Punks Not Dead: London Calling’ issue 1.
Written by David Barnett.
Art by Martin Simmonds.
Flatting by Dee Cunniffe.
Letters by Aditya Bidikar.
Edited by Shelly Bond.
Published by Black Crown Comics and IDW.
The Story - ‘Teenage geek Fergie Ferguson and his BF Sid, the ghost of a punk rocker who only Fergie can see or hear, are on the lam for a murder they didn’t exactly commit. They’ve made it to London but on their tail are the police, the quirky paranormal investigation agency the Department of Extra-Usual Affairs, and some really freaky magpie monsters, so there’s not (much) time for sightseeing. While Fergie tracks down his long-absent father to get answers about his powerful new “abilities” (Sid calls them “psychic grenades”), DfEUA’s old-school mod super spy Dorothy Culpepper and her sensible young partner Asif Baig uncover evidence that links Fergie to the underworld. Fergie’s mum Julie and his not-a-girlfriend Natalie also join forces to save Fergie from life in prison… but with a psychopathic serial killer showing an interest, everybody might soon be running out of time.’
The Review - This is the second mini-series from the Punks Not Dead team and is looking to run for another splendid five issues. This issue both sets up the story and the current situation of Fergie and Sid but goes further to add some character and action. Too many issue ones these days are merely set-up and no pay-off but this thankfully bucks that system.
We interviewed Martin and David on The Awesome Comics podcast last year as well as the editor Shelly Bond and I, as a Londoner, have been waiting for this series to hit the more fashionably entitled softy south of England for a number of months. Almost from the outset you realise that Sid wants to breathe deeply of his old haunts in a London that has significantly changed. He wants to revisit the ‘100 Club’ and the Kings Road. Oh what a shock he’ll get when he discovers much of London is now coffee shops, JD Sports, knife crime, media companies and hipsters! I look forward to that undoubtedly hilarious revelation hitting him in later issues.
There’s a little of the old Soho left however as Fergie almost immediately is propositioned for a ten quid blow job from a passing stranger.
Sid questions this with, ‘Surely a blowjobs worth at least twenty these days?’
The book has a cast of strange bedfellows who exhibit in all their own ways a magical individuality but also a grounded realism. Even Natalie, a possible love interest for Fergie and something of a rebel herself, has her own brief moments of freedom and release as she makes herself over in a 2019 version of her own Punk Rock attitude and leaves her abusive and disgusting father behind. Dorothy and Asif are also becoming quite the investigative partnership as they chase Fergie to London, something else is also bubbling under in a magical plot twist that I fully expect to explode any page now.
Martin’s art is another example of his gritty yet fantastical post-post-post punk recreations. The page has an amphetamine tinged Lysergically augmented trippiness and I really feel that he is experimenting successfully with layouts and double page splashes more than on the previous series. I’d also like to note that with Marvel covers, The Immortal Hulk, Friendo and this he may be the busiest artist on the scene.
The dialogue frazzles with movement and naturalist pushing of the story onwards but never losing that edge of defiant character. Barnett manages this with great style and doesn’t fall into the all-too often current fashion of snark and quip. Fergie is still a kid, Sid is still a prick and Dorothy has a strange sex appeal that may just be only apparent to my fifty year old self (your mileage may differ?)
One small problem would be that this is now a storyline with an ever growing cast and we spend almost too little time with each strand. But as I’m off now to Orbital Comics to pick up issue two I feel that this may not now be a problem. Patience!
Highly recommended.
You can find David Barnett at https://davidbarnett.wordpress.com/ or on Twitter @davidmbarnett
You can find Martin Simmonds at http://simmonds-illustration.com/ or on Twitter @Martin_Simmonds
You can find Dee Cunniffe at http://deesaturate.blogspot.com/ or on Twitter @Deezoid
Find Aditya Bidikar https://adityab.net/ or on Twitter @aditab
You can find Black Crown and grab a pint and a game of darts at http://www.blackcrown.pub/ and @blackcrownhq
Many thanks for reading.
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