Mad Cave Studios 2019
Written by Mark London
Illustrated by Nicolas Salamanca
Coloured by Tekino
Logo & Lettered by Miguel Angel Zapata
PREVIOUSLY...
Yua’s dark, scorpion-filled ascension to Koga’s kunoichi was finally revealed. After making quick work of the bandits, Genshi and Nishiro discovered arrived at the Elder One’s village, only to discover it was being ransacked by bandits. After saving the village, they discovered that the Elder One had already left the village the previous winter…
At the IGA village Haruki is going off the deep end. Setting up Genshi was easy enough and with Haruki’s mind deteriorating like it is the village isn’t going to last much longer. I like how Mark is telling this story we see this descent into madness on several fronts as both we and Genshi learn the truth about him and life in general in the village. Mark has never rushed this story in any way shape or form and he’s managed to let things unfold naturally so that we feel as if we are just as much a part of the story as any of the characters. This is something that makes him one of the best and brightest new voices in the industry.
I am continually impressed with the level of characterisation that we are seeing here. With Genshi and his Master talking about things that finally matter such as his pendant and family to broaching the subject of Haruki’s hatred of him it is almost like when things start to fall into place you can expect tragedy to follow hot on it’s heels. I like it though because it’s almost as if the Tengu inside Genshi doesn’t want him to learn the truth about himself or be freed enough to control that part of him. I am making assumptions based on knowledge and what I know personally. Again this is me going off script and the fact that Mark is able to engage my mind in such a way that I am doing this this way shows me just how strong and capable he is at what he does.
The interior artwork here is great. I do like the way that we see the composition inside the panels and how we get to see the use of foreground and backgrounds and how the attention to detail is seen. The strength of the linework and how we see the varying weights create that attention to detail is is so well done and I like that at times it borders on traditional anime and regular comic book style interiors. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very attentive eye for storytelling. I love the colour work here as well. There are quite a few instances where we get to see varying tones of same colour and then how light sources create the highlights and the shading. There is a lot of really nice use of colour to also highlight the tone, mood and feel.
There are so many moments in this story that you see unfold before your eyes and think holy shit. The story & plot development that we see is bloody brilliant that along with the way that the pacing is done and the character development are high among the reasons why Mad Cave is quickly emerging and distancing themselves for other new small press company’s. The quality and level of storytelling that we see here shows a well researched, thought out and carefully book that ensure the reader not only has a good time reading it but also has their mind engaged in ways that they begin to learn about different parts of the world other than the one we live in.