Battlemouth

There have been many tales throughout time, of creatures that guard the gates of hell from gods “sea monkey farm” that is Earth.. “The Anchor” is the latest tale of divine strength and the struggle against evil.

Boom Studios (one of my new favorite publishers) has teamed with industry renaissance man, Phil Hester, and artist Brian Churilla. Churilla has contributed to the critically acclaimed Dark Horse series “Rex Mundi” (soon to be a major motion picture), the Harvey Award-winning anthology “Popgun”, “Dark Horse Presents”, “Creepy”, “We Kill Monsters”, and is now penciling this new story with Boom!. Hester’s long and illustrious career has had too many highlights to list without making me feel more inadequate than I care to right now. Suffice to say, the guy is a legend and has written, penciled, inked, colored, and been involved in creating more titles than most people have read. The beautiful colors of The Anchor are thanks to Matthew Wilson who is one hell of a talented guy. Mr. Wilson has also done some great work on a few other Boom! titles, in addition to working with Dark Horse, Image, and now Marvel on the upcoming S.W.O.R.D. #1. I tend to forget the colorists a lot when I talk comics but this time they really popped to me, so I wanted to be sure to mention Matthew’s important contributions to this series.

“The Anchor” starts off in Hell where we meet the proverbial, immovable object, that is the “Almighty’s” anchor. A truly thought provoking concept, this massive creature was thrown into Hell (according to Hester) by god to “Tether one fragment of the divine to Hell itself.” thus the moniker “The Anchor”.
While the first couple of pages introduce us to The Anchor through the eyes of a demon general as he prepares yet another charge against his single nemesis, the majority of the book focuses on the happenings here on our plane of existence. What can best be described as “Titans” like those of Greek Mythology have been released on Earth to destroy and subvert, all that can stand in their way is The Anchor, or “Clem”, as his new companion, Hoffi Eriksdotter has nicknamed him (for the Anchor like Cross he wears on his belt, the symbol of Saint Clementine). While the creature in Hell is seemingly unstoppable, as it is the soul of “The Anchor”, “Clem” is only the physical manifestation of this being. Each time the soul is wounded or struck in Hell, evidence of the attack manifests on Clem, which leads to a rather comical panel in which a large gouge suddenly appears across Clems chest spraying blood into the face Hoffi. Clem seems to feel pain, but insists he does not care, and his super human strength and agility don’t seem to help the fact that he is clearly confused and disoriented. Can The Anchor get it together to cary out his purpose and save the world from the demons unleashed upon it? I recommend you head out to your Local Comic Book Shop and pick up issue #1 and find out!

Phil Hester has clearly created yet another fantastic story that you won’t want to miss out on!