Publisher: Image Comics
Writers: Eric Powell, Tim Wiesch
Artist: Eric Powell
Colourists: Eric Powell
Release date: OUT NOW!
Price: $2.99

Big Man Plans #4 concludes the four-issue run with a powerful mixture of Somerset Maugham’s classic book ‘Of Human Bondage’ and the Ruggero Leoncavallo tragic opera Pagliacci. Plus a touch of Quentin Tarentino thrown into the mix to keep everything on the level (!).

Like the Maugham story, the protagonist dwarf sociopath in Big Man Plans #4 experiences unrequited love and humanity’s darkest side. Like the opera Big Man embodies the sad clown Canio, who takes revenge against the forces ruining his life.

Writers Eric Powell and Tim Wiesch infuse Big Man with the soul of poet who has been pushed too far. The dialogue has all the subtlety and beauty you would expect: “I feel the vibration of his screams but I can’t hear him.” The ending reveals why Big Man has tortured his victims, and for a moment you forget about the graphic violence and blood to shed a tear.

Powell’s unparalleled art takes a suitably dark turn in the series. The torture is graphic and visceral. Blood and other bodily fluids flow copiously. Powell even recreates a classic Golden Age comic book ice-pick-to-the-eye panel, just to be comprehensive. And Powell milks the medium for all it’s worth. When Holly, the object of Big Man’s affections, tells him she is engaged his brain stops listening, and Holly’s dialogue lettering shrinks to reflect that.

Anyone who is not dead inside will find Big Man Plans deeply moving and beautiful. Big Man Plans #4 is a comic book raising the genre into an art form.

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker