Comic review: Time Warriors #1- A strong central idea and lots of laughs

Writer: Guy Hasson
Artist: Juan Manuel Almirón

Publisher: New Worlds Comics

Release Date: 12th May 2015 (Get the book early by clicking on link below)
http://newworldscomics.com/?p=1403



Time Warriors #1 is an independent digital comic book that I got for a couple of quid online, two weeks before it’s official release date of Tuesday May 12th.

I liked both the marketing strategy, and the plot idea behind the story. That marketing strategy and plot idea combined to win me over, to get me to buy the book, so it’s already a success for the independent comic book creators at New Worlds Comics.

So what did I think of it after I actually read it?

I thought that it was fun, it made me laugh, and overall it was well worth my £2. The art was messy, but messy in a good way. The mess created it’s own little (yes, I’ll use the word again) messy little world, and that (here it comes again) messy little world worked very well with the script, not distracting, and not being too out there to stop me from knowing exactly what was going on plot-wise.

The plot idea that hooked me, the idea that time travelling soldiers get information, and are then killed, only to be brought back to life later was played out mainly for laughs in this first issue, and the serious implications will no doubt follow in the up-coming issues. The soldiers knew they were going to die, but it was their first time, so they were understandably a bit nervous about it. Writer Guy Hasson cleverly played with this, creating different personality types who all dealt with this weird situation in their own individual way. This led to naked street running, sex, drugs and dying on the toilet.

What would you do in your last moments before your temporary death? I’d probably do what I’m doing now, eat a sweet and type out a review, but I’m an odd guy, as anybody who has ever met me, or had any correspondence with me will be well aware of.

That self-indulgent reference to myself brings me to the end of issue #1 and a reveal that didn’t exactly surprise me. I’ve had some brief correspondence with writer Guy Hasson and I’ve asked him why he writes his main protagonists as rebellious young girls when he himself is obviously not in that demographic. It puzzled me, and his answer that he just always did that, puzzled me even more.

Is it a male guilt thing perhaps? The idea being that men are terrible, that all of the problems in the world have been caused by evil men, so it has to be a young woman who comes along to save us all? Come on Guy, feminism is so 1970’s man. Get with the kids, it’s all about the MRM (Men’s Rights Movement) today dude.

I’m just messing here. Well, just a bit. Put aside that whiff of third wave feminism and I liked Time Warriors #1. Okay, the title doesn’t exactly win any points for originality, but the actual idea, the central core of the book is very original indeed and has a heck of a lot of mileage in it. This first issue took that idea and had some fun with it, so issue #2 is already intriguing as I’m sure that strong central idea will be developed a lot further as the story progresses.

Get the book. You’ll like it. I did. We need to support people like Guy Hasson and debut artist Juan Manuel Almirón. They are doing interesting work outside of the boring, safe, lame, tired mainstream, and if you are like myself and constantly bemoan the lack of originality or new ideas in contemporary comic books then you’re sure to get a lot of enjoyment out of Time Warriors #1.


Rating: 8/10 (A strong, intriguing #1 with lots of silliness, laughs and hints of darker things ahead)

Comic review: Alex + Ada #14- Run from the ballot box

Story By: Jonathan Luna & Sarah Vaughn
Art By: Jonathan Luna
Cover By: Jonathan Luna
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 29th April 2015



In the New World Order of the very near future your choices will be limited to comply or die. Driving your own car, paying for goods with cash and growing your own food will seem like subversive acts. Your life will be about living in a bubble of compliance to the will of the corporate state. If you resist you will be an enemy of that state, arrested, imprisoned, or murdered by uniformed order followers, and denounced as a terrorist on the corporate media.

Alex + Ada #14 is a very unhappy comic book, but it has to be. The future portrayed in the book is the future that we are currently building, so any other portrayal would be unrealistic, disingenuous and dishonest to the readers.

At the moment we are sleepwalking into total state control. Neo-liberalism, corporatism, illiberal democracy, fascism, new world order, globalism, call it whatever you like. Names are no longer important as our very language becomes warped, twisted, turned inside out to suit those who would enslave us with a friendly smile, a soft feminised voice, but a bullet in our head if we dare to resist their softly sold tyranny.

Here’s a warning. Voting for change will not bring about any change because the voting process is compromised.

So how to bring about real change if it’s impossible through the ballot box? It’s very easy actually. You take the lessons from Alex + Ada #14 and apply them to your own life.

Do things on a local, personal, face to face level.

Build your relationships from a bottom up, not top down perspective.

Use cash, not electronic money.

Grow your own food.

Put down your islavery device.

Live a simple life.

Don’t vote for your own slavery.

That last piece of advice is from me, obviously. The last barrier to change is the idea that democracy is still an avenue for change, and that is not addressed in the book. The other points however are addressed, and in this vital instalment of Alex + Ada you are given a truthful representation of what happens when you resist the state.

I won’t spoil it, but the protests happening in Baltimore US right now are highly significant and illustrative of the problem addressed in this book. What happens to people when they want to be left alone and an uniformed order follower is barking instructions at them that they ignore? Do they have a chat and sort out the problem, or does the state-sanctioned god do what he is allowed to do?

Alex + Ada #14 is about two people who want out of the New World order soft slavery system. They commit no crime other than a failure to comply. There is no victim, no harm has been done, and they just want to be left alone. That human desire to be left alone is incompatible with the top down corporate control system. Because Alex + Ada want to be left alone they have become the enemy of the state and will be dealt with as all enemies of the state are dealt with.

Buy this comic book, not because it has taken it’s time to tell a fascinating and emotionally engaging story and not because it has a refreshing lack of social justice warrior campaigning and the ability to step out of the politically correct clichés of it’s day. Buy it because it’s a comic book that shows you what will always happen when you vote for a centralised control system. Buy it and remember what you are voting for when you go the ballot box (on May 7th in the UK) and put a dead little cross in the box of your propagandised choice.


Rating: 9/10 (Dramatic and climatic)

Comic Review: Conan the Avenger #13 (Xuthal of the Dusk- Part One)-Lack of effort sinks updated version of a Conan classic

Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Guiu Vilanova
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 29th April 2015

I’ve already read this Conan story, in one of my old comic books, and unfortunately for this version, the art and story telling in that old version is a lot better than in this one.

The old version I’m talking about here is ‘The Slithering Shadow,’ by artist John Buscema and writer Roy Thomas. Released back in 1977’s ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’ that older version of the story was absolutely amazing. This new version by writer Fred Van Lente and artist Guiu Vilanova is okay, but when the older version is absolutely stunning, just being okay isn’t really doing anything for me.

The script in this new version is almost identical to the older one, it’s just that it’s not as good, the art isn’t as detailed, and all I get here is a comic book that doesn’t really bring anything new to the story. It’s a shame, because I love just about every Conan story, but what I have here is a noticeably inferior version of an old comic book, and it would be dishonest of me not to acknowledge that in my review.

So how to grade it? If the 1977 version didn’t exist then it would be easy. I would say that the art looked a bit static, and that the script felt a bit different than usual, old fashioned even. I would say that the story was intriguing, but the art wasn’t really doing it for me, and I would have given it a 7/10 rating.

Of course the reason for it seeming a bit old fashioned is because it’s the identical script to the 1977 version, even down to the bit where Conan pats his girl on the backside to show her that she’s not a disembodied spirit. The problem though is that the original butt pat was a lot funnier, and a lot more obviously over the top 1970’s sexist. In this version it is done in a couple of small panels and the impact is minimal. It’s almost like writer Fred Van Lente has taken that old script, copied it panel by panel, and handed it in to artist Guiu Vilanova to do something new with it. His art isn’t bad, but it’s not particularly great either, and all he has done here is remind me of just how good an artist John Buscema really was.

What else can I say? I love Conan stories, but this one isn’t really trying very hard, and because of that lack of effort I have to give it a rare bad rating for a Conan comic book. I hate to do so, but a slightly below average rating is what this comic book actually deserves, so that is what it will get.


Rating: 4/10 (Get the 1977 version instead)

For a better version of Robert E. Howard's 'Xuthal of the Dusk' tale get your hands on a copy of The Savage Sword of Conan #20 from July 1977. You should be able to get a copy on ebay. Here's what the cover looks like:

Comic Review: 2000AD-PROG 1928: Three? That’s just being greedy.

Writers and authors: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 29th April 2015



PROG 1928 of 2000AD is a bit of a laugh, and features a pleasingly juvenile obsession with breasts. I like that, and I like the fact that in a world obsessed with neo-liberal definitions of political correctness a comic book can still be just as silly as they used to be in the gloriously sexist comic book days of my youth.

The PROG doesn’t begin so humorously though, with Judge Dredd injecting some unpalatable, but essential truth into it’s narrative. That truth being that the state (in the form of its uniformed goons) will murder you if you fail to obey its commands. We are seeing this in the US at the moment, whether the protesting crowds realise it or not.

People in Baltimore are rightfully angry right now because Police are not being punished for their murderous actions, but the people appear to be under the mistaken belief that the murders are race related. They are not. They are power related.

The state (as embodied in it's uniformed agents) murders, because that is what states do, and when you vote for the red or blue liars you vote away your freedom, giving them the power to legally murder you if you fail to comply with their directives.

‘They know the law, and they know what happens if you break it.’ 

So says Judge Dredd, the order follower in a uniform, the man empowered by the state; the state empowered by the voter. The message is clear. Vote and you vote for state violence. That violence will be used against you if you fail to comply with the orders of the state. It’s not about skin colour; it’s about giving away your rights. That is Statism. That is what you are voting for.

Orlok had a special guest appearance from a slap headed female character who looked a lot like Tank Girl this week, but apart from that there was little going on. I’ll give it a pass though, as the story is usually interesting, it’s just a bit threadbare this week.

Slaine features the fantastically named villain ‘Lord Weird,’ and more insight into how childhood trauma creates a pacified and obedient adult.

Some adults use drugs to anaesthetise that childhood trauma. Others put on a uniform and ‘serve’ the authoritarian control system, masking their pain by causing pain to others, feeling like they are powerful when they are little more than traumatised children looking to gain power by joining a human slavery system.

Slaine is a rare man, a man who refuses to repeat the mistakes of his father, refuses to hurt people because he has been hurt, refuses to join a control system, defiantly shouting, ‘I am my own man.’ 

Slaine represents freedom, and his message is that to be truly free you have to fight to be free.

Slaine has unbelievably art, everybody knows that, but it’s also saying something important, something that needs to be said, especially in our increasingly enslaved, pacified times. That is rare, and that is why it is (and I’ve said it before) reason alone for you to be spending your money on 2000AD in 2015.

PROG 1928 of 2000AD starts to get funny now, and the last two stories (Grey Area and Strontium Dog) are tremendously amusing in a boyish, juvenile, let’s see what we can get away with, kind of way. Two is good, but three? That’s just greedy. Sorry, I’ve said too much, just get the book, have a giggle, and thank me later.

2000AD has been exceptional recently. I always get a lot out of it, and this week’s addition adds some giggles to the mix alongside the more serious, adult, let’s think about the nature of authority stuff that I always go on about in my reviews. It’s a tremendously entertaining book, and the perfect to way to start your new comic book week.


Best story: Slaine/Primordial: 10/10 (Still awesome)

Worst story: Orlok/Rasputin Caper: 6/10 (A bit tepid this week, but it’s still a good story)

Overall rating: 9/10 (Heavy giggle factor this week and a lot of fun)

Review: ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at the Globe Theatre London: April 24th 2015

The Merchant of Venice
Written by: William Shakespare
Directed by: Jonathan Munby

CAST (MAIN)

Bassanio: Daniel Lapaine
Antonio: Dominic Mafham
Portia: Rachel Pickup
Shylock: Jonathan Pryce

Dates of Performances: 23 April - 7 June 2015

Venue: Globe Theatre, London

Website (for tickets and more info):
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/globe-theatre/the-merchant-of-venice-2015



I always hated Shakespeare. It was hard, boring, far too dense and about as much fun as a science or maths class. As a school-kid it was just another waste of my time, something I had to suffer through before a lunch time kick about or skive in the local village.

A song and a dance

Yeah, Shakespeare really sucked to me as a kid, and sitting there in class trying to correctly pronounce all of those old words that nobody I knew ever used was a completely joyless experience. By the time I left school at the age of sixteen years old I was glad that I would no longer have to suffer through any more classes of his hard to understand and completely fun free books.

I wasn’t that unusual as a kid. We all hated Shakespeare, the boring old git, and that was that. Fast forward twenty six years in the future though and here I am, standing in the ‘Yard’ of the Globe Theatre in London. What am I doing here? Is it a new job, or something I have to suffer through to pay the bills? No, I chose to go there, to give it a chance, and what I am experiencing is nothing whatsoever like what I had to suffer through as a kid.

This play, ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ is a bit good, the actors are amazing and it’s not even difficult to follow what is going on. It’s fun, it’s entertaining and I’m enjoying every second of it. Shakespeare isn’t supposed to be fun, is it? I’m watching this boring old Shakespeare play, and laughing at the funny bits, becoming completely involved with the serious bits, and having the best theatre experience of my entire life.

Love is in the air

What happened to me? Shakespeare was supposed to suck, but he didn’t. His play was pretty bloody good, funny, and it was saying things that people are scared to say today. We are talking about the J word here, yeah the play was about Jews, or one Jew in particular, a money lender, a man called ‘Shylock’ who was so full of anger and hate caused by the way he had been treated by good Christian folk, that he was prepared to cut a pound of flesh from the breast of a man rather than collect the huge sum of money that was owed to him. This Shylock was even prepared to do it himself, showing what a heartless, brutal character he really was, sharpening his knife and sorting out his scales, just to make sure he did a really proficient job of it.

Would you want to cut out a man's flesh in this manner, and do it with a little knife and then carefully place it on some scales? Would you even be capable of doing something as brutal as that? I wouldn’t, and wouldn’t this pound of flesh thing also kill the man? And why was the man strung up like he was being prepared for a crucifixion? What was that about?

Ahhh, I get it now. This wasn’t about revenge or anything like that, it was about mercy and how the Jewish people showed none to Jesus Christ, allowing him to be crucified, instead choosing to free a murderer called Barabas. So what this play (written in about 1596) was doing was giving the Jewish people another chance, another shot at showing mercy to a defenceless Christian.

Shylock is determined to have his pound of flesh

So when Shylock refuses, and insists on his pound of flesh, what is that saying? It’s saying that Jewish people are incapable of showing mercy, of forgiveness, of the very quality that defines the entire teachings of Christian morality. The only way that the character of Shylock can be redeemed is for him to be forcibly converted to Christianity and to renounce his Jewish faith.

It’s strong stuff isn’t it? Would you get away with saying something like that today? No chance mate, no chance at all, the accusations of anti-Semitism would bury your play before it even got through the first couple of performances, but because it’s ‘Shakespeare’ it can be put on in 2015 and nobody is going to say a word about it.

Amazing.

A play written in 1596 is more controversial than anything that I will see on television, screen or theatre in 2015. It says a lot, don’t you think?

I was standing there in the ‘Yard’, having paid a measly £5 to get in, and was in absolute awe. Not just because the play was far more controversial than I thought it would be, but because of the performances by a ridiculously talented cast, and the audiences reaction to it all as well. This was red-hot theatre, performed before an enraptured, packed audience, and I was being swept away to another era, a time when Shakespeare was alive, and this was the best show in town.

Shylock and his traitorous daughter

What am I saying? There’s a time portal at the Globe, and the best performance in town is simultaneously occurring in the 1600’s and in 2015 as well. The Merchant of Venice is the best show in town, of course it is, it always was, and it still is today.

Dominic Mafham, as Antonio, was exceptional. The melancholy of his character as written in the previews I had read before the play appeared to be self-indulgent and weak, but to see him brought to life by this fantastic actor was quite a revelation to me. I left the theatre feeling more intrigued about what was going to happen to that one character alone than any of the other characters in the play. His melancholy had substance, and the performance by Mafham nailed that substance, creating a person where before I had only read a character in a play.

Jonathan Pryce, as the villainous Shylock, was unbelievable. Like every great performer he bristled with charisma, with presence, with electricity, and when he was on stage it was almost impossible to train your eyes away from him, even when all of the dialogue was coming from the other characters. His mannerisms, his facial tics, his anguish, his pain, his need for revenge, his frustration, his joys at the misfortunes of others, the body language, the gestures. Oh my God, this guy was ridiculous. Jonathan Pryce was beyond exceptional, a man at the top of his game giving a performance directly in front of me that I could scarcely believe I was witnessing.

The spellbounding Jonathan Pryce as Shylock

If you are going to London, or if you live in London, or live anywhere near London, then you need to go to London NOW.

Forget your school day classrooms where bored English teachers slowly killed Shakespeare, line by painful line, and go to the Globe theatre and see it performed as it supposed to be performed.

The Merchant of Venice runs until 7th June, so see this wonderfully performed play if you can, but if you can’t get there for then check the schedules and go to see another play instead.

Any play will do, just get there for the early evening performance, pay your £5, stand in the yard, get aching feet, get close to the stage and experience Shakespeare as it’s meant to be experienced.

I always hated Shakespeare, but not now. The Merchant of Venice in 2015 is the best show in town. Controversial, funny, electric, and full of powerhouse performances by world class performers. If you just want to boil it all down, take away the history, the snobbery, the reputations and all of the baggage, what it really is, is a wonderful night’s entertainment at the theatre.

Banish those painful memories of old school English classes and reading dusty old books that you didn’t understand or give a toss about. See Shakespeare in the flesh, see it at the Globe, and then you’ll finally begin to understand just what all the fuss has been about.

Rating: 10/10 (A controversial, funny, intense play that features ridiculously accomplished performers)

Movie review: Avengers: Age of Ultron- Explosions, One-liners and a Lack of Substance

Directed by: Joss Whedon
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Written by: Joss Whedon
Studio: Disney
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannson, Samuel. L Jackson
UK Release Date: April 13th 2015
US Release Date: 1st May 2015


The first five minutes or so of this movie felt like a computer game with Captain America stuck on bike mode, dashing through the forest whilst fighting off WW2 villains in a Bavarian forest setting. There was something a bit off with it though. The special effects weren’t very impressive at all, and it looked a bit cheap and unconvincing.

Too many characters, all speaking in one-liners

I decided to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and expected it to suddenly grind to a halt, with a reveal that the bad special effects were actually a dream sequence, or some other contrived movie making false beginning. After the silly special effects were over the movie would then begin proper, right?

No.

That didn’t happen.

What did happen was a continuation of the bad computer generated special effects and childish superhero characters engaging in endless quips, puns and one-liners designed to get comic book fans to say ‘cool’ or ‘awesome.’ It wasn’t a good, entertaining, or even remotely pleasurable viewing experience for me. I really enjoyed the first Avengers movie, and Captain America: Winter Soldier was even better, but Avengers: Age of Ultron lacked a strong central plot idea, and was a dud from the very beginning.

The whole movie felt very flat to me. It came across as a lifeless unit-shifter of a product, using the good will generated by previous movies, and not putting the effort in to be a good movie on it’s own merit. It was a chore of a movie to sit through, with explosions and one-liners scattered across a barren wasteland of a plot and with the sinking sense that they’ve run out of ideas on this one.

Silly battle scene that came across like a computer game

The emotional heart of the movie involved Hulk and Black Widow having a tepid, passion-free romance, and Hawkeye boring cinemagoers with his dull wife and even duller kids. That Hulk/Widow romance was beauty and the beast, but with not enough time spent on it to make you care, and the attention paid to Hawkeye and his family just made you think that he was going to be killed off in the finale of the movie. I won’t spoil what happens to him (you won’t really care anyway), but all it did for me was to drag out the movie, adding an added element of dull quietude to the mess of explosions and one-liners.

The overall dullness, lack of central themes and stilted, too cool for school dialogue meant that I couldn’t relate to anything that was going on in the movie. It was fake, silly and childish, and I couldn’t care less about ANY of the characters. The dialogue was in love with it’s own forced cleverness. It was too self-aware, too self referential, too comic book geek culture obsessed. It annoyed me immensely, and came across like a middle aged comic book fan putting words into the mouths of his favourite comic book characters, not real people having a chat.

The villain of the movie, a computer generated twit called Ultron, was camp, confused, occasionally silly and not particularly threatening. He lacked depth or motive, wanting to kill off the entire human race because humanity sucks, or something like that. Don’t worry though. The Avengers were there to foil his evil plans, cue explosions, cute dialogue and boring bits featuring Hawkeye chatting to his wife. That’s the movie, and that’s all you are getting if you buy a ticket to go and see it.

Crud villain 

The entire Marvel movie franchise has been put in severe jeopardy by this awful, plodding bore of a movie, and I left the cinema feeling disappointed, frustrated, fed up and embarrassed that I’d spent my time and money on something so lacking in ideas and substance.

It left me with the same empty feeling you get after a trip to a fast-food chain ‘restaurant.’ You turn up, order the least unhealthy thing on the menu, have a deeply unsatisfying meal and leave feeling like you shouldn’t have bothered going there in the first place. That’s how I felt after watching Avengers: Age of Ultron. There was something deeply unsatisfying and plastic about the entire experience, and it left me with no desire to return and experience anything on the ‘Marvel’ menu ever again.

Avengers: Age of Ultron has already taken up way too much of my time, so I will finish the review here and end my suffering. No more thinking about this dud of a movie, off it goes, never to be spoken of again. It’s plastic, tasteless and deserves nothing but the bin, so in the bin it goes.


Rating: 2/10 (A very bad movie that has damaged the entire Marvel movie franchise)

Comic Review: The Black Hood (The Bullet's Kiss- Chapter Three)- Asking a question that has already been answered

Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artist: Michael Gaydos
Publisher: Dark Circle Comics
Released: 22nd April 2015



Who is the Black Hood?

After reading this comic book my answer to that question would be the following:

The Black Hood is a cop in a mask who got framed for a crime that he didn’t commit, and is now running around the city in a black hood beating up drug dealers and homophobes and asking the question, ‘Tell me who’s above you?’

I was initially a little confused about the time period that the book was set in, as it reminded me of a late 1970’s/ 1980’s television cop show, with men drinking moodily at bars, old televisions and dimly lit inner city street alleyways. I enjoyed the art in this book quite a lot, but it screamed 1980’s not 2015, so when I saw a ‘cell-phone’ reference it jolted me a bit.

This book is set in the present day, so why does it feel so 1980’s? Perhaps it’s just me? Perhaps when I read any of these detective/cop/superhero books they just take me back a couple of decades when television was more of a big deal than it is today?

As far as I can gather from reading this one issue, the comic book isn’t really about social commentary, issues, larger debates, or connecting with what is happening in the US right now with the cop shooting controversies and nation-wide protests about police brutality. The book doesn’t appear to be trying to do anything at all. It’s about the story, about making it exciting, fast paced, gritty and interesting to the reader. That’s okay, you don’t have to say anything in your writing if you don’t want to, but if you are trying to write an interesting story then you need a good idea to carry it, and I can’t see one in this book.

The story appears to be that old tale about drugs, cops, corruption and all of the issues that movies such as Serpico dealt with in 1973. It’s about a cop fighting drug gangs and trying to find out who controls them. The only difference here is that the cop is a superhero, so it’s already a bit silly. Plus the question about who controls street drugs was answered quite conclusively many decades ago. The answer is that corrupt cops, and their higher level (government three letter agency) handlers are the people responsible, not the lower level drug dealers themselves.

Drugs are allowed to flood into inner cities, criminalising (mainly black) young men, and allowing the ‘authorities’ a good excuse to take them into the privately ran prison system that is so profitable to so many people. The reason for this is obvious, and two-fold. Making drugs illegal and abundant helps to control the poor, and to enrich the already wealthy.

So when the Black Hood is going around the city punching people and asking them, ‘Who’s above you? It’s a pretty redundant question. We already know, and if he really wants to know he should do a five minute Google search and it will save him a whole lot of time, and wear and tear on his fists.

The book then is to be judged not on how it connects to reality (it doesn’t) but whether or not it’s an exciting story with an interesting or likeable protagonist. The book has the Hood narrating his own story, and although that's becoming a bit cliche now, it still works as it gets you to empathise and root for the guy.

Despite this usually reliable technique I couldn't find anything in the character to hook me or capture my interest. He didn’t feel particularly contemporary, or very real to me, and I couldn’t empathise with him, not just because he’s a cop, but because he felt like a character, not a real-life flesh and blood person.

The story itself is a bit static as well. It begins with the Hood asking a question, and ends with him asking the same question. The rest of the book is pretty much him explaining what has happened to him, with a bit of social justice warrior crime fighting thrown in there as well, just to remind you that this is a comic book written in 2015.

I enjoyed the terrific Francavilla front cover of this book, and the intense, gritty, grainy interior art is just as good as well. Unfortunately though the story barely held my interest. There is a serious tone to the book that borders on the comedic, and as the Black Hood told his generic tale of corruption and betrayal all I could think about was that South Park episode with Cartman running around in a daft Coon mask.


Rating: 5/10 (Looks great, but there’s nothing new or exciting happening here)

Comic review: Beyond Belief #1- A Safe Place

Writers: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Art: Phil Hester & Eric Gapster
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 22nd April 2015

In my recent review of Drones #1 I talked about comic books creating a safe place where the world doesn't exist, a friendly place where you can bury your head in the sand and have a fun filled time in fantasyland immune to the world around you.

