Author: NowReadThis

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The Best of Cat Girl


By Giorgio Giorgetti, Ramzee, Elkys Nova, anonymous & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78618-585-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Here’s another superb lost treasure of British comics finally getting some of the attention its always deserved. Of course, that statement only applies if you are male and old. Just like every place on Earth that puttered along obliviously until a white guy stuck a flag in it, I’d imagine the girls who bought Sally back then had no problem appreciating the thrilling travails of young Cathy Carter who donned a literal catsuit to prowl our nation’s smoky rooftops in search of villainy to crush and people to help.

In terms of variety, emotional quality and respect for the readership’s intelligence, experience and development, British girls’ periodicals were always far more in tune with the target audience, and I wish now that I’d been more open-minded and paid more attention back then…

It’s certainly an attitude modern editors have embraced. Since 2016, Rebellion Studios has been commemorating the best of a very large bunch in assorted curated reprint archives – and even some new material – as part of its Best of… and Treasury of British Comics strands, as well as ongoing Judge Dredd/2000 AD publications.

Sally was a colourful, adventure-themed Girls weekly from London-based IPC (formerly Fleetway): running 94 anthological issues from June 14th 1969, before merging with juvenile juggernaut Tammy in 1971. The Sally brand of strange tales survived until 1976 through Christmas Annuals (6 of them). The title relied heavily on mystery and action strips such as Schoolgirl Princess, Justine, the Winged Messenger of Justice, Maisie’s Magic Eye and today’s star turn, The Cat Girl…

Another unmissable gem from days gone by, and re-presenting serialised thrills spanning June 1969 to mid-1970, this collection features yet another kitty-clad costumed crusader to augment Billy the Cat and Katie (The Beano), The Cat (June), The Cat (Bunty), Peter the Cat (Score & Roar), The Leopard from Lime Street (Buster) and others. Of course, this lass is exceptionally well-produced and memorable…

Whereas the writer is sadly unknown to us, these detective delights were sublimely illustrated by Italian émigré/UK comics stalwart Giorgio Giorgetti (Rat-Trap, House of Dolmann, Mam’selle X, Jump, Jump, Julia, and many others). He was swift and prolific, tackling newspaper strips, book illustration and seen almost constantly in titles including Mirabelle, Girl’s Crystal, Tammy, Jinty, Sally, Katy, June and School Friend as well as for general interest comics like Shiver & Shake and Look and Learn. He died far too early, in 1982.

I mentioned that these recovered memories have inspired new stories, and this enticing, mostly monochrome tome opens with a modern, full-colour revival of the feline fury, courtesy of writer Ramzee (FAB, LDN), artist Elkys Nova (Roy of the Rovers), colourist Pippa Bowland & letterer Simon Bowland.

Taken from 2020’s Tammy & Jinty Special and set in the present, ‘Cat Girl Returns’ sees single parent police inspector Cathy Cooper trailing murderous kidnappers/diamond thieves, covertly assisted by her daughter Claire.

The precocious kid has found an old cat “onesie” in mum’s closet that comes with a mask and imparts actual feline superpowers upon her…

Karl Stock’s full and comprehensive illustrated fact-feature on ‘Giorgio Giorgetti – The Cat Girl Artist’ – also from the T & J Special – closes this collection as part of a bonus section of creator biographies, but between those poles lurk a quintet of quirky, “kitchen-sink” superhero sagas utterly unlike anything the Americans were attempting at the time…

Girls’ comics always had a history of addressing modern social ills and issues but this “Girls Juvenile Periodical” viewed events and characters through a lens of soap opera criminality and casual mysticism. It was also one of the best-drawn comics ever seen…

Heading back to a time before mobile phones and social media, a widower tries to combine solo parenting with keeping his business afloat. Mr. Carter is a private detective slowly going under because he’s obsessed with a mysterious gangland mastermind.

Typically – in a classic early example of what we now know as Mental and Emotional Loads for women – young Cathy pretty much runs the home and keeps him going, whilst fretting over ways to help him more. She gets her chance after cleaning the attic and stumbling over a strange garment sent from Africa by a grateful and satisfied client. It was hidden inside a puzzle box Dad couldn’t get open…

Helpless to resist its weird appeal, Cathy dons the gear and realises it’s instantly made her stronger, faster, more agile, supernaturally sensitive and alert. It’s even given her claws and the ability to communicate with cats – and when she does it, they listen…

Soon ‘The Cat Girl’ (14th June – 2nd August 1969) is secretly supervising Carter’s cases, watching his back and fighting crime to help get ahead of the mounting bills. The first exploit sees him crack a massive insurance scam engineered by the hidden mastermind, who then targets his true nemesis prior to a major raid on a stately home…

Cat Girl constantly outwits sinister foe ‘The Eagle’, who returns for more in a second adventure (running from 9th August – 13th September) that sees her put all the clues together to scupper a huge mail train robbery.

Sadly, in the process the scurvy schemer deduces her secret. Abducting the kid, Eagle tests her almost to destruction whilst seeking to steal her powers. He does succeed in mesmerising her into becoming a tool in his wicked arsenal, but is still outwitted at the end…

The Cooper’s third performance here spans 24th January and 21st March 1970. Their star had risen, and Dad’s far more prosperous and prestigious agency is engaged to locate stolen gems lost during a major robbery. Meanwhile, Cathy quietly toils to clear the name of a performer seemingly possessing all the skills of the svelte vigilante…

Acrobatic Betty Breton claims she has been framed for stealing her theatre show’s takings, but there’s a far more complicated game in play, one requiring Cathy going undercover as a ‘Theatre Cat’ When her super-suit is swiped, both Cooper cases converge and a grim grand scheme is exposed…

In the aftermath of public acclaim, ace criminologist Cooper and his kid are invited to South America by flashy, wealthy CEO Mr. Barton. He wants them to capture infamous bandit El Sorro, whose extortion racket is cutting into Monza Oil’s vast profits, but Cathy learns a slightly different story when lodging with the Carlos family and befriending their daughter Mario.

Running 28th March to 30th May, this exotic extravaganza sees our schoolgirl hero infiltrating the bandit gang as ‘El Catto’, only to inadvertently expose and compromise her dad’s investigations whilst rapidly rising in the rogues ranks.

Only after a succession of astounding feats and incredible ventures does the masked “boy” (because no girl could fight like El Catto does) bring down the gang, save Dad and earn the eternal gratitude of Monza Oil and the common folk…

One final foray comes in a self-contained extended tale from Sally Annual 1971 (released in Autumn 1970), with Cathy countermanding Dad’s wishes and joining a travelling carnival. Her stint as acrobatic aerialist ‘Circus Cat’ is to help trapeze artist Kay Katoni, who can’t keep narrowly escaping a series of bizarre and potentially fatal “accidents” forever. It doesn’t take long for the feline flyer to divine who’s got it in for Kay and why…

This engaging and tremendously compelling tome is another glorious celebration of a uniquely compelling phenomenon of British comics and one that has stood the test of time and still adhered to the prime directive of UK costumed champions: “all British superheroes must be weird and off-kilter”.

Don’t miss this chance to get in on something truly special and sublimely entertaining…
© 1969, 1970, 2020 & 2022 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved. The Cat Girl and all related characters, distinctive likenesses and relevant elements featured in this publication are trademarks of Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd.

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I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi


By Gina Siciliano (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: ?978-1-68396-211-3 (HB/Digital edition)

A denizen of Seattle, Gina Siciliano studied at Pacific Northwest College of Art and has worked as a musician and bookseller whilst self-publishing highly personal comics such as Summertime. In 2019 she released her first graphic novel, a compelling and comprehensive pictorial biography and sociological reassessment of a figure who has become of late a hard-fought-over darling of art historians and feminists.

In recent years, Artemisia Gentileschi has become the desired property of many factions, all seeking to bend her life and mould her struggles and triumphs to fit their beliefs, opinions, and agendas, almost as much as kings, clerics and merchant princes sought to own her paintings whilst she was alive.

Monumental and scholarly, meticulously researched and refined from what is often too much conflicting information and assumptions, this utterly absorbing account successfully restores some humanity and a portion of muddled, day-by-day dancing to stay alive and ahead of the game desperation that must surely have preoccupied the gifted but generally powerless woman under all those layers of heaped-up symbolism…

I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi is an earnest, incredibly engaging narrative built on (whenever possible) first hand quotes and primary sources, whilst also employing some reasonable speculation, extrapolation, and narrative dramatization, all delivered via ball-point pen illustration deriving from Artemisia’s own great works and other contemporary art sources.

Author’s Preface ‘Making New Worlds Out of Old Worlds’ shares Siciliano’s motivations which sparked the project whilst drawing appropriate parallels between creators as subjects of study and how renaissance Europe strangely resonates with modern #MeToo society. Think of it as “A girl artist in 21st century Seattle writes about a girl artist in 17th century Rome…”

The narrative tracks the life of professional artist Orazio Gentileschi and his extended family of jobbing artisans, paying particular – but not exclusive – attention to his daughter Artemisia. Here we see her immediate ancestors and influences: seeing her grow from anonymous assistant to celebrated painter in her own right in a society where women were property, sex objects, servants, bargaining chips or worthless.

As the 17th century opened, art – especially painting – had matchless force as currency and proof of power, with royalty and even Popes commissioning religious, classical and mythological works. There was an especial value to images incorporating beautiful – usually partially clothed – women. That Artemisia used herself as a model and sold many, many biblical scenes will provide a clue to the other recurring motif in her life; how so many men sought to possess her…

A story equal parts sordid, infuriating, shockingly unjust and ultimately just like so many others is shared in Parts I, II and III as the childhood, working life, constant betrayals and eventual passing of one of Europe’s greatest art makers is unpicked in forensic detail and with an empathy that is simply astounding. It’s not dry history here, it’s life in the raw…

Moreover, you’ll soon grasp how multifarious levels of politicking from family dynamics to the whims of kings shapes the lives of ordinary people, no matter how talented they are or of worth to the wealthy…

The compelling melodrama of Artemisia’s struggles are augmented by a ‘Reference section’ comprising a truly massive prose-&-picture section of ‘Notes’, offering context, commentary, specific factual detail plus clarification or speculation. It also expands on general points of detail brought up by the main illustrated narrative and provides candid guidance to Siciliano’s own interpretations of a life now fully co-opted by history-writers seeking to validate their own viewpoints.

Should you seek further fuel for discourse – and yes, I did deliberately avoid mentioning the infamous, attention-diverting rape (because everyone else hasn’t) – there’s a copious and colossal ‘Bibliography’ to work through on your own time.

Passionate, enlightening, emphatically empathetic and unforgettable, this is a book for all seasons and all humans wanting to learn from the past and form a fitter future.
All characters, stories, and artwork © 2019 Gina Siciliano. This edition of I Know What I Am © Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Leiji Matsumoto’s Queen Emeraldas volume 1


By Leiji Matsumoto, translated by Zack Davisson & lettered by Evan Hayden (Kodansha/Kodansha USA)
ISBN: 978-1-63236-267-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68233-370-9

Nobody does comics science fiction like the Japanese – although for sheer tight-lipped underplayed drama I’d still place Sydney Jordan’s Jeff Hawk, Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare and most of Warren Ellis’ SF work ahead of even Manga’s greatest masters…

And, of course, there’s all those European creators too…

Nevertheless, in the tech-obsessed Pacific regions, tough, no-nonsense, nuts-and-bolts mystery and bold imagination of the myriad wonders of star flight have long been blended with fancifully romantic futuristic themes. The theme has captivated every generation since Osamu Tezuka started the ball rolling after WWII, making space commonplace and conceptually comfortable for us all.

One of the most talented and respected proponents of the genre was Akira “Leiji” Matsumoto (25 January 1938 – 13 February 2023) whose epic triumphs in manga and anime ranged from wholly self-created graphic landmarks as Space Battleship Yamato! (AKA Starblazers), Galaxy Express 999 and Space Pirate Captain Harlock to directing music videos and an animated film Interstella 5555, based on Daft Punk’s Discovery album.

Born fourth of seven sons in Korume, Fukuoka, little Akira started drawing early, influenced by American cartoons, prose science fiction stories and, latterly, Tezuka’s comics and anime. Aged 18, Matsumoto moved to Tokyo where his professional career began with Mitsubachi no bōken in anthology magazine Manga Shōnen.

He worked in a variety of genres (student drama Otoko Oidon, comedy western Gun Frontier and WWII stories collective dubbed The Cockpit amongst others) until 1974 when Uchū Senkan Yamato launched. As Cosmoship Yamato or Space Battleship Yamato, the epic saga became a huge hit on paper and on-screen, setting the course of Matsumoto’s entire career…

A further 24 series followed until 2014: many linked via a shared universe and characterised by melancholic musing and a quasi-metaphysical search for heroism and one’s place in the grand scheme of creation. Here we’re focussing on a saga that grew out of Space Pirate Captain Harlock, developed from a one-off story in 1975’s Princess magazine.

Matsumoto expanded the tale into a drama serialised in Weekly Shōnen Magazine between 1978-1979, before it was collected in 4 tankōbon volumes and the usual leap to anime. For us English-readers, two large-format hardback comics volumes were released in 2016 and 2017, both with digital equivalents.

Queen Emeraldas is a haunted quest tale, told in poetic episodes played out across a harsh, positively Darwinian future universe quite reminiscent of the Earth’s wild west. It follows the adventures of scrappy Earth boy Hiroshi Umino who escapes a brutal life of poverty by building his own ramshackle and highly illegal spaceship.

The scruff is afflicted with a relentless desire to escape into “the sea of stars”, and his frequent hairsbreadth escapes are noticed – and clandestinely supported – by the eerily enigmatic, utterly isolated and lethally ruthless Pirate Queen of Space. Dreaded across the universe, Emeraldas hunts for something or someone long lost – but not forgotten – and whenever she makes planetfall, the rich, cruel, callous or simply wicked somehow always perish in her wake…

Her interventions keep Umino alive after crashing on Mars, and again after taking ship for Ganymede, despite the machinations of numerous bent employers and ruthless killers who just don’t like the feisty tyke. As a rule, the few that do also end up dead…

Gradually, competing stories unfold, with his incessant, compulsive striving to get into space mirroring Emeraldas’ lonely relentless search. The cause of her scarred face and origins of her incredible semi-sentient wonder vessel are revealed, as the lad makes his way further and further from despised Earth. Along the way, he learns to be strong and independent… and how to kill…

Singly, bolshy boy and black sky buccaneer encounter wild worlds and deviant, decadent civilisations. Hiroshi secures plans for the universe’s most perfect spaceship as the Queen of Space gradually eliminates the worst scum in creation – from killer androids to corrupt lawmen to a racist supremacist eradicating every imperfect citizen he rules over. Ultimately, their paths converge at the Graveyard of Space where Emeraldas rescues Umino from the lures of predatory space sirens…

To Be Continued…

Closing this exotic, intriguing, inspirational initial volume is a brace of short stories from 1980’s Shōnen Magazine #3 & 4: opening in her chance encounter with a race of slaves who reject her aid, after which ‘Dead or Alive! “Queen Emeraldas”’ finds her eradicating traitor pirate Heimdall, who has become a government stooge hunting down his old comrades…

Mystical, poetic, elegiac and iconic, these stellar sagas are as much mythological fable as rip-roaring adventure, starring one of the most determinedly potent and tragically powerful women in all of science fiction. This above all his other triumphs is a lasting testament to the creative legacy of Leiji Matsumoto.
A Kodansha Comics Original Queen Emeraldas volume 1 © 2009 Leiji Matsumoto. English translation © 2016 Leiji Matsumoto All rights reserved.

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Lady Killer volume 1


By Joëlle Jones, Jamie S. Rich, Laura Allred & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-757-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

1962 was a strangely portentous and memorable year.

We all nearly died in a Cuban-based mushroom cloud; the United States Supreme Court ruled mandatory prayers in public schools were unconstitutional; The Beatles released their debut single Love Me Do and Vivian Vance became the first person to portray a divorcée on a US TV series (The Lucy Show).

Elsewhere, paragon of femininity and American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy took television viewers on an intimate tour of the White House.

Way back then in a cosy era of prim, proper and perfectly contented wives and mothers, Josie Schuller is a bit of an oddball – although you’d never know it to look at her. In all ways she certainly looks like she always fitted in…

In a boldly thrusting consumer culture when men wear hats and smoke at work (and everywhere else), proper ladies are pliable, pliant, obedient and admirable deferential “homemakers” whose appearance and conformity are paramount. Sadly, Josie is shamefully keeping a secret from hubby Gene, their two adorable kids and especially her nosy live-in mother-in-law.

The busybody biddy has her suspicions though: a strange man is always hanging around, trying to talk to Josie when no one’s looking, and Mother Schuller suspects the shameful worst…

Her nasty mind might be relieved to know that her daughter-by-marriage is not cheating on her beloved boy, but merely indulging in a little freelance work on the side… although of course, even that would reflect badly on the breadwinner and Man of the House.

No, it’s not illicit sex that’s endangering this perfect union. Our deceitful little minx is just a covert assassin and really, really good at her job…

Unfortunately, Josie wants to leave the business, but her increasingly obnoxious handler Peck and his boss Stenholm keep piling on the pressure: forcing Josie to take on more and more contracts, with no regard to the happy home-life she wants to preserve.

Eventually, the devotedly domestic death-dealer decides that her dreams mean nothing to her employers and – after she’s despatched to dispatch another lady similarly seeking to quit the lethal game – Josie realises that if she ever gets to retire, she’s going to have to remove the organisation that owns her…

Devised and illustrated by Joëlle Jones (Catwoman, Wonder Girl, Mr. Higgins Come Home, Supergirl: Being Super, Fables), scripted by Jamie S. Rich (Ares & Aphrodite, Cut My Hair, Archer Coe and the Way to Dusty Death, It Girl and the Atomics, Justice League: Endless Winter) and coloured by Laura Allred, this wickedly witty satirical blow for femininity and feminism collects issues #1-5 of Lady Killer from January-May 2015.

By mischievously mauling the virginal, compliant stereotypes handed down to us from the heydays of Doris Day, Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet – by way of Mad Men and Bullet Train – the creators have crafted a fast-paced high-octane period thriller which is a true joy to behold.

Bedded in with a wealth of additional material including an Introduction from crime-writer Chelsea Cain, roughs, working studies, faux contemporary ads, cover-&-variants gallery and commentary from the creators in a stylish Sketchbook section, this taut, timeless and tantalising thriller is packed with pots of action and swathes of suspense delivered with electric Élan and perilous panache to delight every reader who loves their comedy black and their body-counts high.

Read this quietly and make no fuss, and if you’re all good boy and girls and others, I’ll let you in on the shocking sequels…
Lady Killer ™ & © 2015 by Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich. All rights reserved.

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Uncanny X-Men: Sisterhood


By Matt Fraction, Greg Land, Yanick Paquette, Terry Dodson, Jay Leisten, Karl Story & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4105-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

Ever since the spectacular “All-New” revival of 1975, Marvel’s Mutant franchise has always strongly featured powerful and often controversial female characters, and the balance has never rested solely on the side of light.

For every valiant woman – or indeed super-powered, cutely-conflicted teenage girl – fighting the good fight, there has been a shady lady playing for the dark side. This compendium – re-presenting Uncanny X-Men #508-512, and spanning cover-dates June to August 2009 – primarily features a colossal clash between the maligned, misunderstood mutant mavericks and a dastardly coterie of extremely wicked women warriors, whilst also offering a fascinating insight into the occluded history of one of the endangered species’ most enigmatic survivors…

At this point in time, the evolutionary offshoot dubbed Homo Sapiens Superior was at its lowest ebb. As seen in both House of M and Decimation storylines, Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff had been ravaged by madness and her own reality-warping powers and – with three simple words – “No More Mutants” – reduced Earth’s multi-million plus mutant population to a couple of hundred individuals…

Most of the remaining genetic outsiders accepted a generous and earnest offer to relocate to San Francisco but, of course, trouble was always happy to make long-distance house calls…

Scripted throughout by Matt Fraction, 4-part saga ‘Sisterhood’– illustrated by Greg Land, Jay Leisten & colourist Justin Ponsor – opens following the shocking news of a massacre in Cooperstown, Alaska. Terrorists have razed the isolated outpost to burning rubble thanks to reports that the first mutant baby since The Decimation had been born there…

Anti-mutant activist and passionate bigot Simon Trask is quick to stir the flames of panic and prejudice with his Humanity Now Coalition pushing the government to end the threat of mutants forever. As hysteria mounts, even previously neutral outcasts start making their way to the mutant enclave of the Greymalkin Industries Facility on the Marin Headlands. However, even with an ever-growing host of feared and despised genetic pariahs housed in her city and the entire population potentially at risk from fanatics and mutant-hunters, Mayor Sadie Sinclair stands firm on her offer of sanctuary…

The dark drama continues in a secluded private cemetery in Tokyo as the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants disinter a body. They are interrupted by probability-bending sometime X-ally Domino whose main talent seems to be landing in the wrong place at the right time.

Sadly, even her odds-altering powers and superspy training are not enough to stop the grave-robbing, and Regan and Martinique Wyngarde (daughters of malevolent illusion-caster Mastermind), psychic assassin Chimera, cyborg assassin Lady Deathstrike, extra-dimensional witch Spiral and the infernal spirit of Red Queen Madelyne Pryor escape with the corpse of legendary ninja Kwannon…

In San Francisco, Henry McCoy convenes his newly convened X-Club: a unique think tank comprising human geneticist Kavita Rao, mutant tech-savant Madison Jeffries, atomic mutation expert Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi and former Nazi-hunting mutant mystery man James Bradley – AKA Doctor Nemesis.

The Beast carefully outlines their goal: finding a means to reactivate and restore the millions of mutants “cured” by the Scarlet Witch. Their first session quickly concludes that she has somehow switched off the power-sparking “X-Gene” in the majority of the mutant population, but they must know more about the origin of their own species before they can turn them all on again…

Elsewhere in the city, the Sisterhood have resurrected the purloined corpse and filled the body with a former soul-host… or at least one of them…

Long ago (in Uncanny X-Men #256-258) priests of ninja cult The Hand mystically transposed the mind of telepath Betsy Braddock – AKA Psylocke – into the physical shell of a lethally effective adherent called Kwannon. The brainwashing/mystic body-swapping turned the English Rose into a sultry, sexy Chinese bodyguard/concubine/siren… and perfect gift for the undisputed overlord of the criminal Orient, The Mandarin.

After much ado, myriad battles and many years, both mind-moved incarnations died in combat, but now the Red Queen has successfully reunited the long-separated soul and form of the elite killer…

As the X-Men reach out – enlisting former Canadian mutant hero and media-savvy global Gay celebrity Jean-Paul Beaubier (former Alpha Flight operative Northstar), the sinister Sisterhood moves on to the next stage of Pryor’s convoluted game-plan…

With the enclave happily acclimatising and being welcomed by mellow Californians, demagogue Trask springs his latest nasty surprise from Washington DC. Proposition X demands legislation to ensure the mandatory sterilisation of mutants and all humans carrying the X-Gene…

The news drives Greymalkin’s younger mutants into a fury, whilst in the science labs cooler heads have devised a potential plan to study the origins of their kind: all they must do is travel back in time and secure blood samples from the first humans to conceive a mutant child…

Outmanoeuvred, the usually reticent and inspirationally obnoxious Bradley is forced to admit having been born in 1906, and that his own parents might well be the most likely prospects…

Before they can act, the Sisterhood attack, using a prisoner in the detention centre to deactivate all psychic security provisions. The devastating assault catches the heroes off guard, but Pryor’s big mistake is underestimating the sheer bloody-mindedness of student heroes X-23, Armor, Pixie and telepathic gestalt the Stepford Cuckoos…

Following that counterstrike, the swift recovery and retaliation of adult X-folk quickly drives the Sisterhood out, but Wolverine is forced to admit that the invaders got what they came for: a lock of hair from Jean Grey that he’s been treasuring since her death. The sample may provide the ghostly Pryor with genetic material needed to grow herself a new body – one with all the power of the nigh-omnipotent Phoenix…

The conclusion (with additional art from Terry & Rachel Dodson) sees desperate X-Men rush to foil the plot and spectacularly triumph, not only ending the terror of cosmic resurrection but incidentally reclaiming one of their own fallen from the grave…

Following that all-out cosmic clash ‘The Origin of the Species’ (limned by Yanick Paquette & Karl Story) offers steam-punk and tragedy as that deferred jaunt to the dawn of the Mutant Age finally gets underway.

Accompanied by restored Psylocke and Archangel, Beast’s “X-Club” of super science geeks pop back to San Francisco in 1906 on an extremely tight deadline to get blood samples from Dr. Nemesis’ parents but stumble into the birth of their worst nightmare…

Inventor Nicola Bradley and wife Catherine have been striving to complete a generator to provide free, unlimited broadcast power for humanity but are increasingly being threatened by thugs and brigands determined to steal it. Cornelius Shaw and his mentor Lord Molyneux are using the sybaritic Hellfire Club to fund Bradley’s experiments but they want his incredible engine for purposes far darker than lighting the world.

Molyneux has visions of mankind crushed under the monstrous heel of a new superior race – “Overmen” – and needs the battery to power his colossal mechanical Sentinel. Against that, even the aberrations-to-come will be helpless…

He’s also behind the attempted raids; hedging his bets in case Bradley cannot complete the job, so when the freakish X-Club show up he knows it’s time to act…

Thankfully – and perhaps instinctively inspired by his wife’s pregnancy – Bradley solves the final problem, but regrets his actions once the Hellfire lords take his device and unleash a marauding mechanical myrmidon upon the populace.

…And that’s when the strangers with wings, blue fur and other incredible abilities reveal themselves…

Concluding in calamity, catastrophe and cruel, heartbreaking irony, this smart slice of time-tampering neatly wraps up a superb sample of Mutant Mayhem: exciting, enthralling and exceptionally entertaining.

This slim, stirring, supremely sensuous Fights ‘n’ Tights tome also offers a selection of cover reproductions and variants by Land, Ponsor, Paquette, Edgar Delgado, Laura Martin, J. Scott Campbell & Stéphane Roux, delivering a treasure trove of treats for all.
© 2009 Marvel Characters In. All rights reserved.

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Sophie’s World – A Graphic Novel About the History of Philosophy: Volume 1: From Socrates to Galileo


By Jostein Gaarder, adapted by Vincent Zabus & Nicoby, colours by Philippe Ory with Bruno Tatti; translated by Edward Gauvin (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: ?978-1-91422-411-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

It has long been a truism of the creative arts that the most effective, efficient and economical method of instruction and informational training is the comic strip. If you simply consider the medium’s value as a historical recording and narrative system, the process encompasses cave paintings, hieroglyphs, pictograms, oriental prints, Stations of the Cross, the Bayeux Tapestry and so much more: and pretty succinctly covers the history of humanity…

For well over a century and a half, advertising mavens exploited the easy impact of words wedded to evocative pictures, whilst public information materials frequently used sequential narrative to get hard messages over quickly and simply. In a surprisingly short time, the internet and social media restored and enhanced the full universal might of image narratives to transcend language. Who doesn’t “speak” emoji?

Since World War II, carefully crafted strips have been used as training materials for every aspect of adult life from school careers advice to various disciplines of military service – utilising the talents of comics giants as varied as Milton Caniff, Will Eisner (who spent decades producing reams of comic manuals for the US army and other government departments), Kurt Schaffenberger and Neil Adams. The educational value and merit of comics is a given.

The magnificent Larry Gonick in particular uses the strip medium to stuff learning and entertainment in equal amounts into weary brains of jaded students with his webcomic Raw Materials and such seasoned tomes as The Cartoon History of the Universe, The Cartoon History of the United States and The Cartoon Guide to… series (Genetics, Sex, The Environment et al). That’s not even including his crusading satirical strip Commoners for Common Ground, and educational features Science Classics, Kokopelli & Company and pioneering cartoon work with the National Science Foundation…

For decades Japan has employed manga textbooks in schools and universities and has even released government reports and business prospectuses as comic books to get around the public’s apathy towards reading large dreary volumes of public information. So do we and everybody else. I’ve even produced the occasional multi-panel teaching-tract myself. The method has also been frequently used to sublimely and elegantly tackle the greatest and most all-consuming preoccupation and creation of the mind of Man…

Like organised religion, the conceptual discipline dubbed Philosophy has had a tough time relating to modern folk and – just like innumerable vicars in pulpits everywhere – its proponents and followers have sought fresh ways to make eternal questions and subjective verities understandable and palatable to us hoi-polloi and average simpletons.

In 1991 Norwegian teacher Jostein Gaarder found one that became a global sensation. Oslo-born in 1952, he taught Philosophy and the History of Ideas in Bergen until he retired to write a modern prose masterpiece of allegory and symbolism in the guise of a fantastic mystery and quest saga.

In an assortment of languages, Sofies verden became an award-winning bestseller in Europe, before being translated into English in 1994 and – as Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy – metamorphosed into the top-selling book on Earth a year later.

Translated into 59 languages with sales far in excess of forty million copies, it enjoys regular anniversary rereleases, and has been adapted to the large and small screen in many countries, as well as PC and board games, and all the usual merchandising instances of a global sensation…

In 2022, playwright/comics scribe Vincent Zabus (Le Journal de Spirou, Les Ombres, Incroyable!) and prolific, wide-ranging Bande Dessinée illustrator Nicolas Bidet AKA “Nicoby” and “Korkydü” (Ouessantines, Le Manuel de la Jungle, Belle-Île en père, Sang de Sein, Tête de gondola, Poète à Djibouti, C’est la guerre – journal d’une famille confine) joined forces to translate the philosophical phenomenon into words and pictures: deftly embracing the magically realist underpinnings of the tale by fully exploring and exploiting the self-imposed fourth wall (and floors and ceilings) of the “ninth art”…

Big, bold and embracing wonderment head-on, Sophie’s World – A Graphic Novel About the History of Philosophy: Volume 1: From Socrates to Galileo seductively adapts the first half of Gaarder’s masterpiece as 14-year-old Sophie Amundsen and her best friend Colleen anticipate their first protest event. They are fired up about the planet’s imminent demise and ready to fight for its life, but Sophie’s scattershot passions are suddenly derailed and her curiosity enflamed after receiving an anonymous package asking the somehow compulsively significant question ‘Who Are You?’…

The Who and Why of this enigmatic pen pal transaction completely obsess her after the unseen arrival of follow-up question “Where does the world come from”, and as she ponders, she is lured into the first of some frankly weird if not supernatural proceedings…

As Sophie determinedly seeks answers on a range of conceptual levels, further inquiring despatches literally take her on a journey through all of human development, guided at first remotely, but eventually in the shadow and company of a seemingly benign tutor with an agenda all his own.

…And at every moment and juncture – no matter how wild, impossible or magical – the girl learns and grows…

This initial comics session encompasses cunningly targeted and curated visits, affording up-close-&-personal experiences, via the entirety of the evolution of Western history and culture…

However, as bewildering engagements (or at least gripping, interactive syntheses thereof) unfold in ‘Myths and Natural Philosophers’, ‘Atom and Fate’, ‘Athens and Socrates’, ‘Plato’, ‘Aristotle’, ‘Hellenism’, ‘Two Cultures’, ‘St. Augustine, Averroes, St. Thomas’, ‘The Renaissance’, there’s a turning point in ‘The Baroque’ that unlocks and expands Sophie’s understanding whilst addressing a secret tragedy that unconsciously drives her.

Ultimately, the avid teen discovers other forces in play and unknown actors participating in her lessons, as glimpsed in ‘The Dream of Hilde’ and rebellious phase/phrase ‘A Woman is a Man’s Equal’, and before long the seeker is ready to chart her own course…

Completing the educational brief, this opening discourse includes ‘Author Biographies’ of ‘Nicoby’, ‘Vincent Zabus’ and ‘Jostein Gaarder’ and is absolutely To Be Continued…

Rendered in bright, cheerfully inviting colours in the welcoming manner of a children’s book, this vibrant voyage of discovery is mesmerising in its gently mischievous intensity: an outrageously joyous, entertaining rundown of humanity’s evolution and fundamental principles of thought, cunningly disguised as a superb conundrum to rival any detective yarn. Moreover, the seeds have all been laid for a monumental “Big Reveal” in the next volume…
© 2022 Albin Michel. Based on & © Jostein Gaarder’s novel Sophie’s World. English translation © 2022 SelfMadeHero. All rights reserved.

