The Adventure Continues...

Let us revisit yesterday's Supersnipe excerpts and see the story from which they came. We're still just on the second issue of Supersnipe, #7. (Ah, comics)

We open with Supersnipe on vigilant patrol...

But, soon enough, the two upon whom Supersnipe had been eavesdropping stir, and...

A brief, and bumbling, chase through the woods later, Supersnipe's luck & pluck leave him the victor...

Always eager to be recognized for the hero that he is, Koppy takes advantage of the situation, carefully keeping control...

Well, that worked out about as well as expected. But, on the up side, Supersnipe has found the kidnap victim!

While our young hero struggles with his new dilemma, the Fed and the Reporter have recruited the local Sheriff for back-up. "Uncle Toiks" and "Uncle Creeps" spot them coming and take off to avoid capture just before they arrive...

After their embarrassing escapades in the woods, our "Adults" decide a little payback fun is due, and quickly come up with a scheme...

This leads to a nice example of George Marcoux's use of the page in his layouts 75 years ago...

Rather surprisingly, despite "Chekov's Maxim", nobody steps on that rake when...

This would be the little trouble with bees mentioned yesterday, leading to Koppy's time in jail and Man Of 1955 fantasy sequence shown in yesterday's post. After his release from jail and a night's sleep, Koppy is annoyed and frustrated at the news coverage of his adventure...

But a new opportunity arises as he hears a series of terrible noises from outside, and Supersnipe is quickly back in action...

In following the lady in distress to rescue, Supersnipe leads to yesterday's other excerpt - with Doc Savage dropping down from above, and Koppy grabbing a shotgun wielded as a club, preventing Doc from being struck from behind while Supersnipe himself is flung into the driver's seat...

Supersnipe - The Boy With The Sorest Butt In America!

This was far from the last time other Street & Smith heroes would appear, of course...

most pages from Supersnipe v1 #7 (1942), tag image from v1 #10 (1943)

Meanwhile, Back On The Snipe Hunt...

You may recall, from the long gone days of last weekend, this image of Supersnipe's imaginings of The Man Of 1955:

That strange child's head on a man's body showed up again in the following issue. We see young Koppy McTodd McFad in the hoosegow, tossed in to calm him down after a minor rampage with bees...

...and the pattern was set. Whenever imagining himself as an adult, he always visualized himself as he is now, but with the superhero body. Later in that same issue, he teams up for the first time with Ulysses Q. Wacky for an adventure that expanded the scope of the book in a mildly insane way:

I find myself mixed with admiration and horror at the placement of the advertisement in the story like that. But, we digress...

And so, with the second issue of his comic, George Marcoux has effectively opened Supersnipe up for unlimited story telling.
But the breaking down of barriers wouldn't stop there. In that same issue...

Supersnipe interacting with real, honest-to-comics superheroes?

More next time...

pages from Supersnipe #7 (1942)

Borgia In Blue

Alejandro Jodorowsky is one of those artists whose voice is so uniquely distinctive that he almost has to exist outside of the mainstream, while being admired by those who create there. His followers are passionate about his films, and time is usually quite favorable in how his work is viewed though it may frequently be less understood and often hidden from sight upon first release. El Topo, his earliest cult hit, with fans like John Lennon, created the midnight cult movie concept. The Holy Mountain defined him globally as the premiere surealist film maker of the time. His never-filmed adaptation of Dune is considered a lost treasure.
Later, he partnered with legendary French (so very, very French) artist Moebius to create The Incal series, again heavy in surrealism and mysticism at the core, even in the heavy scifi trappings.

So, what happens when you mix Alejandro Jodorowsky with peerless Italian erotic artist Milo Manara for an historical fiction based on the House of Borgia?
We get this week's

Their Borgia collaboration runs 4 volumes. We'll just be peeking into the first book today:

They immediately set the tone of the book in a single panel that opens the first view of Rome:

Early in the book, they set up the conflict between the Borgias and the Church...

NOTE: Most of the artwork from this post has been moved to our back room for adult content. A few images and the text of the post remains for you to be able to decide if you wish to see more.
Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive of the original post to view the artwork.

...the children are found alive in the closet there.
Of course, it wouldn't be proper Jodorowsky without a bit of surrealism and mysticism mixed in our imagery...

The tale goes into behind the scenes political manipulations to serve personal hatreds and agendas...


...culminating in a clash of power between the Borgia family and the Church...


Here ends the first book. Lest you suspect otherwise, with 52 pages of story, we've skipped quite a bit here. Both creators are masterful storytellers, and their talents combine well. Books 2-4 have been in the to-read piles for a while, but keep getting pushed back on my frequent "Maybe this should be saved for later" policy. Ergo comment on how the series develops shall have to be deferred until after reading.

But don't let that stop you from reading ahead. I don't mind.

pages by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Milo Manara from Borgia: book 1 (2006)

Sunday Morning Funnies - Overseas Edition

As regular reader knows, we've been back in the 40s this week.
Say you were a serviceman stationed overseas at the time. You're desperate for a taste of home - for those little things that make life familiar & comfortable. Well, don't worry - we've got you covered. It's the Overseas Edition of Sunday Morning Funnies, bundled up without the clutter of a newspaper to get in your way:

Sure beats the comics in Stars & Stripes.

Overseas Comics #47 (1945)