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The Minotaur’s Tale


By Al Davison (Gollancz)
ISBN hardback: 978-0-57505-189-8   softcover: 978-0-57505-283-3

During the 1990s, following the stunning success and huge mainstream sales of Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and Maus, graphic novels were finally accepted by the publishing industry as a viable and valuable market for adults after decades in which sequential narrative had been deemed a ghetto for children and idiots – the works of Raymond Williams and others of his pioneering ilk notwithstanding.

When the likes of HarperCollins, Macmillan/Pan and Gollancz finally caught wise they did it in fine style with challenging works like Doris Lessing & Charlie Adlard’s Playing the Game or The City by James Herbert & Ian Miller.

Gollancz was probably the first to fully embrace the nascent form, creating the VG Graphics imprint and going all out by releasing a game-changing selection of mature and challenging confections by comics glitterati Alan Moore & Oscar Zarate, Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean and fantasy stalwarts M. John Harrison & Ian Miller and Ian McDonald & Dave Lyttleton. A fifth commissioned volume was crafted by relative newcomer and unique authorial voice Al Davison who had first come to the industry’s attention with his incredible autobiography The Spiral Cage: Diary of an Astral Gypsy in 1988.

His story of a life spent daily triumphing over a body wracked by Spina bifida and a society that couldn’t handle cripples who didn’t know their place is a stunning testament to human courage and the liberating power of creativity (originally published by Renegade Press and re-issued in revised and expanded editions by Titan Books in 1990 and Active Images in 2003) and led to Davison being invited to contribute to the VG roster.

Davison writes, illustrates and letters this darkly enchanting parable, similarly examining the themes of disability, alienation, perception and inclusion, which opens in a prologue with a rather nonconformist if not confrontational interpretation of the myth of Minos of Crete and the bestial murderous Minotaur from a wilful little girl named Etty-Mae Brown.

Years later in ‘Transmissions’ the dystopian urban night is shattered by a pain-drenched wail. The deformed dosser everybody calls Banshee is screaming again, but the skinheads, hookers, winos and other human trash have better things to do than listen to the mad bastard. Still, after a night of mindless aggression the thugs still have a bit of time and energy left to give ugly freak a bit of a kicking…

Barely able to stand on his own malformed feet at the best of times, Banshee is found collapsed in the street by recovering drug-addict Etty who gets him into a hospital. He awakes from terrifying dreams of the orphanage and the vile nuns who ran it to find himself in a clean bed and immediately panics, subsequently barricading himself in the toilet.

All his life Banshee has been called a freak, a mistake, a monster or worse but Etty knows she can help him and shows him her version of the Minotaur legend, encouraged by the sympathetic Dr. Sparks – who has a secret shame of her own which she conceals at all costs…

In ‘Preparations’ we travel back to ancient Greece to see the story of Theseus and the man-bull told from the Minotaur’s point of view – a tale of bigotry, pride and prejudice, rewritten by the self-aggrandizing pretty-boys who always seem to get the last word… The unjust tragedy of Minos’ humiliatingly deformed child inspires Banshee’s recovery and the solitary misfit is adopted by Etty and her lover.

In ‘Revelations’ whilst safely ensconced in the only house he has ever known, Etty’s baby daughter Josie cuddles the hideous man-thing. It is the first hug Banshee has ever experienced…

In this welcoming environment Banshee experiences many magical, educational moments and evolves, becoming a free creature at last, after which ‘Transmissions (A Slight Return)’ reveals a different truth to the myth of Theseus whilst Banshee finds a way to share his newfound state of grace and return a favour to Dr. Sparks resulting in a perfect miracle…

Even the most twisted and lonely need love and human contact and from isolated places of darkness and the horrors of life there is always the promise of a better life…

Despite being of sublime quality none of the VG Graphics titles really caught on and the experiment was soon terminated. A US edition of The Minotaur’s Tale was published in 1995 by Dark Horse Comics, with as little commercial success, but nearly twenty years later perhaps the audiences have broadened and grown enough so that this superb and enchantingly beautiful pictorial homily can at last find the readership it deserves.

In a perfect world some wise publisher would re-release the modern myth in a new edition, but if you can’t wait – and why should you? – the original lavishly full-colour 80 page tale is still readily available in both hardback and softcover versions.
©1992 Al Davison. All rights reserved.

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Modesty Blaise: Million Dollar Game


By Peter O’Donnell & Enric Badia Romero (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-675-0

Titan Books’ marvellous serial re-presentation of the classic British newspaper heroine continues as Enric Badia Romero returned to the strip after his years away drawing the controversial and racy science fiction serial Axa for The Sun, replacing permanently the subtly effective Neville Colvin…

Modesty and devoted platonic partner Willie Garvin are ex-criminals who retired young, rich and healthy from a career where they made far too many enemies. They were slowly dying of boredom in England when British Spymaster Sir Gerald Tarrant offered them a chance to have fun, get back into harness and do a bit of good in the world. Accepting, they have never looked back…

This volume begins with a classy modern western and mystery pastiche as Modesty and Willie vacation in cowboy country, intending to visit an old ghost town only to find Cordite City has been renovated into a top tourist trap. Getting ready to mosey on the pair spot that the tea-time re-enactment gunfight is actually lethally authentic…

Saving the life of one of the actors draws them into a crafty criminal scheme wherein a pretty young thing is menaced by the ghosts of infamous dead outlaws, an ancient Shoshone warrior holds the secret to a vast fortune and sneaky owlhoots are ruthlessly  attempting to pull off a very contemporary land grab in ‘Butch Cassidy Rides Again…’

The eponymous ‘Million Dollar Game’ (which originally ran in the London Evening Standard from 13th February-8th July 1987) delves into a long-hidden secret vice of World’s Greatest Adventure Heroine before coming bang up-to-date when an old friend asks for Modesty’s assistance in documenting the extent of ivory poaching in East Africa for the World Wildlife Fund.

However the vast profits generated by the vile trade tempts even the most trustworthy men and when Modesty and companion are shot down in the Bush Willies must rush to find them before the heavily-armed poachers do…

The volume concludes with another devilishly tongue-in-cheek taste of the not-so-supernatural in ‘The Vampire of Malvescu’ (July 9th – December 3rd 1987) as one of Willie and Modesty’s periodic extreme challenges leads the dynamic duo into a sinister plot and terrifying danger in the darkest heart of Transylvania, Women may be turning up naked and drained of blood but can it be Nosferatu?

Moreover, what possible part can Modesty’s old technical armourer and his pregnant young bride play in the unfolding nightmare?

Originally the heroine of a newspaper strip created by Peter O’Donnell and drawn by the brilliant Jim Holdaway, Modesty Blaise – and her ubiquitous, charismatic partner in crime and crime-busting Willie Garvin – has also starred in 13 prose novels and short-story collections, several films, a TV pilot, a radio play and nearly one hundred comic strip adventures between 1963 and the strip’s conclusion in 2002. She has been syndicated world-wide, and Holdaway’s version has been cited as an artistic influence by many major comic artists.

As always this volume contains detailed story introductions (here from Blaise historian Lawrence Blackmore) and a complete checklist of adventures and creator credits.

These are unforgettable stories from a brilliant writer at the peak of his powers revelling in the majesty of his greatest creation; timeless action romps and tales of sexy dry wit, more enthralling now than ever, which never fail to deliver maximum impact and total enjoyment. It’s never too late to find your Modesty…

© 2011 Associated Newspapers/Solo Syndication.

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The Giant Holiday Fantasy Comic Album


By various, edited by Mike Higgs (Hawk Books)
ISBN 0-948248-06-8

Being almost universally anthology weeklies, British comics over the decades have generated a simply incomprehensible number of strips and characters in a variety of genres ranging from the astounding to the appalling. Every so often dedicated souls have attempted to celebrate this cartoon cornucopia by reprinting intriguing selections and in 1990 the splendid Hawk Books released this delightfully cheap and cheerful compendium that is still readily available for connoisseurs of the wild and wonderful British oeuvre…

As is so often the case creator credits are nonexistent and although I’ll hazard the odd guess now and then, a lot of these marvellous concoctions will have to remain annoyingly anonymous until someone more knowledgeable than me pipes up…

With little ado the monochrome madness began with a magically whacky superhero tale featuring supernatural warrior Thunderbolt Jaxon who promptly mopped up a gang of saboteurs in ‘The Flying Wreckers’.

Plucky lad Jack Jaxon could transform into the invincible mini-skirted muscleman because he wore the magic belt of Thor, and as comprehensively revealed in Steve Holland’s superb Bear Alley articles, the character was originally designed in 1949 by Britain’s publishing powerhouse Amalgamated Press as an export feature for Australian publisher Kenneth G. Murray after WWII. The strips were commissioned by Editor Edward Holmes and realised by writers TCH Pendower, Leonard Matthews, plus Holmes, with prolific artist Hugh McNeill the original illustrator. The export-only hero soon began appearing in UK comics Comet and Knockout with later stories limned by Geoff Campion, Robert Roger & Ian Kennedy.

Next here is a charming tale of ‘The Space Family Rollinson’ by Graham Coton: a series which ran in Knockout from 1953-1958 and was successfully syndicated in France. Your average Mum, Dad and four kids on a trek across the universe, here stopping to save the natives of Skandok from a hideous space spider and its interplanetary jelly-webs, after which a moodily engrossing adventure of outlandish Victorian escapologist Janus Stark finds the man with rubber bones thwarting a gang of kidnappers in a stirring extravaganza by Tom Tully & Francisco Solano López .

A stunning strip The Jungle Robot debuted in the first issue of Lion in 1952, created by E. George Cowan & Alan Philpott, before vanishing until 1957. On his return he became one of the most popular heroes of the British scene. Reprinted here from the early days after his comeback is ‘Robot Archie and the Mole Men’ illustrated, I suspect, by Ted Kearnon, pitting the amazing automaton and his hapless handlers Ted Ritchie and Ken Dale against a bunch of subterranean bandits plundering Paris in an incredible burrowing machine – a complete 14 week adventure delivered two pages at a time.

Next up is ‘The Men from the Stars’ a complete 60 page sci fi epic originally presented in AP’s digest Super Detective Library #14. In this grand old invasion romp, test pilot and “Special Agent in Space” Rod Collins endured the World’s first contact with a marauding and incomprehensible race of flying saucer people before spearheading Earth’s inevitable resistance and narrow victory, after which paranormal detective ‘Maxwell Hawke’ and plucky girl Friday Jill Adair investigated ‘The Ghost of Gallows Hill Manor’ – a creepy, condensed shocker probably drawn by a young Eric Bradbury.

Knocker White and Jinx Jenkins were ‘The Trouble-Seekers’; two-fisted construction workers who had to add giant monsters to the list of obstacles threatening to delay the completion of South American super city Futuria, after which action-man cover star of Smash! Simon Test narrowly survived ‘The Island of Peril’ in another moody masterpiece of all-ages action-adventure illustrated by Bradbury.

One of the most fondly remembered British strips of all time is the strikingly beautiful Steel Claw. From 1962 to 1973 Jesús Blasco and his small family studio thrilled the nation’s children, illustrating the breakneck adventures of scientist, adventurer, spy and even costumed superhero Louis Crandell. Created by novelist Ken Bulmer, the majority of the character’s exploits were scripted by Tom Tully.

Crandell was a bitter man, missing his right hand, which was replaced with a gadget-packed prosthetic. Moreover, whenever he received an electric shock he became invisible.

After going on a deranged rampage Crandell’s personality shifted and by the time of ‘The Return of the Claw’ (which first saw print in Valiant from 5th June 1971-22nd April 1972) the super-agent was a tired and broken emotional burn-out dragged out of retirement to foil an alien invasion wherein disembodied invaders the Lektrons possessed the bodies of children, turning them into demonic, energy-blasting monsters.

More than any other strip the Steel Claw was a barometer for British comics reading fashions. Starting out as a Quatermass style sci-fi cautionary tale the series mimicked the trends of the outer world, becoming in turn a Bond-like super-spy saga complete with outrageous gadgets, a masked mystery-man romp when Bat-mania gripped the nation, and eventually a Doomwatch era adventure drama combating eerie menaces and vicious criminals.

The thrills of the writing are engrossing enough, but the real star of this feature is the artwork. Blasco’s classicist drawing, his moody staging and the sheer beauty of his subjects make this an absolute pleasure to look at.

Over 90 pages long ‘The Return of the Claw’ alone is worth the price of admission – even with the terribly poor quality printing of this volume. Just imagine the impact when somebody finally completes the deluxe reprinting of this classic series begun in The Steel Claw: the Vanishing Man…

After the main course there’s a few short dessert items to end this feast of nostalgic fun, beginning with an engaging vintage alien invasion chiller ‘The Marching Trees’ after which the light-hearted ‘Toby’s Timepiece’ propels errant schoolboy Toby Todd into a mediaeval nightmare and an epic adventure with an extraterrestrial chrononaut before ‘Thunderbolt Jackson and the Golden Princess’ closes the memorable montage of comics wonderment in a simply splendid tale of Amazonian lost cities and rampaging dinosaurs.

This is a glorious lost treasure-trove for fans of British comics and lovers of all-ages fantasy, filled with danger, drama and delight illustrated by some of the most talented artists in the history of the medium. Track it down, buy it for the kids and then read it too. Most of all pray that somebody somewhere is actively working to preserve and collect these sparkling and resplendent slices of our fabulous graphic tradition in more robust and worthy editions.

Maybe we need a Project Gutenberg for comics…
© 1989 Fleetway Publications. All Rights Reserved.

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Johnny Red: Falcon’s First Flight


By Tom Tulley & Joe Colquhoun (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-033-8

In acknowledgement of the upcoming Comics in Conflict event at the Imperial War Museum this weekend – see our Noticeboard for details – I’m reviewing another captivating combat classic.

Britons have been enamoured of fighting aviators since the earliest days of popular fiction, but wonderful and thrilling as Biggles, Paddy Payne, I Flew with Braddock or Battler Britton might have been, the true hellish horror of war in the air didn’t really hit home for comics readers until strip veterans Tom Tully and Joe Colquhoun began crafting the epic career of a troublesome working class maverick pilot kicked out of the RAF at our time of greatest need, only to carve a bloody legend for himself in the blistering skies of the Eastern Front.

Johnny Red debuted in January 1977, in #100 of the increasingly radical war comic Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant, swiftly becoming a firm fixture for the next 500-odd issues, before finally calling it a day in 1987. Even then the strip continued as a reprint feature in Best of Battle until Fleetway stopped publishing comics.

Falcon’s First Flight collects chapters 1-37 of the long-running aerial epic in a lavish monochrome hardcover which also features an effusive introduction from starry-eyed fan Garth Ennis and a fascinating historical essay from Jeremy Briggs. Genesis of a Hero provides some intriguing perspective as well as revealing the incredible story of the pilot who was the real life inspiration for Johnny Red.

The racing breakneck action (utterly unavoidable since almost all Battle instalments were between three and four pages long) opens on September 1941 as young Liverpool oik Johnny Redburn helplessly watches Stukas and Junkas strafe and bomb the merchant ship he’s working on. The Empire Cape is part of a relief convoy en route to Murmansk with supplies for Britain’s hard-pressed Russian allies.

