Fell Volume 1: Feral City – Comics Review

Richard Fell moves across the bridge from the big city, to Snowtown, a decaying urban sprawl where everyone is hiding something.

Two great tastes brought together at last. Warren Ellis teams up with Ben Templesmith to create Fell Volume 1: Feral City.

Ellis creates both a hopelessly cool lead character and a superb setting full of urban loathing and crawling paranoia – Richard Fell is a Detective who has transferred to Snow Town from the Big City. Snow Town is a forgotten, seething stew of weirdness (what else? This is Warren Ellis after all), where things are as mysterious as they are twisted. Fortunately for Detective Fell his powers of observation and problem solving are astounding. He soaks up minutiae like a drunken Zen master.

Ellis has found a perfect running mate in Templesmith, who burst on to the scene in a blaze of notoriety and viscera, on the self-penned Thirty Days A Night. Whilst Templesmith adopts technology others might frown on, I challenge you to find a more brooding, atmospheric and wilfully whimsical artist. The Photoshop elements are equally matched by the painterly feel of some of the panels, the pencils are full of character, quirkiness and eccentricity. Templesmith captures the faceless and decaying urban sprawl of Snow Town and manages to make it look like somewhere you’d like to go, just for curiosity’s sake. Also interesting is how he takes the tried and tested nine panel grid and turns out page after page of wonderful variations on this layout. I mention this particularly because Fell is the sort of comic you could give to someone who hadn’t read a graphic novel before and not worry that they might not follow it. The second boon of this approach to layout is that nothing feels rushed or crammed in. The story is allowed to breathe, and the pictures without captions or speech bubbles are as important as the ones that do have them.

It’s not just the fusion of artist and writer that is pleasing – Fell: Feral City is at heart, a comic book about a detective, but there is a strong undercurrent of Horror running throughout. Not gore and guts Horror, but that suspense-building atmosphere that keeps you turning the pages, just to check the shadowy Detective Fell makes it to the end.

This book isn’t for the faint at heart or those allergic to gallows humour and harsh language.

Saga Of The Swamp Thing - Comics Review

I know some people tune in to my blog to get the inside scoop on working in comics. The truth is, there isn’t much to tell, or I should say – there isn’t much I can tell. When you work in licensed comics a lot of information is need to know.

So, instead I’ll enthuse about some of the graphic novels I’ve been reading lately:

My boss was kind enough to give me the hardback edition of Saga Of The Swamp Thing which boasts the talents of England’s comics wizard (quite literally) Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. I’ve not read any of the Swamp Thing stories before, but that’s fine, as the foreword gives a great grounding in the beginnings of this sombre character.

After reading the foreword it really is a pleasure to see how Alan Moore takes a tried and tested character and puts a new spin on it. It immediately put me in mind of one Neil Gaiman and a certain Sandman character. Unsurprising given Gaiman refined his trade under Moore’s aegis. In Saga of the Swamp Thing Moore takes the preconceptions of the character and subtly reinvents him inThe Anatomy Lesson. In this story Moore manages to gruesomely redefine what the Swamp Thing is, and introduce a new character who has a big impact later on.

Fans of lycra-clad, square-jawed heroes beware – this isn’t the usual dimension hoping, super-powered romp you may have come to expect from the genre. This is deservedly a Vertigo title and the American Gothic contained in this hardback is about as far from the noble antics of Superman as you could hope for. Saga of the Swamp Thing is as internal as it is external. The forces and conflicts at large in the world are equally matched by Alex Holland’s search for his own humanity after violently fusing with ‘the green’ to become the titular character.

What starts off strongly becomes a little slow and decidedly odd in the latter half of the book, which see the Swamp Thing come to the aid of school for children with learning difficulties and mental health issues.

It is especially pleasing to see the covers, which whilst dated, are still lots of fun. Although the paper quality in this edition is middling, it does evoke the four colour comics of old.

Star Trek - Film Review

Star Trek.
Dir. J.J. Abrams.
Running time 127 minutes.

James Tiberius Kirk grows up in Iowa in the shadow of a father he never knew. Meanwhile on Vulcan, Spock wrestles with the duality of his mixed heritage. Brought together at Starfleet, sparks fly as these talented but very different personalities forge a friendship.

This review is SPOILER FREE.

Prequels really don’t enjoy a very good reputation at the cinema, so it refreshing to find that J.J. Abrams really has pulled out all the stops and given us an origin story we can get our teeth into.

