SCOTLAND IN COMICS 12: OOR WULLIE

Here he is, Dudley D.Watkins' boy hero, published out of Dundee for decades. Watkins is rightly feted as a great artist, seemingly able to draw anything. What I've not ever seen or heard acknowledged is the fantastic format he came up with. The one page adventure starting with an opening panel which was almost a prologue to what was to come (Wullie at rest before the story starts), and I especially like the closing panels where Wullie would react to the story as a whole. That last panel left many iconic images in young readers' heads - Wullie laughing on his bucket wth his feet off the floor, or sitting in a huff with a sore bum after he'd been skelped.

This adventure is from 1946. We see Wullie was buying his copy of the Beano and the Dandy. The Dandy is currently heading towards closure after 75 years. The issue in the shops this week carries the slogan "Only 2 issues to go!" Sad.

BERSERKOTRON page 39 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Page 39 is uploaded now. Have a look here.

MARVEL STAR WARS #108 (or MUG ME, MARVEL)

Marvel was licenced to make Star Wars comics in the 70s and 80s, creating the original run which featured many creators including Howard Chaykin, Mary Jo Duffy, Michael Golden, Archie Goodwin, Carmine Infantino, Cynthia Martin, David Mazzucchelli, Tom Palmer, Walt Simonson and Al Williamson.

Being a big Star Wars fan, I read all of them. The series ran from 1977 to 1986. The next Marvel Star Wars comic was scheduled to be a series called Dark Empire by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy, but the rights lapsed and Dark Horse picked it up instead. They’ve published Star Wars comics since 1991. Unlike Marvel, who put out one ongoing series with limited related titles, Dark Horse have continually brought out an ever changing roster of series. It was too much to keep up with for me. I still keep an eye out for good Star Wars comics, but haven’t felt the desire to buy them all since after Dark Empire 2 back in 1994.

Now that Disney has bought Lucasfilm, speculation is rife about Marvel getting the licence back. Disney owns Marvel, so it might make sense. However there have been other Disney properties which feature in comics not made by Disney, so it’s not a certainty. And anyway I thought to myself, who cares? Doesn’t make any difference to me who’s publishing Star Wars. But then it occurred to me: Marvel could get the rights back and publish Star Wars #108.

The completist in me would find it very hard not to buy that!

JE VEUX LIRE BANDE DESSINEE.

I’ve been aware, you may have too, that in France comics have a bigger place in culture than in Britain. I’ve also seen that there are extremely attractive books which are never translated. I've just acquired three French comics, or bande dessinee. They are "La Trilogie Nikopol" by Enki Bilal.

I chose this as it was recommended to me and I saw some prints from it at a museum. I wrote about this here. Next is "Metropolis" by Christophe Girard.

I chose this as Metropolis is one of my favourite movies. Then I have "La Piscine de Micheville" by Baru.

I chose this as I liked this artist’s style. My plan is to sit with a French/English dictionary and a grammar book and painfully slowly pick my way through these books learning as I go. I started tonight on Bilal and am enjoying the torturous process already. Bonne lecture!

THE GREATEST JUDGE DREDD COMIC OF ALL TIME

There’s a second Judge Dredd movie out just now, and this may have piqued the curiosity of some to read a Judge Dredd comic. In order to aid those wondering which one to read, I am here to write about the best Judge Dredd comic ever made.

Fungus written by Grant Grover – the pen name of the Alan Grant/John Wagner team - and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, my favourite Dredd artist. First a group of “foraging tramps” is infected with an infectous airborne disease in the wastelands outside the city. One of the group, Grubby, makes it back to civilisation, where he is apprehended by Judge Dredd.

Single figure colouring by ten year old me. The second part of the story sees Med-Judge Kildare willingly act as a guinea pig, exposing himself to the spores voluntarily. Dredd does some detective work to find the source of the disease:

In the third part, the Judges scour the streets looking for infected individuals, and the chief judge puts out a message to the populace:

One of the infected is already known to Dredd and they have a showdown.

