The Britt Report is running out of steam (see this morning’s post) and due to the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con converage, this will be the last Da Trades review for this week. So, while the caffeine is still kickin?, here?s today?s review:
Firebreather Volume 1 (Image; Trade Paperback; Color)
Creators: Phil Hester & Andy Kuhn
Going into a new high school is hard. You have to deal with stereotypical cliques, try to learn the school?s layout and adjust to new teachers. Whatever nightmares that you had growing up, I?m sure that it can?t be worse than Duncan?s. You see, he?s the spawn of an honest-to-goodness dragon named Belloc. And what?s worse is that Duncan didn?t get his looks from his human mom. That prom night just doesn?t look like it?s gonna be a winner, if you know what I mean.
Phil Hester?s career has been pretty made from his pencil work on titles like The Foot Soldiers, Ultimate Team-Up and Green Arrow, to name a few. But I first got into his writing on a very low-key title called The Wretch (originally printed by Caliber and has been collected by Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics). While The Wretch showed that Hester was relatively raw as a story teller, the book had many fun moments and was always an interesting read.
Firestarter has some of those same qualities but you can definitely see that he has polished up his writing skills. There are no abrupt conclusions or object appearing without explanation. And while the subject of an alienated protagonist has been done to death ever since old Petey got bit by that eight-legged insect, this book never goes down those same tired roads, which is really refreshing.
Andy Kuhn?s art is very appropriate for this book. It?s not too horror-influenced nor is it too cartoony. His style reminds me of the style of the first Invincible artist, Cory Walker but not totally. Actually, this book is a great companion piece to Invincible as it deals with some of the same issues about teenagers who try to get out of their fathers? shadow but in totally different ways. Now that I think of it, it wouldn?t be a bad idea to have them do an in-house crossover series, if I do say so myself.
Extras: A great sketch book, pinup pages and a foreword by Brad Metzler. What more could you ask for?
Highly Recommended
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
