December
7 Rock Bottom

Rock Bottom

Creators: Joe Casey, writer; Charlie Adlard, artist
AiT-PlanetLar, 112 pages, black and white, $12.95
So? Heroes of stone have been among comics most popular characters (see: The Thing) and some of its deeper ones too (see: Concrete). But Casey and Adlard take the position that turning to stone is no fun whatsoever for everyman Thomas Dare, who finds his body slowly turning to rock. This is a tale tinged with sadness, for Dare and his doctors have no hope of halting the progression of this strange disease. Faced with his own mortality, Dare does his best to settle all accounts before he hardens into a permanent statue. The surprise of this book is Adlard, whose normally inky and chunky art gives way to a bright and clear open line style, with splotches of half tone gray indicating the progression of Dare’s disease. A quick but affecting read. Grade: B+