And then I read the first issue and I became pissed off. The creator/writer Phil Hester says in a letter to the reader in the back that he is not out to offend atheists. Well, that's not my problem. My problem is that he squandered a perfectly good idea--the idea of a genius Black atheist who encounters cults and battles pseudoscience--and turns it into a dead-take-possession-of-the-living rehash of countless horror movies. Who the hell is the target audience here? If you're going to create a great atheist character and splash the title on the cover don't you think your goal would be to attract an atheist audience that would readily pay their hard earned cash for it, plus spread the word about the comic to other like-minded individuals? The atheist community talks to each other like you wouldn't believe. They are also widely known to be comicbook and science-fiction fans. You just alienated what I would consider to be your target audience.
And on the same note, knowing how much the term "atheist" offends, not just organized religion but superstitious individuals and supposedly the open-minded as well, wouldn't ya think that non-atheists would refuse to buy the comic due to the name or at least not bother to check it out because of the name? It seems like a marketing nightmare to me. I could be wrong but I doubt this comicbook will be a huge success. There just doesn't seem to be any thinking behind the concept from a business perspective. Even from an artistic perspective it's just a Hollywood mentality. The same reason why Scooby Doo cartoons started including real monsters and ghosts. Because a story about the supernatural being debunked couldn't possibly hold anyone's interest?

The idea is squandered even more when you realize that one of our more famous individuals within the online atheist community is Infidel Guy--a black atheist who uses his skepticism to his advantage on net radio. Did Phil Hester do his homework? Does he understand how rare atheism is in the black community? A black atheistic hero would have been an excellent choice for an atheist comicbook using Infidel Guy as inspiration.

So no, Phil, as an atheist I'm not offended by your characterization or your story. Fact is, the first part of the story where we meet this "hardcore skeptic" is quite enjoyable. It's when you take that character and then throw his or rather our worldview away that this story becomes a major disappointment. It's just another repetitive concept of the hardened skeptic coming to terms with the supernatural that he must believe in because the evidence has become overwhelming and empirical. I love B-movie horror but this was not the concept to use for that. Yes, this is a work of fiction and the character is entirely yours to do with as you please. I love fiction, but you wasted this character idea and you threw away the audience tht would have embraced this comicbook. You even say that this character is not an "Atheist Proper". And thus why did you name the character "The Atheist"? Here's what you say:

"I am not an atheist. I am the opposite. I believe in nearly everything, many of those things demonstrably false. I am happily bewildered. If you, dear reader, are an atheist and the title of this story offends you I can only ask your forgiveness. The Atheist simply sounds much cooler than The Skeptic or The Logician and I sure want my comic to be cool. Most of the atheists I know, just like most of the religious folks, are swell."

And that's what it comes down to. Phil Hester's comic book series was named "The Atheist" because it sounded "cool". A perfectly good character idea lost to coolness and one that now cannot be used by an actual atheist comicbook writer or artist because of possibly copyright issues. Like I said, what a huge disappointment and what a waste.

Admittedly this review is based on reading the first issue. I will read the second issue soon. If I decide I'm being too harsh here I'll come back and make some additional comments. But these are my feelings after reading Issue #1.

Reviewed by Jeff Swenson
Freethunk.net