JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL AND SO IT ENDS! OR IS IT A NEW START?

If you've not yet seen the Justified sequel, City Primeval then you may not want to read on because there's A BIG FAT SPOILER - coming up. Go watch the series and then come back. You have been warned.

I was, and remain a huge fan of the original run of Justified which starred Timothy Olyphant and Walter Coggins, and I've very much enjoyed the limited mini- series City Primeval. The new series (said to be a one-off) is set some years after the events of Justified and sees an older Raylan Givens chasing down another gun crazed madman, but this time in Detroit.

It has a different feel to the original series, the grimy city setting sees to that, and it took some time for me to settle into the show, without yearning for the Kentucky setting of the original show and the beloved characters who populated that universe - mind you many of the great ones died in the original run - Dewey Crow remains a much missed character but of course Boyd Crowther put a bullet in his head in the final episode of the original series.But would we see Boyd again, or Eva? That question seemed to hang over City Primeval - remaining even after the series got into its stride and became something excellent in itself. The absence of Boyd, Raylan's nemesis, was glaringly felt and time and time again we were told that the character would not return - he was still incarcerated and he'd be a very old

man before and if he ever saw freedom again.

This time out the thorn in Raylan's side is Clement Mansell, played by Boyd Holbrook so we do sort of get a Boyd. And in fairness the actor chews up the screen in each and every scene he appears in. He's just as deadly as Boyd Crowther was - if anything he maybe a little more so because he comes off as far more sadistic - where Crowther always had a justification for his actions, as bad as they were, this guy simply seems to enjoy killing and it means nothing to him; just like swatting a fly. One second he guns down several guys and the next he's taking a drink or chowing down on an undercooked steak without a care in the world.

”There are only two kinds of guys out on the street chasing bad guys your age — the ones who got passed over for the ‘big chair,’ and the ones who just love it so much they’re going to have to be dragged off.”

City Primeval was a darn good series, a worthy tie in to the original series which is one of very few series that maintained a solid standard from beginning to end and when the sun set in City Primeval and we were left with a freshly retired Raylan Givens off on his boat with his daughter, played by his real life daughter, we got that fan pleasing epilogue. Right at the dying moments of the show we are back in Kentucky and there he is - Boyd Crowther. In a skillfully put together ending we see Boyd break out of prison and ride off into the sunset. The scene shifts once more and we see Rylan's phone ringing - that's about as open an ending as you can get.

Will Justified return or is this really the end? Either way it works - if it is the last time we see Raylan and Boyd then it works. Raylan's off enjoying his retirement, while Boyd continues to live his life in mexico. It all feels kind of satisfying, but both Olyphant and Coggins have said they would be up to revisiting the characters again so I wouldn't be surprised if there is indeed more to come, and that would truly be something to look forward to. Though it really is perfect as it stands and another comeback has the risk that it could sully what has been a truly excellent run, so I guess the creators have a difficult decision to make. I, for one though, would love to see more, see Boyd and Raylan once more going head to head.

Justified and City Primeval are based on Elmore Leonard's stories about the character Raylan Givens

 

Slow Horses and Dead Lions - Slough House series books one and two comparison to TV series

 

Over the last few weeks I've read the first two books in Mick Herron's deliciously moorish Slough House series - I didn't come to the books via the TV series, indeed it had somehow slipped under my rader. I discovered the books after  listening to some old episodes of Radio Four's Book Club and one episode (HERE) featured the author chatting with a studio audience about his books. I liked the author's style so much, particularly his modest humour and the audiences genuine love for the books that I had to check them out.

 The books, espionage thrillers with a twist since the main characters, an ensemble cast, are as far removed from James Bond as it's possible to be, even George Smiley is the height of glamour in comparison to the grimy gang that populate this world . The radio chat suggested that the books contained much humour as well as genuine thrills and feeling intrigued I took up my Kindle and downloaded the first book. That I immediately read the second and then watched both TV seasons that adapted the books is an indication that I very much enjoyed them. Oh yes indeed - I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series, as well as tuning into the wonderful TV series, Gary Oldman has never been better, whenever the third season arrives.

So what are the Slow Horses? Or rather who are the Slow Horses? Well, basically they are a team of British intelligence agents who for a variety of failures have found themselves relegated to the MI5's Slough House department - think of it as a school for losers, somewhere for incompetents to serve out their time until retirement, death or even both. Now you also need to know that Slough House is not in Slough but is called that because of a joke, apparently someone once said the department is so far from the action that it may as well be in Slough. So, that's basically it - the slow horses are a bunch of fuck ups, addicts and fools. Only they're not really - each character, from Jackson Lamb down are well rounded, realistic and just so lovable. Everyone loves an underdog.

The first novel and the TV series are very close to each other, though in truth the elongated climax of the TV version does improve on the book with the incredibly tense garage scene in which a kidnapped young man has to fill a van with petrol while his blood-soaked kidnappers hide inside the van. That scene is absolutely edge of the seat stuff but the book, although differing at the climax is just as thrilling and I do think the book offers a deeper understanding of the characters.

The second book, Dead Lions and the TV series differ a lot more and this book is undoubtedly the better of the two, but both are worth the effort. The plot of the book is if anything a little more fantastical than the TV version but it remains on the right side of credible thanks to the way the writer plots the story so that by the time we venture into JAMES BOND SAVING THE WORLD territory we are so invested that we go along with the story.

So TV series or books? Well, it must be remembered that they are two different mediums and what works in one may fall flat in the other, but I've always been a book guy and I am inclined to almost always favour the books, but the TV version is quite incredible in itself and Gary Oldman's portrayal of the odious and yet somehow endearing Jackson Lamb is a masterclass in characterisation. There's no need to chose when you can have both - each have their merits, and both are excellent.

A refreshing take on the espionage genre.

The Last of Us

 It's my new favourite show - apparantly, it's based on a Playstation game but that was completely off my rader - I'm not a gamer so I've come to this fresh, with no pre-conceptions other than being told that it's a little like The Walking Dead. I suppose comparisons between the two are inevitable, but other than that fact that both shows contains zombies there are very few similarities.

The show opens with a TV talk show from the 1960's - guests on the show smoking cigarettes as they chat away about the possibilities of a fungus evolving to control humans rather than ants in a slowly warming world. And then we fast forward to the modern day where the worse case scenario has come to pass. With the world in ruins we are introduced to Joel (Pedro Pascal), and the opening of his arc is shocking and totally unexpcted, at least to those of us not familiar with the game - BIG FAT SPOILER ALERT -  When his daughter is killed early in the first episode we see and understand his loss of humanity and later when he is paired with Ellie (Bella Ramsey) we see some of that humanity return as he reluctantly accepts the responsibility of protecting her as he travels this post apocalyptic landscape.

Both leads are excellent with the best lines coming from Bella Ramey, while Pedro does his utmost to provide a brooding hero, who is often the straight man to the young girl's histrionics. I'm currently up to episode eight, there are ten in this first season, and already there have been a few offbeat classic episodes that I have no doubt will be remembered as classic TV. The third episode is a tender love story between two aged men, and sits largely outside of the main narrative of the story, but it's so well done and played out that it even connected with this grizzled old hetrosexual. It was quite beautiful and will provoke a tear in all but the hardest of hearts,

Following that detour of an episode it's been pretty much brutal, violence but not once has it lost it's core wonder - I'm very much enjoying this. Bring on episode nine and ten.

A LEGEND OF BRITISH COMIC BOOKS RETURNS

It's back for a five issue mini-series from Rebellion Publishing.... Battle Action, 2000AD publisher’s relaunch of the title inspired by two classic British weekly comics, Battle Picture Weekly (aka Battle) and Action, returns as a five-issue miniseries, with writer Garth Ennis playing a principal role in its latest incarnation.

Battle Picture Weekly,  still holds an exalted position in my memory - in fact it is probably my favourite comic book ever. But besides that Battle displayed a stunning use of the medium over its run and of course gave us a genuine comic book masterpiece in Charley's War - but more on that seminal strip later.

Battle was launched in answer to rival D C Thompson's  successful war strip title, Warlord and although born out of imitation Battle did better Warlord and is perhaps one of the, if not THE, most important British comic titles ever.

Battle's answer to Warlord's main character, Lord Peter Flint was Mike Nelson codenamed The Eagle - however readers preferred the more gritty strips in Battle and Mike Nelson, although featuring in several series of adventures, was soon dropped. 

Early stars of Battle Picture Weekly were D-Day Dawson, The Bootneck Boy and the truly exceptional Rat Pack which was based very much on the popular movie, The Dirty Dozen.

So well remebered are The Rat Pack that Titan Books have a trade paperback collection  that collects together many of their most popular stories.

which one is Lee Marvin?

"We were looking to movies like Dirty Harry and the spaghetti westerns for inspiration," writer Pat Mills said in his introduction to the story in Titan's Best of Battle. "And with Rat Pack we got it from the movie, The Dirty Dozen. It's an archetype that will never go away."


Another early strip that was hugely popular was D D Dawson - it told of Sgt. Steve Dawson who took a bullet during the D-Day landings but survived. However the bullet moved closer to his heart with every adventure and he knows that it will inevitably kill him. And so he vows to fight on until his own personal D-Day finally arrives. And arrive it did in the issue dated 22 Jan 1977 when the character finally went down. The next two scans depict D Day Dawson's last adventure - click on the images for a bigger readable version.

