Staff Pick (February12): Freedom #1

Publisher: Potato Comics
Item Code: FEB121132
SRP: $7.00
PREVIEWS Page #322
In Shops: 3/7/2012

History is… boring. Or at least it is when told in the clinical, black and white nature we all remember from our 11th-grade textbooks. Only when we see the struggles from history told from the perspective of those who lived it, do we see that history is a lot more interesting. “Facts” can be manipulated, gruesome details omitted, and very rarely is there ever a clear definition of good or evil, but rather a mixture of men and woman with their own unique senses of morality all struggling to survive in our world.

Freedom is the American Revolution told through the eyes of one young, head-strong boy who will find himself directly in the path of inevitable war between two powerful nations. This story isn’t an account of which side emerged victorious at what battle, but a tale of our ancestors who struggled to live in the violent battlefields they simply called “home.”

Everything about this book proclaims a passion for the style and history it is derived from. The layout, the lettering, the inking style that feels like wood-cut printing, all embody the time period of the story to make the book itself a part of the experience. Heffernan’s writing feels true, a successful balance of historical dialect with a hint of parody, a love-letter to the material. Transitioning effortlessly between powerful emotion and moments of humor, Heffernan’s visuals transmit the sentiment to near exactness. Freedom not only refers to the theme of this infamous time in American history, but it also reflects the spirit of the book itself. This is an ambitious, painstaking struggle to deliver a story on one’s own terms and, in my opinion, this struggle has resulted in something special.

~Jay Spence