In Review - ‘Arale published by Europe Comics.

‘Arale’.

Script by Tristan Roulot.

Art by Denis Rodiet.

Colour by Bruno Tatti.

64 pages - Full Colour - £3.99.

Published by Europe Comics.

The Story - ‘The year is 1934. Rasputin holds the reins of government. When the Czar is mortally wounded in an ambush, the mad monk turns to his Council of Dark Mages and his former mentor, Baba Yaga. Together, they concoct a plan that involves trench warfare mechas, mind-to-mind transfers, and the long-lost heir to the Romanoff throne: Kyril Noskov, a hero of the war that's been raging since 1914, to which generations of Russian youth have been sacrificed. Roulot and Rodier's reimagining of a Russia that never was blends science fact and dark fantasy into a spellbinding fable of the price of power.’

‘Deep in the woods, look and you will find Baba Yaga’s little hut.’

The Review - ‘It’s OK, it’s fairly simple, just draw some horses and then blow them and the carriage they are pulling up in a faux future Russian setting?’ Typed a writer in about two minutes. But Rodiet pulls it off with panache over and over!  This is a book that I really wasn’t expecting after seeing the cover image. It’s also another book from the Europe Comics stable that caused me to send images of what I was reading to comics and art loving pals with the words ‘Fuck Me!’

Essentially at it’s heart this is an alternative history book. A narrative that examines the assertion of what if the Czar had survived (redacted - spoiler) in old Imperial Russia. Lieutenant Kyril Noskov is a hero of the ongoing war and has now been given the task with his partner Sergeant Saskia to train the (very) young future pilots of the Soviet Mech - The Vector 9 aka ‘The Trencher’. Nothing here is as it seems.....

This book is full of both gorgeously creepy details and Machiavellian plans within plans. Rasputin claims that the Czar is immortal. Is he? Or is something altogether more deadly and mystical going on behind the doors of the palace and in the basements of military bases? Kyril is our hero and a soldier who is loyal to his leaders but he is pulled into a mission that may well change the course of Soviet history in this sinister alternate universe. It’s unlikely that he is being told anything near to the truth yet follows through on each of his perceived obligations. This is a comic that gallops along from one amazing piece of artwork and speculative plot twist to the next. 

‘These are hard times for the truth...’

The art is hyper detailed and full of realistically realised heroes and villains. I could read the pages containing Rasputin over and over! The artist has a strong grasp of physicality and setting. He knows exactly what he is doing with a strength of purpose and fills every single page to astounding effect. I could see him in the same class as current artists like Steve Epting or even Sean Philips with a direct line back to Raymond, Toth and Gil Kane. Rodiet has worked extensively in US floppies but this book is next level!

As well as being an incredible artistic artefact this comic speaks to so many themes in it’s 64 pages. Duty, patriotism, a war weary society, mysticism, Mech soldiers and the evolution of the art of death and destruction, love and relationships and dark and dangerous conspiracies. It’s also about the nearest you’ll get to combining action and adventure in a fantasy setting with the war poetry and tragically beautiful quality of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. It manages by the end of the book to have knotted together all these ideas into a satisfactory ending.

It’s quite the book.

As I type I’m about two hours from recording an interview with Irina Polianina from Europe Comics for the Awesome Comics Podcast with Dan and Vince. I’ll be talking this book up and asking when there is more!

Listen in tomorrow to Episode 191 here https://awesomecomics.podbean.com

You can find out more about Europe Comics by following this link http://www.europecomics.com

Many thanks for reading.

Here’s a little about the creators from the Europe Comics website;

Tristan Roulot is a French journalist and scriptwriter, born in Rennes in 1975. After obtaining a Master’s degree in law, he left the judicial sector to devote himself to comics. He started his scriptwriting career with the humorous series Goblin’s (Soleil), illustrated by Corentin Martinage, which has become a great commercial success, with more than 200,000 copies sold. In Canada he met Patrick Hénaff, with whom he created Le Testament du Capitaine Crown (Soleil), a dark and violent two-part thriller. The pair later joined with Philippe Sabbah for Hedge Fund (Le Lombard), a financial drama at five volumes and counting. Roulot has gone on to create Irons (Le Lombard, with Luc Brahy), set in Canada, as well as Arale (Dargaud, with Denis Rodier), which reimagines a Russia that never was, blending fact and dark fantasy into a spellbinding fable on the price of power. Both titles are available through Europe Comics.

Denis Rodier was born in Quebec in 1963. As a comic book artist he has worked for the likes of DC Comics, Milestone Media, and Marvel Comics. It was in 1986 that he began a career as an illustrator, which would lead him, two years later, to the world of comics. Among his first work for DC Comics was a Batman story published in Detective Comics #589 (August 1988), and his portfolio includes other world-famous characters like Captain America and Wonder Woman. It was his work on Superman that garnered Rodier his greatest acclaim, including the award-winning The Death of Superman story arc. As a painter, his work has been seen in such publications as the illustration compilation Arzach: Made in USA, and his freelance work includes work for such clients as Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel's band), Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson), and Suzanne Vega. He joins the Europe Comics catalog alongside Tristan Roulot with the graphic novel Arale (Dargaud), which reimagines a Russia that never was, blending fact and dark fantasy into a spellbinding fable on the price of power.

In Review - ‘Irons’ Volume 1 - ‘The Engineer’ from Europe Comics.

‘Irons: Volume 1 ‘The Engineer’.

Written by Tristan Roulot.

Art by Luc Brahy.

57 pages - Full Colour - £3.99 (digital only).

Published by Europe Comics.

Released 21/2/2019.

The Story - ‘Meet Jack Irons. He's a cold son-of-a-bitch, but he's got a gift. He can look at a disaster—a fallen bridge, a collapsed skyscraper—and see everything: the physics, the material stresses, the behind-the-scenes insight into how it all went wrong, claiming lives and property. Makes sense: he's a structural engineer. And when he applies his brilliant, analytical mind to crimefighting, then the truth will out. Because that's what he cares about. Not people. Not feelings. The truth. And the truth is about to turn a little Canadian fishing village upside down...’

The Review - Let’s start with that cover! I posted it on my Twitter feed last night (what would modern life be without posting everything that you do/read/see/think on social media? I digress, many apologies.) and it got quite a few comments. It’s a great image that speaks to a tragedy on a big and bleak canvas. A quick look may have you thinking that you have picked up yet another End of the World comic book. But this is much more than that old and dry cliche.

I have to say that opening sequence, that is in fact a flashback from the antihero’s past, is probably one of the tensest sequences I have ever read in a comic. (I’ll partially spoil this as it does appear on the ComiXology preview pages section.) The Irons family fall into a deep river in their car as the palpable cold of their world hits the reader emotionally. As the water pressure builds up on the closed windows the father remains calm although his family are scared and severely injured from crashing downwards. He tells them what to do when the water invades the car’s interior. You are literally on the edge of your seat. I was breathless at this incredible scene. This frightening scene will also come back to haunt Irons years later in another chilling sequence later.

This book is a mystery in the same way that Watchmen in a mystery. It has that whodunnit element as it’s central conceit but speaks to much bigger and possibly important issues than who broke the bridge. This is a story about a community that is based around the fishing industry. A society that is well past the tipping point of falling into the poverty trap and most of the inhabitants of the town and the port are scrabbling to make ends meet. You get real moments between the people in this town as they fight to preserve their way of life.

Walking into this scene in the aforementioned Jack Irons. I would argue with the above story summary and say that outwardly he seems not to care a jot about others. But his actions through this book tell a different story. Albeit that he is pretty much stranded in the snowy town with the collapse of the bridge and he takes to his duties without a small amount of pushing and financial bartering, help he does and very successfully. He has a deep sadness about his that is combined with a stoic intelligence.

‘You really do your best to come off as an asshole don’t you?’

As this book progresses Irons gets pulled into a complicated conspiracy of big business, local law enforcement, crooked politicians and families struggling to survive. Irons make connections in different ways with these townsfolk including the local female sheriff and an ex fisherman who now drives a cab and becomes something of a sounding board.

The art has character and depth and the scenes of deep slushy snow under foot as more comes down in waves from the heavens are really beautifully realised. You feel the layout and personality of this town and it’s inhabitants at every swipe of the guided view. There really are some breathtaking panels that you could stare at all day. I am genuinely in awe of how how does this. (Can Luc draw all the mysteries please?)

Another Europe Comics release that I recommend without reservation. An intelligently told story with emotional depth and social worth. It’ll also keep you guessing throughout.

Head onto ComiXology for more of the same.

If you listen out for the next episode of The Awesome Comics Podcast we’ll have Irina Polianina from Europe Comics on for a chat about all things BD. Irina is also a fan and a goldmine of information about European Comics and what we might be missing here in Blighty.

Find out more about Europe Comics by visiting their site at http://www.europecomics.com or follow them on Twitter @EuropeComics

Many thanks for reading.

Here are some details of the creators for you (many thanks to Europe Comics for the hook up).

Tristan Roulot is a French journalist and scriptwriter, born in Rennes in 1975. After obtaining a Master’s degree in law, he left the judicial sector to devote himself to comics. He started his scriptwriting career with the humorous series Goblin’s (Soleil), illustrated by Corentin Martinage, which has become a great commercial success, with more than 200,000 copies sold. In Canada he met Patrick Hénaff, with whom he created Le Testament du Capitaine Crown (Soleil), a dark and violent two-part thriller. The pair later joined with Philippe Sabbah for Hedge Fund (Le Lombard), a financial drama at five volumes and counting. Roulot has gone on to create Irons (Le Lombard, with Luc Brahy), set in Canada, as well as Arale (Dargaud, with Denis Rodier), which reimagines a Russia that never was, blending fact and dark fantasy into a spellbinding fable on the price of power. Both titles are available through Europe Comics.

Luc Brahy, born in 1964, has always been fascinated by art and adventure. At only two and a half years old, he gravitated toward comic books, and it wasn't long before he was devouring Hergé and Hugo Pratt, and other novelists including Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allen Poe, and Ernest Hemingway. As an adult, he quickly got a foot in the publishing world through advertising and press illustrations, and it wasn't long before he crossed paths with Frank Giroud, with whom he would go on to publish Zoltan (Vents d’ouest, 1994). He later met author Éric Corbeyran, another important encounter for the young artist, and they teamed up on a number of projects, including Imago Mundi (Dargaud, 2003). Over the ensuing years, Brahy went on to establish a variety of successful collaborations, on such series as Insiders Genesis (Dargaud) and Mission Osirak (Dargaud). His most recent work includes the series Irons (Le Lombard, Europe Comics in English), created with Tristan Roulot, which tells the story of the sarcastic and brilliant engineer Jack Irons.

In Review - ‘Ira Dei: Volume 1 - The Gold of the Qaids’ from Europe Comics.

‘Ira Dei’ Volume 1 - ‘The Gold of the Qaids’

Written by Vincent Brugeas.

Art by Ronan Touhoat.

Full Colour - 64 pages - 15+

Published digitally by Europe Comics.

£3.99.

The Story - ‘A Norman by the name of Tancred makes landfall in Sicily with a motley international mercenary crew. A figure of mystery and danger, he soon proves himself a fierce blade and a cunning strategist, but why has he come? Revenge on the embattled Lord Harald now besieging Taormina? The fabulous wealth of the Qaids hidden within the city? Why does Tancred travel with a papal legate who calls him Robert? What disgraceful past is he trying desperately to hide? It’s every man for himself in this intrigue of shifting alliances and sudden death, set against the backdrop of Sicily’s Norman conquest.’

The Review - This is the sort of book that BD does so well (originally published by Dargaud). It’s an adventure tale from the eleventh century set again the backdrop of the political and religious turmoil of the Mediterranean. The situation is not a simple one and pretty much my only complaint is that it is one that I don’t fully understand. My stupidity is on show if anything in that I hadn’t quite realised the reach that Norman warriors had in the area. But this niggle is soon forgotten as the narrative swings into to bloody action.

A small band of mercenaries land their warships on the coast of Sicily in 1040 and approach the local General lead by the heavily facially scarred Tancred to request in joining in the lucrative taking of the island. To prove their worth they are given the job of hunting down teams of enemy soldiers who are controlling the local villages. They do this without a small amount of bloodshed and casualties and you get a sense of the ruthless and barbaric hearted nature of Tancred. He is a man on a mission and nobody will stand alive if they block his path.

