Broken Frontier

Fire is a demoness and Brimstone is an Angel. Many, many moons ago, they pranked their bosses and in the process let a plentitude of demons and rogue angels loose upon the Earth. Since then they have been tasked with retrieving the mischievous souls they let loose. To make things more complicated, their discipliners decided that they should be mortal while on our human plane.

Richard Moore is probably best known for his work on the NBM book Boneyard (to call that a cult hit would be a bit of an understatement). However way back in 1998 he started his career with Antarctic Press with the even more obscure, but no less lauded, Far West. No, he is back with Antarctic with his new (and fully colored) mini-series, Fire and Brimstone.

Here, Moore takes your standard buddy comedy material and puts a spin on it by making the buddies not only females, but on clearly diametrically opposing sides of the whole good versus evil debate. As with any good first issue of a comic, this one is entertaining while also doing quite a bit of exposition. A bit of this is done through solid characterization. In short order we are shown that Brimstone is a little full of herself and that Fire, while not being shy, is not so good with words.

We are also firmly introduced to their situation and world. It has been five thousand years since they offended the apex of good and bad. This conceit allows for a richness of history that will no doubt lead to many in-jokes between the two. To a certain extent, that is shown here as Fire relates a story occurring around the time of Christ’s crucifixion. The meat of this issue is really told in this flash back as opposed to in the clearly character building book end story. We learn how the characters operate together and in the field through this. This will allow the insanity that is sure to follow the events of the last few pages to be more believable.

The cartoony style of Moore may take a moment to get used to. To be honest, his work resembles the kind of art one would expect of a caricaturist at a fair. It is not bad, just unusual. It does allow for a certain over the top flair which matches nicely the tone of Moore’s plot and comedy. You know instantly by merely glancing at a page that none of this is to be taken too seriously.

There is one bit that is extraordinary though. In the flashback flight scene, Moore pulls of a bit of the Matrix bullet time look. While in movies this has become a cliché, I am unsure as to whether or not I have seen in employed in a comic. The nature of serialized graphic narrative means that every panel is a still frame, but Moore invokes that technique in this fight. What is even more impressive is that instead of doing it through sound or motion "pulses" that waver in the air like some kind of heat mirage, he does it through a very simple, yet effective, "Shucka Shucka Shucka". It is the kind of use of onomatopoeia that would warm a creative writing teaches heart through the dimension that it adds to the medium at hand.

This is a nicely diverting debut issue. It is unfortunately out the week of a buzz worthy and notably strong mainstream book, but for those of us who search out that singular personal kind of book, the little gem that only the select few know about. You know the kind of book that makes your retailer groan, cause you are the only person getting it at your local comic shop. Those are the kind that make the hobby all the more special, give this one a shot, you might like it!