Share the Love: Reinder Dijkhuis loves and hates L. Frank Weber’s Crab Allan

By rights, in a fair world, Crab Allan would be awful. It’s got a crime-fighting hero with amnesia. It’s got a psychopathic villain who happens to be the Mayor of the city it’s set in. It’s got a pair of hired goons of which one is a skinny, sly fellow and the other is the Muscle. It’s even got a frickin’ monkey in it! As John Allison once said, monkeys fill the gaps that are left when a writer’s inspiration has gone away.

And yet… despite writer and artist L Frank Weber stacking the deck against himself by using all these clichés, Crab Allan is not awful at all. It’s gripping, excitingly paced, sometimes funny, always visually impressive. It’s one of the first things I read every day. Weber really knows how to write and draw a story that slides into the brain, makes itself comfortable there and settles itself in the pleasure centers. I’m actually curious about the things that Weber hasn’t revealed yet. What’s Crab Allan’s mysterious past? What motivates the Mayor and how does the female lead fit in? I’m itching to find out. I love this comic.

Except the monkey. The monkey has to go.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 31st, 2005 at 5:10 am and is filed under General, Modern Tales News, Share the Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.