Warcraft and Starcraft

Death Note aside, I've not read a lot of Manga. In fact, I'm so ambivalent toward the entire concept that I'm not really at all fussed whether or not I'm correct in my use of the actual term 'Manga'. Have I fallen into some trap of the "Oh my God, they're not ALL Manga, that's a brand name/publishing house/mis-translation/etc." persuasion? If I have, I don't care. Which is not meant as a slight or disrespect or anything like that; it's just that the whole 'scene' is so far below my radar that I don't need to know the terminology. I have far more important things to worry about, like the correct reading order of the Tom Thorne books, or whether DC are ever going to publish a complete Hellblazer run (signs are promising, I'm told), or remembering the status of the major players in the decades between Song of Ice and Fire books.

Anyway, Death Note aside, I've not read a lot of Manga. Until now. Well, sort of. TokyoPop, publishers of various Manga titles, released, a number of years ago, a series of books based around the worlds, histories and legends of Warcraft and Starcraft. These being, of course, very popular online role-playing games. (I think. I know less about role playing games than I do about Manga.) Warcraft is a fantasy sword and sorcery type thing and Starcraft is a space opera.

Amongst other titles based on these properties, TokyoPop produced a couple of anthology series. They gave us Warcraft:Legends and Starcraft:Frontline, with each entry in the series comprising four stories by different writers and artists, most of whom I'd never heard of. (My inexperience with Manga or they were all unknowns? Who can tell?) Simon Furman is in there,and of course I recognised his name, and it was this (faint reason though it may be), coupled with the fact that I am pathologically incapable of saying no to a recommendation from a pretty lady, that convinced me to give these books a go. Sadly, it is my duty to report that both are fairly standard, uninspired and uninspiring examples of their respective genres.

I picked up Volumes 1 + 2 of each series. Trust me, never have 16 short stories (and they are short, ranging between about 20 and 50 pages of comic each) taken so long for me to trawl through. It's not that they are bad, per se. It's just that they aren't especially good, either, so when you reach the end of one there is no real motivation to delve into the next. It's all a bit (horrible unqualified criticism alert) meh.

I'm not sure how many of the stories originated with the writers, and how many were outlines assigned to the writers by the range editor. I can't imagine professional writers offering these up as their best work for the big launch of a new range. Certainly, there is little you could call original here. Already I've read one about the village laughing stock saving the day in a bumbling manner, while around him were losing their heads; a hotshot young pilot having to face off against his legendary mentor in a duel; a naive reporter discovering a dark truth while embedded with a military she had fiercely championed; and of course the old, "let me tell you a story about a man on a quest for vengeance" tale that shockingly, shockingly I say, reveals that the storyteller is the man on a mission and the guy he's talking to is his intended victim. Blew my mind, that one.

I'm not sure how long these series lasted; it's entirely possible that they are still ongoing, but I doubt very much that I'll be proceeding past the two of each I've already endured. Simply put, there is better material available, in large quantities, in both of these genres - even if you limit yourself to similar tie-in properties - and these needed to be of a much higher quality from the outset to compete.

2000AD Prog 2011

This post is going up a day early because frankly, few enough people read these and putting it up on Christmas Eve was just asking to be ignored, am I right?


So I'm not much of a one for Christmas. A sucking sinkhole of time and money that leaves you with nothing to show at the end of it but an empty wallet, a pile of rubbish that you can't get rid of because the wagons don't work the holidays and an extra inch on your waist.

However, as with all of lifes miserable little clouds, there is a silver lining to be found. One shining beacon of hope that the festive season will not be a complete waste of the energy expended getting out of bed. I speak, of course, of the 2000AD Christmas special.

An annual event since the turn of the century, these 100page bumper issues serve as the closest thing we're going to get these days to a traditional 'Annual' as well as being classy jump-on points for new or lapsed readers. They also stay on sale for 3weeks instead of 1, allowing Editorial a Christmas break. So that's nice.


Pick up this issue and you get 3 complete stories, featuring Judge Dredd, Psi Judge Anderson and Rogue Trooper - this latter being written by his original creator for the first time in decades - and 4 Part ones of ongoing series that will continue into the new year when the regular issues resume in January. Also, somewhat bizarrely, the final part of a Slaine story that has been running in the last few weeks worth of regular issues. This kind of takes away from the 'jump-on' ethos but it's just one story so we shouldn't be too hard on them.

