The Ruby's Curse: A River Song/Melody Malone Mystery by Alex Kingston (BBC/Hardback £16.99)

 

River Song, the Doctor's wife and daughter of two companions Amy & Rory is always entertaining in her appearances and is a welcome addition to the ever growing Doctor Who Universe. A lovable, sexy rogue with a decent but haughty streak the publication of a solo adventure was long overdue.

I only discovered the publication of this novel when I happened to pick up a copy of The Sunday Times and noticed it was in the Top Ten Fiction Hardbacks. Ordered via Amazon it arrived the following day and turned out to be an entertaining and enjoyable journey into the madness of River's world.

Photo: By BBC

Jointly written with Jacqueline Rayner this is a science fiction pulp adventure set partially inside a fictional yet real world of thirties pulp. Confused? You will be as River settles down to write a melody  Malone PI mystery set in pre-war USA. 

A search for a ruby once believed to have been owned by Cleopatra herself leads to murder, mystery and a tale that gets told to a fellow prisoner who it turns out is hiding a terrible secret, one he sacrificed his wife for. Trouble is someone else is listening......

Travelling across time and space and pursued by a rather unpleasant gangster and making friends with a fictional cat in ancient Egypt the adventure unfolds in layers within different realities so pay attention. Much more than this would lead to spoilers galore so all I ca do is highly recommend this novel and hope that that there are more to come.

Rating: 5 Stars

Vampirella 1992 (Dynamite)

 

Since my local comic shop stopped trading in new comics I've changed the way I collect comics and because of reduced finances had to drastically reduce the number of comics I buy. This month I ordered just six plus one trade via the Forbidden Planet's mail order service.  So the arrival of new comics is quite infrequent and for the most part (there are exceptions) I choose one-shots or specials. 

Being a fan of Vampirella and unable to collect the various on-going series I thought I'd treat myself to a one shot. It's an extra length comic but not too expensive. It features Vampirella hiding in a squalid housing and earning a living by role playing herself at comic conventions with a lesbian Red Sonja and a black woman playing Purgatori, all three Dynamite characters.

Guess what, there's a demon in the background and a villain who is sent to cause mayhem at the Convention so eventually Vampi has to be herself. The rest you can guess. Oh and a terrible fate awaits her potential abusers back at the flat!

Not one of Vampirella's greatest appearances but an entertaining read and a return to the the "bad girl" comics of the nineties which won't be to everybody's tastes in this age of "woke"!

Rating: 3 Stars 

Stargirl:Spring Break Special # 1 One Shot (DC)

With the TV series of Stargirl now heading towards a second season it's hardly surprising that DC Comics are once more trying to to give the heroine a series of her own and this "one-shot" special is certainly a good start for fans!

Stargirl fiirst appeared in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E way back in 2000 shortly after I had returned to the hobby in which we saw former side-kick Stripsey move in with Courtney's mother who then discovers she can inherit the power of the cosmic staff and becomes Stargirl. Her stepfather (not a bad guy) don'd a robotic suit to help keep her out of trouble.

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E only lasted 15 (including the #0) issues despite being a good read. I likened it as a kind of Buffy with superheroes and villains which is also how I saw the TV show which I got half way through before getting distracted.

In subsequent years though not ageing much as comic book heroes never do she joins the Justice Society of America and becomes a mainstream if not first tier character. Her friendship with Shazam causes an awkward scene in one issue of JSA as unlike the others she knows that his alter-ego Billy Batson is the same age as she is.

This one-shot actually brings a lot of superheroes together in the form of the Seven Soldiers of Victory plus the mysterious Crimson Avenger who I've not seen very often. The action begins with a piece of DC history i really must have missed as Olly tells Red Arrow he was the "Golden Age" Green Arrow due to being sent back in time with Speedy (Roy) by the Clock King.

So with that news the story sees the reforming of the team and despite being left behind both Courtney and Red Arrow do manage to get some part of the action despite the warnings of the Crimson Avenger. There is an epilogue to this story which sees the return of an old All Star Squadron/JSA villain which leads apparently into an all new Stargirl #1. A new continuing series it would seem.

Rating: 5 Stars (I enjoyed this)

Superman Monthly #21 (London Editions/1989)

Although Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman were all household names even in the UK attempts to create a comics line based on these iconic characters were never as successful as Marvel whose comics continue to dominate the British market to today.

When I was a child I used to read a lot of American comics back in the sixties mostly DC rather than Marvel plus a few others on occasion including Mighty Comics (Archie), Charlton's line of Action Heroes and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents from Tower comics. 

For British Marvel's output was available in Alan Class publications and the Power Comics line and finally TV 21 (for reasons I will never understand) until the Mighty World of Marvel was directly published by the company in 1972. The rest is history

With the exception of the Batman newspaper strip which appeared on the front page of Odham's Smash!  DC's only real attempt to intervene in the British comics market was with the monthly Super DC which was launched in 1969 but only lasted 14 issues plus one "annual".

London Editions made several attempts at launching DC characters onto the British Market in the eighties but these didn't take and I freely admit to not even being aware of them until long after the comics had disappeared and it's only by chance I finally got to pick up one.

This edition of Superman, oversized to fit the British market is actually in full colour and of a good design featuring stories I hadn't read including a face-off between Superman and Superboy which shouldn't have been possible in the post crisis universe but that's a story for another day.

This issue also included an excerpt of The Secret origin Of Green Lantern plus Batman in a Justice League International adventure Born Again.

Superman  ran as a fortnightly from it's start in 1988 until #20 when it went monthly then bi-monthly ending with #56.

There were several other titles including Batman which merged or absorbed the second series of Superman (Adventures of -15 issues) as the rest of the line fell before itself falling to cancellation. I have to say I'd be happy to pick up more of these as I find them and have already obtained one of their annuals which I will be looking at in due course.

