by Warren Ellis and Raulo Caceres

Avatar Press

“This is a secret history. Everything I tell you is true.
Ionic air propulsion. Electrostatic levitation. Electrogravitics. The Biefield-Brown Effect and electro-fluid-dynamics. Nothing here is invented. It simply appears to be uchronic, counterfactual, sitting in the break of a time out of joint.
Everything I tell you is true. It is everyone else who’s been lying to you. I am Captain Swing.”

Here we go again, another Warren Ellis comic that sounds like an absolute blast, full of the sort of manic, extreme, sharply dialogued stuff I enjoy from Ellis on themes both he and I find continually and repeatedly interesting; experimental science, crime, law and strange history viewed through a steampunk lens.

But I’m not going to be fooled this time. I think Ignition City taught me something, finally, about Ellis comics; never be taken in by a first issue full of inventive ideas, sparse on plot and dialogue but full of potential. So I’m going to hold off on fully appraising Captain Swing until the inevitable collection comes out – only then will I be able to tell if that early promise was fulfilled in a satisfying story.

(Captain Swing? Possibly. Electrical? Certainly. Whoever it is, he’s way ahead of both types of policemen here. From Captain Swing And The Electrical Pirates Of Cindery Island by Ellis and Caceres, published by Avatar)

Captain Swing certainly starts out as extremely promising, the title comes from Captain Swing, the imaginary leader of agricultural riots of the 1830s but Ellis spins this idea and his Captain Swing appears to be an electrically charged character who the locals mistake for Spring Heeled Jack – another bit of 19th Century English folklore. Throw in the competing law enforcement of the time between the amateur, underfunded and incompetent Metropolitan Police Peelers and the far more professional, armed, dangerous and corrupt Bow Street Runners controlled by the Magistrates and we get an intriguing setup.

(Oh, those text pages just scream Ellis don’t they? From Captain Swing And The Electrical Pirates Of Cindery Island by Ellis and Caceres, published by Avatar)

Then add in all the allusions to secret histories, electricity, scientific concepts way ahead of their times and a “galvanic cell that fell into the sands of Baghdad in 250BC” introduced on the text pages that litter the comic and Captain Swing comes across as a mysterious and interesting, if short, read.

It’s an immediately gripping first issue, supplemented by Avatar standard colour art by Raulo Caceres – which is not bad, doing everything it needs to do with a little style and the occasional iffy panel or figure.

Captain Swing And The Electrical Pirates Of Cindery Island – style over content, certainly, but it’s Ellis’ style and I’m a fan. Whether the series lives up to this early promise….. this time I shall wait and see. And if nothing else, the series does have that great title and a beautiful cover.

Captain Swing #2 is due later this month.

Written by Fehed Said; Illustrated by Sonia Leong, Nana Li, Wing Yun Man, Chloe Citrine and Faye Yong.

Sweatdrop Studios

This is a collection of short Manga all written by Fehed Said, whose last book The Clarence Principle was thoroughly enjoyed by Katherine back here. Talking To Strangers is themed around some concept of connections with strangers, and they all sit beneath a simply gorgeous cover by Nani Li, with it’s modern conceit of the raised headphone a perfect metaphor for truly opening up to engage with the world.

Inside the book we have six stories, all of decent length (the shortest is the bonus story with just 8 pages – but that’s the exception, most are 30+ pages), something I’m increasingly convinced is necessary in any anthology, and especially Manga, where the storytelling structure and the relatively faster pace of the artwork demands a bigger page count to tell even the simplest of stories. The art is all Manga styled in some way but within that each tale manages to have it’s own, very distinct style; we have very traditional Manga, very Westernised Manga (think Bryan Lee O’Malley for that one), pure cute “bighead” style and much more besides. A veritable visual feast.

(What does an agoraphobic do when his TV breaks? Makes his own TV through his window. Slightly creepy voyeuristic romance from Static by Fehed Said, Wing Yun Man and Faye Yong in Talking To Strangers from Sweatdrop Studios)

I’ll start and end with the best in the book, stories and art working perfectly together and resulting in two fantastic shorts and the first of these is Static, with art by Wing Yun Man and Faye Yong. It tells us the hope filled tale of an agoraphobic, trapped in his littered apartment, newspaper taped to the windows to keep out the world, with television his only friend. But when the TV breaks and his life turns to static, he notices the light coming in through the window where the newspaper has peeled away. Suddenly he has a different view on the outside world, one that’s better than TV, one with a view of the park and two possible lovers. Totally engrossed in their story, just as I was in his, he is eventually challenged to leave his prison to effect a possible reconciliation. It’s a wonderful little story, visually inventive, playful, surreal and great fun, yet still just that little bit strange, just the pleasant side of voyeuristic creepiness.

(A terrifying nightmare – boxed in, trapped, but where? Why? The answers are far more than you’d expect. From Box by Fehed Said and Nana Li in Talking To Strangers from Sweatdrop Studios)

The first tale in Talking To Strangers is the creepiest story of the lot; Box, illustrated by Nana Li in traditional style full of expression and quite a lot of chilling images. I’m loath to spoil the ending as it’s definitely not what you think it will be, but suffice it to say that it’s a bizarre, slightly nasty tale of two strangers who find themselves trapped in something worryingly like coffins; are they alone, are there more strangers out there in similar circumstance, and what connection does it all have to the grieving families in a hospital? Mysterious, slightly ghoulish and a great start to the book.

Malignant, with art from Chloe Citrine is more emo-esque fairy tale than out and out horror. A good enough tale, but too heavy handed, starting with “There once was a boy carrying the weight of the world on his shoulder” on a page with a boy pulling a large rock, chain attached to his neck, up a hill. The hill gets steeper, the rock gets bigger, he meets others along the way all tethered to the earth by their own chains. He’s planning to throw the stone off the bridge and rid himself of it. But what if the stone is too big, what will he do then when the weight of the world gets too much? Well, he is on a bridge with a chain attached to his neck…… like I said, heavy handed. Nice enough, a pleasant read, but it was always struggling to get past that concept that (ahem) weighed it down.

Hero with art by Sonia Leong is another very dark tale, of an abused boy putting up with his father’s beatings and finding a strange ally and potential saviour in the hooded figure who lives opposite. It’s a horrible subject and handled as such by Said. But there’s just something about it which fails to connect, the story seems too fragmented, the mystery too forced. Again, good but not great.

The final story; the 8 page The Old Man with art by Faye Yong is the weakest of the book, with a story that’s just too trite and simplistic – oldest man on earth has press conference to talk about how he got to live to 150, ends up spinning a parable about living for others  and being a citizen of the world. It takes just 8 pages because there’s not really that much to say.

(From Flowers by Fehed Said and Faye Yong in Talking To Strangers from Sweatdrop Studios)

And I’ll end with the best thing in Talking To Strangers, a story that’s just packed with imagination and wonderful storytelling, and as the couple of panels above should tell you – a lot of perfectly timed comedy as well; Flowers, done in fantastic “chibi” style by Faye Yong. A brother and sister, Simon and Elowena discover an abandoned square, fenced off from the world and containing two little flowers. Poor Elowena takes one home, innocently telling it “I’ll put you back after show and tell on Friday“. It ends badly for the flower the following morning.

From there this tiny slice of life tale becomes something far more sci-fi, as we discover we’re in a future where flowers have been extinct for 200 years and Elowena has stumbled across two (now just one) of the last specimens in the world. Her increasingly desperate attempts to look after this last flower, through summer, autumn rains and the eventual, devastating winter (for both flower and girl) are equal parts funny and heartbreaking. And at times it’s very funny, with the set piece of Elowena’s puffer jacket being so restrictive it forces her to walk along as if she’s trying to fly a highlight early on. Smiles and laughter. Brilliantly paced, perfect timing.

Elowena realises that she was too selfish with her treasure and, after the flower dies in the winter she just wishes she could have the chance to share the magic with her friends. And so do we. It’s staggeringly simple, beautifully good, full of simple, evocative emotion, and quite wonderful.

Talking To Strangers is a strong anthology, with at least two stories (Static and Flowers, maybe three in Boxes) that are absolutely top notch examples of great storytelling. But like any anthology of worth, my favourites may not be yours, in which case, please, please, seek this out and discover it for yourselves. It’s available from the Sweatdrop Studios website for just £6 – and considering my favourite stories have 100 pages between them that’s excellent value.

Richard Bruton.

By Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and Douglas Noble

Self-Published

I looked at Rule of Death last time with issues 1-4 and thought:

“For a book with a man refusing death Goodbrey is never short of a comedy one liner or two. And it’s this refusal to let neither the macabre events or the ridiculousness of the situation get out of hand that sees Rule Of Death rise above what could have been a rather silly or a rather doom laden zombie tale and turn into something far, far better and wonderfully original.“

Issues 5 & 6 of the print version of Goodbrey and Noble’s Western Zombie Gunfighter saga (who better than a man who can’t die to earn big money in gunfight betting?) just kept the whole thing going very satisfyingly indeed. Our dead man Pete Colby and his manager Murphy are in town for a series of gunfights under Pete’s stage name of Slow Draw Pete McGraw, the slowest gunslinger in the old west.

And the entire thing kicks off brilliantly with a marvellous gag of all the gunfights being held at noon, no matter what time it really is. Complete with a man changing the gunfighting time on the special gunfighting clock:

(Well, what time would you put on a gunfight? From The Rule Of Death issue 5 by Goodbrey and Noble.)

Slow Draw Pete McGraw wins, as you might expect, since he can take a hit far better than his opponents. But the end is in sight for Pete, either from the mysterious figure hurtling towards them in a stagecoach murmuring “soon enough Pete Colby, soon enough” or maybe in the shape of the best gunslinger he’s ever come up against. One way or another, the man who refused death has to eventually answer for his decision not to die.

There’s much to enjoy in Rule Of Death, Goodbrey’s writing is crisp and suspenseful throughout all the tense gunfighting scenes, something perfectly drawn by Noble to really play on the slow drawing out of the moment as the clock ticks on to the inevitable sound of gunfire and death. But on top of that there’s the wicked sense of humour that keeps it all from becoming just another zombie western. Hold on, are there any other zombie westerns out there? If there are, this is by far the best of them, and if there’s not, Rule Of Death is just a marvellously original, suspenseful, funny and entertaining first.

(Lovely art and suspenseful storytelling from the gunfight in Rule Of Death by Goodbrey and Noble)

The art in Rule Of Death has been taken directly from the b&w files, resulting in a very crisp and stark look to these two issues (something my crappy scanner is currently refusing to show). But, although I enjoy the crispness and stark contrasts I have to admit that I slightly preferred the darker, greying of the backgrounds when they were taken from the online coloured art in issues 1-4. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot about the crispness of the new comics I love, but the greying backgrounds gave the strip a much darker, disturbing, moody feel.

But that’s probably something you need to work out for yourself. One thing is certain, Rule Of Death is a great story, and there’s even a great cliffhanger to look forward to at the end of issue 6 that made me head online to see how cleverly and sweetly they resolved it (I wasn’t disappointed). But being the luddite where it comes to reading online, I still prefer reading it in comics form, but should you wish the whole thing is in colour at Serializer.net.

Get in touch with either Noble or Goodbrey for copies. But whichever you choose, print or online, it’s a great comic.

Richard Bruton.

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Vertigo / Titan Books

by Will Kirkby, Naniiebim, Nikki Stuart, David O’Connell, Sarah McIntyre, Warwick Johnson Cadwell.

Failboat Press

Birdsong is another entry in what is becoming an increasingly crowded category of beautifully designed and executed anthology titles. With just 6 strips in it’s 80 pages, some self-contained stories, some opening entries in serials, this is one anthology where every strip has room to tell a story, and all six make fine use of the space available, making Songbird yet another classy book that you really should be looking at.

One unusual aspect of Songbird is that it’s deliberately designed to be read both ways – with double covers and stories that read from left to right, and one that reads right to left, manga style, and there’s even one designed to read either way.

It features a mixture of new and familiar artists, including a firm FPI blog favourite Sarah McIntyre and one of my favourite recent discoveries, the brilliant Warwick Johnson Cadwell, whose work I first saw and admired so much in New British Comics #2. But best of all, I’ve discovered someone else whose work I’m loving….

(Will Kirkby’s Peckham, hyper-kinetic stuff, bits of Paul Pope, bits of Simon Gane, all gorgeous. From Birdsong 1, Failboat Press)

And that someone is Will Kirkby and his strip Peckham, 16 pages of madcap action and absolutely cracking artwork, reminiscent of Paul Pope/Simon Gane in it’s lines and pacing – and that’s some compliment. Peckham’s opening chapter drops us right into the action, where various magical things are going on, hellhounds being sold to local crooks, magical tomes, and even the infamous Enid Blyton Five Find Innsmouth; “written during the dark years when she was fucked off her tits on toad poison and gin”. Peckham, as you’ve hopefully realised, is fast, smart and mouthy. A great opener.

(Nikki Stu’s manic energy laced tale – sort of Stop The Pigeon with manga-ish stylings. From Birdsong 1, Failboat Press)

Next up, Nikki Stu with TC. Acorn And Longtail, A Boy And Bird Team. A veritable flight of fantasy with a boy, a bird and a chase to intercept a pigeon that was going so well until the Pixel Moth gets involved. It’s another fast paced strip, with a lovely (if sometimes rough and slightly unclear) style. Packed with potential but just a little bit more control and idea of what she wants to do with the strip and Nikki’s onto a winner.

(David O’Connel’s opener to his 2 pager Little Fish. From Birdsong 1, Failboat Press)

David O’Connell’s short 2 pager Little Fish is a quick, simple tale of a couple of sentimental crooks about to rob the local aquarium. The only complaint is that I wanted more. Whilst mentioning O’Connell I should point out that you should be following his great scifi, pulp, steampunk, adventure Tozo comic.

