Obliv18n #1
Scout Comics 2018
Created & Written by Ken Kristensen
Illustrated by Francesco Gaston
Coloured by Jen Hickman
Lettered by Ally Shwed
"Virgin Territory," Part One. On her seventeenth birthday an overprotected girl violently defies her parents, vowing to lose her virginity if it's the last thing she does! Then her much-older boyfriend vanishes, along with seemingly every authority figure. Survivors call it "Oblivion," a catastrophic event whose mysterious agenda results in the appearance of horrifying otherworldly creatures and strange technologies. When a rumor spreads that a blind ten-year old boy has lucid dreams that connect him to the people who vanished, he becomes a target. The only thing that stands between him and the masses: the virgin, and a rag-tag group of unlikely heroes, including escapees from a juvenile detention hall.
You all know that I am a fan of Scout Comics I keep telling you time and time again that you should be reading their titles and I have yet to come across one that has exceeded my expectations. Ken knows the genre as he’s writing the Punisher on Netflix so I was expecting a lot and he delivered. There are three openings for this with the first three pages and I am impressed with that because while each one plays a role here we don’t know what that is yet, naturally of course. Still that we see two and then the third raises questions and by page four you are totally hooked, pulled in and there is no escaping the rest of the issue.
Forget the storyline for a moment because what I think caught my attention first and foremost is the personalities that we see. The dialogue and the narration when we hit page three and beyond it’s so sharp, dynamic, telling and yet keeps just enough behind to keep things mysterious. Why are these people so special, what is it about them that gets us wondering about them? It is something that we want to know more of and that’s a huge thing to be able to do so quickly. Still the way that this book is structured so that the ebb & flow of the book and information released keeps things moving forward at a good pace without really giving much away. Seriously I wanted to know so much more which again first issue slam dunk on that people.
I was impressed with the artwork here too. The linework we see is sharp, crisp and full of some nice attention to detail. Also I have to say I am really liking the way that light sources are utilised are extremely expressive. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a great eye for storytelling. There is also some excellent imagination and creativity on display here too so that’s just an added bonus. Speaking of I don’t know how old Ben is but I wish I were hung like that at his age!
There is so much going on and as a reader it’s things even we aren’t privy to. This is something that I personally enjoy because we are right along with the characters in learning as we all go along. Sure we can scream not to go into the basement and such but in all honesty the less we know ahead of time the more we get to experience this alongside them and there’s nothing better than to be in the dark using your own brain and imagination to try and figure it out.
This is smartly written with a ton of twists and turns that leave us with more questions than answers and that’s exactly how it should be. With some definite adult content, see language and sexual situations, and a very straight forward horror story this is one of those first issues that takes you by surprise and ends up being all you want to talk about.
Scout Comics 2018
Created & Written by Ken Kristensen
Illustrated by Francesco Gaston
Coloured by Jen Hickman
Lettered by Ally Shwed
"Virgin Territory," Part One. On her seventeenth birthday an overprotected girl violently defies her parents, vowing to lose her virginity if it's the last thing she does! Then her much-older boyfriend vanishes, along with seemingly every authority figure. Survivors call it "Oblivion," a catastrophic event whose mysterious agenda results in the appearance of horrifying otherworldly creatures and strange technologies. When a rumor spreads that a blind ten-year old boy has lucid dreams that connect him to the people who vanished, he becomes a target. The only thing that stands between him and the masses: the virgin, and a rag-tag group of unlikely heroes, including escapees from a juvenile detention hall.
You all know that I am a fan of Scout Comics I keep telling you time and time again that you should be reading their titles and I have yet to come across one that has exceeded my expectations. Ken knows the genre as he’s writing the Punisher on Netflix so I was expecting a lot and he delivered. There are three openings for this with the first three pages and I am impressed with that because while each one plays a role here we don’t know what that is yet, naturally of course. Still that we see two and then the third raises questions and by page four you are totally hooked, pulled in and there is no escaping the rest of the issue.
Forget the storyline for a moment because what I think caught my attention first and foremost is the personalities that we see. The dialogue and the narration when we hit page three and beyond it’s so sharp, dynamic, telling and yet keeps just enough behind to keep things mysterious. Why are these people so special, what is it about them that gets us wondering about them? It is something that we want to know more of and that’s a huge thing to be able to do so quickly. Still the way that this book is structured so that the ebb & flow of the book and information released keeps things moving forward at a good pace without really giving much away. Seriously I wanted to know so much more which again first issue slam dunk on that people.
I was impressed with the artwork here too. The linework we see is sharp, crisp and full of some nice attention to detail. Also I have to say I am really liking the way that light sources are utilised are extremely expressive. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a great eye for storytelling. There is also some excellent imagination and creativity on display here too so that’s just an added bonus. Speaking of I don’t know how old Ben is but I wish I were hung like that at his age!
There is so much going on and as a reader it’s things even we aren’t privy to. This is something that I personally enjoy because we are right along with the characters in learning as we all go along. Sure we can scream not to go into the basement and such but in all honesty the less we know ahead of time the more we get to experience this alongside them and there’s nothing better than to be in the dark using your own brain and imagination to try and figure it out.
This is smartly written with a ton of twists and turns that leave us with more questions than answers and that’s exactly how it should be. With some definite adult content, see language and sexual situations, and a very straight forward horror story this is one of those first issues that takes you by surprise and ends up being all you want to talk about.
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