Angola in the Comics #24: Jann of the Jungle

Well, here's a comic book story set in Angola - but it's not actually a comic! Jann of the Jungle #9 (1956) had a 2-page text story called "Law of the Jungle." Unfortunately, it had no images and the writer was not credited. But this is reasonably good use of Angola as it was evidently written by someone who knew a bit about the country, basing it in Chá Columba and demonstrating some knowledge of Portuguese. I've written a profile for the lead character, Eudardo Labarca on the Marvel Appendix!

Angola in the Comics #23: Mary Kingsley: La Montagne des Dieux

Once more looking at European publications, we have a 2012 French graphic novel titled Mary Kingsley: La Montagne des Dieux. This was created by writers Esteban Mathieu and Guillaume Dorison with artist Julien Telo, under the supervision of Christian Clot. It's an early entry in a series of similar graphic novels published by Glénat titled Explora, biographical works inspired by the lives of famous explorers.

Mary Kingsley is one of the few female explorers in this series and I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't heard of her before nor read her books (which are in the public domain). Based on the graphic novel and what little I've gleaned about her, Angola was a small part of her overall travels but it was one of the (many) African nations she visited and wrote about.

Mary Kingsley is only available in French so I didn't entirely follow the dialogue of the adaptation and I have yet to read her books, but it does seem like this book is inspired by her life and events and isn't necessarily an authentic account of her life. Nonetheless, the graphic novel opens with her arriving in Angola in 1893 and she spends about a third of the novel in Angola before moving on, eventually heading north to Cameroon.

As always, Europeans are very good at depicting Africa and avoiding the usual tropes I find in North American works. Julien Telo's art is very appealing, energizing the scenes of Kingsley's travels while still rendering them believeable. It's a well-made graphic novel and I'm sure I'll have even more interest in it after I've read Mary Kingsley's own writings.

Angola in the Comics #22: Carthago Adventures Vol. 3: Chipekwe

I've previously noted that when it comes to comic book depictions of Angola, European comics tend to be much better at depicting the country than North American creators. Part of what I enjoyed about both Insiders and Alter Ego was that the creators had clearly taken the time to find good contemporary references for the country's visuals.

This time I'm looking at Carthago Adventures Vol. 3: Chipekwe, a French publication from 2014 which was released in English by Humanoids in 2017. It's written by Christophe Bec and drawn by Fafner. I haven't read any other books in the Carthago series, but based on this story, it concerns a wealthy man named Feiersinger who is really into cryptozoology and travels around the world trying to prove that semi-mythical creatures really exist. He's accompanied by his ally London Donovan, a hunter who provides a lot of the muscle.

Chipekwe is the name given to a creature who is believed by cryptozoology enthusiasts to live in Zambia, although sources suggest it might also live in Angola. I'm not really into cryptozoology but I have a good friend who is and I think Carthago Adventures would be very appealing to him. The story even begins at Loch Ness as Feiersinger investigates what turns out to be a false lead.

Once the action moves to Angola, artist Fafner demonstrates some terrific visuals of the country. Heck, they go so far as to depict the TAAG airline logo on the airplane! The story turns out to have an interesting connection to Loch Ness - that is, the locals at Lake Dilolo (an actual lake in Moxico province) where the Chipekwe is said to appear, are aware of the massive tourism industry surrounding Loch Ness. When Feiersinger shows up with his expensive crew to find the Chipekwe, the locals really want to encourage him, hoping it will bring in valuable tourist dollars!

I can't say enough about Fafner's art. I mean, look at these visuals - a moonlit night in the marshes of Lake Dilolo; utterly gorgeous depictions of the Angolan countryside appear in this story. But do Feiersinger and Donovan find the Chipekwe? Is all just a big hoax? I recommend you read Carthago Adventures Vol. 3: Chipekwe and discover for yourself!

Angola in the Comics #21: Un Capitaine de Quinze Ans

First, a recap of my earlier entries in Angola in the Comics:

#1: Startling Comics Vol. 5 #2 (1942)
#2: Jungle Comics #29 (1942)
#3: Jungle Comics #150 (1952)
#4: Jungle Comics #151 (1952)
#5: Jungle Comics #153 (1952)
#6: Jungle Comics #6 (1940)
#7: Tarzan (1951)
#8: Batman #283 (1976)
#9: Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #1 (2016)
#10: Swamp Thing #19 (2001)
#11: Thrilling Comics #1 (1999)
#12: It Really Happened #4 (1944)
#13: Insiders Vol. 1: Chechen Gurrilla (2002)
#14: Njinga Mbandi, Queen of Ndongo and Matamba (2014)
#15: Black Jack (2010)
#16: Startling Comics Vol. 2 #1 (1940)
#17: Startling Comics Vol. 2 #3 (1941)
#18: Marauders #20 (2021)
#19: Alter Ego (2015)
#20: From Slavery to Freedom (1976)

This time I'm looking at a recent 2022 publication: an adaptation of Jules Verne's 1878 novel Un Capitaine de Quinze Ans (published in English as Dick Sand, a Captain at Fifteen). The novel in question was part of Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires series, to which 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth and others belonged to.

The adaptation was published by Vent D'Ouest in two volumes; the story was adapted by writer Frederic Brremaud and artist Christophe Picaud. At this stage it's only available in French but there will probably be an English version at some later date.

If you're not familiar with the story, this one is an adventure concerning Dick Sand, a 15-year old serving aboard a whaling ship in the Pacific. When the entire crew is lost during a whale hunt except for Dick (and the ship's Portuguese cook Negoro). Dick assumes command of the ship (there are several passengers, including African-American survivors of a shipwreck) but Dick is... well... a 15-year old captain. Negoro successfully alters the compass to trick Dick into sailing all the way to Angola. Hence why I'm including this adaptation!

The adaptation takes some liberties with Verne's text; Negoro's villainy is made apparent to Dick and the others much earlier as Negoro assaults Dick at one point and steers the ship himself. It is pretty difficult to think that even a novice navigator like Dick could be so easily fooled into sailing all the way across the Atlantic.

The adaptation tries to make Dick a bit more heroic; in the book, most of the heroics belong to Hercule, one of the African-American men - he ends up saving most of the cast in the book's climax not just once but several times. Hercule still plays a pivotal part in saving everyone in the adaptation but Dick is given a bit more agency, spending less time as a prisoner than he did in the original book. He is, after all, the titular protagonist (even though one suspects a better book might be titled: Hercule, a Fighter at Any Age).

It's nice to see one of Verne's lesser-known books given such a lush teatment; Picaud's artwork is very fine, rendering the characters and the environments with vivacity. As one of the few works of classical literature involving Angola, I'm certainly happy to see this adaptation.

Angola in the Comics #20: From Slavery to Freedom

As I'm on the verge of a new trip to Angola, I think it's time to revisit Angola in the Comics!

From Slavery to Freedom is a comic book that was apparently published by the MPLA prior to Angola's independence. The copy that I've read is available online at the Marxists Internet Archive; it was first published in English in 1976 by a San Francisco communist publisher called the Peoples Press. The English edition credits their translator and letterer (said letterer is the underground comics artist Spain Rodriguez!) but there are no credits offered for the original creators... for that matter, no indication of what the comic's original Portuguese title was or when the MPLA first published it.

From Slavery to Freedom is a political comic - a work of propaganda. It seems it was designed primarily to help the MPLA explain what their cause was doing through a visual narrative to assist the illiterate or semi-literate. The plot concerns a young man named Paulo who is victimized by PIDE (the Portuguese secret police), joins the MPLA and becomes one of their fighters. The story took time to demonstrate that women were part of their movement and that there were white men fighting alongside them against PIDE. It didn't actually put that much time into extolling the virtues of Marxism - the MPLA were presented simply as a pro-Angola force battling the Portuguese, that seemed to be a more important message than any idealogy.

However, the Peoples Press were themselves a lot more explicit in their messaging. They wrote an introduction and epilogue for their version in which they celebrated Angola's independence, extolled the virtues of the MPLA and denounced the MPLA's enemies (FNLA and UNITA) as puppets of the CIA. The Peoples Press had a smug tone that is really off-putting to a non-communist such as myself. Frankly, they could have learned some lessons in propaganda!

I should also mention Spain's lettering. Spain had a problem you see in many translated works - trying to retain the original text within speech balloons that can't quite accommodate it. Portuguese can be a very succinct language compared to English and can convey in a few words what takes several words to get across in English. Consequently, you can see Spain struggling in panels (such as above) where he realized he'd run out of space and had to reduce his font to fit the entire dialogue.

This comic got a bit of write-up in North America thanks to a feature that the Comics Journal ran early on in its history called "Alternating Currents" in which Bill Mantlo examined unusual propaganda comics that weren't normally reviewed by the comics fan press (this was back in the days when someone as mainstream as Bill Mantlo could contribute to TCJ). In TCJ #45 (1979), Mantlo spent 2 pages reviewing From Slavery to Freedom. He primarily recapped the comic's plot but he ultimately spoke approvingly of the comic: "Such propaganda is the only way to counter the CIA-fostered lies spread by capitalist media in this country."

Mantlo hit a nerve; in TCJ #48, reader Gerard F. Einhaus wrote in and complained of Mantlo's "political naivete" and denounced the country's liberation as "being preserved at the point of a gun barrel, made in the Soviet Union and usually held by a Cuban soldier. Maybe you call it liberation, Bill. Looks like tyranny to me." As late as TCJ #95 (1985), Mantlo was still being denounced as Dwight R. Decker wrote in an article:

"The Journal's reviewer of Nazi comics wrote as if he were fighting desperately to keep from vomiting all over his typewriter, but when his attention turned to the Marxist revolutionary comic from Angola, his tone changed to the point that he sounded as if he were writing a hymn for an angelic choir."

Decker's complaint was that Mantlo was too emotionally involved in judging propaganda (I guess we're supposed to be dispassionate in talking about Nazi propaganda?). Decker though, got to be as emotional as he liked; do as I say, not as I do.

Anyway, since the Marxists Internet Archive have put the entire comic online it's available for anyone to see; it's very much a historical artifact as the conflict with Portugal was already in the past at the time the 1976 English translation was made and now even the civil war is 22 years in the past.

More Angola in the Comics next week!

Angola in the Comics #19: Alter Ego

Just before I leave Angola, I thought it was time I visited my blog feature "Angola in the Comics" one more time.

Alter Ego is a 2015 graphic album series which originated in Belgium and became available in English via Europe Comics. This review will be quite unlike my reviews of American comics about Angola; as I've noted before, European creators seem much better informed about Angola than the Americans.

The Europe Comics website states that the series Alter Ego is: "A series conceived in the American style by a team of European creators." Roughly, the series is driven by the idea that people possess a quasi-psychic link to someone else on the planet who was conceived around the same time as they; their lives are entwined and what befalls one may befall the other.

The first book in the series Camille (by Denis Lapière, Pierre-Paul Renders and Mathieu Reynès) is where Angola comes in. This album concerns one Camille Rochant whose mother has just died and left behind a cryptic message which leads her to Angola, seeking ze Texeira, a man who happens to be the same age as her mother; but he's never heard of her mother and has no answers for why she knew his name.

The amount of detail given to the Angola sequences in Camille is excellent - many believable depictions of Angolan buildings and landscapes. It's set primarily in N'Dalatando in Cuanza Norte, but there are also scenes in Luanda at the Hospital Maria Pia. Texeira's background is also steeped in Angolan history - he recounts how he was beaten by the Portuguese in colonial times, then at age 13 went to fight for Savimbi until at age 21 he lost an arm and a leg to a landmine.

I haven't read all of Alter Ego but it's a very dense web - each story features different protagonists entrapped by the same conspiracy and gradually exposing the connective tissue. There may even be more of Angola in other volumes - I hope eventually I get around to reading them!

Angola in the Comics #18: Marauders #20

Welcome back to Angola in the comics!

Usually there are two flavours of stories I feature in this occasional series - European comics and rather racist books from the Golden Age. But today I have a rarity - an appearance by Angola in a contemporary mainstream super hero comic from Marvel Comics!

The comic in question is Marauders #20, published last year by writer Gerry Duggan and artist Stefano Caselli. Marauders is one of the many new X-Men books which have been published over the last few years since Jonathan Hickman redefined the franchise so as to render all the mutant characters basically immune to death (Hickman knows that the key to drama is to lower the stakes). The X-Men, who had previously felt somewhat like a cult instead leaned hard into that concept as now they all basically talk like a bunch of Scientologists. They like to think that on their island Krakoa they're a veritable nation, but Krakoa seems to be little more than a hotel resort.

Anyway, it's not as though the current set-up will last forever - fact is, Hickman himself foresaw an endgame for his story. But Marvel, in their wisdom, decided to keep the status quo running beyond its expiration date, as that has historically never been a problem with comics.

So then: the Marauders are pirates. But not the Captain Phillips-type contemporary pirates, they're... quasi-super hero pirates. Strangely, Nightcrawler is not among their ranks, despite being the lone X-Man renowned for his love of swashbuckling. But the one-eyed Callisto is there, which is a pretty good joke.

In this issue the Marauders sit around on their boat swapping stories about Storm and wagering on how many knives they think she owns. The Angolan connection comes up when Bishop states that Storm once helped him out in Angola. This comes as a surprise to Storm, since she doesn't recall ever being in Angola with Bishop. And so begins the flashback:

Based on the dialogue, it seems there were some Angolan mutants (not depicted on-panel) and Bishop and Pyro of the Marauders were exchanging some of Krakoa's super-medicine for their release. But as the flashback begins, Bishop and Pyro are facing four armed Angolan soldiers who want to change the terms of their deal. Oh no! How will Bishop (able to absorb any form of energy, basically unkillable even without Krakoa) and Pyro (walking flamethrower) ever overcome four men with guns?

Actually, this doesn't come down to a fight - it's a bit more clever than that. There's a storm forming in the sky above and Bishop claims that Storm herself is responsible for it. It's a bluff, but a loud thunderclap convinces the lead officer to relent and agree to the original terms of their deal.

And that's it - just one page of the comic given over to Angola, but that's still the biggest role Angola has ever featured in a Marvel comic.

Strange that all the Angolan soldiers spoke English... it's not exactly common over here, speaking as an ESL teacher in Angola. It could just as easily have been set in the Congo or Nigeria - the story references Angola, but doesn't actually depict Angola. But I give Duggan credit for making a token effort.

Angola in the Comics #17: Biff Powers and the Missing Scientist

It's time for another entry of Angola in the Comics in which I, a comic book writer and researcher living in Angola, examine a comic book set in the nation of Angola and puzzle over whether it bears any relationship to reality.

I've already featured Biff Powers twice on this blog: in the first entry of this series he encountered the Wolf Man of Angola and in my most recent previous post I looked at his quest for the Giants of Angola. I have no idea who was creating this series (the Grand Comics Database thinks the artist might have been August Froelich but they have no clues to the writer's identity) but they clearly had an interest in Angola because, once again, I have a Biff Powers story to share with you - this one from Starling Comics Vol.2 #3 (April, 1941).

I took some time to skim over Biff's other appearances, wondering which of them might be set in Angola, so now I'm pretty well-versed in what Biff's stories are like and they certainly have a set pattern. As always, it starts with Biff meeting with the head of the Carson Circus. But instead of finding a new attraction for the circus, the owner brings up the missing Dr. Andrew Knight who, in the grand tradition of Dr. Livingstone, is missing in Africa. What's the circus' interest in him? (I mean, I don't think they want him in a cage) It's simply good publicity. Very well.

Usually Biff is opposed by a rival circus but this time men representing a "Fatherland" who all have German names like "Kassel" want to stop him. I have no idea what nation they might represent, it's a mystery. They send him a threatening letter which he ignores so they kidnap him and tie him up inside a house, then light it on fire. Fortunately his girlfriend Marcia (who appears in all of his adventures) comes to his rescue in something of a twist on the formula (usually someone kidnaps her to keep Biff from going to Africa). Biff and Marcia go to depart aboard a ship bound for Ambriz. And that's our connection to Angola! Ambriz is indeed a port city on the coast of Angola. I'm impressed that the author chose a real port and didn't even draw attention to it.

Aboard the ship, Kassel the spy tries to murder Biff by throwing him overboard but Biff narrowly avoids death. Arriving in Ambriz, Biff and Marcia are met by Weki, their guide. Weki has been in all of the stories I've featured on the blog so far. He's also in almost every Biff Powers story, or so it seems, but I'm still not sure if Weki is supposed to be Angolan. Still, he certainly seems to live around there, não é? Biff is attacked by an elephant but he kills it; that's a peril that lasts all of 3 panels (not the most dramatic man vs. nature battle ever put to paper). After that, Biff arms Weki and the other porters with rifles. Soon after they're attacked by "savages" but drive them off with the guns.

Investigating the men who attacked them, Biff encounters what looks to be some kind of python, but he kills it within two panels (seriously, man vs. snake can be a story in itself when done right). Arriving in a nearby village, Biff discovers Dr. Knight is a prisoner of Kassel who is apparently working with the men who attacked Biff's party. Kassel is whipping Dr. Knight for the location of paranium deposits he found (uranium asked for too much money to appear in this story?). Kassel's allies quickly take Biff prisoner.

But now we return to the real heroes of this series: Marcia and Weki. Deciding Biff has been away too long, they set after them. But by this time, Dr. Knight has given up the location of the paranium. As his reward, Kassel has Biff and Dr. Knight tied, half of their limbs tied to different bent saplings. When the trees are cut free they will tear the men apart! Fortunately Weki and the other men arrive and rescue them. Kassel draws a gun on Biff but Marcia pulls out a pistol and shoots Kassel dead (why isn't she the protagonist?). Dr. Knight apologizes for giving in to torture but Biff figures that mine "can produce enough explosive to make America supreme!" Well, that sounds like a happy ending!

This stories are certainly of their time but I do appreciate that the anonymous author did a little bit of research. And Marcia is certainly no damsel in distress this time out, which was pretty rare in 1941. But how does this entry score?

• +1 estrela for using a real location in Angola (Ambriz)
• +2 estrelas for using two animals found in Angola (elephant & python)
• -1 estrela for calling uranium "paranium" (but there's a lot of uranium in Namibia so this isn't such a bad call)

TOTAL SCORE: Dois estrelas! I hope you had fun!

Angola in the Comics #16: Biff Powers and the Giants

Welcome back to Angola in the Comics! In this infrequent series of blog posts, I examine comic books in which the nation of Angola makes an appearance. This outing is a little special because, for the first time, I'm composing it while visiting Angola!

Many of the comics I've look at in this feature are old 'jungle comics.' They tend to range from mildly racist to rather quite racist. Appropriately, this time I'm looking at a Biff Powers adventure. You may recall that Biff Powers was the subject of the very first entry in my 'Angola in the Comics' feature!

This story comes from Startling Comics Vol.2 #1 (December, 1940). No creators were credited and the Grand Comics Database hasn't determined who they were yet.

We open as the curator of the Metropolitan Museum tells an audience that in a recent expedition to Africa his party was turned back at Lake Ngami by "fierce head-hunting pigmies!" The only Lake Ngami I know of is in Botswana - it would be a strange place to find pygmies. As a result they could not complete their expedition to discover if gigantic men lived in the interior. "And who knows - there may still be giants in these days!" In the very next panel a newspaper headline declares, "Curator Reports Race of Giants" which is, uh, not what he said - he was discussing the possiblity of giants. But okay, this is the premise of our story. Giants in Africa. So this is liable to be a little more fantastic than the previous Biff Powers tale.

We move to the offices of the Carson Circus whom you will (not) recall are the employers of Biff Powers. "I want you to shoot down there and get me some of those babies!" says the circus owner. "It'll be a change from the animals, Tom!" says Biff, casually discussing their plot to enslave human beings as exhibits in their circus. This was indeed in the days of 'human oddity' exhibits at circuses and carnivals, but discussing them as though they were an animal display -- this is pretty inhumane. I mean, that's assuming the giants even exist. Well, whether they do or not, Biff is informed that a rival outfit, the Trans-American Circus, are likewise out to find the giants. Tom of the Carson Circus calls them "shady." Hey, we put human beings on display in cages, but one thing we're not is "shady!"

Biff books passage on a boat bound for Lobito, which is where Angola enters our story. You'll recall that last time, Biff Powers was one of the few early comics I found which named an actual location in Angola (Luanda), and they've done it again. Anyway, the Trans-American Circus hires Brick Peters and he suggests they kidnap Biff's love interest Marcia Beale so that Biff will go looking for her and miss the boat to Lobito (you might remember Marcia from the other blog entry). Biff rescues her rather easily and fights his way out of the den of kidnappers with his gun. So I guess at this point the Trans-American Circus has had men killed on account of these giants they're not positive even exist? Priorities, man.

Although Biff rescued Marcia rather quickly, it seems he did miss the boat. Not to worry though, Tom lends him his yacht. Arriving in Lobito, he's met by his "old native head boy" Weki (also from our last tale). Still, Biff, Marcia, Weki and one other African man are about four days behind Brick Peters as they venture into the jungle.

Marcia is attacked by a gorilla who snatches her up into a tree. Biff climbs after the gorilla and starts a fistfight with him on one of the branches. That seems like a spectacularly terrible idea. Fortunately Weki throws a spear into the gorilla's heart. Biff and the gorilla fall from the tree and Biff stabs the gorilla with his knife. "Touch luck, monk! You lose!" Er, Biff, don't act so proud of yourself, it was Weki who pulled your fat from the fire.

Later they pitch camp near Lake Ngami (if this is supposed to be the lake in Botswana that was... uh... quite a march!). The pygmies mentioned earlier attack their camp. They're quickly defeated and the unnamed African aide is beheaded by the Pygmies. Biff, Marcia and Weki are brought by the pygmies to their village where they find Brick Peters, who has made himself the boss of the pygmies in the hopes they would lead him to the giants.

Marcia is about to be beheaded by the Pygmies when the giants attack the village. And, remarkably for a comic book from 1940, these 'giants' are very reasonably proportioned. Like, they seem to be about seven feet tall. I really thought we were in for some ten-storey giants. Anyway, these giants easily defeat the Pygmies, then take some Pygmies, Biff, Marcia and Weki back to their village (Brick runs away). The giants' chief was wounded by a Pygmy poison dart but Biff offers to help him. When the chief revives, the chief's son is miffed. Believing Biff is the one who made the alliance with the Pygmies, he challenges Biff to one-on-one combat for his life. Biff wins, thanks to a jiu jitsu move (although it looks like a punch to the jaw from where I sit).

Biff supplies the giants with the antidote to the Pygmy poison and in gratitude they permit two of their warriors to accompany Biff back to the USA. As they head away from the village, a Pygmy throws a head at them; it's the head of Brick Peters, whom they killed for failing to lead them to victory. Back in the USA, the two giants are a huge hit as attractions at the circus. And that's the end.

Biff Powers is a pretty typical "great white hunter" series. It's a relic of its time, but in its time it was just one of many such heroes from Jungle Jim to Clyde Beatty. I was pleasantly surprised that the "giants" were reasonably sized, but otherwise this was pretty rote jungle comic story.

• +1 estrela for using a real location in Angola (Lobito)
• -1 estrela for using an animal not found in Angola (gorilla)
• -1 estrela for the premise of putting human beings on display at a circus
• +1 estrela for being surprisingly modestly-sized giants.

TOTAL SCORE: Zero estrelas! The good and bad cancel each other out.

Angola in the Comics #15: Black Jack in "White Lion"

I don't seldom look at manga on this blog, but in the past I've indicated that one of the mangas I enjoyed was Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, a series about the world's greatest surgeon, an unlicensed practitioner who demands the top dollar for his work, yet despite that has a deep conscience and sense of justice. Recently I've been going through the volumes I hadn't read (printed in English by Vertical) when in volume 12 I found -- of all things -- a story referencing Angola!

I don't know where the story called "White Lion" was first published, although it appears to be from the 1970s. In this story, Black Jack is hired by the owner of a zoo in Japan which recently received Luna Luna, a rare white lion from Angola, which is referenced as being "recently independent". The lion appears to be sick and although Black Jack's specialities are in human medicine, the zoo hopes he can help the cub. What Black Jack discovers is that the lion isn't simply white furred -- it's suffering from albinism. To save Luna Luna's life, Black Jack injects him with melanin, darkening the lion's skin and fur. The lion is now of little interest to the zoo, who return him to Angola.

I'm not sure what inspired this particular story of Tezuka's -- I've noticed that many of his Black Jack comics were drawn from contemporary news items in Japan. So why Angola? Just because it had recently become indepdendent? And why white lions? Simply because of Tezuka's earlier series Kimba the White Lion, or was there an issue at a Japanese zoo which was similar to this? Regardless of where the story came from, the references to Angola's independence are nice, and lions were certainly in Angola at the time (today, probably not so much). So far as I know, white lions are found in South Africa, but at least this is within southern Africa. I've never considered the effects of albinism on animals, but albinism is certainly an issue all over Africa. In my own vists to Angola, my uncle patiently explained to me how carefully albinos must protect themselves from the sun -- much as Black Jack recounts in this comic.

What an interesting place to find a comic book reference to Angola. Thanks, Tezuka!

Angola in the Comics #14: Njinga Mbandi, Queen of Ndongo and Matamba

Here's a rarity for my occasional "Angola in the Comics" series - a publication which exists solely to educate people about Angolan history! I learned from it as well!

The book is titled Njinga Mbandi, Queen of Ndongo and Matamba and was co-published by UNESCO and Harper-Collins in 2014 as part of a series titled 'Women in African History'. Half of the book is given over to educational material about the history of Angola and Njinga Mbandi, but the largest portion of the book is the comic book adaptation of the life of Queen Njinga Mbandi. The comic was written by Edoard Joubeaud and Sylvia Serbin with art by Pat Masioni (a Congolese artist).

The book is written in a very simple easy-to-read style, probably to help ease it into classrooms. Most of the comics pages use a single illustration per page and there aren't too many speech balloons (most text is in captions), but it is definitely a comic book. I had heard a little about Queen Njinga in passing through my research on Angola and I saw a statue of her while I was in Luanda two years ago. It's good to finally have absorbed the most salient details of her life and better understand where she fits into Angolan history. Since this book was intended to serve as an educational aid, I'd say it did its job. Thanks, UNESCO!

Angola in the Comics #13: Insiders vol.1: Chechen Guerrilla

I consider myself pretty hep to what is out there in the comic book industry - but principally I'm aware of what's out there in the English language and from North America. As I've been looking for comics about Angola, I probably should have looked more closely at European comic books from the start. Europeans do, in general, have a better sense of the international community than Americans and are therefore better able to view Africa as a continent of many nations, rather than the 'generic Africa' of so many American comics.

All of which brings me to Insiders Vol.1: Chechan Guerrilla by Jean-Claude Bartoll & Renaud Garetta.

Originally published in 2002 in French by Dargaud, Insiders wasn't translated into English until 2009. The series concerns Najah Cruz, an undercover agent who infiltrates an international corporation which, left unregulated, has begun fomenting regime changes which are beneficial to their executives. It's a very 21st century kind of threat - this idea that corporations seem to be above the law and hold influence beyond that of any governments. This first volume is engaged with what were current events back in 2002 - namely, the end of the Angolcan Civil War.

Basically, in the wake of the civil war's end, this corporation decides it's a great opportunity to drive Angola out of Cabinda and give Cabinda independence so their corporation can assume control of their oil & gas industry (it is seldom brought up in the media, but Cabinda does supply a significant amount of oil & gas to North America). Now, I would have thought a better time to drive Angola out of Cabinda would have been during the civil war when their attention was divided, but that's why I'm not a corrupt international businessman.

Although everything is drawn from current events, Insiders is pretty timid when it comes to real world political references. As you can see above. they don't refer to any of the actual Angolan (or Cabindan) political parties or political figures. But Insiders does track with what I've read about the death of Savimbi back in 2002 - at the time, people weren't sure if his death meant the end of the civil war or not (in the end, his death did conclude the war). Watching from the outside, the world was ready for the fighting to start up at any time. However, for all that Insiders is very savvy about international politics, the takeover of Cabinda seems laughably easy - I mean, in this comic, Angola dispatches only two MIGs to fight the private army who are driving out their ground forces. Considering how valuable Cabinda was/is to Angola, I imagine such a conflict would take considerably longer than one day and involve more than just two jets. In the real world, Cabinda actually helped the peace process post-war because the continued conflict in Cabinda gave the government somewhere to deploy their soldiers while the war cooled down.

But that minor criticism stated, Insiders is immensely well-researched and well-informed about Angola; I've never been to Cabinda, but there are scenes in Luanda which are clearly photo-referenced and seem quite accurate, showing the contrast from the skyscrapers to the shanties. Visually, it's the best representation of Angola I've seen in any comic book thus far.

