Radical Comics: A Rising Star

For almost the last two years, I've been following Radical Comics, a new comic book publisher as it's forged a niche for itself in the independent comics market. Their style is characterized by taking established genres or myths and providing a new perspective to them. The majority of thier publishing covers various science fiction and fantasy titles illustrated by some of the best new artists in the industry. Almost every issue features a painted style appropriate to the story, though this does come with drawbacks.

Radical Comics first blazed onto the scene with their 2008 Free Comic Book Day offering, featuring several pages from the first two books they planned to release later that month. The first two books were Hercules: The Thracian Wars, about a group of former Argonauts training the army of Thrace in new military tactics, and Caliber, a retelling of Arthurian myth in a period similar to the Wild West. Both stories were interesting, and they served as a good initial offering by the new company.

New books were scheduled, each telling a unique story that in a different setting. These titles included Hotwire (a brainchild of Warren Ellis about a Exorcist/Police Detective who worked in a future that looked a little like Blade Runner), Shrapnel ( an epic science fiction tale about a former Marine aiding a Colonial Rebellion against Earth Invaders, with some story similarities to the old anime Venus Wars), Freedom Formula (about a futuristic city where people race in giant mechs instead of cars), and City of Dust (about a future civilization where imagination is illegal). Hotwire was easily my favorite of the four. This batch started to show a problem with Radical's creative teams. The original artist bowed out and was replaced half way through the series. I don't know if this was due to the artist taking other work or getting fired, but it throws off the story a little by having the art change half-way through a mini-series.

Radical has several new series which recently started including FVZA (about the remnants of a federal organization that stemmed the tide of vampire and zombie infection in the United States before being disbanded), Incarnate (a bland Vampire Hunter D-wannabe written by Gene Simmons's son), Last Days of American Crime (which I have not read and thus cannot write anything about), and Hercules: Knives of Kush (a sequel to the Thracian Wars set in Egypt). Two new promising titles were released yesterday, Aladdin: Legacy of the Lost (a dark tale of Arabian myth) and Legends: The Echanted (a horror graphic novel where fairy tale characters Jack and Red Riding Hood are monster hunters in a brutal landscape populated by werewolves, hags, and giants). Both series look like they will be a good addition to the Radical library.

Any of the titles (except for Freedom Formula or Incarnate) are worth a try if you're looking for a non-super-hero book to read. Also, if you just want to wait until May, Radical always uses Free Comic Book Day as a good time to market their future books with a good sample of the art and writing.