Now Read This!

By various (Marvel)
ISBN13: 978-0-8713-5760-1

In the 1960s Jim Shooter was a child-prodigy of comics scripting who was writing the Legion of Superheroes and Superman before he’d finished High School. After college, when he returned to the industry and gravitated to Marvel Comics it seemed natural to find him working on a comic with just as many characters as that fabled future super-team.

His connection to The Avengers, although episodic, was long-lived and produced some of that series’ best tales, and none more so than the cosmic epic collected here. This sprawling tale of time-travel and universal conquest originally ran in The Avengers issues #167-168 and 170-177.

In the Gods-and-Monsters filled Marvel Universe there are entrenched Hierarchies of Power, so when a new player mysteriously arrives in the 20th Century the very Fabric of Reality is threatened. It all begins when the star-spanning Guardians of the Galaxy, 31st Century Superheroes, arrive in Earth orbit in hot pursuit of a Cyborg despot named Korvac. Even after teaming with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes they are unable to find their quarry, but a new and unique being named Michael is lurking in the background, subtly altering events as he gathers strength in secret preparation for a sneak attack on those aforementioned Hierarchies. His entire plan revolves around his not being noticed before he is ready…

Spread through a series of lesser adventures with such long-term foes as Ultron and The Collector, lesser luminaries like Tyrak the Treacherous and even Federal Watchdog-come-Gadfly Henry Gyrich, the larger story ponderously and ominously unfolds before finally exploding into a devastating and tragic Battle Royale that is the epitome of superhero comics. This is pure escapist fantasy at its finest.

Despite being somewhat let down by the artwork when the magnificent George Perez gave way to less enthusiastic hands such as Sal Buscema, David Wenzel and Tom Morgan, and cursed by the inability to keep a regular inker (Pablo Marcos, Klaus Janson Ricardo Villamonte and Tom Morgan all pitched in), the sheer scope of the plot nevertheless carries this story through to its cataclysmic and fulfilling conclusion. Even Shooter’s reluctant replacing by scripters Dave Michelinie and Bill Mantlo (as his editorial career advanced) couldn’t derail this juggernaut of adventure.

If you want to see what makes Superhero fiction work, and can keep track of nearly two dozen flamboyant characters, this is a fine example of how to make such an unwieldy proposition easily accessible to the new and returning reader.

©1977, 1978 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Samuel R .Delaney, illustrated by Howard Chaykin (Berkley/Putnam)
SBN: 399-12245-1

There was a time when Howard Chaykin was about more than lewdness, and potty-mouthed confrontation (not that I’m opposed in any way to those highly entertaining facets of his work): Once he was the darling of the swashbuckling science fiction crowd, both in comics like Monark Starstalker (Marvel) or his own Cody Starbuck, and in the superb paperback covers he produced. In 1976, before he began adapting Star Wars for Marvel, he started a project for Byron Priess Visual Publications with acclaimed author Samuel R .Delaney. It took nearly three years but when it was released Empire was an instant classic and a genuine contender for the title “First Graphic Novel”.

Vast, lush and expansive, this is the story of Wyrn, a young archaeologist who becomes embroiled in a race to recover the separated segments of an artefact that will bring down the dictatorship of the Information-Barons of the Kūndūke. Seduced as much by the charismatic rebel leader Qrelon as by the thirst for adventure and knowledge, the search takes him across the universe and into the heart of corruption in a non-stop thrill-ride of fantastic, exotic adventure.

Perhaps a little simplistic by modern standards, this high-speed, high-concept romp is magnificently illustrated in an engagingly painterly manner whilst Delaney’s poetic style creates a seductive blend of action and political thriller richly steeped in technological philosophy. Whilst the elements of young rebels and sprawling evil dictatorships has now become common currency, the sheer style of this book keeps it a high point of the genre and a worthwhile read for any fan.

© 1978 Byron Preiss Visual Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved.

limited edition hardcover

By Harlan Ellison & Ken Steacy (Comico)
ISBN: 0-936211-07-5

Harlan Ellison’s dark and chilling space war tales are always eminently readable. This volume sees five of the best – all taken from the long-running sequence of novellas and short-stories detailing Mankind’s last-ditch struggle against star-spanning conquerors – adapted in a variety of visual formats by air-brush wizard Ken Steacy, together with a new prose framing-sequence from the author.

The battle against the Kyben lasted ten generations and involved all manner of technologies including time travel. Probably the most famous of these is the award-winning Demon with a Glass Hand, adapted as both an episode of The Outer Limits (1964) and as a DC Graphic Novel (ISBN13: 978-0-9302-8909-6), but that’s a book for another time.

Here we have some of the earliest tales in that epic conflict, beginning with the apocalyptic ‘Run for the Stars’, a traditional panels and balloons strip, followed by ‘Life Hutch’, a grim survival tale combining blocks of text with large images in both lavish colour and stark monochrome.

‘The Untouchable Adolescents’ is a bright and breezy art job disguising a tragic and powerful parable of good intentions gone awry, whilst the sardonic two-pager ‘Trojan Hearse’ rates just one powerful, lonely illustration. ‘Sleeping Dogs’ is a moody epic that fitting concludes the adaptations but fans will be delighted to find this volume carries an original entry in the annals of the Earth-Kyba conflict with the prose and picture ‘The Few… The Proud’: Ellison’s first new story for the series in fifteen years.

This spectacular book is an innovative and compelling treat for both old-time fans of the writer and comic readers in general.

Run for the Stars, Life Hutch, The Untouchable Adolescents, Trojan Hearse, Sleeping Dogs and all additional text © 1987 The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
Art and cover © 1987 Ken Steacy. All Rights Reserved.

By Bud Sagendorf (Virgin Books)
ISBN: 0-907080-16-2

There are few comic characters that have entered world consciousness, but a grizzled, bluff, uneducated, visually impaired old sailor with a speech-impediment is possibly the most well known of that select bunch. Elzie Segar had been producing Thimble Theatre since December 19th, 1919, but when he introduced a coarse, brusque “Sailor man” into the saga of Ham Gravy and Castor Oyl on January 29th, 1929 nobody suspected the heights that walk-on would reach.

Rather than explore the genius of Segar here, let’s concentrate on a general overview of Popeye in this anniversary book from 1981. Compiled and written by his assistant Bud Sagendorf (who took over the strip, the comic book and the merchandise design in 1958) it is a glorious primer into the huge, rich history and vast cast of the strip, with lavishly illustrated features on everything Popeye from Spinach to Collectibles, Notable Quotes to Maps and diagrams of the wild world the Sailor roams.

After Segar’s tragic death in 1938, Doc Winner, Tom Sims, Ralph Stein and Bela Zambouly all worked on the strip as the animated features brought Popeye to the World. When Sagendorf took over in 1958 his loose, rangy style and breezy scripts brought the strip itself back to the forefront of popularity and made reading it cool again. He wrote and drew Popeye until Bobby London took over in 1994.

This book is a gem for fans and casual readers alike. I’m hoping that with the 80th Anniversary so close now that King Features are planning something as good if not better for that landmark event.

©1981 King Features Syndicate, Inc. and Virgin Books, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.