COMIC REVIEW - FLINTLOCK!

Title: FLINTLOCK BOOK ONE

Format: AMERICAN COMICS FORMAT. SQUARE-BOUND. COLOUR COVER, B/W INTERIORS

Length: 44 PAGES

Price: £8.99

Publisher: TIME BOMB COMICS

Creators: STEVE TANNER, ANTHONY SUMMEY, LORENZO NICOLETTA & ED MACHIAVELLO
Available from: www.timebombcomics.com

Review:

This anthology from Time Bomb features three strips written by Steve Tanner, all set in the eighteenth century. I’m glad I didn’t read FLINTLOCK before writing my own eighteenth century comic (CAPTAIN WYLDE) as it has to be said that all the strips feature elements I would have then had to exclude from my strip! Since I didn’t read it until now I came claim with complete honesty that I didn’t rip anything off from Steve… it’s just that great minds think alike!

First up is LADY FLINTLOCK with art by Anthony Summey. This cross-dressing highwayman tale has much in common with the famed ‘Wicked Lady’ stories that I also used for inspiration in Captain Wylde. There’s also a dash or Robin Hood in here.

It also calls to mind many a William Hartnell Doctor Who stories where an attractive woman barely disguises herself in male clothing and completely fools the credulous fools around her. It’s a well-established dramatic convention!

Secondly we have SHANTI: THE PIRATE QUEEN with art by Lozenzo Nicoletta. Obviously this is the closest to my female pirate strip, also featuring a non-white main protagonist who frees slaves during her piracy. Albeit, Shanti seems much more ruthless!

And thirdly we have THE CLOCKWORK CAVALIER drawn by Ed Machiavello. This focuses on the adventures of a clockwork-automaton-policeman in Regency London. (Again, I too featured clockwork robots in Captain Wylde.) Completely preposterous, of course, but great fun.

The first two strips in particular are much darker in tone than my tongue-in-cheek pirate adventure. Violent death and gore are fully enjoyed, for which I am grateful. There is perhaps a greater sense of danger and suspense than Captain Wylde can manage. These are serious tales with heroines that are a little more realistic, but perhaps a little less sympathetic than Cinnamon Wylde? But it can’t be denied that this does raise the stakes.

I enjoyed the bonkers style of Clockwork Cavalier the most. It comes across as a fantastic mash-up of Robocop and Oliver Twist. And we’ve all been waiting for that… haven’t we?

I can’t wait for the characters to cross paths in a great big shared universe blow-out! (This has crossover written all over it.)

John A. Short