Nemo: Heart of Ice fails to excite

I first came across the erratic genius that is Alan Moore in 2000AD in his future shocks short stories and I have some faint memories of some of those. He soon made a bigger and more lasting impact, again in 2000AD, with the serious The Ballad of Halo Jones and the wildly funny D. R. and Quinch, both of which were blessed with top-notch artists.

Soon after came V for Vendetta and his run on Swamp Thing, which are my favourite works of his.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen started in 1999 as a story featuring fictional Victorian heroes.

There have been more stories since then each set in a different era and each making wilful references to fictional characters of that time, including in one story Rupert Bear and Tiger Tim. This started to infringe copyrights and Volume 3, The Black Dossier, was not generally available in the UK (I have it, of course) and after that it moved from to smaller publishers less at risk of being sued.

Throughout this journey the art has been provide by Kevin O'Neill who I also first came across in 2000AD, notably with Robusters and Nemesis the Warlock.

The latest story in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen saga is Nemo Heart of Ice. The new captain of the Nautilus, and hence the bearer of the name "Nemo", is Janni Dakkar the daughter of Prince Dakkar the original Captain Nemo in the stories by Jules Verne.

This tale takes us to the Antarctica of HP Lovecraft with its Mountains of Madness, buried cities, sightless penguins and nameless monsters lurking in shadows.

As in the previous books, I liked spotting the literary references and I am sure that I missed most of them. Somehow though, that was all the story did and the main plot failed to engage me. It was rather like watching a repeat of a 70's TV show, something like Minder or Lovejoy, and looking at the clothes and cars rather than the story.

Kevin O'Neill's artwork, however, is as superb as it always is and I am delighted that he has retained the sharp lines that I first fell in love with many years ago.

Nemo Heart of Ice was a disappointment but not a disaster and I am sure that I'll be reading the next League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story too.

Nemesis the Warlock, Volume 1

The reprints of strips from 2000AD continues to provide me with much pleasure.

The latest one to bubble to the top of my reading pile is Nemesis the Warlock, Volume 1, which reprints the first four stories of the epic saga that started in 1980, appeared frequently until 1989 and finally finished in 1999.

The author is Pat Mills who is a 2000AD stalwart for all the right reasons, i.e. he writes a lot of very different strips very well. I've previously mentioned his recent excellent work on ABC Warriors and on Slaine and I've had the extreme pleasure of meeting him a couple of times.

Pat Mills is a genuine star of comics and Nemesis the Warlock is just another example of why this is true.

But comics require artists too and Nemesis the Warlock has been blessed here too.

Kevin O'Neill started the ball rolling with his distinctive sharp angular style.



O'Neil's style defined the look of the strip but, not surprisingly, the detail in his artwork meant that his speed of drawing was too slow for a regular weekly comic and he had to be replaced.

Several other artists were used, including Jesus Redondo, but it's Bryan Talbot (again) who had the most impact for me.

And I'm ashamed to say that I had forgotten that he had even drawn it. My bad.

Bryan is supreme on the fourth story, The Gothic Empire. This plays nicely into Bryan's love of steampunk that he has returned to in Grandville.

The Gothic Empire uses the idea of an alien civilisation that has been listening earnestly to Earth's earliest radio communications to learn about and copy our largest civilisation of the day, the British Empire.

This gives a world that combines Victorian culture with modern technology. Perfect.

Bryan throws himself into the task with glee giving us panels rich in detail and imagery.

I love the way that this train looks like the Palm House at Kew.

It's thirty years since I first read Nemesis the Warlock, and I do remember when it first appeared.

Sometimes returning to an old story is a disappointment as the memory fails and what seemed like a classic through the mists of time is revealed to be merely average, or even worse.

In this case the opposite is true, Nemesis the Warlock is even better than I remember it. And I've got Volumes 2 and 3 still to look forward to.

Talking about comics

I have contented myself so far by just reading comics (and a few books about comics) and have generally avoided fandom activities like conventions and signings, but that is starting to change.

Having dipped a cautious toe into the Comica waters over the weekend I was back for more on Monday night at Islington Central Library where Kevin O'Nell and Paul Gravett talked for two hours about Kevin's life and work.

It seemed that most of the audience were attracted by Kevin's recent, and current, work on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but my interest dates back to the first Nemesis the Warlock story published in 2000AD way back in 1980. His distinctive angular style has been attracting deserved attention and praise ever since.

The talk wandered through various themes and we learnt, among other things, that Kevin's first job in comics was removing artists' signatures from pages of the Buster, that League moved from Warner Bros. to a smaller publisher to reduce the threat of being sued for copyright infringements and Marshall Law may yet be a film.

The Great Hall on the second floor of the library was grand but also vast and echoing which made listening to the conversation difficult at times. Fortunately the conversation was easily engaging enough to make the extra effort worthwhile and the two hours flew by and suddenly it was 8pm and we were being evicted sympathetically by the library staff.

Two icons

The back page ot last week's 2000AD had this stunning advertisement for clickwheel, a service that lets you read comics online.

The advertisement is for the iPhone/iPod touch clickwheel application that looks like an interesting way to read comics, I will be giving it ago.

But what I really like about the advertisement is the simple use of two icons that says all it needs to say in one white and one black image.

The white iPod and earphones should be familiar to everybody from the TV, billboards and personal use.

The black image will be familiar to lovers of comics in general and of 2000AD in particular, and is Nemesis the Warlock as drawn by Kevin o'Neill.

The strap line, iPod + Thrills, says it all.