Busted Knuckles’ Exclusive Look At Cobb

By Beau Smith

Cobb: Of The Leash

I’ve laid hints down in the last few months on this new project of mine that I’ve been working on for the past year. Well, since it’s so close to Christmas I thought I’d finally give y’all a little gift before the fat man with the white beard and red suit comes into your house for milk, cookies and a fling with your girlfriend.

In May 2006 my new creator owned mini-series will come out from the good guys at IDW Publishing. It’s called Cobb: Off The Leash.

The story centers on a man named Frank Cobb.

Some people are born to do certain things better than anybody else. Sometimes it’s because they ‘re driven to be the best by their own motivation. These people work hard to become the goal they have set for themselves.

With other people it’s different. They do it because it’s hardwired within them. Something they can’t quite explain. Something they can’t deny no matter how hard they might try. It’s an instinct, a natural reflex. It’s a way of life.

That’s the way it is with Cobb.

Ever since he can remember he has had the urge, the desire, the instinct to protect. Like breathing, he can’t stop it. He can’t live without it. Although from time to time he has tried to hold his breath, in the end he has to inhale his desire for protection or he feels he will die.

From as early as defending the weaker kid on the playground, being an All American linebacker in college protecting the goal line from the opposing team, a soldier defending his country against the enemy, all the way to being a Level One Secret Service agent protecting the president of the United States. Cobb has always been a protector.

Cobb has always had a special ability to see danger before it occurs. He can smell it before it enters the room. More times than not he can stop an attack before it blooms into an act of violence.

It’s his gift. It’s also his curse.

A gift in the fact that he can help those that can’t help themselves from others looking to harm them. A curse in the fact that to do this he must sometimes become more brutal than the those doing the harm.

Out of the service and a few aimless years later, Cobb finds himself drawn back into a world he thought he left behind. A world occupied by the Russian Mafia and a powerful terrorist cell.

Cobb is not a psychotic, revenge driven nut with a weapons fetish. He is not a traumatized, anti-social, know-it-all that dresses up in a flying rodent costume. He’s not the kind of standard tough guy others write about in what they think is hard-boiled noir.

I promise you this. Cobb is different. Come May 2006 you’ll find out just how different.

In taking on Cobb I have called upon my many years of study and research of the Russian Mafia, Terrorists groups as well as the last year researching the Secret Service using the web, tons of books, former law enforcement officers and tons of time in the library. I’ve gotta say that the government has been very helpful in their generosity in answering my questions on the Secret Service.

I’m also lucky to be working with a long time friend of mine on Cobb. He is an artist that has at one time or another drawn every character and every genre that you know of in comics. He is a master craftsman that is the benchmark for his artistic peers in comics. His name is Eduardo Barreto.

For Cobb I needed someone that knew how to tell a story like it was not only a comic, but a movie put to print. This is Eduardo Barreto. For the mood and feel that I wanted to get across I knew Eduardo’s talent for shadowing, spotting blacks, lighting and use of body language and facial expressions would be a must. He was the one and only choice.

Eduardo delivered all this and then some. The art for the first issue came in last week and it was far beyond all my most manly expectations. It was like Eduardo stepped into my head and pulled these images out and put them to paper.

Eduardo and I have worked close together to make Cobb the next step in “two-fisted tough guy” stories. One of our goals was to throw away standard comic book action scenes that have come before. There are no badly thrown haymakers with speed lines that you are used to. There are no kung fu kicks and stances that have been done and done again from artists and writers that think that research is swiping moves from Jerry Bruckheimer and Tarantino movies that swiped the moves from Asian movies to start with.

We have done our best to make the gunfights as imaginative as possible without losing their realistic foundation. No self-back patting here, I know guns and how to use them. It will be the same with the fight scenes. Boxing, mixed martial arts, military self-defense, submissions, little known exotic fighting styles and down and dirty true street fighting have all been researched and employed in Cobb.

Did I mention that you’ll also enjoy the story and the characters?

Sometimes I get so carried away with violence and mayhem that I forget the little things. (I’m joking… really.)

So today I’m gonna give you the first exclusive looks from Cobb: Off The Leash. I hope that you’ll come through and back me and Eduardo on this series. Unlike other creators in comics, I know the fate of this book lies in your hands. As may draws closer I’ll be sharing more with you on Cobb. The favor I ask of you now is to pass the word. Send this link to anyone that you think might have an ounce of interest. I’d like to prove to the world that word of mouth is the best advertising that there is. I wouldn’t ask ya to do this if I didn’t believe in the storyline in Cobb.

Art by Eduardo Barreto