#mazeworld

The Illustration Art Gallery has recently highlighted the huge number of artworks it has for sale by 2000AD and Look-In artist Arthur Ranson

Action Comics #1007 by Brian Bendis & Steve Epting

I keep reading these.

Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt #1 by Kieron Gillen & Caspar Wijngard

This is unapologetically right up my alley, and yet I still feel like apologizing for liking it. It’s very much "in a dialog" with Watchmen/Pax Americana/Zenith/Authority/etc post-post yadda yadda superheroes. There’s some poppy snappy dialog that also works as not super blatant world building work, fun character bits that hint at a shared history, and nice art with appealing character designs. It’s basically a good Grant Morrison superhero comic from the early 2000s. I do wish I hadn't seen a preview for it a few months ago, because the first issue is a padded version of what I’d already read. Still, looking forward to the rest.

Mazeworld by Alan Grant & Arthur Ranson

Oh this was great. Really happy to finally have it all in one big hefty softcover after only seeing snippets for years. The story (a hanged man that killed his brother in a drunken brawl doesn’t die in the gallows and is sent to a weird fantasy world ruled by inconsistent logic and mazes where he can’t take off his death shroud. Shades of DEN, he’s of course welcomed as a messianic figure come to save the people from tyranny, etc etc. but he’s a self-absorbed coward so that takes a bit. All the while, his comatose body is taken advantage of, experimented on, and put into danger) is fittingly weird and twisty and occasionally dreamlike, but Arthur Ranson’s art is the star here. He’s just great (even though it’s super photo referenced, which I’m not usually a fan of). The whole thing feels simultaneously unique and tropey, which is a fine line to walk. Recommended!

The Uncanny X-Men 3D #1 by Chris Claremont, Jim Lee & Scott Williams. (Logged)