Storm King Comics 2020
Created & Written by Louise Simonson
Created & Pencilled by Guy Dorian, Sr.
Inked by Sal Buscema
Coloured by Ross Campbell
Lettered by Janice Chiang
Byrr, Fext and Cammo: Hyperbreed human-animal 'splices' who've been given a cushy assignment, board an ancient freighter, transport valuable Explosive Ore to a mining colony, and earn a large delivery bonus. But when they drop out of spacefold, Mak pirates--robot monsters wearing the body parts of vanquished enemies--attack. Fighting against cruel odds, with Mak Yik crystals infesting their ship, our heroes begin to suspect that their lucky break is really a setup for annihilation.
Alright and now for something completely different. Actually it really isn’t so much different now that I think about it, it has this crazy revamped Wanderer’s to it. Otherwise I like what we are seeing here and the concept behind the three characters. Genetic splicing isn’t a new idea and we’ve seen it done well and done horribly, here what I see is something that intrigues me and makes me want to know so much more. I am not surprised by how polished this book is, these are highly respected creators whose resumes are quite impressive but I am surprised that we haven’t seen them do this sooner.
I am really 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 extremely nice to experience. That this is an inter-galactic setting and that the ancient and honourable game of Poker is discussed starts this book beautifully. Louise does something with the writing here that not only sets us up for the series itself but as that is happening we get this great look at the character development. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way we see how everything works together to create the books ebb & flow.
I like how we see the way that this book is structured with the multiple layers and for adults reading between the lines while kids can read it and start to see how being different isn’t always so bad. It has elements for everyone to enjoy and those that are aimed at one group over the other. Also it really is a good strong book that can be in any household to be passed around and end up being a great topic of conversation around a device free meal.
I am enamoured with the interiors here. The linework we see and how the varying weights and techniques being utilised to bring the attention to life is astonishing to see. Also that Sal gets to ink them and bring this to life even further is why he’s among the best there is. I love the attention to detail that we see and how it brings me back to a classic age in comics and not only that but manage to elevate the work well past today’s standards. This is proof positive that the younger generation still have a thing or two to learn from the masters. How we see backgrounds being utilised here is phenomenal to see and how they work within the composition within the panels so that we get this depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book is stellar. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a sensational eye for storytelling. The colour work is truly and utterly mindbogglingly great! Specially when it comes to Cam as the colouring on his skin is seen and how the various hues and tones within the colours are utilised it is just freaking amazing. This is a masterclass in colouring and I'll be damned if this isn’t as spectacular as it gets.
This book is absolutely incredible and it doesn’t matter what age you are there is so much here to enjoy and to share with others. This maintains the high quality standards that I have come to expect from Storm King Comics. No matter what they do, what genre, what age range they put out the highest quality books and one look at this will show you just that!