Battlemouth

I think it is really great when publishers release the first issue of a new series for just a dollar. When that book ends up being good, I like it even more! Vertigo is notorious for the one dollar, first issue deal. However, I have half a long box filled with all the comics I have purchased for a dollar…many from DC/Vertigo…that have turned out to be garbage. That said, I learned to be a little cautious. A couple weeks ago Vertigo dropped a new series onto the shelves….I can assure you of this…Joe the barbarian will not be going into my shit box.

Grant Morrison (writer of the only Superman arc I will admit to reading, All Star Superman) and Artist, Sean Murphy (Shaun of the Dead, with writer and Battlemouth friend, Chris Ryall) have teamed up for this new 8 issue mini series. I have to be honest, I don’t know that anyone could read this first issue and know exactly what is going on other than it is going to be awesome and wild. Chapter One is entitled “Hypo”.

Joe seems a like a typical geeky kid. He has holes in the knees of his jeans and discheveled hair, and clearly likes to keep to himself. Though as most of us know, kids can be brutal, and Joe’s peers do not exactly leave him alone. Our first introduction to Joe, he is sitting in a car with his mother who is wearing a slightly dischevled business suit and talking on the phone. Joe draws a very detailed and quality looking scifi/fantasy typ character while his mom talks on the phone to a man about how determined she is to not lose her house. Clearly Joe’s family is not really on the up and up, at least financially. Joe’s class goes on a field trip for the day where he mostly sits and draws under a tree. He takes the school buss home, all the while being heckled by the stereotypical bullies that we all know and love.

Once home Joe climbs to his upstairs bedroom, past his shelves and shelves of toys and books and hops into bed to watch a storm roll in through the skylight above him. From there things start to get crazy. Batman, Transformers, Star Trek, Dinosaurs, Halo, Superman, Lobo….all of these highly recognizable characters might make some sort of appearance…
As for what is really going on, we are obviously going to have to wait for issue 2.

Like, Kick-ass, and so many other books in the same vein (by which I mean stories about a real kid in the real world…not a superhero), I can tell I am going to enjoy this book for the same reasons I enjoy the others like it. All comic book, video game, techie, or just plain geeky kids can relate in someway or another to a kid growing up getting picked on and mis-understood by everyone around them. All you want to do, even now, is live in a fantasy world where you are the hero, or at least some sort of gun-toting badass. Joe is obviously no different…well….maybe a little different.

My only complaint about the art is that I have trouble distinguishing what age these kids are. Granted they are riding the school bus or riding with parents, the proportions seem a little bigger than what they should be for high schoolers. Still I enjoy Murphy’s highly stylized art and colorist: Dave Stewart does a good job of setting an almost somber mood, making it a little easier to sink into the story and feel what the characters are feeling. I get the feeling this book might be a little like The Unwritten (another of my favorites) only more centered around an artist than a writer. Then again, it really could be anyone’s guess…

Issue One Joe the barbarian was one dollar…go pick it up and I dare you to not get excited for the next issue.