SFC Comics/Evoluzione Publishing 2018
Written by Greg Anderson Elysée
Illustrated by Massimiliano Veltri
Coloured by Marco Pagnotta
Letttered by Micah Myers
The Gentleman finds himself drawn to Espere St. Lanmé, mysterious and alluring, seeking help and protection from a being of possibly supernatural origins. Unfortunately to protect her, Oliver must succumb to his special abilities, a hereditary curse that uses his body as a key and vessel to the Void, an ancient evil with the means to destroy all life as we know.
I have been a fan of Evoluzione for a while now and I do so love when they send me something as completely unexpected, thrilling, engrossing and amazingly diverse. I doth my cap to Greg Anderson Elysée here for the way that this is written. I found myself engrossed in the story very quickly and as the layers of Ollie and his life are peeled like a Bloomin' Onion we begin to glimpse how incredibly complicate this man truly is. For a debut issue this rocks it with it mmhmm out man let me tell ya. So totally, utterly and completely captivating in ways you have to discover for yourself to truly appreciate. Also when I said diversity I meant it, sexuality is fluid and undefinable and the relationship Ollie has with Ralphie well to discover more you must pick up the book.
The way that this is being told is extremely nice to see. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exquisitely well. I like how we see this being told and how natural the events flow together and into one another so that it just feels like how you live your life. The character development is interesting to me and it fascinates me that we learn about Ollie through others and his actions rather than him revealing anything. Though Simone Simon is the real star and scene stealer. The pacing is phenomenal and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way we see how all of this creates the books ebb & flow.
I love not knowing what to expect when I read a book. It is why I try to keep my books as spoiler free as I possibly can. I talk about my experience reading the book and highlight things as seen through my sometimes overly critical eye and I gotta tell ya there isn't one thing about this book that isn't damn near perfect.
The interiors here are really rather gorgeously rendered. The linework is exceptional and how we see the varying weights AND various techniques being utilised to bring us this level and quality of attention to detail blows my mind. I have been reviewing old school comics recently and the techniques we see here are utilised then but with merged with today's newer style of comic art so the experience is truly unique in a visual sense. The way that we see backgrounds and the importance they play in the story as well as within the composition of the panels to provide depth perception, scale and that overall sense of size and scope for the story is amazing. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is exquisite as well.. the way that we see the various hues and tones within colours and how they create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered. That a lot of this is in the dark and the colours are dark and muted and yet still retain all this depth and dimension is expertly rendered.
If you couldn't tell by now this is one of those rare books that comes along once every so often that proves no matter how long you've been reading comics there are still surprises out there and you just have to find them. I cannot stress enough that companies such as Evoluzione are home to some of the best storytelling there is to offer.