The Red Seas - Under the Banner of King Death

[Colin YNWA]

First of all what a bloody great title that is!

Anyway I enjoy Red Seas in the current Progs its a fun distraction but I suspect if I'd have read this first I'd bloody loved it. It sets the world up I've been reading of over the last 3 1/2 years so wonderfully. Ok so they could have called it Sinbad and been done with it but it really is just a ripping yarn. When reading it I could almost imagine it being animated by Ray Harryhausen its so evocative of the films he made.

Which leads me nicely onto the art. I've mentioned here with the same boring frequency I express my love for John Smith that I like me a bit of Steve Yeowell and have to say that this is some of his best work. He seems to be having such a blast with it. Mind given what he has to draw you can understand why. I imagine as an artist as the scripts rolled in you'd be jigging with excitment. This week I have to draw pirate zombies, next week cerebus and the afterlife and after that a giant shark eatting a pirate ship! The fun everyone seems to be having simply exudes off the pages and enthused me as a reader no end.

That excitment seemed to get to Tharg as well giving it the extra space (the equivalent of 12 parts I think in total) it needed to breathe and have that seafaring epic quality. The early rein of Matt Smith seemed to very much continue were Andy Diggle left off which I'll muse upon elsewhere but he let Red Seas have the room it needed and deserved to boot. Everyone just seems to be behind this strip and it stands out to me as the best thing I've read by Edginton to date.

Yo Ho Ho

[Dark Jimbo]

Indeed, I loved this Thrill first time around! I could have done without the comedy Devil at the end, though, which rather undermined the previous eleven episode's worth of carefully paced build-up.

I've mentioned here with the same boring frequency I express my love for John Smith that I like me a bit of Steve Yeowell and have to say that this is some of his best work. He seems to be having such a blast with it. Mind given what he has to draw you can understand why. I imagine as an artist as the scripts rolled in you'd be jigging with excitment. This week I have to draw pirate zombies, next week cerebus and the afterlife and after that a giant shark eatting a pirate ship! The fun everyone seems to be having simply exudes off the pages and enthused me as a reader no end.

If only that enthusiasm had lasted! I've never been the biggest fan of Yeowell's art but he really knocks it out of the park on the first few Red Seas stories (...King Death, Twilight of the Idols and Meanwhile...). Loads of detail, lovely cross-hatching, sneaky cameos of Pugwash and the like; he really seems to be having as much of a blast as Edington. These days he just seems to be going through the motions, and my enjoyment in the strip has decreased in direct proportion to his seeming lack of interest.

The stories themselves also seem much less vital nowadays, forever recapping past events or telling us about future ones. Every story feels like a prelude to something bigger that never comes or a bridge between other parts. Feels like it might be time to start wrapping this one up. I only hope the gang at least go out on a high.

[The Monarch]

I still love red seas