Bloody Mary Ennis & Ezquerra

[Tjm86]

Picked this up for a bargain price the other day.  One of those series that I'd seen back in the day but for some reason never gotten around to reading.  So I figured, especially for the price on them, why not?

Well, it's Ennis and Ezquerra on fine form.  Sort of a futuristic Adventures of the Rifle Brigade but perhaps toned down a little by comparison.  You've got all of Ennis' favourites: bat-poo crazy characters, bucket loads of gore and violence, maiming, mutilation, thinly-veiled homophobia ...  All wrapped in Ezquerra's gorgeous art.  As always it manages to render Ennis' insanity perfectly.  Other than Dillon, I can't think of many artists that have pulled it off as well (okay, Flint, Jock, McMahon probably could, Belardinelli would be an interesting choice ...).

The story is fairly predictable in many ways, largely because of much of the above.  That said, it works as well as always.  Probably not something that could be published today in the current hyper-puritanically-politically-correct landscape.  Worth a look though.

[JohnW]

I read the headline and asked, "Who's Mary Ennis and what's she done to upset Tjm86?"

(If this is anything like Adventures of the Rifle Brigade then count me out.)

[Tjm86]

I know what you mean about Rifle Brigade.  It got more than a little out of hand, descending into puerility towards the end.  Perhaps that is more about how far and how quickly attitudes were changing at that time.

I suppose my comparison is regards the outrageously grotesque characters permeating the story.  The humour is more appropriately toned compared to AotRB.  Probably more in the vein of Preacher.

As an example of Ennis' oeuvre, it leans more towards his better output.  Perhaps because he focused more on telling a war story with touches of dark humour than a comedy in a war setting.

As an example of Ezquerra's work, it is him in fine form.  Hardly surprising since there are few examples of lapses in quality (given that this was around the time he was experimenting with digital backgrounds, this is actually an instance where it worked well).

At the sort of prices these are likely to command, it is probably an example of a series that offers good value for money.  Too little of what is offered these days is able to say the same.  Then again I am a KOS so perhaps that says more about me than what is available? 

[JayzusB.Christ]

It's either my age or out-of-touchness but I have to ask - what's a KOS?  The only thing I've found on Google is Kill On Sight, in relation to gaming.

I enjoyed Bloody Mary but it's far from Ennis' best, to my mind at least.  Not sure of the timeline, but for me he started to get really good when he got all that Catholicism / drinking Guinness / buggery / castration stuff out of his system.  Not that any of that offended me or anything, but after a while it was kind of 'change the feckin' record, Garth'.