Hi Everyone, this is Dan.
I received my copy of Inglorious Rex a couple days ago. I have become so accustomed to these crowd funded campaigns and their high quality packaging and added bonuses that I almost forget how much they cost, and how long it took for the book to be produced. I will be fair to Shane Davis and Yanzi Lin of 9 Lives Comics and note that this book took only a year to come out by my time keeping and the price was a standard if not somewhat brutal $25 that crowdfunding campaigns in the Comicsgate sphere seem to prefer.
The price and timeline is by the way very reasonable for the independent comics industry that lives on IndieGoGo, Kickstarter, and other investment based platforms. This is probably the case of both the reality of independent development and the unregulated nature of this side of the industry that I am quite content at this point getting my book for $25 in about a year of backing it.
Enough of the complaining about the current state of indie comics though, we are all here for this Monster fighting book. The physical book is printed on excellent stock and is of similar quality to a lot of Comicsgate campaigns which makes me suspect a lot of the creators have converged on the ideal printer.
It came with a ton of cards, magnets, stickers, and my particular package came with a supplemental comic book with 2 short stories by Davis and Lin; the art for the stories being supplied by Nyriam and Shelby Robertson. This addition bumped up the price to $50 which I am not sure is justifiable for an extra floppy but, there you have it. I won’t be reviewing the supplemental today as I think it deserves some individual attention with Nyriam and Shelby Robertson’s art.
On to the premise; Inglorious Rex is set in a pseudo Cyberpunk dystopia where human fighters get strapped up into monsters (“Rex” in the story) and then beat each other up for entertainment and the right to “defend the city”. Alex Stone is the main guy and he is out for revenge against a man named Gunn who apparently killed his brother Nate via a fight accident. This fight is, luckily for Alex, set up by the midget version of Dee Jay from Street Fighter II who goes by the name of “T”. Additionally, there is Alex’s dad who is a trainer and rip off from both Rocky and Tomorrow’s Joe and Alex’s hot girlfriend Anna who is also a “Rex” fighter.
Why is the world a Cyberpunk dystopia with people beating each other up like Pacific Rim robots? Why is the champion of this competition the “defender of the city” and not some organized armed force? Why does “T” set up this fight that, at least by the explanations in the world canon, makes no sense? The book doesn’t let you know and you know better than to expect a modern American comic to actually give you any background.
My first serious criticism of this book comes in the fact that once again we have another CG book that just refuses to introduce characters in a simple manner. Inglorious Rex uses the modern method of introducing characters through dialogue and providing no more exposition into the world outside of what the clunky dialogue can provide. This makes the first 10 or so pages a bit of a grind as I really don’t have an attachment to the characters till they have accumulated enough dialogue and action. I am not sure why a concept such as character title captions, which American comics used in the past to great effect and Foreign comics use to this day, seems to be anathema to CG.
We also have the return of caption boxes being used in place of thought balloons, which I am not sure is Davis and Yin’s decision or the ubiquitous CG letterer Eric Weather’s decision. In general I am not fond of the lettering decisions in Rex as a lot of times the caption boxes are used a little too liberally and distract from Shane Davis’s excellent art. In fairness to Eric Weathers, the writing in these caption boxes is a bit stale so that might be the major factor there.
My last criticism of this book is the character development. Alex Stone comes off a bit flat. His relationship with his girlfriend is somewhat cliché for modern comics and he seems to just go along with being manipulated by “T” without much interesting dialogue. Anna herself is somewhat half developed, with the initial introduction and fight scene basically sidelined by the climactic fight between Alex and Gunn. As a villain, Gunn only gets a few lines and his past actions to really define him. In fact, Gunn strangely ends up being more honorable then Alex by the end of the book. Not to spoil too much but, Gunn ends up accepting a one on one human fight with Alex after Alex clearly cheats to force the issue. This is very odd writing by Shane Davis. If not for the previous build up of Alex being courageous and caring for his brother, he could easily be seen as the bad guy.
You would think at this point into this review I would decline to recommend this book, and you would be a wrong. While I have so far been critical of this book there is quite a bit to like here.
The first point of praise is the art. Shane Davis, Yanzi Lin, and Jason Wright are an outstanding art team and Shane’s experience on Green Lantern and DC Comics is really showing in this book. The detail and figures are fantastic, this is on par with anything art wise going on in the mainstream. In fact I would say my only criticism art wise is there wasn’t enough. Which I would hope is taken as a compliment to the creators.
The next point of praise is that this is a really cool and fun world that Shane Davis has created here. Despite the flaws in exposition and character development, I think there is a good foundation to build on, which is a good thing as Shane and Yanzi can potentially improve on this book and fix some of these minor story issues. As much as I ragged on the characters previously, Alex Stone is none the less a compelling badass, Anna a very hot badass, and “T” an interesting character.
The final point is one that I don’t necessarily rate high but, I know others do: Quality and Professionalism. This campaign is just more proof that Shane Davis and Yanzi Lin are the real deal when it comes to creating and distributing comics. Starlight Cats was not a one off and they appear committed to continuing their journey into independent comics. The books were delivered in a reasonable time, of excellent print quality, free of major editing errors, and came with all the extra goodies that fans of this format love.
So despite my previous fault-finding in the book, I can recommend this book to any comic fan provided they can foot the $25 price tag. I won’t say it’s the best but, it is solid and deserves a follow up. Hopefully with a little bit more exposition on the world and a little more care with character development.
Thanks for reading and I will see you next time!