Black Mask Studios 2016
Written by Matthew Rosenberg
Illustrated & Designed by Tyler Boss
Flatting by Clare Dezutti
Lettered by Thomas Mauer
Well the kids have figured out Paige’s dad’s secret and his connection to these bank robbers, or at least they think they have. Paige has been up and down about her father’s involvement with these guys and has enlisted the aid of her friends to figure out what’s really going on. In the process they burnt the house down the guys were staying in. So what’s going to happen next is anyone’s guess!
I have to admit this is one of those off the wall exceedingly wonderful series that as you read you begin to get more and more excited about. The characterisation here is superb and as the story goes forward you begin to love the kids more and more as they keep coming up with new ways to help Paige. It’s not even the fact that they come up with these outlandish ideas to do what they are doing it’s the fact that it’s totally believable that they’d come up with these ideas and actually try to do them.
The way that Matthew structures the story it’s magnificent to see how his mind has orchestrated how all these things play out. I think we underestimate kids not only from a standpoint from what they know but what they are capable of. This group of friends has a very diverse set of skills and talents and together they do seem to make one of the most unique group of friends. I mean c’mon we see something concocted here that is supposed to be one thing but turns into another and that slip up turns into something positive.
Paige’s own crusade to help her father any way possible has set the kids on a path that most wouldn’t dream of going down. That however is more than half the fun because it not only shows off who the kids are at their core but the depth of their friendship and the love of a daughter for her father. It doesn’t get much more altruistic than that when your friends agree to help you do something from a place of care and love.
I love the interiors here too. They have that all-ages quality to them that enhances the kids innocence but there’s this really nice attention to detail in them as well. The personal characteristics that the kids possess which make them identifiable are wonderfully done. The use of page layouts through angles, perspective and the use of backgrounds are utilised incredibly well. The work really enhances the words to show off the silliness and the seriousness of what these kids are attempting
That Matthew is also able to utilise Paige’s father’s old friends and make them a big a part of this story as they’ve become is wonderful. That Matthew is pitting these adults against these kids in such a way it becomes this whole wonderful us versus them going on that makes you root for the kids. The writing, characterisation and storytelling here is superbly done so that this is one of those stories you don’t want to turn away from.