ICE showreel

Here's a link to the short official showreel of the International Comics Expo; the excellent convention I attended in Birmingham the other week. If you weren't there, it'll be a quick taster of what you missed, and if you were there you might spot yourself.
https://www.facebook.com/529276490479928/videos/882764175131156/

Review: The House of Daemon

I've had this book a few weeks now but I'm eventually catching up with doing my reviews so please excuse its lateness. 

Hibernia Comics have been producing some excellent reprint albums of classic 1980s British strips and their latest release, The House of Daemon, is one of the best. With scripts by John Wagner and Alan Grant, and art by José Ortiz, you know you're in for a treat. The serial originally appeared in Eagle Nos.25 to 47 in 1982 to 1983 and this book collects the run. 

The story is an atmospheric supernatural tale of a haunted house, but it goes beyond the usual 'ghost story' tradition to plunge its occupants into nightmarish otherworldly situations. There are quite a few twists along the way and although the horror has to be reigned in to a certain extent (because it appeared in a children's comic) it's still quite creepy and a good 'all ages' horror comic. 

The art by José Ortiz is perfect for the horror theme, creating the right tone and menace throughout, plus of course his mastery of the human figure is superb. Sometimes collections like this feel a bit 'choppy', because the episodes were never designed to be read in one book, but with writers as skilled as Wagner and Grant the serial flows perfectly. It would actually make a very good movie, but as a comic it also stands on its own as a fantastic story. 

The reproduction of the strips is top class too. Although the pages are scanned from the comics, not the original art, they've reproduced perfectly, with sharp blacks and subtle grey tones. 

The House of Daemon is available from Hibernia Books here:
http://www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia/

This week in 1978: STARLORD No.1

Saturday 6th May 1978 saw the publication of IPC's new sci-fi weekly Starlord in newsagents across the UK. The new comic was a companion to 2000AD and was originally planned as a monthly until IPC got cold feet, resulting in some quick changes before launching as a weekly. 

As one IPC editor told me a few years later, monthly comics were considered too risky back then. The concern was that the young target audience who were accustomed to weekly comics would either forget which week a monthly would come out, or even lose interest during the four week wait for the next issue. Of course that attitude changed over the years as UK publishers had to rethink the frequency of their comics in the wake of ever decreasing sales to give them a longer shelf life. These days a monthly frequency is the norm, with weeklies being the oddities.

Anyway, back to Starlord No.1. The 32 page comic was on slicker paper than its sister title 2000AD and boasted more colour and better printing. It was also a few pence more expensive at 12p an issue. What it had in common with 2000AD was its presentation of stories in a dynamic and hyperactive fashion. For example, upon opening issue 1, the reader was immediately plunged into the relentlessly fast-paced Planet of the Damned by 'R.E.Wright' (Pat Mills) and Lalia. Here's the first two pages of the six page first episode which used the then-popular story theme about the 'Bermuda Triangle'...

Next came the first chapter of Time Quake, written by Jack Adrian with fantastic artwork by Ian Kennedy. Here's the first three pages...

Next, time for a breather and for the comic's fictional editor Starlord to introduce himself with art by Ian Gibson and an editorial dripping with paranoia...

The facing page showed the six alternative free badges, one of which was randomly attached by tape to the cover. If the readers weren't already jittery from Starlord's warning of imminent alien invasion the advisory about sticking the badges onto flesh would have completely pushed them over the edge: "you could develop a skin disorder, putting you out of combat"! 

Here's one of those very badges, designed by Kevin O'Neill...

Across the centre pages, the first episode of Strontium Dog, by T.B. Grover (John Wagner) and Carlos Ezquerra. A popular character still around today in the pages of the latest 2000AD. Here's the first two pages...

Rounding off the issue was the longest story, Ro-Busters, running to 11 pages! This was one of the strips originally intended for the monthly, which accounted for its length. Subsequent chapters would be half the size.

Script by Pat Mills, artwork by Carlos Pino. The war robot Hammerstein still appears today in 2000AD's A.B.C. Warriors and Savage strips, with Pat Mills having connected several of his series into one universe. 

Starlord wasn't a big success for IPC and sadly ended after 22 weeks, merging into 2000AD. Apparently 2000AD's sales were not good either, but it's thought that Starlord was sacrificed because it was more expensive to produce. On a positive note, the merger did 2000AD a lot of good, bringing in Ro-Busters and Strontium Dog which strengthened the comic.

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While I'm at it, here are the covers to issues 2 and 3, plus the free gifts. No.2 was drawn by Brian Bolland, relating to the Time Quake story inside...

...and No.3 sported a fantastic cover by Kevin O'Neill...

The free gift in No.2 was the 'Space Calculator', a cardboard slide which gave information on the planets of our galaxy. No.3's freebie was a 'Starblast' game; a variation of 'Battleships', with a wipe-clean laminated card that could be re-used. 

For more information on the background of Starlord comic, check out the book Thrill-Power Overload by David Bishop and, if you can find a copy, the now-out-of-print Beyond 2000AD from Hibernia Comics.  

Return to The Thirteenth Floor

Mainstream British publishers may seem cautious about bringing their classic material back into print but thankfully Egmont have allowed independent outfit Hibernia Comics permission to reprint some great material from the past. Previously we've seen collections of Doomlord, The Tower King, and The Thirteenth Floor Volume 1, and this week saw the publication of The Thirteenth Floor Volume 2. 

The Thirteenth Floor was a serial that ran in the very short-lived Scream! weekly in the 1980s. When Scream! was canceled due to a combination of industrial action and a publisher nervous of its horror content, The Thirteenth Floor continued in Eagle comic.

The Thirteenth Floor was written by Alan Grant and John Wagner and illustrated by José Ortiz. It told the story of Max, a sinister sentient computer installed in a tower block, who led criminals and bullies to their fate on the non-existent 13th floor - an apparent gateway into nightmare scenarios.

The superb The Thirteenth Floor Volume 2 is now available to order in print from Hibernia Comics at their online store. It reprints the strips from Scream! Nos.12 to 15 and Eagle Nos.128 to 139. Visit here to buy your copy:
http://www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia/