“Content With Kaos” #1 Comic Review

Hound Comics’ Content With Kaos is apparently about a couple of mercenaries who have been hired to hunt down an alien that’s been stranded on earth. It’s a premise that, if done well, could read like a sci-fi twist on a Tarantino-esque, buddy flick-style dark comedy.

The story takes place in a bizarro TMNT-esque world, where people run around swinging ninja swords and shooting machine guns at robots while wearing bear suits, hunting down aliens named Kaos on behalf of a guy named Midnight. In this N.W.O. society, train bombing—graffiti style—is used as a means of spreading messages to the masses, by a graf artist named Logik, to inspire people to take the power back. Unfortunately, that’s about as far as the story goes in this first issue, and it reads like an intro montage to a cartoon, wasting valuable page real estate on exposition that could’ve been more effectively unfolded throughout the scope of the larger story. By trying to introduce all of these characters in a single 22 page issue, the story overreaches, feeling disjointed and off balance.

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Reed’s strength as an artist lies in his plotting of action sequences and character design. All of the characters have a unifying street art aesthetic to them that works well, and the fight scenes come off as well choreographed on the page. The bear suits, robots, and Kaos’ questionable facial hair choice all look appropriately influenced by comics of the 90’s and Manga, and Reed’s color choices are visually striking, especially when characters are in motion.

Where he falters is with his establishing shots and background designs, often foregoing any background altogether in favor of action lines and bright colors to create an illusion of movement and drama. It’s a technique that dominated 90’s comics and, used to the degree it is in Content with Kaos, it feels lazy because there’s no set up to the action and it’s difficult to get a feel for where that action is taking place.

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Making comics is a labor of love at any level, and even more so as an independent publisher where no one is making enough money to focus on the craft full time. It takes a certain level of dedication, and very few people hit a homerun the first time they step up (hell, take a look at the earliest TMNT work of Eastman and Laird for example), and Content with Kaos is no exception. Fortunately for Reed, it’s never too late to change up the approach, listen to constructive criticism, and improve the book. It’s not that there’s nothing to expand on—the premise has a lot of potential—but the execution is lacking in focus. Hopefully future issues will center more on the individual scenarios and POV’s of each character, allowing us get to know them a bit more—little by little—rather than trying to cram everything into a single shot.

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