Sunday, October 28, 2007

Proof #1 - A Review


Proof #1 – Image Comics By Alexander Grecian Writer and Riley Rossmo Artist.

I ordered this book based solely on the premise. The simple one liner is Bigfoot as a covert operative looking for supernatural menaces. In my mind, it was X-Files with Mulder being replaced by Bigfoot. Neither of the creators were names that I had ever remembered and I do not believe I have ever read or seen any of their work before. Essentially I was possibly wasting $3, but new stuff always intrigues me and many of the new creators have some great ideas. This book was indeed a great idea and a fantastic start to what I hope is a long running series.

The book starts with a woman disappearing into a cave, we then switch to what appears to be a group of people trying to hunt down a Bigfoot. It turns out that this is just an exercise where Agent John Prufrock (the Bigfoot) is playing a war game with the other agents. We meet John’s new partner Ginger and learn of the danger they will be chasing. Then we switch to Ginger’s story and back up a week or so and then have her story blend into the opening story. We are now set for next issue where Ginger and John will be chasing down a creature known as the Goatsucker.

The story was well written and interesting. I immediately liked the main two characters and had a great sense that they will be an excellent couple in the issues to come. The set-up of the covert operation was well done and the Goatsucker is a very nasty piece of work that will make a great adversary for our new team. My one gripe is the Cryptoid stuff. These were caption boxes giving us random facts to help fill in the blanks or give us information the writer thought we needed. I counted over 20 of these Cryptoids and while at times interesting, often they slowed down the pacing of the comic. My advice use them in limited quantity in the future. The footnote on page one as a character is grumbling was very funny and should be used again in the future.

The art was really nice. I’m not sure how to describe Rossmo’s style as it has both a dramatic feel to it and a cartoonish quality to it in some ways. John Prufrock is done so well, that I can only image other people aping (pun intended) his style when they draw a Bigfoot. I’m guessing Riley is a younger artist and I have a feeling his style will evolve as time goes on. I see influences from multiple artists in his work right now and it feels like his style has yet to fully mature. Still it has so much energy and passion in the work that you can feel it.

Alexander Grecian is also a new name to me and a brief search on the internet reveals he left an advertising career to be a free lance writer and is most proud of being a parent. The background material is positively leaping off the page at the end. If Rossmo’s art is energetic Grecian is hyper energy that could light a small city. Needless to say I enjoyed reading his background material and as I said the story itself was a great start.

Bottom line, I’m hooked and I can’t wait to read this book each and every month.

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree. Really smart review, Sir. Good insights told well. I found you googling around for someone else who'd read Proof, which I'm really excited about for all the reasons you listed.

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