Dynamite Entertainment 2020
Written by Ryan Parrott
Illustrated by Jacob Edgar
Coloured by Kike J. Diaz
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Look. Life’s hard enough when you’re Ash. You’ve gotta go to work, pay the bills, fight demons, save the world from Hell, etc etc. But when some sorta weird-ass magic splits you into a woman, a demon, a skeleton, a dog and a sentient chainsaw…it’s enough to make a grown man cry. (…Unless you’re Ash. In which case, you’re too cool to cry.)
I love me some Bruce Campbell, I do he is dreamy as hell even now, so it's not very hard to read some of these tales. While I don't follow them with any sort of regularity I do have to say that this is so completely in line with the latest show on Starz. Granted this Team Ash is much different but hey that's okay because this is so bloody interesting. I will say though that this doesn't come as a surprise to me though as Ryan is one hell of a storyteller and I will read pretty much anything he does and have so I know.
The way this is being told is really well done. I love the way the story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented. We get to see Ash act, behave and treat himself exactly as we expect though the character development we see in all the new versions is sensationally well done. All of it has this amazing fluidity to the storytelling as the story & character developments weave through, around in this constant stream. The pacing is superb and how it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way really brings that sense of fun, adventure and here go again feeling that is so essential to what the Evil Dead franchise is.
There are certain folks and certain franchises that just seem to click instantly and here we are with one perfect example. I mean Ryan is one hell of an amazing writer and the way that he is able to craft a story and weave all the layers through it to create this interesting and unique take on such an established character is phenomenal! This handsome fella is one who's work you should be following if you aren't already.
I like the interiors here and the linework is great and of course that being said I wish there more backgrounds being utilised here. We are supposed to be in an office right but we don't get the sense of being in an enclosed space and that takes away from the overall idea. Sure this has an almost Scooby Doo sense to the work but it's far from all-ages and the interiors should reflect by being fleshed out more. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a nice solid eye for storytelling. I do like the colour work, it fits with the style of of the interiors really well. There some great moments here as well with the colour work like when we see the portal appear and all the blues are magnificent.
There is so much going on here that mixes the insane comedic qualities we've come to expect out of Ash and honestly this pure gold genius work. This is the entire package from the script to the lettering makes this book what it is. Dynamite is great at getting the creators they need to put out some absolutely fantastic work.