John Carpenter's Tales of Science Fiction: Redead #4
Storm King Comics 2019
Written by Duane Swierczynski
Illustrated by Jason Felix
Lettered by Janice Chiang
It’s Marnie’s worst nightmare: trapped upside-down in a tube, the subject of a series of hellish experiments to uncover the cause of her strange condition (i.e., instantly killing anyone who comes too close to her). If she’s going to survive, Marnie is going to have learn how to harness her bizarre “power” and escape, even if that means heads will have to roll…
This is a stunning display of storytelling happening here and it's no wonder that Storm King Comics made end of year with on their books. What Duane is doing here is demonstrating just how damn good of a writer he really truly is. I am still in awe when I think of the premise alone here and add to that the fact that we see such a bizarre and yet interesting story keep playing out before our eyes excites me like you wouldn't believe. The fact that this is as outside the box as you can get and yet remain fully in the realm of a biological warfare weapon manifesting in an unsuspecting person is not really that far fetched in today's world. Okay the manner in which she's a weapon is pure science fiction but that blurred line between reality and fantasy is what makes this as horrifically poignant as it is and that why I love Duane and Storm King Comics!
The way that this is being told is utterly brilliant! The way we see the story & plot development through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is perfectly presented. I am thrilled by the fact that how we see things happen with Marnie feel like they are what should be happening. This leads us into the whole character development because the behaviour of folks who think they know better then they do and how we see this play is mindbogglingly well done. The pacing is superb and how it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way and how this works with everything else to create the books ebb & flow is stunning.
I couldn't be any more impressed with this if I wanted to be. This is practically perfect in every way as it is. The layering within the story is fabulous and how the characters keep coming to life and how we see the changes from the first through now is superb. I have a fan of Duane's writing for years and probably just as long as a person and this is exciting and has this verve and vigour to it that is inescapable.
Jason's interiors here are bloody gorgeous to see. I know we've come a long way in computer generated illustration and the way this feels to me is equal parts cutting edge and stop motion animation and together it makes this whole thing come to life beyond your hopes and dreams. Plus this allows Jason to really go for the backgrounds here and bring us a level of storytelling that's truly cinematic to the eye. It also works so well within the composition of the panels in bring us depth perception, a sense of scale as well as the overall size and scope of the story. With the detail that we see playing such a strong role, see bunny rabbits, the evisceration and how she sees her microbes in play are just the beginning of how awesome this is. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such an amazing eye for storytelling. The colour work is stupendous as all the different hues and tones within the colours are utilised to create the shading, gradation, highlights and shadow work. The fur on the rabbits with different colours and tones throughout their fur is stunning.
This is the reason I still do what I do, still read comics and review them so that if you do not know just how damn awesome these stories are then I can bring them to your attention. Science fiction has such a broad range that can be utilised and this, this is a prime example of how it can be used to be as frightening a story as any slasher tale can possibly try to be.
Storm King Comics 2019
Written by Duane Swierczynski
Illustrated by Jason Felix
Lettered by Janice Chiang
It’s Marnie’s worst nightmare: trapped upside-down in a tube, the subject of a series of hellish experiments to uncover the cause of her strange condition (i.e., instantly killing anyone who comes too close to her). If she’s going to survive, Marnie is going to have learn how to harness her bizarre “power” and escape, even if that means heads will have to roll…
This is a stunning display of storytelling happening here and it's no wonder that Storm King Comics made end of year with on their books. What Duane is doing here is demonstrating just how damn good of a writer he really truly is. I am still in awe when I think of the premise alone here and add to that the fact that we see such a bizarre and yet interesting story keep playing out before our eyes excites me like you wouldn't believe. The fact that this is as outside the box as you can get and yet remain fully in the realm of a biological warfare weapon manifesting in an unsuspecting person is not really that far fetched in today's world. Okay the manner in which she's a weapon is pure science fiction but that blurred line between reality and fantasy is what makes this as horrifically poignant as it is and that why I love Duane and Storm King Comics!
The way that this is being told is utterly brilliant! The way we see the story & plot development through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is perfectly presented. I am thrilled by the fact that how we see things happen with Marnie feel like they are what should be happening. This leads us into the whole character development because the behaviour of folks who think they know better then they do and how we see this play is mindbogglingly well done. The pacing is superb and how it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way and how this works with everything else to create the books ebb & flow is stunning.
I couldn't be any more impressed with this if I wanted to be. This is practically perfect in every way as it is. The layering within the story is fabulous and how the characters keep coming to life and how we see the changes from the first through now is superb. I have a fan of Duane's writing for years and probably just as long as a person and this is exciting and has this verve and vigour to it that is inescapable.
Jason's interiors here are bloody gorgeous to see. I know we've come a long way in computer generated illustration and the way this feels to me is equal parts cutting edge and stop motion animation and together it makes this whole thing come to life beyond your hopes and dreams. Plus this allows Jason to really go for the backgrounds here and bring us a level of storytelling that's truly cinematic to the eye. It also works so well within the composition of the panels in bring us depth perception, a sense of scale as well as the overall size and scope of the story. With the detail that we see playing such a strong role, see bunny rabbits, the evisceration and how she sees her microbes in play are just the beginning of how awesome this is. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such an amazing eye for storytelling. The colour work is stupendous as all the different hues and tones within the colours are utilised to create the shading, gradation, highlights and shadow work. The fur on the rabbits with different colours and tones throughout their fur is stunning.
This is the reason I still do what I do, still read comics and review them so that if you do not know just how damn awesome these stories are then I can bring them to your attention. Science fiction has such a broad range that can be utilised and this, this is a prime example of how it can be used to be as frightening a story as any slasher tale can possibly try to be.
RSS Feed
