Archive for September, 2016

Page 45 Comic & Graphic Novel Reviews September 2016 week four

Wednesday, September 28th, 2016

More Lakes International Comic Art Festival news beneath reviews and New Books list! Limited edition prints exclusive to LICAF and more!

Mooncop h/c (£12-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Tom Gauld…

“Living on the moon . . . Whatever were we thinking? . . . It seems so silly now.”

I think that may well be about 5% of the entire text in this most laconic of pithy odes to a future that’s been and gone, much like practically all the lunar population! To be honest, it never really happened.

Britain’s doyen of deadpan comic humour returns with this existential examination of the isolation of a lonely lunar plod, patrolling his meteor-pitted manor in the vain hope of finding anything remotely amiss.

It’s a rather solitary existence, punctuated primarily by his daily trip to the doughnut and coffee dispenser. A lost robo-dog provides a brief burst of, well, excitement would probably be taking it too far, but at least it provides the chance for some momentary interaction with the rapidly dwindling inhabitants. For those that still remain are rapidly upping sticks and heading back to the hustle and bustle of mother Earth.

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Our trusty bobby would love to join them, but his request for a transfer is denied, on the grounds of his impressive, 100% successful crime solution rate! Given that no crimes are ever committed in the rarefied confines up there, it’s looking somewhat unlikely it’s ever going to dip far enough to warrant his own collar being felt and get recalled back home for poor performance. Oh dear.

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This is a wonderfully wistful, melancholic musing on how the future might not bring us quite what we want or expect, particularly if technology is involved somehow. It’s good to see computers haven’t got any more reliable years from now! It’s very low-key, meditative stuff from Tom this work, especially given some of the satirical bite he’s more famous for in his strips, of which there is a fantastical selection of online at the Guardian HERE, and in the excellent print collection YOU’RE ALL JUST JEALOUS OF MY JETPACK.

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Like Gauld’s GOLIATH, there is a tremendously impressive sense of space here, enhanced and extended by the overwhelming silence. There are very few landmarks. It’s mostly just blue, blue vacuum although, hilariously, there is the odd, single palm tree isolated in its own bell jar.

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JR

Buy Mooncop h/c and read the Page 45 review here

Snow White: A Graphic Novel h/c (£17-99, Candlewick Press) by Matt Phelan.

“I, uh… I’m not feeling up to snuff. You go on without me.”
“I shall.”

Ominous, much? If looks could kill…

Camille Rose Garcia’s rendition of SNOW WHITE has proved a monumentally popular book here, its traditional prose illustrated with real relish.

The marked departure of Matt Phelan’s new graphic novel is immediately apparent for it opens with Snow White lying “in state” in the winter wonderland window display of a major New York department store circa 1930.

What Phelan has so cleverly done is use the past as a fantasy world of its own. And it is, when you think about it, for much is not as we now know it.

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Here the seven dwarves are still small but are street urchins, almost Dickensian in aspect, self-reliant, thick as thieves and initially not half so welcoming as their progenitors of this seemingly affluent heiress. But although this iteration’s wicked step-mother is, as ever, raging with jealousy at her step-daughter’s beauty, it’s her inheritance she truly covets after doing away with her Dad.

This is the Great Depression, and it is all about money.

The widowed father is the King of Wall Street, one of the few whose wealth has successfully survived the market crash through studious attention and wise investment. Once an anonymous chorus girl, she is now Queen of Broadway, glamour personified, and her stage entrance atop a multi-tiered crystalline marvel is spellbinding.

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The old man is awe-struck, dumb-struck, smitten, bewitched. Her own painted face is pure, chic and serene… until she opens her eyes. Her mouth twitches at the corner and her eyebrows arch in the very picture of predatory guile.

It is the book’s greatest flourish and it is faultless.

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There are pages, I own, where more contrast in light would have made elements clearer, but the predominantly washed-out aspects enhance the ethereal atmosphere and so fantastical element. The greys and sepias reflect the photography of the time and in that way our sense of it, colour being reserved for… well, you know the key components of the story yourself. Some things never change.

As to the step-mother’s chosen assassin, this is a world without huntsmen so where could he possibly come from? That’s cleverly calculated in the context of this setting, as is his motivation for betraying his Mistress – in a single foreshadowing panel. That’s a moment which would stick long in the craw of any woman or man.

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The story is told in the form of short scenes, sparse in dialogue, picture-driven instead. That lends emphasis both to what little is said and to the only extended conversations – between those who are honest with each other.

Throughout, of course and almost inevitably, the step-mother remains the star. Her eventual fate is once again entirely apposite both in this relatively modern setting and her own source of vanity, but before we get there her eyes, full of seething hatred, will burn deep into your own just as they did in Walt Disney’s animation classic.

”Snow will fall,” pronounced the youtube trailer. And she does.

SLH

Buy Snow White: A Graphic Novel h/c and read the Page 45 review here

Cat Rackham h/c (£17-99, Koyama Press) by Steve Wolfhard.

Poor Cat Rackham!

Sometimes he’s Too Sad To Sleep. He lies on his side, tears streaming down his face, matting his fur, until a gentle duck soothes him with a “Shhhh…”

“Shhhh…” she or he sings, patting Cat Rackham’s poor, tired head. Then the duck sits on his face – nests on his noggin – and Cat Rackham falls sound asleep.

Eight panels, simple but affecting, and thoroughly cute.

In a three-page episode Cat Rackham Tosses And Turns late into the night by a camp fire and pulls off his jumper. A spider descends, disappearing into its folds. Gradually the fire burns low, then out and it grows very cold. Cat Rackham reaches for his jumper. The final, single, daylight morning panel is hilarious. Superb timing.

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The strip I have for you here is Cat Rackham Gets Depression. Initially enchanted by the fluttering-by of a bright, white butterfly, once all alone he is seized by inertia. His body lists, leans over until he lies on the ground, open-eyed, motionless, quite, quite paralysed by depression. Night falls. Morning breaks. Spring arrives, autumn falls, then winter comes too, as time accelerates in ROBOT DREAMS fashion and Cat Rackham is buried under a thick blanket of snow.

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When the snow melts Cat Rackham awakens to the tiny sound of two love bugs making out.

This pleases Cat Rackham enormously.

Now, everything so far is ever so gentle and cute. He even has his ear licked by a deer.

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But if you read the interview with Steve Wolfhard conducted by his wife, it will colour each one of those strips ever so slightly and perhaps make them even more affecting for you.

And the colours are delightful. Fresh as a daisy.

None of this, however, prepared me for the central, extended story when Cat Rackham is sent in search of coffee by exuberant Jeremy The Squirrel and finds himself adopted by a little old lady. Except she’s not very little. Her dressing gown bulges as if under pressure from tumours. They are not tumours. And suddenly we’re in transgressive, Fantagraphics territory.

Enjoy!

SLH

Buy Cat Rackham h/c and read the Page 45 review here

Velvet vol 3: The Man Who Stole The World s/c (£13-99, Image) by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting with Elizabeth Breitweiser.

“I didn’t believe that Frank Lancaster had killed X-14…
“So I looked into it… and my entire life fell apart.”

In which the period-perfect espionage thriller concludes its first story arc, and it will finally be revealed exactly who has been using whom, and why. Just not here.

What I’ve never done is tell you how I sell this series on our shop floor, with aid of Epting and Breitweiser’s exceptionally sleek and thrilling interior art. So let’s do that thing.

1973. There is an international espionage agency called ARC-7 so secret that most other ops don’t even know it exists. Its agents are so effective that the chances of any of them being taken out in the field are minimal. As VELVET opens, one of their very finest is taken out in the field.

Immediately an inside job is suspected and all fingers point to Frank Lancaster. But Velveteen Templeton, the Director’s secretary, has doubts. A former field agent herself, she suspects it’s a set-up.

It is. But what Templeton doesn’t realise is that she’s being set up to believe it’s a set-up and so get set up herself.

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On the run from her own agency, Templeton has been desperately retracing assassinated Agent X-14’s steps and contacts across Eastern Europe while cross-referencing what she discovers with her own substantial and at times painful history in order to work out why X-14 was murdered from within. What had he stumbled upon in America that made him such a threat? Was it the same thing that her husband discovered? Because he too was set up and Templeton took the fall so far for it that she almost didn’t recover.

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With only one lead left alive to follow, Templeton believes she has no choice but to take the fight back to America, even though she knows that the second she sets foot on its shores alarm bells will start ringing. She’s counting on it.

“Every move I make from now on has to be two moves.”

Sometimes you won’t see the second move coming; often you won’t have seen the first move being made.

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I can’t take you any further with the story, so let’s talk about the art.

Firstly, I love that Velvet shows her age. It’s not just the thick, white streak of maturity in her sable hair, it’s in the eyes that have seen too much and the suggestion of extra flesh around her mouth which put me in mind of Terry Moore’s RACHEL RISING. There was an American TV company desperate to sign the series… if Brubaker would just agree to Templeton being in her mid-20s, thereby missing both the point and the plot.

In addition, her body language changes when undercover as a temp in Paris, her hair dyed grey to fade into the background. She holds a file modestly and meekly to her chest. When she brings a tray of tea to the investment manager’s desk, she’s slightly hunched in high heels.

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As to “period perfect”, it’s not just in the fashion of fabrics, though the black bathing suit in VELVET VOL 1 during the flashback to 1950s Bermuda was a masterpiece, its white stripe anticipating the streak which will appear in Velveteen’s hair. It’s also evident in the hotel room furnishings, the bar tops, aircraft interiors, office spaces, shop windows, fly-posters and the cars with their polished chrome.

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From the writer of THE FADE OUT, CRIMINAL, KILL OR BE KILLED and FATALE, this is just as smart and satisfying.

SLH

Buy Velvet vol 3: The Man Who Stole The World s/c and read the Page 45 review here

The Arab Of The Future vol 2: 1984-1985 (£18-99, Two Roads) by Riad Sattouf.

I promise you, this is an English translation; I’ve only been able to find French language interior art!

“Christians? Pfft. What’s the point in being Christian in a Muslim country? It’s just a provocation… When you live in a Muslim country, you should do as the Muslims do… It’s not complicated. Just convert to Islam and you’ll be fine…”
“Hmmm…”

One of my favourite pronouncements from Riad’s Dad in THE ARAB OF THE FUTURE VOL 1, it’s typical of the man’s engagingly ridiculous reductions of complex situations to simplistic solutions in search of an easy life.

Most of the comparisons I see bandied about by the likes of the Observer / Guardian are to Spiegelman, Satrapi and Sacco, but Sattouf’s recollections are far closer in tone to Guy Delisle’s equally entertaining PYONGYANG, SHENZHEN, BURMA CHRONICLES and JERUSALEM, in that they’re more observations of individual human quirks and habits or societal customs and behaviour, all seen through the eye of a wide-eyed six-year-old growing up in Syria, but with the added reflection of a more experienced adult.

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It’s by no means big bundle of laughs from start to finish. Even within his father’s extended Syrian family there will be some pretty grim encounters and if you thought your first few days at school were a nightmare, Riad’s trepidation proves completely justified. But it is overwhelmingly an entertainment, as signalled by the art with its curvaceous cartoon forms, gesticulations and expressions.

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It’s those very skills which flip that first term at school from horrific to mesmerising for the book’s audience, lucky as we are to be viewing from afar, not just in the playground but in class itself, for the teacher is visually riveting. A woman of imposing stature, her face is as soft as her voice, full of love and devotion towards her country and country… until it isn’t, and the entire panel flames red. In addition her garb is a curious combination of modesty and flesh, wearing a hijab above and a very tight, very short shirt exposing her thick, muscular legs and huge, bulging calves atop pencil-thin high heels. She commands the attention of the reader as much as she undoubtedly would have the pupils. Woe betide any for whom that wasn’t the case.

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Riad is shown paralysed, utterly subjugated by his situation.

There’s so much more to learn alongside the lad, for he’s new to both the world and to the country, his outsider status compounded by his startling blonde hair inherited from his French mother which is taken by one of his cousins in particular as a sure sign that Riad is Jewish. This is far from good news if you’re growing up in Syria.

As the memoir progresses we’re introduced to more affluent areas of the country, but although his father is comparatively well off, having secured a position at Damascus University, he chooses – to his credit – to set up home in the desperately impoverished village of Ter Maaleh close to the barely more affluent town of Homs in order to be close to his family. Not all of whom feel or act close to him. Both his mother and elderly half-sister whom we meet later adore him, but the men are another matter completely.

Construction is not the country’s forte: you’ll find cracks everywhere, even throughout the more lavish villas. Against all evidence, Riad’s forever daydreaming Dad enjoys the delusion that his villa will be built with superior craftsmanship – if it’s ever built at all. That would require both action and expenditure, neither of which is in his nature.

During the family’s first ever holiday by the sea, he doesn’t want to stray further than their balcony.

“Given how much it costs we should make the most of our room.”

Then there are the rare words of wisdom he issues after a gang of holiday makers rise up from a swimming pool to ransack a stall selling overpriced inflatable rings in its vendor’s absence. Riad wants one too and suggests that they must be free if everyone’s making off with them.

“We’re not thieves. And just because everyone does something, that doesn’t mean you should do it, too.”

