Spinning off from the 2000AD series Caballistics, Inc - which happily got a 'complete' story reissue recently - Absalom is the story of Inspector Harry Absalom who polices the agreement between the respective ruling powers of Britain and Hell known as 'The Accord' and he's not entirely happy about it.

For Caballistics, Inc. writer and artist Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon created a recognisably current shared world setting where characters and events we know from core Wyrd Britain texts such as Quatermass and the Pit and the formative eras of Doctor Who were canon. In Absalom, Rennie along with artist Tiernen Trevallio, further developed this world adding some venerable British cops including Harry Trout from the Dr Phibes movies and the tea loving Inspector Calhoun from Death Line to the story world.

The story of Harry and his associates ran between 2011 and 2019 in the comic and has since been reprinted in three collections that tell of the ups and downs of supernatural coppering alongside the slowly building story of Harry's bigger plans; a distinctly personal quest. Harry is an old school 1970s style copper very much in the tradition of Regan and Carter, always ready with a handy quip, a well deserved slap or a pint down the boozer and with the proverbial heart of gold underneath his shabby trench coat.

"He's not so bad, once you get used to him, old Harry.  Actually, that's bollocks. He's a god awful old git most of the time but he'll never let you down."

To keep him on the job he's been given a nasty form of cancer that is held in abeyance as long as he tows the magical line and which he deals with using an ever present hip flask filled with a heady mix of booze and laudanum.  Supporting him are an unlikely crew of coppers, spies, church sponsored vigilantes, vat grown homunculi, occultists, a psychic pavement artist and a partly mechanical - formerly demonically inclined - Victorian valet.

It's beautifully drawn with a gritty dynamism by Trevallio who looks like he's having fun with it but not as much as Rennie who is channelling his inner Gene Hunt filling Harry's mouth with unrepentantly un-pc dialogue while encouraging his characters to punch as many racists, toffs, demons and racist toff demons as he can fit in the pages whilst telling a story of regret, rebellion and redemption.

As I said the Absalom story has been issued as three trade paperback collections - Ghosts of London, Under A False Flag and Terminal Diagnosis – and are hugely recommended (as is Caballistics, Inc) and anyone with a love of the type of movies and TV shows we feature here on Wyrd Britain or of an occult detective romp in the vein of Garth Ennis' run on John Constantine, Hellblazer will find much to love here.

Finally, as a taster to the series 2000AD released a two minute animated prequel to the strip which you can watch below.  It's missing the characterful black and white art from the books and it's more cartoony renderings don't quite have the required level of grit and grime but it makes for a fun watch nonetheless.

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Gordon Rennie (writer)
Dom Reardon (art)

During WWII, Q Department was formed within the Ministry of Defence to combat Nazi occult warfare. In the 21st century, however, it has outlived its usefulness and its funding is scrapped. Enter reclusive millionaire rock star Ethan Kostabi, who has bought up its employees and constructed a brand new outfit - Caballistics, Inc.

Going Underground

A 2000ad story that tells of the UKs wartime magical warfare unit, Q Department, finally being dissolved by the British government only to find itself bought by the enigmatic ex-rockstar Ethan Kostabi and reinvented as supernatural investigators for hire Caballistics Inc.

Making up the new team are the two leftovers from Q, Doctor Jonathan Brand and the unfortunate Jenny Simmons, demon hunters Hannah Chapter and Lawrence Verse and the very unpleasant magician Solomon Ravne.  Together they are hired out to combat haunted railways, escaped demons and disembodied occultists.

The world they inhabit is shared with that of Doctor Who and Quatermass and Rennie's other 2000ad series Necronauts (and subsequently, Absalom) and is littered with references to all and more.  I've liked Rennie's writing for years; his work always seems to come from a place of fannish enjoyment but distanced from slavish adherence to canon. So, truthfully, I was expecting this to be good and it didn't disappoint.

The real revelation here though is the art of Dom Reardon.  I'd not seen his stuff before but his atmospheric black and white illustrations are an absolute joy that perfectly capture the feel of the narrative.


Creepshow

In this second volume of Rennie and Reardon's supernatural horror things are going decidedly downhill.  Ravne has been 'killed' by an Israeli hit squad and it takes him a while to get better, a psychotic, ex-SAS, asylum escapee joins the team, Jenny's passenger is here to stay and a very powerful and utterly insane magician previously associated with Q Department is getting bored of his island prison.

The various stories take us around London with a horny / hungry Jenny, drop into the depths of a 1960 horror movie studio and travel up to the Scottish highlands to save royalty from some ancient, axe wielding nature spirits.

As with the first volume this is a joyful romp filled with geeky references that are as irreverent as they are reverential.  I love this series.  It's a change of pace for 2000AD and is all the stronger for it.  It is though an absolute crying shame that they've never collected the series finale for us folks that don't read the weekly.


The novels

There were also two Caballistics Inc. novels ('Hell on Earth' and 'Better the Devil') published by Black Flame back in 2007.  Unfortunately they weren't written by Rennie but by freelance writer Mike Wild who, according to his bio on the Abaddon Books site, has worked on ' Doctor Who, Masters of the Universe, Starblazer, 'Allo 'Allo! and ­ erm ­ My Little Pony'.  I read them just after they appeared and they were OK.

The first deals with a buried angel intent on kick starting Judgement Day whilst the second tells of a magical attack on London that drops the group up to their necks in golems and demons.

They're good solid pulp reads that absolutely hurtle along and Wild has done his absolute best to emulate Rennie's style on the comics but it does come across a bit forced and lacks a little of the love Rennie brought to the world his creations inhabit.