Doctor Leviathan Leviathan Comics By James Matthew Bank Jr £3.36p (That's what it says and I ain't arguing with him.)
Plot: In the year 3099 the Baddest Men In The World hold a young girl hostage. Carnage is on the menu. Paging Dr.Leviathan!
This comic was randomly provided by the Random Comic Review Gods. To be honest I put off reviewing it because it looked pretty bad and by "bad" I mean "b*t sh1t insane"; the kind of thing Darryl Revok might do to unwind using his own body fluids for ink and a corpse for paper. And you do not ever mess with the insane. Never.
A weird thing happened, though. while I was reading this comic, I actually forgot about how ugly it was and became involved in the story. I mean, let's not gild the lily here, it is indeed b*t sh1t insane, but in a purely comic book way, not in a "And if one does what God does enough times, one will become as God is." kind of way. I think my initial judgement of James Matthew Banks Jr's work was unduly harsh, but as it is quite likely to be the reaction of anyone coming into contact with this comic, I thought I should be upfront about my incorrect assumptions.
And I'd like to offer some constructive criticism to JMB Jnr to avoid others having this reaction to his future work, so, sorry about this, but I have to say I think Mr JMB Jr is over reaching by drawing as well as writing this. His page layouts and scene construction are pretty good (really) but JMB Jr's draughtmanship is too basic to carry his concept. The benefits of getting an artist to execute his character designs and thumbnails will pay big dividends very quickly. Because, despite the weak art, the writing isn't all that bad, and the storytelling is better than that. You aren't quite there yet my young Padawan but you have what counts - imagination!
Because, let's face front here, True Believers, there are far, far too many people in The Comics who have learned how to write comics by reading books about how to write movie scripts. So, yes whoopee-doo! they know about the "three-act structure" about "Character beats" and how a climax is different from an ending, blah, blah, and indeed blah, all that good movie-ola stuff. Except they know Sweet Stan Lee! about writing comics. From my years of passive uncreative reading experience I can give you the Three Most Important Rules For Comics Writing: 1) Show don't tell. 2) Go wild! 3) Ignore all the rules! All that stuff in "How To..." books is nice for giving you confidence and the requisite polish for your work to be palatable to a wider audience, but it's not going to teach you how to be imaginative. Without the spark of imagination all you can create by following other people's rules is a pod-comic. It looks like a comic. It smells like a comic. But there's something weirdly off about it. And it not only looks like a comic it looks a bit too much like a lot of comics. And smells too much like too many comics*. Rules are only tools, give the same tools to me and the same tools to Brian Azzarello, and guess who'll write El Diablo first. That's because one of us is a supernaturally talented sonofab*tch, but Azzarello is just that bit better than me. So yeah, JMB Jnr might benefit from one of those "Do This.." books as he's got the important stuff down, but Sweet Kirby!, someone take them away from those relentless plodding dullards squeezing out comics like links of sausage. I said "sausage". That's why, although this comic is as rough an experience as sandpaper bog roll, three years from now I want to see this guy writing Wolverine. Anyway, go say "hello!" to him at: http://www.leviathancomics.com/ (But don't tell him where you live.) Verdict: The Authority written by a less experienced Ellis and drawn by Jeffrey Brown's left hand. *And it's stood outside your house now with a lot of other incredibly similar comics, Oh God, now they're coming up the path, quick...the phone..<gasp!>how did the operator know you like The X-Men?... Aiiieeeeeeeee!!!!
