Mad Cave Studios 2020
Written by Anthony Cleveland
Illustrated by Antonio Fuso
Coloured by Stefano Simeone
Lettered by Justin Birch
Years ago Shae, her brother Kenny, and two childhood friends experienced a traumatic, unexplainable event that left Kenny scarred for life. Kenny commits himself to the belief that what they experienced was an alien abduction. Twenty years later and the friends have since drifted apart, but the sudden, mysterious disappearance of Kenny leads the group to reunite and discover the truth of what took place all those years ago.
Well I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this but given Mad Cave Studios track record I knew I was wanting to read this. I had a hell of a time trying to find a physical as well so either stores weren’t sure either or just didn’t order enough. I will say this though, you need to find it because from just reading this first issue it’s going to be an amazing story. We don’t really see a lot of alien abduction type stories and that’s a shame but this one, this one is that and oh so much more. The excitement that this manages to generate is fantastic and it reaffirms my belief that Mad Cave Studios continues to grow and expand in all the right ways.
I like the way that this is being told. The opening here is great and it will grab your attention, light up your imagination and make you wonder how this fits into the larger story being told. It is everything an opening should be, sans an opening splash page that is and as I am old school I really do miss those.
The story & plot development that we see here through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. That we see the past and the present mixed throughout, then and now storytelling, so that the key moments we need to see help to explain the current situation for characters is handled extremely well. The character development is extremely impressive. Though while I am not sure who these folks in the opening are and if they’ll play a part in what’s to come but regardless of who they are in this book we get a precise vision of who they are. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way as well as revealing the story itself we see how well everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
I am a fan of Antonio and Stefano’s work and to see it here bringing this to life is splendiferous indeed. The linework here is gorgeous and how we see so many varying weights and techniques being utilised to showcase the attention to detail is stupendous work. The imagery plays such a huge part in how the book is perceived and the mood tone and feel of what we see is phenomenally well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a truly marvellous eye for storytelling. The way we see backgrounds being utilised is sensational and with a story such as this you really need them to make what we see that much more. They also provide us with depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The colour work is absolutely gorgeous. How we see the hues and tones within the colours utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work. This just enhances everything we see and it’s done beautifully.
The way we see this structured and how we see the layers of story within and what they showcase what could happen is done with aplomb. This is engaging, interesting and full of a certain verve that lights up the imagination. Definitely a highlight of the comics week and the industry in general one might say.