Sea Ghost #1
"The Sea Ghost in the Machine"
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Penny Kenny
Reviewer Rating:
Writer: Jay Piscopo
Artist: Jay Piscopo
Publisher: Nemo Publishing
A mysterious sphere transports Sea Ghost to a world where the sea and land dwellers are at war. Can he convince both sides to end their conflict and unite forces to defeat the real enemy?
No kidding, the theme music from the original Super Friends cartoon was running through my head the entire time I was reading "The Sea Ghost in the Machine." Jay Piscopo's Sea Ghost #1 plays out like a Hanna-Barbara or Filmation Saturday morning cartoon. This one-shot has the same kind of energy and fast pace of those classic action cartoons of the '60s and '70s. Also like those shows, "The Sea Ghost in the Machine" is filled to the brim with concepts like "Temporal Displacement Energy Fields," "Bio-engineered Doomsday Mutants," "Old Gods," and shark-copters. Piscopo tosses them out for the reader to "Oooh" and "Ahhh" over and moves on with the narrative, much the way his inspiration Jack Kirby did.
There's a big, open, anything can happen feel to the story. It begins in the Sea Ghost's underwater headquarters outside Atlantis, bounces across the galaxy, sweeps underwater again, then up to land, and then to an icy, arctic region. At every location something is accomplished. Piscopo isn't just drawing cool looking scenery. He's telling a story that has a beginning, middle, and end and makes sense.For all the action, and there's plenty of that (Sea Ghost breaks nets, heads, walls, and Lovecraft-lite creatures) Piscopo takes the time to establish Sea Ghost as a person you want to spend time with. The three panels showing him interact with his children and the following two where he speaks to the spirit of his wife set him up as a decent, honorable man....Follow this link to read the full review.
Sea Ghost #1 is a must have for readers looking for a fun, intelligent, action based story and for fans who miss the glory days of Saturday morning cartoons when Space Ghost, Aquaman, and The Herculoids graced the airwaves. ~ Penny Kenny, Comics Bulletin
