Writer: Ian Edginton
Artist:
Francesco Trifogli
Cover:
Greg Tocchini
Review: Arthur Black
Vertigo, would it be
possible to have my $2.99 and sales tax back for this comic? I would also like
to have the 20 minutes of my life back, which was spent reading this comic. The
cover looks good and attractive, and it appears to have the right stuff in it. The
closest comparison would be to grab a tobacco-chewers spit bottle (let’s say a
Coke bottle) and take a drink unexpectedly. Once you get a taste, you want to ralph
and look for someone to knock out. That is basically the feeling I had with the
first issue of Hinterkind.
Greg Tocchini did a
fabulous job on the cover of the comic. The tiger/ lion creature, called a
ligon in the story, is very captivating standing above the title and other
characters. Tocchini makes great use of earthy tones to set the mood of the
story and setting before the cover is opened. This book is nicely wrapped crap.
The story starts with a
pair of friends hunting a zebra. After the kill they hike it back to their
home, which looks like a small village in the middle of a large plantation cut
out of the wilderness. The friends are named Angus and P. Other than having
grown a tail, Angus is not much of a character. We are not even given the
privilege of knowing for which P is a nickname. Meanwhile P’s only position in
the story seems to be following people around like a five year old whining “I
want to go. I want to go.”
At a few various points
in the comic, the writer is caught proudly quoting something called “The First
Book of Monday”. Wondering what this was, I took to the net and found nothing
concerning such a title other than another review of this comic. My reaction is
what the fuck is wrong with the writer. Suspense is not created with stupidity.
Use a prologue or a caption at the beginning or the end of the book to explain to
what you are referring. No one likes to be strung along like that. Provide some
information for your readers to have some understanding. Suspense is built on
anticipation not ignorance.
Overall the story does
not have a consistent flow. This coupled with poor character development has
made this a horrible start to a series. There is no substance for readers to
gain interest and is equal to starring at a sheet of paper toweling (the ones
with pictures).
The artwork on the
first page is fairly nice, but as you turn the pages you get the feeling of
going downhill. Francesco Trifogli is not very consistent in his work, which
leaves a random feel to the character’s features. My feelings resemble the
scene from Men in Black II where K,
Tommy Lee Jones, is working at the post office and holds up a package while
stating, “Here is an example of go home and try again.” There are several
panels where the color has faded stripes throughout the image. At first I
thought this was a shadow effect, but after a couple of panels of this, I
realized it was not. The stripes are not a problem with the printing as the
stripes do not traverse the page or even the whole panel. These are either a
hurried or careless coloring job by my estimation.
Vertigo should be
ashamed of allowing such a low quality product leave their presses. Meanwhile
the writer should be embarrassed of this shit. Even an amateur writer knows how
to start a story to build an audience, and the biggest step is character development.
Mr. Edginton tried to get too much into one issue and should have focused on central
characters to allow a connection with the readers.
Regardless of his reasons or intensions, the first issue of Hinterkind is crap and a waste of time.
