CREDIT: IDW
Rating: 3/5 – Off to a Good Start: Ominous Press and Bart Sears Return.
By ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
Last year, comic book artist Bart Sears had made the announcement that Ominous Press was making its return, this time as an imprint of IDW. If you’re not familiar with Ominous Press, that wouldn’t be that surprising. The publishing company only released a couple of books that I could find; Brute and Babe and Infinity of Warriors. You may be more familiar with Brute and Babe from Wizard magazine. This was Bart Sears’ drawing tutorial that was published within Wizard magazine. I actually liked Sears’ column quite a bit and it hit at the right time for a lot of comics fans when art, not story, was the driving force in the industry.
I was a huge fan of Bart Sears’ Valiant work, especially Turok and I really enjoyed his art on DC’s Justice League Europe. Although Ominous Press didn’t last when it launched in 1994, I was happy to see him returning with the characters he created over two decades ago. Unfortunately I missed the launch of Ominous Press’ first comic Dread Gods. This was released back in July by longtime creators Ron Marz and Tom Raney, two creators who also have heavily contributed to this zero issue of Giantkillers. Giantkillers has two shorter stores written and drawn by Bart Sears and for the most part I enjoyed it, although the overall package felt disjointed at times.
Giantkillers follows a girl named Auoro, who we find out early on is the “chosen one” known as the White, who’s destined to battle the Dread Lord Omin. Giantkillers hints at a larger world that’s full of prophecy, but it never quite comes together and because of the multiple stories within, never felt as though I read a complete story. I will give the creators the benefit of the doubt since this is a zero issue that serves as a prelude to what’s ahead and we get forty-pages of story and art in this oversized issue.
Sears’ and Raney’s art is strong throughout and Sears’ style in particular is more reminiscent of his Crossgen work on The Path, than it was of his work on Brute and Babe, although there are a few hints of that style as well. I didn’t come away from this zero issue as excited as I hoped I would be, but I’m still a fan of these creators so I’ll stick with the series for at least a little longer and see how things develop.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
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