Da Trades for 7/20/04
Author: Britt Schramm
July 20th, 2004
Welcome to ?4CR Held Hostage Day Two?. Since I don?t have anything to report (for now), let?s go to the review.
Ryan Woodward?s The Invincible Ed (Dark Horse; Hardcover; Color)
Creator: Ryan Woodward
Think you have it rough? Suppose you?re the geek in high school (I know its tough for ya but go with it) and the class bully is in line to get the greatest powers in the universe to help protect Earth. Only due to bad luck, you accidentally intervene in the transferal process and you get half of them. Now, the bully is pissed and will stop at nothing to get the rest back. You know it?s gonna get ugly.
The book?s narrative is OK but not great as the plot seems to skip around in parts and just doesn?t seem to jell as a complete story. However, the art is what really threw me for a loop. First of all, there an obvious chapter sequence to the book due to extreme changes in art style. The first segment (Issue 1) was done in a Herobear and the Kid animation style, which I thought complimented the story quite nicely. The second one was rendered in a more traditional comic book style; still OK but I missed the first style. The third seemed more like Woodward was trying to do a painted approach but doesn?t quite pull it off which makes this part of the book almost seperate from the rest of the original story. Unfortunately, the last part just slaps the second and third styles together that doesn’t really work either.
I can kinda see where Woodward was going with the changing of art style between issues/chapters as a way to reflect the changes in the main character. But to me, it came off more like he was using this series to demonstrate his different artistic talents for other potential jobs. And that makes the book all the more difficult to read.
Extras: Only two pages of sketches and rough pencil layouts. But you don?t really see many hardcover books with a $13.95 price tag.
Read at your own risk
Britt Schramm reviews trades and graphic novels at 4CR. He also has a bi-weekly column about comics called Preachin’ From The Longbox at Moviepoopshoot.com
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3 Responses to “Da Trades for 7/20/04”
July 19th, 2004 at 4:53 pm
Man, this series was a disappointment. My wife loved the first 2 issues, which were done in the cartoony style. Then #3 came out and it in no way resembled the original 2. Sounds like he kept needling and changing things for the TPB in order to try to “explain” the art switch, but yeah - it totally fails and ruins the story. Too bad.
July 21st, 2004 at 9:06 am
Granted I didn’t bought this but I skimmed this at the store. This is just a collection right? I saw what I think is a the first issue if I recall correctly and I thought nice art. Reminds me of Disney animation, but from what remember of the story: “I HATE IT!!!” It’s stereotypical of the “whoa is me!” geek story bothered by a bully. Sorry attempt for a spiderman with different powers and new twist story.
July 21st, 2004 at 9:23 am
Yeah, this was a 4-issue collection from Woodward’s self published Summertime Books imprint. Don’t exactly know why DH would reprint it. But then, that’s why I’m not a comic’s big whig. Hopefully, he can redeem himself with his next effort.