Broken Frontier

What is wrong with Raven Gregory? That seems like a simple question, but answering simple questions can sometimes turn into something uncontrollable. Maybe looking back at history to better understand the here and now is the best way... Then maybe it defines a common theme and will show just what is so wrong with him!

Raven has managed to pull off three major projects. The first was The Gift (via Image Comics) in which an ancient hat-wearing mystery-man walks the world, handing out powers to people. These ordinary men then still act ordinary and human and some redeem themselves whereas others just damn themselves twice over. The Ancient One seems to act randomly but still has a mysterious reason behind his actions.

Raven second's big project was the trilogy of Wonderland (via Zenescope) which attempted to pick up the pieces of Alice after she grew up and created a nice little dysfunctional family after her adventures following the White Rabbit concluded. Those pieces were sure to live a life on their own and Raven was just the man for this job of telling these stories. He followed various people and despite the gore, the magic, the suspense and the T&A that ran wildly within the pages of Beyond Wonderland, he also managed to broadcast both the vices and the virtues of ordinary and extra-ordinary people.

And now he has The Waking (creator-owned and published via Zenescope) to further serve his purpose of writing about love and people's sentiments, their flaws and their joys, their hardships and their life-puzzles! Again he chooses several people to bear witness to humorous, joyous and inspirational events or to the graphical, grim and all-out-tough reality of every day! He also chooses the love between a father and his sweet daughter Maddie in the big picture and chooses the love between a sexy woman (who is also a nympho) and a detective (who cannot keep up) as just a small sideshow.

And he uses throwaway characters to underline the underbelly of society. A professor who knows how to "give" grades, a cop who shoots an innocent man, a man who used his car with lethal force...

He mixes this with the supernatural and uncanny ability of a father to wake the vengeful dead. These specific dead will stop at nothing till they carry out revenge on their murderers... And a father who will do anything to keep his daughter close to his heart!

When I first read Kirkman's The Walking Dead I was hit hard when I realized that it was not about zombies but about life and humanity. The Waking serves that same purpose. Raven has had The Waking for years and years and is not riding the zombie-hype, nor does he want to do a "Kirkman" on his readers. He is his own man and you can only acknowledge his own humanity for creating an amazing story and then setting out to amaze readers with a penciller who can draw Raven's dreams and a letterer who can narrate Raven's dreams and a publisher that acknowledges his talent and wants to take the final step.

Looking upon his personal work, you can clearly see that Raven takes his inspiration from himself and the people around him, where he then twists and shakes it around and lets it flow onto paper as a very personal and emotional story as well as an advocate (in a very in-your-face entertaining way) to morals and ethics that should and will inspire readers. After finishing The Waking the reader will be left with a lot to ponder about...as was the case with every single one of Raven's projects. And that is what makes a writer truly someone with comic book magic, when in fact it is not only entertaining but also gives food for thought!

Raven is not wrong...he was never wrong...he was right all along!!