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Underground > Comic Books >

Kingdom of the Wicked.

19:00 / 15.01.05

I should start off by saying that I'm biased. I think Matt Brooker - D'israeli - is a genius artist. I've not yet seen anything of his that wasn't just right. A combination of excellent designs and comic story telling technigues, a mixture of the strange and the familiar, he's just grrrreat. And whilst I'm not familiar with everything that Ian Edginton has written what I have read has had fun ideas, wide scope, and interesting characters. Which is all I really look for in a comic.

So I'm almost genetically predisposed to enjoy 'Kingdom if the Wicked' the first extended collaboration between Edginton and D'israeli, but I think it will have wider appeal. It's a simple horror/fantasy tale about a childrens writer finding himself trapped in the fantasy world he created as a sickly child. In the two decades that have elpased since he wandered the storybook lanes war has come to this enchanted kingdom. Blood, mud, and a very familiar evil...

To say more would spoil the story. All I will say is that anyone who has seen the earlier editions, with the Black and white art, should still check out the recent Dark Horse reprint. In colour it's a revelation, a wonderful tale which I believe will appeal to people beyond the comic ghetto. And the Dark Horse hardback it a lovely thing, similar in style to their edition of 'Scarlet Traces' from the same team. In fact with 'Scarlet Traces' and their 'Leviathon' (serialised in 2000 A.D. 18 moths ago) these two are a very strong team that I want to see more from. I know they're working on Traces II but I'd welcome anything they did in any genre.

Recommended.

22:25 / 15.01.05

I never read this when it came out, but will keep an eye out 'cos I really enjoyed D'Israli's colour work in Scarlet Traces...

For the curious, aside from providing the script for Scarlet Traces, Ian Edginton has also worked on some titles for CrossGen and on the DC/Wildstorm series The Establishment - a fun series that took a wide range of british popular culture and attempted to weave it together.

Haus of Mystery

11:11 / 16.01.05

Gotta second the D'israeli big up - such a brilliant and underrated artist. I have fond memories of 'Fatal Charm' in Deadline from when I was a teen. Did the same team do 'Leviathan' in 2000ad? How was it?

15:05 / 16.01.05

Leviathon was a belter of a tale. Distinctive and different from the rest of the progs line-up at the time. It suffered a bit because Edginton and D'israelis penchant for cameos in the art and story for characters from other fictions became a little intrusive in places but I believe this is being partly rectified for the upcoming European style hardnack from Rebellion, which will be more of a directors cut than a straight reprint, apparantly. Certainly anyone who's read 'Scarlet Traces' or 'Kingdom of the Wicked' will find much to enjoy in Leviathon.

It was, again, perhaps a slight story but told well with a strong characters and interesting developments. If anything it suffered from being too short, I could happily have followed it for 6 months or so, and think the story could have easily have been expanded. But it looked like nothing else, lovely artwork with a sort of negative glow about it that works so well in the context of the story being told. And some of the design work on it must rank amongst the very best I've seen in comics recently, perhaps ever.

Sad story, I e-mailed D'israeli about the story and we got into a conversation about how the look was achieved. I used the term 'negative glow' and he said he liked it. He later used it in an interview and said I'd coined the tale but got my name wrong...gutted.

15:06 / 16.01.05

Cheers Sleazenation, nice to have something of an idea what to look for Edginton wise. I'm looking forward to the 'supernatural western' he's written for 2000 A.D. with eager anticipation.

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

07:06 / 17.01.05

Scarlet Traces was great - I seem to recall Ian's early work was on Malibu/Ultraverse stuff, plus some Marvel UK, but it wasn't until later that he really got into his stride.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:10 / 17.01.05

Cool!

I only ever read the first issue of KotW, but I seem to remember it being very good indeed. (I think it was one of those where I read the first one, thought "This is good. I'll wait for the trade" and then waited for several years until I gave up on it.)