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DOUBLE TAKE #8 (Best of the Week!)
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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Funk-O-Tron
Rex Mantooth, Kung-Fu Gorilla: "Kick 'Splode Zombies"
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Andy Kuhn
Codeflesh
Writer: Joe Casey
Artist: Charlie Adlard
Tones: Ben Templesmith
Letters: Comicraft
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
Rex Mantooth: And thus, the three-part Mantooth serial in Double Take comes to an end... but hopefully, it won't be the last we see of Fraction's extreme character. There's something deliciously cathartic about the visuals and the dialogue. It seems like Fraction and Kuhn give every naughty, secret, obscene thought a form and forum, and it makes for a hilarious and almost surreal read.
Rex Mantooth learns that a a scientist who has dedicated his life to creating -- and nurturing -- zombies plans to exact a horrible vengeance at the awards ceremony for the Nobel Prizes, forcing Mantooth, a nominee, to attend reluctantly. Sure enough, the scientist runs amok, turning people into undead killing machines -- and creating some fun for Mantooth and his ladyfriend.
The unrelenting art boasts a strong Mike Mignola influence, as always, but it's far from a simple imitation. Kuhn conveys the unadultered nature of the dialogue and plot perfectly. And as for the script, it's as insane and clever as the two that came before it. Fraction is definitely a writer to be watching in the coming months and years.
As we make our way down the escalator of destiny, we encounter a wide variety of people. Cads. People who make us laugh. Unremarkable, anonymous nobodies. Lovers. Enemies. Imaginary puppies.
And then there are crazy bastards like Matt Fraction.
Codeflesh: Last month, Joe Casey blew me away with his strongest "Codeflesh" story. Here, in the final installment, he tops himself again with an unconventional but thoroughly engrossing approach to the storytelling. He and Adlard work well together, and I hope they do so again in the future (hopefully on more "Codeflesh" stories as strong as this one).
Why does Cameron Daltrey don a mask to bring in the criminals who skip on the bail he's put up for them? Why not just track them down himself? Is it to provide something of a shield, to stave off the criminals' suspicions and anger? Well, the mask is to divert attention away from Cam, but it's not the criminals he's out to fool. In a letter to his ex-girlfriend, Cam comes clean and explains himself.
Adlard does a great job in this issue, as the story outside of Cam's confession is left entirely up to him to tell. He conveys with with the characters' expressions, and it's surprisingly clear. The letters bolster his efforts, and Templesmith's grey tones bring a cinematic depth to the art.
Casey's odd motif of placing the words from Cam's letter in the mouths of all of the characters was weird but clever and entertaining. Casey seems to snub his nose at the usual storytelling conventions, of a critical moment during which the world and time stops. Instead, he shows us that Cam's bearing of his soul (so to speak) is just one little event in an otherwise exciting, mundance and pain-in-the-ass day, depending on who's point of view we share at a given moment.
Email Don MacPherson comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.
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