I recently had the pleasure of reading 215 Ink’s “Brian and Bobbi”. It is written by Adam Wilson and the art is by Franco Viglino.
I like it when an author doesn’t feel the need to baby me into understanding the world where his/her story takes place. In just a few pages Wilson gets through the explanations and right into the meat of the story. Wilson first introduces Brian a whiney, self loathing, lazy, dick. At least, that’s what I thought; I was quickly proven wrong with a bit of back story and agreed with his sullen nature. I was sympathizing with him in just a few pages. He is a kid with super powers who nobody cares about. They care so little, in fact, that he stops caring himself. Then we meet Bobbi a super lazy, self important, manipulative, bitch. Turns out that I was wrong again and she quickly becomes likable as well. She is the illegitimate daughter of the world’s most famous superhero. Much unlike Brian, everyone expects great things from her due to her lineage. The two meet, by chance, in an alley when Brian is flying to work and Bobbi is waiting for someone. After some verbal parrying and some persistence on Bobbi’s part, Bobbi becomes Brian’s superhero consultant. From there they go on a short but memorable adventure with humor, action, and maybe a budding romance. I won’t give away more of the story but it is full of fresh ideas and pleasant surprises.
I’m not giving anything away by saying that there are superheroes in this story. They are not your typical superheroes either; they are imperfect people, which is a nice twist. For example, the worlds most famous super hero the 329 keeps Bobbi’s mother quiet with hush money as not to ruin his perfect image. In fact, nothing about this story is typical and there are so many places where Wilson could have taken the easy way, but decided to do something unique instead.
The art plays no minor role either. I think artists are a little like pizza places, If the plain is good the rest will be great. The art is plain old black and white but seems to brighten and darken with the fluctuating moods of the characters. And no detail seems to small to get some attention, each scene is peppered with background detail. I would love to see some big action sequences by Viglino, I imagine that they are spectacular.
My complaints are minor, I was able to finish the book in 20 minutes, I would have liked a bit more for my $10 and I found Brian’s superhero name a bit hard to pronounce although I liked the way that he got the name. If you are looking for a book with big action this is not for you. Because this is a text and story heavy character driven piece. However if you want a story with likeable characters with deep development and good flow do yourself a favor and pick this book up. I hope that this is just volume 1 in a long story because this is a hell of a beginning and I recommend it highly. Like I said above it only lasted a short time but it was fun the whole way through.
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