Scout Comics 2017
Created & Written by Richard Rivera
Created & Illustrated by Dwayne Biddix
Coloured by Liezl Beunaventura
Lettered by Jaymes Reed
Seven-year-old Grace, still clutching her adorable plush bunny, is kidnapped by supernatural forces that have been hunting her family for generations. She awakens in a shack on the outskirts of town, and for the first time in her life, the little girl can't sense her mother's presence. Her captor knows the family's secrets, and that link has been severed. When her escape attempt fails, it seems there will be deadly consequences, but an unlikely protector intervenes. It's a big mistake to kidnap a child with a plush toy named Stabbity Bunny!
This was self-published before it came to Scout which is now available through Diamond for a release on January 31st so yes I’d highly recommend you get to your shoppe or subscription service now to order it for you.
Ya know at first glance I thought what the heck did they send me some cutesy all-ages book? I mean I was surprised to say the least and then I started to read this, after all it was sent to me so I’d thought I’d least give it a go. Oh boy I have to say this took me by surprise and thrilled me beyond belief. Grace is just the cutest sweetest little girl who carries her stuffed animal everywhere and loves Panda Bears. Well who doesn’t love Panda’s I mean they are my absolute favourite animal in the world. Her class at school is going to the zoo and she can’t wait to see the Panda’s.
Then something happens and I thought what the hell kind of book is this. A child at the zoo transfixed by the Panda’s doesn’t move onward with her class and suddenly she’s gone but for a lone ribbon. Even the mama Panda and her baby know what happened wasn’t good. She was kidnapped and it’s incredibly creepy and extremely disturbing and ultimately train wreck, rubber necking fascinating. Why because while we are instantly appalled we still wanna see what happens even against our better nature. It’s the same thing or quality that makes us watch horror motion pictures when we seem to know better.
It is almost as if the artwork here is intentionally offsetting the tone of the story. I mean I like it as it has this cute all-ages feel which totally goes against the grain here. Dwayne has a good eye for storytelling as we see through the use of page layouts with their angles and perspective. I’m going to go half and half on the attention to detail though because in this kind of style it’s hard to get that across unless it’s in the backgrounds. Which are also well utilised when in play meaning I want to see more of them used.
I purposefully did not put the company description of the series here like I would normally do. Why because I want you to pick this up and discover what lies inside without preconceived notions or knowing where this series is placed, genre wise, or given too much information on just the kind of series it is. I wish I hadn’t read it but hey that’s okay I can still enjoy this, and so could you.
The characterisation here is excellent and surprising to me as the characters that are introduced and we get to meet them. Richard does an excellent job with the structure, pacing and story development within these pages. The ebb & flow of the story here is good, solid stuff and the fact that I’ve never heard of him before now makes me kind of sad and happy as now I’m excited to see what he can do. He has a fresh new perspective and it’s damn good stuff mixing the creepy, the real and the unknown into something so bright and colourful.
Folks this is one to watch out for!