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Publisher: Dark Horse Creative Team: · Mac Raboy · Jerry Robinson · Perry Williams Related Sites: · See more at Dark Horse's Website Grade: A

The first thing you notice about Dark Horse Comics’ Green Lama Archives is a lack of Green Lama. Oh, he’s in here and drawn beautifully by Mac Raboy as promised, but out of four issues reprinted, we get exactly twenty four pages of Green Lama adventures.

Well, sir, at forty nine dollars and ninety five cents (or fifty bucks for those of you who round up) that don’t set quite right. I’ve a good mind to write several paragraphs that somebody might even skim over in order to protest this injustice. A long unwavering rant decrying this sort of flagrant bamboozle that – surely – caught the good folks at Previews unawares as they peddled this bit of bait and switch upon me.

And I would, if the damn thing weren’t so good.

Now I admit to being perturbed initially at the lack of Lama, but once I began to read the other features I realized that my fury was best left to shipping delays and the ever escalating evocation of epic events. After enjoying the scant morsels of Raboy on Green Lama I found myself immersed in the four color fantasies of Lieutenant Hercules, Rick Masters, Angus MacErc, and the Boy Champions.

The variety on hand is what I love about golden age comics. Lieutenant Hercules is the humor feature focusing on an average boob – mild mannered and meek (of course), but who longs to be something more. Through the power of Merlin and the influence of Green Lama comics he becomes the good Lieutenant and engages in adventures that satirize not only comic book hero clichés, but contemporary characters as well. I couldn’t help, but think of the influence on a certain Fat Fury Dark Horse will unleash on us in their Herbie collections slated for the fall.

Seeing as how this is a forties comic and the comics industry, like all entertainment ventures, has never tired of too much of a good thing thus we have a kid gang feature in the Boy Champions. Comprised of the rich kid, the average kid, and the Brooklyn kid - necessary for a kid gang in the forties – the Boy Champions are for hire to all those in need. With a good mix of humor, mystery, and just plain action the feature works well within the confines of the kid gang genre and maybe even transcends through a mystery tale involving a witch and a goat. Of course, I’m a sucker for witch-and-goat stories.

Rick Masters is the secondary adventure strip involving a freelance aviator and his faithful Native-American “sidekick” Twin Eagle. These two seem to have the classic comic knack of getting involved in other people’s messes. Danger and adventure find them at every turn with Twin Eagle usually being injured and their plane damaged in some way. By the fourth installment I actually started to feel sorry for the poor bastards or at least hoped that Rick and Twin Eagle would make sure that they always got the cash in advance.

The greatest surprise I had from this book came from reading Angus MacErc. This is easily one of the more clever features I’ve read (and that’s saying something coming from a comic book geek). Our lead is a fairy with an attitude, who has been stirred from a sleeping spell by a V- 2 that blasts into a wood outside London. It seems our friend was put under this spell by the Fairy King Oberon because Angus was a nasty little bugger. From England to Hollywood, we follow Angus through four continuous episodes as he encounters old friends like Paracelsus and Ponce De Leon while screwing with people for his amusement. You can’t help but like the cheerfully drawn little imp as he enjoys himself.

For those of you wondering why I haven’t addressed the content of the Green Lama feature yet it’s because I can’t help feeling you should be surprised. Mac Raboy’s reputation from his beautifully rendered work on both Captain Marvel Junior (we all have our copies of the Shazam Family Archives from DC, don’t we?) and Flash Gordon is certainly beyond question. The adventures contained in this volume follow the Lama’s time as a lead in Prize Comics and so there is a sense of continuation that leaves you wondering if you’ve missed something.

The covers Raboy provides for these books are iconic and have always jumped out at me when I’ve seen them displayed at comic conventions. In addition, there is a wonderful ad for tolerance as well as a comic two-pager for each issue called Pop Flys that was at least better than having another text piece. Not that the text pieces were bad, I just always manage to skip them so I can get to the next comic feature.

So all things considered and discussed, I would definitely rate this one a buy for anyone interested in Golden Age comics.