The Dredd story uses the humorous framing device of The Chief Judges Christmas Speech to give a decent overview of recent Dredd history and tell newcomers everything they need to know about the current state of play. The Rogue Trooper story is a proper blast from the past and really feels like it could have come from this writers original run on the title. And the Anderson story is a neat way of using a character set to appear in the new Dredd movie, thus generating a bit of buzz, while at the same time re-establishing the 'real' backstory of the character, to soothe those who might have been worried that the comic characters would change to match the movie versions.

But it's the new ongoing series that are of the most importance here because it's these that will be required to hold on to any new readers that this issue drags in. Are they up to the task? Well, when one of them is Dan Abnett and Richard Elsons 'Kingdom' you don't need to worry about that. Generally considered on of the best new series in recent years Kingdom is a joy to read, with Abnetts deceptively deep world building, ear for puns and dialogue utterly unlike anything you'll read elsewhere perfectly complemented by Elsons crisp uncluttered art and brilliant character and creature design. (Indeed, in a series that barely features humans, character and creature design are essentially the same thing.)

Then you get dynastic intrigue in the corridors of Hell, in 'Necrophim' by Tony Lee and Lee Carter, Universe shattering carnage and mayhem in millenia spanning space opera 'Shakara' by Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint (I cannot tell a lie, I do not enjoy this series at all, despite liking these creators on other projects, but I am pretty roundly derided for that opinion. The majority view would seem to be that Shakara is a winner. Each to their own I suppose.), and finally some occult investigations in the 1930's with 'Ampney Crucis Investigates' by Ian Edgington and Simon Davis. A more eclectic mix of stories and art styles you couldn't hope to find. If there isn't something in there to please everyone then I'm a llamas lapdancer.

The question of whether you should pick this comic up is a simple yes/no deal. Do you want to read the cream of British comic creators writing and drawing some of the most spectacular flights of the imagination you'll ever encounter. Yes or No?

Frankly, if you are a comic book fan and you aren't reading 2000AD, well, you owe it to yourself to start and if you aren't a comic fan but just like good stories, well told, the same goes for you. This issue is the perfect chance to get on board and see for yourself. Will you love it all? Probably not, but that is the beauty of an anthology. I'm confident you'll love some of it.

The whole thing is wrapped up in a truly beautiful cover by Simon Fraser. Stunning futuristic cityscapes are becoming something of a Fraser trademark and this is yet another example of his genius in this department. The cover you can see in the shops is at the top of this post but if you want to check it out in all it's glory, without those pesky logos and barcodes, you should head on over to the excellent Covers Uncovered blog (link to the right there somewhere) and see it as it deserves to be seen.

Loads of interesting stuff.

Snow. Lots of it. Meaning school closures and me getting roped in to have my sisters child. All day. Every day.

He's six, he's incredibly attention needy and he never, ever, ever stops talking. I've been tempted to bury him in one of the many snowdrifts around about but have, so far, been able to resist.

His constant presence has, unfortunately, meant that I have done as much reading in the last week as I would normally expect to do in one average soak in the tub. Which I haven't been able to have, because he's eaten into my time so much that all I can afford to allot is enough for a quick dip. Get in, get washed, get out. Come on, that's not a proper bath, is it? I'm feeling a little deprived.

I had thought that I might write a few words on Nemesis, the Mark Millar written, Steve McNiven drawn comic mini-series that has been running in Clint, reasoning that the final issue (#4) would be in Clint #4, which was released yesterday (02/12). I figured I could finish reading that and do a quick rundown of my thoughts about it. Sadly, only half of nemesis #4 was actually printed in Clint #4, meaning I'll have to wait a month or so for the concluding pages. Another plan foiled. Buggeration.

So no book finished, no comic series finished, what on earth am I going to write about. Well, as it turns out, not much of anything. I'm just typing a load of old nonsense until I hit a halfway decent wordcount, which I'll put up on the blog and then post the link on twitter, so that the 3 people who actually read these things will be tricked into thinking there is new content and come boost my views. Mwahahah.

Is that enough do you think? Should I stop now? Yes, I think I probably will, but before I go; Clint #4 does contain what I believe (but don't quote me on this) is the first published comics work from comedian Stewart Lee. It's very good, and not just by first-timer standards either. It also has some very nice art by Steve (Zenith/Red Seas) Yeowell. Worth checking out, but fair warning, lots of part 3's and 4's of ongoing stories elsewhere in this issue so a first time buyer might find themselves in at the deep end a little bit.

That's me then. I'll be back next week when I'll be discussing something or other I'll have read by then.

