Publisher: IDW
Writer: Ted Adams
Artist: Mark Torres
Colourist: Tomi Varga
Editor: Chris Ryall
Release date: OUT NOW
Price: $3.99

Listen, I can count on one hand all my personal writing Gods, John Steinbeck, Ira Levin, Raymond Chandler, Stephen King and Richard Matheson. They may not be yours, but to borrow from Mel Brook’s The Producers: ‘I am the writer, you are the audience, I out rank you.’ 

So The Incredible Shrinking Man #2 would always be a comic book not just close to my heart but also from the pen of a deity I worship with no heed to logic or emotional detachment. I say all of this only as a warning: The following review was never going to be written from the realm of reason. It will though start with this statement: There is not enough Richard Matheson in the world.

There is not enough Richard Matheson in the world, clearly, Hell, obviously. Therefore, it is pleasing to see a comic book publisher like IDW making amends for that. In a world littered with focus groups, test screenings and spandex be clad superheroes, it feels like a solid move from IDW. And I, for one, applaud that wholeheartedly.

Ted Adams narration is beautifully economic and sparse – pared down is just another way of saying focused; overwriting usually kills pacing and has, for me, become the bane (you are welcome to see that as a pun but it is, my Batman loving friend, just wordplay) of all comic books, past, present and future. Adams places the story emphasis in the dialogue, which is both credible and, at times, deeply moving.

The artwork in The Incredible Shrinking Man #2 from Mark Torres tells a story the reader can believe in. Torres does not overwork the panel progression and the story unfolds in a measured and involving manner; easy to read but absorbing and page turning. You, the reader will not be disappointed.

I’m not one of those diehard fans who insists an adaptation, or in the case of The Incredible Shrinking Man #2, a re-interpratation, should be faithful to the very letter of the source material. FaceBook is littered with these people, clumped into vicious, self-consuming groups, where time, origins and the future have all stood still, replaced with pitiful whaling and the gnashing of teeth.

If you are one of these people then The Incredible Shrinking Man #2 may not be for you, then again, if you want to escape the trappings of your FaceBook group and can bear to hounded out by smaller minds than your own, then may be The Incredible Shrinking Man #2 is for you. If you are the more the casual reader, looking for something gripping, interesting and rewarding, then you need look no further than here.

 

Reviewer: Steve Hooker