Lytton #1 - Cutaway Comics

LYTTON No. 1, September 2020

Financed by a successful “Kickstarter” in July 2020, this opening instalment to a “new four part comic mini-series from legendary Doctor Who writer and script editor Eric Saward" certainly must have pleased the vast majority of its backers when they received their copy later in the year. For whilst there isn’t a trace of either the Daleks or Cybermen threatening the well-being of Gustave Lytton in this particular twenty-eight page periodical, the comic does live up to its pre-publication promise of depicting the ex-soldier in a thoroughly entertaining “noir thriller… perfect for fans of Sin City and Criminal.”

Indeed, the mercenary turned businessman’s ‘swapping of a shooter for a suit’ as he desperately searches London's West End for a positron molecular condenser seems to suit the cold-hearted killer’s character very well, and certainly shows a side to the alien from Riften 5 that was rarely touched upon during his two stories on the small screen. True, the man is every bit as mean and arguably unpleasant as actor Maurice Colbourne portrayed him in “Resurrection Of The Daleks”. But Saward’s enthralling script also hints at a softer side to the stony-faced ‘dog of war’ when he admits to keeping the ever-loyal Lance Corporal Wilson at his side for once saving his life in Saigon in 1968; “I at least own him a living.”

Delightfully, the British author’s development of this comic’s other cast members is just as intriguing, with the aforementioned Wilson proving particularly endearing. Determined to discover the murderer behind the deaths of six women and four men, the man risks all by clambering down into the London sewers despite the best efforts of Lytton to put him off the scent by claiming the noise he keeps hearing below his feet is “just a radio belonging to a sewer worker.”

Barry Renshaw’s artwork for Issue One of “Lytton” also helps imbue the narrative with an engaging sense of dread and foreboding. The Liverpool-born illustrator can readily pencil action, as shown with this book’s awesome opening sequence concerning a Vietnamese suicide attack, and Lytton’s incredibly violent dust-up with a party of 'hired help'. Yet it is debatably Renshaw’s choice of gaudy colours for the bright lights of seedy Soho which truly helps bring this publication’s storytelling to life, especially when they’re used to highlight the distinctly dark thoughts and feelings running through Gustov’s head.

The regular cover art of "LYTTON" #1 by Barry Renshaw