Posts

Posted on

Realms


By Paul Kirchner (Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 0-87416-043-X ISBN-13: 978-0-87416-043-7

In the 1980s American comics got a huge creative boost with the advent of high quality magazines such as Heavy Metal and Epic Illustrated which showcased adult-oriented material with high quality graphics and formats such as had taken Europe by storm a decade earlier. Previous US experience of such work had been limited to the Underground Comix scene – in terms of content if not production values, at least – and the occasional independent experiment of such maverick luminaries as Wally Wood and Jim Steranko.

When Heavy Metal first launched in April 1977 (looking very much like its French conceptual “parent” Métal Hurlant, there was precious little original home-grown material to supplement the sumptuous continental work therein. One of the first creators to join the magazine was Paul Kirchner, who had worked as an assistant to Wally Wood in the early 1970s, contributing to such Woody-associated projects as Big Apple Comics.

Born in 1952, Kirchner was in his third year at Cooper Union School of Art in New York when Neal Adams and Larry Hama introduced him to the horror editors at DC, whose anthology titles always needed fresh blood. He assisted Tex Blaisdell on Little Orphan Annie and in 1973 joined Ralph Reese at Wood’s studio.

His starkly surreal strip The Bus debuted in Heavy Metal in 1978 and ran intermittently until 1985. During this time Kirchner was seeking something more meaningful for his creative energies and the tales collected in Realms (both colour and monochrome and all previously published in either HM or Epic) are the results of that search.

All the strips come from the period 1975-1986, and the book starts with a single-page pastiche of EC comics entitled ‘They Came From Uranus!’ before the main event begins with the fantasy quest ‘Tarot’, a meticulously rendered gem of magic, motorcycles and lost civilisations. ‘Shaman’ relates a duel in the spirit-lands between two Mexican Brujos (sort of wizards or wise-men) whilst the visually stunning ‘Hive’ examines two of life’s biggest puzzles: Work and Sex.

‘Mirror Dreams’ uses rogue Ronin and Shinto sages to examine the nature of reality, whilst ‘A Spirit of Thaxin’ utilises eye-watering black and white line, hatching and feathering to produce a sardonic tale of demonic servitude that owes much stylistically to the artist’s old boss Wally Wood.

Shorter monochrome vignettes close out the book, punchy little gags and vignettes with an adult sting in the tail. ‘The Temple of Karvul’, ‘Pillars of P-11507’, ‘Critical Mass of Cool’, ‘Survivors’, ‘My Room’ and ‘Judgement Day’ are a blend of surrealism, visual punning and broad satire that typified the best of Tharg’s Future Shocks from Britain’s 2000AD – and probably were intended for the same kind of reader.

As well as a successful career in toy and product design, Kirchner has worked for the New York Times, worked on licensed comics featuring RoboForce, He-Man, GoBots, ThunderCats, G.I. Joe, and Power Rangers and has produced occasional books as varied as Trajectories, Big Book of Bad, Big Book of Losers, and the seminal Murder by Remote Control written with Zen Buddhist Janwillem van de Wetering.

This early compendium is more indicative of the artist’s astounding drawing ability, but nevertheless still offers a refreshingly engaging spread of fun and fantasy for adult readers.
© 1987 Paul Kirchner. © 1987 Catalan Communications. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Jack of Fables volume 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape


By Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Tony Akins & Andrew Pepoy (Vertigo)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-451-7

Fables are refugee fairytale, storybook and legendary characters that fled to our mundane Earth from their various mythic realms to escape conquest by a mysterious and unbeatable Adversary. Keeping their true nature hidden from humanity they have created enclaves where their immortality, magic and sheer strangeness (such as the talking animals sequestered on a remote farm in upstate New York) do not threaten the life of uneasy luxury they have built for themselves. Many of these immortals wander the human world, but always under an injunction not to draw attention to themselves.

In Fables: Homelands (ISBN: 1-84576-124-3) the completely amoral Jack of the Tales (everyman hero of Beanstalk, Giant-killer, Frost fame) does just that by stealing Fabletown funds and becoming a movie producer, creating the three most popular fantasy films of all time.

Subject? Himself, of course.

An underlying theme of the series is that the more “mundies” (that’s mundane humans like you and me… well, you anyway) who think about a fable character, the stronger that character becomes. Books TV, songs, all feed their vitality. There must be something to it as this first volume collects issues #1-5 of Jack’s own comic, a series crafted much more with broad, adult, cynical humour as the driving force.

Discovered by the Fable Police, Jack was banished from Hollywood and ordered to disappear. Circumstance soon came to his aid – as it always does – when he is captured by the forces of Mr. Revise – an outlandish metaphysical martinet who has been “vanishing” Fables for centuries. With his beige, white-bread, matter-of-fact minions his self-appointed task is to contain these conceptual creatures, bowdlerising their life-stories until they become innocuous, forgotten and eventually Mundane…

Jack, however, is no ordinary Fable. Charming, cunning, totally self-absorbed and utterly ruthless he quickly makes many friends in the rest home-like gulag of fantastic creatures where he is imprisoned. He plans to escape – no matter how many of his fellow inmates he has to sacrifice to do it…

Playful, saucy, self-referential and wildly funny – with a few dark corners and sharp edges to keep the pulses pounding – this is a delightful whimsy for unshockable grown-ups who love stories. This is a perfect book for newcomers and jaded fantasists alike.

© 2006, 2007 Bill Willingham and DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Essential Avengers Volume 2


By Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Don Heck, John Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-7851-1862-4

With the Avengers the unbeatable and venerable concept of putting all your star eggs in one basket continued to score big dividends for Marvel even after Jack Kirby moved on to other Marvel assignments and the all-stars such as Thor and Iron Man were replaced and supplemented by lesser luminaries.

With this second collection (reprinting Avengers 25-46 and the first Annual in economical black and white) the team – consisting of Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch – was already a firm fan-favourite and the close attention to melodrama sub-plots leavened the action with compelling soap-opera elements that kept the fans riveted.

The team faced their greatest test yet when they were captured by the deadliest man alive in #25’s ‘Enter… Dr. Doom!’ by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Dick Ayers but, as change was ever the watchword for this series, the following two issues combined a threat to drown the world with the return of an old comrade. ‘The Voice of the Wasp!’ and ‘Four Against the Floodtide!’ (Lee, Heck and inker Frank Giacoia) made for a superlative action-romp but was simply a prelude to the main event, issue #28’s return of Giant-Man in a new guise as ‘Among us Walks a Goliath!’ This instant classic introduced the villainous Collector and extended the company’s pet theme of alienation by tragically trapping the size-changing hero at a freakish ten-foot height, seemingly forever.

Avengers #29, ‘This Power Unleashed!’ brought back Hawkeye’s lost love the Black Widow – a brainwashed Soviet agent – in an attempt to destroy the team using their old foes Power Man and Swordsman as cannon-fodder, whilst ‘Frenzy in a Far-Off Land!’ found the dispirited colossus embroiled in a civil war amongst a lost south American civilisation: a two-part yarn that threatened to end in global incineration in the ludicrously titled but satisfyingly exciting ‘Never Bug a Giant!’

‘The Sign of the Serpent!’ and its concluding chapter ‘To Smash a Serpent!’ from Avengers #32-33 (with Don Heck providing raw, gritty inks over his own pencils) was a brave, socially-aware tale as the heroes tackled a sinister band of organised racists in a thinly veiled allegory of the Civil Rights turmoil then gripping America. Marvel’s bold liberal stand even went so far as to introduce a new African-American character, Bill Foster, who would eventually become a superhero in his own right.

It was back to basics in #34’s ‘The Living Laser!’ but the second part ‘The Light that Failed!’ (scripted by Roy Thomas, who officially began his long association with the team here) again took on a political overtone as the super-villain allied himself with South American (and by implication, Marxist) rebels for a rollercoaster ride of thrills and spills. The team’s international credentials were further exploited when the long-departed Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver returned heralding an alien invasion of the Balkans in ‘The Ultroids Attack!’ and ‘To Conquer a Colossus!’ (Avengers #36-37).

Thomas clearly had no problem juggling a larger roster of characters as he promptly added Hercules to the mix, first as a duped and drugged pawn of the Enchantress in #38’s ‘In our Midst… An Immortal’ (inked by George Roussos, nee Bell) and then as a member from the following issue onwards, when the Mad Thinker attacked during ‘The Torment… and the Triumph!’. No prizes for guessing who was throwing the punches in #40’s ‘Suddenly… the Sub-Mariner!’ and another creative landmark occurred in ‘Let Sleeping Dragons Lie!’ when John Buscema took over the penciling in an epic of assorted monsters, insidious espionage and sheer villainy as the mad alchemist Diablo attacked the team.

The extended plotline continued in ‘The Plan… and the Power!’, and with Diablo defeated the team concentrated on rescuing the now reformed Black Widow from the Communist Chinese in #43’s ‘Color him… the Red Guardian!’ before the saga climaxed in ‘The Valiant also Die!’(inked by Vince Colletta), a blistering all-out clash to save the world from conquest.

Buscema had replaced Don Heck so the latter could work on the first Avengers Annual: a “49 page free-for-all” entitled ‘The Monstrous Master Plan of the Mandarin!’. Scripted by Thomas and inked by Roussos, this prodigious tribute to the golden Age Justice Society of America and All-Winners Squad saw Captain America, Goliath, Hawkeye, Hercules, Iron Man. Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Thor and the Wasp battle Enchantress, the Executioner, Living Laser, Power Man, Swordsman and the artificial behemoth Ultimo to save the world from the Mandarin’s boldest scheme. It’s everything a fan could want from a superhero tale – sheer escapism, perfectly handled.

Following some cutaways secrets of Avengers Mansion and a very cool pin-up the stories continue with Avengers #45, and a ‘Blitzkrieg in Central Park’ (Thomas, Heck and Colletta) wherein the triumphant team are attacked by the power-stealing Super-Adaptoid, before the avenging ends with a deadly attempt by an old foe to destroy Goliath and the Wasp.

‘The Agony and the Anthill!’, by Thomas and Buscema (inked by Colletta) is a taut, human-scaled drama, which began a long period of superb collaborations that would change the face of team-comics (as we’ll see in the next edition) but before that there’s one last treat here as the very first appearance of Henry Pym rounds out this book.

Written by Stan Lee and his brother Larry Lieber with art from Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers ‘The Man in the Anthill!’ was a simple yet compelling monster yarn from Tales to Astonish #27 where a young scientist experimenting with size changing serums was catapulted into a world of fantastic adventure when he became trapped at insect size. When the Fantastic Four’s success proved that superheroes were back to stay Lee and Kirby quickly retooled this tale into a series (also conveniently collected for your pleasure in Essential Ant-Man, ISBN 0-7851-0822-X).

Although the intermittent and inept use of mechanical grey-tones, and even some poorly reproduced artwork, occasionally mar the flow of this volume the superb content still shines through. These stories set the tone for Marvel’s superheroes: the group dynamics, the themes and even the kinds of menaces they faced. Where the Fantastic Four were as much explorers as champions; a family with the same passions, the Avengers were disparate individuals called together to get a job done. How well these adventures still read is testament to how well they did that job…

© 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Posted on

Countdown to Adventure


By Adam Beechen, Eddy Barrows & Allan Goldman (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-866-9

Spinning out of the weekly miniseries 52, (see Volumes 1-4: – ISBN: 1-84576-552-4, ISBN: 978-1-84576-553-8, ISBN: 978-1-84576-604-7 and ISBN: 978-1-84576-624-5) wherein Adam Strange, Starfire and Animal Man were lost in space for a year, this tale of two worlds originally ran as the lead feature in the comicbook miniseries Countdown to Adventure #1-8 (the back-up spot revealing the history and fate of the Forerunner – a living weapon created by the Monitors of the Mulitiverse as a kind of intelligent attack dog): a sidebar saga to the then-ongoing Countdown to Final Crisis.

All caught up? Splendid.

Earthman Adam Strange is reunited with his family on the distant world of Rann when he is forcibly retired as Planetary Champion and replaced by the obnoxious film and Ultimate Fighting celebrity Steven “Champ” Hazard. Whereas Strange solved threats with his wits and good heart, The Champ is psychotically brutal and aggressive, preferring to shoot first and keep on shooting till he’s the only person still breathing.

In San Diego Buddy Baker has returned to his job as a stuntman, since his Animal Man powers are malfunctioning, but at least that’s better than Princess Koriand’r of Tamaran, who has lost her energy-casting abilities completely. For weeks she’s been unconscious in Buddy’s spare room, resting, recharging and not contacting her old super-hero friends in the Teen Titans.

But when Buddy’s son and other people start exhibiting signs of a “Rage-Plague” extraterrestrial contagion experts isolate the city and prepare to sterilise everything in it if they can’t find patient zero, who must have brought the rapidly spreading infection to Earth…

On Rann the same symptoms are ripping through the citizenry, fomenting violence, intolerance and even physical transformations. And then on both worlds the infected begin to chant a phrase Strange, Koriand’r and Buddy last heard from the religious zealots of Lady Styx, a death-worshipping monstrosity they killed a year ago and a zillion light years away…

This interplanetary bio-plague thriller has lots of pace and action, and keeps the tension high, but falls just short of being exceptional or compelling since even newest recruit can plainly see that everything’s going to be all right in the end. Fine for a lazy afternoon but hardly a keeper and adds nothing to the lustre of its stellar, fan favourite cast.

