Half Evil Comics 2020
Created & Written by Rylend Grant
Illustrated by Fabio Alves
Coloured by Edson Ferreira
Lettered by HdE
After a series of crippling personal tragedies, Thomas Northrope retreats from his everyday life and finds comfort in an online community dedicated to the art of astral projection. When he demonstrates a unique aptitude for the practice, Thomas becomes the target of a mysterious corporate/political machine – known as AJAX – bent on using promising young practitioners to win a centuries-old war on the astral plane.
I am such a fan of these folks, Banjax is an amazing read so if you haven’t read that I highly suggest you get to it. So when Rylend asked me to do a review I Jumped on the chance heh sorry couldn’t resist. All you need is to see the opening to know this is going to be a massive good time, not to mention a massive hit as well. The way that we see this issue unfold is really rather quite remarkable and it easily captures the readers’ mind, imagination as we are immediately engaged in what we see. Personally I am a fan of how a story can take my own thoughts and run them through a cascading amount of scenarios when trying to figure a few things out. Of course when none of them bear any fruit that’s even better because it keeps me on my toes.
I am thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being told. The way we see the story & plot development consistently moving forward through how we see the sequence of events unfolding as well how the reader learns information is beautifully presented. It feels like we get a ton, and I do mean a ton, of information and you’d expect this to be a double sized issue as a result. Since it isn’t that just means Rylend’s ability and talent continues to grow and get stronger since this never feels rushed nor does it feel like we’re missing anything. The character development is interesting to see. Thomas is a tad easy to understand and relate to in so many ways. Though the situations and circumstances he finds himself in do change him and this is great to see. The pacing is phenomenal folks and as it guides us through the pages revealing the events that shape the story we see how all of this works together to create the books ebb & flow.
The guys work on the interiors here is mindbogglingly brilliant! I see here the growth and development that they’ve gotten through working together on the aforementioned Banjax. When I saw that first page I was left gobsmacked at how incredible the page looks. The linework we see is superb, it’s strong and through the varying weights are utilised to bring about this attention to detail is amazing. Now anyone who’s read a review of mine knows I love to see backgrounds being utilised and this book in particular needs them like few others do. Of course they also work within the composition in the panels to create this great depth perception, sense of scale as well as the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The colour work is brilliant as well. I mean just the way we see this volume of colour through their various hues and tones being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is glorious! P.S. that past panel yeah mmhmm.
This is why we love comics and it’s why I keep urging everyone to keep your eyes on small press indie comics. While this is will be on Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rylendgrant/the-jump-1-from-screenwriter-ringo-award-winner-rylend-grant) tomorrow, so i do urge you to support it and share it out, it really deserves the big time treatment. This really is among the best of the best of whatever it is you are currently reading, at least it is in my humble opinion. This is fresh, new and unique and I cannot wait to see where this planning on going next!