The daunt of simple tasks, the depressed pain of moving your bones, and the very mundane repetitiveness of the every day and the soul eating melancholia that goes with it steal away what sanity you have in this world. There is no going back to being a child: all is lost.
Amidst this dark drab lies the soul of 44Flood. Kasra Ghanbari, Nicholas Idell, and artists Ben Templesmith and Menton3 share a fondness and a passion for art that cannot be touched by all the other cheery soulful inhabitants of Earth.
Tome, Lust, and The Squidder—all creations of the 44Flood team—seem to be shaded by monstrously depressing themes, which is fitting, considering the creative have a tendency to be clouded by an odd darkness or a morbid personality.
The 44Flood current projects define the importance of difference with work that stands out among the every day comics. The agonizing crush of lifeless taint depicted in the amazing art of these creators, in my opinion, tears superhero art apart.
This team is bringing something to the table that I can truly appreciate. They have mastered an emotion that develops at the core of the human soul and manifests only in the dank pit of abysmal depression. It's a feeling we all know at some point—a feeling experienced when all is lost.
Tome, the project that drew me in, is a prime example of dreadfully intense artistic compilations. It takes artists of diverse medium and styles and allows them to express their versions of a simple theme. The theme for the first book, vampirism, gave the artists a chance to tear an intimate, otherworldly fantasy from their minds and bring them to life. The question is, what does the word "vampirism" mean to the artist and how would they illustrate how that makes them feel? The product is a dark and historic ensemble of masterpieces sure to impress. What makes this a unique undertaking, in my mind, is the tone.
But beyond the amalgamation of beautiful underground dark artists in the Tome books lies the foundation on which it was built. 44Flood is the cornerstone of change, the will to express an innermost shadow on the soul of its artists. It's exactly why the comic book Lust exists in the form it does, centered around the true presentation piece for the books: the art.What makes Lust a masterpiece isn't only the artists (Ben Templesmith and Menton3) and writer (Steve Niles) bringing it to life; it's the unprecedented backward creation pattern from which it is breathed life.
The art is first created by the two artists who are starting on opposite sides of the book and slowly working their ways to a collision in the center. After it's all said and done, then the writer writes the story or poetry that brings it to life. I think you'll have a hard time finding another comic which centers it's story around the art, rather than using the art to define the story. If nothing else is true, one thing certainly is, 44Flood is clearly not holding itself to any specific methods of creation. It' a fact that I'm sure the artists are in love with.
Per the comic book campaign: "THE SQUIDDER is an original graphic novel about an old soldier from a forgotten war in a post-apocalyptic world that has left him behind. The book promises heavy horror, fantasy, and Lovecraftian elements, as well as black humor."
I can honestly say I like what 44Flood is about…whatever it is that they are about. I suspect it's the way most of us will feel sooner or later. Between the four campaigns currently on Kickstarter, the team asked for $69,600 total unevenly divided among the projects. What's amazing is that the art and comic/graphic books milked an overwhelming $423,474 of support from fans that were just as ecstatic as I was to see what was going to develop. To those of you that don't get it, 700% funding is a nuclear kick-start. With that kind of support, these projects are destined for greatness. Don't forget to tell me what you think downstairs.
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