LDCOMICS ONLINE COMICS FAIR 2025! Tim Bird’s name has become synonymous with psychogeographical comics whether that be in long-form comics (his study of the ancient woodland that once ran across South-East London in The Great North Wood from Avery Hill Publishing) or self-published shorts (his celebration of footballing community in the pages of Wednesday). This Land Was Ravaged is an exploration of the events surrounding the early ‘90s construction of the M3 motorway across Twyford Down, an area of designated outstanding natural beauty, and the resulting protests at one of the UK’s most controversial road developments.
Bird begins by setting the scene from both a personal perspective (his own connections to the area) and a historical one (how the land formed and became a haven for flora and fauna, and a remembrance of the ancient peoples who once lived there.) It establishes for the reader exactly what was so recklessly destroyed by a government totally unconcerned by the environmental impact of their outrageous decisions. From here Bird recounts the events surrounding the protests: the initial pushback, the role of the Dongas Tribe activist group, and the eventual violent clearing of the site by the police and the thuggish motorway security team.
It’s an unsettling story even if its influence arguably led to marginally more considered approaches in the future. Bird’s artwork makes use of his now standard blend of stripped back visuals to bring the reader into the heart of the action and sophisticated sequential storytelling to evoke the reader’s emotional response. A limited colour palette, for example, employs browns and yellows as thematic motifs (yellow, in particular, often alludes to the destructive qualities of the developers). Silent sequences ask the reader to consider the devastation for themselves without verbal prompting. And occasional visual metaphor (the Grim Reaper emblazoned with the logo ‘M3’) provide us with more stark tableaux to absorb and dwell upon.
Interspersed throughout are text pages giving detailed information on the historical stories behind the story. As is to be expected from a Tim Bird offering This Land Was Ravaged is also a clearly meticulously researched piece of comics. A travesty of government succinctly encapsulated in one short visual narrative and another powerful entry in the Bird comics catalogue.
Tim Bird (W/A) • LDComics Online Fair, £3.00
Review by Andy Oliver
The LDComics Online Comics Fair runs across the month of July. Read all our coverage of the comics on offer here at BF.
