Santoro, BJ & Frank – Cold Heat #2

Website

Cold Heat #2

What a fantastically ugly comic. At times anyway, at other times it’s gorgeous and neat. You do all know that I don’t consider “fantastically ugly” to be a bad thing, right? Good. I jumped into the second issue of a projected 12 part series, and according to their website (which has all kinds of other comics not related to these two, by the way) they’re already up to #4, so it’s moving right along. It’s the story of Castle, a young woman who we meet here taking her morning pills (called Upliftors), learning all sorts of things about life, sex, death, aliens, corporate rock and globalization, at least according to that website I just mentioned. This issue in particular opens with the death of the son of a Senator, with the papers calling him a “loser”, even in death. This is the last straw for this Senator, who promises to kick in the doors of all the drug addicts in town until he finds out what happened to his son. The rest of the issue is cops talking to various kids and Castle sinking further and further into madness, eventually winding up at an institution. The art is risky and all over the place; I can see somebody getting turned off if they open the book to the wrong page. But the visual representation of Castle’s descent, from the giant eyes trying to figure it all out up to the blank, hopeless look on her face before trying to overdose is heartbreaking. The website says that this series is going to touch on all sorts of things before it’s through, and I’m already blown away, one issue in, with an issue that’s narrowly focused. This is something to keep an eye on in the future, that’s for sure. $5