Comic Review: Leviathan by 2000 AD

I'm stepping into a new adventure called Leviathan by my favourite comic producers 2000 AD. Now, a few things I enjoy straight up with this: 1 - Digital getting to read it on my pixelbook is always a joy. Being able to zoom in and get into the artwork is pure joy. 2 - D'Israeli's black and white work is so full of detail and eye-catching I just get lost in it, and it brings extra information to the stories. Purchasing this and waiting for the download, I could feel the excitement growing.

Written by Ian Edginton, who has worked on a few great comics with D'Israeli before, like Stickleback, the artist is D'Israeli, who we know is fantastic and finally, The Letters by Tom Frame.

Here is the official write-up.

All Alone On Infernal Seas!

In 1928, the largest cruise liner the world has ever seen was launched. With a crew and passenger complement totalling nearly 30,000 people, the Leviathan is bound for New York. However, it never reaches the Big Apple and... disappears!

Detective Sergeant Lament begins to investigate the mystery at the liner’s heart twenty years later- with the Leviathan stranded on an unearthly sea. What he discovers will change his world forever - but it might just bring the Leviathan home…

From the creators of Scarlet Traces and The Great Game comes a unique story that will continue to haunt the reader long after the last page has been turned!

Stories include:

Leviathan

Chosen Son

McLean's Last Case

Beyond the Blue Horizon

So, let me read and swipe and get some thoughts on the blog.

Review

What a book. This will be a complex review without giving away far too many spoilers. Let's start with the location - Leviathan. Built as the world's largest vessel, it is a fully formed city shaped like a boat. Think about that for a minute: a whole city on a boat! 30,000 souls stuck on a boat lost at sea, there is even a zoo onboard, which is a primary food source following the boat's disappearance. That's right, this giant ass boat disappears on its 1928 maiden trip and has been lost for twenty years.

During this period, the ship has become a pyramid scheme system. At the top are the aristocrats and the higher-up crew, living in First Class and reaping the awards of those beneath them. Then, you slowly work through the classes and ship crew until you reach the engine room area. This is where things go a bit weird. No one has had contact with the engine crew in nineteen years, yet the engine is still running!

Now, if that weird setup wasn't bad enough? It would now seem there is a weird mystery unravelling within the first-class quarters of the boat. Following a string of murders, the upper class requests the services of Lament, an ex-detective Sergeant from the Second class area, to discover the killer.

And with that, we are on page two! Wow, from here on in, spoilers surround us, so I won't go too in-depth but expect a Cthulhu-style mystery full of great twists and turns. Overall, it was a fantastic locale to set the story, and then it proved popular enough to set off four other stories. The first is about how the engine room crew end up the way they are (I want to talk about this but spoilers!), the second is how alcohol is made onboard, a crazy over-the-top story - but is it myth or truth? This was a great story. The third is about a fantastic lady who attempts to fly ahead and search for land. This sad tale shows how no one can expect to escape.

Overall, I loved diving into this new world but enjoyed everything wrapped up in one book. It is refreshing and has readied me to dive back into Judge Dredd.

Have you read it? Let me know in the comments below. I want to know!