Albatross Funnybooks 2020
Created & Written by Rafer Roberts
Created & Illustrated by Mike Norton
Coloured by Marissa Louise
Lettered by Crank!
Lock and load! Small-time criminals Eddie and Tala are getting deployed across the universe alongside a well-armed militia of inter-dimensional mutants and weirdos. But the greatest threat may be the secrets they are keeping from each other! Will Tala finally come clean? Will the mission to rescue her mom succeed? Or will Eddie go nuts and stab everyone once the truth is revealed?
I have become such a die-hard fan of these characters. There is something about this book that goes beyond charming and charismatic and verges into a realm where names, feelings and emotions all blur together to create an entity that was previously unknown. It has taken on a life of it’s own and by george, or grumble, it has opened up a new world and a new way to see comics that are equally as hysterically funny as it is deadly serious! Well deadly for the characters anyway.
I really like the way that this is being told. Rafer has an amazing way of utilising the story & plot development through how we see the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information to fuse that offbeat sense of humour making this as much fun as it can possibly be. The character development that we see within these pages are made up of those moments where the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. This means they are growing, evolving and changing right before our very eyes and it is definitely dramatic and powerful. The pacing we see is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns, not to mention the revelations we see how everything works together to create the books ebb & flow. It also spotlights how well this is structured and I am continually impressed time and time again from what these fine folks do.
Albatross may not have a lot of books on stands and that’s okay because what they do have is some stellar storytelling in the books they do. This is another prime example of what coming together to put a small press company into use for those who needed this outlet. So we get this marvellous title alongside Goon and as far as I am concerned these are two of the best there is point blank period.
I have always loved Mike’s work and here we see why that is. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to draw the eyes focus to the attention to detail that we see. Yeah this is stupendous work. How we see backgrounds being utilised to not only enhance the moments but give us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book is expertly rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. Also the imagination and creativity that we see on display is stunning, fun and shows such range in how Mike’s mind works. The colour work is superb as well. The choices made and how we see the various hues and tones within the colours to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully showcased.
This is one of if not the best uses of alternate history where humans, faeries and other supernatural beings are able to exist side by side without too much worry. Then again hiding in plain sight as in masking their presence does seem to help a great deal. This world they've created has such a rich embodiment that we’ve only started seeing. Then of course there is this underlying, or out in the open, message about family, which is better the one you’re born with or the one you choose? If your store isn’t carrying these then that needs to be rectified as soon as humanly possible.