Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker
Writer: Tom DeLonge and Ben Kull
Art: Djet
Magnetic Press
I will admit I do not keep up on all the latest in the world of comics. At 55 I have a few too many hobbies to put such focus into one.
So I will admit Poet Anderson was not one I was aware existed.
Nor was I aware it was based on the award-winning animated short film, and inspired by the Angels & Airwaves album The Dream Walker by multi-platinum recording artist Tom DeLonge, co-founder and front man of the world-famous punk-pop band Blink-182.
I’m not sure I’ve even heard a Blink-182 song, let alone a full disk. So I went into issue #1 of this short series with zero expectations, past the fact writing a story based on the idea of a dreamscape and nightmares offers such immense range of where a story might go I was intrigued.
The artwork by animation sensation Djet is bang-on for the theme. It captures the theme of a dreamscape superbly.
The issue is the start of young Jonas Anderson’s first foray into the Dream World. This issue only lays a very basic framework, a peek at the world, or the bad guy, but you know Jonas will play a much more significant role as the story develops.
It is of course the Dream World which readers will be captivated by the most. It is a landscape as large as the writer’s imagination, and the hook is being along on the expedition to see how vivid, wild and expansive that imagination is.
I know I am booked in for the ride.
Roche Limit Vol #1 (Anomalous)
Written by Michael Moreci
Art by Vic Malhotra
Image Comics
There are some stories which don’t fit the comic book format all that well.
Roche Limit is one story I would fit into that category.
Writer Michael Moreci is putting forward some rather unusual science, and while you can sell alternate science in a novel because you have more story to define it, here it comes off as just a bit confusing, and therefore a bit ‘off-putting’.
Moreci also delves into a philosophical tale, one laden with the age old debate about ‘the soul’ and what that exactly is, and where it might come from, or go to.
Again in a novel, paced over 300-plus pages he might make it work.
In a comic book it again seems too much.
As a result the book at times gets text-happy and frankly drags into boredom.
Then there is the main story line, a sister seeking her missing sister, aided by the missing gal’s drug-making boyfriend.
Mix in a few crime bosses, one a religious fanatic of a sort on the side, and you get an oft-told story, which isn’t made fresher by the bigger ideas Moreci puts forward.
Vic Malhotra contributes solid enough art, but it lacks the ‘wow-factor’ to raise Roche Limit Vol #1 about the average at best level.
If you are a diehard lover of space sci-fi, this one might be worth a look, otherwise, you can do better.
