Preview: BLACK MAX Volume 1

After the ridiculously manic over-reaction to American comics imports in the 1950s, (see here) horror comics for kids were effectively banned in Britain under the (Children and Young Persons) Harmful Publications Act. However, publishers knew that children loved monster stories, and that a well-told horror comic wouldn't really do them any harm. They were prevented from blatantly publishing horror comics, but did manage to inject elements of such stories into their traditional adventure comics. 

One such strip was Black Max, a serial that ran throughout the short-lived Thunder anthology weekly in 1970/71, and then into the merged Lion and Thunder. Black Max was basically presented as a war story, featuring arial combat in World War One, but it was its horror element that was its main attraction. 

Episode one art by Eric Bradbury.

That horror came in the form of giant mutated bats created by evil scientist Baron Maximilien Von Klorr, who used them to attack the Allied forces. Written by Frank Pepper and Ken Mennell, it was one of the more memorable series in Thunder, and deservedly became very popular with the readers. (On a personal note, it was also a favourite of my dad's, who started reading comics again a few years before he died.)

First page of episode two. Art by Alfonso Font.

Now, Rebellion are collecting the early chapters in a book to be released on October 4th. Black Max Volume 1 reprints all the episodes from Thunder, plus the first few months of its continuation in the merged Lion and Thunder. The artwork is by the amazing Alfonso Font (who also provides an introduction and new cover), although the episode from Thunder No.1 was drawn by Eric Bradbury. (Presumably Bradbury's episode would have been drawn for the dummy issue of Thunder, and he may have been too busy to do the series once the comic got the green light months later.) Bradbury of course was a master of atmospheric horror in British comics. Font's style is lighter, but equally dramatic and his bats are the stuff of nightmares.

Black Max is a superb collection. Alfonso Font's work deserves to be seen and appreciated by a modern audience so I hope comic shops have ordered this marvellous book. If your local comic shop won't stock it, you can order it directly from the publisher here:
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com

• CREATIVE TEAM: Frank Pepper, Ken Mennell (w) Eric Bradbury, Alfonso Font (a)
• RELEASE DATE: 4th October (UK) 24th October (US)
• PAPERBACK, 115 pages
• PRICE: £10.99 (UK) $16.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781086551
• DIAMOND: AUG182151

Ace fighter pilot Baron Maximilien Von Klorr is the scourge of the skies, menacing the Allied forces during the bloodiest battles in WWI. Skilled, ruthless and in possession of two giant, mutated kingbats who fight by his side, Von Klorr AKA Black Max is almost unstoppable. Only the brave pilots of the Royal Flying Corps, including Lieutenant Tom Wilson, oppose the Black Max's complete dominance of the air. Thrilling supernatural war comics from the pages of classic British comics Lion and Thunder!

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond

Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

Treasury of British Comics covers revealed

The covers have been revealed on Amazon of five upcoming books in The Treasury of British Comics line. The list of books was released back in January but this is the first time the covers of these five have been shown. Bear in mind that the covers may be tweaked before publication, as sometimes dummy covers are released to the book trade for pre-order purposes, - but all of these look pretty tidy to me so I'm presuming they will be the published versions. 

The exciting thing about the Black Max book is that it features a new cover illustrated by Alfonso Font, the artist who drew the majority of the series for Thunder way back in 1970! (You can see his website here: 
http://www.alfonsofont.com/en/) 

I think Black Max is the book I'm looking forward to the most out of this selection, although Ken Reid's Creepy Creations will be a must-buy as well. I can thoroughly recommend El Mestizo too. An unusual strip for Battle Picture Weekly as it was set in the American Civil War with a touch of a Spaghetti Western tone about it. Alan Hebden and Carlos Ezquerra did a fine job on this 1977 series. Definitely worth reading!

A third Misty volume is welcome to see, as it presumably means the first two books did well. Great to see these 1970s stories reprinted for modern readers. Same goes for The Thirteenth Floor, reprinting material from Scream! Tales of spooky retribution that are well worth buying.

