101 Comics You Must Read Before You Die E-Book

Blake Hunter

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 441

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Here are 101 comics you should definitely consider reading if you haven't already done so already. Everything from Black Hole to Tintin in Tibet, Paper Girls to Preacher, Batman to Superman, The Fantastic Four to X-Men, Invincible to Irredeemable, When the Wind Blows to Ghost World. These are an essential comics and graphic novels that any fan of the genre should read.

Leseprobe

101 Comics You Must Read Before You Die  

Blake Hunter© Copyright 2023 Blake Hunter

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ContentsIntroduction101 Comics You Must Read Before You DieINTRODUCTIONHere are 101 comics you should definitely consider reading if you haven't already done so. Everything from Black Hole to Tintin in Tibet, Paper Girls to Preacher. The choices that follow are of course subjective and reflect my own personal tastes. If a comic is missing here it doesn't mean it wasn't a great comic or isn't deserving of a place but simply means I didn't have room for it! Fantastic comics I didn't find room for include Chew, Monstress, The Invisibles, Maus, Superman: Birthright, Transmetropolitan, and many others. Hopefully though there should still be plenty in this book worthy of discussion and perhaps even some comics that you haven't read yet. So, without further delay, let's begin our list of 101 comics you must read before you die...101 COMICS YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIEALIENS: OUTBREAK by Mark VerheidenAliens: Outbreak was by Mark Verheiden and Mark Nelson and first published in comic form in 1988. This is the obvious place to start with Alien comics. The story is set ten years after the events of James Cameron's Aliens and is essentially a sequel to that film. As the comic was written well before Alien 3 appeared, Hicks and Newt are central characters with Ripley mentioned but not part of the story. The names Newt and Hicks were later ludicrously changed to "Billie" and "Wilks" because these characters were killed off in Alien 3 and Dark Horse wanted continuity with the film series.The original Outbreak was not coloured and had atmospheric black and white art. Outbreak begins with a 'Ten Years Later...' blurb. Newt is now a young woman being held in some sort of high tech institution facility and plagued by nightmares about her encounter with the alien creatures on Acheron - the bleak planet colony where everyone apart from her was wiped out. Corporal Hicks, one of only three survivors from Aliens with Newt and Ripley, is also having nightmares.Hicks is in jail on drunk and disorderly charges and with his acid scarred face he's had a tough time since he got back from Acheron. Everyone is eager to keep Hicks at arms length for fear of what he might have contracted from the aliens. Hicks is released though by some high ranking government officials after a junked freighter brings back one of the aliens before it is scuttled - the alien still managing to kill some 'Coast Guard' employees who worked getting rid of derelict ships in orbit. A character named Orona tells Hicks that they have course trajectories from the destroyed ship and now know where the alien homeworld is. "You seek redemption," Orona tells Hicks. "I seek specimens." Hicks is asked to lead a mission to the alien homeworld and decides he will rescue Newt first and take her with him.What Hicks doesn't know is that a ruthless and powerful company known as Bionational intends to be the first to get hold of the alien creatures for biological weapons purposes. Bionational secretly launches its own ship to stop Hicks and the government mission at all costs. The company has also got hold of an officer from the freighter that brought an alien back to Earth after intercepting his escape pod. He is now in a medical lab being monitored with one of the facehuggers attached to him. As if all of this wasn't enough, a sinister cult group has somehow gained an image of the alien creature and begun to worship it. They are also very eager to make contact with the aliens at any cost.Outbreak is a good read on the whole. It's dark and complex, the black and white art is very effective and at over 157 pages it will keep you occupied for a few days. The story here is far more inventive and interesting than the one used for Alien 3 and it does make you wonder why they made that film with such a basic story when there were endless ideas for the Alien series floating around. Ripley is not in this one for some reason (although she returned in later comics) but the story uses Hicks and Newt in a competent way, both fleshing the characters out in new directions and still giving them the baggage of Cameron's Aliens.We get an ambitious complicated plot in Outbreak where no one can be trusted - least of all governments and powerful companies. The comic picks up on the first two Alien films and assumes you know them well with flashback scenes for Newt and Hicks and much more about the origin of the aliens and how they may have been released from their natural environment to wreak havoc in the universe like a virus. I'm sure many would prefer this sort of backstory for the aliens over the one Ridley Scott explored in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. The concept that the aliens are a mysterious unfathomable species from a bleak and mysterious planet is simply more compelling. They weren't created by anyone. They just exist.Outbreak is quite gruesome at times and the aliens are certainly well drawn and brought to life - with some great drawings of the Alien Queen in particular. The story contains some nice ideas and touches too like the way that television is now reduced to a ray that taps into your retina and automatically changes when you want to look at something new. With so many channels, television became something new and uncontrollable dominated by religious groups - like the cult group that worships the alien.The story is about the redemption of Hicks and the general hubris of man in believing that he can somehow control the alien creatures to use for profit. Humans believe technology has allowed them to evolve beyond hunter and prey but they are of course very wrong and all hell breaks loose in a variety of ways. The character of Newt is quite nicely developed in the story. Hicks rescues her when the asylum is about to wipe her memory because if she doesn't remember Acheron then the sacrifice of that mission will only reside in him.In this story humans are just as bad as the aliens and tend to deserve whatever comes around to them. It is quite interesting that the book is just as concerned with political conspiracy and corporate ethics as alien carnage and fleshes out the background themes that were present but never completely dealt with in the first two Alien films. This is a strong comic, if perhaps a little dense at times. Once or twice one does struggle slightly to remember exactly who is who. The black and white (in the original edition) art is surprisingly effective, we get a trip to the alien homeworld, much speculation on the aliens' origins and nature, plus the beginning of what might possibly be the end for planet Earth.ALIENS Vs PREDATOR OMNIBUS VOLUME ONE by VariousAliens Vs Predator Omnibus Volume 1 is a 2007 compilation by Dark Horse of the comic series of the same name and collects issues that date back as far as the late eighties. The Alien and Predator film franchises may have petered out sooner than expected but the memorable creations of HR Giger and Stan Winston got a new lease of life in comics when someone had the clever idea of pitting them against one another in the most anticipated monster smackdown since King Kong fought Godzilla. I think the stories in the Aliens continuation comics were more interesting and inventive than the screenplays for the last couple of Alien films and the Aliens Vs Predator comic - on the evidence here - is also a lot better than the two very forgettable Aliens Vs Predator films we were served up a few years back. This was an obvious case of a decent comic not really working as a film for some reason and the main storyline in this graphic novel is far more engaging and compelling than the one used in the big screen incarnation. This is a fairly large book (over 400 pages) and made up of several different stories that are for the most part enjoyable and never dull. Some of these are only a couple of issues long and the most salient part of the collection is the title story at the start of the book. It begins on Ryushi, a far distant planet that has only just recently been colonised by humans. Ryushi is a sun baked desert planet with nineteen hours of daylight and run by the Chigusa Corporation (this comic derives from that period of history when America was paranoid that Japan was on the verge of becoming the greatest economic superpower in the world and would probably run just about everything in the future - including space). The smallish colony on the arid planet is made up mostly of ranchers and cowboy types who raise quadrupedal ungulates called rhynth (basically alien cows I suppose) for export. It's a lucrative business apparently and Ryushi looks a lot like a landscape in a Western film albeit one with two suns and mountains that have a strange pink hue. What the Chigusa Corporation and the colonists on the planet don't know is though that Ryushi has been used by the Predators as a hunting ground for many centuries. We learn that the Predators have been traversing the galaxy and seeding planets with Alien eggs in order to give them lethal and challenging game reserves worthy of their legendary and ruthless hunting abilities. These Predators do need to find some new hobbies I think. They should try staying in one night with a cup of tea and relaxing. One of the planets they seed Alien eggs on (via a remote control shuttle of some sort that lands undetected by the colony sensors in the desert) is Ryushi. When the Alien eggs infect one of the rhynth (the alien cows in case you've forgotten already) it becomes a host for an Alien Queen. Carnage quickly ensues and the planet soon has a virtually unstoppable infestation of Aliens. The only sure defence against the Aliens is probably to be on a different planet. When the Predators show up to hunt the Aliens the human colonists are now caught in the middle of this vicious interstellar skirmish and a three way battle breaks out. But the Predators were unaware that an Alien Queen was left here by their shuttle and they might have bitten off more than they can chew just for once. They may even need some human assistance despite their natural inclination to hunt us for sport. The art in Aliens Vs Predator is not always spellbinding but this is an entertaining enough comic that fans of these famous cinematic characters and comics in general should enjoy. There are different artists and writers involved as you work your way through and so unfortunately the collection never really has the same atmosphere throughout and often feels quite different from one story to the next. Sometimes the art is slightly random in its structure and then elsewhere it will be very traditional like an old fashioned weekly comic. I thought the art in the Aliens individual comic titles was better to be honest but are some striking and enjoyable flourishes here. The central character here (and essentially the Sigourney weaver of the comic) is Machiko Noguchi, the Chigusa Corporation's administrator. She begins the story as the corporate boss in a business suit, completely detached and aloof from the planet and workers she has been sent to preside over. Noguchi can't seem to put her stamp on Ryushi and make any connection to the ranchers but all of this changes when the Aliens and Predators arrive. Noguchi helps to save the life of a Predator named Broken Tusk and is given the mark of his clan out of respect. She becomes an action heroine. So the Predators now treat her with respect and she becomes like an adopted Predator, living with them and becoming a part of their hunting expeditions. Noguchi has a story arc that makes Halo Jones look like Thora Hird. Further story arcs involve the investigation of the loss of the colony on Ryushi by soldiers from Earth and a stand-off with the Predators results with Noguchi caught in the middle between her adopted race and her true species. The comic is not Alan Moore n terms of subtext and depth but it does quite a nice job of introducing some interesting themes about loyalty and what it means to be human. The art in the first part of the story seems very old fashioned (it becomes much glossier and more modern feeling in later arcs) but I never really disliked any of it. There is a nice splash page in particular of a desert scene on the colony, the two suns high in the sky and the skeleton of a rhynth sitting on rocks. Some of the architecture of the colony is a nice riff on James Cameron's Aliens. The Aliens vs Predator action - when it finally arrives - is a lot of fun. The Predator shuttle making its ay through the atmosphere of the colony to deliver its deadly payload it is done in an entertaining three panel down the page format with splodgy yellow vapour trails adding a pleasantly psychedelic tint to the page. The sun baked location (in contrast to the cold metallic spaceships and dark corridors of the films) One of the things I actually liked most of all here was a black and white prologue of the Predators leaving Alien eggs on a planet (where the curious wildlife soons falls victim to the facehuggers) and then returning to hunt Aliens in what appears to be a giant swamp. They even have what looks to be a younger Predator with them being taught the rules of the hunt. The whole sequence (which lasts for several pages) is juxtaposed with bored computer programmers on Ryushi sitting in a control bored and pondering how their job is one that anyone could do. They don't really feel alive or do something that gets their heart pumping and go into something of a rant against technology. One of the most interesting