Inferno! magazine. I bought issue #17 a ways back and although it had a couple of decent stories the price -- about the same as a novel -- put me off. That exclamation mark in the title almost changed my mind though, it just makes it seem so much more
exciting. If only Dante thought to use an exclamation mark, kids would be reading the Divine Comedy today.
Inferno! contains a mix of stories from Games Workshop's fantasy and science-fantasy universes, sometimes with comic strips and treasure maps or cutaway vehicle diagrams thrown in. Every now and then they have a theme issue, but mostly it's a random mix. The focus is on action and adventure, pulp stories with blood and battles and vicious twists, but the occasional more thoughtful piece sneaks in.
So, issue #31. Has it improved enough to justify the high price of a subscription? In a word, no.
The first story is Backcloth for a Crown Additional, another freaking story about an inquisitor by the prolific Dan Abnett. It's told in the style of the film noir detective, with our hero Inquisitor Eisenhorn investigating an old friend's mysterious death at the widow's request. It begins slowly, with the scene-setting stuff all following the formula, planting suspects and liberally mixing clues with red herrings. The revelation, when it comes, is clever and the climax surprisingly riveting, but it takes its sweet time getting there.
Head Hunting, by the estimable Robin D. Laws, takes us to the Warhammer fantasy world. It's the second of his Angelika Fleischer stories and is well-suited to adaptation by WFRP fans. It's got the right sense of twisted humour and grim peril, and Angelika acts like a typical player character, she's a corpse-looter so thorough as to check inside her target's boots for valuables. Her squeamish sidekick Franziskus provides a voice of reason and morality which Angelika studiously ignores; they make an amusing double-act in the tradition of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or Gotrek and Felix. The plot is also very suitable for WFRP, a phrenologist hires the duo to steal the fascinating head of a recently executed murderer for his studies. Naturally, Angelika and Franziskus wind up knee-deep in the shit in short order. This is by far the best piece of the issue.
Deff Skwadron is an ongoing comic by Gordon Rennie and Paul Jeacock which last appeared in issue #22. The title characters are 40K Orks who pilot scrap-metal fighter planes in an ongoing war between two greenskin tribes. Each story is based on war movie tropes, only with the soldiers replaced by GW's popular Orks with their blend of dumb cunning and plain dumbness. This issue the Skwadron are assigned to chase down an enemy carrier pigeon -- err, squigeon -- carrying vital plans and the usual hijinx ensues. Issue #17's Deff Skwadron strip was funnier, but this one's still not bad.
Liberation Day is the first story this issue not to feature characters who've appeared in other issues, and I assume its writers, Matthew Farrer and Edward Rusk, are non-professionals who snuck in the back door. Inferno! has open submission guidelines, but outside submissions don't appear to make the cut very often. We're still in the 40K universe for this one, on an Orkish ship where human slaves are plotting to escape. This time the Orks are played relatively straight -- only one cheap gag -- instead being portrayed as brutal savages. The plot is a rather standard action set-piece with a twist in the tail, nothing special.
The final story, Brian Craig's A Matter of Evidence, is something very different. Back in the fantasy universe, in the frozen region of Kislev, A Matter of Evidence tells the fable of a ruler and her straying lover. Where the other stories are action-packed and fast-paced, this is slow and thoughtful, but . . . one of the worst things fantasy can do is be dull and A Matter of Evidence is as dull as a dusty dog turd. I'm glad that they experiment with drier stories, and Craig's Who Mourns a Necromancer? in #17 was a highlight of that form, but this one's predictable and pointless. A disappointing way to end the magazine.
In conclusion: the high price will continue to keep me away from Inferno!. Although a subscription is out of the question, it might be worth tracking down a few back issues or just picking up the 'best of' anthologies. The Brother Dieter stories from #5 and #13 (also collected into the otherwise ordinary novel Hammers of Ulric), about a mystery-solving priest are probably the best to be found, and the first Angelika Fleischer story in #28 may be worth a look for roleplayers. Deff Skwadron has appeared in #s 10, 17, 19, and 22 in addition to this one. Players of Ork armies (or even Orc armies) should enjoy it.
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