Saturday, March 13, 2010

Jeffrey Brown, Sulk, Issue 2: Deadly Awesome

I enjoy Jeffrey Brown's work. And these "issues" of Sulk that he produces are fun little distractions. I picked up issue  two despite the fact that it's about mixed martial arts, something I have no taste for or interest in.

For me this is nothing more than a light entertainment, a diversion. Or potentially so. It never quite lives up to it's description: "Jeffrey Brown explores the world of mixed martial arts and the nature of violence in this tribute to no-holds-barred cage fighting!" Well, I don't see the exploration of the nature of violence in it (despite one or two telling flashbacks); mostly we read interior monologues of the fighters puzzling through their strategies. In the breathless commentary of the announcers and the drama evoked by the use of large, heavy fonts and "Krak" and "Slam", it certainly does live up to the enthusiasm implicit in the exclamation point, though!

And that just seems a little silly to me. But to each his own; just not mine, this time.

Until the end. The very last frame. Where the victor muses, "I think I may have lost my taste for this." Amen, brother!

One side-note: there's one frame early on in the fight where the older, smaller, weaker, but cagier fighter -- Haruki Rasasaku -- who otherwise throughout the panels is very much his own man, looks an awful lot like Jeffrey Brown. In profile. Hmmm...

No comments: