In Praise of the Grobusverse - The Cure for the Common Lore-brain.

 

Contains minor spoilers

If there's one thing that the internet has cursed us with it's what I like to refer to as 'Wiki-brain,' though to be more accurate 'Lore-brain,' is probably the more descriptive term. It's the tendency for fan communities to reduce the fictional stories they love down to statistics and backstory. The desire to quantity and record for posterity every piece of information a text provides, no matter how trivial it is.

I think it was Hbomberguy who said something along the lines of "Wookiepedia can tell you Chewbacca's exact height and weight but it can't tell you a thing about the themes of the story he comes from." As such I kind of feel there's been a bit of a backlash of late against excessive world-building and creators constantly trying to over-explain every minor aspect of their fictional universes.

There's probably a whole other essay I could write about how thematic constancy is more important than narrative consistency, but I don't think we need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There's room enough for stories that play fast and loose with their own continuity in order for the story to come first, but I think that there's just a compelling argument to make that the cure for 'Lore-brain," can also be in telling stories where a drip feed of backstory can be so much more compelling than world guides and appendices, or, god forbid, fan wikis and TV Tropes.

This long winded into bring me to Simon Roy's Grobusverse, for want of a better name. A collection of comics set in a fictional, fractured future. I've discussed entries within this universe before, but this essay is going to be less a review of the stories specifically and more about how Roy chooses to communicate this universe to his audience.

Starting with Habitat in 2017, I was immediately drawn towards the visual aesthetic that Roy conjured to depict this techno-barbaric future. Set on board a space habitat in the style of Arthur C Clarke's Rama, the comic tells the story of warring tribes battling for supremacy using mostly long forgotten technology after having been left behind by whatever galactic community exists beyond the habitat's sealed airlocks. The technology itself looks crunchy and believable. The olive green and industrial orange of it's mech-suits, cargo walkers and harpoon guns all look like they have come from some alternate cold-war Europe, bastard children of Aliens' power loader and Red Alert 2's Soviet Super tech, rather than some far future space utopia.

It's all the more surprising then to find that the habitat also once played host to some kind of dormant god-like creature who seems biological in nature but is otherwise intricately connected to the populace's lost technology.

Habitat is for the most part a completely self contained story. By the end characters have completed both their narrative arcs and completed their stated objectives to bring new life to the habitat's savage world. Yet as a reader so many breadcrumbs are left hanging in the air. Just what is the state of the galaxy beyond the habitat? What cataclysm led to their abandonment? What is the true nature of the colossal creature dormant within the superstructure's depths? Why exactly are the combat robots also representatives of the Catholic church?

Habitat is filled with so many tantalising backstory details that go unexplained, but get into the reader's head in such a way that they can't help but speculate. Had the series have seen a continuation these backstory elements may well have been filled out in a understandable, orderly fashion, but Simon Roy's retro-techno-future world would sit dormant for a few years before seeing it's revival in webcomic form. Though the direction it decided to go in was to zig almost certainly where one would expect it to zag.

Griz Grobus, far from taking place on a high-tech space habitat, would instead pull us down to Altamera, a colony world that appears to be just as cut off from the greater universe as their space dwelling cousins were. Instead of a jungle climate filled with warring tribes, we find snowy mountaintops and forest glades, and a frontier-like community of loggers, miners and trappers. The technology is still present, but like in Habitat, poorly understood, with archaeologists and academics doing their best to try and piece together what little even operates.

Griz Grobus delves more into the mysterious robotic priesthood, who still seem to keep the faith with Lord Jesus Christ despite having little concern for their religion's near extinction amongst the populace. Fittingly, this story is told side by side with a folkloric fable of rampaging warlords and magical geese. A reminder that even on the other side of the galaxy strong stories can hold great power.

Like Habitat, Griz Grobus only drip-feeds it's backstory, hinting at possible explanations for the state of the universe here and there. Interestingly, the Kickstarter edition came with a small guidebook to the "Thinking Machines of the Apostolic Congress." Presented as an in-universe artefact, this guide book details the different forms of robo-priest and their intended purposes, but notably gives NO information as to why these machines appear to be specifically Christian in origin.

I hope it's clear by now what it is in Roy's approach I find so appealing here. No doubt he could easily fill the book's back matter with timelines and backstory and faction guides and whatnot, but a huge part of the enjoyment comes from the journey, not the destination. Like the characters within the stories themselves, we often lack context surrounding their discoveries, and like the archaeologists and artefact hunters, we have to analyse and interpret from incomplete data.

As the Grobusverse would continue, so too would we continue to interpret. A short comic, The Envoy and the Warrior, sheds more light on the colossal superbeings we witnessed at the end of Habitat, and only hints at what great cataclysm may have brought down humanity's spacefaring civilisation. Miramar would take us to yet another isolated planet, this time an ocean world to show how the human remnants would adapt differently with their limited technological knowledge when subjected to new environments.

Refugium would return us to Alamira, but this time looking at ecology rather than technology. Refugium would, ironically, contain probably the most significant amount of lore so far but it would be almost entirely be regarding the original flora and fauna of the planet long before it was overwritten by human terraforming. Once again, we are left to infer backstory from information that is most relevant to the characters within the moment.

Critically, this attitude constantly reminds the readers that the people of these worlds come first, not the setting they inhabit. Their human experiences, hopes, fears, losses and gains, are what have and will drive the arc of history we only at times get small glimpses of. I have no doubt Roy could probably explain in fine details the mechanics of how the mech-suits work, but it's just so much more compelling to discover that from a struggling mechanic desperately trying to keep the thing working.

More than anything I think Roy's world reminds us that despite periods that we refer to as "dark ages" human beings are not inherently stupid. People didn't magically forget how everything worked after the Roman Empire fell. Instead language and literature was stratified. Knowledge could not easily be replicated and passed along. Some sciences were maintained unchanged, while others passed into folklore and superstition, while others still were lost.

That so much of what is going on in the Grobusverse is obscured, hinted at, there to be scrutinised by inquisitive readers, is a great example of how we can address that pesky 'lore-brain' without reducing world-building to a big list of stuff that happened. It's a very specific way of trusting the audience and respecting the integrity of the work. It creates not just a fun story but a mystery to be solved with you as the investigator.

Roy has been very clear that there is much more to come, with a guide to "Man-Amplifiers of the Euhumanist League," no doubt giving us only just enough information to lead to more speculation. It's been a wild ride so far, and I'm hoping it's just getting started. I have no idea what little titbit will trickle out of the plot next, but I can't wait to dust the edges and study it's form in the hopes I can glean it's context.

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Jack Harvey (2024)

Announcing Scoundrels, Scumbags and Schemers

 

It's finally here. The print anthology collecting all the comics I've collaborated on over the last couple of years, along with bonus concept art and behind the scenes stuff, is something you can now hold in your hands.

The whole package has been completed with some outstanding cover art from Flops, and it's so cool to see this motley crew of characters all huddle up into the same cover. As you can see, there's definitely a call back to the days of classic 2000ad and old dime store novels in it's production, and I'm really pleased how it's come out.

The comic contains One Hell of A Night, Precious Resources, Bigger Guns, A Perfect World and Damned Another Day. All tails of horror and suspense with ironic twists at the end. A big thanks to all the artists I worked with on this comic, and with it arriving just in time for Harrogate Thought Bubble, I'm hoping I'll be bringing them to a whole new audience.

Announcing Sea of Spheres - Glory, Gunpowder and Gold

 

You all knew it was coming when I announced my previous Sea of Spheres book, but it's finally official. The second collection of short stories from my skypunk Sea of Spheres setting, rendered unmistakably through amazing illustrations from Windlass, is out now.

The book contains the three stories The Right to Know, The Silent Approach and Choose Your Weapons wisely. As with the previous book, it'll be a convention exclusive for now, but online availability, as well as getting it in the hands of some retailers is something I'll be exploring further down the line.

I will be at Harrogate Thought Bubble THIS WEEKEND, and if you buy both volumes you get them at a discounted price. See you there!

Elegy for a Dying Industry

By the time I'd hit my third year of university I was certain I wanted to be a comic book writer.

It's hard to put into words just how vibrant that land of opportunity looked back then, in 2007. Marvel and DC had bounced back from their near death in the 1990s, with DC's spin off Vertigo leading the way with a tidal wave of adult focussed titles, while Image comics was quickly rising to become an ascendant third party in the previous binary landscape.

Walk into any comic book shop at that time and you'd see shelves filled with literary mainstays. Preacher and Sandman were always in stock. Recent series like Fables and Y: The Last Man would be seeing new volumes every six months. Older titles and obscure series that hadn't been seen in years were getting new print runs. Image itself was willing to take a punt at putting out any number of odd and offbeat titles. Girls. Savage Dragon. Army @ Love. Works like Jack Staff and Strangehaven that had struggled in obscurity for years were finally finding an audience.

Outside the printed page, others were thriving too. Webcomics had become big business, growing fandoms such that they could rival their printed competitors, and it wouldn't be long until Penny Arcade and Gunnerkrigg Court would find themselves sharing shelf space with Superman and Dick Tracy. On the big screen, Sin City had captivated audiences and brought the comic that inspired it a whole new readership, while a big screen adaption of Watchmen was purported to be right around the corner.

The way I saw it, I'd spend my twenties working the small press, making connections before breaking in some time in my thirties, giving me the rest of my life to put together my magnum opus.

What actually happened was I spent a decade dealing with depression, unemployment, a pandemic and an environment of constantly unstable social media sites that scuppered my ability to build a following. Even with that aside though, I discovered that I had severely underestimated how much work it would actually take to get my foot in the door. Now, on the eve of my first time exhibiting at the prestigious Though Bubble convention, I look at the comic book industry and see what looks like an unscaleable wall.

In the run up to Thought Bubble, I messaged Joe Glass, writer and creator of The Pride, to find out if he'd be exhibiting at his usual table there this year. What he told me was that he was basically ready to throw in the towel. Sales were down. Interest was down. He figured he'd have a better chance in the world of literature, and who can blame him to come to that conclusion?

To me, Joe Glass was a known guy. Someone who had been around in comics for a long time. The Pride was constantly praised, as well as considered a landmark in the history of LGBTQ comics. Damn, I thought, if he's struggling to make it, what chance on Earth do I have?

Another anecdote. I was at New York Comic Con in 2011. I sat in on the Image Comics panel where they announced a rebooted run of comics starring characters from Rob Liefeld's Extreme Comics line. (Rob actually got boos from the audience when he came out, which, however you feel about the man, was pretty disrespectful, and now looks like a grim foreshadowing to the state that online comics discourse was heading towards.)

One of the titles announced was Prophet, written by Brandon Graham and illustrated by Simon Roy. The series was met with great acclaim, and praised as one of the best comics coming out at the time. It was Roy's art in particular that was singled out as one of the comic's greatest strengths. There was a sense that Roy had really made a name for himself with Prophet, and that he would ride the wave to mainstream success.

After several years of his work showing up in places as varied as 2000ad and the Halo comics, Roy would go on to create Habitat in 2016 and First Knife in 2020, which should have gotten a bigger readership than they did. The comics were very clearly passion projects, yet didn't really get the promotion, coverage, or widespread release they deserved. It was very clear that there was more to these fictional worlds that Roy wanted to explore, but in the end, it took self publishing to do it. He started a follow up, Griz Grobus, as a webcomic, crowdfunding the physical release, before it was eventually picked up by Image again for a retail market.

It's not that I think Roy feels he got the short end of the stick. He's gone on record about how satisfied he is with the stories he gets to tell, but I look at what the world was like back in 2007 and I think about how by all rights his "Grobusverse," should be a household name, with an animated series and several video games by now.

Just like Joe Glass, whose recent The Miracles I believe could have been this generation's Invincible, I can't help but feel like modern comics, far from cultivating new and exciting talent, is doing nothing but stifling it.

How did it come to this?

It happened in multiple fronts, but the most critical blow came from corporate consolidation of the internet. At the turn of the decade, comic book journalism was bright eyed, popular and vibrant. Comic Book Resources and Comics Alliance both were constantly shining a light on new talent, new stories, as well as branching out towards exploration and analysis of the medium as a whole. I remember Comics Alliance once doing a special "Sex Week" where they released seven days worth of articles exploring the subgenre of erotic comic books.

Such an idea seems unthinkable now, in an age where sites are forbidden from straying from safe, corporate sanitisation. Indeed, both CBR and CA would find themselves stripped of identity and ground to the bone as they were bought out, sold, and bought out again by larger and larger conglomerates. Now CBR is little more than a platform for big industry press releases, while CA has been repurposed as a news aggregate site, the cruellest of fates. Just visiting the site feels like you're looking at a killer wearing the skin of it's victim.

The second blow to comics came from, and I hate to say it, Hollywood. With the booming, relentless success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, many assumed that the comic book industry's ascent to becoming a dominant cultural force was assured. However, in this instance, the rising tide did not lift all boats. As surprising as it is to hear, sales of Marvel comics have not significantly increased since the MCU came onto the scene in 2008. Despite becoming one of the most profitable franchises in history, audiences have not been particularly motivated when it comes to exploring the source material that their favourite films originated from.

