Antarctic Press 2019
Written by Bradley Golden & John Crowther
Illustrated by Alessio Nocerino
Coloured by Mickey Clausen
Lettered & Designed by Hector Negrete
"Cold Blooded": Part 2
This issue, as we learn the chilling origins of homicidal ice cream man Thomas Wright, Wright is in pursuit of his own stepson, with detective Benjamin Dunne hot on his murderous trail!
I had read three different versions of the first issue each one improving on the last, this issue however is the best of them all. The story feels tighter, ya know more together and this shows a growth in Bradley's work and I like that. He and John have a nice horror story going here and the way that they are going about building this story, this universe as seen with Sarah joining the hunt.
I really the opening here and seeing how Tommy was brought up. Of course Thomas as a Tommy learned from the best his Pops, who was his Uncle, who taught him everything he knew. What this actually does though is take the reader off page and has them speculating and the how, why and so much more of his upbringing. You all know how I talk about what I think of and what it means to be taken off script to make the readers' mind work past what they see on the page and that means it's damn good writing. So kudos the guys for this because seeing something of him backstory means we get a much better look at who and why he became the man he is.
The story & plot development alongside the character development that w are seeing here is pretty spectacularly done as the two go from single to joined and back again in some wonderful ways. Then there's the pacing which scoops everything up and moves it through the pages beautifully. I really am impressed with the writing this issue and if the trend keeps up then next issue should blow my socks off. Still I think that how we see the characters and how we see events unfold is something that raises the Hackles nicely as well as giving a sense of foreboding. While adding into all that is the wanton display we see here and it again makes me wonder how he can just kind of go public and ruin the facade he's created. Unless he plans to move on to a new city and start all over again.
The interiors here are really nicely done as well. I am a fan of the linework that we see here. How the varying weights are utilised to create the attention to detail are marvellous to see. The composition inside the panels is impressive and there are moments like on the top panel on page four that show off that skill perfectly. This is how you heighten the creep factor without having to show a single murder. So the utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong eye for storytelling. Also that we see backgrounds being utilised as they are brings me joy as they expand the moments and bring a sense of size and scope to the book. The colour work too is nicely handled. There are some very nice differentials in the colours so that light sources create shading and shadows using hues and tones extremely well.
While we could always use more backgrounds and I'd like to see more variations in the hues and tones of the colours being utilised just to make this pop a little more, because the house, a crime scene, with no backgrounds is a missed opportunity and the colour of the blood was lacking any kind of a mix of reds to make it more realistic.
Overall I am enjoying this story a hell of a lot! Seeing some of Thomas' backstory helps flesh him out more and engages the reader perfectly. Then add in the detective and Sarah who are chasing him as it seems he's spiralling towards self-destruction and we've got some serious weirdness to look forward to. This is awesome and leave it to Antarctic Press to see the potential here.