Dynamite Entertainment 2017
Written by Bill Willingham
Illustrated by Cezar Razek
Coloured by Vinicius Andrade
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
The Resolve and the Venture: two alien ships in a race down into the inner world of Pellucidar to recover The Eye of Judgment – a gem that can power the ultimate death weapon. The Resolve has the advantage in guns, fighter planes, a mercenary army, a mysterious mastermind, and a big head start. The Venture has a rag-tag group of heroes that are dwindling in number every day.
Bill chose to add a large list of Burroughs characters to this cast and I was wondering how we’d get this decent look at them. While we see their heroic natures in full force in this story Bill is also having them captured or go missing because of their actions, see presumed dead. So little by little the size of the expedition is shrinking to a much more manageable cast size.
Also I fully admit that i’ve pretty much read only a fraction of Burroughs work and many of these folks are complete strangers to me and some are making a strong play for me to find their books and read up on them. Thank goodness for Half Priced Books right? So what Bill is doing is not only telling a great story, introducing me to new characters but he’s also branching out my knowledge and possibly my tastes in reading.
I do like the attention to detail we see in these characters on these pages. The faces and their expressions are fantastically done and give us that emotion and feeling we need to enhance their characterisation. The way that the page layouts are used through angles and perspective are wonderful to see. We don’t get a lot of opportunities to see backgrounds in use but when we do, after the Arctic and the open skies, they pop like you wouldn’t believe, I mean hello plus those Dinosaurs!!! Sweet bejeezus this is what it’s all about to make a book sing.
I adore the fact that there are so many different “genre’s” blended into this story. From Science Fiction, to Lost Continents to Mars and Barsoom. This almost everything and the kitchen sink in it and perhaps these characters shouldn’t be in a shared world but the way that Bill does this makes it all seem so bloody natural. The story structure here is epic and the way he’s able to pace the series and develop the story as it moves forward shows off why he’s beloved by so many.
Dynamite is home to the past becoming relevant in the present again in ways that pay homage while remaining new and original as they also stimulate your interest in things you hadn’t thought of. Many wouldn’t know half these characters and by the end a nice portion of Burroughs work will once again be talked about. This is high quality storytelling in every sense it possibly could be.