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The Littlest Pirate King


By David B. & Pierre Mac Orlan, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-403-0

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for bold kids and timid parents…  8/10

Tim Burton has pretty much cornered the market on outlandish spooky fairytales but if you and your kids have a fondness for scary fables and macabre adventure with a uniquely European flavour you might want to take a peek at this impressive yarn of unquiet buccaneers and phantom piracy.

Pierre Mac Orlan was one of the nom-de-plumes of celebrated French author, musician and performer Pierre Dumarchey who between his birth in 1882 and death in 1970 managed to live quite a number of successful, productive and action-packed lives.  As well as writing straight books, he produced a wealth of artistic materials including children’s tales like this one, hundreds of popular songs and quite a bit of outré pornography.

A renowned Parisian Bohemian, he sang and played accordion in nightclubs and cabaret, was wounded in the trenches in 1916, subsequently becoming a war correspondent, and after the conflict became a celebrated film and photography critic as well as one of the country’s most admired songwriter and novelists.

David B. is a founder member of the groundbreaking strip artists group L’Association, and has won numerous awards including the Alph’ Art for comics excellence including European Cartoonist of the Year in 1998. His seamless blending of artistic Primitivism visual metaphor, high and low cultural icons, as seen in such landmarks as Babel and Epileptic, are augmented here by a welcome touch of morbid whimsy and stark fantasy which imbues this work with a cheery ghoulish intensity only Charles Addams and Ronald  Searle can match.

Mac Orlan’s tale perhaps owes more to song than storybook, with its oddly jumpy narrative structure, but Davis B.’s canny illustration perfectly captures the spirit of grim wit as it recounts the tale of the ghostly crew of the Flying Dutchman, damned sailors cursed to wander the oceans, never reaching port, destroying any living sailors they encounter and craving nothing but the peace of oblivion.

Their horrendous existence forever changes when, on one of their periodic night raids, they slaughter the crew of a transatlantic liner but save a baby found on board. Their heartless intention is to rear the boy until he is old enough to properly suffer at their skeletal hands, but as the years pass the eagerly anticipated day becomes harder and harder for the remorseless crew to contemplate…

Stark and vivid, scary and heartbreakingly sad as only a children’s tale can be, this darkly swashbuckling romp is a classy act with echoes of Pirates of the Caribbean (which it predates by nearly a century) that will charm, inspire and probably cause a tear or two to well up.

© 2009 Gallimard Jeunesse. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.

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What I Did


By Jason, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-414-6

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for anybody who wants something a little different in their stocking …  8/10

John Arne Saeterrøy, who works under the pen-name Jason, was born in Molde, Norway in 1965, and appeared on the international cartoonists’ scene at age 30 with his first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) subsequently winning Norway’s biggest comics prize, the Sproing Award for 1995.

He won another Sproing in 2001 for his self-generated comic series Mjau Mjau – from which all the tales in this latest magical collection are culled – before turning almost exclusively to producing graphic novels in 2002. Now a global star among the cognoscenti he has won several major awards from such disparate regions as France, Slovakia and the USA.

This latest hardback compilation gathering ‘Hey, Wait…’, ‘Sshhhh!’ and ‘The Iron Wagon’ first appeared in Mjau Mjau between 1997 and 2001, and the volume opens with an eerie and glorious paean to boyhood friendships as young Bjorn and Jon enjoy a life of perfect childhood until a tragic accident ends the idyll forever. Life however, goes on, but for one of the lads it’s an existence populated from then on with ghosts and visions…

Jason’s work always jumps directly into the reader’s brain and heart, using the beastly and unnatural to gently pose eternal questions about basic human needs in a soft but relentless quest for answers. That you don’t ever notice the deep stuff because of the clever gags and safe, familiar “funny-animal” characters should indicate just how good a cartoonist he is…

‘Sshhhh!’ is a delightfully evocative romantic melodrama created without words: a bittersweet tale of boy-bird meeting girl-bird in a world overly populated with spooks and ghouls and skeletons but afflicted far more harshly by loneliness and regret.

These comic tales are strictly for adults but allow us all to look at the world through wide-open young eyes. This is especially true of the final tale in this collection – a sly and beguiling adaptation of a classic detective story from 1909, but enhanced to a macabre degree by the easy cartooning and skilled use of silence and moment.

‘The Iron Wagon’ is a clever, enthralling and deeply dark mystery yarn originally written by Stein Riverton, and has the same quality of cold yet harnessed stillness which makes the Swedish television adaptations of Henning Mankell’s Wallander so superior to the English-language interpretations.

Jason’s stylised artwork is delivered in formalised page layouts rendered in a minimalist evolution of Hergé’s Claire Ligne style, solid blacks, thick lines and settings of seductive simplicity augmented here by stunning Deep Red overlays to enhance the Hard Black and Genteel White he usually prefers.

In the coastal retreat of Hvalen a desperate author is haunted by ghosts and nightmares but the townsfolk are all too engrossed with the death of the game warden on the Gjaernes Estate to notice or care. The family seems cursed with troubles. First the old man was lost at sea, now the murder of Warden Blinde just as he was betrothed to Hilde Gjaernes blights the farm. People are talking, saying it’s all the fault of the long dead grandfather who lost his fortune and life dabbling with weird inventions…

Even now sensitive souls still hear his accursed Iron Wagon roaring through the night, presaging another death in the village…

Luckily there are more sensible folk abroad to summon a detective from Kristiania (Oslo), but Asbjǿrn Krag is not the kind of policeman anybody was expecting and as the young writer becomes enmired in the horrific unfolding events he realises that not only over-imaginative fools hear things.

In the depths of the night’s stillness he too shudders at the roaring din of the Iron Wagon…

Moody, suspenseful and utterly engrossing this would be a terrific yarn even without Jason’s superbly understated art, but in combination the result is dynamite.

This collection, despite being early works resonates with the artist’s preferred themes and shines with his visual dexterity. It’s one of Jason’s very best and will warm the cockles of any fan’s heart.

© 2010 Jason. All rights reserved.

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Blabworld #1


By various, edited by Monte Beauchamp (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-746-4

For decades Monte Beauchamp’s iconic and innovative narrative and graphic arts magazine Blab! has highlighted the best and most groundbreaking trends and trendsetters in cartooning and other popular creative fields. Initially published through the auspices of the much missed Dennis Kitchen’s Kitchen Sink Press it moved over to Fantagraphics and now it has resurfaced, reformed in a snazzy hardback annual format from Last Gasp.

As ever there is an eclectic and eye-popping mix of strips, articles and features on show and Blabworld #1 opens with a gloriously enchanting sequence of paintings describing everything you wanted to know about ‘Slime Moulds’ crafted by Geoffrey Grahn, after which Kari Laine McCluskey enchants and disturbs with a series of toy and doll photomontages entitled ‘Colloidion’.

Greg Clarke delivers a droll and dry assault on the obsessive ownership mentality with ‘The Neurotic Art Collector’, Bill North examines youth’s most popular graphic symbol in ‘Skull!’ – an article tracing the use of the memento mori in popular publishing with loads of cool covers to ogle and covet – and Nora Krug relates in unique cartoon manner ‘Quicksand: The Tumultuous Life of Isabelle Eberhardt’, before cover artist Shag delivers another magically hip gag on the consumer society.

The major central portion of this volume is devoted to magnificent artworks in a variety of media from a stellar collection of artists grouped together under the umbrella theme of ‘Artpocalypse’:

Ron English contributed ‘The Creation of Evolution’, Ryan Heshka depicted ‘The Rapture’, Owen Smith showed ‘Fin’ and Jean-Pierre Roy revealed ‘No Secrets Left From Us.’ ‘Beyond the Fence’ came via Martin Wittfooth, Kathleen Lolly showed ‘Knowledge Dies Too’ and Andy Kehoe painted ‘When the Last Leaf Falls’. Andrea Dezso contributed ‘Strangely Normal’, Natalia Fabia ‘Hooker in the Apocalypse’, Karen Barbour ‘Lamentations Over the Merciless Void’, Edel Rodriguez ‘Farewell to Grace’ and Fred Stonehouse ‘Dream of St. John’.

‘Well-Matched Lovers’ by Marc Burckhardt is followed by Femke Hiemstra’s ‘Hayano & Koheu’, Calef Brown’s ‘Endtime Tigerbird’, Larry Day’s ‘Rapture in Birdville’ and underground commix legend Spain Rodriguez delivers a glimpse of ‘2012’.

Lowbrow art virtuoso Mark Ryden displays his ‘End of the World’, Yoko D’Holbachie contributes ‘Final Farewell’, Gary Basemen ‘Another Average Day’, Alex Gross ‘Jozaikai (Purgatory)’, Sue Coe ‘Revenge of the Swine’, Sofia Arnold ‘Smoke Cave’ and Gary Taxali illuminates both ‘End World’ and ‘Rapture’.

‘Armageddon Flub’ by Travis Lampe, John Pound predicts ‘All Things Must Fall’, Kris Kuksi conducts ‘An Opera for the Apocalypse’ and Ryan Heshka returns to deliver a ‘Flaming End’ (as well as the mesmerising back cover).

Michael Noland reveals the ‘Revelation Roaches’, Teresa James collects ‘Weapons of Divine Power’, and Tom Huck a ‘Pile O’ Poon’ before Joe Sorren wraps it all up with ‘The Secret Collapse of Miss Lorraine’.

After the art show Sergio Ruzzier takes up the comic strip baton with a mercurial watercolour saga entitled ‘The Life of an Artist’, designer Steven Heller explores the hypnotic cover art of R. Crumb in ‘Covering Weirdo’ whilst James Lowe relates the astounding history of ‘Propaganda Caricature Art of World War II’ in ‘Axe the Axis!’ before Mark Landman amuses and offends with the story of ‘Fetal Elvis’ Art Empire’.

Steven Guarnaccia adapts Julia Moores poem ‘Lament on the Death of Willie’, Mark Todd details the sordid horror of ‘The Dreaded Mothman of West Virginia’ and ‘Ballpoint Bravura: Drawings by CJ Pyle’ spotlights the incredible dexterity and imagination of the rock drummer turned graphic craftsman with superstar Peter Kuper dramatically closing out this first fantastic happening with his appropriately apocalyptic strip ‘Four Horsemen’

There has never been a more vibrant and exciting time for lavish imaginative art and cutting edge graphic narrative and this superb catalogue of marvels is sure to become a watchword for what to watch out for.

© 2010 by the respective creators and contributors. All rights reserved.

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You’ll Never Know Book 2: Collateral Damage


By C. Tyler (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-418-4

In 2009 cartoonist Carol Tyler published the first of a proposed trilogy of graphic memoirs that examined the difficult relationship with her father Chuck, a veteran of World War II. ‘A Good and Decent Man’ explored three generations of the family dominated by a capable mother and a hard working, oddly cold yet volatile, taciturn patriarch. Events kicked off when after six decades of silence incipient frailty suddenly produced in her once-distant father a terrifying openness and desire to share war experiences and history long suppressed.

As if suddenly speaking for an entire generation who fought and died or survived and soldiered on as civilians in a society with no conception of Post Traumatic Stress Disorders, Chuck Tyler began to unburden his soul…

This second volume takes up the acclaimed and award-winning generational saga with Carol coping with her own husband’s desertion, leading to her resuming recording her dad’s recollections of Italy and France (including the infamous Battle of the Bulge) whilst re-examining the painful, chaotic and self-destructive existence she made for herself due to his hidden demons.

Now a single mother, Carol ponders her tempestuous past through a new lens. How much did her cold and terrifying father who was nevertheless a devoted, loving husband shape her mistakes? How can she prevent her increasingly wild daughter making the same mistakes and bad choices? Moreover, as her parents’ physical and mental states deteriorate, Chuck has become obsessed by a mystery that been forgotten since he came back from the conflict and needs Carol to solve it at all costs…

With an increasingly critical reappraisal of the family’s shared experiences, Carol discovers how her own mother coped with dark tragedies and suppressed secrets (revealed in ‘The Hannah Story’ – an updated sidebar first published in 1994), gaining an enhanced perspective but still no satisfactory answers to the conundrum of her father.

As she races to complete the self-appointed task of turning her father’s life into a comprehensible chronicle her parents are both declining visibly and her own life is becoming far too complex to ignore or withstand…

Delivered in monochrome and a selection of muted paint wash and crayon effects, the compellingly inviting blend of cartoon styles (reminiscent of our own Posy Simmonds but with a gleeful openness all her own) captures heartbreak, horror, humour, angst and tragedy in a beguiling, seductive manner which is simultaneously charming and devastatingly effective, whilst the book and narrative itself is constructed like a photo album depicting the eternal question “How and Why Do Families Work?”

Enticing, disturbing and genuinely moving, ‘Collateral Damage’ is a powerful and affecting second stage in Tyler’s triptych of discovery and one no student of the human condition will care to miss.

© 1994, 2010 C. Tyler. All rights reserved.

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Prince Valiant volume 2: 1939-1940


By Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-348-4

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for everybody who ever dreamed or wondered…  9/10

Rightly reckoned one of the greatest comic strips of all time, this saga of a king-in-exile who became one of the greatest warriors in an age of unparalleled heroes is at once fantastically realistic and beautifully, perfectly abstracted – a meta-fictional paradigm of adventure where anything is possible and justice will always prevail. It is the epic we all aspire to dwell within…

Of one thing let us be perfectly clear: Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant is not historical. It is far better than that.

Possibly the most successful and evergreen fantasy creation ever conceived, Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur launched on Sunday 13th February 1937, a glorious weekly full-colour window not onto the past but rather onto a world that should have been. It followed the life and adventures of a refugee boy driven by invaders from his ancestral homeland in of faraway Thule who rose to become one of the mightiest heroes of the age of Camelot.

Crafted by the incredibly gifted Harold “Hal” Foster, this noble scion would over the years grow to manhood in a heady sea of wonderment, roaming the globe and siring a dynasty of equally puissant heroes whilst captivating and influencing generations of readers and thousands of creative types in all the arts. There have been films, cartoon series and all manner of toys, games and collections based the strip – one of the few to have lasted from the thunderous 1930s to the present day (over 3750 episodes and counting) and even in these declining days of the newspaper strip as a viable medium it still claims over 300 American papers as its home.

Foster produced the strip, one spectacular page a week until 1971, when, after auditioning such notables as Wally Wood and Gray Morrow, Big Ben Bolt artist John Cullen Murphy was selected to draw the feature. Foster carried on as writer and designer until 1980, after which he fully retired and Murphy’s son assumed the scripter’s role.

In 2004 Cullen Murphy also retired (he died a month later on July 2nd) and the strip has soldiered on under the extremely talented auspices of artist Gary Gianni and writer Mark Schultz – who wrote the fascinating forward ‘Yes, He Was a Cartoonist’ which opens this second stupendous chronological collection.

This exquisite hardback volume, reprints in glorious colour – spectacularly restored from Foster’s original Printer’s Proofs – the perfectly restored Sunday pages from January 1st 1939 to 29th December 1940, following the extremely capable squire of Sir Gawain as he rushes to warn Camelot of an impending invasion by rapacious Saxons via the vast Anglian Fens where the Royal Family of Thule have hidden since being ousted from their Nordic Island Kingdom by the villainous usurper Sligon.

After a breathtaking battle which sees the Saxons repulsed and the battle-loving boy-warrior knighted upon the field of victory, Valiant begins a period of globe-trotting through the fabled lands of Europe just as the last remnants of the Roman Empire is dying in deceit and intrigue.

