Concrete, Volume 6: Strange Armor

Concrete #6

by Paul Chadwick

A troubled man seeking spiritual renewal in the wilderness experiences a wholly unexpected rebirth - as a walking monolith, half a ton of animate stone able to perform astonishing feats of strength and endurance but forever denied many of life's fundamental pleasures. As Concrete, Ronald Lithgow becomes an overnight celebrity and the focus of dark government operatives desperate to keep the secret of his metamorphosis from the public. Concrete must struggle with the loss of his humanity while discovering, perhaps for the first time, what it truly means to be human.

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

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 1998

About the author

Paul Chadwick (b.1957) has worked widely as an artist and writer for comic books, with collaborators like Ron Randall, Doug Wheatley, Alan Moore, John Bolton, Harlan Ellison, Jan Strnad, Randy Stradley, Archie Goodwin, Brian K. Vaughan, and others.

He's most noted for his award-winning series Concrete, about a thoughtful man stuck in a brutish, rock-coated body. Born in Seattle, he grew up in its lakeside suburb Medina, then a haven for Boeing engineers and their families, now the site of palaces for Bill Gates and his ilk. His father Stephen F. Chadwick was City Attorney for the small hamlet.

As a teen, he joined Apa-5, the amateur press alliance of comics fans which also provided a creative outlet for future comics luminaries like Frank Miller, Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley, Chris Warner, Randy Emberlin, and others.

He attended Art Center College of Design, majoring in illustration. Around this time Chadwick lived in a courtyard apartment building, The Golden Palm, which teemed with talent. Bryn Barnard, Ron Harris, David Mattingly, James Gurney, Thomas Kinkade, Kurt Cyrus, Mark Verheiden, Andy Su, Terry Robinson all lived there, five of them as Chadwick's roommate (at different times).

Chadwick graduated in 1979, and began storyboarding movies for Disney, Warner Brothers, Lucasfilm and others. Credits include Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Strange Brew, The Big Easy and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. Chadwick says the auteurs behind two small films he worked on, Lies (Jim & Ken Wheat) and Miracle Mile (Steve DeJarnatt) were the greatest personal influences on his writing.

Chadwick also freelanced illustration, mainly for movie advertising (Streamers and Galaxy of Terror were the only finished posters among the dozens of preliminary paintings he did) and for SF and Fantasy paperbacks.

Chadwick decided to devote himself to comics, but Concrete didn't sell at first. Chadwick's first comic in print was The Life of St. Norbert, published by an order of Norbertine monks. Going from the sacred to the (mildly) profane, he next drew Steve Perry's strange and silly Salimba, about a jungle girl fighting "wormboys" and a giant three-headed were-dog.

A year on Marvel's Dazzler completed Chadwick's apprentice years, and he sold Concrete in 1985 to Dark Horse comics. It has appeared intermittently ever since.

A Concrete movie has been in development for years. Chadwick has written several screenplays for it, first in collaboration with Larry Wilson, then solo. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh wrote one, as well, which briefly won a green light for the film.

The decision was reversed upon the release of the surprise hit The Blair Witch Project, which caused the sudden mass delusion that Hollywood could dispense with costly visual effects and stars. The fever passed, but Concrete's window had closed, at least until somebody with the clout or energy decides to brave the thousand demons that lay waiting to kill every movie.

Chadwick wrote and drew (inks by Ron Randall) eight issues of The World Below, about a network of vast, mysteriously lit caverns beneath northern Washington State, and the strange beings and technology to be found there. Dark Horse plans to reissue the series as a collection.

The Human Dilemma, the newest Concrete series, won an Eisner Award (best cartoonist) and a Reuben Award (best in comic books division) from the National Cartoonist Society.

Chadwick is currently drawing a miniseries for DC, Seven Against Chaos, written by Harlan Ellison.

He's also working on a (non-Concrete, TBA) graphic novel for Dark Horse, as well as a new Concrete miniseries.

Biography updated 2010

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. (Collect them all!)

From the September 1998 edition with a theme of "Creative Recycling":

INTRODUCTION

Last month's column was about publishers reprinting and repackaging material. This month, I'm going to take a peek at creative recycling.

What's creative recycling? That's when a creator takes elements, plots, characters, themes, traditional frameworks, or artistic styles from another creator or creative work; puts his or her own spin on the material; and produces a work which -- while derivative -- becomes distinctly original and new. Or so it is hoped.

Let's see which of this month's books succeed and which ones fail.

FROM THE BACKLIST

CONCRETE #1-10 (Dark Horse Comics)
CONCRETE: COMPLETE SHORT STORIES 1986-1989 (Dark Horse Comics)
CONCRETE: STRANGE ARMOR #1-5 (Dark Horse Comics)

Ben "The Thing" Grimm of the Fantastic Four is a world-renown brooder. He constantly bemoans the tragedy which has befallen him; his great strength and invulnerability come at the expense of having an ugly, orange, rocky exterior that only a blind woman could love. While the Thing may be one of the top powerhouses of the Marvel Universe, he is a pansy in the brooding department when compared to his spiritual brother, Concrete.

Concrete, who first appeared in DARK HORSE PRESENTS #1 (Dark Horse Comics), is the "real world" twin of Ben Grimm. Through Concrete, writer/artist Paul Chadwick explores the benefits, consequences, and incredible isolation of being a human trapped in a hugely powerful but ugly and ungainly body. Ron Lithgow, the man whose mind was transferred by aliens into the powerful, artificial Concrete construct, struggles to escape his introverted, nerdish roots in order to most fully live what remains of his shattered life. His greatest regret is that even if he were to somehow find love, with no nerve endings, he can never again fully enjoy the touch of a woman.

So Concrete tries to help people and perform stunts in order to distract himself. He attempts to climb mountains, swim oceans, rescue trapped miners, and hang out with celebrities. CONCRETE contains many adventure elements, but the majority of Concrete's stories are cerebral due to the introspective nature of the character. While Concrete may like to rush headlong into action in theory, in practice he generally embarrasses himself whenever he tries something bold. So he thinks through all the ramifications of his deeds, hoping to reach a morally defensible position before acting. Instead of "It's clobberin' time!", Concrete is much more likely to exclaim, "It's ponderin' time!"

As you can probably guess, most CONCRETE stories are character-driven. And you couldn't ask for a finer bunch of people to drive you around. In addition to Ron "Concrete" Lithgow, there is Maureen, the absent-minded professor. She's the scientist assigned to study and document the alien technology which Concrete's body represents. She's totally oblivious to the fact that Concrete has a huge crush on her. Then there's Larry, Concrete's aide-de-camp. A freewheelin' dude of the first order, Larry often oversteps the bounds of typing up Concrete's dictation of their adventures by exercising his own creative writing skills. Their clashing personalities causes frustration for Concrete, but he keeps Larry around because he admires his easygoing manner and luck with the ladies. Finally, there is the aggressive and outgoing Senator for whom Concrete wrote speeches before his alien transformation. The Senator is a respected mentor and father figure Concrete frequently approaches for advice.

Despite a publishing history spanning over ten years, it's pretty easy to catch up with CONCRETE. Dark Horse Comics has collected the original ten issues of CONCRETE and Concrete's frequent short story appearances from DARK HORSE PRESENTS in two separate "Complete" trade paperbacks. While CONCRETE no longer has a regular series, he resurfaces fairly regularly in a series of limited series. Most recently, Chadwick retold and revamped Concrete's origin in the limited series, CONCRETE: STRANGE ARMOR. While the changes in Concrete's origin were mostly unnecessary and unwanted (by me, at least), they don't take away from yet another beautifully drawn and thoughtfully written CONCRETE comic.

Grade: B+

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two-thirds of this volume are a retelling of Concrete's origin story. But it's not the same as the first time around; my understanding is that Chadwick was trying to get Concrete picked up for a motion film, and thus needed a tight story to wrap around that.

Unfortunately, I found the retelling to be vastly inferior to the original. It loses a lot of the depth and complexity that the original has, turns Maureen into a one-dimensional love interest, and adds an obnoxious villain (a trope Concrete had avoided for so long).

Thankfully, it seems like this was just a one-off retelling. The rest of the volume continues with short stories from the original canon and are just as interesting and complex as the rest of the series up until now.

Two stars for the retelling, four stars for the short stories.

[Joe Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main story that makes the bulk of this volume is almost perfect. It's a nice bittersweet tale of Concrete's origin. Maybe I wasn't in the mood after the main story, but I found the backups wanting. 3.5

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange Armor is Concrete's origin, dealing with the political and military issues of Concrete. Very personal and moving work, though I prefer the stories that allow Concrete to explore the majesty of life, rather than having him wallow in backstabbing and corruption.

[Ned Leffingwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concrete is one of the best comics ever written.

[Patrick Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird choice to redo the origin story, but I get why, and it’s certainly improved.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been aware of this series for years, but never really paid attention to it, figuring it was just a rip-off of The Thing from Fantastic Four. I picked up a used copy of the volume very cheaply at a local bookstore recently, and boy was I wrong about this series. This book provides a great jumping-on point for readers like me unfamiliar with the story, as it is a retelling of Concrete's origin, based on a screenplay for a film version. This story itself is terrific; imaginative, fast-paced, funny, and filled with emotion and introspection. Chadwick's art is amazing, rooted in the old-school styling of artists like Wally Wood, but full of detail and nuance while unafraid to experiment. The back up stories here reflect Chadwick's willingness to experiment with both story and art, and they range from the extremely surreal and fanciful to the contemplative and autobiographical. This is both a thinking-man's comic and a feeling-man's comic, and great, unusual stuff. I glad I re-discovered this series and will seek out more.

[Deodand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder how Concrete's early fans feel about Chadwick revisiting Concrete's origin story? Would this be something we'd tolerate in other heroes? The answer is yes, I mean how many damn times have we heard Batman's story, I could recite it by heart in spite of never having read one Batman comic.

The pace is better here than in #1 and of course the drawing is higher quality. But there were some moments in #1 that I missed seeing in the retelling. The aliens don't feature as much as a part of the plot. But the last half of this series does a great job of keeping up the pace, as a graphic novel should.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've already read most of what was collected here, although the origin story is supposedly somewhat different (I'd have to dig out the original comics to compare). I found the story more interesting when I first encountered it. Maybe it's because the story was new and most of the volumes were actual stories. Besides the origin story, this volume holds several existential thumb twiddles that are almost intriguing. But they didn't really grab me. Still, interesting art and thoughtful thoughts, almost Neil Gaiman-ish.

[matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story that will, by necessity, become a film if they ever do in fact make a film about Concrete.
An origin story.
Of course, this is Chadwick, so it's an engaging and emotional origin story - but I almost wish he wasn't forced to have to explain how Concrete became what he is. That said, this is still a great book.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume details the origin story again, but with a much more sinister involvement of the government. I think Chadwick realized he could draw a greater audience with a lot more tension than he originally produced.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man this series is freaking great. So imaginative, human, and wise.

[E.C.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the retelling of the origin story, but not as much as the original story. Still, it's worth reading if your a fan. A few really good and inventive shorter pieces conclude this volume.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

aside from adding shading in the panels, i don't think the retelling of the origin added that much.
the extras at the end of this trade was the usual: interesting, but not earth-shattering.

[Eli Poteet · Rating 5 out of 5]

i adore the rewritten origin story!