Sparks Issue #1

Sparks #1

by James DeSantis, Ruben Mocho (Illustrator)

Every superhero has a origin. Ethan Hamil isn't having a very good week. His girlfriend leaves him, he breaks his hand, and then finds out he has a life-threatening disease. If that wasn't bad enough he's struck by lightning. Every hero's story has to start somewhere, right?

29 pages, ebook

Published January 3, 2018

About the author

Just a regular nerd, reading comics and enjoying life the best I can. I've made my own comics, as well as short stories and books. These days I still occasionally try to create some of those.

My main focus here is writing reviews to spread love throughout the comic and manga worlds. I also make YouTube videos with deep dives on comic characters, so come check me out there as well.

Add me if you want to talk anytime! I love nerding out. Now go enjoy reading some good comics!

Reviews

[Devon Munn · Rating 3 out of 5]

*I Read this cause this book the author is one of my favorite comic YouTubers and he posted an update with him finding to people to read his new book so yeah*

Odd opening, decent set up. i guess him (Ethan) seeing a demon is a metaphor for him worrying about death, but it was kinda odd how it was mixed in to the story, especially when he imagines his doctor turning into one when the doctor tells him he has cancer

Also wasn't a fan of the artwork, but I've seen worse

[A M H · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, I want to say thanks for the free review copy. :) Because of this, I'll try to make my review more in-depth and thought out. Now onto the review:

When I first read the concept it sounded interesting, and with that, the first issue is exactly as described. Unfortunately, the execution left a bit to be desired. The intro started out rather well, but quickly fizzled out with the introduction to our protagonist. I found him.. Lackluster and unlikeable.. We're given several reasons to sympathize for him and to care but it just clashed against his personality.

First where introduced to him as basically a compulsive liar, has enough anger issues to wreck his hand, and then the icing on the cake is he acts like a douche/hypocrite to a nurse about how she should do her job when he couldn't even finish his own education.

It's a bit odd for me, considering I tend to enjoy and favorite jerk characters. However, he just comes off so dull and lifeless. The only lively thing about him isn't him himself but what's happening to him.

Story wise it's just okay for what it was, but I didn't like it personally. Also the textbox layout could have been better. It worked for the most part, but once it got to the Ethan's friend's house the textboxes just didn't flow right at all, and at times made reading confusing. Examples: Sometimes a panel expects you to read left from right even though some bubbles are up above others making it seem like those should go first. Another panel will have you go up left corner, down left corned then up right corned and down again. This panel is right next to another panel where you start reading from the bottom left work your way up then down again to the right. There's no rhyme or reason to it other than left to right.

Art is bare minimum. Simplistic characters and no backgrounds. Honestly, I don't judge art too harshly, because it takes talent and time to draw people and faces. Just know it's not in the standards of most comics. At least the cover art is cool.

Overall, I'm disappointed, and it's a bummer because I wanted to like it. It kind of sucks having to give a bad review to something you where given, but yeah, this just wasn't for me.