Month: September 2009

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Requiem Vampire Knight Tome 1: Resurrection and Danse Macabre


By Pat Mills & Ledroit (Panini Books UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-437-9

As is so often the case Europe is the last and most beneficial arena for the arts and untrammelled creativity, and none more so than comics and sequential narrative. For some reason the Continent cherishes the best of the world’s past as well as nurturing the fresh and new, without too much concern for historical bugbears of political correctness, gaffes and contemporary censoriousness – which is why so many British and American strip creators produce their best work there.

Perhaps it’s simply because they revere not revile popular arts as much as classical ones….

Requiem Vampire Knight is an impressive example of self-publishing done right, and happily with commensurate rewards. For years writer Pat Mills wanted to break into the European market and in 2000 he did so by setting up Nickel Editions with publisher Jacques Collin (whose Zenda Editions produced some of the nicest looking albums of the 1980s) and artist Olivier Ledroit who illustrated the first four books of the incredibly popular Chroniques de la Lune Noire (Black Moon Chronicles) for Zenda before the series transferred to Dargaud. Mills and Ledroit were already old comrades having previously worked on the impressive Sha.

Mills is well known to readers of this blog (see for example Marshal Law: Fear and Loathing and his incontestable masterpiece Charley’s War) but perhaps Ledroit is not so familiar. After studying Applied Arts he began his career as an illustrator for games magazines and broke into Bandes Dessinee (that’s comics to thee and me) in 1989 with the aforementioned Black Moon Chronicles, written by François Marcela Froideval.

Specialising in fantasy art Ledroit drew Thomas Mosdi’s Xoco (1994) before teaming with Pat Mills on the acerbic, futurist thriller Sha, set in an ultra-religious fascistic USA (1996-1999). His lush painterly style was adapted to fairytales in 2003 with L’Univers Féerique d’Olivier Ledroit, and he is credited as one of the founding fathers of the darkly baroque fantasy sub-genre BD Gothique.

From a financially shaky start Requiem Vampire Knight quickly proved that quality will always find an audience, and Nickel swiftly expanded whilst continuing the excessively adult adventures of deceased warrior Heinrich Augsburg. The series is released as annual albums, and has been serialized in Germany as Requiem Der Vampirritter, and in Heavy Metal in America (beginning in Volume 27 #1, March 2003).

Now Panini have brought this evocative series to Britain in superb oversized, A4 format, double-editions presenting two albums per volume beginning with Resurrection and Danse Macabre.

Heinrich is a German officer killed on the Eastern Front in 1944. As he died all he could think of was his guilt over a doomed affair with the Jewess Rebecca whom he chose not to save when the Gestapo came for her…

He awakens confused, with few memories intact, on the incredible blood-drenched world of Resurrection: a grim, fantastic mirror of Earth with the seas and land-masses reversed, populated by all the monsters of myth and where time runs backwards. In this Hell of constant warfare the sins committed on Earth determine your rank and form. Since Heinrich has been reborn as a Vampire, top of the slaughterers’ heap, his Earthly transgressions must have been truly unforgivable…

Soon he is sent for training and orientation, joining the Vampires Court of Dracula, where all the worst monsters of history rule, becoming embroiled in the eternal warfare and perpetual intrigues. But as time passes and he gets younger, he remembers more of his Earthly life and realises that he has been on Resurrection before… Moreover he has earned the particular enmity of a faction of utterly decadent elite Nosferatu ruled by the sadistic Lady Claudia Demona, Lord Mortis and Baron Samedi…

For any fan of Mills’ work there nothing truly new here to be shocked by, but the liberating license to explore his favourite themes guided only by his own conscience and creative integrity has resulted in a complex, intensely compelling mystery of revenge and regret on the most uncompromising of worlds where there is literally no justice and no good deed ever goes unpunished. Blending cosmic warfare with cynically sardonic deadpan humour, wrapped in the ludicrously OTT trappings of sadomasochistic fetishism, this is a truly epic saga of Gothic hopelessness perfect for the post-punk, post-revisionary, lavishly anti-reductionist fantasy fan. But it’s probably best if you don’t show your gran or the vicar…

The art is utterly astonishing. In places delightfully reminiscent of Philippe Druillet’s startlingly visual and deceptively vast panel-scapes from such lost masterpieces as Yragael: Urm (and there’s another one to chuck on the “must review soon” pile) as well the paradoxically nihilistic energy of such decadent Michael Moorcock civilisations as Granbretan or Melniboné, Ledroit has captured a truly unique scenario with his vibrant palette . Never has the horrific outer darkness been so colourfully captured and the sheer scope of the numerous monsters and spectacular battles is utterly eye-popping.

A grim and witty dream, this is a fabulously realized adult fantasy of blood and thunder that is enthralling and captivating: (Im)Pure Graphic Wonderment!

© 2000, 2001, 2009 Nickel, Mills, Ledroit. All rights Reserved.

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The Best of Battle


By various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-025-3

For most of the medium’s history British comics have been renowned for the ability to tell a big story in satisfying little instalments and this, coupled with superior creators and the anthology nature of our publications, has ensured hundreds of memorable characters and series have seared themselves into the little boy’s psyches inside most British adult males.

One of the last great weekly anthology comics was the all-combat Battle, which began as Battle Picture Weekly (launched on 8th March 1975), and through absorption, merger and re-branding (becoming Battle Picture Weekly & Valiant, Battle Action, Battle, Battle Action Force and Battle Storm Force) before itself being combined with Eagle on January 23rd 1988, after 673 blood-soaked testosterone drenched issues, fought its way into the bloodthirsty hearts of a generation, consequently producing some of the best and most influential war stories ever.

This action-packed compendium features the opening salvos of some of the very best from those 13 odd years produced by a winning blend of Young Turk writers Pat Mills, John Wagner, Steve McManus, Mark Andrew and Gerry Finley-Day and stalwarts of the old guard Tom Tully, Eric and Alan Hebden, with art from Colin Page, Pat Wright, Giralt, Carlos Ezquerra, Geoff Campion, Jim Watson, Mike Western, Joe Colquhoun, Eric Bradbury, Mike Dorey, John Cooper and Cam Kennedy.

The strips featured are D-Day Dawson (a sergeant with only a year to live and nothing to lose, by Gerry Finley-Day, Ron Carpenter & Colin Page), Day of the Eagle (a spy serial by ex-SOE agent Eric Hebden and artist Pat Wright), The Bootneck Boy (a little lad who lives his dream by becoming a Marine, by Finley-Day, Ian McDonald & Giralt), and the legendary Dirty Dozen-inspired Rat Pack, by Finley-Day and then featuring some of Carlos Ezquerra’s earliest UK artwork.

Ezquerra also shone on Alan Hebden’s anti-establishment masterpiece Major Eazy, whilst Fighter from the Sky is the first of the comic’s groundbreaking serials telling World War II stories from a German viewpoint. Written by Finley-Day and drawn by the superb Geoff Campion it tells of a disgraced paratrooper fighting for his country, even if they hated him for it.

Hold Hill 109 by Steve McManus and Jim Watson was a bold experiment: basically a limited series as a group of Eighth Army soldiers have to hold back the Afrika Korps for seven days, with each day comprising one weekly episode. Unbelievably only the first three days are collected here, though, as apparently there wasn’t room for the complete saga!

Darkie’s Mob (John Wagner & Mike Western) is another phenomenally well-regarded classic as a mysterious maniac takes over a lost and demoralised squad of soldiers in the Burma jungles intent on using them to punish the Japanese in ways no man could imagine, whilst Finley-Day and Campion’s Panzer G-Man tells of a German tank commander demoted and forced to endure all the dirty jobs foisted on the infantry that follow and Johnny Red, by Tom Tully and the great Joe Colquhoun, follows a discharged RAF pilot who joins the Russian air force to fight over the bloody skies of the Soviet Union.

