As I’ve mentioned before, Superman’s impressive array of powers at the top of the super-scale make him a hard character to write challenges for. This As I’ve mentioned before, Superman’s impressive array of powers at the top of the super-scale make him a hard character to write challenges for. This led to the invention of Kryptonite and its subsequent overuse as a plot device. But at some point in the early Silver Age, it was also established that Superman is able to be affected by magic, and that became another of his standard weaknesses. This reprint digest features several stories where Superman or his supporting cast encounter what appears to be the supernatural.
“The Eliminator!” (no credits listed) has Clark Kent invited as the sole member of the press at the funeral of a Dr. Phantas, notorious occultist. Phantas’ recorded will demands that no one opens his coffin on pain of horrible curse. Clark, who for purposes of this story is a total non-believer in the supernatural, “summons his friend Superman” to open the casket. Dr. Phantas’ corpse sits up and declares doom upon Clark Kent–he will have to watch his fellow reporters die one by one. Then the corpse vanishes, leaving only his clothes.
Superman isn’t impressed. There’s no such thing as curses in 1969! (Leaving aside all the times he or someone he knows has been cursed before.) But then Clark learns that his fellow reporter Ed Carver died in a freak whirlpool accident. Probably coincidence. Until Steve Fallon, also a reporter Clark Kent is acquainted with, is frozen to death by a liquid oxygen leak.
One by one, reporters are dying in bizarre ways, and Clark Kent is now shunned by his colleagues as he might actually be cursed. Even Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are a bit nervous. Superman thinks over the deaths, and suddenly recognizes a pattern.
Turns out that “Dr. Phantas” was actually an alien executioner sent to carry out death sentences on a group of shape-shifting alien criminals who had stolen the identities of the reporters who’d been with Clark Kent on a particular assignment. The Eliminator had set up this elaborate hoax, he claims, to avoid having the Earthlings panic that an alien law enforcer was on their planet. I think he wanted to avoid having to deal with extradition laws and other legalities.
The criminals dead and the real reporters restored to their lives, the Eliminator leaves.
“The Truth Mirror!” story by Jerry Siegel, art by Curt Swan & George Klein, starts with Superman saving an explosives truck from crashing into a cargo train. What he doesn’t know is that the train is carrying a present for Lois Lane. Her Uncle Ned in England is a noted Arthurian scholar, and he’s sent her a mirror that supposedly belonged to Merlin.
While speaking to a charity organizer in her apartment, Lois notes that his reflection in the mirror shows him as a scarred gangster. Doing her research (she is after all a crack reporter), Miss Lane discovers the man is actually a notorious charity scammer who’s had plastic surgery. This allows her to alert Superman, who captures the crook.
After a couple more incidents, Lois realizes that the mirror shows the true nature of anyone it reflects. (Notably she doesn’t look at her own reflection.) She tricks Superman into standing in front of the mirror, revealing his secret identity of Clark Kent. Uh-oh!
Superman must then come up with an elaborate hoax to make Lois think the Mirror of Truth sometimes lies and he’s not actually Clark Kent. Then he dumps the mirror in a volcano. Status quo restored! Yeah. Needing the status quo restored at the end of each story hurts a lot of Silver Age stories.
“The Demons from Pandora’s Box!” art by Kurt Schaffenberger, has Jimmy Olsen participating in a Greek expedition with Lana Lang and her father, Professor Lang. They’ve discovered what appears to be a replica of Pandora’s Box, which according to the local inscriptions, also contains horrible demons which will cause misery to humanity. Jimmy, certified dumbass, scoffs and opens the chest. There’s nothing inside but a glowing rock.
Except that when the trio are driving away from the expedition site, spectral demons appear out of thin air. Startled, Jimmy crashes the truck, killing Professor Lang. At the funeral, Jimmy is still not able to cope with his guilt, and Superman takes the lad to his Fortress of Solitude to chill while the Man of Steel is off-planet.
The demons appear again and trick Jimmy into destroying the bottle city of Kandor. The scientists of Atlantis try to treat Jimmy, but the demons compel the boy into murdering everyone in Atlantis and then helping them turn Superman evil.
Just as Super-Demon is about to kill Jimmy, the boy awakes. It turns out the glowing rock subjects those who open the chest to horrible demon-related hallucinations. Nothing since page one was real. Jimmy summons Superman for real, and our hero throws the evil box into the sun.
“The Enchanted Mountain” (no credits) is the earliest tale in this collection. In the southeastern Europe village of Morabia, they are ready to celebrate the harvest festival. Alas, the castle of the Wizard of Wokit has appeared atop the nearby mountain for the first time in decades. The Wizard turns himself into a giant falcon and snatches a boy from the village to use as a statue decoration for the blue castle.
The villagers are helpless against the wizard’s mighty magic, so plead to the empty sky for a champion, a superman if you will, to defend them. Sure enough, a man in a red and blue costume with a big “S” emblazoned on his chest arrives, having taken a notion to check out some old legends.
Superman battles the wizard, struggling against the fantastic spells cast against him. But then he realizes that the wizard’s magic is largely illusion. If you are firm in your belief that his magic can’t hurt you, it can’t, and is easily disrupted. Superman gets the villagers to disbelieve in the wizard’s power, and the collective power of their will is sufficient to make the castle crumble as if it had never existed. And the Wizard of Wokit was never seen again.
The canonicity of this tale is immediately called into question, as we learn this story was one Lois Lane was reading in a book of old legends, and she’s been casting Superman in the role of the hero because he’s the only one who could accomplish those feats. It’s left ambiguous if this is somehow a time travel thing so Superman actually went through those events, or it’s just Lois’ imagination.
“The Spectre Suitor!” script by Cary Bates, pencils by Werner Roth and inks by Vince Colletta, is a Lois Lane story. The expatriate Englishman she’s interviewing, Sir Nigel Tate, has several interesting souvenirs that he has agreed to show her. As it happens, the room they are stored in is being robbed at that very moment. Somehow the ensuing fight awakens a supernatural entity that forces the burglars away.
Sir Nigel fears that a family ghost has taken a fancy to Lois, but she laughs off the idea of ghosts. Sir Nigel is correct, and this particular restless spirit is especially tricksy. Soon, the ghost of Jack the Ripper is trying to unite himself with the living reporter by making her not living with his haunted dirk.
This, however, creates a time loop where he can’t kill Lois because she’s not one of his historical victims, and the dirk is rendered useless for him to return.
“Spell of the Shandu Clock” (no credits) looks to be from the early 1950s. Stage magician Shandu (who dresses in vaguely Arabic robes) departs from his normal routine to declare that he has now gained actual magical abilities. Superman flies in and exposes the tricks Shandu is using. Shandu then declares that he was using fakery to raise money for his actual supernatural research, and will curse Superman from beyond the grave.
Several days later, Shandu is reported dead at sea, and supposedly had built a supernatural clock before his death to prove that magic is real. Superman flies Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen to the deceased magician’s house to check out the story. Sure enough, there is a decidedly odd-looking giant clock there. It must be seen to be disbelieved.
One of the clock’s unusual features is that at the top of the hour, a Superman figurine appears and uses one of his many powers to strike the gong. Each time this happens, Superman goes into a trance for twenty minutes, flies off, and uses that power to smash something. Also, Superman is somehow unable to harm the clock in any way.
The Fallon gang decides to take advantage of the twenty-minute trances to use a vibration ray and rob a bank. Oops, Superman isn’t in a trance, and the criminals are captured! Turns out the feud between Superman and Shandu, and Shandu’s apparent death, were part of an elaborate hoax to lure science crime boss Fallon into the open.
The elaborate hoax plotline would swiftly become overused in the Superman comics, but points for the clock design.
“The Ghost of Lois Lane” (no credits) shows its age by having an electric typewriter be a new hot gadget that Jimmy Olsen buys (and then has to tinker with to make work properly.) The main story begins with Lois going to interview Professor Grail, a mostly sane scientist who is working on a teleportation device. He has to leave for an important conference, which gives Lois the chance to poke around the lab.
Meanwhile, Lois has forgotten something back at the office, and Superman has volunteered to bring it to her. He uses his X-ray vision to look for her, and somehow this causes an explosion in the lab. When the smoke clears, Lois and the chair she was sitting in have vanished, apparently blown to bits!
Superman feels guilt about dooming Lois, so he’s not too surprised when he sees her ghost popping up in various places. (Interestingly, he doesn’t tell anyone about Lois apparently being dead, and tries to work normally as Clark Kent.) Eventually, it is revealed that the experimental teleporter just threw Lois into a limbo dimension. She uses her mind to type out a message on the electric typewriter so that Superman can rescue her.
Lois’ big regret from this experience is that her vision of the real world was blurred from the fourth dimension, so she could tell that Superman was changing into and out of his secret identity, but not who that identity was. Another opportunity missed!
“The Black Magic of Supergirl!” (no credits) begins in “the Orient” as the Maid of Steel witnesses a magic act by fakir Abdul. Her super-senses are unable to detect any trickery. But then Abdul is bitten by a cobra, and starts dying. He reveals that he has demonic horns, and asks that Supergirl not reveal it to anyone lest he be denied the sacred cremation of the local funeral rites. In exchange, he gives her a ring that grants magical powers, and the scroll that explains its function. (A piece of the scroll falls off while they’re distracted.)
Per the scroll, the Satan Ring can be used three times to call upon the powers of darkness, but the third time you will grow horns and become a demon. Good thing Supergirl has her own superpowers and will never need to use the ring!
You guessed it, three emergencies come up that absolutely require Supergirl to use the ring’s powers to save lives, though each time the special effects are horrific in nature. Horns grow in, and Supergirl discovers that she now has magical abilities in addition to her normal powers. However, she is compelled to use those abilities for evil. Kara gives a bank robber wings to escape the police, and blinds Superman.
She returns to the bazaar where she met Abdul in hopes of finding some clue as what to do next. There she meets the merchant Abdul, who is clearly the same person, but is perfectly normal and has no memory of having been a fakir or meeting Supergirl. Then Kara catches sight of the remaining scroll fragment. It reveals that the only way to be released from being a demon is to be purified by fire. Abdul’s cremation not only did that, but returned him from the dead somehow.
Then it’s a matter of finding a fire hot enough to burn the evil out of a Kryptonian (which also destroys the ring) and explaining what happened to her cousin (the blindness wore off.)
“The Ghost That Haunted Clark Kent” art by Swan and Anderson, story by Leo Dorfman, takes place at the Tower of London. Clark Kent is there to do a television feature (for a while in the Bronze Age, he was a television news anchor rather than a newspaper reporter.) A headless ghost is spotted on the parapet. To Clark’s shock, the ghost appears to be Superman!
Clark runs off terrified (to throw off the guards’ suspicions) and switches to Superman. With his X-ray vision, Superman sees the ghost going into a sealed-off room and reattaching its head. He bursts in to follow.
The ghost greets both Superman and Clark Kent by name, turns out appearing in Superman’s form was a deliberate lure. His actual face is aged and wrinkled as though he had been mummified.
Also, he’s not actually a ghost. Dr. Troy Magnus was a court physician some three centuries ago during a time of plague. His research led him to an elixir that would theoretically make him immune to pestilence. After quaffing it, he went back to treating the sick. The elixir did not prevent Dr. Magnus from being infected with the plague, but as he was about to die, he turned into a desolid form like a ghost, and when he became solid again, he was cured!
Which sounds great, but then he discovered that anyone he touched died of the plague even if they’d previously been undiseased. Worse, any attempt by himself or others to kill him automatically triggered his ghost form, making him effectively immortal. He asked to be sealed up with his scientific apparatus and writings inside the Tower.
Over the centuries, he’s been researching ways to cure himself, and learned how to consciously assume ghost form so that he could safely leave his chamber for brief periods. He also spent time on his other favorite project, transmuting lead to gold, but has had little success with that. Tired of his living death, Dr. Magnus begs Superman to help find a way to kill him.
Superman has sworn never to use his powers to kill (and Dr. Magnus is still too human for any exceptions to apply) so he has to refuse. Dr. Magnus reluctantly accepts this as he knows the importance of moral vows. But to protect everyone else, it’s important that Superman repair the wall he came in through so no contamination gets out.
Superman starts the process by sealing smaller cracks with his heat vision, but one of the beams ricochets off a parabolic mirror Dr. Magnus was using in his transmutation experiments. This strikes the immortal, and his spectral form begins to trigger–but the specific frequency of heat vision turns out to be something the elixir can’t handle and Dr. Magnus is granted a merciful death. He’s okay with this and points out to Superman that this is an accident and should not count as a breaking of his oath.
Superman seals the chamber back up, so that it may be the doctor’s tomb forever. The disappointment in this story is that it’s labeled as a Clark Kent tale, but he’s barely in it as Clark.
My favorite story in this digest is the Shandu clock for its general weird vibe. Least favorite is the “all just a dream” Jimmy Olsen tale. This is an interesting look at the different ways the supernatural has been handled in Superman stories over the decades. Of note is how often the characters scoff at the existence of the supernatural despite running into it in many previous adventures.
Most of these stories have been reprinted elsewhere, but recommended to Superman collectors....more
Ragnar Forkbeard, iron-monger, and Olaf Far-Traveler, trader in exotic goods, have come from Surtsheim in the north to Northlanding, the falls that blRagnar Forkbeard, iron-monger, and Olaf Far-Traveler, trader in exotic goods, have come from Surtsheim in the north to Northlanding, the falls that block boats from coming any further up the Great River. It is time for the great spring fair and the merchants have come from all over the New World to sell and trade here at the edge of English lands. Also here is Thorolf Pike, who was outlawed in Surtsheim for killing Snorri Crow, Ragnar’s old lord. He’s now a successful merchant himself in Northlanding, if not a well-liked one.
As unpopular as he is, there are plenty of suspects when Thorolf turns up dead, an arrow through his chest. But no one claims responsibility for this sneak attack, which makes it a crime by the standards of both the English law and the Northmen’s code–secret murder!
This murder mystery takes place in an alternate history where the Vikings never lost touch with Vinland, going on to form a thriving colony, while the English and French came up what we know as the Mississippi at a much earlier time due to pressure at home from more successful Islamic invaders in Europe. Thus the setting is a fanciful version of Minnesota, with a Scandinavian presence in the Iron Range. Northlanding is St. Anthony Falls, near the small city of Milltown (Minneapolis.)
While Ragnar is the main protagonist, we also get to see events from the viewpoints of Benedict, the fairgrounds manager; Otkar, Thorolf’s former right-hand man who’s trying to hold the followers together with him as their new leader; and Dirk, the bailiff’s deputy, who represents the English authorities.
Thorolf is mentioned to have had an adventure which is told in greater detail in the book Minnesota Vice.
This is a short novel, and despite the exotic setting plays out much like other historical mysteries you have read. The clash between the customs of the Northlanders and the English give some interest. Ragnar is aware of the White Christ, and gives homage to him, but is still a follower of Thor, and most of his men are still worshippers of the Norse gods.
One bit of interest is that Ragnar is also a poet, and he often drops bits of skaldic verse, including a “scorn-poem” that denounces an enemy. The cook, Gunnar, has been wounded in the head, and his dreams may or may not be prophetic (he may be simply be gifted with the ability to pick up on subconscious clues.)
Late in the story, the truth of Thorolf’s killer becomes known, and thus the subtitle of the book. Who shall judge this person, by Norse or English law? The answer may not satisfy some readers’ sense of justice.
I liked this book and think it should be better known. Recommended to fans of historical mysteries and Vikings.
Merged review:
Ragnar Forkbeard, iron-monger, and Olaf Far-Traveler, trader in exotic goods, have come from Surtsheim in the north to Northlanding, the falls that block boats from coming any further up the Great River. It is time for the great spring fair and the merchants have come from all over the New World to sell and trade here at the edge of English lands. Also here is Thorolf Pike, who was outlawed in Surtsheim for killing Snorri Crow, Ragnar’s old lord. He’s now a successful merchant himself in Northlanding, if not a well-liked one.
As unpopular as he is, there are plenty of suspects when Thorolf turns up dead, an arrow through his chest. But no one claims responsibility for this sneak attack, which makes it a crime by the standards of both the English law and the Northmen’s code–secret murder!
This murder mystery takes place in an alternate history where the Vikings never lost touch with Vinland, going on to form a thriving colony, while the English and French came up what we know as the Mississippi at a much earlier time due to pressure at home from more successful Islamic invaders in Europe. Thus the setting is a fanciful version of Minnesota, with a Scandinavian presence in the Iron Range. Northlanding is St. Anthony Falls, near the small city of Milltown (Minneapolis.)
While Ragnar is the main protagonist, we also get to see events from the viewpoints of Benedict, the fairgrounds manager; Otkar, Thorolf’s former right-hand man who’s trying to hold the followers together with him as their new leader; and Dirk, the bailiff’s deputy, who represents the English authorities.
Thorolf is mentioned to have had an adventure which is told in greater detail in the book Minnesota Vice.
This is a short novel, and despite the exotic setting plays out much like other historical mysteries you have read. The clash between the customs of the Northlanders and the English give some interest. Ragnar is aware of the White Christ, and gives homage to him, but is still a follower of Thor, and most of his men are still worshippers of the Norse gods.
One bit of interest is that Ragnar is also a poet, and he often drops bits of skaldic verse, including a “scorn-poem” that denounces an enemy. The cook, Gunnar, has been wounded in the head, and his dreams may or may not be prophetic (he may be simply be gifted with the ability to pick up on subconscious clues.)
Late in the story, the truth of Thorolf’s killer becomes known, and thus the subtitle of the book. Who shall judge this person, by Norse or English law? The answer may not satisfy some readers’ sense of justice.
I liked this book and think it should be better known. Recommended to fans of historical mysteries and Vikings....more
It is the year 2199, and the Earth is dying. For a change, it’s not directly the fault of the Earthling humans. Invaders from the planet Gamilas have It is the year 2199, and the Earth is dying. For a change, it’s not directly the fault of the Earthling humans. Invaders from the planet Gamilas have been bombarding Earth with radioactive bombs, poisoning the atmosphere. A message from a far off world, Iscandar, arrives. Their leader Starsha will provide Earth with a device to cleanse the radiation–if the Earthlings can somehow get to Iscandar to pick it up. Using an engine design that came with the message, the Earthlings retrofit a sunken battleship, the Yamato, into a spaceworthy craft and launch it. But there is only one year left before the damage to Earth becomes irreversible! Hurry, Yamato!
This 1974 animated series was dubbed into English as Star Blazers, which introduced a lot of proto-anime fans to the concept of cartoons with continuing plotlines. What did not come over at the time was the tie-in manga by director and character/mecha designer Leiji Matsumoto. It’s a condensed version of the story that omits many of the minor subplots and characters. (For example, Yuki Mori/Nova Forrester is the only female character on the Yamato/Argo with a substantial role in the anime, but there are other women on board for a while. In the manga, the other women are cut entirely.)
Good: Leiji Matsumoto was a heck of an artist, with a strong lineup of assistants. There are many well-drawn sequences of the Yamato and alien spacecraft in space, giving a strong sense of wonder. The camaraderie of soldiers and sailors at war is emphasized, as well as the honor of worthy enemies like Dessler/Desslock.
The ailing Captain Okita/Avatar mentoring rash young officer Susumu Kodai/Derek Wildstar to become a worthy leader is a classic subplot.
Less Good: The condensation means many plot points are skimmed. For example, we see the Gamilas/Gamilon base on Pluto preparing to fight the Yamato with their new secret weapon. Cut to a week later when Lord Dessler wonders why the Pluto base hasn’t reported in lately.
The comic relief of the ship’s doctor (actually a veterinarian who invited himself aboard) being a raging alcoholic gets old very fast. And then there’s Analyzer/IQ-9. It’s mentioned that this robot’s brain was designed with much more human emotions (including lust) and capability for learning than it looks, but the outer casing was deliberately made more “robotic” and old-fashioned looking to avoid freaking the humans out. Its attitude towards Yuki is honestly kind of creepy.
This volume includes all of the first storyline of the anime, and gets about halfway through the Comet Empire storyline. (A year after the Yamato returns, the recovered Earth has already moved on and isn’t interested in an odd giant rock headed their way, so the old crew has to hijack the decommissioned Yamato and go out to investigate. There’s some bad comedy relief with an inept rookie radar officer.)
There’s a chapter with this manga’s version of Captain Harlock, who may be Susumu’s presumed-dead older brother. It doesn’t lead anywhere.
Also in this collection is “Eternal Story of Jura”, a side story to the first Yamato plotline. We learn that Lord Desslar has a daughter named Jura, who is the product of his dalliance with a woman from a race of “sirens” with powerful psychic abilities. Unfortunately, his loyalty to Gamilas supersedes any personal connections, and now Jura is alone…
Content note: Quite a bit of death in battle, alcohol abuse, some sexual creepiness. Teenagers on up should be able to handle it.