Age of the Wolf

Setting a dangerous precedent here, having comics on the blog two weeks in a row (a novel next week, honest guv) but a couple of factors forced the decision. The first being I've barely read anything this week (I am suitably ashamed) and the second is that the story I'm going to write about today ended a week ago in 2000AD and to wait any longer would make me even later to the party than I already am.

The story in question is Age Of The Wolf by Alec Worley (writer) and Jon Davis-Hunt (artist). It follows a young woman in her attempts to survive a werewolf outbreak, whose efforts are mde more difficult by the revelation that according to an ancient prophecy she is inextricably linked to this apocalypse and the head werewolf is personally out to get her. There is a cute heroine, a twisty plot and a fresh new spin on werewolf mythology. Does it work though?

I'll talk about the art first because, without wishing to dismiss the contributions of Jon Davis-Hunt (I mean that, truly) the reason I was so keen to discuss this series is really down to the writer. So, Davis-Hunt has worked for 2000AD before, most famously on the infamous strip Stalag 666, which did not go down particularly well with the readers and caused something of a stink (if you'll pardon the pun) when one disgruntled reader chose to express his displeasure to the writer in a somewhat, shall we say, unique (if not psychotic) fashion. Anyway, I remember liking the art on Stalag, if not particularly loving it, and I even had a beautiful cover from the series as my desktop wallpaper for a little while.


Age... is even better. It's far from perfect and there is the occasional panel or two where it's a little difficult to tell exactly what is going on but on the whole it works for me as classic, 'proper' comics art. No flashy effects or photoshopped models looking one step removed from a photo-strip (I'm looking at you Clint Langley), this is proper comics and if he continues to improve at this rate Davis-Hunt is welcome in my prog any time.



On to Alec Worley then.

2000AD has long had an informal apprenticeship system in place. Future Shocks (sci-fi) and the less iconic Terror Tales (horror) Time Twisters/Past Imperfects (time travel/alt history) are 5page one-shots with twist endings and they are used as the testing ground for aspiring writers trying to break into the hallowed pages of The Galaxies Greatest Comic. Get a few accepted, get a good reaction to them, and maybe you will be invited to pitch ideas for serials. This has been the accepted route into 2000AD since pretty much the year dot, just ask Alan Moore.

Let me tell you something, these things are bloody hard to write. I've been trying for years to put together something I wouldn't be embarrassed to submit and I long ago realised that even if I managed to get one accepted, the chances of my being able to churn them out with any kind of frquency were essentially nil. Which is why I am so fascinated by those who can do it, and do it well.

Alec Worly has been turning in these one-shots at a very prolific pace, and getting pretty much universal praise for them, for the last year or so and it was just a question of when, rather than if, he was going to get a series commissioned. Age... was that series. I was watching it very closely. How would he cope with the extra page count, not to mention the much higher quality threshold, series generally being held to a higher standard than the one-shots, partly because the reader knows they are written by newbies but also because if a one-shot is rubbish it at least won't wear out it's welcome? Would he hit a six or would rain stop play?*

Truthfully, it's a mixed bag. The central concept is sound, (who doesn't like werewolves, and in London no less?), the lead character is likeable enough after a slightly unsympathetic first couple of episodes and the sudden shift into Norse mythology is one of those rug pulling wtf moments that 2000AD does so well. The extended chase sequence involving a motorbike in a blizzard (depicted in the cover for prog 1703 shown above) is crying out to be put on film and the cliffhanger at the end of the penultimate episode was an absolute blinder that demands you read the conclusion. On the other hand, the expositional captions can be a wee bit overbearing at times, the supporting cast are a little underdeveloped and one particular piece of the story (involving a severed hand and a bunch of flowers) left me scratching my head a little, as it seemed slightly superflous, although that may just be me not quite getting it.

A qualified success then, but a success nonetheless. At 9 episodes Age Of The Wolf was significantly longer than the usual first serial from a writer breaking out of the Future Shock system, so it represented a pretty hefty vote of confidence from the powers that be. The fact that Worley has another series starting in the very near future (meaning that it was commissioned well before any feedback could have been gathered about Age...) is another sign that the editor is confident in the guy, and rightly so in my opinion. 2000AD has nurtured many a promising youngster who would go on to bigger things and if I'm any judge (debatable, but still...) Worley is most definitely on that same path. I just hope 2000AD manages to get a few classics out of him before he moves on to bigger (not better, never that) things.

