Pete’s Pup was the antithesis of all those funny pet strips in comics when I was growing up. Even Gnasher had nothing on the gigantic, destructive, flea-ridden and yet completely loveable (for the readers at least, not his owner’s dad) dog of some far-fetched, unknown breed that made us laugh so much. In my memory he’d been a regular character but in reality only appeared in early issues, their strips staying with me for decades.
Jim Needle’s scratchy art perfectly brought this monstrous good boy to life. Jim was a superb cartoonist who was known for contributing to local newspapers and publications. His signature style was energetic and larger-than-life, much like his canine creation. “Jim came via Bob Paynter (IPC Magazine’s Group Editor of Humour),” says co-editor Patrick Gallagher. “Jim submitted Pete’s Pup to Bob on spec as a sample of his work and Bob thought it would be a good fit for OiNK, which we were currently developing. Bob was right! We loved the character and Jim’s style, and the rest is history!”
These crazy strips of Jim’s appeared in almost all of the very earliest issues of OiNK but by the time I started reading as a kid he’d already moved on. Thankfully, a couple of strips had been left in reserve by the comic’s editors for the first Holiday Special and appropriately enough the Big Soft Pets Issue, #27. While I did eventually get a couple of back issues from a cousin, those two issues and the reprint of the preview issue’s strip in the second annual were all I originally saw of the mangy mutt.
When I came to collecting OiNK as an adult for the blog I was surprised to find the strip only appeared nine times, even more shocked to see I’d missed most of these first time around. They instantly brought back happy memories, this monstrous shaggy pile of ever-shedding fur must’ve made quite the impact on my young self for him to stay planted in my memory that way. Physically, he definitely did so for the family he lived with!
A resident of Jericho in Oxford, England, Jim’s work could often be found in frames on the walls of the local offices and pubs and at one point he worked as a stage hand at the New Theatre, Oxford, the theatre life running in his family’s blood. His local newspaper, the Jericho Echo, commissioned him to draw a panorama of the town’s streets which can still be found near the top of every page of Jericho Online. Unfortunately, as they themselves explain, “Reproduction at this size unfortunately gives only an impression of the detailed quality of the original – another testimony to Jim’s great skill and versatility.”
Jim sadly passed away in the early months of 1997 and it is with sadness that I add another name to OiNK’s obituaries. The Echo newspaper, in its own write-up about Jim described him as “a big man, in every way, and will be greatly missed.” It sounds to me like he may have been just as big a character as the one he created, one that brought so much fun to pig pals all those years ago.
We reach the halfway point of this five-part series of posts detailing every single page of the Ring Raiders licensee folder, a style guide for the whole franchise. The introductions are out of the way, you should all be up to speed with the intentions behind this new toy range and familiar with the background story and all of its far-reaching potential, and last month we saw the leaders of the eight Ring Raiders Wings and their respective high-tech airplanes.
Now it’s time for the flip side of the coin, it’s time to meet the baddies. In the story the Skull Squadron formed first, the Raiders doing so in response to the threat posed throughout all of time by this army of evil. They were led by Scorch and interestingly we find out that severe burns cover his arm but I’m assuming what we see here is part of his flight suit. I assume they also cover at least part of the same side of his face under that mask, mirrored by the flame design being on one side of his aircraft.
So these injuries must’ve happened after the Raiders were formed, or perhaps he and Victor Vector were enemies (or even friends?) in their previous lives. Unfortunately the comic didn’t last long enough for us to get any more depth to this origin story, in fact this is the only time I’ve seen it mentioned. Some interesting details about his Viggen Scorch’s Torch too, such as the real plane being the first to ever include two sets of wings.
More consistently successful in his evil plans than the Decepticon, Chiller was everything Starscream wished he was
Alongside Scorch is his own version of Starscream, in a way. Although much more consistently successful in his evil plans than the Decepticon, Chiller was everything Starscream wished he was as a second-in-command. He also had some particularly brutal moments in the comic, particularly in his origin story. Was this the secret mentioned here? His plane was a favourite too, but I think that was probably because I loved the character in the comic so much. His F-104 Ice Machine also made for a fantastic Ian Kennedy cover to the Ring Raiders Special.
Hubbub and his Mirage III Zapmaster had starring roles in one of the first serials in the comic and while I wasn’t a fan of the handful of cartoon episodes released I do remember his character making me laugh upon occasion, his outspoken nature producing some awkward moments in the Skulls’ HQ. In the comic he’s just as chaotic as his profile makes him out to be.
Both Hubbub and Mako are perfect examples of what the comic did so well. Unlike the cartoon which (arrogantly, in my opinion) made up their own versions of these characters, comic editor Barrie Tomlinson and his team never contradicted what was set up by the original creators. They embellished, they added more depth, they developed their personas, but they clearly began with what was already established in the toys.
We never did get to see the chaos Hubbub’s impressions could’ve caused, but readers were treated to the Mig-29 Sea Hunter’s underwater capabilities, even if it was still a mystery to the Ring Raiders themselves. As a child a certain image of this was a particularly strong one, resulting in that poor toy being dunked in many a bath or bowl. The CADS system mentioned is also based on a real life radar system which was brand new and partially still in development at the time.
The first of two characters who never made it into the toy line is up next.
I know we’ve had some clichéd characters in this folder already but Shooter surely takes the medal. I doubt even the excellent comic team would’ve been able to save this one. The only saving grace for him is his plane. The A-10 featured in some of the other Wings throughout the toy range but this particular one, with its Airwolf-like boosters and fun gun design on the wings could’ve been a favourite if it’d actually been made by Matchbox.
Blackjack was a vicious character superbly written by Angus Allan in the comic
Someone who’s plane I definitely owned was Blackjack, his Harrier’s vertical take off and landing wowing me from the first moment I saw one in Bond movie The Living Daylights a year or so before Ring Raiders. After that I made sure to add his Wing quickly to my collection once I began buying them. Blackjack was a vicious character superbly written by Angus Allan in the comic’s epic 11-part Trackdown story, the character quickly becoming a favourite too.
Interestingly, the Battle Bird‘s fact-file is all about its nighttime capabilities but in the comic the main attribute that set it apart from other military Harriers was Blackjack’s ability to fly it remotely. There’s no mention of that here, not until we turn the page to the last of our characters who never appeared in the toy line (or the comic).
As you can see Cutthroat’s unbelievably fast F-19A Bayonet can be controlled remotely and actually has a reason as to why this was installed. Two reasons if you count the fact that the pilot is a spy and described as even more deadly on the ground. (Imagine an evil spy with that as their key gadget!) I made a point above that the comic kept to the details here and elaborated on them. Could this have been an error then, attributing an ability of one aircraft to another? It didn’t matter, as kids none of us knew anything about the Bayonet or Cutthroat.
Finally there’s my favourite Skull Squadron pilot and plane, which I got alongside Yasuo Yakamura’s X-29 Samurai Flyer (see last time) in a special two-plane Starter Pack, beginning my obsession with all things Ring Raiders as a child. I love the possible theories of Wraither’s origin, something the comic never got to explore before it was prematurely cancelled, although we did get some hints about how the P-51 Galloping Ghoul was able to disappear and reappear the way it did. More than any of the others, Yasuo and Wraither bring back a warm, fuzzy feeling when thinking about how much I loved these toys, so it’s appropriate this part of the folder ends with one of them.
Don’t forget the Ring Raiders themselves, and their associated profiles and Pantone colours, have already been covered in part two. As much as I’ve enjoyed reliving these characters and planes though, I’m even more excited to show you what’s next in this folder. The Product Art Reference section will show us a really fun and imaginative array of designs for potential merchandise.
As a fan I fell in love with some of the designs in the next section, imagining how many of them I’d have owned as a child if the franchise had been a success. You’ll get to see all of them, from clothes to lamps, from laundry baskets to roller skates! Then there’s a selection of icon designs for each of the Wing Commanders and their aircraft too. I can’t wait to show the next pages to fellow fans on Saturday 13th April 2024.
This month’s strip may have an extra page. It may end on a splash page of the whole team pledging they’ll never stop fighting injustice. The cover may be a special painted one by Geoff Senior (Steel does look a bit like an alien panther, although if he were it’d fit his personality). The story may be called End of the Road. However, there’s no editorial mention that this is the final issue of Dragon’s Claws.
