Vol 1: Bug Brothers
Written by Simon Oliver
Art by Tony Moore
2006
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 2: Insurgency
Written by Simon Oliver
Art by Tony Moore
2007
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 3: Lies of Our Fathers
Written by Simon Oliver
Art by Tony Moore
2007
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 4: Crossfire and Collateral
Written by Simon Oliver
Art by Tony Moore
2008
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 5: Bug Brothers Forever
Written by Simon Oliver
Art by Tony Moore
2007
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
I tried reading all of this but I only got one and a half books through before I'd had enough. Sorry.
The pitch seems kinda cool: following around a bunch of - well - pest exterminators whose lives keep getting stranger and far out the more they see. But after a short while it just felt like it was going around the motions without actually doing anything new. And when I say around the motions - while there was a feeling that I had at the back of my mind that I couldn't quite put my finger on (the same kinda feeling I had when I was reading Wasteland actually) that all came together when I sneaked a peak at the wikipedia page and found out - oh right: when The Exterminators first started it wasn't a comic book at all: it was a TV show [1]. And when I read that everything just sorta fell into place. Because - yeah - as a pitch for a series - it's kinda perfect: if you wanna be (very) generous it's a bit like a cross between the gritty kitchen-sink life-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks realism of The Wire crossed with the oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god mysterious ever so slightly paranormal (or is it just science-fiction) what's-in-the-box-ness of Lost and also - woo - evil cockroaches (because everyone loves evil cockroaches - am I right?). There's your down-on-his-lucky diamond in the rough anti-hero who has one last chance to get his life right, a rotating class of wacky side-kicks, a kooky love-interest and blah blah, blah.
I dunno - it all just sorta feels so calculated. Not like it was someone who had a good story to tell - but rather a story that just ticked all the boxes. And while the artwork is solid (Tony Moore - who some of you may recognise as the guy who did the first two volumes of The Walking Dead before things apparently went sour between him and Robert Kirkman) it doesn't do much more than a camera would: and I like my comics to be a little more inventive and well comic-like than that.
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[1] "The Exterminators initial incarnation was a TV pitch and pilot outline as writer Simon Oliver was working in the film industry at the time. After consideration Oliver realized the story wasn't really network material. Oliver then decided to pitch it to a comic book publisher. Luckily a film producer friend of Oliver had become good friends with Karen Berger of Vertigo Comics after they had discussed 100 Bullets. Through this friend the pitch of The Exterminators reached an interested publisher quickly. After some reworking with editor Jon Vankin the project was greenlit and the first issue was released January 2006."
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Links: Sean T Collins Review of Vol 1.
Further reading: Scalped, iZombie, Wasteland, 100 Bullets.
All comments welcome.
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