Created by Michael Netzer

the three cents.

Rebelution is a new irregularly-produced webcomic written and illustrated by comic book veteran and living legend Michael Netzer. Skirting the breadth between autobiography, metafiction, and high art, Rebelution is a vividly stunning statement on creativity…and existence.

The story unfolds like a literal dream, as the storyteller wrestles with the creative urge and memory (of the future?) from the secluded confusion of the womb itself. Like an angel-wrestling Job, the storyteller finds solace in the great feminine enough to be born anew into the world of frustratingly vapid, organic monstrosities: our reality. Or a memory of a dream of our reality (wrapped in an enigma…). Rendered in something more remarkable than mere four color glory.

And the art is astounding, to say the utmost least, with each page a portrait culminating from many long decades hard fought in the graphite wars of sequential artisan imaginings. Netzer has long played the rabble-rouser, and here is calmly giving visual flair to illustrate the many devout passions that have fueled his career and his life. I understand that for his generation, he is a tech wunderkind but still traditionalist enough to cut his own artboards and the like, so I’ve no earthly idea what tools or techniques he’s using here. But it is quite pretty, and ingeniously designed.

There have been more than a couple of comic book artists who felt the need to give their lives over to intense spiritual exploration over the years, from Jack Cole to Steve Ditko to Neal Adams to Jeffrey Catherine Jones to Sandy Plunkett to Alan Moore to Norm Breyfogle. Netzer himself has said there is something about the specific creative talents drawn to the comic book medium that might make them more likely to play legitimate heroes to the physical world. Lord knows I’m not the only one who first was directed towards reading philosophy by the monthly scripts of comic book writers who may well have been just bullshitting for rent money. But with Rebelution, we see something of the raw emotion behind such needs to bend the creative whim towards goals higher than merely garnering money either for sustenance or vice. And ideally, it’s something any reader can also identify with. For those who appreciate depth, anyhow.

Currently on a hiatus of sorts, now is the perfect time to bookmark the website and catch yourself up to date. Right here.

Tags: exegesis, Michael Netzer