Review: 3 Story – The Secret History of The Giant Man
Dark Horse Comics has a history of publishing books featuring sympathetic characters or freaks; Paul Chadwick’s Concrete springs to mind. Now Matt Kindt steps up with his character in a lofty tale of a life lived as a three story man.
Craig Pressgang’s life is narrated through the three women in his life, each with their own perspectives towards Craig and their respective impacts , overlaying the love that they all felt for their own BFG. The book, through his mother, his wife and his daughter covers his life from birth to the inevitable end. Through it, there are logical impacts and worries and considerations, that moves the book out of the fairy-tale tone that you may well expect.
Matt Kindt provides the writing and the art for this book. Taking the writing first, Kindt’s story, set in the three distinct parts, charts a life of continual challenge, where for every barrier that is overcome, there lies in wait another batch. Regardless of the fantastical nature of Craig, real life problems come into play. Kindt uses these as a sort of get out clause, which makes a lot of sense. With an exit strategy in place, lesser writers would have have just seen out book. Kindt, however is no lesser writer. Instead of wallowing in the idea of death, he uses the ticking of father time to show how Cliff still wants to live, working for the CIA, caving out a life of celebrity, even as he grows further and further from those who love him and from the young boy, the young man that he once was.
The art could cause some consternation. From the get go, its not the type of art you may expect, nor is it the kind that may will grip you. Still, Kindt manages to produce a style, reminiscent of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman, that is evocative of the story itself. The art has a simple style, washed out crayon style colouring that speaks volumes of the emotions on show, from the early joy of childhood, to the darkness of the realisation of this is all that his life has to offer, a trend that is felt by other members of his family also. Visually, the perceptions are a little skewed, which to be honest, is to be expected. The art style works enough to convey the story, matching the beats of the words, working together to deliver a powerful piece of storytelling.
Books like this are rare at times, hidden by the multi event hype from the Big Two’s continual Back to Basics / Rebirth plans. Books like this transcend the medium, showing what the best creators can give the comic book world. Dark Horse is a company that is renowned putting out books of high qualities that are on show in this tome, which collects 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man, the 3 Story: Secret Files of the Giant Man one shot, concept art and a wealth of bonus material. If excellent, emotional storytelling is your thing, then check this book out immediately.
Writing & Art – 5 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; Matt Kindt
Art by; Matt Kindt
Published by; Dark Horse Comics
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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