World Comic Book Review

28th March 2024

The Five #1: The Birth of 21st Century Archetypes

The Five #1 (review)
( Mysteria Maxima Media, April 2016)
Writer: Laith Tierney

An independent publication from Australia, issue one of The Five explores the creation of a modern Illuminati. Members of this secret society are a pantheon of sorts: a god of international money markets, a god of global fame, a goddess of pornography, a god of tinpot mysticism (which is, perhaps, the most awkward fit of the line-up of characters) and in a surprising twist at the end, a goddess of global terrorism.

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The Fifth Guest is an Unknown

“Storm” (review)
Writer: Tim Minchin
Orion Books, 2014
Review by DG Stewart, 15 March 2017

Los Angeles-based comedian, writer, actor, and musical polymath Tim Minchin has been very prominent this year, particularly in the press in Mr Minchin’s home country of Australia. Mr Minchin has recently released a very acerbic song. The song sharply and angrily attacks the former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Australia, Cardinal George Pell. Cardinal Pell had refused to fly from Rome to Australia to give evidence to an independent government inquiry (called a Royal Commission). The evidence related to his knowledge of the systemic sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in a rural Australian town while Cardinal Pell was in a position of responsibility over that town’s clergy. Proceeds of sales of the song were donated by Mr Minchin to the survivors of sexual abuse by priests, as a financial contribution to their airfares to Rome so that they could watch Cardinal Pell’s testimony from the same room as the cameras. This act of charity, together with the Australian penchant for both secularism and abrasive sarcasm, made the song a commercial success, and it reached the number one ranking on the Australian iTunes chart. The song concludes with lyrics whereby Mr Minchin invites Cardinal Pell to sue him.

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“By Toutatis!”

The Historical Inaccuracy of Asterix
Pilote Magazine, Hachette, 1959-2010
Writers: Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
Review by DG Stewart, 18 March 2016

“Asterix” is a comic book series comprising 36 volumes published over almost 60 years. The title character’s adventures have sold more than 300 million comic books and been translated into many languages (including, amusingly given the title character is often depicted fighting Romans, Latin). A national survey in France in 1969 indicated that two-thirds of the population of that country had read at least one of the Asterix comic books. As at the time of writer Rene Goscinny’s death in 1977, total sales in France of the comic book are said to have amounted to more than 55 million copies. “Parc Asterix” is a theme park in Paris based on the character’s adventures, and France has produced postage stamps featuring Asterix and his friends. Such is the title character revered in France that the first French space satellite, launched in 1965, was named “Asterix” in his honour. It is hard to think of any equivalent comic book character, measured by national recognition and success, in any Anglophone country.

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Satire predicts politics – Allusions to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in DC Comics’ The Demon #26-29 (1992)

“The Demon” #26, 27, 28, 29
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: Val Semeiks
DC Comics, 1992
Review by Max Yezpitelok

One highly peculiar and clearly satirical 1992 storyline contained in the pages of an obscure comic book called “The Demon”, published by American comic book company DC Comics, where a rhyming demon runs for president of the United States is amongst the oddest of all US mainstream comic book stories. But from the perspective of a very cynical reader in 2016 the story has some uncanny similarities to the current presidential election.

1

“The Demon” is an anti-hero created by acclaimed writer Jack Kirby in 1972. The character has yellow skin, blazing red eyes, and horns. There is an underlying sense of Jekyll and Hyde schizophrenia to the character, premised on the idea that an evil demon of hell named Etrigan is harboured within a well-meaning human named Jason Blood. Etrigan breathes fire and is just as likely to incinerate other characters within storylines as to assist them. As such, the character is difficult to define within the genre of superhero comics and but for being part of its famous creator’s legacy to that genre, would more properly sit within the realm of horror. Etrigan is magically summoned by the incantation, “Gone, gone, form of man, arise the demon, Etrigan!”

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