I’m speechless.
by David Hine & Shaky Kane
Issue 1 of 6, Image Comics
Yes, the deranged Fake Comic Geniuses that brought you last years wonderfully shlocky Bulletproof Coffin are back, with, believe it or not, More of the Same !! Hey ! Not that I’m complaining – Bulletproof Coffin was one of the most enjoyable comics I’ve read in the last, Gawd-Knows How Long ! So it’s great to open the page on more of Messrs Hine & Kane’s Carnival of Comic-Book Souls.
If you picked up the first series last year, you’ll know what you’re in for-unhinged tales of Extraordinary Madness involving all your favourite Comic-Book Cliches from yesteryear, brought back from the dead by a couple of Comic Book Frankensteins intent on pumping warped clots of old blood through the Corpse. There’s nothing really new in these pages, indeed the contents are a joyful romp through forgotten glories of a World that Time, and Comics forgot. So, within, you’ll find characters and plot devices that reek of half-remembered B-Movies where Zombies and Aliens walk the Earth, Commies are Among Us, Justice can only be meted out by repressed weirdos who like dressing up, and a woman’s only requirement is to have Enormous Breasts ! Hine and Kane’s creation is a patchwork monster of E.C. Comic Sensationalism, filtered through a sensibility honed on Twilight Zone and Outer Limit atmospheres, with a hint of Ed Wood and Ray Dennis Steckler stupidity thrown in.
It would appear that the main thread in this series, judging from the first issue, is in taking some of the Comic Book characters introduced from the last series, and giving us their origin stories, always a staple favourite of your average Comic Nerd Reader (Hey, I still love the Origin of The Watcher story !).
However, David Hine’s writing is always hinting that there’s something more, not-quite -yet-seen lurking in the story basement, and he enjoys playing with the idea of a story-within-a-story, or the notion that the story you’ve just read isn’t the real story, or might even be a cover, or a lie, or a dream, or, in issue one’s case, maybe not even a real origin story. Is it simply an odd sexual fantasy ? Or are the events relayed a fantasy, a lie ? Either way, the writing’s nicely done, often revelling in the stock language of pulp thriller’s and comic’s, and Hine is clearly enjoying himself here, and that’s part of the fun. It also has a wonderfully black sense of humour throughout (the opening sequence in the graveyard, and the “Something Fishy” Victim for example).
As to the artwork, well, to be honest, I’m never quite sure how to describe Shaky Kane’s artwork. There’s something I find oddly cool about it, cool as in , Hip ! It has a nifty neatness and clarity to it that I really enjoy. Everything within his panels are perfectly delinated; they remind me of animation cells, and his work is enhanced greatly by some excellent colouring, which is both strangely sober and equally electric when necessary. It also has an odd quirkiness to it that I think partly comes from his characters often seeming to be drawn slightly out of proportion at times. I’m never sure if it’s deliberate, partly a stylistic trait, or just bad drawing, but it does give his work an odd sense of disorientation,or distortion, which in view of it’s content, or context, helps rather than hinders the atmosphere of the story. It’s not really a complaint, more simply a recognition of a visual sensation when looking /reading his images.
All in all, I recommend you get out and buy this now, in order to be reminded as to the reasons why Comics were so much fun to read, before they became tediously sophisticated and cynical, or some twat’s stepping stone to movies ! Though stating that, I wouldn’t be suprised to see Bulletproof Coffin: the Movie. Until that awful day, go and get reading it in the form for which it was made, and meant to be !!!
Paul ” Crypt-Kicker” Brown
Stéphane Piatzsezk (A) Stéphane Douay
Comic Bits 20 