Archaia/Boom Studios 2015
Created & Written by Bradford Winters & Larry Cohen
Illustrated by Daniel Irizarri
Coloured by Matt Battaglia
I’ll be honest I have no idea what’s going on here but that doesn’t leave me any less intrigued to find out. From what I can gather a Spanish submarine has a group of American’s on board and is smuggling them somewhere else. It seems to be the reverse of what we’re used to as normally American’s can travel anywhere but something’s happened that these folks are on the run for some reason and don’t want to be found. Suddenly the story takes a different turn and perhaps these folks aren’t here of the own volition.
Now I have no clue at this point if they are paying an exorbitant amount of money to be smuggled into Americatown or if they’ve been kidnapped but either way the men who are taking them where they need to go aren’t messing around mean business and it’s the kind of characterization that boggles your mind because it’s so fascinating and unclear as to what the true purpose is. The idea behind this from Bradford and Larry is a unique approach and one that really works for me as i’m so intrigued as to what is really going on here is a driving force to really sit down read and reread the issue and really take it in.
There’s some horrific stuff going on here with one of the girls as if they’ve taken this alien abduction approach where a robotic machine type thing is doing something to her and the guy watching is online raising money with this process. So is this a new type of Hostel story taking place or is there something about her where whatever is being extracted from her is truly valuable? This kind of action however doesn’t sit well with everyone but before any serious ramifications can come from it things go another route.
It seems that Buenos Aires police or Immigration folks have found the house and the folks inside and mount a late night attack and only two manage to escape. Ironically or maybe not so much it’s a father son thing where the son is seemingly undercover with the band of men while his father is trying to smuggle himself into Americatown. Both have rather mysterious reasons for doing this that remain unclear at the moment but screams for more attention.
I like that I have no idea what’s really going on and that i’m sucked into the book already wanting to know more. The writing is excellent, the pacing is incredible and the premise well i’m not sure what it is yet but hey intrigue counts for piquing curiosity.
Daniel and Matt’s work on the interiors while don’t match the awesome imagery the cover gives us does have a nice not quite amateur feel to it. It’s a very stylized art and it works in being expressive and full of detail while remaining on the simple side and that dichotomy is interesting to see visually.
Want to experience something new and different than look no further because you’ll be spellbound and curious after the first issue.