Age Of The Wolf is too recent, and possibly too short without a second series, to be available in Graphic Novel format so short of tracking down back issues you're out of luck for the time being but if you want to get in on the ground floor of a very promising writers career, now is the time to check out 2000AD, because his second series, Dandridge, is due to start in the very near future and is almost certainly gonna be a cracker.





*I'm trying out sport metaphors, but I don't think it'll stick. I'm not even entirely sure I know which sport I'm referencing there.

Age of the Wolf and Stalag 666 covers shamelessly stolen from Pete Wells 2000AD covers uncovered blog which is all kinds of cool and full to bursting with beautiful artwork and well worth a look. There's a link over there on the right somewhere, give it a click. The Dandridge image is from Alec Worleys blog and is by Warren Pleece.

Judge Dredd Casefiles Vol 15

The Judge Dredd Casefiles are a collection of trade paperbacks that publisher Rebellion (current owners of 2000AD and Dredd) have been releasing now for the last few years, collecting together all of the Judge Dredd stories, in complete chronological order, from his first appearance in Prog 2 (2000AD issues are referred to as Progs) to, hopefully, the present day. Or at least, a couple of years behind the present day, so as not to interfere with more prestige Graphic Novels of individual stories. That's my hope anyway, I don't know what the plans are at Rebellion, but they certainly are showing no signs of slowing down with these books anytime soon. There are currently 16 volumes in the Casefiles series but in this post I'd like to discuss No. 15. Partly because I have yet to pick up No. 16 but mainly because it is in No. 15 that we get the stories marking the handover of control from the renowned veteran Mr John Wagner to the brash young upstart Master Garth Ennis.


At the beginning of the 1990's the then editor of weekly anthology comic 2000AD had a problem. John Wagner, creator and main writer of the titles flagship character, Judge Dredd, for most of the comics life (nigh on 15 years at that point) had expressed a desire to step back from writing the strip. He would continue to provide scripts featuring Dredd for The Judge Dredd Megazine (a newly launched spin-off comic that would feature stories from all around Dredds world) but the main strip in the weekly would require a new regular writer. Given that John Wagner is, in the eyes of all right thinking individuals, a God among writers, and his work on Dredd, especially in the couple of years leading up to this point, had been pretty much peerless, (it wouldn't be surpassed for years and only then when Wagner returned to the character for a run that has become one of the best on any comic ever), it would be very difficult to find a replacement that would a) be up to the task and b) meet with the approval of the readers.

Enter Garth Ennis. Not comic book industry superstar Garth Ennis with acclaimed books like Preacher, Hellblazer, Hitman, The Boys, War Stories, Punisher, Crossed, and Battlefields to his name, among others. This Garth Ennis was young, inexperienced and pretty much the last name anyone would have expected to be appointed, had they even considered him at all. But appointed he was and it was up to him to prove the doubters wrong and make the biggest character in British comics his own. Would he succeed? We'll see.

I am a huge fan of Garth Ennis. I have read and enjoyed a lot of comics by the man and consider him to be in my top 5 comic writers (as is John Wagner) so it is very difficult for me to be totally objective here. Every man has an off day though, and Ennis himself has admitted that his Dredd writing is not exactly his best work. Be fair though, he was young, and this was by far the highest profile gig he'd had to date. Seems only natural that he might take a while to find his feet. With that in mind, there is a lot to like about the first couple of Ennis stories and I can see a lot of potential here for his future on the title.

Only one Ennis story falls flat here and, perhaps tellingly, it's the only one not to riff on a pre-existing piece of continuity. It's called Emerald Isle and sees Dredd visiting Ireland, which has been forced to accept corporate money to aid in it's rebuilding after the Atomic Wars, and as a result has been turned into one big theme park based on Irish cliches. Write what you know they say, so for his first proper contribution to the Dredd mythos it's perhaps understandable that Ennis falls back on his Irish heritage but all in all the whole thing just seems a little bit too silly. Dredd as a strip has a long and distinguished history of incorporating comedy, ranging from slapstick to subtle satire, so it's not the inclusion of jokes that doesn't work, merely that the jokes aren't all that funny. It is, if nothing else, an interesting artifact, in that marks a very early collaboration between the Preacher dream team of Ennis and artist Steve Dillon.

The book also contains the first few Dredd stories written for the Megazine. Sadly, they do not seem to be particularly good. It's possible that I'm allowing my opinion to be clouded by the rather murky art on one story (The Gippers Big Night) and the (in my opinion) messy and unpleasant style of art on another (Black Widow) but hey, a great script can overcome poor art and these scripts didn't.

