Scout Comics 2020
By Bryan Silverbax
Colour Flats by Sheryl Rodriguez
Lettered by Joel Rodriguez
The world as we knew it changed after the last of the great wars leaving a large portion of North America a dead wasteland. It's in that wasteland that tales of a monster only known as Loggerhead exist. Within this wasteland valuable elements and minerals have been unearthed creating a hotbed of illegal mining and overrun with scavengers. When some children find themselves endangered while witnessing an illegal scavenger mineral hunt a protector rises from the murky depths of the wasteland to exact retribution.
Well the verdict is I like it, it does feel a lot like Hatchet in some regards but as that’s a cult classic phenomenon it’s okay. There are just enough differences here to make this stand out for various reasons and I think the idea of being past an event that we know nothing about kind of kicks the curiosity factor into overdrive. I like this a lot and I want to see more of it, mainly because not only is Loggerhead kind of awesome in and of himself but the kids, those guys are what makes this book rock!
I like 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. I like how we see different facets of the story being their own until they merge in a way that the reader sees coming. The opening does set up the book perfectly and as we move through the whole thing it’s easy to see the potential this book has. The character development is really strong and as we see more and more of the characters with the situations and circumstances that they face really work wonders in bringing us their essences. The pacing is great and how this guides us through the pages we get to see how everything works together to create the books ebb & flow.
I do greatly appreciate feeling that something familiar has been taken, twisted, flipped and turned into something unique and original. There is a heck of a lot of talent on display in these pages and whether it is the layering in the story or the way we see the layouts in the interiors what Bryan is able to accomplish and bring us with this is really fantastic!
The interiors are nice. While they have a very simple quality to them that’s okay it works just the same. Somehow it seems to capture the wonder and innocence of the kids and makes Loggerhead seem eerie and creepy. I would have liked more backgrounds as the description of the area is something that I would love to really see. Still the creative utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a nice, solid eye for storytelling. The colour work is really well rendered as well. I like the way that we see the various hues and tones within the colours utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work.
This is fun, pure and simple. It is a slasher style story and it fits beautifully in the industry that doesn’t really have this. We see one on occasion but this is more than a welcome addition to anyone’s reading list. I hope that this ends up being some regular limited series arcs as time and demand (that means make sure you order it) is there.