Small Press: Reviews

Information: This is a strange duck because the artist and writer will not let there name be known and will simply go just by Grey Publishing. Issue one is only available on Lulu.com. It has a strange but very flashy website at www.greypublishing.com. The comic is black and white.








Review: “CARBON is a comic book magazine with properties designed for a more mature comic reader” or so the description in the introduction says but to be honest the only thing ‘adult’ about it is the ton of swearing and that certainly isn’t done in a ‘mature’ way. Between the mysterious use of no names and cryptic website this does have a feel of pretensions nonsense about it or maybe it’s just me being cynical.

Story wise it reads more of a basic introduction to the universe instead of a character lead story. The dialogue is simple and does the job but doesn’t really set my world alight. Besides, you can’t move on a panel without hitting a ton of asterisks hiding swearing and the such like.

It’s the artwork that really sells this. Its mostly pencil work with ink here and there to make certain stuff stand out. The pages that shine are the city sections where you get to see almost photorealistic shots of Times Square, which look amazing. Looking into for a bit more information it seems Carbon.1 was released in 2005 and there is no sign of Carbon.2. Which is a shame because the gothic universe of ‘Val-mar prince of the damned’ looks like it may have legs depending on what issue 2 had planned.

Yes this comic has its flaws but they are easily looked past, at over £5 for this comic I can’t see it selling a lot but if you get the chance to read it then please do.