’s Double’ (scripted by Coleman, as was the final tale here) broke her heart after she again proved too nosy for her own good. ‘Lois Lane and the Babe of Steel’ then gave her a terrifying glimpse of her dreams come true when Superman traded temporal places with his toddler self and caused all manner of problems for the capable bacheloretteâ€¦

In JO #30 ‘The Son of Superman’, Binder, Swan & Burnley jerked our tears when an attempt by the Kryptonian to adopt the reporter went tragically wrong after which they proved equally adept at creating mystery and tension as criminals schemed to destroy Jimmy by making him ‘The Cub who Cried Wolf’. ‘Superman’s Greatest Enemy’ – with Dick Sprang standing in for Curt Swan – then revealed how the naÃ¯ve lad fell for a crook’s scam but had enough smarts to turn the tablesâ€¦

Binder & Schaffenberger opened LL #4 with a well-meaning Jimmy using hypnotism to get Clark to propose to Lois, utterly unaware who he was actually using those gimmicks on, catastrophically leading to ‘The Super-Courtship of Lois Lane’â€¦

Times have changed, but when Coleman scripted ‘Lois Lane, Working Girl’ he was simply referring to her being challenged to undertake a job in manual labour, so shame on you. Alvin Schwartz then crafted a canny conundrum in ‘Annie Oakley Gets her (Super)man’ for Boring & Kaye to illustrate, as a riding accident out West caused Lois to believe she was the legendary cowgirl sharpshooter whilst hunting some very nasty gangsters with very real gunsâ€¦

Jimmy Olsen #31 highlighted the now mythic tale of ‘The E-L-A-S-T-I-C Lad’ (Binder, Swan & Burnley) wherein Superman was ultimately responsible for the reporter gaining stretching powers after leaving a chest of alien artefacts with the nosy, accident-prone kid, whilst in ‘The Mad Hatter of Metropolis’ the power of suggestion convinced the kid that he could imitate the feats of famous folks simply by donning their characteristic chapeaus before ‘The Boy who Hoaxed Superman’ saw the lad attempt to get a pay raise by pretending to leave for the future. It didn’t work, and everybody seemed to prefer the replacement Perry hired who was, of course, Jimmy in disguiseâ€¦

In #32 Professor Potter’s latest chemical concoction made Jimmy look like Pinocchio but did give him ‘The Super Nose for News’ whilst an uncanny concatenation of crazy circumstances turned the sensibly staid Man of Tomorrow into ‘The Rock ‘n’ Roll Superman’ every time the reporter masquerading as a pop star twanged his old guitar, and ‘The Jimmy Olsen from Jupiter’ (by Alvin Schwartz) revealed how aliens mutated the Cub Reporter into one of their scaly selves, complete with extremely useful mind-reading abilities, much to Superman’s chagrinâ€¦

‘Superman’s Greatest Sacrifice’ by Robert Bernstein & Schaffenberger led in Lois Lane #5, as the journalist met her millionaire double and seemingly lost her beloved Metropolis Marvel to her, whilst in ‘The Girl of 100 Costumes’ the canny lass tried to use a myriad of new looks to catch his attention, in an uncredited story drawn by Al Plastino. It was back to silly usual in Binder & Schaffenberger’s ‘The Fattest Girl in Metropolis’; Â a plant growth ray accidentally super-sized the vain but valiant reporter. Imagine her reaction when she found out that Superman had deliberately expanded her dimensionsâ€¦ for good and solid reasons, of courseâ€¦

Binder, Swan & Burnley were in sparkling form in JO #33, starting with ‘Legends that Came to Life’, wherein a nuclear accident animated the strangest foes from fairytales and only Jimmy, not his mighty mentor, could save the day, whilst in ‘The Lady-Killer from Metropolis’ a classic case of boyish arrogance and girlish gossip led to the boy reporter briefly becoming the sexiest thing in Hollywood. The horror and hilarity was capped with ‘The Human Flame-Thrower!’ as Potter’s latest experiment caused Jimmy the worst case of high-octane halitosis in historyâ€¦

Coleman, Boring & Kaye opened LL #6 with ‘The Amazing Superman Junior’ as yet another attempt to teach Lois a lesson backfired on the pompous Man of Steel and she brought in a mysterious kid to show the Kryptonian what it felt likeâ€¦

This was followed by a brace of tales by Bill Finger & Schaffenberger, starting with ‘Lois Laneâ€¦ Convict’ which saw seemingly saw the reporter take a bribe from gangster Baldy Pate and pay a terrible price, whilst in ‘Lieutenant Lois Lane, U.S. Army’ she and Clark joined the military for a story only to have the – temporary – rank turn her into a man-hating bully. Surely some mistake, noâ€¦?

‘Superman’s Pal of Steel’ by Binder, Swan & Burnley, opened the last Jimmy Olsen issue in this marvellous monochrome collection as another secret identity-preserving scheme took a bizarre turn after the boy reporter genuinely gained an incredible power. Alvin Schwartz then wrote ‘The Underworld Journal’ which saw the kid inherit his own newspaper and swiftly go off the journalistic rails before Potter’s newest invention turned Jimmy’s clunky old kit into ‘The Most Amazing Camera in the World’ (Binder) â€“ and a deadly danger to Superman’s greatest secretâ€¦

Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #7 closes out this volume with three more mixed-message masterpieces beginning with ‘Lois Lane’s Kiss of Death’ (by Bernstein & Schaffenberger), wherein a canny conman tried to fool the reporter into botching her biggest crime exposÃ©. Schwartz then had Lois use hypnotism to wash her heroic obsession out of her mind in ‘When Lois Lane Forgot Superman’.

Illustrated by Boring & Kaye, the tale took an unlikely turn when she then turned her passionate, unfulfilled attentions on poor Clark, after which Lana Lang fully entered the Man of Steel’s modern mythology. When Lois took in the destitute, down-at-heel lass who once held the Boy of Steel’s heart, she seemingly allowed her to also become ‘The Girl who Stole Superman’ in a tense and clever tale from Coleman and Schaffenbergerâ€¦

These spin-off support series were highly popular top-sellers for more than two decades; blending action, adventure, broad, wacky comedy, fantasy and science fiction in the gently addictive manner scripter Binder and artist Schaffenberger had perfected at Fawcett Comics on the magnificent Marvel Family.

As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of the pre angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling and yes, occasionally deeply moving, all-ages stories also perfectly depict the changing mores and tastes which reshaped comics from the safe 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry – â€œkeep them entertained and keep them wanting moreâ€.

I certainly doâ€¦
Â© 1957, 1958, 1959, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 27, 2012December 24, 2012

Avengers Academy: Arcade â€“ Death Game

By Paul Tobin, Terry Kavanagh, Chris Claremont, David Baldeon, Chris Marrinan, Michael Nasser, Rich Buckler & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5630-7

Whilst acting as America’s Chief of Metahuman Affairs Norman Osborn grotesquely abused his position. One of his various nefarious projects was locating and conditioning young ultra-empowered individuals with the intention of creating an army of lethal freaks utterly subservient to his will.

When the former Green Goblin was finally brought to book this most secret initiative was exposed and the kidnapped, psychologically warped, technologically abused kids were taken into safekeeping by The Avengers.

The traumatised and potentially lethal teens became their responsibility and the weary warriors decided to teach the surviving lab rats how to be heroes before they could fall into being monsters and villainsâ€¦

Arcade, on the other hand, was a spoiled trust-fund brat who discovered a talent for invention and a psychotic passion for flamboyant assassination when his unfortunate father cut him off. The malignant patricide then turned his new hobby into an obsessive life-long game of death for profitâ€¦

Arcade – Death Game collects the story from Avengers Academy King Size #1 and also offers two earlier appearances of the mirthful Master of Mechanistic Mayhem from Spider-Man #25 and Marvel Team-Up volume 1 #89.

When Avengers-in-training Humberto Lopez AKA Reptil, Madeline â€œVeilâ€ Berry, Jeanne Foucault, the polymath phenomenon dubbed Finesse, and human dynamo Striker – who much prefers his stage name and persona to being ordinary Brandon Sharpe – were given a rare day off. Temporarily freed from crushing classes, the kids are let loose in New York City but are quickly targeted by the baroque bad guy, desperate to reclaim his formerly fearsome reputation by killing a few superheroes. Always ambitious,Arcade has simultaneously set up to assassinate not only the proto-Avengers but also another squad of kid crusadersâ€¦

The Young Allies are Spider-Girl (Latina Anya Sofia Corazon, formerly arachnoid avenger AraÃ±a), super-strong Toro AKA bovine metamorph Benito Serrano and relative child-hero veteran Firestar. Â This trio of unsupervised titanic teens also fall into Arcade’s Machiavellian clutches when the maniac unleashes a deceptively devilish division of robot duplicates to deliver the meta kids to his latest deadly theme-park of terrorâ€¦

Happily the crazed contract killer had completely underestimated the intelligence of Reptil and sheer bloody determination of Spider-Girl, so it wasn’t long before all the junior heroes were loose and really, really peevedâ€¦

This fun and furious frolic from Paul Tobin, David Baldeon & Jordi Tarragona is then followed by ‘Why Me?’ (Spider-Man #25, August 1992) by Terry Kavanagh, Chris Marrinan & Chris Stegbauer: a rather slight interlude in which the Wondrous Wall-crawler scurries over to England to meet with old pal Captain Britain and gets suckered into a virtual reality war against mutant superteam Excalibur – all courtesy of the malevolently manipulative Arcade â€“ who had once again bitten off far more than he could chewâ€¦

‘Shootout over Centre Ring’ by Chris Claremont, Michael Nasser, Rich Buckler & Josef Rubinstein is a far better tale, first seen in Marvel Team-Up #89 (January 1980) and revealing how the web-spinner and X-Man Nightcrawler were propelled into an acrobatic alliance after an unscrupulous Texan millionaire showman from the mutant’s circus past resurfaces with a plan to assassinate Spider-Man as a publicity stunt.

Amos Jardine had originally hired Arcade but later went with a lower bid from hitman Cutthroat, consequently discovering that the only thing the Grinning Gamesman hated more than costumed crusaders was a welcherâ€¦

Classic Fights ‘n’ Tights action and lots of bizarre laughs distinguish this engaging piece of all-action eye-candy, and this collection also includes a cover gallery by Ed McGuinness, Chris Samnee, Matthew Wilson, Mark Bagley, Al Milgrom, Buckler & Rubinstein, plus pencils, layouts and sketches by McGuinness, Samnee and Baldeon and a handy prose profile of the eponymous assassin himselfâ€¦
Â© 1980, 1992, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

December 26, 2012December 23, 2012

Fantastic Annuals 1968, 1969, 1970

By various (Odhams)
No ISBNs

Fantastic was the flagship of the â€œPower Comicsâ€ sub-brand used by Odhams to differentiate those periodicals which contained reprinted American superhero material from the company’s regular blend of sports, war, western and adventure comics. During the mid-1960s these captivating ubiquitous British weeklies did much to popularise the budding Marvel characters and universe in this country. With its sister paper Terrific the comic was notable for not reformatting or resizing the original artwork. In Wham!, Pow! and Smash! an entire 24 page adventure could be squeezed into 10 or 11 pages over two weeksâ€¦

However, although the all-action comic featured Thor, Iron Man and the X-Men in chronological tales (with a few gags and a UK generated adventure feature), the annuals were a far more exotic and intriguing mixed bag…

The 1968 book – released in December 1967 – opens with the full-colour Thor thriller ‘When Magneto Strikes!’ (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Chic Stone from Journey into Mystery #109, October 1964) recounting a blistering battle beneath the sea between the Thunder God and mutant master of Magnetism before plunging on after with the home-produced fantasy adventure ‘The Temple of Zentaca’ wherein a two explorer pals, their dog and a handy super-rifle foil a plot by a manic mad scientist in a cunning, anonymous yarn probably illustrated by the great Luis Bermejo Rojo.

After a rather bland and uncredited science fiction prose vignette ‘The Fugitives’ the Annual lapses into traditional two tone mode (red and black) and offers a Marvel monster yarn ‘The Man Who Hated Monstro!’ (from Journey into Mystery #92, May 1963 by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Paul Reinman) before launching into the bombastic ‘Beware of the Blob!’ (X-Men #3 1963, Lee, Kirby & Reinman) wherein the mutant teens tackle an immovable human mountain and his evil carnival, followed by a magical Stan Lee/Steve Ditko sci fi yarn ‘I Used to beâ€¦ Human!’ â€¦also taken from JiM #92.

‘Colossus!’ is another British weird mystery saga illustrated by European master JosÃ© Ortiz Moya, with a young man obtaining ultimate vengeance for the murder of his father by animating a giant stone statueâ€¦

Full colour is restored for the prose short ‘The Invaders’ and the book closes with the captivating Lee/Robert Bernstein/Kirby classic ‘Iron Man vs Doctor Strange!’ (or ‘The Stronghold of Doctor Strange!’ as it originally was: a mad scientist who paved the way for the later Master of the Mystic Arts and whose one-and-only appearance was in Tales of Suspense #41, May 1963).

This fabulous collection blew me away Christmas morning and still makes my weary pulse race todayâ€¦

One year later the magic resumed with Fantastic Annual 1969, which began with a beautiful double-page painted frontispiece featuring the entire heroic pantheon contained therein before the X-Men battled artificially enhanced giant insects in ‘The Plague of the Locust!’ (from X-Men #24, September 1966, by Roy Thomas, Werner Roth & Dick Ayers) after which ‘Miniman the Incredible Crusader’ debuted in a spectacular clash with insane roboticist Dr. Tome; another uncredited fantasy thriller illustrated by a tantalisingly familiar artist tragically unknown to meâ€¦

With talk of moonshots in the air the ‘Conquest of Space’ was an inevitable but endearing text feature, followed by the red and black section which kicked off with folksy fantasy masterpiece ‘Humans Keep Out!’ (Journey into Mystery #86, November 1962) by Stan Lee and the marvellous Don Heck, who also illustrated the untitled Iron Man thriller which followed, pitting the Armoured Avenger against the wicked Count Nefaria and invaders from the Moon.

(For your peace of mind the story was originally entitled ‘If a Man be Mad!’, scripted by Al Hartley and inked by Mike Esposito from Tales of Suspense #68, August 1965).

After another ‘Conquest of Space’ page ‘All About Iron Man’ reprinted a selection of fact pages and pin-ups disclosing the technical secrets of old Shellhead, whilst ‘The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk!’ (Lee, Kirby & Chic Stone from Journey into Mystery #112, January 1965) gave us one of the very best frantic fight-fests in Marvel’s entire history before Lee & Ditko leavened the mood with a classy time travel thriller ‘Prophet of Doom!’ (from Tales of Suspense #40, April 1963) whilst Lee & Sol Brodsky shone light on the incredible unknown with ‘Mr. Flubb’s Torch’ (originally the more euphonius â€œFlashlightâ€ in the October 1963 ToS #46)â€¦

After one final ‘Conquest of Space’ full colour was restablished and this year’s model concluded with a magnificent adventure of home-grown superman Johnny Future who travelled to the end of the universe to defeat the invincible Disastro in a stunning tale probably scripted by Alf Wallace and illustrated by the inimitable Luis Bermejo.

Fantastic Annual 1970 saw the end of the era. Interest in superheroes and fantasy in general were on the wane and British weeklies were gradually switching back to war and sports stories. This was one of the last Odhams Christmas compendiums to feature imported Marvel material: from then on the Americans would handle their own Seasonal books rather than franchise out their classics to mingle with the Empire’s motley, anarchic rabble.

The frantic fun started in full colour with the contents of X-Men #40, January 1968, by Roy Thomas, Don Heck & Dick Ayers, wherein the merry mutants tracked down an alien robot Frankenstein in ‘The Mark of the Monster!’ after which the switch to red and black synchronised with ‘The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom!’ – a genuine Marvel Masterwork by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Chic Stone from Fantastic Four Annual #2, September 1964, which revealed the pride and folly which shaped one of the greatest villains in comics.

‘The Haunted House!’ (or ‘I Speak of the Haunted House’ from Tales of Suspense #42, June 1963) is a splendid example of Lee and Ditko at their light-hearted best, whilst Thor displayed his warrior acumen battling ‘The Evil of Loki!’ in a severely edited, almost truncated reprint of ‘The Day Loki Stole Thor’s Magic Hammer!’ (Lee, Robert Bernstein & Joe Sinnott from Journey into Mystery #92, May 1963). At least it was in full colour, as was the group pin-up page featuring the Thunder God, the X-Men and Iron Man traced off by a Power Comics art junior – possible Steve Parkhouse or Barry (Windsor) Smith – after which the two colour printing returns as the Armoured Avenger is ‘Suspected of Murder!’

The supposed victim was, of course, his own alter-ego Tony Stark in this tense, guest-star studded yarn by Lee, Heck & Dick Ayers (from Tales of Suspense #60, December 1964) after which ‘The March of the Steelmen’ offered another excellent but uncredited science fiction thriller, pitting a brace of upstanding British researchers against an uncanny invasion of unstoppable metallic warriors from a sub-atomic worldâ€¦

The final tale, in full colour, introduces another indomitable domestic hero as ‘Matt Marvel – Lawman of the Future’ pitted all his incredible resources against maddest of scientists Doctor Merlin in a mind-boggling battle of wits and wiles with the world at stake…

These stunningly more-ish collections are mostly tasty treats for we backward-looking baby-boomers, but even though the Marvel material has been reprinted ad infinitum, there’s still a wealth of excellent and intriguing home-made heroic action going begging here, and it’s long past due for some enterprising publisher to gather all that quirky British invention into a modern compendium of weird warriors and wonders.

Anybody here tempted by a new/old UK Action Forceâ€¦?
Â© 1969 Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited. Selected material Â© Marvel Comics Group (1963, 1964) 1969.

December 25, 2012December 27, 2012

Merry Christmas, Boys and Girls

Since the Mayans miscalculated and we’re all (most?) still here, I’ve gotten all extra-nostalgic and doubled my pleasure by indulging in not just one but two days of British Annual excellence…

Today’s Cool Yule Drool comprises a trio of my most often enjoyed festive frolics and tomorrow we’re doing it again with even more passion but just a little less imaginatively.

Have a Very Merry Day and always keep reading new thingsâ€¦

Robin Annual Number 1

By various, edited by Marcus Morris (Hulton Press)
No ISBN:

There’s not a lot around these days in our field which both caters specifically for little kids and simultaneously introduces them to the ineluctably tactile wonders and sensorium of a high quality comics anthology experience, but once upon a time there was a whole subdivision of the business dedicated to enthralling and enchanting our youngest and, hopefully, brightestâ€¦

Robin was created in the hugely successful wake of Marcus Morris and Frank Hampson’s iconic Eagle, catering to the pre-school market the way Swift targeted 6-10 year olds and Girl concentrated on potential young ladies (that looks far creepier in print than I’d intendedâ€¦). The periodical ran from March 28^th 1953 to 25^th January 1969, a startling 836 joy-stuffed issues.

Offering a range of beautiful genteel, diffidently Christiano-centric stories, strips and puzzles for parents to read with and to their toddlers, Robin sported the same supremely high production values as all the Hulton Press titles. It was edited by Morris until 1962 when Clifford Makins took over, shepherding the title until its absorption into Odhams/Fleetway comic Playhour, just as the collapse of theUK comics industry was beginningâ€¦

There were at least nine Christmas Annuals – such as this first one from 1953 – which combined stunning, lavishly illustrated colour strips and features with solid, memorably stylish and glossy monochrome pages for an 80 page compendium of enticing wonderment between sturdily thick and reassuring red cardboard covers.

Again like its older brothers and sister, Robin included a selection of licensed characters well known to the new but ever-growing television audienceâ€¦

This particular British Festive icon opens with double-page front and end-pieces by Reg Forster, depicting railway station scenes to colour in and a beautiful painted dedication to the young Princess Anne and Prince Charles, after which the prose tale of ‘Johnny and Mr Spink’ related the tale of a boy given a pony for his birthday.

The first comic strip is in colour. ‘The Amazing Adventure of Percy and the Cricket Ball’ featured anthropomorphic animals and a young man who turned sporting disaster to his advantage, followed by an illustrated poem ‘Things to Do’ and ‘The Story of Woppit’, a monochrome strip featuring an infamous teddy-bear in the snow with bunnies.

More shrew than bear, Mr. Woppit was merchandised as a toy and one was adopted as a lucky mascot by notoriously superstitious sportsman and speed enthusiast Donald Campbell. It was with him when Campbell died piloting the hydroplane Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water in 1967, and found amidst the floating wreckage.Campbell’s remains weren’t recovered until 2001.

A Play Page of puzzles is followed by the first TV star as ‘Andy Pandy’ played garden pranks on Teddy after which ‘The Old Woman and the Mouse’ offered a delightfully salutary prose fable illustrated by the incredibly talented David Walsh and then ‘The Twins Simon and Sally’ got into a mess feeding the chickens in their first strip saga.

‘Princess Tai-Lu’ was a magical Siamese cat and in her initial strip here celebrates Christmas with a few furry feline friends in her own unique manner, whilst the illustrated poem ‘Little Grey Stone’ by Margaret Milnes is a visual feast of tone-&-wash mastery and colour comic ‘Tom the Tractor’ related the heroic rescue of a climbing lamb and piglet by a handy animated farm vehicle,

‘Scruffy the Scarecrow’ was almost junked by the farmer until some friendly Magpies saved his job in a rather moving text tale, but ‘The Proud Mouse’ was the architect of her own downfall in a delightfully executed strip by an uncredited hand.

‘Richard Lion’ (and his animal chums Henry the kangaroo, Pug the bulldog, Peggy the black panther, Nemo the jester and others) seems like a rather excellent knock-off of Bestall’s Rupert Bear by the brilliant Maria Jocz, but it still offers wonder and joy aplenty in a two-chapter, vividly coloured strip which finds the cubs being harassed by and then saving some irascible Snow Gnomes. Next comes the second of the BBC’s Watch With Mother properties as Bill and Ben ‘The Flower-Pot Men’ saved a tortoise from his own exuberant folly in a captivating black and white strip.

