London Falling
London Falling is a strip in 2000 AD, created by comic book writer Simon Spurrier and Lee Garbett the artist. 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.
Plot
London, 2006. Jack Capelthwaite seems to be an ordinary man with a boring office job and married with a wife and two kids. It appears that he is no different from any of the other hundreds of city-dwellers. But Jack is a very, very different man with a terrifying secret past. And with the release of his friend and leader Shuck, Jack and his friends' secret past is quickly re-emerging...
Characters
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 , 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
- Bucco-Boo, a kind of Bogeyman (presumably the name coming via bugaboo)
- Mujina is a form of tanuki, 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
Appearances
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)