CMYK Reviews

Carter “Kite” Calhoun is the sheriff of Baraboo, Wisconsin. Very few people know that this is where Witness Security has been dumping everyone for years due to one particularly lazy agent, until someone claiming to be a Deputy US Marshal shows up looking for someone. And then that US Marshal has his head and hands cut off real bad, and also he’s not a US Marshal at all and no one knows who he is. Things snowball from here.

Nathan Fillion is rather obviously a name attached to this as contributing to the idea and then letting Corson do the heavy lifting of actually writing the thing. This isn’t the first time this has happened in the comics industry, and it won’t be the last. But this does reek of Nathan Fillion IS Castle IS Kite Calhoun.

WITNESS POINT is a fun book with fun ideas – the underlying concept is an attention grabber from the word go. The media that hounds Calhoun for answer is a group of three high school students, because traditional media is dead and all that’s left in this small town is the high school student organization.

It tries a little too hard to be fun. POINT’s setting of Baraboo is the real life home of the Circus World Museum and former headquarters of Ringling Brothers. Naturally, this means you get a clown on about every other page. This becomes a real hat on a hat situation when a clown is introduced who communicates with Calhoun via a horn that he honks. He is, of course, an employee of the mayor, a former clown. And of course, Calhoun understands the Harpo Marx communiqués.

There’s a similar bit in disaster movie HUDSON HAWK – it’s not a movie about disasters, but it’s a disaster of a movie – where David Caruso’s character Kit Kat communicates entirely through pre-printed business cards that become more and more specific. It’s a funny bit, funnier than the clown one from POINT. But both ideas undercut the tension of scenes they’re in and compare unfavorably to the absurdity of David Lapham’s HANK HOWARD, PIZZA DETECTIVE, which is played completely straight and works perfectly for this. POINT is clearly winking to the reader, and the joke and book is worse off for it.

A lot of this, truly, are problems for future issues in WITNESS POINT. I could see this title going off the rails before it’s over, but I actually rather liked the first issue. The art is strong from Soo Lee – I particularly like the color work – and carries the noir aspect of the work well, in addition to some snappy dialogue. The concept is good, and executed well through most of the book.

The weakest aspect is the couple of pages spent reintroducing the femme fatale. She first appeared as a bartender who tenderly iced a black eye for Calhoun. She comes back as an animal trainer who helps corral a tiger who has pounced on a youth football player, who is otherwise unhurt. Again, a hat on a hat. Sometimes, less is more.

In the end, WITNESS POINT #1 is mostly a success and is worth checking out, particularly if you’re partial to quirky titles. I’m glad it exists, even if I could see an alternate version that’s slightly superior with different decisions.

Writing: Heath Corson, Nathan Fillion
Art & Colors: Soo Lee
Dark Horse Comics