The Robot's Voice: The 15 Coolest Comic, TV and Video Game Things From New York Comic Con 2015
"Dean Haspiel, most recently of Dark Circle’s The Fox (which is a ton of fun) is bringing his latest project to LINE Webtoon. I talked to him for a few minutes about it, and I’m 100% on board: it’s building off of a story he and his former studiomate, Seth Kushner, who passed away in the spring following a fight with leukemia, had developed about a cosmically powered Brooklyn seceding from America in disgust and imbuing three individual Brooklynites with super powers: Haspiel’s The Red Hook, a gifted thief forced by the Omni-Fist of Altruism to become a hero (or the fist kills him); Kushner and Shamus Beyale’s The Brooklynite, a character who gains Superman-level powers but can’t quite manage the dual lifestyle of being a hero; and Vito Delsante and Ricardo Venâncio’s The Purple Heart, a disillusioned former soldier who just wants to be left alone, who is chosen to be the cosmic protector of Brooklyn. Haspiel described them basically as Batman, Spider-Man and the Silver Surfer.
The world sounds fascinating, and Haspiel, writing and drawing Red Hook and the architect of the New Brooklyn Universe, is one of the best in the business. Seriously, go check out The Fox. He’s also really excited for the project, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it translates from a normal comic pitch to LINE Webtoon. He said he has had to modify his work somewhat – when you read a comic on LINE, it drags down, which boxes a creator in a little bit. Haspiel mentioned he had to dial back his propensity for doing inset panels because of the change in the reading experience. I’m psyched to see not just what sounds and looks like good comics, but how he and the New Brooklyn Universe team adjust to the new format and make it work for them. I’m a little disappointed that the newly independent Brooklyn didn’t also take Staten Island with her, but I can move past that."
