Red Knight #1 - Manos Publishing

RED KNIGHT No. 1, September 2019

Having experienced “a few years off” before seeing this title re-launched “in full colour under the Manos Publishing banner”, fans of the knight without a sword probably rather enjoyed Justin Cristelli’s narrative for Issue One of “Red Knight”. In fact, as first forays into the dangerous world of costumed crime-fighting go, Todd McClain’s inaugural mission as a vigilante determined to bust Brick’s drug dealing racket arguably has it all, whether it be super-powered villains demonstrating a multitude of surprising special abilities, undercover narcotics agents watching their clandestine mission come to naught or pure chaos occurring on the streets as public lives are jeopardised by well-meaning, masked vigilantes.

In addition, the Virginia-born writer also manages to imbue this twenty-five page periodical’s plot with a genuinely palpable sense of tension too, as the titular character, Fireball and Nonstop nervously contemplate interfering with the illegal sale of “two vials of something that’s supposed to grant people super powers”, and then react in horror as their plan of attack almost instantly falls apart upon their arrival. Interestingly however, this edginess is not just confined to the three lead protagonists either, with the American author enthrallingly bestowing an equal amount of apprehension upon both Brick’s party and their well-dressed customers; “Be cool. Be cool. If we come off nervous, then they’re gonna think we’re amateurs.”

Such high levels of anxiety amongst the comic’s cast makes it seem that something unexpectedly calamitous could happen at any given moment, and provides the book’s proceedings with an enjoyable air of excitement, especially when Red Knight realises his rookie roster are facing three formidably potent criminals, a bucketful of angry law enforcement operatives, and a ton of heavily-armed henchmen. “Oh. Double poopie” indeed…

Providing all this pulse-pounding action with some extra pizazz is JC Grande, whose layouts add a further layer of animated anarchy to an undercover police sting which goes about as wrong as it can. The El Salvadoran artist is particularly good at panelling fast-paced sequences, such as Popgirl blasting Tyrone/Michael mid-way through his denial at being a "cop", or Brick’s stunning transformation into a literal walking wall of bullet-proof ferocity, and it soon becomes abundantly clear just why Cristelli is happy to leave portions of this book’s storytelling to the illustrator's textless panels populated with fast-moving eye candy.

Writer: Justin Cristelli, Artist: JC Grande, and Colorist: Forrester Randlet