Kelvin Green on silverbulletcomicbooks.com.

This anthology is full of surprises. I didn't expect to see much variety in an anthology based around the theme of pirates, but I found that my expectations were confounded again and again, in the very best of ways. None of the stories went exactly how I expected them to go, and none of the stories trod on the others' toes. Although, as with any anthology, some stories were better than others, each one has its distinctive place and reason to be included. One particularly interesting aspect of the anthology as a whole was the emphasis on female characters and “feminist” stories. Although it's fairly well-known that a number of the more ruthless and famous pirates were women, it's still nice to see that reflected in fiction, where the male pirate is still the norm.

Highlights for me were Colin Mathieson's “A Tale Of Two Maps,” Larry Betts and Summer Deen's “A Pirates Tale,” and David Hitchcock's “The Treasure.” All three tales made excellent use of last-minute twists, with Betts and Deen's being the most elegant. Hitchcock's story was also memorable for the wonderful art and the skillful use of “silent” storytelling. Elsewhere, I appreciated the manga-style art of Chris Bunting and Jeff Borneman's “To Be A Pirate Queen," and the inspired use of the well-known Lego pirates in “All That Glistens Is Not Gold.” Those were all high points for me, but the anthology as a whole is an entertaining read, and I really couldn't pick out a single weak story, which for an anthology is high praise. Production values are excellent with good printing and a well designed layout throughout. The book itself is square-bound and seems quite sturdy, and the simple cover image is striking and attractive. It's also hard to fault the price, which at just over three pounds (or six dollars) is quite good value considering the amount of top-quality entertainment within.

All in all, this is a very good package. The stories within are all entertaining, and the book itself is an attractive product. Of course, everyone loves pirates, just as everyone loves robots, ninjas and monkeys, but even if you're one of those disgusting deviants who are immune to the charms of dashing seagoing criminals, there's much to enjoy here as the tales within are great examples of comics storytelling.”

Glen Carter on silverbulletcomicbooks.com.

Any reviewer when faced with something called Pirates will immediately be very strongly tempted to lace his writing with a string of pirate related cliches. You just cant help it - the mere mention of the name brings out a bad case of the "aarrr me 'earties". So I propose I just get them all out of the way now then we can get on with the article. So here we go:

Shiver me timbers it be a swash-buckling anthology of the finest pirate yarns ever to scourge the seven seas or I be the scurvy son of a lapdog to the slip of a girl. With a yo ho ho, a bottle of rum and pieces of eight. ...or something. Anyway, with that over I feel much better.

Pirates is essentially an anthology of pirate related short graphic tales. In doing this it brings together an impressive array of very talented independent comic creators, including David Hitchcock and Garen Ewing. Despite my general reservations about anthologies, I had very high hopes for this one. Accent UK are quickly and rightly becoming associated with anthology comics that are a cut above the norm and, fortunately, Pirates does not disappoint.

The first thing that struck me about Pirates was the presentation. It is produced in US comic format with a glossy cover that has the heavy black, with a splash of red, imagery, which makes it instantly recognizable as an Accent UK anthology. It's a very striking image of a skull and crossbones and stands out a mile. Pirates looks good and oozes professionalism before even you pick it up, which is presumably the intention of the presentation on the whole.

On the inside the presentation, is still very good and the comics are well arranged, although one story (Black Bart) does justify once and for all, why you should be very careful about letting artists loose with a disk of 1000 medieval style fonts and a copy of Microsoft Word. The font used there is painfully clichéd, very hard to read and frankly does not really work (The story itself is pretty good, if short).

Next, the artwork. For once in an indie anthology the artwork is generally of very high standard, with only a couple of exceptions. Special mention should be meted out to the frankly fantastic artwork of David Hitchcock, who is one of the finest and most interesting artists working in comics (indie or mainstream) today. His art style is indisputably his own, yet highly polished and of a standard that many others in the indie field can only dream of. I also particularly liked the manga-esque artwork of Jeff Borneman, the heavy black and white contrasts and precision of the art of Garen Ewing and the computer enhanced, but close to traditional comic stylism of BJR. I honestly have never seen an anthology where the artwork is so consistently high in standards and it's a breath of fresh air, to be honest.

All the brilliant artwork in the world, would not save this anthology if the stories are of a lower quality, however, in Pirates this certainly is not the case. All the stories are engaging and entertaining. Admittedly, some are a little contrived and clichéd, however, it is to be expected with a genre anthology such as this and besides, they are made up for by the many stories that take a genuinely fresh approach to a pretty stale genre and create something that is worth really worth reading.

My one criticism here is that the stories feel a little unsatisfying, because they are mostly so short. It looks as if only a few pages have been allocated per creative team, when it might have been better to have longer stories, even if you needed to have a few less of them. A few pages is not really enough to convey anything particularly meaty or nourishing to the reader in plot terms, and you are kind of left disappointed that some of the great talents contained within this book don't have more space to develop their ideas.

Even so, Pirates comes highly recommended for its genuine desire to innovate, produce quality content and showcase the works of some very talented independent creators.”

Will Cooling on Comicsnexus.com.

If you believe Alan Moore's Watchmen , pirates are what comic readers would obsess about if for some reason superheroes didn't dominate comic store shelves. And perhaps he has a point, after all we've seen a veritable feast of pirate comic books whether historical a la 2000AD's Red Seas and er...that one Crossgen did that nobody read or futuristic space operas such as 2000AD's Vanguard, Nikolai Dante and er...Starjammers.

Okay, okay maybe we are not in the midst of a pirate boom, as unsurprisingly comic publishers prove oblivious to the popularity of the swash buckling Pirates of the Caribbean (or the fact that quasi-pirate Han Solo was always the most popular Stars Wars' good guy) but there's no doubting the potential of the subject to inspire great comics. For starters, pirates are by their very nature overt and brash characters with a desire/ability to hog the limelight and so make for great protagonists. Secondly, their lives were filled with the type of death defying and violent adventures that provide the visual imagery needed to make a good comic. Thirdly, it's a subject that can be use to tell many different types of stories from horror to action and comedy to drama. Finally pirates are just cool, okay? Thankfully, Accent UK's Pirates anthology proves all those points with aplomb.

Pirates brings together some of the biggest names of the UK Small Press scene including BAM's Jason Coleby and Engine Comics Barry Renshaw to tell the many stories of many different pirates in many different ways. What strikes upon first glance at this collection is the quality of the artwork. While there's a great deal of variety in the artwork, very little of it adopts the minimalist/simplistic (delete as applicable) that is often present in small press books. Instead the vast majority of the artwork is heavily detailed from the brooding realistic horror grey wash of David Hitchcock and Summer F Deen to the cutesy manga of Jeff Borneman and display. The vast majority of the artwork maintains similar standards that wouldn't be out of place in say 2000AD and those that do (i.e. Colin Mathieson and Leon Hewitt) tell their stories with such charm and vibrancy that it doesn't hurt your enjoyment of the story at all.

The second thing that strikes you is the variety of the stories told from the skeletal horror of "The Treasure" to the satiric aside at pirate fashion in "This Season's Pirate" with a detour via the swashbuckling adventure of “A Tale of Two Maps”. All the stories present (with the exception of two that I'll talk about latter) are built around a central concept that is captivating and different; so for example “The Treasure” is built around the invasion of a coastal island by skeletons looking for treasure whilst “Devil's Bones” tells the tale of a man's Faustian pact that leads him to become a pirate. The different writers then build upon these sturdy foundations what they will for some it's a more holistic set of attributes i.e. characterization, attitude and conflict with the confrontation between posh pirate William Burke and Caityln Rose Quinn in “A Rose for Burke” providing the best example of a multi-facetted, traditional storyline arc. Some of the most impressive stories are the ones that take a humorous, character driven look at on one small aspect of pirate such as the charming "This Season's Pirate" that charts what's in and out of fashion whilst “Crisis of Faith” details the trip of a weary pirate to a whorehouse. Both are told with such wit and good-natured humour that even the most determined hater of minimalist art will look past it. However, the most powerful stories are those that take an unconventional approach and concentrate on just one thing whether it be to create mood a la the disorientating horror story “The Plank” or concentrate on say characterization in place of action/conflict as does the impressively powerful and moody "The Pirate's Tale".

Where the stories slightly fail is in the parachuted of non-genre characters into pirate situations with Winston Bulldog, LEGO-ite characters and cats all starring in their stories. Winston's Bulldog story in The Sea Dog is a good one with his... er... bulldog... no... Churchillian... hmm... (I suck)... personality coming to the fore even if his adventures are placed outside his usually twisted version of Blighty (it also makes me even more keen to read his adventures). However, the other two aren't so good indeed they're pretty average due to the sad fact that they're both are quite generic pirate stories with the exotic choice of characters a token shot at inventiveness. Whilst both “All That Glistens Is Not Gold” and “Ships Cat” are readable that doesn't stop them being ultimately forgettable with little in the way of dynamic plot, action or characterization. Still the good out weights the bad by a comprehensive margin with plenty of excellent stories that cater to every taste...well excluding those that don't like pirates of course.

The Last Word: Pirates are one of the many underused genres in comics today and this excellent anthology goes some way to addressing that with a focus not just on swashbuckling action but many other aspects of a pirates life.