                                                                                       The comic merged other titles into it during its long run and the details are:

• Battle Picture Weekly (8 March 1975 - 16 October 1976)
• Battle Picture Weekly and Valiant (23 October 1976 - 12 November 1977)
• Battle Action (19 November 1977 - 20 February 1982)
• Battle (27 February 1982 - 1 October 1983)
• Battle Action Force (8 October 1983 - 29 November 1986)
• Battle (6 December 1986 - 17 January 1987)
• Battle Storm Force (24 January 1987 - 23 January 1988)

When the Battle itself began to fail it was merged into the new relaunched Eagle but by then the glory days of British boy's comics was long over.

The world of Battle was a non-PC world where the Americans were Yanks, the Japanese were Japs, the Germans were Nazis and the British were Limeys, but it wasn't always as clear cut and one strip in particular, Charley's War  created by Pat Mills with almost photographic artwork from Joe Colquhoun, was an anti-war strip in a boys war comic and today stands as a true masterpiece of British comics. Titan have published several deluxe hardback volumes collecting the stories with still more to come.

True depth in the comic book medium

TITAN'S CHARLEY'S WAR COLLECTION

It's a bleak and terrible story, but despite the overwhelming cynicism and negativity that surrounds the trenches, there's just a grain of faith in the human spirit. Not enough to ever make this remarkably sad tale ever attractive to Hollywood, but there's something genuinely moving in Charley's letters to his parents and the real friendships forged among the men in the front line. Like most of the great comics Pat Mills created during his most vibrant period of, say, 1976-89, the power of humanity is greater than the power of the "authority" which commands it to do terrible things in the name of royalty, nation or planet.


                           Battle truly was an exceptional comic book and it's great that the legacy is still remembered and felt even today. It may have started off as a typical gung ho style comic book but the skill of the creators soon led it into avenues previously unexplored in the comic book medium. It was incredible reading for a young kid to be presented with war in a realistic fashion in strips such as Charley's War and Johnny Red. to be presented with the unglamorous truth and to discover that bullets really did hurt and that the glory of fighting for one's country soon becomes secondary to surviving when the reality of war is felt.

Oh you are awful but I do like you!

             On a lighter note Battle had the popular Airfix Modellers Club page which was presented by British comedian, Dick Emery. And the letter's page was supposedly edited by Captain Hurricane that hangover from the days of Valient Comic.

To fully cover the importance of Battle would take more than one, two or even several blog articles - indeed a full scale book would be called for, but the article here is merely a taster of a time when British Comics really were a formidable creative force.

Now bring on the new version

Retro Comics feature - MACH 1

 The acronym stands for Man Activated by Computer Hyper

puncture - the strip ran in boy's comic 2000AD and ran for 64 issues. The strip was created by Pat Mills and was initially the most popular strip in the comic - bigger even than Judge Dredd during the early years of the comic.


The strip was heavily influenced by TV's The Six Million Dollar man which was huge at the time - the character of M.A.C.H 1, agent John Probe even looked like Steve Austin as played by Lee Majors. In the introduction to the Extreme M.A.C.H 1 magazine, editor Alan Barnes said John Probe was not so much Steve Austin as an Austin Allegro and he confirms that during the comic's early days the character was more popular than Dan Dare and Judge Dredd combined.

The earliest strips saw John Probe battling terrorists, enemy agents and killers but as 2000ad found its legs and became more subversive, Probe found himself battling against his own government.

 Probe's boss Sharpe was revealed to have insisted a piece of code be written into the computer inside Probe that would self destruct, killing the agent if he disobeyed orders. This added much depth to the character and made Probe less Steve Austin and more a tortured man forced to work for a shadowy government organisation.

The first truly epic story for the character was M.A.C.H 0 in which Probe discovered that he wasn't the first man to be turned into a secret agent (again a plot that had been used in The Six Million Dollar Man) but this earlier experiment had gone wrong. 

Of course Probe saved the day. In the final strips of M.A.C.H 1 we saw John Probe turn on his boss and kill him . He then sacrificed his own life to save the world from alien invasion. This was a massive shock to the readership. This was not Marvel or DC and when a character was killed he usually remained dead.

M.A.C.H Zero would return to the comic for his own short lived series, but this was more Frankenstein retold than anything else.

Stories from M.A.C.H 1 have been reprinted in several versions - Reprinted? 2000 AD Extreme Edition #6 (12/04) reprinted 9 of the first 10 episodes (all but #3), along with "Airship," "The Planet Killers," "Everest" and "MACH Woman." 19 episodes in one handy package, with a great cover by John Burns. A second batch of 20 episodes were reprinted in Extreme Edition #9 (6/05). These included "UFO" and the final 16 instalments. Many other episodes had previously been collected by Quality Comics in a series that ran nine issues.

The character was so fondly remembered that a spoof, entitled B.L.A.I.R. 1, a satire on Tony Blair appeared in 2000 AD in the late 1990s, and gained considerable media attention at the time. The story was not popular with readers, however, and was soon killed off.

A LIFE IN BOOKS

 The first episode of my new You Tube series...a life in books