Rumble, Tome 1 : La Couleur des Ténèbres

Rumble (2014) (Single Issues) #1-5

by John Arcudi (Contributor), James Harren (Illustrator)

Prêts pour le grand carnage ?

Ok, par où commencer ? C’est l’histoire d’un épouvantail qui rentre dans un bar... et qui plonge une ville américaine moderne dans un conflit mythique et plurimillénaire ! Après une longue absence, Rathraq est de retour – et il n’est pas content du tout. Mauvaise nouvelle pour ses vieux ennemis, certes, mais pire encore pour tous les autres ! Car le dieu-guerrier épouvantail n’a pas l’habitude de faire dans la dentelle...

Entre humour et horreur, John Arcudi (B.R.P.D., The Mask) et James Harren (Conan The Barbarian) nous livrent un cocktail jouissif d’action et d’aventure où se côtoient dans les bars miteux chatons morts-vivants, skinheads psychotiques et autres momies géantes. Rumble, c’est Preacher qui rencontrerait Hellboy dans les rues de Sin City... bref, le comics dans toute sa splendeur !

Un véritable bijou graphique et narratif mis en valeur en fin d’album par un cahier de croquis et d’illustrations inédites !

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Horror, Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

160 pages, Hardcover

First published June 24, 2015

About the author

John Arcudi has made a name for himself by scripting comics that manage to combine long-running subplots with impeccable characterization and action sequences, making for some of the most exciting and consistently good comics out today.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd never heard of Rumble but it wasn't bad.
This one is about an elder race that fought a great war and then (mostly) moved on to the next plane of existence. The leftover immortals that are still on Earth, for one reason or another, are living in harmony with mankind.



Until our pissed-off warrior finally gets released from his POW camp thousands of years later, due to his jailor fucking him over. Basically, he forgot to submit this dude's paperwork for release.



Now he's back for VENGENCE! <--on any of his enemies leftover on the planet
Which is cool and all, but these gods/immortals realllllly weren't doing anything to hurt anyone, so I never actually felt like rooting for him.
He's got this human sidekick that's a goofball bartender, and that guy spends the majority of the comic pining for a woman who's nice to him but way out of his league.
Or is she? dum, dum, dum....
Plus, the bartender's excitable friend, who can't wait to go on this journey with an immortal wearing a scarecrow as skin.



The art is ugly as hell but it fits the story. I wouldn't purposely seek out anything that looks like this, but it was ok for something this particular book.
I'm not opposed to reading more, but I doubt I will seek this one out in the future unless someone tells me it's turned into something amazing.

This was a Halloween gift from a spooky Goodreads friend.
Thank you!

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given that this is from two guys who have worked on BPRD and features a bunch of monsters, this is going to draw a lot of comparisons to that series, but it does have its own thing. Bobby is a loser bartender closing up shop one night when a cloaked man with a big sword comes in and cuts the arm off one of his patrons. Both disappear before the cops show up. What follows is a story an an ancient war between monster gods and a unending thirst for revenge with some quirk and humor thrown in for good measure.

The Good: It felt a little reminiscent of Thor if his soul had been put into a scarecrow and Ragnarok happened while he was in Hel. How would he deal with being the only Asgardian left and all the trolls, giants, and other creatures were hiding out on Earth. I liked that the 2 main humans were a couple of idiots, it helped add a sense of humor to the book.

The Bad: James Harren's human characters are often misshapen and out of proportion.

The Ugly: But he draws grotesque, fun monsters.

[Jan Philipzig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm - not sure what to make of this one. There were a few elements in here that I enjoyed quite a bit: Arcudi's witty dialogue, odd sense of humor, unexpected yet organic characterization. The story's fantasy elements, by contrast, left me cold, especially those sketchy, stylized, angular action scenes (that looked a lot like Rob Guillory's in Chew to me: meh).

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve been reading Hellboy and his expanded universe books for years now and, since seeing John Arcudi’s name listed as co-writer alongside Mike Mignola’s on quite a few comics, I’ve wondered how big an influence Arcudi is on Mignola’s scripts. Because Mignola can write (and of course draw) really, really good comics but he collaborates most frequently with Arcudi on BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) and, man, those books are mostly sucky!

Here’s my answer: Rumble. Arcudi is joined by BPRD regulars artist James Harren and colourist Dave Stewart who both produce fine looking pages - but the writing is bog-standard!

Rathraq, a scarecrow warrior god with a big sword, is looking for his body in modern day America. He wasn’t always a scarecrow, he just had his body stolen and his soul put into a scarecrow. Rathraq encounters and fights many demons and monsters and kills them all with his big sword. He’s basically Hellboy and Johann Kraus minus their personalities (or any personality for that matter!) rolled up in one dull character.

Bobby the bartender and his idiot friend Del are the sort of main characters that you can’t possibly give a crap about. Bobby wants to get with hot pants Timah (such an unfortunate name - every time I saw that I kept thinking of South Park’s TIMMAH! and laughing) while Del just sort of hangs out with Rathraq because there’s so little to his “character”.

I love Harren’s art style and it’s easy to see why he got hired to draw BPRD when his monsters are so good. Stewart’s colours also make the visuals pop! and their covers are amazing. The story though was very flat - wasn’t terribly interested in anyone, didn’t really care about Rathraq getting his body back, couldn’t care less about Bobby hooking up with TIMMAH! and the comic was basically one meaningless fight after another. Is Rathraq gonna slice that monster in half with his sword? Yup. Just like the one before that… and the one before that… oh look, here comes Del with some “hilarious” comment about slicing up monsters with a sword. Is it over yet?

Image are definitely putting out the most interesting, must-read comics in the business right now, but Rumble isn’t one of them.

TIMMAH!

[Joey Cruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conan meets Big Trouble in Little China, with a bit of American Gods thrown in. This is one of the most well-paced, evenly written books I've read in recent years. Just a perfect specimen of comic making, and yet another home run from Image comics. If publishers were TV networks, Image would be my favorite channel right now.

[The Lion's Share · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It reminded me of the BPRD a little, maybe that is because of Arcudi, but either way I enjoyed the way it flowed.

It's not the deepest of stories, but I like stories that take me into a different world. It's focuses more on the backstory than it does in focus in on developing other characters, but I can see that happening later on.

A different read, worth reading if you're into monsters, mystery and action.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in this because of the artwork by James Harren. I've enjoyed his worked elsewhere especially in BPRD.

This is kind of a high fantasy book set in the modern world in an American city. A ten-thousand year old God is awakened as a scarecrow, there's a huge sword and two winged demon bug things after it. We follow a down-on-his-luck bartender and his goofy friend.

I don't know. I didn't really get interested in the mythos here. The human characters are bit boring.

The artwork is great at times but it's definitely a monthly title with some simplistic/short-cut elements. So it's not as good as other Harren books I've seen.

I wanted to like this more, and I may check out volume 2 in the future.

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Sure, this wasn't the best of the reads out there, but at least it gave me one or two good chuckles. This volume wrapped up pretty nicely, with a good lead for a sequel, which I would be game for.

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird loser as reluctant hero as he helps eon old uber warrior in scarecrow avatar fights the legion of monsters to reclaim uber's humanity and loser's dignity and self worth. Funny too.

[Frédéric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fantasy action.

Rathtaq is kind of an old God who got screwed and got his soul stuck in a sarecrow. With the help of Bobby and Del he hopes to get his body back.

With this most basic plot Arcudi and Harren surprisingly manage to make an entertaining story.
Rathtaq being a huge laconic scarecrow, the entertainment comes from the supporting cast. Bobby and Del, two moronic losers. Bobby is a self-deprecating bartender that wants nothing but get laid with a girl he's enamored with while Del is... an adorable talkative moron-that I probably couldn't stand in real life but hey, it's a comic book!

The huge-laconic-hero-and-his-stupid-but-fun-sidekick stint has been done thousands of time but not always well-well, most of the time actually-and success resides in the strange  alchemy of the characters. Some hit it, most don't and I think Arcudi did a pretty good job here.

Add ugly and vindictive demons, big swords and action and this can be real good if the artist is worth it.

Luckily James Harren is. He brings his ultra dynamic style to the book, cartoony on the sides, again an alchemy that works. Excellent character designs, clear and good storytelling, that made my day.
Not to forget the great Dave Stewart's beautiful colors, mind you.

Rumble is not a "deep" book. It doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything but is merely pure fun and entertainment.
Is that so bad?

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read - Still love this fast paced, over the top, silly yet great comic. I'm eager to finally continue my adventure with this series as I bought volumes 2-6 recently. Still great!

Holy smokes of crazy shit. I dunno what that meant, but I fucking LOVED this comic for the most part.

What I didn't like? The weird thrown in love interest moments. Felt very oddly placed.

Okay, what I did like? The art is fantastic. It's like a mix of 90's art but take all the good stuff, leave all the old crap that looked silly, and you got this comic. The main character is a loser, yet he's heroic in a sense. The big sword wielding scarecrow is the true hero of the story and slays demons around the world. The sidekick best friend is a bumbling idiot, but he works well. The dialog is just damn near perfect cause it feels so real.

Listen, this won't change non-comic readers into comic lovers, but it'll make my night. So for that, rumble gets a solid 4 out of 5 for being damn fun as hell.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now here's some good shit. Compelling premise, nice scarecrow gimmick, solid (just slightly flat) characters, and great art. Not a whole lot else to say this early on, but I'm excited to see where this goes.

[SUSAN *Nevertheless,she persisted* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this,will read the next volume.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazy Good Comic

[L. McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that I heard a bunch of great things about. Many seem to love this series but for me, the first volume seems to just be okay.

What’s it about?
A guy runs into some alien and gets a sword which gets him caught up in all kinds of weird s***.

Pros:
The story is quite interesting.
The art is hit and miss, I’m giving it a pro for the hits.
There’s some pretty sweet action scenes.
Many have described this as a horror-comedy and… they definitely got the comedy part right. There are quite a few moments in this book that are really funny.
This is a very unpredictable book.

Cons:
I’ll be honest, I couldn’t give a rat’s a** about the characters. The 3 main characters are some random guy, his redneck friend and a generic alien. The other 3 notable characters are a random girl, a guy who goes to the bar the random guy works at and a 3 legged dog. The only one I at all care about is the dog because… it’s a dog and I like dogs.
I have no idea why this is considered to be a horror book at all. I would definitely say it’s a sci-fi book but horror… no. This wouldn’t bother me so much if it wasn’t for the fact that the back of the book says horror multiple times. In all fairness, I tend to read some really creepy and/or screwed up s*** but as a fan of horror, this really did not seem at all like a horror book.
So I gave the hit and miss art a pro for the hits, it’s getting a con for the misses.
There’s some kinda goofy filler stuff.

Overall:
I enjoyed it a fair bit but there were a few things that really bothered me. It’s a cool story, I like the action and it’s definitely funny but I can’t stand generic characters and filler which this book definitely includes. I still will probably end up reading volume 2 at some point though it’s definitely not a huge priority of mine.

3/5

[Marc Bosch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arcudi y Harren se sacan de la chistera un mundo fantástico donde conviven simples humanos con Dioses que llevan miles de años enfrentados.

En el pasado, Rathrak el guerrero Iver más poderoso capaz de blandir a la mítica espada Slanjau fue el encargado de derrotar a los antiguos Demonios Esu, aunque varios de ellos (Xotlaha y Nusku) sobrevivieron, le tendieron una trampa y se quedaron con su cuerpo forzándole a utilizar desde entonces el de un espantapájaros.

Miles de años después, Cogan/Rathrak deberá recurrir a Bobby “el simple humano” para que le ayude a unir de nuevo su alma con su cuerpo y derrotar a los Esu que se dedican a ocupar cuerpos de los muertos con el objetivo de retomar el control del mundo. Bobby deberá involucrarse, aceptar el reto de acompañarlo y para ello blandirá la espada que le permite hacerse cargo de su propia vida. Les acompañarán en este primer viaje su impulsivo amigo Del, ávido de aventuras y la bella Timah.

Las ilustraciones de los monstruos y el uso del color recrean una atmósfera donde nada es lo que parece. Por el camino voraces animales y seres desprovistos de alma dan emoción a esta primera trama que concluye con la derrota de la ira flamígera.

Necesité una segunda lectura para acabar de atar los hilos de la trama. Ahora voy de cabeza al siguiente tomo.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Urban fantasy usually falters toward overly dark, gritty and violent for my tastes. This one keeps the gritty and violent but lightens the tone considerably with a nice dose of humor. The art is also just cartoony enough to prevent the reader from taking this seriously, and there's some very creative monster design. My only real quibble here is that over the five issues here, not much happens as far as plot progression is concerned. The monster fights are great, but very little forward momentum in the story hurts my chances of picking up a second volume.

[Jason Ragle · Rating 4 out of 5]

RUMBLE is an odd book. It doesn't fit easily into a genre, but since in comes from Arcudi and Harren of BPRD fame, that's a place to start. Harren and Stewart create a trashy, beautifully quirky environment for Arcudi's offbeat story. This is a keeper.

[Sarah (thegirltheycalljones) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool story, nice drawings, some fun lines, characters I wanna know better... Bring it on, #2!

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

The background for this world is extensive. The many names in his backstory make the human characters around him reel as much as I am while reading this. Fortunately, the author glosses over it quickly, so it's not really important. The bottom line is that an ancient war between gods left one of them imprisoned for millenia. Now he is back for revenge. The story is lighthearted even with all the cartoony eviscerations, so I'm curious where it's headed.

