Written and Illustrated by Paul Grist
A BRAND-NEW SUPERHERO COMIC BY PAUL GRIST!
It’s the first day back at school for Owen Craig, and it’s not going too well. He’s been run over, got detention, and his police officer father has been taken prisoner by armed bank robbers.
And now his body seems to be turning into mud?
Mudman #1 begins with a note from writer/artist Paul Grist, explaining to the reader just how much he loves comics. He talks of his love for the serial nature of the storytelling, the joy of re-reading single issues in anticipation for the next installment, and his mild frustration at the predominance of the collected edition as the preferred format. Reading it, it is hard to not nod your head and agree with a lot of what he is saying, and to get excited to tear into what awaits you on the next page. If the purpose of the note was to excite you for the comic, it did its job admirably.
However, if the purpose was to tell you how much he loves comics, the note was unnecessary; the first issue of Mudman is as strong a treatise on how much Grist loves comics as any note could ever be. Keep reading after the cut for why this deserves a spot in your pull list this week.
The story begins with two boys, Owen Craig and Jack Newton, vandalizing an old “Scooby Doo” house. From the end of this encounter through the end of this issue, time becomes elastic, and we jump back and forth through Owen’s point of view over a 24 hour period. Because Owen himself is unsure what has happened to him, we are taken on the same journey of having to put the pieces together, and right now, the puzzle isn’t revealing a full picture just yet. However, the shape is there, and I’m sure the picture will get filled in sooner rather than later.
This is the way a #1 issue should read: there is mystery, intrigue, an origin, well developed characters and striking artwork. And most importantly, this is a comic, through and through. The layouts aren’t storyboards for easy adaptation; characters exist against detailed backgrounds or, sometimes, simply on white. This comic feels classic without being retro, and sets up a story that I am anxious to dig into.
Part of that retro feel is that so many of the staples of modern day comics simply aren’t here — there isn’t a ton of violence, there is the start of a romance (but no hint of sex), and there isn’t so much metadata that you can barely come up for air. The story is rooted in friendship, family, and the allure of the unknown; this is as new reader friendly as any book on the market right now.
And yet, for established comic fans, there is a lot to like here. The storytelling is sophisticated without being confusing, and Grist does a great job of world building here. Grist’s art lives up to the high standard of his past work and continues to build his reputation as one of the most brilliant layout artists working today. There are numerous pages where I found myself staring at the page as a whole instead of focusing on the actual action, because I was just so taken by the way the story was being laid out in front of me. The design of the Mudman costume is a thing of beauty; it is simple, classic and familiar, without borrowing too much from one specific pre-existing hero.
The costume is on display prominently on the cover, which is easily my favorite cover of the month and on the short list for best cover of the year. It is elegant and creative, and sets up the story from the very start. The coloring by Bill Crabtree, both on the cover and in the interiors, fills out the book with earthy tones that supplement the story without being over the top about it; there are a lot of browns in this issue, but the color palette fits the story and never feels excessive.
One of the nice surprises in the book is that Grist is going to provide “B-Sides” at the end of each issue: character sketches, “deleted scenes and director’s commentary” and more will be included in the individual issues, and not just in the collected editions. I have been critical in the past of these sort of things, but when you get a fully formed story with an extra page or two of additional content, that is very different than a comic solicited and priced as being oversized, and there is no additional story. This isn’t the case here, and I look forward to getting into the creative process of the book through these pages.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy
