Renegade Nell – Spoiler light TV Review.

Original Release on Disney+
29th March 2024 – 8 Episodes
Created by Sally Wainwright
Starring:
Louisa Harland as Nell Jackson
Nick Mohammed as Billy Blind
Adrian Lester as Earl of Poynton
Bo Bragason as Roxy Jackson
Florence Keen as George Jackson
Enyi Okoronkwo as Rasselas
Frank Dillane as Charles Devereux
Alice Kremelberg as Sofia Wilmot
Jake Dunn as Thomas Blancheford
Joely Richardson as Lady Eularia Moggerhanger
Iz Hesketh as Valerian
Craig Parkinson as Sam Totter
Pip Torrens as Lord Blancheford

From the Writer of Gentleman Jack, Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, Sally Wainwright.

An 8 part series dropped on Disney+ on 29th March 2024. Produced by Lookout Point, a division of BBC which produced all of Sally Wainwright’s biggest titles.

It received publicity from shows such as Graham Norton Show in UK when Adrian Lester was a guest on his sofa. So I am assuming quote a buzz around it.

It was billed as a story about a female highwayman with some other-worldly powers.

Where do you get all those fancy Ideas? – opinion

I have been asked in the past where I get ideas from for my Writing. We’re talking fiction here, I’ve included in an earlier article an overview of how I research for facts for OP Eds, or Cuxton if I’m needing facts.

Shakur do I get ideas like squirrels with human-like faces? Or strange creatures? Or even an everyday person?

The Object – an original story

This story is linked to a story I am working on for an Anthology that I hope to put out. The Anthology will be short stories, not necessarily linked but all in the same “Universe”.

This story does not directly use any main character from the Anthology.

It does use an object from several of the main stories so I’m being vague below and just referring to it as “the object”.

You can put that down to this character being an Unreliable Narrator. The characters in this story don’t exactly know what “the object” is.

Indeed them not knowing is exactly what this story is about.

Fire! – an original short story

No one knows for certain when man harnessed fire, or by what method. It was almost certainly invented and reinvented in different parts if the world without communication. The proper term for this is Multiple Discovery, I prefer Convirgent Invention.

A similar thing exists in evolution. Some Dolphin species have the exact same body and fin shape as some Icthyasaurs, marine reptiles that look like some sort of dinosaur fish.

So dates in theories vary. And in truth they could all be correct. Some of those inventing fire were not even Modern Humans. And though they don’t use fire now it is impossible to say Chimpanzees never invented fire. A bonobo taught in captivity to start a fire and toast marshmallows has successfully taught another to do the same.

But eventually all of Human kind had fire.

A Step in Time – a short story

I was playing Pathfinder finder tonight with some friends. On the way home I mentioned a Superhero setting I used to run.

I don’t say much about it for now. Brief details only. That’s because I may do a short story book using the setting so don’t want too much revealed.

Suffice to say the Heroes were in the setting known as Rogues and were Freedom Fighters. The Country they lived on was supposedly a Social Democracy bit was in fact a rather nasty Police State. Setting was the “very near future” an indetermined “fee years” ahead of now in a parallel world.

Here is an excerpt of an idea that may make it on to the short story collection. This is a draft I’ve written in one go tonight, not a finished story. It is a writing exercise for me

Into The Den – a short story

I’m working on multiple projects at the moment, slowly building on them.

Hopefully some will be revealed over the coming months. One hopefully ready to discuss in May. Others might be sooner, certainly some later.

Short stories published at the moment are almost certainly not part of those projects. This one however is adjacent to the project I hope to announce in May. It could end up being worked in to that project but spoils nothing for what I hope to reveal in May.

Unit 666 #1 – Graphic Novel Review – Spoiler light.

Unit 666 – Volume One
Published by Pig Dog Press

Graphic Novel
76 Pages

Writer: Noel K. Hannan

Artists: Warwick Fraser-Coombe, Neil ‘Bhuna’ Roche, Bill Stories, Andrw Sawyers, Derek Gray, Chris Askham & Lyndon Webb 

Letters & Book Design: Bhuna

Created by Noel K Hannnan. Warwick Fraser-Combe and Neil Roche

Covers:
Top – Standard Cover: Warwick Fraser-Combe
Middle – Variant: Patrick Goddard
Bottom – Variant: Steve Austin

I backed this book on Kickstarter. I’d scheduled doing a Review tonight and by coincidence my copy arrived today in the post. My Review was from a Pdf copy.

I’ve read books by several creators in this line-up. Met many at Conventions, Andrw Sawyers has  been a Guest on a Panel I’ve Moderated.

So I had a good idea of what I was backing.

Covers include variants from 2000AD Artists Patrick Goddard and Steve Austin.

I’ve included the Contents Page as a teaser at the end of the review. And I think it is safe to say #2 is on the way.

Enclosed – an original short story

I’ve not written a short story for a while.

This is a self contained story that I’ve written and edited in one sitting.

It isn’t really intended to be a finished piece. Nor is it intended to have any expansion. It is simply an exercise in writing. Just getting something on a “page”.

Sentinal Issue 5 – all colour special – live on Kickstarter

Sentinel Issue 5
Self Published via Kickstarter

Kickstarter currently live
Story:
Ed Doyle & Chris Atkins
Script:
Alan Holloway
Artist & Letterer
Ed Doyle

Kickstarter is a cool place to find things. I’ve backed quite a few Comics on there now. I recently did as YouTube video for Thought Bubble Fringe about comics on Kickstarter.

This series of books looks so great physically in paper. They come from the creators’ love of Starblazer published by the UK publisher DC Thompson between April 1979 and January 1991,

Squarebound pocketbooks the same scale as Commando, also from DC Th0mpson. There were variations of format but the widest recalled is a full length SciFi or Fantasy story.

Ed Doyle is behind the design and the printing really delivers. The Lego Star Wars Advent Calendatr didn’t come with Issue 4.

These would stand out in a Newsagents.

Launched through funding on Kickstarter you can get previous issues through Get My Comics. I think Isue 1 may be current,y unavailable but not sure.

There are a few preview pages at the end of this areticle

Sentinel Issue 2: Scales of Justice – Alan Holloway & Ed Doyle – Spoiler light Preview.

Sentinel Issue 2
Self Published via Kickstarter

Kickstarter in final days
Writer:
Alan Holloway
Artist:
Ed Doyle
Letterer
Ed Doyle

I reviewed Issue 1 earlier this month and recently I ‘met’ Ed Doyle in a Zoom conversation with the team behind The77 which was officially Launched yesterday. Ed and Alan are both in the debut issue of The77, though on separate strips.

The77 was due to Launch at Lawless, a Comic Con in Bristol that I help run, I’m a Moderator there, as is Alan.

The British Comic industry can be like that. The same people turning up ion different places. For example just search the name Jim Campbell on this blog to see just how much he turns up, one of the best Letterers in the Industry, worldwide.

It was interesting in the Zoom meeting to see the genuine interest from Creators of The77 that I had read this issue, because they haven’t. Oh the joys of receiving Preview Copies.

I’m previewing this from a Pdf Preview copy which makes including Preview images but I prefer Paper. And as this is a ‘retro’ comic in the style of the popular DC title, Starblazer, it really should be read on paper.

The publicity blurb for this issue uses the most obvious comparison, thus saving Critics falling for the cliché “Spartacus v Dragons”. Yeah, I would have gone there.