Proof Endangered #1 – Review

By: Alex Grecian (writer), Riley Rossmo (artist) & Frank Zigarelli (colors)

The Story: Bigfoot is back as Proof gets started again, picking up pretty much where it left off.

What’s Good: You don’t often get “jumping on points” with ongoing, creator-owned titles (i.e. Image, Vertigo, etc.).  One of the beauties of those types of comics is that they are telling a story rather than a series of adventures where nothing really changes (see: all Marvel & DC superhero comics).  That faithfulness to the story is the best and worst thing about such comic series: They are way more rewarding to read long term, but if you get left behind it is very hard to pick up in the middle and it can feel daunting to “catch up”.  So, it is a neat thing that the creators of Proof have given us this issue that really serves as a jumping on point for new readers.

“New reader” describes me pretty well for this series.  I was aware of the premise, have always enjoyed reading about cryptids and had read a few issues on Comixology, but was nowhere near “caught up”.  There was nothing in this issue that made me feel like I was being left out and the story did a nice job of laying out who all the characters are, what they’re up to while also continuing the ongoing Proof story (or at least seeming to) and laying out new story material.  That’s a lot of tasks accomplished for a single comic issue!

If you have read Proof or Cowboy Ninja Viking, you’ll be familiar with Rossmo’s art and it is on fine display here.  One of the things I really enjoy about his art is that you can see his pencil work in the finished product (lots of artists either erase all of the pencils OR clean it up digitally).  I’m not sure what his artistic process is like, but the end result is a pretty unique look and “unique looks” are part of the reason I enjoy non-Marvel/DC comics as much as I do.  Rossmo also shows in a few panels a great mastery of human anatomy that I really enjoy seeing (especially if you’re sick of seeing superheroes bulging with muscles that don’t really exist in nature).

Proof #14 – Review

By Alex Grecian (story), Riley Rossmo (art), Adam Guzowski (colors)

John “Proof” Prufrock and his partner, Ginger Brown, are agents for the Lodge, a secret government organization that is tasked with the cryptozoological investigations of the creatures of myth and legend that exist in the world today. By the way, Proof is a sasquatch.

In this issue, part five of what is obviously a graphic novel tailored story, Proof and Savage Dragon (whose presence in this issue felt contrived and unnecessary) are in Illinois investigating the existence of thunderbirds, while his partner Ginger is searching for a missing golem named Joe, who has ventured off with a mysterious yeti named Mi-Chen Po.

In Grecian’s hands, Proof and Ginger are likable characters; there’s a sense of a Mulder and Scully dynamic to their relationship that has probably been enjoyable to longtime readers. However, I was disappointed to see how little they actually appeared in this issue.  I was also irritated with Grecian’s “Cryptoids” caption boxes of irrelevant trivia that stick out like sore thumbs. Furthermore, Rossmo’s art is very out of place here. His characters appear scratchy and unfinished, as they have no sense of life and look like little more than mannequins positioned on the page; leaving it to Grecian to convey the emotional arc through the dialogue alone.  I could picture Rossmo’s style on a title like Warren Ellis’s Fell, but here it’s simply painful to look at.

Proof seems to fall somewhere between comparable titles like The Perhapanauts and B.P.R.D, yet the latter two are so much more fun to read.  If Image is going to charge me a whopping $3.50 an issue for this, I need a more satisfying reading experience, and they did not deliver that here.

Grade: C-

-Tony Rakittke