Added on May 27, 2010    Giant-Size Podcast , Jiro Tamase , King of Pain , Nick West , Sam Rodriguez

King of Pain impressions: Issues #1 & 2

Here at WPR, we love our comics.  I’ve been reading them since I was a kid, with a short break for college(when did comics get so dang expensive?).  So this is the first time I’ve ever tried to do a comic book impression.  For those of you that are expecting some deep analysis of the artwork, pencil style, panel placement etc, you better go somewhere else because what you are about to get is the viewpoint of a comic book fan but not a comic nerd, per se.

With that said, our very own Nick West, host of GiantSizedPodcast has written some comics and our mutual friend, Ryan Thomason, asked me to read them and see what I thought.  Well so far I’ve read two issues of the King of Pain series, and I have to say, I’m loving the direction it’s going in.  If you like superhero comics with a twist, you may want to hit the jump for further details.

As I said before, Nick West wrote the story, Jiro Tamase handled pencils for issue #1 and Sam Rodriguez did the inks for both and pencils for issue #2.

King of Pain is a superhero story set in the city of New Ephesus, a place where having the S-gene will mean you manifest super powers.  Most people who are ‘Supers’ are heroes and take it as a personal mission to defend the public and help where needed.  For example, a water-based Super has basically replaced the fire department in New Ephesus.

The story starts as an investigation into a fight between Captain Alan Powers, the premier super of the city and Kyle Kapowski, a dry cleaner worker.  As is typical, the fight was over a woman.  What made it entertaining was to see how the team showed the two different stories and how wildly different they were.

Without going too deep into the story, it’s been a journey of self-discovery for the protagonist, Kyle Kapowski over the first two issues.  He’s been in a fight, lost his girlfriend and discovered a very important fact about himself in the process.

I like both artists takes on the world that Nick has created.  Jiro has more clean lines to his art style in issue #1 but I love Sam’s shading in the second issue.   Again I’m no art buff by any means.  I’ve enjoyed both of the art styles on display here so I’m hesitant to call one better than the other.

Mr. West has done a great job of providing additional documents in the comics besides just the story itself.  There are police reports, a disclaimer for supers that use the dry cleaning service Kyle Kapowski works at, as well as some others at the end of issue #2 that I can’t discuss but helps round out the story and give more depth to West’s world.

In conclusion I have to say that these two issues has me interested and I’m really looking forward to seeing what they look like when they are colored(the version I read were just penciled and inked).  If these sound like the kind of book you like to read, head on over to Nick’s website and check out the previews of his issues on his blog.

Issue #1

Issue #2

You can also purchase them here, and here.  So give an indie comic book team some love and buy a few issues, will ya? If they impressed me, I’m sure they will impress you.