Pimping the Trades - Slay Per View / The Black Hole...

The Amstor Computer · 19 May, 2005, 05:54:10 AM

Two for the price of one...

ABC WARRIORS VOL. 2: THE BLACK HOLE

TIME FOR ACTION!

When the far-future evil human empire of Termight begins experimenting with time-travel, they unleash a force that could destroy the entire universe! To stop them, Nemesis the Warlock - Deadlock's fellow khaos-worshipper and enemy of Termight - has a plan: the Warriors must travel through the Time Wastes to the central planet of Termight and destroy their technology.

But what the Warriors don't realise is that Termight's legions know they are coming - and that an elite force is waiting to stop them once and for all!

CONTENTS

The Black Hole
Cover gallery (prog 577 only!)

OPINION

A fine reprint of this classic Warriors tale. Although the art suffers slightly from the reduction in size, it still looks fantastic here. The book could have benefited from a more expansive introduction, especially as the set-up for this story has yet to be reprinted. The cover gallery is also fairly paltry - just *one* cover? This is a bare-bones reprint, but done very well.

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SINISTER DEXTER VOL. 3: SLAY PER VIEW

HEAD CASE?

Hired killers Finnigan Sinister and Ramone Dexter once again find themselves up to their shoulder holsters in trouble in this third collection of tales detailing the trials and tribulations of the gunshark life. For one thing, Ramone thinks that he might be a notorious serial killer called the Blevmoi Butcher! Beyond that, Downlode itself is about to be destroyed - unless the trigger-happy duo can put together a team of crack gunsharks to save the city! Get ready to meet... the Whack Pack!

CONTENTS

London Town
The Big Stiff
Lyrical Bollards
To the Devil a Detour
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Mother 'Lode and the Red Admiral
Tan Lines
Tax Returns
Bullfighting Days
End of the Line
Slay Per View
Dead Man Whacking
Death is a Lonely Donegan
Anatomy of a Throwdown
Unofficial Business
Sucker Punch
Grey's Allergy
'Twas the Fight Before Christmas

Cover gallery (progs 1102, 1105, 1108 and 1115)

OPINION

Another brief intro page sets the scene, but with this book it's more of a formality; most of these tales stand on their own, and little introduction is necessary. There's some absolutely stunning artwork in this book - stories from Paul Johnson and Greg Staples being particular stand-outs - and the reproduction really does it justice. After an iffy first volume, the last Sin/Dex collection was a real improvement. This third book is better again, and the repro droids deserve real respect for their work here. If the general level of improvement we've seen across the board holds for the releases due over the next year, we're in for a treat.

The artwork would be little without decent writing to back it up, and the stories here are from a period when Sin/Dex was really firing on all cylinders, and even readers like myself, fed up of what the strip has become, can enjoy this.

As with the previous books, there are a few missing tales. This wasn't really a problem in the first two books, but one of the missing stories here is "Smoke & Mirrors", a 30-page adventure that really should have been kept in. Hopefully it will appear in a future volume, but it's absence here is the only problem with an otherwise superb collection.

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Two great books, highly recommended, and fans can be happy that the collections of these characters end (temporarily?) on such a high note.

Grant Goggans · 19 May, 2005, 06:10:35 PM

I dunno... the absence of "Smoke & Mirrors" is no great loss, but I quite liked the artwork in "Hand Maid in Downlode" and I'm surprised to see it omitted. I'm looking forward to picking up my copy tomorrow evening!

--Grant

The Amstor Computer · 19 May, 2005, 06:22:10 PM

Well, "Smoke & Mirrors" was pretty poor - let down particularly by some awful art - but it is quite a major chunk of story to leave out.

Large48 · 19 May, 2005, 08:04:44 PM

All I can say is if Simon Davis isn't doing the artwork for S&D then its just not the same.........

ukdane · 19 May, 2005, 08:23:37 PM

Thinking of ABC Warriors... and I'm wondering how come no Nemesis collections yet?
I'd have thought they would be a must.

Oddboy · 19 May, 2005, 08:35:15 PM

I think that with DC out of the picture now, Rebellion are focussing on books that aren't available from Titan already...
ie Sl?ine's Time Killers & SD Portrait of a Mutant have both been posponed, but are still available in UK shops from Titan - as is Nemesis.

I'm sure they'll get to them eventually, but the books are out there already (to some extent!)

Grant Goggans · 19 May, 2005, 08:51:05 PM

I think that Nemesis books were probably planned at one point. The DC/2000 AD US Preview comic had a Nemesis pin-up page, so it looked likely they were considering it, if nothing else.

From Rebellion's perspective, there are probably more important considerations right now, although a reissue (or Rebellion release) of Death to All Aliens, followed by a collection of Bks 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 and 9/10 would be nice. Maybe starting in late 2006...?

--Grant

Artificial Idiot · 19 May, 2005, 10:27:10 PM

Well I've never read any Nemisis (I know, I'm a cretin) but my copy of the Black Hole should be here anyday now...

Artificial Idiot · 22 May, 2005, 02:03:17 PM

Apologies for double posting.

Well, I just read through this, and for the most part I agree with Amstor. S.M.S' art really seemed to suffer from the size change. On another note, was it that light in the actual progs?

As for the tale... Wow. While the last A.B.C Warriors book was great, this is indeed a vast improvement! Excellent from start to finsih... Although some things really bugged me. Such as where did Ro-Jaws and Mek-Quake come from? I suspected that Mek-Quake was Steel-Horn, but that doesn't seem to be the case. And on the subject of Steel-Horn, where did he go? Did they leave him on Mars in George's body? Happy Sharnel as well seems to have gone missing, and Joe has upped his vocabulary...

Yes, definatly needed more explanation of the tales that appeared in Nemisis!

Grant Goggans · 22 May, 2005, 06:30:07 PM

Yeah, reading this for the first time suffers from not having reprints of Nemesis Books 3-6 handy...

Nem 3 reintroduces Mek-Quake as a soldier in the Termight army. He mentions he'd really like to run into Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein one day.

Nem 4 finds Ro-Jaws working as a valet on Brittania, the homeworld of the Gothic Empire. Nemesis basically press-gangs him into his service. The terrans send Hammerstein and his last two robots, Hitaki and Mad Ronn, on an assassination squad to kill Gothic Queen Victoria, but Nemesis stops them and convinces them to reform the ABC Warriors. Hammerstein explains that Happy Shrapnel was killed on Mars, and that they'd left Steelhorn/the Mess behind there, so Mad Ronn and Hitaki substitute for them. Joe, Blackblood and Mongrol are recruited from various other jobs they have been working, and Nemesis reveals that Deadlock has been part of his essence since he returned from Mars, found the Knights Martial have gone soft in his absence and prayed to Khaos for help. Nemesis arrived and the two became one.

In Book 5, Mad Ronn is destroyed. Mek-Quake replaces him.

In Book 6, Hitaki is also destroyed. Ro-Jaws accompanies Hammerstein, Joe, Mongrol, Mek-Quake and Blackblood as Nemesis orders them on the Black Hole mission.

--Grant