[William_Duel]

Thief of Thieves


Thief of Thieves is a new comic by Robert Kirkman and written by Nick Spencer (Morning Glories) with Shawn Martinbrough as artist.  This comic is being released under Image's new imprint Skybound which seeks to create original creator owned comics and support them through multimedia (wait, doesn't Image already do that?  Isn't that redundant?  Well anyways...).  The core concept of the story is in the tagline: "There is nothing he can't steal, nothing he can't have...except for the life he left behind."  Redmond, or Conrad Paulson, is a master thief and probably the best the world has ever known (shades of the Thomas Crown affair here) but it seems he's tiring of the life of a thief and wants to retire.  In fact it seems like the infamous Redmond wants to leave the criminal life behind and reclaim his family...

First let me start off by saying that I like Robert Kirkman.  I've liked him since Invincible first started.  And you know what attracts me to his comics?  I feel like Kirkman works under a very simple formula, because his concepts aren't really anything innovative.  Some of his ideas feel like things that maybe you or I might have thought of as a kid or just idly.  A werewolf as a superhero?  Bam, Astonishing Wolfman.  A colorful young superhero's journey with all the logical violence intact?  Bam, Invincible.  What if Johnny Quest had a talking T-Rex Best Friend in a mech suit?  Bam, Super Dinosaur.  What happens after the zombie Apocalypse?  Bam, Walking Dead.  And so on and so on.  What makes Kirkman such a great writer in my eyes is that he takes these simple ideas and tells the best damn story he can.  He does it with intriguing characters and big emotional payoffs and ramifications.  He's not scared to dip his toes in genres beyond capes and tights, in fact if you look at the titles I've mentioned, they're mostly different from each other.  And best of all, they're always fun.

I picked up the first issue of Thief of Thieves because of this.  Granted, I've not been keeping up with Super Dinosaur or the Infinite but the art and the concept felt like things that appealed to me.  And boy was I happy it did.  The first issue introduces Redmond as the master thief in the middle of an elaborate heist.  We're introduced to his apprentice, Celia and the comic goes into a bit of their background.  In fact, you informatively get a few tips on how to steal a car.  All in all, I feel it's a strong introduction and I definitely want to dive deeper into this world.  Issue one is meant to introduce Redmond the thief while issue two will focus on Conrad the family man and this is a pretty smart way to go about it.  The dialogue feels natural and fun and the character's personalities are accentuated by it.  According to Kirkman, he was inspired by the way writers for TV shows wrote their stories (like Walking Dead), in which six writers sit in a room and toss ideas back and forth until they iron out a story and that this is the method he wanted to try for this comic.  I have to say I feel like his collaboration with Nick Spencer has definitely paid off. 

I love the art.  I'm naturally biased because I appreciate high contrast which this comic definitely has.  Yet it never feels muddled and the line strokes have a certain style to them that makes it distinct.  The pages are full and tend to have 5-6 panels on average.  The colors are beautifully done too, because while they're not bright, they fit the tone perfectly and help to guide the eye with the flow of the story.

Issue #1 has been off to a strong start and I'm definitely sticking to this title.  Considering the circumstances, I wouldn't be surprised if this became Kirkman's next TV show or movie.

Quality 8
Creativity 7
Entertainment 9

[(Pi)]

well, i know at least one title i'll be picking up at image expo.

[Kevin Birtcher]

I read this yesterday morning.  It's good, but the last page is what ensured I'll be picking up future issues.  I Just gotta see what happens next.