Strip Magazine # 1

It was a little late in arriving, but I’ve finally got my grubby mitts on the first issue of Strip Magazine, a brand new British anthology that’s being published monthly. An actual new comic. Not one of those old ones like I normally talk about.

Cover by PJ Holden

In all honesty, the reason I picked it up was because of the Hook Jaw reprint by Ken Armstrong & Ramon Sola, which, for those of you that don’t know, caused a bit of a stink, along with most of the other strips, when it was originally published in Action back in the 70’s. (It’s the only reprint in Strip, everything else is new.) Hook Jaw has never looked so good. The original printing in Action, was, like most comics from that era, printed on terribly low quality paper that did not do the art justice. There was a reprint collection a few years ago, but that too suffered from low production values. But this time it looks brilliant. High quality paper, retouched colours and re-lettered too, I’m glad to say it was worth the price of the comic for these few pages alone. I hope that it’s well received by readers because I’d love to see the whole run reprinted.

But what of the other sixty pages? (Yep, this is a 68 page comic for £2.99)

Well I’m happy to report that after reading Strip cover to cover, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a very strong debut issue, with contributions from some well known creators and some not so well known up and coming talent.

Black Ops Extreme by John Freeman & PJ Holden, jumps straight in to the thick of it, presenting what appears to be a modern spin on the Dirty Dozen. Lots of short and sharp introductions to the various characters and plenty of curious questions raised that the readers will no doubt want answers to. The low page count and ensemble cast mean that this one will benefit from a re-read when we’re a few issues in, just to get to grips with who’s who.

Recovery Incorporated by Mike Penick & Dean Deckard, introduces us to a female, high-class, high-tech thief who supposedly recovers stolen items for the original owners. With plenty of hints to the lead characters back story, set against an all action opening. Certainly intelligently paced, but a personal dislike of over using internal monologue left me uncertain of this one. Hopefully an introduction of a supporting cast will open up the dialogue opportunities for this story.

In the text introduction to On Her Majesty’s Hush-Hush Service by Stephen Walsh & Keith Page, we are told that this strip is a prologue to a Graphic Novel currently being printed by the same publisher. These few pages really whet my appetite for the longer story. Set in an alternate history, steam punk world, this is an action/adventure story with a great sense of humour and a very British sensibility in terms of both writing and art. The depiction of Queen Victoria is particularly amusing and I think I may have to buy the Graphic Novel at my next opportunity.

Warpaint by Phil Hester & John McCrea, introduces a supernatural element into Strip, but frankly, although it has piqued my interest, I have no idea what it’s about nor where it’s going. I’m looking forward to finding out.

Age of Heroes by James Hudnall & John Ridgway has a fantasy setting, featuring a wandering bard who tells stories for his keep. I have a feeling that there’s more to him than he is willing to tell. Ridgway (who’s 71 years old now) does his normal, fantastic job on the art and it has a strong script, but one small point, which is difficult to discuss without spoilers, is the ending of this first installment. I would have included one extra panel showing the nature of the threat, if indeed it is a threat. By revealing just the appearance of the threat, it would have given me something, an image at least, to ponder, but we would still be in the dark as to the motivation, which could be revealed at the opening of the next installment. Whilst I’m not normally a fan of straight up fantasy, this was my favourite strip in the comic, which is perhaps why I’m being overly critical with the ending.

Age Of Heroes

The comic also ran a competition for submissions that would be featured in the opening issues and the first winner was printed in this issue. Agent Syber by Graham & David Stoddart has an impressive few pages for a non-professional strip, it’s sci-fi based and my first thought was that it would suit a title like 2000 AD more than this comic, but then, they are running a Fantasy strip and an Alternate History strip, so why not keep it versatile. I expected a short “Future Shocks” type tale, but what we have is very clearly the opening episode of a series, which is fine, except that the next issue features a different competition winning strip, so I’m not really sure what the editor’s intent is with this and I found it a little frustrating.

To top and tail this issue there are two humour strips, the first is Cosmic Patrol by Mauricett & Janssens, which is a straight up funny heroes cartoon in the image of Sergio Aragones, with caricatures of some very recognisable characters from the Big Two. The second is Autospy & Ape by John Rushby, this one’s intriguing. It’s a humour strip with an action/adventure plot, it’s only one page but with plenty of panels crammed in, I’m looking forward to seeing where this one’s headed. The only negative for this strip was the lettering. In the last couple of panels it looks like the speech bubbles obscure a relevant piece of the art. Looking closely it appears that Autospy has transformed the lower part of his body, there is a passing reference to it in the text, but the full impact is lost because the bubble covers a good three quarters of the relevant part of the image. They are small panels, so the letterer probably had a job fitting everything in, but still, a little shoddy I thought.

All in all, a really strong first issue. I’m chuffed that they did reprint the Hook Jaw strip, because without it, I may well not have picked this comic up at all and I don't like to miss a treat.

Mad Thinker Reads………………A Great British Adventure Comic …..Again………..At Last.