Thanks for indulging our efforts this year and we hope you all have a wonderful and memorable 2011.
Dungeon: Monstres volume 3: Heartbreaker
By Joann Sfar & Lewis Trondheim, Carlos Nine & Patrice Killoffer, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-591-7
This slim tome is yet another instalment in the ongoing, eccentric, raucous and addictively wacky franchise that is the best thing to have happened to fantasy storytelling in decades. The Dungeon saga is subdivided into Early Years, Zenith, and Twilight as well as Dungeons Parade and the Monstres of this particular review.
The inhabitants of this weirdly surreal universe include every kind of anthropomorphic beast and bug as well as monsters, demons, smart-alecs and stroppy women-folk. There’s always something happening and it’s usually quite strange…
The nominal star is a duck with a magic sword which forces him to channel dead heroes and monsters, but at the time of the first story Herbert of Craftiwich is yet to become Grand Khan and supreme overlord of a dying, burning world. For increased clarity a quick glance at Dungeon – the Early Years (Volume 2: Innocence Lost to be specific) would be beneficial.
In ‘Heartbreaker’, the lead story in this beautifully exotic compilation, the setting is the debauched, bureaucratised and grimly frenetic urban hellhole of Antipolis wherein serpentine lady-assassin Alexandra reveals her cynically jaded, tragically baroque past in a bizarrely beautiful account of the inescapable corruption at the heart of the city and its Guilds.
Without warning the tale shifts to her betrayal, incarceration and escape from horrendous suffering and her response to a world that could make her the creature she irrevocably is…
Evocatively illustrated by guest artist Carlos Nine the darkly disturbing odyssey is followed by a flamboyantly bright and deceptively garish self-contained undersea saga ‘The Depths’ which looks like the most pleasing kids fantasy ever…
But it most certainly isn’t.
Set decades later when Herbert is the Khan, it focuses on aquatic princess Drowny (who looks like a wide-eyed purple tadpole) as she narrowly escapes death when a gang of assassins mistake her family’s home for their intended target. With her loved ones murdered Drowny hides in plain sight, disguising herself as one of the intruders. Enduring heartbreak and degradation she accidentally rises to a position of power and influence in the invading army which has struck a foul deal with the Khan’s son to conquer the planet and divide the world above and below between them.
Always looking for a way to return to her own people, when her chance comes, Drowny is faced with a crushing revelation…
Superbly realised – the creators have really thought about how characters would act and interact underwater – the lush colour and incredibly imaginative creature designs of Patrice Killoffer add a cartoon fantasy sheen to the proceedings which utterly belies the stark, horrific tale of the depths a decent person will sink to for revenge…
Comprising two translated French albums ‘Creve-Coeur’ and ‘Les Profondeurs’ this is another strikingly surreal, earthy, sharp, mordant, poignant and brilliantly outlandish tome that’s a joy to read with vibrant, wildly eccentric art moody as Sin City and jolly as Rupert Bear.
Definitely for broad-minded grown-ups with young hearts, Dungeon is a near-the-knuckle, over-the-top, illicit experience which addicts at first sight, but for a fuller comprehension – and added enjoyment – I’d advise buying all the various incarnations.
© 2004 Trondheim-Sfar-Nine-Killoffer-Guy Delcourt Productions. English translation © 2010 NBM. All rights reserved.
Ultimate Spider-Man book 2: Chameleons
By Brian Michael Bendis, Takeshi Miyazawa & Davis LaFuente (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-466-9
The Marvel Ultimates project began in 2000 with a drastically modernizing refit of key characters and concepts to bring them into line with contemporary consumers – perceived to be a separate market to the baby-boomers and their declining descendents who seemed content with the assorted efforts which sprang from the hearts and minds of Kirby, Ditko and Lee.
Eventually the stripped-down new universe became as overcrowded and continuity-constricted as the original, leading to the 2008 “Ultimatum†publishing event which thinned the new herd – and millions of ordinary mortals into the bargain.
Although a commercial success the epic was largely slated by the fans who had bought it, and the ongoing “Ultimatum Comics†quietly soldiered on without “mentioning the War…â€
The key and era-ending event was actually a colossal tsunami that drowned the superhero-heavy island of Manhattan and this second post-tidal wave collection (assembling issues #7-14 of the relaunched Ultimate Comics Spider-Man) picks up the story of young Peter Parker and his unique house-guests all slowly readjusting to their altered state.
