Category Archives: Book Reviews

Beano, Book Reviews, Christmas

THE DANDY AND THE BEANO: 38 YEARS OF FiFTY GOLDEN YEARS

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Back in 1987 two things happened in the build up to Christmas. Firstly, my older brother grew out of comics and his weekly Beano. However, The Dandy and The Beano Fifty Golden Years had already been obtained by Santa. As luck would have it, the second thing that happened was me discovering OiNK and immediately falling in love with comics. So this special book was redirected into my stocking in the very early hours of Christmas Day and still sits on my shelves decades later.

While my brother’s comic didn’t really appeal at the time, and the strips in here were even more old fashioned, I found the book’s story about the creation and evolution of the comics fascinating. As an adult I feel I’ve also developed a better appreciation for the classic strips inside. This is mainly thanks to reading a couple of the earliest editions inside the Beano’s 80th Anniversary Box Set and my yearly dips into the world of the Big Comic Books. So it felt like a good time for me to revisit this very special celebration for the first time in nearly forty years.

As seems the case with all comics celebrations the release dates mentioned throughout are actually the cover dates. The cover dates usually referred to the Saturday after publication, the comics released one working day before whatever day was mentioned on the cover. For example, #1 of The Dandy had a date of 4th December 1937, which was the Saturday of that week and it states “Every Friday” on the cover, so it would’ve been released on Thursday 2nd. It’s a small thing but it does annoy me when this constantly happens, especially in a book created by the publisher of said comics.

Things kick off with this bright recreation of the first ever Dandy comic, complete with the original version of Korky the Cat. It’s followed by #1 of The Beano and Big Eggo which launched in July of 1938. It then launches headlong into a large selection of examples of strips from the early days of both comics, from those familiar with 80s readers such as Lord Snooty to plenty I’d never heard of, with names like Freddy the Fearless Fly and Deep-Down Daddy Neptune.

It’s not long before the book is showing off its celebrity fans too, beginning with radio DJ Mike Read who guest-starred in an issue of The Beano alongside Dennis. Other notables include Cilla Black, Geoff Capes, The Krankies (suitably enough in the Dennis the Menace section), Ken Dodd, John Craven, Little and Large, Geoffrey Palmer and Joan Armatrading, among many more. It’s a who’s-who of British 80s celebs. Mark Hamill also pops up of course, and he’d pop up again in the bookazine that came with that Beano 80th set. Clearly, he never grew out of it.

Of course, there are also a few celebrities you wouldn’t want to see included today, but unfortunately we have to remember this is very much a product of its time. So if you can ignore a couple of certain children’s TV presenters and a certain politician you’ll find a lot to love here. As you can see Mike shares a spread with a new strip created for the book with Grandpa introducing Poison Ivy to the classic strips and then it’s on to the meat of the book

Desperate Dan makes up the first themed section, of which there are several for the more popular characters. His first appearance and some of his earlier misadventures are included, as well as one from 1983 to show how he’d evolved. This Welcome to Cactusville spread is great too, perfectly summing up the classic version of the character.

Others who get this treatment include Lord Snooty, Black Bob, Korky the Cat and Dennis the Menace among others. Sadly, none of the girl characters do. Instead, they’re all lumped together into a few pages called ‘Have a Giggle With the Girls’. Not even Minnie the Minx is well catered for! An indictment on the times, yes, and it also shows how far we’ve come. One glance at the review for this year’s Beano Christmas Special will prove how the comic has set this straight in the years since.

This was the part of the book that fascinated me the most as a child. I’d never considered anything other than both comics temporarily ceasing during wartime and paper shortages weren’t part of my reasoning! As it turns out, they didn’t. They kept calm and carried on, you might say. Both reduced their page counts and went fortnightly, alternating each week so kids still had the option of weekly laughs.

