Redneck Comics Volume 1

[Craig Reade]

Redneck Comics Volume 1 The Sensational 7 and more

Redneck Comics - $13.55 Writer: Eric Williams and Scott Williams Art: Scott Williams Cover Art: Kris Stemmer

Review:
Written by Craig Reade

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Home-made.

That is how Scott Williams describes this book in his introduction, and I am not sure that you can really describe it any other way. But is this really a bad thing?

Redneck Comics, Volume 1 collects the first appearances of the Sensational 7 and Sewerman, two comic titles that appear on the Williams Bros’ homepage – Redneckcomics.8m.com. There are four stories contained in this collection, 2 for each title. Each of them are quite silly, and very much parodies of a lot of the themes and conventions you still find in comics today.

In The Sensational 7, seven unlucky astronauts travel to space in a ship made of cardboard, only to be dramatically altered by the dangerous cosmic rays. The group decides to use their powers for “good and fun,” and assemble to protect the world when they are needed. In this story they are called to Monster Island, where they must confront the menace and impeccably flawed logic of the evil Dog Man. In The Sensational 7 Rides Again, the team, fresh from their latest adventure, crash-land on a planet where they are asked by the Peithians to protect their world from the evil, planet devouring Galaxy Fish.

In Night of the Hunter, Sewerman, beginning the quest to fulfill his “destiny,” travels to the surface from the sewers at the behest of his master, Rodent, to protect the innocent from the criminal elements in the city. Sewerman eventually faces the Raging Skinhead, chief of the Grouts, and asks him to deliver a very violent message to his master, the evil Mr. Nazzi, that he will be keeping an eye on him. In Trapped!, Sewerman faces off against Blastin’ Brando, and the NEW Raging Skinhead.

I’d love to go into a little more detail about the plots in each of these stories, but I really don’t feel I can without spoiling some of the humor of it. Anyone who is looking for a deep, serious indie-comic story, that isn’t what you have in store for you here. This is a humor-filled book full of a lot of pot shots at comic and pop-culture convention, and really little else. While there is some degree of actual ongoing story in the Sewerman tales, for the most part, these can be read on their own merits, and still maintain some humor.

Sensational 7 is quite clearly something of a Fantastic Four rip-off/parody group, Their origin is the same, their villains are so far similar (I am sure you won’t have to think too hard to figure out who Dog-Man and the Galaxy Fish are supposed to be similar to), but the team itself is fairly different. Oh, sure, Imaginary Girl is fairly close to Sue Richards, but the direction the Williams’s take her is completely different. Sewerman is clearly a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles homage of sorts – while not outright spoofing it, they do take their shots at the title. But the fact that Sewerman has a more serious story elements actually elevates it from parody to homage in my eyes. But maybe that is just me.

The puns? Oh, there are plenty. From the disposable nature of some heroes, to in-conceived comic book romances, characters returning from the dead, the overt sexual objectification of women, and more – almost every page pokes fun at some aspect of popular culture. And it is an enjoyable read.

Ah, now to the weak point of this book – the art. But I don’t think it is really a surprise to anyone, the creators included, that the art wasn't anything spectacular. Technically, it is pretty rough. The panel layout is, at times, a little tough to follow, and it is hard to decipher, occasionally, what exactly was happening on the page. The scene with Blastin’ Brando was especially indicative of this – I had to read those pages a few times to figure out exactly how he has defeated. (He was an awesome character nonetheless!). The grayscales in the print version are problematic – these were originally published online in color, and the conversion to black and white muddied some of the panels, making them slightly too dark to read. This problem improved as the issue went on, so it is clear they got a handle on it as the issue progressed.

No matter what you say about the art, it does have a particular feel to it. As I said before – they say up-front that it is “home-made,” and they aren’t kidding. But what does come out pretty clearly, because of the art in particular, and the silly nature of the characters is that this really is a labor of love. It makes it really easy to overlook the little flaws because of this – it isn’t a polished professional work, and they aren’t claiming it is. It does have a home-made feel to it – it isn’t fake, commercialized, nor is it that fake “edgy-cool” that I hate so much. Suffice to say that I didn’t mind plunking down the $13.55 (plus shipping) to get a copy of this.

Essentially, what you have there is a pair of guys who loved comics, and decided to make some of their own. It is really easy to see whether or not this is the kind of thing you would enjoy – head on over to the website, Redneckcomics.8m.com, and take a look at the back issues section. While the particular issues available in this collection are no longer online, there are seven other Journey into the Sewer issues available now for free. Don’t wait too long, though – soon Volume 1 will leaving, making way for the upcoming Volume 2. So get it while you can.

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Rating(out of 5):

[Scott Williams]

What else can I say? You heard the man!

Craig, excellent review. Maybe I just love having my stuff written up. And maybe the badness of the art makes it so that people are more inclined to compliment the story, lol.

Seriously though, if you even marginally enjoyed this one - and it's clear that you did - you'll go bananas for Volume 2. Okay, so you can read it online at our site for now, but only until everybody gets a copy of Volume 1, and then it's time. Volume 2 is where the story really embarks out on its own and we begin to do some of our best work.

No buy the friggin' book kids!
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Keep on Rockin'
Scott Williams
Writer of Redneck Comics
http://redneckcomics.8m.com
http://cafepress.com/redneckcomics/

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