While the story makes it pretty clear this is the end, how clear it would’ve been to a much, much younger me at the time, I do not know. The comic was devised as an ongoing title and there had even been a subscription offer in the early issues, so I’m just a little surprised there isn’t even a small note about its cancellation. It was mentioned in the pages of Transformers, I remember that.
I mustn’t quibble. It’s now 2024 and I knew this moment was coming, as much as I didn’t want it to. End of the Road begins with this thrilling opening of a hijacked chemical waste transporter with both Dragon and Deller attempting a rescue. It appears after everything that happened last time they’re at least trying to work together. The tension between them does make for some funny dialogue here and there, reminding me of some of the best buddy cop movies of the 80s.
Elsewhere, in Switzerland, we see Ambassador Golding fresh from his ordeal in the last couple of issues and standing up for the Claws at the headquarters of the World Development Council. Isolated amongst snowy peaks, their clear separation from the people they’re meant to serve is echoed by the way their chambers of power tower over anyone wishing to speak with them. On this occasion, Golding is here to plead the case for the innocence of the Game team.
Clearly just as corrupt as modern day governments, all they’re concerned about is saving their own backsides. Golding becomes enraged with them at one point in this issue and I’ve really grown to like the character, one that I assumed was just a one-off hostage to be rescued back in #4. On a side note, at one point the chairman addresses the entire board as “gentlemen”. Sigh. Not one single woman anywhere to be seen. No wonder the world is falling apart, we clearly haven’t learned any lessons from the past.
We jump about some more and head off to Havana in Cuba a few hours earlier to catch up with Tanya, her father and Michael, her son (and Dragon’s adoptive son) and they’re still hostages of ex-Game team Shrine. Kurran is leading his team on supposed holy missions to weed out evil, but in actual fact it’s all a front for death, destruction and getting rich. Still believing Tanya’s family to be related to Deller, who paid Kurran’s brother’s team to attack Dragon in #1 (resulting in his death), Tanya finally lets the truth slip to one of the more rational Shrine members.
I’m very happy to see I wasn’t wrong about this story arc being the focus of the final issue, as they deserve a proper ending unlike some of the smaller arcs which were concluded off-page last time. The hijacker of the chemical waste transport pops up here too, hired by Kurran to smuggle a defector out of the country to safety and at this point we return to the battle to regain control. We also check in on Golding’s speech to the council, including a specific example of the Claws’ good work.
Anyway, back on the road and Dragon and Deller’s working relationship (if we can call it that) is so enjoyable it breaks my heart to know we won’t get any more of this! It feels like such an 80s action flick again, just like those first two issues did, especially Deller’s very 80s-action-man one-liner in the midst of the action. This is a blast! Finally for this scene, our unnamed court jester looks like he’s about to dispose of the defector, but instead just plops a clown nose on him. Another character I’m left wanting to have seen more of.
Holden, the defector, seems to have gone to the wrong person to get him safely out of the country and he soon realises his error; upon finding out it was Dragon that saved him he gladly tells him all about Shrine, Tanya, Michael and where to find them. We now flash forward to the team arriving in full force upon Shrine’s base, the arrival of their craft The Pig sending Kurran into a panic and ordering Strength to eliminate all of ‘Deller’s’ family.
Now fully aware of who they really are, Strength sees to their escape instead but Tanya hands Michael to her father and tells Strength to get them to the ship. In keeping with her character she knows the full force of Dragon’s Claws are about to come down hard on the place and she won’t have anyone die because of her, not even those who kidnapped her family.
All hell breaks loose, Dragon crashing through doors all guns blazing and it looks like Tanya’s unhappy prediction is coming true. Was she right about Dragon’s wish to win at all costs? When push comes to shove would he let her down, even as he rescues her? Will his emotions get in the way of justice? Actually, no. While things start off as a typical action movie climax, the usual body count never happens.
Writer Simon Furman is clearly trying to leave readers exhausted after an incredible ten months
Instead, the team incapacitate each member of Shrine, one by one, then picking them up and getting them to safety so they can face justice and jail. But upon crashing through one of those doors, Dragon accidentally knocks over a flaming torch, setting fire to drapes nearby and soon the entire complex is burning, ready to come down at a moment’s notice. Just as they’re about to go after Kurran himself (Dragon’s instructions being to shoot to wound only) Tanya screams at them all to stop!
She shouts at the whole team, their storming in has caused the fire and stopped Michael and her father getting to safety. These are the consequences of Dragon’s actions, something she’s been trying to get through to him since the very beginning of the comic. Writer Simon Furman is really cranking up the tension in this issue, clearly trying to leave readers exhausted after an incredible ten months. As Dragon rushes off to find Michael, we quickly check in on Deller. Is he really a reformed member of the team after his heroics over the last few months?
That would be a ‘no’. Rationally speaking, this was always going to be the outcome here, wasn’t it? Deller couldn’t have Dragon finding out he was responsible for everything that happened in #1, and for everything that Dragon, Tanya and Michael have gone through since. But I was so swept up in the story, and in what I thought was Deller’s redemption, that this was a genuinely shocking moment. To see Deller in the final page of the story (see below) as part of the team just heightens that feeling of loss, because this could’ve made for some brilliantly tense story arcs in future issues.
I’d never read a single issue of the comic before this read through. I’d no idea what to expect, I just knew I was a big fan of the creative team behind it
Then as if that wasn’t enough, tragedy strikes. For a second I thought it was Michael who got killed by the falling beam but a closer glance sees him safe in Dragon’s arms. There’s very little in the way of dialogue and no captions on this particular page but it doesn’t need them. Geoff Senior’s art is dramatic enough. Heightened by Steve White’s colours, it’s the final shocking twist of not just this chapter but the whole comic.
I’ll get back to the final few pages of the strip in a second. First, the only extra feature in this issue is Scavenger’s fact file. For the most mysterious of the team there’s little here needing answers in further stories. I do love the little mentions of how the world at large has changed (mention of ‘the Austro-Zealand crosslands’) and I would’ve loved to have seen a story based on The Tunnel Wars. The rest we’ve actually seen already. (I guess very little was known about him after all!)
However, I wanted to finish the review with the final splash page of the strip, so back to the last pages of the story we go and Tanya has run off, never to be seen again. Back at Dragon’s Nest, Golding confirms the W.D.C. has agreed to let the Claws continue the work they were doing above and beyond (and in spite of) Matron’s orders, with Golding now as their direct supervisor, and in exchange the W.D.C. will use their resources to track Tanya down. It’s kind of like the situation with Archangel overlooking the crew of the Airwolf working for The F.I.R.M.
In that 80s action show Stringfellow Hawke recovered the stolen Airwolf helicopter but kept it until The F.I.R.M. could locate his M.I.A. brother, working on covert missions for Archangel in the meantime. This all adds up to this final Dragon’s Claws chapter feeling like a new beginning, almost as if the ten issues were one long origin story. Of course, if the comic had continued indefinitely this ten-issue arc may have gone on much longer, but as it stands now it feels as if everything is finally in place, that it was all leading to this moment and the tales of Dragon’s Claws can really begin away from readers’ eyes.
“Dragon’s Claws were reactivated to bring order to chaos, to make this rotten world a better place for children”
Dragon
So a very open ending then. I’d never read a single issue of the comic before this read through. I’d no idea what to expect, I just knew I was a big fan of the creative team behind it. I wasn’t let down. This has been an incredible series and I can see why it’s still held in such high regard today. I can confirm after reading it now, even without any form of rose-tinted glasses fans may have, that I’d highly recommend it to anyone. Each issue usually goes for a few quid on eBay so it won’t cost you the Earth and they’ll be worth every single penny. So long Claws, it’s been an absolute hoot.
This advertisement seemed to take up permanent residence in many of the comics I collected at the time. Even though the first issue of The Sleeze Brothers wasn’t released until June 1989 this teaser saw print from the end of 1988 onwards, and since it appeared in weekly comics (for me in the pages of Transformers and The Real Ghostbusters) we saw it a lot!
