Broken Frontier

Michael Allred would like to introduce you to someone important to him… Madman.

The eighth issue of Madman under the Image banner is the perfect jumping on point. I bought Gargantuan , but due to my massive back log of reading, I have yet to get all of the way through it. It is intriguing and I have read each issue of the new series with baited anticipation of something, anything to happen. Supposedly, there were a lot of story lines that were tied up in those issues. For this reader, and many other new readers, after Frank and the Atomics got into space, there was a lot of talk under a tree in space FOR SIX ISSUES!!! It was interesting and intriguing, but hardly must read material.

Now Allred gives us a nice summary of the entire events of Madman’s life, before this series, and this time with words. Readers of the book will be familiar with the long recaps of what went before in page thumbnails. It is nice to get the general idea of the series in such a format. It summarizes well not only the origin and action thus far, but more importantly it summarizes the philosophy of the book. For a book that is this esoteric, this was the best move that Allred could have made.

While the short prose is again interesting, but hardly compelling as what has come before in Image’s run, it is the art that continues to draw me to this book. Allred is incredible and this issue is a tour de force. He literally transcends himself as the format and layout mimic a movie that Frank is watching. Frank sees himself on the screen and relives what got him to this point. It is a unique achievement as art and words meld together to form something new. It is a subtle technique that could be so easily missed, but when noticed adds so much context to the story itself.

Madman is a book about big ideas and with this one issue, Allred makes his biggest step towards gaining the kind of attention that his book deserves. While the first few issues may have left me a little lost; this one is direct, beautiful and masterful. It is a unique achievement that can only be done by a master. Finally, Allred seems to have reached that status.