Travelling Man's Blog

Written by Conrad Mason

Illustrated by David Wyatt

Published by The Phoenix and David Fickling Books

£7.99

http://www.conrad-mason.com/

Welcome to Port Fayt, where pirates rub shoulders with merchants, magicians and magical creatures. Law and order depends on who’s watching and everyone always has an inside line. Except The Demon’s Watch, a ragtag group of crimefighters. Based out of Bootle’s Pie Shop, the Watch will protect you, whoever you are. But when the watch are asked to find out who kidnapped the baby son of a powerful merchant family, they may be in over their heads.

This is just flat out brilliant. Every single page of Wyatt’s artwork sings with energy and invention. Port Fayt is a believably ramshackle, believably dangerous place and Wyatt always makes it feel grounded and well defined. The opening pages are a guided tour of the town that helps to orientate you and then it’s off at a sprint into a story that touches on family, class, the pressures of being the youngest member of a team and some really smartly handled bad guys.

Mason clearly knows this world inside and and there’s a tangible sense of history to the plot. Tabitha, the youngest member of the Demon’s Watch is the lead and her need to prove herself is a great dramatic engine for the book. What makes it work though is how well she interacts with the other team members. They’re a fun, motley bunch and Captain Newton in particular is a great character. Stern, fair, intensely violent when needed and intelligent with it there’s a sense that one universe over these are stories about him. They’d be fun too but with the spunky, quick witted Tabs front and centre they’re even better.

This is clever, fun fantasy with a vast amount of thought behind it. It’s also the perfect first visit to Port Fayt so sign on with the Watch and take a look around. The work’s hard, the pay’s low but it’s always fun and there’s all the pies you can eat.