
Black Caravan/Scout Comics 2020
Created, Written & Coloured by Peter Goral
Illustrated by Joseph Schmalke
Lettered by Joel Rodriguez
For uncounted millennia, the Cryptocrystalline Stone remained lost to the blackness of space, hidden amongst the stars. As time passed, the galaxy slipped into greater peril. Thousands of systems fell and worlds crumbled. Dark and ominous beings conspire from the shadows to possess its unlimited power and ability to resurrect a legion of deathless warriors. From the vastness of the unknown regions, whispers of his return paralyzed all in fear: Phantom Starkiller, The Cosmic Ghoul Warrior must now unleash his inner darkness to carry out his master's wishes, all while plotting his revenge; for he cannot stop his interstellar rampage until The Curse of The Cryptocrystalline Stone has been broken!
This is about as campy as it gets and I love every single solitary panel of it! To me this is Skeletor as Darth Vader running around the galaxy as an assassin so yeah for me this is exactly the kind of book we need right now. One so unapologetically not right that’s it’s perfectly done so if you are easily offended this might not be for you. On the other hand if you want to see if you can be offended then I welcome you to see if this does it for you. Or if you just wanna have some wonderfully ridiculous fun make sure you get this!
I am thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being told. How we see the story & plot development constantly moving forward through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is extremely well done. I like the blend of now and then storytelling so that we get to see the events that lead up to his being the Phantom we see today is being utilised. With how we see this structured and the layering within the story are utilised to really delve into both the story and the character development is impressive. How we see him act and react to the situations and circumstances he encounters while he’s enjoying himself and reminiscing about the past has that desired effect on fleshing him out as a person.
How we see everything working together here to create the story’s ebb & flow is really nice to witness. How the story is being told and how we see this written makes a huge difference in how we perceive things and it really is something that is utterly delightful.
The interiors here are fun to see! The linework is great and I do like seeing how the varying weights are being utilised to create the detail work. That we see backgrounds as we do helps to enhance the moments, show us the ship or a world as well as provide us with this great depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The creativity and imagination that is on display here is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solid and talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is great. I like that we see more of this four colour kind of work and it really suits the topic of conversation as it were. How the various hues and tones are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered.
This is a hoot and a holler to read. It blends so many different aspects of what is considered retro and whipped up into this kind of homage to the past. This defies explanation when it comes to genre but that’s another reason to love this book. Schmaltzy sure it feels like that’s what is intended and I will wholeheartedly admit that this is told to near perfection.