And yet, even though the comic book industry has gotten little from Hollywood's success, more and more of their territory and space has been ceded to it. While comic book conventions have always involved partial coverage of film and TV, they have, at their heart, always been COMIC BOOK conventions. You'd get a ticket, head down, meet some writers, watch some announcements of what the next big events comics were going to be, check out some shoe boxes of back issues, sit in the Batmobile and maybe go get Lou Ferrigno's signature.

Now, so much of the floor space at the big conventions have been given over to Hollywood, and only Hollywood. News coverage out of SDCC or NYCC is almost always "Here's what film is coming next. Here's there cast of xyz. Here's some stuff about video games." The heart of the cons, what made them what they are in the first place, is getting pushed further and further aside. Now visitors get their ticket and shove their way though to Hall H to find out that RTD is back to play Doctor Doom, before they put on VR goggles to play the next Call of Duty game and then spend the rest of the money they have on Funkos or ten foot tall Pokémon plushies. If the mood arises, they might consider taking a glance at a self published comic book while they queue for an hour for Lou Ferrigno's signature.

Finally, the coup de grace was delivered by the deadening of online spaces. As we spent a decade migrating from our enthusiast forums over to the shared spaces of Twitter and Instagram we were forced to tailor our output to the broadest audience possible. We were forced to become our own marketers. Our own brand managers. The work could no longer speak for itself, because how on Earth was it possible for people to even find the work?

Yet despite all that, the algorithm crushed us anyway. Flighty and unknowable, as though some kind of special combination of words and images will chart the path to success, writers and artists were left like passengers on a sinking ship, drowning and desperate, stepping on top of each other in just the hopes of staying above water for one more moment.

When I was in a newly opened comic book shop in Chester I picked up a copy of Local Man by Tony Fleecs and Tim Seeley, on a whim. I had frankly never heard of it. I was astounded at how good it was when I had read it, but what stood out to me more was how it needn't have been this way. This is the kind of comic where once upon a time talk of it would have been everywhere. It's the kind of thing Comics Alliance would have been writing think pieces on for like a month. Now, however, it passed completely under the radar.

Where do we even start to solve a problem like this? Corporate media is now more powerful than ever, and social media dominates. If we are to start anywhere, it's got to be with each other. Writers, artists, colourists and letterers are going to have to come together and rebuild things wholesale. Personally, I honestly think we need to see a comics media landscape that's run by creators for creators. An independent, co-owned media that isn't going to sell out to conglomerates or Hollywood. We need a resurgence in sites like Comics Alliance, we need podcasts that garner a strong audience, we need video sites like Nebula that can stand in contrast to YouTube's dominance.

In the end though I'm just some guy, who has yet to even get his foot in the door. Best I can do is speak it, and try and will it into being. Casting out a message in a bottle in the hopes that somebody will find it. There are people like me all over the world with art to create and stories to tell. The next Hellboy, Invincible or Gunnerkrigg Court is out there right now and it's drowning on that sinking ship. If all I can do is shout the alarm in people's face, like Diogenes screaming from his barrel, then hell, that's what I'll keep doing.

Though if you are at Thought Bubble next weekend please consider buying some of my comics, books or artworks. That would be appreciated.

Addendum

Some comics you should check out:

The Miracles by Joe Glass and Vince Underwood

Habitat by Simon Roy (and then read the rest of his Grobusverse comics)

Local Man by Tony Fleecs and Tim Seeley

Strangehaven by Gary Spencer Millidge

O Sarilho by Shizamura

Prism Stalker by Sloane Leong

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Jack Harvey 2024

Announcing Sea of Spheres - Conspiracy, Conflict and Conscience

 

I've been hinting at it here and there for a long time and now I'm finally happy to announce that a print edition of my Sea of Spheres series, with artwork by the ever amazing Windlass, is finally seeing print.

Conspiracy, Conflict and Conscience collects the first three stories in the series. No Route to Guide You, A Question of Conscience and Matter of State, along with the short comic Night Shift. The book includes all of the artwork Windlass produced for those stories, in high detail and full colour.

For now the print editions will be purely for sale at conventions and possibly a couple of local retailers, but depending on interest the possibility of online purchasing may materialise further down the line. A second volume, collecting the other three stories, will also be going into production very soon.

It's a thrill to finally hold this thing in my hand, remastered and fully tightened up. I can't wait to introduce a wider audience to Windlass' art. As mentioned previously, I'll be at the BFS Fantasycon in Chester this coming weekend and Thought Bubble in Harrogate in November, so if you're in the area and want a copy that is hot off the press, you can find me right there, ready to shove it in your face.

Thanks for reading!

Jack's October Update

 This year has been pretty exhausting and frankly it's going to continue being exhausting. With that in mind, here's what's coming to close out the year.

- First big news: I will be exhibiting at Harrogate Thought Bubble this year. I'm astounded that I've been able to get in at short notice, so I'll be doing my best to try and get as much print editions of my work out as possible.

- Speaking of print editions, an update will no doubt be dropping in a week or so detailing the first print volume of my Sea of Spheres stories, all illustrated in colour by the ever wonderful Windlass.

- Additionally, a print collection of my short comics will also be coming soon, which will include behind the scenes materials and a brilliant new cover by the amazing FlopsComics.

- Coming sooner than all that is Fantasycon 2024. I've detailed this previously, but it's all happening next weekend and I'll have a plethora of art, comics and books to get out there to the eager masses.

- In other news, from the start of November onwards I'll probably be reducing my social media usage, mainly to avoid spoilers for Dragon Age 4, which I'm going to be saving for Christmas. I'll still post artwork and stuff, but conversation will be at a minimum.

It's going to be a busy few months, and I hope the payoff will be worth it. In the meantime, thanks for checking out my stuff, and keep on reading.

My Beef With the Highlander Cartoon and other Tales

 

Good Afternoon Bat-fans. It's been a hot minute over on this blog. A fuller update on what I've been up to will be dropping shortly. However, I've been so busy I was remiss to mention that my guest appearance on the Batminute Beyond podcast had dropped back in August. 

Please accept my apologies and this link, which involves me discussing my history with the Highlander cartoon, anime and discussing action figures with fellow guest Neil Rickatson.

Bat Minute Beyond - Chunkz of The Joker: Chunk 11 - Pie in the Sky (with Neil Rickatson and Jack Harvey)

Jack's July Update

 As mentioned in previous updates, things have been a little quiet creatively this year due to it basically being an admin year where I shuffle stuff around and get my affairs in order, that being said there are a few announcements of things coming up.

- First though, some bad-ish news. In case it wasn't obvious, Obscure Comic of the Month has now officially come to an end. I've been kind of overwhelmed with stuff at the moment and couldn't motivate myself to get out a column each month, and the comics I wanted to cover deserve better than something I was phoning in. That being said, it's had a good run, and may very well be resurrected again someday.

- My guest appearance in the BatMinute Beyond podcast is in the can and I can't wait for you to all hear it. Get ready for childhood trauma and an intense hatred of the Highlander cartoon. Details will be here when it drops.

- In case you missed it my short comic, Damned Another Day with art by Brian McCray, went up last month, you can read it here. It's also planned to be included in a print edition anthology comic that I'm looking to put out later this year.

- I've given all of my Sea of Spheres stories a once over in anticipation for their own print edition. If you've still not read them then there's never been a better time.

- Another convention appearance is right around the corner. August 17th Is Carlisle Megacon at the Richard Rose Academy. I'll be on Table 40. See you there.

Alright, that's all for now. 2024 is very much about wrapping things up, but I'm still putting out artwork and whatnot, so you can follow me over on Twitter, Tumblr and Deviantart to keep up to date with my random doodling.

Thanks for reading!

Damned Another Day

Action! Adventure! Intrigue! Romance!? If you like the look of those explanation points flying towards you at 100 miles per hour, then you're going to be in just the right mood for Damned Another day, a brand new 4 page comic written by me and with incredible art by Brian McCray.

Secret agent James Nicea comes face to face at the card table with the dastardly Angelo De Faust, whose underworld activities are damning souls to Hell's eternal war. Key to overturning this villain's schemes are his sultry second in command Miss Carmilita Roland, but are James' charms enough to win her over?

This is a story that I've had in my head for a long time and went through various iterations, and while I knew Brian was going to be a good fit for the art, I was utterly astounded with how much he threw into bringing this world to life. The entire strip just bleeds 60s cool, and putting the extra details on the tarot cards was above and beyond the call of duty. Be sure to check out more of his work, which is as diverse as it is surprising. Be sure to check out more of his work, which is as diverse as it is surprising.

