American Mythology Productions 2019
Written by Jason Pell
Illustrated by Puis Calzada
Coloured by Christopher Hall
Lettered by Natalie Jane
Horror rises from the deep as the denizens of dread Cthulhu herald the return of the old gods! Antiguo Camino is a small fishing town, nondescript and quiet. But when the horrors of the depths begin to crawl from the muck and terrorize the pueblo, Zorro must save the unsuspecting townsfolk and uncover the insidious force behind the monstrous uprising. This series celebrates the swashbuckling heroics of Zorro and the impending dread of H.P. Lovecraft in a unique and terrifying tale!
This continues to show why the time Zorro is spending at American Mythology is fun, interesting and evolving in these new and interesting ways. I mean the original never met any of these thing but to see Zorro going up against some of the more unusual foes ever. I like the opening for this one and the character that we see, after all this is one of regions most underrated of the old ones, though I am wondering if they are older than, well them.
I do like the way that this is being told and how the story is structured. The story & plot development and the character development that we are seeing here as they weave through each other and play off each other in some truly marvellous ways. With the pacing moving everything ever forward the story takes on some wicked twists, turns and paths that to be honest I had no idea were even possible to take. I like how we are introduced to group of what I think of at first as bandito's but as we learn more I begin to wonder if that's really the case.
What Jason does here is introduce us to a part of the story, not the whole thing and basically what this does is engage the reader so they have to make those on the fly judgement calls with what little information we have. So we think upon what we know, what we see and try to find that happy place where it all works. Not that we do because there's too little information but there's just enough for us to get involved and become invested and want to see to much more.
Puis' interior artwork is interesting to say the least. The opening page feels primordial to me as the detail that we see is gorgeously rendered. Then we see the people and the extremely pale man, he verges on albino but not quite there, who's chin work makes him look like a puppet a ventriloquists doll. So it kind of is a mixed bag for me. Plus try and keep up the background work, once it's started and we know it's there and you omit, I feel like that's being lazy. Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice, no serious while everyone is off chasing the bandito's en la hacienda of Alvara de la Mora we see some darn good attention to detail in the creativity and imagination being brought to life. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a nice eye for storytelling. The colour work I like a lot. The evening tones, the various hues and tones in the red, there is definitely some stellar moments throughout colour wise.
All hell breaks loose here and I mean that literally the only real question is who's trying to stop it and who's trying to ensure it happens? I don't want to say I am confused or anything because again the information Jason supplies us with could be interpreted any number of ways. The way that this is done extremely impressive because I see how it is, I see what he intends and I applaud not only his execution but his skill and talent in storytelling.
Once again we are treated to a Zorro tale that is anything but ordinary and I wouldn't want it any other way!