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Albion by Alan Moore, Leah Moore, John Reppion, Shane Oakley and George Freeman
01/02/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Pub: Titan Books. 175 page graphic novel. Price: £ 9.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-84576-351-3. Buy Albion in the USA - or Buy Albion in the UK  check out website: www.titanbooks.com
I saw the cover for 'Albion' some months back and been making noises at Titan not to miss out sending me this one. After all, there's Robot Archie's head on the cover. If you don't know who Robot Archie is then you haven't seen British comics from the 60s and 70s. He was a national icon back then and its amazing that over the years no one has thought to do a model of him.
If anything, 'Albion' is a continuation of writer Alan Moore's love of rapidly obscuring characters. Unlike 'The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen', the characters in this one are from the characters from the Oldham Comics range. DC Vice-President Bob Wayne and IPC publisher Andrew Summer were responsible for getting the ball rolling and I can see it appealing to Alan Moore although he did turn much of the scripting to his daughter Leah Moore and her husband, John Reppion while the art is a work of love by Shane Oakley and George Freeman.
The book answers the question of what happened to all of the adventure characters from Odhams Press after their offices closed. They were systematically captured by the Spider - you'll remember him if you remember my review of his stories from last year - and imprisoned in Scotland in an obscure hard-to-find place called 'Albion'. The story follows the adventures of two characters trying to free them all.
I'm pretty sure you can read the story without really knowing who everyone is but anyone between the ages of 40-50 who were brought up with these characters is likely to come away with a big smile on their faces, especially with some of the obscure detail like one of the metal fish and a brief cameo from 'The Two Faces Of Janus' in the background. The cameos from odd characters, not to mention some of their fates, is also a reminder that not everyone gets through. I ended up thinking of ones that weren't included. The Cloak was mentioned but never shown but whatever happened to Lady Shady? The same thing applies to another robot or android, The Iron Man, who isn't Tony Stark by the way. Likewise, the fate of Johnny Future seems undecided as well. I can't see the Spider beating his tush.
Mind you, considering that everyone from Grimly Feendish, Charlie Peace, the Steel Claw, Tim Kelly (of the Eye), Brian's Brain (without Brian), Zip Nolan to Captain Hurricanne gets a look in (did I mention Robot Archie?), it would have been impossible to pack anyone in, let alone give lip service to them all. No doubt a companion book will get released at some point and no doubt point out many more.
I cannot be more enthusiastic about this book. There are even a selection of stories from the original comics at the back to give you a taste of what you didn't see in the past and should encourage you to rush out and buy Titan's 60s nostalgia books. This is a fun read and at a price that is reasonable that you should be laying down right now to get your own copy of nostalgia. I wanna see what happens next.
GF Willmetts
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