Montoya

Review
Brandon K. Montoya
Gravitywell Productions

CiCi review
By: Brandon Montoya of Gravitywell Productions

The opinions in this article do not necessarily represent those of
Comic Book Galaxy, Spilled Milk Comics or Gravitywell Productions

    Over the last year I've shared a few e-mail conversations with Parker Smart, head honcho of Spilled Milk Comics. Recently these conversations landed Gravitywell two free copies of his pet project, CiCi. His flagship title is a project that he's been developing for over 10 years. He began production of the work in 1996 with a staff of four including himself. The first issue was finished, and after a rollover of penciling talent, the following three issues went into production. You can read a full account of their creative and production processes at their site. In this review I'll be covering the first issue of CiCi, the story, the art and the overall impression of the book.

     The author's goal is to make people think, to provoke a response of sorts. Although the story was apparently written quite a while ago, it fits well within current events. The center of his plot is human cloning, and his main character; CiCi is to be a product of it. What kind of cloning is a question the reader is left to deal within this issue. There are other strings of story elements floating around. My hope with the story is that the author will push the envelope into some interesting areas that the traditional print companies have avoided at all costs. If science and controversial thought appeal to you, then this story might grow on you.

    The artwork on the first issue can be described as competent. This is not an insult, this means the art team has done their job to bring the story to life, and the story can be understood by the reader without having to read captions and chatter. There are some technical errors in original penciler's work, and many elements of the style are very typical to comic books, but it is still satisfactory for the storytelling. I discovered that after completion of issue one SMC let the original penciler go and hired another who had a higher level of inspiration and technical skill. You can see previews of all four issues of CiCi on the SMC site, compare and contrast for yourself. The new artwork is miles ahead of the first issue.

     Overall I'd give the first issue of CiCi a grade of "B". Although there were some rough areas to the artwork and story, I can tell these are simply the growing pains experienced when working with any medium. My hope with the future issues is that the storytelling evolves side by side with the artwork to bring the author's dream to the reality he has envisioned for over a decade. If you like alternative press comic books, or you like to give new people a chance, try this book out. A decade's worth of work does show that he truly wishes to create what he calls "the highest quality comic book in the industry."

TT de la GWP