In this week’s Off the Cape, I take a look at Four Eyes from Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara. This book from Image Comics has been oft delayed but has earned critical acclaim thanks to Kelly’s standard (exceptional) work, Fiumara’s dazzling art, and a concept that is easy-to-love: a family (both in terms of nuclear and mafia) drama set in Depression Era America, except in this reality dragons exist and battle for sport. It’s quite unlike anything you’ll find on the stands today, and with the first trade just recently coming out for only $9.99, now is the time to hop on board.
Check out my take on Four Eyes after the jump.
Four Eyes is a very interesting book, and one of the most intriguing ideas to me I’ve read in a long time. It takes place during the Great Depression era New York, a time and a place where people fought for meager scraps and the worst jobs for the worst pay were beloved. Except it also takes place in a world where actually existed and are used to battle each other for sport and gambling purposes (although the creatures would prefer to be left to their own devices).
Enrico is a young boy with a loving family and a noble father who would do anything for his family. Anything…including collecting dragon eggs and young dragons for local mobster Mr. Boccioni. When that gets him killed it starts Enrico on a quest to become the provider of the house by practicing in the trade of his father.
To me, Joe Kelly is the gold standard of comic writing, and his series Four Eyes is a perfect demonstration as to why that is true: a truly original concept, fleshed out characters, emotional resonance, and powerful moments throughout. The one thing that it lacks from the standard Kelly repetoire is humor, but that just doesn’t have a place in this book and during the Depression.
One of the most impressive things that Kelly does in this book though is his creation of a real atmosphere to this world. This is an exercise in world creation, as you feel that you are actually placed into the time of the Depression. Kelly develops the city as a character unto itself, with desperation a primary attribute and the whole of it feeling battered down but perpetually hopeful.
Enrico is an extension of the city, a young fatherless boy looking to provide for his mother any way he can, and he quickly becomes one of my favorite protagonists in recent memory. His cunning nature juxtaposes greatly with his innocence and nobility, and the way that Kelly furthers those latter traits by using Enrico’s dreams of his father is incredible and touching. I love the way that Enrico doesn’t back down from anyone, but is also such a deeply caring person.
The rest of the cast is strong as well. Enrico’s father is the prototype – the pattern all fathers have been cut from – with his bravery, selflessness, and intelligence. His mother is put upon and occasionally unsupportive, but in a way that is completely understandable. Dragon trainer Fawkes is a hardcase but one that has an underlying sentimental side, and the way he acts as a mentor and father figure for Enrico later in the book makes him a personal favorite. Lastly, Boccioni, the de facto villain, is a pitch perfect example of the idyllic mobster: intensely cool and a sharp provider, but cold, callous and calculated when he wants to be.
Kelly delivers moments to Max Fiumara’s pencils that could challenge the best of artists, but Fiumara excels throughout. There is one moment towards the end of the book, a two page horizontal splash page that is spellbinding and intoxicating: it’s of the connection that is made between the endangered Enrico and the recently born Four Eyes, and it actually made my jaw drop. To team Image, Kelly and Fiumara: if you sell a print of that, I honestly would buy and frame that.
Fiumara is invaluable as well to developing Kelly’s atmosphere, as his visual representation of New York circa 1934 is uncanny. From his character design to their wardrobe, from the buildings to the dragons that are elaborate and unique in every example, Fiumara is a phenom with his level of detail and design. He’s also incredibly able to make emotional moments more resonant and intense and gruesome moments even more so.
I don’t know if you caught this yet, but I really enjoyed Four Eyes. While it’s only four issues in and god only knows when we’ll get more, it’s the type of series that makes me amazed and awed by the power of comics. The creative power from Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara on these pages astounds me, and I for one cannot wait for more.
