By: Charles Soule (writer), Renzo Podesta (art), Shawn DePasquale (letters) & Kristen Simon (editor)
The Story: Having regained (briefly) the use of his hand via a demonic ceremony performed by a nude mad scientist, a guitarist tries to figure out what has happened to him.
What’s Good: The weirdness just keeps rolling for this title. I tend to get almost everything new that Image puts out, but I honestly had a few reservations about this title when pre-ordering it because it seemed like it might be about music and bands. There are people who are into bands and live music, but that isn’t me. So, I was gleefully surprised with the first issue of 27. There was no angst, no heroin addicted girlfriend, no struggles to pay the rent and book the next gig (BORING), it just ripped into a scene were a mad scientist is sacrificing cats to give a guitarist his hands back. I LOVE that kind of weirdness because it leaves you no idea what will happen next. For a new(er) comic writer, Charles Soule is having no trouble figuring out how to pace a comic book. He’s a really talented writer.
I don’t want to spoil too much (this being an advance review), but the story moves forward on several fronts. For one thing, Garland gets more information about what supernatural thing may have happened to him and how the magic works. The concept plays completely on numerology and is very neat. It also illustrates some of my words to live by: Don’t EVER just start randomly pushing buttons!!! We also see Garland try to get some professional help (from an unusual source) and reconnect with his old manager. Surprise! She’s an attractive woman.
Oh yeah…There is another complete “WTF?” moment in the middle of this issue that involves a dead pigeon and a parking deck.
Podesta’s art is again very strong. If you want further proof of how many good artists there are in comics, look no further than this guy who I’d never heard of before doing a GREAT job on this issue. His style is very basic and sketch-like, but it amazes me how much emotion comes out of a somewhat roughly drawn character as he uses a cartooning style that really fits the supernatural tone of this story. Not being an artist myself, I struggle for ways to describe art sometimes, but (for me) the key to connecting with art is whether is looks alive or not. You (as comic fans) know what I mean. Some art comes off as cold/dead. Podesta’s art looks like it wants to wiggle off the page. He also gets a lot more adventurous with his panel layouts in this issue.
What’s Not So Good: I wouldn’t call any of these “bad” things. Maybe we’ll just say “less good”. 🙂 Soule has a lot of story threads running in this issue and as you can imagine, some are better than others. I happened to like the weird/wacky/supernatural part and didn’t enjoy as much the part where the cops showed up. But, your mileage may vary and perhaps this variety of threads means there is something for everyone.
I would also love to see Podesta continue to experiment with style because he’s got the basics nailed. He does get a lot more adventurous with panel design in this issue, but there were a few panels that I thought he could have gotten rid of the panel border and let a scene breathe a little more. And with such a psychedelic book, I don’t think every panel needs to be a rectangle.
The only meaningful “bad” thing would be if you were all fired up for a comic book about musicians. Like I said above, no melodrama here (or drummers aspirating on their own vomit).
Conclusion: Another great issue. Be sure to pick it up when you head to the shop on Wednesday or get them to fetch you a copy. I’d also say this issue was worth tracking down on eBay and paying a few extra bucks for the shipping. This comic has a neat element of fun weirdness that we don’t see everyday.
Grade: A-
-Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion