Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Great Unknown #1 (of 5)

A lot of Image titles fall flat, or completely disappear forever (Forsaken, Flak Riot, Ex Patriate, Pirates of Coney Island, Hector Plasm). But I'm not bitter. I'm not bitter because Image is a publisher who takes risks. Sometimes those risks pay off big-time (Hawaiian Dick, Battle Hymn, Nightly News). I didn't really pay much attention to The Great Unknown when it was solicited, but it had a neat cover (I like puzzles) and Christian put it on my radar (Christian and I agree 86% of the time). This was a really promising first issue. It had a few neat factoids and references to important but obscure historical figures. It was funny. The main character is nobody new--an intelligent slacker from a middle-class family who has big dreams but never "applies himself" to his "full potential". He has the brain of Nikola Tesla but the attitude of Scott Pilgrim. I really hate distributing comics along the spectrum of high and low-art, but this book sits nicely right between the artsy Omega: the Unknown (maybe only because of the similarities between the title and main characters) and the punky Teenagers From Mars (oh my god, please read it). Can't wait for the second ish.

4 (out of 5) over-used parentheticals and asides,
-sanford c bledsoe iii

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