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Superman: The Death of Superman


By Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-124-3

Although largely out of favour these days as all the myriad decades of Superman mythology are gradually re-assimilated into one overarching all-inclusive DC continuity, the stripped-down, gritty post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Man of Steel re-imagined by John Byrne and marvellously built upon by a stunning succession of gifted comics craftsman produced some genuine comics classics.

This is probably the most significant of them all: the first part in a truly epic triptych story-arc which saw the martyrdom, loss, replacement and eventual resurrection of the World’s Greatest Superhero in a stellar saga which broke all records and proved that apparently everybody still cared about the hoary icon of Truth, Justice and the American Way…

This landmark collection features material which originally appeared in Superman: the Man of Steel #17-19, Superman #73-75, Adventures of Superman #496-497, Action Comics #683-684 and Justice League America #69, spanning cover-dates November 1992 to January 1993 and opens with the fearsome first glimpses of a of a masked and manacled figure pounding its way free of an adamantine cell.

Breaking out of the earth in the heart of rural America the saga proper begins in ‘Doomsday’ by Louise Simonson, Jon Bogdanove & Dennis Janke, as Superman deals with successive terrorist attacks by dropouts, alien dregs and mortal monsters known as Underworlders who have infested the tunnels beneath Metropolis but are now hungry for their own place in the sun. Whilst the Action Ace brokers a tenuous peace-treaty the horrific and kill-crazy escapee carves a purposeless swathe of destruction across the country…

In ‘Down for the Count’ (Justice League America #69, by Dan Jurgens & Rick Burchett) Superman is tied up with a meaningless publicity interview whilst in Ohio his JLA comrades, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice, Bloodwynd, Maxima and Guy Gardner are savagely thrashed by the lumbering monstrosity, who maims and cripples many of the World’s Greatest Superheroes with one arm literally tied behind its back…

By the time Superman arrives in ‘Countdown to Doomsday!’ (Jurgens & Brett Breeding) the remnants of the team have regrouped, determined to sell their lives dearly to stop the creature rampaging through a housing development, but their combined efforts do little more than shred the remaining restraints holding it back.

In a catastrophic explosion the JLA succumb to their punishing injuries and Superman, determined to stop the beast, chases after it, utterly unaware that a family have been trapped in the burning remnants of their home…

‘Under Fire’ (scripted by Jerry Ordway and illustrated by Tom Grummett & Doug Hazlewood) sees the hard-pressed Man of Steel break off his desperate struggle to rescue both the trapped citizens and the fallen heroes, allowing Doomsday to wreak even more havoc and slaughter. Soon after however the Caped Kryptonian catches up with the howling horror in the idyllic hamlet of Griffith, but even with the frenzied aid of majestic alien superwoman Maxima is overcome in a shattering confrontation which razes the entire town to the ground.

In ‘…Doomsday is Near!’ (Roger Stern, Jackson Guice & Denis Rodier) he is joined by the cloned Cadmus security officer Guardian and comes to the conclusion that the brutal beast must be stopped at any and all costs, but as he follows its trail he is constantly diverted by the need to rescue civilians caught up in the mindless path of destruction. However when the monster sees a big screen TV ad, Doomsday diverts from its latest tussle with Superman and heads inexorably for the hero’s home town, smashing its way through the Cadmus testing grounds dubbed Habitat…

Despite Superman’s Herculean, repeated efforts, ‘Doomsday is Here!’ (Simonson, Bogdanove & Janke) sees the beast hit the streets of Metropolis like an atomic bomb and the Man of Steel realises he will happily give his life to destroy the unstoppable leviathan. A small respite is gained when Supergirl enters the fray (not Superman’s Kryptonian cousin but rather the devoted protoplasmic facsimile that held the title at this time) but she is quickly disposed of by the mysterious monster, as are all the super-scientific resources of Lex Luthor‘s private army.

Eventually all that’s left to save the day is the bruised, battered and utterly exhausted Man of Tomorrow…

The magnificent legendary saga concludes in ‘Doomsday!’ with a final chapter delivered as a succession of full-page splash-shots from writer/penciller Jurgens and inker Breeding depicting Superman and his savage nemesis going toe-to-toe in the rubble of the city, and concluding as the man expires at last, taking the monster with him…

Short on plot but bursting with tension, drama and breathtaking action, the epic encounter was but the first step in a bold and long-term plan to push the complacent readership off the edge of their collective seats and revitalise the Superman franchise, but the positively manic public interest beyond the world of comics took everyone by surprise and made the character as vital and vibrant a sensation as in the earliest days of his creation.

It worked…
© 1992, 1993 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Valerian and Laureline book 3: the Land Without Stars


By Méziéres & Christin, with colours by E. Tranlé and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-087-0   (Dargaud edition) 2-205-06573-4

Val̩rian is the most influential science fiction comics series ever drawn Рand yes, that includes even Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Dan Dare and Judge Dredd.

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined and later re-defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie has been exposed to doses of Jean-Claude Méziéres & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings which the filmic phenomenon has shamelessly plundered for decades: everything from the character and look of alien races and cultures to the design of the Millennium Falcon and even Leia‘s Slave Girl outfit …

Simply put, more carbon-based lifeforms have experienced and marvelled at the uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in tech realism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of Méziéres & Christin than any other cartoon spacer.

The groundbreaking series followed a Franco-Belgian mini-boom in fantasy fiction triggered by Jean-Claude Forest’s 1962 creation Barbarella. Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent launched in the November 9th, 1967 edition of Pilote (#420) and was an instant hit. In combination with Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient and Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane, Valérian‘s hot public reception led to the creation of dedicated adult graphic sci-fi magazine Métal Hurlant in 1977.

Val̩rian and Laureline (as the series eventually became) is a light-hearted, wildly imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy teeming with wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary, starring Рin the early days at least Рan affable, capable, unimaginative and by-the-book cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology by counteracting paradoxes caused by casual time-travellers.

When Valérian travelled to 11th century France in the initial tale ‘Les Mauvais Rêves (‘Bad Dreams’ and still not translated to English yet) he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline whom he brought back to the 28th century super-citadel and administrative capital of the Terran Empire, Galaxity. The indomitable lass subsequently trained as a Spatio-Temporal operative and began accompanying him on his missions.

Every subsequent Valérian adventure until the 13th was initially serialised weekly in Pilote until the conclusion of ‘The Rage of Hypsis’ after which the mind-boggling yarns were only published as all-new complete graphic novels, until the whole spectacular saga resolved and ended in 2010.

The Land Without Stars originally ran in Pilote #570-592 (October 8th 1970 to March 11th 1971) and followed the Spatio-Temporal agents as they went about a tedious pro forma inspection of a cluster of new Terran colonies in the Ukbar star-sytem at the very edge of inter-galactic space…

However the mission soon goes awry when a wandering world is detected on a collision course with the system and Valerian, still suffering the effects of too much local alcoholic “diplomatic protocol” decides that they should investigate at close quarters…

Despite being pickled, the lead agent lands with his long-suffering assistant on the runaway planet and discovers that the celestial maverick is hollow. Moreover, a thriving ancient culture or three dwell there, utterly unaware that they are not the only beings in all of creation…

Typically however of sentient beings everywhere, two of the civilisations are locked in a millennia old war, armed and supplied by the third…

After an accident wrecks their exploratory scout ship Valerian and Laureline deduce that the constant warfare originally caused the hollow world to tumble unchecked through space and will eventually cause its complete destruction, so in short order the professional meddlers split up to infiltrate the warring nations of Malka and Valsennar.

However they are in for a surprise since both city-states are divided on gender grounds, with Malka home to prodigious warrior women who subjugate their effete and feeble males whilst the aristocratically foppish but deadly dandies of Valsennar delight in beautiful, proficient and lethally lovely ladies – but only as compliant servants…

The highly trained Galaxity operatives quickly rise in the ranks of each court – from slaves and toys to perfectly placed, trusted servants – and soon have ample opportunity to change the nature of the doomed civilisations within the collision-course world, after which the heroes even concoct a canny and cunning method of spectacularly ceasing the planet’s random perambulations; giving it a stable orbit and new lease on life…

All in a days work, naturally, although it did take a few months to sort out: still what’s time to a couple of brilliant Spatio-Temporal agents?

Happily, this mind-boggling forty-year old social and sexual satire is packed with astounding action, imaginative imagery and fantastic creatures to provide zest to a plot that has since become rather overused – sure proof of the quality of this delightful, so-often imitated original yarn – but as always the space-opera is fun-filled, witty, visually breathtaking and stunningly ingenious.  Drenched in wickedly wide-eyed wonderment, science fiction sagas have never been better than this.

Between 1981-1985 Dargaud-Canada and Dargaud-USA published a quartet of these albums in English (with a limited British imprint from Hodder-Dargaud in the UK) under the umbrella title Valerian: Spatiotemporal Agent and this tale, then called World Without Stars, was the second release, translated then by L. Mitchell.

Although this modern Cinebook release boasts improved print and colour values and a far better and more fluid translation, interested completists might also want to track down the 20th century releases for the added text features ‘Valerian: Graphic Renaissance’ by acclaimed SF author William Rotsler, the appreciation ‘In Science Fiction’s Net’ by French genre writer/illustrator Jean-Pierre Andrevon and the extensive biographies and work check-lists of creators Pierre Christin & Claude Méziéres…

© Dargaud Paris, 1972 Christin, Méziéres & Tran-Lệ. All rights reserved. English translation © 2012 Cinebook Ltd.

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Batman: Terror of the High Skies


By Joe R. Lansdale, illustrated by Edward Hannigan & Dick Giordano (Little, Brown & Co.)
ISBN: 0-316-17765-2   ISBN-13: 978-0-316-17765-8

We parochial comics fans tend to think of our greatest assets in purely graphic narrative terms, but characters such as Superman, Spider-Man and especially Batman have long-since grown beyond their origins and are now fully modern mythological creatures who inhabit a mass of medias and even age ranges.

A case in point is this superbly rowdy, rollicking and rousing boy’s own adventure which was released in the early 1990s as part of the perennial drive to get kids reading…

Terror of the High Skies was written by the brilliant and prolific Texan Joe R. Lansdale, whose credits range from novels to screenplays and cartoons to comicbooks in genres as broad as horror, comedy, westerns, crime-thrillers, fantasy science fiction and all points in between, and he is as adept at challenging adult audiences as he is beguiling – far harder to impress – young readerships…

The tale begins as young Toby Tyler slowly adjusts to life in Gotham City after growing up in Mud Creek East Texas. One night as his parents play host to old friend – and Police Commissioner – Jim Gordon, Toby hears a cat in distress and climbs out of his bedroom window onto the roof of his building, only to find a flying galleon heaving-to and the infamous Joker capering about in the guise of a movie pirate.

Toby’s a big fan of films and keeps up to date on the news, so when the Mountebank of Mirth makes the kid walk the plank off the roof he hears some clues that will eventually lead to the Clown Prince’s defeat…

It’s also where he first meets the daring Dark Knight as Batman swoops out of the darkness to save him before confronting the Joker and his gang of plundering sky-pirates…

Already deeply involved in solving taunting card-clues to the villain’s future crimes, Batman comes close to ending the case right there, but the wily Harlequin of Hate hastily escapes and embarks on a campaign of pirate-themed plundering, unaware that the plucky Toby has deduced where and when he will strike next…

With the focus very much on the valiant boy – just as young Jim Hawkins is the narrative voice of “Treasure Island” – readers are treated to a splendid adventure as Toby is allowed to join Batman’s search for the Joker in a fantastic chase that encompasses a visit to the Batcave, meeting and rescuing his favourite horror-film actor, “stowing away” aboard the floating marauder, facing a (mechanical) sea monster and eventually foiling a spectacular scheme to unleash a wave of madness on the unsuspecting city…

Bold, fast-paced and engaging; delivered very much in the manner of Batman the Animated Series (for which Lansdale wrote a number of episodes), this delightful prose escapade is also graced with eight breathtaking full-page action-illustrations by Batman veterans Ed Hannigan & Dick Giordano and would make a perfect primer for younger fans to begin their – hopefully – life-long love affair with reading…
© 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Published under license from DC Comics.

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Captain Pugwash and the Quest of the Golden Handshake


By John Ryan (Fontana Picture Lions/Puffin)
ISBN: 0-00-662253-4 (Fontana 1985)   978-0-14055-486-1 (Puffin 1997)

Paperback: 32 pages

I recently reviewed an old John Ryan kid’s book and enjoyed it so much that I simply had to share another all-ages masterpiece with you…

John Ryan was an artist and storyteller who straddled three distinct disciplines of graphic narrative, with equal qualitative if not financial success.

The son of a diplomat, Ryan was born in Edinburgh on March 4th 1921, served in Burma and India and, after attending the Regent Street Polytechnic (1946-48), took up a post as assistant Art Master at Harrow School from 1948 to 1955. It was during this time that he began contributing strips to Fulton Press publications.

On April 14th 1950 Britain’s grey, post-war gloom was partially lifted with the first issue of a new comic that literally gleamed with light and colour with which avid children were soon understandably enraptured; blown away by the gloss and dazzle of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, a charismatic star-turn venerated to this day and a host of other spectacularly illustrated stories strips and features.

The Eagle was a tabloid-sized paper with full colour inserts alternating with text and a range of various other comic features. “Tabloid” is a big page and one can get a lot of material onto each one. Deep within, on the bottom third of a monochrome page was an eight panel strip entitled ‘Captain Pugwash – The story of a Bad Buccaneer and the many Sticky Ends which nearly befell him’ delivered with dash and aplomb by John Ryan.

The indefatigable artist’s quirky, spiky style also lent itself to the numerous spot illustrations required throughout the comic every week and he also regularly produced ‘Lettice Leefe, the Greenest Girl in School’ for Eagle’s distaff companion comic Girl.

Pugwash, his harridan of a wife and the useless, lazy crew of the Black Pig ran until issue #19 when the feature disappeared.

This was no real hardship as Ryan had been writing and illustrating the incomparable and brilliantly mordant ‘Harris Tweed – Extra Special Agent’ a full page (tabloid, remember, upwards of twenty crammed and meticulously detail stuffed panels a page, per week) from The Eagle #16 onwards.

Tweed ran for three years as a full page until 1953 when it dropped to a half page strip and was repositioned as a purely comedic venture.

In 1956 the indefatigable old sea-dog (I’m referring to Horatio Pugwash, but it could so easily be Ryan: an unceasing story-peddler with a big family, he still found time to be head cartoonist at the Catholic Herald for four decades) made the jump to children’s picture books and animated features for television.

A Pirate Story was the first Pugwash chronicle (originally published by Bodley Head before switching to the children’s publishing specialist Puffin) and the first of a huge run of children’s books on a number of different subjects. Pugwash himself starred in 21 tomes; there were a dozen books based on the animated series Ark Stories, as well as Sir Prancelot and a number of other creations. Ryan worked whenever he wanted to in the comic world and eventually the books and the strips began to cross-fertilise.

When A Pirate Story was released in 1957 the BBC pounced on the property, commissioning Ryan to produce five-minute episodes (86 in all from 1957 to 1968, which were reformatted in full colour and rebroadcast in 1976). In the budding 1950s arena of animated television cartoons, Ryan developed a new system for producing cheap, high-quality animations to a tight deadline. Naturally he began with Pugwash, keeping the adventure milieu, but replaced the shrewish wife with a tried-and-true boy assistant. Tom the Cabin Boy is the only capable member of a crew which included such visual archetypes as Willy, Pirate Baranabas and Master Mate (fat, thin and tall – all dim) instantly affirming to the rapt, young audience that grown-ups are fools and kids do, in fact, rule.

Ryan also drew a weekly Pugwash strip in the Radio Times for eight years, before going on to produce a number of other animated series including Mary, Mungo and Midge, The Friendly Giant and Sir Prancelot as well as adaptations of some of his many children’s books. In 1997 an all new CGI-based Pugwash animated TV series began.

John Ryan returned to pirate life in the 1980s, drawing three new Pugwash storybooks: The Secret of the San Fiasco, The Battle of Bunkum Bay and today’s riot of scurvy delights The Quest of the Golden Handshake…

There was even a thematic prequel in Admiral Fatso Fitzpugwash, in which it is revealed that the not-so-salty seadog had a medieval ancestor who became First Sea Lord, despite being terrified of water…

In the Golden Handshake the Querulous Captain finds a genuine treasure map at an auction but a bidding war with nefarious nemesis Cut-Throat Jake turns into a full-blown riot in which the coveted chart is torn in half.

Never knowingly daunted, Pugwash and company steal Jake’s half of the map that night but on returning to the safety of the Black Pig are horrified to discover that their rival has had the same idea…

Luckily the brilliant cabin boy had anticipated the move and has already copied their portion of the priceless document. Heartened and enraptured by thoughts of vast wealth, the crew hastily set sail for South America, determined to plunder the Lost Treasure of the Stinkas…

However Jake is a brilliant rogue and smuggles himself and two burly accomplices aboard, planning to let Pugwash do all the heavy lifting and await his moment to claim his revenge and the gold…

Packed with in-jokes, glorious tom-foolery and daring adventure, the voyage to the New World in a “haunted” ship culminates in a splendid battle of half-wits before Tom, as usual, saves the day in his quiet, competent and deucedly clever way…

The first Pugwash was very traditional in format with blocks of text and single illustrations that illuminated a particular moment. But by 1982 the entire affair became a lavishly painted comic strip, with as many as eight panels per page, with standard word balloons. A fitting circularity to his careers and a nice treat for us old-fashioned comic drones.

The most recent edition of A Pirate Story (2008 from Frances Lincoln Children’s Books) came with a free audio CD, and just in case I’ve tempted you beyond endurance here’s a full list (I think) of the good(?) Captain’s exploits: Captain Pugwash: A Pirate Story (1957), Pugwash Aloft (1960), Pugwash and the Ghost Ship (1962), Pugwash in the Pacific (1963), Pugwash and the Sea Monster (1976), Captain Pugwash and the Ruby (1976), Captain Pugwash and the Treasure Chest (1976), Captain Pugwash and the New Ship (1976), Captain Pugwash and the Elephant (1976), The Captain Pugwash Cartoon Book (1977), Pugwash and the Buried Treasure (1980), Pugwash the Smuggler (1982), Captain Pugwash and the Fancy Dress Party (1982), Captain Pugwash and the Mutiny (1982), Pugwash and the Wreckers (1984), Pugwash and the Midnight Feast (1984), The Battle of Bunkum Bay (1985), The Quest of the Golden Handshake (1985), The Secret of the San Fiasco (1985), Captain Pugwash and the Pigwig (1991) and Captain Pugwash and the Huge Reward (1991), but quite frankly read any Pugwash pirate publication and you’ll be we’ll and truly hooked…

This magical, wry and enchantingly smart yarn is one of Ryan’s very best and long overdue for re-issue – as are they all – and a sure winner with fans of all ages if you can find it (talk about real buried treasures…).

We don’t have that many multi-discipline successes in comics, so why don’t you go and find out why we should celebrate one who did it all, did it first and did it well? Your kids will thank you and if you’ve any life left in your old and weary adult fan’s soul, you will too…

© 1984, 1997, 2012 John Ryan and presumably the Estate of John Ryan. All rights reserved.

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Essential Avengers volume 6


By Steve Englehart, Roy Thomas, Jim Starlin, Gerry Conway, Bob Brown,
Don Heck, Dave Cockrum, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, John Buscema, George Tuska & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3058-1

The Avengers have always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in a single basket pays off big-time: even when all Marvel’s classic all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it merely allows the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly.

Of course all the founding stars were regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy which means that most issues includes somebody’s fave-rave – and the boldly grand-scale impressive stories and artwork are no hindrance either.

This monolithic and monumental sixth tome, collecting the ever-amazing Avengers‘ world-saving exploits (presenting in crisp, stylish monochrome the astounding contents of issues #120-140 of their monthly comic book between March 1974 and October 1975, plus Giant-Size Avengers #1-4 and crossover appearances in Captain Marvel #33 and Fantastic Four #150), saw scripter Steve Englehart examine the outer limits of Marvel history and cosmic geography as he took readers to the ends of their universe and the beginning of time…

Opening this epochal tome is ‘Death-Stars of the Zodiac!’ from Avengers #120, by Steve Englehart, Bob Brown & Don Heck, wherein terrorist astrological adversaries and super-criminal cartel Zodiac attacked again with a manic plan to eradicate everyone in Manhattan born under the sign of Gemini, with heroes Thor, Iron Man, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Swordsman and Mantis seemingly helpless to stop them.

In the blistering battle of #121’s ‘Houses Divided Cannot Stand!’, illustrated by John Buscema & Heck, even the added assistance of Captain America and the Black Panther is of little advantage and with Mantis injured the team begin to question her mysterious past, only to be lured to their seeming doom and ‘Trapped in Outer Space!’ (Brown & Mike Esposito) before at last turning the tables on their fearsome foes after the criminal Libra revealed a shocking secret…

Avengers #123, depicted by Brown & Heck, began a vast and ambitious saga with ‘Vengeance in Viet Nam – or – An Origin For Mantis!’ as Libra’s claim to be Mantis’ father (a story vigorously and violently denied by the Martial Arts Mistress) brought the team to Indo-China.

The criminal ex-mercenary declared that he left the baby Mantis with pacifistic Priests of Pama after running afoul of a local crime-lord, but the bewildered warrior-woman has no memory of such events, nor of being schooled in combat techniques by the Priests. Meanwhile the gravely wounded Swordsman has rushed to Saigon to confront his sadistic ex-boss Monsieur Khruul and save the Priests from being murdered by the gangster’s thugs… but was again too late. It is the tragic story of his wasted life…

Issue #124 found the team stumbling upon a scene of slaughter as clerics and criminals lay dead and a monstrous planet-rending alien horror awoke in ‘Beware the Star-Stalker!’ by J. Buscema & Dave Cockrum…

Mantis was forced to accept that her own memories were not real after Avengers #125, which unleashed ‘The Power of Babel!’ when a vast alien armada attacked and, in combating it, the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were trapped out of phase with their home-world.

This blockbuster battle bonanza was a crossover, and the penultimate episode of the spectacular Thanos War Saga that had featured in Captain Marvel, Marvel Feature and Iron Man, and included in this compendium is ‘The God Himself!’ scripted by Englehart from Captain Marvel #33 (plotted and illustrated by Jim Starlin & Klaus Janson) wherein the mad Titan Thanos finally fell in combat to the valiant Kree warrior: a stunning piece of comics storytelling which stands up remarkably well here despite being seen without benefit of the preceding ten chapters…

It was back to business in #126 as in ‘All the Sights and Sounds of Death!’ (Brown & Cockrum) villains Klaw and Solarr attacked Avengers Mansion in a devious attempt to achieve vengeance for past indignities, after which Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler & Dan Adkins returned to the fold to delve into superhero history with ‘Nuklo… the Invader that Time Forgot!’ for the first quarterly edition of Giant-Size Avengers.

The stirring saga reintroduced 1940 Marvel sensation Bob Frank AKA The Whizzer in a tragic tale of desperation as the aged speedster begged the heroes’ help in rescuing his son: a radioactive mutant locked in stasis since the early 1950s. Unfortunately within the recently unearthed chrono-capsule the lad has grown into a terrifying atomic horror…

Moreover while in the throes of a stress-induced heart-attack the Whizzer let slip that he was the also the father of mutant Avengers Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver…

In Avengers #127 Sal Buscema & Joe Staton signed on as regular art team with ‘Bride and Doom!’ when the team travelled to the hidden homeland of the Inhumans for the marriage of the aforementioned Quicksilver to elemental enchantress Crystal only to stumble into a uprising of the genetic slave-race known as Alpha Primitives.

Once again the robotic giant Omega had incited the revolt but this time it was controlled by an old Avengers enemy who revealed himself in the concluding chapter of the crossover…

Fantastic Four #150 featured ‘Ultron-7: He’ll Rule the World!’ by Gerry Conway, Buckler & Joe Sinnott, in which an impossible battle of FF, Inhumans and Avengers was ended by a veritable Deus ex Machina after which, at long last ‘The Wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver’ ended events on a happy note.

But not for long: in Avengers #128’s ‘Bewitched, Bothered, and Dead!’ (Englehart, Sal Buscema & Staton) the FF‘s nanny Agatha Harkness began tutoring Wanda Frank in actual sorcery to augment her mutant power, unwittingly allowing dark mage Necrodamus access to the Mansion and their souls, whilst the increasingly troubled Mantis began making a play for the Scarlet Witch’s synthazoid boyfriend The Vision; heedless of the hurt and harm she would bring to her current lover The Swordsman…

In #129 ‘Bid Tomorrow Goodbye!’ kicked the simmering saga into high gear when Kang the Conqueror appeared, determined to possess the legendary female figure he called the Celestial Madonna.