Tellingly, however, this constitutes a dissuasive instruction, not one designed to galvanise his son into action. Confronted with stark inequalities or even serious injustices, his mantra remains “That’s life…”

It’s only after a year or so of moving to Syria and their starkly under-furnished home (with its attendant cracks, of course), that he reluctantly shells out for a washing machine and a stove, after Riad’s surprisingly stoical Mum has had to make do with cooking on a camping stove set on the floor. Paying the price for French food is an annual luxury, and when buying his son’s school uniform he opts not for one made of actual cloth with a belt, but the cheap, plastic version whose fake belt is painted on!

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This he justifies with the seemingly sage observation that uniforms are a great equaliser, and in others I’d suspect the sacrifice of pride in order to appear as poor as other parents would be honest and noble. But he buys Riad a book bag with pockets which Sattouf renders in lurid green, setting him exceptionally apart from his classmates who carry their pencils around in thin carrier bags.

It’s a fascinating upbringing, full of so much which may seem alien, odd and sometimes outright awful, but we’ve all of us been children and, even if the contexts are different, you’ll find far more in common with this than you might at first imagine. Perhaps I should presume. I certainly found far more in common with these experiences that I first imagine: dreading my first days at three different schools; being proved right twice; humiliating inability to summon any coordination or sports skills (I was briefly nicknamed Sebastian un-Coe); terrifying encounters with kids outside my social experience; bewildering, wrong-headed, paternal epithets; the thrill of early holidays; leaning to draw, and a love of new languages, partly through TINTIN.

SLH

Buy The Arab Of The Future vol 2: 1984-1985 and read the Page 45 review here

Jerusalem h/c and Jerusalem s/c (3 volume Slipcase Edition) (£25-00 each, Knockabout) by Alan Moore.

Alan Moore’s VOICE OF THE FIRE was one of the most imaginative prose books I’ve ever read, with a real love of language, exposing the temporal strata of a single geographical location (Northampton) and mapping their interconnections through a series of first-person narratives with vastly different perspectives.

This too is prose, set in Northampton and deals with time.

Quite how I won’t know for some weeks or months for this is nearly 1,200 pages long and I am an excruciatingly slow reader.

We will have a review for you eventually but, in lieu of that for the moment, we’ve three interviews for you, the first of which is by David Marchese discussing JERUSALEM, the working class, Donald Trump, Brexit and Athenian Democracy.

It begins, hilariously, with this.

“You’ve said in the past that an artist’s job is to give audiences what they need, not what they want. What audience need is being filled by a thousand-plus-page modernist novel built on the idea that all time is happening at the same time?”
“That’s easy. One of the needs it’s filling is for an alternative way of looking at life and death. I have a lot of very dear rationalist, atheist friends who accept that having a higher belief system is good for you — you probably live longer if you have one. You’re probably happier. So I wanted to come up with a secular theory of the afterlife. As far as I can see, and as far as Einstein could see, what I describe in the book looks like a fairly safe option in terms of its actual possibility.”

“Which is that everything that can happen has already happened?”
“Yes.”

“So we’ve already had this conversation?”
“It’s probably more accurate to say we’re always having this conversation. We relive it over and over again, and it’s always the same.”

“Then let me retroactively and pre-emptively apologize for that.”
“It does feel like the conversation’s gone on a bit, doesn’t it?”

Both editions appearing to be selling in equal quantities at the moment here, but I personally am plumping for the slipcased softcover set on account of the portability of its component parts and their swoonaway covers as seen above.

The rest of that interview, you’ll find here: http://www.vulture.com/2016/09/alan-moore-jerusalem-comics-writer.html

Then there’s this: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/alan-moore-v-was-for-vendetta-now-e-is-for-epic-1.2799782

And this: https://londonhollywood.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/if-you-read-only-one-alan-moore-jerusalem-interview-make-it-this-one/

Cheerio!

SLH

Buy Jerusalem h/c and read the Page 45 review here

Buy Jerusalem s/c (3 volume Slipcase Edition) and read the Page 45 review here

Power Man And Iron Fist vol 1: The Boys Are Back In Town s/c (£14-50, Marvel) by David Walker & Sanford Greene, Flaviano…

“Are you and him back together again?”
“No, baby. We are not back together. Just gotta take care of this thing.”
“A thing? Okay. Just remember… you’re the one who keeps saying you don’t want to get the band back together.”
“And I don’t. This is just me and him doing what we gotta do.”
“Then go do it. I just don’t want to see any tiara pics. I love you.”
“Love you, too, baby.”

Some people are just destined to end up together, for better or for worse. No matter how times they break up, they are inexorably end up drawn back into each other’s orbit. No, not Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, even though they’ve had their fair share of ups and downs amidst the hustle and bustle of capes, tights and nappies, but Power Man and Iron Fist! Yes, Luke and Danny are back doing their ‘thing’ once more, and that thing is busting heads and wisecracks at the same time. Oh, and trying to retrieve their former Heroes For Hire secretary’s family heirloom. Which just so happens to have ended up in the possession of irascible, rock-hard supervillain Tombstone…

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Even though Luke keeps trying to reassure himself this is a one-time ‘thing’, both he and Danny, and indeed a mildly exasperated yet most definitely amused Jessica, know full well the dysfunctional duo ride again once more. At least until poor sales ensure the inevitable cancellation…

Which would be a shame because this is a very funny comic. As funny, dare I say it, as HAWKEYE. It’s the relentless dialogue between the boys, Jessica, and the various bad guys getting a four-handed beatdown that makes it.

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Pretty sure I haven’t read anything else this particular writer has done, but so far, the witty repartee wouldn’t look out of place in a Bendis-penned comic. In particular, there is an extremely funny running joke regarding Luke not swearing in front of his and Jessica’s baby where he has to substitute various words instead of cursing. Only to make it stick, he’s doing it all the time, much to Danny’s immense glee…

“Wow, Jessica keeps you on a short leash.”
“We’re not talking ‘bout my relationship with my wife. We’re talking ‘bout the fiddle-faddle favour you committed us to doing.”
“Bet you can’t say fiddle-faddle favour five times fast.”
“Could you stop annoying the fiddle-faddle out of me? Could you do that? Can’t believe we’re doing this.”
“You already said that. Jennie is family.”
“And you said that. Just let me do all the talking. Okay? This guy is a bad knick-knack-paddy-whack.”

Ha, indeed he is. But even the villains like Tombstone get some great lines…

“S’up, Luke. Been a minute. Didn’t know you was back together with Iron Man.”
“Fist. Iron Fist. And we ain’t back together, per se. Just two friends kickin’ it. Good to see you , Lonnie. I like that suit.”

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Jump on board the fun train and enjoy the runaway ride before it hits the leaf-encrusted buffers. Very nice art from Sanford Greene too, who I suspect has to be a massive Paul Pope fan.

JR

Buy Power Man And Iron Fist vol 1: The Boys Are Back In Town s/c and read the Page 45 review here

Arrived, Online & Ready To Buy!

Reviews already up if they’re new formats of previous graphic novels. The best of the rest will be reviewed next week while others will retain their Diamond previews as reviews.

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A Distant Neighbourhood h/c (£19-99, Fanfare / Ponent Mon) by Jiro Taniguchi

From Under Mountains s/c (£13-99, Image) by Claire Gibson, Marian Churchland & Sloane Leong

Light (£17-99, Magnetic Press) by Rob Cham

Becoming Andy Warhol (£15-99, Abrams Comic Arts) by Nick Bertozzi & Pierce Hargan

Dali (£12-99, SelfMadeHero) by Baudoin

An Unreliable History Of Tattoos (£14-99, Nobrow) by Paul Thomas

Blame! Vol 1 (Master Edition) (£26-99, Biz) by Tsutomu Nihei

Odd And The Frost Giants h/c (£14-99, Bloomsbury) by Neil Gaiman & Chris Riddell

Picnoleptic Inertia (£12-99, Breakdown Press) by Tsemberlidis

Nicolas (£9-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Pascal Girard

Batman Beyond vol 2: City Of Yesterday s/c (£13-99, DC) by Dan Jurgens & Bernard Chang

Superman vol 1: Before Truth s/c (£14-99, DC) by Gene Luen Yang & John Romita, Klaus Janson

Wonder Woman: The True Amazon h/c (£20-99, DC) by Jill Thompson

All New, All Different Avengers vol 2: Family Business s/c (£17-99, Marvel) by Mark Waid & Adam Kubert, Alan Davis, Mahmud Asrar

Captain America: Sam Wilson vol 2: Standoff s/c (£17-99, Marvel) by Nick Spencer & various

Silver Surfer  vol 4: Citizen Of Earth s/c (£17-99, Marvel) by Dan Slott & Mike Allred

Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Show vol 1 s/c (£31-99, Marvel) by various

Dragon Ball 3-in-1 Edition vols 40-42 (£9-99, Viz) by Akira Toriyama

Happiness vol 1 (£9-99, Kodansha) by Shuzo Oshimi

Seraph Of The End, Vampire Reign vol 10 (£6-99, Viz) by Takaya Kagami & Yamato Yamamoto

2000AD Prog 2000 Chris Burnham cover (£3-99, Rebellion) by Earthlets

2000AD Prog 2000 Glenn Fabry cover (£3-99, Rebellion) by the same Perps.

News

ITEM! The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016 is imminent (October 14-16) and we’ve published the Page 45 blog starring:

Adam Brockbank,I Love This Part 1
Ben Haggarty,
Bryan Lee O’Malley,
Dan Berry,
Dave McKean,
Emma Vieceli,
Felt Mistress,
Hannah Berry,
Isabel Greenberg,
Jonathan Edwards,
Katriona Chapman,
Paul Thomas,
Sean Phillips,
Tillie Walden,
Tom Gauld

and the magnificent Avery Hill Publishing…

… ALL OF WHOM ARE SIGNING WITH US FOR FREE!

ITEM! In additional news, however, the following limited merchandise exclusive to LICAF will be on sale in Page 45’s Georgian Room upstairs in the Kendal Clock Tower, with 20% of the proceeds going to OCD Action, the rest to help fund LICAF itself.

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Prints at £25 each:

30 x Charlie Adlard Beatrix Potter
30 x Luke McGarry Beatrix Potter
30 x Duncan Fegredo Beatrix Potter
20 x Dave McKean Black Dog signed
20 x Gilbert Shelton festival giclee
20 x Jordi Bernet festival giclee
20 x Ken Niimura festival giclee

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Festival lapel badges £2.50 each

Sets of 4 Beatrix Potter Re-Imagined postcards featuring Hannah Berry, Charlie Adlard, Luke McGarry and Duncan Fegredo £2 each

And, wait for it…

25 x Sean Phillips Kill or Be Killed screenprint (50×70) festival variant £50 each

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For more of those images, please see page 43 of The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016 Programme.

We’ll have another surprise – a graphic novel – for you next week!

–  Stephen

Page 45 Comic & Graphic Novel Reviews September 2016 week three

Wednesday, September 21st, 2016

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016: link to our comic creator-crammed blog in the News section below!

Audubon – On The Wings Of The World (£15-99, Nobrow) by Fabien Grolleau & Jérémie Royer.

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Every single page inside is bursting with beauty, with the feathered miracles of nature which so obsessed Jean-Jacques Audubon that he abandoned his wife with her blessing to travel throughout the perilous wilds of early 19th-Century North America and draw them in all their vivid glory. Truly the man was driven, and that drive proves infectious here.

435 truly enormous aquatint prints of gobsmacking colour and beauty were the result, collected over an eleven-year period into the ‘Birds Of America’, a gigantic tome of 200 editions, few of which sadly remain intact. In December 2010 one complete collection sold of £7.3 million at Sotherby’s.

Our Jodie Paterson, an exceptional artist in her own right, recalled, “All the birds are life-size: eagles only just fit on the page, while hummingbirds swarm or else would seem lost.” Jodie also noted that there are some nice nods to these paintings throughout this book, not just when we see him in his studio but also, without signposting, as organic parts of the visual narrative, like the passenger pigeons.

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The original compositions are startling: so startling that Jean-Jacques Audubon (or John James Audubon, or simply Laforêt) only found favour once he’d travelled to Britain where the art establishment revelled in what to them were extraordinary exotica, the museums of America having roundly rejected the paintings as unscientific.

“What am I to make of this fluttering feather, or the blood on the beak of the Peregrine Falcon?”
“Life, Alexander, is what I aim to represent.”
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s inappropriate for sentimentality to take precedence over the object. But here it’s the other way round. It looks as if it’s going to leap from the page! It’s too ‘romantic’.”
“For goodness’ sake, Wilson! A bird is a living entity, not just lifeless matter!”

Although to be fair, Jean-Jacques, it wasn’t quite so living after you shot it clean out of the sky.

“Yes, I represent my falcon screeching, squawking, pecking at the still-warm entrails of a duck! Devouring its flesh, his beak bloodied Yes! Yes! Yes! Precisely because that is life!”

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Audubon made a lot of his drawings from life in situ, but he saw absolutely no conflict between wide-eyed adoration of his living subjects and harvesting them for further, angularly-posed inspection later on. He enjoyed hunting very much. It’s almost comical at times.

“I often say that if I shoot less than 100 birds a day, they must be rare…”

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This, it should be remembered, was before Darwin’s time, and there’s an early, eerie sequence back in his adopted home of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1812, when Audubon discovers a colony of swallows – some nine thousand, he calculates – nesting at night in an ancient hollow Sycamore he hacks into by day. He lies in wait for the flock’s return then clambers up amongst them, bagging one hundred specimens for later examination. It’s their seasonal departure en masse by the end of August that confounds him, along with their return to the exact same spot come Spring.

“Such an astonishing mystery…
“It seems that these swallows leave the woods for winter – but where do they go?
“Before winter, I’ll try to mark a few.”

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However, it’s his travels which we follow throughout most of the book. With but a guide, an apprentice and his art supplies, he navigates the Mississippi encountering all manner of dangers from the elements to the inhabitants; but he barely notices, for always it is the birds that take precedence, mesmerised as he is by each single sighting, or by the clouds of migrating passenger pigeons, so dense that they almost blot out the sky. Three days, they take to pass – such are their numbers!

The awe with which Audubon regarded the mysteries and majesty of nature would be lost or left weightless were the art in this book anything less than spectacular. On every single instance Jérémie Royer captures that majesty.

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There are the flapping, multicoloured flocks in an almost Biblical scene as the three adventurers return to the raft they’d abandoned overnight in the wake of a raging storm to seek sanctuary in a cave… where, naturally, Aubudon seized the opportunity to sketch owls.

There’s that raging storm itself, creeping ominously across the sky as we stare into the sun on the very first, blindingly beautiful page…

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… then breaking instantly on the second, the pale light on the horizon all but obliterated by unimaginably vast, rich brown clouds.

Each chapter opens with a full-page panorama: river or sea shots of jaw-dropping splendour and intensity from Missouri to New Orleans. The quality of light is exquisite. It radiates from the heavens, glows through the clouds and it shimmers on the water’s surface, while shafts of it penetrate canopies of leaves to illuminate forest floors and fauna.

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Much of this is based on Audubon’s writings, though artistic liberties are documented in the back along with a few reproductions of Audubon’s own art prints pertaining to the graphic novel itself, including the Great-Footed Hawks and the eye-popping (and quite frankly mad) composition of the Carolina Parrots, both of which showcase Audubon’s ability to animate with wings braced for fight or flight.

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SLH

Buy Audubon – On The Wings Of The World and read the Page 45 review here

Mirror vol 1: The Mountain s/c (£13-99, Image) by Emma Rios & Hwei Lim; Hwei Lim & Emma Rios.

“Nothing is entitled to anything.
“Only humans dream they are.”

This is a story which will give you much pause for thought and, perhaps, hit you hard in your heart.

But it’s also an inspiring tale, an elevating one, during which individuals learn and grow – change or are changed – and adapt. It’s a book of perspectives, as we shall shortly see, partly about man’s proprietorial nature, and humanity’s ability to empathise, think it does, or fails to. It is especially astute and eloquent about how we regard and treat animals – even our environment. Colonists are no more than visitors, after all…

A bright and beautiful comic full of fresh colours and organic designs, to read this is like being given glimpses through an ornate window.

There’s no hand-holding, no unwieldy exposition, just key conversations overheard about dominion, control, captivity, desire to be free, the need to be free and to be both recognised and understood as an individual. You may wish to rewind multiple times, as the narrative does itself, in order to discern precisely what’s at stake. I found reading chapters in reverse order the second time round to be most illuminating and ever so satisfying. Then I went forward again.

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The window aspect is emphasised by the arched panel frames on the very first page, then Emma Rios’ illuminations of Hwei Lim’s script for the first of the parallel back-up features called ‘The Hand That Holds The Leash’. It is daubed in purple-blossom washes along with a landscape overlooking the cathedral-like Esagila compound at the heart of the young Irzah Colony. From a distance it looks as though it could have been fashioned from glass.

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Come to think about it, Kazbek the scientist too is painted by Rios to resemble shards of glass, reflecting the sky’s lilac colours as he sits calm and relaxed in the open-air gazebo or porch surrounded by the greenery of a substantial garden. Set around page four of the first chapter, Kazbek is being instructed by Elena, chancellor of the Irzah colony, to get rid of “the dog” once it’s recaptured. It’s a dispassionate match of verbal sabres:

“She is much more than a dog.”
“Why do you say so?”
“She truly loves the boy.”
“Heh… nothing knows true love better than a dog…”
“If you think so highly of dogs, why would you have me get rid of her?”
“If you think so highly of dogs, why do you try so hard to make them human?”

Elena concludes with a flourish:

“Yes, I’m being selfish. I’d rather be human and selfish than the noblest of dogs. The hand that holds the leash, not the neck wearing the collar. What about you?”

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Our first encounter is a mere five years after the colony’s formation. This prologue is called ‘The Boy And His Dog’. And you would be forgiven for imagining that Sena was a dog to begin with, for young Ivan’s at cheerful play with her. But we’re already fast-forwarding through time between panels as the towering Kazbek interrupts school class, stick clasped behind his back.

“My apologies. I’m in need of Ivan’s assistance again.”

As Kazbek approaches outside, Sena’s delighted bark turns to a growl.

“Come. It is time.”
“Do we have to? She’s not fully recovered yet… “

Notice the cages and lab coats on the very first tier, above.

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The Irzah colony was built around the Esagila compound which itself is a spaceship long since vertically anchored, having flown not once since it landed. Why Elena and Kazbek came there, and it what state, I will not say, but I will tell you that Irzah’s an asteroid, although that wasn’t always the case.

They released some animals into the terraformed wild and something strange happened: they became sentient, self-aware, clairvoyant; they became Guardians – but of what? Now Kazbek seeks to replicate this evolution by creating animal-human hybrids, and he’s had some success in Sena and Phinx, while former lab rat Zun is partly the result of Ivan’s own prowess as a mage. The origins of Aldebaran, the imposing but gentle albino Minotaur, classically cloaked in red, are far more startling and something else altogether.

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I’m reluctant to give you much more than that, except that as the story opens, Lesnik the bear, thought to be one of the original Guardians, lies dying in human captivity following yet another of Sena’s attempts to stop the experimentation and liberate the hybrids. When you see the laboratories you will understand why. But, as I’ve intimated, everyone has a distance to travel over the course of this book, having come rather a long way already.

Lim’s colours for the main event are less impressionistic than Rios’ but equally lambent. Both artists employ a great many arches and curves in the exquisite architecture, and even rat-monkey Zun’s descent to Ivan’s room is choreographed like a helter-skelter ride.

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Lim’s landscapes are magical, exotic, with some far-east influences in some of boughs, branches and blossoms, while her Frozen Forest where the Guardians reside is both of this world and other.

You can tell how much time has been spent and how much fun has been had by both artists coming up with designs for this society’s fashions. Each one of their creatures is as alive with humanity and individuality, with superb, sinuous body language. The lettering is species-specific too, which is rather telling, don’t you think?

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SLH

Buy Mirror vol 1: The Mountain s/c and read the Page 45 review here

Libby’s Dad (£6-00, Retrofit / Big Planet) by Eleanor Davis…

“Do you really not know what happened?”
“Don’t tell her, she’s too young.”
“I am not.”
“Libby’s Mom told everyone that Libby’s Dad said he was gonna shoot her. With his gun.”
“WHAT? SHOOT LIBBY?”
“SHHH! No, shoot Libby’s Mom.”
“Oh my God!”

It’s pool party time for the girls at the recently divorced titular dad’s new house. He’s even bought them all KFC, so he can’t be that much of a nutter, right? Except Taylor’s Mom clearly thinks he might be, because she’s not let Taylor come, much to the other girls’ dismay and disgust. Fun and frolics are being had by all, and Libby is enjoying hosting her friends, with nary a parental Armageddon in sight.

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Later on in the day, though, when the girls are all settled down in their PJs enjoying a good old bedtime gossip, there’s an unfortunate accident involving a bottle of nail polish and a pristine carpet. Ah… Suddenly, no one is too keen to tell Libby’s Dad… But, what’s there to worry about? He couldn’t really be a headcase who might shoot someone just for ruining his brand new deep pile, could he…?

Ha ha, this took me straight back to a forgotten memory when, aged six, I accidently smashed my mother’s favourite garden ornament – some grotesque, huge, fake Greek urn – with a badly placed football rocket shot (my five-a-side cohorts will tell you I haven’t got much more accurate in the intervening four decades, either). I felt so distraught I sent all my mates home before slinking inside to confess. No idea why I was so worried, she was perfectly alright about it. My dad, meanwhile, was well chuffed as he’d always hated it! Libby’s Dad, though…

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Fantastic little bit of absurdity illustrated in a kaleidoscopic manner akin to the maestro of farce himself, Brecht THE MAKING OF Evens. Though where Brecht puts watercolours of every hue straight down without the need for pencils, Eleanor here uses nothing but. Pencils, that is. Though the only time she breaks out the regular, grey, boring type is for the speech bubbles and lettering!

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I was particularly intrigued by the fact that she seems to have done most of the shading with a rough surface underneath, which due to the mild brass rubbing-esque effect, has given a subtle sense of additional texture and thus depth. I very much applaud the fact she seems to come up with a different style for practically every story she does as very neatly evidenced in her excellent HOW TO BE HAPPY collection, which featured one of Stephen’s favourite covers of 2014!

JR

Buy Libby’s Dad and read the Page 45 review here

The Fix vol 1: Where Beagles Dare s/c (£8-99, Image) by Nick Spencer & Steve Lieber.

“If you liked classic crime comics like CRIMINAL and 100 BULLETS we apologize in advance for letting you down.”

Having read over 100,000 solicitation summaries over the past 25 years – most rammed full of po-faced hyperbole – it’s refreshing to read something that redirects a mug of tea right through your nostrils.

It also sets the tone perfectly for this is far closer to the mischief-riddled THIEF OF THIEVES, except that these contemporary criminals here have zero finesse, cannot conceive of pre-planning and couldn’t even spell ‘fiscal prudence’. Thanks to Steve Lieber there’s even some fine visual slapstick as the buffoons who pass for our heroes only just get away to steal another day.

Let me be perfectly clear: if I were a betting man I wouldn’t bet on these two.

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They do, however, have an ace up their sleeve. It’s delivered in the form of a very specific car radio halfway through the first chapter after the dysfunctional duo’s old people’s home heist, during which they are gentle, respectful and far more considerate than their absentee orderlies and supervisor. That car radio changes everything you thought you were about to read, but then that’s what this comic does: confound your expectations at every comedic corner over and over again.

Sometimes it’s no bad idea to return to the scene of a crime; sometimes you simply have no choice. In this instance Roy and Mac have no choice at all because they are the crime’s investigating officers. I’m sorry…? That’s right, they may be criminals, but they’re not career criminals. They are career cops.

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There’s some wicked humour to be gleaned here from artfully juxtaposed panels, fast-forward shenanigans and flashbacks to boot. There’s even more wicked humour every time sex-obsessed film producer Donovan shows up. Those are sequences you’re least likely to feel comfortable discussing with your parents (probably). Donovan may have a one-track mind, but displays lots of leeway when it comes to how he’s prepared to drive.

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Roy and Mac’s much bigger problem, however, is that not only are they strapped for cash, but they’re heavily in debt. The good news is that they’re in debt to Josh and Josh is a gentle, easy-going gourmet cook who loves his dogs very much. The bad news is that the dogs are rescue pit bull terriers, and I was lying about the “gentle” and “easy-going”.

Lieber’s ability to wring maximum comedy from nuanced expressions – and indeed not-so-nuanced expressions when things go spectacularly shit-creek in a split second – is exceptional. Both creators know that it’s all in the timing, and here it is fiercely fine timing. Speaking of shit-creek, half the humour lies in waiting for you know that it’s almost inevitable.

“I wish we could chalk this up to being a learning experience…
“But that would require learning something.”

What they have learned is that modern crime is virtual. The only people who carry cold, hard cash are old age pensioners, hence the heist, and it’s true. It is not unusual for someone to pay by credit card for a two-quid Lizz Lunney comic at Page 45 after they’ve asked for a Student Discount.

What you will learn is the lack of wisdom in sticking someone up with a shotgun while wearing a distinctive floral shirt… then interviewing the victim without changing first. And at this point I would like to thank all the shoplifters who’ve taken the trouble to identify themselves in advance with very specific, stand-out tattoos.

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Typically, Roy cannot resist pushing things as far as he can. Here he is with Mac by his side, covered in roses, trying to see if they’ll come out smelling of them against all odds. By his second salvo he’s actually pointing at Mac!

“Never mind that. How about how tall they were?”
“I dunno – I didn’t really get the best look at them. The one with the gun in my back was a little taller than the other guy – ”

“Like, how tall? About my partner’s height, or taller?”
“Ehh – probably about right.”
“Mm, and build? Again, compared to my partner here.”
“Yeah, ‘bout the same, I guess, I dunno?”
“Sure, sure. It can be difficult to recall these things, I understand – but what about their clothing? Their shorts maybe. Any distinctive colours, or patterns…”

I swear on the Bible, that’s only the beginning of Roy’s brazen bravado as he takes every opportunity to really relish committing almost every crime conceivable then flaunting the flimsiest of cover-ups.

Don’t worry: by the end of almost each chapter our champ chumps have their grins wiped right off their gormless faces. Sometimes it doesn’t even take that long.

SLH

Buy The Fix vol 1: Where Beagles Dare s/c and read the Page 45 review here

The Wormgler (£2-00, self-published) by David Frankum.

A neat little number with a cardstock cover, slipped inside a CD sleeve and signed with good cheer by David.

I’m a sucker for packaging, but not form over content.

Fortunately the form is very much a reflection of that content, and these eight invigorating pages of intrigue will take you much further than you can imagine.

