27 #1 & 2

Written by Charles Soule
Art by Renzo Podesta

I want to talk about this comic on its own merits, but first it seems necessary to mention the way in which it become such a buzz book when its first print was released in November.  I remember noticing this title when it was solicited in Previews.  It caught my eye, but as I didn't know either Soule or Podesta, I decided that I would wait and flip through it at the comics store, instead of pre-ordering it.  (I'm lucky, in that I shop at a really good store, so a lot of smaller books by lesser-known creators are on the shelf to take a look at).  Anyway, this book became a 'hot title', and it's taken me until this week to get ahold of a second printing of the first issue.  I just don't understand why this book got so much buzz, and another, equally good title such as Who is Jake Ellis? didn't.  Who decides these things?  Is it some marketing thing, or what?

Anyway, this is a good comic.  It's about a famous guitar player who has lost the ability to play.  He's tried everything, and is now making the rounds of the whack-jobs who think they can help him.  He ends up with a pseudo-doctor, mad scientist, sorcerer type, who performs some mystical procedure on him, that goes horribly wrong.  Now Will has a strange device embedded in his chest, which seems to let him tap into the creative properties of the number nine, although it will kill him too.

It's a cool concept.  We have all sorts of things in this book - strange numerology, great cop dialogue, bitchy professors, and hangers-on and dick-riders around every corner.  The writing is pretty sharp, and the story has a nice flow to it.  I'm not sure where this is going, and I like that a lot.

Artistically, this comic is just begging to be drawn by Ted McKeever.  That said, I like the way Podesta is handling this title.  There's a lot of Michael Avon Oeming in his work, but everything feels darker than that.  I'm glad I finally got a hold of this comic, and I look forward to the remaining two chapters.