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64th out of 101 books
—
7 voters
Captain Swing
by
Warren Ellis (Goodreads Author),
Raúlo Cáceres
From the sparking-mad mind of Warren Ellis, the creator of TRANSMETROPOLITAN and PLANETARY, comes an electrical romance of a pirate utopia thwarted! In the London of 1830, newly-minted copper Charlie Gravel keeps seeing things he's not supposed to: a crooked Bow Street Runner with a flintlock revolver, high-flying vessels that are not supposed to fly, and the violent Scien...more
Paperback, 128 pages
Published
December 6th 2011
by Avatar Press
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In the 19th century, before the more famous Jack the Ripper was the myth of Spring Heeled Jack, a disturbing night creature who could leap buildings in a single bound and got up to all sorts of mischief. Warren Ellis resurrects the story and rewrites it in a steampunk fashion with the help of Raulo Caceres to become "Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island".
It's 1830, years before Nikolai Tesla begins experimenting with electricity, and yet somehow this strange figure, Captain...more
It's 1830, years before Nikolai Tesla begins experimenting with electricity, and yet somehow this strange figure, Captain...more
I enjoy Warren Ellis the most when he exhibits his maturation as a writer. In other words he avoids his usual tropes (profanity, snarkiness, etc.) and tries to stretch himself as a writer. Captain Swing continues the trend of his improvement as a writer. Oh, he does resort to some of his usual tricks, but nowhere near as much as he does in his work-for-hire books (this is a creator owned work). We get a little bit of a history lesson about 17th Century London (Peelers and Bow Street Runners in p...more
Il racconto parla di uno "scienziato/pirata" che scopre nel 1830 l'elettricità e riesce con essa a compiere cose strabilianti (ad esempio ci fa volare il suo galeone).
La narrazione segue il punto di vista di un poliziotto (simbolo dell'ordine e della legge) che inizialmente lotta contro il capitano per unirsi poi alla ciurma "a modo suo". La ciurma è infatti costituita da personaggi di diverse storie, estrazioni sociali, scopi e culture.
Una loggia massonica londinese è riuscita ad entrare in pos...more
La narrazione segue il punto di vista di un poliziotto (simbolo dell'ordine e della legge) che inizialmente lotta contro il capitano per unirsi poi alla ciurma "a modo suo". La ciurma è infatti costituita da personaggi di diverse storie, estrazioni sociali, scopi e culture.
Una loggia massonica londinese è riuscita ad entrare in pos...more
Set in 1830s London, the story of Captain Swing, a science pirate, his crew and the young copper who accidentally joins forces with him. The story, ultimately, is a lot like other Warren Ellis stories...the rich and powerful have something that gives them power and the hero wants to share it with the masses. I was actually more interested in the story of the London police, who had been recently formed, and the private police forces, run by the magistrates, who were often made up of former thieve...more
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Warren Ellis mixes some history of the London police force, the legend of Spring Heel Jack, a couple nods to his 'Doktor Sleepless' series with some cool steam punk ideas and comes up with a weak, one note story that feels like the set up to a bigger story than anything strong enough to stand on its own.
Can't tell if Ellis has just gotten lazy or if there is more to come and we just haven't seen it because he seems incapable of finishing anything lately.
Cool ideas, okay characters that feel more...more
Can't tell if Ellis has just gotten lazy or if there is more to come and we just haven't seen it because he seems incapable of finishing anything lately.
Cool ideas, okay characters that feel more...more
Mouais ...
Pas très convaincu par ce comics. Pour commencer, j'ai eu un peu de mal avec les dessins, comme dans No Hero. Les visages et les formes sont parfois bizarres, et la violence et les giclées (de sang ou de cervelle) sortent parfois sans raison. Juste pour faire style ?
Pour l'histoire, on survole rapidement une tranche de vie d'un pirate philosophe, mais les tenants et les aboutissants de tout ça ne sont pas clairs, car pas explicités. La conclusion n'en est pas vraiment une, et laisse à...more
Pas très convaincu par ce comics. Pour commencer, j'ai eu un peu de mal avec les dessins, comme dans No Hero. Les visages et les formes sont parfois bizarres, et la violence et les giclées (de sang ou de cervelle) sortent parfois sans raison. Juste pour faire style ?
Pour l'histoire, on survole rapidement une tranche de vie d'un pirate philosophe, mais les tenants et les aboutissants de tout ça ne sont pas clairs, car pas explicités. La conclusion n'en est pas vraiment une, et laisse à...more
Warren Ellis and Raúlo Cáceres, who collaborated on Crecy, bring us this tale of London-based Victorian-era pirates with a steampunk flavour. It's got interesting tid-bits of facts & historical information interspersed with the main comic, things that not everybody would know, and that helps put the story in context, of sorts. The story itself is okay, with the usual Ellis-ness about it (language & action), and the art is nice, albeit a bit dark. What I mean by that is that since most (i...more
Good sharp writing - bastardly good writing I'd say. But feels a bit slight, like Ellis had a good set of ideas but didn't spend as much time as usual inhabiting them until all the nuances came into focus.
Love every time Ellis comes at us with his slightly feral notions of what the future looks like to the slightly curious but guileless bystander. It's fun to experience that sense of wonder and glee at seeing behind the curtain and wonder what else is going on just outside my doors that only Ell...more
Love every time Ellis comes at us with his slightly feral notions of what the future looks like to the slightly curious but guileless bystander. It's fun to experience that sense of wonder and glee at seeing behind the curtain and wonder what else is going on just outside my doors that only Ell...more
Confused. Or is it confusing? I had trouble understanding this. Many of the characters looked similar, so the fight scenes are incomprehensible. Reading this volume, I thought that I had lost my ability to understand graphic fiction. Despite the countless hours spent on comic books . . . yes, let's just blame this one on now feeble abilities to parse words and pictures.
The setting was good, the minor history of London policing interesting, the steampunk flavor was appealing, the illustration was lovely, but ultimately this just didn't go anywhere. After the 4th installment, it simply felt like I'd just read the introduction to a more elaborate and non-existent story.
Great art and story albeit the flow of the sequential art/story was constantly interrupted every other page or so with what reads as a letter from Captain Swing...much in the same way a silent film has its dialogue written out on the screen. Personally, I'd have preferred that sort of thing at the back of the book.
This was a fun pre-steampunk bit of adventure that could have been a 5-star work if it had focused as much on content as it did style. As it is, I'd recommended it, with the caveat that it feels unfinished (as I hope it is--I'd like to see more of it).
I was looking forward to reading this, but it turnover to be relatively standard comic fare. Some unusual art, but only 6 issues. I would have preferred a continuing series, so more weightier matters could have been looked at.
The art was great. There were some cool concepts. But the storytelling and characters were weak, pretty disappointing. Warren Ellis is very hit or miss for me.
I wished the story was longer. Drawings and story were really good but content was more of a tease than a book.
Attractive art (hence the 4 stars) but a derivative - and rather silly - story.
Hmm. This graphic novel was pretty disappointing. On the surface it sounds like something I'd totally be into--steampunk, 19th century London, pirates--but the writing just fell flat and the characters were underdeveloped. I really like Warren Ellis' Planetary, but this graphic novel just didn't work for me.
Loved this! Excellent story and top-notch illustrations.
Wild, chaotic and clearly very much Warren Ellis, “Captain Swing” is a wild adventure filled with equally wild characters and situations so extreme they provide a perfect means for healthy escapism. This isn’t Ellis at his best, though, and he seems to recycle a few elements too many from his previous masterpieces. Might grow into a substantial series like the master’s classic, outwardly farcical political dystopia “Transmetropolitan”.
I'm intrigued enough to keep reading this title. It's a fun steampunk pirate adventure in Victorian London, with some interesting ideas about the tension between individual freedom and the rule of law. I was not a fan of Caceres' art. I found it rather dark (visually, not just emotionally) and overally busy.
Apr 19, 2013
Cannibalcrowley
marked it as to-read
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Has written comics & graphic novels, books, journalism, animation, tv, film, videogames and anything else that looks like it might pay a bill or buy whisky.
Second novel, GUN MACHINE, due from Mulholland Books in autumn of 2012.
First non-fiction book due from FSG in 2014.
Currently a weekly columnist for VICE UK.
Hello. WHERE AM I
More about Warren Ellis...
Second novel, GUN MACHINE, due from Mulholland Books in autumn of 2012.
First non-fiction book due from FSG in 2014.
Currently a weekly columnist for VICE UK.
Hello. WHERE AM I
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