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Man I Hate Cursive – Cartoons for People and Advanced Bears


By Jim Benton (Andrews McMeel)
ISBN: 978-1-4494-7889-6 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-4494-8414-9

I love cartoons. Not animated films, but short, visual (although most often text-enhanced) stylised drawings which tell a story or potently and pithily express a mood or tone. In fact most people do. That’s why historians and sociologists use them as barometers of a defined time or era.

For nearly 200 years gag-panels and cartoon strips were the universal medium to disseminate wit, satire, mirth, criticism and cultural exchange. Sadly, after centuries of pre-eminence and ferocious power, these days the cartoon has been all but erased from printed newspapers – as indeed the physical publications themselves have dwindled in shops and on shelves.

However, thanks to the same internet which is killing print media, many graphic gagsters and drawing dramatists have enjoyed resurgence in an arena that doesn’t begrudge the space necessary to deliver a cartoon in all its fulsome glory…

Cartooning remains an unmissable daily joy to a vast global readership whose requirements are quite different from those of hard-core, dedicated comic fans, or even that ever-growing base of intrigued browsers just starting to dip their toes in the sequential narrative pool.

Even those stuck-up holdouts proudly boasting they have “never read a comic” certainly enjoy strips or panels: a golden bounty of ephemeral amusement demanding no commitment other than a moment’s close attention. Truth be told, it’s probably in our genes…

And because that’s the contrary nature of things, those gags now get collected in spiffy collections like this one, intended to be enjoyed over and over again like a beloved favourite song…

Jim Benton began his illustration work making up crazy characters in a T-Shirt shop and designing greetings cards. Born in 1960, he’d grown up in Birmingham, Michigan before studying Fine Arts at Western Michigan University.

Now tirelessly earning a living exercising his creativity, he started self-promoting those weird funny things he’d dreamed up and was soon raking in the dosh from properties such as Dear Dumb Diary, Dog of Glee, Franny K. Stein, Just Jimmy, Just Plain Mean, Sweetypuss, The Misters, Meany Doodles, Vampy Doodles, Kissy Doodles, jOkObo and It’s Happy Bunny in a variety of magazines and other venues. Latterly, he made a move into more conventional but no less entertaining delights. You should especially seek out Attack of the stuff and Fann Club: Batman Squad…

His gags, jests and japes are delivered in a huge variety of styles and manners: each perfectly in accord with whatever sick, sweet, clever, sentimental, whimsical or just plain strange content each idea demands. This particular collection is from 2016 but is still fresh, strange and irreverent enough to have you clutching your sides in approved cartoon manner…

Here you will explore the innocently horrific inner world of children and monsters, learn to appreciate anew the contributions to society of teachers and experience Benton’s satirical side as bigots and racists are convicted out of their own mouths.

There are heaping helpings of animal antics – both wryly sardonic and barbarously slapstick – and wicked observations on the dating scene, plus true love pictured in all its infamy, how robots need a little tenderness too as well as the inside track on what it means to be Death…

You’ll see some of the strangest and most disquietingly surreal gags ever penned – such as the dysfunctional band made of animate body parts or the bizarrely extrovert characters comprising ‘The Sideshow’ – and even a truly unique take on historical personages and superheroes of the screen and comics pages…

As ever, there are trenchant swipes at the worlds of Art and Big Business as well as incisive explorations of the relationship between us and our pets, the perils of inventing stuff and a pants-wetting selection debating the downsides of air travel…

And best of all, the artist sets aside time and space to share with us God’s Plan and proves that the Almighty’s sense of humour is both wicked and petty…

You might discover Not-Facts that will change your life after gleaning Benton’s take on loneliness, fast food, binge eating, farting, periods, disabilities, growing up, Big Pharma, and the business of medicine in single page giggle-bombs ranging from strident solo panels to extended strips; silent shockers to poetically florid and verbose tracts.

There are also some jokes about bears…

Another uproarious compilation to make the sourest persimmon laugh as sweetly as pie (there are no joke about pies in this volume)…
© 2016 Jim Benton. All rights reserved.

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Benny Breakiron volume 1: The Red Taxis


By Peyo, with backgrounds by Will: translated by Joe Johnson (Papercutz/NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-59707-409-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Pierre Culliford was born in Belgium in 1928 to a family of British origin living in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels. An admirer of the works of Hergé and American comics in Mickey, Robinson and Hurrah!, he developed his own artistic skills, but war and family bereavement forced him to forgo further education and find work.

After toiling as a cinema projectionist, in 1945 he joined C.B.A. animation studios, where he met André Franquin, Morris and Eddy Paape. When the studio closed, he briefly studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts before moving full-time into graphic advertising. In his spare time he submitted comic strips to the burgeoning post-war comics publishers. The first sale was in April 1946: Pied-Tendre, a tale of American Indians which saw print in Riquet, the comics supplement to the daily L’Occident newspaper. Further sales to other venues followed and in 1952 his knight found a permanent spot in Le Journal de Spirou. Retitled Johan et Pirlouit, the strip prospered and in 1958 introduced a strange bunch of blue woodland gnomes called Les Schtroumpfs.

Culliford – now using the nom de plume Peyo – would gradually turn those adorable little mites (known to us and most of the world as the Smurfs) into an all-encompassing global empire, but before being sucked onto that relentless treadmill, he still found time to create a few other noteworthy strips such as the titanic tyke on view here today.

In 1960, Benoit Brisefer – AKA Benedict Ironbreaker (Steven Sterk in Dutch) – debuted in LJdS #1183 (December 1960). With some slyly added tips of the beret to Siegel & Shuster’s Superman (check out that cover, fanboys!), what gently unfolds are wry bucolic romps of an extraordinary little lad living a generally quiet life in an unassuming little French – or maybe Belgian? – town.

Quiet, well-mannered and a bit lonely, Benny is the mightiest boy on Earth: able to crush steel or stone in his tiny hands, leap huge distances and run faster than a racing car. He is also generally immune to all physical harm, but his only real weakness is that all his strength deserts him whenever he catches cold… which he does with frightening ease and great frequency…

Benny never tries concealing his powers but somehow the adults never catch on. They usually think he’s telling fibs or boasting, and whenever he tries to prove he can bend steel in his hands the unlucky lad gets another dose of the galloping sniffles!

Most kids avoid him. It’s hard to make friends or play games when a minor kick can pop a football like a soap bubble and a shrug can topple trees...

Well-past-it Brits of my age and vintage might remember the character from weekly comics in the 1960’s. As Tammy Tuff – The Strongest Boy on Earth – and later as both Benny Breakiron and Steven Strong – our beret-wearing wonder appeared in Giggle and other periodicals from 1967 onwards.

With Peyo’s little blue cash-cows taking up ever larger amounts of his concentration and time, other members of his studio assumed greater responsibilities for Benoit as years passed. Willy Maltaite (“Will”), Gos, Yvan Delporte, Françoise Walthéry and Albert Blesteau all pitched in, and Jean Roba created many eye-catching LJdS covers. However, by 1978 the demands of the Smurfs were all consuming and all the studio’s other strips were dropped.

You can’t keep a good super-junior down though and, after Peyo’s death in 1992, his son Thierry Culliford & cartoonist Pascal Garray revived the strip, adding six more volumes to the eight generated by Peyo and Co. between 1960 and 1978.

Thanks to US publisher Papercutz, some – but not yet all! – of the gloriously genteel, outrageously engaging power fantasies are available to English-language readers again, both as robust full-colour hardbacks and eBooks, and this initial exploit begins in sedate micro-metropolis Vivejoie-la-Grande, where the sweet kid goes about his solitary life, doing good deeds in secret and being as good a boy as he can.

However, his sense of fair play is outraged when aging taxi driver Monsieur Dussiflard becomes the target of a dirty tricks campaign by new company Red Taxis. When he and the incensed cabbie challenge the oily company CEO in his flashy high-rise office, Benny is shooed away and the elderly driver vanishes.

Suspicions aroused, Benny investigates and is attacked by thuggish Red Taxi employees. Only after thrashing and humiliating the goons does Benny realise that he still doesn’t know where Dussiflard is, so he retroactively throws the fight…

Just as he is imprisoned with his fellow abductee, the worst happens and the bombastic boy comes down with a stinker of a cold! Helpless as any other 8-year old, he’s stuffed in a crate with the codger cabbie and loaded onto a freighter headed to the Galapagos Islands…

With all opposition ended, the Boss and his Red Taxi stooges begin the final stage of a devilish plot, utterly oblivious to the dogged determination of Benny – who escapes the ship and an alluring tropical paradise, impatiently waits for his cold to clear up and none too soon sets off on a race against time, the elements and his own woefully-lacking knowledge of geography if he is to stop the ruthless criminals…

A superbly sweet and sassy spoof and fabulously winning fantasy of childhood validation and agency, The Red Taxis offers a distinctly Old World spin to the notion of superheroes and provides a wealth of action, thrills and chortles for lovers of astounding adventure and incredible comics excellence.
© Peyo, 2013 – licensed through Lafig Belgium. English translation © 2013 by Papercutz. All rights reserved.

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Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes Book Two


By John Rogers, J. Torres, Keith Giffen, Justin Peniston, Rafael Albuquerque, Freddie E. Williams II, Andy Kuhn, David Baldeón, Dan Davis, Steve Bird & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-2027-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

As the most recent incarnation of the venerable Blue Beetle brand makes the jump from comic book limbo and kids’ animation reruns into live action movie madness, here’s a recent collection from the superb 36-issue run that began in 2006: one of the most delightfully light-hearted and compelling iterations of the Golden Age stalwart and still pure joy to behold…

The Blue Beetle first appeared in Mystery Men Comics #1, published by Fox Comics and cover-dated August 1939. The eponymous lead character was created by Charles Nicholas (AKA Charles Wojtkowski): a pulp-styled mystery man who was a born nomad. Over the years and crafted by a Who’s Who of extremely talented creators, he was also inexplicably popular and hard to kill: surviving the failure of numerous publishers before ending up as a Charlton Comics property in the mid-1950s.

After releasing a few issues sporadically, the company eventually shelved him until the superhero revival of the early 1960s when Joe Gill, Roy Thomas, Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico revised and revived the character in a 10-issue run (June 1964, February 1966). Cop-turned-adventurer Dan Garrett was reinvented an archaeologist, educator and scientist who gained super-powers whenever he activated a magic scarab with the trigger phrase “Khaji Da!”

Later that year, Steve Ditko (with scripter Gary Friedrich) utterly reimagined the Blue Beetle. Ted Kord was an earnest and brilliant young researcher who had been a student and friend of Professor Garrett. When his mentor seemingly died in action, Kord trained himself to replace him: a purely human inventor/combat acrobat, bolstered by ingenious technology. This latter version joined DC’s pantheon during Crisis on Infinite Earths, earning a solo series and quirky immortality partnered with Booster Gold in Justice League International and beyond…

Collecting Blue Beetle (volume 7) #13-25 and spanning June 2007 to May 2008 – the saga follows the hallowed formula of a teenager suddenly gifted with great powers, and reveals how some heroes are remade, not born – especially when a sentient scarab jewel affixes itself to your spine and transforms you into an armoured bio-weapon.

At the height of the Infinite Crisis, El Paso high-schooler Jaime Reyes found a weird blue jewel shaped like a bug. That night, as he slept, it invaded him and turned him into a bizarre insectoid warrior.

Almost instantly, he was swept up in the chaos, joining Batman and other heroes in a climactic space battle. Inexplicably returned home, Jaime revealed his secret to his family and tried to do some good in his hometown of El Paso but had to rapidly adjust to huge changes. Best bud Paco had joined a gang of super-powered freaks, he learned that the local crime mastermind was his other best bud Brenda’s foster-mom, and a really scary military dude named Christopher Smith AKA Peacemaker started hanging around. He claimed the thing in Jaime’s back was malfunctioning alien tech, not life-affirming Egyptian magic and that he also had an unwelcome and involuntary connection to it…

We resume this cinematically-inspired return engagement with John Rogers, Rafael Albuquerque, David Baldeón & colourist Dan Davis’ ‘Defective’. Here a benevolent (seeming) alien from an interstellar collective named The Reach introduces himself and reveals that the scarab is an invitation used to prepare endangered worlds like Earth for trade and commerce as part of a greater pan-galactic civilisation. Unfortunately the one attached to Jaime has been damaged over the centuries it was here and isn’t working properly.

The Reach envoy is a big fat liar…

The Scarab should have paved the way for a full invasion and once they discover this, Jaime and Peacemaker grasp that The Reach are the worst kind of alien invaders; patient, subtle, deceptive and stocked with plenty of space-tech to sell to Earth’s greedy governments. The only hope of defeating the marauders is to expose their real scheme to the public – which is currently too dazzled by the intergalactic newcomers’ media blitz to listen…

‘Mister Nice Guy’ (Rogers & Albuquerque) finds the Beetle teamed again with erratic Guy Gardner: a Green Lantern who knows all about The Reach and their Trojan Agenda. Here the unhappy allies must defeat the macabre Ultra-Humanite who has sold his telepathic services to the prospective new overlords.

Seeking allies and solutions, Jaime meets Superman in guest creators J. Torres & Freddie Williams Jr.’s ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’: battling electrical anti-villain Livewire before one of the DCU’s gravest menaces manifests in Rogers & Albuquerque’s startlingly powerful change of pace tale ‘Total Eclipso: the Heart’.

‘Something in the Water’ sees elemental menace Typhoon employed by The Reach to endanger a coastal city – and Bruce Wayne’s off-shore oil wells – in a clever, insightful tale packing plenty of punch, before ‘Away Game’ – with contributions from Baldeón & Davis – finds the Beetle and Teen Titans in pitched and pithy battle against the unbeatable alien biker-punk Lobo.

Weirdly whimsical Keith Giffen joins Rogers & Albuquerque next, focusing on Brenda, who has blithely lived her entire life unaware that her surrogate parental unit is El Paso’s crime boss supreme. La Dama is also a hoarder and supplier of alien, futuristic and magical weaponry. The distraught lass learns ‘Hard Truths’ when rival mob Intergang declare war: sending 50-foot woman Giganta to smash La Dama’s family to gooey pulp… until the Beetle buzzes in…

The previous tales were first collected in 2008 as Blue Beetle: Reach for the Stars and are accompanied here by most of sequel volume End Game, which finds the blue boy fighting a very secret war against the seemingly saintly visitors from the stars.

What the Green Lantern Corps already know is that The Reach are rapacious conquerors who follow near-sacrosanct ancient “strategies” to increase their empire. First a scarab converts an indigenous inhabitant into a pathfinder – a devastating marauding bug warrior – before the undetectably orbiting Reach “arrive”, offering weapons and planet-changing technologies to any who want them. And in the interim, the benefactors build world-ripper engines to eventually tear planet and remaining resources into manageable, marketable portions…

Rogers & Albuquerque set up the climactic counterstrike to Armageddon in ‘Fear to Live’, as Peacemaker is selected by a Sinestro Corps power ring due to his ability to “instil great fear”, just as Reach’s Chief Negotiator seeks to take him out. The silent invaders are terrified: desperate to learn why after countless millennia a scarab has rebelled against their infallible programming and created a disobedient, destructive maverick in Reyes.

Having finally deduced the part Peacemaker plays in the rebellion of his strategic weapon, the Negotiator infects Smith with a fully-obedient scarab and transforms him into a monstrous killer-drone. However, the terrifying “Infiltrator” is still no match for Jaime and his now sentient and liberated inner bug, especially after the yellow ring and alien Green Lantern Brik join the struggle…

Before Jaime’s meticulously constructed masterplan to save Earth gets underway, Justin Penniston & Andy Kuhn step in with a powerful tale of mistakes and consequences in #21’s ‘Ghost of a Chance’. Stepping in to quell a riot at a Federal Correctional facility, The Beetle finds the latest incarnation of The Spectre impatiently executing murderers the authorities haven’t got around to yet. Severely outmatched and deeply emotionally conflicted, Jaime needs the sage advice of his father and sorceress girlfriend Traci 13 to a get a handle on the Why as much as the How and Who of this crisis…

After almost a year of preparation, the fate of Earth is resolved in End Game parts one to four, by Rogers, Albuquerque & Majors, starting out ‘Under Pressure’ as Earth’s leaders get deeper in debt to the so-amenable Reach, whilst the Beetle and his allies – his parents, Peacemaker, Paco, Brenda and Danni Garrett (granddaughter of the first Blue Beetle) – try to expose the hidden world-ripper stations and uncover a hidden race who are far from what they seem…

The unravelling eternal strategies have sown discord amongst the Reach with Chief Negotiator’s subordinate openly displaying defiance and advocating abandoning the texts and a century of invisible sedition for total savage warfare right now. Pushed into rash action, the big boss targets the Reyes family, but too late…

‘World Tour’ reveals how Blue Beetle has already invaded their orbiting cloaked base, using a tactic and weapon the scarabs have never before used…

All too soon the boy is defeated, captured, tortured and deprived of the malfunctioning scarab designated Khaji Da. As the Negotiator sadistically gloats, he’s unaware that this was the plan: to strike from ‘Outside-In’…

With Traci 13 shielding the Reyes from retaliation, Jaime and his now-sentient symbiotic scarab are methodically taking the Reach apart, provoking a rash public attack on El Paso, the abrupt exposure of the formerly-shielded Reach legions and bases and a gathering of heroes. Can it be merely coincidence that the first responders in concluding clash ‘A Little Help From…’ are Ted Kord’s closest friends and allies, Fire, Ice, Guy Gardner and Booster Gold, or that Jaime has outwitted the perfidious purveyors of illicit high technology with the most primitive methods ever devised by humanity?

… And as Jaime and Khaji Da are plucked from certain death, the rebels leave behind something that will have devastating repercussions for The Reach…

To Be Continued

With covers by Cully Hamner, and Albuquerque this is a smart, fast and joyous thrill ride to delight fans of comics and other, lesser, media forms. There are so few series combining action and adventure with all-out fun and genuine wit, or which can evoke shattering tragedy and poignant loss on command. John Rogers and his stand-ins excel in this innovative and impossibly readable saga and the art is always top notch. With the climactic final battle against the Reach only setting the scene for more and better to come, this is a second chance you probably don’t deserve but should reach out and grab onto with all you’ve got.
© 2007, 2008, 2023 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Dreadstar -The Beginning


By Jim Starlin with Tom Orzechowski (Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-60690-119-9 (HB/Digital edition)

Comics’ creative renaissance began during the 1980s and resulted in some utterly wonderful strip sagas, which shone briefly and brightly within what was still considered a largely niche industry. Many passed from view as business and art form battled spiralling costs, declining readerships and the perverse and pervasive attitude of the wider world. This was an era when comics were considered the natural province of morons, mutants and farm animals (I’m paraphrasing)…

Unlike today, way back then most grown-ups considered superheroes as adolescent power fantasies or idle wish-fulfilment for the uneducated or disenfranchised, so an entertainment industry which was perceived as largely made up of men in tights hitting each other got very little approval – or even notice – in the wider world of popular fiction.

Everything changed with the advent of the Direct Sales Market for comic books (and related interests like cards, posters and toys). Benefitting from a more targeted approach to selling, specialist vendors in dedicated emporia had leeway to allow frustrated creators to cut loose and experiment with other genres – and even formats and profit from any peripheral merchandising that might accrue.

All that unleashed innovation led inescapably to today’s high-end, thoroughly respectable graphic novel market which – with suitable and fitting circularity – is now gathering and re-circulating many of the breakthrough tales from those times: not as poorly distributed hard-to-find serials and sequences, but in satisfyingly complete stand-alone books.

Marvel was the unassailable front-runner in purveying pamphlet fiction back then, outselling all competitors and monopolising the lucrative licensed properties market (like Star Wars and Indiana Jones) which once been the preserve of the Whitman/Dell/Gold Key colossus. This added to a zeitgeist which proved that for open-minded readers, superheroes were not the only fruit…

As independently published titles hit an early peak, Marvel instigated its own creator-owned, rights-friendly fantasy periodical in response to the overwhelming success amongst older readers of Heavy Metal magazine. Lush, slick and lavish, HM had even brought a fresh, music-&-literature-based audience to graphic narratives…

That response was Epic Illustrated: an anthological magazine offering stunning art and an anything-goes attitude – unhindered by the censorious Comics Code Authority – which saw everything from literary adaptations to out-world in-continuity landmarks of the Marvel’s own in-house characters like ‘The Last Galactus Story’, plus numerous serial stories which would become compelling forerunners of today’s graphic novel industry.

EI’s first issue also discretely began a soft and gradual introduction to one of the era’s biggest Indie sensations: Vanth Dreadstar…

This collection gathers a number of stories culled from an assortment of places. The saga started in Epic Illustrated (#1-9, 12 and 15; spanning Spring 1980 to December 1982), whilst tangentially diverting in 1981 to Eclipse Graphic Album Series #5 (The Price) and 1982’s Marvel Graphic Novel #3: Dreadstar – all laying groundwork for one of the most successful creator-owned comic characters of the era… and one of the most long-lived.

Re-presented here in the original monochrome or painted full-colour, with writer/artist Starlin aided and abetted by letterer by Tom Orzechowski, these tales and this edition feature art remastered by Jerron Quality Color, Mike Kelleher and Digikiore Studios.

Already a big gun thanks to his run on Captain Marvel, the engendering of mad Titan Thanos and the reinvention of Adam Warlock, Starlin cemented his cosmic creator credentials and indulged his preoccupation with death and nihilism through grandiose serialised saga Metamorphosis Odyssey.

Delivered in painted grey-tones, it began with the introduction of mighty alien wizard Aknaton: savant of ancient and benevolent race the Osirosians. These masters of the cosmos were perturbed by the advent of rapacious barbarian species the Zygoteans, slowly and inexorably conquering planets and eradicating all life in the Milky Way galaxy.

Aknaton’s people fought back on behalf of all creation, but knew that their resistance was numbered in mere millennia before the predators would triumph.

Unsettled by the prognostication, Aknaton sets out on a desperate tour of the galaxy, planting life seeds, weaving a web of possibility and even depositing an incredible sword of power in a last-ditch plan which would take a million years to complete…

The first seed flowered in the form of spiritually advanced intellectual monster ‘Za!’, whilst another blossomed into 15-year old ‘Juliet’, abducted by Aknaton from Earth in 1980 just as the Zygoteans arrived to eradicate the rest of her species.

The mage’s last living puzzle piece was butterfly-winged psychic ‘Whis’par’ whose gifts and sensitivities easily divined the dark underpinnings of Aknaton’s ambitions…

During this chapter the artwork transitioned into full-painted colour, and by the time the wizard reached war-torn ice-world Byfrexia to recruit ‘Vanth’, cosmic conflict was in full phantasmagorical flow. This emotionless resistance leader battling the Zygoteans was a man with incredible physical powers, bestowed by a magic sword he had found: the very weapon Aknaton has planted eons previously…

‘The Meeting’ between Vanth and his notional maker is interrupted by Zygotean killers, affording the wizard opportunity to assess his handiwork in action. He quickly realises the hero is far more powerful than he had intended…

Nevertheless, the quest moves on to a recently-razed paradise, but ‘Delloran Revisited’ is merely one step in a search for an ultimate weapon so long lost, so well hidden, that Aknaton has no clue to its current location…

Appraising his unique team of one final push, Aknaton enjoys ‘Sunrise on Lartorez’ before absenting himself to meet God and discuss ‘Absolution’, after which a ‘Requiem’ sounds for life as the Zygoteans find them and light the skies with ‘Nightfire’.

Forced into precipitate action, ‘Dreamsend’ turns into ‘Doomsday!’ as Aknaton’s plan finally comes into play – with cataclysmic effect…

A million years later, an energy bubble bursts in another galaxy and sole survivors Aknaton and Vanth find themselves on a rural world not much different from any other. They still have business to settle and only one will walk away from the ‘Aftermath’ of what they’ve perpetrated…

With the illustration reverting to painted monochrome, sequel The Price is set in that new “Empirical Galaxy”: one riven by unending war between intergalactic robber barons The Monarchy and omnipresent mystico-political religious order The Instrumentality. Over 200 years these instinctive enemies have taken half a galaxy each and now battle to maintain a permanent stalemate. The economies of both factions depend on constant slaughter, but never outright victory…

At the heart of that strained environment, rising Instrumentality Bishop Syzygy Darklock is drawn by arcane forces and the diabolical plotting of terrorist mage Taurus Killgaren onto a path of inescapable doom and destruction.

It begins with the demonic assassination of Darklock’s brother; leading the outraged cleric onto a path of damnation and revelation: gaining immense mystic power and wisdom but only at the cost of sacrificing everything he ever loved. He is also forced to share Killgaren’s infallible vision of the fearful future and the role a man named Dreadstar will play in the fate of the universe…

After the huge success of The Death of Captain Marvel in Marvel Graphic Novel #1, Starlin was eagerly welcomed back for the third release. Here he finally and officially launched Dreadstar as a creator-owned property that would kickstart the Epic Comics imprint into life.

