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Anarchy Comics – The Complete Collection


By Jay Kinney, Paul Mavrides, Clifford Harper, Gerhard Seyfried, Spain Rodriguez, Melinda Gebbie, Gilbert Shelton, Épistolier, Volny, Michel Troblin, John R. Burnham, Ruby Ray, Steve Stiles, Sharon Rudahl, Peter Pontiac, Guy Colwell, Matt Feazell, Gary Panter, Donald Rooum, Albo Helm, Adam Cornford, Norman Dog, Greg Irons, Steve Lafler, David Lester, brooke Lydbrooke, Pepe Moreno, Harry S. Robins, R. Diggs, S. Zorca, Byron Werner, & various, compiled and edited by Kinney (PM Press)
ISBN: 978-1-60486-531-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

During the “anything goes” 1960s and early1970s issues of personal freedom, sexual liberation, mind-altering self-exploration, questioning of authority and a general rejection of the old ways gripped the young and terrified the establishment. Artists and cartoonists especially began creating the kind of comics and art they wanted and an “Underground Commix movement” became the forefront for “radicalisation” (that’s “The Man’s” terms not mine) of many young intellectuals in America and throughout the world. It consequently led to the rise of and acceptance of comics narrative for adults.

Whenever anybody discusses the history and influence of the Underground and Counter-Culture movements, focus is generally on the exuberant and often racially or sexually offensive expressions of comedic or violent excess – especially in regard to sex and drugs – but that’s a rather cruel and biased oversimplification. The whole phenomenon stemmed from rebellion and the exercise of new-found freedoms. Equally apparent was a striving for new ways of living one’s life – and that’s Politics, Baby, pure and simple…

By 1978 that unchecked artistic flourishing had died back in every sphere – especially the wholesale creation of comics – and the mainstream world, having assimilated what it liked of the explosively fresh thought and deeds, appropriated or adopted some of the tone and tenets of the movement before getting back to making money and suppressing masses in a “new normal”…

However, once creative passions have been aroused and stoked they are hard to suppress. There is no more powerful medium of expression or tool of social change than graphic narrative – although music and poetry come close – and some kids found it harder to surrender their ideals than others. In 1977, as Disco, indolence, hedonism and the pursuit of money increasingly obsessed media and populace, a bunch of left-leaning liberal intellectual cartoonists got together in San Francisco. They wanted to create a comics anthology dedicated to propounding ideals of willing co-operation, personal responsibility and a rejection of unwanted oppressive authority – governmental, religious or corporate. By entertaining and educating through cartoons they intended to highlight issues of inequality and iniquity: in short, they went to bat for Anarchy…

Just as the global Punk movement began to take hold in a new generation of angry, powerless and disenfranchised Youth, West Coast cartoonist, satirist designer, editor and socialist political activist Jay Kinney – who had co-created the seminal underground title Young Lust (and yes that was a pun; so sue me!) – reached out to like-minded old associates like Paul Mavrides with the intention of creating an international comic book to promulgate their world view.

Kinney had been corresponding with British Anarchist artist Clifford Harper (Class War Comics) and had similarly-inclined West German cartoonist Gerhard Seyfried kipping on his floor at that time, so the idea of a forum for graphic expression of political ideas must have seemed like a no-brainer…

Of course, there’s no such thing as slavish doctrinaire consensus in Anarchist idealism – that’s pretty much the whole point – and the comic was envisioned more as a platform to present wide-ranging Left-Libertarian ideas through satire and historical reportage as a basis for further debate.

How the project developed from there and its ultimate effects and influence is fully described in author/historian Paul Buhle’s ‘Anarchy Comics Revisited’ and Kinney’s own expansive, evocative ‘Introduction’ before the entire 4-issue, 9-year run is re-presented in all its monochrome glory. beginning with Anarchy Comics #1 from 1978. It sports a witty cover by Kinney and deliciously wry intro page Inside Cover by Kinney & Seyfried. The editor then opened the attack with ‘Too Real’: using collage images from comic book ads to spoof the American Dream of prosperity and suburban bliss, after which counterculture legend Spain Rodriguez recounts the story of ‘Nestor Makhno’ whose fight for independence led to his betrayal by his Soviet allies in the early days of their Revolution.

Kinney’s ‘Smarmy Comics’ presents a decade of strip spoofs dedicated to exposing ‘Fascism: the Power to Finance Capital Itself’, after which the amazing Melinda Gebbie constructs a strident feminist call to arms against female oppression in educational diatribe ‘The Quilting Bee’ before Spain returns with a brutal true tale of the Spanish Civil War ‘Blood and Sky’ and an Underground superstar offers a frightening prognostication in ‘Gilbert Shelton’s Advanced International Motoring Tips’…

For someone with no appreciable budget or resources, Kinney was astonishingly successful in securing international contributions. From France’s L’echo Des Savannes #29 came a translated tale of more Bolshevik perfidy in ‘Liberty Through the Ages: Kronstadt’ by Épistolier (Yves Frémion) & Volny (Françoise Dupuy) wherein a local dispute escalates into an horrific early instance of merciless repression in the People’s Paradise, before Bay area cartoonist John R. Burnham challenges the future with his polemical ‘What’s the Difference?’

True Brit Clifford Harper offers a moving and witty account of grass roots resistance in the tale of ‘Owd Nancy’s Petticoat’ (set in the aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre), after which Kinney delivers wry Comic Strip parodies ‘Safehouse’, ‘On Contradiction’ and ‘Today’s Rhetoric’ – complete with faux ad – before Mavrides hilariously attacks the utopian/dystopian debate with ‘Some Straight Talk about Anarchy’. The issue ends with a stylish ad for like-minded publications from Kinney & Seyfried, which last also crafted a humorous depiction of a mass anarchist demonstration in Tiananmen Square 11 years before the tragic, monstrous real thing…

Issue #2 didn’t appear until 1979 and opened with a photographic punk cover by Ruby Ray & Kinney, with the latter & Seyfried collaborating on another hilarious introductory page before the fireworks kicked off with Steve Stiles’ chilling account of his brush with Military Intelligence. Once the brass realised he might have had associations with turn-of-the-century Labour Movement The Industrial Workers of the World, the baffled soldier-boy found himself suspected of crimes he didn’t know existed. How the ‘Wobblies!’ could subvert a hapless GI in 1967 is still unclear to the author of this smart but scary tale…

‘Believe It!’ by Sharon Rudahl exposes true but crazy beliefs from history whilst

‘Kultur Dokuments’ (Kinney & Mavrides) brilliantly blends styles and metaphors to harangue the working world in a clever tale that starts as pictograms and ends as a vicious swipe at Archie Comics. Harper then adapts “Bert” Brecht’s grim ballad ‘The Black Freighter’ (perhaps better known in English as “Pirate Jenny” via Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera), Spain details the life of Civil War freedom-fighter Buenaventura ‘Durruti’ and Dutch artist Peter Pontiac exposes sexual fantasy and other anti-spontaneity heresies in ‘Romantic! Anarchy’ before Kinney dryly restores order with spoof talk-show ‘Radical Reflections’.

Épistolier & Michel Trublin relate how radicals Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman changed the smugly complacent nature of Wall Street in ‘Liberty Through the Ages: The Yippies at the Exchange’ before Gebbie potently limns illustrated ‘Quotes from Red Emma’ (Goldman) after which ‘The Bizarre yet Familiar World of Commodity Fetishism!’ (Kinney) embellishes a Seyfried Inside back-cover ad with the glorious whole finished off in a painted Black Velvet portrait of Chairman Mao by Mavrides.

Anarchy Comics #3 arrived in 1981, sporting a traditional anarchic rampaging rogue by Pontiac & Guy Colwell and – after a clever introduction by Kinney & Mavrides – proceeds with the duo’s hilariously dark time-travel tale ‘No Exit’ showing how even the perfect future can’t please some activists. Next is Épistolier & Trublin’s trenchant examination of Church repression of workers in ‘Anarchy in the Alsace: The Revolt of the Rustauds’ and a welcome appearance for Donald Rooum’s iconic feline thought-experiment Wildcat.

Rooum was a spectacularly talented, gentle, fiercely pacifist freedom-fighter, educator and eternal knowledge seeker who contributed brilliant cartoons to British comics, magazines and the Anarchist press for over 60 years. His Wildcat cartoons have been collected continually and are a must have item whatever your political leaning…

The merriment continues in ‘The Act of Creation According to Bakunin’ by Dutch cartoonist Albo Helm, giving the genesis myth a thorough re-evaluation, after which Harper interprets French politician/philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s pointed ‘What is Government?’ with telling graphic savagery.

More of Kinney’s ‘Radical Reflections’ follow before Spain (with Adam Cornford & Kinney) examines the rise of the Red Brigade through Italian labour agitation and student unrest via ‘Roman Spring’, whilst Steve Laffler restores much-needed absurdity through deployment of rude, anti-Capitalist superhero the ‘Naked Avenger’.

Seyfried crafts a sharp display of police mentality in ‘Walkie Talkie’ before then relative newcomer Gary Panter plays with traditional bomb-throwing view of anarchists in his vicious comedy ‘Awake, Purox, Awake!’, whilst Gebbie & Cornford collaborate on a psychedelic tribute to ‘Benjamin Peret: Poet as Revolutionary and Rudahl supplies a slyly effective castigation of workers’ children-turned-capitalists in ‘The Treasure of Cabo Santiago’.

Comix iconoclast Greg Irons is represented here with moodily scary tale ‘Who’s in Charge Here?’ and Canadian cartoonist David Lester tackles sexual politics and the New Man in ‘Men Strips: Men March On’, ‘The Amazing Colossal Men’ and ‘The March of Men’ before Marian (now just brooke) Lydbrooke spoofs marital oppression in ‘At Home With…’ with Kinney exploring similar territory in ‘New Age Politics’.

Matt (Amazing Cynicalman) Feazell debuted here with an impressive bug-eyed view of class warfare and divisive manipulation by the bosses in the excellent ‘Pest Control’ before Kinney & Seyfried cobble together an inside back-cover ‘Bulletin Board’ and the garrulous German ends the issue with a classy spoof ad touting ‘New! Improved! Anarchy’ to end all our global pest woes…

After this issue Kinney’s time was increasingly taken up with other projects, and it wasn’t until 1987 that new editor Mavrides released Anarchy Comics #4, with both cover and introduction page products of his sublimely prolific satirist’s pen. He nonetheless joined with Kinney on apocalyptic parody on the End of Days ‘Armageddon Outahere! before the always challenging Harper contributes a terrifyingly true case regarding British poet Jimmy Heather-Hayes’ death in police custody at Ashford Prison, Kent ‘On the Night of March 3, 1982’.

