Reviews Nanny & Hank #1

I reviewed Nanny & Hank #2 last week and someone sent me an authorized (non-pirated) copy of the first issue! Kevin Smith fans should note that I pay for most of the stuff I review and am not any easier on the free stuff I get or the stuff from creators I genuinely like that just isn't... good. But like I said in the first review, I really like Nanny & Hank.

The art in the first issue isn't as progressed as that in the second. From the opening, Mignola's Hellboy-era style is omnipresent, though it has some flare in its own right. It actually looks rushed from the jump, but the stylistic focal points Babb chooses engrosses the viewer. And it isn't as though the guy can't draw -- he certainly can -- it just looks a little hackneyed at first. And I hate his rendering of hands.

Just as with the second issue, the writer and artist shine in those short, characterizing sequences, such as when Nan and Hank catch the sunrise. Miller has a natural ease with the medium and actually tells a story with solid characters, not just endless plot. He's also clever and actually funny, which makes Nanny & Hank as enjoyable as it is easy to read.

Nan: "Harry Michael Harriman, you had all day to pick up that truck...!"
Hank: "It's not a truck, it's an RV."

Dialogue exchanges like this one abound, yet remain oddly absent in basically every mainstream comic book I've read in the last five years -- you simply don't have the page-count to characterize when you have to make sure your properties advance from one mega-crossover plotz to another and include 12 characters from 20 other titles. But beyond even that, few comics writers today have that gift of gab. The dialogue is natural, the characters realized, and the reader doesn't stop to question it. The villainous reveal is rushed and wonky, however; either Miller, Babb, or both have some work to do in the fight scene department.

Still, Nanny & Hank #1 was a better read than any of the mainstream superhero titles I've slogged through lately. It has personality, which those titles, properties, and products lack.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010