Viral Comics!

It's still the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. I'm aware you, reader, probably know that but I'm saying that for the benefit of someone who might be reading this in some future time when this is all over. Assuming that happens.

One of my first thoughts after the lockdown started was of Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death. It's about a group of rich people who lock themselves up in a castle so that they can party while the peasants outside are dying of the plague.

This might remind one of certain footballers.

There's lots of comics adaptations of this story but I can recommend the one by Richard Corben from 2013 (published as The Raven and The Red Death by Dark Horse).

Anyway, like many other people, I have used some of my lock-down time to catch up on some things I've missed and revisit some old favourites.

For example, I have read The Wild Storm from 2017 by Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt and this panel struck me as sad. 

 

(And I hasten to point out this was before I knew what we now know about Ellis)

I've also been rereading Neil Gaiman's groundbreaking Sandman (1989) (on and off) and had forgotten that that starts with a worldwide "sleepy sickness" that baffles doctors (spoiler: it's a supernatural cause).

I had The Wilds by Vita Ayala and Emily Pearson (2018) recommended some time ago so I gave it a go.

Yep, it's about a worldwide disease. A bacterium that slowly turns people into plant-like organisms after becoming rage-induced "zombies".

It's good, too. We see the lives of the survivors and the specialist jobs of those with the skills to hunt for supplies. The plant-based plague makes for some very interesting visuals.

But there were plenty of things to draw parallels with our current situation. The importance of masks, for example.

All right, so we have ourselves a theme. Viral outbreaks. Let's take a look at some comics where they happen.

A virus (or a bacterium) is invisible. So how does one show it in a visual medium?

...Okay, that's one way.

The more usual way is to show it's effects on a group of people.

Or smurfs.

We have covered the history of those little blues gits before (click here for smurfin' more!) and mentioned their viral outbreak in their first solo story, Les Schtroumpfs Noirs (or in it's anglicised, pallet-swapped reprint Purple Smurfs, 1963) by Peyo there. But to reinforce for our purposes today we will notice that the virus crosses over from animal (a fly) to smurf.

We see that the virus can be passed from Smurf to Smurf by contact. Well, biting.

And it's left for Papa Smurf to develop the vaccine, administered by bellows.

I did comment on my previous post just how much this story resembles a zombie outbreak (albeit years before Night of the Living Dead) so let's briefly mention zombies.

Zombie comics have become their own mighty sub-genre, thanks largely to the all-conquering The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard (2003-2019). 

But zombies are undoubtedly their own category, to be covered another time. 

However, my favourite mass-extinction comic story (and everyone should have at least one) is Brian K Vaughn and Pia Guerra's Y: The Last Man.

A tale of a world where every male mammal, apart from the titular Yorick and his monkey Ampersand, died instantly from an unknown disease. I won't spoil any of it here but I do recommend it.

Skipping to a different kind of comics, Daniel Clowes' David Boring (2000, originally serialised in Eightball) features a sequence where the eponymous David is led  to believe that germ warfare has struck the mainland and he's forced into quarantine in a house on an island with a group of (mainly) strangers.

It doesn't take look for paranoia and recriminations to start.

Again, I won't spoil things.

On to the world of 2000AD now and a major outbreak of the virus 2T(fru)T (ahem) has driven a sizable portion of the residents of Mega City Two mad, at the start of the epic story The Cursed Earth (1978) by Pat Mills and Brian Bolland (among others).

The scientists of Mega City One have developed a vaccine and it's up to Dredd to deliver it.

In a later story, a virus carried on the weather drives the resident of Mega City One mad with Block mania! (1982)

And, reflecting the world of 2020, this doesn't stop the citizens from taking to the beaches...

To the world of superheroes now and perhaps the best outcome for a viral outbreak: SPIDER-POWERS!

Marvel's 2011 crossover Spider-Island (various writers and artists) event saw the residents of Manhattan mysteriously developing the proportional strength and agility of a spider! Plus, y'know, sticking to walls an' that.

Fortunately New York mayor J Jonah Jameson (yes, really) was the proper authoritarian leader they needed. Immediate lockdown and forced quarantine stopped the spread any further.

Say what you like about JJ, he was a strong leader in a time of crisis.

On now to Gotham City, which in the 1996 crossover Contagion (various writers and artists) was in the grip of the Clench!

An engineered airborne virus, by people working for R'as Al Ghul, was brought into Gotham by one of the city's rich elite and spreads rapidly.

Gotham's rich elite, however, believe they are safe in their climate-controlled towers.

Yep, we're back to the Red Death.

It will be interesting to see how this world-changing event is represented in comics in the future. It's already being addressed in some quarters. 

(Six Chix, 2020)

Some newspaper comic strips (remarkably) were ahead of the curve on this. If you want to know more about how that field has adapted, you can read this article from Polygon by The Comics Curmudgeon, Josh Fuhrlinger.

On my first trip back to comic shop post-lockdown, I was surprised to find this exchange in one of the new batch of books I'd picked up from The Boys: Dear Becky by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robinson:

I imagine this was substituted in late for a different disease, but kudos to the editors for making a scene (following one set in a crowded Scottish pub) feel new.

Some people were alarmed to find there was a character from a recent Asterix story (Asterix and the Chariot Race by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad, 2017), a champion chariot racer whose name...

Yes, the word corona-virus may have only broke through to the mainstream with Covid-19 but it was a term in use well before. And the typical Asterix punning-name convention inevitably led to this.

The story itself is a Cannonball Run-style romp with Coronavirus as the favourite (he's cheating, natch).

That's all for now. If you know of any outbreaks I've missed, feel free to let me know in the comments and maybe I'll do another.

