Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse – Helldiver – The SimonBisleyArt Review
As the media onslaught for The Four Horsemen continues, I’m happy to say that it’s not just hype… Helldiver delivers…
Like every other Bisley fan on the planet, I’ve been chomping at the bit to see this project brought to fruition. Years pass, the property lands at Heavy Metal. Eastman has history with Biz… It looks like it might actually get made… and then the news hits… It’s real. It’s here. The Four Horsemen are going to be let loose…
The first impression is that it’s paced like a movie, building momentum (albeit a particularly grimy, bloody, violent movie thanks to Mendheim’s gritty, degraded design work,) and the content of both art and story are probably something i’m going to have to wait a few years to show my five-year-old. For me it’s Bloody Christmas though… I’m not going to waste your time, read the synopsis here.
It’s great to see Bisley stretching his brush over a proper story arc; Stuck in covers limbo for a while now (with a couple of notable exceptions, Hellblazer being the obvious one,) it’s refreshing and genuinely exciting to see Biz let loose across a canvas this large, and he’s making good use of it.
Moreover, all the classic Bisley elements are there: Hero doing particularly bloody battle while tormented by his past? Check. Curvy babes up to no good? Check. Internal organs and dismembered bystanders with ‘WTF?’ faces? Check. Cinematic lighting and atmosphere? Check and check (with props to Chad Fidler for his colouring…)
The writing’s tight, with Mendheim, Kennedy and Jaffee setting up the major players without letting the pace get flabby and leaving enough to the imagination to imbue the whole thing with a decent sense of anticipation… I’m certainly looking forward to seeing where this goes…
The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse – Book One : Helldiver hits stores on Friday 13th April 2012 in the US. Character bios can be viewed here and an overview at Heavy Metal’s website is here. European and other release dates to be confirmed, I’ll let you know when I have them.
