Broken Frontier

The last Pilot Season book I reviewed was Stellar #1 by Robert Kirkman, Marc Silvestri, and Bernard Chang. As a fan of Kirkman’s writing, I was disappointed by Stellar’s loose plotting and rushed pacing. It just seemed as if Stellar needed a little more work, even if it was only a pilot episode. If these Pilot Season books are intended to whet the audience’s appetite for more, then rushing an incomplete idea into production isn’t the way to do it, in my opinion. Why not give your potential fans the fullest, tightest story possible, instead?

In his column at the end of 39 Minutes, creator and writer William Harms educates the voting public about the inspiration for his Pilot Season entry. Starting with a whimsical, if deliciously twisted joke of robbing banks and killing cops as research for a story, Harms evidently couldn’t let the idea go. Inspired by the infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank of America heist perpetrated by a gang of masked, machine gun toting thugs, Harms ran with the idea of a crew of military-trained robbers and unleashed them on small town America.

Harms says it best: “Imagine, I thought, if those guys actually knew what they were doing and they were robbing banks in small, isolated towns. No one would be able to stop them.”

He’s probably right and the storytelling possibilities with such an intriguing and unique spin on the heist story are endless. And like the Marines tearing a swath through McCook, Nebraska (Population: 7994), Harms executes his idea with craftsmanship and precision. Realizing he only has one chance to hook the reader, Harms constructs a tightly plotted thriller, introducing characters and settings smoothly, while transitioning between scenes fluidly with spot-on timing. Each character is fully developed, possessing distinct personalities, appearances, and speech patterns. Even the masked gunmen rampaging through town feel and act with realism and distinctiveness.

It’s a damn shame then that the art doesn’t rise to the same high level of craftsmanship and quality. Don’t get me wrong, Lando and Leisten service the story with their efforts but only barely. The only thing truly distinct about their work is the distinct lack of backgrounds throughout the issue. For a book built around such an original take on the traditional caper yarn, 39 Minutes (and Harms) deserves an artistic team that similarly thinks outside the box – not Terry and Rachel Dodson Light.

Having said that, setting aside the art, my real complaint with 39 Minutes is that Top Cow didn’t just green light this title for a limited series from the outset. It’d be a shame if this book never again saw the light of day because it lost this year’s Pilot Season event. Harms has presented the jaded fanboy masses with the rarest of jewels – an intelligently conceived, well-crafted original idea. No matter how Pilot Season plays out, this is a book that deserves an audience – if only with a more suitable art team.

Just as an aside, one thing that somewhat concerned me about this Pilot Season entry was the warning label on the cover. I don’t have a problem with works created for a mature audience. I don’t even have a problem with the labels.

My concern with the mature themes of this and presumably other Pilot Season books is that it discourages younger readers from participating in the voting. Top Cow has a unique opportunity with its Pilot Season projects to reach out to new, younger readers, a precious commodity in a market perpetually shrinking due to an aging core audience. This isn’t intended as a criticism of the Pilot Season books per se but it would be nice if Top Cow stepped up to the plate and offered a similar event geared towards kids.