Proof of Concept

Figures that publisher Larry Young would come up with a book like Proof of Concept (AiT/Planet Lar), a collection of comic book story concepts that's structured like an extended telephone Pitch Meeting between Larry and his friend, "Superstar Entertainment Lawyer to the Comic Book Stars" Ken F. Levin. As he's shown in his online writings and The Making of Astronauts in Trouble, the man's like Penn Jillette in his seemingly compulsive need to reveal to the audience how his tricks are done – as a diversion that keeps you from noticing the even bigger, newer trick he’s about to play on ya. In Proof, Young gives us the openings to five potential graphic novels – and the high point chapters from a sixth – as a means of demonstrating how to sell comic projects to publishers and potential readers. If it's true that the majority of hard-core comics fans have dreams of themselves some day creating comics, then Proof has a ready audience that'll probably pay as much attention to the interstitial sequences showing Young selling his material as to the material itself.

I'll admit I was wary approaching this book. Young may be effusive when it comes to expressing his love of the High Concept, but as a pop culture junkie with plenty of experience reading and viewing great High Concepts that made for crappy entertainments, I can't help noting – as Larry well knows – that snappy concepts mean squat if you don't have a solid story or memorable characters inhabiting them. Young has shown himself to be capable when it comes to all three elements, but with Proof's deliberately stunted presentational model, the odds of us getting all three are clearly diminished.

That's certainly true of opening fragment "Hemoglobin," which focuses on a future where the last "living" vampire is hunted by agents of a rich family that views the bloodsuckers as the possible key to eternal life. The twelve-page entry is all set-up that doesn't even reveal two of its main characters (our fearless vampire hunters) 'til the last panel. Though Damion Couceiro's art combines moodiness with a Moebius-styled futurism, there's not enough there to do more than tickle our interest, in part due to Young's decision to give us the basic story background through two non-essential characters, two watchers overseeing the "Vanhelsing Room." Young piques our interest more in the follow-up phone conversation ("They probably have crosses on the soles of their boots, so when they stamp on a vampire, it hurts!") than he does with the comic itself. That may have been his intent, but it doesn't keep the fragment from being a frustrating read. Not as exasperating as Young & Jeff Johns' "For the Time Being," with its convoluted time paradox plot and indistinguishable crew of the least "rag-tag" time travelers you've ever seen – but pretty close.

Article Author: Bill Sherman

Bill Sherman is the Comics & Graphic Novels review editor for Blogcritics. With his lovely wife Rebecca Fox, he has recently co-authored a sudsy size acceptance novel entitled Measure By Measure.

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