RUNOFF
nos.1-3
Writer/Artist: Tom Manning
Robots & Monkeys Publishing
God bless the Alternative Press Expo (APE). Thanks to the showcase that provides we're seeing more exciting work from people who, it turns out, have been plugging away - sometimes for years - in relative obscurity. Knowing how small our universe of comics readers is even at its extreme these days, "obscurity" remains a very relative term, but at least the word's getting out.
There's are mysteries in the mountain woodlands of Washington state. More specifically, in the town of Range. A dying timber town in a sort of an island in the White River, with the north third of the island being an Indian reservation.
Ghosts, and an even more bizarre, smile-faced apparition. Several deaths in the woods, seemingly by wolves, though there's a strange corpse among the locals. On top of it all, there's some weird magic at work. All of this is playing out against the politics and personalities of a strange little town.
I don't want to give away specifics, as
the first two issues set things up, so I'll stick to notes on style.
At first glance the artwork and the hand lettering seemed more an impediment than an aid, but then I sat down and read it... and it flowed. In that it reminded me of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell. Manning plays around with styles, sometimes telling short sections of it in a Berke Breathed Bloom County strip style. Strangely enough, these touches work, too.
While the growing mysteries - and surely they must all be related - keep the reader interested, many of the characters do, too. It's a quirky little town with quirky people who could pull in and keep readers on their own. I can conceive of some readers who might almost find the paranormal aspects to be a distraction. Fortunately, so far there's enough to satisfy readers with an interest in each of these aspects.
I spotted these issues in my order form a couple months back - Diamond had just picked them up and was offering a packaged set of #'s 1 & 2 while also soliciting #3. The description was intriguing and the price was right (no.1 was $1, 2 was $1.50 and 3 was $2.00 -- I hope this isn't a trend) so I ordered all three. I'm glad I did. Now I'm just waiting to buy #4.
This is described as a limited series, but how many issues it'll be isn't clear. I suspect the author hasn't decided, and that's fine with me so long as he knows where the story's headed. So far the only part that fell as dead flat on the floor as Mort Carver (you'll have to read the series to know - he's one of the more extreme characters) did after singing it was the Pirate Dance, from near the end of issue #2. Maybe it's just me, but it may as well have been two blank pages. A sudden shift for a few pages to a landscape format in issue #3 wasn't much of a treat, either, but that's a minor quibble.
The dimensions of thse black and white (including the covers) comics are odd, maybe an eighth of an inch taller than a DC comic and roughly an inch and a quarter wider. Sure, it's no big deal for me, but some people get uncomfortable when faced with comics that won't fit in standard comics bags or boxes. Yeah, I know; 99% of you, forget I mentioned it.
The publishing frequency for this - at least what he's aiming for - is quarterly. The author says that #5 is in progress (a move to the East Coast has thrown his schedule into a spin), and #4 should be solicited by Diamond in April. Something to look forward to.
Some info can be found at Robots and Monkeys Publishing, and though you'll see the link for it there if you scroll down far enough, here's a more direct route to a cool Tom Manning interview done by Sequential Tart that provides some interesting background on both the series and the author.
Comments? Drop me a line or post something for all to see on the messageboard.
---Mike Norton