Joe Two Beans by Wagner and Eric Bradbury follows an inscrutable Blackfoot Indian through the Hellish US Pacific campaign, The Sarge (Finley-Day& Mike Western) follows a WWI veteran as he leads Dunkirk stragglers back to England and then on to North Africa, and Hellman of Hammer Force (Finley-Day, Western, Mike Dorey & Jim Watson) follows a charismatic and decent German tank commander as he fights Germany’s enemies and the SS who want him dead.

Alan Hebden and Eric Bradbury’s Crazy Keller was an US Army maverick who stole, cheated and broke all the rules. He was also the most effective Nazi killer in the invasion of Italy, whilst The General Dies at Dawn saw Finley-Day and John Cooper repeat the miniseries experiment of Hold Hill 109 (this time in eleven instalments each representing one hour – pre-dating Jack Bauer by two decades) as Nazi General and war hero Otto von Margen tells his jailor how he came to be sentenced to the firing squad by his own comrades even as Berlin falls to the allied forces.

I don’t really approve of Charley’s War being in this book. Despite it being the very best war story ever written or drawn, uncompromising and powerfully haunting, as well as Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun’s best ever work, it’s already available in beautiful collector volumes and the fifteen pages here could have been better used to complete Hold Hill 109 or even reprint some of the wonderful Complete-in-one-part war tales the comic often carried.

Enough barracking: Fighting Mann, by Alan Hebden and Cam Kennedy, was the first British strip set in Viet Nam, and followed the hunt of retired US Marine Walter Mann who went “in-country” in 1967 to track down his son, a navy pilot listed as a deserter, and the book concludes with Death Squad!: A kind of German Rat Pack full of Werhmacht criminals sent as a punishment squad to die for the Fatherland in the icy hell of the Eastern Front. Written by Mark Andrew and illustrated by the incomparable Eric Bradbury this is one of the grittiest and most darkly comedic of Battle’s martial pantheon.

This spectacular blend of action, tension and drama, with a heaping helping of sardonic grim wit from both sides of World War II and beyond as well as the unique take on the American soldier, hasn’t paled in the intervening years and these black and white gems are as powerful and engrossing now as they’ve ever been. Fair warning though: Many of the tales here do not conclude. For that you’ll have to campaign for a second volume…

© 2009 Egmont UK Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA: the Tenth Circle – New Fully Revised Review


By John Byrne, Chris Claremont & Jerry Ordway (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-913-1

After battling all manner of contemporary and futuristic foes the World’s Greatest Superheroes found themselves pitted against an ancient malevolence from out of Earth’s oldest nightmares in this sadly lacklustre tale from three of the industry’s biggest talents that originally ran in issues #94-99 of the monthly comic-book.

When team mystic Manitou Raven divines that a great evil has come hunting he is silenced before he can warn his comrades. As Batman and Flash follow a rash of global child disappearances Superman is defeated by a pair of rather unique kids. Comparing notes with other JLA members the heroes discover a pattern of metagenic abductions: someone or something is taking super-powered children…

Meanwhile an enthralled Man of Steel has become the slave – and lunch – of the diabolical vampire lord Crucifer, whose race of undying leeches has been secretly working to conquer the world since their initial defeat by the Amazon warriors of Themyscira thousands of years ago.

And in the background a shady group of freaks and outcasts undertakes their own plan to save the day…

The X-Men team supreme reunited for this supernatural adventure, but their old magic is sorely lacking: Byrne co-writing with Claremont and pencilling for the criminally underappreciated Jerry Ordway to ink and embellish is a far better “look” than “read”.

Comic fans love these sorts of nostalgia stunts, but sadly the results seldom live up to expectations and the result here is a competent but woefully predictable heroes versus vampires yarn that suffers greatly because it’s blatantly obvious that the whole thing is a high-profile, extended gimmick designed to kick-start Byrne’s reinvention of the Doom Patrol, and not really a JLA story at all.

Although competent enough the whole extravaganza is insubstantial and vaguely unsatisfying: Not the kind of book for a casual bystander and no certainly no way to broaden the appeal or range of the comic experience.

© 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Hawkeye


By Mark Gruenwald, Brett Breeding & Danny Bulanadi (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-364-4

In advance of the Best of Hawkeye trade paperback due at year’s end I thought I’d take another look at this little gem from 1988, collecting one of Marvel’s earliest miniseries – 1983 – and one of the very best adventures of Marvel’s Ace Archer, written and drawn by the hugely underrated and much-missed Mark Gruenwald, ably assisted by inkers Brett Breeding and Danny Bulanadi.

Much like the character himself this project was seriously underestimated when it was first released: most of the industry pundits and more voluble fans expected very little from a second-string hero drawn by a professional writer. Boy, were they wrong!

Clint Barton is probably the world’s greatest archer, swift, unerringly accurate and supplemented with a fantastic selection of trick and high-tech arrows. After an early brush with the law as an Iron Man villain he reformed to join the Mighty Avengers, where he served with honour but always felt overshadowed by his more glamorous and super-powered comrades.

In the first chapter here, ‘Listen to the Mockingbird’, he is moonlighting as security chief for an electronics company when he captures a renegade SHIELD agent. She reveals that his bosses are crooks, secretly involved in some shady mind-control experiment.

After some initial doubt he teams with the svelte and sexy super-agent in ‘Point Blank’ to foil the plot, gaining a new costume and a rogues gallery of foes such as Silence, Oddball and Bombshell (part 3, ‘Beating the Odds’) in the process. As the constant hunt and struggle wears on he succumbs to but is not defeated by a physical handicap and wins a wife (not necessarily the same thing) in the concluding ‘Till Death us do Part…’ where the mastermind behind it all is finally revealed and summarily dealt with.

In those far away days both Gruenwald and Marvel Top Gun Jim Shooter always maintained that a miniseries had to deal with significant events in a character’s life, and this bright and breezy, no-nonsense, compelling and immensely enjoyable yarn certainly kicked out the deadwood and re-launched Hawkeye’s career. In short order from here the bowman went on to create and lead his own team: the West Coast Avengers, gain his own regular series in Solo Avengers and later Avengers Spotlight and consequently become one of the most vibrant and popular characters of the period.

I’m unsure how easily you can lay hands on this specific, terrific tale of old-fashioned romance, skullduggery and derring-do, but since its scheduled to be the main portion of the aforementioned collection you shouldn’t have too long to wait.

But oh, the tension, the tension…
© 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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GI Joe: Snake in the Grass – UK Edition


By Chuck Dixon & Robert Atkins (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-424-9

I’ve already admitted to knowing precious little about the forthcoming blockbuster GI Joe movie and I’m prepared to say even less about it. But considered as a memory-drenched toy, cartoon and comics phenomenon of the 1980s it’s probably something that affects most of you ether personally or through family, and certainly doesn’t need any more opinion from me. However the film-promotion machine has generated a couple of splendid new comics adventures (see GI Joe: the Rise of Cobra: Official Movie Prequel) and I’m more than happy to babble on about them…

In case you were wondering: GI Joe is the operating name for an American covert, multi-disciplinary espionage and military intervention force that draws its members from all branches of the services. At the time of these tales it is just setting up, as is a super-secret society called Cobra that appears bent on World Domination. Neither organisation is aware of the other…

This volume collects the first six issues – plus the teaser #0 – from IDW comics and tells a refreshingly straightforward, full-on battle-romp, courtesy of scripter Chuck Dixon and artist Robert Atkins.

As the new ultra-covert GI Joe team are setting up their hidden subterranean desert base The Pit, a new super-technological device in an impenetrable crate is recovered from a mysteriously sunken freighter. Transferring it to the Pit might just be the biggest mistake the strike force ever makes…

Meanwhile high-end arms dealer Nico Mandirobilis finds himself on the run from a teleporting assassin sent by a disgruntled client: the sinister covert cabal called Cobra. As a Joe team is dispatched to round him up, the thing – or things – in the crate break loose, tearing the Pit to Shrapnel and making for the surface where they can transmit all the Joes files to their masters…

And at the same time high-tech and insufferably independent weaponsmith Destro discovers an unwelcome guest in The Baroness, who wants nothing more than to see him die…

This tense, twisty thriller is as high on suspense as action, with chases, battles and double-crosses a-plenty, but everything might just turn on the choices and actions of renegade Joe Snake Eyes, who slips ninja-like into and out of the picture, bent on a mission all his own…

It’s often tricky to transfer the sheer pace and spectacle of a summer blockbuster into a readable comicbook but Dixon and Atkins pull it off with great style in a manner that can be happily enjoyed by all but the very youngest of kids as well as their nostalgia-jazzed dads.

© 2009 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

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Fushigi Circus – the Art of Mark Ryden


By Mark Ryden (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-720-4

Ever heard anybody say “That’s not art, it’s just a pile of…?”

Well, the Modern Art scene gets more interesting every day for adherents of narrative imagery and representationalism as craft, skill and imagination return to the forefront of bankable talents. Here’s another sumptuous collection from a well-respected artist whose particular contribution to the Lowbrow or Pop Surrealism movement centres on sumptuous, richly-hued paintings which blend the icons of childhood with startlingly disturbing, often sexually charged images of innocence and innocents: wide eyed, searching, ineffably sad or mysteriously resigned to a fate we can only suppose.

The visual components of each painting are carefully selected and positioned, but always with the intention of leaving the viewer unsettled…

Mark Ryden comes from a long line of artists and worked for the last decade as an illustrator, producing book covers for the likes of Stephen King and record covers for Ringo Starr, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Jackson. His work is reminiscent in style to classic Salvador Dali.

Ryden was educated at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, graduating in 1987 with a Batchelor’s Degree in Fine Art. And that’s where his first one man exhibition “The Meat Show” debuted in 1998.

He came to prominence with regular features in Lowbrow art magazines such as Juxtapoz and has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Santa Ana. Recent shows have included the retrospective “Wondertoonel” and the quirky tour de force “The Tree Show” – paintings and sculptures to 2007-2008.)

Like many contemporary artists Ryden works across many media, illustrating the guitar of Metallica front-man Kirk Hammett, producing tattoo art for Aerosmith’s “Pump” album and designing custom action-figures for Michael Leavitt’s the Art Army.

Ryden’s incredible virtuosity with pigments would have made him a star whatever he concentrated his efforts, but the eye-popping creepy explorations of beauty, childhood and popular culture which can be found in his book collections the Art of Mark Ryden: Anima Mundi (2001), Bunnies and Bees (2002), Wondertoonel Paintings (2004), Blood Show (2005), The Tree Show (2009) and this glorious high-end hardback have won him a devoted following among folk who respond well to fantasy and social enquiry: i.e. people like you…

Fushigi Circus was originally released in 2006 for the Japanese market and this beautiful Cloth-of-Bronze, bound hardback collects fifty five of his early works, featuring, of course, chilling, teary-eyed moppets, scary babies, fluffy cuddly monsters, Gothic horror spoofs and his series of brilliantly observed, witty celebrity paintings ranging from the most nightmarish Teletubbies ever envisioned through Sarah Michelle Geller and Leonardo DiCaprio to Björk and Jimi Hendrix.

Now released for the English speaking world – although sans English text and some of the pictures appear a mite small for my tired-yet-eager old eyes – this lovely volume is bound to win the creator many more fans – especially among the eccentric pool of addicts that make comics and cartoons their vice of choice.
© 2006 Mark Ryden/PIE BOOKS. US edition © 2009 Mark Ryden/Porterhouse. All Rights Reserved.

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Justice League Elite volume 2


By Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-632-0

Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen continue their examination of morality and necessity in the concluding volume of Justice League Elite (collecting issues #5-12 of the controversial series) as the assemblage of undercover heroes strives to cope with the poisonous nature of their black ops missions whilst holding on to the tattered shreds of their honour and integrity in a world so dark and seemingly beyond their control.

