Comic book review: The Squidder #1- Hell yeah, I’m reading a decent comic book at last

Writer: Ben Templesmith
Artist: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: IDW
Released: 16th July 2014

I’ve been reading a right load of crap this week, and it’s been getting on my nerves a bit really. I mean, there’s so much junk coming out of corporate whores Marvel and DC. So much statist team worshipping nonsense, and ‘politically correct’ stories with women acting like men whilst men act like cowering wimps, but I avoid most of that now.

These days I'm starting to concentrate my time and money on ‘independent’ comic books, but all I’ve been reading so far this week is limp offerings from writers who are being as bland and politically correct as possible, presumably so they can weasel a precious career for themselves working as a house slave for the big two dusty dinosaur behemoths.

Where’s the sense of rebellion, the strong human urge to tell is as it is no matter what the consequences? Bloody comic book writers, sometimes I think they’re more entrenched within the new world order matrix than the soft feminist liberal readers themselves.

All I want is a book with balls, a book with aggression, a book with a strong individual fighting against something, not another soft bloody team-member of team UN or team Nato or whatever Police state synonym a writer is worshipping this particular week. That’s why I’m so relieved to be writing this review, on a Friday morning, when I’ve finally read a comic book that has a heart beat and a bit of life about it. Check out my previous reviews from this week. What a sorry pile of old tosh it’s been so far. This book is heads and shoulders the best thing I’ve read all week.

It’s not even that complicated, or original, but you don’t have to be clever just for the sake of being clever to write a good comic book. Keep it easy to read, stick some hair on it’s chest and tell the damn story, that’s all I want.

The Squidder is about a bloke living in an apocalyptic wasteland where the masters have full control over their slave population. That slave population fight amongst themselves for scraps at the foot of the masters table, some collaborate and worship the masters, and our hero despises the whole lot of them and fights against it as a man, as somebody with moral integrity, aggression, strength, individuality, courage and the spirit of humanity that spits in the eye of anything that wants to call itself ‘master.’

Love it, love it, love it. The comparisons between this book, the times in which we are living today, and what the elite’s have in store for our collective future if we don’t start doing something about it are obvious for anybody paying attention. The art is Ben Templesmith at his best, oh how to describe it? Nicotine stained, fractured, wounded, but defiant. I love it, love it, love it.

The book ends with our hero taking an assignment, he has a death wish, but you get a sense that it’s this death wish that is driving him on, giving him the courage to change things, shake things up a bit. After all, when you no longer fear death you really are a man to be reckoned with. Enough waffling from me. Get this book, get this book now.
Rating: 9/10