EPISODE 20: WEIRD WORK

Welcome back to MORGAN TALKS COMICS...

This week, we're looking at "WEIRD WORK" by JORDAN THOMAS and British artist SHAKY KANE, published by IMAGE COMICS. It's a surreal detective story set in a futuristic world where anything goes.

I've been a fan of SHAKY'S work since the 80s, when he was drawing for DEADLINE, alongside other cartoonists you may just have heard of JAMIE HEWLETT and PHILIP BOND. SHAKY draws in a wonderfully nostalgic style, reminiscent of a certain JACK KIRBY.

It's a great comic, full of bright colours and clean lines... look out for kittens!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Right, welcome back to Morgan Talks Comics. Uh, this week we are looking at Weird Work by Jordan Thomas and British artist Shaky Kane, who I've been a fan of gosh for a long time. Um, welcome on board at Iceborough Chamberlain.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hello again.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Um yeah, so Shaky Kane, real name Michael Courtard, Shaky is his pen name and it's what most people refer to him as um has hello Oberon.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Good kitty. Come on, come on, keep going.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

That's it, keep moving. Um, yeah, so yeah, I've been aware of Shaky's work since the 80s when I used to read um Deadline, which was a great uh British like anthology comic and magazine. It had it it sort of it balanced cartoon strips by Jamie Hewlett who's now does the Gorillas. Uh it's where Tank Girl started, really.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I've heard of both those, but all the other things of yours I've not heard of.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Yeah, so Tank Girl started in in 2008, uh 2018, Deadline, and Deadline also had like interviews with bands that were popular at the time and stuff like that, and they talk about film and TV and all kinds of stuff. It was kind of it was a really nice mix of comics and entertainment as well. Um yeah, Shaky did a lot of lot of work in that deadline Excuse me, please, Oberon. Oberon's really not helping today.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, you'll get shut out of the room, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Settle down, mate. Sit with me. There we go. Um yeah, so yeah, Shaky uh sort of came up through the indie comic scene uh in in the UK during the 80s and um is still pretty darn prolific now. This this one, Weird Work, is I think he did two series this year. This is from 2023, and I think he did two he did two four-issue series for image comics uh in 2023. I've got both of them, I can't remember the other one at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Um I don't recognise that comic or either of those names. So we've not had anything to do with those before.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

No, I mean we've talked about we've talked about Jamie Hewlett before and we've talked about gorillas before because they're sort of yeah. Um so that's the you know, these guys all sort of came up around the same time. There was a really great indie comic scene uh in it, as there has been in other countries, but in the 80s there was a really good indie comic scene. Deadline was kind of like the the top, top of the pile sort of thing. Um but yeah, it's where Shaky Shaky's had lots of work in there, and so is Hewlett and Philip Bond and other really great uh British cartoonists.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Nice. This looks very appealing for the fun, I have to say. Yeah, nice colours, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

So Shakey draws in a very much you can you can you can see a lot of Jack Kirby's um influence on on his work. He's got a kind of a to me, it's like a very 1950s kind of zet aesthetic.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

That hadn't stretched it.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

It's sort of pulp, it's sort of like pulp uh adventure type comics.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

But he draws in this sort of very heavily heavy line style and and quite flat colours, you know, very simple flat colours. He colours predominantly colours his own work. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Right. So we ready to roll?

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Ready to roll.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Oh, brother, didn't it?

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Oh, he's going off in the opposite direction. Um, just a quick look before we dive into the issue. Um, there's some great uh variant cover artists with this. Michael Alred, who's one of my one of my favourites, who created Madman in the 80s again, similar style to Shaky Kane. Um, so you can probably see why uh he did a cover, and Jeff and Jeff Darrow, who we were talking about last week with Showel and Cowboys, Jeff Darrow done a variant cover, and again you can see parallels between Darrow's you know um working with architecture and packing quite a lot of detail into frames. Shaky, even though he draws in quite a simplistic style, does actually put quite a lot of detail and there's sort of references to pop culture and stuff like that in there.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Right, yeah, even jokes. Yeah, I guess, yeah. And what's Shaky Kay's real name?

SPEAKER_02 4:56

His real name is Michael Coultard.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

That's much nicer.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Yeah. Why didn't he use his beauty? I I I tried doing a little bit of research as to where I it just came from it just came from I don't know where, to be honest. I don't know the answer. Yeah, I tried to do a bit of research um as to where the actual name Shaky Kane came from, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Kitties kept walking across the uh K of Kable, didn't they?

