I used to work with Ben McCool back at Nostalgia & Comics in Birmingham for several years before he left to travel to America and find fame and fortune as a big time writer of comics. I don’t know how he’s doing for money (he still owes me several drinks) but the fame thing seems to be developing nicely. And, as anyone who meets him (or, as is more likely – drinks with him) will tell you, it couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke.
We mentioned this here on the FPI blog a while back, when the new Image series Choker by Ben McCool and Ben Templesmith was announced but the two Ben’s are getting a lot of press right now for what looks to be a very nice series (although Templesmith’s art and the subject matter makes it seem a little close to the ideas behind Warren Ellis’ Fell).
Both Ben’s are interviewed here at Newsarama.com from which this:
In a nutshell, Choker is what might’ve happened if Raymond Chandler went on a week-long bender with Phillip K. Dick: there are villains so filthy you’ll feel as if you need a bath after meeting ‘em; deviant dames with squalid agendas; surreptitious figures lurking in the background, waiting to make their mark on proceedings; and of course, a lead protagonist who’s been shafted by a system so corrupt that even Rod Blagojevic would turn his nose up in disgust.
The main question that Choker asks of its audience is, if you wanted something, and wanted it real bad, what would you be willing to do to get it…? Well, that, and what would you do if you found a horny three-faced mutant living underneath your bathtub.
The first issue is out in early 2010, but for a preview and stand-alone story check out Image Comics new CBLDF charity comic: Liberty Comics #2, out October 15th 2009.
September 18th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
@BenMcCool get’s some love on our upcoming #CHOKER book. http://tinyurl.com/knh8du