Manning, Tom – Runoff #1

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Runoff #1

I mean this in the best possible sense, but what a clusterfuck. Here’s what I know for sure about his issue. It has the cutest alien (I’m guessing at that) ever and many people are killed in a brutal yet mysterious way, Yep, that just about covers it. Does that mean that I hated it? Hell no! For one thing, Tom said right on the back that he just didn’t want to explain it because it would give things away. In other words, this is his story and we can follow along and figure it out or not. That took guts and it made me even more curious to see the rest of the story than I already was. One thing I was worried about was whether or not there were more issues, as this was done in 2000 and people have a habit of abandoning stories in the independent comics scene. No worries there though, as his website clearly shows that 3 more issues are done with another one on the way this month. About the only complaint I had about this was that it was a bit hard keeping the character straight, but that’s probably something that’ll get easier as the series goes on. Oh, and the many different panel styles, along with the 4 panel newspaper strip thrown in a few times, was kind of jarring. Again, he says he has a master plan, and who am I to doubt? Check it out if you haven’t heard of already, it looks like a really unique project.