CONCRETE PARK: R-E-S-P-E-C-T #1 Review

Is this hard hitting otherworldly comic worth your time? Read on to find out.

The official description from Dark Horse:

A troubled young outcast from Earth awakens on a distant desert planet that’s gripped by gang war. Will the exiles of Scare City destroy each other or create something surprising, beautiful, and new? Concrete Park returns with volume 2’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T arc—a sexy sci-fi saga by Tony Puryear (Eraser) and Erika Alexander>!

I’m not going to lie I had absolutely no exposure to this franchise until this issue. So here I am typing up a review for it as I continually try not to bang my head against the wall because I’ve missed the first volume of something that’s downright awesome. The whole concept this creative team has crafted yielded a thrilling start that happens to work as a jump on point for the uninitiated while continuing to forge its own narrative path.

Tony Puryear and Erika Alexander pen a script that offers street wise dialogue along with development for the primary cast. Set on another world riddled with gangs, we see a man awoken in an environment he doesn’t fully understand. Surrounded by Savangers and M-80s the misplaced Isaac Clay has no choice but to hit the ground running, as he attempts to make sense of what happened to him. This book uses science fiction elements as its backdrop but maintains urban conflict in Scare City as its focal point. And the results are assuredly awesome.

On the visual side of this release Tony Puryear handles the pencil strokes and the colors. The resulting barrage is steeped in a unique vision that suits the text perfectly, as each character carries a breath of originality. There were a couple instances where the renditions came off a bit robotic but for the most part these were few and far between, as the whole of this component ebbed and flowed with surefire intent.

Concrete Park: R-E-S-P-E-C-T #1 is an engaging start which shows a lot of promise. It took one issue to win me over and I can’t wait for the next one. Recommended.