Skreemer by Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon

Skreemer by Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon

Before I listened to Eamonn Clarke's Mega City Book Club episode on Skreemer, I have to admit I'd never even heard of it.  Skreemer was released in 1989, during my wilderness years from buying and reading comics.

But being a fan of 2000AD creatives Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon I was intrigued to read it for myself.  Sadly I couldn't get a hold of any copies, or a trade, but to the rescue came Eamonn who very kindly sent me his perfect 1989 copies to read.

So what is Skreemer all about?  Well here's a synopsis from the publishers DC: The dark and violent SKREEMER tells the post-apocalyptic tale of a young boy's ascension from brutal assassin to the most powerful gangster in the world. 

That is a very simple description of the story, I'll be perfectly honest and say that when I first started reading I didn't have a clue what was going on.  I'd been thrown into this new world, in the middle of the action, with a narrator telling me what was going on but none of it made sense.  At first I thought it was just my sleep deprived brain (we have a newborn) and I'd picked up issue 3 by mistake.  But I think that is the plan with this series, you gain just a little more enlightenment as you read each issue. 

Interestingly one of the characters sings a song from the book Finnegans Wake which, as Wikipedia tells us, is "one of the most difficult works in the Western canon.  Blending standard English lexical items and neologistic multilingual puns and portmanteau words to unique effect." I guess Milligan could have been writing his own Finnegans Wake here.

Much of the story is told in flashback, America has been decimated by a plague (topical) and gang bosses, known as Presidents rule the land due to their control of a serum for the plague.  Our anti hero, Veto Skreemer, has a vicious streak from a young age and is recruited as a hit man for one of the gang bosses.  From there he goes on a bloody rise to become the most powerful mob President. Of course, as history so often tells us, every empire that rises must one day fall.  Or does it?

As you might guess the art by both Ewins and Dillon is brilliant throughout.  2000AD fans will no doubt see elements of Ewins creation Kano, from Bad Company, in Veto Skreemer.  All in all a great dark tale of friendship, family, mobsters, violence and retribution. Some very clever writing by Milligan certainly allows for reading multiple times to open every layer of the story.

Again thank you to Eamonn of the Mega City Book Club for sending me his copies of Skreemer.  They are the original 1989 copies in perfect condition, bagged and boarded (photos above).  I'd like to pay Eamonns kindness forwards and send these to another comics fan to enjoy.  So, if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning these books answer one question: What 2000AD writer wrote the graphic novel that inspired the film A History of Violence? Clue: the answer is in a previous blog.  Post the answer in my blog post on the 1977-2000AD Facebook page and I'll draw a winner in a weeks time.