Previewing The Return Of Britain’s Spidey — ‘The Leopard From Lime Street: Birthright’

Another cool collection of brand-new all-ages comics from Monster Fun, this time focusing on that very British superhero, The Leopard From Lime Street…

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Over the past few years, the rejuvenated and relaunched Monster Fun has been doing the business, giving (hopefully) a new generation of younger readers new stories of some absolutely classic British humour strips from the pages of the old Monster Fun comic. It’s all part of the continued desire by Rebellion and The Treasury of British Comics to go into all those vast archives of Brit comics that they own and bring us new material based on classic characters.

And you really don’t get more classic than The Leopard From Lime Street. In fact, I’d warrant that if you asked people of a certain age to name a British superhero, the odds are that quite a few of them would go all misty-eyed when talking about young schoolboy, Billy Farmer, and his exploits as the Leopardman.

After being scratched by a radioactive leopard, he gained the powers of a jungle cat and leapt into action as The Leopard From Lime Street in the classic British humour comic, Buster, from 1976 to 1985. It’s well-remembered by so many and it really was one of the greats – a super-fast adventure tale, three pages a week, full of action and fabulous art.

And yes, if the whole ‘bitten by a radioactive leopard’ thing hasn’t made your spider-senses tingle yet, there’s definitely a whiff of copying Peter Parker in the creation of this Brit hero. Billy Farmer might be the Leopardman, but he’s also a orphaned school kid living with his lovely Auntie and horrible Uncle, who goes out at night fighting crime as the Leopardman whilst trying to make a little cash on the side selling impossible to get photos to the local paper, to try to help his old and ill aunt.

But whilst Spidey swung from the hi-rises of New York, Billy Farmer’s stomping ground was a lot more down to Earth, a typically run-down ’70s town, where he comes up against all manner of very British villains.

And now we have the collection of the new Leopard, something designed for new readers but I think will also have older readers of Billy Farmer’s exploits enjoying things as well, all masterminded by Simon Furman, who writes the whole thing, along with artists Laurent Lefeuvre, Nick Roche, and PJ Holden.

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So, whilst the monthly Monster Fun comic is predominantly humour aimed at the 7-12 year old market (darned fine humour at that, more than capable of being enjoyed by those considerably older – me for example), The Leopard From Lime Street was always an adventure/superhero series, with this new iteration from Simon Furman et al a lot more serious, although no less fun, bringing back one of the greatest and most beloved of all Brit superheroes.

This collection brings together all of Furman’s Birthright stories that were in the earlier issues of Monster Fun, that explore the spooky origins and family ties of The Leopard, collected together here as part of the two-book launch of the Monster Fun collection of graphic novels for younger readers from the Treasury.

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Inside Birthright, there’s a hell of a lot going on; as The Leopardman comes up against a new group of spooky villains with plans to steal his powers; discovers he’s got a long-lost sister, the superhero called Alleycat; and sets about finding out the truth of what happened to their parents and the real story behind their powers.

And that immediately marks it out as different from the Billy Farmer stories of old. Those never really got into the hows and whys of Billy becoming Leopardman, it was simply accepted as happening, something done. That left the lad to get on with having all sorts of Peter Parker-esque trouble with fitting in school, home-life, looking after his aunt, trying to make a bit of money, and then having all these crooks, thieves, bad kids, and the occasional strange villain to deal with.

But now this is one long, involved tale that goes deep into Billy’s family ties and the origins of his powers, all pulled together here really well by Furman, headed into slightly spookier and darker territory but still keeping things racing along in an action-packed tale.

One thing that’s really noticeable, just as with Steel Commando, is the work that’s gone into Birthright to reformat the pages from Monster Fun, bringing us plenty of double-page spreads from single pages in Monster Fun, something that allows it all to breath and really shows off the artwork to its best… just like this…

Here’s the original from the issue of Monster Fun by Laurent Lefeuvre…

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… and here’s the new version from this collection…

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Yep, that makes a big difference, opens it all up, lets us see the art so much better. A really good decision that’s worked wonders for both The Leopard and Steel Commando books.

The early artwork by Lefeuvre is simply wonderful, with so many unusual angular panel shapes that both drive the action and give us a real sense of darkness and threat, whist never losing any of the storytelling flow in the experimentation.

But Lefauvre isn’t the only artist here, with Nick Roche and PJ Holden taking over for later episodes. And although both Roche and Holden are fine, fine artists who bring their own style to the Leopard, the one problem here is that this is one big storyline and one that could really have benefitted from the consistency of one artist all the way through. Having three different artists, although individually doing excellent things with the character, just breaks up the tone somewhat. It’s not a huge thing, but it does affect the whole feel of the book.

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So, we have a new Leopard. He’s not quite the Leopard you might remember if you were around the first time, but it’s a new Leopard meant to appeal to a new audience. And I think it really can, it has a thrillingly dark tale, plenty of action, loads of character, and is something I really hope finds both new fans and also appeals to older fans.

THE LEOPARD FROM LIME STREET: BIRTHRIGHT

Written by Simon Furman

Art by Laurent Lefeuvre, Nick Roche, PJ Holden

Colours by Lefeuvre and John-Paul Bove

Letters by Lefeuvre and SqakeZz

Cover by John Lucas.

Published by Rebellion and the Treasury of British Comics on 17 July 2024

Contains the stories ‘Totem’ from The Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular 2021, and ‘Birthright’ from Monster Fun Comic

Now, preview time – as is usual, the errors on the double-page spreads are my fault, they look bloody lovely in the book itself!