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Brink - Book One - Dan Abnett & INJ Culbard

Started by robert_ellis, 30 September, 2017, 12:38:11 PM

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Jim_Campbell

Quote from: TordelBack on 11 April, 2018, 10:39:11 PM
That's the secret of its appeal for me,  no doubt.  That delicious uncertainty is masterfully handled.

Yep. It adds a Lovecraftian undercurrent of unease that's pervasive and omnipresent, almost like Lynch's industrial noise in Eraserhead. I think this is probably Abnett's finest work for 2000AD,* ably assisted by the oh-so-deceptive simplicity of Culbard's art.

*And I say that as an unreserved admirer of Kingdom, and someone who's never sorry to see a run of Sin/Dex in the prog. TBH, I can't name an Abnett strip I didn't enjoy, off the top of my head. Slightly surprised that he's barely done a handful of Dredds.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

broodblik

In general I like Dan Abnett's work. Brink is brilliant and both Lawless and Kingdom is great as well. Sin/Dex and Grey Area is readable but the type of strips that if they don't return I will not miss them.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

TordelBack

Yeah, while they all have lovely bottoms, I have no problem arguing that Abnett is second only to Wagner as the comic's top writer of the present day.  And that is in full acknowledgement of the depth and breadth of the writing talent currently contributing to the prog, old hands and new blood alike.

AlexF

Only more Abnett love from me, too!
I would say that he took a little while to get going in his 2000AD career. Very early SinDex is charming but his other early work has all been far bettered since:

BlackLight, Sacho Panzer, Atavar, Black Atlantic are all OK thrills.
The VCs, Kingdom, Insurrection, Lawless, Brink are all AMAZING thrills!

I still can't make up my mind whether I like his Durham Red or not, but I think that has more to do with Harrison's artwork, which I also switch around on, sometimes on the same page.

See more analysis here (written long before Brink came into being)...
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/no-9-dan-abnett.html

sheridan

Quote from: AlexF on 16 April, 2018, 10:51:40 AM
Only more Abnett love from me, too!
I would say that he took a little while to get going in his 2000AD career. Very early SinDex is charming but his other early work has all been far bettered since:

BlackLight, Sacho Panzer, Atavar, Black Atlantic are all OK thrills.

I don't remember anything about Black Atlantic - shall have to have a look at the Heroes... blog to see if it rings any bells.

Tombo

Quote from: sheridan on 23 April, 2018, 01:16:47 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 16 April, 2018, 10:51:40 AM
Only more Abnett love from me, too!
I would say that he took a little while to get going in his 2000AD career. Very early SinDex is charming but his other early work has all been far bettered since:

BlackLight, Sacho Panzer, Atavar, Black Atlantic are all OK thrills.

I don't remember anything about Black Atlantic - shall have to have a look at the Heroes... blog to see if it rings any bells.

Comedy series from the Meg (253-255 & 276-278) about a bunch of misfits running a salvage/scavenger ship out in the aforementioned Black Atlantic. Art by Steve Roberts

wedgeski

I dropped the groats for Book 2 (unfortunately from Amazon, as the 2000AD store only had the digital or Book1 & 2 package) and just *ate* that thing up.

Fully prepped and ready for Book 3. I can't remember the last time I looked forward to a comic series this much (dare I say Halo book 3?).

Molch-R


wedgeski

Quote from: Molch-R on 19 September, 2018, 10:13:07 AM
Quote from: wedgeski on 19 September, 2018, 09:55:08 AM
the 2000AD store only had the digital or Book1 & 2 package

Paperback is right here... https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB637
Okay, have investigated, and this was a failure on my part to grok the shop interface.

However, in the interests of giving good feedback: searching for 'Brink' in the catalogue shows Book 1 listed as 'Digital Edition', book 2 listed same, and the Book 1 & 2 bundle listed as 'Paperback'. If you click on Book 2, Digital Edition is selected, and Paperback is greyed out, which to me reads as unselectable, even though I now realise it is actually selectable. Might I suggest that you show 'Digital Edition' and 'Paperback' as separate results in the search interface, and put a little bit of black into the additional format selectors. :)

IndigoPrime

You're not the only person who's had that UI issue with the site. I thought the same with something, and only ended up buying because I accidentally clicked on what I assumed was a 'out of stock' greyed out button.

Molch-R

Quote from: wedgeski on 19 September, 2018, 10:23:19 AM
Okay, have investigated, and this was a failure on my part to grok the shop interface.

However, in the interests of giving good feedback: searching for 'Brink' in the catalogue shows Book 1 listed as 'Digital Edition', book 2 listed same, and the Book 1 & 2 bundle listed as 'Paperback'. If you click on Book 2, Digital Edition is selected, and Paperback is greyed out, which to me reads as unselectable, even though I now realise it is actually selectable. Might I suggest that you show 'Digital Edition' and 'Paperback' as separate results in the search interface, and put a little bit of black into the additional format selectors. :)

Many thanks for the feedback. This very point has been the source of much debate in the web team and the webshop has been through multiple iterations. We briefly considered having separate results for digital and physical but, in practice, so many search results looked even more confusing.

Regarding the first point you make, any listing that has a physical copy includes a note like this:



We've been pressing for physical media to appear first in searches but there's database issues with out-of-print books that will take a very long time to resolve. It's something we're aware of but there's no easy solution that covers all the bases at the moment.

wedgeski

No probs, thanks for the feedback feedback. I must admit that I have *never* noticed the "Also available in paperback" footer! I can also see how having separate digital/paperback results would create a lot of noise on search results.

At least I'm sorted from this point. :)

Apestrife

I just finished book one. Really good hard sci fi. I really like it's insanity bits. I'm pretty sure wouild happen if humans had to survive as a species by living on a space station. Also cool that while the main characters are talking about the causes and what not, it still seems like they're affected by it. Especially since there are things which seems off, but still characters acts as if it's normal. Makes the said insanity feel "real".

But it's not only the writing. I really like the art as well. Looks very unique. Fantastic use of colours. Great pacing. I really like the reoccurring visuals of things floating in the air. Everything from the space station they're on to stuffing from down jackets after someone's shot. Gives the sparsely decorated space station a lived feeling.

Read it digital, but I'm fairly certain I'll have to pick up book one and two soon. Especially since three is out next year.

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Aaron A Aardvark

Just read volume 1 & 2. Wow, this is great stuff.
I missed so much when it was in the Prog.