New Year - New Recommendations

Happy new comic reading year! Following the excitement of the first Christmas for our baby, I found a quiet moment to finally read my copy of issue #4 of The77.  I went for the Kickstarter of the excellent Lew Stringer variant cover, I'm sure there are some very happy creators seeing their characters Immortalised by Lew.

Inside, the usual quality we have come to know and love, each story coming in like a heavyweight boxer in a title fight.  Bounty on the Mutie, Penny Pentagram and Prodigal finding distance, warming us up.  Trackless Depths, The Cell and V bringing the fight to us, unleashing a salvo of hard hitting writing and art punches.

Undertow itself was a lesson in fighting techniques, some superb fight scenes brilliantly drawn.  Division 77 and Sgt Shouty put us on the ropes and then left it to Andrew Sawyers Valkyr13 pin up (pictured above) to deliver the knockout punch.  It's no secret that I'm a fan of The77 and my own story Project Revenant will be coming up later this year, but this is an awesome issue!  If you've not already got yours, what are you waiting for?

Buy issue #4 and back issues here: https://the77comic.bigcartel.com/

I was kindly given an advanced copy of Sentinel issue six "Bad Kitty" by writer Alan Holloway a couple of days ago, he told me that it was a fun issue and it certainly is.  The hero of the story Carlos Harrison, a criminal in the style of The Stainless Steel Rat who we meet while in the middle of a heist in a luxury hotel.  I don't want to give too much away here because part of the fun I had with the book was not having a clue what was ahead of me.  Art and lettering is by Morgan Gleave who some may know from his work in The77.  What a great job he does too, his art style was a perfect fit for this story. Check out this exclusive video!

Bad Kitty is a really fun romp with lots of nods to 2000AD and cartoon animals that you'll recognise but they don't pull you out of the story.  If you are looking for some silly escapism, that puts a smile on your face during these difficult times, then I can highly recommend Bad Kitty.  The Kickstarter begins on February 1st - look out for a cracking variant cover by Mal Earl there too.

Finally I also got around to reading my copy of Atomic Hercules goes Commando, which had been sitting in my inbox for a while.  What I love about the Atomic Herc series isn't just the sheer filth and depravity or the ultra violent characters, that's just one layer of the stories.  For me the stories also depict so many of my frustrations at the world and Hercules is the avatar that takes them on.  For instance a preening self obsessed social media addicted, all mouth warrior gets what he deserves when he crosses Herc.  

Tony Esmond and Adam Falp have created such a brilliant character and world that he inhabits here.  It's also obvious they are enjoying what they are doing too, playing about with formats, like this being in the style of a Commando comic keeps it fresh.  I'm looking forward to more.

Buy your copy here: https://neverironanything.bigcartel.com/products?page=1