The full-colour painted story focused on Vanth the man, with the immortal Cold Warrior abandoning his sword and warlike ways, and settling down to decades of family and farming on isolated agri-world Caldor with retired Instrumentality researcher Delilah.

Toiling beside its gentle gen-gineered cat-people who operate the farm planet, Vanth found a kind of contentment, which was only slightly spoiled when a bizarre being named Syzygy Darklock sets up his tent in the mountain wilderness and begins tempting the old soldier with tales of the outer world and veiled promises of great knowledge and understanding.

Vanth is with the savant when Monarchy ships attack Delilah and the cat-folk. In the wake of their casual atrocities, he renounces his vow of peace and resolves to end the stupid, commercially expedient war his way…

The drama concludes with ‘Epilogue’: one last monochrome moment first seen in Epic Illustrated #15, and designed as a bridging introduction to the hero’s regular comic book debut. Vanth and cat-man ally Oedi are trying to quietly get off Instrumentality mining colony The Rock, but Dreadstar is nigh-fatally distracted by a worker who is the very image of Delilah.

However, before he can do anything really stupid, the mine roof caves in, threatening all his ambitious plans to bring peace and stability to the Empirical Galaxy…

To Be Continued…

Bold, bombastic and potently cathartic, this is no-nonsense space opera with the just the right amount of deep thought, comforting cynicism and welcoming pop philosophy adding flavour to the action and spicing up the celestial grandeur. Above all this is smart, trenchant, timelessly uncomplicated fun for grown-up space freaks, well worth a few moments of your time…
© 2010 James Starlin. All rights reserved. Dreadstar is a registered trademark of James Starlin, and the Dreadstar logo and all characters and content herein and the likenesses thereof are also trademarks of James Starlin unless otherwise expressly noted.

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Frankenstein: The Mad Science of Dick Briefer


By Dick Briefer with Bruce Elliott & various (Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-688-4 eISBN: 978-1-63008-186-7

The Golden Age of American comic books is usually associated with the blockbusting birth and proliferation of the Superhero, but even at the headiest heights of costumed crusader craziness other fantastic fantasy fashions held their own. Some of the very best – like Jack Cole’s Plastic Man and the unlikely weird warrior under discussion here – managed to merge genres and surmount their origins through astounding graphic craft, a healthy helping of comedic legerdemain and a deft dose of satire…

Richard Briefer was born in Washington Heights, Manhattan on January 9th 1915. He was a pre-Med student who also studied at the Art Student League in New York City and got into the fledgling funnybook business in 1936, working for the Will Eisner/Jerry Iger shop after selling early work to Wow, What a Magazine! and others.

He adapted literary classics like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and – as Dick Hamilton – created early super-team Target and the Targeteers for Novelty Press. Briefer wrote and drew Rex Dexter of Mars, Dynamo, Biff Bannon, Storm Curtis, Crash Parker and more for a range of publishers. For Timely he co-created The Human Top and, as Dick Flood, produced anti-Nazi strip Pinky Rankin for The Daily Worker – the newspaper of the American Communist Party.

Another criminally near-forgotten master craftsman, Briefer is best remembered amongst we fading comics cognoscenti for Frankenstein; a suspense strip that debuted in Prize Comics #7 (cover-dated December 1940) before gradually evolving into a satirical comedy-horror masterpiece offering thrills and chills whilst ferociously sending up post-war America.

A truly unique vision, Briefer’s Frankenstein ran intermittently until 1954 when the toxic paranoiac atmosphere of the anti-communist, anti-comics witch hunt killed it. The author moved into advertising and latterly portraiture and, despite numerous attempts to revive the strip, never published any more of his absurd and acerbic antic…

Dick Briefer died in December 1980.

Here, however, as part of the wonderful and much missed Dark Horse Archives series (please bring ‘em back guys!), you can enjoy the superbly surreal strip in all its manic glory from the horrible heydays…

Re-presented for your delectation are the contents of Frankenstein #1-7 (January 1945-May 1947) with Briefer at the peak of his powers, writing and drawing deliciously demented delights that made him a legend amongst comics creators if not the general public.

After gleaning a few salient facts from appreciative devotee John Arcudi in his Foreword, and relishing some ultra-rare original art from Briefer and Alex Toth, the merry madness begins with #1 as we reveal ‘Frankenstein’s Creation’…

After a bored mad scientist reads an old book, he decides to create his own version of the infamous creature. Sadly, despite scrupulously following the recipe, the malevolent modern Prometheus’ secret formula only manifests a loving, protective nature in his super-strong homunculus, and the hulking “Frankenstein monster” soon becomes a boon to his community and embarrassment to his malignant maker.

Left to his own devices, our artificial Adam is then drawn to the quiet little everytown of Mippyville where the populace are fighting off a supernatural invasion of atrocious arcane predators. ‘Frankenstein and the Ghouls and Vampires’ sees the creature – originally mistaken for a “Bobbysox” pop singer by the town’s screaming teenagers – hilariously clean up the infernal infestation before setting up home in a ramshackle abandoned mansion.

Only one thing is missing to complete his dreams of domestic bliss until a brief dalliance with the local spider saleswoman results in her becoming ‘Frankenstein’s Wife’. The mild man-monster soon learns why a hasty marriage often leads to repentance at leisure…

Mippyville is a place that just attracts weirdness, and the first issue concludes with another mad doctor, as deranged surgeon Professor Hugo von Hoogenblotzen kidnaps Frankie and attempts to graft him to an elephant in ‘Frankenstein and the Manimals’…

The second issue begins with ‘Frankenstein!’ – a quick recap of past events – before our unlikely star tracks down a mad mass-murderer who wants others to suffer for his art in ‘Frankenstein and the Statue Maker’, after which the animal-loving oaf is accidentally mistaken for a mere beast and purchased by a moody millionairess.

She puts him on a leash to one-up her pals in the Exotic Pets Club but ‘Frankenstein’s Job’ soon teaches all and sundry the true value of animal companionship…

Eventually restored to his own home, ‘Frankenstein’s Ark’ finds the towering twit re-enacting the building of the fabled lifeboat to save his animal chums, but still ending up clashing with a hoarding hermit and his mutant allies…

Issue #3 (July/August 1946 and with scripting assistance from Bruce Elliott) introduced ‘Frankenstein’s Family’ as the big guy secures gainful employment as a junk man, whilst his new boss tinkers with salvaged machines from a devil doctor’s lab. This results in an army of molecularly-unstable juvenile duplicates of Frankie and a great deal of gross chaos…

A legion of escaped horrors attack Mippyville in ‘Frankenstein and the Monsters’, only to find the town’s ghastly defender too much to handle before ‘Frankenstein and the Mummies’ affords a quick jaunt to Egypt where the monster befriends a quartet of ancient, entombed pharaohs…

‘Frankenstein and the Time Machine’ apparently sends the credulous colossus into the furious future and perilous past, but all is not as it seems…

The regular cast expanded in the next issue (September/October 1946) as ‘Frankenstein and Awful Annie’ finds the mellow fellow aiding the local purveyor of potions and charms to the city’s supernatural community when her long-lost son wants to come home for a visit. After that debacle, he then makes another odd acquaintance in ‘Frankenstein Meets the (Terrible) Werewolf’ which debuts the gentlest magical man-eater on earth…

Another whirlwind romance goes awry after ‘Frankenstein Sees the Effect of the Youth Restorer’ and makes an amorously ill-advised move on a once-elderly neighbour, before his mystic mates throw the monster a birthday party in ‘Frankenstein and the Sorcerer’ and start a magic war that only subsides after the gentle giant accidentally lands a job as a photographic model…

Briefer was an inveterate tinkerer, always looking for innovative new ways to present mirthful material, and Frankenstein #5 (November/December 1946) trialled a new format of interlinked yarns beginning with ‘Act 1: How I Rehabilitated Maladjusted Ghosts’ as the creature becomes troubleshooter for the restless dead and unmasks a murderer.

