#49 - CHAMPION OF CHILDREN

And now,  brand new CBC writer, Devin Walker and his first review. 

Champion of Children 

Written & Art by Various

Review by Devin Walker

Introduction:

Have you heard of Ghostwerks comics? No? I don't blame you they are a very small comicbook company that started out in 2001. They were so small I didn't even notice them until my dad gave me one of their comics. Though the Ghostwerks has a few titles under their belt, their launch title was a comic called "Champion of children". The comic's first issue is actually a combination of three stories centered around a school of super powered kids, some heroes and some villains. Among all those though is one hero with the responsibility of protecting the other little kids, and that is the Champion. 

First story:

The first story in this comic is "I'm known as The Champ" written by the Holy One, pencils by Bigsteelo and inks by The Big Prodigal Ape. Yes, the writers and artist all use code names. The story starts out with a five year old little girl named Little Mad Skillz; yes, you read that. Who is getting ready for her first day at school and is going to be the new champion, just like her older brother, Jr. Raw, was before her. Once at school, Little Mad Skillz shows what she can do by not only beating up a bully but his dad as well. Afterwards, she is accepted as the new champion by the other kids.

           

            This story was a pretty good if not standard introduction of the characters and their world. It's not groundbreaking in the slightest, pretty much introducing the hero of the story like in any other standard comic. The hero is introduced, they fight someone to show off how cool they are, and the people love them. It's a pretty simple concept but it's done in a fun way; with the characters acting like real brother and sister in a pretty fun way. The art has a real fun feeling to it but the way when the art is drawn and placed makes the page feel a bit crowded. Coupled with the black and white style the art may be good but it's a bit discerning, especially at first glance.

Simply put its a 7.5/10

Second story:

This story is titled "Da old school" and is a story told completely by breaking the 4th wall. This story is written by Corance, and art by Samax and Khalid (my father's co worker). The story is about Jr. Raw telling the reader about how cool he was back when he was champion, but has his mom clearing up some of the "problems" of his stories.

           

            Unlike the first story, this story is a pretty creative and funny way to go into the history of a character. Also unlike the first story the art was not as crowded and a bit more creative. This story also has one of the best page in the comic; where one half of the comic is Jr. Raw's side of the story and the bottom half is his mother's side of the story, which is upside down and the panels make a young and yang symbol. It also helps that the art is great on this page too, but this story's short coming is that even though we get backstory in the end that's all it is. We really don't get to know more about the world, we just to hear about stuff that happens. There's even a villain who is brought up, but we have no idea who he is or what he does. The ultimate disappointment is that we now know both main characters and we don't know what their powers are yet.

But overall a 8/10

Third story:

This story is titled "Frozen", this story is about another kid hero called Black Ice. This is story is written by corance, and art by mike. A hero who is a bit passive when it comes to fighting and controls a bat made of black ice. Like the first story, he's introduced, fights a villain and is loved by the people.

            This story is one of the quickest to run through out of the rest of the stories. Though the story is 8 pages, it's all action. Only one page is dedicated to backstory, the rest is action. The action is pretty good and the art complements the moments quite well though in a few parts you may be ask yourself "how did he do that?". This is also the only character that we get to know what his power actually is.

Other then that it's just a solid 7/10.

Final thoughts:

As a first issue, the comic succeeds at making a good impression though it has a few problems here and there. The comic also has stats on the main characters in the back of the comic book and an extra 3 page story from Tan, other one of Ghostwerks comics. But the only one that matters is the stats, where you actually can read what the powers are for each character, even characters that weren't formally introduced. The comic itself is a kids comic, and a black one at that. There are very few white characters in the comic at all, though this fact has almost nothing to do with the story itself. The story is not bland but very standard with a few good ideas sprinkled in, and you can tell the writers and artist really had fun making this comic. The art is pretty good, and gives the comic a fun feel that if you didn't know better could just pass itself as an stylistic adult comic, instead of a kids comic, but like I stayed early the first story's art is crowded and leaves little room for you to just look at the as you search through the panels trying to see which panel comes in which order at some points. In the end, this is a fun comic that I won't mind reading, the story is charming though standard, the characters are rounded though not as fleshed out as one would hope, and the art is creative at best and just too busy at worse. 

It's an average, yet creative comic that I suggest you check out and gets a final score of 7.5/10