Jason Cobley

If there are any awards being given for Best New Publisher this year then based on their early output I would like to nominate Print Media Productions. I really shouldn't need much more evidence than their second publication, the totally brilliant Mirabilis - Year Of Wonders: Winter Volume 1 (one of my favourite books of 2011). The company's debut publication (The Iron Moon by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page) makes another great piece of evidence for this nomination, but if the prize wasn't already in the bag then surely it must be now, following the January release of their third book, Frontier: Dealing With Demons by Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman.

Frontier is another story that first saw the light of day as part of The DFC, the weekly comic that was published by Random House back in 2008/2009. David Fickling Books has since published some of those stories in hardcover collections (Mezolith, Monkey Nuts, Mo-Bot High, etc) and now Print Media are joining them. Both companies are treating these stories with the reverence they deserve - beautifully presented hardcover large-format editions, with high quality printing on high quality stock. My heart pretty much leapt when I first opened Frontier and my eyes took in the stunning artwork of Andrew Wildman.

Set in the Wild West (and this West is wilder than many you will have seen before) Frontier: Dealing With Demons introduces us to Sheriff Mitch Seeker and Daisy Adams, a young orphan girl. In an ideal world their paths would never have crossed, but a bandit called Hallam Brook shattered their respective worlds by murdering Daisy's parents and Mitch's father, and now both are hunting him down in order to get their revenge. The back story of how the duo first met is presented in the form of a diary (supposedly found amongst a hoard of old documents discovered in an old shack in a ghost town), and straight away we are given a sense that this is not the Old West that we know from John Wayne or Sergio Leone films (at least I don;t remember a glowing, moving skeleton in any of those movies).

The strangeness of their world becomes even more apparent as the comic format part of the story starts, with Mitch and Daisy pursuing a member of the Brooks Gang into a corn field that suddenly comes to life, a snippet of Daisy's diary telling us "The year is 1866. We're in Kansas, in the middle of what I call the Weird Wild West". It seems that every time that the pair get close to catching a member of the Brooks Gang something weird happens, as if the gang, or Hallam Brooks is somehow leaving a trail of supernatural weirdness behind them. As a result of this, as Daisy and Mitch continue their journey they find themselves up against werewolves, cave spirits (that consume human fat), and even a walking, talking cactus-monster-thing. This is True Grit meets Supernatural, and given the right amount of exposure Frontier could be the thing that makes Westerns cool again.

As the wordsmith, Jason Cobley masterfully spins a story that will have readers of all ages thirsting for more, and it is perfectly complimented by Wildman's stunning artwork. This is certainly not the case of the story being the poor relation to the illustrations as can happen in comics from time to time. Yes, it is the artwork that first caught my eye and made my heart soar, but the story is so good that an immediate second reading was called for. It has everything - great characters, a fast-paced plot, some cracking set pieces and a particularly nasty villain. I challenge anyone who reads this not to immediately pre-order the sequel (we are informed that Book 2, The Infernal Express, is coming soon).… (plus d'informations)

There is so much about Frankenstein and its place in literature that I would need to know to fully appreciate the novel, but my God, reading it is a dreary business.

Dreariness and comics, though, are no strangers, and this graphic version of Frankenstein works well. The selected fragments of the original prose flow nicely, with the suitably gloomy illustrations amply filling in for the missing text. It does suffer from one comic book trait: every fourth word or so is inexplicably bolded, making Shelley's already overwrought prose seem even more so.… (plus d'informations)

Frankenstein tells the story of a scientist named Victor who creates a creature from dead body parts. He is horrified by his creation and abandons it. The creature is not well received by those he meets and is often greeted with violence. The creature starts to kill those close to Victor for revenge.

This graphic novel is a fairly well done adaptation of the novel of the same name, so a lot of the themes are still there. It leaves out a minimal amount of story. The only thing that stands out to me is the omission of the books the creature uses to learn about humans and society. This does eliminate the themes that deal with the revolution happening in France during the time this novel was penned, but that shouldn’t matter for secondary ed. purposes.

Personally, I thought that this graphic novel was a very well done adaptation of the novel. The illustrations were very well done, and the color scheme was excellent. It is rather on the short side. For a good reader, 15 minutes is plenty enough time to finish the graphic novel. It could stand to be a little longer and include a little more meat, but it works as is.… (plus d'informations)