Titan Comics 2017
Written by Nick Kyme
Penciled by Jack Jadson
Inked by Nelson Pereira & Sandro Ribeiro
Coloured by Fabricio Guerra & Mauricio Wallace
Lettered by Simon Bowland
“The season is already off to a headrolling start, Bob, with the Hochland Harbingers unexpectedly triumphing over the Maulers!” “And who’d have thought we’d ever see the
return of Dreng Sturmblud, eh, Jim? Looks like he didn’t lose his star player status in the bottom of an ale bottle after all!” “Who’d have thought it indeed, Bob. But it’s still early days – will it be enough to bring the Harbingers into the big leagues – or will brutal injuries, team infighting, and plain old on-pitch fighting strangle their dream? We can only hope!”
I don’t know if it’s ironic or not but after reading the first issue i’ve begun to see the game everywhere. The comic shoppe I go to had one for public use and then this week when I go in it’s on the shelf as well. Yes this is from the whole Warhammer universe and it mixes American Football and Rugby with the kind of violence and entertainment that that universe needs and honestly it’s a lot more fun than I would’ve originally given it credit for.
Nick’s ability to take a game like this and bring it to life, giving it a story, giving the personalities and making them interesting is completely underrated. If you’re like me you’ve heard of this till the book hit stands and then to make stand alone and be something you find yourself looking forward to takes talent, skill and determination. Actually the characterisation is what i’m enjoying more than anything else, I mean c’mon while yes it’s nice to see Dreg get sober and have a life again but really is all about Gorgeous Gerrick.
Jack has a nice crew behind him bringing this to life. I kind of like that it’s the warped tour version of heavy metal apocalyptic uniforms that we see. Jack’s ability to use the page layouts through angles, perspective and especially the backgrounds really make the story come alive more in ways that we can appreciate. I love the linework here it’s so nice, smooth and allows for the kind of attention to detail that I think all comics should have. While it feels very much like Earth and less like the Warhammer Universe i’m definitely not going to raise issue with that.
So I love that the Apothecary has potions that make the wizard breathe fire. I mean it’s like a comedy of errors that will work in their favour if they can pull themselves together long enough to get things done. Also there’s some fart humour in these pages and while I don’t normally support that tactic here it’s actually extremely funny. I mean it’s like nothing is off limits and makes me think of the good old days when SNL was actually worth watching and had what we refer to as stars, yes I mean Murphy, Belushi, Martin, etc.
Fun, entertaining and witty in ways you’d never expect this will make you wonder about not only playing the game but how on Earth we’ve lived this long without it!