BOGO REVIEW: Oblivion Song #1 and The Highest House #1

Thank you all for your patience while we mourned and remembered our friend and founder, William R. Davis, Jr. He will be missed, but his spirit would groin punch us if we didn’t get back to our comic business. That is just his way.
For your patience, I decided to hit you with two reviews at once to get back on track.

Oblivion Song #1

Writer/creator: Robert Kirkman
Artist/creator: Lorenzo De Felici
Colorist: Annalisa Leoni
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Review: Art Bee

Image is launching another major title from Kirkman in Oblivion Song and if you just asked, “who is Kirkman?” picture me pinching my nose and shaking my head with my eyes closed. Kirkman is one of the most recognizable names in comic books and has been for the last decade due to his baby, The Walking Dead. According to him, this story has been on his workbench for some time now waiting for De Felici to be freed up enough to get on board.

After reading the issue, which includes 35 pages of actual content, my mind was toiling with whether I liked it or not and what did I just read. This spurred me to reread the issue and realize that I didn’t miss anything.

The story is centered on a man named Nathan who is involved in the search and rescue of people trapped in, “Hell”. Even though we are not told what this place truly is, it seems to be a parallel dimension in which thousands of people trapped. This, “Hell”, is similar to our world in landscape but has many large, nasty monsters running around as well as some smaller ones. Nathan hunts down survivors and tags them with a dart that zaps them back home where Nathan’s team, Duncan and Brigit, recovers them and renders first aid. We do find out Nathan’s motivation is find his brother, Edward. 

The story introduces us to what’s going on without very much detail. This was why I was not sure whether I liked it or not. We have no real information about this, “Hell”, or what triggered many to be trapped there. Nathan is presented as a mysterious hunter of sorts, and his actions do most of the talking. For example; after rescuing a married couple from the other dimension he goes to a Memorial Wall (which looks much like the Vietnam Memorial) and publicly scratches the couple’s names off. Throughout the issue I failed to find a real hook to make me want to read more, but there are some genuine questions that come to mind that seem to drive me to know more.

The artwork at first seemed very sloppy to me. After the second reading and looking at it more closely, Lorenzo’s work is growing on me. He has a very unique style that takes a bit of looking to appreciate (at least for me). What sells me on the artwork are the colors and details. The, “Hell”, dimension is presented with more detail and exciting colors to help convey heightened excitement in the very same way movies use music to help build emotion in a scene. The comic presents scenes in the normal world in cooler tones with less detail to develop a sense of calmness and peace. Kudos to the art team for their efforts!

Oblivion Song gets its name from the sound of the, “Hell”, dimension as described by one rescued from it:

“The breeze. The creatures in the distance, insects…it all came together like…it sounded like nothing I’d ever heard before…It was like music.”

This comic will be added to my folder for at least a short time. It would be nice to know more before making my mind up. The artwork is very successful in its effect, but I hope Kirkman will eventually make a point and give us a reason to read.

The Highest House #1

Writer: Mike Carey
Art & Letters:  Peter Gross
Colorist: Fabian Alquier
Review: Art Black

The first thing that attracted me to this comic was the size of the issue. It is about an inch and a half wider and half an inch taller than a standard comic book. While this caught my eye, I hate that I can’t bag and board it. The cover artwork was very attractive as well with the main character, Moth, hovering in chains suspended below ground yet in the sky. It is a playful concept that worked for me.

The story opens with a very important magistrate traveling to a town to purchase new slaves. This magistrate could be a main character but I am not sure. The writer seems to be trying to make this important individual likable, feared, and hated all at once.
Just before the slave purchasing we meet a young boy named Moth and his sister, Jet. They are both offered to be bought as slaves but only Moth is chosen. It is evident we are supposed to like this young kid, but he seems too dull a character and doesn’t seem to be important enough to even be on the cover.
Once the slaves are purchased, the magistrate caravans them to his home, a large castle-city called Highest House.

This entire issue seems more of an education of the writer’s idea rather than a story. The plot seems dry and none of the characters likable. There wasn’t even a climactic point in the entire issue. The best descriptive word I can say is vanilla.

The artwork was a bit polarized for me. The backgrounds and buildings were drawn and colored gorgeously, while every character seems distorted and ill-proportioned. The artist has a hard time with faces for sure. My biggest complaint was the wording on page 23. Each panel is separated on a dark brown backdrop, and on this backdrop there are black words that can only be read in the very best of light. In normal light the words are so hard to read that a person could get a massive migraine or just plain go crazy. Luckily I have a good reading light (still was hard).

This may develop into a good story, but I am not sure if I want to wait for it. It seems  IDW doesn’t seem to hang too high a value on artwork as there have been many comics lately that seem to have mid to low quality artwork. If I close a comic and can’t think of a single reason to get the next issue, the creative team has failed, unless it is meant to be a one-shot issue.