Comic Book Review: ISOM #1

[Scott Ruggels]

Eric D July, also known as Young Rippa) is a talented and opinionated individual. He is a Musician, commentator and writer. I often watch him on TouTube. He has not been satisfied about the direction that Marvel and DC have taken. Now while I used to have a severe comics habit, mine attenuated to nothing a few years ago, around the time Meltdown Comics on Sunset closed its doors. From what had been a $100 a month habit dwindled to nothing, with a few exceptions I will go into later. Eric, a very enthusiastic DC fan felt the same way, but decided to put his money where his mouth is, and put together a crowd funding campaign to not just finance a comic, but finance a company to produce a whole Universe of comics, the Rippaverse. Crowd funded comics are about the only comics I still pick up. Due to their expense, I am picky, but I was more than curious about what Eric had in mind. Rather than go through Kickstarter, or Indiegogo, he made his own crowd funding website, and launched the campaign after he had completed the first comic book. This allowed him to keep all of the funds he raised for the book. I donated my $35 for the book and a couple of days ago, the book arrived. The book was ISOM #1, a 96 page, full color, square bound, comic.

How it arrived on my door step.

The book arrived in some exceptional packaging. And was undamaged. The book itself was beautifully printed. Written by Eric D. July, drawn by Cliff Richards, and colored by Gabe Eltaeb, it is definitely a high value product, but the value is dependent on if the customer is a fan of American superheroes. Apparently there is a hunger for such stories, as the campaign raised nearly 4 million dollars. Looking through the book, the art is very open and clean, the action is clear, and there weren’t any perspective errors that have contributed reasons as to why I have walked away from The Big Two. The coloring contributes to the clarity of the images. I would almost say that the art is almost too sober for the story, but I am thankful for the clarity of it, especially these days. The writing puts forth a engaging plot, but some of the dialogue came across as a bit clunky. The main characters are black, and some of the speech from them in the black vernacular seemed a bit awkward during the fight scenes. That being said, the story itself built slowly and logically and definitely hints at a larger world beyond, as well as the characters having pasts. ISOM #1 is a story about a former street level Superhero who had “retired” to his Texas ranch, brought back into it as a favor to his sister, and then things get complicated.

 

The finest comic book packaging for shipping I have ever seen. 

Crowd funded comics have been my last connection to American style comic books, as well as a few independents. The big two have lost my business. ISOM is a quality product, and at 96 pages, a solid afternoon read. It is a soft recommendation, as not everyone appreciates Superheroes, and it’s about as far away from manga as possible, but I enjoyed it, and will probably get more Rippaverse titles as they become available, especially if they keep this high quality up.

 

The cover of the issue. There are two, or three other variant covers, but this is the standard one.

A selection of recent , crowd funded comics I have collected. 

[Christopher R Taylor]

What are Isom's powers, I can't seem to find that anywhere.

[Scott Ruggels]

From what he displays, he’s a Martial artist Brick with a pretty high PD and RPD, but an average stun count. No flight, but SPD 3 or 4. As he wades through normals. But is bested by a straight brick.  He’s street level, in the Luke Cage mold. There are other supers (called “excepts” in universe) that do have different powers, and the local police have a unit with powers that deals with special incidents.