A love letter to the world's fastest man!

The day after Valentine's day marks the release date for Quantum issue six, some ten months since I first reviewed the release of the Fantastic 1st issue of the new British anthology comic, in that blog I suggested that the "Whatever happened to the world's fastest man?" could well be my favourite. After five issues I can safely say it is! I'll go as far as saying that I think it could well be the greatest comic strip of the last two decades! That sounds like a massive statement I know but bear with me, let me tell you why.

I'm sometimes, well really quite often, late to the game when it comes to finding gems that have become yesterday's news. This story was originally printed in Accent UK's Blessed & Cursed series and actually won an Eagle Award for the Best Black and White Comic Book in 2009. I never knew that until only very recently. I first read the strip in the pages of Quantum #1 in April last year and I only heard about that after listening to a comic podcast by Mega City Book Club about its launch. The new comic would contain five stories of which three were brand new, while the other two would be repeats, one of which would be recoloured the other would remain black and white. That one would be "Whatever happened to the world's fastest man?" I'm so glad they didn't colour it. I read the first three strips in that comic, which are all extremely good, but then got to "Whatever happened to the world's fastest man?" strip. Wow, it was on another level.

 I don't want to give any spoilers away, I want you to read the story clean, but here's the basic plot as spoiler free as I can. The hero of the piece is a normal man in his twenties called Bobby Doyle, who just so happens to possess the power to freeze time. The villain of the piece is a bland almost insignificant nobody who wants to become infamous by killing millions with a bomb planted in the heart of London. But its not the kind of strip you'll find elsewhere, American publishers wouldn't print it, there's no flash costumes, no hard hitting action fight scenes, no sexy girlfriends for our Bobby, no big guns and no extreme violence. British comics probably wouldn't print it either because there's no weird monsters, zombies, or aliens, no future cops or steampunk settings. To be fair it might have seen print in the old 1990's Crisis magazine from Fleetway or maybe some classy European comics.

 Bobby is a hero like no other, He doesn't defuse the bomb because he doesn't know how, he doesn't run away and save himself, even though he could, no Bobby is a noble soul. But he's still just a normal bloke who tries to save the lives of millions of normal everyday people in the minutes or years before a massive bomb goes off, by slowing time down so that he can remove everybody away from the blast zone. Even though the task seems endless, Bobby doesn't give up. It's great to read a story that you don't have to have to read hundreds of other comics by other creators whose work you don't enjoy just to complete a saga.

It's slow but beautifully paced, with the most cartoon like yet detailed artwork to grace a graphic novel. If it was a hardback graphic novel it would sit proudly on my shelves next to the Watchmen, V for Vendetta or my John Buscema drawn Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus for the way the pages are laid out representing the flow of time. The artist Marleen Starksfield Lowe doesn't fill the page with flash frivolous images, instead every time frozen face is full of life as they live within the seconds before the impending doom. Dave West doesn't waste time either with unnecessary dialogue when it isn't needed, allowing the beautiful artwork and the reader to fill in the gaps, forging the most original plot I've read in years, making it an absolute pleasure to read.

No comic strip is ever going to push out a tear from my eyes, but the final episode's ending comes very, very close. 

Is it worth reading? Yes it is! Is it worth them creating a follow on story? No, it's perfect, nothing more needs adding. Is it worth having it collected in a hardback graphic novel? Well I would definitely read it again (if it does I would like extras like behind the creative process, otherwise I would just read the Quantum comics again and again.) and if it appeared on the shelves of Waterstones Bookshops I would make sure people see it by giving it pride of place, just before the security guards kick me out for rearranging the displays. Is it worth Dave West and Marleen Starksfield Lowe producing something similar to it? Oh yes please! Is it the best graphic story of the last ten or twenty years? For the levels of emotion and beauty that fill every page, for the showing the best of humanity when faced with the worst, for the most sad yet fitting ending, I think it is! 

Quantum magazine, Time Bomb Comics, Dave and Marleen thank you all for giving this story a second chance, for showing me that heroes don't need silly costumes or silly names, and for making comics that can be really, really great without the need for frivolous baggage. Just great comics.

"The kind of hero I want to be when I grow older would be like Bobby!"