The Fall (Action)

 

by Jared Muralt 

Publisher: Image Comics (March 23, 2021)

Softcover, 152 pages 

Amazon Listing 

Collecting the first six issues of the Kickstarter funded series, this book was originally published in French and certainly has a very European vibe to it. Which is good in my opinion, we have had many, many stories of society collapsing set in the United States - many actually written by Europeans - but this is the first one I’ve read - and maybe I just need to expand my reading pool - set in Europe. The blurbs constantly compare it to The Walking Dead, to attract American audiences no doubt, but apart from the collapse of civilization, The Fall is its own unique book. 

Set in the German speaking section of Switzerland, a deadly flu has been ravaging the continent, killing large numbers of the population - Gee, I wonder what his inspiration was? After his wife succumbs, a man must protect and provide for his two children and a baby picked up along the way. Starvation, dehydration, infection, and predators all of sudden become the forefront of their lives. While not the most brutal of these types of stories, it does not shy away from animal death - you gotta eat - child suffering, rape - not actually shown - and sexual coercion. 

The book is mainly plot driven, with not much character development except that certain people go from being alive to dead. There are also no division pages given between issues, so sometimes the action takes a major leap from one page to the next. It would be less jarring, had the issue numbers or covers been included between each chapter. This is also not a complete story. It is only part one and ends on a bloody cliffhanger, with all the character’s fates up in the air. Let’s hope there is a lot more of this story to follow.

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Ten Thousand Years in Hell (Action)

 

by M. Tillieux (Author) & Jenna Allen (Translator)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fantagraphics; 1st edition (August 1, 2017)

 Hardcover, 96 pages

 Amazon Listing

A classic series finally translated into English. Often when the greatest artists, writers, and series of European origin are discussed, the name Tillieux and the series Gil Jordan are mentioned. High praise is heaped upon these two, but alas myself being an ignorant American and cannot read French - mostly by personal preference - I haven’t been able to read any of it.  By the way the protagonist’s surname is spelled Jourdan in French, but when translated to English they changed it to Jordan. Not sure why. 

This book contains two albums of the series, which were originally published in 1960 and 1961 respectively in the Belgium comic Siprou during its golden age. Gil Jordan ran from 1956 until 1978 when its creator died. Essentially similar to Tin Tin only with a more adult edge, Gil Jordan worked as a private investigator. His stories involved him being hired by people to solve crimes and mysteries and generally getting himself into trouble.  

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In the first story, “Ten Thousand years in Hell”, Jordan and his trusty sidekick and comic relief, Crackerjack, journey to a South American dictatorship in order to find a kidnapped weapons designer. Arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage, they are taken to the prison-mines of Xique-Xique, located in the middle of a scorching desert and from which escape is said to be impossible. This is the better of the two tales and contains some decent action and a tension-mounting chase scene, which is really excellent. 

For the second, “Boom and Bust” Jordan receives a threatening letter which is actually addressed to someone else. Intrigued, he and Crackerjack go to see the letter's intended receiver in another city. There, they become embroiled in what would be a ridiculously complicated bank heist. Too much of this story depends on luck and the main characters just happening to run into things, which fit the plot together. 

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Pulp (Action) (Graphic Novel)

 

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

Publisher : Image Comics; Illustrated edition (August 4, 2020)

Hardcover, 72 pages

Amazon Listing

Once again we come along to an incredible crime story by the team of Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker. While this is not officially part of the series Criminal it might as well be. With the current lack of enthusiasm by most fans for the comic market, it seems this pair has gone from a recurring series, to limited series, and now seem to be attempting to adapt the European method of one-shot volumes in a series. Which may or may not be successful. The only thing that I would suggest here is that they stop putting out the book in hardcover only. A lower-cost softcover variant would probably yield more sales.

The term pulp is used in several methods here. In the book, the protagonist is a former gunslinger and train robber who, in his twilight years, began publishing fictionalized accounts of his former crimes to the pulp magazines in the late 1930s. After being mugged of all his money, he is contacted by a retired Pinkerton agent, who was part of the squad trying to bring the former gunslinger’s gang to justice. The old Pinkerton proposes a deal to rip off some new villains who have appeared on the scene, The American Bund, aka the American Nazi League.

This meta-aware book of pulp features, which also includes the sleaziness of the pulps, while incorporating nearly every old-style genre (with the exception of the Tarzan mythos) we have heist, revenge, vigilante, and westerns mixed up against the always ready go-to antagonist of the century, the Nazi. At this point it seems there have been more Nazis shot in films, TV, and literature than in real life. If you’re looking for something else besides pulpy material and a pulpy ending - spoiler alert - in a book called Pulp, you have best look elsewhere. But please don’t, you’re gonna love this book.

