Task Force Rad Squad #1

Task Force Rad Squad #1

Written by Caleb Goellner
Art by Buster Moody
Colors by Ryan Hill
www.taskforceradsquad.com

Comic books lend themselves to a greater variety of storytelling than any other medium I have ever encountered. We see this diversity in small press books far more than we do from major publishers. The reason why is simple, untested ideas put profit margins at risk. I'm not trying to be cynical, but I think we can all agree the major comic publishers are structured to generate revenue. That's not to say small publishers aren't interested in profit, but for them the game is different; the little guys have to stand out among all their peers while competing with marketing teams representing interests from Time Warner and Disney. That's not an environment where playing it safe yields results. So, in order to gain attention these creators need to break new ground. I think this week's selected title illustrates that idea clearly.

The universe was safe, until Cody released all those imprisoned monsters during his space wizard training. Now, Cody, his sister, Kate, and their friends must save Earth from Mistress Flagitiox, but, hey, maybe that will help Shinji conquer his boredom and give Clint more time to perfect his music.

I'm hard pressed to pin a genre on Task Force Rad Squad, I think a safe description would be that it is an action/ comedy in a fantasy space setting. However, casting such a broad explanation fails to highlight the nuances that make this book interesting.

The story is framed in a Power Rangers-esque setting, complete with color indexed uniforms and Rad Rides that merge together to form a Radbot, for dealing with larger foes. This accessorizing of the heroes' arsenal harkens back to marketing strategies deployed a couple of decades ago to sell merchandise for television shows. While it is strange to see the same storytelling device in use without the corresponding toys, this adds a level of camp that feels almost necessary for the kind of story they are trying to tell. I don't know what to call this subgenre, but I've seen it used in other small press books recently. To see multiple people drawing inspiration from the same source seems to imply that this idea has infiltrated the popular culture, meaning we're likely to see more, not less, of it in the future.

I imagine writing a book like this would be deceptively difficult. The setting lends itself to a certain degree of exposition, however too much would slow the story down. In Task Force Rad Squad, Goellner has found an effective balance in the economy of his words; there's just enough clunky dialogue to achieve comedic effect, but not so much that you become impatient reading through it. Also, I enjoyed the inclusion of “net speak” into the book, it adds a youthful tone to characters that may have otherwise been lost.

Buster Moody seems at times a mad genius to me. His artwork is reminiscent of someone like Robert Crumb, but for Moody the psychedelia is infused with a gritty realism that creates his own, unique, style. Simply put, Task Force Rad Squad doesn't look like a mainstream comic book, it looks better. Moody's attention to detail breathes life into the world they have created. Perhaps my favorite example of this comes from how he incorporates sound effects into the art.

Finally, a lot of small press books avoid color because of the cost in printing, but the style of story the creators have chosen to tell here requires color. Ryan Hill goes beyond the norm to making even the most mundane background a flurry of color. Perhaps one of the benefits of having a color indexed cast is that it allows your colorist the opportunity to express himself.

As I said before, small press creators have to take risks in order to get noticed and I believe the creators of Task Force Rad Squad understand that, how else could they create such a “radical” book? If you want to check it out for yourself, head over to their website where you can download a digital copy or buy one in print.

Mike and the Ninja Volume 1: San Francisco Fracas

Mike and the Ninja Volume 1: San Francisco Fracas
Art and Story by Brian Rhodes
www.mikeandtheninja.com

One of the things I think I love the most about small press comics is seeing the title evolve. To be clear, I'm not talking about plot progression, but the skill with which the creator is able to express himself. Mike and the Ninja is a great example of this.

Recently fired from his dead-end job, Mike befriends Stu the Ninja at the Stumpville unemployment office and the two set off on a cross country quest to restore Stu's honor. Along the way, they make new friends and must thwart several strange, and unstable, foes in order to reach San Francisco to expose the city's corrupt mayor.

In the earliest strips, the page design, layouts and artwork are amateur. Many of the jokes here are self-deprecating reactions toward plot holes or Brian's skill as an artist. If there's anything about the book I genuinely don't like, it's that. I fully understand why it's there, it's frustrating to embark on any artistic endeavor when your ambition exceeds your skill, but you have to start somewhere. All Rhodes began with was a desire to draw comics, a loose idea for a story and the courage to put himself out there. That's all he needed, no apologies required. Fortunately, as our creator's talent grows, so does his confidence toward his work.

One of the most common pieces of writing advice I have ever heard is to avoid using cliches. The story's comedic nature allows Rhodes to defy this old adage by embracing the overused and forcing it to serve his needs. In doing so, he creates a strange world that discards conventional rules and replaces them with its own. Despite its highly ordered structure, where every group has a union and must be aware of their contractual boundaries, the bureaucracy of Rhodes' world is just as disorganized as our own, often leaving it the butt of his jokes.

The most crucial thing I look for in any story is whether its characters grow. If the characters aren't challenged by the events happening around them, if they're not forced to re-evaluate themselves in some way, it makes us wonder why the story was worth telling. Again, this is a rule that can be overlooked in some genres, comedy included, because those stories are not always character driven. Regardless, I believe Rhodes pulls it off with Mike.