With no information to go on apart from a ‘Blues Brothers’ feeling to it I remember eventually thinking, “Alright, enough! Just tell us what this is all about!”. However, it worked. At the end of June the aforementioned comics ran their regular Mighty Marvel Checklist and finally there it was, the big promotion in the range for that week was for the first issue of a comic I’d almost given up on ever appearing (like the William Tell fortnightly the year before).
As you can see it was always intended as a six-issue series, which the comic’s editor Richard Starkings confirmed when I spoke with him recently. What struck me the most as a kid were the two names mentioned in the credits, ‘Carnell’ and ‘Lanning’, namely writer John Carnell and artist Andy Lanning whose work I was loving on a regular basis in the Ghostbusters comic. I was sold and that week my pocket money went on the premiere issue.
I have a distinct memory of being in my Aunt May’s house (who I’ve mentioned before on the blog) and giggling away at the antics of El’ Ape and Deadbeat, the distinctly offbeat story, their awfulness at any form of actual detective work and the gorgeously drawn future world in which they lived. I’m really looking forward to rereading #1 for the first time since 1989. This cover is already bringing back some very happy memories.
At the time it confused me as to why it didn’t have the usual Marvel box in the top corner, but now I know better. Epic Comics was an imprint of Marvel, run by editor Archie Goodwin in the States before crossing over here. It began life as a creator-owned anthology comic called Epic Illustrated (a mini-series revival of which would star The Sleeze Brothers after their comic finished). Commissioned by Richard, The Sleeze Brothers were originally to be a Marvel series before Archie proposed keeping it creator-owned under Epic.
“The Sleeze Brothers was almost impossibly difficult to get approved,” Richard tells me. “All of those books (Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head) were new territory for Marvel UK. I had launched The Real Ghostbusters very successfully and had earned a lot of trust with my bosses, Jenny O’Connor [Managing Editor] and RobertSutherland [Managing Director], and all I wanted to do was original material, which was considered very expensive. Sleeze maybe sold 30-60,000 and considered a flop then. It would be a massive success today.”
As a child, The Sleeze Brothers was one of those comics I was destined to read only one issue of
A second comic strip advert (by John and Andy) was created closer to the release of the first issue. Below you can see it taken from the back cover of Death’s Head #5 from March 1989 (well before launch!), although I don’t remember seeing it in my own comics until I’d already got my hands on #1 for myself. These strip ads were a regular occurrence around this time, Richard learning from creating The Real Ghostbusters comic that they could tell a story in one page. We’ve already seen examples of these on the blog for Dragon’s Claws, Death’s Head, Transformers, Doctor Who Magazineand even Flintstones and Friends.
As a child, The Sleeze Brothers was one of those comics I was destined to read only one issue of. As I’ve mentioned before I was allowed a certain amount of comics on order at the newsagents at any one time, and my list was full. So the Brothers were purchased with pocket money and, like Death’s Head before them, I just never got around to buying any more, my money going on a huge variety of comics from week-to-week and I had a short attention span. Hey, I was young!
“Come on, it was a Blues Brothers rip-off!”
Richard Starkings, editor
El’ Ape and Deadbeat Sleeze are clearly modelled on Jake and Elwood from The Blues Brothers and just like the movie they have very distinct characteristics. El’ Ape is the short loudmouth, the forthright and in-charge brother of the investigative duo. He’s street smart, though somewhat lacking in any other form of smarts. The taller Deadbeat is the quieter brother who may not say an awful lot but who makes up for this with his ability to see things more logically.
Richard tells of a time when he wanted to reprint the series. “I wanted to recolour and reissue Sleeze through Image but then publisher Erik Larsen wasn’t interested. He thought it was a Blues Brothers rip-off. Which is was! Although Andy always protested that it was based on his cousins. Which it was! But come on, it was a Blues Brothers rip-off.”
The series ran for its originally proposed six monthly issues (although there was a larger gap between the fifth and sixth), one special and a back up strip in an issue of Richard’s Elephantmen. Thanks to our conversation I also found out there was a prologue. “We recoloured and re-lettered the prologue which was originally to run in Marvel Comics Presents as Death’s Head had previously,” says Richard. “But when Tom DeFalco [Marvel UK Editor-in-Chief] heard it had an Epic contract he nixed it, so I think it only ran in the trade.”
As you can see above I’ve now added said trade to my collection to round things off and we’re ready to go. As per usual I’m sticking with the format of this blog and reviewing each issue on the dates of their original releases. Online there doesn’t seem to be any consistency in those dates with most websites simply guessing from the months on the covers, but I’ve gone back to the source to find out for sure. I’ve flicked through all of the Transformers and The Real Ghostbusters comics from 1989 and checked all of the Mighty Marvel Checklists to ensure each issue is reviewed on the date lucky readers actually got their mitts on them.
But what about that Doctor Who Magazine popping its head above the collection there?
The only creator-owned characters to make the cover of Doctor Who Magazine according to Richard, The Sleeze Brothers made their debut in a strip called Follow That Tardis in #147, which you can see highlights of in the first Sleeze Brothers review on the OiNK Blog on Saturday 16th March 2024. I’ve had all the issues (apart from the trade) on my shelves for a few years now, since just before starting this blog in April 2021 in fact. It’s been a long, long wait but I never gave in to temptation.
So join me in eight days when the most insane Marvel UK series and the blog’s latest real time read through finally begins.
This striking John Higgins (Transformers, Batman: The Killing Joke, Before Watchmen) cover welcomes us to the fifth issue and, after reading it, the midway point of Marvel UK’s Death’s Head. When I collected together this run of comics I noticed a lot of crossovers with other Marvel characters on the covers, especially in the later issues. No, I never read anything inside (just counted the pages to make sure it was all there), but the covers do reveal a lot of who is to come.
I remember thinking it seemed there were an awful lot of what would normally be seen as ‘event’ stories, perhaps to raise the profile of the comic with potential readers, however I was surprised to see this issue has the first non-Dragon’s Claws crossover character. Okay, so he’s a minor character from one Doctor Who strip but it was still a nice surprise to see the Doctor mentioned again after he was so instrumental in Death’s Head’s own story.
Keepsake appeared in #140 of Doctor Who Magazine (August 1988) when a distress signal lured him to a planet where he originally just wanted to salvage the crashed ship for parts. Instead, he ended up enjoying the actual rescue thanks to working with the Doctor and at the end of the story the Doctor left the rescued medic, Bahlia, in Keepsake’s care. This is where we pick things up.
Oh, and he has a pet vulture who reminds him of his wife.
John drew Keepsake’s DWM adventure and is also the artist for our strip this month, coloured by Nick Abadzis and lettered by Annie Halfacree. You’ll see even more of John’s work soon because he was one of five(!) artists when The Sleeze Brothers made their Doctor Who Magazine debut. Watch out for that later this month. Back to the issue at hand and speaking of Keepsake’s wife it looks like she’s hiring a certain Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent to track him down, promising a somewhat large reward too.
Not that Death’s Head is easily swayed, of course. Meanwhile, Keepsake is meeting with gangsters looking for the second half of a map to the aforementioned gold shipment. Editor Richard Starkings told me, “‘Half the map’ was my idea, as was ‘half the gold’ in Death’s Head #5. Never waste a good gag.” Keepsake doesn’t come across as the smartest of scavengers and is easily double-crossed, so the men make off with both halves of said map.
Death’s Head is very much the lighter-hearted comic of the pair, while Dragon’s Claws can be much darker
After reading the penultimate issue of Dragon’s Claws the contrast between the two titles has never been clearer. Despite being created and written by the same person, and despite the fact this comic has the word “Death” in its title and follows someone whose job it is to kill people, Death’s Head is very much the lighter-hearted comic of the pair, while the one about a game team gone rogue can be much darker. Not what people may expect, and I’m here for it!
Case in point below, as we get a lot of exposition from Thea about how Colt (the gangster) and Keepsake had double-crossed each other in the past over this shipment (hence the two parts of the map) and a seemingly endless amount of further double-crosses involving Thea and her husband, leading to this point. Clearly, no one can be trusted. But it’s Death’s Head’s reaction to this intriguing story that made me laugh, never mind Keepsake’s pet sneakily sampling what they thought was Colt’s water.