Framed in black and told in a strict 3 x 3, nine-panel grid with a regular beat, I like the subtle shading at the corners, off-setting the regimented gutters. It’s also reminiscent of old-school cine-camera film-footage, as if the whole thing is an ancient recording left for posterity which you’ve been lucky enough to stumble upon. Will its mystery – its message – be of some import? I should say so.

We begin with a man in black suit and tie bearing a briefcase, the bowler hat suggesting a man on a mission. Either that, or he works for Homepride.

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Is that the horizon we spy behind him or something else? The briefcase is set on the floor, its combination lock opened, and out fly a flock of origami early birds. They catch worms and dutifully drop them, with improbable accuracy, into the briefcase. Step one.

Delighted with his haul, our man on a mission snaps his case shut and walks towards a tall tower on the horizon. You know, if that’s the horizon. He presses its exterior elevator button and obviously he’s going up.

Wrong! Step two.

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There I will leave it. I’ve taken it as far as the interior art which I’ve photographed for you – against two different backgrounds, on a whim, in case you’d like to see if they have different emotional resonations for you – and leave you to burrow solo on a far from random but certainly surreal journey.

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I’ll only add that – because it gives nothing away – I loved the fresh growth, as if like leaves on a rejuvenated, blooming spring tree.

There have been clues.

SLH

Buy The Wormgler and read the Page 45 review here

Our Mother (£7-00, Retrofit / Big Planet) by Luke Howard…

“I am the wood car that mom made…
“I will come back at the end of the story.
“I am made with great love and care…
“My body is of sturdy cherry that has been sanded.
“I am a gift handed down from a parent to child.
“I will bring great comfort to those in need.
“But I will also bring back bad memories.
“I’m a very complicated car.”

Quite so. It’s also a little fibber because I’m pretty sure, unless I’ve missed something, that it does not return. However, I was so delightfully bamboozled as to what the hell was going on by the time I’d finished, I’d forgotten all about the car until I returned back to the beginning for a second approach. Having just re-read this pink, white and brown trick or treat, I’m still no wiser as to whether this is one contiguous story or in fact several very, very different vignettes of completely different genres that continually reprise throughout. I think it’s the former, but it’s still got me puzzling over it!

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After our one-page automobile themed introduction, the strips come thick and fast in two- and four-page spurts. Between mental breakdowns, imposter moms, malfunctioning robotic sentries from the future, dungeoneering kids fighting mud monsters, mad scientists trying to communicate with intelligent simians, one-way time-travelling portals, a random guilt-tripping photo-story and errr… a farting, talking hotdog bringing this exercise in insanity to a conclusion, you’ll be just as entertained and confused in equal measure as me, I suspect.

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It’s either one of the most esoteric themed concept anthologies you’re ever likely to come across, on the topic of mater familias, or something even cleverer than that. I still think there is a tenuously, tautologically twisted thread running riot right through this. I really am going to have to go back for a third read to try and work it out. Brilliant stuff! Fans of Michael BIG KIDS DeForge, Box AN ENTITY OBSERVES ALL THINGS Brown and Malachi FROM NOW ON Ward this one is for you, trust me.

JR

Buy Our Mother and read the Page 45 review here

Mighty Jack (£10-99, FirstSecond) by Ben Hatke…

“Maddy? Wh… where… Maddy! There you are! What were you doing? What if…?”
“She’s fine, Jack. Trust me.”
“Who… how did you know my name?”
“Easy. Your sister told me.”
“Nice try. Maddie doesn’t talk.”
“As you say.”

Jack’s not a fan of the summer holidays. You’d think any kid would be, but for Jack the prospect of looking after his autistic younger sister Maddy every day, whilst his single mother works all hours just to pay the bills, is not his idea of fun. But during a trip to the local flea market, Maddy mysteriously breaks her silence to persuade Jack to swap his mother’s car for a packet of seeds.

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As you can imagine, his mother is not best impressed, but when Jack and Maddy plant the seeds in the back yard, resulting in a most unusual and not entirely hazard-free garden overnight, well, the summer suddenly seems to come alive with the prospect of adventure. Plus giant, pink pumpkins with huge teeth, mud-flinging plant hands, onion babies running amok, chillies that make you leap a hundred feet in the air, and last but certainly not least, a dragon…

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Extremely entertaining take on the classic Jack and the Beanstalk yarn from the creator of the excellent series of ZITA THE SPACEGIRL books. Despite the lack of a volume number, MIGHTY JACK is most definitely going to be a series of books too, rather than a one-off. In fact I don’t want to use the words cliff hanger, but oh dear, I just did, didn’t I? Probably should be stalk hanger but you get my drift…

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Fans of Ben’s previous works will definitely enjoy this, and with two strong female characters in the form of sister Maddy and neighbour Lilly, it’s clearly aimed at both boys and girls. There’s a surprising amount of emotional darkness, peril and mildly sinister activity going on too. Not perhaps Doug GHOSTOPOLIS, BAD ISLAND, CARDBOARD TenNapel levels, but not far off. Perfect for living up an otherwise dull summer holiday, in other words!

JR

Buy Mighty Jack and read the Page 45 review here

Ghosts (£9-99, Scholastic) by Raina Telgemeier…

“Carlos, are we gonna meet any ghosts today?”
“Oh! Well… they usually can’t be seen this early in the year, but as we get closer to autumn, you’ll notice them more.”
“Told you he was lying…”
“I’m not lying. Ghosts really do hang out there.”
“No, that’s…”
“OKAY. PROVE IT!”
“MAYAAAA!”
“I have to talk to a ghost, Catrina!”
“What do you want to ask it about?”
“I want to know what happens when you die.”
“Uh-huh, and I want to fly. But it’s not like that’s ever going to happen.”
“Dying isn’t pretend, Cat. It’s real.”

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So Raina Telgemeier returns with her fourth original graphic novel following on from SMILE, SISTERS and DRAMA. She clearly likes her one-word titles, and obviously prefers to make it abundantly clear what you’re going to get! And you will get ghosts here, lots and lots of them. In that respect, though, it’s a little bit of a departure from Raina, or perhaps more precisely a broadening of the fictional brushstrokes, from entirely contemporary matters which she does so well, to include some more supernatural, fantastical elements. With that said, the true heart of the story still revolves about the relationships between the three main young characters: Carlos, the local boy familiar with the ectoplasmic entertainers of the area, and sisters Catrina and Maya, who’ve recently moved to wet and windy Bahia de la Luna due to Maya’s cystic fibrosis.

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Carlos likes Catrina, who definitely fancies Carlos but is too shy to show it and thus maintains an aloof and arrogant facade. Catrina and Maya do get on in typically rollercoaster sibling fashion, but not surprisingly Catrina, despite having much compassion for her sister’s condition, takes the restrictions it places on her own life with a typical touch of excess teenage angst at times. Maya, meanwhile, thinks Carlos is wonderful and wants him to introduce her to the ghosts, which he does with some unexpected consequences… Despite the unsettling and upsetting emotional element to the story with Maya’s life-shortening illness, it still has plenty of the mischief that Vera Brosgol produced by combining schoolgirls and spooky apparitions so very well in ANYA’S GHOST.

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It’s definitely a step on in the sophistication of Raina’s story-telling, which has been developing nicely since SMILE, and indeed, whilst her art style hasn’t changed dramatically, it is becoming ever more polished. For what on the surface appears to be a relatively simplistic, colourful, cartoony style, akin to the likes of the animation on the likes of the STEVEN UNIVERSE show, there’s frequently a lot of detailed work in there.

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There are a couple of other interesting factoids probably worth mentioning about Raina, who is considerably more well known in her native continent than over here, and her output. In 2015, her previous books accounted for a staggering 11 million dollars worth of sales… beaten only by a certain Robert Kirkman with his zombie army of WALKING DEAD trades. SMILE, SISTERS and DRAMA all being New York Times #1 bestsellers. Which probably all explains why the first print run for GHOSTS was a staggering 500,000 copies, a record for an original graphic novel. Irrespective of whether her material is to your particular taste or not, I think it’s absolutely brilliant that all-ages material is selling so well.

JR

Buy Ghosts and read the Page 45 review here

Princess Princess Ever After h/c (£11-99, Oni) by Katie O’Neill…

“You heard what she said… and she means it. I thought the tower was the only place for me. But then you came. Somehow, seeing how excited you were made me want to escape. But now…”
“I’ll protect you, Sadie! I have a sword, a unicorn, and kick-butt hair!”
“It’s true, your hair is kick-butt. And I trust you.”

Who better to rescue a princess in distress than a princess not in a dress? Katie O’Neill’s very sweet take on how a princess can be just as capable and daring-do when it comes to staging a rescue and helping another princess overthrow her villainous sibling, finding true love with each other in the process, certainly has its heart in the right place, but I couldn’t get completely past the thin storyline and stilted dialogue. Nice, clean, colourful art though, again a very cartoony style that’s obviously influenced by many a current TV show.

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If the aim of this is purely in helping educate teeny-tinies about sexuality, then I think it hits the mark perfectly, job done. As the delightful John Allison has insightfully written on the back cover (not on each one obviously, that would take forever) “… a big-hearted fable where the boxes we’re expected to fit into are simply dragons to be slain.”

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Beyond that, whilst it is lovely, and fun, it’s basically a very simple story and that dialogue is so badly in need of loosening up. It’s all a bit Emma Watson’s enunciation in the first Harry Potter film…

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JR

Buy Princess Princess Ever After h/c and read the Page 45 review here

Arrived, Online & Ready To Buy!

Reviews already up if they’re new formats of previous graphic novels. The best of the rest will be reviewed next week while others will retain their Diamond previews as reviews.

Jerusalem h/c (£25-00, Knockabout) by Alan Moore

Jerusalem s/c (3 volume Slipcase Edition) (£25-00, Knockabout) by Alan Moore

Mooncop h/c (£12-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Tom Gauld

Snow White: A Graphic Novel h/c (£17-99, Candlewick Press) by Matt Phelan

Velvet vol 3: The Man Who Stole The World s/c (£13-99, Image) by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting

The Arab Of The Future vol 2: 1984-1985 (£18-99, Two Roads) by Riad Sattouf

Carthago h/c (£23-99, Humanoids) by Christopher Bec & Eric Henninot, Milan Jovanovic

The Cowboy Wally Show (£9-99, Quality Jollity) by Kyle Baker

I Die At Midnight (£13-99, Quality Jollity) by Kyle Baker

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth Tales h/c (£14-99, Archaia) by Cory Godbey

Lumberjanes vol 4: Out Of Time s/c (£13-99, Boom! Box) by Noelle Stevenson & Shannon Watters

Grizzly Shark vol 1 s/c (£11-99, Image) by Ryan Ottley

Adventures Of Supergirl s/c (£14-99, DC) by Sterling Gates & Bengal, various

Constantine The Hellblazer vol 2: The Art Of The Deal s/c (£14-99, DC) by Ming Doyle, James Tynion IV & Riley Rossmo, various

Justice League vol 7: Darkseid War Part 1 s/c (£14-99, DC) by Geoff Johns & Jason Fabok, various

Justice League vol 8: Darkseid War Part 2 h/c (£22-99, DC) by Geoff Johns & Francis Manapul

Astonishing Ant-Man vol 2: Small-Time Criminal s/c (£14-50, Marvel) by Nick Spencer & Ramon Rosanas, Annapaola Martello, Brent Schoonover

Doctor Strange Omnibus vol 1 h/c (£67-99, Marvel) by Stan Lee & Steve Dikto

Power Man And Iron Fist vol 1: The Boys Are Back In Town s/c (£14-50, Marvel) by David Walker & Sanford Greene, Flaviano

Rocket Raccoon & Groot vol 0: Bite And Bark s/c (£31-99, Marvel) by Skottie Young, others

One-Punch Man vol 8 (£6-99, Viz) by One & Yusuke Murata

News!

Kendal Brewery Arts Centre 1

ITEM! The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016 is almost upon us (October 14-16) and we’ve published the Page 45 blog starring:

Adam Brockbank,seconds
Ben Haggarty,
Bryan Lee O’Malley,
Dan Berry,
Dave McKean,
Emma Vieceli,
Felt Mistress,
Hannah Berry,
Isabel Greenberg,
Jonathan Edwards,
Katriona Chapman,
Paul Thomas,
Sean Phillips,
Tillie Walden,
Tom Gauld

and the magnificent AveryHill Publishing…

… ALL OF WHOM ARE SIGNING WITH US FOR FREE!

You’ll find times and other details there, but so much more besides!

There’s the Sarah McIntyre surprise!

Discover how you can receive one of these beauuuuuuuuuuutiful original sketches Sarah has so generously drawn just for you in Kendal.

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Page 45’s new service to collect comics in Kendal for FREE!

Every year we hear, “I was so hoping you’d bring [insert graphic novel title]. Now you don’t have to hope; you can ensure that we do just for you. Order online on this here website and select “Collect in Kendal for FREE!” (Or whatever it says.) Still don’t understand? There’s an illustration in the blog.

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Panel featuring Broken Frontier’s Andy Oliver, AveryHill’s Ricky Miller, Katriona Chapman and silly old me…

To help new, prospective or current comics creators get noticed, reviewed, racked and even independently published.

Plus all the #LICAF links you could possibly need to enjoy this festival to the max!

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– Stephen

Page 45 Announces Free Signings at Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016

Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

We bring glorious graphic novels and very own special creator guests:

Adam Brockbank, Ben Haggarty, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Dan Berry, Dave McKean, Emma Vieceli, Felt Mistress, Hannah Berry, Isabel Greenberg, John Martz, Jonathan Edwards, Katriona Chapman, Paul Thomas, Sean Phillips, Tillie Walden, Tom Gauld and the magnificent AveryHill Publishing!

