How is it that every time I read a Steve Gerber comic, I've somehow forgotten what a great writer he was? This comic is just excellent, and I'm not generally a fan of jailhouse fiction. Perhaps it's the supernatural element, though, honestly, it doesn't play a huge role in what I'm loving about the series. Mostly it's Ethan, who definitely is embodying the kind of fantasy life in which a bullied person like myself used to (and to a certain extent, still does) indulge in. He's the kid who was picked on so much that he's actually developed skills enough to survive prison. At 15. I will admit that there's still a small part in my head that tells me that all the slings and arrows I suffered in school have prepared me to be a total badass in life, like I can take anything that gets thrown at me. Sadly, bullying simply breaks people - it doesn't make them superheroes somehow. But something tells me, and this is not just an insight gleaned from Hard Time, that Mr. Gerber might have suffered a bit at the hands of bullies too.
I do have a concern about the series, though. Thus far, 4 issues in, we're only maybe 4 days into Ethan's sentence. While I appreciate that there's a large amount of drama to be had around the introduction to a new and dangerous environment, and around the supernatural occurrences in the jail, Ethan's sentence is for 50 years, and I wonder how much of that we're likely to see if there's no bouncing forward in time. Now, I know the series doesn't last long. It got 19 issues total, including the second season, and the final issue leaps ahead to the end of Ethan's sentence. If that's the case, and the plan was always for Ethan to serve out the whole of the sentence, then we need to see the introductory arc wrapped soon and time jumping ahead. I've noted before my dislike for the propensity of new series, and sometimes new creative teams, feeling like they need a 6-issue introductory arc to get things rolling. If you're an unproven commodity, expecting a reader in this economic climate (not that different from the climate in 2004) to invest 6 months of their time and money in a property is too much. Give the readers a one-shot or two, maybe a 2 or 3-issue arc, and then dive into the longer, half-year stories. That's perhaps what gets lost in the writing process. It's easy (not really) to write a long story, but then you're experiencing it all at once, as a whole. But the reading public is experiencing that over the course of half a year, if the series maintains a monthly publishing schedule. Imagine following a bi-monthly series for 6 issues. That's whole year commitment to a series that one might not be sure one will follow any further.
Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke do it right at the beginning of their JLA run, starting with issue 61. The one-shot introduces their particular take on the team and line-up, and then jumps into a 3-issue arc as follow-up. That said, I never did keep reading Kelly's run, and I probably should have as I quite like his Superman work. A project for a later date, perhaps.
More to follow.
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