(I've just thought of the Legacy virus from X-Men, which was more of an AIDS allegory, so don't put that)

On waterboarding and the Smurfs

A new comics blog, heralding a significant moment in culture: The triggering of Article 50 A new Smurfs movie!

This is, remarkably, the fourth theatrical feature film featuring the little blue gits. 

You probably noticed the previous two (2011's The Smurfs and 2013's The Smurfs 2) which were a combination of live action and CGI and starred Doogie Howser and Apu.

The first was The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, a Belgian cel-animation from 1976.

It's surprisingly good. Really. Maybe because the Smurfs themselves are little more than suporting characters for Johan and Peewit, the real stars.

Who?

I'm glad you asked.

Let me take you back to 1928 and the birth of one Pierre Culliford, who would get the nickname Peyo due to an English cousin who couldn't say his name correctly.

Actually, let's skip ahead to 1952, as that's when our story really starts.

Peyo had been earning a living as a cartoonist for various publications for a few years before getting a big break working at Le Journal de Spirou, a very popular anthology comic in Belgium, thanks to his friend Andre Franquin (a well-respected creator of the day). There he was able to create long-form stories of the adventures of Johan, a character he previously drew in other papers. Influenced by Hal Foster's Prince Valiant, Johan was a medieval page boy, trusted by the knights of his kingdom.

His first adventure is what we are interested in today, but we'll come back to that.

Over time, Johan becomes associated with his best friend, the more dimwitted, comedy relief Peewit and then... on one adventure....

They stumble across a strange, tiny blue creature, three apples high.

In the adventure originally titled La Flute a Six Trous (1958), we first encounter the beings called Schtroumpfs. Which were anglicised to Smurfs later.

They were an immediate hit. Just like Popeye, Shmoos and Snoopy before, you never know when a supporting character will become a merchandising goldmine.

The public demanded more Smurfs. And more Smurfs they got.

The first Smurf spin-off strip appeared a year later and the full story was published as Les Schtroumpfs Noirs in 1963.

The story concerns a Smurf being bitten by an insect and immediately turning black, angry and violent. On the English translation they changed the colour to purple to avoid any unintended racial connotations.

The original smurf bites the first smurf he sees who also becomes a purple smurf, just as angry and violent. Soon the biting "virus" spreads throughout Smurfland. Long story short, Papa Smurf finds an antidote and cures them all, but, from a 21st century perspective we can all see what this is.

A zombie outbreak.

Almost ten years before George Romero invents the genre with Night of the Living Dead (a movie that deliberately plays with racial tensions and the civil rights movement too).

And a merchandising phenomenon was born!

The solid plastic figurines became the must-have toy across Europe. By the late 1970s in Britain they were mascots for a chain of petrol stations...

...and had a regular original comic strip in Look-In Magazine.

And then there's the records...

Father Abraham in Smurfland was an album released in 1978 and was a massive hit across Europe. Particularly the single Smurf Song which was inescapable that year. If you want be slightly disturbed watch this video:

Or if you'd prefer to be REALLY disturbed watch Legs and Co perform a dance to it on Top of the Pops.

Good to know their choreographer also misheard "small keyhole" as "smoky hole", just like I did when I first heard it.

Such a massive hit that "Christmas in Smurfland" was inevitable.

Not an enormous amount of time spent on that design.

In 1981 American animation powerhouse Hanna Barbera produced a TV series called The Smurfs that ran for 9 seasons, cementing the little blue gits in the minds of entire generations worldwide.

So now everyone knows what Smurfs are but no-one remembers Johan.

So let's celebrate Johan by taking a look at his first proper adventure. The above-mentioned Le Chaitemant de Basenhau (The Punishment of Basenhau).

We begin our story in our undisclosed European country in a non-specific year in the middle ages. A jousting contest is taking place.

Johan is friends with the King's champion who needs his help.

Whilst going for the lance, Johan stumbles across the Count's rival attempting to sabotage his lance.

Told you.

The match is cancelled and the challenger thrown out.

This rival baron does not take too kindly to his plan being thwarted. And plans revenge. A plan to take over the kingdom and seat himself on the iron throne.

A spy is sent to the kingdom disguised as a travelling minstrel. Johan is immediately suspicious and accosts him in the style of Tintin's dog Snowy.

The troubadour runs for it and is tackled by our hero. 

Then, when our heroes demand information, the baddy refuses to co-operate.

He is introduced to the king's executioner.

No seriously. he's referred to as the executioner in the text.

And this is where things get a bit weird... 

See this story was originally published in chapter form in Spirou, half a page at a time (just like Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Blake and Mortimer et al.) and when the next chapter was submitted fellow cartoonist Franquin asked the editors what the French censors would say about the "torture scene". This gave the editors cold feet so the following scene was not published until 2015.

So our heroes (the GOOD guys) leave the baddy in the hands of the executioner to torture as he sees fit.

Oh yeah! We're talking waterboarding!

Also known as extraordinary renditioning.

Or enhanced interrogation.

A reminder: these are the good guys in our story.

Time to remind you this is essentially a humour strip.

Ha! You see, he couldn't be broken with real-world torture techniques but he hates being tickled!

IT'S A JOKE!

So the weird thing is that that one page was declared unpublishable so readers at the time (and indeed in future republishings) skipped from the introduction of the executioner to this:

Which makes sense as a joke (we see a torture chamber: cut to  man being tickled). However the distended belly of the troubadour is not referred to. Even as he spills his (metaphorical) guts. 

So Johan makes him write a message back to our baddy feeding him false information.

And then... Ah, who cares? 

Long story short, the good guys win.

It's late and I'm tired.

Smurfs: more to them than you thought.