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Bishop: The Mountjoy Crisis


By John Ostrander, Carlos Pacheco & Cam Smith (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-0211-3

The Uncanny X-Men draw their members from a wide variety of places but none more striking than the home of moody, monolithic Bishop, an energy-manipulating mutant super-cop who fell into our world from a dystopian alternate future.

He and his partners Randall and Malcolm first came to this era to eradicate a band of time-hopping evil mutants led by the malevolent maniac Fitzroy. In a cataclysmic final clash his comrades sacrificed themselves to stop the future-marauders and now only Bishop remains; trapped, traumatised and continually questioning his current status as a member of the mythical team of champions who inspired his own era’s “Xavier’s Security Enforcers”.

Whilst desperate to fit in, Bishop carries a lot of baggage. He is particularly obsessed with his failure to save Malcolm and Randall, haunted by the death of his sister Shard and conflicted about the historical knowledge he cannot share: how the X-Men are fated to be betrayed and murdered by one of their own…

This gripping and fast-paced thriller (originally released as a four-issue miniseries from December 1994 to March 1995) opens with ‘Escape from Tomorrow’ as the brooding émigré from Eternity constantly and fruitlessly runs through Danger Room simulations, looking for the mistake that cost his friends’ lives.

Eventually convinced by Professor X to let it go for one night, the bluff giant accompanies Storm into the city and is accosted by the only survivor of Fitzroy’s band – an inconsequential little nothing named Bantam.

The cowering future fugitive has been hiding a terrible secret: on the fateful night of the trip back to now, Bantam had been the unwilling vessel of lethal mutant parasite Mountjoy, a psychotic predator who merges with, absorbs and eventually consumes his victims. Now Mountjoy is loose and keen on tying up loose ends – such as anyone who knows of his existence…

Ambushed by the leech, Storm is taken over and Bishop is forced to beat the beast out of her before total absorption occurs…

When the life-jacker critically wounds the XSE man, ‘One-Man Posse’ finds Bishop fighting for survival whilst plagued by memories and hallucinations as he chases Mountjoy from body to body and battle to battle, his only advantage an interactive hologram of Shard.

After the parasite kills a number of cops and civilians in spectacular but inconclusive clashes, the tension escalates in ‘Future Intense’ as Mountjoy attacks the X-Men, stealing the bodies and powers of Gambit, Psylocke, Archangel and Bishop himself; intending to destroy his most hated enemy’s soul by making him the long-dreaded betrayer of his life-long heroes in the climactic ‘Final Reckonings’…

Mercifully there’s far more to the hologram of Shard than anybody suspected…

Affording tantalising glimpses of the charismatic Bishop’s secret history whilst delivering a fast and furious, scary action-epic The Mountjoy Crisis offers a full-on frantic Fights ‘n’ Tights experience no dedicated devotee of Costumed Dramas can afford to miss.
© 1996 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Mighty Thor! Collector’s Album – US and UK editions


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & various (Lancer/Four Square)
“ISBNs” 72-125 (Lancer) & 1918 (Four Square)

Here’s another brace of Swinging Sixties “Pop-Art” compendiums celebrating the meteoric rise of the Little House that Stan, Jack and Steve Built which will probably be of interest only to incurable nostalgics, consumed collectors and historical nit-pickers, but as I’m all of them and it’s my dime…

Far more than a writer or Editor; Stan Lee was also a master of entrepreneurial publicity generation and his tireless schmoozing and exhaustive attention-seeking was as crucial as the actual characters and stories in promoting his burgeoning line of superstars.

In the 1960s most adults, especially many of the professionals who worked in the field, considered comic-books a ghetto. Some disguised their identities whilst others were “just there until they caught a break”. Stan and creative lynchpins Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko had another idea – change the perception.

Whilst Kirby and Ditko pursued their respective creative credos and craft, waiting for the quality of the work to be noticed, Stan pursued every opportunity to break down the ghetto walls: college lecture tours, animated shows (of frankly dubious quality at the start, but always improving), foreign franchising and of course getting their product onto mainstream bookshelves in real book shops.

There had been a revolution in popular fiction during the 1950s with a huge expansion of affordable paperback books and companies developed extensive genre niche-markets, such as war, western, romance, science-fiction and fantasy.

Always hungry for more product for their cheap ubiquitous lines, many old novels and short stories collections were republished, introducing new generations to fantastic pulp authors like Robert E. Howard, Otis Adelbert Kline, H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth and many others.

In 1955, spurred on by the huge parallel success of cartoon and gag book collections, Bill Gaines began releasing paperback compendiums culling the best strips and features from his landmark humour magazine Mad and comics’ Silver Age was mirrored in popular publishing by an insatiable hunger for escapist fantasy fiction.

In 1964 Bantam Books began reprinting the earliest pulp adventures of Doc Savage, triggering a revival of pulp prose superheroes, and seemed the ideal partner when Marvel began a short-lived attempt to “novelise” their comicbook stable with The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker and Captain America in the Great Gold Steal.

Although growing commercially by leaps and bounds, Marvel in the early 1960s was still hampered by a crippling distribution deal limiting the company to 16 titles (which would curtail their output until 1968), so each new comicbook had to fill the revenue-generating slot (however small) of an existing title. Even though the costumed characters were selling well, each new title would limit the company’s breadth of genres (horror, western, war, etc) and comics were still a very broad field at that time. It was putting a lot of eggs in one basket and superheroes had failed twice before for Marvel.

As Lee cautiously replaced a spectrum of genre titles and specialised in superheroes, a most fortunate event occurred with the advent of the Batman TV show in January 1966. Almost overnight the world went costumed-hero crazy and many publishers repackaged their old comics stories in cheap and cheerful, digest-sized monochrome paperbacks, and it’s easy to assume that Marvel’s resized book collections were just another company cash-cow, part of their perennial “flood the marketplace” sales strategy, but it’s just not true.

