Undone By Blood or The Shadow of A Wanted Man #1
Aftershock Comics 2020
Created & Written by Lonnie Nadler & Zac Thompson
Created & Illustrated by Sami Kivelä
Coloured by Jason Wordie
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
In the early 1970s, Ethel Grady Lane returns to her home-town of Sweetheart, Arizona with one thing on her mind: killing the man who murdered her family. But first, she’ll have to find him. As Ethel navigates the eccentric town and its inhabitants, she learns that the quaint veneer hides a brewing darkness. She has no choice but to descend into a ring of depravity and violence, with her only ally an Old West novel that follows famed gunslinger Solomon Eaton. As both stories unfold simultaneously, a love of fiction informs choices in reality, for better or worse.
Once again Aftershock breaks that glass ceiling and proves that they are continuing to put out some of best books on stands today, somehow topping even themselves. At first I though wait am I reading a first issue and then things became more clear. I love this because it is two stories in one and yet both are pretty much among the same lines as if one is drawing is inspiration from the other and we see how they both progress. I don't think I have seen this done in quite this manner before and I applaud the originality and ingenuity behind it. I will say this it surely caught my attention and made want to know what was going on, plus I gotta say it made me want more of Sol's story.
The way this is being is innovative, fresh and damn good. How we see the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information makes the story & plot development we see much more enticing. I really like duality we see here and even more so that we don't really know her story, only bits and pieces she's like a blank slate of anger. Which leads me to the character development and that's on point as well. Sol's easier to understand and somehow he's almost admirable and I feel like he's right out of the Rifleman, yes I watched that western. Ethel not so much she's anger personified at this juncture so seeing where this road will take her and how it's going to change her, well the Magic 8-Ball says Reply Hazy, Try Again. The pacing is dynamite and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way it works with everything else to creates the books almost meandering ebb & flow.
I am loving the interiors here as well. I am mightily impressed with the difference in style we see between the two story arcs. That first splash page of Ethel was where I knew that this was beyond special. She's a tough cookie but she's all anger and bravado and hasn't learned to bite yet at least in my looking at this. The linework is spectacular and how the varying weights are being utilised to bring about this sensational attention to detail is phenomenal. I'm not sure what landmark that is, though I feel I should, with all that minute detail sigh. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a strong and wickedly talented eye for storytelling. How backgrounds are utilised makes me chuffed and then within the composition in the panels bringing us this depth perception, scale and overall sense of size and scope to the stories is superb. Then there's the colour work and Jordie outdid himself here. The way the colours look and how some are like this old, faded, rusted or whatnot and the different shades utilised to make it that way makes me shudder. The way that the hues and tones within any given colour are utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadows, even the harder (in my opinion) muted versions in the other arc, showcase such skill, talent and sheer chutzpah. This work on the interiors all around is bloody mindbogglingly brilliant.
Western and Western themed is not that common any longer and this here proves there is a definite need for it. I am just as invested I seeing the blonde haired, blue eyed rugged outlaw turned family man as I am in this angry young woman seeking revenge. Oh and can I add that it is extremely nice to see that Ethel doesn't really understand the first thing about revenge. This is refreshing change of pace from the norm and Aftershock does it again, someone else said we're the best and they responded with, hold my beer.
Aftershock Comics 2020
Created & Written by Lonnie Nadler & Zac Thompson
Created & Illustrated by Sami Kivelä
Coloured by Jason Wordie
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
In the early 1970s, Ethel Grady Lane returns to her home-town of Sweetheart, Arizona with one thing on her mind: killing the man who murdered her family. But first, she’ll have to find him. As Ethel navigates the eccentric town and its inhabitants, she learns that the quaint veneer hides a brewing darkness. She has no choice but to descend into a ring of depravity and violence, with her only ally an Old West novel that follows famed gunslinger Solomon Eaton. As both stories unfold simultaneously, a love of fiction informs choices in reality, for better or worse.
Once again Aftershock breaks that glass ceiling and proves that they are continuing to put out some of best books on stands today, somehow topping even themselves. At first I though wait am I reading a first issue and then things became more clear. I love this because it is two stories in one and yet both are pretty much among the same lines as if one is drawing is inspiration from the other and we see how they both progress. I don't think I have seen this done in quite this manner before and I applaud the originality and ingenuity behind it. I will say this it surely caught my attention and made want to know what was going on, plus I gotta say it made me want more of Sol's story.
The way this is being is innovative, fresh and damn good. How we see the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information makes the story & plot development we see much more enticing. I really like duality we see here and even more so that we don't really know her story, only bits and pieces she's like a blank slate of anger. Which leads me to the character development and that's on point as well. Sol's easier to understand and somehow he's almost admirable and I feel like he's right out of the Rifleman, yes I watched that western. Ethel not so much she's anger personified at this juncture so seeing where this road will take her and how it's going to change her, well the Magic 8-Ball says Reply Hazy, Try Again. The pacing is dynamite and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way it works with everything else to creates the books almost meandering ebb & flow.
I am loving the interiors here as well. I am mightily impressed with the difference in style we see between the two story arcs. That first splash page of Ethel was where I knew that this was beyond special. She's a tough cookie but she's all anger and bravado and hasn't learned to bite yet at least in my looking at this. The linework is spectacular and how the varying weights are being utilised to bring about this sensational attention to detail is phenomenal. I'm not sure what landmark that is, though I feel I should, with all that minute detail sigh. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a strong and wickedly talented eye for storytelling. How backgrounds are utilised makes me chuffed and then within the composition in the panels bringing us this depth perception, scale and overall sense of size and scope to the stories is superb. Then there's the colour work and Jordie outdid himself here. The way the colours look and how some are like this old, faded, rusted or whatnot and the different shades utilised to make it that way makes me shudder. The way that the hues and tones within any given colour are utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadows, even the harder (in my opinion) muted versions in the other arc, showcase such skill, talent and sheer chutzpah. This work on the interiors all around is bloody mindbogglingly brilliant.
Western and Western themed is not that common any longer and this here proves there is a definite need for it. I am just as invested I seeing the blonde haired, blue eyed rugged outlaw turned family man as I am in this angry young woman seeking revenge. Oh and can I add that it is extremely nice to see that Ethel doesn't really understand the first thing about revenge. This is refreshing change of pace from the norm and Aftershock does it again, someone else said we're the best and they responded with, hold my beer.
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