Well, I’m still completely confused–there’s a lot of magical stuff going on, fairy-tale type stuff (I think that’s Baba Yaga making an appearance in one panel)–but it’s really quite good.

I’ve sort of ignored Lapham’s output since he’s slowed or stopped Stray Bullets (does anyone know for sure?), but there’s something really nice about Sparta U.S.A.. To some degree, it’s political, but not much. It appears to be a metaphor for giving up your freedoms and thinking you’re getting more rights.

I’m also not entirely sure if I’m missing something because I don’t know anything about football. Maybe there’s something about the Irish Potato Famine in here too.

Lapham does a nice job making the unbelievable town somewhat digestible. There’s this great detail about how the football quarterbacks always have to watch out for assassination attempts (everyone wants to be quarterback).

It’s a much better comic than I’d been expecting.

CREDITS

Fear the Future; writer, David Lapham; artist, Johnny Timmons; colorist, Gabe Eltaeb; letterer, Wes Abbott; editors, Kristy Quinn and Ben Abernathy; publisher, Wildstorm.

Talk about going into something cold. I had less than no idea what Sparta U.S.A. is about before reading this first issue–I also didn’t know the lead character is played by Colin Farrell (someone needs to hire artist Johnny Timmons to do licensed comics; if he can do Farrell without it being based on a movie, just imagine what he could do with something actually supposed to use someone’s likeness).

It’s a rather strange book–I didn’t even realize Wildstorm published books like this one, but I guess I don’t know enough about them for that line of discussion. Lapham’s created this strange little town with an obsession with football, but they’re really either all aliens or they’re ruled by aliens. I guess it’s more likely it’s fantasy stuff, not alien stuff, behind it all.

It’s a decent comic. Timmons’s art is confusing though. Besides Colin Farrell, everyone looks the same.

CREDITS

Where We Are; writer, David Lapham; artist, Johnny Timmons; colorist, Wildstorm FX; letterer, Wes Abbott; editors, Kristy Quinn and Ben Abernathy; publisher, Wildstorm.