EPISODE 21: WILLIAM OF NEWBURY

Welcome back to MORGAN TALKS COMICS...

This week, we're looking at WILLIAM OF NEWBURY by MICHAEL AVON OEMING, published by DARK HORSE COMICS. This is a wonderful anthropomorphic animal tale, set in 12th century England, and follow the adventures of FATHER WILLIAM, a monk from Newbury Abbey.

Father William is known for performing 'exorcisms' of ghosts and spirits, which is not looked upon fondly by the Prior of the abbey, who is more concerned with donations to the church.

It's a beautifully told tale of times gone by, and would fit in nicely in MIKE MIGNOLA'S universe - OEMING has worked with MIGNOLA on numerous occasions.

Enjoy the episode, and look out for kittens and dreaming dogs!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello. Welcome back to Morgan Talks Comics. Oh, here comes Ophelia. She's far too interested in cables at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Yes, well actually we were going to start doing this review of the comic um a while ago and instead the cats were just messing around on here. So we did a review of the cats instead. We did to send to um the people we were kindly given them by somebody whose cats have had kittens, so I I promised to let them know their progress, so that was a good way of doing it. But now she's being naughty, is that can I say I told you so? Yeah, you can tell me, yeah, you can say that. You let her play with that. Yeah. She could um take out the white bit and she might play with just the white bit.

unknown 0:56

No.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

No, she's far more interested in the cable. Oh no, she's cleaning herself. No, she's interested in the cable on the recorder.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Well, I don't want her to damage it or well, she can't be electrocuted because it's not that sort of cable. Oh that gone now. How mean is Morgan? Oh, you can look it back to her. Anyway, our what uh well I could is that say Newberry?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Yeah, so it's so this week we're looking at William of Newbury. Uh this was brought out 2024, so just just over a couple of years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Um yeah, were you Well no, I was just looking. Is this a cat?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

No, he's a raccoon.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Oh right.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

So it's interesting. This is an anthropomorphic animal c comic uh set in kind of medieval times in England, which is interesting because obviously raccoons are native to England. No, they're not. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

You got me there for a minute because I was thinking when we were in America in New Orleans, they were raccoons.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah, we saw raccoons when we were in New Orleans, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Saw baby ra raccoons playing and an alligator was there.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Yeah, it was an alligator.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Creeping up on it. But uh uh we were around there, but I think the rule is just don't interfere, isn't it? Absolutely. So I really we didn't want them to go. And then another alligator came up and they had such a barney about who was going to go up there that the recruits ran away. Well that teach them, isn't that? But uh yes, that was a oh dear, what's what's the word I'd want?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

An experience?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Well it certainly was that. Um heart in the throat sort of experience.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Hot in the mouth. I do heart in my mouth is what you say, isn't it? Is it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Oh well. I don't know. Well clearly it was stressful because I can't even remember the I can't remember what I can't remember. Oh, it is hot here. I don't know where you are and what the temperatures are like, but it's ridiculously hot here. It's supposed to be 38 or 39 over the next couple of days.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

And I this is just ridiculous in the UK. We don't what didn't used to get anything like this ever.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah, we're hovering around 30, uh 30 plus most days at the moment, so.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Mmm, and we're in the Midlands, which isn't known as the hottest place in the UK.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

No, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yes, anyway, where were we?

SPEAKER_00 3:39

The raccoon. So the raccoon who is native to America, not England.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

But this one's a well travelled, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

This is a well-travelled so this is by Michael Avanoming, who quite often works with Brian Michael Bendis. They're doing um they're doing the new run of Powers for Dark Horse Comics, published by Dark Horse here. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Who was it that he he works with?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

He works with Mark something.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

He just said you really fast.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I couldn't Oh no, I've got I've gone blank. Well when it comes back to Brian Bendis, he works with Brian Bendis, and they they created a comic called Powers, which is kind of a police procedural comic bo uh based with superheroes. So like Is it teaching the police procedures? No, it's it's it's like it's like a pre police procedural series, you know, like Hill Street Blues or something like that. An actual programme that showed you how the police do their job. Like the bill? Yeah, like the bill over here. Um it's like that, but it's in a world where there are superheroes, so they have to use superpowers and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

That sounds like Arrow. We've just finished watching that yesterday. Got a bit boring towards the end, but too much. On the hull. Yes. But on the hull, it was really good.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, Michael Evanomi quite uh quite often works with Brian Beddis, they're doing powers. There's a new run published by Dark Horse. Uh at the moment, it's been running for about a year, it's really good. I I took it as an opportunity to jump onto the title because I've been aware of it for a long time. Right. But it was a good point to start reading it because they sort of created a fresh, fresh start with it. So it's really, really good. But anyway, they both do comics in the in their own rights. Brian uh Bendis has done quite a lot of graphic novels that I've collected. Michael Avan Oming has done a lot of work with Hello Ophelia. Um Michael Avan Oming, so we're getting Michael Over Avon Oming.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Right, you should be so quickly I can't actually hear.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Michael Avon Ooming. Um they both of them, but Mike uh Oming especially has worked with um Mike Mignola in the Hellboy universe. And he's done some uh spin-off comics from the main Hellboy bit. So this one actually fits in really nicely with kind of the Hellboy thing, sort of ghosts and ghouls and sort of monsters and stuff like that. Um so yeah, we have here William of Newbury, the t the the title of character titular character, who is a raccoon, so he's actually a monk.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

And who's he?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

So this is a skeleton, he's got these ghosts wandering around, as you'll see as you'll get as you're getting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Um she's trying, oh, she just climbed over the microphone.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Yeah. Really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

I don't know why she didn't go there.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

So um, yeah, this is set in like medieval England. Um, the opening spread, we can see it here. Not dissimilar to when we were looking at MouseGuard a couple of a little while ago. That has kind of a medieval, oldie world y kind of feel to it.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

It's gone out of my head.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

The title page here is all laid out in like sort of a like an illuminated Bible kind of script. This is with the lettering and so on.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

The monks used to do that, and he is a monk, didn't you say?

SPEAKER_00 7:15

He is a monk. Um interestingly, on this uh Michael is doing basically everything on the car. He's he's written it, he's drawn it, and he's actually lettering it as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Well that's good.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah. And then that's what you do. That's what I do, yeah. I t I tend to put my comics together solo.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

So and I don't even see them. I see the pictures, don't I?

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

That looks like uppercase.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

It is uppercase.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Right, they're down the point.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

It's very small as well, the writing. Not unnecessarily so I'd say, because it looks as if there's more room on those, you know, blank music.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yeah, interestingly, yeah. The panel, there's this it's quite large panels. Uh Ome Drive draws in quite uh excuse me, clar uh quite a clear fashion with lots of blacks. Again, not a million miles away from Hambig Nola drawers.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Um so this is why they've crossed over on quite a few occasions doing stuff. But what we've got here is we've got um an opening, the opening page, and it's set in 12th century England, it's a time of civil war.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

And then we Is that the thing is on the ground round royalists and the roundheads? No, I think the roundheads was a bit later.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

I might be wrong.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

But um Is it a real civil law war? Oh, I can't speak today. I'm too hot to speak. Is it a real civil war?

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Um it might be. We would have to do some historical research to find out what's going on. But anyway, we they're they're introduced they're introducing the story by saying what time period we're in, where we are, so we're in 12th century England. And then uh towards the end of the page we see the action shift and we go into a what looks like a monastery.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

It's all double dingy.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yeah. We've got a character here who could be a weasel or ferret kind of character, quite tall, tall and thin. So he could be a weasel or a ferret.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Or what's that other thing? The spellers of we if they're not gonna dub or ferrets. Ferrets, oh right, it's a ferret.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

They're leading, I mean, leading uh Father William down to a uh uh dungeon.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Is he supposed to be old?

SPEAKER_00 9:46

I don't know what age he's supposed to be. I mean, I I think he's supposed to be kind of middle-aged in this. Right. He goes down the stairs into this into the cellar, and we can see a spirit breaking up through the floor. Like say lots of echoes of Big Nola style here with lots of heavy blacks and sort of like sort of ruined stone and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

I like the most bits, but not the yellow bits.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Not the yellow bits because it's yellow.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

It's yellow, most least favourite.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

But it's an interesting way that they contrast the character against the spirits. So you've got two very sort of opposing palettes. You've got you've got this, you've got sort of more like blues and purples for William, and then you've got these yellows and greens for the actual spirits. Quite a lot of people seem to think that ectoplasm, the spirit that ghosts are surrounded by is green.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Um well, it it probably would be yellow green because anyway it doesn't exist, does it?

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah. So we've got this big spirit that kind of looks like maybe like a weasel and possibly even a hedgehog. It looks like it's got spines on it.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Are they friendly spirits?

SPEAKER_00 10:58

No, they are not. They are not, they are not a friendly spirit. Father William is is basically sort down. I think he's he's basically going to do an exorc exorcism of sorts.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

So we see him, we see the the spirit talking to him. And then Father William is standing there with his staff, and at the end of the of the of the page here, he's saying, In the name of the Lord, I bind every power of the spirit and command thee to, but the spirit interrupts him. So he's trying to chase him off.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Well, I'm not surprised there for sending them somewhere. They must be quite happy in their dungeon, minding their own beastwax.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah, it looks like things have gone a little bit wrong. He's trying to he's trying to to send the spirit, which I'm looking again now, and definitely is like a hedgehog type character.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Oh, so he's g hang on. The one that was like a ferret is a hedgehog, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

No, the one that's like a ferret is the guard who's standing at the top of the stairs. So we go on to the go to the next page and it's sort of going back to see you can see the guard standing at the top of the stairs to the cellar.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

This is even more like um arrow going back and forth inside.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

No, it's not it's this is all staying in the same timeline. Oh right, we're not going backwards and forwards. We're just saying we're not going back, it's it's re it's like a a cinema shot, it's going back to a shot of the guard.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Oh, I think so the guard's a fairy and he's a goodie, is that right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

So the the the lights all go out in the attic, in the attic, in the cellar. And uh the guards standing there at the top of the stairs going, Father William, and then there's a big sneeze, and Father William appears.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Um which bit are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Just here at the top of the page.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

So there's the guard standing there in like almost in silhouette, and then you see a sneeze and Father William appears.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Right. This is the guard up close, is it?

SPEAKER_00 13:09

This is the guard up close with like a a chainmail head head but headpiece on.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Chainmail.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

It says good news, I didn't see any spiders, but it was quite damp down there. Oh, hand demon.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Um so the um thingamajig was a demon, not just the ghost.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Not just the ghost, it was a demon, yeah. Right. Anyway, um Father William has uh uh evil took root, but I've washed it with holy water, should bother you no more. And the guard says, Thank you, Father William, if I may, and hands him a bag of coins. Alright, yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

I always I like that when they have it in bags like that.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Yeah. These guards say that his his cousin is having similar trouble, so it's it's there's a there's a more ghost going on. And Father William says, Well, it does seem to be going around these days. And then we've got and then we've got a big sort of splash page and it says a serious nuisance a serious nuisance in Buckinghamshire.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Buckinghamshire and when he was tell sorry.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Just getting my American pronunciation on there.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Are you taking a mick of people?

SPEAKER_00 14:24

No, I'm not.

unknown 14:25

Good.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Well what was I I've forgotten what I was going to say now. Oh yes, when when he was told about the other um problem somebody help self help somebody else had, he must have been very happy because it made another pouch of money, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Yeah, even though he even though he's a lucky monk, they're they're clearly taking money to I don't know the the church that at that time they had they had quite a lot of wealth, didn't they? Well they have now. They have now, yeah. So the the the following page we we see um sorry, excuse me. We see we see Father William at the instead is it says there's a caption it says it's at Newbury Ar Abbey.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Um that's what he's called, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 15:13

No.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

What's the name of the comic?

SPEAKER_00 15:16

William of Newbury. Oh yeah, so yeah, sorry, Newbury, Newbury Abbey, yeah, that's where he's from. Oh sorry, came home. My mistake, so he's gone back to gone back to head base. Um he's standing there talking to another character who's who's like a rabbit, big rabbit character with long ears, might be a hare. And this is the prior of the Abbey, so he's the head of the Abbey. Um what? Oh, she's gone to sleep. But they've all gone to sleep now.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah, but she's gone to sleep cuddling the table.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yeah. Um anyway. That's we digress. We digress. We do when we have kittens. Um, yeah, so the prior is seen talking to another character that I think is a cat, but he's he's complaining about the prophets are pitiful pitiful, so he's clearly into in the business rather than being a good person of the church, he's more into making money.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

But it could be they need the money to keep the church and all the people going and to get to the point.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

But he does a bit grumpy, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah. But he's talking so he's talking to Father William and um, I think Bruise Breeze is joining in now as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