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Oh, How We Adore The Lakes Festival!

Kendal is kindness personified, and Page 45 is back in our very own Georgian Room upstairs in the Clock Tower on Saturday & Sunday October 15th & 16th 2016 with swoonaway comics and comic stars.

Entry is Free!
All-Access by Lift!
I’m on a Panel for creators on how to get stocked, promoted & even published!

New Service: pre-order any graphic novel for collection, postage-free!
Details below, you’ll see!

Page 45’s Creator Guests

Everything below occurs in our Georgian Room upstairs in the Kendal Clock Tower and is it FREE!

Dave McKean: signing Saturday 10-30am

Black Dog Contrast

 

Page 45 is proud to launch the Dark Horse editions of BLACK DOG: THE DREAMS OF PAUL NASH which will be published that very week. Please click on those covers at thank link for reviews.

We’ll have copies on the day, but to guarantee your copies in case they sell out (especially the limited edition oversized hardcover!) please order at either link now then select “Collect in Kendal”. No charge for postage. All you have to do is ask for your copy on the day.

 

Black Dog 2

 

You can also have any other Dave McKean graphic novels waiting on the day by popping him into our search engine, ordering, then selecting “Collect in Kendal”. Postage-free but ASAP, please! I’m a particular fan of PICTURES THAT TICK VOL 2.

Isabel Greenberg: signing Saturday 5pm to 6pm

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THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EARLY EARTH was my fav graphic novel of that year!
THE ONE HUNDRED NIGHTS OF HERO (already reviewed!) may well be my next!

We will also have:

DISCOVER THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
DISCOVER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

But only a few so pre-order, please, then select “Collect in Kendal”.

Tom Gauld: signing Sunday 10am to 12am

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We’ll be giving FREE preview copies of MOONCOP away all weekend long! Suggest you pick up on Saturday, absorb overnight, then high-tail back to us on Sunday for the signing!

We’ll have the MOONCOP graphic novel itself available all weekend too, but to guarantee your copy in case they sell out, please pre-order then select “Collect in Kendal”.

We will also have limited quantities of:

GOLIATH
YOU’RE ALL JUST JEALOUS OF MY JETPACK

But I suspect by now that you know what to do if you want your copies guaranteed on the day.

Sean Phillips: signing Sunday 2pm to 3pm

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That would be one of the Lakes Festival founding Patrons. Ever so slightly stoked.

We will have on the day:

CRIMINAL
THE FADE OUT
FATALE

More, including DESTINATION: KENDAL by Jonathan Edwards & Feltmistress – also in our room so get it signed by them too! – and photographed by Sean, with a cameo appearance himself! But to guarantee your copy of anything Sean-centric, please pop him in our search engine, pre-order and… yeah, you’ve got it.

Bryan Lee O’Malley: signing Sunday 3pm to 5pm

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LICAF is Bryan’s only UK appearance this year! See Festival Guide below for his multiple contributions, then pop back here for our farewell signing! We will have many things including:

SECONDS
SCOTT PILGRIM colour editions
LOST AT SEA
SECONDS HELPING co-starring Mr O’Malley himself.
SNOTGIRL depending on whether we have any stock left back at Page 45 HQ. Sales have been phenomenal, especially since it was our last Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month!

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For the last Page 45 / Bryan Lee O’Malley Print (Worldwide Exclusive!), you MUST pre-order for collection in Kendal, please.

Fun fact: Page 45 is the only comic shop which Bryan has kindly signed with on every UK visit.

Page 45’s Creator Residents

Selling, signing and sketching in our Georgian Room upstairs in the Kendal Clock Tower for FREE! Names linked to their websites!

Tillie Walden and Katriona Chapman with Avery Hill Publishing almost ALL weekend long!

Avery Hill

 

Katzines

They will be bringing:

KATZINES by Katriona
A CITY INSIDE by Tillie
I LOVE THIS PART by Tillie
THE END OF SUMMER (new deluxe edition launch!)

And dozens of the exceptional comics and graphic novels for which Avery Hill is renowned.

Dan Berry signing Sunday am

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Dan will be orchestrating a brand-new 24-Hour Comics Relay Race which we will be selling on Sunday, hot-off-the-press, including brand-new stories by Craig Thompson, Charlie Adlard, Emma Vieceli, Joe Decie, Mike Medaglia Bryan Talbot and more! He will also have some of these for sale – and much more besides – depending on what’s still in print:

24 BY 7
CARRY ME
SENT / NOT SENT
THROW YOU KEYS AWAY
THE END

Hannah Berry signing Sunday pm

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We will be bringing:

ADAMTINE
BRITTEN AND BRULIGHTLY

Who knows what besides Hannah will bring? Mischief and quick-fire wit, guaranteed! Chuffed to be reunited a year after our 21st Birthday party.

Emma Vieceli signing Saturday pm

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Another LICAF Patron! We will be bringing:

ALEX RIDER: SCORPIA
BREAKS PROLOGUE
DOCTOR WHO: THE EIGHTH DOCTOR
VAMPIRE ACADEMY VOL 1
VAMPIRE ACADEMY VOL 2
VAMPIRE ACADEMY VOL 3

And more, including – we hope – a sly surprise for Emma.

Jonathan Edwards & Felt Mistress As their events allow

1 Jonathan Edwards waterfall

They will be bringing: all kinds of crazy.

Plus McFelty’s new book on making your own creatures and Jonathan’s swoonaway landscape prints.

We will be bringing:

DESTINATION: KENDAL, remember, which you can get signed by Sean Phillips as well from 2pm to 3pm on Sunday!

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Last Minute Additions:

John Martz who will be bringing BURT’S WAY HOME and signing Saturday all morning!

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Paul Thomas of AN UNRELIABLE HISTORY OF TATTOOS signing Saturday 1.15pm

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Ben Haggarty and Adam Brockbank of MEZOLITH VOL 1 and MEZOLITH VOL 2 (we will have stock) signing Saturday 3pm

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“But Where, Oh Where, Is La McIntyre?”

 Do not doubt us, my darlings!

Jinks & OHare for blog

 This is the first year that the legendary Sarah McIntrye has been unable to appear with Page 45 in our Georgian Room. Last year Sarah was even joined by co-creator Philip Reeve to sign their PUGS OF THE FROZEN NORTH etc!

Sarah and I could not bear to disappoint the loyal following of families she’s built up at the Festival so Page 45 will be bringing the brand-new JINKS & O’HARE FUNFAIR REPAIR… and Sarah in spirit! How…?

Sarah has very generously drawn four original sketches which we will give out FREE OF CHARGE to the first families to buy a copy or twelve of JINKS & O’HARE FUNFAIR REPAIR during the weekend and who then declare:

“I read your blog, and I’ve got a sprog!”

Terms & Conditions: Adults must be accompanied by a child (which is a nice twist, don’t you think? This is such a family-friendly festival!). Also, the rhyme above is mandatory.

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Yes, this is one of those actual sketches! That’s how much La McIntyre loves you!

Page 45 Panel To Help & Encourage Emerging Creators!

Sunday October 16th, 1pm to 2pm in the Clock Tower Council Chamber

You Ask, We Tell! Helping Creators Pitch To Publishers, The Press and to Comic Shops.

This bit will cost you £8 plus a £1-50 booking fee, I’m afraid (see link), but consider it an excellent investment in your creative and commercial future! Here’s why:

Independent publishing and self-publishing isn’t just a means to critical acclaim but to concrete, commercial success.

 

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Collage created by Down The Tubes’ most excellent John Freeman

 

Page 45’s biggest-selling graphic novel of 2015 was PORCELAIN: BONE CHINA, independently published by Improper Books and beating everything from DC, owned by multi-millionaire mega-corps Time Warner.

Page 45’s biggest-selling comic was EXPECTING TO FLY, self-published by John Allison and beating everything from Marvel, owned by multi-billionaire Disney.

With independent publishers you can retain creative control, ownership and be nurtured like nowhere else, fostering long-lasting, personal relationships with retailers and review sites like Broken Frontier which will prove invaluable throughout your career. We’ll show you how.

Porecelain Expecting To Fly

On that experienced, hand-picked panel:

Ricky Miller (Director, Avery Hill Publishing)
Katriona Chapman (self-publisher of KATZINE, freelance for larger publishers and part of Avery Hill)
Andy Oliver (Editor-in-Chief of pioneering review website Broken Frontier, and brand-new self-publisher)
Stephen L. Holland (Festival patron, award-winning retailer at Page 45 and prize buffoon.)

Every week I’m asked at the counter, “What’s the best way to get my comic published?”, “How do I get myself covered by Broken Frontier?” and “How do I get my self-published comic onto your shelves?”

We’re about to answer your questions.

Page 45 Brings Glorious Graphic Novels to Kendal

Graphic Novels 1

N.B. A previous year’s spread. What will we be bringing this year?

Newcomers to comics and seasoned veterans:

Ask for recommendations tailored to your specific tastes!
We’ll be providing show-and-tells on any book you fancy all weekend long!
We’ll help find your friends presents too!
And yes, of course we’ll have all-ages beauties!

Graphic Novels 5

Another previous year’s spread, though many will return!

Important: Page 45 will be accepting cash AND credit cards!

New Service: Pre-order For Collection in Kendal, postage-free:

As ever we’ll be selecting the very best current crop of graphic novels to bring, but now you can choose which graphic novels we bring for you! Simply select any of our 6,000 different graphic novels at the Page 45 Website and instead the postage options please select “Collect In Kendal” for free!

Pick Up In Kendal

Offer closes Tuesday 11th October. We’ll be all packed up by then and ready to roll.

More Lakes Festival Information

Twitter: @comicartfest
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016 Programme online now!
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival website
Buy Tickets for the Ticketed Events
Plan Your Visit!
Includes Accomodation & Travel Information, Family Zone etc

Follow Page 45 on Twitter @pagefortyfive as other creators pop in to draw free, impromptu sketches like last year!

Page 45’s photo-filled review of The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2014!

Kendal Brewery Arts Centre 1

Page 45 credentials

Page 45 is a proud Patron of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.
Stephen was on the judging panel of the British Comics Awards in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
Page 45 won the first ever award for Best Independent Retailer in Nottingham 2012.
Page 45 won the Best Independent Business in Nottingham 2013.
Page 45 was shortlisted for the Bookseller’s Independent Bookshop Of The Year 2014.
Page 45 won the only ever Diamond Comics Award for Best Retailer in the UK in 2004 before links began.

 

Trophies

 

Lakes Festival Director Julie Tait, said:

“Stephen, your eloquence, enthusiasm and encouragement inspires me!”
Also: “I think three bottles of Sauvignon Blanc is enough for this morning, don’t you?”

Lakes Festival Patron and Page 45’s Stephen L. Holland said:

“I’m writing this blog; why are you quoting me?”

Remember, Entrance to all our events and the Kendal Clock Tower with so many other creators is FREE!

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And all the above is just what’s happening in our room alone! OMG there is so much more on offer: HABIBI‘s Craig Thompson for starters!

But if you want to attend creator talks or our very own panel, there is a nominal fee.

Buy Tickets for the Ticketed Events

Please book in advance and as soon as possible and – oh look! – here’s our Jonti Edwards and Poblin again:

1 LICAF tickets

Page 45 Comic & Graphic Novel Reviews September 2016 week two

Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

Featuring Philip Reeve & Sarah McIntyre, Luke Pearson, Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Ben Haggarty and Adam Brockbank.

Hilda And The Stone Forest h/c (£12-95, Flying Eye Books) by Luke Pearson.

Gorgeous composition of a cover for the fifth HILDA outing, and you may have already spotted a clue to one of this all-ages book’s many marked departures!

We’ve no time to talk of that yet, for Hilda’s hurried home to a less than impressed mother.

“Hey, I’m sorry I’m late!
“I totally lost track of time. I think my watch is broken.
“And I forgot to take it out with me, so that didn’t help, either.
“And then Twig wouldn’t stop chasing this dog…”

That’s a cracking last panel with poor Twig looking round in the background, alarmed at Hilda’s barefaced lie. With the raised brows and exclamation mark, he looks like George Herriman’s Krazy Kat after being hit by a brick thrown by Ignatz.

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But if you think Hilda’s excuses are exhausting (they did go on…!), then the pages preceding them will leave you completely out of breath. For our adventure opens immediately with Hilda and Twig giving chase to a long-legged clump of semi-sentient turf which a family of tiny Hidden People from HILDA AND THE MIDNIGHT GIANT has unknowingly built their house on.

Off it gallops across a double-page spread of long, landscape panels accentuating the speed and distance travelled, as Hilda hurtles through a hole in the fence, over the top of a steep, sandy bank and tumbles downhill into a steam-train terminus. Instantly then they’re off again, leaping across country in pursuit of the agile and unexpectedly mobile home.

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Ooof! Only when they’ve finally caught up with the critter do they realise how far from the city they’ve strayed, deep into Stone Troll territory. Now, Stone Trolls are sedentary during daylight so that’s reassuring, but overnight the local farmer’s fields have been plundered, his fields ransacked of their juicy crops and his goat stolen too. So that’s new. As are all the fires on the mountain late at night – they haven’t been seen for many years. It seems the Stone Trolls are growing increasingly active…

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Now to the nub of the matter: this isn’t the first time Hilda’s been late or gone AWOL. There’s a glorious, extended montage of past adventures – some of which we haven’t been privy to yet – climaxing in some seriously sorry excuses for the states she comes back in, hilariously contradicted by the action-packed snapshots above them.

“It’s these dusty streets. It just seems to stick to me.”

You’re going to get covered in mud if you’re chased by wild onions underground.

“The puddles around here are outrageous.”

So was that porkie-pie, Miss Bedraggled and Be-drenched!

“Whatever you’re thinking it’s not that.”

Actually true: I doubt her Mum would have imagined a giant white rose splurting her daughter with bright-yellow gloop.

“Yeah, the library was fine.”

It wasn’t.

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Now, Hilda’s Mum is no control freak (she gives her a lot of leeway) but she worries about her daughter’s safety because that’s what Mums do, and she just wants to spend a little quality time with her on a picnic or playing games. And they do have a lovely picnic (after a certain degree of misjudged spot-picking) but I’m afraid things come to a head when Mum denies her one night away and Hilda goes mental. Complete temper-tantrum meltdown, and she says some terrible, terrible things that made me vicariously ashamed.

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But even through Hilda’s mother finally puts her foot down, Hilda’s never been good with temptation and the lure of a good old curiosity-quest, and it’s a tug of war which has radical ramifications for both Hilda and her Mum, who will be far from reassured by what follows…

On that, I shall attempt to say as little as possible, but you saw that cover, didn’t you?

There’s so much to relish here, not least the perils of a countryside picnic. Our Jonathan remarked, with great amusement, on how well Luke had observed all the stroppiness and backchat of a right young madam or little man in full flow.

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There are brand-new creatures with fascinating and potentially useful diets to discover, and wait until you get a load of the eerie Stone Forest itself, coloured ever so exotically! There will be “Oooh!”s And there will be “Aaaah!”s when the central cavern is revealed, as vast as the vastest cathedral you’ve never seen.

I will say one thing: the stakes will be raised when it comes to the level of danger, but it will serve to prove that Hilda and her Mum are very much cut from the same cloth in their resilience, resourcefulness and their indefatigability.

Anyone who spoils the ending for you, in any way shape or form, should be sent to bed early and grounded for a fortnight or more.

SLH

Buy Hilda And The Stone Forest h/c and read the Page 45 review here

Jinks & O’Hare Funfair Repair (£8-99, Oxford Press) by Philip Reeve & Sarah McIntyre.

“Rampaging foodstuffs are a bit of a recurring theme in our books…” – Philip Reeve

He’s not wrong!

If you thought you’d already had your fill from CAKES IN SPACE, prepare to get stuffed once again, this time by a Candyfloss Colossus who’s gotten all grumpy: a sore-headed, sentient sugar mountain – sweet!

There will be screams, there will be squeals; there will be giggles galore and dodgem-car dashes in this all-ages outrage, full of the fun of the fair: a mad, moon-based fair, accessible by interplanetary spaceship only. Sequester your sandwiches and hold onto your hats – you’re in for the ride of your life!

Wouldn’t you just love to live on Funfair Moon? An entire moon dedicated to the best rides ever: the curliest roller coasters, the swirliest helter-skelters and the scariest haunted house ever because it’s actually haunted – by ghosts! Well, Emily does live there, above the Lost Property Office.

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In a way, she’s a little bit of Lost Property herself, having hatched from a pale-blue egg laid accidentally by an over-excited occupant of the Switchback of Doom. You might well lay an egg yourself if you’re ever brave enough to embark! It was found the next morning by Jinks and O’Hare, the funfair repair men, and for nearly ten years Emily has been looked after by Mrs Mimms.

“Mrs Mimms, who ran the Lost Property Office, wasn’t exactly like a mum. In fact, she was more like a sort of giant alien octopus.”

That’s because she was one! The Lost Property office was right next to Jinks and O’Hare’s workshop.

“Emily often peeked in to see what they were fixing, and sometimes O’Hare would let her help with small jobs such as unclogging mega-thunk pistons or replacing worn-out thunderspin sprockets.”

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On alternate days, however, Emily went to school. Now, I hope you didn’t yell “Bor-ing!” because this was a most forward-looking school created by the famous scientist, Floomish Spoob. It was all-about looking, basically, on account of being a Learny-Go-Round.

“Professor Spoob had discovered that people always learn more when they are on the move (that is why travel broadens the mind, but nobody learns much while they are asleep).”

Brilliant! You’ve got to adore Reeve’s lateral thinking as well his deep love of language. I mean, “mega-thunk pistons” and “thunderspin sprockets”! It gets better:

“So on the Learny-Go-Round the pupils sat at desks which whirled around and around the central podium where the teacher stood. During the more difficult lessons they also went up and down, like the painted horses on a carousel.
“That meant that some people got quite travel sick during double maths.”

I’ve just put my hand up in admission.

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It was an idyllic existence because everyone who worked all the rides also lived there, and they were all sorts of shapes, sizes and facial arrangements – not to mention all the visitors from planets far and wide. Thanks to Jinks and O’Hare the Funfair Moon had the best Health and Safety record in existence; a spotless record renowned throughout the galaxy, the Milky Way and even the Mars Bar (non-alcoholic juice-drinks only).

Until today.

Because something black and spiny has arrived in a hatbox which Mrs Mimms popped onto her shelves, and now it’s scuttling and rustling about unnoticed all over and under the fair and rides are beginning to go substantially skew-whiff. What a day for Mr Moonbottom from the Galactic Council (Leisure and Entertainment Sub-Committee) to touch down with his assistant Miss Weebly, in their thoroughly dull but very heavy spaceship, squashing an I-Speak-Your-Weight-Machine!

“You weigh 7,224 tonnes, argh zzxxzx . . .

Bang out of order. And it is, now that they’ve crushed it!

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That’s one black mark against the fair already, and it’s only going to get worse. Jinks and O’Hare are going to have their hands full dealing with the disasters while our Emily frantically races round, trying to get to the bottom of all the breakdowns while keeping Mr Moonbottom from the Galactic Council (Leisure and Entertainment Sub-Committee) and Miss Weebly in the dark.

Where have all the ghouls in the ghost-train gone? Why is something vast, pink and sticky striding around town and tearing up the Terror Mountain in a rage? What has happened to Mrs Mimms’ Lost Property Office?

“Someone comes in asking for a lost bobble hat and I check my list and see Bobble Hat – Number 79 – but when I fetch Number 79, it isn’t a bobble hat, it’s a pair of skis or a cement mixer.”

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The well of Reeve and McIntyre’s co-creative inventiveness and quite frankly insane imaginations appears to be bottomless and never runs dry. O’Hare communicating through smiles, shrugs and cheeky eyebrow-wriggling only! Synchronised swimming followed by synchronised strimming! And of course there’s a park-and-ride on a nearby asteroid if the entire moon is dedicated to the funfair! Why would there not be?

The art is equally rich with little background jokes thrown in for the sharp-eyed and attentive: a pair of three-lens sunglasses dangling from one of Mrs Mimms’ many tentacles; a spider dangling from one of Miss Weebly’s hair-buns on the ghost train; the back-page of a newspaper in the mermaid lagoon featuring a photo of Iris, the short-sighted mermaid from OLIVER AND THE SEAWIGS. Oh, there are cameos of critters from all your favourite McIntyre and Reeve ridiculousnesses, if you look close enough, including PUGS OF THE FROZEN NORTH and even The Dartmoor Pegasus!

I’ve always admired how integrated the text and illustrations are – that must take an awful lot of juggling – so that, when they’re not, it’s for deliberate, striking effect, as when we get out first glimpse of the black and spiky thing peering ominously out of its hatbox, like a Tove Jansson creation from MOOMIN. Sat at the bottom of the page, the white space above suggests mystery, an ellipsis and an almost certain imminent exit…

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Jinks and O’Hare are delightful designs – this time on Philip’s part, for he illustrated the original comic which Sarah wrote for The Phoenix Weekly Comic. O’Hare, drawn in pencil, is one big bundle of fluff with a further fluff of moustache. Jinks’ eyes stand out on stalks and make for great comedy on the rollercoaster ride. But my favourite here is Lord Krull (oh, there’s a lot more for Emily and co. to contend with than I’ve made out) who is ever so imposing!

“SILENCE!” roared the stranger, “I am Lord Krull, Commander of the Black Fleet, Conqueror of Worlds, Supreme Ruler of the Darkvoids of Quorn. Star systems tremble at my very name. But my wife’s gone to her sister’s for the weekend and she left me in charge of our little boy. So I thought I’d bring him to your Funfair Moon. I’m told children enjoy this thing you call ‘fun’.”
“Yes, we do,” said Emily.
“SILENCE!” bellowed Lord Krull. “Unfortunately I got rather dizzy on the Learny-Go-Round.”
“But the Learny-Go-Round isn’t a ride,” said Emily. “It’s our school…”
“I was told it would be educational,” said Lord Krull. “But it went a bit faster than I was expecting.”

SLH

Buy Jinks & O’Hare Funfair Repair and read the Page 45 review here

Mezolith vol 2: Stone Age Dreams And Nightmares h/c (£22-99, Archaia) by Ben Haggarty & Adam Brockbank.

Poika and Sisu sit side-by-side under the shelter of two lichen-rich boulders which lean against each other in mutual support. As the rain pours from the grey heavens above, eroding visibility of the lush foliage further downstream, they watch ripples on the river expand right in front of them.

“I like this place.
“I come here when I want to be quiet. Watching the water settles my thoughts.
“Tutta told me you could talk… Can you, Sisu?
“Can you?”

And if she could, what would she say?

Sisu has been welcomed by Poika’s people after being rescued from a tribe already at odds with the Kansa, but which has since been driven self-destructively mad by their vicious leader’s obsession with a mirror-stone. During her time in captivity something occurred which so traumatised Sisu that she hasn’t spoken since. Unfortunately not all of the Kansa are as kind as Poika, and her presence will cause ramifications because – just as the sound of rain on water still soothes the soul – in so many ways we haven’t changed at all in 10,000 years.

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Set in the unspoiled wilds on the eastern shores of Stone Age Britain, MEZOLITH VOL 1 was a book of beauty that made my eyes glow and heart sing as a boy called Poika took his first tentative steps towards becoming a man.

I wrote:

“It’s an unforgiving life where wounds are deep, infection rife, the winters harsh and tribal territories fiercely enforced; but it’s also one rich in folklore, and although the lad’s courage far outstrips the experience his elders will need to teach him – about hunting, survival and the balance of things – his affinity for nature, tenacity and curiosity will undoubtedly prove the making of him.”

And so it did. I also remarked that Poika grew visibly and physically during the course of the book, but here it is even more evident, particularly in panels during which he’s being courted by Kiva, casually to begin with but then more directly. It unsettles, even embarrasses Poika who doesn’t consider himself ready yet but his arms and abdomen say otherwise.

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Now is the time that pairing will come into play, and that will be reflected in one particularly instructive tale to young women being prepared ceremonially for their first dance.

“Some of you might find a husband.
“You giggle, but you might – though he cannot be an Owl man. They’ve broken their bonds with all of us. They and their kind are not welcome here.
“Taking the hands of a man is for companionship and helping each other – understand how the left hand works with the right hand.
“This paint and prettiness is all very well, but in truth, how you get on with a man depends on a meeting of spirits and how you can help each other as mates…”

The story she spins is of two sisters who learned nothing of use to themselves or their tribe, relying instead on their good looks while disdaining others’, dismissing and demeaning potential mates whom they nick-name according to what they considered physical defects.  Well, they’ve a fantastical journey ahead and hard lessons to learn. Physical differences will be much in evidence in MEZOLITH VOLUME 2. Haggarty’s ability to link certain strands and sustain specific themes is as impressive as his storytelling skills for which he is legendary, live.

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It’s the oral tradition of passing down stories from one generation to the next which lies at the heart of both books. Since knowledge came so often at a terrible cost and survival depended upon it, preserving as much as possible in the form of fables was essential.

It should be noted that they are Young Adult books but largely bought by adults for adults. Brockbank is very much an artist’s artist and since his film credits range from Harry Potter to Maleficent you’ll be unsurprised to learn that his luminous artwork is a joy. In the first book there were the five ebony-eyed sisters with their snow-white swan feathers draped over their silk-smooth, cream-coloured bodies, an early, expertly choreographed hunt for fresh meat which went awry, and woodland climbs in the heat of the day.

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Here there’s a bear and oh so many bees, and a spectacular fishing or rather fish-driving sequence using judiciously placed mesh tunnels crafted from flexible but durable inner bark. You’ll yearn for such clean waters and fresh, unspoiled landscapes lit by the sun but seen from the dappled shade as smoke from the camp fires drifts up in front of canopies which themselves rise towards of a misted mountain and the birds up above.

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Brockbank is equally adept at the otherworldly – glistening ebony eyes being a favourite of his – and there’s no small element of horror in both volumes.

As well as traditions, MEZOLITH is also a book about family – the generations these practices are passed down through. Now, even as Poika is beginning to take an increasingly active role within the tribe, so his father Isa must reluctantly leave his hunting days behind. He’s already been shown by much older Konkari that age does not necessarily bring with it frailty or being unable to contribute (as we have seen, being useful to others is of paramount importance to this society) and Isa has already had to apologise once! But there’s a particularly moving scene – beautifully written and artfully depicted in semi-silhouette against the glare of a late afternoon sun as if seen through honeycomb – during which Isa is visited by his dead wife in a dream call, reassuring him that he has done well, that his story is far from over, and that he is strong and handsome and very much loved.

SLH

Buy Mezolith vol 2: Stone Age Dreams And Nightmares h/c and read the Page 45 review here

Criminal vol 7: Wrong Place, Wrong Time s/c (£13-99, Image) by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips with Elizabeth Breitweiser on colour art.

“I wasn’t done reading that yet, you fat fuck…”

If you don’t want to sneeze tea all over your keyboard then either remove the keyboard to a safe distance before reading that page… or try going dry for ten minutes.

A perfectly representative, accessible and self-contained introduction to the twilight world of CRIMINAL in which we finally get to meet Teeg Lawless, the often referred-to father of Tracy.

He’s not the smartest con in the can having landed there – whilst en route to collect what would have been some considerable cold cash from an armoured-car stick-up – over a simple failure to appear in traffic court. He stopped off for a beer then beat up a biker who didn’t press charges but, yeah, Teeg got sent down instead for a failure to appear in traffic court.

So he’s stuck on the inside, instead of keeping his commitment to Sebastian Hyde – whom you do not want to piss off – to eliminate a councilman who’s blocking a construction contract which Hyde’s set his heart on. And Teeg’s trying to keep his head down, he surely is, by reading the latest instalment of ZANGAR, THE SAVAGE. But he doesn’t half get interrupted every five fucking seconds.

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“You Lawless?”

Which is a funny thing to ask a criminal.

Seems there’s a price on Teeg’s head and Hyde swears it ain’t him but he won’t offer protection, neither. Almost immediately they’re coming at Lawless from all directions – in the canteen, the laundry room and showers – and Teeg is trapped in there with them. It’s relentless. So what, as they say, is actually up?
I wish every comicbook artist would make reading as easy, fluid, accessible and addictive as Sean: monologue or dialogue across the top, with the image below. Also, there’s an immediate sense of time and place: I love Teeg’s hair.

As ever Brubaker has something to say about human behaviour – not rash generalisations but specific tendencies or patterns within individuals. With Teeg, it’s that this sort of structure in the slammer or army actually serves him quite well. Too much freedom gives him too many choices and too many opportunities to choose wrong. He really is Mr Bad Decision.

Crim Spesh 2

As to ZANGAR, THE SAVAGE, Phillips provides a dozen or so pages emulating the magazine-sized black and white barbarian adventures printed on paper so low-grade that they’d yellow and brown before you’d get them back home. I can only imagine how much easier it has been to apply computer-generated zip-a-tone than it used to be using a scalpel.

I warn you right now that Phillips has pulled no punches and that the art is as battered and brutal as the inmates themselves, and you will find within the dreaded Injury-To-Eye (And Almost Everything Else) Motif over and over again.

Still, he hadn’t finished reading that, you fat fuck…

Criminal-Special-6

So we come to the second instalment – the 10th Anniversary Special – and a reminder that CRIMINAL is the best crime in comics, along with the same team’s THE FADE OUT and David Lapham’s STRAY BULLETS. I have, without fail, reviewed every single edition of all of those, and relished doing so.

How was your childhood?

“It’s easier to be a fictional character.
“How sad is that?”

Not as sad as the ending, as an almost unheard of act of kindness in twelve-year-old Tracy Lawless’ bleak young life is flushed down the pan, along with all its potential. Out of fear.

Looked at from another angle, however, it is perhaps the one ray of hope that young Tracy might turn out okay against all nature-and-nurture odds, because it’s not for himself that he fears. It’s for a local girl who’s befriended him on the streets of a small town where, as a stranger, he sticks out like a sore thumb even whilst under an alias.

“I’m not supposed to be doing this. ‘Mike Johnson’ isn’t supposed to have fun.
“And he doesn’t get to make friends. Friends get remembered.”

Oh dear. We’ve already discovered what happens to those might remember Tracy. Brubaker deliberately sets this up on the very first pages so that it informs everything else that follows, throwing a terrible pall over anyone who comes near the boy.

Criminal 10th 1

This includes Lana, one of the individuals that Tracy’s Dad is out searching for. Because of this looming threat one fears, rightly or wrongly, that Tracy may have doomed the smiling shop assistant simply by identifying her. Tracy himself recognises this almost immediately afterwards. It’s not exactly a Judas moment, but it’s certainly made all the more poignant by their mutual, momentary affection which elicits the other act of kindness and their eyes light up. So it might as well have been a kiss.

Criminal 10th 2

Mike Johnson, by the way, is that fictional identity Tracy is forced to adopt whenever he’s travelling on the run with his career-criminal dad. He shouldn’t have been roaming the streets, he should have stayed safely shut away in the motel reading the comic which his father Teeg stole for him (which is nice), but Teeg hadn’t come back in the evening nor in the morning, and that’s pretty much par for the course. The boy’s got to eat.

What follows is a rough scrap of a friendship scraped from the car crash of Tracy’s neglected childhood before he witnesses that which a twelve-year-old son never should.

There’s a telling line early on from Tracy, referring to himself being taught to drive his dad’s getaway car last year as “just a kid” as if he considers himself an adult now. But he’s neither one thing nor the other: he’s not his father’s adult accomplice because he’s not been let in on what the mission is; yet if he’s still a child what on earth is he doing behind the wheel and changing number plates? What is he doing – worst of all – understanding his father’s fucked up priorities?

Criminal 10th 3

Sean draws the boy all droopy-mouthed and saggy-shouldered – weighted and weary beyond his years, far from care-free and truly troll-like. His eyes would be scathing if they could summon the energy but they are instead so heavy, so sceptical, expecting nothing. Which is just as well. It’s what makes the brief burst of reignited hope and rekindled vivacity in the shop with Lana so unexpected and arresting. The boy can actually smile – he can beam! – if engaged with at all.

But that’s as nothing to the central panel in a single page which is one of the finest I’ve seen in comics.

Criminal 10th 4

It is the epitome of wide-eyed, awe-struck enchantment as Tracy’s face comes electrically alive, spellbound by the DEADLY HANDS OF comic which straddles the same worlds he does between adult and child.

“This comic is weird…
“It kind of reminds me of the ones my dad gets some times…
“But those have naked ladies and stuff in them.
“And this one, you just feel like it’s about to have naked ladies all the time.
“Like it’s a comic for kids pretending to be a comic for grown-ups.”

Criminal 10th 5

Of course it is. It’s a mischievous tribute to a Marvel Comics combo of SHANG-CHI, MASTER OF KUNG-FU and WEREWOLF BY NIGHT (very seventies indeed, Daddio!), pages of which are paraded in front of you in all their tanned, aged-paper glory by Sean Phillips in immaculate impressions of expressionist Paul Gulacy the for sub-lunar werewolf sequences and of the far more conservative Sal Buscema inked by the likes of Mike Esposito when the angst-ridden protagonist reverts to puny Peter-Parker-like form. It’s all in the eyebrows.

Criminal 10th 6

I like what Breitweiser’s done with both the daytime and evening colours here: it’s something completely different to FATALE or THE FADE OUT for this is set is in such a small town that it’s virtually deserted after dark. There are no fancy-schmancy multicoloured neon bar signs projecting onto the street: in the evening the only monochromatic glow comes from the few sickly sodium lights and they don’t light anything up properly. In the daytime the colours may be muted and mundane but they do at least look relatively healthy and safe by contrast.

Criminal 10th 7

I don’t know whether Brubaker of Phillips decided which comics would be racked in the grocery store’s spinners but whichever it was we evidently shared similar summer holiday experiences.

Speaking of similar summer holiday experiences, hats off to both for the kids’ visit to the second-hand bookshop – the only place you’d find old comics back then. Phillips has almost beaten Bernie Wrightson at his own game for internal clutter. I could feel the binding of every single book on those shelves, but of course Tracy’s not interested.

“I’m just looking for comics.”

We’re all just looking for comics.

Criminal 10th Anniv screenshot

SLH

Buy Criminal vol 7: Wrong Place, Wrong Time s/c and read the Page 45 review here

Arrived, Online & Ready To Buy!

Reviews already up if they’re new formats of previous graphic novels. The best of the rest will be reviewed next week while others will retain their Diamond previews as reviews.

Audubon – On The Wings Of The World (£15-99, Nobrow) by Fabien Grolleau & Jeremie Royer

Carrot To The Stars (£6-00, Lakes International Comics Art Festival) by Regis Lejonc, Thierry Murat & Riff Reb’s

Libby’s Dad (£6-00, Retrofit / Big Planet) by Eleanor Davis

Mirror vol 1: The Mountain s/c (£13-99, Image) by Emma Rios & Hwei Lim

Cat Rackham h/c (£17-99, Koyama Press) by Steve Wolfhard

The Fix vol 1: Where Beagles Dare s/c (£8-99, Image) by Nick Spencer & Steve Lieber

Ghosts (£9-99, Scholastic) by Raina Telgemeier

Harrow County vol 3: Snake Doctor s/c (£13-99, Dark Horse) by Cullen Bunn & Carla Speed McNeil, Jenn Manley Lee, Tyler Crook

Our Mother (£7-00, Retrofit / Big Planet) by Luke Howard

Walking Dead vol 26: Call To Arms (£13-99, Image) by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard

The Wormgler (£2-00, self-published) by David Frankum

Harley Quinn vol 4: A Call To Arms s/c (£14-99, DC) by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti & Chad Hardin, John Timms, various

Superman: The Return Of Superman s/c (£26-99, DC) by various

Titans Hunt s/c (£15-99, DC) by Dan Abnett & Paulo Siqueira, various

Wonder Woman vol 8: Twist Of Fate s/c (£14-99, DC) by Meredith Finch & David Finch, various

Daredevil: Back In Black vol 2: Supersonic s/c (£14-50, Marvel) by Charles Soule & various

Punisher:  War Journal s/c (£35-99, Marvel) by Carl Potts, Mike Baron & Jim Lee, various

Uncanny Avengers: Unity vol 2 – Man Who Fell To Earth s/c (£15-99, Marvel) by Gerry Duggan & Ryan Stegman, Pepe Larraz

X-Men Origins: Gambit s/c (£17-99, Marvel) by various

Attack On Titan: Lost Girls vol 1 (£8-99, Kodansha) by Hiroshi Seko & Ryosuke Fuji

Avatar, The Last Airbender vol 13: North And South Part 1 (£9-99, Dark Horse) by Gene Yuen Lang & Gurihiru

Fruits Basket Collector’s Edition vol 4 (£14-99, Yen Press) by Natsuki Takaya

Limit vol 6 (£9-99, Vertical) by Keiko Suenobu

Log Horizon – The West Wind Brigade vol 1 (£9-99, Yen Press) by Mamare Touno & Koyuki

News!

new-yorker-9-11-1

ITEM! A slideshow of The New Yorker’s 9/11 covers.

These are my two favourites, which have a certain ghostly symmetry.

Above: “9/11/2001,” by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, September 24, 2001.

Below: “Reflections,” by Ana Juan, September 12, 2011.

new-yorker-9-11-2

ITEM! Brilliant page from John Allison’s imminent Bobbins.Horse book which may be pre-order only. We’ve already stuck our oar in to grab some, but remember: when they arrive, they may be your only chance so please don’t dilly-dally.

Which may be one of my favourite phrases ever along with skew-whiff and wonky-woo.

bobbins

ITEM! Another interview with HILDA’s Luke Pearson, this one a little more whimsical.

ITEM! A much longer interview with Alan Moore about Jerusalem, the working class, Donald Trump, Brexit and Athenian Democracy.

jinks-and-ohare-6

JINKS & O’HARE FUNFAIR REPAIR bonus, before the addition of text, top left.

– Stephen

Page 45 Comic & Graphic Novel Reviews September 2016 week one

Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

Featuring Eric Orchard and Isabel Greenberg – then Luke Pearson, Philip Reeve, Sarah McIntyre and Simon Gane in the News!

The One Hundred Nights Of Hero (£18-99, Jonathan Cape) by Isabel Greenberg.

“He gave her new tokens, and this time promises came with them.
“But his eyes still slid hither and thither.”

What rich language! You can picture it, can’t you? He’s embracing his “true love” close to his chest, so his eyes can roam far and wide. Perhaps the couple are bathed in a romantic sunset glow. Or maybe the red there spells danger.

Whatever you think of Eve’s curiosity, the serpent was certainly male.

“I don’t know how we’re getting away with this, but we surely are!”
“I don’t know how they’re getting away with it, either. But I for one want to know what happens next.”

Such was the triumph of Scheherazade in ‘One Thousand And One Nights’, successfully staving off execution at the hands of her husband through storytelling.

It is also the triumph of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EARLY EARTH’s Isabel Greenberg yet again in such an addictively compelling set-up and seamlessly stitched-together sequence of tales that I swept through this in one afternoon, pausing only to refill and reflect.

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 0

Will handmaiden Hero similarly succeed in saving the virtue of her beloved mistress Cherry from the predatory advances of her husband’s lascivious and quite ridiculous best mate? Whom her husband’s encouraged for the sake of a bet and proving a point! Hero’s certainly won over the guards with her carefully chosen and craftily spun yarns, but where has the one hundred and first night gone?

The answers will prove elevating. I even anticipate an air punch or two.

This is a book about stories and storytelling; of sisterhood and story spreading; of love, loyalty, disloyalty and loss; and – though laced with playful, bubble-bursting, laugh-out-loud comedy – it is also a blisteringly effective, pin-point accurate and damning indictment of women’s treatment throughout the ages at the hands of men under a possession-based patriarchy which organised religion has played no small part in underpinning and enforcing.

Although I should emphasise that there isn’t a single sentence within it as miserably po-faced as that one. Greenberg’s much more mischievous.

“Lesson: men are false. And they can get away with it.
“Also, don’t murder your sister, even by accident. Sisters are important.”

What Greenberg has done here with the Scheherazade scenario – which elements she has incorporated and how she’s repositioned them – is ever so clever and makes for much mockery of man-pride.

“Once there were two men. (They were called Manfred and Jerome, if you want to know.) Anyway, they sat together and they talked, as men are wont to do, of Women.”

I really can’t wait. Manfred makes the first move.

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 1

 

“Fact: there are no good women.”

Pawn to king’s bishop two.

“They are all scheming bitches, whores and also fiendishly boring.”

I could be wrong, but I’d wager there’s a fiendish scheme ahead for this crashing bore which might involve soliciting a woman for monetary gain. Also, I think you just moved your knight out of turn.

“They’re only good for one thing, Jerome. And I think we both know what that is.”

He leers, of course. Within the first two panels Manfred has condemned himself with his own double standards but it gets better. Or worse. For Manfred once had a wife whose fidelity he tested by sending a servant to seduce her. This is important.

“He came out with her knickers. And a precise description of a scar she had on her inside leg.”
“What did your wife say?”
“She denied it. Said he had forcibly removed her knickers.”
“And you didn’t believe her?”
“Certainly not.”
“So what happened?”
“I killed her, of course. Anyway. Back to my criteria.”

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 2

 

We’ll get to why that’s important in a second, I swear. So what are Manfred’s criteria for the perfect woman? This’ll be rich, I reckon.

“Beautiful. Clever enough to have a conversation, not clever enough to disagree with me.
“Obedient. Chaste. Good at mending socks. Not ambitious.
“Marriage to me must be the height of her ambition.
“Interested in my passions. Falconry, battlements, maps, etcetera.
“But not as good as me at these things.”

At which point Jerome declares his own wife, Cherry, to fit that description precisely including the chastity, for he has yet to take her virtue himself. Goaded by Manfred’s disbelief, Jerome challenges Manfred to take his Cherry – and her’s – within 100 nights while he is away.

“But I guarantee she will be faithful.
“And then you must admit that I’m right.
“And give me your castle.”

All kinds of crazy, then.

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 3

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 4

 

 

In ‘One Thousand And One Nights’ the king takes a new wife for one night only and then beheads the poor love to prevent infidelity because he’d got stiffed the first time round. But here it’s Manfred’s already ingrained misogyny which prejudiced him against his wife’s word, and that didn’t end well so every card imaginable is already stacked against poor Cherry. Plus it’s all for the sake of a bet – a bet based on man-pride!

“Let us pause in the story and meet his wife. Now, everything Jerome had said was true. She was beautiful, obedient, good at battleworks and falconry. However, he had got one thing very wrong. She was far brainer than him.
“So how is that this smashing babe got landed with such a grade A pillock?”

She got married off by her Dad, of course. But here’s the final twist which raises the stakes even further: she was already in love. With her handmaid called Hero. And it is a True Love.

Now that Cherry’s husband’s away Manfred visits every night to take her virtue – by force if necessary – and it’s up to her Hero to distract and enthral him with her mad story skills. After Cherry successfully plays the piety card on night one.

“Woman. Had I not vowed to take you, and were my Manly Honour not at stake, I might feel a little ashamed…
“I don’t, however, because there is not only my Manly Honour, but also a castle at stake here.
“I shall return! Until tomorrow! My love.”

My love!

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 5

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 6

 

The tales Hero tells are full of love. Some feature true love, some feature false love and treachery, but each one is as poignant as you can imagine. In one the very words “I Love You” – written by hand on a misty window – are the cause of heart-breaking catastrophe.

In another a noble soul falls in love with one of Early Earth’s three Moons. She visits him whenever her lunar cycle allows, on her nights off from shining in the sky. That too is a True Love, and Greenberg has all the right words to describe it:

“It began to seem to the man that everything that happened in between those nights was a dream; that he was sleepwalking his way through the days until she would come to him again.
“And when she was with him it was as if that twilight, muffled, underwater place he had been inhabiting was suddenly gone, and all the sights and sounds and smells of the world came back to him, in glorious technicolour.”

There is a truly beautiful page with the words “I love you” whispered in the sleeping woman’s ear. It concludes with a midnight panel in centre of which the two lie in bed in a moon-shaped glow which itself is lit up to one side by a warm lantern light.

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 7

 

As with THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EARLY EARTH the colours the book’s bathed in, deployed with restraint, add so much to the ambience and I’d watch out whenever you see red. Often they’re used to connect characters emotionally.

What’s striking is the new use of dry-brush textures adding surface to space and filling out figures – which strangely makes them more fragile. Teeth tend to be tiny and spiked, but the eyes are ever so important, especially when they slither hither and thither. When enraged they are positively demonic.

Early Earth is essentially a medieval world, most of which is remote and rural. There are lots and lots of trees. Its few fortified cities are depicted as they were then, as an exotic jumble of towers and tall houses, but the closer one comes to so-called civilisation here, the less likely your chances of happiness.

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 8

 

That’s where the bald Beaked Brothers reside and preside over all in their Great Aviary erected in worship of their god Birdman. They wear their false beaks in tribute, coming across like ferocious vultures preying upon the population, especially women. Women are forbidden to read or to write, for both are seen – in women only – as a sluttish sort of sorcery punishable by defenestration from the top of tallest tower.

And reading and writing are magic, it’s true, with the ability to change hearts and minds.

Unfortunately not everyone’s.

 

One Hundred Nights Of Hero 9

 

On publication we made THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EARLY EARTH Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month. It went on to win the British Comic Awards for best book of the year, and it was.

There’s no doubt in my mind that THE ONE HUNDRED NIGHTS OF HERO will also win multiple awards. Its storytelling is rich and riddled with iconoclastic wit – parenthetical asides and slapped-wrist remonstrations – addressing the reader directly. Refrains pop up when you least expect them, some when you need them the most. Key elements of some stories foreshadow future developments and rarely have I read a climax and conclusion so satisfying on every level.

SLH

Buy The One Hundred Nights Of Hero and read the Page 45 review here

Bera The One-Headed Troll (£12-99, FirstSecond) by Eric Orchard…

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…”
“What is that? It’s coming from the other side of the island.”
“It’s horrible! It sounds like a monster! Let’s go inside until it stops.”
“No.”
“HAW!”
“HA!”
“HA HA!”
“Ugh! It’s those nasty mermaids!
“Give it to me!”
“I saw it first!”
“Give it!”
“It’s mine!”
“They’ve got something.”

Indeed they do, but not for long as Bera, official pumpkin gardener to the Troll King, bops one of the mermaids – and they are quite the most gruesome mermaids you will ever see – on the head with a well placed gourd and retrieves the noisy creature which the loathsome sea beasts were tormenting. She’s somewhat astonished to discover it’s a human baby! Not surprisingly, she’s equally perplexed about how it got there, bobbing away in the sea out in the middle of nowhere near her little carefully tended pumpkin patch of an island.

Bera-1

The fact that the wailing urchin is in a tiny cauldron should have been a clue, but when Cloote – former head witch of the Troll King – comes knocking at her door, looking for the misplaced vital ingredient for her mindless monster magic spell which she’s planning on cooking up to worm her way back into the royal court, well, Bera knows she has to keep the baby out of Cloote’s clutches and get it back to the safety of the human village on the mainland. Just one huge problem in her eyes: that’s clearly an epic quest for a hero of legendary proportions, so Bera sets off to find one. Well, three actually by the time she’s finished, none of whom prove remotely up to the job for various rather unheroic reasons.

Bera-2

Yes, little does Bera suspect she’ll turn out to be the champion the baby needed all along! Assisted by her redoubtable owl Winslowe, she’ll find herself battling the odious mermaids, plus gibbering goblins, tree-gnawing shadow wolves and various other spooky beasties at every turn, (not forgetting the villainous Cloote!) though she’ll find some courageous creatures willing to help her too, particularly the hedgehogs, bless ‘em. (I can’t ever see a hedgehog in a comic without thinking of the rather amusing sequence with Timothy Hunter in the Baba Yaga’s Hut in THE BOOKS OF MAGIC!)

As all-age yarns go, this hits the mark perfectly in terms of story-telling with just the right amount of scariness for little ones (just as Eric’s previous work MADDY KETTLE: THE ADVENTURES OF THE THIMBLEWITCH did) balanced with the caring, courageous actions of the compassionate Bera, who’s certainly a role model for all trolls and mini-humans out there.

Bera-3

What makes this really stand out in the rapidly burgeoning all-ages arena, though, is Eric’s art. I see on the dust jacket he cites Arthur Rackham and Maurice Sendak as inspirations. With all the pointy teeth lining the mouths of goodies and baddies alike, the linework shading, and the ochre and umber palette, I can really see the Sendak influence, fantastic stuff. I think fans of HILDA would very much enjoy this big-hearted adventure and hopefully Bera will get a few more outings in the future as well!

JR

Buy Bera The One-Headed Troll and read the Page 45 review here

Arrived, Online & Ready To Buy!

Reviews already up if they’re new formats of previous graphic novels. The best of the rest will be reviewed next week while others will retain their Diamond previews as reviews.

Angel Catbird vol 1 h/c (£13-99, Dark Horse) by Margaret Atwood & Johnnie Christmas

Criminal vol 7: Wrong Place, Wrong Time s/c (£13-99, Image) by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Hilda And The Stone Forest h/c (£12-95, Flying Eye Books) by Luke Pearson

Jinks & O’Hare Funfair Repair (£8-99, Oxford Press) by Philip Reeve & Sarah McIntyre

Kill 6 Billion Demons vol 1 (£13-99, Image) by Tom Parkinson-Morgan

Mezolith vol 2: Stone Age Dreams And Nightmares h/c (£22-99, Archaia) by Ben Haggarty & Adam Brockbank

Mighty Jack (£10-99, FirstSecond) by Ben Hatke

Insexts vol 1: Chrysalis s/c (£17-99, Aftershock Comics) by Marguerite Bennett & Ariela Kristantina

Northern Lights: The Graphic Novel vol 2 (£12-99, Doubleday) by Philip Pullman

Princess Princess Ever After h/c (£11-99, Oni) by Katie O’Neill

Revival vol 7: Forward (£13-99, Image) by Tim Seeley & Mike Norton

Batman vol 8: Superheavy s/c (£14-99, DC) by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo

Batman vol 9: Bloom h/c (£22-99, DC) by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo

Batman: Arkham – Poison Ivy s/c (£17-99, DC) by Neil Gaiman, Gerry Conway, Alan Grant, various & various

Batman: Arkham Knight – Genesis s/c (£13-99, DC) by Peter J. Tomasi & Alisson Borges, Dexter Soy

Doctor Strange: Strange Origin s/c (£17-99, Marvel) by Greg Pak & Emma Rios

Secret Wars s/c (£31-99, Marvel) by Jonathan Hickman & Esad Ribic

Assassination Classroom vol 11 (£6-99, Viz) by Yusei Matsui

Fairy Tail Blue Mistral vol 3 (£8-99, Kodansha) by Hiro Mashima & Rui Watanabe

Log Horizon vol 1 (£9-99, Yen Press) by Kazuhiro Hara

My Hero Academia vol 5 (£6-99, Viz) by Kouhei Horikoshi

News!

Hilda And The Stone Forest actual cover

 

ITEM! It has arrived! Luke Pearson’s all-ages HILDA AND THE STONE FOREST, the fifth graphic novel in the award-winning Netflix-bound HILDA series!

Interview: HILDA’s Luke Pearson talks about the books that he adored, absorbed and obsessed over as a child and most inspired him in later life too.

Hilda And The Stone Forest cover

This is NOT the actual cover, but it might have been. What’s different, do you think? It’s ever so telling! 😉

 

ITEM! Also arrived: Philip Reeve & Sarah McIntyre’s new all-ages illustrated novel, JINKS & O’HARE FUNFAIR REPAIR!

You’ll remember them from PUGS OF THE FROZEN NORTH, CAKES IN SPACE and OLIVER AND THE SEAWIGS, each in stock and reviewed! Why is a comic shop stocking illustrated prose? Well, like Gary Northfield’s snort-a-thons JULIUS ZEBRA – RUMBLE WITH THE ROMANS and JULIUS ZEBRA – BUNDLE WITH THE BRITTONS (pop him in our search engine for graphic novels too) and Simone Lia’s  THEY DIDN’T TEACH THIS AT WORM SCHOOL (ditto), the fabulous images are so integral to the proceedings – and the proceedings so ingenious – that we simply cannot resist.

In her new illustrated blog (Sarah’s blogs are the best!), Madame McIntyre delves into the origins of JINKS & O’HARE and its history as a comic illustrated by Philip Reeve!

 

Jinks & OHare for blog

 

ITEM! Simon Gane’s landscapes and architecture are simply stunning – and he has a whole blogspot full of them.

 

Simon Gane Architecture 2

 

ITEM! Two whole reviews this week. We spoil you!

Never mind, for far more extensive weeks, you can scroll back to your heart’s content here:

http://www.page45.com/world/

– Stephen