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CBG SATELLITES
The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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A hugely entertaining "pilot episode" to what I hope is a long series
of stories about one of the most charming and interesting comics
characters to debut in years.
Maddy is a publicist whose entire life is turned upside down in the
course of Flytrap's 14 pages, which document her hectic,
frankly bizarre but entirely believable day. Ryan and Lieber in 14
black and white pages kept me riveted to their story and anxious to
read more.
Ryan's script reads like the best story never written for DC's 1970s
romance comics, except there's no romance to speak of. Maddy's a fun,
engaging young woman who we see interact with a number of people --
her mom, her co-workers, crazy circus people, and the guy towing her
car away, to name a few. This sequence of conversations gives us an
immediate, multi-faceted overview of Maddy's world and her place in
it, and by seeing her one-on-one with so many diverse character types,
we feel like we know her, and want to know more.
Her lot in life at the start of the story is not an enviable one --
she seems successful, but we see that that success has been bought
with at least a little piece of her soul. Her job looks exhausting and
at times thankless. As it sometimes does, though, Maddy's life is
transformed quickly and almost by accident, until, by the last panel,
we know that her life has completely turned
upside-down, and nothing will ever be quite the same again for this
young woman.
As accessible and entertaining as Ryan's script is, half the book's
success must be credited to artist Steve Lieber. With a supremely
confident economy of line that seems at times here strongly influenced
by Alex Toth, Lieber places Maddy in a real world that we recognize
and relate to. She's a beautiful woman, and that's nice, but much more
importantly, her every pose, movement and gesture seems altogether
human, genuine and entirely in keeping with the intent of the
script.
An image from page two is called into duty to serve as the cover image
as well, and that's no doubt because it so aptly and succinctly
illustrates what I am talking about -- there's Maddy, pen in mouth,
phone cradled between her ear and her shoulder, eyebrows raised in --
what, doubt? Surprise? Perhaps a bit of resignation? She looks so
utterly real in this panel that it's a perfect choice to illustrate
the feel and intent of the book overall. And the wonderful, wondrous
thing about Lieber is that quite literally every panel he creates for
the book contains the same level of observation, emotion and skill. He
is one of the most gifted artists in comics, and we're lucky that he
has chosen to use his gifts for a story that is actually worth
telling.
Flytrap is great comics, and at $2.00, one of the biggest
bargains of the year. Order a
couple of copies, and help ensure that we get to read the next
chapters in one of the best comics stories of the year. Grade:
5/5
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Flytrap