Publisher: Titan Comics
Release Date: August 2015
Price: $22.99
Creator(s): Das Petrou (writer); John Watkiss (artist)
Format: 144 pgs., Full-Color, Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-7827-6001-6
Age Rating: N/A
ICv2 Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
While both writing and illustration are quite good, the story has not aged well. First written over twenty years ago, as a comic for Dark Horse Comics, the intervening years have seen many other alternate reality or conspiracy theory stories, and it against those that this must now be compared.
A bit like "What if Harry Turtledove had written the DaVinci Code," with the difficulty that neither the alternate world nor the conspiracy had the full attention of the writer. Worse, the alternate reality is never quite solid, since it's set in a world where the Catholic Church has held grimly onto its religious monopoly by means that are never convincingly explained. Technologies make no sense, including a mix of automobiles and crossbows.
The artwork is the stronger half of this combination. There is some great imagery and solid visual storytelling. The fake newspapers are clever and well-done.
Still, the story is interesting, and the subplot involving the Black Plague [the book's title is a bit of a giveaway, if you're into the history of nursery rhymes] is riveting. The book is worth reading, and will appeal to fans of British SF comics in particular, as it has some of the 2000 AD style, but without the cartoonish excesses which sometimes occur there.
--Nick Smith: Library Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.