From the opening scene Star Trek moves briskly, neatly weaving the characters together and taking them on a great adventure. The cast are pitch perfect with Zachary Quinto taking a particularly good turn as everyone’s favourite half-Vulcan First Officer. Chris Pine has just enough charisma to pull of James T Kirk, but it’s his physicality that really impresses. The action scenes (and there are many) really do revolve around this thinking man’s pugilist.

The story also creates an alternate time line, which divorces responsibility of tying in this film with the existing ones. This is a smart move and really does allow this new cast and future directors to explore the Star Trek universe in new ways. Ways that hopefully avoid the panacea of technology, and don’t feel as smug and self-satisfied as other iterations of the Enterprise.

The effects are particularly satisfying, with some great shots and visuals. The space battles look superb and the sets are all flawless. There may a few hardcore fans complaining about nacelles or uniforms but really, the majority will be too busy enjoying the ride.

As if this wasn’t enough the score is spot on too, with choral and orchestral arrangements adding the necessary epic sweep to the frantic action on the screen. Even the incidental music is perfect, pitching to the key demographic of the audience, thirty-somethings in this case. Make no mistake; this is intended for a new generation of fans, perhaps people who wouldn’t ordinarily sign up for two hours of science fiction in the cinema. Concessions are made for the older fans, with some nice in-jokes and nods to the past.

In short, you’d have to be a real curmudgeon (or native Klingon speaker) to find fault with this film. It has breathed new life in to a franchise long past its best.

9/ 10

2 Years Of YLLALKWAB

You Look Like A Little Kid With A Beard is two years old! Two years! 24 months, 730 days… 189 posts!

Looking back it’s funny to see how things panned out. The blog was supposed to be a place I could post reviews about books, and also post short fiction.

What it has actually become is a rich soup of book reviews, social commentary, painted miniatures, film reviews and rambles, political grumbling and a frenzied enthusiasm for music. To take the ‘soup’ analogy a bit further, it’s pretty much a stew of whatever I’m most passionate about when I set finger to keyboard, and boy, do I seem to have a lot of passions.

Anyway, to celebrate two glorious years of blogging I am having a competition. For a chance to win a hardback copy of China Mieville’s The City To The City just complete the following sentence –

“You Look Like A little Kid With A Beard is awesome because…”

Am I really that vain? Yes. Yes I am.

There is also a mystery runner up goody bag for those of you that already have a copy of the book, so don’t hold back – get writing!

Closing date is the May 31st 2009; the competition is open to anyone, anywhere. Leave your competition entry in the comments box of this post. The winner will be announced early in June. Who knows, if you live close enough, I may deliver the prize to you dressed as Wolverine*.

My judgment is final. Threats, bribery or illicit favours will not be accepted (unless there is whisky involved).



*Unlikely.

China Mieville – Book Review

The City And The City
China Mieville
Macmillan

The following review does not contain spoilers.

Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad finds himself mired in politics and old conspiracies following the discovery of a murdered woman in the decaying city of Beszel. However, the answers he needs are elsewhere, beyond a border intangible, in a city unlike his own, and yet with so many similarities.

China Mieville is no stranger to bringing metropolises to the page. His ‘anti-trilogy’ of Urban Fantasy (or New Weird if you will), and a Young Adult Fiction book are set in wonderful cities teeming with citizens and ideas. However, gone are the shockingly imaginative denizens of New Crobuzon, Armada or Un Lun Dun – this is strictly a contemporary affair, set in the present day, in a crumbling city on the edge of Europe.
Or is it?

This is far and away Mieville’s most subtle work, and whilst the prose is muscular, the mystery and relationship of Beszel and its close neighbour Ul Qoma are revealed in small insinuations and teases. If the pace is a little slow then it is only because this is a storyteller luring in the outsider in small increments, for we are all outsiders in Beszel.

Existing fans expecting monsters and villains will need to approach the text with an open mind – this is a crime novel. And whilst Mieville pays homage to, and observes the tropes of the genre it would be disingenuous to expect him not to put his own unique spin on things.

The ending is by turns satisfying and unexpected and the setting fascinating. Perhaps the only criticism is that the protagonist feels translucent and shadowy – but this is perhaps the point. The City And The City is a book of shades of grey and paranoia, where the citizens must remain covert and guarded at all times.

A satisfying crime procedural novel loaded with parallels to pre-unification Berlin and Orwellian dread. An interesting gambit from author – challenging his existing readership to try something new.

8 /10