Matt Hawkins
Co-Creator and Artist: Rashan Ekedal
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Editor: Bryan Rountree and Matt Hawkins
Publisher: Minotaur Press, a Top Cow Productions Company
Audience: T+/Teen Plus
Final Score: 10/10
On Sale: January 9, 2013
Price: $3.99
Format: BW
Pages: 32
Get an exclusive behind the scenes look into the process of the hottest new title form Minotaur Press! Hack into the classified personnel files of slacker genius Dr. David Loren and all the other characters you know and love from behind the concrete barricades of a DARPA contracted Think Tank! School yourself on the extended “Science Class” that further explores the real world science behind the Reaper drones, guided bullets, and much, much more never-before-seen tech! Cheaper than tuition to Cal Tech, it’s like breaking into a black box, but more fun.
I thought I could sum this issue up in a word but then realized I couldn’t pick just one.
Dr David Loren and Manish Pavi entertain us in a short story that had me laughing at the interplay between the two. Matt Hawkins does an amazing job of making the characters ‘real’ by having them do ‘normal’ things. This can be as simple as eating pizza, having a drink, watching a movie. Things you and I might do. This does not mean that if you look closely at the art in the panels you won’t notice the things that show that these aren’t average guys. I had to read the book twice before I noticed a few of the details that Rahsan Ekedal included in the art. There are plenty of panels where the humor in the art is not hidden in the small details but there are some that if you don’t take the time to look you might just miss. I love the fact that both the writing and the art makes me want to read the book more than once to be sure I have not missed anything.
The personnel files are something you want to read carefully. Having a few friends that are writers I have heard many times about how they write up details about the characters just so they have them fleshed out. I imagine the personnel files included in this issue are a lighter version of what my friends are talking about. Details that share more details about the leading characters making them more ‘real’, more fleshed out.
Hawkins pulled together a more detailed and longer Science Class for this issue, so yet again he has proven that reading this book can make me smarter. Won’t tell you what I learned by reading those pages, instead I will let you learn for yourself. It is very difficult to avoid spoilers here so that is all I will say.
The humor the duo of Hawkins and Ekedal injected into this issue was fantastic. Not saying there hasn’t been humor in the first four issues but this one raised the bar. Ekedal’s art continues to draw me in. I have learned to look closely, find the little details that he includes so perfectly that if you don’t look carefully you might just scan right past them.
Think Tank: Military Dossier #1 is a fun read that is the perfect book to follow the end of the first arc as the second arc is being prepared by this talented duo.
Any book that can not only entertain me on the first reading but make me want and need to read it multiple times within just days of having it in my hands is a book that deserves this score. Think Tank has again earned a 10/10 for art, story, concept and delivery. Though there are other books I have been impressed by, this is the first one that impresses me while also making me smarter.
