The Geeky Brummie Pull List with Get Woke & The Unthinkables
Hello, I hope you are all safe and well. As you may already know the continuing Covid-19 crisis has had a significant impact on the comic industry and the last few weeks has seen stores and publishers scrambling for a way to navigate the constantly changing waters. At the moment most, if not all, UK comic stores are closed with only a select few still able to offer mail order services. New comics are not being distributed and so we have no new weekly comics to highlight today.
But fear not dear reader, for this week I have a special treat for you. Thanks to the wonders of the internet and digital comic readers I am able to bring you a look at some new self published books. Both comics are from independent creators and you are able to support them by buying copies or signing up to Patreon online today.
In the interests of transparency, I was furnished with a review copy of Get Woke and purchased my own copy of The Unthinkables.
Now on to what I thought of both.
Title: Get Woke
Publisher: Tim West
Issue No.: #1
Creative Team: Tim West – Writer/Letterer : Kevin McCullough – Artist : Dimas Mohammad – Colours : Ken Reynolds & Richmond Clements – Editors
The Story
Imagine a world in which ALL conspiracy theories are true. A world of secret societies, shadow governments, aliens, monsters, and the supernatural. No need to imagine too hard, that’s the world YOU live in today. It’s all real and it always has been.
And if such evil exists in the world, which it does, humanity is going to need a very special team of heroes to protect it from the horrors that lurk behind the curtain of our false reality.
Don’t believe in conspiracies? You need to…GET WOKE
Get Woke is a 4 part comic mini-series written by Tim West, illustrated by Kevin McCullough, with colours by Dimas Mohammad. The 40 page, first issue, begins this wild adventure through the bizarre world of conspiracy theories.
At first glance Get Woke might seem like an exercise in bad taste. Not so dead celebrities, red neck americans and a title that might just be a little on the nose. But behind a cover that is filled with a host of conspiracy theory references lies a story that pretty much works. John Woke is a conspiracy theory obsessed teen who is thrown in to a world that seems to confirm his world view while on a school trip to Washington D.C. It’s not subtle but the idea that some of the most crazy conspiracies are true makes for some funny moments. Some of the jokes miss their mark but once the core team of covert agents including Elvis, Princess Di, Michael Jackson and Bigfoot are introduced and the central mystery starts to unfold the book hits its stride.
The story is filled with well written set pieces and each of the characters are well defined. It’s almost impossible to not see and hear Bruce Campbell reprising his Elvis from Bubba Ho-Tep here and I hope that was intentional. It’s also kinda fun to spot all the Elvis song references scattered throughout the dialogue with the occasional Michael Jackson one here and there.
The art is solid and I like the stylised look of the characters, each one clearly identifiable as the celebrity that are supposed to represent. The colouring is well done, although a couple of pages seem a little flat compared to others. The lettering is great – there is quite a lot of dialogue but each page is laid out beautifully making it easy to follow what’s going on.
For a first issue this does everything you could want from a comic. It establishes the cast of characters, sets up the central mystery and then in it’s closing pages throws you a brilliantly unexpected curve ball. With so many conspiracies to explore the story could literally go anywhere and it’ll be interesting to see which theories these creators will take a pot shot at next. It’s clearly not a book that will appeal to everyone but if you like a ridiculous, fun story well told then give Get Woke a chance.
This is the animated intro to Get Woke created for the original Kickstarter campaign:
PREVIEW PAGES
You can order a print copy of Get Woke from DangerGeek here – https://www.dangergeek.co.uk/order-get-woke-print-version
You can buy a digital version of Get Woke from Comixology here – https://www.comixology.co.uk/Get-Woke/comics-series/141814
Follow Tim West on Twitter – @ComicsyUK
Title: The Unthinkables
Publisher: Paul J. Hanley
Issue No.: #1 Ashcan Edition
Creative Team: Paul Hanley – Story/Lead Character Design : Ian Richardson – Pencils/Additonal Designs : Julien Hogonnard-Bert – Inks : Simon Gough – Colours : Thomas Mauer – Letters
I’m a big fan of local comic book legend Ian Richardson. Ian is best known for his work across several major publishers, working on titles from 2000AD, Image Comics, Marvel UK/Panini, Dark Horse Comics & as the regular cover artist for Zenescope Entertainment across their Grimm Fairy Tales, Wonderland, Evil Heroes, Spirit Hunters, Black Sable, Peek-A-Boo & Crown of Kings titles. This weekend he posted news that his latest work was full interior art for a new book The Unthinkables, written by Paul Hanley. Paul is a freelance commercial illustrator and comics artist who’s been contributing to various books for over 11 years. He’s worked on properties like Godzilla, Judge Dredd, Firefly and Buckaroo Banzai as well as a series of creator-owned titles. He’s also produced a few covers for Titan Comics and designed the War Doctor’s companion Cinder for the Doctor Who: Legacy game. The Unthinkables is Paul’s latest foray into writing his own comic and he has designed all the lead characters.
Paul is offering the very first issue of The Unthinkables as a digital download for subscribers on his Patreon page. So, of course, I jumped at the chance to see page after page of Ian’s incredible art.
Behind a beautifully fully painted cover by Glenn Fabry, The Unthinkables wastes no time grabbing you by the collar and dragging you straight in to the action, as several familiar looking characters, who after tackling an unseen threat, lie dismembered and floating in space . This sends the authorities out to gather a together a super team like no other. This first issue sets everything up nicely, introducing its characters in fun and at times quite visceral ways. Every pages is absolutely gorgeous. Paul, Ian, Julien and Simon work together in perfect harmony and have produced a comic that has the widescreen grandeur of comics like Bryan Hitch’s Ultimate Avengers with a brutal and gruesome tone reminiscent of The Boys.
This issue has grabbed my interest and I’ll certainly be looking to discover what happens next. Take a look for yourself in the following pages taken from this issue.
PREVIEW PAGES
DESIGNS/PINUPS
You can get your copy of The Unthinkables by subscribing to the $5 tier of Paul Hanley’s Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/PaulHanley
Follow Paul Hanley on Twitter – @PaulJamesHanley
Follow Simon Gough on Twitter – @Spidey2099
My Pulls
No pulls this week as no print comics will be available in the UK.
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