By Matthew Craig
thematthewcraig.com
Since I last reviewed one of Craig's comics he apparently hurt his dominant hand rather badly. He hasn't let that stop him drawing comics though, as he drew this one entirely using his left (non-dominant) hand. Holy crap!
This is pretty much just a super-hero comic. The main character fights a supervillain, and has a secret identity, a magic motorcycle, and pixie sidekicks. There's nothing particularly special about any of that, but I do enjoy reading stories where the answer to all (or at least most) of life's problems can be solved by hitting them hard enough. (I just got a stack of more than likely terrible superhero comics out of the library. Woo! You should all go use your libraries too. Some of them even have zines!)
Last time I saw him I talked to Craig about the use of violence in superhero comics, and the way that Alan Moore subverted many of those ideas in Tom Strong. So I enjoyed how one of the pixies defeated a bad guy in a non-violent way. Hurray!
I do find it weird that Craig choose to name his villian Kropotkin, because I can't read that name and not think about Pyotr Kropotkin, well known anarchist philosopher. I mean, it'd be killer if it was a giant, purple monster based upon him, but instead it's just some random scientist who robs a castle. A missed opportunity for sure.
I was impressed with Craig's art here considering how it was drawn. I think it's better than anything I could draw with my right hand! Though part of the appeal could be that there are robo-skeletons that attack Trixie. Robo-skeletons make everything better.
(This review is disjointed.)
One thing I found somewhat weird about the whole comic was the style in which it was lettered. Craig has taken the somewhat unusual route of putting all the text inside of narration boxes. So thoughts, speech, actual scene-setting narration, background information, and everything else appears in the same rectangular boxes. There are different fonts used for different characters, but its still kind of confusing. Plus one bit is in Welsh for no apparent reason.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this more than the last issue of Trixie Biker, shakey artwork or not. I am left with just one question, what the hell is a "jam butty"? Is it just a sandwich with jam in it?
(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)
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