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Lucky Luke: Billy the Kid


By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Luke Spear (CineBook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-11-3

It’s hard to think of one of Europe’s most beloved and long-running comics character’s being in any way controversial, but when the changing times caught up with the fastest gun in the West (“so fast he can outdraw his own shadow”) and Lucky Luke moved with them, the news made headlines all over the world.

Lucky Luke is a rangy, laconic, good, natured cowboy who roams the fabulously mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his horse Jolly Jumper and Rantanplan (“dumbest dog in the West” and a charming spoof of cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin), interacting with a host of historical and legendary figures of the genre.

His continued exploits over more than 60 years have made him the best-selling comic character in Europe, (more than 300 million albums in 30 languages thus far), with spin-off games, computer games, animated cartoon and even live-action movies.

He was created by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère – who signed himself Morris – for the 1947 Annual (L’Almanach Spirou 1947) of Le Journal de Spirou, launching into his first adventure ‘Arizona 1880′ on December 7th 1946.

Before then, while working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’Actualitiés) cartoon studio Morris met future comics super-stars Franquin and Peyo, and worked for weekly magazine Le Moustique as a caricaturist (to my eyes Lucky Luke looks uncannily like the young Robert Mitchum who graced so many mid-1940s B-movie Westerns).

He quickly became one of “la Bande des quatre” or Gang of Four, which comprised the creators Jijé, Will and his old comrade Franquin, and who were the leading proponents of the loose and free-wheeling artistic style known as the “Marcinelle School” which dominated Spirou in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style used by Hergé, EP

Jacobs and other artists in Tintin Magazine.

In 1948 the Gang (all but Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing, and Morris stayed for six years, meeting René Goscinny, scoring some work from the newly formed EC sensation, Mad, and making copious notes and sketches of the swiftly disappearing Old West. His research henceforward resonated on every page of his life’s work.

Working alone until 1955 when he reunited with Goscinny (see our recent Iznogoud review for the low-down on that most prolific of comics writers) Morris produced another nine albums worth of affectionate sagebrush parody before, working in perfect unison, Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with ‘Des rails sur la Prairie’ (Rails on the Prairie), which began in Spirou on August 25th 1955.

In 1967 the straight-shooter switched teams, leaving Spirou for Goscinny’s magazine Pilote with the tale ‘La Diligence’ (the Stagecoach). Goscinny produced 45 albums with Morris before his death, from when Morris continued both alone and with other collaborators. Morris died in 2001 having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus the spin-off adventures of Rantanplan, and the team of Achdé and Laurent Gerra took over franchise, producing another three tales to date. In a most peculiar aside I feel I must mention that Morris was apparently voted the “79th Greatest Belgian” in the 2005 Walloon election of De Grootste Belg. If so, I demand a recount…

Lucky Luke first appeared in Britain syndicated in the weekly comic Film Fun and again in 1967 in Giggle where he was renamed Buck Bingo. In all these venues as well as the numerous attempts to follow the English-language successes of Tintin and Asterix albums from Brockhampton and Knight Books, Luke had a trademark cigarette hanging insouciantly from his lip, but in 1983 Morris – no doubt amidst both pained howls and muted mutterings of “political correctness gone mad” – substituted a piece of straw for the much-traveled dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization.

The latest attempt to bring Lucky Luke to our shores and shelves comes from Cinebook, and the first of the twenty (and counting) available albums is Billy the Kid, Morris and Goscinny’s eleventh collaboration.

As Luke rides into the troubled town of Fort Weakling he finds the populace cowed and broken by the vile depredations of the infamous William Bonney. The desperado robs the bank every couple of days, and the stage coach every time it leaves town, helps himself to caramels without paying, and won’t let the saloon serve anything but drinking chocolate.

His deadly aptitude with a six-gun means that no one will swear out a complaint let alone testify against the vicious little bully, and when Luke accepts the job of sheriff it takes brains and cunning rather than his legendary skill with a shooting iron to free the town from the tiny grip of the world’s meanest 12 year old…

Although the dialogue is a trifle stiff in places, this is a grand old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides again and Support Your Local Sheriff (or perhaps Alias Smith and Jones or Evil Roy Slade are more your style?) superbly executed by master storytellers, and a wonderful introduction to a unique genres for kids of all ages.

And in case you’re worried, even though the interior art still has our hero chawin’ on that ol’ nicotine stick, trust me, there’s very little chance of anyone craving a quick snout, but quite a high probability that they’ll want more Lucky Luke Albums…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Goscinny & Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © Cinebook Ltd.

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Batman Chronicles volume 7


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-176-2

This seventh volume of chronological Batman yarns covers Batman #12-13, Detective Comics #66-70 and World’s Finest Comics #7, and features adventures that were produced during the darkest days of World War II. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that many of these Golden Age treasures are also some of the best and most reprinted tales in the Batman canon. With chief writer Bill Finger at a peak of creativity and production, everybody on the Home Front was keen to do their bit – even it that was simply making kids of all ages forget their troubles for a brief while…

‘The Crime of Two-Face’, (Detective Comics #66, August 1942) by Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, is a classical tragedy in crime-caper form as Gotham DA Harvey Kent (the name was later changed to Dent) was disfigured in court and went mad – becoming the conflicted villain who remains one of the Caped Crusader’s greatest foes.

Batman #12 (Aug/Sept 1942) follows with another four classics. ‘Brothers in Crime’ by Don Cameron and Jerry Robinson, reveals the tragic fates of a criminal family whilst the Joker returns in ‘The Wizard of Words’ by Finger, Kane Robinson and George Roussos. Jack Burnley illustrated the spectacular daredevil drama ‘They Thrill to Conquer’ and ‘Around the Clock with Batman’ recounts a typical “day in the life” of the Dynamic Duo complete with blazing guns, giant statues and skyscraper near-death experiences.

From World’s Finest Comics #7 (Fall 1942) comes an imaginative thriller ‘The North Pole Crimes!’ whilst Detective Comics #67 features the Penguin as ‘Crime’s Early Bird!’ before Two-Face’s personal horror-story continues in ‘The Man Who Led a Double Life’ from #68.

Batman #13 (Oct/Nov 1942) tugged heartstrings as ‘The Batman Plays a Lone Hand’ but was on more traditional ground when the Joker organized a ‘Comedy of Tears’ (by Jack Schiff, Kane, Robinson & Roussos), and although ‘The Story of the Seventeen Stones!’ (drawn by Burnley) is a deliciously experimental murder-mystery, the heroes slipped into comfortable Agatha Christie – or perhaps Hitchcock territory – as they tackled a portmanteau of crimes on a train in Cameron, Kane, Robinson and Roussos’ ‘Destination: Unknown!’

Joseph Greene scripted the Joker’s next escapade in the marvelous case of ‘The Harlequin’s Hoax!’ from Detective Comics #68 and this brilliant book concludes with the decidedly different threat of ‘The Man Who Could Read Minds!’ another off-beat thriller from Don Cameron that premiered in Detective Comics #70.

This wonderful series of Golden Age greats is one of my absolute favourite collected formats: paper that feels comfortingly like newsprint, vivid colours applied with a gracious acknowledgement of the power and limitations of the original four-colour printing process and the riotous exuberance of an industry in the first flush of success The tales here show the creators and the characters at their absolute peak and they’re even more readable now that I don’t have to worry if I’m wrecking an historical treasure simply by turning a page. I can only pray that other companies like Marvel, Archie and the rest follow suit.

Soon.

© 1942, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman Chronicles volume 5


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley and the Superman Studio (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-895-9

By the time these tales first saw print Superman was a bona fide phenomenon, and had utterly changed the shape of the fledgling comicbook industry. There was a popular newspaper strip, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio was starting production on some of the most expensive -and best – animated cartoons ever produced. Thankfully the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release, and the energy and enthusiasm of Siegel and Shuster had transferred to the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

This fifth collection of the Man of Steel’s earliest adventures, reprinted in the order they originally appeared, takes us from the beginning of the year to May of 1941; another astounding voyage of thrills and chills that covers his appearances in Action Comics #32-36, the bi-monthly Superman #8-9 as well as his first landmark appearance in the legendary publication World’s Best Comics #1.

