New! Jughead #1

Jughead #1 (Archie Comics)

Chip Zdardsky (w) Erica Henderson (a)

The Archie renewal continues with the relaunch of Jughead in his own magazine once more! Unlike the main Archie Book, the characterisation of Jughead remains intact.

Well almost.

Gasp as Mr Wetherbee announces his early retirement, forced it would seem by newcomer Mr Stanger (Boo, hiss) who immediately incurs the wrath of Jughead by changing the canteen menu.

No more burgers!

Not even lasagna.

Just a high protein gruel.

The injustice.

Jughead decides (after a snooze and a dream adventure in the Game of Jones) to do something about it.

Even learning to cook himself.

The confrontation begins...

The first issue is available with the usual array of multiple covers. Get one now whilst stocks last!

  

While you are down the comic shop don't forget to pick up the latest issue of Archie. Veronica is taking advantage of our boy and Betty doesn't like it one bit!

To be continued (obviously).............

 

Tales from the Trigan Empire

Every week back in the sixties my parents would have the magazine Look and Learn delivered with the papers. I immediately sat down to read what I thought was the best feature, and more to the point my favourite British comic strip The Trigan Empire.

Originating in the short-lived Ranger "boys" magazine which lasted for just 40 issues, The Trigan Empire was obviously well liked enough to transfer to the pages of the stronger selling Look & Learn.

 

A mixture of barbarians, Roman Empire style adventures with science fiction elements thrown in this fantasy adventure also has some of the, if not the finest artwork in any British comic.

Drawn by the late Don Lawrence, The Trigan Empire (originally called The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire) was set on the planet Elekton. It's history becoming known to mankind when a spaceship with a long dead crew crashes on earth. The whole history of the Trigan (originally a barbarian tribe called the Vorg) is contained in it's "record books" (remember this was long before computers were used in everyday life).



I was lucky enough to come across a copy of The Tales of the Trigan Empire  (Hawk Books 1989) an over sized book of reprints at my local comic shop which contained a number of stories, some of which I remembered; A Tale of Invasion &  A Tale of Evil (set on Elekton's moon) plus others that I would have read but were long forgotten in the mists of time



The above illustration is a reminder of the very first story I remember reading as the Vorgs (later the Trigan Empire) are held back in their attempts to build a civilisation by Lokan aircraft of sorts.

The Vorgs had a lot of problems raising themselves from the rank of barbarian (see above) but with patience and the inevitable wars that Empires are founded on became a mighty empire on the face of
their world.

 

The Trigan Empire lasted from it's first story in Ranger published in September 1965, moving to Look and Learn #232 (June 1966) and ran until the magazines demise in 1982, appearing in a grand total of 854 issues.

The Trigan Empire was briefly reprinted in the short lived Vulcan comic  and there have been a number of collections, the main one being the 12 volume run produced by The Don Lawrence Collection a few years back. These are high quality publications and a price to show for it.  Worth picking up if you can afford them.

Personally I can't recommend this story enough. A wonderful story that certainly caught this child's attention back then and still stands the test of time today.

Further reading: The Worlds of Don Lawrence

Some birthday reading!

I was born on a Sunday so there isn't a comic published on that day, so the nearest I could find was a copy of The Eagle from Monday October 11th 1957. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of this anywhere and I don't have a scanner. Never mind.

These Annuals are for my reading pleasure today, so I thought I'd share!



Steel Claw, The House of Dollman, Captain Hurricane, Billy Bunter, The Nutts and more!



Last of the Odham style Wham! Annuals which became one of my favourites and still remember my father giving me the first issue way back in 1964!

Eagle Eye, General Nitt and His Barmy Army, Pest of the West and the best strip of all, Georgie's Germs! What else could a lad ask for!

T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents Magazine #1 (1981)

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (JC Comics)

Various (w) & (a)

The great thing about collecting comics is that even if you are a fan of a particular series or character sometime you will come across something new and didn't even know existed. That's what happened when I went into my local comic shop and saw this on the shelf just waiting to fall into my weekly pile.

A black and white magazine, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 published by JC Comics who I thought had just published the two "four colour" comics via Archie back in the eighties. I'm rather partial to the large size format B&W comic magazine so this was a bonus.

This was intended to be a quarterly magazine and if you subscribed to the fanzine Amazing Heroes you were promised two free editions. Sadly this was a one off.

Featuring the revival of each T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent chapter by chapter this was great fun, especially part three drawn Kirby style!

The villain...none other than The Warlord!

Bonus features included a reprint of the first adventure of The Fly by Simon & Kirby and an early Black Hood story which is nothing like the gritty version published by Archie today!

Easier to find are the "normal size" comics pictured below.

IDW currently have the licence but only managed an 8 issue mini series due to low sales which was a pity because theirs was the best effort by far in recent years.

Don't mention the DC run. No please don't.

 

Charlton Highlight: Doomsday + 1 (1975/76)

Doomsday +1 (Charlton Comics)

Joe Gill (w) John Byrne (a)

One of the forgotten gems published by Charlton back in the seventies was their post apocalyptic story Doomsday + 1. This tells the tale of three astronauts who whilst in space watch the Earth die as a deposed dictator uses nuclear weapons to blow up Moscow and New York thereby causing World War Three and the end of mankind.

Led by Captain Boyd Ellis, the trio also included Jill Malden and Ikei Yashida two scientists who returned to Earth to find almost total devastation. They initially land in Greenland where they find a Woolly Mammoth frozen in the ice that suddenly comes to life and their lives are endangered until they are saved by another figure from the distant past, Kuno. He's a giant of a caveman.

The four then set off on an adventure to discover what is left of the world.

 

The reason this series is of a higher standard than some of Charlton's other fare is down to an excellent script by Joe Gill and the first professional work of John Byrne who will go on to be famous as he recreated the X-Men with Chris Claremont for Marvel.

They fight a Soviet based robot army, save the world from aliens, escape from another dimension and meet two undersea races that have hidden from mankind for thousands of years.

They are not the only survivors but this is a very hostile world they find themselves in.

Doomsday +1 lasts for six issues, though the series is revived again with #7 and gets reprinted which may be a bit confusing when trying to track down back issues as a couple of the covers are re-drawn.

 

There is however one more story that was finally published in Charlton Spotlight #8 (a fanzine) in 2013. This "missing issue" had been intended to be #13 but the title faced cancellation due to low sales.

 

Marvel Flashback: Marvel Presents #1 & 2: Bloodstone (1975)

The 1970's saw all sorts of titles tried out by Marvel, mainly horror as the Comics Code (now thankfully deceased) relaxed it's rules. Bloodstone was one of these, more adventure than superhero and frankly the sort of fare that British readers would have been used to.

The first two issues of Marvel Presents were devoted to introducing a man called Bloodstone who seemingly appears from nowhere in the Marvel Universe despite having been alive for some 10,000 years.

We learn that as a caveman our hero follows a hooded figure into a cavern where lo and behold there is technology and a bizarre alien with an unpronounceable name called Ullux'yl Kwan T'ae'sny who "welcomes" the curious human to his presence.

The aliens mission is to turn himself into a "God" and tries using the man that we know as Bloodstone and his tribe to reach that goal. He fails and the tribe get wiped out except for one man. You can guess who that was.

In the ensuing fight a gem used for the ceremony is destroyed and a piece ends up buried in Bloodstones chest. He becomes immortal and powerful and so an ageless battle begins.

In a way this reminds me of the long running Kelly's Eye in Valiant, though the British story has no aliens.



For some reason Marvel changed the stars of Marvel Presents from #3 to the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Bloodstone's story does not end there but he does end up up one of the more obscure characters in the MU.

An inexpensive couple of issues to collect and there is at least one more mini series to collect that is buried somewhere in my collection. I'll dig it up at a later date and see what happens next. Damned if I can remember!

Marvel Flashback: Marvel Team-Up: Spiderman & Killraven (1976)

Marvel Team Up #45 (Marvel Comics)

Bill Mantlo (w) Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito (a)

The only Spider-man comic I have ever really been interested in since the departure of Steve Ditko from the main title back in the early days of Marvel was Marvel Team-up. This comic (mostly starring Spidey) featured the webbed wonder teaming up with a variety of Superheroes from across the Marvel Universe. This one stars Killraven who fights against the Martians in the not to distant future.

The Martian invasion in this time line is the aliens second attempt which never happened in mainstream Marvel (Earth 666 reality) so bear that in mind when trying to workout continuity. Just go with the flow.

Spider-man arrives in the future on Doctor Dooms time travel platform just in time to help Killraven fight some tripods. Given these Martians had wiped out most of humanity and military it's surprising how vulnerable they are to being tripped over and beaten by err...spider webbing. Makes you wonder!

Still the inevitable fight breaks out the heroes win and part company and off Spidey goes trying to get home, except in the next issue he meets Deathlock who is also set in an alternate future.

Oh well. Makes for good stories, just don't think about it too much. Just enjoy!