ComiXology Originals 2019
Written by Alex Segura & Monica Gallagher
Illustrated by George Kambadais
Layouts by Marco Finnegan
Coloured by Ellie Wright
Lettered & Designed by Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studios
Hard Revolution Part 1: Beast in View
Burnt out cops reporter Lara Dominguez finds herself on the defensive, battling back thugs attacking one of her GED-prep students after class. There's a new player on the Creighton crime scene, she's told. Lara moved to Creighton to escape her past in Miami, and found a new obsession - the city's debonair vigilante, The Black Ghost. Unable to focus on anything else - and goaded on by her cyber-connection, LONE - Lara faces a crossroads: continue on a mad crusade to unmask the Ghost in search of a scoop, or find herself in the line of fire?
So I really like this. It makes me feel like it could be a part of the line of Super-Hero books with The Fly or The Jaguar. Or if I am going to go there the Grey Ghost from the Batman Animated Series. Any way you slice it this feels like it belongs in that old school golden age of comics. The look, feel and design of the character is familiar and comforting which is just adds to the immediate like of the idea of him. There are a few other things that when, not if but when, you read this you'll be able to see how you connect with in your own realm of comics knowledge and love.
The opening here is great as the story draws you in and makes you wonder what is going on. So by engaging the reader in the manner it does much like the young man we too want to know who Miss D is and why she's doing what she is. I am here to tell you that the dialogue is phenomenal and how it emphasises the characterisation is even better. The story & plot development and the character development that we are seeing here as the information and twists and turns are revealed shows some great forethought when developing them. With the pacing picking this all up and moving everything forward it creates this really nice, smooth ebb & flow to the story that makes you feel like you are reading faster than you are.
The interiors here are cute. While they do highlight some great all-ages work I am sorely missing the utilisation of backgrounds. To start off with the first panel like that and end with the alley magically appearing & disappearing I think that was a missed opportunity. However the way we see these angles and perspective in the panels along with the utilisation of the page layouts show a stupendous eye for storytelling. I am a fan of how we see the varying weights in the linework to bring out some of this attention to detail. The colour work is nice to see as we see the colours and how their hues and tones work to create the shading and shadows. The colour blocking is nicely done. Also I like the way that the faces have the linework in them like they do it just adds character.
The premise that is presented and how Dominguez recant her history makes this not just new reader friendly, it feels established as if we are coming into the middle of something, beautifully sets up where this story arc is going. The way this is being told engages the reader, takes their mind beyond what's on the page and to be able to do that is a wonderful thing.
I keep being impressed time and again by the books that I am seeing come out ComiXology Originals. That they show us digital books from almost every company you can think of and now, finally, have branched out to their own new, unique titles well it's just another amazing outlet for some dynamic books!