Under the Net
Idle Hands
Welcome to the eight edition of Under the Net.
I will be rating the elements of the book on a scale of one through five.
One is poor, two is mediocre, three is fair, four is good, and five is excellent.
This week's review is of a small site with a few different strips by Paul Cheshire. This fine artist is from the London region of the world. His site has a varying degree of strips that range from comedy noir to comedy. The strips have a bit of everything for everyone. I like how he has merged fiction with reality to tell his tales. Today I will only be focusing on his once story The Room of the Shadows.
The Art
The art is basic black and white line art. It is done in a classic almost crime noir fashion that fits into a old 1940’s film. The story opens with a guy running and we see all kinds of visuals such as floating mouths dark blacks and other stark images. The artwork works for the short story being told here, it is very moving to say the least and I can say I enjoyed it. It has a sense of surrealism to it.
ART: 3 STARS
The Writing
I liked the small mystery that played out in the two pages to the short that I read. We were given this short narrow window into this world that appeared as the guy was going crazy, he was seeing all these twisted things that were attacking his perception. Finally in the end it made me laugh as it showed us a lingering reaction to the twisted world, it revealed to us that the person going through these horrible ordeals was no other than Fedric Wertham. If you know a thing or two about comics and how comics were censored for decades, we know a lot of this was due to Mr. Wertham himself, so this small story gave me a laugh to say the least. Now of course we don’t know if this was a true account or not. (I know it wasn’t.) Yet you never know why this guy attacked comics so harshly like he did during his time. I liked the short story and here is my score.
WRITING: 3 STARS
Originality
Paul Cheshire, has taken reality and merged it with fiction here to give us a possible account of Fedric Wertham’s life before he became a twisted man that had a hate on for comics. The idea behind this short story is original and it makes a person that knows comics history give a brief chuckle and makes you wonder. What was this guy smoking? Did he really think that the youth of America were being corrupted by comic books? Did he really believe that comics were making juvenile deliquents that were reading these books and they were acting out? Was Mr. Wertham so disgusted by a severed head on a cover? Was his religious values so deep that he hated violence? I do think a further indepth study on this man is very interesting, but I do say that this book was interesting and they took their own nice angle here on this short story. I enjoyed it enough and like the last panel bombshell.
ORIGINALITY: 4 STARS.
Grand Total: 3.3 Stars
The Pros
The story is nice and short; there isn’t much to get invested here. The author gives you a very basic premise here where the world the character is going through has been dramatically changed and is rushing to explore what is occurring. There is a sense of confusion and later we are given the big reveal here which gives you a brief chuckle and it does pose a question to you on what here has occurred. I think the story was well executed and it gave you a complete story to ponder further in the recess of your own mind.
The Cons
We just don’t really know why Mr. Wertham, hated comics truly. We can suspect and can surmise why yet in the end we will never know. Keep up the commentary Paul Cheshire.
My Final Word
If you like short strips, one off pages. Then check out this guys work he isn’t to bad. J
The web strips updated here:
Enjoy folks!
Jake Estrada
Email me at estradajake@yahoo.com for website suggestions. Thanks.
Jake Estrada is a published author who holds degrees in Multimedia Design and Criminal Justice. He is a father to three wonderful children and married to his beautiful wife, Beth. You can find his comics at http://graphicly.com/estrada-mediaand other fine online stores.
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