Review -- DEADHEAD

Deadhead
Written by Sebastien Regnier
Pencils by Nadim (Mahi-Bahi)
Scattered Comics
You get the feeling Sebastien Regnier and Nadim are living out the dream of every kid who has ever read a comic book.
There comes that time when you put down the latest issue of Batman, beside the older issue of Star Wars, and a Scrooge McDuck and say to yourself ‘if I did a comic I’d put elements of everything in it.’
With Deadhead the creative duo have a quasi superhero book, starring of course Deadhead, layered with a ton of cheeky humour.
Of course the mere fact there is a talking gorilla is enough for me. Come on, you know talking apes are cool comic fare.
The storyline is not surprisingly pretty over-the-top, but the title would not work any other way.
Once you commit to the crazy, you have to go all the way. There is no half way.
So don’t expect Ernest Hemingway writing here, or even Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman. Regnier is raw, at times tickling the funny bone, and at times managing only a groan at the attempt.
That is the charm of an indie title like Deadhead.
Nadim said the story came about over a period of time.
“Deadhead existed for a while actually,” he said. “It started as a joke we came up with around 2002 maybe. We were big comic readers, and we wanted to do a comic more humour oriented. I guess he is a poor man's ‘Spiderman’. That’s how he was kinda designed; if Peter Parker wasn’t a genius.”
Other characters just sort of happened, said Nadim.
“I have no idea where the apeman is from,” he said. “In the comic world there’s a lot of gorillas/ape characters for some reason. More than any other animal character. I don't know why.
“I guess it was subconscious.”
Nadim is likewise raw in the art. It has the look of the art you might see scrawled in the margin of an artistically interested, but rough-edged high school student’s notebook.
The art while undefined, again fits the weirdness of the title.
“The format rules. It’s really cool to see it as a standard sized comic,” said the artist. “I think that’s great.
“The drawings are getting better I hope. I’m not satisfied 100 per cent with the look of it, but I work on making it better each page.
“If you wait for your work to be perfect to put it out, it will never get out. Maybe if you are a virtuoso but I’m certainly not.”
The book is also Canadian, a bonus in my books.
However, Nadim said it was another barrier to producing the title because the publishing opportunities here are limited.
“It was really difficult to get it in print form,” he said. “I stumbled on the ka-blam.com web site and they rule! I wish there was something like that in Canada/Québec. They are really cool. I could not have printed the comic without them …
“It cost way too much to print them here in Montréal. I would have had to print a 1,000 copies which would not sell. It’s all from my pocket. I ain’t got a 1000 bucks and I don’t want any government subvention for this comic. If someone would finance it, it would be great but I won't hold my breath.”
While there have been challenges to producing Deadhead, Nadim said there is more story yet to tell.
“We have more stories to tell, some, I think, could be really good I hope,” he said.
Deadhead in many ways is what indie comics are about. It’s an expression of raw creativity, sans slick production, and big budgets. It exists because writer and artist made it happen. Not a book everyone will appreciate, but it has the raw charm to recommend giving it a look.
All the links to where to get the comic and the info about it is at www.deadheadcomicks.com
-- CALVIN DANIELS

-- Appeared on Yorkton This Week WebXtra