Story, Art and Cover by Matt Kindt
I always like when it’s just one guy making his comic book. Seems like the underdog, ya know? Like small businesses up against the big corporate conglomerate, the little comic book makers bring BIG comics, leaving their own images in the gigantic wake of corporate America. And I do so LOVE to support small business! These are the people that do what they do because they really love and live their craft…not just for the money, added bonus as it may be. So, when something like this (or like The Toking Dead in my previous comic book review) is brought to my attention, I am compelled to check it out. This was such an odd reading for me. It reminded me of one of those movies where nothing outwardly makes any sense for like half the movie, yet somehow you still have an understanding of what’s going on. Those are some of the hardest to summarize and review. This was my best attempt… Meru is a young woman and the main character of this story…so far. I have a feeling things are going to get pretty weird here. We start with scenes of murder (always a plus) and violence. We have a narrator that is guiding us through the panels, frame by frame almost but, in the grand scheme of things that does little to help the flow of the story. We soon learn about an incident that happened with a flight two years ago. Apparently, an entire flight of people suddenly woke up on a plane while it was still in the air with no idea of who they were or how they got there. Husbands didn’t recognize their wives, pilots didn’t recognize flight crew…nothing. They couldn’t call for help either because, nobody remembers anything about how to use the cabin radio or how to even fly the plane. They are contacted by Control and the amnesiac pilots get help landing the plane. All are accounted for except one passenger, Henry Lyme. They call this incident Amnesia Flight 815. Next, we get to really meet Meru. She’s a writer, of sorts. She’s broke at the moment. Her agent is hounding her for some new material. Knowing that one passenger has never been found, she insists to her agent that she write about the Amnesia Flight. Yet, Meru is informed by her agent that they are tired of hearing about this story and she hasn’t had a selling book in two years. She’s told she needs to give up on the flight story and just start writing something, anything to try to get out of her rut. But, Meru stands firm in her belief that she is going to find the missing passenger and that she actually has interviews with survivors set up for the week already. Her agent gives the go ahead but, won’t shell out any more money for the project. Later, Meru is contacted by her agent, who wants to send her to Mexico to check out a very unusual happening. Not having any money doesn’t wrench this plan because the agent sends her money (oh sure, you’ll send money for YOUR story but not hers…hmmmm). While this whole phone exchange is taking place there’s a man watching Meru. As Meru finishes up, this gentleman makes his own phone call. Meru travels to Mexico. The guy that was watching her has a partner in crime. The two men follow Meru to Mexico and hang out in a bar (I think) as she turns in for the night. Our creepy spy-guy goes to the bathroom where he is attacked, some guy trying to break his neck or choke him. But, before the assailant can accomplish that spy-guy gets a shot fired from his gun and the bullet hits the assailant. Still, spy-guy is killed and the assailant flees. The partner hears the gunshot and runs into the bathroom to help. He finds the bullet on the floor in a pool of blood, the shot apparently a through and through. Meanwhile, Meru is hopping on a little dirt bike type motorcycle and riding to Santa Teresa, Mexico. Once she gets there she finds a town of devastation in all forms. There are people there that won’t eat or even respond to food. Nearly starved to death these townspeople just sit and make these clay pots and paint them. The children seemed to not have been infected and they kept trying to feed the adults until the food just plumb ran out. Then she goes into a building where there are thousands of these pots. All the same size, all the same shape, all have the same design on them. A design of an animal of some sort. After some research, Meru traces the animal design to Zanzibar. Getting her thoughts together to pitch the need for another plane ticket to her agent, a knock sounds out at her door. It’s a man claiming to be the police but, Meru knows this is not the case. He pushes his way into her room. He tells her his name is Bill Falls and that he is CIA (likely story) and they are in danger and have to leave there…now. Turns out, Bill is spy-guy’s partner and whether it’s on her agenda or not, Meru’s going with him. They climb out of the hotel room window (not in this country) and make off for safety as we see two people chasing them, a man and a woman. THE END Now, I admit, I left a lot of little stuff out and I made the story sound so much simpler than it probably really is but, some of it is written in like an ADD format or something, so you have to be able to switch thoughts quickly at a couple of points. The artwork, although sketch-like, is still good in my opinion. I wouldn’t classify this style as a favorite of mine but it’s still good. It’s like sketches colored with watercolors. So, nothing is very bold. It’s all muted and softer than what I tend to like. I will try to find the second issue. I’m curious to see where this is going. I am reserving full judgment on the series until I read another issue. RATINGS Overall 3/5 Story 3/5 Artwork 3/5
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