Loggerhead #1
Scout Comics
Writer/Artist/Colors: Bryan Silverbax
Colors: Bryan Silverbax/ Sheryl Rodriguez
Letters: Joel Rodruguez
This is a monster comic. In the vein of the Incredible Hulk, Swamp Thing— Hell! I would even throw in Frankenstein’s monster… The lumbering creature that lurks in the shadows. The myth in the darkness. I wanted to like this comic. I really did. I was excited by the name and the visual on the cover. But the end product doesn’t deliver. Loggerhead has lofty goals but poor execution. In the vernacular of film, this is a low budget B-movie with blockbuster aspirations. You can see where the creator wants to go. The reader can see the intent of Silverbax’s final vision, but the talent and the production is lacking.
Story- While the book has a plot, the focus is all over the place. Who is the main character? Who is the reader supposed to identify with? Instead of a flowing narrative that takes the reader on an adventure, we get a series of cut-together scenes that don’t connect. They do– but they don’t.
There are bad guys in the swamp looking for raw minerals… I think… and the fact these people have entered into the swamp is enough to invoke the wrath of the dreaded Loggerhead. A mutated snapping turtle-man. The motivation for Loggerhead’s wrath is never really covered. So the motivation for the titular character is unknown… never a good move. We get a campfire story about the possible origin of the monster, but nothing is made clear.
The story shifts to a group of mutant kids who scare each other with ghost stories about the local legend. The kids are found by one of the bad guys. For whatever reason, there is a standoff and Loggerhead saves the day.
That’s not including the setting and world-building that Silverbax is trying to convey. Ideas like “The Dead East” and “New Atlanta” and various other terms are thrown out at the reader and nothing is given context or explained in any detail.
The fact that characters have mutations like horns, claws, and other physical traits are not really explained further either except in the loose terms of “aliens”. There is no place for readers to really understand the world they are experiencing.
Art- Here is where the book is crippled. The art is subpar, save a few action panels where Silverbax had room to focus on a single image of Loggerhead. The panel layout is clunky. The poses are stilted and stiff. The faces of every human character are awful. I understand that Silverbax is going for stylized anatomy and design, but basic elements of animation and illustration still apply. This is an amateur trying to pass himself off as a pro.
There are little to no backgrounds on multiple pages because the artist lacks the skill to pull them off. There are numerous instances where the colorist didn’t fill in the page correctly. There is a gross overuse of glow effects and “lighting” that mute the art. Between the deficiencies of the artwork and the coloring, this comic quickly falls apart.
The positives are the design and look of Loggerhead. The monster looks cool even though we’ve seen a variation of it in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe in the toy line and show. Look up the character Slash.
There are bits and pieces of this concept that hold promise. I can see why that Scout took a chance on this property. But Silverbax would be better off to just take a creator credit and leave the actual execution of the comic to more talented professionals. There is something here that is worthwhile, but the creative team needs to be replaced and that’s the last thing I’m sure anyone on this title wants to hear.