Monolith (1991) #1-4 by Mort Castle, Mitch Byrd, David Mowry and others
I guess this might be considered the first series (more or less) wholly originated by the post-bankruptcy Comico? The previous series we’ve looked at on this blog have been either originated in the previous incarnation (Elementals) or a reprint (that Hobbit thing).
But this is done by a team of people who are new to the company — Mort Castle was the writer for Leatherface, published by a company owned by the same guy that owns Comico, Andrew Rev.
So even if this is an Elementals spin-off, we can perhaps use this mini-series to gauge where Rev wants the company to go?
And… eh…
Man, that’s some ugly and disjointed artwork. As for the story:
Yeah, we’re way into edgelord territory — not that this is a shocking new development for Elementals, but it’s many steps further, I guess.
Let’s take a moment to admire this panel. You could mistake it for a deliberate grotesque if it had been made by, say, Lorenzo Mattotti, but I suspect that it looks this way because the people here just can’t draw. Or the inker misunderstood what the penciller had drawn. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be a profile?
It really looks like NewComico is more into horror stuff than anything else…
Ooooh! That’s some editorial. Could this give the book the highly coveted Highest Pretentiousness Ratio Between Pretentious Editorial And Dogshit Comic Award? Probably not.
Reading this book is just very unpleasant. It feels… wrong. And not in a horror book way (and it’s a horror book, I guess), but just because it’s so… squicky.
Or perhaps spluggtthy is a better way to describe it.
You also feel like you’re having a mild brain aneurysm while reading it — nothing much makes sense.
OK, the skeeziness of that blue guy’s design can’t be blamed on these creators — he already looked that way.
It ends with some infodumping, because why not.
Man, what an unpleasant and tiresome book. I really didn’t want this to turn into one of those Old Man Rants At Thirty Year Old Comic Book Done (Probably) By Some Kids For No Money, but it just proved impossible not to.
Really looking forward to reading the rest of the RevCo output now…
Oops. It’s not a kid.
I’m unable to find any contemporary reviews of the book, which means (I guess) that RevCo were bad at getting the book into people’s hands. Getting Kelley Jones to do the four wrap-around covers to this series was a major get, though.
Castle has published a lot of books, few of which have many reviews.
Uhm:
Among Castle’s other Northstar and, later, Comico, projects, the limited series Monolith, remains a personal favorite. A spinoff of Bill Willingham’s landmark Elementals, Monolith spotlighted a gifted teen-superhero. With as many years an educator as he claims as a writer, working primarily with gifted high school students, Castle followed the Prime Directive of Writing: Write What You Know.
I can’t find any reviews of the book on the interwebs? That’s unusual.
Despite the Kelley Jones covers, you can pick up these books pretty cheaply.
OK, what’s next… the Vortex mini-series? Which was cancelled after two issues? I’m sure that one’s much better. Join me in two days to find out.