More Than We Seem #4
A flipcomicbooklet featuring two regular strips, 'Trojan' and 'Out Of Time'. Trojan is the tale of a actor playing Auberon who loses his flute. And that's not all, he's a regular klutz and from clothes to car keys, he just can't remember anything. 'Trojan' is also the tale of a group of cops, reporters and politicians monitoring the activities of strange phenomena going on in town phenomena centred round a man carying a flute, wearing odd clothing and tossing a car.
The fact of the protagonist's superhuman powers is obscure, dwarfed by abstract verse with some post-symbolist visuals. Dave West lays these Kirbymotifs in among his usual atlas-shade figure sketches and classical monument style from office blocks to teacups. Nuances. The shade here is lighter in tone, perhaps as a link to co-artist Ray Mayers work. Mayers fills in ten pages, the editor states, bringing 'dynamics' of adventure to the work. The result, my eyes viewed, were undynamic and unadventurous. The quality contrast reflects poorly on Mayers: although he's competent at sketching action, there are a few obvious swipes. There appears a case of bland, white-out and the reversion to formulated elsewhere scenes is exactly that. It does weaken the strip considerably that the lettering is miniscule.
'Out of Time' by M. E. Read and W. David running eight pages is fast becoming an always welcome tale placed in front of my Jack Duckworth glasses (and without). With an average of fifty words per narrative devoted to science adventure heroism battle, this slowly keenly paced yarn follows a crippled war veteran around, the survey of his past actions. Read writes facing like the mirror of a young and disgruntled beat poet while David loaded up with herbal tea and ganga surfs the definition of elegance, his art-room host to a ,ultitude of amplifiers really..Long may this pre-origin proceed.
There's a cheeky editorial attitude to this zine. If you like your superhero strips but prefer they were kept in the closet, then write Deva Comics, 2 Mill Lane, Holmes Chapel, Crewe, CW4 8AT.
This costs £1.95 UK and is US size, 36 pages and very well presented.