Writer: Jeff Parker
Artist: Ashish Padlekar
Publisher: Virgin Comics
For those who have been keeping up with Walk-In, rest assured that this issue is as interesting, well drawn, well written and bizarre as the previous issues. Quite a bit happens in this issue, which makes for more bizarre than interesting in some ways, but it is still worth picking up. Besides, if you don’t pick it up, with a comic involving flying octopi, European mobsters and alien cities, how do you expect to know what’s going on next time?
For those who haven’t been keeping up with Walk-In, the main protagonist is Ian (Feed Your Head) Dormouse. Ian has been forced into a wandering life by black outs and hallucinations that are seemingly accompanied by actions that force him to move on. This, by most peoples’ reckoning, means that Ian’s crazy. However, if you are familiar with the concept behind the title, it hints at something considerably more complex. Something that is labeled crazy by the world at large for the sake of simplicity.
But that’s cold comfort to Ian who is forced to travel from place to place, living in parks and subsisting off bar peanuts at girly clubs. Bad luck seems to turn good for Ian when he lands a job and meets some friends. However, as Ian points out early in the third issue, while being throttled by toughs, things always turn bad for him. One thing that does become clear through this issue, though, is that Ian is badly out of place and has somehow landed in the midst of competing forces. But that’s about all that becomes clear.
Which would be a problem in other comics, but the writing and art here make it fun to read even when you’re scratching your head. It is charming and funny while maintaining a semblance of realism in the midst of much strangeness. The best example of the latter is the before mentioned scene where Ian is being beaten by two men. Ian is a likeable sort, not a super-hero, or even a hero, and he reacts like most people would; he gets scared, he gets hurt and he cries (only a little). In a medium where violence is as common place as detergent, this scene actually elicits a more visceral reaction due precisely to its humanity rather than its heroism.
Don’t let that throw you off if pathos isn’t your thing, though. Parker and Padlekar seem to be taking their readers some place strange and fascinating. A place that involves a great deal of aquatic life.
If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at http://madbastard.hypersites.com.
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