Kerry Birmingham
Mar 19, 2006, 04:34 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/image/0705/ATHEIST3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/image/0705/ATHEIST3t.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="The Atheist #3"></a>Reviewer: Kerry Birmingham, birmy@juno.com
Hell comes to Winnipeg!
Writer: Phil Hester
Artist and Cover by: John McCrea
Letterer: Nate Pride
No Beer and No TV Make Homer Go Crazy.
Story Title: The Inn Between, Part 2
Writer: Mike Raicht
Artist: Dalibor Talajic
Letterer: Nate Pride
Published by: Image Comics (http://www.imagecomics.com/cover)
All the dead want is the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
They’ve taken over the bodies of many of the residents, these damned souls, and they’re not about to let Antoine Sharpe, “The Atheist,” and his partner, Melissa Nguyen, get in their way.
Envoys of an (at least in this issue) undefined government agency, the jaded Nguyen can only play Watson to Sharpe, equal parts Sherlock Holmes, John Shaft, and Transmetropolitan’s Spider Jerusalem. When we first meet Antoine Sharpe in this issue, he’s involved in an intense thought process that illustrates his particular talent for bizarre mysteries, amply illustrating his fierce logical drive and humorously, if somewhat tenuously, justifying the “Atheist” title (I suspect writer Phil Hester mostly just thought the name sounded cool). The violence comes up a few pages later. This is the world Hester sets up: ghosts are staging a hostile takeover of a major North American city, and Sharpe and Nguyen have to get there before the sinister, surprisingly all-American evil force behind it all stops them.
Hester is known primarily for his art, a spare, blocky Bruce Timm-meets-Keith Giffen style that I’ve always found appealing (it’s a shame that much of it’s been wasted on Green Arrow, which has never held my interest). He’s made a second career doubling as a very capable writer. The Coffin, beautifully illustrated by Mike Huddleston, showed Hester’s knack for unconventional protagonists, and Sharpe is certainly in that mold. Rather than compulsively likable, Sharpe is instead pathologically capable, sensitive to patterns and logic but unwilling to accept the explanations and interventions of the spiritual world. That Sharpe is such an unconventional hero is the book’s major strength; the other is the relationship between Sharpe and Nguyen (“the African and the Cathayan,” as one character puts it, out of touch from having been dead for hundreds of years). It’s not familial, or romantic, but it is vaguely empathic with an emphasis on getting done what needs to be done. Hester walks a delicate tonal line, straddling horror, science fiction, action, and humor with a deft touch that suggests he knows what he’s doing with his characters. It’s not an entirely perfect plot, but the diversions and explanations and the basic thrill of the chase make it a solid, enjoyable read from cover to cover.
I’ve never found the art of John McCrea very appealing. Too sloppy, too amateurish, too exaggerated; I’ve only ever found it tolerable on Hitman, where it never actually mattered how the book looked. Everywhere else it’s just been a liability. The black and white printing does McCrea’s work here some favors; he likes to leave a lot of open lines, suggesting shapes more than defining them, and without color this leads to a high-contrast style reminiscent of Sin City. The presentation makes McCrea’s artwork palatable (doing his own inks also seem to help). He stages a convenience store showdown well, but occasional awkward renderings (like the head-with-nails on page one) remain of the “old” McCrea style that marred runs on The Punisher and Jenny Sparks.
The 6-page back-up story, the middle chapter of “The Inn Between,” is a nondescript bit of filler. Cribbing heavily from The Shining and other horror-in-isolation classics, the creative team of Raicht and Talajic offer a diverting enough yarn, even if, coming into this chapter cold, you could still see the last-page reveal coming from a mile away. It’s inessential bonus material, providing practice for Talajic and a small extra for the reader.
ART:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ihalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/inone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/inone.jpg
STORY:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ihalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/inone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ihalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/inone.jpg
BELIEVE IT! BUY at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/default.asp)
Hell comes to Winnipeg!
Writer: Phil Hester
Artist and Cover by: John McCrea
Letterer: Nate Pride
No Beer and No TV Make Homer Go Crazy.
Story Title: The Inn Between, Part 2
Writer: Mike Raicht
Artist: Dalibor Talajic
Letterer: Nate Pride
Published by: Image Comics (http://www.imagecomics.com/cover)
All the dead want is the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
They’ve taken over the bodies of many of the residents, these damned souls, and they’re not about to let Antoine Sharpe, “The Atheist,” and his partner, Melissa Nguyen, get in their way.
Envoys of an (at least in this issue) undefined government agency, the jaded Nguyen can only play Watson to Sharpe, equal parts Sherlock Holmes, John Shaft, and Transmetropolitan’s Spider Jerusalem. When we first meet Antoine Sharpe in this issue, he’s involved in an intense thought process that illustrates his particular talent for bizarre mysteries, amply illustrating his fierce logical drive and humorously, if somewhat tenuously, justifying the “Atheist” title (I suspect writer Phil Hester mostly just thought the name sounded cool). The violence comes up a few pages later. This is the world Hester sets up: ghosts are staging a hostile takeover of a major North American city, and Sharpe and Nguyen have to get there before the sinister, surprisingly all-American evil force behind it all stops them.
Hester is known primarily for his art, a spare, blocky Bruce Timm-meets-Keith Giffen style that I’ve always found appealing (it’s a shame that much of it’s been wasted on Green Arrow, which has never held my interest). He’s made a second career doubling as a very capable writer. The Coffin, beautifully illustrated by Mike Huddleston, showed Hester’s knack for unconventional protagonists, and Sharpe is certainly in that mold. Rather than compulsively likable, Sharpe is instead pathologically capable, sensitive to patterns and logic but unwilling to accept the explanations and interventions of the spiritual world. That Sharpe is such an unconventional hero is the book’s major strength; the other is the relationship between Sharpe and Nguyen (“the African and the Cathayan,” as one character puts it, out of touch from having been dead for hundreds of years). It’s not familial, or romantic, but it is vaguely empathic with an emphasis on getting done what needs to be done. Hester walks a delicate tonal line, straddling horror, science fiction, action, and humor with a deft touch that suggests he knows what he’s doing with his characters. It’s not an entirely perfect plot, but the diversions and explanations and the basic thrill of the chase make it a solid, enjoyable read from cover to cover.
I’ve never found the art of John McCrea very appealing. Too sloppy, too amateurish, too exaggerated; I’ve only ever found it tolerable on Hitman, where it never actually mattered how the book looked. Everywhere else it’s just been a liability. The black and white printing does McCrea’s work here some favors; he likes to leave a lot of open lines, suggesting shapes more than defining them, and without color this leads to a high-contrast style reminiscent of Sin City. The presentation makes McCrea’s artwork palatable (doing his own inks also seem to help). He stages a convenience store showdown well, but occasional awkward renderings (like the head-with-nails on page one) remain of the “old” McCrea style that marred runs on The Punisher and Jenny Sparks.
The 6-page back-up story, the middle chapter of “The Inn Between,” is a nondescript bit of filler. Cribbing heavily from The Shining and other horror-in-isolation classics, the creative team of Raicht and Talajic offer a diverting enough yarn, even if, coming into this chapter cold, you could still see the last-page reveal coming from a mile away. It’s inessential bonus material, providing practice for Talajic and a small extra for the reader.
ART:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ihalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/inone.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/inone.jpg
STORY:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ihalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/inone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ifull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/ihalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/inone.jpg
BELIEVE IT! BUY at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/default.asp)