Superb. Buy it.
Oh, you want more? Okay. This has excellent production design, gorgeous artwork, proper grown up writing, a professional outlook, a colour insert, and I'm running out of superlatives...
It's actually split between two anthology titles, technically one for 'The Lads' and one for 'The Chicks', but actually it all hangs together perfectly as one comic.
But let's start with the Ladeez side of the book:
Simple Simon is a good kick in the make up bag to all those girls who take their (male) best friend for granted and has fun, Photoshop aided art that makes good use of greytones.
I Don't Want My Sister To Contact My Ex-Boyfriend is a self-explanatory, nicely written one pager, with ( I'm sorry to say ) visibly rushed artwork.
The great Lee Kennedy weighs in with My Dead & Me A very moving,
beautifully drawntale of lost friends. Who else could bring a lump to your throat in six pages?
More unexpected tears in Oddcases: The Phantom Kittens which, although a bit stilted in it's composition, has a truly heart-wrenching ending.
The two best pieces here, I think.
Housekeeping Tips , I'm afraid, is the worst. A one idea joke, spread out
over three pages, with barely adequate artwork.
The colour section is given over to Da Hood with 'Oh My God Why Isn't This Guy Working Professionally?' art from Dez Taylor. Unfortunately, he also
wrote it. It's not that the story is bad, It's just that I wanted to be as
blown away by it as I was by the art. Maybe his other stuff is better.
And so on to the Boyz section of the comic:
Behind a rip roaring cover (In counterpoint to the beautiful, reverse Girly side of the book) lies more good stuff.
An Open Book is an interesting prologue to a (presumably) larger tale
of a female copper who can tell everything about you, just by touching an
object you've touched. Both art and script are excellent, and I'd like to read
more.
The Cull has good, manga influenced art, and a fairly interesting story
about werewolves, that makes a good change of pace.
Finally, Doctor LoveMonkey and the Misery Machine is a fairly standard 'Doc Savage' spoof saved by some nice art (tho' there's too much black used).
I do have reservations about some of the pieces here, but the whole thing is
put together so well, It works brilliantly. Put it this way: I want to be in
the next one.
I'm off to get the back issues now. I suggest you do the same.
Pete Doreé