Troubled Souls

Nordie comic writer Garth Ennis’s debut. More scans here. I have fond memories of being blown away by it when it came out in 1990. However: 

Ennis was later critical of his writing debut, which he describes as “the kind of thing that was doing well at the time. (…) With hindsight, what Troubled Souls really represented was naked ambition. It was a direct attempt to get published. And that was the road that seemed most likely to lead me to success”

He went on to create Murphyville, the Irish MegaCity, as featured in The Emerald Isle.  

Murphyville, a massive, dilapidated theme park where citizens are forced to dress as leprechauns to survive on tourists’ handouts, was obviously based on Dublin. Emerald Isle included a scene in The Green Dolphin, which was just down the road from me when I lived in Raheny. Went for a pint there after my daughter’s Christening. Dredd would have been slow to enter.