27: Second Set #1 – Review

By: Charles Soule (writer), Renzo Podesta (art) and Shawn Depasquale (letters)

The Story: Garland, the guitarist who lost the use of his playing hand & gained some funky powers in the first 4-issue miniseries, is back to try to reclaim his stardom.

Background: I really enjoyed the first 27 miniseries as it followed the arc of a famous guitarist who is struck down by losing the use of one of his hands at the age of 27.  Through a number of attempts to heal himself, he takes part in this arcane procedure that leaves him with something that looks kinda like an amp stuck into his chest.  Supposedly the deal is that he can push the buttons 27 times and gain some kind of genius level super-power (like the ability to play brilliantly again or write the best song ever), but after he pushes the button the 27th time, he’ll die.  The trouble is that he pushed the buttons an unknown number of times before he knew the deal, so he isn’t sure how many he has left.  Oh, and there’s this hook tying everything to numerology and the gods of creativity.  It was really all quite clever, funky and touching and a couple of the issues were my pick of the week.

What’s Good: So, I was glad to see it come back for more.  We see that Garland’s attempt to regain his stardom by learning to play left-handed isn’t going so well and he’s still kinda a dick.  In fact, he’s always been a dick, but he was able to skate by on genius-level talent before.  Now that the talent is gone, his dickish behavior is coming back to bite him in the ass.  No one seems to want to cut him any slack.  What Soule and Podesta do very well is somehow dance on the edge of Garland being an unlikeable character without having the reader hates him.  If he was a cheerful dude who everyone wanted to help, this wouldn’t be a very compelling series, but it also wouldn’t work if Garland was just unlikable.  He’s more one of those guys who you’re rooting for to get his crap together and stop dumping on people who try to help him out.  Somehow they manage to pull this off.

The funky mystical stuff takes somewhat of a backseat in this issue, but it still ends up with Garland getting his buttons pushed.  What happens in the ensuing events seems to be key to the arc of this series.

Podesta’s art is again really nice.  This is a dark story, so the art is fittingly dark and he uses a more cartooning style that communicates characters mood and body language much better than a more realistic style would.

Also, if you’re not a fan of the live music scene, don’t use that as an excuse to stay away from this series.  I think people who prattle on about live music are about as interesting as people who talk about golf all the time and I still really love the series.

27 #4 – Review

By: Charles Soule (writer), Renzo Podesta (art), Shawn Depasquale (letters) & Jade Dodge (editor)

The Story: 27 comes to a very strong close.  Will it just continue the freaky-good story about numbers or does it have something to say?

What’s Good: I LOVE reading a creator-owned comic that ends strongly.  The joy of reading lots of creator-owned comics is getting exposed to all the weird and whacky ideas out there, but the agony is that you realize how difficult endings are.  This isn’t a problem with X-Men; they avoid this problem by simply never ending the story.  Most stories that have a strong hook simply don’t end all that well.  That’s just life….

So, I was incredibly tickled to see 27 smoothly shift gears from all the fun with numbers, weird demons manifesting through dead pigeons and naked mad scientists sacrificing cats in warehouses (which was AWESOME) to really having something to say and doing so in a way that makes you revisit concepts from earlier in the series.  As it turns out, once you smear all the funky stuff away, 27 is really a comic story about genius and how one obtains genius.  Is it the product of fate?  Is it pushing a button?  Does everyone have an allocated quota of genius within them?  Is genius earned via hard work?  That’s kinda what this series is about.  It’s just stellar storytelling because you can tell that Soule had this “genius” theme for his story, and all the other stuff is just trappings that he hung on the story to make it more fun.  Love that!

27 #3 – Review

By: Charles Soule (writer), Renzo Podesta (art), Shawn DePasquale (letters) & Jade Dodge (editor)

The Story: William Garland has made an unwitting deal with some supernatural forces to regain his ability to play the guitar.  In this issue, he starts to get to the bottom of WTF has happened to him.

What’s Good: This comic continues to meet my criteria for a great creator-owned title.  Namely, it is still going to odd and unusual places and is never telegraphing what will happen next.

We’ve already covered how William Garland was a famous guitarist who had hurt his hand and couldn’t play anymore.  In his desperation to get his “powers” back, he undergoes some whack-job procedure in a basement involving a naked mad scientist and 27 dead cats (still can’t believe how trippy that was).  It works, but leaves William with an odd control box on his chest giving him the ability to turn on a power, but with the knowledge that doing so will shorten his life.

One of the great things about this series is that it isn’t falling apart as it fills in the blanks.  I’m still a little curious how the creators are going to wrap all of this up in one more issue, but so far the surprises and explanations are all very solid.  That is really a big deal because everyone who reads a lot of creator-owned comics knows that for every solid ending to a story, you have to read about 10 stories that have a wonderful premise but stumble badly during the middle and end portions of the story.  27 is maintaining its whacky freshness and that isn’t always easy to do.

I don’t want to spoil the surprises of 27 too much, but I love that it gets into the concept that a person only has a finite number of actions within them and that you can space them over a long (and boring) life OR you can burn like a star, but perhaps die young or spend the rest of your life trying to recapture the good old days.

Podesta’s art is again very up to the task.  The sort of stylized art he is using here is so effective at capturing basic emotions because it simplifies the human form.  That’s kinda why I tend to prefer this style over guys who draw perfect anatomy and characters with rippling musculature, but whose characters have no sense of life to them.

27 #2 – Advance Review

By: Charles Soule (writer), Renzo Podesta (art), Shawn DePasquale (letters) & Kristen Simon (editor)

The Story: Having regained (briefly) the use of his hand via a demonic ceremony performed by a nude mad scientist, a guitarist tries to figure out what has happened to him.

What’s Good: The weirdness just keeps rolling for this title.  I tend to get almost everything new that Image puts out, but I honestly had a few reservations about this title when pre-ordering it because it seemed like it might be about music and bands.  There are people who are into bands and live music, but that isn’t me.  So, I was gleefully surprised with the first issue of 27.  There was no angst, no heroin addicted girlfriend, no struggles to pay the rent and book the next gig (BORING), it just ripped into a scene were a mad scientist is sacrificing cats to give a guitarist his hands back.  I LOVE that kind of weirdness because it leaves you no idea what will happen next.  For a new(er) comic writer, Charles Soule is having no trouble figuring out how to pace a comic book.  He’s a really talented writer.

I don’t want to spoil too much (this being an advance review), but the story moves forward on several fronts.  For one thing, Garland gets more information about what supernatural thing may have happened to him and how the magic works.  The concept plays completely on numerology and is very neat.  It also illustrates some of my words to live by: Don’t EVER just start randomly pushing buttons!!!  We also see Garland try to get some professional help (from an unusual source) and reconnect with his old manager.  Surprise!  She’s an attractive woman.

Oh yeah…There is another complete “WTF?” moment in the middle of this issue that involves a dead pigeon and a parking deck.

27 #1 – Review

By: Charles Soule (writer), Renzo Podesta (art), Shawn DePasquale (letters) & Kristen Simon (editor)

The Story: A young guitarist makes a Faustian bargain to get his playing ability back.

What’s Good: This is a very original comic book that has lot “WTF?” moments.  To put things in context, the biggest thing that I demand from my non-Marvel/DC comic books is that they be something different.  I want to see creators tossing off their corporate shackles and doing the equivalent of running naked in the hallway by giving us something new and unique with the artform of comics.  27 really scratches that “different” itch pretty well.

The story is pretty cool.  We meet a young guitarist who has recently made it BIG.  He gets a taste of fame and fortune, but mostly…he just likes to play.  So, it is cruel when in the first couple of pages he is struck down by some kind of carpal tunnel syndrome and it becomes painful for him to pick up a guitar.  [SPOILERS] Desperate, he visits a whole manner healers before going through a procedure in this creepy, dark basement lab with a Brad Douriff-type scientist that is just full of “WTF?” moments.  Literally, each panel has you saying…..”What the hell is going on with that talking rat all of a sudden?  WTF?”  And you know there is going to be a steep price to be paid for getting his ability to play back.  He is successful and the solution is whacky as hell.  By the end of the issue, you are left with many more questions than answers (in a good way).

The presentation of the comic is in Image’s Golden sized format and the art really works for this type of dark, Faustian tale.  Podesta’s art doesn’t really remind me of anyone else.  It is very dark, muted, basic and really sells the emotional story notes that the creators are going for.  Sometimes I like elaborate backgrounds, but Podesta is showing us what we need to see to advance the story.  Aside from the intentional WTF moments, I never was confused by the storytelling.