On Free Comic Book Day (Saturday May 7!) we’ll finally get to see Spectrum. Not a preview or a handful of pages, but a full-length issue from writers Alan Tudyk and PJ Haarsma and artist Sarah Stone, the artist of Transformers: Windblade, so I was throwing my money at them as soon as I heard that last tidbit. Except I don’t have to throw money, because it’s free. See below for the review!
If you’re not familiar with it, Con Man is the web series featuring Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk, about a couple actors who were both part of a tremendously popular sci-fi show that entranced millions and was cancelled too soon. (Yes, it’s very meta.)
The show they were on was Spectrum. Despite all the nudges and winks to Firefly, it does have a different feel from Firefly, which is refreshing (as much as we love Firefly, we also like to see things that are new.)
So Spectrum, the TV show, was “the show within the show.” Spectrum issue 0 is the comic book about the show within the show, which was always a nod at a completely different show. It’s not just meta, it’s gloriously meta.
And the best part is that the comic book, from what I’ve seen in one issue, isn’t a parody of anything. It actually stands on its own as a whole new story. Nathan Fillion’s character isn’t Mal, he’s not the captain of Firefly, and this isn’t the Whedonverse. Not that there’s a problem with any of those things, but I’m not interested in reading a sci-fi story that parodies those things, they’re too dear to my heart.
The story is detailed and intricate, and takes place on several different worlds, including Earth. It has aliens and paramilitary groups, extraterrestrial attacks on tourist monuments, and high-tech weapons that slice Nathan’s car in half. (That was a particularly impressive page.)
(Off-topic, sort of, but can I comment on how if you type “alien” into thesaurus.com, you don’t get the extraterrestrial synonyms until page five? Come on, thesaurus.com, embrace the geek already.)
The writing by Tudyk and Haarsma is serious, but interesting, with quippy clever dialog in places, like when Fillion’s character is asked a question by the soldier driving his car to the meeting point.
“Everything all right, sir? I have family in D.C.”
“What’s your name, son?”
“Brooks.”
“Brooks, I have family, too. We’ll help them by doing our jobs. I just need you to do yours 30 miles an hour faster.”
It’s also a pretty dark story, as not everybody survives the first issue, and we do get to see a particularly maimed body (though it doesn’t linger on the gore, we get just enough of a taste to know they’re not kidding around.)
The art, though, is what sold me. I knew I’d love it the second I heard Sarah Stone was involved, but I didn’t know how much I’d love it.
I have a problem with comics that include people we know from TV and movies. It’s a tough line to walk: the drawings need to look like the actors, but they don’t need to be so painstakingly realistic that we can tell every panel was drawn from a photograph and we get creepy amount of detail in the lines of their face or their teeth.
Stone has walked that line very well. No, not very well, brilliantly. We know it’s Fillion, it’s absolutely him. But it’s just stylized enough that we’re comfortable with any differences. She’s free to add her own touch to his expressions and facial features without us losing sight of who he is, without her own lovely style being cramped by a too-realistic depiction. I don’t think he’s ever been drawn better.
Then you add in the aliens. I love the design for them. They have a stark, nose-less face, sharp teeth, and digitigrade legs, and they look fantastic. The last few pages deal with the Scion (who looks like Fillion’s character’s daughter, due to a badly-timed holographic phone call) talking with an alien she’s (hypnotized? brainwashed?) into being her servant, and I could read those pages over and over. They’re lovely, is what I’m saying. I wish I had better preview pages to show you, but you’ll have to check them out Saturday.
This is an issue I’d absolutely pay money for. The fact that it’s free isn’t icing on the cake, it’s the cake and the candles too.