Norman Dog creates a choose-your-own-ending role-playing strip in ‘You Rule the World!’ and Spain details the fall of Emperor Napoleon III, the entire Franco-Prussian War and the meteoric coming and going of the Communards in ‘1871’, after which Gebbie relates her own clash with British censorship in magically metaphoric fable ‘Public Enemy’.

‘Mr. Helpful’ is a more traditional cartoon quandary posed by Norman Dog whilst S. Zorca’s prose vignette ‘Executive Terrorism’ take a hefty swipe at Presidential Privilege and R. Diggs goes for the jugular in his logical extension of economic Darwinism ‘Korporate-Rex’.

The final issue closes with Harry S. Robins tapped into his Church of the SubGenius roots, addressing the apparent dichotomy of the philosophy in ‘Anarchy = Panarchy’ before Byron Werner’s ‘One-page strip’ suggests the only way we can rationally deal with intelligent extraterrestrial life, Mavrides & Kinney clashwith the Military-Industrial Complex in ‘Cover-up Lowdown’ and a final Back Cover offers a photo of Hiroshima after all the dust settled…

As you’d expect, this fabulous collection doesn’t stick to tradition, and after a standard section of contributing Cartoonist Biographies, and a sumptuous colour section including all covers, Outtakes, Sketches Roughs and a fulsome photographic Anarchy Comics Family Album, a New Comix addendum features a stunning new strip which would certainly have been in a fifth issue… if there had been one.

‘The Amazing Tale of Victoria Woodhull’ by Rudahl depicts the life of the most incredible woman you’ve never heard of: a libertine, suffragette, opportunist and crusader for women’s rights and female emancipation who started out as an American white trash huckster and died the wife of a British aristocrat.

This is followed by Sketchbook Drawings and Outtakes from Kinney, revealing abortive ideas and graphic dead ends such as Anarchy Chic, Shoot-Out at the Circle A Ranch, Revolt, Sectarianism, Marx my Words, spoof political mags, the Amazing Rhetoric Translator and the marvellous Oppressive Dichotomies – all strips that might well have found fans… if…

A stunning reminiscence of a time when we thought the world could still be changed and, hopefully, a stark example for the current generation who just won’t take it anymore, Anarchy Comics is still, funny, powerful, inspirational and out there.

And that’s not up for debate…
© 2013 Jay Kinney, Paul Mavrides and respective writers & artists. All rights reserved.

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Little David


By David Cantero (Northwest Press)
eISBN: 978-1-9438900-0-2 (digital only)

Families are important: by every conceivable metric the foundation of human society. If we swallow our arrogant exceptionalism for a moment, it’s also the binding concept of all mammalian life and a fair bit of the rest of Earth’s breathing occupants. You just need to try and be flexible, tolerant, willing to re-examine old ideas in the light of changing information and where necessary loosen any old hidebound definitions you might have acquired while growing up… and be amenable to change. It always comes whether or not you want it too.

Traditional interpretation of the family concept is one we’re finally shedding: escaping centuries of oppressive preconditioning and the diktat of whatever autocratic – or, more usually, theocratic – hegemony presumes to run your life at any one time. You can consider the current foofaraw about the imaginary cosmic threat of letting people self-define their gender just the latest bunch of reactionary twaddle of a none-too-rapidly dying breed…

I’ll restate that just in case I wasn’t clear: human beings are all about families and what constitutes a family is open to personal interpretation…

David Cantero Berenguer (The Little Swallow Light, Cunitoons, People) was born in Cartagena, Spain and – after graduating in 1996 from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège – embarked on a stellar career as an author, cartoonist, illustrator, concept artist, designer and games maker. He is a prolific creator of books and graphic novels for kids and adults. Many of his works involve gay themes, ranging from inclusive all-ages chronicles (like the one under review here) to beguiling adult erotica.

Little David was first released in 2015 and deftly references Winsor McCay’s classic fantasy Little Nemo in Slumberland. It is a delightful and charming selection of short gags wherein an ever-inquisitive titular star cavorts, chats and interacts with nine other kids, each and all cumulatively representing the wealth of options qualifying as family units today.

David himself has two dads, and pal Ulysses has a widowed mother, a stepdad and two half-brothers. Earnest and forthright Marie just has her mum. Abrasive Big Harry is full-nuclear in a biological clan of mum, dad and one sister, whereas Lena is a result of artificial insemination undertaken by her already-divorced mother. Anastasia has a mum and dad who conceived her in vitro, and PJ was adopted. Completing the roster, Ian has a mum and a trans dad whilst twins Yoko and Keiko have two mums and are the result of natural insemination.

That’s a heady mix and subject to exactly the kind of innocently incisive, hilarious conversations you’d imagine a bunch of smart, curious kids will indulge in when the adults are absent and they’re trying to get to know each other.

The result is a wittily compelling string of spit-take moments, especially as David (and his beloved stuffed unicorn Little Poo Poo) not only learn about many other ways of living but also explore various ways of dressing and expressing his own developing personality, interests and choices…

As innocently enchanting as Peanuts, as astute as Bloom County and as outrageously revelatory as Calvin and Hobbes, this peewee playground of family fun offers as sincerely inclusive and heartwarming kindergarten of comics messaging as you’d ever want your kids to see, and is also a superb example of top rate cartooning to gladden the eyes.

Little David is a book every home and elementary school should have and use. Tell your government I said so…
© 2015 David Cantero. All rights reserved.

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A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities


By Mady G & J.R. Zuckerberg (Limerance Press/Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-62010-586-3 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-62010-587-0

Here’s a handy rule of thumb for getting along. People get to decide what to call themselves. You get to accept and agree with them, as long as no one is being actually harmed or just mind your own business. That assessment is to be made by Law, not personal belief or some higher calling. If you can’t accept their definitions of themselves, you have the right to leave people alone and never interact with them. Okay?

We are the Naming Primate. If we encounter something unknown and/or scary, we give it a description, definition and title and accept it into our ever-expanding understanding of Reality. It’s what enabled us to take over this world. Naming things is generally a good thing and allows us to navigate the universe. Some people, however, use the power of naming to isolate, ostracise and wound. They are not doing it right. People like us have plenty of really fitting names for people like them when they abuse our gift.

In reality though, it seems like every time we make a move towards greater inclusivity, some faction of retrograde, regressive backwards-looking churl or biological luddite manufactures a reason (usually cribbing the lexicon of science to mask opinionated complete tosh) to prove why we can’t all get along. Dudes: take a look in a mirror…

I personally favour retaliation, but the only way to truly counter them is with understanding, so here’s a book that offers plenty of names and definitions we should all be adding to our own lexicons.

I’ve frequently/perpetually argued comic strips are a matchless tool for education: rendering the most complex topics easily accessible and displaying a potent and lasting facility to inform, affect and alter behaviour. Here’s a timely revisit and splendid example of the art form using its great powers for good…

The Quick & Easy Guide series has an admirable record of addressing uncomfortable issues with taste, sensitivity and breezy forthrightness, offering solutions as well as awareness or solidarity. Here, coast-to-coast cartoonists Mady G. & J. R. Zuckerberg collaborate on a bright and breezy primer covering the irrefutable basics on establishing one’s own sexual and gender identity (including the difference between those terms), safely navigating all manner of relationship and exploring the spectrum of experiences available to consenting adults.

A major aspect of us People Primates is that we spend a lot of our lives trying to work out who we are. It takes varying amounts of time and emotional effort for every individual… and lots of honesty.

It’s like most work. It can be unwelcome, laborious, painful and even dangerous and nobody should attempt it too soon or alone. Moreover, all too often, assistance and advice offered can be unwelcome and stemming from somebody else’s agenda. In my own limited experience for example, any sexual guidance offered by anybody with a religious background is immediately suspect and a waste of breath. Perhaps your experience is different. That’s pretty much the point here. In the end, you have make up your own mind and be your own judge…

Unlike me, A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities takes no sides and offers no bias as it runs through the fundamentals, but only after a Foreword from cartoonist and author Roz Chast and an Intro by Mady lay out the rules of engagement on the attaching and utilisation of the labels and roles gradually becoming common modern parlance…

Micro lectures are set during a wilderness trek where an agglomeration of troubled humans have a group teaching encounter under the supervision of a “Queer Educator” endeavouring to define for them the nature of ‘Queerness’. The useful commentary, educational asides and plentiful laughs are generated by a colony of snails avidly observing proceedings like a raucous, bonerless and bewildered Greek Chorus. Such gastropods, as I’m sure you recall from school, are either male, female, hermaphroditic or something else entirely, depending on what time it is. Now that’s perspective…

Subjects covered with forthright verve, clarity and – crucially – wry wit begin with ‘What is Queer?’, proffering terms for defining Sexuality and Gender subdivided into Bisexuality, Asexuality, Pansexuality amongst many other permutations. These and later lessons are illustrated with examples starring primarily neutral vegetable critters dubbed The Sproutlings who are conveniently pliable and malleable…

‘What is Gender Identity?’ digs deeper, discussing Gender vs Sex via a little biology tutorial before ‘Now… What’s Gender Expression?’ expands the debate, determining modern manners and ways of signalling the wider world what one has decided is a person’s (current, but not necessarily permanent) status. The chat comes with carefully curated real-world examples…

This is all fine in an ideal world, but contentious, often life changing problems that can occur are tackled head-on in ‘What Does Dysphoria Mean?’: detailing examples of traumas accompanying the realisation of not being how you believe you ought to be. Divided into Physical, Social and Non-Binary Dysphoria, the examination includes ways of combatting the problems and more case histories courtesy of the human wilderness students…

In swift succession ‘So, what is Asexuality?’ and ‘What does it mean to Come Out?’ offer further practical thoughts and prospective coping tactics before vital life lessons are covered in ‘Here are some Relationship Basics’.

Also included here are an “Outro” by Zuckerberg and a section of activities including ‘Design a Pair of Friendship Jackets’, ‘Create Your Own Sprout-sona!’ and ‘How to make a Mini Zine!!’ as well as information on ‘More Resources!’ and Creator Biographies.

I hail from a fabulous far-distant era where we happily ravaged the planet without a qualm but believed emotional understanding led to universal acceptance. We’re apparently smarter about the planet now, and it’s wonderful (if a bit disappointing) to see the quest to destroy intolerance and ignorance still continues. This witty, welcoming treatise offers superb strategies for fixing a pernicious issue which really should have been done and dusted decades ago.

Hopefully, when we all share appropriate, non-evocative, un-charged terms for discussing human sexuality and gender – such as seen here – we can all make decisions and assessments to build a fairer, gentler world for everybody…
A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities™ & © 2019 Mady G & J.R. Zuckerberg. All rights reserved.

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Toby and the Pixies: Worst King Ever!


By James Turner & Andreas Schuster with Kate Brown & Austin Boechle (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-296-0 (TPB)

Way back in January 2012, Oxford-based David Fickling Books made a rather radical move by launching a traditional anthology comics weekly aimed at under-12s. It revelled in reviving the good old days of picture-story entertainment intent whilst embracing the full force of modernity in style and content.

To this day each issue features humour, adventure, quizzes, puzzles and educational material in a joyous parade of cartoon fun and fantasy. The Phoenix has successfully established itself as a potent source of children’s entertainment because, like The Beano and The Dandy, it is equally at home to boys and girls, and mastered the magical trick of mixing amazingly action-packed adventure series with hilarious humour strip serials such as this one. Most of the strips have also become graphic collections just like this one…

Crafted by the astoundingly clever James Turner (Star Cat, Super Animal Adventure Squad, Mameshiba, The Unfeasible Adventures of Beaver and Steve) and Canadian cartoonist/designer/animator Andreas Schuster, Toby and the Pixies began in January 2020 (as I Hate Pixies) and those first forays are remastered right here, right now, beginning with ‘Chapter 1: Meet Toby’ as – at Suburbiton high school – nerdly 12-year old overachiever (what in my cruel school days was deemed a “swot”) is trying to fit in. It’s already hard enough enduring overbearing popular classmates like smarmy trendy “online influencer” Joe and snarky bully Steph but at least fellow style exile Mo is in the same boat, as evidenced by their idea to become acceptable by playing football turns out…

Reality reasserts itself when Toby is ordered by his electric toaster-obsessed Dad to tidy the garden before vanishing forever when the grumbling kid accidentally kills gleefully sadistic pixie tyrant King Thornpickle in ‘Chapter 2: Long Live the King’.

Unknown to any human, a fabulous fey realm has thrived in the green shambles of the Cauldwell backyard for the longest time, and now – due to an inept and inadvertent act of emancipation sparked by Toby kicking an unfortunately placed plaster garden gnome – the reluctant boy finds himself new ruler of a hidden kingdom of magical morons…

Thanks to pixie law – as interpreted by the former King’s advisors Mouldwarp (Royal Druid), wise(ish) Gatherwool (Lore Keeper/Potion Master) and Toadflax (she eats stuff) – killing Thornpickle makes Toby the new absolute monarch. Pixie law also states the ruler can do anything they want… a prospect so laden with responsibility it makes Toby weep with terror…

Just coming to terms with the thought of magic actually existing and that freaky, anarchic little imps can do it whilst still being absolute idiots and morons is bad enough, but young Cauldwell quickly learns just how awful it can be ‘Living the Dream’ as the advisors pester and bedevil him to give in and take on the job…

With dad increasingly obsessed with making the perfect, ultimate piece of toast and bonkers goblins infesting his home Toby heads for the relative sanctuary of school only to find the pixies waiting for him still insistent he take charge. Granting them liberty and autonomy proves disastrous in ‘Free Period’ and turns unto chaos when ravenous magic mushrooms maraud through classrooms until he capitulates and in chapter 5 dispenses ‘The Wisdom of Toby’…

Thanks to the mystic mooncalves’ utter literal-mindedness, the task is like herding floodwater, and the reluctant despot retreats for a bit of quiet time playing videogame ‘Camel Calamity’ with Mo. With the demanding pixies around, though, peace cannot be guaranteed and after the “bathtub badger crisis” and Mo’s being magicked into a bird, Toby takes his only friend into his confidence, spilling all. The response is not what the unhappy king expects…

Another shock follows the morning Toby is forced into dire state duty and compelled to become the groom at a ‘Royal Wedding’. The bride isn’t even human-shaped and his potential father in law even worse, but just this once fate seems to be on the boy’s side…

Going to school is also inescapable – and Toby’s only real joy – but royal duties increasingly encroach. Mystic meddling with his beloved ‘Homework’ results in embarrassment and ultimately a rampaging water sprite wrecking the adored institute of learning, after which Mo is kidnapped by the vengeful daughter of dead King Thornpickle.

Princess Sugarsnap is as mean as her dad and wants her inheritance – which Toby is happy to give to her – but of course it isn’t that easy to abdicate and instead the new King has to undertake a Royal Quest and face her “Army of Slimes”. Luckily, his faithful dachshund Digby goes along on the ‘Rescue Mission’…

The exploit leads to ‘Mo’s First Trip to Pixieland’, but being mistaken for the King’s jester – and worse – is just a prelude. Trouble really kicks off when jealous Toadflax challenges him for the position and Sugarsnap ambushes everybody before the pixies discover what Mo’s terrifying cell phone camera can really do…

As King’s Champion, his best pal also offers a real service by stepping in as ‘King Mo’ to give Toby a break. Sadly, he’s suckered into a day of questing that has lasting and laughable repercussions, prior to human life reasserting itself when Mo and Toby at last and unhappily become school sports stars thanks to being dragooned into ‘The Big Match’. Fair play is not on the cards though, as the pixie advisors secretly augment Toby’s kit with magic slugs…

The resultant humiliation leads to one final calamity as Chapter 13 ‘Falling Out’ sees Mo ostracised and banished after apparently cheating during a boardgame: a situation the three advisors are quick to capitalise on…

The premise of pixie promise is instantly and eternally engaging, and will further confound and beguile in a forthcoming volume…

Wrapping up the fey foolishness is an activity section detailing ‘How to Draw Toby’ with supplemental instruction on his ‘Expressions’, ‘Toby’s Body’ and thereafter ‘How to Draw Mo’, plus his ‘Expressions’ and ‘Body’ as well as graphic gen for rendering ‘Gatherwool’ ‘Mouldwarp’ and ‘Toadflax’ before closing with the now-standard Special Preview feature focusing on what other wonders await in the periodical Phoenix…

Toby and the Pixies is a gloriously daft and hilarious comic treasure: surreal, ingenious and fabulously fun. No laugh-loving LARPER, junior gamer, comedy connoisseur or devotee of madcap magical mayhem should miss this pixilated picture postcard from beyond.
Text and illustrations © The Phoenix Comic 2024. All rights reserved.

Toby and the Pixies: Worst King Ever! is published on June 6th 2024 and available for pre-order now.

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Beyond Mars – The Complete Series 1952-1955


By Jack Williamson & Lee Elias (IDW Publishing)
ISBNs: 978-1-631404-35-1 (HB/Digital edition)

The 1950s saw the last great flourish of the American newspaper strip. Invented and always used as a way to boost circulation and encourage consumer loyalty, the inexorable rise of television and spiralling costs of publishing gradually ate away at all but the most popular features as the decade ended. However, the post-war years saw a final, valiant, burst of creativity and variety as syndicates looked for ways to recapture popular attention and editors sought ways to maximise every fraction of a page-inch for paying ads, rather than fritter away column inches on expensive cost-centres. No matter how well produced, imaginative or entertaining, if strips couldn’t increase sales, they weren’t welcome…

The decade also saw fantastic social change as commercial boomtimes and technological progress created a new type of visionary consumer – one fired up by the realization that America was Top Dog in the world.

The optimistic escapism offered by the stars above led to a reawakening in the science fiction genre, with a basic introduction for the hoi-polloi offered by the television industry through such pioneering (if clunky) programmes as Tom Corbett, Space Cadet or Captain Video, cinema serials like King of the Rocket Men and major movies from visionaries like Robert Wise (Day the Earth Stood Still) and George Pal (Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, War of the Worlds and others).

Most importantly, for kids of all ages, conceptual fancies were being tickled by a host of fantastic comic books ranging from the blackly satirical Weird Science Fantasy to affably welcoming, openly enthusiastic and optimistic Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space. In the gradually expiring pulp magazines, master imagineers like Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke, Sturgeon, Dick, Bester and Farmer were transforming the genre from youthful melodrama into a highly philosophical art form…

With Flying Saucers in the skies and headlines, Reds under every Bed and refreshing adventure in mind, the multifarious Worlds of Tomorrow were common currency and newspapers wanted in on the phenomenon. Established strip features such as Buck Rogers, Brick Bradford and Flash Gordon were no longer enough and editors demanded bold new visions to draw in a wider public, not just those steady fans who already bought papers for their favourite futurians.

John Stewart “Jack” Williamson was one of the first superstars of American science fiction writing, a rurally raised, self-taught author with more than 18 short story collections, 50 books, and even volumes of criticism and non-fiction to his much-lauded name. Arizona-born in 1908, he was reared in Texas and sold his first story to Amazing Stories in 1928. He created a number of legendary serials such as the Legion of Space, The Humanoids and Legion of Time. Williamson is credited by the OED with inventing the terms and concepts of “terraforming” and “genetic engineering” and was one of the first literary investigators of anti-matter with his Seetee novels.

“See Tee” or “Contra Terrene Matter” is also at the heart of the strip under discussion here, completely collected in a magnificent full colour volume available in positive matter Hardback and the ethereal pulses technique we dub digital publication.

Following a damning newspaper review of Seetee Ship – which claimed the book was only marginally better than a comic strip – Williamson’s second novel in that sequence moved the editor of a rival paper to engage Williamson and artist Lee Elias to produce a Sunday page based in the same universe as the books.

Leopold Elias was born in England in 1920, but grew up in the USA after the family emigrated in 1926. He studied at the Cooper Union and Art Students League of New York before beginning his professional comics illustration career at Fiction House in 1943. He worked on Captain Wings and latterly western classic Firehair. His sleek, Milt Caniff-inspired art was highly prized by numerous publishers, and Elias contributed to the lustre of The Flash, Green Lantern, Sub-Mariner, Terry and the Pirates and, most notably, the glamourous Black Cat series at Harvey Comics.

Elias briefly left the funnybook arena in the early 1950s after his art was singled out by anti-comic book zealot Dr. Fredric Wertham. He traded up to the more prestigious newspaper strips, ghosting Al Capp’s Li’l Abner before landing the job of bringing Beyond Mars to life. He returned to comic books after the strip’s demise, becoming a DC mainstay in the 1960s, Marvel in the 1970s and Warren in the 1980s. He died in 1998, having spent his final years teaching at the School of Visual Arts and the Kubert School.

