I bought The Needleman!
- decarter20
- Jan 14, 2022
- 2 min read
The Needleman (collected edition*)
by Martin Simpson Soaring Penguin Press (*originally published in issues #8-9 of the UK comics anthology Meanwhile…)
“Needlemen are the dark enforcers of a dystopian city of slaves. For one particular Needleman, a seemingly everyday investigation will spiral out of control and comprehension….” Beautiful. Haunting.
Powerful. Relevant. Needlemen serve at the behest of the Great Controller, the fourth generation of autocrats who originally designed, and have maintained full control over, an unnamed dystopian city. (In this story the current Controller appropriately describes the city as both an “ecosystem” and a “beehive”.) Collectively they adhere to The True Faith, a system of uniformity and compliance which sets aside “petty personal desires and primal urges” in favor of serving the best interests of the city. The remaining residents (unnamed “workers” who are only identified by a combination of numbers and letters) are forced to comply. Needlemen monitor the workers’ activities at all times. Should a worker violate the rules, one or more Needlemen (whose job title is derived from the foot-long needles they use as torture devices ) are dispatched to investigate resolve the issue using whatever means necessary. This story is tells the tale of one such attempt at defiance
I wish I could remember how I originally learned about this book (I’m guessing it was one of the major comics-related websites), but that info is lost to time. The reason I wish I could remember is because this story is so far away from the standard superhero fare comics I usually buy, and I would love to know which promotional image captured my attention and led to my normally frugal self spending the money to import multiple copies (along with individually drawn and signed sketch cards) for myself and my boys from the UK. Was it worth it? I’ve put it this way in the past: not only did I love this book, but should I ever acquire substantial money via the lottery or some other means, I will be contacting creator Martin Simpson and offering to finance an oversized hardcover edition of this story with no expectation of a return on my investment. It is THAT good. It is SO good, in fact, that I have opted not to use any sample pages in this blog entry, sticking instead with just the amazing cover and promotional images. However, should anyone reading this want to know more, there is a short interview with creator Martin Simpson and sample pages here:
More sample pages on Martin Simpson's official website: https://martinsillustration.com/the-needleman And the book is still available for purchase here: https://www.soaringpenguinpress.com/product/the-needleman/
