Lockdown Recommendations

Lockdown Recommendations

I am lucky enough to work to work in a frontline role in the NHS at the worlds leading Heart and Lung Specialist Hospital, Royal Papworth.  As you can imagine it is crazy times at the moment and plenty more ahead of us. Needless to say time has been short this past week as, when not at work, I've been scouring the wastelands for food and supplies.  As a result I've not really had time to put something together for the blog, however I have tried to make time to read comics and books as a respite and diversion from the madness.

As much as I like to re-read old classics, I'm a sucker for something shiny and new to read.  I love the thrill of finding a new favourite or something jaw dropping by accident, this is even better when that thrill is cheap or free.  So I thought that I might quickly recommend some comics that I've really enjoyed recently and some that very generous creators and publishers have put out for free at this time to help those self isolating and social distancing.  Hopefully there will be something there that hits the mark for you too.

My first recommendation would be to get the Comichaus app, to use the tagline from the Awesome Comics Podcast guys "it's the Netflix of comics".  There is such a variety of small press and indie comics on there you cannot go wrong. I have found so many real gems during the time I've been using it.  

Most recently I've particularly enjoyed these three comics from Gustaffo Vargas: Lima, Manu and Trujillo. Cyberpunk comics set where pre Columbian culture meets hi and lo technology in a dystopian future (just around the corner).  I'd love to see this guy in 20000AD, he draws some great characters and cityscapes that would suit Megacity One.

You can try Comichaus for free for two weeks by following the link below after the trial it's only £3.99 a month.  https://www.comichaus.com/app

Talking of the Awesome Comics Podcast you should listen to their podcast for top class

banter, creator interviews, honest reviews and recommendations (https://awesomecomics.podbean.com/) I have a wish list longer than my arm after listening to this show each week.  From the Podcasts Tony Esmond, you can read The Whore Chronicles. I particularly enjoyed the story of Peggy with art by Sarah Harris read it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8m8djmtnqam5zsf/TWC_PressReady.pdf?dl=0

There are some superb comics to be found on Kickstarter that can be real bargains, especially if you go for digital options.  One I've backed is the latest from one of my favourite creators James McCulloch, called Camp VA70. Here's a quick description:

All animal life has been wiped out by a disease know as 'THE RED'. The agricultural industry crumbles under the weight of demand for food. The world needs help. Our saviours come in the form of an alien race, but their help comes at a price. They need our blood. Food in exchange for our blood. It seemed so simple...

You can back it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grandmasterwook/camp-va07-1/description

Thanks to Morgan Spiceman for the heads up about this link which gives information on how to gain access to 100 free comics: https://nerdist.com/article/100-free-comics/

Finally a very generous freebie from publishers of 2000AD, Rebellion a whole volume of Dredd with Case Files 05 The Law ar War which you can download

here: https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/GRN281?utm_source=The+2000+AD+Weekly+Thrill-Mail%21&utm_campaign=a3f189a7b1-2000+AD+NEWSLETTER+19-12-18_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f96459e4a2-a3f189a7b1-82803961

So there you go, plenty to get stuck into for free or not very much, hope you enjoy them.  

Thanks to all the NHS staff, postal and delivery drivers and retail sector workers who are keeping us all safe, informed and fed during this difficult time.  Keep the faith guys and stay safe.

Bloodshot

Bloodshot

This week I was going to recommend another piece of work by Grant Morrison for you and look at the background to it.  But, time has run away from me and I've not had an opportunity to re-read the collected volume as I'd hoped.  However, I think that I've got a great alternative lined up. This isn't by a 2000AD creator but I think it has a lot of touchstones with some of the galaxys greatest comics characters and others from pop culture that we can all relate to.  

A couple of weeks ago, scrolling through my Facebook feed, I saw a trailer for a new film starring Vin Diesel called Bloodshot.  Now this name rang a bell from a freebie comic that I received at a local comicon. I dug around in my collection and found the single issue I'd gotten from the con, I gave it a read and decided to search out some more. I'm not adverse to a digital edition so, when I saw a deal to buy 8 volumes of Bloodshot trades for a great price via Humble Bundle I jumped at the chance.

Bloodshot is from Valiant Comics, a company that wasn't really on my radar after my time in the comics wilderness. Valiant was formed in 1989 by an ex editor-in-chief of Marvel comics, Jim Shooter and his business partners, after a failed attempt to buy Marvel. Bloodshot made his first appearance in 1992, but things really took off when Valiant was bought out and re-launched in 2012. You can read more about Valiant and their other characters here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valiant_Comics

The character of Bloodshot has many influences in his DNA such as Robocop, as he struggles to find out who he was before scientists implanted the nanites. He has the Deadpool/Wolverine ability to heal and regenerate. However, he has less of the humor of Deadpool, Bloodshot  definitely comes from the Punisher mould of hard faced no nonsense killer. Other characters are left to provide the wit and light to his shade. So far, thankfully, I've not come across any caped superheroes, just characters enhanced by technology or mutated in some way to become weapons for good or evil.

But for all these influences Bloodshot manages to stand out as his own character, he is a badass killing machine and no quarter is given as to how the violence is depicted.  The art, that compliments the script from writer Duane Swierczynsk, is by Manuel Garcia & Arturo Lozzi with lettering by Rob Steen. Something you will find here, that seems sadly lacking in 2000AD of late, is some stunning visceral splash pages, like this .

For me, the Bloodshot comics are like a Jack Reacher novel, you know exactly what you are getting from them the minute you've read the first page.  I'm not too far into the series (vol 5 of the collected trades) but I have really enjoyed the ride so far. I'll be interested to read more and see how they sustain the character and the story. I hope the film isn't a disappointment, sadly tie-ins so often are. But no doubt I'll pay my money and hope for the best as usual.  

If you are a hardcore 2000AD fan and you want to dip your toes in some different waters, then Bloodshot could be right in your wheelhouse.

You can find a trailer for the movie here: https://youtu.be/vOUVVDWdXbo

Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison 

Okay, full disclosure I haven't read a massive amount of Grant Morrisons work.  Of course I know the name, not only from 2000AD but from his work for DC and Marvel too. I remember reading Zenith in 1987 but it wasn't much later on that my hiatus from comics began.  So, as much for my sake as anything else, here's a little synopsis of his career (God bless Wikipedia).

Much like Garth Ennis, Morrison started young his first work being published when he was about 17 years old in a British alternative comic called Near Myths.  1986 saw his debut in the galaxys greatest comic, with two Future Shocks soon followed by the well loved Zenith. Then, DC took him into their fold where he got the gig for writing Batman and Doom Patrol amongst others. From then on his star was in the ascendancy check out more here:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Morrison

Happily, as I'm trying to write this blog to highlight some of the work of these creators, I have read a couple of very different books by Grant Morrison on my return to comics.  The first one was given to me as a gift from a friend. She went into Mega City Comics in Camden and told the guys there that "he likes 2000AD and he likes horror". The chap working there suggested the following graphic novel, which she promptly bought.

The book was the trade of 2015s Nameless, from Image, what an introduction to Morrisons work that was. I've read it a couple of times and I'm still not 100% sure of what it's all about. In a nutshell, it's a space based horror story, the hero of the tale has no name, he is the titular Nameless.  

Nameless is an occult expert called upon by an eccentric billionaire (think a more batshit Branson) to go into space and be part of a mission to save the earth from destruction by a 14 x 6 mile asteroid hurtling in its general direction. Sounds straightforward?  This story goes off on so many tangents and themes, space horror, body horror, ancient cultures, iconography you name it it's all there with a generous side order of blood and gore.  

The art by Chris Burnham is amazing throughout, his own imagination must have been

stretched by the imagery demanded of him by
Morrisons script.  His work, with excellent colouring by Nathan Faibairn, lets us revel in the madness, blood and gore of the story. Lettering is by another 2000AD alum Simon Bowland, who has worked on Kingdom, Jaegir and Survival Geeks to name just a few. 