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yes, they did.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Or one in particular, we won't mention who, will we? Over on.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

No. Um so yeah, we've got a bit we've got a nice big uh splash page here with uh sort of a to me it's very it's a very sort of 1950s American sort of style. So that's like a big it's like a um you've got like flying cars because it's set in a sort of a futuristic city, but that's like a it's a like a beer can on the back of a truck, so it's like a big tanker. Oh so it kind of looks a little bit like a Budweiser can.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Right, and what's this? Is it an eye?

SPEAKER_02 6:06

It's an eye, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Why is it yeah?

SPEAKER_02 6:09

I don't I'm not exactly sure, but I think it might have something to do with our main character who's a detective.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Not a private eye, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

So and notice notice the type it the type here? Upper and lower? It's upper and lower case.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Oh that's gonna get a lot of points. Didn't they used to be called private dicks?

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Yes. Why? I don't know. I don't know why dick was uh the a slang term for detective. Oh shorter than version Yeah, it's a it's sort of a slang term for for the for detectives. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

I don't suppose they call themselves that anymore.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Probably not.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Watch those.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

I'm not I'm watching I'm watching watching this kitten. Oh he's he's making a move elsewhere. Right, so splash into the into the story. We've got a we've got a character here that's got like a pig's head. Well look has got a pig's head. Um I think the the idea is that they're sort of like mutants and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Right, yes. Where was it set? I mean, you said one's English and the others were not, yeah?

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Yeah, so as far as we're aware, Jordan Thomas is is an American writer because Image is an Americ Image is an American publishing company, they're the kind of third biggest behind Marvel and DC.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

So are they is this um set in America, sort of?

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, so it's set in Stellar City. Septimus Prime's Cantankerous Capital.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

We don't have anything something city, do we?

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Not here we don't know. No. No. No, we just have we're just normal and use just names. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, um there's uh the pig pig face character here I think might be called Vimi. Vimi. Vimy Vimmy Vimi.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Not like thingy then.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

No. And uh there's some kind of hold-up going up here because there's lots of character weird, weird and wonderful characters with with guns holding up what looks like uh holding up a a car here on this fly on the flyover that we saw in the first Who's in the car then? Um I don't know yet. Well I don't think one we've seen yet who's actually in the car. There's a like a reflection of a of a driver, like a chauffeur, it's sort of like in a chauffeur's uniform.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah somebody wealthy in there.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Why has he got a a red finger?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Because he's got blood on his finger.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Oh, just the one?

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

I suppose there's a few bits around, but yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

So yeah, we've got a mix here. So we've got the the sort of like pardon me, narration to the story is actually in upper and lowercase, and then the the type, the speech is actually in uppercase. So we've got a mix of the two.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Okay, we step in the right direction. Yeah, they've just lost half a point.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Yeah, but this is done in this is done in in Shaky's sort of i inimitable style. It's you know, you I I know from seeing looking at this that it's it's his work, but I can see parallels with Jeff Darrow that we looked at last week. Um but very much the silver age, which I think is the 60s and 70s, Jack Kirby.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Flat colours, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Yeah, yeah, which I quite like. That's how I do my colours. I quite like that. It's taken me a while.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

They don't look like that though, do they? They've got more life through them than that.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

No, see, I I personally I think this is quite bright here. You know, we've got quite vivid colours, you know, and because it's it's different because there's not a lot of like sh of shading as such. Um thank you, Ophelia. Um yeah, it just uh it just allows the the the art the line work to sort of feed through. What's he doing with that last? Looks like he's pressing a button inside the car. Oh right.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Right. Oh, I know what I was thinking of whilst you were talking. Are there any actual cities called something city in the in the US? Or like was that a comic thing?

SPEAKER_01 10:47

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Salt Lake City.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Salt Lake City, yeah. Yeah. Um answered my own question, didn't I? You did answer your own question. Yeah, so there's a and then we come to another big uh splash page where the pig character is flying out of the uh he sort of used an escape like an escape. Oh, what's the thing you'd have in fighter jets?

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Um ejector.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Eject yeah, an ejector seat. That's it. Yeah, yeah, so he's using like an ejector seat and is he the driver? No.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Oh he's the important person.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Yeah. I think looking at this, this if this is Vimmy, he's a poly he's actually a politician.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

And there's some unfortunate language there.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Yeah, it's a little bit potty mouth, this one.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, so it's lost points now.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

It's not for children. It's not for me. No. So yeah, so is he um um demon? Uh we'll just get into that. I'm sorry. You get you're get you're get getting ahead of me. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Is that Bob's square pants?

SPEAKER_02 11:57

It is a square character. I think he's just like a sort of a s like a cube with arms and legs.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

So it's the same as Bob Bob, whatever his name is.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Pretty much, yeah. Apart from he actually has pants on, and this one's not wearing any pants.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

We can't see because he's covered up in bits.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Yeah, so we're moving into again. Shakey uses quite clean, clear panels and sort of does a fairly minimal panel count on a page.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Um blank spaces.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Yeah, so there's like a hovering city, and then we go into into the city, and we've got Shaky has quite a surreal uh style, he mixes in lots of different sort of cultures and stuff like that. So the the you get a you get a real mixture of of all kinds of characters in there.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Yeah, so we've got these two characters here, one that looks like a devil, one that looks that is a a cube, and they're clearly bodyguards to somebody who who's we we haven't met yet.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

I thought he was a demon.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Yeah, he looks like a demon. Yeah. And then some some guys in black, sort of like SAS type suits come barging in through the window.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

And take and sort of ta uh uh put the guards down onto the floor. And then we see our lead character, Lady Haste, who's got a sort of an Egyptian vibe to her.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yes, I quite like that look. She's blue, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Again, it's another kind of trademark of Shady uh Shaky's kind of style is that quite often skin tones will be like really different.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

I thought you were gonna say shady lane.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

No, not shady lane, no. And uh the one of the uh agents type characters goes in and serves a warrant for uh for an arrest for an an attempted murder for home. For Lady Haste.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah, but she's just sprung up. Yeah, but they've Is he not he nothing to do with the car?

SPEAKER_02 14:20

No, we've moved on from the car. We've moved into a different scene now. We're in like a sort of this is a fl like in a floating palace.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Oh, I see, I see, I'll get it.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

And then so that so Lady Ace gets taken off by these agent characters.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Um there's a strange person there.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

Yeah, you're you you're getting ahead of me a lot.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

So the next page, we've got a big panel, and it says eight months later. And we've got the sort of like private detective, sort of like, you know, Marlowe voiceover kind of kind of thing going. And we're it we're into into a bar where we've got lots of sort of fantastical creatures. There are guys who look like sort of pickles, and there's a singer look like what? Pickles. What do you mean? They look like pickles, yeah, these green guys in there.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Oh, they actually look like pickles, yeah. I get it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Yeah, and then there's uh uh female character singing who's got six arms, so it could be and an antennae, so she looks kind of like an i an insect of some description. So get the the voiceover continues and is is allowing the the story to unfold as we go through.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

And then we come into a oh she hasn't got any fit. Well, I suppose arguably. Oh no, this is her too, is it? Yeah, that bit there, all right.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

And then we've come into a double double spread page, not dissimilar to how Jeff Darrow does the big spreads. Um what are these blank things? So there's the club as being broken into by we can't see because we only see the hands and the weapons, these are like Tommy guns, you know that the the old-fashioned machine guns that they used in the 30s and stuff like that. Yes, because like I say, Shaky's aesthetic is very much sort of 1950s America, he tends to do he has quite a nostalgic style, so the guns are like yeah, the kind of things that you would have seen like Capone and his lot use in the 30s, these like Tommy guns with the round magazines on them. They're coming in and shooting everybody up.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

These bits are that where they're shooting.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

That's where they're shooting, so it's like the flash of the of the bullets going out, and this is the projector bullet.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

So he's she's got shot, she's looking like it. Mind your own business singing. Yeah. He's got an unfortunate number of eyes. He's not symmetrical. He's not symmetrical. That's the those people's hair, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 17:09

I don't think so. We've got some weird creatures, weird female characters here who've got flames who've got flames for heads.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

And aren't they making the thing on the next page?

SPEAKER_02 17:19

I don't think so. I think this is so look, we've flashed now, could we come up to a our main character who is clearly either remembering or dreaming about what's just happened, the club being attacked.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

How do you know that?

SPEAKER_02 17:39

It comes up and says ten months later, so we've moved on a little bit further. So this is our this is our main character here, Source. Uh come. Sure, we come over his first name. Um, but he's called yeah, he's he's Source, he's a detective.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Um where was when that um car, which is there, yeah, where was he?

