Comic review: The Shrinking Man #1- Soggy Crackers

Original book by: Richard Matheson
Adaptation: Ted Adams
Art & Design: Mark Torres

Publisher: IDW Comics

Released: 29th July 2015


Is there a huge demand for new comic book adaptations of science fiction novels that were popular in the 1950’s?

I’m not trying to be a condescending a*** hole here. All I’m doing is posing a question that I myself would be interested in hearing the answer to.

I’m asking this question because I have just read a 2015 comic book that is setting out to faithfully adapt a 1956 novel, ‘The Shrinking Man,’ by Richard Matheson, and I’m thinking to myself, does this really have an audience?

I read ‘The Shrinking Man’ #1 blind, unaware of any of the history behind it, and my initial reaction to it was, why is it being set in the 1950’s?

Now I know, and I don’t quite know how to feel about it. The comic book certainly reads like an adaptation of a 1950’s novel. It’s slow, not much happens, and it’s all about the main protagonist, a bloke who is getting smaller and smaller.

This first issue tells the ‘before’ story of the shrinking man, exploring his thoughts and concerns about his condition. Understandably, he’s not very happy about it. During the book we see him moaning to his wife and going to some scientists in the hope that they can cure him. Evidentially they failed to stop the shrinkage, as when the book switches to the present he is shown to be just the right size to be gobbled up by a spider.

The spider action could have brought some excitement and danger into the narrative, but all the spider does is chase him. There is no confrontation, no fight, no dramatic escape, and when the spider is poised to attack our hero, the narrative jumps to the future, missing out on all of the exciting action that presumably happened in-between. I guess he survived the spider attack, because he’s still alive, but why wasn’t it shown? This is very unsatisfactory.

Strangely enough, the spider and imminent painful death isn’t our heroes main concern. His main concern is how he is going to get some food, and the issue concludes with a very hungry and frustrated little man looking at some soggy crackers. No imminent spider attack, no danger, no tension, no excitement, just boring old soggy crackers, a little man and a rumbling tummy.

Is that supposed to make me feel excited about getting the second issue? Soggy crackers are no cliffhanger. A venomous spider about to devour our protagonist as his hands slowly slip from a table is a cliffhanger, but soggy crackers? I’m sorry, that’s just not cutting it.

I love the retro cover (by Mark Torres), and I’m a huge fan of old comics, so I should have enjoyed this book, but there was something a bit too pedestrian about it all.

It should have been a thrill a minute rollercoaster ride with danger at every corner and a heart stopping cliffhanger to top it all off. That’s what it should have been, but what I’ve actually read here is a plodding narrative about a depressed little man and his box of soggy crackers.

The Shrinking Man will certainly be more interesting to read in trade-paperback, but as a monthly comic book it appears that the adventures of this miniature man from the 1950’s is going to be a long, slow, drawn-out, and not particularly exciting or urgent reading experience.

Rating: 4/10 (Slow, and lacking in moments of danger, tension, urgency and excitement)

Review: The Covenant #2- A Godless Society is a Vulnerable Society

Writer: Rob Liefeld
Artist: Matt Horak
Colours: Jeremy Colwell
Letters: Chris Eliopolous
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 8th July 2015



I found issue #2 of The Covenant to be far more accessible, easy to read, and enjoyable than issue #1. The narrative is linear, uncluttered and concise, so when events unfold it’s easy to correlate cause and effect, and to enjoy it as it happens.

The theme of the book is about what happens to a people when they become decadent, complacent and lose their faith in God. Loss of faith brings judgement onto a people. A people without faith are weakened and vulnerable to attack. Enemies seize on this weakness and take what is most precious to that people. In this book it is the powerful military weapon, the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant

The ark is a devastating weapon on the battlefield. The Hebrew people have used it before, and it has always given them victory, but this time it fails them. They call on its power, but it does not respond. Its carriers are slain, and the ark is captured, taken from the battlefield, and is now in possession of the snake-worshipping enemy of the Hebrews, the Philistines.

‘The ark is but a symbol. Without faith it is an empty vessel.’

The Hebrew people lost faith, and so their great weapon no longer protected them, that is why it was taken, that is why it did not work as it did before. A faithless people that has abandoned their God will no longer be protected, and they will become vulnerable to the enemies that were previously defeated through the power of faith.

Sounds fair to me.

Issue #2 of the Covenant concludes with the defeated Hebrews re-evaluating their defeat, appointing a new leader, and plotting to regain the ark, but will it ever work again for a faithless people who have deserted their God?