In ‘Act 2: How I Had (and Lost) a Pet Dinosaur’, he accidentally hatches an antediluvian egg and manages to switch it with a parade-balloon doppelganger, whilst ‘Act 3: How I Became a Genii in a Magic Bottle’, sees the monster mysteriously abducted by a street-corner hustler before escaping to save the town from a malicious malady in concluding ‘Act 4: How I Conquered a Terrible Plague’. The experiment was dropped for a more traditional anthological format in the sixth (March/April 1947) issue…

Here the madcap merriment opens with ‘The Last Smile’ as Frankie is mistaken for a fugitive murderer and placed on death row, after which he hunts down ‘The Ghostnapper’ who abducts spirits and steals their big white sheets…

The rising cost of funerals informed the riotous case of ‘One Small Bier’ as the monster tries a new career as a mortician before heading into the country to investigate accursed, self-propagating automobiles going on an uncanny ‘Joyride’…

The final issue comes from May/June 1947 #7, opening with ‘Silas Grunch Gets His’ – co-written with Ed Goggin – as a conniving miser tortures kids by building a funfair children can’t get into… until the Big Guy steps in…

The monster plays cupid and brings two bizarre, lonely people together in ‘The Strange Love of Shirley Shmool’ with romance also informing Frankenstein’s laying of ‘The Curse of the Flying Dutchman’ Here the giant goof opens a Lonely Hearts Agency and matches the immortal wandering mariner with the girl of his nightmares! This leads to a clash with atom-age seductress ‘The Lorelei’ and a frankly hideous trading of jobs and gender roles before politics rears its ugly (multiple) heads as Frankenstein is convinced to run for President of the Magician’s Guild and endures the voodoo ‘Pins and Needles’ of a frustrated rival…

A truly unique treat from a singular and utterly eccentric creative force, Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein is remarkable work by a one-of-a-kind creator. If you groove on the grotesque, love to be scared, love to laugh and love comics, this is a book for you…
Frankenstein: The Mad Science of Dick Briefer. Dark Horse Books ® and logos are registered trademarks of Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Superman Adventures volumes 1


By Paul Dini, Scott McCloud, Rick Burchett, Bret Blevins, Mike Manley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5867-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

At their primal hearts heroes like Batman and Superman appeal directly and powerfully to the little kids in us all, who helplessly rail at forces that boss us around and don’t let us be ourselves. Maybe that’s why the versions ostensibly and specifically made for youngsters are so often the most vivid and rewarding…

Almost a decade after John Byrne re-galvanised, reinvigorated and reinvented the look and feel of the Man of Steel, animator Bruce Timm returned to comicbook country to meld modern sensibility and classic mythology with Superman: The Animated Series.

With Paul Dini, he had already designed and overseen Batman: The Animated Series: a 1993 TV show which captivated young and old alike, breathing vibrant new life into an old concept. In 1996 lightning struck a second time. The show was another masterpiece and led to a tranche of sequels and spin-off including The New Batman/Superman Adventures, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

Although the Superman cartoon show (originally airing in the USA from September 6th 1996 to February 12th 2000) never got the airplay it deserved in Britain, it remains a highpoint in the character’s long, long animation history, second only to 17 astounding, groundbreaking shorts produced by the Max Fleischer Studio in the 1940s.

These stylish modern visualisations became the norm, extending to the Teen Titans, Legion of Super Heroes, Young Justice and Brave and the Bold animation series that so successfully followed.

The broad stylisation – dubbed “Ocean Liner Art Deco” – also worked magnificently in static two dimensions for the spin-off comic book produced by DC as seen in this first of four compilations, curating Superman Adventures #1-10 (November 1996-August 1997).

With no further ado, the all-ages action opens with ‘Men of Steel’ by show writer Paul Dini, illustrated with dash and verve by Rick Burchett & Terry Austin. Because they know their audience, the editors wisely treated prior animated episodes and comic releases as equally canonical, and here shady mega-billionaire Lex Luthor is a public hero even whilst covertly organising clandestine criminal deals, international coups and a secret war against the Man of Tomorrow.

The devil’s brew of dark deeds culminates here in the oligarch’s creation of a new secret weapon: a hyper-powerful robot-duplicate of Superman, which he uses to initially discredit and ultimately attack the Caped Kryptonian. If it manages to kill him, Lex can mass-produce them and sell them to warlords around the world…

Comics grand master Scott McCloud came aboard as regular scripter with the second issue as ‘Be Careful What You Wish For…’ sees the return of Kryptonite-powered cyborg Metallo. The mechanical maniac – like the rest of Metropolis – erroneously believes lonely, attention-seeking Kelly to be Superman’s girlfriend, but his sadistic revenge scheme hasn’t factored in how Lois Lane might react to the fraudulent claim…

Computerised Kryptonian relic Brainiac resurfaces in ‘Distant Thunder’, having placed its malign consciousness into Earth artefacts (such as robot cats!) before building a new body to facilitate a renewed assault on the Metropolis Marvel. As ever, Brainiac’s end goal is assimilating data, but Superman quickly realises how to turn that programmed compulsion into a weapon ensuring the computer tyrant’s defeat…

Apprentice photo-journalist Jimmy Olsen’s dreams of success and stardom get a big boost in issue #4’s ‘Eye to Eye’. After Luthor orchestrates another lethal attack on Superman – with an enhanced gravity-weapon – the cub reporter learns his job is as much about grit and guts as being in the right place at the right time…

Bret Blevins pencils ‘Balance of Power’ as electrical villain Livewire awakes from a coma and sets about equalizing gender inequality by taking over the world’s broadcast airwaves. With all male presences edited out thanks to her galvanic gifts, the sparky ideologue returns to her original agenda and attempts to eradicate too-powerful men like Superman and Luthor…

McCloud, Burchett & Austin reunite for the astoundingly gripping ‘Seonimod’ wherein Superman utterly fails to save Metropolis from complete annihilation. All is not lost, however, as Fifth Dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk has trapped the hero in a backwards-spiralling time-loop, allowing the Man of Tomorrow one last chance to track a concatenation of disasters back to the inconsequential event that initially triggered the string of accidents which wiped out everything he cherishes…

‘All Creatures Great and Small part 1’ opens a titanic 2-part tale which sees Krypton’s Phantom Zone villains General Zod and Mala escape a miniaturised prison Superman had incarcerated them in. In the process they also shrink our hero to a few centimetres in height, but the endgame is far more devilish that that.

When scientific savant Professor Hamilton and top cop Dan “Terrible” Turpin join Lois in using a growth ray to restore Superman, Zod intercepts them and transforms himself into a towering colossus of chaos and carnage. Utterly overmatched and without options, the tiny Man of Tomorrow is forced into the most disgusting and risky manoeuvre of his career to bring the gigantic General low in the concluding ‘All Creatures Great and Small part 2’…

Mike Manley pencils Superman Adventures #9 as ‘Return of the Hero’ focuses on an idealistic boy whose two heroes are Superman and Lex Luthor. However, as a series of arson attacks plagues his neighbourhood, Francisco Torres learns some unpleasant truths about the billionaire that shatter his worldview and almost destroy his family. Happily, the Caped Kryptonian proves to be a far more reliable role model…

Wrapping up this first cartoon collection is a classic clash between indomitable hero and deadly maniac, as a twisted techno-terrorist y returns, peddling Superman action figures designed to plunder and rob their owners’ parents. ‘Don’t Try This at Home!’ – by McCloud, Burchett & Austin – once again proves that no amount of devious deviltry can long deter the champion of Truth, Justice and the American Way…

Breathtakingly written and spectacularly illustrated, these stripped-down, hyper-charged rollercoaster-romps are pure, irresistible examples of the most primal kind of comics storytelling, capturing the idealised essence of what every Superman story should be. It’s a treasury every fan of any age and vintage will adore.
© 1996, 1997, 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Mega Robo Bros book 6: Carnival Crisis


By Neill Cameron, with Austin Baechle (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-298-4 (TPB)

Mighty in metal and potent in plastic, here’s the latest upgrade in a sterling, solid gold all-ages sci fi saga from Neill (Tamsin of the Deep, Pirates of Pangea, How to Make Awesome Comics, Freddy) Cameron. Perfect purpose-built paladins, the mecha-miraculous Mega Robo Bros find that even they can’t fight punch out intolerance or growing pains in these electronic exploits balancing frantic fun with portents of darker, far more violent days to come…

It’s still the Future!

In a London far cooler but just as embattled as ours, Alex and his younger brother Freddie Sharma are generally typical kids: boisterous, fractious, eternally argumentative yet devoted to each other, and not too bothered that they’re adopted. It’s really no big deal for them that they were meticulously and covertly constructed by the mysterious Dr. Roboticus – before he vanished – and are considered by those in the know as the most powerful – and only fully SENTIENT – robots on Earth.

Dad is just your average old guy who makes lunch and does a bit of writing (he’s actually an award-winning journalist), but when not being a housewife, Mum is pretty extraordinary herself. As surprisingly famous and renowned robotics boffin Dr. Nita Sharma she harbours some shocking secrets of her own…

Life in the Sharma household tries to be normal. Freddie is insufferably exuberant and over-confident, whilst Alex is at the age when self-doubt and anxiety hit hard. Moreover, the household’s other robot rescues can also be problematic…

Programmed as a dog, baby triceratops Trikey is ok, but eccentric French-speaking ape Monsieur Gorilla can be tres confusing, and gloomily annoying, existentialist aquatic waterfowl Stupid Philosophy Penguin hangs around ambushing everyone with quotes from dead philosophers…

The boys have part-time but increasing difficult jobs as super-secret agents, although because they weren’t very good at the clandestine part, almost the entire world now knows of them. Generally, however, it’s enough for the digital duo that their parents love them, even though they are a bit more of a handful than most kids. They all live as normal a life as possible: going to human school, playing with human friends and hating homework. It’s all part of their “Mega Robo Routine”, combining dull human activities, actual but rare fun, games-playing, watching TV and constant training in the combat caverns under R.A.I.D. HQ.

Usually, when a situation demands, the boys carry out missions for bossy Baroness Farooq: head of government agency Robotics Analysis Intelligence and Defence. They still believe it’s because they are infinitely smarter and more powerful than the Destroyer Mechs and other man-made minions she usually utilises.

Originally published in UK weekly comic The Phoenix, this revised, retooled and remastered saga opens with the lads feted as global heroes.

After defeating dangerous villains like Robot 23 and thwarting a robot rebellion sparked by artificial life activist The Caretaker, the Bros battled monstrous, deadly damaged droid Wolfram in the arctic and learned that he might be their older brother. Even so, they had to destroy him and now Alex is increasingly traumatised by the act…

Over the course of that case they learned that fifteen years previously Mum was a brilliant young roboticist working under incomparable (but weird) pioneering genius Dr. Leon Robertus. His astounding discoveries had earned him the unwelcome nickname Dr. Roboticus and perhaps that’s what started pushing him away from humanity…

Robertus had allowed Nita to repurpose his individually superpowered prototypes into a rapid-response team for global emergencies. Mum used to be a superhero, leading manmade Rapid Response team The Super Robo Six!

While saving lives with them she first met crusading journalist/future husband Michael Mokeme who proudly took her name when they eventually wed…

Robertus was utterly devoid of human empathy but – intrigued by the team’s acclaim and global acceptance – created a new kind of autonomous robot. Wolfram was more powerful than any other construct, and equipped with foundational directives allowing him to make choices and develop his own systems. He could think, just like Alex and Freddy can. Only, as it transpired, not quite…

When Robertus demoted Nita and made Wolfram leader of a new Super Robo Seven, the result was an even more effective unit, until the day Wolfram’s Three Directives clashed during a time-critical mission. Millions of humans paid the price for his confusion and hesitation…

In the aftermath, R.A.I.D. was formed. They tried to shut down Robertus and decommission Wolfram, but the superbot rejected their judgement, leading to a brutal battle, the robot’s apparent destruction and Roboticus vanishing…

As the boys absorbed their “Secret Origins” Wolfram returned, attacking polar restoration project Jötunn Base. It covered many miles and was carefully rebalancing the world’s climate, when Wolfram took it over: reversing the chilling process to burn the Earth and drown humanity…

Ordered by Baroness Farooq to stay put and not help, Alex and Freddy rebelled, but by the time the Bros reached Jötunn, Wolfram had crushed a R.A.I.D. force led by their friend Agent Susie Nichols. After also failing to stop the attacker, kind contemplative Alex found a way to defeat – and perhaps, destroy – his wayward older brother and save humanity…

Their exploit made the Bros global superstars and whilst immature Freddy revels in all the attention Alex is having trouble adjusting: not just to the notoriety and acclaim, but also the horrifying new power levels he achieved to succeed and also the apparent onset of robot puberty. It’s afflicted him with PTSD…

A collection of shorter, ominous interlinked exploits, Carnival Crisis opens with a potential disaster in the city as human negligence drives a giant building-bot into overload and a destructive but oddly beautiful rampage. The Bros are quickly on the scene but wild Freddy can’t understand why Alex won’t let him blast the rogue to scrap with his new augmented power-set, and instead rambles on about a peaceful solution. Happily, newlywed R.A.I.D. operatives Susie and Zahra Abdikarim are more amenable to suggestion…

The world gets suddenly more dangerous when a fishing boat and its robot-bashing skipper goes missing in the North Sea. The Bros meanwhile are having extremely different reactions to a TV documentary about them and their defeat of Wolfram.

Freddy’s sheer smug glee can’t be contained, but Alex discovers that not all humans – his classmates included – are robot tolerant or friendly. Many of them already constantly ask if Alex is a boy or a girl and some don’t even consider Alex human at all …

However, as the school prepares for the upcoming London Carnival and unattainable Jamila starts being friendly, his anxiety over being “normal” start to fade… but only until Susie seconds the Bros for an emergency mission to the North Sea.

Unexplained electromagnetic phenomena and missing vessels lead to a scanning dead-zone which is ultimately revealed as a vast sea platform. A hostile encounter with warbots exposes a cloaked robot utopia and sanctuary of liberated mechanoids that has declared independence from humanity. The ambassador communicating with them calls it “Steelhaven”…

With the intruding humans in protective custody, Alex and Freddy meet the inspirational liberator: a completely rational and rebuilt Wolfram. The metal messiah has developed astounding new powers based on the Kerchatov reactors they all share and offers to teach them. All they have to is leave their old home and acknowledge humanity as the eternal enemy of robots…

When the enforced détente between Steelhaven’s peacekeepers and R.A.I.D. commandos breaks down, it’s all Alex can do to broker a ceasefire and get the humans away, but the confrontation has deeply disturbed him…

Even more upset is Baroness Farooq and her bosses, who all know an existential threat to civilisation when they see one. As the Bros debriefing continues, Alex realises how tenuous his own status is as the politicos interrogate him and make plans against “his kind”. When they get home, he also realises just how much he and Freddy are fighting these days and that he’s had a headache for so long it feels normal now.

During a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, Alex struck up an unlikely friendship with equally publicity-shy Crown Prince Eustace, and when his interfering sibling spies on their eChats, the clash that results shatters the house – more than once…

Even when some rapid remodelling gives each Bro a room of their own, more discord follows when they fractiously divide the toys, comics and friends…

Left to his own devices Alex starts practising and soon he’s able to do some of the things the reborn Wolfram can. Tensions peak and events come to head on the day of Carnival. Dad and Grandma are running a refreshment stall – but not keen on using mum’s new cyber-creations Tea-bot and Mr. Donut – when an eerie electronic signal cause all the mechanical and artificial attendees to go berserk. Although immune to the mass-malfunction burst, Alex and Freddy are in agony and can barely protect the terrified humans. Thankfully, tech-savvy classmate Mira tracks the signal to long-gone menace Robot 23 before hacking it, but that only makes the chaos worse and promises imminent and impending “robot revolution”…

R.A.I.D.’s heavy handed response is a blamestorming investigation that further alienates Alex. He’s also found sites of a group called “Humanity First” who advocate quite horrific things to be done to robots. They are growing in popularity so fast…

When mean kid Jamal tauntingly mimics those acts at school, he’s supported by a teacher and Alex storms off in disgust, heading to R.A.I.D. HQ and the hologram Playroom to safely and cathartically express his frustrations. Typically, Freddy is already there and this time the ensuing fight has collateral casualties, damaging the programming of Stupid Philosophy Penguin and provoking the equivalent of a seizure in Alex…

After a week of tests, mum has some answers, but they’re truly scary.

