Second Fastest Gun in The West Ric McClune Issue 1. Hayden Spurrell (Writer), Ben Sullivan (Art), Jeff Edis (Colours), Darren Close (Letters) Reverie Publications (2018)

 

A very enjoyable and engaging western with a wonderful title that shows from the outset that the creators are going to embrace the genre conventions and avoid cliches. In a super opening sequence Ric M^cClune gets a letter and a gunfight and heads off to find the man who sent the letter. Ray, the letter writer wants Ric to find his wife and daughter who have been abducted by a religious group. Ric takes the work and sets off and finds a lot more than he expected.

Hayden Suurell includes all the elements a western should have, a saloon scene, a crusty old man, a pursuit of a bounty and a great gunfight. All are delivered with a fresh eye that is simply a delight to read. The most important signal that the reader is in the hands of confident creators who know what they are doing is that Ric is not wearing a Stetson hat, he wears a bowler. It is a small and important detail; it goes a long way to establish Ric as an individual the writing does the rest. Ric is a great character, tough and ready with his gun, he is a bounty hunter, so he needs to be. There is more to Ric and that is nicely revealed as the story unfolds. The rest of the cast, including some very important walk on parts are all given the spark of life, they are never just targets for Ric to shoot.

Ben Sullivan’s art is a pleasure to read and linger over. The page compositions are smart and varied, they move the story at the right pace and frame the action with thoughtful care. The cast are expressive, individual and absolutely at ease in their context.

The colours of a western are critical, if the comic is not black and white it has to come to terms with the colours from the cinema and deal with them in some way. Jeff Edis’ colours are spot on; they are western colours and they give the story and art the depth they deserve. The story is nicely dark, and the clear colours allow it to breathe without pushing the reader.

Darren Close’s lettering is subtle and natural to read, it allows the story to flow, is easily readable and never distracts the reader.

I am a long tern fan of westerns and finding a really good one is a cause for celebration. Second Fastest Gun in The West Ric M^cClune is definitely a cause for celebration.

Illegal Cargo. Agusto Mora (Writer & Art). Black Panel Press (2020)

 

llegal Cargo is a deeply engaging comic tracing the journey a father takes to try and find his daughter in Mexico. Helena had left El Slavador to go to the USA for a better life and is last heard from in Mexico City. Her father, Jose, sets out to find her after a strange encounter. The journey is brutal and the comclusion unexpected.
The story is grim, the travellers are preyed upon at every opportunity by thieves and gangsters, they take terrible risks riding on the top of rail cars. Augusta Mora never lets his cast be simply stereotypes or symbols, they have the spark of life and all are fighting to survive. Jose travels a double journey, both physically and one of redemption for a barely lived life.
The art is sharp and engaging, the cast are given worn out faces and bruised bodies, everyone has been battered by their life. The body language is eloquent as they struggle to survive. The walk on parts and the supporting cast are given the opportunity to register with the reader and stand for themselves.
The colours are a joy, they catch and manage the emotional tone for the story with subtle grace, they weight and depth to the art.
The lettering is functional, it is easy to read without adding anything in particular to the comic.
Illegal Cargo is clearly the product of a distinctive creative imagination and strong story telling craft, it packs a punch that makes it a pleasure to read.

Hell In Stalingrad. Rob Jones, Matthew Hardy (Writers), Russell MacEwan, William McLaughlan WASM (Art), Mad Robot Comics (2020)

 

A wildly entertaining story that has a great idea and executes it with tremendous style and creative energy. Christmas Eve in Stalingrad 1942 and the bloody, grinding struggle between the invading Germans and the Russians was still dragging on. Russian and German soldiers prefer to rely on their weapons than on any strategy or message from above. A group of German soldiers fall back to a church and get a very nasty surprise. Even in the appalling horror of Stalingrad it then gets worse for the survivors.

The story is a simple idea framed and executed superbly. Where better than in the cauldron of Stalingrad to push further into darkness? The story takes familiar ideas and uses them with sharp skill coming to a very suitable conclusion. Rob Jones, Matthew Hardy have taken a limited context and used it to tremendous effect as the numerous conflicts and dangers that surround everyone become more potent under the pressure from a new threat. There is simply too much bad history for anyone to escape.

The art by Russell MacEwan, William McLaughlan is stunning, rough edged and boiling with energy it captures and concentrates the ferocity of the situation, the grim determination of the soldiers to fight and survive and the sudden incursion by another threat that no one could have foreseen. Black, white, and red all over the art is a wonderful mix of prints and drawings which jumble together in chaos that reads easily and give the story the ferocious energy it deserves. More traditional artwork would not have served the story half as well, it could never have evoked the chaos that was everywhere and the sense thar everyone had simply become used to it. Until real chaos showed up to shake up everyone.

Hell in Stalingrad is a short story that comes out swinging and does not stop till the very last beat, it grips the reader and pulls them into the cold and does not let go. A fantastic comic, it uses the medium with outstanding force and skill .

Love Joolz. Manic Pixie Nightmare Girl. Jules Rivera (Writer & Artist). (2019)

 A very engaging, funny and combative collection of the Love Joolz strips. Love Joolz is not a regular autobio strip, it is more of a platform for Jules Rivera to punch things that she does not like in the face as hard as she can with sharp with and super art.

The first thing that Jules Rivera wants to punch in the face is any preconceptions that a reader may have about her as a female and as a Woman of Colour. As the collection makes plain, she has invested a great deal of blood, sweat and tears in herself and she has no interest in conforming to anyone’s stereotype. Which sound worthy and dull, possibly a well-worn path however personally significant to the artist.

Which is dramatically and utterly not the case, Jukes Rivera as Joolz, the fabulous Manic Pixie Nightmare Girl is funny, biting, opinionated and brilliantly engaging. Her response to the stupidly common slur about how women succeeds in any business is worth buying the book for, the rest of the content is a happy bonus.

There is an extended section about her appalling experiences working for Northrop Grummann which is rather dispiriting as I eternally hope that the petty malicious spitefulness that animates sexism and racism is waning rather than replicating itself like a virus. Jules Rivera is not recounting the experiences for pity or sympathy; she is doing so to show the difficulties she has overcome to become the woman she wants to be. It was still a needlessly cruel and hard road that no one should have had to travel.

I have zero interest in surfing, the strips about surfing are the most relaxed and simply enjoyable parts of the collection. Jules Rivera discovered surfing and clearly hugely enjoys it. Her pleasure and enjoyment come through in every strip. The struggles to get good enough to surge properly and the way that her engineering brain is engaged by the movement of the waves are eye of the hurricane in Love Joolz.

I should say that the collection includes a Christmas Sex Goat just because it does.

The pleasure of the book rather than reading the strip online is the commentary alongside the strips and between the sections. They give a context and reaction to the strips which is very welcome and adds greatly to the pleasure of reading this collection.

2020: Hard Times in The Anarchist Jurisdiction. A Collection of the Greatest Movie Posters for Films That Do Not Exist, In A Tribute to A Year That Tried to Kill Everyone! David F. Walker (Writer, creator), Jason Lamb (Synopses). (2020)

 

A wildly enjoyable and engaging response to the social and political turmoil that arose in 2020. Davis F. Walker responded to the breakdowns and breakthroughs of 2020 by creating posters for films that do not exist.

These posters are for a very particular type of film that anyone who can remember browsing in video hire shops will have encountered. The covers of the video boxes had fantastic posters that promised in the loudest way that the film was a feast of violence and sex. They never were, the films were terrible, not just bad but actively terrible. None of the promise of the poster made it to the screen. The posters were and are magnificent, armed with the limitless budget of paper and print, the film producers could finally create the images they had no hope of ever capturing on screen.

David F. Walker has taken these posters and reinvented them in a glorious colours and exclamations.  The posters in the book, like the film names, Barefoot Vegan in the Anarchist Jurisdiction is one of my favourite examples, are little masterpieces. They capture the rage, frustration and anxiety that boiled up across the year. They have the astonishing action shots, the lurid set ups, the wild promises of the films with a twist.

The twist is not subtle, it is loud and assertive, and it works on both levels, as posters for films that I would almost like to see and as a shout of defiance.

The book goes the extra mile by providing synopses of the films and trivia about the films written by Jason Lamb. They are little masterpieces of straight-faced write ups. They could be placed into a lot of straight books about exploitation films and they would blend in perfectly. My flat-out favourite is Robo-Camel Riders of the Rebellion in the Anarchist Jurisdiction which is listed as “…may be the worst movie ever made”. The gap between the poster and the product is beautifully explained in an utterly plausible way.

David F. Walker has taken great posters for, mostly, terrible films and re-imagined them in an extraordinary way that captures the shockwaves of 2020 with intensity, wit and anger. This is a joy of a book; I love the promise of film posters, I enjoy reading about films that I will never see to share in the writer’s enjoyment. 2020: Hard Times in The Anarchist Jurisdiction delivers on both with style.

Cassandra Darke. Posy Simmonds (Writer & Art). Jonathan Cape (2018)

 

A wonderfully engaging and enjoyable story with a fantastic leading character.  Cassandra Darke is a disgraced art dealer having been found to be running a fraud involving one of the artists she represented. When Cassandra checks the basement flat that her niece Nicki had lived in, she finds something vey unexpected. Something that pulls her out of her routines and involves her in a most unexpected way with the life of an unknown stranger.

Cassandra Darke is a huge character; she is appalling and is well aware of it just not in the slightest bit bothered. She is living life on her terms and everyone else will have to make the adjustments around her. She is piercingly honest about herself and her actions, she is very self-aware and has an equally sharp eye about others. The supporting cast are all in her shadow, Posy Simmons never lets them be shadows. They are all lively, full of energy and interest. They are living life as best they can, and they make mistakes that they will have to pay for. There is a deeply sad event at the heart of the story knot and Posy Simmons never treats it as just a handy plot device.

The warmth of the storytelling sits lightly over the steely sinews of the story, Posy Simmons has a deep sympathy for her cast, but she never lets them away with anything. This tension draws the reader in deeply to the story and bring them to the satisfying conclusion

The art is subtle, expressive and a huge pleasure to read, the expressiveness of the cast in their features and their body language is astonishing. It does not draw attention to itself, if captures the reader gently and pull them along into the story and the lives of the cast. The subtleties of the art are there to be savoured. The soft lines do not shout out the sharp edge of the story, they are revealed by the cast in their actions and reactions.

A great story and an outstanding comic, Cassandra Darke is a terrible person who grips the reader in the way that only the best of fiction can do.

Early Haunts. A Graphic Collection of Seminal Ghost Stories. T.W. Burgess (Adaptor/Writer). (2020)

 

A very enjoyable and engaging collection of influential ghost stories. For each story T.W. Burgess provides information showing the famous descendants of the story and its elements.

The Greek Myth-The House in Athens. Pliny the Younger (Writer) Mike O’Brien (Art). A house in Athens was haunted by a ghost who rattled chains. No one would love there until a philosopher heard the story and chose to investigate. T.W. Burgess traces the ghost of Jacob Marley from a Christmas Carol shaking his chains at Scrooge back to classical Greece and a haunted house in Athens in a story told by a Roman senator. Mike O’Brien’s art catches the time and mood without being stiff or archaic. It is expressive and gives the story the right pace to be both ancient and fresh. The muted colouring gives the story the atsmohere is deserves and brings out the details of the art.

The German Legend- The Death Bride. Friedrich August Schulze (Writer) David Romero (Art). A dreadful promise of revenge made by a deserted lover to be at the wedding of the man who broke her heart. T.W. Burgess connects the story to one of the most important horror stories ever written, Frankenstein. The creature makes a fatal promise to his creator that he keeps. The structure of the story is a Gothic classic of a story within a story that has a framing device of an Italian Marquis telling the story of The Death Bride. The Marquis was staying with a family, one of whose daughters had died. The Duke of Marino arrived and soon was planning on marrying the second daughter, the twin of the deceased. The Marquis was not happy with this as he had some knowledge about the Duke, and he told the story of the Death Bride which seemed very disturbing to the Duke. There is a wedding and there is trouble. It is a great story, beautifully told and constructed, down to the surprise at the conclusion. David Romero’s art is a perfect match to the story, it allows the layers to be seen they unfold and gives the expressive cast the chance to draw in the reader and to enjoy the lovely mix of the romantic and the gothic. The colouring gives the shadows and candlelight the place they deserve.

The Italian Fable- The Wild Huntsman. Gottfried August Burger (Writer). Brian Coldrick (Art).  A Count loves to hunt and pursuing a white stag ignores al the advice to stop until he finds that his hunting has led him much further astray than he could have imagined. T.W. Burgess links the wild hunt to the Headless Horseman of Sleep Hollow. Brian Coldrick’s art delivers the story with energy and force, the cast are given a slightly fairy tale look as they chase their way to doom, the Count constantly spurning the advice to take care as he gets lost in the desire of the hunt. The colours are a careful arrangement of shades which bring out the autumnal setting and the steadily darker tone of the story. The cast are boldly drawn and subtly expressive.

The Japanese Folk Tale – The Tale of Dish Mansion. Baba Bunko (Writer), Bri Neumann (Art), Bryan Valenza (Colours). A maid in the house a police official as an accident. The police official is furious and punishes the maid very savagely. The main commits suicide and returns to haunt the house. T. W. Burgess links the story to the Japanese horror classic, The Ring, for myself I saw a connection to one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s best ghost stories, The Brown Hand. Bri Neumann’s art is lovely, a stylish take on Japanese forms that is never a copy. It moves and breathes with confidence and captures the tones and styles of the story. Bryan Valenza’s colours complement the art perfectly, they are clearly intended to invoke Japanese colouring without ever trying to simply copy it.

Early Haunts is a treat for any fan of ghost stories or comics, T.W. Burgess has chosen the stories with great care, writes about them with interesting and persuasive detail and had delivered a warmly enjoyable book.