Now Read This!

UK EDITION

By various (Panini Publishing UK)
ISBN: 978-1-905239-62-7

Comics are a truly international enterprise and these days creators from other lands are commonplace. This volume collects three one-shots by artists and writers who usually work in the more mainstream environs of European comics publishing.

Kicking off is ‘Wolverine: Saudade’ written by Jean-David Morvan and illustrated by Philippe Bouchet. Morvan has written more than 80 graphic novels and is the current writer of Spirou & Fantasio. He has previously worked with Bouchet on Nomad and Sillage. Their interpretation of Wolverine is, regrettably, not in the same league as that latter incredible Sci-fi epic. On “vacation” in Brazil, the invincible hero falls foul of a scurrilous faith-healer while rescuing some mutant street-orphans in a stylish but vacuous tale that could have benefited from a more dutiful editor catching some of the more glaring syntax and mistranslation glitches.

A much better proposition is ‘Dead on Arrival’ a team-up of Daredevil and Captain America from the Italian duo Tito Faraci and Claudio Villa. Both work for the Italian Disney company as well as for such icons as Diabolik, Dylan Dog, Martin Mystére and Nick Raider. As well as illustrating some stories for the magazine, Villa is also the cover artist of the legendary spaghetti western series Tex.

In a dark and brooding race against time, the Man Without Fear has to track down a murderous foe that he thought long dead, unaware that Captain America is also hunting the killer, armed with the knowledge that the slightest misstep could lead to the destruction of all time and space… Stunningly illustrated and brilliantly plotted the only flaw in an otherwise perfect adventure thriller is the painfully verbose and overwritten dialogue, a tendency mercifully curbed for the last – and best – tale collected here.

‘Spider-Man in Venice: The Secret of the Glass’ is also written by Tito Faraci, and gleefully, gloriously drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano. This artist also works for Italian Disney as well as Sergio Bonelli Editore, in a sort of cartoony, universally acceptable light style that blends powerfully subtle expressionism with a strong naturalistic line, for a beautiful, subversive mesmerising effect.

On assignment in Venice, Daily Bugle photographer Peter Parker stumbles across an ancient blood-hungry menace that has escaped a fiery glass tomb. A delightful crossing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Scooby-Doo, this is a rare gem in anybody’s language.

This intriguing collection of one-off adventures features popular Marvel properties in tales crafted by foreign creators. I’m not sure if that isn’t patronising or even racist – it’s certainly an unnecessary distinction in an industry with a huge history of using creators because of their ability (or perhaps affordability), rather than something as irrelevant as nationality, but the stories themselves are an intriguing mix of perspectives, and I’m forced to admit, there are cultural differences to be seen… All in all, an experiment worth repeating and a book worth having.

© 2003, 2006, 2007 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Adapted by Scott Rockwell, illustrated by Steven Ross (Corgi)
ISBN: 0-552-13945-9

This oddity is a regrettably mediocre adaptation of the very first Discworld novel which originally appeared as a four issue miniseries from Innovation Comics, a publisher that cornered the market on novel-to-strip adaptations as well as other licensed properties in the early 1990s.

In an infinite cosmos how unlikely is it that there’s a world which is flat, held up by four giant elephants standing on the shell of humongous Turtle swimming through the cold depths of space? Well there is, and on it magic works, Gods exist and meddle in the affairs of men, and humans themselves are the annoying lead-footed clods and tossers they are here.

Rincewind is a failed Wizard with a terrible secret and a costermonger’s soul who inadvertently links up with the Discworld’s first tourist for a series of sword-and-sorcery pastiches very much in the manner of Douglas Adams’s comedy masterpiece The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Much of the dry wit and acerbic slapstick of Pratchett’s original novel is lost in this slavish and leaden adaptation and the art is frankly substandard and stylistically inappropriate, but even that can’t stifle the intrinsic charm of the concept. If you’re a fantasy fan with a sense of humour, there’s entertainment to be had here, but I’d still advise the book over the graphic novel. What would be best, of course, is an all-new adaptation by a British artist better suited to dry comedy and English nuances. Steve Parkhouse, Terry Wiley, where are you?

Although not even Pratchett’s best work by a long chalk, The Colour of Magic (ISBN 13: 978-0-055212-475-1 if you’re tempted) eventually sparked a world phenomenon. His later Discworld books (36 now and still counting) are some of the funniest fantasies or most fantastic comedies and satires – depending on your stance – in the English language. They’re equally successful in many other media, including animation, musicals, film and even cartography! A second graphic novel adaptation Mort, infinitely superior in all respects to this was also completed, and I’ll get to that another time…

© 1983 Terry Pratchett. This edition © 1991 Terry & Lyn Pratchett Inc. Art and adaptation © 1991 by Innovation Corporation.

By Russ Manning (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN13: 978-1-56971-151-4

I first came across this little gem as a British hardcover annual published by Treasure Hour Books, produced by the American licensee for the European market – a common practice back then for the relatively few truly international brands like Tarzan or Mickey Mouse.

Russ Manning was an absolute master of his art, most popularly remembered for the Star Wars newspaper strip, Magnus, Robot Fighter and both the comic-book and newspaper strip incarnations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s immortal Lord of the Jungle. Like many of his predecessors his Tarzan work never strayed far from the canonical texts and in this particular case he combined the fabulous Lord Greystoke with another of Burroughs’ fantastic creations. ‘Caspak’ was an island where creatures from all eras of time existed simultaneously, and which were featured in the novels The Land that Time Forgot, The People that Time Forgot and Out of Time’s Abyss as well as a couple of incomprehensibly successful movies.

In this beautifully illustrated volume Tarzan accompanies his friend Van Clenard on a voyage to Peru. The heartsick young man is following his troubled fiancé Lya Billings who has gone missing whilst hunting for Caspak and the hidden secret of her own birth.

When the pair finally find her it is in a fabulous and terrible land where cave-men live alongside dinosaurs and where bloody danger waits at every turn. To rescue Lya and escape the Island they have first to solve the mystery of how evolution ran wild, in a world where human aggression and cupidity seem to be the only constant…

Manning was not only a master draughtsman of the classical school but also a storyteller of unparalleled brilliance. This old fashioned adventure is joy to behold and a delight to read. Pure magic for action-fans of all ages…

© 1974, 1996 Edgar Rice Burroughs Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

By Dennis O’Neil, Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-690-0

One of DC’s best comics series of the 1980’s finally makes it into the trade paperback format, due no doubt to the hero’s major role in the ambitious weekly comic maxi-series 52.

The Question, created by Steve Ditko, was Vic Sage, a driven, justice-obsessed journalist who sought out crime and corruption irrespective of the consequences. This Charlton ‘Action-Hero’ was purchased by DC when Charlton folded and was the template for the compulsive Rorschach when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons first drafted the miniseries that would become the groundbreaking Watchmen. The contemporary rumour-mill had it that since the creators couldn’t be persuaded to produce a spin-off Rorschach comic the company went with a reworking of the Ditko original.

An ordinary man pushed to the edge by his obsessions, Vic Sage used his fists and a mask that made him look utterly faceless to get answers (and justice) whenever normal journalistic methods failed. After a few successes around the DC universe Sage got a job in the town where he grew up.

Hub City was a hell-hole, the most corrupt and morally bankrupt municipality in America. Mayor Wesley Fermin was a degenerate drunken sot and the real power was insane cleric Reverend Jeremiah Hatch, whose hand-picked gang of “heavies” are supplemented by the world’s deadliest assassin, Lady Shiva.

Reuniting with Aristotle Rodor, the philosopher-scientist who created his faceless mask and other gimmicks, Sage determines to clean up The Hub, but despite early victories against thugs and grafters, he is easily defeated by Shiva, and left to the mercies of Hatch and his gang. A brutal beating by the gangsters breaks every bone in his body, and after shooting him in the head they throw his body in the freezing waters of the river.

Obviously, he doesn’t die. Rescued by the inscrutable Shiva, but crippled, he is sent into the wilderness to be healed and trained by O’Neil’s other legendary martial arts creation, Richard Dragon. A year passes…

It’s a new type of hero who returns to a Hub City which has degenerated even further. Sage’s girlfriend is now the Mayor’s wife, Reverend Hatch has graduated from thugs to terrorist employees, and his madness has driven him to actually seek the destruction of Humanity. Will the new Question be sufficient answer to the problems of a society so utterly debased that the apocalypse seems like an improvement?

Combating Western dystopia with Eastern Thought and martial arts action is not a new concept but the author’s spotlight on cultural problems rather than super-heroics make this series O’Neil’s most philosophical work, and the quirky, edgy art imbues this darkly adult, powerfully sophisticated thriller with a maturity that is simply breathtaking.

This is a story about dysfunction: Social, societal, political, emotional, familial and even methodological. The normal masked avenger tactics don’t work in a “real”-er world, and some solutions require better Questions…

© 1986, 1987, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Alan Moore, Gene Ha, Todd Klein & Art Lyon (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-1491-6

Diverging from the more of less contemporary adventures of a pan-dimensional police force getting the job done in a city populated entirely of super-beings, gods and monsters: Alan Moore and Gene Ha here take us back to the beginning and incorporate the origin of Neopolis into a memorable tale of political and social upheaval that blends crime-drama, horror movie and period thriller into a seamless love story, an evocation of the very history of the comic book itself.

In 1949 a fresh political philosophy is creating a new America, and all the superheroes, villains, robots, aliens, super-naturals and just plain do-gooders that won the war and kept the home front safe are being compulsorily relocated to a brand new city, far away from normal citizens.

Into this bold new experiment comes a huge variety of extra-special beings: Everything from Nazi mad scientists, vampires, costumed heroes, and especially war heroes. Skywitch was a German aviator who fought with the Allies, and on her first day she meets 16 year old Jetlad, who shot down his first Nazi plane before his tenth birthday.

They strike up an unlikely friendship as they attempt to forge new “normal” lives in the burgeoning social experiment of Neopolis. But even if the World is new, nature is not and soon many inhabitants are returning to their old habits. Perhaps the newly minted police force isn’t such a lousy career path after all…

Although a tight and gripping thriller and a sterling origin tale for an award winning comic series, this is actually a compelling and elegiac expression of reality ending a Golden Age, with beautiful characterisations of extraordinary people rendered real by Gene Ha’s faded documentary-style illustration. Here is a lovely book that any mature reader will enjoy and cherish.

© 2005 America’s Best Comics LLC. All Rights Reserved.