I Iove me some comic books. Superheroes, humor, alternative, horror whatever.
I'll read just about anything with a good story, characters & artwork. Pretty basic criteria, eh?
I've easily read thousands of comics in my life and don't see an end to reading them
anytime soon. With that said, today's post is the first of what will
no doubt be many comic-book-related posts on this blog (which I know,
I'm not updating nearly enough) so without further ado I'll just dig
in.
On my flight back from my recent trip to Austin, Texas for SXSW 2011
(I'll post about that soon) I had many hours of travelling wait time
to fill. So inbetween watching episodes of LOUIE, playing EARTHBOUND
on my PSP and listening to GHOSTFACE KILLAH, JAY ELECTRONICA,
BACKBURNER and a ton of other stuff on the ipod I also packed a fat
stack of comic-book reading material (do I know how to travel or
what?).
In said pile I had the latest issues of GUARDING THE GLOBE,
WALKING DEAD, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, MEMOIR & JENNIFER BLOOD as well as
some graphic novels: Jason McNamara's THE MARTIAN CONFEDERACY http://www.themartianconfederacy.com/ (purchased in the
artist's hometown of San Francisco during my visit to the legendary
ISOTOPE comics shop) and an obscure new release called FALLING FOR
LIONHEART by Ilias Kyriazis and published by IDW (my current favourite comics
publisher).
So my buddy Toby mentioned this book to me a few weeks ago. Toby's one of the only people I know who may read
more comics than me, so if he suggests something I'll usually give it a look, as we both
tend to dig (and dislike) the same stuff. I'll be honest though, I'd been putting off reading
FALLING FOR LIONHEART and was a little hesitant to crack the spine.
How come? Well, it's an indie Superhero Romance comic with an emo twist, which as funny as it sounds to the lay-comics reader, I've seen before.
These things are usually fan-made virgin crapfests featuring cliched characters, bad dialogue and lame art.
I'm happy to say FALLING FOR LIONHEART featured none of the above.
Let's start with the premise: It's a about a lovesick superhero who
when not fighting superpowered threats to the globe makes his own
Jeffrey Brown-esque emo indie comics. *(If you're not familiar with
Jeffrey Brown, he's basically the top creator in the field of
autobiographical self-deprecating, humorous and cat-based indie
comics. I'm a fan of his work http://www.jeffreybrowncomics.com/ check out CATS ARE WEIRD & INCREDIBLE
CHANGEBOTS). You don't need to be familiar with Brown's stuff to enjoy
FALLING FOR LIONHEART (he contributes to the book in fact) but there's a point of reference for you just
in case.
Anyway back to the book - the concept works really well
because we see a side to this guy that's in complete contrast to his
normal front as a juiced-up american gladiator lookalike who flies
around punching holes in super-robots. He's just a dude looking for love who makes his own comics and
happens to be a superhero during the day.
Now I usually hate reviews that break down the entire story for you, so I'm not going to do that here. Basically what you need to know is that
this superhero (LEO) with a broken heart searches for love while writing his autobiographical comics. His friends are cocky, over-machismoed hetero-male stereotypes
who don't understand his artistic pursuits and the women in his life are also fairly douchey. One day he has a chance encounter with a fellow comics enthusiast and yada yada we've got a story on our hands.
That's as much of a synopsis as I'm gonna give.
The story has some really funny & sharp moments and all the supporting characters are well-defined. Ilias Kyriazis whose work I was previously unfamiliar with
(he worked on some Ghostbusters comics for IDW before this) handles the writing & art chores like a pro. The dialogue
is crisp, original & fun and the art is clean and fluid. Kyriazis has a great sense of storytelling and definitely stands on his own as a cartoonist to watch.
This isn't a comic for kiddies as there is some sex & adulty type stuff but if you're looking for something fun and a little off the beaten path I highly recommend giving
FALLING FOR LIONHEART a try. Your local comic shop should be able to order a copy if they don't currently stock it, or you can get it here:
https://shop.idwpublishing.com/falling-for-lionheart.html
