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Rogue Hooker

The untold story of what went on in Cinnabar between the panels.

(By John Smith.)

I was going to say this sounds like another book of Periwinkle Supreme.

(There are interviews in the Megazine with Adams and Broxton - do those ever get included in reprint stuff?)

Hope has 256 pages?! Blimey. I'd have said 40 to 60

243 strip pages plus four covers = 247. There was also a Previously On... entire page in one of the progs. So, 248, if that's included.

[Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles: Book One: A Simple Killing]

but that's for another thread.

Yeah but, no but, yeah but - I agree with you that Simon Davis' art lifted the Brutania Chronicles above the value of the actual stories. There were good parts (getting deeply inside the mental landscape of the characters) and bad parts (SHOUTY OFF-PAGE GOD-VOICES SHOUTING). I reviewed them all a bit a while ago. This be what I said:


Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles: Book One: A Simple Killing
(1874-1886) Script: Pat Mills, Art: Simon Davis, Letters: Ellie De Ville

Slaine returns with mutton chops and beard, looking a bit more middle-aged than in previous incarnations and therby providing a sense of time (in a tale that has sometimes seemed stuck in a cycle).  The drune lords and their skull sword troops are back as a threat, and Slaine finds himself on a quest to save Sinead (a recent aquaintance) from their evil clutches.

The art from Simon Davis is absolutely belting, and Mills does a good job of keeping the action moving (even if, a bit like the norse myths, his Slaine tales lack some continuity).  There are also hilarious moments, like when a nonchalantly peeing giant asks Slaine if he is stuck because he hasn't run away yet.  It's really difficult to choose an image to show, because the art throughout is just a joy, but here's Slaine panicking as Sinead is infected by evil magic that turns her into a twisted version of a mermaid:




Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles, Book Two - Primordial
(1924-1936) Script: Pat Mills, Art: Simon Davis, Letters: Ellie De Ville

Slaine has rescued Sinead from the Drune lords, but her spirit is broken and she's been purposefully addicted to opium, which speaks to the wider theme of this Book as being one of spirituality and mental health. The Drunes serve as reverse psychologists: rather than trying to cure people they seek to enhance mental illness and have their victims serve them as reliant puppets. It's pretty deep and delves far back into the saga: all the way to the death of Slaine's mother, and how that has shaped him.

I could see a frustration here if it's read as an action thriller: not that there isn't any action - it's knee deep in gore - but ultimately Slaine ends up pretty much where he started after a lot of running around. There's two key things I love here: one is the stupendous painted art by Simon Davis and the other is that it's thought-provoking. An entire episode is pretty much given over to Slaine trying to deal with Sinead's depression. (It could have been a bit more progressive if Slaine had been rescued by Sinead, but you can't have everything.)




Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles, Book Three - Psychopomp
(1979-1988) Script: Pat Mills, Art: Simon Davis, Letters: Ellie De Ville

We all celebrated when Nemesis and Torquemada fought their way across several pages of beautiful Kevin O'Neill illuminations back in the day. And here we have beautiful painted art by Simon Davis with amazing colour palettes.

But: the end of the previous book had a 2-episode confrontation which now continues with a further 4 episodes of the same confrontation. That's 36 pages of one fight - and most of it consists of Gododin blathering on and winding up Slaine as he gets beaten well beyond a pulp. What: is he trying to bore him to death? Beautiful art is one thing: but you can't polish a turd.

Thankfully, we do eventually get to see some other locations - and the Macha flashbacks are quite interesting - but overall this type of story where the bad guy just shouts at the hero for pages and pages and pages, even psychically when they're not actually in the same place (and often seemingly as an excuse to witness the author's extensive research) is boring. Beautiful to look at, but boring to read.




Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles, Book Four - Archon
(2050-2060) S: Pat Mills, A: Simon Davis, L: Ellie De Ville

Beautiful art from Simon Davis and, of course, some very interesting ideas from Pat Mills, but the saga suffers under the weight of the diatribe. On the one hand, it is interesting to wonder about one's family history - and, the idea that a villain would attack Slaine's ego rather than just attack him physically is a cunning plot device. But, it's being stretched too thinly over too many pages.

