What I have to review today is an interesting comic called Mr. Grimez which is written by Greg Griffith with art by Caroline Harrington. Mr. Grimez is about a dystopian London plagued by poverty and recession as well as being a police state. I know, I know, lots of comics start out with a dystopian city, but the difference with this one is that there are people who are known as hyperons, who feed off of energy caused by negative emotions. This is great for hyperons because, as we know from most stories set in a dystopian time, everyone tends to have a negative energy about them. Now, we have a character that goes by the name of Mr. Grimez that vows to hunt down each and every one of the hyperons, even if he has to tear the whole city apart.
That may sound like a lot to set up in the first issue of this comic but it is set up brilliantly. The first page sets up a peaceful London, it draws you in by how tranquil it feels, then you turn the page and BAM!!! They reveal that this is crap and show you how horrible life is for these characters. The juxtaposition of the first two pages works great. The first page is very freeing (it made me want to visit London someday) then the second page is full of clutter (in a good way), the smiles faded and you see people suffering. The set-up of the first four pages is wonderful. You feel like you understand what is going on and you don’t have to play catch up.
What I also like is that the paneling of this comic is very non-traditional. You rarely see a square or rectangle panel, a lot of the panels are oblong or triangular. While reading this I got the Grant Morrison vibe with a lot of the imagery. The panels do a great job in establishing the frenetic energy of this comic. Although they take the first three or four pages to set-up the world, we do get information slowly handed to us throughout the rest of the comic. It’s little things that are sprinkled on as you read, and you realize they are setting up something bigger than just a man on a mission to fight hyperons.
If I do have any negative points, it is that there is a certain point in the book where Mr. Grimez is getting information out of a computer and it felt really weird because we didn’t know how he escaped or what he was downloading until much later, which wasn’t really a twist. I understand not wanting to set up elements of a story until later but it felt like there was a page or panel missing. For a first issue of a comic though, only having that one complaint is pretty good.
Overall it is a very good book that everyone should take a look at. You can find the comic here (at deviant art) or here (official facebook page). You should also like the Mr. Grimez Facebook page and check out the Youtube channel. To check out some additional art from the artist Caroline Harrington click here. You can also get a physical copy of Mr. Grimez at Orbital Comics.