Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: James Robinson
Artist: Gregg Hinkle
Colourist: Gregg Hinkle
Release date: OUT NOW!!
Price: $2.99
Image Comics
I don’t know James Robinson so I can’t say how much of his Airboy mini-series is autobiographical or fictional, but bravo to Robinson for reaching his destination. And what a narrative arc it has been. Airboy seems to have been an exercise in psychological deconstruction, an self-intervention as the whiny degenerate Robinson drags artist Gregg Hinkle into a maelstrom of this comic book.
Whether by magic, imagination or shared consciousness somehow both Robinson and Hinkle are transported to a nightmarish World War II adventure. Their condition and situation sickens Airboy who wants to teach them a much-needed lesson.
However, it’s a long and turbulent road; Airboy both author and artist to blow up a bridge. Robinson is ashamed to find his Nazi uniform disguise very cool. “Hugo Boss made them, is why,” says Robinson.
Robinson took a break from comics to produce the movie Comic Book Villains and wrote the screenplay for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which “didn’t do my reputation any favors either. But what was I supposed to do—walk away from a movie starring Sean Connery?” And really, what sane writer would.
After a final lament that LXG was Robinson’s professional rock bottom he starts to listen. The Valkyrie’s says, “The only people who truly aren’t great are the ones who have given up trying to be.” The last thing Robinson hears before waking in his real world is Airboy saying, “Save your life.” And Hinkle tells him to be his best, not let his ego get in the way and stop using drugs as an emotional crutch.
The Airboy mini-series is a fun and meaningful story of self-redemption. Welcome back, James Robinson! You have been missed. And hats off to Image Comics for the courage to publish a comic book series so left of field, so daring to be different, Airboy succeeds on its own terms. And that, make no mistake, is the mark of brilliance.
Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker