By Clyde Hall — “Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.” – John Derek as Nick Romano, ‘Knock on Any Door’, 1949.

The quote’s from an American noir courtroom drama dealing with youthful hoodlums from impoverished areas of a major city, and the reference is fitting when assessing AfterShock’s Dogs of London #1. Fitting because it follows the exploits of a gang of young criminals, the Dogs, who were an underworld force in 1966’s swinging London. Our protagonist, Frank ‘Pretty’ Babbs, was one of them, all young men from the Isle of Dogs peninsula of Greater London. Their childhoods consisted of playing in the rubble of the Blitz and being on the lower class end of societal opportunity. Coming of age during the cultural revolution saw the Dogs’ graduate into criminal enterprises with Nick Romano’s line coined for their mission statement. They lived fast and hard. Many of them died similarly. But few left good-looking remains, owing to practical methods of quick body disposal. Corpses rife with the forensic evidence for detectives building homicide cases don’t end up pretty. Nor intact.

Then again, some of the Dogs indeed end up with good-looking corpses. Because writer Peter Milligan isn’t penning just a crime drama. He’s seasoning it with maybe science fiction. Maybe the supernatural. Maybe both.

Milligan’s capable, and culpable, after all. He blended a fine bit of both in last year’s occult detective series Out of Body from AfterShock. Comics It was one of my favorite series of 2021, with Milligan deftly spinning a whodunnit suspended between intertwined themes of psychedelic transcendental medicine and the supernatural. A feature at the end of issue Dogs of London #1 hints at perhaps another clever mingling, one of psychology and spiritualism.

In the premiere issue, we meet Frank and his other four mates comprising the Dogs leadership. One of their crew’s turns up in an alleyway minus his life, and certain anatomical parts. Speculation on the culprits ensues and suspicion falls on a rival gang, the Quinns, probably the Dogs’ fiercest competitor regarding illicit operations in their corner of the city.

It’s an inconvenient development given Frank’s budding but secretive romance, one with West Side Story levels of hazard. Retaliation against the rival gang is planned and put into action, one with potential for increasing the Dogs’ revenue stream while sending a message and hampering business for their enemies. It’s a strike carried out with forethought, culminating with a rumble at the Quinns’ headquarters. It’s a violent but subdued response to losing one of their own, but if Dogs profits raise and Quinns street cred falls, it serves a purpose and Bob’s your uncle. Except it doesn’t feel settled.

Flash forward to 2010, and the woes of 1966 notwithstanding, some of the Dogs have risen above their violent beginnings and achieved stability. Respectability. Even class-surpassing prosperity. They may know where some skeletons are buried from the bad old days, but those days are long ago and lifetimes away. Odd, then, how one breaking news story showcasing something utterly impossible can summon ghosts by issue’s end.

Milligan’s opening narrative feels every bit as real as a Kray Twins BBC documentary. Even the brighter futures for some London bad boys of that era tracks accurately. He not only conjures a realistic, hardboiled version of criminal life for those young offenders, Milligan also accurately captures an elusive, fleeting era as their coming of age. Which makes the sudden infusion of something reality-bending and fantastic all the sweeter.

It’s masterfully realized work, only marginally held in check with the doomed romance angle (although it promises to turn out differently than the Shakespeare version), and the blizzard of characters sent at us with horizontal velocity in the first few pages. Details make a few names stand out quickly, but others bulleted past. I ended up charting a who’s who on the first read through. By the end of the issue, however, we’re acquainted enough with the primary players that the story hooks set deep.

Artecida delivers a reserved feast for the eyes, nicely balanced between the crime drama elements of violence and vice, and the era’s Carnaby Street aesthetic. The outside of a squalid row of flats contrasts the interior of a fashionable boutique, and either could be easily over-rendered. Caricatured into something too Tarantino or too Austin Powers. Here they feel perfectly presented as very different corners of the same world.

The characters, many presented through various life stages as children, young adults, and middle-aged seniors, are distinctive. This helps in keeping track of the mentioned who’s who stream, and again, we’re provided with attire and hairstyles cutting across what was trending in those days gone by. People from different walks, yet never presented in mod extremes. Just people being stylish as it was defined then. Some doing it well, others less well. It’s nuance which enhances the realism on a deeper level.

After admiring her work on AfterShock’s Seven Swords series, it’s a delight seeing color artist Valentina Bianconi as part of the creative team. Her texturized backgrounds and subtle wallpaper patterns eased variety into several panels, and always in exactly the correct proportions. She leads us to the varied settings of both time and place, from gritty, smeared shovelfuls of black and gray grave dirt to the ethereal daylight glow over a modern North London mansion, Bianconi makes every change of setting smooth and distinctive as a fine liqueur.

Letterer Rob Steen brings high fashion elegance in (literal) signs of the times, as well as the handmade protest banners of Vietnam War demonstrators. There’s even a reserved sensibility to the commercial lettering for mom-and-pop shops, emulated by vice-based businesses in an effort to look respectable.

After the closing panel, readers are presented with a series of Juvenile Offender Profile forms helping us better understand the Dogs. This includes their strengths and weaknesses, and backgrounds beyond what the issue’s revealed. Also some likely future criminal paths for them based on several factors. The wording is of a different era, but there’s more to the profiles than that. Some of the terms used are very distinctive and observations seem to reflect studies pioneered by a real historical figure. It makes what’s to come more and more curious.

Overall: Some say dogs are our link to paradise. Dogs of London #1 may shoot somewhere south of that, given the criminal elements involved. But this title once more proves Aftershock’s willingness to take chances with offbeat horror, sci-fi, and crime drama variations pays off handsomely. 8.5/10

Dogs of London #1

Dogs of London #1
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Artecida
Colors: Valentina Bianconi
Letterer: Rob Steen
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
Price: $4.99.
How deep must you bury a body to make sure it doesn’t haunt you?
Frank and Terry are about to find out. They were once members of The Dogs, a feared gang who ruled much of London’s underworld back in the swinging 60s. They thought they’d escaped their troubled pasts, but the past isn’t dead – it’s just bashed about a bit and very pissed off. Spanning different times and classes, DOGS OF LONDON is a brutal, bloody tale of violence, love, revenge…and sleeping dogs who refuse to roll over and play dead.
Written by Peter Milligan (X-Force, Hellblazer) and brought to bloody life by Artecida, the Dogs have awoken, and they seek more than mere revenge.
Buy It Here: Digital

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Clyde Hall (He/Him) lives in Southern Illinois. He’s an Elder Statesman of Geekery, an indie author, a comics fan/reviewer, and a contributing writer at Stormgate Press. He’s on twitter at: (@CJHall1984)