Thursday 14 May 2020

The 77 #1 A new British quarterly anthology





British comics really seem to be enjoying a bit of a revival at the moment. With Rebellion publishing an ever growing series of Specials based on old comics the we grew up with and volumes of the best of the old us Brits and our chums overseas in the former colonies haven't had it so good for years.

The thing about British comics is that they were nearly all weekly anthologies containing either all comedy or adventure content and more often both. Now a group of independent creators have put pen to paper and written and produced a new comic funded  by Kickstarter and now out for purchase.

Mine arrived a couple of days ago with free 77 badge  headlined a new "retro anthology" I sat down to read an enjoy. The comic kicks off with a Punk horror story called Temporal Anarchy. Amazing what can happen with a safety pin innit bruv! Great Art & story by Alan Holloway and Neil Sims.

Next up was another music based story that appears to be on-going The Tinkling Triangles by Steve Mc Manus and Brendon T Wright. Jury remains out on this one However  Mal Earl's Prodigal takes the pace back with this tale of humanity after a magical apocalypse. More please!

No comic seems to be complete without a story set in arena and The 77 is no different. I'm agnostic on V not being particularly a fan of the genre but it is continued and I'll give it a chance. However fear not there is far more to follow..

I was pleased to see a short instalment of Technofreak by Joe Assi & John Charles with Tom Newell on art. This is already being published as an independent and is responsible for my recent foray into the world od indy publishing as it is a great comic. There are two issues in print and a third on the way. Well worth picking up. 

The centre feature is Division 77 a disturbing story of humanity after a virus being re-used by duplicitous aliens. Written by Dave Heely with art by Sinclair Eliot this sci-fi story has plenty of potential. 

Meanwhile The Screaming Hand  by Kek-W & Conor Boyle has obvious shades of John Constatine and disturbing art to go with it. 

As for the rest of the issue only Angel from Baden James Mellows and Steve Austin had any appeal to me. That's the way it is with anthologies. There is also a text piece about Comic Scene Magazine. 

At £6.95 this is not a cheap comic but even with a couple of duff stories it's not only well worth the price of entry but keeping going as a regular publication.. 

Rating: 4 Stars (Recommended)

1 comment:

  1. Howie - really pleased you chose to pick up a copy and I thank you for reviewing The77 as well. We are launching a Kickstarter for issue 2 on 13th June and readers of this blog can join in by following this link - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/the77comic/the77-the-summer-special

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