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1941: The Illustrated Story (Action)

 

by Rich Veitch and Stephen Bissette (Authors and Illustrators); Steven Spielberg (Introduction)

Publisher : Heavy Metal / Pocket Books, New York; First Printing edition (January 1, 1979)

Softcover, 96 pages

Amazon Listing

“Rigid criteria were used in selecting the cast and crew for a project of this bulk. And I am proud to say that not one person who worked on this picture has a high school diploma. The cast was selected on the basis of good looks, bad taste, and low moral character... having made Jaws and Close Encounters people asked me, “when are you going to make an intimate personal film that shows who the real Steven Spielburg is?” Well, 1941 is my most intimate film - the statement I’ve always wanted to make.”

-         Steven Spielberg from his introduction.

This is an illustrated book based on the script for a failed film. 1941 came out in 1979, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Tishiro Mifune, Warren Oates, Robert Stack, Treat Williams, Tim Matheson, and so on. A substantial cast. It was touted everywhere. Huge publicity for the film was splashed across TV and print. Belushi and Matheson was straight off of Animal House, while Spielberg just landed two major hits with Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It could not fail. Until it did. A bomb. A major bomb. It was gone within a week from theaters, and nearly dropped out of the American zeitgeist, except as a trivia question.

Somewhere in that can’t fail category, Heavy Metal Magazine, still in a nascent form, bought the rights to make a graphic novel of the film. At the time, a novelization of a film was commonplace, but a graphic novel was completely new. There was a spat of time in the 1970s when they would do a picture book of a film made from the film stills, but that was rare. This was a great new idea. If only they had picked a different film to start with.

The book is essentially like the film. Two horndogs try to get laid. Meanwhile hysteria grips California in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. An assorted group of defenders attempt to make the coast defensible against an imagined Japanese invasion - which eventually turns out to be true. Comedy ensues. What sets this book apart is that the graphic novel is actually way better than the film. The combined efforts of Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch elevated a raunchy comedy into a work of art. Stylistically it reminds me of old Heavy Metal, with insane backgrounds, reused old animations, and sometimes photos of the actual actors in their parts. Granted this was produced as the film was being made, so it looks different from the finished product, which is just as well. The film is a dud. This is a work of art.

If you are interested, avoid going to Amazon, where the price gougers are out in force. I looked at a few prices ranging from $155 to $650. The link above is to the Heavy Metal website, where copies are being sold for $3 apiece. I suppose these gougers justified their prices by claiming it's a rare item. That’s because no one wanted to buy a copy, due to its terrible source material. But apparently it’s not so rare. Most of the copies are still filling up a warehouse owned by Heavy Metal Magazine. Funny, I expected them to be buried in a landfill next to all those copies of E.T. for the Atari 2600.

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Neekibo (Action)

 

by Dieter Plessix (Author)

Publisher : Kitchen Sink Pr; illustrated edition (September 1, 1993)

Hardcover, 44 pages

Heavy Metal Magazine Listing

Another great little find from plundering the back issues of Heavy Metal magazine website. Neekibo is labeled as volume one here, and indeed there is a second volume, however the story told in this book is self-contained. You don’t need another to complete the story. This is originally published in French with four volumes in the series. Unfortunately only two have been published in English.

In order to get away from his domineering mother, a young man suffering from arrested development goes to Africa in order to help a tribe move to another location. He quickly becomes married to one of the tribeswomen, gets involved in an international incident, and tries to help everyone get out of a sticky situation.

A difficulty with this book is that it tries to tell a much grander tale than the space provides. It needed double the amount of pages to adequately fit in all the characters, the needed pathos, and the plot points. As such, the plot moves at a rapid jerky pace, tossing in characters left and right, with an overarching hurriedness towards a very depressing ending. Too many characters, not enough space, and a love story which might have been poignant had it not been so cramped.

However, the illustrations are excellent with people exaggerated to varying degrees, occupying richly detailed and realistic backgrounds - reminding me of Milt Caniff’s style.  The quality is all the more remarkable for being only his second graphic novel, although he was thirty on publication.

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Jon Sable, Freelance Issues 46 -56 (Action)

 

By Mike Grell

Published by First Comics (1988)

32 page issues

My Comic Shop and Mile High Comics

I’ve covered all of the Jon Sable, Freelance comics which were published as trade paperbacks. I don’t know why the series is called the “complete” Jon Sable when they don’t bother to publish the last ten issues. Maybe it’s because the series tends to stall in these issues. Don’t get me wrong, the action is great, the emotions are tense, and the art is tight, but many of the events in these issues have no lasting impact on the character. He is stuck in limbo, when a few issues earlier we were teased with a reckoning between Sable and a master assassin which never comes to fruition.

Maybe Grell just became tired of the whole schmear. This was the end of Jon Sable, Freelance, but not the end of the character. The series restarted under the title Sable with Marv Wolfman (formerly of Marvel comic) at the helm. That series lasted 27 issues before ending. I may or may not be reviewing them in a future post, depending on how much they cost. However, I managed to get each of these for an average of $2.00 each, so it probably will be pretty cost effective.

We begin with Sable’s rendition of Die Hard - a must rip-off of the time. In issues 46-47, Gunmen have taken over a Chicago office tower, sealing off the top floors while they hold a group of executives hostage. Unknown to them, one of the hostages is a man intent on killing his boss who had blackmailed the man's wife into an affair. His wife meanwhile, hires Jon Sable to prevent that murder. Now Sable just has to find out how to scale the tower and get inside.

For issues 48-49 we have a sort of swashbuckling, foreign affair. Sable is asked to handle security for a visit by British royalty to a small European duchy. The problem is, there are forces within the country Jon knows nothing about, and since Jon has more than a passing resemblance to the country's ruler, they have their own plans for him.

In landmark issue 50. In which the titular character turns 50 and reunites with Maggie the Cat, a jewel thief who stole an Andrew Wyeth painting from Jon.   It seems she's stolen some jewels from someone high up in the Mafia. Bigger problem is, she also stole his record book. When it is discovered that there's more to the book than meets the eye, Jon comes up with a plan to make sure all of the guilty parties are punished.

In issues 51 and 52. Jon is forced to babysit his agent’s AWOL son for a day. The pair get mixed up with a prostitute who needs protection from her pimp, against whom she testified, but he was released on bail and is out for revenge. This one mostly reads like a comedy of errors, a lot of missed messages. A story which couldn’t be written today, because we all have cell phones.

Issues 53 is a standalone issue focusing on a frequent frenemy of Sable, Police Captain Winters of the NYPD. Here we see Winter’s backstory and his rise up the ranks of the NYPD, plus his frequent run-ins with Sable, who is always just one step away from jail.

The series concludes with a three part tale, called The Trojan Wars. Issues 54, 55, and 56, takes us on a European mission where the CIA blackmail Sable into investigating an illegal shipment of weapons into Ireland. The guns are supposedly being run by Sable’s estranged father. As we find out, Sable was the bastard son of an officer and a resistance fighter – a one night stand which resulted in a love child. A series of double-crosses, misinformation, and plenty of gunning and running. Enjoy. 

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The Complete Jon Sable, Freelance Vol. 8 (Action)

 

By Mike Grell

Publisher : IDW Publishing (October 16, 2007)

Softcover, 168 pages

Amazon Listing, and My Comic Shop , and Mile High Comics

Like the previous volume of this series I recently covered, volume 6, I do not in fact own or have read the book. Instead I found it much cheaper to buy the individual issues which make up this trade paperback. While it might have gone down since, I picked up each one for about a dollar to two bucks each.

For those who need a refresher, Jon Sable is a freelance operative with a tortured past. A Vietnam Vet and former Olympic athlete, he was in Munich during the 1973 Olympic massacre. He met his wife, a former gymnast, and went to live in what was then called Rhodesia in Africa. They had two children and lived happily until the family, except Jon, was murdered in standard hero vigilante style, leaving him a bitter mercenary shell. The only joy he feels in life is risking it in aid of mercenary work.

Three story arcs, comprising two issues each, make up the content of Volume 8. The first deals with Jon’s entrance into a gun competition in Texas, where a fan -read fanatic- of his feels snubbed. Angry, the fan quickly creates a scenario where Jon has to defend a woman and engages in a deadly conflict with the lunatic.

The second story brings back Mossad agent from volume 5, with whom Sable had a brief liaison and who he also thought was dead. He since discovers not only was she still breathing, but she was married the whole time. This throws a wrench in Sable life as he allowed the Russian assassin The Sparrow to escape in order to avenge her death. Now the Sparrow will return to kill Sable one day, and the mercenary will not have the satisfaction of having let the man go for a good reason. In this story the pair become wrapped up in a terrorist plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July.

The third is almost an Agatha Christie whodunit. An unreleased film, "The Hard Way" is finally being screened since it stars a recently departed actor. Jon Sable becomes involved because Myke Blackmon's roommate Grey had a role in the film. So when one of the only two remaining copies of the film is destroyed by a truck bomb, Sable is hired by the producer to protect the last copy. Travelling to Cannes on the producer's yacht are the main stars of the film, plus Jon Sable. Everything is going fine……until one of the stars is murdered. Loads of fun.

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Complete Jon Sable, Freelance vol. 6 (Action)

 

By Mike Grell

Publisher : IDW Publishing (April 3, 2007)

Softcover, 172 pages

Amazon Listing and My Comic Shop Listing and Mile High Comics

I have to confess to a lie here. While I am covering the material in volume 6 of the complete Jon Sable, Freelance, I did not buy the book as the asking price by these third party retailers is ridiculous. $60? Are you out of your fucking mind? I actually found it much cheaper to buy the individual issues - that’s numbers 28 through 33 of Jon Sable, Freelance. I am leaving links to the issue page for both Mile High Comics and My Comics Shop, along with the Amazon Listing. Numbers change so perhaps the graphic novel will eventually be reasonably priced.

For those who need a refresher, originally published by First Comics, Jon Sable is a freelance operative with a tortured past. A Vietnam Vet and former Olympic athlete, he was in Munich during the 1973 Olympic massacre. He met his wife, a former gymnast, and went to live in what was then called Rhodesia in Africa. They had two children and lived happily, until the family, except Jon was murdered in standard hero vigilante style, leaving him a bitter mercenary shell.

Sable is on the shelf about the direction of his life. What’s bothering him is his evolving relationship with Myke, the good girl character, for whom he has strong feelings, but the shadow of his dead wife and children hang heavily over him. After a mild breakdown when Sable forgets his wife’s birthday, something he’s celebrated since her death, and the knowledge that the Russian assassin, the Sparrow, will someday show up for revenge - Well, let’s just say their relationship has a lot of baggage. So much, that Jon’s not sure it’s right for him to impose it on Myke.

While that is the overarching metaplot, the actual issue stories vary from poor, to explosive, to weird. The first story, which takes up three issues for some reason, deals with Sable and friends attending an auction of movie memorabilia where the original prop falcon for the Maltese Falcon is stolen. Sable is hired by several people to find it, just like in the original. Blah blah blah. It follows the film pretty exactly, with much less charm however.

The whole thing should’ve been wrapped up in one issue, 2 max. It contained none of the good material I expect from a Jon Sable story. Possibly being the worst one ever produced - with the possible exception of Ashes of Eden. Perhaps part of the reason was that First Comics was attempting to pimp their new comic Shatter, so they had to take valuable pages from Jon Sable. Shatter, for those who are interested, is the first computer generated comic book. All art was done on a Mackintosh. And considering the comic came out in 1985, I’m sure you can guess just how good it is.

The story taking up issues 31 and 32 are is “The Gauntlet”. Sable hooks up with an old mercenary pal who is putting together a deniable team to enter Nicaragua and check up on the contents of worrisome containers being offloaded from a hostile power. Sable’s team is to check on the cargo and either radio a no-go call or allow the bombing to occur. What they find makes everyone pause. Grell’s artwork and the use of shade and color often underline his hero’s inner sadness to brilliant effect. He expertly moves between scenes, panels flying up before us, knowing when to talk and when to show. He is a true master of the craft. The best tale of the lot.

The last and oddest story of this bunch is in issue 33. Jon Sable’s alter ego is a successful children’s writer under the name of B.B. Flemm. His books deal with a group of Leprechauns who live in Central Park. He meets Sergio Aragones in the book - the actual illustrator, creator of Groo the Wanderer and drawer of Mad Marginals - who is illustrating one of his books. Most of the issue is Sergio Aragones drawing of a children’s book about how the Leprechauns arrived in New York. Fun, silly, definitely different for the series.

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Clifton: Sir Jason (Action)

 

by Bob De Groot (Author), Turk (Artist)

Publisher: Cinebook, Ltd (September 7, 2018)

Softcover, 48 pages

Amazon Listing

This is a series which was originally published in French in the Tintin magazine. It has been around for close to fifty years, but only a handful of the twenty albums and assorted short stories have been published into English.  The series was created by Raymond Macherot, but by this time it was - the ninth album - the series was being written by Turk and drawn by de Groot. These two handled at least half of the series including this one from 1975. Thus the art style is a little childish, a little silly. And like Tintin, the story is meant for 6th grade readers. I’m sure I would have enjoyed this at a young age.

A British colonel, retired from MI5, though sometimes still active for the British government, Clifton functions as an amateur sleuth who lives in Puddington, near London, supported by housekeeper Miss Partridge, who makes a prize-winning goulash. Clifton drives a red MG TD from the early fifties, which gets mangled in most stories, but is repaired regardless of cost. Clifton's hobbies include Boy Scouting (he's a Boy Scoutmaster Singing Heron), cats, and collecting cigar wraps.

In this story, Clifton is forced to take on and train a new recruit, despite being semi-retired. He soon finds that the man is top on the marks in all the training modules, but when it comes to field work, he becomes paralyzed the moment action starts. Sir Jason comes from a noble house where a certain son is forced into espionage every generation, which is completely against Jason’s wishes. While training, the pair stumble into the usual smuggling operation (ala Tintin). There are attempted murders, chases galore, and a final fist fight. This leads Sir Jason up to make his final decision on whether to remain in the secret service.

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Insiders: The Red Prince (Action) (Graphic Novel)

by Jean-Claude Bartoll (Author), Renaud Garreta (Artist) 

Publisher: Cinebook, Ltd (June 5, 2018)

Softcover, 59 pages

Amazon Listing 





This is a series of graphic novels that are easily defined as action thrillers. A Chechen terrorist is recruited by the CIA to infiltrate a cabal of industrialists who secretly finance the destabilization of areas in order to profit from the exploitation of that area’s resources. The insider rises to the top of the food chain in a series of violent confrontations and explosions. Does she complete her mission by the CIA or does she join the enemy?

Despite the bouts of violence, this is an intelligent work, rich in political and economic motives for its antagonists. None of the villains are “just evil”, they all have rational motivation, i.e. intense greed. The art well done with attention paid to realistic equipment, weapons, and machinery. But you have to pay attention to the plot and dialogue or you might be easily lost.

       Sam Nachez, boss of bosses of the global mafia, and the man that Najah is both supposed to protect and betray to the authorities, is on the run after a coup by one of his rivals. Hunted by killers from the Russian, Chinese and American intelligence services, the two of them are rapidly running out of allies. Will Najah be able to reconcile her various loyalties? In order to survive, she will have to take the biggest gamble of her life...

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Terror Assaulter (O.M.W.O.T) (Action) (Humor) (Graphic Novel)

by Benjamin Marra     

 
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (September 22, 2015)
 
Softcover, 100 pages
 
Amazon Listing 


 

In this case the acronym O.M.W.O.T. stands for “one man war on terror”, and is sort of a sixties throwback to the days of U.N.C.L.E. and S.H.I.E.L.D. where acronyms were all the rage. This story is one of the most bizarre send-ups of the terrorism, hyper-action genre that I have ever read. At first, I just thought it was ridiculous and stupid, but the more I read the more it grew on me - the humor stood up and waved and I was sucked in.

The plot goes that a group of disavowed ultra-violent agents, called Terror Assaulters, are unleashed on a world rife with terrorism. There are four tales here and they get increasingly bizarre. The first one almost seems standard, O.M.W.O.T. goes undercover to get some stolen information, ends up killing everyone and doesn’t recover it, but bangs a hot woman in the end. The ridiculous violence is everywhere in the story, but after this it goes off the rails.

In the second episode, O.M.W.O.T. is on a plane which is subsequently high jacked by terrorists. He kills most of them with an assault rifle, along with several of the passengers (I can’t tell if he did this deliberately or not). He then has a homosexual sexual encounter while trying to land the plane, which is about to crash as OMWOT missed a terrorist who managed to blow off the back end of the plane, causing most of the passengers to fly out the other end.

In the third, Terrorists have taken over America and OMWOT has to shoot and fuck his way through hordes of them, only to find the ringleader was one of his own, a Terror Assaulter. In the last and strangest tale, OMWOT is forced to marry a woman who turns out to be the villain from the previous story after a sex change and the entire thing devolves into a series of trans-sex scenes that ends with our hero staring off at a vision of King Arthur in the distance- Don’t ask, I don’t know why.

This book is an absurdist reaction to the War on Terror from the early 2000s. The action is deliberately ridiculous and made to put the real world into perspective. Adding to the absurdity is all the expository dialogue. Many of the characters scream out what is being shown in the scene. “Ahh, you’ve cut my throat and killed me.” “You shot my arms off.” “I’m immediately experiencing orgasm.” “”We’re coming at the same time as you crash land the plane.” All of these are actual lines from the book. Again, at first it all seems stupid, but the oddity grows on you.

The art is maybe the weakest part. It is awkward, many stiff limbs and, what seems like, hastily drawn action scenes. The artist has talent, but needs to develop it more- or else this was deliberate to coincide with the material- I don’t know. The coloring is minimalistic- less than four color comics, but that also seems to be a stylistic choice. However it does obscure some of the lines, so it may have been a poor choice.

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