Black Mask Studios 2018
Created & Written by Patrick Kindlon
Created & Illustrated by Antonio Fuso
Lettered by Jim Campbell
It all comes down to this. Escape the city or die on the pavement. Either way, this is the last run for Saheer.
This has been one of those unexpected and stunningly dynamic book that you probably haven’t read. Hawaii, and the United States and World as a whole, has changed now survivors struggle to stay alive in their own little spaces. Meanwhile there are those who have stockpile of guns and ammunition, from where not really sure but guess what – you gotta suspend disbelief it’s not hard to do – and they rule the streets and if you are out and about without paying a tribute then you best hope you can dodge that snipers bullet.
I first read Patrick’s work with 12 Reasons to Die but it was We Can Never Go Home that cemented my fandom for his writing. This however blows everything out of the water by comparison. I mean the structuring of this book is so damn good. The overall ebb & flow to this book is superbly done and the characterisation here has been invaluable to our getting to know the characters. The layers of their personalities and the deception that they do to survive here has been extraordinarily told. There are those we’ve come to love and those we wish would succumb to a bullet. However there is absolutely no denying the quality of the storytelling here.
The love story here is bittersweet to me. Though there are few things that go through my mind here like What I Did For Love and West Side Story because somehow or another they both seem very apropos to what I see here. Quite honestly it’s also one of the reasons why I keep reading, looking forward to new issues and why it constantly makes my top books of the week list. While this is the culmination of Saheer’s life in the city and desperately trying to get out to make a better life for him and the girl he loves. Maybe I should think of this more like Romeo and Juliet when thinking of this but at the beginning we knew they both wouldn’t survive but we hoped.
Antonio’s work on the interiors here is phenomenal. He mixes his signature style with all sorts of different aspects that really make this book shine. His eye for storytelling is simply stunning and as we see in the page layouts here he’s not afraid to go outside the box while still providing these amazing angles and perspectives in the panels. Black and white is a notoriously hard format to work in and it shows any mistakes or imperfections but the work Antonio does is really beyond reproach and the elegance of the linework shines. We all know I am a huge fan of backgrounds and the way Antonio utilises them works for him and hist style of storytelling.
This is one of those stories that while only five issues long is one that leaves that lasting impression and leaves us wanting more. Not necessarily with these characters mind you unless of course it’s one of those whom we’ve met but has only the briefest kind of appearances. Hell who am I kidding pick a tower any tower and let’s learn how that came to be inhabited by them. So that I want to keep exploring this world just goes to show you how amazing they’ve been at bringing this to life. That as a reader you want this to continue out of pure selfishness yeah that’s when you know you’ve found some creators whom you’ll follow for as they as they produce new books.