While it’s not quite made the attention of the United Nations, it is surely getting there. On Amazon.com RW Grant of Burnsville, MN USA, says of Deathwatch. "The story is paper thin, with no drama, no development, and, incredibly, no sense of conflict!" Apparently RW bought the book not realising it was a graphic novel. Alas, reading the thing proved a pretty miserable experience for the chap and he’s not shy on spreading that misery around. One out of Five stars.

Over on Amazon.de however the response is spectacularly different. Here’s a flavour rather exotically translated by Google. "Actiongeladen, excitingly and very tendencyful arranges." Actually it would be better if I just feature some of the original German, "die bunt zusammengewürfelten Space Marines der Deathwatch und eine solide, actionreiche Storyline besticht." Two reviews posted. Both Five out of Five stars!

Yes, me and the Hoffmeister together – we’re big in Germany!

Deathwatch, written by yours truly, is a Black Library graphic novel collecting the series that ran originally in the pages of Warhammer Monthly. The book is the company’s second biggest selling GN ever. It features the Space Marines doing battle with those rather nasty creatures known as the Tyranid Collective. The strip suffers from a change of artist early on, but it was important for me at the time to write something with commercial appeal – action sequences, hard man Space Marine dialogue, and the odd dramatic flourish appealing (hopefully) to both fans inside and outside the Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 Universe. Basically if it’s action adventure you want in the best traditions of 2000 AD then you could do a helluva lot worse. Prices quoted on Amazon (USA) start at a whacking $29.14. The German price quoted is better at EUR 16,57, but this is still approaching the price of a half-good night out. Feck ask me nicely and I’ll let you have a copy for a fiver.