Published: Register and Tribune Syndicate, 1946
Story & Art by Will Eisner

The Spirit is one of the greatest creations not only in American comics, but in comics in general. This is thanks to its creator, the inimitable Will Eisner, a true comics legend and deserving of a place among the greats. Eisner blew apart the typically static quality of early golden age comics, and ushered in an age of dynamism and experimentation in the ways narratives were constructed. Some of his best Spirit comics really played with the structure of story-telling and also exposed a certain cynacism and moral uncertainty about the characters. There were definite shades of grey between the all-goodness of the 'heroes' and apparent evil of the 'bad guys'. Founded on a stony and unflinching realism, Eisner's characters were well-rounded and sympathetic, no matter what they did. All were imperfect, and thereby human. Each story saw someone struggle through an uncertain world with an existential drive to make sense of their life: to redeem past mistakes and misfortunes and ultimately find some peace, however slight, or to wholeheartedly embrace the darkness and come out on top.

The Portier Fortune

A perfect example of the latter is P'Gell. The Spirit plays out like a homage to everything that's cool about film noir, and that includes the femme fatales. P'Gell is a European golddigger who indescriminately follows money and riches wherever she finds them, stepping over the bodies of foolish, love-stricken men at every turn, and always managing to stay one step ahead of the police. In this issue Commissioner Dolan is on her tail, helped by Denny Colt (the 'dead man' turned underworld avenger, otherwise known as The Spirit), as well as a French detective who has trailed P'Gell to America. Bodies keep turning up in P'Gells room, but the police are having a hard time pinning anything on her. Finally P'Gell is about to cash in on the Portier Fortune, even woo-ing a relative of the deceased man to murder his wife and hand the safe deposit box straight to her. Then the French detective turns up and we discover he's not quite what he seemed. In fact he turns out to be the Octopus (criminal mastermind and The Spirit's arch enemy), and kills the other man, hoping to run away with P'Gell and the loot. With the arrival of Commissioner Dolan he attempts to doubleback and pin the murder on her, but is caught by The Spirit who has been hiding in the next room all along. 

An exploding 'final cigarette' provides the distraction the Octopus needs to escape, leaving only his tell-tale glove to alert the Spirit as to how close he was to catching him.

5/5: A fine issue showcasing the intrigue, mystery and comedic beats so beloved of the Spirit. Eisner's art, as ever, is a joy to behold and serves as evidence for his considerable talent as a story-teller.

Published: DC Comics, 1979
Written by Jim Stalin, Art by Craig Russell

A great fun, if slightly bizzarre, Batman tale in which the Dark Knight battles a mad scientist in an ape's body with a penchant for mind-transfer! It's a beautifully illustrated, wonderfully creepy story from the late seventies (the character's golden age for many fans), a time when (this example excepted) DC had a more grounded and realistic take on Batman thanks largely to the work of Dennis O'Neil, Neil Adams and Steve Enlgehart, among others. It's a take which has remained to this day, and one that was a logical step to the much grittier version of the character we got in the 80s.

Night f the Bodysnatcher

The story starts right in the action, with our hero coming-to on an operating table. He recalls the past few days when he had tracked down Simon Xavier, an ex-prisoner with an axe-to-grind, thanks to Thomas Wayne's involvement in his arrest during the war. The villain appears to electrocute himself as Batman approaches him, and after that things get fuzzy. He wakes up to see a huge white gorilla standing over him, who then proceeds to tell him his life story - that is to say, Simon's life story - for the gorilla is in fact the villan, his mind swapped with the beast! He plans to swap bodies with Batman himself and live out a life of glorious idleness and extravagence as Playboy, Bruce Wayne: "Wine, women, parties, trips to exotic locales" - you know, the good life!

Obviously Batman has other ideas, and breaking free of his chains (because he can, he's Batman) smashes up Xaviers labratory, "accidentally" destroying the villain's body in the flames. A rightfully disgruntled gorilla chases Batman out of the window and across the roof tops of Gotham.

They grapple and fight in some beautifully dynamic art typical of the period (above), and while Batman gives as good as he gets, the gorilla finally triumphs, lifting his foe above his head ready to throw off the building. A security guard arrives in the nick of time and shoots the gorilla, who falls to his death. Batman, the jammy git, swings away just in time. As a final humiliation for Xavier, his victor claims the will money (the villain had hoped to claim it as his when he took on Wayne's identity). We must surely assume the already-disgustingly-wealthy Wayne donates his spoils to charity.

4/5: A fine issue from the Batman's past that, like many a great Batman story riffs on horror tropes and plays on the surreal and the macabre to great effect. Perhaps a little daft by today's standards, but a great fun story nonetheless that showcases some stunningly dynamic art from Russell.

Published: 2000AD, 1981
by Grant Grover, Art by Belardinelli

A rather strange one this, Ace Trucking Co. is one of the lesser-known 2000AD series. It has a more explicitly humorous flavour to it, yet it follows the same irreverent tone and features similar sci-fi tropes as the more famous creations from the publisher. It reads like an ongoing space-slacker series in a similar vein as Red Dwarf or Futurama, predating both by a couple of decades, and also tips its hat to the works of Douglas Adams. It follows trucker Ace Garp and his crew aboard the Speedo Ghost, a sentient spaceship. His crew include Feek the Freak, a strange skeletal being who works in the engine room, and a hulking great character called GBH, the ship's muscle, affectionately refered to as a Biffo Buddy. Together they manage to career from one madcap adventure to the next, narrowly escaping death at every turn.

The art is something that really marks it out from the pack. It echoes the style of the time, and looks very 2000AD in some ways. But it also has the same spindly cartoonish style and sense of chaos as Kevin O'Neill's Nemesis the Warlock.

Last Lug to Abbo Dabbo Part 7

This is the latter end of an ongoing story that would have stretched about a month or so, and would have featured alongside other ongoings (2000AD is a weekly anthology of stories, only a few pages each story). Ace Garp and his crew found an apparently abandoned ship, the Bloo Maru, drifting about space and, after investigation, found it stuffed to the hilt with pirate treasure. Hoping to claim the loot as salavage they settle in to celebrate and consume the ship's food, little knowing that it is made from a drug that brings on Abbo-Dabbo, or space madness. The one apparently-insane crew member (save for the infestation of pig-rats) turns out to be the not-so-crazy-afterall, Spawny Plack. He has tricked them into eating the drug and now plans to encase them in Plasteen and add them to his freakish collection. It seems he was once a trucker who was exiled from the community and since that day promised revenge on all truckers. Having been kidnapped by pirates in the Bloo Maru, Spawny Plack took control of the ship when they all fell to Abbo-Dabbo, and has since been taking revenge on passing truckers one by one.

In this issue Garp has been saved by Speedo Ghost's cleaning droids and is administered the anti-dote to the Abbo-Dabbo. The ship manages to avoid fire from the disgruntled Spawny Plack and crashes through its main sail, thus rendering it powerless. A vengeful Garp dons rocketpack and gathers an impressive arsnel before returning to the Bloo Maru. Spawny gets it handed to him on a plate, and is led away all battered and bruised for more punishment at the hands of the now-free prisoners, who line up for the pleasure.

Score: 4/5. All-in-all an enjoyable romp. While nothing to write home about, it's certainly a fun, if light, read and the zany art really helps seal the deal.

Published: 1964, Marvel
Written by Stan Lee, Art by Steve Ditko.

I have a confession to make. I purposefully picked this issue in order to break my run of 5/5 scores. As a DC-boy by nature (I really can't explain my preference for the perenially 'square' publisher) I naturally assumed picking a Marvel offering would bring down my average a bit. You see, I was beginning to worry the scoring system would become meaningless if I kept reading things I knew I loved and thereby awarding them full marks. Would this whole enterprise become meaningless by extension? Then I realised it is essentially meaningless anyway; that is to say, I'm doing this for no other reason than to enjoy comics! And so what if they all receive full marks? That must mean I'm enjoying myself! And I have to admit I enjoyed the hell out of this Spider-man issue.

I'm not going to do a little intro to who Spider-man is because, firstly everyone knows - he's probably one of the most recognisable comic characters of all time, especially since the movies. And secondly, while I am a fan of all the comics I've read, and indeed of the Raimi movies, and of the cartoons that introduced me to the character way back when, I can't claim to know all that much about him. I'm not emotionally tied to the character in the same way I am to Batman or Dan Dare, and for some reason I always feel like he's not my hero as much as he is everyone's. If that makes sense... which I'm not sure it does. I guess I'm just a casual fan. If they killed off Peter Parker, which I understand they have (?), well... I'd be okay with it. It's just comics, afterall. Such level-headed acceptance is pretty hard to muster when you really care for a character.

