Andrew A. Smith

Tribune Content Agency

It’s the fifth birthday of UK publisher Titan Comics, but readers are getting the presents.

Not a lot of British comics make their way to the U.S., and Titan doesn’t publish the ones most people know. You won’t see Judge Dredd with a Titan logo (IDW has the U.S. rights to that) or Captain Britain (that’s Marvel Comics). Instead, Titan publishes an eclectic mix of adaptations and creator-owned works that appeal to mostly older readers, or those that like the offbeat.

Copyright Titan Comics

Cover to Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years.

The current Titan book with the broadest appeal is probably Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years ($29.99). This lovely coffee-table book leads with interviews with Kevin Feige (the Marvel Studios president who has been the guiding force behind the films) and Louis D’Esposito (the co-president), followed by a timeline of when the films occur.

That last is a little controversial, because the films themselves have fumbled that particular detail. Characters in a given movie will mention events happening X number of years ago, which will contradict another movie, where a different character will say it was Y years ago. The timeline does its best, but when it lists Iron Man as occurring in 2010 – the movie came out in 2008 – you know they’re struggling.

The bulk of the book is 19 sections, devoted to all the movies through 2018, from Iron Man to Ant-Man and Wasp. Each section includes a summary of the movie’s developments and end-credits scenes, interviews, a list of Easter eggs and, of course, lots and lots of pictures. The interviews are pretty thorough, and include Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Don Cheadle (Jim Rhodes), Benedict Cumberbatch (Stephen Strange), Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff), Evangeline Lilly (Hope van Dyne), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner) and, fittingly, the late Stan Lee.

That should keep a Marvel movie fan busy for a while.

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Interior art to Yellow Submarine, by Bill Morrison.

Another impressive book of wide appeal (at least to Baby Boomers) is an adaptation of Yellow Submarine ($29.99), published to commemorate the movie’s 50th anniversary.

The book came out Aug. 28, and it’s beautifully done. Writer/artist Bill Morrison (editor of MAD magazine) is able to capture the whimsical Peter Max-inspired art of the era perfectly – and took advantage of the graphic novel medium in ways a movie can’t.

“I started asking myself, ‘what do comic books and print have that they can’t really do in a film?’” he said. “I hit on the idea of really making each page look like a poster – like psychedelic black-light posters that I used to have all over my walls in the '70s. I thought I could make these pages graphically stimulating. So I started designing the pages with that in mind – with that graphic poster sensibility – and I got really excited about it. People who have seen the pages – fans of the original movie – have really liked it and thought ‘he’s doing something different with it.’”

For true fans, Titan released a box set ($199.99) on Oct. 10, which includes not only the book, but a 6.5” yellow submarine, five badges, an exclusive art card and – reproduced from the 1968 originals – 16 lobby cards, four movie posters and a premiere movie ticket. 

We know All You Need Is Love, but having all that stuff is pretty groovy.

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Cover to Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini, by Cynthia von Buhler.

A walk on the wild side – that’s Lou Reed, not The Beatles, sorry – includes Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini ($24.99). It’s written and drawn by “Countess” Cynthia von Buhler, an avant-garde artist, playwright, performer and producer who has created the “Speakeasy Dollhouse,” an immersive theater production of a true story of Prohibition-era murder, gangsters, bootlegging and, of course, infidelity.

Minky Woodcock has most of that, too. Set in the 1920s, Minky is an unappreciated employee of her father’s private detective agency, a man who (it is implied) is the model for Sherlock Holmes. To prove her worth, she takes a job with Harry Houdini’s entourage, where she tries to sleuth out who is trying to kill the magician, helps Harry expose fake spiritualists, and detects his infidelities for Mrs. Houdini. The story is based on true – and strange – events surrounding Houdini’s death, as collected at minkywoodcock.com. It even involves some contemporaneous historical figures, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes) and murder-mystery author Agatha Christie.

Minky Woodcock is published under Titan’s Hard Case Crime umbrella, a line dedicated to reviving the sensibilities of the pulp novels of years agone. That means it’s for adults, and Woodcock is replete with plenty of nudity. The nekkidness never rises to erotica (or sinks to porn) due to the eccentricities of von Buhler’s style, which harkens back to the 1920s in looks, but adheres to the 21st century in approach, with models and photo reference. It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it’s sublime.

Moving on to madness, The Prisoner: The Uncertainty Machine comes out Dec. 19. It’s based on the famed Patrick McGoohan TV show, but is set in the modern day. It is, nevertheless, just as disorienting and surreal as the 1960s version.

The book stars Agent Breen, an MI6 agent who may or may not have quit the agency, may or may not be on a mission to locate The Village, and may or may not be a traitor. Honestly, his life becomes so psychotic that even he doesn’t know what’s true.

So when the secrets behind The Village are revealed, they may finally answer all the questions the McGoohan character had all those years ago. Or they may not.

Written by Peter Milligan (Enigma, X-Statix), The Uncertainty Machine functions as both an espionage story and a nostalgic, mind-bending romp through the McGoohan concepts. The artwork, by Colin Lorimer, is as clean and concise as a scalpel, contrasting with the story, which is anything but.

Speaking of TV shows, Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor launched in October, based on the current Doctor Who series. Writer Jody Houser does a great job of capturing the Doctor’s eccentric dialogue, and artist Rachael Stott (mostly) captures the likenesses of Jodie Whittaker, who plays the Doctor, and the four companions. If you like Doctor Who but have a preference for an earlier version, Titan has been publishing Whovian collections for years, and has a huge back catalog to choose from.

And I would be remiss in not mentioning two adaptations from other famous sources.

Titan has published graphic novel adaptations of all three books from Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy, starring outlaw hacker Lisbeth Salander. But while the novels and movies are continuing the series in one direction (an adaptation of David Lagercrantz’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web is currently in theaters), Titan is going in another. Written by Sylvain Runberg and drawn by Belen Orgega, The Girl Who Danced With Death is an all-new Millennium series sequel that lives up to the standard set by Larsson. It launched in August, and the third issue is on sale now.

Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer: The Night I Died is another series that has already been collected ($16.99) – and couldn’t be any more authentic. It’s developed from a never-before-seen 1950s screenplay by Mickey Spillane and written by gumshoe veteran Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition). There’s broads, bullets, guns, gangsters, mysteries – you know, an average day in the life of Mike Hammer.

Other adaptations include German TV (Babylon Berlin), videogames (Assassin’s Creed, Bloodborne, Life Is Strange, Wolfenstein), miniature war games (Warhammer 40,000) and novel series (Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Warrior books, Newbury & Hobbes, Rivers of London, Shades of Magic). Current and upcoming originals include McCay (in which British mathematician Charles Hinton has an imaginary adventure with the “Li’l Nemo” creator in the fourth dimension), Emma G. Wildford (a voyage of self-discovery in the Roaring Twenties), Brother Nash (a trucker who sees ghosts investigating highway mysteries) and Tyler Cross Vol 1: Black Rock (1950s noir set in rural Texas, by the author of The Death of Stalin). And there’s always the irreverent Tank Girl, whose long-running adventures continue at Titan.

And yes, there’s still more. But let’s save that discussion for Titan’s sixth birthday.

Find Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), on his website (captaincomics.ning.com), on Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or on Twitter (@CaptainComics).

 

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