A Pirate, a Crusader, a Scorpion and Outcastes

This week, a quick round up of a few of the things I've been reading recently.


First off are three soft-covers published by Cinebooks, widely publicised and reviewed on the pages of the Forbidden Planet International blog, one of my daily reads. The first title was volume one of 'Long John Silver' and I was blown away immediately. The art is very slightly old-fashioned and yet still fresh and dynamic, nicely coloured and easily conjuring up the style and sense of dark brooding of Treasure Island, the source novel for this title. But this is no sequel and there are new characters to engage with our protagonist as they embark on a voyage to the Americas in search of fortune. The story is a rich and involving one and all of the characters, whatever their prominence, feel like they have back stories and histories that colour their actions. In flavour it has something of 2000AD's Nikolai Dante about it and in places the art has touches of John Burns. The second volume is out very shortly and I can't wait. At £6.99 this European-translated volume is a bargain.

The other two volumes from Cinebooks I read this month were 'Crusade' volume 1 and 'The Scorpion' volume 4.

Both nice books with Crusades having a very modern look and again both engaging stories. I had not read the previous 3 volumes of The Scorpion but it is easy to pick up with a nice ensemble cast, again touches of Nikolai Dante about it. British comics never seemed to me to dabble with history much. During the 70's and 80's we had war, sport, action, sci-fi, horror, etc. but aside from WW2 never a historical title. I don't know why as both British and world history are a rich source and these Cinebooks give a good account of that.

Finally, I have just read issue 9 of Tony McGee's 'Outcastes' and once again it does not disappoint. There is a fair bit of exposition and flashbacks this episode but it's told in Tony's usual fluid style. At last the bits of the puzzle begin to fall into place and all the strange goings on begin to be understood. I'm not going to say too much as I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet but this has been a really enjoyable and well-executed series which I would happily recommend to anyone. Independent publishers like True Stories Comics deserve supporting and that means sales so if you haven't already taken a look, go and buy a copy.