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Superman in the Fifties


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-56389-826-6

Part of a series of trade paperbacks intended to define DC’s top heroes through the decades (the other being Batman, of course) these books always deliver an unbeatable dollop of comicbook magic and a tantalising whiff of other, arguably better, times. They’re divided into sections partitioned by cover galleries, and this second volume of comic cuts begins (after an introduction by the ever informative Mark Waid) with “Classic Tales” culled from the period when the Superman TV show propelled the Man of Tomorrow to even greater levels of popularity.

Leading off is ‘Three Supermen from Krypton!’ written by William Woolfolk and illustrated by Al Plastino (one of a talented triumvirate who absolutely defined the hero during this decade). From Superman #65, (July-August 1950) this classy clash revealed more about Superman’s vanished homeworld whilst providing the increasingly untouchable champion with a much needed physical challenge.

Outer Space provided another daunting threat in ‘The Menace from the Stars!’ (World’s Finest Comics #68, January-February 1954). However all is not as it seems in this quirky mystery by a now unknown writer and the exceptional art team of Wayne Boring (another of the triumvirate) and inker Stan Kaye.

‘The Girl Who Didn’t Believe in Superman!’ by Bill Finger, Boring and Kaye, is a fanciful, evocative human interest tale typical of the times and sorely missed in these modern, adrenaline-drenched days. It originally appeared in Superman #96, cover-dated March 1955. From the very next issue came the canonical landmark ‘Superboy’s Last Day in Smallville!’ (by Jerry Coleman, Boring and Kaye) which revealed that particular rite of passage by way of exposing a crook’s long-delayed master-plan.

The first section ends with a tale from one of the many spin-off titles of the period – and one that gives many 21st century readers a few uncontrollable qualms of conscience. Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane was one of precious few titles with a female lead, but her character ranged crazily from man-hungry, unscrupulous bitch through ditzy simpleton to indomitable and brilliant heroine – often all in the same issue.

Most stories were played for laughs in a patriarchal, parochial manner; a “gosh, aren’t women funny?” tone that appals me today – but not as much as the fact that I still love them to bits. It helps that they’re all so very well illustrated by the wonderfully whimsical Kurt Schaffenberger. This one, ‘The Ugly Superman!’ (#8, April 1959), deals with a costumed wrestler who falls for Lois, giving the Caped Kryptonian another chance for some pretty unpleasant Super-teasing. It was written by the veteran Robert Bernstein, who unlike me can use the tenor of the times as his excuse.

As the franchise expanded, so did the cast and internal history. The second section is dedicated to our hero’s extended family and leads with ‘Superman’s Big Brother’ by famed pulp writer Edmond Hamilton and Plastino, (Superman #80, January-February 1953) wherein a wandering alien is mistaken for the aforementioned sibling, followed here by the introduction of a genuine family member in ‘The Super-Dog from Krypton!’ which originally saw print in Adventure Comics #210, March 1955.

Here Otto Binder and Curt Swan (the third of three and eventually the most prolific Super-artist of all time), aided by inker John Fischetti, reveal how baby Kal-El’s pet pooch escaped his home-world’s destruction and made his way to Earth.

Another popular animal guest-star was ‘Titano the Super-Ape!’ a giant ape with kryptonite vision, and this tale (from Superman #127, February 1959) is still one of the best Binder, Boring or Kaye ever worked on, combining action, pathos and drama to superb effect. This section ends with the inevitable landmark which more than any other moved Superman from his timeless Golden Age holdover status to become a part of the DC Silver Age revival. ‘The Supergirl from Krypton!’ introduced the Man of Steel’s cousin Kara Zor-El (Action Comics #252, (May, 1959) in a captivating tale by Binder and Plastino.

There had been numerous prototypes (one was included in the previous volume of this series, Superman in the Forties, ISBN: 978-1-4012-0457-0) but this time the concept struck home and the teenaged refugee began her long career as a solo-star from the very next issue.

Section three highlights “the villains” and leads with a rarely seen team-up of The Prankster, Lex Luthor and that extra-dimensional sprite Mr. Mxyztplk in ‘Superman’s Super-Magic Show!’ by Hamilton, Boring and Kaye (Action Comics #151, December, 1950) – tale more of mirthful mystery than menace and mayhem. It’s followed by the still-impressive introduction of alien marauder Brainiac in ‘The Super-Duel in Space’ by Binder and Plastino, from Action Comics #242, (July, 1958) and ‘The Battle with Bizarro!’ from Action Comics #254, (July, 1959) by the same creative team. This story actually re-introduced the imperfect duplicate, who had initially appeared in a well-received Superboy story (#68, from the previous year). Even way back then sales trumped death…

So popular was the character that the tale was continued over two issues, concluding with ‘The Bride of Bizarro!’ (Action Comics #255, August 1959), an almost unheard of luxury back then.

