Respect William Gravel, Combat Magician!
Gravel is a character created by Warren Ellis and Mark Wolfer, so I guess I'll leave the short snappy descriptions up to them.
Wolfer says:
"First, dispose of everything you know of comic book anti-heroes, their weaknesses, their angst, their personal codes of morality and their inner demons," Wolfer said. "This isn't that book. Now: Picture the hardest bastard you can imagine, a man who wants nothing more than to be left alone in a world that seems to be eternally dragging him into the hell of its political and societal woes. William Gravel is a Combat Magician. But this is not the fuzzy, wand-waving, broomstick-riding kind of magic. It's brutal, it's bloody and it springs from the blackest pit of the occult ever conceived."
Ellis says:
"William Gravel is a soldier in the British SAS, the crack Special Air Service," Ellis said. "He is also a Combat Magician: a student of magic as it applies to the art of war. This has been something of a plague on his professional life. He also has a tendency to moonlight, taking on illegal security work and the like for extra beer money. Because soldiers aren't paid very well, and Bill Gravel likes a bit of extra cash in his pocket. That's how you define William Gravel: he's not a big spooky look-at-me magician, and he's not a gung-ho soldier. He's just a bloke who wants a bit of extra folding in his pocket and who wants to be left alone to enjoy it. That's all. He's a very simple man. It's a shame that it's not a very simple world."
Check out the next post for some notes on organisation and why I've included what I have etc. After that, the thread is arranged in chronological order by arc. The most impressive stuff from a battleboard perspective is later on, but the most awesome scenes are earlier. Enjoy!
Order:
I. Strange Kiss
II. Stranger Kisses
III. Strange Killings
IV. Strange Killings: The Body Orchard
V: Strange Killings: Strong Medicine
VI: Strange Killings: Necromancer
VII: Gravel - The Minor Seven
VIII: Gravel - The Major Seven
IX: Gravel - Last King of England
