AWA Upshot Studios 2021
Written by Bryan Edward Hill
Illustrated by Priscilla Petraites
Coloured by Marco Lesko
Lettered by Andworld Design
The Chariot was a Cold War-era secret government project to provide its star agent with a weapon unlike any other in the form of a supercharged muscle car. It sank into the ocean decades ago, and the agent along with it. Now, a petty criminal looking to reform his life has stumbled upon the Chariot, and he's about to find out that the agent's consciousness is still controlling it in this synthwave thriller.
I still think Gillian has something up her proverbial sleeve and Sadie is on the right track with that. She is sinking her claws into Jim and pushing him to react instead of think and when one doesn’t think the consequences have a way of rearing their ugly head in ways you won’t see coming. It really should go to show that while Gillian’s sister may be willing to kidnap a child to lure them to her what is Gillian willing to do in her own right to leave the car and gain a body of her own? Sisters share more than blood they also share genetics and sometimes a lack of scruples can be considered genetic in nature or at the very most a product of their environment and if they both were raised together than it probably means they share more than a few common traits.
I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development is absolutely bloody delicious thanks to how we see the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we are taken on a fast paced thrill ride.
How we see this being structured and with how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen, not to mention emerge anew depending on how and which avenues get explored is really nice to see happen. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.
I am a fan of the interiors here. The linework is fantastic and I think I may be super impressed with the coloured linework as well as seen from inside Gillian’s world. I love the fact that Jim has a hairy chest that leaves me chuffed to bits. How we see the attention to detail through the varying weights and techniques is really well rendered. I’d like to see more backgrounds but I get the whole inside the car where it’s not exactly conducive to that still we get some great depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellous eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.
I am pretty impressed with the multiple angles the various characters have within this story, well except for Sadie though I have begun to wonder if she wants Jim back. The complexity of the story on the whole is so well thought out and executed by Bryan that it engages the reader beautifully. This really is a superbly written story with tons of great characterisation and striking interiors that makes you question everything you see and yet want to take the ride of your life with Jim.