Red5 Comics 2020
Written by Scott Chitwood
Illustrated by Danny Luckert
Coloured by Matt James
Lettered by Troy Peteri
Soon to be a major motion picture, the Riptide series continues with an all-new adventure! When a mysterious creature attacks subsea equipment at a North Sea oil platform, a team led by Alex is sent to investigate. But Hannah and her documentary crew find the first clues in an unlikely place – Loch Ness!
Thrilled and a little disappointed not gonna lie. The original story had the waters recede and a group of survivors who were the focus of that one and I loved the concept and honestly I was hoping to see more of that. Thrilled because this is here however, as the story itself is solid, interesting and engaging and I can see how this fits in. Though I am unsure which will be a major motion picture, please let it be the original story please please please, it doesn’t matter because what Scott has created here is absolutely this crazy world where strange things happen in the oceans. I mean count me in, now if he could just take Meg and make that a comic book series too, because who doesn’t love crazy scary stories based in the ocean?
I am a huge fan of the way this is being told. How we see the story & plot development constantly moving forward through how we see the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The opening is bloody brilliant by itself and that it only serves as a precursor to the main story is almost, notice I said almost, disappointing as well. I mean that would’ve been one hell of a tale! The character development we see is strong and while we kind of get a feel for them when we first meet them the more we see them the more interesting they become. It’ll be interesting to watch how far in any given direction Scott is going to take them. The pacing is perfect and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and the cast of characters it’s easy to see how well everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
I am also a fan of how this is structured and the layering within the story itself. I like how the different factors are at play and seeing how the differences between them are stressed and set up something that’s going to happen. I can’t wait to see how things play out.
The interiors here are really rather nice. The linework that we see is sure, strong and steady and how the varying weights are being utilised to showcase the detail work that we see is extraordinarily well rendered. How we see the backgrounds are incorporated so that they enhance the moments, expand what we see as well as bringing us some great depth perception, a sense of scale and this 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 such a talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is incredible to see. How the radar with it’s colours and how we see flesh tones define faces is magnificent work. Seeing the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really shows this talented eye in how colour works and is able to work to bring us the most realistic work.
I am in love with the idea of the book, how we see it unfolding and just the sheer way that this fits into the world that has been created. Oh how I would love to see the waters recede here and learn the secrets of the mystery creature. Regardless this is fun and if you all haven’t had the opportunity to read this than I highly recommend that you seek it out and see why I hold this in such high regard.