Level 10 Comics - Issue 001 - JUMP Review

Before I provide my opinions about the issue, kudos to Level 10 for having brought to India a localized comic book, that can very well be compared to well-established comic book producers at the other end of the globe (no, I am not giving them free publicity ;)). This is a tremendous shift from the typical perception of Indian comic books that people have. Hope it changes the mentality of people and make them look at comics as a creative outlet.

Now for the review. Being a not-so-active blogger (wait, I am not even a blogger !), this review will be somewhat rustic but I hope I get my views across. And, also hope the Level 10 guys will take kindly to the criticisms (yeah, sue me, sue me !...nah, I kid the creative guys :)).

Overall, the issue gets a thumbs up. Three stories with different foundations and premises - The Northern Song, a story about a demon hunter - Shaurya, a story about a group of superpowered teens and The Rabhas Incident, a story of Bangalore being zombified ! All were easy reads, with the ups and downs of course, and with amazing, amazing artwork in all the three issues. The art will easily take the comic up a notch up compared to the generic fare of Indian comic books.

The Northern Song - Written by V Mohanty and drawn by Vivek Goel. Frankly, I found the story to be a bit generic, but I hope that it is just the first issue. There is not much happening in the story and not much scenes that brings the oomph factor into the book. A good comic book is something that should consist of moments - moments where the reader should say "wow" and this I found a bit lacking here. Not that the story lacked such opportunities but I felt that such opportunities were not leveraged upon. For example, the scene showing the demon come out of the cave - maybe some description or some lead or something that the hero says in the previous scene instead of just "Hraaaaaaaahh". But nevertheless, the story was cohesive and the emotions were portrayed very well. The art was good, if not the best and the diagonal portrayals felt a bit unique. I am not an artist, so I cannot give my comments here and I will let the art experts do the job :). Mohanty did a nice job getting the reader into the village kind of feel and he has the command of the mythological aspects of the story. So, great job but can still be made better. Also, pssst, I didn't understand what happened at the end of the issue ! Rating - 3.0/5

Shaurya - Easily the best story of the week. It gave a vibe of desi X-Men. Wait, it IS desi X-Men or from what I have seen of it so far. The premise was incredible and the spread of the "villain" in the third page was visually awesome or as the current generation of youngsters say, I jizzed in my pants seeing that page ! (And, this is exactly what I meant by "moments" in the earlier review). The issue felt more of a introduction issue and it introduced all the characters one by one, which I felt could have been handled in a better way, jelling the origins gradually and slowly along with the main story. The characterization was indeed good and hope it sticks along in future issues. The dialogue gets a bit cheesy in between and looks overdone("Fraandship"? Really, Shreyas? What were you thinking? :) A spoofing dialogue in a serious book is a big no-no). But, Shreyas as the writer and Sharma as the artist did a great job and ended it quite well, on a mysterious note. Rating - 4.5/5

The Rabhas Incident - Personally, I am not a fan of zombies but I felt that this was handled well for one. Suhas wrote the script and Harsho Mohan handled the art. The art was dark and inked heavily, which enhanced the feel of the issue. As a zombie outbreak story, there is not much room for a full-fledged story but Suhas does well by bringing in side-stories of journalists and They-who-should-not-be-named Sene into the story. Again, good characterization of those two, dwelling deep into their psyche, to know their motivation. However, the same characterization lacked for the hero, which I guess is a deliberate ploy by the writer. The artwork involving Bangalore roads were a nice touch and as a Bangalorean I felt quite good seeing those pages :). But all said and done, the issue works and that is what matters. Oh, just a small note. Don't end the book with the hero at the crossroads and then show which path he took right on the next week's cover page, that you can see as soon as you turn the page :). Rating - 3.75/5

Overall, a must-buy issue if you are a comic book fan. Oh actually, it doesn't matter if you are a hardcore comic fan, borderline comic fan, I-dont-like-superheroes-but-I-wouldnt-mind-being-one comic fan or even an I-am-not-a-comic-fan type of person, just buy the book and taste the experience once. At Rs. 60 per month, you can, of course, afford it.

P.S Oh, and just a thought to the Level 10 artistes. Maybe the double-page spreads should be ditched. Unlike the US comic issues, the JUMP issue is thick and the double page does not show well due to the tight glueing. But, not a major concern anyway.