Jack's April Update

Things have been quiet here of late. I've been working on a lot of behind the scenes stuff, but I expect that this year will be a little dry for new story content. Still, here's an update on where we're at and what's going on.

Conventions

- I'll be at the Leeds Comic and Sci-fi Fair on Saturday 1st June. As ever I'll have copies of all my print stories and comics, along with art and whatnot.

- As with last year, I'll be at Carlisle Megacon on 17th August. It was great to see the event come back from a prolonged absence last year, and here's hoping it continues to grow this year too.

- I mentioned last time that I'll be at the British Fantasy Society's Fantasycon at Chester on October 11th - 13th, but I'm repeating it again here in case you missed it. It's a three day event, so here's hoping I can use the opportunity to get my work in front of some new eyes.

Blog Stuff

- You might have noticed that I did not upload an Obscure Comic of the Month review for March. This was partly due to it being a hectic month. Easter was earlier than usual and I had prep for Sheffield all at once. However it was also down to me just not being able to motivate myself to write about comics at the time. I didn't want to just pump out something half hearted. You can expect the column to return this month, but I am toying with the idea of making it a more irregular thing, and possibly using my time to write about other subject matters instead. We'll see.

So, only a short update this month, but gears are turning, and I expect to have more significant updates for you very soon.

Cheers

Obscure Comic of the Month - Coal Face

Obscure Comic of the Month is a column where I take a look at a comic or series that hasn't really been talked about. This covers independent comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more.

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Coal Face - The Devil in the Smoke by Jay Gunn - MoonAlp Books 2023

Contains 'Miner' Spoilers

There's always been a somewhat oversimplified framing of the 1980s miners strikes as a simplified David vs Goliath story in popular culture, but it's easy to forget that things were much more complicated. Even more so when it comes to the legacy of those strikes and the industry they were connected to.

The book I'm looking at today isn't a comic pre-se, though it did start life as one, and ultimately it's final form as an illustrated prose story is close enough as far as I'm concerned. It's my column and I can do what I like. Written and illustrated video game developer and National Coal Board work-experiencer Jay Gunn, who uses his own past and family history as a jumping off point into this period fable of teenager Tony Gray's maybe real, maybe imagined, adventure into the ancient cursed history of his town's local and currently be-striked coal mine.

Gunn weaves a great deal of tendrils throughout the tale, having Tony not just have to deal with the local strife and uncertainty around the strike, but also, and not limited to, his parent's broken marrage, health problems caused by local pollution, class divides, family expectations and his desire for a future in programming video games.

From these themes weave out the fantastical. From the vampire-esque Fancy Man representing corporate (and personal) greed, to Maybell The Wooden Girl speaking for the blighted rural areas, to the dragon Coal Face itself becoming the nexus of pain from which radiates from the coal industry, long term respiratory problems and premature death.

Gunn plays with a lot of threads and does so pretty effectively for a story that isn't all that long. It's works for the most part given the ambiguity of the fantastical elements, which may be no more real than dreams or part of Tony's imagination, especially given that he is seen working on a video game with a story that exactly mirrors the adventures he is supposedly experiencing for real. This allows Gunn to frame these fantastical elements as a child's rationalisation of the difficult reality surrounding the pit closures.

Whereby the striking workers through noble cause can give in to their worst impulses, it is easier for someone like Tony, who lost his grandfather to the pit and saw his parents ripped apart by idealogical divide, to rationalise the whole thing as the schemes of a legendary beast that can poison the mind as easily as it can poison the body.

In that respect, you might expect that Gunn is going for easy answers here, but in fact he is doing quite the opposite. All through the story Tony shows little desire to follow his father and grandfather into the mining industry, clearly not having the temperament or the physical health to do so, yet he is treated with suspicion and destain for wanting to seek a future in video games. Likewise, Tony's lower class upbringing is mocked by those more well off who never have to worry about work like coal mining, and Tony is tempted away from class solidarity with the promise of luxuries and frivolity.

I love the intricacies and difficulties that Gunn explores here. I'm no stranger to striking myself, and have little sympathy for scabbery, but even I'm not so foolish as to think people slot into easy roles. My town is a former mining town. I have family member who have died due to the health problems their work down the pit left them with. There are constant promises of re-opening the coal mines, and despite the fact that we are in desperate need of more jobs, I absolutely do not want to see that industry return to blight this town.

If I have one criticism of the story, it's that this attempt at showing the shades of gray comes with the risk of walking away from this story with anti-union sentiment. Of course, Gunn makes it pretty explicitly clear that the true villain of the story is the pursuit of capital, but we do unfortunately live in a world where folks will ignore the moral of a story if it doesn't suit them.

However, I've only talked about the text of the story so far, when there is so much more to it with the art. Gunn's illustrations bring to life an already enthralling story, with a vibrancy and texture. The characters are animated and believable, the blighted landscapes drawing you in and cementing you into a specific place and time. The fantastical elements have an otherworldly, uncanny feel to them that emphasises the ambiguity of how much of what Tony is experiencing is entirely from his imagination.

The story's other big subplot, that of Tony wanting to get into programming, is emphasised and reinforced through the illustrations also. The stark, primitive visuals of the Atari days glow in neon green, feeling almost pre-historic by today's standards. This adds to the feeling that Tony's character is no weak and frightened fool, as even just through the visuals we can understand the skill it would have taken to programme a video game in those days. Tony might not want to go down the pit, but that doesn't mean he lacks willpower.

The visuals and the text work in tandem to create a tale that feels very simple and easy to digest in it's delivery but that contains a history with great depth beneath. The story closes with a bittersweet ending. The monster defeated, but Tony's personal strife continues, as he is left still finding his way in the world where he has to try and show solidarity for a line of work he knows is doomed to closure. The story does not let you off with any easy answers, and doesn't sugar coat that the world is not so easily fixed.

Coal Face is a finely executed all-ages tale that creates a perfect snapshot in time to emphasize that while heroes and monsters exist in both fiction and reality, it's only in fiction that these distinctions are so easily spotted. Right now, as it was in the 80s, being a hero is not as easy as simply picking up a controller, and defeating monsters can't be done with simple button presses.

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Jack Harvey 2024. Coal Face (c) 2023 Jason Wilson. Images used under Fair Use.

Jack's January Update!

Hello all. It's the start of the year once again which means we're currently stuck in the doldrums of the post festive deflation. So what better time to steel ourselves for the coming months with a look ahead at the good stuff in store. For me, it's going to be a busy year. Here's a few thing you might want to keep an eye out for.

- My final Sea of Spheres short story, Choose Your Weapons wisely, has now been posted in full, and can be read here. Updates for it are not yet complete, however, as Windlass is still cooking up some final artwork for the starting chapter, which should be coming soon.

- The magnetic Brian McCray is currently working on the artwork for a four page comic script of mine. I'm super excited to see the final piece and if you're a fan of my writing I think you'll get a particular kick out of this one. Watch this space.

- I'm currently working on a secret project with Turbomiracle. This may or may not happen, depending on how things pan out, but It's an idea with legs, and will no doubt see the light of day in the long run if it doesn't happen this year. You can see a sneaky peek at some blueprints for this up above.

- With all that in mind, writing will be taking a bit of a back seat this year as I move some pieces from here to there on some more physical projects. Information will be here as it comes through, but Obscure Comic of the Month will still continue as normal.

I'm always looking to pencil myself in to as many convention appearances as I can, and this year is no different. While I've had to deal with some moved dates and cancellations, so far I can confirm three as being set in stone.

- Whitehaven Mini Con is back on February 24th for it's third year and a second at the Civic Hall. Always really happy to see this convention do well, and I'll be there showing my full support. Also, I'll have an extra table selling second hand graphic novels and books for low low prices, if you fancy taking a peek.

- I'll be returning to the 6th April Sheffield Comic and Film Fair at the Showroom Cinema, which I had a fantastic time at last year. For such a small venue it managed to see a turnover of varied and interesting people, and I'm eager to jump back out there to reconnect with those audiences.

- For October 11th - 13th I'll be attending FantasyCon at the Chester Hotel. This one I'm particularly looking forwards to, as a lot of my prose writing tends not to do a lot of action at comic conventions, so an event more dedicated to fiction writing will hopefully be a good chance for my more wordy works to find an untapped audience.

I hopefully will have more conventions lined up as the year goes on, as well as some podcast appearances and whatnot as things tic over. As ever I'll be posting critical updates here, but you can find more off the cuff comments, rambles and doodles over on Twitter, Bluesky, Tumblr and Deviantart.

Happy New Year and Stay Cool

Obscure Comic of the Month - 20th Century Men

Obscure Comic of the Month is a column where I take a look at a comic or series that hasn't really been talked about. This covers independent comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more.

