Echo #3
Terry Moore Returns to Monthly Comics With, Echo, a Science-Fiction Tale.
Echo #3
May 27th, 2008 - Best known for the indie favorite series Strangers In Paradise, Terry Moore has taken a different direction with his newest ongoing monthly series, ECHO, steering into previously uncharted waters for him, with a science-fiction story.
A fast-paced, exciting tale, ECHO begins literally with a bang and moves along quickly, dispersing just enough information and introducing new characters along the way to keep you interested and wondering what will happen next.
For those not familiar with what has gone before, a bit of back-story is necessary. As the story began in Issue #1, a woman is flying high above the earth in a hi-tech flight suit, part of some top-secret military experiment. It's revealed that the suit itself is an atom bomb and, as part of their experiment, the team leader is determined to test the suit's effectiveness against some jet fighter missile power. This comes as a bit of a surprise to the suit's occupant, who tries to dodge the missiles coming at her; she ultimately rips her helmet off and throws it at an oncoming weapon. This results in a giant atomic blast over the desert, in an area known as Moon Lake, in an undisclosed part of the country.
Our protagonist, Julie Martin, is out alone in this desert, taking photos of the flora and fauna. Suddenly, she witnesses the explosion above, and tiny pellet-like balls of what look like clay or metal come raining down on her and her nearby pick-up truck. She is literally covered with these things, sticking to her skin and hair, and running in seeming pain to the relative safety of her vehicle. As the pellets come down, they stick to the truck, too. She drives away and rushes back home. After getting out of her pick-up, she notices that a larger-sized chunk of the strange material has landed in the back of the truck. She takes it with her and goes into her house. Fumbling with the piece, it suddenly starts squirming in her hand and promptly attaches itself to her chest, like some sort of breastplate. Then the rest of the pellets begin to migrate and coalesce along with the larger piece. She has now somehow merged with this atomic bomb material.
From the black and white artwork to the fantastical story told with realistic characters this book reminds me of the classic days of Paul Chadwick's Concrete. You've got believable characters immersed in unbelievable situations, all while trying to tackle true-life issues like divorce and mental health amid the chaos of stuff you might only think to find in a superhero story.
Terry Moore has always been known for drawing cute girls. Though not really known as a “good girl” artist, he could easily be drawing cheesecake if he wanted to, but, instead, his women characters are strong willed, smart, and, at the same time, sexy, but more importantly, realistic in their proportions. Moore is able to get away with some mildly risqué drawings here, all still furthering the story, as Julie has to shed her clothes to see what's going on with this breastplate contraption taking over her upper half; this reviewer has no complaints about seeing him draw the delightfully curvy heroine. The rest of the characters are drawn to fit their roles in the book--they're neither caricatures nor generic examples. There's some terrific snappy dialogue here as well as some great drawing (though I did feel the opening sequence in issue #1 was slightly awkwardly drawn--maybe a result of Moore drawing situations out of the norm for him), which I think is getting better as the series moves forward.
The book doesn't skimp on story or leave you feeling like it’s not advancing fast enough, as many other books sometimes do. A fair amount of new details and characters are added in each issue and you can see that there's a definite direction toward which Moore is heading the book. By the end of the latest issue, you can see that that direction is becoming even a bit more super-heroic and fantastical than you might have expected at the beginning.
Issue #3 opens with a page recounting the story thus far, then plunges headlong into events. Julie is still confused as to what's going on with this metallic breastplate thing and is trying to figure out how to get it off. She's seen a doctor who, upon touching it, was shocked and wound up losing a fingernail. The doctor, feeling that Julie was playing some sort of prank, threw her out of the hospital. (This business was not entirely convincing; what kind of device would someone wear that would shock you and make your fingernail fall off? And why would a seemingly ordinary woman who is in obvious distress do that? Other than that, I was able to accept most of the plot points thus far.) As the breastplate stays on Julie longer, though, it gives her an almost soothing feeling.
In the middle of all this craziness, she's also in divorce proceedings. She's been trying to get in contact with her husband, Rick, but he doesn't want to have anything to do with her. Finally, she tracks him down outside his job and practically implores him to touch her breastplate, which, understandably, confuses him. She had previously met with her sister, now in a mental ward. While definitely suffering from major psychological problems–whose exact origins are yet undisclosed, but which have something to do with the seeming loss of her family--, the sister appears to have an intuitive sense about Julie. She even touches the breastplate and is not shocked. Julie wants to find out why she has no bad reaction to it, which is why she tries to get her husband to touch it as well. She wants to know why some people are immune to it, but with Rick even refusing to touch it, she's left wondering.
All the while she's trying to figure out what's going on with herself, the military is searching for her and their $2.5 billion experiment. They have gotten a satellite photo of the test site and she’s in it. They have also discovered that someone else was near the site as well, though they have no clear photo of them. As we discover, though, this other person might not possess good intentions with regard to the powers he or she has been given by the suit's fallout.
This book is among my current favorites and I look forward eagerly to each new issue. Thankfully, Moore is putting these out at a timely pace. One need only look at his previous run with Strangers In Paradise to know that he's more than capable of keeping up a consistent run on a book. I have a few minor problems with the book, mainly concerning the lettering, which, while hand done, is not very impressive. It has a slightly amateurish quality; I'd prefer a more traditional hand lettered feel, or even a comic-style font. I think better lettering would definitely boost this book’s overall polish and professional appearance. Also, in each issue's inside back cover, there's an ad showing the cover of the next issue. Strangely, the ad for Issue #3, in the back of Issue #2, is for what seems to be a future storyline, as the image depicted is not the cover for #3 and the character shown doesn't even appear in the new issue (they’re introduced only at the end of #2). What I do love, though, are the preliminary sketchbook drawings that are printed in the back of the book. It's always great to see an artist’s pencils and alternate story/character ideas.
ECHO carries great potential to be one of the most interesting, unique, and original stories to come out in recent times. I only hope it continues along the path it seems to be taking, with new and unexpected twists along the way. There are still so many unanswered questions about what's gone on so far; we still don't even know to what the title of the book refers. This is great--it gives us something to look forward to. I anxiously await Issue #4.
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