I'm not the world's biggest fan of comics anthologies in general. And yet... almost every anthology I've read has at least one gem of a story, and some of them have more, and so I find myself interested despite myself in the many new anthologies that pop up every year. Komikwerks is a collection of comics from animators and comics talent who have been publishing on the Komikwerks website, and though not every piece in the book speaks to me, there are certainly some gems to be found within. If nothing else, the general quality of the art is pretty impressive.
Of the stories in Komikwerks, there were two that I thought were really good. The first is one that I remember seeing in preview form in San Diego two years back, the World War II era action/espionage tale "G.I. Spy." Andrew Cosby gives his protagonist just the right amount of charm and the story just the right mix of humor and action, and though this seems like a property that would be better in color, it's hard to complain about Matt Haley's detailed artwork, which wouldn't appear out of place on a Crossgen book. Then there's the more light-hearted and laugh-out-loud funny "Dr. Good and Spaceboy" by Shannon Denton and Andy Kuhn, with a style very reminiscent of The Tick but a better ratio of laughs (and excellent slapstick) than most super-hero parodies manage.
The rest of the book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. "The Long Night," a Celtic fantasy story by Vinton T. Heuck, is more than a little predictable but well-written enough, and the artwork by Mike Docherty and Armando Gil is beautiful, evocative fantasy stuff that reminds me of Mark Schultz's Conan and Xenozoic Tales work. I had a similar feeling about "Forced Migration," a brief story by Steven Withrow that featured gorgeous artwork by Vatche Mavlian. Both the story and the art could have used a little more clarity, as Withrow leaves a lot to the reader's imagination and Mavlian's work doesn't always print as darkly as it should have, but the general look and feel is impressive.
Then there are the stories that were stronger on the writing side than the art side. Patrick Coyle's "Power Lunch," a combination of Hollywood agents and super-heroes, was a lot of fun to read, but the art was solid at best. The same was true of "Samurai Koimandos," a very odd and very charming story that features enjoyable artwork but characters who aren't always easy to tell apart, and "Dewclaw," which has much the same problem. I enjoyed both, but found myself wishing for more clarity from the artwork.
"Martin's Misdirection" is the only comic in the book done in strip format, and while some of the gags are cheesy groaners, several of them were very funny, and James Burks's artwork has a simple charm as well. There are three other features as well, but none of them made a real impression on me, for good or ill.
If nothing else, Komikwerks is an anthology that is to be praised for its diversity. Comedy, science-fiction, action-adventure, fantasy, super-hero, goth, the book has a genre for every taste, and while not every story is likely to resonate, I imagine that most readers could find at least one or two stories that tickled their fancy.
