Rocky & Bullwinkle: Moose on the Loose
by Mark Evanier; ill. Roger Langridge (IDW, 2014) [Compiling Issues 1-4 of IDW’s “Rocky & Bullwinkle” comic]
The world’s most famous moose and squirrel duo returns, as fresh and comically self-aware in 2014 as it was fifty years previously. Interspersed with shorter Dudley Do-Right adventures, Rocky and Bullwinkle’s escapades are faithfully drawn, exuberantly nostalgic, colourful, chaotic, and delightfully clever.
Torchwood Archives, Vol 2
by Gary Russell et al. (Titan Comics, 2017)
While these Torchwood tales are a bit insipid—plenty of blundering around and treading water in the feature story, then three ho-hum vignettes and two prose pieces (one dubious, one light-hearted)—the illustrations and storyboarding are at least commendably original and creepy.
Doctor Who: Breakfast at Tyranny’s
by Nick Abadzis; ill. Giorgia Sposito & Valeria Favoccia (Titan Comics, 2017)
The Tenth Doctor and three non-television companions are thrown into a disorienting world of illusion (hence, not a good point to join the comic strip adventures). Once the action moves to Ancient China there are some nice visual touches to the storytelling.
Vader’s Little Princess
by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle Books, 2013)
A peon to parenthood, expressed through a comic (and comedic) imagining/retrofitting of the father/daughter relationship between Darth Vader and Princess Leia. Amidst the Star Wars in-jokes, there lie such simple pleasures as tiny Leia cutting love hearts from Vader’s cape.
Doctor Who: Heralds of Destruction
by Paul Cornell; ill. Christopher Jones (Titan Comics, 2017)
The character of Jo Grant appears to have morphed with Liz Shaw, but this is the only off-note in an otherwise well-scripted and paced, beautifully drawn, and above all faithful depiction of Doctor Who in the Jon Pertwee dandified exile UNIT days.
Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni Press, 2004)
An eerie, off-beat graphic novel with ‘battle of who could care less’ sensibilities. Acutely Canadian, visually innovative and nicely droll (with tinges of surreal), the story of Scott Pilgrim’s dreamy existence and slacker lifestyle plunges into an outright cult-crazy rocking good read.
Asterix and the Class Act
by Goscinny & Uderzo; trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Orion, 2003)
A tantalising collection of Asterix curios that — if nothing else — makes one appreciate how much work must go into creating a full album. In the shorter form Goscinny and Uderzo push both delightfully and delightedly at the boundaries of their famous creations.
Tintin and Alph-Art
by Hergé; trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Egmont, 1990) [original published by Casterman, 1986]
Hergé’s final Tintin adventure exists only as a collection of unfinished black-and-white sketches. Published alongside transcripts of the text (in progress), Alph-Art serves as much to sadden as to tantalise. Energetic; nostalgic (nay, playfully self-referential): there could have been one last hurrah!
Asterix and the Missing Scroll
by Jean-Yves Ferri; Ill. Didier Conrad; trans. Anthea Bell (Orion, 2015)
Apart from somehow not packing quite as much into each story, the new Asterix adventures of Ferri and Conrad are superb in capturing the spirit of Goscinny and Uderzo. Our heroes must reinstate to posterity a chapter excised from Caesar’s Gallic memoirs.
Footrot Flats, Gallery 1
by Murray Ball (Hachette Livre NZ, 2005)
Just as Charles M. Schulz gave the world Charlie Brown and Snoopy, so too did New Zealand artist Murray Ball give us grouchy farmer Wal Footrot and his imaginative Dog – the lesser known of the comic strip duos but no less charismatic!