Welcome to the Weekly Comics Hype! I'm doing these alphabetically, but occasionally skipping around a bit. Today I want to suggest you enjoy some derring-do, some swashbuckling, some ladykilling and some high-concept science fiction adventure in the company of Robbie Morrison's Nikolai Dante.
The story of an amorous brigand in a beautifully designed future Russia who learns he's the bastard son of the powerful Romanov dynasty, Nikolai Dante is a densely structured serial with a huge cast of characters, many subplots and one fantastic lead character. Dante, who tells anybody who will listen that he's "too cool to kill," doesn't take to his new family obligations too readily. He's still a "gentleman thief" at heart, and even though Jena Makarov, the tsar's daughter, has stolen his own heart, Dante still has a lot of romancing and adventuring to do.
Nikolai Dante works in part because the humor is so subtle. It's a playful series, reminiscent of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, with over-the-top situations and unbelievable stakes, but it's also clever and intricate, with a large supporting cast. Robbie Morrison draws his inspiration from decades of European spy literature and Russian cinema. (A space battleship, is, of course, called the Potemkin.) There are assassins on something much like the Orient Express, and there's a Hellfire Club, and SMERSH, and some characters awfully reminiscent of Luther Arkwright and Octobriana show up.
He's helped out by some tremendously good artists, principally the fantastic Simon Fraser, who co-created the series and contributes most of the episodes. There are fill-ins by Charlie Adlard, Andy Clarke, Henry Flint and Chris Weston, but John Burns, whose first work is seen in the third collection, gradually becomes the lead artist on the strip, which still appears in 2000 AD today.
Volume one of Nikolai Dante is available from your local comic shop, who would enjoy your custom. New books ship on Wednesdays, so why not stop in after work?
The story of an amorous brigand in a beautifully designed future Russia who learns he's the bastard son of the powerful Romanov dynasty, Nikolai Dante is a densely structured serial with a huge cast of characters, many subplots and one fantastic lead character. Dante, who tells anybody who will listen that he's "too cool to kill," doesn't take to his new family obligations too readily. He's still a "gentleman thief" at heart, and even though Jena Makarov, the tsar's daughter, has stolen his own heart, Dante still has a lot of romancing and adventuring to do.
Nikolai Dante works in part because the humor is so subtle. It's a playful series, reminiscent of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, with over-the-top situations and unbelievable stakes, but it's also clever and intricate, with a large supporting cast. Robbie Morrison draws his inspiration from decades of European spy literature and Russian cinema. (A space battleship, is, of course, called the Potemkin.) There are assassins on something much like the Orient Express, and there's a Hellfire Club, and SMERSH, and some characters awfully reminiscent of Luther Arkwright and Octobriana show up.
He's helped out by some tremendously good artists, principally the fantastic Simon Fraser, who co-created the series and contributes most of the episodes. There are fill-ins by Charlie Adlard, Andy Clarke, Henry Flint and Chris Weston, but John Burns, whose first work is seen in the third collection, gradually becomes the lead artist on the strip, which still appears in 2000 AD today.
Volume one of Nikolai Dante is available from your local comic shop, who would enjoy your custom. New books ship on Wednesdays, so why not stop in after work?
blyddyn:
Nicoli Dante IS too cool to kill, and I'm just waiting untill the "Tsar Wars" collection is released....