Spinner Rack Comics 2011
Written by Tom Stillwell
Illustrated by Jim Terry
Coloured by Rachelle Rosenberg
Lettered by Jason Arthur
While I love receiving books to review there are few I’ll go ahead and seek out and buy, my budget is extremely limited after all, but Tom and his creations are one of those. He’s a very small self-published kind of guy who also holds the distinction of having the only non-dc comic character tattooed on me. At C2E2 I ran into Tom, it’s his hometown show after all, where I discovered this run and knew I had to have to it. So basically here’s the gist underneath Chicago lies another city where the homeless and disenfranchised live, there is also a hole in the fabric of reality where Weendigo come through to feed and terrorize the denizens who live there. Yeah sounds like a good premise for a bad SyFy movie so you know you want to read it already!
So the book opens with a look at the past before white man came to the area and built upon it. When the natives kept watch over the pool and protected the land from those who would come through. It’s a great beginning and sets the stage for we can expect from this. Plus the narration on the inside cover gives the reader a fuller synapse of what this is all about and I highly recommend you read it.
In modern Chicago we meet a man named Terry as he strolls over a bridge when he’s attacked and his world is changed forever. He’s saved by two men and he cannot believe or handle the truth of what he’s just seen and experienced, they call them Trolls and well it fits the stereotype. The remainder of the issue follows Terry and these two men who some would say kidnap him, me I go with fully enlighten him to how the world really is. The characterization is pretty darn strong as we see just what kind of person each man is.
From conception to execution the story is pretty amazing. We’ve all heard the tales of those living in the sewers or abandoned train tracks creating their cities far from the prying eyes of man. It’s a fascination many of us hold and Chicago is a perfect place for just such a community to exist. Though the land, swamps and such had to be filled and worked over before the modern could arise and after the great fire that destroyed, much like a phoenix the city rose anew from it’s ashes only the built on top of what was leaving it underneath. Everything about that screams out to be explored in the darkest depths of the mind.
Jim and Rachelle’s work on the interiors is fantastic. While this may be (extremely) small press their work is anything but indicative of that. With excellent attention to detail, faces and expressions that showcase the mood beautifully and a real good eye for pages and panel uses they bring this to life so very well. Even the creativity in bringing the Weendigo or Trolls to life is utterly fantastic as is their ability to showcase how they can blend in without being seen.
It’s books like this that make so happy I go to shows and seek out the people who do books and series like this. Sometimes the best finds come from the least likely places so if you want to join Terry on his journey of self-discovery and about the reality of the city he lives in you can head over to comixology and download it, or my preference head to www.spinnerrackcomics.com or even indyplanet.com and order the four issue series it’s worth it!