I saw that Rebellion’s ‘Treasury of British Comics’ had a sale on so picked up a few bargains (quick! take a look – www.treasuryofbritishcomics.com)
I bought a few things that I was unfamiliar with but looked interesting, and I’ll be writing about them here.
Rebellion own a huge chunk of UK comics history and the Smash Special revives some of their characters from comics such as Lion, Buster, Fantastic! Valiant, and Smash! I was not familiar with any of the characters before, I suspect it’s because many were before my time. However, I have really enjoyed being introduced to these characters. It would be interesting to hear what readers of the original comics thought of this special edition.
There are seven brand new stories inside, each one has a one page history of the character at the start, for those who want to know a little more.
Cover art by Chris Weston
The Spider
The first story is The Spider, about a genius super criminal, who has used his speed and intellect to both commit, and prevent, crime. The story revolves around the disappearance of the Spider and his decades long master plan to stage a comeback. It’s a super little story that ends with a resolution of one tale, but the opening of a massive can of worms. I dearly want to read the follow up to this, but as there was no follow up special in 2021, I may never find out what happens next.
The artwork is excellent, suitably dark and mysterious where required; pacy and alive during action sequences. One of the best pages in the comic shows the entry of the Spider, toting a laser-gun, with a manic grin saying ‘Cower intellectual weaklings!’ A brilliant start.
Script by Rob Williams; Art by John McCrea, Colours by Mike Spicer and Letters by Simon Bowland
Thunderbolt and The Avenger
Thunderbolt was an ordinary police constable who attained short-term super powers from a special watch bequeathed to him by a Professor. This story focuses on the passing of the super mantle from Thunderbolt to a colleague going by the name of the Avenger. It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another. The story involves a run in with a crazy scientist, zombies and a massive bomb. Incredibly, this epic is told in only 7 pages and left me wanting to know what happened next.
Script by Helen O’Hara, Art by Valentina Pinti, Colours by Jim Boswell and Letters by Osvaldo Sanchez.
Johnny Future!
Apparently, Johnny Future began life as the missing link between apes and humans, but an accident at a nuclear research station, caused him to evolve and develop super-human abilities. You think they would have more safety precautions at these nuclear research facilities by now wouldn’t you?
The story is about Earth being threatened by alien invaders, the Renusians, who were one of Johnny Future’s old adversaries. Johnny is bought back to save the Earth, which he does in a montage page so full of action you can hear the ‘Kabooms’ ‘Whuds’ and ‘Kraaaaaks’ without the need of sound effects. The power unleashed by Johnny sees him starting to evolve. In a bid to halt this, Johnny is shot with a gun he devise, which results in actually devolving into a form that is decidedly hulk-like. The ideas and the action are crammed in and the artwork moves everything along perfectly with an 80’s Marvel feel to it.
Script by Anita Break, Art by Tom Raney, Colours by Gary Caldwell and Letters by SG
The Steel Claw
Like comics of old, when colour printing was difficult and expensive, the artwork is in black and white, which is great to see. Louis Crandell has a powerful steel hand, which remains visible even when Crandell becomes invisible.
This story is told for action and laughs, which I always appreciated in a comic. Judge Dredd was the toughest lawman on the planet, but his stories could involve deadpan humour, which helped to lighten things up when there had been some quite sinister and violent storylines.
Set on 31st December 1999, the story involves a plethora of evil organisations with names tortured into existence to give a menacing acronym, so we have F.E.A.R, P.H.O.B.I.A., M.E.N.A.C.E. and Q.U.A.K.E. amongst others. Also making appearances are the Queen, Tony Blair and…… Mick Hucknall! It’s hilarious
Script by Charlie Higson , Art by Charlie Adlard and Letters by Simon Bowland
Mytek the Mighty
The artwork in this story is fabulous, really outstanding. The story is set in Nigeria and is about the discovery of Mytek the Mighty; gigantic robotic ape, myth and religious icon. A wealthy entrepreneur takes an interest in bringing Mytek back to his former terrifying glory in order to help his country become a global power. It’s another story that’s crying out to be continued.
Script by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Incredible Art by Anand Radhakrishnan and Letters by SG.
Cursitor Doom and Jason Hyde
This story involves two characters from the archives; Cursitor Doom, who has extensive knowledge of the occult and defends the world from evil. Alongside him is Jason Hyde, who emits blue rays from his eyes, which allows him to read minds and see through solid objects (an accident involving radiation was involved naturally). There is a masked party at which Jason Hyde learns of a plot to kill Cursitor Doom. He must locate the threat in an old castle and save Cursitor
Script by Maura McHugh, Art by Andreas Butzbach and Letters by A.Cult (hmmm?)
The House of Dolmann
Our final story involves the creepy mechanical puppets of Eric Dolmann; genius inventor who uses his engineering, puppetry and ventriloquism skills to catch criminals, in this case an invisible burglar. The lovely artwork in the story makes Dolmann’s puppets look real, which is quite disturbing as you probably wouldn’t want to be too close to them.
Script by Simon Furman, Art by Chris Weston and Letters by Jim Campbell
In conclusion this is a great compilation comic with lots of action, mystery and laughs. A follow up would be excellent, but perhaps that’s unlikely given this was released in 2020. Maybe if a few more people buy this in the sale, Rebellion might think about a future Smash special?
Published by Rebellion. Edited by Keith Richardson and Oliver Pickles. Designed by Sam Gretton.
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