- From Nonplayer #1. Click to enlarge.
Image Comics has just put out a couple of comics that you should know about. One of them is strictly for fans of superhero comics, but the other one is really something special.
We’ll start with the familiar: Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker #1, by Joe Casey and Mike Huddleston (find a preview here) is a decidedly NSFW tribute to the comics and movies of the 1970s by a writer who has been responsible for some of the craziest mainstream comics of the last decade. It’s a simple—too simple, really—concept: A retired superhero gets called out of retirement for one last job. Along the way, there’s sex and violence and Smokey and the Bandit shout-outs and the usual tweaking of all the tired superhero tropes. To be honest, this formula has been lovingly sent up too many times; I’m getting tired of reading my generation’s irreverent takes on the Fantastic Four or Superman or any of the other half-dozen profitable intellectual properties from Marvel and DC. The thing that makes Butcher Baker worthwhile as a three-buck distraction is its complete dedication to profanity. There won’t be a cleaned-up movie version of this one, so you may as well follow it as it comes out at the comics shop for a cheap slap-and-tickle jolt to the brain-pan.
But the real beauty, and the best new series I’ve read in ages, is Nate Simpson’s Nonplayer #1 (find a preview here). This works the way first issues of comics used to work: The art pulls you into the comic and keeps you interested long enough for the story to kick in. By the end of the first issue, you have a good sense of the world you’re entering (it involves MMORPGs, future technology, and identity politics) and you’ve been surprised a few times along the way.
This is a winning combination of gorgeous comic book art—Simpson’s art resembles the ornate linework of a Geoff Darrow or a Frank Quitely, though hopefully he’ll do a better job of meeting his deadlines than either of those two—and a feeling that you’re discovering something new. Nonplayer skips the superhero tropes entirely. Simpson’s exploring science fiction and fantasy with a European sensibility, and it’s been so long since American comics have bothered with pure SF that it feels completely fresh all over again. Nonplayer has been selling out at comics stores across the country, so let’s hope Image gets a reprinting of the issue off the presses in time for Free Comic Book Day.
Hey Paul, according to Brett at Arcane in Ballard, Nate is local and works out of a studio in the Ballard area. You should totally do an interview.
It’s hard for me to decide which intrigues me more. I don’t like to purchase comics until they’re repackaged as a “graphic novel” however, so I’ll be eagerly waiting for each to get that treatment.
Nonplayer blew me out of the water. Seriously one of the best comics in ages.
Super hero comics are boring. Non Player is as close to a French comic in quality, scope and heart as any main stream comic has come to for some time. Kudos to Image for picking up this fine work. Kudos to Simpson for reintroducing American audiences to great sequential story telling. I hope this opens the door to more like it.