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Ohhh two Dante treats landing on the same day!

Ohhh if this gets a nice webshop exclusive hardcover this will be very tempting!

Are there any comic shops left now that still have old skool atmos?

I'm not sure if its the atmos you are after but Sheffield Space Centre feels like it can hardly have changed in the 45 years its been open. Its certainly very old skool.

This is really cool stuff. Lovely page and a little bit of comic history.

Yep its a beaut for sure.

Colin, have you read Copra by Michel Fiffe? I know it's quite different to The O-Men in terms of it's influences but I was (fondly) reminded of it reading your excellent writings above.

I have read Copra - I got it in a digtial bundle and really enjoyed it. I then started to pick up the Image issues while they were going but alas when it moved to a Kickstarter and thus wasn't as distributed to the UK as well (from what I could see) I dropped off.

The only reason it didn't make the list is when that happened I quietly let it go rather than track down alternative ways of getting it - which kinda surprised me as I was enjoying but clearly not THAT much.

I defo see the linkages as you say the specific influences are different but the way its influenced is broadly the same. Both are well contrusted superhero yarns that add a lot more than the 'norm' (well whatever that is these days) and have art that might be said to be an aquired taste. I think Fiffe is a brilliant artist. So yeah defo very clear parallels there.

Yeah great sketches Trooper McFad - always nice to see another Chimpsky!

Can't believe I didn't get a Durham Red from Ben Wilsher - such a great revamp of the series (yes, yes I know...)

[Number 79 - Kennel Block Blues - Part 3]

Number 79 - Kennel Block Blues - Part 3


Copyright - Boom! Studios - I'm guessing

Overall then the story is just fantastic. The hope, albeit denial, in Oliver's tale is delivered with real skills and emotional impact. At times the story is pretty horrific. This is most obviously seen in the presentation of the prison guards. Not seen as real guards but black clawing, amorous shadows that grab and grasp and when they catch a prisoner drag them off to places unseen and a fate from which their victim won't return. These are the manifestations of the humans who truly control the prison. Not seen doing anything positive, never seen feeding or caring for the animals. Rather they are unseen terrors that can't be communicated with, can't be controlled or bargained with as they can be in a human prison drama. They must be avoided at all costs when they do appear.

This harsh reality is introduced early in the series as a character we meet, who you are led to believe might be a guide and a guardian for Oliver is horribly taken by the guards. This early companion is dragged away and never seen again and frankly it's really sad when that happens. Straight away it becomes clear that while there is humour and fun to be had in the story, this isn't a happy tale. This is a prison drama with unseen death just around the corner. This means that the lighter moments are straightaway filled with pathos and sadness for all the bright, chirpy hope you think you might be getting.

This sense fills the whole story. Characters you learn to love never feel safe. The prison is a horrible, terrifying place. When cats attack they don't just cut, they rip flesh from their victims. When danger approaches you sense in it and worry for these wonderful creations.

The only downside is its four issues don't quite give the tale enough room. All the prison drama tropes are there but the story rattles along. There is little time to relax and breathe, to spend as much time with the dogs and cats as the next beat of the story needs to be hit. Just a couple of extra issues would have sorted this, but it's testament to the series that even though we don't get that extra space I might have wanted I both wanted it and the story as is feels complete and entirely satisfying. The four issues are brisk and compelling. The ending when it is reached is just magnificent. I won't say anymore for fear of spoilers and in the hope that some folks might want to join the journey to get there.


Copyright - Boom! Studios - I'm guessing

I almost wish I'd been able to just simply say

"Read Kennel Block Blues cos it ace"

And leave it there in this write up. So anyone who might decide to check it out went in with the lack of expectations I have. Maybe they'd be looking for a charming comedy, maybe the idea of the animal pound elements would have made clear thus was some fairly horrific stuff. To get the fantastic surprise that I got reading this little hearty musical with some heartbreaking moments completely fresh. Regardless it's so worth checking out whatever your expectations now are as it's just great comics and so full of contrast and juxtaposition it will defy any expectation I might have been able to give you.

Where to find it

Pretty easy one this. There is a trade collection with all four issues. It might be out of print but seems to be readily available second hand from the expected places

It's all there digitally as well for folks who prefer that way of getting great comics.

I'm pretty sure you'll be able to pick up the original floppie for next to nothing in the aftermarket when they pop up as well as. As stated this one didn't get the love it deserved.

Learn more

Nowt of course there's no Obligatory Wikipedia page for this one.

However you can't do better to see if you'll like something than reading the first issue for free. Which you can for Kennel Block Blues issue 1 for free on Tumblr. It's pretty wonky in that you have to scroll around to find the chunks in order, but it's all there, albeit with a very heavy watermark from Boom!.

Here's 5 reasons to read the series from Comic Vine.

Slings and Arrows has a less glowing review for some balance but Good Reads has a nice broad range of opinions as ever.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

[Number 79 - Kennel Block Blues - Part 2]

Number 79 - Kennel Block Blues - Part 2


Copyright - Boom! Studios - I'm guessing

The story therefore plays into something that is clearly an element of story that appeals to me. That being stories with seeming contrasts balanced so effectively. Juxtapositions that are used effectively to do two things. Firstly to usurp the reader's expectations. Secondly to therefore spin existing tropes so they avoid cliche, while still being true to those tropes. I've mentioned this as an aspect to so many of the comics I've included in this list, either in terms of the story being told, or the art used to tell that story. Here though it's a real feature in both story and art and stands out so clearly in this series it's worth diving into a little deeper here.

These contrasts mix with another thing I talk about a lot, the needs different readers bring to a tale and how that tale does or doesn't meet those needs regardless of the creators intentions. In stories where we get these contrasts these two contrasting elements or tones, can combine in wonderful ways. You can enter any given story expecting one set of needs, or a desires to be satisfied by the tale, and find that it in fact meets an entirely different set of 'requirements' you didn't even know you were bringing with you. When done well it can of course achieve both, meet the need you consciously or subconsciously brought with you and another set you weren't even expecting to be satisfied.

In a comic like Kennel Block Blues a third possibility is unearthed...maybe. As said I had no idea what I was expecting when I came to this story. Or at least certainly don't remember what it was that drew me in. Was I after a prison drama, playing with the common themes of entrapment, isolation, freedom and justice, conflict between humanity removed from its norms... seems unlikely from the previews I've seen out there when writing this. It clearly isn't just that. Was I after a fun cartoony feel good humour comic... well again seems like it was clear that's what you weren't going to get, at least not alone, so I doubt that. So I kinda think I came to these comics with no conscious expectation or focused need. I was going in to be surprised and find something new. On that score it certainly works.

It's possible to come to a comic, or indeed any medium for story, with no conscious need or desire other than to be surprised, to experience something new and different. I think this is hot wired into me as a fan of anthologies prominent in the UK market. You quickly learn from reading 2000ad you can come for Judge Dredd, but stay for Halo Jones, Brink, Hewligans Haircut... I stay because it constantly surprises me and opens up new comics and story I have little conscious expectation of. I think Ryan Ferrier, Daniel Bayliss and the rest of the creators of Kennel Block Blues deliberately played with this. They created a comic you would look at, flip through, see a preview of, whatever, and just think...

"What on earth is that... looks interesting I'll give that a try..."

...and before you know it you're reading a comic like nothing else you've read before.


Copyright - Boom! Studios - I'm guessing

The art by Daniel Bayliss with colours by Adam Metcalfe is worth singling out for this as well. On one level it's pretty functional art, not at all bad, but not outstanding. The character designs are fun. The acting is well realised and executed on anthropomorphic characters. This is a trick that can be difficult to pull off well. Here not only are emotions and reactions clear and carry the impact they need to communicate character.  It's done in a way that looks like these are animals reacting though. The dogs snarl, cats look surly and brooding, when they are angry or fighting they are sharp and spitting in the way cats can be - the occasional scratches on my arms testify to this from 'our Indie'. This is pretty damned impressive, to carry the human reactions the reader needs to understand the emotion, while still retaining the real sense that these are animals, acting as those animals would. On this level the art is super good.

There's some really great page designs as well. Some brilliant storytelling choices that make pages of prison schemes and riots really pop. The layouts of Oliver's inner fantasies are softer and rounded as opposed to the sharp, more typical rectangular panel shapes, mixed with angled edges and tilted perspectives when violence erupts. Again these subtle choices really highlight what a fantastic job is done with the art, that at first seems fine but nothing too special.

The colouring is fantastic too. Colouring for the story could be said to be easy and obvious, the contrast between the story's reality and Oliver's imagined world so stark the colour choices seem an easy trick. The 'real' world is subdued, low blues and greys. When violence breaks out its aggressive browns and cutting purples. Oliver's imagined world has all the bright colours you'd expect yet they are selected with real panache and deft skill. All the bright primary colours are there as you'd expect, yet they feel slightly off, a little sickly. The pinks against oranges are slightly jarring and almost a little unpleasant.

This has the impact of making these choral moments feel on the surface, at first glance bright and cheery, as joyous as Oliver's inner life seems to be. Yet it feels a little unreal, a little at odds with what you are seeing. Just as Oliver almost knows, certainly unconsciously, that his inner life is a denial of the reality he knows he's in. They are forced and false, they mask the truth, but the unpleasant truth quietly sneaks in and isn't hidden entirely. He knows his bright cheerful world is a lie somewhere in his cute mutt brain. This is especially true given the colouring on Oliver himself doesn't change, again flagging both the contrasts and his subconscious inability to completely allow his fantasies to take over his mindset and mental wellbeing. Yep the colouring choices may feel obvious and easy but in less skilled hands they wouldn't be anywhere near as effective and this further enhances the contrasts and contradictions in the story.

[Number 79 - Kennel Block Blues - Part 1]

Number 79 - Kennel Block Blues - Part 1



Number 79 - Kennel Block Blues

Keywords: Musical, comedy, horror, anthropomorphic, dogs vs cats

Creators:
Writer - Ryan Ferrier
Art - Daniel Bayliss
Colours - Adam Metcalfe

Publisher: Boom!

No. issues: 4
Date of Publication: 2016

Last read: 2024

Well surely I can't get more obscure than a British small press title like I did last time... well ya know what I reckon this one could be. A supremely odd little mini from Boom! Studios that I'm guessing no buggers heard of, but who knows I'm often wrong about these things and in this case would be delighted to be so as you should all be reading


Copyright - Boom! Studios - I'm guessing

I have no idea what led me to pick up Kennel Block Blues when it first came out. Maybe I was just in the mood for an anthropomorphic prison musical about feuding cats and dogs. I mean we all go through that phase don't we.  And yes that's right, that is what this series is. It's a comic book musical about Oliver, a French (or Boston) Terrier who is thrown into Jackson State Kennel. In the slammer he becomes embroiled in a conflict for control. The cats, led by Pickles, have wrestled control of Jackson. Sugar, a hardened chihuahua and Oliver's new cell mate, wants to remind the dogs who should be in charge, even if their leader Chester has been cast into solitary.

The thing is Oliver is a good dog and he knows doesn't belong in Jackson, he knows he doesn't. He has no real interest in the conflicts and politics within the prison. He's just a good boy who wants everyone to get along and to be loved. Anyway he also knows his owners will come and find him soon... or so he tells himself.  As we learn, heartbreakingly, that belief might well just be a copying mechanism. Oliver's other copying mechanism? Why he regularly breaks into song, full on, overblown musical numbers straight out of a 40s Disney musical short cartoon. As he sings, to him at least, the world explodes into colour and those around him sing with along, join his chorus. Alas, again the reality might be very different.


Copyright - Boom! Studios - I'm guessing

And in that summary we learn so much about what makes Kennel Block Blues such a brilliant comic. It's so refreshing and different. I've read a lot of comics. A LOT and yet I've never read anything quite like this. While it plays happily with prison story tropes we all know. The characters all dance around the possibility of being cliches, they fall into archetypes that we know so well. The innocent 'fool' whose mere presence seems to incidentally spin events in unintended ways. Oliver could be played by Gene Wilder! Sugar is the hard bitten, streetwise, no nonsense smart player, who knows so much about surviving and thriving in the slammer, yet is too damned stubborn and doesn't know when to quit. Pickles, the calmer, considered prison mastermind, not far from Noel Coward in The Italian Job. There's henchmen, well cats, kindly strong dogs. Wise old wizened prison veterans. Old timers who know to keep out the trouble and try to help the weak get by.

This cast is thrown into scenarios we're seen. The attempted prison break. The prison politics, players and people pushed and pulled into position, to serve the needs of those that hold the reinds. Violence breaking out as tension comes to the boil. All of this we're seen and know from so many stories of this type from across different media.

And yet none of this falls into cliche here. Oh sure it toys with it, tetters dangerous on the brink of falling over, but never quite tips over. Rather the way it's presented, the originality of elements of both these familiar characters and the stories they play out remain utterly original. This allows the story to play with different themes and ideas within these common prison story tropes and thus keep things very new and exciting

It is ideal for newcomers and long-time lapsed readers. I've heard US folks on podcasts also getting annoyed (in a jokey way) because once they'd read the first two volumes they felt compelled to get the rest of eg Brink and some of the other contained strips. So job done there too.

That is good news and yeah Brink (and other stories in there) are going to pull you to the trades. As it says it a mix tape and the best mix tapes force you to the shops (well if folks still did that!) to buy more records.

The fact its still going suggests its hitting its mark somewhere as well.

I've been tempted to check out the Best of - but it'd be an expensive curio for me and so never got to it. It does seem like a great bumper intro for a new reader and is probably where I'd now point folks curious about trying 2000ad out to. If they are still available or easy to find?

There's copies on the shelf in my local comic shop.

(I heard from someone else. I don't go into the comic shop because I've not got broad tastes and only read comics carnivorously, which makes a mess. I've been banned, basically. But I can see them through the window. They look great.)

That's cool for some reason I got the sense that the early issues had sold out but looks like its out there and a quick check in the webshop shows its still there.

The O-Men sounds fantastic, anything that takes Morrison's Doom Patrol as an influence but then becomes its own thing is something I'm intrigued by, I don't really read comics digitally any more but shall have to make an exception for this one.

Digital does feel like the way to go. Especially as it will be an acquired test. Its not as obviously out there as Doom Patrol but does have that darker feel and idea of mental landscapes being dangerous places!

I think Spectre got better as it went on and ended really well. I'd absolutely welcome more. I mean more John Wagner and more Dan Cornwell - what's not to like!

[Dredd]

Next week is a 48 pager - is that the first none Regened bumper prog? Probably not, but cant think what was in the last one

We had one earlier this year in the previous slot 'vacated' by Regened, back in April...mayyybee around then. Bit of a treat to be honest.

As for this weeks Prog its largely as you were. Both Dredd and Intesinauts are good steady episodes building to a conclusion. Intestinauts has a little more momentum behind it.

Brink and Proteus Vex remain absolutely excellent. Some said about Lind being suss last week (I think it was) and the way he gets rid of Bridget while paying with the Sect database... hmmmm.... is Bridget being played? That would be quite the turn up. Just superb. Mind Proteus Vex is the same - just at the opposite end of the action spectrum! Two strips of such different scale and both so good. Perfect 2000ad.

But this week I'm giving it to 3riller - Blue Skies over Deadwick (what a superb title!). David Baillie wrote my fav 3riller with Battleship Mathematica which had a similar structure of building episode by seperate episode and this does a similarly magnificent job. Sticks the landing and how. Now all that's left is a re-read to see how well it compares to Mathematica. Great stuff.

I've been tempted to check out the Best of - but it'd be an expensive curio for me and so never got to it. It does seem like a great bumper intro for a new reader and is probably where I'd now point folks curious about trying 2000ad out to. If they are still available or easy to find?

(NB. Just saw that Brubaker & Phillips 'Kill or Be Killed' is coming out as a Compendium in Feb 25)

If folks haven't read this its sounds like a great way to check the series out!

One of your best write ups to date, Colin.
It's been awhile since I read The O-Men but all 5 collected volumes sit comfortably on the indie shelf and are begging for a reread.
A real favourite of mine, I fact I have a feeling it might have been yourself who turned me onto it many moons ago now.

Could swear I also had the first issue (at least) of SPANDEX also but damned if I can find it among the singles box, and I sure as anything haven't read the whole thing either. Another error to correct, with haste!

Oh knew you'd read it Zac. I know a few of us talked about it back in the day. Spandex is well worth checking out. It might be worth trying to contact Martin directly. The details on his website might still be in use or go to his Zeros webcomic zeroscomic.com and try there - that actually is probably the best way to go?