A black Scottie dog narrates ‘The Sad Story of McTavish’ (by Norman Satchell) whilst ‘Charlie and the Cake’ takes only three panels to explain the folly of stealing confectionery from the larderâ€¦

The snow-bound adventures of Rufus, Rodney Rita and little brother â€œFumsâ€ resulted in a new family pet thanks to the intervention of ‘The Magic Wellingtons’ in a beguiling colour strip, whilst, following a Bo Peep maze-page, ‘The Twins Simon and Sally’ return no wiser than before as their attempts to bath both a dog and cat at the same time goes spectacularly awryâ€¦

‘Midge the Motor Car’ was a living autonomous little auto and his trip to the local Fair resulted in initially chaos but eventually a dramatic and heroic rescue in a lovely monochrome strip from Catherine Hammond and an uncredited scripter, after which ‘The Shepherd Boy’ retold the story of David and Goliath in a stylish full colour comics version, and short story ‘The Runaway Bus’ – illustrated by Forster – detailed how a London Passenger Service Vehicle took itself off to the seaside for the dayâ€¦

The poem ‘Eider Downy House’ (Gay Wood) is followed by the sublime black and white nature strip ‘The Dormouse at Christmas’ and a full colour rebus double spread of the alphabet before the prose tale of ‘Ku Mu and the Crocodile’ (written and illustrated by Dorothy Craigie) told a gentle tale of West Africa and the strip ‘Bingo, Bango and Bongo’ by Jenetta Vise demonstrated to three monkeys that performing in a circus was far more fun than merely spectatingâ€¦

A ‘Mrs Bunny Maze Puzzle’ precedes the all-colour adventures of talking calf ‘Johnny Bull’ on land, sea and in the air, after which the superbly limned prose story ‘The Excited Red Balloon’ shows the sheer class of illustrator Eileen Bradpiece, before Technicolor tiny titan ‘Andy Pandy’ performed a prankish encore at a tea-party for Teddy and ‘Tina, Tim and the Magic Helicopter’ undertook an astounding prose voyage to the Wild Westâ€¦

Patricia Hubbard drew an amazing strip adventure of the dolls in ‘Toyville’ and, following the conclusion of Richard Lion‘s excursion to the cave of the Snow Gnomes and another rebus page entitled ‘Can You Read this Letter?’, ‘The Flower-Pot Men’ accidentally built themselves a splendid flying sailboat.

The rather trenchant warnings in the tale of ‘Canty Kitten’ are balanced by a practical feature on ‘How to Draw a Toy Engine’, after which David Walsh displays his dexterity with both monochrome and full colour scenes for the ode to ‘Skating on a Pond’ and the enigmatic Kearon (perhaps Robot Archie artist Ted Kearon?) exhibits great virtuosity in relating the strip saga of ‘Philip’s Circus’â€¦

The indefatigable Walsh then lent his deft pen and brush to the alarmist but happily ended text tale of ‘The Squirrel Who Forgot’ and sublime ‘Princess Tai-Lu’ returned to save her human companion’s hat in another lovely monochrome strip.

‘Billyphant’s Birthday’ provided a menagerie of pets for the lonely little pachyderm and that motivated Motor Car returned in ‘Midge at the Zoo’, handling runaway rhinos and adoring peacocks alike, before another Play Page segued into a black and white bible strip detailing what happened when ‘Jesus gets lost’ and all the seasonal magic ended with the prose saga of runaway pigs ‘Quibble and Quarrel’.

Unlike most periodicals of the time, this annual actually lists all the creative contributors involved – although not which pieces they worked on – so those I’ve been unable to identify I’ve name-checked here: writers Leila Berg, Maria Bird, John Byrne, Nancy Catford, Dennis Duckworth, Jessica Dunning, Rosemary Garland, James Hemming, Maureen Hillyer, Winifred Holmes, Ursula John, Rosemary Sisson, John Taylor, Billy Thatcher, & Shelagh Fraser whilst artists unattributed include Anthony Beaurepaire, Nancy Catford, Harry Hants, Irene Hawkins, Elizabeth Hobson, Stewart Irwin, Faith Jacques, Janet & Anne Graham Johnstone, Mary McGowan, Constance Marshall, Michael K. Noble, Walter Pannett, Prudence Seward, A.E. Speer, Astrid Walford & Andrew Wilson.

Relatively cheap and still quite available, books like this were and should remain an integral part of our communal history, always astoundingly high in quality and absolutely absorbing. Whimsical, comforting and supremely entertaining, this is a package with a host of child-friendly tales that have tragically missed becoming nursery classics simply because they appeared in a disposable comic rather than permanent kid’s novel, and it’s long past time publishers re-examined this wealth of forgotten material with a view to creating new masterpieces for library shelves and wholesome all-ages TV animation projectsâ€¦

No copyright notice so I’m guessing most of the originally created intellectually properties material now resides as part of IPC or Egmont. If you know better I’ll be happy to have this entry amended.

Superadventure Annual 1967

By various (Atlas Publishing & Distribution)
No ISBN

Whereas the 1962 edition – the first Christmas Annual I can remember getting – was a stunning shock to my British-born, Polish/German reared, pre-school senses, by the advent of the 1967 Superadventure Annual (December 25th 1966 at about 11 minutes past 4 in the morning), I was a far more sophisticated but no less excitable consumer.

I had since learned in those short intervening years quite a bit about Superman, Jimmy Olsen, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Flash, Tommy Tomorrow and all the rest through the sleek American import comics that my Dad faithfully brought home every Friday after work, teaching me – and himself – English (admittedly American-seasoned) by poring through them together over weekends filled with sugary snacks and in-between huge, rustic, home-grown and Mum-cooked meals.

That early indoctrination and fascination remains strong – for the comics at least. I’m far too old and debilitated for sugar, starch, caffeine and artificial additives nowâ€¦

This was one of the last licensed UK DC collections before the Batman TV show turned the entire planet Camp-Crazed and Batmanic, and therefore offered a delightfully eclectic mix of material far more in keeping with traditionally perceived British boy’s interests than the masked suited and booted madness that was soon to follow in the Caped Crusader’s scalloped wake. Of course this collection was still produced in the cheap and quirky mix of black and white, dual-hued and full colour pages which made those Christmas books such a bizarrely beloved treat.

The action opens with a classically lovely yarn starring the Fastest Man Alive, printed in black and red.

The first story is reprinted from The Flash #119 (March 1961), crafted by John Broome, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson, and related how the lethal Looking Glass Bandit used his incredible technology to turn our hero into a living genie before attempting to murder him with ‘The Mirror Master’s Magic Bullet’ after which space cop Tommy Tomorrow tackled – in plain old monochrome – ‘The Planeteer’s Alien Allies’.

The strip was a hugely long-running back-up strip which moved from Real Fact Comics, to Action Comics and Worlds Finest Comics before fading from sight and memory. This particular tale of sneaky conniving ETs only pretending to be Earth’s friends comes from WF #122, December 1961, courtesy of scripter Jack Miller and versatile illustrator Murphy Anderson. Ubiquitous gag cartoonist Henry Boltinoff produced hundreds of funny pages and characters over the years, and a great selection are sprinkled through this book, beginning with a crafty ‘Casey the Cop’ howlerâ€¦

World’s Finest Comics #125 from May 1962 provided the Green Arrow thriller ‘The Man Who Defied Death’ (by Ed â€œFranceâ€ Herron and Lee Elias); a bold and grittily terse mini-epic and taut human drama about a desperate daredevil willing to do absolutely anything to earn the cash for his son’s medical bills, followed by a Boltinoff ‘Moolah the Mystic’ rib-tickler and the start of the full (but exceedingly odd) colour section.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #60 (April 1962) provided the astonishing story of ‘Super-Mite’ as author Leo Dorfman & artist Al Plastino had the exuberant cub reporter explore the mystery of a little action figure given by the Man of Steel to an ailing boy which inexplicably became as smart and powerful as any full-sized Kryptonian! This is followed by a Boltinoff gag starring ‘Peter Puptent, Explorer’ and a chiller featuring Aquaman and Aqualad battling ‘The Curse of the Sea Hermit’.

First seen in Detective Comics #295, September 1961 by George Kashdan & Nick Cardy, this spooky sea tale seemingly pitted the heroes against ancient evil but there was ultra-modern piratical plundering behind this schemeâ€¦

Back in black and white, ‘The Trickster Strikes Back’ (Flash #121, June 1961) saw the rapacious return of an air-walking bandit with murderous intent, outmanoeuvred by the Vizier of Velocity in a stunning yarn from Broome, Infantino and Joe Giella whilst, after another Peter Puptent page, Tommy Tomorrow undertook a desperate ‘Journey to 1966’ (originally entitled ‘Journey to 1960’, by Miller & Jim Mooney, when it first appeared in WF #113, November 1960) to capture a would-be world-conqueror with the inadvertent aid of the Planeteer’s own grandfather, after which the grand Costumed Dramas end in fine style with ‘The League of Fantastic Supermen’ (by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan & George Klein from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #63, September 1962) in which a quartet of Kryptonian outlaws and the double-dealing Legion of Super-Villains are all outwitted by the plucky junior journalist.

Maybe I’m blinded by nostalgia-coloured goggles, but it seems admirably astounding to me that the all-ages stories featured here are so perfectly constructed that whether an innocent(ish) tubby toddler or the sullen, embittered old coot I became, these tales continue to beguile, bemuse and satisfy in a way that no food, drink or drug could. This is another book that will always say â€œMerry Christmasâ€ to me.

â€¦And hopefully to you, tooâ€¦

Â© 1966 National Periodical Publications, Inc.,New York. Published and distributed jointly by Atlas Publishing and Thorpe & Porter, Ltd., by arrangement with The K.G. Murray Publishing Company Pty. Ltd., Sydney.

Beano Book 1972

By various (DC Thomson & Co., Ltd.)
Retroactively awarded ISBN: 978-0-85116-038-2

For many British – and indeed Commonwealth â€“ fans, Christmas can only mean The Beano Book (although Scots worldwide and of every nationality have a pretty fair claim that the season belongs exclusively to them via the traditional, annually-alternating collections of The Broons and Oor Wullie which make every December 25th mirthfully magical), so I’ve yet again highlighted another of the venerable and beloved tomes as particularly representative of the Season of Joy.

In those days these annuals were produced in the wonderful â€œhalf-colourâ€ British publishers used to keep costs down. This was done by printing sections or â€œSignaturesâ€ of the books with only two plates, such as Cyan (Blue) and Magenta (Red): The sheer versatility and colour range this provided was astounding. Even now this technique inescapably screams â€œHolidayextrasâ€ for me and my contemporaries.

As is always the tragic case, my knowledge of the creators involved is criminally sub-par but I’ll hazard the usual wild guesses in the hope that someone with better knowledge will correct me when I err and embarrassingly get it wrong againâ€¦

This boisterously compelling chronicle opens with a double-page splash of The Bash Street Kids (by David Sutherland) breaking the fourth wall and playing mischievous hob with the book’s two-colour formatting, after which The Three Bears by Bob McGrath and the exceedingly domestic Biffo the Bear (Sutherland again) officially welcome us to the festivities.

Leading off this year’s anarchic antics is a splendid school Panto skit starring Minnie the Minx courtesy of Jim Petrie, after which the iconoclastic Dennis the Menace and Gnasher make their first appearance adding their own unique tinge of terror to a school play thanks to prolific diversity of style chameleon David Sutherland.

â€œFastest boy on Earthâ€ Billy Whizz (by Malcolm Judge) then experiences painful feedback from a rashly hurled boomerang and his Antipodean counterpart, before the re-assembled Bash Street Kids helpfully assist Teacher get over his over-sleeping problem with the expected catastrophic results in a dedicated and extended niche chapter interwoven with the eccentric and imaginative ‘Bash Street Motor Cartie Show’.

Biffo and human pal Buster go shopping for new furniture next – in an eye-popping blue and yellow segment – after which Roger the Dodger is again outwitted by his dad and Lord Snooty learns the error of his selfish, posh-boy ways in a brace of gloriously funny strips from Robert Nixon, whilst Ronald Spencer’s painfully un-PC but exceedingly hilarious Little Plum follows with the rambunctious redskin falling foul of a bolshie buffalo before Billy Whizz rockets back with a tricky ‘Whizz Quiz’ to test our wits and reactions.

In a previous annual the Bash Street Kids found themselves the reluctant owners of an accident-prone elephant, and she riotously returns here in an extended episode of Pups Parade starring the Bash Street Dogs (and Ethel Hump) by the marvellous Gordon Bell. Stuck with the excitable, ponderous pachyderm by the awesome and omnipotent Beano Editor, the mangy mutts soon handed her off to their arch-foes The Bash Street Cats but it took the canny connivings of ‘The Nibblers’ (drawn by either John Sherwood or Ron Spencer?) to finally quell Ethel’s destructively effusive spiritsâ€¦

At this time The Beano still had the odd adventure strip and perhaps the greatest of these was local boy superhero Billy the Cat. Here in an expansive section of his own, the plucky acrobat chases burglars over rooftops, crushes bullies, catches car thieves and almost mucks up a fire drill in a rollicking rollercoaster of blistering action by Sandy Calder â€“ and there’s also a splendid ‘Quick on the Draw’ feature inviting readers to become artists themselvesâ€¦

Biffo the Bear then endures an agony of indecision whilst his hirsute and voracious American cousins The Three Bears got a slap-up Christmas feed even after failing again to breach the impregnable local general store of grocer Hank Huckleberryâ€¦

The defences of Bunkerton Castle proved too much when Lord Snooty and His Pals tried to bring in a truly tremendous Xmas tree, but Minnie the Minx had far more success in her spring-heeled hi-jinx â€“ until Dad caught her, at least â€“ whilst the ‘Billy Whizz Diary’ proved its worth in mirth before Little Plum and that buffalo had their hands and hooves full trying to wigwam-train Chiefy‘s latest pet â€“ a Smart Alec chimpanzeeâ€¦

The Nibblers next resumed their war of attrition with malicious moggy Whiskers whilst Roger’s latest Dodges proved ultimately unsuccessful but did prompt him to dream big and explain what would happen ‘If I Were a Rich Boyâ€¦’

Another extended journey to Bash Street found the Kids literally sucking up to Teacher after â€œborrowingâ€ a Corporation Dust Cart and industrial vacuum cleaner, whilst following some enthralling, appalling ‘Party Puzzles’ the ‘Pup Parade’ ended the segment with a dirty scheme to clean up the dog’s communal dustbin homeâ€¦

Biffo then worked out with the local Fire Brigade and ‘The Three Bears’ had snow fun at all when Hank trapped them with a frigid, foodless maze, after which Minnie found things to amuse herself – but not so many other folks – building snowmenâ€¦

The Festive fun then concludes with a thinly veiled but entertaining ad for that year’s Dennis the Menace Annual and a return to the Bash Street Kids’ colour cavortingsâ€¦

This is another astoundingly compelling edition, and even in the absence of legendary creators such as Dudley Watkins, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid there’s no discernable decline in the outrageous and infectious insanity. With so much merriment on offer I can’t believe this forty year old book is still sprightlier and more entertaining than most of my surviving friends and relatives. If ever anything needed to be issued as commemorative collections it’s these fabulous DC Thomson annualsâ€¦

Divorcing the sheer quality of this brilliant book from nostalgia may be a healthy exercise â€“ perhaps impossible, but I’m perfectly happy to simply wallow in the magical emotions this annual still stirs. It’s a fabulous laugh-and-thrill-packed read from a magical time, and turning those stiffened two-colour pages is always an unmatchable Christmas experience â€“ and still relatively easy to find these days.

