Dr Grordbort: Onslaught, Excessive Space Violence for Boys and Girls (176 Pages) is less of a comic and more of a collection of world building material. There are a number of short stories in the compendium, all of them based on the adventures of Lord Cockswain, a mutton chopped parody of a Victorian Empire explorer, and set in space.

The anthology is the creation of artist / writer Greg Broadmore who presents a form of retro science fiction, with its tongue firmly lodged in its cheek. Broadmore’s form of colonial space imperialism perfectly captures the absurdity of that lost stoic age which mainly existed in pulp novels of the nineteen twenties and thirties.

On the comic book side of things the anthology contains the first four of Cockswain's adventures into the lair of the space wankers (19 pages) where in our illustrious hero crashes into a planet where the creature do nothing but insult him. It’s pretty funny and worth looking at if for nothing else you’ll increase your store of comic insult. Lord Cockswain’s Marvellous Interplanetary Excursions, ten pages of Cockswain pretty much killing his way through the universe’s endangered animals. The next story (17 pages) is unnamed in the anthology and continues the buffoon’s adventures. This is followed by Lord Cockswain in Venusian Vengeance (11 pages) and the Mountain of the Moon Menace (14 pages).

In between these stories the anthology is full of detailed pictures and descriptions of exotic animals and steam punk weapons. In many ways the humour which infuses the stories is carried forward into these pages. Much of this content, including the character profiles and adverts are unique to this book.

The detail that has gone into the book is impressive and certainly any fans of Broadmore are going to be in pig heaven.

9

Charles Packer