At MCM Scotland last Sunday I was asked by Glasgow writer Gary Chudleigh, Writer of Villanous and co-founder of Obscure Reference Comics, to review what he calls a “short portfolio of science fiction stories”, however what he actually gave me was the comic book equivalent of a movie trailer!

Syndrome is a collection of 3 very short stories set in a dystopian future and featuring different artists for each story. Every story is uniquely different yet all have the same feel and the same dark tones that the future isn’t such a glorious place

the first story, The Work Experience, is set around a office worker who gets diagnosed with Parkinson’s and is declared unfit for work. Chudleigh’s writting sets the tone very well, but what makes this story so gritty is Ian Laurie (And Then Emily Was Gone) art work, helped by Graeme Kennedys grey-tone the three just make the future seem such a horrible dirty place

The second story is the shortest at two pages, but “What Must be Done” most powerful of the three i feel. this one sees a father and son trying to survive after a zombie invasion and doing exactly as the title suggests what must be done . Art by Glasgow’s Chris Connelly ( Bad Sun) who is very quickly becoming one of my favourite artists, goes from really detailed drawings of buildings and expressions to almost simplistic to convey the emotion between the characters, a fantastic twist and the two tell a better stroy in two pages than some mainstream comics do in a whole 12 issue arc

The final tale is the one that grips you in and makes you want to know more, Annabelle is about A survivor of a destroyed spaceship as he records a final message to his wife Annabelle. Don Cardenas does the art for this trip and wow, the pages actually look like he’s started with a black page and just drew the white bits in, he really captures the feel of deep space and the solace of the piece. The story its self is so gripping i wish there was more of it, again in 3 pages Gary has me hooked and wanting more

in all the book reads like i said as a movie trailer for a futuristic Sin City. i can only hope Gary and crew can hurry up and give us more of these in the near future, and hopefully it wont be as bad as they think, well except Zombies cause they’re awesome!

The writer of this piece was:
Greg Watt
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