REVIEW: The Holy Roller #2

A light, quick, action-packed read filled to the brim with humor, puns, and attitude. Written by a trio of all-stars, Holy Roller is a comic you won’t wanna spare. The story follows Levi, the son of a pro-bowler who just got into town and is making a strike at the corrupt crime scene. Armed with his dad’s lucky bowling ball, Levi is in for a hell of a bad time. This is a very interesting comic, not only because it’s the first time we see a “bowling vigilante” but because 2/3 of the writers are not your run-of-the-mill comic writers. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Lonely Island star Andy Samberg joins the writing staff to no doubt deliver some stellar humor writing. Along with Andy, we have Joe Trohman, better known as the lead guitarist for a band you might know as Fall Out Boys. How does a pairing like this come together with Rick Remender of such wonderful titles as Tokyo Ghost, Fear Agent, and Black Science, is without a doubt nothing short of the universe having a great sense of humor and putting some fantastic people together to make some fantastic work come alive?

The story of this issue follows Levi after he comes up on the news for having killed (in self-defense) one of his high school bullies. The authorities are after him but not before some more sanctioned thugs find him first. It is clear from the conversations that Levi and his dad have that the old man isn’t the greatest father in the world, and the fact that Levi thinks bowling is nothing more than a hobby alcoholics use to blow off steam makes it that more interesting that the weapon of choice for him is his dad’s lucky bowling ball. After a brawl with the thugs, the police finally arrive and start shooting at Levi who makes a run for it, but not without getting shot a few times and crashing through a window. This issue reads very well, it is quick, it is packed with some great action moments, and the dialogue whilst sparse, hits just right to move the action forward without bogging you down with details.

Diving deeper into the pacing of the story, I have to applaud the choice of letting the action carry the story forward. I a huge fan of silent comics because it does the best thing a comic can do, it uses great art and wonderful posing to move the story forward. Couple that with some wonderful sound fx lettering and you get really quick eye movements that mimic the high-paced thrill of arm-to-arm combat. It works perfectly for a comic such as this, it gives me huge kick-ass vibes and I could see Levi being a part of that world in some way. However, one very important aspect that differentiates this comic from Kick-Ass is that where Kick-Ass is more Serious/Funny, this is more Funny/Serious. The team of writers did a fantastic job at delivering wonderfully funny puns, and well-timed punch lines that will get you laughing out loud while you read this. It is a fantastic skillset to be able to tell a serious story and be funny at the same time without making it seem corny or out of place.

The art by Roland Boschi is wonderful too. The character designs are really good, on top of the Kick-Ass vibes I also get a bit of TMNT with the way Levi’s costume is designed as it is very similar to something Hockey-wearing bad-ass Casey Jones would wear. The coloring by Moreno Dinisio is just as good and we can see a clear color script that accompanies the story. First we get a beautiful array of oranges and yellows during the more expositional scenes between Levi and his dad, and later with his friend Jamal. Then we get a full tone shift when the bad guys enter the picture and we see a vast use of blues, greys and black to show us not only that this is going on at night, but that this is a shady scene filled with shady people. The environment design itself is not too complex, but I will hold off on any judgement currently as this whole issue takes place inside the childhood home of Levi and well there’s only so much you can do with a house environment. One thing I will note about the environment design however is that when we enter Levi’s room, we are treated to a plethora of easter eggs and posters that help to further the character of Levi as well as how much his dad loves him despite knowning that Levi doesn’t think highly of him.

Whilst I like very much the lettering used in this comic, it has me a little confused. It is definetely triggering my “sticker lettering” alarm, but only in some places. It almost feels as thus some of the letters were painted in during the art production of the comic, whils the rest of it was added later in Illustrator or another vector format. This being said, it is great lettering and I particularly enjoyed the way they represented music playing from a vinyl record player. I think this was done very well, and it was a great way to build tension during an otherwise silent scene of the thugs entering the house. I liked the fonts used for the sound fx very much but as I mentioned earlier a few of them, seem to have been added after the comic was rendered down into a printable .jpg. They look too clean (on my screen) and whilst it’s not that noticeable when that’s the only sound fx on the panel, when you have two of them together and one is really meshed into the art but the other one is crisp and unpixelated it feels like it was an after thought. A good afterthought but for me as a reader this is something something that I don’t even want to notice or it will take me out of the action that is going on at the moment. Comic’s are all about immersion, and all lettering is like a good bass line, you feel it much more than you what notes are being played.

Other than that bit of “sticker lettering” issue, this was a wonderful read and I enjoyed every second of it. I am excited to see what Rick Remender, Andy Samberg and Joe Trohman through at us next. I hope they SPARE no details and keep STRIKING up more fun on this fantastic comic. Because let me tell you, this bowling vigilante is RIGHT UP MY LANE!

Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 4.5 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars

Overall: 5 Stars

Written by: Rick Remender, Andy Samberg & Joe Trohman
Illustrated by: Roland Boschi
Coloring by: Moreno Dinisio
Lettering by: Rus Wooton
Cover art by: Roland Boschi & Moreno Dinisio
Variant Covers by: Andrew Robinson
Published by: Image Comics

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”