By Gabe Gonzalez — When writer Matthew Erman first began talking about Terminal Punks #1, my excitement began to soar. Erman described a coming-of-age book smack-dab in the center of a crisis involving mutated animals wreaking havoc on an airplane terminal where the book’s cast is stuck. It’s a bonkers idea, one that made this one of my most-anticipated books of the year. Boy, was I right to be excited.

In the recent past, Erman’s work has involved established IP such as Care Bears or Power Rangers. With each of these, he was able to wring out the most important facets of the mythos, crafting something spectacular set within those worlds. But with Terminal Punks #1, Erman and artist Shelby Criswell focus on characters in a world that mirrors our own, but it is coursing with vibrant color, fierce imagery, and fictitious monsters that tear apart flight attendants and take down aircraft.

The story in this book begins with a capitalistic mogul, a man named Mr. Kelsey who’s built on the foundations of greed and exploitation. After this, we set up the story of mutated animal creatures, before introducing the main cast: Sway, Burton B. Burton, D’Arby Wilde, and Kee, all members of a punk rock band still figuring out its name. Soon they attempt to stay alive in a dark terminal filled with beasts named after vape flavors. What I find interesting in the execution of this is that the book focuses on Kee as an audience surrogate, a young person who suffers impostor syndrome and gut-wrenching anxiety about their place in the world. Kee wonders if they’re good enough to even be going to New York with their group of friends. They look in the bathroom mirror with an internal monologue that whittles away a seemingly-confident exterior and shows a world of uncertainty.

As someone who suffers from anxiety and impostor syndrome myself — and has literally had the same bathroom mirror moment — this was rather neat because even though the story showcases bodies being torn apart and monsters creating chaos on an airplane, we also get the small moments of character work. This is a choice that makes the characters feel like more than two-dimensional plot pieces.

The story is executed flawlessly from the team of Matthew Erman, Shelby Criswell, and Micah Myers. The writing allows the story to with a glaze of rebellion and teen attitude. And it’s all played out in a world of monsters both physical and metaphorical. The world is being taken down by the actions of a greedy man who thought putting animals and an experimental ventilation procedure in the cargo hold was a great idea.

Terminal Punks #1 focuses on greed from the top down, positioning it in direct opposition of the younger generation, a generation of punks who give the middle finger to the man, singing songs of the downfall of current society or making passengers on a plane disgusted by stringing the words “turgid baby” together. And none of this would be possible without Criswell’s art, which is, in simple terms, so much fun.

They manage to showcase a style that gives me Captain Underpants vibes, just with more viscera, all filtered through the art scene of the 70s plus characters designs for the modern era. Criswell manages to make every exposed organ look displeasing, every monster terrifying, and every emotion evident. Then, to combine it all into the creation of one fantastic comic, Micah Myers’s lettering is so vibrant, fitting the story like a mohawk on Travis Barker: it just works and gives the story its own voice with neat little design choices of the different character dialogue boxes or the onomatopoeic structure he took to the sounds within the story, it all meshes well into one punk-rock teen horror.

Overall: Terminal Punks #1 is a fantastic start, and it’ll be exciting to see where this punk rock-driven story goes with an amazing cast, both in terms of the characters on the pages and the creators working on the book. 9.0/10

REVIEW: Terminal Punks #1

Terminal Punks #1
Writer: Matthew Erman
Artist: Shelby Criswell
Letterer: Micah Myers
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Price: $3.99
Four greasy gutter punk teens are en route to their big show in the Big Apple, but when things go monstrously wrong and mutant animals are unleashed in the airport, our heroes must put on their combat boots, fly their Black Flag, and survive a viral genetic mutant nightmare. Terminal Punks is a blaring love letter to the music and attitude of rebellion!
Release Date: November 11, 2020
Buy It Digitally: Terminal Punks #1

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Gabe Gonzalez