The Writer #1: Fast and Messy

Jewish mythology meets modern day settings in this new series. It features sword and sorcery elements and tries to be an easily accessible, high octane struggle. Unfortunately The Writer #1 doesn’t find success on many levels.

A story of King Soloman’s death and the loss of his ring opens The Writer #1. The issue then jumps toward the present, first to a father reading the tale of King Soloman to his young son and then to the current day where that young boy, Stanley, is an adult and a professor–one of the few Jewish professors at his university. A conversation with the university’s dean about holding an event despite the recent painting of swastikas on the reception building is interrupted by a text from his ex-wife about his daughter getting into a fight at school. This otherwise ordinary day ends in chaos when Stanley puts on his father’s ring (seemingly the one lost by Soloman though Stanley doesn’t know that) and his dinner is interrupted by a fight between a monster and what appears to be an orthodox Jew. The threats to Stanley’s life steadily increase until even his daughter is in danger.

This story is a fast moving muddled mess. On a base level, The Writer #1 functions as a mythology power struggle set in the modern day. There are a number of references to Jewish mythology and dogma that presumably provide additional depth to the situation, but the speed at which the issue progresses risks leaving readers unfamiliar with these concepts completely in the dust.

Character development is virtually non-existent in The Writer #1. A clumsily written thought on the opening page establishes a link between Stanley’s father and what is going to unfold in the issue. But, at least in this issue, it doesn’t go anywhere and feels more like a plot necessity–these items of power were passed on to Stanley from his father, and to his father from someone else, and so forth. The only really emotional beat the issue supplies for Stanley is his connection to his daughter who his mother has primary custody of. The issue does establish that Stanley has a mother, but she is more of a battle companion than anything else.

The comic definitely benefits from additional readings, but not because The Writer #1 offers additional nuance that could be missed. Rather, there are some sequences that merely border on incomprehensible.

Saying that the art saves the issue would be going too far, but the success that The Writer #1 does find is almost entirely owed to Olivetti. His characters are softer with more round definition than harsh angles. This works especially well for Stanley whose body changes over the course of the issue. His color choices are gentle and in his painted styles. None of the characters are made interesting by the story–most of them never being more than one dimensional–but Olivetti at least makes them visually interesting.

Olivetti’s work is also well-suited to the issue’s supernatural elements by way of contrast. Most of these evil creatures have harsher lines as compared to the human characters and the coloring is heavier and darker.

Olivetti delivers a stunning two page spread early in the issue that portends a higher quality comic than what ultimately unfolds.

Cvetkovic’s lettering further adds to the issue’s visual success. When characters are speaking softly, the dialogue switches from upper to lower case. The captions on that early two page spread are depicted as scrolls with torn paper.