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Meehan, Bram – Raised By Squirrels: Los Alamos (with Monica Meehan)
Raised By Squirrels: Los Alamos
This story is about two issues away from requiring a glossary of some kind at the start of the book just to keep up with the huge cast of characters. And, in case you don’t read this site much, I think that’s great. Following the main story here (more on that shortly) there are 4 short stories, basically brief histories of 4 characters done by 4 different artists. Dean Bookman (art by Jeff Kilburn), Rose Moscato (art by Dale DeForest), Janet Riordan (art by Pete Ziomek) and Reginald Martin (art by Jeff Benham), who also features prominently in the central story of the issue. Rose and Tyler are searching around Los Alamos when they run across a strange energy reading, which leads them directly to an elderly Reginald Martin. Most of the issue deals with the history of this project and just how they got to where they are today, but there are still plenty of things to be left uncovered and, like I said, a sprawling cast of characters with various known and unknown motivations. All of the “back-up” stories (it just feels odd calling them “back-up when they seem so integral to the story in the long run) are labelled as Part 1, which is going to turn into a great tool to flesh these people out without interfering with the larger story, another great idea by Bram. I’m hooked, I admit it, can’t wait to see where this whole thing is going, and I love the idea that it’s probably going to take years for the picture to come into any kind of clarity. That’s provided that they keep this up at the current pace or something near it, but so far so good on that front. Again, this is perfect for anybody out there who likes mysteries, or thrillers, or super heroes… hell, if they throw a few zombies or moping slacker types, they can have every audience in comics covered. Great stuff, probably best in large chunks, which should be a lot more possible in six months or so when they have another one or two of these collections out… $5.95
Meehan, Bram – Raised By Squirrels (with Monica Meehan)
Raised By Squirrels
Call this an aesthetic problem if you want, but it’s really best to throw a “Book One” on the cover if you plan on keeping the story going, which it sure looks like they’re doing here. It just looks naked now. Minor quibbles aside, this was a fun espionage thrilller book, if a bit confusing at times and loaded with too many flashbacks in a row. They story begins with a woman (Rose) trying to get a man (Tyler) who has left a nebulous spy organization (S.Q.R.L.) to come back to the fold. She left him for dead previously, but he sees he has no choice in the matter so goes with her. No idea how he survived being left for dead, as that part was left out of the flashbacks. S.Q.R.L. (no idea what it stands for) develops and/or makes super beings for use in their black ops type missions, and we get to briefly see a few here. This looks like it has the potential to be a massive, sprawling, complicated spy story, so a suggestion at the start, which they already picked up on a little bit: throw in some history here and there. More of the bits of memos we saw, or maybe a timeline when they get another half dozen issues or so into the storyline. I like what I saw (the art was great for this type of story, all dark and smudgy), but rein in the story a bit, maybe focus on a character per issue or something for a bit. Just my two cents, such as it is. Worth picking up if you like this sort of thing, as I would say chances are good that there are better days ahead. Also, I just checked out the website and it looks like the story is moving right along there, with issues you can download for free, so at least you won’t be left with a cliffhanger for long. $4.95
