Rock Bottom - Softcover

Casey, Joe

3.19

53 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1932051457 ISBN 13: 9781932051452

Publisher: AiT/PlanetLar, 2006

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What would you do if you discovered you were turning to stone? What would that extraordinary circumstance do to your life? Writer Joe Casey (Wildcats Version 3.0, X-Men, Superman) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Charlie Adlard (Walking Dead) answer these questions and more in this long-awaited, gut-wrenching original graphic novel drama. Thomas Dare was an ordinary man with ordinary problems, until fate steeped in to turn his life upside-down.

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From Publishers Weekly:

A graphic novel about a man who is turning into stone might sound like it will feature superhero adventures along the lines of the Fantastic Four's The Thing. Instead, Casey (Wildcats Version 3.0; G�dland) and Adlard (Walking Dead) are more interested in what would happen to that man psychologically and emotionally. Rock Bottom quickly reveals itself to be a disease drama, albeit one with a visual hook that's perfect for comics. Adlard's art employs thin but direct black lines with no color until Thomas Dare's skin transforms into gray pavement. It's an effective way of illustrating the frightening progress of Dare's disease. Casey's story is concerned with the man inside the stone and how this strange condition has him reflect upon his entire life. Covering much ground, the story moves along at a brisk pace, and rarely melodramatic. The third act adds in some light social satire as Dare becomes a media sensation due to his remarkable situation, but Casey keeps his script focused. There's just the right amount of pathos so when the image of Dare's completely petrified face appears, except for his anxious and sad eyes, it's haunting. (Sept.)
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From Booklist:

Casey and Adlard's second collaboration (after Codeflesh 2004) varies the theme of the movie The Incredible Shrinking Man. Pianist Tom Dare has just messily divorced, and now one of his fingers is hardening. He's getting much heavier, but it doesn't show. He sees his doctor, who's baffled but puts him through tests that ultimately confirm that he's turning to stone. Exiling fantasy to Tom's nightmares, Casey works out the story's developments--the doctor's incredulous, beleaguered research; Tom's lawyer-best friend Fred's anguished loyalty; Tom's reconciliation with the ex and with the woman he has recently impregnated; and even the most sensational turn, the heroic act that makes the sick man unwantedly famous--with kitchen-sink realism. Adlard gives the piece tremendous punch by stripping away all shading except a light gray indicating Tom's gradual hardening. He draws only sharp, spidery lines against the pages' stark white. Lacking the perspectival clues of color, this style demands viewer cooperation to be deciphered, thereby evoking a frustrated anxiety like, though much milder than, what the characters are feeling. Ray Olson
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved

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