Milo Manara: The Definitive Collection (Erotica)

 

                                      by Milo Manara (Author)

                     Publisher: Humanoids, Inc. (November 17, 2020)

                                        Softcover, 200 pages

                                            Amazon Listing

This is the work of Milo Manara, the famous Italian artist. Or should I say infamous, because those in the know, those who have read Heavy Metal magazine for a while will know that when Manara creates a new work, he isn’t shy about portraying nudity or sex. His work, I think, would be comparable to the modern day Tijuana Bible - aka comic book pornography - except Manara always wraps a story around it. The art, however, I must say is exquisite and demonstrates a rare natural talent we have seen in Kirby, Toth, and Moebius. 

This work is touted as the definitive edition, which I’m not quite sure how the publishers, Humanoids, came up with that decision. It isn’t a collected works, Dark Horse already put that out. Perhaps it's meant to demonstrate what they consider to be his best work. The title is a little deceptive at best. As many other reviewers have pointed out, the book only has three of Manara’s short stories. Albeit, three very good stories. 

The first is Gullivera, a sexy take on the tale of Gulliver’s Travels. This one actually has almost no sex, but the titular character is naked or half-naked nearly all the time, genitals in full exposure. I believe that this story was printed in part at least in an issue of Heavy Metal, not sure about the issue number. As an adaptation, it is a pretty faithful one to the 16th Century novel. 

Second is Pandora’s Eyes, this one is actually almost completely without sex, though the main character is nearly raped about half a dozen times. It revolves around a young girl discovering his biological father is an international criminal and Interpol’s attempts to bring the man to justice. Thirdly, we are shown The Golden Ass. Set in ancient Greece, Manara gives us plenty of sex here with a variation on an old theme, were a young man is accidently turned into a donkey, where he goes on various sexy adventures - yes there is bestiality - before being forgiven by the Goddess. It’s a weird variation on the redemption story. 

  For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Magical Justice (The Enchanted World)

 

By the Editors of Time-Life Books

Publisher: Time Life Education; First Printing edition (November 1, 1986)

Hardcover, 143 pages

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“Men and women dreaded the prospect of invasion by these forces of chaos. They craved order and harmony, a hierarchy wherein every entity - animal, vegetable, mineral, or spiritual - knew its place and obligations. To protect the world from contamination, humans constructed a bulwark of laws governing every aspect of their existence. Their code was a safety net woven of many different strands: native kindness and common sense, priestly interpretations of divine will, diktats devised by Kings to keep themselves and their heirs in power, percepts dimly recalled from the days when elder races ruled the earth.” 

Volume 16 of the Enchanted World series focuses on the dubious term of Magical Justice. While I have said that previous volumes seemed like filler titles to group together old stories left out of previous volumes, in this case there is no doubt. Not that the stories are boring or uninteresting, nor does this volume shirk on its art budget. However, the theme is stretched thin and so ambiguous that nearly anything could fit. In fact, one tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” has nothing to do with magic at all. 

On the other hand, this is a great collection of old folk tales from all across the world. Some are very familiar - “The Tale of King Midas” “Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven” - while many others “A Celestial Usurper”, “The Beggar’s Bride” were new and refreshing. The lack of rhyme or reason in this volume actually frees it to take the best from every culture and every time. And the book is better for it. 

  For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Reckless (Crime)

 

by Ed Brubaker  (Author), Sean Phillips  (Artist), Jacob Phillips (Artist)

Publisher : Image Comics (December 22, 2020)

Hardcover, 144 pages

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Nowadays about the only thing I anticipate in comics is when Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips come up with another story, or continue and old story. Granted I’m aware it’s usually a man-against-the-world story, where a protagonists with a harsh internal struggle to resolves is manipulated by forces just outside his vision to complete a violent task, often leaving said protagonist was it all worth it? Still the pair does these stories so well. I am thoroughly entertained every time. And Reckless was no exception.

Ethan Reckless is a hero-for-hire type. You call his unlisted phone number at an abandoned movie palace and leave a message describing the problem plaguing your life. If he’s interested he’ll call you back and solve your problem. Set in the early 1980s, it’s reminiscent of a lot of TV shows at the time. Men who would travel from town to town putting rights to things, each with their own gimmick. BJ and the Bear, Knight Rider, The A-Team all worked along similar lines. This story of the violent hippie underground terrorist movements after the 1960s turning the foundation of drug smuggling rings is a little more violent than a typical episode of BJ and the Bear, but that doesn’t make it less enjoyable.

The man character is an ex-FBI agent who was caught up in an explosion lit by the domestic leftist terrorist group he was investigating. The person who emerged from the wreckage was someone else entirely. A person who had the same name and memories, but had no emotional attachment to the past. Already a sequel is coming out in a couple of months. Unlike their previous works, it seems as if this will be an episodic series with a new case opening and closing in each volume.

