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“WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ALL THE HEROES ?”

HERO KILLERS

Moonface Press One-Shot

by Andy Winter(writer)& Declan Shalvey(Artist)

36 pages B&W Comic £2.50/$3.99

 Okay, this is something Mister Hooper got a hold of at the Bristol Expo, and graciously passed onto me to review as punishment no doubt for not reviewing Septic Isle as I said I would around a month ago. Firstly, I don’t know how available this is as it would seem that it was originally published in Spring 2006(well. I’ve got this copy, so obviously, you can still get hold of it).

Anyway, this as stated in the introduction, is a complete one-off, self-contained story. It’s about a group of super-criminals who seem to have set themselves up as a kind of Assasination Bureau for criminals who need the local super- do-gooder hindering their activities taken out of the equation. Imagine  some costumed villians set themselves up on the Enterprize Allowance Scheme or Prince’s Trust- they’ve got a van, a nice line in Powerpoint Presentations PR to Villain Conferences, and some nifty Logo and costumes. Like a bad-guy A-Team really. I actually really like Andy Winter’s premise here, it’s quite funny, although I don’t think he’s being tongue in cheek, but it’s a neat little idea. Indeed, it’s certainly one with a degree of mileage beyond this one-shot issue. One could imagine a Nasty A-Team-cum Marshall Law type plot developing here, with them having to eliminate an annoying Super-goody each issue. I’m all for that. As it is, in this story our Anti-heroes are hired to take down the best costumed hero in

 Story-wise, the whole thing glides along well, with some nice, simple flashbacks that hint at the relationship between our two main characters, a neat introduction with a somewhat absurd hero, that also has some significance in the ending, and some good dialogue exchanges throughout that keep the pace of the story ticking over nicely. My only real problem is that the one-off nature of the story hinders its resolution, which, (without giving anything away) I felt was slightly abrupt, and didn’t allow for an explanation of something that happens to a character at the end. Also, because this has potential, there are certainly ideas and characters here that definitely lend themselves to further exploration beyond this one-shot.

Added to Andy Winter’s neat story ideas, Declan Shalvey does a very good job of the artwork here. All the characters are well delinated and considered, he has a sure, confident clear line, and some very well designed and balanced page layouts that move the story along at a good pace. If anything, his artwork would certainly benefit from the addition of colour, but he handles and balances his black and white contrasts very effectively, and has very strong compositional skills throughout his panels. It’s also good to see some of Declan’s preliminary character and page design/layouts reprinted at the back of the comic(something I always enjoy seeing, an artists working process revealed). I will certainly be interested in seeing his work develop, an artist who definitely has the potential to go places, in my humble opinion.

So, in conclusion, a comic I was pleasantly suprised by, and definitely one that if Moonface were looking for a potential ongoing title, is well worth considering(despite the obvious problem due to the story ending).My one minor quibble is a rather weak cover that doesn’t do justice to the evident talent of Declan’s interior work. Mind you, that makes a change-a comic with a bad cover and good interior artwork, as opposed to what I feel is the usual reverse equation.Yes, I am that hard to please. I’d better go and listen to Bone Machine again…a very good idea you guys !

Paul “Superhero-Hater” Brown

And you can visit the publisher’s site at: http://www.moonfacepress.com/