
Aftershock Comics 2020
Created & Written by Brandon Thomas
Created & Illustrated by Lee Ferguson
Coloured by Jose Villarrubia
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Winston Wallis has a secret. He is all that remains of mankind, and is surrounded on all sides by demons, monsters, and ghouls that picked up where humankind left off – lying, stealing, cheating, and killing.
Years ago, it was Winston’s job to investigate such things. Now his ex-partner needs help solving the brutal murder of the world’s largest Colossal. Because he knows the secret. He knows about the magical curse that gives Winston the ability to survive a world where everything is bigger, stronger, and angrier than he is. But how long can Win’s impossible luck last, and will this new case finally be the death of him?
Win certainly hopes so…
I really enjoyed this and I think for a myriad of reasons some of which were more feelings than anything else. The interiors to me feel like they were inspired by Barry Kitson and that kind of style to me is outstanding. I like that this is a future where beings from either multiple worlds or dimensions all live side by side. Without any explanation of when or even where we are when this story takes place just that we enter an already running saga is beautifully done. This captures the attention, makes the reader wonder about this and want to know more about it. So kudos for the way that we see this being structured as well as how we see the layers within the story which just keeps adding to the intrigue factor.
I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development as seen through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information keeps everything moving forward perfectly. The character development that we see is great and that we have our two main characters who are kind of like the odd couple and the more they chat and the more dialogue we see the more ambiguous they become. They talk about things we aren’t privy to and it’s both maddening and infinitely fascinating because it instills that need to know on the part of the reader. The pacing here is great and as it takes us through the pages revealing the city and their relationship it’s really easy to see how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
As I mentioned earlier I love the interiors here. The linework is strong and the style is great and the way that the varying weights are being utilised to create the details that we see is extremely well rendered. The creativity and imagination that is on display here is phenomenal stuff, and I love seeing how this is incorporated into the character designs. Backgrounds are utilised pretty well throughout but i’d still like to see more of them, specially considering Winston’s luck and all. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong eye for storytelling. The colour work is really well laid down as well. I like how we see the choice of colours and then how opposite or complementary or just outrageous choices that are made here. How the various hues and tones within the colours are utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered exquisitely well.
This isn’t your ordinary science fiction story. No this is creative, inventive and really more outside the box than I had expected it to be. Proving once again that Aftershock is pushing the envelope and putting out some sensational storytelling here.