LumberJax #1 is a comic written by Morgan Iverson with pencils and inks by Giacomo Guida and colors by David Aravena. A hero fights against injustice wherever he sees, whether it’s in the streets or by the police. One night on the town leads to many interactions that LumberJax must resolve in the best way he sees fit. But who is LumberJax? He is a man with superhuman abilities and an axe who seems to run into situations that could benefit from his skills. The plot follows him going from problem to problem but culminates in a trial that is all too reminiscent of real life. There is a lot of action here with it getting gory in some instances. The pacing is pretty fast as things go from 0-100 real quick. This issue is very intense as it wants to highlight the way black people are treated by the police and the justice system. The main characters in a jive accent that’ll remind you of blaxploitation movies but LumberJax just ends up sounding like Netflix’s Luke Cage; very corny and preachy with a large helping of cringe. And this issue is wordy to the point of being a novel with pictures; just about every other speech bubble contains a paragraph. This is a comic that is attempting to show the black struggle with injustice using a hero who is strong enough to avoid being a victim of it but it comes across as heavy-handed and stereotypical with some facepalm references.

            This comic handles light and shadows very well. From the skin of the characters to the different locations, the way they shine looks natural. The coloring here is realistic and doesn’t look out of place. There are two central locations here: the city streets and a courthouse. They both generally have good persistence from panel-to-panel. This is an extremely expressive comic with the emotions of the characters never being in question. Faces have quite a bit of detail which helps the different characters feel like individuals. There is a nice range of hairstyles here. The equipment here is just guns and an axe but there are supernatural effects that have a stand-out glow to them. The action here is mostly physical and the scenes flow well. There is some gore and explosiveness.

“Is this worth reading?”

No.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories starring black superheroes that deals with heavy subject matter and having commentary on current issues this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Some gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“…and street cred don’t pay for funerals or Johnny Cochran.”

 

Digital Link: https://www.4thwallpros.com/product-page/lumberjax-1-comic

Physical Link: https://www.4thwallpros.com/product-page/lumberjax-1-physical-edition

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dannyjquick/lumberjax-1-by-any-means/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22

Violent Pages: 8, for 36% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 4

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 1

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”