Blog Archives
Roberts, Rafer – Plastic Farm #5 (with Jake Warrenfeltz)
Plastic Farm #5 (with Jake Warrenfeltz) Now Available! $2.95
For some reason I haven’t been keeping track of the artist for these issues, as Rafer only drew #1 and 2 (according to his website). Oops. I’ll dig up the rest of them soon. I mention this because, really for the first time in the series, some of the art was noticably bad. I don’t know if it was rushed or if it’s just really tough to draw a rapidly changing party scene with people dancing and causing a ruckus, but those first 6 pages or so were tough to look at. After that it was fine, but that party scene was something else. Anyway, this issue still has nothing to do with anything else, at least not yet. It was titled “Sean”, so I’m guessing she’s the character to keep an eye on. Sean and a couple of friends crash a party, literally, and cause some havoc. The rest of the issue is calmer, dealing with Sean and her boyfriend, who is leaving as Sean sticks around for a year or so to get her degree. The backup story was an illustrated poem by Matt Dembicki called Witch’s Tongue, which had the benefits of looking great and being more than a little bit creepy. All in all this was the weakest issue of the bunch, mostly due to that crappy stretch of art and a disjointed story, but the disjointed story is one of the good things about this comic. What can I say, I’m taking them as they come. Maybe this’ll turn out to be a crucial issue later, but I’d say pick up pretty much any one of the other issues for a better example of what this series is capable of. $2.95
Roberts, Rafer – Plastic Farm #1
Plastic Farm #1 Now Available! $2.95
When something reminds me of Eddie Campbell in any way, it’s a good thing. I’m not sure if it’s the lettering or the way that the Kamikaze Kid reminds me of the Eyeball Kid. Only slightly so far, as this is the first issue, but it’s there. What’s this series about? Well, a man named “Cheez” wakes up in a pile of his own vomit with no idea what happened to him the night before or how he got there. Most the rest of the issue is about the Kamikaze Kid, with a tiny, tiny segue to get there. Then there’s the ending, which doesn’t make any sense at all right now, but it’s setting up for future issues so that’s OK. Overall, well, I loved this. The story had me constantly wondering what was going to happen next, the dialogue was smart and believable (which, considering some of the settings, was pretty impressive), and any artist that can draw a harpoon gun that well is wonderful in my book. Then there’s a short story by Sean Duffey & Jake Warrenfeltz about explorers in the future trying to find a new planet for resources. It was pretty good and I love the idea of having backup stories from different artists in each issue. Remember when Dave Sim used to do that? Ah, good Cerebus memories. Here’s a website, they sent me the next five issues too, so there should be plenty of time in the coming weeks to see where all this is going, and whether or not it’s worth going there. So far I’m intrigued…
