Aftershock Comics 2020
Written by Joe Harris
Illustrated by Sebastian Piriz
Lettered by Carlos M. Mangual
For centuries, Samurai defended Fukushima Prefecture from invaders. Now, still bleeding radioactivity from the nuclear plant meltdown, a land's protectors have risen in her hour of need. For the adventure tourists of Disaster Inc. lost inside the Exclusion Zone...this is very, very bad.
In a world on fire and rife with calamity, catastrophe, war and unrest...you're going to need the right guides to see it for yourself!
What a fantastic book this is. There is something to be said about for outside the box thinking and quite honestly I could totally see this as a Netflix original film. It has everything you could possibly want to see, this crazy outfit promising to take you on tours of the world’s most famous disaster sites mixed with some crazy ass supernatural horror elements and you’ve got this instant success.
I love the opening for this issue. The woman on screen thanking them for their service so casually and cold as these two men are sent to their impending deaths. It has the right amount of creepy alongside this disbelief that it is actually happening. There is something about this that just captures the reader instantly and in ways you would not or could not hope to understand. The story & plot development that we see here through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is present exceptionally well. The character development is amazing and as each character seems to get their time in the spotlight and how they interact with one another is present in a way that fleshes them out nicely. The pacing here is fantastic and as takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way. How the book is structured is beautifully done and the way we see how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow and it manages to capture the readers’ imagination.
This is why I love Aftershock as they seem to let the creators do their thing and with that kind of encouragement and support we get some of the finest storytelling possible. Aftershock is no longer a new publishing they are established, yet they keep finding ways to be fresh, new and innovative as they prove time and again why they are among there is at what they do.
I am so impressed with the interior artwork here. The linework that we see is so beautifully laid down and how the varying weights and techniques that are being utilised throughout really make the attention to detail shine. I have to say that I am a big fan of the way that backgrounds are incorporated into the panels. They enhance the moments and help to bring some great mood and ambiance not to mention provide 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 stupendous eye for storytelling. The colour work here is absolutely gorgeous. The various techniques we see being utilised throughout really make such a huge difference in how we see things. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading highlights and shadow work is exceptionally well rendered.
This is a fun, imaginative and creative story in some of the best ways I’ve ever seen. There is this sense of adventure, fright and what we might refer to as an adrenaline rush and speaking for myself it’s in the vein of a Michael Reilly’s series of novels.