Indie Comics April 27th 2011

Butcher Baker #1 (reprint out this week) and #2
Joint review, I saw some rather great art when I was flicking through a mates copy of #1 and it had sold out before I got a copy. But it got a re-print this week so I picked up two issues in a row. Let's see if the story is worth the art.
The variety of pencil, ink, halftoned, coloured, gradiented, textured and painted work here is astounding, not to mention the amazing look of the stylised imagery that ties it all together. The basic premise is two government agents that look oddly like Jay Leno and David Letterman go to pull Butcher Baker out of super hero retirement. He's now a drug abusing sex addict so they have to bribe him with girls. He agrees and destroys a prison of super criminals because the tax payers are sick to death of paying to keep them alive. So much controversial stuff in here and yet it all feels so natural and normal when you read the damn book. It's so odd it's a kinda hypnotic state you go into where it just becomes acceptable due to the nature of the story. It feels harmless due to the cartoon-ness of the art. Smart choice there.

Caution: Naked Ladies, Drugs and Jay Leno's chin.

I feel cheeky posting a full page but you can see the diverse art styles and how well they work together. Looks Fab!

Issue two is a direct continuation as Butcher Baker bumps into the cop who's car he mangled last issue whilst racing to the crazy keep for super criminals. Also it seems he didn't quite kill everyone as well as he thought and a number of survivors including Jihad Jones, White Lightning, Angerhead, Sushi, The Abominable Snowman and some other big all powerful named The Abolutely. The issue ends with a repeat of the car chase with the same cop only this time White Lightning appears in her own Lightning mobile thing to take revenge on Butcher. Pretty decent second book, more of the same which is great. A lot of great back matter sketches and the writer rambling away to himself which is really funny to read.

Morning Glories #9
This series has consistently great cover art, I hope it lasts the entire run of it as it would make a great collected book.
Okay so this is a bit more of a revelation issue than others have been lately. This is another issue with one of the Glories as a centric. This one is all about Jun and his twin Hisao. How one of them should be at the academy and the other not, because he was born after midnight and doesn't qualify by having the same matching birthday as everyone else does. When they were younger the switched places as the headteachers were coming to pick them up and take them to the academy. Now someone saved the twin who was meant to be taken instead of Jun, and it was the same guy who gave the other time troubled one that watch. He reveals his name to be Abraham.

Now when religious names are brought into the mix, this DOES feel a tad too much like Lost did. You cant help but make comparisons when there aren't that many mainstream uber-mysteries. This issue has the same consistent art styles. This feels like a book that must be re-read to be fully appreciated. I can't wait for the individual character based issues to end and for a larger story to start again, it's nice to know more about the characters and shine more lights onto why they are chosen for the academy but I'd rather this started driving towards something and found a direction to point towards.