A Real Gem

OK, go ahead. Click on the title of this post. You know you want to.

"What's this?" you ask as the lovely crimson website loads. I can answer that. That, my friend, is Nuklear Power, homepage to one of my favorite independent writers, Brian Clevinger.

Who is Brian Clevinger? Well, he is most well known for a little sprite comic he's done over the years called 8-bit Theater. It's a completely ridiculous look at the world of the original Final Fantasy for the Nintendo Entertainment Center. I followed this comic for years, and it more than anything inspired me to get into the comic biz myself. I fell off for the past few years, but he keeps on chugging out episodes.

The other day, while at home on sick leave (Crohn's disease is pleasant), I decided to catch up. Not a small task, as there are over 1100 episodes now. I think the episode I had left off on previously was around 480-ish. I'm on Episode 1001 now, but that is not the point of this post.

Click on that tab that says Robo.com. I stumbled upon this little piece of work while perusing the site in between episodes. It's an actual print comic done by Mr. Clevinger. I was sceptical at first. 8-bit Theater is a romp in the ludicrous, and while good for a weekly update, I just couldn't see myself picking up a trade filled with page after page of lunacy.

I went on Amazon and searched. I found Volume 1: Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne. I read the reviews. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Person after person compared Atomic Robo to Hellboy. HELLBOY. If you haven't read Hellboy, stop right now and go do so. I'll wait.











OK, you done? Excellent, isn't it? Now you see why I held such disbelief. But it was ten bucks, so I decided to give it a try. Sweet Cinnabon, I'm glad I did. The art is unique and the characters are fun. The humor was there, but not the ridiculous 8-bit humor. Plus I enjoy a good alternate history, ala Hellboy, so this was a fun stomp in that neck of the woods. It has a real B-movie feel to it.

So anyway, go pick this up. Heck, you can borrow mine. I really like it when I find something outside of the norm, from an independent writer I can really get behind. Here's hoping this one succeeds.