Bobby is in over his head. He witnesses a dark creature with a long sword cut off the arm of one of the customers at the bar where he works. It follows him home and demands that he show it where Cogan, the customer, is located. The dark creature is called Rathraq and his spirit was imprisoned for thousands of years, then released into the body of a scarecrow. Rathraq now wants to recover his body from his ancient enemies.

Cogan offers Rathraq his body in exchange for his sword. Rathraq accepts and discovers too late that his heart was removed from the body. He attacks Cogan and his allies, but it is Bobby who ends the fight using the long sword. Rathraq must still recover his heart, but now he has Bobby on his side.

[Bogdan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, overall I liked the artwork, the (mostly) dark tones of the colors and the rigid lines & shapes of the monsters (Arcudi has collaborated with Mignola and it could be seen at a first glance), but the story wasn`t something too deep.

And the characters were quite paper thin.

Not much of a history with this volume, but I admit that I`m inclined to give the second one a try, sometime in the future, without any big expectations.

[Daryn Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the James Harren art but the writing didn't hold me.

Needs more scarecrow warrior swordplay vs demons and a heavier scoop of humour to keep things zesty.
Also, when your world-building backstory flashbacks feel like sludge to flip through, then you ain't buildin' nothin'...you're just making the reader become detached from the narrative.

Which I really didn't want to happen with this, but...

[Y · Rating 3 out of 5]

This somehow reminded me a lot about Chew.

Not sure what to think of this, a lot happens really fast. It ends on an interesting note.

[Kyle Berk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Ascarecrow walks into a bar and chops a guys arm off. I love the first issue. It had me locked in. And all the stuff after that I liked if it felt I was going through the motions of hidden supernatural/immortal/ magical force hidden in our world.

And believe me really please I don’t mean that as a bad thing cause Rumble is fun, it’s drawn well, and it uses visual storytelling over just telling us more often than not and I love that cause comics are a visual medium.

The characters though typical are well done and you get a good sense for who they are. The magical force is very simplistic Doom warrior part of one tribe. That I won’t get into cause Rumble is worth a look. Because the first two issues are so good.

And I hope that in further volumes it can be all that level, see my girlfriend lent me the first 3 volumes.

So it’s good if a little typical after it gets started.

But I like the Scarecrow and want to see what becomes of him.

It’s also funnier then I expected considering the cover.

3 stars

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is SO out there. If you liked John Arcudi's work with BPRD, seeing him here completely free of the conventions of that series is great; he takes his unique creatures and concepts and makes them the forefront of this story. Loser bartender Bobby and his friend Del manage to stumble into a multi-millennial battle of gods that plays out on the streets of modern day America. The creature design is unique, the story is at turns silly and strong, and the tone manages to capture and normalize its absurd situations without stumbling into parody (although it never quite takes itself seriously). It manages to be a lot of fun, with some very unique creatures brought to life well and in a very enjoyable romp. The first volume stands alone pretty well, although a couple of early story threads disappear, most likely to come into play in later volumes. I don't know what I was expecting when I picked this up, but I was very pleasantly surprised with what I got.

[Des Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rumble is a unique beast, and a difficult one to classify or rate. I had a lot of fun reading it. The action is great, the pace is well-managed and fun, and the art is excellent. There are rad ideas at the heart of this book, focused on ancient races and gods, all bubbling up into the modern era. Its a great visual treat, and absolutely worth your time for the entertainment value alone. Dialogue ranges from center of the road to good, characters are charming if uncomplicated at this point in the story, and the narrative is simple, asking very little from the reader, managing to fill the blanks with violence. I'm not totally sure I'll keep up, and no this isn't a masterwork, but it was good comic work, and there's the potential for something bigger here for sure.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rumble is fun, and it's dialogue is crisp and fairly fresh. It is absurd but yet consistent with itself. One is surprised by the amount of interest one can work up Bobby, Del and Rathra. Harren's art is highly stylized and livingly. It fits the setting, and while a little bit tamer than someone like Sam Keith, Harren definitely seems to be having that level of fun with this project. The characters definitely need to be fleshed out more, but the world creaks like its lived in. A good read.

[Roman Colombo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really excited to start reading this, as it looked so weird, and though I liked it, I think my expectations were too high. It does feel like the kind of series that will get better as it progresses. We definitely need to learn more about Rathraq, and spend more time with him instead of the abundantly boring human character.

The art is great. Just as spastic and strange as it should be.

[Trutze · Rating 4 out of 5]

An almost perfect combination of great graphic style and story. It's weird and quirky, one has to be into really weird stuff and humor to like it. This is not your average comic, but i personally enjoy weird much more than your average superhero. I a in love with rumble

[Larakaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the art style, very dynamic pencilling. thus far the story itself is cool, entertaining and pretty straight.