I’ve been thinking about this series and more specifically issue #5, that comes out this week, for days. Let me fill you in a little before I talk about the newest issue coming out.
I hadn’t heard of Think Tank until I heard a buzz on Twitter. So many people that I was following were raving about this upcoming book. Many of these were people that I truly respect and this made me even more interested in what it was they were talking about. Curiosity got the best of me and on the date it came out I had my LCS [Superheroes in Training] pull a copy for me. And I was glad I did. This book is different, it is fun, it is well written and it is a book that has made me re-evaluate my opinion (ok ok prejudice) that had kept me from giving any book done in black and white a second of my time. Like, I suspect, many people I didn’t pay any attention to the solicitation in Previews most likely because it was listed as a black and white book. After all, how else can I explain not noticing a new book coming from one of my favorite comic book companies.
Now I must confess that I was a little surprised by the tag line on the cover of the book
“DANGER: Reading this book will make you smarter” I even thought it a bit presumptuous at first. But any book that can talk about science and actually get me to pay attention to science headlines and read some of the stories, must be doing something right as that was one of my weakest subjects. So I guess it has made me smarter, at least smart enough to open my eyes and pay more attention to some of what is occurring in the world of science.
Now onto the fun stuff; Think Tank. Issue five is the beginning of a new arc and a good jumping on point if you were not already reading this series. Now if you are one, who like me, prefers to start at the beginning it’s not to far into the series to make that prohibitive to do. The first arc has been collected into a trade paperback. Or you may even be able to pick up the individual issues. If you can I would also suggest picking up Think Tank:
Military Dossier which includes a story that falls between the two arcs, personnel files on the key characters and of course just like every issue a good science class at the end. Science class? No, it is not a lecture or anything of the kind! Instead it includes some explanations of the science or technology in the series and includes URLs for websites with more information.
What I truly enjoy about this series is that it isn’t simply science beating you over the head, or unrealistic or over the top. No it is simple down to earth (yes our earth, our time, our society) and is believable that this could or is occurring. The science and technology is not written about in a manner that disrupts the story, it is just part of the story without talking down to the reader or talking above the average read’s head. A lot of the story is the internal struggle of the main character, so again we are talking about down to earth, real life struggle.
Matt Hawkins has reminded me, with this book, why I love his writing, intelligent, well written and character driven. He knows not only how to get the reader to care about the character, but also how to do a well crafted cliffhanger that will have you dying to read the next issue. Rahsan Ekedal has taught me to not discount a comic book for being in black and white. His art is amazing and I find myself going back to do nothing more than look closely at all the art and find the easter eggs he often includes. There are pages that from talking with Matt I have learned he had originally planned for more dialogue, but when he received Rahsan’s art he found that the art carried the story so well the planned dialogue was unnecessary.
Speaking of cliffhangers, I have been waiting as patiently as possible for issue five after the cliffhanger at the end of issue four. Was the wait worth it? In a word, YES! Issue five shows us another side to some of the characters and definitely will have most readers jaws hit the proverbial floor when they read it. I know mine did. If it weren’t for the fact that I hate spoilers there is so much I would tell you about this issue but if I were to do that then you would have no reason to pick it up for yourself. I will tell you this, issue five is the beginning of something big that Dr. David Loren is planning (or is that plotting) we get to see a different side of the Colonel and Manish is most definitely very confused at the moment. Having recently had opportunities to meet with Matt and Rahsan I know this is the beginning of a very interesting arc that I am definitely looking forward to seeing how they bring the events to ‘life’ on the page for us.
Before I become tempted to spill what is happening in not only issue five but where they plan on going with this arc I am going to wrap this up with just this… if you aren’t reading Think Tank yet, now is the time to remedy that by picking it up. If you are unsure of picking up this series even after reading this you can dip your toes in the tank free of charge: issue one is free on http://www.topcow.com/moos/43-latest-moos/711-download-think-tank-1-free
You can read part one of the recent interview I did with Matt for MetalLife.com at http://www.metallife.com/interviews/others/matt_hawkins_201301.php In this part we talked about Think Tank as well as the submissions to the Talent Hunt and writing.
