Obscure Comic of the Month
takes a detailed look at a little known entry from my personal comic
book collection. Some will be from major publishers, others self
published projects, Original Graphic Novels, issues and Manga. What
they'll all have in common though, is that I've rarely, if ever, seen
anybody talk about them.
The Pennyfarthing Project by
Philippe Cottarel and Jean-michel Philibert – Six of One 1997
The Pennyfarthing Project
is a special publication of Le rOdeur, the french language Prisoner
magazine. It is published for the French and overseas members of Six
of One, the official Prisoner Appreciation Society.
Mild Spoilers
We'd already taken a look at
the official Prisoner comic,
Shattered Visage, last year, and as such
it'd be tempting to take this opportunity to compare. The
Pennyfarthing Project, however, defies such comparisons. While
Shattered Visage was an attempt to expand the scope of The Prisoner,
The Pennyfarthing Project is instead a faithful tribute, an attempt
to ape the tone and mood of the TV series without trying to do
something inherently different.
The Pennyfarthing Project is
one of the main reasons I wanted to start Obscure Comic of the Month.
It's probably the weirdest part of my collection. A self published,
personally bound, French fan-comic of The Prisoner that I picked up
at Portmeirion . The fact that it even exists just makes me smile.
As mentioned, The
Pennyfarthing Project is simply Cottarel and Philiber's tribute to
the TV series, nothing more complex than that. What they set out to
do is produce a story that could be seen as a 'lost episode' of the
TV series, just unburdened by budget or imagination, and for the most
part they succeed.
The Pennyfarthing Project
plays closely to a lot of the TV series best episodes. Number 6 is
brainwashed and convinced that The Village is a recovery resort for
amnesia cases. Number 2 plants the charismatic Number 7 to coax
information out of Number 6, who slowly figures out their plot with
the suggestion that he and Number 7 have met somewhere before.
All in all, it's a pretty
good Prisoner story, with the expected twists and turns. Cottarel and
Philibert also make great use of The Pennyfarthing Project's own
format, with psychedelic visuals very in keeping with the TV series
but in ways the budget would never allow. Spiralling panel layouts
reinforce the feeling of distortion and unease. Antagonists morph
into hallucinated figures.
Philippe Cottarel's art
deserves high praise, really capturing the atmosphere of the village,
though it is clear that at times he's copying from stills of the TV
show, making the characters feel somewhat stiff. But the black and
white is crisp, and the story has a momentum to it that gives a life
to the artwork.
On the other hand, some of
the translation feels a little clunky and the lettering choice is
really weird. Still, the visual storytelling is really creative and
the bonus artwork at the back is capital B beautiful. There's lots of
visual nods to the classic series, with references to the opening,
the finale and an appearance near the end of Leo McKern's Number 2
that really taps into the chemistry they had on screen.
If The Pennyfarthing Project
has one main problem though, it's in the character of Number 7. Based
in appearance on Sam Fox, she visually sticks out from the rest of
the comic in a way that feels jarring. She looks smoother than the
other characters visually, far more 1980's in both fashion and beauty
standards, but more than anything, she's just too sexy.
The Prisoner always had a
sterile, sexless quality to it, not least because it's star Patrick
McGoohan, was allegedly uncomfortable playing sexually liberal
characters. That always worked in the shows favour though, adding an
extra layer of 'wrongness' to the village.
So hot pants wearing,
midriff baring Number 7 is a weird anachronism. That's not to say
there isn't something interesting you could do with that, especially
in a Prisoner comic, but that doesn't seem to be what The
Pennyfarthing Project is going for here. It seems more likely that
Cottarel and Philiber simply wanted to draw Sam Fox in a bikini.
Which is a shame because
sexless McGoohan vs sensual Fox could have been a fascinating concept
and an interesting statement, but the writers just try to slot her
into a standard Prisoner story without minding the seams. It damages
the overall experience too, which would otherwise be a tightly paced,
lovingly rendered homage to a classic series.
Philippe Cottarel and
Jean-michel Philibert still seem to be cracking out new stuff for the
comics scene over of the continent, and they still seem to have a
love for The Prisoner too. It's that love that shines through for
The Pennyfarthing Project the most, despite it's flaws.
Ultimately The Pennyfarthing
Project is a fun ride of the merry-go-round one last time. A reminder
of what made The Prisoner great and, more chillingly, why it's still
as relevant now as it was when it was first broadcast.
The night is long for he who
watches.
Jack Harvey 2016. The
Pennyfarthing Project (c) 1997 Six of One, Philippe Cottarel and
Jean-michel Philibert. The Prisoner was created by Patrick McGoohan
and George Markstein and produced by ITC Entertainment. Images used
under Fair Use.
