15 March 2011 - Super Powered Fiction

I became a fan of Brian Churilla thanks to his work illustrating Boom Studios’ The Anchor, written by Phil Hester. The Anchor remains one of the great disappointments to me as a comic fan. A series that good deserved more than its eight issue life span and I still miss having it in my pull file every month.

I’ve followed Hester’s career for quite some time, but Churilla’s work I knew less about. So it was with a bit of surprise that I discovered a bargain priced hardcover of some of his first work: The Engineer by Archaia Entertainment.

The Engineer is in a similar vein to The Anchor: supernatural horror mixed with a heavy dose of pulpy action adventure. The Engineer is most definitely an action hero, as he throws himself in to battle with ease. Shades of Hellboy and The Goon loom as he strikes out against massive monsters of all sorts and sizes, none clearly a match for him.

This is all despite being a nerdy looking bald man in glasses.

Our lead was once a cosmonaut, until the day he watched his space station and all of Earth destroyed by a being of pure cosmic entropy: The Lahar. He was rescued from space to become the newest Engineer and work to rebuild a device known as the Konstrukt, the only object that can destroy the Lahar.

The four adventures in this book don’t bring the conflict between the Lahar and Engineer to an end, but it does serve as a healthy introduction to the character. His quest almost seems designed to allow him to go on a great deal of adventures, which works perfectly with Churilla’s high energy art style.

The first run of this book was hampered by Archaia’s sudden restructuring, hence the release of the low cost collected hardcover in recent months. At less than ten bucks, the book really is a steal and well worth every penny.

The only thing I have left to say is “I want more.” Highly Recommended.