By Rob Jackson
Rob Jackson keeps on switching things around, continually switching genres for his next thing, this latest a historical tome, “An Octavian Columbas Adventure“, set somewhere remote, maybe ancient Britain, definitely during Roman times. It’s a murder mystery of sorts, perhaps Jackson’s very own version of something akin to Eco’s “The Name Of The Rose“. Maybe.
Second page and it’s already doing the thing I do rather enjoy with Jackson’s comics, the comedic tone, deliberately somewhat at odds with the setting of the story. Our very first meeting of Octavian Columbus, and his slave Quinceps…
It’s the little moments, looking at Quinceps, Columbus’ deadpan retort to the Centurion, “Thanks for the offer Centurion, but we’d better get to work…“. Yep, that’s the humour I’ve come to enjoy and somewhat expect from Jackson.
Columbus is here to investigate some strange going-ons at the camp, patrols vanishing, the governor dropping dead just the other week, all the usual methods of investigation exhausted….
“My men picked up the local suspicious characters. I tried crucifying them, I tried not crucifying them. They said nothing. I’m at my wits end”.Oh yes, rigorous. So off the pair go, investigating in their own unique fashion, Quinceps remarkably talented, autopsies without leaving a mark a speciality, whereas Columbas is more the thinker, not content with the ever so convenient resolution to the Governors death. Heading out of camp on a hunch leads to a showdown with some very crazed barbarians, looking a little Pictish, the trail back into camp, unusual drugs, another death, ominous talk of “The Megapode”, disguises, undercover work, more unusual drugs, more about “The Megapode”…. all very mysterious, all very well done.
So, great start. Jackson’s work is the absolute definitive proof to my mind of the power of well done storytelling. No matter how good the art is, if the storytelling doesn’t sell the story, if the flow and pace of the work isn’t right, everything falls apart. Jackson’s art is hardly what you would call refined, but that’s almost immaterial to the enjoyment within the pages. Everything works, it all makes sense, the mystery is mysterious, the adventure thrilling, the humour humorous, and the storytelling ties it all together.
But the thing that makes Slaves Of The Megapode work so well is the Roman double act of Columbus and Quinceps:
“Did you ever come across tales of such a substance in your education?”Boom tish. Great lines a plenty throughout. Roll on issue 2.
“It reminds me of the story of the Lous Eaters, told by the Greeks.”
“And does that end happily?”
“Not really. Everyone dies.”
“Well, that’s the Greeks for you. Miserable lot.”
You can get hold of Slaves Of The Megapode from Rob Jackson at his website.
Slaves Of The Megapode – Volume II
By Rob Jackson
The second issue of Jackson’s historical thriller (I’m sticking with it as Jackson’s very own version of Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name Of The Rose‘) keeps on keeping on basically, extending the storyline of a Roman special investigator dealing with his very own murder mystery and uncovering something far more disturbing. You can find a review of Volume I here.
Investigator Octavian Columbus, and his slave Quinceps, start this volume very much the worse for wear after their experiences tasting the strange drugs of the barbarians they came across in their investigations. Their memories are foggy at best, but Columbus distinctly remembers ‘The Megapode’
“It was a great hairy beast with no head or eyes, just a mass of hair. I think it ate trees and made the drug…”Although he does point out that perhaps his mind made it all up. It’s certainly on his mind, he just cant shake the bizarre dreams and a worrying desire for more of the drug. Thing is, he’s not the only one aware of the Megapode, seems there’s a lot more to the whole Megapode thing than people are letting on. More investigations follow, leading to yet more disguises, yet more (failed) attempts to infiltrate the barbarian tribes’ gathering, and another bad experience for them both on the Megapode drug…
Again, as with pretty much everything of Jacksons, the most important part is to look past the raw artwork to the actual storytelling, which is clear and simple, effective and generally really sells his work to me. Well, that and Jackson’s ability to turn a phrase that puts a smile on my face. There’s a fair few moments where he just delivers a great gag, all playing deliberately against the serious investigation work.
