FANTASY HORROR

Created by two of British comics’ brightest new talents, Gutsville No.1 is a steampunk fantasy yarn that has absolutely no truck with even the furthest reaches of possibility. Yet it’s all the better for that, as Simon Spurrier has an imagination that seems to function best amidst the outer limits.

Marrying violence and comedy with a sense of characterisation that goes beyond most of the ciphers who populate modern comics, there is an unlikely sense of possibility about this tale of repressed (in every sense) Victorians who have formed a community within the belly of the biblical whale which swallowed their ancestors’ America-bound ship. Irving deserves equal credit too, his murky and intensely detailed art demonstrating how the best comics can be as alluring as any other visual medium.

(David Pollock)