Dark Horse Comics 2019
Written by Magdalene Visaggio
Illustrated by Corin Howell
Coloured by Valentina Pinto
Lettered by Zakk Saam
Kate Strand reboots her destructive life and moves to LA to be the superhero she always wanted to be–Calamity Kate: gun-toting monster killer. With her latest career change, she faces new challenges, relationships, and competition; desperate to show she's worth a damn in a world overrun by zombies, vampires, demons, goblins, and the ultimate monster bounty: the Seven Fabled Beasts of Yore.
This has a few things going for it, unfortunately, the Original Calamity Kate isn’t among them. Now I am not in the know if this run is based off a previous one from Dark Horse or not but I do know that it doesn’t star the old cowgirl Patricia Layne. However, this book is all kinds of what have we here moments that beg and scream for more attention. I am pretty impressed with the work from Magdalene here and this first issue reads like a dream.
There is just enough characterisation to get us started, in wondering how the heck she, Kate, is still alive, her friend Vera and so many more. Also what we see has enough holes to make Swiss Cheese jealous yet Magdalene somehow navigates this like the guide on a white-water rafting trip. There are advantages to throwing us in the middle of things this way and primarily, at least for me, that is the innate sense of wanting to know more, see how their past evolved and more importantly how it all fell apart. What we see here leaves that wonderful impression that there’s this whole secret life that we know is there and screams to be explored.
There are a few more aspects that we see in the characters that we can all relate to as well as the way people change. Old friendships that meant the world to you that you remember both fondly but with regret. The reunion is bittersweet depending on how you look at things. Let’s face it Vera grew up, had a baby and became a widow so she’s not the same person that Kate remembers. Also, it is kind of weird to see her take advantage of her friend but do so without either realising it or thinking it’s okay in some warped way. So this part of the characterisation, personality building, is interesting because we see Kate the others don’t or cannot and I find that fascinating.
The interior artwork here is really nice. The creativity and imagination that we get to see are sensational, case in point these monsters look amazing and one has that Nipple Fetish thing going on apparently! Surprisingly Corin manages to make all these strong lines really work as she brings in this attention to detail with them. She really manages to impress highly with the quality of the work that I am seeing here. It has emotion and expresses that range of feelings that are needed to really get that extra layer of characterisation. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective show a nice, solid eye for storytelling. I love that backgrounds are utilised as well as they are and then the colour work here is gorgeous. It is bright, bold and beautiful and can be dark and foreboding as needed as well.
The way we are introduced to this series through this issue is so well done. Magdalene’s writing is incredibly solid and has this wonderful flow to it as we get to meet these characters and get a sense of the world that they live in. Also, it would seem that there are the proverbial 1001 reasons why she’s Calamity….Kate and I have to admit I want to see a whole lot of this than I had originally anticipated.