Broken Frontier

Toby Fox keeps a journal on his town because Rook City is anything but ordinary. Just ask the retired vigilante or the vampires…

The basic idea behind Rook City is not that new – it has been mined by such TV series as The X-Files and Eerie Indiana. However, as with many comic books the point is not the originality of the subject matter but the skill with which the author presents it. With Rook City Wolfshorndl gives readers five tales of varying degrees of satisfaction that add up to an entire package.

In the first story, "Bullets and Bedpans" – an old, somewhat senile, Punisher-like vigilante called the Rebuker begins a daring escape… from his nursing home. In the second tale, "Transformations" a research project on the blood of Vlad Tepes (A.K.A. Vlad the Impaler and the rough model for the legends of Dracula) leads to… the Vlad Squad?! And maybe something more. In "Sleuth", our narrator, Toby takes center stage as he solves a mystery on his college campus – one that most do not seem to want solved… "Showtime" feature’s Rook City’s local superhero the Captain and his archenemy Dark Star… but is everything how it seems? The final tale, "Gratuity", sees us return to the Rebuker as he attempts to restart his vigilante career.

Writer-artist Seth Wolfshorndl has many things down perfect for this series but one thing he excels at is presenting short stories that are so packed with humor, satire, sarcasm and parody that each one could probably fill an entire comic all by itself. Almost every character here is quirky, defying easy description but that is what makes most of these stories work. Not every tale here is a home run knocked out of the park, though. Hilarious gems like "Bullets and Bedpans" and "Transformations" are balanced by "Showtime" which feels a bit too short, a bit too derivative, and not as sharp as the other knives in this drawer.

The art, also provided by Wolfshorndl, has a fun, over-the-top animated quality. Almost every character has an oversized head and four fingered hands and this cartoony appearance keeps the stories feeling light and screwball funny. There is also some nice detail work on the backgrounds and settings which aid in giving this world some familiar touchstones for readers. Like all good satire, it holds a slightly warped, funhouse mirror up to our own world. Wolfshorndl’s line work is a little rough or shaky in places but the good news is that with everything else being so strong this is something easily cured by time and work.

With a $2.95 price tag for over 32 pages of highly enjoyable comic book stories Rook City comes off as a bargain. Wolfshorndl has crafted an overall strong first outing and will hopefully keep turning out these stories that are sometimes witty, sometimes silly, but always entertaining. This comic is like a trip through the funhouse – a lot of laughs, some good-natured teasing, and at the end anticipation of the next time we get to go for a ride.

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Copies of Rook City #1 can be purchased through www.threetreesstudios.com