Broken Frontier

Owen Craig is a normal everyday teenager.  Solid family life at home with his father and sister; enrolled in a good school; and has some fun friends that can help get him out of trouble.  Only problem is they also help him get into it.  As Owen and his friend Jack Newton do some small time vandalizing in the old abandoned "Scooby Doo house," things go from normal to strange in the blink of an eye for Owen and suddenly his reality leaves him thinking he's dreaming.

There's something inherently wonderful with the writing of Paul Grist.  The man just knows how to tell a good story.  There's nothing out of the ordinary about the setup here; any comic book fan will recognize it immediately: teenager, lots going for him, some stuff under the surface, and then suddenly... superpowers.  And yet, despite what could very easily fall into melodramatic cliche, it remains fresh and fun in Grist's hands.  The dialogue feels right for these characters (especially a scene where Jack saves Owen from a bully) and never forces the action.  Grist does enough to show that these characters live in a fully realized world.  He even does a little of his vintage time manipulating, jumping around the action to keep surprises coming, even one for Owen in French class.

As good as Grist is as a writer, it's his illustration that shines through as the star of his work.  His artwork is not incredibly detailed, and sometimes he even leaves backgrounds out of scenes altogether, but everything about it is just perfect.  Grist seems to come from a very old school technique, as if his work is the natural evolution from Eisner's Spirit and Miller's Daredevil.  With his work eschewing excessive details, each panel and drawing gives the reader exactly what is needed, bordering on a more iconic style.  Because of this, the reader knows in each panel exactly where to go and what is important and Grist can whisk you away at the pace he wants.  His page breakdowns are likewise minimalistic in nature, with panel borders not even necessary on most pages.  Best of all this is a book that recognizes and even smiles and enjoys the fact that it is a comic book.

One of the trademarks of Jack Staff and Kane before it was Grist's ability to weave together multiple storylines, and even timelines, into one cohesive (and often incredible) story.  It will be interesting to see if he continues with that here in the adventures of Mudman.  One thing is for certain though, this book is not to be missed.