Broken Frontier

Broken Frontier gives the first 288-hour graphic novel ever made a two-part Inter-Review—a review and an interview in one!  Looking at Kevin Cannon’s Far Arden.

Read the first part HERE.

Broken Frontier Review: As mentioned in PART 1 , Far Arden combines the best of off-the-cuff creativity (what with it being an epic compilation of monthly 24-hour comic chapters) and carefully plotted adventure twists and turns, as Cannon’s ultimate goal was to have a coherent and stand-alone GN by the 288th hour’s completion. In the end, the story became such a hodge-podge of characters and events, that Kevin had to abandon the absolute 24-pages-in-24-hours routine, and also expand the page count to a whopping 350 pages, in order to do the story justice. But “justice” is a good word for the satisfaction received when one pours through Far Arden from beginning to end. It reads, initially, almost like a round-robin exercise, every moment a new thing inserted in an attempt to challenge the writer (and in this case, there’s only one writer, challenging himself, rather than a circle of them challenging each other, for those of you unfamiliar with the term “round robin”). But the farther the story goes, the more everything gels into a startling payoff at the end.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Did you have an end in mind the whole time? This being a story about one man’s search for a mythical land, was there always a single final resolution for Shanks and Co. in your mind?

KEVIN CANNON:  Shanks, Hafley, and the Island were the only characters (if we can treat the Island as a character) that were fully formed in my head before starting the book.  As far what happens to Shanks and company—I didn't know who would be going to the island (or how those characters would fare) until a few chapters before the end. 

BF Review: Cannon’s art wins the day for Far Arden, though, regardless of how perfectly satisfying and effective his storytelling. Imagine James Kolchaka’s shapes with a far more detailed finishing touch a la Robert Crumb. A minimalist line of form in the vein of Andi Watson though with a wealth of crosshatched tone similar to Richard Sala. It’s a frenetic and image-packed book, every panel a gem of comics storytelling with the sound-effects just as much a part of the art as the images (and they’re some of the most uproarious sound-effects you’ll ever see, too!), and this is all kept up for 350 pages without fail. The characters wield that glorious universality of cartoon-emotion and motivation that all presentative comic figures do, and Cannon proves able to play with these visual archetypes so that they never grow old or stale even with the story’s length, and in fact, I felt a pang when the book finally did come to a close. A book filled with such hard-core adventure and comic whimsy — there could never have been enough.

BF: Was your art style on Far Arden any different from your usual, or from styles you’ve used in the past?  Did you simply go with what came most natural to you, or was there a specific look you felt necessary for the world of Shanks?

KC: I wanted the art style to match the character; that is, gritty and a little unbalanced. Even when I quit the page-an-hour format, I still kept up a similar pace so that I didn't get mired in petty details. By the end of the book each page was taking about an hour and a half to complete.

BF: Was there any particular part of the story you found challenging to complete on the visual front? Or was there anything you tried art-wise specifically for the challenge of it?

KC: I found it challenging to have a cast of visually distinctive characters when my style is so simple. That forced me to give each character unique body shapes and costumes. I'm also lazy at staying on model. Alistair's face looks different all throughout the book, but fortunately he's the only character wearing a fox pelt for a cape.

BF Review: So here’s the catch folks: Far Arden is a masterpiece of graphic literature. This is easily the equal of Jeff Smith’s Bone in art and story alike. Take out the high-fantasy and add in some far-corners-of-the-world pulp adventure, and you’ve got Kevin Cannon’s awesome kind-of-sort-of-not-really 288-hour GN.

But there are only 100 copies in existence to date.

So what you need to do is support this endeavor and buy a copy from Kevin, write about it online, take a copy to your local comic shop, spread the word and get some interest rolling.  Far Arden shouldn’t have any problem finding an audience or home at a major publisher, but the initial interest needs to get a-rollin’. And if you can’t buy a copy, no worries: you can read the whole GN for FREE online at www.kevincannon.org/288hour

BF: Any copies left of the first-run 100?

KC:  Nope.

BF: Okay, people—go read it for FREE online, then.  So what are the current plans for the book if any? And what’s the ideal fate you’d like to see for it?

KC: I'm currently talking to a publisher, but I think that's all I can say at this point.

BF: Yay!  And looking to the future, what is Sloth Force Seven?  And when will we be seeing it?

KC:  Sloth Force Seven was my 24-hour comic for 2007. People can read it at http://www.kevincannon.org/24hour2007. It's my attempt at sci-fi, heavily inspired by Battlestar Galactica and Jeffrey Brown's The Incredible Changebots . The story is about a bunch of sloths who live on a moon base. I'm developing it into a graphic novel and then... a live action movie?

BF: A Kevin Cannon sci-fi action movie starring sloths—now that is ideal!  Thanks for being with us, Kevin.

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Be sure to check out Kevin Cannon’s comic studio Big Time Attic or just check out everything Kevin comic-wise at www.kevincannon.org