Compared to fifteen years ago, anime fandom in South Africa has come a long way. Back then it was a whole different ballgame. The Internet was in its infancy at the time, and downloading quasi-legal fansubs was unheard of. No, we had to rely on a handful of distributors to keep us in a steady supply, and one of the biggest was Manga Video, a company that brought us some particularly memorable anime which are now considered classics in the Western world. However, Manga Video wasn’t interested in bringing us TV series, and if we did get a series, it was usually a three to six part OAV at best. What we did get were a lot anime feature films, and anime distributor Madman has collected three films released by Manga Video which typified that early era into the Anime Classics collection.

Ghost in the Shell

This is the first Ghost in the Shell film based on the first Ghost in the Shell manga, back when the original creator, Masamune Shirow, still seemed to have some involvement in it. This stunningly-animated, politics-heavy sci-fi thriller converted many non-believers into anime fans with its jaw-dropping blend of CG and traditional animation. The action scenes are gripping and exciting to watch, but to be honest, the film gets bogged down a bit by the long political discussions and artsy sections which feature the kind of music that sounds like someone is skinning a live cat. Still, it’s an undeniable classic and an important film in anime history.

Akira

We ran a review of the Blu-ray version of this anime a while back in which we mentioned why it is one of the greatest anime films of all time, so we’ll just give you the basics here. Apart from being arguably the finest achievement in animation as far as anime goes, it’s also a great distilled adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s sci-fi manga of the same name. If dystopian futures, gang wars between juvenile biker punks, and body-exploding psychic powers sound good to you, then give it a watch – you won’t regret it.

Ninja Scroll

I remember how my friend and I used to shock our classmates by playing this anime in the school media centre back in high school. None of them knew about anime, much less what it could contain, and Ninja Scroll features some incredibly explicit sex scenes in addition to no-holds-barred violence. Apart from that, it’s actually a complex, thrilling tale involving ninja with supernatural powers, government spies, and a payload of gold from a secret mine. A good watch for anyone looking for a samurai action film with a decent story.

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Anyone who is familiar with Shinichirou Watanabe’s directorial style probably always expects something unusual. One of his favourite quirks is the way he likes to take two far-removed themes or ideas and mix them together. Cowboy Bebop, for instance, with its odd mix of jazz and science fiction, had a very unique flavour, and the same is true of Samurai Champloo.

You don’t get anything more seemingly-unrelated than Feudal Japan and hip-hop culture, but Watanabe somehow manages to mix the two in a way that not only works, but brings out the highly contrasting culture of each. The soundtrack is an odd blend of traditional Japanese music and hip-hop, and it’s actually surprisingly coherent, and even catchy. He also somehow manages to make afro-toting samurais, rapping peasants, and Yakuza with chunky gold chains and gold teeth seem perfectly reasonable in the world he has created. Even the word “champloo” is a westernised spelling of the Japanese word “chanpuru”, which apparently means a mish-mash of different things.

Mugen is the abrasive and selfish one of the crew

The story set in this bizarre hybrid world revolves around three characters, Jin, Mugen, and Fuu. Jin and Mugen are both highly-skilled samurai, but their approach to swordsmanship differs wildly. Jin is very formal and conventional while Mugen uses just about anything he can in his battles, including Capoeira-like acrobatics and metal-plated geta (wooden sandals). The two of them are arrested for accidentally causing the death of a prefect’s son while engaged in a battle to the death with each other, but are released from captivity by a teenage girl named Fuu. Fuu has only one condition: they aren’t allowed to kill each other until they’ve helped her find the person she’s looking for, a samurai who smells like sunflowers. They grudgingly agree to this and end up following Fuu on a journey which leads them through all kinds of wild encounters, including becoming involved in a money counterfeiting racket and getting high after setting a field of marijuana ablaze.

Mugen and Jin might be allies because of Fuu, but they'd dearly love to kill each other

Unlike some other samurai-based anime, the fight scenes in Samurai Champloo aren’t drawn-out, talky affairs. Instead, they’re balls-out action right from the start, and they’re incredibly well animated by anime standards. It takes skilled animators to draw attention to the differences in Jin and Mugens fighting styles visually without having to explain it, and that’s exactly what you’ll find here. Samurai Champloo’s story strolls along at a languid pace, and it often seems like the characters have forgotten their ultimate objective as they become sidetracked during their other adventures. In general, the tone is pretty light-hearted despite the violence, and there’s plenty of good humour in there, but it can be pretty dark and serious on occasions, too. It never feels like it’s dragging on, though, and the events of the moment are always entertaining.

Samurai Champloo isn’t quite old enough to be labelled a classic or old-school anime, but it’s definitely one of the better anime of the last six years, and something anyone whose intake consists mainly of stuff like Bleach and Naruto should consider watching.

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I am both an avid sci-fi fan (both of books and visual media), and hope to eventually publish a novel or two, so it was with some excitement that I received this book, written by a local lad. I was also particularly impressed to discover that he had knuckled down and churned this title out within a year – given that my effort has been ongoing for some years now (some years of severe self-discipline deficiency), I have the highest respect for someone who can sit down and get it done.

The Changed Agenda starts off very strong – some crazy and intriguing things happen, and the scene is set most tantalizingly. The narrative then settles down to some character building, which exposes us to an impressive cast of characters, and initially none are presented necessarily as protagonist or antagonist – this sort of ambiguity is both mature and an elegant literary device. Without revealing too much, I can say the following about the general nature of the story: over the years, certain individuals across the globe start demonstrating special abilities that can almost be described as “magical” – or, more accurately, as telekinetic, telepathic, extrasensory, and other such psychic gifts. Governments prefer to keep these out of the eye of the general public, and to that end there is a secret organisation that monitors and, as far as possible, regulates these “changed” individuals. There are, however, those who have eluded this organisation, and they, too, keep a low profile, to avoid attracting the attention of the authorities. In a way, this sounds rather a lot like the TV show Heroes, and the similarities don’t end there (more about this later.)

Unfortunately, although the story starts so strong, I get the impression that either Mr Holtshauzen’s concept runs out of steam, or he gets bogged down in minutiae. Ultimately, the narrative devolves into an almost non-stop series of conversations and arguments, with someone withholding something from the other, or with someone being upset with someone else. There are grudges (often unnecessary – even though this is, in fact, rather realistic) and “emotional byplay”, but little of actual substance. In fact, it feels like the story wanders away from sci-fi, and lodges itself firmly in soap opera territory. This, of course, will appeal to some – and should be highlighted so that people can make an informed purchasing decision: if you want soap, check this out, but if you want sci-fi, maybe steer clear.

As well as interminable arguments and the like, the narrative, which starts off with an impressive command of the English language, starts becoming increasingly prone to pompous malapropisms (there is no less verbose way of saying this!) At one point, almost every paragraph includes a misuse of some word, (Mr Holtshauzen, “prodigy” and “progeny” do NOT mean the same thing!), term, or figure of speech. This speaks of too much speed with not enough checking – which is to say, this story would have benefited from more rigorous editing.

Finally, with only a few pages left, I was most curious as to what sort of climax would come in those last pages. But when I got through them, I realised that the climax had already come and gone, completely unnoticed. Also, everything remains unresolved, the story more or less just trailing off, leaving that unsatisfied feeling of “to be continued”, only worse (here’s the other similarity to Heroes.) If I were to rate this book on the strength of its opening chapters, I would give it a 4 or 5 out of 5, but if I were to rate it based on the ending, that would be a 1 or 2 – therefore, I settle for the average.

Despite my negative comments, this book does show promise, though it is unfortunate that the conclusion has so blatantly been left for a sequel – after 444 pages and nothing left, I don’t expect to be holding half a book. I do hope Mr Holtshauzen keeps writing, and hires a capable editor/proof-reader. His concept, though not particularly original in its general nature, is quite novel in its details. His character development, though excessive at times, will be satisfyingly deep when it is suitably reined in. Overall, this is a fairly impressive first attempt for a fledgling novelist, and I hope that we can look forward to more coming from him in the future.

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If there is one genre of anime that grates more than any other for its lack of originality, it’s the shounen genre. Shounen is an action focused genre aimed at boys and young male adults – for those who don’t know. Some famous examples of shounen anime are Dragonball, Naruto, and Yu Yu Hakusho.

It is typefied by ambitious young main characters with special powers fighting an endless line-up of similarly gifted enemies who, more often than not, start out with the upper hand. The genre is in serious need of a dose of fresh perspective, or a kick in the pants, but unfortunately D.Gray-Man provides neither. It sticks pretty closely to the established formula, providing few surprises or action scenes that make the viewer sit up and take notice. Even the character designs deviate little from what we’ve come to expect.

Often it’s down to the story to make a particular anime in the shounen genre stand out, and D.Gray-Man’s plot is actually fairly interesting. It’s set in an alternate 19th Century England, and centres around a 15-year-old boy, Allen Walker, who was disowned by his family because he had a deformed arm. He is adopted by a clown who later dies. After this, a shady man named the Earl of the Millennium offers to resurrect Allen’s recently deceased adoptive father, but in doing so turns him into an Akuma – a monster. Allen’s latent special abilities spring to life, transforming his deformed arm into a weapon which he uses to defeat the monster. As the monster dies, it curses Allen’s left eye, which actually turns out to be a good thing, since Allen can now see the souls of the Akuma – even ones which are disguised as normal people.

Determined to prevent others from sharing his pain, Allen joins the Black Order and becomes an exorcist, hunting down and slaying the Akuma in his quest to put an end to the Earl of the Millennium’s insidious plans. Along the way, he’ll meet up with many enemies and allies, all of who have their own background stories and motivations – very typical shounen stuff.

The story is fairly interesting; unfortunately, as with all shounen anime, it’s drawn out too long, with Allen coming ever closer to his goal, but never quite making it. He and his allies find themselves in one sticky situation after another, having to find new ways to use their abilities to combat the endless stream of enemies who find all kinds of creative ways to attack them. This suggests that they’re going to draw this one out for as long as viewers are willing to continue paying for it.

The animation is the standard quality for TV anime, and the art direction is unmistakably shounen. Weird uniforms, exaggerated features to distinguish the main cast from one another, and monstrous enemies are just some of the typical anime flash you can expect to find here. Both the Japanese and English voice casts are good, although the English voice cast does seem to fit the European setting a bit better.

If you haven’t already had your fill of the shounen genre, then you might actually like this a lot more than I did. But if you’re approaching the full-up mark, then I can’t think of any reason to recommend this any more than any other unending, young male-oriented action anime.

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I’ll admit, I’m a bit jaded as an anime fan, but then I’ve been watching for roughly fifteen years, so I have my reasons. After so long, it really does become apparent how bland and unoriginal the anime industry can be, and it’s getting worse, lately. For anyone for who is over the buzz of the whole “otaku culture” thing (and who doesn’t think that every new anime is the new greatest-thing-they’ve-ever-seen) it takes something really unique and special to hold their interest. Well, if you’re also tired of the same-old-same-old, then you might want to check out Last Exile. Produced by Studio Gonzo and directed by Koichi Chigira (Full Metal Panic, Gatekeepers, Brave Story), this 26-episode series has quite a few unique ideas.

It’s not the most unusual anime ever, but it’s fresh enough to have its own flavour and stand out from the stale mainstream lineup. Last Exile is essentially a fantasy steampunk story set against the backdrop of a war between two nations. Trying to make a living in these difficult times are the two lead characters, Klaus and Lavie, a pair of air couriers who undertake high risk jobs in hopes of earning enough cash to buy a jet-propulsion unit for their small plane so that they can enter some races. Klaus is the pilot, and he’s even-tempered and very serious about his reputation as the-guy-who-gets-the-job-done. Lavie is Klaus’s navigator, and she wears her heart on her sleeve and speaks her mind with no respect for the circumstances. A routine job leads the pair right into the thick of a battle between their own country, Anatoray, and its enemy, Disith, but they brave all to deliver the package. After the battle, they end up falling in with a crew of privateers that showed up to save the day, and so begins an unexpected journey which will uncover ancient mysteries and the true nature of the war.

Along the way, Last Exile touches on various issues such as personal pride and the value of chivalry, all without being too in-your-face or heavy-handed about it, but instead showing how each character chooses to deal with them and why. The grim atmosphere illustrating the hardships of war on civilians is very subtly and masterfully handled. Simple things like the bleak, unsaturated colour palette, the fact that the price of water is directly related to its purity, and the discrimination between noble soldiers and worthless civilians, all contribute to the stifling air of gloom that permeates throughout.

The character designs for the anime were handled by Range Murata, who is quickly making a name for himself with a style that is as recognizable as works by artists like Masamune Shirow or Tetsuya Nomura. If you’ve seen Blue Submarine No. 6 or some of his various art books, like Robot and Rule, you’ll recognize the style – particularly the way his female characters have very round, cue-ball like heads you just want to sink in the corner pocket. He also designed the characters for the woefully underrated PS2 stealth game, Spy Fiction. I was impressed by Last Exile. While there isn’t anything too spectacular about it, it stands on its own as an interesting tale with great visual design and solid direction. It also brings up interesting moral issues in a way which avoids the usual, heated “ethics argument” which always sucks any credibility out of them in other anime. Check it out, it’s worth a look.

