Chronographer #1 – Review

By: Erica J. Helfin (story), Edson Alves, Fabio Pio, Carlos Paul (art)

The Story: This is one feeling of déjà vu you can live without.

The Review: You have to admire the indie creators—and by that, I don’t mean the big names experimenting and stretching their legs on established publishers like Vertigo, Image, or Dark Horse.  I’m talking about the folks trying to hone their craft on the far fringes of the comics world, beyond IDW, Archie, Valiant, Dynamite, or Aspen.  It takes guts to put yourself out there without a major publisher covering your back, hoping someone will catch on to your style.

So on the one hand, I give a lot of credit to Helfin for making it as far as to an actual product; most people give up and go back to clerking at an accounting firm or whatever monotonous job they wanted to escape from.  On the other hand, it’s a sign of Helfin’s inexperience (and lack of rigorous market/editorial scrutiny) that she starts off her project with a rather pontificating little speech: