Story: Mario Gully and Matt Nixon
Art: Mario Gully (p) and Peter Repovski (i)
Publisher: Arcana Studio
Imagine your life is shit in the fourth grade. Don’t-have-any-friends/dad-going-to-jail/don’t-know-your-momma/may-end-up-in-a-foster-home-shit! But you know that after college there will be no more problems. In a decade, you will make a difference! NO ONE and NOTHING will ever hurt you again. All you have to do is survive today and it will come to pass that you will make a difference in the world. Could you endure the trials and tribulations of a truly rough childhood if the light at the end of the tunnel is so far away it is a flickering pinprick?
The premise behind Ant is on fire! And I love it!
Hanna Washington is an elementary school student who has a problem, she doesn’t fit in. At all. Everyone at school, from her peers to the principle thinks that she should grow up and stop playing with bugs! Hanna has no friends and is unable to recognize when one is trying to befriend her. Add to that the fact that her father, her only parent, has been arrested for murder and you have one lonely, messed-up kid. And like many little kids that have problems Hanna tries to escape hers by entering a fantasy world where she is perfect. In a journal that contains Hanna’s secrets and hopes are stories she has written of a superheroine named the Ant. However, these are not just fictional stories, they are tales of the future when Hanna will grow-up to be a hero to many. But no one believes her today.
On the technical side, Ant is wonderful. For $2.95 you can get either a Mario Gully cover or a J. Scott Campbell cover. The comic is 32 full color pages and the story takes up ALL 32, no ads! Story wise it’s 10 pages longer than a normal book! I felt the bang for my buck! Mario Gully and Matt Nixon’s take on Ant is great. The idea of a young girl that will grow up to be something better than she is wonderfully produced! Mario’s art is excellent! And he can do storytelling, too. Not every panel is a pin-up. All the characters look different and everyone is expressive in their attitude. I am impressed.
Now, Ant does have its rough moments; occasional stiff dialog, and the coloring is repetitive. But the premise and execution MORE than make up for any missteps! I read superhero books from Marvel and DC pretty exclusively because I believe that they have the men-in-tights market cornered. The big two tend to produce the best superhero characters, superhero stories, superhero art, and superhero products of any studios (I will make exceptions for Image’s Powers and Top Cow’s Common Grounds and a few others, but overall superheroes = DC and Marvel for Egg). What makes Ant such a fascinating comic is the fact that it stands up to Marvel and DC’s superheroes! Newcomer Mario Gully is producing a story that is that good! Hanna is a cute kid. Her situation sucks. You feel for her and understand why she has this fantasy life! The comic is GREAT and I cannot wait for issue two!
And if you are like me and cannot find Ant at your local comic store, try ordering it from www.ArcanaStudio.com for $2.95 (shipping and handling included). They’ll send you the cover of your choice and I received a free Photostat of both covers, which I thought was a nice bonus.
For more information on Ant, go to http://www.ArcanaStudio.com/ or http://www.AntHillStudio.com/
For more information on Egg, go to http://www.KamenComic.com/
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