A Perfect World

 We may be winding down the last few months of 2024 but it's always a good time for unsettling stories of existential dread. I'm delighted to bring you this tale with phenomenally suspenseful art by Lexa.

A Perfect World tells the story of Leon, a cynical loner with a distaste for classic tales of good vs evil. Leon's humble life begins to crumble as he starts to discover that the fantastical might not be as fictional as he believes.

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I can't say enough good things about Lexa's art on this one, who absolutely knocked it out of the park. I love the dreamlike quality they brought to the story, which is exactly the kind of mood I wanted to bring across in the script.

I highly recommend you check out their other work, which you can find all of the links to here.

Obscure Comic of the Month - X, Y, Z

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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X,Y,Z by Iqbal A. and Aleksandar Bozic - 2018 Mild Frenzy

Contains Mild Spoilers

One of the great things about exhibiting at comic conventions it that if you're lucky you end up with a table adjacent to somebody really interesting. Sometimes they're an artist who's been on the convention circuit for a while, sometimes they're a creator fresh out of art school, sometimes they're the person that ran the Fallout themed 'Ask Caesar' RP Tumblr account back in 2014.

For 2023's Lakes International Comic Art Festival, I was seated next to Iqbal Ali, who I had a great time chatting with as a fellow creator. We traded stories about the woes of getting decent printings while self publishing, working with artists and just getting the work out there. That and dealing with the dodgy condensation under the marquee that we had to deal with.

But never mind how we got along personally. This column isn't for that. This column is about the comics themselves. Iqbal had a lot of decent stuff out there, but it was X,Y,Z that immediately drew my eye. It's stark, moody cover immediately intrigued me, and I was willing to jump right in even before I knew what the premise was.

X,Y, Z tells the story of Abn. An Asian student at an otherwise all white school who, already under immense pressure from the prejudices of his peers and teachers, finds himself drawn into a supernatural mystery surrounding a mysterious book 'How to Disappear Completely.' Soon enough Abn has to contend with the manifestation of unusual powers and the machinations of a nefarious entity that may be a representation of his own secret desires.

Textually X,Y, Z operates on a weirdness level equal to 2001's Donnie Darko (With a touch of 2015's Life is Strange). A socially awkward young man finds himself entangled with powers beyond his comprehension. X,Y, Z's characters have a great amount of depth, even the most antagonistic have at least some degree of sympathy to them, and Abn often finds allies where he once expected to find enemies. There's action, drama, disaster and epiphany. All good stuff in a comic that is direct and to the point.

Bozic's art is suited perfectly to the story, harkening just enough back to the traditional style of old 'school boy' comics from Britain's yesteryear while still giving it a sharp grit to keep you grounded in the story. Simple but palpable expressions help us experience the inner turmoil within the characters, while supernatural entities whizz from panel to panel, drawing our eye from action to action. All in a crisp black and white that gives the story an almost timeless quality.

It's sub-textually that X,Y, Z's greater strengths manifest, however. The meaning of the story is right there in the title. X,Y, Z with three arrows pointing across three different axis. This is representative, of course, of the subjects of maths and physics that Abn studies and also harnesses in his search for a higher purpose, but the three axis also represent his struggle for direction.

All throughout the story Abn is tormented over which direction he wishes to take his life. X, Y or Z. Assimilation, Rejection or Destruction. The staff and students of the school are constantly pushing Abn to change and become one with the crowd. To disregard what makes him him and ultimately become someone else in the name of an easy life. Conversely, the dark force inside of him wants to push Abn on a path of vengeance and accumulated power. To go beyond ambition and give in to anger and aggression.

Abn himself merely wants to, as the book he wields promises, disappear completely, but as these two forces begin to influence his life in greater ways, he realises such an escape is impossible.

Ultimately, the story is about realising that such binary direction is a false conclusion. Abn doesn't have to choose, life isn't about absolutes, and in the end he overcomes the pressures of all three demands to become his own person, driven only by his own decisions and his own road.

X,Y, Z is an absorbing comic with a sharp script and sharper pace. It handles it's subject matter with a maturity that doesn't easily give in to nihilism, and it's themes are both specific and universal. I had a great time with it.

Iqbal Ali is going to be at Harrogate Thought Bubble next month, so if you're passing by be sure to check him out. I highly recommend X, Y, Z and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

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Jack Harvey 2023. X, Y, Z (c) 2018 Iqbal Ali. Images used under Fair Use.

Bigger Guns

A brand new tale is here to grace your eyeballs, with art by the fantastic Turbomiracle and written by yours truly. Bigger Guns is a story of infernal action and cultural change, where shifting politics of the 1960s didn't just affect the earthly realms, but those beneath them too.