SPEAKER_02 18:04

I think this is like a dream. This is like um the the the sounds that are coming through is this phone ringing and it's waking him up from a dream.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Right. Is the is the dream relevant? Because it just looks like a car on you. I thought it might be that other car.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

I don't know if it is the other car. We'll find out as we go a little bit further through.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Oh I'm impatient, so I want to. You are impatient, aren't you?

SPEAKER_02 18:32

I want to know now. Yeah, well, you're just gonna have to wait. This is the first issue, and we're setting the scene. Get on with it, then Yeah, so um detective source uh is talking to uh the headquarters of the police, they want him to come in and um I assume be assigned to a case.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Um hang on, he's a detective with the police thing.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Oh no, he's not a police detective.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

So he's not a private detective, no, he's uh Well, why did I get that idea for him?

SPEAKER_00 19:10

I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

But yeah, he's a he's a police detective.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Doesn't wear many clothes, does he?

SPEAKER_02 19:17

No, he's just got his boxes on.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Yeah, but over here he's not wearing clothes.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah, but you can see in the the previous page he's wearing boxes. That's just seeing him from the back, so he's not got a any top on. Yeah, but why not? I don't know. Maybe just like sleeping in his boxes. Maybe he's hot.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Is he getting out of bed here?

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Oh, I thought he was going into this um.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

No, he's watching that on he's watching something on TV. There's an announcement about a uh it says cop's teenage daughter overdoses on throth, and I think throth is like a drug in in this in Stellar City. Yeah. And then it says grieving chief promises through crackdown.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Okay, is that the grieving chief chief?

SPEAKER_02 20:09

No.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

This is nice and colourful, this page.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yeah. Like I say, it it uses really vibrant colours, and because he uses this sort of flat colouring style, it really makes the colours pop. Um very much like sort of literally like pop art from the sip from the fifth from the fifth 50s and sixties.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Like those ones of Elvis. Yeah, and then the warholes.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

The warhole ones, yeah, absolutely. Um so yeah, so we see um detector source going off on the train and goes through to the police um precinct station. Precinct station, station, precinct, yeah. Um he talks to some some of these other characters as he goes into there and and he's going he's saying that he's gonna go and find out what's going on. And then he comes up to the chief's office, who is this big sort of grey, sort of almost kind of a bit sort of like a bit of an ogre kind of character.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

He has got clothes on now.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

I was confused, I thought he was going to work no clothes on.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

No, he's got he's dressed there, he's got a shirt and tie and a jacket on.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Well, you tell me that if I'm nutty, this is a comic. Anything happens in the comic.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Yeah. Absolutely. So um the chief is talking sauce, and he's he's saying he he said I want I'm sorry for your loss because his daughter's died, and and he says Justice has no time to grieve, detective, you know that more than most. And he's okay tough guy talk. Tough guy talk, yeah. It's it's very much it's very much that kind of you know pulp fiction. Not real. No. Sort of pulp. Fiction um again 50s kind of vibe to it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

What's he doing there? Just talking to him.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Yeah, they're talking to him about he's the chief is giving Source a case and he's uh assigning him a new partner as well. Um yeah, I think there's the setup in the story is that he's lost his previous previous partner and he's sort of like dead, yeah, not dead. Um yeah, he's not he's not too pleased about the person that's been chosen to be his new partner. So this is office truster, and he says, Donut trust her? Wasn't she suspended for accepting bribes? And then the chief says, like I said, we're at capacity, she's good please, just made a few poor choices.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Mm-hmm. Let's see her then. So we go to the front, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Right. So we've got a we've got a really nice vibrant colour of trust us sitting in a car and saying, over here sauce. Um she said, I'm not all over the moon about this either. No, she's she's not she's not kidding on having to work with him.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Oh, we'll get past it.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Yeah. And he said it's not that, I just have to tell my partner's wife that she's a widow.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

And then they go driving off into the driving off into uh Stellar City.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Mm-hmm. And what's happening here?

SPEAKER_02 23:40

It looks like she's so sauces li they're both they're both smoking, so she's litting up lit up a cigarette, and it looks like she's eating a bug here at some point uh a bug of some description.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

So they're going up the one that was in the C PBSC.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

No. So they're going to what looks like a dock. Yeah, it's a dock nine here, so like a dock. And there's there's guys protesting outside.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Well can you see what they're protesting?

SPEAKER_02 24:10

They say ga aliens go home, all species lives matter.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

So one of them's go home, the other one's all yeah. Now let me think. When would this have been written?

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Well, this is it, see, 2023, it's not that long ago, so yeah. And given the current climate we've got at the moment, with people not being happy about other people being here, or th they think you shouldn't be here.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Yeah, same forever, brother, isn't it? It's a greater lesser it's thin.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah. So they walk past the guys that are protesting, and then the cra and then as there's a crane overhead and a the cable snaps and one of the one of the protesters gets splatted by a box.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

And he says, Well, that cheered me up. Now to go see my dead partner's lifeless body. So I think yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

So we don't see that.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

I don't we haven't got to it yet. We haven't got to it yet.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Well who's this person?

SPEAKER_02 25:13

So this is a character called Yill who's who's got who's got purple skin and two big eyes on stalks. On stalks, bit like a bit like a snail. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Have snails got eyes on their stalks? I thought they did. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Yeah. But so they're they're discussing what's what's happened at the docks, and we see Source putting on some protective gloves. And he goes through and says, let's go, let's get let's go to work. And there's another big double page spread. And there's there's three dead bodies.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Yeah, and they got masks on and things.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Yeah, so you've got like a forensics team investigating what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

They haven't got masks on, have they?

SPEAKER_02 26:05

And the forensic guys here in the background have they? Yeah, the the two detectives, Source and Trusta, haven't got they've they've got gloves on, but they've not got um masks on.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Oh one of those is dead.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah, so there's a character here who's got like sort of really deep magenta skin, um, wearing a suit. I think that's the other detectives. I think that's the one he was expecting to find.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Um, wouldn't he have gone to see the dead body before he went off to see your wife?

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Well, maybe I i maybe he has seen the body and he's not talked to the wife yet.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Oh, but he said he'd just there was a bit where he said I just had to tell Yeah, tell her she was a widow, but then yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Cause he's obviously heard that the his the other his old partner got killed. Mm-hmm. And then Yeah. And then these people do that.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Oh, are they stretchers?

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Yeah, they're stretchers, so they're like they're like taking the b taking the bodies away probably for like post-mortem type stuff.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

You know something, I might be getting the hang of these comics because a few times I said, What's that? Oh, it's that.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah. I think you might just be getting your head round it.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

I'm not getting my head round what's going on next time.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

So um they're talking about going to sort speak to a tech billionaire, and he says bye to the other guy, and they drive off to this what the you've got houses that are like uh inside bubbles.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Um, why are they going to see a tech millionaire? Why are they going to leave? Why are they chosen that person to go to see?

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Um I'm just looking at at the dialogue here. Um they're talking about going to see the tech billionaire.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

That's a mystery.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

But it is a little bit of a mystery. Yeah, I'm not quite f not quite following that.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Um maybe they didn't say.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Yeah, anyway, they drive off to this these sort of big houses, mansions that are held in like glass bubbles, so they're sort of like protected from the atmosphere or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

So where is I thought this was on earth, but maybe not.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

It's it's I think it's it's supposed to be on a completely different planet.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Oh I yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

There's obviously a thing about yeah, Moral Heights, home to the mega rich and super famous. And it says always appreciated the irony in the name because if there's one thing there isn't a lot of around here, it's Morals. So they go in, they go in to see see the they see this tech billionaire Graver, I think. Graver Shoal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

That's an interesting name.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Yeah, and then we've got a droid who like um welcomes them in and uh says where you know it uh says where the uh master is. He's in the aquarium and we've got so we've got some big like deep sea fish, like giant fish swimming around with the uh other with the uh the billionaire character standing looking at them.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Is that the billionaire? Yeah, indeed. He looks like a bodyguard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Yeah, it's got that yeah hang on, is it a woman? I don't don't think he's a woman? No. Squeak him. Yeah, I know. Um but they this is sort of like a very different style here because the the character's got the like this ebon black skin. It's got a the the the draw characters drawn with black skin with like sort of purple or m or or indigo highlights on them. And they have like what like white hair. And we're seeing so we they go they're talking about um what happened at the uh at the docks talking about the case and the um they it they they they talk about the case and then he says good luck with the investigation detectives.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

So why does I don't get why he's talking to it?

SPEAKER_02 30:40

I think because the I think the the billionaire owns some of the the stuff that was at the docks.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Oh there's a connection he wasn't in the the car, was he?

SPEAKER_02 30:49

No, I don't think so, no. So I think the person in the car that was shot up at the beginning was a politician, not a yes, I remember now it didn't look like a person, did he? So like so the the That's the the the sort of like the house robot, the droid that that dragged him into took him through to see the billionaire character.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Oh the uh butler. Sorry, kids. I made you jump.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Yeah, so we've got some we've got some dialogue between the two detectives here as we see a scene of them going up in a lift going up to um I think they're checking out where the where the other detective was and there's there's like a beat cop. I think it was yeah, it's supposed rather than being a daughter, is think he's like a beat cop in uniform, and they they go into the apartment to find out what's what's been going on to do some some detective work.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Detect, yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

What is the is that an advertisement? Oh no, too big and didn't you? So the what is that?

SPEAKER_02 32:06

So they go, huh, someone's here and the the last pan last page is a is a big full page again. We've got and we've got the cliffhanger. The cliffhanger, we've got this so we've got um the detective this one's transparent, aren't they? Yeah, so they've got some they they were talking about some kind of camouflage suits earlier on, so which made them kind of effectively invisible to the naked eye. And there they they are, there they are, and they come jumping out at the end. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Um She's um a very shapy woman, isn't she?

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Very shapely woman, yeah. No prizes, no, no problems guessing what gender that character is. And there we go.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Cops, cults, crooks, and corruption. Oh, there's the singer again. I thought she was I thought she was bumped off.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Well, she was, but this is this is just picking out images from the from the actual comics or you know, a bit like a having a sleeve on a on a book.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Was the piggy one the person that came out of the car?

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Yes, right, yeah. So there we go, weird work, Jordan Thomas and Shaky Kane say I've been aware of Shaky's work for feels like a almost forever. You know, I got it when I really sort of started getting into comics in the in the 80s, he was around then. Um he's done work for 2000 AD, he's done Judge Dredd. Um, and yeah, he's kind of worked all over the place, and it's br it's brilliant to see him doing stuff for one of the bigger biggest American publishers.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Can I give it my points? Please do my personal points.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Yeah, personal points.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Personal points. Well, the colours are brilliant, well, not brilliant, but they're nice. And the story, there wasn't that much in the way of Barney's, were they? It wasn't well, it was a proper story, yeah. And the characters are interesting. Um, so I mean, and it looks like it's done on decent paper. What do you think? It's not as good as some other ones.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Yeah, I mean it's good it's fairly fairly standard, sort of glossy paper. Uh it's a nice, nice weight of paper. Some of the other stuff we've looked at have had slightly uh some of them have had cardstock covers. This is just like this is kind of standard paper that comics are on now. You know, you know, we I talked about stuff when we looked at GRU right early on a bit about it was on what what's called newsprints, so paper like the paper like newspapers.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

When I was a little girl, lots of the comics were like that. Well the comics for boys were comics for girls were in nice paper.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Yeah, it's interesting that that the the the sort of the the pulp more sort of pulpy comics that the boys read, war comics and stuff like that were on yeah, cheaper newsprint paper, and the girls' comics seemed to have a little bit more care and attention put to how the they were put together.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Although I those I did read those some of those boys' comics because my cousin used to give them to us a great big pile of them. When she was when uh his mother was um clearing out, we would win. I used to lie on the floor and read them. And used to read all one story all the way through them and then go back to reading another story all the way through them. Didn't like these missing bits stuff. I didn't do it properly, did I?

SPEAKER_02 35:45

So reading it every week as it came out?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

No, I had a stack of them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

So I put them into order. You didn't read a whole issue, then the next issue, then the next issue.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

No, I didn't. I used to look for the story and then see what happened with the story. Yes. Yeah, so but this um loses some points for having little but naughty mouths and oh it got points for having upper and lower case, but there was still some upper case, but it was such a step in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

I think I think I'll give that about eight and a half.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

Mmm. That might be the highest score you've given yet, you know. It might be. I think it might be. The half tipped it over.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

So Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

That's us done, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 36:45

I think that's us cooks, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:48

The kitties have gone to sleep.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Yeah, typ typically, now that we've actually just about to wrap up, the kit yeah, both of the kittens and our dog are now fast asleep and not not affecting us at all. No. No.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

She hasn't come over to look at all that sweet.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

But as always, let us know what you think. Any comments would be great. We like to hear what people think of the of what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yes, constructive criticism only.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

But criticism, be it negative or positive, is better than nothing.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Right, bye. Bye.