Newbury & Hobbes: The Undying
Written by George Mann
Art by Dan Boultwood
Titan Comics
Release Date: April 30, 2019
Cover Price: $16.99

I had absolutely no idea who or what this would entail but the cover looked amazingly steampunk-ish so I decided to go for it. I cannot even begin to tell you how glad I am that I made that decision. Newbury & Hobbes: The Undying is apparently the first graphic novel in the franchise but there are a plethora of books to be had, as well.

Note to self: buy them all. Why, you ask? Well, let’s just say that this was more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Though, to be fair, I have never seen nor played with a barrel of monkeys.

If Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mary Shelley had collaborated on a steampunk adventure this would be it. Loaded with mystery and violence, our primary protagonists face off against golem like creatures, revenants from beyond the grave, and a madman once thought slain.

The setting is an alternate version of Victorian England, complete with imagined mechanical miracles of that age. When assassins become living bombs and explosions threaten to rock the very foundations of the British Empire, who will save the day? Newbury and Hobbes, of course!

In impeccable fashion and with a sense of panache unequaled since the days of the Avengers (Steed and Peel, that is), the duo seeks and finds the source of all the woes of Britannia. But this trail leads them through several unnatural predicaments and introduces them to an underworld of which they previously knew nothing. Just when all seems lost, good breeding and moral standing earns them safe passage, allowing their stories to continue. For the greatest monsters have been, and always will be, human.

This was nonstop action and entertainment. George Mann penned a wondrous tale that was perfectly balanced by Dan Boultwood‘s artwork. You cannot go wrong with this little gem of a graphic novel. In fact, I plan to review the books in short order once I lay my grubby little hands upon them and devour them as I did this comic. I hope you will join me in that feast, for books feed the soul far better than most anything else. I fear, however, that I stretched that metaphor about as far as I could due to my impending lunch and the hunger that resides within me.

Nonetheless, I stand by my statement, this is a treasure that any steampunk fan must seek. Happy reading!

Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Airships soar in the skies over the city, ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons serve the bustling public.

But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side. Queen Victoria is kept alive by a primitive life-support system while her agents Sir Maurice Newbury and his delectable assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes, do battle with enemies of the crown, both physical and supernatural.

Along with Chief Inspector Bainbridge, Newbury & Hobbes will face plague revenants, murderous peers, mechanical beasts, tentacled leviathans, reanimated pygmies, and an encounter with Sherlock Holmes, in this brand new adventure for the detective team.