expatNERD

Category: Blog

  • The Lion & The Eagle

    Coming off last week’s Garth Ennis Judge Dredd recommendation, I thought I would point toward something that is relatively new.

    What many non-US audiences probably don’t know about Garth Ennis is probably his love for war comics. Part of what he is doing nowadays after the immense success of Preacher and the Boys is visiting and contributing to that love. He restarted the Battle Pictures Weekly called Battle Action at Rebellion (the same organization currently behind 2000AD) and he also wrote The Lion & The Eagle with AfterShock Comics, beautifully drawn by PJ Holden and magnificently colored Matt Milla.

    The Lion & The Eagle might have been lost to the tales of time because it was during the period that AfterShock started going bankrupt. Thus, a lot of news around these four issues would probably have been drowned out by that event. Neverthless, if you didn’t pick it up the first time around I can highly recommend it.

    The Lion & The Eagle depicts a group of British soldiers in the Pacific Theater during World War II to retake Burma from the Japanese. It’s very layered and shows how the British Empire was organized and how they used soldiers from their colonies. Plus, Ennis does a great job to make sure he doesn’t romanticize war as this could be tricky with war comics today (especially outside of the United Kingdom) and The Lion & The Eagle definitely stays away from making war black and white. In addition, PJ Holden does an incredible job depicting the violence while making sure it does not go over the top and to the more campy/grindhouse side a la Quentin Tarantino.

    And really the star of this, in my opinion, is PJ Holden. Holden is one of my favorite artists working today and he does a lot of incredible work. One of my favorite things he does for 2000AD in Judge Dredd’s world is definitely Noam Chimpsky. Noam Chimpsky is a super smart ape who uses his super-intelligence to try to thwart the overall system of oppression, propped up by the Judges. Chimpsky sees things that no one else can see in the Big Meg and it’s always great when he drops in on the weekly prog.

    Even when I do not get him in a particular year, I will also have a PJ Holden dose, every Halloween, because I re-read Soul Plumber from DC Comics. I have the collected version but Holden’s style is very appropriate for the message and style of the book. I absolutely do not want to give anything away about Soul Plumber because it was one of those experiences that I thought I knew what was coming but then I didn’t. And now I can remember that experience every single year.

    So there you have it folks. What started out as a Garth Ennis recommendation quickly turned into a PJ Holden tribute and love letter. That’s how these things go. And to put the final touches on my obsession with Holden, I decided to whip up a portrait of him after scanning his Blusky account. Yes it’s that bad. Plus, his account is charming and I can heartily recommend that you follow him. He currently is redefining himself as an actor. Nuff said.

    Bis bald,

    -Franka

  • Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon

    As you may have noticed, our Curt storyline is also a Garth Ennis tribute. And we cannot mention Garth Ennis without also mentioning the late legendary artist that will never be forgotten, Steve Dillon. So with that I thought I would give some recommendations from their work.

    Now I could do the obvious like Preacher, John Constantine Hellblazer, the Boys, Demon, and Hitman. I think if you know your way around comics you probably already know of these. So I thought I would go off the beaten track and focus my recs on things that you may have missed, especially if you are an American audience, and some of Ennis’ most recent stuff. Because yes, the magician is still producing magic.

    First off, is Ennis’ run on Judge Dredd that also features a lot of Steve Dillon. This run cannot be understated because he basically followed in the footsteps of both John Wagner and Alan Grant who were writing ole stoney face as a team. And he was young, and that took some Eier. He also collaborated with the likes of Judge Dredd co-creator Carlos Ezquerra. So one could say these stories are ‘the beginnings.’

    Interestingly, Ennis doesn’t seem to be too fond of his writing of Dredd, at least he said as much during his conversation with Mark Millar on Millar’s YouTube video series, Millar Time. I included the embeded video below and the whole thing is definitely worth a watch.

    But I, for one, loved Ennis’ run on Dredd. In particular, his and Steve Dillon’s Emerald Isle storyline. Now if you are a Judge Dredd fan and are reading this, you are going to either love or hate me from now on. But I just cannot help it. It introduces Judge Joyce, created by Ennis and Dillon, who has to accommodate the hard-ass Judge Dredd, and Joyce is just charming as hell. Plus, it’s just full of comedy and Irish stereotypes. And because Ennis is Irish, he nails the little accents and what not.

    Emerald Isle can be found in 2000 AD Progs #727–734 and is also collected in Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files – Volume 15. It’s worth hunting down, especially if you want a glimpse of Ennis and Dillon before they became Ennis and Dillon. Which is not entirely true because if you look at Dillon’s Dredd, he seems to always have been good.

    Next week I’ll have another recommendation. Is this Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon month? It doesn’t exist. But it damn well should.

    Tschüss,

    -Franka