Squidder #1
Written and Illustrated by Ben Templesmith
Published by IDW
In the future, man is being terrorized by sentient squid monsters demanding human sacrifices. Even writing that, I would normally laugh at the ridiculousness of that statement. Yet something about this comic book doesn’t make me want to laugh derisively at it. Indeed, the more I read, the more I found myself becoming engrossed in the story and the general concept.
Humanity has lost a war against a race of sentient, nearly godlike Squids, and society has largely collapsed in the face of their power. Before humanity fell, super-soldiers were created to fight them, and one of the last remaining soldiers is a mercenary in this fallen world. He lost his family to Squids and their human priest-collaborators and is pretty willing to do jobs for just about anybody. A group of thugs tries to take him to meet their boss, and after selectively killing a few to make a point, he agrees to meet their boss. The boss wants him to recover a kidnapped temple priestess, and with a combination of threats and bribes, the squidder agrees to recover the woman.
At first, the comic is confusing as all hell to try and read. The art style is very stylized and gritty, but this makes it hard to figure out who is who and just what is going on. Likewise, Templesmith doesn’t give us any real intro, and we have to piece together the context of the story through bits of dialogue. The story is broken up with bits of violence, much of which doesn’t really advance the plot.
All of this should bring the comic down, but the comic is compelling in spite of these issues. The banter between the squidder and the gang lord is fun to read because it’s witty. The squidder’s internal monologue is entertaining to read for the same reason. The artwork, while being abstract at times, does a good job of depicting this very grim and gritty world. Finally, while it is confusing to piece together the story, Templesmith gives just enough clues in dialogue and flashback that you can piece everything together. Slowly but surely, I found myself enjoying this comic more and more with every page.
