Heavy Metal Comics 2021
Written by George C. Romero
Pencilled by German Ponce
Inked by German Ponce & Gabriel Rearte
Coloured by Protobunker
Lettered by Saida Temofonte
Trained to kill enemies of American democracy and freedom, the Pacific Pearl team continue to carry on their mission, even now, long after they'd already given their lives to the cause. A Horror-War series set across the past, present and future, a freak occurrence reanimates an island of freshly killed soldiers in the wake of the Battle of Midway in World War II.
The son of horror, see zombie, master George A. Romero takes his turn in the spotlight writing a comic book for Heavy Metal. I should have been paying more attention to this because it was crazy and when it got to a certain point I should have known what to expect but I wasn’t, nope was surprised as all get out. I LOVE being surprised too especially in this manner. First off I have to say this is a frakkin amazing issue, while it may have been pushed back for whatever reason the reality of it is that it is WORTH the wait. The writing is amazingly solid and how we see this unfold and how the characters are introduced and with German’s pencils, good grief Charlie Brown I’m amazed and excited by what’s to come.
I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. There is a trail of misdirection that happens within these pages that masks the real story here and it’s amazingly well done. The character development that we see is certainly intense and how we get to know the Captain is something absolutely stellar in how it’s presented. How we see the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter really brings us the measure of the man, or woman depending on who it is. The pacing here is superb and as takes us through the pages it reveals so much more than you’ve bargained for.
The way this is structured is sensational and the layers within the story are really something as they flesh this out more and more. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is really rather marvellous. There is so much about the way this is told that we've not seen before that it comes across extremely well without feeling gimmicky or trite but truly horrifying at times, after all they do say War Is Hell.
I am such a huge fan of German’s work and have been for a while now. His pencil work and his ability to manipulate the linework through the varying weights and techniques to bring about this level of quality in the detail work that we see is astonishingly well rendered. Then to see the same level of work in the backgrounds makes this even greater than I could’ve hoped for. The composition within the panels bring us this great depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The inking here is amazing too it looks like German did the entire thing and I have to say to me that’s bloody impressive.
The colour work is divine. How it’s able to turn the clothing and such into this innocent and yet provocative look is done in such a spectacular way and it shows an innate understanding of how colour works and what can be done with it. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered.
The creativity and imagination alongside the era in which we’re seeing this take place is phenomenal. It has so many different twists and turns, the introduction of characters is beyond my wildest dreams and just the sheer audacity of what we see marks this as something special. I have never been this engrossed, engaged and entertained at this level before.