Review: Local #1

Brian Wood and Oni Press were kind enough to send me a complete sample of Local #1, written by Wood with art by Ryan Kelly. You might remember Wood from such comics as Demo, the Couriers graphic novels, Pounded and Channel Zero. Kelly is the inker of Lucifer and did the art for Giant Robot Warriors, written by Stuart Moore.

With Demo, Wood established that as far as creating real-life, identifiable characters on paper goes, he is a master. I'd say that with the first issue of Local, he takes it a step further ... his ability to put you right into the head of his characters is even more focused here. Rather than watching events unfold, you feel like you're living them. The main character, a young woman named Megan McKeenan, is the kind of person you feel like you've passed on the street or sat next to in silence at the airport. And in making a difficult choice, she has the same neurotic thought process and imagination that we all do.

And like with Demo, Wood is working with another up-and-coming artist who will likely take the comic world by storm once this thing hits. Kelly's work on Lucifer always looks nice, and this just proves he has the goods to both pencil and ink. Keep an eye on this guy.

This is the kind of comic that you not only want to read and re-read, but also tell your friends about and encourage them to buy, whether they read comics or not. It’s that damn good. But don't take my word for it ... Wood has the first nine pages up over at his web site. It gives you a hint at what's going on with Megan in the story, as well as a peek at Kelly's work. You can also read more about the series at the Local blog.

Local is a 12-issue black-and-white series, with each issue standing alone yet tying together thematically. Each issue will feature Megan, either as the main character or someone in the background, and each issue will be set in a different college town with a cool "local" scene. This issue featured Portland, and in issue 2 Megan finds her way to Minneapolis. It might be too much to ask for a future issue to hit my home state of Texas, but hey, Austin is a pretty cool college town, so you never know.

Local was solicited in the latest Previews, with an order code of SEP05 3052. It's definitely worth your time and money, so check it out.