Review: Threadcount

Threadcount is a comic I picked up from its creator at Motor City Con this year.  Jay A. De Foy was actually set up right next to my table, so it was an easy comic for me to get ahold of!  Threadcount: The Tale of Norman Crest is a very interesting comic about a guy with the super-power of thread!  Does that sound ridiculous? Silly? Well…it could be, but it is handled very serious and straight-forward by Jay in this comic.  Norman Crest is an adventurer and archeologist and lover of Greek Myth and culture.  On one quest he encountered the Fates and they turned him into a living skein of thread.  I am a great great big lover of Greek myth  and I love this origin.  It’s a new and clever way to use Greek gods and I always like the inclusion of Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, the three aspects of Fate that control the tapestry of life.  It’s the idea that these three know what is happening in the world and can use their powers to influence, sometimes subtly, the fates of mortals that makes them fascinating to me.

In Norman’s case, his powers as a living skein include thread travel, which is like teleporting from one fabric to another, increased elasticity, and the ability to project balls of yarn.  He can also control his clothing to make a disguise or a heroic costume.  Jay notes in the introduction that the idea of these powers was to create a hero with power unlike any other.  As I said earlier, this could have been done in a silly way, but instead it reads like someone who really does end up with such powers.  Plus the Greek hero connection makes Norman take it seriously.  Oh, and I don’t mean there’s no humor in the book, or related to his powers, I just mean that the powers aren’t there just to be made fun of.

The book also introduces Norman’s intern Charlie Wild.  She’s pretty much mad at Norman all the way through the book.  Which probably means she’s his future love interest.  That’s how it usually works, right?

You can see Threadcount’s origin on Jay’s deviant art page.  Jay has a lot of really good art posted on his pages.  I didn’t mention it above, but the guy can really draw!