Aftershock Comics 2016
Created & Written by David Hine
Illustrated by Alberto Ponticelli
Coloured by John Kalisz
Lettered by Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
The hunters become the hunted. As The Wednesday Club closes in on Ray and Toni they go into hiding and Ray finally reveals to his daughter what happened twenty years ago in The Bloody Chamber!
I’m really very impressed with what David is managing to do here. This issue picks up right where we left off after Ray attacked Toni’s mother. The characterization we get is different from what the characters in the story see about each other. I love we can identify that and we can understand why Ray doesn’t speak up it’s really clever writing. Though Toni isn’t so clever yet she still has need of her father and off they go, much to Tess’ chagrin.
So after attempting to head back to the store, only to see the results of what happened last issue, the pair go into hiding. So father and daughter who’ve never been close and she’s seen his dark side in action and wants to know more. Yeah this isn’t the kind of stuff that doesn’t smell like adding gasoline to a bonfire isn’t a bad idea. Still Toni takes them to a “friend's” flat where they will be safe and unnoticed and open the files on the flash drive--for reactions please read issue.
Here she demands to know the truth. I love what Ray says here about it too. “Maybe not the whole truth but the best I can remember.” What everyone in this story forgets is that Ray had to be on these Mushrooms to get his visions, right? So the police used him, and used him a lot and he got lost in the mushrooms plus it allowed for a connection between him and the Reaper. This level of drug use, a highly hallucinogenic one at that, combined with the horrors of the Reaper and what he did is it any wonder Ray is kind of crackers? No one has sympathy for him, I mean he’s been used seven ways to doomsday then turned and left out in the cold for things beyond his control.
While there isn’t much “action” this issue the filling in of the backstory and planting seeds for what’s to come is phenomenally well done. Then there’s the ending, OH she is definitely her father’s daughter i’ll give her that.
Alberto’s work on the interiors is so gosh darn good. I mean there is clean, strong, detailed linework. His flow of the story across the pages through panels is wonderfully orchestrated. The emotion he can bring to the page, from shame, horror, disgust and love, resignation and you name it he can make you feel by looking at a character. With John’s colouring and the differential between past and present they make a darn powerfully good team here. Thank you for not showing anything graphic I appreciate that heh, the photo’s in his trophy room were disturbing enough.
This is powerful, disturbing, enlightening and makes you feel empathically for it’s main character in subtle ways.