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It was an absolute pleasure to work with Turbormiracle who did an incredible job with rendering such detailed scenes like the club interior and the minute to minute action. I've admired their work for a long time, and it's been great to see them illustrate something I've written.

Here's to moving on! 

Obscure Comic of the Month - Acceptable Losses

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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Acceptable Losses by Joe Glass, Danny Flores and Moose Baumann - 2020 Queer Comix

Contains Heavy Spoilers

Last year I spoke very highly of Joe Glass' seminal superhero deconstruction The Miracles, and so today I'm taking a look at one of his smaller works, the self-contained one shot, Acceptable Losses, a comic that is probably easiest to describe as What if Captain America Became The Punisher?

The story of Sam Tyler, AKA superhero super-solider U.S Eagle begins in medias res as he undertakes a mission in the Middle East to eliminate a dangerous terrorist leader. Deliberate parallels to the hunt for Bin Laden are obvious here which we'll dig into more later. Tyler's mission goes awry, however, in part due to his unwillingness to endanger civilians in the crossfire, including a nearby school. Meanwhile mission command, overseen by the all too believable Senator McKeen, has little concern for collateral damage, the titular 'acceptable losses.'

As the terrorist leader looks to slip out of Tyler's grasp, McKeen orders an air strike, seemingly killing the hero alongside innumerable civilians, children included. From this opening sequence it is very clear the type of story that we are in for here, and the perspective in which it views the 'necessity' of the 'war on terror.'

Tyler, of course, didn't die, and the story's focus shifts to cover an extended revenge scene carried out against McKeen interspersed with flashback as Tyler is nursed back to health by the very people that he was deployed to treat as 'enemies of America.' What follow is a gorgeous, if extremely brutal and harrowing, sequence of events which Danny Flores' art and Moose Baumann's colours are expressly suited to. As the story jumps between the dark night of revenge to the comfortable browns of Tyler's recovery, it is almost sub-textually saying that we cannot view geopolitics in simple black and white.

This is easily the darkest of Glass' stories so far, and sits at an interesting point between his more optimistic and celebratory stories from The Pride, to his idealistic but still more grounded and pragmatic work in The Miracles. The story is vicious in it's storytelling, and definitely feels like somewhat of a rebuttal to modern superhero stories being muted and soft in their criticisms of American foreign policy and unquestioned patriotism.

As a one shot the story is sharp and to the point, done in one and complete in it's message. In all respects but one does this work in it's favour, but if I had to levy one criticism at the story it would be that the later reveal that Tyler and his 'inside man' Private Krinsky are in a relationship together, is covered somewhat too briefly, if for no other reason that so many incredibly interesting stories could be spun off from such a twist.

The depiction of a gay Captain America is not something that is particular new (look to Andrew Wheeler's Soldier Sailor for another such example) but the idea of one explored through the Acceptable Losses' grounded and gritty lens would certainly be a unique one. Still, that's far from a deal-breaker, and if anything it feels as though Glass has more of these types of stories in him, it just being a question of when he's ready to write them.

Acceptable Losses is a brutal bullet to the head of a comic that doesn't pull any punches. If you felt like bigger franchise fair has been skirting round the subject of the war on terror for a while now, then this is a fine antidote.

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Jack Harvey 2023. Acceptable Losses (c) 2020 Queer Comix. Images used under Fair Use.

Warhammer 40'000 - Who Killed Warboss Badgutz?

It gives me great pleasure to finally get the chance to introduce you all to Doctor Grotson, the intrepid Gretchin detective who as you can expect doesn't exactly fit in easily with the rampaging hoard of Orks he has found himself in the company of.

When Warboss Badgutz is found dead with no clear culprit, the Ork rules of succession are thrown into confusion. Desperate to stop the Ork forces from fracturing, Doctor Grotson takes it upon himself, with a little help from the Warbosses prospective replacements, to to find out who exactly had offed the vicious leader, and more crucially, find out why they haven't claimed his throne.

This was a real fun little story to write. Both comedy AND murder mysteries are difficult to balance, and that's before you throw in the Warhammer universe's most raucous inhabitants to the mix. It was a real experiment in seeing what I could get away with while holding the story together.

To top it all off, we have some amazing artwork by Ork artist extraordinaire Alex 'Crippled Giraffe.' He did an absolutely steller job of bringing the characters to life. If you're in the mood for more Orky antics I highly recommend you check out his work.

Who Killed Warboss Badgutz? can be read full over on AO3.

Jack Minute - Mask of the PhanTekWar

 

It's been a hot (bat) minute since my last podcast appearance, so I am delighted to announce that I have once again joined the Batminute boys as guest of honour on their latest episode on Mask of the Phantasm, a film I hadn't seen in years and found surprising to experience again.

In the episode we discuss James Bond minute and the history of the jet pack in popular culture, Mark Hamill's strange relationship with independent comics and a discussion of what makes a 'so bad it's good' vanity project.

Always a pleasure, never a chore to join Niall and Jon in taking 60 seconds of a film and going down so many rabbit holes we end up with tunnel vision.

Bat Minute of The Phantasm - Minute 67: Not Everyone Can Be 'William Shatner's TekWar' (with Jack Harvey)

Obscure Comic of the Month - Knights vs Pirates

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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Knights vs Pirates by Jay Martin, Chris Imber and Chris Jenkins - 2020 Reckless Hero

Contains Mild Spoilers

We like to get somewhat intellectual here at Obscure Comic of the Month (and by we I mean me.) Whether it's dissecting the Life is Strange comic's criticism of it's own source material, or discussing what the alien societies of Prism Stalker have to say about mankind's inhumanity to man, dissecting themes, subtext and metaphor is what a lot of this column is all about.

Sometimes, however, along comes a comic that is shaped exactly as it is. Where there are no depths to plunge. What you see it what you get. Knights vs Pirates is one of these types of comics.

Pitting King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table against the crew of legendary pirate Blackbeard, Knights vs Pirates steps into a long standing genre of historical mashups that we have previously seen in such things as the video game For Honour, the tabletop game Unmatched Battle of Legends and the Half-Life mod Pirates, Vikings and Knights.

The video game comparison is apt, really, as Knights vs Pirates is all about the action. Jay Martin isn't here to bring us a story about the class differentiation between noble knights and stateless pirates. He's not here to bring us any kind of exploration of each character's mythic qualities and the legacy they left in historical folklore. He's here to have a bunch of cool looking guys with swords smash up against a bunch of cool looking guys with guns, on boats. It's not dissimilar to downloading a skin pack for Unreal Tournament 2004 so that you can have Gordon Freeman fight the Master Chief.

If it sounds like I'm counting all this as a negative against the work of Martin, Imber and Jenkins you may be surprised to find out that I'm not. If you know me, you know I actually love downloading skin packs for Unreal Tournament 2004 so that I can have Gordon Freeman fight the Master Chief.

Is there a reason that King Arthur here wears the St George's Cross and a crusader's bucket helm, despite predating both those things by centuries? Because it looks cool that's why. The historical and folkloric perspective doesn't really matter. This is pure popcorn munching entertainment. It's smashing action figures together in comic book form, and Knights vs Pirates manages to excel at such goals with high speed and panache.

The story, such as it is, takes place during Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail, as pestilence stalks the land. However, he and his knights become embroiled with the machinations of Poseidon of Atlantis (Why is there a Greek God here and why does he also happen to be a fish man? Because it's cool, that's why,) as has, centuries later, Blackbeard and his crew, who are lured to the Bermuda Triangle and sent backwards in time with the promise of riches and glory.

As the Knights come to terms with gunpowder weapons and the pirates capitalise upon the confused forces of the past, so proceeds a series of battles and skirmishes between Arthur and Blackbeard's forces. The characters are all larger than life, more akin to Street Fighter characters than their historical counterparts, with their own colourful set of unique designs, motivation and gimmicks.

Chris Imber's fast and bold art really stands out in these battles. Keeping a sense of movement and logic at the same time, while making every bloody strike and blow feel heavy and visceral. Likewise, Jenkin's vivid colours really pop out of the page, and bring to life the personalities of these colourful characters (pun intended.)

The writing is archetypal with Arthur so noble it's almost maudlin, and Blackbeard very much the pantomime villain. Still, there are genuine moments of pathos here and there, such as Blackbeard expressing his past admiration for Arthur when he read stories of his adventures as a boy, and being nightmarishly torn between the optimism of his youth and the cynicism and selfishness that has overtaken his life.

Like any good versus story, after many bloody losses, the two sides eventually join forces to fight the real villain. Poseidon rises at the end to reveal the full extent of his schemes, which primarily concerned the retrieval of Excalibur, the sword having been constructed from his three pronged trident (Why? Because it's cool, that's why.) The climax brings an action packed battle as Imber really pushes the visuals to create a striking melee between Knight, Pirate and aquatic sea-folk.

Knights vs Pirates is excellent evidence that you can produce a story that is silly and over the top without being dumb. It's shallow only in the sense that greater depth would actively make the story worse. The story need not be saddled with attempts at highbrow storytelling. This is a monster truck rally. This is professional wrestling. This is a visual cavalcade of larger than life characters carrying larger than life weapons.

I can safely say that if I had read this as a sixteen year old I would have easily become obsessed with it, and sometimes, you just have to give the sixteen year old inside yourself something like this every now and again, as a treat.

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Jack Harvey 2023. Knights Vs Pirates (c) 2020 Reckless Hero. Images used under Fair Use.