Brass Sun issue 2

2000AD's foray into the American comics market continues with the second issue from Ian Edgington and I.N.J.Culbard. I thought  the last one was a perfect introduction to their clockwork universe. Now to find out whether the second episode can maintain interest and push the story along.

I clearly must have read this installment when it was published weekly in the Prog but I found that I had almost no recollection of what happened after Wren and Conductor Seventeen escaped from her world and rode the rails to another. We begin with a fairly exciting hunting sequence with our two main characters struggling to escape weird robot assassins before a couple of deus ex machina moments deliver them into the hands of some aristocratic bad guys.

There is quite a bit of dialogue exposition to get through and I was strangely more aware of the five page structure that hangs over from the Prog run. It's still an awful lot of comic for your money with thirty pages of action and just those two page adverts. And in those thirty pages there were plenty of good moments and little touches and plot details that I missed first time round. I'm convinced that this reads better in this American style format than it did in the Prog.

Once again Culbard's artwork is fantastic and his depiction of cityscapes in the new world are lovely to behold. And because we are on a new planet we get a different colour scheme and a new method of transportation with giant cable cars crisscrossing the city.

The world building and story elements are expertly woven together by Edgington and Culbard, and the high production values continue. Apart from the logo on the cover it has almost nothing to do with 2000AD but it is a brilliant comic book in its own right. I was impressed by the first issue but this second episode has me completely enthralled and eagerly waiting for the next installment.

This is a great example of what British comic books can do and a brave experiment by 2000AD and Rebellion. Long may it continue.