Lytton #2 - Cutaway Comics

LYTTON No. 2, December 2020

Absolutely packed full of enthralling conundrums and nerve-wracking plot-twists, Eric Saward’s narrative for Issue Two of “Lytton” should readily hook any fan of the former “Doctor Who” Script Editor’s work from the comic’s very opening, in which Charlie Wilson nonchalantly mentions to his enigmatic boss that he’s already shipped some inconvenient corpses “to Afghanistan in a sealed container.” Indeed, the bodyguard’s imperturbable attitude towards all the death and utterly bizarre destruction occurring around him is one of this twenty-eight page periodical’s greatest draws, whether the Vietnam veteran is staring open-mouthed at the disconcerting demise of the robotic Miss L, being partially eaten by a hungry Space Louse, or thoroughly enjoying himself battering a pair of homicidal constables and then subsequently running for his life; “I’m enjoyin’ this. Didn’t realise I was so fit. We need to get off this road. Those Policemen won't be down for long.”

Similarly as successfully penned is this book’s titular character, who exudes all the arrogant charm and assertive confidence which made him so popular when portrayed on television by the late Maurice Colbourne in the mid-Eighties. Gustave’s apparent knowledge of the deranged “space traveller” Longbody, as well as his evident familiarity with a portal to a parallel Earth, definitely raises more questions within the audience’s mind than they answer. But that just makes his repeated need for Wilson’s presence all the more intriguingly troubling, especially when things start to happen which the straight-backed mercenary was clearly not anticipating, such as his chance encounter with Astro-physicist Artemis Brown and a time slip bricking up the entranceway to the underground tube tunnel Lytton was trying to escape from.

Also adding enormously to this comic’s extra-dimensional ambiance is Barry Renshaw’s garishly coloured pencils, energetic layouts and genuinely creepy viewpoints of the adventure as it unfolds before the readers' eyes. The Liverpool artist really manages to capture the standoffish stiffness of this mini-series’ leading man from Riften 5, whilst simultaneously showing that he can equally be every bit the action hero a situation requires by dynamically sketching him sprinting through spatial doorways after his work colleague, unloading his pistol upon a particularly nasty-looking spectral amoeba and haring down heavily-tiled corridors as they collapse about his ears.

The regular cover art of "LYTTON" #2 by Barry Renshaw