So, if you like your sci-fi horror to make you think and even question what you are reading then this is for you.  Trust me you'll never be bored with this story, you may wonder what the fuck it's all about, but you wont be bored. 

Next time I'll look at a more mainstream, but no less thought provoking piece of work from Grant Morrison.

Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis seems to be quite a divisive writer among comic fans, I have enjoyed pretty much everything that I've read by him, on my return to comics. However, a knowledgeable comics fan friend of mine, once described some of his strips as puerile and childish.  To be honest I have to agree that there can be an element of that to his work but equally I think that is sometimes what attracts me.

The full on, in your face, behaviour of the cast of say The Boys, is so politically incorrect you just have to laugh at the brazenness of the characters and the writer. It appeals to that 70s child in me that grew up in a time when you weren't looked on as a maniac for not wearing a helmet when you rode your Grifter.  We were brought up on bawdy Carry On films and shows like the Sweeney and The Professionals, where men were men and birds were crumpet. 

But where Ennis really hits his stride is with war stories, like his Battlefields collection, the attention to detail and research for this work is always evident. He has an obvious passion for these stories but they don't always garner the audience recognition of titles like The Boys or Preacher.  Perhaps he works like Gary Oldman, who famously takes on the big Hollywood commercial roles so that he can afford to work on his own smaller passion projects. 

For me the best of both worlds has been reading Ennis' run on The Punisher Max for Marvel.  My introduction to this was buying Volume one of the Complete Punisher Max Collection which brings together Born #1-4, Punisher (2004) #1-12.  Born sees Ennis team up with his art collaborator from The Boys, Darick Robertson - always a favorite of mine.

Born gives a great insight into Frank Castles time spent fighting in the Vietnam war and how that shaped him into becoming the Punisher (as ever I’ll try to avoid spoilers).  The story ‘In the Beginning’ sees the narrative taken into New York, after Franks return from Vietnam and introduces the event which befalls his family, that you may be familiar with if you’ve watched the Netflix/Marvel series starring John Beranthal.  The art duties here falling to Lewis LaRosa who gives us a hulking grizzled image of Frank.   

Much of Ennis’ work is a love letter to New York, a place that he admits he fell in love with from the moment he set foot there. However, there isn't much love to be found in the final story in this collection 'Kitchen Irish' when Frank becomes caught up in a turf war between gangs in Hells Kitchen.  This strip featuring the pencilling of Leandro Fernandez who, like the previous artists, gives us some great images of a hench, battle scarred Punisher.

Much to my chagrin, my first exposure to The Punisher was via the TV series and that whet my appetite to read some Punisher comics.  When I found out that Ennis had done a run, then my mind was made up. I get the feeling that this run was a big influence on the TV series and Beranthals portrayal.  Both are very brutal and very bloody, not for the squeamish reader or viewer. Needless to say, I've loved it and I'm hoping to get the fourth and final book in the collected series soon.

So, if you only know Garth Ennis from his time writing for 2000AD or from the TV adaptations of his work I would definitely recommend jumping on with this Punisher Max run.  Then, the Ennisverse is your oyster and there is a lot out there to choose from, I'll no doubt look at more in the future. 

As a postscript, Garth returns to British comics on Wednesday 25th March when the Action 2020 special is released by Rebellion and the Treasury of British Comics.  More details here:

https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/RCS2062

John Wagner

John Wagner

I thought I'd kick off with the guvnor, the man behind the iconic 2000AD tentpole character of Judge Dredd, John Wagner.  

I knew John had a long history of writing comic stories and even editing comics, before he began writing Dredd. Famously, in the early days he was hammering out stories for girls and boys adventure comics, along with mainstays like Cor and Whizzer and Chips, in a garden shed with Pat Mills.  He was a mainstay of 2000AD often writing under pseudonyms such as T.B Grover and John Howard, to name just a couple, crafting some great characters along the way. In partnership with Alan Grant, he created both Robo-Hunter and fan favourite Johnny Alpha the Strontium Dog. Of course we can't neglect to mention old stoney face himself, Judge Dredd with iconic art by the maestro Carlos Esquerra.

But, I want to concentrate on a graphic novel that I had no idea John was the writer of, 1997s A History of Violence. I'd seen the 2005, David Cronenberg, film adaptation starring Vigo Mortenson and Ed Harris, but never realised that the original story was by John Wagner. I discovered this fact when listening to Eamonn Clarkes Mega City Book Club and his guest was discussing the book*.  Needless to say my next stop was Ebay to get hold of a copy to read for myself.

On receipt, my first surprise was the size, I was expecting your average sized graphic novel but, the copy I got was more like a small paperback book. I even thought I'd got a prose version. Happily, on opening, I realised that this was not just a prose book but just a smaller format graphic novel. 

My next surprise was the artwork, none of the smooth, polished, sometimes in colour, style of art I'd been used to accompanying JWs work in 2000AD. The art from Vince Locke was a scratchy black and white artwork. After I got over my initial surprise of these two facts, a few days later I settled down to give it a read.

A History of Violence, fulfilled all those dust cover cliches that you read like, "I couldn't put it down" and " a real page turner".  Once I started reading I was drawn into its world, I really cared for the characters and what was going to happen to them next. Lockes style of artwork, really gives the book an edgy reality. 

Wagner's script here, as with much of his work, seems so effortless, hitting the perfect notes of acerbic wit and unsentimental storytelling.  I'm not going to give any spoilers here but, for me, at its heart the book is a tense story of change and of retribution for past deeds. Oh and violence, lots of violence, give it a read you won't regret it.

At a recent con I was able to meet John and go all fanboy, getting many items signed amongst which is my copy of A History of Violence. 

Bringing things right up to date, along with some excellent recent Dredd stories for the prog, John has been working on Rok of The Reds and the upcoming Rok The God. Teamed up again with Alan Grant on writing duties and art from the amazing Dan Cornwell. If you've not read Rok of The Reds you need to get it in your life. Here's a description from the blurb that sums it up…

'Dangerous intergalactic outlaws and an arrogant footballer collide, on the run after his home world is destroyed, Rok of Arkadi needs a hiding place. And that hiding place happens to be troubled football star Kyle Dixon. A black comedy about revenge, redemption and the 'beautiful game'.

*Note: I highly recommend listening to the excellent MCBC podcast but, be ready to deplete your bank account as you won't be able to stop yourself buying the books they talk about.

My Comics Origin story and a Blog Begins

My Comics Origin story and a Blog Begins

Stands up and clears throat…”My name is Garry and I’m a lapsed comic reader.”

Mine was the old story of reading comics from a young age, then leaving comics behind after finding the lure of booze and women too strong.  But, after nearly 30 years in the comic wilderness I returned to the fold when my wife got me the 1977 Christmas issue of 2000AD as a Christmas gift.  Returning to 2000AD was my gateway drug, I started picking up all the classics I’d missed, like Watchmen for instance.

Thanks to the Awesome Comics podcast guys, I started getting into the indie and small press titles too, mainlining on the Comichaus app and backing small kickstarters.  Thanks to them I now have a Comixology and Amazon wish list that would bankrupt a small country.

I love the breadth of the art and stories that are out there from the modern classics to the small personal, even abstract pieces that can be a more challenging read.  I’ve been lucky enough to get to some cons and meet creators and fans alike, more recently organising the 2000AD Eastern Contingent meet-ups. I've been interested to find out that there are a lot of 2000AD fans who read nothing else but the prog, meg and the collected works from the past. 

So in an effort to perhaps persuade those 2000AD stalwarts to try something else I've created this blog where I'll write about and, hopefully introduce, some new comics into your life. It won't be in-depth critiques (I'll leave that to those much better qualified than I) but just my take on what I've read and enjoyed, or not enjoyed. I'll start with some works by 2000AD alumni like Garth Ennis and Grant Morrison and then look at work by other creators.