Ibrahim Coyle is the series that defines itself as it goes through shorthand and prose. Created by award winning animators Filip Stanković and Nikola Pavlović (definitely not to be confused with Serbian sportsmen), the series follows the titular mercenary con-man and the people around him. Interestingly enough, despite the cartoony art style by the second major story, things start to pick up. But before all of that let’s look at what this con job is all about.
Ibrahim Coyle: First Impression
In all consideration, Ibrahim Coyle starts out kind of messy. The title character is obnoxious with not even a hint of redeeming qualities. Unlike other fictional con artists like Eric Cartman or Grunkle Stan whose antics are humorously suspenseful; Coyle doesn’t have a plan with emotional stakes. He’s practically a series of random jokes that don’t fit together. I actually felt kind of bad for anyone who deals with such a buffoon. First impressions go a long way, and this debut might be why this series has very few subscribers on Tapas and Webtoon at the time of this post.
In fact, Filip admits that he liked working from the perspective of mob thugs like Candy better. Amid all of the confusing hijinks of Coyle, these thugs look more sympathetic in how they try to survive the fallout he caused. Remember the humorously emotional stakes? The boss of the gang has to pull out his golden teeth just to pay his cronies for food.
As for the artwork, the coloring feels inconsistent. For the first half of the pages, there are a multitude of colors only for them to turn to one color per subject. The room could be orange while every character is magenta, blue, or otherwise. The pencils and inking might look amateurish at first, especially with the shading. But comedy isn’t supposed to look serious. For that matter the use of stippling is actually pretty eye-catching unlike stacking colors on top of one another. All of this together brings us to why this series is starting to stand out.
The Golden Road
A crucial piece of Serbian culture is the concept of Inat. According to Culture Trip, it is the idea of doing something because you can’t. I imagine that’s how Filip and Nikola feel they couldn’t achieve enough with the series. Just the activity on Tumblr made it obvious that there wasn’t enough attention on Ibrahim Coyle (this was before Tumblr loses traction). So they go to the online magazine Moj Strip, a place where Serbian artists put their passions on display. Mainly because print runs are limited. With an art style that already made deadlines less of a problem, it was time for a quality story to match the artistic quantity.
Ibrahim Coyle eventually catches what the website TV Tropes calls Cerebus Syndrome. Despite the comedic beginnings, it was time to get serious. Shorthand for both writing and art is good for scheduled release dates, but that’s no excuse to put forth less than your best effort. Wouldn’t you know it, but the series follows in the footsteps of Cerebus the Aardvark and Bone in terms of tone and genre shifts.
More Valuable Than Gold
Unlike the random Jaded City, Golden Road has a singular focus both in theme and art. When a new mob boss, Nosfer Artie, comes into power after conquering his home country he plans to bulldoze the titular street for rumored treasure. So Ibrahim Coyle is hired by Golden Road’s inhabitants to deal with Artie. Forming a group with Jamal, Candy, an old man, and a dog, Coyle heads to the only territory Artie hasn’t conquered for help. Within this plot comes a dynamic shift; gone are the random multicolor gags and b-plots, in its place is a monochrome epic fantasy with stakes.
First comes the artwork, with this supernatural mob comes a black, white, and gold coloring as the new default scheme. Thematically it means that there is an overarching plot that snuffs out the gags. Within this plot is a multilayer character story with high emotional stakes. The lightly inked or penciled parts of the series enhance this new atmosphere, almost like phantoms looming over everyone. Dreams, hallucinations, flashbacks, and traumas haunt all the characters. This brings a greater sense of character development. One where Coyle of all people shows the altruistic side no one else will ever see because he hasn’t realized his identity.
The True Ibrahim Coyle
Ibrahim Coyle is a series that serves as a therapeutic exercise of passion. Filip defied the odds constantly just in his home country of Serbia. He and Nikola have even won numerous awards for their contributions to animation and comics. In fact the constant back and forth decisions to keep the series going was a display of dedication to authentic storytelling. Because while Golden Road’s original ending of dragons fighting it out sounds awesome, it’s a deus ex machina. That’s not even mentioning how the arc serves as a path to self-discovery. What began as a way to blow off steam became Filip’s life’s work.
But it just wasn’t enough to stay in the confines of home; so Filip decides to go out and have a translated version for people to see. Or at least an English version. While the early versions also fail to gain traction, the people who turn away from it will miss out on a great turnabout story. I mean, Comixology had some of Golden Road’s issues as the best rated comics in April 2020. Filip doesn’t plan on stopping Ibrahim Coyle. It’s a series he channels his own identity into. But it is on hiatus with a plan for its tenth anniversary.
I recommend starting from one of the short comics like in issue #8 to get a feel for the series. Not to mention it would serve as a better introduction before Golden Road. Tapas, Webtoon, or Comixology, do whatever’s most feasible to you. Thanks for coming to the end of a creator’s Inat and as always remember to look between the panels.