I love the seriously underrated animated film Fire And Ice. Like it's in my top 10 films of all time, love. It is an epic Frank Frazetta painting come to life.

Which leads us to May 2023 when I learn of a brand new Fire And Ice Comic book.
From Dynamite Entertainment! A prequel series with artwork by Leonardo Manco and written by Bill Willingham.

Uuhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Oh boy. Really? Prequel? A prequel to that movie? I am not sure about a prequel. Uhm… prequels tend to lead to continuity errors and such.

I do love the mercurial Leonardo Manco artwork. To me, Manco is an underappreciated disciple of the John Buscema style with added chiaroscuro.

But I dislike 99% of Dynamite Entertainment's output. They put out 35 trading card covers, I read comics. I am not their target demographic and that is fine. We understand each other just fine.

BUT... I love Fire And Ice. “NEKRON!!!!!!!!!!!!”

To put it gently, I highly dislike Bill Willingham as a writer. To me, he is 90’s X-Men Chris Claremont to the Fabletastic extreme. So grossly verbose that I can’t a) enjoy the usually mega talented artists he works with and b) enjoy the story he is trying to tell. A deadly combination for a monthly comic book or series of trades everyone kept forcing down my throat.

BUT... I love Fire And Ice. So, I was willing to give it a chance.

And the fire burns! It burns us so good! But the ice can chill even the brightest fire.

I got exactly what the description told me. A beautifully illustrated, overly wordy, they can’t meet, they can’t die, they can’t do that… mess.

I will be back for issue number 2… sigh. That movie is amazing.