Action Lab Danger Zone 2016
Created, Written & Illustrated by James Whynot
Life and death hang in the balance as the epic battle against the World Destroyer rages on! Tensions rise as the battle is joined... the question being: will these new combatants be friend or foe?? Frank's journey continues through terrifying post-apocalyptic terrain in this re-envisioning of the legend of Frankenstein's Monster.
There’s something inherently charmingly chaotic about this series. It comes from the way James illustrates the book and it’s fascinating. You can’t help but get caught up in the visuals, swirls and motion that comes off the page. The opening battle already in progress from last issue is a perfect example of how i’m seeing all this play out as i’ve described. The creativity and imagination here is delightful to me.
I do like the characterization here as we see Frank and his friend in battle and afterwards. This young man, the Scavenger of the Southern Wastelands, that he’s traveling with is a hoot and how on Earth he’s managed to survive this long is beyond me but traveling with Frank seems to somehow be able to up his importance. Still these two couldn’t be any more opposite and that’s a large part of the charm of getting to see them together.
So when the winged demon (?) lands in town we notice a couple of things. A. that James can do some “regular” artwork that’s just as interesting and nicely detailed as his stylistic art and B. the writing is strong and this is more cerebral than you’ll have first imagined. What happens when he sees a child and after not having seen one in so very long the way things go down and the verbal repartee that happens well it’s very interesting and very kind of now, in our world.
How the boys end up with a new traveling partner is another fun time. I like this world of blood magic, demons and people who can read fortunes through bones make up for this crazy population that cohabitates with what appears to be a normal western town. Somehow this weird mix of all this doesn’t seem like it should work but as it turns out it’s like young Frankenstein has found himself somewhere over the rainbow and this ain’t Kansas or Oz it’s a much darker warped version.
This is great because it’s got so much going on it seems outwardly chaotic but it’s got this awesome weird charm to it. Intelligent, well executed and thoroughly enjoyable this is will find it’s way into your heart.