Scout Comics 2018
Written by Don Handfield & James Haick III
Illustrated by Rafael Loureiro
Coloured by Daniel Rodrigues & Dijjo Lima
Lettered by DC Hopkins
A cross between The Sopranos and The Breakfast Club, The Mall continues to fire on all cylinders! Now that the Tessitorre family has made their intentions known, Lenny and the kids must come up with a plan to keep what is rightfully theirs. It's do or die for Lena, Diego, and Lena (notice the typo). Can the Cardini kids continue keeping their high school life and new found organized crime life separate?
I have no idea what the hold up with this is but I love this book, the whole idea behind it is one that has this amazing creativity. I almost feel like it would’ve been something that John Cusack would have starred in so yeah for me the blend of what they are toting this as is pretty accurate. So with that being said (don’t keep me waiting again) I am so freakin happy with this issue and even with the wait I opened it up and immediately remembered everything that happened in the first three issues. That is how strong the writing here is that I can recall what came before instantly upon opening this up. You have no idea how valuable that is when it comes to writing and the talent and skill behind it is.
The way that this is structured is great to see with the three kids having lives of their own plus the one that intertwines them there is a lot of ground to cover. So that the boys manage to really tie them all together and keep things moving along the way they do is fantastic. The opening is interesting to say the least, though I wish you all would use names for all the kids I mean our wrong side of the tracks blonde boy no one says his name once. Still he has some principles and I like that and if he sticks to them and makes the store legit I am going to be impressed. Please tell me those are K-Swiss because those are my favourite shoes so damn comfortable. He is making himself standout and if I am completely honest he’s the kind of guy that we all had crushes on in high school.
Loving the interiors here! The linework is incredible and just the way you can see this strong steady hand utilising the varying weights to bring us this stupendous attention to detail makes me so incredibly happy. That we get to see such detail in the faces and how the various characters have such individuality to them and to see the expressions so clearly emoting is amazing. The way that the panels are composed utilising backgrounds and foregrounds it has this stellar perspective to it. Then there is the utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles that showcase a marvellous eye for storytelling. The colour work is beautiful and I am enjoying the 80’s throwback colour scheme going on here.
I think that the more the kids are thrust into this new life of theirs and how we see them coping with that fleshes them out a lot more than any dialogue ever could. It is also a very strange and bizarre bonding experience for them, I mean I know I have half-siblings out there and I have no idea how I would react to actually meeting them, though I'd love to find out. See this is what the story does though it makes the reader think about things that aren’t even on the page but are a result of it. This engages the readers’ mind and imagination which is exactly what good storytelling is supposed to do.
There is a reason why Scout has become one of my go to company’s for my reading pleasure and it’s books like this one that demonstrate why that is.