Apparently this anonymous creature would birth the saviour of the universe, and since no records survived disclosing which of the three women in Avengers Mansion at that crucial moment she actually was, the time-reaver was determined to abduct all three and forcibly make Kang the inevitable father of the child…

This time not even the assembled Avengers could stop him and, after crushing and enslaving them, Kang made off with Wanda, Harkness and Mantis, with only the swiftly declining Swordsman free to contest him…

The tale continued into Giant-Size Avengers #2 with ‘A Blast from the Past!’ (illustrated by Cockrum) as reluctant returnee Hawkeye rushed to the team’s rescue, reuniting with old adversary Swordsman and an enigmatic entity named Rama-Tut who claimed to be Kang’s reformed future self…

Against all odds the merely mortal heroes managed to free the enslaved Avengers and rout the unrepentant Kang – but only at the cost of the Swordsman’s life…

Avengers #130’s ‘The Reality Problem!’ (Sal Buscema & Staton) found the heartbroken and much chastened Mantis joining the team in Vietnam to investigate her mysteriously clouded past, only to be drawn into pointless combat with Communist exiles Titanium Man, Radioactive Man and Crimson Dynamo, thanks to the petty manipulations of sneak thief  The Slasher…

The brief battle concluded and the trail then led to ‘A Quiet Half-hour in Saigon!’ during which the American Adventurers were again attacked by Kang who trapped them in Limbo and unleashed a Legion of the Unliving against them…

With another time-villain Immortus added to the mix, ‘Kang War II’ saw temporarily resurrected heroes and villains Wonder Man, 1940’s android Human Torch, the Monster of Frankenstein, martial arts assassin Midnight, the ghostly Flying Dutchman and Baron Zemo decimate the Avengers and the trauma and tragedy were further exacerbated as Mantis kept seeing the spectre of her deceased lover…

This absorbing thriller by Englehart, Thomas Sal Buscema & Staton segued inexorably into Giant-Size Avengers #3’s ‘…What Time Hath put Asunder!’ illustrated by Cockrum & Joe Giella, which saw Earth’s Mightiest Heroes pull victory from the ashes of defeat and receive a unique gift from one of the assembled Masters of Time…

Avengers #133 began ‘Yesterday and Beyond…’ (Englehart, S. Buscema & Staton) as the team followed Mantis to the beginnings of recorded Galactic history and the unravelling of her true past, whilst Vision was dispatched to glimpse his own obscure and complex origins; a double quest which encompassed the Kree and Skrull empires, the defeated Star-Stalker and deceased Priests of Pama and Thanos, and the telepathic Titan dubbed Moondragon, as well as a goodly portion of classic superhero history in ‘The Times That Bind!’ before #135 revealed that ‘The Torch is Passed!’ (illustrated by George Tuska & Frank Chiaramonte) and brought all the disparate elements together in Giant-Size Avengers #4.

‘…Let All Men Bring Together’ (art by Heck & Tartaglione) climaxed the long-standing romance between the Scarlet Witch and Vision and another far more cosmic union with a brace of weddings and the ultimate ascension of the Celestial Madonna – even though demonic extra-dimensional despot Dormammu did try to spoil the show…

A new era was supposed to begin in Avengers #136 but a deadline was missed and instead ‘Iron Man: DOA’ by Englehart, Tom Sutton & Mike Ploog was reprinted from Amazing Adventures #12, wherein the newly mutated and furry Hank McCoy AKA the Beast had attacked the Armoured Avenger whilst mind-controlled.

Although an excellent story in its own right, it rather gave the game away for the next issue after the painfully depleted team declared ‘We Do Seek Out New Avengers!!’ (art by Tuska & Vince Colletta) and amongst the applicants – which included Moondragon, Yellowjacket and the Wasp – was an athletic, enigmatic guy bundled up in a raincoat…

No sooner had the introductions begun than a cosmic interloper attacked, hunting for the honeymooning Witch and Vision, but the ‘Stranger in a Strange Man!’ was far from his expected level of puissance and the heroes soon smelled a rat – unfortunately not before the Wasp was gravely injured…

After all the intergalactic hyper-cosmic extravaganzas and extended epic-ing, Avengers #139 ‘Prescription: Violence!’ and #140’s ‘A Journey to the Center of the Ant’ end this volume on a comfortingly down-to-Earth scale as the malevolent Whirlwind tried to murder the bed-ridden Wasp and her devoted defender Yellowjacket succumbed to a growing affliction which doomed him to exponentially expand to his death until the refreshed, returned Vision and the bludgeoning Beast saved the day…

Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart were at the forefront of Marvel’s second generation of story-makers, brilliantly building on and consolidating the compelling creation of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko: spearheading and constructing a logical, fully functioning wonder-machine of places and events that so many others were inspired by and could add to. In this volume, between them they also showed how much more graphic narratives could become and these terrific tales are perfect examples of superhero sagas done just right.

Although not to every reader’s taste these fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights masterpieces can still boggle the mind and take the breath away, so no lovers of Costumed Dramas can afford to ignore this superbly bombastic book.
© 1972, 1973, 1974, 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Asterix and the Soothsayer, Asterix in Corsica & Asterix and Caesar’s Gift


By Goscinny & Uderzo, translated by Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Orion Books)
ISBNs: 978-075286-628-4, 978-0-75286-630-7 and 978-0-75286-632-1

One of the most popular comics features on Earth, the collected chronicles of Asterix the Gaul have been translated into more than 100 languages since his debut in 1959, with animated and live-action movies, TV series, assorted games, toys and even a theme park outside Paris (Parc Astérix, unsurprisingly…) all stemming from his glorious exploits.

More than 325 million copies of 34 Asterix books have sold worldwide, making his joint creators France’s bestselling international authors.

The diminutive, doughty, potion-powered paragon of Gallic Pride was created by two of the industry’s greatest masters, René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo. Although their inspirational collaborations ended in 1977 with the death of the prolific scripter, the creative wonderment continued until relatively recently from Uderzo and assistants – albeit at a slightly reduced rate.

The wonderment works on multiple levels: ostensibly, younger readers revel in the action-packed, lavishly illustrated comedic romps where sneaky, bullying baddies get their just deserts, whilst we more worldly readers enthuse over the dry, pun-filled, sly satire, especially as enhanced for English speakers by the brilliantly light touch of translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge, who played no small part in making the indomitable Gaul and his gallant companions so palatable to the Anglo-Saxon world. (Moi, I still rejoice in a perfectly produced “Paf!” to the snoot as much as any painfully potent procession of puns or sardonic satirical sideswipe…)

The stories were set on Uderzo’s beloved Brittany coast, where a small village of warriors and their families resisted every effort of the Roman Empire to complete the conquest of Gaul, or alternately, anywhere in the Ancient World, circa 50BC, as the Gallic Gentlemen visited the fantastic lands and civilisations of the era…

When the heroes were playing at home, the Romans, unable to defeat this last bastion of Gallic insouciance, resorted to a policy of containment. Thus the little seaside hamlet is permanently hemmed in by the heavily fortified garrisons of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium.

The Gauls don’t care: they daily defy the world’s greatest military machine simply by going about their everyday affairs, protected by the magic potion of resident druid Getafix and the shrewd wits of the rather diminutive dynamo and his simplistic, supercharged best friend…

Firmly established as a global brand and premium French export by the mid-1960s, Asterix the Gaul continued to grow in quality as Goscinny & Uderzo toiled ever onward, crafting further fabulous sagas; building a stunning legacy of graphic excellence and storytelling gold. Moreover, following the civil unrest and nigh-revolution in French society following the Paris riots of 1968, the tales began to increasingly show signs of trenchant satire and more directed social commentary…

Asterix and the Soothsayer was the 19th serialised epic, originally running in Pilote #652-673 throughout 1972, first translated into an English album in 1975, and begins ominously whilst the village’s venerable mystic protector Getafix is away at his annual Druiding conference. During a torrential storm nefarious Soothsayer named Prolix turns up seeking shelter. His dark predictions instantly spread disharmony amongst the hospitable, hot-headed, painfully superstitious and credulous Gaulish stalwarts… except for level headed and canny little Asterix.

As Prolix leaves the Chief’s wife Impedimenta sneaks after him, keen on a personal prediction and the crafty charlatan soon discovers he’s on to a good thing and profitably cushy number…

Before long the entire village is under the soothsayer’s grimy thumb, but when he vanishes the ladies of the village accuse Asterix of driving him off.

In actuality the unsavoury sage has been arrested by the Romans who have standing orders to deal harshly with all non-Roman prognosticators and troublemakers. The wily Prolix barters for his life with Centurion Arteriosclerosus, who sees a way to end his Indomitable Gaul problems by using the obviously fraudulent fortune-teller as a wedge to drive out the obstreperous resistors…

Prolix returns to the village and utters a doom-laden pronouncement: the place has been cursed by the Gods and a pestilential stench will precede plague. Inevitable death will be their fate if they remain…

Panicked, the gullible Gauls head for the beach and take refuge on an off-shore island – all that is, except for Asterix, Obelix and chivalrous canine companion Dogmatix…

With the Romans at last in possession of the village – and all Gaul finally conquered – the bold last rebels make their plans until Getafix returns. On his arrival the three men and a dog embark on an elaborate scheme to take back their home and teach their foolish fellows a much needed lesson.

Concocting a stunningly malodorous vapour which drives the occupiers from the village, the druid convinces the Romans that Prolix is a real soothsayer and ambitious Arteriosclerosus sees a chance to become the next Caesar. Even baffled conman Prolix begins to believe his predictions are real…

After dressing down the refugee Gauls, Getafix leads them back to their beloved homes where the incensed and wiser villagers top up on magic potion and rush off to teach the invaders – and Prolix – a much needed lesson. On this occasion, Impedimenta and the village women accompany their men, determined to expiate their embarrassing gullibility with a little cathartic violence of their own…

This delightfully arch and acerbic attack on gullibility and superstition is a splendid chance to see the minor characters play to their strengths and weaknesses with Asterix and Obelix almost relegated to walk-on parts…

First translated two years earlier in England but chronologically following on from The Soothsayer in the original French serialisations Asterix in Corsica (Pilote #687-708, in 1973) was the 20th adventure and the best-selling French language album of the series.

Another globe-trotting yarn, it begins with the Romans of the four occupying garrisons “deploying for manoeuvres” to avoid having to deal with Gauls’ painfully exuberant celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of Gergovia. Unfortunately for Centurion Hippotamus and his men they are delayed by the arrival of a party from Praetor Perfidius, Governor of Corsica, escorting a dangerous prisoner into exile. They are still in Totorum when the high-spirited villagers (and many guest-star friends from previous adventures) arrive keen for a punch-up and a little annoyed that all the other Roman camps are deserted…

When the dust settles and the groans of pain subside, Asterix discovers the prisoner Boneywasawarriorwayayix and invites him back to the village for a slap-up feed. Over boar and beer the Gauls hear how Perfidius had the popular Corsican leader exiled to prevent him revealing how the Praetor has been over-taxing the people and embezzling the gold for himself instead of sending to Caesar in Rome. Corsica is officially the most troublesome spot in the Empire and the exile is determined to return and expose the hated Governor, so the proud and haughty Boneywasawarriorwayayix is delighted when Asterix and Obelix – with the faithful Dogmatix – determine to help him sneak back to his fiercely over-fortified and contained island (most volumes of this album have a map of Corsica instead of the traditional Gaulish village, and the tiny nation contains four towns and forty-six Roman camps)…

Hilariously obtaining passage on the pirate ship of Redbeard the voyagers soon find themselves on the island – but not unnoticed…

Soon the dissolute and lazy soldiery are hunting the heroes as they make their way inland to the exile’s home village to rally the populace whilst in the city of Aleria Perfidius suspects the jig is up and prepares to flee with his ill-gotten gains…

Trying to rally the natives Boneywasawarriorwayayix comes up against the age-old dilemma: most Corsicans are involved in centuries long vendettas and would much rather fight each other – at least when they’re not taking a siesta – than unite to attack the invaders. However at last, a determined band of warriors marches on Aleria but almost too late. Perfidius has been secretly loading his loot onto a ship but when his soldiers discover it they realise their leader is planning to abandon then to the fierce and furious Corsicans – at least if diplomatic Asterix can manage to stop the natives killing each other first…

Asterix travel epics are always packed with captivating historical titbits, soupcons of healthy cynicism, singularly surreal situations and amazingly addictive but generally consequence-free action, always illustrated in a magically enticing manner.

Stuffed with sly pokes and good-natured trans-national teasing of perceived nationalist characteristics and celebrating the terrifying power of Corsican cheeses and liberally served up with raucous hi-jinks and fast-paced action, this is another magical titbit of all-ages entertainment.

In 1974 Asterix and Caesar’s Gift was the first tale to be published as a complete album before being serialised, with a British translation appearing in 1977. It begins in Rome where two 20-year veteran legionaries drunkenly celebrate being honourably discharged. Tremensdelirious and Egganlettus eagerly look forward to being given their service reward: a parcel of land each.

Unfortunately Tremensdelirious is overheard disparaging Caesar but the sardonically cruel leader does not punish the old soldier or even withhold his pension. In fact he gives Tremensdelirious a lovely portion of the Gaulish coast in Armorica: all he has to do is shift a few recalcitrant Gauls from their village on his new small holding…

A drunk but not a fool the old soldier knows his fate is sealed and soon trades his dispensation to Lutetian inn-keeper Orthopaedix to settle his bar-bill…

The first that the Indomitable Gauls know of this is when Orthopaedix, his wife Angina and daughter Influenza roll up in their cart and try to take possession. After some hilarity the villagers go back about their business and the inn-keeper is left to suffer the fury of his wife at the uprooting of the family to a barbaric hovel where nobody acknowledges their claim.

No stranger to such a tongue-lashing, Chief Vitalstatistix takes pity on Orthopaedix and offers to let them stay and open an inn in the hamlet, but the standoffish villagers are angered by Angina’s superior airs and a riot breaks out on opening night…

The world-weary publican is ready to quit but now the humiliated Angina is in a status duel with Impedimenta and, determined to stay, makes Orthopaedix challenge Vitalstatistix for the post of village Chief. As the campaign to win the support of the always argumentative villagers intensifies, all manner of shoddy tactics, dubious lobbying and outright bribery takes place with each party frantically trying to curry political favour from the fickle but extremely astute potential voters who know the value of their own support…

Simple, gentle oafish Obelix has fallen under the spell of the lovely Influenza, who leads him on cruelly to help out her mother’s naked ambition, leading to fight with his best friend. Only Asterix seems aware that the discord could well be the death of the village and lead to Caesar’s ultimate triumph and soon the waters are further muddied when elderly Lothario Geriatrix declares himself a third party and splits the potential vote even further.

The political crisis reaches boiling point when Tremensdelirious turns up and demands his land-grant back: after all it’s illegal to sell them to Gauls, and Orthopaedix has no say in the matter…

When the ex-legionary turns violent Asterix steps in to save the day and the old sot is driven off at sword-point. He doesn’t go far – only to the garrison of Laudanum where old comrade Egganlettus has re-enlisted – and together they blackmail Centurion Tonsillitus into attacking the Gauls to uphold Roman law and get back that “official” pension land which is every soldier’s right…

That kind of military intervention usually ends disastrously, but this time the village is hopelessly divided by political intrigue and backstabbing and even Asterix cannot unite them against their real and common foe. It seems that the Gauls must lose everything until Orthopaedix makes a supreme sacrifice to save the day…

Brittle, barbed and devilishly sharp, this outrageous political thriller and satire on modern electioneering is as pertinent and punchy as it ever was, proving once again that these Gallic graphic masterpieces are perfect comics which everyone should read over and over again.
© 1972-1974 Goscinny/Uderzo. Revised English translation © 2004 Hachette. All rights reserved.

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Outsiders: The Good Fight


By Judd Winick, Matthew Clark, Pop Mhan, Ron Randall, Tom Grindberg, Art Thibert & Steve Bird (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1195-X

After the never-ending calamity of the DC Infinite Crisis event, the company re-set the time line of all their publications to begin one year later.  This enabled them to refit their characters as they saw fit, provide a jumping on point for new converts and also give themselves some narrative wiggle-room…

This fifth compelling compendium gathers issues #34-41 of Judd Winick’s grim and witty Outsiders comicbook, resuming the odyssey twelve months after the universe was reshaped by the Infinite Crisis with the team – Nightwing, Grace, Thunder, Metamorpho, Katana and Owen Reece (the super-fast son and heir of the recently perished Captain Boomerang) – all believed long dead but actually working deep, deep, deep undercover…

The eponymous and decidedly dark epic ‘The Good Fight’ (illustrated by Matthew Clark & Art Thibert) begins with ‘Cain and Abel’ as in the war-torn African nation of Mali dictator Ratu Bennin hoards Weapons of Mass destruction and makes plans to destroy the unchecked legions of out-of-control boy soldiers who fuelled his bloody rise to power.

The tyrant is particularly impressed with ambitious lieutenant Adanna Abioye, unaware that she is in fact American infiltrator Anissa Pierce: the Outsider known as Thunder…

Nighwing is the only member of the team still publicly active; running his team as covert operators eliminating truly evil men rather than wasting time fighting costumed lunatics. The Outsiders have spent months penetrating Bennin’s gore-soaked regime, but when the army plans a massacre, Thunder breaks cover to save lives and endangers not only the mission but also the squad’s hard-earned and precious anonymity…

Forced to improvise in ‘Meet the New Boss’ the team tortures one of Bennin’s most trusted aides for information before raiding the dictator’s citadel and discovering not only conventional chemical WMDs but also a super-speed sentinel who almost destroys them all in seconds…

Concluding with ‘Gone in a Flash’ the team’s triumph exposes a new kind of arms-dealer selling cloned super-humans as terror-weapons to the world’s worst countries and companies. Inexorably drawn into jurisdictional conflict with UN metahuman oversight agency Checkmate, they follow the trail of ‘Silver and Grey’, encountering ‘Familiar Faces’ (art by Tom Grindberg, Clark & Thibert) on a trail which leads to disembodied Brotherhood of Evil supremo The Brain and his devoted disciple Mallah – a gorilla genius with a penchant for genetic tampering and ballistic slaughter…

With the world’s bright and shiny legitimate superheroes increasingly anxious, Nightwing stubbornly continues with his unsanctioned, illegal enquiries in ‘Looking For a Fight’(Pop Mhan, Thibert & Steve Bird), but when his team invades the Brotherhood’s lair, unaware that the clone-dealers have a deadly silent partner, they are quickly overcome and seem destined to become the latest batch of raw materials…

The story-arc culminates in ‘Since You’re Here, Why don’t you Stay Awhile?’ (Clark, Ron Randall & Thibert) as the Outsiders break free to face bastardised versions of the World’s Greatest Heroes in a blockbusting showdown which leads seamlessly into the first chapter of ‘Mad Scientists’ as the trail to the Brotherhood’s partner leads to even greater struggles in ‘…You Make Lemonade’ before the hidden mastermind is revealed in ‘Raising the Dead’ only to turn the tables on the hidden heroes with a very public nuclear detonation which exposes the clandestine crusaders to the harsh light of global scrutiny…

To Be Continued…

Hard-hitting, breathtakingly barbed and astoundingly action-packed, the latter run of Outsiders was one of the most intriguing and cynically plausible superhero sagas of the last decade. Still gripping, evocative and extremely readable, these bleakly powerful stories will delight older fans of the genre and, as this volume has the added advantage of being designed as a “jump on” point for new readers, there’s nothing stopping the intrigued becoming the latest converts…
© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Footrot Flats book 4


By Murray Ball (Orin Books)
ISSN: 0156-6172

You may or may not have heard of Footrot Flats. For one of the most successfully syndicated strips in the world, it seems to have passed from memory with staggering rapidity. Created by Murray Ball on his return to his homeland of New Zealand, it ran from 1975 to 1994, with the first strip compendium released in 1978.

The feature ran in newspapers on four continents until 1994 when Ball retired it, citing reasons as varied as the death of his own dog and the state of New Zealand politics. Thereafter books of new material were released until 2000, resulting in 27 daily strip collections, 8 volumes of Sunday pages known as “Weekenders”, and 5 pocket books, plus ancillary publications such as “school kit”. There was a stage musical, a theme park and a truly superb animated film Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tail Tale.

The well travelled and extremely gifted Mr. Ball had moved to England in the early 1960s, becoming a cartoonist for Punch as well as drawing strips for DC Thompson and Fleetway and producing a regular strip in Labour Weekly. After marrying he returned to the Old Country and resettled in 1974 – but not to retire.

Ball was busier than ever after he bought a small-holding on the North Island and farmed in his spare time (for anyone not brought up in the countryside that last bit was called “Sarcasm”). This inevitably led to the strip under review. Taking the adage “write what you know” to startling heights, the peripatetic artist promptly gave up sleeping altogether to craft these wickedly funny episodes about the highs and lows and especially “weirds” of the agricultural life as experience by the earthily metaphoric Wallace Footrot Cadwallader: one oaf and his dog.

Wal is a big, bluff farmer. He’s a regular bloke, likes his food; loves his sport – Rugby, Football and Cricket; each in its proper season. He owns a small sheep farm (the eponymous Footrot Flats) best described as “400 acres of swamp between Ureweras and the Sea”.

With his chief – and only – hand Cooch Windgrass (a latter-day Francis of Assisi), and a sheepdog who calls himself “Dog” Wal makes a living and is his own boss. Dog is the star (and narrator) of most of the strips: a cool know-all and blowhard, he’s utterly devoted to his, for want of a better term, Master – unless there’s food about or Jess (the sheepdog bitch from down the road) is in heat again.

Dry, surreal and wonderfully self-deprecating, the humour comes from the perfectly realised characters, human and otherwise, the tough life of a bachelor farmer and especially the country itself.

The cartooning is absolutely top-rate. Ball is one of those gifted few who can actually draw funnily. When combined with his sharp, incisive writing the result is pure magic. In the UK Titan Books published three volumes in the early 1990s and foreign editions have been released in German, Japanese, Chinese and American, but the same material is readily available from a number of publishers and retailers; here more than ever the internet is your friend.

The dry dramas and funny old businesses generally unfold as big lazy softie Dog, eking out his daily crusts (and oysters and biscuits and cake and sheep tails and scraps and chips and…) interacts with the sheep, cows, a bull, goats, hogs, ducks, bugs, cats, horses, geese and the occasional visiting relative) just trying to get by. He loves Wal but will always try to thwart him if the big bloke is trying to do unnecessarily necessary chores such as chopping down trees, culling livestock, or trying to mate with the pooch’s main rival Darlene “Cheeky” Hobson, the local town hairdresser.

This extra-large (262x166mm) landscape monochrome fourth volume covering strips from 1978-1979 comes from the Australian editions series and introduces still more unique characters with Ball hitting a creative peak and new heights of manic zaniness. There’s also a lovely section of new material created especially for this edition.

Wal’s prickly little niece Janice – known to all as Pongo – was now a regular as was the formidable and unflappable Dolores Monrovia Godwit Footrot, AKA Aunt Dolly, but new characters here include wise guy kid Rangi Wiremu Waka Jones, Dolly’s spoiled Corgi Prince Charles, and Pew, a sadistic and inventive magpie obsessed with revenge after Wal cut down his favourite tree.

Of course the big scene stealer is as ever Horse, a monstrous and invulnerable farm tomcat who terrifies every carbon-based life-form for miles around…

As well as a splendid selection of pieces which include Wal’s problems with Clydesdales (like horses but much bigger), calving season, the weather, Dog at the circus, possum trapping, the art of being manly, the horror of fencing posts and the Dog’s campaign against bloodsports, this tome also includes some too-rare huge single-panel gags showing the artist’s facility with zany, action-packed comedy set-pieces and his sheer cartoon inventiveness.

This collection is utterly captivating; expansive, efficient, exciting and just plain funny.

If I’ve convinced you to give the Dog a go, your favourite search engine will be all the help you need… Go on. Fetch!
© 1981 Murray Ball. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Superman volume 3


By Otto Binder, Jerry Siegel, Bill Finger, Jerry Coleman, Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Curt Swan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1271-1

Superman has proven to be all things to all fans over his decades of existence, and with the character currently undergoing another radical overhaul, these timeless tales of charm and joy and wholesome wit are more necessary than ever: not just as a reminder of great tales of the past but as an all-ages primer of the wonders still to come…

At the time these tales were first published The Man of Tomorrow was enjoying a youthful swell of revived interest. Television cartoons, a rampant merchandising wave thanks to the Batman-led boom in “camp” Superheroes generally, highly efficient global licensing and even a Broadway musical: all worked to keep the Last Son of Krypton a vibrant icon of modern, Space-Age America.

Although we might think of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s iconic invention as the epitome of comicbook creation the truth is that soon after his launch in Action Comics #1 Superman became a multimedia star and far more people have enjoyed the Man of Steel than have ever read him and yes, that does include the globally syndicated newspaper strip.

By the time his 20th anniversary rolled around he had been a regular on radio, starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons and two movies and just ended his first smash live-action television serial. In his future were three more (Superboy, Lois & Clark and Smallville), a stage musical, a franchise of stellar movies and an almost seamless succession of TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

It’s no wonder then that the tales from this Silver Age period should be so draped in the wholesome trappings of Tinseltown – even more so than most of celebrity-obsessed America. It didn’t hurt that editor Whitney Ellsworth was a part-time screenwriter, script editor and producer as well as National/DC’s Hollywood point man. His publishing assistant Mort Weisinger, a key factor in the vast expansion of the Kryptonian mythos, also had strong ties to the cinema and television industry, beginning in 1955 when he became story-editor for the blockbusting Adventures of Superman TV show.

This third magnificent monochrome chronicle collects the contents of Action Comics #276-292, Superman #146-156 and excerpts from Superman Annuals #3-5, spanning May 1961 to October 1962; taking its content from the early 1960’s canon (when the book’s target audience would have been little kids themselves) yet showcasing a rather more sophisticated set of tales than you might expect…

The wide-eyed wonderment commences with ‘The War Between Supergirl and the Superman Emergency Squad’ by Robert Bernstein, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye from Action #276, wherein Superman is conned into revealing his secret identity and has to resort to incredible measures to make the swindler disbelieve his eyes, after which #277 presented ‘The Conquest of Superman’ (Bill Finger, Curt Swan & John Forte); another brilliantly brooding duel against super-scientist Lex Luthor.

Superman #146 (July 1961) offered ‘The Story of Superman’s Life’ which related more secrets and recapitulated Clark Kent’s early days in a captivating résumé covering all the basics: death of Krypton, rocket-ride to Earth, early life as Superboy, death of the Kents and moving to Metropolis, all by Otto Binder & Al Plastino, by Al Plastino, whilst the closing ‘Superman’s Greatest Feats’ (Jerry Siegel & Plastino) saw the Man of Tomorrow travel into Earth’s past and seemingly succeed in preventing such tragedies as the sinking of Atlantis, slaughter of Christians in Imperial Rome, the deaths of Nathan Hale, Abraham Lincoln and Custer and even the death of Krypton’s population. Of course it was too good to be true…

Action #278 featured ‘The Super Powers of Perry White’ (Jerry Coleman, Swan & Kaye) with the senescent editor suddenly gaining super-powers and an inexplicable urge to conquer the world whilst in Superman #147 ‘The Great Mento!’, by Bernstein & Plastino, a mysterious mind-reader threatened to expose the hero’s secret identity. ‘Krypto Battles Titano’ (Siegel & Plastino) found the wandering Dog of Steel voyaging back to the Age of Dinosaurs to play and inadvertently save humanity from alien invasion alongside the Kryptonite mutated giant ape. The issue closed with ‘The Legion of Super Villains’ (by Siegel, Swan & Sheldon Moldoff) a landmark adventure and stand-out thriller featuring Lex Luthor and the adult Legion of Super-Heroes overcoming certain death with valour and ingenuity.

This was followed by Swan’s iconic cover for Superman Annual #3 (August 1961), the uncredited picture-feature Secrets of the Fortress of Solitude and the superb back-cover pin-up of the Metropolis Marvel.

The author of Action #279’s Imaginary Story ‘The Super Rivals’ is regrettably unknown but John Forte’s sleekly comfortable art happily illustrates the wild occurrence of historical heroes Samson and Hercules being brought to the 20th century by Superman to marry Lois Lane and Lana Lang, thereby keeping them out of his hair, whilst in #280 ‘Brainiac’s Super Revenge’ (Siegel, Swan & Kaye) returned that time-lost villain to our era and saw him attack the Man of Steel’s friends, only to be foiled by a guest-starring Congorilla (veteran Action hero Congo Bill who could trade consciousness with a giant Golden Gorilla)…

Imaginary Stories were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios devised at a time when editors believed that entertainment trumped consistency and knew that every comic read was somebody’s first

When Editor Mort Weisinger was expanding the Superman continuity and building the legend he knew that the each new tale was an event that added to a nigh-sacred canon: that what was written and drawn mattered to the readers. But as an ideas man he wasn’t going to let that aggregated “history” stifle a good plot situation, nor would he allow his eager yet sophisticated audience to endure clichéd deus ex machina cop-outs to mar the sheer enjoyment of a captivating concept.

The mantra known to every fan was “Not a Dream! Not a Hoax! Not a Robot!” boldly emblazoned on covers depicting scenes that couldn’t possibly be true… even if it was only a comic book.

Superman #148 opened with ‘The 20th Century Achilles’ by Edmond Hamilton, Swan & Moldoff, wherein a cunning crook devised a way to make himself immune to harm, after which ‘Mr. Mxyzptlk’s Super Mischief’ (Siegel, Swan & Moldoff) once again found the 5th dimensional pest using his magic to cause irritation after legally changing his name to something even easier to pronounce whilst the delightfully devilish ‘Superman Owes a Billion Dollars!’ written by Bernstein, saw the Caped Kryptonian face his greatest foe – a Revenue agent who diligently discovered that the hero had never paid a penny of tax in his life…

Action Comics #281 featured ‘The Man Who Saved Kal-El’s Life!’ (Bernstein & Plastino), which related the story of a humble Earth scientist who had visited Krypton and cured baby Kal-El, all wrapped up in a gripping duel with a modern crook who was able to avoid Superman’s every effort to hold him, whilst in Superman #149 ‘Lex Luthor, Hero!’, ‘Luthor’s Super-Bodyguard’ and ‘The Death of Superman’ by Siegel, Swan & Moldoff formed a brilliant extended Imaginary saga which described the insidious inventor’s ultimate victory over the Man of Steel.

Back in “real” continuity Action #282 revealed ‘Superman’s Toughest Day’ (Bill Finger & Plastino) as Clark Kent’s vacation only revealed how his alter ego never really took it easy, whilst #283 and ‘The Red Kryptonite Menace’ (Bernstein, Swan & Kaye) saw a brace of Chameleon Men from the 30th century afflict the Action Ace with incredible new powers and disabilities after exposing him to a variety of crimson K chunks.

Superman #150 opened with ‘The One Minute of Doom’ by Siegel & Plastino, which disclosed how all the survivors of Krypton – even Super-dog – commemorated the planet’s destruction, after which Bernstein & Kurt Schaffenberger’s ‘The Duel over Superman’ finally saw Lois and Lana teach the patronising Man of Tomorrow a deserved lesson about his smug masculine complacency, before Siegel, Swan & Kaye baffled readers and Action Ace alike ‘When the World Forgot Superman’ in a clever and beguiling mystery yarn

From Superman Annual #4 (January 1962) comes the stunning cover and The Origin and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes by Swan & George Klein after which Action #284 featured ‘The Babe of Steel’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein) wherein Superman endured humiliation and frustration after deliberately turning himself into a toddler – but there was a deadly and vital purpose to the temporary transformation…

Superman #151 opened with the salutary story of ‘The Three Tough Teen-Agers!’ (Siegel & Plastino) wherein the hero set a trio of delinquents back on the right path, after which Bernstein, Swan & Klein’s ‘The Man Who Trained Supermen’ saw Clark Kent expose a crooked sports trainer and ‘Superman’s Greatest Secret!’ was almost revealed after battling a fire-breathing dragon which survived Krypton’s doom in a stirring tale by Siegel, Swan & Klein: probably one of the best secret identity-saving stories of the period…

Since landing on Earth, Supergirl’s existence had been a closely guarded secret, allowing her time to master her formidable abilities, which were presented to the readership monthly as a back up feature in Action Comics. However with #285 ‘The World’s Greatest Heroine!‘ finally went public in the Superman lead spot after which the Girl of Steel defeated ‘The Infinite Monster’ in her own strip, as Supergirl became the darling of the universe: openly saving the planet and finally getting the credit for it in a stirring brace of tales by Siegel & Jim Mooney.

Action #286 offered the Superman saga ‘The Jury of Super-Enemies’ (Bernstein, Swan Klein) as the Superman Revenge Squad  inflicts Red K hallucinations on the Man of Steel which torment him with visions of Luthor, Brainiac, the Legion of Super-Villains and other evil adversaries. The epic continued in Action #287, but before that Superman #152 appeared, offering a surprising battle against ‘The Robot Master’ (Siegel, Swan & Klein), the charmingly outrageous ‘Superbaby Captures the Pumpkin Gang!’ by Leo Dorfman, George Papp and ‘The TV Trap for Superman!’ a devious crime caper by Finger & Plastino which saw the hero unwittingly wired for sound and vision by a sneaky conman…

The Revenge Squad thriller then concluded in #287’s ‘Perry White’s Manhunt for Superman!’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein) as an increasingly deluded Man of Steel battled his worst nightmares and struggled to save Earth from a genuine alien invasion.

‘The Day Superman Broke the Law!’, by Finger & Plastino, opened Superman #153 as a wily embezzler entangled the Metropolis Marvel in small-town red tape after which ‘The Secret of the Superman Stamp’ (Edmond Hamilton, Swan & Klein) saw a proposed honour for good works turned into a serious threat to the hero’s secret identity, whilst ‘The Town of Supermen’ by Siegel & Forte found the Man of Tomorrow in a western ghost town facing a deadly showdown against ten Kryptonian criminals freshly escaped from the Phantom Zone…

The growing power of the silver screen informed ‘The Man Who Exposed Superman’ (Action #288 by an unknown writer and artists Swan & Klein) when a vengeful convict originally imprisoned by Superboy attempted to expose the hero’s identity by blackmailing him on live television whilst ‘The Super-Practical Joker!’ (in #289 by Dorfman & Plastino) saw Perry White forced to hire obnoxious trust-fund brat Dexter Willis, a spoiled kid whose obsessive stunts almost exposed Superman’s day job.

‘The Underwater Pranks of Mr. Mxyzptlk’ by Hamilton, Swan & Klein led in Superman #154 as the insane sprite returned, determined to cause grief and stay for good by only working his jest whilst submerged, after which ‘Krypton’s First Superman’ (Siegel, Swan & Klein) revealed a hidden tale of baby Kal-El on the doomed world which had unsuspected psychological effects on the full-grown hero. This is followed by an example of the many public service announcements which ran in all DC’s 1960’s titles. ‘Superman Says be a Good Citizen’ was probably written by Jack Schiff and illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff.

Exposure to a Red Kryptonite comet in Action #290 led to the hero becoming ‘Half a Superman!’ in another sadly uncredited story illustrated by Swan & Klein after which

Superman Annual #5 (July 1962) offers another stunning cover and displays the planetary Flag of Krypton, whilst Superman #155 featured the two-chapter ‘Superman Under the Green Sun’ and ‘The Blind Superman’ by Finger, Wayne Boring & Kaye, as the Man of Steel was trapped on a totalitarian world where his powers were negated and he was blinded as part of the dictator’s policy to keep the populace helpless. However, even sightless, nothing could stop the hero from leading the people to victory. As if that wasn’t enough Siegel, Swan & Klein then offered the showbiz thriller ‘The Downfall of Superman!’ with a famous wrestler seemingly able to defeat the Action Ace – with a little help from some astounding guest-stars…

‘The New Superman!’ by Bernstein & Plastino (Action #291) wherein the Metropolis Marvel lost his deadly susceptibility to Kryptonite, only to have it replaced by aversions to far more commonplace minerals, whilst #292 revealed ‘When Superman Defended his Arch Enemy!’ – an anonymous thriller illustrated by Plastino – which saw the hero save Luthor from his just deserts after “murdering” alien robots

This grand excursion into comics nostalgia ends with one of the greatest Superman stories of the decade. Issue #156, October 1962, featured the novel-length saga ‘The Last Days of Superman’ by Hamilton, Swan & Klein which began with ‘Superman’s Death Sentence’ as the hero contracted the deadly Kryptonian Virus X and fell into a swift and painful decline. Confined to an isolation booth, he was visited by ‘The Super-Comrades of All Times!’ who attempted to cure and swore to carry on his noble works until a last-minute solution was discovered on ‘Superman’s Last Day of Life!’ This tense and terrifying thriller employed the entire vast and extended supporting cast that had evolved around the most popular comicbook character in the world and still enthrals and excites in a way few stories ever have…

As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of the pre angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling, mind-boggling and yes, occasionally deeply moving all-ages stories also perfectly depict the changing mores and tastes which reshaped comics between the safely anodyne 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry – “keep them entertained and keep them wanting more”.

I know I certainly do…
© 1961, 1962, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: the World’s Finest Comics Archives volume 2


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Don Cameron, Joe Samachson, Norman Fallon, Dick Sprang, Win Mortimer, Ray Burnley, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0163-6

The creation of Superman propelled National Comics to the forefront of their fledgling industry and in 1939 the company was licensed to produce a commemorative comicbook celebrating the start of the New York World’s Fair, with the Man of Tomorrow prominently featured among the four-colour stars of the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics.

A year later, following the birth of Batman and Robin, National combined Dark Knight, Boy Wonder and Man of Steel on the cover of the follow-up New York World’s Fair 1940. The spectacular 96 page anthology was a huge hit and the format was retained as the Spring 1941 World’s Best Comics #1, before finally settling on the now legendary title World’s Finest Comics from #2, beginning a stellar 45-year run which only ended as part of the massive clear-out and de-cluttering exercise that was Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Until 1954 and the swingeing axe-blows of rising print costs, the only place Superman and Batman ever met was on the stunning covers by the likes of Jack Burnley, Fred Ray and others. Between those sturdy card covers, the heroes maintained a strict non-collaboration policy…

This second glorious deluxe hardback dedicated to the Gotham Gangbusters’ early appearances reprints the Batman tales from World’s Finest Comics #17-32 (Spring 1945 – January/February 1948), in gleaming, glossy full-colour and also includes a fascinating Foreword by author and fan Bill Schelly and concludes with brief biographies of all the creators involved in these early masterpieces.

In between those text titbits there is unbridled graphic enchantment beginning with ‘Crime Goes to College’ by Bill Finger, Norman Fallon & Dick Sprang, wherein the Dynamic Duo tracked down a cracked academic determined to prove that he could make crime pay whilst ‘Specialists in Crime’ scripted by Don Cameron, pitted the heroes against a wily team who seemed to have the right man for every job they pulled…

In #19 the Joker organised ‘The League for Larceny’ (Joe Samachson, Bob Kane & Ray Burnley) to promote the finer points of criminality until Batman and Robin stepped in whilst in #20 (Winter 1946, and the last quarterly edition: from the next issue the comicbook would appear every two months) benign numismatist Mark Medalion turned out to have a very sinister other face as ‘The King of Coins’, a clever and exotic thriller from Cameron & Win Mortimer.

WF #21 (March/April 1946, illustrated by Mortimer and the uncredited writer is probably Cameron) introduced ‘Crime’s Cameraman’ Sam Garth, a keen shutterbug whose unwitting enthusiasm masked a deadly secret, whilst ‘A Tree Grows in Gotham City’ (written by Alvin Schwartz?) spoofed the infamous novel by pitting the Dynamic Duo against a gang of thugs determined to dig up an elderly oak belonging to an equally elderly gent… but why?

‘Champions Don’t Brag’ (William Woolfolk & Mortimer) focussed on Dick Grayson’s understandable desire to excel at sports: a wish constantly thwarted by the need to keep his Robin alter ego secret. When his school’s best athlete was kidnapped the fear proved justified since the abductors then tried to ransom the “Boy Wonder” they sincerely believed they had captured…!

The unknown writer of ‘The Case of the Valuable Orphans’ told a powerful tale of cruel criminality as thugs exploited carefully placed adopted children to case potential burglary jobs, whilst ‘The Famous First Crimes’ by Cameron, Mortimer & Howard Sherman in #25, found Batman and Robin helping an enterprising inventor whilst battling bandits determined to steal historical scientific breakthroughs and ‘His Highness, Prince Robin’ (by anonymous & Mortimer) saw the Boy Wonder pinch-hitting for a wayward royal absconder in a clever twist on the classic Prince and the Pauper plot.

In WF #27 ‘Me, Outlaw’ revealed the big mistake of car thief and murderer Wheels Mitchum in a tense and salutary courtroom drama by Finger & Jim Mooney, whilst ‘Crime Under Glass’ depicted the horrific and grisly murder spree of the chilling Glass Man in a taut mystery illustrated by Sprang by Fallon and #29 offered ‘The Second Chance’ to freshly released convict Joel Benson who increasingly found life out of prison temptation beyond endurance in a classy human drama by Cameron & Mortimer.

Most later Batman tales feature a giant coin in the Batcave and World’s Finest #30 is where that spectacular prop first appeared; spoils of a successful battle between the Caped Crusaders and the vicious gang of Joe Coyne and ‘The Penny Plunderers!’ (Finger, Kane & Burnley), after which ‘The Man with the X-Ray Eyes!’ (scripted by Cameron) saw the heroes struggling to save from unscrupulous thugs a tragic artist cursed with the ability to see through anything – including their masks…

This superb collection of Dark Knight Dramas ends with ‘The Man Who Could Not Die’ (Finger, Kane & Burnley from #32) a deliciously fearsome fable wherein petty gunman Joe “Lucky” Starr got a twisted horoscope reading and believed that he knew the day he would be killed. Of course, until then, he could commit any crime without possibility of harm – even if Batman and Robin interfered…

These spectacular yarns provide a perfect snapshot of the Batman’s amazing development from bleak moody avenger and vigilante agent of revenge to dedicated, sophisticated Devil-may-care Detective in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and beguile, and this superbly sturdy Archive Edition is indubitably the most luxurious and satisfying of ways to enjoy them over and over again.

So why don’t you…
© 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.