CLiNT BURGERS

Sometimes I impress myself with uncharacteristic bad timing and all too typical buffoonery. One of the things I planned to do this year at Comic Con was button-hole Jonathan Ross to ask him about his Prohibition-set Vampire-fest Turf, but I over-booked and dropped the ball on the whole sorry scenario.

Once again fates have converged to make me end up feeling like the prize bumpkin, as I merrily bundled along to the launch of the brand-spanking new Comic Book anthology CLiNT to nab a quick chat. CLiNT has been carefully constructed by none-other than Mark Millar, and features Ross' debut strip in it's first UK outing. Once there I got a call from my cameraman, who'd overrun on a prior engagement, and I was on my lonesome.

So mortified by another fumble I failed even to get a lovely snap to enshrine the Kodak moment meeting Messrs Millar & Ross. Hopefully, after making an offer surely anyone would refuse, I might be able to wangle a brief chinwag soon - but let's not be holding our collective breaths.

Did at least get me Comic Book signed...

But what of CLiNT itself, as opposed to my regretful ramblings?

Waiting in line I had ample opportunity to glance through the pages, and then downright devour them. At first flick it looked a little bit too close to a Comic with some pages from a lads mag meets film rag slipped in - with a feature on Hot TV Mums a particularly out of place filler. I'm not one to dispute the obvious allure of a few yummy mummys, but it's still a confusing thing to find plopped there.

Once one gets down to the strips there's no denying it grips the reader like a right bastard. I haven't been so captivated by a new British Comic for a long old time. Fair enough, much of the content has been available elsewhere, and if you're not a fan of Millar's potty-mouthed prose it's doubtful that you'll convert. However, the whole enterprise whisks up fondly recalled thoughts of anthology comics from days of yore - such as the Mighty World of Marvel & The Super Heroes. Kick Ass 2 is shaping up nicely and Turf is bloomin marvellous - enough to make me cheat on a mag that is still warm and pursue the next chapter elsewhere...

Make no mistake - despite many a US setting this most definitely feels like a Great British Comic Book, and one that recalls the glory days of 2000AD and it's noble 90s spin-offs like Crisis and Deadline. No other country seems to embrace anthology titles like us lot, and for taking me back to the time when - for awhile - grown up comic books flooded the shelves of the local WH Smiths it deserves a hefty chunk of recognition.

If CLiNT sorts out their seemingly superfluous articles and attracts new talent to continue to punch at this level, this could well be the beginning of something rather splendid. I was enjoying the bugger so much that when I got to the front of the queue I nearly forgot what I was queuing for in the first place - which takes me back to basic-buffoonery once again...