oversize hardcover Well, this one's been available for awhile -- in fact, in came out before Copacetic came into being, and, well, we missed it, and, so, we'd like to take a moment to rectify this situation. Rocco Vargas by Daniel Torres is a genuine comics classic.  This beautifully printed 238 page volume collects the entirety of the original run of this fabulous Spanish SF saga.  Originally executed during the 1980s, and appearing in Heavy Metal as well as in individual editions from now defunct Catalan Commmunications, these stories are an original hybrid of Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon and Will Eisner's Spirit, and really evoke that mysterious something that we feebly attempt to cover with the label "spirit of adventure."  It goes without saying (but we'll say it anyway) that these are thoroughly masculine fantasies that go right for that boyish zone in the adult male.  In addition, it bears noting that there are some instances of those crypto-racialisms that are part of the baggage of classic pulp fiction.  The most prominent of these is Samson, the Martian, who has a relationship with Vargas that is almost identical to that of Ebony to the Spirit.  Add to the mix a few Asiatic Venusian vamps and villians and you get the idea.  Now, Samson, like Ebony, is a thoroughly lovable character, but, like Ebony, he's a problematic one.  So, take these stories with a grain of salt, just to be safe.  In Rocco Vargas, Daniel Torres dishes up a delightful platter of fantasy that will thoroughly sate anyone's appetite for armchair adventure.