Battlemouth

My increasing frustration with the “Big 2″ has created within me, an urge to try and find more independent (or at least smaller) books to read. Don’t get me wrong, I love Marvel and DC, both still fill a large portion of my pull list! I just feel like it is time to move away from some of their stories and back into some of the smaller creator owned stuff that got me in to comic books in the first place! Basically this new plan has consisted of me looking on the very bottom and tippy-top rows on the wall at the LCS. So far one comic that I have found whilst searching in this manor, is one that I immediately knew I had to right about.

The Great Unknown, words and art by Duncan Rouleau, and Lettered by Francis Takenaga (Image x Man of Action Studios)
(Completely restoring my faith in His Majesty Robert Kirkman and Image Comics…doing that run with Pete Wentz and Fall Out Boy really irked me… see “Absolut SHIT”.)

Man of Action Studios is of course the creators of the popular new kids show “Ben 10″ on Cartoon Network.
I think I speak for all comic book readers when I say that, there is no greater feeling than that which the purchaser gets when he returns to his lair and takes that beautiful, mysterious new comic out of its sleeve and turns to the first page. The first set of panels can often make all the difference for me. Some things that will make me automatically want to keep reading are as follows: blood, violence, general gore, nudity, profanity, or any combination of the aforementioned. The Great Unknown has a fantastic 3 panel first page with the top featuring a large hand with its middle finger extended…. this immediately sparked my interest…and with good reason!
If you have ever taken too much aderol (yes I am talking about abusing drugs, something we here at battlemouth.com in NO way endorse…except for on weekends…) you may recognize the rant in the first few pages.
Zach Feld is a genius, you can see easily that he is a little out there, but a genius none the less. And apparently he very much enjoys informing people of his genius…and how they are utter morons. In a drunken stupor and on the verge of having his ass kicked by a group of hillbillys, Zach’s brother Zeb shows up to take his incredibly drunk brother home. This first shown bit of interaction between the two very different brothers (almost opposites it would seem) reminds me a bit of my brother and I. There are definitely several similarities between us right down to the using an old cup to get a free refill somewhere, or making up a ridiculous story in order to get some free food . After receiving a bit of a haranguing from Zeb for still living at home and not doing anything with his life, Zach reveals that tomorrow morning he is headed to the patent office to file on his newest invention that will “change the world forever!”.
And here is where the story begins.

This story only gets more intriguing from here as Zach faces the reality that life as an inventor can be more difficult than he imagined, but perhaps that’s because he was meant to be more? This arc is set to only last 5 issues, I recommend that you pick it up now before they all disappear! Duncan Rouleau does not disappoint!