Brutal Planet

    (Neko, 2002)
™ and ©2002 Neko Press

On a world laid to waste by the warlord Mordluk, one of his enemies escapes imprisonment and treks across this world’s perilous landscape trying to avoid recapture. That’s essentially the story told in this series’ introductory issue. The artist who calls himself “The Dark One” turns in a worthy effort, using lavishly painted and detailed gray tones that give this savage world a perverse form of beauty. Writer Matt Kimball, though, falls short in many areas.

Striving for suspense and intrigue, Kimball delivers only confusion, as the story’s protagonist undertakes his dangerous journey. Kimball has created a world that seems ripe with untold stories and wisely avoids dumping too much backstory in the reader’s lap at one time. But he errs too far on the side of caution, telling next to nothing about any of the characters’ purposes, motivations, or histories. The opening issue fails, because the reader’s given no reason whatsoever to care about what might happen next.

Other writing problems plague the story; fragmented narration stunts the panel-to-panel flow, and there are embarrassingly bad spelling and punctuation errors. It’s fortunate that the art is as good as it is, because that’s the only thing that could possibly bring readers back.

— Jim Johnson
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  • 1
    #1
    Cover: $2.95
    W: Matt Kimball  ·  A: Matt Kimball, Greg Williams
    B&W; ca. 2002
    7 copies from $3.00
  • 2
    #2
    Cover: $2.95
    W: Matt Kimball  ·  A: Matt Kimball, Greg Williams
    B&W; ca. 2003
    1 copy for $3.98
  • 3
    #3
    Regular Cover by Greg Williams
    Cover: $2.95
    W: Matt Kimball  ·  A: Matt Kimball, Greg Williams
    B&W; ca. 2004
    2 copies from $2.95