The glorious meeting of minds is preceded here by an effusive and informative Introduction from Bruce Canwell –‘When “Retro” Was Followed by “Rocket” – packed with cover art, original pages and illustrations setting the scene and sharing lost secrets of the strips genesis and Armageddon.

With Dick Tracy strip maestro Chester Gould as adviser at the start, Beyond Mars ran exclusively and in full colour in the New York Daily News every Sunday from February 17th 1952 to May 13th 1955: a glorious high-tech, high-adventure romp based on and around Brooklyn Rock in 2191 AD. This bastion was a commercial space station bored into one of the rocky chunks drifting in the asteroid belt “Beyond Mars” – an ideal rough-&-tumble story venue on the ultimate frontier of human experience.

Although as the series progressed, a progression of inspired extraterrestrial sidekicks and svelte, sultry, sexy women beloved of the era’s movies increasingly stole the show, but the notional star is Spatial Engineer Mike Flint, an independent charter-pilot based on the rock. The first tale begins with Flint selling his services to plucky Becky Starke who has come to the furthest edge of civilisation in search of her missing father. A student of human nature, she cloaks that motivation as a quest for a city-sized, solid diamond asteroid floating in the deadly “Meteor Drift”…

Soon Mike and his lisping ophidian Venusian partner Tham Thmith are contending with Brooklyn Rock’s crime boss Frosty Karth: a fantastic raider dubbed The Black Martian, a super-criminal named Cobra and even more unearthly menaces in a stirring tale of interplanetary drug dealers, lost cities and dead civilisations. There’s even a fantastic mutation in the resilient form of a semi-feral Terran boy who can breathe vacuum and rides deep space on a meteor!

With that tale barely concluded the crew, including that rambunctious space boy Jimikin, plunge deep into another mystery: Brooklyn Rock has gone missing!

Tough guy Flint has no time to grieve for the family and friends left behind as he intercepts an inbound star-liner and discovers both an old flame and a smooth-talking thug bound for the now-missing space station. One of them knows where it went…

Unknown to even this mastermind, the Rock – stolen by pirates – is out of control and drifting to ultimate destruction in a debris field, but no sooner is that crisis averted than the heroes are entangled in a “First Contact” situation with an ancient alien from beyond Known Space. Perhaps it might actually be more correctly deemed becoming snared by the devilish devices he/she/it left running? Ultimately, Mike, Tham, Jimikin and curvaceous Xeno-archaeologist Victoria Snow narrowly escape alien vivisection from robotic relics before the tragic, inevitable conclusion…

Snow’s brother Blackie is a fast-talking ne’er-do-well, and when he shows up, Karth takes the opportunity to settle some old scores, leading Flint into a deadly trap on Ceres in a slick saga of genetic manipulation, eugenic supermen and mega-wealth. Meanwhile on an interplanetary liner, a new cast member “resurfaces” in the shape of crusty coot/Mercurian ore prospector Fireproof Jones, just in time to help Flint and Sam mine their newfound riches.

As ever, Karth is looking to make trouble for the lads but he wins some for himself when his young daughter suddenly turns up on the Rock, accompanied by gold-digging Pamela Prim. Suddenly, murderous raider Black Martian returns to plague the honest pioneers of the Brooklyn frontier…

Glamour model Trish O’Keefe causes a completely different kind of trouble when she lands, looking for her fiancé. Naturally, Tack McTeak isn’t the humble space-doctor he claims to be but a cerebrally augmented criminal mastermind, with plans to snatch the biggest prize in space inevitably leading to a sequence of stunning thrills and astonishing action.

Focus switches to Earth as the cast visit “civilisation” and find it far from hospitable, with the chance to battle manufactured monsters and mysterious Dr. Moray on his private tropical island something of a welcome – if mixed – blessing…

By this time, the writing must have been on the wall, as the strip had been reduced to a half page per week. Even so, the creators clearly decided to go out in style. Sheer bravura spectacle was magnificently ramped up and all the tools of the sci fi world were utilized to ensure the strip ended with a bang. Moray’s plans are catastrophically realised when the villain employs an anti-gravity bomb to steal Manhattan; turning it into a deadly Sword of Damocles in the sky…

The series abruptly ended when the New York Daily News changed its editorial policy: dropping all comics from its pages. The decision was clearly unexpected, as the saga finished satisfactorily if quite abruptly on Sunday 13th March 1955.

Beyond Mars is a breathtaking lost gem from two master craftsmen successfully blending the wonders of science and the rollicking thrills of Westerns with broad, light-hearted humour to produce a mind-boggling, eye-popping, exuberantly wholesome family space-opera the likes of which wouldn’t be seen again until Star Wars put fun back into futuristic fiction.

Thankfully, after years of frustrated agitation by fans, the entire saga is available in this fabulous oversized (244 x 307 mm) edition no lover of stars & strife can afford to be without.
© 2015 Tribune Content Agency LLC. All rights reserved. Introduction © 2015 Bruce Canwell.

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Wonder Woman: A Celebration of 75 Years


By William Moulton Marston & Harry G. Peter, Robert Kanigher, Dennis O’Neil, Roy Thomas, Greg Potter, George Pérez, William Messner-Loebs, Eric Luke, Phil Jimenez, Greg Rucka, Darwyn Cooke, Brian Azzarello, Gail Simone, Amy Chu, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Mike Sekowsky, Don Heck, Gene Colan, Jill Thompson, Mike Deodato Jr., Yanick Paquette, Matt Clark, Drew Johnson, J. Bone, Cliff Chiang, Ethan Van Sciver, Bernard Chang & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6512-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Wonder Woman is the very acme of female icons. Since her debut in 1941 she has grown to permeate every aspect of global consciousness and become not only a paradigm of comics’ very fabric but also a symbol to women everywhere. Whatever era you choose, the Amazing Amazon epitomises the eternal balance between Brains & Brawn and, over those decades, has become one of that rarefied pantheon of literary creations to achieve meta-reality.

The Princess of Paradise Island originally debuted as a special feature in All Star Comics #8, conceived by psychologist and polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston and illustrated by Harry G. Peter, in a calculated attempt to offer girls a positive and forceful role model and, on forward-thinking Editor M.C. Gaines’ part, to sell more funnybooks to girls. Immediately catapulted into her own series and cover-spot of new anthology Sensation Comics one month later, she was an instant hit. Wonder Woman won an eponymous supplemental title a few months later, cover-dated summer 1942, enabling the Star-Spangled Siren to weather the vicissitudes of the notoriously transient comic book marketplace and survive the end of the Golden Age of costumed heroes beside Superman, Superboy, Batman and a few lucky hangers-on who inhabited the backs of their titles.

This stunning compilation – part of a dedicated series introducing and exploiting the historical and cultural pedigree of venerable DC icons – offers a sequence of sublime snapshots detailing how Diana of the Amazons evolved and thrived in worlds and times where women were generally regarded as second class, second rate, painfully functional and strictly ornamental, collects material from All-Star Comics #8, Sensation Comics #1, Wonder Woman (volume 1) #7, 28, 99, 107, 179, 204, 288, Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #1, 64, 93, 142, 177, 195, 600, Wonder Woman (vol. 3) #0, Justice League: New Frontier Special #1, Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #1 & 7 – cumulatively covering July 1940 to November 2012.

The groundbreaking appearances are preceded by a brief critical analysis of significant stages in her development, beginning with Part I: The Amazon 1941-1957 which details the events and thinking which led to her creation and early blockbusting dominance of Man’s Boy’s World…

‘Introducing Wonder Woman/(Wonder Woman Comes to America)’ originated in All-Star Comics #8, (December 1941) and Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942) respectively, revealing how, once upon a time on a hidden island of immortal super-women, US Army Intelligence aviator Steve Trevor crashes to Earth. Near death, he is nursed back to health by young, impressionable Princess Diana. Fearful of her besotted child’s growing obsession with the creature from a long-forgotten and madly violent world, Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyte reveals the hidden history of the Amazons: how they were seduced and betrayed by men but rescued by the goddess Aphrodite on condition that they forever isolate themselves from the mortal world and devote their eternal lives to becoming ideal, perfect creatures.

However, when Trevor explains the perfidious spy plot which accidentally brought him to the Island enclave and with the planet in crisis, goddesses Athena and Aphrodite order Hippolyte to send an Amazon back with the American to fight for global freedom and liberty. The Queen declares an open contest to find the best candidate and, although forbidden to compete, young closeted, cosseted Diana clandestinely overcomes all other candidates to become their emissary.

Accepting the will of the gods, the worried mother outfits Diana in the guise of Wonder Woman and sends her out to Man’s World armed with an arsenal of super-scientific and magical weapons…

The Perfect Princess gained her own series and cover-spot in new anthology title Sensation Comics a month later, with the story continuing where the introduction had left off. ‘Wonder Woman Comes to America’ sees the eager immigrant returning the recuperating Trevor to the modern World before trouncing a gang of bank robbers and briefly falling in with a show business swindler. The major innovation was her buying the identity of lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince, elegantly allowing the Amazon to be close to Steve whilst enabling the heartsick medic to join her fiancé in South America. Even with all that going on, there was still room for Wonder Woman and Captain Trevor to bust up a spy ring attempting to use poison gas on a Draft induction centre. Typically, Steve breaks his leg and ends up in hospital again, where “Nurse Prince” can look after him…

The new Diana soon gained a position with Army Intelligence as secretary to General Darnell, further ensuring she would always be able to watch over her beloved. She little suspected that, although shallow Steve only had eyes for the dazzling Amazon superwoman, the General had fallen for the mousy but supremely competent Lieutenant Prince…

As previously mentioned, the Amazing Amazon was a huge and ever-growing hit, quickly gaining her own title in late Spring (cover-dated Summer 1942). The comic frequently innovated with full-length stories, and here ‘America’s Wonder Women of Tomorrow’ (Wonder Woman volume 1 #7, Winter 1943) offers an optimistic view of the future in an extract of a fantastic fantasy tale wherein America in 3000 AD is revealed as a true paradise.

