“Thing is, I can just picture him meeting some girl, and getting involved in some wild folly…”
Paul Chadwick is among the cornerstones of Dark Horse’s creator-owned comics. Hell, he may be thought-about a part of the muse since his Concrete appeared within the very first concern of Dark Horse Presents. Like Stan Sakai, I feel his work positively must be talked about rather more typically.
Concrete as a collection is a little bit of a weird one. Despite the titular character having a man-made physique, his thoughts being positioned there by aliens, the collection is steeped in actuality. It’s most frequently slice-of-life tales, with some humour and a good quantity of philosophical introspection. With Concrete: Killer Smile, Chadwick, together with Jed Hotchkiss and Bill Spicer, took a unique, darker path with a thriller.
The story focuses on Concrete’s assistant and chauffeur, Larry Munro, as he’s kidnapped on his strategy to driving Concrete to an appointment. He begins by flirting with a girl at a gasoline station. Then quickly finds himself a hostage of her pyromaniac boyfriend. What follows is a lethal drive throughout Los Angeles at gunpoint, blowing up a gasoline station, automobiles, and extra, as Larry and his captors work to evade police. For some time anyway, because the boyfriend is intent on going out in a blaze of glory.
It’s very a lot a change of tempo for Concrete, although there are a variety of effectively-positioned humorous notes to buffer the stress. I additionally significantly benefit from the flashbacks. They give us extra on the childhoods and backstory for the 2 criminals and Larry. It fleshes out the characters very properly, giving us a greater perception into the trauma that helped form the abductors. There’s an fascinating literary high quality to it. It additionally provides Bill Spicer much more alternative to alter up his letters. Like how the collection additionally typically makes use of thought bubbles to nice impact.
Chadwick’s artwork model right here is open and naturalistic. There’s a realism and a simplicity to his folks that jogs my memory of different ’80s artists. Particularly June Brigman, Thomas Yeates, and Ron Randall. Though for some purpose his Larry all the time jogged my memory of George Pérez’s Terry Long from New Teen Titans. Might simply be the beard. I’m unsure if there’s a standard affect, particularly with Jed Hotchkiss offering inks, however the hashes, shading, and determine work to me hearken again to Hal Foster. It’s stunning work. With the realism of the opposite characters making the absurdity of Concrete’s golem-like kind stand out all of the extra.
In the latest editions, how the tales are collected can be fairly fascinating. Although there’s a persevering with story throughout the varied collection, particularly among the many main instalments, these collections (circa 2006) are achieved thematically. It primarily signifies that you actually can learn them in principally any order. Along with the 4-concern collection of Concrete: Killer Smile, the fourth quantity (which shares the mini-collection’ title), additionally contains a number of the different darker entries into the character’s historical past in addition to the 100 Horrors again-up function.
Concrete – Killer Smile by Chadwick, Hotchkiss, and Spicer is a gripping thrill experience of being within the incorrect place on the incorrect time, attempting to hit on the incorrect lady.
Classic Comic Compendium: Concrete – Killer Smile
Concrete – Killer Smile
Writer & Artist: Paul Chadwick
Art Assist: Jed Hotchkiss
Letterer: Bill Spicer
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: July – October 1994
Available collected in Concrete – Volume 4: Killer Smile
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