I remember as a child thinking this was incredible. In fact, I was only annoyed there wasn’t more information about how they were produced during this time, what’s mentioned here having whetted my appetite. (The aforementioned bookazine did a better job of this 30 years later.) We get some examples of the humour that helped the children through those tough years with the likes of Lord Snooty (again), Pansy Potter and these two surprise entries. Try to ignore the accents, they’re another sign of the times, written at a time of war and it was important to keep the children unafraid, and having a laugh at the enemy of the time surely helped.

Over the past few years I’ve really been enjoying writing the Annuals section of the blog. It may contain the slowest possible real time read throughs but every year the new inclusions are worth the wait. Even though they’ve always gone on sale months beforehand, they’ve always been a huge part of Christmas (that’s why that section gets updated during the festive season) and the writers of this book knew it too.

Wow! £100? Even in 1987 I remember thinking, “Is that all?” Oh, and in case you’re wondering (much like ten-year-old me did) what that ‘Magic-Beano’ title is all about, Magic was a short-lived comic that ceased during the wartime paper rationing and never returned, so it was merged into The Beano and the books bore its name for a few years. I like looking back on old covers like this, particularly annuals as they seem to encapsulate the time they were published and provide a year-by-year look at how a comic evolved. Also included are similar pages for the summer specials, those tiny Dandy and Beano Comics Library collections and the 1000th and 2000th editions of both comics.

Originally The Dandy and The Beano contained adventure stories and prose funnies and I’ve already shown some of these off on the blog. The thrills and spills of classic adventures take pride of place here too. While the book explains these were mainly before TV became mainstream and so could be printed with few illustrations, they’ve included this wonderful spread from a Dandy annual in the 1950s, newly colourised for the 80s.

I may have been growing up in a world of TV and computer games but I still recall delving deep into these particular pages of the book, probably because they were such an unexpected surprise. I also spent a long time with any part of the book that gave an insight into how it was made. Any disappointment I felt with the lack of such information in the World War II chapter was soon put to rest with a great four-page feature starring The Bash Street Kids.

Taking a strip from 1983 that had answered readers’ queries of how The Beano was produced, the double-page strip is split across four pages with a factual article of the process across the middle of each. I find these middle sections the most interesting now as an adult but for kids it was a brilliant idea to have the characters being taught the same things in a lighter, funnier way, with further details right there too if they wanted.

There’s just too much in this book to cover in one blog post. If there’s a character you can think of from The Dandy or The Beano’s first 50 years, they’ll be in here. If there’s a moment, a piece of merchandise, a memory you have… anything you can think of that might have been part of their first 50 years, it’ll be in here. What I’ve been able to squeeze into one blog post is just the tip of the iceberg.

Wrapped up in a gorgeous hardback you can see what’s beneath that dust cover at the very top of this post. It looks lovely on a shelf like that. Inside are 144 pages of high quality paper, all full-colour and there’s an absolute tonne to read! I can remember being engrossed by this for days throughout the holidays that year. I’ll wrap things up today with another celebrity cameo and a quick example of the variety of topics the book covers: fashion!

Great, now I’ve got Drop the Pilot stuck in my head! I must say I sympathise with Joan here, her quote rings an all-too-familiar bell. (You thought all these comics on the blog were my copies from childhood?) This fantastic book originally sold for £4.95, a princely sum for something sitting among the annuals that year, but you’ll get it for cheaper than that nowadays on eBay.

This has brought back a lot of happy memories of reading it the first time around. I feel like a kid at Christmas all over again. (Well, I still am!) For any fans that missed out on this at the time, or perhaps for younger blog readers that hadn’t started reading Beano (or been born) yet, this is a must purchase for a few quid. Also, for anyone interested in the history and evolution of comics this is still truly fascinating and has the cherry on top of including so many laughs along the way!

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Book Reviews, G.I. Joe

G.i. JOE COMPENDiUM BOX SET: iT’S ARRiVED!

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(This post was due yesterday but Storm Éowyn had other
ideas and knocked out my electricity and internet!)

In May 2024 I told you all about a fantastic new Kickstarter project from Skybound Entertainment and Image Comics. With the rights to produce G.I. Joe (and Transformers) comics now in their more than capable hands they were not only carrying on the G.I. Joe A Real American Hero comic from #301 onwards, still written by Larry Hama no less, they’d also be reprinting ALL of the original Marvel run in what promised to be a quite awesome compendium box set.

You can check out the blog post from last year to read about how I became a fan of the comics, about my pledge and the Kickstarter campaign itself. It went on to break all records to become the most funded comics Kickstarter ever, raising over $3.7million (almost £3million). It was a thrill to be a part of that! They promised they’d start delivering the sets to American customers in December and the rest of the world in “early 2025”, so I naturally assumed anytime up until the spring.

You can imagine my surprise when I received word on New Year’s Eve that mine had arrived in the UK, and how ecstatic I was when I got a knock on my door and was handed a (very) heavy parcel on 3rd January! After the awful year 2024 had been it was like 2025 was telling me things were going to be okay after all. In this post I’m going to show you all of the cool things that came in that parcel so be prepared to feel jealous. (I can’t even say I’m sorry about that, it’s just that awesome.)

The box itself is huge and has a lovely glossy finish, with artwork on either side drawn by Andy Kubert (Batman, X-Men, Thor) and coloured by Brad Anderson (Action Comics, Batman Three Jokers, Ghost Machine). The gatefold lid opens up to reveal the huge spines of four hardback volumes inside. I mean, I knew these were going to be big but it still surprised me just how huge they were when I first opened it.

Reading about their design and seeing mock ups of them on Kickstarter never prepared me for how gorgeous they’d look and feel in real life. I love how they’re embossed and that the star on the front and spine matches each volume’s fancy gilded-edged pages. Aren’t they glorious? At over 620 pages each there’s plenty to get stuck into as well. In fact, inside the four tomes are 155 issues of the original comic, three Yearbooks, 28 issues of Special Missions, four issues of the Transformers crossover, four issues of Order of Battle and one G.I. Joe Special.

In total that’s 195 issues! So even though I spent £235 on this and that may sound like a lot (it was), it’s really only £1.20 per issue, which in itself is a bargain considering how much they can go for on eBay, never mind the fact they’re wrapped up in such high quality presentation! While I’d have preferred the original dotted colouring just for that extra retro feel, the strips do look lovely. It’s a sympathetic updating, each colour and tone replicated perfectly as solid blocks of colour. There’s no gaudy updating or errors and the linework remains crystal clear and detailed, unlike some collections I’ve had in the past (I’m looking at you, Batman: The Golden Age).

Also included inside the books are lots of extras I never saw in the few IDW collections I had, such as profiles and even extra stories. Oh, and the option I went for includes a bookplate signed by Larry himself. On top of all that reading there are also physical copies of the Special, #21 (the famous silent issue) and the first Yearbook, the latter of which isn’t in the hardbacks because it was all reprint material.

But that isn’t all. As the Kickstarter rocketed past stretch goals a whole bunch of extras were added, all of which are included here. There’s a pack of G.I. Joe trading cards, then nine more cards exclusive to this set, an additional exclusive Storm Shadow card, a double-sided bookmark, a sticker, pin badge, patch, prints and four posters showing the sides of both the G.I. Joe set and the red Cobra set that was also available.

Phew!

Having a flick through the first book I think I’ll be reading new stories for me by the end of that volume alone! I’d previously read some in the pages of Transformers and tried collecting the earlier stories when IDW had the licence but I failed miserably (more on that here), so to finally have the full set and be able to read the whole story in order for the first time is incredibly exciting.

I’ve begun collecting Skybound/Images continuation but they’ll be sitting on the shelf for now. With the phenomenal success of this set (originally they only aimed to raise $50,000) I’m hoping for a similar box for IDW’s 145 issues and specials to bring me fully up to date before I begin reading the new stories. Yes, that means the new monthlies will be on my shelf for a while but I’m used to collecting comics and waiting a long time to read them with this blog. Besides, this set is going to take a minute to get through and if they do a second set it’ll be worth the wait to avoid spoilers.

