Regarding the story being told, perhaps I do not know enough about British history to understand what the author was writing about. Luther Arkwright is as much a game of tradecraft (espionage) and intrigue (shifting loyalties, betrayal, treachery, mysteries, string pulling, suspense) as it is a science fiction steampunk romp. I first read this landmark and seminal work of metaphysical and psychedelic science fiction back in the '80s during my college years in single issues from Valkyrie Press and was dumbfounded by its complexity compared to the Superman and Spider-Man comics that were my main fodder at the time. This is a fairly text-heavy graphic novel, too, and the only punctuation the author seems fond of is the colon. Prophecy says that reality will cease on her 23rd birthday - Victory Day - but with the help of Harry Fairfax and Rose Wylde, Victoria is determined to prevent the new apocalypse.

The adaption is generally excellent and runs more or less true to the original story (the American reporter - whose name escapes me - with the Royalists has been excised from the plot with no great loss) and I found myself fitting the words to images from a comic I last read over a decade ago with remarkable ease. Arkwright takes place mainly in a parallel world where the English civil war has been indefinitely prolonged, and Oliver Cromwell still fights on, enabled by the ‘Disruptors’ who are attempting to destabilise the entire mulitiverse… come back non-geeks! The story that follows reminded very much of Moorcock's New Wave SF work on the Eternal Champion series and the Jerry Cornelius character in particular. While still maintaining total continuity with the Arkwright mythos, it is a different kind of adult adventure.If you liked the Luther Arkwright comics, you might enjoy this; alternatively, you might be better served by waiting until such time as Hogshead get around to bringing out their D20 Luther Arkwright game, Zero Zero, which got announced last year. The writing is equally superlative, and often would be merely as prose alone if it were to be removed from context - for example there's a stream-of-consciousness in the second part where the gravely-wounded hero remembers the loves of his life in a series of astonishing collages, the text of which is some of the most exhilarating prose-poetry I've read.

The sound effects employed can be annoying and are somewhat limited in range, but this doesn't detract overly from the story.It's on this latter plane that we spend most of our time, as Arkwright manipulates the nations of this world into a position where the enemy will be forced to reveal themselves, rather than to work through shadowy agents. Overall: A brave attempt to critique history, government, dictatorships, corruption, religion and power, while mixing in the minutiae of each of these topics into the overall storyline. Bryan Talbot and the Valkyrie Press edition of Arkwright were nominated for eight Eagle Awards in 1988, winning four: Favourite Artist, Best New Comic, Favourite Character for Arkwright himself and Best Comic Cover.