4 out of 5

I sincerely love the concept of comics-designed-for-digital, even though I can’t really bring myself to read them online consistently.  Maybe I’m just not good at the weeklyish bite-sized format, or maybe I’d be more apt to if I had a portable device that was more comic-readin’ friendly (Windows phones aren’t really great comic readers at this point…), but whenever I see an interesting web series, I often find myself hoping / wishing that it gets a print version at some point so I can enjoy it.  This probably marks me as some variation of an old man, but oh well, time to embrace that destiny, baby.  Anyhow, one of the biggest ‘losses’ of not being keen on the format are all the strips on Thrillbent, Mark Waid’s (and others’) online venture.  I’ve read more there online than anywhere else, but after forcing my way through all of their initially free content, I had trouble continuing due to my stated bias.  So: when Damnation was announced for print, I was pretty excited, as I’d very much enjoyed the first part of the title on Thrillbent.  But: I was also a little, uh, trepidated, because Thrillbent comics – Damnation included – uses motion comic stuff.  It’s not just weekly strips: they actually embrace the medium for immersive click-through: overlain panels; panels that swoosh in; that kinda stuff.  And after seeing Titan Comics’ treatment of motion comics – Mono, Captain Stone – which was awful, I wasn’t sure how it would translate.

The spoiler is: they did a bang-up job.  They did a fantastic job.  Whether this is on writers Blanch and Carr and /or Dynamite’s editing team (Waid is listed as ‘Original Editor’ only, so I’m thinking he’s not involved at this point..?), while you can certainly tell from the panel layout that the book is adapted, it doesn’t feel forced to meet the 8.5″ x 11″ page / 22pg. format, and for once, Dynamite’s flat printing production is actually a boon, the lack of richness and depth a good match for Chee’s unique gray-tone coloring and the seeming stiffness of the panels.  Now that sounds like a mixed bag of positive and negative criticism, but I do mean it all positively, and it is important as it’s part of the rating – Wormwood is an interesting title but the structure does stumble a bit into trope as Blanch and Carr are (I believe) new to the genre.  How compelling the story is seems enhanced by the energy you can feel was put into the production, as well as the earnestness of Blanch, who mans the letters page.  I do think something would seem ‘off’ even if you weren’t aware of the digital source – panels are repeated so that the layering can be represented, and there’s plenty of whitespace to enhance some moments – but again, it’s tastefully and thoughtfully applied so that it actually helps the pacing and doesn’t seem like a quick fix.  Chee’s art is also miraculously humanistic.  The cast of characters read like real, recognizable people, flaws and all, and the wordy script flows because Chee seems to have an excellent grasp on how far away to set his ‘camera’ to capture emotion and setting without crowding things.  Some composite / montage panels might not work in color, but the unique gray wash gives everything a murky, noir vibe, which perfectly matches the story.

Which is: the damnation of Charlie Wormwood.  This is a noir tale; the inescapable fate.  Charlie is an adjunct at a prison, struggling to pay medical bills for his sick son when a money-making venture floats his way.  Charlie’s personal life is effectively represented such that we get his decisions as he begins on his path of digging himself into a hole: Blanch and Carr don’t take shortcuts to make this man jump into the questionable-morals pool.  His wife may be difficult and his boss may not be supportive but the script avoids declaring either one of them as outright evil, Charlie’s wife showing her own signs of humanity and his boss the authority figure we all recognize, spewing platitudes that make it easier to swallow our daily dose of b.s.  Still, there are those very clear TV moments where the dialogue drifts or the camera pans to highlight some excessive moment of drama, letting the story tipple into slight cliche in its setup, and this first “arc” is sort of only an arc so it can be collected a trade.  But this is a little story that could; a very impressive project by new creators that has markings of such but isn’t hindered by it thanks to a very strong setting and an appreciably crafted presentation.