by Lewis E. Ryan
Welcome to the second installment of IFTF for the year. This month I’ll be taking a glance at Image Comics’ One-Hit Wonder, Dark Horse Comics’ White Suits and Oni Press’ The Bunker. I was due to cover Image’s Carbon Grey, falsely lulled into a sense of excitement by the complete lack of information on the cover, information such as it being the third volume and thus an altogether horrible place to dive in. Anyway, selections have been made, let the fun begin!
Welcome to the second installment of IFTF for the year. This month I’ll be taking a glance at Image Comics’ One-Hit Wonder, Dark Horse Comics’ White Suits and Oni Press’ The Bunker. I was due to cover Image’s Carbon Grey, falsely lulled into a sense of excitement by the complete lack of information on the cover, information such as it being the third volume and thus an altogether horrible place to dive in. Anyway, selections have been made, let the fun begin!
One Hit Wonder #1
By Fabrice Sapolsky and Ariel Olivetti
This book is interesting. Firstly, the artwork is spot-on. It’s definitely the most striking of the three with Ariel Olivetti’s detailed style and realistic facial work bringing a great mood to the work. The story follows Richie Reese, former child star, and current Hollywood hit man in his well-paid, deviant misadventures. In my opinion, this is a great premise, a little clichéd perhaps, but worthy of a look. The script is suitably cheesy, which is good for something in this setting, but it shirks on believability straight off the bat with its opening exposition being plainly illogical; The ‘secret hit man’, kills publicly and becomes famous.
It then follows up with two pages of bare breasts, just to try and distract the reader from the fact that, realistically, his paranoid handler would never have a conversation with him again. It would make more sense to kill him off. The remainder of the book is largely Reese claiming what a badass he is and being completely devoid of any redeeming features, including charm.
Avoid unless you enjoyed last month’s Badass and other books aimed at 12-year-old boys.
By Fabrice Sapolsky and Ariel Olivetti
This book is interesting. Firstly, the artwork is spot-on. It’s definitely the most striking of the three with Ariel Olivetti’s detailed style and realistic facial work bringing a great mood to the work. The story follows Richie Reese, former child star, and current Hollywood hit man in his well-paid, deviant misadventures. In my opinion, this is a great premise, a little clichéd perhaps, but worthy of a look. The script is suitably cheesy, which is good for something in this setting, but it shirks on believability straight off the bat with its opening exposition being plainly illogical; The ‘secret hit man’, kills publicly and becomes famous.
It then follows up with two pages of bare breasts, just to try and distract the reader from the fact that, realistically, his paranoid handler would never have a conversation with him again. It would make more sense to kill him off. The remainder of the book is largely Reese claiming what a badass he is and being completely devoid of any redeeming features, including charm.
Avoid unless you enjoyed last month’s Badass and other books aimed at 12-year-old boys.
The White Suits #1
By Frank J. Barbiere and Toby Cypress
The White Suits tracks a mysterious trained killer with retrograde amnesia as he seeks answers. Meanwhile, The White Suits, some sort of vigilante hit squad make bullet-riddled corpses of members of various organised crime syndicates.
Now, I’m just going to say it up front. Someone has been watching Kill Bill.
There are katana-wielding hit men (and women), forming a team of killers, of which our protagonist is obviously a former member. There is a scene in which a meeting between mob leaders is called and the chairperson kills one of the other mob leaders. He even yells ‘Does anyone else care to air their grievances?’, an obvious homage to the Lucy Liu triad scene in Kill Bill, Part 1.
Overall, I found the story to be compelling and entertaining, if not a little distractingly derivative. There was one scene that seemed pointlessly over-the-top in defining our antagonist but other than that the narrative is interesting and well thought out. Give it a try.
By Frank J. Barbiere and Toby Cypress
The White Suits tracks a mysterious trained killer with retrograde amnesia as he seeks answers. Meanwhile, The White Suits, some sort of vigilante hit squad make bullet-riddled corpses of members of various organised crime syndicates.
Now, I’m just going to say it up front. Someone has been watching Kill Bill.
There are katana-wielding hit men (and women), forming a team of killers, of which our protagonist is obviously a former member. There is a scene in which a meeting between mob leaders is called and the chairperson kills one of the other mob leaders. He even yells ‘Does anyone else care to air their grievances?’, an obvious homage to the Lucy Liu triad scene in Kill Bill, Part 1.
Overall, I found the story to be compelling and entertaining, if not a little distractingly derivative. There was one scene that seemed pointlessly over-the-top in defining our antagonist but other than that the narrative is interesting and well thought out. Give it a try.
The Bunker #1
By Joshua Hale Fialkov and Joe Infurnari
The Bunker is probably my favourite new title this month. Five college kids find a bunker with each of their names on it and a letter from their future selves inside. What ensues is a well-executed piece of character development and exploration. You learn of each of their personal histories, their passions and secrets and of their individual futures as they come to terms with, and struggle against, the long painful road that awaits them.
The characters are believable and all have redeeming qualities. The future being described to them is fragmented enough to really convey to the reader the confusion that each feels at the information they are being given. Keep in mind that each of them is being given a slight perspective of the events that will occur, and what needs to be done to prevent a catastrophic event. Really cool stuff.
The only issue I have with it is that, like many stories of this nature, it is sometimes a bit of a struggle to identify the jumps in time. This is helped along a little with the artwork and choices of colour but I can’t help but feel that a little more line definition and a less washed out colour palette in general would really give room for distinctions in tone between future and present.
Well, that’s it for IFTF #2. I’m really excited to see how The Bunker progresses. Pick it up if you can. The others are cool but that is my definite pick for the month. See you next time.
By Joshua Hale Fialkov and Joe Infurnari
The Bunker is probably my favourite new title this month. Five college kids find a bunker with each of their names on it and a letter from their future selves inside. What ensues is a well-executed piece of character development and exploration. You learn of each of their personal histories, their passions and secrets and of their individual futures as they come to terms with, and struggle against, the long painful road that awaits them.
The characters are believable and all have redeeming qualities. The future being described to them is fragmented enough to really convey to the reader the confusion that each feels at the information they are being given. Keep in mind that each of them is being given a slight perspective of the events that will occur, and what needs to be done to prevent a catastrophic event. Really cool stuff.
The only issue I have with it is that, like many stories of this nature, it is sometimes a bit of a struggle to identify the jumps in time. This is helped along a little with the artwork and choices of colour but I can’t help but feel that a little more line definition and a less washed out colour palette in general would really give room for distinctions in tone between future and present.
Well, that’s it for IFTF #2. I’m really excited to see how The Bunker progresses. Pick it up if you can. The others are cool but that is my definite pick for the month. See you next time.
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