Obscure Comic of the Month
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.
The Gatecrashers: A Night of
Gatecrashing by Zachary Mortensen and Sutu – Ghost Robot 2014
When a bomb explodes in the
center of a densely packed protest rally, Gatecrasher Hex Spencer is
the first on the scene and what begins as a routine call shifts into
a life-threatening chase through choked streets of Palomar City.
Hex's only concern is saving her patient and collecting her fee but
with each turn she is drawn further into a complex web of power that
will destroy anything – or anyone – that gets in their way.
Welcome to Palomar City, a
tightly packed, overpopulated American mega-city. Over the last sixty
years, a series of traffic control devices known as Gates have
transformed this thriving metropolis into a pressure cooker of
political and socio-ethnic tension that is on the verge of exploding.
One of the only groups with unrestricted passage through the gates
are the emergency medical teams, nicknamed “The Gatecrashers,”
who find themselves in the middle of a building conflict that
threatens to tear Palomar City apart once and for all.
Spoiler Free
I picked up Book One of The
Gatecrashers while I was at New York Comic Con in 2014. I was on the
lookout for independent comics that seemed interesting. I had walked
past Zachary Mortensen plugging his work a couple of times over the
weekend, and his comic kept catching my eye. I'm glad I checked it
out, because The Gatecrashers has a lot going for it in it's own
unique way.
It's not uncommon to see
fiction celebrate the actions of law enforcers and soldiers but we
don't often see many of the real everyday heroes get the focus in our
space operas or dystopian cyberpunk worlds quite as much. The
Gatecrashers is different because it focuses on characters who are
basically Ambulance Drivers. Hex Spencer isn't a gun slinging
maverick in a dirty world, she's just an employee trying to do a
respectable job in the face of bureaucracy and bullshit.
The Gatecrashers feels very
timely. While it doesn't target any specific political issues it does
focus on a lot of areas that affect the working class in the current
western world. Healthcare, civic unrest, questions of police
jurisdiction and corporate corruption are all touched upon in the
world of The Gatecrashers.
In a week where the UK saw a
Junior Doctors strike, reading The Gatecrashers feels that little
bit more personal.
Sutu's artwork really brings
the world of Palomar city to life too. The use of colour really helps
to set the scene of a dirty and run down city, with warm oranges and
neon blues used to particular effect. His style takes a little
getting used to and has a certain warped quality to it, but it really
suits the setting of a corrupt and tired world. It reminded me a lot
of Peter Chung's work on Aeon Flux.
The book's plot gets going
thick and fast, essentially serving as a day in the life of a
Gatecrasher, with reporter Archie McAlester serving as the audience
surrogate. It's a great framing device, and sets up the conflict to
be genuinely intriguing. The characters are all warm and relatable,
if being a little one-note this early in the plot. Hex is an engaging
protagonist and is given enough time to suggest there may be a few
different sides to her personality.
Where the comic does stumble
is in its sense of world building. There's a lot going on in the
first volume of The Gatecrashers and what back-story we're given is
told in passing just a little bit too casually. There's a big
conspiracy surrounding one district in the city being annexed by
another but a lot of the fine details are easy to miss, and you might
find yourself struggling to understand character motivations when the
action gets going.
Not helping is a lot of
world building being left to bonus portions at the back of the book.
It's obvious that Zachary Mortensen has taken a lot of time and put a
great deal of thought into the fictional world of Palomar City, but
far too much time is spent telling it in the margins, rather than
showing it during the story.
The whole thing could have
done with just a little bit more time spent introducing us to the
fictional world. Just a short sequence or a page or two would have
done.
It's also worth mentioning
that The Gatecrashers release schedule has been slow going, only
issue five has been released since Book One in 2014, but issue six is
due to be out this month. Here's hoping the series continues from
it's strong opening.
Beyond that though, A Night
of Gatecrashing is otherwise a great introduction to the series. It's
hook is different, it's art is striking and the story ends with a lot
of interesting places to go. If you like your cyberpunk, but would
like to see the genre from a different perspective, then I highly
recommend you check the series out.
Jack Harvey 2016. The
Gatecrashers (c) 2014 Zachary Mortensen and Sutu. Images used under
Fair Use.
