The first issue of Curb Stomp had a lot of promise, the second issue implied maybe it didn’t… the third shows Ferrier and Neogi are going to do even better than that initial promise. It’s an outstanding comic book with a masterful control of the plotting. And some of Neogi’s best art–there are a lot of rituals in this issue (as the gangs negotiate) and Neogi has a visual theme for each different kind of ritual. It’s awesome.
Ferrier’s script is almost in real time but lots of things happen. It’s not a talking heads comic, it’s an action comic, just one with occasional talking. Each conversation is a confrontation, which works entirely differently. It’s not about exposition or explanation, it’s about action.
Not to say there isn’t general action–whether it’s suspense or just all out fight scenes–but Ferrier and Neogi do a great job maintaining tone.
CREDITS
Writer, Ryan Ferrier; artist, Devaki Neogi; colorist, Jeremy Lawson; letterer, Colin Bell; editors, Jasmine Amiri and Eric Harburn; publisher, Boom! Studios.
D4VE is the traditional American story of the disaffected middle aged office worker, the one whose wife doesn’t find him attractive anymore, the one who has a terrible relationship with his kid.
Ferrier’s second issue as writer is better than his first, but it’s still got a lot of problems. He gives the SAMCRO club a nemesis in this dopey little punk, who Bergara draws like an Archie character. It’s weird.
The second half of the issue works out a lot better than the first. It’s strange but the first half feels like a different comic; it’s a little too soon for writer Ferrier to have defined the Curb Stomp reading experience but it’s also not. It’s a limited series. Readers want to feel a connection to the previous issue.
On his first issue, it’s clear new writer Ryan Ferrier doesn’t have handle on Sons of Anarchy. He’s got Bergara on the art, which doesn’t exactly help him. Bergara has a few more really good panels this issue than I was expecting, but he doesn’t bring anything to the book overall.
Curb Stomp, quite frankly, plays like a Troma remake of Repo Man. It’s post-apocalyptic, but not in a fantastical way, with its characters just trying to get by in a difficult world. The leads are the five or six members of the gang The Fevers. They’re punk rock and all women, as opposed to their rival gangs, who are coed and don’t have any major unified fashion statements going on.
Shutter needs to take a breath. Between Leila Del Duca’s frantic, detailed art and Joe Keatinge’s hip, artificial plotting and dialogue, it’s an adventure comic without any sense of adventure. When the lead complains life is boring, even though there are mythical creatures living among humans and some kind of futuristic steampunk thing going on… it makes sense. Shutter is actually pretty boring so why wouldn’t the protagonist be bored too.