Comic Book Review

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Issue: #1-3
Authors: Skipper Martin, Wes Dzioba, Christopher Provencher
Publisher: Ape Entertainment/Archenemy Entertainment
Price: $3.99

BIZARRE NEW WORLD #1-3

Dreams of Flight

By Kurt Amacker June 15, 2007

BIZARRE NEW WORLD #1-3
© Ape Entertainment/Archenemy Entertainment

Bizarre New World asks a very simple question and plays out the answer to its logical conclusions. Skipper Martin offers us Paul – a divorced, middle-aged guy with little going for him outside of his relationship with his son, Sean, and his decent job mastering film at a movie studio. Far from a being a bad person, Paul just has few prospects before him. Then, one day, he flies. With no explanation, he levitates from his chair in the middle of work. Before his coworker, Sandy, returns, he scrambles back to his chair, as confused as the reader. Paul spends the next several days wondering how to use his newfound ability. He checks for other superpowers – a painfully plucked nose hair removes any questions about invulnerability. He also approaches both his son and coworkers about the hypothetical possibility of human flight, hearing a litany of explanations and ideas both semi-reasonable and utterly bizarre. He ultimately decides to embrace his gift on its own terms. He flies for his own sake without donning a cape and mask or trying to profit by his gift. All seems well enough, until he learns that someone else might share his gift.

Skipper Martin takes a fairly common question and expounds upon it with both humanity and hilarity. I rarely read comics that actually make me laugh, and Bizarre New World succeeded. When Paul fantasizes about the potential consequences of his gift (military test, press harassment, falling), I laughed out loud. At the same time, Martin never allows the humor to obscure both the wonder and confusion that naturally come with such a predicament. He captures the true bliss that one would likely feel after mastering such a gift. Similarly, he portrays well Paul’s frustration when he learns that he might not be so unique. Better still, he understands that anomalous phenomenon in nature rarely occur in nature without repetition.

Christopher Provencher and Wes Dzioba keep the illustrations and coloring, respectively, down-to-earth. Everyone looks pretty normal, as they should in a story that emphasizes the effects of the fantastic on a mundane world. Paul looks like a normal shlub, complete with beer gut and ball cap. They complement Martin’s emphasis on his characters’ very human reaction to a wondrous phenomenon.

The first issue of Bizarre New World is out already, but Archenemy Entertainment was kind enough to send me all three issues. Pick this one up.

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