Wednesday, June 15, 2005

This Comic Will Be Good - The Black Diamond

So I was reading The Black Diamond: On-Ramp comic, and if it is a true indication of how The Black Diamond will be (and there is no reason why it will not, as it is by the same writer and artist), then The Black Diamond will be a good comic.

Written by Larry Young and drawn by Jon Proctor (in "Comicscope"), this offering from AIT/Planet Lar is one of those "high concept" comics (like 30 Days of Night and Living in Infamy).

The conceit is that fifty years from now there is this cross-country elevated highway that the government has basically said to the people of the nation that this highway is "do what you want" to cut the undesirable elements from the rest of the nation.

Which works fine enough, except for when one normal man has to get from San Francisco to Baltimore - fast.

I like the concept, although I do think that the elevated part is a bit sketchy. Young makes good use of the side effect of having an elevated highway, which is that every once in awhile, a car will speed off the highway and kill someone, but said side effect is SO apparent that I just don't see it being implemented.

However, once you buy into the fact that it WAS somehow passed into being, the highway is a neat idea.

Proctor has extremely gritty art, which works well for this gritty world.

There is some plot established in the first issue, but really, while it is all fine enough, the real plot will take place in the official series.

From the looks of this issue, it should be good.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

However, once you buy into the fact that it WAS somehow passed into being, the highway is a neat idea.

Heck, the U.S. Government does all kinds of crazy stuff like the war in Iraq, for instance. An elevated, cross-country expressway where anything goes seems perfectly reasonable by comparison. ;)

I haven't yet received my copy of this, but I'm looking forward to it. It reminded me a lot of the story I read in Al Williamson Adventures written by Harlan Ellison about a future time when cars come with rocket launchers and the like and you can challenge other motorists to duels. It was the best story in that book and I long for that time to finally arrive.

6/16/2005 07:25:00 AM  
Blogger Guy LeCharles Gonzalez said...

I'm sure I'll be in the minority on this one - in the Bizarro World the comics blogiverse often is, at least - but this comic did nothing for me beyond annoying me that I paid $2.95 for it. It's a marketing piece that does little more than tease the concept with little attention paid to the actual plot or the characters involved. While the extras fill that hole, the story itself doesn't, and I don't buy comics for the extras. And Proctor's art is just ugly. Not gritty; ugly.

6/18/2005 01:23:00 AM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

I think, Guy, that it is perfectly reasonable to dislike Proctor's art because you think it is ugly.

I would certainly agree that he is an acquired taste.

6/18/2005 02:25:00 AM  

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