Invasion!: 'Escape From Liverpool', Part 1

NAME
Invasion!: 'Escape From Liverpool', Part 1

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 47

DATELINE
14 Jan 78

PAGE COUNT
4 and a 1/2

REPRINTS
Extreme Edition 3 & Invasion!

SYNOPSIS
Savage tries to smuggle Prince John back to Canada.

FIRSTS & LASTS
None.

INFORMATION
Liverpool is half in ruins. The famous Cavern Club is now a Resistance Safe House. Several successful musicians from the 1960's and 1970's are hiding out there.

Japan, Sweden and the United States are among the nations that have remained neutral despite the Volgan invasion.

BILL SAVAGE
He and his group have arrived in Liverpool and attempt to find a sailor willing to smuggle Prince John out of the country. He and Silk are discovered at the docks and fight off a group of Volgans, with the help of a US sailor called Georgia who agrees to smuggle somebody back to Canada for them.

OTHER CHARACTERS
SILK
He can play guitar and sing. He uses a guitar modified to contain a gun to kill several Volgans when they are discovered.

PRINCE JOHN
He remains at the safe house.

COLONEL ROSA VOLGASKA
She assigns Sergeant Georgi to find Savage by the docks.

SERGEANT GEORGI
Volgan soldier working for Rosa Volgaska. He poses as a US Sailor from Georgia called Georgia. He helps Savage and Silk in the barroom brawl and kills two Volgans. He agrees to smuggle someone to Canada.

DEATHS
Eight. Silk kills four Volgans with gun hidden inside a guitar, Savage kills two more. Georgia strangles a Volgan with each hand

BEST LINES
None.

WORST LINES
Traitor: "Quick! The arch-terrorist Savage is inside here!"

CATCHPHRASES
"Aieeeee!"

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
John Lennon (1940-1980), Paul McCartney (born 1942), George Harrison (1943-2001) and Ringo Starr (born 1940) formed The Beatles and arguably changed the world. Silk sings 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun', a Beatles song from the eponymous album The Beatles, also known as The White Album.

MISTAKES
The Cavern is the most famous address in all of Liverpool and the Resistance has turned it into a safe house?

RETROSPECT
Published in 1978, this strip could obviously never have anticipated that John Lennon would be assassinated in 1980. Had he lived he would have been 59 in 1999.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: Gerry Finley-Day
Artist: Carlos Pino
Letters: Peter Knight

REVIEW
The Beatles cameo is better than it sounds, but oddly they aren't referred to by name. I like to think George Harrison really did have a gun concealed inside his guitar. After the appearance of the Fab Four this goes downhill very quickly and disappointingly Savage doesn't seem to spare a thought to consider the convenience of 'Georgia' offering him exactly what he needs exactly when he needs it.

Thrill Value Increases + + + Next Prog + + +