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Number Crunching: The Weird World Of Jack Staff #1

Title: The Weird World Of Jack Staff

Issue: #1

Issue 1? I thought this had been around for a while. Had got bogged down with delays and lateness and that the Jack Staff comic was more about other characters than Jack himself. This is a relaunch to redefine the book.

Cost: $3.50

Story pages: 28

Of which how many are splash pages: 3

Price per page: 12.5 cents

Panels per page: 3.71

Price per panel: 3.4 cents

Amount of times the actual panel layout caused me to smile: 5

Is Paul Grist the storytelling stepchild of Dave Sim and Steve Dillon? Oh yes.

How so? Well, take the lettering for a start. Wide balloons that change and twist shape to reflect the context. That split dialogue up perfectly for the sake of timing. And then trip across panels both dragging and accompanying the reader through the tale, with a deceptively simple and broad line.

What was that you were saying about panel layout before? Well just look.

The first page gives us a nice establishing shot and a radio jingle for John Smith's (Jack Staff's elter ego) business. And he's singing along. That's huge amounts about the character, simple, fun, a working man.

And those series  series of panels at the bottom with John Smith draw the eye to enter the second page lower down rather than natural top left. So we then look up, just as John Smith is doing to follow the narrative, up to to the top of the scaffolding (itself resembling a grid of panels), then down back again towards the bottom through the scaffold grid, despite the fact that the last speaker is standing next to John Smith in the first panel. It's a combination of Dave Sim's superb cleverness of panel and balloon placement, with Steve Dillon's speed – you don't get bogged down in details, your eye moves easily from panel to panel, it's a rush. And all from a conversation on a building site. This is a silly, fun, superhero comic but it's using techniques that are up there with Chris Ware. It's one of the greatest modern examples of the comic book storytelling art form.

Blimey. I know.

Is it all slice of life? Oh dear me no, aliens, vampires, multi-dimensions, masked warriors, masked butlers, disembodied armour hands, all the weird wackiness you could want. This is the traditional British anthology kids comic, given a continuing narrative form as you twist from one person's story to another. A whole comics universe in one book. The likes of Seven Soldiers, with much easier grapple holds for the reader.

Favourite characters? Has to be the Steptoe And Son (Sanford And Son in the US) analogue, initially a vampire hunting father-and-son team, now the father is a vampire… but all the catchphrases and speaking styles are preserved.

If I started with the first issue would I understand everything, have everything going on explained completely to me to my satisfaction as a reader. No.

Oh. But where would the fun be in that.

I suppose.

The Weird World Of Jack Staff by Paul Grist published by Image Comics. Issue 1 out now.

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