From the Circus to Outer Space...

SATURDAY'S COLLECTION of graphic novel reviews...

Ministry of Space
By Warren Ellis & Chris Weston (Image/Titan)

Dan Dare meets neu-realism in this variable history story that sees the British steal German technology before the Yanks and Ruskies can get a look in during the fading hours of WWII.

It postulates the theory that space exploration would have continued on as a part of Britain's empirical nature instead of us becoming an inward looking trading post of diminishing returns.

Sir John Dashwood is an air commodore with the RAF an it is his ruthless spirit that makes it all happen, hiding a deadly secret in his doing that at the end the Americans have discovered and will reveal so. This proves Dashwood's downfall and Britain's folly - it doesn't quite ring true as every nation hides its war crimes with a smile and sadly generally gets away with it.

The last panels suggest racism would still be profoundly here but it just wouldn't be in the same way - But if so surely the Americans would have blacks in chains still? One change doesn't mean every nation will stay in isolation.

Regardless, it captures the height of empirical ambition, the sterling stiff upper lip, and a God's kingdom on Earth approach as exemplified by William Blake.

To this artist Weston deliver his exacting art in to evoke not only Hampson with modern mannerisms but as an apprentice to Don Lawrence also serves the memory of his mentor well.

American Splendour
By Harvey Pekar & Various (Ballantine/Titan)

A hefty album collecting two previous collections.

For those new they will find a collection of vignettes of generally high quality about the drudgery of daily working class life in Cleveland, USA. Boring? No.

There are insights into the human character, nuances and prejudices made and lost , and honesty from Pekar himself, and a point, moral or otherwise to the stories.

Robert Crumb's on board but there are plenty of delights from the other male and female artists.

I used to read the annual oversized comic version of American Splendour that Pekar self-published and this acts not only as a reminder of some good stories but how I saw a small-business man self-publish and treat his artists with apparent integrity - an attitude that's stayed at the back of my head and I've taken as a blueprint for any endeavour I've been personally involved with since.

Barnum! In Secret Service to the USA
By Howard Chaykin, David Tishman & Niko Henrichon (Vertigo-DC).

Sheer carny hokum that must have been written with tongue firmly planted in cheek!

The premise: that scientist Nikola Tesla is trying to take over the United States, as that nation's growth into Empire and future world dominator... and obviously kill of President Grove Cleveland in the process!

To prevent this, P.T. Barnum and his circus troop become special agents on behalf of the president. It's almost a two fingers-up assault on the revisionist pulp hero material that's pumped out these days. It's also an honest to goodness adventure of the sorts we all to rarely see these days.

A lot of it will leave younger readers bored rigid. It has to be admitted it feels the story has been padding out somewhat and Henrichion's quaint illustrative style isn't going to appeal to the X-fans out there, but there's some fun moments in it,.

I got get the feeling Chaykin's main interest was the history and politics side of this. The book ends happily enough, with that comic book sense that there might be a reprise, but I doubt sales would make it. To be frank I don't know how a hard cover collection came about unless there was also potential movie deals happening at the time. Regardless, I'm a sucker for almost anything Chaykin put out.

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman Volume II
By Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill (DC/WildStorm)

The group reform and take on the aliens from HG Wells' War of the Worlds - it both loses and gains over the first collection. Charactersisations expand beyond their own chronoligical definitions, but maybe we prefered them otherwise. Cameos from John Carter and Gulliver Jones on Mars in the prologue were a welcome sight, however, an explansion of their roles would have been welcomed.

Supplementary text stories and covers round out the collection. All in all, there's enough meat on the story with the villains suitably menacing, doubly so when characters change allegancies.

100 Bullets: Samurai
By Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (DC/Vertigo)

Quite why this collection of 100 Bullets #43-49 is subtitled Samurai confuses me - Caged Creatures might be more appropriate. The book's in two parts, the first featuring a con doing time and thinking he's little chance of surviving other prisoners, the second and more interesting, if initially, apparently more predictable, involves the illegal hunting of caged tigers. There's lots of mean and moody action, and it's all very cinematic

A mysterious man called Graves gives individuals 100 bullets to do whatever they want, promising that they'll get off scott free, but the 100th bullet must be for the individual themselves. The first story in this collection needs some awareness of the series' continuity, the second more accessible to non-series readers.

Creatures of the Night
By Neil Gaiman & Michael Zulli (Dark Horse Books)

Zulli has adapted two short stories by Gaiman, The Price and The Daughter of Owls.

They are brief reads despite their individual page count, and beneficial for it. Each tells a dark fairy tale suitable for all ages. The one a story about a cat battling the devil, the other a girl thought of as a demon herself.

Zulli gives thanks to Barry Windsor-Smith in his credits. That artistic influence was always there in Zulli's work and initially it may well have hindered his progression though made him a little more commercial, now he takes the essence of the storytelling that is Windsor-Smith's true skill (rather than the absolutely wonderful drawings themselves that people first admire) and uses that in a natural flow that makes the book work.

I expected not to like this and was very pleasantly surprised. Nothing deep but an effective collection.