Sneak Preview – Shaman Kane Issue Three

By downthetubes Guests on July 30, 2016

Shaman Kane Books 1 -3 by David Broughton

Created by David Broughton

24 Colour/Black and White interior pages – £3.99

The Book: On assignment from the Shaman ruling council, Kane Sable and Jane Rain must find out what is behind a series of fresh outbreaks of Zombie Plague on commercial Starliners. Can they prevent further outbreaks from happening?

The Preview: So begins the start of another thrilling issue of this series from the ever productive David Broughton. As well as producing work for Futurequakeand Zarjaz, this creator adds to his ever-growing back catalogue with creator owned work.

Shaman Kane proudly wears its 2000AD influences on its sleeve. It is not only a sci-fi adventure series but also has a little of that sarcastic black humour that we see in all good Progs. I’ve been looking forward to reading the next issue ever since I put down the first two issues – and this new story did not disappoint.

Issue Three comprises of three chapters that interlock into the bigger picture and story arc that Dave is building. The Zombie virus is spreading to all the corners of the galaxy and we get some nice twists on a couple of other science fiction tropes. Dave also gives us a chunk of claustrophobia on a spaceship as the virus takes hold in the opening story, ‘Flight 66’. Then he drops us onto an alien world full of strange landscapes and a cunning play about with the werewolf trope in the last two stories strong>‘The Brotherhood’ and ‘Entropy’.

Along for the ride in this issue are a few little winks to the dreadfulness of the modern obsession with celebrity, involving a certain reality TV star famous for a big backside and a mouthy car racing pundit who gets his head cut off for huge comedic effect. Dave knows what buttons to press and these little asides only go to make the horror/ adventure moments all the more enjoyable.

The art has a great clean line to it and Dave shapes each scene with real style. He experiments with colour in the last story to great effect and this story races through its pages with great exuberant style.

In my humble opinion this has got 2000AD written all over it and it can’t be long before Dave gets snapped up to work for them.

Shaman Kane Issue Three is getting a release at the upcoming Bristol Comics Expo on Saturday 6th August at The Double Tree by Hilton, Redcliffe Way, Bristol. Dave will be sketching away at his table and also has some great prints for sale. For all details of this event go to their Facebook page here.

If you can’t pop over to Bristol and see Dave at his table there you can go to his store at comicsy.co.uk/dbroughton and grab a copy there.

Tony Esmond

• For some other examples of Dave’s work head over to www.dbroughton.blogspot.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @Dbroughton

Many thanks for reading.