Lobster Random - 'Tooth and Claw'

[Colin YNWA]

See when you read 2000ad progs in quick succession and you have 'Total War' as the Dredd story at the start of the Prog its kinda hard for the stories around it. I'd get through those 6 pages of glorious Wagner n Flint beauty and all I'd want to do was get through the prog so I could get to the next part. Therefore the rest of the stuff in the Prog might become an obstacle. Synammon while intriguing compared to what had gone before drifted past, even some really nice Yeowell art on Red Seas 'Meanwhile' left it nothing more than a distracting stop gap. 'Faces' I was continually flip flopping about it had moments which really caught me and moments when I drifts and Lobster Random...

... well 'Tooth and Claw' snapped me out of my Dredd fueled mania to get to the next blast of 'Total War' and to stand up proud in such company is no mean feat at all. After just two stories that craggy faced torturer is rapidly becoming a firm all time fav of mine. Its brillant stuff. Each part is crafted to stand alone and piece by piece tell the whole of the tale it sits in. Each of those tales is revealing more and more of the bigger picture. Its a wonderfully constructed strip and I chuffing love it.

Carl Critchlow's rugged art is perfect for the piece and Si Spurrier cranks in almost as many stories per episode than John Smith, but does so with a calm subtly that means you don't realise that straight away. Its brillant stuff and endless fascinating and intriguing. Only 2000ad could make a character like Lobster Random the star of the show and make you love the crabby old bugger.

Classic