Skreemer

By Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins, Steve Dillon and Tom Ziuko

Skreemer is an oft overlooked collaboration between old mates, Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon. An odd fit for DC and a series you couldn’t imagine them taking a punt on now, it was Vertigo before there was Vertigo, later reprinted in TPB form under that sadly now defunct imprint. It’s an unusual strip which could easily fit in 2000AD now and is here by dint that 3 parts of its creative were working on lots for “The Galaxy’s Greatest” at roughly the same time as it was published.

Skreemer is an unusual mix of near future dystopia and gangsters, or perhaps to paraphrase Ewins’ from his introduction a sci fi “Long Good Friday”. Veto Skreemer is an orphan who is brought up in an America where gangs now run the country following some unexplained cataclysm.  Skreemer rises to head one of these gangs, but throughout his life has had visions of his own doomed future, a future he tries to escape via a long term grand plan. The story is told by a mysterious narrator, jumping back and fore in Veto’s life and how it parallels and intersects with the narrator’s own family history.

In the introduction to the collection Ewins’ cites James Joyce as an influence on both himself and Peter Milligan , the latter revisiting Joyce in later works such as “Shade, The Changing Man”.  In places Skreemer is horrifying and often brutal, this is a very grim book. Reader sympathies lie with the narrator and his family, but weirdly and despite being a psychopath, Veto himself is also a strangely sympathetic character; possibly because he sees himself as being so helpless and beholden to a future only he can see.

The Ewins / Dillon art team is an odd mix, they had previously worked together on a one off Bad Company called “Simply”. There are pages which look like Ewins has been inked or even finished by Dillon, whereas other pages were all Dillon and then vice versa.  Ewins’ pop art sensibilities soon blend seamlessly with Dillon’s square jawed realism. Tom Ziuko’s colours are suitably sombre if a little on the muddy side.

A quick search on the internet reveals It can be picked up quite cheaply as a trade. A forgotten gem of a book.

Scarab 1-8 : DC/Vertigo

Stretching the definition of 2000AD related to breaking point, Luke wants to spread the word on this unfairly (in Luke’s fevered imagination anyway) overlooked 25 year old mini, one of former(?) script droid John Smith’s only sojourns across the Atlantic.

The New Deadwardians : Dan Abnett & I.N.J Culbard

A wishy washy prog’, a few shots of Glayva, JD and a couple of Stellas lead Luke to dig out this collection of a curtailed Vertigo series, created by a writer and artist very familiar to squaxx.

The New Deadwardians

by

Dan Abnett & I.N.J Culbard

Vertigo

Review by Luke Williams

This is a bit of curio from a few years ago. If anyone is interested at all in my reading taste (and why would you be?), Dan Abnett has not been a favourite of mine. But that changed a few years ago. Some of his work in the ‘Prog and the Meg’ really started to push my buttons. Abnett is a writing machine at the moment – he is akin to  Wagner and Grant in the eighties. And whilst I really can’t see what the fuss is about “Kingdom” or “Sinister Dexter, “Grey Area” is great fun and “Lawless” and “Brink” are awesome and “Insurrection” is one of the best things to appear in the Meg’ (see here)  “So”, thinks I,        ” let’s check out his extra Thargular activities”.

Abnett’s here with regular contributor Ian Culbard for a detective drama set in Edwardian England (dur) with a twist. We follow  ex army officer Chief Inspector George Suttle, the sole murder detective in the Metropolitan Police. The rest of the murder squad are no longer needed as most people are already dead, murder is mostly a thing of the past.

Britain’s population is divided up between the “Restless” – zombies, made up of the underclass of the country , turned by a mysterious event which led to a bloody conflict. There are the “Young” who have received the so called “cure”, which prevents them from turning into zombies and allowed the British to prevail against the zombies. The cure means they become vampires, and gives them “urges”, which I’m sure I don’t need to spell out. That leaves the “bright” which is basically everyone else. Normal humans, not “cured” or affected by the zombie curse. The population of the country are split between zones “A” where the “Young” and privileged live, and zone B where the “Restless” and most of the “Bright” can be found.

