The Devil’s Breath by Lee Robson and Brian Coyle is running in Aces Weekly Volume 29
By Lee Robson and Bryan Coyle
Out: Now via Aces Weekly
Subscription: Just £1 a week
The latest volume of David Lloyd‘s brilliant digital anthology Aces Weekly recently started and three weeks in, I have to draw your attention to a terrific action adventure that features – “Velicity Jones in The Devil’s Breath” by Lee Robson and Bryan Coyle.
This strip has all the hallmarks of being a breakout success for Lee and Bryan, combining all the kind of themes many love about Peter O’Donnell’s “Modesty Blaise” with the superspy sleuthing of many a James Bond tale. We’ve got an all-action secret agent, Velicity Jones, sent on a mission to recover some secret blueprints, only to be told they’re fake; convinced they’re not, Week Three sees her attacked and then duped by her employers!
The seven-week cycle of an Aces Weekly volume means the story cracks along at a brisk page, a glorious combination of newspaper strip serial with a three-page “chapter” that enables more characterisation than you might see in your newspaper (if you were lucky enough to have any adventure strips in your daily paper that is, because, sadly, they’re in pretty short supply these days).
Just before the strip launched, Lee told me he was really excited about this strip – and he has every right to be. The lead character is sharp and sassy, Brian Coyle’s art is a visual treat and having been given a sneak peek at the rest of the story, I can only hope it tickles the fancy of Aces Weekly readers and we soon see a return of the character to its digital pages.
This is, as I often say, a cracking yarn, with some twists and turns still to come. And given Aces Weekly costs just £1 a week, which includes not just “The Devil’s Breath” but other great strips by Jok and Santullo, Laura Scarpa, David Brana and Olga Carmona – why on earth are you holding back from subscribing?
Go on – make publisher and editor David Lloyd happy and give this anthology a try. Subscribing also gives you access to a lot of “extras” in the current volume, some going behind the scenes on current strips, and all future volumes.
• Subscribe to Aces Weekly now by visiting at www.acesweekly.co.uk/shop for just £I per week
Velocity Jones © 2017 Bryan Coyle & Lee Robson.
John Freeman
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek Magazine) and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War and “Dan Dare”. He’s the writer of "Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies" for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Features, Reviews
In Review: Fanzine Funnies by Lew Stringer 
In Review: 2000AD presents… Mega-City Max (a 2000AD SciFi Special) 
In Review and in Pictures: Lawless 2023 
Comics Abroad: A Visit to the Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco