Broken Frontier

Black arts and Third Reich eugenics combine and bring about the ultimate, most monstrous super-solider ever created. Can such a deeply evil thing be controlled?

The Second World War has ended and the Nazis have won, undeniably undefeated in the Russian quarter thanks to a weapon born of science and the Volk – the bastard SS branch of pagan occultism. The story opens with German soldiers marching through war-torn streets, gratified by their victory but equally aimless for lack of purpose, for lack of war. As most men do when left with time and terror on their hands, they begin to tell each other stories; stories of the Blitzkrieg, the unnatural Aryan who brought them victory, and now is rumored to hunt their own kind. Tales are told of the one-man act of God decimating whole ensembles of collected German army men when they were peaceably assembled, and how he still hunts for more. Are the tales true? True or not, the Blitzkrieg soon arrives and a nearly issue-long massacre is penned to paper with graphic and lyrical finery and makes Katharsis #1 an indelibly unforgettable read.

Newcomers Michael Westerman and Xerx Javier (referred to as "Emmanuel Javier" on the cover) have brought an astonishing product to the table for their apparently first professional publication. On the outside, Katharsis looks – to literally judge a book by its cover – like a mediocre endeavor, with a quite frankly terrible cover by Javier (so terrible, in fact, that I only picked the issue up because I found an alternative Cover B by Luis Guzman, which was much better), ultra-stiff paper stock, and a preview in the back for another Americanime comic that read like an awkward, early first draft of a high school creative writing assignment. Yet still, there was the bizarrely mid-90’s title (catharsis with a K - like Styfe, or Thornn), and thank goodness I bothered to flip through the black and white artwork of Xerx – there was just something about the style and ambiance of the main interiors that clued me in on the possibility that I was holding something much better than it was peddling itself to be.

I am very happy I did; the story thunders directly into the thick of tension, tone, action, and a rich backstory I can’t wait to be fully revealed, all within a mere 26 pages of primo event. There’s a lot of unspoken activity occurring between the panels of this alternate, German occupied Russia, though the actual happenings of this opening arc are nothing but pure blood-and-guts action. Be it in a flashback or in the present, the intensity rarely lets up, and by the time the last page is ogled at by rapt, seemingly lidless eyes, you’ll scarcely believe you hadn’t just read the next big series by the latest of the Big Two.

Xerx Javier’s art is a godsend for Katharsis’ dark, hyper-violent plot. I suspect that the unattractiveness of his issue #1 cover may have to do with the fact that it was colored – from what I can glean of the interiors, Xerx was born to draw in black and white! The figures, the world, and consequent blood-spattered brawls are painstakingly given a visceral, harrowing life with a style similar to the Stephen Gammell illustrations found within the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series of books. Xerx doesn’t use nearly as much charcoal or blown ink to achieve his atmospheric ends as those, but the effect is emphatically the same; the world of Katharsis is an intensely dark one, mired in horrors both past and present.

And certainly something must be said for the comic’s focal character – the so-called Blitzkrieg super-weapon himself. This man is a thrillingly original design of motivation and power. He is far, far from even being an anti-hero, as the mores that move him are treacherously arbitrary ones; he’s little better than the worst of villains, and near bursts with flawed pride and arrogance. And his monstrous, super-human abilities are the most unusual of all. I can’t (won’t) reveal a bit of it here, but I will say that the odd powers of the Blitzkrieg alone will have me racing back for the second issue when it hits.

Katharsis is more or less a modern day Frankenstein monster tale, set within the background of a waning world war. It’s a story that demands the reader question which might be the true villain of the piece, the monster or its creator, and already within the first issue I found myself changing my mind twice on the answer. The story is riveting with a dash of profundity. The art is an assemblage of some of the best black and white etchings I’ve gawked at in years.

Another Americanime series, Honor of the Damned, has shown an equal amount of promise and quality creativity. I am quickly being won over, skirting the line of becoming a die-hard fan of the company and its products.

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