By Carl Critchlow
Publisher: Titan
ISBN: 9781782760023
Thrud is one of comics' most sublime creations. A gargantuan hulking mountain of muscle powered by the brain the size of a walnut and with about as much cognitive power. His head is so incredibly tiny compared to his body size to render his aspect absurd and he is unable to do anything other than maim, kill and drink beer. He is, in the very loosest sense of the word, a hero, but sometimes that’s all you’re going to get.
I first came across Thrud in my mate’s White Dwarf magazines, a single page black and white strip that parodied the world of Conan to the extent of Thrud’s exclamation “By the sacred jockstrap of Robert E Howard, you’ll pay for that, Hellspawn!”. After a few years of this they collected them into a slender but much read volume that even saw Thrud poke his battle-axe in the direction of Daleks (‘cause it’s a parody I’m assuming Carl Critchlow got away with it), and some twenty years later, with its spine steadily coming unglued, is still a favourite of mine. Then, a few years ago, Thrud was back, in colour, and being self-published by Critchlow. Money was despatched and comics began to arrive complete with hand-written notes of thanks from the creator. And they were good too, full of the usual tongue-in-cheek humour, outrageous violence, and never-quite-what-you-expect results. All lovely stuff.
And now Titan have collected the lot into this handsome hardback, complete with a handful of those original black and white strips, plus a couple of new shorts too. To cap it all off, there’s even a forward by the amazing Bryan Talbot who just so happens to have once been Critchlow’s tutor. Who’d ‘ave t’ought it?!
Critchlow is an immensely talented artist who can switch from rich fully painted art to this unique comic style he’s developed for Thrud. But he’s also a gifted comic storyteller, using some glorious puns poking fun (lovingly) at the fantasy genre as Thrud goes in search of beer and Worcester sauce flavoured crisps.
This is funny stuff, brilliantly drawn from a British talent almost as big as his greatest creation. Buy it.
And if you liked that: Check out Critchlow’s work on various strips over recent years at 2000AD
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