‘Phonogram: Rue Britannia’. Baffling scifi about the supernatural forces behind Britpop (seriously), by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. Definitely an intriguing concept and I didn’t dislike this comic, I just wish I had a clue what on earth was going on!

As far as I can gather it went something like this: 10 years since the fall of 90s Britpop, David Kohl has been summoned to prevent the reincarnation of the Britpop goddess, ‘Britannia’, an act that would cheapen her beautiful mythology. David can do this because he is a ‘phonomancer’, someone who can convert their love of music into magical powers (according to Adam, I didn’t pick this up). By dressing like a Manics fan he is able to enter the Britpop memory kingdom, a wasteland guarded by Damon Albarn and tour-guided by Luke Haines, to convince Britannia to rest in peace. MAYBE. I’m not sure.

I’m not the biggest fan of Britpop myself (except for Blur), I lived abroad in the mid 90s and was a bit too young before that, so maybe this comic wasn’t for me. But I did try really hard to follow it and I got all the musical references, but it didn’t make much difference. It didn’t help that there were a lot of female characters drawn with similar faces either. In saying all that, I’m sure a lot of people I know would like to read this comic and have more luck than me.