CRASHDOWN (#1-2) comics review

Otherworldly indeed!

CRASHDOWN. Massive. 2024. (W) Tom Garcia, Ryan Sargeant (A/CA) Ben Templesmith. $3.99 USD.

This comic book owes much to the great Ben Templesmith, the series artist and cover artist, known for his work with IDW, Image, Oni Press, Dark Horse, and, well, I could go on: Star Wars, Doctor Who, GI Joe, Army of Darkness, Silent Hill, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and much more (30 Days of Night!), so I’ve made my point. Then you add the writing from a couple of comic book experts, Tom Garcia and Ryan Sargeant, the hosts of the Comic Tom 101 YouTube Channel (over 12 million views) and, having checked out their show from time to time, that got my curiosity. The promotional material promises an apocalyptic tale with a healthy dose of Lovecraft and the right touches of Lost and Alien. I’m going all in here with a look at the first couple of issues to a mini-series that only goes up to four issues.

Ben Templesmith doing his own thing.

The test here is to see if I want to seek out the last two issues. This comic is a brash indie work from Whatnot, an imprint of the up-and-coming Massive and so I wanted to support the team. I was not disappointed. I was prepared for a more scruffy and gritty approach right from the start. At the end of the day, comic book fans are going to measure this up against what they know and love about the art of Ben Templesmith. The results are, I think, what you get when he’s let loose to do his own thing, which is really fluid and expressive work with moody figures, faces and moody atmosphere.

Just let Templesmith be Templesmith.

So, in a nutshell, I look forward to a collected trade. The first issue goes out with a big bang, lots of energy with various compositions, action, an overall lively vibe. Issue Two is more of an explanatory vibe, characters talking and not moving around much. The thrust of the story is fueled by all the anticipation over humanity migrating to a new planet, the elusive Empyrean, with the highest of hopes, only to run into a big . . . crashdown; one minute you’re in outer space and, the next, you’re tossed into an alien sea–with sea monsters. Issue Three is out there but I haven’t gotten one yet. I think the story has a lot of promise. The set-up work is complete and now we let those mischievous sea monsters out to play. This could get really gnarly. I believe this was originally set to be only three issues so perhaps there’s been some behind-the-scenes scrambling to get this right. When you think of all the fantastic art in Templesmith’s The Squidder, you gotta conclude that the best thing to bring this story home is to just let Templesmith be Templesmith. That said, overall, this is a great comic with sound writing for a framework and an amazing artist leading the way.

Rating: 10 out of 10