There’s a great bit of situation comedy early on, with the pair desperate for a bit of kip, feeling crap after being wasted from the night before…. cue a marching band and legion of soldiers outside the tent. Or the verbal gags Jackson does so well…
Oh yes, good old fashioned policework.
And then there’s Jackson great sense of comic timing (and yes, you can take ‘comic’ to mean both uses of the word). He sets things up just to deliver a perfectly timed line. If I hadn’t read so much of his stuff, I’d almost think some of the comedy wasn’t something Jackson meant to do, but no, it’s part of his comic making, and a great addition to some good comics.
I’ll leave you with this, a perfect example of what I’m talking about; Columbus and Quincep, on the road out of camp, are held up by the villagers who drugged them last issue. They’ve heard a rumour that Columbus has been stripped of command and is without soldiers from the camp…
“I’m glad you heard about the Centurion. In fact I was kind of counting on it. But you know, it was very early in the morning… and he’d be forgiven for forgetting to take away my personal guards too…”
“Get them lads! I want the leader alive!”
It’s the combination of that first silent panel and the great lines in panel two that just can’t help but impress.
You can get hold of Slaves Of The Megapode from Rob Jackson at his website.
ob Jackson’s Great Deeds Against The Dead
Great Deeds Against The Dead Issue 1
by Rob Jackson
Self-published
The first part of Jackson’s new supernatural horror story two-parter is a horror of the psychological kind rather than an all out gore-fest. Much the better type I’ve always found. And Jackson’s creeping tale of lost love, old age and voices from beyond the grave works so much the better for it’s low key stylings.
Tisdale Carnegie is an ageing artist seeking solitude and isolation following the death of his beloved wife, Eleanor. A suitable house is found, but it’s a house with a past and old, dark secrets; something Carnegie discovers as he starts painting again and finds his new portrait of Eleanor talking to him. Is it his mind or is it the house or is it something more? It leaves Carnegie in even worse shape than he was when he moved in, teetering on the verge of madness, which is when his agent comes round to collect a couple of signatures. Events seem to be conspiring against the agent, and a storm traps him overnight in a house that seems intent on driving him away. It seems there’s something very, very wrong with Carnegie’s house.
(See, there’s definitely something wrong with the house. From Rob Jackson’s Great Deeds Against The Dead.)
From here it all gets creepier and darker. The agent meets a couple of Psychic Adventurers in the village pub who are looking into the house; describing it as “mentioned many times in the dark literature of the supernatural”. Meanwhile Carnegie’s paintings are talking to him again, confusing him, telling him that his agent’s been ripping him off, explaining how there’s an angelic lawyer waiting to take up his case against the agent. And all they need’s a bowler hat to get started. Yes. A bowler hat:
(Avoiding the heaven question and requesting the bowler hat; could it be that Carnegie’s Eleanor isn’t all she seems?)
So, what’s the voice that Carnegie’s hearing? – It might be Eleanor or not, but it’s very doubtful that the voice is a heavenly one. In fact, all the clues are pointing down instead of up. And what’s the secret of the house? Where do our psychic adventurers end up? Questions questions. No more answers from me. Go and read it yourself – there’s nasty goings on and a mysterious appearance at the very end that will need answering in part two.
Rob’s pulled off a very nice psychological supernatural tale here. The dark doings are dark indeed, and there’s some clever subtle moments in the story and the art all the way through. You know it’s going to be good when the first page sets it all up so well (below) when Rob perfectly runs through the events of Carnegie’s life up to moving in, portraying the grief, loss and confusion of Carnegie as life just begins to rush past, with him standing as the confused observer:
(First page of Great Deeds Against The Dead by Rob Jackson – very nicely summarises events and sets up what is to come.)
All in all it’s a very impressive first issue and I’ll be looking forward to the second issue to find out exactly what’s going on. And maybe I’ll find out what the bubble gum machine thing on the cover is as well?
Also included is a 8 pager; Colonial Amusements which starts out as a travelog strip like Jackson’s done in the past but, if I’m reading it right, goes somewhere far sadder and darker. And there’s a nice, light “Why I Draw Comics” single pager in colour on the back.
Great Deeds Against The Dead issue 1 is probably the nicest and most enjoyable of Jackson’s works I’ve seen so far. Get it from Rob Jackson’s website shop.
Richard Bruton.
On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal, 8 Stories and Bog Wizards
3 mini-comics by Rob Jackson
Self-Published
Rob Jackson’s been making his comics for a number of years; never staying too long in any one genre and continually improving both his writing and art. These latest three mini-comics stay true to that generalisation, including travelogue, fiction, comedy and adventure. There’s also a wide range of writing and art styles in here, with Rob managing to look like at least 4 separate artists at times. Some styles work better for me than others, but that’s the point obviously; this is all about experimenting with various styles, telling different stories.
First up is On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal. Rob’s timing for this one is terrible. If he’d shown me this last year I’d have absolutely loved it. But as it is, it comes out after I’ve seen Oliver East’s Trains Are … Mint. And having seen Trains, The Mighty Croal loses some of it’s originality and lustre. The ideas of both are very similar; a guided walk through an area with the artist painting a visual and literary scene as the walk unfolds. Jackson takes us on a gentle meander down the path of the River Croal, from the centre of modern Bolton to the leafy green suburbs of Lostock. Cutting from detailed, intricate drawings straight to dense text passages of descriptive text and hand written annotations alongside the artwork.
But as I was reading it I couldn’t help but compare it with Trains Are … Mint. On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal lacks the first person narration, the running commentary alongside the descriptive text. Croal has none of the romance and emotional journey that Trains has and is all the poorer for it.
(Double page spread from Rob Jackson’s On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal.)
In fact, given that the two artists come from the same general area, I have an image in mind of the two crossing each other’s path as Jackson walks the river and East walks the railway path. On it’s own merits it’s very good, but it could have been, should have been more. It’s text is descriptive and informative. Yet it’s interesting without having the lyricism and heart it needs to make it great. And I believe Jackson could genuinely do something wonderful with it. His love for the subject does come through; but only really in the pictures; they’re detailed snapshots of moments in his walk. And they’re illustrated in such a way to make me believe that if he could but find the words to match the splendour of his locations and his artwork, he’d have a really great comic on his hands.
Completely different in tone, style, artistic and literary, is Bog Wizards. Here Rob adopts a much less detailed art style and tells a good little adventure story, mixing sword and sorcery action with a self-depreciating section in the middle pages where the author over-analyses his own work to comedic effect.
Finally; 8 Stories. A comic that’s all over the place stylistically, albeit in a very pleasing way. As you might expect it’s a collection of 8 stories all but one written and illustrated by Jackson.
As a collection it’s a showcase to the range Jackson commands. With short strips covering his travels in South Korea, a gruesome maths lesson with the Math-ro-mancer, the reason Jackson is never going anywhere near a kayak again and more. The art styles are equally diverse, from the near sketch-book entry of Show Me Your Insect Hooves about Jackson’s trip to see the Cardiacs, to the really tight and rather wonderful highlight of the book: The City That Fell In Love With Itself.
The City That Fell In Love With Itself is an impressive and poetic tale of a city that falls in love with it’s own reflection along it’s own lake shore. Difficult to make me care about a city, but guest writer Shonagh Ingram manages it. And Rob puts some of his best artwork to a good story. The gorgeous colour cover above shows off just how good Jackson’s art can be when he really works hard at it. 8 Stories is well worth the cost of admission just for the City tale alone.
(Page from The City That Fell In Love With Itself, from 8 Stories, written by Shonagh Ingram and drawn by Rob Jackson)
All told, Rob Jackson is doing some very nice things here. I make no bones about it that I prefer his art when he pulls it in a little. Some of his cartooning is just too rough for me. But when he does, as in the Cities story and with the Croal, it’s a pleasure to look at. And he has a good, naturalistic voice for his writing. Whether it’s reportage, humour or anything else he turns his hand to, I’ll definitely be interested in where he goes next.
