Written by Fred Schwartz
Art by Stan Yak
Published by Kickstarter
Every so often, a new series comes along that I’ve never even heard of, but that I enjoy in ways that I would never expect.
Fisticuffs is one of those books. I was immediately impressed by the artwork of Stan Yak. I had never heard of him before and this is the first time that I was seeing his artwork. It is very strong graphically and the colors by Robert Nugent work well with his art. I immediately was interested where this book could possibly go.
I knew that the artwork was strong but could the story match it?
Luckily Fred Schwartz (no relation, I swear) crafts an interesting story that kept me captivated for the entirety of the two issues.
Seriously. What more can a reader ask for than that?
I only got to read the first two issues, but apparently there will be six total. I am interested to see where the creators will take the story from here.
The opening scene takes place at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
Already the book was unlike anything I had read before. We get to meet our “hero” of the story who is named Nick Roark. Nick is an alcoholic who is drinking at the meeting and isn’t taking it too seriously.
In fact, Nick looks like a complete and utter slob to be honest. We find out that he is there because of some court order, and he is trying to make the next fifteen month of this the best he can. Needless to say that Nick is pretty much a lost soul.
He lives with his pop culture obsessed roommate named Kyle.
One night, Nick and Kyle decide to go to the bar. Once there, Nick picks up a woman, and they go back to Nick’s place for a night of carnal pleasure. Nick figures why not, and they head back to his place. Once there they start engaging and Nick accidentally kills the girl with powers that seemingly come from nowhere.
What are these powers? Where did they come from? The creative team don’t really answer that question in the first two issues. Hopefully they will before the series ends.
Still, the characters are extremely well developed and the world building here is truly tops. Nick and Kyle are extremely well thought out characters. As soon as they appear, you automatically recognize them and know them. Heck, I have known people in my life who are just like them. It is obvious how much love and care went into creating them. It is also obvious how much love and care there was in creating this entire universe. The creators clearly love what they are doing and they certainly are very good at it.
This is a well done and well composed story, and it even could serve as a great starting point for this universe, if that is where this is all going. We still will have four issues after reading these two, and I am excited to see how this whole story develops.
But for now, these two issues are really good. Let’s see where it all goes.
RATING: A-
Fisticuffs Book One and Book Two will be
Launching on Kickstarter on February 18th,scie


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