Steampunk makes it into the comics!  Noted comic scripter Warren Ellis brings us this first issue of a four-part story set in London of the 1830s.  He has a very nice spin on technology here — the sight of a boat propelled by electric oars across the sky is absolutely thrilling.  The art, by Raulo Caceres, evokes a grimy, crorrupt London full of Dickensian gloom.  Ellis has also selected a rather different storytelling style, alternating pages of comic panels with text pages to dump the data that help you figure out what’s going on — a no no in prose fiction, but you can get away with more in the comics as long as it looks right.

What this first issue is unfortunately a little light on is plot and character.  There is nobody moving across this evocative backdrop or wielding this interesting tech that is exciting or memorable.  We can hope that this will be ameliorated in the next issue or so.  The Captain Swing of the title has not yet really been clearly delineated, and we haven’t got to Cindery Island yet!