Bryan Talbot/ Adventures of Luther Arkwright [merged x2]

[Anonymous]

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot...nice interesting yarns..multiverse...drugs..sex..what more could you ask for out of a comic book...

As for real reading (whatever that means) I just finished a book called "The Compass of Zen" a great read on the ideas of Zen with a sense of humor..escpecially on how to get over those sexual desires...

[Pietro_Mercurios]

There's an article on the the new audio adaptation of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (Big Finish), on the BBC Cult Website, Bryan Talbot Interview: The creator of Luther Arkwright - now on audio..

There's an interesting, short, interview, in which Bryan Talbot says some nice things about Michael Moorcock and Jerry Cornelius:

...

What was the inspiration behind the character of Luther Arkwright?

All through the seventies, I was a very avid reader of science fiction.

[British science-fiction writer] Michael Moorcock actually put up [a character], Jerry Cornelius, as a template for other writers to use as a starting point. I enjoyed the Jerry Cornelius stories, and I had to do a short strip for one of the Brainstorm underground comics, an anthology title.

I was a big fan of Richard Corben's underground comics, where he used a really lovely technique of a little line with a watercolour wash. I just needed an excuse to try this technique out, so I decided to do a Jerry Cornelius strip.

So I created Luther Arkwright. He wasn't exactly Jerry Cornelius, but it was along those lines. It was only afterwards I started to think about that character and the situation in more detail. At that point I took it away from Mike Moorcock's character. I made Luther very much his own character, and told a story that wasn't similar to the Cornelius stories.

They're fragmentary and they're surreal, and the early ones especially are [in a] very trendy 1960s style. In one chapter Jerry Cornelius can be male, in the next chapter female, he can be different characters in different parallels. I think Michael just threw the rulebook out of the window and had fun.

I wanted to tell a straight adventure story - it was just the way I told it that was experimental.

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/cult/...03/19072.shtml

The logo at the top of the Big Finish webpage, is interesting (and maybe a bit cheeky?):


http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/newworlds/index.shtml
http://www.bigfinish.com/New-Worlds

:)

[Aurelius]

Luther certainly is 'along the lines' of Jerry - down to the weapon of choice in his assassination work being a vibragun! They really are different characters though, despite the clear influences... and both well worth reading about, of course!

I was completely unaware there was an audio version of the Luther Arkwright story until I spotted it in the newest releases in Waterstones this week, so of course as a fan from way back when the illustrated story first appeared, I bought it instantly! It's rather good - some very nice casting, although one or two roles didn't quite work for me - but I was very glad I'd read the original, as the friends who have listened to it over the weekend without knowing the story found it a bit confusing.

[manmiles]

Bryan Talbot/ Adventures of Luther Arkwright

Who else has read this fantastic graphic novel?

I brought it a few years ago, purely on the strength that there's an introduction by Mike, plus I had heard good things about it. It took a couple of reads, but is definatly worth the effort with some fantastic artwork.

I recently met Bryan Talbot at the Brighton Comic Expo last week. I was working in the bar at the Hilton Metropole Hotel where the expo was held. Lots of attendees and guests were there having a couple of drinkies, Steven Appleby (the guy who did Captain Star.) Glenn Fabry, Dez Skinn (worked on Warrior with Alan Moore, gave him the title for V for Vendetta and who I managed to impress so much by giving him a free coffee earlier in the day actually gave me free entry into the expo when I finished work at the hotel the next day.

I had seen BT hanging around, drinking but I wasn't sure if

a- that was the man.

b- if I could get away with simply going up to him WHILE I was meant to be working and tell him how much I loved his work.

c- If I did, he may tell me to f-off.

Eventually, with ten minutes left on my shift, I thought ***k it, fortune favours the bold, walked up to him, asked him if he was Bryan Talbot and told him how much I loved his work. We stood there talking for about five minutes, he was a really nice guy.

But yeah...Luther Arkwright...brilliant comic, the sequel Heart of Empire was pretty good as well.

