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MAC AFRO #2
"Mac Afro and the Nebula Riders Part II: Trouble Man"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Atomic Basement Entertainment
Writers: Troy Lewter & Mike Wellman
Artist: Luke Lizalde
Inks: Harry Thuran
Letters: Samantha Quintero
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
Reading Mac Afro makes me want to come up with a new rating for my system, not Recommended or Highly Recommended but "Awwww yeahhh." These creators may not be delivering the next Sandman, but
their vision, mixing 70s funk with space opera, is being realized about as
perfectly as you could ask for. To some, it may seem offensive, whether its due
to blatant cheesecake or "blaxploitation" style. To many, perhaps, a dated
genre. To me, this is pure solid fun, telling stories in a style nobody else has
and with a professional quality that is a rarity in the self-published game,
especially this early on.
In my review of the previous
issue, I noted that the artwork would be better served if it were a little more
finished, and even more so in color. While I still think color would be a nice,
if pricey, bonus, the artwork this issue is much improved. The addition of inker
Harry Thuran to Lizalde's already-impressive pencils has tightened everything
up, and I'm simply stunned by the detail and the storytelling evident in the
artwork. This work wouldn't be out of place at Wildstorm or Image, and Lewter
and Wellman are lucky to have found artists so capable of carrying out their
vision.
And what a vision it is. Lewter and Wellman know that the secret in doing something like this is to go all the way, and not worry that they might offend some people. The opening page, a riff on Star Wars's opening monologues as if they were
written by Ernest Tidyman, is hilarious and immediately sets the tone of the
book. A couple of girls having a shower and a chat about Afro, followed by a guy
with a big gun bursting in, does the rest. This book is full of sex, violence
and cursing, and it's not shy about it.
When it comes to doing this
genre, your bad guys have got to be truly bad, and your heroes truly bad and
wicked cool as well. The revelations about Caesar this issue, as well as the
look into his operation, paint him as a truly rotten villain worthy of our
scorn. And Mac? Well, the sequence that has a computer spouting "Identity
confirmed. Right on brother. Welcome to your fly-ass crib." was one of those
moments that hooked me on the book for a good long time.
Mac Afro could very easily have been a one-joke book, or more easily a no-joke book that was more sad than funny. However, these creators have the talent to pull off this very unconventional idea, and as a result, Mac Afro is funky and fun.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