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20th Century Men by Deniz Camp and Stipan Morian - Image Comics 2023

Contains Mild Spoilers

I wasn't expecting to write about 20th Century Men for this column. I had already seen quite a bit of buzz about it within the general comics community and expected that it would explode into the mainstream as soon as the series had hit critical mass. Instead, however, it doesn't appear to have reached the wider audience I was expecting it to. So, here I am, doing my part to try and evangelise a comic that far more people really should have heard about.

20th Century Men is, in short, a riff on Alan Moore's Watchmen. The story takes place in an alternate cold war where super-science and adventuring heroes turned the tide of history and their legacy causes a chain of events that dooms us all. The twist this time is that it's the Soviet Union who got the immortal supergod this time around and it is through communist eyes we experience most of the story.

If that makes it sound like 20th Century Men is a simple 'what if' then stay with me a little longer, because while Camp displays the Watchmen influence pretty proudly it is very much not trying to do a simple palate swap. The Dr Manhattan analogue only plays a minor role in the plot, more homage than anything, while the main crux of the story is centred around Platonov, a sort of analogue Iron Man if Tony Stark was a communist and also a Warhammer 40'000 Space Marine Terminator. While Watchmen was a murder mystery, with most action taking place in flashback, 20th Century Men is set during the Soviet expansion into Afghanistan, and the blood soaked conflict is very much front and centre.

The chosen perspective is definitely an interesting one, giving the Soviets a somewhat sympathetic point of view during a conflict that pop culture has frequently painted them the villains of. Depicted far more villainously in this story is US foreign policy, embodied by President Goode, part Captain America, part Lex Luthor, part Gary Busey, an institution and character more interested in proving their superiority as opposed to a utopian ideal.

Still, while not apparent at first, it quickly is made clear that it is Afghanistan itself that is the true protagonist of the story. The so-called 'Graveyard of Empires,' home to people deserving of life just as much as their American and Soviet counterparts, yet treated as little more than pawns by those who see themselves as the 'true' civilisation. It is at this point the meaning of the title becomes clear, and that it is the 'civilised' world's failure to treat Afghanistan as anything other than a tile on a game board to be fought over that has condemned us to the doom in which we now find ourselves.

The comic is blisteringly harsh in that regard. A real road to hell paved with good and not so good intentions. The line "A million of us dead and millions more to come because you couldn't imagine a civilisation without flush toilets," is particularly scathing and will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. Camp aims high with what he wants to do with this comic, and frankly, he hits every target he shoots for. 20th Century Men is a comic that left me with literal chills and made me ask things about myself that I'd rather not ask.

Which brings me on to Stipan Morian's art. It feels like the ultimate combination of 1990's Vertigo at it's best with the contemporary grit of current generation 2000ad all wrapped up slickly to the kind of standard Image comics is known for these days. Simultaneously retro and modern, Morian has to tackle a lot over the course of this comic, from blood soaked battlefields to utopian communist farmland to sleazy boardrooms and the dusty streets of Afghan villages that feel more real than real. Morian slips between the majesty of a techno-future past that never was and the grime between our fingernails of a tragic present that probably is.

That 20th Century Men hasn't become one of our seminal texts already is unconscionable but also probably unsurprising. As a Watchmen riff it already finds itself in the company of a billion other superhero comic deconstructions that we have seen in the years since. As a condemnation of the western world it covers subjects that one can easily find all too popular YouTube know-nothings arguing about for hours on end. In a lot of ways 20th Century Men has become lost in the shuffle, struggling to find a niche in areas already stuffed to the gills with diluted and far inferior products.

So here I go, ranting about it in the humble way as best I can and trying to sell it to my motley collection of followers. 20th Century Men is a monumental piece of work. You can feel the sheer force of will from Camp, Morian and letterist Aditya Bidikar bringing it to life. It should be a shoe in for every 1001 Comics to Read Before you die list and frankly if I don't see it enter on the 2024 edition I'll 'insert humorous self-deprecating action here.'

There's probably a billion other things I could string out to try and convince you to read it, but I dunno, I guess I'm just hoping my words can burst out of the page even a fraction as strongly as they do in 20th Century Men. Even holding the book in my hands feels like I'm carrying the weight of the world within it. It's a tome that almost refuses to be ignored as our civilisation spirals once more towards it's darkest impulses.

It's a good comic you should read it.

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Jack Harvey 2024. 20th Century Men (c) 2023 Deniz Campbell, Stjepan Mihaljevic, and Aditya Bidikar. Images used under Fair Use.