EPISODE 7: D'ORC

Welcome to Morgan's Cult Comics... a deep dive into comics from the past and the present. I really love comics, and I hope this comes through in the conversations that take place for this show.

This week, I'm looking at a brand new comic, D'ORC created by cartoonist Brett Bean, and published by Image Comics. It's a great funny fantasy comic, similar in tone to Skottie Young's I HEART FAIRYLAND, on which Brett was also an artist. 

Expect lots of fightin', gallons of gravy, and a shield who just wants VIOLENCE!

NB: I mistakenly thought Brett was originally from the UK, but he is actually American - as I mention his nationality in this episode. (I got him mixed up with cartoonist Brett Parsons - who IS from the UK, and also has work published by IMAGE COMICS.)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Morgan's Cult Comics, a podcast that has a deep dive into comics from the past and the present. I really started collecting comics and also really started making them in the 80s and still collect and make them now. Each week I'll be picking out some of the unknown gems and cult favourites the word world of comics has to offer and taking an in-depth look at what makes them worthy of being a cult comic in my eyes. Let me introduce myself. I'm Morgan Gleave, a professional cartoonist and comic junkie. I've been drawing cartoons and comics for as long as I can remember, and I've been reading them for as long as I can remember too. I was very lucky to have had some really cool comics and graphic novels bought for me when I was young, which grew into a real love of comics and cartoons of all shapes and sizes. I really love comics and cartoons, so I hope you enjoy listening to the show and have as much fun hearing it as I have making it. So this week we're looking at a brand new comic, Dawk or Da Ork, written and drawn by Brett Bean, who is a British cartoonist, who some people who know a bit about comics will know he's worked with Scotty Young on I Hate Fairyland.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

If you if anybody hears some grunts and groans and things, it's not me. I have a dog on my lap, and she was making some weird noises a little while ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Oh now she's she's being really soppy.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, she wants a tummy bug.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Right. We were looking at this night. I I we've had a few technical issues. So we in a few minutes ago we discussed this and it wasn't recorded, was it?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

No, so we're starting afresh, um, which is great, and it's fresh because this is this comic is literally hot off the presses. It came out last week, I think. Uh as at the time of recording, it came out a week ago. Um, I've been really looking forward to this series. I heard I I heard about it last year because obviously um Scotty Young's been talking about it because he he's worked with Brett in the past, and he's so there's been a lot of publicity coming up. Um, when we've talked about printings before, even though this is the first issue, the first printing sold out before it had even been released, so it was all on pre-orders and everything. So loads of people have pre-ordered it. So the first printing sold out. There was an immediately pullback for a second printing, which has also sold out and is now on its third printing.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

And I was wondering how how long the print run was, and I was wondering whether it'd be a good, a really good publicity stunt to have them selling out, so whether it was a short run, but that's me being cynical about business. Not that I'm anti-business in any way, but I just wonder those things.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Well, I mean, Image are one of the bigger companies, they're probably, if you like, in third place after Marvel and DC. Image was started in the uh early 90s by a lot of artists and everything who had been working for predominantly for Marvel. Uh, there was Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, and another person who I can't remember. I'll have to look up my comic history, but they wanted to do their own thing. This we've talked about creators' rights before and what they wanted because Marvel, you were effectively artists for hire to do stuff. Yes, so you didn't you you didn't own your own work, uh, you didn't own your own characters, you were only working on like Spider-Man or The Hulk or something like that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Whereas I think what people were starting to get to was they wanted to own their own work and be and and have if they mean being being cynical, make more money from it because they would they deserve to make the money because all very well, even if they were paid quite a lot for what they did when they did it, it wouldn't have been consistent work, would it?

SPEAKER_00 3:56

No, absolutely. You you were kind of hired on a month-to-month basis. Yes, and that's you know, if people have got families and mortgages, you had to yeah, you had to be quite well established to be like kept on as a to write say a whole year's worth of comics. There were there are certain names from the 80s, like Walter Simonson, who reinvigorated Thor in the 80s. Uh, he wrote and drew that. I think he did it for about three years, but he'd been in the industry a long time, so he had a bit more bit more clout behind him to actually you know ask for more right, you know, rights to his work and and and for more money as well. Yes, but anyway, rather than b decrying the comic industry, let's have a look at a brand new comic. Deaf and mate. Sorry, took a breath. Let's look at let's look at the issue one of Dork by Brett Bean with John Francis Belleieu on colours and Nat Pikios on on letters. It I love to see the fact that everyone's getting credited now. These guys, yes, these guys have worked together before when they've when they've worked on I Hate Fairyland and they both uh work with Scotty on our on all of his other titles as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Um I noticed this is a uh well, it's a map, but it's divided into two. Is it goodies and baddies, perhaps?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah, so the the basic premise of Dork is is cut it's like a middle earth, like Tolkien, like Dungeons and Dragons, it's it's fantasy, fighting fantasy. And so Brett's taking the opportunity here with the first page to show where the story is actually taking place. And yes, there is sort of a light and a dark side to it with this. I'm in a scar as it's described here. I'm in a scar running through the middle of the land, so there's clearly two sides. I think there's even like even some of this looks like it could almost be a skull and crossbones here. Um that might be me reading too much into it.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

I can't see that myself, but you mentioned when I was talking to you earlier about this that equating to that.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah, so looking here on the front on this first page, which uh you know we call a splash page because it makes a splash, it introduces the story. So this is scar we've got running down the middle of the map, and you can actually see it echoed here in the middle of the of the background here between the between this battle that's going on between the light and the dark.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Yes, I thought I was impressed that you noticed that. You clearly look at it for a long time. Me at glance, move on.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Well I'm sure I love comics, I love the way that comics work and the way that they tell stories. And if I get into a certain artist or writer, I will pick up a lot of what they do, and I I will look at it quite in depth. I've been as I say, I've been waiting for this title for quite a while now, um, and it's an inspiration on my style.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah, dark days ahead.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

So that's a put that's a pun on dark days ahead, but they've used Dork as it's the title of the comic. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

And again, are these the names of the two?

SPEAKER_00 7:11

So, yeah, you've got Brett Bean here for Art and Story, Jean-Francois Bellou, who does the colouring, and Nate Piercos, who is the lettering, and uh he also does he does he design the logo for it and does the design. Nate Picos is an American letterer. I was thinking there's a bit of a French by I think Jean-Francois is Canadian. Um Canadian French big Canadian French uh community. Oh French Canadian, yeah, French Canadian, Quebec and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Absolutely. Yes. Well, one thing I did note, I do notice about this is that the um text is quite small. Now I'm big on the use of comics to encourage people with poor reading and writing skills to read because it's a way of quickly enjoying something that they might give up if it was a book, so it was good. But that isn't not very helpful.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

But to to just to counter that a little bit, in terms of in comic terms, that's actually quite large text. But that's irrelevant, really. It needs to be the right size. It needs I know it needs to be the right size, but the fact that it is actually bigger, they allow a bit more space for the the less step in the right direction. It's a step in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Is it all uppercase?

SPEAKER_00 8:33

It's all uppercase, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

And that's another thing that in my opinion, it would be very good for it to be upper and lowercase. Again, for people that are poor reading with poor reading skills, that will help them. Yeah, but um anyway, maybe somebody who listen.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Nate, if you're listening, use upper and lower case.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

I'm climbing off my high horse now.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Okay, so we're we we're moving into the story here. The story that it's clearly moved on from the opening scene, which is setting daylight. We're now at we're now moved into the night time. We can see a shadowy figure running through the undergrowth in in some woodland. Uh, and we've got a fire with what I look like probably trolls or ogres. They're they've they're roasting me over an open fire. One of them's got a unicorn head. Unicorns turn up a lot in in the fantasy world that Scotty and um Brett have drawn.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

I quite like the idea of unicorns, they can't be baddies. Surely they can't be baddies.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Well, no, he's eating a unicorn. He's got a unicorn's head on a stick.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Oh, well, he's a goodie and he's eating another goodie. What's going on here? What are these two people?

SPEAKER_00 9:49

So we see this this shadowy character up in the trees, and he's having a conversation with this with his shield, who is actually uh sentient, who's a living shield. Um the shield is a bit bloodthirsty and wants the mate wants the character to jump into into the frame. So right down here at the bottom, we it's just another, it's a it's a longer shot, as we recall, of the ogres and whatever around around the campfire.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Now I read um fantasy books, and that's not uncommon to have uh uh something like a sword or shield trying to egg on the person to be violent.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

So it's not a you know, it's a reasonably common device. It's yeah, it's a common device in fashion. I've never seen one where it was a shield.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Because the shield by nature is supposed to be saving people.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Absolutely, but you can see here that the the two characters are are actually arguing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Moving on. Moving on. So bursting out of the undergrowth comes sort of a an adventurer's party. Um that's kind of a paladin looking kind of character, and a barbarian, even though he's paladin. Paladin is a I think another word for like a knight. They paladins are usually quite religious, a bit like the bit like the crusaders, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Knights Templar.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Yeah, Knights Templar. And we've got another character who's more of a barbarian, even though he's he's uh uh clearly a cyclops, they're jumping out onto the onto the group of ogres.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Right. Well what can I say about that, really? I mean they're hiding. Oh, this this is a really good tree, isn't it? I rather like my trees.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah, you're quite partial to a tree in a comic.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yes, a tree, that's that strange thing is saying something.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Right down here at the bottom of this page, the shield turn turns round and says, get in there and do and hurt something. He clearly wants to get into a fight. And this other character who's a uh frog wizard is like, is that tree yelling at us? And then everybody sort of stops fighting, and they're looking up at the at the shield, hurling abuse at them. Well, and the other characters looking a bit dismayed, sort of like, um I don't want to do that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Right, yes. Well, they're confused, and I'm confused too, but never mind, move it on.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

So we'll move we'll move on to so we've got some of the um yeah, they're talking about the scar there between the land, and then the character jumps down, and at the bottom of the page the frog wizard goes, It's the dog. I really like that picture. That is a very that's a very good face. Brett does expressions and and because he draws in more of a cartoony style, he do he draws expressions really, really well. So, yeah. So you can see here Dork is looking a little bit unsettled, a bit concerned, and he's like you know, just um he's just a bit bewildered. He's not the only one, is he? No, I've got bewildered as well, and he's trying to say his name, but everyone else shouts out, Dork! What's this? So here, so all the other characters are looking at looking at Dork and they're saying about this prophecy, and then they're all suddenly turning, what prophecy prophecy born in the light and living in the dark will bring about the end of the world. Oh, thanks. So because the Dork is half dwarf from the light side and half orc from the dark side, he's gonna destroy everything. So this is everyone turning their weapons onto him. Oh, I see, these are weapons, so they're swords and there's the frog wizard holding up his wand there, and they're all shouting, kill the dog.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Oh, I didn't I didn't understand this picture because I looked at the yellow thing, and that's what I was focusing on. But now I can see it. I need you to tell me what I'm looking at, don't I?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

So Dork turns around to a shield and he says, I blame you for this. Now what? The shield says I waited 20 years for this.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Oh, that is a very nice, colourful pattern.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

And then he says violence, and the shield starts drag literally dragging Dork into a fight. So something that's that's very prevalent in um in Brett's work when he's been doing fantasy stuff like this, so especially when he was working on I Hate Fairyland, there's a lot of cartoon violence in there. Yes, there's a lot of fighting and seeing limbs going astray and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

But it's nice to see some colour, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah, it's but it's it's it's compared to the darker stuff here, which is like the nighttime stuff, yeah. You've seen you're getting more impact here.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

And what is this this mauve thing?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

So that's the that's the um Cyclops barbarian um badie getting walloped by the shield. I think the shield is basically saying he's gonna hit anybody. Oh sorry, he's not a badie. No, he's he's I think he's one of the light side. The two characters here are on the dark side. This is a very nice picture, too.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

I can't entirely see. Um that is the dog, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 15:29

No, that's this is the frog wizard. Oh hang on, he's not the right colour. No, because he's making it they've made it gruesome here, they've changed the colouring to give it more emphasis, so it's all gone over to red because there's blood flying out all over the place. Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

What's happening to it?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

So this is the shield slamming into the back of his head and cutting his hat in half.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Oh dear. I thought that was a nice picture, and then not to sure. It's a bit gruesome. Lots of nice blues in this.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

