…Hopkins, an English and creative writing teacher at Arlington Martin High School, and Rizy, an Arlington-based illustrator with an estimable portfolio, have been working on Emily Edison for about two years—which Hopkins knows off the top of his head only because he started working on it when his daughter was a newborn. In fact, he sort of wrote it for her: Emily Edison tells the story of a young girl whose old man’s an appliance repairman and whose mother is a superpowered being from another dimension. The couple met after Emily’s dad created a rift between earth and this other dimension using a, uh, vacuum cleaner…
(from dead Dallas Observer link)
Re-reading the above synopsis proves only one thing: There is no good way of recapping the plot of a comic book without sounding like a total dork. But trust me: The story’s first-rate, and the art’s equally impressive. (Some of Rizy’s work for Emily Edison hung for a while in the bar at the Magnolia Theater; on more than one occasion I overheard patrons inquire about purchasing the pieces, which is the nicest compliment anyone could ever offer.) Fact is, despite the copious action sequences at which Rizy excels—his work is reminiscent of that of Jack Kirby, Mike Mignola and, especially, Kyle Baker, with some anime and Kim Possible thrown in–the story holds its own, refusing to obscure its broken-family subtext behind standard superhero derring-do.