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WARRIORS OF PLASM: THE COLLECTED EDITION

WARRIORS OF PLASM: THE COLLECTED EDITION
WARRIORS OF PLASM

By Jim Shooter, David Lapham and various (Defiant)
No ISBN:

If the 1980s was the decade where anybody with a pencil and a printer’s phone number could enter the business, the 1990s saw the rapid rise – and very often swift fall – of the small corporation publisher. Lots of businesses opened or acquired a comics division to augment or supplement their core business: like the Nintendo Comics that were packaged by and published in conjunction with Valiant Comics.

Jim Shooter founded Valiant with Bob Layton, and later went on to launch the short-lived but highly impressive Defiant Comics of which this book is – to my knowledge – the only collected edition.

That’s a great pity as the range of talent that briefly worked there as well as the titles themselves showed great promise. The legal war of attrition with Marvel that caused their early closure is well documented elsewhere, so I’ll swiftly move on to the product itself.

The Flagship title Warriors of Plasm was a powerful alien intervention tale set mostly in an alternate universe where a single race had taken genetic science to such extremes that their homeworld had become a voracious planetary organism which continually fed on the biomass of other worlds.

Society on The Org was hierarchical, imperialistic and ritually sadistic, where the credos of “survival of the fittest” and “evolve or die” had the force of fanatical religion. Ruled by a weak Emperor, the court lived a life of brutal hedonistic luxury, revelling in decadence, relentlessly jockeying for advantage.

Lorca is a Seeker, high in the court and charged with finding new worlds for the Org to consume, but something within him defies the official doctrine that personality is an aberration and that all bio-matter belongs to the greater whole. Bodies are mulched and recycled whilst individuality is an anti-social aberration, yet all organisms clearly would do absolutely anything not to die.

Spurred on by his corrupt rival Ulnareah, Lorca forms an illegal relationship with Laygen, a girl created without state-approval, and when caught he is forced to recycle her to preserve his own existence.

Bitter and discontented he returns to work, but when he discovers Earth beyond the transdimensional veil he sees an opportunity to overthrow the Org and take supreme control. The humans are strong, individualistic, fierce warriors, and with his genetic augmentation could to defeat any force the Org could muster. He teleports 10,000 test subjects to his private vats but something goes wrong.

Only five humans survive, mutated into superhuman beings, but the Seeker is unaware of this since he’s been arrested by the authorities who never stopped watching him…

How the transformed humans escape and the uneasy alliance they form with the unlikely liberator Lorca makes for a refreshingly novel spin on the old plot of revolution and redemption, and Shooter’s dialogue and characterisations of what could so easily have been stock characters adds layers of sophistication to this fantasy drama that many “adult” comics would kill for even today.

David Lapham’s incredible art and design inked by Mike Witherby, simultaneously understated and outrageous, captivates and bewilders, adding a moody disorientation to a superb, action-packed thriller, especially in the incredible, climactic four-page fold-out battle scene.

Originally produced as Warriors of Plasm #1-4, ‘The Sedition Agenda’ was preceded by an issue #0 daringly released as a set of trading cards and supplemented by a prequel tale outlining the social relevance of the gory global sporting phenomenon known as Splatterball, written and drawn by Lapham with inks by Bob Smith, and all these tales are gathered here for your delectation.

I have no idea where you can find a copy of this terrific little book but I hope you do, just as I wish that some smart publisher would pick up the rights for all the Defiant material: and then we’ll get the entire band back together and finish all the other stories and…
© 1994 EEP, L.P. All Rights Reserved.

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THE UNADULTERATED CAT

THE UNADULTERATED CAT
THE UNADULTERATED CAT

By Terry Pratchett and Gray Jolliffe (Orion)
ISBN: 978-0-75283-715-4

For the early part of the history of cartooning dogs ruled. For every Felix or Krazy Kat there were dozens of Dog Stars like Bonzo or Snoopy, Odie or Fred Bassett. That’s because dogs are man’s best friends.

Towards the end of the last century sly cynical cats like Heathcliff or Garfield prowled onto the scene and rather took over. And that’s because they’re Real, Unadulterated cats.

Dogs have owners, Cats have staff. They run the house and rule the world, and no amount of cosmeticisation can hide the ugly facts.

This hilarious book will strike a chilling chord with every cat owner, as fantasy author Pratchett explains the ethos behind “The Campaign for Real Cats” who seek to reveal the sordid truth behind the fuzzy little darlings.

