The Kickstarter for Time Bomb Comics’ near future dystopian comic The Patrolman is now live. The first of five planned volumes, it follows a retired criminal’s project to return order to an isolated London.
From the publisher –
In a London fallen to gang control, sealed off from the rest of the world, retired super criminal Theo Deviant is bored.
Corrupt corporations run the city, trading with the rest of the world, offending his anarchist instincts.
Theo realises the only person able to restore London and bring down the Lord Mayor, the enigmatic figure controlling the gangs, is the Patrolman.
But the vigilante nemesis is dead, killed by Theo’s own hand.
So it’s now up to him to train a new Patrolman and take the city back…
The Patrolman has been created as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of Time Bomb Comics. The story is set in an alternate London ruled by a corrupt Lord Mayor, and the corporations under his influence. After the city’s greatest hope The Patrolman, is killed, a replacement is handpicked to be trained, in order to carry on the ongoing fight.
We’ve had the opportunity to check out part of volume one. It introduces us to supervillain, Theo Deviant, and his base of operations, The British Museum. He should be revelling in the chaos within the wall of London, but it turns out he dislikes wealthy, corrupt bankers just as much as the rest of us. Haunted by the death of his former arch-nemesis, and disillusioned by the changes happening in the city around him, he reluctantly realises that what London needs is exactly what he took away from it – The Patrolman.
The comic has a very engaging concept, a supervillain moved to act to restore some sense of order in a decaying capital. And the art of the comic does a great job of portraying just how derelict and dangerous the city is, with armoured black taxis driving around, and dangerous gangs attacking people on the street in broad daylight.
In just a few pages, it’s clear Deviant is an enthralling character. Despite the criminal empire ruling the city, the police on the outside are still trying to surveil Deviant as a person of interest. He walks the streets without fear, using gadgets and guile to give him the edge against gang members attacking him on the street. When he says it’s time to bring The Patrolman back, from what little we’ve learnt about him we fully believe he can do it. In order to find out how he goes about it, we’ll have to check out the full volume.
The Patrolman is written by Nick Twyford, with art by Will Chetwynd. They are planning to release a new volume every 6 months, with each issue containing 52 full colour pages. As you can see from the images, the book’s art is crisp and stylish, and the tone of the story is a combination of gritty British realism and satirical humour. Just from reading a few pages, it felt like it would be very much at home on a shelf with the likes of Transmetropolitan and Judge Dredd.
Reward tiers include digital and printed editions, and there is also a limited bookplate reward tier, produced as an exclusive just for backers, featuring artwork from artist Will Chetwynd, and you can even get original character artwork. You can find more information, and back the project, on the Kickstarter page –
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/timebomb/the-patrolman-book-one/description
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