3 out of 5

The ‘Copra’ ongoing plot goes on a big pause so Fiffe can experiment – narratively, artistically – with six character-focused one-shots.  And it works as an experiment, and as a pause in the story, but it’s not necessarily the best thing for evolving the Copra world, despite the focus the setup seems to allow.

I’ll call out the two books that I felt were the best – Wir’s almost noir-revenge story and the Rax Ditko-tribute issue – because they both felt appropriate for the series and focused while serving the characters.  We solved a big chunk of story with issue #12, so it makes sense to ramp up a bit before we start again, but these two issues maintain a sense of momentum by not trying to do too many things at once.  Elsewhere, Fiffe tries to seed in elements to lead in to the next arc, or tie up loose ends, while trying oddities with his framing, style, dialogue or color, and it comes across a bit too jumbled, especially when these oddities are meant to relate the fractured mindsets of his leads.  It’s very interesting, but not something that lands as well in what I would consider a thus far story-driven book, regardless of how fantastic Fiffe’s overall style can be.

It should be noted that the quality of the printing and the paper are still wonderful, very thick stock with an off-color base that makes Fiffe’s liberal colors just pop, and there’s no denying the thought and patience put into the composition of these issues; although I felt it fractured the readthroughs more often than not, if you’ve dug Fiffe’s work here or elsewhere, there’s so, so much to take in and slobber over.

The first 12 books of Copra admittedly had their breakneck WTF pacing that helped to rush us through some perhaps rougher story bits.  Slowed down for a character by character focus in these six issues, the roughness comes out a bit more, but the artistry of creator Michel Fiffe is undeniable.