Armageddon Patrol Book 1

Armageddon Patrol Book 1


Kultcreations
Written by John A. Short
art by Alwyn Talbot and Alex Paterson,
cover by Vincent Danks and Craig John
Black & White
100pp
US trade size (B4)
Perfect bound
£12.99  UK   $16.99 US
(Warning contains swearing and violence!)
http://kultcreations.blogspot.com/


“The first collection of Armageddon Patrol is out now! It collects the first four, sold out issues of John A. Shorts series that asks the question ‘What if superheroes had fought in Vietnam?’  It has a brand new full colour cover by Vincent Danks of ‘Harker’/'Torchwood’-fame!”

This is all set in the late 1960s and that is one nice cover.  Maiden America is one mean mutha cigar-chewing femme and she’s handy with the gats (sorry. No idea where that came from).  There’s action aplenty and some good writing from John Short proving that this is why UK comics is in a mess –good writers have nowhere to work other than with Independent publishers.

And this brings me briefly to Kult Creations. Some of the material they are working on/producing makes them well worth keeping an eye on in future.

There was the impression in my mind that some of the art looked a little “off” but as you go through the book you realise that some of this artwork must be quite old just going by the way it develops.  If I got that wrong…well, I got it wrong!  There is almost a Geoff  Darrow look.  Some people might not like it because it isn’t clean black and white but all the nitty gritty I love and it works well (the helicopter crash on pp 16 & 17 for instance).  It is all too easy to point to negative aspects of the art but, as I assumed this was early art mixed in with later art it never affected my reading or enjoying the book.

It’s interesting to see how costumed Maiden America soon turns into the cigar-chewing, full metal jacket wearing hardcore patrol leader.  It was also interesting to see how, later on in the book, regular “grunts” viewed or interacted with the Armageddon Patrol.

And remember this is set in a war so its violent and there’s harsh language. Overall the book is a great read but I do have one gripe: no page numbering.  For a reviewer that means having to count all the pages since Kultcreations site doesn’t tell you how many pages.  With a stack of books to review those with un-numbered pages tend to go to the bottom of the stack but I enjoyed this one so counted (I hope correctly!).

You can order via the web page.