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Packed Brats!

Okay, here is another blog to try an garner support for independent comics. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s bad to read comics from the big publishers, it’s just that there is a lot of independent books that deserve just as much attention. The one I’m talking about today is Brat Pack, by comics master Rick Veitch. Just about every comics fan has read Watchmen or Dark Knight Returns and consider those as benchmarks in the genre of superheroes, but Brat Pack is certainly on that same must read list. However, it seems to me to quite often get overlooked. Brat Pack is definitely a deconstruction for the genre just like Watchmen or Dark Knight, but I dare to say it, a bolder work. I’m sure to get some funny looks when I say that in someways it does it better than the those big two. I guess I really enjoy it’s satirical irreverence. Where Watchmen and Dark Knight assuredly makes us see the pathos of the costume wearing crime fighters and psychology, they both still maintain this sense of subtley causing one to be more inclined to think all this pathos is sorta cool when compared to Brat Pack. Brat Pack is about as subtle as a freight train smashing through a building, stabbing at the genre in ways that make you very squeamish, bringing the pathos of the characters into full light. All done with this wink of black humor and, god, I love it for this. This book really is part of a deconstruction superhero trifecta. The amazing thing about this work is that it is a satire that still gets you to care about the characters that live in the satire. You still get highly immersed in their world. Most satires can’t do this because they become so much about the commentary of their subjects. The other thing I’d like to mention is how much the art just sucks you in. It’s brilliantly detailed with thought provoking layouts, Rick’s rendering is astounding (see example below). I highly recommend all of his works and they can be found at WWW.RICKVEITCH.COM

Brat Pack should be on the same shelf sitting right next to Watchmen and Dark Knight, just so it can smack ‘em around a little, or maybe a tickle.

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