Written by Warren Ellis
Art by J.H. Williams III
Published by Image Comics
I first read this series when it was published close to twenty years ago. I remember liking it a lot, and I remember feeling like it was an incomplete work. It is a shame when that happens in comics and sadly, it happens all too often. A series starts off great and then the creators never finish it. It is hard to think that this particular series will ever have more episodes than what is presented here.
J.H. Williams is a highly sought after artist who pretty much writes all of this material as well. And as far as Warren Ellis is concerned, after his scandals a few years ago, it is hard to see how anyone would hire him to write anything at this time.
So, why is this comic book getting collected, and why now?
Well, it was a highly regarded comic book series for a short time and, despite everything, it is really well done. The scripts are short but smart and the artwork by Williams show an artist who has finally come into his own. It is worth checking out and it does have a kind of cult status behind the whole thing.
The series ran for eight issues and, as a result, it has one storyline produced. That is the story that is presented here. There was a second story started but it only got two chapters to it before the series disappeared. Williams did not draw anything after the first six issues or the first storyline. But he finished the one and that is what is presented here. The story the two creators produced was called Made in England. In it, we meet Desolation Jones, who is really a guy named Michael Jones. He is quite the character, too.
Michael is a spy who used to work for British Intelligence.
He has since left them and has now become a private investigator in the city of Los Angeles. Michael was left pretty shattered after his time as a spy and we get to see that happen a lot as the story progresses forward. There are a lot of other spies in Los Angeles as well, and Michael runs across them on a pretty regular basis.
Los Angeles in this book is not a very friendly place at all.
One day. Michael meets Colonel Nigh who wants to hire him for a job. There has been some property that has been stolen that are of some historical value. What is it, you ask? Why, it is none other than the lost pornographic films of Adolph Hitler that Jones has been hired to go find.
It is a funny concept that is made great by the creative team.
The investigation is very well handled and I was entertained yet again watching all of the pieces come together. Jones is assisted in his investigation with a bunch of assistants who are all weird, as well as some ex-intelligence agents. The characterizations on all of them are really fantastic and really ridiculous. Michael also has an assistant in Dr. Tapper, who fixes him hp when he gets hurt and even goes on to assist him in a firefight. These characters really deepen the experience for the reader. The book has a feel of its own that not many books have, and it is great.
Michael Jones eventually goes up against Colonel Nigh’s three crazy daughters and goes on quite a journey. He goes up against a the seedy underbelly of the Los Angeles porn industry as he is trying to survive his own past in the process. It all comes to a head by the end of the first arc and it is pretty enjoyable ending. The only sad thing about it is that you know by the end that there will be no more adventures after this.
There is a lot of back matter to his book as well that shows some hints as to where this series might have gone. The story is a pretty wild ride and the artwork really compliments it well. These two worked well together.
It is a fun book to reread and it reminds me of a simpler time in comics, where creators were trying some interesting stuff, and experimenting as much as they could.
RATING: A
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