Lee’s deal with Lancer to publish selected adventures in handy paperback editions had begun a year earlier and the other funnybook publishers – including National/DC, Tower Comics and Archie – also desperate to add some credibility and even literary legitimacy to their efforts as well as increased profits these forays onto the world’s bookshelves – were caught playing catch-up in the fresh new marketplace.

Moreover, when Lancer began releasing Marvel’s Mightiest in potent and portable little collections it was simple to negotiate British iterations of those editions – although they were not as cheap and had far shorter page-counts – since thanks to Lee’s international expansion drive the characters, creators and stories were already very familiar to British readers, appearing both in Odhams‘ weekly comics Wham!, Pow!, Smash!, Fantastic and Terrific, but also (since 1959) in black and white monthly anthologies comicbooks published by Alan Class which had been bundling up reprinted material from a variety of American companies including Charlton, Tower, I.W., Gold Key, Archie, ACG and others.

As I’ve already mentioned US and UK editions vary significantly. Although both re-present – in truncated, resized monochrome – early Marvel tales, the British Four Square editions are a measly 128 pages, as opposed to the 176 page Lancer editions: necessitating missing stories and odd filler pages. Moreover the UK books are fronted by deliberately garish and poorly drawn “cartoony covers” instead of the American art by Ditko and Kirby, as if the publishers were embarrassed by the content…

Still, considering how many different prose publishing houses have chance their arm on such projects over the years, their editors must also have believed there was money to be made from comics too…

Also it’s impossible to deny that the book editions were fun, thrilling and just, plain cool…

In 1966 The Mighty Thor! Collectors Album was the fourth release from Lancer, with the British edition debuting a year later and although the US and UK editions are quite similar the latter frustrating omits an entire story – the concluding chapter of a two-part story!

Also glaringly omitted from both editions was the origin so in case you’re not au fait with the modern legend here’s a quick recap just for you…

Lonely, crippled American doctor Donald Blake took a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Trapped in a cave, Blake found a gnarled old walking stick, which when struck against the ground turned him into the Norse God of Thunder!

Within moments Thor was defending the weak and smiting the wicked and as the months swiftly passed rapacious extraterrestrials, Commie dictators, costumed crazies and cheap thugs gradually gave way to a terrifying parade of fantastic worlds and incredible, mythic menaces…

A word about artwork here: modern comics are almost universally full-coloured in Britain and America, but for over a century black and white was the only real choice for most mass market publishers – additional (colour) plates being just too expensive for shoe-string operations to indulge in. Even the colour of 1960s comics was cheap and primitive and solid black line, expertly applied by master artists, was the very life-force of sequential narrative.

These days computer enhanced art can hide a multitude of weaknesses – if not actual pictorial sins – but back then companies lived or died on the illustrating skills of their artists: so even in basic black and white (and the printing of paperbacks was as basic as the accountants and bean-counters could get it) the Kirbys and Ditkos of the industry exploded out of those little pages and electrified the readership.

I can’t see that happening with many modern artists deprived of their slick paper and multi-million hued colour palettes…

The mystic mayhem opens with ‘The Mighty Thor Battles… The Lava Man!’ (from the landmark Journey into Mystery #97, October 1963, by Lee, Kirby and Don Heck) wherein an invader from the core of the planet invades the surface world just as a rift between Thor and his father Odin was established when the Lord of Asgard refused to allow his son to love Blake’s mortal nurse Jane Foster.

This acrimonious triangle was a perennial sub-plot that fuelled many attempts to humanise Thor, because already he was a hero too powerful for most villains to cope with…

That titanic tussle was followed by ‘Giants Walk the Earth!’ (Lee, Kirby & Chic Stone, from Journey into Mystery #104, May 1964) the revolutionary saga where, for the first time, Kirby’s imagination was given full play as trickster god and wicked step-brother Loki tricked Odin into visiting Earth, only to release ancient elemental foes Surtur and Skagg, the Storm Giant from Asgardian bondage and bid them kill the All-Father….

This staggering cosmic clash saw noble gods bestriding the Earth, battling demonic evil in a new Heroic Age and this greater role for the Asgardian supporting cast set the scene for a far grander, more epic feel.

Also from JiM #97 comes the premiere instalment of a spectacular back-up series. ‘Tales of Asgard – Home of the mighty Norse Gods’ gave Kirby a place to indulge his fascination with legends. Initially adapting classic tales but eventually with all-new material particular to the Marvel pantheon, he built his own cosmos and mythology, which underpinned the company’s entire continuity. This first saga, scripted by Lee and inked by George Bell (AKA George Roussos) outlined the birth of the gods, the origin of the world and the creation of the World Tree Yggdrasil.

The British edition then concludes with ‘The Stronger I Am, the Sooner I Die!’ from JiM #114, March 1965, which began a two-part tale introducing a new villain of the sort Kirby excelled at, a vicious thug who suddenly lucked into overwhelming power, courtesy of the ever-scheming God of Evil.

Crafted by Lee, Kirby & Stone it saw Loki imbue hardened felon Crusher Creel with the magical ability to duplicate the strength and attributes of anything he touched and subsequently go on a brutal and frenzied rampage…

However, if you’d stuck with the American edition you’d also enjoy the senses-shattering finale as Thor demonstrated not just his power but also his wits in a blockbusting demonstration of ‘The Vengeance of the Thunder God’ (inked by Frank Giacoia as the pseudonymous Frankie Ray, which originally appeared in issue #115 from April 1965)…

As someone who bought these stories in most of the available formats over the years – including the constantly recycled reprints in British weeklies from the mid-sixties to the 1980s – I have to admit that the glossy classic paperback editions have a charm and attraction all their own even if they are heavily edited and abridged and rather disturbingly printed in both portrait and landscape format…

If you’ve not read these tales before then there are certainly better places to do so (such as the pertinent Essential or Marvel Masterwork volumes) but even with all the archaic and just plain dumb bits these books are still fabulous super-hero sagas with beautiful art that will never stale or wither, and for us backward looking Baby-boomers these nostalgic pocket tomes have an incomprehensible allure that logic just can’t tarnish or taint…
© 1966 and 1967 Marvel Comics Group. All rights reserved.

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Spider-Man: Revelations


By Todd DeZago, J.M. DeMatteis, Tom DeFalco, Howard Mackie, Luke Ross, Mike Wieringo, Steve Skroce, John Romita Jr. & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-7851-0560-3

There was a time in the mid 1990s where, to all intents and purposes, the corporate monolith known as Marvel Comics seemed to have completely lost the plot. An awful lot of stories from that period will hopefully never be reprinted, but some of them at least weren’t completely beyond redemption.

If you mention “the Clone Saga” to an older Spider-Man fan you’ll probably see a shudder of horror pass through the poor sap, although if pushed, many will secretly profess to have liked some parts of it.

For the uninitiated: Peter Parker was cloned by his old biology teacher Miles Warren AKA the Jackal, and the Amazing Arachnid had to defeat his alchemical double in a grim identity-duel, resulting in the copy’s death. Years later the hero discovered that he was in fact the doppelganger and a grungy nomadic biker calling himself Ben Reilly was the true, non-artificial man.

As the convoluted drama interminably played out, Parker – who had married Mary Jane Watson during those intervening years when he had battled in mask and webs – eventually surrendered the Spider-Man persona and whilst Reilly swung across the city battling a host of foes, the happy couple settled down to await the birth of their first child…

This slim collection, re-presenting Spectacular Spider-Man #240, Sensational Spider-Man #11, Amazing Spider-Man #418 and an extended Peter Parker, Spider-Man #75 – which included 14 extra pages to the conclusion – shook up the status quo all over again and set up a whole new deadly undercurrent and milieu for the World’s Most Misunderstood Superhero…

The game-changing drama began in Spectacular Spider-Man #240’s ‘Walking into Spiderwebs’ (November 1996, by Todd DeZago, J.M. DeMatteis, Luke Ross & John Stanisci) wherein Reilly’s best friend Dr. Seward Trainer revealed his true colours after curing one of the Wall-crawler’s greatest enemies and discovered that he had been secretly serving another for all the time Ben had known him.

Meanwhile the happy couple eagerly prepared for the imminent birth of their firstborn unaware that the most incomprehensible danger was closing in on them…

‘Deadly Diversions’ by DeZago, Mike Wieringo & Richard Case from Sensational Spider-Man #11 (December 1996) found Peter and Ben discussing the memories they shared but only which only one of them had actually experienced when a deadly robot attacked and Parker was forced to resume the super-heroic life he’d missed so much – if only briefly – alongside the new/old Spider-Man.

Across town Mary Jane had gone into labour but there were complications: the most notable being that she was blithely unaware that the doctors attending her were in the pay of the malicious mastermind who had waited years and moved mountains to get revenge on everyone with the name “Parker” and all the people who knew them…

Tom DeFalco, Steve Skroce & Bud LaRosa crafted the stunning blockbusting shocker ‘Torment’ from Amazing Spider-Man #418 (December 1996) as Ben and Peter tackled a host of deadly automatons and Mary Jane endured every expectant mother’s greatest nightmare, before the staggering extended climax of ‘Night of the Goblin’ by Howard Mackie, John Romita Jr. & Scott Hanna from Peter Parker, Spider-Man #75 (December 1996) revealed the hidden history of the hero and his greatest foe.

With nothing but vengeance on the agenda, the clash between good and evil escalated into a cataclysmic Armageddon which would leave only one Arachnoid Avenger alive and victory a bitter taste in the Web-spinner’s mouth…

Irrespective of how the Clone Saga played out, was retro-fitted, ignored, reworked and re-imagined since; at the time this classy little book was released, Revelations shook up the Marvel Universe all over again and annoyed as many fans as it delighted.

With the benefit of a little distance however the tale reads exceptionally well and works exceedingly hard to set the ever-unfolding epic of Spider-Man back onto a solid dramatic footing: one that stripped the character back down to its effective essentials and cleared the scene for even bigger and bolder efforts.

Gripping and beautifully executed, this is a Fights ‘n’ Tights treat for all action and adventure fans.
© 1996, 1997 Marvel Characters. Inc. All rights reserved.

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Tales From the Plague


By Dennis Cunningham & Richard Corben (Bill Leach Collectibles/Eclipse Comics)

No ISBN/ ASIN: B000GXQ8HA

Richard Corben flowered in the independent counterculture commix of the 1960s and 1970s to become a globally revered, multi-award winning creator. He is most renowned for his mastery of the airbrush and his delight in sardonic, darkly comedic horror, fantasy and science fiction tales.

Although never a regular contributor to the comicbook mainstream, the animator, illustrator, publisher and cartoonist is one of America’s greatest proponents of sequential narrative: an astoundingly accomplished artist with an unmistakable style and vision.

Violent, cathartically graphic and often blackly hilarious, his infamous signature-stylisation always includes oodles of nudity, ultra-extreme explicit violence and impossibly proportioned male and female physiques – but there’s almost none of the latter on show in this intriguing re-issue of his very first comics work: a celebratory new edition sporting a stunning wraparound card cover that was released in 1986.

Born in Anderson, Missouri in 1940, Corben graduated with a Fine Arts degree in 1965 from the Kansas City Art Institute and began working as an animator. At that time, the Underground movement was just stating to revolutionise, reinvigorate and liberate the medium of comics as a motley crew of independent-minded creators across the continent began making and publishing stories that appealed to their rebellious, pharmacologically-enhanced sensibilities and unconventional lifestyles.

Most of them had been reared on and hugely influenced by 1950s EC Comics or Carl Barks’ Duck tales – and usually both.

As can be seen in this intriguiging little tale, which first appeared in Weirdom Illustrated #13 (the “Special Plague issue”) in 1969, Corben started the same way, producing the kind of stories that he would like to read, for a variety of small-press publications including Grim Wit, Slow Death, Skull, Fever Dreams and his own Fantagor, often signed with his affectionate pseudonym “Gore”, and usually introduced by an EC style horror-host or hostess.