(The marvellous Sarah McIntyre with Thames Reach from Birdsong 1, Failboat Press)

Then we get Sarah McIntyre’s Thames Reach which sees a lonely girl wandering around her bit of London and being chosen as a final resting place by a terminal pigeon. Just 4 pages, but I shouldn’t have to tell you by now that I think Sarah McIntyre’s one of the most naturally talented young cartoonists I’ve seen for ever such a long time. That her art is so gorgeously expressive and so mature belies the fact that she’s only been doing this comics lark properly for a few years. Thames Reach is a beautiful, sad little thing of a comic – in just two pages she sketches a sad, lonely character and only adds a little bit of comedy with the inclusion of a dying pigeon. So nicely done.

(The first & last pages from Defenders Of Albion by Warwick Johnson Cadwell,  but because the strips designed to be read either way – a palindromatic comic – it could be last and first. But whatever it is, I think it’s gorgeous. From Birdsong 1, Failboat Press)

And then along comes Warwick Johnson Cadwell with his Defenders Of Albion strip. It’s intended to be an ongoing strip but this first 16 pages is a mere preview, constructed oh so cleverly as a palindromatic comic, to be read either way. Packed with expression, emotion and incredible artwork it’s got very little story but introduces us to a schoolboy’s introverted life and the world of Albion that may, or may not, be a figment of the boy’s fantasy life. The Palindromic thing is a cute, clever trick, but WJC’s strip is great without it.

(Ginnel by Naniiebim, done in proper manga style, reading right to left,  from Birdsong 1, Failboat Press)

The final strip in Birdsong is actually the first and only strip in Songbird, designed that way so that Naniiebim’s Ginnel can be presented back to front and left to right in proper manga fashion. The artwork is good; open, rough lines, but lacking focus and the storytelling suffers meaning that 16 pages fly by a little too fast. A boy wakes up, injured and bloody, in a narrow, fenced-in alleyway that seems to loop round on itself in endless repetition. Where the hell is he, why, and most importantly how’s he going to get out? Perhaps the freaky girl who comes along snacking on the snails she’s catching can help? It’s certainly intriguing, but all over too quickly. One to revisit next time and see if it improves.

All in all, six strips, six good reads, with three; Kirkby, WJC and McIntyre’s that were wonderful. That’s a fine, fine bit of quality control. Birdsong issue 2 will be out sometime later in the year. Looking forward to it already.

Birdsong is available to buy from the Etsy store. It’s ever so worth it. And if you want to buy it direct get in touch – contact email is failboatpress@googlemail.com which is also their paypal email as well, the book will set you back just £5 with £1.20 p&p. There’s also a Birdsong blog with works in progress – well worth a look.

by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani

Avatar Press

After choosing Warren Ellis as my favourite author for the 5th anniversary post of the FPI blog I can’t help but feel very let down by him after completing Ignition City. It’s a classic example of the sort of writing he’s sometimes capable of, especially with Avatar, who frankly know they’re sitting on a goldmine with anything he writes for them.

Ignition City obviously started out as a fun little idea in Ellis’ mind to combine his oft mentioned ideas that the human race has lessened itself by it’s isolationist, short term thinking when it turns it’s gaze away from the stars with the notion of doing a “what if Flash Gordon was a pissed off, washed up ex-space pilot for whom it all went very wrong?” type of story.

And that’s Ignition City – Flash Gordon gone to seed and the world a worse place because we don’t go to the stars – all done frontier, Western style. With lasers instead of guns. I liked issue 1 and I have to say I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t make the Flash Gordon references at the time – Lightning Bowman? Really? And then there’s the t-shirt with the lightening bolt across it. Plus we have analogs for Ming, Dale and Zarkov and much more in there as well. Was I asleep when I read the first issue?

(Mary Raven gets the bad news about her father and sets off to the wilds of Ignition City. From Ignition City Volume 1. By Ellis and Pagliarani, published Avatar)

So the basic story is that the daughter of a noted space ace finds herself washed up at an early age, space programs are closing down all over and she’s going to be cut off from the stars, a dream she always shared with her big space hero father since she was a babe in daddy’s arms. Daddy meanwhile, has been up to no good in Ignition City – last big space port and operating on some kind of frontier mentality, with the dive bars and corrupt marshalls of the old west. Hell, there’s even old fashioned style gunfights occasionally, except those guns don’t pump lead, they fire lasers.

When Daddy ends up dead it’s up to the daughter to head into Ignition City and get his body back. Except she’s just the sort of girl who’ll get herself involved and start extracting revenge for her father’s death and discovering that he may not have been the man she thought he was. And when she does that she accidentally discovers the big, big secret of Ignition City. And then it’s the end.

(Zarkov Dr Vukovic comes to the rescue. Very Ellis. From Ignition City Volume 1. By Ellis and Pagliarani, published Avatar)

There’s good stuff in Ignition City, for any fan of Ellis’ style of writing, it’s snappy, full of great characters, loads of over the top dialogue and a fair bit of good old fashioned action. All done extremely well, but like so much of his recent work, there’s just not enough meat on the bones of his story to make it feel really satisfying. It’s really just half a story and from a writer that I love that’s just a big letdown. The art by Pagliarani is nice, very much in what has become the Avatar style, with a few panels that are great and a fair few that aren’t so great. But overall he does the flimsy story more than justice.

No news on whether there’s a second volume, but there’s always a good chance that there will be with Ellis and Avatar. Fingers crossed that there’s more to it next time than a host of interesting ideas and great moments.

by Kate Brown

DFC Library / David Fickling Books / Random House

“They tell a prophecy of our homelands being crushed by a falling sky. That fate has been a shadow over our people ever since. The end has begun . . . in my lifetime.”

The Spider Moon is the third in the releases from The DFC library and it’s a lovely book, part gentle eco tale and part European adventure in the manner of Tintin – young people adventuring out into the world of adults, that sort of thing. Yet the artwork is very much in the vein of Euro-Manga, with all the stylistic effects of Manga combined with beautiful, detailed pages of almost pastel toned colours.

It tells the story of a faraway place, a beautiful idyllic world, sea lapping against the shore, picture perfect skyline, where young girls used to dive for pearls. But the homelands are under threat, and the stars are falling, just as the prophesy foretold. The old ways have changed, and they’re now diving for spinefish that can be turned into oil, oil that’s going to be needed to power the giant floating isle that’s meant to take the people away from the coming disaster. How it’s going to do this is never revealed, but everyone in the book believes it will be their salvation.

We follow the events of this world with Bekka, a young girl whose diving test and the mysterious events way beneath the waves point her out as a very special young girl very early on. She’s certainly key to much of the adventures that follow as she travels to rescue her mom from the bird-folk who want to know why the oil hasn’t been getting through. Her journey takes her to the royal palace where she gets herself involved in all manner of strange goings on, meets a young prince ill at ease with his role, and discovers that not everyone in the Royal Palace has the best intentions for the people of this world. This is definitely her story, albeit one we’re only beginning to experience.

(The floating Isle, hanging over Bekka’s world – is it really the salvation they all believe? From The Spider Moon by Kate Brown, published by the DFC Library)

It’s a delightful story, with feisty, interesting characters all told in a wonderfully colourful and gentle style. Molly enjoyed it a lot and we had quite a chat about the story when she finished it – she was particularly taken with the sense of impending doom and how they were going to resolve it. She thought Bekka was “a great character for girls to enjoy, really cheeky and fearless, so not scared of anything!” and pointed out that it was a “great adventure book with lots of interesting things going on, I really liked all of the questions it made me ask – what will the end of the world be like, who are the bad men at the royal palace and I really want to know more about Bekka and her special diving skill.”

This should certainly please Kate Brown, who has said about The Spider Moon that:

“In creating The Spider Moon, I wanted to make something that I would have liked to have read when I was younger. Being strongly influenced by the style of story-telling in cartoons and comics from my childhood, I set out to make something that had the chance to be enjoyed by young girls in particular, as, growing up, I found very few other girls who liked comics, and there were precious few titles around that catered to girls.“

And Kate Brown has succeeded in that – this is very much a comic that should be enjoyed by all, but young girls will particularly enjoy the delightful adventures of Bekka. It’s got a much wider appeal than that of course, just hearing a little about it and seeing some of those particularly sumptuous pages will show you that.

(Bekka’s dive, far deeper than she was meant to go, and what mystery will she find there? Buy the book, it’s right over the page. From The Spider Moon by Kate Brown, published by the DFC Library)

But sadly, there’s a major problem with The Spider Moon – it’s merely an introduction to the story of Bekka and her fascinating world. Because it’s a very fast, open book we’re just getting going, just getting into the whole story when it finishes. I found myself wondering where it was going, only to realise a few pages further on that it wasn’t going anywhere but Book 2.

And this is a major flaw. The whole point of the DFC Library (at least it seemed to me) was to give the comic experience to those unwilling to read comics, or possibly unaware of their existence, via self contained works of graphic fiction, in beautifully designed and executed hardback Euro-BD style album. So why the hell go and ruin it with a story that, no matter how good you might think it is, still effectively prematurely ends on a small cliffhanger, with Bekka in peril at the hands of someone who definitely isn’t on the side of good. And there it is:  “To Be Continued“.

From all of the information I’ve seen, The DFC Library is by no means a long term guaranteed project, with only 7 books announced so far, they’re obviously going to be looking to numbers to decide where to go next. Which is why giving us Spider Moon Volume 1 and ending it without even some sort of small conclusion that was self contained and satisfying within itself is a real let down. I think it’s a mistake and a very annoying one.

However, I know Kate Brown’s got more Spider Moon tales, as they featured throughout the run of the DFC Comic. I’m just hoping that she gets a second book to show them off, because it’s too good to be left hanging like this. Molly and I want to see Volume 2. But sadly we have no idea when, or even if, we shall.

The Spider Moon is released as the last volume in this first wave of DFC Library books on 29th April 2010.

by Ben Haggarty and Adam Brockbank

DFC Library / David Fickling Books / Random House

MeZolith is the one strip that my daughter Molly (age 9) would never look at in the DFC comic and although she concedes (now age 10) that it’s very beautifully done this collection hasn’t changed her mind – she still says that it has absolutely no appeal for her. Whereas I had the exact opposite reaction – it really  jumped out, completely different from everything else in the DFC comic.

Molly’s complete disinterest in MeZolith shouldn’t be seen as a criticism of the material, more that it’s not a strip of interest for younger children, with it’s gentle storytelling pace and complicated ideas that marked it out as the most mature and complicated strip in The DFC. In all honesty it sat slightly uncomfortably with most of the strips it shared weekly space with and never really felt long enough reading it weekly to really engage with it’s readers, but here, in this beautifully presented and designed hardback comic album, it gets space to tell it’s story properly.

It’s is all about storytelling; presenting a series of prehistoric dream-like, mythic tales of the Kansa Tribe 10,000 years ago, wrapped in authentic details of life in harsh times, with incredibly detailed, very beautiful and rather old fashioned more photo realistic artwork.

(Introducing young Poika, our eyes on the world of MeZolith. From MeZolith by Haggarty and Brockbank, published by the DFC Library / Random House)

Set 10,000 years ago, MeZolith follows the lives of the Kansa tribe living on the western shores of the North Sea Basin; a unforgiving land that the hunter-gatherer tribe are perfectly at peace with, in harmony with the natural world around them.

Each connected, yet distinct story builds our understanding and knowledge of Kansa life and their beliefs by using young Poika as our point of view on this prehistoric world. But at first, Poika’s not ready to become the man he so desperately wants to be; he joins a disastrous bull hunt that leaves him gravely wounded and needing the ministrations of the tribe’s crow woman shaman/healer, he rashly endangers another Kansa hunting party, trapping them in a forest fire with no choice but to cross over into the very dangerous lands of the neighbouring tribe; The Owl People. And yet it’s the results of these rash actions that see him involved in a rescue mission where he truly comes of age, rescuing his father from certain, cruel and lingering death in the Owl People’s land.

(The Kansa hunting party trespass into Owl People territory – but the second time Poika’s father enters the lands of The Owl People he may not come out of it so well. From MeZolith by Haggarty and Brockbank, published by the DFC Library / Random House)

And between these tales of tribal life we share in the stories that the Kansa tell; their mythology, their folk tales. We hear of (and see) stories of the Urga; pallid, pitiful baby monsters that cry out for humans to care for them and then devour all they can find, growing huge and monstrous as they do.

We see near romantic tales of an old man’s youth when he captured and then won the heart of one of the magical Swan People. And it’s these beautifully structured, gently told, traditional folk legends interwoven with the day to day lives of the Kansa that give MeZolith it’s unique feel.

Ben Haggarty is a professional storyteller and it shows, as each chapter is told in a gentle, fascinating tone that resonates with an authentic voice. These are real fictions, that would have been told through the ages round some dim campfire as the night drew in – good, old fashioned things; magical, unafraid and quite often rather unsettling and mildly horrific.

But Haggarty isn’t content to merely deliver individual documents of Kansa life broken up with the folk tale episodes and throughout the book there are wonderful, understated moments where the folk tales begin to cross over – fiction and daily life merge and the whole world of MeZolith takes on a stranger, less certain, more magical aspect, fitting for a tale of an age where reality and the world around them seemed a far more magical and undiscovered place than it is now.

(One of the beautifully told folk tales from MeZolith; the monstrous baby Urga and it’s desire for “juicy, juicy .. man food”. Brockbank’s artwork, so adept at capturing the beauty of the Kansa world is also capable of moments of genuine, unsettling horror. From MeZolith by Haggarty and Brockbank, published by the DFC Library / Random House)

And to go with these incredible stories we have Adam Brockbank’s artwork; lush, colourful, realistic, and quite beautiful to look at. It’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t look out of place 50 years ago or more, yet also looks completely up to date. You’ll find yourself sinking into pages, living the MeZolithic life with the characters sharing in the everyday struggle and the vivid, often nightmarish imagary of the shamanistic storytelling.

MeZolith is hardly typical of the strips in The DFC Library, but it’s a very impressive comic in it’s own right and freed from comparison with the other strips, it’s a beautiful thing. Definitely for an older readership I’ve no doubt that it will find many of it’s fans, me included, far older than the children it’s meant to appeal to, but this doesn’t mean it’s a failure, more a misguided success. MeZolith is a beautiful and haunting tale of ancient culture, full of magic and wonder and beasts and everyday life, all spectacularly illustrated in a gorgeous style.

MeZolith is the second book in the DFC Library and is published on the 1st April 2010.

by Jason Shiga

Abrams

Chocolate or Vanilla?

That’s the simple question that starts Meanwhile, Jason Shiga’s wonderfully original take on the “choose your own adventure” idea presented in an ingenious structure full of choices and bizarre scenarios.

When Jimmy takes the chocolate option he stumbles upon the lab of a mad scientist Professor K where he’s given a choice between three incredible objects:  a time-travel machine (which can only go back 10 minutes), a mind-reading helmet, or the Killitron 3000 (yes, it is as bad as it sounds – giving Jimmy the option to eradicate all human life except for his own – and an awful lot of the possible endings in Meanwhile are really not nice!).

Which invention you and Jimmy choose sends you spiralling off into another set of choices and has you careering around the book’s 80 pages. There are also a host of secret panels and pages, accessible by entering the correct codes discovered as you venture through the book. However, getting all of the codes isn’t something that you’ll be able to do on the first read. Or the second. Or the tenth. Or the ……… you get the idea. But remember – don’t cheat, because that means you miss out on the incredible adventures to be had as you find yourself coming back, time and time again to this great book.

(Tabs, tubes, secret codes, panels going who knows where – is it any wonder it took days before 10 year old Molly let Meanwhile out of her sight? Jason Shiga’s Meanwhile, published by Abrams.)

Meanwhile is presented in an innovative, yet immediately accessible format; each panel connected to the next via a tube, which might split and give you a choice or might even lead off the page and onto a tab to a completely different page. All you have to do to explore Shiga’s Meanwhile is keep following these tabs, incredibly simple to do, amazingly complex to create and incredibly engrossing once you get started.

This is experimental comics formulism presented as an entertaining, funny and out and out different book, for children and for adults. The fact it’s taken me weeks before I could extract it from the hands of ten year old Molly long enough to read it and get an idea of it myself should give you a good idea of just how much fun it is. Here’s what Molly (aged 10) had to say about it:

Meanwhile is fab, really funny and very cool, with lots of wild inventions and a bit of violence (but I liked that!). It’s more than a book, it’s a really fun game that’s different every time, it’s loads of fun to be able to choose what you get to do and I loved the mazes of lines, the secret codes and the time travel.

(A page from Meanwhile, each panel linked to the next by tubes, with choices all the way through, and even onto a tab leading who knows where! From Meanwhile by Jason Shiga, published by Abrams.)

But although Meanwhile makes a fantastic children’s book, it’s equally intriguing to adults, with an awful lot of science and maths within the multi-layered branching story and this quote from the excellent CBR interview with Shiga should give you an idea of the complexity of his thinking:

“Once the reader is familiar with how choices in the book are made, I try and graduate to weirder choices like whether to kill every human on the planet or to travel back in time and punch yourself in the face…… For example: what happens if you put on the hat but you decide to transfer all the memories from yourself to yourself? The experience of you watching your memories becomes a memory itself. So would those be transferred too?”

“If you took the time machine to the past, there would be two of you in the past. How would you correct this problem? Going to the near future wouldn’t fix things, because your double would be there too. Your double would be in the near past too. One idea is that your double can travel to the past, where he branches off into a parallel timeline. But then there would be two of him in that past. But then all he has to do is ask his double to travel to the past on to infinity. It is a reworking of Hilbert’s Grand Hotel.”

So, far, far more complicated than a simple choose your own adventure game then. And a closer look at the double page spread above allows you to see how Shiga enjoys adding very complicated ideas into Meanwhile:

(Multiple world theories on the flip of a coin, just a little of the mindbending ideas Shiga presents along the way. Learning and fun in Meanwhile, by Jason Shiga, published by Abrams.)

Jason Shiga’s been making experimental comics for a long time, and a version of Meanwhile has already appeared in a very limited print copy and as an interactive on Shiga’s website. But this new version is the first “proper” printing, in full colour and with 8 extra pages, containing, as Shiga says: “some very sadistic changes … one friend told me it took him two years to finish the book. And even then it was only because he cheated by peeking at a page where the code was given. So in the new version, I’ve included several pages of duplicate panels with false codes to try and thwart those cheaters.”

