Review: Afterburner - Tales of the Cool and The Wicked



"My methods are harsh but these are violent, primal men. They are only motivated by profit, sex or absolute fear. Traffic in one of those currencies or face your doom."

Welcome to science fiction noir...

Robert Stewart's Afterburner is something a little different. Black and white panels, antiheroes and femmes fatale, criminal underworlds, moral ambiguity, sleaze, glamour... we're a million light years from the cookie-cutter mainstream here.

Forget the comforting bland conventional sci-fi that often clings so tightly to the formula at all costs that you can almost see the whites of the knuckles... No, guys and dolls, here is a creator who doesn't just break the mold, he smashes it to smithereens and then dances the bossa nova all over it...

Noir is a genre with its roots in melodramatic American films of the 1940s, influenced by German Expressionism, coloured by the events of the Great Depression, typified by dark themes and low key lighting. Now take that spirit and apply it to retro sci-fi (think original Buck Rogers) and you have a heady nostalgic mix that creates something new while at the same time celebrating classic genres of yesteryear.

There are several separate stories in the Afterburner series but the main focus is on Renfield Briggs and Arizona Dos Santos, who work for an amoral businessman and a mad scientist, dealing in ancient artefacts that are the product of otherworldly technology. Cue genetically-enhanced goons, double-crosses, seductions, monstrous aliens and mutants, macho posturing and feminine wiles. The setting is undefined but the style hearkens back to mid-20th century international playboy territory.

All of this is delivered in a style which is a blend of Golden Age comics with film noir mise-en-scène....black and white panels that emphasise shadows, silhouettes and stark lighting, dramatic chiaroscuro, exaggerated figures, dizzying perspectives and broken borders. It is as much a work of art as it is a story, the emphasis on theme and style with plot and narrative serving mainly as vehicles for the delivery of the books as a whole experience.

Older readers will love this and I am sure a lot of younger ones will also find it to their liking. Each issue has over 60 pages but you will whizz through them in no time. Just put some classic jazz or blues on in the background, read and enjoy...





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