The Stainless Steel Rat

When i was a teenager, I discovered science fiction. I knew that I liked shows about space like star trek and Doctor Who, but I also liked The Tomorrow People. I thought Star Wars was fantastic, but I'd started watching films like 2001 as well. Without realising it, Science Fiction was worming its way into my life.

In 1978 we were friendly with a young family a few doors down from us. Steve (the father) was a true science fiction fan, and we often had chats about the subject. One day, Steve gave me a suitcase filled with science fiction paperbacks. I'd never really thought about actually reading science fiction, but I thought "why not"? Several books later, and I was hooked. Since then, my tastes have changed a bit, but my love of reading continues, and for that, I have Steve to thank.

One of the books in the case was by a British author called Harry Harrison and concerned a certain crook/con man of the far future who went by the name of "Slippery" Jim diGriz - also known as the Stainless Steel Rat. At the time, there were 4 books in the series, with a 5th on the horizon. I devoured them all, liking Harrison's humorous style.

Not long after I started reading the series, 2000AD had started to serialise the Stainless Steel Rat in comic book form, and this review concerns the collected run of the Stainless Steel Rat from that illustrious publication. Now, serialisations can fall into various traps, the most problematic are the artist's visualisations of characters that until now you've just imagined not meeting your expectations, the other is the distilling of the story into a form suitable for graphic illustration and the butchery that accompanies it. So how you ask, did Gosnell & Ezquerra do?

The answer I'm pleased to say, is that the pair did a very good job indeed of bringing Slippery Jim to life. Firstly, Gosnell's script doesn't stray from Harrison's originals, and the necessary pairing he had to do to bring the stories to the comic format is such that the essential flavour is kept, whilst trimming the stories to a more acceptable length. The star of the show however, is artist and 2000AD stalwort Carlos Ezquerra. The creator of the famous look of Judge Dredd gives us a Stainless Steel Rat whos appearence is based on the inspired choice of actor James Coburn ("Our Man Flint"/"In like Flint", as well as "The Great Escape") and you can almost hear his gutturally charming voice oozing from the pages. Add to this Ezquerra's energetic drawing style and the combination is just marvellous. I have to say that his work on Stainless Steel Rat is probably my favourite, even though he's more normally known for Strontium Dog or Dredd, this really is wonderful stuff.

If there's a downside, it's that two of my favourite Rat stories were never serialised. "The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You" & "The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World (Again)" both include the Grey Men, bad guys who want to take over the Universe using mind control and who torture their captives (something that couldn't be done in a kids comic). You do get however, "The Stainless Steel Rat", "The Stainless Steel Rat saves the world" and "The Stainless Steel Rat For President", all of which are excellent.

I have to recommend this. If you've never read Harrision before this will get you interested, and if you like Slippery Jim, you won't be disappointed, So waddya waiting for?