(Jason Shiga in front of the exploded view of his original b&w version of Meanwhile. It may look confusing and complicated laid out like that, but trust me, once you open the pages of this book you’ll find it simplicity itself to enjoy. Putting it down becomes the really hard part.)

There’s much more to see and do at Jason Shiga’s website, including a chance to explore many of his complex branching interactives. But while you explore those keep in mind that Shiga describes Meanwhile as his “branchiest and most complex interactive comic to date“. So have a play online, but then get a copy of Meanwhile for yourself and for your children – it’s almost guaranteed to engross and entertain anyone who picks it up. But be warned, the first time you find yourself answering that simple question “Vanilla or Chocolate?” you’re well on the way to hours, days, even weeks of reading and exploring this fascinating book.

Richard Bruton.

Published by Dave Candlish

Contributors: Dave Candlish, The Emperor, Stephen Prestwood.

The Paragon anthology title, last seen with issue 4 is back with a pretty striking cover by Dave Candlish, featuring Battle Ganesh, “the six limbed superhero from the sub-continent!“.  And inside it’s full (a little too full, but we’ll get into that later) of five eclectic strips.

Battle Ganesh features in three of the five strips in Paragon 5; two wonderful little oddities by Dave Candlish and the continuation of Battle Ganesh’s space bound quest from issue 4 by the Emperor and Stephen Prestwood. The Dave Candlish strips are pastiches, first is “Oor Ganesh“, a what if Dudley Watkins drew Ganesh and the second is “Ganesh vs Deathwheel“, done, improbably enough in the style of Lego characters. Two strange choices, slight and inconsequential perhaps, but they both work well and are lots of fun:

(Dave Candlish gives us “Oor Ganesh, done in his best Dudley Watkins. From Paragon 5)

(And then goes on to give us a tale of Battle Ganesh – Lego style! From Paragon 5)

The main Ganesh story follows the events of last issue with Ganesh and his gang of fellow Gods finishing up with their annoying case of Kali crabs and realising their in a little more trouble than they first thought as a hoard of demons are now on their trail. I said it last time and it still applies here; the storytelling and artwork occasionally get a little confused, but overall, it’s still entertaining stuff in what’s still the most polished work in Paragon.

(Battle Ganesh finishes up with his crabs, complete with the gag – “just can it”. By The Emperor and Stephen Prestwood, from Paragon 5)

I spoke about the trouble I had with “Undertow” with issue 4 and the 6 pages here do nothing to really dispel that trouble. It’s all about John Hyde, recently returned from the dead, who finds out this episode that he was killed because he’s destined to become the next messiah, but he’s not our messiah, he’s the messiah of the people who lived on this earth before us; smaller, elfin like things whose co-existence with early mankind grew dark and fearful whilst their appearance grew to reflect humanity’s image of them. Which is why he’s now sat in a pub talking with a very demonic looking little elf thing who tells Hyde that his new mission is to wipe out humanity, either that or face the forces that currently rise against him. Who probably include the man who spent the episode invading a distant mountain-side monastery seeking an ancient artefact. But we’re not sure. Not yet. Next time will tell perhaps? Again, a fragmented tale, albeit this time one that filled in an interesting reason for Hyde to be brought back from the dead.Yet again, Candlish’s art has a touch of the Rian Hughes about it.

(Back from the dead, John Hyde now finds out he’s a messiah with a tough job to do. By The Emperor and Dave Candlish from Paragon 5)

And the final entry in Paragon 5 is another Candlish tale, this time looking rather like it was drawn in a style reminiscent of early Phil Elliot or Paul Grist, all thick, spare lines and strong blacks. It’s a nothing story, too short to do anything more than intrigue, concerning the hiring of a Julian Ruby, hitman, who’s motto of “no job too small” is fortunate in this case as the men in white at the start of the strip have a midget they want removed. Off to Newcastle he goes, complete with gags about the girls, their lack of clothes and a meeting with a contact. Julian Ruby has some cracking art from Candlish, and it’s an interesting partial idea, just not enough of it.

(The men in white reject some familiar names before settling on our man Julian Ruby. By Dave Candlish from Paragon 5)

Both Undertow and Julian Ruby suffer from the same problem; they’re both paced for a much larger page count and the pages here just aren’t enough for the strip to engage in any way beyond curiosity or possibly frustration. It’s a real shame as both strips have a lot of potential, but there’s just not enough here to let them live up to it. This is what I meant about Paragon 5 being too full right at the start of this review. It should have been a strip lighter and either Undertow or Julian Ruby given the room to breathe. Maybe next time?

Paragon is still an enjoyable comic, and filled with an intriguing mix of  eclectic strips that make it well worth a look. But it suffers from trying to pack too many short strips in between it’s covers, leading to a bit of a frustrating read.

Details and ordering information from the Paragon blog.

Richard Bruton.