Comicsphere: The Exterminators by Simon Oliver & Tony Moore

I came to this really late and I hear that it has been cancelled, which is a real shame. It was a really fun book and the art and the storytelling meshed really well. Like most of the best stories this was a really character driven piece and reminded me of some of the best television shows that are being produced at the moment — I know that\’s a really lazy comparison; but sometimes you just have to reach for the shorthand. At least saying it is like CSI maybe or even Sopranos is not as tiresome as saying filmic (which I have prbably used way too much in my lifetime).

When I say it is like those shows I am thinking of it in the sense that the characters are allowed to breathe and grow within the framework of the story. I suppose you could say it\’s high concept in that it has an arc that it follows through all of the issues but I don\’t think that gets in the way of the storytelling and there are plenty of ideas to keep you interested along the way.

There\’s drama, comedy, intrigue and real development for all of the characters. I like it when the writers of a series feel free to just throw you a curveball once in a while. If someone can\’t take a risk with their characters then something about a story is never going to quite fly right. It was always my problem with Star Trek — that damned re-set button that kept the characters in a state of suspended animation. This is an interesting story and well told — it definitely deserves to be read by more people than there are apparently reading it. Sometimes people don\’t appreciate something until it\’s gone.