  For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

The Fall of Camelot (The Enchanted World)

 

by Ellen Phillips & The Editors Time-Life Books

Publisher : Time-Life Books; First Edition (June 1, 1986)

Hardcover, 143 pages

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“The prisoners of Annwfyn had reigned in an ear when humankind seemed more vulnerable and the princes of Fairie wandered freely on the earth. Arthur was the lord of a new age. The star of human power, he gathered the realms of Britain into his hands. Even Arthur, however, could not safely insult the hidden elder world that was not human. The Prince of Annwfn took vengeance for the loss of their treasure. Their eyes were keen, their reach long, their weapons many, their patience infinite. They sent their servants among the conquering mortals, servants who worked in secret ways, who formed with threads of shadow the cracks that caused the British King’s bright honor to crumble into dust and ruin to settle on his dominion.”

Volume 15 of The Enchanted World series, The Fall of Camelot, is a departure for the series. Previously, each book had a specific theme and all the stories revolved around it, but they could come from any time and any region in the world. This however is very specific in date and place. The Fall of Camelot is a retelling of the Matter of Britain - that the lord of King Arthur from beginning to end, containing all the old characters you know. And while many of the previous volumes have stories from Arthurian Legend, but I am happy to say that none are repeated in this book.

This book is a valid interpretation of the legends of King Arthur. It keeps to the original themes of the Enchanted World Series with the old ways, and the time of Fairie, losing power before the God of Reason while still affecting the real world. In a way, King Arthur is the quintessential pivoting on this axis. For we begin with much sorcery, and fairies, ogres, giants, raids into the otherworld, but by the end its men fighting against men, with a son and father killing each other. The return of Excalibur (or Caliburn as it’s called in this tome) of the Lady of the Lake represents the end of the era of magic and fairies. Men are now on their own, for good or ill.

The book keeps a solid pace, essentially telling one tale, instead of a collection of stories, about the rise and fall of King Arthur and Camelot. Granted, the author picks and chooses those tales and parts which fits his interpretation, from a much larger boy of work, but it is almost impossible to include all of the stories, as many are contradictory, and be able to maintain a stable narrative. The art, as always, is extraordinary.

  For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Clive Barker's Hellraiser Book 5 (Horror)

 

by various writers and illustrators

Publisher : Epic Comics (January 1, 1996)

Softcover, 64 pages

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This is from the Epic series, a former imprint of Marvel Comics, which were published from the late eighties until the early nineties. There were only twenties issues (or books as they called them) for the series, costing an outrageous - for the time $4.95 each. Which was a couple of bucks above the norm at the time. But each book had a minimum of 64 pages, plus the material was substantially darker than most fare produced by a mainstream comic’s publisher.

While Epic was not the first publisher to adapt Clive Barker’s work - Eclipse Comics did an amazing series of painted one-shots - they were the first to create a continuation of Hellraiser, and produced the most interesting material to date, really expanding the characters and world of Hellraiser. At the time, there were only two films in the series.  Hellraiser III was to come out in 1992 about when this series ended. Nor was this the last comic adaptation, Boom and Dynamite both doing their own thing with the title. However those latter series lagged, being dragged down by a lot of terrible backstory and plot decisions. These Epic stories seemed to have a lot more freedom to roam.

Four stories are presented in Book 5 of the Epic series. Each revolve around people being tricked or delivery attempting to open the Lament Configuration box. Various other configurations and puzzle types are mentioned here, each linked to a different corrupt emotional state and sending the soul to a different part of Hell, other than Leviathan’s. The most interesting one is the third “Mazes of the Mind” by Mike Nelson, which focuses on a previously unseen Cenobite who creates the puzzle boxes and has them released into the world.

This isn’t to say that the other stories aren’t worth reading. "Fire Trap", the first tale, has the best art in the comic, and deals with a man who murders his extended family into order to attempt revenge on his father who had become one of the Cenobites. The second, deals with a man who accidentally discovers that a building is secretly a puzzle box, and that going a certain direction up it opens a door to Hell - decently written and illustrated. The last sufferers, I believe from lack of space, it needed two more pages at least to fully develop. The tale deals with a teenage girl who is goes out with a boy to fair and who wins her a puzzle box at the fair, but then ignores her afterwards. Events play out and an innocent opens the box instead of the girl. It’s uncertain if the boy deliberately gave her the box knowing what it was. Lacking, but otherwise enjoyable.

  For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

The Book of Christmas (The Enchanted World)

 

by Brendan Lehane

Publisher : Time Life Education; 1st edition (June 1, 1986)

Hardcover, 141 pages

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“Fire was the center of all the winter festivals. It was the brother to the sun, calling out to the heavens. Great bonfires blazed on the hills of Ireland and Scotland, on the mountains of France and Germany and in the halls of the Norse kings. Throughout the countries lapped by the Mediterranean and ruled by Rome, fire burned in the form of candles as the Romans held their winter feast. Originally this feast was called Brumilia, later it became known as Saturnalia. The festivities were dedicated to the Titan Saturn, lord of the harvest, long trapped by his son Jupiter beneath the earth, perhaps because the imprisoned Titans were deemed to view the world upside down, the Saturnalia was a feast of reversals. Masters served slaves and slaves commanded masters. This was a time of banqueting, of carrying green boughs that signified the strength of life, of bestowing presents. Men and women faced the darkness with a kind of madcap glee, fending it off with their high spirits” 

The Book of Christmas, volume 14 of The Enchanted World series, opens with a reconstruction of the Nativity story, the annunciation and birth of Jesus, compiled from the Gospels of Luke and Mark. Which I felt was rather brave as this book, and this series, is filled with folklore. Let’s not forget that this volume was put out during the height of the Satanic Panic, so any suggestion that any part of the story of Jesus was based on folklore sent hysterical screams across the airwaves. I can only assume that this slipped through the cracks because no one bothered to read it. 

