Vault Comics 2020
Written by George Mann
Illustrated by Joe Eisma
Coloured by Michael Garland
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Free of the hex that has plagued it, the ghoulem’s head begins to reveal its secrets—but its reawakening does not go unnoticed. Meanwhile, Joss, Ichabod and the others attend the ‘morning ceremony’ of their late friend, where tensions run high, and the Celestials pay a visit to the shantytown to make pronouncements on the water crisis.
I am such a fan of this book. Vault continues to showcase stories and creators who want to take what we feel is familiar and push that envelope well past it’s breaking point. It makes a huge difference at least to me to see them doing this and what George and Joe are doing here it's utterly amazing to witness. There is so much going on here and with the discovery of the head is something that will change the course of their lives and create the kind of upheaval rarely ever seen. It is exciting to feel like you are a part of this as it happens.
The way that this is being told is spectacularly well. How we see the story & plot development constantly moving forward through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is beautifully done. The character development is fantastic and as it takes us through the pages beginning to reveal layer after layer of the story it becomes that much more. Yes the character development does this by showing us the behaviour and attitudes not to mention the reasoning behind some of what we see. So it is essential to the way the story unfolds. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the events of this issue we get a better sense of this world and how it’s being, I kinda want to say controlled. With the way we see the book being structured and how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow we see a book that is written in a way that everything is woven together with so much intricacy that you’ll be amazed.
This is what I mean by pushing the envelope so far because the way this is written isn’t like anything else I have had the pleasure to read. It engages your mind, imagination and most importantly you get to use those detective skills you’ve acquired over the reads of reading and seeing detective shows to figure out what is going to happen next. Then of course you are hooked and have to come back to see if you are correct.
Joe’s interiors here are phenomenal! Yes I want more backgrounds and I feel they are essential to storytelling. That being said I love the linework, how we see the varying weights being utilised to show off the attention to detail. The creativity and imagination on display to me feels like that kid who wanted to do some strange beings finally coming true, it’s that creative to me and when we see the so-called gods it becomes even better. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this remarkable eye for storytelling. As much as I love the linework the colour work that we see here is equally as impressive. The way we see the hues and tones within these colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered beautifully. Plus that lion blew me away.
Unfortunately the days where science fiction was much more fictional, and I miss the Island as well as that sled that took us through time, but what we get seems much more real. Is this a possible future for those who will leave to colonise other worlds? Who knows but it makes me, and you, think about things like this. Do you really need more? No just pick this up and read it and see for yourself what I am talking about here.