Anthology comics certainly exist in the US, but when we were growing up in the 70s and 80s (and before), they were the main way most kids in the UK experienced comics. Whether it’s a humorous comic like the still-living 80-something Beano, a sci-fi title like 2000AD (which is still going on 47 years later), or a multi-genre piece like the recent Quantum, a single It could be an anthology instead of a character. It seems like most Brits end up with these titles when it comes to their country’s comic consumption.
There seems to be a bit of a revival in this field, with several titles revitalizing the field. The aforementioned Quantum is one of them, and its availability in national mainstream stores such as WH Smith has really helped it reach an audience hungry for such content. For me, Shift is another title that has disappeared from local stores, but has produced great material for readers since its first issue was published in 2020.
This is the first issue I’ll be covering in this belated review, but I have to say I’m really impressed. With so many very famous creators on board, the strip rarely plays it safe, either from a stylistic or thematic standpoint. Sometimes both!
First up is To The Death, by veteran creators Simon Furman and Geoff Senior, who are very well known for their 80s British Transformers work. This is the first part of the story, which begins as a fairly Starship Troopers-like story, but one in which the human characters question the need for war, and while they don’t necessarily understand the point, It will change into something more. They are in the middle of it. Fuhrman’s writing is excellent, although very old-school, and Senior’s dynamic pencil-and-paint art style suits the material well.
Jim Krueger and Steve Yowell’s Infantry tells a post-superhero story with an impressive gimmick. It is told throughout a single, gigantic work of art that unfolds. This may tend to favor style over substance, but while it’s a fascinating read, there still doesn’t seem to be any basis to justify what is clearly an ambitious and well-implemented gimmick.
Chris Geary’s almost wordless Korra tells the story of a woman who crash-lands on a hostile planet and chronicles her struggle to survive. This is another impressively implemented title, and it’s good to see yet another somewhat experimental style utilized in the first issue of the new anthology.
Speaking of unusual techniques, Soulwind makes incredible use of white space and sparse black ink to tell its story, with author Scott Morse transitioning to more traditional comic book panels in the final sequence. Just do it.
Martin Stiff’s Tiny Acts of Violence tells a devastatingly harrowing story that is far more grounded in reality than the other articles in this issue.
Shifter is another strip with an exciting gimmick. This time, the beautifully drawn artwork comes to life thanks to AR elements in the app and on some pages. At least one of these pages is a bit too ambitious (I tried using a mobile device to fly a drone over the landscape projected from the page, but it worked perfectly fine for me). The interactive elements, such as the ships and creatures are very well done, and you can even have the beast pop out of the cover of this issue using the same app. The story itself is intriguing and sets up some interesting things, but not enough information is revealed to really understand what’s going on by the final page.
Finally, the story Hungerville is about a ruthless robot that tracks down a professor who evades taxes in order to recover a huge debt. But his target isn’t going to go down quietly.
This issue of Shift also features a number of interviews. It’s packed with content, has some really interesting and unusual stories, and many have really unique touches, making it a great magazine to pick up.
Physical media is currently struggling due to rising costs and intense competition for shelf space in retail stores, but Shift does a great job of reminding readers why physical media is worth sticking around for. . This is a great start to the anthology series, and I’m looking forward to eventually catching up with the remaining issues. There is a lot of work to be done in that regard!
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