Parker is sixteen (but looks 12), the perennial hard-luck loser kid: a brilliant geek just trying to get by in a world where daily education is infinitely more scary than monsters and villains. Between High School and slinging fast food (Burger Frog is his only source of income since the Daily Bugle drowned) he still finds time to fight crime although his very public heroics during the crisis have made him a beloved hero of police and citizenry alike – which is the creepiest thing he has ever endured.
He lives in a big house with his Aunt May, and despite his low self-image has stellar hottie Gwen Stacy for a devoted girlfriend, but perpetually endures the teen-angsty situation of equally stellar hottie Mary Jane Watson (his ex-squeeze) hanging around and acting all grown-up about it. He briefly dated mutant babe Kitty Pride: remember when not having any girlfriend was the textbook definition of “loser�
Many kids are homeless after the deluge, with schools and accommodation stretched to breaking point, so feisty May Parker has opened her doors to a select band of orphaned super-teens like the Human Torch and Iceman, as well as Gwen. Peter’s secret identity was constantly threatened before; how can he possibly conceal his adventurous life when two such famous characters are suddenly sharing the bathroom and his exploits…?
This second delightful collection opens with a new presence in the Ultimate Universe as near-neighbour Rick Jones is possessed by an ancient intergalactic presence. Cool Youngbloods Spidey, Torch and Iceman befriend the bewildered lad and are dragged along on a tumultuous fact-finding mission to secret base Project Pegasus just in time to clash with the sexy sirens of the all-girl Serpent Squad and discover that poor Rick – now calling himself “Nova†– is a cosmic “Chosen One†destined to save the World…
That two-part, laugh-packed thriller leads into decidedly darker territory in #9 as shallow jerk Johnny Storm finds the girl of his dreams in a new mysterious Spider-Girl whilst anti-mutant feeling grows and Kitty Pryde is almost snatched from school by brutally heavy-handed government agents.
On the run, Kitty goes dangerously rogue whilst her friends attempt to go public with the Authorities’ quasi-legal black-bag operation, enlisting the Fourth Estate in the form of the newly-restored Daily Bugle…
Unfortunately whilst trying to break the story of the Government’s anti-mutant agenda Peter Parker is abducted by an enigmatic shapechanger who borrows his form, his powers and his life. Issues #11-14 detail the Chameleon’s vindictive campaign to trash Spidey’s private life whilst using his stolen powers to go on a highly profitable, very public crime spree.
Meanwhile the real Peter is the prisoner of a second psychotic shapeshifter, who also has J. Jonah Jameson under wraps. In close proximity with Pete for days, the wily veteran newsman has deduced the boy’s greatest secret… The climax is breathtaking and portentous. Although temporarily safe, Parker’s life is about to go very badly wrong…
Combining smart dialogue and teen soap opera dynamics with spectacular action – beautifully rendered by artists Takeshi Miyazawa, David Lafuente and colourist Justin Ponsor – Brian Michael Bendis blends hilarious hi-jinks with staggering tension and shocking plot-twists to produce one of the most enjoyable takes on the wall-crawler in decades.
This series goes from strength to strength: a marvellously compelling and enjoyable costumed drama that easily overcomes its troubled origins. Absolutely worth any jaded superhero fan’s time and money Ultimate Spider-Man is well on the way to becoming an unmissable hit…
™ and © 2010 Marvel Entertainment LCC and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. A British edition released by Panini UK Ltd.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
By Dr. Seuss (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
ISBN: 978-0-00736-554-8
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for everybody…  10/10
Theodore Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield Massachusetts on 2nd March 1094, the son of a wealthy beermaker of German origins. He attended Dartmouth College, where he edited the college magazine, graduating in 1925 despite a few narrow escapes from the college authorities. Geisel liked to party and preferred drawing to his studies. It was apparently how he got his penname: after the Dean banned him from drawing after a particularly raucous binge, the young artist took pains to sign his work only with his middle name…
He studied English Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford in 1927, where he met his first wife Helen. When they returned to America he became a cartoonist and illustrator, doing spot gags, political panels and covers for a variety of publishers. He produced a weekly strip Birdsies and Beasties in prestigious humour magazine Judge and his work also appeared in Life, Vanity Fair, The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, PM among others. He even briefly produced a newspaper strip ‘Hejji’ (1935) and tried his hand at animation and advertising. During World War II Geisel turned to political cartooning, advocating a strong response to the Fascist threat and in 1943 enlisted as a lead animator and director for the United States Army, winning an award in 1947 for the documentary Design For Death which explored Japanese cultural history.
He published his first poem/cartoon book ‘And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street’ in 1937 but really gradually became immortal after the war when news reports about the relative illiteracy and lack of vocabulary in young children (particularly a damning report in Life, May 1954) led him to create his easy-reading masterpieces ‘The Cat in the Hat’, ‘Green Eggs and Ham’, ‘Gerald McBoing-Boing’, ‘One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish’, ‘Horton Hears a Who!’ and 38 others before his death in 1991.
In 1957 he released the now-legendary ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’, a Yuletide evergreen, immortalized in a brilliant Chuck Jones animated short in 1966 and a so-so big budget movie in 2000. Over and above both of these the actual book still towers as a masterpiece of cartoon fiction and one I beg you to read if you already haven’t.
If you’re one of the three westerners who still don’t know the story…
The Grinch is a mean hermit who for no special reason loathes everything about the whole Christmas Season. So one X-Mas Eve he creeps into Who-houses and nicks every trinket that Christmas espouses. No Trees, Tinsel, Presents or Taste Treats are left: the nasty old codger has left Who-ville bereft.
But just at the moment when his triumph is paramount the Grinch sees what Christmas is actually all about. Heart bursting with joy and good feelings re-surging Grinch returns all the treats he was wickedly purging and joins Who-ville’s people in their grand feast – and even shares some of their glorious Roast Beast!
Seriously though; the simple heartwarming tale of the old monster – and his trusty, illogically faithful hound – as they fail to ruin Christmas, his miraculous change of heart and eventual redemption is the perfect examination of what the Season should mean. Moreover it’s written in a captivating manner with bold rhyme and incredibly enthralling artwork that embeds itself within every reader. Wily, wise and wonderful, ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’ is absolutely the best kid’s Christmas book ever created and one you simple have to read.
Don’t make me put coal in your socks…
© 1957, 1985 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. All rights reserved.
Justice Society Volume 2
By Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1194-3
This second of twin volumes gathering the 1970s revival of the fabled Justice Society of America collects issues #68-74 of All-Star Comics plus the series’ continuation and conclusion from giant anthology title Adventure Comics #461-466.
Set on the parallel world of Earth-2 the veteran team was leavened with a smattering of teen heroes combined into a contentious, generation-gap fuelled “Super Squad†– although by the start of this book that rather naff sub-title has been quietly dropped and the assembled multi-generational team are all JSA-ers. .
Those youngsters included a grown up Robin, Sylvester Pemberton, the Star-Spangled Kid (a teen superhero from the 1940s who had been lost in time for decades) and a busty young nymphet who quickly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys: Kara Zor-L – Power Girl.
By issue #68 (October, 1977) the curvy Kryptonian was clearly the star of the show and as ‘Divided We Stand!’ by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Bob Layton, concluded a long-running scheme by the villainous Psycho-Pirate to discredit and destroy the JSA she was well on the way to her first solo outing in Showcase #97-98 (reprinted in Power Girl). Meanwhile Green Lantern resumed a maniacal rampage through Gotham City and Police Commissioner Bruce Wayne took steps to bring the seemingly out-of control team to book.
In #69’s ‘United We Fall!’ Commissioner Wayne bought in his own team of retired JSA-ers to arrest the “rogue†heroes, resulting in a classic fanboy dream duel as Dr. Fate, Wildcat, Hawkman, Flash, GL and Star Spangled Kid battled the one-time Batman, Robin, Hourman, Starman, Dr. Midnight and Wonder Woman. It was a colourful catastrophe in waiting until Power Girl and Superman intervened to reveal the true cause of all the madness. And in the background, a new character was about to make a landmark debut…
With order (temporarily) restored ‘A Parting of the Ways!’ focussed on Wildcat and Star Spangled Kid as the off-duty heroes stumbled upon a high-tech gang of super-thieves called the Strike Force. The robbers initially proved too much for the pair and even new star The Huntress, but with a pair of startling revelations in ‘The Deadliest Game in Town!’ the trio finally triumphed. In the aftermath the Kid resigned and the daughter of Batman and Catwoman (alternate Earth, remember?) replaced him.
All-Star Comics #72 reintroduced a couple of classic Golden Age villainesses in ‘A Thorn by Any Other Name’ as the floral psychopath returned to poison Wildcat, leaving Helena Wayne to battle the original Huntress for the cure and the rights to the name…
The concluding ‘Be it Ever So Deadly’ (with Joe Giella taking over the in inkers role) saw the entire team in action as Huntress battled Huntress whilst Thorn and the Sportsmaster did their deadly best to destroy the heroes and their loved ones. Simultaneously in Egypt Hawkman and Dr. Fate stumbled upon a deadly ancient menace to all of reality…
The late 1970s was a perilous period for comics with drastically dwindling sales. Many titles were abruptly cancelled in a “DC Implosion†and All-Star Comics was one of the casualties. Issue #74 was the last and pitted the entire team against a mystic Armageddon perpetrated by the nigh-omnipotent Master Summoner who orchestrated a ‘World on the Edge of Ending’ before once more the Justice Society triumphed.
Although their book was gone the series continued in the massive 68 page anthology title Adventure Comics, beginning in #461 with the blockbuster tale intended for the anniversary 75th issue. Drawn and inked by Staton, ‘Only Legends Live Forever’ detailed the last case of Batman as the Dark Knight came out of retirement to battle a seeming nonentity who had mysteriously acquired god-like power.
Divided into two chapters, #462 delivered the shocking conclusion ‘The Legend Lives Again!’ whilst ‘The Night of the Soul Thief!’ saw Huntress, Robin and the assembled JSA deliver righteous justice to the mysterious mastermind who had truly orchestrated the death of the World’s Greatest Detective.
Adventure #464 provided an intriguing insight into aging warrior Wildcat as with ‘To Everything There is a Season…’ he embraced his own mortality and began a new career as a teacher of heroes, whilst ‘Countdown to Disaster!’ (inked by Dave Hunt) saw Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Power Girl, Huntress and Dr. Fate hunt a doomsday device lost in the teeming masses of Gotham. It would be last modern solo outing of the team for decades.
But not the last in this volume: that honour falls to another Levitz & Staton landmark history lesson wherein they revealed why the team vanished at beginning of the 1950s. From Adventure #466 ‘The Defeat of the Justice Society!’ showed how the American Government betrayed their greatest champions during the McCarthy Witch-hunts provoking them into withdrawing from public, heroic life for over a decade – that is until the costumed stalwarts of Earth-1 started the whole Fights ‘n’ Tights scene all over again…
Although perhaps a little dated now, these exuberant, rapid-paced and imaginative yarns perfectly blend the naive charm of Golden Age derring-do with cynical yet hopeful modern sensibilities that will always hold out hope for hero to save the day. Fun, furious and ferociously fun, this is stuff non mystery-man maven can do without.
© 1977, 1978, 1979, 2006 DC Comics. All rights reserved.
Toys in the Basement
By Stéphane Blanquet, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-402-6
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for bold kids and timid parents…  8/10
It’s a bumper time if you have kids who love the grimmer side of storytelling. This thematic companion volume to The Littlest Pirate King is another superb slice of macabre all-ages Euro-whimsy, courtesy of the wildly talented and incredibly prolific Stéphane Blanquet (more than 25 graphic novels and books published since 1994 including Dungeon: Monstres volume 2, Kramer’s Ergot, and Zero Zero).
Do you remember the heart-wrenching scene in the 1964 stop-motion television classic Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer when he finds the Island of Misfit toys? Do you recall how all they wanted was children to love them? Hold on to that thought…
At a Halloween fancy-dress party a disgruntled little boy is sulking. In his heart he’s a vicious pirate king, but his cheapskate mother would only pay for a pink bunny costume nobody else wanted… As the other kids tease and bully him he retreats to a corner where he meets a geeky kid in a chicken suit.
Poultry boy has a broken leg and a raging thirst, but his friend, a girl in a kitten outfit, has been down in cellar fetching drinks for ages. After some pleading, Pink Bunny, keen to avoid further embarrassment, or be seen with a nerd dressed like a chicken, goes after her.
At the bottom of the stairs he finds her paralysed with fear: the basement is filled with maimed and broken toys, alive, angry and determined to wreak bloody vengeance on the cruel children who maltreated and abandoned them. Luckily, because of their stupid outfits the toys assume the kids too are dolls, because they were real children…
Playing for time, Catgirl and Bunnyboy follow the maladjusted playthings to a vast underground cavern where all broken toys are massing, readying for the day they will rise and take over. The children gasp in horror at the artificial army’s secret weapon – a gigantic ravenous Frankensteinian beast named Amelia, cobbled together from thousands of discarded toy fragments, all hungry for righteous slaughter…
It’s at that moment Chicken-boy stumbles upon them and blows their cover…
Dosed with dry, mordant wit and just the right tone of macabre Ghost Train suspense Toys in the Basement is a simply terrific goose-bumpy thriller rendered magical by the wildly eccentric, brilliantly imaginative and creepily fluid artwork of Blanquet. This dark delight also has the perfect moral message for loot-hungry, attention-deprived youngsters – and their kids and grandchildren too.
© 2005 Editions La Joie de Lire SA. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.
Beyond Mars volumes 1 & 2
By Jack Williamson & Lee Elias (Blackthorne)
ISBNs: 0-932629-82-2 and 0-932629-84-9
The 1950s was the last great flourish of the American newspaper strip. Always intended as a way of boosting circulation and encouraging consumer loyalty, the inexorable rise of television and spiraling costs of publishing gradually ate away at all but the most popular cartoon features as the decade ended, but the earlier years saw a final, valiant, huge burst of creativity and variety as syndicates looked for ways to recapture popular attention whilst editors increasingly sought ways to maximise every fraction of an inch for paying ads, not expensive cost-centers.
No matter how well produced, imaginative or entertaining, if strips couldn’t increase sales, they weren’t welcome…
The decade also saw a fantastic social change as a commercial boom and technological progress created a new type of visionary consumer – one fired up by the realization that America was Top Dog in the world. The optimistic escapism offered by the stars above led to a reawakening in the moribund science fiction genre, with a basic introduction for the hoi-polloi offered by the burgeoning television industry through such pioneering if clunky programmes as Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and movies from visionaries like Robert Wise (Day the Earth Stood Still) and George Pal (Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, War of the Worlds and others).
For kids of all ages conceptual fancies were being tickled by a host of fantastic comicbooks ranging from the blackly satirical Weird Science Fantasy to the welcoming and openly enthusiastic Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space. In the digest magazines master imagineers such as Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke, Sturgeon, Dick, Bester and Farmer were transforming the genre from youthful melodrama into a highly philosophical art form…
With Flying Saucers in the skies, Reds under the Beds and adventure in mind, the Worlds of Tomorrow were common currency and newspaper strips wanted more. Established features such as Buck Rogers, Brick Bradford and Flash Gordon were no longer enough and editors wanted new fresh visions to draw in a wider public, not just the steady fans who already bought papers for their favourite futurian.
John Stewart “Jack†Williamson was one of the first superstars of American science fiction, a rurally raised, self-taught author with more than 50 books, 18 short story collections and even volumes of criticism and non-fiction to his much lauded name. Born in Arizona in 1908, he was raised in Texas and sold his first story in 1928 to Amazing Stories.
Williamson created a number of legendary serials such as the Legion of Space, The Humanoids and the Legion of Time and is credited by the OED with inventing “terraforming†and “genetic engineering.†He was one of the first literary investigators of anti-matter with his Seetee novels.
“See Tee†or “Contra Terrene Matter†is at the heart of the strip under discussion here, collected in two oversized black and white paperback volumes by Blackthorne in 1987 as part of their Comic Strips Preserves project.
A damning newspaper review of Seetee Ship, Williamson’s second novel in that sequence, claimed the book was only marginally better than a comic strip, prompting the editor of a rival paper to engage Williamson and artist Lee Elias to produce a Sunday page based in the same universe as the books. With Dick Tracy maestro Chester Gould as adviser for the early days, the strip ran exclusively in the New York Daily News from 17th February 1952 to May 13th 1955, a glorious high-tech, high-adventure romp based around Brooklyn Rock in 2191AD, a commercial space station bored into one of the rocky chunks drifting in the asteroid belt ‘Beyond Mars’ -the ideal rough-and-tumble story venue on the ultimate frontier of human experience.
The nominal star is Spatial Engineer Mike Flint, an independent charter-pilot based on the rock (although as the series progressed a progression of sexy women and inspired extraterrestrial sidekicks increasingly stole the show) and the first tale begins with Flint selling his services to pluck Becky Starke who has come to the edge of humanity in search of her missing father, although she cloaks that in the quest for a city-sized solid diamond asteroid floating in the deadly “Meteor Drift 
Soon Mike and his lisping ophidian Venusian partner Tham Thmith are contending with Brooklyn Rock’s crime boss Frosty Karth, a fantastic raider dubbed the Black Martian, a super-criminal named Cobra and even more unearthly menaces in a stirring tale of interplanetary drug dealers, lost cities, dead civilisations and a fantastic mutation – a semi-feral terran boy who can breathe vacuum and rides deep space on a meteor!
With that tale barely concluded the crew, including the rambunctious space boy Jimikin, fell deep into another mystery – Brooklyn Rock was missing!
However Flint had no time to grieve for the family and friends left behind as he intercepted an inbound star-liner and discovered an old flame and a smooth thug bound for the now-missing space station – moreover, one of them knew where it went…
Unknown to even this mastermind, the Rock, stolen by pirates, was out of control and drifting to ultimate destruction in a debris field, but no sooner wais that crisis averted than the heroes became entangled in a “First Contact†situation with an ancient alien from beyond Known Space – or at least with the devilish devices he/she/it left running…
With Book 1 ending on that dramatic cliffhanger, the concluding chronicle opens with Mike, Tham, Jimikin and curvaceous Xeno-archeologist Victoria Snow narrowly escaping alien vivisection from the robotic relics before the tragic, inevitable conclusion.
Snow’s brother Blackie was a fast-talking ne’er-do-well and when he showed up old enemy Karth took the opportunity to try and settle some old scores, leading Flint into a deadly trap on Ceres and a slick saga of genetic manipulation, eugenic supermen and bonanza wealth…
Meanwhile on an interplanetary liner, a new cast member “resurfaced†in the shape of crusty old coot and Mercurian ore prospector Fireproof Jones, just in time to help Flint and Sam mine their newfound riches. As ever Karth was looking to make trouble for the heroes but he invited some for himself when his young daughter suddenly turned up on the Rock accompanied by the gold-digging Pamela Prim. And suddenly the murderous raider Black Martian returned to plague the honest pioneers of the Brooklyn frontier…
Glamour model Trish O’Keefe caused a completely different kind of trouble when she arrived looking for her fiancé, but Tack McTeak wasn’t the humble space-doctor he claimed to be but a cerebrally augmented criminal mastermind, and his plans to snatch the biggest prize in space led to a sequence of stunning thrills and astonishing action.
The scene switched to Earth as the cast visited “civilisation†and found it far from hospitable, so the chance to battle manufactured monsters and the mysterious Dr. Moray on his private tropical island was something of a welcome, if mixed, blessing.
By this time the writing must have been on the wall, as the strip had been reduced to a half page per week, but the creators had clearly decided to go out in style. The sheer bravura spectacle was magnificently ramped up and all the tools of the science fiction trade were utilized to ensure the strip went out with a bang. Moray’s plans were catastrophically realised when the villain used an anti-gravity bomb to steal Manhattan, turning it into a deadly Sword of Damocles in the sky…
The series ended when the paper changed its editorial policy and dropped all comics from its pages. The decision was clearly a quick one as the saga finished satisfactorily but quite abruptly on Sunday 13th March 1955.
Beyond Mars is a breathtaking lost gem from two master craftsmen that successfully blended the wonders of science and the rollicking thrills of Westerns with broad, light-hearted humour to produce a mind-boggling, eye-popping, exuberantly wholesome family space-opera the likes of which wouldn’t be seen again until Star Wars put the fun back into futuristic fiction. This is a saga crying out for a definitive collectors edition.
© 1987 Lee Elias Jack & Williamson. Lee Elias. All rights reserved.
The Last Days of American Crime
By Rick Remender & Greg Tocchini (Radical Books)
ISBN: 978-0-935417-06-4
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for thrillseekers needing to get that pulse pounding again…  8/10
If you’re in need of a sobering dose of deeply disturbing hyper-reality then I thoroughly recommend this brilliant, extremely adult, cross-genre thriller which posits a fascinating premise, starts the countdown clock ticking down and delivers a killer kick to finish the rollercoaster ride.
America is a mess and the government need to take drastic action if they want to keep control. Terrorism and crime are rampant but luckily the boffins have come up with a radical solution: the American Peace Initiative – a broadcast frequency that utterly suppresses the ability to knowingly break a law. Any law.
Taking the radical decision to make all lawbreaking impossible (which is the only logical flaw I can find: what politician is ever going to make bribery obsolete?), and fearing a social meltdown in the run-up to going live, the powers-that-be also set up a distraction in the form of a complete switch-over from a cash economy to universal electronic transfers – an unstealable digital currency.
From D-Day on citizens will top up pay-cards from charging machines which are tamper-proof and impossible to hack and from that day every transaction in the USA will be recorded and traceable and every illegal purchase – drugs, guns, illicit sex – impossible…
In the weeks before the big switchover there is a huge exodus for the borders of Canada and Mexico and a total breakdown of law and order in the country’s most degenerate areas, but generally everybody seems resigned to the schemes – even when the anti-lawbreaking API broadcast plan is leaked…
With the world about to change forever low-rent career criminal Graham Bricke spots a chance for the biggest score of his life. He’s working as a security guard in one of the banks that will house the new currency technology and has an unmissable opportunity to steal one of the charging machines before the system is locked down forever. Unfortunately because of the API broadcast he has to pull off the caper before it becomes impossible to even contemplate theft…
In a hurry and needing specialised help Bricke and his silent partner are forced to hire a crew of strangers, but as the days dwindle he realises that safecracker Kevin Cash and hacker Shelby Dupree are trouble: a murderous psychotic and crazed libidinous wild-child with daddy issues. If only he can work out which is which…
Moreover there are other distractions. Graham is being hunted by a manic gangbanger and his posse and there’s a good chance at least one of his team are planning a double-cross…
This is a fascinating idea carried out with dizzying style and astounding panache: smart, sexy, unbelievably violent and utterly compelling, combining all the brooding energy of The Wire, the unremitting tension of 24‘s first season and the off-centre charm of Reservoir Dogs. It has blockbuster movie written all over it – which is no surprise as Remender’s previous efforts include comicbooks, like All-New Atom , X-Men and Punisher, computer games Dead Space and Bulletstorm and the animated feature Titan A.E.
Cannily concocted by Rick Remender and stunningly executed in dazzling colour by Greg Tocchini, this economical paperback also includes an extensive sketch and design section, an interview with the author and a lavish cover gallery which includes variants from Alex Malleev, Jerome Opeña & Matt Wilson and Joel dos Reis Viegas.
Short. Sharp. Shocking. Let’s hope they can do it again…
© 2010 Rick Remender and Radical Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Littlest Pirate King
By David B. & Pierre Mac Orlan, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-403-0
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for bold kids and timid parents…  8/10
Tim Burton has pretty much cornered the market on outlandish spooky fairytales but if you and your kids have a fondness for scary fables and macabre adventure with a uniquely European flavour you might want to take a peek at this impressive yarn of unquiet buccaneers and phantom piracy.
Pierre Mac Orlan was one of the nom-de-plumes of celebrated French author, musician and performer Pierre Dumarchey who between his birth in 1882 and death in 1970 managed to live quite a number of successful, productive and action-packed lives. As well as writing straight books, he produced a wealth of artistic materials including children’s tales like this one, hundreds of popular songs and quite a bit of outré pornography.
A renowned Parisian Bohemian, he sang and played accordion in nightclubs and cabaret, was wounded in the trenches in 1916, subsequently becoming a war correspondent, and after the conflict became a celebrated film and photography critic as well as one of the country’s most admired songwriter and novelists.
David B. is a founder member of the groundbreaking strip artists group L’Association, and has won numerous awards including the Alph’ Art for comics excellence including European Cartoonist of the Year in 1998. His seamless blending of artistic Primitivism visual metaphor, high and low cultural icons, as seen in such landmarks as Babel and Epileptic, are augmented here by a welcome touch of morbid whimsy and stark fantasy which imbues this work with a cheery ghoulish intensity only Charles Addams and Ronald Searle can match.
Mac Orlan’s tale perhaps owes more to song than storybook, with its oddly jumpy narrative structure, but Davis B.’s canny illustration perfectly captures the spirit of grim wit as it recounts the tale of the ghostly crew of the Flying Dutchman, damned sailors cursed to wander the oceans, never reaching port, destroying any living sailors they encounter and craving nothing but the peace of oblivion.
Their horrendous existence forever changes when, on one of their periodic night raids, they slaughter the crew of a transatlantic liner but save a baby found on board. Their heartless intention is to rear the boy until he is old enough to properly suffer at their skeletal hands, but as the years pass the eagerly anticipated day becomes harder and harder for the remorseless crew to contemplate…
Stark and vivid, scary and heartbreakingly sad as only a children’s tale can be, this darkly swashbuckling romp is a classy act with echoes of Pirates of the Caribbean (which it predates by nearly a century) that will charm, inspire and probably cause a tear or two to well up.
© 2009 Gallimard Jeunesse. This edition © 2010 Fantagraphics Books. All rights reserved.
What I Did
By Jason, translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-414-6
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for anybody who wants something a little different in their stocking …  8/10
John Arne Saeterrøy, who works under the pen-name Jason, was born in Molde, Norway in 1965, and appeared on the international cartoonists’ scene at age 30 with his first graphic novel Lomma full ay regn (Pocket Full of Rain) subsequently winning Norway’s biggest comics prize, the Sproing Award for 1995.
He won another Sproing in 2001 for his self-generated comic series Mjau Mjau – from which all the tales in this latest magical collection are culled – before turning almost exclusively to producing graphic novels in 2002. Now a global star among the cognoscenti he has won several major awards from such disparate regions as France, Slovakia and the USA.
This latest hardback compilation gathering ‘Hey, Wait…’, ‘Sshhhh!’ and ‘The Iron Wagon’ first appeared in Mjau Mjau between 1997 and 2001, and the volume opens with an eerie and glorious paean to boyhood friendships as young Bjorn and Jon enjoy a life of perfect childhood until a tragic accident ends the idyll forever. Life however, goes on, but for one of the lads it’s an existence populated from then on with ghosts and visions…
Jason’s work always jumps directly into the reader’s brain and heart, using the beastly and unnatural to gently pose eternal questions about basic human needs in a soft but relentless quest for answers. That you don’t ever notice the deep stuff because of the clever gags and safe, familiar “funny-animal†characters should indicate just how good a cartoonist he is…
‘Sshhhh!’ is a delightfully evocative romantic melodrama created without words: a bittersweet tale of boy-bird meeting girl-bird in a world overly populated with spooks and ghouls and skeletons but afflicted far more harshly by loneliness and regret.
These comic tales are strictly for adults but allow us all to look at the world through wide-open young eyes. This is especially true of the final tale in this collection – a sly and beguiling adaptation of a classic detective story from 1909, but enhanced to a macabre degree by the easy cartooning and skilled use of silence and moment.
‘The Iron Wagon’ is a clever, enthralling and deeply dark mystery yarn originally written by Stein Riverton, and has the same quality of cold yet harnessed stillness which makes the Swedish television adaptations of Henning Mankell’s Wallander so superior to the English-language interpretations.
Jason’s stylised artwork is delivered in formalised page layouts rendered in a minimalist evolution of Hergé’s Claire Ligne style, solid blacks, thick lines and settings of seductive simplicity augmented here by stunning Deep Red overlays to enhance the Hard Black and Genteel White he usually prefers.
In the coastal retreat of Hvalen a desperate author is haunted by ghosts and nightmares but the townsfolk are all too engrossed with the death of the game warden on the Gjaernes Estate to notice or care. The family seems cursed with troubles. First the old man was lost at sea, now the murder of Warden Blinde just as he was betrothed to Hilde Gjaernes blights the farm. People are talking, saying it’s all the fault of the long dead grandfather who lost his fortune and life dabbling with weird inventions…
Even now sensitive souls still hear his accursed Iron Wagon roaring through the night, presaging another death in the village…
Luckily there are more sensible folk abroad to summon a detective from Kristiania (Oslo), but Asbjǿrn Krag is not the kind of policeman anybody was expecting and as the young writer becomes enmired in the horrific unfolding events he realises that not only over-imaginative fools hear things.
In the depths of the night’s stillness he too shudders at the roaring din of the Iron Wagon…
Moody, suspenseful and utterly engrossing this would be a terrific yarn even without Jason’s superbly understated art, but in combination the result is dynamite.
This collection, despite being early works resonates with the artist’s preferred themes and shines with his visual dexterity. It’s one of Jason’s very best and will warm the cockles of any fan’s heart.
© 2010 Jason. All rights reserved.