“If the laws of nature cannot prevail here, what chance have the laws of the land?” This introduction to Keith Page’s Strawjack: The Terror or Romney Marsh from novelist and film maker Stephen Walsh sets the tone for this new graphic novel perfectly. It’s a tale of salty sea dogs, scarecrows and magic but should you send your hard-earned doubloons on it?
The Eighties! For many a time of electro-pop, the miners’ strike, Thatcher and the terrifying spectre of nuclear Armageddon. For others a time of swords, sorcery, wizards and dragons! Cinematic offerings like Excalibur, Krull and Conan the Barbarian were re-watched time and time again on VHS tapes by many, providing a magical escape from reality. One of the most fondly remembered of these fantasy films is Hawk the Slayer, now resurrected by no less a team than Garth Ennis and Henry Flint. Should we crack open the mead to celebrate of is it a bit of a Knightmare?
Comics and music might seem like strange bedfellows but they’ve been hanging out together for decades, from The Archies in the sixties to more recent fare like Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree. Now David Gedge from indie legends The Wedding Present has joined the fray with the first volume of his autobiography Go Out […]
Inspector Harker, the copper with the heart of granite, has been around for over a decade but the recent collections from Time Bomb Comics have given Roger Gibson and Vincent Danks’ hard-boiled hero a new lease of life. The Black Hound sees Harker, DS Critchley and acid-tonged pathologist Griffen in Dracula’s old stomping ground of Whitby.
The 77 started off as a retro anthology with the tagline “Your future is history!” An off-shoot of the Facebook group 1977-2000AD, The 77’s mission statement was to re-create those halcyon days when the black and white British weekly ruled. The strips in the first few issues were great fun but definitely had Harlem’s Heroes, Rogue Trooper and Tharg’s Future Shocks in their DNA. This of course is no bad thing but I think it’s fair to say that this year something really interesting started to happen.
Pirates! Magic! Miniature kings! Scout Comic’s new graphic novel The Mapmaker gives us all of this in a tale of derring-do on the high seas, but is this new collection from Ben Slabak and Francesca Carita a treasure trove or should it be lost at sea?
The 1980s was a time of political turmoil and social change, when the birth of home computers and digital technology changed the world forever. It was also the decade that gave us Russ Abbott’s Madhouse, Roland Rat and Butterscotch Angel Delight. These two worlds collide in Dan Whitehead, Conor Boyle and Jack Davies’ exciting and thought- provoking new graphic novel Hex Loader, just in time for Thought Bubble.
The story of Gawain and the Green Knight is the stuff of Arthurian legend with the first written account going back to the Middle Ages. Hot on the heels of David Lowery’s powerful film version earlier this year comes a new graphic novel from writer John Reppion and artist MD Penman, ready for its debut at this month’s Thought Bubble.
The summer might have been a bit of a dead loss this year thanks to a mix of bad weather and Covid restrictions but for comic readers summer specials can make everything better. 2000AD have been publishing their sci-fi specials on and off since 1978. This year Rebellion carry on the tradition by changing the […]
David Bowie and comics are a perfect fit. The man who sang that we’ve “got to make way for the homo-superior” has appeared in his own Marvel comic (the Labyrinth adaptation written by Sid Jacobson and illustrated by none other than John Buscema) and his music is featured on the soundtrack to Guardians of the […]