Action Lab Danger Zone 2019
Written by David Pepose
Illustrated by Gavin Guidry
Coloured by Liz Kramer
Lettered by Ariana Maher
As the police swarm the chapel, conflicted bride Emily must make a fateful choice — go through with her wedding, or team up with the Bad Elvis Gang to evade the bonds of holy matrimony. What could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately, playing both sides isn’t as easy as it looks…
Well now this couldn't be going any better if it had been planned this way. I think the opening here is a huge tell about how Emily actually feels about all this. Gavin does an amazing job with the last panel of the first page and this, this says everything we need to know in one single solitary shot. This is how beautifully done this book is that we can see and read exactly what is happening through the teamwork by the creative team is extremely well done. Also this is why I love Action Lab because not only do they take chances but they encourage creators to be themselves, tell their stories and this is what we get as a result.
The way that this story is being told is fantastic and how we get the release of information so we don't know much in advance of when it's happening is one of my favourite ways to read a story. This means that the suspense we feel feel is what they experience as well. The character development here is fabulous and I love how we see the characters come to life through their actions, reactions and of course the dialogue. The more we see them the more they become fleshed out and we can see just who they are. With the pacing here we see how all this creates an amazing ebb & flow to the book with all the twists and turns, not to mention a revelation or two. This is how you write a story, engage the reader so they find themselves thinking about things not on the page and make them want to keep coming back time and time again.
If I am not mistaken I do believe there is some tongue-in-cheek moments amidst the writing and I find this to be increasingly interesting. When people are under duress they say that is when their real personalities come through. If that is true then it surely shows within these pages and the way that David manages to put this black humour fun into a serious situation and makes you adore every last exchange.
The interiors here are really nice. Gavin and Liz do a marvellous job on the interiors here as they bring these characters and situations to life. The linework is nice to see and we see the manipulation of the varying weights that create this really strong attention to detail. I am really impressed with the individuality of the guests and people overall in this book. The ethnicity, body types, ages you name it this is some great examples of diversity and how it works so seamlessly that it should be the norm. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong solid eye for storytelling. The way we see backgrounds here enhance the moments and bring a nice sense of size and scope to the story. The colour work here is really nice to see as well. While there is a lot of purple in the church I am okay with this, it's my favourite colour so all the hues and tones within the purple that we see is utterly marvellous. The way we see the shading and shadow work is sensational.
The way the story keeps unfolding and how we see the character reacting or acting as the case may be only serves to not just make this more complicated but amazingly interesting and fun. You could only hope that by being a kidnapped bride that your wedding could be this delightful fiasco.