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SEAMONSTERS & SUPERHEROES #1
Recommended (7/10)
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Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics
Writer/Artist: Scott Mills
Price: $2.95 US |
Well, that was damned odd. Though Scott Mills has something of an unusual art style, his subject matter has usually been a little bit more straightforward, even if it was on the esoteric side, looking at things like 17th century Japan or trench warfare in World War I. The last few projects I've read from him, however, have been quite a bit weirder, featuring science-fiction on a grand scale, zombies at the end of the world and, in this project, seamonsters and super-heroes. The result is a weird, experimental feeling piece that is hit and miss, but which has some genuinely terrific pieces, and is worth a look for those who are fans of Mills's other work or for those who have never sampled it but who enjoy comics on the weird side.
Seamonsters & Superheroes is described by Mills as a "one creator anthology," and that pretty much sums it up. It's all his art style, but Mills's tastes are so varied and in places so off-kilter that the book really does feel like an anthology of different talents, a number of voices working on stories featuring the same loose theme. The stories are all fairly short, and some of them too short to reallly work, but they feature everything from a goofy super-hero parody to a blistering critique of the human condition to an experimental story where the dialogue and the art are placed at odds.
If anything, Seamonsters & Superheroes confirms my desire to see Mills do more work on the science-fiction side of things. His epic The Masterplan was a fascinating exploration of a science-fiction story that focused more on mathematics and cosmic law than laserguns and starships, and some of his more interesting tales in these pages involve unusual time travel concepts. I particularly loved the idea of a future culture "migrating" back through time, picking up cultures as they go. Mills ultimately uses this concept for a goofy punchline here, but there's definitely room for more.
While I enjoy Mills's ruminations on time travel, cosmology and sociology, however, I have to admit that my favorite pieces in this issue were the ones that made me laugh. The opening story finds a nerd who constructs himself a robotic body only to fall prey to the obvious flaw, and the story of a super-hero who gives up rather easily and just bugs out also cracked me up. Then there's the first Seamonster-related piece, which features the most embittered pirate this side of Scurvy Dogs and has a meandering, stream of consciousness style of dialogue that makes the whole thing more funny.
Mills's artwork does sometimes fail in conveying the story clearly, especially when he does a ton of tiny panels on the page, but his writing usually makes up for it, and on most occasions, I find his artwork very engaging. Seamonsters & Superheroes is all over the map in terms of tone, style and even subject matter, but while not every story is a hit for me, there's plenty here to enjoy, and it's always nice to see more comics from Mills's unusual voice, one that deserves more exposure in the comics mainstream.
This comic book was not among this week's new releases.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
