The Spencer Nero Club Goes Down the Tubes

"Excuse me, sir - do you think our story is ever-so-slightly bawdy?"

Earlier this year, myself, Scott Twells and Filippo Roncone released 'The Spencer Nero Club #1' - the spin-off adventures of Spencer Nero's fan-club. It has been well-received by those who've read it - maybe the most flattering comment was that it seemed like 'the Famous Five written by Alan Moore'. In this hugely insightful review by Peter Duncan from Downthetubes.net, he also sees a bit of an Enid Blyton influence, which I can't really deny - my favourite books as a younger child were those concerning the magic Faraway Tree, in which young people step into mystical lands. However, my Blytonisms have gone a bit 'seaside postcard' and fallen prey to a mildly perverse interpretation. I blame Moonface and his Slippery-Slip.

You can buy The Spencer Nero Club #1 here.

'Mind-bending'? I thought it was one of my saner outings...

David and Goliath

Well, 'Goliath and Goliath' really, according to the press! For 'Martillo' has just got the loveliest review imaginable over on Down the Tubes, courtesy of dear Owen Watts. Check it out here. What I particularly enjoyed about Owen’s sparkling prose was how bloomin’ insightful the review was – it’s funny to think that I’ve now written enough small-press comics that I’ve got an identifiable style or obvious area of interest. According to Owen, I tend towards: “Insane cultural & historical mash-ups – and ludicrously ambitious set pieces” – and you know what? It’s pretty hard to argue with that. Thanks, Owen!

Judged Read

Bet no-one’s ever done that pun before. (Cough.) Here’s a couple of reviews from Judge Tutor Semple aka Steve Hargett, a true gent who has cast his concise and critical eye over several things I’ve written in the past. Thanks for these, Steve!

Review for Martillo - "...a damn fine read", as Steve described it on the 2000AD forums.

Review for PARAGON #17

And on the subject of Martillo - if you're at Thought Bubble in Leeds in a few weeks time, expect to see David Broughton with stories of Spanish smiting on sale!

Madre de Dios indeed!

A Stay of Execution

Or at least, that's how Dustin Hoffman describes a good review. Yes, Paragon #9 gets reviewed over at the Forbidden Planet blog, and I'm pretty happy with the comments on 'Spencer Nero'. The review begins:

• Really liking the cover this time round – good pulp hero feel, and very fitting, as it’s featuring the new strip in Paragon 9, the pulp adventure Spencer Nero. Something of a tongue in cheek Doc Savage style thing, following an old style adventurer, always ready with a quip to take on a thrilling adventure. He travels the world, sorting out all those who need sorting, with a nod, a wink, and a never ending stream of pulp hero clichés. But I like tongue in cheek pulp hero clichés.

There’s two episodes here – Nazi Aztecs in the middle of the ocean first up and then a werehyaena in East Africa. Two artists as well, but I didn’t enjoy David Broughton’s necessarily cartoon-ish style for The Last Laugh anywhere near as much as Dave Candlish’s more stylised moments of the Island Of The Naztecs storyline. But the art serves the stories well, and it’s not a bad intro to a character all concerned may enjoy playing around with.

All told, a decent appraisal, and little to argue with. I'll be honest, I think the script suffers from my frequent crime of excessive dialogue, but though it was only recently published, it was actually written before my first Dogbreath story, during the submission of which I got invaluable advice from the editorial team on paring it all down.

The rest of the review is unfortunately not as enthusiastic about Paragon as a whole, but I do hope Dave C. won't be put off by that. From my perspective, Paragon gets better and better every issue, and, my own contributions aside, I think the run from #7 onwards has seen the comic at its strongest. Onwards and upwards!

Review for 'Impetigo Jones'

Over on Everything Comes Back To 2000AD, podcast stalwart Flint and guest Luke Foster review the latest Zarjaz and Dogbreath issues, and give the thumbs-up to my Impetigo Jones story in the latter. Cheers for the kind words, lads – as regular listeners to the podcast will know, Flint’s a very honest reviewer, not one to dish out plaudits indiscriminately, so praise from him is much appreciated.

Listen to the podcast here.