THE BLACK DIAMOND AiT/Planet Lar Comics, 2007

This is pissing me off - I can't seem to write titles for my blog posts. No idea why - I think Blogger is punishing me for some transgression. I was kidding about going to Wordpress, OK, Blogger? Please give me my titles back. I'll buy you a cookie! Nice Blogger want a cookie? UPDATE: Fixed it! Thanks Blogger, here's a cookie. Good boy.

The Black Diamond: why didn't I think of that, damn it? 'Cause AiT/Planet Lar's two-fisted madman Larry Young thought of it first, that's why.

Kicking off High Concept Week, I offer you The Black Diamond, a comic book about Dr. Don, a charming dentist (or is he an orthodontist?) on the West Coast whose wife has been kidnapped by some chatty goons on the East Coast. Dr. Don has to get to her - stat - and since nobody much flies anymore on account of the terrorists, he's got one option: the motherfuckin' Black Diamond, an eight-lane elevated transcontinental super-highway where speed rules.

That's the basic idea. Up on the Black Diamond, an entire sub-culture of 'jackers and mechanics and black marketeers and oil warlords has sprung up, and the military wants to close that shit down. That's why Dr. Don's wife has been kidnapped. You see --

Ahh, you should just read the damn thing.

This is AiT/Planet Lar's first color book, and artist John (Gun Theory) Proctor makes the most of it. His photo-referenced art is suffused with vivid colors and warm sunset glows that makes the line work really pop. That shit is pretty.

Young's script is chatty and idiosyncratic, full of dialogue that has nothing to do with the plot but is fun to read anyway. The story is built around an action movie premise, yet the action seems sort of peripheral. I can't tell if Young is doing this by design, leading us up to a huge blow-out death race at the end of the six issues, or if The Black Diamond is a post-modern adventure that is sort of thumbing its nose at genre conventions. To me, that's kind of refreshing - although truth be told, I'm gonna be pissed if there isn't some car-nage before this story screeches to a halt.

My one complaint about The Black Diamond is the format - it's paced in such a way that I think it would play better as a graphic novel rather than a monthly. I'll probably end up getting the trade, as well, so I guess it doesn't matter.

I'm giving The Black Diamond a thumbs up - it's a high concept comic book served up with style and what's more, you can pick it up at your local comic book store right now. Yes, I'm actually talking about a comic that was published within the past ten years. Shocking, I know.

On an unrelated note: Larry and Mimi from Ait/Planet Lar had a baby boy recently, so I have to throw in a F*&% Yeah and a congratulations for the happy parents. Raising a kid in today's crazy-ass world is no easy task, but raising a little bad-ass kid? That's High Concept indeed.