
Aftershock Comics 2020
Written by Lonnie Nadler & Zac Thompson
Illustrated by Sami Kivelӓ
Coloured by Jason Wordie
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
As Ethel approaches the truth about the man who murdered her family, she’s discovering that the justice of the old West isn’t as glorious as fiction makes it out to be. Chasing one fickle lead after another has not paid off. No one can be trusted – a lesson she failed to learn from cowboy legend, Solomon Eaton. And Solomon is in his own heap of trouble, going up against a town full of men who will do anything to prevent him from saving his son.
This is a fantastic series. Ethel’s life and her quest have been hard and all-consuming. So it isn’t any wonder she has this hard as ice attitude? Nope but the way the boys are portraying her here and how she’s going about this is extraordinarily entertaining. Her conversation with the sheriff to open up this book is something that almost every adult thinks of when it comes to teenagers nowadays. Loud, brash and thinking they know everything and can do a job better than anyone else and it suits Ethel and this story perfectly. So I find this to be that mix of pure fantasy based in reality that collides like a tornado into a tsunami and like Anna Nicole Smith it’s a trainwreck you cannot look away from.
I am thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being told. How we see the sections where she’s reading the book versus the regular story while having such similarities has such different vibes is crazy, sexy cool. The story & plot development that we see here through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is impeccably rendered. The character development we see is amazing and I love how with each panel we get to see a little more of their personalities emerge. Of course the conversational dialogue we see is just so damn good. The pacing we see is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we see how it all works together to create the books ebb & flow.
Aftershock continues to push the envelope time and again with the subject matter and how grim and gritty they are willing to go while still keeping it within this realm of believability. The level and quality of storytelling we see keeps raising the bar to new heights with every turn of the page.
The interiors here are absolutely fantastic. The difference in how we see the linework in the main story versus the book story is night and day and if I didn’t know better I’d say two different people did it. My god it’s just amazing to see this kind of range and talent in one individual and it is just getting better and better. I like how we see backgrounds being utilised throughout to bring us some really nice depth perception, scale and that overall sense of size and scope. I will also say I love the way we see the page layouts being utilised as well as the angles and perspective in the panels as they show such an amazing eye for storytelling. The colour work is really well rendered here. I like how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is just beautifully done.
I love this, it has so much going on and how we see the book structured and the different layers to the story that are going on make for extremely entertaining reading. I like that I am engaged throughout the book and how my own mind works with all these different scenarios which then ensures that I am coming back to see if I was even close to what is actually happening. Aftershock is a powerhouse publishing house folks and they just keep getting better and better.