Review: Henry and Butcher

Henry & Butcher "I don’t belong here" Chapter 1: The Crash
Quaterly series 28 pages - Black & White
Story: Gonzalo Ventura
Art and letters: Martin Blanco

U$S 2.99

What if your life, one day, goes straight to hell? It’s difficult to say, don’t you think?
Well, everything has a beginning, even tragedies… so to speak. Henry & Butcher is about Henry’s life and from now on everything goes worse.

Gwen: This story has an interesting premise and the writer certainly manages to pull you into the story right off the bat. I really like the surreal feel to this comic and how the story was fast paced without skipping out on any important plot points. This book has the potential to bring you into a Salvador Dali world-scape. Still, I feel like this issue is missing something. The story seems somewhat two dimensional at times and some of the character background is a bit cliché. In all honestly I just found it hard to warm up to the main character, Henry. On one page he's remorseful about his time working for the mob beating people up. Then just a few pages later he's beating the crap out of people he's just met. I know that the author was trying to convey the stress of his situation, but somehow it came across a bit hollow.

That said, I'd still be interested to read the next issue. Many of the issues I have with the story could be easily ignored once the book has time to develop more.

The art wasn't that great but there's a lot of potential there. As much as I wasn't impressed by it over all it still told the story. I'd say with more time and practice the artist could easily improve the few problems he has with shadow and line.

Overall I'd say this book is worth a try for the first three issues or so, just because the idea itself deserves a chance. I look forward to reading more and seeing where the creators take us.

Grade C

Jim: As with Legend of Joe Moon, I was impressed by the first part of Henry & Butcher. The story is so easy to read and brings you into Henry’s world so fast that you do not even realize how much information is being conveyed. The ending leaves you waiting for the next issue with bated breath.

Henry is a former boxer, who was a mob enforcer, but has gone straight and has a wife, child and a dog and a perfect life. It was not easy to get there and there were times Henry was going down the wrong road.

One night he is out drinking with his friends and leaves the bar, perhaps after drinking too much, and crashes. He gets home to find his family is not there and another family lives there. He goes back to the bar and another group is there where he left his friends. He sees his dog and is happy to have some anchor, until the dog starts to talk to him and begins telling him what happened (which we do not hear at this point). The endpoint is Henry is in a straight jacket and a padded room.

The story just grabbed you from page one and I found myself reading faster and faster as I wanted to know what was going on.

The art work was not as strong as Joe Moon. It was solid and told the story well enough, but was inconsistent at times and felt like sim figures and not “real” people all the time. I don’t want to undersell the art, because for the most part it conveyed the story well and never took me out of the comic. I just feel the artist has potential to be that much better.

Again check out there link and drop a couple of bucks on these books as they are well worth it.

http://www.pitbrosproductions.com/comics/comics.html

Overall Grade B.