Dynamite Entertainment 2019
Written by Leah Williams
Illustrated by Daniel Maine
Coloured by Bryan Valenza
Lettered by Carlos M. Mangual
Chastity Jack has been kidnapped, to the great misfortune of her kidnappers. She, along with a dozen other young women, arrive at an audition for a prestigious New York City burlesque act hoping to land a coveted spot in the popular show. When they wake up in chains on a spooky cruise ship in the middle of nowhere, they're congratulated on joining the cast. Realising they’ve been drugged and kidnapped by human traffickers, Chastity Jack declines the offer. Grindhouse-style.
Well I do love Chastity and her life, adventure or misadventures depending on your point of view and she's one of those few that were created by Brian that I have a statue of and that's saying something since I can't really afford the statues of any characters (Lady Death and Purgatory being the others) but that's beside the point. The point is I love the character she's one of those I will always read regardless of who, what, why and where. So far she's been handled pretty well and this is no different, Leah seems to have quite a good handle on the character which makes me enjoy what we're seeing.
The opening here is really well done and it does a stupendous job in drawing the reader in and making them want to see more. Also the narration that we get along with the visuals makes this completely new reader friendly. So if you've been curious about the character but hesitated because of her history or that you wouldn't understand her well you don't have any more excuses because this will catch up on what you need to know.
The story & plot development here alongside the character development that we see working together or separately weaving in and out, around and through each other is incredibly nice to see. Then when the pacing picks it all up and moves everything constantly forward it creates the beautifully seamless ebb & flow to the book. Also how the book transitions is sensational and it feels like this is just another day in her life, it feels that natural to me. Also the characterisation that we see here is really strong. I like how defined I feel the characters are and can sense just from the limited amount of dialogue that we're seeing.
Daniel's interiors here are pretty amazing in and of themselves. The opening impresses me because the way the panels are utilised and filled, meaning the utilisation of backgrounds throughout. Once we get to the office things slow down backgrounds wise. But on the whole the utilisation of the backgrounds makes me thrilled because it really does flesh out the moments and bring a size and scope to the story. The linework is beautifully done and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create this attention to detail. The faces and facial expressions are stunning and that just adds to the characterisation. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective I the panels show a an extremely good eye for storytelling. The colour work here is also extremely well done and how the hues and tones in the colour are utilised to create shading and shadows is impressive. I also like how we see the hues and tone utilised to help with the musculature of characters.
So the way that this is structured and how the story flows make for a great start to a new arc for Chastity. With the ending I am also incredibly excited to see what's coming next. Sometimes when it's one a month it's frustrating but I have this strange feeling it's going to be well worth the wait. This is dynamically written and illustrated and it's a perfect jumping on point for new readers' so what are you waiting for?