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Neil Gaiman's Teknophage #2
The 65 million year-old intelligent dinosaur known as Teknophage has begun to lose his grip on his awesome power over untold universes and possibly what passes for his sanity. Has his insatiable lust for power lead to his ultimate downfall? Complicating matters, and perhaps sensing his weakness, assassination plots are-once considered unthinkable- happening more frequently. What are the plans of the mysterious Messalina, and the man known as the Freedom Fighter? And what happens when, finally, Teknophage is assassinated? Is that really even possible? Who will rule Kalighoul then? And who are Agnes and Johua? And what role do they play in all this madness?
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
232 pages, Hardcover
Published October 4, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 22, 2020
Neil Gaiman’s Teknophage Vol. # 2 is the follow up to ‘Neil Gaiman’s Teknophage Vol. # 1 which is part of a series of comics with one epic story. This volume starts with a revolt against Henry Phage, powerful and crafty reptilian ruler of Kalighoul for several million years. Kalighoul is a parallel Earth and the Teknophage or Henry to his friends rules ruthlessly over his empire from the Phage Building, a city on wheels. I won’t elaborate as the sensible reader will purchase Neil Gaiman’s Teknophage Vol. # 1 before this one. Rebellions are a common occurrence and this one is easily quelled.
The scene then shifts to a pair of upper-class ladies, part of the aristocracy of the Phage building. They are in a beauty parlour discussing the lower orders and how ‘they want what we’ve got without having to work for it’ which is simply ’the politics of envy’. This is a familiar refrain in England. The most interesting of these ladies is Mesallina, named in honour of the wife of Emperor Claudius and one of the focal points of this story. She’s a hedonist of the first order, mainly seeking, like the ‘Cosmo’ readers of our own world, better orgasms. The headboard of her bed has a motto neatly scripted: ‘Veni, Veni, Veni. (I quite liked that)’. Her husband, Lombardo, is another aristocrat but useless for her needs. He’s in charge of the top television show ‘Death Arena’ and cannot pronounce his r’s, another Roman homage, this time to Michael Palin’s version of Pontius Pilate in ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’. All in all, this constitutes a very English style of wit.
The clever plot includes several decent characters and many nice satirical touches. A schoolteacher is shown demonstrating to his upper-class pupils how the system works and why it is perfect. Mesallina, featured on the cover in a sexy outfit cracking a whip, is a more complex character than you might first imagine. Her yen for men leads her to pursue the most dangerous rebel, an off-worlder named Orlando Holmes. Imbued with soul power, after nearly dying, he has a real chance of killing the Teknophage.
At the tail end of the book, there’s a story where the Teknophage crosses dimensions to meet another reptilian super-being from another parallel Earth. Zeerus is also overlord of the hairless apes that evolved after him but seems to have a different morality. At least, he doesn’t dine on them. He likes coffee. Basically this tale is a knockdown, drag ‘em out fight between him and Henry but it’s well done and I really liked the art by Fred Harper. The influence of Neal Adams and Gene Colan shines through. The other pictures in the book by David Pugh are reasonably good, especially to start with, but seem to get darker later on. Not darker in subject, darker in lighting, so it’s hard to see what’s going on at times. It’s said that Warner Brothers made dark films to save money on lighting but I don’t think that works for comics.
To finish, there are a couple of ‘Mr. Hero’ stories. He’s a Victorian gentleman automaton with a missing hand. That missing hand is nearly always on Henry Phage’s shoulder throughout the aforementioned stories and even writes letters for him. This mystery may be resolved in Neil Gaiman’s Mr Hero Vol # 1, on with which I will now get. I’m saving ‘Neil Gaiman’s Lady Justice’ for last.
This series has plenty of nudity, violence and bad taste and it would be easy to mount one’s literary high horse and condemn it as ‘immature’ or ‘undergraduate’. However, it’s very entertaining so I won‘t. I really enjoyed it.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
The scene then shifts to a pair of upper-class ladies, part of the aristocracy of the Phage building. They are in a beauty parlour discussing the lower orders and how ‘they want what we’ve got without having to work for it’ which is simply ’the politics of envy’. This is a familiar refrain in England. The most interesting of these ladies is Mesallina, named in honour of the wife of Emperor Claudius and one of the focal points of this story. She’s a hedonist of the first order, mainly seeking, like the ‘Cosmo’ readers of our own world, better orgasms. The headboard of her bed has a motto neatly scripted: ‘Veni, Veni, Veni. (I quite liked that)’. Her husband, Lombardo, is another aristocrat but useless for her needs. He’s in charge of the top television show ‘Death Arena’ and cannot pronounce his r’s, another Roman homage, this time to Michael Palin’s version of Pontius Pilate in ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’. All in all, this constitutes a very English style of wit.
The clever plot includes several decent characters and many nice satirical touches. A schoolteacher is shown demonstrating to his upper-class pupils how the system works and why it is perfect. Mesallina, featured on the cover in a sexy outfit cracking a whip, is a more complex character than you might first imagine. Her yen for men leads her to pursue the most dangerous rebel, an off-worlder named Orlando Holmes. Imbued with soul power, after nearly dying, he has a real chance of killing the Teknophage.
At the tail end of the book, there’s a story where the Teknophage crosses dimensions to meet another reptilian super-being from another parallel Earth. Zeerus is also overlord of the hairless apes that evolved after him but seems to have a different morality. At least, he doesn’t dine on them. He likes coffee. Basically this tale is a knockdown, drag ‘em out fight between him and Henry but it’s well done and I really liked the art by Fred Harper. The influence of Neal Adams and Gene Colan shines through. The other pictures in the book by David Pugh are reasonably good, especially to start with, but seem to get darker later on. Not darker in subject, darker in lighting, so it’s hard to see what’s going on at times. It’s said that Warner Brothers made dark films to save money on lighting but I don’t think that works for comics.
To finish, there are a couple of ‘Mr. Hero’ stories. He’s a Victorian gentleman automaton with a missing hand. That missing hand is nearly always on Henry Phage’s shoulder throughout the aforementioned stories and even writes letters for him. This mystery may be resolved in Neil Gaiman’s Mr Hero Vol # 1, on with which I will now get. I’m saving ‘Neil Gaiman’s Lady Justice’ for last.
This series has plenty of nudity, violence and bad taste and it would be easy to mount one’s literary high horse and condemn it as ‘immature’ or ‘undergraduate’. However, it’s very entertaining so I won‘t. I really enjoyed it.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
July 31, 2025
I liked the characters better in the second volume of this book, and with the world already established, I began enjoying the book very quickly, the art was still very good and I can say now with no reservations, this was a good read. There were bonus stories at the end that I enjoyed as well. If you are to purchase these books, pleas get volumes one and two, not just one, together they make one very good story.
January 3, 2023
Slightly better than the first volume, still not worth reading.
November 23, 2024
This was definitely more interesting and better crafted than Lady Justice. I don’t really need any more - the point was made.
January 2, 2025
The overarching messages here aren't exactly subtle, but the story was enjoyable.
May 3, 2016
Qualche considerazione su un’opera variopinta e bizzarra, divenuta un classico di cui è senz’altro consigliabile la ri-lettura.
Mini trama: La lotta contro un singolare tiranno rettile alchimista antico quasi quanto la vita stessa e divenuto una semidivinità procede in un pluriverso dai tipici tratti steampunk. 4787714-01
Considerazioni: Una delle idee oggi più generalmente ripetute e più banali è quella che il potere sia di per sé perverso e malvagio.
Questa lettura arriva ad essere alquanto irritante non solo se ripetuta fino allo sfinimento, ma specie se non ci si vuole prendere tutte le conseguenze che implica e non si arriva a fare i conti col fatto ultimo che forse è proprio quel bizzarro “stato delle cose” che viene comunemente chiamato “Natura” ad avere una “architettura” intrinsecamente crudele.
Ma se il dotatissimo Neil Gaiman non è un filosofo, si nota comunque che la sua creazione, colorata, intelligente ed avvincente, per quanto in effetti anche semplice, di Mr. Henry Phage, tiranno crudelissimo di vari mondi, non cade in stereotipi e banalità.
C’è qualcosa di veramente interessante dietro questo strano dinosauro intelligente ......continua a leggere su http://www.dimensionefumetto.it/tekno...
Mini trama: La lotta contro un singolare tiranno rettile alchimista antico quasi quanto la vita stessa e divenuto una semidivinità procede in un pluriverso dai tipici tratti steampunk. 4787714-01
Considerazioni: Una delle idee oggi più generalmente ripetute e più banali è quella che il potere sia di per sé perverso e malvagio.
Questa lettura arriva ad essere alquanto irritante non solo se ripetuta fino allo sfinimento, ma specie se non ci si vuole prendere tutte le conseguenze che implica e non si arriva a fare i conti col fatto ultimo che forse è proprio quel bizzarro “stato delle cose” che viene comunemente chiamato “Natura” ad avere una “architettura” intrinsecamente crudele.
Ma se il dotatissimo Neil Gaiman non è un filosofo, si nota comunque che la sua creazione, colorata, intelligente ed avvincente, per quanto in effetti anche semplice, di Mr. Henry Phage, tiranno crudelissimo di vari mondi, non cade in stereotipi e banalità.
C’è qualcosa di veramente interessante dietro questo strano dinosauro intelligente ......continua a leggere su http://www.dimensionefumetto.it/tekno...
April 3, 2017
I didn't like this volume quite as much as the first one. It was still fun, but I was less impressed.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews