A Beautiful Gory Display – Kickstart Comics’ DANGER ACADEMY

By EJ Feddes On December 26, 2011

It’s been quite a year for our friends at Kickstart Comics, and they have one more release coming out this year.  Danger Academy comes out this Wednesday, and it’s a great way to wrap up 2011.  Just to give you a taste, it is a book which includes a supporting character named “Doc Violent” who leads a group of ninja librarians.  That, it should go without saying, is awesome.

 Danger Academy is an action-comedy set at a boarding school for children of spies.  It’s Hogwart’s with jet-boots and robots instead of talking owls.  (Sample lesson:  “When severing the carotid artery, it’s best to aim for an upward motion…”)  It stars John, who is essentially the son of a female version of James Bond, after he’s forcibly transferred toSpychesterAcademy.  And as you can tell from the name

 “SpychesterAcademy” (and “Doc Violent”, for that matter), it’s very much tongue-in-cheek.  (My favorite joke is the role call.  All of the students are re-named “Smith” to preserve anonymity.  The role call scene practically writes itself from there.)

 It’s a really solid blend of action and comedy.  Early on, John’s rivalry with Ernest is established.  Ernest is the son of Danger Academy’s version of Blofeld, and he’s unrelentingly nasty.  (And I just now realized that Blofeld’s first name was actually “Ernst”.  Hee!)  Of course, there’s some bad blood between John and Ernest from the very beginning.  But it goes beyond simple bullying, as Ernest is still affiliated with his father’s organization S.M.A.S.H. (“Secret Militaristic Agency of Sadistic Hatred”) this results in an attack on Spychester with surprisingly devastating consequences, and the Spychester students set out for revenge.

 There’s something kind of reminiscent of The Venture Bros. in Danger Academy – the style and the setting are very different, but the way they embrace the ridiculous genre tropes and then look at the relatable details behind them is similar.  For me, that’s a winning formula.  And I will always laugh when somebody shouts out what they’re doing in a fight – a favorite move in Danger Academy is for various characters to announce “Judo Chop!” while, you know, judo chopping.  Cracks me up every time.

 The action scenes are really exciting – the art by Dan Boultwood is more cartoony than anything we’ve seen from Kickstart so far, and I love it.  There’s a strong sense of motion, and an exaggerated dynamic quality that’s tremendously appealing.  It almost looks like a storyboard for a cartoon.  The characters are really well-designed, too.  They’re just detailed enough to be easily distinguishable without looking too busy. 

 Writer and creator Tony Lee has done a lot of work for various publishers over the last few years, and his scripts have always been clever.  He’s come up with such a great premise here, one with seemingly endless possibilities.  And if fact, though you get a complete story, Danger Academy is the only Kickstart book so far to end with a “To Be Continued…”.  I’d certainly love another volume of Danger Academy, so I hope that’s a real teaser and not just a nod to the way James Bond movies used to end (“James Bond will return in….”). 

 There’s so much fun here, and when we suddenly learn how high the stakes are, it’s a shock.  Not everybody survives the assault on Spychester, and it’s an effective dramatic moment in what had been a mostly light-hearted story up to that point.  That said, it’s tastefully handled, and shouldn’t traumatize younger readers.  Kickstart has done a fantastic job of aiming books at different audiences, and this one is completely appropriate for kids and preteens, while still being fun for folks like me.  That’s a tough balance to find, but it was only after I was done that I realized how kid-appropriate it was. 

 And what kid wouldn’t love Doc Violent and the ninja librarians?  (“Since he’s been in charge, we’ve never had a late book back.”)

 I was looking forward to Danger Academy on the strength of the concept and my familiarity with Tony Lee’s work, and I was not disappointed.  It’s funny, exciting, occasionally ridiculous, and it boasts some really appealing art.  (I can’t tell you how much I love the way Boultwood draws punching.)  It’s a great way to end a year of fine work.



Comix Portal: (P)Review:

Kickstart’s ‘Danger Academy’

Pulled from: scifipulse.net; December 2011

Looking for a fun gift for that comics reader on your holiday shopping list? You should pick up Kickstart’s Danger Academy by Tony Lee and Dan Boultwood. It’s such a good spy story that it had James Bond-style music playing in my head as a I read it.

Here’s the book’s description: “Spychester Academy for Gifted Teens, the secret private school where the children of superspies go to be safe – but when their parents are missing, only these students can save them!”

One of the things I look for in a book is when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are a lot of allusions to other spy franchises and comics, such as the “Dangerous Room” or the evil organization called S.M.A.S.H., which stands for Secret Militaristic Agency of Sadistic Hatred. That group sounds SO “Bond!”

But the sequence that made me laugh out loud was that every new student gets labeled “John Smith” to protect their identities. (Eventually, they get their own codenames, like Numbers or Hand Me Down.) When one teacher took roll call for a class full of newbies, it was quite funny. They’re all named “Smith,” of course, and the script plays it for excellent comedic effect.

Don’t think that this is only a comedy, though! The action and adventure is fast-paced and pulls you from page to page. Not everyone survives, and that ups the level of our interest and uncertainty. And there are several mysteries that need solving, so there’s a lot going on! And always beware of a spy named Kitka! You just never know what she’ll do next!

Even though the students are all the children of spies, they each have their own unique personalities. Some want to be spies, some don’t, for example. The main “John Smith” in Danger Academy is the son of a famous female spy, and that turns out to be both a good and bad thing for him. He’s trying hard to reconnect with his Mom, and they link up in an unexpected way.

Of course, there are some similarities to the Harry Potter series of novels in that the school’s teachers play interesting roles in the tale and bring their own unique aspects to what’s going on. I liked the one named Doc Violent the most!

The art has something of a comic-strip or cartoon-like feel, which helps keep the tone light. It fits the feel and pacing of this story very well indeed!

I’ve always bragged on Kickstart because to date they’ve released books that have self-contained stories. Well, be careful when you start to expect things to always follow the same pattern! I won’t spoil the ending, but let’s just say that we haven’t seen the last of Spychester Academy for Gifted Teens! This book may be released this Wednesday where you are, or it could show up next week! Keep an eye out for it either way!



Comix Portal: (P)Review: Kickstart’s ‘Dead Walker’

Pulled from: SciFiPulse.net; November 2011

As one of my friends likes to put it, zombies are the new vampires. They’re being explored right now like never before.

If you want to enjoy a great new take on the genre, be sure to pick up Dead Walker from Kickstart Comics!

Here’s the book’s description: “Jonathan Walker brought himself back from the dead to avenge his wife’s murder but at what cost?  While taking his revenge he must also save the world from the evil he himself created.  And, seemingly cursed to live forever, he will struggle to find new meaning in eternal life. Pencils & inks & cover by: Shannon Denton (Deadpool, The Revenant) & Matt Jacobs (Grunts w Shannon Denton), written by Christian Forte.”

If you’ve read my columns before, you know that I’m a BIG fan of Kickstart because they’re doing something unusual in the industry these days — telling self-contained stories! After reading endless storylines in ongoing comics, it’s something special to have no idea just who will survive and who won’t.

Although Christian Forte had never written a comic before, you’d never know it from his excellent script. Instead of zombies being the occasional troublemaker, the main character of Dead Walker is himself a zombie, although he’s a kind of zombie you haven’t read about before! That alone separates it from other genre hits like The Walking Dead, Zombie Tales, Marvel Zombies, Victorian Undead and Quarantined.

The plot and the pacing are terrific, pulling the readers in and not letting us go until the final page is turned. Shocks and surprises abound, from the opening sequence until the end. But don’t miss the BIG twist about halfway into the comic. It made my jaw drop open! Talk about a 180-degree turn!

The characters are engaging and interesting. For example, Jonathan has a female co-worker who does her best to support him even though he’s asking quite a lot of her, more than she ever imagined she’d have to do! Their relationship is an important one in the book, just as critical as his interaction with the “villain” of the piece, I think.

Dead Walker also shines in its art department, which is truly superb. It fits the mood perfectly and takes us to places we haven’t seen before in terms of the art, and that’s just what the reader needs when going into a new place in terms of story. Denton and Jacobs did an excellent job! Just take a look at one of the pages above!

If you’re a zombie genre fan looking for something new and different, don’t miss this comic! It’ll turn everything you know about the undead on its head … and that head won’t even fall off! The book is coming to comics shops near me tomorrow, but apparently it may be already available in other regions!



A Beautiful Gory Display – Kickstart’s DEAD WALKER

By EJ Feddes On November 16, 2011

Pulled from: www.spunkybean.com

I just realized that it’s been almost exactly one year, give or take, since Kickstart Comics put out their first batch of graphic novels.  Happy birthday, Kickstart!  I kind of feel bad that I didn’t get them a present, especially since they sent me a copy of today’s new release, DEAD WALKER. 

Written by comics newcomer Christian Forte with art by Shannon Eric Denton and Matt Jacobs (who are currently doing awesome work on Grunts), Dead Walker brings us Jon Walker.  A brilliant scientist working on a cure for cancer, his research brings him some unwanted attention and a group of gunmen kill Walker and his family.  Yes, by page 11, the main character is dead.  But as you can probably guess from the title, the little matter of being dead doesn’t stop Walker from getting his revenge.

Thanks to a last-second injection of a chemical that repairs dead cells, Walker is able to pull himself out of his grave and seek vengeance.  Now, I’ve gone on record with my dislike of zombie stories in the past.  Luckily, that’s not how this plays out.  Undead Walker isn’t a zombie – he has his full mental faculties and now he can take a ridiculous amount of punishment.  With the help of his intern Karen (who also has a serious knack for firearms),Walkersets out to take violent revenge on the people who killed him.  It is, and I mean this as a compliment, an 80s action movie translated into comic book form.

I had an absolute blast reading this book, because it’s such a perfect evocation of that action movie spirit.  The dialogue had me grinning all the way through – “I’m just a dead man with a shotgun.  And I have more rounds than you have monsters.”  “That’ll teach him to bring a spear to a gunfight.”  “Strictly a scientific question, but are you fireproof?”  It’s impossible not to hear Rutger Hauer or Lance Henriksen in your head when you read Walker’s dialogue.  It’s really rare to see this type of homage done so well in comics, and Dead Walker just nails that tone.  I mean, it’s a comic that features a chainsaw vs. scythe fight between two reanimated dead guys.  It’s pure, over-the-top fun.

That’s not to say there isn’t an emotional core, either.  Sure, there are plenty of increasingly destructive shotgun fights, but we never really lose sight of the fact that Walker is a guy who lost his wife.  He wants to finish things so that he can die.  We even see occasional dream sequences with Walker achieving his peace, and it gives him more resonance than your standard indestructible badass.

I love the art here – it really conveys violence without being lurid.  There are stranglings, exploding bodies, and severed limbs, but it’s remarkably free of gore.  It’s very clean storytelling that occasionally shows us horrible things, but doesn’t dwell on it.  The style reminds me a little of the work of Carlos Ezquierra, especially in the faces. Denton and Jacobs really pack a lot onto the page without cluttering it, making for some really striking sequences.

Dead Walker is ridiculously fun – a perfect mix of character work and completely insane action scenes.  It’s a great way to celebrate Kickstart’s first birthday as they head into Year Two.  (And seriously, there really is a fight with a chainsaw vs. a scythe!  If anybody doesn’t think that’s awesome, they need to redefine their terms.)

Palmiotti & Gray Get Book Smart With Kickstart

Pulled from: www.brokenfrontier.com.  Posted by Richard Boom on Oct 10, 2011

From the talented team behind Jonah Hex and the creator of Painkiller Jane comes a new female driven, action adventure. Book Smart is due in stores October 19th.

Kickstart Comics, the new publishing venture from Kickstart Productions, teamed up again with comic gurus Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (Jonah Hex, Power Girl, The
Resistance) on a new graphic novel entitled BOOK SMART. With Pencils & inks & cover by Juan Santacruz (Incredible Hulk, X-Men and The Resistance 2). Their previous
title together, The Twilight Experiment, was recently re-released in store.

BOOK SMART is part BOURNE IDENTITY meets ROMANCING THE STONE. The book focuses on a young woman wakes up in a hospital in Nepal with amnesia. As she
struggles to find answers on her identity, she finds criminals on her tail and that she has an uncanny skill set that suggest she may be an international spy.

Kickstart Comics launched last fall. The books are an eclectic range of great storytelling from top comic book creators and established Hollywood writers such as Mark Sable (Hazed, Unthinkable), Adam Freeman & Marc Bernardin (Monster Attack Network, Genius), Joshua Williamson (Dear Dracula), Jeff Amano (Fade From Grace, Cobbler’s
Monster) and B. Clay Moore (Hawaiian Dick) and such artistic talents as Jim Fern (Fables), Lee Moder (Wonder Woman, X Factor) and rising star Julian Totino Tedesco
(Unthinkable).