Loading...
247th out of 280 books
—
55 voters
My rating:
add to my books
Concrete Volume 1: Depths
Part man, part...rock? Over seven feet tall and weighing over a thousand pounds, he is known as Concrete but is in reality the mind of one Ronald Lithgow, trapped inside a shell of stone, a body that allows him to walk unaided on the ocean's floor or survive the crush of a thousand tons of rubble in a collapsed mineshaft...but prevents him from feeling the touch of a human...more
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
August 24th 2005
by Dark Horse Comics
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
254)
This is the first collection of Concrete in the series and was really really good. What can I say, it is about a man turned into a concrete monster who decides to take up his childhood dreams of being an adventurer and writing books about it. It covers how concrete became concrete, concrete trying to swim the atlantic ocean, concrete saving miners, helping some oceanographers, losing a friend in a cave.... The writing is really top-notch. 20 years later, this still holds up well, and I got it gr...more
Wow. Oh man. This is an incredible find! I am already done now with the 2nd in the series (of 8?) and I am a superfan who is totally hooked on Concrete! I cannot get enough. We are already thinking of investing in the full-cover collection. Anyway, this is kind of an unlikely superhero story...A guy gets his brain transplanted into this big concrete body...There's a little gov't conspiracy stuff, w/o being unpatriotic...There's mystery and intrigue, but mostly a thoroughly human story about ...more
A comic series which follows an oddly unheroic superhero, who uses his powers to travel the world and do fun things he always wished he could before he gained his powers. Part of the reason I didn't really like this TPB was its overly-idiomatic use of thought bubbles to show every character's inner feelings. It took the subtlety right out of the scenes. But beyond this seemingly trivial issue, the stories feel uninspired, contrived situations, used to make a point about some aspect of humanity. ...more
I recently purchased this whole new and nicely packaged multi-volume TPB series for a song. In Vol 1 I was pleased and a little surprised to see how well these comics hold up almost 30 years later. Chadwick's a good (if sometimes overly deliberate) storyteller, and the '80's Indy "ligne clair" (with hints of Alphonse Mucha) works well here--Chadwick seems to me more of an illustrator than a cartoonist, but somehow the panels and pages flow nicely nonetheless. Concrete's "origin...more
view 1 comment
This B&W graphic novel collects the first several issues of the early 1980s comic book "Concrete", about a political speechwriter whose brain is transplanted into an impenetrable body by aliens. Freed from military directives, Concrete sets out to explore the world and do the things he was always afraid or unable to do before. It's a refreshing change from the typical superhero approach and one that feels like it was written as a reflection of, not contemporary to, the Eighties.
...more
...more
This book was a mixed bag--it had that old-school comic cheesy thing going on where the main character recapped experiences to people that he'd shared them with in order to move the plot along for the reader. I've always found that a particularly annoying shortcut for writers to take... But, while I found some things to complain about (why did the aliens make "concrete" bodies with two arms, two legs, and a head, for instance? why does he have a mouth and eyes?), it's clear that this b...more
I work in a library, but I'm not a librarian. When I've spoken to librarians about Goodreads and other internet-based book recommendation services, they tend to sniff at them. To a librarian, nothing beats a face-to-face customer relationship with recommendations. They enjoy the hunt for the one great book you've never read.
But I don't know that a librarian would've found and recommended the Concrete series to me. Discovering Concrete is a happy Goodreads accident. The story's a...more
But I don't know that a librarian would've found and recommended the Concrete series to me. Discovering Concrete is a happy Goodreads accident. The story's a...more
My first exposure to Concrete was an older collected edition of Fragile Creature, an excellent four-part story that Paul Chadwick wrote after taking a break from comics and Concrete for a while. With Depths, Chadwick proves that he is equally adept at the short story as he is the multi-parter. Theses stories (or, at least, most of them) predate Fragile Creature, but don't have the expected feel of a writer trying to find his footing. It's obvious from the beginning that Chadwick knew exactly ...more
I'm obsessed now. I have the next four volumes waiting for me on my shelf! I can't wait to let someone borrow this volume! What an absolute treat.
Sure, Watchmen changed the way we thought of superheroes, too. This is different. Ben Grimm is a guy made out of rock, too. This is different. Concrete is really just a smart guy, with the unusual body made of Concrete. He wasn't always this way, the first volume illuminates his origin story. Concrete is gentle and has feelings. He wants to b...more
Sure, Watchmen changed the way we thought of superheroes, too. This is different. Ben Grimm is a guy made out of rock, too. This is different. Concrete is really just a smart guy, with the unusual body made of Concrete. He wasn't always this way, the first volume illuminates his origin story. Concrete is gentle and has feelings. He wants to b...more
I really like the unique approach Chadwick takes on the hero myth with Concrete especially when contrasting it with other comics. This first volume certainly has plenty of lame moments and at the same time I feel very interested in seeing how these characters develop. When the great moments emerge they brought me enjoyable moments of connecting to the characters and the story.
Concrete is a fantastic work that's definitely one of the shining stars of indie comics. Paul Chadwick's illustrations are fantastic and his inking is gorgeous and almost enragingly enviable. The writing is unfortunately slightly off in this first volume - it suffers from the same sort of demonstrativeness as a lot of early comics (One great example of this is in the collected Batman stories - the introduction to the first volume talks about how great an artist Bob Kane was, and how he didn't ne...more
I love the intro, where Chadwick mentions his difficulty in pitching a story about a 1200 pound rock man who doesn't fight supervillians. This is one of the few series I've read first, then later (i.e. this past weekend) decided I really should own.
I found this book riveting and easy to read (my eyes often get confused reading graphic novels but didn't here). The stories were great, well told. I was very impressed. Maybe it'll be a good prep for the third Buffy novel
Sandi Wieleba
added it
A good read. Interesting characters in interesting situations. Not your average graphic novel. There's a lot more reading than there is looking at images (and that's the way I like it!).
I wasn't sure about Concrete, at first. I thought it would end up being boring, but I'm glad I was wrong. Concrete is very compelling, and very human.
Deeper than most comics...
Am in the middle of this wonderful series (there are about 7 volumes; this is the first; I'm on the 4th as of this writing). Like George once said, it's "beautifully and imaginatively drawn, with deep, moving stories that contain most every characteristic people look for in storytelling (intellect, humor, pathos, adventure, sorrow, joy, awe, sex [sexual frustration, actually--Ed.], movie parodies, and a three-legged dog)."
Who knew a chunk of concrete could be so kind!
This story is about a political ghost writer who's brain is placed in a super-strong concrete body. This is another graphic novel must for environmentalists and comic lovers alike.
This story is about a political ghost writer who's brain is placed in a super-strong concrete body. This is another graphic novel must for environmentalists and comic lovers alike.
Tim
rated it
This is another book, like Love & Rockets, that I should have been reading when it came out. I'm really looking forward to picking up the rest of the series.
A beautiful introduction to Concrete. Some of my favorite stories and artwork are in this collection -- I loved his early black and white drawing.
I can't say that it was poorly written or that the art was bad. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
Good stuff -- heroes in graphic novels don't have to be superheroes.
Jmq
marked it as to-read
Magnus Burgerhjerne
marked it as to-read
Terry Maltos
added it
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Paul Chadwick (b.1957) has worked widely as an artist and writer for comic books, with collaborators like Ron Randall, Doug Wheatley, Alan Moore, John Bolton, Harlan Ellison, Jan Strnad, Randy Stradley, Archie Goodwin, Brian K. Vaughan, and others.
He's most noted for his award-winning series Concrete, about a thoughtful man stuck in a brutish, rock-coated body. Born in Se...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