Cats are greedy, lazy, vicious, voracious, and need all nine lives because they take every slight opportunity to spectacularly end the one they’re living – you’re reading a blog by a man who’s had to saw his own drawing board in half to extricate an extremely ungrateful tabby from the parallel bar wiring. And don’t get me started on window blinds either.

Brilliantly funny, this slim tome reveals the unvarnished truth about Felis Domesticus – and they’ll drink varnish too if you don’t watch ’em like hawks – written by a comedy mastermind and brilliantly illustrated by the cartoonist who exposed the wickedness of willies.

Still readily available, this is a thoroughly British kind of humour that will soundly affirm the fears of cat-haters – and cat-lovers – everywhere, whilst making them all laugh loud enough not to care.
Text © 1989, 1996 Terry & Lyn Pratchett. Illustrations © 1989, 1996 Gray Jolliffe. All Rights Reserved.

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SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST YEARS

Spider-Man: The Lost Years
Spider-Man: The Lost Years

By J.M. DeMatteis, John Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-78510-202-1
(UK Boxtree edition ISBN: 978-0-75220-359-1)

If you mention “the Clone Saga” to an older Spider-Man fan you’ll probably see a shudder of horror pass through the poor sap, although many will secretly profess to have liked parts of it.

For the uninitiated: Peter Parker was cloned by his old biology teacher Miles Warren AKA the Jackal; defeated his double in a grim identity-battle, only to discover years later that he was in fact the doppelganger and a grungy biker calling himself Ben Reilly was the true, non-artificial man.

Irrespective of how that saga played out, was retro-fitted, ignored, reworked and such-like, at the time this classy little book was released, that was the web-crawling state-of-play and that’s all the new reader needs to enjoy a cracking good read.

Collecting a mini-series that ran parallel to the saga unfolding in the four regular monthly comics, this is the tale of what happened to the character who lost that Parker-on-Parker battle, going on the road across America and ending up trapped in a crime war in distant Salt Lake City.

Dark and brooding, our hero-on-the-edge is embroiled in a drama of bloody betrayal made doubly deadly by Kaine: a flawed and degenerating Parker clone also created by the Jackal, now let loose with a deadly agenda of his own.

DeMatteis is on terse, tense, top form and the bombastic art from Romita Jr. and Janson adds a rawness and gritty texture to this yarn which is utterly accessible to even the freshest Spider-phile. Well worth your time even if clones do make you shudder…
© 1996 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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THE SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK – A MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL

THE SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK Graphic Novel
THE SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK

By John Byrne, Kim DeMulder & Petra Scotese (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-084-X

The story goes that in those faraway days when trademarks and copyrights were really important comic publishers were worried that rivals would be able to impinge on their sales by producing distaff versions of their characters. Thus Marvel rush-released Spider-Woman and She-Hulk so that nobody else could.

Whereas that seems rather hard to believe I must admit that the original 20-issue run of Bruce Banner’s tragic cousin Jennifer Walters was by no means the company’s finest moment. But time and deft handling by seasoned creators has since made her one of Marvel’s most readable properties, and that revolution started with this thoroughly enjoyable little tome from that “remake kid” John Byrne.

At the time of its creation the lady lawyer had joined the Fantastic Four and could change between her human and Gamma-ray enhanced forms at will, retaining her intellect in both forms, and all the fourth-world hi-jinks of her second series was yet to come…

Against the backdrop of a sentient cockroach invasion the story involves the shady higher-ups who oversee the high-tech espionage outfit S.H.I.E.L.D. ordering the abduction of the She-Hulk for unspecified “National Security” purposes. When tough but fair Nick Fury refuses to comply the mission goes ahead without him, leading to a major battle in the streets of New York and the eventual capture of not only our heroine but also a large number of passers-by.

Trapped aboard the flying helicarrier base, She-Hulk is subjected to numerous indignities and abuses whilst her boyfriend Wyatt Wingfoot and the other civilians are treated as hostages for her good behaviour. Unfortunately one of those ordinary mortals is a zombie vehicle for those cockroaches I mentioned earlier, and they want to drop the floating fortress on the city below as a declaration of war against humanity…

Spectacular action that truly utilises the expanded page format of this graphic novel line, and sharp scripting elevates this old plot to new heights and although I personally find the coy prurience of some of the semi-nude scenes a little juvenile, that’s not enough to spoil the fun in a what’s otherwise a highly effective little disaster thriller.
© 1985 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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THE THING IN THE PROJECT PEGASUS SAGA

THE THING IN THE PROJECT PEGASUS SAGA
THE THING IN THE PROJECT PEGASUS SAGA

By Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, John Byrne, George Pérez, Joe Sinnot & Gene Day (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-350-4

Although the glory-days of Marvel were undoubtedly the years of Lee, Kirby and Ditko, through to the Adams, Buscema, Englehart, Gerber, Steranko and Windsor Smith Second Wave, lots of superb material came out the latter years when the company transformed from inspirational small-business to corporate heavyweight. This is not said to demean or denigrate the many fine creators who worked on the tide of titles published after that heady period, but only to indicate that after that time a certain revolutionary spontaneity was markedly absent from the line.

It should also be remembered that this was not deliberate. Every creator does the best job he/she can: posterity and critical response is the only arbiter of what is a classic and what’s simply another issue. Even high sales don’t necessarily define a masterpiece – unless you’re a publisher…

Nevertheless every so often everybody involved in a particular publication seems to catch afire at the same time and magic still occurs.

A great case in point is this self-contained mini-saga that first appeared in the pages of the Fantastic Four spin-off title Marvel Two-in-One which was used as a team-up vehicle, partnering the charismatic Thing with the cream of Marvel’s cast list over its hundred issue run and a handful of pretty impressive annuals.

Project Pegasus first appeared as a maguffin in issues #42 and 43, a federal research station dedicated to investigating alternative energy sources and a sensible place to dump super-powered baddies when you’ve finished trouncing them. Ten issues later writers Gruenwald and Macchio stretched their creative muscles with a six-issue epic (Marvel Two-in-One #53-58, 1979) that found the Thing back at Pegasus just as a sinister plan by a mysterious mastermind to eradicate the facility went into effect.

Trapped in the claustrophobic confines of the base Ben Grimm leads a motley team of heroes as they seek to recapture a number of escaped energy-based villains including Solarr, Klaw and Nuklo, fend off an invasion by super-powered lady wrestlers (I know what you’re thinking but trust me, it works) and prevent a living singularity from sucking the entire Project into infinity.

Most remarkably, the high-tension bombastic action rattles along without the appearance of any major stars – a daring move for a team-up title. Leading off with the solo(ish) debut of Quasar, swiftly followed by a reprogrammed Deathlok, a revamped Giant-Man (formerly Black Goliath), the extra-dimensional super-woman Thundra and Wundarr – an alien superboy who evolved into the pacifist hero The Aquarian in the final episode – these are not names that would have been considered sales-boosters, but their combination here truly proves the old adage about there being no bad characters…

Another solid decision was the use of John Byrne and Joe Sinnott to illustrate parts 1-3 and George Pérez and the late, great Gene Day to finish off the tale. Both pencillers were in their early ascendancy here and the artistic energy just jumps off the pages.

As a bonus this volume also contains appropriate text pages from the Marvel Universe Handbook, a cutaway diagram of Project Pegasus and the comedy classic from Marvel Two-in-One #60 which featured The Thing and Impossible Man in hilarious combat with three of Marvel’s earliest bad-guys. ‘Happiness is a Warm Alien‘ is by Gruenwald, Macchio, Pérez, and Day, a delightful change-of-pace that applies some much needed perspective to all the pulse-pounding drama that preceded it.

This is a solid example of super-heroic hokum that is as readable now as it ever was, and I’m unable to explain why such a minor classic should ever be out of print. This collection is available – albeit at some remarkably high prices – but it should be part of Marvel’s always-in-print line…
© 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc/Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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SPORTING GESTURES: PUNCH PLAYS THE GAME

SPORTING GESTURES: PUNCH PLAYS THE GAME
SPORTING GESTURES: PUNCH PLAYS THE GAME

By various edited by William Hewison (Grafton Books)
ISBN: 978-0-24613-400-4

Here’s another little dip into the copious well of cartoon comedy from Britain’s greatest and most prestigious magazine of informed entertainment, this time themed to appeal to our nation’s dedicated sportsmen – whatever their passion.

Punch began in 1841; a magazine dedicated to satire and humour, and swiftly became a national – and international – institution. It ran more or less non-stop until 2002 before finally closing its jolly doors, and always featured sharp, witty writers such as W. M. Thackeray, P.G. Wodehouse, P.J. O’Rourke and Alan Coren among so very many others of their informed, acerbic stripe. Many of these writers’ efforts were illustrated by brilliant draughtsmen and artists. Punch became a social force, an astute historian and savage commentator: its contents could even influence governments.

The magazine probably invented, and if not certainly perfected, the gag and strip cartoon. The list of brilliant pen-men who graced its pages is something I won’t live long enough to relate. Name a cartoonist; if he or she were any good they will have been published in the pages of….

With such a wealth of material, it’s truly surprising how very few collections have been generated from its pages. The one under the glass here is from 1988, selected by Editor William Hewison and features a motley assortment of British gag-men attempting to explain through the medium of brush and pen mockery the Empire’s deeply ingrained obsession with “playing the game”.

The gags range from familiar old friends to the arcane, surreal and outright weird, and whatever your position or disposition on the sporting life there’s beautifully rendered work here that will make you smile, chuckle, groan and even weep with laughter.

Once again this particular book isn’t really what I’m recommending (although if you can find a copy you won’t regret it); it’s the sort of publication that I’m commemorating. These cartoons and many like them by the likes of such luminaries as David Langdon, Heath, Banx, Pow, Steadman, Hawker, J. W. Taylor, Graham, Albert, Dredge, Minet, Honeysett, Stark, Thelwell, Larry, W. Scully, Stan McMurtry, Mahood, McLachlan, Raymond Lowry, Colin Whittock and all the wonderful rest are sitting idly out of touch when they could be filling bookshelves and giving our jolly-muscles a good, invigorating work-out…
© 1988 Punch Publications Limited Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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PEACE MAKER VOLUME 1

PEACE MAKER VOLUME 1
PEACE MAKER VOLUME 1

By Nanae Chrono (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-4278-0075-6

Fast-paced and quite manic, this superlative historical manga tells of Tetsunosuke and Tatsunosuke, two brothers who saw their parents murdered.

During the days of the Meiji Revolution their father was a diplomat dedicated to bring peaceful change, but Ichimura’s ways were not to everybody’s tastes and his family paid the price. The Revolution or “Renewal” was a series of events and incidents which altered the very nature of Japan in the later 19th century. It spans the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate or Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji Era. It saw the chaotic, irresistible modernization which followed the enforced breaking of Japan’s self-imposed Isolation by the American Commodore Matthew Perry and his “Black Ships” in 1854.

Ten years later Ichimura Tetsunosuke provokes a battle with a squad of warriors from the Shinsengumi, the unofficial, volunteer police force who have taken it upon themselves to restore order to Kyoto. Although only fifteen he desperately wants to emulate his brother Tatsunosuke, who has already joined this militia of brutal warriors. Both of them are driven to avenge their parents’ deaths.

As a member of the uncompromising Shinsengumi Tatsu has access to many secrets from the Revolution’s early days, and slowly he gets closer to solving the ten-year riddle surrounding the death of the man everybody called “the Peacemaker”. But awash in a sea of intrigue, espionage, violence and death it becomes increasingly hard to keep his own hands clean – and his impulsive brother is becoming ever more impatient and unmanageable…

Steeped in actual historical events this canny revenge thriller blends the beginnings of modern Japan with the death of the Samurai way of life, and even manages to weave a canny mystery and the frantic social slapstick of youthful heroes into a compulsive read that promises great things to come.
This book is printed in the ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.

 

© 2005 Nanae Chrono. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2007 TOKYOPOP Inc.

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LANN


By Frank Thorne (Ken Pierce Books)
ISBN: 0-912277-31-9

Frank Thorne is one of the most individualistic talents in American comics. Born in 1930 he started his comics career drawing romances for Standard Comics alongside the legendary Alex Toth before graduating to the better paid Newspaper strips to illustrate the Perry Mason adaptation for King Features Syndicate. He went to Dell/Gold Key, where he drew Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, The Green Hornet, and the seminal sci-fi classic Mighty Samson.

At DC he did some unforgettable work on Tomahawk and Son of Tomahawk before being hired by Roy Thomas at Marvel to illustrate his belated breakthrough strip Red Sonja, a fantastic fantasy strip that would shape the rest of his career.

Forever connected with feisty, earthy, highly sexualised women, in 1978 he created the outrageously bawdy (some call her vulgar) swordswoman Ghita of Alizarr for Warren’s adult science fantasy anthology 1984/1994 as well as such adult satirical strips as Moonshine McJugs for Playboy and Danger Rangerette for National Lampoon. He won the National Cartoonists Award for comic books in 1963, an Inkpot Award and a Playboy Editorial Award.

In 1984 he crafted this enchanting moody hard-science detective thriller for Heavy Metal, foregoing swords and sorcery for star-ships and ray-guns, but the sassy, compelling strong woman figure is still present in the darkly sexy police agent Lann. Fresh from a rejuvenation treatment that literally takes years off her she’s sent to the decadent Neon-Six to investigate the kidnapping of two girls – apparently the children of the most notorious gangster in the system. But as is always the case things are not what they seem…

With the frankly useless droid Glitch and her old partner and bed-mate Shard (who’s still awaiting his youth treatment) she negotiates a maze of lies and blaster-fire to uncover a dastardly plot that affects the entire system in this very adult, very entertaining romp reminiscent of both Barbarella and Blade Runner.

This slim oversized tome also includes a couple of photo-articles of the artist and his many lovely models plus a fascinating piece on the storyboarding of the (sadly never released) concept video. The accompanying sketches and notes provide a revealing glimpse of how a true original makes it all happen.

Thorne is much more appreciated in Europe than in English-speaking countries but with modern sensibilities we should re-examine the writing and incredible art of this superb comics all-rounder. This is definitely a book any broad-minded, grown-up aficionado will adore. Let’s hope somebody revives it soon…
© 1984, 1986 Frank Thorne. All Rights Reserved.

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CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI13: SECRET INVASION

Captain Britain and MI13
Captain Britain and MI13

By Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk, Jesse Delperdang & Scott Hanna (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-407-2

Collecting issues #1-4 of the surprise hit comic, this rousing romp sees mutant super-spy Peter Wisdom helm a new team of British superheroes as part of a big company crossover from Marvel. Secret Invasion described the all-out attack of the insidious shape-changing Skrulls, whose long-term plan to infiltrate all strata of Earth society nearly resulted in the total subjugation of mankind.

The British front saw the aliens attack our Sceptr’d Isles in an attempt to control all Earth’s inherent magic, only to be held at bay by the Dunkirk spirit of Wisdom, Black Knight, Spitfire, John the renegade Skrull, newcomer (and female Muslim hero) Faiza Hussain and a revamped Captain Britain.

I could further outline the plot for you but as this is a lovely example of beguiling, back-to-the-wall, last stand super-heroics with the added advantage of being easily assimilated by even the most uninformed new reader, I’ll simply state that this is a grand adventure of evil aliens, valiant heroes, the Bulldog Breed and spectacular action on a fresh yet ancient magical canvas, which almost any devotee of graphic literature will adore.

Make it your personal quest to possess this gem…

© 2008, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. All Rights Reserved.

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BEN 10 COMIC BOOK vol. 2: WASHINGTON B.C.


By Greg Klien & Thomas Pugsley (Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-4052-4664-4

This second pocket album featuring the plucky kid who can become ten different alien super-heroes continues the all-ages excitement as Ben, his know-it-all cousin Gwen and their mildly eccentric Grandpa Max once more have to interrupt their vacation to defeat Evil and save the world! This time the threat comes from an actual mad scientist whose mind-bending mutant creations attack the supermarket the Tennyson’s are shopping in.

Dr. Animo’s transmodulator helmet can make primeval monsters out of modern animals and even ancient dinosaur bones but the destruction he’s wreaking in Washington DC isn’t the only thing on Ben’s mind… He’s too distracted trying to get the Golden Chase card to complete his set of Sumo Slammer cards!

Infectious fun and high-adventure mark this good old fashioned cartoon series based on the popular kids show created by “Man of Action” (the collective name for fun-think-tank Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle) whose hit show bears a comfortingly similarity to two beloved strips from 1960s: Dial “H” for Hero and Ultra, the Multi-Alien.

This second graphic novel from Egmont is aimed at younger readers, and uses actual animation artwork to illustrate another cracking good yarn for kids of all ages. Get it for the young ‘uns and re-experience the good old days yourself.

™ & © 2008 Cartoon Network. All Rights Reserved.