Obscure Comic of the Month
is a monthly feature which takes a detailed look at a little known
entry from my personal comic book collection. Some will be from major
publishers, others self published projects, Original Graphic Novels,
issues and Manga. What they'll all have in common though, is that
I've rarely, if ever, seen anybody talk about them.
Professor Elemental Issue
One by Paul Alborough and various – 2013
Spoiler Free
Issue 1 features 24 full
colour pages featuring two original tales by some of the finest
artists in the Independent comic scene, as well as an adaption of
‘The Quest For The Golden Frog’. It also boasts a cover by Mike
'Deadpool’ Hawthorne.
Adapting music to Comics is
never easy, but it's clear that the Chap-hop sub-genre is fertile
ground for it. An artist is never at a loss to draw something
interesting thanks to the zany, steampunk inspired aesthetics, and
the source material of tall tales and fantastic voyages.
What of Professor Elemental
then? We're not here to talk about his contributions to the world of
Chap-hop, though I will say I've long been a fan, on and off. I
picked up Issue One and Two of the comic at a con a few years back.
We'll only be taking a look at the first of the two today, and
examining how it works as a companion piece to the Professor's
musical canon as well as an introduction to the series as a whole.
The comics themselves are an
anthology series of various tales involving the fictional Professor's
exploits. Issue one has three stories, and almost immediately draws
you in with the vivid, colours of Noah Rodenbeek which has a
psychedelic quality to it. The musical undercurrents are clear here,
with what feels like something out of The Beatles Yellow Submarine.
It's not long before we're
onto our next tale, however. The change in art teams keeps things
fresh, and gives us a different take on the character each time.
Professor Elemental is a charming character in these tales, with his
long suffering monkey butler Geoffrey appearing for the very first
time (He's only ever off screen in the music videos.)
The bumbling idiot who only
succeeds by chance however, is far from an original premise. Whether
the comic has anything to offer really depends on if it can do
anything new with the archetype. It's greatest asset is it's
connection to the chap hop scene. Though the first two stories tap
into the feel of Elemental's output, Elemental's status as a musician
seems to be absent in these stories, and there's nary a musical theme
touched upon.
For the third tale we see an
adaptation of one of Elemental's actual songs, The Quest for the
Golden Frog. It's a great idea and material ripe for the picking, but
it's easily the weakest of the three stories in the issue. The Golden
Frog strip lacks a zing that it really needs to channel the energy of
the music.
Issue one is enjoyable
enough, it's first story, on how Elemental and Geoffrey first met, is
easily the best, both in terms of visuals and writing, but it doesn't
really feel as though there's enough on offer here. The comic itself
doesn't really dig enough into the music to offer anything to fans,
and the strips themselves are not distinctive enough to appeal to the
uninitiated.
Fortunately these are all
problems that are resoundingly conquered in Issue Two, but that's a
review for another day. All things considered, the anthology series
gets off to a bumpy start, but in many respects that's in keeping
with the Professor Elemental character itself.
Jack
Harvey 2015. Professor Elemental (c) Paul Alborough with work by
Michael Hawthorne, James Feist, Liam Byrne, Owan Watts, Noah
Rodenbeek and Christopher Mole. Images used under Fair Use.
