Coldheat1.1
The first four issues of COLD HEAT, the collaboration between Ben Jones (Paper Rad) and Frank Santoro, are now available online. FREE. Future print issues will be available for print on demand. In case you are unfamiliar with the title, the authors describe it as “the story of Castle, an 18 year old girl who embarks on a life altering adventure through anti-depressants, corporate rock ‘n’ roll, globalization and sex.

“Cold Heat is a hypnotically tranced out, maximum volume take on the action/adventure genre that stays out all night and doesn’t come home until the party’s over and it’s time to crash.”

1 COMMENT

  1. Sorry if I missed this somewhere else, but has the collected edition (of all 12 projected issues, I think) been cancelled? I know it had been delayed a few times, but I hadn’t heard anything in a while.

  2. I’m always disappointed when I don’t understand things. I wish I could rave about this comic, and how wonderful and thought provoking and innovative it is. I honestly, just don’t get it. How can someone tell the difference between, highly stylized imaginative art, and just plain poor, amatuerly rendered drawings? I think the ideas are solid, but the execution certainly leaves a lot to be desired. I love experimentation in illustration, but is there a point, when you just have to say, this artist just doesn’t have the chops? Can you honestly say, this is well designed? Or that this looks like the work of a professional? I don’t consider “scribbling” to be a great or effective drawing technique. I will say, if the desired effect is to irritate, than job well done!

  3. All art is subjective.
    In defense of Cold Heat it is consistent. The subscribed color theory works, the story works over the long run, but it may not grab people right away in the first few pages. Clearly it isn’t for everyone, but it is for someone.

    This would clearly be in the Lit – ALt – Comix realm. I, for one, like it that way.
    But I can understand where it doesn’t ring the bell of others.

  4. I think the art in this comic can be quite beautiful. It’s not the type of art that we normally associate with action comics, but I think that it’s wonderful for what those guys are doing. The figures are simpler than other genre comics, but there’s a swooshing lyricism to the figurework.

    I have yet to read my issues, but they sure are pretty to me.

    Indie cartoonists doing genre comics: can’t be mad at that!

  5. I got as far as the second issue – it didn’t do much for me, I guess as a 30 something male, it’s not for my demographic.

  6. “I got as far as the second issue – it didn’t do much for me, I guess as a 30 something male, it’s not for my demographic.”

    Can’t ride with you on that broheim. I’m 30 & man-like and this is so far up my alley that my ass hurts.

  7. It’s a very interesting series for sure but I think the tagline ‘hypnotically tranced out, maximum volume take on the action/adventure genre that stays out all night and doesn’t come home until the party’s over and it’s time to crash’ just doesn’t fit. I was expecting something completely different after reading that tagline (more something like the Invisibles, drawn by Paul Pope with acid green and pink dayglow coloring). The story is more of a slow paced dreamy piece with the volume set very low about the daily life of a teenage girl. I felt cheated somehow.
    But, good effort.

  8. Honestly, once I saw the name “Paper Rad”–the bane of every comics anthology I’ve read and whose work makes me go “What the hell?” most consistently–I knew this wasn’t going to be for me.