It is the early 1920s. The Volstead Act has recently prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol, which means that an active black market has sprung up-a market controlled by legendary gangsters such as Al Capone. Supplies must be secretly shipped from France to its outpost in Saint-Pierre, Newfoundland. This dangerous and illegal trade involves aviators flying primitive sea planes-aviators such as Bessie the "Black Angel," whose mixed heritage also makes her the target of the flourishing Ku Klux Klan. Based on the historical figure of Bessie Coleman, she flies in the face of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination.
Ever the willful rebel, Wolfcub is preparing to go all the way to Bag
Dadh to find her father Thorgal, when an old friend of the family
pays her a visit: Tjahzi the Dwarf, whose people have been enslaved
by the Dark Elves. Behind this war between otherworldly beings hides
a very real threat to humans-for it's the entire celestial order that
Lolth, Queen of the Dark Elves, wishes to overthrow by going after
the sacred tree Yggdrasil...
Chicago, the Seventies. Life is tough when you're an orphan in the streets - and even more so if you're black. Little Jones, 10, doesn't even know her real name. All she has is a brother who flirts with the Black Panthers, a streak of cunning and determination a mile wide, and a dream: that of some day enlisting into the Army. A chance encounter with war hero Major Whittaker will change her life forever...
1948. The creation of the Hebrew state is proving to be not exactly a peaceful affair, starting with the Egyptian bombs that are regularly falling on Tel-Aviv. All that Israel has to fight the lethal enemy 'Spitfires' are some old 'Mezek', flown by Jewish volunteers from all over the world, but also mercenaries from rather more sinister backgrounds. Bjorn is one of those mercenaries. He's come to risk his life for several million dollars, a fact that galls his brothers-in-arms, who are fighting not for cash but for their ideals!
President Truman drops two atomic bombs on Japan, and Dottie cuts ties with Milton and begins posing for lowlife cheesecake photographer, Irving Klaw. In the meantime, a shadowy figure with a vendetta against ex-Yoyo Club girls persists in evading police. While Colonel Eigrutel shows a marked interest in Talullah, Milton tries to track the increasingly bitter Dottie down, and a war-injured Joe wastes away in a squat for the homeless. Everything comes to a head one dark night in the New York City.
It's 1943 and all-American Joe is heading off to fight the Japanese. His distraught fiancé Dottie Partington is fired from her job as a movie usher, and a friend helps her find employment at the Yoyo Club, a cabaret favored by soon-to-be-deployed US Air Force personnel. In the meantime, Joe is marooned on an atoll in the South Pacific, where he experiences firsthand the terror of war, and encounters a motley crew of fictional and real-life characters. Back in the States, famed cartoonist Milton approaches Dottie and uses her as the model for his new comic strip, "Poison Ivy," which centers on the adventures of a patriotic vamp capable of making soldiers "forget their girlfriends back home." The strip is a runaway success and kindles the fantasies of GIs across the globe, eventually reaching even Joe.
Thorgal, a young skald living a tenuous existence within a Viking tribe, has given his word to save the Minkelsnn sisters, who have been cursed to live as whales. The village is starving, though, and Thorgal has very little time to save the sisters' souls before they kill the whales for their meat. He sets off on an adventure to beg the gods for their help. But Freyja, Odin, Ænir, and the rest of the Norse gods are not so easily bargained with. Thorgal will have to use all of his cunning, singing, and luck to save the Norn sisters...
Dottie works in a munitions factory as a WAC, while her fiancé Joe is stationed in the Pacific. A colonel visits Dottie to convince her to resume posing for cartoonist Milton, and that "Poison Ivy" is the patriotic boost the troops really need. She agrees and then sees a newsreel with footage of Joe declaring that he wishes to spend a night with "Poison Ivy"-the fictional sex bomb he doesn't realize is actually his fiancée. Dottie travels to the front on a publicity tour, and destiny brings her-and her desire for revenge-face-to-face with the unwitting Joe.
