Part of my appreciation of Far Arden, the comic that precedes this one, had to do with writer/artist Kevin Cannon’s creation of the nearly
400 page comic. He held a series of personal 24 Hour Comic challenges, one per
month, which eventually led him to create a much longer work. With its sequel, Crater XV, you can clearly see that
Cannon had more time to write, draw and work out the story as whole before
putting pen to paper. The art is crisp, but it maintains the same cartoon style
and frivolous energy of Far Arden.
The story is also different. It’s not one main story chugging along with
smaller stories being added to it. It’s not built the same way as the previous
comic. Multiple stories are introduced early on and they progress in parallel
to one another regularly and eventually they all come together. There’s a sense
of momentum that builds and continues to build into a grand conclusion.
Far Arden
wrapped up quite nicely. I can’t recall a part of the story that Cannon didn’t
wrap up and because of this, I had no clue what Crater XV was going to be about. Where else could the story go? The
title and cover art suggesting space exploration. My first reaction was less
than enthusiastic. Space exploration? Army Shanks is a hardened sailor, not an
astronaut. My second thought was more positive. At least Cannon will avoid
rehashing the same old story. The actual story has very little to do with the
plot of Far Arden but it retains the
storytelling style and surprisingly flows forth from the events that took place
during that first story. Shanks is deeply troubled by the events of Far Arden and he’s even contemplating self-imposed
exile in the opening pages of Crater XV
and starts to act on it. Of course, being the star of the series, Shanks gets
over his problems but he does so with incredible difficulty. After reading both
comics, it’s very easy to understand why Shanks is sometimes a jerk; he’s had a
very difficult life.
Everything I enjoyed about Shanks’s first story also applies
to Crater XV. I love the energy of the
comic. I love the zany over-the-top feeling of it all and I’m blown away by the
sheer imagination of the story. How all of the different plots fit into a
coherent story about space exploration, orphans, spies, clean energy, dealing
with death, and so many other things is just mind boggling. Had I not just read
this comic, I wouldn’t believe all of those ideas could seamlessly fit together
into a larger story. What makes Crater XV
a special comic isn’t that dozens of interesting ideas are thrown together; it’s
that they’re connected through human interactions and real emotion. I
understand Shanks better at the end of the story as I did at the beginning. I
understand other characters better at the end than I did at their introduction in
the series.
Though I’m only really talking about Shanks, most of the characters
have an interesting progression from the beginning of Crater XV to the end. I’m only talking about the old seadog on the
cover because I don’t want to spoil anything. Most of the main characters in Crater XV are entirely new. The scale of
the story is huge but it’s all centered on characters. The plotting is also
spectacular. Cannon continuously undermines your expectations to wonderful
effect. The ending of Far Arden was
completely unexpected and though I’m really glad Cannon didn’t repeat the same
kind of twist ending (I’m not even sure I can call it that because the ending,
in retrospect, was rather organic in its development) he provides the reader
with regular little twists and turns along the way.
Parts of the comic are absolutely charming because of the
emotional undertones which are evenly spread throughout the comic. Scenes like the
ones at the orphanage have heart breaking and gut busting scenes taking place
on the same page. With Far Arden I
was impressed with Cannon’s ability to write an improvised story that had so
much energy, heart and fun that also managed to be a good story that had a
distinct beginning, middle and end. With Crater
XV, Cannon surprised me yet again but this time it was for many of the same
reasons as before in addition to his skill in writing believable human drama
amidst all of the resurrected space exploration programs, high sea adventures
and hilarious mayhem taking place once again in the Canadian high arctic. The
situations in which the characters create for themselves are ludicrous but
Cannon deals with them with such earnestness that I can’t help but share their
pain and their joy. I was sceptical that Cannon would be able to pull off a
sequel to the impressive Far Arden
but he pulls it off. Cannon’s imagination is seemingly limitless and his
cartooning style is very endearing. It’s a killer combination and it would
delight fans of adventure stories for many more years. If you haven’t taken the
time to read Far Arden, give it go
but pick up a copy of Crater XV at
the same time because you’ll be looking for it next.
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