‘Black Iris’
Created by Russell Mark Olson.
44 pages - Black and White interiors - Landscape format.
The Story - Behind enemy lines the fearless spy known as the Black Iris will do whatever it takes to bring stolen plans for a secret Nazi weapon to the hands of the Allied Forces. But can she avoid falling into the monolithic clutches of the enemy?’
The Review - Mr Olson describes this in the back matter section of his comic as ‘An Inktober Story’. I’ve also been watching the more recent progress of this book recently on Twitter as the creator has been showcasing his panels/pages and talking about design choices etc. He tells of how wanted to finish off an attempt at an Inktober campaign he started last year and due to workload and Thoughtbubble attendance getting in the way didn’t quite get round to completing.
I thought that I would get this out under the wire for the Portsmouth Comic Convention tomorrow where Black Iris is getting a launch. If you’re going make sure that you find the creator and buy a copy.
This is an over the top bombastic homage to the war/spy films of the 1940s. From the Bacallesque image on the front cover all the way through the cool and dangerous smouldering close-ups, to the rooftop escape plans and the angry Nazi officers this is a love letter to the period. (Just with an added giant robot.)
I’m a sucker for a Saturday afternoon black and white classic movie and this didn’t let me down at all. You can tell that the creator has a more than decent feel for the period and the mood from the faux movie opener titles page. You can almost feel the slight shake on the projector as the light fills the flea bitten dime cinema.
There’s no getting around however the fact that this book feels more like a storyboard than it does a ‘normal’ comic. It uses black and white with some water coloured grey washes to give it an authentic texture that you might get in a ‘Making of...’ movie book. Due to this stylistic approach I can forgive that some of the faces of the characters are on occasion slightly under rendered and lacking more detailed character features (the German Nazi Officer is an example).
I suppose the Storyboard vibe is also more cemented in my mind due to the fact that the pages are also pretty much wordless (albeit with a few cheeky sound effects.) Russell uses the odd Wordballoon with a drawing contained rather than words. A good example is when the aforementioned Nazi Officer aims his gun at Black Iris and his speech balloon contains not words but rather a mouse dead in a mousetrap. I found this really refreshing and it added greatly to the charm of the book.
It rattles along at a great pace and the action has some genuinely brilliant moments. I like that I’ve also maybe seen a little tiny hidden smirk at the reader in it’s exaggerated moments. The giant robot in particular is a lovely over the top touch. I have to say that if anyone knows of a 1940s movie involving super spies and giant robots please send it over as I’d love to see it! You can see that Russell had an absolute blast with this and I personally cant wait to get my hands on a hard copy as soon as possible.
There is also some great back matter in this volume too that shows some of the creator’s thumbnails and process.
That Landscape Format looks great too!
You can find out more about Russell Mark Olson over at http://www.russellmarkolson.co.uk/ and follow him over on Twitter @russell_m_olson
Many thanks for reading.
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