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Essential X-Men volume 2


By Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, Don Heck, Steranko & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2116-9

X-Men was never one of young Marvel’s top titles but it did secure a devout and dedicated following, with the freakish energy of Jack Kirby’s heroic dynamism comfortably translating into the sheer, sleek prettiness of Werner Roth as the blunt tension of hunted outsider kids settled into a pastiche of the college and school scenarios so familiar to the students who were the series’ main audience.

The core team still consisted of tragic Cyclops, ebullient Iceman, wealthy golden boy Angel and erudite brutish geek Beast in training with Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the gradually emerging race of mutant Homo Superior. But by the time of this massive black and white tome (collecting issued #25-53 and the crossover Avengers #53) change was definitely in the air.

Jean Grey, Marvel Girl had recently left the team to attend university – although she still managed to turn up in every issue – and since Roy Thomas had replaced Stan Lee as writer a much younger atmosphere permeated the stories. ‘The Power and the Pendant’ (X-Men #25, October 1966, with inking by Dick Ayers) found the boys tracking a new menace, El Tigre; a South American hunter visiting New York to steal an amulet which granted him god-like powers, before returning to the Amazonian San Rico with the mutant heroes in hot pursuit for a cataclysmic showdown in ‘Holocaust!’

Issue #27 saw the return of some old foes in ‘Re-enter: The Mimic!’ as the mesmerising Puppet Master pitted the power-duplicating Calvin Rankin against a team already split by dissention, whilst in ‘The Wail of the Banshee!’ Rankin joined the X-Men in a tale which also introduced the sonic-powered mutant (eventually to become a valued team-mate and team-leader) as a deadly threat in the opening instalment of an ambitious extended epic which featured the global menace of the sinister organisation Factor Three.

John Tartaglione inked the bright and breezy thriller ‘When Titans Clash!’ as a power duplicating Super-Adaptoid nearly absorbed the entire team before ending the Mimic’s career, whilst Jack Sparling and Tartaglione illustrated ‘The Warlock Wakes’ wherein Merlin (an old Thor foe) got a stylish upgrade to malevolent mutant menace, and #31 (Roth and Tartaglione) had Marvel Girl and the boys tackle an Iron Man clone who was also an accidental time bomb in ‘We Must Destroy… the Cobalt Man!’

A somewhat watered down version of the counter-culture had been slowly creeping into these tales of teenaged triumph and tragedy, mostly for comedic balance, but they were – along with Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man – some of the earliest indications of the changing face of America. ‘Beware the Juggernaut, My Son!’ and its conclusion ‘Into the Crimson Cosmos!’ (guest-starring Doctor Strange and his mentor the Ancient One) extended that experience when the Professor was abducted by Factor Three and the kids were forced to stand alone against an unstoppable mystic monster.

Dan Adkins in full Wally Wood appreciation mode memorably illustrated #34’s ‘War… In a World of Darkness!’ as the team’s search for Xavier took them into the middle of a subterranean civil war between Tyrannus and the Mole Man, and he also inked Werner Roth on ‘Along Came A Spider…’ as everybody’s favourite wall-crawler was mistaken for a Factor Three flunky by the increasingly desperate X-Men. ‘Mekano Lives’ (with art from Ross Andru and George Roussos, nee Bell) found the team delayed in their attempts to follow a lead to Europe by a troubled rich kid with a stolen exo-skeleton super-suit…

Don Heck stepped in as inker over Andru’s pencils with #37, ‘We, the Jury…’ when the mutants finally found Factor Three – allied to a host of their old mutant foes – and ready to trigger an atomic war. Heck assumed the penciller’s role for ‘The Sinister Shadow of… Doomsday!’ (inked by “Bell”), before concluding the saga with the Vince Colletta embellished ‘The Fateful Finale!’

Werner Roth had not departed the mutant melee: with issue #38 a classy back-up feature had commenced, and his slick illustration was perfect for the fascinating Origins of the X-Men series. Inked by John Verpoorten ‘A Man Called… X’ began the hidden history of Cyclops, also revealing how Xavier began his relationship with FBI agent Fred Duncan… The second instalment ‘Lonely are the Hunted!’ displayed humanity in mob mode as terrified citizens rioted and stalked the newly “outed” mutant Scott Summers: scenes reminiscent of contemporary race-riots that would fuel the racial outcast metaphor of the later Chris Claremont team.

Thomas, Heck and George Tuska ushered in a new era for the team with #40’s ‘The Mask of the Monster!’ as, now clad in individual costumes rather than superhero school uniforms, they tackled what seemed to be Frankenstein’s unholy creation whilst in the second feature Scott Summers met ‘The First Evil Mutant!’

‘Now Strikes… the Sub-Human!’ and the sequel ‘If I Should Die…’ introduced the tragic Grotesk, whose only dream was to destroy the entire planet, and who introduced the greatest change yet. I’m spoiling nothing now but when this story first ran the shock couldn’t be described when the last page showed the death of Charles Xavier. I’m convinced that at the time this was an honest plot development – removing an “old” figurehead and living deus ex machina from a “young” series, and I’m just as certain that his subsequent “return” a few years later was an inadvisable reaction to dwindling sales…

From the rear of those climactic issues ‘The Living Diamond!’ and ‘The End… or the Beginning?’ (this last inked by neophyte Herb Trimpe) signalled the beginning of The Xavier School for Gifted Children as the Professor took the fugitive Scott Summers under his wing and began his Project: X-Men. Issue #43 began the reinvention of the mutant team with ‘The Torch is Passed!’ (Thomas, Tuska & Tartaglione) as arch-nemesis Magneto returned with reluctant confederates Toad, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to ensnare the bereaved heroes.

This was supported by a back-up tale ‘Call Him… Cyclops’ which revealed the secrets of his awesome eye-blasts, whilst the next issue ‘Red Raven, Red Raven…’ saw the Angel escape and encounter a revived Golden Age Timely Comics hero in a stirring yarn from Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Heck, Roth and Tartaglione. This was accompanied by the opening of the next Origins chapter-play when ‘The Iceman Cometh!’ courtesy of Friedrich, Tuska and Verpoorten.

X-Men #45 led with ‘When Mutants Clash!’ as Cyclops also escaped only to encounter the highly conflicted Quicksilver; a battle that concluded with Magneto’s defeat in Avengers #53 ‘In Battle Joined’ by Thomas, John Buscema and Tuska, whilst back in #45 Iceman’s story continued in ‘And the Mob Cried… Vengeance!’

‘The End of the X-Men!’ occurred in issue #46, with the reading of Charles Xavier’s will. Agent Duncan reappeared and ordered the team to split-up, to monitor different parts of the country for mutant activity just as the unstoppable Juggernaut turned up once more, and Iceman’s origin concluded with ‘…And Then There were Two!’

Friedrich was joined by Arnold Drake to script Beast and Iceman’s adventure ‘The Warlock Wears Three Faces!’ as the ancient mutant Merlin once more re-branded himself: this time as the psychedelic guru Maha Yogi, and Drake, Roth and Verpoorten explained the cool kid’s powers in the info feature ‘I, the Iceman.’ As full scripter Drake penned The Cyclops and Marvel Girl tale, ‘Beware Computo, Commander of the Robot Hive’, a pacy thriller with a surprise guest villain, whilst ‘Your’s Truly the Beast’ wrong-footed everybody by explaining his powers before actually telling his origin epic.

X-Men #49 gave a tantalising taste of things to come with a startling and stylish Jim Steranko cover, behind which Drake, Heck, Roth and Tartaglione revealed ‘Who Dares Defy… the Demi-Men?’: nominally an Angel story but one which reunited the team to confront the assembled mutant hordes of Mesmero and Iceman’s new girlfriend – the daughter of Magneto! This shocker was supplemented by ‘A Beast is Born.’

Drake, Steranko and Tartaglione reached incredible heights with the magnificent ‘City of Mutants’ in #50; a visual tour de force that remains as spectacular now it did in 1968, but which was actually surpassed by Magneto’s return as ‘The Devil had a Daughter’ in #51 before the saga concluded in the disappointing ‘Twilight of the Mutants!’

Don’t misunderstand me, however: This isn’t a bad story, but after two issues of Steranko in his creative prime, nobody could satisfactorily end this tale, and I pity Heck and Roth for having to try.

The Beast origin chapters in those issues were ‘This Boy, This Bombshell’, ‘The Lure of the Beast-Nappers!’ and ‘The Crimes of the Conquistador!’, and that particular epic of child exploitation and the isolation of being different ended in #53’s ‘Welcome to the Club, Beast!’ but that issue’s main claim to notoriety was the lead feature which was drawn by another superstar in the making.

Hard to believe now, but in the 1960s X-Men was a series in perpetual sales crises, and a lot of great talent was thrown at it back then. ‘The Rage of Blastaar!’ was illustrated by a young Barry Smith – still in his Kirby appreciation phase – and his unique interpretation of this off-beat battle-blockbuster from Arnold Drake, inked by the enigmatic Michael Dee, is memorable but regrettably brisk.

These tales perfectly display Marvel’s evolution from quirky action tales to the more fraught, breastbeating, convoluted melodramas that inexorably led to the monolithic X-brand of today. Well drawn, highly readable stories are never unwelcome or out of favour though, and it should be remembered that everything here informs so very much of today’s mutant mythology. These are stories for the dedicated fan and newest convert, and never better packaged than in this economical tome. Everyone should own this book.

© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D.


By Dash Shaw (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-307-1

Being an old dinosaur who cut his teeth on old-fashioned 1970s print technology, I’m constantly surprised when modern computer tech so remarkably emulates and enhances what I still consider to be “painted” art. I stare in wonder until I fool myself that I can actually see all those hard, straight-edged pixels on the page, and my head begins to hurt and my eyes to water…

None of which is particularly germane, but which does indicate just how entrancing is this lovely book. Dash Shaw is an extremely talented creator with a singular authorial voice and a huge repertoire of styles to call upon. Born in 1983, he is part of a “new wave” (please note no capital letters there) of multi-tasking cartoonists, animators and web-content creators whose interests and sensibilities have heralded a renaissance in graphic narrative.

Like so many fresh creators he began young with independently published small press comics before graduating to paid work, and his available books include Love Eats Brains, GoddessHead, Garden Head, Mother’s Mouth and the superb and haunting Bottomless Belly Button.

In 2009 the Independent Film Channel commissioned him to convert his short stories from the comic arts quarterly Mome, The Unclothed Man In the 35th Century A.D., into an imaginative and compelling animated series and this incredibly impressive hardback gathers not only those evocative, nightmarish and tenderly bizarre tales but also the storyboards, designs and scripts Shaw constructed to facilitate the transition from paper to screen.

Wrapped in a stylish printed dust jacket made from what appears to be an animation cel (celluloid), the stories include the eponymous Unclothed Man, ‘Look Forward, First Son of Terra Two’, ‘Galactic Funnels’, My Entire High School… Sinking into the Sea!, ‘Blind Date 1’, Making the Abyss, the captivatingly droll examination of comic and cartoon special effects ‘Cartooning Symbolia’ and others. For many however the revelatory insights of how the creative process unfolds will be the biggest draw of all…This is an achingly visual and surprisingly accessible yet intellectual bunch of gems that every dedicated fan of the medium simply must see, and every reader of challenging fiction will Have to read.

© 2009 Dash Shaw. This edition © 2009 Fantagraphics Books.  All Rights Reserved.

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Black Jack volume 8


By Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-934287-61-3

There aren’t many Names in comics. Lots of creators; multi-disciplined or single focussed, who have contributed to the body of the art form, but we don’t have many Global Presences whose contributions have affected generations of readers and aspirants all over the World, like a Mozart or Michelangelo or Shakespeare. There’s just Hergé and Jack Kirby and Osamu Tezuka.

In a creative career that produced over 700 hundred different series and more than 150,000 pages (many of them only now finally becoming available to people who can’t read Japanese), Osamu Tezuka captivated generations of readers across the world with tales of history, fantasy, romance and startling adventure. Perhaps his most intriguing creation is Black Jack, who overcame horrendous injuries as a child, and although still carrying many scars within and without, roams the globe, curing any who can pay his deliberately daunting, exorbitant prices – usually cash, but sometimes in more exotic or metaphysical coin.

He is the ultimate loner, except for Pinoko, a little girl he literally built from the scraps of an early case. Unlicensed by any medical board on Earth, he holds himself to the highest ethical standards possible… his own. All the troubles and wonders of this world (and sometimes other ones) can be found in medical dramas, and here elements of rationalism, science-fiction, kitchen sink drama, spiritualism, criminality and human frailty are woven into an epic of Magical Realism that rivals the works of Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez.

The powerful ‘What Lurks the Mountain’ kicks off this superb selection of medical miracles, as the surgical superman goes to the aid of a peasant family only to be bitten by the rabid dog that has brought them to the brink of death. When the mutt’s rich owner won’t play ball Black Jack concocts his own cure for arrogance…

‘Fits’ begins as a broadly comic duel between the doctor and his nigh-artificial protégé Pinoko, but takes an abrasive turn into psychosurgery whilst in ‘A Wrong Diagnosis’ an old med school mate wheedles and shames the rogue surgeon into correcting someone else’s big mistake.

‘The Tattooed Man’ is a tale that could only happen in Japan as the unlicensed doctor is summoned to a Yakuza lord’s house. The Oyabun is long-dead, but if Black Jack’s treatment damaged his tattoos, vengeance will reach out from beyond the grave…

‘Abnormal Pregnancy’ too is an eerily unique tale of honour and horror, and I’m not divulging anything about such a stunning saga of weird science.

When the surgeon is beaten and robbed in the Pyrenees fate makes fools of bandits and victim alike in ‘On the Way’ whilst ‘Cold Disdain’ sees our hero once more frustrating the arrogance and pride of the medical procession that scorns him, but when he receives ‘A Visit from a Killer’ he finds that he has far too much in common with the hitman who can only succeed if the miracle surgeon isn’t around to heal his intended target.

‘Accident’ is a heartbreaking tragedy of love lost and found, with the surgical outcast reduced to a walk-on part, ‘One Hour to Death’ features the bizarre alliance of Black Jack and the mercy-killer Dr. Kiriko, when a desperate child steals the euthanizer’s latest pain – and life – ending drug, and the secret surgeon has to solve an impossible mystery in ‘Random Killer’ as an Alaskan town is plagued with an outbreak of invisible decapitations!

‘Pinoko Goes West’ puts the spotlight on Black Jack’s young assistant as a failed procedure forces her beloved master to go on the run, ‘Swapped’ puts parental love and duty on trial and this volume concludes as we step into the realm of meta-fiction when the surgical samurai is compelled, against his previously sacrosanct medical judgement, to keep a writer alive long enough to complete his magnum opus in ‘Finish.’

This is an epic of personal combat, with the lone gunfighter battling hugely oppressive counter-forces (the Law, the System, himself) to win just one more victory: medicine as mythology, experienced by a Ronin with a Gladstone bag.

An annoying sidebar I feel compelled to repeat here: For many years broad, purely visual racial stereotypes were common “shorthand” in Japanese comics – and ours, and everybody else’s. They crop up here, but please remember that even at the time these stories originated from they were not charged images; Tezuka’s depictions of native Japanese are just as broad and expressionistic. A simple reading of the text should dispel any notions of racism: but if you can’t get past these decades-old images, just put the book down. Don’t buy it. It’s your loss.

Thrilling, heart-warming, bitterly insightful and utterly addictive, these incredible stories of a medical wizard in a crass, pompous and hostile world will shake all your preconceptions of what storytelling can be…

This book is printed in the Japanese right to left, back to front format.

© 2009 by Tezuka Productions. Translation © 2009 Vertical, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: Last Son


By Geoff Johns, Richard Donner & Adam Kubert (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-572-9

In recent years DC has taken great pains to rationalise the attendant continuities surrounding their comicbook characters’ forays into other media. It’s sound sense, both commercially and artistically, as no matter whether if it’s a television series, big screen interpretation or the animated “kids” shows (generally the very best and most palatable material for died-in-the-wool fans: check out Justice League Unlimited or Batman: the Brave and the Bold and see for yourselves) that bring new fans into the mix. When they finally check out the comics – which is surely the ultimate goal – inconsistencies and jarring differences can only lead to confusion, disappointment and a lost reader.

Last Son was a five issue story-arc that blended portions of the Christopher Reeve Superman films into the then-current comics continuity, using the “ripple effect” of the reality-altering Infinite Crisis to explain the changes in the character’s back-story – and as a palliative sop to the most intransigent and picky fan-boys. The storyline also impacted on many other DC titles and its repercussions are still in effect in current issues of all Superman titles.

It also brought film director Richard Donner back to the characters he had turned into global sensations in Superman: the Movie and Superman II, substituting key elements of those epics for much of the increasingly tangled web which had preceded it. This volume collects Action Comics #844-866, #851 and Action Comics Annual #11; the stories co-written by Donner’s old assistant and super-scripter Geoff Johns, with stylish and gritty illustration from Adam Kubert and colorists Dave Stewart and Edgar Delgado making an incomparable contribution to the events.

In his Fortress of Solitude the Man of Tomorrow is chided and reminded by the computer-recorded consciousness of his father Jor-El that he is an alien surrounded by humans, but never one of them. As the troubled hero returns to Metropolis and his wife Lois, he detects a spaceship crashing to Earth. Catching the blazing capsule he discovers a young boy within, who appears to be from Krypton…

Claimed by the US government the boy nearly disappears into the nebulous miasma of US covert agencies until Superman breaks him free and hides him with the only humans with any experience of raising super-kids: Jonathan and Martha Kent…

With his own family as a support group the Man of Steel decides on a course of action that will keep the government involved-but-honest, although when Lex Luthor sends the unstable juggernaut Bizarro to steal the child, he is forced to see that only secrecy and anonymity can save the youngster from becoming somebody’s ultimate weapon.

Naming the mysterious child Christopher he and Lois adopt the boy, just as three Kryptonian villains break free of the Phantom Zone (based on the filmic General Zod, Ursa and Non as seen in the aforementioned Superman: the Movie and Superman II). Confronting Superman they claim to know the boy’s secret, but they are angry, implacable and hungry for revenge…

Despite many scheduling problems during its initial release this series has slowly been accepted as a cornerstone of Superman’s latest mythology, and by reintroducing many beloved facets of older interpretations – albeit in the whimsy-lite, grim-and-gritty post-modern manner (such as the return of Superman’s Daxamite “big brother” Mon-El and different shades of Kryptonite), has almost re-validated some of the most charming memories of many older devotees. Spectacular and fabulously compelling, this heroic mystery epic is a brilliant book to introduce modern readers to the comics industry’s greatest invention, and has lots to offer any older fan who will accept yet another revamp.
© 2006, 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Goddess


By Garth Ennis & Phil Winslade (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-327-3

Some stories are just a good, vicarious read and there’s no better description for this achingly funny, over the top eco-romp from the lord of outrageous shock comedy Garth Ennis. That it’s beautifully illustrated by master of the meticulous Phil Winslade is a tremendous plus of course…

London Zoo keeper Rosie Nolan went for a walk in the Highlands. As she was revelling in the wonders of nature something odd happened: she was gripped by an eerie emerald power and accidentally split Scotland and England apart…

At that moment ineffectual Jeff (our narrator) was cocking up his latest relationship and ecological psychopath Mudhawk was slaughtering some more people who didn’t share his passion for animal rights, but someone who did notice Rosie’s little gaffe was paranoid narcisscist  Harry Hooks, a CIA spook who had been hunting for telekinetic people to turn into US weapons for decades. He immediately headed for England where a concatenation of circumstances brought Jeff, Mudhawk – and his bellicose ex Samantha Flint – to Rosie’s doorstep just as the Yank arrived…

Mad as a bag of badgers, Hooks tried to abduct Rosie, leading to the deaths of five American agents, and when the local beat copper arrived Hooks shot him. This rash act brought cheerful old Desk Constable George Dixon into the mix. Dixon was the kind of rozzer who always got his man – and then assiduously disposed of the body before anybody could register a complaint. An old fashioned sort, he didn’t much like cop-killers, so with the sadistic Bovver Bruvvers in tow Dixon went after the kill-crazy Hooks, incidentally racking up a body-count of his own that a middle-eastern dictator would be proud of…

In a voyage that traverses the entire globe Rosie’s powers expand exponentially and as the frantic chases of all the authority figures rapidly converge on her the attendant carnage escalates. With her companions in tow she uncovers the incredible secret of her gift in a gloriously trenchant and darkly sardonic satire on society, like a gore-splattered “Carry-On” film with no limits and not even a modicum of good taste.

Fast, furious, funny and wickedly whimsical, this is classic over-the-top Ennis fare, which was purportedly postponed during its conversion from eight issue miniseries to trade paperback compilation because the terrorist themes were deemed too raw after the September 11th attacks. As one of the most impressive scenes here concerns crashing an airliner, I think I can see their point. Nevertheless, as the series premiered six years before the towers fell, and it’s been a long while since, perhaps the time is right to revisit this incredible fantasy tale for consenting, contrary adults…

© 1995, 1996, 2002 Garth Ennis and Phil Winslade. All Rights Reserved.

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Aquablue & Aquablue: the Blue Planet


By Cailleteau & Vatine; translated by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier (Dark Horse)
ISBNs: 978-1-87857-400-8 and 1-87857-404-3

I’m tempted to file these little crackers under “unfinished business” as these slim translated French albums feature the first two instalments of a classy, stylish science fiction saga that sadly hit a reef before its conclusion, despite being one of the most long-lived and impressive epics from a country that seems to specialize in successfully exporting edgy, clever comic fantasies.

In Aquablue the Starliner Silver Star is lost due to a meteor strike and in the rush to the life pods a baby is left behind. Rescued by a robot the boy is reared in space until, eight years later, he finds a planet. The world only has 3% landmass, but is inhabited by a primitive, amiable race of humanoids, and incredibly huge marine species.

In ten years the boy grows to manhood and as Tumu-Nao, becomes a valued member of the tribe. He is even betrothed to the chief’s daughter, Mi-Nuee, and the natives believe him blessed by their god, a gigantic whale-like creature called Uruk-Uru. Unfortunately Nao’s idyllic life forever alters when an Earth survey ship lands and Terran Ethnologist Maurice Dupre discovers that the young man is Wilfred Morgenstern: lost heir to Earth’s greatest financial empire, the United Energy Consortium.

However, that Consortium has already enacted a shady deal to turn Aquablue into a vast hyper-station, which will result in the watery globe becoming a gigantic ice-ball, and they certainly don’t need a naive boss who has gone native to queer their big score. Nao’s own aunt puts out a hit on the rediscovered heir, but nobody realises that his connection to the “gods” of Aquablue is real and shockingly powerful…

The Blue Planet finds Nao returning to Earth not so much to claim his birthright as to safeguard his adopted homeworld from human incursion. While he is away the Consortium has resorted to the same tactics European imperialists used as they absorbed indigenous Earth cultures – destroying them with free booze and cheap baubles.

