Scout Comics 2020
Created & Written by Eric Palicki
Illustrated by Wendell Cavalcanti
Coloured by Mark Dale
Lettered by Shawn Lee
Lovecraft meets Sergio Leone in a modern tale of corruption, family legacies, and nightmarish dread. Lucas Lewis drifts into Atlantis County, Oregon wanting nothing more than a hot meal and a soft bed for the night. What he finds instead is a small town in thrall to eldritch creatures lurking in the surrounding wilderness, possibly guided by an even more sinister force. Lucas becomes determined to eradicate all Atlantis's demons, but these monsters are not what they seem. Unfortunately for the monsters, neither is Lucas.
I keep saying that Scout is where you need to be paying attention. This is just another reason why, as what starts out as this seemingly innocent story turns into something so much more. It will take you places you weren’t expecting to go and it will leave speechless and breathless by the last page. I love how this engaged me as a reader, my mind and how it drew me into this town. There are ways that this is being told that I found to be outside the box thinking and I have to say that works way better than I would have expected it to.
The way that this is being told is amazingly well done. How we see the story & plot development constantly moving forward and how we see the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is extremely nice to see. There are layers and intricate moments that are woven so seamlessly here that it really kind of has the gravity of a black hole on the reader. The character development here is intriguing and I say this because there are just these first impression moments and not really much else but because of the conversations between characters you WANT to know more. This is crafted within an inch of perfection. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing Atlantis, it’s denizens and what Lucas encounters along the way. How we see the book is structured and how everything here works together to create the story’s ebb & flow showcase some incredible still, talent, charisma, charm and uniqueness.
The interiors here are marvellous! I love how the overall look of the book makes the reader feel. The mood, tone and feel of this story is remarkably well done and I have to say that while I expected to be impressed I wasn’t expecting to be blown out of the water. The linework we see and how its varying weights are being utilised alongside the various techniques we see is absolutely phenomenal. The way that we see backgrounds being utilised here could be a skosh better but overall they do well to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale as well as the overall sense of size and scope to the book but it could use some tweaking. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a really strong eye for storytelling. The colour work is fabulous! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is just beautifully rendered. During the nighttime sky I have to say seeing the darker muted colours treated the same way as in the light is beautiful to see.
This was on my radar, mainly because it’s a scout title, but I wasn’t prepared for this to be one of the best things I am currently reading. Scout Comics is home to a new wave of storytellers who aren’t afraid to push the boundaries and let loose this talent that should put the rest of the industry on notice. Also I have contacted a number of stores and no one NO ONE has copies of this book so whether that’s sold out or didn’t realise they should buy it remains unclear but get this while you can!