Thrud The Barbarian by Carl Critchlow…

A Review of the comic book series.

I have known Carl for a great many years and known his work even longer.

I was there when Thrud first appeared in black and white in White dwarf magazine for Games Workshops then fledgling in-house gaming magazine – White Dwarf and found its humour very appealing.

It was therefore no surprise to me and indeed I greeted the news with great anticipation when I first heard Carl was going to be self-publishing a full colour comic version of his masterful creation.

If you haven’t seen it yet, please go out and buy a copy (details below), because you are missing a brilliant piece of work.

This latest comic issue #5 “Bungle in the Jungle is, as usual, a great rib tickler, full of nice touches with heroic fantasy pastiche in-jokes and puns galore. I love looking around the backgrounds to see the names of the Inns, characters and places and such like.

Just look at a couple of my favourites from throughout the earlier issues: To-Me Ku-Pa the Sorcerer and The Black Currant a death dealer pastiche. With names like these you know there’s fun afoot here.

I could tell you about scenes that will have you in stitches, but then that would spoil the fun of reading them and seeing them for the first time.

I don’t want to spoil this latest issue for folks that haven’t yet seen the insides either, but just one little taster hopefully won’t hurt and it is where we see the mighty sun god Hotlwotlbotl. It takes me longer to read this than other comic books, because there’s lots of hidden gems in there and also it just has me crying sometimes when the unexpected is slipped in.
In this episode we see Thrud, who usually starts a fight over a spilt pint, actually waxing lyrical and sounding more like a public school boy then a barbarian.

And now for a gratuitous plug for my good mate Carl:

Go on do yourself a favour and buy a copy now!!!

It’s really easy to do, just follow the instructions below…

Send a cheque or postal order for £2.60 (including P&P) made payable to Carl Critchlow to:

THRUD THE BARBARIAN
PO BOX 371
SOUTHPORT
PR8 6YE

Retailers and Non-UK enquiries please email Carl at:

info@thrudthebarbarian.com

By the way there's also a link on the Wizards Keep website to Carl's website and his Thrud website too.

Now then Carl about the money for this plug, did we say we would waver it if I got an appearance in the next issue?

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
June 29th 2007