American Gothic Press 2015
Written by Paul Tobin
Illustrated PJ Holden
Coloured by Diego Rodriguez
I am such a fan of this book it’s original, interesting and full of that weird off the cuff stuff that we find so intriguing. Last issue we learned that these folks knew of the multiverse and Cassandra Potts went to a parallel world where she met her counterpart after of course we learned as much as we could about how the world she lives in came to be. The whole idea of a divergent path of homo-whichever that changed the course of history on one planet that cascades into the multiverse is pretty brilliant and the way Paul has set this up is genius.
For those of you wondering why you know Paul’s name it’s because he’s penned such books as Spider-Girl, Fire and Stone at Dark Horse, and other various projects is because he’s a wonderful writer who is underrated and underappreciated in his time. What he’s doing here though is freakin incredible, creating his own world to explore and fresh new characters to flesh out and evolve and create this multiverse that is part action/adventure part classic horror story. This is also one hell of a story too and I’m so glad he’s taken the chance and gone to a start up company like this it just goes to show that these little companies are a great place to tell these stories.
Cassandra Potts has met her counterpart on this world and has hooked up with the crew she runs with. I really enjoyed seeing her talk to these folks, getting to know them and reveal what her reality has about what it is they are facing. It really also gives PJ and Diego a chance to get some great detail in the characters and show their personalities as much through their visuals as with Paul’s dialogue. What’s really great about this is that while dealing with something as potentially complicated as the Multiverse Paul manages to make easy for the layman to understand what’s going on. That’s excellent writing my friends.
I have to say that seeing the first beings to have altered from the standard development gives PJ a change to really let loose some imagination. Though tattoo’s seem kind of odd but we’ll go with it. The suits they hop in to fight the BUGS are a nice stark contrast to the crumbling world around them, then the creatures themselves are wonderfully brought to life with both being able to see what they originated as and how fearsome they’ve actually become making this the kind of story that’s more than a guilty pleasure.
That Potts has hooked up with this group in this universe for a little while anyway even with the dangers inherent to that I find interesting. We’ll see how long this lasts or if she’ll decide to leave after watching everyone die, it’s a possibility which I think is a huge reason people see her as coldly as they do. She’s experienced more than her fair share of all this and that can come across a tad harsher than she realizes.
Next issue seems to be a look at another angle of infection and i’m all for that. With larger creatures being affected it’ll be nice to see how the tiniest of them are also infected.
This isn’t a guilty pleasure it’s the kind of science/fiction horror story we’ve been waiting for.