I’m not trying to be unkind here. I’m just creating an image, and trying to encapsulate what comic books are trying to do.

Drones #1 didn’t work because it was creating a comedic fantasy world with too many real world nasty realities. Those real world realities destroyed the fantasy world and what was left was a distastefully flippant book about US Imperialism and drone warfare and how anybody who resists is a ‘terrorist.’ When you bring real world concerns into your comic book narrative it can get quite tricky, especially when you are making light of those concerns as was done in Drones #1.

Beyond Belief #1 is a better book than Drones #1 because the fluffy fantasy world that it creates remains intact from beginning to end. It’s a head in the sand book, and the real world does not get a look in. It doesn’t really matter if I like that world or not, what is important is that the book has created it’s own space, and within that space a fantasy narrative can take place that people will either enjoy, or reject.

The book is about two loved up ghost busters. They drink, they quip, and they use their love of each other to banish the negativity that feeds evil spirits. They exist in comic book neverland, so no mobile devices or Internet, or anything else that could date their adventures to any particular decade are apparent. Their clothes are old fashioned, they are posh, and the guy has the kind of moustache usually only seen on old movie stars from the 1930’s. It’s all very twee, very cosy, very cute, self-aware, and nice. The dialogue is clever, the two lead protagonists bounce off of each other, enjoying each other’s company, and you’d have to be a real cold-hearted curmudgeon to say something nasty about it.

The art, although it’s a story about ghosts and evil spirits, is in perfect step with the tone set by the narrative and dialogue. It’s friendly art, there is no threat here, it’s a book that you could give to your kids, and it would probably make them smile, as it’s all very deliberately light, silly and humorous.

Ghosts have never seemed friendlier or less threatening, and as you follow the adventures of the two loved up protagonists you never for one panel feel that they are in any danger of coming a cropper. They’ll beat the ghosts, have a drink, and move on to their next adventure.

If you want a friendly comic book about nice people then you’ll love Beyond Belief #1. It is inoffensive, light heated, head in the sand comic book fun. The book does what it is supposed to do. It creates that safe comic book fantasy safe place, and if you want to join these nice fantasy people then jump right on in.

There’s nothing offensive here, but nothing vital or particularly thrilling either. It’s a nice book, for nice people, reality is banished and I’m not going to be the horrible guy who kicks down the door shouting about real world nightmares. The book is a safe place, and there’s nothing wrong with that.


Rating: 7/10 (A safe place comic book with nice characters and witty dialogue)

Comic Review: Drones #1- Television stupid and depressingly banal

Writer: Chris Lewis
Artist: Bruno Oliveira
Publisher: IDW Comics
Released: 22nd April 2015

So, here it is at long last. A comic book that is actually going to look at the favourite dehumanising murder weapon of the neo-liberal elite’s, the death from above that is the satanic predator drone.

How to deal with such a subject matter? How do you look at a nasty bit of US imperialism in a comic book without depressing all of the (largely American) readers? How do you make the drone pilots look like the heroes that are demanded by the corporate whore mainstream media? After all, they sit in a warehouse and murder people all day, a lot of those people being women and children and civilians just getting on with their everyday lives. It’s going to be difficult isn’t it?

Readers might get upset. They might not want to read a comic book about nasty US war policy. There is a reason why comic book geeks prefer the insular safety of their superheroes fighting aliens and cold war era Russians. It’s a nice safe nowhere land where they can pretend that Nato and the west are somehow making the world a better place, and not doing what they are actually doing.

That’s what comic books offer, a respite from the unpleasant reality around you, a reality where your tax dollars are used to bomb the crap out of countries for banks and corporate interests. The countries are then turned over to the Sunni proxy army (known as ISIS this week, I think) to completely destroy what is left and behead anybody that disagrees with their ideology of turning the country back to the stone-age. Ah, welcome to reality in 2015, got anywhere I can hide?

Comic books let you hide from the desperate, pleading hunger pangs of your guilty conscience. They offer you a comfortable hole in the sand where you can safely place your head and pretend that the world that you’ve helped to create and maintain doesn’t actually exist.

So, yes, it’s going to be difficult to write a comic book about drone pilots in 2015, a time where reality is thinning out, and what is left is some bizarro fantasy land with comic books existing in a alternative dimension immune to reality post 9/11.

Writer Chris Lewis could have been really brave and shown the drone situation for what it really is. He could have written a comic book about the horror of it all. He could have focussed on children terrified to look at the clear blue sky, knowing that somewhere a drone could be lurking to rain death from above. He could have done that, but that’s expecting too much. Like I said before, people would be upset, soldiers would look like the murderers that they actually are, and people (comic book readers in their fantasy 1990’s nowhere land mainly) wouldn’t want to read that kind of book.

What he has decided to do instead is construct some kind of weird sexy fantasy narrative that is commenting on the pornographic nature of watching war on television by turning his entire comic book into an exact duplicate of that sick televisual popcorn and bombs experience. His characters are silly, everything is a joke and none of it really matters because it’s not serious, it’s not real, and it’s pretty much a waste of everybody’s time, exactly like the television war porn that I guess it’s attempting to satirise.

I didn’t like it, and it took me a while to understand what exactly it was trying to do. To me it read like a very disrespectful way to talk about a serious subject matter. I found it depressing, empty, shallow and desperately trying to be clever whilst somehow not being very clever at all.

There’s something fat, smug and American about this book, and that’s coming from a guy who likes America. I understand that is the whole point of the comic book, that it’s satirising that dehumanised mind-set, but by doing so it has fallen into the trap of becoming exactly what it itself is attempting to mock. People will read this, have a laugh, and nothing will have changed. All resistance to US corporate sponsored neo-liberal imperialism will be labelled as terrorism, and the drones will continue to fly.

If you want to get a serious comic book that looks at the impact of drone warfare and how it has become nothing more than a recruitment tool for insurgents fighting US/Nato wars yet to come then you won’t want to read this book. The light-hearted way that it is scripted, the banality and unlikeability of ALL of the characters is nauseating and whilst others will read the book, feel confused, then leave it be, I have to call it out for what it actually is.

Drones #1 is a deeply unpleasant comic book. It has taken a delicate subject matter and turned it into a very unfunny joke. If there is subtle social commentary going on here then it’s lost underneath a wave of comic book silliness. Drone warfare is state-sponsored murder. No evidence, no trials, no judge, no jury, no law. It is terrorism, designed to terrify an entire country, so to see it being portrayed in such a light-hearted, inhumane, jocular manner is a bit shocking really. I should be disgusted, and it shows how much I’ve been normalised to the horrors of our time that the abiding emotion I feel after reading this book is merely disappointment that a comic book about drone warfare could be so depressingly banal.



Rating: 0/10 (Depressingly banal)

Comic Review: 2000AD- PROG 1927: Do you want to be free?

Writers and authors: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 22nd April 2015

The very idea of genuine freedom can be absolutely terrifying to those who have lived their entire lives in captivity. When given the chance of freedom the prisoner can find himself so overcome by fear that he rejects freedom, preferring instead to go back into the safety that comes from being incarcerated.

That, of course, is what government offers. It offers safety, a respite from fear. But with that promise of safety, of protecting you from being afraid, it takes away your freedoms and puts you in a cage.

It is election time in the UK, and fear is being pushed by the mainstream media, a media that is owned by the same wealthy elite’s that benefit from the limited neo-liberal government options that are available to the voting masses.

I don’t have any problem whatsoever with people voting to be slaves. If they want to be slaves then let them be slaves. What I have a problem with is the idea that there is no choice, the idea that it’s safety within government slavery, or nothing. A lack of choice, and a lack of understanding that you actually have a choice, that’s the problem. Until people realise that they have a choice between government incarceration, and freedom, things will not change, and whom you vote for is a minor matter not really worthy of discussion.

I’m bringing up this idea of freedom, fear and slavery not because I’ve forgotten all about PROG 1927 of 2000AD, but because that is what one of the stories within the book is focussed upon. ‘Judge Dredd Enceladus, New Life- Part Four’ is about escaped convicts. They are in danger, and running out of options on an inhospitable planet. They vote on what to do, with the vast majority of them voting to surrender and go back to prison rather than risking their lives for freedom.

Imagine what the world would be like if everybody had that mindset. Oh, wait a second, you don’t have to imagine it, because that is exactly what we have on planet Earth right now. Fear of freedom is pushed so strongly (as I mentioned above) that people get angry with you when you tell them that they have the option to be free. They don’t want to be free. They’ve lived as government owned slaves for their entire lives, and being free of government is something that seems ludicrous, beyond comprehension.

Why be free? It’s dangerous, it’s scary, and government is my big brother protector, he's there to help me, to save me. The problem is that the facts don’t fit the fear propaganda anymore. People (myself included) are slowly starting to realise that their governments are no longer representing them. It has become very obvious now that our elected governments don’t care about the people they are supposed to represent at all. They are funded, and therefore controlled by the rich, and exist for the benefit of the rich, not us, the downtrodden gullible voting masses.

Vast numbers of normal people are starting to question government now because government doesn’t appear to be so beneficial to them as the banks tighten their screws, austerity kicks in, and freedoms are diminishing by the day. The supposed protector is now looking like what he actually was all along, the rich man’s jailer.

We are living in the end times of western democracy, and questions that only come up in times of revolution are appearing again. The Judge Dredd story in PROG 1927 of 2000AD has a ***SPOILER ALERT*** highly significant end panel with a space ship hovering above the prisoners. On that ship is a logo that looks suspiciously like the hammer and sickle of the old Soviet Union.

The message inherent in that end panel again is about fear. The slaves wanted to be free, but here comes another slave master. Perhaps this slave master will be even worse than the old one? Transposing this comic book plot development into our real world fears, the message is that if you don’t give in to US/EU State sanctioned slavery then a worse slave master is going to come along. That slave master is the mainstream media demonised bad guy of 2015, Vladimir Putin and the evil Russian Empire. That’s not a completely unjustifiable fear. I understand it, but the question as always when it comes to breaking free from statism and slavery is, do you really want to be free?

That’s the question of our times, so I’ll finish up my review of PROG 1927 of 2000AD here. There’s so much more happening in the book (Slaine is excellent) but I’ll conclude this review/rant now with a concise summary of everything that I’ve just discussed. Get PROG 1927 of 2000AD. It’s a great book; you’ll love it.

Genuine freedom is a very scary thing. It is dangerous, never secure and you will have to fight against tyrants who wish to enslave you. There are bad people in the world, and bad people will always want to be in charge, to dominate, to tell you what you can and cannot do. These bad people have a place that welcomes them with open arms. That place is called government, a tiny body of people who think they know how to run your life better than you do. Government relies on fear, the fear that you will not be able to survive outside of their prison camp system of coercion through violence. Fear is the glue that holds government together. Are you brave, or does fear define your life? Do you like being a slave, or do you truly want to be free?


Rating: 9/10 (Slaine is great, but Judge Dredd is getting better every week and is fast catching up as the best story in the anthology)

Review: Robert E. Howard’s Savage Sword #10 (Featuring ‘Demon In a Silvered Glass’)- Drugs Come Out of Boredom Babe

Main story: Demon in A Silvered Glass, by Doug Moench & art by John Bolton. 

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Released: April 1st 2015

Note- The images in this review are of the 1981 black and white version of the story. The 2015 version in Savage Sword #10 has been beautifully coloured by Jim Campbell, so to enjoy the coloured version please buy the book.

Savage Sword #10 was a reminder of quite a few things, of feelings, of moments in my life. It triggered a recollection of boredom, and of what can (or will, to be more precise) happen to you when you let the hooks of inertia dig deep within your psyche. Boredom will kill you, it will leave you open to the Reptilian part of your nature, that old demon that lurks, waiting for an opening, before pouncing at your moment of weakness, taking you over, killing your body and rotting your soul.

The book also reminded me of being a kid. Of being a young boy in love with comic books where brave heroes battled against evil sorcerers and their seductive, yet equally as dangerous daughters. It reminded me of that boyish suspicion of all things ‘girl’ related, that there is something alluring there, but be careful son, that beauty has a heck of a bite on it as well.

The story I’m talking about in Savage Word #10 is the old one, the story about a bored King and what happens to him when he gives into adult boredom, and the boyish fear of all things girlie is ignored. It’s the longest story in Savage Sword #10, and by far the best. The title of the story is ‘Demon In A Silvered Glass,’ written by Doug Moench, and with art by John Bolton. The story was first released in 1981, and it really stands out because you don’t get anything like this anymore. It’s too good, too clever, too intelligent, too insightful about the nature of power, boredom and human nature. It’s brilliant, and you don’t get that many brilliant comic books in 2015.

