Public Domain, a new title from Image, tries for a careful balance: mixing an adult family drama with a ’semi-real’ comic-industry context.
Chip Zdarsky (Sex Criminals, Daredevil, etc) writes and draws this story, with Allison O’Toole editing.
It’s a convoluted one, with many pages spent walking us around, entwining us in the off-kilter dynamics of a father and his two sons. The dad is a comic artist, and the sons revolve around his erratic orbit. The story involves the premiere of a new comic hero movie. But does the star actor TRULY love comics, or is he just Making Believe?
The pace of the story is a little slow, with Zdarsky lingering overly long on certain moments that are meant to resonate with today’s comic fans. The scenes unfold with confrontations and angst in the forefront, eyebrows furrowed and words flying. But as a reader, I am doing double duty: figuring out who is a main character, and wondering why we are spending time in subplots. It could be tighter.
The drawings are expressive, the colouring solid and ’no nonsense’. There is a heavy reliance on greyed tones, less complicated lighting effects. But that is par for the course when a creator (Zdarsky) is writing, drawing, and colouring his own work.
But I will have to see how this Public Domain progresses… I feel as if we are already ‘late’ with the story’s pinnings, the defining moments, the launch of our relationships with each character.
Image, Public Domain #2, $3.99 for 31 pages of content. Rated Mature
Newsdesk