THE WRITER #1 / Script by BEN BERKOWITZ, MAX BERKOWITZ & JOSH GAD / Art by ARIEL OLVETTI / Letters by FRANK CVETKOVIC / Cover by JEREMY HAUN / Published by DARK HORSE COMICS

Comic book writer and college professor Stan Siegel has been having a rough week. Beyond his writer’s block, he’s having to deal with callous colleagues at work and strife with his ex-wife regarding his daughter fighting her bullies. Then Stan discovers that he’s the scion to amazing magical powers, demons are real, and Nazis want to kill him for reasons beyond the obvious.

The Writer #1 has an interesting base concept. Granting that the “writer discovers he can rewrite reality” trope is an old one, Josh Gad and the Berkowitz Brothers put a new spin on it by employing Jewish spirituality. Unfortunately, they explain very little after the opening sequence, in which it is implied that Stan has acquired King Solomon’s ring. There is little sense of coherence to the action, which leaves little time to ponder such mysteries like the revelation that Stan is “an extraordinary type of golem.” He is quick to accept this and almost immediately starts spell-slinging.

The artwork is similarly mixed. Ariel Olivetti crafts some fantastic images, but many of the panels look posed and forced, particularly during the action sequences. There are also some oddities here and there, such as Stan’s daughter’s school being labeled as a high school when she’s written and drawn as being elementary age.

The Writer #1 is not a bad first chapter, but it does little to distinguish itself from other urban fantasy series apart from its use of Jewish cosmology. I think it may read better in a single volume rather than as a monthly periodical. As it stands, this book is a somewhat muddled but intriguing mess.

The Writer #1 releases on June 19, 2024.