things about this comic I think is the way that it provides more background to the Predators and their traditions. They might be intergalactic serial killers who live to kill things but the comic always makes them seem quite noble with their own codes and sense of honour. They are a warrior society where everything revolves around hunting prowess and being the strongest and most determined. One of the best stories here simply involves a Predator hunt and features little or no dialogue. Aliens Vs Predator Omnibus Volume 1 is an entertaining read if you are a fan of the characters. It isn't as gruesome as you might expect although the language is occasionally a little crude and might be unsuitable for younger readers. ALL STAR SUPERMAN by Grant MorrisonAll Star Superman is a collected comic series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. This is an attempt to do something slightly new with the character and present him in a more vulnerable and human light. Superman is the most famous of all superheroes but some feel that the character is constricted by the fact that he is essentially an Earth bound God and indestructible. It's sometimes difficult to generate a sense of struggle and danger for Superman in the way that one can with characters like Batman and Daredevil, even Spider-Man. A notable exception was the Death of Superman arc in the weekly comics where Superman died (he was reborn in the end of course) preventing a rampaging alien monster known as Doomsday from trashing Metropolis. All Star Superman is not bound by the continuity of the weekly stories and has an interesting and relatively bold (if episodic) premise sort of along these lines too. In the book Superman saves a team of sun exploring astronauts working for P.R.O.J.E.C.T. from a monstrous Lex Luthor clone and is left with even greater powers - a bioelectric aura he can project. However, this was all planned by Luthor as the final demise of the Man of Steel. Superman is now overwhelmed with yellow star radiation and while it has made him even more powerful he is told by eccentric super scientist Dr Quintum that it is also killing him and that he now has a year to live. Superman must now put his affairs in order and decide what to do with this knowledge. He keeps it a secret from the world at large but decides that he will tell Lois Lane and reveal that Clark Kent is Superman so he can spend his remaining time with her (in the comics he'd already told her that he was Superman but this is a stand alone story arc that does its own thing). Meanwhile, a time traveller from the future named Samson tells Supeman that before he died he completed twelve mythical tasks like Hercules. Ka-El soon his hands full with all manner of problems involving Black Kryptonite, Bizarro world, Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor, Supermen from the future, and more besides.This is an imaginative comic but not quite a great one. One slight reservation I did have was with the art. It is striking at times but it has a glossy, blocky computer artificial feel that reminded me somewhat of that terrible The Dark Knight Strikes Again sequel by Frank Miller. The art and (especially) the story here is far superior but this particular style of art is not my favourite by any means. Superman is drawn to look very unrealistically comic book with a bulky body and a huge superhero chin. It's effective at times and there are some spectacular panels but I prefer comic art that is less alternate world surreal and slightly more down to earth or conventional comic book. It is quite interesting though the way that characters are interpreted in different ways visually and the contrast adds a layer of extra interest. Lois Lane is very period supermodel femme fatale and drawn in a different style to Superman. I actually think it's one of the better depictions of Lois Lane in the Superman graphic novels I've read recently. While this is not your typical Superman story and it eventually becomes incredibly strange (even a little circuitous and confusing), what the author does well here is to present Superman/Clark Kent and the familiar supporting characters in a fashion that we recognise from the other incarnations of this property. This is still the Superman we know but just in a very different situation to the ones we usually see him in. If this was a film it would be called "high concept" for the central premise. We assume that Superman is immortal so the conceit of having him face up to death and the time he has left creates some interesting places for the story to go.There is some inventive stuff here that makes for some enjoyable panels and scenes. A wonderful splash page of Superman's lonely ice frosted Antarctic Fortress of Solitude where he takes Lois Lane to reveal he is Superman and that he is dying. There is a widescreen feeling to All Star Superman at times that works very well. They have dinner in a restored stateroom of the Titanic and Lois is rather wary of him at first because he has new powers and is acting strangely. When he reveals he is Superman for the fist time she refuses to believe him and suspects it might be a prank. A natural reaction perhaps but Lois Lane must be a bit slow to have spent all that time Clark Kent and never realised that he's Superman without the glasses. I suppose it's only a comic. One of the twists here is that Superman gives Lois the temporary powers of a Kryptonian so that she can experience what it is like to be Superman (or Superwoman in her case). They fight side by side and travel from the surface of the moon to the depths of the ocean. This section is generally well done and explores the humanity of Superman. He might be an alien named Ka-El but he's also a bumbling mild-mannered reporter named Clark Kent. They are one in the same and both a part of him. What I liked about the Fortress of Solitude section and the Lois/Clark relationship here was that it stressed how lonely and difficult it must be for Superman to be the only one of his kind on the planet and have to keep his secret to himself. No one could truly understand what it was like to be him - until Lois. His act brings them closer together and makes him feel like less of an outcast.I liked the fact that there was a distinction between Superman and Clark Kent (sort of like Christopher Reeve did in the films) as the weekly Superman comics I use to collect just had Clark Kent as cool and collected as Superman so there was no real difference between them. The episodic structure means this is a collection of stories but they are all relatively interesting even if the book does run the slight risk of disappearing up its own yellow star when it becomes more complicated. The depiction of Lex Luthor is excellent in Al Star Superman. He is incredibly clever, ruthless and dangerous just as Luthor should be. There is a good story here where Luthor is in prison for his crime and Clark Kent goes to interview him. I also liked the brief origin of Superman we get and the flashbacks to the young Clark Kent in Smallville where he is visited by Supermen of the future (it's a long story). This is an affectionate and thoughtful riff on the Superman legend if not quite the classic comic that some have suggested. There are certainly many nice little touches though that I did enjoy. Like Superman having a key to his Fortress of Solitude but the key being so heavy that only he can pick it up. The irony of the thing that gave him his powers also being the thing that might kill him is also a nice conceit I think. Perhaps the greatest moment in the book comes when Superman takes to the air and we get a wonderful two page spread of him in flight. This taps into the mythic nature of Superman and the iconic status of the character. ARKHAM ASYLUM by Grant MorrisonArkham Asylum is by Grant Morrison (writer) and Dave McKean (art) and was first published in 1989. This is one of the more acclaimed of the Batman comics for its somewhat avant-garde and impressionistic approach but it will not be for everyone and those expecting a traditional Batman story with spandex clad fisticuffs and a square jawed hero who is completely sure of himself will probably come away disappointed. The book is deliberately dreamlike and strange and a reaction to the gritty and realistic (as far as comics are ever very realistic) eighties reinventions of Batman by Frank Miller in particular. The story has Arkham Asylum (the spooky Gothic institution that houses the insane criminals of Gotham City) being apparently taken over by the nutty patients who live there. Commissioner Gordon alerts Batman to this worrying development and tells him that, furthermore, the super villain patients have declared that if Batman does not go to Arkham and meet with them in person they will kill the staff members they are now holding hostage. In order to hasten Batman's arrival, the most notorious inmate "The Joker" kills one of the guards and then prepares a challenge for when the Dark Knight arrives. Batman will have one hour in the labyrinthine dark and shadowy asylum to escape before one of his rogues gallery is sent to hunt him down. But Joker cuts down this time frame under pressure from the other villains in the institution and Batman soon starts to have encounters with some of his most famous and disturbing old foes. More than that though, he starts to question his own sanity and feel as if he is partly responsible for Arkham. He has been feeding them dark souls down the years afterall and his own schizophrenic nature and psychosis could be interpreted as being every bit as bizarre as the colourful and deranged characters he is constantly catching and sending to Arkham. The story also includes a parallel origin of Arkham and the history of the asylum's founder - Amadeus Arkham. Amadeus Arkham ended up as a very mad and dangerous patient in his own asylum and we will learn all about his dark history. Batman: Arkham Asylum is unavoidably pretentious at the best of times but an interesting attempt to do something slightly different with the famous hero and present both him and some of the more famous characters in the Batman universe in a different light. We are used to seeing Batman as a very driven and focused character, a dominant one. Here he is stripped of those qualities and rather confused and frozen. Trapped in Arkham and forced to question the nature of himself and his enemies. He dresses up as a giant freakish bat and haunts the night, clambering over rooftops and roaming through alleyways. He's not exactly the picture of sanity himself is he? The book is very surreal and seems to take a lot of inspiration from Alice in Wonderland. It's very allegorical and symbolic and Batman is like a fuzzy never quite distinct shadow who floats through the asylum as nightmarish depictions of some of the villains flit in and out of the story. The book is designed to look as if we are witnessing a strange bizarre dream and the art is very trippy and off kilter in a fashion that tends to divide readers. You'll either admire it or find it off-putting. The bonkers pastel style of McKean takes some getting used to but once you do settle in the atmosphere and weird aura of the story you do start to appreciate it more and more as you progress through the comic. One thing that the artist does well here I think is to give us a very startling and scary depiction The Joker. He draws him in a very manic and horror funfair way and the Joker art here was a big inspiration to Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger when they made the film The Dark Knight. The Joker's smudged makeup and altogether ghoulish appearance. There is a fair amount of Jungian psychology, metaphor and symbolism in the story and I did like the way the symbol of the bat was used in the backstory in particular. There is a bit of Norman Bates in here too I think. It doesn't feel terribly and completely out of the ordinary to delve into the relationship between Batman and his crazed enemies - see how alike they are and what qualities they (but might have to hold in check in the case of Batman) - but Arkham Asylum is always interesting and sometimes captivating with the strange but glossy art that is like a nightmare or dream that always remains slightly ephemeral. What the style does do is give one the impression that we are witness the wispy frazzled fragments of a story and don't quite have everything at our recall, just in the way that dreams are remembered as fleeting fragments of things that you can never quite seem to piece together or fully remember. This is an effective approach and the artistic style makes perfect sense for this. The story is tightly woven and it is impressive the way that Arkham becomes like a character in the story. It is depicted as being like a huge cathedral or abbey inside. Almost anachronistic and a place steeped in madness where almost anyone would struggle to retain their sanity even if they had any in the first place. Batman's fear - encouraged by the wily Joker - is that Arkham might be his true home. Perhaps he belongs in there with all the other lost souls. I feel like I've seen this type of thing done many times with Batman (I remember a DC Batman Annual that was almost identical) but one would presume that it was slightly more fresh back in 1989 when the comic made its first appearance. You get encounters with a few of the other rogues in the roster of Batman villains here although none are of the traditional swinging from alleyways, gas bombs, and punch outs. The depiction of Two-Face is excellent. He has been given a tarot deck and dice by one of the therapists in order to show him that he doesn't need his coin (which when flipped decides if he is going to be nice or nasty). Two-Face though is now more insane and troubled than ever and can't even make the most basic decision for himself. If he had to choose the cereal in the supermarket he would honestly be there for weeks just staring at the Weetabix and Coco Pops. There are encounters with Clayface and Killer Croc (which is one of the more violent ones) and Batman also meets a very disturbed incarnation of the Mad Hatter. Morrison gives the Hatter's obsession with Alice in Wonderland a dark and modern twist. While you are sometimes in danger of submerging into the stylistic gloom and sinking and sometimes yearn for Batman to snap out of it and just karate kick or punch someone in the face or something I did like the backstory they provide for the founder of the asylum and Dr Charles Cavendish (Arkham's administrator and one of the hostages) is used in a pivotal and interesting way in the story. All of the major characters (including Two Face) are given memorable lines and panels at key moments. There is some grisly imagery in the book and its more surreal and dense approach makes it unsuitable for younger readers but if you are a fan of Batman and looking for something slightly different then this is certainly worth a look. It isn't an insubstantial read in terms of pages but I did find myself wishing it had been a little longer though and a bit more fleshed out in parts. These quibbles aside this is a striking and interesting comic. ASTERIX AND CLEOPATRA by Goscinny and Uderzo Asterix and Cleopatra is the sixth book in the classic Asterix series by Goscinny and Uderzo and was first published in Pilote magazine in 1963. The book, which gently spoofs the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor film Cleopatra, is one of the most popular and famous in the series and begins in Cleopatra's lavish palace at Alexandria. Julius Caesar is present and irritates Cleopatra when he declares that Egypt is a decadent nation only fit to serve under the Romans. When Cleopatra reminds him that Egyptians built the pyramids and great temples, Caesar is unimpressed and jokes that all they do now is wait for the annual flooding of the Nile. This is the last straw for a furious Cleopatra who announces that in order to prove that the Egyptians are still a great people they will build a magnificent palace for Caesar in Alexandria in just three months. An amused Caesar replies that if this unlikely feat is accomplished he will indeed admit that Egypt is still a great nation. Cleopatra immediately summons Edifis, the best architect in Alexandria ('Which isn't saying much,' admits Cleopatra!), and informs him that he has only three months to build a great palace for Caesar. If he succeeds he will be covered in gold and if he fails he will be thrown to the crocodiles. Edifis is unsurprisingly rather unhappy at this new assignment as it appears to be an impossible task requiring almost supernatural powers. But then he remembers somebody who might be able to help. None other than his old friend Getafix, the wise druid who lives in the Gaulish village that continues to defy Roman rule. When Edifis travels to the village he receives a warm welcome and Getafix tells him he would be delighted to help as he'd wanted to visit Alexandria again anyway to look up something in the library. Asterix and Obelix (of course) will go too as they all seek to help Cleopatra put one over on Caesar and stop Edifis from being thrown to the crocodiles.Asterix in Cleopatra has just about everything you could ask from an Asterix book. The story is fun and clever, the art is superb, some great characters are introduced, and the book is consistently amusing and entertaining. The opening pages immediately set up the task that our heroes will be charged with and I love the way we move from Cleopatra's magnificent palace to the Gaulish village where it's snowing and Asterix and Getafix are playing a game of dice in a cosy hut with a log fire roaring away in the background. The speech by Chief Vitalstatistix as the party prepares to leave is great too. 'You, my friends, are to represent the spirit of Gaul on the banks of the Nile! Show yourselves true-born Gauls, by Toutatis, and may the sky never fall on your heads!' Some lovely art here of ships at sea and a classic encounter with the incompetent Barbe Rouge inspired pirates who always seem to end up scuttling their ship. 'One more classical remark from you and I'll make you eat your wooden leg!' There are many memorable moments in the book with all the jokes and some wonderful panels that catch the eye. A lovely lighthouse at night panel ('A tower to guide ships?' ponders Obelix. 'These Egyptians are crazy!') and a great illustration when they approach Alexandria in their sailing ship. Some good visual jokes too when Getafix, Asterix and Obelix visit Edifis at his own (very shoddy and wonky) house and realise he really is a terrible architect. Uderzo's art is a delight in Asterix and Cleopatra and he really makes the most of the location with wonderful interiors and great landscape panels. I really love the panels here when Getafix, Obelix and Asterix are locked inside a pyramid by forces working for Edifis's arch rival Artifis, becoming trapped in the maze like corridors. 'I am very much afraid this might be the end our adventures, by Belenos!' admits Getafix. This section includes something very rare indeed when Getafix, for once, allows Obelix (who fell in the magic potion as a baby) to drink some magic potion in order to break down a heavy door deep within the pyramid.We learn here how the Sphinx lost its nose (in typical Asterix style) and there are some nice twists and turns in the story when Caesar tries to interfere in the process. I liked Cleopatra's food taster too, this character providing some good panels, and there is a clever bit when our heroes are framed by a poison laced cake being sent to Cleopatra in their name and Getafix must act quickly with one of his potions. It's great fun to see Getafix have a larger than usual role in the story and he has some good moments here. 'These pyramids built by the Egyptians as tombs constitute one of the wonders of the world!' Getafix tells Obelix as they gaze out at them. 'Magnificent! From the summit of these pyramids twenty centuries look down upon us!" Cleopatra is a lot of fun in the book too and - with her famous nose and range of elaborate costumes - is given a lot of personality and some nice lines. I loved Cleopatra's visit to the building site, on a giant throne like a gold Sphinx being pulled by dozens of slaves. 'Oh, don't stop! I'm just paying a quiet visit. Incognito. Do go on!' It's a slight shame the old cover (with the legend 'THE GREATEST STORY EVER DRAWN - 14 litres of Indian Ink, 30 brushes, 62 pencils, 1 hard pencil. 27 erasers, 1984 sheets of paper, 16 typewriter ribbons, 2 typewriters, 366 pints of beer went into this creation!') seems to have been phased out but, overall, Asterix and Cleopatra is an excellent entry deserving of its fame and reputation and sits proudly at the Asterix top table with the very best entries in the series. The story is good, the jokes are funny and the art is superb. Definitely one of the best books in the Asterix series and highly recommended for readers of all ages.ASTERIX IN SWITZERLAND by Goscinny and Uderzo Asterix in Switzerland is the sixteenth book and first appeared in 1970. The story revolves around a crooked and decadent Roman Governor named Varius Flavus who has been doing some rather creative accountancy, embezzling the taxes for himself and sending only a token amount to Rome. However, he has some explaining to do when Quaestor Vexatius Sinusitus arrives from Rome to look at his books and is appalled by the debauched manner in which Flavus lives and runs his affairs. Flavus knows he will be ruined if the Quaestor examines his finances and so poisons him with a bowl of vegetable soup the clean living guest orders. The bedridden and ill Quaestor is now at the mercy of Flavus who deliberately brings in incompetent doctors to lessen his chances of survival.The Quaestor decides his only option is to get a secret message to Getafix, the famous druid of the Gauls, in the hope that Getafix can cure him. 