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Understandable!

I don't like superhero comics but I enjoyed it a very great deal - at least the first arc, which writes its young protagonists really well imo. After that it kind of loses its self-contained universe nature, folds into the Marvel Universe and becomes mediocre.

Good writeup Colin! I read Powerpack as a youngster and wasn't keen at the time - I wanted to read about adult heroes - andit wasn't until I reread it a few years later that I really appreciated how good it is. It's not easy to write good child protagonists but this absolutely nails it.

What's your thoughts on Runaways? I thought the first arc of that was excellent although I gave up soon after that.

Third attempt: I head instead to the Warehouse district as that sounds adjacent to docks, but less full of people who might recognise me. Here I'm able to use my tracking skills to help a merchant recover his lost goods - he rewards me, and then offers me a days labour moving crates about, which earns me 10 gold in total and a place to rest for a nice stamina boost (needed, after the journey).
Sticking in this district I'm approached by a dodgy looking dude called Vesper who wants me to help him out with a heist. I'm not sure about this: I need money badly, but I also need to avoid any undue attention. In the end I decide to risk it. He gives me some coins to hang out in the afternoon drinking tea at a cafe and then in the evening my blindsight skill comes in very useful for avoiding patrols as we break into a warehouse and steal a load of saffron. Vesper invites me back to his place for some wine - he also feeds his cat, which makes me well inclined to this guy as nobody who has a cat can be bad surely? We hang out a bit and he tells me not to go back to the warehouse district, but if I wanted to I could find work with a Necromancer in the Old Quarter - a job he himself turned down as it seemed a bit off. Finally he says a Dark Elf was seen in town yesterday trying to buy passage to the exact same place I am going. Hmmm. Looks like someone wasn't keeping their notoriety in check.

Leaving Vesper I head to the markets and flog my stolen sacks of saffron for 15gp so now I feel pretty loaded and ready to buy gear. The market is very much a stereotypical fantasy-desert bazaar, full of exotic races selling exotic wares. Wandering the markets in search of a weapons dealer I instead find a guy mistreating a little mongoose on a leash, kicking it and cursing it. He says it's supposed to do tricks but doesn't do any for him no matter how horrible he is to it, and he then offers to sell it to me, saying I could make it into both a pie and a pair of gloves! Obviously I buy it along with a whistle to summon it. "Thanks, I'm a talking mongoose" says the mongoose. Seems legit! The mongoose introduces himself as Jesper and says we're sure to be great friends unlike his previous owner and then suggests we explore the markets together.
Jesper is a great companion, both chatty and helpful. For starters he suggests we buy a couple of manky looking eggs and stick them in the sun: of course, they hatch into some little birds than we then sell on at great profit - although my notoriety ticks up as I hang about in the bazaar chatting to a mongoose. Jesper then suggests we go to Entertainers Square where he'll do some tricks for cash, and then he'll head off alone across town to visit a lady mongoose and I can link up with him later using the whistle. This seems fair, but he seems so glum about doing the tricks when we arrive that I tell him we don't need to (we have a good amount of cash now) and he shoots off, but not before biting a merchant on the leg and causing him to drop his purse which I scoop up.
There's nothing else to do hear but fight a gladiator, which seems the sort of thing I should avoid if I want to stay undercover, so I depart for the shop district and buy a sword, armour, a crossbow and assorted adventuring tat, plus a camel (expensive, but I'm able to haggle the price down with my animal knowledge skill). I'm now pretty broke but also geared up so I head to the docks and kick the daylights out of captain Shagrat and nick his magic scimitar - although this boosts my notoriety up again.
I need more money, so I try the Old Quarter where Vesper tipped me off about the necromancer job, picking up a small cash reward en route for helping a stevedore with his anxious mule. There's a gambling hall here but I don't fancy it (in retrospect, this is where Vesper told me where to go to meet the necromancer) and the first pub I try is rowdy and contains some guys obviously trying to drug and mug me. The second bar is more high class and I'm sitting awkwardly in it when I see something dodgy happening out back. I nip out and take on some thieves but eventually the militia arrive and lacking the climbing skill to bunk over the rooftops I get arrested and it's game over again.

Fourth attempt: I start again in the bar, ignore the robbers, but there's nothing else happening here besides earning a small bit of coin for helping a drunk guy get home. The next day it's back to the shops where I can flog my sword, buy a few herbs and some food and then i head to the magic shop - it's packed with cool stuff but I generate notoriety just for entering it, which pushes my notoriety to eight and the book states I have to leave the city at once. There's just time to link back up with Jesper, who dances excitedly at the prospect of an arduous trip through a desert to a horrible lost city, and then it's time to mount up the camel and get out of there!

To be continued...

[Master of Chaos]

Master of Chaos

Another new one to me. Took me a while to get round to this as the title / plot all sounded a bit generic and cool as the cover art is (a great Les Edwards two headed crocodile man) it all sounded a bit meh. I was a fool to think this. It's by Keith Martin, who is of course Carl Sargent, and its just as good as his previous two.

Interesting set up in this one: you play a badass adventurer of some renown, called in by some council or wizards to help retrieve a powerful magic staff: the staff of rulership that can unify the normally warring forces of evil and thus raise an army than threatens the world etc etc. This is all generic FF stuff, but the wizard councils awesome plan is to send me to the continent of Khul (an evil place!) to find the staff in the lost city of Kabesh, and to send me there by having me pressganged as a galley slave aboard a slaver ship. All I have to do is survive the voyage, then escape, gear up, cross a desert to find Kabesh and then find the staff / kill off Shanzikuul (the evil wizard dude who stole the staff) and save the world.
There's some nonsense about how Shanzikuul would detect a wizard getting near his base so an attempt must be made in stealth and so on but seriously, this is the best idea the wizard council can come up with? Absolute pants. No wonder they lost the staff.
To show my heroic stature at the start of the book I can choose three of six skills. I go with Animal Wisdom, as it mentions I can use it to ride camels, and tracking as it seems thematic with the former choice. Lastly I choose Blindsight as that sounds incredibly useful.
There's a new stat in this one too called notoriety, which I have to stop getting too high in case anyone gets wind of my plan.

Anyway, the book starts with me chained up in the hold of the slave ship whilst a brutal overseer is whipping one of my fellow slaves to death, and with me losing 3 points of stamina in paragraph one due to the poor conditions. I try and keep my head down over the journey and endure regular kickings. The first time I respond I am, of course, immediately executed.
Second attempt: I endure my beating without responding, which slowly erodes my stamina but ensures remain non-notorious (and alive). Eventually the ship is attacked by a kraken: I have the option of running away but instead I leap to the aid of the villainous captain Shagrot and with the Kraken fought off I am rewarded with some slightly better treatment and stop losing stamina points every paragraph. Once within sight of land I and another slave take the opportunity to do a bunk and pretty soon I'm standing in the port of Ashkyros, ready to begin my quest!
Or sort of ready, anyway. I've got no weapons or armour and only 8gp (half of which from the sale of the purloined rowboat we escaped on) and whilst I have two meals worth of hardtack, there's a strong implication this won't get me far.

The city itself is a hub of six districts, each of which I can visit as many times as I like, which is a nice RPG-ish way to plan things. Here I'm told my notoriety (currently zero) ever hits 8 I have started to draw to much attention and have to leave at once, so I need to be careful about what I do. I foolishly decide to start off in the docks, as that's where I am, and immediately run into Captain Shagrat who draws steel on me. I have no weapon, and I'm also being attacked by a parrot at the same time. Death ensues!

I love this one for the facial expressions. Dredd looks horrific, but check out Judge Fire beneath him!
You've also got creepy Kano, pissed up Mean, Death taking a selfie and Durham Red absolutely cracking up. Plus Henry Moon making a rare appearance!

FWIW I'm going and would be delighted to meet you Colin, should you be able to come along.

Best thing shouted whilst being killed in this weeks Battle Action Force from 1986 that I read on my lunchbreak.



You don't really get these exposition death screams in the Prog anymore. Stuff like "The teeth - biting me in two! Aaargh!". Part of me misses how clunky and terrible they are. What's the best / worst you can remember?
The Men in Black - Naaaaaahhh! is ridiculous on many levels.
This frame also has a classic AIEEEEEEE

(Best death in the comic that week is Parsons in HMS Nightshade. It's a classic.)

Another class episode. It's Octobriana that Viktor ate: he's a dick and totally getting a free pass here! Andreas does too, doesn't he talk about decapitating 20 guys at once or something at some point? The Romanovs suck. Love the last page of The Dissenter, I'm a sucker for a romantic kiss in the rain scene even if its contrived.

When Dante's nipped back to St. Petersburg, I wondered if he'd actually called up Arkady on the holo-phone from Galya's shack or whatever, because Dante's speech bubble has one of those little lightning bolt tails you get when someone is talking on a phone. It's not drawn that way, but that's my guess.

Also I think if you were going to dig up and eat someone you would have to do it straight away whilst they were still fresh.

[Dredd vs Bear]

I was literally just writing one. Surprised we got to Wednesday without it - I had mine Monday , hope other subbies aren't still waiting!

I'm digging Dredd vs Bear now we've established the plot is just Dredd being chased by a bear. More of this please, I will be disappointed if anything else happens tbh.

I'm also delighted to see Brink back. Creepy cinematic first page, the rest is business as usual. Great!

Aquila on the other hand feels like it's moving at an incredible clip as the man himself raises two armies in two episodes. Lovely art as you'd expect from Patrick Goddard: I agree the horses rule, also Hannibal appears in his form as a GW warrior of Chaos, looking more like he should be storming the walls of Kislev than engaging in the Punic War. That's not a criticism, this version of Hannibal looks great and fits the implication he personally killed seventy thousand Romans at Cannae.

Indigo Prime is by now so bonkers tha I'm just reading and enjoying it without giving it too much thought. That's not a criticism either, I'm really enjoying it.

Finally Vex is the best thing is a really cool Prog. Vex still not in it! Still not a problem!

5/5 for me this week.

I haven't read Cujo for years, I really should go back to it after Tjm's cool words about it.

The Doc is right re. Dark Tower in my opinion. A good start, followed by a descent into rot and then an ending that'll have you casting the book away from you in frustration.

Garth Ennis added to the guest list!

Simon will sign anything and everything you bring him at Lawless

I got Gunnar Hansen to sign a severed arm once so I could take this as a challenge.

Anyway, another superb episode of the podcast, thank you!
This is a really grim story tbh with some serious horror in it. That panel where Constantin has burned up the sex worker is horrific - something about the pose, her open mouth that makes my skin crawl... combine that with the state of Emmanuel after his chat with Constantin and we've got some of the nastiest images in the series imo. The scene with Dante and Lulu in the rain though is very very cool.

Pretty sure I've said this before on here or FB but Lulu is super-evil and in this story she reaches her peak imo, but she generally gets a bit of a free pass in Dante, basically because she's all sexy: she's an absolute monster but I'm pretty sure if she looked like Ursa she'd be regarded a lot differently.

Possibility of original Dante art at Lawless? Very interested in that! Or alternately, Sharko sketch.

The B&W Gideon story is probably my favourite one, although I'm very keen on the one shot with the wizard as well. The plot is very unfocused but Gideon himself is a bit neater - firing stakes at vampires and so on - and the art is fantastic. As Fink says, there's a few big splash pages of Gideon that look tremendous.
The AG design is so good, with his massive crazy feet and oddly expressive face.

Re-reading now I find the dialogue clunky in places but the whole book is completely stupid fun. Well worth the wait.

I watched the first episode last night, it nails the aesthetic of the games perfectly - the look, the atmosphere, all spot on. Really looking forward to seeing the rest.

I was coming here to chat about how good Armoured Gideon is but IP's tale of woe makes me think that should be a discussion for another day.

(It's great)