The Leather Nun and other Incredibly Strange Comics.

Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury

Aurum Press 2008

Bookwise Australia

While most people have heard of Batman and Spiderman, the Fantastic Four and Superman, there is another world of comics, a strange world where things are never what they seem. In this world anything goes and the content can range from “publicity” comics promoting prunes and oranges to health titles decrying the evils of smoking and the value of condoms. There are strange religious titles covering everything from the life of Hansi who discovers the evils of Nazism and an evangelical Gospel Blimp to very graphic depictions of hell.

Of course, these are only the tip of the iceberg, there is a more underground world, which is filled with bizarre and perverse titles which generally were “one-off” releases, not surprising considering their content. Such titles featured every manner of strange sex with such strange titles as The Leather Nun, Blinky Bill and the Virgin Mary and Amputee Love !

In this world superheroes come in very different configurations, there is a large fat man who transforms into a flying saucer, a hip-hop crime fighter and a supersized basketball player !!

The Leather Nun and other incredibly strange comics is a superbly presented volume with a full size colour cover of each comic with an accompanying summary of each comic and extra images. It includes some sixty one rare and unusual comics and will be a joy for any comic book lover.

This review will appear in Volume 2:1 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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