A United States Air Force U-2 airplane goes down over Russia, and pilot Gary Francis Powers is captured. Back in the States, Powers is considered a traitor for allowing himself to be taken alive, and his wife, Dottie - aka "Poison Ivy" - has to hide from irate neighbors while also figuring out how to handle her angry young stepson. In Russia, U.S. agents discover that Powers' plane may not have been shot down after all, and then Dottie receives an offer of help from an unexpected source: billionaire Howard Hughes, who may be able to free Gary. But at what cost?
In the next chapter of the saga of the skald's early years, Thorgal is in love! He and Aaricia are talking of marriage, of running away, of a future together. But Aaricia's father, Gandalf-the-Mad, has other plans. A dozen handsome, strong, and mostly intelligent suitors have shown up to the summer festival of Sigrblót to fight for her hand in marriage. But there is another mysterious guest on hand for the festival: Runa, a shieldmaiden, who comes bearing a kingly gift for the village lord. But what is the true reason behind her visit?
American pilot-spy Gary Francis Powers has been shot down by Soviet forces and languishes in a dank prison cell awaiting trial. His wife, Dottie - a.k.a. "Poison Ivy" - continues her uneasy alliance with billionaire film producer Howard Hughes, who has promised to help her free Gary - in return for certain favors. Meanwhile, cartoonist Milton toils away at his adventure strip, "Steve Canyon," and his precocious teenage daughter advises him on how to spice up the long-running comic. The "Canyon" storyline begins to parallel world events, which may get Milton into some very hot water.
Let the games begin! Fired from gangster Gus Greenbaum's casino, Dottie is now working for Hugh Hefner, owner of the Playboy empire of a thousand women. The company's cardinal rule: "Your most precious possession is your little cotton tail. You must always be sure to keep it fluffy and white." Of course a slew of wrongdoers want Hefner's skin, in particular a nasty fellow who doesn't hesitate to go to extreme lengths to achieve his malicious ends. Hefner's very survival will depend on none other than Dottie, as events start to spiral out of control.
Things aren't going Dottie's way. Howard Hugues hasn't kept his promise to free Gary from the Russians, and Dottie isn't sure she'll succeed in helping him escape the gulag, or even in freeing herself from the ever-watchful eye of the megalomaniac billionaire. It seems nothing can be accomplished without the help of... Poison Ivy! This sixth volume beautifully concludes the second triptych of the "Pin-Up" series.
No blacklisted gambler escapes the sharp eye of professional casino spotter Dottie! Irresistible but untouchable, Dottie is second to none at cooling the ardor of overly enterprising clients, even if it means incurring the wrath of such luminaries as the great Frank Sinatra himself. During off-hours, Dottie returns to the apartment she shares with her friend Millicent. A novelist in desperate search of a publisher, Millicent is more importantly the daughter of Bugsy Siegel, the infamous gangster who met his fate under a hail of mob bullets. Dottie is assaulted by a killer who mistakes her for Millicent, and finds herself embroiled in her friend's dark world despite her best intentions. Then a mysterious young woman introduces her to Hugh Hefner, creator of Playboy magazine...
To escape the vengeance of a Las Vegas mobster, former pin-up girl Dottie takes refuge in Hawaii. After altering her appearance to stay under the radar, she begins earning a good living capturing poisonous aquatic snakes and selling their venom to laboratories. Will Dottie succeed in evading the cold-blooded mafia hit-woman who has been sent to track her down? Will she triumph over a destiny that seems determined to destroy her? This book completes the Las Vegas cycle.
The Spanish Civil War attracted involvement from a wide variety of governments, individuals and political factions, with Italians, Germans, and North Africans helping Franco and his supporters, and the Soviet Union, Mexico, and international brigades aiding the Republicans. Dusting off a little-known and often forgotten chapter of history, the authors take us back to this remarkable and terrible period of war as only they can, with a tale full of scheming intrigues. The world they uncover is one of no-holds-barred plotting to obtain victory at whatever the cost. And in the midst of the backstabbings and despair, one young Russian pilot falls in love with a feisty Spanish freedomfighter. In the hope it will outlast the bitter conflict engulfing them all.
