Going Indie: A Triple Threat from Challenger Comics–Part 3

Part 3: Ryan Ferrier’s Brothers James #s 1 & 2

In Part 2 of “Going Indie: A Triple Threat from Challenger Comics,” we looked at two of the short stories in Paul Allor’s Orc Girl.  For our final installation of this month’s spotlight on Challenger Comics, Ryan Ferrier and Michael Walsh’s first two issues of the Brother James take front and center.

Brother James (an on-going series)

Story by Ryan Ferrier

Art by Michael Walsh

Published by Challenger Comics

Fans of vigilante films such as Dirty Hairy, Death Wish and Boondock Saints will find the Brother James to be a comic book series well worth checking out.  Like Boondock Saints, the protagonists are two young men who decide to take justice in their own hands.  These two brothers, however, found themselves faced with the brutal murder of their parents by a biker gang, and it becomes their life mission to claim an eye for an eye.  Unlike many Hollywood vigilantes, however, these two brothers are less successful in carrying out their vengeance as seen in the second issue.  Not only does it become clear their plans aren’t as well thought out and rehearsed as one might expect, issues of doubt over this particular course of action begin to arise as the bullets fly.

One element from the story that almost came across as somewhat comical (not accidentally) is the unnamed narrator.  For readers familiar with evenings spent watching The Dukes of Hazzard, there are a number of elements from this comic that surface: two brothers at odds with both the officers of the law and the bad guys who travel around in a “named” muscle car.

Even the narrator takes an informal tone with the reader as though s/he were relating a story of someone whom we might know, and it comes across as a sort of two-way conversation as s/he seems to respond to questions the reader might think.  It takes a little
Where Ferrier’s story has strong influences from the aforementioned films and television shows, Michael Walsh’s art has a very similar look and feel to The Walking Dead artist, Charlie Adlard.  The fact is that neither Ferrier nor Walsh is out to tell a particularly happy tale, and clean, smooth lines with bright colors would hardly suit this sort of story.  This is a world devoid of color and it is somewhat bleak and harsh, and so, Walsh’s colors and line work accurately reflect this in their form. getting used to at first, but soon after, it feels less like a device and more a part of the tenor of this Rated “R” Hazzard County tale.

It will be interesting to see where the James brothers go following Issue #2 as their plans take an unexpected turn.  Ferrier plants seeds of doubt in the brothers about what they’ve set out to do, and this internal conflict makes these characters worth keeping tabs on instead of writing them off as just another pair of entries into the stereotypically cold and detached vigilantes that plague this genre.

If you are interested in checking out the indie offerings from Challenger Comics, you can visit them this weekend at Emerald City Comic Con or on their website at http://readchallenger.com/ .

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