‘The Writer’ TPB (review)

Written by Josh Gad, Berkowitz Bros
Art by Ariel Olivetti
Published by Dark Horse Comics

I think most intelligent comics readers can agree that Grant Morrison is all sorts of brilliant.

Likewise, I feel safe in saying we can all agree that actor Josh Gad isn’t Grant Morrison.

Josh Gad is, in fact, perhaps best known as the voice of Olaf in the omnipresent Frozen movies, videos, games, etc, of the past decade or so. He’s also done a lot of live-action character work on movies and TV as well as The Book of Mormon on Broadway.

For some reason, though, he seems to think he’s Grant Morrison.

Or maybe the even more meta Dave Sim from The Strange Death of Alex Raymond.

Where this occurs is in The Writer, a recent four-issue mini-series from Dark Horse co-created and co-written with the Berkowitz Bros.

While the series is not a total loss, I’m sorry to say I was never really able to get into it.

On one level, it’s a classic Mary Sue adventure story—or “Marty Stu” as one character actually mentions—with its hero strongly resembling Gad himself.

On the other, it seems to want to be somewhat educational regarding Jewish myths, legends, and traditions, from the Golem on down.

On the third hand—and yes, this is the kind of story that has a third hand—it’s a rumination on the evils in our world today, as dealt with by a writer whose only real weapons are his words.

Sadly, it comes across to me as muddled, confusing and, in the end, itself confused. There’s gore out the wazoo (or at least various other orifices), a selection of classic dirty words, and some nekkidness, so it’s not a kids’ story.

But there’s also a magic ring, swords, a number of guys with cool beards and capes, an enchanted little girl, and some big ol’ monsters with horns sticking out of their heads! To say nothing of Biblical characters such as King Solomon or the apocryphal Lilith.

Some of the individual scenes are quite well handled and fun to read. It’s the overall storyline that just lost me, despite a couple of attempts to read through it.

Not sure how much Gad actually had to do with the writing but the dialogue is mostly good, with no characters “sounding” similar. There are, however, a number of almost too-clever in-joke pop culture references to Lord of the Rings and other fantasies.

The color artwork, on the other hand, is quite amazing throughout.

Either painted or computer-painted (it’s getting harder and harder to tell these days) by Ariel Olivetti, an Argentinian artist best known for his Marvel penciling work over the past three decades, it smacks of both traditional and modern, with some wonderfully differentiated faces on the human characters and even more so on some of the monsters, demons, and general bad guys.

In the end, where Stan/Gad steps out of the story proper, á la Morrison, the character himself sums up my take when he says, “The beginning of this story moved way too quickly. Loose ends dropped.” He goes on, “Insane creative choices and every trope in the book.”

We end with several pages echoing the now-cancelled Neil Gaiman on the importance of stories in the world, all of which is very, very true. When Morrison took a step back and made the writer an important character, though, it all felt new and innovative. Here, it all feels, to me at least, like imitation Morrison.

So, a mixed bag to put it mildly, and this a tougher than usual call as to whether or not I can recommend The Writer.

I’m going to have to say…no.

Not a total loss, though. Your mileage may vary.