American Mythology Productions 2021
Created, Plotted & Coloured by John Charles
Created, Plotted & Written Barry May
Created & Illustrated by Tom Newell
Lettered by Nikki Foxrobot
In The Dame and the Damned, it turns out Jon Sherlok isn't the last TechnoFreak alive... Can he save another survivor? Jon and Maurice, the metal moggy, face the vicious sneering evil of Felix Scrutner, creator of the TechnoFreak technology in deepest, darkest, Dorking! All this, and the clone Lorettas sing a happy song. America loved issue one, and issue two is even better. It's sexy, sassy fun from merry olde England. What more could you ask for? This one will fly off the shelves!
This is a silly, silly book. So much so that I am thoroughly enjoying it. Sherlok, a play off the original, and his mechanical feline sidekick are the world’s greatest detective. Mainly because he’s the last Technofreak but that’s another story. This constantly breaks the fourth wall thanks to Maurice and his constant narration of the story which is both charming and annoying at the same time. Granted this allows us to really understand the story better as we get a better look at the characters. This issue reminds me of how my grandmother used to call them funny books as it actually fits that nomenclature.
I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development that we see through the narration, dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really brings their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more I want to know about these characters.
I like how we are seeing this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. The layers within the story really open up new avenues to the story that add depth, dimension and complexity to the story. I love that what we see opens up the briefest of glances because it really makes me want to see more and more. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceptionally well achieved.
What I really like about the interiors here is that they really are a futuristic science fiction landscape. From a talking feline robot, Maurice, to the safety net to just the way we see the buildings and backgrounds throughout really makes a huge difference in how we see this. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail within the work that we see is well conceived and executed. The way that we see backgrounds enhance and expand the moments as well as how we see them work within the composition of the panels is marvellous to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong, talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading highlights and shadow work show a great understanding of colour.
While this may be a tad bit on the cheesy side it’s still one of the better books that kind of pokes fun at the seriousness of comics today. It’s a joy to read and the characters have this throwback feel to them that work exceptionally well in this setting. This is very well written with such strong characterization along with these classic style interiors and it really makes this a worthy standout.