The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire

“Behold…the engines of death ride the sky. Every day they grow more numerous. Unless our nation bands together and ceases this endless wandering…we will disappear forever from the planet Elekton.” – Trigo the Mighty

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In the 1930s, an alien spacecraft crashed into the Florida swamps, the crew frozen at their posts. After many years of physical examination, little was known of these men or the empire they represented. But one lone eccentric devoted his life to deciphering the texts recovered aboard the craft, until, almost in retirement, he discovers the insight needed for translation. Thus the recorded history of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire was finally revealed to all.

From 1965 to 1982, eighty-eight complete stories of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire graced the pages of British magazines Ranger and Look and Learn. While many writers and artists worked on the comic strip, writer Mike Butterworth and artist Don Lawrence combined their efforts on fifty. These fifty stories, doled out one full-color comic strip a week, inspired many in the British comics scene, including Neil Gaiman and Dave Gibbons. Once locked behind expensive premium collections, these tales of raygun Romans have now been rereleased in to the mass-market in three paperback and ebook volumes.

Before there can be a rise of an empire, there first must be a founding. And the nomadic Vorg were the last race anyone on the planet Elekton would foresee to rise as an interstellar empire. Mindful of the constant attacks by airfleets from the empire of Loka, Trigo has a dream of a city of culture and power from which his people can resist Loka and flourish in peace. His first attempts to build it crumble along with the city walls. But when Loka attacks the city of the Tharvs, the refugees streaming into the Vorg lands bring the knowledge needed to build Trigo’s city. From the marriage of Vorg vigor and Tharv knowledge, a new people were formed–the Trigan Empire. But Loka would not allow Trigo and his new people to live in peace, so Trigo and his brother Brag attempt to steal Loka’s airfleet and turn those terror weapons against their makers–even if it means crossing their resentful brother Klud in the process.

Such a bloodless summary for a high adventure tale filled with daring acts of heroism, stunning reversals of fortune, and crushing betrayals. But it would be the first of many in the rise of the Trigan Empire from a single city to a world government, all under the watchful eye and quick fists of Trigo the Mighty, his brother, Brag, and their advisor, Peric.

From the founding of Trigo’s city onward, the Trigan Empire and its influence comes into contact with the various countries and cultures that fill Elekton. Some meet Trigo, Brag, and, later, Brag’s son Janno, with suspicion, but the noble-minded among them are won over by the Trigans’ displays of daring and valor. The deceitful, however, get their just deserts soon after meeting Trigo. The Trigan Empire might not be a conquering empire, but it will not be conquered–as those from Loka, Elekton, and even the stars beyond have found out to their peril.

The art is amazing, and not just for that of a comic strip. Lawrence details his raygun Romans with anatomically plausible musculature, and the mix of high pulp technology with classical dress and design is charming. Each panel might well be a painting, often in bronze, steel, and imperial purple. It is an inspirational, heroic, even statuesque style that I hope to see a resurgence of.

Trigo and his companions are men of action, aspirational and noble, guided by the wisdom of the elder architect Peric, and ever on the lookout for threats to their people. And the art, beautiful, muscular, and noble as it is, only serves to heighten the heroic deeds. The Empire is a beacon of peace and prosperity because of the physical strength and character of its emperor. This is a comic meant to inspire young boys into becoming the next generation of Trigos: wise, strong, and noble. As such, the speech is formal and the action bloodless, but the clashes of sword, raygun, and fighter ship are tense and riveting. And if a young reader (or much older one) is able to pick out the obvious allusions to Romulus, Remus, Rome, and Greece, and is interested enough to try Livy’s The History of Rome, so much the better. And for all the talk of the Fall of the Trigan Empire, that disaster is still many generations from Trigo the Mighty.

Black Moon Arcana: Ghorgor Bey

Of all the terrifying warlords to wreak destruction across the empire, few can match the savagery of Ghorghor Bey. His name alone can cause even the bravest of soldiers to tremble in their boots, and noble lords and ladies throughout the land pray that he never comes knocking at their castle doors in search of gold, booze, and maidens. But few know the tragic story behind this fearsome warrior’s rise to power. From his harrowing childhood to his first love(s), his devastating heartbreaks and crushing victories, read on and discover how a naive young half-ogre would go on to become Ghorghor the Terrible.

I've been rather taken with the Black Moon Chronicles, the French dark fantasy comic from François Marcela-Froideval, Olivier Ledroit, and Cyril Pontet that uses humor to disarm the horrors of a decadent Melniboné-style empire falling to the apocalypse. At turns aiding the fall and resisting is the half-elf Wismerhill, the unwitting pawn of the evil Black Moon. But how did fate draw Wismerhill's companions to him? And who better to start with than the jovial giant, the fearsome half-ogre warlord now know as Ghorghor Bey?

The first of The Black Moon Arcana serves as a direct prequel to The Black Moon Chronicles: The Sign of Darkness, detailing the rise of Ghorghor Bey from outcast to the scourge of the Empire as he is in the days before he meets Wismerhill. While the prequel sheds little new light into the twists and turns of the Black Moon's world-dooming invasion or Ghorghor's revolving door relationship with death, it is a welcome insight into a beloved character who tends to get only a panel to two to mug in each new volume.

However, this prequel checks the boxes on the standard villain's back story. A half-ogre child born from rape and unwanted pregnancy cruelly shunned by his adopted father and the rest of the village. When his mother dies, the half-ogre is expelled from the village and forced to live on his own--

Yes, I thought so too.

The boy, Ogur, falls in with the circus, where he finds acceptance and love among the freaks and performers. He learns the strongman routine and finds the loves of his life in a pair of Siamese twins. Here, he has the family he was denied. 

Until a lord double-crosses the circus. The lord enslaves most of the circus, and drives Ogur and the rest of the freaks into the swamp. While there, a Divorak swamp kraken attacks, devouring Ogur's loves. Ogur slays the monster, and swears a blood oath to avenge his friends and lovers. And when he slays the leader of a band of highwaymen, Ogur has the opportunity he has sought. Now calling himself Ghorghor Bey, the half-ogre raises his standards, and rogues, orcs, and ogres rally to him. The new warlord scourges the local nobles, returning the brutality that the lords had visited upon him. Yet he never loses the whimsy that surrounds him, a whimsy that never turns to cruelty.

Finally, the warlord returns to the lands of the lord who wronged him. Ghorghor Bey single-handedly breaches the castle and, one by one, pitches the defenders over the walls. No quarter will be given until he frees his friends. After the lord is slain and the chains on the circus performers broken, Ghorghor Bey turns his fury against the nobility, scourging the Empire in the first of many apocalyptic invasions that will tear it apart. And, along the way, he runs into two bandits, the mad elf Heads-or-Tails and magic-touched Wismerhill...

As I said, standard villainy fare. But the Black Moon Chronicles tries to make a distinction between being bad and being evil, between falling and fallen. Ghorghor Bey is undoubtedly bad, driven to his own cruelty by the cruelty of others, but he never crosses into the demonically evil. That terror is saved for Wismerhill. And for unrepentant, soul-devouring evil? Wait until we meet Haazel Thorn.

There is a rough honor to the brutal and cunning Ghorghor Bey, who later becomes Wismerhill's trusted lieutenant. There's also the bit of the clown, of intelligence, whimsy, and the subversion of expectations, including a surprising gentleness. The performer never left the warlord, as he can be found mugging in the background of many a panel. But the one thing he is not is the dullard brute that many ogres are portrayed as in fantasy. That Ghorghor Bey is given a chance to shine once more outside Wismerhill's shadow is welcome. I just wish there was more meat to these formulaic old bones.

So, at the start, The Black Moon Arcana is for the fans already invested in the signs and portents of the Black Moon. But maybe when we get to the true holy knight Parsifal, the story will pick up. In the meantime, please check out the more palatable Elric-type story that is the Black Moon Chronicles.

Black Moon Chronicles: Sign of Darkness

God might not play dice with the universe, but the devils do.

In The Black Moon Chronicles: The Sign of Darkness, written by François Marcela-Froideval and drawn by Olivier Ledroit, Lucifer grows tired of his generals throwing matches in their little games. So he engineers a game in the mortal world where none of the players can deliberately lose. A Chosen One prophecy and the fall of an empire would do nicely. But what man will be chosen?

He might be a nameless lancer out in the woods, little more than a highwayman in armor. Call him Wismerhill after his home town, or Wis for short. It’s as good a name as any. But this half-elf has an unknown past and hints of more sinister gifts, as the rogue Heads-or-Tails discovers in their first meeting. Wis may be sheltered and naive, but he falls into bad company with the mercurial rogue, whose personality shifts based on which of two magical swords, good or evil, he currently wields. The two fast friends embark on a series of petty crimes and capers. But the eye of the half-ogre Gorghor Bey soon settles upon Heads-or-Tails’ swords.

The swords, however, are attached to Heads-or-Tails, and it is only by the whim of Gorghor Bey that the two highwaymen keep their heads. Now fighters for the half-ogre warlord, Wismerhill and Heads-or-Tails join the Gorghor Bey’s invasion of the Empire. Caught up in a whirlwind of fighting, training, and loving, Wis quickly distinguishes himself as a valued aide, able to read the winds and save the horde from multiple ambushes as they raze the hinterlands of the Empire. But such a display of military power cannot go unchecked, so the Empire sends the Army of Light after Gorghor Bey. And other, more sinister forces have taken notice of the chaos for their own ends.

The Sign of Darkness serves as the ever-popular origin story for the twenty-volume Black Moon Chronicles. This French dark fantasy series has given birth to two spin-off series and even a video game. The emphasis here is on dark fantasy, if the slight elven warrior with an evil magical sword was not a clue. Wis is fighting on the side of orcs, ogres, and barbarians against the setting’s version of Gondor, and there is no mistaking these invaders for the side of Good. At best, Wis and his companions act as anti-heroes who are a little too comfortable with the terrible acts they commit. But those acts are in the future. The Sign of Darkness is comics’ answer to The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, an extending training montage pushing Wis from a nameless tough to a champion on the run. He has yet to be swept up into the various gambits playing out for control over the Empire.

The setting is familiar, with a gleaming white Empire as the bastion of church and civilization standing against a tide of invading barbarism. This time, we see it from the invaders’ point of view, without the expected propaganda of imperial hypocrisies that a contemporary version of the story would demand. Some people just want to watch the world burn. Those willing to light the match fight for Gorghor Bey. The resulting chaotic, orkish invasion is so familiar, as are Wis’s winds of magic, that it would not be a surprise to discover that Games Workshop plundered the Black Moon Chronicles as they did The Lord of the Rings for their Warhammer Fantasy setting. As of yet, the Black Moon Chronicles does not revel in the destruction and cruelty to the same degree that a grim dark world where there is only war has, or with the exquisite artistry of a Melniboné. Instead, a strong dose of self-deprecating humor keeps the excesses away.

The Black Moon Chronicles uses an interesting design choice. Those characters and objects which are evil, or, in the case of Wis’s powers, chaotic, have rougher, dingier, uglier art. Clean lines and beauty are reserved for the good, whether that be the Army of Light or Feidreiva, Wis’s unlikely lover who spends less time clothed than French fanservice favorite Laureline. And as Gorghor Bey changes from Wis’s captor to mentor, his portrait smooths. But the real star of the artistic show is the big battle set-pieces. Ledroit conveys in his art both the immense scale of massive armies as well as the immense chaos of battle. The only portrayal that comes close is The Return of the King‘s field battles.

I am intrigued by the potential in The Black Moon Chronicles: The Sign of Darkness. It is just the opening act, and the villains and main conflict of the story have yet to be revealed. Fortunately, the full 20 volume series is offered on Kindle Unlimited, making it easy and affordable to follow along Wismerhill’s journey under the Black Moon.

Nikolai Dante: Too Cool to Kill

“I was trained in the arts of war by the finest military commanders in the empire.”

“And I learned to fight in the sleaziest bars of the thieves’ world. Let’s get it on!”

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In 1997, Robbie Morrison and Simon Fraser introduced the readers of the 2000 AD comics anthology to a future where Russia never had its revolution and the Tsar’s power stretches not just over all the Earth but across the stars. There, just as now, an underworld flourishes in the shadow of the corrupt and debauched oligarchs. There, in the collision between the gangsters of the underworld and the gangsters of the nobility, flourishes the self professed man Too Cool to Kill.

Nikolai Dante.

Captured by the Tsar after seducing an imperial courtesan, Nikolai is given a choice between losing his skin or investigating a crash. Dante wisely chooses the latter, but lands in even hotter water when a Romanov Weapons Crest bonds with him. The Tsar wants the secret of the Crest, the Romanovs want the Crest back, and two other families just want him dead for honor’s sake. Only fast talking, fighting, and even faster running let Nikolai Dante keep his head when everyone else wants to take it from his shoulders.

This first volume of ten showcases seven stories. “The Adventures of Nikolai Dante” bonds Dante with his Weapons Crest. “The Romanov Dynasty” has him earn his place among his new family. “Moscow Duellists” introduces Nikolai to the cutthroat world of the Russian court, while “The Gentleman Thief” shows that his new station in life has not affected Dante. “The Gulag Apocalyptic” reveals the terrible secret behind the Romanov Weapons Crest while uniting Dante with his iconic rifle. The less said about the short “Russia’s Greatest Love Machine” and “The Full Dante”, the better.

The art of Nikolai Dante: Too Cool to Kill varies based on the artist. Simon Fraser has the definitive art for this, giving Dante the disarming charisma needed to give a dashing rogue that two second opening to dash away. The other artists in the volume have a tendency to forget the handsome part to a handsome rogue, and the glamour that should accompany him. It is fortunate that most of the other artists pick up the short fan-service one shots.