I hate to end on a downer when talking about a series which I really do love so I'll reiterate here that with the exception of Emerald Isle and the early Megazine mis-fires this book is chock full of arsomness. John Wagner on form is guaranteed class and even sub-par Ennis is better than a lot of stuff out there.

Droid Files

This was going to be about Cross Bones (Kathy Reichs) or Judge Dredd Case Files vol 15 (John Wagner, Garth Ennis and various artists) but sadly, childcare commitments prevented me from finishing either of them in time. So instead I'm going to talk about the Rebellion collection I read immediately prior to starting JD15. Namely this little beauty. Robo-Hunter : Droid Files Volume 2.



John Wagner and Alan Grant between them wrote all of the original run of Robo-Hunter and if you are in any way familiar with the world of comics you will know that those two names together is as close to a guarantee of quality as you're likely to get. So two great writers with an excellent pedigree, a superb artist in Ian Gibson (also responsible for drawing the sublime Ballad Of Halo Jones amongst many others) and one of the best characters of 2000AD's early years, all of which had led me to absolutely adore the first volume. Imagine my disappointment then when I found myself struggling to fully engage with this one.

The problem is that the first two stories are very gimmicky runs that really don't stand the test of time all that well. The first was based around a football (soccer to our American chums) tournament in which all the players and pundits were robots and someone was sabotaging them. I don't follow the sport and I'd have struggled to get all the jokes if it was published now so I was completely flummoxed by the lampooning of personalities from decades ago.

Then we move into a story about men banding together (The Human League, which I'll concede is genius) to commit hate crimes against robots and Sam having to put a stop to it. Now, in theory this should have been a good story but unfortunately it's set against a backdrop of a new law being enacted that requires everyone to sing all the time. Seriously, pretty much every line of dialogue is presented in song form. Now, as annoying as that is (imagine having to sing every conversation in your head as you read it) it's multiplied 10x by the fact that if you don't actually know the tunes you are meant to sing to the lines become meaningless. I mean, you can still understand what they are getting at but the lines just don't flow properly. Words and phrases are distorted/shortened/elongated to match the music and it doesn't read right at all as straight dialogue.

Not to worry though, all is forgiven with the 3rd story, as gimmicks are put aside and we get back to good solid comics storytelling. First up is 'The Slaying of Slade' in which some old enemies return to, well, slay Slade. This leads into 'Sam Slades Last Case', and from there we get 'Farewell My Billions', which is introduced with the somewhat classic line "Sam Slade, Robohunter, in his first case since his last case". These 3 long stories combined comprise an epic arc that sees Sam rise higher than he ever has before bringing him back down to Earth and depositing him right where he started at the very beginning of Volume One. They also mark the end of the original run and of John Wagner and Alan Grants writing tenure on the character. (Grant would return to the series many years later with a run of stories considered by most to be okay but far from classic, focusing on Sams Granddaughter, with the man himself playing a much reduced role)

The book also contains a one off story by John Smith and Chris Weston and the final stories in the 90's revival, written by Peter Hogan and drawn by Rian Hughes. These stories are excellent, managing to combine the strengths of the new guys with everything that was great about Wagner/Grant. The only slight niggle here is that Chris Weston and Rian Hughes are both absolutely incredible artists whose work sadly doesn't shine *quite* as much as it should after the greyscaling process. Some colour artwork translates better than others and some of the stuff here suffers. That's only a minor niggle though, and I'd much rather this than the stories not be included at all as they can sometimes be overlooked. Here is an example of Hughes Robo-Hunter in the intended colour, the cover to 2000AD issue 910:



Not included are the stories that started the 90's revival. These stories were written by Mark Millar and are somewhat, well, loathed, by fans of the character. Millar is not the most popular of writers to have worked on 2000AD with many fans and his Robo-Hunter run is a big part of this (along with his run on Judge Dredd, considered one of the worst ever). I can't comment, because I've never read his stuff, coming as it did before I started reading the anthology. To be honest, I kind of wish it had been included, so I could make my own mind up about it. There is a tendency to dismiss a lot of 2000AD's output from the 90's as unrepresentative and unworthy of reprinting and I'm starting to despair of ever getting the chance to read it. Maybe the push into the US will prompt a reprint of Millars stories to cash in on his name value there. Time will tell I suppose.

So that's my first attempt to write up a book I've read. I hope it wasn't too bad. I'm dithering over whether I should include a rating system on here? Am I going to 'review' stuff or just waffle about it? Which does the above read like? I'll see how the next couple turn out.