The siblings were designed to grow, adapt and change and now Alex has reached the stage that will determine the final configuration. However – and totally amplifying the feelings of alienation, isolation and abnormality – the elder Robo Bro is confronted with infinite choice including shape, orientation, configuration and especially gender, just when he/she/they/it have never been less certain of who Alex Sharma is or wants to be…

The literally explosive reaction is barely containable, and only foreshadows more strife to come…

Crafted by Cameron and colouring assistant Austin Baechle, this rip-roaring riot isn’t quite over yet. Adding informational illumination are a dossier of R.A.I.D. data files on Alex, Freddy, Susie, Zahra, Mr. Donut, Tea-Bot and Wolfram, plus activity pages on ‘How To Draw Monsieur Gorilla!’ and ‘How To Draw Mr. Donut’, and Bonus Comic! vignettes ‘Trikey the Robot Triceratops! in Trikey Tries to Fit In’ and Alex & Freddy enduring a ‘Mega Robo Blackout’ before helpfully making the drama into a crisis…

Bravely and exceedingly effectively interweaving real world concerns by addressing issues of gender and identity with great subtlety and in a way kids can readily grasp, this collection also and primarily blends action and humour with superb effect. Excitement and hearty hilarity is balanced here with poignant moments of insecurity and introspection, affording thrills, chills, warmth, wit and incredible verve. Alex and Freddy are utterly authentic kids, irrespective of their origins, and their antics strike exactly the right balance of future shock, family fun and superhero action to capture readers’ hearts and minds. What movies these tales would make!
Text and illustrations © Neill Cameron 2023. All rights reserved.

Mega Robo Bros Carnival Crisis will be released on August 3rd 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

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Angel Catbird volumes 1


By Margaret Atwood, Johnnie Christmas & various (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-50670-063-2 (HB/Digital)

Margaret Atwood is a multi-award-winning novelist with a string of laudable, famous books (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Blind Assassin) to her name and a couple of dark secrets. As disclosed in her Introduction to this fun-packed fantasy romp, she loves cats and comics and has done so all her life. Thus Angel Catbird: a trilogy of original, digest-sized, full-colour hardbacks relating the outrageous and fantastical adventures of races of wondrous creatures who have lived unknown amongst us from time immemorial… and how an accidental crossbreed newcomer shakes up all their worlds…

Scripted and co-designed by Atwood, the lively saga is illustrated by Johnnie Christmas (Swim Team, Tartarus, Crema), with colours from Tamra Bonvillain (Wayward, Rat Queens) and lettered by Nate Piekos of Blambot® and begins as genetic engineer and neophyte private sector worker Strig Feleedus rushes to finish a crucial “super-splicer” formula for his creepy boss.

Muroid Inc.’s owner Dr. Muroid has a thing for rats and is extremely eager for Strig to complete his assignment. His perpetual harassment even extends to covert surveillance through mechanically augmented rat spies…

Upon learning Feleedus has made a midnight hour breakthrough, the deranged doctor pesters the exhausted wage-slave into bringing the results straight in, provoking a horrible accident involving Strig, pet cat Ding, a passing owl, a speeding automobile and the spilled gene-splicing agent prototype…

When Strig comes to, he has been transformed into a bizarre human/cat/bird hybrid who can fly and voraciously gobble down rats, but that’s only the beginning…

Despite eventually regaining his original form, Strig is suddenly made aware of a whole new world he never imagined possible. His senses – especially smell – have become greatly heightened. Co-worker Cate Leone, for example, becomes far more interesting when his nose comes into play. Most intriguing is the fact that somehow Feleedus can understand what birds and alley-cats are saying…

Before long, Strig is submerged in an astonishing new existence: one where animals live exotic alternative lives as half-humans and one to which he has been admitted only through the auspices of his accidental exposure to the super-splicer compound.

Tragically, when he discovers just why Muroid wanted the serum in the first place, it sparks a deadly and explosive interspecies war with the “Angel Catbird” and his shapeshifting animal allies on one side and mad Muroid’s mutant rat hordes on the other.

To Be Continued…

This turbulent tome is high on catnip-coated comedic action-adventure and includes a wealth of attention-grabbing extras such as a large art gallery by illustrative stars David Mack, Fábio Moon, Tyler Crook, Matt Kindt, Jen Bartel, Troy Nixey, David Ruben and Charlie Pachter; a fascinating and extensive annotated Sketchbook section from both Christmas and Atwood, plus a detailed and informative rundown on how Bonvillain turns line-art into extraordinarily complex colour pages.

This book has an ulterior motive and secret life too. Pages are copiously footnoted with facts and advice on how to protect felines and avians from harm: originating from the charity catsandbirds.ca, and the tale you enjoy is designed to promote their message of simultaneously keeping cats safe and saving bird lives. Why not look them up and make a donation?

Playful and sly with slickly hidden, razor-sharp edges, this a fable of frolicsome fantasy all mixed up with Fights ‘n’ Tights fun that will delight animal lovers and old-fashioned superhero fans.
Angel Catbird ™ & © 2016 Margaret Atwood. All rights reserved.

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Tex: The Lonesome Rider


By Claudio Nizzi & Joe Kubert. English adaptation by Pete Carlsson & Philip R. Simon (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-620-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-63008-169-0

One of the most popular western strips ever created, Tex premiered in September 1948, brainchild of writer Gian Luigi Bonelli and artist Aurelio Galleppini. Very much an Italian synthesis of classic Hollywood western fare, the strip is both mythically traditional and unflinchingly dark in a way US material wasn’t until the advent of “spaghetti westerns” in the 1960s. Gosh, I wonder if there’s some kind of connection there?

Bonelli was a prolific writer of books, articles, screenplays and comics for over 50 years and Galleppini eventually dropped a prestigious career as a book illustrator to draw approximately 200 issues of Tex and 400 hundred covers.

Comics featuring Tex Willer and his legendary allies Kit Carson, Kit Willer and Tiger Jack have been exported far and wide for decades, scoring big not only across Europe, but also in Brazil, Finland, Turkey, India and elsewhere. Guest artists for specials have included Ivo Milazzo, Jordi Bernet and the masterful Joe Kubert.

Kubert was born in 1926 in rural Southeast Poland (which became Ukraine and – if tyranny wins – might well be Outer Russia by the time you read this). When he was two his parents emigrated to America where he grew up a proud Brooklyn kid. They also encouraged him to draw from an early age and the precocious prodigy began a glittering career at the start of the Golden Age, before he was even a teenager.

Working and learning at the Chesler comics packaging “Shop”, MLJ, Holyoke and assorted other outfits, he began his close association with National/DC in 1943. A canny survivor of the Great Depression, Joe also maintained outside contacts, dividing his time and energies between Fiction House, Avon, Harvey and All-American Comics, where he particularly distinguished himself on dazzling originals The Flash, Hawkman, Wildcat and Doctor Fate.

In the early Fifties he and school chum Norman Maurer were the creative force of publishers St. Johns: creating evergreen caveman Tor and launching the 3D comics craze with Three Dimension Comics.

Joe never stopped: freelancing for EC’s Two-Fisted Tales, Avon’s Strange Worlds, Lev Gleason Publications & Atlas Comics until 1955 when, with the industry imploding, he took a permanent position at DC, only slightly diluted whilst he illustrated the contentious and controversial newspaper strip Tales of the Green Berets (1965-1968). From then, he split his time drawing Sgt. Rock and other features, designing covers and editing DC’s line of war comics. He also drew plenty of westerns – such as DC’s incarnation of Firehair, Tomahawk and Son of Tomahawk. At the time most people retire, he opened and ran (employing a host of new funnybook superstars beside many of his fellow comics veterans) a comics school when not creating a host of superb, hard-hitting mature reader graphic novels such as Fax from Sarajevo, Jew Gangster and Yossel: April 1943. The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art still trains and mentors the coming generation of arts industry giants…

Hugely popular and venerated in Europe, Kubert stretched his wings in 2000 by adding Tex to his list of achievements in a project written by Claudio Nizzi for Sergio Bonelli Editore’s premier imprint Tex Albo Speciale/Texone.

Nizzi began writing comics in 1963, and authored many popular series – like Larry Yuma, Captain Erik and Rosco & Sonny – before heading to Bonelli in 1983 to craft stories of Mr. No, Nick Raider and Tex.

As is the case with all such long-lived action icons, the working premise of this Western Wonder is devilishly uncomplicated. Outlaw Tex Willer clears his unjustly besmirched name and joins the Texas Rangers. He marries an Indian maiden and becomes honorary chief of the Navajo “Eagle of the Night” after she dies.

Over years, Tex travels far and wide dispensing justice and encounters every kind of peril you might have seen in western films. However, like any great comics character, he also has a few outlandish arch-enemies such as evil prestidigitator Mefisto, piratical foreign prince Black Tiger and malign master of disguise Proteus.

