Comics Wot I Did In 2019: Part Two - Das Boot’s on the Other Foot

Concluding my commentary on stories from 2019, and providing previews of things to come this year in 2020.

Right – the leprechaun story in PARAGON #24 was mostly editor Davey Candlish’s fault (though I blame Jim Cameron too, for encouraging / provoking it, and coming up with the title, ‘Spencer Nero and the Leprechauns of Doom’!) Davey had posted the front cover of the novel 'The Little People' on Facebook – yep, it’s same John Christopher that wrote The Tripods - and immediately, it seemed a major omission that Spencer Nero had never gone up against Nazi leprechauns. Within minutes of realising this, I’d come up with the plot – frankly, the story pretty much wrote itself. In many ways, it is the archetypal Nero story – it features folklore, Roman mythology, Nazis, and a hefty dose of silliness and satire. All in five pages!

Sors – Roman luck god and instigator of the plot – was very much on my mind, as I’d been trying to write a 20-page Nero prequel comic, set prior to Spencer joining the Department of Contingency. The chief antagonist was going to be the aforementioned deity, who had cruelly inflicted good luck on Britain – something that turned out to be less fortunate than it appeared. I eventually shelved the idea, but still wanted to see Sors in print. Luck and leprechauns go together like bishops and being kicked up the arse, so he was a natural fit. The first Nero text tale left Sors washing dishes in the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane – he’s finally finished!

Meanwhile, Sister Von Zero was last seen in County Kerry, facing a beating from the similarly gender-swapped Veleda the druid(ess). I thought about reverting Sister Von Zero back to a man after “…the Trouble with Girls” but I realised that visually, she was much more interesting as a Nazi nun (and probably a lot easier for Scott to draw too.) (Veleda, on the other hand, probably will revert to her original female gender, as I think she worked better as a woman – maybe, like Patsy from AbFab, it’ll fall off after a few months.)

Art on this was by Scott Twells - I'm running out of superlatives for this chap's work, but as ever, he pulled off a blinder. So much character in his... characters! Lettering was by consummate pro, Jim Campbell, a real friend to the small press - it's always a pleasure to have his touch on my Nero. As it were.

A few brief notes:

Spencer’s bath-time rendition of ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’ continues the strip’s ongoing flirtation with George Formby. We’ve seen Oswald with one of Formby’s ukuleles (more of that this year) and a newspaper headline pertaining to a Nero / Formby team-up (a reference to a hitherto unpublished musical story, which needs a bit of revision before it appears.) More tangential Formby to follow…

Leprechauns aren’t the only supernatural beings compelled to count grains – vampires seem to have a similar affliction. It seems Spencer habitually carries granular items on his person to deal with said foes – but what else does he have in his jacket? All will be revealed in his next outing.

And speaking of which, it wasn’t planned at the time, but Sors’s mention of British Bulldogs oddly foreshadows the guest star of the very next Spencer Nero…

Yep, coming later this year in PARAGON – Spencer Nero Versus Britain, in which our hero teams up with Jason Cobley’s storied creation, Captain Winston Bulldog, for a 15-page fight against a nation gone bad! (Many thanks to Jason for his permission to bring Bulldog back to the series, after the pair first teamed up in The Paragon Paradox.)

But before that…

The Spencer Nero Club #1: Folklore and Fire! 28 pages of all-new 1930s fanboy antics, starring Oswald Gypsum and chums! Art by Scott Twells, cover colours, lettering and design by Filippo. More on this ‘un soon! 

Goodbye 1936: PARAGON #15 and PARAGON Annual 2014

Within the space of a fortnight, TWO (yes, TWO!) mighty PARAGON publications, masterminded by small-press guru Dave Candlish, have been published. As is customary, here’s a few words on this festive coupling, since I’ve had a hand in both.

Part 1: The King and I

PARAGON #15 features Spencer Nero (in what will be, if you include the one and two-page stories, his 10^th outing!) taking on that historical threat to traditional British values, Mrs. Wallis Simpson, lover of the King! Yep, the 1936 setting proves fertile once more, as Spencer finds himself embroiled in the abdication crisis. The story is a sort-of sequel to ‘Spencer Nero and the White Spider’, in that it features the return and secret origin of Nazi soul-eater, Saturn Reisen, but it also nods its head in the direction of several past stories. I am pleased that the strip has now reached the point where I can start referencing and building on elements of continuity, whilst still hopefully delivering an accessible done-in-one story. I’m particularly happy this story ended up in the winter issue of PARAGON, as it is set in December ’36 (yep, Spencer’s moving into 1937 next year!) and has snow in it for at least three panels. Of course, the real king of the story is artist Stephen Prestwood, who puts his stamp firmly on Spencer, and delivers some striking two-fisted, square-jawed action. He even draws good giant maggots – which is just as well, since Spencer seems to have adopted one, and intends to name it Iapetus, after one of Saturn’s moons.

Of course, #15 also features some stellar work from my fellow small-pressers. On the artistic front alone, this must be one of the most varied and yet accomplished issues so far, featuring wildly contrasting but no less aesthetically stunning pages. It’d be hard to name a favourite – Chris Askham’s brilliantly atmospheric work on Mark Howard's ‘Jikan: Demeter’ is a definite highlight, well-suited to a  script that features a great central conceit, a great final page, and an excess of vampiric hissing. Elsewhere in the issue, the wonderful El Chivo turns in some superb, energetic, characterful work, every figure chock-full of vigor and personality, whilst the Davey Candlish / Tom  Newell combo works together to stylish and elegant effect, illustrating the intriguing ‘Bludd & Xandi’ (with Icarus Dangerous now finished, PARAGON is honour-bound to feature a winged protagonist in at least one of its stories!) And of course, there’s Jim Cameron’s cute-but-sometimes-sinister work in ‘The Biggest Stick’, with an HdE script that, were it squished down to four pages, would be more than worthy of appearing in 2000AD as a Future Shock. It’s not hard to see why no less an authority than John Freeman reckoned this was the finest issue to date.

 

 

Part 2: Annual General Beating

 

Meanwhile, over in the PARAGON Annual 2014, Spencer enters a new and unexplored medium – prose! Based around the theme of board games (though I wrote it without realising Davey would be including a Jikan board game in the annual!) ‘Spencer Nero and the Chairman of the Board’ introduces a new foe for the Civil Centurion – Sors, God of Luck. It also reintroduces Oswald Gypsum, Mr. Alabaster’s nephew, from the ‘Ruthless Rhymer’ story. The story sees Spencer playing live-action Monopoly – the game was, of course, launched in Britain in 1936 (there’s that year again!)

I must admit, I found it really hard to settle on a story for the prose tale. My first thoughts involved a tale called ‘Spencer Nero and the Purple Prose’, in which form and content would match, and in which Spencer would find an ancient tome that encouraged ever more flowery and pretentious speech. However, I shelved that idea and decided instead to write a prose adaptation of a comic script I was working on, ‘Spencer Nero and the Pack’ - until I decided that one really did work better as a script after all. The same thing happened with another half-finished script, in which Spencer falls in love (!) – though I’m not telling you with whom or with what! Finally, I settled on the ‘board game’ idea, because it seemed well-suited to appearing in an annual published at a time of year when so many of such games get an airing.

Unlike with #15, I’m not going to discuss the rest of the annual, ‘cos I reckon it’s best approached like a treasure trove or a well-wrapped Christmas present – half the fun is ripping off the layers of shiny paper and discovering for yourself what joys lie within! Davey Candlish is pursuing a very specific aesthetic with this one, paying loving homage to the annuals of his youth, and I feel he’s succeeded very well in recreating the vibe he’s after. All I will say is that the annual also features familiar dose of Spanish nonsense – much as no nativity scene is complete without a caganer! And with that, I shall see you in 1937 – or 2014, if you prefer.

Sors bless us, every one!