WildStorm: The Bleed

By DAVID LAPHAM

I’m usually the guy who puts more tragedy in the soup.  Like those old Dupont commercials.  Remember those?  “We don’t make a lot of the products you buy.  We make a lot of the products you buy better.”  Well replace “products” with “comics” and “better” with “more tragic”. Anyway, that’s my story. Sometimes, though I come up with a more “high concept” idea.  Sparta, U.S.A. is the result.

The core idea is very much me.  An isolated town filled with young people and with the veneer of normalcy, but underneath they’re all being taught to kill each other.  Why?  Where are they?  Why are they all young?  And why is there a big red guy and a big blue guy walking around without everyone pointing and screaming?  Sparta U.S.A. goes far beyond the reality based setting I’m usually known for into the fantasy and fantastic..  And it all clicked so easily.  Blended in like butter (“buttah”) as they say.  Also, I should note because I’m known for mostly “mature audience” books, that this is not, and by it’s nature, loses nothing for it.

Much of the early press about this book has been about the football element.  Well, if you love football then this book is definitely for you.  But if you hate football, don’t worry, it’s not really about football (but don’t tell football fans that, they’re a slightly larger audience).

The best part of the series for me was being able to work with Johnny Timmons.  I discovered Johnny as a young orphan and whisked him away to my magical artist factory where I has his legs hobbled and fingers replaced with pencils and raised him to….Okay fine.  You want boring?…I had written a Wolverine short for Johnny a couple years back and LOVED his style and when Sparta came about I pounced at the chance to rope him in.  I think he was suspicious at first.  (You were, Johnny…like all of them.).  But he came around (at gunpoint) and  worked his ass off to create such a real and complete world and such compelling characters that, if they don’t come alive for you, then, my friend, you are just a jerk.

Johnny is finishing up the issue 6 finale and his progression from issue one is just astounding.  He starts at a very high level, as you can tell from the preview pages that have been posted, and goes up, up, up from there.  I often find finales fall flat compared to the build up issues, but the pages we’re getting from Johnny ratchets up the finale five notches.  Swear.

I’m so happy with this comic I could…I could…Well, I could beg you all to buy it, so we can do more. If you know any Sandman fans make them buy this.  If you know any Fables fans make them buy this.  Football fans?  Make them buy it.  Action adventure fans?  Make them buy this book.  They will not be disappointed.  And if they are, then give them their money back (part of my you-pay-your-friends-back-for-trying-my-book-so-I-don’t-have-to plan). I’m completely in love with this concept and this world…a blending of fantasy and Americana of football and subterfuge of love and war.

Lastly, on a side note, Austin, what the hell happened to the Chargers?  Completely psyched out by the son of a blowhard coach and a barely five hundred Jets team with no true pass rush and a green quarterback? Can you spell disappointment? (I can’t.  Thank God for spell-check).

Have a great week folks.

Tags: david lapham, sparta usa

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 10:46 am and is filed under Sneak Peeks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.