Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Nostalgia read. I came across this in the late eighties but my copies of the individual books - one of them signed - got left behind about 10 house-moves ago. Reading it again, I think I appreciated it more, because of the craftsmanship of it. It's dense in words and ideas. It's ambitious as fuck, spanning multiple realities. There are many characters who you feel could have their own comic. There's an epic battle in which 5 armies fight for London, and there are a few nice little jokey asides. I may not even have understood them all. I recognised one panel in which a meeting takes place at a pub in Preston and it doesn't seem to have much to do with anything but the plotters até all real people the artist knows. I even recognise one of them. Then there's a random mention of a servant girl called Diana who fancies King Charles the Third and has "ideas above her station". For some reason I missed that at the time but it's obviously supposed to be princess Diana in another reality. She was alive when if first came out of course. And look, now King Charles the Third is a real person. He's not quite the swashbuckling character as the book version though.
It has its weakness. All the mystical hippy bollocks is a bit overdone, and the ending is a bit abrupt, and in a fair world I'd probably make this a four star review but I don't care, I'm fiving it anyway.
It has its weakness. All the mystical hippy bollocks is a bit overdone, and the ending is a bit abrupt, and in a fair world I'd probably make this a four star review but I don't care, I'm fiving it anyway.
At a certain point every British comic artist becomes convinced that sex is magic(k) and that extended descriptions of drug trips are fascinating. Alas, they are rarely correct in this belief.
He visto setas con un sentido del ritmo más acusado que esta historia. O con algo de ritmo simplemente. La idea está bien, pero el desarrollo es bastante aburrido. Abandonado tras un tercio.
Excellent. Very reminiscent of V for Vendetta and Moore’s Swamp Thing in it’s formal experimentation and dense gonzo science fiction (although also in its unfortunate interest in sexual perversion and mushy grab bag Golden Bough mysticism). Clearly an underacknowledged influence on and classic of British comics. Talbot uses the multiverse concept to better ends than anyone has seemed to have done recently- tangling itself in oversignifying images of British identity and asking if there is any intrinsic meaning to them.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Bryan Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright is a formative influence on me—all of my ideas about storytelling and worldbuilding probably have a bit of this comic in them. I first read it as the original run was being completed at the end of the 80s, and then re-read it as a collected paperback, perhaps twenty years ago. I've just re-read it in order to re-appraise myself of the plot, preparatory to reading The Legend of Luther Arkwright. I've owned that (the second sequel) since it came out in 2022, but I've delayed reading it until I could dig its predecessors out of the enormous pile in which my books were stored until recently.
My return to the source, to Talbot's first writer-artist masterpiece, invited obvious comparisons to his Grandville series, since I've read those books quite recently. They're quite a different kettle of fish in narrative terms, but certainly illustrative of his development as an artist. Talbot uses a fine, detailed, pen-and-ink style, which often resembles copper-plate engraving, and combines it with a wonderfully inventive, imaginative approach to worldbuilding and design. He first became well-known for his work in 2000AD on Nemesis the Warlock, and the style of Luther Arkwright is very recognisable to the reader weaned on those comics, as I was. Grandville takes that general stylistic approach, and realises it with breathtaking skill, and incredible dynamism. In Arkwright it's something of a work in progress. The drawing and layouts are beautiful, and the design work he brings to his febrile, steampunk imaginings is incredible. However, this is the kind of artwork that tends to stop the reader in their tracks rather than flinging them on through the story. Often this is simply because there's a great deal of content on each page—you need to read it closely to absorb all the information that constitutes the story. Equally often, it's because the art is so striking that you want to stop and look at it—in contemporary commercial comics it's often the case that only the big double-page spreads have that level of detail, as the medium has established techniques for balancing illustrative gorgeousness and narrative impetus. In Arkwright every page is a rich feast of detail and symbolism. Also, at this stage in his career, Talbot had not yet learned how to draw in this way with the freedom and intensity he brought to the Grandville books. Instead, there is often a monumental quality to his pen-work—action scenes can appear frozen in place, with no clear path from their immediate past to their future.
This isn't really a great obstacle to the story, as Talbot's narrative is a baroque complexity of myth and symbol, which invites the reader to stop and chew on it at every turn. He takes a whole mess of Western Hermeticism, Buddhist mysticism, New Age millennialism, and Moorcockian relativism, and stirs it all up into a wonderfully rich stew of science-fantasy multiversal worldbuilding. Luther Arkwright himself is a messianic figure, a genetic psi-warrior gone rogue, who achieves transcendence in the torture chambers of a Cromwellian regime in a parallel twentieth century where the English Civil Wars have been ongoing since the 1640s. There are clear parallels to the work of Michael Moorcock, who wrote the preface to this collected edition, but really Talbot just takes the idea of the multiverse, and of the pale, 1960s rockstar-inspired hero, and runs with it down his own very particular alleyway. Along the way he produces the first really coherent visual steampunk milieu that I'm aware of (Moorcock having been one of the first writers to concatenate the ingredients of that sub-genre in prose), and makes an incredibly powerful, if subtle and oblique argument for peace and love. I wasn't sure how much of an apprentice-piece this would seem, returning to it after so many years, but for me, it's a very completely achieved work. It's hard to imagine how Talbot could have decided to embark on something so ambitious in 1978, when the first episode was published, but he did, and wow. It's very entertaining, if you can get a handle on its intentions, and is full of fan-service and wish-fulfilment, but only if you happen to share a lot of Talbot's background, in terms of the hippy-mystical milieu from which this book emerges. It will probably be baffling to a lot of younger readers, but I hope the sheer depth and detail of its construction will make a richly intriguing meal, even if most of the references don't land explicitly. If they do land, then it's a beautiful mindfuck.
My return to the source, to Talbot's first writer-artist masterpiece, invited obvious comparisons to his Grandville series, since I've read those books quite recently. They're quite a different kettle of fish in narrative terms, but certainly illustrative of his development as an artist. Talbot uses a fine, detailed, pen-and-ink style, which often resembles copper-plate engraving, and combines it with a wonderfully inventive, imaginative approach to worldbuilding and design. He first became well-known for his work in 2000AD on Nemesis the Warlock, and the style of Luther Arkwright is very recognisable to the reader weaned on those comics, as I was. Grandville takes that general stylistic approach, and realises it with breathtaking skill, and incredible dynamism. In Arkwright it's something of a work in progress. The drawing and layouts are beautiful, and the design work he brings to his febrile, steampunk imaginings is incredible. However, this is the kind of artwork that tends to stop the reader in their tracks rather than flinging them on through the story. Often this is simply because there's a great deal of content on each page—you need to read it closely to absorb all the information that constitutes the story. Equally often, it's because the art is so striking that you want to stop and look at it—in contemporary commercial comics it's often the case that only the big double-page spreads have that level of detail, as the medium has established techniques for balancing illustrative gorgeousness and narrative impetus. In Arkwright every page is a rich feast of detail and symbolism. Also, at this stage in his career, Talbot had not yet learned how to draw in this way with the freedom and intensity he brought to the Grandville books. Instead, there is often a monumental quality to his pen-work—action scenes can appear frozen in place, with no clear path from their immediate past to their future.
This isn't really a great obstacle to the story, as Talbot's narrative is a baroque complexity of myth and symbol, which invites the reader to stop and chew on it at every turn. He takes a whole mess of Western Hermeticism, Buddhist mysticism, New Age millennialism, and Moorcockian relativism, and stirs it all up into a wonderfully rich stew of science-fantasy multiversal worldbuilding. Luther Arkwright himself is a messianic figure, a genetic psi-warrior gone rogue, who achieves transcendence in the torture chambers of a Cromwellian regime in a parallel twentieth century where the English Civil Wars have been ongoing since the 1640s. There are clear parallels to the work of Michael Moorcock, who wrote the preface to this collected edition, but really Talbot just takes the idea of the multiverse, and of the pale, 1960s rockstar-inspired hero, and runs with it down his own very particular alleyway. Along the way he produces the first really coherent visual steampunk milieu that I'm aware of (Moorcock having been one of the first writers to concatenate the ingredients of that sub-genre in prose), and makes an incredibly powerful, if subtle and oblique argument for peace and love. I wasn't sure how much of an apprentice-piece this would seem, returning to it after so many years, but for me, it's a very completely achieved work. It's hard to imagine how Talbot could have decided to embark on something so ambitious in 1978, when the first episode was published, but he did, and wow. It's very entertaining, if you can get a handle on its intentions, and is full of fan-service and wish-fulfilment, but only if you happen to share a lot of Talbot's background, in terms of the hippy-mystical milieu from which this book emerges. It will probably be baffling to a lot of younger readers, but I hope the sheer depth and detail of its construction will make a richly intriguing meal, even if most of the references don't land explicitly. If they do land, then it's a beautiful mindfuck.
That was like a fever dream. The extra star is solely for David Tennant's narration.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Hay que esforzarse o tomar muchas drogas para entender este cómic. Pero si haces el esfuerzo, encuentras uno de los cómics más originales que habrás leído. Así que merece la pena el esfuerzo.
There are no words to describe this book. At all. I don't even like graphic novels, but I'm on the hunt to buy this one. Seriously. @_@ My knowledge of history and the layout of London really helped me with this book.
I have the audio book, but I'd love the graphic novel!
I have the audio book, but I'd love the graphic novel!
Often needlessly male gazey and a little cultural appropriation-happy, but still a fun counterculture superhero story. Bridges the gap between Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius and Grant Morrison's The Invisibles. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2021/02/15/puritans-purges-and-parallel-worlds/