Rob’s comics are available from the Forbidden Planet British Small Press shop and from his website (www.robjacksoncomics.com) and he has a blog.
Segway
By Rob Jackson
Over the few years I’ve been looking at Rob Jackson’s work I’ve read adventures of Flying Leaf Creatures, malevolent Gods gone wild, surreal psychological horrors, a positively Shakespearean comedy of errors with Goblins, read two volumes of his anthology Gin Palace and one all about pasties, and even followed Jackson’s adventures in the ice-cream making business.
There’s genuinely no telling what Jackson will deliver next. But they all share a few things. The first is obvious; a raw artistic style, yet there’s moments of grand beauty here if you care to persevere. But once over the art, all of Jackson’s tales, whether rooted in daily reality or high fantasy share a sense of the absurd, and the best of them are shot through with Jackson’s sardonic sense of comedy. There’s a joy of taking one thing and twisting it, revelling in the silly, the ridiculous, and doing something interesting in another direction.
So, why Segway? No idea. None at all Unless I’m missing something obvious. Just because. Which is actually a reasonable review of a Rob Jackson comic.
Just because.
So what we have here is a typical sort of Rob Jackson comic with Jackson delivering a main feature and several backups.
The backups are alright, but it’s in the lead tale that Jackson gets it right, with the cracking 13-pages of Professor McGregor’s Fantabulous Time Travel Device full of the ridiculous scenarios and witticisms I was talking of before.
It’s all a little bonkers, this little time travel tale, with the obviously nutty Professor deciding to take a little time travelling trip. But all the way through Jackson has great fun playing with the tropes of the time travel story, and adds his own twist along the way.
So, why does Jackson decide to bring in the passing meter reader to the story of a professor and his assistant travelling through time?
Why do his characters decide to play fast and loose with all that usual prescribed advice to time-travellers, about not messing with the time-stream and end up doing everything they can to change things….
Just because? Or maybe because Jackson has a weird turn of plot, and strange turn of phrase, a style all his own that can traverse that precipice between clever brilliance and ridiculous nonsense.
It’s enjoyable, inventive stuff, and there’s even a few moments of that great (albeit difficult to come to terms with sometimes) art style I was on about…
by Rob Jackson
Self-published
The first part of Jackson’s new supernatural horror story two-parter is a horror of the psychological kind rather than an all out gore-fest. Much the better type I’ve always found. And Jackson’s creeping tale of lost love, old age and voices from beyond the grave works so much the better for it’s low key stylings.
Tisdale Carnegie is an ageing artist seeking solitude and isolation following the death of his beloved wife, Eleanor. A suitable house is found, but it’s a house with a past and old, dark secrets; something Carnegie discovers as he starts painting again and finds his new portrait of Eleanor talking to him. Is it his mind or is it the house or is it something more? It leaves Carnegie in even worse shape than he was when he moved in, teetering on the verge of madness, which is when his agent comes round to collect a couple of signatures. Events seem to be conspiring against the agent, and a storm traps him overnight in a house that seems intent on driving him away. It seems there’s something very, very wrong with Carnegie’s house.
(See, there’s definitely something wrong with the house. From Rob Jackson’s Great Deeds Against The Dead.)
From here it all gets creepier and darker. The agent meets a couple of Psychic Adventurers in the village pub who are looking into the house; describing it as “mentioned many times in the dark literature of the supernatural”. Meanwhile Carnegie’s paintings are talking to him again, confusing him, telling him that his agent’s been ripping him off, explaining how there’s an angelic lawyer waiting to take up his case against the agent. And all they need’s a bowler hat to get started. Yes. A bowler hat:
(Avoiding the heaven question and requesting the bowler hat; could it be that Carnegie’s Eleanor isn’t all she seems?)
