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I was rather surprised when I got the mail from Thomas Cochrane:  

“I’m working with Alan Tanner - a real veteran illustrator from 1960’s London. He was one of the first people employed by Time Out and was an illustrator for OZ and a number of other hippy magazines of that period.” 

You see,kiddies,back in 1972,as a very young lad,I got detention after being found reading a copy of Oz.  Ohhh,the signs were all there!   So,when I heard Alan Tanner was the artist on the book I wondered what this was going to be like. 

But here is the synopsis: 

The Fat Man involves a British MI5 undercover agent who is approached by himself with proof of the existence of a notorious World War 2 Nazi ’secret weapon’ - The Tegal Project - discounted many years previously as German propaganda.  

Following instructions given to himself during a strange encounter he is led to a meeting with a displaced group of SS soldiers - the ‘Ansatz Jägerretinue’ - Himler’s chosen guardians of the Tegal Project. Led by a Captain Haken - a group of

Germany’s most notorious criminals.

The MI5 agent (code-named The Fat Man) is taken to the location of the Time machine - in a subterranean structure built by WW2 slave labour under the current Chernobyl nuclear facility in the Ukraine - It was taken over by the Soviets in 1944 and kept secret ever since.  The Nazi research was not complete and was taken over by the Soviets who eventually got the machine working in 1986.   Purges in the 50’s and mysterious deaths since (including the Chernobyl meltdown) have led to a situation that the Tegal project was virtually unknown even to the Soviets. The policy of “need to know” taken to a logical conclusion.

The adventure continues for the Fat Man when he is processed by the Tegal chromaton blood enrichment and his physical system is brought to a criticality and he is sent to the Nazi “Barbarossa” invasion in 1944.  Completing the circle with a meeting with Captain Haken as he was then - with a message scrawled across his chest to take a blood sample. Allowing all the original research to take place at all.  The Fat Man is taken prisoner and taken to meet Himler and Hitler at the Eagle’s Nest - He is treated as a valued guest - although the shock has caused him to say nothing (never mind the fact he can’t speak any German) - When at lunch the questioning becomes too intense The Fat Man requests some cheese from the lunch table and promptly vanishes. 

The physical effects of the Chromaton enrichment of his body is to cause an allergic reaction causing a spontaneous criticality.  The adventures continue with a fight with the Sex Pistols in 1976 London, a serious romance with Louise Brooks in Berlin 1928, the robbery of Akhenaton  in Ancient Egypt.

And what will this cost you?  How can you order The Fat Man?  Well,believe-it-or-not,there is a free –FREE- 50pp online preview of The Fat Man:An Adventure In Time!!  Sez the web site: 

“The Fat Man” - A coming attraction in theUK indie comic scene, available from October. The first in a trilogy of graphic novels produced by Thomas Cochrane Associates announces a massive 50 page preview is available from their brand new web site

 www.the-fat-man.co.uk 

This covers the first three chapters of an exciting spy / sci-fi series. The book is currently available at a pre-order price of £14.99 (including international delivery) 25% of all profits from this publication will be going to charity 

The art is very pop arty and at first I wasn’t too keen but,it grows on you.  Time-hopping Nazi,shoot-outs,explosions,intrigue,Hitler and,oh,yes,cosmic cheese. 

Can you fail?   

Well,obviously,seeing 50 of 350pp just gives a taster and there is only one niggle I have:the word balloons!  These computer generated speech balloons tend to be too big and I’ve mentioned this before,it can be quite jarring.  However,I found it easy to ignore after a page or two because of the artwork. 

The art is quite clean and colourful and the effects Tanner uses are very effective. 

This book is A4 sized so the question I really want to ask is what size is the original artwork? A page of this would look great on the wall as an art-piece/poster.  

Sadly,as a preview you cannot get a good grasp of what the story is like.  That said,I think that there are enough good elements in what I have seen to make it worth getting the book [though I’m hoping for a review copy!]. 

Comic buyers spend similar amounts of cash on Marvel or DC books with fewer pages and I think there are three good reasons to buy this book: 

1] It looks very nice and the story sounds cool. 

2]  We need to support Independent Comic publishers,and… 

3]   This is a British book. 

I’d like to think that with Cinebook and Classical Comics,Thomas Cochrane Associates can be added to that small number of quality book publishers based in the UK. 

So,why not buy The Fat Man –it’ll be out in time to make a great Christmas 2008 present!