Source Point Press 2018
Written by Timothy Bach
Illustrated by Brian Atkins
Coloured by Ander Zarate
Lettered by Marco Della Verde
I Was a Werewolf Single Father! With his wife missing, Phil Graves tries to hold his family together while keeping his werewolf curse at bay-all while also stopping Gustav from getting the mirrors he needs to feed off the space-time continuum. Meanwhile, Bjanka plans a dangerous escape. Can they be super team of monsters if they can't even be a family?!
I love this! It’s like if the Munsters were the Fantastic Four with all the drama, all the action, the science and infighting you can handle! With each issue that I read I find myself more and more engrossed in not only their lives, which seems to be steadily growing more chaotic with each new issue, but with the whole concept behind what we see. Guys I keep shouting till I am horse that you need to be looking outside the supposed Big 2 or 3 depending on your point of view and read books from small publishers because the level of quality and enjoyment you’ll get from them is what you keep moaning, groaning and bitching about being missing.
Last issue saw Phil’s absentee father show up and abscond with his wife while the kids watched it happen. What happens next well that’s what is going on here I have to say Timothy’s writing here is sublime. Not only does the opening make you say wha?, but it also has some of the nicest dialogue I have seen in some time. The pacing and the way he creates the whole ebb & flow the story so it’s like that winding brook that if your not careful becomes rapids around the bend. Although you just need to hop on and drift until it all does sideways and enjoy the ride.
I do love the characterisation here. No one not even the baby escapes getting just the right amount of attention at just the right moments. Also the sheer fact that the family can come together when they need to and when they are comfortable or at least not in fear of their lives as well as act like a normal family, sibling ribbing and such, even when the chips are down well hell that’s just plain good writing. This is just fantastic stuff and the more you read the more you enjoy and the more you find little things that you’ve missed previously. That is always a good sign that it takes multiple reads to get absolutely everything or at least as close as you get.
The interiors here are rather impressive as well. I really am enjoying the way Brian is able to use the linework to create the little details here which stand out when you add Ander’s colours. You can see Brian getting better in this issue and there are real flashes of what’s to come and I cannot wait to see that. The creativity and imagination that is on display here is sensational and it comes to life in ways that not only feel natural but look as accurate as can be. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a nice eye for storytelling. Seeing backgrounds utilised like they are is nice but for a story like this they are pretty essential to really flesh things out so they could be a little sharper and used more often.
Overall this is a great book, it reminds me why I started reading comics in the first place, For the life of me I cannot remember What made us think that we were wise and We'd never compromise, and it’s about time that we had more series like this on stands. This is proof positive that quirky characters, outrageous looks and fanciful abilities that can have that edge to them and still remain bright and positive is more than possible it’s preferable.