Dark Horse Comics 2020
Written by Evan Dorkin
Illustrated by Veronica & Andy Fish
Lettered by Greg McKenna
As Blackwood College prepares to bury Dean Ogden, the students plot to raise Dennis from the dead, requiring them to take a trip to the morgue. This doesn't leave any of our heroes much time to deal with feuding security teams, a missing mummy chimp, and a conspiracy of traitors planning Blackwood's destruction. Wuh-oh!
This is one of my favourite new series that have come out recently. It may not be the most intense gut punching type of story but it has this weird quirkiness about it that makes it stand out for me. It is a fantastic look at a group of kids going to school and meeting for the first time being thrust into a situation where they bond, grow and come into their own. Granted they haven't done the last yet but that's okay it's a process and one we're fully in the midst of watching. It has this almost brutal honesty to the situation and how the characters act and react to it.
The story & plot development that we see here through the way the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. There is this way that the story is being told and how the adults are reacting to the events that leave the kids free to plan and do what they want and or need to do. It is a version of real life after all and it is rather true and accurate that adults think teenagers don't know enough about life or responsibility and ignore them. This allows us to see the kids think things through and make their next move. This leads me to the character development we see here. The work Evan is doing here is phenomenal and how with each turn the kids take we see more and more of them being fleshed out. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along way helps to create the books overall ebb & flow with such grace and aplomb.
For me this is a personal favourite and I really fervently hope that you all are giving this a chance to be seen and read. It has this really great way of connecting to the reader as it draw us in further and further into this world. While the subject matter involves magic the mysteries remain the same and it really grounds the story in some surprising ways. I love the way we see these kids and how they've managed to worm their way into my life as a permanent fixture.
The Fish's really make some extremely wonderful interiors here. I love the linework we see and how the varying weights are being utilised to bring out the attention to detail. I mean when we see that library I was felt the same way Reiko did, that is absofreakinlutely one of the best images I have seen in a long time and it came at a point in the story, hell in the series, no one expects and it is stunningly beautiful. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong masterful eye for storytelling. I love how the backgrounds we see are utilised to create the composition within the panels and bring us this depth perception, scale and overall sense of size and scope to the book. The colour work is truly exquisite to see and how the various hues and tones within the colours create the shading, highlights and shadow work is brilliantly rendered.
This is the kind of series that hopefully one day will end up as a Netflix original. It has a sharp wit and dark sense of humour with some serious scares and moments that make you gasp, cry and shout all pretty much at the same time.