What remains consistent is the use of seven or more panels per page. Nikolai’s exploits in escape, fighting, and amore require more space to properly depict. The Russian rogue loves to leap, fly, and fall, after all. The extra panels are almost required to fit the high-flying action in the limited pages allotted in a 2000 AD programme. As a result, even the shortest five page one-shot delivers as much story as can normally be found in twice the page count.

If there is an annoyance to Nikolai Dante, it lies in just how fanservice filled the book can get. Sure, this seducer’s story oozes with déshabillé and nudity, although one can find more flesh in even the tamest peekaboo high school manga. What rankles, however, is how dated and pop-culture-laden the dialogue gets. The clever one liners of the swashbucklers that inspired Nikolai Dante are replaced by 90s song lyrics, cheerleader chants, and jeers at Bill Clinton’s White House scandal. And those more familiar with 2000 AD than I have pointed out the cameos and crossovers. These already threadbare references date the otherwise timeless anachronisms of a Russia that should never come to pass.

So, is Nikolai Dante indeed a man too cool to kill? Let’s be fair, this bastard son of the Romanovs believes his own boasts, and Morrison and Fraser delight in throwing Dante into situations where his mouth writes checks he cannot possibly cash. But Nikolai proves he can live up to his boast that he can out-drink, out-fight, and out-love any man around him. And that’s fine for slums and bars of the underworld. But the halls of power demand more.

Along with bioblades and a battle computer, the Weapons Crest gives Nikolai Dante the wealth and position of a Romanov son. With it, he becomes a pawn in the power games of his previously unknown father Dimitri Romanov and the Tsar. Absolute power corrupts absolutely in this Russia, and both men spill blood, even family blood, as though it was wine. Quick reflexes and quicker wits are not enough when pitted against the best assassins the galaxy can offer–especially when they are kin with the matching cheat codes that are the Weapons Crests.

What sets the dashing rogue apart from the blood-drunk degenerates that are the rest of his family is motive. Heroism in Dante’s world is a matter of honor and power. Nikolai Dante cares little for either. Empathy be damned. Both the Romanovs and the Tsar feel your pain–and want more of it. Honor and power grind most of the serfs of the Russian worlds under the Tsar’s heel. Instead, Nikolai acts out of compassion. Another’s tears may compel Dante to acts of defiance against the powers-that-be–warlords, thugs, and Romanovs alike–that cause ripples throughout the Russian space empire.

The wounds of Dante’s past, still unrevealed, provoke a rarity almost unknown among the powerful–selfless service. And that, indeed, makes Nikolai Dante too cool to kill.

Just remember, he will never be a plaster saint.

Razorfist on Solomon Kane

Once again, Razorfist graces us with a multi-media survey of a great pulp hero: Robert E. Howard's dour Puritan, Solomon Kane.

Rohan at the Louvre

In 2009, the Louvre Museum, one of the most renowned art museums in the world, gathered comic book artists together for a unique exhibit showcasing the breadth of contemporary art found in comic books. French bandes dessinées and American comic books featured prominently in the display, joined by panels drawn by Japanese manga artist Hirohiko Araki. While most of the featured comics used the grounds of the Louvre as a vehicle for investigating art or even as characters, Araki took one of his more popular characters, a manga artist turned occult detective, and thrust him into a mystery deep inside the Louvre’s underground tunnels, complete with all the accumulated quirks of his JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure--and a touch of body horror.

In many ways, Araki was the perfect choice for such a collection. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is rooted in both Japanese and Western pop culture, mixing Japanese punk brawlers with a love for Western music and the traditions of both cultures’ occult detective stories. The names of several characters may be familiar: Dio, Speedwagon, Red Hot Chili Pepper, Cream, Aerosmith, Green Day, Black Sabbath, etc.. The series is still going strong after thirty years, following the Joestar family throughout generations as they fight against an ancient and undead enemy of the family. To properly explain the JoJo’s series would easily require a month’s columns and the average reader might still think the plot and the setting a fever dream. Perhaps one way to think of the series is if the X-men fought each other with Pokemon, mutant powers, and their fists. And, strangely enough, it works so well that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been a staple of manga readers throughout its entire run.

To overcome the daunting barrier of entry that such a long-lived series creates, Araki crafted his exhibit, collected in Rohan at the Louvre, to be a stripped-down version of a JoJo story. Focusing on Rohan Kishibe, the aforementioned manga artist turned occult investigator, Araki moves the powers and other regular JoJocharacters to the background, allowing guests to the Louvre to experience this ghost story through his eyes. After a brief introduction to Rohan and his power to read people like books–illustrated with a touch of body horror as their skin peels like pages, Rohan tells his story of a search for the darkest black ever seen. And so begins a horror story worthy of mention in the same sentence as Manly Wade Wellman’s “The Golgotha Dancers”.

The tale proper begins when Rohan is seventeen, struggling to earn a job as a manga artist. He is frustrated because his editor tells him that his drawings of women are lifeless. When a 21-year-old soon-to-be-divorcee Nanase moves into his apartment building, Rohan grows fascinated with her, drawing her at every opportunity. Nanase catches him in mid-sketch and confronts him. Rohan’s explanation charms her, and Nanase’s piqued interest in Rohan’s art over time turns into romance. During one of their evenings together, Nanase mentions a mysterious painting of exquisite blackness in the Louvre. But the days of the happy couple are short, as when Nanase discovers her portrait in Rohan’s manga, she shreds the drawings and flees into the night.

Ten years later, a stray comment sparks Rohan’s memory, and he travels to the Louvre to find the mysterious painting. What should have been a denied request quickly turns into a search of the Louvre’s catacombs. Escorted by two firemen, a curator, and a translator, Rohan is taken to a storage tunnel empty of everything except for the dark painting. The search becomes lethal, as, one by one, the people around Rohan die in grisly ways as the ghosts of their ancestors display their wrath. Then, when Rohan is alone, he sees Nanase among the ghosts…

Written at a time when many of the more regrettable anime and manga tropes were being codified, Araki instead chooses to write against trope to make statements about art. When arriving at the Louvre, Rohan chastises his fans, telling them to show some respect when visiting the masterworks of grandmasters. At least wear a tie. But the real differences shine through when Rohan is seventeen. He is not the first nor the last seventeen-year-old manga artist to grace the pages of a comic book. But where many of his contemporaries played the role of the ascended fan, enthusiasts of pop culture media, Rohan instead focuses on the beauty of art itself. Rather than copying current fashions in manga, he draws from his own experiences and observations. And most importantly, his art attracts women instead of repelling them, unlike those characters who celebrate fandom before art. Rohan embodies the tropes of the struggling artist instead of the stereotypical manga artist, and thus he can show the power of his art through his romance with Nanase. Instead of a message, Araki celebrates the life behind art, a timeless subject worthy of inclusion in the Louvre. But when it’s time to set aside the conceits of arts for the demands of story, Rohan at the Louvre becomes a ghost story worthy of The Unique Magazine.

The character design in Rohan at the Louvre is straight JoJo, stylized, muscular, yet more realistic than many of Araki’s peers. The clothes, hair, and colors are trendy, if now a bit dated, and the fascination with fluorescent and paste hues seen on the covers of JoJo is carried throughout the full-color manga. If Rohan looks a bit slender and slim, he is supposed to as a contrast with the beefy punks of JoJo. After months of reading vivid four-color bandes dessinées, with stunning reds and blues, the shift to a palette of magenta, cyan, and sea green is jarring but adds to the sense of fashion surrounding the tale. It also serves to heighten the body horror to come. The backgrounds are simple, evoking memories of walking the Louvre when in the galleries. In the tunnels, the claustrophobic shelves and shadows heighten the growing anticipation of terror.

I’ve often said that the spirit of Poe and the pulps lives on in Japan. Recent forays into the direct descendants of the pulps, light novels, have proven wanting as slice of life replaced adventure and the unknown. But Rohan at the Louvre delivers on the adventure, the romance, and the fear of the unknown seen in the heyday of pulp fiction. It’s manga without the cringe I’ve come to expect in recent works, and a perfect addition to the Louvre Collection. I freely recommend this to any comic book and pulp enthusiast, not just fans of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and of manga in general.

Wayne Shelton: The Mission

In a stray moment of distraction, a French trucker runs over the Khalakjistani Minister of Defense. His imprisonment incites his union to refuse to haul anything across Khalakjistan's roads. As the clock ticks down on an eccentric Texas billionaire's deal for mineral rights in Khalakjistan, he turns to one man to break the trucker out of prison:

Wayne Shelton.

The Mission is the first volume of the Wayne Shelton series, a 13-volume comics written by best-selling Belgian comics writer Jean Van Hamme (Thorgal, XII, and Largo Winch) and illustrated by Christian Denayer (Alain Chevallier, T.N.T, and High School Generation). In it, the fifty-year-old Vietnam veteran gathers his team together to break out the trucker. But just when everyone assembles in Turkey, a betrayal upends Wayne's plans. It may sound like a simple men's adventure story, but Van Hamme and Denayer execute it with panache, creating a best-selling comic that is still going strong today. Some English-speaking fans have compared Wayne Shelton to James Bond, but I find comparisons to Mr. Wolf from Pulp Fiction to be more apt, for Wayne is the man you pay millions to in order to do the impossible--or make the impossible go away.

Elric Vol. 1: The Ruby Throne

Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné has enjoyed a storied history in comics. First portrayed in a 1971 bande dessinee, Elric next appeared in America alongside Conan the Barbarian. Over the next forty-five years and more, he has continued to wander from issue to issue and publisher to publisher to the delight of comics readers. Most recently, Elric returned to bande dessinee in 2014’s celebrated Elric: The Ruby Throne, the first of a projected four volume series. Written by Julien Blondel, this adaptation, in the words of Moorcock, “is the saga of the Albino I would have written myself if I had thought of it first.”

The story is simple, but utterly disastrous for all in Melniboné. After millennia of dominance and centuries of decline, Elric, the prophesied last king of Melniboné, sits in a funk on the Ruby Throne, his strength sustained only by foul arcane magics. As his city languishes in a decadence where lifeblood flows freer than wine, his cousin Yyrkoon agitates to Make Melniboné Feared Again. The massing of viking-like barbarians on the seas bring Elric and Yyrkoon to an agreement of purpose, and the cousins rout the invaders. But Yyrkoon used the invasion as a pretext to drown Elric and seize the Ruby Throne. The sea refuses to claim the White Demon of Melniboné, and Elric returns to his home to take back the throne.

The ensuing fight feeds all the souls of Melniboné, slave and slaver alike, to demons.

The Ruby Throne‘s artwork rates among the best I have had the privilege to review. Most of the previous bandes dessinees I have read indulge in vibrant reds and blues. Colorist Jean Bastitde instead makes grey and gold the standout colors of the palette. The illustrations are a collaboration between Robin Recht and Didier Poli, combining both styles in every panel. Stylized fantasy armor and realistic human figures blend together for disturbing portrayals of the callousness around Elric. Moorcock himself prefers this version of Elric as it best captures the casually cruel decadence of Melniboné. Coming from a creative culture that in the 90s wallowed in shock and in the 00s indulged in a penchant for torture porn, I am amazed at the restraint even as I am disgusted by the cruel indulgence in the suffering of others.

Melniboné is the sort of decadently cruel paradise that gets scourged time and again in recent fantasy, such as Red Seas Under Red Skies and even Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Mostly by writers promoting new moralities that lead inevitably toward Melniboné. Whether known as Melniboné, Omelas, or Canto Bight, this aristocratic paradise built on proletariat suffering reoccurs constantly. But the answer proposed to deal with its evil shifts over time, including the oppressed accepting a place as the new oppressors, getting away from it all, reform from within, and destruction from without. Within the context of these stories, this is framed as virtue struggling against vice. From the audience’s seat, more often these stories resemble little more than turf wars as yakuza replaces mafiosi replaces yakuza in a constant wave of rebellion that never stops to consider what to replace evil with, only who gets to push in whose eyeballs and lick clean the blood. (A scene illustrated inside The Ruby Throne.) Moorcock and Blondel avoid the hypocrisy inherent in most versions of this myth by framing it as a civil war among the forces of Chaos, with no respite from the evils inflicted on the servile. There are no righteous here, not one.

I’ll be honest, reading this was like getting an eyeful of Hell, with evil deeds done by evil men for evil reasons. And I know I’m not supposed to like it and that disgust is the intended effect. Demons exist, often in human skin and the talent of Team Elric is to turn craftsmanship towards repulsion and horror without resorting to the grotesque. The result is to turn Melniboné into a more vivid depiction of Hell in comics than that found in the excellent Sandman: Season of Mists. The Ruby Throne is an unsettling read, made even worse by the revelation that Moorcock was struggling with the weighty issues of Britain’s decline and somehow in his search for answers made 2+2 equal 6. I can appreciate the exquisite craftsmanship of the story and the art, both steeped in canons long discarded by our contemporaries. I don’t have to enjoy it, though.

Like with Barracuda, your own enjoyment may well depend on your tolerance of grimdark. Make no mistake, earlier SFF stories are just as violent and dark. But The Ruby Throne replaces the weighty fear of the unknown with the more personal fear of man, and that is a more harrowing thing. I would freely recommend The Ruby Throne to fans of Elric’s print adventures. To those who are more squeamish, or are responsible for children and adolescents, I recommend flipping through an online preview or library copy before purchasing.

Buck Danny: The Secrets of the Black Sea

Ever since the Red Baron's Flying Circus swept the skies clean of enemy planes, readers across the world have been captivated by the exploits of military aviators, real and fictional. When the newspapers weren't singing the praises of Chuck Yeager, Eddie Rickenbacker, Robin Olds, and Duke Cunningham, the pulps churned out flying ace after flying ace, and the movies glorified the Right Stuff and the dogfight. Whether God is My Co-Pilot, The Flying Tigers, the Black Sheep Squadron, or even some whiny volleyball player named Maverick, audiences could not get enough of an impressive parade of tall, handsome fighter jocks. But overseas in France, unknown to many of his contemporaries, the greatest American ace is the comic hero Colonel Buck Danny, United States Navy.

I'll wait a moment for all the old salts to regain their composure.

Despite the odd and distinctly un-naval rank, for seventy years Buck Danny has been flying everything from P-40 Warhawks with Chennault's Flying Tigers, F-104 Starfighters, the X-15, F-14 Tomcats with the Navy, and most recently, F-22 Raptors with the Air Force, always with a Sergeant Major's eye for realistic detail and procedure. A veteran of every American war from World War Two in the Pacific to today's War in Afghanistan, Buck Danny's career has been frequently split between the Navy and the Air Force in pursuit of adventure and the hottest airframes available. It's easiest to think of this Navy recruit as an Air Force officer on loan to the Navy, just like his ever-present wingmen actually are. And in The Secrets of the Black Sea, the Navy sends Colonel Danny as a liaison to the Soviet Union in the last days of perestroika and glasnost, just before the coup attempt that signaled the end of the Soviet Union.

Barracuda

“No mercy! For anyone! Ever!”–Raffy, Barracuda Vol. 1: Slaves

When Captain Blackdog of the Barracuda seizes a Spanish galleon on the seas, he finds a map to the hidden Kashar Diamond, slaves, and his son Raffy’s defeat at the hands of the Spanish captain. Blackdog the arrives in Puerto Blanco to trade loot for provisions for a treasure hunt. Meanwhile, the slaves struggle in their new lives. Emilo, a servant, is saved from the worst depredations by dressing as fair Emilia–or as long as “her” secret remains so. Maria, however, finds her status as a nobleman’s daughter to be no shield, as she loses her freedom, her dignity, her mother, and finally her innocence in one harrowing night. Meanwhile, Raffy tries to do what is right by his father, but is wounded again when he attempts to help a scourged slave girl, and again when his father leave him behind.

“No mercy!” is the refrain of Barracuda Vol. 1: Slaves by Jean Dufaux and Jérémy, repeated again and again throughout its pages, its plot, and its art. For framed inside the search for hidden treasure is a story of how the brutality of piracy grinds down three young adults. Maria by far has the worst of it, sold, stripped, and whipped until all that is left to her is fury. No mercy was shown to her, and so she’ll show none. Mercy leads to Raffy’s woundings, as fate punishes his every deviation from a pirate’s ruthlessness with pain and harm. And Emilo is trapped in his petticoats, unable to show mercy else his secret be exposed. Each young adult hardens during his or her stay at Puerto Blanco, and must to survive. But Barracuda does not revel in their pain. Instead, it traps the trio into their roles. For while the ship Barracuda is away, a storm of intrigue will sweep over the cursed port.

I was sold on Barracuda at the first sight of its striking cover. And the pages within lived up to its promise. The character designs are clean and distinct, even when dealing with the rough wrinkles of aged men. Just like many of its contemporary bandes dessinées, Barracuda creates eye-popping effects with the color red. What sets it apart is that its blues and purples are just as vivid, allowing for just as much detail in night and shadow as in day.

Frankly, I found Barracuda to be intense and uneasy reading. Maria’s scourging is enough to sour me on future volumes. But I will give Jean Dufaux and Jérémy credit: they do not revel in shock factor. Maria’s ordeals are horrible ugly affairs in art and in story, as one would expect a slave auction and public flogging to be. Barracudadoes not spare the horror of these dark events–or of the bloodletting elsewhere–but neither does it glorify the cruelty. Harm comes to all, but never in a gratuitous manner. But rarely cushioned either.

While I’d still take Barracuda over most American comics, whether or not you might like this depends on how much grim you like with your darkness.

Conan: Coming Soon in BD

In light of recent news concerning Marvel taking over the Conan license in America, there is good news for fans of the famous barbarian:

After the success of its recent Elric adaptation, one of the largest French publishers Glénat has decided to adapt 12 Robert E. Howard Conan stories into graphic novels. 

Each adaptation will be from a different creative team, including the folk at CreART. 

There won’t be any kind of “standard” look for Conan’s appearance. Each creative team will draw the Cimmerian their way. 

The first will be published in May, adapting Howard’s early Conan work, The Black Colossus as a comic by Vincent Brugeas and Toulhoat.

Personally, I can't wait to import the English translations from the U.K.. And while I'm dreaming about public domain comics, can someone do a decent Northwest Smith or Jirel of Joiry series in the States?

