Big Bob Suggests: Faithless

Big Bob Suggests: Faithless

Jim Vargas is the writer and illustrator of a clever little comic called Faithless. The book was originally published thanks to Vargas' hard work and the hard earned money of everyone who pledged to the Faithless Kickstarter. The premier issue is 40 pages long and begins the story of how Alish Karr

destroyed the world. Now, before you star thinking Alish Karr is the bad guy, I will have you know that she's part angel, part demon, part machine, and all woman. She's also the main character and finds herself in tight spots which is usually when her “power fluxes” kick in. Those “power fluxes” are full of raw destructive force that transforms her and leaves her powerless to an entity that bends her to its will.

When I first heard of Faithless, I didn't much have an opinion about it, but when the big cheese here at CROTCube, Eblison Grun, tossed this little gift in front of me to review, I was like a kid at Christmas all over again. Vargas has a very clever story going on here. His characters are interesting and complicated (the best kind), and the universe he's created for this story is one that he can use again and again for other properties, down the road. While using geography reminiscent of locations in the bible,

Jim Vargas puts us in New Jericho City, a place set either in the present or a not very distant future. But nonetheless, a world not like the one we know. Middle Eastern architecture and clothing are everywhere, but so are characters with cybernetic parts, motorcycles, rotary phones, and filtered cigarettes. These are the elements that have me interested in reading more of this book. The story is unique and readers will get the idea that the writer knows the people and places he writes about. It's obvious to all of us that he's been creating this universe for a long long time.

The art in Faithless is the part I'm not real wild about. Not that it ruins my reading experience. In fact, it's beautifully colored, well rendered, and always filled with action. But there are pages that feel flat and less than 3-Dimensional. Looking back on it, I think that it has to do with the lack of shading in areas it might have been helpful. Regardless of my distaste for some of the art in this comic, Vargas is a talented illustrator who has drawing his main character (Alish Karr) down to a science.

The first issue of Faithless cuts us off with a cliff-hanger. We know the destruction of everything around her is about to happen and we have an idea how it's going to happen. And because she told us she's the one who did it, we want to be there for issue #2 to see it all go down.

This is Big Bob, signing off, saying “See ya Outside The Cube!”