Recommended to fans of the anime or its adaptation, or just fans of Matsumoto in general. Those who are new to the franchise will be better served by watching the cartoon....more
Gahan Wilson (1930-2019) was a cartoonist known for his macabre imagination and dark humor, though he also dipped into relatively mundane observationaGahan Wilson (1930-2019) was a cartoonist known for his macabre imagination and dark humor, though he also dipped into relatively mundane observational humor as well. His cartoons appeared in The New Yorker, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Playboy on a regular basis, as well as many other magazines and books. There are several collections of his work, the one I’m looking at today is from 1982.
The title cartoon twists a common saying by having it be a sincere question of people who appear to be worshipping “nothing.” The wraparound cover takes off from that cartoon by having characters from other entries also participate in worship. I should note here that I am again stretching the definition of “comic strip” as Mr. Wilson almost exclusively did single panel comics.
The first cartoon in this volume has a man in a lobster bib in a courtroom inhabited by giant lobsters. His (human) lawyer worries that the man won’t be able to get a fair trial. Later in the book, there’s a lobster sitting in a restaurant wearing a human bib. The last cartoon is of an unamused man watching two laughing men on the television, the caption indicating that this is one of those local news shows with enforced jollity that’s gone a little too far.
Some of the cartoons have the joke be obvious from the drawing itself, others rely on a combination of picture and caption, and a few look like ordinary scenes until you read the caption where the joke is.
One of the more interesting cartoons from the perspective of decades later is one of a disgruntled-looking baker decorating a wedding cake with two grooms on top, while a fellow baker tries to reassure him with “the world changes.” Remember, published in 1982!
You probably already know if you are a fan of Gahan Wilson’s art and humor style, but if you are somehow new to him, this is as good a start as any! Check out your local library or used book store....more
This is not a full history of Ireland, but more a chronology of its subjugation by England, and its long struggle for independence. Thus it begins in This is not a full history of Ireland, but more a chronology of its subjugation by England, and its long struggle for independence. Thus it begins in 1169 with a Norman invasion invited in by a deposed Irish king. Henry II of England decides that he can’t trust the Norman nobles to not take over the place for themselves, so asks Pope Adrian IV (the only English pope) to name him hereditary ruler of Ireland.
The English were theoretically in control of Ireland from that point on, but were largely ignored by the locals until Henry VIII declared that Britain and Ireland are “united” forever and the peasants were largely forced off their lands to make room for the sheep industry. This ticked off the Irish, as you can well imagine. So began a cycle of rebellion and retaliation.
This book is heavily illustrated, being in the gap between “prose book with lots of pictures” and “graphic novel.” In addition to relatively straight historical reportage and cartoonish jokes, there are essays from the viewpoints of two Northern Ireland characters, Henry John the Orangeman, and Rosie the Catholic. They’re both dirt poor without indoor plumbing (in 1982!) and both clearly victims of the then current oppressive system, but Henry John’s pride won’t let him admit they’re in the same boat. He must be superior to the Catholic trash, he must be!
This history is clearly on the side of Irish independence and unification of the island, with events depicted almost entirely from that point of view rather than anything the English might have done right. And yes, I can understand why. That Potato Famine was an entirely artificial phenomenon caused by the laws of the occupiers, much like the Holodomor of Ukraine in the next century.
What might be more controversial is that the authors also push a Socialist view of the history, spending more time and sympathy on the actions and words of figures from that political strain than a mainstream history of Ireland might do. Towards the end, they outright editorialize that unification will do Ireland no good unless it is a Socialist Irish Unification.
This book is a snapshot of where things stood in 1982, when “the Troubles” were still active. Matters have somewhat improved, as symbolized by the “Good Friday Agreement” of 1998. Currently, Ireland and Great Britain are technically at peace, and terrorist activity is low.
I don’t know if this one has ever been reprinted or updated, so it may be hard to track down a copy. Still, of strong interest to those interested in Irish history and/or socialism....more
Like many another country, Scotland has a bloody history of dark deeds done and tales of the supernatural to be told during long cold winter nights. TLike many another country, Scotland has a bloody history of dark deeds done and tales of the supernatural to be told during long cold winter nights. This 1981 anthology features some of those stories as retold and illustrated by William Owen. Most of the stories are from 19th Century accounts, which Mr. Owen updated with modern English and extra dialogue where he felt it was needed.
The opening story, “The Last Seaforth”, begins by telling how that laird as a boy experienced a dream while suffering from scarlet fever that predicted which of his classmates would die, suffer from disability (himself) or recover from that dread disease. Then it goes back to a falsely accused seer delivering a prophecy just before his execution that the Seaforth line would die out, which the last Seaforth carried out in painful detail.
The final story, “As Sure as Death”, talks about the horror of premature burial first, then segues into what is apparently Mr. Owen’s personal recollection of moving to the Highlands, befriending a family of blacksmiths, and participating in the funeral rites when one of them passed away. He’s momentarily startled when the corpse groans, but is assured it’s only gas, and the death certificate will be coming by the next bus.
In between are thirteen other macabre tales, about evenly divided between supernatural events and just plain horrendous murders. One of my favorites is “The Water Kelpie of Loch Ness”, which does not feature the more famous monster, but a shapeshifting horse creature that serves the Devil. (Mr. Owen appears to have written and illustrated another book entirely on the Loch Ness monster.)
The writing style is rather dry, but each story has at least one spooky illustration, and there’s interesting information about Highland customs scattered in the stories.
I think this volume was primarily aimed at the tourist trade, and I know I picked up my copy in a souvenir shop these many years ago. As such, copies could be anywhere around the world if you’re willing to hunt them down.
Recommended to fans of more staid spooky stories, and lovers of Scots memorabilia....more
It is the age of Vikings, what some will call the Dark Ages. In a coastal village somewhere on the coast of Norway lives a minor raider chieftain nameIt is the age of Vikings, what some will call the Dark Ages. In a coastal village somewhere on the coast of Norway lives a minor raider chieftain named Hägar the Horrible. This doughty warrior travels around the known world, and sometimes beyond it, in search of spoils and treasure. But it is his family, odd as they might sometimes be, that he truly loves.
This gag a day comic strip was created by Dik Browne (1917-1989) co-creator of the Hi and Lois comic, and started publication in 1973. It’s still running in some papers. “Hagar” was a family nickname for Mr. Browne himself, a large, red-bearded man. It wasn’t too large a leap to create a character loosely based on the popular notions about Vikings. While the official setting of the strip is Dark Ages Europe, little effort is made towards historical accuracy (starting with the horned helmets) and historical/fictional characters from a wide range of centuries often show up.
Hagar is an uncouth ruffian, barbaric in both his love of battle and indulgence in booze and food. Still, he has his soft underbelly, and like the Vikings of the sagas, sometimes breaks into impromptu poetry. His wife is Helga, a formidable woman modeled after a Wagnerian Valkyrie, who keeps things running at home when Hagar’s away and attempts to get him to be a little more considerate and reliable.
Hagar has two children. His teenage daughter Honi is a young and pretty Valkyrie-type who in theory is of marriageable age, but never quite seems to seal the deal. Her most frequent suitor is an inept musician named Lute, who Honi’s parents consider not a good match. Hagar’s pre-adolescent son Hamlet is studious and literate, not at all interested in following his father’s warrior ways. He’d rather become a dentist.
In addition to the family pets Snert (dog) and Qvak (duck), the most frequent additional character is Hagar’s first mate Lucky Eddie. “Lucky” is hilariously misnamed as his fortunes are inevitably dire. He’s short, puny, and weak-chinned, but a loyal sidekick to Hagar so continues to be his friend.
There’s no continuity to the strip–any lessons learned are unlearned by the next day. This particular collection was published in 1982 and features only Sunday strips from 1974. The first strip has a groggy Hagar being prepped by his family for a voyage to the New World, having misplaced most of his gear. The final strip has Hagar returning home in a particularly good mood and singing (literally) the praises of his kin.
Other standout strips: One in which a jester begins an ethnic joke about how Burgundians are slow of thought. A lord defends his castle with a lawyer. A “family reunion” that’s a parade of one-off weird designs. And a marriage broker that used to be a horse trader.
Content notes: Slapstick violence, no one ever really gets killed. Alcohol abuse, a bit of tobacco use. Old-fashioned gender role nonsense.
This is a pretty good gag strip with a consistent level of humor. This particular collection may be hard to find, but any of the volumes should do well with those who like this sort of thing....more
There are two narrators for this story, neither of whom has all the pieces. The first is Doctor Impossible, a supervillain and mad scientist who has aThere are two narrators for this story, neither of whom has all the pieces. The first is Doctor Impossible, a supervillain and mad scientist who has a compulsion to take over the world. The other is Fatale, a cyborg who used to work for the government, but now is being invited to join a superhero group. Doctor Impossible starts the story in prison for the thirteenth time, under what would normally be considered inhumane conditions but are necessary for him not to be able to build a device to break himself out. When he learns that his archenemy CoreFire has gone missing, Doctor Impossible realizes this is his big chance.
The disappearance of CoreFire also triggers Fatale’s involvement in the plot, though at first she has no reason to think there’s a personal connection. The superhero group known as the Champions had broken up some years before, but with Earth’s mightiest hero gone, they’ve decided to get back together with some new faces as the New Champions, and Fatale’s on their short list.
Very quickly, two rookie heroes try to interrogate Doctor Impossible about what he’s done with CoreFire (as the hero’s archnemesis, he is the top suspect) which gives the villain the break he needs to escape prison. Now the New Champions must continue their search for the missing hero, and try to figure out the villain’s master plan in time to stop it. Of course Doctor Impossible himself needs to figure out all the pieces he needs for his new plan, and worry that CoreFire might somehow still be able to thwart him.
This 2007 novel parodies and homages the messiness of shared universe superhero comic books. Characters’ origin stories are improbable or have holes in them, and some of those origins may be lies or universal retcons. Interactions that are life-changing and important to one character are completely forgotten by the other characters in those interactions. Time travel, aliens, and magic exist but are irrelevant to most people’s lives. Heck, some people still don’t believe in magic even if they work with a wizard!
Doctor Impossible comes off as somewhat sympathetic in his own narration. He tries so very hard, and is aware that his goals are in the long run not actually worth it, but may have a mental disorder that forces him to repeatedly strive for world domination. (“Malign Hypercognitive Disorder” may be a real thing, or he might just have a mundane mental illness.) By the end of the story, however, he hasn’t really learned anything, and we see that he’s blinded himself to human contacts that could make his life better.
Fatale, on the other hand, is a bit harder to warm up to. Parts of her brain and memories went missing in the accident that qualified her to become a cyborg, so she’s already feeling disconnected. Then the secret program that gave her cybernetic parts turned out to be fake (in the sense that the agency it supposedly worked for had no knowledge that the program actually existed and didn’t authorize it, it was in fact a villain plot that got dropped halfway through.) Plus working as a cyborg enforcer for the government exposed her to the icky side of humanity. So she’s very cynical and mostly sees the dysfunctions in her new temporary teammates.
The standout character who isn’t a narrator is Lily, the crystal woman from a dark future who has worked both as villain (and is the closest thing Doctor Impossible ever had to a girlfriend) and hero (as with the New Champions.) She’s got some secrets of her own, and is essential to how the climax turns out.
One thing the book does very well is humanizing these superhuman characters. They have hopes and flaws, blind spots and ideals. It’s pointed out that having superpowers can also be like having a chronic medical condition. (Doctor Impossible has low-level superstrength and breaks things when he isn’t careful, and he’s one of the relatively lucky ones.)
When this book came out, it was very well received by the superhero subgenre fandom, not just because of the competent writing, but also at the time there was a dearth of good superhero subgenre prose being published. Since then, it’s gotten somewhat drowned out by the Marvel juggernaut starting with Iron Man in 2008, especially since the book got no sequel or adaptation. And there have been other interesting novels in the subgenre since.
Content note: superhero violence, a bit of it lethal. Some ableism, a bit of cussing. Extramarital sex is discussed. Bullying and homophobia in the backstory. While this is certainly readable by bright teenagers, the concerns and general tone mark this as a book for college age and up.
Competently written and not totally cynical and grimdark, I would recommend this book to superhero fans who are okay with visualizing everything from prose....more
I managed to find another issue of the digest-sized Adventure Comics from 1983. Let’s take a look at the treasures inside!
“Plastic Man” (no chapter tiI managed to find another issue of the digest-sized Adventure Comics from 1983. Let’s take a look at the treasures inside!
“Plastic Man” (no chapter title) written by Len Wein, art by Joe Staton and Bob Smith features the obvious character. Plastic Man was Eel O’Brien, a petty criminal, before he was injured in a shootout and doused in some unknown acidic compound. He managed to get to a monastery before collapsing, and the monks nursed Eel back to health. He discovered that his body was now stretchable to the point that he could assume any shape he wanted. Inspired by the kindness of the monks, Eel decided to switch sides and become a crimefighter as Plastic Man.
Since stretching is a silly-looking power, the stories tended to have a lot of sight gags even within more serious plotlines. Plastic Man soon acquired sidekick Woozy Winks, a chubby pickpocket who is cursed/blessed with the “protection of nature” to shield him from serious harm, but unreliably at best. He’s only mostly reformed and a bit of a coward.
As of this point in their publication history, Plastic Man is an agent of the National Bureau of Investigation, and Woozy is his tagalong, not officially an employee but not usually barred from meetings. Which brings us to this story. Agent Cyfer has been found murdered in his hotel room, the third NBI agent to die from a severe beating within a short period. The body is covered in bruises that look like footprints–with an unusually elongated big toe.
Woozy lifts Cyfer’s wallet (not like he was going to need it, right?) but Plas is more interested in the ballet tickets inside, which matches the Bolshevek Ballet poster in Cyfer’s belongings. That’s a bit odd given that the late Agent Cyfer was vocally not a fan of ballet. Time for our heroes to dress in formalwear and take in some culture!
At the next performance of Swan Lake, the male lead is one Dmitri Dervish, who’s been compared favorably to Nijinsky. While his dancing is excellent, Plas’ attention is drawn to Dervish’s feet. The man has to wear custom ballet slippers due to his abnormally long big toe. Having established their suspect, Plastic Man and Woozy head backstage.
Plas searches Dervish’s dressing room while Woozy stands guard. He finds nothing incriminating, but when the dancer enters the room, he is able to disguise himself as a leotard and listen in while Dervish activates a transmitter hidden behind the mirror. Dimitri reports into his “master” and reveals he’s going to steal a final component from Acme Labs tonight.
Sure enough, that night Dimitri Dervish breaks into the lab complex using his superior leaping and body flexibility. Plastic Man and Woozy Winks follow to catch him in the act. When confronted, Dervish reveals that he is a master of savate, French foot-boxing. Plas’s rubbery body is highly resistant to pummeling, and he’s able to bring down the dancing assassin.
But before Dervish can reveal the name of his employer, he sprouts a knife in his back, and the component is missing! To be continued.
“The Fantastic Spy!” story by Jerry Siegel, art by John Forte, is the first Legion of Super-Heroes reprint in this issue. Sun Boy and Lightning Lad have been injured in a spaceship crash, and Cosmic Boy and Brainiac Five go to visit them before their operations. Brainy’s evil ancestor Brainiac and his shrinking technology are mentioned (this is before it was “revealed” that Brainiac was in fact a sophisticated robot and Brainiac Two was adopted.) A Dr. Landro, specialist in fourth-dimensional surgery is introduced, enthusiastic to volunteer to operate for no fee. He inserts healing capsules in the afflicted areas.
Back at Legion H.Q. a week later, the two former invalids are introduced to new member Matter-Eater Lad. Due to the harsh conditions of his home planet Bismoll, all the inhabitants developed the ability to eat any form of matter without harm to themselves. It’s a pretty silly-sounding ability, but M-E Lad has learned to eat at an accelerated rate and can chew through basically anything you try to imprison him in.
The Science Police want two Legionnaires to escort a disguised shipment of valuable Energite. Lightning Lad and Bouncing Boy volunteer. But a pirate ship disguised as a space monster manages to hijack the shipment and speed off in the general direction of Bismoll. Since the Science Police only told the Legion about the secret plan, this must mean that one of the Legionnaires is a traitor! Matter-Eater Lad worries that his “new guy” status makes him the primary suspect.
A bug sweep reveals no hidden microphones in the HQ, so the next meeting is held in darkness in case there’s a sight-based espionage device in operation. This time, the Legion will be delivering a “doomsday bomb” that’s tiny enough to be handheld but powerful enough to destroy the world. To minimize the chance of transportation accidents, it will be sent through an Earthtube that goes directly through the planet’s molten core from Metropolis to the city where the Science Police weapons storage facility is.
Cosmic Boy and Chameleon Boy pose as newlyweds, Chameleon Boy shifting to look like a pretty human woman and holding the bomb in “her” purse. There’s a brief period during the trip where the passengers have to be knocked out to protect them from the core heat, and somehow the bomb is stolen during that moment.
Thinking that perhaps they’re being spied on telepathically, the Legionnaires then put on lurium mindpower-blocking helmets for their next meeting. Their next mission is to escort the alien criminal Meglaro to a time machine to exile him to the future. (Brainiac Five hasn’t yet developed his own model that’s strong enough, so they’ll have to use a government one.) Meglaro (the yellow guy on the cover) has sealed himself inside a protective sphere filled with a liquid that amplifies his awesome mental powers to planet-control levels. However, the liquid also causes him to hibernate from time to time, and that’s how he was captured. He needs to be sent off before he wakes up.
Brainiac Five, Sun Boy and Lightning Lad take on the mission, still wearing the lurium helmets in case Meglaro wakes up. As they’re carrying the bubble, Sun Boy has a pain in his ankle, and stumbles. Meglaro awakens, and attempts to mind control the Legionnaires into letting him escape. Doesn’t work of course. But then, a saucer craft appears and blasts the Legionnaires with Z-rays, the one way to dissolve lurium. Meglaro is able to levitate away and joins up with the saucer.
Okay, there is definitely a traitor. Brainiac Five is working on a “guilt detector” but Matter-Eater Lad is concerned that he might have turned evil like his ancestor. Brainy’s device fingers M-E Lad as the culprit, and the rookie eats his way to freedom, loudly declaring his innocence. Brainy vows to hunt down the renegade, explaining that now the Legion will never be trusted to guard the galaxy’s greatest treasures, currently being stored on the planet Umrax.
Brainiac Five returns a few hours later, Matter-Eater Lad in tow. However, it turns out that none of the Legion were traitors! There’s a tiny spy inside Sun Boy’s ankle placed there by Dr. Landro who’s been transmitting all the Legion’s plans to his confederates. As for Umrax, that was a trap due to its atmosphere that knocks people out. Brainy summoned Superboy to be there to pick up the unconscious villains. Meglaro is safely transported to the far future, whence he never returns.
As for the spy, a genuine fourth-dimensional surgery removes him from Sun Boy, and he is enlarged so he can be imprisoned with his confederates.
Points of interest here are the introduction of Matter-Eater Lad and saving Superboy for an extended cameo at the end rather than having him be front and center as usual. The “who’s the traitor?” plotline would be used multiple times in later issues, perhaps best by Jim Shooter.
“A Kingdom to Re-Build!” by Steve Skeates, Jim Aparo and Dick Giordano, is the conclusion of the Aquaman plotline we’ve seen bits of. Aquaman and Mera join Aqualad in battling the Bugala Beast. Even with their combined powers, they’re only able to drive it off. They take off without talking to the locals who’d abducted Aqualad to draft him into fighting the monster, and the local king admits that perhaps relying on others to fight their battles was a losing strategy to begin with.
Back in Atlantis, revolution runs rampant in the streets! In the palace, the young leader of the rebels faces off against the dictator Narkran. He’s armed with a chair, and the tyrant with a sword, but it’s clear who’s scared here.
Aquagirl wakes up in the infirmary. Science guy Vulko fills her in on what’s been going on, though he has been too distracted to find the cause of the earthquakes.
The wanderers finally arrive back in Atlantis, and Aquaman is able to quell most of the fighting just by telling the factions to stop. He is, after all, the true king. But as the trio approaches the palace, Narkran’s top henchmen attack, realizing that if Aquaman gets back in charge, their goose is cooked.
Our heroes each take out their counterpart. Vulko arrives to explain the plot to any readers who’d missed an issue or three.
The rebel leader has finally cornered Narkran and is about to “sic semper tyrannis” him when Aquaman shows up and forbids killing. Narkran immediately goes into “blame everything on the rebels” mode, but a new earthquake gives Aquaman the opportunity to sock him one. Narkran attempts to plead his loyalty, but Aquagirl shows up to testify to his treachery.
The rebel leader is then scolded for the whole revolution thing, he should have trusted the king to return and set things right, instead he caused a lot of unnecessary violence and injury.
Finally there’s time for Vulko to complete his research. Turns out the quakes are part of an ongoing process that will eventually, many years from now, raise Atlantis to the surface of the ocean. Aquaman decrees new building codes to help make sure structures can withstand the frequent quakes; there’s a kingdom to rebuild.
“The Talking Tiger” art by C.C. Beck, story by Otto Binder, is the first Captain Marvel story in this issue. It’s the first appearance of beloved supporting character Tawky Tawny. In a jungle somewhere, a hermit is complaining about the ills of civilization, which is why he’s living in this isolated area instead. His conversational partner, a tiger, thinks that the not-awful parts of civilization the hermit has spoken of might be worth it.
The tiger makes his way to the coast and stows away on a ship bound for America. Seasickness is not something that the tiger was expecting, but he somehow survives. Once the ship docks, the tiger disembarks under cover of night. Not only can he talk, but he can walk bipedally, but the first person he meets is afraid of tigers.
Billy Batson becomes aware there’s a tiger on the loose and turns into Captain Marvel. He ignores what is obviously a hallucination that the tiger is talking and knocks it out. By the time the tiger awakes, he’s been imprisoned in the zoo.
His rage is awakened and he’s able to break the bars (apparently he also has thumbs now?) The tiger is able to evade Captain Marvel and start exploring. Ice cream is nice, as is steak, but now it’s time for clothes. He somehow manages to find a snappy suit that fits.
Now that the tiger is wearing clothes, this allows Captain Marvel to see him as a sentient being and actually listen to him talk. They come to an understanding and Tawky Tawny (who’s quite well educated) is able to get a job at the natural history museum as a guide. At the end, Billy suddenly realizes it’s never been explained how a tiger can talk in the first place!
Tawky Tawny has gone on to a long career as one of the more interesting Shazam! supporting cast, though various retcons have tried to explain him away rather than just having him be an actual talking tiger.
“The Villain from Valhalla!” by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby is a tale of the Golden Age Sandman and Sandy. The Sandman was known for his sleeping gas gun and frequent dream imagery in the stories. this one is after he’d switched to a more conventional superhero costume than his original gasmask one.
At the beginning, Sandy Hawkins is reading a book about Norse mythology and Thor, god of thunder. He kind of wishes he could take on such a powerful foe. (The monkey’s paw curls a finger.) Across New York City at the docks, a longboat appears. A massive red-bearded man disembarks and stomps a guard.
This figure decides to rob a bank with his mighty hammer Mjolnir, and since he’s bulletproof, no one can stop him. Even when Sandman, Sandy and a full squad of cops arrive to take him on, Thor easily trounces them all, and sends Sandy to the hospital.
Back at the ship, Thor rendezvous with his crew. He drops the odd speech and lights up a cigar, discarding his transparent bulletproof shirt. Turns out this entire “Viking” theme is a scam so once the gang shaves off their beards and puts on regular clothes, no one will be looking for them.
But now Sandman and an entire army of police officers have arrived and the gangsters don’t have time to don their bulletproofing. The pitched battle goes on for quite a while, but the result is inevitable. Sandman has defeated Thor!
The crook turns out to be criminal metallurgist “Fairy Tales” Fenton, who probably could have made way more money patenting his transparent (but uncomfortable) bulletproof shirts and the electrical marvel Mjolnir instead of just robbing banks. Sandy is a bit disappointed.
“The Stolen Super-Powers!” story by Jerry Siegel, art by John Broome is another Legion of Super-Heroes story. It’s election time, and Saturn Girl is the first to arrive at the clubhouse. She finds a message and destroys it.
Saturn Girl then demonstrates her potential as a supervillain by mind-controlling the Legion members into voting her in as leader. She uses a rare metal trophy donated to the Legion for their heroism to make medallions for each member to wear constantly.
In a dictatorial fashion, the telepath then tests each member’s powers, finding excuses to ground them from action. What she fails to mention is that the medallions allow her to tap into their powers to use them for herself. Soon, she is the only active member of the Legion.
When the call comes that space criminal Zaryan the Conqueror is active, Saturn Girl flies off solo. But by the time she’s engaging the criminal, Lightning Lad shows up. He knew something was up from her atypical behavior, and was able to get the scoop from Mon-El, who at this point was still stuck in the Phantom Zone.
The message at the beginning had revealed that one of the Legionnaires was fated to die in the battle against Zaryan, so Saturn Girl created this entire wacky scheme to make sure she was the one to die. But Lightning Lad refuses to let her be the only one in danger. Sure enough, although he’s able to help her bring down Zaryan, Lightning Lad takes a fatal wound.
Lightning Lad dies, and a funeral is held, including Superboy and Supergirl just now arriving. He’s interred in a special crystal crypt, and the United Planets mourn.
This was the first Legion death, and it stuck for a while. Lightning Lad was replaced by his previously unmentioned twin sister Lightning Lass before finally being revived.
“The Man in the Moon” (no credits, but likely C.C. Beck and Otto Binder again) is also a Captain Marvel story. This one involves lesser-known supporting character Doc Quartz, an eccentric inventor whose day job is running a pharmacy. His shop has been closed for a week, the sign reading “out to lunch.” Then Billy Batson gets a radio distress call from Doc, who is on the moon!
Turns out the pharmacist has been in communication with approaching aliens, and wanted to use his atomic rock drill to carve out a welcoming monument on Luna to greet them. Captain Marvel gets him out of his current fix (never go to the moon alone) and assists in completing the project. Sadly, while Doc Quartz is a heck of an inventor, an artist he’s not, and the giant Rushmore-style head of Captain Marvel is hideously distorted.
However, it’s at this point that the oncoming aliens reveal that they’re actually hostile invaders who only broadcast messages of peace and friendship to put the Earthlings off guard. “We’re close enough now that it’s too late for you to prepare!”
Captain Marvel rushes back to the moon, fixes up the face so it actually looks like him but frowning, and includes a warning that he protects Earth. The alien fleet sees this, realizes they’ve made a hideous mistake (Captain Marvel has a reputation) and retreats in disorder, smashing several of their own ships in their haste.
Doc Quartz is thrilled that his atomic rock drill and monument have helped save Earth, and now maybe people will recognize his genius. Except that the carving is on the far side of the moon, never visible from Earth. The inventor’s next project? Revolving the moon!
On an alternate Earth where magic was discovered/rediscovered fifteen years ago, magical monsters called Kaii menace the public. Combating these monstOn an alternate Earth where magic was discovered/rediscovered fifteen years ago, magical monsters called Kaii menace the public. Combating these monsters are magical girls, young women with magitech brooms to fly on and wands that cast spells to bind and destroy the kaii. However, these wands cast preprogrammed spells or ones that magical software engineers create on the fly, so a magical girl needs a sponsor to create those spells. Thus, the profession of magical girl is backed by a number of corporations, from international giants who just have it as one of their product lines, to feisty startups working out of a converted garage.
Magilumiere is one of those startups. Led by founder Kouji Shigemoto, who is highly competent but feels more comfortable in frilly magical girl outfits than standard corporate suits, they pursue an ethic of adapting on the fly to new situations, and causing the minimum of collateral damage. On the support side, they also have painfully shy but brilliant and innovative engineer Kazuo Nikoyama, and sales/PR rep Kaede Midorikawa.
Their field agents (as of this third volume) are Hitomi Koshigaya, a young woman with some rough edges that make her seem intimidating, but is good at her job, and rookie Kana Sakuragi, who is naive but has a photographic memory.
At the beginning of this volume, Kana is shadowing Lily Aoi, a magical girl from a cosmetics company. They’re fighting a Kaii in a construction site and having some luck with water blasts. But then the monster mutates, and Aoi decides to call in assistance. This turns out to be Tsuchiba from AST, the largest of the magical girl corporations.
Tsuchiba is no-nonsense, but kind of cold, and prefers to work solo, sending the other magical girls to evacuate civilians. She is displeased when, that job completed, Kana returns to help out. The spell she uses is overwhelmingly powerful but takes a lot of set-up time. Kana protects Tsuchiba during this process, even though the other woman doesn’t want her to.
Afterwards, Tsuchiba insults Kana and her company for focusing on non-essentials like kindness and damage control. She considers these aesthetic fripperies a way of defrauding the customer. After Tsuchiba leaves, Lily shows up and talks about her own more inspirational approach to magical girl work.
Shigemoto and the cosmetics company CEO talk about the fact that Kaii mutations are becoming more common. The other company leader suggests that Shigemoto may want to communicate with Koga, the leader of AST, but Shigemoto is clearly reluctant to do so.
Then it’s time for a field trip to the Magic Industry Expo, a convention where the various companies involved with magical girls and magical girl accessories show off their wares. (Magilumiere’s too small to have their own booth.) It’s casually mentioned that men also have the ability to tap into magic, but there’s an excessive output problem and as yet there’s no technology developed enough to moderate the damage done.
The team decides to attend a presentation by Satisfac Corporation on mutation-fighting magic. This involves mutating a very weak Kaii in captivity, then subduing it. Unfortunately, the previous tests were done under controlled laboratory conditions and the stray excess magical energy from all the other exhibits causes the Kaii to mutate faster and stronger than the nurse-themed magical girl in the demonstration can handle.
The Kaii breaks free and panic ensues. Over at a booth on the other side of the exhibition hall, Koga of AST refuses to budge unless he gets a contract. AST gets paid or no action; but hey, there’s probably some idealistic fool that will take care of the problem for free.
Sure enough, Magilumiere steps up. While Shigemoto and Midorikawa work behind the scenes to get retroactive permission, Kana and Koshigaya battle the Kaii with on-the-fly programming support from Nikoyama.
They make a good team, but Nikoyama runs into a problem–his laptop simply doesn’t have the processing power to send out the new spells to the girls as fast as they need them. After we get a flashback about his past and why he joined the company, (it involves the difference between criticism and feedback), Nikoyama is able to get help from other developers using spare laptops, and the day is saved!
Koga finally shows up and tries to hire away Magilumiere’s magical girls. Not so much because he actually needs them, as that it would cripple the smaller company. The young women react appropriately, especially the feisty Koshigaya. Shigemoto refers to the shared history between him and Koga but we don’t get details right now.
It’s clear that something is up with these Kaii mutations, but that’s a mystery for next volume!
There’s a bonus comic about the difference between what Lily Aoi means her morning cosmetic routine to be, and how it often comes out in reality.
This shounen urban fantasy manga leans more towards being a workplace drama than an action series like Geobreeders. There’s effort put into thinking about legalities and corporate structure and workplace ethics. Sure, there are magical girls and monsters running around, but it’s structured through businesses. The various characters’ quirks are there for flavor rather than constant gags.
It also acknowledges that the quirkiness of the characters can sometimes get in the way of their career advancement. Nikoyama loses a school contest for programming not because his work was less good (it’s clearly the best entry if you were just looking at the result) but because he failed to trim the length to the maximum allowed.
The art is pretty good, though the monster designs are lackluster.
I understand this manga is getting an animated adaptation in fall 2024, so you might want to check that out.
Recommended to fans of urban fantasy that like verisimilitude in their settings....more
The troll caravan guard that we meet at the beginning of the story has no name. The family he was born into did not have a tradition of naming childreThe troll caravan guard that we meet at the beginning of the story has no name. The family he was born into did not have a tradition of naming children, and the circus that enslaved him only called him “the troll.” But his great strength and toughness impressed the caravan’s recruiters and if he succeeds in this assignment, he will be allowed to formally join House Morkae and earn a name. In a certain sense, the guard is a “nobody.”
Bandits and monsters are normal hazards for a caravan crossing the desert, but the guard is surprised when a holy warrior attacks him in particular. She accuses him of crimes he has not committed, either mistaking him for another troll, or having been fed lies for an unknown reason. He manages to subdue his attacker without killing her, despite the Rage that dwells within him.
This convinces three other members of the caravan that he is trustworthy. They are Gerald the gnomish bard, Jiang the stoic swordsman, and Korivare the warmage. Korivare decides that the guard at least deserves a nickname so he can be referred to more clearly, and dubs the troll “Pax.”
It’s not known if the holy warrior said anything about her motives, as shortly thereafter, a dragon attacks the caravan, and our four protagonists are separated from their companions. After a fierce battle, Pax and the others manage to slay the dragon and gain some of its treasure, but this is only the beginning of their troubles. It’s as though a god or two has taken a personal interest in the quartet, with all the danger that implies.
This fantasy series appears to be heavily inspired by a fantasy role-playing game campaign the author ran. It’s easy to spot the genetic material of Dungeons & Dragons at various points, as well as what the writer has put in as homebrew rules.
Good: Making the uneducated Pax the viewpoint character allows us to learn more about the world of Aragore as he’s introduced to new concepts and backstory. His struggles with his confidence and his temper make him an engaging character with strong development.
Jiang has the quirk of not expressing his emotions on his face, but instead by making hand gestures to help him control his feelings. This is not just used as a character quirk, but gives the protagonists an important communication tool that comes in handy more than once.
Lots of action of varied types.
Less good: There’s a fifth protagonist, Telemnar the elvish huntress, who more or less drops out of the air two-thirds of the way through the book like the new player character who just joined the campaign this week. This is handled rather clumsily.
The in-universe mythology and the secret magic system our protagonists are the true heirs to come across as generic and kind of dull. The action slows to a crawl for a while whilst our quintet try to get a handle on this new gift, and the character work doesn’t quite make up for it.
There’s quite a few spellcheck typos, indicating that the book could have used a minimum of one more editorial pass.
Content note: sexual assault and a flashback to another incident in the past. The author’s foreword advises that this is coming up and which chapter it’s in so that the reader can choose to skip it. Fantasy violence, often lethal. Slavery and child abuse. Fantastic racism (Pax faces bigotry against trolls often), religious prejudice. Attempted human sacrifice.
While there are some unanswered questions at the end of this volume, and it’s very clearly the first in a series, the current story has a sufficiently satisfying ending that many readers will be able to enjoy it even if the sequel never sees print. This is also pretty clearly an early work for the author, and he has a lot of growth potential.
Recommended primarily to the sort of fantasy gaming fan who enjoys reading or watching other players’ campaign logs....more
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