Aftershock Comics 2018
Created & Written by Steve Orlando
Created & Illustrated by Matthew Dow Smith
Coloured by Lauren Affe
Lettered by Thomas Mauer
Plagued by the ramifications of a techno-magic world now thirty years gone, Thrice-Nine is a dirty folklore world that limps along, degenerating into a place filled with paranoia and poison. Sasha Vasnetsov thought he’d escaped all that, but when news comes that his twin brother has been kidnapped by the secret police, he finds him-self dragged back into the madness with a simple goal—to find his brother.
I kind of like this and I am not entirely sure why. I mean Steve is an excellent writer and the premise behind this is strong and intriguing. Matthew’s work on the interiors has a unique style that seems to fit this world beautifully. It does feel a little disorienting with the flow of during the opening but after that it’s like boom! I think I really like for what’s inferred in this issue. The idea of exploring twin brothers who are the same person and yet totally different is something that we don’t see. One straight and one gay and the dynamic is what intrigues me the most.
The way that this is structured creates a pretty darn nice ebb & flow after the opening. Though once we are partway into the book it’s easy enough to see how it fits into the overall story. I found myself kind of enamoured with Sasha and how he’s going about things. His story is a personal one and like all young men at a certain point he wanted to leave the town he was raised in and go off on his own to find his place in the world. So his actions this issue are understandable and just the way he is going about it shows off Steve’s understanding of pacing and characterisation.
Part of me is enjoying the fact that we come into this kind of in the middle, Sasha is a grown man now having been born during a war and we don’t see his childhood growing up. So there is room to go back and use flashbacks when necessary to continue fleshing him out but it will be more fun and interesting to see him to continue moving forward. His plan is one that isn’t as well thought out as he thinks, he’s young rash and full of bravado since he doesn’t seem to have been much of an army guy or fighter thus far. At least not that we’ve seen so yeah this the kind of opportunity to really just go balls to the wall and bring us someone with pretty much a blank slate to play with.
I said before I like the interiors here they fit this world and the unique vision they are going for with the story. The linework seems heavy and as such sets a mood and tone of the story. There is some light linework here as we see in the faces and facial hair plus those facial expressions is so damn exceptional. The barkeep looks like an actor we all know and overall the way everyone is brought to life is just amazing to me. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off such a great eye for storytelling. We see some nice use of backgrounds being utilised but I'd still like to see more because they really do expand the story and show off the city beautifully.
By the end of the issue I am totally into this story. It has that kind of build-up where the story seems to get better and better with each page. This is engaging, unique and much different than the usual kind of book I’ve read before with it’s strong writing and wonderful interior artwork.