Publisher: Awesome Comics
Writers: Vince Hunt, Daniel Marc Chant (Murder Road), Tony Esmond (Cockney Kung Fu), Dan Butcher (Vyper)
Artists: Vince Hunt (Murder Road), Nick Prolix (Cockney Kung Fu), Dan Butcher (Vyper)
US format
B&W
There I was, lying in the realm betwixt life and the eternal darkness when who should barge past my faithful retainer waving a batch of comics than Lord Paul Ashley Brown, 4th Baronet of Wedmore.
I gathered my strength and croaked:"You ******* half-witted piece of ******* can't you ****** see I am ******* dying??" To which he reposted, as most professional reposters do: "Ha-HAH! But I am not -look at these!" He then tossed (please, we are better than that) three comics at my head and missing by 3 metres (at the very least) before skipping gayly off through the Ashton Vale lavender fields singing "I'm a little butterfly".
Ahem. Back to the matter in hand...sigh
What I was handed was issues 1-3 of
Awesome Comics (
nothing to do with Rob Leifeld) that Lord Brown had picked up at some small press event that I was neither told about or invited to (oh feel the burgeoning power of my self indignance!!). I browsed through them and thought "Sod off!" but that is not the way a professional reviewer of 40 years experience acts and so I decided to read through
the three issues.
Now I have been reading comics -everything and anything since I was about 6 years old and graduated from the
Bimbo comic (oh, behave!). I have seen comics drawn badly (my own included), adequately, well and excellently. I have a collection noted for some of the most "eccentrically" or crudely drawn artwork. Small Press, Underground, Independents and so on. There is one thing that I have noticed and continue to notice: there is a certain style of drawing (in fact about three) when people start out drawing comics. No exception here.
Ask me some time about my thoughts on my early comic strips!! Even John Byrne has stated that his early work breaking into comics "was not good" and other famous artists rate their initial work until they garnered experience as "barely adequate" and "I can't bear to look at it". Artists are a highly sensitive lot so that means even suggesting that a human should not be drawn with two left hands can cause apoplectic seizures.
The worst drawn comic I ever reviewed got one of the best reviews
because you could "feel" that the person involved was having FUN. No pretence of being a major comic talent or looking for the TV series then movie deal. He was just drawing comics for fun and enjoying himself.
Murder Road was interesting to read and none of the artwork made me cringe. In fact it was fun to look at before reading. The car about to hit the walker and the panel that follows I liked. In issue 2 the art really improves and be warned "naughty language" and violence are part and parcel of this and it looks like more is about to follow as "Mom" turns up at the end of part 3.....wonder how this ended?
With
Cockney Kung Fu we come to an art style I have seen from the United States, Germany and Finland. Again the art improves as it goes along and develops a more humoristic style. Violence and that ever prevalent "naughty language" are included but I somehow think this was not meant to be seen by readers of the
Dandy.
The other thing of note is that the artist has crammed as much as he can into each panel/page
but has not gone overboard and ruined the look or the story. It means that as you read there are lots of things that add extras to the panel rather than a bland "clean" panel and....and...hand lettering??!!! Excellent.
I am not a big fan of comic art produced by computer. Rather like CGI animation have turned films into heavily ansiscepticized "things" (
The Incredibles was well put together but I still cringe because everything is so perfect and clean compared to real hand produced animation). Jeezo, I am one big bag of prejudices.
Vyper looks like "it has had some work done" and when you look at the first two pages you might think "hhmmm" but even as the story develops the art improves.
I have no objection to people drawing comics using a computer but the art has to be good and not look like (I know who they are) "I'll use Background A1 and insert Action Posed Figure S3" it has to show that a person drew it and not a computer. With Vyper I can see the tiny flaws and by part 3 I was enjoying the strip.
Comics have changed and we have no real industry in the UK but what we do have are people who are producing good quality comics that, in the "old days" might have been cranked out on a photocopier while the boss was out of the office and on 80 gsm of varying qualities. I moved from zines and photocopiers then home printing to lazer scanned art and printing and I can see how things have changed *Jeezo, I used to use a Gestetner hand cranked printer back in my old school days so I HAVE seen changes!).
The paper stock used is good quality and thick while the printing process itself is excellent -apologies for my scans but my PC died and I am using a cranky, near dead laptop and all its scanner settings are...insane. Covers look good and with Sid James (?!) dancing on the cover of issue 3 who is complaining.
This is a comic well worth supporting.
To the artists on the book all I can write is that they have done okay and it would be interesting to see their work five years down the line (if I'm still alive!). Don't be afraid to try new things or develop your own styles -you're young and one day you may well be saying "Is that what my art looked like back them?" Joking aside -well worth the cover price of the printed book!