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Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow (Will Murray Pulp History Series)


By Will Murray, illustrated by Frank Hamilton, Rick Roe, Colton Worley, Joe DeVito & various (Odyssey Publications)
ISBN: 979-8-36971-672-4 (PB/Digital edition)

In the early 1930s, just as the Great Depression hit hardest, The Shadow afforded thrill-starved Americans measured doses of extraordinary excitement via shoddily produced periodical novels and over eerily charged airwaves via an iconic radio show.

The “Pulps” were a blend of book and monthly magazine, made exceedingly cheaply and published by their hundreds in every style and genre. The results ranged from truly excellent to pitifully dire, but for exotic or esoteric adventure-lovers there were two stars who outshone all others in terms of quality and sheer imagination. The Superman of his day was Doc Savage, whilst the premier relentless creature of the night darkly dispensing grim justice was the enigmatic vigilante discussed here.

Detective Story Hour licensed and dramatised stand-alone crime yarns from Street & Smith publication Detective Story Magazine, deploying a spooky-toned narrator (variously Orson Welles, James LaCurto or Frank Readick Jr.) to introduce each tale and set the scene and mood. Think of it as just like our Jackanory, but for grown-ups and rather toned down….

The anonymous usher absolutely obsessed listeners and became known as “the Shadow”. From the very start on July 31st 1930, he was more popular than the stories he highlighted…

Dark Avenger: The Strange Saga of The Shadow is a beguiling and utterly compelling history of how the phenomenon occurred: revealing exactly how that voice evolved through sheer popular demand, smart business acumen and the writing find of a generation, to manifest as proactive character/brand The Shadow: solving instead of narrating mysteries, defending the innocent and punishing the guilty, and reshaping how the public viewed its leisure and entertainments.

Thanks to fervent and incessant demand, on April 1st 1931, the sepulchral stranger began mastering newsstands in his own adventures, mostly written by incredibly prolific and astounding gifted Walter Gibson. He was a journalist, author, historian and aficionado of stage magic and legerdemain who broke records and sired legends under the house pseudonym “Maxwell Grant”.

On September 26th 1937, the radio show was officially rebranded as The Shadow and the menacing call-&-response motto “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Men? The Shadow knows!” resonated out unforgettably over the nation’s airwaves and into common cultural currency.

Over the next 18 years, 325 novels were published, usually at the rate of two a month. The uncanny crusader infested comic books, movies, newspaper strip and all the hoopla and merchandising paraphernalia you’d expect of an indisputable superstar.

The pulp series officially ended in 1949, although Gibson and others added to the canon during the 1960s when a pulp/fantasy revival gripped the world. This trend generated reprinted classic yarns and new contemporary stories in paperback novels from Belmont Books, catapulting the sinister sentinel back into print in both books and especially comics.

In graphic terms The Shadow had always been a major player. His national newspaper strip – by Gibson & Vernon Greene – launched on June 17th 1940 and, when comic books really took off, the Man of Mystery had his own four-colour title; running from March 1940 to September 1949. Stablemate Doc Savage was also present in his own solo strip…

Archie Comics published a controversial contemporary reworking in 1964-1965, crafted by Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, John Rosenberger & Paul Reinman under their Radio/Mighty Comics imprint. In 1973, DC acquired the rights, producing a captivating, brief and definitive series of classic sagas unlike any other superhero comic on the stands. Thereafter, DC periodically revived the venerable vigilante and even made him an official influencer of Batman…

After the triumph of Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, Howard Chaykin was allowed to utterly overhaul the vintage vigilante for an audience at last acknowledged as mature enough to handle some sophisticated fare. This led to further, adult-oriented iterations and one cracking outing from Marvel, before Dark Horse assumed the license for the latter half of the 1990s and beyond.

There’s been another movie (1994) and the promise of still another, whilst Dynamite Entertainment secured the comic book option in 2011: reissuing much of those other publishers’ earlier efforts, and releasing fresh Shadow comics sagas closely adhering to the tone, timing and continuity of the pulp epoch.

In prose, new novels by the author of this mighty monograph have followed, including a fan’s dream teaming of the Man of Mystery and Man of Bronze…

Just as compelling as the stories themselves is how the Dark Avenger was born and precisely how he changed the world. This dossier details how it all came about in fascinating detail, beginning in a ‘Preface’ revealing how Will Murray’s 1970’s fanzine Duende has been retooled and remastered. Sharing the secrets and setting the scene, ‘The Men Who Cast The Shadow’ recounts precisely how The Shadow came to be: introducing the hidden men who made him and telling the tale of wonder scribe Walter Gibson.

What follows is a critical appreciation and outline of the publishing phenomenon, divided into discreet eras and tracked by cited individual issues. The formative cases are covered in ‘Phase One, 1931-1934: The Living Shadow to The Chinese Disks’, laying out how Gibson/Dent crafted fortnightly thrillers whilst building a supporting cast, core mythology, rogues gallery and new ways to enchant and confound readers.

The literary deconstruction continues with a period of confident experimentation in ‘Phase Two, 1934-1936: The Unseen Killer to Crime, Insured’, the pivotal payoffs of ‘Phase Three, 1933-1940: The Shadow Unmasks to Crime Undercover’ and confidant consolidation of ‘Phase Four, 1941-1943: The Thunder Kings to The Muggers’.

Firmly established and perhaps more risk-averse because of it, ‘Phase Five, 1943-1946: Murder By Moonlight to Malmordo’ deals with a managed decline. Wartime restrictions, substitute and auxiliary writers like Theodore Tinsley, as well as the series sheer age and ponderous back canon, augured a lack of assured spontaneity, even though the vigilante was now a cinema star too.

Another supplemental scripter signalled interim era ‘Phase Six, 1946-1948: The Blackest Mail to Reign of Terror’ as Noir-tinged, post-war attitudes and style infiltrated the established mystery detective oeuvre before the end came with a too-late return to first principles in ‘Phase Seven, 1948-1949: Jade Dragon to The Whispering Eyes’…

Although the magazine was gone, certain shadows lingered in the place where he’d begun. The 325th and final issue of The Shadow was cover-dated Summer1949, but his radio crusades against crime continued until December 21st 1954. As the Sixties unfolded he was back on the airwaves again, in comics and in new tales, whilst outside America he never went away. The British Shadow magazine, for example, kept on going until 1957…

Wrapping up the investigations, ‘Epilogue’ explores those later years and discusses that Batman connection and influences, before we learn a bit more of the backroom boys. That includes illustrator Joe DeVito in ‘About the Artist’, “angel” Dave Smith in ‘About our Patron’ and Murray himself in ‘About the Author’.

If you’re addicted to classic pulp fiction but need more than just the stories, you really need to check out Will Murray. New prose stories continue the primal legends of Doc Savage – including sidebar novels starring his phenomenal kinswoman Pat Savage; The Spider; the C’thulu mythos; Sherlock Holmes; King Kong; The Green Lama; The Bat; The Avenger; The Shadow; The Destroyer (Remo Williams); and Tarzan even as his astoundingly accessible scholarly books about the characters, era and especially creators, published as the Will Murray Pulp History Series.

You’ll probably want to see – or may already enjoy – Murray’s comics too: gems like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (co-created with Steve Ditko), Spider-Man, Hulk, The Destroyer, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Secret Six, The Spider, The Gray Seal, Ant-Man, Green Hornet, Zorro, The Phantom and many more…

When Sherlock Holmes wrote such informational tracts like this one, they were called monographs. These days we just call them unmissable.
© 2022 Will Murray. All rights reserved.

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The Art of Ramona Fradon


By Ramona Fradon; interviewed by Howard Chaykin (Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-60690-140-3 (HB/Digital edition)

Although present in comic books from the start, women – like so many other non-white male “minorities” – have been largely written out of history. One of the very few to have weathered that exclusion is Ramona Fradon. This excellent commemorative art collection celebrates not only her life and contribution, but thanks to its format – a free and unexpurgated extended interview with iconoclastic creator Howard Chaykin – offers the artist’s frank and forthright views on everything from work practise to the power of fans…

It all begins with an Introduction from Walt Simonson who proclaims ‘Meet your Idol… and discover They’re even Cooler than you Thought!’, before the early days are revealed in ‘Part One: Setting the Scene’ and ‘Part Two: In the Beginning’…

Ramona Dom was born on October 2nd 1926 to an affluent Chicago family with many ties to commercial creative arts. Her father was a respected artisan, letterer and calligrapher who had designed the logos for Camel cigarettes, Elizabeth Arden and other major brands, and also formulated the fonts Dom Casual and Dom Bold. He had plans for his daughter, urging her to become a fashion designer…

The family moved to (outer) New York when Ramona was five., Ramona initially attended The Parsons School of Design, where she discovered she had absolutely no interest in creating clothes. Although she had never read comic books, she had been a voracious reader of illustrated books like the Raggedy Anne and Andy series by John Barton Gruelle, and a devoted fan of newspaper strips. Her favourites included Dick Tracy, Bringing Up Father, The Phantom, Alley Oop, Flash Gordon, Terry and the Pirates and Li’l Abner (all represented here by examples from the 1930s) and she transferred to the New York Art Students League, a hotbed of cartooning…

There she met and married Arthur Dana Fradon, who would become a prolific illustrator, author and cartoonist and a regular contributor to The New Yorker between 1948-1992. They wed in 1948 and he actively encouraged her to seek work in the still young funnybook biz.

‘Part Three: Gingerly Breaking into Comics’ reveals how her first forays at Timely Comics led to DC/National Comics and a Shining Knight story published in Adventure Comics #165 (cover-dated June 1951), ten months later taking over the long-running Aquaman feature in #167. Fradon was one of the first women to conspicuously and regularly illustrate comic books, drawing the strip throughout the 1950s and shepherding the sea king from B-lister to solo star and Saturday morning TV pioneer.

In the first of a series of incisive and informative mini biographies, ‘Sidebar: Murray Boltinoff’ reveals the influence of the much-neglected and under-appreciated editor. ‘Part Four: Queen of the Seven Seas’ and ‘Part Five: Man of 1000 Elements’ show how occasional stints on The Brave and the Bold team-ups led to her co-creation of Sixties sensation Metamorpho, the Element Man. However in 1965 – at the pinnacle of success – she abruptly retired to raise a daughter, only returning to the fold in 1972 for another stellar run of landmark work.

‘Sidebar: George Kashdan’ tells all about the multi-talented scripter before ‘Part Six: Ramona Returns to Comics… At Marvel???’ details how the House of Ideas lured the artist back to her board and highlights her difficulties working “Marvel-style” on assorted horror shorts, The Claws of the Cat and Fantastic Four, all presaging a return to DC…

‘Sidebar: Joseph Patterson’ looks into the astounding strip Svengali who green lit Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Gasoline Alley and more before ‘Part Seven: Back Home at DC Comics’ where she was busier than ever. As well as horror and humour shorts, Fradon drew a new Metamorpho try-out, superhero spinoff Freedom Fighters and her twin magnum opuses: revived comedy superhero Plastic Man and TV tie-in Super Friends. The revelations are bolstered by ‘Sidebar: E. Nelson Bridwell’, exploring the life of the man who knew everything about everything…

In 1980, Fradon took over Dale Messick’s long-running Brenda Starr newspaper strip, drawing it for 15 years. ‘Part Eight: Leaping From Books to Strips’ explores the painful and unpleasant chore in sharp detail, supplemented by ‘Sidebar: Brenda Starr’ outlining the feature’s history and reprinting those episodes when the ageless reporter met a certain cop, allowing Fradon to finally draw childhood idol Dick Tracy…

The most fascinating stuff is left until last as ‘Part Nine: Ramona the Author’ discusses her career post-Brenda: drawing for Bart Simpson and Spongebob Squarepants comics, returning to higher education and writing a philosophical historical mystery novel – The Gnostic Faustus: The Secret Teachings Behind the Classic Text – as well as illustrated kids book The Dinosaur That Got Tired of Being Extinct.

Packed throughout with candid photos, and stunning pencil sketches, painted pictures and privately commissioned works of her stable of past assignments – like Aquaman, assorted Super Friends, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin; the Metal Men, Aqualad, Brenda Starr, Black Canary, Shazam/Captain Marvel, Shining Knight, The Atom, The Spirit, Metamorpho and cast, Marvel Girl, Miss America, Power Girl, Catwoman, Hawkman, numerous illustrations from The Story of Superman book, and convention sketches, this celebration concludes with even more fabulous sleek super art images in ‘Part Nine: Ramona Today’ and ‘Part Eleven: Bibliography’…

This is an amazing confirmation of an incredible career and any nostalgiac’s dream package. Amongst the gems unearthed here are complete Aquaman stories ‘The Kid from Atlantis!’ (Adventure Comics #269, 1960), ‘A World Without Water’ (Adventure Comics #251, 1958) and ‘How Aquaman Got his Powers!’ (Adventure Comics #260, 1959), plus tales from Star Spangled War Stories (#184, 1975) and ‘The Invisible Bank Robbers!’ from Gangbusters (#30, 1952).

Also on show are unpublished sample strips by Dana & Ramona Fradon and a monumental cover gallery depicting unforgettable images from Super Friends #3, 5-8, 10, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24-27, 31, 33, 36-39 & 41; Plastic Man #16-20; The Brave and the Bold #55, 57, 58, Showcase #30 & 33, Metamorpho, the Element Man #1-5, Namora #1 (2010), Fantastic Four #133 and Freedom Fighters #3.

These are supported by selected interior pages in full colour or monochrome from Star Spangled War Stories #8; Adventure Comics #190; Metamorpho, the Element Man #1; 1st Issue Special #3; Fantastic Four #133; The Brave and the Bold #57; House of Secrets #116 & 136; Secrets of Haunted House #3 & 14; House of Mystery #232 & 273; Plop! #5; Freedom Fighters #3 & 5; Plastic Man #14; Super Friends #6-8, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, 23 & 25 and the Super DC Calendar 1977.

A truly definitive appreciation of the Comic Book Hall of Fame inductee 2006, this oversized (229 x 305 mm) hardback reproduces hundreds of pages and covers, plus a wealth of out-industry artwork and commissioned wonders, as accompaniment to an astonishingly forthright testament and career retrospective of a phenomenal and groundbreaking talent.

The Art of Ramona Fradon will delight everyone who wants to see a master in their element showing everybody how it should be done….

Marvel Characters © and ™ 1941-2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. DC Comics Characters © and ™ DC Comics. Brenda Starr™ © 2013 Tribune Media Services. All Rights Reserved

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Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow


By Tom King, Bilquis Evely, Matheus Lopes, Clayton Cowles & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-1568-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

As a rule, superhero comics don’t generally do whimsically thrilling anymore. They especially don’t do short or self-contained. Modern narrative momentum concentrates on continuous extended spectacle, major devastation and relentless terror and trauma. It also helps if you’ve come back from the dead once or twice and wear combat thongs and thigh boots…

Although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that – other than a certain inappropriateness in striving to adjust wedgies during a life-or-death struggle – sometimes the palate just craves a different flavour…

Once upon a time, angsty in-continuity cataclysm was the rule, not the exception, but ever since DC readmitted all its past epochs into one vastly welcoming expansion multiverse via the Dark Night: Death Metal, Future State and Infinite Frontier mega-events, a spirit of joyous experimentation has resulted in some truly memorable storytelling.

This decidedly backward-looking modern fable harks back to simpler days of clearly defined plots, solid, imaginative characterisation and suspensefully dramatic adventure, by way of an almost alternative take on redoubtable Kara Zor-El, late of Krypton’s Argo City and another illegal alien immigrant on Earth.

Supergirl first gained popularity as a back-up feature in Action Comics: a tag-along (and trademark protection device) to her more illustrious cousin. After years of faithful service, in 1985 she was killed as a sales gimmick in the groundbreaking Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since then, a number of characters have used the name – but none with the class or durability of the original.

This latest incarnation cunningly references much of the original’s trappings, but combines stellar whimsy, dark modern attitudes and an edgier twist, as befits today’s readership. Written by Tom King (Mister Miracle, The Vision, The Sheriff of Babylon, Omega Men, Strange Adventures, Batman) and delightfully illustrated by Brazilian artist Bilquis Evely (Wonder Woman, The Dreaming, Detective Comics, Shaft: a Complicated Man) in a deliriously addictive, retro-futurist pulp style, it examines the concepts of justice and power of reputation through the wide eyes of a worshipful child who is both outraged orphan and lonely sidekick/secret weapon in waiting…

After a few intriguing concept-tweaking test-runs, the first true Girl of Steel debuted as a future star of the ever-expanding Superman pocket universe in Action Comics #252 (cover-dated May 1959). Superman’s cousin had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually, Argo turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the detonated world’s debris, and Kara’s dying parents, observing Earth through their viewer scopes, sent their daughter to safety even as they apparently perished.

Crashlanding, she immediately and fortuitously met the Metropolis Marvel, who created a cover-identity: hiding “Linda Lee” in an orphanage in bucolic Midvale so that she could adjust to and learn about her new world whilst mastering her powers in secrecy and safety.

…And isolation. At no stage did anyone consider moving the recent orphaned newcomer in with her only surviving family. Kara reached her maturity without the closeness Clark Kent’s human parents provided …although she was eventually adopted by Earth couple Fred and Edna to become Linda Lee Danvers…

Supergirl experienced her own secret double life in the rear of Action Comics: gradually moving from Superman’s covert secret weapon to an independent star turn, and from minor player to acclaimed public celebrity. From the back of the book to the front of the house is always a reason to celebrate, right?

For decades, DC couldn’t make up their minds over Supergirl. I’ve actually lost count of the number of different versions to have cropped up over the years, and never been able to shake a queasy feeling that above all else she’s a concept that was cynically shifted from being a way to get girls to reading comic books to one calculated to ease young male readers over the bumpy patch between sporadic chin-hair outbreaks, voice-breaking and that nervous period of hiding things under your mattress where your mum never, never ever looks…

Her popularity waxed and waned until her attention-grabbing death during Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, in the aftermath – once John Byrne had successfully rebooted the Man of Steel and negated her existence along with all other elements of doomed Krypton – non-Kryptonian iterations began to appear: each accumulating a legion of steadfast fans. Ultimately, early in the 21st century, DC’s Powers-That-Be decided the real Girl of Steel should come back… sort of…

The New 52 company-wide reboot recast her as an angry, obnoxious distrustful teen fresh from Argo, before the 2016 DC: Rebirth event unwrote most of those changes: bringing back much of that original origin material whilst aligning the comic book iteration with the popular TV series broadcast from October 2015 to November 2021. Then under the aegis of the Infinite Frontier revolution, King, Evely, colourist Mat Lopes & letterer Clayton Cowles crafted 8-issue limited series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (cover-dated August 2021-April 2022).

This focussed on a major moment in the hero’s life and how it changed everything…

King was inspired by Charles Portis’ 1968 novel True Grit – and both movie adaptations – to cast Supergirl as mentor to a vengeance-obsessed child: tracing how a united quest/journey reshaped both of them. Employing the latitude afforded by IF’s umbrella premise, he incorporated iconic characters and trappings from various iterations of Kara’s many super-lives. The result is pure magic, made real by Bilquis and her visual collaborators.

Wordy and wondrous, colours and calligraphy are key components of this space opera, which opens with youthful narrator Ruthye Marye Knoll disclosing how she first met an alien voyager after merciless bandit Krem of the Yellow Hills butchered her father…

Intent on rightful retribution, little Ruthye tracks the killer to a tavern in ‘Men, Women, and Dogs’, encountering a violent drunken woman from another world. Supergirl was on this unnamed backwater red sun world with frivolous intent: it was her 21st birthday and she wanted to get really, really drunk…

Things go bad when Supergirl tries to help her get justice. The intergalactic warrior seriously underestimates Krem, and nearly dies when he puts three arrows through her chest, before apparently killing her dog Krypto and stealing her spaceship…

Barely alive, Kara agrees to let Ruthye help her hunt Krem down: travelling so very slowly by commercial starship and encountering the full annoying range of sentient lifeforms – and a deadly space dragon – in ‘Wounded, Stranded, and Impotent’, before finally reaching a region of space where yellow suns can recharge her…

Stranded on tourist trap Coronn for weeks, they jointly expose appalling racist atrocity in ‘Modest, Calm, and Quiet’ and learn the quarry has joined Barbond’s Brigands: a marauding fleet of space plunderers who become Supergirl’s greatest concern after their latest raid exterminates an entire species in ‘Restraint, Endurance, and Passion’.

Repeated close encounters with them result in furious frustration as Krem has mastered a mystic banishment spell that deposits his pursuers all over the cosmos. Slowly, steadily, Supergirl and Ruthye close in, with the latter honing her skills in eager anticipation of bloody revenge, despite anything Kara can say to dissuade her. Repeatedly fighting a succession of colossal lizard beasts, and enduring a slow painful death and resurrection, does nothing to help their moods either in ‘The Lake, the Trees, and the Monsters’…

Finally – reinforced by magical superhorse Comet – the seekers capture Krem and spectacularly engage the brigands in ‘Home Family, and Refuge’ and ‘Hope, Help, and Compassion.’, but the outcome is shockingly unexpected …and tragic.

Final chapter ‘Ruthye, Supergirl, and Krem of the Yellow Hills’ delivers major emotional and conceptual payoffs as antagonists and protagonists take their vendetta to its foregone conclusion. The vengeful child fulfils her quest, but learns some adult truths…

Supplemented by a covers-&-variants gallery by Evely, Lopes, Gary Frank & Alex Sinclair, Lee Weeks, David Mack, Rose Besch, Amy Reeder, Steve Rude, Nicola Scott & Annette Kwok and Janaina Medeiros, this book includes a stunning swathe of character and costume designs, to augment a tale profoundly and consciously mythic in scope and execution.

The apparent maiming and deaths of beloved characters – and animals at that! – and epic transitions and evolutions of the twin leads are potently and evocatively depicted against a universe of inspirational wonders and casual horrors, allowing us to see how heroes are forged, and the device of using a childlike Boswell to define Supergirl’s humanity is both compelling and revelatory.

A cosmic odyssey in the grandly poetic idiom of Jack Vance and Samuel R. Delaney, realised via retro-futuristic visuals reminiscent of Roy G. Krenkel, Jack Katz and Michael William Kaluta, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is a mesmerising mix of space opera and superhero drama exploring the mechanics of myths and power of storytelling on a multitude of levels.

It’s also a sublime rollercoaster ride of vivid, cathartic joy for old fans and newcomers alike: one every fantasy and adventure lover must see.
© 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Best of Sugar Jones


By Pat Mills, Rafael Busóm Clùa & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-770-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

At first glance British comics prior to the advent of 2000 AD fall into fairly ironclad categories. Back then, you had cosily fantastic preschool whimsy, a large selection of adapted TV and media properties, action, adventure, war and comedy strands, with the occasional dash of mild supernatural horror. Closer scrutiny would confirm a persistent subversive undertone, especially in such antihero series as Dennis the Menace and The Spider, or simply quirky fare like Marney the Fox or His Sporting Lordship.

British comics have always been able to tell big stories in satisfyingly moreish small instalments. Coupled with superior creators and the anthological nature of our publications, this has ensured hundreds of memorable characters and series have seared themselves into the little boy’s psyche inside most adult males. I gather that’s equally true of the stuff girls were reading at the time…

Like most of my comics contemporaries I harbour a secret shame. Growing up, I was well aware of the weeklies produced for girls, but would never admit to willingly reading them. My loss: I now know that they were packed with amazing strips by astounding artists and writers, many of whom were (sadly anonymous) favourites who also drafted sagas of stalwart soldiers, marauding monsters, evil aliens or weird wonders …because all British superheroes were bizarrely off-kilter.

I now know that – in terms of quality and respect for the readership’s intelligence, experience and development – girls’ comics were far more in tune with the sensibilities of their target audience, and I wish I’d paid more broad-minded attention back then. Thus, I’m delighted to share here another peek at superb and oddly sophisticated comics from a publication I never went near, even though it was just as groundbreaking as its later stablemates Action or 2000AD – albeit not as nostalgically revered or referenced nowadays…

Girl’s Juvenile Periodicals always addressed modern social ills and issues, and also embraced those things women needed to be indoctrinated in: Fashion, pop trends, pets, toys, style-consumerism, make-up and more (even cooking, general knowledge and sewing!).

