Captain Britain: Siege of Camelot
1979-1980
Captain Britain may get top billing on Siege of Camelot now, but it was originally published three pages at a time under the banner of The Black Knight. No matter whose name is at the top, however, this serial published exclusively by Marvel UK (yes, the UK used to have its own version of the Marvel Universe…but that’s a long story) is a rare feat of excellence in the long-form serial format. (The stigma of comic books as children’s entertainment doesn’t apply here.)
Everyone (yes—EVERYONE) just LOVES The Lord of the Rings. (Guess who is not a part of Everyone?) My mythic fantasy world grows more directly out of Celtic tales of King Arthur, The Walkers, and Herne the Hunter—especially as packaged for me in Susan Cooper’s amazing book sequence The Dark Is Rising. The world of Cooper’s books—and Siege of Camelot—is the world of the Grail, druidic Standing Stones, and Merlyn. Obviously, there are similarities there to Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but the two are more distinct than you might at first think.
Yes, it’s true that I am a comic book lover, and that’s how I came across this tome (it is sold on its own, but I found it in the middle of the 1,000-page Captain Britain Omnibus). But I cannot stress to you how much this story exists outside of the world of superheroes and their tropes (even if it might concern a couple of characters who are otherwise firmly ensconced in the Marvel Universe). This is a true epic quest narrative in the Arthurian tradition the likes of which I don’t often find.
Siege of Camelot is told in monochrome pen-and-ink illustrations. While it would have been nice to see it in color, I am thankful that the cost-cutting choice allowed this wonderful tale to spread its wings. I found it utterly stirring and looked forward to returning to its world throughout my otherwise banal days. Writer/pencilers John Stokes and Paul Neary create a familiar, cohesive, but original world. In the page above, for example, you can see their furry take on elves, and The Black Knight always lives in a heroic frisson due to his titular color and bat-winged horse.
I highly recommend this fantastic story to readers of any age who may be drawn to Arthurian legend. I have to warn you of its one major flaw, however: the tense of the narration swings wildly from past to present, sometimes in the same panel. It’s a mystery to me how any professional writer could be so careless with the tense of their writing—and even those with no specialized knowledge of language will see it immediately—but that ship sailed fifty years ago, I guess. I am just so grateful to have this once-obscure tale available to all.