Comic review: The Fiction #1- Not much fun, and now I feel bad because I didn’t like it

Writer: Curt Pires
Artist: David Rubin
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Released: 17th June 2015


It’s not very enjoyable to write a review on something that has little impact, that is neither hot nor cold, just middling, lukewarm and indifferent.

I like to rave, and I like to moan. I like to get passionate, and to get passionately wrong about something is always a learning experience that I’ll gladly accept, sod the ego, let it get bruised, I need to banish it to gain inner spiritual fulfilment (or something) anyway.

Oh, a book that does nothing, it’s so depressing. I can barely talk about it. I’m writing a review and it feels like work. I don’t want to go to work. I want to write with freedom and passion, and say silly things. So please forgive me, because what’s coming next is a half-hearted effort, a review of a book that did absolutely nothing for me.

‘The Fiction #1’ reads like a child’s fantasy book, like that Narnia movie with the wardrobe and lion in it. The characters are childhood friends, they experience something when they are ten, one of them goes missing, now they are all grown up, and about to jump back into that childhood fantasy world once again to discover what happened to their friend.

There was a hint at the beginning of the book that the disappearance is connected to ‘conspiracy theories’ and that should have hooked me, seeing as I’m supposed to be the ‘conspiracy’ guy, but the hooks never attached, and it wasn’t enough to make me care.

So what was the problem then?

I don’t know. The characters felt a bit plain, a bit dull, nothing resonated and it felt a bit too childish for me, not serious enough, a bit too cartoon and silly, and the artwork played into that feeling as well. It was too colourful, there was no realism to it, no sense of threat or danger, or most importantly, excitement.

I’m, sorry. I hate to say mean things about new indie books, but I didn’t enjoy it, and I won’t be buying issue #2. I wish them the best, but there’s not enough here to keep me interested, and now I’m fed up, and I don’t feel good about writing this review. I shouldn’t have bothered. I feel like a bad guy because I didn’t enjoy the book. Lots of effort, and struggle and time, and passion and hopes and dreams, and here I am dismissing it like it is nothing. Ah man, sometimes reviewing comic books really sucks.


Rating: 4/10 (Dull)

Comic review: Millennium (X-Files) #3- 90’s nostalgia for my useless generation

Writer: Joe Harris
Artist: Colin Lorimer
Colourist: Joana Lafuente
Publisher: IDW Comics
Released: 1st April 2015



Millennium has been a very enjoyable series so far. The art is great, the colouring’s superb, the script is interesting and the construction of the narrative itself has a screenplay element to it that makes the entire experience feel like you are watching an old episode of the X-Files television show.

That screenplay element is in use again at the beginning of issue #3 with a plot device that is usually used in television dramas. A moment of high (spooky) drama opens the narrative, before the story flashes back 24 hours so the viewer can see the prelude to the dramatic scenes that are now unfolding.

I enjoy that technique, it brings you straight into the narrative with a monument of adrenaline, hooking you into the story with drama, and having you hang around for an explanation about the context behind that drama.

As with all ‘conspiracy’ shows the game here is to hint at what is to come, revealing slowly, drip by drip, tantalising clues about the bigger ‘conspiracy’ picture behind surface events. Throw in some interesting characters, have a daughter kidnapping (that always works) and you have a show.

It sounds like, from what I’ve just been underlying here, that this ‘Millennium’ book isn’t exactly busting with originality, and that’s a pretty fair accusation to lay on the project. It’s not original, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not any good. Yeah the references are a bit old (The Millennium Bug and the Pixies) but for people over the age of forty (that’s me) there’s still fun to be had here.

If you pick up this title you’ll get a mixture of X-Files nostalgia (like the returning show) good art and a well-paced and competently executed script. I’m enjoying it, but bear in mind that I am a 41 (almost 42) year-old guy who grew up with this stuff on his television during my prime (they weren’t really prime, I was terribly depressed back then) twenties years.

This book transports me back to the days when the X-Files was the coolest, newest, edgiest show on television. That’s not really the case anymore, and if you expect the upcoming new shows to be anything other than nostalgia I fear you are in for some disappointing viewing.

The X-Files was of it’s time, and as I read ‘new’ versions of it today I come away with the feeling that it’s not connecting with anything that has happened post 9/11.

All of the usual globalist, New World order, failing democracy, surveillance and illegal, never-ending war stuff that I always talk about in my reviews, and want to see reflected in my comic books isn’t really happening in this book, or any of the other X-Files titles coming from IDW Comics.

That’s okay. If you want to talk about new stuff you have to update the vehicle, and the X-Files wagon is a bit rusty these days. It’s become a nostalgia thing, and when it’s done well it still has something to offer, at least to blokes like me who grew up with this stuff during our late teens or twenties.

I like this book, but I’m being realistic about it here. I’m not going to pretend that something game-changing is happening.

It’s a nostalgia book, done well, that is centred on a conspiracy group that was designed to cash-in on the silly (and it always was silly, this is not hindsight) Millennium bug fears of the late 1990’s. Get Millennium if you miss the X-Files and are looking forward to the new television shows. The book looks great, the story is interesting and the entire project has been carefully and thoughtfully constructed.

Rating: 7/10 (Nostalgic fun for the 35+ generation)

Comic review: Millennium #3- Glorious colouring, boss front cover

Writer: Joe Harris
Artist: Colin Lorimer
Colourist: Joane Lafuente
Publisher: IDW Comics
Released: 18th March 2015


Along with the gloriously gothic and spooky regular cover from menton3 you get some equally atmospheric and splendidly coloured interior art in Millennium #2.

This is a book that you’ll want to enjoy with the lights on, as every page is awash with psychedelic swatches, blurs and shades of dazzling colour, creating an effect that’s really quite impressive and a joy to experience.

I’m one of those reviewers who doesn’t usually mention the art and colouring, so the very fact that I’m mentioning it here must mean that it's stand-out good. Actually it’s a lot better than good, it’s great, and bottom line, a heck of a lot of fun to look at.

The story itself is inoffensive to this jaded anarchist, even though it has murders in it, but I forgive that as it’s a conspiracy/murder-mystery genre book and I guess you have to sprinkle a few corpses around a bit to make it what it is.

The book, at the moment at least, is in the stage of the narrative where things are still being hinted at, and the fun to be had here is to follow it all the way through and see everything link up at the end.

The key is whether or not it’s interesting enough that you want to hang around. I do, not because it’s a ‘conspiracy’ book, but because the art is great, there’s nothing in it that offends me too much and the plot is interesting.

I want to follow that plot to the end. I want to know what is happening. I want to slowly find out where it’s all going and I want to find out with the evil villains are up to in relation to unleashing evil into the world (err lads, it’s already here, it’s in charge, and it’s called ‘Government.’)

I’ll keep on buying it, and I’ll keep on putting my lights on when reading the book in order to get the full benefit of the very good art and absolutely stunning colouring work by Joane Lafuente.

If you like the X-files, and if you like books where occulted groups are getting up to mischief, only to eventually be thwarted by brave agents of the state (sorry, but that’s what’s happening here) then you should get a kick out of it. It’s atmospheric, subtle, interesting and well worth spending a couple of quid on. Just look at that front cover with a Slender Man/Demon on it. That’s great, and the book itself isn’t too bad either.


Rating: 7/10 (Not exactly government shattering, but it’s a fun read)

Comic review: Millennium #1- Cleverly constructed, intriguing and fun

Writer: Joe Harris
Artist: Colin Lorimer
Publisher: IDW
Released: 21st January 2015



It was the overarching concept behind this book that hooked me, that tempted me into a purchase, and not the association with the old ‘conspiracy’ television show of the 1990’s.

That show was The X-Files, and the concept I’m talking about here is evil, and how it manipulates the world, hiding just beyond the scope of our current ‘scientific’ understanding.

That’s the real ‘conspiracy’ behind the pathetic, see-through lies and manipulations of our puppet politicians. It’s an interdimensional conspiracy with demonic entities attaching themselves to those in positions of power and influence in our particular ‘reality.’

Do these entities have to psychically manifest in the minds of individual men in order to manipulate them, or perhaps it’s just an in-built disease of our DNA that allows us to be so open, so eager to embrace evil? Either way, the demonic entities attach themselves to the minds of men (and women) in order to guide them, to manage them, and to encourage them to give out the immoral orders that those in uniforms unquestioningly follow.

That is the story of our planet. A wilfully ignorant, immoral, psychically contaminated species in love with order giving, and order following. The inevitable result of this toxic mindset is endless war, suffering and inhumanity, with man killing man, not for a good reason, but because he was ordered to. This is our past, our present, and if we keep on voting for it, our future as well.

That is the reason behind my purchase of this book. I am hoping for an exploration of that very human disease, the disease that allows us to give and take orders with no regard to moral rights and wrongs. I am hoping for an exploration into control systems, of slavery, of the collective Stockholm syndrome that is affecting us all. I have high hopes, and that is why I am such a harsh critic.

I will not accept a good story with interesting characters and give it a 10/10 because it was exciting or ‘cool.’ I am no longer a child. I demand much more than cheap thrills in my comic books these days. Say something, or go away.

This X-Files companion book takes the idea that the year 2000 was to be the end of something, acknowledges that it wasn’t, explains why it wasn’t, and carries the idea forward. There was a group of human plotters working for the evil entities that I have just mentioned. The group had something planned for the big day, but when 1999 turned into 2000, they failed, and the promised end of times failed to materialise.

But what is time to the eternal evil that lives, that hides, that manipulates, that plots, that conspires, that deceives, that tempts, that sows seeds of discord, disharmony, hatred and despair within the heart of us all? Nothing, and so the poisonous metaphorical spider continues to weave it’s web, mankind entraps itself, and a new threat emerges.

It’s a very comic book thing happening here, introducing a threat, and then having order following agents of the state thwarting it. It even has that tired old trope, the serial killer, but there’s something happening in this book that interests me, at least so far. It could be the structure (which is very good) and it could be the dark shading and colouring (which I like very much), but there’s a feeling of something hidden here that appeals.

As long as writer Joe Harris can ratchet back the statism, it should be a decent read. I’m not a frequent reader of his work, so I don’t know where his mindset is, but all I can do at the moment is keep my fingers crossed and hope that this story doesn't devolve into yet another book where state sanctioned agents save the poor innocent victim-civilian-suspects.


I’m going to take a gamble here and give this book a cautiously optimistic thumbs up. Time will tell whether or not it’s trying to say something, but I have to acknowledge that it’s a very cleverly crafted, intriguing and interesting beginning to the arc. A good opening can often deceive of course, so we’ll have to wait and see with this one. At the moment it’s worth purchasing, but time will be the ultimate judge. Will this book stand up like a nail, or will it just end up being another in a long, long line of police state supporting contemporary comic books? We’ll see.


Rating: 7/10