Title: Pirates
Written by Various
Art by Various
Edited by Colin Mathieson
Published by Accent UK
If you believe Alan Moore’s Watchmen, pirates are what comic readers would obsess about if for some reason superheroes didn’t dominate comic store shelves. And perhaps he has a point, after all we’ve seen a veritable feast of pirate comic books whether historical a la 2000AD’s Red Seas and er…that one Crossgen did that nobody read or futuristic space operas such as 2000AD’s Vanguard, Nikolai Dante and er…Starjammers.
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Okay, okay maybe we are not in the midst of a pirate boom, as unsurprisingly comic publishers prove oblivious to the popularity of the swash buckling Pirates of the Caribbean (or the fact that quasi-pirate Han Solo was always the most popular Stars Wars’ good guy) but there’s no doubting the potential of the subject to inspire great comics. For starters, pirates are by their very nature overt and brash characters with a desire/ability to hog the limelight and so make for great protagonists. Secondly, their lives were filled with the type of death defying and violent adventures that provide the visual imagery needed to make a good comic. Thirdly, it’s a subject that can be use to tell many different types of stories from horror to action and comedy to drama. Finally pirates are just cool, okay?
Thankfully, Accent UK’s Pirates anthology proves all those points with aplomb.
Pirates brings together some of the biggest names of the UK Small Press scene including BAM’s Jason Coleby and Engine Comics Barry Renshaw to tell the many stories of many different pirates in many different ways. What strikes upon first glance at this collection is the quality of the artwork. While there’s a great deal of variety in the artwork, very little of it adopts the minimalist/simplistic (delete as applicable) that is often present in small press books. Instead the vast majority of the artwork is heavily detailed from the brooding realistic horror grey wash of David Hitchcock and Summer F Deen to the cutesy manga of Jeff Borneman and display. The vast majority of the artwork maintains similar standards that wouldn’t be out of place in say 2000AD and those that do (i.e. Colin Mathieson and Leon Hewitt) tell their stories with such charm and vibrancy that it doesn’t hurt your enjoyment of the story at all.
The second thing that strikes you is the variety of the stories told from the skeletal horror of “The Treasure” to the satiric aside at pirate fashion in “This Season’s Pirate” with a detour via the swashbuckling adventure of A Tale of Two Maps. All the stories present (with the exception of two that I’ll talk about latter) are built around a central concept that is captivating and different; so for example The Treasure is built around the invasion of a coastal island by skeletons looking for treasure whilst Devil’s Bones tells the tale of a man’s Faustian pact that leads him to become a pirate. The different writers then build upon these sturdy foundations what they will for some it’s a more holistic set of attributes i.e. characterization, attitude and conflict with the confrontation between posh pirate William Burke and Caityln Rose Quinn in A Rose for Burke providing the best example of a multi-facetted, traditional storyline arc. Some of the most impressive stories are the ones that take a humorous, character driven look at on one small aspect of pirate such as the charming “This Season’s Pirate” that charts what’s in and out of fashion whilst Crisis of Faith details the trip of a weary pirate to a whorehouse. Both are told with such wit and good-natured humour that even the most determined hater of minimalist art will look past it. However, the most powerful stories are those that take an unconventional approach and concentrate on just one thing whether it be to create mood a la the disorientating horror story The Plank or concentrate on say characterization in place of action/conflict as does the impressively powerful and moody “The Pirate’s Tale”.
Where the stories slightly fail is in the parachuted of non-genre characters into pirate situations with Winston Bulldog, LEGO-ite characters and cats all starring in their stories. Winston’s Bulldog story in The Sea Dog is a good one with his…er…bulldog…no…Churchillian…hmm…(I suck)…personality coming to the fore even if his adventures are placed outside his usually twisted version of Blighty (it also makes me even more keen to read his adventures). However, the other two aren’t so good indeed they’re pretty average due to the sad fact that they’re both are quite generic pirate stories with the exotic choice of characters a token shot at inventiveness. Whilst both All That Glistens Is Not Gold and Ships Cat are readable that doesn’t stop them being ultimately forgettable with little in the way of dynamic plot, action or characterization.
Still the good out weights the bad by a comprehensive margin with plenty of excellent stories that cater to every taste…well excluding those that don’t like pirates of course.
A big thank you to Barry Renshaw of ENGINE COMICS for providing us with materials for this review.