You can pre-order the books from Amazon right now to ensure your copies:

Misty Vol.3:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Misty-Vol-Wolf-Other-Stories/dp/1781086516/ref=sr_1_6


Black Max Vol.1:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Max-Vol-Frank-Pepper/dp/1781086559/ref=sr_1


El Mestizo:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/El-Mestizo-Alan-Hebden/dp/1781086575/ref=pd_sbs_14_1


The Thirteenth Floor:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/13th-Floor-John-Wagner/dp/1781086532/ref=pd_sbs_14


Creepy Creations:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creepy-Creations-Ken-Reid/dp/1781086605/ref=sr_1

The books will also be available directly from the publisher's website at a later date:
https://treasuryofbritishcomics.com


The books in this line are shaping up nicely and Rebellion are doing a great job. Another welcome publication, coming on 15th August, will be The Vigilant, an all-new one-shot 48 page comic written by Simon Furman with art by Simon Coleby and others. As Furman revealed on Twitter "The Leopard From Lime Street, Adam Eterno, The Steel Commando, Dr. Sin, Pete's Pocket Army and Blake Edmonds (Deathwish) team up to face Von Hoffman and Dr. Mesmer. The Rebellion-verse begins here!"

Will BLACK MAX return?

One of the most memorable adventure strips from British comics of the 1970s, Black Max started out in the short-lived Thunder comic in 1970 before transferring over to the combined Lion and Thunder in March 1971. It was written by Ken Mennell and initially drawn by Eric Bradbury, then by Spanish artist Alfonso Font. 

The war/horror strip involved WW1 aircraft being attacked by giant mutated bats under the control of evil Baron Maximilien Von Klorr and proved popular enough to appear in Lion and Thunder until the final issue in 1974.

Now that Rebellion have bought the archive of IPC strips from 1970 onwards, is there a possibility that a collected Black Max book might appear as a future volume in their Treasury of British Comics line? Time will tell!

In the meantime, here's a couple of sample episodes from the first two combined issues of Lion and Thunder, dated 20th and 27th March 1971. Superb art by Alfonso Font...

Christmas comics: LION (1971)

Considering it was mainly an adventure comic, Lion still managed to squeeze in a lot of festive cheer for its 25th December 1971 issue. The stage was set with the front cover by Geoff Campion featuring several of Lion's characters gathered for Christmas dinner.

For long running serials that had made no mention of the festivities in previous weeks it seemed a little jarring for the story to suddenly go off at a seasonal tangent. However, for Lion's young readers it all added to the excitement of the season. In the conclusion to this Black Max story it even starts snowing on cue. Art by Alfonso Font...



The most bizarre Christmas inclusion was in the Fury's Family episode, where the animals celebrate Christmas because Fury "told them what it is all about", and apparently it's about elephants wearing paper hats and tigers pulling crackers. Art by Denis McCloughlin...


One of the nice things about these old adventure weeklies is that editors knew how to pace a comic, running a couple of humour strips in between the serials so the whole package didn't become too unrelenting. Here's The Spooks of St.Lukes. (The name of the artist escapes me at present, but he also filled in for Ken Reid on Frankie Stein in the 1960s)...


The Steel Commando was a strip I never cared for, and I usually skipped it. The closing scenes of this episode are very strange though, and quite touching for a boys comic. Ironsides the robot getting broody? Bizarre! (Art by Alex Henderson according to Steve Holland's Fleetway Companion book.)


It's snow on the logo and a party hat on the skull for the Adam Eterno story, which concludes with a Christmas scene. Artwork by the great Solano Lopez...




Finally, Reg Parlett's superb Mowser strip rounds off the issue. Considering Reg's long career in comics (over 60 years) and how prolific he was it's staggering to imagine the number of Christmas pages he must have drawn. Yet each one is as fresh as any other. Wonderful stuff.


There'll be another look back at a Christmas comic soon!