December 24, 2012December 23, 2012

There’s a HAIR in My Dirt! â€“ A Worm’s Story

By Gary Larson, coloured by Nick Bell of Wildstorm Productions (Little, Brown and Co/HarperCollins)
ISBNs: 978-0-31664-519-5 (HC)Â Â Â Â Â Â 978-0060932749 (PB)

We may not be rocket scientists but all cartoonists tend to lurk at the sharp end of the IQ bell curve – and then there’s Gary Larson. He could be a rocket scientist if he wanted to. Happily though, his inclinations tend towards natural history and the Life Sciences.

And making people laugh in a truthful, thinking kind of wayâ€¦

Larson was born in 1950 and raised in WashingtonState. After school and college (also WashingtonStatewhere he got a degree in communications) he bummed around and got a job in a music store – which he hated. During a self-imposed sabbatical he evolved into a cartoonist by submitting to Pacific Search (now Pacific Northwest Magazine) in Seattle who promptly astonished him by accepting and paying for his six drawings. Bemused and emboldened Larson kept on doodling and in 1979 The Seattle Times began publishing his strip Nature’s Way. When The San Francisco Chronicle picked up the gag feature they renamed it The Far Sideâ€¦

From 1980 on the Chronicle Syndicate peddled the strip with huge success. The Far Side became a global phenomenon and Larson’s bizarre, skewed and bitingly surreal strip starring nature Smug in Tooth and Claw almost took over the world. With 23 collections (over 45 million copies sold), two animated movies, calendars, greetings cards and assorted merchandise seemingly everywhere, the smartypants scribbler was at the top of his game when he retired the feature on January 1^st 1995.

After fifteen years at the top, Larson wanted to quit while he was ahead. He still did the occasional promo piece or illustration but increasingly devoted his time to ecological causes and charities such as Conservation International. He still does.

Of course he couldn’t stop drawing or thinking or, indeed, teaching and in 1998 created the stunningly smart and cool children’s book for concerned and nervous adults under the microscope here.

There’s a HAIR in My Dirt! brilliantly, mordantly tells a parable within a fable and serves up a marvellously meaningful message for us to absorb and ingest whilst simultaneously making us laugh like loons and worry like warts.

One day underground a little worm having dinner with his folks finds something unnatural and icky in his meal and starts bemoaning the lowly status and general crappiness of his annelidic existence (look it up, I’m showing off and making a comedic point tooâ€¦). To counter this outburst of whingeing Father Worm offers a salutary tale to put things into their proper perspectiveâ€¦

Thus begins the tragic tale of Harriet, a beautiful human maiden living – she believed – at one with world in the woods, enraptured with the bountiful Magic of Nature and of one particular frolicsome day encountering cute squirrels, lovely flowers, icky bugs, happy birds, playful deer, tortoises and every kind of creatureâ€¦ and completely missing the point about all of themâ€¦

Masquerading as an acerbic faux fairytale teller, Larson delivers an astoundingly astute and unforgettable ecology lesson equally effective in educating young and old alike about Nature’s true nature – and yet still miraculous wonders – all whilst maintaining a monolithic amount of outrageous comic hilarity.

This sublime illustrated yarn became a New York Times Best Seller on its release and still serves as a fabulous reminder of what really clever people can achieve even if they don’t do rocket scienceâ€¦

Seriously though: There’s a HAIR in My Dirt! is one of the smartest, funniest and most enticingly educational kid’s book ever created and should be on every school curriculum. Since it isn’t, perhaps it’s best if you picked one up for the houseâ€¦?
Â© 1998 FarWorks, Inc. All rights reserved.

December 23, 2012December 22, 2012

X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong

By Greg Pak, Greg Land & Matt Ryan (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1924-8

In the X-Men’s corner of reality The Phoenix is a universal force of creation and destruction. It first possessed mutant telepath Jean Grey when the team flew through a spectacular solar storm and seemingly transformed the mortal Marvel Girl into a passionate and capricious being of practically godlike power.

When she was first possessed by the fiery force Jean became an unstoppable hero of infinite puissance and an overwhelming champion of Life, but eventually the power corrupted her and she devolved into Dark Phoenix: a wanton god of world-killing appetites.

After succumbing to the addictive lure of her abilities the fiery force consumed an entire populated planet and, after battling both X-Men and the Imperial Guard of the Shi’ar Empire to a standstill, momentarily lost control to its own human avatar. Stricken with remorse Jean contrived to end her own life in the ancient Kree outpost known as the Blue Area of the Moon.

After some years Jean was miraculously resurrected, married her true love Scott â€œCyclopsâ€ Summers and continued as a much diminished mutant hero. Eventually, however, she regained – or was taken by – the Phoenix powers. With her marriage failing, Jean died in combat against a being who seemed to be long-term foe/friend Magneto and subsequently ascended to become an even more cosmic entity, The White Phoenix of the Crown.

In this collection, re-presenting the 2005 five issue miniseries Phoenix – Endsong (scripted by Greg Pak and illustrated by Greg Land & Matt Ryan), the fundamental force again appears, hungrily seeking a companion-host and, as ever, utterly uncaring about the repercussions of its selfish actionsâ€¦

The drama begins far away across the universe as a Shi’ar ship attacks the flaming entity and, with unprecedented awareness, the host-less energy flees towards Sol and the home of its most beloved avatar. Soon, on Earth Wolverine is accosted by a vagrant, questing thought-form and realises something isn’t rightâ€¦

The ghost of the Phoenix visits many of Jean’s old friends and familiar places before finding her one-and-only Scott in the arms of another telepath and at last realises that if it wants Jean back it will have to resurrect her.

No problemâ€¦

Jean’s desiccated corpse fights with all the will she possessed in life but thePhoenixis unstoppable. By the time Wolverine reaches her grave Jean Grey is a living, breathing woman again – and unwilling receptacle of the most savage and irresistible power in the universeâ€¦

Confused yet triumphant the Phoenixdecides to give Jean everything she had always wanted, including her ideal man. Scott of course, has moved on since her demise and now loves devastatingly capable hellion Emma Frost.

No problemâ€¦

As the childish, spiteful creature attempts to reconstruct Jean’s past and erase all her rivals, the pursuing Shi’ar warp in, determined to destroy the fire entity before it reaches its peak of power, whilst on the world below Wolverine alerts Scott and the X-Men to their imminent perilâ€¦

Cyclops is grimly determined in the face of the news. His Jean died to save the universe from the Phoenix and this thing that has returned isn’t her, so must be ruthlessly dealt with. As the mutant heroes mobilise, however, the Phoenix attacks, whilst deep in their underground labs, deceased fantastically dangerous Homo superior Supremacist Quentin Quire – the terrifying Kid Omega – has been recalled to life by the Force’s earlier probes and reconstitutes his destroyed body. Topping even that he attempts to resurrect his own lost love Sophie – part of a telepathic collective dubbed the Stepford Cuckoos who died stopping his last petulant rampage.

But for all his power the lovesick boy just can’t make the miracle work a second timeâ€¦

The X-Men are unable to stopPhoenix. She easily overcomes them and the desperate Shi’ar before teleporting to the North Pole with Wolverine. The aliens are now far more concerned that Quire might be an even more suitable host for the flaming force and threaten to eradicate the planet with a custom-made singularityâ€¦

At the top of the world Wolverine unleashes his claws but the thing that isn’t Jean just won’t die and all he accomplishes is the weakening of the last vestiges of control her conscience had exerted on thePhoenix.

By the time Cyclops and the X-Men arrive the universal firebird is moments away from getting everything it ever wanted and the stage is set for another cosmic tragedy to unfold. However love has always been thePhoenix’s weakness and Scott, Wolverine and all the assembled X-Men who ever knew Jean will do whatever is necessary to preserve her memory and spiritâ€¦

Action-packed but often only barely avoiding a descent into the mercilessly maudlin, this is a lovely piece of comicbook eye-candy which suffers from the twin perils of a surfeit of unexplained continuity and too much heavy-handed sentimentality. If you’re a long-term or effusively passionate new fan there’s a lot to enjoy but other than the exceedingly pretty pictures (supplemented by a wealth of variant covers and 5 pages of pencils prior to the application of ink and colour), casual readers probably won’t find the ride a very comfortable one.

December 22, 2012December 21, 2012

Hulk: Red and Green

By Jeph Loeb, Arthur Adams, Frank Cho, Herb Trimpe & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2884-7

Once upon a time, military scientist Bruce Banner was accidentally caught in a Gamma Bomb blast of his own devising. As a result, stress and sundry other triggers regularly caused him to transform into a gigantic green monster of impossible strength and fury. Alternately – often simultaneously – cast as both mindless monster and unlikely occasional hero, he rampaged across the fictional landscape for decades, becoming one of Marvel’s most successful comicbook features and multi-media megastars.

An incredibly popular character in global pop culture, the Hulk has periodically undergone radical changes in scope and format to keep his stories fresh and his exploits explosively compellingâ€¦

In recent years the number of Gamma-mutated monsters stomping around the Marvel universe proliferated to inconceivable proportions. The days of Banner getting angry and going Green at the drop of a hat are long gone, so anybody taking their cues from the TV or movie incarnations will be wise to assume a level of unavoidable confusion. With assorted Hulks, progeny proto-Hulks, She-Hulks, Abominations and all manner of ancillary atomic berserker roaming the planet, be prepared to experience a little confusion if you’re coming to this relatively cold. Nonetheless, these always epic stories are generally worth the effort, so persist if you can.

Even if you are familiar with Hulk history, ancient and modern, you might be forgiven for foundering on the odd point of narrative, so this book, collecting a more-or-less self-contained episode of gamma-generated chaos and calamity from 2008-2009, offers a cathartic dose of destructive diversion, with lashings of tension, suspense and even laughs with a minimum of head-hurting continuity conundrums.

What you need to know: a new, intelligent and ruthlessly efficient Red Hulk has been spotted throughout America – clearly not Bruce Banner but nevertheless quite able to hold his own against such powerhouses as The Abomination and even Thor. His origins and intentions unknown, the Rubicund Rogue guards his human identity with terrifying ferocityâ€¦

This will all eventually be revealed as part of an overlong, ongoing plot by the world’s wickedest brain-trust to conquer everything (latterly revealed in the epic Fall of the Hulks sequence) but here and now the action and mystery are all that matterâ€¦

When released as monthly comics, the issues in question (Hulk volume 2, #7-9 with portions of King Size Hulk #1) ran as â€œsplit-book’sâ€ featuring short separate instalments of both the Magenta and Jade Juggernauts, and this titanic tome opens with a 3-parter by scripter Jeph Loeb and artists Arthur Adams & Walden Wong. In ‘Where Monsters Dwell’ an appalled Dr. Banner grimly comes to accept that there’s another unstoppable horror on the loose spawned by his long-gone dabbling with Gamma rays. Meanwhile inCanada the subject of his researches has a brief, brutal and decidedly final encounter with the cursed and cannibalistic once-human creature known as the Wendigo before heading south. Little does the Crimson Colossus realise that there is more than oneâ€¦

The second chapter found Banner in hot pursuit and tracking his torrid target to Nevada in time to encounter a plague of Wendigos in the city’s casinos, prompting a fortunate flashback to the physicist’s Gamma-grey alter-ego Mr. Fixit and a catastrophically destructive â€œteam-upâ€ with Avengers Moon Knight, Sentry and Ms. Marvel that ends with him turning green, mean and moronic in ‘What Happens in Vegas’ â€¦

The cataclysmically chaotic clash of unlikely protectors and proliferating people-eaters in ‘World’s Finest’ leads to a spectacular fighting finish and another off-kilter guest-shot for the exceedingly eccentric Brother Voodoo before the crisis is contained in the concluding ‘Jackpot’â€¦

Meanwhile the subject of Banner’s search had been detained elsewhere. In ‘Wait until Dark’ (limned by Frank Cho) the Sensational She-Hulk was brutally beaten and brought to the brink of death by the sadistic Scarlet Savage, but resilient and undaunted called in a few friends for a rematch in ‘Hell Hath No Furyâ€¦’

Backed up by S.H.I.E.L.D., She-Hulk, Thundra and the Valkyrie trail the Red Devil to Mount Rushmore and seemingly overwhelm the bloody brute but, as seen in ‘â€¦Like a Woman Scorned!’, the devious deviant is more cunning than any previous Hulk and turns ‘The Revenge of the Lady Liberators’ (augmented at the end by Invisible Woman, Storm, Black Widow, Spider-Woman, Tigra and Hellcat) into an opportunity to recruit a willing accomplice for his long-term goalsâ€¦

Also included in this collection is a terse, gripping eulogy to a despised and departed villain as Loeb and Emerald legend Herb Trimpe detail ‘The Death and Life of the Abomination’ an assortment of covers and variants by Adams, Cho, Trimpe, Sal Buscema & Chris Sotomayor and Ed McGuiness, pages of unlinked pencils and layouts from Adams, and ‘Hulk Web’, ‘Hulk Airport’ and ‘Hulk Ice’- a selection of bonus comedy strips by Audrey Loeb & Chris Giarrusso.

If staggering, blockbusting Fights ‘n’ Tights turmoil is your fancy, a Hulk of any colour is always going to be at the top of every thrill-seeker’s hit listâ€¦
Â© 2008, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

December 21, 2012December 20, 2012

Peach Slices

By Donna Barr (Aeon/Mu)
No ISBN: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 2006 edition: 978-1-89225-325-5

The Desert Peach is the supremely self-assured and eminently efficient gay brother of Erwin Rommel, the legendary German soldier universally hailed as â€œthe Desert Foxâ€. Set – usually – in Africa during World War II, this priceless gem of a series effortlessly combines hilarity, absurdity, profound sensitivity and glittering spontaneity, with stories describing the dalliances and daily tribulations of Oberst Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel; dutiful albeit unwilling cog in the iniquitous German War Machine, yet one determined to remain a civilised gentleman under the most adverse and unkind conditions.

However, although in his own ways as formidable as his beloved elder sibling, the caring, gracious and genteel Peach is a man who loathes causing harm or giving offence. Thus he spends his service commanding the dregs of the military in the ghastly misshapes of the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging & Support Unit of the Afrika Korps, daily endeavouring to remain stylish, elegant, civil and ever so patient with and to the assorted waifs, wastrels and warriors on both sides of the unfortunate global conflict.

It’s a thankless, endless task: the 469^th houses the worst the Wehrmacht has ever conscripted, from malingerers and malcontents to useless wounded, shiftless conmen, screw-ups and outright maniacs.

Pfirsich unilaterally applies the same decorous courtesies to the sundry natives inhabiting the area and the rather tiresome British and Anzac forces â€“ not all of whom are party to a clandestine non-aggression pact Pfirsich has agreed with his opposite numbers in the amassed Allied Forces. In fact the only people to truly annoy the peace-loving Peach are boors, bigots, bullies and card-carrying Blackshirtsâ€¦

The romantic fool is also passionately in love with and engaged to Rosen Kavalier: handsome Aryan warrior and wildly manly Luftwaffe Ace, but arguably the real star of these fabulous frothy epics is the Peach’s long-suffering, unkempt, crafty, ill-mannered, bilious and lazily scrofulous orderly Udo Schmidt, a man of many secrets whose one redeeming virtue is his uncompromising loyalty and devotion to the only decent man and tolerable officer in the entire German army.

This eccentric aggregation of extras, excerpts and exotica was first released in 1993, gathering extraneous material from a variety of sources and covering the period 1987-1993: as much an affectionate art-book as delicious dose of non-or mis-canonical hi-jinx. The entire package was subsequently re-released in 2006 in a Directors Cut edition which added issue #25’s WWI Transylvanian Hammer-Horror pastiche ‘Beautiful’ to the mix and included reminiscences, background commentary and creator kibitzing regarding all the esoteric tales and titbits.

The gloriously visual treat begins with an Unused Pin Design and a splendid Badge Design from the San Diego Comic-Con 1989 after which a quartet of stunning and bizarre Beer Labels (for ales created by micro brewer Wendell Joost in 1988) precedes ‘Peach on Earth’ from A Very Mu Christmas 1992 – one of the very best Christmas stories ever produced in the notoriously twee and sentimental comics field.

Set in the harsh December of 1945, it follows the demobbed and repatriated Pfirsich as he wanders through his broken and occupied homeland, avoiding trouble and American troops but not the gnawing starvation and freezing snows which would kill so many returning, defeated German soldiers. On the verge of despair and death the Peach is brusquely adopted by a strange, brittle and utterly fearless little boy who has only known the Fatherland in the throes of decline, but still looks eagerly to a brighter tomorrowâ€¦

This is followed by a rather risquÃ© Rosen Kavalier pinup from Paper Phantasies (1991) and an unused strip originally commissioned by Rip Off Press whilst ‘Whipping Boy’ is a full-on adult escapade of the unconventional lovers as is ‘I Am What I Amâ€¦ (I Think)’ a â€œDesert Peach Pitt Stopâ€ that also languished unpublished until this collection preserved it.

Bits ‘n’ Pieces was a short-lived self-published magazine the indefatigable author used to disseminate assorted works which never made it into the regular, normal-length Desert Peach title. ‘The Veteran’ comes from the first issue in 1991 and returned focus to the motley cast of the hapless 469^thfor adeliciously philosophical foray that starred a most peculiar and innocent warrior named Thommi, whilst, after a frolicsome Desert Peach pinup from the 1989 Amazing Heroes Swimsuit Special, ‘Hindsight’ (Bits ‘n’ Pieces #1 1991) dabbles into personal politics before ‘Reflections’ from #3 offered a few New Year’s observations on the cast and stars from Barr herself.

The 1991 San Diego Comic-Con booklet provided another beguiling pinup before ‘Udo and the Phoenix’ (from Xenophon #1, 1992) related another tale of the spirited Arab horse accidentally owned by Udo and cared for by the equally magnificent Pfirsich, whilst ‘Reluctant Affections’ (from Bits ‘n’ Pieces #1 1991, before being redrawn as ‘Pigeonholed’ for Gay Comics #16) explored a tender, fragile moment and adorable chink in the macho armour of uber-Mensch Rosenâ€¦

‘The More Things Change’ from benefit book Choices in 1992 debates the abortion issue with characteristic abrasive aplomb after which ‘Sweet Delusions’ (Wimmin’s Comix #16 1991) gets down to the eye-watering nitty-gritty of Rosen & Pfirsich’s love life and ‘Wet Dream’ (Bits ‘n’ Pieces #3 1991) follows up with more of the same in a hilariously wry maritime moment.

Barr’s creations are never far from always internally consistent flights of extreme fantasy as seen in glorious diversion ‘The Oasis’ (Centaurs Gatherum 1990) with Pfirsich and brother Erwin finding a militarily priceless waterhole with a fantastic secret and forced to spend a truly outrageous time trapped as hybrid half horsesâ€¦

This captivating chronicle concludes with a selection of ‘Peach Pits’ miscellanea: illustrations, roughs and small press items culled from the Desert Peach Musical books, t-shirts and posters. There’s some fascinating rough layouts from the aforementioned ‘Peach on Earth’, an unused page from DP #17 (the superb ‘Culture Shock’ as seen in The Desert Peach: Marriage & Mayhem) and assorted stuff from Zine Zone #13, 1992, covers from Germanophilic Amateur Press Association magazine ‘Krauts’ and shirt designs before the whole outrageous affair ends well with an implausibly â€œtrue tailâ€ starring half-horse Stinz LÃ¶whard, Pfirsich and Erwin in a ‘Character Revolt’ from 1987’s Fan’toons 19.

Desert Peach adventures are always bawdy, raucous, satirical, authentically madcap and immensely engaging; bizarre (anti) war stories which rank amongst the very best comics of the 1990s. Even now they still pack a shattering comedic kick and – if you’re not quite ready – poignantly emotional charge.

The Desert Peach ran for 32 intermittent issues via a number of publishers and was subsequently collected as eight graphic novel collections (1988-2005). A prose novel, Bread and Swans, a musical, and an invitational collection by other artists entitled Ersatz Peach were also created during the strip’s heyday. A larger compendium, Seven Peaches, collected issues #1-7 and Pfirsich’s further exploits continue as part of the Modern Tales webcomics collectiveâ€¦

Illustrated in Barr’s fluidly seductive wood-cut and loose-line style, this book is another must-have item for lovers of wit, slapstick, high drama and belly-laughs and grown-up comics in general. All the collections are pretty hard to find these days but if you have a Kindle, Robot Comics released individual comicbook issues, and for anybody with internet access and refined tastes there’s always the webcomic to fall back onâ€¦

Christmas miracle moment: Just as we were preparing to post this, the multi-talented Mirth-Meister herself dropped us an update on availability and I’m not mean enough to keep the contents to myself in this season of sharing.

So to see Peach magic for yourself check out websites http://www.donnabarr.com or http://thedesertpeach.com and if you just have to own your own Peach product http://www.lulu.com/desertpeach, offers a huge double collection that also comes as economical loadable files and The Desert Peach (plus Stinz and Bosom Enemies) are all re-printed with colour extras at http://www.Indyplanet.com at marvellously economical rates.

Enjoy!

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