'Supernatural Slow Horses' - Shrewsbury comic legend's latest series hits the right notes

A legendary Shrewsbury comic book artist is busy completing the first series of his new work - a supernatural spy thriller.

Mike Perkins’ credits read like a who’s who of the comic world, taking in Batman, Judge Dredd, Captain America, and Swamp Thing, since he started back in 1994.

His latest work ‘Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy’ debuted through DC Vertigo in August, and the third issue of the six comic series is out this week.

Black Tower has been created with hugely talented writer, and Mike’s friend, Ram V.

The Shrewsbury-based artist said he had been thrilled with the reaction to the series so far and the opportunity to work with DC Vertigo - the branch of the famous publisher which focuses on darker stories, away from the traditional superhero tropes.

Mike said: “It has been great. It is one of those, Ram and I kind of grew up on Vertigo so it is a thrill to be working for DC Vertigo and it has been really well accepted.”

Explaining the origins of the story Mike said: “This is a comic book with Ram V, he’s the writer, and Mike Spicer who is the colourist. I have worked with Ram before on Swamp Thing, and we got on really well together and we developed this idea together, so it is more creator-owned because it is with Vertigo.

“And it is a story I always wanted to tell. It is a supernatural spy thriller. I had approached a few writers before about it and it had never really gone anywhere so when I started to get on with Ram I was like ‘okay, I’m not going to mention anything, because it never goes anywhere’. And we met up for a meal and Ram said to me ‘okay the next thing I want to do with you is a supernatural spy thriller’, so I was like okay, that’s perfect.

“It is basically a supernatural version of Slow Horses, and I am loving it, we get to deal with the real world, we get to deal with the intrigue of the spy network and to a certain extent take it a little bit further where you can deal with the supernatural within that spy network. I’m loving it, pick it up, it is brilliant.”