Month: November 2007

By Donald Rooum & “Victoria N. Furmurry” (Freedom Press)
ISBN: 0-900384-73-5

The truly amazing – and most depressing – thing about Donald Rooum’s Anarchist cartoon strip is not the superb drawing talent displayed nor even the range of subjects that fall under the bellicose scrutiny of his team of lampooning and lambasting characters. It is that the issues he and his occasional collaborators highlight and skewer never go away. The names and faces of the political and industrial scoundrels and mountebanks may change but the mistakes and problems they create just keep going.

Take this particular collection of strips, originally released in 1994 and dedicated to “the daft doctrine that people trained in making profits can provide a better health service than people trained in caring for the sick” as a particularly telling case in point.

Victoria N. Furmurry was a long serving Health Service worker. She spent decades doing her job and even managed to have a rather successful sideline as a professional comic book writer. She was eventually compelled to combine her two jobs here in a desperate attempt to highlight the problems that beset the new management structure and system.

The obvious pseudonym was also necessary. Among the new crimes in the service were “bringing the service into disrepute” for which read ‘complaining or disagreeing’ and the truly Orwellian “causing the management to lose confidence in you as an employee”, both of which constituted “Gross Misconduct” and were grounds for instant dismissal. Understandably, she took the advice offered and kept her head down whilst delivering the fusillade of brickbats and jabs featured here.

Thirteen years later and nothing has really changed. Market principles still rule the Health Service, the wrong people still give impossible orders and profit handsomely from their ineptitude, the workers at the sharp end are still ignored and blamed, and ultimately it’s all Our fault for letting ourselves be ill or injured.

So why not pick up this slim book of scathing and deadly funny indictments and at least give an alternative treatment a shot. After all, isn’t laughter the best medicine?

© 1994, 2007 Donald Rooum and “Victoria N. Furmurry”. All Rights Reserved.

By Alan Moore, Gene Ha & Zander Cannon (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-1491-6

Alan Moore blends super-team comics with the modern fascination with Police procedural dramas in this series based on the premise of everyday life in a universe where Super-Nature is accepted and common place. Neopolis is a city entirely populated by super-beings. Heroes, villains, gods, robots and monsters, the city is a vast dumping ground for copyright confounding analogues of everything that ever appeared in a comicbook since the genre and industry began.

Such a city needs really special policing and the beat cops are based at Precinct Ten – or Top 10 to you and me. In the mid 1980s this city joined a pan-dimensional league of worlds and came under the jurisdiction of the security organisation based on “Grand Central”. This small fact will play a large part in the overarching storyline, but the nature of this fascinating team-book is to build a longer narrative by seeming disconnected snippets and increments of daily drudgery.

Robyn Slinger is the new rookie at Top 10 and we start on her first day as a “real Police”. Her dad was a respected officer, but her own talent – controlling tiny robotic toys – doesn’t instil her with any great confidence as she is gently ushered into the routine by the affable desk-sergeant Kemlo Caesar, who is a talking dog. Adapting to the banter, routine and teasing of her brother officers is daunting, but not as much as being partnered with the surly, invulnerable blue giant Smax.

In short order, whilst going about their regular duties, which include sorting out super-powered “domestics” (no, not housekeepers – spousal confrontations), crowd control at robotic murder scenes, rousting hookers and generally keeping the peace, they become embroiled in an ongoing serial killer case and a drug investigation that will eventually reach to the highest levels of their own organisation.

By adopting the “day-in-the-life” approach, Moore and the astounding Gene Ha cover a lot of character ground and fill in back-story history whilst showing us “The Job”. As the method is used so effectively in TV Cop shows, readers not only get the same benefits of tone, texture and information value, but the added bonus of making the super-heroic elements more “real” and authentic seeming: A huge advantage when your protagonists deal every day with the most outlandish concepts comics have devised in the last seventy years.

For example: When a reptilian gang-member is arrested his dad wants to bust him out, and even the cops have to think twice when the 300 foot tall drunken lizard comes calling… Or how do you bust up a rave-party when all the revellers are dancing so fast they can’t be seen? Perhaps your apartment has been invaded by hyper-intelligent Ultra-Mice?

The serial killer case breaks towards the end of this first volume, revealing an alien monster whose real identity will bring nothing but trouble for the cops in the next book, and the fun concludes with a superbly sardonic tale of a murder in a bar frequented by the gods of Asgard…

A blend of low-key action and horror coupled with dark, ironic and occasionally surreal humour, drawn in the super-realistic style of Gene Ha, leavened by the solid inks of Zander Cannon, this is a gem of a collection (reprinting issues #1-7 of the monthly comic book).

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

UK EDITION

 

By various (Panini Publishing UK)
ISBN: 978-1-905239-67-2

This celebratory compilation collects a selection of obvious — and not so well known – tales featuring the fabled Sentinel of the Spaceways. The volume opens with the deservedly lauded and legendary introductory story. Although pretty much a last minute addition to Lee’s plot for Fantastic Four #48-50’s ‘Galactus Trilogy’, Jack Kirby’s gleaming creation became a watchword for depth and subtext in the Marvel Universe, and one Stan Lee kept as his own personal toy for many years.

Sent to find planets for Galactus to consume, the Silver Surfer discovers Earth, but the latent nobility of humanity reawakens his own suppressed morality and he rebels against his master and helps the FF save the planet. In retaliation, Galactus imprisons the Surfer on Earth, the ultimate outsider on a planet remarkably ungrateful for his sacrifice. The Galactus Saga was a creative highlight of a period where the Lee/Kirby partnership was utterly on fire. This tale has all the power and grandeur of a true epic and has never been surpassed for drama, thrills and sheer entertainment.

Following that is a two-parter from the anthology comic Tales to Astonish, which sees the Hulk meet the Surfer – although only on the very last page of ‘Turning Point’ (#92). The concluding ‘He Who Strikes the Silver Surfer,’ from TTA #93, made up for this deficit by cramming a huge amount of cosmic mayhem and misunderstanding into its ten pages, and the vastly underrated art of Marie Severin and Frank Giacoia is always a joy to see.

In 1968 the Surfer got his own title at last. ‘The Origin of the Silver Surfer!’ is by Lee, John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, the inker of the original Kirby FF trilogy, and detailed how Norrin Radd, last brave soul of a civilisation in comfortable stagnation, offers himself as a sacrifice to save his world from Galactus’s hunger. The stories in this series were highly acclaimed both for Buscema’s truly beautiful artwork and Lee’s deeply spiritual scripts, with the alien’s travails and observations creating a metaphoric status akin to a Christ-figure for an audience that was maturing and rebelling against America’s status quo.

The next story, from Tomb of Dracula #50 (1976) was one of the few not scripted by Lee, but Marv Wolfman kept the messianic overtones when the Devil tricks the Surfer into attacking the Lord of Vampires, in an attempt to prevent the birth of Dracula’s son. Whether the baby was truly destined to be the new Messiah is a tale for another time and place, but ‘Where Soars the Silver Surfer,’ drawn by Gene Colan and inked by Tom Palmer is certainly a magnificent art-job, capturing the eerie unworldly nature of the character.

Lee returned to script John Byrne’s 1982 one-shot. ‘Escape… to Terror’ was plotted and pencilled by Byrne, and Palmer again inked the Skyrider in a pretty but sadly vacuous yarn wherein the Surfer escapes Earth and returns to his devastated homeworld only to find he’s been manipulated by the demonic Mephisto. The only way to thwart the corrupter is to forsake his greatest love and return to his earthly prison.

The volume concludes with the two part ‘Parable’, released as a Epic Comics micro-series in 1988-1989, featuring an all-new interpretation of Galactus’s first attack on Earth, illustrated by legendary French artist Jean Giraud/Moebius. As with the 1978 Silver Surfer book by Lee and Kirby ((Fireside Books/Simon & Schuster 1978, ISBN: 0-6712-4225-3) the saga is removed from the normal Marvel continuity allowing Lee and the artist to focus on the unique nature of the Surfer and his ravenous master without the added distraction of hundreds of super-heroes.

Prompted, I’m sure, by the second Fantastic Four film, this is nonetheless a useful and entertaining primer to the character, and if there are some glaring omissions in content, the rarities should somewhat compensate for that, and still leave great material for new converts to seek out.

© 1966-1968, 1976, 1982, 1988-1989, 2007 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Raymond Briggs (Hamish Hamilton)
ISBN 10: 0-24113-938-4 ISBN 13: 978-0-24113-938-7

This edition was released to commemorate twenty years since the release of the perennial children’s favourite in 1978, so with the 30th anniversary swiftly bearing down on us it’s a good time to re-examine this wonderful book, free of the huge ancillary industry that’s grown around it, strictly in terms of graphic narrative.

Despite being repackaged as numerous book spin-offs, the animated film and even a stage musical, The Snowman started as a slim (32 pages) picture book: A lyrical tale of forgotten winter joy. I can’t remember seeing enough snow to even confuse my cat (if you’ve never seen the pampered house-moggy’s first response to solid-seeming-cold- wet-white-stuff then you’ve never laughed so hard the cocoa came out of your nose) let alone coat the world in a clean blanket of wonder, but that’s what happens here.

This is a subtle and compelling story. A young boy awakens to a heavy snowfall. Dressing, he dashes outside and romps among the falling flakes. He spends all day building a snowman, and even when he he’s snugly back inside, he can’t stop looking at his magnificent creation. Happy and exhausted he goes to bed.

When everybody’s asleep he invites the now animate snowman indoors where they play, share a meal, and naturally, do the washing up when they’ve finished. Outside the skies are clear and the white flakes no longer fill the heavens. Having seen the boy’s world, the Snowman offers to show his own, and the pair soar aloft on a wondrous voyage over land and sea where the snows are falling still.

Returning home they say goodnight. The boy goes reluctantly back to bed and the frosty sentinel takes up his abandoned position in the garden. In the morning the boy dashes out, but only heartbreak and disappointment await, for the new morning has melted his midnight companion.

This truly beautiful tale is no cheery, mawkish fantasy; it is an examination of the intense nature of a child’s life and the poignancy of change. We never know if the adventure was simply a dream or an actuality, but the knowledge that such all-encompassing wonder is fleeting is a lesson we all learn as we grow. The ability to recapture such a lesson – both its joys and its pains – is a rare and awesome thing, and what a tribute to Raymond Brigg’s abilities that we don’t hate him for making us enjoy re-experiencing it.

Utterly wordless, in panels without dark borders and hard edges, Briggs spins a delicate web of magic. Using the child’s own creative tools of pencil and crayon he crafts lyrical pastel picture-poems that are truly evocative and spellbinding. Despite being co-opted by the Christmas Industry this isn’t merely a seasonal tale but a timeless one. There’s no Bright Red or Holly Green to dazzle and break this charm: Briggs, as always uses presentiment and understatement as his basic tools.

Our industry seems to wilfully neglect this creator whose graphic narratives have reached more hearts and minds than Spider-Man, The Spirit or Hellblazer ever will, yet his works remain among the most powerful and important in the entire field. The Snowman, despite my pompous pontificating, remains a work of sublime and simple universal beauty. Get it for your kids, get it for yourself, but when the cartoon comes on again this Christmas, don’t watch that, Read This.

© 1978 Raymond Briggs. All Rights Reserved.

DC ARCHIVE EDITION

By Jack Kirby & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-4012-0153-9

This second, final collection of Jack Kirby’s groundbreaking mystery/adventure concept sees the first fantastic foursome crush villains and monsters, voyage to distant worlds, exotic lands and even crack the time-barrier. The Challengers would follow the Kirby model until cancellation in 1970, but due to a dispute with Editor Jack Schiff the writer/artist resigned at the height of his powers, so this volume only reprints issues #3 – 8 (August/September 1958 – June/July 1959). The series was continued by writers France “Ed” Herron, Dave Wood, Bill Finger plus others and drawn for almost its entire initial run by the superb and criminally underrated Bob Brown.

We kick off with the eerie ‘Secret of the Sorcerer’s Mirror’ with wife Roz and Marvin Stein again inking his mesmerising drawings, as the team pursue a band of criminals whose magic looking glass can locate deadly ancient weapons, but the most intriguing tale for fans and historians is undoubtedly ‘The Menace of the Invincible Challenger’ wherein team strongman Rock Davis is rocketed into space only to crash back to Earth with strange, uncanny powers.

For years the obvious similarities of this group – and especially this adventure – to the origin of Marvel’s Fantastic Four (FF #1 was out in November 1961) have fuelled speculation. In all honesty I simply don’t care. They’re both similar and different but equally enjoyable so read both. In fact, read them all.

With the fourth issue the series becomes artistically perfect as the sheer brilliance of Wally Wood’s inking elevated the art to unparalleled heights. The scintillant sheen and limpid depth of Wood’s brushwork fostered an abiding authenticity in even the most outrageous of Kirby’s designs and the result was breathtaking. ‘The Wizard of Time’ is a full length masterpiece as a series of bizarre robberies leads the team to a scientist with a time-machine. By visiting oracles of the past he has found a path to the far future. When he gets there he’s going to rob it blind unless the Challengers can stop him.

‘The Riddle of the Star-Stone’ is a contemporary full-length thriller. An archaeologist’s assistant uncovers an alien tablet which will bestow various super-powers when different gems are inserted into it. The exotic locales and non-stop spectacular action are intoxicating, but Kirby’s solid characterisation and ingenious writing are what make this such a compelling read.

Dave Wood returns to script #6’s first story. ‘Captives of the Space Circus’ sees the boys kidnapped from Earth to perform in a interplanetary show, but the evil ringmaster is swiftly outfoxed and the team returns for Ed Herron’s mystic saga ‘The Sorceress of Forbidden Valley’, wherein June Robbins becomes an amnesiac puppet in a power struggle between a fugitive gangster and a ruthless feudal potentate.

There are also two stories in #7. Herron scripted both the relatively straightforward alien-safari tale ‘The Beasts From Planet 9’ and the much more intriguing ‘Isle of No Return’ where the team have to defeat a scientific bandit before his shrinking ray leaves them permanently mouse-sized. Issue #8 is a magnificent finale to a superb run as Kirby and Wally Wood go out in style in two gripping spectaculars (both of which introduced menaces who would return to bedevil the team in future tales).

‘The Man Who Stole the Future’ by Dave Wood, Kirby and the unrelated Wally Wood, introduces Drabny – a mastermind who steals mystic artefacts and takes over a small country before the team defeats him. This is a tale of spectacular battles and uncharacteristic, if welcome, comedy, but the real gem is the science fiction tour-de-force ‘Prisoners of the Robot Planet’, with art by the Kirby and Wood, but for which the writer is regrettably unknown. Petitioned by a desperate alien, the team travels to his distant world to liberate the population from bondage to their own robotic servants, who have risen in revolt under the command of the fearsome automaton, Kra.

These are classic adventures, told in a classical manner. Kirby developed a brilliantly feasible concept with which to work and heroically archetypical characters in cool pilot Ace Morgan, indomitable strongman Rocky Davis, intellectual aquanaut Prof. Haley and daredevil acrobat Red Ryan. He then manipulated an astounding blend of genres to display their talents and courage in unforgettable exploits that informed every team comic that followed and certainly influenced his successive and landmark triumphs with Stan Lee.

But above and beyond all that, his Challengers of the Unknown run is sheer escapist wonderment, that no fan of the medium should miss.

© 1958, 1959 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 1-84023-521-7

Adapted from a radio play script, this is an intriguing, if slow, introspective parable. A British guy in Los Angeles, reeling from culture shock, meets a bum who tells him a story. As the bum speaks the man is mesmerised by the eerie echoes of his own existence. The bum is actually an ex-angel and recounts a tale of the Silver City…

After God created the Angels, but before he made us or the world, the sexless winged paragons – each with their own appointed role – were still finishing up the details of Creation. The bum was once Raguel: The Vengeance of the Lord, and he spent his life waiting. Eventually Lucifer came to him. A new thing had happened, something unique. An Angel had been killed. Deliberately.

This engrossing tale-within-a-tale, a murder-mystery, detective tale and supernatural fantasy, has a languid lyrical quality devoid of tension or drama, but nonetheless is an engrossing diversion, technically perfect, gently compelling. The clean, lovely art by P. Craig Russell is some of the best he has ever created.

If you can appreciate beauty for its own sake and suspend your need for drama and angst, this is a fascinating example of the power of style over content.

Text © 2002 Neil Gaiman.
Adaptation & illustrations © 2002 P. Craig Russell All Rights Reserved.