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Ultimate Spider-Man Volume1: The New World According to Peter Parker


By Brian Michael Bendis & David Lafuente with Justin Ponsor (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-443-0

The Marvel Ultimates project began in 2000 with a thoroughly modernizing refit of key characters and concepts to bring them into line with contemporary “ki-dults” – perceived to be a separate buying public to those baby-boomers and their declining descendents who seemed content to stick with the various efforts that sprang from the fertile, febrile gifts of Kirby, Ditko and Lee. Eventually the streamlined new universe became as crowded and continuity-constricted as its predecessor and in 2008 a publishing event dubbed “Ultimatum” culminated in a reign of terror which apparently (this is comics, after all) killed three dozen odd heroes and villains and millions of ordinary mortals.

Although a huge seller (for modern comics at least) the saga has been largely slated by the fans who bought it, and the ongoing new “Ultimatum Comics” line is quietly back-pedalling on its declared intentions…

The key and era-ending event was a colossal tsunami that drowned the superhero-heavy island of Manhattan and this post-tidal wave collection (assembling issues #1-6 of the relaunched Ultimate Comics Spider-Man) picks up the story of the survivors slowly readjusting to their altered state.

Peter Parker is sixteen years old, a perennial hard-luck kid and loser and canny geek just trying to get by. Between High School and slinging fast food (Burger Frog is his only source of income since the Daily Bugle got hit) 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, and is daily enduring the teen-angsty situation of equally stellar hottie Mary Jane Watson (his ex-squeeze) being constantly around and acting all grown-up about it. He briefly dated mutant babe Kitty Pride: remember when not having any girlfriend was the definition of “loser”?

As New York slowly recovers a new villain with a purloined name is carefully positioning himself to take full control – which he commences by murdering one of Spidey’s greatest surviving foes – whilst the wallcrawler is occupied with a resurgent pack of increasingly violent street crimes. One thing the wave didn’t wash away was greed and stupidity…

As the mastermind’s wicked plans near brutal fruition Spider-Man is being secretly helped by a new young crusader who seems determined to avoid observation at all costs, but Peter’s real problems begin when old superhero chums start returning. Kids like the Human Torch and Iceman are completely alone in the aftermath, and with schools and accommodation stretched to breaking point, what can a sweet old lady like May do but open her doors to them? His secret identity was constantly threatened before; how can he possibly conceal his adventurous life when two such famous characters suddenly move in…?

Combining smart dialogue and teen soap opera dynamics with spectacular action – beautifully rendered by artist David Lafuente and colourist Justin Ponsor – this is a surprisingly compelling and enjoyable costumed drama with plenty of laughs that easily rises above its troubled origins. Absolutely worth any jaded superhero fan’s time and money and well on the way to becoming a palpable sleeper hit…
™ and © 2010 Marvel Entertainment LCC and its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. A British edition released by Panini UK Ltd

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Showcase Presents Hawkman volume 2


By Gardner Fox, Murphy Anderson, Bob Haney, Dick Dillon & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1817-1

After fighting long and hard to win his own title it was such a pity that time and fashion seemed to conspire against the Winged Wonder…

Katar Hol and his wife Shayera Thal were police officers on their own highly advanced planet of Thanagar. They originally travelled to Earth from the star system Polaris in pursuit of a shape-changing spree-thief named Byth but stayed to study Earth police methods in the cultural metropolis of Midway City. This all occurred in the wonderful ‘Creature of a Thousand Shapes’ which appeared in The Brave and the Bold #34 (cover-dated February-March 1961), but the public was initially resistant and it was three years and many further issues, guest-shots and even a back-up feature in Mystery in Space before the Winged Warriors finally won their own title

Hawkman #1, cover-dated April-May 1964, signalled the beginning of a superb run of witty, thrilling, imaginative and hugely entertaining science fiction, crime-mystery and superhero adventures that captivated the devoted but still painfully small audience.

This second, concluding volume, reprinting in crisp efficient black and white Hawkman #12-27, Brave and the Bold #70, The Atom #31 and the avian portions of the last-ditch combination-comic The Atom and Hawkman #39-45, recommences the magic with another large-scale cosmic epic that originally debuted in February-March 1966 (issue #12). ‘The Million-Year-Long War!’ is pure Gardner Fox storytelling, recounting how a Thanagarian exploration team awakened two aliens determined to kill each other even after eons of suspended animation and whose enmity drove them to possess all of Thanagar, turning Hawkman’s homeworld into one huge weapon. As usual Fox’s imaginings were gloriously illustrated by Murphy Anderson – as they would be until Julie Schwartz surrendered editorial control with issue #22.

Hawkman #13 featured a startling time-bending saga ‘Quest of the Immortal Queen!’ wherein a Valkyrie from Earth’s far future decided to add the Winged Wonder to her seraglio of lusty warriors plucked from history. Happily his wife Shayera strenuously objected and is both smart and tough enough to sort things out. Fox’s treatment of female characters was highly unique for those pre-feminist times: all his heroines – a large number of them wives, not wishy-washy “girlfriends” – were capable, intelligent and most importantly, wholly independent individuals.

