I don’t
think I ever realized this growing up, but the comics industry is a lot like
the music industry. Instead of looking
for fresh ideas, they are looking for the next (fill in the blank) until a
fresh idea punches them in the face.
They were looking for the next Nirvana in the ‘90’s which beget bands
like Bush and Godsmack. They were
looking for the next Nickelback in the 2000’s which beget bands like Seether
and Hinder. The same thing happened in
comics and I never really understood it until now. In the early ‘90’s everyone drew like Rob
Liefeld, then they started to draw like Joe Madureira. As independent titles grew in popularity in
the last decade, everyone is looking for the “next” Walking Dead, or Chew. That’s the comparison we get a lot nowadays, Chew.
This is obviously due in large part to the continued quality that is a
monthly Chew book, and is a testament
to Layman and Guillory for their hard work.
The problem is, any book that is
a little off the wall, or has characters that are not drawn in a realistic
sense is dubbed “The next Chew”
regardless of the merits it has on its own.
I recently heard this about Todd
The Ugliest Kid on Earth at a site that is not really renowned (in my humble
opinion) for it’s reporting, or it’s spell check for that matter. Todd, is a fun book, it gets a little flat in
the second issue and it is not nearly as fun as issue one, but it is
interesting if for no other reason than trying to figure out where it’s going
in the next two issues.
That being
said, Todd is not Chew, and it will
not be Chew, and trying to drum up
sales by saying that is the “next” Chew
is ridiculous. The whole point of
independent books is that they hopefully have their own identity. If you want formulaic corporate crap go read
stuff from the Big Two. If a creative
team sits down saying that they want to create the “next” Invincible, or Spawn or
whatever, then they have already lost.
Let’s celebrate some original thoughts and ideas instead of trying to
stick them into a category so it’s easier to stock them on the shelves of our
brain. Maybe if the comic news writers
showed an iota of the creativity of some of these independent creators, they wouldn’t
be writing about someone else’s comics for a living.
Okay, end
of rant.
Now, if you
want a fresh concept, look no further.
The end of the world is by no means a new plot device in comics or any
other media, but the hallmark of creativity is taking something old and making
it new again. Let’s see how this
apocalypse works out.
Cover:
While I am
not sure of the significance of the girl on the cover between Bram (with the
devil tattoo) and Ben (the angel tattoo) this cover does show you that inside
Ben makes a choice to oppose the forces of hell and Bram. This is a very “artsy” cover with a great
sense of design and JAW Cooper should be commended for making a quality
illustration that doubles for good comic cover as well. The only issues I have with it would be the
fact that it is so very grey. Not that
the apocalypse should be brightly colored or anything, but if you’re trying to
sell a book without first catching their eye with a bright illustration, or at
least something to pull them away from the latest Bat book, then you may be
setting yourself up to fail. The other
issue is the fact that the art styles are so different between cover and
interior. I don’t mind because as you’ll
see in a bit, I like the interior art, plus my comic shop doesn’t pre bag it’s
books so I can flip through to determine if I want to buy instead of taking a
chance based solely on a cover illustration.
7/10: Aside from the minor issues discussed above, the cover
is solid as both a comic cover and an overall illustration. Remove the words and blow it up and it would
make a cool poster to hang on the wall.
Story:
I have an
affinity for end of the world tales. I’m
not sure why, but I feel like the apocalypse shows the extreme side of people
(not Extreme, like no feet and shoulder pads, the other kind). Seeing how someone reacts to something that
is so over the top like zombies or nuclear winter or whatever a writer can
dream up is more interesting to me than seeing something that I 100% know
cannot happen (like superheroes for example).
Maybe this is why I like Think
Tank so much, because the more real and plausible it is, the more
interesting to me it becomes, hence my preference of nonfiction books.
Regardless,
Bram and Ben takes something done to
death like the apocalypse, and looks at it from more of a religious/spiritual
side. Sure, we have seen that before but
mainly as the Angels vs. Demons super fight book type thing. This book introduces more of a human element
into all of that. The premise of the
story is simple, and is recapped nicely on the inside front cover. Basically, it’s the end of the world, and
people are taken to heaven in kind of a rapture-esque move. Bram is taken with them, except his is done accidentally,
a “clerical error”. Instead of keeping
him there, heaven sends Bram back to earth.
Bram now has this knowledge of what is going on, and apparently where he
is going to end up one day (hint: it’s really really warm) and he promptly
labels himself the antichrist. Who
doesn’t have a friend that would do that?
From reading
the second issue, Bram’s roommate Ben doesn’t strike me as particularly
religious, but he still doesn’t feel comfortable mixing it up with the whole
devils and antichrist thing that Bram has got going on. In this issue, Ben is visited by the angel of
a work acquaintance that not only shows Ben what is in store in Bram takes
everyone to hell with him, but also tries to kick the ass of an apparently
minor demon that is fueling the Bram for antichrist campaign machine.
This is a
clever and interesting take on the end of days.
While most entertainment mediums pick up the story after the apocalypse
has happened, Bram and Ben is
apparently going to take us right up through it. One thing that bothers me about the story
though, from what I can gather, those that were going to escape hell, were
already taken to heaven, meaning everyone else was doomed. The angel tells Ben that this is the time for
the Earth to choose whether it wants to be good or bad, to join everyone else
in heaven or rot in hell. However, you
took the best of the bunch away, effectively killing all of those guaranteed
admittance to heaven, then without telling anyone, you are judging the world’s
reaction when they only have one side of the story (Bram’s). Kind of a dick move, heaven. Not only that, but by taking away the cream of
the crop, you are effectively lowering the collective quality of the remaining
crop, reducing the likelihood of them doing the right thing and paving their
way to heaven. And let’s not forget, in
order to reach either heaven or hell, you’re dead, so the end game isn’t super
either way. It feels a little like
writers James Asmus and Jim Festante either didn’t flesh that part out, or are
purposefully withholding information from us.
Either way, I am mildly ok with it right now given that we are at issue
two of four, but if that isn’t explained by the end of the miniseries it will
be seen as a misstep in their writing.
7/10 – A fresh twist on a worn concept could yield some
great things if the writers pull it together over the final two issues.
Art:
This is
where I could see a comparison to Chew
being formulated. Unfortunately, like I
was talking about earlier with bands, the copycats are not as good as the
original (except in the case of Nickelback where the original is no good
either). It’s not that the art by Rem
Broo is not good, because it is, I do like it.
There are certain parts in it where the art looks more like animation pencils
that are full of extra, nonsensical lines that are usually taken care of during
the inking process. Here, many of those
lines are left in as if they were part of the final illustration. This is not hatching, cross-hatching or any
other kind of technique I’m familiar with, and it can become distracting in
places.
The
storytelling is ok in the talking head parts, but when it gets to any action
sequences it starts to get a little weird with a little too much
camera-flipping. The characters are
relatively consistent, especially Bram and Ben, but the others stray a bit consistency-wise,
not enough to make us think that it is someone else completely, but enough for
me to notice. There are a few pages
where there is so much packed into them that it gets hard to differentiate one
thing from another and between the sketchiness of the linework and the fact
that the coloring is not helping to separate objects, it becomes a mess.
You can see all of the little "extra" lines here and there on the figures and backgrounds.
There are a couple good one-liners here, but this is probably the best joke. During the angel vs. demon fight, the angel throws his halo at the demon, presumably to cut him. This is what happens instead.
5/10 – It’s ok, but it definitely has room to grow.
Overall: 6/10 – A decent book with an interesting premise
which can hopefully tie things together before the series conclusion.
