Outcasts (the comics that is not the telly show)

[Colin YNWA]

Well what is this doing here on the 2000ad review section. Well with the creative team of Wagner n Grant and Cam Kennedy it in so many ways is a 2000ad strip in all but publishing. Heck in issue 12 there's a panel where the shadows cast on a wall by the off panel law enforcers of the piece have a distinctly Judgey look to them. I read this as Mr Kennedy's nod of the head to 2000ad and its influence on the story.

Before I go on as I'm sure many of you know 'Outcasts' was a 1987 12 issue maxi-series (I believe they were called) from DC, similar in format to 'Watchmen' and 'Camelot 3000'. Its set in a dystopia were the rich few oppress the poor majority from their safe enclaves. The controls and abuse of the poor and particularly the mutants in the city have an even darker, nay horrific agenda. An young woman from the upper classes appalled by what she sees and motivated by the death of her father brings together a small group of rebels to try to overthrow the system.

Okay so far so clichéd and to be honest this set up is quickly dispensed with in the first issue. Of course while the summary reads as full of sci-fi tropes the creative team in typical 2000ad fashion twist and nudge it beyond the cliché and fill the tropes with wonderful atypical characters. It really is a 2000ad strip and a very good one, in a different home.

There are all sorts of brilliant 2000ad moments. One of the heroes ends up spending the latter half of the series as a pile of all but inanimate slug in a bucket. You genuinely believe that there is a reason to fear for our heroes. Heroes who, so typically of 2000ad, are far from the clean cut norm so associated with many American comics. Glimpses into the "Big City" and its crazy society are presented through adverts scattered throughout the story, straight from Mega City One. There are also an absolutely delicious pair of villains that really would have been at home in the Galaxies Greatest. Heck as Wagner and Grant so love to do there are even moments of comedy song, even in the darkest hour.

It is the differences however that make it really interesting. The fact that 'Outcasts' is set out over 300 plus pages (each issue has 28 pages of strip) makes for a really interesting read. I'd imagine in 2000ad the story would have been told in half the number of pages or less.

This luxury of pace and timing in a situation that is so typically 2000ad is a joy to read. Not because its better or worse than it would have been on the creators home turf, just that it makes it different. It lacks the excitement thrilling pace a cliffhanger ever 6 pages brings, though it doesn't lack for excitement as a whole. It enjoys moments in scenes that would be done in a page or two extended over five or six and thus fleshed out all the more. The creators seem to wallow in the extra space they have and really enjoy it. Its almost impossible as a 2000ad reader not to edit it in your mind as you read and speculate how the story would have been edited if it'd had a different home.

Its a different kind of joy to behold, but is a joy none the less.

In this age of Patton Oswalt's etewaf (Everything That Ever Was—Available Forever) it seems strange that this delightful work has never been collected, as far as I'm aware. It does however pop up fairly regularly on eBay (in fact there's one on there now 7.99 plus postage 4 days to go and no bids) so I'd highly recommend popping over and snapping this series up.

Comfortingly different