Spring “Born Again” is probably one of the more interesting Double Take titles. I have a feeling that people are either going to love it or hate it. I’m the former of the two, but I can acknowledge its faults and still really enjoy it. Spring is a weird comic book. There’s no narrative per se, but rather two people telling a story while the radio plays. On the radio is a bit of news tying in the book to the rest of the line and of course some music. There’s not much going on in the comic itself, but it held my interest. Not because I wanted to see where these two stories being told to us ended, but because of what’s happening in the background… people are disappearing under the water.
The art is both great and average at times. There are more than a couple of panels that are much bigger than they need to be and sometimes the clothing and style seemed more modern than it did era appropriate. That and everyone in the comic is petit, skinny and good looking. The good far outweighs the bad. The entire opening is from the POV of a woman driving. She’s one of the people telling a story and when you just see her POV and hear her tale… you kind of wonder if she’s okay. She comes off creepy. It didn’t go in the direction I thought it would from there, but it was still a very different opening that caught my attention with the art and not the actual story.
The style of the art is good. In fact, it’s probably some of my favorite I’ve seen from the line’s launch. It’s clean and has a great look. The coloring helps with this a lot. The coloring is softer, but fits the pencils. With the title being Spring and the setting being a spring day at the beach, you’d expect the book to look like that. We all know what a beautiful spring day looks like and that is captured with the coloring perfectly. I would say that it feels summerier at times than spring, but either way it fits.
Here’s the thing about Spring. I like it. I liked that the narrative has basically nothing to do with the actual story going on, but I also like that it didn’t use narrative captions to tell the story. Actually, in thinking about it, none of the Double Take books rely on cheap narration. Does it always work? No, but at least the effort is there. The execution can always be worked on. I know this issue isn’t perfect, but I liked it. Maybe more than I should, but I did. I am very curious as to what the narrative will be for the next issue though, but hey… that’s why we keep reading comics.
I’ll spare you my long rant and just say that I love the print quality for Spring and the rest of the Double Take line up. I like when a publisher just offers a consistent product rather than some being given better paper quality and others not. It sucks when the book you like has low paper quality and the book you’re “meh” on has great stock. With Double Take, they all of the same feel. Lightweight, but durable.
Spring is probably not for everyone. Again, I can see a lot of people disliking it or not getting it, but I got it. I got that you just needed to hear a human element to relate to while we waited for the shit to hit the fan. I can’t wait to see what the mystery is for the next issue and while I’m scoring this one lower than my previous reviews for Double Take it’s because I understand the issues with it, but can also see it’s potential.
Score: 3/5
Spring #1 – “Born Again” Story: Bill Jemas Script: Jenn Sodini, John Flynn, Bill Jemas Layouts: Young Heller, Kurt Tiede PencilsDerlis Santacruz Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital