Frank Bellamy's Robin Hood. The Complete Adventures. Clifford Makins (Writer), Frank Bellamy (Art). Book Palace Books (2008)

This is a collection of the Robin Hood strips from the comic Swift and it has an unusual format, in addition to the speech balloons, there is narrative text below each panel. This was designed to make it easier for the intended audience of young readers. The story is a nice variant on the classic Robin Hood story, Robin is a the son of a Saxon lord, driven from his home by the Norman Robert the Wolf to live in Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood organises his men to live in the forest and to fight the Normans and protect the poor. He assembles his band of Merry Men and fights the Sheriff of Nottingham, is the enemy of the evil Prince John and a loyal subject of good King Richard the Lionheart. Maid Marion joins his band and after the death of King Richard they continue to rob the rich, protect the poor and make merry in Sherwood Forest. These are wonderful adventure comics, a strong story with beautiful art.

Frank Bellamy is the marquee name for the collection and it is easy to see why. The art is simply beautiful, strong and vibrant. It is filled with detail that never crowds the panels, they are balanced with precision, the background detail giving depth and strength to the foreground action. The figure work is breathtaking, Robin Hood has the dash of Errol Flynn without being a copy, the action is swift and powerful without ever being brutal or savage. The faces of the cast are a joy, they portray the emotions of the moment with clarity and force, there is real feeling in the cast.

The art stands on an excellent script by Clifford Makins, the writing is concise and swift, The episodes move quickly and effectively, the story is told in a very clear and uncluttered way. It is an unencumbered adventure story, driven by the joy of action and the thrill of danger, the knowledge that your friends can be relied upon to come to your rescue. It never reads as childish, its honest dedication make it a pleasure to read as an adult. Deeply old fashioned and still thrilling.

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Servive. Volume 1. Eiji Otsuka (Writer), Housui Yamazaki (Art). Dark Horse Manga (2006)

A collection of superb and gruesome ghost stories. Five students from a Buddhist university in Japan who are facing unemployment combine to provide a service to corpses that they locate whose spirits have unfinished business tying them to their bodies. Their skills include dowsing for corpses, embalming, channeling an alien intelligence via a glove puppet, advanced Internet skills and speaking with the dead. Speaking rather than reanimating the dead, the book is not a zombie story, the intent is to establish what the trapped spirit requires. The cast are engaging and individual, the stories are sharply, blackly humorous, suitably gruesome and the art is a delight.
The stories are excellent, compact, contemporary ghost stories with a effective gruesome aspect. Lurking beneath the surface of these stories is a sly commentary about Japan, it is not an awkward addition to the entertainment, it flows naturally from the context of the stories. The stories are concerned with the abandoned dead and how they arrived in that state. This context for the stories naturally follows some of the less obvious nooks and crannies of Japanese society and casting a light cannot avoid raising a question.
The wonderful line art captures both aspects of the stories, the mundane and the supernatural, and merges them seamlessly. The supernatural is placed so neatly in the settings that it does not atrach undue attention nor overbalance the art. The cast are very individual, the body language is clear and action fluid and strong. Excellent comics

Bleed a River Deep. Brian McGilloway. Mcmillian (2009)

Very enjoyable crime story sent in Donegal. A botched bank robbery by an illegal immigrant and a very public assault on a visiting US diplomat are the start of a great deal of trouble for Garda Inspector Ben Devlin. The threads of the plot include the activities of a gold mining operation set up by a second generation Irish-American businessman and a human trafficking ring operating in the North of Ireland. The story is nicely paced, the reveals are well done and the conclusion is sourly satisfying.

The cast are well developed and interesting, Ben Devlin is a hard working police officer, who has a stable family and a desire to do his duty. The problems he has with his superior officer, Superintendent Patterson veer closer to crime story cliche than is comfortable. The conflict has the appearance of being required by the plot rather than arising directly from the context of their situation. The rest of the story is very well handled, the easy and natural relations between Ben Devlin and his counterparts in the PSNI is nicely done.

The plot is developed in a low key fashion that works very well, the investigation is driven by thinking and steady work that does not minimise the depth of the corruption and the damage it creates. This is thoughtful and smart crime fiction, well worth reading.

Star Risk. Chris Bunch. Orbit (2002)

Excellent space opera. M'chel Riss, ex Alliance Marine, Friedrich von Baldur, a man with a varied background, Jasmine King, who may be a robot and Amsnandrah Grookonomonslf , a non-human known as Grok, form Star Risk, a mercenary company with a view to profiting from trouble. They hatch a plan to spring a prisoner from Death Row as part of a business pitch to a mining company suffering a lot of trouble. The escape and the pitch go well and they are hired, they also find that the trouble is being created by a very well organised and funded opponent. The action is fast, smart and very well paced, the cast are tremendous fun and thoroughly engaging and memorable, there is a solid plot and very nicely judged deadpan humour.

Chris Bunch has created a credible and expansive universe with tremendous economy and skill, there is no time wasted setting up the situation, the details are revealed through the actions of the cast. The cheerfully pragmatic approach the Star Risk team take to the risks and practicalities of providing a armed security service is handled with great humour. It gives a very nice flavour to the book, everyone is competent and thoughtfully so, it gives a lot of weight to the plot and the action.

This is a fun story, that takes a grubby view of the future, seeing that it will be humans being human in a different context, industrial processes will still be dirty, money will still be a very powerful motive and loyalty will remain a potent force. Sharp, clever and great fun.

Wondermark. Volume 1. Beards of our Forefathers. David Malki. Dark Horse Books (2008)

This is a collection of strips, with many extras, of the great webcomic. Any comic is a balance between the writing and the art, usually one is more obvious than the other without unbalancing the comic. With Wondermark, the burden rest very heavily on the writing as the art is composed of photoshoped collages of Victorian and Edwardian illustrations. The images are cunningly selected and the way they are arranged is a significant part of the strength of the strip, it is the words that allow it to take flight. David Malki consistently creates absurd and weirdly logical situations in a brief space that are more than simple set up and pay off jokes. The use of language is sinuous and careful, it adds as much to the texture of the strip as the dislocated images do. The consistent variety is remarkable, there is a astonishing range of invention, from the really simple to to truly joyously surreal.

The book itself is superbly designed by David Malki and Keith Wood to really take unexpected advantage of being a printed item. The colours of the pages, the odd stains on them as well as the lovely framing of the strips are a pleasure. At the website if a reader mouses over the strip there is an additional joke revealed, these are printed as footers to the strip in the book and along with the individual strip titles give a full sense of the density of the work that is being done by the author. The book has a considerable amount of additional matter which are very welcome and enjoyable.

This volume provides a strong answer to the question , why buy a collection of a strip you can read for free? David Malki has proved that the different ways of presenting the strip offer very different opportunities to a creator and that publishing a hard copy is more than simply producing a static collection of existing material. This book is very, very funny, creative and just brilliantly produced, a treasure.

IL DIVO. Paolo Sorrentino. Artificial Eye. (2008)

Paolo Sorrentino has directed a sophisticated, complex, gripping film from a very unlikely material, a study of the Giulio Andreotti, seven time Italian Premier, in the early 1990's when Italy was rocked by Mafia trials and the exposure of extensive political and civil corruption. The film focuses on the final period of Andreotti's political life as allegations of corruption and alliances with the Mafia were laid against him. The kidnap and murder by the Red Brigade of former premier Aldo Moro is a significant thread in the film. The focus of the film is Giulio Andreotti himself, while the context of political violence is shown, the weight of the film is a extensive character study of a bureaucrat who actions were secretive and intentionally low key.

The film is anchored by a subtle, perfectly timed performance by Toni Servillo as Andreotti, his hunch backed gait, slightly reptilian looks and closed demeanour are invested with a burning, secretive life. It is never entirely clear what Andreotti is thinking, he used his lack of responsiveness and closed attitude as a weapon to manage others, they rushed to fill the void he left open and then they were within his power. The supporting cast are all excellent, in particular the two most significant women in Andreotti's life, Anna Bonaiuto as Livia his wife and Piera Degli Esposti as Mrs. Enea his secretary. These women reveal more about Andreotti than he ever does himself.

The film is marvelously constructed, the mobile camerawork and the subtle lighting are as much characters as the human cast. The cinematic techniques are delivered with a flourish, they are not held back, they create the style of the film clearly and flamboyantly. This adds hugely to the pleasure of the film, it has been constructed with such a forceful intelligence that the the whole is deeply satisfying cinematic experience. It is impossible to imagine this as anything other than a film, simply glorious.

The Best of Gahan Wilson. Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner (Editors). Underwood Books (2004)

Gahan Wilson is a cartoonist with a enjoyably morbid sense of humour and a distinctive artistic style. This book collects cartons from the span of his career as well as commentary from the artist. The cartoons are mostly single panels, there are a few examples of some strips Gahan Wilson did too. The humour is biting and sometimes is very savage. One full colour panel shows discarded and broken toys in an attic anticipating a nostalgic visit from their owner when he is old and feeble and finally within their power. The caption is tightly composed, it draws all the latent menace from the toys and their situation. The drawing does not emphasise the menace of the toys, the tension arises from the expert combination of the text and the drawing.

Gahan Wilson has a very distinctive style, his cast look as though they are slightly melting, they gather in folds of skin and lines that gives tremendous expressiveness to their actions. His monsters have a plastic, slightly liquid quality that both makes them more horrible and clinging and more comic. The art nicely captures the essential absurdity of a horrifying situation just before it becomes truly horrible. It is a fantastically difficult moment to capture, Gahan Wilson has the enviable talent to locate it and capture it precisely.

The precision of the writing that is evident in the captions is a joy to read. The captions do not repeat the idea in the drawing, they cunningly comment on it or act to provide a sharp context, as where a blood splatter hunter is congratulated by a companion for eliminating an entire species. The smiles of achievement on their faces are sincere and untroubled. This brilliant book provides a great showcase for a tremendous talent, a dark, shiver inducing pleasure.