45’s Patchwork Superhero Metafiction Taps 45 Comics Artists
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By Scott Thill
- August 5, 2009 |
- 3:06 pm |
- Categories: Books and Comics
An upcoming indie comic taps 45 talented artists in a metafictional tale about a search for 45 superheroes. If only publisher Com.x could settle on a title. Kidding!
Written by Andi Ewington, Com.x’s 45 doesn’t hit shelves until December, but it looks promising, judging by early panels like the ones above. The story is cleverly self-referential: After journalist James Stanley skips a test that would reveal whether his unborn child is carrying a superhero gene, he hits the road to interview 45 supers to prepare himself for the possibility.
That metafictional conceit makes 45 less an action banger and more a meditative concept about superheroic identity and how it separates the normals from the capes. The conceit extends to the art, which is supplied by 45 artists who were given no brief on the overall story, just their individual pages to work with. That chicken-egg conundrum is part of 45’s charm.
Naturally, it can’t all be meta. A villain must show up, and does in the form of the ominous organization XoDOS. But the real draw is the sharp way 45 mashes comics narrative and art. Which came first: The concept or the comic? One will have to read it to find out.
Image courtesy Com.x
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