The Family Graves #1
Source Point Press/Comics Experience 2018
Created & Written by Timothy Bach
Created & Illustrated by Brian Atkins
Coloured by Dijjo Lima & Brandon Daniels
Lettered by Marco Della Verde
Meet The Family Graves--a mixed-up family of monsters who are all that stands between us and a vampire literally hungry for power and the end of all things. Phil Graves, a brilliant scientist recently turned into a werewolf, launches his monster family in a dimension-hopping race to capture magical mirrors and the energy they posses. Can he and his gorgon wife, siren daughter, fish-boy son, and an adorable zombie baby, survive a terrifying trip to a Jurassic world? And is the family in even more danger at home with a werewolf dad?
I have to say that one of the first things I felt when I read this was it feels very Munsters if it were a modern creation. I loved that aspect and honestly it’s incredibly well written, it makes the reader feel comfortable very quickly and it does have this aura or way about it that makes it feel like it came right off one those teenage centric television programs usually found on Disney or Nickelodeon. Complete with that family dynamic I might add and while that’s a little too expected but I guess when that’s what you see that’s what you know.
The book is structured nicely it has a very nice ebb & flow to how we see and learn about what is going on here. I wish the opening were a bit more dramatic and eye catching especially for the first issue of a brand new series/story. The goal for the opening is to pull in new readers who would open it up and look at it because with the stands so crowded these days you really that opening to moment now more than ever. Visually that house is gorgeous although it looks out of place like it’s too thin, something you’d see in San Francisco not in a suburb but it still gives us a great look at what we can expect to see moving forward.
Once we meet the family and we get a chance to see them, learn what exactly they are and the family dynamic it’s hard not to like them. Yes even the teenage eldest female child who wants to express herself with today’s fashions you know the ones that make girls look like hookers or Brittany Spears. Actually it’s the baby that I'm most in love with already and he doesn’t even really talk but he’s hysterical nonetheless.
The interior artwork really gives the whole story a boost. The varying weights used in the linework which is clean, crisp and strong make for great visuals. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a great eye for storytelling. I adore the way that backgrounds are being utilised and that they are getting the same amount of attention to detail that everything else does. Plus the creativity and imagination on display here is beyond marvellous and a key component in how we see just how awesome the story.
This issue doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of this world. Is the whole world full of people who represent some aspect of the monster community or are there regular people peppered here and there as well? I think that the dad being a scientist who really wanted solve problems beyond his means well that part is intriguing because it’s obviously made him a very rich man, who lives more like the middle than elite class. So aside from the fantastical I am hoping that we’ll see more practical science as the book progresses.
This if fun and it has this nice undercurrent that belies what’s on the surface and for me this is what it’s all about!
Source Point Press/Comics Experience 2018
Created & Written by Timothy Bach
Created & Illustrated by Brian Atkins
Coloured by Dijjo Lima & Brandon Daniels
Lettered by Marco Della Verde
Meet The Family Graves--a mixed-up family of monsters who are all that stands between us and a vampire literally hungry for power and the end of all things. Phil Graves, a brilliant scientist recently turned into a werewolf, launches his monster family in a dimension-hopping race to capture magical mirrors and the energy they posses. Can he and his gorgon wife, siren daughter, fish-boy son, and an adorable zombie baby, survive a terrifying trip to a Jurassic world? And is the family in even more danger at home with a werewolf dad?
I have to say that one of the first things I felt when I read this was it feels very Munsters if it were a modern creation. I loved that aspect and honestly it’s incredibly well written, it makes the reader feel comfortable very quickly and it does have this aura or way about it that makes it feel like it came right off one those teenage centric television programs usually found on Disney or Nickelodeon. Complete with that family dynamic I might add and while that’s a little too expected but I guess when that’s what you see that’s what you know.
The book is structured nicely it has a very nice ebb & flow to how we see and learn about what is going on here. I wish the opening were a bit more dramatic and eye catching especially for the first issue of a brand new series/story. The goal for the opening is to pull in new readers who would open it up and look at it because with the stands so crowded these days you really that opening to moment now more than ever. Visually that house is gorgeous although it looks out of place like it’s too thin, something you’d see in San Francisco not in a suburb but it still gives us a great look at what we can expect to see moving forward.
Once we meet the family and we get a chance to see them, learn what exactly they are and the family dynamic it’s hard not to like them. Yes even the teenage eldest female child who wants to express herself with today’s fashions you know the ones that make girls look like hookers or Brittany Spears. Actually it’s the baby that I'm most in love with already and he doesn’t even really talk but he’s hysterical nonetheless.
The interior artwork really gives the whole story a boost. The varying weights used in the linework which is clean, crisp and strong make for great visuals. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a great eye for storytelling. I adore the way that backgrounds are being utilised and that they are getting the same amount of attention to detail that everything else does. Plus the creativity and imagination on display here is beyond marvellous and a key component in how we see just how awesome the story.
This issue doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of this world. Is the whole world full of people who represent some aspect of the monster community or are there regular people peppered here and there as well? I think that the dad being a scientist who really wanted solve problems beyond his means well that part is intriguing because it’s obviously made him a very rich man, who lives more like the middle than elite class. So aside from the fantastical I am hoping that we’ll see more practical science as the book progresses.
This if fun and it has this nice undercurrent that belies what’s on the surface and for me this is what it’s all about!
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