After a discussion with the general a female confidant at the General’s side comments in his shell like on Tancred’s presence...

‘...his eyes speak volumes. He’s been through Hell. And lived to tell the tale.’

But it is not just the duplicitous nature of war that is centre stage here it is also the fact that Tancred has a secret. One that is held by the Pope’s representative who is at his side for much of the book. Like many adventure genre historical BD books it is the Christian church that hangs in the background full of treachery and lies. This book takes advantage of this and twists the schemes a little bit more than usual. Something happens in the last chapter of volume one that you may not expect.

The structure of the story is broad and brave and wholly successful. It rushes full pelt at the reader with schemes and battles and blood and sex and a strange borderline incestuous relationship between clergy..... (yeah you read that right).

Nobody is a good guy. Everyone is a villain. All involved are after money or power or possibly both. It shows grandly the chaotic and dangerous life of these times. And so, oh so, much blood! 

The art is right up my street. It manages to live equally well in the smaller moments of conversation as well as when the page opens up to battlefields and sieges. Ronan Touhoat can really draw a warrior. None of these skinny, pretty boy Hollywood actors on show here. These guys look like they can give you a proper clump (as my dear old Dad would say). They have true swagger and walk and act and fight like the true hard bastards that they are.

This is a book that all adventure fans should read. I can see it having a cross border appeal with anyone who loves fantasy and those that have a yearning for this sort of historical setting. It also has on show the ethical ambiguity that you saw in a movie like Flesh and Blood. Remorselessly violent and brutal. Everyone is at risk of falling to the swing of an axe.

I’ve just finished volume one and will be diving into volume two straightaway. I’ve yet to read anything that I haven’t liked from the mighty Europe Comics. They are always worth a look if you are a little tired of the current books being poked out by the big UK and US companies.

There’s also a great character design section at the back of this volume with some great pencil and black and white work that is well worth your time.

Highly recommended.

In Review - ‘Hearts At Sea’ by Cyril Pedrosa. (Published by Europe Comics)

‘Hearts at Sea’

Created by Cyril Pedrosa.

60 pages - Full Colour - £3.99 digital on ComiXology - 17+

The Story - ‘Jean-Paul is a shy, slightly gawky young man leading a rather unremarkable life in which his oppressive mother is all too present. As the anniversary of his father's death approaches, he feels increasingly dissatisfied with his life, and increasingly aware of his loneliness. It's time for things to change. So, without telling anyone, he embarks on a singles cruise and takes his first steps in a brave new world.’

The Review - I’m a bit slow to read this one as it came out in September 2016 but I’m both overjoyed that I found it and a bit embarrassed that it took me so long. It’s a story that focuses on people and what they do and who they cling to. It’s a book that is set on a smallish scale but speaks to us universally in the areas of love, longing, loneliness and just the basic day to day functioning of the human condition. It’s also very, very funny.

Jean-Paul is the everyman of this graphic novel and might not even succeed at that badge. He lives in the shadows of others but has his own introverted ideas of what could/would make his life improve. His mother is a tiny bit overbearing and something of a talker much to his silent frustration. He sits alone for chunks of the book. His moments alone however exist in different environments. Sure we get him in his room toying with the aspects of his life but we also get that familiar ‘lonely in a crowd’ feeling. You watch as he falls through life drifting and finding himself in some pretty awkward/sexual/funny/argumentative and even borderline violent situations. Both a party to what is happening but also a passive observer.

He is actually a person with quite a few friends but seems to fail to notice that he is actually part of a group and a community. He drinks in bars and plays football but is ever restless and a tiny bit lost. So, suddenly in a moment that made me cheer over my morning coffee the scene shifts a third of the way into the book and you find him onboard the ocean liner ‘The Lorenzo’ on a ‘Singles Cruise’. Forced to wear a blue ‘lonely heart’ on his shirt the scene screams of fish out of water awkwardness. Stuck in a situation of his own making he dives in and heads to the opening night’s ‘Cocktail Party’. A whirl of gyrating bodies of all shapes and ages! He is spied by a friendly gold digging GILF and as the book progresses things happen and we actually see him enjoying himself in the company of others.

The art is outstanding. It has a caricature assuredness that I would compare to a looser style of someone like Jordan’s Lafebre’s. It shifts from grand landscapes as the ocean liner leaves and arrives at ports to the crazy flurry of a night of drink and drugs. These images move so quickly that you are drawn along in the psychedelic dreams of the protagonists. I’ve never seen a night of booze and coke drawn or realised so well. The highs and the moral lows of the night and the following morning are deftly crafted as I swiped through this speeding guided view comic.

Fucking masterful!

The writing is also just moment to moment triumphantly structured. It grabs the character, personality and outrageous actions of every single character and pushes them one step further. You know everyone in this book before they open their mouth, you hear their voices and their stories in your head!

How happy should we be with our lot? Does adventure beckon us away from our hum-drum lives? Who can tell you what to do and what’s best?

Do drugs and booze and sex solve anything? (Well maybe you won’t solve these problems but there are clues along the way.)

This book!

If you read anything I recommend this is the one. Literally the best thing I have read in ages. Why isn’t this being mentioned more?

GET IT!

I bought mine on ComiXology. And so should you dear reader!

Here’s a little about Mr Pedrosa from the Europe Comics site.

‘Born in 1972 in Poitiers, Cyril Pedrosa was a huge comic book fan during his childhood and adolescence. At the time he was leaning towards studying science. However, after some trial and error, he ended up taking an animation course at the Gobelins school in Paris, and became a colloborator for the fanzine Le Goinfre. For a few years, he worked as an illustrator for Walt Disney studios in Montreuil (Seine St. Denis), as well as working on the sketches for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Afterwards, as an assistant animator he worked on the animated feature film Hercules. There he acquired a speed of execution and a sense of movement that would serve him well in the future. His meeting with writer David Chauvel would change everything, ultimately bringing about his conversion to comics. The two of them created the series Ring Circus with publisher Delcourt, and Pedrosa began to take part in various collaborative works from the same publisher. Then, in 2006, his own graphic novel Cœurs solitaires was released by Dupuis (published in English by Europe Comics, Hearts at Sea)’

Never Insightful and only ever Inciting! Rant Ahoy.

I wrote recently in reply to a friend ‘I write for myself’. I made it out like it was some ying-yang-yonkey quote but it wasn’t. It was just some of the normal grumpy crap that I come up with most hours.

However I still stand by that comment.

I’m not writing anything that doesn’t both contain part of me and also is done with something that I feel is my own ‘style’. Why should I write anything otherwise? Whore myself out to some intellectual property or publisher who wants me to write something I neither feel anything for or agree with.

I seek neither popularity or fame.

Genuinely. Neither interests me.

Where is this going other than me blowing my own trumpet (if only!)

So......(rant ahead)..... recently I’ve been considering the merit of awards. Are they worth all these constant daisy chains of self congratulatory fellatio that we see absolutely everywhere these days.

The recent fart inducing Oscars Ceremony is maybe what was my own personal tipping point but it’s been on my mind in and around comics for a few years now. 

We’ve recently seen some Small Press comics awards handed out. End of the year ‘Best Of’ lists and the like. Everyone is doing one seemingly. On the Awesome Comics Pod we are careful to say that this is a list of our favourites. Who out there could claim to have read everything and so make a ‘Best Of’ valid? Not me and I read multiple comics every day.

Let’s ponder if these winners and short listed comics or graphic novels deserve the applauds they are receiving. It seemingly only takes one person to say that something is ‘inspirational’ or ‘incredible’ or ‘feminist’ for everyone to jump on board the oral pleasure giving train as it leaves the station for Awards Town.

It’s such a small pool of choice and voters that it’s relevance makes it totally irrelevant. A number of readers and their mums pointed at a website and told to vote doesn’t make a ‘Best Comic of 2018’!

So what’s the right approach? Give democracy it’s way and make it a popular vote? Hmmm. ‘Lowest common denominator’ seems like an appropriate term? We all know where the popular consensus has got us? X-Factor, Naked Ambition, Jim Davidson, the Image Revolution of the nineties, Funkos, Talking Bass, PornHub and Brexit! 

Giving an art form over to the plebeian masses seems like a mistake too.

So who runs these comics awards? Sometimes it’s one or two people from a website or organisation that for the rest of the year is wholly ignored. How do you make yourself popular? You hear them biting their nails in their blogpost wankatariums..... 

‘I know! Let’s run an award!’ The idea comes to them like a problem solved by mathematician in a bathtub.

‘Oh?! Flaps.com is running an award? I’ll get in on that action and it’ll give me the chance to promote my ‘brand’. (Said everyone on the internet).

You see people posting links for articles on websites they wouldn’t consider reading otherwise and won’t return to. Awards they’ve slagged off for years but now with a sniff of a present like a home for a starving dog they’ll jump the leg of that organisation to get something, anything.

Let’s face it, loads of these books are derivative bollocks. Often parading themselves around Waitrose like their farts smell of roses and they have a thought in their heads that resembles something close to originality. I’ve seen some unboundless twattery get awards in the last few years. It breaks my heart every time our medium is cheapened like this! People who can neither draw nor write winning awards due to their shouting ‘Look at this, LOOK AT THIS’ in various shameless ways.

One way seems to be by claiming your work is worthy in some way? Lifting it above the people who create without fanfare. Or just constantly, constantly, constantly telling you how great they are with shallow and stained platitudes! Vomit inducing comments about how worthy they and their graphic novels are and how people should look up and worship their unbridled brilliance as they squeeze a peanut littered shit onto your faces. I’ve seen some attention seeking crap in my time but this makes Holly Hagan look positively a hermit.

But...... We are the suckers for taking part in this attention seeking shambles!

We are the mugs.

So.....

Fuck everyone else. Make comics. Enjoy comics. Shout about them. But they ain’t and should never be an avenue for fame and fortune. (Let’s face it the money ain’t really there anymore anyway so what are you left with?) As with everything seemingly on the internet the ‘Look at Me’ generation is bending us over daily.

Pull your trousers up and have some fucking respect for yourself! 

I have to admit that there are whole swathes of reviewers and sites that if they understood what I was writing about I would be mortified.

The idiots rose years ago! Fuck ‘em!  

Not jealousy, not envy, just truth.

If you don’t understand what I am talking about you are either deluding yourselves or ..............

More Dog!

That gangsta Mr Stuart McCune sent me a care package from Italy! 

Along with Dylan Dog #389 (on the left above) was another batch of gorgeous cards. Since we don't really get them over in the UK or USA it would be worth showing comic art fans what they are all about.

Just have a look at these beauties.

Blown away!

Now someone needs to pull their fingers out and get this great series translated!

Still Alive.

Hey folks! Apologies for the radio silence in the last couple of weeks.  Don’t worry I’m still alive.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks on the comics front.

We had a great launch of issue four of Awesome Comics and ‘How to Make Comics with Springworth’ at True Believers on the 2nd of February. They both went down a storm and we’ve been getting some great feedback from parents and kids who have thrown themselves into drawing Punchy and his pals.

Here’s the link to buy yourself some Springworth from Waterstones! https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-make-comics-with-springworth/andy-hanks/tony-esmond/9781916488601

You can also head over to the Little Heroes website and grab a copy there https://fairsparkbooks.co.uk/product-category/series/how-to-make-comics

Shhh but it’s a secret but myself and Andy Hanks have started working on something new so watch this space. I’m busy plotting it right now.

It also goes without saying that you’ll also need a copy of the new Awesome Comic. Issue number 4 rounds out the three stories and we have had a ball producing this series. There may even, possibly, be something else in the pipe (ain’t that right Mr Cumber?). So head over to our store and grab a copy https://awesomecomicpod.bigcartel.com/

In other news I’ve been to Spain visiting Pat and Lisa Mills as part of a retirement present to myself. It’s been a blast and they have looked after me and hours have been spent shooting the breeze over an awful lot of red wine.

Here are a couple of pictures of Pat with some familiar comics. He was kind enough to do this and proof if it was ever needed what a gent he is! If all goes to plan we’ll have a short interview for the pod with some of his exciting new plans.

Pat is running a series of articles called ‘Storyteller’ that break down the comics creation process and are like crack to fans of writing like myself. They are highly recommended and you can find them here https://www.millsverse.com/


Here is also a photo of the office for the week!

So...fuck you all, I’m off to write about a brave robot, a strange movie star, a prostitute (obviously) and read some more comics.

Catch ya soon.