The disembodied GOD SHOUTING dialogue is oppressive: not just for Slaine but also for the reader. And there's a sense of magic villainy that doesn't serve us but only the plot. The villains teleport to where Slaine and Sinead are accessing Macha's spirit, but there's no real sense of whether they're inside or outside, or where God/Archon is. It's just a scene that needed to play out - it could be happening on the moon, or inside a magic bubble dimension.

I feel like Sinead gets used as a vessel too much: she's a vessel for Macha, then a vessel for Danu. And all to serve Slaine. So, on the one hand, it's quite progressive (strong, warrior women who choose their own partners), but on the other hand there's too much focus on Slaine's needs. I probably wouldn't focus so much on that if it weren't that the narrative suggests that women do have power and should have power - but then it's all about their reflected value from Slaine's perspective.

It all improves immensely when God/Archon stops shouting, and Gododin (already defeated too many times) exits stage right. After that we're back to having a sense of place, and a plot that revolves around humans with human motives. Perhaps the best bit in the entire book is the people shouting their message from place to place. Also, I miss Ukko.

[19 - Wrap-Spasm, Book II]

19 - Wrap-Spasm, Book II

A couple of Slaines from a couple of Simons...


Prog 688's ...and he didn't think it too many (1990; Simon Bisley) has Slaine warping out in his wild boar codpiece, and taking out a combination of sea demons and skeletons. The action fades out on the back cover rather a lot. Great wild-eyed horse action, there.





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Prog 1882's Chop Chop! (2014; Simon Davis) features an older, more mutton-chopped Slaine up against a twisted giant. The crowd of onlooking giant-bruvvers has diminished in the final rendering compared to the rough.





 

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Next: I'm Batman...

I can't remember where I heard the quote, which was about media, but it was "90% of everything is shit". And then there's Shogun.

And the star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,
O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

Gaza protesters clash with police at US universities

AI can go to hell

AI's response:

Well, I wield language like a blunt spoon, but I was alluding to the fact that some folk are using the tragedy as a signal to go on a witch hunt against anyone the poor bastard slated in his final public act. (Not paying attention to the irony inherent in calling for an end to public accusations by making public accusations - except now with even less evidence than the ones they're complaining about in the first place.)

I don't see that happening here, because people have kept their powder dry here (for the most part), but I've seen it on the wider web.

Okay, there's Doyle.  Where's Bodie?

I prompted the AI thusly: "Bodie and Doyle from The Professionals, but both dressed up as a Judge from the world of Judge Dredd."

And it did this:



(Or did I just take a photo at Dounreay-Con?)

I'm so awful at Facebooking, and the Internet is such a weird place, that I just have no idea what to do with this information. I've no idea if any of it is real.

It's a bit like the Piskor thing turning into an incel cavalcade. Perhaps it's time for me to hang up my keyboard and ethernet cable. Maybe take up water colors. Or fishing.

Yes, this inventiveness and creativity has filled me with ennui, also. Bring back Brigand Doom, I say!

"Prince William becomes Great Master of the Order of the Bath."

I was going to say "they're just making this up as they go along", but then that's exactly what royalty is.

"Top c*ntributer"?

I'm mostly just 

[18 - Rogue Trooper]

18 - Rogue Trooper

All of that Rogue Trooper, and only two wraparounds! And the OG Rogue is relegated to the back cover of a lesser known special. Rectify this malfeasance, Thargnanimous, Bringer of Thrills!


Prog 687's Battlefield Blues (from 1990, by Will Simpson) gives us the OG Fr1day, before it all went a bit Pete Tong.



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The Rogue Trooper Action Special's Future War (from 1996, by Dave Gibbons) is something of a hydra, with Fr1day rocking the front, and Venus Bluegenes providing covering fire. Poor old OG Rogue is a ghost in the sky. (Recently, in-comic, those three characters had all met, and OG RT had suffered perma-death.) It's a bit like that inside, with two Fr1day tales, one for Venus and a colored reprint of the first RT strip from prog 228.



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Next: Simons say...