AfterShock Comics Announces ‘A Calculated Man’: “John Wick Mixed With A Beautiful Mind”

by Olly MacNamee

Writer Paul Tobin, artist Alberto Alburquerque, colourist Mark Englert and letterer Taylor Esposito are to publish a new comic book series, A Calculated Man, through AfterShock Comics this summer. And maths and mobsters are the order of the day, judging by the series’ synopsis:

“A verifiable math genius, Jack Beans used to run the numbers for the Pinafore crime family, until one day he ran them too well and concluded that the only way out of this life was in a casket or Witness Protection. So, he turned state’s evidence and ran.

Now, the Pinafores are out to end their favorite accountant. Little do they know that Jack’s skills with math and his perfect memory have made him a better killer than they ever could have realized. What follows is a journey full of murder, mayhem and mathematics.

Writer Paul Tobin (BUNNY MASK, MY DATE WITH MONSTERS) and artist Alberto Alburquerque (The Amazing Spider-Man, Savage Sword) unleash a master of math on a mission to eliminate a criminal empire for good.”

Tobin expands on the initial set up for the series as well as the real-life people who influenced this story:

“It’s John Wick mixed with A Beautiful Mind when ex-mobster / math genius Jack Beans decides three years in the witness protection program is more than enough, and that all he needs to do to safely return to his old life is…kill every last member of the Pinafore crime family. It’s a tall order, but Jack Beans is no ordinary man. First, he’s GOOD at math. Not just “What’s the square root of nine?” good, but “prove the existence of three differently-sized infinites by use of the Continuum Hypothesis” good. He literally sees the world as a math problem, and was born with synesthesia: he sees numbers as colors, and his memory is absolute. It’s these skills Jack will have to use to make his hopes of staying alive add up to anything other than zero!

“My love of Richard Feynman, for one, a brilliant theoretical physicist. How could his mental skills save him in a true life and death situation? How would Einstein have done if he’d been asked to take down the mob? What are the lengths a scientist will take when it comes time to put down their theories and take up a gun?”

And finally, Tobin gives you three reasons to pick up this new book:

“Character, character and character. I found myself fascinated as “Jack Beans” grew on the pages, and even more so when Alberto’s art started coming in. Jack is a very odd man, but one whose every action has to make sense, because in his head he’s just solving equations. Everything HAS to add up in his head. Still, the numbers favor an entire crime family over one man and readers will get a chance to see how it all works out!”