The fourth and final section is dedicated to “Superman’s Pals” and stems once more from that epochal television show, which made most of the supporting cast into household names. ‘The End of the Planet!’ by Hamilton and Plastino, Superman #79 (November-December 1959) is actually about the famous newspaper’s imminent closure rather than a global threat, whilst ‘Superman and Robin!’ is a classic bait-and-switch teaser from World’s Finest Comics #75 (March-April 1955), and Finger, Swan and Kaye knew that no-one believed that they had really broken-up the Batman/Boy Wonder team….

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen also had his own comicbook, and ‘The Stolen Superman Signal’ (#13, June 1956, by Binder, Swan and Ray Burnley) perfectly displays the pluck and whimsy that distinguished the early stories. The last tale in this section – and the volume – is from Showcase #9 (June-July 1957) the first of two Lois Lane try-out issues. ‘The girl in Superman’s Past!’ by Coleman, Ruben Moreira and Plastino introduced an adult Lana Lang as a rival for superman’s affections and began the sparring that led to many a comic-book cat-fight…

Including an extensive cover gallery, text features and a comprehensive creator-profiles section, this is a wonderful slice of comics history, refreshing, comforting and compelling. Any fan or newcomer will delight in this primer into the ultimate icon of Truth Justice and The American Way.
© 1950-1959, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Shadow: Blood and Judgment


By Howard Chaykin (DC Comics)
ISBN-13: 978-0-93028-916-4

I’ve been a fan of The Shadow ever since I picked up a couple of paperbacks as a kid in my local Woolworths in the 1960s. I’ve followed the various comic interpretations with mixed feelings and general acceptance. But when Howard Chaykin had a crack at the venerable crime-crusher I nearly blew a gasket. I was appalled.

And that was the point.

Chaykin has lovingly cultivated his reputation as an iconoclast and bombast over many years and the four issue miniseries collected here certainly ruffled a few feathers – old fashioned me included.

As originally disseminated in the days before comic-books, The Shadow gave thrill-hungry readers their measured doses of extraordinary excitement via the cheaply produced periodical novels dubbed “pulps” (because of the low-grade paper they were printed on) and over the mood-drenched airwaves with his own radio show.

Pulps were published in their hundreds every month, ranging from the truly excellent to the pitifully dire, in every style and genre, but for exotic adventure lovers there were two star characters that outshone all others. The Superman of his day was Doc Savage, Man of Bronze, and the dark, relentless creature of the night dispensing his own terrifying justice was our mysterious slouch-hatted hero.

Originally the radio series Detective Story Hour, based on unconnected yarns from the Street & Smith publication Detective Story Magazine, used a spooky voiced narrator (most famously Orson Welles, although he was preceded by James LaCurto and Frank Readick Jr.) to introduce the tales. Code-named “the Shadow”, and beginning on July 31st 1930, he became more popular than the stories he introduced.

The Shadow became a proactive hero solving mysteries and on April 1st 1931 debuted in his own pulp series, written by the incredibly prolific Walter Gibson under the house pseudonym Maxwell Grant. On September 26th 1937 the radio show officially became The Shadow with the eerie line “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Men? The Shadow knows!”

The Golden age comic book ran for 101 issues before cancellation in 1949 and Archie/Radio/Mighty Comics published a controversial modern-day version in 1964-5, written by Robert Bernstein with art from John Rosenberger and latterly Paul Reinman.

In 1973 DC acquired the comic rights and produced a captivating if brief series of classic tales that were unlike any other superhero title then on the stands.

Grant wrote 282 of 325 novels over the next two decades, which were published twice a month. The series spawned comic books, seven movies, a newspaper strip (by Vernon Greene) and all the merchandising paraphernalia you’d expect of a superstar brand. The pulp series ended in 1949 although many novels have been written (both by Gibson and others) since 1963 when a pulp and fantasy revival gripped America.

And 1949 is the embarkation point for this flashy, savage, witty and utterly captivating updating. The Shadow vanished in 1949, abandoning his crusade to destroy criminals and now (for which read 1986) some mastermind is eliminating every surviving member of his organization. Suddenly he is back dealing bloody justice to petty thugs as he tracks down his oldest enemy and thwarts a deadly plan to bring about nuclear annihilation. Chaykin even has the chutzpah to provide the eternal Man of Mystery with a Real Origin, something he never really had before!

I don’t know why I used to hate this book: Although I still feel the proper milieu for the character is the iconic era of mobsters, militarists and madmen (by which I mean the 1930s and 1940s) I can see what Chaykin’s getting at. Those threats were common enough in the Eighties and still are even nowadays.

Perhaps the author’s trademark trick of confronting misogyny, racism and sexuality by seemingly advocating them just wore a bit thin with such a treasured old friend as the vehicle. There’s certainly a disquieting amount of adult themes, kinky sex and graphic violence on offer, so kids, be prepared to show those fake ID’s…

With sufficient distance however I find this tale a terrific thrill-ride, stylish and compelling – if a little “in your face”. It spawned an intriguing follow-up series (by Andy Helfer and Bill Sienkiewicz if memory serves) before DC tried one final time with a series safely returned to the pre war period.

If you’ve never seen the original this would be a marvelous read, and you could always compliment the experience by tracking down DC’s first experiment with the character (mostly collected as The Private Files of the Shadow ISBN: 0-930289-37-7). After all a hero this durable has to have something to him…
© 1987 Conde Nast Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Miss Don’t Touch Me


By Hubert & Kerascoet, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
ISBN:  978-1-56163-544-3

This slim tone contains a superb period murder mystery from creators probably best known in the English speaking world for working on Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim’s Dungeon series of fantasy books. Here fin de siècle Paris is being plagued by its very own Jack the Ripper – a knife wielding maniac dubbed “the Butcher of the Dances” because he picks his victims from the lower class girls who frequent suburban Tea-dances where young people gather.

Blanche is a maid in a fine house; pious, repressed and solitary, but her sister Agatha, also a maid in service in the same residence is fun-loving and vivacious. Together they share the attic room at the top of the house. When Blanche sees “the Butcher” at his bloody work through a crack in the wall, he also sees her. A few nights later she to finds Agatha dead, as if by her own hand, but Blanche knows what must really have happened…

Anxious to avoid scandal the mistress of the house dismisses her. Forced to fend for herself on the inhospitable streets, by a combination of detective enquiry and sheer luck Blanche finds a lead to the killer and secures a position in The Pompadour, one of the most exclusive brothels in the city. Catering to the rich and powerful elite, here she will find the Butcher and exact her revenge…

Originally published in France as La Vierge du Bordel and Du Sang sur le Mains this witty, knowing and hugely engaging adult murder-mystery cleverly reveals its layered secrets as our heroine finds a way to turn her virginal state and overwhelming frustration to her advantage amidst the decadent rich and sexually bored of Paris. She maintains her virtue against all odds, discovers the other side to a world she previously despised and valiantly achieves her goal even though it threatens to topple two empires…

Feeling much like an adult version of Frances Hodgson Burnett‘s 1905 novel A Little Princess, this is a saucy confection from writer/colorist Hubert and delightfully realized with great panache by Kerascoet which will delight a wide variety of grown-up readers.
© 2007 Dargaud by Kerascoet & Hubert. All Rights Reserved. Translation © 2007 NBM

Posted on

Sword of the Atom

sword-of-the-ato
By Jan Strnad & Gil Kane, with various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1553-8

Wonderfully reminiscent of his superlative Blackmark paperback venture (collected in Blackmark: the 30th Anniversary Edition ISBN: 1-56097-456-7), artist Gil Kane was inspired in this retooling of Silver-Age B-List hero The Atom, removed from his comfort zone of scientific crime-busting to become the sword-wielding champion of a barbaric fantasy kingdom.

Starting off with a four issue miniseries and followed by three giant-sized Specials, the sword and lost science saga revitalized a once great character who had fallen on very lean times and set him up for his eventual return to the big leagues (I apologise for the puns – lowest form of wit, I know!).

Following the break-up of his marriage to ambitious lawyer Jean Loring, size-changing physicist Ray Palmer departs on a research trip to Brazil to think things through. Unfortunately he falls foul of drug-runners who down his plane. To the world he appears dead, but in reality he has stumbled upon an alien civilisation, populated by golden humanoids no more than six inches tall.

Lost for uncounted decades in the verdant vastness of the Amazon on a planet of giants, the aliens have built a city around the ruins of their crashed ship, a vessel powered by White Dwarf star matter. Regrettably, since the incredible star-stuff powers and constitutes the Atom’s size changing outfit, the mighty mite finds himself trapped at the same diminutive height and must rely on his physical prowess and a sharp sword to survive…

In the epic manner of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars, Palmer rescues and woos the exotic Princess Laethwen and saves the hidden city of Morlaidh from a usurping dictator in a classic romp of action-packed derring-do. It’s a fabulous dose of ultimate escapism perfectly executed by Kane and writer Jan Strnad, and subsequent sequels continued the magic.

Without wishing to give too much away, the first of these sees a disgruntled and displaced Palmer back in our world, longing for the simplicity of Morlaidh and the love of Laethwen; the second finds Jean doing her own size-shifting (this is probably when she learned the skills she used in Identity Crisis, ISBN: 1-34576-126-X, fans!) as the Tiny Titan is forced to choose between his old life and his current one. The book concludes with Kane replaced by Pat Broderick and Dennis Janke for a rather wordy tale of despots, plague and monstrous afflictions devastating the diminutive jungle kingdom which only the Atom can combat.

Despite the rather tame final tale Sword of the Atom is a flashing, vital burst of graphic excitement that clearly shows what can be done with moribund characters if creators are bold enough and given sufficient editorial support. It’s also a hugely enjoyable read that will make your heart race and your pulse pound – just like comics are supposed to.

© 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Lindbergh Child


By Rick Geary (NBM/Comics Lit)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-530-6

Combining his unique talents for laconic prose, incisive observation and detailed cartooning with his obvious passion for the darker side of modern history, Rick Geary turns his forensic eye to the last hundred years or so as his ‘Treasury of Victorian Murder’ series of graphic novels examines the landmark global sensation that was the Lindbergh Kidnapping.

Charles Lindbergh became the most famous man in the world when he crossed the Atlantic in the monoplane Spirit of St. Louis in May 1927. Six years later his son Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped from the family home at Hopewell, New Jersey. The boy disappeared on the night of February 29th 1932.

An intense and hysterical search went on for months as a number of bogus kidnappers, chancers, grifters and intermediaries tried to cash in before the toddler’s decomposed body was discovered in desolate woodlands on Thursday 12th May. The three-year old had been dead for months, possibly even dying on the night he was taken…

What followed was one of the most appalling catalogues of police misconduct, legal malfeasance and sordid exploitation (from conmen trying to profit from tragedy) in modern annals as over the next few years a suspect was caught, convicted and executed in such slapdash fashion that as late as 1981 and 1986 the conviction was appealed and a large number of individuals have claimed over the decades to actually be the real junior Lindbergh.

Geary presents the facts and the theories with chilling precision and captivating clarity, presenting one of crime’s greatest unsolved mysteries with a force and power that Oliver Stone would envy. This first volume in ‘A Treasury of XXth Century Murder’ is every bit as compelling as his Victorian forays and a brilliant example of how graphic narrative can be so much more than simple fantasy and entertainment.
© 2008 Rick Geary. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Essential Fantastic Four volume 2


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-0731-2

This second big value, low priced compendium starring the World’s most popular adventure quartet collects Fantastic Four #21-40, the second (1964) Annual and includes a seldom seen team-up of the Human Torch and Spider-Man from Strange Tales Annual #2.

By this juncture the FF were firmly established and creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were well on the way to toppling DC/National Comics from their decades-held top spot with their brash, folksy and consciously contemporaneous sagas, blending high concept, low comedy, trenchant melodrama and breathtaking action.

The first tale here is from Fantastic Four #21 (cover-dated December 1963) guest-starring Nick Fury, then the lead character in Marvel’s only war comic Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos but eventually to metamorphose into the company’s answer to James Bond. Here he’s a CIA agent seeking the team’s aid against a sinister demagogue called ‘The Hate-Monger’ in a cracking yarn with a strong message, inked by comics veteran George Roussos, under the protective nom-de-plume George Bell.

Unseen since the premiere issue, #22 finally saw ‘The Return of the Mole Man!’ by the same creative team; another full-on fight-fest, chiefly notable for the debut of the Invisible Girl’s new powers of projecting force fields and “invisible energy” – which would eventually make her one of the mightiest characters in the company’s pantheon.

Number #23 heralded ‘The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!’, which introduced his frankly mediocre minions the Terrible Trio of Bull Brogin, Handsome Harry and Yogi Dakor, although the eerie menace of “the Solar Wave” was enough to raise the hackles on my five year old neck. Issue #24’s ‘The Infant Terrible!’ was a sterling yarn of extra-galactic menace and innocence, followed by a two-part epic that truly defined the inherent difference between Lee and Kirby’s work and everybody else at that time.

Fantastic Four #25 and #26 featured a cataclysmic clash that had young heads spinning in 1964 and lead directly to the Emerald Behemoth finally regaining a strip of his own. In ‘The Hulk Vs The Thing’ and ‘The Avengers Take Over!’ – a fast-paced, all-out Battle Royale resulted when the disgruntled man-monster came to New York in search of side-kick Rick Jones, and only an injury-wracked FF stood in the way of his destructive rampage.

