Scottish indie publisher BHP Comics, have evolved from a ‘little-company-who-could’, into a real player in the UK comics scene. With a roster featuring big name titles like John Wagner’s Rok of The Reds or the Frank Quitely Sketchbook.  We take a look at one of it’s exciting new titles in Plagued volume 2: The Miranda Chronicles.

Publisher: BHP Comics
Writer: Gary Chudleigh
Artist: Tanya Roberts
Price: Purchase Plagued Volumes 1 and Volume 2 from BHP Comics Online Store

Although it’s a book about a dystopian future where the world has been ravaged by plague, and magical witches have been blamed for the devastation, Plagued is actually a very enjoyable and rather endearing all ages YA book.

Mackie is is a former employee of Reneco, the global company who runs the world, and he also has a talking dog called Dex, which unwittingly signals him out to be a witch. His other partner in crime is Miranda, who he met in volume 1, a witch who is looking who cure the plague and also fix her people’s broken reputation. The pair go around doing good deeds and trying to cure the plague while being pursued by nefarious bounty hunters.

Plagued volume 2: The Miranda Chronicles

It all feels a bit Saturday morning cartoon adventure in places, as the pair help people and are pursued by various villains, and it is that caper element makes Plagued such a readable and enjoyable book. Writer Gary Chudleigh has created a really smart central concept, which means he can build a well thought out world around it and full it with a really fun group of characters for his stories.

These characters are brilliantly brought to life by artist Tanya Roberts who has a very expressive and animated style with lots of big eyes and exaggerated faces which makes it feel very lively and fun – and  even more like a lost Saturday morning animated adventure. This light and quirky art style certainly helps Plagued avoid being too dark and sombre, and although the art can feel a bit loose in places (almost looking digitally pencilled rather than fully inked) this new volume is much more polished than volume 1 with Roberts’ art feeling much more confident and so making Volume 2 into a much slicker and more accomplished package.