Time Bomb Comics: Longship

 

Longship

Time Bomb Comics

Written by Lawrence Rider

Artwork by Rebecca Teall

56 Pages

Full Colour

Format: 21 x 21 cms

Retail Price £7.99/$10.99

You can order online: http://timebombcomics.com/products.html

LONGSHIP SPECIAL EDITION HARDCOVER

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I actually wrote a quite long review which Blogger appears to have deleted.  It was there and ten minutes later -nothing.  You have no idea how close I am to chucking this all in.

The story/script was, apparently, written long before an artist was found in Rebecca Teall, a fine artist who had never worked in comics before.  You can find her blog here: http://www.rebeccateall.co.uk/

Anyway, just what is Longship about?  Interestingly, Lawrence Rider explains on his blog http://lawrencerider.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/longship/

"So what is it about? I’ve spent quite some time describing it as fifty-odd pages about a funeral, but that tends to make people uncomfortable. Nobody really likes funerals, and they like talking about them even less. Funerals are about loss and grief, and we understandably tend to put them to the back of our mind. Which is, in a way, what Longship is about?

"I often tell people that I want to be interred in a pyramid when I die. I’m pretty sure that most of the people that I tell this to think that I’m a touch morbid. It’s not morbid, though, at least not in my mind.

“My pyramid is intended to be a celebration of my life, something for people to remember me by when

I’m gone. I don’t see planning for that as morbid, I see it as a culmination of my life, something I can leave behind. Which is, again, kind of what Longship is about.

"I’ve described Longship, perhaps a little pretentiously, as a story of life, death, what you leave behind, and what we will do to honour those we love. It’s about loss, and acceptance of that loss, but also about celebration.  It’s a celebration of a life after it’s ended. That’s also what Longship is about.

"The story is about a Viking ship burial on a hill somewhere in Yorkshire, set in the modern day. It’s beautifully illustrated by Rebecca Teall....She has made it look far better than I ever dared to hope."

I think that sums it up nicely.  In the old days of TV this story would have been the basis for a slice-of-life

Play For Today.  As it is, this story flows nicely and Teall's art works wonders.  I loved the use of Runes -see page below.

Is it really "an emotional roller-coaster" of a story as one person put it?  Well, it obviously impressed Time Bomb Comics Steve Tanner enough to publish it.   I never give too much away story-wise and in this case it is hard to give "spoilers" -you have to read the whole book to get the feel of what is going on.

One of the best from TBC to date?  I'd just say you ought to support British talent and buy a copy because for a 50+ pages colour book the price is cheap!

 

Now, as I have re-written and TRIED to publish this for the last hour let's see if it works now!

interior pages