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Comic Reviews, Death's Head

DEATH’S HEAD #7: EXPLOSiVE SLAPSTiCK

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With an increase of 5p on the cover price, Death’s Head #7 hit stores today back in 1989 with this Bryan Hitch and Mark Farmer cover, while inside I’m excited to see inking duties on Bryan’s pencils are actually by Jeff Anderson, whose work I loved so much in Marvel UK’s top-selling Transformers and this combination is just superb throughout. The comic is also still offering subscriptions for 12 months so clearly there was no sign yet that even those earliest of subscribers wouldn’t be getting all of their issues delivered. (Only three more to go after this one.)

A new colourist has joined the fray, namely Stuart Place who also coloured for the company’s The Real Ghostbusters, Action Force (G.I. Joe) and Transformers, most notably the fan-favourite Dinobot Hunt story in the early days of the comic. Steve White has also taken over as editor after Richard Starkings resigned. Poor Steve, we’ve already seen his name on the blog when he edited Visionaries but it didn’t last long because the subject matter flopped, he took over Havoc just before it got unceremoniously canned and the same is about to happen here. None were his fault obviously, and he is a simply incredible artist! Check out his Instagram and make sure you see his gorgeous colouring on Xenozoic Tales in Dark Horse’s Jurassic Park!

Shot by Both Sides (as ever written by Simon Furman with Annie Halfacree lettering) is a brilliant strip, one of my favourites of the run so far. The comedy comes thick and fast in the early pages. A robotic tour guide is telling passengers on a bus what they can see to their right and left when a crashing ship narrowly averts disaster but rips off the roof of the vehicle in the process. In response, the robot simply moves on with, “Um, well… above you, you can see…”.

It’s at this point we see the panel above and the ship in question is Death’s Head‘s, who seems to be having problems with the autopilot. I remember a friend of mine in school who was a particularly big fan and he’d often quote the “No, yes?” line when asked a question. The plot this time combines two previous cliffhangers from #4 and #6 and sees bounty hunter Big Shot and explosives expert Short Fuse both attempting to take out the Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent for their bosses.

These bosses are the previously featured Undertaker and new gangster Dead Cert, a cigar-chomping man with a horse’s head who unironically runs the city’s illegal sports gambling rings, including horse racing. In the first scene (the crashing ship one) we find out Big Shot had fired a high-powered missile at Death’s Head ship which had initiated the crash. But Short Fuse had also planted an explosion in the cargo hold. When it went off it lightened the craft enough for it to be successfully pulled up before it crashed into that bus.

Death’s Head puts both down to “cowboy builders” and doesn’t realise he was actually under attack. This forms the backbone of this month’s tale. Big Shot’s aim is to kill our anti-hero and double-cross Undertaker by taking over Death’s Head’s business, while Short Fuse just wants to do a good job for the person/horse who has hired him. However, they keep attempting to take out their target at the same time. While completely unaware of each other, each attempt is undone by the other’s, cancelling each other out in an increasingly funny series of events.

There’s a main bad guy mixed in here that acts as Death’s Head’s target for a job he and Spratt (good to see him back in the strip) have been hired to carry out. Called Photofit, he has a hi-tech suit which enables him to mimic anyone he comes in contact with. Think the T-1000 from Terminator 2, albeit a few years before that film was released. While the chase makes for an entertaining plot it’s really just a vehicle for the assassination attempts.

Eventually our lead clicks that something is going on as you can see below. I love the panel when he realises, his expression and the rain bouncing off his metallic face is all just perfectly realised. In the middle panel you can see how Short Fuse’s mistimed bomb blows Death’s Head backwards and away from Big Shot firing his bazooka-like weapon. He’d been in his sights but the explosion pushed the target out of the way and you can see the bazooka shell zooming harmlessly past.

Somehow this doesn’t get stale either, mainly thanks to the imagination on show in how these attempts fail and Death’s Head’s reactions. All the while the Photofit story continues and he disguises himself as a contestant on a game show where the prize is a trip out of the country, all paid for and through legitimate channels, the ultimate getaway right in plain sight.

Spratt accidentally ends up on the show itself and faces off against the disguised Photofit while Death’s Head tries to search the rest of the building for someone who could be anyone. All the while he’s getting attacked by unknown enemies. Unknown until Big Shot finally makes himself known. Sick of having his chances squandered he blasts Death’s Head through a wall, then stands over him, gun pointed at his head, ready to take the final shot… when another explosion knocks him off his feet and into waiting fists.

I had to laugh at that first panel! Well, our main character isn’t a bounty hunter after all, yes? Short Fuse is getting frustrated too. For once it was Big Shot who got in his way, so he resorts to desperate measures but his own incompetence results in nothing more than an explosion in mid-air that shoves the fighting duo through a wall and into the television studio. 

Just before this, Photofit makes himself known to Spratt because our unwitting contestant is actually winning the game. A gun held in the small of his back, he’s saved with the sudden arrival of our fighting duo and Photofit realises he’s defeated and must escape. He sees the perfect disguise right in front of him. Or it would be, if that disguise didn’t immediately place him the sights of an assassin.

So the magnetic bomb obviously doesn’t stick to the very human imposter and in a shocking move it not only blows him up but Short Fuse as well! Okay, yes, he’s been trying to blow up Death’s Head but the very violent slapstick comedy he’s brought to the issue has been hilarious and I’m genuinely sorry to see him killed off. Despite being a hired killer there was something loveable about the little man. However, even in death he manages to thwart Big Shot one final time and save the mechanoid they’d both been hired to kill. 

As the story ends Spratt and Death’s Head converse over how it was strange that things kept exploding around them, reminding the readers that the duo never even knew of Short Fuse’s existence, never mind his influence on events (and their lives). They don’t seem to care why those explosions kept happening and instead only hope there’s enough left of their target so that they can prove they’ve earned their money!

It’s a suitably funny conclusion for these two, playing down the events and simply moving on. In their position it’s probably the healthiest way to be but that’s not the point. The point is that they’re very funny together and obviously the perfect match, something even Death’s Head seems to have finally acknowledged. These two are so well written, their actions and dialogue so natural that you have to step back to remember how far-fetched the whole scenario behind the comic is.

I’ve really enjoyed Simon’s writing in Transformers and Dragon’s Claws but there’s something about this particular comic that stands out. It feels like it’s more of a personal project for Simon, it’s so one-of-a-kind and has such a unique sense of humour I get the feeling the writing is closer to Simon’s own personality than anything else I’ve read. We’ll see that insight hopefully develop even more over the remaining months, the next instalment in five weeks on Monday 3rd June 2024.

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DEATH’S HEAD #4: DOG-GEDLY BRiLLiANT

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The front cover to this fourth issue of Death’s Head may be drawn by the familiar team of Bryan Hitch and Mark Farmer but inside Plague Dog is drawn by renowned Transformers artist Lee Sullivan (Transformers, Havoc (RoboCop), Doctor Who), with Annie Halfacree on letters, Nick Abadzis colouring and Simon Furman writing of course, with Richard Starkings editing. While I love Geoff Senior’s art being in every issue of Dragon’s Claws, I like the mixing of styles here.

Last month we saw Death’s Head’s new office wasn’t the perfect purchase Spratt seemed to think it was, having spent his new partner’s hard earned cash before he’d earned it. This issue sees that picked up and developed into two separate stories, one for each of our main characters. While our mechanoid anti-hero is hired by one gangster to hunt down and kill his rival’s pet mutt, Spratt comes face-to-face with it in their new property.

We kick things off with Death’s Head arriving at Jules ‘Kneecap’ Venici’s birthday party in his usual understated style. A huge birthday cake arrives but Venici has seen this movie before and fills it full of lead. Surprised at finding no one inside he still insists on killing whoever sent it because his own actions have made him look stupid. He then sits down to eat a slice, not noticing the highly conspicuous waiter in his latest in a long line of ridiculous wigs.

Predictably a huge shoot-out occurs between all of the gangsters and our lone hero, although even in this dire situation there’s time for some comedy. Elsewhere, Spratt is checking out their new digs and the lights are out. After we see a clawed hand swiping down in the darkness he lets out a blood-curdling scream and we’re led to believe the hand has made contact, until you read the following caption. Simon once again playing with our expectations.

I particularly like Spratt’s reaction to the sound effect of the plague dog, the alien monster used by Venici to take revenge out on those who wrong him. Last month we saw someone who looked like an undertaker sell the office to Spratt and in this issue we find out he is in fact called The Undertaker, a killer-for-hire whose method of assassination is somewhat gruesome.

But yes, that sound effect. We get all sorts of wording to describe sounds in our comics. Sometimes they’re downright bizarre to say the least. The fact Spratt correctly names this rather random sound effect is very funny and just shy of the character breaking the fourth wall and identifying he’s in a comic. It genuinely made me laugh. Back in the other half of the story, as the issue constantly flicks back and forth between the two scenes, Death’s Head is still at it even when cornered and out of ammunition.

Death by cocktail sausages! As a form of getting back at the bad guys it seems appropriate for this blog. Death’s Head isn’t the only one up against the odds, nothing to shoot with and having to use his ingenuity to get out of a tough scrape. As the rotten internals of the office building collapse around him, Spratt is trying desperately to escape but is hopelessly out of his depth.

In fact, the crumbling of the building saves him on more than one occasion, luck playing a huge part in keeping him alive. He could be learning a thing or two from his new boss though, or perhaps they’re just more suited than the mechanoid realises, because despite his fear (or perhaps because of it) he can’t help making quips.

Slipping out of his boot and shoving it into the monster’s mouth (complete with another joke) he makes a run outside and finds a car parked (well, hovering, it’s in the future after all). This is Spratt’s speciality. Boosting cars is a particularly useful skill that the conspicuous Death’s Head needs him for. There’s a little bit of tension here as Spratt struggles to get inside, panicking as the plague dog bears down on him.

The engine doesn’t immediately kick in either and the tension rises further as the thing makes a leap for him and crashes through the rear window, clawing at the interior, getting closer and closer to Spratt until it finally places a claw on his shoulder. The escape vehicle now seems to have become a death trap. We know Spratt can’t die, but even if he takes off surely the thing’s head and arm are already inside so what can he do? Well…

Just like last month when an accidental slip of the hand by Spratt turned the tide of battle, here his mistake with the gears sends him rocketing backwards, squashing the monster against the building. Fuel tank ruptured, the dog roaring out to his “Foood!” as it starts to push the car off itself, Spratt characteristically can’t help but bask in his glorious victory, no matter how accidental.

The final spread of the issue sees The Undertaker making a phone call, apparently to activate the plague dog at its lair. So are we to assume he actually sold the lair to Spratt? His job also done, Death’s Head makes his way to the office and finds chaos has ensued, although Spratt seems somewhat subdued and not showing off for once. Of course, our mechanoid friend can always turn a situation around when money is concerned and our story ends.

On the next page a somewhat tacked on cliffhanger has The Undertaker hiring someone called Big Shot, a muscly man with a big gun. I can’t help but be a little underwhelmed with this after last month’s ending. Surely having a plague dog lying in wait was the more dramatic cliffhanger. I’m aware I haven’t read the next issue to see how good this guy is with his gun, but I feel this is a bit of a muted ending by comparison and the two should’ve been the other way around.

Head to Head is the comic’s new letters page and there’s an anonymous letter from my home city of Belfast. Although, if this person had actually read Death’s Head’s adventures in Transformers and properly understood them I don’t see how they could think he’s commonly seen as a full-blown villain. Not too sure who “Bob” is that the first letter is addressed to (Richard Starkings is the editor and Jenny O’Connor the Managing Editor) but there’s definitely a lot of high praise here and I agree with it all.

I just wish Lierne Elliot had been right when he said “seems we have a hit here”. Of course, it may have seemed that way at the time, especially since this was a comic based on a very popular character from another Marvel UK title, but alas the sales figures wouldn’t be good enough to make up for the cost of producing the comic, as Richard explained to me in the introductory post to this series.

But let’s not dwell on that, we’ve another six months of this to go!

On the back page is an advertisement for a new fortnightly Marvel comic that would never actually appear. The William Tell TV series was apparently shown on ITV, although I don’t ever remember seeing it advertised. There’s a chance it either wasn’t broadcast on Northern Ireland’s UTV or it didn’t last long before ITV pulled the plug, despite it running for three seasons of 72 30-minute episodes in France and elsewhere, where it was known as Crossbow.

I remember this comic advert alerting me to the TV series and yet I still never caught it in any TV listings magazines. Marvel’s confidence must’ve been knocked as the plan for a fortnightly changed to a Summer Special, an annual and a run of strips in the Marvel Bumper Comic, plus a collected graphic novel, the strips for all of these already created for the defunct fortnightly. This is why I think the show must’ve failed to pick up viewers here in the UK, as Marvel suddenly realised the audience wasn’t there for what they’d assumed was going to be a hit.

You just might see some of it on the blog at some point though, as the Bumper Comic is on the cards for the future, I just don’t know when yet, but you heard it hear first! (As if you’d hear it anywhere else.) For now, that’s us finished with another outing for Death’s Head… well, really more of an outing for Spratt this month. We return to Earth of the far future on Monday 4th March 2024.

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DEATH’S HEAD #3: DEADLY FUNNY

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Alongside Dragon’s Claws #8 the first week of 1989 (and 2024) brought us the third issue of Death’s Head and, while the story inside may be light on plot, it’s aim is to establish the relationship between our mechanoid friend and Spratt. Spratt was the young fella with the elf-like ears who rebuilt the Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent in #1 after he was nearly destroyed by Dragon and his team, and it seems he’s determined to help Death’s Head navigate this era on Earth, as well as balance his books so he’s never left broke again.

We kick off with this scene setting display below. There’s nothing quite like a good old 80s dystopian future, is there? Mass consumerism, unhealthy food, sex and violence may seem like a clichéd way of depicting the future but it was created in the late 80s and this style was very much in vogue, pencilled by Bryan Hitch, inked by Dave Hine and lettered by Annie Halfacree. Even the basic way in which it’s coloured by Nick Abadzis adds to the overall feeling of grime in the Los Angeles Resettlement. (Resettled why?)

Tracking down a man for information on his target, Death’s Head follows him into a packed club where he uses non-lethal projectiles in the crowded space. Aimed with precision, they end up only affecting the one person. Whether this is because he didn’t want to harm innocents or because he only injures/kills those he’s paid to do so (see his rules in #1) is up to the reader to decide. Once outside for interrogation things take a turn for the worse.

The target grabs Spratt and Death’s Head instantly regrets letting the kid tag along. However, the man makes one big mistake. Spratt tries to tell him this, that he’s made a bad move and the man argues back that he can’t be killed while holding a hostage, so it’s clearly a good move. But this wasn’t what Spratt was referring to. No, in the heat of the moment the man had called our main character a bounty hunter! Oh dear. This leads on to this page below.

This is just the first of several laugh-out-loud moments in this issue and it’s clear writer Simon Furman intends to bring as much comedy as possible to this title, certainly a lot more than in Dragon’s Claws anyway. They get the information they need but Death’s Head is warned he’ll be no match for his objective, a person named Ogrus, especially if he takes the kid along.

Death’s Head can’t help but agree. While he appreciates Spratt’s help in doing things he’d find difficult, like blending in or stealing a car for example, and he’s good at the accountancy stuff, he’s far too keen to impress and prove himself. As such, Death’s Head inwardly questions why he let him come along in the first place and we get a brilliant flashback to a transport vehicle skimming over the Atlantic Ocean a few days prior.

On board, a hostage situation had kicked off and in the end it was Spratt who had saved the day, albeit in an overly flamboyant way involving an automated rubbish cart, some acrobatics and a lot of showing off. However, what’s so funny about this scene to me is seeing Death’s Head, after everything he went through in Transformers, doing normal things like complaining about the food, or just sitting there watching the whole situation unfold with interest. Maybe it’s just me but I was giggling along to all of this.

There’s some hilarious chemistry between these two already and despite the title character’s protestations he still takes his new recruit to the rendezvous in a rough looking bar and casino. Now remember, this comic was created in the 1980s, the characters have just walked into a bar full of dodgy criminals, the main character is a no-nonsense individual looking for one certain person and has no interest in anyone else there. You know what this means, don’t you? Yup, that’s right, a massive bar brawl.

There are some knowing nods here to this sort of thing inexplicably breaking out in the movies of the day, when one or two punches from people in the foreground somehow leads to everyone in the background laying into each other. Here, it begins with Death’s Head taking out one person who had innocently said something to a dealer at the casino, knowing full well what it would cause, thus allowing him to simply walk up to his target in the middle of the chaos, unchallenged.

The little bits of dialogue on the second page make it feel almost like a spoof of those movie scenes, especially the one about someone’s mother. Outside, Spratt has been ordered to stay in the car he stole (that was graciously received by the Peace-Keeping Agent), but Spratt knows Death’s Head will be outnumbered and can’t help throwing himself in to help. Crashing the vehicle through the casino wall and shouting at everyone to freeze, his diminutive frame leads to nothing but uproariuous laughter. He’s not down and out yet though.

Climbing into a position above Death’s Head’s fight with the mark he questions whether he should get involved or not, tossing a coin to decide. By now it should be clear to the reader that anything Spratt sets out to do will not normally have the intended outcome. Here, he can’t even make the decision to get involved or not without something happening, albeit this time it’s one that distracts Ogrus enough for Death’s Head to start turning the tide of the fight he was clearly losing.

A quick gag or two from the mechanoid and he’s back on top again and a final one-two from the both of them together (Spratt jumping feet first into Orgus’ back as Death’s Head punches him in the stomach) and the battle is won, the contract complete. We close off this chapter’s main story with Spratt joyous that he actually helped and some reluctant praise is even thrown his way.

The “Partners/Don’t push it” exchange perfectly sums up the strange working relationship these two seem to have. Spratt is all in and as far as he’s concerned they’re already partners, he’s just clamouring for confirmation and a rhetorical pat on the back, especially from someone of Death’s Head stature. The fact his apparent partner is so dead pan and doesn’t show emotion easily is just another challenge for Spratt, which makes him even keener.

Death’s Head on the other hand finds Spratt annoying. He gets in the way. He’s too keen. He even wants conversation! Death’s Head would rather continue to work on his own. But he can’t deny the kid has helped with his money problems and has been a good guide to this strange time in Earth’s future, both things he promised he’d help with. Plus, he can get into places inconspicuously, something Death’s Head can’t do. Well, in theory Spratt can, but his wish to show off can hamper that somewhat.

It was only upon finishing it that I realised the plot was so simple, I’d just been swept along with these characters

As the duo walk off with their client’s trophy we turn the page and find ourselves “Elsewhere”. In that final panel above Spratt makes a throwaway comment that he’s managed to secure a new office (since Death’s Head’s previous one is thousands of years in the past), spending their money before they’d even earned it. Well it seems that’s where “Elsewhere” is.

Poor Spratt. His heart was in the right place, but not only has he spent Death’s Head’s reward money, it looks like even this good-intentioned gesture will come back to haunt him too. Poor kid can’t catch a break. Hopefully next month’s story will pick this mystery up as its main thread.

This third issue may be very light on plot but as I said above that wasn’t the point. The point was to establish this (very) unlikely pair as a working partnership. Having the plot be just another simple contract for Death’s Head and using this to show how enjoyable that can be with the two of them working side-by-side was a brilliant idea. It was only upon finishing it that I realised the actual plot was so simple, I’d just been swept along with these characters. I look forward to more sweeping on Sunday 4th February 2024.

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