Albion Origins

In the wake of Albion, the WildStorm series by Leah Moore and John Reppion (plotted by Alan Moore), comes Albion Origins which collects together stories featuring some of the more interesting characters from the old British comics that inspired Albion.

I'm not going to review the book because I wrote the introductory material which some people might see as a bit of a conflict of interest. It wouldn't be: I've already been paid and I'm not on a royalty so I'm not going to see any more money if the books sells one copy or one million copies; but why risk having my independence questioned?

So, consider this a placeholder until someone else submits a review. Meanwhile, you might want to read Lew Stringer's review at Blimey!

Albion: Origins features four different characters in a variety of stories. The opening tale, 'Kelly's Eye', features Tim Kelly whose is indestructible as long as he hangs onto the mystical jewel, the Eye of Zoltec... which he loses in the storyline reprinted here which comes from Valiant (23 February to 20 July 1963).

'The House of Dolmann' reprints six four-page episodes including the opening number where we were first introduced to Dolmann on 8 October 1966. 'Janus Stark' also reprints the opening episode amongst the three adventures here, from Smash!, 15 March 1969. (The other two stories are also from Smash!, 22 March 1969 and a two-parter from 31 May-7 June 1969.)

The book closes with a complete serial starring Cursitor Doom, the six-episode 'Cursitor Doom and the Dark Legion of Maradax' from Smash!, 4 October-8 November 1969.

Brian Bolland's marvellous cover was slightly altered between painting and publishing. Here's how it originally looked:

The book is available from Amazon.co.uk at a hefty discount.