We’ll see, and as I’m not as familiar with this Bible story as I want to be, I cannot wait to see what happens next in this fascinating and massively insightful historical story.

I’m very much enjoying this book. It’s teaching me a lot, and as a child raised in a secular/atheistic society I very much appreciate having Bible stories in comic book form where I can read, learn and enjoy the many moral, philosophical and spiritual lessons that were absent in my early life.

The art by Matt Horak helps tremendously, and when I purchased the book today in my comic book shop, the guy working there (Hi Troy) commented that the art looks like some of Becky Cloonan’s friendly faced, accessibly cute work. I agree. It does look like some of Cloonan’s cute and cuddly art-work, and that is a huge plus as it brings an element of accessibility to the book, injecting a ‘fun’ factor that might have been lacking if the art had a darker, ‘edgier’ feel to it.

Because of the accessibility of the artwork you can read ‘The Covenant’ just as you would read any other contemporary, mainstream superhero book. The added benefit is that you are getting a story that is saying something important about man and his relationship with God, and not just another feminist leaning social justice warrior comic book that is pushing politically correct stories that have zero relevance to anybody.

I understand all too well that the atheist, Dawkins reading, arrogant, dismissive, patronising, science knows best, Marxist, feminist, liberal, progressive comic book readers (and that’s 90% of them today) won’t even consider reading a comic book that is based on a Bible story. That’s their loss. I hope they enjoy their teen girl superhero books, but I’m after something with a bit more depth and meaning these days, and a comic book like ‘The Covenant #2’ is perfect for me.

If you take a chance on this book you’ll get some great art and a story that shows the inevitable consequences that will befall a society when secularism, greed and commerce become the driving motivations behind human interaction. Nothing is new under the sun, and what happened before will surely happen again. That’s a lesson that we need to relearn, and that’s the lesson that is being re-told in this essential comic book.



Rating: 10/10 (Insightful, accessible and enjoyable)

Review: The October Faction #5- Good idea, wrong book

Writer: Steve Niles
Artist: Damien Worm
Publisher: IDW
Released: 25th March 2015

There is one good idea in this month’s ‘The October Faction,’ but apart from that it’s just the usual combination of a story with a muddled tone that features some very cool, gothic artwork.

The good idea is that a bloke who turns into a werewolf is suffering from terminal cancer, but that it doesn’t appear to affect him when he’s a wolf, it's just the human side that’s done for. The obvious solution to the problem then is to stay as a permanent wolf. That’s interesting, but I don’t see how it’s going to be well used in this story that is ostensibly about a jokey Adam’s family/Munsters group and their inconsequential, don’t take all of this too seriously, adventures.

Put the wolf/cancer thing in another book, a book that has a serious tone, take the same artist with you (the fantastic Damien Worm) and then you’ll have something that would really be worth following. Perhaps the wolf blood can be used to cure cancer? But does that blood have other side (murder related) effects?

Do you see what I mean? It’s a good idea isn’t it? It has loads of possibilities, and you could do an entire little series about it. But having that idea in this book as it is, with the comedy tone, and the feeling that nothing really matters, I don’t like to say this, but it’s just not working.

This is particularly evident in issue #5. The book concludes with a cliff-hanger where one of the main characters is put in a life or death situation. That’s a big deal, right? Well, it should be.  It should have a huge, dramatic impact, but because of the casual tone of the book the impact is negligible. You can’t take it seriously, because the book isn’t serious. The entire tone of the narrative is silly, light and inconsequential. You can’t get involved in it, and you can’t take any threats to the protagonists seriously, because they themselves are not written seriously.

Getting emotionally engaged in this book would be like getting worried about Wile. E Coyote as he flaps his arm and falls helplessly to the bottom of the mountain. You don’t worry about poor old Wile. E because he’s a cartoon. He’ll be fine, don’t worry about it. That’s the same feeling I get with the characters in this book, the only difference is that the Roadrunner cartoon is funny, whilst this book is just a big old muddle.

I don’t understand what the writer is going for here, or what I am supposed to make of it all. It confuses me. I don’t understand what it’s trying to be. It’s not funny enough to be a dark comedy, and not interesting or emotionally involving enough to be a drama, plus it looks spooky and creepy, but the story isn’t scary at all.

I love the dark, atmospheric, spooky art in this book, but I can’t pretend that it’s a superior comic book just for the art alone. Take away the great art from this book, and what do you have?  Let’s be honest. It isn’t great. It’s okay, but in a comic book market flooded with okay isn’t it about time that we started to ask for something a bit better?


Rating: 5/10 (Plodding script, but I loved the art, as I always do with Mr. Worm)