Firebreather: Holmgang #1
by Phil Hester, Andy Kuhn and Bill Crabtree
Synopsis: Fresh from a battle with alien robot hunters, Duncan returns home and gets a bit grounded. Also, there’s girl troubles, because high school, amirite?
01. This is the second book we’ve read this week that mentions prom. That’s just fun.
02. Firebreather is one of those books that do two things very well. It captures all the ennui of being a teenager with crystal clarity, and hits you hard with earth shattering battles with giant crazy monsters. The pair of story styles don’t usually blend so well together, usually co-existing in a movie where the regular teenage drama is just a way to ease the audience into the fantastic battles that take place later. Here, they manage to blend together into something new and refreshing - the story of a boy dealing with life as both a regular teenager and an extra regular monster. The best part has to be the fact that Phil Hester has created a situation in which one part of his life can not function without the other. In his everyday life as a teenager, Duncan can get away from his fate as the son of the king of the monsters, while in his extra-curricular life, he can deal with the pains of being a teenager by punching giant ass monsters. Both lives carry with them their pros and cons, but come together to make a life. A hard thing to pull of, but here it is done without effort.
03. It has been quite a while since the last arc of Firebreather was on the stands - but that’s okay. While the book has always been great, it’s also always been pretty late. Unfortunately, up until this point the book hadn’t really paid all that well, and necessitated breaks in the story so that the creators could go off and make some money before coming back to Duncan and his worlds. With this third volume, Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn are hitting the ground running with a feature film under their belt - in fact, this issue and the movie were released for the first time today - and so the book stands more of a chance of coming out more often, with the momentum the book is experiencing.
04. When I first started reading Firebreather, I have to admit, I was not a big fan of Andy Kuhn’s art. I’m willing to admit that my opinions at the time were wrong - Andy has a phenomenal sense of character design, and the way he stages both fights and the everyday are full of energy and kinetic motion. At the time, though, I was just dipping my toe into the realm of indie comics, and was used to more of the regular house style of Marvel and DC. I like to keep this in mind when I’m attempting to sell the book to people in the store (usually using my line of, “It’s like Saved By The Bell meets giant monster fights”) when they tell me that the art is not their cup of tea - in that it probably won’t be, until you’re a little bit deeper into the book. The art works, and it’s great, and without it, the series would definitely not be the same.
05. Like all things we talk about on this site, we love Firebreather. We believe you’ll love it too. There are two trades available right now, if you would like to try the series out. If your local comic store is out of copies, ask them to order it in. If they won’t, get a better comic book shop or order it from Amazon.
Firebreather: Holmgang #1 was released on November 24th, 2010.
