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CREATOR COMIC SPOTLIGHT: FTN looks at Team Stryker by Andrew Grieve

February 20th, 2013 by Marc Comments

When a problem is too big for the other guys, the world calls upon Team Stryker to get the job done. Join Eagleheart, Deadeye, Casanova and V-Scope as they battle villains around the world and throughout time!

What do you get when you take poorly photoshopped pictures of you and your friends for a school art project and turn them into a team of hilarious and inept ass kicking soldiers? Team Stryker! First drawn in 2008 as a wedding gift for a friend, Team Stryker first saw life as a web comic in 2012. Team Stryker focuses on the exploits of four soldiers, the leader Eagleheart, born on Independence Day and raised by the Founding Fathers to be the most patriotic American ever, Eagleheart has survived the centuries thanks to his heart being replaced by a bald eagle’s heart which speeds his metabolism to the point of near immortality. Joining Eagleheart are Deadeye, a man raised on whiskey who can’t seem to let go of his time in Vietnam, Casanova, a playboy who’s thirst for women caused him to run afoul of his army training instructor, and as a result his deployment to Iraq was fast tracked without even possessing the basic knowledge of reloading a gun, and V-Scope, the wildcard of the group.

Every great book has to start with great characters, and Team Stryker has that in spades. The one thing that stood out to me about these characters is that there isn’t a “smart one” to act as a foil for the rest of the group, every one of them is as inept as the other which makes for some wonderful comedic moments, especially given the fact that they end up some serious situations. Casanova has become a favorite of mine as he is perhaps the silliest character on the team, but always manages to come out of scrapes unharmed even though he can’t even shoot a gun properly. In the second issue, while under an evil influence, Casanova starts a wild shoot out in a park playground against his own team in which he goes through about six guns and never manages to land a single shot, I couldn’t stop laughing.

I really enjoyed the tone of this book as it shifts from comedy to action quite nicely. There are plenty of moments that will make you laugh, but they come in between all the ass kicking fun that is Team Stryker. The way the action is cut with the slapstick and sometimes absurd comedy is done in a way that never detracts from the action, but instead props it up and gives us light hearted moments that play right along with the action. Team Stryker is just a fun book overall and you won’t be disappointed with the read. It captures that buddy flick feeling perfectly. I’m not the only one who enjoyed this book as; Team Stryker was the runner up for www.readcomicbooks.net’s web comic of the year.

The man behind the book is Andrew Grieve, who developed the characters with his friends, but handles the writing and art duties all by himself. You can contact him on Twitter @TSComic or through email at andrew@teamstrykercomic.com to get your hands on this book or you can check Team Stryker out online at www.teamstrykercomic.com where you can check out the first three issues, and to top it off the fourth issue will be available on March 11th. There is also a Facebook page as well, www.facebook.com/teamstryker. Do yourself a favor and support an up and coming comic book creator and his book.

If you are working on a comic and would like to see it featured on Following The Nerd contact Christopher via Twitter @AUDone44.

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….