Did anyone try Cryptozoic Man? What do you think?

For those who don't know, Cryptozoic Man is a mini-series that has just started, published by Dynamite. It's written by Bryan Johnson and illustrated by Walter Flannagan. Walter is the manager of a big comics shop (owned by the man and the legend Kevin Smith) in Jersey, and there's a TV series about this store called "Comic Book Men" (I highly reccomend watching it, it's really funny and cool, Bryan Johnson is one of the funniest men alive. He doesn't work there or anything he just kinda... hangs out in the store). There was actually an episode on how they came up with the concepts of the characters and the story and everything.

For those of you who read it, what do you think? I think Bryan's writing is surprisingly good (after seeing the funny, goofy side of him for so many episodes, actually seeing his artistic side is quite shocking. You wouldn't expect a guy who basically makes you laugh with every second word he says to be so talented. Heck he even looks like Alan Moore). The story is quite unclear but the end of the issue had somewhat of a "coming next" for the next one and it's evident that they'll make sure to explain everything.

As for Walter's artwork, I really really liked it. The dude has some real talent. The cover of the issue is outright disturbing (and it damn well should be) as well as the pages of the issue itslef, one in praticular (she can't see her daddy!) Now I've seen artwork by great artists, and while Walt is no Alex Ross, he's certainly up there.

All in all, with a critic's eye, I'd give this issue a 8.8/10 at least.

So what did you think?

bump

@the_red_viper:

Did it come out recently?

Yes, last month.

I have not yet but I'm definitely going to. I remember that episode of Comic Book Men but didn't know it had actually been published until I listed to the "Fatman on Batman" podcast the other day. For those of you who don't know Kevin Smith Hosts and every episode is about Batman in some way shape or form. Always funny.

He had the crew from Comic Book Men on the other day and they were talking about Cryptozoic Man. Got me re excited about it.

Im planning on reading it tonight.

Cool, come back here after you do and let me know what you think.

I was gonna give it a try, but it wasn't at my store. also Bryan is a jerk, so....

I really didn’t want to respond to this thread. I’m not the kind of person that just blasts everything that I read or watch on TV or in movies. I’m actually pretty easy to please. I even liked the Star Wars episodes I, II and III. Also I really like Walt Flanagan and Bryan Johnson. I like Comic Book Men. But I feel like I need to be honest here.

I couldn’t follow the book. I have heard a synopsis before I read it so I has some basic understanding before I went in. When I started reading I got lost. I felt like the story was all over the place. The language was unnecessarily complicated. Keep in mind that I am a guy who usually doesn’t get things. I swear I still believe that Jimi says “Scuse me while I kiss this guy”.

Walt is a talented artist. I think that he could be a successful professional comic artist if he choes to be. I didn’t like the subject matter. I’m usually able to suspend disbelief but I couldn’t do it for this book. I just don’t believe that you can cut a guy in half vertically and keep him alive with a couple hoses. After the surgery he was just too much. There were just too many wrong things with the design of the character.

The Pig doctor on the other hand was seriously scary and I would go as far as saying unnerving at times. He would be an excellent villain to explore more. I could see him in the Batman mythos. He was great!

Horror isn’t really my thing so maybe that’s why I didn’t get it. No disrespect meant to Bryan or Walt or anyone else that worked on the project. It just wasn’t my thing.

-PhilyD

Being a TESD fan I should, but I never ordered it.

The pig doctor looks a lot like Prof. Pyg, who is in fact a Batman villain, and in my opinion his most creepy one, at times even more than The Joker.

And yeah it's a very unusual comic and I understand why some people wouldn't like it, but I found it very compelling. I have a feeling it'll turn out really great.

I just finished the 4th issue and I also had trouble understanding what was going on. I had decided to get all 4 and then see if they make sense at the end, but for the most part I am at a lose. What I think happened was the girl had been murdered and her father went insane. Or she was in some sort of purgatory and the story was really about her moving on. Those are my thoughts. If someone could clarify that would be welcome

Kevin Smith and all his boys are a bunch of hacks. I think it's clear that KS got lucky as hell with "Clerks" and now he's got enough resources to flesh out his and his loser friends' LAME ideas.

Cryptozoic Man seems more like a practical joke than anything. Villain in a pig mask? C'mon son.

I was originally going to give it ago but thought was too expensive for something I knew little about.