I hadn’t read the story as a kid. How I missed it I do not know, but I did, so reading it here for the first time is pure pleasure, a mix of nostalgia not only because the story (and art) is in a different league to anything available today, but also because it brings me back to my boyhood of reading cool American comic books with manly heroes who you could really look up to as being the personification of the man you want to grow up and become when the lazy days of boyhood fights and tree-house adventures sadly comes to an end.

Like I previously mentioned, the story is about a bored King. He gives in to the animal side of his nature, and becomes something akin to the neo-liberal democratically selected leaders that we have in the morally bankrupt west today. The spiritual, moral side of his nature, the very thing that makes him a man slowly ebbs away as he lives a life of authoritarian pleasure. He reverts to the Reptilian side of his nature, and by doing so he leaves not only himself open, but his entire Kingdom open for take-over as well.

This is a book that could have been written by David Icke himself. What this is about is the leaders of humanity being taken over by Reptilian outsiders who have hacked into the DNA of our species, implanting their evil into our brains in order to corrupt the species and eventually take it over and use it for their own ends.

The only difference between this book and our real world is that in this book the Reptilian outsiders are eventually defeated and the spiritual, eternal soul of man wins over the grounded, animal part of our nature. In our world the Reptilian elements have yet to be defeated. They haven’t yet won, but they are largely in charge of the world and are currently running it for their own benefit through the use of their Reptilian (influenced at least) front-men in the political sphere. Look at the world, look at what is happening, look at who is running it, and then ask yourself this question:

Is the world being run for the benefit of the human race, or is it being run for the benefit of something else?

I know how it looks to me. It looks like a world being controlled by the kind of woman/man who has given in to boredom, the kind of human who has completely given in to the animal side of their nature who want to kill, to destroy, to rape and pillage and indulge their baser instincts. If there is a God, he is not in charge of this planet. What is in charge is an animal/reptilian man who sits on a throne of boredom and decadence. He looks at the world and hating humanity, bored with it all, wants to set it all on fire, and warm his toes as he watches it all burn.

‘Demon In A Silvered Glass’ then is not just a silly boyish nostalgia tale from the early 1980’s bought back to life for a new generation of comic book readers. It’s much more than that. To me it is a warning of what happens when you give in to boredom and see yourself as nothing more than just another beast in the field. But more than that it’s a warning about what happens when you allow that kind of mindset to be the dominant mindset of the leaders you allow to control your world. That is the mindset of the neo-liberal consensus leaders who are controlling our lives today. We stupidly vote for them every four years or so and expect ‘change,’ then when we get none we are confused and angry. That is stupid, really stupid. We get what we deserve. We vote for the reptilian, the animal, so that is what we get.

This 1980’s comic book gets to the heart of the matter. It is telling us not just what is wrong with society, but what is wrong with each and every one of us. We are potentially independent, powerful and self-governing human beings, but we have become inert, lazy, and are ruled by the worse of us because we have allowed ourselves to be ruled.

We would rather be bored, owned animals than the strong, powerful, self-determined heroes that we should be. The comic book heroes that we read as children had important moral, ethical, societal and spiritual messages to impart to our young minds. These lessons have gone unheeded, and what we have today on this enslaved, chaotic, archon infested planet is just the natural result of what happens when a lazy species allows itself to be enslaved.  This is what is always going to happen to a bored, decadent, indifferent, lazy, selfish, animalistic race of beings who refuse to learn and insist on repeating every single mistake of the past.

When a King gets bored and lazy his Kingdom decays, the people revolt, outsiders capitalise on the disorder, and eventually it collapses. So what happens when an entire species is suffering from the same disorder? I ask that question because that is what is happening to the human race right now.

We are bored, lazy and ruled by those with a Reptilian mind-set. Collapse is inevitable. It’s not if, it’s when. That is the warning that is contained within this comic book. Whether or not we act on this warning and start doing something to stop the decline, well as always, that’s up to us. We have been too decadent, too indolent, and too indifferent for too long. The Reptiles are in charge now, we let them get in charge, and the only question left is whether or not we are too far-gone to do anything about it.



Overall Rating: 8/10 (Best of the rest was ‘The Sea Dog’s Tale’ by Ron Marz. A very good parable about evil, false religion and mind-control)

Demon In a Silvered Glass: 10/10 (Perfect)


Note about the heading, 'Drugs Come Out of Boredom Babe'
The quote comes from a Manic Street Preachers Song called 'Another Invented Disease.' Click link to have a listen: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PK133q19lg

Comic review: The Tithe #1- The best comic book in the world

Co-creator and Writer: Matt Hawkins
Co-creator and Artist: Rahsan Ekedal
Publisher: Top Cow Productions/Image Comics
Released: 15th April 2015


Do you know what I think is the most important, vital issue that is threatening the very existence of humanity and the planet Earth today?

Is it international banks and corporations owning and controlling western democratic governments, robbing people of their freedoms through neo-liberal consensus politics and giving people the illusion of freedom through social justice campaigns that obsess over race, gender and sexuality (but only in the west) issues?

I love the masks. Very edgy.

Nope, none of that stuff is important at all. What is REALLY important is Christian television evangelist fraud scandals from 1989. That’s what I’m really concerned about, and that’s why I absolutely love ‘The Tithe’ #1.

This book really is cutting edge. I love how it’s unafraid to hit those evil Christian Pastors where it really hurts, exposing their big Church donation based corruption for all the world to see. These big name US Christian Pastors have been getting away with their scams for far too long now, and it’s about time that somebody like brave writer Matt Hawkins and artist Rahsan Ekedal put their heads above the parapet and exposed these con-men Christian Churches for what they really are.

Co-creators Matt Hawkins and Rahsan Ekedal are taking a big career risk on this one. Just think of all those angry Christians who are going to be screaming blue murder about what is being exposed here.

Writer Matt Hawkins himself knows that there will be a HUGE backlash after what he has said about 1980’s Southern US Mega-Church Christianity in this whisteblowing paradigm shattering comic book, so he’s cleverly put a ‘good’ Christian character in the book as well to rebalance that situation.

It’s a wise decision, as the hard-core, militant, extremist Christian backlash against this book is going to be huge. I just hope that nothing violent happens as what this world needs right now is more people like brave, heroic, intelligent, cutting-edge, scandal breaking warrior writers like Matt Hawkins to really shine a light on the seedy underbelly of those Devilish, evil, satanic, scumbag, disgusting 1980s’s US Churches.

Great job Matt. Great job Ekedal. You’ve created something very special here, very special indeed.



