Fatherhood will resonate with parents, especially dads, but that’s it

If Jingle All the Way took out the seasonal aspect, upped the drama and had only one character it would look like Fatherhood.  Fatherhood is a one issue comic by Ryan K. Lindsay that follows a loving dad as he looks for his daughter’s favorite new toy to criminal as he does anything to get one.

The comic starts out in all color as dad goes to the toy store and stands in line, only to ultimately lose the toy to a mom with sharp elbows.  Here Fatherhood turns into a parenting noir comic book, with the dad and everything around him in black, green or grey.  Everything that is, except the doll that he’s in search of and the blood that he had to spill in order to get it.

Once he locates the doll everything comes back to full color and he sees the happy look on his daughter’s face.

It’s done very tongue in cheek, the changing of the colors to suggest the increased danger and aggression that he’s going through in searching for the doll.  From that perspective readers can get a nice visual of the two worlds that our dad is going through.  On one had he just wants to get this stupid doll, but on the other he must do many things that put him in real peril to do so.

Fatherhood is not a comic book that everyone will like.  I’m a dad and I get the psychology behind why he’s doing it and how important that look is on your child’s face.  I looked over the comic a couple of times and it got better with each reading, but didn’t really grow on me until I read his liner notes.

Granted, the casual reader won’t re-read a comic, as well as, the liner notes, but casual readers will notice that Fatherhood is a labor of love.  That is what led me to read the liner notes that explained more about what the author is thinking.  Lindsay loves being a dad, would do anything for his child and Fatherhood is one way for him to show it.

 Every Wednesday new comic books come to your local dealer.  We’ll review some of the ones that are making an impression on Wednesday (and sometimes Thursday).  Reading is cool, teach your kids the love of words on paper by whatever medium they are interested in.