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.
Continue reading
Filed under: Image Comics | Tagged: 27, 27 #3, 27 #3 review, Charles Soule, Dean Stell, Image, Jade Dodge, Renzo Podesta, review, Shawn DePasquale | Leave a comment »
Weekly Comic Book Review 