Fascists and Dead Heroes

Posted: Tuesday, May 7, 2002
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Fascists and Dead Heroes Writer(s): Matt Bucher
Artist(s): Jerry Foley, Rick McCollum, Bill Anderson, Nick Alenikov, Ken McFarlane, Bill Anderson
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: $1.00 (US) - Includes Shipping

Superheros are a lot like silver beets. You can do a lot with them but they always taste like silver beet. If you like them, then you're happy what every the recipe. And if you don't like 'em, well, hope there's something more tasty on the plate. Matt Bucher seems to be the ideas man behind this A4 anthology of superhero daring do, with a large supply of artists doing what they do best.

Matt seems to enjoy the idea of heros that go off the tracks. In one story a hero is killed, and their already violent partner swears vengeance. In the second story the Dead partner returns from the grave to make sure the partner was true to his word. In the final story we get a fascist superhero deciding that the public need to be controlled for their own good. He does a lot to limit their freedom of expression and eliminating those who protest against the governments brutal controls. The first two of these stories concentrate on exposition, which kind of wastes the visual aspect of the comic medium. A TV interview with the dead superheroe's mother is a good exception to this, the visuals ( by Rick McCollum and Bill Anderson) and the dialogue work together to create a dignified tone.

All the visuals are clear, coherent and effective. I especially liked the artwork that Nick Alenikov and Ken McFarlane provide for a scene in the graveyard. The corpse is gruesome!. The final story has an interesting idea at the centre of the plot: Superheroes as fascists with the power to get what they want, but it's a concept that has been done to death recently in mainstream comics and this story adds little to the idea.

This is a well executed comic that tells some straight forward stories in a fairly standard fashion. I didn't rock my world but it didn't waste my time either.

In a Word: Palatable.



If you have a comment or question about Small Press then feel free to contact me