Lava-Roid #1
Reviewed by Russell Burlingame
Lava-Roid #1, from Viva la Flarb Comics, will be hitting IndyPlanet and comic shops in the Northeast U.S. this week. Its creator, Kevin Conn, describes the book as "a cross between ';The Tick' and ';South Park'," which isn't totally inaccurate. Co-written by Stephen Lindsay ("Jesus Hates Zombies") and drawn by Leanne Hannah, this book seems like what a full issue of DC's Human Flame character might have been like, if he had turned good back before "Final Crisis" established him as more character than punchline. A chubby dude with a goatee who has fire powers and uses them to fight for justice...just not very well. But that's alright, because the twits he finds himself facing are even less competent than he is; I guess that's where you can draw a big line of differentiation between Lava-Roid and The Tick, whose victories always seemed to be fueled by dumb luck, since all his villains were way smarter than him.
The cartoonish art style suits the book well, and it's got more polish than a lot of small press books, making it feel like it could compete in a comic shop market. The artist also clearly knows the perfect level of ridiculousness with which to depict some of the goofy characters contained herein, showcasing "The Villainous Destructors" as a group of middle-aged guys (and a bear) whose powers and weaknesses would have them at home in the pages of Garth Ennis's "Hitman" comics.
The issue, based on a webseries that Conn wrote and stars in, feels like the start to a miniseries but is, by its own admission, kind of an experiment. "Will the adventure continue?" asks a narration box where you would customarily talk about the next issue, and then directs you to the Lava-Roid website for more information. Presumably the stories will keep coming if Conn makes enough money off the comic to pay his artists and not have to hock that awesome Lava-Roid suit. I kinda hope he does—there's nothing groundbreaking here, but it's a fun, funny book and right now superhero comics outside of the big two are getting so good (see things like The Life and Times of Savior 28 and Irredeemable) that they're no longer guaranteed to be afterthoughts.
Take A Look Inside
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Reviewer Bio
Russell Burlingame is a journalist and columnist living and working in New York City. In high school, Russell interviewed Elliot S. Maggin for a review of the Kingdom Come novelization, and since then has worked consistently in and around the comics industry. He interned for Wizard magazine, and has freelanced for Wizard and Newsarama, in addition to a number of non-comics publications, Russell is currently working on a graphic novel based on Cap'n Internet, the comic strip that ran in his college newspaper; and a graphic biography of folk singer Phil Ochs with artist Marion Vitus.
Currently, in addition to his freelance work and his comics projects, Russell writes a number of columns for ComicRelated, including Conscientious Sequentials, The Gold Exchange, What's Perhappenin', Closing Statements, Reflecting 'Pool and To See or Not To See. Russell also takes point on the Hot Shot of the Week feature.
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