Vault Comics 2020
Written by Cavan Scott
Illustrated by Corin Howell
Coloured by Triona Farrell
Lettered by Andworld Design
Captured by supernatural secret agents, Gina faces the mysterious head of MI666. With her powers turned against her, the witch-turned-private investigator must risk everything to escape. But with her enemies closing in, can Gina resist one final call for help?
This is one of those crazy series that on the surface seems like it is almost a cheeky one. It isn’t by the way as it’s actually rather serious and quite exceptionally well written. Though I am a fan of Scott’s work so it’s no surprise to me that this is as good as it is. Plus there really is something about London and magic that fits together so perfectly that it feels like this really is a part of the world. It also takes the science fiction genre and keeps adding a new dimension to it that just continues to demonstrate why Vault Comics is on the forefront.
I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information moves the story forward exceptionally well. From the opening that recaps the first manifestation of her powers to how the issue ends the way we see this book structured is just beautifully done. The character development that we see is phenomenal and as we see them act, interact and the dialogue between them really reveals layers to the characters. So does how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. The pacing is spot on brilliant and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way it’s easy to see how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
I love how we see the layers within the story and how some of them are beginning to converge. This adds to the drama and intrigue factors here exponentially with each new revelation or discovery. It is so incredibly easy to like Gina and find empathy with her as she’s had a hard knock life that she’s managed to pull herself up from the depths by literal shoestrings and yet she still maintains her principles and this amazing work ethic. All this makes in kind of inspiring and definitely a role model worthy of the title.
The interiors here are absolutely marvellous! The linework that we see is exquisite and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to showcase the detail work we see is really rather extraordinary. I mean that dude she refers to her as her step-dad on the first page shows you what the level and quality of work is going to be throughout and it’s bloody brilliant. Also so that we see backgrounds are being utilised as they are in conjunction with the page layouts that we see really enhances the moments beautifully while also providing us with depth perception, a sense of scale and the 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 magnificent eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is also extremely impressive. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work demonstrates such a marvellous understanding of how colour works.
This has very quietly entered into the realm of a top tier book. It has all the requisite components as it’s written extraordinarily well and it is gorgeously illustrated and that makes it a welcome addition to everyone’s reading list regardless of what genre you may gravitate towards. A very unique one of a kind offering that needs more time in the spotlight.