Deadhead Kicks Ass

Way back in the day, during the beta-stages of OL, I did a feature on a dude named Nadim. This guy had bought a t-shirt from an old website of mine and was so enamored that he offered to rock a banner on his own site. Curious, I made my way to his piece of Internet real estate and discovered that he was an underground comics creator.

The thing is, Nadim is still a comics creator. He illustrates and co-writes Deadhead, a fantastic satire of superhero books. There’s Stoner, a telepath/telekinetic whose powers only manifest when, well, when he’s stoned. Alongside him is Apeman, a giant ape who was a world-renowned hero in the 1980’s but is now little more than the town drunk. And then there’s the titular character, Deadhead — a guy with no discernable powers but a strong desire to beat supervillain ass.

Corresponding with Nadim recently, he expressed concern that with Kick-Ass hitting the theaters his book would be perceived as nothing but a mere knock-off. I can assure you, that is not the case at all. Even though both titles feature powerless protagonists, they are quite divergent in theme and internal logic. While Mark Millar’s newest comic-turned-movie ostensibly takes place in the real world, Deadhead is about a real dude in an unbelievable world. In Nadim’s work, there are superheroes, but the main character just isn’t fortunate enough to be one.

Another major distinction is the fact that Deadhead is completely free. Seriously. If you hit up the website, you can download every single issue and the first trade paperback without cost. It’d be nice if you tossed starving artists some sandwich money, but at the very least go generate some traffic.

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