I I very much like this. Um you've got flags hanging up.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

This is actually this is like a tavern, you know, like an inn. After the after the fight has gone down. Well, you have to have a drink then, don't you? Yeah, you have to go and have a drink.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Go and have a pie.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

So that yeah, he says about um flaggin' of gulch gravy and slap a centaur. Go and hit somebody else. So they go to they go to this pub which is actually called the Gravy Gulch Inn. So it's an inn. Grady Gulch. Gravy Gulch.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Gravy Gulch.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah. What does that mean? Gravy's gravy, I suppose. Uh yeah, I believe so. Yeah, gravy is gravy in this. And gulch gulch. Gulch is I think a term for uh a plane or kind of wasteland.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Oh you don't mean an aeroplane.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

No. No.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Right, okay, so it's in the middle of nowhere. Is that what it's implying?

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Yeah. Right, okay. So we've got Dork and his shield arguing again. And then you see the little there's a little uh rooster character who's bringing over the drinks.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Have they started a fight in the pub now?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

There's a there's bait there's a fight that's broken out in the pub. What's this rooster doing? So the rooster is like it is like the the barman or the waiter.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

And he's trying he's talking to Dork and he's he's apologising for um about the uh about the ruckus, about the fight.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

But Dork started it, didn't they?

SPEAKER_00 17:52

No, Dork didn't start this fight. This is a ballroom brawl, this is broken out in the in the in the in the tavern, in the inn.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Oh dear, right? So we've got I'm gonna go to the back of the house.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Dork is actually sitting quiet trying to sit quietly in the background. He just wants a quiet life to drink his drink his gravy.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Oh I see. But there's that one fire, another fire. Who's this aimed at? 14-year-old boys, probably.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Or 56-year-old boys who like a bit of cartoon violence.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Would you like me to hit you?

SPEAKER_00 18:32

So this is actually the the physical middle of the comic. No, I wouldn't like you to hit me. This is actually the physical middle of the comic, so Brett's used the the full two-page spread to really let the artwork come to life. I've seen that before in something we've looked at, but I can't remember what now. But Dork's actually getting a bit hacked off now and actually starts hacked off, is that no? It's not a pun. It's not a pun. He's like, who's trying to get who's trying to hurt this chicken who's doing nothing wrong? He's just being a chicken serving beer and stuff like that. Like you have like you do. And then he says, I'm the Dork, and then a a big fight breaks out.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Oh, what's this going on here?

SPEAKER_00 19:17

So he's grabbed somebody round around the scruff of their coat or clothes and have thrown them around. Are there's random people? You've got people who are in the inn that are like all jumping into what's that? That's Dork in the middle. No, this is that that's a bit of a chair.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Oh, I see. I thought it might be a mouse.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

No, no mouses, no mees. So the fight continues, the shield is like great, so now you've decided to fight everyone, because obviously he what he's the shield is bloodthirsty and wants to fight all the time. Dork's having none of it.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

But um what's he talking about a wok for? Walking cooking, are they?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

No, they're this is sound effects.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

What does what's wok?

SPEAKER_00 20:04

So it's like wok as in something hitting wok, something's hitting something. Oh but he's cut quite clear here that Dork's losing his temper and getting really getting really angry. Whereas the shield is really kind of getting into, but it but and then in the next page it's like snap out of it, and you've he's gone into a kind of a real blood rage. So now the shield is trying to stop him fighting, is that right? That's right, and then he got the shield goes flying off and hits the chicken.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

