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Accident Man.
Look Ma! A British comics movie! With martial arts. Who bloody well went and thought of that one....
With the news that the Toxic / Dark Horse comic 'Accident Man' in movie form is finally wrapped and almost ready for release I thought that I would have a look at it.
British martial arts actors with longevity and style seem few and far between here but this guy seems the real deal. Adkins was born in 1976 in Sutton Coldfield and wrote the movie with his childhood pal Stu Small. His exposure to martial arts came early on with Judo classes at the age of 10 years before moving on to Tae Kwon Do at 14 years and then on to Kickboxing. After taking an acting course he grabbed a bag and headed to Hong Kong and worked alongside greats like Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan.
The actor returned to the United Kingdom and took roles in more mainstream fare on television in 'Doctors', 'Eastenders' and a recurring role in 'Holby City'.
Adkins has a long list of cracking movies and performances to his credit now. Appearing in 'Doctor Strange', 'Grimsby', 'Expendables 3', 'Green Street 3' and many, many more. He has carved out for himself a respectable series of martial arts movies as well. Not bad for a lad from the midlands.
He has spoken with huge enthusiasm about wanting to keep the adaption 'Twisted' and with 'dark humour' and also to set 'Accident Man' in London. It has now wrapped the post production phase a couple of months ago (according to the Accident Man instagram page) and Adkins is hoping it can get a theatrical release (as am I).
I recently spent a boozy evening chatting to Pat Mills about this project and he is also very excited about the possibilities. Accident Man is creator owned and is taking that step in to movies that many 2000AD creations haven't managed yet. It's been a long time coming and good to hear that it's being made by someone who seemingly understands what this anarchic and stylish comic is all about.
This is a movie/franchise with huge potential. The actors starring alongside Adkins is like a who's who of comic adaption action stars. Michael Jai White ('Batman: The Dark Knight' and 'Spawn'), Ray Stevenson ('Punisher: War Zone' and 'Thor'), Ray Park ('X-Men', 'G.I. Joe'), Ashley Greene ('Batman: Arkham Knight') and Amy Johnston (stunts in a load of Marvel/DC movies incl, 'Deadpool', 'Capptain America: Winter Soldier' and 'Suicide Squad').
In interviews Adkins has spoken about the tone being kept from the comic and also says that they have kept a 1980s 'John Carpenter style' soundtrack.
Sound good? It does to me.
So let's have a look at the comic series that inspired this new project.
'Listen Bidet-Face... I'm letting you go now, but I still intend to kill you...'
Written by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner.
Art through the series by Martin Emond, Duke Mighten and John Erasmus.
Accident Man premiered in the short lived and much missed TOXIC! comic before moving on to a Dark Horse series (with covers by Howard Chaykinn no less!) It's now available in a hard cover collection from Titan Comics.
This is a series about Mike Fallon. A hitman who in the most part makes all his kills look like accidents. He's got a tendency to the richer things in life, Fast cars and motorbikes and woman who alternatively will fuck your brains out and/or cut your throat. He likes to live on the edge. He's a master of numerous martial arts and likes to refer to his melting pot of styles as 'Newberry Style'. He is also probably the most ghastly anti-hero you'll read in a long time!
'I'm a Kung Fu and Chips man myself.'
He despises pretty much everything that doesn't involve him getting paid or gatting his rocks off and will unwind by challenging a group of football fans to a punch-up. He's also loosely associated with a group of other hit men of various styles and techniques. One hilarious sequence has him attending the hitmen awards. A son who is collecting an award for his deceased father declares 'You're all mad!' before taking his seat back in the audience.
Mike Fallon is very much the anti James Bond. Mills and Skinner avoid all the cliches by lampooning many of them. Fallon dresses impeccably (describing in details everything he's wearing down to cufflinks and personalised condoms in one issue), he sleeps with only the sexiest and deadliest women and spends his life being rude to the rich and poor alike. He is appallingly nasty and cruel. He lacks a shred of any kind of morality. He acts purely for monetary and physical satisfaction. A kill is a masturbatory act for Fallon and he gets off on each and every one. (You're getting the idea of how much I love this book by now?)
The opening few issues under the art chores of the sadly now passed Martin Emond feel like the nastiest of all the series. It feels like you are reading an Underground Comic. Something that you would most definitely have to hide from your mum and dad. Dirty, bloody and extreme this is the genesis of the hero. He would later go in to a more sleeker and smarter look under the pen of Duke Mighten and John Erasmus. But it's Emond to me who really gets the idea and runs with it. He chocks the page full of jokes and sound effects. His exaggerated punk edged violence fits the story brilliantly.
The satire of the book is amped up on page after page as you would expect from Mills and Skinner. Never failing to grasp a curled lip and two fingers raised at the establishment this is as alternative as you could ever have gotten in a UK newsagents weekly! Toxic burned brightly and is missed by all who were readers. At the time it was touted as an alternative to 2000AD. Imagine if we had a British weekly that good now! Stories that were groundbreaking like 'The Bogie Man', 'Muto Maniac', 'Marshall Law' and 'The Driver' filled it's pages - now let's see 2000AD try and get that kind of quality in Social Justice Warrior Britain these days!?
I'm hoping that the upcoming movie will kickstart some more comics. I'd love to see a publisher like Dynamite to pick this particular ball up and run with it.
Bring it on!
and....
Fuck You!
Riptide
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