Murders  are rare, so it causes quite a stir when the mutilated body of a “Young” who is n advisor to the Crown turns up on the embankment next to the Houses of Parliament.

Beginning his investigations in the East End, Suttle begins to uncover a conspiracy, that leads all the way to the higher echelons of government. At the same time we explore the world and all that means to be undead and what it is to “live” in this world.

Abnett’s pacing is slow and deliberate, don’t expect action and explosions here, but strong character development and unintrusive exposition. Abnett’s characters interactions are subtle  (pardon the pun) and unforced, the plot develops naturally and carries a not so subtle underlying commentary on class.

I occasionally find Culbard’s characters difficult to distinguish, but have fewer problems here. Whilst it would be easy to reduce many of the pages to series of talking heads, Culbard skillfully avoids that  trap, and the pages flow beautifully.

Initially, this was solicited as an ongoing series, but sadly it was curtailed to 8 issues, collected in this here volume. Pick this up, it’s great. And whilst you are at it, hunt out the duos “Wild’s End” collections from Boom! Studios, you won’t be disappointed.

 

 

Turn and Face the Strange : Script Droid John Smith

Turn and Face The Strange

Creator Droid  John Smith : A Selective Bibliography

By Luke Williams

With his seeming  recent excision from the Prog and the the Meg on two of his most significant creations, Luke takes a look at the work of the enigma that is cult script droid John Smith and comes over all wibbly and fanboyey’

A History Of Violence

 

The Royals : Masters Of War

Rob Williams & Simon Coleby (with Gary Erskine)

Review by Seth

A recently completed Vertigo series, originally destined for the Wildstorm imprint, featured here as it has been written and drawn by 2000ad creators. That’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it.

Rob Williams has become a toothy regular and for me one of the best writers on Dredd (when Wagner isn’t about anyway). Coleby is known for his work on the excellent “Lowlife” and more recently on the Gordon Rennie written Rogue Trooper Universe set “Jaegir”, all good stuff (to me anyway : I think I’m in a minority with the latter on this site).
The Royal families of this universe all have superpowers. The Second World War is at its height. It isn’t going well for the United Kingdom, Germany’s power is overwhelming and America has yet to enter the war. Prince Henry of the Royal family is frustrated. He sees the suffering of his subjects and he feels he should be doing more for the war effort, but there is an unspoken agreement amongst the worlds’ Royal families that they do not get involved in armed conflict. His father, the seemingly powerless and impotent King opposes his involvement. His brother the obnoxious braggart and womanising drunk Arthur taunts him with his hedonistic lifestyle and over Henry’s clearly incestuous feelings for their sister Rose.
Almost inevitably, Churchill looks to the family for assistance which Henry willingly and gladly provides, but only prompts and escalation of the conflict as the other Royal families become involved despite drawing the US into the war. To make matters worse, there is a traitor in the British government.
Williams’ script is darkly humorous, he’s a sharp and witty writer. The cad Arthur is a stand out, stealing all the best lines. Unfortunately, Henry comes across as being a bit too worthy – apart from the wanting to bed his sister bit of course. Occasionally, the sudden plot / location  jumps can be jarring, but this a minor gripe
Coleby seems to have enjoyed himself. Lots of military hardware (though his Spitfires in issue 5 seem a bit off around the nose), references to locations in the great European cities. Gary Erskine comes onboard from issue 4 on inks, and softens Coleby’s bold, heavy line, which improves the art and makes the characters faces more distinct.

Williams & Coleby provide and interesting spin on the period superhero story, it’s more about the inter family relationships then a super powered slug fest – though there is a bit of that too. Weaving people and events from the war into their tale, they have created a compelling story of the consequences of escalation and basically how war is quite a nasty business really, whether you have superpowers or not.