Aftershock Comics 2021
Written by Marko Stojanović
Illustrated by Siniša Banović
Coloured by Djordje Krajnović & Aljoša Tomić
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
Jack the Ripper was never caught because no one was looking for him in the Wild West...No one accept The Order. An organization made up of the descendants of Crusaders sworn to eradicate the unnatural, The Order will stop at nothing to fulfill the pledge their forefathers made, even if it means crossing the ocean or a line or two…
I am fascinated by a few things here and among them is that these are descendents of the Crusaders, those who were supposedly wiped out mind you in a not so kind manner either. So I’m interested in seeing what they mean by unnatural, though the man that he pursues across a continent and an ocean would indeed fit this bill but I’m more curious about things that would almost be considered not of this world, or the supernatural. It is where my mind logically jumps to and for that I cannot apologise heh. The other is the man being chased and ya know this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of him coming to America to escape whatever fate was closing in on him. Together they make for interesting bedfellows that’s for sure.
I am enjoying 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. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a great job in bringing their personalities to life. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the characters, the story and this world they live in the more excited we become.
How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow are well executed. The layers open up these avenues to explore and as they take us from Whitechapel to Tombstone they all add this really nice depth, dimension and complexity to the storytelling. Life is short and full of surprises it would seem and sometimes they are good and sometimes they let you down. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.
The linework that we see with its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the level & quality of detail within the work that we see throughout the book is extremely nice to see. That we see backgrounds as often as we do and how they enhance and expand the moments is beautifully rendered. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a keen eye for how colour works.
Many parts of this didn’t go as I had expected and that is delightful. It means that I must keep on my toes and not to take anything for granted because what I think may happen is something that likely won’t. What exciting new voices, to me anyway, these creators are and I look forward to seeing how they tie everything together. Personally if I were Jack and I knew that he was in Tombstone this would naturally cause him to let his guard down and Jack would be able to be victorious in his endeavours but who knows what his end goal is here?