In the earlier strips Mike is largely a viewpoint character and seems to have little influence on what is happening around him. Near the middle of the book, when Mike asks Renee to stop the truck, the situation changes and Mike no longer simply questions the world around him, but demands answers. This trend continues as the group arrives in San Francisco and faces off against the mayor. It's not the kind of character transition that will jump out at you and, to be honest, I'm not sure if it was intentional or further reflection of Brian's evolution as a storyteller. In either case, it improves the strip overall and transforms it from being a series to comedic situations into a cohesive story.

So, perhaps Mike and the Ninja is not just the tale of a recently fired guy and his ninja friend traveling across the country on an honor quest, but it is also the story of a fledgling creator honing his skills. I don't believe this observation is unique to Brian Rhodes, it applies to every creator who has publicly shared their early work, but it's quite easy to see here.

You can check out Mike and the Ninja for free, but I encourage you to buy a printed copy to help Brian support his video game addiction (or you can make your own comics and he might trade you at a show sometime).

Project Tracker #1

Project Tracker #1
Written by Chuck Gower
Pencils and Inks by Mike Jackson
Lettering by Robert Jackson

If you know a comic book fan, ask them if they remember the first issue they ever read. They will. Their eyes will gloss over in a nostalgic haze and they'll recall, with astounding detail, how the experience made them feel. It's really something, I think, that can only be truly understood by other comic book fans. I'm not going to tell you about my first comic book experience, at least not this time. Instead, I would like to tell you about the first small press comic I ever read, because that's who this blog is about, the little guys, the underdogs.

It was the early 90's and the comic book industry was restructuring. In a move that echoed the formation of United Artists over eighty years before, top industry talent were turning their backs on major publishers in order to pursue their own interests and publish their own independent comics. It was an exciting time to be a fan. In the wake of this event, small press creators were empowered to dream of telling their own stories. After all, if going independent was good enough for Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee, it should damn well be good enough for everyone else.

Now, don't misunderstand me; I recognize that independent and underground comics had been around for years and some creators, such as Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, had gone on to overwhelming success. But from my perspective, the formation of Image brought greater attention to independent comics than they had ever seen before and I intend to stand by this opinion... until someone pokes a hole in it.

It was during this supposed independent comic revolution that I received news of a locally produced, small press comic book, called Project: Tracker. While I had already picked up several titles from Image, I would say this was the first truly independent comic book I ever read.

It was terrible. The panel work was stiff, background art was largely absent and the narration was full of exposition. The quality was so poor, I felt robbed of my precious $2.00 and swore to never buy another issue (I don't think there were any). In the years that followed, I have attacked this book relentlessly; it has been the butt of countless jokes amongst my friends for over twenty years now.

Earlier this year I posted on Twitter and Facebook, asking if anyone knew where I could find a copy. A good friend, Andy Borders, just happened to have a copy and dropped it by our booth at Cape Comic Con. When I made it home, I sat down, cracked open and beer and, for the first time in twenty years, I read Project: Tracker #1.

It is with great humility that I tell you, it's better than Helock Comics #1. It's better than Helock Comics #2. Hell, it's better than Wexler's Follies: Domestic Goddess, which I am incredibly proud of. All of my earlier criticisms are true, the panels are stiff, the background art is largely absent and the narrative is exposition heavy, but there is an understanding of comics that we at Helock did not possess for nearly three years. For all the disdain and mockery I shoveled on this book and it's creators, I can honestly say, it's not that bad. Hell, I wish they had kept going. I enjoyed reading it.

My point, and the moral of this little exercise, is an old one, to paraphrase: don't judge an independent comic until you've tried to make one yourself. For every snot-nosed brat like me that scoffed at Project: Tracker #1 there are likely an equivalent number of Helock haters. I accept this as a given , but for myself, I am ashamed to have held such a negative opinion. There are far worse books out there and I'm responsible for some of them. So, with that humbling thought in mind, I'm dedicating this new blog to the small press comic creators, the little guys, the underdogs.

Every comic book fan remembers their first book, most probably remember the first independent comic book they read. But all of that pales in comparison to asking a creator about the first book they made, because that's not nostalgia talking, it's love.

Mission Statement

My name is Justin Colburn. I'm a writer. For the past five years I've been working with a small press comic book publisher out of Poplar Bluff, MO called Helock Comics. In that time, I've made several attempts at blogging, each short lived because, ultimately, I felt they were interfering with my fiction. Now, I find myself here, making yet another one. I can't say with certainty that this attempt will not eventually share the same fate as the others, but I hope it doesn't.

The goal this time is to review and promote small press comics, like the ones I'm writing. Through my attempts at self-promotion, I've met a lot of people like me at comic shows. Each of these people have two things in common, a love of comics and a desire to get readers to check out the stories they've worked so hard to tell. Maybe a blog like this will help them get the word out or, at the very least, maybe it will help me to find some cool comics and new friends. Let's see what happens.