So, what’s the voice that Carnegie’s hearing? – It might be Eleanor or not, but it’s very doubtful that the voice is a heavenly one. In fact, all the clues are pointing down instead of up. And what’s the secret of the house? Where do our psychic adventurers end up? Questions questions. No more answers from me. Go and read it yourself – there’s nasty goings on and a mysterious appearance at the very end that will need answering in part two.
Rob’s pulled off a very nice psychological supernatural tale here. The dark doings are dark indeed, and there’s some clever subtle moments in the story and the art all the way through. You know it’s going to be good when the first page sets it all up so well (below) when Rob perfectly runs through the events of Carnegie’s life up to moving in, portraying the grief, loss and confusion of Carnegie as life just begins to rush past, with him standing as the confused observer:
(First page of Great Deeds Against The Dead by Rob Jackson – very nicely summarises events and sets up what is to come.)
All in all it’s a very impressive first issue and I’ll be looking forward to the second issue to find out exactly what’s going on. And maybe I’ll find out what the bubble gum machine thing on the cover is as well?
Also included is a 8 pager; Colonial Amusements which starts out as a travelog strip like Jackson’s done in the past but, if I’m reading it right, goes somewhere far sadder and darker. And there’s a nice, light “Why I Draw Comics” single pager in colour on the back.
Great Deeds Against The Dead issue 1 is probably the nicest and most enjoyable of Jackson’s works I’ve seen so far. Get it from Rob Jackson’s website shop.
Richard Bruton.
On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal, 8 Stories and Bog Wizards
3 mini-comics by Rob Jackson
Self-Published
Rob Jackson’s been making his comics for a number of years; never staying too long in any one genre and continually improving both his writing and art. These latest three mini-comics stay true to that generalisation, including travelogue, fiction, comedy and adventure. There’s also a wide range of writing and art styles in here, with Rob managing to look like at least 4 separate artists at times. Some styles work better for me than others, but that’s the point obviously; this is all about experimenting with various styles, telling different stories.
First up is On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal. Rob’s timing for this one is terrible. If he’d shown me this last year I’d have absolutely loved it. But as it is, it comes out after I’ve seen Oliver East’s Trains Are … Mint. And having seen Trains, The Mighty Croal loses some of it’s originality and lustre. The ideas of both are very similar; a guided walk through an area with the artist painting a visual and literary scene as the walk unfolds. Jackson takes us on a gentle meander down the path of the River Croal, from the centre of modern Bolton to the leafy green suburbs of Lostock. Cutting from detailed, intricate drawings straight to dense text passages of descriptive text and hand written annotations alongside the artwork.
But as I was reading it I couldn’t help but compare it with Trains Are … Mint. On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal lacks the first person narration, the running commentary alongside the descriptive text. Croal has none of the romance and emotional journey that Trains has and is all the poorer for it.
(Double page spread from Rob Jackson’s On The Banks Of The Mighty Croal.)
In fact, given that the two artists come from the same general area, I have an image in mind of the two crossing each other’s path as Jackson walks the river and East walks the railway path. On it’s own merits it’s very good, but it could have been, should have been more. It’s text is descriptive and informative. Yet it’s interesting without having the lyricism and heart it needs to make it great. And I believe Jackson could genuinely do something wonderful with it. His love for the subject does come through; but only really in the pictures; they’re detailed snapshots of moments in his walk. And they’re illustrated in such a way to make me believe that if he could but find the words to match the splendour of his locations and his artwork, he’d have a really great comic on his hands.
Completely different in tone, style, artistic and literary, is Bog Wizards. Here Rob adopts a much less detailed art style and tells a good little adventure story, mixing sword and sorcery action with a self-depreciating section in the middle pages where the author over-analyses his own work to comedic effect.
Finally; 8 Stories. A comic that’s all over the place stylistically, albeit in a very pleasing way. As you might expect it’s a collection of 8 stories all but one written and illustrated by Jackson.
As a collection it’s a showcase to the range Jackson commands. With short strips covering his travels in South Korea, a gruesome maths lesson with the Math-ro-mancer, the reason Jackson is never going anywhere near a kayak again and more. The art styles are equally diverse, from the near sketch-book entry of Show Me Your Insect Hooves about Jackson’s trip to see the Cardiacs, to the really tight and rather wonderful highlight of the book: The City That Fell In Love With Itself.
The City That Fell In Love With Itself is an impressive and poetic tale of a city that falls in love with it’s own reflection along it’s own lake shore. Difficult to make me care about a city, but guest writer Shonagh Ingram manages it. And Rob puts some of his best artwork to a good story. The gorgeous colour cover above shows off just how good Jackson’s art can be when he really works hard at it. 8 Stories is well worth the cost of admission just for the City tale alone.
(Page from The City That Fell In Love With Itself, from 8 Stories, written by Shonagh Ingram and drawn by Rob Jackson)
All told, Rob Jackson is doing some very nice things here. I make no bones about it that I prefer his art when he pulls it in a little. Some of his cartooning is just too rough for me. But when he does, as in the Cities story and with the Croal, it’s a pleasure to look at. And he has a good, naturalistic voice for his writing. Whether it’s reportage, humour or anything else he turns his hand to, I’ll definitely be interested in where he goes next.
Rob’s comics are available from the Forbidden Planet British Small Press shop and from his website (www.robjacksoncomics.com) and he has a blog.
Segway
By Rob Jackson
Over the few years I’ve been looking at Rob Jackson’s work I’ve read adventures of Flying Leaf Creatures, malevolent Gods gone wild, surreal psychological horrors, a positively Shakespearean comedy of errors with Goblins, read two volumes of his anthology Gin Palace and one all about pasties, and even followed Jackson’s adventures in the ice-cream making business.
There’s genuinely no telling what Jackson will deliver next. But they all share a few things. The first is obvious; a raw artistic style, yet there’s moments of grand beauty here if you care to persevere. But once over the art, all of Jackson’s tales, whether rooted in daily reality or high fantasy share a sense of the absurd, and the best of them are shot through with Jackson’s sardonic sense of comedy. There’s a joy of taking one thing and twisting it, revelling in the silly, the ridiculous, and doing something interesting in another direction.
So, why Segway? No idea. None at all Unless I’m missing something obvious. Just because. Which is actually a reasonable review of a Rob Jackson comic.
Just because.
So what we have here is a typical sort of Rob Jackson comic with Jackson delivering a main feature and several backups.
The backups are alright, but it’s in the lead tale that Jackson gets it right, with the cracking 13-pages of Professor McGregor’s Fantabulous Time Travel Device full of the ridiculous scenarios and witticisms I was talking of before.
It’s all a little bonkers, this little time travel tale, with the obviously nutty Professor deciding to take a little time travelling trip. But all the way through Jackson has great fun playing with the tropes of the time travel story, and adds his own twist along the way.
So, why does Jackson decide to bring in the passing meter reader to the story of a professor and his assistant travelling through time?
Why do his characters decide to play fast and loose with all that usual prescribed advice to time-travellers, about not messing with the time-stream and end up doing everything they can to change things….
Just because? Or maybe because Jackson has a weird turn of plot, and strange turn of phrase, a style all his own that can traverse that precipice between clever brilliance and ridiculous nonsense.
It’s enjoyable, inventive stuff, and there’s even a few moments of that great (albeit difficult to come to terms with sometimes) art style I was on about…
It’s A Man’s Life In The Ice Cream Business …. The Hardest Game In The World
By Rob Jackson
Rob Jackson’s last comic was “Flying Leaf Creatures“, a fantasy adventure. Before that was “The Gods Are Bastards“, a ridiculously funny adventure.
