Broken Frontier

Josh Howard’s religio-alien-conspiracy-epic comes to an end with some graphic results, explosions, and gunfights. What more could you want?

In what appears to be the last issue of Black Harvest, creator Josh Howard pulls out all the stops. Our hero, Daniel, along with the guilt ridden Sheriff Banks, finally gets to something resembling the truth behind the disappearances and deaths that have plagued the small town of Jericho, TX for years. But for Zaya, Nolee, and all the town’s inhabitants things might be too late . . . .

I don’t know anything about Josh Howard. I don’t know his history in the field, his wants, dreams, or future plans, or what he will be doing next. What I do know is that the man has a future in comics. Something of a renaissance man, Howard covers all the artistic duties on this book, save lettering, done by Brian J. Crowling. I wonder if the "J" stands for Josh, which wouldn’t surprise me over at DDP—they’re all named Josh. Anyway, (Josh) Howard does it all.

The writing is solid. Howard manages to weave the lives of more than a handful of characters together in a compelling way without seeming convoluted. Daniel is the Everyman in all comic book/sci-fi/alien/fantasy nerds (don’t lie to yourself, we are nerds—embrace it) who finds himself in an adventure that is more than he can stand. Sheriff Banks is an old man wracked with the guilt of being stuck in a corrupt system, who finally reaches his last straw. Though they are stereotypical characters, they are nonetheless real—stereotypes wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t at least a modicum of truth in them somewhere, sometime. And Zaya is a complex killing machine. Who are the mysterious men monitoring her? Where did they go? Why did it have to be her doing the killing? How did she get into the body of . . . ? Sorry, I won’t tell. And what’s the deal with the missing pages in that book? Questions, questions, questions. A good writer always leaves us with questions.

His art is a little different. It is reminiscent of Michael Oeming, but frankly, not quite as good. The line style is the same, with sharp edges and angles that could very well be mistaken for Oeming’s, which is great. Oeming’s style is one to emulate. So many artists currently are going for more of a realistic edge, where Oeming fights it tooth and nail. And while I say Howard’s work isn’t as good as Oeming’s, there is no reason it should be. He clearly hasn’t been at it as long. Despite that, his art is heavy, dark, and carries the proper tone for a book of this nature. He clearly has the eye of an artist.

It is disappointing this series seems to be done with. It was a fun read, it had pretty good art and it was basically a one man project. It is admirable and enjoyable. I wonder what Howard is going to do next. Does anybody know?