Decoy - Storm Of The Century [2003] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Decoy - Storm Of The Century [2003]

This is a collection of a 4-issue series from 2002, plus some other stuff, created by Decoy creator Courtney Huddleston with writer Buddy Scalera and inker Mostafa Moussa, which was a follow-up to a 1999 series and some one-shots from Penny-Farthing Press.

 

The only other Decoy story I read was a 2002 crossover issue with Mike Kunkel's Herobear series, HEROBEAR AND THE KID AND DECOY - FIELD TRIP #1 [2002], which was intended to be two issues, though only one came out. I liked that enough that when I came across this book (with a Kunkel introduction) a few years later I picked it up. It wasn't immediately obvious from the cover that it's the second book in the series, and the Joe Chiodo cover isn't really indicative of the art inside.

This was a pretty uneven book. The first little bit makes no concessions to those of us coming into the story late, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense to a new reader. It picks up a bit in the middle, after a bit of exposition, so I got that Decoy was a shapeshifting alien, estranged from his warlike species, somehow linked with a young cop. It was pretty fun for a bit there, then kind of just finishes without a proper ending. 

Didn't really find a lot of attempts at humour in the script very effective. I did like the art for the most part, but I think I'd have liked it better with a flatter colouring style, with a lot less texture that distracts from the linework.

After the main story there's an origin story for Decoy which has a lot of details that would have been good to know in advance. I'm not sure how much of that is recap of earlier comics and how much is original to this. It's by different creators than the main story, with a very different style.  There are also a dozen pages of pin-ups by various artists active in the indy scene of the time, and a storyboard-style story "Crossing Guard" by Huddleston for a non-existent cartoon.

Looks like there have only been a single one-shot continuing the story since this, which might include the origin story printed here, and some short story collections by other creators.

While I wasn't totally happy with this, I would probably pick up the original mini-series and various one-shots or a collection of them if I came across them. There's something here I like. I also see that there might have been some sort of convention special containing the full HEROBEAR/DECOY crossover. Not sure I'd be able to find it easily, but it's something else to look for.