The title of Dublin writer and artist Ger Hankey’s ongoing
anthology title Short Sharp Shocks seems
to be trying to evoke the classic sci-fi excitement of Thargs Future Shocks (in the galaxy’s greatest comic), and while
there are such one-off “thrills” to be found here (which, rather than trying to
shock, seem more focused on amusing), the nucleus of the title is a pair of
recurring characters with strong central ideas.
Hybrid, the story
of a superhero who is both man and woman is a nice conceit, but for a character
that has such obvious comedic potential it’s played relatively straight for the
first three issues. It’s not without humour (which is chiefly wardrobe-based)
but hopefully the full potential of the title character’s dual nature will be
further explored in future issues, whilst exploring his origins. Speaking of
which the second issue’s instalment ends with promises of an explanation of
Hybrid’s origin, yet issue three consists of a fight with a robot then a
shopping trip. What gives, Hankey?
 |
| Hybrid: Dont mess with shim. |
Mighty Morgan
plays with another interesting notion: that in our current cynical troll-infested
society a traditional two-dimensional would-be despot is a beloved antihero
(which he hates). This strip in particular put me in mind of some of the humour
strips that would appear in the likes of Whizzer and Chips and Buster (in
particular the reverse Beverly Hillbillies strip the Bumpkin Billionaires). A
nice piece of harmless good-natured fun.
The strongest strips however are those that run without
dialogue. In particular, Binbo’s Holiday
is a very sweet tale about wanting to better oneself. That the main character
is a robotic dustman is incidental. Much like the work of Bob Byrne, Hankey's characters
are expressive in the extreme, and we can put it this way: the boy knows how to
draw a robot in just about any mood (as his work on Transformers fan projects
demonstrates very well indeed).
Short Sharp Shocks’
biggest strength is actually in stark contrast with many other small press
publications whose artwork fails to live up to the writing. In Short Sharp Shocks the artwork is
stronger than the writing. Which is not to say that the writing is particularly
weak but rather that the black and white art is so strong. Having seen some of
the work on Ger’s blog I would strongly suggest that issue four would be best
served to be in colour (cost permitting I’m sure).The most pleasing aspect of
the art is the subtle changes in style
depending on the content of the strip.
Overall the tone is much lighter than, say, 2000AD and really has more in common
with publications like the later incarnations of The Eagle, or Wildcat:
comics which have a similar theme but a much less cynical tone. Short Sharp Shocks is well written, very
well drawn and refreshingly, entirely suitable for children. Looking forward to issue four immensely.
You can buy Short Sharp
Shocks here
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