Yesterday, the long awaited HEART went on sale across the land. Penned by G4 FRESH INK’s own Blair Butler (@theblairbutler) and penciled by Kevin Mellon, HEART is a four issue mini published by Image Comics focused on Oren “Rooster” Redmund and his journey from mundane to magnificent in the MMA. Now, I am admittedly not the most well-versed in MMA. I went through a Tank Abbot phase about twelve years ago and rented a couple UFC fights, but by and large, I cannot get into the MMA. I respect the discipline and violence of their sport, but I just do not get engaged overly much. As many of you have managed to suss out from the sister textcast to this one, I am a nearly lifelong professional wrestling fan. The spectacle, choreography and grandeur of pro wrestling has essentially ruined MMA fighting for me.
So, my approach is just a fan of comics and a good story, not as any sort of MMA technician (although I do know what a triangle hold is, thank you, because of the MMA creep into wrestling vernacular in the past 15 years). And do not let the bloody cover fool you; this is a great story. Butler
I typically do not like to criticize art in comics because A) I am a terrible artist myself and 2) I have no bona fides in art criticism. I am thrilled with the art direction they chose for this book. I did not know that it was going to be a black and white book and that lends a crispness to the art and tone that was pleasantly unexpected. You really can connect with the action and the character, rather than just person on person violence. Speaking of which, I never really realized how rare it is to see person on person violence in comics until reading this book yesterday. Zombies, mutants, superheroes, robots, aliens, etc etc. I cannot recall the last time I read a book with such great depictions of people mashing each other in the mush. Mellon has a clear understanding of human erosion and physiology and those crisp pencils lend what could have been festival of gore a certain amount of grim beauty.
And now, the bad news. The only real negative I have to say of the art is that many of the action sequences look frozen; like photographs. While pretty, it does pull a punch, so to speak, and deny the action of dynamics. Oftentimes, this stillness works to support the narrative. When Rooster recalls his pedestrian life before the cage, or his rough break into the business, the stillness scans like a flood of still photograph memories. The only other quibble that I have with the art, and it is the quibbliest of quibbles, is that in the beginning of the book, in the first match, Rooster and his opponent are in an octagon cage and later on, when the narrative returns to that same fight, it is a square cage (the same type used in the training flashback). Again, quibble. But hey, the cages look great!
I do not use rating gimmicks here. I only use the same two criteria for comic books here that I do among friends (and you’re all friends here): Did I enjoy reading it? Do I want to read the next issue? HEART #1 is a solid yes on both counts.
Just a quick programming note: this is likely my last post on blogspot. I spent the entire day Sunday making a visual history of Spider-Man costumes in time for Halloween only to discover blogspot does not support images. So I am shopping for another blogging site that will accommodate my boss Spider-Man guide.
Even though I will not be back, please post your comments in the comments, especially if you can recommend a blog site which supports multiple images.
Now go buy HEART.
And follow me on your Twitter Unit: @TheWinterCraig.
