April 2010 Archives

The Unwritten Volume One: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity
By Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Mike Carey delves into the literary world for this wonderful fantasy about the author's son Tommy Taylor who finds himself at the centre of a historic plot to control what is written.

The Unrwritten follows the parallel adventure of the fictional Tommy Taylor, a Harry Potter style boy wizard and the real life Tommy Taylor, the son after who the author named his most popular character.

Candle Man

Egmont

"A dark power is just waiting to get out." reads this children's book's byline.

Theo Wickland's birthdays are hardly Elton John paparazzi affairs, in fact a visit to the local cemetery is about as good as it gets.

No one pops round to share jelly and blancmange (if you can still buy it); in fact it's the same three people he sees everyday who give the young lad the most mundane and paltry presents on this special day.

There's his guardian Dr Saint, Mr Nicely the butler, and Clarice the maid... Only sometimes, Clarice isn't always Clarice, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Theo's lived all his life in Empire Hall, a grim old place, not even being allowed to enter through all its doors, just all too frequent visits to the Mercy Tube, a medical device Dr Saint has set up to stop the lad's dreaded disease spreading, one that means the boy has to wear gloves day and night in case he causes others to be tainted like he is.

Only that's not quite true. In fact nothing about Theo's life has been. And it's only down to two hapless burglars breaking into the mansion one night that these events are revealed, and in so doing, Theo escapes into the night, and life becomes even more peculiar and dangerous.

The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance have been waiting for this moment for many a darkened moon, alas as is probably the case with so many of these secret societies they've been idling away their time so long, getting their rules and regulations ever more convoluted, that they've half-forgotten what their purpose was in the first place.

Fortunately, while Magnus and Sam James might not be all one would hope for as allies, Chloe is something else!

Well, actually, Chloe is the twin sister of deaf and dumb Clarice, the maid at Empire Hall, and she swopped places with her sister a couple of times to help drop clues that would result in the events that freed Theo.

It transpires that Theo's ancestor was the great Victorian adventurer now known only through whispered legends as the Candle Man, whose very touch would literally melt criminals has been inherited by the lad... It's a power that the Society of Good Works wants, and whose nominal leader, Dr Saint, has been seeking to siphon off Theo all these years by use of the Mercy Tube.

Now isn't that a good thing in this elves against safety-please don't aggravate my personal-daily-choice of pet-peeves society we currently live in... And while I'm as subtle as a sledgehammer in my social commentaries, author Glenn Dakin is far more sophisticated in this literal thesis as children's fiction wherein he explains that those who claim to do good sometimes like the sound of their own voices a little too much and are rarely as good as their word, in fact they're generally pretty nasty folk; just like the Society of Good Works.

The Society of Good Works and the Society of Unrelenting Vigilance have been arch-enemies since at least Victorian times, other societies possibly pre-date them, but it's not just good guys verses bad guys, and not just in black and white, there's possibly other groups out there, there are certainly individuals who are seeking to keep power to themselves; guys like the near-immortal Dodo. And then there are fiendish creatures of eldritch making, garghouls and smoglodytes for instance.

But the crux of the matter is that the Society of Good Works want to use Theo's Candle Man powers to fiendish purpose and once that's revealed as the plot of this book it's a race against time to prevent it happening.

Initially, due to the descriptive setting of Empire Hall and the nearby cemetery I thought the book was actually set in Victorian times, but it just evoked that sense of melodrama at that point, before taking us a modern landscape of taxis caught in rush hour traffic and mugs of tea drunk in local cafes, a whisper and a word to the wise with a before the 9pm watershed version of The Sweeney, then monsters chasing after our young hero and heroine, an underground adventure a ghostly revelation or two and some sc-fi jiggery pokery worthy of Dr Who.

It's all riveting stuff, and it's beautifully paced with Dakin disclosing each event in such an excitingly revelatory way or expounding on a previous chapter's events with great gusto.

This is children's fiction with an edge, not a harsh one I'll agree, but there's some bite to it, and it had me both interested in what was going on and wanting to know more. Its secret society back drop and gathering of heroes from elder times theme is wearing thin in more adult fiction (be that books, comics or films) but the author adds novel touches and inventiveness towards characters that is both amusing and touching.

This novel is just under 400 pages in length but kids won't be yawning when they read it, but don't let them hog it to themselves, read it yourself.

Why review a like, you know, "proper book" here at Speech Balloons? Well, because its author has worked in comics: Nominally one of the Fast Fiction/Escape crowd he later worked for Marvel UK, produced newspaper strips, and has since worked in other media too, such as TV.

His early self-published Abe strips featured a lead character often journeying in search of something forever found on the next horizon, Temptation showed the choices that we make can - amusingly - come back to haunt us, and in programmes like Shaun the Sheep he found a pathway that both young and old could pleasantly meander down with him.

Candle Man takes us along some familiar Glenn Dakin territory then, but it also points to a further maturing in such explorations. What's more it's a good read, and part of a trilogy so the fun's not due to end soon.

Paul H Birch hooked up with Glenn Dakin over the internet a few weeks back and the result is an exclusive interview that will be featured at Speech Balloons tomorrow.
Click on the RSS Feed at the top of the page to ensure you don't miss out on reading what Glenn Dakin has to say.

Candle Man is available at all good bookshops and online stores.

For more on Glenn Dakin visit: www.glenndakin.com

WEB STRIPS are becoming quite the vogue this season in the comics medium.

British cartoonist David M Windett is delineating some behind-the scenes tomfoolery online for The Web Comic Factory.

The Web Comic Factory is an online anthology similar to the Sunday newspaper collections that have been traditionally popular with American newspapers, and have caught on as a niche market for some British papers in recent years.

Windett is drawing Comic Book Mafia, an over-the-top look at a fictional comic book company called Lead Pipe Studios.

A new episode of Comic Book Mafia will be online every Saturday.

T o view Comic Book Mafia and other strips at The Web Comic Factory visit: thewebcomicfactory.com

GUESTS FOR this year's 2D - The Northern Ireland Comics Festival have just been announced.

Organiser David Campbell revealed that Pat Mills, the legendary creator of 2000AD, Action and many other comics and strips will be attending, alongside Phil Barrett, Maeve Clancy, Rufus Dayglo, Gary Erskine, Davy Francis, Leigh Gallagher, Kieron Gillen, Bridgeen Gillespie, Ilya, Garry Leach, Jamie McKelvie, Colin McNeil and Will Simpson.

For further information refer to previous Speech Balloon articles on 2D or check out the events listing on Facebook

THE ANNUAL London Book Fair now has a Comic & Graphic Novel Pavilion to reflect the increasing impact this medium is having on sales within the British book publishing field.

Beginning today and until the show concludes on Wednesday visitors to the show will be able to listen to seminars, visit stands, and watch artists at work.

Seminars include talks by leading comic historian Paul Gravett, book publisher David Fickling whose DFC weekly comics' experiment is now finding a new lease of life as collected graphic novels, and author Ian Rankin.

Publishers include Dark Horse from America and Campfire from India.

For more information visit: www.londonbookfair.co.uk

CLICK ON Episode 16 of Shang Ri La La La below and it will expand to fill your screen.
For more information on the creators visit:

For Paul H Birch: www.myspace.com/paulhbirch

For Gary Crutchley: www.gcrutchley.blogspot.com

For Mats Engesten: www.go.to/engesten

For John Robbins: www.mylifeinshorts.blogspot.com

For Andrew Dodd: www.timebombcomics.com

CLICK ON Episode 15 of Shang Ri La La La below and it will expand to fill your screen.

For more information on the creators visit:

For Paul H Birch: www.myspace.com/paulhbirch

For Gary Crutchley: www.gcrutchley.blogspot.com

For Mats Engesten: www.go.to/engesten

For John Robbins: www.mylifeinshorts.blogspot.com

For Andrew Dodd: www.timebombcomics.com

Pandora's Box Volume 3 - Gluttony

Cinebook

Teze is an Ethiopian orphan whose parents have died from famine. He is adopted and taken to live in France where, like his adopted father, he becomes a doctor, and under the man's prompting him to take up a post at the AFSSA that is responsible for nutritional and safety, just as mad cow disease is reaching a new high.

Politics and personal issues head up this drama.

Alcante remains strong on supplying information while moving a story forward. In the case of BSE it still remains a subjective point of view to some degree, and every side had their note entirely altruistic personal agendas concerning it as far as I recall. This remains so in this story, but because it is a work of fiction, some answers are needed to resolve the plot, so I remain wary of the very subjectivity of that.

Regardless, it is the motives of the individuals that move through the plot are what express the book's theme, though to pinpoint it as gluttony rather than greed isn't quite pushed to its limits.

It is a story of morals, I'm actually not sure if I would like Teze as a man (he remains too wrapped up in his own feelings, selfish actually) but his eventual moral choices can't be entirely faulted - There's a nice silence section of pages near the end of the book that leaves you the reader to deduce the ambiguity of what might be said by the protagonists, but the outcome remains the same.

There are many gaps in the book and it reminds me of the criticisms made towards the Tom Hanks-starring film Philapdelphia in some cases. As a book read by teenagers in a school environment where various issues could be discussed and argued over, such matters could be taken to their satisfactory conclusion - for no book is completed once the author has written his last page; it is the views and feelings of its readers who give it new life, and perhaps different meanings.

For further information visit: www.cinebook.com

Papyrus Book 1: The Rameses' Revenge

Cinebook

Debuting within Belgium's Spirou magazine in 1974, Lucien De Gieter's Papyrus is the story of a young lad with a magic sword set and is during the time of the pharaohs. Its popularity has lead to an animated cartoon series that was created in 1998 and shown on both French and Canadian TV, plus a video game produced in 2000.

Papyrus was given his sword by the Egyptian god Sobek's daughter in order to protect the pharaoh's daughter Théti-Chéri, and so the lad goes from being a simple fisherman to an adventurer through the Two Kingdoms of ancient Egypt.

In this first UK collection, Papyrus, Théti-Chéri, and their friend Imhotep are travelling down the Nile to meet up with the Pharaoh at Abu-Simbel. Unfortunately, Papyrus and Théti-Chéri have an argument and traitors on board the boat go unnoticed.

Arriving at the Great Millions of Years Temple they find the place taken under attack by bandits along with the traitors who have kidnapped Papyrus and have him in chains, threatening to kill him should they not be given the temple's riches.

Within the temple Théti-Chéri and Imhotep seek to find an escape route to freedom, only to discover priests tied up for it seems the ones they first met were another group of bandits in disguise.

With the real priests rescued their high priest calls upon the power of the great god Rameses and, well you can pretty much see what happens by the front cover - the stone statues guarding the temple come to life - However, the bandits begin to think the statues aren't a threat to him, after all they go straight into the sea to save an unconscious Papyrus, but that's when the Rameses' revenge happens.

To find out what happens next read the book yourself, it's an entertaining kids' adventure, and with its historical and mythological background can lead to some fun discussions with said children.

For more information visit: www.cinebook.com

Lady S Book 2: Latitude 59 Degrees North

Cinebook

Once more an unlisted European anti-terrorist agency makes Suzan Fitzroy an offer she can't refuse!

Alas, that's the price you have to pay when you're living under an assumed name as an American ambassador's adopted daughter and you're really a former cat burglar, who'd also previously left the Soviet Union under a dark cloud.

And so, in Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden, as preparations take place for the Nobel Prize Awards, subterfuge, cunning, and breaking and entry are the watchwords of the day... and even more so the night!

Once more she must throw in her lot with Anton Grivenko. He's not only the lad who taught her how to be a thief, but the young man who killed an ex-KGB mob leader to save her life, and an ex-lover who's more than bitter apart there estrangement and neither of them are happy that Orion keeps throwing them together.

Orion's own activities are witnessed, irrespective of either of the ex-lovers' involvement, in this book too, and we now know for certain that he is involved in Europe's political machinations, and not inventing his role as I half-suspected in the first book. Not that Sweden's powers that be are happy about his presence on their soil. But there's a job that needs doing and he's the conniving so-and-so he's going to help make it happen.

Topically, the plot leads us to believe Islamic terrorists are intent on kidnapping - and if that fails then killing - the prize winners on their way to the awards' event, but this swiftly changes as we find Russian mafia types are behind the whole nefarious double-dealing scheme.

The tactical manoeuvres are tip-top and classily executed as one would expect from Van Hamme, and it's a major reason you pick up his books, but Lady S has developed even further with this book as we become further engaged with the characters' personalities and it heads even further towards becoming a romance thriller.

The story is shedding its Modesty Blaise for juveniles' angle and I'm wondering if the long-term ramification of this epic is that we'll have a full-blown tragedy on someone's bloodied hands.

For more information visit: www.cinebook.com