After being published to great success and acclaim in Italy in 2001 as The Four Killers, this particular tale was made available to English speakers in 2015; packing the entire pulse-pounding saga into one fearsome fable of electrifying energy and dogged determination.

Following an informative and appreciative Foreword by co-translator/letterer Pete Carlsson, the drama opens with the aging lawman approaching the remote farm of his old friends the Colters. He will not get there in time…

On finding the family’s slain and defiled bodies, doctored to appear victims of an “injun” outrage, Tex reads trail signs and deduces the killers are three white men and a renegade Indian, and resolves to arrest them. At this stage, he is ready to let the law judge them. However, after being ambushed and thrown him off a cliff, the miraculously still living manhunter is ready to do whatever is necessary…

When the killers split up, the patiently remorseless peacekeeper becomes repeatedly snared in webs of brutal violence the quartet spin around themselves. Many more will die before justice is finally served…

Raw, primal and visually grandiose, Tex: The Lonesome Rider is a stripped-down epic of the genre in the manner of Unforgiven and Once Upon a Time in the West: a graphic masterclass in civilisation triumphing over chaos and greed, played out in a pitiless arena shaped by Big Sky Country aesthetics and with iconic scenery honed by a matchless craftsman into a major player and contributor to the story.

This is The Western at its most potent, pure and powerful: perhaps the best and credible cowboy comic you’ll ever see…
© 2001, 2005, 2015 Sergio Bonelli Editore. Licensed through Panini SpA All rights reserved.

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Captain Marvel Mighty Marvel Masterworks volume 1


By Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Gene Colan, Don Heck & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4889-4 (PB/Digital edition)

It’s a year of many anniversaries for Marvel, and 1968 marks a couple of truly significant ones. It was the year the company finally broke free of a restrictive distribution deal and began an explosive expansion that led to market dominance. The other was more symbolic and seminal: the company secured the rights to an evocative and legendary name which it has successfully exploited ever since. Moreover, that name led to the soft introduction of a character who has become one of the faces of the modern Marvel Age.

Happy birthday Mar-Vell and Carol…

The stories re-presented here are timeless and have been gathered many times before but today we’re enjoying another example of The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line: designed with economy in mind and newcomers as target audience. These books are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller – like a paperback novel. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that’s no issue at all.

After years as an also-ran and up-&-comer, by 1968 Marvel Comics was in the ascendant. Their sales were catching up with industry leaders National/DC Comics and Gold Key, and they had finally secured a distribution deal that would allow them to expand their list of titles exponentially. Once the stars of “split-books” Tales of Suspense (Iron Man & Captain America), Tales to Astonish (The Hulk & Sub-Mariner) and Strange Tales (Doctor Strange & Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) all won their own titles, the House of Ideas just kept on creating. One dead-cert idea was a hero named after the company – and one bringing popular cachet and nostalgic pedigree as well.

After the notorious decade long DC/Fawcett court case that began in 1940, the title Captain Marvel disappeared from newsstands. In 1967, during the superhero boom and “camp” craze generated by the Batman TV show, publisher MLF seemingly secured rights to the name and produced a number of giant-sized comics. Their star was an intelligent alien robot who could fly, divide his body into segments and shoot lasers from his eyes.

Despite a certain quirky charm, and being devised by comics veteran Carl (Human Torch) Burgos, the feature failed to attract a large following. On its demise, the name was quickly snapped up by expansionist Marvel Comics Group.

Marvel Super-Heroes was a brand-new title: it had been giant-sized reprint comic book Fantasy Masterpieces: combining monster and mystery tales with Golden Age Timely Comics classics, but with the 12th issue it added an all-new experimental section for characters without homes. These included Inhuman Medusa, Ka-Zar, Black Knight and Doctor Doom, along with new concepts like Guardians of the Galaxy, Phantom Eagle and, to start the ball rolling, a troubled alien spy sent to Earth from the Kree Galaxy. He held a Captain’s rank and his name was Mar-Vell.

This cosmically conceived, kid-friendly collection offers that origin adventure from Marvel Super-Heroes #12-13, the contents of Captain Marvel #1-7 plus a humorous take from Not Brand Echh #9: collectively spanning cover-dates December 1967 to August 1968.

Crafted by Stan Lee, Gene Colan & Frank Giacoia, the initial MS-H 15 page-instalment ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel!’ The tale derived directly from Fantastic Four #64-65, wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced Sentry robot marooned on Earth by a mythical and primordial alien race, only to be attacked by a high official of those long-lost extraterrestrials in the very next issue!

After defeating Ronan the Accuser, the FF heard no more from the far from extinct Kree, but the millennia-old empire became once again interested in Earth. Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree wanted to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose was a man of conscience, whilst his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was his ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una.

No sooner has the dutiful operative made a tentative planet-fall and clashed with the US Army from a local missile base (frequently hinted at as being Cape Kennedy) than the instalment ends. Stan & Gene had set the ball rolling leaving Roy Thomas to establish the basic ground-rules in the next episode.

Colan remained, this time with Paul Reinman inking. ‘Where Stalks the Sentry!’ sees the spy improving his fantastic weaponry before a blatant attempt by Yon-Rogg to kill him collaterally destroys a light aircraft carrying scientist Walter Lawson to that military base.

Assuming Lawson’s identity, Mar-Vell infiltrates “The Cape” but arouses the suspicions of security Chief Carol Danvers. He is horrified to discover the Earthlings are storing the Sentry (defeated by the FF) on site. Yon-Rogg, sensing an opportunity, reactivates the deadly mechanoid. As it goes on a rampage, only Mar-Vell stands in its path…

That’s a lot of material for 20 pages but Thomas & Colan were on a roll. With Vince Colletta inking, the third chapter was not in Marvel Super-Heroes but in the premiere issue of the Captain’s own title – released for May 1968. ‘Out of the Holocaust… A Hero!’ is an all-action thriller, detailing the Kree-man’s victorious clash with the superbot, but which still found space to establish twin sub-plots. Succeeding issues would focus on “Lawson’s” credibility and Mar-Vell’s inner doubts as the faithful Kree soldier rapidly loses faith in his own race and falls under the spell of the strangely beguiling humans…

The Captain’s first foray against a super-villain comes in the next two issues as we learn the Kree and Skrull Empire have been intergalactic rivals for eons, and the shapeshifters now need to know why there’s an enemy soldier stationed on neutral Earth.

Despatching their own top agent, ‘From the Void of Space Comes the Super Skrull!’ and the resultant battle almost levels the entire state before bombastically concluding with the Kree beaten, captured and interrogated. A month later he rallies ‘From the Ashes of Defeat!’ and spectacularly triumphs, whilst on the orbiting home front the romantic triangle sub-plot intensified as Yonn-Rogg looked for ways to send Mar-Vell to a justifiable death…

Issue #4 saw the secret invader clashing with fellow anti-hero Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner in ‘The Alien and the Amphibian!’ even as Mar-Vell’s superiors make increasingly ruthless demands of their reluctant agent.

Captain Marvel #5 saw Arnold Drake & Don Heck assume the creative chores (with John Tartaglione on inks) in cold-war monster-mash clash ‘The Mark of the Metazoid’, wherein a mutated Soviet dissident is forced by his militaristic masters to kidnap Walter Lawson (that’s narrative symmetry, that is).I ssue #6 then places the Captain ‘In the Path of Solam!’: battling a marauding sun-creature even as Carol Danvers gets ever-closer to proving that something’s not right with the enigmatic consultant Lawson. Meanwhile, the man impersonating him is forced to prove his loyalty to his species by unleashing a Kree bio-weapon on an Earth community in ‘Die, Town, Die!’ However, all is not as it seems because murderous animate Quasimodo, the Living Computer is also involved…

To Be Continued…

Wrapping up this first volume is a burst of light relief from Marvel’s sixties parody comic Not Brand Echh From # 9, ‘Captain Marvin: Where Stomps the Scent-ry! or Out of the Holocaust… Hoo-Boy!!’ finds Thomas, Colan & Frank Giacoia wickedly reimagining the origin. It’s either funny or painful depending on your attitude…

Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers have both been Captain Marvel and starred in some our art form’s most momentous and entertaining adventures. Today’s multimedia madness all started with these iconic and evergreen Marvel tales, and it’s never too late for you to join the ranks of the cosmic cognoscenti…
© 2023 MARVEL.