REVIEW: Curse Words #1

By: Charles Soule and Ryan Browne
Colors:  Ryan Browne, Jordan Boyd, and Michael Parkinson
Letters: Chris Crank, Ryan Browne, and Shawn DePasquale
Review: Art Bee

When I was brought onboard HCB the guys here told me, “try reading God Hates Astronauts; it’s worth it.” They were right. It did not disappoint. That comic brought tears to my eyes from laughing so hard. Later that year, Ryan Browne shook my hand at Appleseed Comic Con in Ft. Wayne and signed some stuff for me. Poof! Instantly I was morphed into a Ryan Browne fan. When I heard about Curse Words #1 being published by Image, my pull list enlarged just a bit.

Curse Words brings Browne’s unique style of drawing to a new venue. The best quality of Browne’s work is his attention to detail. Whether in God Hates Astronauts or Curse Words, clothing seems to be in as much detail as the character’s features and backgrounds. Every page delivers a high amount of color, nuance, and quality stimulating your eyes with pleasure.

The story starts out with the central character, Wizord, sitting in a meeting with an obvious pop-star named Johnny One (seriously resembles Justin Beiber in attitude and looks). Johnny One is asking to be made platinum…not gaining a platinum album. There is no trickery here. This dude is asking to be “platinum, like…for real.” Then this dude gets upset when he can’t feel anything. Does anyone truly know what they want? Not really.

Wizord is painted as a hero and a villain in this issue. He starts out being sent here by someone called Sizzajee to destroy the world, but following the days of preparing for the world-ending spell, something incredible happens. Wizord discovers that he likes it here. Now he is just a trans-dimensional being trying to make his mark in this world by using his magical abilities to “help”. When a hysterical looking wizard, Cornwall, comes checking up on Wizord’s progress, a fight ensues above the city.

The story is unveiled brilliantly. We are introduced to Wizord’s dark side and watch him evolve into more of a hero, but there are still dark streaks in his character. What is nice is none of this feels like we are being berated with backstory information…Browne and Soule give the reader credit for having a brain. What is very nice is we are faced with having some real questions going into issue #2.

Curse Words is going to be a hit once people catch wind of it, which hopefully is soon. This story has the potential to be a continuing story for as long as it can be supported, but it can also be effective as a short term story. This story is not as funny as God Hates Astronauts, but it does have some humor, a good amount of suspense, and a huge amount of potential. My hope is that this team of creators with take care of this creation and take it to great heights.