Milestone Returns: Infinite Edition Zero (DC/Milestone)

 

It was inevitable that the rise of Black Lives Matter especially in the USA where it originated would not only have an effect on politics but in the entertainment field including comics. DC has taken the opportunity to revive a line of characters that were published under the Milestone imprint back in the nineties but before we look at them and the comic itself it's worth examining the role of Black people in comics.

Frankly when it comes to the world of superheroes there are very few major or well known black characters. The most obvious and famous would now be the Black Panther who's recent movie was a major hit for Marvel and is a hero that has been around since 1966 when he first appeared in Fantastic Four #52. It wasn't until the seventies that the Panther got his own series even then it began in a comic called Jungle Action! I'm not sure that would be published in todays climate.

Over the years the Black Panther along with Luke Cage, Power-Man from Marvel and Black Lightning from DC were the only real attempts to create strong black heroes. Probably the best known black female is Storm from the X-Men who is Sudanese in origin. In fact the only major figure in comics that was black was one you would hardly recognise as such, Spawn!

In the 1993 Milestone launched four comics under an imprint agreement with DC, Hardware, Icon, Blood Syndicate and Static. These were successful enough to lead to more titles, Shadow Cabinet, Xombi and Kobalt along with a number of miniseries. There was even a crossover with the main DC Universe in Worlds Collide but Milestone's comics ceased being published by 1997.

The nineties was a period I dropped out of the hobby so have never read any of these comics though at one point Milestone characters were brought into the DC universe in Milestone Forever a series I did read and frankly instantly forgot about. perhaps it's time to dig up and give it another go?

The only other Milestone character I read was Static in his eight issue revival during the New 52 DC re-vamp and recall he had some interaction with the Teen Titans but that's about it util now.

Having already read DC's one-shot Asian superhero special I decided to give this a go and ordered a copy which arrived today. It's certainly a hard hitting comic and violent from the start surrounding the use of a chemical weapon against BLM demonstrators ironically designed by a black scientist who we later discover is also the hero called Hardwire which appears to be a black version of Iron Man from a first look.

We are also introduced to Static but it's Icon and Rocket that looks the most interesting. From the look of things the action takes place on a different Earth to the mainstream DCU heroes with the rebirth of the "multiverse" making this possible.

DC are launching three different six issue mini-series featuring Static, Icon & Rocket and Hardware each advertised as "Season One". A tentative but solid attempt to put black characters on the map and presumably aimed at that audience. I'm not sure how successful they will be but at least DC are trying to broaden the comics audience though from sheer observation I found the X-Men have a particular appeal to black comic fans.

Given my own now very limited comics budget I'm afraid none of these titles will be on my tiny "pull list" nowadays but any attempt to widen the comic book market is always a good thing and one hopes these comics will hit a note with the intended audience and beyond.

Rampage Magazine #14 (Marvel UK/1979)

 

Originally published as a weekly comic mainly featuring the adventures of The Defenders, Rampage became a newly launched Monthly highlighting The Hulk from his black & white magazine sized comic in the States. Some of these stories took the Hulk back in time and sort of filled in the gaps between the short lived original six-issue run and his reappearance in Tales to Astonish.

In the lead story The Colour Of Hate the Hulk has to face off against The Strongman from The Ringmasters now fallen circus. We see how Bruno gains his powers with the help of a scientist. Originally from The Hulk #12 (Magazine).

Next up is the All-New X-Men still finding their renewed feet in the Marvel Universe as X-Mania had yet to start. The Story Night Of The Demon takes place after the death of Native Indian mutant Thunderbird. In a rage of helplessness and grieving Cyclops lets off his power inadvertently free Kierrok the Damned another banished Demon swearing to avenge himself on mankind.

Oh and as a bonus we are introduced to the mystery of their new housemaid Moira MacTaggert who tries to help the X-Men with an assault rifle.

Finally Doctor Strange appears along with Cleo in a much weakened state as he enters The Museum of Natural History in to what he thinks is and turns out to be a trap but following his down-powering (Strange is no longer "the sorcerer supreme) can he save Cleo and himself from this mysterious and threatening encounter.

I have a few copies of Rampage and always find this a comic worth picking up when I see one.

The Dandy Summer Special 2021

 

Although The Dandy is no longer published DC Thomson still do both Annuals and Summer specials of this iconic British comic. I chose to pick this up rather than The Beano Summer Special for two simple reason. Firstly I can't afford both and secondly The Dandy contains reprints of older strips which are more to my taste than the modern fare offered by The Beano.

There's a whole new charming adventure to kick off the Special with Korky the Cat and his chums in Dandy Town but then it's over to the classic stories. Dirty Dick, Desperate Dan, Smasher, Bully Beef and Chips, Jonah and Dinah Mo amongst others all bring back memories of my childhood. I must admit I had all but forgotten about Greedy Pigg!

The Summer Specials I used to get in my childhood were huge over-sized editions which probably are not suitable for today's market. Worth picking up a copy of them if you see one of sale but in good nick they are not cheap. I purchased one whilst still working some years back and it set me back thirty quid for a sixties copy I had as a child!

This is nicely produced magazine sized comic suitable for kids of all ages. I'm sure today's children will enjoy The Beano as well but of the two I chose The Dandy and enjoyed every minute. Something to pik up whilst out shopping tomorrow boys and girls!

I might also try out the forthcoming Dandy Annual which is due out in August which is somewhat early i would have thought even though they were published earlier than most of us remember as these things were generally Christmas presents. Still look out for both The Dandy and Beano annuals in a couple of months!

I'm sure they used to be called "Books" not annuals but I'm old.......