John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction: Hell #2
Storm King Comics 2021
Written by David J. Schow
Illustrated by Andres Esparza
Coloured by Sergio Martinez
Lettered by Janice Chiang
Born in the Underneath... trapped in the Overworld... the calm, inhuman visitor known as Kartkas is charged with helping a human team visit and explore his stomping grounds... the regions beneath... commonly known throughout history as Hell. Their journey only starts in the Bermuda Triangle, aboard a ghost ship - a haunted tanker. Beneath that, a violent steam tunnel breaching the Atlantic Ocean floor. And beneath that ...?
Storm King Comics may not put out a ton of books but what they put out is always, and I mean ALWAYS the best of the best on stands. Between the writing and the interior artwork they are a publishing house whose books I will without exception read. This is a great example of this and what David is doing with the story here is beyond any kind of expectations that I could have had coming into it. I love the opening here because we see Ms. Billings and we’re unsure what exactly she’s doing but it does look like precognition or divination of some sort well before the meeting that is taking place. This ambiguous yet ominous feeling moment captures the interest and intrigue of the reader beautifully.
I am a huge fan of 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 exceptionally well. The character development is extraordinary as we see the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and the twists & turns along the way it makes us want to see and know more.
I am very much enjoying how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen. It is in these layers that we see things that this extra depth and dimension to the story. Like seeing the salvage ship going after the ghost ship, which was a horrible film but that opening is so classic i’d love to see something like that happen to them. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is so perfectly achieved.
The interiors are so bloody gorgeous! The linework is utterly sensational and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to showcase this level and quality of detail in the work is mind numbing and leaves me gobsmacked. I’d like to see backgrounds utilised more often because when we do see them they not only enhance the moments perfectly but the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope they bring to the pages is immeasurable. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is simply divine. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows this master colourists eye.
Whether or not Hell exists is up to the person to either believe or not to but what we see here is that there is a realm below that houses people who resemble the beasts and demons that supposedly populate Hell. There have always been rumours of those who live underground and what they are like and how generations of isolation can mutate them so they are born to survive in such harsh conditions so is this a case of that or is one of Dante’s Nine Rings a whole lot closer than anyone could possibly realise?
This is an amazing book that is incredibly intelligently written with mindbogglingly brilliant interiors that will take you on an the most unexpected journey and leave it up to you to decide what’s what.
Storm King Comics 2021
Written by David J. Schow
Illustrated by Andres Esparza
Coloured by Sergio Martinez
Lettered by Janice Chiang
Born in the Underneath... trapped in the Overworld... the calm, inhuman visitor known as Kartkas is charged with helping a human team visit and explore his stomping grounds... the regions beneath... commonly known throughout history as Hell. Their journey only starts in the Bermuda Triangle, aboard a ghost ship - a haunted tanker. Beneath that, a violent steam tunnel breaching the Atlantic Ocean floor. And beneath that ...?
Storm King Comics may not put out a ton of books but what they put out is always, and I mean ALWAYS the best of the best on stands. Between the writing and the interior artwork they are a publishing house whose books I will without exception read. This is a great example of this and what David is doing with the story here is beyond any kind of expectations that I could have had coming into it. I love the opening here because we see Ms. Billings and we’re unsure what exactly she’s doing but it does look like precognition or divination of some sort well before the meeting that is taking place. This ambiguous yet ominous feeling moment captures the interest and intrigue of the reader beautifully.
I am a huge fan of 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 exceptionally well. The character development is extraordinary as we see the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and the twists & turns along the way it makes us want to see and know more.
I am very much enjoying how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen. It is in these layers that we see things that this extra depth and dimension to the story. Like seeing the salvage ship going after the ghost ship, which was a horrible film but that opening is so classic i’d love to see something like that happen to them. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is so perfectly achieved.
The interiors are so bloody gorgeous! The linework is utterly sensational and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to showcase this level and quality of detail in the work is mind numbing and leaves me gobsmacked. I’d like to see backgrounds utilised more often because when we do see them they not only enhance the moments perfectly but the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope they bring to the pages is immeasurable. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is simply divine. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows this master colourists eye.
Whether or not Hell exists is up to the person to either believe or not to but what we see here is that there is a realm below that houses people who resemble the beasts and demons that supposedly populate Hell. There have always been rumours of those who live underground and what they are like and how generations of isolation can mutate them so they are born to survive in such harsh conditions so is this a case of that or is one of Dante’s Nine Rings a whole lot closer than anyone could possibly realise?
This is an amazing book that is incredibly intelligently written with mindbogglingly brilliant interiors that will take you on an the most unexpected journey and leave it up to you to decide what’s what.
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