Image Issue 0

Image Issue 0 

Credits :

Story\Art\ Ink\ Erik Larsen 

Letterer, Chris Eliopolous

Color, Gregory Wright and Steve Oliff

Editor, Jannie Wong.

Synopsis:

Dragon and Debbie  do more then just spend the night together. 

And the next  day  as Dragon shaves himself  and Debbie watches tv, the door bell ring. Dragon asks Debbie  to open the door and she is shot point blank in the head by her  jealous ex boyfriend, Arnold Dimple who immedialty  kills himself when he realises what he has done. 

Dragon is distraught and  loses himself in a  spiral of alcohol and despair,  as he is losing his  grasp on the  city, on his job and  possibly his sanity.  

Notes  :

This story is  14 pages long. 

At least  1  page  is  taken from The Savage Dragon VS Megaton Man.

The other pages  are  most likely new. 

But I can't be sure with out Image Issue 0 it self.  

I am using the  extended version,  included in The Savage Dragon Trade Paperback.

Debbie Harris, dies in this issue. 

Arnold dimple her ex  and accidental killer,  commits suicide the moment he realises what he has done.  

the cover of  Q magazine gives us our first look at  Peter Klaptin,  another pivotal character  in the upcoming series.  

Review  :

For a story this short,  it  has an enormous impact  on Dragon's life for, literally years to come.

The fallout of this  issue wont be resolved until the  30's  and that is  3 years in the future  of the title. 

But the story behind  the comic is almost as interesting as  the comic itself. 

Image Issue  0 was set up  as  a  collectible initiative. 

There were garishly colored coupons in all first  or second  issues  of the  first 7 Image comics series (  Youngblood, Spawn, The Savage Dragon, Cyberforce, Wildcats, Wetworks  and Shadowhawk, if wondering. )

Collect them all and send them out to  receive your free copy of Image Issue 0 ! 

At least, that was the idea. 

Because as became the norm  with  early Image Comics, Issue 0  was  perpetually  late  and at times it  looked like  it was never going to get out of the starting gate at all. 

Larsen  had already finished his  part of the  comic, which was still  going nowhere. 

Eventually because the story was so pivotal  for the  coming  ongoing Dragon comic, the story line as a whole and the character. Larsen decided to jump the gun and include it in the Trade Paperback. 

Which is where I  first encountered it.  

But what about the story it self  ?

Well it's  bleak with Dragon himself being at the end of his tether and  knowing he is losing the battle for the city and possibly his sanity. 

Not too mention his  guilt  in letting  Debbie  open  his front door and getting  killed in the process.

Speaking of Debbie,  despite her death looming large over Dragon's life and this being a  pivotal  storyline. There isn't much to Debbie her self.  she is a cypher,  a  plot point to get the story going  for the coming  3 years. 

And that is mostly what  Image Issue  0  is,  a pivotal  depressing  plotpoint,  designed to move  Dragon's life in to  a new  status quo and dark places, while underlining  how vulnerable  people  close to Dragon are. 

And how could it be  anything more with just 6 pages to work with  ?

Even the additional  pages  only help to strengthen  the despair and depression of Dragon himself  as  he can feel his grasp on the city slipping  in between paper work,  overwhelming odds and  civil suits filed by  people in the cross fire. 

A  man alone  trying  to  stem the tide. 

But this is mostly  set up for  issue 1 of the ongoing series,  which  picks up  these threads and  runs with them. 

Image Issue  0  is  a pivotal happenstance in Dragon's life  its ramifications are felt far and wide  in the comic. 

But  there isn't much to the  story itself other then a cautionary tale and Debbie her self is nothing more then a cypher.

she is barely a  character  as it is  but it will be a harbinger of things to come,  for how fast and loose the series  plays with the lives of the characters. 

Next up,  an  Issue 1.

Addendum : Because of my computer woes, my original schedule has been thrown  in to disarray. So instead of  going with my original idea of  having  1  issue  of  each  series alternating every two days,  I will push out the  reviews that are furthest along. 

Which means Transformers is going on a  short hiatus.