Batman: A Death in the Family


By Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo & Mike DeCarlo (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-93028-944-7

Despite decades of wanting to be “taken seriously” by the wider world, every so often a comic-book event gets away from editors and publishers and takes on a life of its own. This usually does not end well for our favourite art form, as the way the greater world views the comics microcosm is seldom how we insiders and cognoscenti see it.

One of the most controversial comics tales of the last century saw an intriguing marketing stunt go spectacularly off the rails – for all the wrong reasons – becoming instantly notorious and sadly masking the real merits of the piece.

Robin, the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson: a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still undergoes the odd tweaking to this day

The child Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as a sign of the turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder and college student. His invention as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with had inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed sidekicks and kid crusaders throughout the industry, and Grayson continued in similar vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America’s increasingly rebellious youth culture.

Robin even had his own solo series in Star Spangled Comics from 1947 to 1952, a solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s wherein he alternated and shared with Batgirl, and a starring feature in the anthology comic Batman Family. During the 1980s the young hero led the New Teen Titans, re-established a turbulent working relationship with Batman and reinvented himself as Nightwing. This of course left the post of Robin open…

After Grayson’s departure Batman worked alone until he caught a streetwise young urchin trying to steel the Batmobile’s tires. Debuting in Batman #357 (March 1983) this lost boy was Jason Todd, and eventually the little thug became the second Boy Wonder (#368, February 1984), with a short but stellar career, marred by his impetuosity and tragic links to one of the Caped Crusader’s most unpredictable foes…

Todd had some serious emotional problems that became increasingly apparent in the issues leading up to ‘A Death in the Family’ as the street kid became more callous and brutal in response to the daily horrors he was being exposed to. When he caused the death of a vicious, abusive drug-dealer with diplomatic immunity (and when is that long-neglected sequence of tales going to be collected, huh?) the boy entered a spiral that culminated in the story-arc collected here, comprising Batman #426-429.

Ever more violent and seemingly incapable of rudimentary caution, Jason Todd is suspended by Batman who thinks the boy has not adjusted to the death of his parents. Meanwhile the Joker is again on the loose. But rather than his usual killing frenzy the Clown Prince is after mere cash, as the financial disaster of “Reaganomics” has depleted his coffers – meaning he can’t afford his outrageous murder gimmicks…

Without purpose, Jason has been wandering the streets where he grew up. When he sees an old friend of his dead mother she reveals s a shocking secret. The woman who raised him was not his birth-mother, and moreover there is a box of personal papers that indicate three women who might be his true mother. Lost and emotionally volatile Jason sets out to track them down…

The potential parents are Lady Shiva, world’s deadliest assassin, Sharmin Rosen, Mossad agent and Dr. Sheila Haywood, a famine relief worker in Ethiopia. As the lad heads for the Middle East and a confrontation with destiny he is unaware that Batman is also in that troubled region, hot on the Joker’s trail as the Maniac of Mirth attempts to sell a stolen nuclear missile to any terrorist who can pay…

The estranged heroes accidentally reunite to foil the plot, and Jason crosses Rosen off his potential mom-list. As Batman offers to help Jason check the remaining candidates the fugitive Joker escapes to Ethiopia. After eliminating Shiva, who has been training terrorists in the deep desert, the heroes finally get to Jason’s true mother Sheila Haywood, unaware that she has been blackmailed into a deadly scam involving stolen relief supplies with the Clown Prince of Crime…

I’m not going to bother with the details of the voting fiasco that plagues all references to this tale: it’s all copiously detailed elsewhere (just Google and see) but suffice to say that to test then-new marketing tools a 1-900 number was established and thanks to an advanced press campaign readers were offered the chance to vote on whether Robin would live or die in the story.

He dies.

The kid had increasingly become a poor fit in the series and this storyline galvanised a new direction with a darker, more driven Batman, beginning almost immediately as the Joker, after killing Jason in a chilling and unforgettably violent manner, became the UN ambassador for Iran (later revised as the fully fictional Qurac – just in case) and at the request of the Ayatollah himself attempted to kill the entire UN General Assembly during his inaugural speech.

With echoes of Frank Miller’s landmark The Dark Knight Returns, Superman then becomes a government watchdog tasked with stopping Batman from breaching diplomatic immunity as the vengeance-hungry Caped Crusader attempts to stop the Joker at any cost, leading to a spectacular yet chillingly inconclusive conclusion with the portents of dark days to come…

And here is the true injustice surrounding this tale: the death of Robin (who didn’t even stay dead) and the voting debacle took away from the real importance of this story – and perhaps deflected some real scrutiny and controversy. Starlin had crafted a clever and bold tale of real world politics and genuine issues which most readers didn’t even notice.

Terrorism Training Camps, Rogue States, African famines, black marketeering, Relief fraud, Economic, Race and Class warfare, Diplomatic skullduggery and nuclear smuggling all featured heavily, as did such notable hot-button topics as Ayatollah Khomeini, Reagan’s Cruise Missile program, the Iran-Contra and Arms for Hostages scandals and the horrors of Ethiopian refugee camps.  Most importantly it signaled a new and fearfully casual approach to violence and death in comics-books.

This is a superbly readable tale, morally challenging and breathtakingly audacious – but it’s controversial in all the wrong places and for all the wrong reasons. But don’t take my word for it: get it and see for yourself.

© 1988 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips volume 1


By Roy Crane (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-161-9

Modern comics evolved from newspaper comic strips, and these pictorial features were until relatively recently utterly ubiquitous and hugely popular with the public – and highly valued by publishers who used them as an irresistible sales weapon to guarantee and increase circulation and profits.

It’s virtually impossible for us to today to understand the overwhelming power of the comic strip in America (and the wider world) from the Great Depression to the end of World War II. With no television, broadcast radio far from universal and movie shows at best a weekly treat for most folk, household entertainment was mostly derived from the comic sections of daily and especially Sunday Newspapers. “The Funnies” were the most common recreation for millions who were well served by a fantastic variety and incredible quality.

From the very start humour was paramount; hence the terms “Funnies” and “Comics”, and from these gag and stunt beginnings – a blend of silent movie slapstick, outrageous fantasy and the vaudeville shows – came a thoroughly entertaining mutant hybrid: Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs.

Debuting on April 21st 1924 Washington Tubbs II was a comedic gag-a-day strip not much different from family favourite Harold Teen (by Crane’s friend and contemporary Carl Ed). Tubbs was a diminutive, ambitious young shop clerk when it began in 1924, but gradually the strip moved into mock-heroics, then through light action to become a full-blown, light-hearted, rip-roaring adventure series with the introduction of ancestral he-man and prototype moody swashbuckler Captain Easy in the landmark episode for 6th May, 1929.

As the tales became more exotic and thrill-packed the globe-trotting little dynamo clearly needed a sidekick who could believably handle the combat side of things, and thus in the middle of a European war Tubbs liberated a mysterious fellow American from a jail cell and history was made. Before long the mismatched pair were travelling companions, hunting treasure, fighting thugs and rescuing a bevy of startlingly comely maidens in distress…

The two-fisted, bluff, completely capable and utterly dependable, down-on-his-luck “Southern Gentleman” was something not seen before in comics, a raw, square-jawed hunk played straight rather than the buffoon or music hall foil of such classic serials as Hairsbreadth Harry or Desperate Desmond. Moreover Crane’s seductively simple blend of cartoon exuberance and design was a far more accessible and powerful medium for action story-telling than the somewhat static illustrative style favoured by artists like Hal Foster: just beginning to make waves on the new Tarzan Sunday page.

Tubbs and Easy were as exotic and thrilling as the Ape Man but rattled along like the tempestuous Popeye, full of vim, vigour and vinegar, as attested to by a close look at the early work of the would-be cartoonists who followed the strip with avid intensity: Floyd Gottfredson, Milton Caniff, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and especially young Joe Shuster…

After a couple of abortive attempts starring his little hero, Crane bowed to the inevitable and created a full colour Sunday page dedicated to his increasingly popular hero-for-hire. Captain Easy debuted on 30th July 1933, in wild and woolly escapades set before his fateful meeting with Tubbs,

This first volume begins with the soldier of fortune undertaking a mercenary mission for the Chinese government to spy on the city of ‘Gungshi.’ In the heyday of popular exploration and aviator exploits the bold solo flight over the Himalayas to Chinese Turkestan was stirring enough but when Easy infiltrated the hidden citadel it heralded the beginning of a rollercoaster romp with sword wielding Mongols, sultry Houris, helpless dancing girls, fabulous beasts and wicked bandits: captivating entire families across the planet, week after addictive week.

With an entire page and vibrant colours to play with, Crane’s imagination ran wild and his fabulous visual concoctions achieved a timeless immediacy that made each page a unified piece of sequential art. The effect of the pages can be seen in so many strips since especially the works of such near-contemporaries as Hergé and giants in waiting like Charles Schulz.

These pages were a clearly as much of joy to create as to read. In fact, the cited reason for Crane surrendering the Sunday strip to his assistant Les turner in 1937 was the NEA Syndicate abruptly demanding that all its strips be henceforward produced in a rigid panel-structure to facilitate them being cut up and re-pasted as local editors dictated. Crane just walked away, concentrating on the daily feature. In 1943 he left the Syndicate to create the pilot strip Buz Sawyer.

At the end of the blockbuster epic Easy is a hero to the people of Gungshi, if not the aristocracy, who plot to oust him via the subtlest of means. The second adventure ‘The Slave Girl’ began on 21st January 1934, and found the occidental hero bankrupted to save the beautiful Rose Petal from the auction block, a chivalrous gesture that led to war with the rival city of Kashno, and a brutally hilarious encounter with South Sea pirates…

In an era where ethic stereotyping and casual racism were acceptable if not mandatory, the introduction of a vile and unscrupulous yank as the exploitative villain was and is a surprising delight. Rambling Jack is every inch the ugly, greedy American and by contrasting Easy’s wholesome quest to make his fortune with the venal explorer’s rapacious ruthlessness, Crane makes a telling point for the folks back home. It also makes for great reading as Chinese bandits also enter the fray, determined to plunder both cities and everybody in-between…

With the help of a lost British aviator Easy is finally victorious, but on returning to his Chinese employers he spots something whilst flying over the Himalayas that radically alters his plans…

‘The Sunken City’ is an early masterpiece of pictorial fiction, as Easy recruits comedy stooge ‘arry Pippy, a demobbed cockney British Army cook, to help him explore a drowned city he had spotted from the air, lost for centuries in a hidden inland sea. However, simply to get there the pair must trek through wild jungles where they encounter blowpipe-wielding cannibals and the greatest threat the valiant rogue has ever faced…

If I’ve given the impression that this has all been grim and gritty turmoil and drama thus far, please forgive me: Roy Crane was a superbly irrepressible gag-man and this enchanting serial abounds with breezy light-hearted banter, hilarious situations and outright farce – a sure-fire formula modern cinema directors plunder to this day. Easy is the Indiana Jones, Flynn (the Librarian) Carsen and Jack (Romancing the Stone) Cotton of his day and clearly blazed a trail for all of them.

Using a deep sea diver’s suit the pair explore the piscine wonders and submerged grandeur of the lost city, encountering some of the most magical and fanciful sea beasts ever recorded in comics before literally striking gold, but when the cannibals attack their treasures are lost and Easy finds himself captive and betrothed to the most hideous witch hag imaginable…

Risking everything the desperate treasure-seekers make a break for it only to re-encounter ‘The Pirates’ (April 14th -July 7th 1935), but before they get too far the husband-hungry witch and her faithful cannibals come after him, leading to a brutal, murderous conclusion.

After years in the Orient Easy and Pippy have a hankering for less dangerous company and make their way to Constantinople and Europe, but trouble was never far from the mercenary and in ‘The Princess’ (14th July – December 1st 1935) his gentlemanly instincts compel him to rescue a beautiful woman from the unwelcome attentions of munitions magnate Count Heyloff, a gesture that embroiled the Captain in a manufactured war between two small nations.

This tale clearly addressed the contemporary American sentiment that another world conflict was brewing and it’s obvious that Crane’s opinion was the deeply held common conviction that the whole international unrest was the result of rich men’s greedy manipulations…

Dark, bittersweet and painfully foreboding this yarn sees Easy become the target of Heyloff’s vengeance and the entire air force for the tiny underdog nation of Nikkateena in their bitter struggle for survival against the equally-duped country of Woopsydasia. Crane kept the combat chronicle light but on occasion his true feelings showed through in some of the most trenchant anti-war art ever seen.

This superb hardback and colossal initial collection is the perfect means of discovering or rediscovering Crane’s rip-snorting, pulse-pounding, exotically racy adventure trailblazer. The huge pages in this volume (almost 14 ½ by 10½ inches or 21x14cm for the younger, metric crowd) also contain a fascinating and informative introductory biography of Crane by historian Jeet Heer, a glowing testimonial from Charles “Peanuts” Schulz, contemporary promotional material, extra drawings and sketches and a fascinating feature explaining how pages were coloured in those long-ago days before computers…

This is comics storytelling of the very highest quality: unforgettable, spectacular and utterly irresistible. These tales rank alongside her best of Hergé, Tezuka and Kirby and led irrefutably to the creations of all of them. Now that you have the chance to experience the strips that inspired the giants of our art form, how can you possibly resist?

Captain Easy Strips © 2010 United Features Syndicate, Inc. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books, all other material © the respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.

Weathercraft: A Frank Comic


By Jim Woodring (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-340-8

Some creators in the world of comics just defy description and their graphic novels and collections are beyond the reviewer’s skills (mine certainly). Some are just so pedestrian or so mind-numbingly bad that one simply can’t face writing about them. Others are so emphatically wonderful that no collection of praise and analysis can do them justice.

And then there is Jim Woodring.

Woodring’s work is challenging, spiritual, philosophical, funny, beautiful and extremely scary. And, even after reading that sentence you will have absolutely no idea of what you will be seeing the first time you read any of it.

Moreover, even if you have scrupulously followed cartoonist, Fine Artist, toy-maker and artistic Renaissance Man Jim Woodring’s eccentric career since his first mini-comics in 1980, or his groundbreaking Fantagraphics magazine series such as Jim (1986), the nominal spin-off Frank (of which Weathercraft is the latest fabulist, fabulous instalment), Tantalizing Stories, or the more mainstream features such as his Star Wars and Aliens tales for Dark Horse, you will still have no idea how you will respond to his newest work.

Woodring delivers surreal, abstract, wild, rational, primal cartooning: his clean-mannered art a blend of woodblock prints, Robert Crumb, Dreamscape, religious art and monstrous phantasmagoria. His stories are a logical, progressional narrative clouded with multiple layers of meaning but totally void of speech or words, magnificently dependent on the intense involvement of the reader as fully active participant.

Weathercraft, for those of you who have seen his previous publications, has all the Frank regulars: the eponymous Krazy Kat-like ingénue, Pupshaw and Pushpaw, the fiercely loyal, god-like household appliances, the mysterious, omnipotent, moon-faced devil Whim and all the rest; vulture-things, frog-things, plant-things and Thing-things, that inhabit the insanely logical traumic universe of the Unifactor.

However, the action here generally follows the gross and venal Manhog (“an unholy hybrid of human ambivalence and porcine appetite”) as he/it undergoes a frantic transformative journey that marries Pilgrim’s Progress to Dr Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, and Hesse & Appelbaum’s Siddhartha with H.P. Lovecraft by way of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.

And as the journey ends – we stop watching it – has Manhog been truly been transformed? If so, for how long, and what does it matter anyway?

Woodring is not to everyone’s taste or sensibilities – for starters, his drawings have a distressing habit of creeping back long after you’ve put the book down and scaring the bejeezus out of you – but he is an undisputed master of the form and an innovator always distending the creative envelope. All art-forms need such creators and this evocative tome could well change your reading habits for life.

So, are you tempted, tantalized or terrified…?

© 2010 Jim Woodring. All rights reserved.

Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge: the Land Beneath the Ground


By Carl Barks (Gladstone Comic Album #6)
ISBN: 0-944599-05-2

One of the greatest storytellers America has ever produced, Carl Barks’ early life is well-documented elsewhere if you need detail, but in brief, he started as a jobbing cartoonist, before joining Disney’s studio in 1935, toiling in-house as a animator before quitting in 1942 to work exclusively and anonymously in comic books.

Until the mid-1960s he worked in productive seclusion creating a huge canon of extremely funny adventure yarns for kids and crafting an unmistakable Duck Universe of memorable and highly bankable characters such as Gladstone Gander (1948), The Beagle Boys (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), and Magica De Spell (1961) to augment the cartoon screen actors of the Disney Studio. His greatest creation was undoubtedly the crusty, energetic, paternalistic, money-mad Fantasticatrillionaire Scrooge McDuck: the irrepressible star of this show.

So potent were his creations that they fed back into Disney’s animation output itself, even though his brilliant comic work was done for the licensing company Dell/Gold Key, and not directly for the studio. Whereas all the creators working for the publisher were of impressive quality and dedicated to their craft Barks was always head and shoulders above his peers – a fact he was entirely unaware of.

Whilst producing all that landmark innovative material Barks was just a working guy, generating covers, illustrating other people’s scripts when necessary and contributing story and art to the burgeoning canon of Donald Duck and other Big Screen characters, but his output was incredible both in terms of quantity and especially in its unfailingly high quality.

Most notably, Barks’ was a fan of wholesome action, unsolved mysteries and epics of exploration, and this led to him perfecting the art of the blockbuster tale, blending wit, history, plucky bravado and sheer wide-eyed wonder into rollicking rollercoaster romps that utterly captivated readers of every age and vintage. Without the Barks expeditions there would never have been an Indiana Jones…

Gladstone Publishing began re-releasing Barks material (as well as a selection of other Disney comics strips) in the late 1980s and this album is one of most impressive and memorable of all his classic adventure tales. Printed in the large European oversized format (278mm x 223mm) it reprints the lead feature from Uncle Scrooge #13 (1956): a spectacular visual feast and a brilliantly sly commentary on the pitfalls of property. The version included in this volume was also a magnificent gift even for fans already familiar with the saga.

When Barks began the tale the quarterly Uncle Scrooge comicbook was a 32 page publication with no ads or extras, but as he was completing the issue Dell informed him that due to editorial changes he had to cut the tale to 27 pages. The radical change was caused by US Post Office regulations: to obtain second class mailing status (i.e. cheaper postal rates) magazines had to carry at least two discrete features with different characters. Thus the creator had to chop out five pages from the now-finished story, and provide a back up feature… which is how Gyro Gearloose first got his own regular strip.

For this 1988 edition an extra two pages had been recovered and reconstructed from the artist’s files. Barks’ edited his own work mercilessly in the final stages, a job he simplified by crafting his stories in “modules” – every page and each scene was designed and laid out in two-panel tiers (or “banks”) so that he could take out 2, 4, 6 or even 8 frames and still reconfigure his pages around the larger splash panels. That his stories read so seamlessly is a testament to just how good a writer he was…

‘The Land Beneath the Ground’ begins as the Mallard Magnate frets about his colossal money bin. Duckburg has been plagued with earthquakes recently and he is terrified that a major temblor will crack his vault like an egg, sending his cash on a one way trip to the centre of the Earth.

So worried is he that the miser actually pays for an exploratory shaft to be excavated: this deepest hole in the world will tell him if the land beneath him is bedrock solid enough to survive the worst quake imaginable.

However once the shaft has been completed strange inexplicable occurrences begin, and soon no miner will go near the place. With no experts to examine the hole, McDuck blackmails Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie into becoming his exploration team, but before they can begin the eerie events escalate and they are all plunged into a dark and incredible world…

When this tale was written Alfred Wegener hadn’t even published his first thoughts on his groundbreaking theory of Plate Tectonics and Continental Drift, and the possible causes of earthquakes were still a hotly debated question, so the fantastic solution proffered by Barks must have taken the breath away from all his readers. Far below the world we know two amicable rival races, the Terries and the Fermies, spend all their time in sporting competition and their only game is causing Earthquakes!

Barks easily leaped from suspense to social satire – and back – in his entrancing entertainments and as the undergrounders willfully continue their games the inevitable happens and Scrooge’s impossibidillions soon erupt from his broken money-bin down into the depths! How the situation is rectified with order (and wealth) fully restored was one of the most logical yet scathingly funny resolutions in comics, and one that all money-mad-men would do well to heed…

The balance of the book is filled with another uncanny outing, albeit from a later time, (Uncle Scrooge #30, 1960) with Scrooge and his reluctant Duck brethren in the deserts of North Africa looking for a site to store the oil from his drilling business. With riches coming out of the Earth this time ‘Pipeline to Danger’ is another fast-paced parable from the glamorous glory-days of the petroleum wildcatting business, with plenty of big engineering kit suddenly, perplexingly useless as McDuck’s company tries to construct a storage silo in the bed of an ancient meteor crater.

Unknown to all, the crater is the ancient, ancestral home to a tribe of wild Bedouin Ducks, but no one has ever seen them. After all, they, their camels and flocks are only a few inches tall…

This unlikely yarn is a true delight, showing the seldom seen brave and honorable side of a character too often likened to the unsavoury face of rampant capitalism – and it’s a jolly hoot of a comedy-thriller to boot!

Even if you can’t find this particular volume (and I’m sure you will) Barks’ work is now readily accessible through a number of publications and outlets. No matter what your age or temperament if you’ve never experienced his captivating magic, you can discover “the Hans Christian Andersen of Comics” simply by applying yourself and your credit cards to any search engine. The rewards are just waiting for you to dig them up…
© 1988, 1960, 1956 The Walt Disney Company. All Rights Reserved.

100 Bullets: A Foregone Tomorrow


By Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-466-0

From being one of the best crime-comics in decades 100 Bullets gradually, cunningly transformed into a startlingly imaginative conspiracy thriller, with this fourth volume (collecting issues #20-30 of the much missed adult comic book) finally seeing a disparate range of previously seen strangers revealed as vital components in a vast and intriguing cast.

The tension begins with ‘The Mimic’, a captivating multi-layered allegorical vignette which features a conversation on a park bench between the mysterious Mr. Shepherd and young Benito Medici disclose some pertinent facts and intriguing conjectures about the enigmatic Agent Graves and his old associates “the Minutemen”, all whilst the life or death drama of a street corner gangsta’s life plays out to a lethal inevitable conclusion around them.

In the two-part ‘Sell Fish & Out to Sea’ “High” Jack Daw, sometime bouncer, doped-out addict and one more lost soul is offered a way to change his life with the now inescapable consequences. When he is handed a gun and those eponymous bullets he revisits all the family and friends he had left; looking for the reason he’d fallen so low. Only when he finally ascertained who was really responsible for his fall did he start using that untraceable weapon and ammunition…

East Coast gaming capitol Atlantic City is the venue for ‘Red Prince Blues’ and sees the return of super-bitch Megan Dietrich (see 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call) and ice-cold Benito, both scions of the mysterious Trust, but busily conspiring for their own unscrupulous futures as inveterate gambler Hank tries to win one last pot…

With a dying wife the last thing he needed was to get into a poker game with young Medici, but everything goes into a terminal spin when Graves, Cole Burns and Dizzy Cordova hit town. This three part saga provides more useful clues about the thirteen families that rule America, and when the head of one of those Trust clans dies after a parley with Graves the stakes are raised to a level that no one can afford…

‘Mr. Branch & the Family Tree’ returns us to Paris and Dizzy’s old instructor who unwisely reveals the secret history of The Trust and The Minutemen in a saucily novel manner; a classy yarn that sees guest artists Paul Pope, Joe Jusko, Mark Chiarello, Jim Lee, Lee Bermejo, Dave Gibbons, Tim Bradstreet, Jordi Bernet, Frank Miller and J.G. Jones supplement the always superb Eduardo Risso with a series of narrative pin-ups identifying the major players in this increasingly convoluted, compelling chronicle.

Next comes possibly the best single tale of the entire run as Agent Graves encounters a geriatric baseball star whilst delivering another briefcase. This is no mere fading star however, but a man who once wed the most glamorous movie star of her generation, a tragic woman who had an affair with a President and – apparently – took her own life. The still grieving widower is also someone a younger but just as resolute Graves left a briefcase with in early 1963…

‘Idol Chatter’ is a conspiracy nut’s dream, blending legend, myth and history into a clever, witty and punishingly poignant tale, even though the mordant black humour is never too far away…

This edgy epistle ends with the three part ‘¡Contrabandolero!’ as lowlife El Paso gas-station attendant Wylie Times meets Dizzy and Mr. Shepard before getting sucked into a crazy criminal scam to smuggle contraband from Mexico into the USA. Unfortunately things quickly go south in Juárez when the “exporter” insists that the illicit entrepreneurs also provide an over-sexed, under-age girl with a ride back to the Land of the Free…

Wylie just might be another Minuteman waiting to be reactivated, but you wouldn’t know it from this calamitous comedy of errors and terrors…

Bleak drama gradually gave way to dark gallows humour and the major characters were slowly showing softer sides but this high-octane thriller had lost of its verve with this volume. The unfolding saga remains an astoundingly accessible and readable thriller as the mystery of the Trust is revealed and Agent Graves begins the final stage of a plan decades in the making: 100 Bullets promises that the best is already here, but even better is waiting…

Entertainment starved story fans – grown-up, paid-up, immune to harsh language and unshocked by rude, very violent behaviour – should make their way to their favourite purveyor of fine fiction immediately and get these graphic novels at all costs.

© 2001, 2002 Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Risso and DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Justice League of America volume 6: When Worlds Collide


By Dwayne McDuffie, Ed Benes, Rags Morales & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2422-6

In this collection (issues #27-28 and 30-34 of the most recent incarnation of the World’s Greatest Superhero team) writer Dwayne McDuffie gets all cosmic as he formally introduces the characters from the 1990s imprint Milestone Comics into the ever-expanding – if dangerously hero-heavy – DC Universe. At least this cosmic extravaganza has the decency and panache to make that merger the storyline rather than have the heroes suddenly notice each other after years of seemingly being unaware of each other’s existence, as was too often the case in days past…

The action begins in ‘Be Careful What you Wish For’, illustrated by Ed Benes with additional inkers Rob Hunter, Norm Rapmund & Drew Geraci, wherein a team of mystery metahumans calling themselves the Shadow Cabinet confront and re-energise the currently powerless Kimiyo Hoshi – the second – heroic – Dr. Light.

Meanwhile JLA leader Black Canary challenges Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman in the secret star-chamber from which they have been surreptitiously spying on the new League, but the confrontation is interrupted by the invasion of the enigmatic new superbeings in ‘Shadow and Act’ (drawn by José Luis and inked by JP Mayer) with the usual result: instant chaos. However Superman and Cabinet leader Icon clearly have a hidden agenda…

For reasons unknown the next episode has been omitted: I wouldn’t necessarily quibble as it was something of a digression, but since it tells an “untold tale” of the as-yet unrevealed master villain, perhaps room should have been found for it somewhere in this chronicle?

As it is we resume with the third chapter from #30, ‘New Moon Rising’ again by Luis & Mayer, and the arrival of Winged Wonder Hawkman who inadvertently provides an entry into the super-secure headquarters for old enemy the Shadow Thief, who is now powerful enough to endanger the entire Earth. There is another story break – included, this time – as ‘Interlude: Crisis of Confidence’ (art by Shane Davis & Sandra Hope) follows Black Canary as the revelations of the spying and in-fighting lead to a momentous decision and a split in the League, before Chapter 4: ‘Nyctophobia’ (illustrated by Rags Morales & John Dell) provides the “Big Reveal” as cosmic vampire Starbreaker resurrects himself and prepares to consume the World.

‘Metathesiophobia’ (look it up, it’s clever) sees the newly empowered Dr. Light come into her own as the JLA and Shadow Cabinet team up at last to fight their common foe, with a startling reprise and return for one of the imaginary heroes encountered in the previous volume (see Justice League of America: Second Coming), but even he isn’t enough to counter the energy leech’s overwhelming power…

With more than one world imperilled the united champions finally save the day and accomplish the impossible in ‘The Dharma Initiative’ (penciled by Ardian Syaf and Eddie Barrows with inks from Don Ho, Ruy José, Dan Green, Jack Purcell & Mark Propst) a spectacular conclusion, and as much the end of a comics era as the dawn of a new day.

Big changes were in store for the World’s Greatest Heroes, but that’s for another time and another review, as this slick and classy graphic novel signalled the closure of yet another incarnation of the premier Silver Age Superteam. Witty and hugely enjoyable, blending high concepts with great characterisation and gripping action with biting one-liners, this JLA‘s adventures were among the very best modern superhero sagas around. It’s never too late so if you’re not a fan yet, reading these books will swiftly and permanently alter that reality…

© 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Black Jack volume 9


By Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-934287-73-6

The art form of sequential narrative doesn’t have too many Great Names. There are plenty of superb creators; multi-disciplined or single focussed, who have contributed to the body of the art form, but we don’t have a wealth of Global Presences whose contributions have affected generations of readers and aspirants all over the World, like a Chaplin, Capra, Korda, Kurasawa or Hitchcock. There’s just Hergé and Jack Kirby and Osamu Tezuka.

In a creative career that produced over 700 hundred different series and more than 150,000 pages (many of them only now finally becoming available to people who can’t read Japanese), Osamu Tezuka captivated generations of readers across the world with tales of history, fantasy, romance and startling adventure. Perhaps his most intriguing creation is Black Jack, who overcame horrendous injuries as a child, and although still carrying many scars within and without, roams the globe, curing any who can pay his deliberately daunting, exorbitant prices – usually cash, but sometimes in more exotic or metaphysical coin.

The rogue super surgeon is the ultimate loner, except for Pinoko, a little girl he literally built from the scraps of an early case. Unlicensed by any medical board on Earth, he holds himself to the highest ethical standards possible… his own. All the troubles and wonders of this world (and sometimes other ones) can be found in medical dramas, and here elements of rationalism, science-fiction, kitchen sink drama, spiritualism, criminality, crushing sentimentality and shining human frailty are woven into an epic of Magical Realism that rivals the works of Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez.

The drama begins with another challenging exploration of duty and honour in ‘Teacher and Pupil’ wherein a schoolboy attempts suicide rather than face one more day with his monstrous bully of a teacher. The reaction and response of the educational martinet will truly surprise you, as Tezuka once more shows his deep understanding of all aspects of human nature.

By the time of the stories collected in this stunning ninth volume, a strong internal continuity has been established and many of the tales cannot be properly enjoyed without reference to earlier episodes. ‘Pinoko Lives’ is a fascinating sequel to ‘Teratoid Cystoma’, the third tale in volume 1 wherein the scalpel-wielding ice-man moves Heaven and Earth to hunt down a mystery patient he once operated upon. With the surplus organs he removed from her he constructed his assistant Pinoko, but now this faithful, flighty friend is dying from the need for a highly specialized blood transfusion…

‘Eyewitness’ is a startling tale of sacrifice as a blinded survivor of a bombing has her sight restored just long enough to identify the culprit, ‘As He Wills’ sees the surgical samurai fail to save a criminal’s life but perform a minor miracle with his soul, whilst in ‘The Promise’ Black Jack defies the authorities and destiny to save the life of a desperate Muslim terrorist. As ever, however, please don’t assume that you know what’s really going on…

‘Three-Legged Race’ is a poignant tear-jerker about fathers and sons that incorporates terror, blackmail and patricide into a stirring feel-good tale (!), ‘A Question of Priorities’ is a taut, satirical eco-fable wherein Black Jack is sued for the order in which he treated a politician, a baby and a cat all injured in a shooting incident and You Did It!’ is the most extraordinary dissertation on the drives and repercussions of revenge that you will ever see…

The usual tables are somewhat overturned in ‘Gunshot Wound’ when the rogue surgeon is shot and has to talk a medical charlatan through an operation to save his own life, whilst in ‘Mistress Shiraha’ Black Jack battles his greatest foe: religion and mysticism. ‘Gift to the Future’ is a sad and gentle romance in which he plays a pivotal yet peripheral role, finding a potentially happy ending for two lovers who are both terminal patients.

‘Sun Dolls’ is a delightfully human tale of a child’s hero worship as Black Jack temporarily joins a family practice, and in ‘Third Time’s the Charm’ he gets one last chance to fix a race car driver’s heart. The last story ‘Guinea Pig’ virtually defies description as a boy dying of kidney disease develops an almost supernatural – and relentlessly tragic – attachment to the lab animal that will be dissected to diagnose his condition. Good thing Black Jack always works to his own unique rule-book…

This volume also contains an excerpt from the forthcoming ‘Ode to Kirihito’ an earlier Tezuka medical manga and one aimed at a more mature audience. I can’t wait to see how that reads…

Thrilling, heart-warming, bitterly insightful and utterly addictive, these magical stories of a medical wizard in a cruel, corrupt and ultimately mysterious world will shake all your preconceptions of what storytelling can be…

This book is printed in the Japanese right to left, back to front format.

© 2009 by Tezuka Productions. Translation © 2009 Vertical, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Showcase Presents Aquaman volume 2


By Jack Miller, Bob Haney, Ramona Fradon, Nick Cardy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1712-9

Aquaman was one of the few superheroes to survive the collapse at the end of the Golden Age, a rather nondescript and generally bland looking guy who solved maritime crimes and mysteries when not rescuing fish and people from sub-sea disasters.

He was created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris in the wake of Timely Comics’ Sub-Mariner and debuted in More Fun Comics #73 (1941). Strictly a second stringer for most of his career he nevertheless continued on beyond many stronger features, illustrated by Norris, Louis Cazaneuve and Charles Paris, until young Ramona Fradon took over the art chores in 1954, by which time Aquaman had moved to a regular back-up slot in Adventure Comics. She was to draw every single adventure until 1960.

In 1956 Showcase #4 (See The Flash Archive Edition volume 1 or Showcase Presents the Flash volume 1) rekindled the public’s imagination and zest for costumed crime-fighters and, as well as re-imagining many departed Golden Age stalwarts, DC also updated and remade its isolated survivors, especially Green Arrow and Aquaman. Records are incomplete, sadly, so often we don’t know who wrote what, but after the initial revamp better records survive and this second collection of the King of the Seven Seas has far fewer creative credit conundrums.

Although now the star of his own title, Aquaman still appeared as a back-up feature in World’s Finest Comics until 1964 and this chronological compilation includes those tales (issues #130-133, 135, 137, 139), his Brave and the Bold team-up with Hawkman (# 51) and the contents of Aquaman #7-23, covering the period December 1962 to September-October 1965, a period that led directly into the King of the Seven Seas becoming one of DC’s earliest television stars as part of the animated Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure.

The major writers from those years were Jack Miller and Bob Haney and although some records are lost and a few later scripts remain unattributed, recognizing artists is far less troubling. The World’s Finest stories were Fradon’s last; captivatingly clean, economical lines bringing to unique life charming little adventure and mystery vignettes which always were and still are a joy to behold. Thereafter, apart from a memorable and brief return to co-create Metamorpho the Element Man, she left comics until 1972 to raise her daughter.

‘King of the Land Beasts’ (WFC #130, by Haney & Fradon) is a typically high-quality teaser about an alien Aquaman whilst ‘The Sea Beasts from Atlantis’ (Aquaman #7 by Miller & Nick Cardy) pitted the Sea Lord and Aqualad against hideous sub-sea monsters and a plot to overthrow the government of the lost city, abetted if not quite aided by the sea imp Quisp.