Last seen hunting aquatic snakes in Hawaii, Dottie is now an amateur detective in Los Angeles. On her first case, our favorite pin up finds herself searching for a mysteriously missing starlet, as she takes on a role in Alfred Hitchcock's new thriller! After exploring the grisly Las Vegas underworld and the dark side of paradise, with this tenth installment the authors of Pin-Up offer a fascinating look at behind-the-scenes Hollywood, marked by murders worthy of the master of suspense himself.
In the next chapter of Thorgal's early years, Aaricia has been captured. It's up to the young hero to save his beloved from the savage berserkers-unless one of his rivals gets there first. There's Sigurd, the handsome drakkar captain speeding across the waves in pursuit of the berserkers, and Nigürd, the jarl's squirrel-toothed son, who might have more up his sleeve than meets the eye... They'll have to work together to survive the stormy sea and have any hope of rescuing Aaricia before the berserkers' chief, Moldi-the-Furious, decides her fate.
Former shipping company clerk turned adventurer Theodore Poussin arrives on the oyster farming island of Long Andju in Malaysia looking for a mysterious woman who has gone missing. She disappeared during a bloody coup d'etat in which her father lost control of the land. A contaminated oyster reef has rendered the last pearl harvest worthless, and tensions are rising on the small island, as pirates, sailors, assassins, rajahs, foreign businessmen, diplomats, and amorous youths all scheme to get what they want, be it power, gold, pearls, or the affection of their heart's desire. The mysterious Mr. November is once again along for the ride, in a tale dripping with the mood and humidity of its tropical colonial setting.
It's been a long, cold winter, and the Vikings are suffering major food shortages. Many of the men have left on a long voyage. In their absence, Bjrn, son of the village chief, Gandalf-the-mad, has been left in charge. Which is not good news for Thorgal, a young skald of mysterious origins, marginalized by the Viking tribe. Lucky for him, he has the beautiful Aaricia to look out for him. When Thorgal's singing attracts three whales into the bay, the villagers hope they might finally be able to feed themselves. But something tells Thorgal that these are no ordinary whales...
After years of torment, the Queen of the Frozen Seas has finally escaped the clutches of Gandalf-the-Mad... and it appears that she knows something of Thorgal's origins. In order to find him, though, she'll have to survive in an unfamiliar world that seems bent on revenge. Could Slivia be the last of her kind? Plus, Thorgal is desperately searching for the love of his life, lost at sea in a storm. He prays to all the gods and goddesses that, against all hope, Aaricia is somehow alive...
Young Thorgal is no closer to finding peace and calm, and neither are those close to him. Aaricia's companions are about to be tortured by her own brother, and she finds no help in Thorgal, who is off on a desperate search for Hierulf. The wise man narrowly escaped death on the Sacrificial Rock, but hasn't been seen since... Is he even still alive? Meanwhile, Gandalf-the-Mad is keeping a beautiful woman prisoner in a windbeaten tower. But this fiery-haired queen may have more to her than meets the eye...
Wolfcub is back home, but she's lost nothing of her wild habits and stubbornness, and conflicts with the other villagers are increasingly common. She also refuses to believe that Thorgal is dead, while Aaricia appears to have accepted his passing and is now sharing Lundgren's bed. Disgusted by her mother's behavior, Wolfcub decides to run away, but she is quickly followed by Lundgren's men... as well as a mysterious and frightening woman...
A story of love, friendship, and betrayal against the backdrop of WWII. Volume 5 of the epic series.Nazi Germany is collapsing, and the noose is tightening around Fürtenstein Castle, rear base of the Amerika Bomber project. Even as the last SS special forces set up the guidance elements for the intercontinental bomber, the Soviet forces continue their advance. Anna, once a fanatical admirer of the Führer, is increasingly forced to face the terrible brutality of the regime she's defending. Meanwhile, Werner makes contact with a resistance cell...