Comics with Dan Daily | Concrete Vol. 1: Depths - 02/07/2026

This started as a book club pick by @NorseFury on League of Comic Geeks but I decided to read the entire volume as I enjoyed Issue #2 quite a bit. Overall, this was an enjoyable experience and I've grown to love the character.

The number one thing that stood out to me was far and above Paul Chadwick's character building with the titular character, Concrete. Some characters are good characters but a bit predictable and one dimensional, but Ron Lithgow is incredibly complex and we get taken through the roller coaster of his thoughts in some of these issues. The occasional instrusive thoughts that Ron has ("what if I just let go of this ledge?" Or "wouldn't it be a cruel joke if they left me down here") came at times that surprised me a little - prior to his brain transplant. You would think that there would be a good bit of moping and lamenting over his being made into Concrete, but those thoughts are surprisingly brief and not very impactful. However, Chadwick starts to build a character that may not have been very happy to begin with and looks at this transformation as a new lease on life.I love that the origin was saved for issue #3 as I judged Ron quite a bit for being a sellout and sort of corny, but thats all answered when its revealed that he needs to do this as part of his bargain for freedom.

Minor complaints are a few forgettable stories in this volume - ones that did have some good humor but didn't character build quite the way I enjoyed in some of the other stories. Second is that Chadwick's art has some really fantastic pencilling but it took him a while to get going with utilizing the black and white style. I like books in black and white but sometimes when art is in b&w, it looks unfinished and others, the lack of color is used to the advantage of the artist.

Some excellent use of shadows and black space.

Overall I feel like this is stepping stone to some great stories and certainly establishes an awesome character!

Age rating: 17. May be a little high (but I tend to err on the side of higher age ratings) but some sexual content, nothing terribly explicit and all well within sensible limits for the story being told. Some language, some themes that may be hard for younger readers to understand.