Illustrator: Jeff Lemire
Letterer: Steve Wands
Review: Art Bee
Getting back to my original thought, I found a neat new graphic novel format, A.D.: After Death Book One, on the shelf with the other floppies at my LCS. It was a thicker cover with 65 pages of content for $5.99. This intrigued me greatly as did the splendid watercolor artwork inside. My only hesitation was the writer’s name, Scott Synder. In my opinion he has delivered some great work in the past in addition to some bottom of the barrel quality writing. The Hammond Comic Blog’s own Will Dubbeld greatly dislikes Mr. Snyder’s work and has vowed to avoid it all. He has stated, "Snyder has great ideas and his stories have a strong start, but he nearly always shits the bed in the third act".
(Editors note: I’m actually currently reading his Batman book, but that’s due to John Romita, Jr. on pencils. Love some JRJR…)
A.D.: After Death Book One has one of the choppiest plots I have ever read. The story seems to bounce all over the timeline and never identifies a concrete place or time. The title first takes the readers mind to the death of Christ, for his life was the bridge in the ascending and descending years. If the writer has something else in mind, then this detail should be provided somewhere in the story. Unfortunately Snyder would rather withhold any information that would make this story interesting.
Even the main character, Jonah Cooke, seems hollow and emotionless. Nothing in the entire story feels relatable to the reader. At the very beginning we are introduced to Jonah as a child in a flashback, which I feel is meant to connect to the audience. The main character doesn’t react, so why would the reader? We read to be entertained Snyder; don’t expect us to carry you. Supposedly this one event at the start of the story is supposed to hold all of the clues to Jonah’s life. I am lost . . .
One of the things the book does well is easily identifying flashbacks by switching to a typed font. I am guessing this is to be seen as Jonah’s own writing although there are no other clues for this. I hope this is the case, for it is riddled with grammatical errors including some very awkward run-on sentences. If you are an English or Literature teacher stay away from this publication . . . It will drive you a little nuts.
At the very beginning of Part One (15 pages into the book), we are given a date: 825 A.D. Now this can’t be the A.D. we are familiar with for there is a hover tractor in a field of crops. What are you playing at Snyder?
The overall tone of the story is drab and cumbersome to read. Finally, I made it to the end and after the last page; I was very unexcited for Book Two. As a matter of fact this book lacked the most important part of a story…a climax. How are you to get anyone to buy the next one, Snyder?
There were only two things I really liked about A.D.: After Death Book One.
First, what I really liked about the entire book was the artwork. Jeff Lemire has some great watercolor art. The tones of the colors are soft, but he blends them very well to create some amazing effects. The supernatural clouds towards the end of the book are the best of his work. I could just sit and stare at the pictures for a long time and not be sad at all.
Second was page 30. The story talks about a cassette tape recorder that Jonah stole, and the text mimics the image of the speaker of the recorder. This is a nice effect that could have only been better if the text was actually included as part of the image.
Overall this was a major let down and a waste of my money. Unfortunately that is a part of this hobby. Not everything can be great and wonderful. If it were that way we would have nothing on which to base reviews. Regardless whether comics are good or bad we need to support the one true American art form.
No comments:
Post a Comment