Multi-part saga ‘The Aftermath’ looks into the past of the energy wielding Coldcast, as the heroes infiltrate his own brother’s gang: a small-time mob of ordinary thugs with unexplained connections to alien narcotics and weaponry, whilst magician Manitou Raven makes some unwise bargains as he seeks the identity of the team-member who murdered the dictator of Changsha (in volume 1). Major Disaster succumbs to the constant pressure by going on a booze-and-drugs fuelled bender and Vera endures some very disturbing, persistent nightmares before their sting-operation brings them all into conflict with the out-of-the-loop Justice Society of America.

Parts 3 and 4 see the beginning of the end, and as is so often the case, infidelity between people who should know better starts the ball rolling. When the covert team finally meets the extraterrestrial mastermind behind the off-world contraband they discover just how hostile aliens can be, how duplicitous and self-serving humans are and, as a team mate dies, just how bad things can get…

‘Poison’ sees the guilt-ridden adulterers attempt to come to terms with their betrayal and someone finally confess to the murder that aborted the experiment before it began. Meanwhile Flash is super-quickly dying from a hideous toxin, assassin Kasumi reveals her true identity and human overseer and Naif al-Sheikh calls in the JLA Proper to end their missions for good.

The three part ‘Eve of Destruction’ finds the Elite in JLA custody, but far too late as the beast that has been possessing Vera erupts in a devastating orgy of destruction, giving the miserable failures one last spectacular chance to atone for all the harm their misguided efforts have caused in a classic, stirring epic of redemption.

Whether you like your heroes dark or shiny, this exploration of the ethics and morality of superhuman endeavour will address points you’ve never considered, and since the creators never forget that all that philosophy is “added value”, it’s all wrapped up in a tremendously rousing, intoxicating epic of superb writing and wonderful illustration. Enjoyment, Elucidation and Education: how can you resist?

© 2005, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Best Erotic Comics 2009


By various, edited by Greta Christina (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-711-2

Erotica, it must be said, is in the mind – and not even the eye – of the beholder. This second collection of the year’s best erotic comics casts a broad net and again comes up with a fantastic display of superbly varied strips and creators all addressing our most fundamental drive – and I don’t mean double-bagging Angel and the Ape or Wonder Woman comics… oh I don’t know, though…

I’m trying to be vague and alluring here (all but impossible – ask anyone who’s seen me) so I’ll simply list the contents and see what that gets us, but first let me trot out my usual disclaimer/warning.

This book contains stories and images of an adult nature, specifically designed for adult consumption, and the kind of coarse and vulgar language that most kids have used by the age of ten. If reading about such things is likely to offend you, please stop now and go away. Tomorrow I’ll write about something with violence and explosions, so come back then. Please.

This large and copious softcover features stories about all aspects, preferences and interpretations of consensual sex in both stark black and white and lush, lavish colour, and it all kicks off with three short comedic true-story strips from Erika Moen, specifically ‘Odd Things that Made Me Orgasm’, ‘Helping Hands’ and ‘Boobs’, promptly followed by ‘Insatiable Fuck Tart’, the first of eight single page, outrageously faux, classified sex ads from Ellen Forney. ‘Torn’ is a delightful switch on the conventional dating game from Niki Smith, followed by Ellen Forney’s ‘Devilish Desires’.

It might surprise you to learn that there is a shortage of good quality smut. To obviate the shortage Editor Greta Christina has been forced to use occasional older pieces and “Hall of Fame” material where appropriate. One such is Rick Altergott’s uncompromising ‘Mile High Club’, which is followed by ‘I Can Take It’, a chilling look at the dark edges of gay love, with the tension-breaking Ellen Forney’s ‘My French Maid’

I went to a Catholic School so it takes a lot to unsettle me – at least in comic book terms – but the excerpted sections of Robin Bougie’s ‘Down with Herpes’ came quite close. The feature is an illustrated hand-lettered series of reviews of extreme cult and bondage porn films, and it’s not the strip but the films themselves that gave me pause. Consider yourself warned.