Pink came out of IPC’s girl’s publications division in 1973 and was quite successful before finally merging with Mates in 1980, just as television and teen fashion mags finally supplanted the mix of comics stories and trend journalism foe female audiences. Those girls’ grandkids are now lost in social media and the world turns ever on…

During its mercurial run of 377 issues, Pink offered targeted “news” features, games, puzzles, competitions and a wealth of strip mystery, adventure and particularly romantic fare in serials like Don’t Let him Fool You, Faye!, The Haunting of Jilly Johnson, The Island of Stones, Shadows of Fear, Memories of Mike, Rich Girl, Poor Girl, The Sea People and Remember, Rosanna, Remember!

As years rolled by, it was clear that the editors were gradually shifting the demographic, targeting older teens by developing a saucy, cheeky persona in keeping with a readership getting ready for adult life. One of those editors was Pat Mills – arguably the greatest creative force in British comics.

He began his career at DC Thomson in Dundee, scripting and editing for teen romance title Romeo and others before going freelance. At this time Mills wrote girls comics and humour strips, and moved south to London to join IPC and do the same for them. After editing and writing for Tammy, Pink and Sandy – and starting a small evolution in content and style on Jinty – he moved on and killed posh-comics-for-middle-class-boys (and girls) stone-dead.

After creating Battle Picture Weekly (1975, with John Wagner & Gerry Finley-Day), as well as Action (1976) and 2000AD (1977), Mills launched Misty and Starlord (both 1978). Along the way, he also figured large in junior horror comic Chiller…

As a writer he’s responsible for Ro-Busters, ABC Warriors, Nemesis the Warlock, Slaine, Button Man, Metalzoic, Marshal Law and Requiem Vampire Knight among so many, many others. That especially includes Battle’s extraordinary Charley’s War (with brilliant Joe Colquhoun): the best war strip of all time and one of the top five explorations of the First World War in any artistic medium.

Unable to hide the passions that drive him, Mill’s most controversial work is probably Third World War which he created for bravely experimental comics magazine Crisis. This fiercely socially conscious strip blended his trademark bleak, black humour, violence and anti-authoritarianism with a furious assault on Capitalism, Imperialism and Globalisation. It contained elements of myth, mysticism, religion and neo-paganism – also key elements in his mature work. You should also see his run on Doctor Who Weekly and Serial Killer – his final collaboration with Kev O’Neill…

Mills has always kept a judgemental eye on the now and recognised the power of humour and satire. In 1974 that led to his debuting a new kind of star for Pink. In 1973, the much-maligned and deliberately misunderstood (we call it “gaslighting” these days) “Sexual Revolution” hit a media high.

It was an epoch of “cheesecake” and “girly” strips: a genre stuffy old-fashioned Britain used to excel at and happily venerate. Saucy postcards, Carry-On films, ingenuously innocent smut and a passion for double entendre had for decades obscured and obfuscated genuine concerns like institutionalised gender pay-gaps, unwarranted interest in and control of female reproductive rights and sexual behaviour. There were double standards for men and women’s work and recreational behaviours, and that incomprehensible Mystery of Mysteries: just why men are utterly certain that anything they see automatically fancies them back and is therefore fair game for creepy jollity and unwanted attentions excused as “just having bit of fun” or “paying a compliment”…

After years of feminist agitation and balanced by entrenched institutional male mockery, countless publications and TV shows suddenly boiled at a wave of unexpected militancy. Everywhere women were demanding equal rights, equal pay and fair treatment …and isn’t it simply marvellous that they’ve got all those things now?..

Contraception was becoming more readily – if not quite universally – available and apparently everywhere bras were burning. This meant men actually coming to believe that sex might be less expensive and perhaps even repercussion/responsibility free. It was a reactionary Male Chauvinist Pig’s Dream, and unrepentant, old-school stand-up comedians had a field day. The only changes I can recall were more skin on TV, a wave of female-starring comics strips like Amanda, Scarth, Danielle, Axa and Wicked Wanda (in which each of the titular heroes lost her clothes on a daily basis) and the rise of “Page 3” newspaper nudies…

I’m not sure how many editors of daily and Sunday papers were supporters of the Women’s Liberation movement, or whether they simply found a great excuse to turn the industry’s long tradition of beautifully rendered naked birds on their pages into something at least nominally hip, political and contemporary.

I do know that an awful lot of new features appeared, with aggressive, strident (if not actually liberated), forceful women who nevertheless still had hunky take-charge boyfriends in tow…

In comics, Pat Mills created a rather greedy and generally nasty piece of work who – if not actually a villain – was certainly utterly selfish, shallow and self-absorbed. We Brits love rogues and scoundrels and will forgive them for almost anything – just look at the result of any election in the last 30 years

Thus Sugar Jones expertly capitalised on our national tradition of forgiving appallingly egregious actions and public weakness for inept wickedness: standing legs akimbo at the vanguard of a growing compulsion to slavishly follow what we now call “celebrity culture”. She too spent a lot of time in her underwear or less…

The series was illustrated by Spanish master of style Rafael Busóm Clùa who was a fixture of girls comics from the era. As well as The Island of Stones in Pink, he also limned The Three Wishes serial in Tammy, Two of a Kind in Misty and Warm Love in Oh Boy!

The Best of Sugar Jones features material seen in Pink from 16th October 1974 to 21st May 1977: episodic snippets that are all loving and lavish riffs on a single theme: cruel self-delusion.

Sugar is a beautiful, successful sexy thing. She has her popular TV variety show and knows everyone. She sings, dances, does chat and interviews, opens fetes and sponsors charities. The public all love her… or at least the heavily made-up, cynically manufactured image of the sweet 20-something “fabulous super sex symbol” she unceasingly pretends to be.

Sugar is actually in her 40s: an amalgamated masterpiece of the skills of make-up artists, and art of clothiers, camera technicians and trainers. The enable her to frantically cling on to the illusion of vivacious attainability. She wants everyone to want her, and only her dutiful but increasingly disenchanted and abused assistant Susie Ford knows the plain truth.

Every week Sugar goes through formulaic sitcom motions of another scheme to build the star’s ego, reputation, bank account or bedpost notch count, with Susie forced to assist or secretly sabotage the shameless plot.

It sounds pretty tedious and repetitive, but Mills’ deft scripts and manic plotting, so sublimely rendered by good girl artist Busóm Clùa, make these assorted cheesecake treats absolutely captivating to see. High on glamour, the strips would have made so many pubescent boys rethink their views on girls comics, but thankfully, nobody let us in on the secret…

Here you’ll see the never-long-defeated fame-&-acclaim chaser adopt a hunky jungle man; scupper the careers of up-&-coming rivals; seduce impresarios and showbiz bigwigs; fail to launch a respectable movie/pop/theatrical/dance career; lose many prospective rich husbands or simply sow utter chaos with new and unwise, unsanctioned publicity stunts.

Her plans always fail, but somehow the self-absorbed seductress never really pays for her misdeeds, except in secret shame and frustration. Always, she bounces back with a new notion…

Sugar’s not averse to using her assets to make an illicit buck either, but her financial skulduggery always leaves her poorer in pocket. Even if the oblivious masses can’t get enough of her, whenever she tries to exploit charities, or breaking political crises, Susie’s there to see no one is harmed or suffers hardship…

A wickedly barbed social fantasy and satire on fame, fortune and pride, Sugar Jones presents a truly unique, likably unlovable antihero who’s one step beyond normal role model fare – or even standard raunchy cheesecake classification: someone who also transcends the rather shocking core assumption of that era, which seems to be “women are worthless once they turn 21”…

Exploring fashion, branding, celebrity culture, and the toxic legacy of glamour – on male terms and in a playing field controlled by men – from a time when that “laddish” culture of “banter” and “cheekiness” was even seeping into girls comics and magazines, Sugar Jones affords a totally different view of a woman on top: one any student of sexual politics and legacy of the culture cannot afford to miss…
© 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 & 2020 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All rights reserved.