We’ve given you the skinny on Quantum already, but now we have more, including the cover and what’s going to be inside to tempt you.
(Cover by David Morris and Ben Lopez)
Quantum is the new title from British publishers Time Bomb that’s taking a traditional publishing route and getting the comic into both comic shops and onto newsstands and newsagents, just like comics used to be!
The new bimonthly title aimed at the newsagent audience has that great-looking cover from David Morris and Ben Lopez featuring some of the characters you’ll be seeing inside the 52-page, full-colour title.
The initial contents of Quantum includes both new comics and reprints – although Time Bomb do point out that the reprints are presented as something of an upgrade. And personally, having already read some of the reprinted material in its original form, it’s exciting to see some great, great comics hopefully getting a wider audience.
Time Bomb Comics Publisher, Steve Tanner, spoke about his hopes for the new comic and the decision behind Quantum’s opening line up:
“There’s a whole readership out there that don’t buy comics online, at conventions or even comic shops. Quantum is what we’ve produced for those readers, but they’re also unfamiliar with some of the characters Time Bomb has become known for. Quantum seemed a great opportunity to create brand new stories with those characters, as well as presenting again one or two strips from the past that we think deserved inclusion.
Rather than straightforward reprints, though, the two stories in Quantum issue one that have been previously published have been given a bit of an upgrade so even those familiar with get something new. Not every issue of Quantum will contain reprint material but when it does we want it to be a bit special. Not least because we’re hoping that a lot of our existing readers will come along for the Quantum ride too – via their newsagent, of course!”
The full line-up for Quantum #1 runs like this… complete with the PR from Time Bomb (but hey, Time Bomb are nice people, let’s trust them on this!)
Major Rakhana: Pax Galactica Part One, written by Time Bomb’s own Steve Tanner, artist Pete Woods, colourist Dan Harris, letterer Rob Jones.
Steve Tanner has this to say about Pax Galactica:
“The idea behind Major Rakhana is she’s a steampunk space ace – a Victorian Dan Dare figure, but a little more vicious than Dan ever was. And of course, because it’s a steampunk setting you can have fun with Rakhana’s environment, and present it in a way that would make perfect sense in the late 1800s. I created Major Rakhana with artist Pete Woods (for Time Bomb’s Brawler). In the Brawler short stories Rakhana comes across as pretty much the alpha in the pack. Pax Galactica is her first multi-part serial, reintroducing the character for Quantum readers as she and her beloved Brittanic Empire faces a larger threat than ever before.”
WesterNoir: Moon Cursed Part One, written and lettered by Dave West, artist Joseph Parangue, colourist Matt Soffe.
Writer Dave West:
“The frontier of the old west brought all manner of folk. Those looking to carve a new, and better, life from the new world and those only looking to escape the life they left behind. For some of these however the distance was not great enough and their past soon caught up with them. WesterNoir was created by myself and Gary Crutchley, inspired by the old western movies we watched growing up and given a twist of horror to take the typical western anti-hero into a world where monsters exist, to be hunted and to hunt. Moon Cursed takes that in a whole new direction.”
Memphis, written, drawn and lettered by David Morris.
Creator Dave Morris :
“It’s a sci-fi adventure set in a universe where Egypt continued to flourish under the Ptolemaic Dynasty, leading to a magnificent world of art, culture and technology. Although there were periods of upheaval the empire remained relatively stable, allowing science and technology, art and culture to flourish. The once powerful Pharaoh has suffered a stroke and is unable to rule, with his daughter’s succession undermined by powerful factions and ancient sects, and worse, a resurrected god returning to begin a second Age of Chaos.”
Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man? Part One,written by Dave West, artist Marleen Lowe, letterer Andy Bloor.
Writer Dave West :
“If you had a super power what would you do with it? Would you dress up in spandex and haunt the rooftops at night or would you just try to live your life as normally as you could? Originally presented as part of Accent UK’s Blessed/Cursed range of books which focus on the fact that for each positive outcome of having a super power there is always the negative, this tells the story of Bobby Doyle, the decisions he makes and the consequences of doing so.”
The Clockwork Cavalier, written by Steve Tanner, artist Ed Machiavello, colourist Dan Harris, letterer Bolt-01.
Again, here’s Steve Tanner:
“The concept behind the Clockwork Cavalier is wonderfully daft: a mechanical man drafted into the Bow Street Runners to fight crime in 18th Century London! The Clockwork Cavalier made his debut in Flintlock Book One back in 2016, and Quantum number one reprints that complete story, but now in full colour as opposed to the original black and white. We figured that the majority of Quantum’s readers wouldn’t have encountered the Cavalier before, so what better introduction to Time Bomb’s popular Clockwork Conundrum?”
And finally, we have the short gag strip, The Tale of Norton the Dragon by David Morris in each issue.
The two reprints here, both specially coloured for Quantum, are The Clockwork Cavalier and Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man? Now, I haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading Clockwork Cavalier but back in 2009 I got a copy of WHTTWFM? (as no-one will ever call it again) from the old Accent UK, the publisher that Dave West used to co-run. Here’s the cover to that one…
Anyway, Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man? was a great read that I’m looking forward to revisiting. It’s a different twist on superheroics, fascinating and melancholic, here’s some of what I thought about it back then (although how it’s been 14 years… well, that’s just ridiculous.)
Basically, at the start of Whatever Happened there’s a huge bomb about to go off in London. There’s less than an hour before a two-mile radius of London simply ceases to exist and there’s no-one that can do a thing. Well, almost no-one.
Enter Bobby Doyle. Bobby Doyle can stop time. He’s the mysterious ‘World’s Fastest Man’ that all of the papers have been talking about ever since he carried all of those people from that train crash. But he’s not fast, not in the way they think. He just has this strange power where he can stop time for the world and carry on with his life inside his own time-zone. Problem is, when he stops time for everyone else, for him life just keeps on rolling forward.
Now, faced with all those people to evacuate the hard way – one at a time, carrying each one outside the two-mile blast radius, Bobby’s looking at spending 50+ years of his life – probably the rest of his life – to get them all clear and safe.
He might be saving thousands but he knows what it’s going to cost him. He’s going to spend 50 years – a lifetime – saving everyone he can. And he’s going to do it knowing that he’s unlikely to survive, unlikely to hear another voice, he’s never going to fall in love again, never going to be held, never going to hear another voice. So it’s no wonder that there are times he fears he’s going mad. And it’s no wonder that the whole story has a terribly melancholic, fatalistic feel to it.
Yep, it’s one that I’m looking forward to revisiting when Quantum comes out. And if that’s the level of quality for the comic, then Quantum‘s going to be one of those books you’re going to want to get.
Quantum will be available in retail newsagents and select comic shops in late April and will have new issues available every two months.
We’ve given you the skinny on Quantum already, but now we have more, including the cover and what’s going toCOMICONRead More