Hawkgirl was written as every bit her husband’s equal and the Hawks had one of the most subtle and sophisticated relationships in the business. Like Sue and Ralph Dibney (Elongated Man and wife) Katar and Shayera were full partners, (both couples were influenced by the Nick and Nora Charles characters of the Thin Man movies) and the interplay between them was always rich in humour and warmth.

As a sign of the times super-secret criminal conspirators C.A.W. returned to seize control of the ‘Treasure of the Talking Head!’ – an ancient computer which held all the world’s knowledge, built before the birth of Christ, and the Pinioned Paladins then faced a fantastic monster in ‘Scourge of the Human Race!’, an encounter which revealed the true history of humanity as the last surviving specimen of Homo Sapiens’ earliest rival for mastery of the planet attempts to reverse evolution…

Issue #16 was a dimension-hopping sequel to Hawkman #6 (‘World Where Evolution Ran Wild’): an incredible Lost Worlds romp which combined secret history, fantastic fantasy and DC’s signature fascination with apes and simians in ‘Lord of the Flying Gorillas!’ whilst #17’s ‘Ruse of the Robbing Raven’ changed pace with a clever costumed crook caper. The issue also contained the first short back-up tale in over a year – another science based mystery entitled ‘Enigma of the Escape-Happy Jewel Thieves!’

Hawkman then guest-starred – and clashed – with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #70 (February-March 1967): ‘Cancelled: 2 Super-Heroes’ by Bob Haney, EC legend Johnny Craig and Chuck Cuidera saw the usually comradely crime-busters at each others throats due to the machinations of a manic millionaire who collected secret identities, whilst later that month in his own title the Winged Wonder teamed with Adam Strange against the malevolent Manhawks to locate the ‘World That Vanished!’ The planet in question was Thanagar and when it went it took Hawkman’s beloved Shayera with it…

This colossal tale concluded in the next issue with the action-packed ‘Parasite Planet Peril!’ and the Avian Ace then joined his old friend in The Atom #31 for ‘Good Man, Bad Man, Turnabout Thief!’ (by Fox, Gil Kane & Sid Greene) to battle a phantom super-criminal hidden within the brain of an innocent man, before returning to home ground for Hawkman#20’s ‘Death of the Living Flame’ a classy anthropological tomb-raiding yarn and the introduction of a new and persistent foe in ‘Lion-Mane… the Tabu Menace!’

The alien-infected leonine marauder returned in the very next issue ‘Attack of the Jungle Juggernaut!’– a typically classy thriller for Fox and Anderson to bow out with. With issue #22, George Kashdan took over the editorial reins, tapping Bob Haney, Dick Dillin and Charles “Chuck” Cuidera to continue the adventures of the Winged Wonders in a market increasingly indifferent to costumed characters. ‘Quoth the Falcon “Hawkman Die!”’ certainly hit the ground running as the tale of extraterrestrial paranoia and civil unrest resulted in Hawkman revealing his secret identity and alien heritage to a hostile Earth…

‘The Hawkman from 1,000,000 B.C.!’ was another dark, moody tale wherein a mad scientist’s time-plundering ray inflicts dinosaurs, ancient warriors and an amnesiac Hawkman on the shell-shocked citizens of Midway City. Arnold Drake scripted the alien invasion saga ‘The Robot-Raiders from Planet Midnight!’ and Haney resurfaced for ‘Return of the Death Goddess!’ and Shayera’s brief but ghastly possession by the ghost of the mythical Medusa.

The writing was on the wall by June-July 1968 and the prophetically entitled ‘Last Stand on Thanagar!’(issue #26) scripted by Raymond Marais, was a rushed inconsequential affair before the final tale ‘…When the Snow-Fiend Strikes!’ ended Hawkman’s solo career with a muddled tale of Communist agents and Yetis in the Himalayas.

It was a bad time for superheroes. Buying tastes had changed and a drop in comic sales and attendant rise in interest in supernatural themes prompted publishers to drop or amend much of the anti-horror provisions of the Comics Code Authority. Tales of mystery and imagination were returning after nearly a decade-and-a-half, but sales figures notwithstanding, Julie Schwartz had worked too hard to just let Hawkman die.

Just as Marvel were converting their double-feature split books into solo titles Hawkman was crammed into the equally struggling Atom comic for one last year of adventures.

The Atom and Hawkman, beginning with #39 (October-November 1968, carrying on the numbering of the Tiny Titan’s publication) featured some of Schwartz’s biggest creative guns, alternating short solo stories with shared adventures. The first of these was ‘Vengeance of the Silver Vulture!’ an epic battle against a resurgent Mayan death-cult written by Bob Kanigher, illustrated by Anderson and Joe Giella, with cover art by Joe Kubert – who would also contribute interior art to the feature he struggled so long and hard to create.

Written by Fox, pencilled by Kubert and inked by Anderson, the Hawkman portion of #40, ‘Man with the Inbuilt Panic Button!’ and its sequel ‘Yo-Yo Hangup in the Sky!’ from #41 are one last splendid slice of the “Good Old Days” – an intriguing mystery about a ordinary man who suddenly develops the power of teleportation – but only from one life-threatening crisis to a greater one…

Denny O’Neil joined Dick Dillin and Sid Greene for ‘When the Gods Make Madness!’, a full-length team-up which pitted the heroes against Hindu gods, and Kanigher revived the Golden Age Hawkman’s greatest foe in the two part saga of The Gentleman Ghost ‘Come to my Hanging!’ and the concluding ‘The Ghost Laughs Last’, both illustrated by Anderson.

The Atom and Hawkman #45 was the final issue, a revelatory psycho-drama featuring both heroes by O’Neil, Dillin and Greene that wrapped up their comic tenure and set them up with a prolonged series of further adventures in Justice League of America: a veritable lifeboat for cancelled costumed crime-fighters at that time.

‘Queen Jean, Why Must We Die?’ revealed that the Atom’s fiancée Jean Loring was the descendent of aliens who had crashed on Earth in the Stone Age. Returned from sub-molecular exile the survivors drove her insane – because their hereditary rulers must be free of all care – before the heroes could rescue – but not cure her. This tale would provide much of the basis for Loring’s actions in contemporary sagas Identity Crisis and Countdown to Final Crisis…

And then , but for the JLA, occasional guest-spots or back-up features in Action or Detective Comics that was it for the Winged Wonders until changing tastes and times gave them another, indeed many other, shots at the stars.

Hawkman briefly grew into one of the most iconic characters of the second superhero boom, not just for the superb art but also because of brilliant, subtle writing and incomparable imagination. These tales are comfortably familiar but grippingly timeless. Yet comics are a funny business; circumstances, tastes and fashions often mean that wonderful works are missed and unappreciated.

Don’t make the same mistake readers did in the 1960s. Together with its first volume this book captures and perfectly preserves the very essence of the Silver Age of Superheroes. Whatever your own vintage, read these astounding adventures and become a fan. It’s never too late.
© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Catwoman: the Long Road Home


By Will Pfeiffer, David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-181-6

After a phenomenal relaunch (see Catwoman: Selina’s Big Score, The Dark End of the Street and Crooked Little Town) the feline felon motored along nicely for years before falling prey to her most telling weakness: she is inextricably bonded to the Bat Franchise and as it turns, so does she.

Despite some sterling work from Will Pfeiffer, David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez, the series was marked for cancellation and the final days saw her sucked into both the Amazons Attack and Salvation Run publishing events (see particularly Wonder Woman: Amazons Attack!, Justice League of America: Sanctuary, JLA: Salvation Run and the previous volume Catwoman: Crime Pays).

So it is that this final compilation (collecting issues #78-82 of her gone-but-not-forgotten monthly comic) opens with the urban defender of Gotham City’s downtrodden underclass marooned on a distant deadly planet where America’s super-criminals have been clandestinely deported by the government, trying to avoid being killed by her own rogues gallery (Russian émigrés Hammer & Sickle and Cheetah most notably) whilst back on Earth old friend Slam Bradley’s search for her has led him into a murderous deathtrap…

One Final Whine (and you just know that’s not true): as I’ve said in many a review, graphic novels are different from simultaneously published periodicals, and lots of the tricks that augment sales in the latter are actual hindrances in the former. This first chapter is the ideal example of that observation.

In the comic-books this story culminates with a cataclysmic death-duel on the alien Hellworld, and a Slam Bradley teaser/cliffhanger after which the informed reader turns to Salvation Run issues #6 and 7 to discover what happens next. In this collection we simply, inexplicably find Catwoman back on Earth and coming to Slam’s rescue. Bast help you if you’re on a tight budget or only collect Catwoman books…

Feel free to consider that an advisory to buy Salvation Run too.

After saving Bradley Selina returns to unfinished business: chiefly tracking down The Thief, an obnoxious upstart who stole all her possessions and reputation to augment his own, which she does with panache and perhaps excessive force and zeal, before settling a few other old scores, most notably with criminal information broker The Calculator, and drives off into the sunset after one final fight with Batman.

This is a readable if necessarily bitty clean-up operation prior to Catwoman joining the cast of the ensemble series “Gotham City Sirens”, but there are still moments of the old magic to be found here. A rather unfortunate end to a superb series and a wrap-up only the most dedicated fans should have to endure.

© 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA: Salvation Run


By Matthew Sturges, Bill Willingham, Sean Chen, Walden Wong & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-981-9

It all makes sense really: if you’re normal folks in a world of casually destructive gods and monsters wouldn’t you want to get rid of them? That’s the premise of this dark and sardonic take on George II’s “Wahr on Turrrism” as seen through the gaudy lens of the DC universe.

Salvation Run was a seven part miniseries which spilled over most prominently into Justice League of America (see Sanctuary) and Catwoman (both Catwoman: Crime Pays and Catwoman: the Long Road Home), although the build-up, which saw a large number of DC super-villains seemingly vanish was featured in a quite a number of disparate DC titles.

The first chapter ‘Hellish New World’ (by Willingham, Chen & Wong) follows the murder of Bart Allan in Flash – Fastest Man Alive: Full Throttle and concentrates on that hero’s killers as they try to survive on a deadly alien world. They had been captured and sent there by the hard-line political animal Amanda Waller and her pet penal battalion The Suicide Squad, a government-controlled team of super-villains acting as a black-ops team in return for (limited) freedom. It’s not long before a multitude of metahumans ranging from cheap thugs like Black Spider and Hyena to “aristocrats” such as Cheetah, Clayface and the Joker are also unceremoniously dumped and forgotten…

Clandestinely deported without trial, they were told their new world had everything they needed to survive, but when they fell out of teleportational Boom Tubes they all quickly discovered that somebody lied: everything animal, vegetable and mineral on this Hellworld has been programmed to kill them…

In ‘Take this World and Shove It!’ the body-count of (admittedly minor) bad-guys begins to mount and in a grisly echo of Lord of the Flies the Joker takes charge – until the final batch of transportees arrive: a group which includes Lex Luthor, Catwoman and an incredibly scared and angry Suicide Squad, finally betrayed by their Government taskmasters…

Matthew Sturges took over the scripting with ‘All You Need is Hate’ and the trenchant black comedy was cranked up as rivalries and philosophical differences divided the villains on all but one point – that there were enough mad scientists on hand to find a way back to Earth…

‘Life is But a Nightmare’ revealed that the never-unaware Batman had planted a heroic infiltrator among the villains, and as immortal Vandal Savage lured a small harem of Bad Girls to a distant “safe area” to begin populating the planet with his progeny, the civil war among the factions claimed its first major player, whilst ‘Through a Glass Deadly’ (illustrated by Joe Bennett and Belardino Brabo) saw the morally ambivalent Catwoman forced to betray Batman’s spy to the villains just as the true masters of Hellworld reveal their own long-range plans for the deported villains.

‘Burning Down the World’ saw open warfare break out as Luthor and Joker attempt to beat each other to death whilst all about them Hellworld’s creators attack and the violent deadly affair ends with a mass prison break when Luthor’s genius returned them all (the survivors anyway) to Earth with renewed hatred of society and a huge simmering grudge to work off… ‘We Gotta Get Out of this Planet’ (by Sturges, Chen, Wong and Wayne Faucher) ends in spectacular fashion a hard look at DC’s dark side and firmly re-establishes the pecking order of the underworld just in time for the ultimate shake-up of Final Crisis.

Wicked, funny and grimly gory this is a fascinating look at the other costumes in the DCU, but there’s enough high concept and clever subtext to delight those casual readers who look beyond the normal “who’s tougher than who” antics.

For clearer comprehension I advise reading Justice League of America: Sanctuary before attempting this book.

© 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Justice League of America: Sanctuary


By Alan Burnett, Dwayne McDuffie, Ed Benes & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-051-2

The fourth volume of the latest Justice League of America incarnation (collecting issues #17-22 of the monthly comic) sees a changing of the creative guard as the always impressive Alan Burnett splits the scripting duties with equally impeccable Dwayne McDuffie to tie-in the Worlds Greatest Heroes to a company-wide storyline that wasn’t quite a braided-mega-crossover but was more than a shared plotline.

The graphic novel (or album or trade paperback collection: take your pick) is a wonderful vehicle for a complete reading experience in an industry and art-form that has always suffered from its own greatest strength – vitality and immediacy due to being periodically published.

Simply stated: you can generate huge enthusiasm for your product if it comes out frequently (or constantly), and more so if your product shares a storyline with a congruent product. That simple maxim gave early Marvel an insurmountable advantage in the 1960s and DC, being slow to catch on is still playing Catch-Up in the cross-selling stakes.

Unfortunately that advantage becomes a hazard once these parallel sagas are bundled up into what ought to be cohesive one-off packages, i.e. books, as inevitably backstory and initiating events have to be ignored, précised or included. One day all periodical material will be downloadable on demand and I’ll go back to reviews of actual comics…

The epic in question here is Salvation Run: a miniseries which spilled over most prominently into Catwoman (see both Catwoman: Crime Pays and Catwoman: the Long Road Home), although the build-up, which saw a large number of DC super-villains seemingly vanish, was featured in a quite a number of disparate DC titles.

The chapters here were divided into the lead feature ‘Sanctuary’ parts 1-3, by Burnett, Ed Benes and inkers Sandra Hope, Mariah Benes & Ruy José, with McDuffie providing captivating character-based vignettes, before assuming full writing chores for the last two tales in this volume.

It all kicks off when a desperate gang of super criminals smashes into the JLA’s headquarters and promptly surrenders, requesting asylum. Investigation reveals that villains from the most pathetic to the most powerful are being “disappeared” and even incarceration in the League’s dungeon on the Moon is preferable to the unknown fate of their fellows.

When hard-line political animal Amanda Waller and her pet penal battalion The Suicide Squad turn up demanding the heroes hand over the bad-guys the shocking secret comes out: the US government has had enough of metahuman threats and is rounding them up, without benefit of Due Process, and deporting them to another world from which they can never return. Moreover, she’s equally prepared to trample the JLA’s human rights to get what – and who – she wants…

Full of spectacular action and telling metaphor this yarn has plenty of surprises and for best effect should be read before any of the above cited collections, as it has no real conclusion, only lots of climaxes…

McDuffie’s first tale is ‘Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen…’ illustrated by Jon Boy Meyers & Serge LaPointe, wherein Vixen reveals a secret that might get her booted off the team to Red Arrow, Red Tornado and Green Lantern, and ‘Meanwhile, Back at Owl Creek Bridge…’, (Meyers & Mark Irwin) sees the Tornado – currently bodiless and inhabiting the team’s computer system – make a decision that could save or end his “life”. Both these short stories lay the threads for upcoming longer tales.

After the conclusion of ‘Sanctuary’ McDuffie and Ethan van Sciver pit the (Wally West) Flash and Wonder Woman against the alien insect Queen Bee Zazzala in ‘Back up to Speed’ and the book closes focusing on the Human Flame, as he joins a bevy of baddies feted by the villainous Libra in a prequel to Final Crisis. ‘The Gathering Crisis’ is illustrated by Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino.

Even though possibly no more than a bunch of interludes and add-ons, the sheer quality of the work collected here elevates this book above the average superhero sock-fest, and if you are a fan of the “Big Events” the room to see characters breathe and move here is a bonus of unparalleled worth.

© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Yragael: Urm


By Philippe Druillet (Dragon’s Dream)
ISBN: 9-063-325210

The fantasy tales of Lone Sloane revolutionised graphic fiction not only in Europe but especially in Britain and America when the baroque and bizarre cosmic odysseys began appearing in the adult fantasy magazine Heavy Metal, which combined original material with the best that “Old World” comics had to offer. By the time French comics collective Les Humanoides Associes launched the groundbreaking magazine Métal Hurlant in 1975, Philippe Druillet, one of their visual and philosophical big guns, had been creating new myths for nearly a decade…

Born in Toulouse in 1944, Druillet was born and raised in Spain, a photographer and artist who started his comics career in 1966 with an apocalyptic science fiction epic Le Mystère des abîmes (The Mystery of the Abyss) which introduced the doom-tainted Earthling, intergalactic freebooter and wanderer called Lone Sloane in a far distant future: a tale heavily influenced by HP Lovecraft and A.E. Van Vogt. Later influences included Michael Moorcock’s doomed anti-hero Elric (and I’m pretty sure I can see some Jack Kirby and Barry Windsor-Smith also tinting the mix…)

He began working for Pilote in 1969, and revived his mercurial star-rover for a number of short pieces which were first gathered together as a graphic novel in 1972. Prior to the large scale (310mm x 233mm) 1991 collection from NBM (see The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane and the later compilation Lone Sloane: Delirius).

Following these early epics he further stretched himself with the astounding, nihilistic, “End of Days” cosmic tragedies of the doomed prince Yragael and his child of ill fortune Urm.

Readers of Moorcock, August Derleth and particularly Jack Vance will recognise shared themes in the woeful tale of the last times of Earth where declining humanity is beset by gods and demons keen on recovering their lost power, on a blasted planet where men still intrigue and kill each other for gain. From this guttering chaos arises Yragael, a potential messiah who founders and falls due to pride and a ghastly liaison with the dire Nereis, witch queen of the living city Spharain…

One hundred years later in the devastated wastelands of the world, the grotesque hunchbacked spawn of that illicit union falls under the spell of mendacious demons and attempts to reclaim both parts of his heritage. Urm is stupid but passionate and his cataclysmic visit to the horrendous city reveals that the Last Men are just as much playthings of the gods as the monstrous bastard himself…

This is a graphic odyssey of utterly Byzantine narrative and Brobdignagian, baroque scale and scope. The storytelling is reduced to the merest plot, as the text (more pictorial accoutrement than dialogue facilitator) and art goes into emotional overdrive. This isn’t a tale told, it’s a mesmerising, breathless act of graphic expression. If it helps think of it as ballet or a symphony rather than a novel or play: you’re supposed to go “wow!” not “a-ha!”

The visual syntax and techniques originated in these non-stories dictated the shape of science fiction – especially in movies – for decades. Character and plot are again pared to pure fundamentals so that Druillet could fully unleash the startling graphic innovations in design and layout that churned within him, and which exploded from his pen and brain.

His brand of universal Armageddon achieved levels of graphic energy that only Jack Kirby has ever equalled, and this is another work crying out for re-release in large format with all the bells and whistles modern technology can provide, but until that distant tomorrow this book will have to do – and do very well.

Luckily for you it’s still widely available and remarkably inexpensive…
© 1974 Philippe Druillet/Dargaud Editeur. © 1975 Philippe Druillet/Dargaud Editeur. All rights reserved.

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Birdland


By Gilbert Hernandez (Eros Comics/Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 1-56097-200-9

This book contains stories and images of an extremely adult nature, specifically designed for adult consumption and the kind of coarse and vulgar language that most kids are fluent in by the age of ten. If reading about such things is likely to offend you, please stop now and go away. Tomorrow I’ll write about something with violence and explosions, so come back then. Please.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: if you do it right – and who does? – sex is supposed to be fun.

