Star Cross Comics 2019
Written by Matthew Page & Jonathan Crosby
Illustrated by Paolo Ricardo, Orlando Marlo & Tonin Neri
Coloured by Gregory Ottaviani & Ivan Nunez
Lettered & Designed by Eric S. Heard
As the threat of war rises, an established American community in the capital of North Korea are forced to evacuate. Unfortunately, all of the Korean born members must be left behind to endure what is coming. Follow Jae-Ho on his journey from star hockey player to the patriarch of the family rice farming business. Along for the ride is his best friend Chang. Once a care-free and goofy trouble maker, Chang finds his beliefs and values could get him killed under the communist regime.
This is one of those times when I love what I do. This was one that was sent to me with a review request. I am actually really impressed with this and I know it's historically accurate and yet there is still very nice human story at the heart of this. The opening here is powerfully done and to see what we do has this desired effect of being chaotic and uncertain and that garners the interest of the reader. It makes them want to keep reading to see what the heck is going on even though in our minds and hearts we already know. If I am to be honest I wouldn't even know where this was if I hadn't watched M.A.S.H. as a kid.
The story & plot development and the character development that we see happening here is so well done. How they work together, off one another as well as how the pacing picks them up and moves everything ever forward has a delightful ebb & flow. The way that we learn things, have information revealed to us and learn what is happening is done in a way that almost keeps us on the edge but not quite close enough to going over. It is rather refreshing to see if I'm honest because it's all about people, their dialogue and characterisation that reinforces what is happening around them and making the story what it is.
I really do like the interior artwork here as well. The linework is gorgeous and how the varying weights are utilised to create the attention to detail is pretty marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this really strong eye for storytelling. Couple things of note A. is that these are “regular” people so that we get such a nice sense of body proportion and each has their own unique look to them is rather impressive to me, and B. on the whole the utilisation of backgrounds to expand the moments and bring a size and scope to the story is handled extremely well. I am also a fan of the colour work here as well. The way that we see the hues and tones of colour to create shading and shadows is really well rendered. Also seeing the Grey's in the stone or cement work and the greens, like on page 13, just mesmerises me.
I like this a whole hell of a lot. There are times you forget this is historically based not matter what the books say because it really is the beginning of an excellent story. The writing is strong, fluid and exceptionally well paced with great characterisation and some delightfully strong artwork. To see the impact and devastation that these Americans being there wrought is handled with aplomb and I am looking forward to reading the rest of this book.
Oh, if you are going to NYCC 2019 then you can find Star Cross Comics and get a copy of this there with them so be sure to pick this up!