Scared and helpless Redburn recalls the incident which got him cashiered from RAF training (originally striking an officer but later retconned into accidentally killing an instructor) and banned from flying. He doesn’t miss the snobs and stupid rules but Johnny was a natural flier and is still hungry for the skies…

Unable to provide fighter escorts or aircraft carriers, the Navy at this time outfitted some freighters with a catapult-launched plane. The Cape has one of these insane contraptions: a single Hurricane which would be launched into enemy-filled skies with a few hours’ fuel and a pilot expected to do whatever he could until German bullets or the seas claimed him. Convoy ships had no landing facility and if the flier survived the dogfights he was expected to ditch in the sea or crash…

When the aviator is killed on the way to launch Johnny takes his place and against all odds shoots down enough attackers to allow the crew of the Cape to successfully abandon ship. Now he faces a unique dilemma. He is an illegal pilot in a stolen plane he can’t land. Having no faith in British military justice or the cold cruel waters below Redburn decides to try for the Russian mainland and a proper landing field…

Typically though, it’s a case of out of the frying pan and into the freezer as lethal weather conditions close in. Miraculously escaping fog, storm and ice he lands in a hidden base only to be mistaken for a German by the starving and desperate air fighters of the 5th Soviet Air Brigade… the “Falcons”.

These are patriotic but damned men, ordered to resist to the last in creaky biplanes against the overwhelming forces of the Luftwaffe. As the embattled communists close on Johnny the Germans attack and a unique bond of comradeship is formed as his skill and modern Hurricane wreaks havoc amongst the complacent Nazis.

With nowhere else to go Johnny joins the squadron of the doomed, galvanising them into a competent unit of rule-breaking, triumphant aerial killers risking everything to save their beleaguered homeland.

Ill-supplied and written off by their own leaders the Soviet airmen are convinced by “Johnny Red” to steal whatever food, replacements and weapons they need from their own retreating forces, quickly becoming a cohesive and credible threat to the once unstoppable Germans.

The warrior’s spectacular revival causes its own problems. Johnny is hiding from all contact with the British, convinced that only jail or the gallows awaits him, whilst beyond the close brotherhood of his fellow Falcons, successive Soviet military bureaucrats such as demented political officer Major Alexie Kraskin – a martinet who loves executing his own troops if they won’t obey suicidal orders – or cowardly, carpet-bagging Comrade Colonel Grigor Yaraslov, politically appointed to lead the resurgent squadron, all seem far too eager to get rid of the humiliatingly competent foreign interloper…

In sortie after sortie Johnny Red tackles privation, exhaustion and the enmity of his superiors whilst clearing Russian skies of fascist predators, but as this first volume closes he faces his greatest challenges.

With the Falcons posted to the frozen hell of Leningrad during the worst part of the German siege Johnny is increasingly plagued by the recurring effects of an old head-wound causing sporadic fits of blindness whilst a kill-crazy psychopathic replacement to the Falcons is determined to murder the Englishman, for stopping the strafing of Germans after they have surrendered…

These gritty, evocative tales are packed with historical detail, breathtaking passion and a staggering aura of authenticity. The classic theme of a misfit making good under incredible adversity has never been better depicted and Tom (Kelly’s Eye, Steel Claw, Roy of the Rovers, Raven on the Wing, Harlem Heroes, Mean Arena) Tully’s visceral scripts are perfectly realised by miracle worker Joe Colquhoun. The artist quit writing and drawing Roy of the Rovers to perfect his mastery of aviation war-stories on the long-running but more traditional Paddy Payne in Lion (from 1959 until the feature folded) before co-creating Johnny Red in late 1976. He illustrated 100 episodes before moving on to his greatest work Charley’s War.

This premiere collection is a grand moment in the transition of comics from boy’s own bravado in a Toff’s World to mature, mercurial yet moving adventures starring ordinary working class heroes. Johnny Red was at the forefront of this invasion of extraordinary commoners during a war that almost abolished the class system forever.

However, whatever your dogma or preferred arena of struggle, there’s no question that these magnificent war-stories are among the Few: the cream of British comics well worth your avid time and attention.

Johnny Red © 2010 Egmont UK Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Introduction © 2010 Garth Ennis. Genesis of a Hero © 2010 Jeremy Briggs.

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Darkie’s Mob: The Secret War of Joe Darkie


By John Wagner & Mike Weston (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-442-8

To celebrate this weekend’s Comics and Conflict symposium at the Imperial War Museum and to kick off a Now Read This “Best of British Week here’s a piece about one of the greatest and most impressive war strips ever created…

Britain has always had a solid tradition for top-notch comic strips about the Second World War but the material produced by one radically different publication in the 1970s and 1980s surpassed all previous efforts and has been acknowledged as having transformed the entire art form.

Battle was one of the last great British weekly anthologies: an all-combat comic which began as Battle Picture Weekly on 8th March 1975 and through absorption, merger and re-branding became Battle Picture Weekly & Valiant, Battle Action, Battle, Battle Action Force and finally Battle Storm Force before itself being combined with the too-prestigious-to-cancel Eagle on January 23rd 1988.

Over 673 gore-soaked, epithet-stuffed, adrenaline drenched issues, it gouged its way into the bloodthirsty hearts of a generation, consequently producing some of the best and most influential war stories ever, including Major Eazy, D-Day Dawson, The Bootneck Boy, Johnny Red, HMS Nightshade, Rat Pack, Fighter from the Sky, Hold Hill 109, Fighting Mann, Death Squad!, Panzer G-Man, Joe Two Beans, The Sarge (star-artist Mike Western’s other best work ever), Hellman of Hammer Force and the stunning and iconic Charley’s War among many others.

The list of talented contributors was equally impressive: writers Pat Mills, John Wagner, Steve McManus, Mark Andrew, Gerry Finley-Day, Tom Tully, Eric & Alan Hebden, with art from Colin Page, Pat Wright, Giralt, Carlos Ezquerra, Geoff Campion, Jim Watson, Mike Western, Joe Colquhoun, Carlos Pino, John Cooper, Mike Dorey Cam Kennedy and many others.

One of the most harrowing and memorable series was an innovative saga of group obsession and personal vengeance set in the green hell of Burma in the months following the Japanese invasion and rout of the entrenched British Empire in Spring 1942.

Darkie’s Mob by John Wagner & Mike Western is a phenomenally well-regarded classic of the genre, wherein a mysterious maniac adopts and subverts a lost, broken, demoralised and doomed squad of British soldiers, intent on using them to punish the Japanese in ways no man could imagine…

This glorious oversized monochrome hardback 112 page compilation collects the entire uncompromising saga – which originally ran from 14th August 1976 to 18th June 1977 – in a deluxe edition which also contains ‘Dead Men Walking’ – an effusive introduction by unabashed fan Garth Ennis and a comprehensive cover gallery.

The tale opens as a frantically fast-paced mystery-thriller beginning in 1946 when Allied troops discover the blood-soaked combat journal of Private Richard Shortland, reported missing along with the rest of his platoon during the frantic retreat from the all-conquering Japanese. The first entry and the opening initial episode are dated May 30th 1942, describing a slow decent into the very heart of darkness…

Beaten and ready to die, the rag-tag remnants of the British Army are rescued from certain death by the uncompromising, unconventional and terrifyingly brutal Captain Joe Darkie who strides out of the hostile Burmese foliage and instantly asserts an almost preternatural command over the weary warriors. The men are appalled by Darkie’s physical and emotional abuse of them and his terrifying treatment of an enemy patrol he encounters whilst leading them out of their predicament.

They’re even more shocked when they discover that he’s not heading to safety but guiding them deeper into Japanese-held territory…

Thus begins a guerrilla war like no other as Darkie moulds the soldiers by brutal bullying and all manner of psychological ploys into fanatics with only one purpose: hunting and killing the enemy.

In rapid snatches of events culled from Shortland’s account we discover that Darkie is a near-mythical night-terror to the invaders, a Kukri-wielding, poison-spitting demon happy to betray, exploit and expend his own men to slaughter his hated foes, well-known to the enslaved natives and ruthlessly at home in the alien world of the Burma jungles and swamps. What kind of experiences could transform a British Officer into such a ravening horror?

The answer quickly comes when Shortland intercepts a radio communication and discovers that the Army has no record of any soldier named Joe Darkie, but the dutiful diarist has no explanation of his own reasons for keeping the psycho-killer’s secret to himself…

For over a year the hellish crusade continued with the Mob striking everywhere like bloody ghosts; freeing prisoners, sabotaging Japanese bases and engineering works and always killing in the most spectacular manner possible. Eventually after murdering Generals, blowing up bridges and casually invading the most secure cities in the country the Mob become the Empires’ most wanted men as both Britain and Japan hunt the rogue unit with equal vehemence and ferocity.

Darkie wants to kill and not even Allied orders will stop him…

The mob are whittled away by death, insanity and fatigue as Darkie infects them with his hatred and nihilistic madness until all the once-human soldiers are nothing more than Jap-hating killing machines ready and willing to die just as long as they can take another son of Nippon to hell with them…

The descent culminates but doesn’t end with the shocking revelations of Darkie’s origins and secret in Shortland’s incredible entry for October 30th 1943, after which the inevitable end inexorably approached…

This complete chronicle also includes a heavily illustrated prose tale from the 1990 Battle Holiday Special and I’m spoiling nobody’s fun by advising you all to read this bonus feature long before you arrive at the staggering conclusion…

A mention should be made of the language used here. Although a children’s comic – or perhaps because it was – the speech of the characters contains a strongly disparaging and colourful racial element. Some of these terms are liable to cause offence to modern readers – but not nearly as much as any post-watershed TV show or your average school playground, so please try and remember the vintage and authorial directives in place when the stories were first released.

Battle exploded forever the cosy, safely nostalgic “we’ll all be alright in the end” tradition of British comics; ushering an ultra-realistic, class-savvy, gritty awareness of the true horror of military service and conflict, pounding home the message War is Hell. With Darkie’s Mob Wagner and Western successfully horrifyingly showed us its truly ugly face and inescapable consequences.

Darkie’s Mob © 2011 Egmont UK Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Dead Men Walking © 2011 Garth Ennis.

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The Pin-up Art of Humorama


By various, edited by Alex Chun & designed by Jacob Covey (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-959-3

You’ve all done it; laughed at something you know you shouldn’t have and for us utterly reconstructed modern men – and, let’s face it, women too – sometimes a sexually, racially or otherwise politically incorrect joke or scene in an old movie or TV clip. You know it’s wrong, you know it’s wicked but dammit! – funny just is…

Once upon a time when we were all trapped in our cruel and unthinking hidebound world of stereotypes and pre-judgements, there was a thriving market for staggeringly coy smutty books, naughty cartoon joke periodicals and girly magazines for men.

Women read other things and we never enquired. It’s the only sensible example of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that I can think of…

After volumes of Pin-ups from specific comics stars (Dan DeCarlo, Bill Wenzell, Jack Cole, Bill Ward) this anthology celebration gathers the Rest of the Best from the prolific Humorama pulp-digest division. They provided saucy gags and male-oriented mirth from 1938 to the mid 1980s – when hardcore porn ended all the tamer men’s mag markets – ubiquitous little throwaway digests with titles such as Gaze, Jest, Stare, Joker, Zip, Breezy, Cartoon Comedy Parade and Romp, packed with photos of saucy vixens like Tina Louise, Sophia Loren, Betty Page, Irish (Sheena of the Jungle) McCalla, Julie (Catwoman) Newmar and her cheesecake ilk – and oodles of deliciously daring cartoons.

The company was part of the Goodman publishing empire which included Atlas/Marvel Comics and reached its pulchritudinous peak during the 1950s when Editor Abe Goodman was the biggest buyer of cartoons on Earth.

Once the sexual revolution began, however, the oddly innocent, clandestine “men only” craft atmosphere was lost to increasing in-your-face frankness and a steady decline into vulgar X-rated smut as good old-fashioned raciness and stolen illicit glimpses became the meat of TV and cinema.

After an illustrated foreword by Howard Chaykin and a comprehensive history from Editor Alex Chun the parade of risqu̩ gags Рpopulated by the kind of girls that made Mad Men such a hit and Marilyn Monroe immortal Рworks its wiles, stretches its intellects and stuns its willing prey in a glorious panoply of old-fashioned fun and frolics. These racy renditions are superbly rendered in colour, monochrome and all points in between Рink and wash, cont̩-crayon, pen and even photo-montages, and this tome even finds space to squeeze in a few amazing house ads.

From amongst the memorable proponents you’ve already heard of are gags by Ward, Wenzell, Jefferson MacHamer, Dan DeCarlo, Vic Martin, Kurt Schaffenberger (AKA Schaff), Louis Priscilla, Niso “Kremos” Ramponi, Bill Hoest, George Crenshaw, Michael Berry, Stan Goldberg, Jim Mooney, Dave Berg and Basil Wolverton, but there are so many others by unsung pencil-pushers equally deserving of your attention.

This charmingly innocent compendium of Lush Ladies, Willing Wantons, Savvy Sirens, Naive Nymphs (always stunningly beautiful women) collects more than 200 or so rude cartoons from a time when boys thought girls didn’t actually like sex – when in fact they just didn’t like us or the way we did it.

Technically, this isn’t a graphic novel or trade collection, it’s a picture book – but an absolutely stunning one, collecting some of the best and most guiltily funny illustrations ever produced: a beguiling remembrance of a different time and the sexual mores of an entirely alien generation which nevertheless presents an enticing, intoxicating treat for art lovers and, I’m afraid to admit, many hearty laughs. This is work which is still utterly addictive and the book is an honest-to-gosh treasure beyond compare.

© 2011 Fantagraphics Books. Foreword © 2011 Howard Chaykin. Introduction © 2011 Alex Chun. All rights reserved.

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The Beast is Dead: World War II Among the Animals


By Edmond-François Calvo, Victor Dancette & Jacques Zimmerman (Abi Melzer Productions)
No ISBN:

In Acknowledgement of the upcoming Comics in Conflict event at the Imperial War Museum this weekend – see our Noticeboard for details – I’m going to be reviewing a few intriguing and hopefully pertinent classics beginning with this tragically neglected cartoon masterpiece…

As the European phase of World War II staggered to its bloody and inevitable conclusion, the enslaved nations began to reclaim their homelands and various national prides in a glorious wave of liberation. All over the Old World long suppressed stories and accounts, true or otherwise, began to be shared. During France’s occupation publishing was strictly controlled – even comics – but the Nazis couldn’t suppress creative spirit and many conquered citizens resisted in the only ways they safely could.

For sculptor, artist, caricaturist and social satirist Edmond-François Calvo (26/8/1892-11/10/1958) that was by drawing. Watched by his adoring apprentice-artist Albert (Asterix) Uderzo and inspired by the Gallic graphic giant Daumier, the venerable creator of such joyous anthropomorphic classics as ‘Patamousse’, ‘Anatomies Atomiques’, ‘Les Aventures de Rosalie’, ‘Monsieur Royal Présente’, ‘Grandeur et Décadente du Royaume des Bêtes’ and ‘Cricri, Souris d’Appartement’ worked quietly and determinedly on his own devastating war-effort secret weapon.

He latterly specialised in sparkling, socially aware and beautiful family-friendly strips such as ‘Moustache et Trottinette’, ‘Femmes d’Aujourd’hui’, ‘Coquin le Petit Cocker’ and a host of fairytale adaptations for Tintin, Baby Journal, Cricri Journal, Coq Hardi, Bravo!, Pierrot Âmes Vaillantes and Coeurs Vaillants.

Beginning as a caricaturist for Le Canard Enchaîné in 1938 Calvo eventually moved into strip stories, but also had to moonlight with “real” jobs such as woodcarver and innkeeper. By the time France fell to the Germans in June 1940 he was working for Offenstadt/S.P.E. press group, contributing ‘Le Chevalier Chantecler’, ‘D’Artagnan’, ‘Les Grandes Aventures’, ‘Robin des Bois’, ‘Les Voyages de Gulliver’ and the initial three chapters of ‘Patamouche’ to Fillette, L’Épatant, L’As and Junior plus ‘La Croisière Fantastique’, ‘Croquemulot’ and ‘Un Chasseur Sachant Chasser’ to Éditions Sépia.

Most of this material was produced under the stern scrutiny of the all-conquering censors Рmuch like his comics contemporary Herg̩ in Belgium Рbut Calvo also found time to produce something far less anodyne or safe.

With both Editor Victor Dancette and writer Jacques Zimmermann providing scripts, and beginning as early as 1941, Calvo began translating the history of the conflict into a staggeringly beautiful and passionately vehement dark fable, outlining the betrayal of the European nations by literal Wolves in the Fold.

After years of patient creation – and presumably limited dissemination amongst trusted confreres – the first part of La Bete est Mort! – ‘When the beast is raging’ was published in 1944, followed a year later with the concluding ‘When the animal is struck down’. Both were colossal hits even before the war ended and the volumes were continually reprinted until 1948 when the public clearly decided to move on with their lives…

The story is related in epic full-page painted spreads and captivating, luscious strip instalments and the smooth, slick glamour of Disney’s production style was co-opted to deliver the list of outrages to be addressed and a warning to the future, with each nation being categorised by a national totem.

The French were rabbits, the Italians hyenas and the Japanese monkeys. Britain was populated by bulldogs, Belgium by lions, Russia by polar bears and America by vast herds of buffalo…

Hitler’s inner circle of monsters got special attention: such as Goering the Pig and Himmler the Skunk, but so did the good guys: General de Gaulle was depicted as a magnificent Stork…

A fiercely unrepentant but compellingly lovely polemic by a bloody but unbowed winning side, The Beast is Dead was forgotten until republished in 1977 by Futuropolis. This particular English-language, oversized (225 x 300mm or 9 inches x 12) hardback edition was released in 1985 and includes the introduction from a Dutch edition; a dedication from Uderzo and a monochrome selection of Calvo’s wartime and post-war cartoons.

Magnificent, compelling radiant, hugely influential (without this there would never have been Maus), astoundingly affecting and just plain gorgeous, this modern horror tale of organised inhumanity is out of print but still available if you look hard and since an animated film adaptation was begun in 2005, hopefully there’s a new edition in the works too.
© 1944-1945 Éditions G.P. © 1977 Éditions Futuropolis. © 1984 Abi Melzer Productions.

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Marvel Masterworks (volume 8): The Incredible Hulk #1-6


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-594- 9   second edition: 978-0785111856

Coming out of a monster comics mini-boom and well aware of the fact that everybody loves a terrifying titan, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby didn’t look too far afield or take massive risks when they were looking to capitalise on the burgeoning success of their radical new comic Fantastic Four.

The Incredible Hulk was Marvel’s second superhero title, although technically Henry Pym debuted earlier in a one-off yarn in Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962), but he didn’t become costumed hero Ant-Man until the autumn, by which time Ol’ Greenskin was not-so-firmly established.

The Hulk crashed right into his own comicbook and after some supremely exciting exploits by Young Marvel’s finest creators, crashed right out again. After six bi-monthly issues the series was cancelled and Lee retrenched, making the character a perennial guest-star in other Marvel titles (Fantastic Four #12, Amazing Spider-Man #14, The Avengers from #1- first as a member then a recurring foe) until they found a way to rekindle the drama in their new “Split-Book” format.

Cover-dated May 1962 The Incredible Hulk #1 introduced physically unprepossessing atomic scientist Bruce Banner, sequestered on a secret military base in the desert, perpetually bullied by bombastic commander General “Thunderbolt” Ross as the hours and minutes slipped away before the World’s first Gamma Bomb test.

Besotted by Ross’s daughter Betty, Banner endured the General’s constant jibes as the clock ticked on and tension increased even while his abrasive assistant Igor constantly cajoled him for keeping the details of the G-Bomb secret.

During the final countdown Banner saw a teenager drive into Ground Zero and frantically dashed to the site to drag the boy away. Unknown to him the Igor, who has been ordered to delay the countdown, has an agenda of his own…

Rick Jones was a wayward but good-hearted kid. After initial resistance he lets himself be dragged into a safety trench, but just as Banner was about to join him The Bomb detonated…

Miraculously surviving the blast Banner and the boy were secured by soldiers, but that evening as the sun set the scientist underwent a monstrous transformation. He grew larger; his skin turned a stony grey…

In six simple pages that’s how it all started and no matter what any number of TV or movie reworkings, comicbook retcons and psycho-babble re-evaluations would have you believe it’s still the best and most primal take on the origin. A good man, an unobtainable girl, a foolish kid, an unknown enemy and the horrible power of destructive science unchecked when the sun set and darkness fell…

Written by Stan Lee, drawn by Jack Kirby with inking by Paul Reinman, ‘The Coming of the Hulk’ barrels along as the man-monster and Jones are kidnapped by Banner’s Soviet counterpart the Gargoyle for a rousing round of espionage and Commie-busting before simple humanity saved the day and returned the heroes to their own, less than friendly shores.

In the second issue the plot concerned invading aliens – a staple of Early Marvel Tales – and the Banner/Jones relationship settled into a traumatic nightly ordeal as the scientist metamorphosed and was summarily locked into an escape-proof cell whilst the boy stood watch helplessly. Neither considered for a moment telling the government of their predicament…

‘The Terror of the Toad Men’ was formulaic but viscerally and visually captivating as Steve Ditko inked Kirby, imparting a genuinely eerie sense of sinister unease to the artwork as grotesque invaders conquered Earth only to be repelled at the last moment by Banner – not the Jade Juggernaut. Incidentally, this is the story where the Hulk inexplicably developed his more accustomed Green tan.

Although back-written years later as a continuing mutation, the plain truth is that grey tones caused all manner of problems for the production colourists so it was arbitrarily changed to the simple and more traditional colour of creatures.

The third issue presented a departure in format as the full-length, chaptered epics gave way to complete short stories. Dick Ayers inked Kirby in the transitional ‘Banished to Outer Space’ which radically altered the relationship of Jones and the monster after the rampaging Hulk was rocketed into orbit where radiation created a mental link between boy and beast. Moreover the Hulk was now able to emerge even in daylight from there on…

The story thus far was reprised in a three-page vignette ‘The Origin of the Hulk’ and that Marvel mainstay of malice the Circus of Crime debuted in ‘The Ringmaster’ – a riotous romp of brute strength and inspired larceny.

After a double-image cover which presaged those aforementioned split-books, the Hulk went on an urban rampage in #4’s first tale ‘The Monster and the Machine’ and Rick began using a colossal cyclotron to forcibly change the beast back into Banner whilst aliens and Commies combined in unlikely fashion with the second adventure ‘The Gladiator from Outer Space!’

The Incredible Hulk #5 was a joyous classic of primal Kirby action; introducing the immortal despot Tyrannus and his subterranean empire in ‘The Beauty and the Beast!’ whilst those pesky commies came in for another drubbing when our Jolly Green freedom-fighter travelled to the East to counter the invasion of Lhasa by ‘The Hordes of General Fang!’

Despite the sheer verve and bravura of these stripped-down, simplistic classics – some of the purest most exhilarating and rewarding comics nonsense ever produced – the series was not selling and Kirby was moved on to more appreciated arenas. Steve Ditko handled the art chores for #6, which returned to a full-length epic – and an extremely engaging one. ‘The Incredible Hulk Vs the Metal Master’ involved an invasion by an alien who could mentally manipulate minerals, alloys and processed metal and almost made Earth his own. Combining superb action, sly and subtle sub-plots, tragedy, mystery and a sublime thinking man’s resolution, it was nonetheless the final issue.

After shambling around the nascent Marvel universe for a year or so, usually as a misunderstood villain-cum-monster, the Emerald Behemoth got another shot at the big time and eventually found a home in Tales To Astonish where Ant-Man/Giant-Man was rapidly proving to be a character who had outlived his time.

The rest is history…

These immortal epics are available in numerous formats (including softcover editions of the luxurious deluxe hardback under review here), but for a selection that will survive the continual re-readings of the serious, incurable fan there’s nothing to beat the substantial full-colour feel of these Marvellous Masterwork editions.
© 1962, 1963, 1989, 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Heart of Hush


By Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2123-2, softcover 978-1-84856-214-1

Paul Dini once more proved himself the very best of contemporary Batman writers with this chilling, suspenseful epic of love and obsession featuring Bruce Wayne’s ultimate adversary Tommy Elliot, a boyhood friend as twisted by his own mother’s malign influence as the boy Bruce was transformed by the murder of his parents Thomas and Martha Wayne.

Eminent surgeon Elliot became the sadistic and obsessive Hush to obtain vengeance on Bruce Wayne; his boyhood friend and companion but one who had been perpetually held up to him as a perfect example of a son by Elliot’s disabled and deranged mother. Now in this intriguing and affecting collection, reprinting Detective Comics #846-850 we gain a deeper insight into Batman’s dark doppelganger and the succession of tragedies that made him.

The stunning saga opens with ‘First Families of Gotham’ with occasional allies Catwoman and Batman tackling theme villain Doctor Aesop, unaware that the malignant, murderously patient Elliot is watching their every move. As telling slices of his ghastly childhood are presented the crazed doctor concludes the final preparations for his greatest scheme of vengeance…

In ‘The Last Good Day’ more memories of Elliot’s school days with young Bruce Wayne counterpoint the targeting of Robin, Zatanna and Nightwing as the entire Batman Family come under Hush’s meticulous and malicious gaze and the villain prepares a perfect trap for Batman with the terrifying assistance of Dr. Jonathan Crane – the Scarecrow…

Batman is forced to confront the greatest chink in his heroic armour in  ‘Heartstrings’ and Catwoman is struck down and made the ultimate hostage via a grotesque surgical strike, pushing the Dark Knight to the edge of reason and brink of death in ‘Scars’…

When the finally part of the plan culminates in Tommy Elliot becoming Bruce Wayne the scene is set for a spectacular confrontation with neither combatant quite sure who is the hero and who ‘The Demon in the Mirror’…

With a vast assembly of guest-stars and visiting villains, Heart of Hush finally elevated the previously over-hyped and uninspiring Tommy Elliot to the first rank of Batman’s Rogues Gallery. Fast, furious, genuinely scary and powerfully this is a masterful tale of suspense that no fan should miss… and since it’s available in both handsome hardback and scintillating softcover editions, you don’t have to..
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.