Sharknife

    (Oni, 2005, 2012)
™ and © 2005 Corey Lewis

Sharknife is all of the in-your-face attitude that the entertainment media spend millions each year desperately trying to fabricate. Corey Lewis shows you can’t fake the funk of the truly punk. His snappy patter (is there any other kind of patter?) and super-manga-fied art aren’t kinetic so much as hyper-dimensional. It’s probably brilliant, and definitely cool. Kids will understand it, adults won’t, which is as good an indicator of success as any. How do you not fall in love with a comic about a busboy at a five-story Chinese restaurant (whose walls are possessed by monsters) that becomes a super-warrior when the boss’ daughter feeds him fortune cookies?

Earth-shattering battles are part of the fare at the Guandong Factory when Ceasar Halleluja transforms into the awesome Sharknife. Special arcade moves, soundtrack CDs and characters who talk like flashier versions of the My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable crew are all part of the fun.

Corey, aka “Rey,” who draws as well as writes, is having fun creating comics, which is obvious even without his love letter to the form included at the beginning of this Oni collection. If there’s a fault, it’s that sometimes the pop in Rey’s layout makes the panel action a bit obscure, but it’s steadily obvious that within the comic as well as outside, Sharknife kicks butt.

— Brendan McGinley
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Free Comic Book Day #1

May, 2005
Cover Price: $0.00
1 copy available for $3.00 		Corey LewisCorey Lewis