Dark Horse Comics 2016
Written & Illustrated by Joelle Jones
Coloured by Michelle Madsen
Lettered by Crank!
Well I have to say this is something we’ve been waiting for with the background of mother Schuller. Ever since we first saw her we knew there was more to her than meets the eye and this is the issue we learn just what that is! That it ties directly in Irving and his past well Joelle just put the icing on the cake with this right here!
Now the opening is utterly magnificent. The montage that Joelle brings to the pages visually and with it’s narration we really get to see that Josie loves what she does and relishes every minute of it. It’s when she’s the most happy and with all these different scenarios of how she completes her jobs well there’s just the most perfect sense of Josie that there could possibly be.
There really is something about the interiors here that just speak to you as a reader. The attention to detail is amazing! The use of page layouts through angles, perspective and those backgrounds couldn’t be done any better than what we see here. Joelle has so much talent on display here and the colouring from Michelle is astounding.
So we know the time frame that these stories take place in, it’s a huge attraction not only because of the subject matter but for the clothing as well as her profession of choice and the people still out there. However to see mother Schuller’s involvement of the events that transpired in her native Germany in World War II well that’s something that I couldn’t have exactly scripted. Who she was then, what she did and how she knew Irving well that’s something which I have to applaud Joelle for not only thinking of but for bringing to life the way she did.
I have a new respect for mother Schuller as well as seeing why she and her daughter-in-law are at such odds. The two women are so much more alike than either of them will ever admit or know about. So if it turns out that Irving is the man whom mother Schuller thinks he is, and let’s face it his reputation in Josie’s world would certainly attest to this being the truth, it places Josie in a precarious situation and one that will be exciting to see play out for the remaining two issues.
There is something about this particular issue that has suddenly elevated everything we’ve ever seen or known about these characters. From artwork that has always been wonderful feeling so much more inspired here to the story itself it’s as if something broke free and the creative chains came off and Joelle threw caution to the wind. It’s got this fluidity and amazing moments that just blow you away.
As charming as it is disarming it’s an extremely rare entity that combine such beautiful imagery alongside such intense and powerful writing to transcend everything we’ve seen so far.