Adrift #1
Self-Published 2021
Written by Mark Fenton
Illustrated by Jacob Eguren
Coloured by Mauricio Montes
Lettered by Wes Locher
This is the story of a girl. A girl who finds herself stranded on what she assumes is a deserted island. As she explores her surroundings she finds herself repeatedly in near death situations, but never dies. This is the story of a company. A company that will let you live out your wildest fantasies for a price. Ever dream of dismantling the guy that got the promotion you so deserved? You can for a price. This is the story of that girl discovering that company.
Sometimes I have to sit on a book longer than I’d like before doing a review. For while my first impressions are usually correct I am not infallible and it’s nice to come back later and make sure. I could’ve had a bad day or something was going on, regardless it’s my personal policy to ensure a book, especially a self-published book, gets a fair chance. So as I was reading this it felt very mind trippy and very much the Fantasy Island film, now that’s a modern horror film in the vein of Hostel. So while not totally original in it’s premise that’s okay because it is thus far a very interesting idea to see put down in comic book form.
I like the way that this is being told as it starts off and doesn’t really take us further back than when our heroine got stranded on the island. So we know about as much as she does about her predicament and that’s exactly how it should be. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development is interesting, she doesn’t say her name one single solitary time and I know I would’ve said my name but I digress, she isn’t as fleshed out as I would like but the base is there and it makes us want to see more. Now the cocky, arrogant and oh so handsome guy and his boss they are perfect to get a read on! The pacing is nicely rendered and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and the characters we get a good solid look at what this is all about.
The interiors here are interesting, for the most part they are pretty solid with a few what the hell am I looking at moments. When she wakes up in the cell there’s no way in hell that’s a natural look it’s like her head isn’t attached to her body. You can definitely tell when there was more time spent on a page and I do hope we’ll see more of the Crabs running around because that guy was amazingly cute. The linework is really solid and how it’s utilised to create the detail work shows a lot of promise. The more he works the better he’s gonna get and personally I can’t wait to see that happen. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels not to mention how we see backgrounds utilised within the panels showcase a strong and promising eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely rendered as well and how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is great to see.
This was funded through Kickstarter which of course is so much easier to do these days but it is also the kind of example that I talk about when at cons you should really go through artist alley and the small/indie press section. That is where you are going to find the storytellers of tomorrow and if these folks keep going and refine their talents they are going to surprise everybody.
This will be available on ComiXology soon and in the meantime you can get yourself a copy at https://gumroad.com/bigsmoovestudios. So do yourself a favour and pick this up and enjoy because these folks have what it takes.
Self-Published 2021
Written by Mark Fenton
Illustrated by Jacob Eguren
Coloured by Mauricio Montes
Lettered by Wes Locher
This is the story of a girl. A girl who finds herself stranded on what she assumes is a deserted island. As she explores her surroundings she finds herself repeatedly in near death situations, but never dies. This is the story of a company. A company that will let you live out your wildest fantasies for a price. Ever dream of dismantling the guy that got the promotion you so deserved? You can for a price. This is the story of that girl discovering that company.
Sometimes I have to sit on a book longer than I’d like before doing a review. For while my first impressions are usually correct I am not infallible and it’s nice to come back later and make sure. I could’ve had a bad day or something was going on, regardless it’s my personal policy to ensure a book, especially a self-published book, gets a fair chance. So as I was reading this it felt very mind trippy and very much the Fantasy Island film, now that’s a modern horror film in the vein of Hostel. So while not totally original in it’s premise that’s okay because it is thus far a very interesting idea to see put down in comic book form.
I like the way that this is being told as it starts off and doesn’t really take us further back than when our heroine got stranded on the island. So we know about as much as she does about her predicament and that’s exactly how it should be. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development is interesting, she doesn’t say her name one single solitary time and I know I would’ve said my name but I digress, she isn’t as fleshed out as I would like but the base is there and it makes us want to see more. Now the cocky, arrogant and oh so handsome guy and his boss they are perfect to get a read on! The pacing is nicely rendered and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and the characters we get a good solid look at what this is all about.
The interiors here are interesting, for the most part they are pretty solid with a few what the hell am I looking at moments. When she wakes up in the cell there’s no way in hell that’s a natural look it’s like her head isn’t attached to her body. You can definitely tell when there was more time spent on a page and I do hope we’ll see more of the Crabs running around because that guy was amazingly cute. The linework is really solid and how it’s utilised to create the detail work shows a lot of promise. The more he works the better he’s gonna get and personally I can’t wait to see that happen. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels not to mention how we see backgrounds utilised within the panels showcase a strong and promising eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely rendered as well and how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is great to see.
This was funded through Kickstarter which of course is so much easier to do these days but it is also the kind of example that I talk about when at cons you should really go through artist alley and the small/indie press section. That is where you are going to find the storytellers of tomorrow and if these folks keep going and refine their talents they are going to surprise everybody.
This will be available on ComiXology soon and in the meantime you can get yourself a copy at https://gumroad.com/bigsmoovestudios. So do yourself a favour and pick this up and enjoy because these folks have what it takes.
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