By Comix
One thing I learned from being around the comic circuit is that no one is more expandable (and replaceable) than the creative talent. Writers, each as unique as a snowflake, are a dime a dozen; artists, limited to the writers’ words, are even more so. Unless you’re one of the lucky few that can either spin a unique take on already established characters or are allowed, by some sort of miracle and voracious drive, to create your own story, you are nothing more than a name swimming in a pool of talent and struggling to stay afloat. In Reality Check, we see a writer fighting to get to the top of his profession, at the mercy of his producers, developers, and personal demons. A hard, yet sometimes funny look at the uncompromising profession of a professional comic creator, the comic slowly delves into a bizarre story of what’s real and what’s not.
The main character, Martin, is your average, shlubby comic creator. Thick around the belly and skinny around the ankles, the comic opens up with him reflecting back upon his life as a writer in LA. His character, Hour Man, is quietly making the rounds in comic stores and between getting slapped by hot girls and hustled by his managers, he manages to eke out a decent living for himself. The readers begin to get a taste of where Martin has come from – his tragic origins, if you will – as he makes his way around town. Little does he know, though, that life is about to take a turn for the better and then quickly a turn for the worse. After pitching his character around town, he soon gets picked up by an interested party, but a computer crash destroys all his files of any upcoming work. Already weeks behind schedule and now with no work to show for it, he is suddenly visited by an unexpected guest. Someone he thought didn’t exist. Someone, who, when he last checked, was a product of his imagination – and his imagination is pissed.
Reality Check is one of those comics that could either be amazing or it could totally blow: the set-up is interesting and it keeps you guessing at the next issue, but the story plays off as a little gimmicky. I mean, a creator runs into a living version of his own creation; where’s it going to go? Is it going to be space travel? Imagination on the loose? A costumed crazy?! Who knows! It could be gory or completely benign, funny or serious. I don’t know much about the author, Glen Brunswick, either, so I can’t even guess where it might go based on his other works. I do, however, like the story of Martin himself, how the comic digs deep into his past as an influence for his work. It’s a pretty accurate representation of how the comic business works, especially in reference to a multi-media franchise, and it sheds an interesting light on how your favorite stories go from the board to the horde. The art by Viktor Bogdanovic leaves something to be desired though. I’m not sure if it’s the terrible inking or off-putting art, but the images are a bit wonky looking, with limbs and eyes splayed all over the place. The detail is nice, but the sequential part gets pretty rusty. Either way, I would label Reality Check as a ‘purchase with caution’.
Reality Check #1 will hit the stands on September 4th 2013.