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Devlin Waugh #4
Devlin Waugh: Blood Debt
In these new adventures of Devlin Waugh, written by Rory McConville (Judge Dredd) and Aleš Kot (Secret Avengers, Days of Hate) and drawn by Mike Dowling (Ichabod Azrael, Judge Anderson), mutagenic nightmare spores, the search for his missing brother, and a dashing new boyfriend, all combine to create thrilling tales of the camp vamp.
- GenresGraphic Novels
176 pages, Paperback
First published July 21, 2020
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19 people want to read
About the author
Rory McConville
215 books9 followersRory McConville has been working in the comic book industry since he was sixteen. In that time he has written for DC Comics, Newbold Enterprises, Shadowline Comics and Fan-Atic Press. He currently studies English and History at University College Cork.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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July 31, 2021The weird and wonderful John Smith, his generic name so entirely at odds with the psychosexual peculiarity of his work, used to be one of the 2000AD writers whose creations were his own fiefdom. Until he ended up in a place where he seemed unable to write at all, and corporate comics being an insatiable master (but not in the fun sense you might find in a John Smith story), other hands got given the keys to the kingdom. The first fruit of that was an apocalyptic Indigo Prime story for which Smith had written the opening episodes, but which was then completed by Kek-W, a workmanlike writer well out of his depth and reduced to throwing in guest appearances by any other Smith characters who weren't nailed down. It was very obviously a tribute act, and not the good sort; hopefully we shall see no more of it. Whereas this, while clearly not the real thing, is...OK?
Possibly Smith's single most magnificent creation, Devlin Waugh is a queer vampire exorcist, a man who somehow combines the Tom of Finland and Noel Coward gay archetypes in one immaculate figure. A character I suspect may have been the inspiration for Captain Jack Harkness, but who would not be half so suitable for teatime TV. And the artist on this collection, Mike Dowling, is a perfect choice, able to catch his loucheness but also the sheer coiled power of Waugh. In terms of writers, the first half of the collection is scripted by Rory McConville, a dependable if seldom exciting fixture of recent 2000AD. He does his best to get Waugh's tone down, that mixture of raised-eyebrow camp and references to obscure and unsavoury entities, as if Julian and Sandy were to welcome a certain Howard to their little club, but he hasn't the knack for the darker and weightier end of it, catching the fun of a good Devlin story but not really the horror. Then, though, Aleš Kot takes over – a rare case of a writer from US comics coming to 2000AD, rather than vice versa*. And much as you'd expect from his trippy yet visceral work elsewhere, he's very good at the darkness and weight, but feels a little mannered when it comes to the fun. Waugh always had a heart somewhere under the quips, but turning such a decadent character into a mouthpiece for anti-landlord agitprop feels like a betrayal of the character**; similarly, while Kot has much more of a knack for the occult references than McConville, his use of one of my favourite goetic obscurities here seems like a real reach from this particular demon's original – and much more distinctive – role. For a time, early in his second story, it feels like Kot has found the balance - but then he gets caught up in one of the most overused and unexciting plots you can pull with a long-running character, and it all becomes a bit of a slog, which is utterly un-Devlin. It's a shame they couldn't have found a writer who could display both McConville's sense of play and Kot's willingness to get dirty. But until such time as Smith feels up to getting back in the saddle, I suspect no such writer is available. In the meantime, I will grudgingly admit there was a certain placeholder fun in seeing Devlin, as drawn by Dowling, palling around with a possessed dildo sidekick.
*To sweeten the deal, he seems to have been allowed a leeway with language and nudity which I'm sure Smith never was - yes, technically this appeared in the monthly Megazine rather than 2000AD proper, which is why I hadn't already read it, but I was still startled to see the F-word.
**The character rather than the creator, to be sure; Smith was never averse to a left-leaning political metaphor, but he'd build that into the fabric of his stories, whether it was the interstellar Mary Whitehouses of Leatherjack, or the sink estate horrors of Cradlegrave, rather than cram a crowd-pleasing monologue into the gob of his poshest protagonist.
Possibly Smith's single most magnificent creation, Devlin Waugh is a queer vampire exorcist, a man who somehow combines the Tom of Finland and Noel Coward gay archetypes in one immaculate figure. A character I suspect may have been the inspiration for Captain Jack Harkness, but who would not be half so suitable for teatime TV. And the artist on this collection, Mike Dowling, is a perfect choice, able to catch his loucheness but also the sheer coiled power of Waugh. In terms of writers, the first half of the collection is scripted by Rory McConville, a dependable if seldom exciting fixture of recent 2000AD. He does his best to get Waugh's tone down, that mixture of raised-eyebrow camp and references to obscure and unsavoury entities, as if Julian and Sandy were to welcome a certain Howard to their little club, but he hasn't the knack for the darker and weightier end of it, catching the fun of a good Devlin story but not really the horror. Then, though, Aleš Kot takes over – a rare case of a writer from US comics coming to 2000AD, rather than vice versa*. And much as you'd expect from his trippy yet visceral work elsewhere, he's very good at the darkness and weight, but feels a little mannered when it comes to the fun. Waugh always had a heart somewhere under the quips, but turning such a decadent character into a mouthpiece for anti-landlord agitprop feels like a betrayal of the character**; similarly, while Kot has much more of a knack for the occult references than McConville, his use of one of my favourite goetic obscurities here seems like a real reach from this particular demon's original – and much more distinctive – role. For a time, early in his second story, it feels like Kot has found the balance - but then he gets caught up in one of the most overused and unexciting plots you can pull with a long-running character, and it all becomes a bit of a slog, which is utterly un-Devlin. It's a shame they couldn't have found a writer who could display both McConville's sense of play and Kot's willingness to get dirty. But until such time as Smith feels up to getting back in the saddle, I suspect no such writer is available. In the meantime, I will grudgingly admit there was a certain placeholder fun in seeing Devlin, as drawn by Dowling, palling around with a possessed dildo sidekick.
*To sweeten the deal, he seems to have been allowed a leeway with language and nudity which I'm sure Smith never was - yes, technically this appeared in the monthly Megazine rather than 2000AD proper, which is why I hadn't already read it, but I was still startled to see the F-word.
**The character rather than the creator, to be sure; Smith was never averse to a left-leaning political metaphor, but he'd build that into the fabric of his stories, whether it was the interstellar Mary Whitehouses of Leatherjack, or the sink estate horrors of Cradlegrave, rather than cram a crowd-pleasing monologue into the gob of his poshest protagonist.
May 24, 2021
'An okay tale of a swashbuckling gay occultist utterly redeemed by the introduction of a dildo sidekick." Is not a sentence I ever thought I'd write, but here we are.
August 18, 2023
This was actually the 2000AD Ultimate Collection edition with several additional tales.
As if having a Vampiric, gay freelance paranormal troubleshooter and exorcist for the Vatican as the main protagonist wasn't bonkers enough, this volume also introduced the amazing sidekick Titivillus, a demon trapped in a pink dildo, yes you read that correctly! Hilarious duo.
As if having a Vampiric, gay freelance paranormal troubleshooter and exorcist for the Vatican as the main protagonist wasn't bonkers enough, this volume also introduced the amazing sidekick Titivillus, a demon trapped in a pink dildo, yes you read that correctly! Hilarious duo.
July 10, 2021
Terrific bat-sh*t crazy stories and terrific art. Must reading for the LGBTQ crowd.
July 9, 2024
It won't change your life, but you will have fun.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews