Warhammer 40'000 - A Conspiracy of Riches

 Hello all. Today I'm pleased to bring you a story from the grim dark future of the 41st Millennium. A Conspiracy of Riches is a comic scripted by me and brought to life by the amazing Kristina Amuan.

This story has been a long time coming, as I've long been wanting to work together with an artist on a comic I've scripted to teach myself the intricacies of the collaborative process and show off the artwork of somebody I greatly admire at the same time.

Sent to defend one of the Imperium's largest gold reserves in the segmentum, Captain Thelonious of the Novamarines Chapter finds his faith in the Emperor tested as he is tasked with putting the Imperium's wealth and privilege ahead of it's loyalist subjects. What lines are the Captain and his Lieutenants willing to cross, and what fealty is is he willing to transgress, in his quest to stay true to his oath as incorruptible defenders of mankind?

Once again a massive thanks to Kristina who not only helped me make the story the best it could be, but also showed incredible patience with such a large project. I know she would have really liked the story to have run for more pages to give the climax more time and detail, but I wanted the story to keep to a lean 4 - 5 page size like the Warhammer Monthly strips of old.

Thanks for reading!

Sea of Spheres - Matters of State

We're back at it again folks. While it's been a long time coming for a lot of reasons, I'm finally ready to start releasing the next Sea of Spheres story, Matters of State. As always, artwork is by the fantastic Windlass.

Sophia Sloan left the Empire of Arcadia in the wake of her father's disappearance, leaving behind a prestigious naval career and many societal obligations. Having worked as an independent bootlegger, sailing the Sea of Spheres for years, Sophia is pulled back into Acadian society through a proposal of marriage. Initially suspicious, Sophia soon discovers that in the intervening years Arcadia may have changed more than she expected.

Matters of State has a little bit of action, a little bit of romance and, of course, a whole heaping of political subtext. You can read the whole thing here.

Part one is now up, with parts two to four dropping every Monday. Hope you all enjoy reading it.

Obscure Comic of the Month - Zegas

 Obscure Comic of the Month was a column I wrote from 2015 to 2017, where I would take a look at a comic or series that wasn't really talked about. This covered independent comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more. It's been away, but now it's back.

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Zegas by Michel Fiffe - 2017 Fantagraphics Books

Contains Mild Spoilers

Michel Fiffe is probably most well know for his super-mercenary series Copra, most commonly described as 'the greatest Suicide Squad comic ever made, and it's not even a Suicide Squad comic.' Fiffe as a creator has a vivid and recognisable thumbprint, merging both retro sensibilities with a surrealist conceptualisation that makes it a style all of his own.

But we're not here today to talk about Copra (we'll get there, oh believe me we'll get there,) but instead Fiffe's short run slice of life sci-fi Zegas. Unlike Copra, describing Zegas succinctly is a little more difficult. The story follows the Zegas siblings, Emily and Boston, as they go about living their lives on a somewhat barren alien world as they desperately fight through drama and lethargy in search of fulfilment.

As with Copra, Fiffe's intense visual style is on display right from the get go. Heavy use of ink on a washed out newsprint background with limited use of colour, occasionally punctuated with psychedelic neon. Fiffe is one of those artists where, even if the story wasn't any good, you'd be able to recommend the work on the strength of the artwork alone.

There really is nobody else like him in comics right now, and his visuals stand out all the more in a time where digital artwork is strictly becoming the norm. Fiffe's artwork feels like it comes from some kind of parallel universe where digital art was never developed and illustrators were left instead to push paper and ink to it's absolute limits.

So, of course, the art is good, but what of the writing? Well Zegas essentially takes us into a world where the fantastical is treated as banal. Where psionic power and reality warping technology are just normal parts of life. Early on the siblings encounter an ethereal alien life form and treat the encounter as no more unusual as being stuck at a faulty traffic stop. The main draw of Zegas is to propose that there is no strange circumstance that human life won't adapt to, and that at the end of the day, more mundane, pedestrian issues will still be of the greatest concern to the common man.

The book is made up of a collection of strips bouncing between Emily and Boston, mostly concerned with small scale conflicts fuelled by ego and disillusionment. Emily longs for something more out of life, while Boston contends with his own deadbeat compulsions. Sometimes an alien fruit comes along that swells up your head to a bundle of fist size tumours. C'est la vie.

While Fiffe's Copra is deliberately reminiscent of Suicide Squad by design, Zegas instead calls to mind a very different comic book series, Love and Rockets, and in many ways the decision to juxtapose soap opera drama with fantastical elements feels like a nod to Rocket's early strips that hewed towards pulp sci-fi.

If Zegas is to have one real flaw, however, it's that unlike Rockets, it's web of personal connections feels too small, too limited. For a story that is primarily about the connections and consequences that weave, unknowingly between us throughout life, too often it feels as though we're on a closed set, with the wider world the Zegas siblings sit in, painfully just out of focus.