The ending to the story is low key, heartbreaking and funny. The entire prog is brilliant, and I don’t think it’s just through nostalgic rose-tinted glasses. What a line-up: Sam Slade: Robo Hunter by Alan Grant/Ian Gibson; Rogue Trooper by Gerry Finley-Day/Colin Wilson; Ace Trucking Co. by Grant Grover/Belardinelli and Mean Arena by A.Ridgway/M.White. Great days to be reading comics as a kid. I’m sure I read somewhere that these comics (#275-277) were the biggest selling 2000ads ever. Didn’t see any fungus guys in the Dredd 3D trailer. Disappointing.

SCOTLAND IN COMICS 11: THE INCREDIBLE HULK

In 1975, The Hulk was trawled in Angus MacTavish’s net on Loch Fear. The fisherman in his surprise cried, “Och, mon---It is na’ possible--!” Hulk replied, “Let Hulk loose, puny human—or Hulk will smash!” Pretty soon, the Hulk had turned into Bruce Banner and gotten involved in a bizarre feud between MacTavish and a shady guy called Jaimie Macawber. In this sequence we have a castle and a kilt.

The green one was later out on the loch again with MacTavish, when their boat was cut in two. The reader is treated to the Hulk retaliating by punching the (sort of) Loch Ness Monster in the face.

The story makes no sense, a fact that annoyed Kim Thompson. Now known for his involvement with the Comics Journal, back then he was a Hulk reader who had his letter published a few issues later. "The Lurker beneath Loch Fear!" was written by Len Wein and drawn by Herb Trimpe. It was published as The Incredible Hulk #192.

WAR OF THE WORLDS - IN COLOR!

H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds is one of my favourite stories. I grew up with Jeff Wayne's musical version and loved it because it was terrifying. I was fascinated by Orson Welles' radio play and the fact that on broadcast people believed it was real, an early introduction into how powerful the media is. There's a 1970s comic book version drawn by Yong Montano that I thought was brilliant. And then the novel itself, still genuinely scary to read even though you know so many of the events therein beforehand. I bought the Classics Illustrated version from January 1955 recently, mostly out of curiosity. There are no credits, but according to John Gosling's very good War of the Worlds website it's written by Harry Miller and drawn by Lou Cameron. I was immediately pleasantly surprised by the terrific splash page with the spaceship hurtling towards Earth. Click images for larger versions.

Then, looking at the second panel on page 2, seeing the enormous burst of gas erupting from Mars, and similarly gigantic shadow on the red and green planet surface, I thought I may actually be in for something quite good here.

I am very impressed by the colours in this book. It's all standard four colour process, but there are violent clashes to evoke mood. Look at the faces on panel 2 page 10 and panel 2 page 16.

This book has shaken up my impression of Classics Illustrated. There's a middle two pages splash and energetic figure movement and explosions throughout. I expected it to be much more staid. Maybe the comic is dramatic because the story is just so good. It's hard to imagine not managing to inject any tension into adapting the scene in the cellar with the martian tentacle groping around the room.

The Classics Illustrated comics are designed to be educational tools. Following this credo, the comic ends with informative articles on H.G.Wells and Orson Welles.

The comic ends with the statement "Now that you have read the Classics Illustrated edition, don't miss the added enjoyment of reading the original, obtainable at your school or public library." Good advice!

GLASGOW COMIC CON

I've written a report on last weekend's Glasgow Comic Con over at Down the Tubes. Have a look here. I was especially pleased to have a wee chat with Jim Starlin while he sketched Adam Warlock for me. That's always been a favourite series of mine from the 1970s.

THE END OF LIFE IN HELL

Matt Groening has finished with his strip Life in Hell. It was first published 32 years ago and has run weekly ever since, despite the massive success of The Simpsons on TV. He stuck with it in amongst all the madness I can’t begin to imagine that must come with being involved in something as influential as The Simpsons. He kept it up because he's devoted to comics. He also set up Bongo Comics to do Simpsons titles and Zongo Comics to do more experimental stuff. Here’s an excellent example of Life in Hell from 1987. Click for a larger version. I dare say you won't forget this one in a hurry.

WUP ASS KING SIZE

A couple of years ago I wrote this. It annoyed me at the time that I couldn't find Beland's cartoon to put in there too. Well, it turned up. I knew I had it somewhere...