As ever, each tale is preceded by the original cover illustration, and the unsung talents of Paul Cassidy and especially Fred Ray should be appreciated for the huge part they played in capturing the attentions of the millions of kids who were daily bombarded by a growing multitude of garish, gaudy mystery-men

We lead off with Action Comics #32 (cover-dated January 1941), ‘The Gambling Racket of Metropolis’ (although like many stories of the time there was no original title and it’s been designated as such simply to make my job a little easier…) wherein the Action Ace crushes an illicit High Society gambling operation that has wormed its nefarious way into the loftiest echelons of Government, a typical Jerry Siegel social drama magnificently illustrated by the great Jack Burnley

Superman #8 (Jan/Feb 1941) was another spectacular and varied compendium containing four big adventures ranging from the fantastic fantasy ‘The Giants of Professor Zee’ (illustrated by Paul Cassidy), topical suspense in ‘The Fifth Column’ (Wayne Boring & Don Komisarow), common criminality in ‘The Carnival Crooks’ (Cassidy again) and concluding with an increasingly rare comic-book outing for Joe Shuster – inked by Boring – in the cover-featured ‘Perrone and the Drug Gang’, as the Metropolis Marvel battled doped-up thugs and the corrupt lawyers who controlled them.

Action Comics #33 and 34 are both Burnley extravaganzas wherein Superman goes north to discover ‘Something Amiss at the Lumber Camp’, before heading to coal country to save ‘The Beautiful Young Heiress’; both superbly enticing character-plays with plenty of scope for eye-popping super-stunts to thrill the gasping fans.

Superman #9 (March/April 1941) was another four-star thriller with all the art credited to Cassidy and the Shuster Studio. ‘The Phony Pacifists’ is an espionage thriller that capitalised on increasing US tensions over “the European War”, ‘Joe Gatson, Racketeer’ recounts the sorry end of a hot-shot blackmailer and kidnapper, ‘Mystery in Swasey Swamp’ combines eerie happenings with ruthless spies and the self-explanatory ‘Jackson’s Murder Ring’ pits Superman against an ingenious gang of commercial assassins.

The success of the annual World’s Fair premium comic-books had convinced the editors that an over-sized anthology of their characters, with Superman and Batman prominently featured, would be a worthwhile proposition even at the exorbitant price of 15¢ (most 64 page titles retailed for 10¢ and would do so until the 1960s). The 96 page World’s Best Comics #1 (and only) debuted with a Spring cover-date, before transforming into the venerable World’s Finest from issue #2 onwards. From that landmark edition comes a gripping disaster thriller ‘Superman vs. the Rainmaker’ illustrated by Cassidy, whilst Action Comics #35 headlined a human interest tale with startling repercussions in ‘The Guybart Gold Mine’, and this volume concludes with Superman mightily stretched to cope with the awesome threat of ‘The Enemy Invasion’, a canny taste of things to come if America entered Word War II.

Stories of corruption, disaster and social injustice were typical of the times, but with war in the news and clearly on the horizon, the content of Superman adventures was changing: and so, necessarily, did the scale and scope of the action. The raw intensity and sly wit still shone through in Siegel’s stories which literally defined what being a Super-hero meant, but as the world became more dangerous the Man of Tomorrow simply became stronger and more flamboyant to deal with it all, and Shuster and his team stretched and expanded the iconography that all others would follow.

These Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price. What more so you need to know?

© 1940, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: the Third Kryptonian


By Kurt Busiek, Dwayne McDuffie, Rick Leonardi & Renato Guedes (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-005-5

After interminable page counts and the never-ending angst of hyper-mega-ultra braided multi-part cross-overs, it’s quite nice to pick up an – admittedly slim – endeavour of more modest means and intent: to wit, a book with a couple of stories that actually begin, occur and end.

Collecting the contents of Action Comics #847, Superman #668-670 and Superman Annual #13, this tome actually has three yarns to delight, beginning with Busiek, Leonardi, and Dan Green’s mini-epic in which all the survivors of lost Krypton on Earth, including Power Girl, Clark and Lois’ adopted son Chris (don’t fret, it’s all explained in the story) and even Krypto are targeted for destruction by brutal space pirate Amalak, hungry to take vengeance for the misdeeds of the long dead Kryptonian Empire.

Imagine how the irascible rogue reacts when he discovers that unbeknownst to all, an actual survivor of that long-dead galactic aggressor state has been living secretly on Earth for years…

Good old-fashioned romp though it is, the real meat of this tale is the rewriting of Kryptonian history (Again! Better keep a scorecard handy!) for the post-Smallville/Superman Returns generation. As the disparate continuities of TV, Cinema and comic-books are massaged closer to homogeneity, the best of the old is being refitted to the new and if the result is more readers then I’m all for it.  This is an uncomplicated adventure thriller with nostalgic overtones that has a lot to recommend it.

‘The Best Day’ (Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Guedes and José Wilson Magalhães) is a sheer delight, beautifully executed. In a quiet moment Superman and Supergirl take the Kent clan on a picnic to the stars and we get a chance to see beloved characters interact in joy and relaxation, when the skies of a million universes aren’t collapsing around their invulnerable ears. It’s a brave, rewarding return to old ways and I want to see more of it.

So go no further than ‘Intermezzo’ (McDuffie and Guedes), another introspective segment sliced from a longer epic, short on punching but big on emotional wallop as Jonathan and Martha Kent share secrets and reveal close-held fears as their adopted son struggles off-camera with another “Never-Ending Battle.”

It’s the gentle moments and the emotional beats that give the best adventure fiction its edge, and this book has them in delightful quantities. This is the stuff that made Superman a legend, and I’m so very glad it making a comeback.

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Conan volume 1


By Roy Thomas & Barry Smith (Marvel/Ace Books)
ISBN: 0-441-11692-2

Perhaps I have a tendency to overthink things regarding the world of graphic narrative, but it seems to me that the medium, as much as the message, radically affects the way we interpret our loves and fascinations. Take this little treat from 1978.

The comicbook Conan had become a mighty success, pre-production was beginning on the John Milius movie barbarian and the prose stories themselves – according to the introduction from Roy Thomas – out of print for half a decade, were once again about to grace the bookstores of the nation.

It’s easy to assume that a quickly resized, repackaged paperback book collection of the early comics extravaganzas was just another Marvel cash-cow in their tried-and-tested “flood the marketplace” sales strategy – and maybe it was – but as someone who bought these stories in most of the available formats over the years I have to admit that this version is one of my very favourites and the one I probably re-read most.

Intended as a paperback library of the Cimmerian’s adventures, The Complete Marvel Conan the Barbarian was far from that, only lasting for 6 volumes (it took losing the franchise to Dark Horse Books to properly accomplish that goal over the last few years) and being forced by format restrictions to abridged the source-material was never a satisfactory proposition, but nevertheless these garish little tomes still capture the gritty essence of those landmark tales, whilst Smith’s art actually gains impact delivered at two panels per page, and positively vibrates with power when a non-standard shaped panel layout forces the page designers to get creative with white space…

The book collects the first three adventures commencing with the dramatic, prophetic ‘The Coming of Conan’ (inked by Dan Adkins), through our young hero’s enslavement and liberation in ‘The Lair of the Beastmen’, and concluding with the seminal apocalyptic masterpiece ‘The Twilight of the Grim Grey God’ (both inked by Sal Buscema), three incredibly accessible barbarian tales that actually lured two of my then-school friends into testing the comicbook waters themselves after years of good-natured scorn…

I suppose in the final reckoning how you come to the material is largely irrelevant as long as you do, but I’m certain that different people are receptive to different modes of transmission and we should endeavour to keep all those avenues open…
© 1978 Conan Properties, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Edition © 1970, 1978 Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation.

