Earthling #2 Review

Creator and Writer Dave Brink
Artist Part 1 and 3 Jim Jimenez
Artist Part 2 Bien Flores
Colorist Part 1 and 3 Jeremy Scott Browning
Colorist Part 2 Gaz Gretsky
Letterer HdE
Artists European Cover Bien Flores and Jesse Heagy

I’ve been really lucky this week with my reviews, passion has been the theme, and Earthling doesn’t lack in anyway. Earthling creator and writer Dave Brink is probably one of the most passionate people I have ever seen in the comic book world, he has used this platform to bring attention to an issue that is close to his heart, he does it in a way that is somewhat conforming to comic book format, and he does it while not compromising his convictions one bit.

Dave’s writing style is a satisfying mix of dialog that addresses veganism and visual superhero style comic writing. What I mean by superhero style writing is the way the heroes are portrayed, flying, fighting, and doing superhero things. Earthling’s appearance in his superhero form is fairly brief but the panels he is in are dominating and wonderfully written and drawn. Brink’s strongest writing area is in the dialog, he gives his Vegan Warrior’s passion that is conveyed through dialog and in some cases body language in the characters. Because Earthling is about veganism and is heavy in message I fear that Brink’s character development and character profile’s may not be appreciated as much as they should. Earthling and Lovechild from issue one, the Flying Dutchmen and White Knight from issue two, are excellent characters and I enjoy them thoroughly they bring a different look into the thought process of superheros and add a real life twist in the fact that their not all like minded. The real life difference between Earthling and White Knight’s point of view is an exemplary piece of writing. Brink also nails his villains with an exuberance that is menacing and leaves me on the edge of my seat waiting for more. Seriously, Edgar from issue one to the new villain Detritus that is teased at the end of issue two have seriously creepy looks and feels that make them perfect villains, and that isn’t even mentioning the mysterious villain that is teased in a quick couple pages of issue two.

One thing I have noticed with many comic book writers is that they seem to know what sort of style they reach for and they almost always seem to find like minded artists that fit with their ideas. Brink has one constant artist in Flores but both issue one and two have multiple artists in different parts. For my taste issue two has a bit of an edge over issue one, Flores and Jimenez have similar styles that look great together; I can hardly tell the difference between them from part to part and they both do the characters justice. Flores and Jimenez are honest in their portrayals of both villain and hero and because their styles look similar I don’t feel the break from parts one to three like I did in issue one’s breaks in parts. These artists are great together and I feel that maybe the fact that the colorists Gretzky and Browning are on their second run together does the art justice. Even between two colorists the colors are consistent and in some instances they pop right off the page. The color consistency is a real comfort and I feel like Gretzky and Browning need to know that their abilities to stay in sync with each other is nothing to take lightly and has helped to make this book really stand out.

Lastly I need to make sure that an unsung hero gets his due. In my way of thinking there are two distinct letterers on the top of the indie world, HdE is one of them. HdE is a master of his craft and everything he does is done professionally; he makes captions, and dialog boxes pop with such a subtle but magnified way that it almost seems like part of the art, not just lettering. HdE puts unique balloons where needed and different fonts for crazy voiced villains or large lettering for screaming where needed and he really helps to set the tone of the characters. Lettering can be an unsung art but as long as HdE is on a project I will always give him his due respect. As I said I feel there are two people that are truly lettering masters and HdE is in the running for best, period.