And yet, I can't for the life of me figure out why I'm not that into Spider-man. He's a character that can so easily be identified with, and I can see many things that ought to (and to an extent do) draw me in. First and foremost he is a bit of a nerd, a bit of a loner. He doesn't fit in, he has anxiety problems and he wishes he could show his bullies who he really is. It was really very clever on Marvel's part to create a character with so much in common with their average readership, and have their stories play out like a sort of wish fulfilment. Secondly, he's just a boy, landed by chance with these amazing powers and the opportunity to make a difference. In the typically Marvel way, here is a hero with the appearance of being 'real'; someone who doesn't seem so far removed from the reader as, say, an alien from a dead planet, or a grieving billionaire. This identifiablility and 'reality' may be common-place now, but in many ways it all started with Spider-man. He truly is the 'every-fan' hero. Perhaps it says something about me that I'd rather have heroes I can look up to than ones I can 'realistically' imagine myself being. Perhaps I come to comics for escape rather than realism...? Who knows... or indeed cares? The important thing is that, despite all my fanboy prejudices, I have to admit I had a great time reading this and I fully intend on giving Marvel a second go!

Unmasked by Dr. Octopus!

So, in this issue Peter is unmasked! But before that happens we have quite a build up to Dr. Octopus enticing Spider-man to meet with him. Agrieved from a past meeting, the mad scientist wants to exact revenge on Spider-man in a very public, very humiliating way. Peter's got problems of his own, namely a touch of flu, and of course newspaper editor, Jameson always being on his back. I love Jameson as his ridiculously hard-to-please boss, and can't help reading him in the same voice as the guy who did a great job playing him in the movies. I hope they get him back for the pointless reboot movie coming out soon. (On the topic, I've no idea why they feel they have to reboot it so soon after the huge success of the last trilogy. I understand the suits at the studio pissed off Raimi by insisting on fitting more villans into the third movie and were then annoyed when it turned out too rushed. I can understand Raimi wanting to wash his hands of it, and at the same time I can understand, although don't like the fact, that these movie studios want to secure a cash-cow movie franchise so they can keep churning them out indefinitely. But, I really think it's a bad idea to reboot so soon, especially since everyone so warmed to Tobey Mcguire. I personally think he did a great job, and that the films overall perfectly captured the tone of the original comics).  

Doc-Oc goes on a crime spree in the hope of bringing Spider-man to him. Peter's also facing some pretty mean jibes from class bully Flash Thompson, leading him to the very wise observation that: "It's only the people who are inferior themselves that pick on others!" So anyway, Doc-Oc tires of being ignored and decides to drop in on the Daily Bugle, demanding Jameson print the invitation to Spider-man to meet with him for a showdown. He then leaves, kidnapping Betty as he does so (whatever happened to MJ?). Jameson wants Peter to be there to take photos, so his worries are just starting. On top of this his cold is getting worse and it's starting to affect his powers too. As a result it doesn't all go so swimmingly. Doc-Oc easily beats Spider-man and actually unmasks him infront of Betty, Jameson and some police officers. Luckily, not one of them can believe that weedy, nerdy Peter could possibly be Spider-man, and they all assume it was some stupid attempt at acting the hero.

Peter is sent home and nursed better by his Aunt May. Once recovered (which seems to take no time at all!) he finds all the girls won over by his heroism! This really is paying lipservice to fanboy wish-fulfilment. Peter is staggered by the attention, remarking that before it's like they didn't even know he was alive! I'm sure we can all relate to this feeling, right?! Anyway, soon Spidey is back to his old self and is swinging through the streets just in time to clash with Doc-Oc in an awesome, city-wide chase and fight scene.

At long last it takes them into an abandone building and a fire breaks out. In a few nail-biting panels Spidey struggles to reload his webshooters (remember, in the original comics the web was not a part of his radio-active power set - Peter designed the mechanical webshooters himself) while the flames lick higher. Finally Spider-man escapes, leaving Doc-Oc for the police. 

To top off this uncharacterstically happy ending (most Spider-man issues end on a note of anxiety or acceptance about his lot as an outsider), Peter even gets to turn down Liz's proposition of a date, while her disgruntled (ex)boyfriend, Flash, looks on:

Peter (perhaps not as humble in victory as he ought to be): I'm sure Flash will be happy to go instead of me! Although I know how boring it must be to have to use all those one syllable words when you talk to him! Anyway, you deserve each other!

Flash: Why, that crummy...!

Liz: Don't say it Flash. We rated that, after the way we've always treated Peter!

Score: 5/5 as much as it pains this DC-fanboy, this was awesome fun. It really would be unfair to award it any less!

 

Published: The Eagle, 21 December 1951
by Frank Hampson.

You can't muck about when it comes to Christmas Day, and with that in mind I've gone straight for gold with Dan Dare. This is the classic British comic that was published in The Eagle, a true British institution and a forming experience for all who read it. Unfortunately I wasn't around at the time, but I've come to these magical strips via my dad, who's deluxe hardback volume of the Man from Nowhere had enchanted me from the moment I saw it. Ecstatic fans of Britain's most beloved comic include Chris Claremont, Dave Gibbons and Michael Palin among others. I really can't add more than has already been said about this wonderful, and very British, comic. I strongly urge all fans of classic sci-fi, and indeed any anglophiles out there, to invest in (at least) one of the hardbacks Titan are putting out at the moment. You won't be disappointed...

The Red Moon Mystery

This is the christmas issue and is adorned with holly and merry christmas messages to the reader. The issue itself is the customery two pages of action - and it really is a lesson in story telling. This is decades before the dreaded decompressed stories we get nowadays, where a whole issue can fly by covering little more than a conversation between characters. These are the days when you'd get the equivilent of a whole TV episode in the space of a few panels, and what a joy it is to read.

Here, Dan and Digby are looking for Captain Bryan, after a tidal wave has hit the Hotel Astoria on Mars. The dreaded red moon has begun orbiting the planet and as it gets closer violent storms threaten the lives of its holidaying inhabitants. Dan and his friends had gone out as a scouting party to evacuate any stragglers at the hotel when the wave hit and separated the party. Digby managed to befriend and save a little dog named Towser, but Capt Bryan remains MIA.

They manage to find him and carry him back to the ship just in time to hear that a riot has broken out among evacuees. Ever suspicious of their superiors, the people have convinced themselves that the Space Fleet top-brass are reserving the few remaining lifeboats for themselves, friends and family. It's all worryingly pertinent - riots, corrupt officials, ecological disasters... given how things have been going in Britain this past year, let's just say I wouldn't blame them for jumping to that conclusion!

Anyway, such behaviour is of course most unBritish - it's just not cricket! Dan really can't stand for this insubordination from the lower orders! The panicking mob smash their way into the Space Clipper but as they pass through the airlock are suddenly whisked off their feet! Ms. Peabody (the scientist who happens to be <gasp!> a woman! Luckily, she's easy on the eye, so that makes it okay!) has taken it upon herself to deal with the mob, using the gravity control. Ho, ho, ho!

5/5 Admittedly not the most exciting issue int the comic's history, it has to receive full marks for the beautiful painted art alone. It also masterfully cranks up the tension for the ongoing story, and within only two pages! Plus, it's Christmas! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Published: 2011, Vertigo.
by Brian Azzarello, Art by Eduardo Risso.

Three days in, and another solid gold issue. This time it's Brian Azzerello's long-watied pet project Spaceman. He's been threatening fans with it for years and it finally dropped earlier this year just as everyone was getting bored of the massive, yawn-inducing cross-overs going on at the Big Two. Here Azzarello is teamed up with artist Eduardo Risso, partner-in-crime on the acclaimed 100 Bullets series. Any fear that they'd lost their touch had been put to bed a few months earlier in the fantastic Batman: Knight of Vengeance, the saving grace of the whole Flashpoint mess (save of course for Andy Kubert's beautiful art in the main title).

The duo show here the very subtle art of comic story-telling. The reader is treated to a slow-burn of world-building as this dystopian future slowly unravels via a series of flashbacks amidst the action. We follow Orson, one of Nasa's genetically created space-children, engineered to explore space on mankind's behalf. Our lonely hero sets out on a mission to save a kidnapped reality-tv star... to claim the reward of course, but also to give his empty life some sort of meaning. Like many great sci-fi stories, this one has a harsh and solom atmosphere shot through with exitential melancholy. Our character is a frankenstein monster, abandoned by his creaters and left to drift in this strange world. Despite his hulking size, he has child-like presence that somehow combines world-weariness with an eternal innocence. His sincere sense of right is in stark contrast with the brutal cynicism of the world.

Risso's knack for story-telling is second-to-none and once again he proves himself a master of the show-don't-tell school. This is backed by Azzarello's naturalistic dialogue which is a constructed language of mutated slang and text-speak, and reads like Halo Jones, or an updated Droog-speak. The pampered modern comic reader may find it a little hard to start with, but it's all the more satisfying for it. It doesn't pander or patronise us with explanations, but demands that we stay alert as the mystery unfolds.

Missing Control

In this issue Orson has found Tara and confronts her kidnapper. They bob hopelessly on the ocean in a stalemate as the kidnapper attempts to cut a deal with our hero. We also get a flashback to the events surrounding Orsons 'birth'. Nasa created its space-children in a furor of controversy; one more moral outrage in a world in downturn (wars, recession, ecological disaster... a frighteningly familiar situation). Orson and his siblings became celebrities born under the glare of the media. When it all went wrong, they were abandoned with the project and left to fend for themselves.

We then jump forward to the failed space mission before landing back in the action as pirates arrive to claim Tara for themselves. Orson manages to save the girl, introducing the last unlucky attacker to the propellor, face first! A quiet moment between the girl and her savior closes the issue. Their lives have been remarkably similar and they find a certain connection in the bleak acceptance of it.

It's a shame that this is only a cult-hit and can never achieve the the sales figures of many a lesser comic in the superhero genre. This really shows what comics are capable of and more people should be exposed to it.

Score: 5/5. I await the next issue with anticipation. Thoroughly recommended for fans of sci-fi and good comics!

Published: 2006, Vertigo
by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, Art by Luke Ross
Cover by Frank Quitely.

As any man, woman, or child knows, he had no friends, this Jonah Hex...but he did have two companions...one was death itself...the other, the acrid smell of gunsmoke.

DC's cult favourite anti-hero brings together everything you love about spaghetti westerns in a series of one-and-done stories. The classic western title was brought back some years ago under the very capable helm of writing team Palmiotti and Gray. The duo seem to have the magic touch. They went on to become fan-favourites on DC's big-boobed heroine Powergirl, and are currently rebooting The Ray as part of the New 52.

The scar-faced Jonah Hex is your classic Eastwood-esque gunslinger; a silent lone-wolf type, who skulks around the old West clearing up disputes and righting wrongs in his own special way. That is to say, people tend to die. But, in the internal logic of the stories, there's always a strong sense of justice and fairness at the heart of it. In the most satisfying way the villains get their come-upance, the victims are avenged and Jonah returns to the lonely wilderness come sundown. It's the sort of good old fashioned formula that, if done right, hits all the right beats and leaves you feeling truly satisfied after just 22 pages. This is something largely missing from today's continuity-heavy comics and in many ways this title harkens back to simpler times, bringing a fuzzy nostalgia that only adds to the enjoyment.

The Crippled Hunter

Jonah is employed by a big game hunter, crippled by an African elephant whose tusks now adorn his mantle piece, to find his lost boy, Jacob. Jonah sniffs out the culprit at the travelling carnival, where abandoned/kidnapped children are forced to fight savage dogs for the entertainment of the patrons. The ringmaster is a particularly dispicable individual who beats children that end their fights too quickly. This makes it all the more pleasing when Jonah bursts into the scene and deals out some justice. Alas our hero is too late to save Jacob who writhes in the corner in a rabid fever. He takes it upon himself to put the boy out of his misery in an emotional scene and then deals the ringmaster a fitting, if brutal, end (see above).

