Chapterhouse Comics 2017
Written by Jim Zub & Andrew Wheeler
Illustrated by Vaneda Vireak
Lettered by Andrew Thomas
Lance Valiant, John Cabot and Tasha Kolchak are fearless explorers who delve into hidden secrets of our world and protect us from threats beyond the imagination, but the greatest secret of all may be Lance’s own mysterious past……
Well I’ll say this much I didn’t know what to expect from this but I do know I like Jim’s writing and while i’m not familiar with Andrew his work at Comics Alliance is pretty well known. Together they do a nice job in bringing this to life and I can guess where certain lines are coming from. I do like the running narrative of John’s as he describes Lance and you can see the desire written through it. Whether they are a couple or not remains to be seen but the interest is definitely there.
Also I think as far as introductions go this was well put together. I like that we thrust in the midst of an action scene and go from there. This opens up a realm of what the hecks and immediately garners interest and causes the reader to ask a lot of questions. Few of which by the way are answered so this kind of guarantees that we’ll be back to learn what’s really going on here.
From what I can tell this is kind of mixing a superhero book with a James Bond spy thriller to create something a little different. Yes there’s mystery and intrigue and an evil organisation that rears it’s head but there’s also references to alternate dimensions, monsters, aliens and cults. So that all of these aspects blend together to create something that is based upon the familiar but deviates nicely into something unexpected and unknown.
I have to admit that i’m a fan of the work Vaneda is doing on the interiors. She’s got this almost American infused Anime style bordering on that cartoon stuff that works really well here. Plus her anatomy and John in a swimming trunks looks amazing. The use of page layouts through angles, perspective and even backgrounds help tell the story more fully than the words alone. I really like style of art and it adds just the right kind of drama to moments so that they stand out like they should.
The way the story is structured and how the it moves along unfolding bits and pieces for the reader is extremely well done. There’s a really nice sense of a group dynamic that’s established and waiting for us to discover. Plus what this creative team has done really did take me by surprise and it hooked me right on in with it’s premise and superb execution.