Covers For The Ultimate Game

  I started this at 1100hrs this morning and had various cover designs worked out but one thing after another led to them being thrown away.

Here are the three cover designs I went with..

This one (above)  I did not like "The Ultimate Game" font. Really not happy with it.

The above has a bold and brassy font BUT it just did not seem  right -I tried 40 different fonts with cover 1 and this one. Almost gave up.

The cover below will be the final one. Not what I wanted but "The Ultimate Game" font seems to work. I am NOT a cover artist but with a small company now having everything done by one man (me) it simply has to do.

The storyline:

The mystical traveller of the realms, The Thinker, meets a stranger while

travelling along the Path of Counter Actuality. But this stranger is a different type of traveller: he is Illuyanka and he has been charged with on sworn duty –to destroy specific Earths in the multiverse.

 

Finding that Illuyanka is partial to gambling the Thinker risks all by challenging him to a cosmic game pitting heroes against various challenges: they lose then their Earth dies.

 

The Thinker has no doubt that with all of his knowledge he can win.

 

But Illuyanka is not what he seems.

The Return of the Gods and Green Skies Invasion Earth Series

 

 "I read the original quote from that German blogger and thought it was a lot of hot air. When Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes arrived I thought "thick book" and knew you'd taken it from 96 pages to 360+...it looked impressive. I read through it in two days and -robots, aliens, "gods", super heroes, sorcerers, alien invasions and more and world-wide. And you tell me this was done without a script?! It's the only one I can think of so, yeah, the greatest British super hero graphic novel fits as a description." Pete Clark

"You say this is your final big story? The Green Skies was fantastic and everything laid out into chapters was a great touch!"

David Stephens, Comic Reviews

" 'Holy ******* ****!' was all I could say. I even tried counting the number of characters and how the **** you produced all of this without a script beats me. Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes and The Green Skies could only have been better if George Perez had drawn it!"

Dan's Comics

"I have no idea why you are not pushing this even harder. The books Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes and The Green Skies I would love to see in German or at least get German fans to read since it has a good number of German heroes in it. Next big comic event over here send me copies and I'll sell them on my table!"

Gerd Hammer, German comics historian and trader

Selected comic readers were also chosen to review copies and, obviously, two of these were people from Hong Kong who I corresponded with on Manhua over the years.

"I just wish someone like Tong Li would publish this in Chinese -I mean there are Chinese heroes in this so why not?"

Wang Xiuying

"There HAS to have been a script and more than one person working on this! Brilliant!"

Mike Wayne, Australian comic dealer

Generally, these comments were all similar and I only quote these as any more would be very egotistical. The books should speak for themselves.

Paperback

A4

Black & White

331 Pages

Price: Reduced to £21.89 

Prints in 3-5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-return-of-the-godstwilight-of-the-super-heroes/paperback/product-22076337.html

It begins slowly.  It always does. It's a deception that everything in the world is as it should be and that never changes.

Earth’s heroes and crime-fighters are going about their daily tasks –fighting a giant robot controlled by a mad scientist’s brain, attackers both human and mystical -even alien high priests of some mysterious cult and their zombie followers and, of course, a ghost and a young genius lost in time. 

Pretty mundane. 

But psychics around the world have been sensing something.  A "something" that sends feelings of sheer terror through their psyches.

There is a huge alien Mother-ship near the Moon. Undetected by deep-space radar and other instruments, only a few on Earth have sensed it and they cannot penetrate the hull but only feel psychic screams and....worse.

And then it begins: strange orange spheres isolate and chase some of Earth’s heroes who then vanish into thin air –are they dead?  An attack by an old foe or foes -?

Black, impenetrable domes cover cities world-wide. 

Then it becomes clear to those within the domes what is going on: Alien invasion of Earth! 

A war between the Dark Old Gods and the pantheons that followed! 

Warriors from Earth’s past having to battle each day and whether they die or not they are back the next day! 

No one suspects the driving force behind the events.  One single evil guiding events.  Events that could cause destruction and chaos throughout the multiverse.

Assaulted on all fronts can Earth’s defenders succeed or will they fail...is this truly the end? 

The Cross-Earths Caper: Part II of the Invasion Earth Trilogy

Paperback, 

A4

Black & White

107 Pages

Price: £12.00

Prints in 3-5 business days

 http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-cross-earths-caper/paperback/product-22076318.html

Following the events on Neo Olympus and the Boarman invasion of Earth, many heroes and crime-fighters have withdrawn from activity. Some are trying to recover from injuries while others are fighting the mental scars left by the events.

But things have to go on.  As heroes from other parallels who helped during the recent events return home, members of the Special Globe Guard are shocked at the sudden appearance of Zom of the Zodiac. Never a sign of good things a-coming!

Very soon, a group of heroes mount a rescue mission and find that a quick rescue mission can turn sour equally quickly. As they overcome one challenge the the heroes become lost between parallel Earths and face new threats.

 Sometimes one Earth just is not enough. The complete story published in issues 7-10 of Black Tower Adventure now in...one handy dandy book!

A4

B&W

124pp

£15.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-1/paperback/product-5j4y7e.html?page=1&pageSize=4

It all began in 1987 and the Black Tower Universe has seen alien attacks, heroes kidnapped to be put into the middle of a war of the gods. 

Despite the deaths and losses the heroes -crime fighters, super powered and members of the magical union have come back but now unaware that alien races are escaping through the Sol system and that a mysterious space fleet is heading towards the inner planets, they find themselves trapped or distracted. 

The Many Eyed One is finally coming. 

The Multiversal Council has quarantined Earth and forbidden any to help. 

The evil has spread and there is treachery striking at the very core of Earth's defenders

A4

B&W

126pp

£15.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-ii/paperback/product-nj7wqr.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Following on from events in Green Skies V. 3 Part I the Clone Zone Boyz are increasing in number while those who created them, the Vampirons, continue to plot and await the arrival of their 'God' -The Many Eyed One. 

The Druid finds that his physical and mental state are deteriorating and even the Rev. Merriwether cannot help him. 

Shockingly, the Clone Zone Boyz claims someone close to Merriwether and this leads him to team up with two 'unsavoury' characters. 

In space Krii and Tyn hrrn face a seemingly unstoppable enemy. 

On The Moon the Selenites and representatives of other worlds meet and decide that Johnny Apollo, the Z-Man, is the only one who can lead the counter invasion fleet. 

With the enemy striking Mars and then the Moon things look grim

 A4

B&W

208pp

£16.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-iii/paperback/product-kj6r7r.html?page=1&pageSize=4

The gathered Sol Defence fleet is prepared to make its final stand led by Johnny Apollo the Z Man. If it fails to halt the invaders then the doomsday weapon will be detonated and destroy the entire Sol System. 

Meanwhile, unaware of the threat in space, Jack Flash, the Avenger and others prepare for a final show down with the Many Eyed One; a final confrontation they know they do not have the power to win. 

Is this Humanity...the Earths...final day?

woven into The Green Skies is the story of the harbinger of destruction: the story of Varik Dann -The Man Who Walked Through a Door and Into Another World

Varik Dann is but one character as we follow the attempts of heroes and adventurers as well as the military as they try to confront the Clone Zone Boys with no idea of who or what is behind them. And in space the very existence of not just the Earth but the solar system rests on efforts to stop an alien invasion fleet and if it cannot be stopped them there will be no conquest: the entire solar system will be destroyed by a doomsday device.

Hexagon Comics STRANGERS #14: WORLDS WITHOUT END.

 

STRANGERS #14: WORLDS WITHOUT END. 

stories by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art & cover by Roberto Castro. 

7x10 squarebound. 

96 pages b&w. 

$14.95

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/

HOMICRON, a NASA scientist whose body is possessed by a mysterious alien from planet Alpha. STARLOCK, a servant of the Towers, supremely powerful cosmic entities. GOLDEN BOY, champion of Urth, “brother” of Futura, empowered by the Great Mind... ARIANROD, a princess from the ancient Fomore race, who is also the Mistress of the Sword of Fire and Ice...

 These characters, all “strangers” to Earth, are brought together by TANKA, a former jungle lord who has been recruited by entities from our planet’s farthest future to be their agent and is now empowered to protect our world from extra-terrestrial menaces. 

This fourteenth volume of Strangers opens our fifth “season”, in which our heroes  face a terrifying new menace, one that threatens many parallel Earths: the mysterious Pentacle. This issue introduces a new superhero group: The Lightning Lords. 

This parallel Earths thing is really catching on, isn't it?  Castro gets to handle a full book of art here -in four different stories. The stories work well and it is interesting to see Tanka again and not running about the jungle. It can be quite difficult to find new stories that are original  for a jungle lord so him being used by a "higher power" here is interesting.

Lightning Lords was interesting and Londinium as the centre of resistance was an interesting touch (presumably a far better governmental n body than we've had in the last 30 years in the UK -oooh. Bit of politics there!).  

Throughout there are some very nice panels and with Strangers you never know what you are going to get from volume to volume. My guess is that if you have one person plotting, scripting then it makes it easier to draw in so many diverse characters and create a cohesive universe to mix with. With characters stretching back over 50 years there is a good enough history to build on -it is making it all seem seamlessly "one" where you might trip over but Lofficier knows his stuff!

There is far more to Strangers than that Image Comics series from...a long time ago now.  There are 14 volumes now and I would always say, if unsure, go buy the first two volumes and see if you like what you see because you would then know the next 12 volumes should be fun!

Now...my PC is making noises so off to set up the new one!

Hexagon Comics STRANGERS 13: THE CHILDREN OF ZADE

 

by Jean-Marc Lofficier;

 art by Alfredo Macall, Juan Roncagliolo Berger, Alfonso Ruiz, Benoit Picard and Manuel Loayza; cover by Alfredo Macall.

7x10 squarebound trade paperback, 

94 p. 

b&w
ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-380-4 - US$14.95

Contents:
- Foreword by J.-M. & Randy Lofficier
- THE CHILDREN OF ZADE story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Alfredo Macall.
- ZHUD’S LAST HOPE story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Alfredo Macall.
- THE WEAPON MAKERS OF ZADE story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Juan Roncagliolo Berger.
- DICK SPADE REVENANT story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by  Benoit Picard.
- BATHY-09: FIRST MISSION story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Alfonso Ruiz.
- THE BLACK LYS story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Manuel Loayza.
- LAYOUTS by Alfredo Macall

HOMICRON is a NASA scientist whose body is inhabited by a mysterious alien from planet Alpha. STARCYB is a servant of the Towers, supremely powerful cosmic entities. FUTURA is a mysterious woman from a parallel dimension. JALEB is the secretive agent of a Galactic Federation of telepaths. JAYDEE is a teenage, alien metamorph, abandoned on Earth as a baby, and who may well be the deadliest killing machine in the universe... These characters, all “strangers” to Earth, are brought together by TANKA, a former jungle lord who has been recruited by entities from our planet’s farthest future to be their “time agent” and is now empowered to protect our world from extra-terrestrial menaces.

This thirteenth volume of Strangers concludes our fourth “season”, in which our heroes face Jaydee’s and Glory’s “brother”, the deadly Salamandrite No. 17 and work together to thwart his plan to bring to its ancient masters, the alien Hemocrats, to Earth. This issue also includes four shorter stories starring The Weapon-Makers of Zade, Dick Spade: Revenant, Bathy-09: from the International Oceanic Force. and The Black Lys, French superheroine and founding member of the Hexagon Group.

Really love that cover and the image does not do it justice!  I've said it so many times: I love Macall's art style -some pencil pages are reproduced in the back of this book.

The Children of Zade story is fun; starting quietly then moving into action and...guess who pops up at the end of the story? Buy the book and find out! If you have a combination of story by Lofficier and art by Macall you really can't expect anything other than a classic comic strip.Which means you get more than your money's worth.

The Weapon Makers of Zade -we'll just accept that it is a good read. Berger's art is nice and clean and that splash pages are just something you want to keep checking out. Thew amount of detail in each is amazing. Believe me; I have looked them over a lot!

Dick Spade -Revenant with art by Picard is a complete change of style showing Lofficier can handle the detective genre. This one I was not expecting and was fun to read.

Bathy 09:has an art style by Ruiz I was not sure about but it grew on me Dagoth looks really menacing and was a worthy opponent for a first mission.

Black Lys was another enjoyable adventure and the lesson I took away from it was NEVER call Black Lys "a weak woman" -someone will have to pick up all the pieces and mop up after. 

Thankfully, my PC lasted long enough today! Strangers is certainly a series that presents different characters so it never gets stale. And as always; I recommend the title. Take a chance and see what you are missing because if you are not buying...you are missing out!

Hexagon Comics WAMPUS #4:THE RETURN

 

7x10 squarebound comic, 

96 pages 

b&w
ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-449-8. 

US$14.95

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/shop-wampus-4-the-return.html

cover by Luciano Bernasconi

- THE POG OF MONTSEGUR story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Luciano Bernasconi 
- DEATH IN VENICE story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Luciano Bernasconi
- THE ORIGINS OF HUNTER story by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Luciano Bernasconi
- ON CE UPON A TIME ON ARENA story by Jean-Marc Lainé; art by Luciano Bernasconi

With this special issue, we commemorate the 57th anniversary of Wampus, first published in France in March 1969.


Our first story, The Pog of Montsegur, begins exactly where Strangers #13 ends, and continues with a “new” Wampus on the prowl in the South of France. This storyline continues in Death in Venice, which guest-stars the wondrous Sibilla. The Origins of Hunter, is a flashback to the events recounted in episode #3 of the original Wampus series and an origin to the heretofore mysterious character of Hunter, introduced in Strangers 2. Once Upon a time on Arena takes place a long time ago on the home planet of the Bronze Gladiator, now under attacked by Wampus.


This issue also included a series of Wampus pin-ups by Steve Bissette (Swamp Thing, Taboo, Tyrant), Wampus’ co-creator, the legendary Luciano Bernasconi, and Mexican artist, Manuel Martin Peniche (Kabur, Strangers).

Now i did not fet volume 1 but here are links to the 2nd and 3rd volumes reviews:

Wampus 2 https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2022/03/hexagon-comics-wampus-02-doomsday-march.html

Wampus 3 https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2023/03/hexagon-comics-wampus-3-end-times.html

One day someone at a French movie studio -or any movie studio anywhere- is going to realise how good a character Wampus would be.  If you see the original sketches for Wampus -it is in this book- you will see how scary -much scarier-he/it could have been. Seriously, I stared at that draft sketch a while!

The opening scene is straight out of a horror or horror-sci fi movie. I really need to find that Wampus paperback because although I loved reading it when it cam out I cannot remember some of the scenes being so scary -kids must have loved this when it first appeared.

Once Upon A Time On Arena was interesting and showed Wampus can be quite devious and maybe a little Machiavellian? We can look at these stories in 2026 (uh-oh: I just had to check the year!) and think "been done"; I have heard the same from people who read The Watchmen in recent years and start saying how titles that came years after "did this"! This is Wampus' 57th so, yes, he was doing a lot of this before the year 2000!

Some panels reminded me of The Thing(Carpenter) or the 1970s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and I wonder how kids in France reacted when they saw all of this -I wonder whether it was anything like my reaction as a youngster picking up and reading Avengers 61?

There are also sketch pages of Wampus by Bissette, Ladronn, Peniche and, of course, Bernasconi.  

I think that Wampus deserves a place alongside Dr Doom, Kang or any of the other super villain greats of comics. Maybe one day!

"Was That Normal " by Alex Potts

  

"Was That Normal " by Alex Potts ,                                                                             Published by Avery Hill Publishing                                                                                      208 pages                                                                                                                                Full Colour                                                                                                                         £14.99

We're at a point in the world where the very definition of "Normal " probably went through the looking glass, out the other side and grabbed the nearest black hole to another dimension it could find, probably unable to deal with the uber-insanity of the current zeitgeist. We'd all probably like to return to some cosy recognition of what we mean by normal in these turbulent times.Those things we think keep us from going mad, the dull and everyday, the mundane and ordinary, you know, the bearable lunacy, the acceptable day to day madness we attempt to endure and live with. 

Alex Potts' work over the years I've known it ( since Lost Shoe Comics and his wonderful one-pagers in the sadly-defunct The Comix Reader),  has been a constant engagement with the mundanities of our everyday struggles to just get on with the day. I have to admit to being a huge admirer of his work, particularly his small raft of zines over the years of seemingly much-ado-about-nothing comic mundanity mixed with the occasional shift into surreal and sometimes off-kilter eeriness ( see his previous Avery Hill title "It's Cold In the River At Night" to see what I mean).In this new book, Alex continues his search for meaning in a life of particular non-eventness through the character of Phillip, a middle-aged everyman seemingly unsure of just how he should be occupying his time when not working at home on a laptop, trying to get to the toilet in his house without being seen by his landlady Caroline, and wondering if he is capable of finding those things in life we're all meant to find-a meaningful relationship, decent friends, your place in the world, and people who think you matter. What exactly is Normal ?

I'm not going to mention that much about what plot there is, because I'd rather you go buy the book and read it yourselves. Also it doesn't have "plot" really. What it does have is a beautifully subtle, nuanced, funny and quietly moving examination of one person's search for meaning in an everyday, ordinary existence. If it's about anything, it's about needing to feel that your time being alive is being occupied in a way that suggests you're not wasting it, but always feeling like you might be. It's also about something that may be timeless or maybe very much of our time; that sense of feeling disconnected, a bit lost and alone and unloved, and knowing deep down those are the very things that give meaning to life, those things greater than you that make you more than you are, and connect you to the world. Phillip is full of self-doubt, socially awkward, feeling out of step and out of place with the world he finds himself in. His thoughts are fleeting and flitty, he finds himself mentally distracted; there are some funny sequences where he pictures himself in various confrontations with animals in a kind of cell or computer game simulation, which are a neat visual contrast to the otherwise everyday movement of the character within the story. There's an echo to the surreal daydream flights of fancy in the likes of "Billy Liar "and "the Strange World of Gurney Slade" I find in these sequences, as well as a clever visual motif in shifting the narrative into another physical/mental space that breaks up the otherwise seemingly daily landscape being played out, as well as acting as a distraction for Philip from the difficulty of engaging with the real world,and his own doubt and awkwardness.

What I want to concentrate on is what makes Alex's work always worth engaging with. It's a very simple yet sophisticated element I feel is lacking in a lot of work out there; certainly in a lot of graphic novels I look at (albeit very fleetingly). It's called brilliant comic-strip drawing. It's something I grew up noticing in an awful lot of comics that inspired and impressed me when  younger. I see less of it these days. I think Alex is an old-school comic-artist in his artistic sensibility. What do I mean by that ? I mean someone who knows how to draw comics, comic book pages and stories. Who understands that in order to make a story on the page work, to be convincing, you have to create a world the reader can inhabit, where all the visual components are there and working to the enhancement of the narrative. To do this involves good drawing. Not the flaky half-assed barely-there scribbled nonsense perpetuated by a number of illustrious bandwagon-jumping chancers, but properly crafted pages and panels and pictures. Filled with details that illuminate narrative, set mood and place and character.

This is a book one can open on any page and look at and take delight in the joy of the drawing alone. I was fortunate to see pages of it prior to Alex colouring it and I thought it looked wonderful. I didn't think it needed the colour, because everything on the pages just worked without it. The colour though adds another layer of detail; thoughtful in it's subtle tones and hues, balanced and expressionistic in it's monochromatic approach. Notice how the colour is used in relation to specific narrative locations-Philip's flat is mostly shades of low greens,earthy grounded tones; the bar Quagmires is soaked in hot reds and warm oranges, a place of heightened social activity and engagement ;outside locations are bathed in warm sky blues or countryside subtle yellows. The interior monologue "animal fight simulations" are a contest between blues, yellows and reddish-browns ramped up to full bleed exaggeration as Philip's imagination as well as his heightened emotions take over. 

As to these pages and their drawing, well, again, open any page at random you'll find something just beautifully rendered and observed, whether it's Philips flat and all the neat details ( the shape of the little clock on the mantelpiece,the rolled up corner of the rug ) Philip's initial entrance and movement through the bar, and the crowd scenes at the music gig ( there's a wonderful  two panel shift of a background character's head between panels trying to look past/round the taller Phillip which is utterly incidental yet brilliant in it's observed realism ).the terraces of houses and street scenes Phillip walks past, the sparsity of a seaside town and it's promenade in daylight. There's the monolithic tower, at the heart of the town, neglected and in a state of disrepair. Broken, damaged, unmoving, just barely existing. Lacking care. A sequence of panels of a Connect 4 game being played out. You can tell that Alex is also an animator; it's there in the expressiveness of capturing the nuance and subtlety of character in their face or body language. Look at Philip caught pacing and dancing about his flat talking to himself, Caroline's mostly positive demeanor,all wide-eyed and big smiles ( maybe it's the Gong Baths !), Lee's blocky head and tautness, Gina's evasiveness and later uncertainty in grief. There's so many little things in the drawing in this book I haven't the space to detail them. Alongside the drawing is the pacing of panels, sequences, pages. Alex understands how to move and shift time within and across the narrative through the use and choice of the picture on the page, not just what's in each picture, but where they sit, what scale and size the respective narrative elements need to be, what needs to move from here to there or back again, what needs to be shown and what doesn't to evoke mood and feeling.There's some intelligent thinking about narrative and page composition going on in Alex's choices of how to think about the page as a singular entity in it's own right and on it's own terms, and how it connects to the next page or builds in narrative sequence, rhythm and pacing.It's a complete understanding of how you "do" comics. There are pages whose sequential movement work so perfectly in expressing emotional weight through stillness here, it lends real heart and emotion to the story. You don't get it through workshops or lectures. You get it by sitting and looking and drawing. Constantly.

Within all of this, there's the one outstanding aspect of Alex's genius, a particular talent that the very best comic artists have in spades. The ability to encapsulate an entire interior world and feeling in just one panel. To describe an emotional weight in a single picture. It's a brilliant thing when you see and feel it. There is a panel on the very last but one page of Philip sat alone in a cafe, still, hand frozen on the mug, staring into space that may just sum up this entire book. ( it's on a preface page at the start of the book, which kinda ruins the impact but I can't say I blame Avery-they understood it's subtle genius ) I haven't  even mentioned that whole last 9 page sequence that comes before and is part of it- a masterclass in a subtle, nuanced, gentle ending of a story that still holds an emotional heft.

If I have one minor yet major quibble, it's the cover. The cover doesn't do justice to the brilliance of the interior artwork, which is a shame. It's simply a clip of a detail from a panel. To be fair to Avery Hill, most mainstream publishers haven't a clue about decent book cover design anymore either ( mostly cause nobody is willing  to pay good artists for 'em, the bastards !). I'm sure the minimalist school will like it, but they can go do one. Some of us still value wonderful art and wonderful artists. After all, without them, you wouldn't have any wonderful books like this one. Alex Potts is one of those artists. I hope he gets recognised as one of our most enjoyable comic-strip creators. It's about sodding time !

Paul Ashley Brown

Kult Creations: REVEREND CROSS: DEFROCKED!

  

44 pages 

Full colour

US sized

Square-bound

Story by John A. Short  and illustrated by Gabrielle Noble

Order details at https://reverendcross.blogspot.com/

REVEREND CROSS is back! And this time she's in full colour and in her longest adventure ever! 

Hold on to your dog-collar as everything is about to change for the first ever female vicar action hero in REVEREND CROSS: DEFROCKED! 

Cast out by the church that trained and armed her... Can Abby Cross save the world from the monsters of Greek mythology with no back-up? Will anything ever be the same again? 

It's always nice to see a Short and Noble book turn up as they are probably my only favourite UK based creative comics team!

Firstly let's get the simple stuff out of the way as I know there are people out there who MUST know this before buying: the printing quality and paper stock used are high quality and bound well enough. All the colours are as vibrant as they should be and the text is readable.

The story is what you expect from Short; everything flows smoothly from dungeon action, clerical inquiry to unexpected rendezvous in a public lavatory (oh, get your minds out of the gutter), museum and Mount Olympus. There are the usual pop culture references such as The Prisoner and Quatermass and The Pit and more than a few tongue-in-cheek jokes. 

I think that the stand out line was: "Armed Cleric! Fall to your knees and pray!"  I will never look at the Right Reverend Henry Bloatesbottom the same when I go to church (which I do not).   The story was fun and that is something people forget today: comics should be fun. I do wonder where the end of this story will leave Cross in the future.

Noble's artwork is something I first saw when someone told me that I would "not like" her Spliffy the Stoner Chick because it was not "a classical comic style"....which made me buy the magazine it was in (Wasted). I was told the same thing about Paul Grist's Jack Staff but fell in love with that series (which also heavily featured British TV pop culture of a certain era). 

I have seen comics with great stories where the artwork left me cold and not caring that much.  Even though it is hard work the artist has to enjoy their work and that really does tell in print -the best review I ever gave a small press comic was for something badly drawn BUT it was very clear that the artist was enjoying himself. The Fun Factor is what you see in Noble's work.

The use of colours to set certain scenes works well. The various characters, whether supernatural, mythical, cyborg or ordinary human. Noble always presents great artwork that works with the given story and she does have a couple of blogs but these have not been updated in a while.

Would I recommend this book? Hmm. Let me think about that.

YES.

Now go and buy a copy and have some fun action and adventure!