Mad Cave Studios 2020
Written by David Galiano
Illustrated by Carlos Angeli
Lettered by Miguel Angel Zapata
After Sam was shot while they were trying to escape town, Elliot was able to escape to Chief Running Boar's village to recover. Soon after, the Chief recommends a vision quest to help the brothers find their paths.
The first issue certainly showed promise and I am glad to see that what I thought was justified within this issue. I think after getting the initial nerves and jitters out of the way and the practice of sequential story storytelling things seem to be picking up here. Now that the introduction is out of the way we get to see the story really start. Yes I will say there are some jumping issues, as the story jumps here to there without a proper transition but it is much improved. I found myself become more and more involved and invested I the story this issue ant that's a wonderful thing to have happen. David finds a way for the reader to connect with the characters here as we explore who they are. I kind of wish this had been the first issue.
I do like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information are presented nicely. A few more tweaks that will come with experience and if we keep seeing the improvements from issue to issue like this than watch out Mad Cave is going to haver a great creative team on it's hands. The character development that we see is nice, again a few things are left out that I wish hadn't been. Elliot's tiny moment in the dreamscape was confusing and I wish more attention had been paid to that. After all Sam's journey was a lot more detailed and the time differential could've been more even. The pacing is solid and it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns and introduction of the new characters extremely well.
I had high hopes for this one. I love Mad Cave Studios and they've got some incredibly good, strong and diverse books out there. They also support up and coming talent, through their talent search program which I believe is where this comes from. So it is nice to see these folks given a chance and making the most of it. So that this is growing stronger and stronger by the last issue I have a feeling they've have hit that first plateau.
The interiors here are nicely rendered as well. I was hoping to be blown away by the journey they took with that Peyote and I was impress and a tad disappointed. I think this has to do with the backgrounds and how they are underutilised and how we don't see enough variation in the weights of the linework. Trust me the talent and skill are here it just needs a little honing and some experimentation. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellous eye for storytelling. I am impressed with how we see depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The colour work is great. I love how we see the various hues and tones within the colours utilised to bring out the shading, highlights and shadow work. Also huge shout-out for the eyes throughout the book here because their brightness and their meaning shine bright like a diamond.
I like where this book is going and how it is heading there. It brings me back to DC's Western Tales with the likes of Jonah Hex, Firehair and Scalphunter and trust e when I say that this is the kind of storytelling that we've unwittingly needed right now. I love Mad Cave, they are great people, do great work and go above and beyond for the industry and this is a perfect time to peruse their titles and start reading of the fastest growing company in comics.