Albright, Brad – Bad Painting

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Bad Painting

Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying the full color books lately? I know it’s not financially possibly for 99% of the people who make mini comics to do this, but more often than not it looks terrific, really adds something to the story. This probably doesn’t mean that I’m on the verge of heading back to the brightly colored world of DC/Marvel, I’m just saying full color sure is purty. This is the story (all done in verse) of a painting, made by a man who was about as depressed as a person could get as a way to get himself back right with the world. It’s crude, it’s flawed, but it was made with genuine love. So this guy takes what little money he has left to open up a gallery space, only to find that all of the critics really hated his piece and weren’t afraid to say so… and were then eaten by his painting. This goes on around the world, with his painting becoming a phenomen (in a negative way) and eventually killing half the population. As the artist is the only one who seems to be able to approach the painting without getting killed, what’s he to do? Any more than that and I’m telling you the whole story, but you get the idea. The story in verse is usually the kind of thing that bugs me more as the comic goes on, but this was done as well as humanly possible. It was funny, witty and occasionally unexpected (as a writer can get a bit trapped in a predictable rhyming scheme). The art was gorgeous, with a wide array of people and objects that all looked distinct because of some serious skill in the drawing department, or it’s possible that I was just dazzled by all the colors. The whole thing just put a smile on my face from start to finish, which is odd for a book where half the world gets killed. Hey, it is the bad half getting killed, after all. One last thing: even though everybody who had a critical word to say about the painting in the book gets killed, that had no bearing at all on my review. My possible annihilation had no bearing on the content of this review… $5