By: Kel Symons (writer), Mark A. Robinson (art), Paul Little (colors) and Pat Brosseau (letters)
The Story: A tattooed, con artist woman named Felica runs afoul of the mob and gains a superpower.
A few things: 1). Never know what you’ll get. – I’m sure I saw this in Previews a few months ago, but now that I read almost all comics on my iPad, I tend to forget what these stories are about. I look at the Diamond shipping list every Sunday and make a list of what I want to buy that week and see “I Love Trouble” and have no recollection of the pitch. I’ll try most #1s from Image Comics, but to borrow from Forest Gump, Image #1s are like a box of chocolates; you never know what will be inside. Often the issue is “okay”, sometimes I can’t erase it off my iPad quickly enough and every once it awhile, we come across an issue like I Love Trouble #1 that is a sneaky gem of a comic.
2). Very enticing art. – It’s amazing how much character can be built by a gifted art team. Almost all of the essence of our main character, Felecia, comes to us via the art. Robinson lets us know just about everything about her: she’s scampy, has an attitude, is cute, fast, small and generally full of trouble. I mean, how many nice girls do you know who have neck tattoos and wear belly shirts? Robinson works in that cartoony style that affords so much flexibility to an artist who wants to breathe life into his characters or do some fun little action sequences. The other notable thing about this issue is that they aren’t afraid to do a TON of small panels; almost every page has 7+ panels. It gives the creators a lot more opportunity to build characters with a fixed number of pages.
3). Writing that mostly stays out of the way. – Writer Symons doesn’t fall into that “too many words” trap that ensnares more new-to-comics writers. With art of this quality, the writer just needs to stay out of the way. Symons doesn’t push it and just gives us enough of the story to accentuate the art and what words are present are well word-smithed.
4). Meh…..superpowers…. – The one thing I didn’t like about this issue was the introduction of superpowers. Good lord…..don’t we already have enough superpowers in the world of comics? Can’t we just have a story about a trashy/sexy tattoo-girl outwitting stupid mob thugs? Why does she need a superpower?
5). Interesting printing. – As I mentioned above, I read this digitally, but I enjoyed the art enough that I wanted to see what the printed product looked like. Oddly, Image printed this on a very stiff newsprint and it cause the coloring to really wash out. I can’t remember the last time Image used this type of paper. This is a great example of how the art just looks better on an iPad.
Conclusion: Very promising. The art is the big selling point, but it’s also fun to have a comic with a useful female protagonist (even if she is kinda sexed up for a mostly male audience).
Grade: B+
– Dean Stell
Filed under: Image Comics | Tagged: Dean Stell, I Love Trouble, Image, Kel Symons, Mark A. Robinson, Pat Brosseau, Paul Little, review |
Weekly Comic Book Review 
I picked this one up after reading this review. I enjoyed the art for the most part as well, I just found it to be a little unseemly in some panels. I think it is likely the pouting lips (or spitting?) that was supposed to be talking that bothered me. The art is fairly inconsistent (does the girl have red highlights or are they mood controlled), but there are definitely panels that are terrific.
I also found the story to be extremely trite. I feel they added the superpowers just to differentiate itself from the typical in-too-deep-with-the-mob junk. It was a quick read and I’ll definitely pick up the second issue (just for the art) to see if the story develops for the better or we get the go-get-this-impossible-to-get-priceless-thing-or-we’ll-kill-your-loved-one. (I wonder how much of my perception is altered by expectations from this review, haha)
Sounds like you didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I did. Sorry about that. Mostly I liked the whimsical art. Now, when you say “unseemly” do you mean kinda exploitative with the gratuitous shots of thongs and bras? I did see that too, but I (candidly) enjoy that in my comic art. I know it rubs some people the wrong way, but not me.
You’re right that the story is pretty basic. But, I liked that it wasn’t trying to be something more than it was. It was just kinda rolling along with the whimsy of the art and telling a light mob story. I can dig that.
Let me know how you enjoy #2!
I really loved this issue because instantly drawn to this character…I felt like the way she carried her self was so cool…The only way I could sum up Felicia is by saying she has “SWAG”….The little side panels were a really nice touch especially the first and last ones!
Yeah… is that what you call those? I was thinking of a frontis piece even though I’m pretty sure that’s not the right word.
The whole comic was just hip and fresh. I’ll be curious to see how much I enjoy #2 now that I have an expectation going into the issue.