 

Coupling with the story of Jesus, we are shown many other nature rituals celebrated in Western cultures of December 25th.  These came from the most primitive of times when people worshipped the sun as a god. When winter came and life seemed extinguished, they celebrated the Solstice, the winter day when the weakening sun regained its strength. Many Christmas traditions have their roots in pre-Christian traditions, but it was the birth of Jesus according to this volume that made a season of fear into a season of hope.

Pre-Christianity, the 25th of December was a time for monsters to roam about, old gods to capture mortals and bad children, and the Wild Hunt to roam the world looking for men to chase down and kill. All the rituals and signs and decorations were meant to ward off evil, Christianity changed that into the welcoming of love and peace into the world. The book is filled with fascinating looks into the old world origins of many traditions. Plus tales of The Nutcracker, and plenty of other Christmas favorites. 

  For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Batman: The Order of the Beasts (Superhero)

 

by Eddie Campbell (Illustrator), Daren White (Author)

Publisher : DC Comics; 1st edition (January 1, 2004)

Softcover, 64 pages

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This book was printed under DCs Elseworlds imprint, which were alternate realities which deviated from the established continuity of DC's regular comics. This had been done before with DC “imaginary stories” in some of the 1950s and 60s and the Marvel title What If - BTW why haven’t they collected any of the second volume of What If which came out in the late 80s? All mine where destroyed by a flood, I remember them being pretty good. Elseworlds however went above and beyond, putting the characters into radically different scenarios and settings.

This could almost count as a regular Batman story, except that it takes place in 1939. Which actually is within the timeline of all Batman stories, but as we know the characters origin has to be retconned every few decades, so this is beyond the current Batman’s timeline. The scene takes place in pre-WWII London, about a year into when Batman first begins his vigilante career. It’s nice to see Eddie Campbell’s art put to color for once, which is far beyond the norm.

The plot itself is actually a little silly, while in London, Batman stumbles across a secret society called The Order of the Beasts - a member of which is apparently Winston Churchill - who dress up like animals, just like Batman. Their mission is apparently to try and influence England back to a similar time, but it’s mostly spent in hedonistic pleasure. One by one the members are murdered and their bodies displayed according to an old nursery rhyme. Naturally, Batman has to save the day and does so with gusto.

  For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Fabled Lands (The Enchanted World)

 

by the Editors of Time/Life Books

 Publisher : Time Life Education; First Printing edition (April 1, 1986)

 Hardcover, 143 pages

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“The way of the traveler was, at best, uncertain when the earth was rough and young. Lands charged with magic lay hidden in the folds of the countryside, in the depths of the sea, even in the white fields of the clouds, sometimes visible, sometimes not. So shifting were the borders of these lands that a bend in a road, or a wave in the ocean, or the foot of a rainbow where it touched the ground, might prove a gateway for unsuspecting mortals. No one could tell when he might step from his own safe world across a border he could not see into a place where he would be a stranger, and all the life he would be a stranger, and all the life he had lived among his own kind would be as nothing.” 

Volume 13 of the Enchanted World series is Fabled Lands. The stories contained inside do not really describe other worlds in much detail, and focus mainly on man’s usually accidental dealings with other worlds. A lot of these are Irish tales dealing with the world of Fairie, and if you’ve read other books in this series then you know the differences. Time moves at a different rate in Fairie. While the residents of both worlds can interact and produce children, inevitably one was drawn back to their old world, this seems to be a biological phenomena rather than just homesickness. 

Second on the list to those of Fairie and the Irish Fianna and Knights of the Round Table who slew monsters and defeated evil knights there, were journeys into the Underworld. Men forced to risk their life in the land of the dead for knowledge or love. We’re briefly told the stories of Orpheus and Gilgamesh, and a great deal of time is spent on Aeneas, the last surviving general of The Trojan War who mythological led to the founding of Rome - which I was happy of, as it isn’t a story that is told often enough. Many regard the Aeneid as a Roman rip-off of the The Odyssey, and while it was certainly inspired by the poem, it is a work of great literature in its own right. You wouldn’t say O Brother, Where Art Thou?  was a bad film because it was inspired by the The Odyssey. 

Overall, this is a wonderful collection of lesser known stories from around the world, though mostly from the Matter of Britain tales and Irish folklore. It is one of their catch-all books though, created to incorporate stories left out of other editions. Not that I mind, these certainly were a fun read. The art complimented the stories perfectly as usual, and by themselves are worth the price of the book. 

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst