Scout Comics 2019
Created & Written by James E. Roche
Illustrated by Salo Farias
Coloured by Chunlin Zhao
Lettered by Chas! Pangburn
Shea and Sean are finally within a laser's blast away from one another, and they don't even know it. Trapped behind enemy lines in the bot settlement, Timentes, Shea's inability to trust her temporary ally, Burr, might just leave her in need of rescuing. Meanwhile, armed and ready after escaping his captors, Sean needs to do whatever he can to get off Timentes in one piece. However, once he locks on to Shea in need of his help, his concern for himself goes out the window. In a last-ditch effort to act quickly and save them both, he may just take himself out of the frying pan into the fire.
There are a number of things about this book that I really really like. Among them is the fact that James is writing this in such a way that's both killer and serious science fiction as well some tongue in cheek moments that are the flip side of the same coin. The dichotomy between the two is so well balanced that it surpasses the tightrope walkers' ability to walk. There is a reason I love Scout Comics and you have to read this series to fully understand why, I could talk till I am blue in the face but experiencing it for yourself is so much better.
The way that this is being told is sensational. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. The way we see events come upon the characters and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances is so much a part of the story development and the character development and it just blends together perfectly. James really is writing one heck of a story and demonstrating just how much skill, talent and chutzpah need to capture the readers' attention and keep it throughout. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way and how this works with everything else to create the books ebb & flow is amazing.
The interiors here are extremely nice to see. I love how we see space, how we see not just the shimmering stars but the ships and the work being done there it just captures the eye and imagination immediately. The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights being utilised to bring out this attention to detail that we see is amazing. The creativity and imagination that we see in how unique each of these cyborgs is so mindbogglingly good and it shows this stellar work in the little details that make these characters unique. The way the backgrounds are integral to the story in how they bring us this depth perception, sense of scale and just the overall size and scope to the book is magnificently rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work here is masterfully rendered as well. To see how the hues and tones within the colours utilised to create shading, highlights and shadow work is gorgeous.
There is something about this book that I just resonate with and feel a kinship with. The struggle, the heartache and the feelings of abandonment is exceptionally brought to life here. There is some beautiful examples of how to layer a story and bring the sub-plots close to each other then moving away like planets orbiting the sun. It is books like this that makes Scout such a positive place to find incredible stories.