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If you don’t know the whole story of Robotech, then you’d probably best check out the Wikipedia article on it, because we don’t have space to explain it here. But to sum it up, what we call Robotech in the West was actually three completely separate, yet remarkably similar, anime series which were rewritten in English to be one complete story. Each of the three rewritten series was considered a “season” of Robotech, but it’s only the first series, Macross, that we’re concerned with here. If you don’t know just how significant it is in the world of anime, well, you’re about to find out.

Macross, under the name of Robotech, opened the door for Japanese animation in the West by sneaking onto western TV disguised as a sci-fi cartoon for kids. Young boys loved it because of the cool spaceships which could transform into robots, and the adults who watched it were completely blown away by the in-depth and mature subject matter. At that time, it was almost completely unheard of for a cartoon to even attempt to make the viewers think, and it went down a treat.

Macross tells the story of how a massive alien space ship crash lands on earth. After some analysis, the newly united leaders of Earth decide to rebuild it and use it as the flagship of Earth’s newly established defence force. However, on the day of its maiden voyage, the ship’s alien owners attack Earth, determined to get it back. The human crew, with little experience piloting the immense ship, accidentally warp it out to the furthest reaches of our Solar system in an attempt to counterattack, taking most of the surrounding city with them. Now, with a city’s worth of civilians on board and unwilling to risk using the warp technology they don’t understand, the crew begins piloting their damaged ship back towards Earth, a journey which would take months, enduring unrelenting attacks by the alien forces along the way.

Most of the story is told through the eyes of Rick, a young hotshot fighter pilot who helps to defend the fortress on its long journey back to Earth, but it occasionally switches focus to some of the other prominent characters. This cast of incredibly realistic and sympathetic characters is probably the show’s greatest strength, and lead to it being labelled as a Space Opera because of their complex and ever-evolving relationships. This incredibly human side of the story let the viewers connect with characters on a much more personal level and made it easier for them to enter the incredible Macross universe.

This particular release of the series contains both the original Japanese voice cast and the Harmony Gold “Robotech” voice cast, so it’s a gem for serious Robotech fans out there. And for those of you who want to see one of the most important series in anime history, look no further.

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The first season of Black Lagoon was well-received, among Japanese and Western anime fans alike, for its fresh approach to the action anime genre. Impartial attitudes towards violence and criminal conduct are fairly common in anime, but Black Lagoon took this concept to a whole new level.

The second season of the BL, The Second Barrage, continues the story of the members of the Lagoon Company, a crew of pirates based in Roanapur, Thailand, who work the Southeast Asian seas, taking any job from any client, no matter what it might entail. The crew is led by Dutch, a shrewd businessman who looks out for his employees. Heading up his intelligence is Benny, a fugitive hacker and communications expert. Also aboard is Revy, a sexy but incredibly violent gunslinging woman who lives for two things only: booze and bloodshed. And last but not least, is their newest member, Rock, a former Japanese businessman who ended up joining their crew by chance more than anything else in the first season.

In any other anime, you’d expect Rock, the good guy, to slowly but surely convince his team-mates to change their wicked ways to some extent – but not in Black Lagoon.  The Lagoon Company plays by the rules: they don’t ask questions, they don’t step on any toes if they can avoid it, and they always finish the job, no matter how dirty it is. Whether they’re transporting drugs, weapons, or even slaves, it doesn’t matter to them – as far as they’re concerned, they’re just a delivery company. Naturally, this doesn’t go down too well with Rock, who sometimes feels guilty and sympathetic towards the innocent people caught up in this mess – and that’s important, because it’s Rock’s job to remind us of how an ordinary person should view all of these atrocious acts.  Without him, it would be just another throwaway violent anime, and we’ve got too many of those already.

If anything, the subject matter is even darker and more abrasive in the Second Barrage than it was in the first season. The first two episodes alone pose a very uncomfortable question, and the writers have seemingly gone out of their way to up the number of interesting conflicts in the series to the point where we aren’t even sure if Rock will be able to simply stand by and watch any more. It’s this quality which makes Black Lagoon such a success, and sets it apart from other unnecessarily violent anime with little real-world perspective on the violence.

Apart from that, it’s the usual Black Lagoon fare. The animation is pretty standard as far as anime goes these days. The art direction is solid, and both the Japanese and English voice casts are excellent. I’m partial to the English one myself, because the language is appropriately filthy and some of their lines are pee-your-pants funny. The action is fast paced and engaging, with a good balance of the typical anime “strategy-talk” and actual action.

Often, a second season is what ultimately makes or breaks an anime franchise, and in Black Lagoon’s case, after seeing the second season, all I can say is bring on the third.

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This is a little complicated, so try to stay with me here. The Negima!? manga is the comic book accompaniment to the Negima!? anime series, which is a retelling of the first Negima! anime which is based on the original Negima! manga. Did you get all that? If you didn’t, well, it’s not all that important. Just know that Negima!? Neo is a retelling of the original story using the same characters, but with different plot developments.

Negima!? Neo follows the adventures of Negi Springfield, a ten year-old wizard-in-training at a magic academy in England. Negi dreams of being a great wizard like his supposedly-dead father, and trained hard to become one of the brightest students at the academy. Shortly after his graduation, he receives his first assignment: to teach English at an all-girl Japanese high school. If you can’t see what’s coming here, then you obviously haven’t been a manga/anime fan for very long. At any rate, Negi has a few conditions that he has to adhere to during his assignment, the most problematic being that he is forbidden to use magic at all.

This becomes doubly problematic when Negi finds that his class is full of super-sexy older girls who can’t get over the novelty that their new teacher is a ten year old boy. And as if that weren’t enough, there are some strange, supernatural happenings at the school which are causing problems, further tempting Negi to unleash his prodigious magical powers against his mandate.

If this sounds pretty good, well, maybe it is – if you aren’t already sick to death of this kind of thing. Unfortunately, Negima!? is bland, unoriginal and predictable on almost every level. The story contains a heavy “harem manga” element, in which an honest guy is surrounded by super-cute girls who seem all too eager to smother him with their breasts or trip and fall on top of him in a compromising position – usually just prior to being discovered by someone who gets the wrong idea. This is supposed to be humorous, but the overdone, by-the-numbers ecchi humour is cringe-inducing in its deliberate and unashamed affluence.

Takuya Fujima’s art style is fairly decent in some respects, and just plain soulless and derived in others. On the plus side, he draws bodies and outfits fairly well, hitting those difficult angles more than some other artists, and it even seems like he’s starting down the path toward decent cinematography, too. On the minus side, however, what elements of originality and style he has, are almost lost amidst his regrettable and unquestioning use of time-worn, anime-compliant visual conventions.

If you’ve never experienced the “harem” genre before, then that element of this otherwise mediocre magical adventure manga should amuse you rather than bother you. However, if senseless and unjustifiable panty-shots and boob-squeezing are starting to make you see red, you’d be advised to steer well clear of this.

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Cape Town, the not-too-distant future. Corporate fascism is the ruling party, its self-interested protocols ruthlessly enforced by a corrupt police force, biotechnologically engineered dogs, restrictive socioeconomic mobility, and centrally-controlled 200-volt defuser discharges from your government-issue cellphone (Our Prerogative, Your Nervous System!). Meanwhile, out beyond the sunbed-dappled fringes of corporate privilege, a disenfranchised nation writhes choking on the indignity of it all. Think V for Vendetta, but with third world angst, an outrageously narcissistic trust-fund blogger, and a township soccer team with an insurrectionist agenda.

The prospect of reading South African literature typically fills me with a sort of mortal dread instilled by five years of terminally drab high school setwork novels. Who knew that, amongst all those tedious exile novels grasping desperately for relevance, or even just a decent story with swords and lasers and stuff, we had ourselves our very own, homegrown cyberpunk novel? Chuck out your prescribed copy of JM Coetzee’s snorefest Disgrace, and tell your English teacher you want to read Moxyland or you’ll shoot up your school. If all these years playing murder simulators has taught you one thing, it’s how to fire a spit ball out of a hollow biro.

The book is due for worldwide (re)release through Angry Robot on 25 June.

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After the decline of interest in Japanese animation in the West during the mid to late ’80s, one anime feature film in particular is credited with spearheading the Western revival of Japanimation fandom that occurred from the early ’90s onwards. Of course, I’m referring to Akira, the film adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s famous manga epic.