As Corben’s style matured and his skills developed, his work began to appear in more professionally produced venues. He began working for Warren Publishing in 1970 with tales in Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella, Comix International and latterly, the aggressively audacious adult science fiction anthology 1984. He also famously re-coloured a number of reprinted Spirit strips for the revival of Will Eisner’s the Spirit magazine.

In 1975 Corben submitted work to the French fantasy phenomenon Métal Hurlant and subsequently became a fixture in the magazine’s American iteration Heavy Metal after which his career really took off. Soon he was producing stunning graphic escapades for a number of companies, making animated movies, painting film posters and producing record covers such as the multi-million-selling Meatloaf album Bat Out of Hell. He never stopped making comics but preferred his own independent projects with collaborators such as Harlan Ellison, Bruce Jones and Jan Strnad.

This oft-reprinted but now regrettably out-of-print collection perfectly shows the artist’s developing style in an acerbic and customarily wry horror yarn set in the English hamlet of “Chelmesford” during the Year of Our Lord 1664, beginning with the last testament of dying Witch Hunter James Hopkins.

His last legal commission had been the arrest and despatch of widow Ann Ashby, a strange and ugly crone dwelling alone on the edge of town. Following the accusation of a neighbour Hopkins investigates and finds her house filled with strange instruments and small animals…

On arrest she is put to The Test (that’s religious speak for tortured) and an eager and happy procession of townsfolk reveal her suspicious acts and the odd things that occur near her: boys have accidents or fall ill, animals become sick and she talks to chickens…

Once her unholy and depraved acts with animals and blood are disclosed it’s but a short hop to the stake, but even after they have watched her death agonies the still-unsated mob are hungry for more and tear her old shack down.

Soon after, many of the fine citizens of Chelmesford begin to sicken, and the remainder of Hopkins’ account details the grisly and ghastly effects of the plague as it devastates the town…

The concluding chapter is taken from scraps of parchment found hidden in Ann Ashby’s cell and reveal a shocking and ironic twist for modern historians. The supposed witch was in fact a far worse monster than Elizabethan society believed…

The well-travelled foreigner was secretly a brilliant thinker who had formulated theories of biology and natural science centuries ahead of her time. With her home-made ocular devices Ashby was on the trail of a cure for the dreadful pestilence – which she had seen ravage Europe and the East – at least until Hopkins and his self-righteous rabble of superstitious fools and jealous liars seized her…

Remarkably engrossing if a touch wordy, this compelling yarn reveals the core of solid draughtsmanship and pen-and-ink technique which underscores all Corben’s work, in a gritty chiller Hammer Films would be proud of.

Hard to find, but a great read and well worth the effort for all fans of illustrated horror yarns.
© 1986 Dennis Cunningham.

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Operative: Scorpio


By Jack Herman, Dan Tolentino & Danny Taver (Blackthorne Publishing)
ISBN: 0-932629-15-6

Sometimes I just get a devil in me…

Although I review a broad spectrum of illustrated narratives and comics related books, I generally stick to the rule of thumb that the selection has to have some intrinsic quality or merit. Occasionally however there comes an item that I just can’t rationally recommend but still just… sends me…

As the first contraction of the 1980s independent comics boom began to cut down the plethora of small publishers, Blackthorne moved from canny licensed properties such as California Raisins and Rocky and Bullwinkle, 3-D titles and classic reprints like Tarzan, Dick Tracy and Betty Boop into a line of all-new characters, which might well have hastened their demise.

They also brought out many early graphic novels and Operative: Scorpio might well rank amongst their oddest.

In blocky black and white the confused but compellingly enthusiastic caper details the story of ambitious young thug Carl Manara who takes sole proprietorship of PMD, a new super-addictive drug hitting the streets of a peculiarly Latino Los Angeles, consequently falling foul of the criminal overlord Monticello, whose cabal Blackleague runs the entire country’s illegal enterprises.

Monticello has other problems; specifically a crazy masked martial artist roaming the streets and hitting all his organisations rackets. Scorpio’s campaign is costing him money and the cops – bought or honest – can’t catch the mysterious vigilante…

‘Breaking and Entering’ introduces Police Detective Morgan Pierce, tasked with stopping Manara’s super-drug from causing a bloody turf war. He has no interest in catching Scorpio: in fact he thinks the guy’s a hoax or urban legend…

Pierce has some odd friends he seems embarrassed by: fly-by-night playboy nightclub owner Aristotle, whose clientele ranges from the social elite to the dregs of the city, and disgraced competition martial artist Jay-Daniel Cobra, who only seem to meet with him at the oddest times – whenever no body’s watching…

After some beat cops are killed and civilians come under fire Scorpio gets involved, but Manara has a secret weapon. The designer of the new drug is a highly respected college professor and the only one who knows the formula, protected by a lethal hand-to-hand fighter. When the masked man raids the chemist’s fortress home Scorpio barely survives the encounter.

With war brewing between Manara and Monticello, the upstart’s gang begins selling the new dope out of their car and soon civilians are caught in gang crossfires. The cops won’t touch the dealers – after all they are Homicide Detectives too…

And that’s when the enigmatic Scorpio decides on drastic action: all three of him…

Muddled, manic and utterly mad, this yarn is full of brutal, pell-mell action and short on characterisation but that really doesn’t matter as the drama barrels along, reaching a climax but no real conclusion.

Clearly the opening shot in a longer epic, this dark yarn, with echoes of 1970’s exploitation cinema and Grindhouse movies, was written by Jack Herman, with art by the clearly Latin American or Filipino team of Dan Tolentino & Danny Taver – possibly pseudonyms for three or four different artists in a shared studio.

Even in 1989 the book looked and felt a decade older and I have a sneaking suspicion that it might even be a Mexican digest-comics story surreptitiously picked up and translated: no proof to support the idea but it just has that unshakeable feel to it…

Inexplicably compelling and splendidly fun, this is another guilty pleasure retro-read, best absorbed whilst listening to “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys… but only at maximum volume.
© 1988 Blackthorne Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Drowned Girl


By Jon Hammer (Piranha Press/DC)
No ISBN:

During the anything goes 1980s the field of comics publishing expanded exponentially with new companies offering a vast range of fresh titles and ideas. To combat this upstart expansion, Marvel and DC also instigated and created innovative material for those freshly growing markets with the latter cartoon colossus especially targeting readers for whom old-fashioned comicbooks were anathema …or at least a long-abandoned dalliance.

DC created a number of new, more mature-oriented imprints such as Vertigo and Helix, but some of the most intriguing projects came out of their Piranha Press sub-division, formed in 1989 and re-designated Paradox Press in 1993.

When DC founded this adult special projects imprint, the resulting publications and reader’s reaction to them were mixed. It had long been a Holy Grail of the business to produce comics for people who don’t read comics and, despite the inherent logical flaw, that’s a pretty sound and sensible plan.

However, the delivery of such is always problematic. Is the problem resistance to the medium?

Then try radical art and narrative styles, unusual typography and talent from outside the medium to tell your stories: you get some intriguing results but risk still not reaching a new audience whilst alienating the readers already on board…

This eclectic and overwhelmingly effective tome was one of the best and simultaneously one of the least appreciated…

Dick Shamus lives in New York City. Not necessarily the one you know but one equally composed of snippets of books, flickers of films and TV titbits all filtered through the fried brains of an incorrigible addict who’s been off his prescription Lithium for far too long now…

Dick Shamus is a Private Eye. If he says so then it’s got to be true, right?

On one night so much like every other, Dick, bombed out of his gourd on his tipple of choice – embalmers’ formaldehyde with a chocolate drink chaser – picks up a useful tip about a Nazi weight-lifting club from one of his usual sources: few of them credible and none of them real…

The drink might be the secret CIA vaccine to prevent AIDS but it sure plays hob with the deductive faculties…

The side of the city only he can see tells the weary, ravaged gumshoe that there’s a connection between the Fascist health fanatics, India and the Drowned Girl – whoever she is – and as his personal reality intercepts and continually collides with the equally outrageous consensus reality the rest of us are stuck with, Dick is carried by events to a tragic and disturbing rendezvous.

If only he could recall who the client was…

Raw and savagely beguiling, the one night’s odyssey of the perceptually challenged Shamus as he weaves between rich bastards, gutter-scum, gullible art-trendoids, yuppie-gentrifiers and armchair anarchists, affable protester-bashing cops and a hundred other “normal” folks in search of his dimly perceived targets…

This disturbing, hard-luck pilgrim’s progress is as truly thought-provoking, hard-bitten, revelatory and socially castigating as the works of Dashiell Hammett, William Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Raymond Chandler or Gabriel García Márquez, whilst the brutally unrefined and intoxicatingly vibrant painting of author Jon Hammer makes this perhaps the very best psycho-detective graphic novel you’ve never read.

But all that could change if and when you too track down The Drowned Girl…
© 1990 Jon Hammer. All rights reserved.

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The Desert Peach book 3: Foreign Relations


By Donna Barr (Aeon)
ISBN: 1-883847-04-4

The Desert Peach is the supremely self-assured and eminently accomplished gay brother of the legendary “Desert Fox” and one of the most perfectly realised characters in comics.

Set in World War II Africa and effortlessly combining hilarity, absurdity, profound sensitivity and glittering spontaneity, the stories describe the daily grind of Oberst Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel; a dutiful if unwilling cog in the German War Machine and his efforts to remain a perfect gentleman under the most adverse and unkind conditions.

As formidable as his beloved elder sibling Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the gracious and genteel Peach is a man of breeding who loathes causing harm or giving offence and thus spends his dry and dusty days commanding the ever-so-motley crew of the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging & Support Unit of the Afrika Korps, trying to remain stylish, elegant, civil and gracious to the men under his command, the enemy forces opposite him and all the unfortunate natives whose countries both Allied and Axis powers are currently running riot within.

It’s a lot of work: the 469th houses the worst dregs of the Wehrmacht, from malingerers and malcontents to useless wounded, sharpers, screw-ups and outright maniacs.

Pfirsich applies the same genteel courtesies and rule of well-manicured thumb to the sundry indigenes populating the area surrounding the camp and the rather tiresome British – not all of whom are party to a clandestine non-aggression pact Pfirsich has agreed with his opposite number in the opposing British Forces.

The romantic fool is passionately in love with and engaged to Rosen Kavalier: handsome Aryan warrior and outrageously manly Luftwaffe Ace: in fact the only people the Peach really has no time for are boors, bigots and card-carrying Blackshirts…

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 and non-existent morals whose one redeeming virtue is his uncompromising loyalty and devotion to the only decent man and tolerable officer in the entire German army.

This hard to find but supremely superb third monochrome compendium reprints issues #7-9 and includes an all-new tale too.

Battle commences with ‘The Spoiled Fruit’ as the mild mannered and utterly urbane Peach is accidentally dosed with shell-shocked veteran Corporal Doberman‘s anti-psychotic medication. The ghastly experimental brew acts like Angel Dust on the sweet lad and turns Pfirsich into a raging warmongering lunatic, who goes on a three day battle-jag, dragging the 469th with by sheer rampaging willpower and almost winning the desert war single-handed… until the drugs stop working.

Even more embarrassing than the death and bloodshed he caused and certainly more painful than the bullet wound in his posterior is brother Erwin awarding him a medal…

This is followed by international adventure and intrigue in ‘Dressing Down’ as an old-fashioned army concert-party leads to one of the most ludicrous espionage missions of the war.

In an attempt to raise morale Udo organises a show where he and a few other ranks dress up in drag. Although a little unhappy at the sordid and distasteful turn of events, Pfirsich lets it go but is horrified when an intelligence officer from his brother’s staff claims that Udo-as-a girl looks just like Hannah Mardi, a German agent currently missing in England.

She and her sister were the only hope of recovering the stolen plans for Rommel’s latest tank but for such a mission to succeed Hannah should be accompanied by her usual partner. What a happy coincidence that Pfirsich looks so much like the equally absent “Portia Sophi”: the Peach could pass for her with almost no make-up at all…

Arriving at the last known address of the missing spies in London, the terrified and mutinously reluctant Pfirsich and Udo are horrified to discover something very peculiar is going on in the agents’ old lodgings and things become surreal, hilarious and quite, quite tricky when the Peach realises that the landlady’s son Willie is the same delightful boy who befriended him in those carefree days before the war..

The reprints end with ‘Scourge of Love’ as the ever-horny Udo unwittingly turns a bargaining session for fresh rations with Tuareg traders into an accidentally proposal to the Chieftain’s beautiful daughter Falila.

He thought he was getting a “quickie” from a easy trollop but too soon Udo realises he was not only betrothed to the proud princess of a people who have turned avenging insults into an art-form and spectator blood-sport, but that to prove himself worthy he would have to steal a herd of camels from the Arabs’ greatest and most ancient enemies.

With a tribal revolt threatening to interfere with the smooth course of the war, Udo’s tenderest and most cherished organs at risk and, most importantly, the honour and happiness of a lady at stake, the Desert Peach has no choice but to step in and settle matters in his own uniquely sensitive and refined manner…

The new epilogue ‘Home is Where…’ is set in the Peach’s declining years, wherein Pfirsich and his adult son Mani play host to a reunion of the 469th few survivors: a bittersweet vignette which delights and fearfully foreshadows tragedies yet to come. This moving vignette also appears in Book 4 Baby Games.

Referencing the same vast story potential as Sgt. Bilko, Hogan’s Heroes, Oh, What a Lovely War! and Catch 22, as well as such tangential films as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Birdcage, the Desert Peach is bawdy, raucous, clever, authentically madcap and immensely engaging.

These fabulously weird war stories were some of the very best comics of the 1990s and still pack the comedic kick of a floral-scented howitzer, liberally leavened with situational jocularity, accent humour and lots of footnoted Deutsche cuss-words for the kids to learn.

Pfirsich’s further exploits continue as part of the Modern Tales webcomics collective…

Illustrated in Barr’s fluidly seductive wood-cut and loose-line style, this book is a must-have for any history-loving, war-hating lover of wit, slapstick, romance and belly-laughs. All the Desert Peach books are pretty hard to find these days but if you have a Kindle, Robot Comics have just begun to release individual comicbook issues for anybody who can make their way around Das Ferslugginer Internetten …
© 1990-1994 Donna Barr. All rights reserved. The Desert Peach is ™ Donna Barr.

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New Teen Titans: the Judas Contract


By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal, Dick Giordano & Mike DeCarlo (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-3A-X   (2004) ISBN: 978-0-93028-934-8

Deathstroke the Terminator is a flamboyant cover identity for mercenary/assassin Slade Wilson who underwent an experimental procedure whilst an American Special Forces soldier. He was invalided out but later developed fantastic physical abilities that augmented his military capabilities.

He debuted in the second issue of the New Teen Titans in 1980, assuming a contract that had been forfeited when neophyte costumed assassin The Ravager died trying to destroy the kid heroes. The deceased would-be killer was actually Grant Wilson, a very troubled young man desperately trying to impress his dad. Slade’s other children would also be the cause of much heartache and bloodshed over the years…

That venerable squad of sterling sidekicks had first debuted in the Swinging Sixties, battling all manner of outlandish threats and menaces (see Showcase Presents the Teen Titans volumes 1 and 2 for just how “out there” they were) but had been cancelled a number of times before writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez found just the right tone and brought them back to become one of DC’s biggest sensations.

The New Teen Titans went from strength to strength, with its close continuity, tight character interaction and stupendous action quickly winning a loyal and dedicated following and this controversial extended storyline proved it to be one of the most innovative and daring superhero series of the decade.

If a comic book story garners death-threats you know you’re doing something right, right?

In 1988 The Judas Contract (re-presenting The New Teen Titans #39-40, Tales of the New Teen Titans #41-44 and Annual #3 from February-July1984) was one of DC’s earliest and most successful trade paperback collections and remains so to this day.

The compendium opens with ‘Clash of the Titans’ a contextual explanatory introduction from author Wolfman and an insightful remembrance from Pérez entitled ‘The Contract Begins…’ before the comicbook wizardry started to unfold.

By the time of ‘Crossroads’ (inked by Romeo Tanghal) the youthful superteam were involved in a life or death battle with Brother Blood, a seemingly immortal and diabolically subtle cult-leader who used media manipulation and religious zealotry to supplement his awesome power and fanatical army of followers to run rings around the politically naive heroes.

Moreover they had just admitted as a probationary member Tara Markov, a 14 year old metahuman girl who had been the captive of terrorist kidnappers for years. Terra was slowly being accepted by the team when a turning point arrived and founder member Kid Flash decided to retire. Moreover, team leader Robin was facing a crisis of conscience and had decided to abandon the costumed identity he had employed since he was nine years old…

The war against the cult continued in ‘Lifeblood’ as Dick Grayson went undercover in the Rogue nation of Zandia where the Brotherhood was engaged in a cold war with the Island’s ruler. When the rest of the Titans invaded the villain’s temple sanctum they were overcome and the concluding ‘Baptism of Blood’ found them fighting for their lives and souls before Terra’s earth-moving geo-powers turned the tide…

The Judas Contract proper began in issue #42 with ‘The Eyes of Tara Markov’ (inked by Dick Giordano) wherein the irascible temperament and short temper of the newest member was finally explained. As the novice was granted full security access and learned the secret identities of her team-mates, Tara was exposed – to the readers at least – as the lover and pawn of the Titan’s greatest enemy Deathstroke: planted as a deep cover agent within the team and tasked with learning all their weaknesses before the Terminator’s final assault…

‘Betrayal’ (inked by Mike DeCarlo Giordano) opened with Dick Grayson narrowly escaping an ambush in his apartment and learning too late that all his friends were gone. On the run from Deathstroke, the heir of Batman deduced what had happened to his team just as he was approached by Wilson’s ex-wife Adeline and her mute son Joe who revealed the truth about Terra and her horrifyingly psychotic true nature.

With the Titans at last in the hands of criminal cabal The HIVE, who had originally commissioned the doomed Ravager, Adeline also revealed the astonishing origins of Slade and Joe before ‘There Shall Come a Titan’ in #44 introduced Grayson’s new costumed persona as he became Nightwing for the first time.

With Joe Wilson, in his own new heroic identity of Jericho, Nightwing invaded the organisation’s stronghold and in ‘Finale’ (Tales of the New Teen Titans Annual #3 and inked exclusively by Giordano) freed the helpless heroes only to fall foul of the terrifyingly insane Tara Markov who wouldn’t let the Titans, HIVE or even her lover Slade stop her from getting what she wanted…

Stirring, imaginative, controversial and immensely entertaining, this stunning Fights ‘n’ Tights extravaganza set a new standard for superhero storytelling and stills ranks as one of the best Costume Dramas ever crafted.
© 1983, 1984, 1988 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Zora and the Hibernauts


By Fernando Fernández (Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 978-0-87416-001-7

Multi-disciplinary Spanish artist Fernando Fernández began working to help support his family at age 13 whilst still at High School. He left in 1956 and immediately began working for British and French comics publishers. In 1958 his family relocated to Argentina and whilst there he added jobs for El Gorrión, Tótem and Puño Fuerte to his ongoing European and British assignments for Valentina, Roxy and Marilyn.

In 1959 he returned to Spain and began a long association with Fleetway Publications in London, producing mostly war and girls’ romance stories.

During the mid-1960’s he began to experiment with painting and began selling book covers and illustrations to a number of clients, before again taking up comics work in 1970, creating a variety of strips (many of which found their way into US horror magazine Vampirella), the successful comedy feature ‘Mosca’ for Diario de Barcelona and educational strips for the pubshing house Afha.

Becoming increasingly experimental as the decade passed, Fernández produced ‘Cuba, 1898’ and ‘Círculos’ before in 1980 beginning his science fiction spectacular ‘Zora y los Hibernautas’ for the Spanish iteration of fantasy magazine 1984 which was eventually seen in English in Heavy Metal magazine. His later graphic spectacles include ‘Dracula’ for the Spanish iteration of Creepy, mediaeval fantasy thriller ‘La Leyenda de las Cuatro Sombras’ (working with Carlos Trillo), ‘Argón, el Salvaje’ and a number of adaptations of Isaac Asimov tales in ‘Firmado por: Isaac Asimov’ and ‘Lucky Starr – Los Océanos de Venus’.

His last comics work was ‘Zodíaco’ begun in 1989, but his increasing heart problems soon curtailed the series and he returned to painting and illustration. He passed away in August 2010, aged 70.

The stunning adult epic Zora and the Hibernauts exploits classic science fiction themes of sexual politics to explore the perceived role and character of men and women and opens, after a truly breathtaking biography and gallery section, with the first staggeringly lush chapter as, far into the future, warrior-women from the artificial moon Honeycomb (home to the censorious, draconian colony of the Sisterhood) land on the deadly and biologically inimical planet Earth searching for lost technology and other objects of interest or value.

The crew is led by the competent Zora, a space veteran who has won the love and devotion of her crew through years of sterling service. The ancient birthplace of humanity has long been quarantined: a pestilential hell-hole where radiation and disease have created unspeakable horrors, but the explorers have no idea what shocks await their first forays into the unknown landscape they call Terra-Lune…

The search goes badly and crew-women are lost to plants, beasts and things which qualify as both and neither, but Zora is intent on finding some specific unknown treasure. Meanwhile, back on Honeycomb, scientist Nylea breaks the Queen’s taboo and searches the ancient archives for proscribed information on the extinct creature once called “man”…

On Terra-Lune the invaders have broached a long-hidden chamber and found six hibernation pods from before the Earth died…

They contain frozen men and Zora, defying orders and centuries of custom, decants and revives the perfectly preserved creatures rather than destroy them, setting herself on a path that will lead to civil war and the restoration of the natural order…

She is strangely drawn to one of the men: Astronaut Commander Amon, who holds crucial knowledge of the fall of humanity and whose presence stirs the quizzical Zora in ways she doesn’t understand…

Taking her prizes back to Honeycomb where they are interviewed by Supreme Sister Rasam, Zora is ordered to keep the hibernauts in personal custody, but isn’t surprised when Nylea informs her that the queen is planning to destroy her and the men who threaten the hegemony and beliefs of the all-female, in vitro parthenogenetic culture.

Following a brutal battle, Zora, Nylea and the males take refuge on toxic Terra-Lune where they encounter another man: an incredible immortal named Rob who has survived on the poisoned planet for uncounted ages and aids the fugitives when the Sisterhood ships come hunting them…

Escaping the stalkers, the refugee band hides deep within the horror-world and inevitably Zora and Amon perpetrate an act of love not seen on Earth for millennia, after which Rob reveals the location of a fully-functioning ancient starship and offers them a means of fighting back against the tyranny of Rasam.

But whilst Rob relates the secret of his incredible longevity, on Honeycomb long-suppressed antagonisms begin to re-emerge.

Terra-Lune still holds many threats and horrors however, and whilst the outcasts battle for survival against beasts and monstrous sub-men on the debased planet, a deadly civil war erupts on the artificial satellite led by ambitious hardliner and second-in-command Sharta. By the time Zora and her followers are ready to attack Rasam, Honeycomb is in the midst of civil war…

Just when events are their most fraught, the universal implications of the struggle are revealed when a god-like timeless entity appears, disclosing Zora’s cosmic importance and that her womb now carries the first naturally conceived and developing human baby in thousand of years. Zora has been chosen by the higher powers of the universe to restore and perpetuate the human species…

The grand concepts come thick and fast in Zora and the Hibernauts and although the narrative is a little muddled in consequence, this breathtaking yarn delivers fast paced, action-packed, staggeringly beautiful and astoundingly exciting adult science fiction thrills in the tradition pulp manner. Being Spanish, however there’s a slight tinge of macho, if not subverted sexism, on display and of course, there is extensive female nudity throughout – so much so that by half-way through you won’t even notice…

If naked bald women are liable to offend you, give this as miss, but for all the normal red- blooded fans out there this is a superb tale by a master craftsman you’ll certainly want to track down and savour.

