Welcome to another Two-in-One review. This week, Randy Lander and Don MacPherson take a look at a recently released anthology featuring the works of a bunch of tyro comics creators: Absence of Ink Theatre #1. Don: Self-published anthologies have long been a mainstay of independent comics. They allow a number of hopeful creators to get their name and their work out there. Randy and I have taken a look at some good ones lately -- like Stalagmite and Anomaly -- and Absence of Ink Theatre features a lot of potential as well. Randy: I'd definitely agree with that. Though it's not a perfect first issue, it's one of the stronger initial issues of anthology titles that I've read. There's more than just enthusiasm and ambition in these pages, there's honest-to-God talent to go with it. Absence of Ink Theatre #1 written by Rob Vollmar, Kevin Flynn, Rick Johnston, Kevin Gunstone & S. Edward Irvin illustrated by Pablo G. Callejo, Todd Harker, Rick Johnston, Alessandro Scacchia & Anders Eriksen Don: As far as theatres go, this is an unusual one. We follow a 13-year-old runaway in 19th Century America, travel to a savage land filled with warriors and dinosaurs, meet a samurai searching for his missing family and witness an attempted mob hit on a cop... among other things. What struck me about all of these stories is that there's not a super-hero short to be found in the whole book. I applaud these new creators for taking the road less travelled for their debuts. Randy: That was what most impressed me about the book as well. I'm a fan of super-heroes, but in general I find myself wishing for more diversity in genres when I pick up the independent books. I'm also impressed that the genres here are certainly not the most common to be found in comics either. While detective and even humor strips may be easy to find, "Bune's World" is more the type of fantasy seen in pulps or DC's Warlord, not what we're used to these days. And "Castaways" is historical Americana, a genre that's rarely if ever seen in comics. Don: Vollmar and Callejo's "Castaways" easily stands out as the strongest feature in the book. It boasts the most human, down-to-earth story while still maintaining the same sort of unique and unusual perspective that seems to characterize all of the stories in this book. Vollmar captures a sort of sad O Brother Where Art Thou? feel in a 13-year-old runaway's story, and Callejo's art reminds me more than a little bit of the creepy but effective art of Renee (Marbles in My Underpants) French. Randy: I would happily pay for a whole issue comprised of nothing but "Castaways," to be honest. I see the same style of artwork that Don is talking about here, but it also reminds me of the work of Richard Corben or Howard Cruse. In other words, Callejo has major art chops, and if this is an early effort, I can't wait to see what he does later in his career. I also agree that Vollmar has really captured the period and the mindset of the lead character, and I was fully taken in by this story. Don: Some of the other features -- like Flynn and Harker's "Bad Santa," Irvin and Eriksen's "Brent Morrigan," and "Soliloquy" by Flynn and Callejo -- are quite brief and really didn't make that much of an impression. Randy: Once again, we're pretty much in agreement. "Bad Santa" was cute but unremarkable and "Soliloquy" is notable for Callejo's artwork but not really much more than a placeholder. "Brent Morrigan," I thought, showed potential to be interesting, particularly the long shot of the imaginatively-designed cityscape, but there's really no room for it to move. Honestly, I would rather "Morrigan" had been given more room than "Bune's World," which ran extremely hot and cold for me. Though the artwork needs more polish, I thought the first nine pages were an interesting look at an alternate fantasy world. However, the last two pages seem largely an excuse to throw in some fairly graphic sex, unconnected to the rest of the story, making it feel like it was there for shock or titillation purposes, something the book didn't really need. Don: The other longer stories -- like Johnson's "Bune's World" and "Raven's End" by Gunstone and Scacchia -- showed a lot of potential, but didn't quite click the way "Castaways" did. The problem: there aren't really any characters to which the reader can relate. Furthermore, the creators of those two pieces seemed to have much broader epics to tell, and they could barely scratch the surface of their ideas and characters here. Scacchia's depiction of what is essentially a sense of Japanese myth and culture was strong. Johnson's story of swordplay and reptilian threats in an untamed land featured some strong figures -- Johnson's dinosaurs look great -- but there are inconsistencies in the human anatomy, gratuitous nudity and facial expressions that don't convey the characters' feelings all that effectively. Randy: "Raven's End," the aforementioned story of Japanese myth and culture, did intrigue me a bit more than Don, largely because of a growing interest in manga and Japanese historical culture as a result. This story, a mixture of the lone samurai archetype and rather nasty unholy beasties, is only a hint, but it does pique my curiosity, although not as much as the lead feature did. The creators started off with "Castaways" in this book, which set the bar pretty high and left the other creations looking a little less impressive as a result. Don: However, for just about all those involved in the production of this anthology, this is a solid first step. Most of them still have development ahead of them, but they're definitely on the right track. They've put together a professional package here, though I admit I was surprised there wasn't more information about the creators themselves to be found in this book. These guys need to toot their own horn, to tell us about themselves. Randy: That's definitely true. For example, on "Castaways," the creators are credited as "The Conductor" and "The Engineer" rather than "Writer" and "Artist." While this is cute and all, the time to do it is after you've established yourself, not when you're trying to put your name together with solid work. And this much I can tell you, every one of these guys should be proud to have their name associated with the work done in this issue, because it's a strong debut issue. Email Randy and Don comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.