CEN #1-3

Posted: Tuesday, May 3, 2005
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of CEN #1-3 Creator(s): Trevor Frick
Publishers: Inner Thought Productions (Self Published)
From: Canada
Price: $ (CAD)1.50-2 each

Cen is one tough little dude. A hired assassin, his diminutive statue means his targets often drown their guard. It's a mistake that they don't make again for Cen's an expert in close combat, sword play and many other forms of mayhem that we aren't at liberty to divulge.

Trevor boils down the action adventure genre to the bare minimum - nice comebacks, self-satisfied villains and lots of action. The character's have no back story at the moment and so far they are not missed. There is more than enough blood and mutant creatures with plans of galactic domination to keep our minds off little details like that for the moment. Not sure how long that will last though.

The thing that would keep me coming back is Trevor's graceful artwork. He keeps things very simple with clear line work that emphasises simple geometric forms underlying the more complex structures. Cen has a big oval head, a wiry body and big clunky boots. It looks right, even though it might not actually work in practice. The villains are creepy insectoid creatures with lots of eyes and sharp teeth. They gave me the willies.

The design of the settings is kept minimal, with lots of clean lines and white spaces. The spaceships are very 2001, and placed in a stylish manner on the page, amongst some strong layouts. The artwork is let down in places by the copying, which shows up a lot of the felt inking where solid blacks would have been a lot more effective. Might be worth Trevor getting some good old fashioned Indian ink and a brush for the large black areas next time.

In a Word: Crisp.



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