Two-Step

Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti

It hasn't been so long, but I'm nostalgic for the days when Wildstorm would come out with random and bizarre mini-series from big name creators that focused on the potential of comics for wild and zany stories.  Warren Ellis used to write a lot of them, before the days when he went to Avatar to work with less-talented artists on books that started, but took years to finish.

Anyway - Two-Step.  A zen gangster and a terminally bored girl who makes a living by streaming her life on the internet (a cam-girl it's called) find themselves in a spot of trouble with a group of penis-enhancement obsessed gangsters in a strange version of London.  Strange because while the book came out in 2004, it is set in 2001, but in a futuristic mutli-cultural London where Street Bollywood flashmob style events rule, and people drive rocket-powered scooters.

Really, there's not much point in thinking about this stuff, as it's not supposed to make much sense, and instead is a go along with the ride kind of comic.  Amanda Conner is, of course, brilliant.  Her character and design work is top-notch, and she fills the pages with tiny panels that show us what the cam-girl is broadcasting.  What's cool about these little images is that they clearly weren't in Ellis's original script, of which the first chapter is included here.

Ah Wildstorm, you are missed.