Review: Jimmy Broxton’s ‘Fully Loaded’ #1 Offers Up Widescreen Aesthetics And Blockbuster Action

There is no denying that this new futuristic neo-noir crime comic, Fully Loaded #1, by Jimmy Broxton, is influenced by several iconic post-apocalyptic sci-fi films of the eighties, particularly Blade Runner and Mad Max. But then, Blade Runner was itself influenced by the hard-boiled gumshoes of James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart et al. Just as this promising new series has. Fully Loaded #1 has a familiarity to it that Broxton is more than aware the reader will pick up on. Indeed, he’s not trying to hide these influences but rather utilise them to tell his own story. Just as he looks to the pulp detectives of yesteryear in his portrayal of central character, Carson Blake. In Blake we get the archetypal mean-ass rough and tough central character that’s been scarred by the past, and now being pulled back into that past. A past that moulded him out of raw metal to be the gruff-faced and even gruffer-voiced pessimist we meet on the very first page. Each wrinkle in his weather-worn face telling its own story. Think Rick Deckard but with a foul mouth.

But the script wouldn’t be anything without the artwork. And this is where Broxton excels. His approach to the page layouts not only evokes these classic movies I mention, but is also evocative of a cinematic experience, with Broxton’s masterful use of bold, big splash pages really helping capture the blockbuster-sized action and kinetic energies. Add in his carefully considered use of photographic references and overall realism and you get a reading experiences that’s terse, tense and highly polished and deeply filmatic. The use of black and white art was an ingenious move further heightening the action in bold juxtaposing black and whites with effective use of grey tones to help sustain the various changes in tone throughout the issue. So, when Blake is standing looking down of a highly industrialised city, in the rain, of course, you feel the cold and the grime coming down miserably, while the clear white skies of the Western Plains – where our anti-hero gets attacked any a semi-feral biker gang, show in the first double page spread as silhouetted figures – contrast sharply with the melancholy Needle City of the opening. The negative space almost burning with heat.

In Carson Blake we get the kind of unrefined, rough-around-the-edges characters that are often missing from contemporary comics. A throwback, yes, but not a dinosaur. He may be mean looking, but something tells me, much like the pull characters he is drawn from, his tough facade will be hiding a caring heart underneath. A great first issue that quickly establishes the reasons behind this future Earth’s demise, and also hints at enough of Blake’s backstory to engage the reader and leave them wanting more. 

Fully Loaded #1 is out now from Scratch Comics/Verity.

And you can catch my interview with Jimmy here. in which he talks at great lengtha bout the series and his art process.