The Scorpion: The Devil's Mark

As Armando Catalano, a holy relic dealer, raids the underground tombs of 18th century Rome for the bones of martyred saints, a prince of the Church plots with a Gypsy poisoner to murder him. For Armando bears the mark of the scorpion on his shoulder, a devil's mark identifying him as the son of a heretic who was burnt alive for seducing a priest from the church and Christian beliefs. While the poisoner toys with him, Armando sets out to learn the name of the cardinal who torments him, the reason for the enmity, and the truth behind his mother's death. Along the way, he stumbles across an ancient conspiracy from the days of Rome and a plot to murder the Pope. Digging deeper, Armando, known to all as the Scorpion, discovers a stolen Vatican archive in Cardinal Trebaldi's mansion. These papers deal with his mother's trial and execution, leading Armando to believe that he is the illegitimate son of the Pope. Can the Scorpion save his presumed father from the assassin's blade?

Written by Stephen Desberg and illustrated by Enrico Marini, The Scorpion follows Armando as he seeks to unravel the conspiracy, challenge the power of Cardinal Trebaldi, and discover why his mother's execution lays at the center of both. Following in the footsteps of Zorro and Alexandre Dumas, this Scorpion is at home in high society and in the gutters, a dashing, cultured swordsman and scholar who will not rest until he brings down the men behind his mother's death--no matter how powerful they might be. The first book offered in English, The Devil's Mark, serves up the first two volumes of the Scorpion's adventures, The Devil's Mark and The Pope's Secret, taking readers from the discovery to the end of the Papal conspiracy in one sitting.

50 YEARS OF LUPIN III: The Manga

In August 1967, when Weekly Manga Action first published the adventures of Lupin III, Monkey Punch hoped for modest success for what was supposed to be a three-month series. Drawing on 15 mysteries from Maurice Leblanc for inspiration, the artist Monkey Punch combined the stylings of MAD Magazine, Playboy, and Chuck Jones's Tom & Jerry animation shorts to create the adventures of his master thief. He did not suspect that he created a character who would become a pop culture icon, influencing not only Japanese culture, but Hollywood, video games, and American comics as well.

Monkey Punch's mix of racy encounters and cleverly plotted stories quickly found an audience. And while Lupin III claimed ancestry from Leblanc's Arsène Lupin, his personality is closer to Fantômas mixed with that of a trickster. Each week, Monkey Punch would draw a new tale of weird menace, with Lupin serving both as the detective and as the menace for any and all who crossed him. And after the first series ended in 1969, Monkey Punch would revisit the adventures of Lupin and his gang ten more times, often teaming with other illustrators, with the last series ending in 2014.

Despite the popularity of the manga comics in Japan, only two series have been released in America, the original Lupin III and Lupin III: World's Most Wanted (Shin Lupin III). Both are out of print, and while certain manga, such as Magic Knight Rayearth, Sailor Moon, and Love Hina, have managed to find new companies to rerelease their series, it is uncertain whether the Lupin III manga will ever see rerelease in English. Fansubbers have yet to discover this series, as moe cuteness is in fashion over worldly glamour, so if you find a volume in a used bookstore, don't pass on it. Just be careful; even though the animated adventures of Lupin III veer towards family-friendly entertainment at times, the manga is decidedly for adults.

Let's take a closer look at the collection that started it all, comprising the first nine chapters of the Lupin III manga.

Corto Maltese in Siberia

A little amuse-bouche while I work my way through the comic of the same name. It is a more cultured comic than most of what I have read, with its creator Hugo Pratt being lauded as the inventor of the literary comic strip, and the references, from the historical General Ungern-Sternberg to the literature of the I Ching, Utopia, and "Kubla Khan", require a bit more care to unpack than my normal fare.

Do not be dismayed by the literary claims. Corto Maltese is an adventurer first and foremost, and this particular tale sends him after a Siberian treasure train in the name of the Crown--and a Chinese triad.

This will be of interest to any anime fan, as Japan often works with French and Italian studios, and this adventure has the relaxed pace common to continental and Japanese animation.

#ComicsRevolution

Entertainment has been trending indie for years, with various media being quicker to adapt to the artist being in control as opposed to the studies and publishing houses. The key to each medium is opening the methods of distribution to everyone. Here's one proposal to bypass the established channels for comic books.

Razorfist's HBO Effect

At 1:16 in the video, Razorfist describes what he calls the HBO Effect, where an artist relies more on pleasing the critics for success than the audience.  Predictably, sales slump.  Listen to the rantmaster to hear how Marvel embraced it to its detriment, but just not at work.  Then consider how TOR and other publishers have embraced it in SFF, to the same effect.