M*F*K*Z #1

M*F*K*Z #1

Happy Tank/Behemoth 2021

By Guillaume “Run” Renard

Translated by Dan Christensen

The NETFLIX distributed hit movie by Studio 4 C (Batman: Gotham Knight, The Animatrix) comes to comics with an over-sized #1 event! Jump into the unique world created by legendary artist Run following Angelino and his flaming-skull pal Vinz, who live in a gang and cockroach infested dystopian metropolis called DMC, a city that hides secrets even weirder than its inhabitants.

As I was reading this the first thing that popped into my head is that this reminds me of the days when Mtv used to have killer programming like Daria and Beavis & Butthead. It makes me laugh like I did back then at it’s silliness and crazy antics that just smacked of real situations taken to an extreme. This was off the wall, offbeat and completely out of the range sanity to the point that I loved every single moment of this book. Right now I don’t understand why this wrestling is so important but then I don’t have to it’ll all come down the pike eventually and in the meantime I’m just going to enjoy it, plus I laughed hysterically at how their junk is seen in their pants.

I am loving the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is phenomenal and this is thanks to the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. The conversations between Vinz and Angelino are beyond incredible and that two best friends can converse like this is what we dream about having. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the page revealing the story, this world and these characters we find ourselves en-rapt in this story.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and strengthen is extremely nice to see. The extra characterisation and bits of information that we see whether subtle or overt do wonders in bringing some depth and complexity to the story. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

I really like the interiors here as well. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the mixture of styles throughout is bloody genius. There is some great use of backgrounds throughout the book as well as they enhance the moments and bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The creativity and imagination that is on display here is utterly marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work that we see is extremely well rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is really great to see.

There are so many fantastic moments throughout this book that just make you laugh and shake your head in disbelief but brings you joy nonetheless. There some brilliant storytelling going on here and it all stems from a single event that poor Angelino doesn’t realise was significant in any way. I will say if I could do what he does then please let it happen to me as well heh. I think these two, Vinz is caught up in this cause they are best friends and roommates, make for not much an odd couple but one of the buddy pairings I’ve ever seen.

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This is so bloody brilliant and interesting thanks to this exceptional writing and characterisation and its wrapped up in these fantastic interiors to remind you that comics can be thrilling, action packed and be pure fun to read.