I’ve always been a fan of Paul Chadwick‘s Concrete. It was one of the first American comics I picked up after I got tired of what I thought of as the grind of European bandes dessinées, but also was a bit weary of the tights-and-capes world of superheroes. Concrete showed me the potential of superheroes beyond capes and powers, and how poetry and empathy could find a place in a story of superpowers
In 2001 CGI animator Zeke Norton, then the CGI Animation Director for Mainframe Entertainment, created an animation test for a possible film based on the Concrete comics. Even though the footage is 20 years old, and the character design looks a little slick to me, it made me wonder what a Concrete film would look like. Or even a series — an off-beat hero with sensibilities would be perfect for this streaming world.
