“Trample on the weakest / Glory in their plight!”

Over on The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon has asked why no-one seems to be interested in the upcoming remake of The Belles of St Trinian’s, which he regards as “one of the four or five most successful comics adaptations of all time”. (Strictly speaking, that’s “cartoon” rather than “comics”, but it doesn’t really matter.)

The remake stars Rupert Everett in Alastair Sim’s old dual role as Headmistress Miss Millicent Fritton and her shady brother. It seems that Everett has also taken the opportunity to travel back in time to model for this example of Ronald Searle’s original cartoons.



So why is no-one blogging about it?

Perhaps it’s too British. Perhaps, in these days of paedophile paranoia, no-one wants to be caught writing about naughty schoolgirls. Perhaps bloggers everywhere have accepted the wisdom of the cultural giant to whom Warner Brothers have entrusted Captain Marvel, and now concur that “old things suck”.

Or perhaps some of us are still appalled at just how crass, leaden and unfunny the last attempt at reviving St Trinian’s was, and don’t want to get our hopes up. (Notably, The Wildcats of St Trinian’s has been left out of the DVD boxed set of the films.)

But nothing can take away from Searle’s cartoons. Here are two of my favourites.




St Trinian’s cartoons originally published 1948-1953, reprinted in Ronald Searle The Terror of St Trinian’s and Other Drawings, Penguin Books, 2000

Take a Tour with Dr Syntax

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) was one of the pioneers of comics, though he wouldn’t have recognised the term. This engraving of 1784, which satirises the coalition government of Charles James Fox (the Fox) and Lord North (the Badger), is a fully formed comic strip, with sequential images divided into panels, and using even word balloons.


(Scanned from George Perry and Alan Aldridge The Penguin Book of Comics: A Slight History, Penguin Books, 1967, revised 1971, reprinted with new introduction 1989)

Among Rowlandson’s most popular works were his picture stories about his recurring character Dr Syntax, Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1812), The Second Tour of Dr Syntax, in Search of Consolation (1820) and The Third Tour of Dr Syntax, in Search of a Wife (1821). These were bound sequences of full-page engravings, 31 of them in the first book, 24 in each of the others, with accompanying verses by Dr William Combe.

I had seen the occasional Dr Syntax plate, but recently came across a site that has the whole lot of them in small scans. Bill Bennett used to trade in antique prints under the name Postaprint, but has now retired. However, he has left his reference pages on-line, including the plates from those three books, plus Rowlandson’s The History of Johnny Quae Genus. The verses aren't included.

Typically, one plate matches one incident in the tour, so the effect is of an illustrated book. Occasionally, however, there are elements of sequential art, as in these two successive plates showing Syntax ambushed and tied up by highwaymen.


These two scans come from the Postaprint site, which is well worth a look.

Reviews: Mr Stuffins, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, Wallace & Gromit

Mr Stuffins issue 1 written by Andrew Cosby and Johanna Stokes, drawn by Lee Carter, coloured by Pablo Quigliotti, lettered by Terri Delgado and Marshall Dillon, Boom! Studios, May 2007, 22 pages of strip, US$3.99

In this, the first of a three-part series, the programme disc intended to control some sort of military/spy robot ends up inside a mechanical teddy bear, which is bought by a small boy. The nasty corporation that created the programme then comes looking for it.

As “high concepts” go, this is rather reminiscent of Small Soldiers, and there are absolutely no surprises in how the narrative unfolds. Having said that, the script is efficient and amusing enough, and maybe there will be some twists in later issues.

The disaster area is the art. Carter’s drawings are OK, if a bit crude, but either Quigliotti has deliberately decided to colour everything with dark brown mud, or there has been an almighty cock-up in the production department. Dead of night in the boy’s bedroom, inside a (presumably) brightly-lit shopping mall, outside a school in the day time: all are plunged into the same stygian gloom.



The effort required to work out what is going on in these over-dark panels brings home one characteristic of the storytelling: there is nothing here that makes use of the unique qualities of comics. The pictures act only to provide information, not to create resonant imagery. There is no byplay between words and pictures, no use of the interaction between panel and page. The cost of an animatronic or CGI Mr Stuffins aside, this could be translated into a script for TV (where Cosby normally works) without much difficulty.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing – an entertaining story is an entertaining story in any medium – but it is one less reason for me to be interested. Ultimately, the most amusing thing about this comic – the very idea of a teddy bear James Bond – can be gleaned just by looking at the cover.


Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four issue 1: “The Arrival” by Jeff Parker (writer), Mike Wieringo (penciller), Wade von Grawbadger (inker), Pete Pantazis (colourist), Blambot’s Nate Piekos (letterer) and Stephen Wacker (editor), cover by Mike Wieringo, Karl Kesel and Pete Pantazis, frontispiece by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Marvel Comics, June 2007, 23 pages of strip, US$2.99

Like many in the blogosphere, I am weary of bloated rococo cross-over events; of gore, angst, prurience and – worst of all - literalism attempting to pass as sophistication; and of the gross distortions of established characters that Marvel and DC’s editors believe are necessary to fit their grand designs.

So this four-issue series should be right up my street. It’s written by Jeff Parker, whose Agents of Atlas and Marvel Adventures Avengers titles have emphasised playfulness, and drawn by Mike Wieringo, a skillful cartoonist who understands composition, panel progression, perspective and facial expression, and whose figure work is signally lacking in the postures of body-builders and porn performers. It is set before Civil War, whose shadow has blighted even such light and nimble comics as She-Hulk.

It doesn’t entirely work. There is a lack of tension in the build-up of the alien invasion which seems to be the main threat in the story. The aliens we have seen so far are unimpressive in design, and even a supposedly shocking event a little over half way through lacks impact (perhaps with reason, if the colour of Johnny Storm’s bed-linen on the next page has any significance – read it and you’ll understand what I mean). Since this is just the first part of four, it lacks as yet the complete structure that makes the one-off Marvel Adventures issues satisfying. And the whole thing is even more lacking in originality than Mr Stuffins: it’s just another super-hero story about long-established super-heroes.

And yet, a large part of the appeal of recurring characters in genre fiction derives from their reassuring familiarity. We want Sherlock Holmes to apply his observation and intellect to solve the mystery. We want Captain Kirk to be as passionate a moralist as he is a brawler and womaniser. We want the Doctor to pit spontaneity and compassion and humour against power and regimentation and death.

And we want Spider-Man to make lame quips while fighting bad guys – whether muggers or invaders way out of his league – because he can, and therefore he must. We want Reed and See-Through Sue to be loving parents, and Ben and Johnny to behave like adolescent pranksters, all the while assuming responsibility for the whole world, because the world needs and is worth protecting. And here they do. It is like meeting an old friend restored to health after a long and debilitating mental illness.



So, at heart, this is just a competent but inessential super-hero story. But I am so glad that it exists.


The Wallace and Gromit Comic issue 21, edited by Ned Hartley, Titan Magazines, May 2007, 21 pages of strip (out of 52), £2.60
Features: “Going Postal” by Andrew James (script), Steve Bright (pencils and inks), Samantha Emms (colours) and Jimmy Betancourt/Comicraft (letters)
“Plots in Space” part 4 by Dan Abnett (script), Jimmy Hansen (pencils), Bambos Georgiou (inks), Andrew James (colours) and Jimmy Betancourt/Comicraft (letters)

These strips are pretty much spot-on adaptations of the Aardman Animations films. Obviously, using any medium other than Claymation is going to rob the stories of some of their appeal, especially to those of us reared on Plasticene, Meccano and Airfix, but the writers and artists get the right feel, with mounting chaos, groansome puns and sly references, and an essentially English, Ealing Studios, mix of satire and cosiness. Even the details are well thought out: a nicely designed font, for example, and the way the page numbers are superimposed on pieces of cheese. The editors have not imposed a single style on the artists, but both Bright and Hansen/Georgiou achieve good matches with the look of the original films without being interchangeable with each other.



And Dan Abnett has remembered the old comics adage that everything goes better with a monkey.



As is usual with children’s comics in Britain these days, most pages are given over to miscellaneous filler: a pull-out poster of the cover, readers’ drawings and photos, quizzes and games, and a couple of text pieces supposedly written by Wallace (which aren’t much cop, although I did like the idea of the TV series Battleship Grimsby in which evil robots pursue the last remnants of humanity across Lincolnshire). But, as the magazine’s name suggests, it’s the comic strips that are the star attraction here, and they left me with a big, silly grin on my face.

See-Through Sue

See-Through Sue! That’s a much catchier name than “the Invisible Woman”. See-Through Sue! That’s what we want. See-Through Sue versus Paste-Pot Pete! See-Through Sue and Rubber-Limbed Reed versus Paste-Pot Pete. With Brick-Built Ben.

But Johnny will have to get a new name if this is going to work.


Panel from
Fantastic Four “Sue Storm in … The Spy I Couldn’t See” by Zeb Wells (writer), Kano and Alvaro Lopez (artists), Lee Loughridge (colourist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) and Mark Paniccia (editor), Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four issue 18, reprinted in Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four Volume 5 All 4 One, 4 for All, Marvel Comics, 2007

Loving the Alien: Massimo Belardinelli, d. 2007

On Down The Tubes, John Freeman has reported the death of long-serving 2000AD artist Massimo Belardinelli.

As John writes, Belardinelli will probably be best remembered for his work on Ace Trucking Company, which was created specifically for him. But I liked his work on Dan Dare most.



In those days, 2000AD had yet to start running “credit cards” giving writer, artist and letterer details, but there was an “Artist: Belardinelli” credit on Dan Dare, so he was the first 2000AD artist whose distinctive syle I could put a name to.

The revived Dan Dare strip was the lead feature in the first months of 2000AD. The character and setting were completely revamped by editor Pat Mills and writers Kelvin Gosnell and Steve Moore, and as a result this version of Dan Dare has been widely disliked for its lack of fidelity to Frank Hampson’s original. But judged in its own right, it was a lot of fun, largely due to the grotesque inventiveness and energy of Belardinelli’s art. I will remember his work fondly.



Panels from:
Dan Dare, Space Hyper-Hero “Saga 2” part 1, art by Massimo Belardinelli, 2000AD Programme 12, IPC Magazines, 14 May 1977

Dan Dare, Space Hyper-Hero “Saga 2” part 5, art by Massimo Belardinelli, 2000AD Prog 16, IPC Magazines, 11 June 1977

Addendum (10:10 PM)
Steve Holland has more details of Belardinelli's life and work outside of 2000AD at his Bear Alley blog.

Further addendum (10:30 PM)
Coincidentally, issue 21 of 2000AD Extreme Edition, currently on sale, reprints 49 pages of Belardinelli artwork, making up the complete story The Dead, written by Peter Milligan.

Old Flanagan's Blog of Impractical Cats

The next episode of Doctor Who on BBC1 (which should be broadcast on Saturday unless the FA Cup semi-final overruns) is set in New New York in the year 5 billion plus, and brings back the race of the cat-nuns from last year’s “New Earth”. Then, on Monday, 2Entertain will release the region 2 DVD of “Survival”, the last story of the 1963-1989 run, which is full of cheetah-people.

Cat people have had a long history in folklore and fiction. Gustave Doré produced this picture of one of the best-known, Puss-in-Boots, from the 17th century tale by Charles Perrault, in 1863.



Sadly, by this time Doré had given up creating comic books. (See the bottom half of this article by Patricia Mainardi on the 19th Century Art Worldwide site for more about his comics career.)

I was going to suggest that anthropomorphic cats made their way into comics with Tiger Tim, created by Julius Stafford Baker for The Rainbow in 1903. But Paul Gravett’s book, Great British Comics, says that Baker was inspired by a series begun by James Swinnerton in 1897. Here’s an example from Coconino Classics, signed 1918 and published in 1919. You may want to spend a while poking around that treasure trove of a site, but be sure to come back here, won’t you?



Swinnerton and Mr Jack were American, but Tiger Tim wasn’t even the first recurring cat character in British comics. That seems to have been Stripes, from the Chowgli and Stripes series in Illustrated Chips, which began in 1899. (Chowgli, an African boy, was presented with the appearance and speech patterns that late Victorian prejudices required, but he was still the hero of his own strip.)



The style of the cartooning is such that I’m not sure if Stripes was anthropomorphic or not. Probably not. But he did speak, which counts for something.

Cat people turned up early in science fiction comic strips, with Buck Rogers (and, in the panels below, Wilma Deering) meeting the Tiger Men from Mars in 1930.



Flash Gordon proceeded to meet the Lion Men of Mongo in 1934.



The Doctor has met a few cat people in comic strips. Here he encounters Big Cat of the Freefall Warriors, a team of stunt pilots.



The strangest story to feature the Doctor and cat people was probably “Menace on Metalupiter”. It appeared in the Doctor Who Annual 1977 (published in 1976), when the publishers, World Distributors, were attempting to minimise costs by hiring artists who had not only never seen Doctor Who, but appeared to be unfamiliar with the concept of comics too. At least they had a few publicity stills of Tom Baker to work from.

The Doctor has decided to visit his friends on the planet Metalupiter. He thoughtfully shows Sarah and Harry a photograph.



Can’t work out what that picture is supposed to show, even if you have clicked to enlarge it? Me neither, and I’ve been puzzling over it for 30 years. Off and on, that is. I don’t want you to get the impression I’m obsessive, or anything.

The TARDIS arrives, and the crew go off to look for the locals.



No, I can’t work out what happened in that panel either. The Doctor then captures one of the local Metalupitrons, described as “cat-faced robots” and soon finds the trouble.



The cat-faced robot, called Puskeet, is soon able to explain what is going on. The planet has been invaded by aliens, who want to turn the whole world into fuel crystals.



