Concrete Park: R-E-S-P-E-C-T #1 Review: Wasted Opportunity

Stories about gangs, rebels and general violence against “the man” are not something new. Some are even well known favorites like “Star Wars” and “The Warriors.” Tony Puryear and Erika and Robert Alexander threw their talents into the mix to create Concrete Park: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.” As far as these types of stories, the first issue makes this look like one of the worst.

Young LA gang member Isaac is taken to a desert planet where he’s supposed to be a slave. The prison ship crashes and a fellow prisoner named Boza shoots and kills Isaac’s sister. Now on this planet Isaac joins Luca’s gang to fight a war that’s going on in Luca’s city.

This comic is a classic example of a solid idea that quickly escalates into fan fiction territory. This is meant to be a serious story, but there are too many silly things that are taken to heart. These include gang names (“Yalla [Arabic for hurry] Gang) and one character that’s so fat he needs a forklift to move around and wheezes. These are things you see is comedies.

Not to mention the writing is about as amateurish as you can get. The characters are supposed to act like gang members from LA, but that doesn’t mean they have to say generic things. There’s also the fact that just because this is a rogue group fighting a war they all stick with the archetypes to the T. There’s the leader, the brains, the unsure main character member who does join because the plot says so and the cannon fodder. You’ll quickly forget all their names because none stick at all.

Puryear’s art is the only thing that stands out. These characters are by far the best drawn black and Latino characters in any comic. It is rare to find these types of characters not drawn in a stereotypical manner. Here they look like any real life person you’d see walking down the street. The backgrounds on the other hand look like background for background sake. Generic and lifeless.

“Concrete Park: R-E-S-P-E-C-T #1” had the potential to be something different and exciting, but ends up flat. With silliness that’s taken seriously, flat characters and generic writing this comic is best left to dry out in the sun.