AWA Upshot Studios 2020
Written by Rob Williams & Ollie Masters
Illustrated by Laurence Campbell
Coloured by Lee Loughridge
Lettered by Sal Cipriano
Three Made Men, standing at the brink of retirement, find their unbreakable bond put to the ultimate test when they are suddenly assaulted by the ghosts of their past. Confronted by decades of buried secrets – resentments, affairs, double-crosses, and murders – the three friends have no choice but to unearth the deepest, darkest sin from their past and pray they don't find an empty grave.
I may not know a lot about what's going on or what has led up to this point but dag nabbit I want to know! That’s what Rob has gone and done here, I want to know everything and from the looks of this there has to be something along the lines of a deal with the devil, at least in my mind. From what I see here these three have led the life of friends, business associates and more in a true Vegas Mob style and then things changed. There is so much left unknown and I love that and hate it at the same time. Rob introduces us to a rich world already fully formed with a mysterious past and to me that is so damn intriguing and I want to know more.
I am thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot develop we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is laid down very nicely. The way that we see the character development here is incredibly interesting. Sure Rob utilised the normal dialogue between characters beautifully and how the act and react to the situations they find themselves in. However, there is more to it than just that. It is what isn’t being said and having to read between the lines to really grasp the meaning,is what strikes me as the most interesting. The pacing is superbly done and as it takes us through the pages revealing the current mood of each man we start to see how distance, money and greed can drive one-time friends into bitter rivals and enemies. The way in which the book is structured is phenomenal and how everything works together to create the ebb & flow is really something to see.
The interiors here are abso-bloody-lutely gorgeous! The linework is amazing and how we see the varying weights being utilised to show us the attention to detail is marvellous. The creativity and imagination on display here is astonishing to see. I’m loving the overall aesthetic of this book; the utilisation of the page layouts is sensational and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this extremely talented eye for storytelling. The utilisation of backgrounds here not only is a joy to see but they work so well at expanding the moments, bringing us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The real standout here however, is the colour work. The night sky whether it’s just the stars, the skyline or all lit up like a christmas tree how the colours are utilised is mindbogglingly well rendered. The various hues and tones that we see within the colours that are utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is utterly amazing to me. There’s a real solid sense of not only how to utilise colour but how the hues within the range of any given colour which the average eye doesn’t realise exists there. Super impressed with the interiors in a way that just makes me smile!
The story is gosh darn immaculately written and it engages the readers’ mind, imagination and creativity while we delve into the layers surrounding each of the characters. Sigh I am happy that I follow Rob’s career as a writer and the man is a wordsmith in ways you and I can only hope to achieve. This is why we read comics folks.