Amazing & Fantastic Tales#3. Edited by Elinor Winter. Produced by Jim Campbell. Planet Jimbot (2014)

A very enjoyable anthology with a mix of illustrated prose stories and short comics. There is a consistent balance of tone throughout the collection which binds together the very diverse stories.
"Karrom" part 3, Jim Alexander & Glen B. Fleming. A human woman has been taken on a wild ride across space and time by an alien before they find time for introductions. The chance to see home for an instant is grasped and harsh truth is made clear. The art is bright and soft, it drives the slight story very well giving depth and context where it is needed. The weight of the story rests on the cast and they are given the chance to express themselves fully.
"The Last Posse" Part 3, written by Jim Alexander, art by Graeme MacLeod. The two preceding parts of the story pull together and snap sharply into focus. The Last Posse is together, all called to the strange town for different reasons and now ready to act together. A clever team-up of classic western heroes with a very satisfactory dry as dust feeling. The portraits by Graeme MacLeod are full of life and fit in with the dislocated tone of the story
"Love & Asbestos",  written by Jim Alexander, art by Will Pickering, letters by Jim Campbell, edited by Eli Winter is smart and funny. A simple set up, a single character narrating a story, the pacing is wonderful and the pay off good fun. The whole thing is as light as gossamer and the smallest false note would ruin it. The apparent simplicity of the story hides the strength required to pull it off, the pacing is perfect, the action slight, carefully varied and draws the reader along at exactly the right tempo. No excess and nothing left out, wonderful craft made to look easy.
"Paradise Lost" written by John McShane, art by Graeme McLeod. The longest story in the collection this is very enjoyable piece of science fiction. The first half has a very tight focus on the crew member of a spaceship, there is no overall context for their presence or purpose, it is focused on their interactions. The pared down details work as the actions and reactions of one of the crew provide just the right amount of information to engage the reader. The second half follows a slightly more familiar arc that uses the same minimal detail to drive the narrative up to the nicely bitter closing.
"The Bounty Hunter" written and art by Luke Cooper is great fun. Luke Cooper's high contrast art is perfectly suited to the story, it allows the action and the intent to balance with each other perfectly. Things may not be what they seem and where that is used as smartly as Luke Cooper does it then a great comic is the result.
"The Roustabout" part 3 written by Lynsey May and Fin Cramb has the most difficult task to perform of all the stories in the collection. A straight up horror story it had to manage to deliver enough force in a very small space and still have a strong continuity to hold it together. It succeeds on all counts, the action has weight and force and the story has a strong cold and wet grip.
Anthologies are very difficult to manage, they have powerful structural problems as they have to deliver sufficient variety without compromising on the internal balance between the stories in terms of lengths, tone and content. If the stories are too diverse they clash as a reading experience, too close together and they blur into each other. Amazing & Fantastic Tales#3 manages to solve the problems very enjoyably, mixing prose and comics breaks up the reading very well and overall there is a unity of tone that ties the whole volume together. Also the cover by Graeme MacLeod is a knockout.
Chief Wizard Note: This a review copy very kindly sent by Jim Alexander from Planet Jimbot, for more detail on how to get Amazing & Fantastic Tales#3. contact planetjimbot@gmail.com

Food Chain Issue 1. Jim Alexander (Writer), Pete Woods (Art), Jim Campbell (Letters). Planet Jimbot (2014)

A clever and intriguing start to a story that opens up a lot of very interesting possibilities. Marc Finch is under pressure and it is beginning to tell. As the top salesman he sees himself as top of the food chain and is determined to stay there. Clients are elusive and it is getting harder to land a contract, Marc needs to find a way back to success. Marc makes two mistakes, he falls asleep after having sex with a woman he meeting in a bar and finds that his all important smartphone has gone with the woman. The second mistake is to answer the question "What do you want?" It is very likely that Marc is about to find out that getting what you want can be a very unpleasant experience.
This is a smart new take on a very old story, its age does nothing to reduce its power or possibilities in the right hands. The breezy confidence that Jim Alexander brings to the story is great, Marc Finch is unsympathetic but not unlikeable, his swagger is who he is. The intrusion of something into a very solidly realised modern world is so matter of fact that it just flows by, the story has room for something very dangerous without ever loosing its balance.
Pete Woods art is substantial pleasure, the cast move naturally through a very strong physical context, the weight of the deals can be felt, the pressure on Marc is sharply captured. The colours are bold and very sharply defined, they give the art an edge that serves it very well and creates room for the mundane and the ferocious. Marc is given a tremendous range that captures the the movement of the script, different situations that effectively give a rounded picture of the man.
This comic does everything that an introduction should do, create a credible situation with a strongly realised and recognisable lead character, a understated cracking of the context to allow in something that does not look too frighting until it is all far too late. The layers of the story are opened like the jaws of a trap that are going to hold Marc in a very close embrace, it will be very interesting to see just how he responds to the deal he has unwittingly made. Smart, sharp and inviting, a first rate start.
Chief Wizard Note: This a review copy very kindly sent by Jim Alexander from Planet Jimbot, for more detail on how to get Food Chain 1 contact planetjimbot@gmail.com

Savant. Issue 1.Jim Alexander (Writer), Will Pickering (Art), Fin Cramb (Colours), Jim Campbell (Lettering) Planet Jimbot (2013)

Chief Wizard Update 03.02.217: Savant has been scheduled to appear in Dark Horse Presents 32-37 March to August 2017.  Dark Horse Presents is the flagship anthology book for Dark Horse Comics and the publishers have always been very particular about how to use the room in the book. It is a tremendous compliment to and recognition of the great work done by the creative team on Savant that they are getting to be included in the anthology. A very large number of new readers will have the pleasure of reading Savant. The team at Planet Jimbot make great comics, it is wonderful to see them getting the opportunity to present their work to a significant worldwide audience.

 First-rate, thoughtful and adventurous science fiction, Savant has a great idea, a well thought out set up which combine to kick the story off in an intriguing and engaging way. The story opens a dive into action before starting off on the main narrative, the pursuit of a war criminal on the planet Hubris. The small group of soldiers and Savant head on their mission across a ravaged planet and find that the trouble is far greater than they could have expected.
Jim Alexander is using a very familiar story framework, the desperate venture by a small, ill assorted, group heading into hostile territory who discover that their worst fears were insignificant compared to the true depth of the threat they face. The pleasure lies in how skillfully he uses this framework to bring his ideas to life and how well he uses the storytelling potential of the framework. Savant, the wild card in the group, has an unusual talent which Jim Alexander neatly reveals at a point where the story logic transforms what could have been an info dump into an necessary explanation for previous events. Savant is the hinge that turns the framework in a interesting direction without compromising it, she  puts the heart into the adventure that draws the reader in and offers the possibility of the happily unexpected.
Jim Alexander has taken a welcome risk in the story, the threat, when it emerges its total, there is no compromise possible and the odds are satisfactorily stacked against the team. To an extent this drains tension from a story as there is no room for escalation, it is already at 11, Jim Alexander is going to have to find a credible way to introduce tension back into the story that rises above the drawn out slaughter of the team. There are simply not enough of them to support a multi-issue story that would be worth reading. Given the the range of ideas already on display I have considerable hopes that a intriguing route lies ahead.
The art by Will Pickering is very good, the cast are well developed, they inhabit their context well, the body language is strong and the faces expressive. Will Pickering has a lovely range, intimate conversations, action, big & small and movement are all comfortable, the ideas are brought to life. At the same time I have a very strong preference for harder edged, more detailed art in science fiction. The greater the weight of the context, the more the story ideas can draw in the reader.
The colours by Fin Cramb have a significant challenge to survive, at one point Savant says "Colour is the language of the universe", this is a  provocative thing to say in a medium where colouring is essential yet should be not attention seeking. The muted low key colours used are effective, they have a melancholy undertone which is exactly what Savant should have. The contrast with the colours of the enemy is strong and effective.
Any first issue has a difficult task, balancing story set up with enough forward momentum to draw in and involve the reader. Savant does it very well, a very engaging and enjoyable read, it leaves the reader happily wondering what will be next.
Chief Wizard Note: This is a review copy very kindly sent to me by Jim Alexander. Contact Planet Jimbot directly at: planetjimbot@gmail.com

Amazing & Fantastic Tales Issue 2. Planet Jimbot . October 2013.

An engaging anthology that nicely mixes genres, prose stories and comics.
Kroom  written by Jim Alexander and art by Glen B Fleming opens the issue with a bang, literally, as a dimension traveling alien and a human companion land on a tower of clothes that hold memories of the previous owners. A sharp encounter with a hostile inhabitant is neatly resolved before the traveling continues. The episode is a sliver of an ongoing story, it has enough content packed into it to give it some grip with a reader, the ideas are well compressed and expressed. The colouring is slightly muted and the lines of the art are soft, leaving the level of detail low. For a compressed story I think harder lines and a bit more detail would work better to drive up the impact for the limited space.
The Last Posse written by Jim Alexander with illustrations by Scott Sackett the second part of a odd Western featuring Wyatt Earp, Belle Starr, Geronimo and the Cisco Kid finding themselves in a very hostile town. The story has a well developed hard edge that is very engaging as the pieces are being pulled together. A strong atmosphere and a convincing cast allow the mystery to grow up nicely.
Happy Slappy written by Jim Alexander  and art by Andrew Docherty is a smart joke that is well set up and delivered. The loose art is just right for the payoff.
Flat Champagne written by John McShane and art by Graeme MacLeod is superb, a science fiction story that captures a mood most unexpected in the genre, disappointment. Science fiction is usually either triumphant or pessimistic, the more delicate notes are not often heard. In this short story the low key realisation is wonderfully delivered.
Point Blank written by Jim Alexander and art by Scott Sackett is the longest comic in the issue. Two boys born on the same day at the same time have a mysterious connection that drives one but not the other. The set up is clever, the plot development is not unusual and the nicely bitter conclusion is both sharp and satisfying. The heavy lines of the art are effective, they give the cast weight and presence. There is a lot of text in each panel and the art needs to be strong to bear it without being squeezed out. In particular the faces of the cast look lived in which is important for the sense of the story to emerge properly.
The Roustabout  written by Lynsey May and Fin Cramb continues a atmospheric story set on an oil rig. In a very short space mood, action, context and a nice reveal are all delivered without haste or loss. A very smart piece of writing.
Any anthology has to find a balance both between the nature of the stories themselves and the substantial constraints of space and continuity over different issues. Amazing & Fantastic Tales manages the balance well, there is a scattering of genres that all sit well with each other and the overall tone of the book is maintained. It succeeds at what an anthology needs to done the most, provide enough to satisfy a reader with the issue and deliver enough hooks to raise an interest in the next developments.
Chief Wizard Note: This is a review copy very kindly sent to me by Jim Alexander. All Planet Jimbot titles including Amazing & Fantastic Tales#2 are available from UKOnDisplay: http://ukondisplay-com.mybigcommerce.com/new-category-4/  Alternatively contact Planet Jimbot direct on:
planetjimbot@gmail.com

Wolf Country# 1. Jim Alexander (Writer), Luke Cooper (Art), Jim Campbell (Letters). Planet Jimbot (2013)

A very smart, multi-genre mashup that neatly side steps the inherent cliches by drawing on a very powerful central idea to give the story considerable force and potential. A lone frontier settlement in hostile territory is the destination for a young man trying to escape his past, he is sent on a patrol on arrival and finds himself in trouble right away. The story moves back to the events that brought him to the settlement and burden of expectations he has brought with him to the settlement.
Jim Alexander has reached for a classic Western set up as the framework for the story, settlers versus hostile natives and the arrival of a potentially disruptive presence in a dangerously unstable situation.  He then adds a nice layer to it by making the settlers vampires and the the natives are werewolves. This is a great set up, there possibilities are wide open and the room to play with and against story ideas from both sources are huge. Without doing any damage to the two sources Jim Alexander takes out one element and adds another which gives the story a very considerable boost and makes its considerably more intriguing.
The element that he removes are humans, vampires and werewolves move to centre stage as this story is about a conflict between two fully developed societies, not between two  fringe elements of human society. This makes the focus of the conflict much more concentrated and reduces the need to explain vampires or werewolves. The story can plunge directly into the conflict without any need to position it in relation to human activity, this strips out a lot from the story and brings it right down to the essential elements. This strongly works with the western sources which always work best as straightforward conflicts set against an unforgiving landscape.
The second element is the one that really pushes the story and offers the greatest room for development and intrigue, the reasons that the vampires have built the settlement is religious, they are following the direction of their god. The werewolves see the vampire encroachment as sacrilege, there can be no compromise as the motives are beyond anything open to change or compromise. The absolute nature of the conflict is superbly explored in the story, Luke, a vampire is trapped by his past and trying to escape it but his past is public property and it casts a very wide net. Jim Alexander takes a very different road than might have been assumed, cleverly sidestepping reader assumptions that the set up creates and brings fresh, smart writing to comic.
Luke Cooper's art is striking and not entirely successful, the cast are distinctive and the facial expressions are first rate, the body language is too stiff. The cast do not move easily, they appear to posed in action states rather than moving through them. The backgrounds, which are a key element in a western are not given enough definition, there is not quite the sense of the harshness of the landscape that frames the conflict. The cast are too much to the forefront, a litle more setting them in a context would be nice.
When the story involves a close up for the cast, the art is first rate, they interact with each other naturally and  add depth to the story. Luke who could easily have been an angst driven teenage cypher or stereotype is given a both teenage look and a personality that shines from the art. A clever, engaging comic well worth reading.

Chief Wizard Note: This is is review copy I was very kindly sent by Jim Alexander. If anyone would like to buy Wolf Country#1 delivered to his or her door, please contact: planetjimbot@gmail.com