She's having a dream, if you can hear the funny squeaks. Right, well, we've digressed again.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

We've digressed again. Anyway, um so that it's quite clear that that that that William and the prior don't get on. The prior's a bit of a grumpy looks like he's a bit of a grumpy old man who's more concerned with profit than good works. Right. Uh and William's talking about doing good works.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yeah, because that we go through, they're having a conversation, and um he says, and stop met the the prize says and stop investigating and mil mingling with the undead devils and especially fairies.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Don't let um Oberon here, he's king of the fairies.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

He is king of the fairies. Well then William says, not he um says our parents gave us the monastic life to fight against such evil, not not to make money for our superiors, and the prize is out now. And William looks a bit bit sort of stunned and he wanders and he wanders off. Why? So on the next page we told we go into later that night, and William's walking around it says a bloody three-day walk to Buckinghamshire.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

So he's going back again to sort out the problem.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

He's going back to sort out the problem.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Why didn't he sort it out first?

SPEAKER_00 18:01

I don't know, because I I think um the it's a separate case, if you like, that he's going to investigate. He sorted out the ghost in the the spirit, the demon in the cellar.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

So he goes have to go back to the headquarters each time.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Looks like it.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

He must have done a three-day walk to get there, though he'd been thrown out again, and off he goes for a three-day walk back again.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Absolutely. Poor old sausage. Yeah. So he goes walking off in the night and starts walking through a like a little village, and then he we see him going into woodland and he gets cut and he gets cornered well not. Yeah, cornered by a group of thieves.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Oh can you raise your hand?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Yeah, who are clearly like little uh clearly like rogues. One of them's one of them's got an eye patch, they're looking quite quite grim, they're holding daggers and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

And they're all different shapes and sizes. Yeah. But one's got an eye patch, so you know they're a bad, eh?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Absolutely. They say to him, Walking alone at night, you must really want to get robbed.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

He hasn't got his money because he gave it to the um abbot.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

But the one of the the the younger characters uh of of the thief the younger of the thieves say, Do you know it's bad luck to rob or kill a priest? Um he says that it William tells them about where he's going. And the younger characters uh convinces them to uh protect to protect him for so for for some coin, and they give they take away some of his coins and and um he says that's highway robbery, and then they all like stand stand there with knives pointed at him and says, Okay, I mean fair wages for work, fair work and all. And then they sort of they're all settled later around a fire.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Just talk a little bit less fast, Prince, because I'm I'm behind you, I'm still thinking of something, and you've got on to the next bit. So please explain what happened, who gave whom money, what happened?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

So the young mouse like character has taken some coin from William. He's go he's gone root at rooting in rooting in his pockets and his robes. So he's stolen some money, but he's basically said it all keep him protected.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Why?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

The th the thieves will protect him from other thieves.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Oh, I see. So they're a gang.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

They're a gang.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

A bit like the East End gangs in the 1960s.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

What are they called? Reggie and mummy.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Oh, like the crays. The crays. Yeah, so they're they're they're asking for protection money. Yeah, Ophelia is very comfortable. Clearly enjoying it. Good girl.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

And wake her up. She's a kitten. Oops.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

So yeah, so we go go on to the next page and we see the see the uh all the characters gathered around a a campfire and the Oh so he's with them now. He's with them now, so they're look at they're Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Make friends.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

I yeah, kind of. I g it's kind of an uneasy um truce. Yeah, truce.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

It's not like Robin Hood when you've got fire tuck.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

No.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Who's part of the gang?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Yeah. So they're arguing with the mouse character. The mouse character's obviously sort of a younger, younger member of the gang, and he's trying to prove his prove his worth and he and he goes, I can learn to read, because obviously at this time lots of people couldn't read and write.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

So it was only pretty much the people in the church that could read. Yeah, absolutely. And then that was all in Latin.

unknown 21:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

But didn't they talk French at this time?

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Um I'm not sure. Interestingly, we were watching we were watching the video yesterday about the history of London and they were talking about languages and stuff, weren't they? Yes, that's right. Yeah. So they may have been speaking French at this time. Yeah, probably would have been actually thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

Anyway. Moving on.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Moving on. So William is talking to the the mouse character who we find out is called Winifred. And he then he goes, Winnie, you he doesn't want to be called by his full name, he wants to be cool and have a nickname.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Um hang on, Winifred is a female name, isn't it? Is that a female character?

SPEAKER_00 22:18

I don't know if it is a female character, it might be. I'm not sure. You can't really tell because the way the way uh I mean's drawn this, the the the faces are quite simple. Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

I would say if if it that if it's called Winnifred, I would have thought it's female, but I could be wrong because all sorts of weird things happened in the past.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

But yeah, so he um William try makes a deal with with Winnie and says basically says that in protection from the rest of the gang, he'll teach him how to read and write.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Okay, whose hat?

SPEAKER_00 23:00

That is a inset panel of the moon with a cloud flying over it.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

He looks like a hat. A nice hat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

So do we have a deal, monk? Indeed we do, thief. So they agree and they shake hands at the end.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Well they probably w wants to teach him to read.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah. So the on the next page we're into buck we're in Buckinghamshire now, so and we're at in a what looks like a tavern. We see either we see characters talking to each other, and then uh Do we have taverns?

SPEAKER_01 23:36

We've never had taverns. With inns, don't we? Inns, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Um we see the gang arriving and one of the characters from inside, which again could be sort of a weasel ferret-like character, seems to be quite keen on using those kind of those kind of animals. Um they step out and he says, Ho there, are you William of Newbury? Um, and they the the gang are saying, Oh, off with your famous friend, who are you? And so here William and Winnie walk off with the sort of ferret-looking character, and they're talking about how there's a disturbance going on. Um he's introduced to their family, and he's saying that uh his sister's husband had died.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Hang on, who's he? Clavified, please.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Um so we have the the ferret the the tall character which is obviously a weasel or a ferret. Okay. Uh and he introduces them to um I don't think he actually uses his name, actually. No. Um but he introduces William and Winnie to his father, Walter, and his sister, Emma.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Right, I see. That's the new character's father and sister.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Right, got it then.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yeah. Uh and he says it began after Emma's husband dies. Um but he's once he died, he started become started visiting, so the ghost of of her husband started visiting at night. He says, Come back to the grave with me, my love. Oh, creepy. Creepy.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Was he you know, abusive?

SPEAKER_00 25:23

No, but you can see lots of maggots falling out of him because he's clearly rotten.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

No, I meant when he was alive.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

No, he wasn't. He said he was he said he wasn't he was a good husband, wasn't the smartest man, but he was a good husband.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Right. So he doesn't really want him hurt, just moved somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

So the the family are are talking to Winnie and William, and they said, We've all hold we've all heard told tales of you with Father William. Are they true? Can you help us? No. And he'd say, I'd say so, we need to re need to prepare.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

And what does he do to prepare?

SPEAKER_00 26:01

So he's writing a holy prayer to place on his person. So that this is I don't know if this is was common over here, but it's in in in a the Chinese ghost stories that I've seen, uh, quite often the spirits are stopped by having holy papers placed on them. So they have like prayers or spells put on them, and then that those spells, the power of the words, actually stops them from moving.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Well the other one stops him speaking, and that stopped him doing it. So if you've got a paper paper and you just shove it on it, that's much more effective, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

But did you say he's putting it on himself?

SPEAKER_00 26:43

No, he's writing he's writing the prayer so that he can place on his person, so he can place it on the husband, the husband's ghost.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Oh, I see, right.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

And Winnie's Winnie's like sort of scoffing, saying, you know, um he he doesn't believe that words will stop a a ghost. And and and then William is saying don't underestimate the power of the written word. He's just taken down kings and built up empires. Goodness gracious. He thinks big. Yeah. And then we see the see William and Winnie going into a graveyard, which is where the the husband is buried. Um Winnie Winnie is being is sort of quite a gruff character, and he's he's sort of like um talking about Wit William being superstitious and everything. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

And then obviously obviously he's superstitious.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. But then at the bottom of the page they go, Oi, that smell, and he goes, and William says, 'Tis the breath of the dead, Winnie. And Winnie breaks out his axe so he's ready to defend defend him. Now we have a large panel at the bottom of the page where we see the ghost of the husband come out who's a a cat.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

You can see cat and rabbit married together.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Cat and rabbit. I don't know if the wife was a rabbit. I think if anything, the wife looks like she might be a badger. By her markings, she looks like she might be a badger.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

A badger and a cat.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

A badger and a cat.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

What would you do it? I don't know. Catcher.

unknown 28:22

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Anyway, we see the spirit come bursting out of the ground and coming and open uh bursting out of his uh coffin. And he's trying to he's trying to get back to his the ghost is quite sad in a way because he just wants to get back to his wife.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Sorry, it's my time now.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

And um he's reaching up and Winnie's actually looking quite scared because he's realised that ghosts are real now, so he's actually quite scared.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Scared of goes on and uh William stands stands uh firm before the go before the ghost and says, Close your eyes, child, and Winnie's going Noth child. W William reaches into his pouch and he pulls out the prayer.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

He should have had that in his hand first, yeah. Organised.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Um and then basically places the places the prayer onto the ghost uh and and then he's thrown thrown away and the s the ground is then sealed up.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Can I let's see what what stone wear? Could you have your hand in the way?

SPEAKER_00 29:26

So you can see here that William is on top is sort of struggling with the ghost. Oh wow. And then in the next panel you can see that he's placing the paper onto the go onto the ghost chest.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Yeah. Which makes them fly apart. So the the the paper, the prayer is doing it's what it's supposed to do, and like sending the spirit back to probably he's probably trying to send him back to heaven, so he's like not walking abroad the earth. You send it like something of the expert at that point. I know I guess it's just because I've read a lot of ghost stories, really, more than anything else. You know, I've been reading Hellboy for a long time and I've always liked like ghost stories and stuff. So the ghost, the spirit is like bound back into the earth, and it looks like William has succeeded in what he's what he's supposed to be doing. And um He got sent flying, didn't he?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Is he alright?

SPEAKER_00 30:19

He's alright, yeah. Because he says uh Winnie's saying, William, are you okay? He's he's because he's he's wondering if he's still covered in the bugs and worms and everything that have come off the ghost. Turns out he's okay. Good.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

So then did they go and celebrate?

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Yeah, so they uh William and Winnie go back to the family, um and the wife is saying, Thank you, Father William, and I've not slept in weeks. And that they had they handed him some a pouch of money for the Abbey.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

So they go the the rest of the gang are seen in the background of this pan this panel, and they're talking to Winnie and said, Do you we leave on the morrow, Winnie, you'd best be with us.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Oh I bet Winnie doesn't want to go.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Are they gonna try to take his take the money, I wonder?

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Oh, I think they might be trying thinking of taking the money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

They've already had a coin, which we have to assume is a gold coin.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Yeah, could probably would be at that time.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Or silver.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Yeah. But he's he's they're talking about him um he said I'm gonna see him out and take his purses, and he's gonna try and take the money from from William.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Mm-hmm. And I bet the oh Winnie's gonna try and stop them, is it? Tell him I'm guessing what's happening next.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

So we see William and Winnie, and he's saying the walk to Newbury is treacherous. And he says, Fred, no, I've got a plan. And then uh uh a little hedgehog, another hedgehog carrots comes running up with a letter.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Mm-hmm. That's rather a good letter.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Yeah, so it's got a like seal. You can see it's got a wax seal on it. And he looks up into the sky and he can see two skeleton spirits calling out his name. Mm-hmm. And Winnie's looking up at it, look at him up at looking up at him and saying, What is it? What's it saying? The devil, Winnie, the devil awaits us on our next adventure. Oh my.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

And that's the next comic, I presume.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Yeah, it goes into the into the next issue.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

And the last about the the robbers and that. What where have they gone? They seem to have gone somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Well at the moment we've not seen what's happened with them because this is just the end of the first issue. We haven't seen the end, haven't seen what happens with the robbers yet. That we'll find out more in the next in the next issue.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

So uh the cliff edge is that they're going to the devil.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

That they've got the people, the robbers possibly taking the money, and whether Winnie will go with him, which I think he will.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

Yeah, so yeah, wondering whether Winnie's actually I think Winnie's come around to Father William's side, he's seen spirits now, he believes they're real, and he knows that um the father will educate him.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Yes. Alright, what's this here?

SPEAKER_00 33:14

So the um and then on the the the the back page here of the comic is is it's the cover of the next issue.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

An advertising.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

So it's an advertising telling you what's gonna happen in it's like a you know a preview of the of the story, telling you what's gonna happen next. I never read those.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Because even if I want to do the story, I don't want any in sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Yeah, I'd rather just read them straight. Yeah, same read read them without. But anyway, so it's like setting the scene for the next issue. Again, with this lovely uh the the covers are all done in watercolour, watercolour and inks. Um the main artwork within the comic is done in traditional black, you know, black and white ink, and then it's nicely coloured. Interesting, it doesn't say who does the colouring, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's does it himself.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Well, I don't know. I mean he could do. Well if he's done everything else, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

Because it doesn't it doesn't say, it just has Michael A. Van Omen on it.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Well I would assume he probably does his own colouring. Yeah. The goons.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

So the goon, uh the there's then some adverts for some other Dark Horse titles here. The goon show. Not the goon show.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Thank goodness for that.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Yeah, the goon is a big uh sort of supernatural mob story.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Uh the goon more blooming East End. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

It is like kind of gangs fighting against ghosts and everything else.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Um are they good gangs?

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Kind they're they'll do what they do what they want and need to for a for a for a price.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

No, they're not got good gang then, aren't they? They're just mercenaries.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

I guess.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

What's this picture on the other side?

SPEAKER_00 35:04

So the the blue book is another project with um with Michael Avanoming. Um it shows off his more traditional comic book style, so because the William of Newbury is is similar to Mignola's style.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Right, yes, he's doing something fresh there.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Yeah, he's doing something fresh. I think it's about the the blue book is about um sort of Roswell and UFO abductions and so on.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Oh sorry. It's quite a lot. And I'm tired. Well, I'm just lazy from the heat.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Yeah. Now unfortunately, when this came out, I managed to get the first issue because I was really excited for it, because uh again, I knew it was going to be similar to sort of Hellboy stories, you know, and have ghosts and spirits.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

I think you got the next one.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Unfortunately, yeah, when it came out, I didn't get the rest of the series, but I did buy the book of when it was collected because it's it's collected into a nice trade paperback at the end. So I got to read the story just slightly annoyingly. I only got the first issue as a as a single issue. I quite like having single issues of stuff, but I did get the trade paper back afterwards, so I did get to read the rest of the story, and it's really good.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

That'd do me, I wouldn't need to own the other things.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

The the it got a lot of uh praise from other cartoonists, Stan Saka, who did Yusaki Go Yimbo. Yes, I remember, gave a lot of praise for it because obviously it's sim it's similar works because it's anthropomorphic animals and so on. Yes. Looking at the past, and that's obviously what Stan does really well. Um, so yeah, there was lots of really nice reviews from other creators.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Um what did you do? Just get in touch with them after the review.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Probably, and give given that I think most of the creators that actually spoke to him also work for Dark Horse, so they kind of kept everything in-house.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Yeah, so you can take what they say with a pinch of salt in that case. Yeah. Because it's in their best interest to give it a good review, isn't it? Yeah, I guess. It is good, isn't it? But I do my bit.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yeah, please do, yeah. What do what what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Um the colours are good sometimes, but not good others. Too much yellow. Um I do like the artwork, I like the animals. That's good. I liked the story, but it's a proper story. They weren't fighting every two minutes or anything like that. So they had quite a lot of marks there, but then they've well you can guess where they lost something.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Yeah, because they're in uppercase again.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

Yes, yes, uppercase again. Anyway, and also too small.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yeah, the text was very small actually, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

Um I think I'd give it about seven and a half. That's pretty good. Yeah, this yeah it had a few problems. I don't I did like the paper. I like the paper, it's quite thin, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 38:02

But yeah, I mean this is nice. This is printed on fairly standard stock, it's got kind of a satin finish to it, so it's not like really glossy. I don't like really glossy, it's like you know that would keep the that would make the light bounce off it a lot more, you won't be able to read it as clearly.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Yeah, I picked satin for the walls.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Yeah, okay. Okay. I think we've done that. But one thing we've got to ask for is some feedback, please. And well, actually, we're actually putting this on YouTube as well, aren't we? We are, we're videoing this as well as actually doing sound recording, so yes, it's a few weeks behind the uh not the iPod. The podcast. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

And uh, but it would be nice to you know, know what you want us to do. Yeah, again, but also go to YouTube. I notice when I look at YouTube, they always ask for a subscription and a like. So I'm asking for a subscription and a like, please. See, I'll be polite.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

So is that us done?

SPEAKER_00 39:24

That is us cooked for this week.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

So we will I'm gonna just flop down and go to sleep, I think.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Yeah, we'll see you next Wednesday.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Yeah, if we survive the next few days Blooming heat.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Bye.

unknown 39:39

Bye.