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Wednesday 24 April 2024

Authors: Yann & Alain Henriet
Age: 12 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 64 colour pages
Publication: January 2024

ISBN: 9781800440883 IN STOCK

£11.99 inc. VAT

Everything is in place. The radio guidance relays are active, the Silbervogel, the intercontinental bomber, is operational, and Anna is ready to fly it to America – a suicide mission. As for Werner, he seems incapable of fulfilling his mission and killing the beautiful test pilot, in whom he still sees his childhood friend. The arrival of Soviet forces, along with the courage of a handful of prisoners and partisans, will give them both one last chance to do the right thing … Can they seize it?

Seven years ago... That's when this started. I had trouble remembering what had gone on before when it came to volume 5 so volume 1?! Anyway, I did a deep search on CBO and it took a while since the posts were that far back Blogger will not show them in searches and here are the reviews from volumes 1-5:

2018

vol.1 https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2018/03/cinebook-9th-art-bears-tooth-1-max.html

vol.2 https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2018/10/bears-tooth-2-hanna_32.html

2019

vol. 3 https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2019/02/cinebook-9th-art-bears-tooth-3-werner.html

2023

vol. 4 https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2023/09/cinebook-ltd-bears-tooth-4-amerika.html

2024

vol. 5

https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2024/03/cinebook-ltd-bears-tooth-5-eva.html

I know what you are asking -"How did it end?" You want that big a spoiler?! Get out of here!! Everything I would want to say about this book is covered in all the other reviews. The art is wonderful and the uniforms, vehicles and settings are all spot on as is the history where it isn't fiction (these days I find it hard to tell them apart). The artwork cannot be faulted.

And the story? Well, as you might expect there are plot twists, things happen you were not expecting and there are some very nice twists that keep you guessing. I did love the touch of a naval diver named Crabb and if you wonder why that caught my attention then look up the mystery of Lieutenant-Commander Lionel Kenneth Phillip Crabb, OBE, GM (28 January 1909 – presumed dead 19 April 1956), known as Buster Crabb, a Royal Navy frogman and diver who vanished during a reconnaissance mission for MI6 around a Soviet cruiser berthed at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1956. My past catching up with me memory-wise.

The series ended "well" you might say but it is difficult to give anything away but now that you can buy volume 1-6 completed I would recommend it. Recommended especially if you are into war comics -there are elements here of triple cross agent Zigzag -Edward Arnold Chapman and Operation Crossbow (there was a film with George Peppard based on and titled Operation Crossbow in 1965 and Christopher Plummer played Chapman in the 1966 film Triple Cross).

Recommended

Tuesday 23 April 2024

Watchmen - 1950's Super Panavision 70

The Art of Jumbo Machinder Collector Tom Franck

Ace Hart The Atomic Man....

...has let himself go a bit

But he is from another parallel Earth so...

Monday 22 April 2024

Hunting for Comics (and Signatures) at the Best PURE Comic Book Show I’v...

Cinebook Ltd: YOKO TSUNO 19 - THE ASTROLOGIST OF BRUGES

Author: Roger Leloup
Age: 8 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
Publication: April 2024

£8.99 incl VAT

ISBN: 9781800441309

Yoko goes to Bruges, Belgium. She’s been invited there by a local artist, Van Laet, who wants to show the portrait of her he supposedly painted. Taking in the sights before their appointment, the young woman learns that the man has an unpleasant reputation – it is said he made a deal with the devil.

When they finally meet, the painter produces the portrait and claims that Yoko posed for it … in the 16th century!

Whooh! "Come and see your portrait I painted -do you mind syringes or guns?" We have all been there (or is it just me?) Yes, Yoko and her pals go back in time to sort out the mystery and as you might expect get into other trouble. But with time travel there are consequences despite what you might see on Dr Who.

The art as always is lovely and detailed and the architecture in particular is finely detailed and well worth checking out panels individually. I believe it was Gil Kane (I know it was) who when asked why he never put backgrounds in the early Green Lantern comics responded that no one was interested in backgrounds just the fights. Well I am glad Leloup never had that attitude!

For a series I started out thinking was going to be a "kiddies comic" I soon found out that it is good story-telling, action and adventure with plenty of science fiction. Always recommended.

How Manga Took Over American Bookshelves (Feat. Princess Weekes) | It's Lit

Sunday 21 April 2024

Hexagon Comcs: STRANGERS 11: FINALLY... ZEMBLA!

7x10 squarebound trade paperback,

94 p.

b&w

ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-267-8. -

US$12.95

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/shop-strangers-11-finally-zembla.html

by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by José Luis Ruiz Pérez, Nestor Vargas Campo; cover by José Luis Ruiz Pérez.

Contents:
- Foreword by J.-M. Lofficier
- CHAOS IN KARUNDA by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by José Luis Ruiz Pérez
- ZEMBLA VS YATAN! by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by José Luis Ruiz Pérez
- FRANCE UNDER FIRE! by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Nestor Vargas Campo
- RETURN OF THE ATTATURKEY by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Nestor Vargas Campo

HOMICRON, a NASA scientist whose body is possessed by a mysterious alien from planet Alpha.

STARLOCK, a servant of the Towers, supremely powerful cosmic entities.

FUTURA, a mysterious woman from a parallel dimension.

JAYDEE, a teenage, alien metamorph, abandoned on Earth as a baby, and who may well be the deadliest killing machine in the universe...

These characters, all “strangers” to Earth, are brought together by TANKA, a former jungle lord who has been recruited by entities from our planet’s farthest future to be their “time agent” and is now empowered to protect our world from extra-terrestrial menaces.

In this eleventh volume of Strangers, the heroes clash with the renegade Salamandrite known only as Mr. 17, to prevent the return of his alien masters, the Wan Lords, whom Kabur once defeated in the distant past...

First, they travel to the African jungle of Karunda, and then to a secret research facility in the South of France, to stop Mr. 17 from using dimensional gateways to bring the space vampires to Earth.

Special guest-stars: The Guardian of the Republic! Zembla! And the amazing Attaturkey!

Strangers always reminds me to a degree of John Byrne's Alpha Flight. Though more correctly I suppose it was more like the Bronze Age Avengers where there were regular members and gust stars. "Season 4" helps you sort out your volumes for reading and once you get a nice stack of Hexagon books that helps.

With Lofficier writing the stories and maintaining the continuity he has created (before Hexagon Comics (Cool French Comics has not been updated since 2017 but is full of information and recommended https://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/ The knowledge of these characters and the continuity he has established makes for some excellent cross-overs and here we see a story with some twists and a dark secret held by Yatan.

All a good fun read but then we have the art. The first two parts drawn by the late Jose Luis Ruiz Perez that cannot be faulted. Wonderful to see and sad that we will see no more of his work. Nestor Vargas Campo illustrates the next two parts and his artwork is a different style to Perez but equally as distinctive with solid blacks, grey toning and cross-hatching which really suits black and white comic strips.

I do recommend Hexagon Comics and particularly Strangers and these are good comics that remind me of what Marvel used to be in the 1970s and 1980s before 1990s rot set in. Check out their web site and remember: this is the age of the Hexagon!