'I'm always bound to help sick people,' says Getafix when told his services are required. 'Even Romans.' With Asterix and Obelix, he travels to see the bedridden Quaestor and correctly deduces that he has been poisoned on purpose and that Flavus (who is obviously very unhappy to see Gauls arrive) was the culprit. To save him from Flavus, Getafix says that Quaestor Sinusitus must stay in the Gaul village under his care and then declares that only a potion containing a flower called the silver star can save his life. The flower only grows in the mountains of Helvetia (Switzerland) and Asterix and Obelix are dispatched to go and find it. Flavus must stop them at all costs and sends a warning to his (equally corrupt) Swiss based colleague Curious Odus to halt them at the border...Out of the Asterix books I've read since picking them up again this is by far the best one. The introduction to Varius Flavus was inspired by Fellini's Satyricon and depicts him at one of his 'orgies' where everyone is lying around smeared in food and a visible odour wafts past as flames crackle and portly dancing girls put on a show. People eat with their hands and you can see a woman with a red mask whipping a man she is sitting on top of! I'd honestly forgotten Asterix books could ever be this dark and risque. When the Quaestor is poisoned we see him in bed looking a zombie shade of green as the wicked Flavus waits for him to die. What I really liked about this story was the high and deadly drama of Roman backstabbing and deceit used as a backdrop with Asterix and Obelix's mission a vitally important one because they have to save the life of an innocent person.I liked the way that Getafix quickly gathered what was going on between these Romans but kept it to himself in order to save the Quaestor from Flavus and of course it was refreshing too to see the Gauls make a friend out of a Roman for a change. Asterix in Switzerland has a nice comic contrast between the depraved gluttony of the Romans and the straight-laced Swiss who infuriate the former with their habit of tidying up all the time. 'And as for their mania for cleanliness! An orgy is supposed to be dirty! Stop mopping that floor by Jupiter!' There are some surprisingly adult moments in the story with the sado-masochistic Romans literally covered in melted cheese and then demanding - as part of a game - that someone be whipped for losing their piece of bread in it! Naturally, there are plenty of jokes about clocks and also banks - with a memorable section where Asterix and Obelix hide in a bank vault.Athough this volume is darker than most (if not all?) Asterix stories there is still the usual quota of humour right from the beginning with Chief Vitalstatistix firing his shieldbearers for dropping him one too many times and giving the job to a reluctant Asterix and Obelix. Their disparity in height leads to Obelix carrying Vitalstatistix on his shield alone with one hand like a waiter with a tray of drinks! The art seems to be especially good in Asterix in Switzerland with the flame lit food orgies of Varius Flavus with his strange Fellini inspired guests, panels at night with a yellow moon (the one of Getafix tending to the Quaestor in a horse drawn cart is wonderful), a comic panel depicting 'chariotway services' where Asterix and Obelix stop off for some boar, the panels depicting the 'United Tribes Building' and Asterix and Obelix evading Romans in tall grass to cross the border and looking down across a lake to a small town.There are various panels of ships and shenanigans on the water and - best of all - the last section of the book takes us high in the mountains with an increasingly ice-capped backdrop as the search for the rare flower continues with the Romans in hot pursuit. There is some good stuff in the final third and the last pages acknowledge one of the central messages in Asterix about how each new adventure enriches their knowledge and experience and teaches them (and perhaps us) something about other cultures.Asterix in Switzerland is a level above the Asterix books I've read since dipping back into them. It seems a tad more ambitious and also subtle - an example being the absence of the comical pirates who are always running into Asterix and Obelix and having their ship sunk. Instead of them featuring in the book via the usual comic panels they are instead mentioned by Quaestor Sinusitus in a great joke when he arrives to see Flavus and Flavus tells him he must be tired after his journey. 'Yes, I am tired,' comes the reply. 'It was a long journey and we were even attacked by pirates on the crossing. Luckily they started arguing with each other and scuttled their own ship.' It's little moments like this - that enjoyably play on our knowledge of the series - that make Asterix in Switzerland a delight.ASTERIX THE GAUL by Goscinny and Uderzo The year is 50 B.C. and Gaul is now entirely occupied by the invincible and mighty Romans. Well, hold on a minute, not entirely. One small village of indomitable (and completely mad) Gauls still defiantly - even nonchalantly - holds out against the bemused invaders and life is certainly never easy or dull for the unfortunate Roman legionaries who garrison the surrounding fortified military camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium. Asterix the Gaul is the first book in the famous and often wonderful comic strip series by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations) and was serially published in 1959 before later appearing in album form in 1961. In this first ever Asterix adventure Centurion Crismus Bonus - head of the Roman garrison at the fortified camp of Compendium - is determined to find out the answer to a very puzzling question. Why have they swept all before them in irresistible fashion in countless countries but failed miserably to defeat and capture a solitary and sleepy village by the coast in Gaul? What is the secret of these pesky Gauls? The secret of course is the mysterious magic potion brewed by their venerable druid Getafix. The potion gives them superhuman strength and the ability to bash up countless Romans without hardly breaking a sweat. The Romans learn of the existence of the potion and decide they must get hold of the secret at all costs. Various schemes ensue. A Roman legionary named Caliguliminix is (with shades of the later Asterix and the Roman Agent) disguised as a Gaul to infiltrate the village, Getafix is kidnapped etc. Will the Gauls prevail? With decades worth of books and stories still to come I think it's fair to say that they have a good chance. Asterix the Gaul pleasantly sets the template for the long series of adventures that would follow and introduces us to numerous characters (and the little village) that would remain a fixture throughout the decades. The shrewd and cunning Asterix - a most diminutive but noble hero! - and his boar munching best friend, the burly Obelix. Obelix is more of a background character here though and yet to assume his near equal billing status (he even had his name on a few books instead of Asterix in the end). Asterix is broader and more "comic book" than Tintin and often seems simplistic on the face of it, never seeming to deviate too much from the staple elements. But look closer and there is much clever and subtle material. The riffs on real historical events and characters, the cultural references (Fellini, James Bond, Laurel & Hardy etc), even an ecological message. In The Mansions of the Gods, Asterix and Getafix walk in the forest among the trees and wonder if the forest will even be there one day as logging and civilisation spreads its tentacles. Getafix tells Asterix that all they can do is enjoy the forest and what time they have. Asterix is a comic farce and big, bold and colourful but it can be surprisingly poignant and strange (man being whipped during the 'cheese orgy' scene in Asterix in Switzerland!) Perhaps the most genius element is the historical time period. Albert Uderzo's Roman and Gaulish interiors in particular remain fantastic. Aside from one blurry page in the earlier English language versions (this was redrawn by Albert Uderzo's brother Marcel in 1970 and appears in a post 2004 English language version, the drawings noticeably different), Goscinny and Uderzo hit the ground running sooner here than Herge did with Tintin and Asterix the Gaul is as colourful and amusing as many of the adventures that followed. The one difference I think is that many of the characters are not quite fully formed yet. Cacofonix the bard is not yet banished from the great coda banquet (a running joke) and Fulliautomatix the blacksmith seems different (and is bashing metal with his hands rather than a hammer). This is because Uderzo constantly refined his drawings to make them better and characters changed in appearance somewhat. Another difference here actually is the way everyone is juiced up on magic potion all the time and running around the village like superheroes. In later adventures they tended to only be given the potion by Getafix when Romans were about to attack. Getafix the wise druid is one of the most wonderful characters in the world of Asterix. He's like a cross between Gandalf and a hippy. He's slightly different here but not alarmingly so. He seems more of a rustic character who might actually live in the woods rather than the unfeasibly cosy and snug hut he would later reside in, pacing up and down pondering new potions as his shadow loomed on flickering walls and a fire crackled away in the background. Getafix cuts mistletoe with his golden sickle (it MUST be a golden sickle!) to use for his potions. There are other ingredients of course but the potion remains a secret. Amusing moment here when Getafix adds a lobster to the potion cauldron, not because it is an ingredient but merely because he thinks it improves the flavour. We see some of his other potions too and they have some very unusual and surreal effects. The secret of the potion is lost in the 'mists of time'. Getafix (Panoramix in the French version) is a humanist and provides moral guidance in the village. He is like everyone's wise grandfather. The Gauls might be near invulnerable with their potion but they are a superstitious bunch and greatly fear the day when the sky might fall on their heads! The various twists and Roman bashing capers in Asterix the Gaul will not of course seem quite so fresh if one has not read the books in sequence and you come to this later but it stacks up fairly well in the Asterix collection considering it was the first book. The art is not yet perfected but it's still colourful and entertaining and full of personality. The surreal flourishes are enjoyable and Caliguliminix proves a relatively amusing character as he goes undercover in the village and is rumbled by a fake tache. His reactions to the superhuman Gauls as he wanders around are fun and he supplies a crafty sob story as a ruse to getting his hands on some potion for the Romans. We also of course get our first appearance by Julius Caesar here. He's drawn to look rather James Coburn, angular and distinguished. The depiction of Caesar in Asterix is interesting and clever. Although he has rages and plots against the Gauls he is not a merciless dictator or ever made to look completely foolish for too long. He even shows kindness and generosity when the Gauls perform a deed he considers to be noble. The most important thing is that remains more than a one dimensional character and a worthy opponent for Asterix and the Gauls. Asterix the Gaul is a solid and fun first adventure for our yellow pigtailed hero and serves as a wonderful blueprint for the series that followed in its wake. AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by INJ Culbard This is a 2012 graphic novel adaptation by INJ Culbard of HP Lovecraft's classic chiller At the Mountains of Madness (which first appeared in 1936). At the Mountains of Madness is one of Lovecraft's most famous and enduring stories and remains hugely influential. It's a nice idea to turn it into a graphic novel and it works relatively well for the most part. The story is set in the lonely windswept interior of the Antarctic plateau and told by Professor William Dyer - a geologist from Miskatonic University. Dyer's terrible tale is a warning to a planned scientific expedition of Antarctica not to travel to this frozen outpost and follow in his footsteps. He led a team of scholars from Miskatonic University there to extract geological and biological specimens but what they found was so horrifying that his official report had to be censored. Ancient pre-human alien life forms, a lost city, biological engineers who dissect humans for experimentation, creatures so indescribably hideous that one look at them would lead to insanity, and giant, er, penguins. Generally, Lovecraft's pantheon of Elder Things and his rather bleak take on the universe. A vast random indifferent place without any spiritual meaning where man is inconsequential. Dyer and his team have barely hit the ice when their dogs start to act strangely and bark all the time. Strange blob creatures millions of years old are found in a cave and this will merely be the tip of the (ahem) iceberg. "I could not help feeling that they were evil things - mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss..." The art here is pitched somewhere in between Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Tintin. Some might find it a trifle cartoonish to convey the full dread of the story but I personally enjoyed the use of Herge's clear line style and found the art crisp and effective. Culbard has adapted Sherlock Holmes stories into the graphic novel format and is adept at period pieces and conveying a certain old fashioned Boy's Own aura. This spirit of adventure is enjoyable here and still present despite the darkness of the story. At times, some of the art reminds one of Tintin in Tibet although Professor Dyer and his team have a far stranger time of it than Tintin and Captain Haddock. A Yeti would be the very least of their problems. I really like the illustrations of the expedition ship on ice crusted waters and some of the other panels here. Old sea planes across a yellow sky, the lights from a torch spearing the gloom of old caves, the vast expanse of white nothingness that surrounds the barren location. The novella takes its time to build suspense and curiosity and the graphic novel does the same too, slowly revealing more and more. Some knowledge of Lovecraft and Cthulhu Mythos might be an advantage but I don't think it's by any means essential. It doesn't matter if you don't know a shoggoth from Noel Edmonds. Think of this as an old fashioned horror yarn along the lines of The Thing From Another World although Lovecraft will not give you quite what you expect when it comes to the conventions of these types of stories. He has a more clinical and detached personality and it adds to the general intrigue. Some of the nuance of the story is lost but I think this was a noble attempt to translate the story into a comic. Does Culbert's ligne claire style detract from the oppressive atmosphere that this story is supposed to generate? Unavoidably it does a little (this is a story that is best left in your imagination) but there are some excellent spooky dark cave and shadowy corridor panels and the snow bound setting is always sort of creepy too even in this form. The characters don't have a huge amount of detail in their faces but, like Herge, Culbert gives them personality and the background detail is often impressive. Stone walls, the shadows and wings of a plane, old books on a shelf in dimly lit study. I'm not an expert on the source material but I have read it a couple of times and the comic seems to stick to the original story is a faithful way and also use a lot of Lovecraft's text. There is no reinvention here which is just as well really as it would have been irritating I think if they'd changed anything too much. What Culbert does do is shave the book down to its core premise and play up the sense of adventure (soon to turn nightmarish of course), taking us back to a time when polar science was much more of an unknown quantity and there was much that had never been explored. Lovecraft's more archaic flourishes are negated and excised and his far out story is obviously more accessible in this format. This should be a companion piece I feel. Read the novella first and then the graphic novel later. There is a nice HG Wells Conan Doyle steampunk feel to the graphic novel with the very Victorian looking characters and their old ships and scientific equipment. I love the retro bookends too with the tiny isolated figures in the frozen wilderness. It looks like a scene from a fairy story but is of course very deceiving. The art in the last part of the book as the discoveries of the expedition become ever greater is very impressive at times. Subterranean panels are excellent although the reveal of creatures while fun can perhaps never be completely satisfactory as Lovecraft's creatures are best to imagine for yourself rather than see rendered through another imagination. Mind-twisting terror is obviously much harder to convey in a comic than a novel. I wouldn't have minded a bit more shock value here at times though. At the Mountains of Madness is ultimately a good solid comic though with some impressive art and is one of the better "classic adaptation" graphic novels I've read. Lovecraft obsessives will find more to nitpick than casual readers but this is an attractive and well designed book and a decent read. THE BALLAD OF HALO JONES by Alan MooreThe Ballad of Halo Jones was a science fiction comic strip that first appeared in the weekly British publication 2000 AD in 1984. It was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Ian Gibson. The strip - which revolves around an ordinary 50th-century woman named Halo Jones (who frequently seems to end up in extraordinary situations) became much loved for its mixture of sadness and humour, social commentary, imagination and, of course, everywoman central character Halo, who constantly dreams of a better life. TThe Complete Ballad of Halo Jones collects together all of Halo's adventures, which are spilt into three books. Although there were supposed to be nine Halo Jones books and only three were ever finished, this still feels like a complete story with a beginning, a middle and an end. The story spans ten years in the life of Halo and begins with her as a teenager living in 'The Hoop' - a hi-tech slum floating near Manhattan in the Atlantic Ocean. The Hoop is a place used to dump the unemployed so they can't annoy rich people, the inhabitants of The Hoop living on a state provided credit card system in this overcrowded, jobless, and often dangerous place. Halo lives with her friends Rodice, Ludy and Brinna and yearns to leave one day.The first book drops you straight into this futuristic world without much explanation but you soon get into the story and start to pick up the slang, rules and technology that drives The Hoop. Book One largely revolves around Halo and Rodice having to venture out into the walkways and public areas of The Hoop to do some shopping. Going out to shop in The Hoop is a rather stressful and sometimes dangerous experience for Halo and her friends ('I can't take a shopping expedition! I just can't! Please, let an algae satellite crash on my head right now...') and this first book has some wonderful comic elements as we follow their trip. I loved some of the weapons Moore invents for the inhabitants of The Hoop. Rodice has a 'Zenade' - which is essentially a hand grenade that makes people incapable of anything but meditation, intuition and complete non-aggression! There is a fantastic series of panels here where she accidentally drops one and comes over all 'zen' herself when it explodes. Rodice also has a 'Sputstick' - which makes people violently vomit when activated but once again it backfires on her in comic fashion. This first book is full of imagination and quickly becomes great fun (later chapters take a darker tone). In The Hoop there are strange teenage cult groups, a zombie police force and Halo has a robot dog called Toby. Book One is funny with very likeable characters and some excellent visual jokes. There is a wonderful prologue to Book Two over several pages. In the far distant future, a teacher is telling his students (all in little futuristic pods!) all about a legendary character from a long time ago named Halo Jones and trying to sift fact from fiction.