{"id":34700,"date":"2026-01-08T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34700"},"modified":"2026-01-07T18:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:00:34","slug":"bernet-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/01\/08\/bernet-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernet"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Jordi Bernet<\/strong> & various, edited by Manual Auad<\/strong> (Auad Publishing)
\nISBN: 978-0-96693-812-8 (HB)<\/p>\n

In anticipation of the impending Legend Testers<\/strong> collection from Rebellion Studios expected next week, here\u2019s a glance at a translated treat from a bygone era confirming why you should adore this graphic genius as much as I do. It\u2019s well worth the search and I\u2019ll be cribbing from it heavily when I get around to the turbulent time troubleshooters themselves…<\/em><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re a life-long thrill-starved kid enchanted by comics, the first stage of development is slavishly absorbing everything good, bad and indifferent. Then comes the moment that you see subtle nuances which inexplicably makes some features favourites whilst others become simply filler.<\/p>\n

I first recognised Jordi Bernet\u2019s work on UK thriller serial The Legend Testers<\/strong>… and by \u201crecognised\u201d I mean the very moment I first discerned that somebody actually drew the stuff I was mesmerised by, and that it was better than the stuff either side of it. This was 1966 when British comics were mostly monochrome and never had signatures or credits, so it was years before I knew who had sparked my interest.<\/p>\n

Jordi Bernet Cuss\u00f3 was born in Barcelona in 1944, son of a prominent, successful humour cartoonist. When his father died suddenly Jordi, aged 15, took over his father\u2019s strip Do\u00f1a Urraca<\/strong> <\/em>(Mrs. Magpie<\/strong>). A huge fan of Alex Raymond, Hal Foster and especially expressionist genius Milton Caniff, Jordi yearned for less restrictive horizons and left Spain in the early 1960s and moved into dramatic storytelling.<\/p>\n

He worked for Belgium\u2019s Le Journal de Spirou<\/strong>, and Germany\u2019s Pip<\/strong> and Primo<\/strong>, before finding a home in British weeklies. Bernet worked for UK publishers between 1964 and 1967, and as well as the Odhams\/Fleetway\/IPC anthologies Smash,<\/strong> Tiger<\/strong> and War Picture Library<\/strong>, also produced superb material for DC Thomson\u2019s Victor<\/strong> and Hornet<\/strong>. He even illustrated a Gardner Fox horror short for Marvel\u2019s Vampire Tales<\/strong> #1 in 1973, but mainstream America was generally denied his mastery (other than a few translated Torpedo<\/strong> volumes and a Batman short story) until the 21st<\/sup> century reincarnation of Jonah Hex<\/strong> which he truly made his own…<\/p>\n

His most famous strips include thrillers Dan Lacombe<\/em> (written by his uncle Miguel Cuss\u00f3), Paul Foran<\/em> (scripted by Jos\u00e9 Larraz) the saucy Wat 69<\/em> and spectacular post-apocalyptic barbarian epic Andrax<\/em> <\/strong>(both with uncle Cuss\u00f3 again). When fascist dictator Franco died, Bernet returned to Spain and began working for Cimoc<\/strong>, Creepy<\/strong> and Metropol<\/strong>, collaborating with Antonio Segura on the sexy adult fantasy Sarvan<\/em> and the dystopian SF black comedy Kraken<\/em>, and with Enrique S\u00e1nchez Abuli on the gangster and adult themes tales that have made him one of the world\u2019s most honoured artists. These culminated on the incredibly successful crime saga Torpedo 1936<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This magnificent commemoration of his career thus far spans those years when he first echoed his father\u2019s style through to the sleek minimalist, chiaroscuric, emphatic line economy that drills into readers hindbrains like hot lead from a smoking 45. Also on view, as well as the violence there\u2019s ample example of his sly, witty (and just as hot!) sex comedy material. Bernet is an absolute master of the female form and his adult material – created with Carlos Trillo – such as Custer<\/em>, Clara De Noche<\/em> and Cicca<\/em> is truly remarkable and unforgettable.
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\nThis glorious deluxe hardback gathers together a vast quantity of covers; book illustrations; sketches; drawings, pin-ups &studies; advertising work and that Batman<\/strong> stuff, with a separate chapter on Bernet\u2019s Beauties<\/em>, a biography (which could, I must admit, have done with one last proof-read before going to press) and full checklisting of his works and awards. There are heartfelt artistic contributions and tributes from some of his vast legion of fans: Will Eisner, Joe Kubert, Jordi Langaron, Carlos Nine, Josep M. Bea, Luca Biagnini, Al Dellinges, Josep Toutain, Eduardo Risso, Horacio Altuna, Carlos Gimenez, Sergio Aragon\u00e9s, Carlos Trillo, Juan Gimenez and Hobie MacQuarrie, but the true delights here are the 16 complete stories – Torpedo 1936<\/em><\/strong>, Sarvan<\/em>, Custer<\/em>, Clara De Noche<\/em> and Kraken<\/em> – as well as westerns, war stories, comedies and crime thrillers.<\/p>\n

This is an incredible tribute to an incredible creator, and one no artist with professional aspirations can afford to miss, but parents be warned – there\u2019s lots of nudity and violence beautifully depicted here – so be sure to read it yourselves first. Just in case…
\nAll art and characters \u00a9 2009 their respective copyright holders. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1955, sleek design master\/airbrush aviation nut Ken Steacy<\/strong> was born, and we lost master craftsmen Victor<\/strong> (Redbeard<\/strong>, Buck Danny<\/strong>) Hubinon<\/strong> in 1979 and Bernard Krigstein<\/strong> in 1990. If you read nothing else by \u201cKrig\u201d, go find \u201cMaster Race\u201d<\/em> (Impact Comics<\/strong> #1, April 1955) and learn something important…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jordi Bernet & various, edited by Manual Auad (Auad Publishing) ISBN: 978-0-96693-812-8 (HB) In anticipation of the impending Legend Testers collection from Rebellion Studios expected next week, here\u2019s a glance at a translated treat from a bygone era confirming why you should adore this graphic genius as much as I do. It\u2019s well worth … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bernet”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,81,10,113,119,75,66,125,93,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-art-books","category-batman","category-comedy","category-comicsacademic","category-crime-comics","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-war-stories","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-91G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34703,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34700\/revisions\/34703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}