I just love a comic that is out there – you know, so different that it’s unlike anything else in comic shops today.
That perfectly describes King, from Jet City Comics. I have no idea what’s coming next as I go from page to page. For an “experienced” comics reader like me, that’s just such tremendous fun!
KING #2
Writer: Joshua Fialkov
Art: Bernard Chang
Publisher: Jet City Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
Previously in KING: “As toddlers, King and Queen were the undisputed champions of gladiatorial-style death matches… until they ran out of opponents and were forced to turn on one another! King learns how lethal sibling rivalry can be when he is shockingly reunited with his long-lost sister. Queen wants King dead… probably because he once tried to behead her. Can King escape Queen and her army of cyborg bears? And even if he does, how will he get out of Encino in one piece?”
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
If you’ve read The Bunker, The Life After or Skyman, you know just how creative Joshua Fialkov can be. His scripting is always engrossing, and that’s a serious plus! I love how his characters feel real to me, so I quickly care about them. And he’s great at placing them in different, unusual circumstances that grab my attention. I just enjoy his writing tremendously!
I became familiar with Bernard Chang’s art in Green Lantern, which I have found superb as well. I was very happy to learn that they were going to work together on this new title.
Before King, I’d never heard of Jet City Comics before, so I did a little research. It seems this company is a new imprint developed to create comics under Amazon Publishing (You know, that online purchasing website?). When I saw that they had acquired the Hedge Knight property, a long-time favorite of mine, I was really intrigued. For more about them, check out this link to the closest thing to a website for them I could find!
A LOS ANGELES THAT COULD BE
If you’ve ever visited Los Angeles, you know that it’s one of those really unique cities, like Chicago or New York City, that is different from nearly every other place people live. Well, to make L.A. even more unusual, Fialkov and company have set this story there as part of a post-apocalyptic Earth where humans are considered extinct. In the first issue, we met King, who is considered the last human alive by the various freaky aliens he works with and for. I loved this concise description of the title: “The last man on Earth is ten minutes late for work. If the commute doesn’t kill him, the robotic karate bears will.”
As often as I’ve been to L.A., I’ve never seen robotic karate bears there. At least, not yet. But hey, this is Los Angeles, after all!
The creative team does a great job of mixing humor, pathos and action. And we care about King, who has to work really hard just to keep up. He’s a funny guy, pretty intelligent and is always in trouble. Hey, I know people like him!
At the end of the first issue, we met Queen, King’s sister. Since his father had put both children into fighting arenas when they were very young, they both have excellent combat skills. Thing is, King thought he beheaded his sister, so he’s easily beaten when she confronts him with, yes, her robotic karate bears.
This month, we meet another girl in King’s life. (Whoever said King was the last human around was seriously mistaken, apparently!) Raised by Queen, Roze is fascinated to meet another human being, so she’s drawn to him, naturally.
I also love the aliens, who come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors. They’ve overrun the planet, but society still seems pretty similar to what humans had been up to before them. I particularly enjoyed Fialkov’s dialogue, which made for fun reading.
DYNAMIC ART
Mr. Chang has quite the way with action sequences, and he brings that talent to “bear” (sorry, couldn’t resist) in this comic. What intrigued me is that even the bears are given different appearances, clearly different from each other.
Chang uses various perspectives to infuse varying moods into the book, including an overhead view with a long shadow when King is left tied to a post in a dark room. Very cool art, just like the rest of the book.
BOTTOM LINE: ‘King’ Is High-Octane Fun
Two issues in, and I’m hooked on this wonderful comic! Clearly, we’re going somewhere, and I don’t want to miss a page of this fascinating journey!
If your local store doesn’t have them, you can go to comixology.com to buy and download both the first and second issues! Highly recommended!
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