[DeeCrowSeer]

I've read about it, but not the work itself. I very much enjoyed Tale of One Bad Rat though, and no doubt I've seen other bits of his work over the years, even if I can't recall specific examples (I mean, I'm guessing he worked on 2000 AD, and have a vague memory of him having something to do with Deadline too). Most of what I've read about Arkwright stresses the debt it owes to Mike, but his promotion of the books obviously suggests that there's more to it than just clone-work. The last time I checked though, they weren't that easy to come by. I may be wrong. I haven't even set foot in a comic book shop since the "get-together" in Lodon, so I'm basing my vague generlisation on internet bookstores.

I'm guessing that Demos is a reader though. :)

[manmiles]

There was a London get-together?

He did a couple of the Nemesis the Warlock books for 2000AD. And as far as clone-work goes, you've got the Multiverse and a charecter with some Jerry Cornelius elements, but definatly more original than say Grant Morrisons clone-work.

[David Mosley]

I'm guessing that Demos is a reader though. :)

Heh, you think? :D

Luthor Arkwright deserves a space on the shelve of any self-respecting comics fan imo. Not only is Talbot's B/W artwork incredibly detailed and shows what is possible to achieve in these days of fully-painted comics, but the story itself is sophisticated, multi-layed and rewards repeated re-reading with new insights and depths. I was so impressed that I splashed out on the collected limited edition hardback volume - even though I was an impoverished student at the time (and iirc آ£20 was good drinking money).

Heart of Empire was a good follow-up (plus Mike makes a cameo appearence as well in one issue (reproduced in the Image Gallery)), but TAOLA stands up in its own right and had no need for a sequel (welcome though one was).

Many people note the similarity between Luthor and Jerry - and Talbot readily acknowledges his debt to Mike's work - but for this reader Oswald Bastable is just as important a literary antecedent.

Here's a sketch of Luthor that Bryan drew for me at one of the last UKCAC conventions in the 1990s:



Finally, can't finish without plugging Bryan's official website: www.bryan-talbot.com. Well worth checking out. :)

[Hieronymus]

I've read LA Graphic Novels.
I love this character very much, and last summer I met Bryan Talbot in Glasgow. He is a great artist and a very kind gentleman. He is a victorian dandy really!!! Great guy Bryan! An old fashioned preraphaelite artist!
Actually I'm waiting to read the second part of Heart of Empire.

[Honoured_Matre]

Big fan of Luther! Sad it had to end, met Bryan years ago, with Mike, BOTH nice guys.
My favourite drawing is the picture of Luther leaping from the church, done at such a great angle you have to sort of get under it to appreciate it! I will have to dig them out and re read them!

Have not got to 'Heart of Empire'.

[zxvasdf]

Finally, can't finish without plugging Bryan's official website: www.bryan-talbot.com. Well worth checking out. :)

http://www.bryan-talbot.com/gallery1/Storyteller.html

[David Mosley]

Have not got to 'Heart of Empire'.

HOE is quite a different book to TAOLA with a completely different art style. Personally I prefer Bryan's b/w art (also used in his Nemesis the Warlock strips - which is where I first 'discovered' him), but I think it's worth getting HOE if you're interested in a 'what happened next' story.

[Honoured_Matre]

HOE is quite a different book to TAOLA with a completely different art style. Personally I prefer Bryan's b/w art (also used in his Nemesis the Warlock strips - which is where I first 'discovered' him), but I think it's worth getting HOE if you're interested in a 'what happened next' story.

Its the coloured work that put me off!I think i have some Hell blazer illustrated by Bryan too.
There is so much stuff, cant get round to it all!

[Hieronymus]

HOE is more "ligne clare", more "art nouveau" as drawings that TAOLA. Here the drawing of Bryan is more simple, linear, less experimental the past. And it is coloured with wild colours wich give us a differente vison of LA's world, however in this novel time has past.
Probably, in my opinion, HOE is slower than TAOLA, but I'll tell you more about when I read the second part...

[Honoured_Matre]

But you would recommend it?

I have so much to read! i have to priorotise things.If I did not work i would still be kept busy.

[Mikey_C]

I would recommend it. I picked it up in a car-boot recently. Good intro by MM too. Years ago, I had Brainstorm Comix with the incomparable Chester P Hackenbush. I liked the way Alan Moore wrote him into Swamp Thing. The ultimate bad trip - he finds he's just a drawing in a comic book. I would like to meet Bryan Talbot.