In Review – ‘Gallant and Amos’ by Rob Barnes

By Antony Esmond on August 2, 2018

Created, Written and Illustrated by Rob Barnes
Published by Fair Spark Books
Physical Copy – £3.00
Digital Copy – £1.50
24 pages – Full Colour

The Story – Gallant and Amos is a comic about two guys travelling around a medieval world and stumbling into crazy adventures and events.

Oh! and did we mention one is a Knight and the other a Dragon?

During the course of two stories in this comic we see Gallant and Amos fight power crazed and evil snowmen and get ‘kidnapped’ by a flying sauce. All the while bickering like you see in all good buddy cop movies…

The Review – Fair Spark Books is the name for the publisher that is also very busy organising the Little Heroes charity comic and other exciting projects. They are a new venture that specialises in family friendly comics that will make you chuckle.

‘Set in the Northern Kingdom – “It is know for snow all year long and having the softest toilet paper’ – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Realm

This is the first in a new series for the company and has just a glint of the Asterix about its content. Issue 1 is split into two stories: “The Valley of the Snowmen” is the longer, initial tale and has a little element of peril and a lot of laughs. It’s a story that grabs the reader and makes them worry just a tiny bit as to whether our heroes will survive and in so doing warms you to their characters and antics.

Story two is the shorter “Follow the Leader” that has our accident prone knight and dragon meet up with aliens and confuse them with their indecisive stupidity.

Gallant and Amos are a very likeable pair and they spark well off each other with quickly delivered one-liners and some excellent (and funny) action sequences. There’s no pandering to a younger audience here – the pair aren’t afraid of weighing in with a punch or throwing the odd shield about (even if it isn’t that magic!)

All of this comic screams checkout at Tescos.

What I mean by that is that Gallant and Amos is the sort of comic that should be grabbed for an unruly child as they play up on a trip to the shops, to keep them quiet on the journey home. There is no bigger compliment in my eyes as that. I can also foresee that same child loving these characters and telling his parents all about them at every opportunity he gets.

“Why don’t you draw a story yourself?” Suggests a busy parent as the kid stomps off to find the crayons!

• Order a copy of Gallant and Amos at www.fairsparkbooks.co.uk | Read an interview with creator Rob Barnes on the Fair Spark Books web site

• Find Fair Spark on Twitter @fairsparkbooks

• Also head over to www.littleheroescomics.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @littleheroeskit to donate to a great kids charity that helps children in hospitals