Comics I Bought: April 17, 2008

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got one new comic and a hard cover collection that was on sale for half off:

Rex Mundi vol 2 - 11

Daredevil by Frank Miller Companion Omnibus

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"Fragile Prophet" by Jeff Davidson and Stephen R. Buell

This book has one of the best endings I've read in a while. I thought I'd lead with that because I want you to know that I really like this graphic novel. The whole is better than the sum of the parts. That's good since some of the parts can really use work.

"Fragile Prophet" is they story of an autistic boy with "Fragile X Syndrome" (a real thing) who can predict the future. He is being raised by his older brother as they make there way in the modern world where the boy's talents lead him to performing on TV. But the book isn't any kind of social critique on the media. It's a personal tale of the boy and his older brother trying to keep each other safe and find their place in life.

The story is fairly well told but not particularly well drawn. It's the kind of book that if you pick it up and flip through it there is not much good drawing to catch your eye. There is a lot of amateur hour bad drawing. But there is good drawing too (the good drawing parts made me pick up the first book from this team, called "Video", a few years ago). The artist clearly has talent he's just not all the way there yet. It's a black and white book that has been colored in grey tones and not very well. The tones seem random at times. And don't even start me on the lettering. I cringed at some of the balloon placement choices.

You can see why I lead with a compliment because despite the comic looking, at times, like a bad black and white small press book it really is good. It makes you feel for the characters as the story unfolds and tells a story with some freshness and originality to it. And I really did like the ending a lot. Give it a try.