Monday, December 11, 2006

I like to think Jack Knight and Alec Swan are having a drink right now, in some quieter universe.
Anyone else drawing this probably would've burnt out the heads of their Blade Runner VHS.
Even though James Robinson would get more recognition for the Golden Age and Starman, and those were both excellent works; I still hold his run on Firearm closer to my heart. Sometimes I wonder how much of the themes that ended up in Starman would have been explored differently with ex-Lodge secret agent and English expatriate Alec Swan.

I also like Gary Erskine's art a lot, in the same way you might like pumpkin pie or kung pao chicken: not an everyday thing, but when you're in the mood for it, it's all that will do. It's got an ugliness to it that I assume is a British thing, and that a lot of artists would shy away from. There's also a level of insane background detail you would usually associate with a Frank Quitely or Geoff Darrow. I prefer Erskine, though: a little clearer, and a little faster--although I freely admit, that's just a gut feeling and not based on anything.

Previous books of Erskine's that I've enjoyed have been City of Silence, Hypersonic, and Jack Cross. Previously, I had mistakenly thought I hadn't read that last one, but I was thinking of Jack Staff! Damn. I don't know if Cross took off or not, but I'd like to see it back: Warren Ellis presents 24's Jack Bauer as a liberal leftist, who cuts himself like the Batman villain Zsasz.

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