CDComics ‘Football Crazy: The Theatre of Nightmares on the Road to Insanity’ is the third of the Surreal Murder Mystery Series written and illustrated by Craig Daley.
The story follows a lower league clubs' F.A Cup run with games against top Premier League teams, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs, and is set against the backdrop of a police investigation into the gruesome murder of one of the lower league players, but I’ll let some independent reviewers fill in the details...
“Daley's crafted a story that feels like an episode of television crime drama. It read and felt very much like an episode of BBC's Luther, the acclaimed detective drama. The way the story unfolds makes it difficult to predict. It's not one where halfway through you know who did it, why they did it and how. It's only at the end that everything comes together and Daley even uses character expository for the purpose of tying it all up in a neat little package.”
The comic blends football action, TV punditry with autopsy scenes, crime scene investigations and interviews with possible suspects and like CDComics previous Surreal Murder Mysteries, the reason behind the murders and the killers’ identity doesn’t disappoint.
“Football Crazy is a world away from the mainstream and the fantastically off-the-wall pay off makes for an amusingly different ending to this sort of tale. As a big fan of England’s finest football tournament, it is a genuine treat to see how well the magic and atmosphere of the FA Cup is captured in comic form, and at times, in a comic way, too. Jim Rosenthal’s stellar FA Cup draws get sent up in hilarious style, along with regional news programs and with these quirks adding to an overall brilliant story, you really are missing out on some genius story telling if you don’t give Football Crazy a go.”
The clues to solve the crime are in the pages of the comic, but there are plenty of red herrings and…
“There were twists that were surprising, and the vein of funny running through the whole thing really hit the spot! It’s full of hidden Easter Eggs and it really hits the description of a 'surreal murder mystery'.”
Without giving away too much away, about the Easter Eggs referred to, check the names of all the players and the names of the detectives investigating the crimes in the pages displayed…
Football Crazy is published locally in either red or blue and white for both sets of supporters, Sheffield Wednesday or United and like all CDComics titles, the CDRom contains both PDF and JPEG versions of the Graphic Novel and is packaged in a slimline DVD case with a full wrap around covers, priced £2.50 from several shops in Sheffield UK
Blackwells, Mappin Street, Sheffield
Broomhill Record Collector, Sheffield
Rare and Racey, Sheffield
Funhouse, Woodseats, Sheffield
Plus two specialist Comic Shops
Football Crazy is also available to download in two 33 page parts from several websites priced around $0.99/80p/Euro equivalent; prices do vary slightly due to download cost charges by some suppliers.
Football Crazy Part One: ISBN: 9781476362908
Football Crazy Part Two: ISBN: 9781476406497
And via Smashwords at
It's good getting independent reviews from websites and blogs, but it's also good getting feedback from paying customers and Football Crazy is averaging four stars on the five star scale across all the download websites.
“Daley knows how to keep the reader enthralled from frame to frame and leaves you wanting more.”
http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/2012/07/comic-review-football-crazy-part-one/
