Image Comics 2017
Written by Matt Nixon
Illustrated by Toby Cypress
Lettered by Matt Krotzer
"TPTB," Part One The reboot of a comic book miniseries that has never existed begins with an all-new, all-different issue #1! Time to travel back and jump in on this comic while it was new!
I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, come across or translate with the premise described above. Ya know what though I got mad respect for Matt and what he’s capable of now. I think how this opens up and how he’s got this whole story structured was spectacular and the flow made this incredibly easy to follow. I was immediately captivated and intrigued by what was happening and the desire to keep going and wanting to know more is something that hits you right away. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a book do this to me so gosh darn quickly.
So we meet Chris as he’s in an AA meeting and confessing how long it’s been since his last drink. For those of us who’ve never attended one it’s very much like the way we see it portrayed on the television. It’s also a pivotal point in the story, yes the opening this doesn’t just set the stage for what we’re going to see from here on out it literally starts the story, leaves us with a lot of holes that need filling and whole lot of WTF to keep our attention.
The characterisation here is really very good. I love that Chris comes across as this hard as nails, hard drinking to try to forget his past asshat that wants it all to be finally over and done with and yet can’t let it go. He’s a great protagonist/antagonist and raison d’etre for the whole book right now. Part of me wants to slap him for being a whiny bitch and the other half feels sorry for him and wants to help him through it all. That kind of characterisation doesn’t come along everyday and to do it in such a short amount of time, establish the readers feelings for a character, shows off some mad skills.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like the artwork here. At first glance it’s really kind of hardcore indie stuff that I used to avoid back in the 80’s/90’s. It really has that look, tone and feel of some retro underground comics art and as I kept reading the more I began to see just how well suited this style was for the story. Toby nails this with what looks like ease but had to be some painstakingly long nights. That it’s similar and yet different from his work on White Suits, which I adored FYI shows his maturity and growth as an artist. This guy he’s one of the up and comers in this industry you best be paying attention to he’s got this whole vibe about what he does that will captivate readers.
So what makes Chris a target for someone and who exactly is after him? Those little tidbits will have to be something you read for yourself but I’ll try to be as vaguely interesting as possible here. So we know something needs a Retcon, the title of the book after all, so we get a glimpse at what Chris did in the past and whom he worked with doing it. Hopefully we’ll see most of these folks at some point in time during it’s run and see how they’ve changed and how the same experience made them who they are.
Now I will say those sent after Chris at least one of is a character that we have to pay close attention to since they may become what we like to call a game changer. Again the characterisation is great and we get a good feel for the type of people we’re dealing with and even an inkling of motivation for what they are doing not to mention the whole ambiguity of the real reasoning behind it all. it’s a great mix of shelling out information and hiding it at the same time. The slight of hand storytelling that Matt is bringing to the table is quite shockingly addictively good.
Once again Image is the home for Imagination run amok. Let the animals run loose and see what they do and you’ll enjoy every single moment of it!