Angola in the Comics #12: It Really Happened #4

Here's a rather unusual entry in my irregular "Angola in the Comics" series. This time I'm looking at It Really Happened #4, published in 1944 by the company usually dubbed 'Pines' (also known as Better, Standard & Nestor). It Really Happened was one of many educational comics published in the 1940s which seemed to exist primarily to defend the comics genre against charges that they were strictly juvenile with no redeeming values. It Really Happened primarily recounted the biographies of famous people from history.

It Really Happened #4 features 'Dr. David Livingstone', a nine-page adaptation of the life of the famous Dr. Livingstone. Angola is mostly a footnote in his career, and so it is within the book as well; there are only two panels explicitly set in Angola, the first when he finds landolphia vine in Angola and the second when he's recuperating in Luanda (spelled 'Loanda' in the comic). The unfortunate aspect of this comic is how the Africans are portrayed - all with big thick lips and speaking pidgin English.

The most interesting aspect of this comic is the identity of its author: believe it or not, Patricia Highsmith! Highsmith is best known for her novels Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, but in the years before she became known for protagonists who self-destruct because of their pent-up secrets, she wrote a number of comic books. I wish she had taken more care with the African dialogue, but the actual storytelling in the comic is pretty good, as you'd hope from one of the 20th century's greatest novelists.

Images from The Digital Comic Museum

Angola in the Comics #11: Thrilling Comics #1

Here's a treat - I get to combine two of my favourite things: the nation of Angola and the super hero team the Justice Society of America! I've blogged about the Justice Society of America (JSA) a few times in the past, but very briefly, they were DC Comics' premiere super hero team in the 1940s, the precursors to the Justice League of America.

In 1999, DC ran a mini-event called "The Justice Society Returns!" which ran through a series of interconnected one-shots. After this event, the new ongoing series JSA began. You might assume these two publishing events are connected, but you'd be wrong; "The Justice Society Returns!" stories were set during the team's 1940s continuity and penned by a series of writers & artists other than those responsible for JSA; JSA was set in contemporary continuity with a new Justice Society team comprised of various surviving heroes of the 40s joined by successors to various dead or retired members.

What concerns us is the comic book Thrilling Comics #1 by writer Chuck Dixon and the amazing artist Russ Heath (who passed away last year). Each of these one-shots teamed up two different Justice Society members, in this instance Hawkman and Wildcat. The one-shots were named in honour of 1940s comic book series, although the 1940s Thrilling Comics were not published by DC Comics.

Anyway, the story--"No More Tomorrows"--is set entirely in Angola and opens in the year 1945 as a Nazi patrol out in the bush are attacked by Hawkman and Wildcat. And of course, if you know anything about which African countries participated in World War II you'd be wondering why there are Nazis in Angola, considering it was pretty far from German control and that Portugal remained neutral throughout World War II. Patience, we'll get there.

Hawkman and Wildcat easily beat the Nazis, interrogate them about their leader, then move on, unaware two other figures are trailing them (we'll later learn who they are and can only wonder why they didn't reveal their presence to their fellow heroes immediately). Flying over herds of elephants and antelope, Hawkman finds an immense crater with a transmitter tower built in its center. Hawkman is shot at by a German plane and falls to the earth.

Back with the captured Nazis, night has fallen but Wildcat remains where he is, waiting for Hawkman to return. He is, after all, just a decent prizefighter who wears tights. All of a sudden Tigress leaps out of the tall grass and threatens him, but Manhunter appears and makes Tigress back off, explaining Wildcat is on their side. No idea why they waited until nightfall to have this conversation, but these are the rules of drama. Both Tigress and Manhunter are rather complicated characters and neither are members of the Justice Society; Tigress actually debuted post-war as a Wildcat villain, but was later retconned to have been a heroine during the war, and likewise made an ally of Manhunter. As to Manhunter, DC has published so, so, many versions of the character - this one is Paul Kirk, an authentic 1940s DC super hero. There wasn't much to him back in the 40s - he was simply a former big game hunter who fought crime. Considering his background, Angola isn't such an unusual place for him to turn up at.

Wildcat brings Tigress & Manhunter up to speed on the overarching plot: there's a godlike villain called Stalker who fought the Justice Society and empowered seven of his agents, whom he dispatched around the world. Justice Society comics of the 1940s would usually feature the team splitting up into solo adventures to stop the henchman of their adversary, then meet up together at the finale to face the main villain - which is actually what's happening in this mini-event. Anyway, Wildcat & Hawkman are in Angola to find one of Stalker's men.

Meanwhile, Stalker's lackey has captured Hawkman and explains why they're in Angola: "The 'neutral' government here was kind enough to allow myself and my 'security' force to build this installation." Okay, that explains the 'why'. The lackey shows Hawkman a massive drilling machine he designed to bore deep into the earth "to the rich oil pool lying miles beneath the continent. A deposit equal to all the world's known reserves." Which, sure enough, post-war Angola did discover they had a massive amount of oil & gas (although mostly in Cabinda). Hawkman notes this oil supply would be pretty valuable to the Nazis, but that's not why they're drilling: the lackey intends to ignite the oil field and "erase Africa from the map." Which, once you say it aloud, sure sounds stupid. No matter how much oil & gas is down there, I can't imagine the explosion would wipe even Angola off the map, much less the entire continent! It's a pity this is the villain's big plan, 'cause it's dumb comic book science - but maybe it was intentionally dumb in the way so many 1940s comic books were. I mean, who would ever write a story about a super-villain trying to destroy the North American continent by lighting a match underneath Texas?

Hawkman wonders what the lackey's Nazi allies think about this plan. "They think we're prospecting for oil," the lackey (who desperately needs a name) tells Hawkman. This is why his explanation was done in English. Hawkman wonders why he was left alive, to which the lackey answers he needed bait to draw out Hawkman's allies. On cue, Wildcat, Tigress and Manhunter burst in, Wildcat and Manhunter both brandishing guns. And Tigress? She's got spunk and very nasty nails; they might even break a person's skin! The lackey is unimpressed; he obtained super powers from Stalker and wanted to test them out on super-powered enemies. The lackey transforms into a giant gooey purple monster. Whereupon, Tigress turns and runs away. Good instincts!

Hawkman orders Wildcat & Manhunter to switch off the drill while he fights the gooey monster, grabbing a rifle to slash at the monster's tentacles with its bayonet, then hurls it into the monster's eye (which is strange, actually - the Comics Code Authority was still around to police this comic in 1999 and they usually censored eye injuries; eye injuries happened a few times in 1940s comics though).

While Wildcat & Manhunter destroy the drill with grenades, Tigress returns to the fight sporting a flamethrower and saves Hawkman by burning up the monster. The drill's destruction causes a big explosion which collapses the tunnels (but doesn't blow up the continent of Africa, in case you were worried). The four heroes escape the destruction and meet up with the mystical hero Doctor Occult (also not a member of the Justice Society) to be transported to the next chapter of the story. But for us, this is where we end.

Thoughts: How do you manage to set a story in Angola (or anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa) and not depict a single black person?

It's interesting to see Angola as the scene of the story and that Dixon had enough on the ball to know the country was neutral during the conflict. It seems as though the nation was chosen because of the oil & gas supply. Angola is seldom depicted in North American comic books, much less as the setting of a historical story.

Dixon succeeded at the extremely challenging task of writing Wildcat in a way which didn't bring out my snark; however, the real props belong to Russ Heath, who turned in the sort of lush art he was renowned for.

• +1 estrelas for correct use of an Angolan natural resource (oil)
• +1 estrelas for correct use of Angolan wildlife (elephants, antelope, lions)
• +1 estrelas for correct historical information about Angola's neutrality during World War II

TOTAL SCORE: TRÊS ESTRELAS!

Angola in the Comics #10: Swamp Thing #19

Here's another very brief look at an appearance by Angola as the setting of a DC super hero comic. Like my previous look at a 1977 Batman comic, Angola appears for only a single panel. The book in question is Swamp Thing #19 and the story "Rootless" by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artists Giuseppe Camuncoli & Cameron Stewart, originally released in 2001. It seems appropriate that a DC super hero visited Angola near the beginning of the Civil War and likewise one visited near the conclusion. (there doesn't seem to be any appearances from the middle though)

Swamp Thing is normally a thoughtful horror/fantasy book about the plant elemental creature Swamp Thing who, per Alan Moore, once thought he was a man named Alec Holland. However, the star of the Swamp Thing series which ran during 2000-2001 was Tefé Holland, the half-human/half-plant daughter of the original. Brian K. Vaughan was a relatively young comics author at the time, this being before his breakout work on Y: The Last Man or Runaways. In fact, Vaughan has said in interviews that he doesn't think too highly of his early comics work, that he saw it as a means to get "bad writing" out of his system.

It seems Tefé and her friend Pilate are searching for the literal Tree of Knowledge and their quest has brought them to Africa. Like, the entire continent. In a quick series of panels we see them visit just about every hotspot in Africa circa 2001: first an "amputee camp" in Sierra Leone, then to the civil war in Angola, then rescuing slaves in the Sudan, then opposing female genital mutilation in Ethiopia, then starvation in Somalia, and finally battling rebels in Namibia. Any one of those subjects could have been the subject of a half-decent post-Alan Moore Vertigo comic, but it's ultimately Namibia where the bulk of issue #19 goes down.

So all we're left with is that panel of Tefé & Pilate fighting nondescript people in a nondescript location which is only identifiable as Angola because the caption tells us it is; are those guys UNITA? MPLA? Mercenaries? Or just criminals? Heck if I know. Giuseppe Camuncoli has come a long way since 2001 - his work in this comic is very thin on detail. Even with Cameron Stewart inking him, it looks very dashed-off.

Swamp Thing was frequently a great platform for authors to talk about environmental issues they were passionate about and there is much to discuss about Angola - you could talk about how landmines have wrecked the agricultural industry, discuss the perfect environmental conditions they enjoy. You could talk about the unique plant life found only in that part of the world, like yesterday's Poison Ivy comic did. But nope, it's just glanced over, which is a pity. The actual plot in Namibia reads a little strangely as Tefé & Pilate encounter an African mystic who talks to them in English. Pilate says it's the first English he's heard in weeks, which is... huh? There's a pretty visible white population in Namibia and plenty of English spoken there. Heck, they'd just come from Sierra Leone, which has a lot of English spoken. Good rule of thumb for writers: former English colonies tend to have English-speaking populations.

Angola in the Comics #9: Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #1

Welcome to another entry in my occasional series, Angola in the Comics where I explore those rare times in which Angola has appeared as the setting of a comic book. This time out it's Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life Death #1, the first issue of a six-issue limited series from 2016. I won't be examining the entire series - in fact, I'm only going to look at the first few pages of issue #1 because it's the only part which concerns Angola. The story is written by Amy Chu and drawn by Clay Mann & Seth Mann.

We are, of course, looking a story where the protagonist is a villain. Poison Ivy is a long-time Batman villain but, like most of his enemies, she's acquired a healthy fanbase of her own, hence the mini-series.

We open in the deserts of southern Angola, where an African fellow named Dr. Nepolo is driving a jeep containing Dr. Pamela Isley, the civilian identity of Poison Ivy. Dr. Nepolo brings Isley to the site of a welwitschia, which is Isley's reason for being here. Now, she didn't have to go all the way to Angola to find one as they are also found in Namibia and as she's entering Angola from the south, she would have had opportunities to find one there. But this is all very accurate. The welwitschia is indeed a very rare plant (found only in Angola & Namibia). On my 2nd visit to Angola, my uncle insisted on show one to me; we didn't have to offroading in the desert like Isley, though - we could see one from the highway as we were driving through Namibe and he pulled over, then took me to see it. The weltwitschia is one of the oldest plants in existence.

