Indy-Pendant is the first column ever written by Brant W. Fowler running from May 2005 to January 2007. It's a focus on independent comics creators, publishers and titles. These are the reprinted archives, which were originally published on www.comicavalanche.com.
Week 18 - Originally published on October 9, 2005
What up my peeps? This week I thought I'd dig into my pile of Image comics and see what was new and, more importantly, good!
Ah, Image. Our favorite creator owned property publisher. But do they still have what it takes? Let's find out by getting a little taste of a few new titles from the major industry player.
Jason Armstrong does everything in this book, and does a fine job at it too. And Image thought enough of this title, which was pitched as a four issue mini, to make it an ongoing series. This new title from Image is everything it promised to be: robot science fiction pulp noir. We've seen these kinds of stories before in movies, novels and even comics. But none capture the essence of the mix of these specific genres as well as this book. You have your classic crime noir story with the shady conversations, and even shadier characters. You have just the right amount of pulp elements to make Travolta proud. You have a 1930s type mentality in a 3020 type citywhere robots are your equal counterparts. And there are some nice retro touches such as the Rock 'em, Sock 'em Roboxing. My favorite line of the book was in the back-up story featuring the roboxing, in which the referee declares, "Now boys, no hitting below the USB, an' I want a clean fight!" Classic.
The art style in this book fits the subject matter nicely, though at times due to the greyscaling some images get jumbled and it's a little hard to decipher just what happened. This mainly happens in the fight scenes from what I could tell. But this type of story just works better in black and white, so I think colors would ruin the effect of the whole thing.
All in all, out of Image's new books this is one of the more promising ones, and I am very happy for the creator, who, as I mentioned, did it all (writing, art, etc.). Jason has also worked for all the major companies on various titles throughout his career.
Now this is a unique take on a classic story. Jonathan, the main character, is a normal boy living in a world seemingly like ours. He's addicted to comics to an unhealthy level. There is no doubt in his mind that super heroes are real, and that he is one. He even dawns a costume and walks around in it at school. Poor Jonathan doesn't have many friends though, at first, but he is persistent in getting everyone to believe what he believes. Eventually the entire school is dressing in costumes poised to see Jonathan commit his first super heroic act. Things don't go so well for Jonathan, landing him in the hospital, and having every parent of all the other kids think he's crazy and forbidding their children from going near him.
So time passes as Jonathan is home-schooled. He then goes to high school where he meets an old friend who still believes in him. It's thanks to her that he discovers super heroes really are real as he finds his father in a compromising position. His dad is the greatest hero, Apollo. So now Jonathan has to go to a high school for super kids because his dad's cover is blown. Great, right? Only problem is Jonathan finds out he's not a hero and has no powers. Sucks being him.
Jonathan then discovers things about heroes he didn't know and it starts to change his perspective on things. This is pretty much where issue two leaves off. It will be interesting to see the fourth wall broken down even further.
This tale really captures what it would be like if super heroes really did exist. It brings the experience into a real world and breaks all the rules. Not to mention it's mad fun. In the first issue there are all kinds of spoofed references to your favorite super hero nostalgia, from the Hall of Justice to Captain Cold. I highly recommend this book and am glad to see something original AND good coming out of Image once more.
Next week more reviews and features as always 'cause that's how I roll!
B.-Out
CREATOR UPDATES
Ferro City was collected in a trade in 2007 and can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other places around the web. While nothing else was done with Ferro City (to my knowledge), Jason Armstrong has had a healthy career in comics with stints on Lobster Johnson, The Ray, The Spirit and even Justice League. He's also the creator of Doc Thunder at Marvel. The most recent credits I could find for him included Marvel, Image and Dark Horse work.
Grounded, which was Mark Sable's first comic, was also collected in trade. Sable went on to flourish in the industry, first in 2007 with another mini-series called Fearless from Image, as well as other Image work. He also wrote one of the Heroes webcomics, and then he hopped up to DC doing some specials with Cyborg and Two-Face. Most recently he's working on his series Unthinkable from Boom! Studios, which has been optioned for film.
I don't think I need to give an update on Image Comics...
Brant W. Fowler / Writer, Letter, Creator, Reviewer, Columnist and Comic Related PR Coordinator
Brant W. Fowler has been a professional comic book letterer and logo designer for three years, and has been a freelance editor for the past five years. He has also worked with graphic design, writing and many other area of skills for several years honing his talents. You can learn all about what he's up to by visiting Gonzogoose
Design. Brant is also a member of the core
operations team at Comic Related.
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