Antarctic Press 2019
Created & Written by Dallas Casavant
Illustrated by Nick Johnson
Lettered by Sean Rinehart
Now that Johnathan is dating Talia, will he tell her that he's a Vampire? Will the truth set him free or get him killed? Special appearance by G.I.Joe's Larry Hama!
God I love this series! Just when you think you cannot get any more schmatlz into this they go and prove us wrong. I mean that's not a bad thing either. Because it is what this series is and it's meant to call the schmaltz police. Still it works and works incredibly well here as we see two young folks who have that whole almost Romeo & Juliet aspect to their lives that plays out exceptionally well within this strange little universe. It makes for fun reading that is exceptionally well placed within the realm of comics lovers and geeks of all sorts.
I love the way that this is being written. The story & plot development that we see through the way the sequence of events unfold as well how the reader learns information is presented perfectly. The character development that we see here is amazing and I adore the way we see Johnathan in this issue particularly as he's a lovesick teenage boy and it is just utterly perfect to see him this way. It fits in with the ideal of finding someone for the first time and how things are seen through rose coloured lenses. The characterisation of everyone we meet is precisely what it should be and I have to say it just makes the reader love the book even more. The pacing that we see is superb and as it takes us through the pages it reveals such a sensational ebb & flow of the book.
The way that this is being told really does take us to this place where we understand and feel what the characters do and in ways that we can relate to. There really is nothing better than find a story where you not only relate to it but understand in your own unique way what everything here is all about. That Dallas, Nick and Sean manage to bring this to us this way is phenomenal. This is definitely something you need to be looking at. Antarctic Press is home to extremely good storytelling and this my friends is proof positive of this.
At first I thought that these interiors were really this kind of all-ages old indie kind of stuff but they won me over quickly. Now I can't see this being done any other way and while I would love to see this tightened up into a better near animation style this works on so many different levels. Oh the splash page here is phenomenal and I really want this to be brought back as a thing in comics, in one fell swoop we see everything we need to in order to understand the fun, brilliance and talent that Nick possesses. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stellar eye for storytelling. The colour work is simple and yet effective and the colour blocking we see is really nice rendered. The hues and tones utilised to create the highlights, shading and shadow work is well done.
A love story gone wring or right depending on your point of view. With a colour cast of characters and some darn fine writing that's matched by the interiors we are treated to a book that is easily one of the most unique and interesting reads you are going to come across.