London Falling
London Falling is a strip published in June-July 2006 in the British comics magazine 2000 AD, created by writer Simon Spurrier and artist Lee Garbett. It explores bogeymen from English folklore and mythology wreaking havoc in a modern-day setting.
The title is a play on The Clash's 1979 album London Calling.
Characters
[edit]The characters all draw heavily on mythology, especially the folklore from north west Europe. They include:
- Jack Capelthwaite is a family man just getting on with his life but his old life is going to catch up with him as Capelthwaite is a shapeshifting monster, a bogeyman.
- Black Shuck is the leader of the gang and his name comes from the East Anglian version of the black dog
- Hedley Kow, a form of Elf or Hobgoblin [1], shown in the story as a shapeshifting monster
- Jenny Greenteeth
- Peter Struwwel, a character from a 19th-century German children's picture book authored by Heinrich Hoffman
- The Tailor, a bogeyman from The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb from the same book
- Tommy Rawhead is an Irish hobgoblin with a taste for children
- Black Annis
- Cailleach Bheur
- Dando the Huntsman, a Cornish priest connected with ideas of the Wild Hunt [2]
- Bucco-Boo, a kind of Bogeyman (presumably the name coming via bugaboo)
- Mujina is a Japanese bogeyman, that can take on the form seen in the series, a faceless ghost
- Horndon Worm was a dragon from East Horndon who was killed by James Tyrrell (who also appears in the series) using mirror polished armour [3]
Appearances
[edit]Each episode of London Falling is given an individual title:
- Part 1: City Folk (in 2000AD #1491)
- Part 2: Loredogs (in 2000AD #1492)
- Part 3: Let Me Take You By The Hand (in 2000AD #1493)
- Part 4: That Go Bump (in 2000AD #1494)
- Part 5: Smoke and Mirrors (in 2000AD #1495)