American Gothic Press 2019
Story By Philip Kim
Written by Holly Interlandi
Illustrated b Piotr Kowalski
Coloured by Dennis Calero
Lettered by Jenn Pham
With Rybach and his elementals attacking the Conway farm, Cole discovers and unleashes untold powers from a lineage recently brought to light. It's enough to hold off Rybach... but how will Cole fare against a trio of bloodthirsty demons that materialize in town after following him through time? Demons Belphegor, Behemoth, and Enepsigos make their MONSTER WORLD debut!
Oh my god this issue is freaking amazing! I feel like Superman is facing off against Felix Faust with Constantine as just a reporter on the sideline. Let's face it that is the closest analogy I could come up with that people will understand. I mean the way Holly is telling this story is bloody marvellous and completely genius! With everything that has been revealed to Cole and now Rybach is there to plant so many seeds of doubt surrounding him, his origin and how is folks are using him the psychological warfare is almost as strong as the magical one unfolding before our eyes.
The story & plot development is out of the world crazy good and strong. Then the character development that we see has these crazy ass unexpected twist and turns to that make the reader wide-eyed and anxious to know more. Together the two factions keep the revelations and information coming at a scale that puts everyone to shame. Throw in the way that the pacing is utilised to move the story forward and the ebb & flow as a result of that is as tumultuous as the raging storm in a Kansas' Tornado Alley! The excitement, the anticipation and the edge of your seat realisations make this a must have book if you want to be as engaged, engrossed and entirely captivated by a comic book.
The Detective, while he still comes across more as a journalist to me and I can't figure out why I have such a strong feeling about that even if he is a Private Detective, is an interesting player in this drama. I mean he knows things through his search and travels that makes him uniquely qualified to be where he's at and know what these two think he shouldn't. Especially Rybach as that moment when the knowledge he possesses startled him and rushed his actions. I do like how the release of information however slight of hand style given here. It has this finesse to it that allows the reader to see what is going on with them without the characters giving too much away kind of like a fake tell in poker.
I love Piotr's work and the way he's able to utilise the linework through it's varying weights to spotlight the attention to detail is exquisitely done. The composition in the panels themselves is marvellous and how we see depth perception and scale are masterfully done. The way we see the body types here and the faces and facial expressions just add to the characterisation. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show what master storyteller's eye looks like. The backgrounds that we see enhance the moments and bring a sense of size and scope to the book. The colour work from Dennis is great to see, he's a seasoned colourist and understands how to use them to make moments pop and draw the eye where it needs to be. Then there's the various hues and tones within a colour that create the shading or that lightning effect and sky which is gorgeous!
This story is unlike anything else out there and while it has a familiar archetype character it's far from any kind of norm. I love that they've made this both familiar and unique and delivering a story that really packs a punch and an ending that leaves us begging for more.