Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Mysteries #2 (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Ms. Tree was created by crime novelist Max Allan Collins and artist Terry Beatty. She made her debut in 1981 in the pages of Eclipse Comics' anthology series Eclipse. The idea behind the creation of Ms. Tree was inspired by mystery novelist Mickey Spillane and his character Velda, the spitfire secretary of private eye Mike Hammer. According to Collins "What if Velda and Mike Hammer eventually got married, and on their honeymoon he was murdered?- that's Ms. Tree!

A play on the word 'mystery', Ms. Tree is a widow who takes over her husband's detective agency after his murder. In her first story titled 'I, for an Eye', the private investigator captures the murderer; uncovering ties to the Muerta Crime Family in the process.

This begins a private war between Tree and the Muertas that will unfold for years throughout the pages of her first solo title Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Mysteries. Eventually Tree's stepson fell in love and married one of the daughters of the Muerta Family's matrons. The Muerta declared Ms. Tree as 'family' and the feud was quashed before eventually going legit. In this 1983 issue, Tree is ambushed by a highly skilled hit-man, who is also a master of disguise, and is wanted for the murder of the daughter of one of the Muerta brothers. Recovering from her assault, Ms. Tree takes on the case as things have just gotten personal and if she can bring down the mobster who ordered the hit on her hubby; all the better!

Ms. Tree's publication history is just about as complicated as her family tree. After issue #3, the title was shortened to simply Ms. Tree. Eclipse stopped publication after issue #14. Eclipse publisher Dean Mullaney, the book was cancelled due to low sales. However Collins has gone on record defending the book's popularity; instead claiming that once his contract with Eclipse was up, he got a better offer to publisher the continuing adventures of Ms. Tree with Cerebus publisher Aardvark-Vanaheim. 

The legacy numbering for Ms. Tree continued with issue #15 at Aardvark-Vanaheim. When married co-publishers Dave Sim and Deni Loubert divorced in 1984, Loubert formed her own house, Renegade. Ms. Tree, along with titles such as Flaming Carrot and normalman, were retained under the new company as Sims departed with his intellectual properties. Three issues of Ms. Tree were co-published as Aardvark-Vanaheim/Renegade as the company restructured. 

Ms. Tree made it to issue #50, just as Renegade was going defunct in 1989. However, Ms. Tree wouldn't languish in comic book purgatory for long. In 1990, she found a new home as DC Comics. No longer a monthly series, the detective would pop up about every 3 months in the pages of Ms. Tree Quarterly. The title ended with issue #10 in 1993.

It would be almost 25 years before the world saw the return of Ms. Michael Tree, which is not only the first name of her deceased beloved, but her actual birth name as well. Collins wrote a few short stories about the character around the time she was being published by DC. In 2007, Collins collaborated with the imprint Hard Case Crime to produce the full length novel Deadly Beloved. Terry Beatty even got in the act, painting the book's cover. Sister publisher Titan Comics would eventually reissue the entire Ms. Tree comic portfolio with the Eclipse run, all the way through her tenure at DC Comics in a 6-volume compendium. 

Along with the continuing Ms. Tree story, this issue introduces a new vigilante hero called the Scythe. Created by Dean Mullaney, the Scythe is a private investigator named Roger Loring by day. A contract killer called the Button Man is killing detectives who are snooping around a criminal playground called Patterson's Dancehall. Figuring that the mysterious killer cannot assassinate someone they don't know, 'Rog' dons a cowl and wields a whip with a silver hook at the end. 

Frank Miller contributes a 2-page center spread pin-up devoted to famous detective Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe.

Collins and Beatty also contributed to a one-page interactive whodunnit called 'The Mike Mist Minute Mist-eries.

Completing this review completes Task #22 (With an Original Cover Price of $1.00) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Steed and Mrs. Peel #1 (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

The quirky spy series The Avengers originally ran from 1961-1969. Contrary to popular beliefs, The Avengers didn't air on the BBC. Instead it was part of the programming for ITV. Also known as Channel 3, the independent free-to-air public broadcasting network had a budget way smaller than the state-run British Broadcasting Channel. So in 1965, American broadcaster ABC bought the series, making the names John Steed and Mrs. Emma Peel household names. The series made actress Diana Rigg a cultural icon. 

After The Avengers ended in 1969, it seemed that the show was doomed to languish in reruns. Surprisingly, the episodes that started Mrs. Peel's replacement Tara King, were lasting hits in France. As a result, champagne manufacturer Laurent-Perrier created an advertising campaign starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Linda Thorson as King. 

The success of the campaign brought about interest in a reboot. Macnee returned as Steed in the retooled New Avengers. As Patrick Macnee was pushing 50, The New Avengers featured younger actor Gareth Hunt taking on the more strenuous stunts as trained martial artist Mike Gambit. Playing the role of the beautiful but deadly Purdy was the blonde actress Joanna Lumley, about 2 decades shy of her role as the boozy Patsy Stone on the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

This 1990 3-issue miniseries takes place in between the events of the original series and the 1976-1978 reboot. Written by Grant Morrison with art by Ian Gibson, the Acme Press/Eclipse Comics published series sees Steed reuniting with Mrs. Peel after it has been revealed that a mole has infiltrated the never named branch of British Intelligence that Steed works for. After a military strategist is murdered and Tara King is incapacitated, Steed turns to the only person he can trust: Emma Peel. 

Mrs. Peel has been spending her time away from the intelligence community with her husband in the South American jungle. An anthropologist, Mr. Steed was presumed dead, which led to Emma becoming an unofficial agent for the British crown. When Mr. Peel was found safe and sound, Mrs. Peel left to reunite with her spouse. In this miniseries, Mr. Peel is alive and well, observing native ritual sacrifices. It's a subject that clearly doesn't hold Emma's interest and she's more than willing to help out her old partner for old times sake.

This series, like other subsequent titles based on the British TV series, are titled Steed and Mrs. Peel. Not The Avengers. That's because in the United States, Marvel Comics owns the naming rights to The Avengers as well as The New Avengers. It's made for a little bit of confusion amongst comic collectors looking for the adventures of John Steed and Mrs Peel in print. Muddling things is the fact that because John Steed and his revolving door of partners debuted on the boob tube and later the silver screen in a 1998 American made film starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, the British franchise has naming rights over Marvel when it comes to live action works. Thus, the cinematic adventures of Earth's Mightiest Heroes must be officially titled as Marvel's Avengers. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the first Avengers film goes by the name Marvel Avengers Assemble.

In 2012, Acme/Eclipse's 3 issue miniseries was reprinted as a 6-issue limited series by Boom! Studios before releasing a regular series penned by Mark Waid. Both publications by Boom! were released as Steed and Mrs. Peel.

Completing this review completes Task #21 (Written by an Author From the UK) the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Mr. Monster's True Crime #2

There's a pretty well known copy of the pre-code version of True Crime Comics. Illustrated by Jack Cole, the image has a young lady with a gun ducking behind a gangster who is shot by a policeman. The hail of bullets spells out the word 'RAT' on the criminal's chest. While this issue doesn't feature that iconic art work, the story that image is based on is in this book!

Mr. Monster's True Crime #2 completes Michael T. Gilbert's tribute to Jack Cole's work on the late 1940s crime comic originally published by Magazine Village. A part of the Mr. Monster Super-Duper series of tributes to comics published before 1955 and the establishment of the comics code, this is the last issue featuring to the more grown-up crime works of the Plastic Man creator. 

Though all 3 of the stories contained in this issue claim to be based on true stories of deceit and murder, there's more sensationalism that facts behind the scenes. The opening story is the one I mentioned earlier in this review. It tells of one Bennie Dickson and how he turned to a life of crime, wooing a 17-year old girl into his sordid world of bank robbery and murder. 

We then head to the Great White North where a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is murdered by a bootlegger and in retaliation, his brethren prove that the Mounties always get their man!

Finally, readers are introduced to the man whose addled visage does grace the cover of this issue. James Kent is an escaped convict whom the publishers promised a reward of $100 for his apprehension. The story features narration that over exaggerates the criminal's paranoia at looking over his shoulder at every turn in a manner similar to what EC Comics will soon be issuing in its crime books. I understand why Gilbert used the cover image he did for this issue. I just don't understand why he didn't include the opening story in Mr. Monster's True Crime #1 since that issue used the RAT image!

If you're looking for Michael T. Gilbert's most popular character, Mr. Monster, you'll only see him on the opening page. Otherwise, this might be a Mr. Monster special, but it's really all about Jack Cole. 

Be sure not to miss the informative article by noted crime author Max Allan Collins who gives a fantastic account of Cole's limited run on the original True Crime series of which this two-part special is based on.

A lot of excitement and a must for fans of post World War II comics that are unable to afford the originals. But for me, I really wish that there was more Mr. Monster to be had!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

Mr. Monster's Hi-Shock Schlock #2

Michael T. Gilbert's Mr. Monster wasn't so much his creation as it was a re-purposing of an forgotten monster-fighting hero who was languishing in the public domain. Gilbert mainly gave Mr. Monster a new identity in Doc Stearn; a scholar whose parents were killed by monsters. In turn, Gilbert turned his Mr Monster into a parody of a slew of monster fighting heroes who came before him; including Blade, Van Helsing and a hearty dose of The Punisher. And Mr. Monster got a girl Friday in the bombshell Kelly, who is seemingly way smarter at this monster killing thing than old Doc Stearn.

After the initial run of Mr. Monster original stories, MM took over as host of a slew of anthology titles at Eclipse devoted to reprinting other obscure public domain works. Hi-Shock Schlock focused on stories so outlandish that you had to see them to believe them.

I never really examined the cover to this book too closely when I bought it about a year ago. I was just excited to find a handful of Mr. Monster titles. Yes- there really was a series called Toni Gay. And it really did co-star a boy named Butch Dykeman. The series was apparently a parody of a teen girl comic series called Toni Gayle. Gilbert, along with myself are astonished that this book made it past the stodgy censors of the 1950s. But since the main store was pretty tame with Toni and Butch getting lost during a horseback riding trip, maybe the names were overlooked despite their obvious anti-gay overtones.

Then there's an adventure starring Frank Thomas' The Eye which is exactly what it sounds like. A giant disembodied eyeball that goes around enforcing vigilante justice with a healthy dose of supernatural power behind it all. This story was a pleasant surprise as I remember having read about the eye a while back in the pages of the League of Regrettable Superheroes. It was kinda neat getting to read about something I had read in a comic book history book of not-so-great ideas in superhero characters.

Lastly, to fill in the book, (rounding out this trio) Gilbert features a story by Basil Wolverton. Gilbert seems to be a big fan of the absurdist creator who loved stories about weird creatures from Venus and Mars. This story occurs on Jupiter where a man with large arms gets twisted into a literal pretzel and needs help from an impish hero named Jumping Jupiter to get untangled. 

Plus, there's a couple of amazing articles about the history of these and other comics peppered throughout the issue that are not to be missed!

I am getting to that stage in my life where I am greatly appreciating those classic comics from days gone by. Right now, the world is too angry and tense. Being able to escape to a time which seems simpler despite humanity having a long way to go in becoming civil just seems to be what the Doc Stearn ordered for this Madman. 

It's not perfect. But it is perfect for me.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Siegel and Shuster: Dateline 1930's #1

Sometime around 1937, right before National Periodicals picked up Superman to star in Action Comics, the duo of Siegel and Shuster created a tabloid comic for a Cleveland newspaper. It contained dozens of new comic strips, but never saw the light of day. That is until the early 80s, when Eclipse Comics printed it for the first time ever.

This book was intended to be the first of many weekly comics. So, expect lots of cliffhangers with unresolved plots. However, for it’s historical significance, it’s a treasured piece of comic history. Imagine if this had become a weekly piece of a small potatoes Cleveland rag. There might have never been a Superman. The Superhero may have never become the “flavor or the month” for publishers. The comics industry might look very different or have never existed at all. The possibilities are endless and frightening.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.