Firebreather: Holmgang #1

[northstarfan]

Title: Firebreather: Holmgang #1
Creators: Phil Hester (writing), Andy Kuhn (art)
Availability: On sale now.

So there's a new Firebreather mini out...





Firebreather is really freakin’ high on my list of comics that more people should be reading. Imagine that, in the course of wreaking a city, Fing Fang Foom met a woman, they fell in love, and had a kid ( don’t think on that too hard, OK?). Then they got divorced, and their custody agreement (which is an actual NATO treaty) stipulates that the kid, Duncan, spends weekends with his dad to learn the family business of rampaging, threatening, and getting the crap kicked out of you by larger monsters.


This is the kind of thing that really puts a crimp in a sixteen-year-old’s social life. The wings and scales don’t exactly make fitting in a piece of cake either.
As of the close of the last series, Duncan’s life has taken a serious turn for the shitty. His father’s been murdered by ancient enemies. Not only can he not tell anyone about this, he’s got to go on pretending that his dad’s alive as he maintains his training to (hopefully) keep from being murdered in turn.


All of this is taking its toll and Duncan’s being, to put it mildly, kind of a jerkass toward his friends, his mom, and everyone around him, including best she’s-not-my-girlfriend, Isabel, seen above trying to convince him to help out with school play.


And so, after a night in which people on all sides are assholes, Duncan flies over to the house of Jenna, on whom he has a crush and has spoken about eighteen words to over the course of the series. He asks her to prom. She tries to demure. He starts acting an ass…







...and gets utterly told.

Ideally, I’d have preferred Isabel be the one to smack him upside the head, but still, I do so love it when authors don’t let a protagonist get away with crappy behavior just because he’s the star of the book.

In short, buy more Firebreather. The Firebreather: Holmgang mini just started up, and there are two trades out, with a third likely on the way once this series wraps.

Comments

[proteus_lives]

Isn't this a cartoon as well?

[northstarfan]

Cartoon Network aired an animated one-shot. I haven't heard whether or not it's going to be picked up as a series.

[okkult3000]

I saw some of it. It didn't seem very good. The CGI looks about ten years out of date. They changed FB's origin and appearance.

[sianmink]

The animation was low budget, and the monster designs were meh, but the writing was pretty good.

I'd watch it if it came back as a series.

[arilou_skiff]

Now that's a word I didn't expect to see in english.

[icon_uk]

What, "chubby"?

[northstarfan]

My bet's on "holmgang". Wiki says it's a type of viking duel.

[arilou_skiff]

Indeed it is.

[arilou_skiff]

"Holmgång"

[misterbug]

...Wow.

That came surprisingly out of left field. I did NOT see a defence of fat rights/dark-skin-prejudice coming out of what seemed to be a formulaic super-person-in-high-school comic.

Maybe I should be reading this.

[dorksidefiker]

Yes. Yes you should.

[thatnickguy]

Wait...mini-series? I thought it had jumped to being an ongoing series?

Cripes, the creators either don't know what to do with this IP or keep forgetting.

[crinos]

Yeah, come on Duncan, go for the chubby chick!

[another_murray]

She's pretty fit for a "chubby" girl.

I'm not saying she isn't curvy, but the girl's wearing a belly shirt for crying out loud!

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call her 'chubby'. She's carrying a little extra weight, but not in an unattractive way at all.

[bradhanon]

There are artists out there who can realistically draw chubby women. But man, there sure as hell aren't many of 'em. Believe me, when someone can really render a heavier lady on the page, I for one notice. (Yes, I'm shallow. Sue me.)

I think it's that learning to draw chubbiness simply isn't part of the training for most comics artists. You learn certain ways to construct bodies, and those habits are very hard to break. It's like all those Captain America issues where we see pre-serum Steve Rogers and he looks like an underwear model. Realistically, to get rejected from the army in 1941, he'd have to look like a walking skeleton, but nobody learns how to draw a 6'2", 130-pound man, so they just don't.

[silverzeo]

Peter Parker needs a scoop of that upcoming!

[big_daddy_d]

i'm thinking of checking out the Firebreather comics. The movie on CN sparked my interest and it is a good movie. And as for not thinking too hard on a dragon mating with a human to have a kid..seriously how can you not?

[badficwriter]

I did love the movie.

[dorksidefiker]

*makes the I Want noises* Next time I can afford to hit my local, I HAVE to see if they have this. The last Firebreater I have is the end of the All The Best Heroes are Orphans arc (I think. I heard there were a couple more issues put out after that).

[northstarfan]

Yeah, there were two or three issues after the last collection. They should be included when this one goes to trade.

[stolisomancer]

It's like Isabel is cosplaying as any given major cast member of Love & Rockets.

[blackruzsa]

I liiike that girl. Srs.

..... but the idea of Fing Fang Foom having a half human kid is.... well, what?

[sir_mikael]

More Firebreather comics?! I waaant. One of THE BEST comic books ever.

Ugh the thing about Duncan's dad made me so sad. How the hell does Duncan keep it togehter?

[northstarfan]

As of now? He barely is.

[bluefall]

IDK. On the one hand, yeah, it definitely takes something from Isabel to give Jenna this speech. But on the other hand, Jenna gets like, double the usual Ally Effect here; in addition to the usual, she also can't be argued to have ulterior motive to manufacture Isabel's compatibility with Duncan. Coming from Isabel, there's an element of "oh of course you'd say you've got so much more in common with me than Jenna, you want me yourself, you're in competition with her." Coming from Jenna, it's hard to argue she's speaking from anything but a respect for truth. So it's that same old argument: what matters more, living by the message or getting the message across?

idk idk, it's a tough call. D:

[northstarfan]

Obviously the only solution is to have him get clue-by-foured by both girls. ;)

I do like that Jenna telling him what an ass he's being is a bit of a metatextual trope inversion as well as a smackdown -- in most comics, this would be the scene where the barely-there, conventionally beautiful love interest confesses how much she's liked him but was too shy to say/thought he didn't like her/etc. and she becomes the healing balm to our protagonist's wounds. I'm glad we dodged that.

On the other hand, if Duncan tried dismissing Isabel pointing out that just because he's got scales doesn't mean that his standards go more than skin-deep, I think he'd have just wound up getting ripped a new one. Also, the cover for the next issue hints that Duncan and Isabel do wind up going to prom together, and I'm curious to see whether or not Duncan really rethinks his actions or if it's the equivalent of a pity date. I suppose we'll see.

[bluefall]

Obviously the only solution is to have him get clue-by-foured by both girls. ;)

GENIUS!

I'm curious to see whether or not Duncan really rethinks his actions or if it's the equivalent of a pity date.

If it were most books I'd be tempted to say he'll ask as a pity date and end up all into her by the end of the night (at which point of course she'd find out it was a pity date and hijinks would ensue). But as you've just so aptly noted, this is a title that tends to avoid that kind of cliche. I'm very curious myself.