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.

Brass Sun

I'm mostly going digital for new comics these days but whenever I pop into the Forbidden Planet which passes for my local comic store I usually pick up something 2000AD related and yesterday's purchase was the first issue of the American format Brass Sun by Ian Edginton and I.N.J.Culbard. I've read all of this in the Prog but it always seemed like it might work better in a collected format.

First impressions are very good with a lovely glossy cover. I think the image chosen is smart and appealing, and the 2000AD logo looks great up there on the top left corner. Inside the high quality continues with good paper stock and the same nice design work on the inside cover. There are just two advertising pages for 2000AD and the Case Files (and more about them later), the rest is all story.

And the story reads much better in this collected fashion than it did in five page chunks in the prog. The unwinding adventure of Wren makes more sense as does the back story about their clockwork universe slowly winding down. There is still a fair bit of dialogue as exposition to get through but that is only to be expected when you have this much world building to do.

Culbard's art looks fantastic on the glossy paper. I always thought his Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes adaptations had a very other worldly look to them so he is perfectly suited to this alien adventure.  It has a very high class polished look to it which should hopefully help this comic appeal to American readers.

That target audience is a tricky one to break into but they do like off beat independent titles and it's no secret that 2000AD are hoping to pick up some of the readers who have made Saga such a runaway hit. Brass Sun is a good fit both in terms of the refined artwork and the weird space opera story. Both Saga and another successful Image comic The Walking Dead have letters pages that act as a dialogue between the creators and their readers, and that brings me to the two 2000AD advertising pages. I don't think this comic will be a success if it drives readers to buy the prog, it's not a typical 2000AD story by any means and they may be disappointed. It will be a success if it sells enough copies to continue beyond the first four issues. If I was editing this reprint series I would turn those two spare pages over to Messrs Edginton and Culbard and call for reader letters and emails to get the dialogue started and build that following.

Of course there is an existing audience of 2000AD fans who will buy this anyway, and I confess that I'm so impressed with this first issue that I will be picking up the next three. It's not to everybody's taste but I enjoyed it in the prog and it's even better in this glossy floppy.