Chapel #1
(Bleeding Ink Comics)
writer- Jesse Grillo
artist- David Brame
This new book by Jesse Grillo and David
Brame is independent science fiction at it's gritty best. Full of
action and intensity with a futuristic noir theme, Chapel makes me
think of Bladerunner meets The Punisher. The main character isn't a
hero, in fact, he's even dirtier than an anti-hero. He's a hard
boiled bot killing cop named Chapel and he has a chip on his
shoulder.
David Brame's art work is exciting.
Each panel is filled with quick violent movement and a starkness
that's often captured in the best Japanese Manga, such as Fist of The
Northstar by illustrator Tetsuo Hara. Brame has an unapologetic
approach to this future world, where sexdroids and independent AI
have rights. He exercises amazing perspective in panels where
Chapel's gun is thrust right into the reader's face and explosions
almost jump right off the page. There were a couple of times where
my eyes needed to adjust in order to understand what they were
seeing, but all in all, David Brame's art is perfect for this type of
story. He keeps it black and white for that neo-noir feel and he
keeps the tension on high. And I'll tell you that part of the reason
readers can't get comfortable in this book's universe, is that David
Brame likes it that way. It's how he draws it.
Now on to Jesse Grillo's writing.
Grillo is a damn good writer. He does his research and he gets his
hands dirty when coming up with his stories. At this point, he's
writing every book under the Bleeding Ink banner, and to my knowledge
he's not a superhuman. So how does he do it?! When I first saw
Bleeding Ink, I thought, “Ok, here's a kid who's trying to get his
line of comics printed. He has various artists working on his books,
but he's doing all the writing. He's either going to burn out, or
his books aren’t going to turn out nearly as well as he'd like them
to.” What I discovered knocked me on my butt. Not only did he
find great artists, but he came up with great concepts and the
writing is incredible. After reading issues of all of Bleeding Ink's
titles (all different genres), I was shocked that it's so easy for
Jesse Grillo to hold it together. I was shocked that he is able to
keep all of his characters interesting and coherent and lifelike, and
that the script writing is so smooth. Grillo knows what he's doing.
He knows the back story and the ins and outs of the character,
Chapel. He gives us hints, and I'm sure he'll give us more down the
road, but he never gives us too much. Something I like about the way
he writes Chapel is that it seems like he despises the character. He
loves writing him, but he hates the man that Chapel is. It's obvious
that Chapel is the way he is because of some past we're not aware of,
but that doesn’t excuse the violence this man inflicts. The writer
puts the character in an impossible situation, allows him to overcome
the situation (barely), and then punishes him in the worst possible
and most painful of ways. You don’t do that to a character unless
you hate him. Or maybe you do that to your character because you
love your readers and you want to give them something they'll go
crazy over. Chapel is one badass guy, and Bleeding Ink Comics is on
their way to something big.
There's something else I'd like to bring up about Bleeding Ink. Jesse Grillo and the fine team he's got working with him, are all doing this as a labor of love and to give us readers something they know we'll enjoy. They're funding these project by something called Kickstarter. Right now, the superhero drama Patriot is needing some help and the folks at Bleeding Ink are giving you a chance to do that. You can be a part of publishing history by pledging even just a few dollars. And not only to you get to help publish this great comic book, but you also get something special for doing so. So check out the Kickstarter and see what it's all about.
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