Vault Comics 2021
Written by Peter Milligan
Illustrated by Sally Cantrino
Coloured by Dearbhla Kelly
Lettered by Andworld Design
Jennifer McStay knows what it’s like to feel trapped. Stuck in a world of violence, where once intimate spaces become claustrophobic, and everything seems to shrink until there’s nothing left but fear. Maybe that means she’ll be able to survive the real monsters, who live outside and hunt human emotion. Or maybe it means the monsters will finally be her escape.
I’m still enamoured with the idea of this story. We opened the first issue in the now and we’ve gone back to how the world learns of what is happening and it looks like we are staying there for a while. The story needs to unfold to get us to the point where we opened up and then it can move forward from there and I see that being able to happen with what is being presented to us. How the characters are connected and how they connect to the story is being revealed a bit at a time and it generates that interest and intrigue factor to a nice high level.
I’m really rather enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job in bringing us their personalities. How we see them react to the state of the world and how their roles begin to be designed for us is well achieved. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we want to see it continue.
I really like the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. These layers open up new avenues to be explored and by exploring them there is more depth, dimension and complexity added to the story. Also the fractures we see in the relationships beginning to show heighten just how serious and dire this situation truly is. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely well achieved.
This issue has some absolutely fabulous use of backgrounds as they enhance and expand the moments beautifully. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. We see some nice linework and through its varying weights some detail within the work comes out. I just wish that the linework were sharper, cleaner and crisper to really heighten the fear aspect of the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours could use a bit more contrast in my eyes but they do mesh with the style of work that we are seeing.
This is a really nice story driven vehicle for Peter and it works to his advantage as he’s able to really keep such a large cast of characters front and centre throughout the entire issue. We see how their lives unfold, work for them and against them and how the larger picture of their involvement might start to look like. I’m still highly intrigued to learn about these creatures and where they come from, not to mention how they found this earth. We are also starting to see those whom we wish would speak just a tad bit too loudly and draw just enough attention to themselves to warrant a visit from whatever these are.