If you’ve been into anime for more than a month and you’ve never heard of Akira, then you need a better source of info or a slap upside the head – maybe both. OK, so maybe long-time anime fans roll their eyes whenever someone mentions Akira and say, “Not this again”, but that’s probably because the film has been re-released and screened enough times to make anyone a tad ill.

This happened because, in all honestly, it’s a superb film. Notice I deliberately didn’t say “superb anime”, which I do for a number of reasons. Firstly, Akira is good enough on every level to transcend the ranks of anime and compete with the highest quality Western animated productions, and even films in general. Secondly, Akira is a shining example of what the anime industry could have been producing had it not lowered its standards to produce trash with bromidic stories, ridiculous outfit designs, factory-line characters, and recession-grade animation that makes up the greater percentage of anime we receive today.

For those who don’t know, the movie follows the story of Kaneda, the juvenile leader of a biker gang in post World War III Neo Tokyo. Kaneda’s best friend, Tetsuo, is kidnapped by the military after a gang war, and shortly thereafter begins to develop almost godlike psychic powers. Now that Tetsuo has the power to stand up against armies, his hitherto strong inferiority complex fuels his lust for vengeance against those that oppressed him, as he wages a one man war to take over the city. It’s up to Kaneda, with the help of some of Tetsuo’s fellow test subjects from the military, and a young female underground resistance fighter named Kei, to stop him before he loses control of his incredible power.

The obvious highlight of this Region 4 Blu-ray release is the high-definition, 1080p, 16:9 version of the movie contained on it – and the five minutes of extra footage. It’s beautiful enough to interest even those who have seen the film one time too many on VHS and DVD in the past. Unfortunately, there are two minor drawbacks, the first being a severe lack of the cool extras which are supposed to be part and parcel of the Blu-ray deal. All we get are a few trailers and some storyboards. The second snag is the loss of the original 1988 Streamline English voice cast starring Cam Clarke. In its place we have the bland 2001 Pioneer dub.

Still, this is a great way to enjoy one of the most iconic Japanimation films of all time, whether it’s your first viewing or your seven hundredth.

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Mobile phones are becoming ever more sophisticated, with increasingly powerful processors that have, for quite some time now, even allowed rudimentary 3D graphics. A few months ago, I got to play One for a couple of weeks – a “beat’em’up” game for N-Gage that I found to be surprisingly advanced. Sure, it doesn’t, for example, have as many combos as, say, Tekken, but it’s still pretty impressive. Increasingly, of late, I’ve been getting impressed by mobile game releases – so long as I take them in their correct context.

Obviously, it would not be fair to compare them to PC games – not only are the hardware specifications of a completely different order of magnitude, but the usage model is also vastly different. Mobile games are generally a time-killer for when you’re waiting for something, or sitting on the loo (although I will show you just now that this is not always the case!), rather than something you spend an afternoon, evening, or entire weekend doing. So these games need to be consumable in small sessions measured in minutes rather than hours, and need to be easy to come back to at any time. Interestingly, this same factor also makes mobile games less suited to multiplayer, as when you have a few minutes to play, you want to spend those minutes playing, not looking for other players. This is ironic, as given that cell-phones are first and foremost communication and connection tools, it would seem to follow that implementing multiplayer functionality would be a natural progression. Well, this is definitely coming about, but not to the degree that people may, at first, expect, and not necessarily in the expected manner, either. Instead of live ‘versus’ games and the like, the most common way for connectivity to be implemented consists of high-score leader-boards and “ghosts” – recorded games that players can pit themselves against.

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It’s difficult to review Watchmen without resorting to “Just go out and buy it right now”, but keep those words on your mind at all times while reading this. Watchmen is the product of the legendary Andy Moore’s writing and Dave Gibbons’s artwork. Both are veterans in their fields and responsible for titles such as V for Vendetta, From Hell, 2000AD and Green Lantern. Originally published in 1986, the book follows the story of a group of superheroes in an alternate history (then contemporary) as they attempt to uncover the mystery behind a series of deaths within their own ranks, all while exploring the sordid history (and sometimes future) that brought the unlikely group together.

Moore’s detailed story is a masterpiece – his writing is evocative of pain and loss, bringing the reader directly in line with the mixed feelings of sorrow and hope throughout the book. Gibbons’s drawing is an extension of the writing, enhancing every frame with emotion and passion while still staying true to traditional ’80s comic book styles and palettes. If you’re still not sure whether you need to own this book, let me make it simple for you – just go out and buy it right now.

This article is a re-run from NAG Magazine October 2008.

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