Title

Warrior #3 (G)

Type

Fan letter

Description

Fan letter written to Warrior #3.

Transcribed text:

Dear Dez,

Congratulations on Warrior. The cover on issue one was good, Steve Dillon and Garry Leach did a fine job. Not being a Sounds reader, I'd never heard of Axel Pressbutton before, so the "He's Back!" cover line was wasted on me. Even so, he is a striking figure, and the cover was certainly representative of the magazine's content.

The inside cover was also well done, but I'm left wondering whether the woman was meant to be Mysta Mystralis or not.

The "Marvelman" strip was very good indeed, a great way to start the magazine. I'm very glad you've included a superhero, especially glad that it's Marvelman. Virtually my only exposure to Marvelman and family has been a few articles and a couple of Young Marvelman comics. The story sets the mood for the whole magazine, creating an air of tension which culminates in the glorious rebirth of Marvelman. With this story sandwiched between Dez's editorial and Dez's article, Marvelman is given a historical perspective and a bright future.

The strip itself was very good. Alan Moore paced the story well, with one scene leading smoothly into the next and constant reference to things atomic culminating in the inevitable transformation to Marvelman. Garry Leach did a fine job of portraying Marvelman who did not look at all out of place (read: silly) in the realistically rendered environment. I hope Garry will do a full cover soon, it would be great to see Marvelman painted in colour.

"The Spiral Path" : the reference to first prologue tells us that this is only the beginning of a much larger tale, and as such cannot really be commented on except for a few small things. The sound effect on page 19 looked out of place, cartoonish against the highly detailed style of art. As with all epic tales, the names seemed a bit odd at first and caused confusion about who was who, but I'm sure we'll get used to them soon. I loved the way the rain stopped as the warriors accepted the druid and followed him. I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

"A True Story?" : in the editorial you said you weren't really trying to compete with anyone. Of all the stories in the magazine, this was the only one that could have been found in any other comic or magazine. It was virtually a 2000AD Tharg Future Shock. Still, Steve Moore's dialogue was snappy and it was good to see Dave Gibbons' artwork.

"The Legend of Prester John" was very nice and looked like a well-researched piece, both visuals and text. The artwork was a bit murky though.

"V for Vendetta" David Lloyd's artwork was only marred by a murkiness that looked like it had been part drawn in charcoal. With Alan Moore, he did a find job of portraying a future England which is different enough to make a police state seem possible, yet familiar enough to make it uncomfortable. The 'voice of fate' was a good way of getting information across without having to resort to the cliché of characters spouting explanatory dialogue at each other. Having the caped figure associated with old movies, Shakespeare, fireworks and practical jokes tells us much about the society which he opposes. The Guy Fawkes costume and the V changed from Churchill's Victory to Vendetta hark back to real history, through this time the Houses of Parliament do get blown up.

"Shador, Demon Stalker" was a welcome Steve Moore/John Bolton reprint as I'm sure there are lots of people who will have missed it in House of Hammer several years back. I look forward to the continuing new stories.

"Laser Eraser and Pressbutton" : the last strip brings us full circle, with your cover stars in their own strip. I don't know these two characters and their creator (Pedro Henry seems a sick man, having someone hacked with a steel pin holding his leg together). Thankfully the artwork made up for the dubious character of the author, I especially liked Steve Dillon's use of groups of three frames, just don't let that degenerate Pedro Henry corrupt the poor innocent lad.

The biographies of the creators at the back of the issue were quite interesting but I look forward to your letter column. Reader reaction should prove interesting as something like Warrior hasn't been available through such outlets as WH Smiths before.

The name Warrior seems to imply that your comic would be filled with barbarian-type heroes, but the diversity of content should prove enough to satisfy everyone.

It's just occurred to me that this is the first magazine of its type where there hasn't been something that I've actively disliked. If you decide to run any more articles, they should be about Warrior, Quality Communications, or the characters in the magazine. Personally, I'd like to see an article about Laser Eraser and Pressbutton, and maybe Alan Moore could interview Pedro Henry (hee, hee).

I eagerly await the next issue and the beginning of Paul Neary's "Madman".

Catford, London SE6.

Language

English

Place

Catford, London SE6, England

-0.023658

51.444742

Publisher

Quality Communications