Written by Josh Henaman
Art by Andy Taylor
Colors by Tamra Bonvillain
Letters by Adam Wollet
One of the things I feel indie creators do best is take some of the more well known characters or storylines, from not just comics but real life as well, and twist them into fun new tellings that push the limits of the original. Bigfoot Sword of the Earthman has to be one of the best takes on Bigfoot that I have ever seen. Bigfoot is a common lore and since I live in the Pacific Northwest there are always people around that feel the need to go searching for him/her in our woods, so I’m very familiar with the elusive giant, but what Henaman does with the legend as a character is why I love the freedom that indie creators enjoy. Imagine John Carter but instead of John Bigfoot gets swooped away to Mars. I know right, pretty awesome concept, now imagine that instead of human like people the inhabitants of Mars were all different awesome looking aliens and there are other awesome looking creatures running around eating things. Yes, that is correct, a world of aliens and killer alien creatures where Bigfoot is their hero. One of the things I really enjoy about the storytelling is the way the captions are done in the eyes of Bigfoot’s friend, it keeps the mystery of Bigfoot while providing the look into the world and situation of the two that is much needed to keep the storyline in tact. This book is creativity on a professional level and Sci-Fi at it’s finest, and this is before I even mention that art.
Bigfoot Sword of the Earthman is brought to life by Taylor in a way that is, in my opinion, new school comic book style. The way that the art is laid out, the creativity behind the characters, and the overall cartoon look are all things that I feel are part of the newer look that a lot of great artists are going with. The layout of panels and color palette is fun and the characters are all unique in their own way, even the ones that are part of a larger species group that are supposed to look alike. I feel this style is best served in a high fantasy situation like that of not only Bigfoot but of Martian’s and alien species. It’s just fun to see the different species mixed with what everyone thinks Bigfoot would look like, because in theory he could be an alien himself so placing him in the alien world is interesting to see. As I said before the color palette is mostly bright and beautiful despite being in a mostly barren Mars landscape. Bonvillian does a masterful pairing job of color to go with Taylor’s line work and I feel that without it the line work wouldn’t have been done justice. They go together like peas and carrots as it were. Of course the final piece to any art page is the lettering, without it the art is simply incomplete, and usually the story lacks when the lettering isn’t good. Luckily for us the lettering is on point, particularly when it comes to the captions. This is heavy on exposition and the captions are done really well. There is a lot of caption so the placement that Wollet shows is high level letterer status. Wollet has diversity in the caption pages that are captions of a character’s thoughts and the captions that just serve the story. Between the captions and the thought balloons Wollet nails the lettering to the wall for other letterers to use as a guide.
Bigfoot Sword of the Earthman is an Action Lab comic and I feel that this fact is important to touch on because it seems to me that Action Lab knows exactly what their doing. When I go to their website I see a ton of stuff that hits home with me, not just Bigfoot, but certainly Bigfoot is part of their seriously stunning lineup. If you go to their website and check out their other books you will see that Bigfoot is right at home with them. If you want to check out Bigfoot Sword of the Earthman you can find them in several different places; their own blogspot, Facebook, Action Lab’s website, Amazon, and Comixology. No more excuses, go give them a look!
