Sunday, January 30, 2011

Madman: The Oddity Odyssey by Michael Allred

Madman is not your ordinary superhero. In fact, Madman's kind of an antihero. However, he is formidable. He has a yo-yo and the slingshot as his main weapons, and he's psychic through touch. He wears a strange outfit, which people comment on and wonder why, and even he doesn't really seem to know what his costume means. In spite of his eccentricity or perhaps because of it, Madman is oddly compelling.


In this story, Madman is trying to save the doctor who's frozen in the freezer in his apartment. Madman is told he has to find another doctor in order to bring him back to life. The arch villain is a would-be mad scientist who wants the other doctor's scientific discoveries on life and death for himself. 

The art is good. It's black, white, and blue, which is really kind of neat but also somewhat stark and abstract. It has been called pop art. Throughout the graphic novel, there are good action scenes, philosophizing, characterization, romance, and a ton of weird stuff. Madman really is a sympathetic, personable character.

Madman is sort of an offbeat comic with cult appeal. It really is an "odyssey of oddity" so the title Oddity Odyssey is apt. Michael Allred's Madman has generated a lot of all kinds of praise from seriously big names, as seen on his blog, Allred Art, which is in actual fact brand new. Check it out! And here is his official website. The first issue of the comic can be previewed at Madman: The Oddity Odyssey #1 on comiXology

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