The Bulletproof Coffin

We here at Cape Town Community welcome reviews from fans...not fans of ours (though we would love that too) but fans of comics. Below is a review of Bulletproof Coffin from Sean Kasper.  You can follow him at his blog.

Bulletproof Coffin

A review by Sean Kasper

When one thinks about it… there doesn't seem to be much out there for the comics fan who has become disenfranchised with current 'main stream'.  Those who are still in love with the Supermans and Spidermans have a plethora of entertainment both within the pages of comics as well as on the big (and small) screen.  

But what about those who want to see something else?  What of the fan who has already spent his money exploring those worlds and wishes to see something new, something different?  Something unrestrained by the boundaries of editors whose job, it seems, is to keep the status quo going as close to redundant as it can get?  I mean, they have a lot of action figures to sell and movie scripts to move right?

Well, along came writer David Hine and artist Shaky Kane, and with them, they brought 'The Bulletproof Coffin'!  Image Comics (a company founded by artists who wanted a place of creative and financial freedom) have really outdone themselves by printing this 'story within a story within a story'…

Bulletproof Coffin is about Steve Newman, a 'Voids Contractor', whose job it is to clean out houses of those who have died.  His story begins when he finds a collection of 'Golden Nugget' comics and a bizarre coin operated television set within the walls of an old house he is cleaning.  Steve is an every man, comic book and pop culture fan who collects any and all memorabilia he can find.  His 'sanctum sanctorum' is his attic where he flees from his overbearing wife and grotesque twin boys he can't believe are actually his children.

BPC delves into the idea that comic books and the superhero are an art form that effects its environment… It both praises the genre and criticizes it as well as possibly offering possible solutions to the growing sense that our 'heroes' have become nothing more than puppets of either greedy corporations or ideological political movements.

As the bizarre story unfolds Steve discovers that his world is actually the comic books he is reading… a plot device that has been used before but not to the effect that Hine and Kane do here.  

Amongst the weird heroes, the raging dinosaurs, zombie Vietnam Vets (yes you read that correctly), and scantily clad Cave Women, BPC is a statement on comics and superheroes as well as their creators and the companies that employ them and print the material… Considering that one of the villainous entities in the book is a comic company entitled 'Big Two' one can assume where Hine and Kane stand on the argument presented… but don't be too sure.

The Bulletproof Coffin is an excellent read for both 'main stream' and 'small press' fans.  One needs to check their proclivities at the door though, since this isn't an ordinary ride through the spandex-clad world of super heroics…

Do yourself a favor… get this book… you'll be glad you did!