Rarely does a reader know exactly what they’re getting when they gawp in wonderment at a graphic novel’s cover, but Dan Boultwood’s It Came! has a cover bursting with such obvious enthusiasm for its satirical content that you can’t help but be sucked in by it. By its very title, It Came! feels less like a parody of the cult, sci-fi B-movies of British cinema (which it is) and more like an actual cult, sci-fi B-movie itself. But despite its almost too legitimate personality of being a genuine leftover from that era of cinema, It Came! is a thoroughly warm and constantly joyous romp of a graphic novel.
The story and characters itself are a awash with pastiche. Self-described space genius Dr Boy Brett and his hapless companion Doris Night are drawn into a nonsensical alien invasion in which a solitary robot monster is on the hunt for a source of power to keep itself alive, a power only obtainable in the crumpet-ridden, tea-stained land of ole’ Blighty!
Any aficionado of cult British cinema will find much to enjoy here, with everything from the Carry On references to the downright gorgeous manner Boultwood presents this graphic novel. Before It Came! actually starts, the book opens with a handful of advertisements that glorify cigarettes and proudly proclaim the benefits of dodgy liquid hair, amongst others. There’s even a brief trailer-in-pages for something called The Lost Valley of the Lost, a follow-up to It Came! we hope?
It Came! is more than a witty, smile-inducing half-parody/half-homage to films that thrilled a generation (sort of), it’s a compact, spell-binding love letter to that entire era of cinematic entertainment. The artwork, the panelling, the script, it all gives the novel a nostalgic charm that makes for light, humorous reading. Deliciously silly stuff.
