Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates, Review | Tagged: clint, jimmy carr, jonathan ross, Mark Millar

Wednesday Comics Review: CLiNT #9 Now With Added Jimmy Carr

The biggest change to CLiNT#9, in UK shops tomorrow and US shops in a month, is the lack of articles.

CLiNT was always sold as a collection of comics and articles, with an eye on the newstand mainstream market, almost with comics snuck in there, initially at least, And it was the articles that suffered the greatest criticism, seen as filler, bland irrelevance in many cases, and a number of what appeared to be celebrity interviews on the cover, reduced to collections of quotes from other interviews string together instead.

That's all gone. And we've got 74 pages of comics, a stack of previously-seen-on pages, some ads, a three page article on Supercrooks and a 1 page Badass Cinema article at the back. That's a massive jump in terms of comics content. Titan reps have told me that while the magazine hasn't succeeded as they'd have liked on the newsstand, it's had a much bigger reception in comic stores, so it may well be that is reflected in the new mix.

So what do you get for your £3.99? A full second issue, 24 pages of Who Is Jake Ellis, 7 new pages of Kick Ass 2, 12 pages of Turf, 8 pages of The Pro, 12 pages of Superior, and 11 pages of Beat My Score from Jimmy Carr and Ryusuke Hammond.

Kick Ass 2 introduces a new team, one of "supervillains" led by the Red Mist.And their name? The Toxic Mega-Cunts. Of course they are. When talking about the Real Life Super Hero movement that's emerged in the US of late, it was suggested that one or two og them might guest star in any potential movie version of Kick Ass 2. Mark said that that probably wouldn;t be likely considering what happens to the Real Life Super Heroes in the comic. Well, this is where we start to get an inkling of what's coming.

Jimmy Carr's strip does feel a little bit of a cheat; Carr is known for his rapier like wit and cutting lines, but here he delivers just the plot, with Ryusuke writing all the dialogue. And that is something missing here. We do get a tightly structured piece that ostensibly seems to take on video game violence but instead focuses on the competitive spirit more, when it becomes obsessive. It's never a mystery where this is going and why, but it does have some potency if only from its subject matter. However the words that take us there seem trite and rushed, they bely the horror of the subject, and I don't feel like that's intentional.

The other strips you may have read in their previously published versions, but Turf continues to steal the show with its dense storytelling and fully realised characters, a world and a reality away. And seriously, for the money, you'd be a fool to complain. This has to be the best value English speaking comic book on the stands. It may be late, but it's still here…

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