Something Big: A review

Last week, I attended the Garden City Comic Fest in New Jersey. I bought a few comics, met a few creators I hadn’t met before, and ran into artist Frank Fosco, who recently collaborated with the Legend Chuck Dixon to make the comic “Something Big” published by Arkhaven press. I bought all four issues of the magazine-sized graphic novel, with a promise to review them later.

Thanks to my extended power outage over the last few days, I finally had my opportunity to focus on the comic. But first, a word about Arkhaven.

Arkhaven Press, the publisher behind Something Big, is an independent comics imprint known for championing creator-driven stories free from corporate censorship. The company welcomes creators with conservative perspectives, including industry veteran Chuck Dixon, and appears to prioritize narrative freedom over political messaging. Based on their visible catalog, you'll generally find more traditionally-minded content and significantly less DEI-influenced material compared to mainstream publishers. They also publish books, such as Jack Posobiec's "4D Warfare," which suggests their overall editorial direction.

Something Big does not have political content. It is a straightforward science fiction story that thankfully is totally free of DEI poison. Unlike almost all comics published by Marvel and DC, it is genuinely interesting. It concerns a retired mobster who decides to rob alien invaders who have taken over Earth. The audacity of this decision propels the story into a fascinating journey through life in the shadow of alien conquerors, who regard humans as little more than bugs.

The artist on the series, Frank Fosco, was quick to point out that the story originated as brief web toons, which were a challenge to draw quickly for release on a weekly basis. To meet the deadlines, he worked out an abbreviated style. My reaction to the actual art is, “Hooray for abbreviated styles.” It looks great.

Fosco's art is definitely rough, raw, and brutal. It is also loose, strong, and engaging. He excels as a visual storyteller, and the style serves the story well. The approach reminds me of how constraints can actually improve art. French artist Jean Giraud created two different series featuring the same character: the highly detailed Lieutenant Blueberry and the much simpler Young Blueberry. The simpler version was designed for small digest printing, which forced Giraud to use looser, more dynamic storytelling. The result was actually superior to his more polished work. Fosco's rushed web toon format seems to have produced a similar effect—the time constraints pushed him toward a more energetic, immediate style that perfectly matches the story's urgent tone.

The non-naturalistic coloring put me off at first because I hadn’t seen anything like it before. However, as I read, its graphic qualities grew on me, reminding me of the faint color found in some ancient Chinese paintings. This is because it looked like a transparent color wash over gray ink instead of straight color without the grey wash. DC used a technique like this for some of their covers in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, particularly on their horror titles and some of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World titles. It served to create a unique visual atmosphere that I enjoyed.

The rough, immediate art style perfectly matches the story's tone and pacing. Turning to the narrative itself, Dixon is always good, but I don't want to give anything away. What I can say is that he did his homework on this story. He provides enough realistic detail that you just know that somewhere in his past, Dixon knows how to siphon gasoline from a dead car, how plans can go wrong and other such mechanical necessities of survival among uncaring alien overlords.

I prefer non-fiction to fiction, but when I read fiction, stories like Something Big are the ones I enjoy the most. An interesting concept with good characters and an audacious twist.

Something Big started as what they call a “web toon”, viewable with a paid subscription. However, you can buy it in the same format I did on Amazon by following this link. Remember, there are four volumes. If you want them all, you’ll have to hunt for the other volumes after following the link to #1.