Black Crown/IDW Publishing 2018
Written by David Barnett
Illustrated by Martin Simmonds
Flats by Dee Cunniffe
Lettered by Aditya Bidikar
The ghost of dead punk rocker Sid is unlocking some pretty strange abilities in teenage geek Fergie, giving him a taste of power that he never imagined. But will he use it to clean his room, alter the solar system… or pick up girls? Meanwhile, MI5's irascible baller Dorothy Culpepper, and her nervous, new recruit, are drawn to the Extra-Usual Affairs involving a scandalous haunting in Whitechapel.
This is definitely one of those books where you forget just how darn good it is until you are reading it again. With the sheer number of comics hitting stands these days it’s only natural for this to occur nowadays and fortunately when you see the title and realise holy crap the ghost of Sid Vicious yeah that’s right and then get all excited to read it. That is what you want to feel, the excitement of what is about to happen. Honestly that is exactly what this does for me, I get excited by just seeing the cover.
David has a great sense of how a book should be structured. The ebb & flow of what we see here is extremely well done and that everyone already thought that Fergie was already a crazy loser before he started taking out loud to a ghost well let’s just say it keeps him seen that way even more. Then again that’s more characterisation but it is kind of important to the story as a whole as well. Last issue Fergie took care of the bully without laying a finger on him and instead used some kind of magic or power that is locked inside him. I’m beginning to think this is why he was not only able to see Sid but take him with him. So while Fergie may have no clue that doesn’t mean our dead punk rocker is in the dark.
So right now the fact that Dorothy is taking her new recruit on a run so he can finally realise what it is he’s actually in store for well that’s nicely done as well. I like this crotchety old woman and warped sense of humour she is like the grandma you always wanted, well you had one like her. Also that this is how we are going to tie in Fergie and placing him on the radar more fully yeah David is connecting the dots here in a smart and interesting way. While we knew the wires would cross eventually we didn’t know how and the way we see it start here that’s how ingenuity works.
Martin and Dee do some interesting work here but if I make a suggestion I don’t the solid backgrounds should be so close in colour to the clothing as the linework can be thin and the colours too matchy matchy when I don’t they are supposed to be. Otherwise I really am kind of more impressed by the varying weights of the linework and how subtle, impactful and bold they can seem which of course adds a nice dimension at times. The utilisation of page layouts so we get to see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a nice eye for storytelling. Backgrounds people, backgrounds they are so important to not only expanding the story but the town could be a character of it’s own or at least a sense of life aside from these characters. Like inside the store it starts off great then fades into blobs of colour to represent what was there. That is a cheap way to get out of continuing what was started.
The two part ending here, what Sid gets Fergie to do and the ramifications felt throughout certain aspect of the country well it just gets me so excited to see what’s going to happen next! Punk will never die not so long as folks keep making books like this and we listen to the albums and soundtrack in our heads from this experience. Creative, interesting and totally unexpected this is why comics are so much damn fun.