Catching Up

By Regie Rigby

Hi folks – I’m back after my unscheduled break. I won’t go into details here*, but the circumstances which took me away for six weeks may (in fact almost certainly will) recur, so if I suddenly vanish again please bear with me.

In the meantime, the world of comics has continued to revolve with no regard to my absence whatsoever. This is a good thing, because a whole load of very good things have happened while I wasn’t looking, and coming back to find them all waiting for me has been rather pleasant. And trust me – right now “pleasant” is something I need as much of as I can get.

So, for a start, why didn’t anybody tell me there was a new Jeff Smith series coming out? Were it not for Darren, my ever watchful comics dealer who saved me the last copy in the shop I might well have missed this, and that would have been a crying shame, because RASL looks fabulous! Like Smith’s previous opus Bone this is a stylish black and white book illustrated with Smith’s characteristic clarity and cleanliness of line. Unlike Bone however, we’re not dealing with a loveable family** of slightly moominesque cartoon type people***, but a genuine human (at least so far was we can tell at the moment) protagonist.

He’s a time/dimension hopping art thief, and there are all sorts of hints in the first issue that there may well be something wider and more sinister going on. His method of travel is thus far unexplained and truly weird looking. Just like Bone, this is a world and a story that I’m interested in exploring, and I’m seriously looking forward to issue #2. If you haven’t picked up #1 yet, have a look out for it. It’ll be worth the effort.

And while we’re on the subject about old favourite creators starting new projects, let’s talk about Terry “Strangers in Paradise” Moore’s new opus, which also started up while I was away. Seriously – if good stuff like this is going to appear every time I disappear for a while, I’m going to make a point of doing it more often.

Echo is, at first glance, a very different beast to SiP, although Moore’s exquisite art style is unchanged. We start with a military test – a woman called Annie is soaring amongst the clouds in some kind of hi-tech flying suit. But there are darker forces at play, and as a result of the actions of the suit’s creator, Annie is apparently killed, and a rain of something falls onto Julie, who it seems will be our central protagonist.

SiP was, underneath the increasingly complicated love story, all about criminal conspiracies. It seems that this time the conspiracies will be Military. Having met some of the characters now, it seems to me that the interplay of personalities in Echo will be every bit as absorbing as those between Francine, Katchoo, David and the rest of the SiP crew.

It’s so good that I don’t even mind the metallic enhanced cover, however much it gave me flashbacks to the early nineties. It’s gorgeous. And that’s not even the start of all the good stuff that’s come my way while I’ve been off dealing with other stuff.

I can’t remember whether I’ve mentioned this before, but just before Christmas I discovered Joss Whedon’s sadly defunct space western Firefly aned was utterly blown away by it. I’ve never ever bought a complete TV series on DVD before, but I’d bought the Firefly set within minutes of seeing the spin off movie Serenity.

So, I’m somewhat in the mood for a good Space Western, and what should pop up in my inbox a couple of weeks ago but Fiction Clemens - a tale that intends to drag the old west “kicking and screaming into the space age”. This is a book that couldn’t be more different to Firefly in both tone and outlook, but it’s still a Space Western, and more than that, it’s bloody brilliant!

Because the book’s writer, one Josh Wagner, is a very nice bloke, I’ve been privillaged to read all three issues already, and I loved them so much it was almost wrong. “Fic” is a slightly shambling hillbilly type, straw hat and all, the kind of guy who sits in the eye of the storm – just carrying on while storms of trouble whip all around him. But when a beautiful gal needs saving, and there’s an arch enemy to tackle, what’s any self respecting cactus rancher to do?

Fiction Clemens takes many aspects of the western genre (a genre I have long loved) and mixes in a huge dollop of post apocalyptic cyberpunk, a healthy dash of psychedaelia as well as more than a touch of inspired madness. The result, presented in a madly cartoony sharp lined art style is a positive delight. There is so much joy, such love of life and energy in this book it positively made my heart dance.

Expect to see issue #1 in May from Ape Entertainment. If you only buy one comic in May, please make it this one. Seriously. I once told you to consider selling a kidney if it was the only way you could get to read The Gloom****, and Fiction Clemens is very much in the same league. If it takes another organ (because sadly, you can only sell a kidney once…) I suggest you go for it. I don’t doubt I’ll be talking about it again, but don’t wait for me. Run, don’t walk, down to your comics store and tell them you want a copy. While you’re there, grab hold of other people in the store (if it’s quiet, consider grabbing passers by) and tell them to order it too.

And so, I’m off to do some more catching up. Circumstances permitting, I’ll be back in seven. Play nice ‘till then.










*If you’re really interested, the basic facts are available in the “FoolBritannia Offline” thread over on the message board.

**Well, alright, Phoney wasn’t always loveable. But they were cute. And the Rat Creatures were truly stupid.

***Yes, OK, so Thorn and Granma Ben were human. Fine. Can we move on now?

****Which continues to be available for your reading pleasure over at The Chemistry Set.