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Published by: Oni Press
Released on: Mar. 5, 2014
Writer: Rick Geary
Artist: James Callahan
Cover: James Callahan
Nathan T. Rex has had his share of success in the movie biz, being a B-movie producer. His last output, “Cosmosâ€, was a box office bomb that cost a lot of money to make and made him a black sheep amongst the cutthroat community that is Tinsel Town. A week ago, depressed, stressed, drunk, and looking like the Unabomber he finds his way to “The Oracle†Zaul Pear, a wheel-chair bound old man on oxygen with Hollywood power it would seem. The Oracle keys him in on the wonders of Dr. Love, what Rex calls his “charlatan guruâ€, whose treatment involves hallucinogens.
Currently, Rex is in the middle of production oh his latest drek “President's Dayâ€, and his acid trip with Dr. Love showed him the key to the film's success: an axe-wielding Abraham Lincoln has to be the masked maniac who's killing all the teens. Brilliant. He meets some friction with the director, however, and splits the scene in a panic. Later, when meeting with his boss, he's instructed to do as he's told and keep the movie on time and on budget. Pissed, Rex vows to use his own money to make the movie he wants to make and seeks counsel after the meeting in a jiggle joint with a sexy nun stripper. Dr. Love shows up, sends him on another trip by having him sniff glue, and Rex has another vision, and another epiphany.
This hyper-violent, drug-crazed comic is chock full of all sorts of off-the-wall imagery spliced into a story about an underdog trying to find his bone. Nathan Rex is probably going bat shit crazy from all the drugs he's taking at the advice of his doctor, but it is helping him find his muse. He's been chewed up and spit out by Hollywood and he intends to put himself back on the map. Just how he's going to do it looks like it will take five issues to work through.
Rick Spear's writing talent and artistic creativity should be no stranger to indie comic fans. He creates a great character with Rex and Spears is FUNNY. James Callahan's style is absolutely his own with some really neat angles and panel design, and with Luigi Anderson's coloring contribution Callahan's art really pops. Visually, the book is very attractive, which just adds to the enjoyment level, which is quite high. The only complaint is it reads so goddamned fast, so read it twice. Or three times. It's worth it.
