Comics! Bedlam #7

Bedlam #7

Story: Nick Spencer
Art: Ryan Browne

Preview and Solicitation

Review
I got the chance to meet Ryan Browne at C2E2 a few months back. He had been announced that he was the incoming artist for Bedlam and I wished him well. As a special treat, he let me see a snapshot of the pencil work he had done for Bedlam.

Damn, I was impressed.

He has his own work at http://www.godhatesastronauts.com which I highly recommend for everyone to check out.

Now I get to see his work here in full color. Granted, Riley Rossmo is a hard act to follow in my opinion, and Browne has a very different style than Rossmo, but Browne keep the with the style that Rossmo brought to the book. It succeeds a little bit, but I wonder how Browne would have done this with his own take that could present something more on a thematic level with the art that we have been used to seeing. Something that could gross you out, but still make you appreciate the artwork.

For example, the moment that Madder Red has the two heads "kiss," felt rough, but not so much disturbing for what was being shown. It might just be how to approach the art, but to be fair, I don't see how Rossmo would have pulled off the same scene without it feeling more or less the same.

The story is that Rossmo left the book due to creative differences with Spencer, which I can kinda see going here. There is something a little different on the book. I can't quite place my finger on it, but there is a small shift in tone that was interesting to see.

The story almost takes a page from the first issue of the series, which is to travel back to the time when Madder Red was still crazy. Another part of the story focus on killing off several characters that get introduced in the beginning of the book as well. It just felt a little unbalanced with spending about a third of the book on introducing those characters just for an introduction of some out of focus close up of the next big bad. It will be interesting to see if maybe the next issue can sorta expand on this front and take the story somewhere that is just a little more.

One thing I did notice about the art, and this isn't necessarily a complaint as it sounds, but Redmond didn't appear in his drugged out and stoned expression self. There seemed to be a little more emotion out of Redmond that what has appeared in previous issues. Take a look at his reactions to seeing the hallucination in the TV, and how he shows a little more emotion in front of the detective than he used to. I don't know if that is a sign of his slow unraveling or something that was done artistically different than the previous artist. It is interesting to note, and I wonder if something will become of it.

Grades
Words: 7/10
Pictures: 7/10 - Rossmo is a hard act to follow, but this was much better than I expected.
General Feeling After Reading: Intrigued, but not entirely devoted.
Buy Next Issue: I'm game for some more. Let's see where the adventure takes us.