Review: ‘Grip Of The Kombinat’ Is Too Loose
by Benjamin Hall
Summary
In the future corporations will be less in number. The remaining number of corporations will war against each other. Through unintentional means the conflict will see an end. Yet, what does this end mean for humanity?
Overall
2/10Writer/artist Simon Roy and writer/artist Damon Gentry are the main creators of this work. (Though it is unclear who does the majority of each creative task.) There is an additional creative credit for designer Andriy Lukin who provides the logo’s design. However, several artists provide pin-up art toward the end yet do not get proper credit. These artists are: Vlad Legostaev, Stefan Tosheff, Grim Wilkins, Aaron Conley, Laura Graves, Matt Emmons, Matthew Allison, Steve Lecouilliard, John Brennan and Artyom Trakhanov. Finally there is the thanks that artists Matt Sheean and Jess Pollard get for reasons unknown.
Despite the logo appearing to pop the cover is rather busy. This arguably causes the overall effect to be less than epic. As far as the interior art and lettering go they are at best medium quality. Yes, they present what is (presumably) in the script in a sequential and competent manner, respectively. However, one word balloon has text that is all over the place for no reason. While the narrative’s artist seems to lack confidence when it comes to line work. In other words the artist wobbles between a humorous curvy line and a stricter realistic line.
It is worth mentioning that the title itself is a misnomer in that there is never a consistent narrative connection to it. In fact this original graphic novel is more an anthology set in one universe. While there are attempts to tie the various narratives into one narrative these attempts are, at best, sparse. Worse is that the jokes are too frequent, and all of them seem to lack a punchline. Not to mention that the questions that this anthology tries to pose about our world are often undercut by the lack of consistency. Meaning that certain questions begin to present themselves and then an abrupt stop comes to the presentation.
As for the pin-up pieces of art they all show more confidence than what is in the narrative. Not to mention that they don’t have a debatably witless script to adhere too.
Grip Of The Kombinat (2022) is out now from Image Comics.
