Red 5 Comics 2018
Written by Scott Chitwood
Illustrated by Danny Luckert
Coloured by Ronda Pattison
Lettered by Troy Peteri
In the Gulf of Mexico where the seafloor is laid bare, survivors from a doomed cruise ship find themselves stranded on hundred miles from shore. Led by a young woman named Hannah, they locate a nearby oil rig to call the Coast Guard for rescue. But as they radio for help, the damaged platform unexpectedly explodes. Meanwhile, as the asteroid dubbed “Charbybdis” passes by, the sea begins rushing back towards shore in the biggest Tsunami of all time.
This has been hands down one of those action thrillers that comes along so rarely. I mean sure we could’ve had more of a look at the science but that wasn’t necessary at all. This is a story about those survivors from the cruise ship and I’ll be damned if this was the exact opposite of The Poseidon Adventure. The concept is brilliant and I like how the group formed in the first place, those that listened and those that didn’t and those who accosted them along way so not everyone who started out makes it back. It is brutal, honest and really is all about knowing enough about a few things to survive all this madness and do it while against the clock of the returning waters.
Scott has been utterly bloody brilliant with this story. His pacing and how the revelations, obstacles and bonds are made between the characters is so great that it blew me away. The way he’s structured the book is amazing and the opening here is that moment that we want to see as it’s the final countdown (We're leaving together, But still it's farewell And maybe we'll come back). One of the things that happens with this is that the pulse rate starts to go up and the adrenaline kicks in that’s even before we get past that first page.
When we left them Hanna and Alex were trying to get off the platform before it’s big explosion and that’s where we pick up with the group. Also the Coast Guard who’s rescue copter is low on fuel is on his way. Everything seems to be rushing forward and it’s a bit of hell on the nerves let me tell ya. So I can’t give things away because you really do need to be reading this and when it ends up that you get, see order from your local comic shoppe, the trade you’ll appreciate me not giving off spoilers, the troublealert is silent.
I love the interiors here if there is one complaint is that there is absolutely nothing on bottom of the ocean. We don’t see anything, at first we did but now not a thing and there has to be as seaweed and those tubular vents grow out of the bottom and god forbid the creatures that didn’t get washed out with the rest. While I say this that doesn’t mean it detracts from the story at all we just have to suspend disbelief and in comics that a mainstay. The linework here is crisp, clean and the varying weights that we see utilised make for this gorgeous attention to detail. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off such a great eye for storytelling. The colours here are so we utilised as well and whether it is vibrant or muted, if there is a need for gradation or just the way we see the shading it really is beautiful.
I still want this to be nominated for limited series of the year. All of the creators in their categories and the book itself. Red 5 Comics really has some stellar books available to be read and if you haven’t found that out for yourself then it’s way past time and you should start right here.