© 1981 Fernando Fernández. English edition © 1984 Catalan Communications. All rights reserved.

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The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers in The Idiots Abroad


By Gilbert Shelton & Paul Mavrides, colour by Guy Colwell (Knockabout)
ISBN: 0-86166-053-6

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers shambled out of the Underground Commix counter-culture wave in 1968; initially appearing in Berkeley Print Mint’s Feds ‘n’ Heads, and in Underground newspapers before creator Gilbert Shelton and a few friends founded their own San Francisco based Rip Off Press in 1969.

That effective collective continued to maximise the reefer madness and the hilarious antics of the “Freaks” (contemporary term for lazy, dirty, drug-taking hippy folk) quickly captured the imaginations of the more open-minded portions of America and the world (not to mention their kids)…

In 1971 they published the first compilation: The Collected Adventures of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers – which has been in print all around the planet ever since – and soon assorted underground magazines and college papers were joined by the heady likes of Rip Off Comix, High Times and Playboy (and numerous foreign periodicals) in featuring the addictive adventures of Freewheelin’ Franklin, Phineas T. Freakears and Fat Freddy Freekowtski (and his cat): siblings in sybaritic self-indulgence.

Always written by Shelton and, from 1974 illustrated by Dave Sheridan (until his death in 1982) and Paul Mavrides, the disjointed strips (sorry; bad puns are my opiate of choice) combined canny satire, worldly cynicism, surreal situations, drug-based scatological sauciness and an astounding grasp of human nature in brilliantly comedic episodes that cannot fail to amuse anyone with a mature sense of humour.

All the strips have been collected in various formats (in Britain by the fabulous folks of Knockabout Comics) and have been happily absorbed by vast generations of fans – most of whom wouldn’t read any other comic.

Despite the hippy-dippy antecedents and stoner presentiments, Shelton is irrefutably a consummate professional. His ideas are always enchantingly fresh, the dialogue is permanently spot-on and his pacing perfect. The stories, whether half-page fillers, short vignettes or full blown sagas, start strong and relentlessly build to spectacular – and often wildly outrageous, hallucinogenic yet narrative-appropriate – climaxes.

Franklin is the tough, street-savvy one who can pull the chicks best, Phineas is a wildly romantic, educated and dangerous (to himself) intellectual whilst Fat Freddy is us; weak-willed, greedy, not so smart, vastly put upon by an uncaring universe but oddly charming (you wish…)

One last point: despite the vast panoply of drugs ingested, imbibed and otherwise absorbed, both real and invented, the Freaks don’t ever do heroin – which should tell you something…

‘The Idiots Abroad’ was first published in issues #8-10 of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comicbook, beginning in 1982, by Shelton & Paul Mavrides with colour separations by fellow controversial Underground cartoonist Guy Colwell (see Doll). This compilation first appeared in 1988.

The alternative anarchy and high-strung hilarity opens with a cunning monochrome introduction set in the high-tech Bastion of Commerce which is the Rip Off Press High-rise after which the scene switches Oz-like to full-colour as the beardy boys, just chilling in their latest crash-pad, realise that they’re paying too much for their drugs. If they just holidayed in Colombia they could buy the stuff at source and make a killing…

Keen and eager the trio set off for the airport, expecting an easy flight to their Promised Land. Fat Freddy falls in with a drunken bunch of Scottish football fans, Phineas accidentally boards a jet for the Middle East and only Franklin actually gets on a plane for South America: of course it is a package tour of survivalists…

Ever vigilant, the US government quickly dispatches dedicated super-cop Norbert the Nark to follow the Brothers…

As Franklin finds himself in bed with freedom-fighting, drug-dealing Indio eco-warriors and quite sensibly runs for his life, in Scotland Fat Freddy has been mistaken for nuclear terrorist Andre the Hyena and similarly bolts.

Making his way across Europe the corpulent clown unwittingly takes with him a soccer-ball shaped thermonuclear device and stumbles into a global military conspiracy conceived by the Colonels of every nation to seize control of human civilisation…

Phineas meanwhile has landed in Mecca and through his usual incredible good fortune has become a valued member of the government and a major player in OPEC.

Whilst Franklin joins a cruise ship full of millionaires and ends up sold into slavery when the vessel is attacked by pirates, Fat Freddy rampages across Spain and meets the utterly “out there” Anarchist genius Pablos Pegaso before invading the Warsaw Pact countries at the artist’s suggestion, ending up in Moscow at just the wrong moment…

The stupendous saga of outrageous Unrealpolitik ramps up even more when the assembled Colonels take over the world and in a Saudi dungeon Franklin and the now thin Freddy are sold at auction to all-powerful Father Phineas, the Honest Hierophant who has converted his immense wealth into real money by inventing “Fundaligionism” which is now the hottest Faith around and has made him the richest person on the planet…

And that’s when the cartoon craziness really starts to motor…

And they’re so very, very funny.

Without Shelton and the Freaks the whole sub-genre of slacker/stoner movies, from Cheech and Chong‘s assorted escapades to Dude, Where’s My Car? and all the rest – good, bad or indifferent – wouldn’t exist. Whether or not that’s a good thing is up to you.

Chaotically satirical, poisonously cynical and addictively ludicrous, the madcap slapstick of the Freak Brothers is always an unbelievably potent tonic for the blues and this epic escapade of inspired insanity is among their very best exploits. However, if you’re still worried about the content, which is definitely habit-forming, simply read but don’t inhale…
© 1987 Rip Off Press, Inc., and Gilbert Shelton. All rights reserved.