Top Cow Productions/image Comics 2018
Written by Dan Wickline
Illustrated by Phillip Sevy
Lettered by Troy Peteri
Ray and his coworkers have begun to build their new society, but each newly unfrozen person has their own opinions about what happened--and how things should be done.
Last issue we opened up with a bang and then as Ray told the story of what happened in the world to the young he just woke up as they got away from a group after them. Well I like that we’re getting a bunch of backstory here because I want to know how many people did Ray actually wake up? If there were six hostile’s and they well alive that means they were folks Ray knew or woke up at someone’s suggestion. So I am now more curious than ever to see how everything has unfolded.
Dan writes a killer story and I know this because I loved his Blood Queen limited series (among others of which I just found two I'd never heard of and now I'm obsessed with finding them) it was everything I wanted and so much more. So knowing that he was coming out with a new story I was excited and so far this is exceeding my expectations because I want to know more. We are starting to see that there are people with some varying mindsets so there inevitably is conflict of ideas and how things should be. Some will be harmless and others well I would say this is definitely a serial killers dream come true scenario, I mean all these people frozen unable to fight back or anything so he or she can experiment with killing, dissecting and such it gives me the creeps thinking about it.
The best horror that we see is the kind that don’t show a lot and instead let the readers mind go to those places on their own. Sure we can see the aftermath and know what’s out there but letting the reader’s own imagination run wild can so much scarier than anything we see in front of us. Hitchcock never showed gory violence not even during the shower scene in Psycho instead it was always aftermath like blood swirling down a drain. Give the reader enough to extrapolate from what we are seeing and show some people’s actions to throw suspicion around let them run wild that also helps guarantee that they come back time and again because they have become invested in the story.
I am a huge fan of Phillip’s interiors here. Oh the linework is utterly gorgeous and the way he’s able to use the linework to bring us this stunning attention to detail is amazing. In places like seeing seeing the hills of San Marino and the trees and buildings that panel alone is a wow moment yet the work throughout the book has that same kind of work so it’s just a huge treat to be able to see it. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off such a talented eye for storytelling. The way that backgrounds are utilised help expand the moments as well as size and scope of the city. He does such an amazing job through all of this and the colour work is just as amazing with the use of light sources, shadows, shading and colour gradation.
This book has some great pacing that helps the over all ebb & flow of the book seem to sail right on through to the other side. With strong characterisation and a premise that’s so weird it works, hey it could be a series on SyFy alongside The Killjoys and The Expanse, Dan has and is creating something unique and right up his alley and if you enjoy science fiction horror stories then you need to be reading this!