Now we all know that in the real world nobody’s actually any good at sex, and there’s always someone trying to put a stop to it (hopefully not your consenting participating partner-of-choice) but fun-filled fictional fornication has usually sought to be a jolly, joyous affair – which is why so much pornography aspires to low comedy.

When champion of diversity Fantagraphics jumped on the smut bandwagon that proliferated in the American comics industry at the very end of the 1980s with their Eros Comics imprint, they gathered the most stylish of European and foreign adult material (such as Solano Lopez & Barreiro’s Young Witches) to complement the quality home-grown creators such as Bill Willingham and Ho Che Anderson (with their superb Ironwood and I Want to be Your Dog, respectively). In such an instance how could they not also tap major talent and socio-sexual revolutionary Gilbert Hernandez for such an “adults-only” project?

In addition to being part of the graphic and literary revolution that is Love and Rockets (where his incredibly insightful tales of Palomar and the later stories of those characters collected as Luba gained such critical acclaim) Beto has produced stand-alone tales such as Sloth, Grip and Girl Crazy, all marked by his bold, instinctive, compellingly simplified artwork and a mature, sensitive adoption of the literary techniques of Magical Realist writers such as Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez: techniques which he has added to and made his own.

All of these graphic novels – indeed all his works – have been notable for a matter-of-fact and totally explicit treatment of all aspects of sexual behaviour. It’s like he realised that everybody screws – and screws around.

In the comic miniseries Birdland collected here and tangentially linked to his earlier Heartbreak Soup and his later Luba in America material he focused on the very strange lives of two strippers, Bang Bang and Inez, providing all the nudity, hard-core action and squirty, slurpy stuff demanded by porn consumers, but also adding psychiatry, bodybuilding, realistic relationships, painful infidelities, tragedy and regret to the usually repercussion-free mix. He also couched the entire thing in a surreal, absurdist, alien-abduction mystery… Smut with a storyline – now, that’s radical…

There’s only so much rampant, recrimination-free bonking I can take (and of course I mean reading about and reviewing, not doing) and clearly Hernandez understands that too: so although the sex is literally non-stop for the insatiable devotees there’s some actual narrative shoved in to be getting on with whilst readers are catching their breath…

Utterly adults-only, this book reprints the black and white miniseries, the short tale ‘Tierra de Pajaro’ from the Free Speech benefit comic True North #2 and a copious quantity of bonus material, and fans might recognise some of the work as having featured heavily in the recent Best Erotic Comics 2009.
© 1990, 1991, 1992 Gilbert Hernandez. All rights reserved.

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Spirou and Fantasia: Adventure Down Under


By Tome & Janry, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-011-5

For most English-speaking comic fans and collectors Spirou is probably Europe’s biggest secret. The character is a rough contemporary – and bald commercial  response – to Hergé’s iconic superstar Tintin, whilst the comic he has headlined for decades is only beaten in sheer longevity and creativity by our own Beano and Dandy.

Conceived at Belgian Printing House by Jean Dupuis in 1936, a magazine targeting a juvenile audience debuted on April 21st 1938 (three and bit months before DC Thomson’s Beano, but still beaten by The Dandy which launched on 4th December 1937), it was edited by Charles Dupuis (a mere tadpole, only 19 years old, himself) and took its name from the lead feature, which recounted the improbable adventures of a plucky Bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a reference to the publisher’s chief magazine, Le Moustique). With his pet squirrel, Spip (joining the cast on June 8th 1939, he’s the longest running character in the strip after Spirou himself) he was the idea of French artist Robert Velter,  who signed himself Rob-Vel.

A Dutch language edition ‘Robbedoes’ debuted a few weeks later and ran more-or-less in tandem with the French parent comic until it was cancelled in 2005.

The bulk of the comic was taken up with cheap American imports: Red Ryder by Fred Harman, William Ritt & Clarence Gray’s ‘Brick Bradford’ and Siegel & Shuster’s landmark creation ‘Superman’ although home-grown product crept in too. Most prominent were ‘Tif et Tondu’ by Fernand Dineur (which ran until the1990s) and ‘L’Epervier Blue’ by Sirius (Max Mayeu) and they were soon joined by comic-strip wunderkind Joseph Gillain – “Jije” (during World War II Jije legendarily drew the entire comic by himself, banned US imports included, as well as assuming production of the Spirou strip where he created the current co-star Fantasio).

Except for a brief period when the Nazis closed the comic down (September 1943 to October 1944 when the Allies liberated Belgium) Spirou and its boyish star – now a globe-trotting reporter – have continued their weekly exploits in unbroken four-colour glory.

Among the other myriad major features that began within those pages are ‘Jean Valhardi’ (by Jean Doisy & Jije), ‘Blondin et Cirage’ (Victor Hubinon), ‘Buck Danny’, ‘Jerry Spring’, ‘Les Schtroumpfs’, ‘Gaston Lagaffe’ and a certain laconic cowboy named ‘Lucky Luke’.

Spirou the character (the name translates as both “squirrel” and “mischievous”) has starred in the magazine for most of its life, evolving under a series of creators into an urbane yet raucous fantasy/adventure hero with the accent heavily on light humour. With comrade and rival Fantasio and crackpot inventor the Count of Champignac, Spirou travels to exotic places, uncovering crimes, revealing the fantastic and garnering a coterie of exotic arch-enemies.

During the War when Velter went off to fight, his wife Blanche Dumoulin took over the strip using the name Davine, assisted by Luc Lafnet. Dupuis assumed control of and rights to the strip in 1943, assigning it to Jije who handed it to his assistant André Franquin in 1946. It was the start of a golden age.

Among Franquin’s innovations were the villains Zorglub and Zantafio, Champignac and one of the first strong female characters in European comics, rival journalist Seccotine (renamed Cellophine in this current English translation), but his greatest creation – one he retained on his departure in 1969 – was the incredible magic animal Marsupilami (first seen in Spirou et les héritiers in 1952), now a star of screen, plush toy store, console and albums all his own.

From 1959 the writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem assisted Franquin but by 1969 the artist had reached his Spirou limit and resigned, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him. He was succeeded by Jean-Claude Fournier who updated the feature over the course of nine stirring adventures that tapped into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times with tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes.

As the series entered the 1980s it seemed to stall: three discrete creative teams alternated on the serial: Raoul Cauvin & Nic Broca, Yves Chaland and the creators of the graphic novel under review here: Philippe Vandevelde writing as Tome and artist Jean-Richard Geurts AKA Janry. These last adapted and referenced the beloved Franquin era and revived the feature’s fortunes, producing fourteen wonderful albums between 1984 and 1998. This one, ‘Adventure Down Under’ from 1985, was their second.

Since their departure Lewis Trondheim and the team of Jean-Davide Morvan & Jose-Luis Munuera have brought the official album count to fifty (there also are a bunch of specials, spin-offs and one-shots, official and otherwise)…

As Spirou and Fantasio arrive home exhausted from their latest assignment they are intercepted by Cellophine at the airport: odd things are occurring in the depths of the Outback and the always-newsworthy Count of Champignac is right at the heart of it. Instantly awake again all three fly to Australia where nefarious deeds are occurring at the desolate Albuh Opal Mine.

The crazy inventor is there on the verge of a fabulous and incredible discovery far more precious than jewels, but the ruthless miners don’t seem that impressed, although they are worried by disappearing diggers, inexplicable accidents, men driven crazy and, if some observers are to be believed, levitating aborigines…

This classy blend of thrilling mystery, weird science, light adventure and broad slapstick is a pure refreshing joy in a market far too full of adults-only carnage and testosterone-fuelled breast-beating. Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the welcoming style and panache that makes Asterix, Lucky Luke and Iznogoud so compelling, this is a cracking read and hopefully the start of a long line of translated epics that will become as much a household name as those series – and even Tintin himself…

Original edition © Dupuis, 1985 by Tome & Janry. All rights reserved. English translation 2009 © Cinebook Ltd.

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Frederic Mullally’s Amanda


By Frederic Mullally, John Richardson & “Ken” (Ken Pierce Books)
ISBN: 978-0-91227-703-5

When I reviewed the comic strip collection Danielle recently I declaimed at long length about having to become an apologist for some of the themes and content of what used to be called “cheesecake” or “girly” strips – a genre stuffy old-fashioned Britain used to excel at and happily venerate. We’re that sort of culture: saucy postcards, carry-on films and ingenuously innocent smut.

As John Dakin points out in his introduction to this short-lived strip-siren, The Sun, original home of the lady in question, was the country’s best selling newspaper and was provocatively, proudly populist. That translated into low laughs and acres of undraped female flesh everywhere except the sports section – and even there when possible…

By 1976 the battle for female equality had mostly moved from headlines to business pages: the height of the much-maligned “Sexual Revolution” with women demanding equal rights, equal pay and fair treatment had passed (so isn’t it marvellous that they’ve got all those things sorted now?). Contraception-on-demand and burning bras were gone except for the provision of comedy fodder and men had generally returned to their old habits, breathing a heavy sigh of relief…

Amanda launched on January 26th 1976, written by journalist, editor (of left-wing magazine Tribune), columnist, novelist and political writer Frederic Mullally, and initially seemed a low key, low-brow reworking of his prestigious Penthouse satire ‘O Wicked Wanda!’ but there were marked differences for anybody looking below the satin-skinned surface.

Amanda Muller was the beautiful, sequestered heir to the world’s largest fortune, and once her old fossil of a father finally kicked the bucket she decided to become a teen rebel and have all the fun she’d missed growing up in an old castle with only prim staff and her cousins Wiley and Hunk for company. With thief turned companion Kiki, she determined to splurge and spree and have anything she wanted.

The strip ran for a year and the first illustrator was John Richardson, a highly gifted artist with a light touch blending Brian Lewis with Frank Bellamy who has worked practically everywhere in Britain from 2000AD to DC Thomson to Marvel UK as well as for specialist magazines such as Custom Car, Super Bike and Citizen’s Band. The introductory story sees Amanda – shedding her clothes at every opportunity – try to buy a title, only to fall foul of a Mafia plot to control Italian Nudist Beaches, before moving on to a “career” as a pop-star – which once more draws her into a world of unscrupulous sharks and swindlers…

Whilst looking for a new maid Amanda and Kiki next got embroiled in a continental burglary ring, before the author’s political interests resurfaced when brainy cousin Wiley was invited to display his new electronic Chess brain behind the Iron Curtain. Naturally physical Adonis Cousin Hunk wants to come along – it’s just before an Olympics after all – and the girls tag along just for kicks.

Since you just can’t trust a Commie they’re all soon in lots of trouble but naturally the frolicsome foursome escape with relative ease. The next adventure, and all the remaining strips, are illustrated by somebody who signs him (or her) self “Ken”, and who, I’m ashamed to say, I know absolutely nothing about. Competent, but a tad stiff and hesitant, and lacking the humorous touch of Richardson, I’d lay money on the enigma being an Italian or Hispanic artist – but I’ve been wrong before and I will be again…

Safely home again Amanda decided to create a feminist magazine entitled New Woman, and sent Kiki to interview the world’s greatest Chauvinist Pig – fashion designer “Bruno” – only to once more fall foul of crooks; although this time its kidnappers and embezzlers.

Still in editor mode the gang then head to super-sexist Banana Republic Costa Larga, just in time for the next revolution, infiltrate the “Miss Sex Object” beauty contest with the intent of sabotaging it, and conclude their globe-trotting by heading for a tropical holiday just as the local government is overthrown by a tin-pot dictator…

Despite my caveats this was series that started out with few pretensions and great promise; however the early loss of Richardson and, I suspect, Mullally’s intellectual interest soon quashed what charm it held. Nevertheless this collection is a good representative of an important period and a key genre in British cartooning history.

Some of the gags are still funny (especially in our modern world where celebrity equates with exactly where drunken, stoned rich people threw up last) and if you’re going to ogle and objectify naked women at least well-drawn ones can’t be harmed or humiliated in the process. Also I don’t think a drawing has ever contributed to a girl’s low self esteem or body issues, At least, I hope not…
© 1984 Express Newspapers Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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The Hobbit


By J.R.R. Tolkien, adapted by Charles Dixon & Sean Deming, illustrated by David Wenzel (Eclipse Book)
ISBN: 1-56060-054-3-1295

I’m a great believer in art remaining true to its roots: Nobody writes a novel with the ultimate intention of it becoming a lousy movie, nor a song or symphony merely to sell the ring-tone rights (maybe these days they do – it would certainly explain why there are so many bad books and crap tunes. Just call me the last of the dewy-eyed idealists, then).

So just to keep things straight: even though I’m about to review the graphic novel adaptation – and favourably – Read the Book. Even though there’s been a stage play, a radio drama, an animated feature and (soon) a two-film franchise – Read the Book.

Every time you see something leap the creative hurdle from original artwork to another, different, separate medium: Read the Book. Or comic or play or song or…

The Hobbit was first published in 1937 to world-wide success and acclaim. It won the New York Herald-Tribune Award for best juvenile fiction, was nominated for a Carnegie Medal and is rightly considered to be a classic of World Literature. In my overblown and utterly personal opinion it completely outclasses and knocks spots off the sequel Tolkien’s publishers demanded. You ought to read that too: it’s called Lord of the Rings.

In 1989 Eclipse Comics produced a three-part prestige miniseries adapting the Hobbit, which was then collected into a successful graphic novel that helped break the then-new format out of the comics fan ghetto. Since the company’s demise the collection has been re-issued by HarperCollins (1998, ISBN: 978-0-26110-266-8) and other companies and is relatively easy to find.

I’m sticking with the original here simple because it has the wonderful painted cover by David Wenzel gracing it. The story itself, of how a sedate and sedentary little Halfling called Bilbo Baggins is cajoled by the wizard Gandalf into leaving his complacent life of middle class prosperity for the seductive lure of adventure, is as enchanting as it ever was.

The diminutive Hobbit agrees, somewhat reluctantly, to become a Thief/Burglar for 14 disinherited dwarfs who yearn to liberate their ancestral home – and treasure – from the awesome dragon Smaug, and incorporates all the fascinating ephemerals that have graced Western mythology and tale-telling for centuries. (Read the Book).

Tolkien’s text is sensitively abridged rather than adapted by Chuck Dixon and Sean Deming, who strove to retain as much of the original as possible, whilst the illustration is by turns pretty, jolly, enthralling and when the dragon, goblins, trolls and especially Gollum appear, wholesomely terrifying. Wenzel started out as a wanna-be comics artist before moving into the field of fantasy and especially children’s illustration in the 1980s where he worked with icons like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and creators like Maurice Sendak, but he returned to comics for this project: probably his greatest achievement and one he’d dreamed of for much of his career (See Middle Earth: the World of Tolkien Illustrated)…

This is a truly magical interpretation of the classic and one that any devotee will find hard to dislike. If you are a lover of traditional fantasy you should get a copy – after you’ve Read the Book.

© 1989, 1990 the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. Based on The Hobbit © 1965 by J.R.R. Tolkien. Illustration © 1989, 1990 David Wenzel. Adaptation © 1989, 1990 Charles Dixon & Sean Deming. All Rights Reserved.