Rating: 10000000000/10 (By far and away the best comic book in the world)

Comic Review: Reanimator #1- So much more than just another awesome Francavilla B Cover

Writer: Keith Davidsen
Artist: Randy Valiente
Cover B: Francesco Francavilla
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Released: 8th April 2015


I’ve just read a comic book that I really enjoyed, and I want to say some nice things about it and thank everybody involved, so here goes:

I only bought Reanimator #1 because of the typically awesome Francavilla front cover. I read the preview and it didn’t appeal, but when I saw that cover in my comic book store I decided to take a chance on the book. After all, if it turned out to be terrible then at least I’d have a great looking cover for my money.

So what’s the book all about? That’s the problem really. It sounds pretty formulaic on the surface. It’s about a Dr. Frankenstein type, and it has elements of magic and Lovecraftian horror mythology in it as well. The main protagonist is a girl, a scientist, and she’s pretty.

See what I mean?

Sounds unoriginal and uninspired doesn’t it? The strange thing however is that the book is actually a lot of fun and offers a lot more than you might think. The Dr. Frankenstein character is odd, but oddly likeable as well. The magic and Lovecraftian thematic meat of the narrative is interesting because it’s mixed in with elements of contemporary science, new-age ideas and street/thug life. Plus the girl protagonist is believably human and nowhere near as generic or annoying as your usual strong independent female warrior comic book type in 2015. She’s unfulfilled, bored, middle class and stuck in a safe career rut. She is doing daft things and taking unnecessary risks just to inject some much needed drama and sense of danger into the empty routine and meaning free existence in which she has found herself living in.

I read her and I can believe that she exists because she is bored, she has flaws, and she is lonely. In other words, she comes across like a real life flesh and blood human being, and reading that type of character in a comic book is something that really stands out. It shouldn’t. Fictional characters should always feel at least somewhat real, but the fact of the matter is that they don’t, so when you read one that is well written and believable she stands out like a (depressingly rare) truth told on a mainstream television ‘programme.’

The narrative flow of the book is fast, eventful, and fun, and features a final page reveal that makes a lot of sense, bridging the gap between contrivance for the sake of drama and creating a believable scenario that connects the main two protagonists. Did that make sense? Probably not. What I am trying to say is that the writing is good, very good.

The art (which I often neglect to talk about in my reviews) is easy on the eye, and that’s not just a cliché that I’m throwing in here because I don’t know what else to say about it. It’s clear, precise, uncluttered, and easy to follow and exists as good art should exist in a comic book, acting as the perfect companion to an interesting story, servicing that story rather than distracting from it.

Hopefully I’ve convinced everybody reading this review that Reanimator #1 is a comic book that is worth taking a chance on. It’s more than just the awesome Cover B from Francesco Francavilla. That cover is an excellent starter, but the main course of the book itself is just as delicious as well, and I’m happy to recommend it here on my occasionally daft, occasionally pompous, occasionally preachy, occasionally po-faced and serious, but always honest blog.


Rating: 8/10 (A fun filled horror comic book)

Review: 2000AD PROG 1926- JUST BUY IT!!

Writers and authors: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 15th April 2015



2000AD is fast becoming my favourite comic book of the week, and in PROG 1926 this long-time Judge Dredd hater even enjoyed that strip as well.

PROG 1926 begins with ‘Judge Dredd- Enceladus New Life: Part Three, and even though I still despise the power tripping main-man himself, the story being told is a good old-fashioned mystery tale that has really captured my interest, attention, and whatever else I have that is hanging out there in the wind waiting to be captured. The structure of the story is clever, you want to know what happened to cause a space ship to turn into a suicide bomber minus the Allahu Akbar, and the art has a nice grain and grit about it as well.

Second strip this week is ‘Orlok- The Rasputin Caper: Part Three,’ and this is another case of me disliking the main protagonist but enjoying the story. This one features a nice dig at the corporate whore mainstream media of the future deliberately lying to the public. Looks like things in the future are much like things in the present then.

Third strip is the awesome in every conceivable way ‘Slaine- The Brutania Chronicles- Book Two, Part Three.’ The colouring, the art, the layout, and the overall look of this strip is excellent, lovely, beautiful, harsh, ephemeral, otherworldly, but real. This book has to be released in hardcover, and when it is released it will be a must buy for art lovers and comic book fans alike. The story this week is focussed on a cliché-spouting slave to a centralised control system. Hey, with that sort of corporate talent she would do very well today. A promising career on television or politics, or writing for a mainstream newspaper awaits a lady so unquestioning, so blind, so enslaved, so in love with learnt helplessness and a desire to do nothing but passively accept her lot in life. Like I said at the beginning of this paragraph, everything about ‘Slaine’ is awesome in every conceivable way, and just like I said last week, you need to get 2000AD just for this one strip alone.

How do you follow something as brilliant as Slaine? You can’t really, but ‘Grey Area- Just Routine Questions: Part Two,’ is a very good story that is posing a lot of interesting questions itself. The story here is about a planet of new-ager types who are happy to do nothing but be ‘spiritual’ and suck in their vegan guff fumes and think happy thoughts of niceness whilst congratulating each other on their passive inactivity. There’s a lesson to be learnt in this story, of how you cannot isolate yourself from the world, from reality, without it eventually busting down your door and forcing you take some kind of action. A life of ‘peace’ is nice, but is it really time right now in 2015 to hide yourself away in a cabin, to ignore what is going on all around you and hope that the world doesn’t eventually knock upon your door? That’s what is being explored in ‘Grey Area’ and that is why it interests me.

Last strip of this thoroughly entertaining and rewarding week in 2000AD is ‘Strontium Dog- The Stix Fix: Part Three.’ There is a vein of humour running through the strip that I’m enjoying and the story about a compromised prisoner being forced to help out some recognisably horrible centralised control freak types is along for the ride, assisting the humour and giving the narrative an element of seriousness that stops it from dissolving into a frivolous (‘Survival Geeks’) inconsequential joy ride.

The only thing that I didn’t like about 2000AD this week was the rather rough looking front cover. The rest of the book is superb, from the breathtaking Slaine to the clever and funny Strontium Dog to the questioning Grey Area and to the unlikeable protagonists but good stories in Dredd and Orlok. PROG 1926 of 2000AD is a fine comic book, and if you are not yet reading it then you really should be checking it out. 2000AD is a book that is on top form at the moment, and it really shouldn’t be missed. If you like comic books, then you need to get this book, it’s as simple as that.


Rating: 9/10 (Since the spring 2015 new start this book just keeps on getting better and better)

Best story: Slaine (10/10)

Worst story: All five stories in 2000AD at the moment are worthy of praise.