Hector has a gun and he’s angry. Mikes’ in the back of the van. The can IS able to shoot off into the night as only one shot is fired, but Hector’s anger is still rolling straight through everyone in Grommets #6. The writing team of Rick Remender and Brian Posehn move to a dark and dramatic portion of their 1980s retro coming-of-age story under the power of artist Brett Parson and colorist Moreno Dinisio. The light slice-of-life retro comedy takes a turn that feels strikingly different from the five issues that have led-up to it.
Hector is literally kicking down the front door. No one inside knows what to do about it. The fact that he’s decided to pummel the hell out of one of the kids in the house. Thankfully someone has the presence of mind to call-in an emergency, but it’s going to be a while before anyone can arrive and there’s no telling what Hector is capable of. Brian is going to have to think fast if he’s going to be able to do anything about defending himself. Things could get ugly. More than one trigger might get pulled on the mother of all crazy nights.
Remender and Posehn ride a very careful line between over-the-top drama and earthbound family stuff. It's not easy to find the right space between the two. Lean too far into action drama, and it’s going to compromise emotional realism of the story. lean too far in a direction of simple coming of each drama and it starts to look a little bit too familiar. It looks too simple. The script is to ride the line between the two quite well. Things feel over-the-top without going so far that they feel comic in spite of themselves. It’s a sharp sense of execution.
Parson and DInisio have their own challenge with respect to the story. The framing, pacing and embellishment of the art style feels very much like something that might have appeared in a 1980s issue of Mad Magazine. The craziness of the night could have flung the realism in the direction of something that would have been way too casually surreal to capture the intensity of the drama. Parson and Dinisio maintain the tension straight through a very tight climax that gives a very powerful punctuation on a story that’s been running for a few issues now.
Remender, Posehn and company once again move for something that feels like it couldn't quite take up space anywhere else. The rapid swing from lighter. Comedy to something much more sinister and a threatening is not something that would necessarily be attempted in movies on television. This is very refreshing as so much of what has come before this moment in this series really feels like theoretically it could be sanitized and brought to a more popular format. Grommets asserts its distinctive approach to the indie comics page with style and poise in another satisfying issue.
