Comic Book Review: A Rope Around Your Broken Neck

A Rope Around Your Broken Neck

Story by: Martin Ian Smith
Art by: R. Ricardo and Nicholas Brondo
Cover by: Nicholas Brondo
Published by: Attackosaur Comics
Cover Price: £2.00 ($2.98 American)

The Indie comic scene has a wide array of comic examples. You have upscale Indie in companies like Dark Horse and Image whose comics are comparable to Marvel and DC. There's no reason a Dark Horse or Image comic couldn't have the same sales as a Marvel or DC comic except the covers don't say Marvel or DC.

But then there is what I consider true Indie. These are guys who don't often turn up in the Previews Catalogue. These are the guys who use their own money to get their comics published and get the word about mainly by the power of their own voice. These true Indie publishers have my utmost respect for their daring and courage, especially when it turns out to be something of note.

Which brings me to A Rope Around Your Broken Neck. A Rope Around Your Broken Neck, henceforward to be referred to as simply Broken Neck, is a tale set in the Tower of London during the Bubonic Plague. As the Black Death rages and people die or flee the city hoping to find salvation elsewhere, a lone guard at the Tower of London tends to his grim duties: feeding the prisoners and executing them.

Can a Catholic Priest from Spain reason with him before he finds himself with a noose around his neck?

Despite being set 150 years ago, Broken Neck is quite topical when you consider some of the dark events of recent history including Hurricane Katrina and some of the more despicable events of the war in Iraq. It asks the question, who would you be when chaos erupts and society degrades to a husk of itself?

To compliment this high minded comic is artists R. Ricardo and nicholas Brondo's dark art. The images of the corpses are truely grotesque.

Swing by attackosaur.com to give this hidden gem a looksee.