I suppose it's hardly fair to judge a short lived comic against one of the all time greatest long runners, but what I guess I'm trying to say is that Fiffe has such a way of bringing worlds to life that it feels as though we've only barely scratched the surface by the time we get to the closing pages.

Copra is obviously Fiffe's main project at the moment, and you'll hear no complaints from me about that, but I can't deny there's a part of that that's eager to see more of the Zegas twin's world, to go beyond their own personal circle and see the domino effect of how their own choices resonate out over the starry horizon.

Unless that time comes, I guess I'll just have to make do with the strips as is, which at the end of the day, is still no bad thing.

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Jack Harvey 2022. Zegas (c) Michel Fiffe. Images used under Fair Use.

Jack's April Update

We're hitting the part of the year where projects are starting to formulate into something and events can start to be organised. I'm still being cautious when it comes to convention appearances and trying not to overburden myself when it comes to work as I don't want to backslide on my writ problems. That being said, here's a quick rundown of what's coming up.

- The revisions on An Illustrated Guide to Drinking Beer are almost done and I'll be moving to a print release for local sellers and conventions very soon. As far as digital is concerned, I'm planning on releasing an abridged version of the comic with the basic intro free online in order to promote the full digital version that I'll put up on Gumroad.

- The third story in my Sea of Spheres series is almost ready to go up. Just need to give it another read-through while I wait for the wonderfully commissioned artwork to be completed for it to be finalised.

- As far as convention appearances go, West Coast Cosplay is running a small Minicon on the 23rd July at the Whitehaven Marchon Club. I'll be in attendance as a way of easing my way back in to the con routine. I'll be selling copies of my previous books, some prints and I plan to have the beer comic ready to go by then. If you can make it, come and say hello.

- The BatMinute podcast recently concluded it's series with Batman and Robin. I've had a great time as a recurring guest, and while it's sad to see the 90s Batman era come to an end, I have a feeling this won't be the last we'll have seen of Niall and Jon, nor me guesting for them.

- I was recently contacted regarding my old Jenny Everywhere comics by someone looking to update the Jenny Everywhere wiki and had noticed that the old images were hosted on Photobucket and since expired. I've now re-uploaded the comics to be accessible once more (Something I need to do for a bunch of other posts on here,) and as I did I gave them a read and realised they hadn't aged very well. While they're far from significantly problematic, a few things here and there that come across as poorly researched or ignorant of people's identities, so I've put up a short statement to that affect so new readers are aware of that.

- With the above in mind, I sort of felt it was my duty to go back and do a more modern take on my Jenny Everywhere ideas, so I'll be putting together a short comic to see how it goes down. More on this, as it develops.

Other than that, as ever, feel free to check out my other works on Twitter, Tumblr and DeviantArt and remember that all my most recent stories are posted and kept up to date on AO3.

Thanks for reading.

Obscure Comic of the Month - The Miracles

Obscure Comic of the Month was a column I wrote from 2015 to 2017, where I would take a look at a comic or series that wasn't really talked about. This covered independent comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more. It's been away, but now it's back.

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The Miracles by Joe Glass with art by Vince Underwood and Harry Saxon - 2022 Queer Comix

Contains Spoilers

The idea of comic book characters manifesting in the real world is a well trodden premise at this point. In fact The Miracles itself has been released on the tale of Donnie Cates' Crossover, inviting immediate comparison. However, while Crossover envisions our world's encounter with incarnated fictional beings as being nothing short of an apocalyptic threat, The Miracles takes a more optimistic approach, while keeping a hard bitten edge to it. Last Action Hero this is not.

The story follows the young Elliot Morgan, whose rapidly manifesting superpowers lead to the shocking discovery that his parents are actually characters from a comic book that he himself is familiar with. This soon leads to the entire family deciding to go public as superheroes outright, and finally confront the baggage that had followed them from the comic book world.

The decision to have the character's comic book flashbacks be drawn as a homage to Jack Kirby would normally be a nice little touch, but Underwood nails the style so well that the book is worth recommending by the art alone. You almost can't believe that it's the same artist pulling double duty on both art styles, and that makes it feel like something special.

Joe Glass has been in the game for a while now, but The Miracles itself feels like a real jump up to the next level. The writing and artistry on display is equal to what the mainstream is putting out, and it almost feels an injustice that the book started as a small crowdfunded project, when it could easily stand side by side on the comic book shelf with stuff put out by the major publishers.

While the story's premise is relatively straightforward, all the fascinating stuff is taking place under the hood. Glass is probably mostly well known for The Pride, a comic unapologetically focussing on queer superheroes and putting their queerness front and centre. The Miracles also features a gay protagonist in Elliot himself, but Glass is taking a different tact here.

At first blush it'd be easy to say that the comic could have worked just as well with a straight protagonist, down to the fact that Elliot's sexuality is dealt with so matter-of-factly. However, in putting together The Miracles Glass has clearly decided to draw upon the sub-textual queerness intrinsic in the superhero genre.

If The Miracles has one big theme, it's that of 'coming out.' As our story begins Elliot is still in the closet, wracked by inaction and unsure who to trust. Mirroring this are his parents, whose own history and reality as superheroes is similarly closeted. Elliot's brother, cousin and boyfriend each have their own secrets to varying degrees. As the story progresses we find that in the case of many of these secrets, their concealment for so long has only lead to further hurt down the line.

And that, fundamentally, is where The Miracles optimism comes from. It is a story about honesty, openness and acceptance. It's about how being true to oneself can be the greatest of strengths. Elliot might not be Superman, but in The Miracles he serves a similar purpose. To think about not who we are, but who we have the potential to be.

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Jack Harvey 2022. The Miracles (c) Joe Glass. Images used under Fair Use.

Obscure Comic of the Month - Habitat

Obscure Comic of the Month was a column I wrote from 2015 to 2017, where I would take a look at a comic or series that wasn't really talked about. This covered independent comics, zines, weird spin-offs, webcomics and more. It's been away, but now it's back.

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Habitat by Simon Roy - 2017 Image Comics

Contains Heavy Spoilers

There are certain comics that you are almost guaranteed to be immediately on board with simply down to the strength of the artwork. For me, Simon Roy's Habitat was certainly one of these instances. Just seeing the intriguing and beautiful artwork concerning very vivid but understandably functional mech suits exploring a strange and overwhelming superstructure was all I needed to know I was going to have to read this comic.

Indeed, such is the strength of the art that it almost seems unnecessary to talk about the story, which takes place within a deep space artificial environment where tribal societies live within the detritus of a far more ancient, technologically advanced civilisation. Roy takes to rendering this world like a duck to water, taking great care to meld both the alien with the familiar, the primitive with the advanced.

With a deft use of subtle design choices Roy distinguishes the various tribes in order for us to all the better understand their relationship with the long forgotten technology, some of whom the interaction is with more religious reverence than others. The mech suits themselves are immediately iconic. While drawing inspiration from the many works of science fiction that have featured power armour and robotic suits, Roy gives them a bulbous, cumbersome look, their functionality and mechanical capabilities obvious. Part Bioshock diving suit, part Aliens power lifter.

All this is to say that Habitat is a beautiful world in which to get lost, and in many respects the art feels like it has more in common with concept art than that of more traditional comic illustration. Regardless, there are several pages you'll want to hold on to just take in what it is that you're looking at, and almost see a far away world coming to life in front of your eyes.

With all that in mind, what of the story proper? Habitat tells the tale of a young cadet going rogue from his tribe with valuable data that can be used to 'print' advanced technology. As his journey unfolds, he comes into contact with the various other factions and characters of the superstructure, few of which have any priorities other than immediate self interest, and we get the impression that this is a world where uncompromised heroes are hard to come by.

You see, it is quickly revealed that the tribes are the descendants of some long ago exiled community, cut off from what seems like a long forgotten space utopia. The protagonist's journey is hardly ground-breaking and instead servers as a conduit for the readers to experience this cut-throat world though somewhat sympathetic eyes. Eventually, enough characters with altruistic motivation unite to regain contact with the wider universe and activate the superstructure's more advanced technology, something that the ending implies may come with a far reaching and unintended consequences.

If I have any real criticism of Habitat it's about the length. There is so much about this world that the story leaves you wanting to find out about, and while the tribal societies are explored succinctly, the wider galaxy beyond is left enigmatically unexplored. The significance of the awakening star-god like creature at the stories climax being mostly left up to the reader's interpretation.

Indeed, the climax itself is maddeningly brief, to the point where I wonder if Roy had to cut it short for space, or some other undisclosed, practical reasons. Either way, it really left me wanted more, and to see what the wider consequences of the characters decisions would ultimately come out as.

As I always say, though, if it leaves you wanting more, that's a recommendation, and I really hope we see more of the world of Habitat some time in the future. A world this rich both visually and textually deserves to be explored beyond a single book.

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Jack Harvey 2021. Habitat (c) Simon Roy. Images used under Fair Use.

Warhammer 40'000 - A Beautiful Dream

 

Hey folks. I recently entered a short story into Cold Open Stories fast fiction contest for January and came in as a runner up. If you're not familiar with Cold Open Stories, they're a collective of Warhammer fan authors who get together to assemble monthly releases of top quality fiction.

If you want to check out a story of resistance against an oppressive galactic empire you can read the story here. Of course, you can also check out all the other fantastic stories by other writers too.

Thanks for reading.