Not In The Stream (Karma Incorporated vol. 1 #1)

karma incorporated vol. 1 #1 [viper]

writer - david hopkins
penciler - tom kurzanski
inker - tom kurzanski
colorist - marlena hall
letterer - tom kurzanski

i want to give a piece of advice to anyone reading this. if it is after 3 o'clock in the morning, if you a writing a review for a comic you read that week, and if you don't know how to start the review, i highly suggest not going about it like this. karma incorporated was actually one of the most entertaining things i read this week, if not the most entertaining thing i read this week. every single character had their own distinct look and feel. kurzanski's art is very unique, and it shows off in the characters. there is no possible way i could mistake one character in this book for any other character. even if i wasn't looking at the art i wouldn't be able to mistake them. they read so differently. each character has their own distinct personality and way to them that comes off very clear and crisp. another thing i liked about kurzanski's art is how he draws in the word bubbles, opposed to having them added in digitally. it goes along with this book's common theme of everything being distinct. it isn't the same bubble repeated dozens of times over again. each bubble was drawn into the panel so that it isn't covering the art, but so that it is part of the art. this also leads to some great interaction with the lettering and the art. a good example is found in a panel in which a character named susan adley says a sharp remark, which was part of her negative reaction to a comment another character made. the word bubble had icicles hanging from it to show that she is being cold to the character's comment. another good example is when a character named art was calling somebody else a princess in a insulting manner. the word "princess" was all decorated with butterflies and flowers to give it that extra feminine intent that it was said with. actually, as much as i liked the word bubbles, i didn't care much for the lettering. a lot of times the words didn't fill the bubble, which leads to a lot of extra space that just doesn't look very good. besides that i have nothing bad to say. maybe you'd have trouble following it if you didn't pay close attention, but that is just bad reading on your part. this comic also had one of my favorite characters that i've read in a while. his name is rob wilson, and he is a really stereotypical middle class father. he looks like he probably has some crappy desk job, and it also looks like people probably walk all over him constantly. think michael douglas in falling down. david hopkins gets me to really care about this character in just a few pages, which is an incredibly hard task. i honestly feel bad when horrible things happen to this man. this is a horrible transition, but has anyone else noticed viper's amazing print quality. just the paper, covers, coloring, and all around product quality are amazing. better than both dc and marvel. man, i really should of said that earlier. what a horrible way to end a review.