superheroi

Frankenstein #1: Review by Grant Morrison Writer: Grant Morrison Art: Doug Mahnke Colours: John Kalisz Letterer: Phil Balsman Publisher: DC comics

This book should be excellent. There are no real indications to the contrary when casting a cursory glance at the cover. Grant Morrison is a well-known comics master, and Doug Mahnke has a style that reminds me of Richard Corben – one of my favourite artists of all time. So why is it so dull and derivative? The fact that two of my favourite creators are collaborating on a character with such raw potential should be enough to have me writhing in ecstasy on the office floor, with puppies and tiny kittens rejoicing around me. However there are no puppies here, certainly no rejoicing kittens, and much to the relief of my co-workers I am not writhing on the floor in ecstasy. Frankenstein #1 is stagnant. The dialogue is corny throughout; the themes used by Morrison are old and tired (such as popular teenagers being insecure about themselves) and the ending is rather unimpressive. It pains me to type this: but in terms of writing, Frankenstein #1 is a bit of a stinker. Usually it bothers me when a title character hardly appears in his own comic, but this time I was rather indifferent about it. I imagine that Morrison was trying to paint Frankie as an undead bad-ass (which he really should be), but the effect I got was more of a lumbering bag of pretentious insults and clunky metaphors. The main chunk of story revolves around a psychic (or is he?) teenager shunned by his peers. Through his mental gifts, he is able to coerce and psychically break down the defences of the student body, and turn them to his cause. Yet as the story unfolds, we see there is more to the child’s gifts than meets the eye. This feels like treading old ground, and in truth the story of Frankenstein taking on this kid doesn’t stitch together too well.

Stitch together? Frankenstein? Huh!?

Sigh…

It pains me to type this. Morrison is a fantastic writer; his past stories (such as Animal Man) have really had an effect on me. He’s also from Glasgow, which makes it even harder to bash his work since we share a special Scottish bond. I shed a tear for this book, I really do…
Thank goodness then for Mahnke! Talk about getting it right on the button! Frankenstein looks amazing, despite his shortcomings in the speech department. The short-lived action sequences flow brilliantly, and even the slower pace of the main story are executed with flair and panache.

Panache? I just used the word…panache? I’m cutting this section short.

Colouring is again handled competently, with no real ‘wow’ factor. We need to see more colourists in the mainstream that can really impress us. Nothing against John Kalisz you understand, I think he’s a fine colourist. However there are no moments in the book that really caught my eye or made me study the panels. What can we expect though? Until people really appreciate the so-called ‘smaller contributions’ such as colourist or letterer, can we really expect them to push the envelope, so to speak? I suppose it’s a two-way street, to be fair…

Ahem…

On the subject of lettering, Phil Balsman does a great job with the words of Frankenstein himself. The font choice is perfect, and hey – at least it isn’t ‘sand’ right?
On a slight tangent here, but can I just say how much I hate the font ‘sand’?
It is the laziest choice for a letterer. If you need a spooky or ‘krazy’ font, and you can’t be arsed looking up one that looks good, choose sand! I swear to god, in design school when we were asked to design something in a horror theme, 99% of students used sand. In conclusion I HATE SAND!

posted by Pedro Silva @ 3:35 da tarde