A definitive moment in the character development of the Thing, the action was ramped up when a rather stiff-necked and officious Avengers team horned in claiming jurisdictional rights on “Bob” Banner (this tale is plagued with pesky continuity errors which would haunt Stan Lee for decades) and his Jaded Alter Ego. Notwithstanding the bloopers, this is one of Marvel’s key moments and still a visceral, vital read.

The creators had hit on a winning formula by including their other stars in guest-shots – especially as readers could never anticipate if they would fight with or beside the home team. ‘The Search for Sub-Mariner!’ again found the sub-sea anti-hero in amorous mood, and when he abducted Sue Storm the boys called in Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, to aid them. Issue #28 is a superb team-up tale too, most notable (for me at least) for the man who replaced George Roussos.

‘We Have to Fight the X-Men!’ found the teams battling due to the machinations of the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker, but the inclusion of Chic Stone, Kirby’s most simpatico and expressive inker, elevates the art to indescribable levels of quality.

‘It Started on Yancy Street!’ (FF#29) may start low-key in the slum where Ben Grimm grew up but with the reappearance of the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes the action quickly goes Cosmic, and the next issue introduced evil alchemist ‘The Dreaded Diablo!’ who nearly broke up the team while conquering the world from his spooky Transylvanian castle.

Next up is Fantastic Four Annual #2 from 1964, which boldly led off with ‘The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom!’, before storming into the climactic adventure epic ‘The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!’ The monthly wonderment resumes with #31’s ‘The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man!’ which balanced a loopy plan to steal entire streets of New York City with a portentous sub-plot featuring a mysterious man from Sue’s past, as well as renewing the quartet’s somewhat fractious relationship with the Mighty Avengers.

The secret of that mystery man was revealed in the next issue’s ‘Death of a Hero’, a powerful tale of tragedy and regret that spanned two galaxies, and which starred the uniquely villainous Invincible Man who was not at all what he seemed…

‘Side-by-Side with Sub-Mariner!’ brought the aquatic anti-hero one step closer to his own series when the team lent surreptitious aid to the embattled undersea monarch as the deadly barbarian Attuma made his debut in FF #33, whilst in ‘A House Divided!’ the team were nearly destroyed by Mr. Gideon, the Richest Man in the World.

‘Calamity on the Campus!’ saw the team visit Reed Richard’s old Alma Mater in a tale designed to pander to the burgeoning college fan-base Marvel was cultivating (there’s even a cameo role for Peter Parker), but the rousing yarn that brought back Diablo and introduced the monstrous homunculus Dragon Man easily stands up as a classic on its own merits. Fantastic Four #36 introduced the team’s theoretical nemeses with ‘The Frightful Four’ a team of villains comprising The Wizard, Sandman, Trapster (he was still Paste Pot-Pete here, but not for long) and an enigmatic new character called Madame Medusa, whose origin would have a huge impact on the heroes in months to come. Also notable in this auspicious but inconclusive duel was the announcement after many months of Reed and Sue’s engagement – in itself a rare event in the realm of comic books.

Issue #37 found the team spectacularly travelling to the homeworld of the shape-shifting Skrulls in search of justice in ‘Behold! A Distant Star!’ and they returned only to be ‘Defeated by the Frightful Four!’ in FF# 38, a momentous tale with a startling cliff-hanger that marked Chic Stone’s departure in landmark manner.

Frank Giacoia, under the pseudonym Frank Ray, stepped in to ink #39’s ‘A Blind Man Shall Lead Them!’ wherein a powerless Fantastic Four were attacked by an enraged Doctor Doom and only the sightless vigilante Daredevil had a chance to keep them alive. The tale concluded in #40 with ‘The Battle of the Baxter Building‘ as Vince Colletta assumed the ink chores for a bombastic conclusion that perfectly displays the indomitable power and inescapable tragedy of the brutish Thing.

There’s pin-ups galore scattered throughout this volume and as an added bonus a Spider-Man/Human Torch clash from Strange Tales Annual #2 in 1963, a period when the Flaming Kid had his own solo series (see Essential Human Torch, ISBN 0-7851-1309-6).

‘On the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man’ is a mediocre story at best, blessed with superb art from Kirby inked by Steve Ditko, but sadly even that saving grace is marred here by some pretty amateurish application of grey-tones, which reduce too many pages to monochromatic mud (hopefully just a glitch that can corrected in later editions).

Despite this last cavil this is still a magnificent book to read and these are the tales that built a comics empire. The verve, imagination and sheer enthusiasm shines through and the wonder is there for you to share. If you’ve never thrilled to these spectacular sagas then this black and white book of marvels is your best and most economical key to another world and time.

© 1963, 1964, 1965, 2003, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.