The Ballad of Half Hanged MacNaughton

Writer: Danny McLaughlin
Artist: Andy Pescott
Publisher: Uproar Comics

This is the story of a gambler who can’t escape from his past despite his desperate need to do so, motivated by the lovely Lady Mary. The Â legend (yes I looked it up), is well represented, with the writing style helping to create a familiar world, albeit one we have seen before.

Danny McLaughlin helps set the tone and feel through some great language. It makes me wonder how many episodes of Downton Abbey was watched to perfect this? However, as the story progresses, there is a distinct lack of the violence alluded to in the text. Â Was this a choice forced by the artist’s constraint?

The art handled in full by Adam Pescott serves the story well. Â As the story is a character piece, Pescott does well to show the expressions of the various characters. Pescott also mixes the number of panels per page which again helps the overall pace of the book.

The colour scheme, or lack of, adds to overall style of book, even if they are trying to find 50 shades of grey.

It’s kind of hard to comment on story points with this being based on a legend. The old “I don’t agree with how they…” argument does not hold much water. Â The book is clearly a work of love by it’s creators and that shows throughout the whole book. It’s an easy read with art that’s easy on the eye. It’s this level of production that will entice readers to try other books by Uproar Comics.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network