So of course, as a follow-up here’s a 24-page b&w comic about starting an ice-cream business. Nope, I didn’t see it coming either. Here’s the first page:
Yes, it’s loose, it’s rough, and in these first few pages it’s really, really loose and rough. And yes, you do get the idea that Jackson may be slightly unhinged… deciding on all this down to the sage-like advice of Cat Wizard… hmmm.
But after that, it tightens up, and we settle down for a blow by blow account of the ups and downs of the ice-cream biz in a series of provincial markets.
It’s fascinating, it really is…. just like any well written, well observed autobiog comic can be. Regardless of the subject, if it’s well done, you’ll be drawn into it. And so it is with “It’s A Man’s Life In The Ice Cream Business“.
You’ll read all about the pros and cons of ice-cream manufacture, the variety of markets around Bolton, the sheer hard work involved in the business for Jackson and his family. There’s none of the comedy or farce that Jackson’s utilised so well in the past, but it doesn’t matter. Just having the details presented straight in front of us is enough.
Plus, there are some very nicely put together pages, and little moments in Jackson’s art that really stand out… look at those billboards in the page above. There’s a simple delight in looking at the way Jackson gets over so much, the day explained in just a few simple panels, little explaination needed, everything laid out really nicely.
At the back of this, Jackson talks about an issue 2. Yes please. Meanwhile, issue 1 is available from Jackson’s website.
California Part 1
By Rob Jackson
Right, here’s the other of Rob Jackson’s latest releases. I reviewed Segway a while back, and enthused about the uniqueness of Jackson’s work over there.
Suffice it to say I usually enjoy what he does, enjoy the grand variety of topics he plays around with, along with the great sense of ridiculous humour he brings to the page.
Like much of what he does, California starts as one thing and some way through, Jackson switches it all around. Soap Opera transforms into weird religious cult thriller.
It may start as a simple family thing, with Mom, Dad, and their
three children Billy, Jake, and Emma-May moving out West to California
after their crops fail and the bank repossesses their farm.
But this sedate little family drama doesn’t last long; within seven
pages they’ve been driven off the road, Billy gets to wander past the
foreboding Whistler’s Hollow, meets a kindly gas station owner who takes
them all in, but not before Jake goes missing, turning up in the middle
of something very strange.Bizarre creature?, strange tree formations?, Jackson being mysterious, or a failing of his art? But whatever it is it’s the thing that sets up the next part of the comic, as Jake gets religion in spectacular form, the child-healer, rising up the religious ranks, with a knowing, almost evil look in his eye.
Bizarre. Absolutely. But there’s enjoyment in the bizarre world of Rob Jackson. And like I’ve said before, for every slightly off panel or page, there’s usually something in his work, somewhere along the way that makes me pleased he’s drawing how he’s drawing.
This time… it was the sweep of the road and the trees lining the way…
RhiZome Anthology Volume 3
Edited by Kyle Baddeley-Read and Rob Jackson.
Contributors: Rob Jackson, David Jackson, Kyle Baddeley-Read, William Cardini and Nick Soucek
I reviewed the first two issues back here, and wasn’t exactly enamoured with them, the whole alt-sci-fi short story thing coming off very much as Future Shocks, and you probably know how I don’t really like Future Shocks. And although there’s still that annoying bittiness here, that same sense of the small story not saying much, there’s, for the most part, something sufficiently different in three of the four strips to make this by far the best issue thus far.
But I’ll start with the one that sadly didn’t connect; Nick Soucek’s Terminal, tellingly it’s the most FS-y of the lot, the story telegraphed too early, Soucek’s simplistic art doing little for me. Oh well. Maybe next time.
Far better is Kyle Badderley-Read’s couple of short strips, the first just a single pager, Automatic Happiness playing on the intriguing, ridiculous, homicidal idea of just what would happen if happiness was always on. But better than that is the longer Fresh Horizons, which is manic and all over the place in the very best way; zombie infestations, rioters, madness, deranged masses, a dystopian nightmare in stark angled artwork only ever alleviated with mind altering drugs. So this…
Becomes this…
But never for long, and it’s that that makes it work, the madness of reality is punctuated by chemical peace, the contrast with what we expect the key, the realisation that life is a constant switching between two impossible to maintain states lending a tragic air to the madness.
Completely at odds with the sci-fi aspect of the anthology is the David Jackson written, Rob Jackson drawn strip here, an autobiographical illustrated journey to a familiar and well loved destination. There’s a lovely lyricism and gentle drift to the words, as we pass burial cists, stone circles, the landscape so familiar that the felling of a much-loved tree feels as though a loss. It’s a lovely piece, and thanks to Rob Jackson’s artwork, where he goes in close to the natural elements, almost to the point of abstraction, nature given alien aspect almost, it actually sort of, nearly but not quite, fits in with the rest of the anthology.
Finally though, the very best thing in here… William Cardini’s Rock Troll, which is just so good, although I can’t necessarily tell you what exactly I really like about it, it’s just one of those that just is.
The idea’s so simple, so silly as well, the art’s so simple, practically crude, just a black scrawl atop a background of almost letraset-grey marks.
A thing of some shape meets a rock. And the rock turns nasty. And then other stuff. It’s hardly War & Peace but by heck, it’s great. Maybe it’s the visual simplicity of it all, but whatever it was, it’s great.
The Gods Must Be Bastards
by Rob Jackson
The cover, the title… I was smiling as I saw it. And as befits the cover, “The Gods Must Be Bastards” turns out to be very Pythonesque in content and style.
Rob Jackson’s comics are always going to be rough and ready affairs. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me saying so. His art is uncultured, but it works within the context of his stories… there’s a playfulness, a vicious streak of fun and comedy all the way through his work, much of which I’ve talked about and looked at here on the FPI blog. And before seeing a huge Gilliam foot there on the cover I’d never really thought of the whole Python-esque nature of some of Jackson’s ideas. But now I have seen it I can’t stop thinking how apt the comparison is.
In his latest, underneath that great cover and title, is an equally good idea – what if the Gods really were complete bastards? And what must it be like to be scientists trying to explore the laws of physics when all the Gods want to do is screw everything up to extend the status quo?
(Guess which bastards are behind the failure of the latest scientific discovery? Absolutely – those bloody Gods. From Rob Jackson’s “The Gods Must Be Bastards”)
Taking the ideas of vengeful ancient Pantheons of Gods and making a grand adventure comedy out of it, using the old cultural clash of science vs religion – that’s the key idea behind The Gods Must Be Bastards. We’re in a world dominated by religion, and the small team of renegade scientists are doing their best to advance scientific knowledge, but find their experiments continually sabotaged from on high.
The not so logical conclusion they come to in this world ruled by random acts of religion is to steal an experimental ship, and venture out onto the high seas, with a vague idea of travelling to fabled Atlantis, climbing to the top of Mount Majumba and confronting the Gods themselves.
Okay, as plans go, it’s not perfect. As they find out when things go wrong on route and get worse when they come face to face with a Pantheon of Gods whose characters range from vengeful to out and out stupidly homicidal:
(Bolto and the rest of the Gods – brilliantly portrayed, ridiculous stereotypes. From Rob Jackson’s “The Gods Must Be Bastards”)
The fun I had with The Gods Must Be Bastards is pretty standard for Jackson’s comics now. I enjoy what he does, his typical turns of funny, cutting dialogue and absurdist ideas. And with The Gods Must Be Bastards Jackson’s on really great form. In terms of good, ridiculous comedy and silly humour it’s a great read. His Gods are delightfully stupid creations, and the ridiculous nature of the confrontation plays on Jackson’s strengths.
I’ve held off the Python references all the way through, but once I saw it, and read the comic with that in mind it played out beautifully as a long-form absurdest sketch, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. The Gods Must Be Bastards is a great, stupid, ridiculous, funny, high concept, low humour sort of comic with a simple idea. It’s a good read and a lot of fun.
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