Last week I looked at the first two issues of the retro-flavoured British indie comic Sentinel, graciously provided in PDF by the creative team. Since then I’ve had a look at the next two issues, which feature two more self-contained stories scripted by writer Alan Holloway.
Paul Spence draws issue 3’s story “A Fare to Remember”, which is a comedic tale even sillier than the first issue (which, as a reminder, starred a Han Solo-like character who fired his friend’s detachable testicles from a slingshot). The plot deals with the bitter rivalry between two alien taxi companies, a feud that grows worse still once organised crime gets involved.
With issue 4’s story “Misty Moore”, Ian Beadle steps in as artist and Sentinel makes another shift in genre. As its title suggests, “Misty Moore” is inspired by the classic girl-targeted horror comic Misty, and its premise is right out of that much-loved title: the bullied heroine teams up with the ghost of a girl who committed suicide to get revenge on her antagonists. (Mind you, the results here are rather more bloody than Misty itself ever was).
Although Sentinel is ostensibly modelled on a specific sci-fi comic – Starblazer –the presence of a Misty pastiche in its fourth issue shows a broader aim: recreating the entire spectrum of seventies-eighties British sci-fi, fantasy and horror comics.
If you want to support Sentinel, then take a look at the Kickstarter for issue 7…
Doris V. Sutherland 