Judge Anderson: PSI Files Volume 3 (2013)

Authors: Alan Grant / Peter Milligan / Dan Abnett / Andy Lanning |  Illustrators: Arthur Ranson / Steve Sampson / Charles Gillespie / Angel Unzueta / Ian Gibson / Trevor Hairsine / Eddy Cant / Mick Austin / Anthony Williams | Page Count: 304

"...My blood's so red, and the ground is so far, far away..."

Alan Grant drags Anderson even deeper into the realms of philosophy and religion in this volume.  Her hitherto discoveries about her past, coupled with a recent changed perception of what ‘Justice’ is, have opened her consciousness to previously unexplored concerns affecting Mega City One.  She begins to experience visions that lead her into the unknown.  The iconography used will be familiar to everyone but the associations are Anderson specific.

There’s quite a lot of Dredd in this one.  It’s interesting to see Old Stony in Anderson’s world.  It distances him a little from the typically masculine arena he usually embodies.  Grant knows that Joe needs to present the appearance of a non-conformist with a controlling influence but there’s also an almost parental guiding attitude present.  He won’t accept failure from Anderson but he’s more than happy to step aside to let her prove herself, or team-up if the Law permits.

The two main artists are Arthur Ranson and Steve Sampson.  I've mentioned my love for Ranson in previous reviews so I’ll skip over that this time.  Steve Sampson has a radically different style.  His use of thick, bright colours contrasts with Ranson’s more subdued, realistic palette but it works beautifully.  Sampson’s portrayal highlights a different side of Cassandra.  She has a glow about her, as if her emotions are shining out from within like a beacon or a redeeming light.  His panelling is equally vibrant when necessary; the more space he allows himself the more impressive his final product.  He's my 2nd favourite Anderson artist.

As usual there's some random one-shots from annuals and yearbooks to close the book that neither match up to the main stories in terms of quality or continuity.

I’d encountered most of this volume before on first printing but it was shortly after the last multi-part work that Grant put Anderson on hiatus, and (for unrelated reasons) I stopped buying the magazines, so Vol 4 will be mostly new to me.  I can’t wait for it to appear.

4 Books of Man out of 5

Durham Red: Vermin Stars (2003)

Author: Dan Abnett | Illustrator: Mark Harrison | Page Count: 96

“The universe is insane.  We’re falling into step with it.”

Volume II of the new and unimproved Durham Red continued the story from the previous book, The Scarlet Cantos (2006).  Durham and her small but devoted crew set course for a mysterious region of space known as the Vermin Stars.  She has a reason for wanting to get there but is reluctant to explain.  The trip won't be all plain sailing because The Iconoclast (human religious zealots) are still on her tail, and their enemies, the Tenebrae (mutant terrorist cell), will also need to be confronted before the journey's end.

Author Dan Abnett’s dialogue is still stiff and unnatural but his pacing and his plotting are both much improved.  But I still can’t accept the ridiculous conceit that was built up around Durham, no matter how much polish is put on the surface.

There’s more emphasis on the HR Giger influence in Mark Harrison’s art this time, and mercifully less reliance on the irritating lens flares.  There are even some pages that make it hard to tell where the paint ends and the digital manipulation begins; he seems to have gotten more skilled with the software.  If he could curtail his need to fill the frame with noisy backgrounds, and the overcrowded, forced depth of field, I would be able to enjoy the work a lot more.

I didn't buy the remainder of the Durham Red collections after this one, for obvious reasons.

1½ homecoming queens out of 5

Durham Red: The Scarlet Cantos (2006)

Author: Dan Abnett | Illustrator: Mark Harrison | Page Count: 96

“History does not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.”

Mark Harrison’s version of Strontium Bitch Durham Red is far removed from co-creator Carlos Ezquerra’s vision.  Working from a Dan Abnett script that distanced itself not only artistically but chronologically from the source, the two men changed almost everything that Strontium Dog fans had come to love.

Harrison used the story to showcase his love for digital colouring effects, giving him the dubious honour of destroying a long running series with excessive simulated lens flare years before JJ Abrahams got his hands on Star Trek.
Harrison is a damn fine artist, visit his 2000 AD gallery page for proof, but I dislike his colouring methods on Durham Red.  To his credit, though, he was light years ahead of what Marvel and DC were issuing at the time.

In my experience, Dan Abnett seems to be more at home with hard sci-fi than he is with comic book scripting.  His characterisation in TSC is almost nil.  Everyone is two dimensional; their motivations get mentioned occasionally in caption boxes lest we forget who they are, or why they even exist.  I didn't care who lived or who died.  There’s a large body count but it could've been wood chips on the floor in place of bodies for all the emotion it stirred.  It's not Dan's best work.

The single issue story that’s included at the end, the one that would traditionally be filler, is vastly superior to what came before it.  I enjoyed it.  It gives Durham some depth without shitting all over her origins.

The book collects together The Scarlet Cantos parts 1 – 11, and the Mask of the Red Death one shot, both first printed in 1998.

1½ snecks out of 5