Noa’s father-in-law organizes a resistance movement, fleeing with the entire tribe to the polar regions, but on Earth Nao/Wilfred is having trouble resisting the allure of technological civilisation, until Mi-Nuee, who had stowed away on a starship, rises like a gleaming message from Uruk-Uru out of the Ocean swell. With the help of Dupre they return in time for the final battle against the Consortium forces that have hunted the natives into the frozen wastelands…

And that was that.

Thierry Cailleteau & Olivier Vatine first teamed to produce the outlandishly comedic Adventures of Fred and Bob but really hit their peak on these superb eco-thrillers, based tellingly on the colonial outrages of Western Civilisation: especially in their treatment of Polynesian cultures. The series continued for another nine volumes with artists Ciro Tota and Stéphane Brangier replacing Vatine from the fifth book, moving beyond the original storyline into fascinating areas of conservation and space opera!

Although these slender pearls are worth a look just for the superb quality of art and narrative I’m plugging them here in the greedy hope that with so much European material finally crossing the channel into English, somebody will pick up and complete the translation of this delicious adventure series. Cross your fingers…
© 1988, 1990 Guy Delcourt Productions. English translation © 1989, 1990 Dark Horse Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Autumn’s Come Undone


By Shag (SCB – Baby Tattoo Books)
ISBN: 978-0-9793307-3-5

A mystery-man of few words, Josh Agle, the artist currently known as “Shag”, has produced numerous collections of sleek and stylish paintings that are the very epitome of “retro”.

Considered a leading light of the American “Lowbrow” or “Pop Surrealism” art movement his mannered, maddeningly meticulous constructions of 1960s imagery and palettes are mind-warping and oddly comforting at the same time: stirringly reminiscent of the animated credits for TV shows like “Bewitched” and “I Dream of Jeannie” and films such as “The Pink Panther” and “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines”.

This latest memorable collection, full of doe-eyed, bouffant-ed beach cuties, slick, dark-suited men with horn-rim glasses and thin ties, whales and whalers, beasts, devils and Victoriana viewed through a Baby-boomer’s lens gathers works from his latest gallery tour and provides yet another peek into the mind of a true – if sardonic – cultural archeologist.

Accompanied by poetry and quotations this is an engrossing treat and, I’m sure the beginning of the art-poster and greetings card “next big thing.” Catch the wave before it catches you…
© 2009. All rights reserved.

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Black Jack volume 7


By Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-934287-60-6

Black Jack is at once a lone wolf hero, troubled genius, passionate outsider and amoral humanitarian combining the indomitable will of Doc Savage with the intellect of Sherlock Holmes and ambivalent, intuitive drive of Dr. Gregory House. Hideously scarred as result of extensive childhood surgery, the unlicensed mercenary medic endures public condemnation and professional scorn, experiencing every genre of storytelling as he continually confronts the cutting edges of medicine.

His esteemed creator Osamu Tezuka was born in Qsaka Prefecture on 3rd November 1928, and as a child suffered from a severe illness that made his arms swell. The doctor who cured him inspired him to study medicine, and although the cartoonist began his professional drawing career while at university, he persevered with his studies and qualified as a doctor too.

Facing a career crossroads, Tezuka’s mother advised him to do the thing that made him happiest. He never practiced medicine but the world was gifted with such classic cartoon masterpieces as Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro-boy), Kimba the White Lion, Buddha, Adolf and literally hundreds of other graphic narratives. Along the way Tezuka incidentally pioneered, if not actually invented, the Japanese anime industry.

Equally able to speak to the hearts and minds of children and adults, Osamu Tezuka’s work ranges from the charming to the disturbing, even terrifying. In 1973 he turned his storyteller’s eye to his college studies and created Burakku Jakku, a lone wolf surgeon living beyond society’s boundaries and rules:  a scarred, heartless mercenary miracle-worker if the price is right, yet still a deeply human wounded soul who works his surgical wizardry from behind icy walls of cool indifference and casual hostility…

One thing should always be remembered when reading these stories: despite all the scientific detail, all the frighteningly accurate terminology and trappings, Black Jack isn’t medical fiction; it is an exploration of ethics and morality with medicine raised to the level of magic… or perhaps duelling.

This is an epic of personal combats, a lone gunfighter battling hugely oppressive counter-forces (the Law, the System, casual human cruelty, himself) to win just one more victory: medicine as mythology, won by a Ronin with a fast car and a Gladstone bag. Elements of rationalism, science-fiction, kitchen sink drama, spiritualism and even the supernatural appear in this saga of Magical Realism that rivals the works of Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez. But overall these are dramatic, highly addictive comics tales of heroism; and ones that that will stay with you forever.

Volume 7 begins with ‘Guys and Birds’ and pursues a favoured theme in Tezuka’s work: the moral superiority of animals to base humanity, as Black Jack operates on a small boy beloved by the bird of the marshlands. When crooked speculators try to kill the boy for the land rights his feathered friends fight even harder than the super-surgeon to save him…

‘The Gray Mansion’ is a classical gothic horror story which finds him attempting to fix a hideously malformed burns victim despite knowing that his insane patient intends to commit murder as soon as he is again able to grasp a weapon, and ‘A Cat and Shozo’ examines love and madness as the rogue surgeon heals a traumatised man who has replaced his dead family with a pack of devoted felines…

‘The Two Pinokos’ provides another glimpse of the doctor’s past as he sees once more the little girl who provided the template for his own assistant (rebuilt from leftover organs: see Black Jack volume 1 for details). What a shame she and her entire village are dying from toxic waste pollution… ‘Unexploded Bomb’ also looks back as the diagnostic ronin takes a dark revenge on the corrupt officials whose greed destroyed his mother and set him upon his lonely path, whilst ‘Younger Brother’ finds him masquerading as another man’s son, to provide a different kind of medical comfort.

‘High and Low’ is a delightful change of tone as, against all odds, human nature and past experience a lowly worker and a millionaire businessman honour their debts to each other, ‘Goribei of Senjogahara’ is a heart-jarring tale of survival and bestiality, featuring an ape gone rogue and a professional hunter and ‘The Kuroshio: a Memoir’ probes the nature of glory and debts not honoured when a celebrity danger-man puts his latest TV stunt ahead of common humanity…

‘Black and White’ again finds Black Jack caught between feuding gangsters, but this time he’s also competing against a decent young doctor who is everything he once aspired to be, ‘A Hill for One’ has him again champion the rights of a noble beast against repulsive men and in ‘Cloudy, Later Fair’ he has to operate on a mountainside where every move of his scalpel could call down a lethal lightning strike.

The book closes with ‘Hurricane’ as a dying millionaire’s family abandons surgeon and patient to a killer storm and ‘Timeout’ sees the doctor perform a medical miracle but still fail to win justice or peace for his patient…

For many modern readers the highly stylised semi-comical “cartoonish” illustration that Osamu Tezuka chose to work in has proved a conceptual hindrance, not only for these astounding adventures in medical meta-fiction, but for many other of his incredible stories of heroism and fantasy. But in these days of vast art-teams, computer enhancements and a zillion colour effects these carefully crafted black and white pages use a simple symbology, concise, almost diagrammatic illustration (for the graphic scenes of surgery – squeamish folk consider yourselves warned!) and deft design to tell tales that only the most sophisticated consumer can fully appreciate: not because they’re difficult or obscure, but because they hit home and hit hard every time…

The pictures may be soft, seductive and welcoming but the content – and intent – are as hard and uncompromising as a surgeon’s scalpel…

This book is printed in the Japanese right to left, back to front format.

© 2009 by Tezuka Productions. Translation © 2009 Vertical, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Checkmate: the Fall of the Wall


By Greg Rucka & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84756-848-5

Spy series – as opposed to spy stories – in comic-books are notoriously short-lived things: in the mainstream the covert tension inevitably dissolves into more-or-less traditional punch-’em-up costume dramas, and even mature imprints such as Vertigo, WildStorm and others can’t seem to translate the particular values and allure of “the Great Game” to panels and borders. Such is sadly the case with DC’s boldly dark Checkmate which can already be seen as rapidly thundering to a big finish even in this collection (re-presenting #16-22 of the monthly periodical) which marks the mid-point of the run.

In the aftermath of DC’s Infinite Crisis an international organisation to monitor and control meta-human affairs was developed, under the aegis of the United Nations Security Council. Originally an American agency, the new Checkmate is tasked with policing all nations, protecting them from superhuman dangers and terrorism, and also preventing rogue nations and regimes from weaponising their own paranormal resources.

This is a bleak and furtive blend of genres from writer Rucka, pencillers Joe Bennett, Chris Samnee & Joe Prado and inkers Samnee, Prado, Jack Jadson & Steve Bird, with the murky world of espionage coldly and logically grounding the shiny gleam of costumed super-doers.

Although Checkmate is United Nations mandated, every member knows that partisan patriotism too often trumps global cooperation, leading to a delicious edge of distrust among operatives. For some time both Kings, Mr. Terrific and Taleb Beni Khalid, and Black Queen Sasha Bordeaux have suspected White Queen Amanda Waller of running her own operations within Checkmate and actively sabotaging missions that might harm American interests.

Now “the Wall” makes a move to take control of Checkmate unaware that her cover is blown and that the people she has so readily and repeatedly betrayed are waiting for her, resulting in UN agents facing off against Waller’s American penal brigade of coerced super-villains the Suicide Squad…

The greater tale unfolds against a series of close, intimate tales investigating the lives of regular personnel and packs a masterful punch because of it: a subtle technique more writers would benefit from studying, and the volume closes with a solid two-part yarn revealing the heritage and destiny of Black Queen’s Knight Josephine Tautin: the latest French operative to carry the glorious code-name Mademoiselle Marie.

‘La Vie en Sang’ by Rucka and Eric S. Trautman, illustrated by Chris Samnee, is a cracking, high-octane thriller that takes a fascinating delve into the DC universe’s hidden history, and proves how espionage adventures can work within a world of gods and monsters.

Moody and addictive, but far too dependent on a working knowledge of the DC universe, this is a series well worth a few moments of any serious fan’s time, and the spy-game milieu should, even now – produce a few converts from espionage devotees looking for a little something on the wild side…

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Conceptual Realism in the Service of the Hypothetical


By Robt. Williams (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-299-9

Robert L. Williams II has been a rabble-rouser and cultural iconoclast since he first gained public attention with his outré celebrations of grotesque Hot Rod illustrations, and shocking underground comix work.

He was born on 2nd March 1943 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and started his education at the Stark Military Academy. The boy spent his youth shuttling between New Mexico and Alabama, and was always painting and drawing. He became obsessed with car culture at an early age, and was purportedly given his first automobile at age 12. In his teen years he became a builder and driver of Hot Rods: pared down, souped-up vehicles customized for racing and display. Williams was apparently a difficult kid and always in trouble with local authorities.

In 1963 he moved to Los Angeles, attending City College, where he worked on the school’s paper The Collegiate before transferring to The Chouinard Art Institute, and quickly moving on into commercial art, working as an illustrator for cult car maven “Big Daddy” Roth and his brand/mascot Rat Fink.

By this time painting in oils for his own creative pleasure, Williams drifted into the Zap Collective: a loose-knit congregation of like-minded artists arguably the driving force behind the Underground Comix movement which revolutionised graphic narrative during the 1960s and 1970s which included R. Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Victor Moscosco and Spain Rodriguez. In 1970 Williams published his signature anti-hero in the eponymous Cootchy Cooty Men’s Comics and Zap Comix #5, combining shocking, tasteless imagery of sex and violence to shake up the establishment. Cootchy Cooty still occasionally resurfaces in the artist’s paintings…

In 1979 many of his paintings were collected into a book that has become (utterly contrary to William’s explicit wishes) the name of the modern gallery-art movement dedicated to cultural examination through co-opted and re-found popular arts imagery. The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams was a groundbreaking book, at odds with the elitism and snobbery of “capital A art”, capable and prepared to back up its artistic arguments with keen intellectual vigour and insight.

He embraced the 1980s Punk movement (see his next book The Zombie Mystery Paintings) and as he followed his muse and formulated his creative philosophy he founded the art magazine Juxtapoz in the early 1990s (which has since launched the careers of many Pop Surrealist and Lowbrow artists). He has been controversial for decades due to his repeated use of sexual nudity, commercialism, ultra-violence and all manner of moral turpitude: a practice he explained (but felt no need to defend) in the book Visual Addiction, wherein his Rubberneck Manifesto declared “Something dead in the street commands more measured units of visual investigation than 100 Mona Lisas!”

Williams uses his classical painting skills and careful recapitulation of visual elements from our shared modern cultures to lure in the viewer, and to smash his point home with telling force. As with all “Lowbrow” artists he rejects in turn High Art’s rejection of skilled performance: restoring value to the mastery of techniques denigrated for decades as “mere craftsmanship” by critics and modernists. His pictures look like what they’re supposed to: it’s the motivation and message that are occluded, “all the better to bite you with…”

This spectacular oversized art book – a softcover edition of the incredible hardback released at the end of 2009 – collects recent works seen at his 2009 show Conceptual Realism: In the Service of the Hypothetical which toured California and New York, a delightful, magnificent package of social commentary, plaintive questing and mischievous mickey-taking encapsulated in 25 new paintings, and four fascinating sculptures (regrettably still works in progress at the time of going-to-press) each accompanied by revelatory essays, sketches, visual notes and underpaintings, and a another brief and challenging treatise from the artist himself: all preceded by a telling introduction from Tattoo artist and advocate Don Ed Hardy.

All art intends to make contact and connection: here is another powerful book from an unrepentant and unstoppable communicator – one whose works have always had the force and immediate influence of a swift smack in the mouth. Love it or leave it. You simply can’t ignore it.

© 2009 Robert Williams. This edition © 2009 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.