Written by: Jeff Borack
Art by: Todor Hristrov
Publisher: Sentient Comics
I feel I need to point out, right off the bat, that if you’re here looking for a comic book about Dr. Dre as a superhero, saving the world with Snoop Dogg as his sidekick, then, title aside, you’re in the wrong place. Now that I’m sure some of you have gone back to your bowls, let’s get to the actual comic at hand.
The Chronic presents a world after AI has completely changed the course of society. Things seem rather post-apocalyptic, but there’s much left to be explored at the end of this issue. It’s established right off the bat that we’re dealing with sci fi, with an attention grabbing scene involving a mouse and a hawk. We then join up with a father and his two children. What at first appears to be some sort of road trip turns out to be a mission to break into a prison to retrieve a group of people. Potential reasons are inferred, but the actual details are kept a mystery.
This issue lays enough groundwork, while still maintaining this mysterious quality, that I’m on board to come back for more. Borack leaves himself with plenty of space for world building. There is a bit of an “info dump” feeling to certain moments. The plan to break into the prison is spelled out at length before it happens, for instance. I hope this doesn’t carry into future issues, as it would wear thin rather quickly.
The art is black and white with bursts of red for things like blood and lasers. Hristrov has a loose, pencil sketch style that I find fitting for this world where everything seems ambiguous. It gives everything a very dirty feel. This should create an engaging aesthetic for the technology that is meant to be so central to the world. The selective usage of red gives the action an impact that I feel is sometimes not present in fully black and white comics. The downside to the nature of the art ties back to my issue with the expository dialogue. At moments it feels so loose that the info dumps feel almost necessary, as it would be difficult to discern what is occurring otherwise; as it stands, some characters are hard to differentiate.
This brings me to the lettering, which is something I feel I need to address, as Sentient devotes an explanation to on their web site. Each character is given their own font, which is something that I think could be cool. Some of the fonts, however, are less readable than others. The father’s font, who seems to be our main character,in particular is unnecessarily difficult to read at times. The fact that Sentient addresses this on their site as something that they’re aware of, and actually desire, doesn’t really convince me that it’s the best route to go; I don’t think it would make the technique less effective if it was cleaned up slightly.
I can imagine growing tired of The Chronic if the problems I have with this issue persist. That being said, its intriguing premise and unique style have me hooked to see where things go for now.
