Book Palace Books have recently released a long-awaited collection, Wrath of the Gods, a collection of two strips from the relatively short-lived Boy’s World weekly published in the 1960s.
Featuring the full “Wrath of the Gods” strip written by Willie Patterson, with art by Ron Embleton and John M. Burns, introduced by Paul Duncan, and the complete “The Ghost World” by Harry Harrison and Frank Bellamy, introduced by Bellamy expert Norman Boyd, this is one huge volume, with a hefty but justified price tag, reflecting its production values.
Here’s a “Walkthrough” of the collection, which I hope gives you a bit of an idea about the work put into its production, and the quality of the strip (but says little for my skills as a video presenter!)
The format – featuring all the Ron Embleton and John M. Burns double-page spreads are printed as deluxe fold-outs – certainly offers an ideal solution to presenting the memorable strips of past decades that spanned a double page spread, making reprint difficult, with balloons disappearing into the gutters of perfect bound collections of many stories.
A unique deluxe hardcover, you’ll probably have to sit at a table to read most of this monster of a full colour volume, and enjoy Willie Patterson’s beautifully told story set within Greek mythology, offering spellbinding art by Embleton and Burns, edge-or-the-seat adventure and more. (If you enjoyed Patterson’s work on The Phantom Patrol, recently collected by Bear Alley Books, and his work with Sydney Jordan on the newspaper strip “Jeff Hawke“, this tale is right up your street!)
“Ghost World” is presented as single pages, as originally published, a relatively short adventure written by SF author Harry Harrison, best known as the creator of the character, the Stainless Steel Rat, and for his novel, Make Room! Make Room!.
This is an amazing production, and I for one, appreciate the publishers have ensure there’s no gutter loss on the double page spreads thanks to the foldout format, and I hope the decision to this doesn’t put off fans who have long been clamouring for a collection of these strips, but who may balk at the price. The spread “pullouts” is, frankly, an inspired way to present the “troublesome” double page centre spreads of British weeklies of yesteryear, and I fully appreciate that this has added to production costs. But fans of these strips will surely consider the decision valid and a worthwhile decision. It was well worth it.
The Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition comes in a sturdy clamshell case and four art prints, two scanned from unpublished artwork, and a booklet containing the three final “Wrath of the Gods” quest stories drawn by John M. Burns for the Boy’s World annuals.
• Wrath of the Gods & Ghost World is available in Deluxe Collectors’ Limited Edition (£70) or Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition format (£140).
Authors: Willie Patterson, Harry Harrison
Artists: Frank Bellamy, Ron Embleton, John M Burns
Publisher: Book Palace Books, May 2025
Number of pages: 124
Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 13″ x 10″ (324mm x 253mm)
ISBN: 9781913548599
Code: Limited Edition – GHOSTWRATH | Deluxe Edition – GHOSTWRATHCLAM
downthetubes received a copy of Wrath of the Gods Deluxe Collectors Edition for the purposes of this review
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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