Sure enough, the creators bring up these details - Dr. Nepolo identifies the plant as "at least 2000 years old." That's quite a statement based only on visual evidence - I believe the plant does become bigger with time, but heck, it looks about the same size as the one I saw by Namibe and it was less than a thousand years old.

Isley crouches down next to the plant, telling Dr. Nepolo she's having a "conversation" with it. This is something Poison Ivy does all the time in the comics, but of course Dr. Nepolo doesn't realize he's working with a super-villain and raises his eyebrow at this. Then they pull out shovels and start digging. It occurs to me that for all of Poison Ivy's claims that she is a protector of the plants, she's uprooting a unique specimen from its native habitat just so she can place it under her own care, really no better than those who capture animals for zoos. What I'm saying is, maybe super-villains don't have a moral code.

Before they can finish digging the plant out, a truck pulls out and two men emerge, brandishing guns. Dr. Nepolo identifies them as men from the nearby diamond mines. That's a little strange, as Angola's most fertile diamond fields are way, way up in the north, but I guess it's not impossible... on the other hand, the men speak perfect English, which is also not what you'd expect to find in southern Angola. The men accuse Isley and Nepolo of trespassing, but Ivy causes the welwitschia to spring to life and ensnare one of the men. The scene shifts to "48 hours later" as Isley finishes depositing the welwitschia in the Gotham Botanical Gardens. That's quite a feat, safely unearthing a plant that old... but putting it in a hothouse in the northern United States? Considering the welwitschia requires such an exact desert climate in order to thrive, I don't think a hothouse is the right place for it. And I definitely think there are safer cities than Gotham, considering how often that city seems to burn to the ground. What I'm saying is, maybe super-villains are not the brightest people around.

Anyway, this was a pretty minor appearance of Angola and although you could quibble about the details, they got a lot of things right!

• +2 estrelas for using the weltwitschia, a plant found in southern Angola
• +1 estrela for correctly identifying Angola as a place where diamonds are found.

TOTAL SCORE: Três estrelas!

Angola in the Comics #8: Batman's Aerial View of Angola

By October of 1976 it had been almost a year since Portugal recognized the MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) as the official governing body over Angola. The two rival revolutionary parties FNLA (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola) & UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola) disputed this and the civil war would continue through 2002. No one in 1976 expected the war would continue for so many years.

Against that backdrop, permit me to share a panel from Batman #283 and the story "Omega Bomb Target: Gotham City" by writer David Vern and artist Ernie Chan, released October of 1976.

This panel taken out-of-context raises many questions. Perhaps first and foremost: why is Batman flying over Angola's airspace? The short answer is: he was headed back to Gotham City from Burundi. But that only raises further questions...

This tale was a three-parter, with #283 being the finale. It began in issue #281 when three Interpol agents were found dead in Gotham. Investigating these deaths led Batman on an international quest, first to Hungary, then Burundi, then back to Gotham, all to foil a terrorist plot to build and detonate an atomic weapon. During his flight from Burundi, Batman was ambushed by two terrorists who had stolen aboard his airplane. After besting them in combat, Batman fastened parachutes to the men and ejected them from his plane. The following panel is the beginning and end of Angola's involvement in the story.

Batman has a code against killing; most super heroes who were published during the Silver Age did, but Batman's code was especially well-known and has been frequently trotted out over the years. After all, if Batman were comfortable with murdering his foes, surely Arkham Asylum wouldn't be such a lousy revolving door facility. Batman's refusal to murder can be seen as part of the character's optimistic spirit - that on some level he believes criminals can be reformed and redeemed (which has happened from time-to-time in his adventures). Therefore, Batman's refusal to claim lives adds complexity to his character; no matter how grim or vengeance-driven he might seem, he has a moral compass and there are lines he will not cross.

So what's going on in this panel?

I cannot claim to hold any experience in skydiving, but it's my understanding that if you're unconscious when you hit the ground, it does not end well for you. Hurling two men from his plane in parachutes seems like a good way to get both men killed, regardless of where in the world they're being dropped off.

But Batman doesn't simply let these men fall into an open field - he drops them into a war zone which neither man has anything to do with. "They'll know how to deal with these two unidentified parachutists," Batman muses to himself. But who is "they"? The government? FNLA? UNITA? The Angolan Civil War was a bitter affair and I have to think that if two foreigners fell from the sky and were - miraculously - still alive, they would be considered enemy agents by whichever of the three armies found them. Perhaps they would be interrogated, placed in confinement and eventually repatriated to their homelands; then again, perhaps they'd be summarily executed.

Batman knows all of this. He is dropping these men into a war zone. And why? Why indeed? We soon discover that Batman's plane is so ridiculously fast that he gets from Angolan airspace back to Gotham in only two hours. If Batman had moved a little slower in his fight with the terrorists, he would have been over the Atlantic Ocean by the time they were defeated. Surely he wouldn't have ejected the unconscious men into the ocean? And if not that fate, then why drop them into the Angolan Civil War?

At this point, Batman has uncovered a major terrorist plot, but he has precious little in the way of evidence. Upon his return to Gotham, he has to convince the authorities that he knows what the plot is about and how to stop the bomb. Considering that, why not simply tie up his opponents and present them to the authorities as proof of the terrorist plot and potentially useful subjects for interrogation by the law?

The only conclusion I can come to about Batman dropping these men over Angola is this: he's lazy. Perhaps he isn't being cold-blooded, but simply... lackadaisical. He can't be bothered to do the work of keeping his prisoners tied up and transferring them to the authorities, so for expediency's sake he throws them out of his plane. Dead on impact? Executed on sight? Incarcerated for the duration of the war? None of those options would bother Batman if his only true concern was the most convenient course of action.

I don't know why Batman did this, but I don't think he's lazy, a killer, or someone who places others into situations where they would be killed (jokes about Robin's bright red chest aside). I can only conclude: Batman is not callous about human life -- but comic book creators are.