Atomeka Press has returned. If you're like me, your response is "Who?" or, at best, "Hmm, that sounds familiar... who are they again?" While the name Atomeka Press and A1 may not be familiar to modern readers, however, the contributors to their first anthology release are: Alan Moore. Steve Dillon. Dave Gibbons. Ted McKeever. Steve Pugh. Several more, whose names you may or may not be familiar with depending on your familiarity with British comics or the "British invasion" of comics in the '80s and '90s. At any rate, A1: Big Issue 0 is a pretty good intro for this new yet not-new company, a mixed bag as all anthologies are but with a couple of remarkable high points, most notably a hilariously off-kilter tale by Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse that serves as the first and best story in the volume.
Though I recognize Alan Moore's genius, I have to admit that a lot of the work that some folks consider seminal, like From Hell or even Watchmen, for me pales beside the stuff that folks consider his "lesser" work, like Top 10. That's because Moore, despite his reputation for intelligence, depth and imagination, rarely gets credit for what he did with Top 10, and that's bringing the funny along with it. "The BoJeffries Saga," printed here, is very much in that vein, a delightfully funny little piece that shows all the hallmarks of Moore's other work, including an imaginative premise and dialogue that sticks with you and, as I might have mentioned, hilariously funny. Moore's story revolves around a pompous bureaucrat who stumbles onto a family of immortals of various stripes living illegally in a building, and the contradiction between everyday bureaucracy and the more outlandish habits of a werewolf, an all-powerful (yet self-conscious) girl and other residents makes for plenty of bizarre laughs. In addition, the artwork by Steve Parkhouse is terrific, reminiscent of cartoonists like Sergio Aragones and filled with stunning detail. This is easily the gem of the book.
Also falling into the category of "they really should do more of this kind of thing" is Steve Dillon's contribution to A1. It's a quiet little snippet of a story of lost love in Ireland that reminds me more than anything of the heartfelt romance/family one-shot Heartland that he and Garth Ennis did for Vertigo once upon a time. The story itself is a little bit too understated, but there's only so much you can do with five pages, and Dillon does get in there and make you care about the lead character in that small space of time. As expected, the artwork is terrific, and Dillon is one of those artists whose work really shines in black and white, where you can see the delicate linework and really get a sense of the strength of expressions that he brings to the work.
One of the guys who surprised me in A1 was Steve Pugh, who I also first encountered in '90s Vertigo books. He works here with screenwriter Ron Shusett on "Shark-Man." The story itself is kind of weak, with Shusett falling into a tell instead of show mode and making the story a little hard to follow and hard to really become engaged in, but the artwork is the best that Pugh has ever done. With a sort of graywash painted style, it reminds me of the gorgeous painted approach of guys like Alex Ross, Dave Dorman and Brian Bolland, with strong realism and some particularly impressive work on the technology-oriented panels.
Aside from a Flaming Carrot short by Bob Burden, which is pretty much what we've come to expect of Flaming Carrot, the book features one other feature, and it is the other one likely to get some attention from comics readers. "Survivor" is sort of an experimental take on the Superman story by Dave Gibbons and Ted McKeever, exploring what it might be like to be Superman from a somewhat dark first person view. At this point, Superman has been deconstructed more than almost any other big superhero, and the comparisons range from Kurt Busiek's Samaritan to Alan Moore's work on Supreme, which means a story has to be hellaciously good to measure up, even if it was originally written prior to those tales. "Survivor" is a tad on the familiar side, but McKeever's abstract art style, Gibbons's tight storytelling, the decision to use first-person view throughout and a really satisfying ending make it a good read, if not a great one.
A1 Big Issue 0 is a teaser, and as an anthology, it's going to hit different spots for different people. However, the talent throughout the book is unmistakable, and based on looking at this and the other first offerings from Atomeka, I think the company has a bright future.
