
Keenspot 2017
Written by Bobby Crosby
Illustrated by Bill Blankenship
Lettered by Marco Della Verde
Based on a hit YouTube series that's racked up over 100 million views, Softball features a ragtag group of friends who were brought together by their love of the game! In this action-packed first issue, star outfielder Fireball gets the rocket-powered jet shoes he's always dreamed of to help him rob home runs, but his dream turns into a nightmare when he loses control and zooms off the map! Can the softball crew save him from a fiery death?
Full disclosure I’ve never heard of this, I don’t troll YouTube though maybe one or two people whom I personally know in real life have videos I watch. So I read this based on that awesome looking cover and Blankenship’s a name I recognized from other work in the industry so yeah I sought this out and here we are.
Now mind you I am not one for stupid mindless fun I prefer to have intelligence behind my humour, very much of the British Humour mindset, but I will without a doubt wholeheartedly and with exuberance support the story that I read here. While it there were times it seemed very over the top silly humour it still maintained something of this friend based, trust and realistic brand of tomfoolery that not only made sense but poked the kind of fun intended to be smart, sassy and laugh out loud entertaining.
Yes I wondered where you could take a softball game and bring it to the level worthy of a YouTube channel as well as make it diverse enough so that regardless of what type of humour spewed forth either everyone or no one would be offended. I became an instant fan of the trophy that is more clubhouse than fit into a house and that people of all ages and gender are playing on these teams. Just the sheer fact that one character would lament that rocket powered shoes would have enabled him to catch a home run ball while another pulls out a pair that he’s made for his high school science project simultaneously cross the realistic bounds with that of only in today’s world would this happen.
The hijinks and hilarity the ensure from there never seem to go too far in any one direction so as to alienate readers or make it seem so ridiculous that you have to put it down saying this shite wouldn’t ever happen. Instead the eclectic mix of characters that we see here, all of whom are in their own ways the kind of people that you’d think would be more at home at Comic Con than a softball field and yet have this passion and desire to win no matter what the cost make for some incredibly good reading.
Bill’s interiors here are superbly done. That these characters are the definition of comic book renderings of real people only serve to make it that much more over the top fun. I have no idea who close they come to their real life counterparts but for me I think each person we see is without a doubt someone we could all know or encounter, usually at a convention. The use of page layouts through angles, perspective and even backgrounds make the story flow beautifully. The colouring is spectacular and show not only diversity among the characters but help bring them to life.
Silly, over the top and yet still within in the realm of possibility this is my gem of the week. Find this revel in it and just laugh your tuchus off at the hijinks and solution to the troubles they themselves cause.