Firstly Val journeys to Thule and returns his father to the throne, narrowly escaping the alluring wiles of a conniving beauty with an eye to marrying the Heir Apparent, then bored with peace and plenty the roving royal wildcat encounters a time-twisting pair of mystical perils who show him the eventual fate of all mortals. Sobered but not daunted he then makes his way towards Rome, where he will become unwittingly embroiled in the manic machinations of the Last Emperor, Valentinian.

Before that however he is distracted by an epic adventure that would have struck stunning resonances for the readership at the time. With episode #118 (14th May 1939) Val joined the doomed knights of mountain fortress Andelkrag, who alone and unaided held back the assembled might of the terrifying hordes of Attila the Hun which had decimated the civilisations of Europe and now gathered to wipe out its last vestige.

With Hitler and Mussolini hogging the headlines and Modern European war seemingly inevitable Val joined the Battle of Decency and Right against untrammelled Barbarism. His epic struggle and sole survival comprise one of the greatest episodes of glorious, doom-fated chivalry in literature…

After the fall of the towers of Andelkrag, Valiant made his way onward to the diminshed Rome, picking up a wily sidekick in the form of cutpurse vagabond Slith. Once more he was distracted however, as the Huns delayed. The indomitable lad resolved to pay them back in kind, and gathered dispossessed victims of Hunnish depredations, forging them into a resistance army of guerrilla-fighters – the Hun-Hunters…

Thereafter he liberated the vassal city of Pandaris, driving back the invaders and their collaborator allies in one spectacular coup after another.

Valiant reunited with equally action-starved Round Table companions Sir Tristram and Sir Gawain to make fools of the Hun, who had lost heart after the death of their charismatic leader Attila (nothing to do with Val, just a historical fact). When Slith fell for a beauteous warrior princess, the English Knights left him to a life of joyous domesticity and moved ever on.

An unexpected encounter with a giant and his unconventional army of freaks led to the heroes inadvertently helping a band of marshland refugees from Hunnish atrocity found the nation-state of Venice before at long last after a after a side-trip to the fabulous city of Ravenna the trio crossed the fabled Rubicon and plunged into a hotbed of political tumult.

Unjustly implicated in a web of murder and double-dealing, the knights barely escaped with their lives and split up to avoid pursuit. Tristan returned to England and a star-crossed rendezvous with the comely Isolde, Gawain took ship for fun in Massilia and Valiant, after an excursion to the rim of fiery Vesuvius, boarded a pirate scow for Sicily and further adventure.

To Be Continued…

This series is a non-stop rollercoaster of action and romance, blending realistic fantasy with sardonic wit and broad humour with unbelievably stirring violence, all rendered in an incomprehensibly lovely panorama of glowing art. Beautiful, captivating and utterly awe-inspiring Prince Valiant is a World Classic of storytelling, and this magnificent deluxe is something no fan can afford to be without.

If you have never experienced the majesty and grandeur of the strip this astounding and enchanting premium collection is the best way possible to start and will be your gateway to a life-changing world of wonder and imagination…

Prince Valiant © 2009 King Features Syndicate. All other content and properties © 2009 their respective creators or holders. All rights reserved.

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Little Maakies on the Prairie


By Tony Millionaire (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-392-7

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

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

With a variety of graphical strings to his bow such as his own coterie of books for children, (particularly the superbly stirring Billy Hazelnuts series), animation and the brilliant Sock Monkey, Millionaire still finds the time to produce a deeply odd weekly strip entitled Maakies which describes the riotously vulgar and absurdly surreal adventures of an Irish monkey called Uncle Gabby and his fellow über-alcoholic and nautical adventurer Drinky Crow. They are abetted but never aided by a peculiarly twisted, off-kilter cast of reprobates, antagonists and confrontational well-wishers.

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

Millionaire even promotes his other creative endeavours in his Maakies pages, brings in selected guest creators to mess with his toys and invites the readership to contribute ideas, pictures and objects of communal interest to the mix This penetratingly incisive, witty and even poignant opus is his playground and if you don’t like it, leave…

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

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

This latest lush landscape hardcover collection provides still more of the wonderful same with such spit-take, drink-coming-out-of-your-nose moments as ‘The Brainy Balls Procedure’, a visit to ‘the Cootie Farm’, the secrets of ‘Booze Vision’, ‘The Universal Moon Genius’. ‘The Neanderthal Super-Genius Society’, ‘Rainbow of Illness’, a sordid selection of ghastly interspecies progeny, assorted single entendres and bodily function faux pas and more mandatory, gory death-scenes.

If you’re the kind of fan who thrives on gorge-rousing gags and mind-bending rumination this is a fantastic and rewarding strip, one of the most constantly creative and entertaining on the market today and this latest collection is one of the very best yet. If you’re not a fan of Maakies this is the ideal chance to become one and if you’re already converted it’s the perfect gift for someone what ain’t…

© 2010 Tony Millionaire. All rights reserved.

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Turok Son of Stone volume 1


By Gaylord DuBois & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-238-3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for the wide-eyed kid in us all  8/10

By never signing up to the draconian overreaction of the bowdlerizing Comics Code Authority, in the late 1950s Dell became the company for life and death thrills, especially in the arena of traditional adventure stories. If you were a kid in search of a proper body count instead of flesh wounds you went for Tarzan, Roy Rogers, Tom Corbett and their ilk. That’s not to claim that the West Coast outfit were gory, exploitative sensationalists – far from it – but simply that the writers and editors knew that fiction – especially kid’s fiction – needs a frisson of danger to make it work.

