Project Savior Trail by Fire Part One Written/Art/Color/Letters by: Craig Johnson

I recently had an independent book come across my desk that feels like it takes inspiration from Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, the 90s Batman Animated series and a little bit of Frank Miller’s Sin City thrown in for good measure. With a mixture like that how could you go wrong? Well in walks Project Savior. Project Savior is not the worst comics I’ve ever seen, it has some bright spots, but It’s not a contender for an Eisner Award.

Let me start with some of the positives Project savior is written well and is an interesting and dark take on the superhero genre. We are immediately thrown into a mysterious world of intrigue and action with little light to guide the way. Our hero, that we only know as a vigilante is pursuing our villain, Scyther, after the antagonist has destroyed a building to escape.

The twist becomes that the cops are hunting down the hero, not simply because he’s a vigilante, but because Scyther has put a price on his head. What is strong about the writing is that we aren’t spoon fed the details up front. The details and character building is done through the events of the story itself. This is always, IMO, the best way to execute a story like this, however, nothing happens in the story. Other than the hero is chasing the bad guy and the cops are chasing the hero, nothing happens, zip, zilch, nada. The hero never even catches up Scyther in this issue who is down at the docks, presumably getting on a boat to make his escape.

Which leads to the first issue of the book, and that is execution. The problem is it feels like maybe the story has been stretched out to get a full 24 page book, but that causes the reader to feel let down by the time you reach the end of the story. If you want to suck me in end on an amazing cliffhanger, like the hero reaching the dock confronting the villain and maybe the villain shoots the hero. Not knowing his power set yet this would compel me to be interested in what happens next. Instead the book ends with the hero punching out a cop hunting him down and giving us the cheesy line, I’m just getting started.

So to fill 24 pages we are treated to a large number of splash pages in the book. Splash pages only work as story telling element when it is giving you a big reveal. The first time we see the hero, the first time we see the villain, when the 2 foes finally meet. Not as an excuse to do a cool hero shot on page 8 for filler after you just did a splash page on page 5 for the hero reveal. If you don’t have enough story to execute a 24 page book, don’t try to stretch it out with extra art, it comes off as unprofessional.

Which brings me to my other major issue with the book, the art, or more specifically the coloring. The art is fine. There are a few images the seemed rush, and I will chalk that up to I assume Craig is young or new to the comic book game and I think given time he will be a solid comic artist. But for this book he decided to do black on black. I get what he’s going for, that Sin City style of black and white with only small elements colored for affect. But we get more of a black on black feel, with tons of detail felt like it’s lost and the only color used for affect is red for blood, the villains scar and hero’s costume is black and red. When black and white is done effectively it can be very striking, but this not an example of that. All of the dark makes the art feel muddy and confusing. It actually makes the book difficult to follow at times.

So I would end on this, my advice to Craig is to flash the story out a little more and perhaps hire a partner to help with the art chore. Someone that can take your idea and truly bring it to life. I can see the potential in the story but the execution needs work.

I’m giving Project Savior 4 out of 10 capes and recommending people pass on this one. But keep trying Craig.