- This comic is a mini-book, very much in the popular European format
that Dark Horse is using for their European line and Marvel will be
using to reprint 70's stories. I've heard it called 'Paperback'
because it's about the size of a paperback book, but nowhere near as
thick. I'll say right off the bat, I actually like this format. It's
big enough to enjoy, while small enough to really ease the printing
costs. The comic is 56 pages, in full colour, another bonus as all the
paperbacks I've seen/hear about so far have been black and white. I have
no problems reading with this format and I encourage other publishers
and readers to give this a try.
- It's a freebie, given away at San Diego Comic Con. And while the
talent remains unlisted, the work looks very much like Shannon
Wheeler. Emphasis is made on that while the story and characters are
fictional, the bolded, underlined facts that get said in the story are
true. Hence, the publishers name of Truth Comics.
- The first page is dedicated to all the victims and their families. A
nice start, I'm now think I'm about to read a Warren Ellis horror
story. Instead we get a brightly coloured manga style tale with
Asian/American rich kids and motorcycles. The main characters name is
Go.
- He has a friend named Lenny. He knows martial arts and how to sup up
motorcycles. Lives with his Mom and his Father recently died. He has a
female friend named Amy who is a love interest. Another friend named
Cye who's a smart nerd that gets picked on. True to stereotype Go sticks up
for him. A new love interest gets introduced this story, an extremely rich
kid named Miss (Shannon) Slade who has very strict parents. Go
develops a thing for her, she rebels a little with some friends. Also in the
background is is a secret evil corporate story line that gets mixed in
because of Shannon Slade's father. Anyway, the characters and story are
cliche with very slight twists here and there. Overall the story
introduces us to the main characters and their situations. Lots of
talking, little action.
- The art is okay but there are a few things I didn't like about it.
First almost everybody's chin is the same, making the characters hard to
identify at first. The skin colour for everyone non-black is the same too.
The gutter space is thin, but I suspect that's to give the story a fast
paced feel. It doesn't really work right when there isn't anything fast
paced going on in the story.
- That said the artist does a good job with everything else. The style
is squarish with some angles on practically everything. For an indy
book it's better than average and better than the worst corporate
comics.
- I give the book 3 out of 5 stars. Since it's a freebie, pick one up if you
can. Maybe you'll like it better than I did.
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