By the end of the story the boy's body is returned to the grieving hunter and Jonah returns to his lonesome wandering. Ever his own worst critic, Jonah refuses to accept his payment. Yet he finds some meaning from the episode that sets him on his path, and really defines the tone of the series:

"Until that day, Jonah Hex never questioned his feud with the Lord, but there is a certain crisis of the mind induced by the killing of an innocent child. It is what crystallizes the character. It will betray your hidden weaknesses, cut and polish your virtues, and reveal you in all your glory or your vileness.

It had always seems his talent for killing was in direct opposition to the Lord's work. But now?

Now he wasn't so sure."

Score: 5/5
The yardstick by which all modern western comics should be measured.

Published: 1972, DC Comics
Words and Art by the legendary Jack Kirby.

This series could very well be one of the best Kirby adventures ever. It's certainly up there with the best of them, and came out around the same time as the equally wonderful Demon series, which DC has seen fit to revisit in the New 52. In actual fact much of Kamandi is made up of a series of Kirby-flavoured riffs on movie classics, from Chariots of Fire to King Kong... and not forgetting Planet of the Apes. Jack hoped to cash in on the success of the latter by creating a post-apocalyptic world in which mankind had fallen to the beasts. A power battle ensues complete with pseudo-philosophical deliberations on responsibility and inter-species relations.

Our lonely hero emerges from the bunker in which the remnants of the human race had weathered the 'Great Disaster'. He's the only one left and soon finds himself swept along by a series of wild adventures as he encounters the beasts that have taken dominion of the world in mankind's absence. From barbaric gorilla hordes, to imperial tigers and kind-hearted lions, earth's new masters squabble and struggle to exert their will over all others.

The sheer pace of the plot is what marks the series out; the reader is swept along with Kamandi with barely a moment to draw breath, yet it's not without its reflective moments either. Friendships are forged, companions lost, and bit by bit the backstory of this bizarre world comes to light.

The One-armed Bandit

This issue starts in the midst of the action. Kamandi and Prince Tuftan the Tiger flee from the burning armory, which the tiger had hoped to be the gamechanger in his people's war with the gorillas. A morally-righteous Kamandi had other ideas and, hoping to make up for his species mistakes of the past, saw fit to destroy the weapons. They flee through a raging battle (in a beautifully chaotic double page spread) before being captured by a whip-cracking gorilla and then saved once more by a regiment of tigers. Kamandi and Tuftan's relationship is strained yet again as the latter marches off with his men, leaving the boy with the rest of the human 'cattle'. 

Later, Kamandi faces a fight with another prisoner (a particularly moody gorilla) for the sport of Great Caesar, Tuftan's Emporer father. Saved by Tuftan, who thereby angers his father, Kamandi barely has time for thank-yous before the embittered gorilla hordes launch a counter offensive on the tiger stronghold. In a bizarre twist that demands you to 'just-go-with-it', Kamandi manages to talk the warring sides into shunning battle and needless death and letting a one-armed bandit, a relic from ruined Las Vegas, decide the outcome. 

Caesar proves he is a man of principle, almost redeeming himself, despite essentially being a savage bastard. Losing with dignity, he leads his army away, hoping never to see the meddlesome Kamandi again. A tearful scene closes the issue as Kamandi and Tuftan part ways.

"Life will surely be dull now that Kamandi's gone. By Caesar, he was almost as human as we tigers!"

In the same panel, Kamandi turns to his human mate (the beautiful Flower, who he's managed to pick up even with everything else going on. Say what you like about him, he sure works fast):

"You know, Flower, for a tiger, Prince Tuftan seems as human as you or I!"

A cracking issue, with break-neck pace, dynamic art and wonderful characterisations.

5/5: Kirby, and therefore the comic medium, at its best!

The idea behind this blog is to add a daily review of a random comic from my 'vault'. It's been a long semester and I haven't been able to read a comic in a while. So over Christmas and the month ahead I'm dedicating myself to reading one issue a day from my collection. I'll be diving into it, much like Scrooge McDuck used to do, and retrieving a long lost gem to read and review. Who knows what it'll be? From Kirby classics, to modern-day Morrisons to British and Belgian, indie and obscure... there are no limits!

If it inspires just one person out there to dip their toe into the crazy world of comic books, or maybe to return to this truly pleasuralbe pastime... then I'll feel my work is done.

So stick around and see what treasures I unearth...!