Judge Dredd: Day of Chaos: Endgame

The latest Judge Dredd graphic novel, Day of Chaos: Endgame by John Wagner, Leigh Gallagher, Henry Flint, Ben Willsher, Colin MacNeil and Edmund Bagwell is available from 2000AD for £17.99.

The Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore - reviewed

The Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore. Illustrated by Ian Gibson. Rebellion £13.99

Reviewed by Mike Chinn

Halo Jones made her first appearance in 2000AD’s “Prog 376” way back in 1984 and continued over a two year period in three “books”. Her final adventures ended in 1986 after writer Alan Moore and Fleetway – the comic’s publishers – had a major disagreement over ownership rights. As things stand, those adventures won’t be continuing anytime soon (originally nine books had been planned). So we’ll have to enjoy what there is of the girl’s adventures.

Our first sight of Halo is as an eighteen year old, living in the Hoop – an enclosed, floating torus off the coast of Manhattan where America’s long-term unemployed are dumped. She’s sharing an apartment with Rodice (something of a stereotypical teenaged girl), Brinna, and a robot dog (a Ripper, model Iliac Six Hundred) named Toby. There’s also Ludy, a talented musician with the band Ice Ten: nervous and lacking in self-belief. The action takes place over a single day. Rodice finds out that they’ve run out of food – which means they’re going to have to risk a shopping expedition. Ludy has to practise so Halo goes out with Rodice – along with a reluctant Toby – armed with sputstiks and zenades as defence against other Hoop inhabitants. It’s a disaster from the start, with circumstances conspiring to ruin Rodice’s carefully-planned timetable. Rodice also manages to blow herself up with a zenade (which at least gives Halo the chance to make up time by taking a short cut outside; although the blissfully tripping Rodice comes round before they get back inside), and squirt a nausea-inducing sputstik into her own face. When they finally get back to their apartment, Brinna is dead – cut to shreds in what looks like a robbery gone wrong. Whilst Halo is struggling to absorb that, Ludy comes in: she’s become a member of a youth cult – the Different Drummers – whose implanted brains have a constant rhythm pounding out real life. Something snaps in Halo and she decides to sign on the E.S.S. Clara Pansy. She and Rodice agree to meet on Charlemagne: last one to arrive buys the drinks.

Book two documents Halo’s life as a hostess on board the Clara Pandy. There’s a framing device revealing that Halo is the study (and obsession) of an academician of the far future, which also cleverly serves as a re-introduction to the character after half a year’s absence from the comic. Now she shares a cabin with Toy – another hostess, who’s seven-foot tall and afraid of nothing – and a character so self-effacing and lacking in self-esteem that she almost literally fades into the background. Halo is besotted with the ship’s cyberneticist (it’s unreciprocated, of course), still has Toby (though that turns out to be a very mixed blessing) and has long conversations with the ship’s steersman: a dolphin named Kititirik Tikrikitit (Kit for short) – she learned to speak cetacean back in the Hoop when she was a member of the Ritit Rikti fan club. She also helps a Rat King that is on board – helping to find a replacement rat when one of the five tail-knotted rodents falls terminally ill and the creature’s linked mind starts to come apart. That simple act of kindness has implications that will echo down the years to come. And on the last night before they reach Charlemagne, at a Chop Party (named for mega-rich Lux Roth Chop who owns the Clary Pandy), even though Halo is spurned by the cyberneticist for a media celebrity, she shares a dance with a an unassuming guy she bumped into earlier: none other than Lux Roth Chop himself (though she discovers that a little belatedly). Quitting the ship, Halo finally contacts Rodice from a run-down bar – only to find her old friend is still back in the Hoop, with no real intention of leaving it.

The third and final book finds Halo marooned on Pwuc: not only down on her luck but about as far down as she can get. Even the Hoop compares favourably. When a military recruitment ship touches down, and Halo finds that her old cabin-mate Toy is already signed on, she – maybe not so eagerly – joins up. After all, they were just a peacekeeping force; there practically no chance she’d get sent to the Tarantula warzone. But part of the peacekeeping mission is on a backward planet called Lobis Loyo, fighting a guerrilla war against terrorists. Somehow she survives – though the experiences leave her emotionally scarred and embittered. From there she’s shipped to Moab: a vast planet within the warzone that has a gravitational pull so powerful it not only leaves anyone unprotected as a puddle, it actually slows time. Halo and her squad plod out onto the surface, exchange shots with the enemy, and return to their gravity-shielded base to finds days have elapsed inside. In a final irony, whilst they are out on one sortie, the Earth’s economy collapses and the cetaceans negotiate a cease-fire – weeks before Halo returns. Peace settles, and Halo even finds a love in the huge shape of General Luiz Cannibal – but then she finds out exactly what role the King Rat she saved back on the Clary Pandy has had in the war against Tarantula. Disillusioned again, she takes a spacecraft and once more, goes out.

Even though it’s some thirty years old, The Ballad of Halo Jones is refreshingly undated – possibly timeless. Alan Moore crams in satire, sly references, puns (is the name Clary Pandy a play on Para Handy: the “hero” of Neil Munro’s Vital Spark short stories for instance?), and crazy slang (“come on” becomes “come off” – the fictional origins of which we can speculate on some other time…). It’s likely he had Vietnam in mind when scripting the guerrilla fighting on Lobis Loyo, but it’s no less relevant today: a despised occupying force fighting against locals they loathe with equal vigour. Many of the “terrorists” turn out to be children (sound familiar?). The section on Moab – with its time-distortion – reminded me strongly of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. And although the Hoop is a dystopia of a type quite popular within 2000AD’s pages, the mind-set of its rejected inhabitants still resonates.

Ian Gibson’s artwork clearly improves over the three books – becoming more subtle; his line work finer – but there is still a great vitality: busy without being overcrowded. His females are shapely without being sexual caricatures. And he can even portray a dolphin’s amusement at its own joke. I don’t know if Moore chose his illustrator or if Fleetway simply assigned Gibson, but it’s a pairing that works effortlessly.

In addition to the reprinted strips, the book comes with a Foreword by writer and journalist Lauren Beukes, a gallery of Halo Jones covers (with pin-up of Halo, Rodice and Brinna), and an example of an original Alan Moore script – so everyone can appreciate just how detailed they are. It’s a pity Moore never had the chance to finish the saga – apparently there were plans to take her into old age – but as the man once said: never say never.

Hellblazer: Death and Cigarettes – graphic novel review

Death and Cigarettes is the final volume in Vertigo’s Hellblazer series. What a shame. I gather that John Constantine – the dubious hero of these stories – will return but in a more family-friendly incarnation. So I imagine out goes his smoking and drinking and womanising... Not that Constantine womanise much, now that he’s married – that happened a graphic novel or two ago.

Anyway, Death and Cigarettes contains four stories – “Suicide Bridge”, “The House of Wolves”, “The Curse of the Constantines” and “Death and Cigarettes” – collected from the Hellblazer annual 1 and issues 292-300. All are penned by Peter Milligan with artwork coming from Simon Bisley, Guiseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini. All the pictures perfectly complement the stories – dark and grim and, when needed, suitably graphic.

 As is usual, Constantine often finds himself enmeshed in a sequence of supernatural events, usually drawn into them by others asking favours or calling in debts. Constantine embarks on the quest to find so-and-so in order to keep a promise – not that he’s adverse to breaking promises when it suits him. In “Suicide Bridge” he searches for a boy-hood friend who went missing decades ago, and in the process other lost souls are discovered.

“The House of Wolves” fills in some of the Constantine-Epiphany back-story, and is bleakly humorous.  In “The Curse of the Constantines” our hero seeks the long-lost son of his dead sister (although she’s in Hell she asked him to do just that). It seems that Contantine’s nephew is in Ireland and may be a serial killer...

And finally we come to “Death and Cigarettes”. Here, Constantine knows that within a week he will be dead. All the signs and portents can’t possibly be wrong. Do the Fates get their way and does he die? Does the Devil (or one of the devils) claim Constantine’s soul, as they have tried to do so over the years? Or is there another outcome? I’m not saying...

As I mentioned, this sees the last of the present John Constantine incarnation. It’s been a good run. Can it possibly be equalled? Let’s hope so.

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

The Ballad of Halo Jones

A new edition of The Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson is now out from 2000AD (£13.99). Lauren Beukes provides an introduction, in which she says that Halo Jones was a major influence on her (Beukes’) childhood.

“When Halo Jones grows bored with her life in The Hoop — a futuristic world where jobs are scarce and excitement is non-existent — she sets out to see the galaxy any way she can. But can she survive the highs and lows that lie in her path, including an extended period of ship-board servitude and a tour of duty in a terrifying war that defies the physics of space and time?”

Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story. Graphic novel review

Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story. Adapted by Ashley Marie Witter (Headline £13.99).

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Ashley Marie Witter has done a fabulous job in adapting Anne Rice’s seminal novel, which was published in the 1970s – that’s when I first read it. Actually, I’ve only read it the once after finding the sequel less gripping and I am yet to see the movie version – something about that deters me. Anyway, when I started this graphic novel adaptation I quickly found myself engrossed and read the book in one sitting.

Unlike the novel, the young reporter to whom Louis tells his story doesn’t appear, and the graphic novel does not suffer for this omission. Witter dives straight in to the story, when Lestat converts the girl – Claudia – into one of the undead. Witter’s version is told from Claudia perspective. Louis becomes emotionally attached to the girl – forever doomed to remain a child even though her imagination, her knowledge, becomes that of an adult woman. It’s a sort of curse – as she expresses so succinctly when in Paris.

As I read this version my memories of the novel percolated my mind: the adaption seems, to me, to be quite faithful to the Rice original. My initial reservation about starting this novel vanished after a few pages.

The artwork is stunning. Witter used a monochrome style but using a sepia-toned pen with occasional touches of colour – red of course. The layouts speed on the reader, perhaps too quickly: there are very few natural pauses if you have to break off reading for any reason. The only thing that would’ve improved the book is a larger format. The artwork deserved a bigger canvas. But for the price this hardback graphic novel is excellent value. It will make a grand Christmas gift.

Based on this book I hope that Witter becomes a mainstay of the graphic novel and I look forward to seeing more of her work.

Crossed volume 4. Graphic novel review

Crossed (volume four) by Garth Ennis, Jamie Delano, Jacen Burrows and Leandro Rizzo (Avatar $24.99/ Titan Books £18.99)

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Volume four of Crossed collects two stories, “Badlands” and “Homo Superior” – and this is the first time I’ve come across the comic. First off I have to own up: I don’t much like zombies and their stories. To me, they are one-trick ponies. And Crossed is about zombies – or zombie-like beings: out to kill anyone not converted and, more often than not, eat them.

“Badlands” is written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Jacen Burrows. It’s set in the wilds of Scotland and follows a small troop of survivors – one of whom may or may not be a member of the Royal family – as they flee from the Crossed, looking for sanctuary. Do they make it? I’m not telling. Despite my reservations about zombies, I have to say that this tale worked quite well, and I liked the way that Ennis recognised that in order to survive the humans have to make some harsh decisions. Ennis also includes a nice little scene of black humour when the group argue amongst themselves – to go this way or that way and getting no where. The artwork is fine if appearing a little static at times. The artist enjoys depicting gore – as does Rizzo in the next story.

“Homo Superior”, by Jamie Delano (story) and Leandro Rizzo (art) is the longer story of the two. Here, the events are back in the USA where we follow the adventures of a couple of cyclists in one thread, and a family of survivalists in the second. Needless to say, their paths cross with the inevitable intrusion of the zombies and its bloody consequences. And again, do the humans survive? An added problem is that one of them is pregnant and needs to find somewhere safe to give birth to the next level of Homo sapiens. Like Burrows, Rizzo’s art is more than adequate for the tale; and in “Homo Superior” we also get much nudity and sex.

Hellblazer: The Devil's Trench Coat

One of my favourite comic books, Hellblazer,  sees a new graphic novel out now from Vertigo ($16.99). The Devil's Trench Coat collects issues 283 to 291 of the monthly comic. The two stories, "The Devil's Trench Coat" and "Another Season in Hell" are written by Peter Milligan, with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Landini. In the first story, Constantine's old, foul-smelling trench coat assumes a life of its own, with bloody consequences (aren't most of Constantine's action coloured with blood?). And in the second tale the anti-hero revisits hell, to rescue a lost soul. And once more he pits wits against the various demons he encounters.

The Dalek Project by Justin Richards & Mike Collins

Doctor Who – The Dalek Project is a graphic novel by Justin Richards and Mike Collins, published by BBC Books (£14.99).  In this story, the Doctor is portrayed by Matt Smith.

“It’s 1917. It’s the height of the Great War and Hellcombe Hall is a house full of mystery: locked doors, forbidden rooms, dustsheets covering guilty secrets, and ghostly noises frightening the servants. Most mysterious of all, the drawing room seems to open directly onto a muddy, corpse-filled trench on the Western Front…

Arriving at this stately home, the Doctor meets Lord Hellcombe, an armaments manufacturer who has a new secret weapon he believes will win the war: he calls it ‘the Dalek’. Soon, the Doctor and his new friends are in a race against time to prevent the entire Western Front from becoming part of the Dalek Project!”

The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha by Wagner & Ezquerra

Strontium Dog. The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha: The Project, written by John Wagner with art by Carlos Ezquerra, includes two main stories, The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha and The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha: The Project, and a short strip What If? Max Bubba Hadn’t Killed Wulf (2000AD/Rebellion £14.99).

“Johnny Alpha – the mutant bounty hunter with the X-ray eyes – has been given his toughest job to date. The mutant underground has kidnapped King Clarkie The Second, and the British government want Alpha to secure his release. Finding himself working for the norms, Johnny must venture deep into the mutant ghetto and deep into his own past. As Johnny unravels a plot to start a new war with the mutants he must ask himself the toughest question. In order to save his own kind can Johnny Alpha betray them?”

Savage: The Guv'nor by Mills & Goddard

“In 1999, Britain was successfully invaded by the Volgans. When London lorry driver Bill Savage learnt that his family had been killed during the initial invasion, he became a one-man war machine – a persistent thorn in the side of the occupying army.

Having adopted the identity of his dead brother, Savage now operates out of a bombed-out London, leading the resistance against his hated enemy. Meanwhile, business brain Howard Quartz – the CEO of Ro-Busters - has launched an attack on the Volgan forces with his Mark-One War Droids, but the Volgans have some technological tricks of their own, including a functional teleportation device and a powerful beast with a taste for human flesh!”

Savage: The Guv’nor, volume two in the series, written by 2000AD’s Pat Mills with art by Patrick Goddard, is published by 2000AD/Rebellion at £14.99.

The Green Woman: graphic novel review

The Green Woman by Peter Straub, Michael Easton and John Bolton. Vertigo $17.99

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

This graphic novel continues the tale of Straub’s serial killer Fielding “Fee” Bandolier from his Blue Rose trilogy. On Fee’s trail is the NY cop Bob Steele, desperate to get his man, and to make his mark as a policeman. I haven’t read the Blue Rose books so all the characters are new to me. But that isn’t a problem: they are well delineated and their motives clear. It seems that Fee is looking to hang up his knife, maybe retire somewhere nice, but something is stopping him. Besides, not only is Bob Steele on his heels, but other killers follow his lead. This all sounds grand but, sadly, I found the story slight. Not bad, but not especially riveting, and I think I’d rather read this as a novella.

What makes this book special, though, is John Bolton’s exquisite paintings. They are in a class of their own. Bolton is, quite simply, one of the best comic-book embellishers around. How does he find the time to paint 140 pages of art? By magic, I imagine. Some of the panels capture the story’s characters perfectly: the picture of the killer on page 25, for example.

In summary, The Green Woman is a good read but it’s a much better artbook.

Hellblazer: India by Peter Milligan

Hellblazer: India by Peter Milligan and others. Vertigo $14.99
Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

"Why does the newborn baby cry?" asks the priest of his flock. "It cries because it has been separated from God," he continues. Then John Constantine enters the room and the priest? He says "Oh fuck, no!" And that is why I so like the Hellblazer comics/graphic novels. Peter Milligan’s writing creates a sense of verisimilitude, of the sleazy magical world in which Constantine lives. The subtle artwork by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini only helps to further effect that sense of unease.