And this poor chicken.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Whereupon the the chicken has now been beheaded, and Dork is like full of regret, didn't mean to do all of that. Everyone's running out, go, the prophecy is true, he's gonna kill us all, and all this sort of stuff. Right, what's this thing? So this is Oh, this is the ghost. This is the ghost of the chicken. So the chicken's head comes up as a ghost and starts talking. The whole thing, you know, there's the the thing about chickens if you cut the head off, they'll ru they'll run around, the body will still run around afterwards because it's like it's the electrical yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's but that's kind of what's going on here. But this is I was gonna say a real ghost. But in the comic, it's a ghost. So it's a ghost of the chicken, but he's also managing to control his old his body.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Well, yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Okay, and Dorks asking, how's he how's he alive? And the chicken's saying, because you've got a you got yourself a death shield, because the shield is a a magical shield, you know. So is he always gonna have that ghost with him? I think he is. I think they're introducing an another character here. And is the ghost good? As far as I'm aware, yes. Yes, 'cause he's just like the chicken who was serving in the inn.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Yeah. So Dork is trying to work because the chickens realised that the shield is a death shield and anything that's killed by the death shield can't be doesn't remain dead or something like that. It becomes a spirit.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Yeah, does Doesn't rise to the higher planes.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Yeah. But the shield doesn't know what he is. He know he doesn't know what he is. Well, I'm not sure I know what he is. And what's this person here? So Dawk and Dawk and the chicken and the shield run off, and then we've we flip over now into another scene where we're seeing this is the light realm and the dark realm. So he's Brett's sort of mirror mirroring each scene, but like on one side it's light and on what on the other side it's dark. Yep, that's very clear, isn't it? So this is setting setting the setting another scene here. So you've got the you've got the frog wizard here from the earlier fight all beaten up, and you've got one of the little goblins here on the other side.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

So this is what they're doing, and this is what they're doing in the same time.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah, absolutely. So it mer it mirrors mirrors mirrors itself.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Kind of sorts of does this.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

But I was asking, what was this? Is that one of the knights?

SPEAKER_00 23:24

So no, that this I think is some kind of priest. It's some some kind of high priest, a light priest. So they've got a light priest on one side and a dark priest on the other. I know. And they're talking about this prophecy coming true about about Dork, that there's a creature who's half dark and half light, and he's gonna basically but you always have prophecies, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Yeah, prophecies.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

You always do, yeah, you always have prophecies in in fantasy stuff. Um so you've got the light side talking about it here, and then the dark side, they've both got scrolls and so on. Um and so they're the you've got the light side saying you've got to find him first, and the dark side saying you must find him first. And they're they're starting they're talking so they're talking this through, and they're bringing up the uh the best of the warriors here at the bottom.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Yeah, he looks impressive.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

I'll tell you about the other one. I think that might be a her. Oh, which one is a her?

SPEAKER_00 24:26

I think the dark one's a her. That's a her? Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Well she what he's got beard, he can't be a her, can it?

SPEAKER_00 24:34

No, it's not beard, it's just shadow. And not a five o'clock shadow either.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Okay. Are we going to see that are we going to see the character later?

SPEAKER_00 24:46

I think we will do. This is this is now the end of the of the first the first issue. Setting the scene. Setting the scene. They've sent they've basically said the best warriors from both sides have been sent out to go and get Dork and probably kill him. Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

What's this bit oh my skin can see that's the that's where you can go online? So as is quite information.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Yeah, as as is quite common, uh, especially in image comics, um they allow their creators opportunity to promote themselves.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah, quite the hype.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yeah. So this is this is a uh caricature of Brett by himself talking about his website where all of his uh you can get all of his artwork and stuff like that. And then you've got a cover gallery. This is some that's the other cover we've talked about variant covers in other issues before. So they got had some really cool people. George Corona works with Scotty as well. They're they're going to be launching a new comic. Scotty Young. Right. Was he kind of started out as an artist, but he's become more he even though he still draws, he draws great variant covers for Marvel. He writes a lot more than he draws now.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

I'd quite like to see photographs of these people to try and get them into context. You keep on you say this person, that person, that person, I can't keep up with it. But if I had some photographs of them, we'll have to look for some. Oh, I'll look for some. Yeah. I'll go Googling. Yeah. Well, I like the paper, I like the colours. Oh, is there something else?

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Yeah, then you've got like you've got image with their kind of like newsletter of what's coming up in in uh in February. Advertising. And then there's another one of uh Daniel Warren Johnson's type. Daniel Warren Johnson's an amazing artist who did uh who did a fantastic run on Transformers recently. This is a really great fantasy series he did call wrote called The Moon Is Following Us. It's really good, it's bad. A mother and a father trying to get their child back.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Oh really? It's a bit different series, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Really, really good.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

A different series, really different, different stories, what I was going to say. Well, I was just going to give my kind of overview of this. Please do. Well, I'm giving it with it or not. I I like the paper, and I like the the way it's set out. It's not too busy and everything.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

And they always have I think the they always have really good creative teams putting their stuff together.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Yes, I like some of I like that image and that there was the tree and and what have you. But I have to say, I would only give this probably about four out of ten. Oh, yeah. And the four it gets for all it for the things I've just said. But basically, it's just fighting. And I think, oh yeah, yeah, fighting. It is, isn't it? The whole the whole you're looking so sad. The whole comic to me is just fighting. But maybe because I sort of don't particularly like fighty things, it does it's not aimed at me, is it?

SPEAKER_00 28:11

If Eliza Moray Eliza Moray reads a lot of fantasy novels, and to be honest, she has told me that if she's read if there's a fight in it, quite often she'll skip over the fight until the find out who's dead and then carry on with the story. So, yeah, but as Eliza Mora rightly said, she's not the target audience for this. I mean, me is the is the target audience. This is my kind of thing. I I like these kind of comics. So, why have you invited me on to this? Because it's always good to have a balance to have a balanced view, to have two.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

And you haven't got everybody else to ask. But I can see it's interesting to see where where it goes next because hopefully they're not fighting for the entire next.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Yeah, I mean, um yeah, you're gonna have these two rival parties coming out looking for Dork, and Dork's trying to work out sort of what he is and who he is as it goes along because he's yeah, I like his face. Look at Q. It's just I I love the way Brett draws, it's it's it's really great. It's a great sort of cartoony style. Um it means that you haven't got to have this sort of textbook big buff superhero kind of character. Uh ironically, there was that was a kind of what a lot of the guys who set up image were trying to get away from, so there'd be more more depth to the story.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Yeah, more depth to the story.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Oh then they go mate, fighting on but to be honest, a lot most most most comics are uh have have a fight of some kind in there. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Well most most I say no, a lot of books be they they fantasy or others have a fight. Something you know towards the end with the big finish, there's likely to be a Barney. But uh yeah, so but it gets four out of ten too much fighting.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Too much fighting, okay. But generally, uh but but uh apart from that, I mean you like the way it actually looks and everything, the way it's put together.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

I do, and I I take your point about the the font being larger, you know, it's definitely a step in the right direction, needs to get larger still. Um, but yes, and there's some good colours. I didn't like the front cover colours, but when we got inside, I can't find them there.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

There were some colours. Oh, you like the colours here on this bite scene, the way they broke it.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Yes, and there were some others too, which you know we just didn't see. So I like the colour and I like the feel of the um paper.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Paper, yeah, it's kind of it's got a satin feel, it's not really glossy, um, but it's not it's not too flat either. It's decent, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 31:07

In in weight.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

I don't know what weight it is, but I'd say it's probably about 80 grams, it's about the same as like letter paper, but because it's because it's got a satin finish on it, it feels slightly heavier. It's funny, I was thinking that makes it feel lighter somehow.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

It feels lighter than 80 grams.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

It allows the inks to hold better and stuff like that and to show off, you know, the the the colour work and stuff like that as well.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Yes, yeah. Okay, we're going to do uh one of the other episodes to see where it goes.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Yeah, we could carry on with we could pick up with Dork when the next issue comes out and see how it develops and and to see where the story goes.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yes, and see if it can can um I can't really think of the word, but develops? No, um um I can't think of words. I know what I mean, let's hope it does that. Okay at least I know I don't if not if anybody else knows, but uh yes that that that is good.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Good. Well I'm glad you enjoyed it and uh hope everyone enjoyed sit uh enjoyed hearing what we thought of uh Dork. Um let us know in the comments what you thought. Have you read it yet? Uh are you have you been waiting for it to come out? Are you looking forward to it?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Is it available in other countries?

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Yeah, um Image, as I said, is an American publisher, so presumably it's a it's available there. It's available there, you know. This is I I've got this from my local comic shop.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

And and Breeze, the dog, hasn't made any grumbles or Breeze has been a Breeze has been a really good girl.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

She's um she's behaved herself quite well here.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

That's because I'm giving a fuss.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

So there we go, folks. So tune in next time to hear what comic we decide to talk about. Bye. Bye, bye-bye.