Okay, I’m off to make a massive pot of coffee, cut several slices of Christmas cake, put on some appropriate background music (I’m thinking James Horner’s Aliens and Steve Jablonsky’s Transformers scores) and I might even slip into my comedy shark onesie a friend got me for Christmas and get stuck into this. You might hear back from me by the summer…

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Big Comic Book, Book Reviews, Gums

CLASSiC GUMS: BiTiNG COMEDY

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In 1975 the greatest movie ever created was released across the world, becoming the first blockbuster and entering the public consciousness, making it ripe for official sequels and the obligatory spoofs. Out of the latter, the best by far was a UK comic strip which first appeared in Monster Fun in 1976, making the transition to Buster the year after and remaining there until 1984. It’s been an absolute joy to get reacquainted with Gums.

When he appeared on the cover of Monster Fun #35 he was an instant hit. In fact, I was surprised to find out he didn’t last even longer in Buster. I discovered him in the Big Comic Book series (and its fortnightly comic) in the late 80s and even though I hadn’t seen Jaws by that stage I was aware of it, and got the joke of a great white shark with dentures straight away, including the tagline ‘A Shark Worse Than Its Bite’ and the comic’s version of the famous Jaws theatrical poster.

I was thrilled to receive this first collection of Gums strips last Christmas. Released by Rebellion, within its 132 pages is the character’s entire run from Monster Fun, made up of 39 strips from the regular issues and a further 12 from the annuals which continued through to 1985. It’s such a shame OiNK’s annuals didn’t continue after the comic was cancelled.

There are actually a few links with our piggy publication here. One of OiNK’s original writers, Graham Exton has written the introduction to the book, the character was co-created by IPC Magazine’s Bob Paynter who championed the idea of OiNK from the off, of course there are a few strips by John Geering who contributed some fantastic pages for Uncle Pigg and there’s even one strip drawn by Roger Rental’s very own Ian Knox, and another by The Slug’s Lezz!

He wouldn’t exactly be a threat to Richard Dreyfus, would he?

While I’ve fond memories of Gums from Big Comic, I don’t recall many strips featuring Bluey, the Australian surfer who ends up in a back and forth with Gums over the false teeth. Often, whoever wins at the end of one week’s strip would still be in possession of the dentures the next, these small story arcs of a sort adding to the addictive nature of the book.

All of the strips here are written by Roy Davis (Faceache, Joker, Vampire Brats) and while the strip might sound like it could be one-dimensional, the end result is anything but! Think of the best Looney Tunes cartoons, specifically Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote which never stopped being original and hilarious despite the simple premise, and you’ll get the drift. Yes, it’s that funny! Unlike those cartoons though, you never know who’s going to win from one strip to the next.

Because of the way I was introduced to the character through reprints of John Geering’s Buster strips, I was initially a bit disappointed he doesn’t feature much, but I very quickly grew to love original artist Robert Nixon’s (Rodger the Dodger, Korky the Cat, Frankie Stein) work. Alf Saporito (Gus Gorilla, Nosey, Master Spy) takes over after a fashion, ghosting Robert’s art somewhat but then developing a more detailed style, with Les Barton (The Slugs, I Spy, Knight School) drawing one when Alf must’ve been on a break, although it’s deliberately ghosted so you’d never recognise that it’s Lezz. 

Here’s one of John’s strips from the book for you to enjoy.

For being a shark, Gums is wonderfully expressive as you can see from the highlights I’ve chosen. Below, he gets so paranoid that any food is just bait thrown in by Bluey that he almost wastes away. Then there’s a scene that actually had me laughing out loud. During an on-the-water carnival full of people wearing large cartoon character heads, he steals a hat from a clown and puts it on his snout, then steals ketchup from a picnic on the beach and smears it over his mouth. Bobbing up and down alongside a boat, he tricks the police into thinking he’s a passenger in fancy dress!

It’s completely insane! It’s brilliant! He may think he’s the most terrifying creature in the ocean but he’s completely inept, yet he’s so inventive with his crazy schemes he ends up very loveable. He never actually catches any people or any of the sea creatures he chases, and he’s just as partial to a pork pie or a creamy dessert than he is to actual fish or people.

Later strips taken from the Monster Fun annuals point to how things had developed in the pages of Buster, with less Bluey and the introduction of Cap’n Mayhem and an ensemble cast of underwater characters (such as Olly the octopus), giving it an underwater sitcom kind of feel. These are more in line with that I remember enjoying as a kid but I’ve loved every single moment of discovering his earlier escapades. From foretelling Jaws’ many sequels by exclaiming “Revenge! Revenge!” in the early pages to becoming a bobbing clown, this is an unmissable collection of classic comedy that hasn’t lost any of its ability to make the reader laugh.

There’s a reason a Gums strip will always appear in each Big Comic Book review. Even out of so many pages he’s always the funniest. You can pick up his own excellent book at any good comics store or book shop, or you can order it directly from Rebellion’s online shop. To finish, since I’m covering this during the festive season (so you can throw unsubtle hints at your loved ones), here’s a rare moment of unity between the great white and the young surfer to mark the occasion.

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Book Reviews, OiNK Contributors

FRANKENTHiNG: DR. BANX’S MONSTER

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Originally published back in 2016, I first covered Jeremy Banx’s hilarious book on the first incarnation of the OiNK Blog. Now, eight years later and as part of the monthly OiNK Contributor Releases series, I just had to include it again because it’s so damned good! It still feels fresh, exciting and original, and of course there’s plenty to giggle about.

Frankenthing is a prose book lavished with the kind of illustrations fans of Jeremy’s Burp will lap up and narrated in a style only he can do. It all kicks off when the monster created by Doctor Frankenstein (or, Doctor Henry Victor Lionel Basil Kenneth Edison Clive Edsel Frankenstein to give him his full name) is down in the dumps because he’s lonely, so his creator makes him a little friend thanks to a ‘toy’ brought into the castle by Igor, the one-eared cat. Not that anyone actually knows what he was when he was alive.

Any pig pal should be leaping for their wallets after reading these samples. Jeremy’s style is such that it’s completely suitable for younger readers too. In fact, in parts it reads like a classic children’s book, the likes of which we may have grown up on ourselves. I can just imagine OiNK fans and their children having the greatest time together with this as their bedtime story over the course of a few nights.

There are funny little footnotes which elaborate on passing comments within the text, the book is full of brilliantly original sound effects for kids to repeat out loud and as you can see, even though Frankenthing is such a diminutive little character his creation is still shown in epic Universal monster movie style. Jeremy’s descriptions paint a picture too, with phrases such as, “his bottom quivered like a fried egg in an earthquake” and “his knees shook like a road-driller’s watch chain”.

The friendship between the two characters is genuinely sweet if completely unorthodox and the main bulk of the story has them playing a game of hide-and-seek (with the monster’s seeking hindered somewhat: “Because he had no idea how to count to a hundred he had to count to one a hundred times”), during which Igor the hungry cat eyes up the new addition. The resulting chase and back and forth involving all three characters feels like a hectic Wallace & Gromit scene in written word form, and who better to do that than Jeremy Banx.

Jeremy seems to have a particular penchant for anything to do with eyes, as they pop up in comedically grotesque ways throughout the story. The highlight of laughable grossness is a bucketful of loose eyeballs Frankenthing falls into and the job he has in trying to get back out again! It’s an addictive read and you’ll speed through the thirteen chapters and enjoy every single second of it. Told in a quick-fire style, you’re only ever a few sentences away from something funny (or surreal and funny).

The idiocy of the two main characters spills over into the narration as well. While they’re about to talk (or, in the case of the monster, grunt) the narration gives us insights into the inner workings of what should be their brains, in funny moments like the first sample below. Then in the second photo is an example of a call back to one of the paragraphs above, something else Jeremy does so well in this book that brings some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

Also included are some appendices which are referred to at random points within the main story. For example, the first one takes a good long look at the historical contexts of the Frankenstein family emblem, every elaboration getting more ludicrous than the one before. There are also instructions on how to make origami trolls (the monster’s favourite pastime), a map, medical certificates and more.

Frankenthing is unmissable for any fan of Jeremy’s. I loved every single page and I can see parents and their children having a blast with it! It’s available through Amazon at £5.95 for the gorgeous paperback edition or £1.99 for the Kindle version. (Oh, and for some reason there’s a French version on Apple Books for £5.49 too.) So treat yourself or your kids… or throw a hint for the little holiday coming up next month.

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Book Reviews, The Sleeze Brothers

SLEEZE BROTHERS #4: OH, MOTHER!

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This cover perfectly sums up our inept private detectives from the far future of Earth and welcomes us to the first issue of the second half of The Sleeze Brothers’ run. Time is flying and soon we’ll be all out of misadventures for this duo, so I’m glad each episode has proven to be such a riotous, laugh-a-minute ride.

In this issue Mr. A. Mystery has invited the greatest detectives in the city to his outer space murder mystery weekend. Sam Spud, Vanity Case, Charlie Chin, Miss McMuffins and Mike Mallet are all present and correct as spoofs of the most successful fictional detectives. Plus the brothers have been invited too. While the rest enjoy first class snobbery, El’ Ape and Deadwood make the rocket journey in the cargo hold on their way to Norman’s Flotel, and if that name made me giggle to myself then the title spread made me grin from ear-to-ear!

It’s clear that the whole mini-series of six issues is going to be one pastiche after another. While the brothers were (as launch editor Richard Starkings admitted) heavily… ‘inspired’ by The Blues Brothers, it appears every other character, setting and storyline is a parody of some popular cultural icon or other. Well, as a huge fan of Psycho this one was right up my street as soon as it began, with the Bates Motel sitting atop an asteroid floating about in space. As you do.

Murder in Space is brought to us by the same crazy team of John Carnell (writer and co-creator), Andy Lanning (pencils and co-creator, as mentioned), Stephen Baskerville (inks), Helen Stone (letters), Steve White (colours) and Dan Abnett (editor), and this wouldn’t be the same if any one of them had been replaced by someone else. They are the perfect team for this comic!

So it’s The Sleeze Brothers does Agatha Christie meets Alfred Hitchcock and I can comfortably say this is the best issue yet. Not only is the subject matter right up my street but it feels like there’s two issue’s worth of gags squeezed into one and every single one of them lands. Every. Single. One. I’m not exaggerating here, folks. This is hilarious from beginning to end and even the inclusion of what could be seen as a somewhat problematic character today doesn’t detract, as long as you remember when this was written.

The Greebas are an alien race somewhat based on Asian stereotypes of the 80s, with ninja characters in previous issues and the ‘Charlie Chin’ detective here. There’s nothing in this or any other issue so far that pokes fun at any real ethnicity, indeed if anything they come across as aliens who have come to Earth and landed in a part of Asia instead of the clichéd American landings, and have simply learned to fit in there instead of, say, Los Angeles.

So, if you can ignore the very-80s clichéd name you’ll find they’re just another good natured spoof alongside the jokes taking aim at American capitalism, Western politics, US police corruption and the many, many other parodies you’ll see on every page. The characters end up gathered around a table watching a video of the mysterious person who has summoned them, who tells them it’s not a game; a murder is about to be committed and they have until morning to solve it, their very lives depending on it.

“Agghhh! Dieee chip-suckerrrr!”

El’ Ape reacting to a wine cork pop

The loudmouth American, Mike Wallet becomes so outraged that while confronting the spineless Norman Normaller the butler, Norman collapses to the ground, dead. This is one murder the butler didn’t do, as El ‘Ape tells us. There’s no sign of foul play, it’s like a switch had just been turned off on Norman. Then, one-by-one they all start dropping like flies. The film noir detective, Sam Spud (you can guess who he’s based on) croaks it next, poisoned by his drink.

