Richard Bruton Comic Reviews

Classic sword & sorcery, bringing back a forgotten character from the mists of time in Brit comics, Alec Worley and DaNi's 'Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh' is wonderful comic. Worley's story plays it all straight, all the better to allow DaNi's art to shine - and it absolutely does, making Black Beth a striking example of an artist at their height making beautiful work.

Rediscovering a long-lost British comics fantasy adventure and rejuvenating it 30+ years later, the complete Black Beth by Blas Gallego, Alec Worley, and DaNi is the absolute personification of how to lovingly bring back the old and sympathetically update it with new stories. In doing so, all concerned have made something fabulous, old-school sword and sorcery, fabulous artwork, evocative, amazing, stunning stuff.

Something fabulously different from Owen D. Pomery, an Arctic-noir thriller yet still with his beautifully well-done introspection, perfect for a tale from the white, icy wastelands of the Arctic. He delivers a polished, different, multi-layered mystery thriller, something that absolutely works in everything it's seeking to accomplish.

Funny. Funny. FUNNY.There you go. That's the review.Funny. Funny. FUNNY.Welcome to the world of Jamie Smart's Bunny Vs Monkey - you're going to love it here.

Just 16 pages, 16 images, but it's 16 pages of wonderful comic making as Dan White returns to the world of Cindy and Biscuit after our hero's survived one of the most trying challenges of her young life, her first year at the big school!As with every Cindy & Biscuit, White gives you action and adventure that's so pure and joyous, but also does that thing he does so well and cuts against the joy with a subtle dash of sadness to make a comic with a depth that gets right into your heart.

Dan White's Cindy and Biscuit returns - with a difference! We're going back to see where the beginnings of one of the best double-acts in comics started. And it's just as beautifully charming and subtly dark as it's always been. Year One might be short, but it's perfectly short.

Going right back to the genesis of the Judges, Michael Carroll and John Higgins deliver a horrifyingly believable tale of the descent into fascism that leads us to the world of Judge Dredd. It's a brutal and powerful tale that should be essential reading for all.

The all-new, all-ages collection of Full Tilt Boogie is full of space adventure with a very modern feel, yet harking back to the very best of both 2000 AD and classic Euro sci-fi comics.Alex de Campi and Eduardo Ocana give us a glorious mix of action-packed thrills and good old-fashioned sci-fi, creating something that should appeal to all in this and many more adventures to come.

Georgia And The Edge Of The World by Robin Boyden puts a complex and brilliant metaphysical spin on the standard questing story. Join Georgia and her loyal companion Ponkey on a very different sort of quest for adventure that's an absolute delight from start to finish.

Will Morris' 'Gospel' #1 is so full of potential, a beautiful-looking comic that promises so much, a medieval quest for answers, magic and devilry, and more than anything else a comic about stories and storytellers. But it's also another first issue that isn't quite there yet. It teases and tantalises more than it hooks you in. It's good, knocking on the door of great.

The new horror fantasy from the creators of Harker, Gravestown by Roger Gibson and Vincent Danks does a magnificent job of setting up something creepy, and weird, and very strange. A perfect first issue that builds up the tension and reveals just enough to entice you in, perfectly paced, great dialogue, and Danks' art just looks stunning on every page.

From haunted house horror of issue 1 to strange new world of issue 2, 'Gravestown' switches things up and takes our heroine (and us) on a little trip around the place. Clever, well-observed, with a natural warmth and humour in the dialogue, and oh so beautifully drawn, 'Gravestown' #2 sees Roger Gibson and Vincent Danks taking us deeper into a perfectly pitched fantasy horror.

Stephanie Phillips and Riley Rossmo's new Harley Quinn gives us plenty of fun with an all-new Harley wanting to turn over a new leaf and say sorry to a hell of a lot of people.It's by no means a perfect first issue, but it's certainly setting up what could be a good series. It might be too slight an issue, with not enough meat on the bones of the story - but at least it's entertainingly slight, getting the silly, the sad and the mad of Harley's character pretty much right, all through some great looking artwork.

Ex-Chief Judge Barbara Hershey comes back from the dead for one last mission, a near-suicidal mission that will her across the world for atonement for her own failings. Rob Williams and Simon Fraser take a much-loved character and give her one last, extended, adventure. Cold, brutal, cinematic, exhilarating, and stunning artistically, Hershey: Disease is a worthy addition to the world of Dredd.

A truly terrible entry in the Captain America mythos, dull, ponderous, completely boring, and guilty of over-telling a paper-thin story.The score of two? Well, the art's not awful.

Lights, Planets, People! is an evocative exploration of mental health, a beautifully drawn, powerfully written, and simply wonderful example of just how good graphic novels can be. One of my books of the year without a doubt.

Adam Cahoon joins John Lees as main artist for this excellent comedy-drama with horror at its core. The possessed video nasty is working its way through the gang of budding horror movie makers, while others full of moral indignation and something darker have their own plans.Three issues in and 'The Nasty' is so much joyous fun, celebrating all that's great and wonderful in horror tales. Definitely recommended.

A bleak and brutal look at a near-future with a country in chaos, democracy fallen, No Country is a perfect bit of dystopian fiction for older children and adults.But it's cleverer than even that, with Joe Brady and Patrice Aggs firmly focusing on one family's struggles as their world crumbles to make the inevitable disaster all the more personal, all the more powerful.

Jamie Smart's Bunny Vs Monkey does funny every episode, every week in the Phoenix, on every page in the books. But sometimes, beautifully, wonderfully, it also does something so special and different.This is one of those times.Noises featuring Action Beaver is a thing to make you smile. And think. And maybe shed just a little tear.Three pages of sheer brilliance.

Declan Shalvey's first complete book with him as writer and artist spins a fascinating sci-spy tale that looks every bit as good as you'd expect but one that just doesn't quite click - maybe not yet. But it's still an intriguing first issue that throws a hell of a lot of ideas and even more questions at you, ideas and questions I'm hoping all fit together in subsequent issues to give us a great book.

The second issue of Declan Shalvey's widescreen comics spy thriller hits every mark. After a first issue that spluttered where it should have exploded from the gate, this second issue is just a wonderful little thing - super fast-paced, streamlined storytelling, and art that looks just sublime - this is genre comics done just right, a rollercoaster of an espionage tale that you'll love.

Another issue, another hard-hitting mission, more teases of the past - Declan Shalvey's Old Dog is just getting better and better as each issue comes out. Sumptuous Shalvey artwork, an increasingly tight and controlled plot, and gloriously choreographed and stylised action sequence means that Old Dog is a pulpy delight.

In Paris, two women, who couldn't be more different, find love and freedom amongst the art and beauty of the most romantic city in the world. It's as beautiful and enchanting as falling in love should be and this newly expanded Image Comics edition of Andi Watson and Simon Gane's work gives fresh new life to as perfect a love story as you could read.

Morris' Lucky Luke, particularly with Rene Goscinny, was sublime Euro Comics, full of adventure and comedy - Rin Tin Can's first solo adventure is pure and simple comedic brilliance. An absolute delight of stupidity, with every page a laugh-out-loud moment. Morris's genius is on display all the way through.

Stray Dogs has such a simple premise - the 'what if we did a horror comic from the point of view of our trusted, beloved best friends' idea, where no horror is more terrible in a dog's life than their man or lady going missing.But it's how cleverly the issues are constructed, combined with the striking contrast between the horror concept and the classic animated look of the art, that marks it out as something genre-hoppingly good.

A different sort of Lucky Luke for sure, but Matthieu Bonhomme's version of Morris' original retains everything that made the cowboy who shoots faster than his own shadow a classic. Artistically a sheer delight, The Man Who Shot Lucky Luke delivers everything you would want it to - a perfect reinterpretation of an absolute classic.

Dina Norlund's 'The Snowcat Prince' blends European folklore and fairy tales with modern, super-bright Pixar-ish in a story that looks to provide readers of all ages with something that's never particularly surprising or original but is always highly enjoyable.For fantasy readers, think of it as a comfort blanket of the familiar, something to relax into and enjoy. But for younger fantasy readers, the lush artwork and multi-layered characters and plots will form a worthwhile introduction to a genre they'll come to love.

One of the best new original strips to come from 2000 AD in the last decade, Thistlebone is a haunting and eerie piece of folk horror. And this collection really allows TC Eglington and Simon Davis' work to breathe, to build up its slow, creeping horror, and allows the beauty of Davis' career-high artwork to be seen to its best effect.

In Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots, TC Eglington and Simon Davis deliver a sequel that's every bit as astonishing in its execution as the original. Everything that made Thistlebone one of the stand-out stories of recent 2000 AD is here in this second tale, all of the creeping horror, all of the pastoral folk tales, all of the beauty and brutality of nature and humanity… it's a simply perfect sequel, dark, atmospheric, brilliant.

Clever, heart-warming, funny, quirky, and quite delightfully quaint - Three Little Wishes' gives you a new take on the old question of what you'd wish for if you were the one uncorking the bottle. But what would happen if those three wishes came to the world's worst overthinker? Well, that's the perfect tale being told here, with wit and warmth in spades.

A truly beautiful third and final volume in Berenika Kolomycka's early reader series, Tiny Fox and Great Boar: Dawn sees the title characters making friends with a nymph who soon becomes a mayfly, leading to an exploration of friendship, feelings, and what it means to lose someone you love. It's a completely unexpected powerful read, intense, meaningful, and absolutely beautiful in the way it looks at the world.