Constantine is in India, looking for purity -- he is trying to bring back to life his dead lover. He hopes Charles -- the aforementioned priest -- will help. However, Charles is imbued in something dark and evil: a demon stalks the streets of Mumbai preying on beautiful young women. But did Constantine travel to India voluntarily or was he summoned to destroy that demon? Tied in with this arc there are several strands that deal with love, lost and forfeited, and with duty and responsibility.

The second story in the book is "No Future", which links Constantine with his punk days, when he fronted the band Mucous Membrane. Here, a bunch of dead Conservatives/demons are making plans to usurp the British Government. Naturally, Constantine becomes embroiled in the sorry events, dealing with punks and thugs with his usual armory: sarcasm and sleight of hand. This story was also written by Milligan and embellished with Simon Bisley's dark images.

As ever, Hellblazer is an excellent graphic novel that's aimed for readers who want complex illustrated stories of black magic and cynicism. Recommended.

Madame Xanadu -- Review

I have said so before: “getting into” many of the better (ie, more intelligent) comic books is very difficult; you really have to start at the first issue. Even subsidiary arcs within a greater saga can be hard to break into. Take Madame Xanadu (Vertigo $12.99) for instance. Quite a few months ago I bought a couple of issues of the monthly comic. I liked what I saw, but could make little sense of it. So I waited for the graphic novel version instead. This I have now read and I must say: Wow!

Madame Xanadu is a tour de force of magic and history – from the time of Merlin, when Nimue is cursed by the old codger until mid-20th Century USA. Nimue is a nymph, a creature of good, in contrast to her sister of Morgana, mother of Arthur’s son. We know the story of Camelot – and it isn’t important if you don’t because there are so many interpretations. Arthur’s kingdom is destroyed. Merlin releases a demon into the world. And Nimue, as said, is cursed.

Time moves on and Nimue, now Madame Xanadu, is in Xanadu, the court of the Kublai Khan. There’s palace intrigue and Marco Polo. And Madame Xanadu flees for her life. And again, time passes and at the court of Marie Antoinette and King Louis she is once more at the centre of events. In Victorian London she is powerless to stop Jack the Ripper. And so on to 1940s USA, the time just before the age of superheros…

All her long life Madame Xanadu struggles to do what is right. Yet she is also fixated on a figure that appears at important junctures in her history: the mysterious Phantom Stranger. She thinks him callous and uncaring. In the end she entraps him, to force him to act for good. But Xanadu blunders in ignorance.

Interspersed in the book are references to other DC characters: the Green Lantern; the Spectre; Zatara… Maybe others. But it doesn’t matter if you know nothing of these.

Madame Xanadu is a DC character who’s been around for a long time. She was/is a mystic, someone with magical abilities. I don’t know anything of her earlier incarnation and adventures. And it just doesn’t matter. This is because Matt Wagner (writer) and Amy Reeder Hadley and Richard Friend (artists) have created a story that is self contained, that works within its own context. The writing is intelligent and passionate. Wagner makes you believe in Madame Xanadu. Couple with the beautiful artwork, which has an air of innocence about it, it is so easy to feel sympathy and empathy for our heroine. The stories are engrossing and at times edgy – especially the Ripper chapters. This collection is highly recommended, and I’m sure will appeal to fans of Fables, Books of Magic, Lucifer…

© Peter Coleborn, July 2009

Jack of Fables. Volume 5: Turning Pages

It used to be that you could pick up any American monthly comic and read the whole story in 20 or so four-colour pages. But story telling grew up and story arcs developed that required several issues. Nowadays, this is clearly evident with the ‘mature reader’ themed comics published by the likes of DC’s Vertigo. And in theory this is where graphic novels -- compilations of the monthly comics -- come into their own, when you could buy and read a story arc in one go.

However, in some cases, even the graphic novel format proves to be less than satisfactory. Take Jack of Fables, for instance. Volume 5 has just appeared, which collects six of the monthly format (issues 22 to 27). Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges wrote the story; Russ Braun and Tony Akins provided the pencil work.

The first three ‘chapters’ in this compilation can be read in isolation. They have little to do with the ongoing Revise saga. These chapters detail a period in Jack’s history, when he ran a gang of outlaws in the Wild West of the 1880s. His murderous spree is only brought to a halt by the intervention of a sheriff from back East, one Bigby Wolf. There is practically no explanation of Bigby’s and Jack’s previous relationship; you really do need to read volumes 1 to 4 of Jack of Fables, plus the parent series Fables, to understand just what is going on, and what this particular story means in the big scheme.

When we get to the final three chapters, ‘Turning Pages’ (which is a delicious pun, by the way), ignorance of the Fable characters (beings derived from the realms of myth and legend), why they exist in the real world, who is Jack, etc, etc, is likely to detract seriously from your enjoyment. (A hint regarding Jack: think trickster gods!)

Several volumes ago, Jack was imprisoned by Mr Revise, a person seeking to eliminate all magical beings. Jack escaped; and Jack being Jack he seduced (or attempted to) Revise’s right hand assistants, the Page sisters. In volume 5 Jack's attempts at seduction continue and hence the title of this section. And as ever, Jack is scheming away with get-rich-quick plans. ‘Turning Pages’ is an amusing tale – I very much enjoyed it. But on its own, I suspect it is all but meaningless. If you want to read Jack of Fables – and I earnestly recommend that you do – buy volume 1 and start there. I also suggest that you read the Fables graphic novels.

As for Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges: their story telling over all these volumes is finely honed, mixing fairy tale and mythological characters in with us ordinary humans, in the same way that some people mix their metaphors -- seamlessly. The artwork has a charming simplicity to it which is, I think, absolutely appropriate for this tale of dark deeds and comical capers.

(c) Peter Coleborn

House of Mystery: A Review

House of Mystery #1: Room & Boredom by Matthew Sturges and Luca Rossie. Vertigo $9.99

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

This graphic novel brings together issues 1 to 5 of Vertigo’s amazing fantasy series. There are two houses: the House of Secrets and the House of Mystery – and readers of Gaiman’s Sandman saga (and other astute folk) – will know where this is heading. The Sturges/Rossi collection focuses on the second house, but of course.

A mystery is always more exciting, and perhaps a lot more dangerous, than a mere secret. And mysteries are part of all good stories. Stories may have messages, for sure. They also provide an escape. The House of Mystery isn’t so obliging, especially for the five main protagonists of this series.

Fig is a young woman who dreamt of being an architect and dreams of a house, thinking it’s just part of her imagination. She runs from a spooky couple (their drawing reminding me of Buffy’s gentlemen). She enters a building, through a door, and into the House of Mystery, specifically into the bar part of it. There she encounters Harry the barkeep, Ann the pirate, Cress the waitress (and drama queen according to the blurb), and the Poet – all long-term residents. The house will not allow them to leave, and Fig soon finds herself in the same predicament.

But the bar is also full of itinerants, folk who pass through the watering hole – and payment for their drinks and food (there is always plenty of that, the house ensures) is through their stories. So in this volume, besides the overall arc by Sturges and Rossi, we have mini-tales by Bill Willingham, Jill Thompson and others. They work remarkably well. After all, story telling inside an inn isn’t that unusual.

The story boils down to this: Fig arrives and attempts to escape, and fails (it’s OK, I’m not really giving way the dénouement). The important aspect is the developing relationships between these five people and Fig’s coming to appreciate her situation. You’ll need to read volume two of House of Mystery, whenever that becomes available, in order to follow the tale further. I have, in fact, been reading this series the monthly magazine format and I must confess that the story – with its subtle sub-plots – works better as a bound volume rather than waiting a month between reading each chapter; this is no simple superhero comic.

Rossi’s artwork is tremendous. It is nice and angular and tastefully coloured. The characterisation is expertly captured and the faces are quite distinctive; and the three ladies do look rather sensual in some panels. It’s this kind of graphic novel that answers the common ascertain that comics are simply for young children. House of Mystery is definitely aimed at the mature-of-mind reader. Recommended.