‘The Man Who Controlled Water’ (World’s Finest # 131, Miller & Fradon) saw the heroic pair tackle a scientist who could solidify liquids into fearsome weapons whilst in issue #8 of their own magazine, creators Miller and Cardy revealed ‘The Plot to Steal the Seas’ with the oceanic adventurers battling far out of their comfort zone to thwart marauding aliens.

Dave Wood scripted the quirky thriller ‘The Fish in the Iron Mask’ (WFC #132) wherein faithful octopus Topo was possessed by a sinister helmet and ‘The Secret Mission of King Neptune’ (Aquaman #9, Miller & Cardy) seemingly brought the heroes into bombastic contention with the God of the Oceans – but was he all he seemed?

World’s Finest #133 briefly introduced ‘Aquaman’s New Partner – Aqua-Girl’, but Miller and Fradon’s creation was strictly a one shot deal, whereas ‘War of the Water Sprites’ (Aquaman #10, Miller & Cardy) introduced an evil band of Quisp’s fellow imps who eerily presaged a tale of the JSA decades later…

‘The Creatures that Conquered Aquaman’ (from WFC #135, Miller & Fradon) was another alien invasion extravaganza whilst Aquaman #11 featured the landmark introduction of the Sea King’s future wife Mera in the Miller & Cardy extravaganza ‘The Doom from Dimension Aqua’, whilst #12 featured two shorter thrillers from Haney, ‘The Menace of the Land-Sea Beasts’ with mutated jungle animals wreaking sub-sea havoc and ‘The Cosmic Gladiators!’ wherein the seaborne sentinels are press-ganged into an intergalactic gladiatorial contest.

Miller provided the penultimate World’s Finest outing ‘The Day Aquaman Lost his Powers’ for #137 and Haney scripted a manic tale of team-up terror for superb veteran artist Howard Purcell in ‘Fury of the Exiled Creature’ (The Brave and the Bold #51, December 1963-January 1964) in which the fearsome Outcast of Atlantis turned mutative powers against not just Aquaman but also new DC superstars Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Aquaman #13 then saw Mera return in the Miller-penned ‘Invasion of the Giant Reptiles’ as the tide-crossed lovers joined to defeat criminals from the future. Fradon and Miller ended the Sea King’s World’s Finest tenure in high style with the taut thriller ‘The Doom Hunters’ in #139, leaving Nick Cardy as sole Aquaman artist. His work slowly began to become more representational and realistic, although Miller’s ‘Aquaman’s Secret Powers!’ still held plenty of fantastic fantasy as a dying derelict cursed the Sea King with incredible new abilities, whilst the second tale in #14 ‘The Tyrant Ruler of Atlantis’ found the temporarily deranged hero seizing the throne of the sunken city. Within scant months he would be legitimately offered the crown…

Miller wrote the next four issues beginning with the sinister scientific tragedy ‘Menace of the Man-Fish’, #16’s ‘The Duel of the Sea Queens!’ as Mera battled an alien siren who had set her tentacled cap for Aquaman and #17’s ‘The Man who Vanquished Aquaman’ wherein the god Poseidon stole Mera.

All this romantic tension and concentration was for a purpose. The next issue, #18 featured ‘The Wife of Aquaman’ as the Sea King married his extra-dimensional beloved in one of the first superhero weddings of the Silver Age. Talk about instant responsibilities…

None of the remaining tales have a credited scripter, but that doesn’t affect their wonderful readability nor Cardy’s better-every-panel artwork, beginning with #19’s ‘Atlanteans For Sale’ wherein new bride Mera slowly went bonkers due to her husband’s neglectful super-heroing schedule. Cue the arrival of the merman man-candy Nikkor who insinuated himself into her affections… and the throne!

This surprisingly adult tale is followed by #20’s ‘The Sea King’s Double Doom’ as an old friend and a shape-changing monster both hit Atlantis at the same time. Coincidence? We think not…

Super-villain the Fisherman debuted in #21’s ‘The Fearful Freak from Atlantis’ as the Sea King became a sea monster, whilst ‘The Trap of the Sinister Sea Nymphs’ introduced Mera’s wicked twin sister. This splendidly engaging second volume ends on another groundbreaking high-note with issue #23’s ‘The Birth of Aquababy’ wherein the happy couple’s newborn child displays uncanny powers (and yes, you nit-picking gossips it was nine months later… exactly nine months).

One of the greatest advantages of these big value black-&-white compendiums is the opportunity they provide whilst chronologically collecting a character’s adventures to include crossovers and guest spots from other titles. When the star is as long-lived and incredibly peripatetic as DC’s King of the Seven Seas that’s an awful lot of extra appearances for a fan to find…

DC has a long and comforting history of gentle, innocuous yarn-spinning with quality artwork. Ramona Fradon’s Aquaman is one of the most neglected runs of such accessible material, and it’s a pleasure to discover just how readable they still are. And when the opportunity arises to compare her wonderful work to the exponentially improving superhero work of such a stellar talent as Nick Cardy this book becomes another fan’s must-have item. More so when all the stories are still suitable for kids of all ages, Why not treat yourself and your youngsters to a timeless dose of whimsy and adventure? You won’t regret it.

© 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Comic Tales


By Angus McKie and others (Northern Lights Press/Titan Books)
ISBN: 0-946394-00-8

Here’s an intriguing piece of British comics history that also highlights the talents of one of our most gifted illustrators – although you’ll possibly know him as the air-brush guy who worked with Dave Gibbons on such projects as The Dome: Ground Zero, or from his work in 2000AD and the Megazine.

Angus McKie came out of the same Northern do-it-yourself-publishing and underground scene that gave us Bryan Talbot, Hunt Emerson, Alan Craddock and many others (in Britain, the North now starts just the other side of Hemel Hempstead and Watford is simply Greater London…).  He is an extremely adept and adventurous colour artist with a predilection for science fiction.

He studied graphic design at Newcastle College of Art in the 1970s before eventually working for a London agency, painting bookcovers and illustrations whilst producing intriguing strip work for various experimental comics publications such as Psst!

His most notable success was the selling of his seminal fantasy saga ‘So Beautiful, So Dangerous’ to the American adult fantasy magazine Heavy Metal, although he had previously contributed many tales to the original French parent publication Metal Hurlant.  ‘So Beautiful, So Dangerous’ became one of the strips adapted into the 1981 animated Heavy Metal movie.

In recent years he has worked extensively in the video games field.

This slim, full-colour and exceptionally readable tome is still readily available for discerning adults and features a spiffy selection of gloriously tongue-in cheek yarns. Beginning the spectacle is a political fable concocted with the assistance of Dave Huxley and Alan Craddock. ‘Wurtham View 2000’ is a creepy “big science” tale that examines the possible ramifications of a workable time-scanning television camera, and is followed by the sequel ‘Face of the Past’ which reveals its most probable uses, human nature being what it is…

More broadly comedic are the stylish gag strips ‘Tales of the Zen Masters: Nothing Exists’ and ‘Tales of the Sufi Masters’ whilst McKie displays his flair for the dramatic by working with William Shakespeare on ‘The King and I’ (that would be Lear, in case you’re wondering…). ‘The Appointment’ is an effective reinterpretation of the W. Somerset Maugham work Appointment in Samarra, and Craddock again assists on the sci fi gladiatorial spoof ‘Superhero.’

‘The Spirit of 67’ is a barbed and whacky reminiscence of past times that leads to a time travel tribulation whilst the sorry fate of two second-rate wannabe rock stars is scathingly described in ‘The Legend of the Magic Tone Box’ (written by Mike Feeney). The book ends with an extended satirical story of a misguided gang of radical anarchists with a big idea but not much of a clue in ‘Power to the People.’

McKie’s career path has taken him far from his comics roots but these little gems show an admirable disrespect for authority coupled to a highly accessible style of graphic narrative. While we’re all waiting for his next masterpiece why not track down this little gem and do a bit of time travelling of your very own?
© 1988 Junior Print Outfit.

Happy Hooligan 1904-1905


By Frederick Burr Opper (Hyperion Press)
ISBN: 0-88355-658-8

While I eagerly await the arrival of my copy of the recent “Forever Nuts” hardback collection of Happy Hooligan I thought I’d dip again into the first collection of the eternal indigent that I ever saw: long ago whilst still a spotty, mildly angry punk art student…

Frederick Burr Opper was one of the first giants of comics, a hugely imaginative and skilled illustrator who moved into the burgeoning field of newspaper strips just as they were being born, and his pictorial creations (and even more so his dialogue) have forever changed the English language…

Born in 1857 the son of Austrian immigrants, Opper grew up in Madison, Ohio, and at age 14 joined the Madison Gazette as a printer’s apprentice. Two years later he was in New York. Always drawing, he worked briefly in a store whilst studying at Cooper Union (The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art was and is a magnificent experiment in education and excellence: look it up and be amazed…) before linking up as student and eventually, assistant, to illustration giant Frank Beard.

Opper sold his first cartoon to Wild Oats in 1876, swiftly following up with further sales to Scribbner’s Monthly, St. Nicholas Magazine and Frank Leslie’s Weekly, before joining the prestigious Puck in 1880, drawing everything from spot illustrations, gags, political cartoons and many of the new, full-colour, Chromolithographic covers. He was also a book illustrator of major renown, an incisive humorist, poet and creator of children’s books.

After 18 lucrative, influential – and steady – years, Opper was drawn away to join William Randolph Hearst’s growing stable of comics pioneers in 1899, joining the New York Journal’s Sunday Color Supplement, where Happy Hooligan first appeared on 11th March 1900. Although not a regular feature at the start – many cartoon strippers of the fledgling art form were given great leeway to experiment with a variety of ideas in those early days – before too long the feature became simply too popular to play with and settled into a stable tenure that lasted until 1932 when the artist’s failing eyesight led to his retirement and the tramp’s demise. Opper passed away at the end of August 1937.

Opper never used assistants but his imagination and unsurpassed creativity made Hooligan and other major features Alphonse and Gaston and the astoundingly madcap Mule strip And Her Name was Maud household favourites around the world, appealing equally to Presidents and public alike. As the feature became ever more popular experimental and lesser strips such as Howsan Lott and Our Antediluvian Ancestors had perforce to be abandoned.

Happy Hooligan is an affable, well-meaning but bumbling tramp who wears an old tin-can for a hat. Wishing nobody ill, this gentle vagrant is usually the inadvertent tool of better bred folks who should know better, cops a little too fond of the truncheon and nightstick, and harsh, unforgiving cosmic ill-fortune. It is a strip brimming with invention, pathos, social commentary, delightful wordplay and broad, reckless slapstick. More than one source cites Happy as having a profound influence on Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp in both content and tone…

This black and white volume, compiled and edited in 1977 by unsung hero of American comic strips Bill Blackbeard, with a fascinating introduction from historian Rich Marschall, reprints the entire continuity from 1904 and 1905, and follows the simple sad-sack across the USA and, after many abortive and hilarious attempts, across the sea to England. After weeks of raucous calamity trying to see the King and falling foul of the equally high-handed British constabulary, Happy, with brothers Montmorency and Gloomy Gus (yep that’s one of Opper’s…) in tow, the clan Hooligan then proceeded to make themselves unwelcome throughout Europe. These hilarious, rowdy escapades are often exacerbated by occasional visits from the ultra-polite Alphonse and Gaston, Opper’s legendary duo of etiquette elitism…

Crossovers were not Opper’s only innovation. Happy Hooligan is considered to be the first American strip to depend on word balloons rather than supplemental text, and the humble, heartwarming hobo was also the first strip character to jump to the Silver Screen in six movie shorts between 1900-1902. He was also probably the first mass-market merchandising comics star…

Both Opper and his creations become less well-known by the year, but the quality of the work can never fail to amuse and inspire. If I could have only found a way to play bass and keep that tin can on me head back then, you might be buying my comeback album about now rather than reading a recommendation to track down one of the very best cartoon masterpieces of all time…
© 1977 Hyperion Press. All rights reserved.