Ruled by a very familiar Lady President, the nation enjoys a miracle supplement which has extended longevity to such an extent that Steve, Etta Candy and all Diana’s friends are still thriving. Sadly, some old male throwbacks still pine for the days when women were subservient, meaning there’s still much work for the Amazing Amazon to do. With a wry but wholesome sex war brewing (and no bears available), faithful Steve goes undercover with the rebel forces and uncovers a further startling threat…

As the Golden Age drew to a close and superheroes began to wane, Wonder Woman #28 (April 1948) debuted ‘Villainy Incorporated!’ in an epic-length tale of revenge wherein eight of her greatest enemies – Queen Clea, Hypnota, Byrna Brilyant, the Blue Snowman, Giganta, Doctor Poison, Eviless, Zara, Priestess of the Crimson Flame and The Cheetah – unite to ensure her destruction and escape from Amazonian mind-bending gulag Transformation Island, where they were being rehabilitated…

Whilst costumed colleagues foundered, Wonder Woman soldiered on well into the Silver Age, benefitting from constant revisionism under the auspices of Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, who re-energised her for the Silver Age renaissance and beyond: a troubled period encapsulated in the briefing notes for Part II: The Princess 1958-1986…

Using the pen-name Charles Moulton, Marston had scripted all Diana’s adventures until his death in 1947, whereupon after a period when his assistant Joye Hummel wrote the stories, Kanigher took over the writer’s role. H. G. Peter soldiered on with his unique artistic contribution until he passed away in 1958. In April of that year Wonder Woman #97 was his last hurrah and truly the end of an era.

With the exception of DC’s Trinity (plus a few then-innocuous back-up features like Green Arrow and Aquaman), superheroes all but vanished by the early 1950s, replaced by mostly mortal champions in a deluge of anthologised genre titles. Everything changed again after Showcase #4 rekindled public interest in costumed crimebusters with a new iteration of The Flash in 1956. From that moment fanciful floodgates opened wide once more, and whilst reinventing Golden Age Greats such as Green Lantern, The Atom and Hawkman, National /DC methodically updated those venerable veteran survivors who had weathered the backlash. None more so than the ever-resilient Wonder Woman…

As writer/editor Kanigher tweaked or reinvented much of the original mythos, tinkering with her origins and unleashing Diana on an unsuspecting world in a fanciful blend of girlish whimsy, rampant sexism, strange romance, alien invasion, monster-mashing and utterly surreal (some say-stream-of-consciousness) storytelling. This was at a time when all DC’s newly revived, revised or reinvented costumed champions were getting together and teaming up at the drop of a hat – as indeed was the Princess of Power in Justice League of America. However, on the pages of her own title a timeless, isolated fantasy universe was carrying on much as it always had.

Wonder Woman #99 (volume 1, July 1958) heralded a new start and introduction of the Hellenic Heroine’s newly revitalised covert cover: Air Force Intelligence Lieutenant Diana Prince, launching a decade of tales with Steve perpetually attempting to uncover her identity and make the most powerful woman alive his blushing bride, whilst the flashily bespectacled glorified secretary stood exasperated and ignored beside him. ‘Top Secret’ sees Steve trying to trick Diana into marriage – something the creep tried a lot back then – by rigging a bet with her. Of course, the infinitely patient Princess outsmarts him yet again…

Although not included here, WW #105 had introduced Wonder Girl: revealing how centuries ago the gods and goddesses of Olympus bestowed unique powers on Hippolyta’s daughter and how even as a mere teenager indomitable Diana had brought the Amazons to Paradise Island. Continuity, let alone consistency or rationality, were never as important to Kanigher as a strong story or breathtaking visuals and that eclectic odyssey – although a great yarn – simply annoyed the heck out of many fans; but not as much as the junior Amazon would in years to come…

The teen queen kept popping up and here ‘Wonder Woman – Amazon Teen-Ager!’ (#107, July 1959) sees the youngster wallowing in a new, largely unwanted romantic interest as mer-boy Ronno perpetually gets in the way of her quest to win herself a superhero costume…

As the 1960s progressed, Wonder Woman looked tired and increasingly out of step with the rest of the company’s gradually gelling – ultimately cohesively shared – continuity but, by the decade’s close, a radical overhaul of Diana Prince was on the cards.

In 1968 superhero comics were once again in decline and publishers were looking for ways to stay profitable – or even just in business – as audience tastes and American society evolved. Back then, with the entire industry dependent on newsstand sales, if you weren’t popular, you died. Handing over the hoary, venerable and increasingly moribund title to Editor Jack Miller and Mike Sekowsky, the bosses sat back and waited for their eventual failure, and prepared to cancel the only female superhero in the marketplace…

Sekowsky’s unique visualisation of the Justice League of America had greatly contributed to the title’s overwhelming success, and at this time he was stretching himself with a number of experimental projects, focussed on the teen and youth-markets. Tapping into the teen zeitgeist with the Easy Rider styled drama Jason’s Quest proved ultimately unsuccessful, but with Metal Men and hopelessly hidebound Wonder Woman, he had much greater impact. Sekowsky ultimately worked the same magic with far greater success for Supergirl in Adventure Comics (another epic and intriguing run of tales long overdue a curated compilation).

With relatively untried scripter Denny O’Neil on board for the first four tales, #179 heralded huge changes as ‘Wonder Woman’s Last Battle’ (December 1968, with Dick Giordano inking) saw the immortal Amazons of Paradise Island forced to abandon our dimensional plane. They took with them all their magic – including all Diana’s astounding gadgets and weapons like the Invisible Plane and Golden Lasso – and ultimately even her mighty powers. Despite all that, her love for Steve compelled her to remain on Earth. Effectively becoming her own secret identity of Diana Prince, the now-mortal champion resolved to fight injustice as a human would…

Sekowsky’s root & branch overhaul offered a new kind of Wonder Woman (and can be seen in a magical quartet of collections entitled Diana Prince: Wonder Woman) but, as always, fashion and reader response ruled and in a few years, with no fanfare or warning, everything that had happened since Wonder Woman lost her powers was unwritten.

Her mythical origins were revised and re-established as she abruptly returned to a world of immortals, gods, mythical monster and supervillains. There was even a new nemesis: an African/Greek/American half-sister named Nubia who debuted in ‘The Second Life of the Original Wonder Woman’ (Wonder Woman #204, February 1973, by Kanigher, Don Heck & Vince Colletta) which delivers the murder of Diana’s martial arts mentor I Ching as prelude to Diana being restored to her former glory by the returned and restored Amazons on Paradise Island…

Such an abrupt reversal had tongues wagging and heads spinning in fan circles. Had the series offended some shady “higher-ups” who didn’t want controversy or a shake-up of the status quo?

Probably not.

Sales were never great even on the Sekowsky run and despite strident public protests about depowering a strong woman from feminists like Gloria Steinem, the most rational and realistic reason is probably Television money. The Amazon had been optioned as a series since the days of the Batman TV show in 1967, and by this time (1973) production work had begun on the 1974 pilot featuring Cathy Lee Crosby. An abrupt return to the character most viewers would be familiar with from their own childhoods seems perfectly logical to me…

By the time Lynda Carter made the concept work in 1975 by going back to ancient basics, Wonder Woman was once again “Stronger than Hercules, Swifter than Mercury and More Beautiful than Aphrodite”…

Eventually however – after the TV-inspired sales boost ended with the show’s cancellation – the comic slumped into another decline, leading to another revamp.

Notionally celebrating the beginning of her fifth decade of continuous publication, Wonder Woman #288, (February 1982) saw Roy Thomas. Gene Colan & Romeo Tanghal take over, rededicating the Amazon to fighting for Love, Peace, Justice and Liberty in ‘Swan Song!’

The story features the creation by war god Mars of new villain Silver Swan – transformed from an ugly, spiteful ballerina into a radiant, spiteful flying harridan – whilst the biggest visible change was replacing the stylised eagle on Diana’s bustier with a double “W”, signifying her allegiance to women’s action group The Wonder Woman Foundation.

The Silver Age had utterly revolutionised a flagging medium, bringing a modicum of sophistication to a returning and evolving sub-genre of masked mystery men. However, after decades of cosy wonderment, Crisis on Infinite Earths transformed all of DC’s interconnected Universe, leading to a truly reimagined Wonder Woman with a different history and character as discussed and then displayed in Part III: The Ambassador 1986-2010…

Wonder Woman volume 2 #1 debuted with a February 1987 cover-date. Crafted by Greg Potter, George Pérez & Bruce Patterson, ‘The Princess and the Power’ reveals how Amazons are actually reincarnated souls of women murdered by men throughout primordial times. Given potent new form by female Hellenic gods, they thrived in a segregated city of aloof, indomitable women until war god Ares orchestrated their downfall via his demigod dupe Herakles.

Abused, subjugated and despondent, the Amazons were rescued by their guardian goddesses in return for eternal penance in isolation on hidden island Themyscira. Into that paradise Diana is born: another murdered soul, imbued with life in an infant body made from clay. She will excel in every endeavour and become the Wonder Woman…

On relocating to the outer world, Diana becomes an inspirational figure and global hero constantly trying to integrate and understand the madness of “Patriarch’s World”…

In ‘The Heart of the City’ (Wonder Woman vol. 2 #64, July 1992) Bill Messner-Loebs, Jill Thompson & Denis Rodier focus on that dilemma as Diana attempts to recover a kidnapped child used as leverage by gangsters while saving a weary, outraged but righteous cop from confusing vengeance with justice…

That struggle for understanding – and sales – led to the Princess surrendering her right to the role of Wonder Woman after losing a duel with fellow Amazon Artemis. The aftermath seen in ‘Violent Beginnings’ (Wonder Woman #93, January 1995 by Messner-Loebs & Mike Deodato Jr.) reveals how her brutal, hard-line replacement takes over her ambassadorial role in Patriarch’s World with the defeated but undaunted predecessor keeping watchful eyes on the brutal warrior in her clothes…

These years are categorised by a constant search for relevance and new direction, and in ‘The Bearing of the Soul’ (WW #142 March 1999 by Eric Luke, Yanick Paquette, Matt Clark, Bob McCloud & Doug Hazlewood) the Amazon, supplemented with incredible alien technology, declares herself a global peacekeeper, dashing to flashpoints and conflict zones to end wars and save lives, irrespective of others’ political or moral objections…

From three years later, ‘Paradise Found’ (#177, 2002, by Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning) sees another course change as Themyscira is rebuilt following war between gods and offered to the outer world as an exemplar of Paradise on Earth and the oldest and youngest of its sometimes-united nations…

The often-hilarious downsides of ‘The Mission’ (WW #195, 2003) are explored by Greg Rucka, Drew Johnson & Ray Snyder and reiterated in a wry out-of-world vignette by Darwyn Cooke & J. Bone, teaming the Diana of 1962 with equally-pioneering female crimefighter Black Canary. ‘The Mother of the Movement’ (Justice League: New Frontier Special #1, 2008) sees the occasional sister-act confront a magazine owner and aspiring nightclub impresario over the way he makes his staff dress up like rabbits. Moreover, history fans, one of those indentured luscious lepines is an undercover reporter…

Many such minor tweaks in her continuity and adjustments to the continuity accommodated different creators’ tenures until 2011, when DC rebooted their entire comics line again and Wonder Woman once more underwent a drastic, fan-infuriating root-&-branch refit as represented here in Part IV: The Warrior 2012-2014. Possibly to mitigate the fallout, DC okayed a number of fall-back options such as the beguiling collected package under review today…

After a full year of myth-busting stories, ‘Lair of the Minotaur’ was the subject of Wonder Woman vol. 4 #0, (November 2012) wherein Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang puckishly explored a different history as a teenaged Princess Diana underwent trials and training and fell under the sway of a sinister god…

As an iconic figure – and to address the big changes cited above – a number of guest creators were invited to celebrate their take on the Amazon in an out-of-continuity series, and from Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #1, (2014) Gail Simone & Ethan Van Scriver’s ‘Gothamazon’ deliciously details how a mythologically militaristic Wonder Woman uncompromisingly and permanently cleans up Batman’s benighted home when the Gotham Guardians are taken out of play, whilst in Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #7, Amy Chu & Bernard Chang go out-of-world (and into ours?) to celebrate the inspirational nature of the concept of Wonder Woman.

‘Rescue Angel’ sees soldiers pinned down in Afghanistan saved by Lt. Angel Santiago. The wounded woman warrior claims her outstanding actions under fire are the result of a vision from her favourite and most-beloved comic book character…

This magical and magnificent commemoration is packed with eye-catching covers from the stories but also from unfeatured tales, by the likes of H.G. Peter, Irwin Hasen & Bernard Sachs, Sekowsky, Dick Giordano, Heck, Gene Colan, Pérez, Brian Bolland, Deodato Jr., Adam Hughes, Chiang, Van Sciver, Shane Davis & Michelle Delecki, Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert, Nicola Scott & Francis Manapul.

Wonder Woman is a primal figure of fiction and global symbol, and set to remain one. This compilation might not be all of her best material – or even up to date – but it is a solid representation of what gave her such fame and would grace any fan’s collection.
© 1941, 1942, 1943, 1948, 1958, 1959, 1968, 1973, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Lucky Luke volume 22 – Emperor Smith


By Goscinny & Morris, translated by Jerome Sanicantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-026-9 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Far be it for me to publish a book recommendation that somehow impacts upon current events or hints at the fallibility of popular leaders, but…

Doughty, dashing and dependable cowboy “good guy” Lucky Luke is a rangy, implacably even-tempered do-gooder able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around the mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant and rather sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. For nearly 80 years, his exploits have made him one of the top-ranking comic characters in the world, generating upwards of 85 individual albums and spin-off series like Kid Lucky and Ran-Tan-Plan, with sales thus far totalling upwards of 300 million in 30 languages. That renown has translated into a mountain of merchandise, toys, games, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know…

Originally the brainchild of Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère (AKA “Morris”) and officially first seen in Le Journal de Spirou’s seasonal Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947, Luke actually sprang to (un-titled) laconic life in mid-1946 in the popular periodical before ambling into his first weekly adventure ‘Arizona 1880’ on December 7th of that year.

Morris was one of “la Bande des quatre”– The Gang of Four – also comprising Jijé, Will and Franquin: leading proponents of a fresh, loosely free-wheeling artistic style known as the “Marcinelle School”. The compelling cartoon vision came to dominate Le Journal de Spirou in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style favoured by Hergé, E.P. Jacobs and other artists in rival publication Le Journal de Tintin. In 1948 said Gang (all but Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, befriended René Goscinny, scored some work at newly-formed EC sensation Mad and constantly, copiously noted and sketched a swiftly disappearing Old West.

Working solo until 1955 (with early script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere), Morris crafted nine albums – of which today’s was #7 – of affectionate sagebrush spoofery before teaming with old pal and fellow transatlantic émigré Goscinny. With him as regular wordsmith, Luke attained dizzying, legendary heights starting with Des rails sur la Prairie (Rails on the Prairie) which began serialisation on August 25th 1955.

In 1967, the six-gun straight-shooter switched sides, joining Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote in La Diligence (The Stagecoach). Goscinny co-created 45 albums with Morris before his untimely death, whereupon Morris soldiered on both singly and with other collaborators. He went to the Last Roundup in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar sagebrush sagas crafted with Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shot at the venerable vigilante.

Lucky Luke has a long history in Britain, having first pseudonymously amused and enthralled young readers during the late 1950s, syndicated to weekly anthology Film Fun. He later rode back into comics-town in 1967 for comedy paper Giggle, using nom de plume Buck Bingo. And that’s not counting the many attempts to establish him as a book star starting with Brockhampton Press in 1972 and continuing via Knight Books, Hodder Dargaud UK, Ravette Books and Glo’Worm, until Cinebook finally found the right path in 2006.

As so often seen the taciturn trailblazer regularly interacts with historical and legendary figures as well as even odder fictional folk in tales drawn from key themes of classic cowboy films – as well as some uniquely European notions, and interpretations. That principle is smartly utilised to sublime effect in Emperor Smith (first seen au continent in1976 as 45th tome Lucky Luke: L’Empereur Smith) which became Cinebook’s 22nd album in 2010.

Since Europeans take their comics seriously – especially the funny ones (and you know I mean the strips not the readers!) – they aren’t afraid to be bold or brave in content. This riotous romp cheekily employs some creative anachronism to carry an edged – if not actually barbed – account of whimsy and pride going before a fall and why people with vision should really be careful of who they share them with or make their advisors…

One day, as the lone rider is pleasantly roaming, he encounters a fancy foreign army battalion escorting a royal coach and just has to know what’s going on. Hot pursuit brings him to typical frontier hamlet Grass Town, Texas, where he learns its citizens are making a mint by humouring local rancher Dean Smith. The magnate’s head was turned by sudden immense wealth, and he anointed himself Emperor of the United States, rehiring his cattle workers and other toilers as an extremely highly paid army, cabinet and personal staff.

Decked out in swishy colourful gold braided uniforms, sparkly medals, big hats with feathers and titles like Baron of Abilene or Duke of Fort Worth, and huge regular wages it’s not surprising they all play along. Some of the bigger wigs of the court even had their heads turned too…

The story is inspired by famed historical San Francisco eccentric Joshua Abraham Norton (1818-1880) who in 1859 declared himself “Norton I, Emperor of the United States” and (in 1863) “Protector of Mexico”, but here the fable offers a funnier and far darker extrapolation of what the world saw…

Lucky catches up to the cortege just as the royal party enter the town saloon, and sees a succession of normal folk bow and kowtow to a fancily attired little man. The situation is explained by local Judge Barney but overheard by villainous drifter Buck Ritchie who thinks he can have a little fun by baiting the looney. Sadly, he underestimates Lucky’s tolerance for gunplay and bullying and is humiliated and forcibly ejected…

The act deeply impresses the Emperor – if not his obsequious former cook “Colonel” Gates – and the genial gunslinger is summoned by decree to visit the palace. As a reward for foiling an assassination attempt…

After complying and again graciously declining joining the Court or being made Grand Officer of the Golden Buffalo, Marshall of the Empire, Prince of the Rio Grande and Duke of Houston, Lucky comes away a little shaken. Smith might be harmlessly crazy, with an unhealthy admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte, a loyal private army and enough cannon and other military ordinance to conquer the state if not the country, and seems content to play his games and write letters to all the other monarchs in the world, but the same isn’t necessarily true of Gates and the other inner courtiers…

Matters take a deep downturn when Lucky shares his experiences with Judge Barney, newspaper editor Whitman and Sheriff Linen. Eavesdropping, Buck Ritchie hears of the big guns and soon bamboozles the Emperor into invading Grass Town and razing it… because they don’t really believe he’s an Emperor…

Promoted to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Prince of Phoenix, Duke of Tucson, and Imperial Plenipotentiary, Ritchie just wants the contents of the bank and whatever cash he can grab, but finds himself unable to stop – or escape – the stampede of war and idiocy he has started. With Grass Town equal parts cowed and embracing aristocratic madness, curfews in place and grand balls at the saloon, Smith makes the hamlet his capital and lays plans to oust Grant and the rebels in Washington DC, impose direct imperil rule and Make America His Again…

Convicted of treason, Lucky and Barney escape and make their own plans to restore order. All they need do is to kidnap Smith, scuttle his useless, greedy hangers-on, wage financial war on the hirelings and have a little showdown with Buck. Of course, now the desperado is packing artillery as well as a six-gun…

Wry, savvy and heavy on action, this is another wildly entertaining all-ages confection by unparalleled comics masters, affording an enticing glimpse into a unique genre for today’s readers who might well have missed the romantic allure of an all-pervasive Wild West that never was…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1976 by Goscinny & Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2010 Cinebook Ltd.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection volume 1


By Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird, Steve Lavigne & various (IDW)
ISBN: 978-1-61377-007-8 (TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62302-298-3

FORTY(!!!) years ago this month an indie comic by a pair of cannily adroit wannabe creators began making waves and soon sparked a revolution. The guys were Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird and their work did remarkably well, interesting companies outside our traditionally cautious insular industry and garnering a few merchandising deals. Thanks to TTE (the Telescoping Time Effect that renders the passage of many years between adulthood and the grave to the blink of an eye), my comics generation still regard these upstart critters as parvenu newcomers.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first appeared in May 1984, bombastically occupying an oversized, self-published black-&-white parody mag. Eastman & Laird were huge fans of Ditko and Kirby, and so set up Mirage Studios so they could control their efforts, having great fun telling pastiche adventures notionally derived and inspired by contemporary superhero fare.

They especially honed in on the US marketplace’s obsession with Frank Miller’s reinterpretations of manga stars Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima: particularly Lone Wolf & Cub. There were also smart pokes at and conceptual themes poached from other top trends as inspired by The X-Men, New Teen Titans and outsider icon Howard the Duck. This was at a time when the US industry was experiencing an explosive boom in do-it-yourself comics: one that changed forever the very nature of the industry and destroyed the virtual monopoly od DC and Marvel.

