Oktane
One of the many things I love about living in a house is that now I have enough space to get all my books out of boxes and onto shelves. Some of them have been in boxes for years. Having easy access to them again is wonderful.
I was perusing my books yesterday and ran across one I forgot I owned, a trade paperback comic called Oktane. Now I used to buy comics on a pretty regular basis. But even so I would get frustrated at how easy it was to miss issues and never be able to find them again. So sometimes I'd buy something just because it was the first of a series even if I had never heard of it before. That's why I bought Oktane. At home I looked at the first few pages, wasn't very interested in it, and set it on my shelf. It stayed on my shelf for a couple years. Then it stayed in a box for a few more.
A couple weeks ago I was putting my trade paperbacks in order and this book caught my eye again because it was pencilled by Gene Ha. (I recognized Gene Ha because he was the artist on Top Ten, a great series written by Alan Moore.) So I decided to read it. About five pages in I was moderately interested. About ten pages in and I was intrigued. About twenty pages in I was mildly blown away! The art is great. It's warm, has consistent characterizations, and has lots of little details that keep you pouring over a page. The story is a cynical and satirical look at future America which reminds me a lot of Frank Miller's work in Dark Knight, Give Me Liberty, and his collaborations with Geof Darrow (Hard Boiled and The Big Guy). The art even has some of the "Where's Waldo-ness" of Geof Darrow's stuff. (One of the reprinted back covers is even an imitation of a Where's Waldo picture.)
Oktane was written by Gerard Jones, and unfortunately I've never read any of his stuff before. Oktane is witty, funny, and has pretty good dialog. The social and governmental satire is deceptively obvious and surprisingly racial. I think the book deserves a second read. At the end Gerard Jones writes that Oktane turned out to be his goodbye to comics writing after a long love-hate relationship with the industry. He was going to concentrate more on screenplays. Too bad!
(Here's a link to a review of Oktane. Beware of spoilers!)
I was perusing my books yesterday and ran across one I forgot I owned, a trade paperback comic called Oktane. Now I used to buy comics on a pretty regular basis. But even so I would get frustrated at how easy it was to miss issues and never be able to find them again. So sometimes I'd buy something just because it was the first of a series even if I had never heard of it before. That's why I bought Oktane. At home I looked at the first few pages, wasn't very interested in it, and set it on my shelf. It stayed on my shelf for a couple years. Then it stayed in a box for a few more.
A couple weeks ago I was putting my trade paperbacks in order and this book caught my eye again because it was pencilled by Gene Ha. (I recognized Gene Ha because he was the artist on Top Ten, a great series written by Alan Moore.) So I decided to read it. About five pages in I was moderately interested. About ten pages in and I was intrigued. About twenty pages in I was mildly blown away! The art is great. It's warm, has consistent characterizations, and has lots of little details that keep you pouring over a page. The story is a cynical and satirical look at future America which reminds me a lot of Frank Miller's work in Dark Knight, Give Me Liberty, and his collaborations with Geof Darrow (Hard Boiled and The Big Guy). The art even has some of the "Where's Waldo-ness" of Geof Darrow's stuff. (One of the reprinted back covers is even an imitation of a Where's Waldo picture.)
Oktane was written by Gerard Jones, and unfortunately I've never read any of his stuff before. Oktane is witty, funny, and has pretty good dialog. The social and governmental satire is deceptively obvious and surprisingly racial. I think the book deserves a second read. At the end Gerard Jones writes that Oktane turned out to be his goodbye to comics writing after a long love-hate relationship with the industry. He was going to concentrate more on screenplays. Too bad!
(Here's a link to a review of Oktane. Beware of spoilers!)