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“Lion and the Unicorn” from Ash Pure wows its fans

By John Freeman on June 13, 2014

The Lion, a forgotten war hero, the indestructible man with a death wish. The Unicorn, a gifted psychic knight, she is the girl who wants to save the world… That’s the “one line pitch” for The Lion and the Unicorn, an in-your-face indie comic from comic creator Ash Pure, available both digitally and as a limited print edition.

The art and story on this independent four issue book takes some getting used to (and I suspect it works well on a tablet given the page design). It’s certainly a story that is one of those that starts by dropping you straight into a bizarre, confusing reality, the clues to what’s going on slowly revealed as the characters and situations unfold. Issue One kicks off with what’s left of London further decimated by some kind of psychic explosion and as the tale progresses, Ash lines up the characters on both sides set to exploit what looks like an already-runined Britain. The King is Dead and an ancient kingdom lies crumbling, it’s capital city teetering on the brink of revolution…

Slowly, it becomes clear that a multi-national conglomerate is selling its psychic technology and upwardly mobile, utopian lifestyle as the only way out of the mess the country’s in. But at what cost?

The visual and narrative style of the comic demands your full attention and, be warned, is a far cry from more traditional comic storytelling, as you can see from a couple of sample pages I’ve pulled from the first two issues Ash kindly sent me. But it’s gone down well: Issue 2 was just launched at MCM in London to a great fan response and has gone on sale to a wider audience this week via the comic’s online shop and Comixology. Geek Syndicate are enthusiastic, describing the four-issue project as “Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror meets Grant Morrison’s The Filth”, while Michael Nimmo from Three Million Years calls it “a compelling, well written story.”

There’s no doubt the art is arresting, but some may find the desire to push the boundaries of the comic form too unsettling, despite an intriguing story set in an alternate-history story world. That said, I’d argue the story settles into a better beat with Issue Two; the characters are strong and the villains have some welcome depth. I’ll be interested to see what Ash has in store for the next issue. For the digital price, I’d suggest it’s worth checking it out, just to see how far Ash is pushing the envelope on this one…

Web Links

• TheLionandTheUnicorn.net • Facebook.com/TheLionandTheUnicorn

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as 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.