I think we all know how it feels to have our memories replaced with rubber, don’t we?

The Doctor tries to stop the aliens, but is held back by their brain-scrambling ray (which the writer and artist may have tried on themselves first). But don’t worry, Puskeet turns up to save the day. Note that although the captions describe Puskeet, the pictures are of the alien invader. Or, at least, so I assume. A caption describes the alien as “four-armed”, but this chap seems only to have two.



No, I’ve no idea what happened in that last panel. The tale concludes with a masterpiece of bad storytelling.



Why the sudden close-up of the Doctor’s eyes? Why does Sarah conclude that the Metalupitrons are charming? Why is every single figure facing the wrong way to lead you through the panels? Who knows?

The good thing about this story is that it provides such an absolute low of incoherent storytelling that everything else pales by comparison. Whenever I find myself annoyed by bad panel progression and narrative non-sequiturs, I ask myself, “But is it as bad as ‘Menace on Metalupiter’?” and I feel much more at ease.


Panels and pictures from:
Perrault’s Fairy Tales, illustrated by Gustave Doré, 1863, reprinted in The Doré Gallery: His 120 Greatest Illustrations, Dover Publications, 1998

Escapades of Mr Jack by James Swinnerton, 1919, from Coconino Classics

Chowgli and Stripes “Chowgli and Stripes Take a Dangerous Ride”, from Illustrated Chips issue 467, 12 August 1899, reprinted in Denis Gifford Victorian Comics, George Allen & Unwin, 1976

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century “Tiger Men of Mars” by Phil Nowlan (writer) and Dick Calkins (artist), 1930, reprinted in Robert C Dille (editor) The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, A&W Visual Library, 1969

Flash Gordon “On the Planet Mongo” by Alex Raymond, 1934, reprinted in Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon volume 1, Checker Book Publishing, 2003

Doctor Who “Doctor Who and the Freefall Warriors” by Steve Parkhouse (writer) and Dave Gibbons (artist and letterer), Doctor Who Magazine issue 56, September 1981, reprinted in Doctor Who: Dragon’s Claw, Panini Books, 2004

Doctor Who “Menace on Metalupiter”, uncredited, in The Doctor Who Annual 1977, World Distributors, 1976

Review: Alice in Sunderland – Part 7: Conclusion

Click here for Part 1: Introduction
Click here for Part 2: Antecedents
Click here for Part 3: Style
Click here for Part 4: Impersonations
Click here for Part 5: Structure
Click here for Part 6: Content









Panels contain images from the book under review, plus
Low’s Topical Budget by David Low, Evening Standard, 16 November 1935, reprinted in Low: The Twentieth Century’s Greatest Cartoonist, BBC History Magazine, 2002

Review: Alice in Sunderland – Part 6: Content

Click here for Part 1: Introduction
Click here for Part 2: Antecedents
Click here for Part 3: Style
Click here for Part 4: Impersonations
Click here for Part 5: Structure








Click here for Part 7: Conclusion

Panels contain images from the book under review.

But Will She Be So Psychedella This Time?

Variety has reported that Dino De Laurentiis has reacquired the film rights to Barbarella and has hired Casino Royale’s scriptwriters to work on it. De Laurentiis was, of course, the producer of the 1968 version, directed by Roger Vadim and starring Jane Fonda. Proposals for a remake have been kicking around for years, with the rights most recently in the hands of Drew Barrymore. Somewhere along the line, Dave Stewart of Eurythmics even wrote a Barbarella musical, which was staged in Vienna in 2005.

For comics fans, today’s news has an added reason for hoping that the remake doesn’t get stuck in development hell.

“De Laurentiis recently completed a film rights acquisition deal with Julien Forest, the son of Jean-Claude Forest, author of the French comicbook series on which the film was based. Deal, made with Hollywood Comics principal Jean-Marc Lofficier and French agent Laurie Roy, calls for the reissue of the first two Barbarella books in concert with the feature, along with the publication of material that previously hadn't been translated into English.” (My emphasis, Variety’s grammar.)


Panel from
Barbarella by Jean-Claude Forest, 1964, English translation by Richard Seaver, Transworld Publishers Ltd, 1967

Review: Alice in Sunderland – Part 5: Structure

Click here for Part 1: Introduction
Click here for Part 2: Antecedents
Click here for Part 3: Style
Click here for Part 4: Impersonations









Click here for Part 6: Content

Panels contain images from the book under review, plus
Slow Chocolate Autopsy: Incidents from the Notorious Career of Norton, Prisoner of London by Iain Sinclair with illustrations by Dave McKean, Phoenix House, 1997
AA Motorists’ Atlas Britain, 17th edition, Automobile Association, 1994