by Randy Lander

MADMAN: THE ODDITY ODYSSEY TP Highly Recommended (9/10) Oni Press Writer/Artist: Mike Allred Letters: Laura Allred Editors: Greg S. Baisden & Jamie S. Rich Price: $15.95 US I like to think of myself as fairly well-read in the comics field, but one of the glaring holes in my comics education has long been Madman. However, with Mike Allred's artwork currently impressing me on X-Force, now was the perfect time for me to give his most well-known work a try, and Oni has made it easy with a well-designed trade of the first Madman series. It took me a little while to get into it, but by the middle of the book, I was completely hooked, and by the end, I could see why it was regarded as such a seminal work. It blends the quirky and weird sensibilities of indy comics with super-hero genre conventions, and I see where it may have influenced a number of things, from X-Force (obviously) to projects like Sam Raimi's Darkman. If I had to pick one word to describe Madman it would be quirky, and if it had been produced post-2000, I might consider it even a little too willfully so. However, rather than trying to emulate the success of offbeat creations, Allred was blazing the trail here, showing that super-heroes, comedy and intelligence could be blended in equal measure. This has more in common with Too Much Coffee Man than it does more overt super-hero parody like The Tick, as it is more about the comedy of human nature and the bizarre than riffing on how funny it is that no one recognizes Madman when he has glasses on or something like that. There's a wonderful sense of the surreal at work in Madman. Leaving aside that the hero inexplicably wears a costume everywhere he goes and fights crime with a special yo-yo, this story involves his quest to find a chemical formula that will restore an ally to life, and it puts him up against zombies and mad scientists. There's also an interesting mixture of genres here, as the story has elements of super-heroics, crime and romance, plus a healthy dash of humor. Allred's storytelling is at times deliberately obtuse. I found the early issues of the story a little hard to work through, as I found myself asking the same questions Frank was asking himself. I couldn't figure out who he was or why he was doing the things he was doing, and I felt like there had to be some backstory I was missing. I actually flipped through the book a few times to try and figure out whether this was in fact the first Madman story or not. However, Allred does make all clear in the end, and his post-amnesiac reveal is less complicated but still as entertaining as the one to be found in Memento. The big selling point for me, as far as checking out this trade, was Allred's artwork, and it doesn't disappoint, even though I missed Laura Allred's bright colors. The gray-tone work on the art looks fantastic on the high-quality paper, and the artwork at this point in Allred's career is a little different than the Kirby-esque work I've come to expect from him lately. This work seems more influenced by Frank Miller or David Lapham, with a lot of darkness and detail, and it gives the book a somewhat darker tone as well. This comic book was not part of this week's new releases. Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.