Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got one new comic plus a hard cover collection:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

“Global Frequency” 1-12 by Warren Ellis and a different artist every issue

This series came out in 2003 but this is the first I’ve read the whole thing. I picked up one issue of it back then but that was it. This is what Hollywood calls a “High Concept” series. That means the whole premise can be described concisely in a sentence or two. It’s an ironic term.

The series is about a group that calls itself The Global Frequency. They’re a private rescue group that goes around rescuing people. Well, mostly they defuse bombs and shoot bad guys. They have a thousand and one people all expert in some area or another in touch with central command by satellite phone. At any given time a your phone could ring and you’d be expected to lend a hand with your expertise.

I’m ambivalent towards this book. On one hand it was generally well done but on the other hand often the stories would be too much about technology and not enough about human beings for me. There were a lot of chase scenes, shootouts, and people following trails by satellite. It often left me cold. The human element was often missing as the experts often acted like super efficient, well, fictional characters. There was the occasional sacrifice of the one for the whole but even that didn’t always ring true for me.

I generally liked the artwork. I enjoyed some of the artists more than others but they were all good. Each issue was a ‘Done in One” so the changing of artists each issue didn’t interrupt the story flow or anything like that. As a matter of fact it made sense to me in an odd way.

This series has to have some of the worst covers I’ve ever seen on a comic. They’re all photo collages that are confused and blurry. They make very little visual sense until after you read the story. Only then do the elements tie together into visual cohesion. There is no way one of these covers would pique my interest enough to pick up the comic. I think they fail at what a comic cover is supposed to do.

So there you go. I thought these were well done but they really didn’t tickle my fancy. They were a bit too cold and calculating for me but the variety of artists was nice.