1 out of 5

I was going to try to pick up at least part 1 before reviewing this, but this Paradox Press book from ’95 is so tragically executed that it’s not worth it.

So this under-sized volume is appealing to look at – it has a nicely framed and colored cover by artist Joe Staton, the mass-market-ish sizing of it is a plus, and the Paradox logo and ‘look’ of their books gives it the mature flair I’m sure they were hoping for.  The general pitch also sounds right – pairing renowned authors with comic artists for original works in crime or mystery.  Sweet.  But comic book writing is an art, truly, and it’s not just as simple as setting your text to pictures.  This gives credence to Anthony Johnston’s ‘sequential adaptations’ of Moore’s prose – you have to have pacing and framing of a reader in mind.  Just as with book-to-movie, what works for one doesn’t always work for the other.  But either the editor forgot to tell Charyn that or nobody proof read this turd, because every page jumps and jerks from one scene to another without any sense of linking.  It undercuts whatever momentum this story could possibly have, making situations where characters are jailed or attacked seem totally inconsequential when, boom bap, they’re back in a different scene one page later.  Staton’s pencils due their best to work the script, generally four panels per page, but his grim 2000 A.D.-ish figures are way too lookalike in black-and-white, not assisted by the cast consisting mostly of older white dudes.  The ‘mood’ and duotone shading is nice, though, and the lettering is well done for the smaller format, always bordering the image effectively.

The story is some kind of “ten minutes into the future” mess of New York being overrun by crime and the mayor and police under the control of the mob, led by a priestly-robed and sunglass wearing man named ‘Charles,’ whose brother is the titular ‘Family Man,’ Alonzo.  And it’s Charles vs. Alonzo, as the former is on some power trip and the latter seeks revenge for his murdered family and whatever.  It’s a workable enough script, but as developed, it’s bubbled into incomprehensible slop with unintentionally (I’m thinking) funny  interactions coming from the nigh cut-and-paste method of pacing.

A bit of foreground / background separation from Staton could’ve assisted things, but overall that lack of anything redeeming to the story beyond the general idea makes this a waste.