That was never more aptly displayed than in the long-running cross-genre saga of two Native Americans trapped in a world of saber-tooth tigers, cavemen and dinosaurs…

Printing giant Whitman Publishing had been producing their own books and comics for decades through their Dell and Gold Key imprints, rivaling and often surpassing DC and Timely/Marvel at the height of their powers. Famously they never capitulated to the wave of anti-comics hysteria which resulted in the crippling self-censorship of the 1950s and Dell Comics never displayed a Comics Code Authority symbol on their covers.

They never needed to: their canny blend of media and entertainment licensed titles were always produced with a family market in mind and the creative staff took their editorial stance from the mores of the filmic Hayes Code and the burgeoning television industry.

Like the big and little screen they enticed but never shocked and kept contentious social issues implicit instead of tacit. It was a case of “violence and murder are fine but never titillate.”

Moreover, most of their adventure comics covers were high quality photos or paintings – adding a stunning degree of authenticity and realism to even the most outlandish of concepts for us wide-eyed waifs in need of awesome entertainment.

Dell hit the thrill jackpot in 1954 when they combined a flavour of westerns with monster lizards: after all what 1950s kid could resist Red Indians and Dinosaurs?

Debuting in Four-Color Comics #596 (October/November 1954) Turok, Son of Stone told of two Native Americans hunting in the wilderness North of the Rio Grande when they became lost in a huge cave-system and emerged into a lost valley of wild men and antediluvian beasts. They would spend the next twenty-six years (a total of 125 issues) wandering there, having adventures kids of all ages would happily die for.

Despite solid claims from historian Matthew H. Murphy and comics legend Paul S. Newman (who definitely scripted the series from #9 onwards) Son of Stone was almost certainly created and first written by Dell’s editorial supremo Gaylord DuBois and this magnificent hardcover collection gathers both Four Color tryouts (the second originally appearing in #656, October/November 1955) and issues #3-6 of his own title.

Dell had one of the most convoluted numbering systems in comics collecting and successive appearances in the tryout title usually – but not always – corresponded to the eventual first issue of a solo series. Therefore FC #596 = Turok #1, FC #646 was #2 and the series proper began with #3. It isn’t always that simple though: after 30-odd Donald Duck Four Colors, Donald Duck proper launched his own adventures with #26!

Go figure… but just not now…

Set sometime in the days before Columbus discovered America Turok is a full brave mentoring a lad named Andar (although the original concept called for two teens, with the mature warrior originally a boy called Young Hawk) and in ‘The World Below’ illustrated by Rex Maxon, the pair become lost while exploring Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico (DuBois was a frequent visitor of that fabulous subterranean site) and after days emerged into a vast, enclosed valley where they are menaced by huge creatures they never dreamed could exist.

In ‘The Terrible Ones’ they encounter beast-like cavemen and discover a way to make their puny arrows potent against the colossal cats, wolves and lizards that make human life spans so brief in this lost world. In return they teach the ape-men the miracle of archery…

One year later Four Color #656 opened with the morning after in ‘The Mystery of the Mountain’ as caveman Lanok helped Turok and Andar solve a grisly disappearance before the Braves became lost once more in the great caverns. Eventually emerging at a far distant point of the lush valley they were befriended by another tribe; one composed only of women and children. The pair helped the primitives recover their men-folk in ‘The Missing Hunters’ and came tantalizingly close to escaping the sunken world forever before their hopes were cruelly dashed…

The format was set and successful. With Turok, Son of Stone #3 (March-May 1956) the pair began decades of incessant wandering seeking escape from the valley, encountering a fantastic array of monsters and lost tribes to help or fight, illustrated by a team of artist which included Ray Bailey, Bob Correa, Jack Abel & Vince Alascia. ‘The Exiled Cave Men’ saw them find their way back to Lanok, whose tribe had since been driven from their home by a gigantic tyrannosaur. As well as helping them find a new digs Andar and Turok gave them a further short and profitable lesson in modern weaponry.

Of course the natives didn’t call it a tyrannosaur. The absolute best thing about this glorious series is the imaginative names for the monsters. Cavemen might have called T. Rexes “Runners”, Allosaurs “Hoppers” and Pterosaurs “Flyers” whilst generally referring to giant lizards as “Honkers” but us kids knew all the proper names for these scaly terrors and felt pretty darn smug about it…

Relocated to an island in a great lake Lanok’s tribe marveled at the coracles and canoes Turok built to explore its tributaries. ‘Strange Waters’ followed the homesick braves’ to another section of the valley with even stranger creatures.

Issue #4 opened with ‘The Bridge to Freedom’ finding Turok and Andar escaping the valley, only to turn back and help Lanok, whilst ‘The Smilodon’ pitted the reunited trio against the mightiest hunter of all time when a saber-tooth tiger took an unrelentingly obsessive interest in how they might taste…

‘The River of Fire’ opened #5 as geological turbulence disrupted the valley, causing beasts to rampage and forcing Lanok’s people to flee from volcanic doom, whilst ‘The Secret Place’ saw Turok and Andar suffer from the jealous rage of the tribe’s slighted shaman. Of course the witch-doctor turned out to be his own worst enemy…

Issue #6 (December 1956-February 1957) opened with an inevitable but delightful confrontation as the wanderers faced ‘The Giant Ape’; a Kong-like romp with a bittersweet sting and Turok’s initial collected outing ends with ‘The Stick Thrower’ wherein a monkey-like newcomer introduced the Braves to the magic of boomerangs and the pernicious willfulness of mastodons…

But that’s not all! For sundry commercial reasons comicbooks were compelled to include at least three features per issue at this period so this selection concludes with a text vignette ‘Aknet Becomes a Man’ and, just to be safe, ‘Lotor’ a natural history comic strip starring a wily raccoon looking to feed his brood, despite the best efforts of giant Bullfrogs and hungry Allosaurs…

With a rapturous introduction from artistic superstar and dino-buff William Stout, plus the assorted fact-features that graced the original issues (‘The Dinosauria’, ‘The Ichthyosaurs’, ‘The Smilodon’, ‘The Mastodon’, ‘Turok’s Lost Valley’ and ‘Prehistoric Men’) this is a splendid all-ages adventure treat that will enrapture and enthrall everybody who ever wanted to walk with dinosaurs… and Mammoths and Moas and…

™ & © 2009 Random House, Inc. Under license to Classic Media, Inc., an Entertainment Rights Company. All rights reserved.

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Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon 1950


By Milton Caniff (Checker Book Publishing Group)
ISBN: 1-933160-51-9

Most cartoonists – most artists in fact – work their entire lives without reaching the giddy heights wherein they are universally associated with a signature piece of unsurpassable work. How incredible then when somebody achieves that perfect act of creation, not once but twice – seven days a week for decades?

Volume four of Milton Caniff’s second comic-strip masterpiece finds World War II veteran pilot Steve Canyon plunged back into the grip of armed conflict as the Korean War breaks out in the exotic, intrigue-dipped dailies and Sunday page, covering the period from February 19th 1950 until January 27th 1951, subdivided into five frantic episodes for your convenience.

‘Missionary’ (February 19th – March 24th) follows directly on from the previous volume and finds Steve and female air-ace/fighter pilot Doe Redwood recovering from injuries in the sorely-pressed Christian Mission of the redoubtable Miss Plum. Not only is this bold battle-axe hiding the downed pilots but also sheltering a jolly horde of oriental orphans from the encroaching Communists who want the kids for the re-indoctrination schools.

It takes a cunning plan, Yankee ingenuity and sheer guts to save everybody when the ruthless invaders lose patience and try to take the kids by force…

‘Mechanical Brain’ (March 25th – June 3rd) drops the escapees into a bigger frying pan when Steve is forced to impersonate a Soviet advisor to the People’s Army to save his life. Unfortunately “Comrade Smrnsk” is Russia’s greatest mathematician and computer expert – and remember this was back when the things went “Blurp! Bloop!” and were the size of bungalows (that’s thinking machines, not mathematicians I’m talking about). Moreover the Professor is married to Canyon’s old enemy Madame Lynx!

For her own reasons Lynx continues the deception, allowing Steve to deal with another unexpected surprise: the American traitor selling the tech to the Communists, who is accompanied by Steve’s old secretary Feeta-Feeta…

As the Chinese increasingly became seen as a bugbear if not out-of-control aggressor state in the build-up to the Korean Conflict, the ever-contemporary Caniff was weaving snippets of research and speculative news items into the grand story unfolding on his drawing board. Ever the patriot, his opinions and pro-“Free World” stance gives some of these strips a somewhat parochial if not outright jingoistic flavour, but as with all fiction viewed through the lens of time passed, context is everything. Unlike his unpopular stance on Vietnam two decades later, this was not an issue that divided America or even the world at large.

However the public and officials of the USA treated Communists and suspected “Pinkos” within their own borders, the Red Menace of Russia and China was real, immediate, and actively working against Western Interests. The real talking point here is not the extent of a creator’s (mis)perceived paranoia, but rather the restraint which Caniff showed within his strip compared to what was going on in the world outside it. Just check out any Timely/Atlas/Marvel war title of the period if you want to see totally unrestrained “patriotic fervour”…

When the situation becomes untenable Canyon is forced to take extreme action to save the stolen American technology, rescue the unsuspecting Feeta-Feeta and escape the arrayed forces of Socialist Expansion…

Meanwhile back in the mountainous kingdom of Princess Snowflower, American warlord Hogan is coming under pressure not just from the Chinese invaders but also the ruler’s sexist, xenophobic generals and ‘Rallying Point’ (June 4th – August 12th) finds her and the resistance army in extreme danger – which only increases when young Reed Kimberly also resurfaces to join the struggle…

With a deft flourish Caniff had left the titular hero of the strip completely absent from this tale, confident that events and the strong supporting cast could carry the series – and with spectacular success – but with ‘Serge Blu’ (August 13th – October 8th) the disparate plot threads began to merge.

Reunited with another long-lost character Kimberly falls into the hands of opportunistic bandits until together they make their escape. Soon they are reunited with Steve, now a Major on active service with the US Air Force. This terrific master-class in comics creation and drama concludes as an entire airbase is disrupted by Reed’s sultry companion whilst the heroic Canyon is busy attempting to stem the flow of contraband weapons to the Communists – materiel stolen from the Americans and sold by an enigmatic local crime-lord ‘The Mysterious Monsieur Gros’ (October 9th 1950 – January 27th 1951)…

Caniff’s irresistible narrative blend of action, adventure, soap-opera, comedy and sex-appeal has seldom been better employed than in this startling thriller and the oppressive mood of something big and nasty coming lends this entire volume an epic scale which makes these stories as powerful now as they ever were. Moreover the Master’s art went from strength to strength at this time and it’s easy to see why a generation of comics illustrators swiped his style.

Exotic, frenetic, full of traditional values and as always, captivating in both word and picture, this is another old-fashioned, unreconstructed delight. Every panel tells a story and no fan of the medium or art-form will want to miss a single one.

© 2005 Checker Book Publishing Group, an authorized collection of works © Ester Parsons Caniff Estate 1950, 1951. All characters and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of the Ester Parsons Caniff Estate. All rights reserved.

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The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-93028-981-2

When the very concept of high priced graphic novels was just being gradually accepted in the early 1990s DC comics produced a line of glorious hardback compilations that highlighted star characters and even celebrated the standout stories from the company’s illustrious and varied history decade by decade.

The Greatest Stories collections were revived in this century as smaller paperback editions (with mostly differing content) and stand as an impressive introduction to the fantastic worlds and exploits of the World’s Greatest Superheroes but for sheer satisfaction the older, larger books are by far the better product. Some of them made it to softcover trade paperback editions, but if you can afford it the big hard ones are the jobs to go for…

Since I believe reading comics to be a fully immersive experience (smell, feel, good coffee, biscuits, a solid soundtrack playing and somewhere someone futilely shouting to get your attention) I’ll be reviewing most of them over the up next few months but I’m starting with the volume dedicated to the hero attributed with starting the Silver Age and the other characters who share the sobriquet of “the Fastest Man Alive”…

Edited by Mike Gold and Brian Augustyn with contributions from Robert Greenberger, Katie Main and Dan Thorsland plus a foreword by artist and ex-publisher Carmine Infantino, this volume presents some genuinely intriguing choices featuring the first three men to dazzle generations of readers as The Flash.

From the Golden Age comes four fabulous exploits of Jay Garrick – a scientist exposed to “hard water fumes” which gave him super-speed and endurance, beginning with his very first appearance ‘The Fastest Man Alive’ from Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) by Gardner Fox & Harry Lampert, who speedily delivered an origin, a returning cast and a classic confrontation with sinister gang the Faultless Four and their diabolical leader Sieur Satan.

This is followed by ‘The Flash and the Black Widow’ from issue #66 (August 1945) written by budding horror-novelist Robert Bloch and illustrated by E.E. Hibbard wherein a seductive menace transformed helpless victims – including hapless comedy sidekicks Winky, Blinky and Noddy – into talking animals.

‘Stone Age Menace’ (Flash Comics #86, 1947) is a time travel caper scripted by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Lee Elias whilst from December of that year the same team crafted a spectacular clash with criminal mastermind the Turtle, who tried once more to profit from ‘The Slow-Motion Crimes’.

As the 1950s dawned the popularity of costumed heroes dwindled and for nearly a decade licensed properties, Crime, Westerns, War, Mystery and other genre fare dominated the newsstands. Despite the odd bold sally, costumed heroes barely held their own until Julius Schwartz ushered in a new age of brightly clad mystery-men by reviving the Flash in 1956. For the great majority of fans (aging baby-boomers that we are) police scientist Barry Allen will always be the “real” Scarlet Speedster, struck by lightning, bathed in chemicals – if you couldn’t find an atomic blast to survive, that kind of freak accident was the only way to start a career.

From his spectacular run comes the pivotal event which marked the beginning of a way of life for so many addicted kids: ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt!’ (Showcase #4), written by Kanigher, penciled by Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert, was another quick-fire origin with crime story attached as the brand new hero discovered his powers and mission and still found time to defeat a modern iteration of the Turtle.

John Broome and Gardner Fox would write the bulk of the early tales, introducing a “big science” sensibility and, courtesy of Broome, a Rogues Gallery of fantastic foes which would become the template for all proper superheroes. After four Showcase try-outs the Vizier of Velocity won his own title, picking up the numbering of Flash Comics which had folded in 1949 after 104 issues.

Such a one was Grodd, sole malcontent of a race of hyper-evolved simians who in Broome, Infantino & Joe Giella’s ‘Return of the Super-Gorilla’ (Flash #107, June 1959) lured the Scarlet Speedster to the centre of the Earth and a lost race of bird-men. Another was The Trickster, a prankster-bandit who could defy gravity. In his debut appearance ‘Danger in the Air!’ (Flash #1113, June 1960), Broome, Infantino & Giella provided the ideal counterpart to the rather stuffy hero whilst #119’s ‘The Mirror-Master’s Magic Bullet’ (March 1967 and inked by Murphy Anderson) showed the hero’s wits were always faster than any speed his feet could attain.

Ductile Detective Elongated Man began as a Flash cameo and his subsequent guest-shots were always a benchmark for offbeat thrills. In #124 (November 1961, inked by Giella) Captain Boomerang’s ‘Space Boomerang Trap’ led to an extra-dimensional invasion and an uneasy alliance of heroes and villain whereas next issue’s epic ‘The Conquerors of Time!’ was a mind-boggling classic as time-travelling aliens attempted to subjugate Earth in 2287AD by preventing fissionable elements from forming in 100,842,246BC. Antediluvian lost races, another pivotal role for Kid Flash Wally West (easily the most trusted and responsible sidekick of the Silver Age), the introduction of the insanely cool Cosmic Treadmill plus spectacular action make this a benchmark of quality graphic narrative.

‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (not included here so see either Showcase Presents the Flash volume 2 or the aforementioned Flash: the Greatest Stories Ever Told 2007 tpb) revived the Golden Age Flash, and by implication, the whole 1940s DC pantheon, by introducing the concept of parallel worlds and multiple Earths which became the bedrock of the entire continuity, and which the company still mines to such great effect.

What is included here is ‘Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!’ from Flash #137 (June 1963, written by Fox and inked by Giella) the third chronological Earth-2 crossover, which saw two Flashes unite to defeat 50,000 year old Vandal Savage and save the Justice Society of America: a tale which directly led into the veteran team’s first meeting with the Justice League of America and the start of all those beloved “Crisis” epics.

Barry Allen’s best friend was test pilot Hal Jordan who fought crime as an agent of the Guardians of the Universe, so the heroes joined forces on a regular basis. From Flash #143, March 1964 comes the intriguing high-tech mystery ‘Trail of the False Green Lanterns!’ by John Broome, Infantino and Giella, who also produced the award-winning and deeply moving ghost-story ‘The Doorway to the Unknown!’ (#148, November 1964).

Cary Bates became the Flash’s regular – and exclusive – writer from the early 1970s to the hero’s demise in 1985, but he was only a promising newcomer when he co-scripted with Fox the exuberant fourth-wall busting epic ‘The Flash – Fact or Fiction?’(#179, May 1968, illustrated by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) which took the multiple Earths concept to its logical conclusion by trapping the Monarch of Motion in “our” Reality, where the Flash was just a comic-book character! However Bate’s slick solo effort ‘How to Prevent a Flash’ (Five-Star Super-Hero Spectacular 1977), illustrated by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin shows a mature subtlety that highlights not just superpowers but the hero’s forensic thinking…

Barry Allen died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths – and stayed dead for what is now a very long time in comics. In the years leading up to that he endured a monolithic saga wherein his wife was murdered, he destroyed her killer and was ultimately brought to trial for manslaughter. That saga, encompassing #275-350, is condensed here into ‘The Final Flash Storyline’ – a handy text feature by Bates with illustrations from Infantino, Dennis Jensen, Gary Martin, Frank McLaughlin, George Pérez & Jerry Ordway.

In honour of his ultimate sacrifice, Barry’s nephew Wally West graduated from sidekick to the third Sultan of Speed and carved his own legend in scarlet and gold. This terrific tome concludes with a Reagan-era classic as the severely outclassed new hero battled Vandal Savage in the gripping ‘Hearts… of Stone’ (Flash volume 2, #2 July 1987 by Mike Baron, Jackson Guice & Larry Mahlstedt) to close the book.

Not quite the icon Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman are, Flash is nevertheless the quintessential superhero and the reason we’re all doing this today. This delightful book is a superb example of superhero stories at their very best and whatever your age or temperament there’s something great here for you to enjoy and treasure.
© 1940-1987, 1991 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Master of Rampling Gate


By Anne Rice, adapted by Colleen Doran (Innovation)
ISBN: 978-1-56521-009-7

Usually I’m a big advocate of the purity of original material over adaptations – never ask my opinions on movies made from comics, for example – but every so often a piece of reworked work transcends not only its origins but even the source material itself.

Such a gem is the Colleen Doran interpretation of a short Anne Rice vampire tale which was first published in Redbook in 1982 tenuously attached to the author’s ponderous Vampire Lestat universe but set in England in the 14th and 19th centuries.

1888: Richard and Julie Rampling are travelling to the country seat they have jointly inherited on the passing of their father. The journey is tainted with trepidation and apprehension as their sire made them swear on his deathbed to have the estate razed to the ground.

As the train brings them closer they reminisce on odd events that have occurred over the years, and on arriving at the beautiful manse their hesitation in executing the last wish increases. The mere thought of obliterating such a serene and beautiful setting is appalling whilst getting rid of the many generations of retainers who still service Rampling Gate is too painful to countenance. Yet their father was adamant: the house is a place of hidden horror and must be eradicated.

As their fact-finding mission proceeds the seductive lure of the house works its magic on Julie and even Richard feels the ancient call and struggles to comprehend why his obligation must result in loss of such a wondrous and compelling inheritance. A sensitive girl with aspirations to be a writer, Julie is inspired by the majestic environment but when her brother uncovers some old journals she becomes consciously aware of an ancient presence that has permeated and protected the estate for half a millennium.

Moreover the undying master has made his desires and intentions appallingly clear…

Slow and moody, this somewhat shallow tale is elevated to glittering heights by the chromatic dazzle of Doran’s artwork which treats the pages as brilliant, impossibly perfect concoctions reminiscent of stained glass window designs. All trace of terror is subdued by the inevitable culmination of Julie’s fascination with the hidden creature and the upbeat (at least for a vampire romance story) conclusion makes this slim book more dream than nightmare.

Impressive, understated and effectively brief, Master of Rampling Gate is a lost delight for those dark winter nights and one no fantasy fan will care to miss.
â„¢ & © 1991 Anne O’Brien Rice. Cover art © 1991 John Bolton. Adaptation and interior art 1991 Innovation Corp. All rights reserved.