AWA Upshot Studios 2020
Written by Ollie Masters & Rob Williams
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.
Damn what is going on in comics lately? This is another exemplary book and when a single issue can make you sing your own specialised playlist then you know it’s got to be good. For the record I sang Aerosmith throughout the entire issue changing songs with different scenes but man Living on the Edge was the most prominent and worthy song for this. The opening for this one is incredibly powerful in both the writing and the interior artwork. It will leave that indelible impression on you as soon as you finish it. This is crafted in a way that leaves me gobsmacked by how mindbogglingly good it is.
The way that this is being told is utterly sensational. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is laid out with such aplomb. I mean the way we go through this book is amazing and to see these three men at this stage of life and how they’ve changed without knowing how is so palpable. The character development is off the charts and when you read the book you’ll understand what I mean. The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way we see how all of this works together to create the books ebb & flow.
There is something about how these guys are able to take this genre and twist it and tweak it and bring it to a place that it feels so natural and right in the most primal ways ever. There is something deep and guttural about what we see here, so raw and honest and it connects with the reader in some of the most truly remarkable ways. I am moved and touched by this in ways I wasn’t prepared for and you have or will experience.
The interior artwork here is utterly gorgeous. The way that the colours work in actually making the backgrounds come to life like they is beyond brilliantly rendered. Then there’s the linework we are seeing which is so amazing how it can look so fragile and yet be so damn strong at the same time. I love how we see backgrounds because not only do they enhance the moments but they provide this depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book. It really just looks amazing. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this magnificently talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is divine! The hues and tones within any given colour and how they are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is superb. The way we see the opening colour versus the now, they are extremely well done and I'm super impressed all around by what I see.
This series is already amazing, it needs to be the introduction to this world because there are still characters with stories to tell that surround these men. This is just some of the best storytelling that I have had the pleasure to ever see. This company has come out of nowhere and made their stamp in the industry in a huge way!