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Long Gone Don - Book 1 - The Monstrous Underworld
Ten-year-old DON SKELTON never imagined a school day could get any worse than drowning face down in a bowl of oxtail soup. BUT HE WAS WRONG! Transported to the spooky underworld of BROILERDOOM, Don is soon forced to fight for his life-after-death against a host of villainous monstrosities. Prepare to enter the hilarious and dangerous world of LONG GONE DON, where one boy's END is just he BEGINNING of the adventure...
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 18, 2022
I'd been watching the Phoenix children's comic from afar and longed for a collection of some of the tantalising stories and my dreams were made a reality in 2014, when they started putting out groovy little softcovers with David Fickling. I picked up this at Thought Bubble in that same distant year and as a testament to how terrifyingly massive my "to read" pile is... I've only just got round to it.
Long Gone Don is the breathlessly kinetic tale of on Don Skelton, a boy who drowns in soup and ends up in a colourfully strange fantasy purgatory land ruled by a despotic general. I'm not entirely sure where all the "part breaks" originally were in the serialised version but readers of any age would definitely have benefitted from the few-days breaks between instalments. It moves at a terrifying pace, lurching from one exciting set piece to the next and clattering into a bombastic climax. There's a nice little cast of characters here, but apart from Don and a small sombrero-wearing crow called Castanet, they don't get much development beyond their base traits. It's deeply fun, crammed full of ideas and with lots of extra threads to follow and questions to answer. There's also a clever tonal balance which keeps this violent and colourful land of the dead feeling more silly than sinister.
Robin & Lorenzo Etherington are almost terrifyingly talented as a team - but it's Lorenzo's art which is the real draw here. Rich, fluid, dynamic, detailed, characterful, beautifully rendered - each busy page is crammed with detail. I can imagine younger readers poring over the complex architecture for hours, spotting the little hidden jokes and background quirks. It's confidently executed, it's basically perfect. I also enjoyed how the 3D rendered city and backgrounds are seamlessly integrated into the main art. It's vaguely like some kind of beautiful isometric computer game. It's technically breath-taking - one of those rare projects where you're not sure how to even start thinking about how it was composed. I was also really fond of the lettering (possibly also by Lorenzo) which had a nice elastic Franco Belgian quality. In fact, Long Gone Don with its fussy cluttered pages, beautiful artistry and bold lettering does feel more like some amazing Cinebooks publication. Kids never had it so good as when this was running in the Phoenix. Very glad to own it and to have finally got around to reading it.
Long Gone Don is the breathlessly kinetic tale of on Don Skelton, a boy who drowns in soup and ends up in a colourfully strange fantasy purgatory land ruled by a despotic general. I'm not entirely sure where all the "part breaks" originally were in the serialised version but readers of any age would definitely have benefitted from the few-days breaks between instalments. It moves at a terrifying pace, lurching from one exciting set piece to the next and clattering into a bombastic climax. There's a nice little cast of characters here, but apart from Don and a small sombrero-wearing crow called Castanet, they don't get much development beyond their base traits. It's deeply fun, crammed full of ideas and with lots of extra threads to follow and questions to answer. There's also a clever tonal balance which keeps this violent and colourful land of the dead feeling more silly than sinister.
Robin & Lorenzo Etherington are almost terrifyingly talented as a team - but it's Lorenzo's art which is the real draw here. Rich, fluid, dynamic, detailed, characterful, beautifully rendered - each busy page is crammed with detail. I can imagine younger readers poring over the complex architecture for hours, spotting the little hidden jokes and background quirks. It's confidently executed, it's basically perfect. I also enjoyed how the 3D rendered city and backgrounds are seamlessly integrated into the main art. It's vaguely like some kind of beautiful isometric computer game. It's technically breath-taking - one of those rare projects where you're not sure how to even start thinking about how it was composed. I was also really fond of the lettering (possibly also by Lorenzo) which had a nice elastic Franco Belgian quality. In fact, Long Gone Don with its fussy cluttered pages, beautiful artistry and bold lettering does feel more like some amazing Cinebooks publication. Kids never had it so good as when this was running in the Phoenix. Very glad to own it and to have finally got around to reading it.
July 18, 2018
3.5
This was a fun little read, I really enjoyed the art style and the humour - perfect for kids and adults to grin at!
All the characters have their own style and personality, and there are a few twists in here regarding who's side - good or bad - certain players are on.
Asterix and Obelix vibes are strong with this one!
This was a fun little read, I really enjoyed the art style and the humour - perfect for kids and adults to grin at!
All the characters have their own style and personality, and there are a few twists in here regarding who's side - good or bad - certain players are on.
Asterix and Obelix vibes are strong with this one!
October 21, 2020
The art is sublime and silly, the writing delightfully madcap, and everything feels both classic and fresh.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews