We’ve always been fans of comic books when we were growing up and even now in our big boy days we still get goosebumps when leafing through the pages of the latest Catwoman or Walking Dead, however our own expertise on the medium of comics and graphic novels is limited but that doesn’t mean we can’t have an opinion! Over the last few months we’ve had the honour to receive copies of work from creators like Stephen Coffey and Robert Curley and today we’ve the opportunity to bring you the work of another Irish artist and writer, Ger Hankey.
Ger has already a name for himself on the comic book scene, as the artist for the hit series ‘Celtic Knights’ and he is involved with Transformers: Mosaic project being organised by users of the IDW (Ideas + Design Works) Publishing forums.
Short Sharp Shocks is a collection of short comic strips written and drawn by Ger, with the first issue published last year and because our expedition into the world of the comic and graphic novel starting than later than most people we’re only hearing of these publications now!
As we said above, Short Sharp Shocks features a collection of strips from Ger with Issue #1 containing the stories of ‘Hybrid’, ‘Morgon’ ‘Binbo’ and ‘Blackstuff’ but before we tuck into our review of the issues we’ve to just separate some of these stories. Binbo and Blackstuff don’t feature in Issue #2 but instead we meet with Ferris and the Blacksmith, so we’ll tackle these first before going into the two recurring strips!
Binbo is, like something you would find on the storyboards of the Pixar animation, the story of a cleaning robot who wants to see a bit of the world of all four shorts this is definitely our favourite. Hankey seems to be in his element when he puts ink to the art of drawing robots and this is guaranteed to put a smile on your face!
Next in our favourites would be the Blacksmith, it features absolutely no dialogue between any of the characters and it was only on our second reading of the story that we fully understood the story but it reads really well.
Blackstuff is about our favourite Transformer, who after a visit to Ireland has come away feeling a little bit more Irish!
Of all these stories, Ferris is probably the only one we didn’t click with but that could be down to the fact that no comic cat can even scratch this area due in part to Garfield!
Onto the two recurring strips, Morgon and Hybrid! Mighty Morgon is the story of a villain, not just any villain… the only villain in the world who managed to do what no other could… conquer the planet! However all is not well in his universe as Morgon attempts to rule with an Iron Fist he finds his attempts to inflict suffering and misery on his subjects are having the opposite affect and he has brought about an era of peace and prosperity!
Morgon looks like a cross between Magneto and Judge Dredd but for a fearsome and dastardly villain we can’t help but feel bad for the baby kidnapping and UN crashing mastermind!
The real gem of the Short Sharp Shock comics is ‘Hybrid’ the story of a superhero who is able to change gender, sometimes it would seem not always at his/her whim! Hybrid is without a doubt our favourite in the comic series, a tough badass with an attitude as hard as her/his fists! The first strip we get to grips with our gender bending hero but it’s not until Issue #2 do we find a story beginning to unfold as Hybrid must track down a missing young girl who may have powers similar to his/her own! We are waiting impatiently to find out where this story will go and just where our new favourite hero came from…
The real pleasure in reading Ger Hankey’s work is that it is so clear how much he enjoys what it is he does, Binbo and Blackstuff both look the best out of all the strips, with clear lines and sharp detail however the rest of the work looks just as well with Hankey’s unique take on even more unique characters. If you’re looking for something fun and different, then you have to check out Short Sharp Shock comics because you’re guaranteed to find something you will enjoy!
Short Sharp Shocks is available to buy here on Indyplanet!
You can also follow Ger on his blog just by clicking here!
