Of the two comics I picked up from Ceri Stromberg at New York Comic Con, Corrsolla Robot was definitely my favorite (you can read my review for Bobwars here). You can tell that the story is personal to Stromberg and maybe even one that she’s been working on for a while, after all her website is the name of the comic and the main character shares her name. Now I’m willing to admit that it’s very sophomoric to have a character named after you, but if we’re really honest… we’ve all done it. Stromberg just has the ability to execute her story and while reading it never bothered me once that they shared a name and it definitely didn’t hinder the story.
Ceri is a delivery person, but in the near future deliveries are done with jetpacks. That’s right people we’ve got jetpacks, but damn they’re expensive. Needless to say everyone does not fly around with them because of that. Ceri makes a pizza delivery to her boyfriend and asks if he read her comic which shares the title of this comic, but he says he hasn’t and basically just swaps her the comic for the pizza. Bummed, Ceri heads back to work. Suddenly though she’s bumped into mid-air by a woman with wings.
The woman begins calling Ceri Hermes, which earlier in the story she even refers to herself as, so she goes along with it. The woman takes her comic and gives her a rather large scroll of ancient looking stuff. She then flies off leaving Ceri very confused and without her comic.
The next day Ceri heads to work and gets in trouble for a missed call that she phoned into the new guy. She talks to the new guy who says he didn’t get the call and he tells her he got lost. For some reason, probably just her overwhelming kindness, Ceri takes the fall for him. They’re paired together for the rest of the day. While flying Ceri runs into Corrsolla her creation from her comic book. She’s instantly confused, but it’s even more confusing when the same winged lady comes back and attacks her calling her a traitor and a liar.
I’ll admit that the ending had me a bit confused, but with the intensity of the battle at the end I definitely wanted to read more. Ceri is a fleshed out character for sure, but the supporting cast is weak. That and the latter half of the story might have been better spent explaining Corrsolla, but instead we’re given two big mysteries to solve.
There’s a really cool vibe to the story. It feels futuristic, but then it’s grounded in reality. It almost takes place in that cusp between tech jumps, like when the internet first started to hit homes. Sure now it’s in every home, but there were those years in which it was something special to have rather than a required part of living. And that’s how this world is, there’s jetpacks and futuristic buildings, but then there’s still pizza delivery and public buses.
The art is definitely where the issue shines. It has a manga influence to it, but Stromberg really has her own unique style. After seeing Bobswar I’m really able to appreciate her diversity as an artist. She illustrates action sequences wonderfully. The scene at the end is intense and it’s very easy to follow. What’s particular strong about Stromberg’s artwork and what sets her apart from a lot of other artists that are both professionally paid and indie, is that she illustrates full panels. There’s a foreground and background to every panel and that is something that honestly stands out when you look at as many titles as I do. In fact read Allen’s review for The Chosen if you don’t believe me. At any rate I was impressed by the art.
The issue isn’t perfect and I’m sure that it’s not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. It was a solid introduction and while I could see things being done differently I can’t say that they should be because I don’t know where the story is going yet. I do know that I want to be there for the next issue and the one after.
Score: 4/5
Writer/Artist/Creator: Ceri Stromberg Price: $5.00 – Print, $2.99 Digital Website