Weird Work #1 // Review
Vimmy Vinders is a pig-headed politician. Literally. He’s there in his limo on the Mother Pass in Stellar City when they come for him: the mob. They shoot up his limo, killing everyone...but not Vimmy. He’s a little too lucky for that. Shoots his way out of the limo and rockets his way out of there. Things are heating up in Weird Work #1. Writer Jordan Thomas starts a new dystopia with the aid of artist Shaky Kane. The narrative voice is nearly as thick as the artwork. It’s brutal. It’s ugly. The comic book rack welcomes new futuristic darkness in mid-summer.
The criminal in charge of the attempted hit was none other than Stellar City’s first lady of crime: Elibeth Haste AKA Bloody Beth AKA Lady Haste. As the issue opens, the heat is coming in for her. SCPD’s finest are en route, looking to bring justice to the one responsible for trying to prematurely end a budding political career. It would have to be some of the best: Lady Haste’s fortress is floating above the city. It’s defended by some very mean-looking people. Who would have the guts to try to haul in Bloody Beth? More importantly...who is going to take over Stellar City’s organized crime with her out of the picture?
Thomas packs the story with a narrative voice that’s thick enough to be bulletproof. The problem is that the story he’s delivering isn’t really anything new. It’s just semi-poetic hardboiled detective fiction set in a weird future world with lots of weird-looking characters. It’s nothing new. Judge Dredd has been exploring this type of thing for decades. Lines of inspiration can be drawn all the way back to Mort Walker’s Dick Tracy. It doesn’t feel new, but it DOES manage more than a bit of fun here and there...at least in the first issue, anyway.
Kane’s art splashes everything into the foreground. There’s no sense of depth to it. A claustrophobic city full of weird and vaguely familiar faces has an immediacy that all pops together on the surface. This would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that Stellar City is crammed with so many different humanoids of so many different kinds. It’s all kind of a weirdly garish wash that never really settles down into anything intelligible. There IS a bit of visual depth here and there, but it largely only calls attention to how flat the rest of it is.
As awkward, crude, and ugly as the art is, it DOES make an impressive impact on the page. Kane’s style is distinct. Anyone looking at Weird Work from across the room would know that it’s done by Kane. There’s power in the uniqueness that’s undeniable. There’s a definite appeal to the series once a reader’s eyes get used to it, but with the story being as familiar as it is, there isn’t a whole lot of incentive for the reader to get acquainted with Kane’s art.