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Divine Melody Volume 2


By I-Huan, translated and adapted by Lobelia Cheng & Sue Yang (DrMaster)
ISBN: 978-1-59796-174-5

Celestial Fox Demons are nearly extinct: only females survive and they have enacted a desperate plan to propagate their kind. Stealing a baby deity, they have trained Cai-Sheng over centuries until now she is able to turn into a male at will. But now her abductors are unaware that she/he is matured: able to mate with the fox women; to continue and even elevate their celestial species.

Because Cai-Sheng has other ideas.

When she was still a child two hundred years previously her life was saved by two mortal children, and more importantly, for one glorious afternoon, she learned of play and freedom from duty and destiny. Now after centuries she is reunited with them – or at least their latest reincarnations, beautiful Su Ping and apprentice priest/exorcist Han Yun-Shi. To repay them for their kindness Cai-Sheng has determined to act as matchmaker for the pair, but Ping has seen Cai-Sheng’s male form and become obsessed with “him”.

To further complicate matters Wei Zi-Qiu, an envoy from the goddess of dawn, childbirth and destiny sought out Cai-Sheng, tasked with purifying her and returning her to Heaven whilst in the wings debased fox-demonYu-Niang made her opening move. She had grown strong on two centuries of blood taken from boy children and now she wants the power tied up in Cai-Sheng’s male form…

Yun-Shi is smitten with Su Ping but can’t understand why the frankly weird Cai-Sheng is always hanging around, making herself a nuisance. Moreover, while performing his appointed duties for his disreputable master the apprentice realizes he has a rival in Cai-Sheng’s male form, even if the transforming neo-deity doesn’t…

Zi-Qiu is also constantly turning up, distracting her, and insulting the mortals. He calls Yun-Shi a fraud and questions his motives and honour. When the apprentice is dispatched to find an herb that confers immortality, with Cai-Sheng annoyingly tagging along as usual, he decides to destroy the mystic flower instead, but all the celestial envoy can think of is that Cai-Sheng was alone with the mortal all night, and jumps to the wrong conclusion…

Cai-Sheng returns to the lair of the fox-demons contemplating her designed destiny, but looking at them with new eyes, can’t find any that she loves enough to mate with. Can she save them and be true to her newfound self?

Naming his male self Qin Cai-Sheng, the troubled would-be saviour clashes again with Zi-Qiu, learning the envoy’s tragic history just as the mortal Hui-Niang (a former fox demon who chose humanity, love and children over debased immortality) confronts the wicked Yu-Niang and warns her that her schemes will always be opposed…

And all the strands inevitably draw the cast into a showdown with Yu-Niang and her demonic hordes…

This second volume of the enchanting shōjo tale of legendary China consolidates the characters whilst setting up a portentous clash to come. Even so, Taiwanese creator I-Huan’s flawless blend of mythology and soap-opera temporarily sacrifices comedy for romance and especially action to move on the plot in this saga of duty versus free-will, and familial expectation battling personal desire.

As ever the lyrical art perfectly captures the sense of a lost age whilst horror and fight-fans will revel in the exotic combat scenes (especially against the shadowy demons of Feng Xia) in what is becoming much more than the enduring trials of three people falling in love. A perfect manga for the romantic adventure lover, this is a series that can clearly deliver on all it promises.

This book is produced in the traditional Japanese format and should read from back to front and right to left.

© 2003 I-Huan/Tong Li Publishing Co. Ltd. English translation © 2009 DrMaster Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Shadowpact: the Burning Age


By Matthew Sturges, Kieron Dwyer, Tom Derenick, Phil Winslade & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-141-0

With this final Shadowpact collection (reprinting issues #20-25 of the tragically defunct monthly comic-book series) scripter Matthew Sturges wraps up all the contiguous plot-lines in fine style over two discrete adventures.

In ‘Black and White’ Kieron Dwyer (part 1, ‘Unexpected Allies’), Tom Derenick & Wayne Faucher (part 2, ‘A Virus of the Mind’) and, Phil Winslade (part 3, ‘Come Together’) delineate the final fate of team-leader Nightmaster, as he and Ragman accompany Nightshade to her home dimension and stumble into an imminent eldritch invasion of Earth by the mystic zombies of The Unbound.

Meanwhile after completing Twelve Heroic Labours for the Vatican, Blue Devil and his lawyer finally get their day in the Courts of Hell to determine the final fate and disposition of the hero’s soul…

Reunited with a team-member long thought forever lost, the extra-dimensional wanderers save the world(s) again and are cataclysmically returned to their Earth-bound comrades just in time to face the invading god known as the Sun King and his disciple Dr. Gotham.

Over three apocalyptic chapters ‘The Burning Age’ (illustrated by Winslade) neatly ties up the entire series as the menace the Shadowpact was formed to battle finally makes its infernal move. The entire team (in fact all of the teams of mystical champions over hundreds of thousands of years) finally confront the ultimate enemy throughout all of time in a deadly magical duel to the death.

Spectacular, intriguing and immensely cathartic, this is a superb note on which to end a great series, whilst still leaving options open for a glorious return. Shadowpact is one of the best team-comic-books of recent years and if the temptation of a “complete set” is what it takes to make a fan out of you, I’ll even sink that low…

Infinite Crisis: Day of Vengeance (ISBN 1-84576-230-4), Shadowpact: the Pentacle Plot (ISBN: 1-84576-533-8), Shadowpact: Cursed (ISBN13: 978-1-84576-738-9), Shadowpact: Darkness and Light (ISBN13: 978-1-84576-892-8) and Shadowpact: the Burning Age: each volume is pure magic, so get ’em all…

© 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Marada the She-Wolf – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Christopher Claremont & John Bolton (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-153-6

Scantily clad hot chicks swinging swords have been a staple of fantasy and comics from their very inception, and probably nobody has done it better – certainly visually – than Claremont and Bolton in this heavily recycled yarn set in the days of Imperial Rome.

Marada the She-Wolf is a wandering mercenary whose grandfather was Julius Caesar. When her parents fell into disfavour she was whisked from the Eternal City to live free and grow wild…

Years later in the deserts of Damascus she is rescued from slavers by the Warrior/Magician Donal MacLlyanllwyr, but the indomitable Marada seems a broken doll, devoid of will and spirit. Transporting her to the mystical citadel of Ashandriar amidst the misty hills of Britain the baffled soldier seeks the aid of the legendary sorceress Rhiannon to diagnose, if not cure her illness.

As she slowly recovers the warrior woman forms a bond with Donal’s daughter Arianrhod; a girl of great magical power. Before long the secret of Marada’s malaise is revealed when a demonic creature invades the mystic keep and abducts Arianrhod. Enraged and desperate Marada is forced to brave Hell itself and slash her way through an army of devils to rescue the girl…

These stories originally ran in Epic Illustrated, Marvel’s response to Heavy Metal magazine, (beginning with #10, February 1982) where they appeared in beautiful monochrome wash-and-line, and although Bolton’s sensitive conversion of the art to painted colour is lush and lovely, I have to say that I would have preferred them to have been left that way for this collection.

Also included is ‘Royal Hunt’ a shorter tale wherein Marada and Arianrhod, lost in Africa after escaping the Infernal Realm, are captured by the barbaric Empress of Meroë and given the dubious distinction of being her prey in a competent if uninspired variation of Richard Connell’s landmark 1924 short story (and equally influential 1932 movie) ‘The Most Dangerous Game’.

That crack about recycling didn’t just refer to the art, superb though it is. The original story started life as a Red Sonja yarn for Bizarre Adventures, but when problems arose Claremont and Bolton reworked the thing, and by inserting the whole kit and caboodle into the “real” world of the Roman Empire, albeit braided with Celtic myth and legend, added a satisfying layer of fantastic authenticity to the mix that still leaves it head-and-shoulders above most other Sword and Sorcery “Bad Girls” as well as most general fantasy fiction.

Yet another classy piece of work to add to the “why is this out of print?” pile then…
© 1982, 1985 Christopher S. Claremont and John Bolton. All Rights Reserved.

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Tex Arcana


By John Findley (Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 0-87416-036-7

One of the best comedy/horror westerns (not, admittedly, a vast field of creative endeavour) of the last fifty years, Findley’s quirky masterpiece of gory, saucy, tongue-in-cheek eccentricity delves into the same rich vein (oh, what a card am I!) as Polanski’s Dance of the Vampires (1967 retitled The Fearless Vampire Killers) and the so-bad-it’s-good Captain Kronus (a rare Brian Clemens turkey from 1974) as well as the immortal Mel Brook’s gem Blazing Saddles in this sagebrush saga of the little town of Hangman’s Corners and the extraordinary things that keep happening there.

Narrated in venerable EC style by the Old Claim-Jumper this slightly abridged volume from 1987 collects the strip which ran in Heavy Metal magazine between March 1981 to 1986 and recounts how a vampire in the thrall of demons attacks the town and how they are all saved by the mysterious lone rider known as Tex Arcana – although most of the work is done by his eerie and ethereal paramour “the Woman in White”. Also included is the short mystery ‘The Amazin’ Case o’ th’ Disappearin’ Chickens’ in which two unprepossessing and ineffectual demons Sweaz and Herp solve the perplexing riddle of why the territory’s biggest chicken rancher loses five head of prime fowl at every full moon…

Findley’s writing is deliciously wacky, full of mock-heroic hyperbole, as he diddles with the icons of the genre whilst his astoundingly rendered fine-line-and-hatching style of drawing – meticulous to the point of mania – is completely mesmerising. This guy can really move a pencil and he doesn’t know how to take short-cuts!

Even after the series was dropped from Heavy Metal Findley kept on working and the eerie epic continues to this day online (http://www.texarcana.com/). In 2006 BookSurge published a 282 page compilation (Tex Arcana: a Saga of the Old West, ISBN: 978-1-41964-632-4) which collected everything to date, but I’ve gone with this 72 page, oversized edition because the reproduction on the new edition is reportedly not everything it could be, and also because I haven’t got hold of a copy of the new book yet. When I do I’ll report back to you…

A little spooky, a lot funny, incredibly realized: whichever version you plump for, doesn’t this sound like your kind of thing..?

© 1987 John Findley and Catalan Communications. All Rights Reserved.

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All Star Superman Volume 2


By Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely with Jamie Grant (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-854-4

The worst part of this gig is those moments when you’re holding something that defies your best-words: something utterly self evident, if only you could but see it yourself…

The long-awaited second and concluding volume of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s quirkily reverential and innovatively nostalgic interpretation of the legend of Superman (reprinting issues #7-12 of the award-winning mini-series) wraps up the saga in inimitable manner to the general delight of all fans and occasional dilettantes everywhere.

Superman is dying. Poisoned by Lex Luthor and the Tyrant Sun Solaris, the Man of Tomorrow rushes desperately to finish a shopping list of impossible tasks before his inevitable end, aware that the precious Earth and his greatest friends must be kept safe and happy, even after his demise…

Revisiting such unforgettable Silver Age motifs as the Planet of the Bizarros, being replaced by (even) more competent Kryptonians, liberating the citizens of the Bottle City of Kandor and all those cataclysmic battles with Luthor, not to mention curing cancer and the last Will and Testament of Superman, these gently thrilling glimpses of finer worlds shine with charm and Sense-of-Wonder, leavened with dark, knowing humour and subtle wistfulness. And action. Lots and lots of spectacular, mind-boggling action…

Older readers of the Man of Steel look back on an age of weirdness, mystery, hope and above all, unparalleled imagination. Morrison and the uniquely stylish Quitely (aided and abetted by the digital wizardry of inker/colourist Jamie Grant) obviously remember them too, and must miss them as much as we do.

However this is not just a pastiche of lost grandeur. Kids of all ages are better informed than we were, and the strong narrative thread and sharp, witty dialogue, backed up by the best 21st century technobabble should ensure that even the worldliest young cynic feels a rush of mind-expanding, goose-bump awe.

All-Star Superman: One of the very few superhero collections that literally anybody can – and should – enjoy…

© 2007, 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.