Some more books, courtesy of Bellshill library.

Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson Fury: Peacemaker

This is Garth Ennis doing what he loves best – comics that aren’t about superheroes. And he gets to use the S.A.S., too, which also appears to be something he enjoys. This is an adventure for the iconic Sergeant Fury, before he got hold of his Howling Commandos, as he fights his first battles in World War II. In many ways, this is a simple soldier’s tale, with some extra resonances due to how we know Nick Fury is going to turn out in the modern Marvel Universe. All good, clean, family fun. With swearing and gore, obviously.

Mike Carey and Leonardo Manco Hellblazer: All His Engines

A very nice turn for John Constantine, even though a cursory glance makes it seem that it’s just like every other Hellblazer story: Constantine gets involved with some supernatural nasty, gets into deep trouble, then schemes his way out of it with results that are full of humour, poetic justice and sheer nastiness. Mike Carey does a good job creating a classic storey, and Leonardo Manco’s art gives a gritty atmosphere to proceedings.

Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano Gotham Central: The Quck and the Dead

Gotham Central can best be described as “Batman comics without Batman”. It is the story of the few good cops amongst Gotham’s corrupt force who are trying their best in a city that’s so far gone it needs Batman to save it. I’ve always liked the feel of comics protraying normal people in a Superhero universe, and showing how they cope with larger-than-life menaces, and Gotham Central is one of the best.

This particular volume collects two three-issue stories, including one where the police end up deciding they don’t like the Batman any more, and one where the leavings of a villain from a whole different comic cause tragedy.

Grek Ruka’s writing is top-notch, delightfully sparse in places, and with a strong sense of plot. The artwork, by Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano, is a perfect match, and you can almost imagine how the T.V. series would look.

Scott Rockwell and Steven Ross Terry Pratchett: The Discworld Graphic Novels

Adapting a novel to comic form is a difficult as adapting a novel to anything else. Novels have different strengths and weaknesses to graphic novels, and vice versa. So it’s not simply a case of copying all the best bits and drawing some pretty pictures over it all.

I’m not sure how sucessful this is, although it is rather a lot of fun. Steven Ross’ artwork is always fun to look at, which is an important thing for a project like this; however, I’m not sure how well I’d be understanding Scott Rockwell’s adaption of Terry Pratchett’s breakthrough novels if I wasn’t so familiar with the stories already. It’s certainly a fun way to reminisce about the novels, should you not have them conveniently to hand.

Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Val Mayerik Conan volume 9: Riders of the River-Dragons
In the ’70’s, one of the more sucessful comics was, oddly enough, a swords-and-sorcery series featuring Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, produced by Marvel Comics, best known for its superhero titles. I’ve never quite understood how Conan stood for so long amongst the spandex horde, but stand he did.

Now it’s the future, and a different comics company, Dark Horse has got its mitts on the rights to Conan, and so they are now reprinting the classic Marvel stories. Well, most of them – this particular collection skips and jumps a bit, because although Dark Horse can now produce Conan stories, they have no rights to Red Sonja, she of the chainmail bikini, who used to feature pretty strongly in Conan.

This selection is apparently from a time in Conan’s life when he was a pirate, sailing with the beatiful Captain Bêlit, who is revered as a godess by her crew, and just happens to be Conan’s love interest. He fights crocodile riders, a thinly-disguised Evil Tarzan, other pirates, and pretty much an entire city throughout this volume – a usual day at the office for Conan, in other words. Roy Thomas keeps things moving at a fast clip, while John Buscema provides the definitive look for everyone’s favourite Cimmarian. Val Mayerik does a fine fill-in issue with a story from Conan’s past, and giving Conan a look somewhere between Barry Windsor-Smith and Buscema.

Rip-roaring adventure from masters of the craft.

James Clavell Shōgun

It’s a classic, and I’ve read it before. It’s just as good as I remember it, being both and adventure tale, and a glimpse into a strange and exotic land, Japan of the 1600’s. It’s an epic, starting with John Blackthorne wrecked in a small fishing village, and ending up with him affecting the struggle for the greatest power in the land – the title of Shōgun.

I don’t know what else can be said that hasn’t already been said – Shōgun is high on most people’s Books You Must Read list, and it’s on mine.

There is one minor quibble, however, that’s always bothered me. Mura, the village headman, is stated as having learned judo and karate; those are modern variants. Judo was created in the early 20th century as a martial art suitable for teaching in schools; Karate didn’t really come to Japan proper until the 1920’s, being an Okinawan art developed, at least in part, to fight off the invading Japanese. Mura would more likely have learned jujutsu and atemi-jutsu (actually, jujutsu usually incorporated atemi-jutsu, or striking arts). There, I’ve said it.

Tess Gerritsen The Surgeon

A pretty good serial killer crime thriller, where the crimes bear the stamp of medical skills, and the signature of a killer thought killed two years ago…

Serial killer fiction seems to have become a genre in and of itself, and this is a pretty good one. I don’t think any of the characters are likely to stay with me, but it was a solid read that, as the pull quotes said, I read in one sitting.