Eastman & Laird’s quirky concept became the paradigm of Getting Rich Quick: a template for many others and – in their case at least – an ideal example of beneficial exploitation. Their creation expanded to encompass toys, movies, games, food, apparel, general merchandising and especially television cartoons. In 1987 it became – and remains – a globally potent franchise. There’s probably another movie on the go even as I type this…

None of that matters here as I want to look at the actual comics that started everything and there’s no better way than with this carefully curated edition chronologically covering the primal tales and offering commentaries and reminiscences from the guys who were there…

Just as Los Bros Hernadez had done with Love and Rockets in 1981, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuted as a self-published (print run of 3000 copies), self-financed one-shot that was swiftly picked up by a legion of independent comics shops run by fans for fans. Word of mouth and frantic demand generated a wave of reprintings and much speculative imitation. The rest is history…

This book – re-presenting issues #1-7 and one-shot Raphael Micro-Series – was the first of a sequence of collections published a dozen years ago by licensing specialists IDW. By that time the original creators had long sold the rights and moved well on, to the extent of even occasionally revisiting their baby through nostalgia, but here their fevered passion in their creation and the sheer joy of having fun by learning was at its intoxicating height.

Drafted with verve, gusto and no respect for “the rules”, the saga of ‘Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ opens with four outlandish humanoids fighting for their lives in a dingy alley. The enemy are thugs and street scum and – once they’re emphatically taken care of – with victory assured, the bizarre heroes retreat into the sewers…

Here they greet a giant rat dressed as a sensei and discuss their origins and goals. You all already know the tale – or just don’t care – but briefly: the pet rat of martial artist Yoshi absorbed kung fu skills and concepts of honour and duty by observation. He also witnessed romantic rivals become arch foes. The losing suitor’s brother subsequently destroys the lovers (even after they fled to New York) and is now leader of ninja clan The Foot.

The youngster – Oroku Saki but known as The Shredder – pursued his warped obsession in the New World and murdered the lovers, even as nearby a boy saved an old one from being hit by a truck carry toxic material. The kid was blinded when the cannister hit his eyes, but as he was carted off to his own comics destiny, the canister that hit him broke, leaking mutagens into sewers where an uncaring owner had dumped somebaby turtles and where Yoshi’s escaped pet was hiding…

Over years exposure changed them all. The rat called Splinter became a sagacious humanoid rodent who diligently trained four brilliant, rapidly growing reptiles in the skills he had observed with his master. Splinter named them Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael and at last deemed them sufficiently advanced to obtain vengeance for his murdered master.

Called to battle, the villain employs all his minions but nevertheless falls to turtle justice…

Fast-paced and action-packed, the tale delivers a sure no-frills punch and – as revealed in the commentary ‘Annotations’ section that follows – left the creators with a rare dilemma: overnight success, demands for reprints and readers demanding more of the same…

Each issue’s bonus section also provides background, insights and developmental drawings but the meat is contained in the stories as the debutantes quickly gained confidence and ran wild. The second issue introduced insufferable mad scientist Baxter Stockman who unleashes robot rat-hunters (“Mousers”) in a scheme to get rich by cleaning up the sewers. In fact, he is also using them to rob from below and when his assistant April O’Neil finds out he frames and tries to kill her. Thankfully the turtles step in to save her and New York…

The third episode reveals heroism comes at a cost: when they return to their underground lair, the Turtles discover it devastated, with Mouser fragments and rat blood everywhere… but no Master Splinter…

When April offers them shelter, relocation turns into a major headache as the strange, heavily shrouded quartet are mistaken for burglars, triggering a massive police car chase through the streets. The spectacular road riot is appended by an ‘Epilogue’ revealing exactly what happened to Splinter, leading to major plot developments in #4, as mystery company TCRI are revealed as the creators of the mutagen and far more than they seem.

Before that though, the Raphael Micro-Series offers all-action romp ‘Me, Myself and I’ as the moody, anger-management-challenged young warrior loses control whilst sparring and flees the team in shame. Sadly, Raphael seeks to calm down by prowling the streets and encounters well-meaning street vigilante Casey Jones thrashing a gang of molesters. Of course, a violent misunderstanding ensues…

In TMNT #4, the search for Splinter is interrupted by an army of Foot ninjas, but the ambush drops our heroes right into TCRI HQ. With the corporate logo from that fateful cannister blazoned across a skyscraper, priorities shift and the turtles retrench. When they infiltrate the building, the shock of finding Splinter is instantly erased by finding out just what they’re facing, but it is as nothing to the trauma of being teleported to another universe…

The fifth issue came out in November 1985, the first to sport a full colour cover and used to expand a phenomenon into a merchandisable continuity universe by guest-starring another, subsequent Eastman & Laird creation – Fugitoid. The little droid was a (non-Terran) human teleportation scientist whose discoveries made him a target of the local military dictatorships on a world packed with hundreds of different sentient species. When Honeycutt was killed, his mind was trapped in a small mechanoid and his plight intersected that of the shanghaied shellbacks. They join forces to thwart evil tyrant General Blanque and an army of secretly invading “Triceratons”, all whilst Honeycutt finds a way to send them home…

Sadly, that route leads directly to an orbiting Triceraton war base in #6 and magnifies the manic mayhem and martial arts magic as the Turtles battle every creature imaginable and still end up as interstellar gladiators before another transmat glitch sends them, Fugitoid and some Triceratons back to Earth and the heart of TCRI.

Of course, in the interim, the building has been surrounded by America’s military and the robotic-augmented Kraangs who run the place are in full battle mode. Cue much more ray gun shenanigans and sword-filled fists of fury as TMNT #7 offers conflict, contusions, confusions, conclusion, explanations and a long-awaited reunion…

To Be Continued…

Fast, furious, fun-filled and funny, but with all sharp edges prominently featured (so nervous parents might want to pre-assess the material before giving this book to true youngsters) this debut saga of the shell-backed sentinels of the sewers offers a superb slice of excitement and enjoyment that will keep kids and adults alike bouncing off the walls with eager appreciation.
© 2011 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Deadpool Epic Comics volume 1: The Circle Chase 1991-1994


By Rob Liefeld, Fabian Nicieza, Glenn Herdling, Gregory Wright, Tom Brevoort, Mike Kanterovich, Mark Waid, Dan Slott, Pat Olliffe, Mark Pacella, Greg Capullo, Mike Gustovich, Joe Madureira, Isaac Cordova, Jerry DeCaire, Bill Wylie, Ian Churchill, Sandu Florea, Terry Shoemaker, Al Milgrom, Scot Eaton, Ariane Lenshoek, Tony DeZuñiga, Lee Weeks, Don Hudson, Ken Lashley & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-302-3205-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

With a long, LONG awaited cinematic combo clash finally headed our way this summer and in the year of a certain Canadian Canucklehead’s 50th Anniversary, expect a few cashing-in style commendations and reviews in our immediate future. Here’s a handy starter package to set the ball rolling…

Bloodthirsty killers and stylish mercenaries have long made for popular protagonists and this guy is probably one of the most popular. Deadpool is Wade Wilson: a survivor of sundry experiments that left him a scarred, grotesque bundle of scabs and physical unpleasantries – albeit functionally immortal, invulnerable and capable of regenerating from literally any wound.

Moreover, after his initial outings on the fringes of the X-Universe, his modern incarnation makes him either one of the few beings able to perceive the true nature of reality… or a total gibbering loon.

Chronologically collecting and curating cameos, guest shots and his early outrages from New Mutants #98, X-Force #2, 11 & 15, Deadpool: The Circle Chase #1-4, and Secret Defenders #15-17, as well as pertinent excerpted material from X-Force #4, 5 10, 14, 19-24; X-Force Annual #1, Nomad #4; Avengers #366 & Silver Sable & the Wild Pack #23 & 30, (spanning February 1991 to November 1994), this tome is merely the first in a series cataloguing his ever more outlandish escapades.

After Gail Simone’s joyous Foreword ‘He was always Deadpool’ justifies and confirms his fame, escalating antics and off-kilter appeal, his actual debut in New Mutants #98’s ‘The Beginning of the End, part one’ opens proceedings. The “merc with a mouth” was created as a villain du jour by Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza, as that title wound down in advance of a major reboot/rebrand. He seemed a one-trick throwaway in a convoluted saga of mutant mayhem with little else to recommend it. An employee of enigmatic evildoer Mr. Tolliver, Deadpool was despatched to kill to kill future-warrior Cable and his teen acolytes… but spectacularly failed. The kids were soon after rebranded and relaunched as X-Force though, so he had a few encores and more tries…

With appropriate covers and text to precis events between excerpt moments, we learn Deadpool first popped back in September 1991’s X-Force #2’s ‘The Blood Hunters’ where he clashed with another product of Canada’s clandestine super-agent project (which had turned a mutant spy into feral, adamantium-augmented warrior Wolverine as well as unleashing so many other second-string cyborg super-doers). Gritty do-gooder Garrison Kane was dubbed Weapon X (first of many!) and the tale also included aging spymaster GW Bridge…

Still just a derivative costumed killer for hire popping up in bit part roles, the merc continued pushing Tolliver’s agenda and met Spider-Man until as seen here via snippets from X-Force Annual #1 (1991) before stumbling through Nicieza-scripted crossover Dead Man’s Hand. Illustrated by Pat Olliffe & Mark McKenna, ‘Neon Knights’ (Nomad #4, August 1992) finds Deadpool just one of a bunch of super-killers-for-hire convened by a group of lesser crime bosses seeking to fill a void created by the fall of The Kingpin. His mission is to remove troublemaking fellow hitman Bushwacker, but former super sidekick Jack “Bucky” Monroe has some objections…

Excerpts from X-Force #10 (May 1992) presage #11’s extended fight between Deadpool, the teen team, Cable and mutant luck-shaper Domino in ‘Friendly Reminders’ (Nicieza, Liefeld, Mark Pacella & Dan Panosian) before a clip from X-Force #14 (September 1992 limned by Terry Shoemaker & Al Milgrom) reveals a shocking truth about Domino and Deadpool’s relationship with her, prior to X-Force #15’s ‘To the Pain’ (October 1992 with art by Greg Capullo) wrapping up a long-running war between Cable’s kids, Tolliver and The Externals…

Excerpts from X-Force #19-23 – as first seen in 1993 – find the manic merc hunting Domino and/or Vanessa and sparking a mutant mega clash before Wade Wilson guests in Avengers #366 (September 1993 by Glenn Herdling, Mike Gustovich & Ariane Lenshoek). A tie-in to Deadpool’s first solo miniseries, ‘Swordplay³’ sees the merc and a group of meta-scavengers embroiled in battle with each other and new hero Blood Wraith with The Black Knight helpless to control the chaos…

That first taste of solo stardom came with 4-issue miniseries The Circle Chase: cover-dated August-November 1993 by Nicieza, Joe Madureira & Mark Farmer. A fast-paced but cluttered thriller, it sees Wilson doggedly pursuing an ultimate weapon: one of a large crowd of mutants and variously-enhanced ne’er-do-wells seeking the fabled legacy of arms dealer/fugitive from the future Mr. Tolliver. Among other (un)worthies bound for the boodle in ‘Ducks in a Row’, ‘Rabbit Season, Duck Season’, ‘…And Quacks Like a Duck…’ and ‘Duck Soup’ are mutant misfits Black Tom and The Juggernaut; the then-latest iteration of Weapon X; shape-shifter Copycat and a host of fashionably disposable cyborg loons with quirky media-buzzy names like Commcast and Slayback. If you can swallow any understandable nausea associated with the dreadful trappings of this low point in Marvel’s tempestuous history, there is a sharp and entertaining little thriller underneath…

A follow-up tale in Silver Sable & the Wild Pack #23 (April 1994, Gregory Wright, Isaac Cordova & Hon Hudson) pits Wilson against Daredevil and notional heroes-for-hire Paladin and Silver Sable before uniting to thwart fascist usurpers The Genesis Coalition, prior to a relatively heroic stance in Doctor Strange team-up title Secret Defenders.

Beginning in #15’s ‘Strange Changes Part the First: Strangers and Other Lovers’ (May 1994 by Tom Brevoort, Mike Kanterovich, Jerry Decaire & Tony DeZuñiga) the Sorcerer Supreme sends Doctor Druid, Shadowoman, Luke Cage and Deadpool to stop ancient life-sucking sorceress Malachi – a task fraught with peril that takes #16’s ‘Strange Changes Part the Second: Resurrection Tango’ (pencilled by Bill Wylie and debuting zombie hero Cadaver), and #17’s ‘Strange Changes Part the Third: On Borrowed Time’…

A moment from Silver Sable & the Wild Pack #30 (November 1994, by Wright, Scot Eaton & Jim Amash) depicting Wade’s reaction to his rival’s fall from grace segues into the second 4-part Deadpool miniseries (August – November 1994) which revolves around auld acquaintances Black Tom and Juggernaut. Collaboratively contrived by writer Mark Waid, pencillers Ian Churchill, Lee Weeks and Ken Lashley with inkers Jason Minor, Bob McLeod, Bub LaRosa, Tom Wegryzn, Philip Moy & W.C. Carani, ‘If Looks Could Kill!’, ‘Luck of the Irish’, ‘Deadpool, Sandwich’ and ‘Mano a Mano’ delivers a hyperkinetic race against time heavy on explosive action.

The previous miniseries revealed Irish archvillain Black Tom Cassidy was slowly turning into a tree (as you do). Desperate to save his meat-based life, the bad guy and best bud Cain “The Juggernaut” Marko manipulate Wade Wilson: exploiting the merc’s unconventional relationship with Siryn (a sonic mutant, Tom’s niece and X-Force member). Believing Deadpool’s regenerating factor holds a cure, the villains stir up a bucket-load of carnage at a time when Wade is at his lowest ebb. Packed with mutant guest stars, this is a shallow but immensely readable piece of eye-candy that reset Deadpool’s path and paved the way for a tonal change that would make the Merc with a Mouth a global superstar…

All Epic Collections offer bonus material bonanzas and here that comprises images from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition, many cover reproductions (Deadpool Classic volume 1 by Liefeld & John Kalisz, Deadpool Classic Companion by Michael Bair & Matt Milla, Deadpool: Sins of the Past and The Circle Chase TPBs by Madureira, Farmer & Harry Canelario), pin-ups by Rob Haynes & John Lowe from X-Force Annual #2 and Annual #3 by Lashley & Matt “Batt” Banning, plus Sam Kieth’s Marvel Year-in-Review ’93 cover. That magazine’s parody ad by Dan Slott, Manny Galen, Scott Koblish & Wright, follows with Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti & Mark McNabb’s foldout cover to Wizard #22 and Liefeld’s “Marvel ‘92” variant cover for Deadpool #3 (2015).

Featuring a far darker villain evolving into an antihero in a frenetic blend of light-hearted, surreal, full-on fighting frolics these stories only hint at what is to come but remain truly compulsive reading for dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans who might be feeling just a little jaded with four-colour overload…
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Lone Wolf and Cub volume 6: Lanterns for the Dead


By Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima, translated by Dana Lewis (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-56971-507-9 (TPB/digital edition)

Best known in the West as Lone Wolf and Cub, the vast Samurai saga created by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima is without doubt a global classic of comics literature. An example of the popular Chanbara or “sword-fighting” genre of print and screen, Kozure Okami was first serialised in Weekly Manga Action from September 1970 until April 1976. It was an immense and overwhelming Seinen (“Men’s manga”) hit. The tales prompted thematic companion series Kubikiri Asa (Samurai Executioner – which ran from 1972-1976) but the major draw – at home and, increasingly, abroad – was always the nomadic wanderings of doomed feudal noble Ogami Ittō and his solemn, silent child Daigoro as they were framed by family rivals, dishonoured by the Shōgun and condemned to death by his peers. Breaching all etiquette the court executioner refused to suicide quietly and instead opted to vengefully walk the bloody road to Meifumadō: the hell of Buddhist legend…

Revered and influential, Kozure Okami was – after years of supplication by fans and editors – followed by sequel Shin Lone Wolf & Cub (illustrated by Hideki Mori) and even spawned – through Koike’s indirect participation – science fiction homage Lone Wolf 2100 (by Mike Kennedy & Francisco Ruiz Velasco) The original saga has been successfully adapted to most other media, spawning movies, plays, TV series (plural), games and merchandise. The property is infamously still in Hollywood pre-production…

The several thousand pages of enthralling, exotic, intoxicating narrative art produced by these legendary creators eventually filled 28 collected volumes, beguiling generations of readers in Japan and, inevitably, the world. More importantly, their philosophically nihilistic odyssey – with its timeless themes and iconic visuals – has influenced hordes of other creators. The many manga, comics and movies, TV and animated versions these stories have inspired around the globe are utterly impossible to count. Frank Miller, who illustrated the cover of this edition, referenced the series in Daredevil, his dystopian opus Ronin, The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City. Max Allan Collins’ Road to Perdition is a proudly unashamed tribute to the masterpiece of vengeance-fiction. Stan Sakai has superbly spoofed, pastiched and celebrated the wanderer’s path in his own epic Usagi Yojimbo, and even children’s cartoon shows such as Samurai Jack are direct descendants of this astounding achievement of graphic narrative. The material has become part of a shared global culture.

In the West, we first saw the translated tales in 1987, as 45 Prestige Format editions from First Comics. That innovative trailblazer foundered before getting even a third of the way through the vast canon, after which Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights, systematically reprinting and translating the entire epic into 28 tankōbon-style editions of around 300 pages each. Once the entire epic was translated – between September 2000 and December 2002 – it was all placed online through the Dark Horse Digital project.

Following cautionary warning on stylistic interpretation ‘A Note to Readers’, this moodily morbid monochrome collection truly gets underway, keeping in text many terms and concepts western readers may find unfamiliar. Thankfully on offer at the close is a Glossary providing detailed context on the term used in the stories. The endless journey resumes in Lanterns for the Dead with 29th exploit ‘Floating Spirits’ as the wanderer buys two bamboo boats as a votive offering, even as elsewhere extremely low-placed yakuza foot-soldiers Kinpachi and Kotomi make a life-changing mistake that costs both their dignity and one his life.

As the heartsick survivor seeks redress of deadly killer Kyōjō Isogitabi and vengeance upon his gang of brutal killers, the petty thug is inexorably drawn into the orbit of the Lone Wolf. The hell-bound wanderer is undertaking his latest commission and already pursues Kyōjō, with that inevitable clash granting Kinpachi and Kotomi deferred but suitably bloody vengeance of a kind…

When a gang of criminal fraudsters attempt their riskiest con after intercepting a client of the Lone Wolf and impersonating Ogami Ittō, the cost to the scurrilous ‘Deer Chaser’ gang is full and fatal. However, the delivery of their fate does not come from the mimicked hitman but from a trusted source turned traitor…

A rather shocking (Absolutely not for the squeamish!) tale – to western sensibilities at least – follows as famine blights the region. The lord of Kigaru Castle’s favourite sport is hunting and torturing dogs and when he does so at ultimate cost to his serfs in ‘Hunger Town’, Wolf and Cub exploit his obsession at great personal cost (especially little Daigoro, who has never had a pet before). With both assassin and deranged noble oblivious to a rural revolt, it all plays out exactly as Ogami expects…

Steeped in Buddhist lore and mythology, ‘The Soldier is the Castle’ sees the grim nomad tested by desperate men before agreeing to become an unlikely saviour. Uncovering a plot to destroy their homeland of Iwakidaira Han by subterfuge, they ask the Wolf to foil a sham gold robbery intended to disgrace and dismantle a region long-coveted by the Shōgun. The impossible task is not just to stop the robbery ever happening but also destroy with notice an army of warriors and the Court’s relentless Kurokuwa Ninjas. Proud to die for the treasured outmoded principle of “Kanjō” (literally The Soldier is the Castle), Ogami Ittō manufactures a miracle, but again only at terrible personal cost…

A potent change of pace concludes the adventure here at ‘One Stone Bridge’ as little Daigoro seeks to care for his grievously wounded father despite the predations of a gang of bullying older kids. His efforts charm and latterly astound a wealthy childless couple who consider adopting the waif.

When they find the child is caring for an adult they seek to help – but only until the assassin drags himself from what should be his deathbed to face Kurokuwa Ninjas who have – due to his actions against the Shōgun rescinded their previous neutrality and declared war on the killer bound for Hell. When Ogami again overcomes all, the couple are still keen to help, if only to get father and child away from them as soon as possible…

Closing with ‘Creator Profiles’ of author Koike Kazuo & illustrator Kojima Goseki plus a tonal ‘Art Gallery’ of powerfully moving images by the latter, this is another classic volume in a series of Japanese imports which utterly changed the nature of American comics and a saga no lover of historical fiction should be without.
Art and story © 1995, 2001 Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima. All other material © 2000 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. Cover art © 2001 Frank Miller. All rights reserved.