Recently Read: Apama the Undiscovered Animal

Apama the Undiscovered Animal, created by Ted Sikora and Milo Miller, and illustrated by Spanish cartoonist Benito Gallego, is the superhero equivalent of a sugar rush. Reading the Volume 1 trade paperback, collecting the first five chapters, is like reading a more-adult, previously undiscovered, mid-to-late-'70s Marvel series, in the vein of Steve Gerber. Using a style uncannily like John Buscema when he inked his own pencils, Gallego captures and employs the kind of easy-going, flowing comic book storytelling that was once common practice. Ted Sikora's colors are also very fine.

The character of Apama has a long history I won't go into here (Google it). What's important is that the protagonists and villains are interesting, the origin provocative, the writing suspenseful. The book collection includes a look at Gallego's working process, essays and pin-ups (by the likes of Bob Burden and Sal Buscema). Looking at the website (http://www.apamanation.com/), I'm not seeing any new work posted since the publication, last year, of this collection, but I'm very much hoping the series continues and, as we used to hope in the '70s, goes on for a hundred issues.