In a particularly funny moment when El’ Ape is making some bad puns about the death, he’s acting all tough until it’s pointed out to him that he’s about to drink the same wine. After two murders right in front of his own eyes it takes things to (almost) affect him directly before he clicks there’s a murderer among them. They decide to split up, the Sleezes taking the wine cellar and one cork pop is enough for El ‘Ape above!

The searches are fruitless and as they gather together again the Greeba’s comment had me roaring. (I’ll be using that one whenever I can.) Concluding the murderer is one of them (hilariously described as “a detecticidal maniac”) they decide to go to their rooms to sleep for the night and all lock themselves in at exactly the same time. But in the morning someone has been hung in their room! A corny poem is left by the murderer at every crime scene and soon they realise they’ve only one option left and sit around a table watching each other until their shuttle back to Earth arrives.

With all the killing making her nervous, Vanity Case, the lady who the male detectives have all been drooling over, heads for the loo but after 20 minutes the remaining three start getting nervous themselves. Deadbeat kicks the door down and they find the room empty and another note. The Greeba panics and sprints to the nearest emergency escape pod which gets ejected from the hotel with a satisfying spitting sound effect.

There are only the Sleeze Brothers left and no murderer has been found, a fact that slowly (very slowly) seeps into El’ Ape’s brain when he finds what he thinks is a goodbye note. The over-the-top comedic guy and the straight guy routine works brilliantly here as one brother’s detective skills crumble (if he had any to begin with) leaving it to Deadbeat to offer up his own elegant solution.

When I turned the next page I saw a large panel with Vanity Case still alive and holding a gun over someone so I assumed for a second she must be the killer, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. There’s no way I could’ve predicted this ending.

So, she’s being held prisoner instead of being murdered because the killer fancies her, of course. We only see him in silhouette for a page or two and he says if any of the so-called “greatest detectives” even bothered to look for secret passages they’d have solved everything and he reiterates the “oldest trick in the book” gag from #1. At this point El’ Ape does indeed find a secret passage, although it’s by fumbling luck of course, and what do they find? Well…!

Nope, I didn’t see that coming! Even with the Psycho parallels, too. Taking the controlling nature of Mother to the extreme, this team’s creative imaginations are either sheer brilliance or evidence of some crazed minds. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions. As for this issue’s conclusion, Norman hadn’t died, he’d been put in a comatose state by the “sharp mind” of his parasitic brother Jacques, but as the killer does the usual long-winded explanation (and El’ Ape doesn’t miss a beat with a “I had a hunch” moment), Norman begins to wake.

The ludicrous slapstick of it all is brilliantly realised, isn’t it? The skill of John’s script and the artists’ in bringing it to the page cannot be overstated. From the image of Norman and Jacques fighting it out to Vanity getting accidentally thrown to safety by a panicked El’ Ape, and of course the idiocy of Jacques getting so mad he kills the person in whose body he resides, then pleading with him not to die!

The story ends with El’ Ape and Deadwood thinking they’ve got it all sown up, including the reward. All they have to do is sit on top of the cupboard Vanity is stuck inside until the authorities arrive, explain they solved it all and collect their cash. Then we see the newspaper headline: “Vanity Unveils Vile Villain” and the brothers are back in the luggage haul of the rocket on their way home, only this time inside a wooden case. All that’s left is for El’ Ape to have the final, brilliant word.

What an absolute blast this has been! If you only ever pick up one issue of The Sleeze Brothers make sure it’s this one. Then again, I’ve yet to read the final issues, so maybe hang fire and see if anything trumps this one, although I can’t see how they could. However, after the laughs I’ve had here I won’t underestimate this team’s ability to outdo themselves yet again. The penultimate regular issue will be reviewed right here in only three weeks on Monday 21st October 2024.

iSSUE THREE < > iSSUE FiVE

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