Source Point Press 2020
Written by Frank Gogol
Illustrated by Criss Madd
Coloured by Shawna Madd
Lettered by Sean Rinehart
Drugs. Vampires. Punk rock. Clawing her way to her 90th day sober, Kayla sets out to find her missing friend, Sid - the one person she knows can keep her on the straight-and narrow. The only problem? The gang of heroine-dealing vampires that have him.
Wow, so I knew Frank was writing this but not much else and based upon that fact I knew I wanted to read this. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect but this is exactly what I should have been expecting. It is quirky, has a unique perspective and a very interesting lead character. There are aspects of this that I find rather intriguing and to find out that there are vampires is commonplace is nicely handled. The choice of who Kayla has been is another one and that she seems to be coming from a place that can be seen as familiar but really isn’t is another aspect that I have to tip my hat to Frank for thinking of doing it in this manner.
I am very much 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 presented extremely well. There is a rhyme and a reason for things to happen this way but it doesn’t feel scripted, just more a natural conversational kind of way, if you can follow my meaning. The character development is rather dynamic and how we see Kayla face the situations and circumstances she finds in her way really helps to start defining the kind of person she is. That we see who she was as well through the eyes of someone else makes the impact much stronger on the reader. 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 this is structured and how there are a few layers within what we see. I also very much appreciate that you have to look for the visual clues as well, which do play an important part of how this story is going to move forward. When it comes down to it I honestly think that this is as complete a collaborative effort as you are going to see right now. It's also why I support indie or small publishing houses the way I do since we tend to see this more here than anywhere else.
The interiors here are really good, strong stuff. The linework that we see and how the varying weights are being utilised along with various different techniques in application really make the attention to detail pop. I am a huge supporter of the utilisation of backgrounds and to see how often they are utilised here make me happy. Sure we could see more of them but they do well to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong, talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is really well rendered throughout. I like how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work. How light sources are utilised in creating such a steady viewpoint is impressive.
Source Point Press continues to grow, develop and evolve as a company and with such interesting and dynamic stories such as this one it is no wonder that they keep gaining in popularity. Source Point is a contender in the market these days and with Frank starting to roll out some stellar storytelling, he and them are going to shake things up, so get involved now!