With Keepsake easily cheated out of his piece of the map he sits about moping, making him an easy target for our Peace-Keeper, however first of all we get a funny interlude of some of the more rudimentary detective work our anti-hero has to do in order to find his targets. Remembering this is the same mechanoid who helped take down the giant Lord of Chaos Unicron just makes this sequence all the funnier, especially the last two panels; the question mark, the hint at the top of the penultimate panel and the final reveal.
This seems to be a trend in the comic, at least for what makes me laugh the most. Take his name, his appearance and his occupation and you’d expect something completely different than the situations writer Simon Furman consistently places him in.
Death’s Head catches up with the sullen Keepsake and calls in Thea to meet him at the bar, where he’s trying his best to ‘persuade’ his target. Just before this Thea saw Colt kidnap Bahlia outside, clearly as protection against the salvage expert as they dive for the treasure out at sea. It looks like Keepsake’s pet wasn’t much use as protection either.
Our strange little threesome (Spratt is conspicuous by his absence this month, perhaps still recovering from his ordeal last time) soon track down the gangsters not far from the shore in a tiny boat, Bahlia tied up and a gun held on her. At this point I thought Death’s Head would be going alone to take on everyone involved but I was pleasantly surprised to see his plan involved all three of them. I was even more pleasantly surprised to see how well they worked together.
While the old trick of sending in the attractive woman to distract three male idiots wasn’t exactly new even in the 80s, for me the jokes come from how Death’s Head and Thea handle the men after that. There’s one particular guy who won’t be forgetting the impact Thea makes (literally) for quite some time, I’m sure. It’s the perfect example of the comedy-action this comic does best and there’s more to come that genuinely had me giggling.
The first two panels really did have me laughing, the sight of Death’s Head’s daring rescue coming so completely undone so quickly
As they make their way out on a boat to rescue Bahlia and recover the gold, Keepsake hovers overhead in his aircraft, ready to assist. But one previously concealed rocket launcher lends a sinking feeling to the first part of their plan. The first two panels below really did have me laughing, the sight of Death’s Head’s daring rescue coming so completely undone so quickly, and this image of what the notorious hunter of bounties (I didn’t said it!) is reduced to is hilarious.
He then uses thrusters in the soles of his feet to blast off and use his body as a different form of rocket launcher, although clearly the end result wasn’t quite his intention.
So far it’s been a comedy of errors but it’s swung generously in his favour. As the man on the boat desperately seals the hole with pieces of wood and some form of foam glue he doesn’t see Bahlia being hoisted to safety, taking all of the gold with her. Below the surface Death’s Head subdues the remaining divers before taking off again with his feet… right through the patched up hole. So far, so funny, but the page below contains something which didn’t sit quite right with me.
Death’s Head has always honoured his contracts. This was the first of the rules he established in #1, rules he always abides by. They’re part of what makes him and his stories so interesting. Think about when he was fighting Dragon in #2 even though he respected the man. He kept fighting until the exact second his contract with the villain of the story ran out and then he just stopped. That was such a great part of that story and told us a lot about his character (this aspect had already been well established in Transformers). But here a quick whisper in his ear from Keepsake and he chucks his client out the side.
After this, Death’s Head then double-crosses Keepsake and ends up with all the gold himself. That I can live with since Keepsake was a snake and not his client, but Leah was. Even though he didn’t like her, this is so out of character that it undermines things already established in earlier issues. It’s a strange inclusion, that’s for sure.
Again, the cliffhanger is underwhelming as we see a group of apparent mercenaries called Sudden Impact being introduced and recalled from a firefight for “a vitally urgent job”. Last month’s final page introduced another man with a gun called Big Shot but there’s no sign of him this month. Are all of these clichéd, hyper-muscled alpha males going to team up against Death’s Head? I trust Simon’s writing but so far I’m not particularly impressed with these potential adversaries.
So another brilliant issue, even if it was let down a bit by the final couple of pages, but I won’t dwell on them. This feels almost like an interlude story of some kind, especially with the lack of Spratt. In an action-comedy comic series this one leaned more towards complete farce and I was fine with that (until the ending). Enjoyable but forgettable then. I still can’t wait for the next issue though. That’ll be right here on Monday 1st April 2024.
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