Cephalopod Productions comes next with a quirky nostalgic gag-spread cartoonishly capturing the hidden delights of old New York in ‘Broadway Laffs’, then ‘Hairy Girl’ by Forney and the hilarious ‘Wild Girls’ by Jessica Fink, a cute cautionary tale entitled ‘Blowing Head Gaskets’ by Molly Kiely, Forney’s ‘Brad Pitt Fantasy’ and a terrific gay Satanist, zombie love story ‘Dem Bones’ from writer/artist Drub (I’m sure we’ve left no stone un-offended by now!)

The wonderful Alison Bechdel’s ‘The Honeymooners’ is a welcome Hall of Fame classic followed by ‘Screw M Relentlessly’ from Forney and ‘Mantras’ a superbly polemical and thought-provoking piece on sexual politics by Steve MacIsaac using a powerfully effective three colour palette. Diego Greco & Erdosain combine to produce a good old fashioned bonking yarn in the lavish, full-colour ‘Predator’, whilst Adrian Tomine contributes ‘Ginger B’, a Dirty Found exhibit (Dirty Found means a sexually charged object or image that has been discovered in everyday life rather than created by an artist to order), the legendary Peter Kuper contributes the incredible ‘Dirty Beauty’, Gary Baseman paints ‘The Devil’s Playground’ and the magnificent Toshio Saeki reinterprets classical Pillow Book illustrations in his seven fabulous ‘Youren’ illustrations.

John Cuneo graphically illustrates ‘Why I Went to Art School’, Quinn’s ‘Bad Girl Triptych’ demonstrates the cutting edge of experimental painting and Christy C. Road shows how to ‘Reclaim Your Self’, before Steve MacIsaac returns with another marvellous thriller ‘Safe’.

‘April 2005 – A Thought Diorama’ is a terrific piece of design and a cracking commentary on modern romance, Belasco’s ‘Th’ Floodgates’ is a racially-charged but straightforward gay porn story, Christy C. Road returns with the intriguing ‘Content and Disorderly’ and the masterful Gilbert Hernandez makes a Hall of Fame appearance with ‘I Won’t Forget’; an excerpt from his landmark Birdland series. ‘Scenes from the Revolution!’ is another nostalgic gag-spread from Cephalopod Productions; ‘Be My BDSM Tutor’ is another ad from Ellen Forney whilst Marzia Borino & Mauro Balloni’s ‘One Night Stand’ is a nice cautionary tale about pick-ups and bars.

‘Olé!’ by Andrea Camic is a smart little thriller about a matador, a bull and the woman who loved them, whilst ‘Butch and Petey’ is a hysterical excerpt from Jim Goad & Jim Blanchard’s unmissable redneck pastiche Trucker Fags in Denial. Cover artist Junko Mizuno is further represented by ‘You Can’t Keep Fooling Me’, selected pages from her Pure Trance collection and this torrid tome closes with ‘Nibbil’s Birthday’, a charming fantasy from Colleen Coover.

With creator biographies that include directions to more fine adult fare this is a stupendous slice of contemporary rude cartooning and a delightfully innocuous read for the liberal minded. Just don’t tell your Gran, okay?

Entire contents © 2009 Last Gasp. All Rights Reserved.

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GI Joe: the Rise of Cobra: Official Movie Prequel – UK Edition


By Chuck Dixon & SL Gallant (Panini Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-426-3

I know very little about the movie blockbuster GI Joe and I’m prepared to say even less about it. As a nostalgia-charged toy, animated cartoon and comics sensation of the 1980s the franchise is probably carrying enough baggage to cripple a half-track, and certainly doesn’t need any more opinion from me. However the film-Promotion Machine has generated a couple of new comics adventures and I’m more than happy to babble on about them.

First up is the Official Movie Prequel trade paperback which collects a four issue miniseries, each chapter relating an individual exploit of one of the franchise’s major players. All are written with adrenaline-addictive passion – and a fair bit of tongue-in-cheek wit – by gung-ho action-meister Chuck Dixon with superbly gritty and realistically understated art from SL Gallant.

