Review: Channel Evil #1

Eric, one of our contributors, is actually a good friend ofmine off the site. After I posted about Renegade Art Entertainment’s “Buy itall cheap” sale, he was kind enough to gift me the set of Renegade books thatincluded all of their number one issues. Sadly, I’ve yet to read through all ofthem, but I did sit down and enjoy ChannelEvil.

The story is about a man who has his own cable show. It’sthe typical format of celebrity interviews with mostly unknown stars that areon the up and up. This particular show, he has a blonde beauty that’s becomingvery popular. His first question is about her nervous flatulence whichcompletely throws her off. He continues to press her about the matter until shefarts on air. Embarrassed the woman runs from the stage and forces our host JezMason to take a break. That’s the big difference between Mason’s show and othertalk shows; he’s there to embarrass the guest. In a way he’s a bit like a radioshock-jock, trying to get a reaction and not caring about what happens toanyone else just his ratings.

After the show Mason and his girlfriend head to aChanneling. Mason’s girl wants to go and he’s curious to see the performance to book the act on his show. The woman that performs the channeling isnamed Conni Verona and everything about her act has Mason in a fit. He’sconvinced that she’s just a scam artist and invites her to his show after he’sconvinced he can debunk her. The next day he sits down with Conni and of coursehits her with the hard questions first. She deflects them by asking Mason totry and channel, saying that anyone can do it. Sure enough, Mason makes contactwith someone who threatens everyone in sight. He snaps out of it, but he can’tremember anything that he said. Conni warns him that he's awoken something old, dark and powerful.

I really liked this book. It wasn't perfect, but it was verygood. There’s definitely a lot of pacing issues with the story. Parts of itseemed very unnecessary, like the entire page dealing with Conni’s bodyguard. Ireally like the concept and I’m looking forward to how it plays out. WriterAlan Grant does a good job of making the show believable and loading Mason’scharacter up with a huge prick factor. Nothing about this guy comes across sympatheticand that’s a very good thing. With one issue we already know Mason and now wecan join him on his journey rather than try to figure out what makes him tick.The girlfriend is an under-developed character for sure, but I think she’llcome as more of a Beatty Ross to Mason’s Hulk. “No Mason, don’t do it!” andthen Mason leaves and we follow him more. In a way the story reminds me of werewolf stories. The character is bitten and doesn't know it and then starts attacking people.

I enjoyed the black and white art style of the book. A lotof the times indie books try to do color pages and the results look terribledue to the colorist. Channel Evil isin all black and white and it makes the book look so much better than if itwere in color. Shane Oakley creates some wonderful pages that deviate from themodern panel set up in comics today. Each page has a very open feel to it as ifOakley created the entire two page spread as one and tried to have the entirepage flow together. It’s very stylized with its thick black inking andcharacter designs.

Channel Evil has apretty cool concept behind it and I’m looking forward to what path Mason headsdown as this issues leaves him at a crossroads. You can pick the book up eitherfrom Renegade in digital or print or digitally from Graphicly if that's where your collection is, sorry no Comixology on this one. I enjoyed this book and will definitely check out the second issue after I workmy way through the rest of the pile. It’s a fun concept for a thriller/horrortitle making for a fast and enjoyable read.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Alan Grant

Artist: Shane Oakley

Publisher: Renegade Arts Entertainment

Price: $3.99