The Helm #1

Hey look! There's a new Bart Sears comic out!
Helm #1 from Dark Horse comics came out on the 16th of July, and I'm actually surprised at how decent it is.
It's written by comics newbie, Jim Hardison, who does a pretty good job of it. The story is well paced, humorous, and perhaps most impressively, original.

I think it is fitting to compare this series to Bart's previous project, The Scream, which is after all in the same sort of vain, is finished by Randy Elliott in both instances, and of course, both are published by DH.
Whilst there are many similarities, the books are worlds apart. Firstly, Peter David, a comics veteran, wrote a pretty pathetic story for The Scream, Bart put in some fairly weak breakdowns and Randy's finishes were a real hit and miss.
Enter Jim Hardison, with his fresh story, Bart's more refined breakdowns and Randy's more detailed finishes and Helm blows Scream out of the water.
Sure, there's only been one issue of Helm, but even if the skill level dips in the remaining issues, it would still be miles ahead of Scream, which I consider to be Bart's second worst project in all of his career, only marginally ahead of the deplorably bad Spider-Woman.
Now, I'm certainly not saying that this is Bart's best work, nowhere near it, but the past few years have been lean times indeed for the average Bart Sears fan, so it's good to see Bart's work on a comic that is successfully executed, popular or not.
On a collecting point of view, this comic is awesome! The paper quality is sensational, a healthy stock. The advertisements are conveniently back-to-back, which means that when I go to laminate the pages, I can just pull out the advertisement sheets, leaving the 11 comic page sheets and cover. I love it when that happens, though it is very rare, as stated in another post.
So there you have it, why don't you go check out Helm #1 at your local comic shop, I give it 2 thumbs up, for what it's worth.