In case you were wondering: GI Joe is the operating name for an American covert, multi-disciplinary espionage and military intervention force that draws its members from all branches of the Services. At the time of these tales it is just setting up, as is a super-secret society called Cobra that appears set on World Domination. Neither organisation is aware of the other…

Chapter 1 focuses on dedicated soldier Duke Hauser, relating a covert insertion into a “friendly” South American nation where rebels have found a way to interfere with US Military Satellites. Ever the total professional, Duke accomplishes the op with guns blazing and meets the man who will one day recruit him for “the Joes”…

The Scots of Clan McCullen have been weapon makers and arms-dealers for centuries. The Lairds of Destro are seen here learning salutary lessons from some less reputable and distinguished clients such as the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and modern day terrorists. The current Destro will be a pivotal part of Cobra – if not a willing participant in all their schemes…

The Baroness is one of the deadliest women alive, and her high-octane adventure finds her seducing an oil sheik, battling warriors and wild beasts and even dying for her cause…or does she?

This slim tome, power-packed with thrills, concludes with an early mission for mute American ninja Snake Eyes who has to rescue the Vice-President (and a bunch of other, less important, foreign dignitaries) from Eco terrorists determined to flood half of Russia by blowing up the world’s largest hydro-electric dam…

These are no-nonsense, stripped-down blockbuster style plots: lean, clean and designed to thrill, and as such they are some of the best of their kind that I’ve ever seen. Slick, efficient and clever with breakneck pace and still room for humour, these are just what the doctor – or perhaps battlefield surgeon – ordered.
© 2009 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. © 2009 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Creatures of Habit – the Art of Joe Ledbetter


By Joe Ledbetter (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-718-1

When you were a kid watching cartoons did you ever imagine that one day you could justify your simple pleasures by telling the nay-sayers and terminally unhip that you were a student of serious, capital “A” Art?

It’s happened twice in my lifetime: first in the mid-1960s when Pop Art stormed the bastions of haughty institutionalised snobbery and Stan Lee briefly re-dubbed his fledgling House of Ideas “Marvel Pop Art Productions” and it’s happening again now with the West Coast-led “Lowbrow” or Pop Surrealist Movement.

This highly colourful, multi-media, exceedingly commercialised new trend (as well as the art itself, many creators sell Designer original art apparel and especially toys based on their creations) blends baby-boomer memories of cartoons, comics, television, toys, monster-movies and a million other empty, unforgettable delights into a high gloss, stunningly lavish exploration of modern culture.

A major exponent of the last few years is Joe Ledbetter.

In truth Ledbetter, although highly popular, prolific and much sought after, is only on the periphery of the movement, and a close examination of this beautiful hardback collection of his paintings from 2004-2008 will show why and how he usually follows his own instincts. Adopting the techniques, style and form of cute animal animation, Ledbetter is less interested in examining society and the nostalgia it has generated, and more with revisiting the themes that permeate his source material.

In cartoons kids see that looking distinctive, being mighty and constantly proving your mettle is all that counts. Ledbetter, with his highly stylised, recurring cast of characters; a big-eyed, floppy-eared, rainbow coloured, many-tentacled, fuzzy repertory company combines startling design and composition with a sly, wry inquiry that gently asks the observer to think while awash in a tide of practically tribal, if not heraldic, combative imagery.

Surreal, yes, Absurd, of course, and so very subtly Subversive: rendered with superlative craftsmanship and always at the intersection of graphic design and the elevated Gallery Culture of art, there’s a keen eye and a chiding questioning behind all these superbly punchy and dynamic images. Ledbetter is making the popular street iconography of the 21st century in just the same manner as Vaughn Bodé did with his comic strips in the latter half of the 20th.

It’s the art of the Everyman and you will be seeing it everywhere: when he’s Joe Public you’ll be glad you picked up this magical Ledbetter collection as the wave started to crest…
© 2009 Joe Ledbetter. All Rights Reserved.
To see more images go to joeledbetter.com